>>23288
Resident drawfag's vote:

BMG: Nessa
SP: Cordelia
RG: Bridget
BMG's dad: Ennis or Dunham (means dark man)
BMG surname: O'Shae
RG surname: Reid

>>23292
Here
>>23295
Changing my vote to Dunham.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bEWXs_FX4
Replace Meg with Nessa.
Replace 'man' with 'girl'.
Replace 'he' with 'she'.
Replace singing muses with singing seals.
????

>>23269

Brainstorming time:

There's an old selkie story about a selkie wife who actually loved her human husband, but his fishing ship overturns one day and he starts drowning and so she puts on her pelt and goes out to swim and save his life, knowing that she can't become human again and be with him afterward.

The first climax of the story can involve RG trying to convince BMG to give her the pelt. All the lies and duplicity are revealed to SP, and she is shocked while BMG stands ashamed. Using the fact that BMG confessed to her before, RG tries to manipulate BMG into handing over the pelt for love and money, an offer which BMG would have taken at the beginning of the story. But due to true love and character development BMG refuses.
The scene ends with RG storming off and BMG standing awkwardly before SP, assuming SP hates her now, while SP is speechless.
Then suddenly, RG comes back with BMG's father, some thugs, and a wad of cash in her hand, and they then proceed to take SP by force. BMG's father, his thugs, SP, the pelt, and BMG are taken out on a ship to test and see if SP's powers work. She is forced to start conjuring up a storm, but stops and refuses to continue despite father's threats to burn her pelt.
He begins to threaten her physically, and BMG somehow shakes off the thugs to go try to protect SG, when suddenly the selkie army comes and overturns the ship to protect its own.
BMG's father and his thugs drown, and BMG is close to drowning as well. In an act that shows that she cares about and forgives BMG, SP puts on her skin in order to have the ability to save BMG's life.
BMG wakes up on the shore at dawn the next day and sees seal tracks next to her leading into the sea. She slowly realizes what just happened and breaks down.

One way to end it is for SP to suddenly show up because something caused her to turn human again (we'd have to figure this one out and foreshadow it beforehand), and she reveals that she loves BMG back and will burn her pelt so they can stay together and then they kiss of course. Or maybe they both become selkies somehow I dunno.
A second way would be to have Nessa wait seven years, building a house for herself on the sea shore. Then SP would eventually return, reveal that she loves BMG back, burn her pelt, they kiss, etc. It would be a bit bittersweet since they'd have to wait seven years but it would make more sense.

(Not that I really need to say this, but I don't think any of these ideas have to or should be used, I'm just throwing out suggestions.)

Actually, I think it'd work better if RG wasn't an antagonist; I'm seeing her as a kind-hearted airhead. Unfortunately for BMG, RG's straight, maybe even engaged. I'm not too up-to-date on my mythology, but maybe BMG wants the selkie skin to make RG fall in love with her?

>>23316
If we could change the selkie mythology a bit that could work...I suppose I'm just hesitant to change it so drastically that it becomes an entirely new myth. I also kinda like the idea of RG representing BMG's bad half and SP representing her good half.

Isn't Cordelia basically a Manic Pixie Dream Girl at this point?

>>23324
Haha, what?

>>23341
Do you happen to have a DA account or something like that?

>>23302
But I want to keep the idea of Nessa having to choose between keeping the pelt and letting Cordelia go somehow.

>>23348
http://arlir.deviantart.com/
I don't usually update it incredibly often.

>>23352
Maybe that part can happen inbetween when Nessa turns Bridget down and when Bridget comes back with Nessa's father. Like after Bridget leaves, Nessa is hesitating giving Cordelia her pelt back because she "knows" that Cordelia will want to leave her, but then she decides to give her the pelt back anyway and to let her be free just seconds before her father arrives?

>>23341
I think they mean this?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManicPixieDreamGirl

I preemptively apologize for any time you waste.

