#dynamo's fun to write for sometimes too lol

[kessielrg]

Another strike on the 'Aero gets captured by Mavericks during a Maverick Hunters HQ approved mission' tally

“Let Aero go.” X then demanded. “Whatever it is you’re up to, it has nothing to do with her!”

“By all rights, this has everything to do with her,” the blue-silver haired Reploid claimed. “Consider this: word gets out that Doppler’s vaccine actually worked at one point, but the data was erased once Sigma interfered. Then comes a girl. A human girl. A little human girl that tagged around Doppler because Doctor Cain keeps trying to fix his broken reputation. Now this girl, she’s smart. Just a little above average for the most part. She finds a way to recover the lost vaccine data AND makes it better. Anyone who wants the Maverick virus around, well, that’s a bit of a problem for them, you see. So they find someone like me. Someone who can… correct the issue.”

The Reploid yanked on Aero’s arms- hard. Her small yelp of pain was heard rather clearly to the three of them. Something in X snapped. He pulled out his buster and pointed it right at the Reploid.

“You’re a Maverick!” he declared, loud and righteous. The other Reploid laughed.

“No, I’m a mercenary. And tread lightly, kiddo. That lemon shooter of yours could hurt her more than me. Capiche?”

X’s eyes flicked to Aero. Despite being held back in an uncomfortable position, to say the least, her eyes flickered with determination. She wanted him to give the Reploid everything he had- even if it meant hurting her. And he wouldn’t do that. Everyone in this destroyed room knew it.

[megamanxfanfics]

Thank Goodness for Deviant Art

It’s come to my attention that people might not be able to read my chapters after the [Read More] button any more. (At least not on mobile phones, I dunno).  I don’t know why this is the case.  It works fine for me, even when using Tumblr as a guest, but that might be an IP Address thing.  I don’t really know how it works.  Either way, from now on, I’m gonna put a link to my chapters on DA, just in case this is a problem you’re experiencing.

But either way, that’s not what I came here to talk about.  Instead, I’d like to tell you about the unusually long process it took to write 9 & 10 and where I’m currently at with 11 right now!

(If you can’t read below, a link to this journal is available on DA!)

There’s not too much to say here.  Work got the better of me for sure during these sessions for 9 & 10...  Since the Fall of 2018, I fell into a routine pattern where my only window for writing became sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays.  And if I wasn’t beaten down enough from the work week, I’d probably be working on music instead of this.  It took extra ounces of inspiration to get X & Zero through their next steps.  I definitely went through the motions, this go around, admittedly, but it all came together by the end.  And I do like what became of it.

--------------------------------Ep. 9-------------------------------------------------

This one starts with a much anticipated Dynamo fight, against X this time.  I was glad to have Zero stuck in England trying to get home.  It allowed breathing room for X to take however long he wanted, without any interference from Zero, who would’ve absolutely wanted a rematch.

At first, I was very stoked about this chapter, and couldn’t wait to write the next sequence in X’s fight against Dynamo.  There were a few play-through sessions, where I figured out, how X would attack him.  Continuity wise, it was ballsy to have him start this fight with Standard Armor.  I liked making the Falcon Armor more of a reflex maneuver than anything else.  I was also a fan of the Giga Attack being the equalizer here that gets Dynamo to stop.  Showing him sober up from his sociopathic ways, was interesting too.  X can’t help but feel bad for him once that battle is over.

And then I was done, lol.  The rest of this chapter is unfortunately a long transition to get to the next place, which was X’s stage in the jungle and Zero’s stage with Burn Dino-Rex.

This is what took forever...  Going through the World Building and further Seed Planting from there, as we followed up on Gate & Isoc.  I wanted to do this earlier, but it didn’t fit.  I wanted to do it during the news broadcast of the Enigma firing, but that scene was better suited for Dynamo, who was recovering from his wounds at the time.  [It’s fun to put that in perspective.  It feels like that was months ago!!]

The Gate & Isoc scene was fun to write.  I liked showing that Gate’s been busy trying to rebuild his old reploids.  It was more fun to have a follow-up on our villains with a secretive phone call.  But then I needed to focus on what was next, and I fell into sort of a trap.  Getting Zero home...

