Plotting with Charlie and Gabriel

[Prudence]

So we both have spiffy new characters, now what to do with them? I've got a few ideas:
If we're going the "start off disliking each other" route there needs to be some tension/conflict between them off the bat. I was thinking we'd start them encamped in New York but my character is also sometimes a courier so they could meet on the road? Maybe the 2nd Regiment has been short on doctors and he's been reassigned to them and Charlie has been sent to collect him and lead him to the camp?

[concretegirl]

I definitely think starting them off with some instant "dislike" will make for a more interesting friendship down the road. I think having Charlie come to get him would be good because Gabriel definitely wouldn't like being collected/picked up, especially if he was in the middle of something (maybe he has a group of people he's already in the middle of taking care of, but, Charlie is on a sort of tight schedule? Like, maybe there's an "important" person who needs a doctor "immediately" that they feel takes precedence? I don't think either Charlie or Gabriel would like it and maybe they could just be kind of short with each other off the bat because of that.

[Prudence]

Yes that sounds perfect! I can see it already...(man I hope they approve you character soon.) I'm thinking (long term) that Charlie is probably going to tease Gabriel fairly often around camp, my apologies in advance, by the way, but then maybe Charlie gets wounded in battle and Gabriel patches him up so he starts to have a tacit respect for him?

[concretegirl]

Haha, duly noted. I can definitely see the two of them fighting like an old married couple, which will be fun. And, yeah, Gabriel might not be able to stand him at first, but he'd totally be willing to sew Charlie back together, lol.

[Prudence]

Lol, maybe later on Charlie will end up saving Gabriel's life at some point too? I have a small plot bunny forming about the two of them getting separated from the regiment and nearly stumbling directly into a British camp, possibly even getting captured and having to make a daring (insane) escape. You can't go through something like that and not be friends afterward, right?

[concretegirl]

Genius! I love it. I can just see them blaming each other for their predicament throughout all of it, too.
Also, a little more specific about their meeting, I'm thinking Gabriel will have just lost a patient or something and will be in a seriously bad mood, so when Charlie shows up to get him, he is immediately off and rude towards him, and, who could blame Charlie for reacting in kind (maybe if he's especially got some kind of pressure on him from his superiors that already has him on the defensive?)

[Prudence]

Yes, and Charlie is already in a foul mood because he just had to ride several miles and kind of abused his horse (which he hates doing), plus yeah he's under pressure to retrieve the doctor. I'm thinking that the superior officer won't have been in a large scale battle but like a small skirmish, which would explain why there isn't a doctor right there (possibly that the superior officer is somewhat familiar with Gabriel and requested him) and seeing as Gabriel's camp was closer than their's anyway...

[concretegirl]

So, after researching a little bit more about what was going on in 1777 (for some reason, I was thinking this was all set around 1773-4, and I realized just how off some of my stuff is on Gabriel's bio, whoops. Guess that's what I get for just not paying any attention to detail) I'm thinking we could work in some cool stuff about the stuff on August 6th ( according to this timeline: www.ushistory.org/declaration/revwartimeline.htm ) with your character Henry and Gabriel's "love interest" Onatah, if we were still thinking we wanted them to be related and such. Which could especially be kind of perfect because I feel like we've set things up to be in the summer anyways (with the heatwave we're having here I can't write about decent weather without wanting to kill myself, lol)

[Prudence]

Oh that's such a good idea! (It just figures that your research would yield far better results than mine, lol. I'm having the same problem with the weather, when I originally started writing my first post I intended some nice cool rain to be falling but a "does not compute" message flashed across my brain...) It'd be a really good opportunity to introduce Henry too since he's a scout, AND we could possibly even work in Charlies "wounded scene" into the battle...unless it would be confusing to play multiple characters at once? Since they're all in New York it would probably make sense.
I wonder why, after forcing the continentals back, the British had to evacuate, like I wonder what the circumstances were...

[concretegirl]

I pulled out my history book (I knew I would need this eventually/that I shouldn't sell it back, lol) and all I can really tell about it from what is says is that it sounds like the Americans reacted really badly, eventually forcing them out? It doesn't elaborate as much as I'd hoped.

[Prudence]

Hmm...well that could work to our advantage, we can tweak it to work into our story instead of trying to fit the story into the battle. Reacted really badly hey? Sounds about right.

[concretegirl]

Haha, yeah. I have to admit: I probably wouldn't have taken that in stride, either.