Bab 20: 20. An Impossible Dream.
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Recap of the previous chapter –
Jess' pov is shown and Mark explains about the work around that he thought of to overcome his problem - The Immortal Writers Association (IMA).
After seeing their moral score and judging them to be trustworthy. Mark gives them the offer of joining the IMA. He lets them know about the basics of how the work is divided and what will be expected of them. He gives them T&Cs to go through after that.
After they agree to it, he hands them the "List" and gives Ben the draft for John Wick to read.
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~ Ben's POV ~
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April 15th, same day, 10:23 am, in the meeting room.
He couldn't help but hold his breath as he read through the draft for John Wick that Mark had given.
Even though it was just a brief summary of the plot with a few notes about the traits of the more prominent characters and factions.
He could visualize the enchanting world that Mark wanted him to create.
The huge chain of operations that would need to be written into creation to make it all happen.
The High Table, The Elders, The Ancient Familias', the sacred ground of the underworld that are The Continentals. Disguised as Luxurious Hotels spread throughout the globe.
The engraved gold coin - a universal currency of its own. Exclusively used and traded in the underworld and the numerous services that can be bought with these coins.
Just this was enough for him to go over the moon to get the opportunity to help bring such a fascinating story to life.
He knew he had found his muse, he couldn't think of a story fascinating enough to keep him vested in its development.
But with Mark here just pulling out stories from his hat like a magician, he felt like a kid in a candy store being told by his mother that he can buy whatever he wants.
With that ever-growing list of stories, he will never have to face a lack of good stories to write.
He found a hidden easter egg in the storyline of John Wick, something which was barely even hinted at.
He found that very subtly hinted in the story are the peak human and sometimes even superhuman individuals that call the underworld their home.
Born out of constant life and death situations they face in their highly deadly profession and breaking through their human limits to go beyond what's possible for an average human being to achieve.
He had no doubt that Mark had already thought of a spin-off story to create out of this mystery to show how these peak human and superhuman individuals came to be.
After skimming through the drafts for the first two movies, he couldn't help but look up at Mark in awe and shock.
He said with confidence ringing in his voice, "Mark, I can do definitely it. I can see that you want the lore and background of this story to be elaborated and built upon. I won't make any huge claims, but I will say this."
He paused to draw in a breath and earnestly requested. "If you give me a chance to write the tale of this legendary hitman, I promise you that I won't let you down, Mark."
Mark looked at me with a smile, his face brimming with confidence and trust.
He said, "It was already yours the moment I handed you the file, Ben. I have complete faith in your abilities that you will do an excellent job."
Mark's assurance and confidence in him really lifted his spirits and filled him with gratitude. He couldn't help but think about the list his new boss had shared with the others.
"Mark, can I have a look at the list as well?" He finally asked unable to hold in his curiosity after looking at the dazed and awed expressions on the faces of his new colleague's.
"Sure, here is a copy. Just remember to hand it back to me before you leave." Mark reminded him as he passed over another copy of the list from the file.
'Hmm lets see, what do we have here', he starts with the very item first on the list.
Halo (Military Science Fiction) meant to be written as a graphic novel series or comic book series.
Storyline -
Hundreds of years ago, the Mantle of Responsibility belonged to the Precursors, who gave all life to the galaxy. . . . . . .
Forerunners drove the Precursors into extinction. . . . . . . . eventually infected and contorted them into a new parasitic species, connected by a hivemind to the minds of the last Precursors: The Flood.
The Forerunners sent the humans to Earth, reverting them to a primitive civilization based in Africa, and fought the Flood,
Ben stopped reading to think about the brilliant way, Mark incorporated the mystery of the human races' origin and birth. After this brief pause, he went back to reading.
…..which spread through an infestation of sentient life and had overrun much of the Milky Way Galaxy. Exhausting all other strategies, the Forerunners conceived the Halo Array — ring-shaped megastructures and weapons of last resort that would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy to stop the Flood.
'A SUPER WEAPON that can destroy all sentient life in the galaxy. Bloody hell the stakes are high in this one.' He thought, engrossed with the plot.
He continued reading, becoming more and more engaged with the story.
Nearly a hundred thousand years later in the 26th century, humanity—under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC—colonized many worlds thanks to the development of faster-than-light "slipstream space" (i.e. hyperspace) travel.
Tensions between the government and colonies desiring independence sparked violent clashes. The UNSC sponsored the SPARTAN-II Project to create an elite group of enhanced supersoldiers to suppress the rebellions covertly.
'Woah It even has genetically enhanced super soldiers, is the main protagonist of this story going to be a super soldier? Or is it going to be a scientist? Or maybe even a politician?' Ben couldn't help question in his mind, he was already hooked to the story.
'But wait, it says that the super soldiers weren't created to fight the aliens but to put down rebellions covertly. This could be a crucial plot point that could spark some controversies and drama.' Ben couldn't help but draw his conclusions, imagining the complexities of the plot that Mark was trying to create.
In the year 2525, human worlds come under attack by a theocratic alliance of alien races known as the Covenant, whose leadership declared humanity heretics and an affront to their gods—the Forerunners.
'Yup, finally the aliens attack and the conflict begins, hopefully it will be interplanetary with many facets to cover. But the human faction is looking on the weaker side, so maybe a classic representation of the underdog story.' Ben thought to himself, ruminating about another wonderful story he read.
He couldn't help but get excited at the thought of how many such stories Mark would think of and create in the future.
'Well, he doesn't seem to be lacking in the creativity department.'