I can honestly say it took about 3 weeks to come up with/write out the hacking trick to get Zero home quicker.  And even that, I used a writing technique to fast forward that whole process from X’s perspective.  This was a risk.  It would’ve been neat to see Zero go in hyper warp speed, and add some hilarity to the middle of the chapter, before getting home, but it would’ve taken away from the drama of Lifesaver forcing X to go to sleep.  That's where the risk lied in.  What was Lifesaver’s motive?  This got dark, for a minute.  Lifesaver stuck a sedative needle into X’s neck to ensure he’d rest for at least an hour so that he’d be ready for his next mission.  Kind of unethical, but it worked.  So I explored that, with Zero questioning, while X wakes up in a confused state.

I didn’t want to get lost in this, so I had them leave right away.  Then I took a 2nd risk.  X was kind of an asshole to Zero as he was waking up, since he never believed in The Repliforce War to begin with.  I liked this though.  We built up and added towards the already existing animosity between them. They had unresolved business regarding their past actions, that were most likely buried in the past 3 years.

I did my very best to get X & Zero to their designated missions ASAP, but in the end, I think I had like 7 pages to explore their stages before hitting my usual cut-off point.

So I decided, the best road to take was to go down memory lane, on Zero’s part.  Maybe we could explain some of his motives and see where he’s coming from.  And I’m glad I got to do that.  We got to review what Zero remembers of The Repliforce War, and how everything got off track once Dragoon originally investigated Dino-Rex.  As far as Zero’s concerned, he’s just tying up the last loose end, here.  Finishing what Dragoon failed to do in the first place.  But also, he needed that Booster Engine, and one way or another, he was gonna get it.

----------------------------------Ep. 10----------------------------------------------

This takes me back to what I said before.  The writing process of this isn’t worth talking about.  For a good month, I honestly went through the motions every Saturday. Here and there. Bit by bit, just getting X through the next bit of the stage.  Or Zero.  Then X.  Then Zero.

This got way boring.  [This happened during Xtreme 2, too.]

But then I finally caught up to the bosses and it got super exciting again!!  I suppose I could say that Zero’s sequences were way better than X’s due to the nature of the stage and what he’s going through.  I liked showing Zero experience fear and vulnerability a little bit, while Alia proved her worth with her genius tactics. [Hiding in the shadows of the rocks, through the lava waves]

But then, the fights were interesting.  I didn’t wait for Saturdays any more, and definitely finished out Axle the Red’s fight on a weeknight. Sacrificing sleep or together time if need be.  One thing I will say about that fight, I really didn’t expect to name Axle’s twin Spike - the appropriate name for the character.  That was a neat compromise of an Easter egg that I threw in there at the last minute during the fight, but I really enjoyed that.

Zero didn’t exaaaaactly need an assist from X, but he was very worn out from their battle.  And nothing like a good juxtaposition to really show growth, right?  I felt like X swooping in and saving the day really solidified their bond and brought their friendship back right where it needs to be, before the next climactic thing.

And that would be where I am right now.  Episode 11!!  I can’t believe it, but the catch up point to the Battle of Two Fates is finally here. And it was years in the making.  I got my blessing from the lady this past Thursday to work on it while her new shows were on, and my Goodness!  One thing lead to another, and I started to cook something up pretty sweet out of all the canon dialogue.

Now keep in mind, it is technically in game dialogue, but there's still so much unexplained, like what the characters are actually doing while they’re saying this stuff. Or what they’re exactly feeling.  Re-envisioning this makes me see it in a whole new light.  But it’s far from done.  Just.. in a good spot, right now.  That’s all I’ll say.

I can’t wait to work on it more, but this is what I chose to do this Saturday.  So maybe I’ll get some time on it tomorrow or during the week. I don't know.

Season V has been a balancing act of making new interesting things out of a game I can’t stand.  So inevitably there will be some awesome within the mundane. This happened with Season II as well, but that one was surprisingly solid throughout.

If I can make one prediction, it is that Episode 11 will be Ultra Hyped, and then I’ll probably go through the motions during the Eurasia stages once again.  I’m figuring it out though.  We’ll see.  Until then, folks.  I can’t wait to see how Ep. 11 turns out.