Poll: External Threats (SPOILERS)

[jeriendhal]

So I find myself at a crossroads in writing The Red Vixen at Sea.

Our Current Situation: Rolas and Mel are shipwrecked on an island, their boat pretty much intact but Rolas is in no shape to pull it off of the beach and sail it. He's suffering from amnesia, Mel is [spoiler], they have a couple of weeks of pre-packaged food and effectively unlimited water and power, and can worst comes to worst will probably be found by the Coast Patrol in a week.

Time to turn up the pressure...

Basically I'm looking for an external threat that's not too horrible, which will lead to Rolas getting a chance to engage in some really therapeutic punching of faces to resolve his mood. My current ideas include:

Robot Gerwart Nazi Skeletons: My original idea. Leftover movie props abandoned when the shoot was interrupted by the storm. Has the advantage of allowing Rolas to get in some completely guilt free punching, but rather silly overall.

Pirates: Group of Somali style pirates preying on sea shipping that are using the island as a base. Probably somewhat starving and desperate, but well armed enough to be a threat.

This has the advantage of irony, given Mel's previous profession, but I'm not sure if it fits in with the Foxen world. Any noble letting their commoners fall far enough to be reduced to piracy would be seriously questioned by her peers.

Angry Natives: "In this day and age, really?" A tribe of xenophobic Foxen that have managed to remain isolated from modern culture for a couple of thousand years.

This has the advantage of being a real threat, and letting me use a century or so of Age of Sail Romance cliches in the story. The disadvantages are that it's silly, and full of extremely Unfortunate Implications as the civilized Foxen Nobles are threatened by shirtless, spear wielding barbarians.

[Poll #2005345]

Comments

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Wild animals?

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Of course, the first place my brain went was "What kind of problems did the castaways have on Gilligan's Island?" followed by a mental image of Rolas and Mel staging an operatic version of Hamlet.

[seawasp]

My clearest memory from Gilligan's Island is the episode with the gigantamongous spider.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Don't remember a spider. Robot walking under the ocean, wayward space capsule, Vincent Price, silent movie film production, but no giant spiders. I suspect Eight Year old Me edited from my memories for the sake of my sanity.

[seawasp]

IIRC, it was an episode in which the characters started disappearing one by one, and Gilligan became convinced he must be doing it himself (there was a dream-trial scene in which he did a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation), and then fell into the pit with them, where all of them were trapped by the spider. It eventually got chased away by a pet bird Gilligan had been taking care of, as birds eat spiders.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Splort.

[rix_scaedu]

My something else suggestion goes with the area being a restricted access area - why is that so?

Is it restricted to protect the fauna/flora and the general population from each other?

Also as a restricted area, could a criminal group, not necessarily pirates, be using it as a hideout?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Restricted area for the sake of the local wildlife. Or possibly for the sake of the natives if I go with that. Criminal enterprises are possible. Just have to figure out why they'd be in the middle of nowhere.

Hmm. I suppose we haven't had a James Bond villain with a volcano base yet...

[seawasp]

Aliens?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

"Did ancient humans travel to Foxen Prime and build these mysterious structures?"

[seawasp]

Exactly!

Or maybe ancient Toads. Fear them!

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Gotta watch out for toads. Noisy bastards.

[seawasp]

Poplock Duckweed says: Not when we're sneaking up on you, we're not!

[seawasp]

Cthulhu cult?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Snickers. Might be TOO over the top. OTOH it might explain why the area is closed off. Can't have tourists running into the local lagoon leviathan...

[seawasp]

"Shoggoths need peaceful, quiet places! Your outboard motors are disturbing them!"

[autopope.livejournal.com]

The usual Conflict sources are:

Man[*] versus Man.

Man versus Nature.

Man versus Self.

I'd go for #2 in this context -- in which case Nature could be represented by: wild animals, weather, infectious disease, volcanic eruption ...?



[*] in the most generic sense. Damn this language's lack of a singular non-gendered pronoun that isn't neuter!

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Person vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Self

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to go with a mix of Man vs nature and Man vs. Man.

[zarpaulus.livejournal.com]

I'd say sea pirates for the irony.

But I suppose some kind of aggressive wildlife would be interesting too.