So let's start with the simple stuff!
SHIMMER AND VOYD
We'll be combining the two girls here even though they're not totally tied to each other but might as well be! Shimmer's been around since 2014 and every year I try to make sure she's got something new to do or challenge her. Also since 2014, Shimmer has very rarely faced anyone who didn't really like her. I mean, even Sister Alice sort of tolerated her, and if someone did dislike her, it was usually because they were a villain she would then beat up. The original path for her 2019 character arc was to encounter a character who just didn't gel with her, Shimmer having to learn basically about social boundaries, coming to terms with someone disliking her for no good reason beyond her personality type not lining up with their personality.
And the character who would challenge her in this way? Why, none other than Kaleolani!
Yeah, she was completely scrapped, but the initial plan was that Kaleolani was a Kuwahawi native who heard about Olympia and was going to head there. She had sound powers in her conceptual phase, deliberately meant to contrast Shimmer's light stuff but not with that freedom of control. I would mainly try to do things with it that weren't just sound blasts. She would raise or lower volumes, create fake sounds to trick people, things like that. She was coming to Olympia because she hoped its technological advancement would allow her to learn more about sound and strengthen her connection to it, one idea being she had a device she had to use to tap into her powers or just only had them because of the tech. I imagined it like a turntable that was held to her body by straps.
Lani's personality was going to be sort of reserved and serious, focused on her work and not really all that fun. However, her powers and fashion would draw Shimmer's attention, and originally, the 2019 teaser we saw introducing Voyd to Shimmer was instead Shimmer meeting Kaleolani on the plane, sitting next to each other and getting Shimmer her first taste of the cold shoulder. Over the year Shimmer would attempt to talk to Lani, hang out with her, and just make her like her, unaware that Lani was uncomfortable with the interest and had no interest in befriending Shimmer. This would ultimately culminate in Lani losing it one day and just angrily telling Shimmer she didn't like her, didn't want to know her, and wants to be left alone. This could have just been a character interaction... but it was later going to be a blow up right before Orm, the hunter from the Lodge, attacks Lani like he did Voyd. Lani was very likely to die here and that would have made Shimmer feel even worse!
Why do I come up with ideas like these?
Anyway, Lani was falling out of favor in my head because of her bummer personality and the march to death being a bit too long to sustain in my opinion. I wasn't sure what to do with the Shimmer plot from that point, but then I went with my sisters to see Incredibles 2 and was immediately charmed by Voyd. Excited nervousness made her a cutie patootie and she was a bit dorky too, so after the film I was wondering if I might RP her... and well, there was an opening! Shimmer could still interact with someone, but the new character didn't fully gel with the old plot path. Voyd never had plans to turn evil or anything, instead pretty much always intended to be the anxious ally to Shimmer she ended up being, but I didn't realize at first how wonderfully the pair would work. I actually did wonder if I would be better killing of Voyd in the same way as Lani but without the turbulent friendship, the Shimmer growth instead coming from losing a close friend. Instead, that attack on Voyd that left her hospitalized for a while lead to a different little plot thread, Shimmer worrying that her young charge wasn't fit for Kobber fighting. She was guilty that Voyd had gotten hurt because of her and didn't want it to happen again so she turned down going on Kobber adventures with Voyd, Voyd sneaking out to join one at one point.
This plot thread about Voyd being kept from heroing was intended to culminate in either other characters talking to Shimmer about it, Voyd breaking and yelling at her, or one other option. Ladeca stuff came up and I considered having Voyd be corrupted into a ba'al, her anxieties about not being good enough as a hero and being suppressed by Shimmer's paranoia about her being hurt again manifesting into a monstrous form. I didn't have specific planned for the design besides a monstrous face with the mask torn, it looking a lot like these guys from Hyper Light Drifter. Instead, Shimmer and Voyd had gelled so well as partners that it took the turn instead that they talked through it like adults! WOW! What a resolution! It's not fiction friendly but I like that the two reached a point where they were so close they could be mature about it, and there was still Shimmer's insecurities about protecting her vulnerable friends to plumb lightly during things like Piraka plot.
Shimmer's arc actually became more about her increasing maturity. She's and RP character whose age has been continuing in real time and I track very closely. She finally turned 21 this year, the first year since introduction without a birthday party for her, and she spent most of this year essentially training a next generation Kobber. I did worry she'd be buried by the new hotness, but Shimmer and Voyd have powersets that go together very well. Voyd can redirect and assist with movement with her portals and Shimmer packs the power and greater variety. Personalitywise they are different and can interact in fun ways, the two able to manage discussions differently and provide that old back and forth I like to write. Voyd's powers were actually very fun to use and I'm glad I decided on little things like only two portals at a time and no severing by closing a portal. It made for more creativity with how they are executed and I enjoyed seeing a lot of villains caught in their strange designs. I was a bit reticent to accept Cornwind's power ups for her, but the shield felt like a good idea, especially since I have so many fragile people in my cast. It gave her a way to avoid the instant death scenarios she might otherwise find herself in. I did turn down quite a few attempts to improve/torture her though. Cornwind meant well with them no doubt but he wanted to put her through a ringer to make her tough it seems :V
Having Voyd's lost leg stick was a multifaceted decision. One reason was I felt like it would be interesting to see such a loss last. Petrification and shattering is a lot more serious than the usual severing after all, so that was the first impetus for deciding on where to go from there. I didn't want her to be de-hospitalized too quickly after such a serious wound, so the blade leg was conceived since we were in plot heavy times of the year. From there, I keened on something that would wrap up her year long arc pretty well! She started off a huge Kobber fan. I didn't want her to be too similar to Kaede, but she admired that they went out there and used their powers knowing the danger, and people like Kaede were particularly inspiring because Karen felt like her powers weren't really the best for heroism. I've mentioned before she's meant to avert Marina, who felt obligated to do something with her powers but hated heroism. Voyd wants to do something with her powers and loves being a hero, but she's got a lot of anxieties about herself and her ability to do so. Those softened and some disappeared over the year the more she fought and the more often she contributed meaningfully to a fight. She's still not going to approach things completely confidently because her personality just isn't lined up that way, but by the end of the year she was comfortably a Kobber and happy to be a hero, believing she deserved to be fighting alongside the others. However, the lost leg and replacement were a good signal to people who were like Karen, people who might not feel like they were fit or had the right stuff to be important or heroic. She kept it to inspire others, the same way others had inspired her. Full circle!
Voyd is definitely my most eligible bachelorette right now. I have decided full force that Shimmer is asexual but not aromantic but she still feels like she hasn't found a good fit dating wise yet. Voyd on the other hand is an open lesbian and I've tried to have her be interested in girls with confidence in face of adversity. She's had unmentioned crushes, even crushing on Shimmer initially before she became too familiar, and there are people Voyd wouldn't be interested in because either their personality or how she got to know them first. While Shimmer has the most complex relationship considerations in my cast, I'm trying to bring the same level of thought to Voyd's prospects, partially because I am no longer sure of her longevity. Will she be on my cast after 2020? Will I grow tired of her? Will I grow tired of SHIMMER? I don't know, but I want to futureproof! One problem if I want to retire them though is how determined both are to assist the Kobbers, but there are always ways out...
