Forums » Writing Workshop » Read Thread

So after...like...a year or two of doing no work whatsoever on my latest story, School of Assassins, I finally got the inspiration I needed to continue.

I don't want to give too much away, but the main protagonist is...well...an assassin who hunts down those who wrong others and kills them with his training. I want this to be a kind of international story where the protagonist goes to different countries to hunt down different villains committing different crimes, and getting exposed to different cultures in the meantime, however, the problem is that I haven't been to that many countries and/or introduced myself to their culture.

So basically, I am looking for collaborators, people from different countries to help me make my character's experience of that country as accurate as possible.

These collaborators are not going to be co-authors though, since there is a limit to how many co-authors a story can have (or it was the last time I checked, which was a while ago so idk, it could have changed). However, these collaborators will have a say in what happens during the mission to whatever country they're helping me write about.

Uhh... Well I'm from England, but I don't really think there'd be much difference from America... Except everybody drinks tea and goes crazy when royal people get married. 

Lies! All lies! We Americans care not for the royal marriage. We only care about royal babies.

"I'm a twenty year old Icelandic boy."

Boy? o.O

That's leftover from when I was younger. Never really changed it, just the age.

Oh wait, you're from Iceland? ... People from Iceland are awesome! (Only met 2 people from Iceland, but they were 2 of the coolest people I ever met. They had such a random sense of humor.) ^_^

Glad they made such a lasting impression ;)

Of course they're cool! They're from Ice-land!

Wait, isn't Iceland full of green things and Greenland full of snow and ice? Plz correct me if I'm wrong though.

Yes, supposedly some Viking got banished, moved to what is now Greenland, got lonely, and named it Greenland so that more people would travel there and he wouldn't be lonely.

Now, the chance that that story is true: 0.00001%

Why?

Curiosity?

Curiosity killed that cat, but satisfaction brought it back. >.<

I mean why the story is supposedly false or thereabout.

"Why" to what?

Wait, I though Vikings supposedly discovered Iceland, but it was full of greenery so they named it Iceland to make it so people wouldn't want to go there as much and then discovered Greenland and named it that to have people go there instead. That's just what I heard though, and I don't know if it's true.

No, the naming of Iceland is a much lesser story. The vikings that settled here saw ice, therefore "Iceland". That's about it.

Are you going to just leave it like that? 

Yes

What about when you turn 50?

I haven't decided. If I haven't changed it by then, please remember to notify me.

I might forget, since you know, with age passing, so does the memory regress. 

Not if you're still a boy at that age.

Well, I guess I won't have to notify you at all, since if you're a boy at 20, you might just still be one at 50. 

Or maybe Icelanders use the term "boy" in a broader way than you're used to. That might also be the case.

How broad can you stretch it though? Are you still boys at 30? What about what they turn 40? 50? There must be some sort of limits...

I can only help in the unlikely even the assassin goes to Israel XD

That would be awesome. I want the assassin to go to Israel.
 

Well, in America, everybody is fat, loves contact sports and explosions, and owns an assault rifle. Just remember that and you will be fine.

Lies! You forgot that they burn black people and jews at the stake for their natural skill and prolific use of witchcraft, or that they regard the contents of books as the arcane constructs of the elder gods - incomprehensible, maddening and holding power (the possessor of which must surely be a foul thing indeed).

I'm not fat :(

I have a very athletic build.

Actually, now that you bring up America, as someone who has only spent a total of three days there (all of which in New York), I have no idea how the states differ from one another aside the fact they have different names. I don't know if there's something cool to explore there, but there might be.

Ah, Well that's something I might be able to help with, but there are so many laws that vary from state to state, like if you can own a bear or make a potato gun. Also, it's illegal to keep ferrets as pets in California, and in a Little Rock, Arkansas, there is a law still on the books, stating that it is illegal to walk your cow across the main street bridge after noon on Sunday.

The weird laws may be cool to explore, but don't really render themselves that well to my story (because, being vigilantes, these assassins I'm writing about don't really care about any rules, even the truly bizarre ones), what might be more along the lines of what I'm talking about is something the assassin might encounter that makes the experience a bit more unique, possibly even pose as an obstacle for him.

In that case, the police here are very likely to beat the living shit out of the assassin which may call for some fighting if you don't watch how you talk to them.

