2015 Writing Challenge Week 2 - Wolverine Part 2

Alright, following the pattern I've set so far, this week's title should be "Week 3..." but it occurred to me how silly that is. Yes, I'm already three-days into the third week of the Summer Writing Challenge, but I don't TELL you about it until NEXT Wednesday. So, for instance, last week's title was misleading since it had Wolverine in the title, but the bio was for Neo-Gambit.

Anyway, starting next week, the title will be about the PREVIOUS challenge week and the character I reworked. I couldn't very well use the same exact title two weeks in a row in order to set that up, though. Hence, the "Part 2" to make it a LITTLE different. Anyway, enough of that.

Whoo-boy this week! Fourth of July was CRAZY! We were all expecting the week leading up to it to be nuts, but figured the Fourth itself would be dead because everyone would be at their parties/BBQs/Picnics. Instead, it rained nearly all day and everyone decided to shop for non-barbecue back-up food.

I'm so tired. On top of that, my aunt-by-marriage unfortunately lost her mom to cancer this past weekend. Sadly, I couldn't attend the funeral in support of her, but my mother did. Which meant no weekend visit from Mom. It was a sad reason to not get a visit, and it would have been cool to see Mom again so soon.

On the flipside, though, I DID just see my mom, I'll see her for my birthday later this month, and that meant I could concentrate on writing instead of frantic "Mom's Coming to Visit!" cleaning.

That didn't work out as planned. I tried. I really did. All week I went over pictures to try to figure out what Neo-Wolverine would look like. I watched shows and movies - Inside Out is FANTASTIC, by the way - and I played video games in an attempt to be inspired like how Mikoto from "K" inspired Neo-Pyro. I even used my Sunday Insomnia to stay up and customize a wrestler in the Xbox game WWE '13. I was hoping SOMETHING would strike me.

Months back, I sent a long list of names to Phfylburt. Name options for Neo-Wolverine once I decided I wanted him to be Latino. We narrowed it down to a name I had only heard once or twice before: Mateo. For months Neo-Wolverine was Mateo. While I enjoyed the name, something about it seemed off to me. It didn't seem to have that same gruff punch as Logan - the name Wolverine goes by - or James - the name revealed to be Wolverine's birth-name. As I'll show in the character bio below, I even used the Cowboy Bebop character Jet as a starting reference. And even Jet had that umph that Mateo just didn't seem to have. On top of that, ever since I decided on Mateo - mostly for the originality of the name in fiction - the name's been popping up everywhere.

While the name is Spanish in origin, most of the characters with the name were African American. A good sign since Phfyl really wanted me to have Neo-Wolverine be half-black so Lucas would be more likely to bond with him. The not-so-good sign? Most of these black kids were these lanky nerds. That pretty much confirmed it for me. Neo-Wolverine needed a new name.

Which is why I focused so much on the appearance of him first. If I could figure out what I wanted him to look like, I could call him Mateo and see if the two fit. Eventually - and by that I mean about 5pm on Sunday - I did figure out what he looked like, and Mateo did NOT fit. I then went through my list of about 20 other names; spending HOURS on babynames.com to try to figure out which names I liked, which names I liked the meanings to, and which names fit this new image of Wolverine.

Eventually, Hubby and I decided that Dominic fit the look and that gruff punch feel that I wanted. The only snag is that the one main character in the Fast and the Furious franchise is named Dominic and also goes by Dom. On top of that, both that Dom and Neo-Wolverine have younger sisters they're super protective of, AND they both work outside the law. Do I want people to think "Vin Diesel" whenever the character comes up? There really weren't any other names that I liked as much, though. So, I'm hoping the character is different enough that people won't think "Fast and the Furious" or "X-Men" when they see Neo-Wolverine.

The next hardest bit was to figure out his powers. I wanted him to have the core-power of an enhanced healing factor so that he can remain a badass. I wasn't sure about the others though. I knew he couldn't have the bone-claws. That's blatant Wolverine. Same with giving him a metallic skeleton. Hubby and I also agreed that - for the same reason as the lack of metal bones - Neo-Wolverine can't be one of the Glitches that was once experimented on, even if it did give him and Lucas some sort of bonding topic.

We did agree that he should keep his heightened senses as well, but tweak them a bit. Hubby came up with the idea that instead of being able to see clearer and father, that Neo-Wolverine can see more of the color spectrum; namely Infrared. Hubby suggested that just his right eye could switch to infrared, but I'm trying to figure out why both eyes wouldn't. It is a cool image though. Hubby equated it to the X-Men character Cable:

Strangely, even though I'm focused on reworking X-Men characters, when Hubby suggested just one eye glowed - especially the right one - I didn't think of Cable. My mind instead went to the ReBoot character Matrix:

Whose eye glows red when he uses it to lock on to a target with his gun:

Both characters have artificial eyes, though. Cable was infected with a techno-organic virus as a baby and lost his left eye, arm, and leg to it. Matrix lost his eye in a Mortal-Kombat-like fighting game. That's why only one of their eyes glow: it's fake.

So why would Dominic only be able to switch one eye in to infrared? We also postulated that perhaps he was born with one eye that saw only in infrared and the other saw the rest of the color spectrum. He then would wear an eye patch similarly to how pirates legitimately wore them: one for "day seeing" and the one kept under the eye patch was set for "night vision".

Not really sure yet. There's still some bugs to work out of this character build, but the main skeleton is set enough for me to be satisfied that I hit my two-week goal of character reworking.

So, here is basically what I have for Neo-Wolverine:

New Name: Dominic "Dom"
Basic Info: 42yrs old, 6' 1", 240lbs, Deep Brown, almost black hair and stormy grey eyes
Powers: Norm-Beast Glitch with Elevated Senses and Healing
He can heal at an elevated rate - although I'm not sure yet HOW much faster he heals compared to normal humans - and he has heightened senses. Being a Beast-class Glitch, his powers developed in the womb, instead of manifesting at puberty. He has always had the elevated senses and healing. He can pick up scents like an animal, he can hear more clearly and further - again, like an animal - and his elevated touch allows him to pick up vibrations easier. For instance, when a person touches railroad tracks to determine if a train is out of sight down the line. Elevated taste; I haven't really thought of a cool feature for that one, aside from him being a great chef. With a literal blink of an eye, he can switch his sight over in to infrared. I still have a little tweaking to do for the power-set, especially since I want to come up with a name for someone with elevated senses and healing at the same time. All the terms I come up with don't seem to work: biomechanics - because of how his body works comparatively - biofunction, bioreaction, bioreception, etc.
Physical Appearance: Even though he's an inch shorter and 60lbs heavier than Ryder, Dom is all muscle. He's a bit blocky in stature, but he's ripped. His hair is feathered and slicked back. He keeps a scruffy beard because it's too much effort to shave every day or groom a full beard. He has mostly Latino features, but his skin color is a bit darker; like creamy hot chocolate.
He's casual; wearing jeans and work boots typically. He also favors tank-tops and t-shirts; ones that are formfitting enough to show off his muscles underneath, but also loose enough that he's comfortable in them and can easily move. He also enjoys wearing either loose vests, or open shirts and he rolls the sleeves up to his shoulders. When it's colder out he wears denim cover shirts and leather jackets. He doesn't really have much of a typical color palette to his wardrobe, but he is finicky about the material he wears/sleeps on due to the heightened touch. More often than not, he wears second-hand clothes because they've been "worn in" and they're softer.
He attempted piercings when he was younger, but his healing closed up the holes almost as soon as he took the piercings out. As an adult, no one can even tell he had piercings in the first place. I'm still debating if his healing would have the same effect on tattoos, but if he can keep a tattoo, it would be his sister's name in her handwriting across his right peck.
These were the images I found to help inspire the appearance of Dom:

Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop

Spanish actor Javier Bardem

Personality: He has a hard time expressing his feelings - aside from rage - and has always been that way. The only ones he ever truly showed his affection towards were his mom and sister. He rarely smiles, but when he does it generally means he's about ready to kick some serious ass. It's been years since someone has heard him laugh. He does generally snort a laugh if the situation is humorous enough. His "resting face" is typically the boarder-line scowl seen in the above pictures.
This isn't to say that he's dead inside. He does feel the full range of emotions, he just has a reserved way of expressing them. For example, if he's sad he'll avoid eye contact, slouch, and keep quiet. If he's happy he'll be talkative and energetic, have a twinkle in his eye, and have a hint of a grin. If he's proud he'll give a hardy slap on the back and say something encouraging, but not TOO encouraging: e.g. - "Hey, you managed to do the whole obstacle course without falling flat on your face that time." If he's disappointed he'll give the cold shoulder and typically state something demoralizing, but with a hint of a challenge to prove him wrong: e.g. - "And here I thought I was getting somewhere with you, I guess you are a hopeless cause." If he's feeling protective he pretty much resembles a mother bear protecting her cubs; scoops the protectee behind him and literally growls at the attacker.
He's a private guy that keeps to himself. Not too many people know much about him. He's a mystery to people he doesn't let in, and those he does let in only know what they witness.
Not-so-brief History: Born and raised in a Glitch Slum right outside the New York City boroughs. His father was out of the picture since Dom was about 2; probably left once they realized Dom and his younger sister Cecilia were both Glitches, but I haven't quite decided on that yet. Whatever the reason, Dom didn't have a father figure, which is why he's so closed off. He needed to be the tough Man of the House. He coasted through school and got into a lot of trouble. He ended up joining a street gang, and his powers allowed him to climb the ranks fairly quickly. Cecilia - whom Dom called Cici - was the polar opposite. She did well in school and focused on extra-curricular activities and after-school jobs to keep her out of trouble. She still knew the neighborhood was bad, and so one of the extra-curricular activities was martial arts. She was a black-belt karate master, knew kickboxing, and started a women's self-defense course in high school. As much as Cici didn't want her activities funded by dirty money, nearly all that Dom brought home from the gang went towards her education.
Cici ended up going to one of the few colleges that allowed Glitches to enter their prelaw program: NYU. She met "Neo-Kitty" there as her roommate. They became instant best friends, and since Neo-Kitty lived on the West Coast, she was welcome at Cici and Dom's home for short school breaks: Homecoming, Thanksgiving, Easter, and Spring Break. Neo-Kitty became a surrogate second sister to Dom.
Over winter break Cici's sophomore year, Dom was in the middle of taking down a rival drug distributor when Cici was abducted. Using his Underground contacts, Dom found out that she was taken by the government agency GPS - Glitch Placement Services. They were the ones responsible for setting up the Glitch Slums and relocating known Glitches into these "reserved neighborhoods". GPS had a secondary, hidden agenda that not even all GPS officers knew about. The most secretive branch of GPS was in charge of "placing" Glitches into experimental labs. GPS mostly focused on "cleaning up the streets" of abandoned and/or orphaned Glitches so that no one would notice them missing. I'm still trying to figure out why GPS picked up Cecilia.
It kept him a couple weeks, but Dom was able to use his Underground channels to find the GPS lab in a closed off former NY subway tunnel. He broke in, but found his sister dead. He helped a handful of Glitches escape, among them were Lucas Kinney and Geoffrey "Fidget" Wilkins. After destroying the facility - a) so no one can be experimented there ever again, b) out of pure anger, and c) so that no one can trace the government attack back to him - he took in Lucas and Geoff.
Somehow - I haven't figured it out yet - Dom was able to get out of the gang so that he could dedicate his time to protecting the boys, as well as Neo-Kitty, from the GPS and all others that would wish harm on Glitches. While keeping a watchful eye on Neo-Kitty, the two studied together, and both learned of the teachings of Neo-Xavier; a strong Glitch advocate. While Neo-Kitty saw the teachings as ones similar to Martin Luther King, Jr., Dom saw them in a more Malcolm X aggressive light. This differing view of how Glitches and Norms should co-exist made it easier for Dom to let Neo-Kitty move back home after graduation, and without a bodyguard any longer.
In California Neo-Kitty met Ryder and married him. Then the couple moved to Upstate New York where she built a Glitch orphanage and school in honor of Cecilia. Dom wanted to help at the school, but their differing views of Neo-Xavier's teachings still caused friction. Dom instead bought nearby property and - with Geoff's help as a Techno Glitch - built "The Arcade". He trains any of the orphanage's students that wish to learn self-defense against Glitch-Haters. He also trains adult Glitches with the sole purpose of using them as a team to guard Neo-Kitty and her school/orphanage.
Much to Neo-Kitty's equal-parts delight and dismay, Dom is a mentor and psuedo-uncle-figure to Chayse.

Whoo! Sundays seem to be my super productive days. Either that, or Deadline Crunch Time is my most productive, considering all the above was figured out more-or-less between 5pm and 11pm Sunday night. Thanks to some soundboarding with Hubby.

Either way, it got done and again posted MOSTLY on time. I think I posted in the Writers’ Huddle at about 1am my time. It just frustrates me that it kept me about two hours to type up a rough skeleton and then post on the forum because my computer kept lagging hard-core.

This week I am actually working MORE than the standard part-time max of 35hrs. So, it's been a crazy work-week already. I knew I wasn't going to have much time to focus on character creation this week, and so I didn't want to really focus on either Neo-Charles Xavier or reworking Magma. I'm going to need a full week for those two.

My birthday is this month, and my family is visiting - for realsies this time - and so I knew I wanted to save a low-brain-power rework for that week; especially since I most likely won't have my normal Sunday Crunch Time to work.

Well, out of the four remaining - Xavier, Magma, Pyro, and Shaldowcat - two require a lot of work; as I already mentioned. Pyro and Shadowcat, on the other hand, are already started. So, I wanted to use one for this week - due to the lack of non-work time - and one for my birthday week.

Out of those two, Shadowcat is pretty much finished. I mean, thanks to Ryder and Dominic's backstories, hers is mostly written already. I also more-or-less have her powers figured out, and I've always had a mental image of her in my head that is JUUUUST different enough from the comics and X-Men: Evolution that I can solidify it as an "original" look. Really, the only things I need to do to finish her off is FINALLY decide on a name, write backstory leading up to her going to NYU, finish off any tweaking of her powers, and decide on her family-life. Honestly, the hardest part will probably be choosing a new name for her.

So, Kitty is on reserve for the week of July 20th. Which means I'm working on finishing up Iggy's build this week! It's been a bit challenging so far since I haven't really had the brainpower to do much. I'm foreseeing another Sunday Crunch Session, but I'm hoping to at least have him done by midnight this time.

Who should I work on next week? Both are important, but minor background characters that won't get much "book time". Still, they ARE crucial to the development of the other characters. So, who will be next week, and who should be the last week of the challenge?

Xavier and Magma, who would you like me to work on next? Drop me your suggestion in the comment section.

2015 Summer Writing Challenge Week 2 - Wolverine

Happy first of the month! Don't get those often with this blog update.

It was a crazy week, but I was able to get the first week of the summer challenge done.

Why was it a crazy week? Well, first and foremost, it was graduation week, and so work was insanity. On top of that, I was rushing around trying to get myself ready for this past weekend.

Why?

This past Monday, June 29th, my mother celebrated 20yrs of being cancer free! My sister has been running around like a chicken with her head cut off since January in order to throw our mom a surprise party this past Saturday.

It was fantastic! First was the initial surprise of the party itself. Hubby had convinced me to hide, and so my mom had another surprise when she finally saw me. If that wasn't big enough, her brother - who lives on the other side of the country - was able to fly in with his daughter - my mom's goddaughter. Mom hasn't seen them in a few years. So, yeah, them showing up a bit late to the party was actually perfect. My poor mother needed a box of tissues.

However much fun this weekend was, it still really hindered my ability to write the past week. Especially since I've been working on a crocheted pillow for my mom. Man, the amount of times I've wanted to state since April that I've been behind on writing because I've been working on that. Of course I couldn't, otherwise I would have ruined the surprise for Mom.

