So I finished the draft for the story that I've been currently blocking on (if you were in chat the other night you got to see me ambush Dio and Myr -- sorry guys. And no, the Jell-o pictures will never see the light of day ever! ) and sent it away to be poked at by folks who're good at poking things. I've already gone and fiddled with my index page to give it a spot, along with teasing about a few other stories in the same series that are in a sufficient state to figure they will be done, even if they're not done now.

That's kinda got me thinking about Yankee and Rob and Justin. I've got the sequel pretty much plotted out, though I need to do some research before I can really write most of it (I need to kill someone off slowly) and I do need to let it gel a little more before I can start banging out draft text. Still... there's the story that comes after, since Carpe DIem is going to be Rob's story, not Justin or Rob and Justin's. And it's the after story that I'm finding interesting.

Not after as in "what happens senior year in highschool", since there's going to be gale-force handwaving on that -- there's no way I'm going to even try touching on writing what it's like to be an out gay couple in a rural Georgia high school. Uh uh, no way, not a chance. Rather, "what happens when they go off to college and beyond" sorts of things. I mean, assuming they make it (which is itself a big assumption, between Justin's AS and Rob's issues and tendencies towards being closed-off and introspective -- having one partner who can't read people and another who tends not to talk about what's wrong isn't a recipe for an easy relationship) what happens?

What does Rob do? What does Justin do? How's college go? Do they go to college? Rob should, sure, he's smart and talented in ways that higher education is good for, and we've established that he wants to go to art school, but... what about Justin? He's an adequate student at best and the things he's good at don't really warrant college. He'd be better off training and opening a dojo or working with someone who already has one, or maybe doing stage choreography, or working as a bouncer. (Can you see Justin as a waiter in a gay bar? He'd be safe, certainly, and it's not like Rob would have to worry about him straying, since it'd never actually occur to him) And, of course, there's always the important question "What about the broccoli?" Which is, itself, a story I'll never tell.

With that, there's also plot. If there's a full-fledged story, rather than a series of scenes from a life (which works too) what the heck should it be? What could happen that'd be reasonable and allow an actual story to weave around it? Hell, it's half-tempting to go all wacky and have Strange Things happen to them. Maybe in the jungles of Peru where Rob's on an archeological dig or something, with Justin along for grunt help. Could catapult them into some odd fantasy realm if I was feeling nasty. Probably not, though Justin would think Rob was hot in an Indiana Jones getup.

Decisons, decisions. I think I'm gonna have to start puttering with little vignettes and throwing 'em up to read, just for fun.