#Sit the skelebirb

[fountainpenguin]

Okay, then what about naming Youngblood Sorrel? Where did that come from?

I was THIS close to naming him Scott. He just looks like a Scott to me.

And you didn’t ask, but his middle name (Roger) is a reference to the Jolly Roger, and his double surname of Butterfield-Yates begins with the letters B and Y as a hint towards Youngblood. I almost went with Yates-Butterfield to make that more obvious, but it didn’t roll off my fingers very well.

So in my first draft, his name was Scott. All his sisters had names that I thought fit the time period. Then I threw that out the window because I had the brilliant idea to name them all after flowers and stuff instead, and I made some adjustments (Penny became Poppy, Rebecca became Rosemary).

Boy plant names can be more difficult (so luckily for me, Y.B. has only sisters), but I knew exactly which one I wanted. I picked Sorrel to pay homage to the very first Audiobook I ever had as a kid, Cornelia Funke’s Dragon Rider. Specifically, I had in mind the scene where Sorrel and Ben are flying on Firedrake’s back, and Sorrel makes them stop at every single signpost. I just had this image of Youngblood steering his ship through the Ghost Zone, then getting distracted and wanting to open every single flipping door they pass.

Sorrel and Sitarist has a nicer ring to it than Scott anyhow. It’s so cute.

[fountainpenguin]

Workin’ on the Youngblood ‘fic. Title “No Anesthetic” confirmed. 

On second thought, I think Ember is supposed to be from the 80s, so she’s probably not in the Ghost Zone if Youngblood’s from the 60s. Welp. I have two ways to go from here: either she likes to change with the times, or Youngblood has twenty years of afterlife experience on her. Neither option displeases me.

[fountainpenguin]

Hey, so I was just sitting around and I realized that I can't recall if you've talked about this before; what's your stance on Danny's mortality? Is he immortal? Will his ghost form remain after his human body dies? Is he going to age and die eventually like a regular human? Does he age slower as a result of an extended life span? Or just the opposite? Feel free to take your time answering, I know thing are probably pretty hectic right now

Three posts you may want to refer to are here, here, and here.

By default, Ghosts don’t have bodies. They come into being when their body falls through a portal and into the Ghost Zone. That body loses its physical form and becomes boneless, hence why Youngblood made this comment in “Califca” when he got shot out of the sky and fell to the ground-

That’s a weird feeling, landing. Apparently I don’t have a rib cage anymore to hold my form, so my chest gets all crushed into me.

Meatless bones that pass through a portal become Skeletons instead. Ghosts have “skin” but no bones, and Skeletons have bones but no “skin”. Lots of political issues surrounding the “Are Skeletons people or fauna?” debate, which is where we get Sitarist’s storyline in No Anesthetic. I need to get back to that. The second chapter’s half done and I love those two goofballs.

So when he goes Ghost, Danny has a solid form, but no bones. His human body is still fully human and will continue aging (It’s obviously still alive, or he would have started to rot). If he dies in the Living Realm and his dead body passes through a portal, then he’ll reanimate (potentially into an updated Ghost form). If his body gets buried and never passes through a portal, that means no more Phantom.

Danny’s human form only ages in the Living Realm. His Ghost form only ages in the Ghost Zone. Physically his Ghost half ages with him, because his Ghost form is with him all the time- he is literally switching his body from being human to being Ghost. Thus, he has an adult Ghost form. However, his Ghost mindset is more reckless and immature than his human one, especially as he ages.

Is he immortal? 

Not necessarily. Danny is alive and therefore will die eventually. Even if he becomes a Ghost after death, even Ghosts can be killed under certain conditions. They can be like, melted or exorcised or something. Sometimes they get lost in the Unworld, which doesn’t kill them, but they get stuck there.

Will his ghost form remain after his human body dies? 

If this is a Phantom vs. Fenton thing, no. Phantom and Fenton have always been the same person as far as I’m concerned.

