Demon Hunters: 4 Horsemen/7 Orochi projects

I've been thinking quite a bit lately of how to make these two projects work. It was only recently that I realized that with how slow Vol 1: World Eaters is being written that I needed to push the 4 Horsemen project forward. The premise was that these 4 Cobra officers would come into town and mess things up usually through different forms of manipulation and strong-arming. I forgot what the specific analogy was besides the Winchester brothers from Supernatural. In terms of the tv show, the brothers ride into town and solve the problem of the day. However, the other side of that story is that they tend to wreak havoc when they come in and a lot of innocents die. The 4 Horsemen would ride into town and while everything goes to hell because of their plans, there is more scheming involved. I didn't quite know how to write that all up. Visually, I saw the 4 of them riding into town all in Ford Mustangs (I personally think it would be 2000s models but not opposed to classic 60s versions. The problem here is, what do I see them actually in. And I can't see Dr Mindbender or Crystal Ball actually driving a car!)

A few months ago (or earlier this year), I realized because of who the Horsemen represent, I could see them 'using' military squads to do their bidding. Now, the Horsemen are classically written as Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War. When I did some light research on them, I came across very liberal (or modern) takes on them which I hate to admit, I'm playing around with.

For example, Pestilence has to do with sickness. The modern take spoke of Pestilence not just as a physical manifestation, but a mental one. I'm playing with the idea that the Horsemen are targeting military squads that are slightly mental. Enough that Crystal Ball can 'poison' their mind even more through all his means (Interrogator could do the same but their techniques are different. Crystal Ball seems more suited for the 'horror' side of things whereas Interrogator would feel like you are watching a spy thriller or something. To have both on the Horsemen or Orochi would be redundant to me and to put an Interrogator together to how I see fit, probably would be a pain in the ass.) Crystal Ball could work his magic; making them more violent, impatient, etc. The Devil Dogs (Vol 1 main characters) will be one of their 'experiments'. 

Experiments are how the Horsemen see their subjects. What the Horsemen do to these people, it's for their own interest and satisfaction, not so much a political statement or giving Cobra more power (though, it ends up being that way most of the time). The story of the Horsemen is still being worked on. They'll take a squad under their wing and they'll do their bidding but it's not obvious why. Lady Obitus is the representation of Death. It's not just about killing people; she actually doesn't have interest doing it herself. It's the act of death that she finds fascinating. I think it was written in the latest vignette, she wants to know why there is an unaccounted 21 grams when the body dies. She believes it is the human soul leaving the body. She wants to know what it is. Why it happens. Where does it go? And she certainly wants to see the light leave the body. This will be covered lightly in Vol1: Devil Dogs: Story 4: FATES WARNING.

Somewhere in all this, the Horsemen evolved into the 7 Orochi. The simplest explanation is that the group gains 3 members. One of them is an entity called Red 5. Here is where I came up with a story for the Horsemen; whether it's THE story, I'm not sure. 

Red 5 is the 5th member of a Cobra squad; I haven't figured out if they were a special squad or just regular old Vipers. The 4 Horsemen get their fangs in them (hee hee) and this 5-man squad does what they tell them to do. They have no reason to question it because these are all Cobra officers of some sort. When Major Bludd gives you a mission, you do it. Cuz certainly, he represents Cobra's best interests and it must be under Cobra Commander's order, yes??? This squad, the Red Squad (insert placeholder name), well, things don't go well of them in the end. Red 5 is the surviving member and he becomes an experiment of Dr Mindbender (give or take Overkill). 

I haven't decided if the Red Squad failure occurs before the Horsemen put the Devil Dogs (and their subsequent squad name) through a series of missions or after. It could be simultaneous which means, the 4 Horsemen have all sorts of plans going on at once. By deciding to go with, basically a Red 5 origin story, this relaxes my plotting/planning/anxiety of creating a new military squad for the Horsemen storyline. If I went with a regular military crew, it'd be some random Marauder Task Force squad. Keeping it within Cobra makes sense. In fact, I believe I have 5 MTF'd Vipers that I can use for visual/physical representation.