Still, I was determined to follow through with this challenge, which means I had to find SOME time to rework Gambit in to an original character for my X-Future reboot. So, this Sunday I stayed up until 2am - which, technically, was 2hrs late - so I could spend about six hours of researching in order to get my weekly goal done.

So, here is the abridged version of my character rework:

New Name: Ryder
Basic Info: 44yrs old, 6' 2", 180lbs, Brown hair and eyes
Powers: Silver Tongue Mind Glitch
Long and short - he can verbally hypnotize people. However, he can't hypnotize people in to doing something they're morally opposed. He also can't hypnotize other Mind Glitches. He also can't hypnotize people who know the suggestion is false.
Physical Appearance: Typically wears darker colors; mostly black, but does switch it up with browns, deep crimson reds, or dark navy blues. Generally wears tighter straight-legged jeans or casual black slacks. Preferred footwear are lighter boots that don’t hinder his natural light-footing but also provides good ankle support. He also tends to sport either a light, black trench coat or a black motorcyclist jacket. His outfits are generally picked for comfort and the ability to quickly blend into the crowd. He avoids things like piercings, tattoos, or even flashy outfits/accessories/vehicles so that it’s harder for people to remember him and/or pick him out in a line-up. He’s just one of the faceless masses.
It's just easier to show the picture I found as an inspiration to Ryder:

yum.
Personality: Casual, playful, suave, but can be deadly serious when the time calls for it. He’s a bit juvenile on occasion; especially when hanging with his son. Prior to meeting his wife, he was a lady’s man and a bit of a player. Even after nearly two decades, the reputation of being a flirt still sticks with him - as does the reputation of being a “bad boy”; so much so that even his son Chayse is stuck with those labels.
He was also a bit self-centered and narcissistic prior to meeting "neo-Kitty".
Super Brief History: Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. Realized his powers when he was about 12. Became a promiscuous young teen and progressed in to a trouble-maker; joyrides, theft, underaged drinking, gambling, breaking and entering, etc. He dropped out of school and left home at 17. He used his life of crime to live comfortably until 21 when he accidentally conned a group of crime syndicate members. To save his life he immigrated to California as a refugee. He met Jacob Driver in a poker game. When Jacob's Glitch power failed to con Ryder the later attempted to use his own powers to convince Jacob to pay double the amount he was supposed to. When THAT failed they realized they were both Mind Glitches and became fast friends.
They created a small con-artist group of 20 that they co-lead until Ryder met "Neo-Kitty". When he crashed and burned with her - the first woman to ever turn him down - he became obsessed with trying to woo her. He ended up leaving the life of crime, became legit, and then married "Neo-Kitty" when he was 28. He kept in touch with Jacob, which is how Willow made her way to the orphanage in order to learn how to control her powers.

Now, my mother might be swinging up here for the long-weekend on Friday, even after seeing us earlier this week. Which means I'll be spending a lot of this week cleaning the apartment as well as the crazy work-week leading in to Independence Day. Not much writing free time again, so this will be interesting.

Now, AngelBlood666 requested that my next rework be Wolverine. Luckily, I have him started, and so it's not as much work for this busy week as if I were working from scratch. Downside? I'm having the hardest time re-imagining him as anyone BUT Wolverine. It was a lot easier once I found the above reference picture for Ryder, and when I saw Makoto in K; the inspiration for Iggy. I need to do more research to try to figure out how Neo-Wolverine looks. Perhaps finishing up his build will be easier then. Especially since I'm still not completely convinced that I like the name Mateo. I'm hoping that once I know what he looks like I'll be more confident in naming him.

We'll see how this goes.

I'm So Good At This Naming Thing, Guys!

To start, I want to remind everyone that today is Earth Day. If you haven't done so already, please take a moment to reflect on your lifestyle, and try to find places to improve so that the world is a cleaner and healthier place.

• Do you conserve as much energy as you can?
• Do you recycle whenever possible? 
• Do you use reusable bags when shopping? If not, do you reuse or recycle the grocery bags?
• Do you carpool or leave the car in the driveway every once in a while? Especially when you're staying local?
• Is there a place for you to start/maintain a garden or a new tree? Is there a community garden you can help maintain?

There's tons of other options for you to make minimal changes to your own life and make a still-powerful impact on the environment. Plus, things like gardening and commuting on foot/bike/skates/skateboard/etc really help improve your mood and health. Conserving energy - as well as leaving the car behind - helps you save money. Even using reusable grocery bags can benefit you right along with the environment: you don't have plastic bags cluttering your house/trash, you don't have the headache of the bags ripping open on you, you can usually fit more in the reusable ones, and so you have fewer bags to carry in to the house, and some stores even give you credit for using your own bags when shopping.

Anyway, enough with the PSA. Let's get to why you're here: to see how my writing has been coming along.

Weeeeelllll......

I hit that dreaded wall. A full week and not a new word on paper. Not to say I had all Zero Days. I've done a lot of work this week, just none in advancing that doomed script.

Mostly, I've been trying to figure out my original rewrite of Wolverine. Since so much of the next portion of the comic deals with the creation of the orphanage and the arcade - both still need actual names, by the way - I really need to figure out at the very least the NAMES of my versions of Shadowcat and Wolverine.

I mentioned last post that Shadowcat doesn't have a new codename yet, but her first name is now Margaret. I still need to come up with a new last name and decide if she's still Jewish. The religious/ethnicity factor isn't all that important right now, though. I just know she has to be Caucasian still - as is Neo Gambit - in order for Chayse to remain as such. Although... changing her ethnicity slightly and giving Chayse more tan/olive complexion wouldn't be so bad...

As for Wolverine? Well, over the last week I decided to change the famous Canadian mutant in to one of the minorities I wish to bring in to the comic; to introduce diversity. Keep in mind, most of the people who play(ed) X-Future are White, and so it's only natural that most of us envisioned a White character. While I'm stubborn when it comes to changing the ethnicity of the original characters I'm transferring over, I figured I could add in the diversity though the Marvel characters since I have to completely rewrite them anyway.

At first I landed upon an African American Wolverine for a little bit. However, one of the characters - Roscoe - is... well... it's a bit complicated. See, Roscoe's mom Psylocke was born a Caucasian Brit, but at some point in time her body became manipulated/replaced with the Asian body most people think of when picturing her. So, technically Roscoe is part Black and part Asian?

Point is, we already have one Black character. Although, I'm not sure if we're keeping Roscoe. I'm sort of merging him with Liam in the rewrite since the two were BFFs in the game, and Roscoe's player was rarely on; meaning he didn't have much character growth. So, when I create the Roscoe/Liam Mash-up, do I make him White British - Liam - or do I make him Black/Asian British - Roscoe?

Either way, there is a more prominent character - Lucas Kinney - who is also half-Black. He's definitely a character being used in the comics, and he's almost definitely being altered so he's fully African-American.

Sure, I could make Wolverine Black as well. Why should I restrict this race to just one or two characters when there are going to be about a dozen White characters? Wolverine also takes on Lucas as a ward; very Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Perhaps having both characters be of African decent will help them bond and seem more like a family. At the same time, it seems too easy. "Of course the Black man has a heart of stone except for when he sees a Black kid..."

The more I thought of Wolverine, the more I pictured my remake of him as Latino. That way his love for Lucas goes beyond sharing a race. It also adds more diversity. Plus, now that Amara is Native Hawaiian instead of Brazilian, I lost some of that Latin culture; although, technically Brazilians descended from Portugal, and so I don't know if they count in the "Hispanic" culture...

Whatever, it doesn't mean I won't be adding more Blacks in to the comics at some point as I rework everyone. I'm just saying that as of right now Wolverine's character rewrite feels more Latino. I'm still deciding on the origins though. Not many American works of fiction tend to focus on Central or South America when writing Hispanic characters, so there's that. However, I feel like it might be because most Latin immigrants are from Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Mexico - and then from Spain itself. So those are the top four contenders, especially with President Obama starting to negotiate an end to the Cuba Embargo. Which means the near-future setting of the comic might be in a world where Cubans have just as pseudo-easy a flow to and fro as Puerto Ricans or Mexicans.