So no, ghost form remaining is physically impossible. The body is required to create the Ghost. Unless his body rots completely and centuries down the road someone brings his bare bones into the Ghost Zone. Then he’d become a Skeleton.

Huh. Actually, that would be an interesting headcanon to look into. Danny thought he’d already faced the worst death had to offer, but in the future he loses his ability to fly and gets to join the ranks of the unidentifiable masses.

Is he going to age and die eventually like a regular human?

His human half only ages physically in the Living Realm. He will age and die, but it will take awhile. Knowing him, he’d likely die from something else first.

Does he age slower as a result of an extended life span? 

Because he spends so much time in the Ghost Zone, which is where his Ghost half ages, that does slow his growth, yes.

[fountainpenguin]

Guess who’s baaack!

I come bearing a post-“Fenton Menace” one-shot for y’all called “How To Get Ahead In Navigating”. Please enjoy. It should help clear things up about my worldbuilding in No Anesthetic so far, too. I am slow and apologetic.

Oh my gosh, I forgot how much I missed Youngblood’s deep-POV stream of consciousness ramblings. Easiest character on my roster. I love him.

No severed heads were dropkicked into lava in the making of this one-shot.

[fountainpenguin]

Why can't you have halfa OCs? I must have missed it if you said it already, apologies.

Because I like magical political systems and from a worldbuilding standpoint halfas are useless to me unless I have thousands of them to force the Ghost political system to deal with them instead of ignore them and it’s against my morals to disregard canon by shoving thousands of halfas into the DP world out of nowhere so instead I just push this show away with my foot because I can’t be bothered to go into depth worldbuilding for it if I can’t make it what I want from the very beginning and I’m not going to waste my time and energy on it when I can write Fairy/Anti-Fairy/Pixie politics and my own novels instead.

I like Youngblood. He’s got story. He’s a clever, manipulative brat. He’s respected by a crew of pirates despite his youth. He’s a Ghost allied with Skeletons. He’s a kid who seems to live alone with his parrot. He’s obviously had dealings with someone who gets technology and was able to give him prosthetic, mechanical, weapon-launching limbs. Youngblood is that quirky weird character who only makes sense in this world. He belongs here. You can’t have another character quite like him anywhere else. He’s perfect.

But otherwise… Meh. “Danny Phantom” was interesting to watch when I was multitasking over winter break last January, but it’s become painfully obvious to me that no one other than Youngblood is worth my efforts. In general, it’s just not a show that gets me excited.

Only 3,807 words for my Danny-centric one-shot in ten months, Linzie. The kid is the most boring character to write. I really wanted to have “Unparalleled” out on the 17th and get it off my plate, but I have been beating my head against the wall, so I’m taking a rain check and there’s no fanfic update this Tuesday. 

(To be totally fair, it’s not Danny’s fault I wanted to write him alone in a hospital in the middle of the night with an IV shoved in his arm. That does tend to limit the exciting things I can do with him.)

Regardless.

I’m only here for Youngblood and his assistant tbh because they’re seriously so unique and fun and I honestly don’t understand why they’re so passed over by the fandom. It’s fine, though. It means I don’t have to share my boys too much.

But yeah, I’d like some halfa OCs to make Ghost politics more interesting. They’re kind of a snooze as it stands right now. I’ve poked and stirred them as best as I can, but they just don’t hold my attention like the Fairy political system does. If I have to do all the work and build a system from the ground up, it’s going to be for my novels, not quick one-shots. Them’s the deal.

[fountainpenguin]

What was the great headcanon you can't use? Something to do with Youngblood and the Unworld? Maybe another fan could adopt it.

Ghosts that fall into the Unworld become the Skeletons.

That’s it that’s the idea it had nothing to do with Youngblood just with his assistant no backing out now I wanna see the traumatized skelebirb ‘fics.

As for me, I already made my headcanon that Skeletons result out of stripped bones that reanimate after passing through Ghost Portals, so there’s no room to add anything about the Unworld in there. Ah, well.

