#Arc 1 is still Medieval Fantasy World (OG World is the world Billy wants to return to)

[phoenixtakaramono]

The Name of the Game - Ch1 Preview III

(CW: Supe terror/ism)

A/N: This might not make sense without the full context and tense build-up that’ll lead to all this, but you get the gist. The goal of Scene 1 (wordcount: 10K) is to speedrun through the important main cast of characters who’ll show up in the Task Worlds and then finagle a way to kick Billy into the System subspace—which officially starts us on Scene 2.

*Keep in mind, this snippet comes from an early draft so somethings might be subject to change in the final draft.

[phoenixtakaramono]

So, as you know, TNotG will have 135 chapters spanning 6 arcs + the return to Billy’s OG world in the prologue (because, it has to be seven, y’get the reference?). Think of it as 6 Butchlander AUs that tie together in a bigger overarching narrative. I do have some logic regarding the order of these arcs (aka why it’s these worlds and why it has to be in this specific order of arcs). Mostly the reason is because I love reading certain genres in my free time so writing a QT presents this writer the opportunity to try out a couple of them, to experiment. Also with The Boys being an unfinished TV series as of 2023 with S4 projected to air in maybe 2024, my logic was: I have to make it a series of AUs, otherwise I’ll feel discouraged after seeing what’ll probably be canonized in S4, S5–? Basically I’m thinking of ways to keep my motivation alive to keep writing this 135ch QT. By then, I will have enough time to have seen the direction the TV has gone in for S4 and maybe S5, so I can make a decision then of how to “fix it” for the penultimate arc.

The reason why we’re starting off in the medieval fantasy genre first for Task World 1 for The Name of the Game:

The smart answer: it’s the genre I’m known for in my AO3 portfolio (pseudohistorical romance, really, if we truly condense everything I’ve written down)—so why not start off strong with what I know? I can confidently riff off the Western medieval fantasy tropes that we see in Game of Thrones, Dragon Age: Inquisition, the Witcher, etc to make a subtly fun and meta deconstruction of the tropes we’d expect from Western fairytales and fantasies. I want to satirize the whole knight in shining armor coming to save the kidnapped princess from the evil dragon trope—and I can make it fit Homelander and Billy.

And a bit of a truth potion: the small lizard hindbrain part of me wants to see the knight version of Homelander getting stuffed on Billy’s two dragon d*cks 🫣 and growing obsessed with his mount *snicker* to the point of overthrowing the kingdom he once loyally served in a dramatic twist of irony.

The reason why I decided to make arc 2 a dystopian horror/ survival game:

The smart answer: The previous genre is medieval fantasy—so I wanted something from the left field to take Billy by surprise. The Task World difficulty level is suppose to ramp up, so Arc 1 is the easiest for Billy because he gets to LARP as a motherf*cking dragon and Arc 2 is also easy because Billy excels at high intense stressful situations i.e. survival horror death matches. So it’s still difficult—but I get to throw him into a new environment with very familiar faces but the circumstances are now different (a different alternate reality) so it’s a different challenge awaiting him. I can show off Billy’s badassness and smarts in a different situation—and have the John of this new universe react to him.

Truth potion: Infinite Flow/ Unlimited Flow is one of my favorite C-novel genres. The Earth is Online is one of my all-time favorites, as well as I Became a God in a Horror Game, Kaleidoscope of Death, Global Examination, Supernatural Movie Actor App, Thriller Trainee, Welcome to the Nightmare Live, etc. I eat these easily 100+ to 300+ chaptered novels for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We’re combining what I love with dystopian horror because I wanna playfully poke fun of the popular Western (YA usually) dystopian survival horror tropes (think Cabin in the Woods, Hunger Games, V for Vendetta, Animal Farm, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, Saw, Squid Game) and combine that by making it a death game. There’s so much crazy sh*t we can play with—and it’d still be relatively in character for The Boys characters. I’m mostly looking forward to male model John being one of the unlucky participants either a rookie or one of the fellow popular death game streamers whom undercover MI6 Billy teams up with to solve the puzzles and the narrative twist that’ll be in this arc.

*Note: by the way, this fic does not exist yet on AO3. Wait till August (hopefully!) for the prologue’s premier!