That's good, although it happens frequently in the missions that the assassin has to battle police, since they are vigilantes and all, but that's always when they are actually being assassins, instead of being maybe undercover pretending to be an average citizen to gather information and get closer to the target before striking, so maybe he encounters these aggressive policemen when pretending to be just a normal guy, and thus, if he does get in a fight, he needs to decide if he's going to fight back using his equipment and training, and therefore giving away who he is, or (if he fails the dialogue part) let them beat him up so that no one suspects that he's actually spent years learning to kill people.

The cops here don't always beat up the people they are harassing (although it happens a lot), but they will hold you for sometime if you don't just bend over and let them have their way. Which as you said could hinder the assassin.

Even if the assassin says nothing at all, it will look suspicious to them.

Would they search him for these random harassments because...they would find a lot of weapons if they did that.

In America, if the cops don't have a warrant (in this case they won't) they can't search you. But yes they will still search you stating you are suspicious. Most of the time, they do this if you give them a reason to. Sometimes they will make up a reason.

They would search him just for being Asian. I don't mean to sound nasty, but it's true.

Yeah, my uncle's Korean and he has a nice little car, and because of that, he has been pulled over and searched more times than you could count. He's gotten pulled over supposedly because he turned on his blinker 75 yards away instead of 100 (somewhere around there anyway) while two or three white guys in front of him never even turned on their blinker before they turned and were swerving around like they were drunk but the police officer didn't even glance at them. Same thing with my uncle who's black. And my mom, who's white, was pulled over for no other reason than for them to check her out. I really don't like those police officers.....

He is actually white. Yes, the assassins themselves are based in Japan and most of them are Asian, but I wanted the main hero's arrival there to be a bit of a "fish out of water", you know, where he doesn't speak the language or understand the culture, so the main hero is actually American, therefore he won't look suspicious based on his physical appearance.

Naked lady parade in California. I've heard of that, but, to be honest, I'm not even sure that's a real thing. It would make a cool obstacle, though. XD

Yeah, it would.

You can search at your own risk. I don't want that sort of thing showing up in my web history. Lol.

Just searched it, apparently it happens in San Francisco.

Hmm...that...makes sense.

Are there any more interesting things I could add to a San Francisco mission?

AIDS? Shellfish? Shellfish AIDS?

But, seriously, I'm pretty sure there is plenty of illegal stuff going on in San Francisco.

But what if we go beyond physical obstacles for the assassin to face, what about people's attitude? I remember seeing an episode of South Park where San Fancisco was declared the capital of smugness where people smelled their own farts. I assume they're exaggerating, but is there any truth to the "smug stereotype of San Francisco"?

I've never been there, and I really don't want to get into the social and political climate of San Francisco 'cause I'll just piss someone off. However, I've been to Indiana and Michigan and (no offense to anyone from Indiana or Michigan) but the people I met there were really rude.

Well, I can say that the people in Colorado that I've met (I want to put emphasis on that because there are most likely people who I haven't met there that aren't idiots)  are basically idiots. I don't like the people over there very much either, and It has nothing to do with the lack of education. This is what I mean when I say 'lack of education'; in the school I went to for a year, they were introducing negatives to high schoolers and they still struggled with it. The people in California are much nicer and much smarter from what I remember, though that's not much to go by because I don't remember much from there. The people in Oregon are also rather smart compared to other places, and here they also have a lot of rather nice people. I wouldn't know about San Francisco though, I've never been there.

I've lived in a few of the states here, but I have to say that American culture may be one of the more complex things to describe.

Well, you don't have to describe all of it, maybe just something really weird that might be cool for an assassin to have to deal with.

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN IRRELEVANT INFO. (I don't know what you need to know so I just put down a few things I know about Americans, I know a lot since I've never been anywhere that's not in America)

How I see it, American culture is like the language English. It has many parts from other languages/cultures but not much (if any) of it is it's/their own. Americans are a bit stubborn and don't go with the logical systems, they keep on insisting on using miles and feet instead of kilometers and meters. 19% of America's money goes to the military, 1-2% goes to education, and 2-4% goes to the space programs like NASA. The rest, I have no idea where it is. Americans have the most fast food and restaurant places. Americans also build the worst quality stuff and have most of their 'American' flags made in china. Most people are in the extremes concerning weight, whether it's extremely overweight or extremely underweight. And then your also either really poor or really stinkin' rich. There are many different cultures here, I've seen Muslims, Christians, Jews, Asians, Africans, Koreans, you name it, we probably have it. America doesn't really have one specific culture, it's a big jumbled mess of lots of different cultures. If someone could show me something 100% American, (no stealing ideas from other cultures. Something Americans came up with, and made themselves.) then I'd show them a miracle.

