My name is James Duncan. My friends call me Jimmy, and only my mother could call me James. You can call me Mr. Duncan until I deem otherwise.
My life is somewhat complicated. Why, do you ask? For starters: my career, if you want to call it that, is completely unbelievable. My love life is in ruins, mostly because of my work. My body hurts more and more with each passing year. There is a pounding in my head that won't go away. And "people" keep on trying to kill me.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
I'd say, Mr. James Duncan, your life is problematic and routine, not per se complicated in the dramatic sense. What do you personally and publicly want that all your problems oppose? Problem and want wanting satisfaction -- that's complicated.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Job unbelievable? Try me. I believe 6 impossible things before breakfast. What's your job?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
You put "people" in quotation marks. You think somebody's trying to kill you, but it makes it look like you don't think they're "people" in the conventional sense. (Connected with your career?) What are they?
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
Well, if I told you my job was a geo-thermal nuclear physicist and I was studying cracks in the earth's crust to see if they had any impact on the rotation around the sun, that would be more believable.
I'm a dragon hunter. Yes, you may go ahead and laugh. But, you'd be surprised at how busy I can stay and how much I make, even in the 21st century.
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
"People" are what they appear to be. Those who are trying to kill me, that is. Transfiguration is what it is. Dragons are the best at it because their life span is so long it allows them more time to perfect it.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
You're hunting dragons...but they're "people" to you. From what you've said, it doesn't seem to be for sport---there's little good reason to hunt people of any kind for sport. Are the dragons making a nuisance of themselves in some way? Are you commissioned to take them down?
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
I guess a more accurate description is a bounty hunter of dragons. I'm hired to track down the dragons, and other creatures, that have broken the Pantheon Treaties.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
So far only public complications. How about personal complications? Altruism no matter how economically motivated is subject to suspicions, as are purely personally motivated agendas subject to suspicions. How are these trying routines matters of life-defining events?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Well, there's mention of a love life in ruins. Special girl? Or just no luck scoring?
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
I do it because I'm good at it, and I believe in what I'm doing. I know that I am keeping people safe. I lost my mother and sister because a Hunter had failed at his job, so I do my damnedest to complete each assignment.
The money of the job, though, is a huge perk. Could you turn down a stone of gold for each bounty?
Love life? There was a girl. Gorgeous, smart, intelligent. The kind you write home about. I loved her from the moment I saw her. Six years we were together. She traveled the world with me on my assignments. It was prefect.
And then, out of nowhere, she rips my heart out. Well, almost. My partner managed to pull her off of me before she could. She died in my arms shortly there after, with my sword plunged through her chest.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
"Could you turn down a stone of gold for each bounty?" Well, I could, but don't go by me.
This love-of-your-life girl does sound a little high maintenance...
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
Seems a life-defining story to tell could be the love interest's end. How did that come to pass? Begun at the beginning, that could be the start of the six-year relationship.
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
That's a difficult story to share. The scars have not yet fully healed. I'll sum it up with: she helped me learn who and what I am, at the same time, trying to turn me into something I'm not. I learned the latter when she tried to kill me.
But, that's what you get when I unknowingly fall in love with a dragon-lady who's spent the last four centuries working towards bringing a prophesy to fruition.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Sounds like you're telling us your story at the end [death of the dragon-lady] when there's still a beginning and middle to be told.
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
It is true, killing the love of my life is a tale that should be told, and I learned that there are far greater terrors in the universe than the monsters I hunt. But, in the story of my life, she is but a few chapters. Important chapters that helped shape who I am, but only a part in the whole scheme of things.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
One has to know what story to tell, James Duncan.
Posted by Jed Anderson (Member # 9863) on :
And where to begin telling it?
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
A story begins with a life-complicating event, an antagonizing event caused by wants and problems wanting satisfaction. These are motifs for potential antagonism thus far given, generally and paraphrased:
A tragic love interest.
Dragons who assume human guise.
Humans who hunt misbehaving dragons.
What's missing for me is personal involvement that is congruent to public matters -- what does Mr. James Duncan personally want that also publicly matters to his society? Minimalizing dragon interference in human affairs is largely a public matter. In what ways does that public matter relate to Duncan's personal matters? Ask what do dragons represent comparable to the human condition: wrath-patience, greed-charity, gluttony-temperance, pride-humility, envy-kindness, sloth-diligence, lust-chastity. Seems to me, dragons who interfere in human matters represent all the above vices.
Which is most central? Gluttony? Want for over-ample self-gratification. Greed, hoarding of wealth and power? Maybe sloth, want humans to serve their personal needs? Wrath, angered that humans resist their misguided interference. Pride, self-belief dragons know better than humans what's in each's best interests, and vanity. Envy in its green-eyed monster jealousy of humans' place in the cosmos? Lust fits in somehow too.
Dragons across world cultures represent sky spirits, gods. As such, they are spiritual authorities and likewise symbolize mundane authorities. May these dragons represent trifling interference by secret government agents?
Again, though, the matter may be what personally matters to Duncan, morally congruent to his self-involved struggles. The love interest motif presents easily and persuasively. A more tangible complication is warranted, though. Say, want for a stable personal social life to find comfort in when not abroad saving humanity from dragon interferences, and for purposes of fulfilling a social responsibility to reproduce.
Other cues lay in the dragon agenda of fulfilling a prophecy, the Pantheon treaties, and want for vengeance for lost family. Vengeance is wrath. If the dragon agenda means Duncan cannot build a new family, that is personal and public. The Pantheon treaties, I expect, lay out a system for peaceful coexistence, though because dragons take a longer view, the treaties favor dragons at humans' expense. The treaties need be renegotiated if humans are to stand a chance. Duncan uncovers a method to encourage dragons to renegotiate or perish.
Duncan Man and Dragon Lance?
A quest story shape? Duncan learns of an enduring and powerful lance hidden by dragons in the far past, through perhaps the lost love interest? (Maybe when and where to start the story?) Duncan struggles to acquire the lance. He does. He slays a mighty dragon lord. All bow to his terms -- peace. The lance is protected from dragon recovery by being bound to a human lineage: Duncan's new love interest, whom he'd met and refused due to his human duty, though is his quest companion and majorly contributing ally. The dragon prophecy is redirected for human benefit. (The dragon prophecy is fulfilled, only not how dragons wanted or expected; such is the way of prophecy.) Unequivocal and irrevocable public and personal complication satisfaction. Duncan resumes a personal life, with the quest companion, and continues a public life as steward of the dragon lance for a generation. End -30-. Afterstory: A newborn daughter of Duncan's and his quest companion is closest bound to the lance, is tapped for selecting the next generation's steward.