Extra Thoughts on "What Remains of the Chaos King" · 12:20am Jun 3rd, 2017
So I'm not gonna lie. I really liked that story. It was something different at the time and something I had in my head for a while. It was also a complete "shrug and fuck it" story. Meaning it wasn't cute, or clop, or straight out comedy. (The three-Cs of this site.)
Other recent "shrug and fuck it" stories would include:
Discord Goes To Heaven
The Mother of Many Faces
Don't Let the Bed Bug Bite
Stories I would gladly include in my "Best of NBD" folder.
"Chaos King" was also long. Or... long for me. At 5k, I thought, "Well, maybe diehard Discord fans will read it." At 6k, "Okay, maybe my diehard fans will still read it." And at 7k, "Okay, at least I'll still read it!"
And to my surprise, it did pretty well. And a lot of people were curious about a follow up. Even a few PMs about it.
No, I'm not continuing it or anything. But I do like to talk story, so here's my thoughts on what could've happened.
So after Derek and Taylor's awkward first encounter, they form an odd bond. Derek supplies very good weed and Taylor supplies a makeshift sounding board for Derek to vent. During this time, the question of whether Derek is actually truthful about who he says he is or just plain nuts comes into play.
Derek might try to display his chaotic gifts, but Taylor might just shrug them off and say it's all slight of hand crap. Derek will also be trying his best to "juice" himself up to regain some of his lost power. Sucking on batteries or sticking forks into outlets and the like.
After a while of this (office pranks and more buddy-buddy romance type stuff), Taylor makes an odd discovery at work. A new employee (mailroom or something simple) can't stop picking things up with his mouth. Perhaps only for a few seconds before he snaps out of it and checks to see if anyone noticed. Long story short, the new employee is actually Starswirl, who crossed through the portal into the human world to both check up on Derek/Discord and to somehow break the curse placed on him. (Before being banished into the human world, Discord cursed Starswirl in turn. He can only die by Discord's hands.)
Starswirl can also still turn into a pony if he wants. Because that's cute, damn it.
Once revealed, Starswirl speaks with Taylor and gives him the low down on the real Derek. That he's bad news. Very, very much so. Taylor doesn't really know what to make of this and continues on his way. He doesn't spill the beans on Starswirl, but also doesn't feed him any information.
Escalation happens eventually. Taylor is verbally ridiculed at work (perhaps for sticking up for Derek), and the next day that same asshat is involved in a serious car crash. There's an employee huddle about it and when the boss tells everyone, Derek just turns to Taylor and puts a finger to his lips. Perhaps Derek cut his breaks. Perhaps he waited in the backseat with a bat. Who knows. Only that Derek has taken their friendship too far and Taylor starts realizing trouble might be brewing.
I'm not entirely sure how things would play out next (because this is all just food for thought), but bits of the ending come to mind. Derek learns of Starswirl's arrival and therefore Taylor's betrayal. Angry and enraged, he sets it up to be struck by lightening on the top of a cliff to try and gain his magic back. Perhaps he dies for a few hours. Either way, he returns with magic again (maybe not like on the tv show magic) and again tries to kill Starswirl. Taylor included. The image of Starswirl (in pony form) and Taylor running down a street while Derek (now back as Discord? still in human form?) literally throwing entire cars their way. Needless to say, third act climax where all the budget goes.
For an ending? I have no idea. That's why I'm not writing this. Although...
... back when I was debating leaving this site a few months ago (long story), the notion of adapting this fic into an original story came to mind. Obviously, no Discord (don't want to get sued and all that), but still the character of a disgraced chaos king. Later, other entities of pure fantasy and horror pop by to see where he's gone and how he's doing. And one normal human stuck in the middle of it all. Would definitely be a lot darker/weirder than the story on this site.
So that's about it. Just thought I'd ramble on for a bit because I had nothing better to do.
Off topic, but "House of Cards" season five isn't off to the greatest start. Complete lack of cards or houses. Ridiculous.
So, I realize this won't make me sound like the sanest of folks, but having a depowered Discord as a friend sounds pretty cool.
Your base idea is a lot less epic than the setting implied. That is your curse of being a good writer!
Don't know about Chaos King, but I really liked Bed Bug. The non-gore ending was a nice twist.
Damn I'd love to see what kinda story you could make that isn't fan fiction
That would kind of have an American Gods feel to it. Sounds like an interesting concept if you wrote a novel.
I wish this story could be written because I know I could never make it worse and know that this is only a concept at the moment T.T
4556687 I've heard of American Gods, but haven't read the book or seen the show. I like Neil Gaiman, so I'll probably check it out eventually.
4556663 One day I'll return to original story telling. One day.
4556534 That's the problem with so many tags on this site. If I added the GORE tag, everyone would've known exactly what was coming.
4556408 It would be cool... for about a week. Then it might get annoying. And frightening.
I'm getting a 'devils a part timer' feel from this non existent sequel. Good story anyway. Keep up the great work.
What do you mean a complete lack of houses? It’s in the whitest house of them all most of the time!
There are a lack of Cards, however