[fountainpenguin]

Are you familiar with the Elsewhereness and Unworld of the Ghost Zone?

Yep. My DP fanfic, No Anesthetic, has mentioned the concepts a bit so far and is partially based around Ghosts debating if the Elsewhereness is worth searching for or if the more ideal afterlife is just roaming the living world. Haunting people and stuff. It’s all very political / religious / boring babble that brings Youngblood to yawns, which is also kind of the point because sometimes little pirate boys just need to move their butts out of the scene and go to bed.

You could say that Youngblood is very… close with the Unworld /shot

OH DARNIT I JUST THOUGHT UP A GREAT HEADCANON I CAN’T USE

…

Yeah I know them and occasionally those places get mentioned on this blog too.

[fountainpenguin]

I had ANOTHER dream last night about "Danny Phantom". This time, Fun Danny and Super Danny from "Identity Crisis" were teaming up to save their family. They camped out in a cave at one point, but the sleeping bag was only just big enough for both of them. I guess I must really like "Identity Crisis". Do you like it, too? What are your Top Five episodes so far?

Hmm… Maybe something like:

“Pirate Radio” - My boy’s debut! I love the sibling affection between him and Ember (as well as he and his parrot). As previously mentioned, the Ember/Youngblood dynamic reminds me of Scarlett and Max from Pahkitew Island, except they’re more open about their respect for one another, Ember doesn’t get annoyed by Y.B. easily, and he’s a little more capable in the psychological department. I like Danny taking Youngblood’s advice to rouse the crowds, and I just love that “You’re right, let’s follow the other kid who comes from a family of ghost hunters and knows how to work all their gear >:(” line.

“The Fenton Menace” - Oh man, I’m drooling just remembering all the psychology in this episode. Youngblood, my baby. I’m torn between listing this episode as my favorite, but “Pirate Radio” is the episode I’ve watched the most times of all, so it should probably stay where it is. I’m tempted to do some screen redraws from “Fenton Menace” that include Youngblood visibly. He must have been PRETTY DARN ANNOYING for Danny to go nuts the way he did. Ah, if only I could animate, hahaha. Plus Jazz murders Y.B.’s best friend at the end without batting an eye and it’s traumatizing/hilarious and I love it.

“Life Lessons” - Flour sack babies, partners who don’t get along teaming up, Valerie in the Ghost Zone, Tucker inadvertently kissing Sam good-bye, character development- What’s not to like? I was considering making this my first place choice, but I’ve only seen it two or three times whereas I’ve watched “Pirate Radio” like twelve and “Fenton Menace” at least seven, so!

“Identity Crisis” - I’ve gone over this one before, but I really enjoyed the way Danny was split in half instead of duplicating.

“Girls Night Out” - A very good episode. Johnny picking a fight with Danny in order to get his attention and ask for relationship advice, Skulker and Ember dating (“He is [a lousy hunter]! He can’t even find the TV remote!”), the team-up between Spectra, Kitty, and Ember, Bertrand being a precious loser, the development between Jazz and Sam, Spectra’s cooking show…

A few other favorites include “Flirting With Disaster”, “What You Want”, “Boxed Up Fury”, “Livin’ Large”, and “Splitting Image” because they’re all psychologically accurate/very cute/quotable/something right up my alley, but I can’t decide what order to put those in. Consider them all sixth-place ties.

I looked it up and it appears that if Marty Isenberg wrote an episode, there’s a high likelihood that I like it. Huh. He appears to have written “Pirate Radio” and “Fenton Menace” all by himself, so I wonder if he’s Youngblood’s main creator of if he’s just the one who was assigned to write him. Shame I didn’t know that, or I could’ve named the parrot after him. Well, “Sitarist” is good too.

I notice you said “so far” and I like your attitude.

[fountainpenguin]

Did you know that Youngblood was played by Taylor Lautner - a.k.a. Jacob Black, the werewolf from the TWILIGHT SAGA?!

