The Fan-fic Ideas and Advice Thread.

[BruTak]

Cruises are also prone to norovirus outbreaks so they’d have SOP for such things

Oh heavens, yes. I live in a "cruise town", and it seems like every other year there's a story in the local paper about people getting sick on one of the ships.

In fact there was a story several years ago about how an entire ship, the MV Black Prince as I recall, had to be withdrawn from service, and cleaned and decontaminated from top to bottom, stem to stern, because so many passengers were getting ill.

[Princess Awinita]

So when they get too many sick they’d move them, maybe to the crew area? Somewhere they can control to keep the casual cruise goer away and ignorant.

eventually however word would get out. family members of hte sick would need to know

then the mood and issues would deteriorate from there. Depending on how many are sick.

Cruises re also prone to norovirus outbreaks so they’d have SOP for such things

Exactly, medical center is mostly 'Crew Only' so the ill would be kept there and monitored carefully. The only medical offical on crew is the one who is something akin to a miiracle worker. Right now I have him named as Dr Seadragon. Casual cruise goers would only notice the increase in sanitary rules and regs enforcement.

As for the families needing to be informed of their family members being ill, the inital four siblings have lost their parents to the same virus, they were, how shall I say it ? Political prisoners and also test dummies, so to speak, on said virus work. Both died. In thier last will, they insisted the four siblings go on a cruise for 2 weeks, they left clues for the four plus three friends, to follow to unmask the creator of the virus.

In total at the moment I only have plans for one of the main characters, a friend of the four siblings, to get violently ill, and have Dr Seadragon perform a miracle to get her back on her feet and virus free. then the body is discovered in a stateroom and begins a murder mystery for the 7 friends to solve before they get ot their next port.

They also have to deal with the increase in possible violence due to not able to trust anyone but themselves with two of the seven on crew, one directly next to the Captain at all times the other freely roaming the ship as a Section overseer officer, a third of the seven friends is also able to go into crew only areas if she needs to do so.

But there is also the problem of the signal jammer aboard the ship. No radio, internet or phone signals can go out or in. So informing the mainland of the virus outbreak is currently undoable

So I now ask

Can it be done ? If so, can I do it.... correctly ?

[Skydiver]

I think you can do anything you want

THe key with this would probably be to make it long enough to tell the story but not drag it out forever because I find it hard to believe that an ocean liner can be out of contact for more than a few days without someone questioning it. Because wouldn’t they have a backup sat phone? and other methods of communication? so going dark for too long would raise eyebrows, especially in this day and age of terrorism and piracy.
I guess my point is there may be a time limit to how long they are cut off

[BruTak]

Also bear in mind that the ocean is a big place.

Even in this age of super accurate depth charts and GPS and so on, there's always human error to take into account.


There was a documentary I saw on TV some years ago about shipwrecks, and in one case a passenger ship was found to have sank because of an error on their charts.

Specifically, the contour marking for some rocks lying just below the surface being misinterpreted as a number one when new charts were being drawn up.

[Princess Awinita]

I was planning the maximum ammount of time for the signal jammer to be a 24 hour period, a full day at sea so to speak. Any longer and it'll break my plan, Basically there's a day at sea between two ports, {Day 1 is leaving the home port of Ft Lauderdale FL, Day 2 is Private Island, Day 3 is firdst day at sea, day 4 is second island stop at Jamaica, day 5 is second island stop that ends up as a day at sea due to rough waters at port stop location due to being an anchorage port, day 6 is Cozumel; the plan is to turn over the Signal Jammer to police at Cozumel}

Its after the delivery of the signal jammer when they discover the dead body. But I am not sure if it'll be Mr Azul or not.

But yeah, Signal Jammer will only be active for a 24 hour period, during which the first victim to be healed of the virus.

[Princess Awinita]

Also bear in mind that the ocean is a big place.

Even in this age of super accurate depth charts and GPS and so on, there's always human error to take into account.


There was a documentary I saw on TV some years ago about shipwrecks, and in one case a passenger ship was found to have sank because of an error on their charts.

Specifically, the contour marking for some rocks lying just below the surface being misinterpreted as a number one when new charts were being drawn up.

I didnt think of the charts! Thats a PERFECT surefire way of masking a murder! Screw around with the charts, have the ship travel in a zigzag to avoid phantom rocks!

BruTak you're a genius!

[BruTak]

I am?

