Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2012-11-21 06:36 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2012-11-21 06:36 pm
[ SECRET POST #2150 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2150 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 040 secrets from Secret Submission Post #307.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 07:42 am (UTC)(link)Which was immediately followed with, "I wonder what would happen if I did that? No, I really shouldn't...."
Which in turn was immediately followed with (and this is why I remember it, because this was my favorite response and still is), "nope nope nope CONTINUE ON STRAIGHT AHEAD BEAUTIFUL ANON." (I would post a link but it's been 20 minutes and I can't find it and I don't care that much.)
A while later, there was a secret with two seagulls (http://i.imgur.com/vQ3ao.jpg) that said, "I think everything would have been okay if they'd just stuck together," and one with a wood pallet (http://i.imgur.com/j7fCM.jpg) that said, "I don't think they should have closed it. I know there were risks, but there were SO MANY opportunities they just threw away when they flipped that switch." They were tossed in the failbar with the tag "[1 2 - not!fandom? tell me if I'm wrong]"
This one is continuing the joke (although obviously I dunno if they're the same person - it looks to me like Bag Seagull is the common one between the two, so A and B broke up and B and C might have been friends), saying that "If they'd met under other circumstances, they could have been the best of friends."
So here's the fandom according to me:
The non-bag-seagull-in-the-first-picture (anybody got a name?) was a lowly worker in the Seagull Conspiracy, which was the real force behind the Pier, a waterfront amusement park/cover for various plot-related happenings which sometimes bordered on the supernatural and/or illegal. (Although technically it isn't illegal to turn your brother's tail feathers bright pink. Yet. But that's another story.) Non-bag had his eye on Bag-seagull-in-the-first-picture-also-tawny-seagull-in-the-second-picture (also needs a name), who was a higher-up, one of the seagulls that flew around for atmosphere and to scout out the Pier from above - a Wheeler, named so because they wheel around in the sky. Non-bag gull was a Stealer (one of the worst jobs a gull can be saddled with - too little pay, too many hours, and way too much danger of discovery or, in a few cases, injury), who nabbed food or items off the ground itself. He did the grunt work, but eventually he showed up on bag seagull's radar, and they started dating.
While all this was happening, a metaphorical storm was going along the coast. A different flock of seagulls, of which the third seagull was a part, was slowly but surely becoming the rising stars of the underground gull world, and were subsequently taking over the beaches, piers, and other places of interest and gaining more and more power. Third seagull showed up and quickly realized that the Pier wouldn't be going quietly, and as part of the vanguard, decided to sow some dragon's teeth. She started trying to seduce non-bag seagull, knowing that non-bag was quickly won over by power (or thinking that), all the while being annoyingly polite to the point of injury to bag seagull. Bag seagull and third gull became fast enemies, while poor non-bag wondered where a bit of joking around with the new girl had gone so wrong.
Non-bag resolved to strengthen his and bag gull's relationship, but the damage had been done, and third was behaving way too antagonistically to let go. Unfortunately, bag had become blinded by the potential love triangle, and didn't see how third was undermining the Pier until it was almost too late.
One of the supernatural predators that has had dealings with the Conspiracy in the past shows up, looking for fun. It wants to live in the lights and electricity of the Pier, and in return it will make the atmosphere echo: all the fun the people are having will reverberate back on itself, making the people even less aware and keeping away... darker things. Desperately trying to hold on to what crumbling power they have left on the Pier, the Conspiracy says yes.
The Flock, however, of which third seagull is a part, doesn't deal with the supernatural. Its business is in cold, hard cash, but unfortunately, that means they have no idea what these predators do or want, much to their eventual detriment. They want power, badly, and they want a coast-wide monopoly. The Pier is one of the last bastions to fall to the Flock.
Bag and non-bag have split up at this point, because non-bag thinks they should fly as far and fast as they can, and bag thinks they must stay loyal to the Pier, protect it, and drive back the Flock. Non-bag, with nothing to keep him, leaves the Pier for the inland, while third gloats a bit and settles into the Pier to stay.
The Flock and the Conspiracy are splitting power about 50/50 now. It won't take much to tip that final bit over into 51/49, and after that there will be no hope for the Conspiracy, or the rest of the coast. It's pretty much only the predator that's staying the Flock's hand, and in talks with the Conspiracy, the Flock leader reveals their plan: amass an army on the coast, then swarm the mainland, gradually taking back their land from the humans. The Conspiracy, with their symbiotic relationship with the humans, is suitably horrified, as is non-bag, who was drawn back to the Pier after all and has been spying on the "peace" talks. Non-bag flies for his life to try to warn bag.
The Flock, meanwhile, with their cards on the table and little to no understanding of what makes the Pier so grand, decide that the way to drive back the humans is to kill one of them. Once the humans are gone, they reason, the balance will tip and they will be in their rightful places.
Third is the one chosen to orchestrate the death. A human's seat buckle somehow becomes unlatched on the Ferris Wheel and he plunges to his death from the very top. The park is closed, and the Flock drives the Conspiracy from the Pier, killing most of them. Except, of course, for bag and non-bag, because bag is a Wheeler and was watching when the death occurred and that was when he finally believed that they could not stay. The two skedaddled.