Ahem. I'm very happy to have Gooper's art of the two now, their updated looks both properly represented for RP use. They'll be tackling the Brawl together next year and continuing their lovely friendship while providing me plenty to work with in combat. In fact, characters like Voyd have made me want to integrate freedom of creativity into more character movesets, while having appropriate limitations still. It just makes writing a fight so much more interesting when you don't fall back on the same weapons or punches! Shimmer's keeping that frog flashlight around though. I was very happy she had a few moments to talk with people like Plague and Neeko so that she still put her character forward independent of her unexpected mentor role.
CIRNO, DAIYOUSEI, AND ETERNITY
Technically the year Cirno was meant to debut before I jumped the gun, I knew I needed something big for Cirno day. She had already gone through the important character development last year, learning to be less self-centered and less obnoxious in her search for approval. We'd need something big to match her day in a year with a nine. 9/9/2019's Cirno Day didn't have a good plan for it until I came up with the idea of fighting 99 Cirnos! This is the entire reason Elliott was put into RP but we'll get to that in his section, but that was the mechanism to make the concept happen, but why it would happen was the next question.
I was beginning to grow interested in Eternity as a Touhou for a while, mainly because of her ridiculous name. Eternity Larva is such a strange silly name and her design was cute enough, but I couldn't think of a personality to give her until I came up with the idea of using her as the adversary for Cirno on her plot day. I had found the image of what we now call Infinity and that was what not only made her a villain, but the villain of Cirno Day, and then I went to work on getting more Eternity art that matched the idea she wasn't just a cute typical touhou. I've thought about making villanous touhou girls before, but soon the idea was turning into things like having Eternity around in the bar. In fact, I had a lot of imagined scenarios for the bar where Eternity's behavior would conflict with typical social interactions, the problem was she was perhaps too creepy and offputing to be around the bar a lot. There's a lot to Eternity that I've tried not to just spill out in my eagerness to share it, Eternity's mystery is still going to be pivotal part of her character even though its more informative rather than something that will be built off further, but the reason behind Infinity and all is still meant to be fully unclear. Eternity has referenced it slightly but she also has no problem lying in her skewed morals, but she's getting better now that she's better off.
Anyway, at first I wasn't sure how to pull off multiple Cirnos. I considered it being just an angle for Cirno to get people to like her more, I considered Eternity kidnapping her for it or knocking her out. I thought of her seeing Elliott copy Cirno in a fight and then Eternity got inspired by that... but I guess more important is the angle of her wanting Cirno to kill her. It was certainly meant to be a creepy mystery thing, and I didn't want it to just be a generic "I want to fight her" angle so this seemed more interesting. Eternity's connection to the life cycle in touhou made me want to give her life powers and such and then it evolved from there. Eternity figured Cirno's effervescent soul would counter the corruption of Infinity and she wasn't really wrong! She's got a lot more souls in her now and still some influence from Infinity but not full corruption anymore, and I think moving ahead remembering the different people she pulled from will be the biggest challenge.
I guess I can say some important facts about Eternity without demystifying her and her history. Yes, she has absorbed pieces of other souls before, Infinity was the only one who used it to its advantage though as a revival method. Eternity's knife interest is not because she enjoys how they feel or anything, as she has no interest in self-harm. I have characterized her as someone who would stab through her own hand to get to a bad guy's face and she'd also have no qualms with chopping her leg off to get out of a bear trap, but that's one part the practicality of her mindset and another part her knowledge she can heal up after. I remember wanting her to be a creepy healer who always helped when asked but came off odd if asked. If Kaede had mentioned she wanted to be a Kobber I had an Eternity response set where she'd offer to reincarnate her as one, although that would require killing her, and it might not reincarnate her as what she wants to be anyway. This is still something Eternity would likely say in the right scenario but probably not as her first go-to now that she's on the path to sociability. Like other characters though, I considered just killing her off instead of following reformed Eternity, I think I was pretty close to event day and still thinking of it too!
Daiyousei was different. I wasn't sure Cirno would stick around after 2019. The ice fairy is fun and all but I wasn't sure if her shtick would run dry, but thanks to thinks like Jacques, we still got to see a lot of her heart, and I think that's an important element to the character. She'll always be an idiot who wants to impress people to get them to like her, but she wants everyone to be liked and will look past any exterior to find that glimmer to pull from. However, Daiyousei was beginning to feel more and more like she was just there to facilitate Cirno, and that was kind of her role. I did start giving her more independence and figured I might just retire her alone, but when I was sure Eternity should stick around, I went through with the plan of switching the duo dynamic. Cirno's thing next year will be taking on the responsibility of helping Eternity, a push forward with her maturity, but Daiyousei needed a reason to leave. The personal stuff worked well, the jokes about the Planeswarden prison feeling like a natural way to give her a work excuse and the mermaid jokes a fun way to evolve things into a relationship that would fulfill Daiyousei. Dai would have not only a job that provides her that sense of control and power she liked having over Cirno, but she'd have a girlfriend who valued her equally. I wanted to do a scene where Celestina and Daiyousei just talked so we could see why Tina likes Daiyousei, but time didn't come together and it felt weird to drop in the current RP scape.I've joked Tina may come back as a character in the right setting, and I would follow through if we did, so we could see Daiyousei again that way and get that scene! Maybe! No clue why I picked the name for Celestina but I believe there was some purpose to it. Maybe some mermaid lore or whatever... but her character art was pulled from a porn game! ...It was very hard to find a Cirno-looking mermaid but I knew monster girl fetishists would have plenty of chesty mermaids to draw from.
ELLIOTT
Two L's, Two T's! Elliott is one of those joke characters who isn't a full on joke. There's a lot of humor to him, the grumpy complaining, duplication's potential for silly situations, and the whole A Location Everywhere idea, but I think he's once again a character who came together really well with such a flexible power. As mentioned he was brought back from the character graveyard because I realized he was the perfect tool for bring Cirno Day's crazy concept to life, but pretty much as soon as I knew I'd be using him I made sure to invent an overly complicated scientific reasoning for why he doesn't or can't do a lot of things. I'll never place a hard limit on the full scope of the power, if I had we wouldn't have gotten his big moment in the Cray finale with copying everyone, but there are a lot of smaller ones like why he won't copy food or money to make sense of a power that could be very overpowered otherwise. I remember now that I considered having Eternity kill him and steal his glasses to clone the Cirnos but that didn't work in the way his powers ended up outlined. If you kill an Elliott clone, the glasses would crumble with his body into toner, and speaking of toner, I now know a lot more about this printing dust then ever before!
Early in the year I considered a scene introducing Elliott where I'd have three characters I had considered for the Curse showing up:
Bormin, Dux, and Farrow were all considered for Curse members, their code names being Bacon, Eggs, and Grits. We would have met them heading to Elliott to get ammunition copied and/or the group bringing a mysterious package to him that he wouldn't clone because he didn't know what was inside... that being a cake for Plague's birthday or some party. Elliott would get upset and explain no food, but before this we'd have an introductory scene for the trio where Dux had a sort of Woody Allen rant about how he hated his codename and it was only there to make the trio's theme work. The trio were mainly picked because Sheep asked if I had any intention of using them and I didn't at first, but after playing the game they felt like good Curse grunts and they were considered for the Waterworks event as potential goons. I had many an imagined dialogue with this trio and I'm a bit sad none got used, but Elliott shows old ideas can be revived so maybe they're not a lost cause!
