So, current WIP is tropey AF.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

So, current WIP is tropey AF. So far I've had:

—Protags have to rob their own tomb to recover a time capsule (Indiana Jones sequence with traps)!
—Escape from venomous mole rat swarm!
—Impersonating robots to dodge museum guards!
—New brain implants = backstreet brain slug replacements!
—Other protag in underwater battle against SHARKS with LASERS coming out of THEIR EYES
—Graveyard robbery!
—Villain's ranting monologue

And I'm only 20K words in.

What other pulpy goodness should I pursue?

[robparsons@mastodon.social]

@cstross Ou est le femme fatale?

[frang@meow.social]

@cstross volcano lair?

[kirtai@tech.lgbt]

@cstross
I dunno but it sounds amazing so far

[frang@meow.social]

@cstross white Persian cat?

[stevebellovin@infosec.exchange]

@cstross Improbably fast invention and deployment of new weapons, if not by the main characters than by their opponents?

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@robparsons As it's a Stainless Steel Rat homage *and* a Glory Road tribute, there are already stand-ins for both Angelina and Star in there. Adding another one would be too much!

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@frang Space Opera, not Bond Villain, but yeah, I think I can cram one into this.

[rob_t_firefly@masto.hackers.town]

@cstross In the course of their adventure, have one or more characters had their clothing sufficiently torn in sexy ways for the cover painting pose?

[frang@meow.social]

@cstross lightning flash and thunder at dramatic reveal?

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@SteveBellovin No, that *doesn't* work in this setting (space opera, 700,000 years in the future, science/tech trees are essentially exhaustively explored by this point—unless you find something long-forgotten in a dusty archive, what they see is what they've got).

[etchedpixels@mastodon.social]

@cstross
- Chinese kill switches in brain implants
- Villain's white cat
- Alligator pool
- Secret lizard people ?

For me though that sort of fiction is about it being *fun* to read and not require much thinking. Perhaps the test of pulp fiction is 'can you read it after a bottle of wine' ?

[darkling@mstdn.social]

@cstross Doc Savage-esque grotesques of personal quirks (like the industrial chemist with a weird-looking pet pig).

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@Rob_T_Firefly That's a given.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@frang I'm not sure whether or not cats are extinct by this point in the future. But they've de-extincted velociraptors, if that helps? Also azhdarchids, from which they've bred racing dragons?

[frang@meow.social]

@cstross so... albino tea-cup velociraptor that someone can be ominously petting?

[dashdsrdash@tilde.zone]

@cstross

A conservation of ninjitsu battle, or other disposable minions inexplicably lining up to die in service?

A multilayered betrayal - betrayal?

A defense-in-depth system so ridiculous that any five year old could bypass it?

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@etchedpixels
— China is as forgotten as Earth by this point.
— The villain is an Abbot. He has zombies.
— Alligator pool … I'm tabling that for later consideration.
— Secret lizard people: no, but there are dwarf and elf hominin sub-clades (humanity speciated when it went interstellar).

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@frang That's a REALLY GOOD idea. Possibly the Abbot has one that he feeds prisoners' little fingers to.

[frang@meow.social]

@cstross waste not..