Yep! I looked it up.

There’s a joke in the next part of “No Anesthetic” where Y.B. and Sitarist talk accents and make the obligatory voice actor joke. It’ll be several months before it’s up (since “No Anesthetic” is on hiatus for now, but I really wanted to get one chapter done because it would have bothered me otherwise), so I’ll pull up a nice chunk. It’s very much a rough draft in this stage, but I’m kind of liking it.

I grew up in Georgia so that’s a direct reference because IF I HAD NICKELS

“I can catch lobsters too, with the right traps. I’m from Maine.”

“That the case? You don’t sound like you’re from Maine. I’d have guessed Michigan.”

“Well, what did you think Mainers sound like?”

“Heavy on the ‘ayuh’s and sharp on the ‘ing’s.”

With a shake of his head, Sorrel plops down on the rock beside me. “I say ‘ayuh’ sometimes, but I read a lot of books, and if there’s a Mainer in it, the author usually milks it too much. Me, I grew up there, so it pops out when it feels right but I don’t think about it a lot.”

“I shouldn’t judge,” I say as an afterthought. “Before I ended up in the Ghost Zone, I grew up in Georgia.”

“Heh. You don’t sound very Southern, so I never would have thought that. Let me guess: ‘Nobody actually talks like that’ there?”

I roll my eyes. “Oh, you have no idea. In all my years, I think I met one. Maybe two.”

Sorrel nods, briefly going cross-eyed with concentration. “I guess we shouldn’t say nobody talks like that, but people also shouldn’t assume everyone talks like that. Every place is a big place with many people, so each person talks a little different from someone else, and we should all just say ‘Okay’ and live our lives, ayuh.” Then he freezes and looks at me. I hope he doesn’t notice the smile behind my paws.

“I’ll let that one slide. But if you say ‘different from’ instead of ‘differently than’ again, we’re going to have a lengthy talk about your grammar.”

“Geesh, I’m only eight.”

My smile fades. “Yes, and get used to that. Since you were born in the Living Realm instead of this world, you’ll be this age forever, unless you think you can be the first to uncover the Elsewhereness.”

“Oh.” He scratches his chin. “In that case, I want you to know I’m actually eight and a half, so technically almost nine, and since it’s above five, you could round it to ten.”

“I’ll make it a note,” I reply through a yawn. “Give it a few decades and you might lose the accent and take after mine. I’ve heard it’s during your teenage years that the speech patterns really set in.”

“Take after yours?”

There’s an awkward silence for at least thirty seconds, and I spend all of it mentally cursing myself for letting that slip out of me. “The Ghost Zone is a melting pot of cultures and time periods,” I correct myself. “You’ll meet many interesting sorts here, and they all begin rubbing off on you after a time. For example, what decade was it when you last remember being alive?”

“Decade? Uh, the 1960s.”

“Curious. We have ghosts drifting about from the 1990s, 2010s, 2017s- Oh, those fellows have interesting stories to tell. A good friend of mine from… I want to say the late 1800s has been stuck on an admittedly hotsy-totsy tomato” - for a human - “who recently arrived here from the 1980s, actually. Not that she’s noticed him yet, and frankly I doubt she ever will. If they ever do get pinned, remind me that I owe you a handful of [_unnamed ghost currency]. You’ll have to meet him one of these days. He’s a real… cool cat.” They could have long talks about their hair and/or fur colors changing from red to green upon passing into the Ghost Zone… I could curl up in front of his fireplace… Yes.

His eyes light like firecrackers. “That is so cool! So the world doesn’t end before 2000? Do we colonize the moon? Or Mars? At least tell me we’ve got remote-control lobster traps. And I bet the pranks would be wicked good.”

“I’m afraid I don’t keep up with this sort of thing. _I was a bird[_?] in the living world, remember. You’ll have to ask one for the line when you find him or her.”