The multiple locations gimmick wasn't just a joke, I really wanted a character who wasn't really in the bar at all but still active enough that he felt like a presence in the city. Elliott could be pretty much anywhere because of his cloning and even in morally dubious places because of his grey allegiances, but to soften his grump nature I did many of the necessary motions. He wasn't pointlessly mean, he would lean towards good when there were options, he became fond of certain people and tried to help them, and most importantly, dickish behavior got comeuppance. I did sometimes feel his individual weakness in certain fights, but for the most part he copied both characters, weapons, and so on in ways I enjoyed playing with. I wouldn't be surprised if he fell into the background some this coming year but the powerset and potential to be anywhere mean he doesn't have to. I really want to find a way to use that Destruct Bomb from the old Birdman cartoon, and the best thing about that old cartoon episode is it can be completely canon to his RP version. Elliott's clones of living things don't have the same kinds of brains as us because of adjustments to the duplication process, again a choice made to ensure that copying people wouldn't lead to the whole BUT THEY'RE ALIVE thing. Some video games have holograms or decoys who will behave like the player briefly but are nothing substantial and that's probably more what these clones are like: a convincingly programmed doppelganger. I won't commit to that definition but its out there now!
Elliott's the second Harvey Birdman character I've borrowed and potentially not the last. The reinterpretation of Hanna Barbera characters is a rich gold mine because so many were basically one hook they used to their limit, Birdman introduced more comedic angles to it, and now I try to build characters out of it! Have we ever seen the real Elliott though? Well, you see
JASON-3
That satellite sure does love interrupting! As we were moving into a sci-fi setting, I remembered an old LEGO satellite toy I had. It had a dish, a little flap that could move up and down, a transluscent piece... it wasn't much, but I liked its simplicity and in games I played with my siblings it was just Satellite. It was a fun toy to fiddle with and it was an odd concept, but it had no personality beyond my own, and it was certainly more of a male. This toy made me want to RP a satellite just to see if I could, and while there wasn't going to be a satellite that matched what was really just a few LEGO pieces slapped together into something more akin to a radar dish or antenna, I wanted to find a very standard looking satellite but wasn't quite pleased with the first Google results you get for one. I wanted a well positioned radar dish and a proper body for it rather than just mostly solar panel wings, but as I scrolled I believe I found one of the Jason satellites, and investigating it helped me find the big beautiful one we know today.
I knew immediately I wanted it be a real world satellite since that would just give it fun connectivity to reality without any potential negative sides. It measures ocean temperature so it felt like a safe pick! Jason was also a name that hadn't been touched much in RP yet and was human enough that it would feel natural to call this satellite that name, the 3 just a nice touch in making it sound more like the satellite it is. Just like toner I learned a lot more about satellites doing research for Jason, mainly what its different parts are called and how big these babies can get. However, I had a name, look, and intent... but there was no personality yet. I definitely wanted something different and I'm sure people expect my personality aversions by now after characters like Aviaticus, but picking something for Jason was tougher than expected. I'm pretty sure I concocted the means of its sentience before the personality was solid, it being a good hook for announcing Skywire was coming and the alien's mate being the one to retool Jason as she wasn't sure if the Kobbers were bad or not. I always figured Skyline and Jason would be similar in personality but Jason wasn't just a mouthpiece for her, partly because I didn't want to do Sarge's thing but mostly because I thought the idea of a talking satellite was too fun to just make it remote controlled after all. I'm pretty sure the personality choice was me just going "what if Jason was just a loud sassy bitch" or something of that ilk, and I haven't really had that character to write before nor has much of anyone in RP. I might have been thinking of Ensemble's brief glimmer of almost being that, and as soon as I thought of the personality type some actress's voice entered my head, but I still can't place who. Sheep's comparison of Wanda Sykes isn't bad but I feel like there's someone almost perfect for how Jason sounds and they might not even be a big actress so that doesn't help!
I worried big time how Jason might come off, sassyness can be mean pretty quick but I knew to balance it out. Jason wasn't just loud and proud, it was supportive and when it even formed a small friendship, it was pretty quick to retain them and try to cultivate them, hence why it felt a connection to Cerato after the Brawl. I was still surprised people like Jason though :V I don't think I was planning to kill off Jason like most characters this year though, mainly because it had a very clear purpose to serve near the end, and I definitely didn't expect Jason to both have a best friend AND a boyfriend! Jason seemed like the kind to flirt for fun and Motormer was too, and Jason is also pretty supportive of people being proud of who they are since it tries to be, but we also got perhaps the two biggest emotional moments out of any of my characters this year? Like, for the character at least. Jason's event with Mr. Electric and then Xyra's brainwashing were both perfect and if any character of mine this year ended up having an arc that could stand independently or get reworked into its own story it would be Jason probably. It helps that the casual events it was part of paid off later as set up for the serious stuff, and its role as the mouthpiece for Skyline ended up feeling very small compared to its own budding relationships.
Speaking of "it", yes, I did use it fully throughout the year save some slip-ups to "she", but that's not because I'm making a point or anything :V Jason sounds like a woman and has no problem being called one, nor would it care if someone called it a man because of its masculine name. Its main thing is that gender or sex aren't really on its radar as its instead trying to enjoy this new thing called life. If someone had asked for its gender though Jason would have explained this and said something like if we're more comfortable calling it a lady, that's fine, and I might have even made the narration shift to calling it a her instead :V Jason's lack of gender is how it rolls even though it will still call itself Motormer's girlfriend. Jason's not retired because I want it to follow through on anything Motormer or Xyra related and it may crop up if appropriate at points, but I don't have any big plans for the satellite anymore and was happy with how it turned out, mainly because I feel Jason could have very much fallen into that failed character trap or a character who dies out after their initial concept reveal. Its limited abilities certainly threatened to make it fighting a lot less enjoyable, but I think the attitude made up for those concrete powers.
Before we move on from Jason, we'll cover Mr. Electric here too as I get all willy-nilly with this blog's structure.
I don't remember what exactly reminded me this guy existed. Random youtube video, knowyourmeme, tumblr? No idea, but as soon as I did I wanted to use him, but never felt he'd have a proper role outside of something like the boss pavilion. I considered him for it and for regular fite club and I remember even trying to entice someone or other, maybe Sheep, into heading over to fite club just to use him, but it never happened, and that's good! He instead got to be in The Curse as the first character I solidly wanted to attach to the group, but like many things with this year's plots he wasn't completely solid until his event was approaching. I did find a good in with the idea for him to be Jason's repairman, and my ideas spiraled off from there. There was no ties to the Lodge at first, this almost just being a "pointless" Curse fight with a character I found laying around, but I also wanted the Lodge to be introduced by a character we had no clue was really tied to it. I did something small early in the year because I lament my Post-Brawl nature, two hunters appearing who were mostly conceived but almost entirely scrapped since I didn't have time to draw them or anything. The space tick and UFO, their names escape me now but I sure hope I put them in chatzy at some point... ah! Here they are: "Nimar was the tick and Gryryr was the UFO, both attacked Shimmer and Voyd but like Helogan were sort of expendable, Nimar and Gryryr being ideas I considered but never used for hunter plot full on" Speaking of Helogan, it was brought to life because I wanted to show Dawn's plan to distract some hunters was working but didn't have any big ideas laying around, but a piece of art related to a Halloween haunted house art thing on tumblr inspired me. Helogan is a rearrangement of Halogen, referring to the alien's car-like design and focus on facial lights, and of course they all had nifty powers since the them of Lodge plot was giving people strange powers interesting for fights.
