Using the Domino Effect to Craft a Compelling Novel
When we think of domino, we usually picture the game involving a set of tiles where, after you tip one ever-so-slightly, they all tumble in a beautiful cascade of rhythm. The term also refers to any chain reaction that causes something else to happen, such as a person’s actions leading to another’s actions in a logical or predictable way. Plotting a novel often comes down to the question of what happens next, and considering how to use the domino effect can help you craft a compelling story that will keep your readers engaged.
Domino
While the most common games of domino involve blocking and scoring, they can be played with any number of rules. In the most basic form, players draw a set of 28 tiles from a boneyard (also called the stock) and place them on-edge in front of them. Each player then chooses a domino to play, matching its value with a tile already on the table. The first player to empty their hand wins.
If the first domino does not have a match, players draw from the boneyard until they have a domino that matches. This continues until both players have nothing left to play or the value of all of the tiles is reached. The most common scoring game involves the number of pips on each domino. Two matching tiles are considered to be worth points, while a non-matching tile is worth nothing. Some domino games are adaptations of card games, and others use the tiles to teach children number recognition and math skills.
Domino is a skilled marksman with various firearms and is an excellent athlete. She is trained in various armed combat techniques and has extensive experience using explosives. Her brain emits bio-electric impulses during critical moments which augment her natural reflexes to near-superhuman levels. She is also a skilled telepath and uses her mind to manipulate matter at a distance, as well as perform complex calculations in the blink of an eye.
In addition to her telepathic powers, Domino has superhuman agility and endurance, superb coordination, and is highly resistant to physical injury. She is also an expert in various armed combat and martial arts, as well as a talented swimmer and pilot. She is fluent in several languages.
At the end of the story, Domino is a member of X-Force, and she is dispatched to a cemetery to deliver flowers on behalf of Wolverine, where she encounters Spiral, Chimera, and Lady Deathstrike. During a fight, she stabs Chimera and teleports her away, but is rebuffed by a Prime Sentinel named Ekaterina Gryaznova who has implanted her with a neural blocker that interferes with her synaptic relays.