I admit, I still don't know what Red 5 is. I was thinking about it when on a drive to Ritzville today (2 hr round trip; let's me think). I was thinking cyborg but not entirely sure I want to go that route. Just how deep on the cyborg scale does he go? And where do I make my line between cybernetic augmentation and actual cyborg? I've got some ideas but none feel very strong. However, I like the idea of the Viper Red Squad being the Horsemen's play toys. 

4 Horsemen:

Death - Lady Obitus

War - Major Bludd

Pestilence - Crystal Ball

Famine - Dr Mindbender

 Metallica - Master of Puppets

It's no secret that I'm not that much of a fan of Metallica anymore. Been that way for years. I don't know if I lost interest, outgrew them, etc. I have select tracks I do like from Black, Load, and Reload. But in terms of studio albums, nothing beyond. (Garage Inc and S&M are kind of outliers to me) I think it's safe to say, the albums I listen to are Puppets and Justice. Having played bass and guitar (and grew up playing piano), I had fun playing Metallica tunes cuz frankly, they were fairly easy. 

But why those two and not Kill 'em All and/or Ride the Lightning?

For me, a lot of it has to do with sound. I love the sound of the Black album. I feel Bob Rock (producer) did good on them. Gave them a metal sound, but I would learn later, the thrashiness and complicated riffs disappeared. Still, the Black tour showed/proved that the thicker sound (I call it 'thicker') works for the old stuff. What gets me on Kill is James young voice! Same with Ride, plus, there are some stinkers on there that I don't care for.

What's interesting to note, my 'faves' on Masters tended to move around. I remember really like Leper Messiah and Orion. But neither were pushed by the band, instead they seemed to favor the title track (duh), Battery and Sanitarium, which as a high schooler, I didn't really care. At least at first. Later, I'd learn to like Sanitarium but it helped that a friend had his preferences and at times, showed me the light. I think I was in my 30s when I came to the realization that Battery is an awesome tune. It's got the energy and aggression that equals Slayer and (later) Pantera. It's possible that things were going on in my life where Battery sounded attractive finally. And it's also possible that my guitar playing was (finally) evolving. 

Another track I preferred as kid was Disposable Heroes. In the end, the only track I really don't care for is Damage Inc.

I hate to be part of the crowd that says Master is their best album. The gatekeepers like to bicker over their 1st 3 albums. They seem to respect Justice but those old farts are all about Cliff Burton over Jason Newsted. Where I'm a Newsted fan and just accept that Cliff was the bass player. He did his thing. That's probably an entirely different topic I won't bother to babble about. (No offense to the late Cliff Burton)

I still don't quite know what it is about Master of Puppets that I ended up liking it. When I was getting into metal in middle school (coming from a few years of punk), Metallica wasn't what I was expecting. It's hard for me to explain what I thought metal was supposed to sound like. I was listening to it in the car when driving around a couple weeks ago and I was thinking, "this album is quite good".

 Devil Dogs Story 4

Finally got back to working on the story. I finished #3 a few weeks ago and had started #4 immediately. I actually have a rough draft for the 1st 'act'. It's fast and quick. The rest of the story, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. #4 serves as the end of the Devil Dogs phase (their story will continue under a different squad name; War Hounds). I had ideas on how I wanted to tell the next scene, but it's where to go with it all. I have a plot, it's the finer details of whether I want to go certain routes. I'm still formulating a lot of ideas too because in some ways, I have to set the stage for War Hounds #1. I'm hoping I can write it out and it'll all come together.

This kind of brings up something I've kinda been reading about studio-made tv shows and movies. That a lot of the story/script are written on the spot. Like, the writer or writers just bust it out in a short time. But I can't help question of the editing, rewriting, and revision processes involved. How many times have we heard that a scene is written on the spot? Is that how creativity works for some people in the entertainment industry?

Yet here we have other writers who can take a lot of time to work things through. Hours, days, weeks, months, years, etc. The things that I ponder...

*Firenado and Trainwreck*