So, current WIP is tropey AF.

[skylarkduquesne@mas.to]

@cstross Domo Arigato, Mister Roboto! 🤖

[ngons@mathstodon.xyz]

@cstross I'll take 2 please

[graydon@canada.masto.host]

@cstross Sword fight on top of a zeppelin.

[nickgully@mefi.social]

@cstross antique cantankerous weapons? A curse?

[gillinger@mas.to]

@cstross
"...and suddenly he woke up and it was all a dream..."
Cheesiest trope ever.

[brie@venera.social]

@cstross @bodhipaksa There's a book by Zbigniew Batko, The Eye (sorry, machine translation):

The familiar face of the Mona Lisa smiled mysteriously at Phil from the side. He instinctively glanced at the opposite wall – and there hung Leonardo’s masterpiece, identical in colour, with the same gallery-like, golden-brown patina of nearly five centuries.

‘Which one is the real one?’ he asked, shaking his head as if at a tennis match. He was sure neither was.

‘Both, of course,’ Wolff said, slightly offended. ‘You don’t think I’d hang copies in my bedroom, do you? This isn’t the Louvre.’

[fishidwardrobe@social.tchncs.de]

@cstross villain playing a giant organ (however you want to interpret that)

[floatybirb@mastodon.social]

@cstross - guy on a beech fighting a swarm of crabs, or maybe geese, with a club
- boy on street in flat cap hawking newspapers shouting "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"
- hapless damsel, or possibly twink, tied to a sawmill and/or on train tracks, awaiting rescue
- scantily clad barbarians swinging giant swords while fighting frazetta-style beastmen and/or mummies
- grizzled hard-boiled private eye in a cap who uses 1930s slang and has to solve a mystery involving dames, guns and "trouble"

[markisevil@mastodon.ie]

@cstross Distinctive henchmen with iconoclastic weapons?

[reppep@tilde.zone]

@cstross https://theoatmeal.com/comics/naked_mole_rats https://www.theregister.com/2006/03/10/torvalds_gpl_drm/
Trapped on a planet, and need to wait centuries for local technology to develop to the point where they can fabricate the parts to repair their ship (Dr. Who)

[fionacraig@mastodon.scot]

@cstross "Not the bore worms father, please!"

[tbortels@infosec.exchange]

@cstross

"Car chase" comes to mind. Also "mystical warrior with a *giant hat* suddenly shows up for no reason with lightning shooting out of his eyes, and nobody just shoots him". Except subvert the "nobody shoots" and steal his hat.