Story progress

Ok, I've got a good ten pages in my notebook of brainstormings and scribblings for my final project, but I haven't actually typed anything up yet. So I figured I'd do that.

I've got the basic idea, the only thing that's really blurry is specific dialogue and events. I'm still trying to decide exactly what happens and how much information I ought to actually reveal. Sometimes less is more, you know.

The basic idea is that there's this island (name needed) about 30 miles off the coast of (an obscure or even fictional country in South America), that's discovered by some scientists. It's got some amazing ruins and statues and riches rivaling those of King Tut, and seems to represent a culture never heard of before. Archeologists are ecstatic. There's a brief power struggle as people try to decide to whom the dig belongs (all the countries and museums want it for themselves, you see). In the end it's decided that a UN-appointed multi-national coalition of scientists will be the ones to study it, and all artifacts are to remain on site...

anyway, the team of people basically consists of a few leading scientists, their less-important assistants, a large crew of enthusiastic interns, a small film crew, and some natives to the area. The scientists and the camera man are the only real important ones; there's a botanist (a well-educated native, helping the clueless persons to navigate the wilderness), a zoologist (a lively, enthusiastic girl, on the watch for new species), an anthropologist (middle-aged and knowledgeable, but languid), two archeologists (an upbeat, pretentious man, and a more subdued, blunt, and insightful woman). They're all very "I'm smarter than the rest of you combined" and it's very obnoxious. They have tentative names, but for now I'm just going to call them by their titles. Except the camera man. His name is Jem. But the botanist is the main character actually.

...umm... tangents!

This big group gets to this island and starts to look around. They find this city, which they basically just call the Octagon because of its eight-area configuration around a central point... which is called the Spider Palace. Anyway, it's this really great thing. There aren't really any houses (there's some evidence of tents as having been the dwelling of choice), but there's tons and tons of monuments and relief sculptures depicting the most bizarre scenes-- people with spiders for heads, monsters in chains, people bowing down... etc. There's also gold. A ton of it. The most remarkable piece of all is the later-named Spider Palace, which from a distance looks like a towering metallic rectangle, but as you approach it, you see that it's not solid, but made from layer upon layer of twisting, netted, and highly decorated gold. Kind of like a giant piece of sponge, with all these twisting cavities and passage ways. On the top of it, there's a slightly-larger-than-life statue of a man, seated on a throne, with a spider-mask, his empty hand outstretched and open.

The scientists are happy. They go about doing scientific-type things. Studying statues and rocks and plants and talking to each other about whatever they're discovering. Which isn't really a whole lot so far. Only that these people very clearly had a thing for spiders. They assume that they associated them with the gods, but they can't actually read any of the markings, they can only speculate. But there are a lot of spiders around... they just kind of sit there, like they're watching the scientists, patiently, but apprehensive for their departure...

ehh, yeah. Progress. After a few days of this, this guy suddenly appears in a suit, with a ship full of equipment. His name is Jonathan. He says he's from this pretentious Museum and he has been given permission to transport the entire site to there (he brandishes a document for proof,). The scientists are very upset by this, and they argue (some to keep the integrity of it, some because they think it shouldn't be monopolized, some because that would just be a generally horrible violation of history.... )... Suddenly the zoologist goes very dead-faced and says, no, this can not be, the palace must not be violated, it is sacred... (it's after this people start calling it Spider Palace)... but then she goes back to normal and rubs her neck and of course rationalizes whatever she said by going back to the scientists' arguments... But the Botanist takes not of her peculiar behavior, and he looks frightened, as if something has just been confirmed...

...I'm rambling...

in the end, Jonathan's got documents, so there's really nothing they can do. The museum men begin moving in the equipment, while the disgruntled scientists watch. Botanist begins making extra efforts to persuade them not to touch it. They don't listen. And suddenly, after a few days of set-up, as they're heaving away free reliefs and some smaller statues, and the crane is just being attached to the Palace, about a quarter of the workers collapse; they clutch at their necks and legs and arms in pain, they go pale, and in a matter of minutes, they're all dead.

Responses to this are varied. The natives who have tagged along immediately say that it's a curse, they must run, they must leave! While the scientists try to help the fallen and affirm that there must be a more logical explanation. There's a lot of sadness and panic. But then suddenly one of the interns walks up to a scientist (let's say male archeologist) and he's in zombie-mode like zoologist was the other day. He says, NO, IT IS A CURSE. LEAVE NOW, AND LEAVE THIS PLACE, OR ALL WILL DIE. Other interns and scientists attempt to drag him away, to pacify him, but... he turns into a snake monster instead.

Really big, bright, shining blue-green, three-eyed, reptilian-headed naga. Everybody flips out. He kills a few people, injures a few more. Until Botanist finally shoots him in the head, and that's that. He promptly turns back into a (very dead) human.