Honestly, I think I'm leaning on Cuban the most, but the true origins of Wolverine's heritage is of little consequence as of right now. I have time to figure it out.

What I'm really struggling on is his new name. I had a handful that I liked - as I mentioned last post when I first brought up the idea of a Latino Wolverine - and I added in some more that I found off of Spanish and Mexican "Top Ten Names" lists. My current list for Wolverine is 14 names long! My top 5 picks?

• Rafael
• Raul
• Diego
• Mateo
• Javier

No clue on a last name. I'm going to have to randomly generate last names or something. I know I should put in as much effort as I do with the first names because last names hold power and meaning as well, but for me - especially since the first names and codenames will be used 90% of the time - last names are sort of inconsequential.

Not to say I won't double check the last names that are randomized to see if I like them enough to keep.

Gambit, Pyro, and Xavier are the next ones I need to figure out new names for...

Characters aren't the only things I need to name, though. As I mentioned, I still need to figure out a name for the orphanage Margaret opens up and the arcade Neo Wolverine builds. Out of the two, I feel like the orphanage should have "Sanctuary" somewhere in the name, but I can't get it quite right.

Of course, there's my street-gang-turned-terrorists version of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants that I need a name for. As well as my Purifiers-equivalent group of Anti-Mutant terrorists. But there's someone in between these two extreme terrorist groups, and to be frank, the Brotherhood only switched from gang to terrorists in order to hunt down the Purifiers. This third main faction I need to name is the equivalent to the Mutant Response Division. They are a special police/military force in charge of mutants; controlling them, protecting normal humans from them, and protecting mutants from both other mutants and human hate crimes alike.

Granted, the MRD were ACTUALLY formed as a legal way to exterminate mutants under the guise of protecting the rest of the world populous. This is where I'm going with my organization, but with a bit more of a Secret Federal Agency flair. On the surface, this group is in charge of corralling Glitches in to ghettos under the facade of protecting both the Glitches and humans easier. Now, before I continue, I feel I should clarify. These ghettos aren't EXACTLY like the ones we picture today. They're more like the ones formed at the turn of the 20th century when immigrants were grouped together based on perceived ethnicity. Places like Little Italy, Little China, Little Hong Kong, Little... Anything, really... they're all ethnic ghettos built up in to cultural mini-cities within major urban areas. This is closer to what the Glitches are forced in to; not terrible slums - although they were originally those bad living conditions - but they are restricting and overcrowded. Plus, Glitches don't have the right to live wherever they want like normal humans can.

Anyway, back to my version of the MRD. See, by keeping Glitches in ghettos they can keep humans out of that area in order to prevent hate crimes, and they can keep better watch of the Glitches to make sure they aren't terrorizing normal humans with their powers. This creates a public mask of a specialized law enforcement agency in charge of keeping peace and protecting the whole population against the hateful strain between normal humans and Glitches. In truth, there are probably only bottom-rung members who actually believe they are peacekeepers.

Sort of like beat cops in a corrupted precinct, these poor schmucks don't realize that the true task of this organization is to clean the streets of abandoned Glitches - ones no one will notice missing - in order to experiment on them. Well, to be fair, if they can get away with it, the organization will kidnap any Glitch in order to experiment on/exterminate them. They just focus on the homeless under the sadly true assumption that no one will pay any mind to them disappearing.

Lucas was one of these unfortunate victims - but he was later saved by Wolverine, who may or may not have gone through the same trials; I'm not sure yet. Part of me does want him to have been experimented on as a driving force for him wanting to shut down the secret facility Lucas was being held in. At the same time, though, the actual Marvel Wolverine is renowned for being violently experimented on before finally having his skeleton fused with the fictitious metal alloy adamantium. I feel like perhaps I should purposely AVOID experimentation on my version specifically for that reason. Maybe Wolverine just wanted other Glitches to be safe, and that's enough motivation. Maybe he was mistreated by authority due to being a Glitch, and that's his driving force. Maybe he was in an internment camp similar to the ones the Japanese-Americans were forced in to during WWII. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually.

But back to the organization. When it comes to the name of it I wanted to try to stick with the cyberpunk feel and have it sort of tech-related, at least the acronym. But what government agency would really play in to that? For instance, while mutants are Glitches, those trying to isolate and eliminate glitches could be called "Programmers" or "Anti-Virus" or something stupid like that. Now, I could see people possibly nicknaming the group those things - like how police are "Copper" or "Pig" or "Popo" - but what self-respecting agency would purposely name themselves that?

The way I'm trying to come up with the name of the agency is sort of three-fold. First, I went through a bunch of acronymed agency names that Marvel came up with: SHIELD, ARMOR, HAMMER, SWORD, MRD, O*N*E, etc. I really take in the way these organization names are formed. Then I came up with a list of key words that I think of when picturing the organization, or at least how they present themselves to the public. Here's my list so far:

• Glitch(es)
• Apprehension
• Monitor(ing)
• Patrol
• Squad
• Division
• Agency
• Preemptive
• Protect(ion)
• Peacekeeper/Peacekeeping

The last part is the hardest; I go through the list and piece some words together to make a cohesive name that also has a decent acronym. Part of me thinks that the above list is a good start for the last phase of this naming thing, but another part feels I'm missing some major word or words that will really make or break the agency name. Especially because the list of names I came up with so far is pathetic:

• Preemptive Apprehension of Glitches (PAG)
• Glitch Apprehension Patrol (GAP)
• Glitch Apprehension Division (GAD)
• Glitch Patrol Squad/Glitch Protection Squad (GPS)
  • I actually like this one a little bit because of the GPS acronym. It's semi-techie, plus the organization is trying to locate Glitches, so the acronym sort of works. I can even joke with it a little by having the officers' street names - like Popo or Pig - be GPS brands: Navigon, Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, etc.

I just need to think of a better "S" than squad, I think... Either that, or start branching out to more than 3-word names.

Anyway, this past Sunday poor Phfylburt had the above Wall O' Text sent to him for some feedback. The guy is still wading through everything to try to figure out what advice he can send back. Maybe I should send the guy a fruit basket or something to thank him for all the countless hours he spends trying to sort out MY stories while he's also trying to figure out his own.

In the meantime, I think I'm just going to jump ahead a few pages and get back to some action. Maybe working with Chayse, Devon, Willow, and Lia again will spark something with the world build. At the very least it will add a few pages to the script.

I've also gone back recently and slowly started rereading what I've edited so far in Please, Let Me Explain. It's a good thing, too, because I'm still finding things that I missed originally: typos, poorly worded sentences, unneeded adverbs, etc. I know I wanted to post a new chapter every month, and I'll now be two behind, but at least it gives Ronoxym a bit more time to get back to the story. The guy has gone radio silent the past few months. I've seen neither hide nor hair of the guy since his wedding; not in real life or online. I've seen his wife Cyhyr both IRL and online, though, so....

Eh, doesn't really matter. I have my own things to sort through still. Plus, I have another chapter's worth of the story to still edit. I trust he'll get back to the story... EVENTUALLY.

**UPDATE**

Well, I don't really have the time to go back and rewrite the end of this post, so I'll just sort of do a P.S. down here.

Coincidentally, right after I finished writing this post and scheduled it for the noon publication I received 2 IMs. One from Phfyl getting back to me about my Wall O' Text. We narrowed down the Wolverine name possibilities, and decided he'd be half Latino and half African. That way there's SOME ethnic connection between him and Lucas. Mainly because Phfyl doesn't think the Lucas he created would follow discipline well from Wolverine unless they had SOME connection. In X-Future that connection was that Lucas' mom was cloned from Wolverine, making the Canadian a sort of uncle/grandfather figure. I think Phfyl also nailed the name of the police force organization. I'm gonna play around with the name for a little to make sure I really do love it as much as I think I do. I'll officially announce it next week if all goes to plan.

So, thanks, Phfyl for yet again helping me out of a jam!

The real big shocker was the 2nd IM: Ronoxym!

Yeah, just out of the blue. He's been writing lately - a show pilot, no less! Happy Script Frenzy! - and that made him think of me. D'aw. So he just wanted to say hey and prove he was still alive. It's been great catching up with him - and Cyhyr, who popped in briefly too.

