Revised synopsis - MEETING OF THE WATERS
Posted: July 16th, 2010, 2:53 pm
I got a round of rejections, so I'm looking to revise my novel query and synopsis (and the novel itself). If you want to see the query, you can find it here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1732
SYNOPSIS
In August 2016, JAIME ADRICKS quits playing Ages: High Seas, because the company making the 17th century pirate MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) begins a crossover with their 20th century game Ages: World War. Though he was close to defeating the game’s archvillain, Jaime just can’t take the game seriously anymore. He thinks time-traveling Nazis are cheesy.
Jaime’s depressed ex-girlfriend AFIONG WHITEHEAD invites him to visit her in Brazil, where she works for Tachyon, the company that produces the Ages games. She wants to ‘show him something she’s working on,’ but he rebuffs her, afraid of her making a move to get them back together. Soon thereafter, though, Jaime discovers that Afiong’s father is dying, and he realizes that her call was a cry for help. When he’s unable to get back in touch with Afi, Jaime resolves to fly to Brazil and bring her home so she can see her father one last time.
The upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro complicate Jaime’s mission, and a brewing Cuban Missile-esque crisis off the coast has turned the nation unfriendly to Americans. To navigate the dangers, he enlists the aid of ALESSANDRA “ALÊ” ROCHA, a Brazilian gamer who works a boring government job, pines for her more magical college days, and whose superspy character in Ages: World War recently snuck into the 17th century aboard a time-traveling U-Boat. The two of them quickly hit it off, though Jaime doesn’t know what to think when Alê shares stories of talking to ghosts and hanging out with faeries.
Unbeknownst to either Jaime or Alê, the Nazi occultist who acts as their mutual in-game antagonist is played by BOB DICKWORTH, an American senator. Dickworth started gaming to win younger voters, and now enjoys the guilty pleasure of secretly being an internet Nazi. The senator also makes regular appearances on TV, talking with pundits about the crisis in Brazil. The Chinese are blockading Brazilian oil tankers headed for the US, and Dickworth wants to deploy the military to get the Chinese to back down, even if that might spark an international incident with Brazil.
Doing their best to ignore the politics between their two nations, Jaime and Alê travel from São Paulo to Rio to the Amazonian technoglitz mecca Manaus. There Alê shows Jaime Encontro das Aguas: the Meeting of the Waters, where two rivers dramatically unite to form the Amazon.
Throughout the journey Jaime feels conflicted: for being attracted to Alê while his friend Afiong might be in trouble; for being unwilling to take a side when Alê blames the U.S. for the strife in her country; and because he can’t reconcile how intelligent and charming Alê is with the fact that she believes in magic.
He even feels guilty for quitting Ages, because whenever they stop for the evening, Alê dives into the game. Finally one night, when he sees her character about to be killed by the Nazi occultist, Jaime logs in and saves her, though the Nazis manage to escape. Thrilled by the in-game rescue, Alê kisses Jaime, then makes him promise to keep playing with her.
Their good spirits vanish when they reach the Tachyon company headquarters. Jaime discovers Afiong left a suicide note but has otherwise completely disappeared. Tachyon, secretive for reasons Jaime can’t decipher, arranges compensation so he and Alê will keep quiet, then flies them back to Rio, where the Olympic opening ceremonies have turned the city into one massive party. Mourning Afiong’s apparent suicide, Jaime roams the streets with Alê long into the night, both of them too drunk to realize when they magically walk under an arch and emerge in America.
Confronted by this impossibility, Jaime’s confusion only grows when Afiong appears to him on a bus, perhaps dead yet quite outspoken. She explains that she decided to ‘disappear’ when she realized that the world will always be a wretched place. Without suffering, people cannot feel sympathy, and without sympathy, people will always hurt one another. The only way to be happy is to never seek uncomfortable truths, to be content with mystery. Jaime suspects that there’s more to it, somehow tied to what Afiong was working on in Ages, but she vanishes before he can ask her.
Jaime and Alê decide to visit Afiong’s father, but before they can set out the news reports that a Brazilian athlete was shot and killed for trying to visit his American girlfriend at the US Olympic dorms in Rio. Riots erupt in Brazil, and on TV Senator Dickworth spins this as just another example of why Americans need to use force to deter violence.
Alê, who wants to go home and help stop the violence, argues with Jaime, who doesn’t think it’s his fight. Angry that he won’t help her after all she has done for him, she vanishes through a fountain back to Brazil.
Jaime calls Alê but can’t convince her to come back. Suddenly alone, he visits Afiong’s father and says his farewells a few hours before the old man passes. Jaime spends the following days sifting through Afiong’s last effects. He finds old maps of Encontro das Aguas, plus obscure notes on her final project for the game, but he decides not to ask uncomfortable questions.