So how are Nessa and Cordelia going to fall in love?

>>23391
Writing a believable romance is always the hardest part.

I know this thread hasn't been very active lately, but I was thinking about the plot recently, and if we're planning to kill off Dunham or bring him to justice I feel it would be easier if we didn't make Nessa his daughter. She can know of him and want to sell the pelt to him for a high price, but all that could just be because she's poor and so would be familiar with the seedy underbelly of the town.

She already seems like the poor working girl type, and we already established that she's greedy at first and is doing it for the money, so the poverty could tie into that. I also feel it would be harder to sell that a Black Market Merchant's daughter would be poor, if we're going to make Dunham a crafty and successful villain.

Nessa's feelings of inadequacy for Bridget, along with the whole "we're both girls" thing, could also be influenced by the class divide. In fact, we might even make Bridget Dunham's daughter, and that could be where her wealth is from.

I was also thinking about the time period the story takes place in, and if we're choosing the beginning of the 20th century a lot of the fashion and style would be hard to replicate, especially in a way that would fit Nessa. The story might work better during the great depression in the 1930s, which fits more with the clothing and hair styles we've picked so far, and if we make Bridget Dunham's daughter we could attribute her wealth to the black market.

Another suggestion: if we made both Nessa and Cordelia orphans, this could be a potential impetus for their romance. It could make Nessa sympathetic/empathetic to Cordelia and vice versa, and offer a way for us to make them closer on a deeper level, which would make the romance more believable.

Wow, I'm the master of tl;dr. Thoughts?

NAMES FOR BMG
Gael
NAMES FOR SP
Fiona
NAMES FOR RG
Claire
NAMES FOR BMG'S FATHER
Finbar
SURNAMES FOR BMG
O'Shea
SURNAMES FOR RG
Chambers

Why would a seal have a human name? They should just call her Selkie.

>>23483
B-But we could call her Cordy and dress her in corduroy.

I haven't got many ideas to contribute right now.

>>23485
It's sad because I've been drawing fanart myself and trying to come up with period inspired designs and other things, but I won't have any way of getting the drawings on the computer for at least a month.

I love the designs you have so far though. My art isn't nearly as good as yours, I'm no real drawfag or anything.

>>23486
Aw, thank you. I don't spend a lot of time on /coc/ so I don't know how long threads usually last here, but I'll be looking forward to seeing your art if you ever get a chance to post it.

>>23436
If we decide to not have Nessa as the BMM's daughter, we should have her be a street urchin con artist, because it would fit with the fact that she's conning the Selkie.

Also, do you think we should have any seal characters? If we're going the Disney movie route there would probably be some emoting animals. The Selkie would probably be a princess too, but that wouldn't explain why she doesn't know to be wary of humans, and we don't want to make her too much like Ariel.

>>23436 here
If we're going with the 1930s, some examples of hair styles that a fashionable and wealthy girl might wear at the time are here: http://hairstyles.1930s-fashions.co.uk/

Before WWI the only people who wore their hair down were little girls.

>>23436
I agree with everything you said! Especially about making Nessie NOT the merchants daughter and instead making rich girl his daughter. Nessie could be selling the fur to him to get money and also to impress rich girl, or something, I dunno. >>23487
I love your art, it's so expressive and cartoony and lovely.
Don't let this idea die! I love it. I hope to do some drawfagging for this soon.

>>23500
She's might not be a princess, but I was thinking that maybe the selkie girl could actually turn out to be lying about losing her pelt, and just wanted to see what being a human was like and to get a human to help show her around? So she'd secretly know where her pelt is and would just be having fun exploring being human, though I assume she'd still want to go back home to the sea at some point. And this would only be revealed later in the story. Would this make her too much like Ariel?
And hey, maybe she could want to go back home until she falls in love with Nessa and then changes her mind. She would still be hurt learning about Nessa's betrayal, and we could also develop the romance more mutually between them rather than just focusing on Nessa.
I sorta like the idea of them both falling for each other, but not realizing that the other returns their feelings.