Rebuilding Canon Characters

It's been a little while since I last talked about MY writing. I don't mind if you don't. I personally liked taking a two-week time-out in order to discuss the two articles I read about procrastination. However, that time-out did cause me to completely forget what I last talked about in regards to my own writing.

In case you're like me and forgot where I last was in my own writing - and you're too lazy/pressed for time to go back and actually re-read Shadowcat and Wolverine Take Center Stage, here's a quick recap:

• I discussed how, whenever I'm stuck, I just let a nameless/faceless narrator talk about the world of Glitches, and that usually gives me the background I need to get through the issue I'm having.
• I discovered through letting my narrator just talk that homeless Glitches - mostly teens - were being snatched up by the government. This act simultaneously drove "Kitty" to start up the orphanage, and "Logan" to create The Orb and The Building Room as training rooms - disguised as arcade games - to teach self-defense to Glitches.
• "Kitty" can't stand the idea of The Orb or The Building Room, and thinks that the government will see both as "terrorist training" and will use it as an excuse to attack. Therefore, not only does she deny "Logan's" request to build them at her orphanage, but she also forbids her students from using them.
• Phfylburt's one character Lucas Kinney would most likely be one of the Glitches snatched and experimented on by the government. The reason "Logan" adopted him was that he was one of the few surviving children once "Logan" was done with his raid on the facility. The two have a weird part-fatherly/part-older-brotherly relationship similar to what Batman's Bruce Wayne has with his first Robin: Dick Grayson. 
• After saving Kinney from the facility, "Logan" is even more determined to try to train Glitches to protect themselves. After a few years of covert training of some adult Glitches - via The Orb and The Building Room - "Logan" creates a sort of X-Men-Like task force whose duty is to protect "Kitty's" orphanage and other helpless Glitches in the area; while simultaneously trying to recruit more powerful Glitches to help train self-defense against "Norms" and the government.
• Some of the children at the orphanage catch wind of what "Logan" is doing and sneak over to his arcade for some training as well. "Kitty's" son Chayse is essentially the head of this student brigade; much to "Kitty's" dismay.
• At some point, Willow will either bring Devon to the arcade to introduce him to The Orb, or when hearing that Devon's loyalty is in question, "Logan" will bring him himself. Either way, Devon is going to end up using The Orb as the "Danger Room Catalyst" scene from X-Future; shattering people's trust in the poor kid.
• I also determined that "Kitty" was more of the "bleeding heart" that wanted to peacefully do whatever was necessary to co-exist with Norms. She'd do peaceful protests, give speeches to the government and public in attempts to change their minds, and take care of the "lost children". "Logan", on the other hand, was more of a realist. He too wanted to simply co-exist, but he also knew that Glitches would need to fight for their rights; sometimes literally. He feared that being peaceful like "Kitty" would take too long and too many Glitches' lives would be lost since they wouldn't fight back in self-defense.
• Basically, "Kitty" would be this world's Martin Luther King, Jr. while "Logan" is Malcolm X; except he wants integration as well....
• Lastly, I tried to determine the relationship between "Kitty" and "Logan" since they're no longer co-headmasters of the Institute. I first thought they were siblings, and then I really focused on them being former lovers.
• Some other possible connections that I debated between were "complete strangers" and "friends" and "former classmates".

Well, I didn't really get much feedback from Hubby or Phfyl about any of the other stuff I talked about for the world build, but I did get feedback on the whole "Kitty and Logan being an item" thing.

Although they have to get completely different character redesigns to become originals, Phfyl and Hubby both still see "Kitty" as a woman in her mid-twenties and "Logan" looking about 35, but is actually closer to 200+yrs old. So the idea of them being an item kind of grossed them out.

They suggested just going with "They were former students of this world's equivalent of Charles Xavier." Perhaps they weren't literally former students of "Xavier," but instead he wrote a series of essays, books, articles, or gave speeches on the idea of co-existence between Glitches and Norms. Maybe both "Kitty" and "Logan" admire this "Xavier" via his published/broadcast work, but took away two different concepts from these "teachings."

"Kitty" would pick up "Xavier's" compassion, and desire for there to be just as much peace between Glitches and Norms as there are between races in the United States. Sure, there is still racism, and it's sickening. However, for the most part, someone's race isn't an issue any longer. No one really notices it. That was what "Xavier" envisioned for the future, and "Kitty" wants to take his peaceful approach to get there: publications, speeches, public service, peaceful protests, etc.

"Logan", on the other hand, also welcomes "Xavier's" dream for mutations to matter just as little as race does, but he focuses on "Xavier's" admittance that there is still racism and violent hate crimes. He follows the teachings that "we still need to learn how to defend ourselves against such ignorance and hate."

This puts the two at odds with each other, but they still realize that they're working towards the same end-goal. While they don't approve of how the other is getting to that end, they are willing to cooperate in order to combine their efforts and reach that equality faster.

Meanwhile, you have the extremist group Challengers of Heaven. This is more akin to Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants from the actual comics. The Challengers see no need to try to co-exist with Norms. They feel that Glitches are actually the next wave of evolution in humanity. Much like Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals. So incredibly similar, but there's just something about the former that is superior to the later, and that will eventually mean the former will win Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest." However, unlike Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals, the Challengers of Heaven are making sure Glitches have a heavy hand in the extinction of Norms; allowing their "species" the ability to reign supreme - at least, until the next great evolution roughly 70,000 years from now.

In the grand scheme of villainous factions, the reboot equivalent to "The Brotherhood" is just a punk street gang comprised of Glitches. They may be the most dangerous set of mo-fos, but they have no true goal of world domination or Norm extinction. They also hire out their members as Glitch mercenaries; resulting in a lot of laying in bed with Challengers of Heaven.

While I haven't figured out too much more about "Logan" beyond what I have above, I did a little more work on "Kitty" as well as started the reworking of both "Gambit" and "Multiple-Man." I just need to finish those reworks and figure out the other Marvel Canon characters that we're bringing over to the reboot.

Regardless of all that, I still feel like I accomplished a great deal in making "Kitty" and "Gambit" more original, while still retaining enough of their canon powers for Chayse to inherit. I haven't really heard back yet from Phfyl or Hubby as to what they think about all of this - another TL; DR issue - but for right now, here's what I'm thinking.

Chayse will still have phasing due to his mother's powers, but he'll actually be the one to figure out that he can use them that way. "Kitty" will essentially have Gambit's main power of Molecular Acceleration - as the Marvel Wikia classifies it. So, the ability to make cards go bang? "Kitty's" instead of Gambit's. Considering her maternal nature, I'll have to figure out how she mostly uses such a destructive power.

The easiest way to do both that and give Chayse his advancement in to phasing is to reclassify Gambit's powers. It's now Kinetic Manipulation. Not only can it be used the way Gambit does in the comics - which is him accelerating molecules until their kinetic energy builds up; hence the power name - but classifying the power as Kinetic Manipulation means it can be manipulated the other way: reverting kinetic energy back to potential energy. I'm not entirely sure if scientifically I can make this power plausible, so it's still in the works. However, essentially this would mean "Kitty" could do things like make a speeding car decelerate faster than it normally would, have a thrown object's trajectory be cut short as it falls to the ground, or simply removing the agitated energy she had previously put in to an object; "decharging" it. Like, if Gambit in the comics starts charging up a card to become an explosive, changes his mind, and removes the kinetic energy he originally stored up in it; reverting the card in to a simple, nonexplosive piece of cardboard.

Anyway, this classification of Kinetic Manipulation would rework Gambit's powers enough that they could be hinted at - with things like making average objects explosives - but not entirely recognizable. Especially if "Kitty" mostly uses it defensively by converting kinetic energy. Chayse doesn't really make things go "boom" either when he uses his powers; aside from a box of toothpicks he keeps with him, similar to Gambit's deck of cards. He uses it mostly to charge up his own body or his whip-like belt; adding kinetic energy so that the output is greater when used.

