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fipindustries · 4 years

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list of comics i made so far

i already shared the list of all the novels i tried to write throughout my llife so i see no reason why not to do the same with the comics i tried to work on. no i should clarify, with my lists of novels there was a clear cut distinction between what was a novel and a short story so to parse one from the other was an easy task. it should be known that i wrote hundreds of shorts stories that i havent shared with anyone. now a similar situation occurs with my comics, i have done hundreds upon hundreds of little comics, short jokes, little skits and short lived strips through my life, so in order to give this list some weight and not make it longer than the bible the criteria i used was that it had to be something i did on a regular basis or that tells a self contained story with a beggining middle and end.

now without further ado, lets begin!

spike Vanderville (age 7)

you can tell i was way more into comics than i was into novels from a young age. done with pen and folded paper, it was the story about a young kid called spike, whose design was heavily inspired by bradley from sticking around, who had magical powers which allowed him to manipulate reality. it was a mix of harry potter and a series of illustrates short stories that came in a magazine in argentina. his best friend was a scarecrow with a pumpkin head that he had brought to life, his archnemesis was a fat bully.

curiously enough i was so passionate about this project even though i had no idea what i was doing and no talent that i actually did like three full colored issues of it. my family was really proud of me. sadly those comics are completly lost to time

andrew and the monkey (age 10)

this was the classical story about a boy and his best friend the talking animal. one page comedy strips done in pen and paper. nothing too clever, just a way for me to try lame jokes mostly stolen from spongebob squarepants. not much else to it. i tried to do like a revamp in 2014 but it was short lived, as you can see the jokes didnt get any less lame

FIP industries (age 17)

mostly done in digital. yes as you can see fip is something that has followed me my whole life in quite the variety of mediums. there were as a matter of fact multiple attempts to make this comic a real thing but time and again they would peter off as i saw that my skill was just not up to the task. i think i have talked more than enough about fip industries on this blog, one interesting thing is that if you follow the link you will come across a lot of proto ideas that i had before they cemented and took their definite shape in the novel (and even after the novel i kept retconning and retooling things over and over again, fip industries is an ongoing thing that will probably last my entire lifetime)

Disregarding Reality I (age 20)

the first iteration of disregarding reality, a humorous strip done in pencil and paper, a fairly short lived affair, lasting no more than 3 months. the entire premise of the comic was an MRA activist and a feminist live together, they are friends, they argue a lot. remember 2013 guys? back when this whole politics bullshit truly kicked off online? this was before gamer gate, mind you. but by that point i had seen more than enough of it on tumblr and i was like “someone should do some scathing commentary with wit and penache” and that someone had to be me. mainly inspired by commics like f@nboys and el goonish hive and a thousand billion others that were so popular back in those halcyon days.

i got bored of it pretty quickly and it wouldnt be until three years later than i would finally decide to re-start the project but until then...

Strangers in the forest (age 21)

here comes a rather productive era in my ouvre, ink and paper, based on a short story i wrote, its about an eldritch monster pretending to be human and a ghost girl, killed by her father. they have a dispute because the monster wants to eat the corpse of the girl but the ghost doesnt want to give up her bones because its the one thing that tethers her to the mortal plane. they eventually resolve their dispute. by this point i was actually, unironically trying my best to do comics which i felt looked professional.

Song of a nightmare (age 21)

another one based on a short story i wrote. ink and paper, a private detective wakes up in the middle of the night and sees a mermaid lying in bed next to him. he spends most of the comic trying to figure out how the hell is this possible. still one of my favourite ones and certainly one of my family’s and friends favourites as well. a rather poetic tale, strongly inspired by argentinian fiction and their propensity towards magical realism, i was reading a lot of cortazar back then.