The Covenant began a genocidal holy war. Their superior technology and numbers proved decisive advantages; though effective, the Spartans were too few in number to turn the tide of battle in humanity's favor.
'Holy shit, a genocide holy war? Goddamn, Mark went dark in this arc. This instantly turns it into an 18+ novel if this part of the story is shown in great detail.'
'which I think would be a shame if it was skipped too much on. Hopefully we can find a good balance when we write this arc of the story.'
After the Covenant invaded Reach, the UNSC's last major stronghold besides Earth, Master Chief John-117 was left as one of the few remaining Spartans.
He saw the illustration that Mark provided of the Master Chief, code name John 117.
'Looks like the super soldier is going to be the protagonist', just looking at that power armor clade super soldier gave him the chills.
He's looked forward to seeing this being made into a novel. Then maybe a comic or movie adaptation, or maybe even a game adaptation.
'What a second, why not all of them?' His eyes widened at that thought.
'So that's why Mark was so honest with us about the recruitment.'
In the long run, the kind of benefit Mark can provide will simply become impossible for any of the other media giants to match.
And he understood, just a bit more, about Mark's foresight and genius planning.
If he had such great stories to write but not enough time to write them all, even he would be frustrated.
But despite all this, he can't help but think back about the name of this group that Mark was setting up - The Immortal Writers Association.
He knew one thing about Mark really well, the names he chooses are very deliberate. Often with hidden meanings behind them, he had discovered this when he read his books.
Like the villain of knives out, being named "Hugh" and the murdered housekeeper's last words were "you did this" which sounds very similar to "Hugh did this", when said gasping for breath.
When he had read that part of knives out, he couldn't help but respect the ingenious way Mark wrote that twisted ending.
He couldn't hold in his curiosity. He asked, "Mark, why did you name the support group Immortal Writers Association? What was your intention with it that you went with such an ostentatious name?"
"I know you are very deliberate when choosing names for everything that you do, Mark so why this name?" Ben asked with a slight excitement.
He had his own interpretation, but he didn't make his own assumption. Because what he came up with felt to absurd to be true.
The notion felt like an impossible dream, so he didn't even dare to say it outloud. Afraid of being looked at like a delusional fool by his new colleagues.
Mark looked at him with a smile, that question had broken the silence of the room as everyone turned to look at Mark waiting for his response.
And Mark didn't disappoint, he drew in his fingers in a steeple and gave them a smile, but this one felt different.
It felt like watching a king about to make his declaration.
"I deliberated a lot before I finally decided on this name for my group, it was because it perfectly suited my intent with writing these stories, with establishing this group."
Mark then paused to build up tension in the room's occupants, after a brief pause he said with a confident grin.
"The intent to immortalize my name in history and not just mine alone, but everyone who becomes a part of this group."
He continued, his voice heavy with hidden emotions. "Even after we are long gone, people will remember our stories, they will remember our names for generations to come."
"I know it sounds far-fetched, but it's one of my dreams and one day I hope it will come to fruition." Mark spoke with confidence, displaying a sense of optimism, yet also one of sadness that he couldn't quite figure out.
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There was just silence in the room after that. After looking for a while, Ben thought he understood the reason for Mark's sadness. He could perceive the loneliness in Mark's eyes, he thought it was because the world he saw was quite different from the rest of them.
What he could never fathom or know was that the reason for Mark's sadness was actually because this moment reminded him of his mother, his past life's mother who wouldn't get to see her son achieve her dream or fulfill his own.
Yet Ben saw that there was a steely determination in Mark's eyes, like he would fulfill his dreams come hell or high water.
But what could they even say to a man with such an impossible dream?
They couldn't even think of the right words to use to acknowledge the man or even understand his dream, which seemingly felt impossible to achieve at first glance.
It just seemed absurd and mind boggling to think someone would actually aim for so high. If you had told him before this, "Ben, I want to immortalize my name, I want the upcoming generations to remember it."
He would have thought them to be the delusional ramblings of a man too far gone.
But after reading the storyline for Mass Effect and the list of 25 other stories that, he was sure, were just as good.
Neither he or the rest could ignore Mark's words as arrogance or delusional, no, if anyone had the right to make that claim, maybe it was Mark.
Within the decade of his extremely successful writing career, which he started at just 10 years of age by the way.
Mark had written 6 distinct series and had constructed the plots of 26 other brilliant stories. All which they thought had the potential to be equally good or perhaps even superior.
If that wasn't amazing, they didn't know what was.
Mark chuckled slightly, seeing the speechless and changed the subject, "enough about me, I see you both are done reading the script." He said, looking towards Margaret and Joseph.
"So how was it? You don't need to hold back on my account. Just be as brutally honest as possible." He earnestly requested, wanting to know their opinions.
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{Author's Note: And that's a wrap guys, so here I tried to show Ben's POV of the third person perspective while reading Mass Effect's storyline and his reactions to its different story arcs.
Mark also reveals one of his Impossible Dreams that he plans on achieving with creating the Immortals Writers Association, it was my work-around as to how Mark is going to write and publish like 10 or more books in a year.
All the while also filming his movies, this idea I got from a favorite author of mine who used something like this as well.
So keep your eyes peeled to see how Mark speed runs through the different stories and amasses a huge fan base. How that huge fan base will play into the story, its impact and repercussions will be interesting to write. I hope you like it as well
Anyways thanks for reading my work. I am entirely motivated by interaction, suggestions and feedback. Please leave a comment or review about what you liked or disliked about my book.
If you like my work please throw a power stone my way so my book can climb the rankings. I hope you all have a beautiful day
Update schedule for this book: 1 chapter every 2 days.}
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