Mr. Electric wasn't going to be in the Lodge because I wanted the "no humans in the lodge" line to be a twist of sorts, a reveal that Miyu was tied to them while also revealing Cyclosa's true nature after the human puppet. I also didn't want humans in the Lodge in general because I wanted the aliens I used this year to be more creative than homo sapiens from space, the mixed up anatomies and strange skills from the stars making for more unusual and interesting creatures. I also think fiction should do better than just putting people on different planets even though I know why they do it, but I've never been a person who needs a human in a story or a character I can relate to. I like fiction because I can see things I could never see otherwise, view the world from new or impossible perspectives. I've had a whole life of being me, no need to insert myself into a work as well! Anyway, Mr. Electric being the prospective first Earth hunter was a good way of getting him in but not truly in, a hook for the plot but not fully. Sokotem was being developed into the overarching villain of most of the plot and her cultivating him seemed like a good way to introduce her too, and it allowed for the pieces to come together beautifully for Jason-X. Yes, the name is a reference to the Friday the 13th space sequel, but the different numbered Jasons and all was a fun way of playing off of Jason-3's developed personality by contrasting it with these soulless copies, and they were also a good fit for demonstrating both Sokotem's methods and enhancement powers while Mr. Electric still headlines the show with his wires. I did wonder how to have him attack the city since a blackout could screw over a flying city pretty bad, and him attacking randomly would seem strange as well. I also probably should have saved his many faces locally, that guy makes so many strange expressions! I also couldn't bring myself to do as many electric puns as he does in Sharkboy and Lavagirl but I tried! It took a bit for the Save Jason angle to crop up and when Motormer was introduced I knew it had to be solidified. There could have just been angry Jason helping us but I went for something more powerful and meaningful. However, I didn't want Jason's tractor beam to be powerful! How's THAT for a transition! Mainly, I didn't want Jason to have human dexterity because that lessened the weirdness of the satellite talking in the bar, so it was made fairly weak and imprecise, able to lift and toss but it probably couldn't adequately mop a place due to dexterity woes and couldn't lift anything too large to prevent hurling stuff as a cheap and easy attack method.
MIYU AND FAY
Star Fox 64 is a game I was so into as a kid that I could see Arwings when I closed my eyes, and Star Fox Assault similarly became my multiplayer game of choice for a long time thanks to its fun mix of on foot and vehicle combat. Having recently played Star Fox 2 and feeling a bit bad for Miyu and Fay never getting a chance to shine as characters in the series, the idea of RPing them came and settled into my head.
Funnily enough, I thought their on foot weapon usage would define their RP participation. I gave them both weapons from Star Fox: Assault mostly, Miyu focused on firepower and Fay on more situational items. I don't think I ever got to use a Predator rocket with her, which would have been a planted rocket that fires at anything that interrupts its tripwire. The Demon Launcher I wanted to save for something big and knew it might just end up being my own plots like it did, I mainly didn't want to make others have to bend over for what I'd be billing as their most powerful weapon. In Assault it's an instant kill if it hits no matter if it hits a vehicle or character, so it was overpowered by design and a fun ace in the hole if I had more than my own villains to whip it out against. Of course, the public perception is that Star Fox characters are defined by being stuck in vehicles, so when they entered the Brawl people didn't like their chances! The Arwings were also meant to be my way of facing down kaijus and the like, the spaceships a better fit then my very squishy set of characters this year. Other than that, I mixed and matched some Smash stuff in. Miyu has a Reflector and laser pistol similar to the ones in Smash but Fay borrows more from Star Fox Assault with its charge blaster and barrier. Even with multiple weapon options they felt like they could have used more variety but I think that's because a gun, for the most part, has one function, which doesn't encourage creativity. The mixed Arwing/weapon combat actually was a good way of getting around that!
Fay's backstory was fun to invent even though I had no intention for relevance to the degree it got! Cornwind's plot was a perfect opportunity to look at Katina, and yes, all my Katina stuff is invented whole cloth. I basically took the military edge from the Star Fox 64 mission and the design of the base level in Assault and extrapolated it into an entire military society that Fay wanted to get away from, hence her desire to find someone to date since she had left her entire race behind. I mainly didn't want her to be another happy, bubbly character, so that strong military background and a more proper behavior helped with setting her apart. The only real character lore she had from Star Fox 2 to go on was a history of being a noble, and I learned that after deciding on Katina's design, so I worked it in as her being the daughter of a general, who are essentially that world's royals. From that also came her incredible intelligence and tactical edge and it gave a good excuse for some social naivety.
Miyu, on the other hand, is basically me recycling what Sokotem almost was!
Sokotem, the name that is, is from Maidu Indian myth, a moth who was once a woman, which seemed a good fit for a moth woman! It's an obscure pull though, as in so obscure that ZFRP is now in the top google results while the mythological character isn't! I found the image for the moth woman on Knowyourmeme and there were enough different pieces of art of her that I decided to save her to my future folder. Some art features her with a sword I considered using, but ultimately I completely broke her away from the original intent of the creator and turned her into a hunter. Before we reached that point in her development though, she was a possible character for 2019, one whose home planet was nearly wiped out by Skywire... just like what happened to Miyu. Sokotem would join The Lodge as part of an attempt to get revenge on the hunters, even joining the Brawl in the hopes that she could get cheap points by killing people who would get resurrected later... just like Miyu. The problem was, Sokotem's personality wasn't coming together in an interesting way. She just seemed angry or too cold in the prototype ideas I had for how she'd act, and that's probably why, after she got rejected, she was slotted in as the personal threat of Lodge plot, the character we could directly hate and work against. Miyu's personality was much easier to concoct, the jokey, flirty, feisty lynx a good fit not just for her dynamic with Fay but it would stand out amongst other characters in my cast at the time. Fortuna was chosen as her home world, this planet in Star Fox constantly reinterpreted and hard to pin down as any one thing so it felt safe to reinterpret it once more. Notably, I didn't try and touch on main Star Fox content like the remaining crew members to leave them open for either myself or others, Miyu and Fay periphery both within their role in the actual Star Fox series and in RP. If people want to use characters like Bill though they've got baggage, and Pappy Van Poodle was an enjoyable internet curiosity at the time that I could work in easily once Katina being a thing we actually saw parts of became a reality.