Chayse could then discover that he can build up enough kinetic energy in himself to make his own molecules vibrate fast enough to move between the empty spaces between molecules of the item he's phasing through. Obviously, the denser the object the smaller - or fewer - the empty spaces are and the harder it is for him to phase. However, this density problem already came up in-canon with Kitty's phasing power. In theory - I don't read comics enough to know if it's stated fact in them - Kitty's power DOES work by her moving her molecules within the empty spaces of the item she's phasing through. I just gave it a new reason as to how. Also, this would mean that Chayse's power isn't really a combination of phasing and making things explode. The phasing is just a new trick he learned to do using his natural gifts.

What are the powers he inherited from "Gambit" then, if it wasn't Molecular Acceleration? Well, seems Gambit has a few other powers that are derived from that one. Much like how Chayse's phasing is now derived from his Kinetic Manipulation. See, Gambit has heightened agility and dexterity due to his ability to tap in to the kinetic energy within himself. I already stated that Chayse essentially does the same; even more so once he Ascends. Gambit also uses this Molecular Acceleration to constantly keep charged potential energy around his body that he can then harness as kinetic energy whenever needed. This is more of a reflex thing that he doesn't consciously think about, but it causes static that makes it hard for telepaths to invade his mind, and near impossible for telepaths to even detect him. Finally - and one I didn't realize was a derived power; I thought it was a secondary one - Gambit has hypnotic charm due to his ability to "charge" kinetic energy in someone's brain; activating parts needed for Gambit to manipulate the person. It's a small manipulation, but it's enough for that person to find Gambit trustworthy. Because of this hypnotic charm, Gambit can convince people to believe what he says and/or agree to whatever he suggests.

Now, while Marvel did a great job at figuring out how Gambit can use his Molecular Acceleration power in order to have a nice loaded arsenal of other powers, they all don't have to derive from that parent power. We could make our version of Gambit be a "Mind" Glitch whose primary power is Charmspeak. Now, Rick Riordan already used the exact phrase "Charmspeak" for a power a daughter of Aphrodite has. Her mother's charm and seduction flows through her, allowing people to believe anything she says if she puts enough effort behind her words. I also have a sneaking suspicion that D&D also used either that phrase or a similar one in regards to boosting a bluff score or something. So I'll have to think of an alternative classification for the power other than "Charmspeak" or "Hypnotic Charm". Although, I guess "Hypnotic Charm" would still really work.

The idea is that "Gambit" has the ability to hypnotize people through speech. His words would be so compelling that the target(s) can be easily convinced they're true, or that he's right. Now, just like normal hypnosis, the Charmspeak cannot convince anyone to do something they are morally opposed. It is also a lot harder for it to work when the target knows it's a blatant lie, or if they are also a Mind Glitch; since the heightened mental ability naturally counteracts his powers. Basically, think of this as "Bluff: The Mutant Power."

Now, a side-effect of being a Mind Glitch with the ability to convince others so easily is that his own mind is constantly on alert for such manipulation towards him. I'm not sure if this makes him completely immune to mental manipulation, or if he just has a strong resistance. Given this side-effect, Hubby and I were thinking that this might be a fun way for him and Willow's dad to have met up before the kids were born. Willow's dad Jacob tried to use his Prop Illusions power to convince "Gambit" of something. I'm still figuring out what, exactly. Maybe it was something as simple as Monopoly money being legit currency. Well, "Gambit's" resistance/immunity towards mental manipulation sees through the illusion. He decides to try to swindle the swindler, but - since Jacob is a Mind Glitch too - the Charmspeak doesn't work on Jacob. The two con-artists chat over a beer and become fast friends. Perhaps even team up for a little while before "Kitty" and Meryl tame the Cons in to going straight.

Anyway, having the Charmspeak main power also semi-explains the "Mental Firewall" - as we've been calling it in-game - but what about the agility? Switching gears from Gambit being a thief mastering in breaking and entering to "Gambit" being a swindler via hypnosis, we don't necessarily need him to be as good of a fighter any longer. So we're still debating if Chayse's agility and dexterity are still derived from the Kinetic Manipulation - like it is with Canon Gambit - or if it's a secondary power for both "Gambit" and Chayse.

We also discussed the possibility of Chayse having the odd eye coloring from "Kitty" as a side-effect of the Kinetic Manipulation. If Chayse is going to have a physical mutation from "Kitty" anyway, it might be best to keep the agility/dexterity physical mutation inherited from her as well.

Regardless, I want to avoid the "black sclera with unnatural iris color" concept since that's blatantly a Gambit design. I thought that the iris would still be a vivid, unnatural color that reflects the shade of the aura emitted when "charging" something. So Chayse would still have the neon limegreen, and "Kitty" would have a purplish red color - the color Gambit has when charging. The only trick there is that in the cyberpunk world I picture the comic to be in, wouldn't colored contacts be just an average thing? That would mean that even with his physical mutation, Chayse can pass for human. Still, Hubby wanted that subtle mutation to still be noticeable. A way for him to ALMOST pass for human, but gives him away.

Since I JUST finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, I want to use that as an example. Dark skin, white hair, and specifically eyes with red irises were the tell-tale signs that you were a decedent of the Ishvalan race. So, maybe in this CyberPunk future it's a common thing for unnatural-colored eyes to be a sign of being a Glitch. Therefore, people wouldn't HAVE colored contacts for fear of being thought of as a Glitch? Either that, or it's a novelty thing, like people wearing red contacts to cosplay as a vampire or animal contacts to pretend they're a humanoid cat... Then again, those things aren't real which is why we cosplay as them. Would the same be true if Glitches were real? I dunno. I'm still figuring out that eye thing.

In the meantime, Hubby thought more about the issue and suggested that perhaps Chayse and "Kitty" could have their eyes completely fill with that unnatural color - lime green for Chayse; magenta for "Kitty" - when using their powers; similar to how Storm's eyes go completely white when using hers.

Things I should have been thinking about over the past few weeks, I guess....

Anyway, as I mentioned, I did manage to figure out a little bit about Lia's father Jamie as well. Again, I'm waiting for either Phfyl or Hubby to give me some sort of feedback. My biggest fear is that while I did tweak the powers, they are still essentially the same. However, I didn't really have much choice in the matter since Jamie's power to make clones of himself is fairly crucial in Lia's upbringing and subsequent personality development. I was debating having him make "clones" via astral projections so that he can always be around Lia in order to look over her. Yet, we seem to have a surplus of "Mind" Glitches in this tale, and so I wanted to branch out from that.

I thought that perhaps - and I'll have to figure out what "category" of glitch this would put him in - "Jamie" is what is known as a "Soul Splitter." He can send a part of his consciousness - or "soul" in this case, I guess - in to fresh drops of his blood, and use said soul-infused drops to create clones of himself. I'm still mentally working out the imagery of that since it's not a spontaneous blink into existence like Multiple Man's Dupes.

Just like Multiple Man, a Soul Splitter's clones are completely autonomous. However, the more clones he makes, the more of himself he "loses." If too many are out in the world it may change his very personality and/or affect his memory. It could also physically drain him since there is always a minor tug for his soul to return as one. Said "tug" is so minor that he can go years with one clone lose out in the world without it physically affecting either of them. So it's almost like the gravitational pull humans have on each other... it's there, but not noticeable. I figured if we still wanted that weird "Tyler is but isn't Jamie's son/Lia's brother" thing in the reboot we could still do so this way.

Now, while Jamie is considered "Prime" in the comics - so that one can distinguish which "Jamie" is the main one the clones came from - in our tale perhaps he's "Alpha"? I'll have to think more about that, but it seems fitting.

Anyway, perhaps Alpha's constant need for his soul to re-fuse gives him the same issue as Jamie: clones are absorbed upon skin-to-skin contact; even if he doesn't want to absorb it yet. To add to that, since they are all one soul, they have an almost telepathic/hive-mind that they can activate. This also allows "Jamie" to be just as badass as his canon form: literally do multiple things at the same time, and be able to retain the knowledge once the clone is absorbed. I might want to rethink this aspect though, since it's bringing him back too much with Marvel's version. Maybe - unless the clone physically tells Alpha - the knowledge is there due to the shared soul, but it's "locked" away. Said "locked" memories can then only be recalled/retrieved with the help of hypnosis or telepathic involvement which brings subconscious thought to the surface in order to be actively remembered. This is getting complicated!