Days later, Alê finally calls him. Jaime skipped the penultimate event in the Ages time travel cross-over, which led to Alê’s spy character being captured by the Nazis. The final episode is a mere hour away, but Alê hasn’t called because of the game. Her office is sheltering American athletes and tourists, and rioters have surrounded the building. She’s scared for herself, and for what might happen in her country if the US decides to get involved.
Suddenly their call gets cut off. On the news, Jaime sees Senator Dickworth state that the US has interdicted São Paulo, cutting off its communications to ensure the elemnt of surprise for a rescue mission. He plans to personally meet with the president to push for the military option. Just then, at the exact same moment that the senator checks his phone and reads a text message, Jaime gets a text message alert from Tachyon, reminding him not to miss the time travel conclusion. Piecing together his interactions with the Nazi occultist and Dickworth’s mannerisms in real life, Jaime realizes the senator’s secret, and how he might be able to discredit him and keep Alê safe.
He resolves not to fail Alê as he did Afiong. With a leap of faith, he hops into his car, sets the GPS for Alê’s address in São Paulo, and drives until the streets become a blur. Though he discounted magic before, he finds himself transported back to Brazil. He braves the rioting crowds and reunites with Alê, just as elsewhere around the world his various friends and enemies log in and begin a climactic naval battle between pirates and Nazis on the Amazon River, at Encontro das Aguas.
Jaime and Alê log in and take the fight to Dickworth. Using his knowledge of the river and Afiong’s notes, Jaime rallies the pirates, while Alê’s spy sabotages and sinks the time-traveling U-Boat. They capture the Nazi occultist, then break the game’s fourth wall to reveal Dickworth’s identity. The senator logs off in rage.
With the Nazis defeated, Jaime and Alê continue on to the prize both sides sought, the mysterious Fountain of Time, only to be forced to watch a pre-scripted scene. A spirit with Afiong’s face uses the fountain’s power to open more time portals, allowing more cross-overs between the other Ages games. Ultimately their victory is just a marketing gimmick. That’s Afiong’s great point: nothing you do can actually make a difference, and even if you think you’re doing something for yourself, you’re just being used by someone else.
With the cross-over complete, all the interlopers from the 20th century – the Nazis as well as Alê’s character – are whisked away to their own time, and Jaime has the choice whether to go with Alê’s character. The novel ends with uncertainty. Did Jaime and Alê’s efforts actually defeat the senator’s warmongering? Is Afiong dead or just disappeared? And will Jaime reject the game’s cheesiness, or decide to continue his journey with the woman he loves?
SYNOPSIS
In August 2016, JAIME ADRICKS quits playing Ages: High Seas, because the company making the 17th century pirate MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) begins a crossover with their 20th century game Ages: World War. Though he was close to defeating the game’s archvillain, Jaime just can’t take the game seriously anymore. He thinks time-traveling Nazis are cheesy.
Jaime’s depressed ex-girlfriend AFIONG WHITEHEAD invites him to visit her in Brazil, where she works for Tachyon, the company that produces the Ages games. She wants to ‘show him something she’s working on,’ but he rebuffs her, afraid of her making a move to get them back together. Soon thereafter, though, Jaime discovers that Afiong’s father is dying, and he realizes that her call was a cry for help. When he’s unable to get back in touch with Afi, Jaime resolves to fly to Brazil and bring her home so she can see her father one last time.
The upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro complicate Jaime’s mission, and a brewing Cuban Missile-esque crisis off the coast has turned the nation unfriendly to Americans. To navigate the dangers, he enlists the aid of ALESSANDRA “ALÊ” ROCHA, a Brazilian gamer who works a boring government job, pines for her more magical college days, and whose superspy character in Ages: World War recently snuck into the 17th century aboard a time-traveling U-Boat. The two of them quickly hit it off, though Jaime doesn’t know what to think when Alê shares stories of talking to ghosts and hanging out with faeries.
Unbeknownst to either Jaime or Alê, the Nazi occultist who acts as their mutual in-game antagonist is played by BOB DICKWORTH, an American senator. Dickworth started gaming to win younger voters, and now enjoys the guilty pleasure of secretly being an internet Nazi. The senator also makes regular appearances on TV, talking with pundits about the crisis in Brazil. The Chinese are blockading Brazilian oil tankers headed for the US, and Dickworth wants to deploy the military to get the Chinese to back down, even if that might spark an international incident with Brazil.
Doing their best to ignore the politics between their two nations, Jaime and Alê travel from São Paulo to Rio to the Amazonian technoglitz mecca Manaus. There Alê shows Jaime Encontro das Aguas: the Meeting of the Waters, where two rivers dramatically unite to form the Amazon.
Throughout the journey Jaime feels conflicted: for being attracted to Alê while his friend Afiong might be in trouble; for being unwilling to take a side when Alê blames the U.S. for the strife in her country; and because he can’t reconcile how intelligent and charming Alê is with the fact that she believes in magic.