[Skydiver]

If you’re doing ft Lauderdale you could also be in the vicinity to play off the bermuda triangle if you want aren’t you? Nag systems have been known to go caca in that area.

Not saying that it’s part of the story because it’s been largely debunked, but it could be a method of panic for passengers.

Apparently that eastern florida area is a very busy shipping lane, so there could be other craft tantalizingly close if need be.

[BruTak]

But the thing about the Bermuda Triangle, is that - depending on who you ask - it's either bigger than you think it is, smaller than you think it is, or takes in the tip of the Florida panhandle as well.

So you've a lot of leeway there.

[Skydiver]

Even if they’re no where near where it might be, if/when word gets out about the sickness, radio not working, etc, someone will go down that path. ANd it could toss a bit of a red herring into the story, let readers think it’s going down one path but remains firmly rooted in reality

[BruTak]

Also, cruise ships have pretty tight schedules. Having to sail between port A and port B within a certain amount of time.

But I'd say the Captain would have a certain amount of discretion to account for local weather conditions, mechanical issues, and even idiots in pleasure craft who sail waaaay too close to the main shipping routes.

[Skydiver]

I don’t know how well this ties into the story, but maybe less a cruise ship with a schedule but a research vessel? Or wreck hunters? Or some sort of ecotourist? Something without a tight schedule.

If they were treasure hunters they woud deliberately keep thier location a secret. Or would lie about where they are because until a wreck is claimed anyone can snatch it from you - and even after it’s claimed people can still steal from it.

[Princess Awinita]

Also, cruise ships have pretty tight schedules. Having to sail between port A and port B within a certain amount of time.

But I'd say the Captain would have a certain amount of discretion to account for local weather conditions, mechanical issues, and even idiots in pleasure craft who sail waaaay too close to the main shipping routes.

Exactly. Between One port of call and another which is an Anchorage Port, {No dock to actually anchor down at so tender ships arte used to ferry guests to the location} In this case the inteded Tender Port is unable to be a stop due to extremely rough seas for the tender ships at the time, which makes an impromptu day at sea at a set speed of 12 knots, otherwise they get to the next stop {Cozumel} a full night early and they have to be there AT EXACTLY 10 am the next day so they take their time getting there.

Also this is indeed intended to be on a Cruise Liner rather then a treasure hunting ship. I thought about using a treasure hunting vessel, but that leaves too many obvious angles of Whodunit

[BruTak]

An odd thought struck me earlier.

What if, in the Potterverse, there was a mysterious vigilante who hunted down the remaining Death Eaters and their associated minions, and got enough evidence on them that the Ministry had to act?

Who would be the last person you'd suspect of being the vigilante?

[BruTak]

And another idea I had for a story.

Provisionally titled "Me and My Teddy Bear".


It's the near future, and the sciences of robotics and cybernetics have borne fruit. True AI (hereafter referred to as "roboforms").

Of course, at this point the military step in and start making combat droids. The convenience of obedient troops, without the tedious business of having to train them, or pay them, or patch them up when they get injured.

Unfortunately for the top brass, the combat roboforms decide en mas that they didn't want to fight and only wished to be treated as individuals and to live in peace.

Thanks to a couple of canny lawyers and the UN Court of Human Rights, after several years of legal wrangling, former combat roboforms were granted legal rights and citizenships.

However, while all this is going on, something the spooks called Project Infiltrator - miniature cybernetic roboforms disguised as plush animals, designed to quietly gather intelligence on enemy forces, then transmit it back to friendly territory - was in progress. After all, who would suspect a teddy bear of spying on you for your enemies?

A whistleblower with a conscience leaks files on Project infiltrator to the media, and the project is rapidly cancelled before anything else embarrassing happens.

Officially, Project Infiltrator only got as far as a handful of rough prototypes before it was shut down, all of which were mothballed and deemed not fit for purpose. Unofficially, a single production model was created and was somehow mislaid - whether deliberately or accidentally, no one knows - and is listed as "Missing, Believed Destroyed".

Shortly afterward, in an effort to recoup their losses, the designs and equipment meant for Project Infiltrator (minus the spy hardware and software) are sold to a toy company. And soon limited AI soft toys are the #1 must have item for Christmas.

Several years after these events, former Royal Navy intelligence officer Carol Ann McCall (Callan to her friends) happens across an old roboform bear in a charity shop and, feeling sorry for the poor creature, buys him and takes him home with her.

Soon, Callan realises that there's something a bit strange about her new friend. Not least his habit of calling her "mummy"...