1. frigocc

    frigocc Contributor Contributor

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    Which Of These Two Scenes Do You Think Might Be Better? [SPOILERS, obviously...]

    Discussion in 'Plot Development' started by frigocc, Jul 17, 2019.

    Basically, writing an absurd humor novel where one of the scenes involves my main character getting arrested, and having a trial. I've thought of two potential ways to go about this:

    Spaceship is in shop. After it's repaired, and as they're getting ready to leave, MC goes back really quickly for a quick bathroom trip. As he's in the bathroom, armed space pirates round up the crew and lock them in a back room, before commandeering the ship. The MC is tired, and trudges back onto the ship and goes straight to bed, completely unaware of what just transpired.

    Upon waking, he's informed by the ship's AI that there are intruders onboard, and he's given protection: pot armor (a pot on his head). He gets into a scuffle with one of the pirates, and he's shot in the head. Luckily, the stainless steal pot armor acts as plot armor, and he's fine. When the pirate walks towards him to finish the job, the police board the ship and burst into the hallway. MC is assumed to be a part of the group, so he's arrested with them.

    OR

    MC and his crew are racing down the intergalactic freeway, listening to music, and they're stopped by the Intergalactic Police due to having their repulsor beam light out. When he boards the ship, he lies about smelling an odor (won't be weed, but some fancy galactic term that is pretty much weed). He uses that as a reason to search the ship, and they're arrested when he finds something that is illegal, for some ridiculous reason.


    ---

    I'd still like to use the pot armor gag somewhere, but I'd have to fit it in somewhere else if I went with the second option.
     
  2. Matt E

    Matt E Ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8 Contributor

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    The first one seems more worked out. Though both of them look like he is clearly innocent. What if he were actually guilty, even if it is some absurd spacelaw that he was not familiar with?
     
  3. frigocc

    frigocc Contributor Contributor

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    Don't want him to actually be guilty. The whole trial will be one big kangaroo court (literally). Here's a short outline for the second option, should I choose to write it:

    Eventually, their ship AA battery dies on a long, isolated country road, and they have to send out a beacon distress signal. They would've like to have had some extras, but the batteries are sold separately. It takes a few days to reach someone (in the meantime, they get to know each other a bit better), but instead of reaching help, they reach someone better: Bumrrito’s!


    They quickly order some bomb-ass burritos.


    They eat their burritos, and ask if the driver has extra AAs. He does, and they install it.


    They continue on their journey, and eventually are stopped by the police for having a repulsor beam light out. He has them roll down their window (first, of course, having to put on their spacesuits, equalize the pressure, etc.), at which point, the officer lies about smelling a drug (not weed, but a spacey name for something that is obviously a reference to it). He uses that lie to board the ship and search it.


    The officer finds something that, for some ridiculous reason, is illegal on board, and they’re arrested and put in cuffs (a Chinese finger trap). They’re thrown in a prison cell, and given the option of pleading guilty, and immediately being torn-apart limb by limb by a treacherous monster . . . or, being a petulant whiner and pleading not guilty, in which case, he’d be given his day in court. They pleads not guilty, while the two idiots in the next cell think about it for a moment, before they plead guilty and are killed as Lou and the crew are led out of their cell to the courtroom.


    It’s literally a kangaroo court on the planet Aurelia. After Lou insults the judge’s marsupialhood, he is found guilty, and sentenced to death. When asked if he has any last words, Lou starts reciting William Henry Harrison’s inaugural address (~8k words), hoping to give himself enough time to think of an escape plan. This eventually puts everyone to sleep, and when Lou notices this, he wakes up the gang, and they made a narrow escape.
     

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