He even feels guilty for quitting Ages, because whenever they stop for the evening, Alê dives into the game. Finally one night, when he sees her character about to be killed by the Nazi occultist, Jaime logs in and saves her, though the Nazis manage to escape. Thrilled by the in-game rescue, Alê kisses Jaime, then makes him promise to keep playing with her.
Their good spirits vanish when they reach the Tachyon company headquarters. Jaime discovers Afiong left a suicide note but has otherwise completely disappeared. Tachyon, secretive for reasons Jaime can’t decipher, arranges compensation so he and Alê will keep quiet, then flies them back to Rio, where the Olympic opening ceremonies have turned the city into one massive party. Mourning Afiong’s apparent suicide, Jaime roams the streets with Alê long into the night, both of them too drunk to realize when they magically walk under an arch and emerge in America.
Confronted by this impossibility, Jaime’s confusion only grows when Afiong appears to him on a bus, perhaps dead yet quite outspoken. She explains that she decided to ‘disappear’ when she realized that the world will always be a wretched place. Without suffering, people cannot feel sympathy, and without sympathy, people will always hurt one another. The only way to be happy is to never seek uncomfortable truths, to be content with mystery. Jaime suspects that there’s more to it, somehow tied to what Afiong was working on in Ages, but she vanishes before he can ask her.
Jaime and Alê decide to visit Afiong’s father, but before they can set out the news reports that a Brazilian athlete was shot and killed for trying to visit his American girlfriend at the US Olympic dorms in Rio. Riots erupt in Brazil, and on TV Senator Dickworth spins this as just another example of why Americans need to use force to deter violence.
Alê, who wants to go home and help stop the violence, argues with Jaime, who doesn’t think it’s his fight. Angry that he won’t help her after all she has done for him, she vanishes through a fountain back to Brazil.
Jaime calls Alê but can’t convince her to come back. Suddenly alone, he visits Afiong’s father and says his farewells a few hours before the old man passes. Jaime spends the following days sifting through Afiong’s last effects. He finds old maps of Encontro das Aguas, plus obscure notes on her final project for the game, but he decides not to ask uncomfortable questions.
Days later, Alê finally calls him. Jaime skipped the penultimate event in the Ages time travel cross-over, which led to Alê’s spy character being captured by the Nazis. The final episode is a mere hour away, but Alê hasn’t called because of the game. Her office is sheltering American athletes and tourists, and rioters have surrounded the building. She’s scared for herself, and for what might happen in her country if the US decides to get involved.
Suddenly their call gets cut off. On the news, Jaime sees Senator Dickworth state that the US has interdicted São Paulo, cutting off its communications to ensure the elemnt of surprise for a rescue mission. He plans to personally meet with the president to push for the military option. Just then, at the exact same moment that the senator checks his phone and reads a text message, Jaime gets a text message alert from Tachyon, reminding him not to miss the time travel conclusion. Piecing together his interactions with the Nazi occultist and Dickworth’s mannerisms in real life, Jaime realizes the senator’s secret, and how he might be able to discredit him and keep Alê safe.
He resolves not to fail Alê as he did Afiong. With a leap of faith, he hops into his car, sets the GPS for Alê’s address in São Paulo, and drives until the streets become a blur. Though he discounted magic before, he finds himself transported back to Brazil. He braves the rioting crowds and reunites with Alê, just as elsewhere around the world his various friends and enemies log in and begin a climactic naval battle between pirates and Nazis on the Amazon River, at Encontro das Aguas.
Jaime and Alê log in and take the fight to Dickworth. Using his knowledge of the river and Afiong’s notes, Jaime rallies the pirates, while Alê’s spy sabotages and sinks the time-traveling U-Boat. They capture the Nazi occultist, then break the game’s fourth wall to reveal Dickworth’s identity. The senator logs off in rage.
With the Nazis defeated, Jaime and Alê continue on to the prize both sides sought, the mysterious Fountain of Time, only to be forced to watch a pre-scripted scene. A spirit with Afiong’s face uses the fountain’s power to open more time portals, allowing more cross-overs between the other Ages games. Ultimately their victory is just a marketing gimmick. That’s Afiong’s great point: nothing you do can actually make a difference, and even if you think you’re doing something for yourself, you’re just being used by someone else.
With the cross-over complete, all the interlopers from the 20th century – the Nazis as well as Alê’s character – are whisked away to their own time, and Jaime has the choice whether to go with Alê’s character. The novel ends with uncertainty. Did Jaime and Alê’s efforts actually defeat the senator’s warmongering? Is Afiong dead or just disappeared? And will Jaime reject the game’s cheesiness, or decide to continue his journey with the woman he loves?