Almost ready to post my author's notes
Mood:
mischievious
Topic: A Passage
Well here goes nothing. I'm actually counting down to putting up a chapter index and chapters for "A Passage". What I am wondering is how I'm going to do everything in the space allotted. But that's not all: How the hell do I go from something formatted in Word to a webpage? I think the formatting will take longer than it took me to write some of the chapters out. Talk about sad.
I'm so glad that I am learning how to do this though. It's more then I ever thought I'd know how to do. It is like learning a new language almost. Big shot webpage owners with high volume pages must put loads of work into what they do. And here I am, talking to myself... hehe.
Tell you what, I'll put my notes here.
"Author’s notes:
This is – Hell, I don’t know… The 6th or 7th time I’ve reposted this story. It’s the 4th time I’ve revised it.
I just can’t seem to leave it alone. Now with PlanetSlam.com no longer around and Fanfic.net being a
prig (meaning I’m going insane with the need to post chapters and I can’t because of various errors) I
decided that this needed to be hosted on my own damn site. If you want to archive it then you’d better
ask, because I’m sure I’d want to read the other stories!
I will try to pull in even more threads (ie characters) this time around. The first time I did this it was
only Jack’s POV. The second time I flitted a bit into Riddick’s brain. Then I added Johns and Toombs
and a few others. This go… I’m thinking about digging into Shazza a little more. But you never know,
I might do more than that.
This is a girl meets boy kinda story. Well, a girl meets murder … Um; you get the pic, yeah? The girl
in question is Jack, of course. Her voice is strong in this story because the initial writing of it was her
story. I’ve expanded since then, working back into Riddick and Johns twisted relationship. Their
relationship might call for more filling in. I am working on a piece that covers John’s chase log as a way
to extend the prologue already. There is also the possibility that I’ll look at Riddick’s past, pre-slam, at
some point. See, the story started out as Jack’s passage but the more I write, the more I realize that she’s
the ‘helper’ character that enables others along their own journeys. Riddick moves, grows, and changes
along side Jack in many ways.
The same is true with each of the other characters if you think about it. For example, Carolyn Fry takes
up the mantle of Captain because Jack comes to her as a trustworthy authority figure in her fight to save
Riddick after his recapture. Shazza’s tragic tale is deepened because Jack has come to care for her. Ali
and his brothers’ deaths are felt keenly because Jack had befriended them. Then there is Johns…
Ultimately Johns earns his death not because he threatens Riddick but because he wants to kill Jack.
Sure, Riddick is itching for an excuse, but he keeps his cool until that very moment when Johns makes
his move against the single thing that lights the darkness inside Riddick’s soul.
I also have tried to avoid making Jack too different from the Pitch Black / Dark Fury version. Yes, she
grows up, she matures, she learns, but she doesn’t just suddenly become Kyra. Oh, no. Kyra is a
different animal, and there’s a reason that Riddick calls her Jack once he meets her. But, I’m getting
ahead of myself. I promise that the plot twist will make sense and hopefully won’t be too corny. And
it isn’t copying anyone… (I’ll cross my fingers on that).
There are several questions I’ve been asked in the course of posting “A Passage” on Fanfic.net.
I’ll address them here.
First: Ages.
Riddick and Jack seem to have a disturbing gap in their ages. Well, yes. The do. They are survivors
from Furya, however. Riddick at the time of CoR could be no older than 34. Most likely he’s between
31 or 32. The attack on Furya happened just as he was being born as he still had his umbilical cord
attached (well, he was strangled with it, yeah? Riddick himself says so.) not to mention that the Lord
Marshal was rather infamous for killing babies that way. The Lord Marshal gives us the clue that pin-
points Riddick’s age when he says “over 30 years ago” but not anything like ‘nearly’ 35. This gives a
total age that ignores time spent in Cryosleep. Every year spent in cryo is a year that one does not age.
It’s a known fact that Riddick spent time in at least two ‘deep storage’ slams (these would be triple max
prisons where the inmates are kept in cryosleep. The two Riddick is known to have been in are Butcher
Bay and the unnamed one where he spent nearly three years attempting to escape (and no they are not the
same slams. Riddick and Johns knew each other too well by the time that Johns took him to Butcher Bay
for them to be the same).
Which brings me to the point I’m making. Riddick has spent a lot of time in Cryo. Every time he’s
escaped and been caught the mercs place him in cryo for their own safety. He’s spent over 3 years in
cryo while in prison. It’s likely he spent time in cryo after he was found alive, both being rescued off
Furya and later when he went to Sigma 3. I think it’s safe to take off anywhere between 5 and 7 years.
Okay, so what about Jack? Riddick knew who her father was on Sigma 3. Riddick’s first job there was
when he was ten or so. It’s likely that Jack was born within a year or two of his arrival on Sigma 3 although he didn’t rescue her until later. Jack was a toddler at that point, in at least appearance and
Riddick was working security. This was when Riddick was something like 14-15 years old. Jack could easily have been 3 or 4 years old.
What it boils down to is that Jack looks 12 at the time of Pitch Black, but is likely older. She could be as
old as 15. Riddick is no older than 26 then, and with the years deducted for his time in cryo he could be
as young as 19. Or something like that…
Next: Nicknames.
There comes a time in every relationship when nicknames come into play. The name itself usually means
more to the person bestowing it in the beginning than the person it refers to. In the case of Jack the nicknames come from Riddick and are his way of defining her. ‘Babe’ is fairly self-explanatory. Riddick
isn’t the sort to use flowery feminine names either, so he really doesn’t pick up ‘Jackie’ like the others do.
Instead he comes up with his own diminutive – ‘Jacket’. Now I know this seems strange but think of it like
this: Riddick lets Jack into his heart and soul. She’s his protector as far as his humanity is concerned. His
‘life jacket’ of a sort. Calling her ‘Jacket’ then is his way of acknowledging how much he relies on her to
keep his darkness at bay and his humanity afloat through all the pain and suffering that he’s had.
And on a related note: Furyan Names.
I have no idea if Jack has one… She’s a half-breed. I clearly state that in times past her mixed blood would
have excluded her from knowledge about Furya. It’s only the desperation Shirah feels over the fact that
Riddick refuses to listen to her that prompts Shirah to forgo those rules and contact Jack in the first place. That Jack develops healing powers is something unexpected, and perhaps one of the few things that makes
Shirah keep her word about Jack ‘being able to see when she needs to see’. Riddick has one because he
was born on Furya to Furyan parents. Oh, yeah… That Furyan name is Amadak."
I'm sure that there will eventually be more, but this is what I have now. I wonder what folks think of it.
"A Passage" can be read at
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