Bent, not Broken - Why this is (Meta)

Elsewhere a sentiment has been expressed by someone that I interpret to be disappointment at the lack of action (as in the thing that defines the action genre) in my Kim Possible works thus far.  While the delivery of the message was fairly rude, there is a point to be had there.

The show Kim Possible always made sure to include at least one major action scene in every half hour episode.  My works ... haven't.  This in spite of going on for well over what would be a half hour.

There are reasons for this.  Look: magical footnotes.  (Reasons in Forgotten Seeds, reasons in Being more than a Simulacrum.)

It's not that I have anything against action per se (though, fight scenes are, in my experience, incredibly boring to write and extremely difficult to keep interesting for readers) and there are certainly ideas I have that involve a more actiony genre (Here's how it is, for example, would primarily be retelling the show, thus it would have at least as many action scenes) but it is certainly something my Kim Possible offerings are lacking right now.

And... the thing is, a lot of the fandom (though by no means all of it) is about pushing those elements further.  One might assume this is a push toward darker and edgier (the seminal work An Unacceptable Sitch by Allaine would seem to support this) but it's actually about something else.  It's about a desire to let loose.  A desire to pull out all the stops and what you (via the story and the characters in it) can do without fetters.

We can all understand the desire to be free of fetters, and as for stops, here is a list of stops from one organ.  Imagine pulling them all out and just letting the thing go. 

(On the subject of organs, I was pleased, even though there's no real reason to be, to notice that the  Kotzschmar Memorial Organ made it on the Wiki's list of the largest organs.  Random civic pride, I guess.)

Anyway, I do, in fact, get the desire to simply let loose and write a story of pure id where the main character or characters are all out of bubblegum.

This will be my attempt at writing such an unadulterated id story, but you know that it won't work because my writing is always adulterated by tangents and such.

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Chi (think Ch from "Christmas", and i from "I") is an original character who originated in the Here's how it is continuity but I don't have any stories with him in it actually written, so this will be his debut.

(He'll also appear in "In which I steal from everyone" if I ever write that.  I know exactly which stolen plot to center on him.)

Beyond that, the story should be relatively straightforward of the, "What if character lost everything and everyone," genre, Kim Possible versions exemplified in stories like Bad Girls by LJ58 or Action and Reaction (story not yet complete) by ShadowDancer01, especially the conditions described in Chapter 2.

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Forgotten Seeds is never going have much "action" because the problems faced are the kinds that can't be punched in the face.  Most of the characters would welcome an enemy to face off against because it would mean that there was someone else left alive.  If I ever get to the other works in the sequence I envision, there will be action scenes, but only one of the five series really calls for them.

Story one would follow Kim's transition from action hero to reclusive inventor who is eventually stuck in a cryo tube, so it's about not having action scenes.  Story two would take a much wider view of things, and follow the world sliding to self destruction.  Story three is Forgotten Seeds.  Story four would have a fair amount of action because it's about vengeance, redemption, and what one does, and can do, when they can't change the outcome and they know it.  Story five would, again, be one that doesn't call for a lot of action scenes.

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Being more than a Simulacrum has a different reason for lack of action.  Place will eventually go on missions.  (There will be an iguana.)  I'm not going to say what kind of missions or get into any specifics about how that's going to come about, but it'll be there.  Also, once Kim is in the story her life has a tendency to involve action scenes a fair amount (one per every half hour episode.  Between August 23rd and October 31st her Sophomore year there were 19 episodes, and that's the conservative estimate.)

But for right now, Place is in the process of building an identity, introducing herself to the world, understanding her origins, and stuff like that.  No big fight scenes.  Not the action genre.

Also, it's not like time is progressing at a fast clip in the story.  I probably can't compete with the sheer volume of stuff crammed into limited time as Kim Possible season 1, few can, but it has only been 5 days that Place has been out of the lair.  Not even five full days.  We first see her out of the lair at dinner time on what I'll call day one, at the moment the story leaves off in the morning of day five (shortly after breakfast.)  Dinner and after one day, three full days, shortly after breakfast another day.  That's five installments.

Meet the Possibles is dinner on day one is one.  Mind Games is on the second day.  Before you go is the night of the second and the morning of the third. I'm on my way Is the third day and the morning of the fourth.  By my side is the fourth day and the morning of the fifth.