“Yeah, I’ll have to do that. I love stories. But if you say ‘hotsy-totsy tomato’ again, then you and me are going to have to talk about your grammar.”

“‘You and I’.”

“Whatever.”

“It’s also slang, not grammar, per se.”

“Ugghh, you are the worst, and that’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.” Sorrel folds his arms behind his head and leans back. A moth flits up and lands on his toes as his natural glow ebbs and wanes. “So… how did you get to the Ghost Zone anyway, Sit?”

Tl;dr Yes, I know my favorite characters’ voice actors, son.

[fountainpenguin]

In case you didn’t guess, I wrote for the ghost show rather than FOP this week. Here’s “Califca”, Chapter 1 of “No Anesthetic”, with over 18,000 words!

I’m loosely aiming for five or six chapters, but that of course is liable to change. This story has a very “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” feel to it, in that it’s super stream-of-consciousness heavy. Although both our narrators will use first person point of view, they’ll switch off each chapter and it will be very, very obvious when Sitarist is telling the story compared to when Youngblood is.

So cast your votes now for if you think Y.B. will suffer more or fewer injuries than Sanderson did in “Rich Man”! ... On second thought, that’s hardly fair since we know Youngblood has two limbs on the chopping block. Or - snrk! - in the chopping circle, as it were... That’s why the story is rated T: In order to be K, you can’t have “serious injury” and I’m pretty sure losing limbs qualifies.

First Cackletta and Fawful, then Leonard from “Pahkitew Island”, then Reggie Bullnerd, then H.P., then this adorable brat... I will never understand why my fandoms have such different tastes in favorite characters than I do.

[fountainpenguin]

A sketch I liked that didn’t fit in the “Youngblood meets H.P.” comic because I wanted to draw Youngblood swinging down on the rope to the merchant ship (H.P. is standing on a Pixie World building below him). 

Then I thought that Ember was probably the first one to supply Youngblood with the power source to make his ship fly. That means he would have found a new power source after “Pirate Radio”. Since “Fenton Menace” occurs directly after Youngblood escapes the underwater ghost shield he was trapped in at the end of “Pirate Radio”, logically that means this comic would have to fall after “Fenton Menace”, by which time of course Sitarist here is dead. So I just removed this panel altogether and made H.P. blast Youngblood on the rope.

This was just a silly comic, but it still has to follow my logical headcanons~

[fountainpenguin]

If one obtained ghost powers and turned into ghost mode for all eternity, would they become immortal and stop aging?

I’m still working on that.

I played with the concept of being “forever fourteen” back when I wrote some of my Total Drama pieces like “Golden Rules” and “Shore to Shore” (but most especially “Six Shades of Gray” in 2015), although that was with multiple personalities and not ghost powers.

Part of me is hovering over the idea of Danny never aging and being stuck to watch his loved ones move on without him, but Butch Hartman DID draw the trio ten years later and Danny appears to have aged, so I guess that’s that.

Being fourteen forever is a fun idea, but since against all odds I’ve actually been there and done that, I’m itching to try something new.

I’m thinking I’ll play with Butch’s Ghosts the same way I’ve been playing with his Fairies: Immortal creatures that are very resilient, but still run the risk of dying should the trauma be strong enough. 

Example: In Chapter 4 of my ‘fic “Baby, You’re a Rich Man”, Sanderson gets stuck beneath a fence while scrambling to find baby Flappy Bob. As other stressors come into play (Threat of infection, humans, guns, threat of abandonment, etc.), it gets to the point where he goes into capture myopathy: he can’t think straight and he becomes a whimpering, paralyzed mess soothed only when H.P.’s jacket is placed over him inside out (which immobilizes him the same way scruffing a cat does).

An animal that goes into capture myopathy will die, which is why you aren’t supposed to mess with injured animals if you haven’t been trained (and even then there’s the risk of losing them). However, because he’s “immortal”, it doesn’t kill him. But Fairies can still die if they drown, suffocate, consume more poison than even their resilient bodies can handle, if you stab them through the brain, or any number of things.