Sokotem's sad backstory was commented on as a strange choice, but I think it's interesting to see a same backstory, different paths sort of plot, especially since Miyu and Sokotem are essentially two different ends to the same branch development wise. Miyu was devastated by Skywire's attack but didn't become emotionally cold because of it, while Sokotem was emotionally cold before it and thus used the attack as a way of further sinking into her darkness. I did waiver on whether I wanted Sokotem to have her enhancement powers because it felt too outright magical for a plot that was meant to feature aliens with sci-fi abilities or weapons rather than fantasy stuff, the backstory partly emerging as I grappled with this problem. Sokotem is also fairly evil and I didn't want the emotional adversary of the plot to be too one-dimensional, and I think both giving her a tragic past and a connection to Myrrh ultimately saved her from being a forgettable but detestable cartoon villain. The enhancement ability is very much a part of her in the end because it would allow her to be constantly present if desired during other points in the plot, both a character who we can't grab yet but not one we'd be directly confronting to the point it feels like she keeps getting away. Waterworks did have her outright escape when confronted, but there's a reason next time we saw her she went loco, and luckily I found a monstrous moth that seemed a natural evolution of her design!
BLASTO AND NIFTU
The Mass Effect cop duo! As soon as I heard Mass Effect's parody of cop films with the Blasto audio segments I was captivated. It mixed odd alien behaviors with recognizable tropes into a brilliant comedic blend, and very quickly I wanted to get Blasto into RP as a new member of the force. At first though, I was extremely worried his loose cannon nature would not only potentially make him cross a moral line, but that it might make him unlikable or hard to tolerate. Fun Fact: Blastoplot originally almost had the subtitle The Death of Blasto because I was fully prepared to have him die on it if he wasn't working out! He would have gone out guns blazing no doubt, probably similar to the final scene we got on the plot in its current form but a mutual death instead. Similarly, adapting the police chief from the Blasto stories made me worry first about having a police chief character because I worried I was exerting too much control over the ZFPD, and since he didn't seem like he'd be a likeable character either, I was prepared to kill him off too! Potentially as the instigating event of Blasto plot! The little volus was definitely on the possible chopping block longer because he wasn't as immediate of a hit as Blasto, and he is still a character I kick around a bit because I try to temper my more extreme personalities by having them face adversity and need to earn success rather than just be angry or violent people who end up on top for no good reason. He's also very vulnerable by design so I inevitably feel compelled to play that up, but I gave him god tier Biotics to make up for it!
Niftu Cal being the police chief was a route I chose because I was also compelled by the little joke segment of Mass Effect where you find a volus tripping balls on a biotic enhancing drug. The overblown ego, weak powers, and the inversion of a race you've mostly seen as serious businessmen throughout the game was a wonderful joke setup, and since police chief in the Blasto story had no name, I decided to lift the best volus for the job. Of course, I couldn't just pretend he wasn't the same Biotic God for those who would recognize him, and he ended up developing quite a backstory because of it! Blastoplot was sort of more a Niftuplot because of his ties invented to the plot's main threat, although I did waver on which drug to use for a bit before it came together that it could both reference the Mass Effect ones while featuring a new Black Hole appropriate mixture that would do what I wanted. Drugs are also a pretty strong part of cliche cop stories but I didn't want to touch on anything too uncomfortable, its sci-fi implications being focused on instead of any addiction qualities.
We saw a lot of Blasto's backstory thanks to Sheep, much of it originally kept on a shelf in case of Blastoplot 2, which is coming and will touch on a few things we learned there as the Slasho teaser showed. Speaking of, Slasho being the odd name out on the Lodge's high hunter list was meant to slip past people but Goops picked up on it, although he never indicated he thought it would be Blasto's brother! Like usual, I do love a good joke character, but I like to ground them into reality with a past that could lead to their present, hence why Blasto is literally styling himself after cheesy action movies but is unaware they are cheesy since their message of justice resonates so strong with him. There was often a bit of a pressure to always have Blasto end a plot on a good one-liner and sometimes my creative battery isn't there for one, especially one that can be filtered through a hanar's speech pattern into something funny.
Blasto's weaponry and Niftu's Biotics are pretty much popping open the Mass Effect wiki and grabbing what I find situationally appropriate, although both started falling into a few standbys because of flexibility or being a good supplement to regular combat. Niftu's are definitely harder to keep track of but I think the more fun to play with, but Blasto's expanding gun selection thanks to gifts during the season helped him take off, and he has a few things like his poison touch to help. I think he pulled off the huge weapon selection idea better than Miyu and Fay.
I guess it would be prudent to start transitioning into Blastoplot coverage here, and we'll start with its first introduced element: Hot Foot, a.k.a. Bubin. Bubin was originally part of a trio concept for the characters, the Elcor part of the Mass Effect Blasto stories and serving as a counterbalance to Blasto's antics. An Elcor isn't a very flexible action character though and I thought the chief on the radio could do most of the chastising and exasperation that Blasto's good for invoking, so I ended up scrapping Bubin... at first. As Blastoplot was coalescing I conceived of a joke for Shimmer and Voyd where emojis would be misintrepeted despite being quite literal, the Super Mario enemy Hot Foot a perfect fit for the payoff to the joke setup. Hot Foot wasn't created to be Bubin, but this is one of those cases where I came up with a little throwaway gag that could then be used for much more. I did intend to have Blasto or Niftu mention Bubin/Blasto's old partner a bit more before he was revealed to be still alive but now a walking fireball, but I also liked the joke of a character suddenly presented as important despite not being previously mentioned, although that might work better in a sequel than the first plot.
Bubin is being sidelined for now, his return to form being an intended instigator of next year's Blastoplot 2. His interest in sumo tables... another joke idea that quickly became plot relevant. One of my favorite joke payoffs of last year was referencing an extremely weird, specific, expensive item when I saw the opening and then working it into the plot to enhance not only the "drama" of the reveal but provide an absurd enemy in an absurd plot. Basho, you've done good by me, and I would so buy your table if I could ever be so flippant with cash.
The villains of Blastoplot are all named for things tied to Black Holes. The Wiita lizard people who seem to be having a party out on Gullstrand's lawn are from the Paczyński–Wiita potential, an approximation of the gravitational potential around a black hole. Originally, Blastoplot was going to be about Blasto going rogue on tips he had about a gang, the Kobbers chasing after reports of his activity to find he was justified every time. He would have died on the last mission after biting off more than he can chew, but one original concept was each Blasto-incited event was him attacking a place that seemed innocent, like a birthday party or bar mitvah. It was even going to be joked that he was going to attack a bris, Niftu exasperated and even eventually firing Blasto. Blasto was considered to turn "evil" too, moreso his skewed view of justice would lead to him turning on us for some reason. The Wiita are one of the few holdovers, mainly because I liked the idea of a bunch of alien kids turning out to be tiny evil aliens, although they were originally much furrier creatures before the Crites showed up in RP and took that niche. Gullstrand having guard dogs of sort would have still likely happened just to play off the rich man/mansion setup, and while it doesn't matter much, I did enjoy conceiving of the bubble mansions. Conceiving of how people got up to them was almost an issue though :V
Schwarzschild radius is the gravitational radius of a black hole, because you know I wouldn't use a name like Schwarzschild unless I had a direct reason for doing so! Sheriff Schwarzschild had me even more worried than police chief Niftu, because I was essentially not just adding another character to the police hierarchy, but one who would turn evil when I so often said I love how ZFRP cops aren't corrupt. Part of why he was hacked instead of complicit was to get around this barrier I had set up for myself, but finding a good cyborg sheriff was a battle and a half. Very few good cyborg cops that aren't robocop exist online, hence why the ones who helped Schwarzschild had a weird samurai motif because that was the best I could find. I did almost use a sort of Wild West steampunk sheriff I was not at all happy with, and I did initially consider having him be a more stereotypical sheriff character in that vein, but finding the Spider-Man villain Silvermane not only gave me a very good look for his unrevealed form, but it had a very clearly, mostly cybernetic body to work as the form he took. The body modification trend was meant to show how he slipped into trouble rather than being a willing participant, and having Schwarzschild portrayed as the man who fought back Black Hole initially but failed against The Curse added this extra layer to what would otherwise be too plain a villain. The body-cuffs he uses were originally part of an intended broader theme of each fight having a unique gimmick influencing how RPers fight as I mentioned in chat before but I was never happy with a gimmick for the final fight. I'd have to search chatzy for the rejected ideas... "Jumpropeman: originally the acid had a side effect too! It's the main ingredient in making someone a Hot Foot, and people would have got conditional fire powers where they burn themselves if they used htem. I scrapped that part due to who is present :V" "Jumpropeman: it also almost inflicted 100 sided die tractors" There you go! That's what past me said, and I always defer to him! He knows what he's talking about!
