Her Majesty's Army

The Slingmen and Aviators were actually worked out nearly two years ago, in March, 2003. Perry and Trent are a bit different now, seeing as they've gone through being main characters in All Directions Go, but there are a number of similarities.

I've decided that the world actually is late nineteenth century England, a bit before the first World War. Unfortunately, I'm not up to date with European history or the Victorian Era, but I think I really want to be able to refer to this story as "Her Majesty's Army," rather than "His Majesty's Army." So that means either sticking it in the Victorian period, or screwing with history. I'm not adverse to the latter, though I know next to nothing about the daughters of Edward VII.

It's not unreasonable to assume that the presence of magic and the interference of Aviators would cause differences in the royal family. That'll probably be the easiest, if I want this to take place in WWI. Don't know if I do yet, though.

So, Trent Rhoswyn and Peregrine Fulbright are stuck together; Virgil may make an appearance as one of Trent's slingmen, but otherwise there will be no references made to ADG. Trent is no longer a crazed, occasionally homicidal merman- he is now a fortyish, grizzled old soldier with one leg who finds the rest of the world kind of irritating. Perry is now a fanatic, but he still talks to birds.

Rogue Aviators are still around, but they won't play that big a role in the story. The way the plot looks so far I ought to be able to finish it reasonably quickly. Trent, in addition to being one of the most decorated slingmen captains in history, is also something of an inventor. He's spent a number of years in retirement, studying the properties of runestone and has been trying to find a way to use it that doesn't require slings. (He lost his leg and his family to the dangers of slinging, and he's desperately afraid of losing anymore limbs and being unable to cast magic.) So, he's been working out a formula for magic bullets and a gun that can mimic the velocity and patterns necessary to get the runestone to react, while increasing the stone's range.

About the slinging; the rune patterns are necessary to activate the stone, but the stone remains activated for only a very small window of time- just enough time for the slingman to still the sling and throw the stone so that it'll go off when it hits. An activated stone that isn't used will go inert in seconds, and become useless; wasting runestone is punishable by a beating.

Her Majesty's Slingmen all use hand slings in combat, but each slingman has a ceremonial staff sling that they are proficient in the use of. Staff slings, however, cannot activate runestones because they are too awkward to form the proper rune patterns. (I just realized that all the slingmen are superb ravers. D'oi.)

The average Second or Third Class Aviator can make between two and five trips between the aether a day before succumbing to exhuastion, and they can carry a cargo of up to one and a half times their own weight easily. A first class or master can theoretically reach between seven and ten trips, and carry up to three times their own weight, depending on their physical fitness. Perry is young, but naturally talented and incredibly devoted; in a few more years, he'll probably advance to first class.

Aviators are not human. They are travellers by nature, but a number of them set up colonies in various places around earth. Those who are colony bound generally do not travel outside the bounds of this reality, but those who choose to exile themselves do. Perry has the ability to leave this reality space, but he's never actually done it before.

No one really knows where the aviators came from, or why they're here; they just are, and the sight of them has become commonplace. They're sociable creatures, and fiercely protective of what they perceive as their home, which partially explains Perry's fanaticism. There are black sheep, of course, and solitary Aviators usually crop up at a fairly large percentage. Solitaries tend to have more control and range to their travelling, so having a Solitary in your family is considered a mark of prestige. The Aviators themselves don't know what causes the wanderlust and misanthropism that characterizes a Solitary, but as children of the clan, their endeavors and desires are respected, and every effort is made to get them out of the colony as soon as possible.

Once they've left, most Solitaries are never seen again. Perry's older sister went Solitary when he was very young and left at the age of ten, a fact that he is inordinately proud of. I think he may run into her later on in the story, but I'm not sure.

So! Perry is assigned to Trent's regiment to transport Trent and his equipment wherever Trent wants to go- and the rest of the regiment, as necessary. This, however, means that Perry is going to be on the front lines, because that's where Slingmen tend to be. Not on the front of the front lines, given that slings have crazy range, but still fairly close. Perry, being the highly strung, neurotic bird person he is, is going to startle, and he's going to pull Trent and possibly one of the other members of the regiment with him to a medieval world full of dragons and dragon slayers.

Enter Nenia (this is a story full of characters that belong elsewhere), a medium sized fire breather who doesn't really want to be slain. Enter also Marco, a dragon slayer whose family is known for slaying dragons and nothing else. He wants to slay a dragon. There's a clear conflict of interest here, and Trent and Perry get caught up in the middle.

That, and Perry can't figure out how to get home.

Shenanigans!