Sorry for the big long paragraph thing, though even that doesn't cover all of it. If you have more questions about America, you can PM me. I've also live in a couple different states here too.

Thanks, that's very useful.

Glad to help. >.<

 If someone could show me something 100% American, (no stealing ideas from other cultures. Something Americans came up with, and made themselves.) then I'd show them a miracle.

Fortune cookies.

I thought those came from china too.

No, entirely American concept.

American Culture 101:

Apple Pie- Stolen from France

Hotdogs- Germany? Who cares. They're just flavored pig genitals, anyway.

Football- Great Britain (well, actually, a corruption of rugby football, which was developed in Britain.)

Hamburgers- Again, Germany.

Fireworks- China.

"My Country, 'Tis of Thee"- Great Britain. Actually a rip-off  of "God Save the Queen".

"Yankee Doodle"- Originally sung by the British as an insult to the colonists during The Revolutionary War.

What in the actual holy fuck is this! I highly doubt you've been in America. Either that or you are a child spewing sterotypical nonsense, or you need to leave the shithole you are currently in and go see different parts on this country. Unbelievable!

"Americans are a bit stubborn and don't go with the logical systems," I guess you didn't realize that it's the Imperial System that we got from the British during our time as a colony. During our era of rapid industrialization, changing to the metric system would be absolute chaos, and currently we are converting to metric. "19% America's money goes to military," 5-10% military though it's still more money than any other country. "Americans also build the worst quality stuff and have most of their 'American' flags made in China," The quality of anything you buy depends on the manufacturer. Maybe you should stop buying crappy gear and choose a different brand. And I know as far as the military goes that they have banned any foreign made flags.

"Most people are in extremes concerning weight, whether it's extremely overweight or extremely underweight," Again with the stereotypes. Most Americans are NOT fat and this is an annoying generalization. I bet you didn't know that several of the fattest countries are in Europe, or that 70% of Mexico's adults are obese. "And then *you're* also either really poor or really stinkin' rich," Again, what shithole do you live in? We do have a a low, middle and high class and this is the case for many countries around the world. Not just us. There are only a few countries I can think of with no middle class at all. "If someone could show me something 100% American," Baseball you commie scum.

For the love of god pick up a damn history book and take a trip across the country. I have lived in Virginia, Alabama, Washington D.C, California, Florida, Guam, Texas, Hawaii, New York, and a few others but I wasn't there long enough to constitute living there in my opinion. You said you lived in a COUPLE of states which is not enough to make all of those assumptions you just made. If anything SindriV, PM if you want to know anything else as I will NOT stand by while this person talks nonsense about my country and gives you the wrong idea on everything.

The metric systems make more sense, centimeters can easily be translated into a hundredth of a meter, or millimeter can be translated to a thousandth of a meter; yards and feet? Why on earth did anyone call it that? It can't be translated into the other increments of the Imperial measurement; how can you tell how many feet are in a mile if you haven't already memorized it? As for the military, we were both wrong, I looked it up. Link here for more info. On the bottom pie chart, you can see the percentages. 16% for military, 2% for education, and 1% for science along with a bunch of other things. They're saying that military is 8x more important than education, and 16x more important than science which is the thing that gives us technological advances. I have also seen several American flags with the little stamp thing that says 'made in china', flags at schools and camps, though I have to admit I've never seen one for the military or anywhere official. And for example, cars that you buy that are manufactured in japan last about 2-3x as long as one manufactured in America. Neither of our claims on Americans weight on the large side is true. Link here. And if you want to see how people predict that 100% of America will be obese by the year 2048, click here. I made an assumption about the extremely underweight people, and for that I'm sorry. I was thinking about all of the way-too-skinny models and everyone wanting to be like them (though I realize now that that part isn't true). And then there is the issue of  poor/rich people. There is a middle class, but the number of people in it is quite small. Without laws that say that you have to pay the worker only -----less then the owners, you get a very big divide between rich and poor. And haven't you ever heard of an exaggeration? I didn't mean for anyone to take that last part literally. So we were both wrong on a few things, and if you want to try and prove yourself right and argue further, go ahead.