Aika (age 21)

as you can tell i was on a fucking roll that year. ink and paper, this was a story based upon a simple and basic idea that i had in my mind for years and years. i always liked the concept behind the movie “the kid” where bruce willis mysteriously comes across himself as a kid. so of course one day i came up with the idea, what if you recieved a visit from your future self... but she was a woman?

this is probably the most aggresively trans story i ever wrote in my life, it is literally about a guy realizing they are trans and breaking down over it. here is the giant kicker, i did not realize at all what i was doing. i was completly unaware of what was going on here, i was still deep deep in the closet and not even realizing i was there. it really is astounding the honesty and the rawness with which i wrote this comic and it went all over my head. a perfect example of “im such a great ally lol”

oh also there is time travel i guess. my main impetus (beyond whatever my subconcious was forcing me to do) was my desire to make a complete clusterfuck of a story, i was a huge fan of homestuck, i had read fleek and demon, i wanted to do my own take on a hypercomplicated time travel puzzle plot. other things came out on top of it but i didnt noticed them. fucking hilarious

Hello Agatha (age 21)

a comedic strip about a wacky pixie dream girl having wacky adventures with her wacky friends, one of which is a man with a toilet for a head. what a gut buster, what a knee slapper!

there is not much to say about this one, wacky surreal comedy was always my favourite and so time and again i would try my hand at it but it is surprisingly hard to do!

The /co/ ventures! (age 20 - age25)

an ongoing project done in multiple mediums. i think i said more than enough about this in here and here. it was me practiscing comics, practiscing my humor and adding my tiny grain of sand to the 4chan culture. i am proud to say these comics were actually very well liked there and that i would be recognized without a name or signature of any kind, just on the strength of my style.

the vest kind of madness (age 22)

probably one of the projects in which i put the biggest amount of effort to make it look professional. traditional inks and digital colors. a crossover that i cant believe never happened in comics considering how obvious it is. Rac Shade, the changing man and delirium of the endless, the two flagship vertigo characters associated with madness. clearly a match made in heaven.

to this day im flabbergasted i seem to be the only one to think of this.

Disregarding Reality II (age 23)

another work where i have already spilled rivers of bytes explaining my thought process behind it. after having a no good, terrible, very bad day, finding my self aimless and without purpose, deep in denial and depression, i decided to give my self a big project to have something to get me out of bed every day. these three guys came from the depths of my mind to save me.

this time leaning a lot more on silly humor and surrealism than political commentary, still insanely proud of how much i managed to make this last, almost three years, well over 200 pages! and in here i found the inspiration and the creative energy to tackle all sorts of diverse projects of which we are about to see all about.

Mama Bird (age 24)

my masterpiece.

by far the best comic i ever did. a kid with a bird for a mom. hilarious, touching, heartbreaking. it was a concept that i had come up with when i was 21. back then it was supposed to be exclusively a humorous comic strip but then i found a dramatic angle for the story and that was when everything clicked into place. that was when i realized this was a comic i had to do. and i did it. it took me five months but it was well worth it. still insanely proud of this one

Soft boys (age 25)

a weird experimental little story where i decided to sit down and deconstruct one of the most popular superpowers. super elasticity. more akin to me just mashing my toys against each other than me trying to tell a serious story. i am actually really happy with some of the art here and some of the sequences presented. particularly the final one where a brick joke twenty pages in the making finally pays off.

Hexen Snatch (age 25)

a semi spinoff to my novel FIP industries, we focus on a side character that managed to survive after the events of the novel and how they’ll manage to survive further beyond that. insanely soaked by the magical world of pact by widbow i wanted desperatly to share my own take on magic, every page is accompanied by a little text where i expand upon the lore and the way magic is supposed to work on this world. i really like the prose on those snippets and the ideas they work almost more that the comic itself with which i was not happy at all when i was working on it. i didnt like the character design, i didnt like how the art in general was coming out, i didnt like the pacing of the story or how superficially we were getting to expore this world in the comic proper. i had to take a very long hiatus just to accumulate the will to finish the comic and once i did i feel it really petered off without much of a satisfying payoff.

on some level i blame the exhaustion and frustration that i came out of this comic with for the fact that i ended up quitting disregarding reality soon afterwards.