Quasar and Blazar have fairly obvious name inspirations, and both of these girls come from Gooseworx's music videos starring them as they dance in a loop to some dreamy outerspace techno! Blazar is definitely a big influence on the shape of the plot, although the Black Hole picture that inspired her that was going around the internet at the time definitely played a big role in having the gang get that name. The whole black mist element and all came from trying to further justify the gang's name while keeping the Mass Effect drug inspiration and Blazar let us get an actual black hole of sorts in the plot which I felt would be fun. Anyway, Quasar is the one with a longer history, her role this year not really decided until Blazar came along in Gooseworx's video and made it clear where I could put her. Before she had a name or role, Quasar was ANOTHER character considered to be Shimmer's antagonizer in 2019, but not in the same way as other candidates. Quasar's appearance would make Shimmer want to befriend her but Quasar just wouldn't be interested, often teasing Shimmer, dismissing her, or being playfully rude before it came out she just didn't care about her. I tried to conceive of other ways of including her in RP as a more friendly regular character but nothing really grew out of those musings until the Black Hole plot formed together.
Gullstrand and Painleve had the longest path to becoming Black Hole characters though, and they ended up the main faces of the plot! Their name comes from uh... "Gullstrand–Painlevé coordinates are a particular set of coordinates for the Schwarzschild metric – a solution to the Einstein field equations which describes a black hole." That. Of course, the names didn't come until they were made part of the Black Hole plot, and I don't think they had any names before then, only concepts. The idea of an alien that spoke by way of tapping water came about as one of my sci-fi concepts looking for a home, and with 2019 being in a sci-fi setting I wanted to whip some of them out. I usually end up getting lazy and not following through on these because they require art, but I was having fun inventing the history and practicality of such a species. They need large ears to hear the subtleties, have specific fingers fit for the tapping, their body produces the communication fluid, and since humans don't like being naked, I gave him clothes too! However, a species so committed to the condition of their hands wouldn't like to get them dirty working labor, so that's how Painleve's species was thought up, a way for them to not only communicate with the other species they encounter when they left their own planet, but Gullstrand's people could employ these creatures for hard labor and other tasks their delicate hands were meant for. The orange beasts would depend on their creators for sustenance to prevent rebellion, and I imagined the home world and all of them back when these two were going to be bargoers! Gullstrand was going to be an ambassador for his people, connecting them to the races of Earth to further the opportunities of his planet. However, he was no diplomat or scientist, because his people instead wanted to put what they thought was their best foot forward: a porn star. Well... not porn as we know it. Specific tapping styles and sounds were deemed incredibly present, so he's more like a porn musician, titillation the intent but it's not like he's talking about getting down with his taps. It's basically alien ASMR come to think of it! But, whether or not that's still canon in RP is for you to decide... Meanwhile, his personality was definitely changed for his villainous role, making him the ratty rich man behind it all, and Painleve is sort of his right hand tough man but with a more interesting personality than just muscle with a mouth. He was originally designed partially so the duo could fight in RP so he was good baddy for the finale albeit simple in what he could physically do. Crowding the finale probably helped him from having to carry to much in the end. I was pretty happy to see people picking up on the intents of their designs though!
Guess we should move onto THE LODGE now! After last year's Seven Wonders had a bit of a bumpy road, I pretty much told myself I was going to do a more traditional action heavy plot instead of something that tests people or characters on moral questions and all that. Straight up kill or be killed stuff... I mostly held to that!
Orm was our first true Hunter met, not something like Mr. Electric or Miyu. He was also technically one of the first made, although it was back when he was just the image of the TV headed character with the funky background and wings. I originally wanted all the powers of the Lodge to be grounded enough in reality and in some ways I like to think Orm used electrical illusions even though I kind of broke that by having his first channel have a water element. For a long time I had no clue what this TV head character was going to be and almost had it with no funky power. The Hunting Method idea didn't come along until more of the plot was fleshed out in my head so I considered some sort of straight battle for a while but had no cool plans for powers to back them up. The TV station thing came to me and I wasn't sure if I'd use it, but the original idea was people would be stuck in the illusions and then when they returned they'd find their bodies wrapped in wires thanks to little TV headed minions. That's where I almost used Monitamon before Gooper got to him instead, but it was a half-baked concept I didn't really like anyway. I kind of wish there were more TV stations to pull from but it's not TOO surprising there weren't, and I think the Anime Girl Vs. Bottle thing didn't go over too well since either the plot's tone was off or the running joke had died by then. Whatever the case, I just wanted a fun power and the electric worm idea came to me to ground this TV head body into my idea of the Lodge not having too many humanoid members. It was also too human of a design so I had to cook up a reason why it looked so human, hence Orm selecting it from a group of bodies he could have used.
Cyclosa was one of the earliest hunter concepts as well but more fully formed. The human deception was a pretty early idea and when reading Bogleech's series on spiders where he drew them as more arachnophobe-friendly gremlin designs, and there were definitely a few designs in there that I was tempted to lift and use in RP somehow. The puppet spider was perfect though, it gave me the perfect means for deception and an interesting fight angle in that he could control a bunch of decoys and such. The Twins were already in my Future folder but with no plans, I just lifted their somewhat creepy designs from some random tumblr blog full of similar weird CG designs, but they were a good way to deceive the reader into thinking that this human used them as his hunting method when really the human was fake! I wanted a good disguise for this false human and tried to think of something unassuming but familial so he could be sort of the dad to these two girls to make them a bit creepier, and that's how the search for Flying John begin as I had the image of the character in my mind but no idea of its source. Thanks to Sheep that changed, but I realized the Twins weren't interesting enough on their own to carry the whole fight. Even though I didn't play much in the creation of the mall, it did seem a good "normal" place for the ruse and soon my mind was spinning with ways to integrate it into Cyclosa's gimmick, hence the hiding and the store-themed minibosses. I definitely can't remember all the possible store bosses I imagined at this point and probably wisely said the others in chatzy but it was mostly a matter of picking a good store cluster. I figured I wanted some of the less likely to be explored locations without them being too plain and think I picked a good batch in the end!