Let's go back to the less complicated idea of how the clones "spawn". The clones can each duplicate again, just like Alpha does. They do so by splitting up the soul-piece they have, and then placing the smaller fragment in to their own fresh blood droplets. However, they can only make a limited number - say no more than 3 - and if the parent clone itself is one of a multiple amount, its ability to create more than one clone and/or the secondary clone's ability to be autonomous is reduced. For instance, if Alpha only creates up to four clones than each clone could create another three. However, if Alpha creates between 5 and 10 clones each can only create another two, or if he creates 10 to 15 clones each can only duplicate themselves once.... something like that.

Also, since the clones all draw their power from their soul-piece's connection to Alpha's Parent Soul, they are greatly affected by their proximity to him. In other words, the farther away from Alpha the clone is, the less likely he is to be able to use his powers or tap in to knowledge that wasn't stored in the "soul piece" he was birthed from. Likewise, whatever knowledge/personality Alpha used to create a clone will be hindered or even lost to him if said clone travels too far from him. By "too far" I'm talking hundreds of miles.

So, if we do keep that Tyler's father is a run-away clone of "Jamie" then the knowledge and bit of personality he used to create that clone is "locked away" from him; altering his personality slightly, causing blackouts in his memory, and making him forget the knowledge "stored" in that bit of soul.

The last thing I thought about in regards to reworking Jamie was a name change for him. While I still despirately need to come up with new names for all of the canon characters we're re-working, for some reason Jamie was the easiest one to think of alternate names for. Out of a list of nine names, my top two are Cody and Charles - shortened to either Charlie or Buck. Phfyl seems to like Cody best too, and so I'm about 99% certain that Lia's father's name will now be Cody instead of Jamie. We'll see.

To finish up today's post about X-Future, I'd like to state that after some debate I FINALLY got around to posting something new in X-Future: Snippets. I wrote this back in the end of August or beginning of September; I can't really remember. It was more-or-less a writing exercise to help me with more character development for Lia. Since it dealt with a conversation between Lia and Sasha, I sent a copy of it to Sasha's player: 2-feathers-and-a-stone.

She never sent me back any notes on how to correct Sasha, and so I'm just assuming that means I kept her well-enough in-character. Still, I wasn't sure if it was worthy to be an official Snippet. I debated just posting a link to the shared Google.Docs file as a Blog Exclusive sort of thing, but this morning I officially decided to just pull the trigger.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you my quick brainchild to help me figure out how best to play Lia in the upcoming months of game:

"Sasha's Farewell"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

Next week I'll talk to you more about what I've been doing throughout September and the first portion of October. I meant to tell you now, but the recap of what I came up with after the "Shadowcat and Wolverine Take Center Stage" post went WAY longer than I anticipated!

Five hours of off-and-on writing, longer than anticipated.... Hey, at least with this sort of pacing I'll ALWAYS have something to talk about; given that I am ALWAYS behind on my updates of what I've been doing. Guess that means I can't slow down with my writing.

Shadowcat and Wolverine Take Center Stage

I feel like this was a good week. Sure, I still don't have any prose written, but dang, did I ever have tons of brainstorm sessions over the past week. Every work break I was writing something down; so that's a bit exciting.

Poor Phfylburt. He and Hubby both had a LOOOOONG read first thing in the morning thanks to all that brainstorming. The biggest thing I was working on was the build of the two rooms that combined would have been the X-Men Danger Room. Yes, last week I stated that I figured out how I was going to separate the room in to it's two main features: customizable physical obstacles and traps, and a fully immersive holographic generator.

The holographic generator I decided to call The Orb; at least, as the working title for it.

I'm still trying to figure out what to call the other room; the one with the tiles that can stretch in order to form landscapes and the like. I think the working title I gave Hubby and Phfyl was "The Building Room" since you can "build" the obstacle course.... Super lame. Need to rethink that one; definitely.

Anyway, I also stated last week that I needed to figure out what an orphanage for Glitches would need such advanced training for; and why they would set up a sort of "task force" similar to the X-Men. I wanted it to be a different enough reason that it isn't just a rewrite of X-Men. This lead me to the headmaster and headmistress of the Xavier school in X-Future: Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde and Logan "Wolverine".

I was curious as to why they would set up such a tech-heavy and advanced training facility. Sure, it could just easily be justified as "They need it to safely train power control", but at the same time, I feel there could have been a much more low-tech way of training the kids.

Then my mind wandered to a narrator opening the first comic book by explaining what Glitches are and how they are being treated; yada-yada. I probably won't use this exposition-heavy opening, but letting my narrator start off the book like that tends to give me more and more information about the world I'm building. For instance, back when I wasn't sure what to rename mutants, this same narrator was relaying over how people would comment about how there was some sort of "glitch" in the DNA, causing the mutations. That's when it hit me that people would therefore just start calling mutants Glitches; plus it fit well with the psuedo-cyberpunk categorizing of them that Hubby helped figure out.

Well, not only did this nameless female narrator - who may or may not be either Lia or Willow; can't tell - help me figure out what to call mutants, but she also helped me understand why The Orb and Building Room were made.

During her exposition of the world they all live in, she told me about the government snatching up Glitches. Usually the homeless ones so that no one would notice them missing. If they got caught they would justify it as a way to "keep the streets clean of vagabonds" or that they are trying to find help for these Glitches; providing them with shelter, food, and assistance with their powers. Yet, anyone who didn't blindly believe the propaganda would know the truth; the government was experimenting on these abducted Glitches.

The government wanted to know how they ticked. How is it that only some people mutated? What was the connection? What determined the powers? How did the powers work? Could normal humans be mutated in to these Super People via genetic manipulation? Could a Super Glitch be "bred"? Could mutation be a submissive gene, leaving "normal" people as carriers? Could Glitches become weaponized? Can they be "cured" of their powers? What is the most effective way to shut them down?

Experiments were performed on the usually harmless and weak-powered Glitches that became homeless either through average means - mental problems, drug/gambling abuse, jobless - or teens being abandoned by their parents. The more "dangerous" Glitches used for experimentation usually came through the prisons. Either there would be a claim that the Glitch had to go to a Powers-Only facility in order to properly detain the criminal, or the Glitch would be deemed "executed" so no one would wonder where it went to. The inspiration for that second bit I totally blame on re-watching Fullmetal Alchemist; the same plot device happened about 1/2 way through the series.

Anyway, back to my world and the X-Future characters.

Namely, Phfylburt's first character.

Lucas Kinney's backstory had him as the biological child of Wolverine's clone Laura, AKA - X-23. The sheer fact that a clone was able to give birth to someone caught the attention of some major organizations that wished to study, experiment on, and possibly weaponize Kinney. These organizations were SHIELD, HYDRA, and The Weapon-X Program. Laura and Lucas spent years of his adolescence on the lam in hopes of staying hidden from these organizations.

Now, since I didn't want the messiness of explaining away Laura as a clone - or why Logan was cloned in the first place - and I didn't want to have to rework original versions of all three of those organizations, I decided to use the government as a whole for this part of Lucas' life.

Although X-23 is still alive in our continuity, Phfyfl has never really used her in his role playing. Probably because Kinney was in his late 20s when we started up our game. What tough-as-nails, 20-something male interacts with his mom all that frequently? Especially when the man his mom was cloned from is right there as a sort of parental figure. Anyway, since I'm avoiding the whole "cloning" bit, and since Lucas' mom doesn't really play a heavy role in his overall character, I could easily write her out of the comic reboot. Kinney would therefore just be another orphaned Glitch.

I'm still determining if he was abandoned like so many others, or if his parents were killed; probably due to a hate crime.

