"I'm Stumped!" writing and art idea discussions...

It occured to me that it might be nice to kick ideas around from time to time, when we need clarification of canon concepts or paint ourselves in a corner on a story or drawing, or perhaps just need a nudge...

As for me, I have written myself into a corner, where my charactet and skywise are only able to communicate via sending, but have been captured by Winnie, and are needing to find a way to escape without her knowing. (This is Winnie after she was absorbed by Rayak, but in my story she has taken over his body and can use his powers). Any ideas?

"(This is Winnie after she was absorbed by Rayak, but in my story she has taken over his body and can use his powers)."
oh wow, this is a great but also very horrible situation! I so hope, that Rayek manages it to take over control again! BTW: This was happening in Rogues Curse, Winnie took over Rayeks body, but she was squeezed out of Rayeks body-control-center part of brain (or whatever that was) by Ekuars rockshaping skills.

Idea: simple hammering signals, using Morse code ? whistling noises, or those of animals?  Sending without Winnie sensing is nearly impossible. Only if Rayeks body and therefore brain, which she has to use now, is so different from hers, that she needs some time to adjust or she is simply limited to his ability (but that doesn`t work with the Rogues Curse story, there Winnie had healer and antihealer powers within his body still functioning.

I think I remmeber a time in RQ when she was able to lash out, I didnt have all of RQ last time I read it, but will probably go through it when I get to that part of the story this time through reading.

I went one worse.... She has control of HIS powers, and is seemingly full mastery of bot his and her own... I think Im going to at least have to rewrite part of my story, as I forgot all this and my character has already sent some planning... Or I gotta roll with it and have her/him me right outside the cell, laughing at my character...

I don't have any answers, but more details would help.

The cast so far is Skywise, Rayek, Winnowill absorbed by Rayek, and your character.

We don't know anything about your character, such as species, age, gender, skills, powers, experiences, motives and values.

We know all about Skywise.  We know what Rayek and Winnowill were like, as separate people.

The mental balance of Rayek/Winnowill has shifted to Winnowill, although we don't know how much.  Is Rayek conscious?  Can he communicate with the other characters?

What is the situation?  Where are they, what era is it, and what is the immediate environment like?

Are the four characters totally isolated?  If so, how is Winnowill keeping the two characters alive and captive?  Why is she doing this?  I think she needs more motivation than simply cruelty.

Here are my thoughts... knowing nothing about your character and a little bit about Skywise and Winnowil.

1.) Have them communicate in a way wolves or some other animal would
2.) Have Skywise remember Nonna’s symbols— and have them communicate by rudimentary symbol making— left in some place no one else would see.
3.) Come up with a form of sign language that’s not too obvious.
4.) tapping (google “the tap code”)
5.) leaving a pile of rocks or other object arranged in symbolic pattern for someone else to find and interpret.
6.) flashing a shiny object
7.) Rayek briefly regains control- and while Winnowil is distracted, the other two are able to communicate a plan about how to communicate.
8.) Have one of them give misinformation to Winnowil as a means of communicating with the other. Or say something (I’m assuming Skywise can speak at least) to someone else in front of the other that contains a hidden message and alternate meaning.

@TrollHammer wrote:

As for me, I have written myself into a corner, where my charactet and skywise are only able to communicate via sending, but have been captured by Winnie, and are needing to find a way to escape without her knowing. (This is Winnie after she was absorbed by Rayak, but in my story she has taken over his body and can use his powers). Any ideas?

Not sure where this lies in the ElfQuest time line or if it's own thing.

But a sympathetic Glider (if this is all in Blue Mountain or whatever) may go a long way in revealing all that Winnie has done from the Glider's view.

What I'm working on is part two of the story I started (posted over on TrollHammer's Story Forge, about 6 posts up).  All that is known in the story so far is, (my) character is in a dark cave with Skywise, both are unable to move their hands or feet. WInnie/Rayak just left after interrogating my character, and at the point I stopped writing, my character had mused over some escape options via sending. At this point, "my" character is me, from this earth, with my understanding of Elf Quest, which contains the understanding that the Elves have a high-pitched, almost musical type language I have never heard much less know, I can, somehow, Send to Skywise and he can send to me (presumably because sending is language-less). In the story segment posted so far, I fight with myself, trying to decide if the story is a dream or some kind of reality, so in this sense, I don't know if I'm battling "real" Winnie/Rayak or my mental projection of her as an ultimate psychological arch nemesis.

Anyway, I think I'm stuck with having to delete about a page of dialog and try to use some kind of wit and misdirection, metaphor and "remember when you..." and explore things that would mean something to him but not to her...  That's all the writing is, just an exploration of a situation.  I could just have Winnie come in, blast my character out of a dream.. or explore the chance it's real, but too late to do anything about it...

There is one other option... but I don't know if it would actually be viable in the situation, and it was placed in it for something else down the road.... It would feel like cheating, though, I hate plot devices put in just to write yourself out of a corner.

Thanks for the input, lots of great ideas! And I'm glad to see Luna back around again, Hope things are going well for you?!?

Quote :

Anyway, I think I'm stuck with having to delete about a page of dialog and try to use some kind of wit and misdirection, metaphor and "remember when you..." and explore things that would mean something to him but not to her... That's all the writing is, just an exploration of a situation.

In this case make sure that you (human from Earth) can lie in sending. ^^ Seriously ... we are so used to bend truth ... it sounds believable.

Hi Trollhammer! It’s good to be back.

Here’s a crazy thought. Why don’t you have one of the characters teach the other a few words in their own language? Like, specifically the few words needed to communicate the plan? And then, later, you can follow up on that, and they can become chatty. Even if only in a feel good epilogue.

@Lunakat wrote:

Hi Trollhammer! It’s good to be back.

Here’s a crazy thought. Why don’t you have one of the characters teach the other a few words in their own language? Like, specifically the few words needed to communicate the plan? And then, later, you can follow up on that, and they can become chatty. Even if only in a feel good epilogue.

I can work with that, Id dismissed the whole concept of (me) learning the elfin language, but Skywise has learned other human languages, Id forgot that... Sending while saying would be a huge benefit on the learning curve as well... Ill still have to rewrite a little or insert some sideplot, but at least its a direction. I had no wind in my sails to be able to change course.

@Embala that is true, in that we are pretty good with half truths, doublespeak, sarcasm, non-obvious sarcasm, and saying one thing but meaning another, to the point we dont even notice it. This would also be something to work with (side notr, I love Galaxy Quest, and this reminds me of the scrne where Taggart/Nesmith/Allen has to explain what acting is, and earlier when tryong to explain it initially, and couldnt find a parallel the aliens understood.)

Well, given a little time Ill see where this takes me. Thanks a bunch!

Maybe he picked up the basics of the language from sending and the human wasn’t aware of it

Maybe he didn’t use it before because he kind of dislikes humanity in general and preferred not to

The human can’t speak his language because he can’t pronounce it and can’t hear some of the decibels.

Rayek lived together with humans in Rogues Curse. Make sure your caracter speaks a different one.