Before I continue I think it would be fun to share some of the alien designs I considered but didn't use! Naturally, these aren't all of them and some might be stored for things like Roller Derby plot, but I plucked some random image and considered using them, some more than others.
The second guy even less so. It's just a Yugioh card design I liked that wasn't too human. I think it's called Helios and I probably would have had some sun or wrapping powers. Really not even close to half-baked.
The last two had a good chance of appearing though! In the prototype version of the plot event where Sokotem had other hunters helping her out, these guys could have filled the role. Siren Head and Long Horse are the creations of a guy who makes spooky looking monsters and blends them into real photographs with cryptic descriptions. Long Horse is basically just a horse head on a seemingly endless body and would have been weaving through Olympia's streets while Siren Head never got much further than "noises". Striking designs, but I'll probably not find a spot for them unless I deliberately try now.
Next... oh gosh, I guess we have THE WATERWORKS huh? SO, I'm sure I've said things have undergone drastic changes a lot here, but this might take the cake. Originally the Waterworks was conceived to tie into the first few characters I ever considered for The Curse: Nima, Billy Yoder, and Oscar from Jurassic Park: The Game.
Botrys, whose name is just a mild adjustment of Black Mold's scientific name, was always slated to be the Hunter of the hour here, even if this was more Sokotem's thing in RP. Botrys's whole deal originally was going to be that he wanted to hunt the Kobbers but wasn't going to go to them. Instead, originally he was going to send these three characters to the bar as messengers. He'd say something like "yes, this is a trap, but if you don't come fall for it then I'll contaminate Olympia's water supply" to get people to attack the waterworks. I considered him having control of a small creature that did the speaking for him, I also considered swapping in Dux, Bormin, and Farrow later when the Jurassic Park elements were being stripped away, but eventually the Botrys idea was pushed more and more into the background as less of a focus. He was going to have control of the Tylosaurus and Troodons though, the whole thing being their ability to work together intelligently because of him, but he'd also soon reveal everyone at the Waterworks is infected, including his three minions. Oscar would have found a black patch on his arm and just straight up cut of the limb to avoid being controlled, but it's likely Billy and Oscar would have been completely turned into pawns. Initially they would have stood to the side providing cover fire, Billy being a wisecracking sort and Oscar being rough and ready. He'd even comment when entering the bar that he could easily have killed someone because of the seemingly lax security of the place.
Nima had a much more complex background and would have possibly survived the ordeal. Nima was going to have a story to her that sort of ties to her game counterpart, except here she would be related to people who helped build Olympia. Not the architects, but the workers, who would have been mistreated and shoved into the Undercity after, so she was being set up to have more of a social battle or role in a greater Olympia change thing but she got axed with the boys when I didn't find the idea of using them or the Tylo as interesting anymore. I wanted to keep the Troodons as something Botrys could use though, but as I committed to Sokotem being a more constant presence in the plot, it soon became a good idea to have this be a sort of first true encounter with her since her day would be coming soon. Sub Slizer was of course added after I learned what my toy even was and the Plumbellinas and their plumbing pun names were roped in after I was reminded they exist, but Sarcastro was actually the first of the Curse members added to the Waterworks, mainly to finally get him out of my future folder. One episode of The Tick I caught on TV has stuck with me all my life because of its absurd heroes in training, one being the still unused Baby Boomerangutan I want to get in RP somehow but the other being Sarcastro here. His whole thing was just being a sarcastic jerk and I wanted to do that but was very fearful it would get annoying or old quickly, hence why he was dispensed with the way he was. I mean, technically he was doomed on that plot day anyway, but he was pretty much slated to be Botrys's new vessel once I decided against his more adversarial version.
Funnily enough, Botrys was originally considered as a much longer ally... potentially even a 2020 character! The idea would be he keeps appearing in new bodies, and since he's now "good" he would only be going through old stock who had no chance of living life normally again instead of claiming new bodies in a way that could unease people. More interesting though was that he'd be joining the Kobbers not as a friend, but because he got bored as a Hunter, believing he was better than all of them. Kobbers though, he'd want to outclass them, so he'd be trying to save people and stop villains all out of the idea that he wanted to outdo the Kobbers at their own game, basically be a superior hero who puts their efforts to shame. I've really wanted to RP a fungus for some reason but Botrys is not the way, and I figured most people would object to his concept so he turned into an uneasy temporary ally instead.
I'm sure Sarcastro had other accomplices before Sub Slizer... because Janga was one of them! Janga's a character I've wanted to use since I learned about him, his striking look and unrepentant psychotic nature making him a fearsome character even though he's from a series where characters are pretty cute. Klonoa's always been about the cute looks being balanced out by more serious ideas and situations, but Janga's original concept was just a guy who was keeping Sarcastro in line at the Waterworks and possibly would replace Oscar as lopping his own arm off. I even considered Janga being there as the day was approaching more and more and considered the arm loss as a way to make Janga's presence there meaningful. Janga really found his niche though and I was incredibly happy with the form he took in the end, my favorite Curse player who I know had to die but I felt like I could have had a bit more fun with his personality.
I guess I can mention a rejected Curse member here even though he's not totally relevant. I don't recall every possible Curse character I rejected, but one I do remember quite clearly is JP Spamley from Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Mostly, I was just interested in the potential of a living pop-up ad character. He was almost a joke Curse member hocking the Curse to people by ad, but he could have had powers like viruses and other negative abilities. Most likely he would have had joke fight powers, such as having famous pop up ads execute powers like a SHOOT THE BEAR! ad game shooting you or millions of singles spilling out on people. I considered making him a straight up good guy for 2020 as well! He could have been a sort of hard-light hologram or other form of sentient program given form working for Elliott. He would be brought to Olympia to advertise Deadly Duplication but he'd grow out of the role. In the movie he had a friend named Gort who sort of represented the Dark Web and I considered possibly using him as well for the more malicious stuff like malware, but I lost interest in the idea. I feel like Spamley, or at least a living pop up ad of sorts, could possibly appear in RP someday, but I might go full OC instead of just lifting the guy who inspired the idea.
Next would be the meeting with some hunters I believe. This is an old idea from the Lodge's start but the exact characters were up in the air for a long time. The main thing was I didn't want The Lodge to be a monolith of evil. I wanted their competency to be clear but I knew people wouldn't like leaving an entire place full of hunters running if they were all bad guys. I don't think I communicated the good side of the Lodge well sadly. There was an idea to visit an actual Lodge on some planet instead for talky stuff, probably with the Lodge AI at least briefly. I never did come up with a better design for the AI's physical form than a hologram of a fairly cliche old hunter human though. Anyway, the characters we could have talked to came and went and were cooked up and forgotten rapidly. One I liked was a guy who just wanted a worthy fight and would have backed down from hunting the Kobbers so long as one would face him in honorable combat where he'd be trying to kill that character but he of course could be spared. Cosmic Star Heroine came along though and the cast of that had plenty of potential for ZFRP. I considered a few of its characters, the disco dancing robot a fun character but a bit too silly for high ranking Lodge members, and the human character I like a lot from the game floated around as a possible character for future stuff but is probably being permanently shelved. The three we got were basically picked because they were the most alien, and while I did borrow ideas like Z'xorv being incapable of lying and Orson being a reanimated being from the game of course, I added extra layers to give us something to build from. Orson is just a detective in the game, and Psybe's whole thing in the game is he wants to keep his mind out of the collective instead of embracing it. The quandaries concocted was what sealed them as the hunters we would speak with, Orson's being the one I was least happy with conceptually because of its spiritual nature even though it's the idea I'd like the most independent of the Lodge. The other two aren't unfamiliar ground, but a guy who kills people because he thinks it makes their lives better is a fun antagonist concept.
