Overcoming Mistrust

[Zarathustra]

I'm having trouble coming up with a sensible series of events that could take my plot in the direction I want it to go.

Two sworn enemies have just escaped a third party trying to kill them both. Now that they've reached a place of relative safety, each naturally starts planning to kill the other. Before that can happen, both are brought into a shared dream by an entity that intends to use them both for another purpose. Before that purpose can be revealed this entity has to persuade the two of them not to kill each other.

The problem: People who who fear and hate one another with the intensity of these two characters would suspect that their dreams were being manipulated before they accepted that they were being encouraged to cooperate by some unknown benevolent entity. What sort of "revelation" would be seen by both characters as "genuine" and not just their enemy using magic to get them to lower their guard?

They don't have to trust one another after this experience. Just not want to kill one another. Oh, and I need to be able to portray it in the form of a WC3 cinematic. I've got a few ideas, but they're either too complicated/hard to make into a WC3 cinematic or have some holes. Any suggestions would be appreciated thanks!

[Brambleclaw]

Theres lotsa stories out there where you can find ideas. Anyway i would suggest there are 2 routes of which i know.
1 The cliche route. They are forced into co-operating as there is a greater enemy. They find out this enemy via being attacked. They go through certain tasks while trying to escape like relying on one to cover them to run across to the next room or somin.
Anyway They get out and escape and now instead of wanting to kill each other just have a playfull hate relationship as it becomes hard for them to come to turns with it.
Maybe one of the protagonists saves the other guys life. When he coulda of left and run of. This would not be totally illogical as it could follow through the other guy helping him up as in the thrill of the moment they dont think. Or just a simple thing like killing somone who was about to kill them one of they things they might ahve to do to escape. As they need both of them

This enemy was created by the entitiy not only to test them, but to force them to co-operate as the dreams obviously didnt work. This could follow through out the plot.

Im pretty sure you can do a running fight scene etc through a building or somin on wc3. just add some explosive effects. or somin and have when they reach the end one guy saving the other at the last moment by in some way.
Then they both could go and think that this entity is evil and they have to kill it so now they trust each other. Also side note. Now that they trust each other the Entity through manipulation and prediction can force them on a set purpose to get them to do this purpose without having to actually get to know them anymore.
Example. 2 chars want revenge on entity . Entity wants powerfull guy dead. Entity gets all possible routes to entity and evidence falsified to point to X guy to be killed. They kill that guy without realising it wasnt the entity. Or somin


The 2nd idea is Slightly less cliche but still quite simple. The Entity warns them that there is a punishment for not listening. Then a few days later it Makes there dreams come alive. And there both in the dream. So its imposible for one of them to be manipulating the dream. Proof of this would be at the start they start fighting or somin. And then one shouts out somin along the lines of "Idiot I can't be manipulating this dream otherwise i would kill you where you stand" or somin like that paraphrase however you want but the idea is the same. Its a bit like the comedic scene When the driver is talking on say a bus at the back. Like if your here whos driving. kinda of mindset xP

Hope this helped. Other wised you just wasted 5 mins of your life reading this post xP

[Zarathustra]

Thanks for the reply. In the time since I started this thread, I decided to scrap the idea of a dream sequence as a plot device for getting the characters to cooperate. I was trying to negotiate an iron triangle of avoiding cliches, keeping it plausible, and staying true to the "personalities" that I have envisioned for the characters. It was too much of a pain in the ass, so I changed the storyline a little.

The first time they meet, they try to kill each other and are forced to stop fighting before one can score a killing blow. The second time, they are forced to cooperate because of a common enemy. Once that danger has passed, the two conclude that they're "even" and part ways. At this point, they each have separate encounters with the entity I was referring to, and only after that do they meet for a third time. It kind of avoids creating the problem I was talking about in the beginning.

The supernatural agent in the story will be more subtle. It will appear in the form of a person who has always been familiar to the character. I was thinking of something along the lines of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita. Arjuna doesn't really know that his chariot driver is a god for most of the story but still calls on this person for his advice.

I can give you a more detailed explanation, but I'm getting ready to head out so I'll have to post it in an update.