But the Flock forgot about the predator. The last human emotion the predator fed on was sorrow, grief, anger, helplessness, and the very next thing it got was fear, terror, and then the sort of dark bloody triumph that comes of unwilling sacrifice.
And sacrifice, even unwilling, is a powerful thing.
From the lights and electricity of the Pier, a dark portal reached out. The more negative emotion it feeds off of, the larger it grows, and the larger it grows, the more the emotions echo. The cycle will not end until the darkness has encircled the globe.
Terrified and believing themselves the only survivors of the Conspiracy, bag and non-bag race against time to the generator that's powering the Pier. Turning that off will destroy the darkness, but it might also destroy the Pier, the thing they have worked for so long to build, their home, their survival, their nest and their families.
Our families are dead, says bag, and non-bag nods and flips the switch. There's a moment of rushing wind and then the Pier goes dark, the natural dark of night instead of the crushing dark of evil.
When they investigate the next morning, a bunch of rope and wooden pallet, which was what the Pier started as, are the only sign that anything ever existed.
There, case. Now you can't put it in the failbar any more. That's the fandom. :D
Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)I have one more photo of those seagulls, I'll have to come up with an appropriate caption...
OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)Just for the record, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL TOO ANON! :D
Epic seagull saga, anyone writing it?Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
I might write it some day but don't hold me to it because I am supposed to be writing a novel now and I honestly had no idea how much free time it would take up.Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)Don't worry about it. It's not like I'm not demanding a deadline or anything.Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
:)Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
and hopefully get it published, maybe, if I can. I know I posted it on the internet, and I really shouldn't have if I wanted to keep it all to myself, but... please don't.Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
Re: OH MY GOD YOU REMEMBERED MY COMMENT
Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)Well, they still need names, don't they? I can't imagine that with organizations like the Pier and the Conspiracy and even the (admittedly unimaginative (it was late at night)) Flock, they'd settle for names like bag and non-bag and third, although number-naming could be a "thing" that the Flock does, as a villainous trait.
Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
(Anonymous) 2012-11-22 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)CARRY ON AUTHOR!ANON
I'M NOT HELPING AM I? XD
Re: For anyone who doesn't already know, plus the fandom the seagulls are a part of.
moar headcanon (does this count as Word of God?)
The Seagull Conspiracy has three main "jobs" that function more like a class system than anything else. There are the Stealers, who are on the bottom. They do the grunt work, picking up food and items off the ground and occasionally leaving messages and things at dead drops. Stealers are somewhat looked down on by the other classes, but they do have a tight sense of community, because it's very easy to get injured or killed when you're a Stealer.
The next highest up are Wheelers. These are the gulls that patrol the Pier from the air, keeping an eye on the big picture and reporting to the top directly. They sometimes mingle with the Stealers, but in general they don't like to, and they can be a tad condescending even when they don't mean to. A couple favored Wheelers can read in Human (which is whatever language most common on the Pier - probably English because I pictured this being on the East coast of the USA), but most of them are simply trained in the kind of seeing that makes out small details and large patterns at the same time.
At the top are the Dealers. Most of them can read Human, and a few can even read or speak more than one language. It's an urban myth/vague rumor among the Stealers and some of the Wheelers that the Dealers can speak Human. (They can't.) The Dealers are so called because they deal with the larger things that come to the Pier - the supernatural predators, those seeking sanctuary, etc. They also invisibly run the Pier, and come the closest to interacting with the humans on the same plane. They're the leaders of the Conspiracy, and there are the fewest of them relative to the other classes.
(Also it has occurred to me that I should log in, so that all these bits and pieces can be linked.)
Names! (+ naming traditions)
Non-bag seagull's name is Snorkel. Bag seagull's name is Kelp. (Brother-with-the-pink-tailfeathers' name is, I kid you not, Stick-in-the-Mud. He goes by Stick, but he does very much live up to his name, hence the prank that turned his tailfeathers pink. Don't worry, the dye will come out. Eventually. The next time he molts.)
The Flock uses the parents' discretion in the naming of their chicks, especially because at the time of the story, the Flock is a veritable empire, encompassing many different cultures. The exception is if a gull shows potential and is taken in to be part of the elite vanguard force, in which case s/he is taken away from his/her family young enough that they will have no clear memory of the event, and they are taught that whatever number-order they are given is their name, so pervasively that is really is their name. So the third seagull's name is actually Third.
So we have Snorkel as a Stealer, Kelp as a Wheeler, and Third as part of the Flock.
Plot hole fixed, thank you brother of mine.
Well, that was the first time Snorkel and Kelp met. Kelp was taking the thing in the bag to one of the Dealers, and Snorkel had picked it up a bit earlier. Kelp was just about to take off with it, and Snorkel is looking away because he's doing the seagull equivalent of blushing into the infrared.
(Actually, one of the things that emphasizes Third's outsider-ness is that she tries to go for Snorkel, thinking with the Flock notion that the one who's closer to danger is the more important and more desirable one, and that Kelp would suffer from doubts about whether Snorkel really loved him. Instead of, y'know, what actually had happened, which was that Snorkel worked his tailfeathers off trying to do nice things for Kelp even when Kelp's friends were being awful to him. Kelp has no doubts whatsoever about Snorkel's loyalty.)
Also, because I keep forgetting/screwing up: Kelp is male. Snorkel is male. Third is female, please disregard any pronouns to the contrary.