I never stated that the metric system didn't make sense. I said we grew off of the Imperial measurement and that our rapid growth made the change difficult. We are still trying to convert. I'd say the military is always one of the higher priorities in America, but they are constantly being cut so it may get reduced to 10%. The flags you saw as I stated were civilian flags, but seeing a few with that stamp doesn't mean most of them have it. I misread the weight in Mexico, it said 70% of them are overweight, and a third are obese. I guess you didn't hear about the big scandal with Toyota, they  had issues with the operations of their cars which resulted in a massive recall.

Ok, I'm glad we got that part sorted out. And no, I didn't hear about the massive recall.

The military spending is entirely necessary, a strong military force is always necessary for a country - even if they never go to war. People who cite America spending so much of their budget on the military don't understand that without the very necessary investment, the country's well being could very easily be compromised.

yeah, but still, having military at 16% while education is at only 2%? They're saying that military is 8x more important than education. And what about science? If we put in more money into science, we would probably be making more technological advances which could also be to our advantage.

Nah, you only need a 2% intelligent elite to control the rest of the population and the dumber they are, the easier it is to control and mold them into SOLDIERS FOR THE EMPIRE.

I want to say Cowboys and the whole Wild West thing might be uniquely american but it actually has roots with the Spanish Mexican Vaquero.

Landing people on the moon maybe?

There you go, make the American assassin an astronaut.

0 gravity would make for some really cool parkour stunts.

Was that an Eternal reference?

Not really, more of a general reference for large nations with large militaries and have a lot of influence on the world (Whether anyone likes it or not!)

Still trying to think of more uniquely American things. For some reason 1920s-1930s prohibition mobsters come to mind, but mobsters aren't really unique to america.

Well, I sort of know about Albanian culture, and Albanian culture is pretty much the same as everything else in the balkans, so if your assassin is killing some people in the Albanian mafia or something, i've got you.

Great, then I'll have a mission in Albania.
 

> Albanian culture is pretty much the same as everything else in the balkans

My eyes! Oh dear lord my eyes!

It is lol, they like to pretend it's different but honestly, it's all just crap they tell each other to feel special.

Not really. The closest you can get with Albanians and Greeks might be some South Albanian dressing and Epirote ones and then some music (again, Epirus only). Now, compare a muslim Geget with any Pelloponesian, there is NOTHING in common.

And the Slavs are just their own thing (Bulgarians not included) 

I could tell you a thing or two about Japanese culture. If your assassin goes there however, s/he will have to deal with the Yakuza. That's if s/he don't get lost in the infinite mob of people.

The assassins are based in Japan, so that would be incredibly useful.

Of course they are. Are they also affiliated with the organization?

No, they are independent vigilantes not affiliated with any organization.

Do they take their contracts from anywhere? Because it wouldn't make sense for the police to support the Assassins if they are against the Yakuza.

They don't, they have contacts all over the world (usually people who were saved by one of them, former assassins that are now too old or suffered an injury that keeps them from the field or just people that agree with the assassin's point of view) that gather information on potential targets, who then send that information to the master.

Ok, so they work to take down the scum of the world. Mob bosses, cartel leaders, etc.

Yes.

I can tell about India.

That would be really cool too.

Since each mission takes a while to write I'll just message you when I start working on the India mission.

A smidge of Brazil and Vietnam, if you ever plan to send people there.

Sure, both of those sound awesome.

My BJJ instructor was Brazilian. The assistant instructor was from Paraguay, but he didn't talk about it much.

Vietnamese huh, I thought you were from Taiwan or China.

It would be pretty cool if you do what Berka did in Dead Man Walking and use members of this site as characters in your story - maybe the targets, and they can find themselves by description and/or way of death. Of course, it's just something I think would be cool.

If there's anything based in NZ or Aus, I could possibly be of help since I'm familiar with both countries. One thing I can say about them now is that they're both very serious about their rugby.

I agree, adding cameos from this site would be cool. I might make them the contacts for the assassin though instead of the targets, since the targets are usually more along the lines of powerful crime lords or something like that while the contacts are more ordinary average people.

If there is someone on this site that happens to be a crime boss though, feel free to notify me or your local police.

*Cough cough* Briar *cough cough*.