Point is, Kinney was on his own, living on the streets. The government scooped him up - mainly because this was before Kitty started up the orphanage - and started experimenting on him. At some point, and for some reason I have yet to figure out, Wolverine broke in to the facility and released the Glitches. Kinney was the only child left in the lab, and had nowhere else to go but back out on to the streets. Logan decided he'd take Lucas in as a ward.

With the age difference - ignoring that Logan doesn't really age anymore, and so he's actually WAY older than he appears - I was thinking that Wolverine and Kinney formed a similar "adoptive family" dynamic as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. In other words: Logan was both a sort of father-figure, and older-brother-figure.

Both Phfyl and I really like this new take on Kinney's backstory because it still keeps the "pseudo-related" dynamic between the two of them. He plays that off well in the X-Future boards. Although, I am going to miss Kinney playfully calling Wolverine "Grandpa". Logan finding Lucas in a lab also allows for the "Kinney was captured and experimented on" backstory that seems crucial to his character as well.

Alright. All of this was a nice world build and character re-write. However, what does any of this have to do with The Orb or Building Room?

Well, after Logan saved and adopted Lucas, he became fixated on the idea of training Glitches to protect themselves from the normal humans. That way the tragedy and cruelty of that lab wouldn't repeat itself. In other words, the whole reason such intense training facilities were built was so Wolverine could help Glitches prepare for the worst.

When Kitty decided to open up the orphanage, Logan went to her with his idea for The Orb and Building Room, and wanted her to set aside enough of the estate she bought so that those two facilities could be built. This way, she could take in the lost children, and Wolverine could train them to hold their own.

As I mentally role played the conversation between the two of them, Kitty brought up a valid concern. The government was already harsh on Glitches. What would happen if they caught wind of Glitches training to fight against an oppressive government? At the very least, Kitty would probably be shut down as an anti-patriotic facility. At worst, the government would find it an aggressive tactic and terrorist training. They'd plow the whole place down. Bringing more violence to their door.

Because of that fear of bringing military action to her doorstep, Kitty denied Logan's request. If he wanted to build the training facility, he'd have to do it alone and off her property. It was a way to protect the children.

So Wolverine ends up building the facilities under the guise of an arcade; at least, that's the working concept for it. He uses the Building Room to create mazes or laser-tag/paintball bunkers or any other physical obstacle course for kids. He uses The Orb - which is actually a room with about a dozen of them - as generic Virtual Reality games. The government won't have any flags going up because it's just an advanced gaming business. However, either he has a separate VIP section where Kitty's students can train - their student IDs would be the VIP cards - or he opens the arcade up after-hours for training. I'm not sure which idea I prefer. Probably the After Hours one because then he wouldn't have to have enough money to build and run TWO of each of those rooms.

Although he wouldn't be fighting Sentinels, Chayse would still be able to use The Orb to recreate his one scene from X-Future. The best part is that Kitty would now be even MORE upset than she was before, because now her son is participating in what she believes to be a very dangerous activity if the government found out. This could create so much chaos and conflict in the reboot: Kitty vs Chayse, Kitty vs Logan, Kitty vs Student Body, etc.

This arcade can also be used when Devon's loyalty was in question. Willow can still be the one commenting about it: "Wait, you haven't tried out The Orb yet? You totally need to!" What makes it even better is that in X-Future Willow actually drags Devon to Wolverine's room to inform Logan that Devon had no clue what the Danger Room was. So dragging him to the arcade to let Wolverine know that Devon had no clue about The Orb could be a nice parallel. Then, either Logan - who isn't sure if he can trust Devon - or the Orb's AI can create the pivotal sequence.

As I was relaying this concept over to Phfyl to see his thoughts on the matter, more information sort of sprang up. He asked simple questions, and my fingers sort of answered before I could fully figure it out myself. What a fantastic way to be a Medium when writing!

The first big discovery was that obviously Logan and Kitty are no longer co-running the school like they do in X-Future. Apparently, they are going to have a dynamic similar to Xavier and Magneto in canon X-Men: friends who are at odds with each other due to their differing views on how to achieve Mutant Rights. I toned down "Magneto" a bit though. Instead of considering Glitches to be the next evolution - a superior human that should rule over normal humans - Logan also just wishes for equality between Glitch and Norm alike. So - as I mentioned to Phfyl - it would be set up more like if Xavier only ever just ran the school, and the X-Men were Magneto's team. The school would provide sanctuary, training of powers, and peaceful demonstration that not all mutants need to be feared or hated. Then there would be the near-militant-trained taskforce whose purpose would be to protect humans from the dangerous glitches - or other supernatural dangers - save glitches from human cruelty, and fight for equality. However, instead of the two being housed on the same estate - the taskforce also working as guardians of those training still - the two forces would be separate: Kitty's orphanage and Logan's arcade/training facility.

I still wanted the reboot equivalent of the X-Men around to fight The Brotherhood - which has become more of a violent street gang - as well as protect the students. I just needed to figure out what the connection would be between Kitty and Wolverine.

There's always the option that Logan just wanted to help Glitches his own gruff way, and went to Kitty as a stranger after hearing about her orphanage. I'm kind of "meh" about this idea.

Another option is that they are just friends, however they are already so similar to Xavier and Magneto now. Did I really want to pile more on by having the two of them be clashing friends too? Besides, having them just be friends seems so cliche and boring.

So I thought "maybe they're related?"

I tried it out as both "cousins, or some other semi-distant relative" and "siblings." The cousins idea seemed too convoluted, and only had one true plus side to it. The siblings idea was definitely the stronger option out of the two, but there was one major issue I had with it. Namely, if Kitty and Logan were siblings, than Kinney would be Chayse's adoptive cousin. I felt it would change the dynamic between Chayse and Kinney; being so close to each other. Kinney would no longer just be a very-respected teacher. I wasn't sure I wanted that change. The only plus side to the cousins concept instead? That Kitty and Logan would still be related without Kinney and Chayse being so close to each other; family-wise.

The last option I could think of seems to be the best one so far: Former Lovers.

They started drifting due to their differing views on how to handle the mistreatment of Glitches. I'm not sure if this drifting is before or after Wolverine takes Kinney in. I feel like that would be a nice catalyst, but at the same time I would think that would make Shadowcat try harder to find Lucas a "safer home" after the split; maybe trying to take care of him herself? So I sort of think that maybe Logan breaks in to the facility and saves Lucas AFTER the break-up. Maybe the catalyst was that Kitty wouldn't join him on the raid?

Anyway, the way I see their views on the subject is as follows:

• Kitty is very much like Xavier in her view of "Humanity is just scared. If we show them there is nothing to fear they will begin to accept us." Which is why she does humanitarian things such as build the orphanage, but she won't allow training that would teach the kids how to protect themselves against the normal humans or the government as a whole. She's a more maternal figure when it comes to other Glitches.
• Logan is a lot more gruff. He's jaded - especially after saving Kinney - and while he too wishes for a world where Glitches and Norms can co-exist, he's more realistic. He knows that there will be government abductions and experimentation, and he knows that there will be hate crimes. He knows the best defense is a good offense. He wants Glitches to be trained in extreme cases of self defense to protect themselves. He's almost like a military leader or intense self-defense coach in regards to the other Glitches.

Kitty finds Logan's views too pessimistic, aggressive, and provocative.
Logan finds Kitty's views too optimistic, passive, and complaisant.

Even with the split - and probable super heated arguments leading up to said break-up - the two remained friends. They realize that they are aiming for the same goal, just not on the same path.

A short time later, Kitty met Gambit and the two fell in love. Logan - who just isn't Wolverine without some sort of lingering feelings/unrequited love - is jealous of Gambit, but is still sociable with him for Kitty's sake. This lingering flame for Kitty is one of the reasons he tries so hard to protect the school/orphanage.

I'm just waiting to hear back on Hubby and Phfyl's opinions on all of that. Well, at least a better opinion than "Too Long; Didn't Read. Will Read Later."

In the meantime, I guess I need to switch gears and really focus on building my Brujah character if I want to bring her in to the vampire game this Saturday. TOTALLY meant to work on her during our "off" week, but with a 13-hr day last Saturday and my mind being overrun with X-Future, I totally forgot about poor Lottie.