So I might do something similar with Ghosts. I’m trying to decide if there’s a difference between ghosts and skeletons and whether there are other undead creatures living in the Ghost Zone, like zombies or wraiths or harpies or something (We’ve seen mummies). Zombies, skeletons, and mummies are more physical in nature. Ghosts might be more difficult to kill. I want to do some research on superstitions and folklore and exorcisms and things.

I’m really curious about that ghost-killing lipstick, because there seem to be several weapons that neutralize ghosts without permanently destroying them, but when it comes to the lipstick, there are at least three beings who have been struck with it - the two guards in “Doctor’s Disorders” and Youngblood’s skeletal friend - and all of them exploded and never came back onscreen (even though Spectra, Bertrand, and Youngblood all made multiple appearances later). It’s very interesting. Makes one wonder if said lipstick was root beer-flavored, eh?

Immortals are fun to write because I can hurt them all kinds of ways, but I don’t like to play the “no matter what happens, I know I’ll survive” card. Fear of death is just too strong of a motivator to blow off. Do so and we tread into “Groundhog Day” territory. Or would that be “Playin’ Sight” territory?

As for aging, it’s something I’ve been discussing with my pal BookwormGal, because she’s always there when I need to sketch my blueprints. I knew I wanted Ghosts to be able to look more or less the way they want, but I wasn’t sure how this fit in with “Ultimate Enemy”, where future!Ember has let herself go and Johnny 13 is confined to a wheelchair. 

But I also didn’t want Ghosts to simply age! There are plenty of hints to suggest Ember lived in the 80s, and Youngblood the 60s, and Youngblood undoubtedly has a childlike mindset and isn’t secretly forty.

So Bookworm and I got talking about stress, and I settled on a theory that works along the same lines as capture myopathy- stress overload isn’t going to kill the Ghost, but it can severely impair their ability to maintain their form the way they want. Bit of a learned helplessness deal too.

This leads me to Box Lunch. Like I’ve said before, not all my world-building headcanons are fully pinned down yet, but after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to discard my old idea that ghosts can’t have children and she was adopted. She’s clearly enough like her parents that I’m willing to make them a biological family. However, she wouldn’t have been born at her age of, what, six? Clearly she was born at zero and is aging. 

So the angle I’m working with right now puts Youngblood down as a kid born in the Living Realm who arrived in the Ghost Zone and therefore cannot age, and Box Lunch as a child born in the Ghost Zone who will one day surpass him, so they’d be like big sister and little brother, maybe. 

I think this makes sense. After all, in the Ghost Zone, humans are the ghosts and the Ghosts can’t pass through walls there and stuff, right? (Fun fact: In my headcanon, Ghosts can’t get pregnant in the Living Realm, which is a detail that Sitarist and company are going to tiptoe around in that upcoming ‘fic of mine because no one wants to say that in front of Youngblood.)

Trying to decide if at some point Box Lunch caps off, or she keeps aging until she becomes old. I feel like it would be weird for her to surpass her parents, so maybe Zone-born Ghosts age based on their own mental state? She could be six for ten years, then eight for another ten, then twelve for twenty, then stall out at eighteen for fifty or more years. She’d still be able to alter her appearance a bit, but not her age entirely? That would go for all the ghosts- some aesthetic modifications are fine, but age will mostly stay the same.

The only rule, I think, is that she can’t age backwards. Once she’s mentally progressed and “accepted” that she wants to age, it can’t be undone.

But as long as she continues to hang around her parents and treat them like her parents, I don’t think she’ll have the mindset to age beyond them. If they disappeared for decades on end and she was left to wander the Ghost Zone, then she’d probably continue aging into her twenties and such.

Nothing’s actually stopping me from saying that Youngblood could continue aging if one day he decides he does want to grow up, but I live for bittersweetness and being stuck with the mind of a kid forever fits the bill.

