It could be mildly interesting, if you didn't start in first year, and you had Harry working on spell construction/deconstruction - each wand motion causes specific effects on the spell, certain syllables in the incantation can do the same, and you have him creating spells for specific uses.

But that wouldn't be that much different from the typical Ravenclaw!Harry pieces out there. Unless you have him 'hack' wards or something. In which case it would need setting apart from the 'Harry's cursebreaking summer' fics.

 

OK sometimes I act like a retard what I wanted it to be seen as is as follows.

More based off of the idea that how magic is used is horribly inefficient, because it is based off of ancient ideas that have not been refined. An example of something similar would be to compare how magic is currently used in the world to using null print statements to create delay rather then some sort of wait command.

 

He's right you know. I've got only minor OCD, and it has a habit of screwing me over a lot. I can't even go to an exam without making sure everybody sitting near me will keep their desks tidy, and in a certain order.

Pain in the arse most of the time.

 

@Will SR, there you go applying programming to the function of magic, it's not the first time I've seen it around here but it's fundamentally off. It is not necessarily wrong, but the parameters are too strict when you consider magic as a simple set of commands and variables.

@Duderino, is that how it works? I've never taken the time to look into it, I only care because I dated a girl who was a bit of a slob but claimed to have OCD, we rapidly discovered she was a horrible attention seeking monster, but the first hint were constant complaints about suffering from it.

 

It varies from person to person and doesn't necessary mean you have a need to keep everything in a order, though it's popular symptom. I've one of other classic symptoms - repetitive handwashing. Normally, I have it under control, but sometimes I do it like every five minutes, even knowing I don't need to. It can be very tiring.

Actually, it could be interesting to have Harry with OCD as a side plot in a fic, though right now I don't have any idea where it could add something meaningful to the story.

EDIT: So it's my 1500 post and I waste it to talk about OCD? Can't be.

How about this plot bunny - the adventures of Tom Riddle in the LoEG style? After he created his first Horcrux he saw how evil it was and destroyed it. After finishing his education at the Hogwarts he travels around the world fighting forces of Evil.

I'd have him meet different characters from horror books/films/games around the time they were created. For example - Freddy Krueger in 1984, the Cenobites in 1986, go to Silent Hill in 1999.

 

Huh that's sort of entertaining, but remember Remorse is the key to fixing your soul so Tom can just come to peace with what he did and then re-integrate.

 

Nah, it'd be better if he didn't realise that, then later in his journeys, when he's missing his soul, he finds out, and is all like 'Well fuck me.'

 

Quoted for the motherfucking-truth.

Trust me, it's an incredible pain in the ass, and not something to joke about lightly.

(Yes, I do have extensive OCD).

 

I thought a little more about Riddle's adventures idea and think it can be used for a nice collaboration project. Every author who wants to join would choose one horror franchise from between 1946 to lets say 2009 and write a short story crossing it with HP and with this AU Tom as a main character. I think it would be great to have different writing styles for different stories, recreating the atmospheres from the original stories. Not to mention authors can choose these franchises that they think are suited the best for them.

There would be probably a need to clarify Riddle's character, so everyone could imagine what kind of person he is and maybe add some overreaching plot, which I can provide if anyone is interesting in this kind of group project (I have an idea for a grand finale).

What do you think?

 

So. Much. Yes.

I'm not the most talented writer, mainly because I can be more than a bit lazy, but if there's something I can do with this, then count me the fuck in.

 

Count me in for the project. That sounds like a lot more enjoyable an idea than the current RR contests for some reason.

 

I think Riddle could be much like a Dresden Warden. I'm in to work on worldbuilding and such but I have no direct input to give, horror isn't my thing.

 

I think we can do it in two ways. We start a new thread and discuss it there or by PMs and me as moderator of ideas.

The first way is more open, but downside is you will probably reveal most of twist you plan in your story so it works with everyone else. The second way will probably take more time to coordinate everyone's ideas, but you keep any surprises in secret.

Anyway, whatever will be chosen, few basic rules:
- a main character is Tom Riddle (not Voldemort),
- you cross with horror franchise created between 1946 and preferable 2006 (that's for a possible grand finale, so it's not that important), but you can cheat and use Dracula by saying you take him from the White Wolf RPG,
- time of events in your story should be around the time book/film/game was created, which means for example Silent Hill in 1999; exceptions are when events of the chosen story itself take place in different year (but still 1946-2006) and that can't be changed.