Maxplosive (age 26)

another project that has followed me across multiple mediums. came up with an idea for a videogame back in 2015. saved it on the back pocket for a while, used it as a story within a story on my novel fan.tastic, practisced a couple of animations with the characters and eventually decided that, if my skills at videogame making were not enough, i had at least more than poven myself as a comic artist so maybe that was the definitive medium in which this idea would have to exist.

the original idea was to tell the story in two parts, the first half would introduce the character and the videogame as if the comic was a playthrough of the game. all fun and childlike and innocent. then the second half was meant to explore the life of the main character as an adult, how being “a videogame protagonist” had ruined her body, her mental health and her life. i tried all sorts of weird stuff with the format here, using reciclable assets, static camera angles and generally presenting the whole thing as if it was a videogame.

sadly the project got too big for my breaches, i was fucking exhausted back then, swamped with a bunch of other projects, my job, other responsabilities, unsatisfied with the story and with no idea where to take it. eventually i got tired, decided to skip a day, then the day became a week and then the week became a month and by then i had to face the facts, i was just no longer able to continue the comic. and so i quit not only maxplosive but disregarding reality all together.

i still did the occasional comic here and then but it wouldnt be until the very end of 20-fucking-20 that i was finally inspired to tackle a new project, my newest one, my last one....

Lapsarian (age 27)

an interesting experiment, i decided to do the whole comic in one sit and then post it chapter by chapter on a weekly basis. a surprising result of this was that i managed to do in one month the same amoung of pages that would have taken me 5 months back when i started disregarding reality, is good to see that after al this time i still got it.

took me a while to get the hang of it again and find my own style once more but once i armed up it was smooth sailing for 40 pages all the way to the end. but what is this comic even about?

its... weird, with full disclosure and no shame, it is mostly a fetish story about big lizard creatures commiting vore. the milkman had already shown me that i could do those types of stories and no lighting would come from the heavens to strike me down so i said, why not as a comic? i like to think that beyond the fetish content it is still a decent story in its own right, an interesting feedback that i got from this is that people are suprised how earnest it is, one saying something like “this is the best pitch for a fetish that i was never interested in”

Conclussion:

looking back on this im surprised, turns out i was a lot more prolific and working a lot more regularly than i expected, in here are documented ten years of creative output that never seems to wane. it was fun to do the roundabout trip and see how my style, my technice and generally my work ethic evolved through the years. another nice thing to see is the multiple formats, the multiple tools and mediums i experimented with, i find myself constantly trying new things, new methods, new angles, new interesting ideas for how to make a comic (without even getting into what to make a comic about).

something i always knew about myself was that drawing is a fundamental part of who i am, it is something that just cant be taken away from me and that will always be a part of my life one way or the other, is good to see it so plainly, in black and white, on this list. here goes for what i might be able to do in the future

#art #writing #fip living life

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gamer2002 · 3 years

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AI: The Somnium Files - Review2002

AI: The Somnium Files is a VN game with puzzle/adventure elements. Story-wise, I personally describe it as Lethal Weapon with SF elements in anime format and with bonus twists. The game was created by Kotaro Uchikoshi, of Zero Escape series. Similarly to ZE games, the story has branching points and multiple different endings, with some being required before reaching the others.

You play as Kaname Date, an amnestic detective in a slightly futuristic setting, whose partner is Aiba, an AI in Date’s cybernetic left eyeball. The main plot is about catching a mysterious serial killer, who removes left eyes of his victims, and discovering Date’s forgotten past. Through his investigation, Date, with help of Aiba, enters to other people’s dreams, the titular Somniums, in order to discover secrets hidden within peoples’ subconsciouses.

Comparing to Zero Escape series, I wouldn’t say the AI’s twists and revelations are as mindblowing. But AI is definitely stronger when it comes to emotional scenes, and highs of this game are incredibly high. It’s also at least as good Zero Escape when it comes to characters – while maybe the game doesn’t have characters on the level of the greatest in Zero Escape (999’s Zero and Ten from VLR)*, it has even better main duo than VLR (the best main duo in the series), has no weak characters (Quark, Alice and Clover are the reason why VLR cast can’t outshine 999 cast), and has an entertaining villain (999 had a good villain, but VLR and ZTD had their issues with it).

* Boss and Renju are good and quite complex characters, but Renju is an off-screen entity, while Boss doesn’t really have any kind of arc. Which is why they aren’t on the level of Ten, let alone 999 Zero.