In conclusion, I haven’t finalized the deets yet, but I’m leaning towards the idea that Danny continues aging physically, and the human side of his mind has continued to age with him, but when he goes ghost in the future, he reverts back to his younger years. Not completely, but he definitely becomes more reckless, and regains any sharp wit he may otherwise have grown out of. He wouldn’t lose any memories, but his outlook on life would return to the way it was when he was fourteen, see?

So that would be a no on going ghost to avoid aging. Danny’s molecules may have been rearranged, but they didn’t alter his biology to the point where he’ll live forever. If you gained ghost powers in a mortal body, you’ll keep aging with the body. 

As for what happens when Danny dies… I haven’t thought ahead that far yet.

[fountainpenguin]

I honestly don’t understand why the phandom ignores these two, but I’m totally okay with it if it means I don’t have to share my boys too much.

[fountainpenguin]

So, what are some reasons you focused on Youngblood as your favorite?

Here are a few concepts you can explore with him just off the top of my head:

> Viewing the world through a child’s eyes

> Child dying young

> Child losing his hand and foot

> Child gaining and learning to use prosthetics

> Young boy choosing to have his ears pierced

> Eternal childhood

> Child’s only friend being a stuck-up jerk

> Said friend being an animal-skeleton shapeshifter

> Child with his own army and fleet of ships

> Child whom others treat as an adult and respect as an authority figure

> Child who’s invisible to adults (relatives included)

> Grown-up Danny not being able to see Youngblood and future Youngblood suddenly becoming popular with all the other ghosts to do their dirty work

> PIRATES!

> COWBOYS!

> Basically an excuse to write any character type you’ve never been able to due to lack of context or the fear of playing too heavily to stereotypes

> Brave character getting into situations you wouldn’t normally be able to write but he has the motivation to travel anywhere he wants and he’s immortal so

> Bright child with an awesome attention to detail

> Character who is sensitive about his occasionally-poor grammar and wants to improve

> PEOPLE-READER CHILD!?!?!

> Humongous dragon-like creatures for parents

> Being the only “Danny Phantom” ghost to use red energy?

> Opportunity to write a shapeshifter protagonist without him being too overpowered because it would seem he can only shapeshift two of his limbs

> Alternative: Youngblood being a shapeshifter just like his skeletal friend but he can only turn into very small, very fluffy, very pathetic green animals

My character Gavin was originally my child pirate character, but after a few years he evolved into being an ambassador-in-training instead because it worked better for the story. I used to have a character named Brandy who was going to be my other pirate child, but she got shot down when PMD-E closed immediately after and I didn’t move her to PMDU because she had a time-travel plot that didn’t work with that Group. Youngblood fills the missing niche for me. I’ve waited so long for a pirate and I don’t want to let him go.

I’ve also been a LucasArts fan since I was like eight or nine, so I’ll take any opportunity to make ghost pirate jokes.

And my dad’s the inventor of the Pillage and Plunder card game which you can’t buy right now even though we have a bunch of boxes crowding our closets because he hasn’t had the patience to keep Amazon stocked for years and he’s constantly decking our basement out with interactive treasure maps and talking skulls, so I’ve just always grown up with an affinity for pirates.

Add that shapeshifting parental figure whom we watched die onscreen and who never makes a canon return, childish distractibility and silliness, a cute design and awesome hat that’s incredibly fun to draw, and voila. He’s perfect.

[fountainpenguin]

Fanfic doodles? Maybe.....

Once the title generators stop feeding me “The Windy Lobster” and “The Flying Lighthouse”, that is.

Actually, I’m toying with “No Anesthetic”, “Doors”, and “Aim It Well” right now.

It’s also super tempting to make a dairy farmer reference, because that’s a pirate joke and a cowboy joke. But then I need to figure out what to do with the rest of these neato titles. I think the only way to solve that problem will be to write more fanfics.

[fountainpenguin]

If Youngblood’s mortal fear isn’t root beer then I’m in the wrong fandom.