>>23506
Aw, thank you!

>>23510
I like your ideas, anon.

Also, why did we pick a time period with hair styles that are so hard to draw? I mean really.

>>23534
Fashionable hair styles are all pretty much complicated and hard to draw up until the 50s/60s. With the poor girls of the 1930s era we can at least get away with letting them have their hair down or just pulled back into ponytails.

>>23535
We don't really need to be that historically accurate as long as we're vague about the time period. Hell, Disney makes shortcuts through history all the time.

>>23510
If we're okay with this idea, I can imagine a scene towards the end where they confront each other, each wanting to spill the beans to each other but interrupting each other and saying "no you go first" and stuff. Selkie girl would probably end up going first, because if Nessa went first then SG'd just angrily leave. After SG confesses that she knew where the pelt was all along, Nessa might interrupt her asking where the pelt is before SG can admit the rest about how she's in love and wants to stay, and she can get cold feet about it and not say anything until Nessa ends up admitting her guilt and how she was planning to betray her. Then SG'd get angry, but we still couldn't have her run off with the pelt because then she'd go back to the sea and the story would end. The ending would also feel pretty flat if Nessa just apologized, admitted she loved her right then and there, and then SG just immediately forgave her and it ended. Would RG and Dunham and his goons come now instead? Are we even going with that idea?

If we're making RG evil, the confrontation in >>23302 (unless someone comes up with a better story structure) with her trying to coax Nessa into giving the pelt to her could happen before this, with RG wanting Nessa to sell her the pelt after it's found. I can imagine after being rejected she could have some villain moment where she messes with Nessa and tells her that if she's in love with SG and gives her the pelt, SG will leave and Nessa will go back to being poor and alone.

It feels weird making RG a villain, since I like the thought of >>23316 and we also don't have many other good characters who aren't the main characters. Then again, I guess it'd fit with the story so far to make every character but SG morally gray. It'd also be weird having RG be too much like SG, since then we couldn't get that dynamic at the beginning with Nessa being annoyed by SG, and having Nessa move on to a relationship with an RG clone wouldn't be very romantic.

>>23571
I get the feeling that RG shouldn't be a villian
She should represent everything that Nessa thinks she wants in life at the beginning, but realises she doesn't at the end, but the main antagonist should be the Black Marketeer, who deserves a more active role- maybe he could be the artful dodger to Nessa's street urchin upbringing and plans on coming Nessa like she conned others
Anyway, rich girl should be presented as kind of vapid or airheaded, but not the main villian, or gay

So, one thing that hasn't been answered yet is how the sealkie lost her pelt in the first place
My guess would be she absent mindedly left it in a cove that was also, unbeknownst by her, being used by the Black Marketeers smuggiling ring- and what were they smuggiling at the time? Why seal skins of course!
Naturally some absent minded henchman or Nessa herself noticed the pelt, and thinking it was part of the shipment, loaded it along with the other seal skins into a truck
The pelt gets passed around from one black market trader to the next without anyone recognizing its true value while Nessa, the Selkie, and the BMG chase after it, always one step behind and tangiling with the authorties more than once, until they catch up with it at the rich girls mansion, who's father has bought the pelt to be made into an expensive seal skin coat for his little girl

>>23632
Why exactly would the Black Market need to smuggle seal skins?
Other than that you have some good ideas. Also, I sorta like the idea of Selkie secretly hiding her skin on purpose so that she can explore on land, but that still can fit with your plot.