Everyone's a little mystified after this. They spend the next few hours recovering the dead and tending to the injured and staring into space wondering what the hell had just happened. Jem managed to get only a blur of blue on film-- no real documentation.

Jonathan really wants this site. In order to keep from everyone panicking and running away from the curse, he comes up with a different explanation.

It was just some kind of wild creature-- a jaguar or something-- that killed those people. The people who collapsed must have eaten something toxic. The rest of us must have eaten a milder form of it, that caused hallucinations and made us think we were seeing a monster. It was the Botanist's fault. He told us the plant was safe to eat, and now a quarter of the men are dead. And, besides that, he shot that intern, which, since there was now no evidence that he was a monster at the time, made him a murderer and a conspirator. He should be locked up and the dig continued.

Jonathan's argument manages to convince a surprising number of people. So now we're divided-- about half want to continue to tear up the Octagon, and just pretend like the incident had never happened-- and the other half are sure it was no hallucination, and they're determined to find the truth (and also clear the Botanist's name).

So for the rest of the story-- and this is the part I'm really not sure about-- simultaneously, the museum people go about and try to make arrangements for new men and new equipment, as the spiders continue to sabotage them-- making people turn in to monsters, spontaneously killing people with venom (tropical disease! says Jonathan), tearing up electrical equipment, and the like... While Jonathan, with a lot of free time, takes to touring the Octagon, and begins to hear mysterious whispering, calling him to be their god... and the remaining scientists, including the Botanist, Zoologist, Archeologist F., and Jem skirt around the red tape and try to find a) proof that here there be monsters and b) more information about where they came/are coming from, why, and how.

Some noteworthy but unorganized things that happen: spiders cut off communication to outside world; Zoologist is turned into a snake monster, but manages to fight off control in order to not harm her friends (but she dies); Botanist explains that the island was never really forgotten, but deliberately lost, and that from his youth he had heard myths of the spiders' cruel empire; Jem (charming thing he is) manages to convince a spider to talk to them through him, without killing him, and they learn that the spiders are also divided: most of them just want the humans to leave their city alone, but others have begun plotting to use the humans to reclaim the glory of their ancient empire...

...that doesn't happen in that order... it's more like, spiders mess with communications, which makes Jonathan unable to report when the scientists begin running off and breaking rules, but since they're at least out of his hair, he soon stops worrying about them and takes to enjoying the riches of the Octagon. Meanwhile, the scientists and camera lad seek out a chance to document the strange goings-on; Botanist shares his story, Zoologist, after making a snide remark against the arachnids (steps on a few of them?), is killed, and Jem talks to a spider. Since Jem got all this on tape, and Botanist may now be proved innocent, the remaining people all now head back.

By the time they get back, the communications are still mostly down, but the workers've managed to get the other equipment up and running. But Jonathan hasn't been seen for a day or two. Nobody really cares. Jonathan's a jerk. His assistant's been running things. But then Jonathan reappears... he's like.... no, let's not take the Palace. It is mine! bwahahaha.

And he gives a brief but terrifying monologue before a ton of spiders appear and he himself turns into a giant snake monster and starts killing everyone. He rambles about how he's the king of the spiders, blah blah blah

Ok, I admit, this part's really, really weak. I'm working on it.

Eventually he's taken out, and the spider that was possessing him is, too.

Then... I dunno... epilogue. Everyone agrees never to speak of this again, they make Jem destroy the tapes and they film fake footage of how they found nothing; they entire incident is publicized as a hoax, the Octagon never actually existed, the island is erased from the map.... The many dozens of scientists who died did so tragically of a rare, tropical disease, that has been isolated and is no longer a threat... and, I dunno, it's anticlimactic, but I don't see how it can end any other way.

We can show them sailing away on a ship and then a spider standing on the hull or something, like OH CRUD IT'S GOIN' TO THE MAINLAND, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN, CLIFFHANGER.

This is really less random than my explanation of it made it sound. The spiders sound ridiculous, but when you have all the information, not just this, it makes sense-- they spiders bite people on the nape of their neck and can take control of their minds. In this way, the spiders ruled the land for centuries, enslaving the people, making them build monuments and cities to their glory. Their venom can also kill, or, a combination of the venom and mind-control can manipulate the human's DNA and turn them into a giant snake monster.... which the spiders used as the symbols of fear and discipline in their ancient world, to subdue those people who dared to challenge their reign...

Eventually the people (over the course of a few generations) created a grand escape plan, and managed to flee from the spider's control, to the safety of the mainland... these people eventually developed into the small civilization in which the Botanist was born and raised, which is why he knows so much about the legends and stuff....

Ah, it's complex. Definitely still a WIP.