Music is great, visuals are nice. The game is also the most immersive VN I’ve played. Instead of having static background with 2D characters, we, as Date, stand, or sit, in a 3D environment and turn around our head to look at various characters that are talking with us. Thanks to that, we can shift our focus from a talking character, to a character reacting to the other character’s words, and then even roll our own eyes over what we’re hearing.

Somniums are the main gameplay sections, just like the escape rooms are in Zero Escape. While investigating dream worlds is a fascinating concept, and I had some fun with completing them, the gameplay itself boils down to trial and error. There are rules and hints that help you solve the Somniums as puzzles, but I went through most of them by managing items that save limited time. And “perform an action, that has nothing to do with solving the current puzzle, to be able to perform next action in just one second” isn’t a legitimate puzzle solving. Sure, I can blame only myself for gaming the system, but I couldn’t game the good old escape rooms. And some Somniums were required to be gamed, particularly, the final one.

When it comes to the story, it’s good, but better not to approach it like Zero Escape. ZE were SF mysteries, while AI is a buddy cop story with elements of SF mystery. With such elements like the ridiculous actions scenes, Ota’s family character designs, or Mizuki’s abilities, Uchikoshi clearly wanted to have some anime fun with this project. And it is fun. The main duo is always entertaining with their back-and-forth, the intrigue and mystery are interesting, and the different paths allow to look at characters through different angles. The scenes that are intended to be touching are way batter than any attempts at that from Zero Escape. But there are really silly scenes, and there is a lack of complex elements, like motives of the villain. Still, with Uchikoshi botching complex motives in ZTD, I prefer simpler, yet more entertaining and memorable villains. And AI does provide such.

Overall, I recommend this game for fans of VNs and adventure games that don’t mind silly comedic elements. It’s a 8/10 story, with some interesting ideas and really well done character moments. And that’s what it comes to a spoiler-free review, as I decided to try starting blogging about interesting me aspects of writing in stories.

So, spoiler warning - I have couple of specific subjects to talk about. Those subjects are: the issue of the right side of the flowchart, why you don’t see the greatness of Iris’ character, and the Psync Machine sized plothole. That’s a lot of critique, but (assuming I will continue this series of blog posts), you should read me for spotted writing errors and solutions to them. But to not be overly negative, I will also praise and outline a good writing job, by focusing on the topic of Aiba as a perfect partner character.

The problem of the right side of the game.

Common complaint about the game is the right path from the first branching point, specifically Iris Route. Actually, I happened to complete Iris Route first, and I didn’t mind it. I still didn’t know what Uchikoshi was up to this time, and Zero Escape had taught me that an ending in Uchikoshi games isn’t a start yet.

Still, in retrospect, Iris Route has an issue with pacing and can feel bit jarring, after playing left side of the game, which is much more focused on the murder mystery. There’s also a problem of Iris herself, but that’s a separate topic.

The left side is laser focused on the game’s plot. The goal is to catch the serial killer, the stakes are bringing him to justice for killing Mizuki’s parents, the urgency is genuine threat of another person becoming the killer’s target. Urgency and stakes raise with each next victim. More and more questions are piling up, while all our actions are strictly plot related – we either try to obtain information from a separate criminal, clear up another framed suspect, or confront the apparent man behind it all.

Iris route is more SF focused, to a degree that is shocking after completing left side’s routes. There are raised questions that are related to the main mystery, but the focus is shifted on Date’s past and stuff like a possibility of prophetic dreams. Then we have Iris’ “death” with an emotional high in the form of questioning So and entering his Somnium. But then we are bamboozled with “Iris’ body” vanishing and her sudden “resurrection”, with the focus shifting on the possibility of altering reality with dreams… And then we fall into the rabbit hole of Naixatloz.

When I played this route, which was my first one, I assumed that Uchikoshi was telling me “you know my love for pseudoscience, so get a pile of pseudoscience and guess all the red herrings”. That in itself isn’t bad, but the stakes and urgency were gone, with the primary goal becoming more and more unclear.