Botrys's death was basically the nail for myself to avoid temptation and to big up The Lodge a bit more before our final fights with them. That virus guy is also a Complien and has been waiting for a chance to shine, although I worry I wasted a good look on something that could have been much more. I scrap so many ideas though sometimes I have to just move on and let old ideas die. I made it a tossaway character though in case it escalated to a fight, and there was potential for these characters to be added to the hunter group fight or dealt with in some small side thing sort of how the duelist alien that got rejected would have been. The time crunch felt present during this event though even though it was just talking, but I don't think you can do a long back and forth with big topics and maybe if I have ideas like this in the future I'll handle them in some new form. Probably not though! I'll make a square peg fit a round hole, and I'll keep adding non-actiony talky moral stuff to a plot meant to not really have that!
The Sokotem fight started as just an idea for a big batch of hunters fought all at once. Ideas like multiple people around the city being fought in minifights or simultaneously existed and this could have been a dumping ground for "Garbage Lodge" or half-baked guys like the space tick, but I really like the final form of it all. Hayne was a late addition to the Lodge lineup and for a long time I wanted to avoid saying too many top hunters in case I wanted to slip in new faces or, like with Alien Green, give some wiggle room for collaboration once that was growing to be a big 2019 thing. Hayne nearly was the exact kind of alien I didn't want outside of Just Human. He's a big burly humanoid thing who seems like he'd just hunt with his strength, but the same commercial that inspired his inclusion gave me an out. The fake bean commercial must have floated around early internet because I was nostalgic seeing it again, and those olm-like gills during his scream were perfect as a way of justifying a wild new power. State altering was such a fun battle gimmick, and it's not just geomancy by another name! Toying with foundational rules of reality is a power I'd love to toy with more or explore but it certainly feels too big for a protagonist to wield. It definitely made Hayne much better than generic brute. Alien Green was also a perfect addition for this battle, Gooper really playing him up after I feared I might have been putting too much pressure on what could have been intended as a joke character. I really liked the two host structure since I could participate with Miyu and all before she had to face off with giant Sokotem.
Giant Sokotem really relied on that art I found, not sure how I would have handled things without that fearsome look. But, we've already gone over her a lot! We need to move onto the big bad of the plot. Sokotem was the face of the Lodge, but Skywire embodied the threat it posed. It kills without emotion, it kills efficiently, and it can't just be blown up in an instant. I do so many villains whose threat level I deliberately knock down with jokes or breakdowns, but I almost didn't even give Skywire a voice. I wanted something that felt like fighting a catastrophe, a cataclysm, the Kobbers turning back an event instead of fighting a villain they could moralize to. Even Skyline was saying how she just can't understand him as another member of her species.
So where did the idea for Skywire come from? A podcast. Specifically, the Wisenheimers. One of the hosts was telling an odd anecdote about how he was walking down the street and suddenly he saw a large black wire hanging down from the sky. He had no clue what it was, but as he started moving it seemed to follow him. They went back and forth on what they thought it could be, such as a stroke hallucination or an actual downed line, but there was no answer on this strange wire dangling from the sky. I think it was probably just an eyelash hanging over or maybe even on his eye, but the mystery of that wire stuck with me. It's a comedy podcast so they didn't have any sinister ideas for what it could be, but the idea it was something fishing for him came naturally if you start to imagine it was malicious. The dangling from the sky was perfect for an alien invader too, and soon the ideas spiraled off into a massive being who sends down multiple wires to just stab and pull up whatever he found. I made sure the concept was grounded in some reality with how his planet and hunting methods should work outside of being a killing machine, and that foot in reality is one reason I didn't make him too massive. He's not some thing that drops down on a planet and covers it entirely as he kills, he's more like a cloud drifting across it and puncturing whatever he can spot, the invisibility one big way he is able to remain an unknown threat even as he slowly wipes out a world.
His physical appearance was a big question. I imagined at first a sort of starfish thing but with more than five limbs, a sort of rolling mass of flesh appendages the lines dangled from, but I didn't want to draw something that wasn't intimidating and didn't want comparisons to DC's Starro either even though it would be only skin deep. Whether it had visible eyes was a question too but I definitely wanted him to feel alien and impersonal so facial features were likely to be left out in any final form unless they were really striking. The image we got in the end is one I came across and was immediately captivated by. The limbs branching into smaller and smaller limbs was perfect for the idea of something with so many lines out to catch prey with, the little dome was a good explanation of the sky bladder, and it has both a weightless feel to it and and otherworldly look. It looks alive but lacks so much, and while I didn't want it to just be a space jellyfish, I think those upward facing limbs really helped it escape such comparisons. I of course waffled on which of my own characters to kill and tried to kill a bunch that would show the deaths weren't going to be permanent but could still be impactful. It's hunter nature was perfect for avoiding it killing any innocents, I'm not sure we could have such a giant murderous villain like Skywire again who would deliberately avoid the collateral damage. It had targets and it wanted them dead and stabbing randos didn't benefit it. I will probably dial back on the Specifically Targeting Kobbers plots after this though to avoid making the Kobbers feel too attacked. Salvagers, by the by, are only targetting Kobber characters as an extension of their general quarries, we happen to have a lot of exceptional people after all! I had thought for some time Skywire's design was a diagram of a spore, and reverse google searching it brings up abookofcreatures.com where it is identified as a madeup creature... but the guy borrows images for his fictional animals and cites the Voyages of the HMS Challenger from wikimedia... here we are! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radiolaria_(Challenger)_Plate_119.jpg The source! No idea how I found it initially and sorry for the little journey when I could have done the research first. The Gorgonetta Radiolara is apparently some form of sea life, possibly microscopic even! I'm done digging though, so there is the origin of what you know as Skywire!
I think... I'm done? Did I forget anything? Of course I did! But this is the part where I acknowledge that. This time though I really implore you to tell me if it feels like I left anything out. Sure, I didn't mention the inspiration for using guys like Atomic Flounder, but that was pretty much "I thought of them" for Minor Curse guys :V
So! Sorry for this taking forever to come out and I basically have to wrap this up quick or else it will no doubt be stuck in limbo even longer! I'll try to be on the ball more in the future but balancing this with life and other writing work has been hard to justify. Here's to 2020 going smoothly! I enjoyed my 2019 cast a lot, so much so that many are coming back, and thing the plots mostly came out okay, but 2020 is me getting into territory both more familiar and more experimental and I hope it all fits!
Thanks for reading!