As for Tom Riddle himself, right now I see two aspect for him:
- looking for a redemption for what he did while creating his first Horcrux, maybe even have him never use the Killing Curse, because of that,
- embracing his Muggle side as opposed to what Voldemort did, it may give additional fun for the authors while presenting the atmosphere of various decades.

 

My wife runs into this all the time as a HS teacher, and she's always skeptical until she's observed the person for a while. It really can be almost anything that can be incorporated into a routine, like the way you might think of your lucky shirt or jeans or hat, and the way I've seen it is that it spirals from there.

Some people have to flip a light switch or turn a doorknob a certain number of times - every time - and are convinced something horrible will happen if they don't. Some people feel compelled to pluck hairs, fidget repetitively or perform certain gestures in a predetermined way, and if something gets in the way of that, look the fuck out because the person might just have a meltdown or be unable to function until the routine is reestablished.

Seriously some fucked up stuff, and while I have an addictive personality (I'm prone to overdoing anything and everything), I thankfully don't have any real OCD tendencies, though like everyone, I jokingly say I do whenever I feel the need to make sure (again) that the garage door is closed or find myself picking at my nails during an important meeting.

I actually think it could be a very good sub-plot, with Harry having these tendencies and then recognizing and trying to overcome them. A skillful author could have this be a bleed-over from Voldemort through the Scarcrux in the same way Harry felt Voldemort's strong emotions after his resurrection. The horror of discovering you have this infuriating and/or debilitating problem would be compounded when it became evident that it's really someone else's problem but you're nonetheless almost a slave to it.

OCD-by-proxy?

TBH, it sounds incredible, awesome, and incredibly awesome.

This, a thousand times.

It would definitely have to change style from story to story, from campy and self-aware in A Nightmare on Elm Street or to film-noir in The Grudge, The Ring, or An American Werewolf in London, to whatever the hell Candyman is/was, etc.

Come to think of it, there aren't that many thriller-type scary movies that would work, since Tom would wtfpwn almost anything not seriously supernatural or otherworldly like Aliens or an abundance or vampires.

I'd give extra points if the vampire installment was Tom in Dracula: Dead and Loving It. :awesome

I like the "no Killing Curse" idea, as that would make his dealings with enemies more interesting, if nothing else.

 

I'm OCD?

That happens to me all the time. My number is five, and I don't have any set thing I have to do it for. Just random shit that pops up. Like, I'll set a cup down on a table or something, and my mind will be all "That cup really should be set down four more times."

It's really annoying, especially when someone asks me to stop doing whatever it is I'm doing, and I have to get the last however many in really fast.

 

Not really a plot bunny, but I'd like to see what people thought could be developed with it.

The Little Veela That Could updated recently, so I was re-reading it, and got to the part in chapter eleven where Harry and Hermione discuss 'prayer wards' around churches, where the belief that the church is a safe place makes it so.

It got me thinking about the 'magic gene', or at least, the inheritance of magic through families in the Potterverse. What if everyone was magical, but only some could do it, because they'd been taught how to?

As children, we all have vivid imaginations, but gradually lose them as we grow up. Some children might have an especially vivid imagination, and a particularly strong will, so that they impose their will on the universe. Once a child has been born with magic to a muggle family, all younger children will also end up magical - they are aware that magic is real, and therefore can learn how to use it. Obviously, some sort of limit needs to put in place (for the universe/laws of magic) that if someone has hit puberty, magic won't develop inside them, parents of muggle born children would be able to use potions, because they are aware.

The only thing I could see this turning into would be a mildly extended one-shot, where magic is completely revealed to the world, and at that point, every child becomes magical. Which isn't much of a plot.

 

It's been done.

 

Huh. Never come across that before.

 

I think there's an original piece as well that is loosely about that. By Cliff Mcnish if IRC..

EDIT: Found it.

 

Really really short, but wouldn't it be funny if during the Battle of Hogwarts, after all the Horocruxes are dealt with and Harry is preparing to do battle (keep in mind that the last time I read Deathly Hallows was one day after it was published and never touched the pile of garbage since), Neville made all the good guys deafen themselves and bring out a Mandrake? Anybody who hears the scream of the fully grown plant is supposed to drop dead. So, just bring it out in the battle and kill them all. Who needs spells when a freakin' plant that second years work with is a weapon of mass destruction? Even if it's not fully matured, it's supposed to be enough to knock people out for a couple of hours. No Death Eater, no Dark Lord would react fast enough to save themselves from this second year plant. In conclusion, Rowling is stupid. Or I'm stupid, whatever, just a strange thought.