A few months ago I found an online PDF copy of a vehicle manual for a street sweeper truck. You know, the ones with the brushes underneath which clean up the streets and parking lots? I was doing research for an upcoming short story about a street sweeper driver who becomes the center of an other-wordly crisis involving a dying god who wishes to be reborn as a human but at  the same time give up his estates (powers) to someone other than his enemies who wish to take over. So the driver who I’ll call Manuel, goes on a cross country trip to the place where this god will be reborn as a newborn child. The problem is that this god is giving up its purpose in the cosmos which I haven’t figured out yet, but by doing so it must have someone to “step up” and take over its former responsibilities. The problem is that this god-like entity has enemies who want to take over these estates which would be a bad thing. Since Manuel is a human being, putting him in the center of this conflict will result in normal human responses to something this cosmic. Will he be able to fend off these mauraders from stealing these estates before the god chooses to be reborn as a mortal?

What influenced me on this idea is the game Nobilis, where players take on an aspect of reality. The idea of putting a normal everyday person in the middle of something this big is a concept that I find potential with a short story. In other words, you don’t have to be a secret super agent full time to step into an environment and survive (although it would help but for me I wouldn’t be able to make it interesting enough). What better concept than to make it cosmic for a normal person to encounter?

Filed under: Scenes and Characters