>>23635
I assume that seal skins are, like expensive luxery items like diamonds and ivory, are highly taxed,
And it doesn't have to be just seal skins- people smuggle all sorts of legal items that are often obtained in not so legal ways

You know what the BMG needs?
A bumbling henchman-perferably of the dumb muscle variety.
someone big, slow, and easily manipulated but ridicously strong, to contrast with the BMG's plots and schemes
It's the old Lenny and George Dynamic- with the BMG as Lenny

>>23635
If this takes place during either the first or second world war, I'm pretty sure rationing and contraband laws made luxury items strictly controlled and almost impossible to find outside of the black market
Besides, they don't have to be dealing exculisvely in seal skins-They can be smuggiling lots of other wartime contrabasnd favorited, like Caviar, chocolate, jewlery, and weapons-they just have to have a shipment of seal skins too

>>23637
>with the BMG as George
Gah, I need to brush up on my highschool literature

>>23638
Or the seal skins can just be stolen goods

>>23640
Yeah, but I like my explanation better

>>23632
If we go with this idea, we could introduce some extra characters in the form of contacts that BMM and Nessa have in each town, since they'd have to find some way to track it. Maybe one of them could factor more into the story too, like an underling of BMM who's sent to track Nessa/Selkie. I like the idea of the big bumbling guy to act as a foil to BMM.

Maybe Nessa also knows a bunch of fellow street rats and needs to get their help and connections for finding where the pelt would be, but they aren't very fond of her because she's the sarcastic loner type and has conned them all once before. She also doesn't want them to reveal her scam to Selkie or to take the pelt for themselves, so she has to figure out how to get their help without letting Selkie figure out her scheme.

That could be at least one conflict they run into during their quest to find the pelt.

Are seal skins luxery items?

>>23648
Does it really matter?
They could've 'Fallen off a truck'
The important thing is that they are in the smugglers cove

Lets see.
Character break downs are in order at this point.

Alright so I had an epiphany. Our story can't take place in the past. The kids won't like that. Instead, it's gotta take place in modern day. Our main character lives in a town called "Sunnyvale." She goes to Sunnyvale high school where all sorts of weird things happen. See, Sunnyvale rests on a thing called the "Evil-mouth" which means all kinds of monsters and terrible things congregate there. She fights these horrible monsters with her friends and the school librarian. Also, there can't be lesbians. Parents don't want their kids watching that.

>>24394
You mean a hellmouth?

>>24400
I know, man. I wanted it to be slightly different. I'll stop with the stupid jokes now.

>>24417
>>24394
Yeah, this concept has changed alot from it's original conception, hasn't it?
But I think it's changed for the better.
Also, more on topic, when and where exactly does this story take place?
I know we seem to be leaning towards early 20th century Ireland, but we haven't really gotten anything more than generic Irishness so far.
Considering the time period, maybe it would be better to put the story before 1912 and home rule- to avoid, or at least skirt, the 'Irish Question'

>>24487
While I agree that the Irish War of Independence is a touchy issue, I don't think it means that we should avoid the topic all together, just that we don't directly adress it. The period of tension that existed between the Irish free state and Northern Ireland is filled with bad memories, yes, but it also offers great oppertunities in terms of stories.
I was thinking that perhaps we could, indirectly, suggest that Nessa's parents were killed during the Easter rising.
Also, as far as periods goes, 1921 would let us use the port city of Dundalk as the perfect setting.
The partition of Ireland in May 1921 turned Dundalk into a border town and the Dublin–Belfast main line into an international railway. The Irish Free State opened customs and immigration facilities at Dundalk to check goods and passengers crossing the border by train.
It also is the supposed birthplace of the hero Cuchulainn and the site of many archaeological remains including the ruin of a medieval church, a motte castle and an iron-age hill fort.
Perfect set up for our little gang of thieves, smugglers, occultists, and profiteers.

>>24488
Obligitory wiki link to Dundalk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dundalk
Also, when I said that Nessa's parents were killed in the Easter rising, I was hoping for them to be just innocent bystanders who were killed in the cross fire rather than die-hard revolutionaries or something.

>>24394

So your epiphany is Buffy the Vampire Slayer? >_>

>>24527
I'm pretty sure that was a joke
(Plus: Like hell am I going to let this idea die!)