Instead of more and more victims being targeted by the killer, like it happens on the left side, Iris route boils down to her status shifting between “not in danger”, “in danger” and “dead”. There are no more victims, only the first victim is dead. Stuff happens, like the attack of mercenaries and escape of a prisoner, but none have the weight of left side’s deaths and injuries. There is a possibility of bringing victims back to life, which removes any threat. Sure, this one sets up a beautiful tragedy for the route’s finale, but that’s the finale. Between So’s Somnium and the finale, the only real emotional moment is revelation of Pewter’s betrayal, but this doesn’t have any proper payoff akin to confronting So in Mizuki’s route. Fighting goons of a passive villain that hasn’t hurt anyone isn’t the same as fighting goons of a murderous villain that is prepared for a showdown. Renju with his mysterious agenda also isn’t the same threat like the serial killer that keeps killing or hurting characters around you. #89 can piss you off with his escape, but that’s as well.

Instead, the route is filled with exposition after exposition. We discuss Somnium technology, mythology, Iris’ close ones, alternate realities and conspiracies. We don’t progress with the case, we only get Iris back to the “not in danger” status for few times. Date becoming apparently brainwashed by her is intriguing, but that won’t carry a route with unclear shifting goals we don’t really progress toward. What’s left, Date getting lectured on Mizuki’s well-being? If you played the left side, you know her situation isn’t that bad as it could be. If you haven’t played it yet, you don’t know her enough to care that much.

Overall, Iris route has a good beginning and finale, but the middle is exposition filled and nowhere as engaging as the left side. And while Date and Aiba duo can easily carry the game, Iris route is a problem.

Iris – really good character dragged down by an execution misstep

There is a complaint that Iris, unlike Ota and Mizuki in their routes, doesn’t have a character development. For starters, Ota and Mizuki don’t really have much of character development outside of their routes. Iris does develop in her route, but negatively. The real issue is that the game doesn’t properly justify her early actions, which you may or may not like, depending on your subjective opinion.

Personally, I have a soft spot for cheerful/wacky female characters that can bring a smile on my face. Iris, being a girlish idol with trollish tendencies, was enjoyable for me. I liked her blackmailing Date to let her tag along, and I liked her trolling Ota or Moma. Although, the way she talked about Egyptian mythology or nanomachines was bit too infantile for me.

But when all is said and done, Iris is a good character, or at least there is a really good idea behind her. A crazy idol-slash-troublemaker that produces a scandalous video, just to force a detective to let her look at a crime scene and go wild with her imagination, is in fact a terminally ill brain cancer patient that tries to have as much fun and excitement she can get in her soon to be over life. She wishes for something special to happen to her, an adventure, a conspiracy, or to find at least a replacement for her lost father-figure. Unknowingly to her, she is a center of conspiracy her mother is part of, in order to protect her from the killers of her actual biological mother. Unknowingly for her, her mother has a plan to obtain money for her treatment. Unknowingly to her, the man she things as a replacement of her father-figure is her father-figure, but they both are unable to recognize one another. She had a special life, she had a chance for a long life, and she had discovered the man he was looking for, but she was unaware of it all.

And then she gets the adventure she wished for, in form of unknown armed men trying to kidnap her. Trauma from that event, mixed with the condition of her brain and tons of conspiracy theories, pushed her into delusion. The worst of all, she ended up dragging into said delusion the man that could help her, if she had not made him lose his own grasp on the reality. Unable to handle the trauma, she succumbed to her brain tumor, wondering if she was dying in the arms of the man she wanted to reunite with.

When Mizuki’s and Ota’s stories end on positive note, Iris’ story ends on a tragic one. Her wish for excitement before the end of short life provided her with excitement that prevented her life from being prolonged. The careless troublemaker that could irritate us at the beginning was understandable, but paid the ultimate price for her own actions.

But the execution fails to deliver that.

When it comes to Mizuki and Ota, the game is clear and to the point. We don’t have to connect the dots, to see what is moving about Mizuki finding that she has her family in Date. We don’t have to reflect deeply about it, to see that irritating manchild Ota actually deals with an unhappy situation of the person he does deeply care about. When you want to emotionally move the player, you can’t expect from him to figure out why he has to be moved, you have to directly slap him with reasons to care and then bash him with emotional scenes.

The problem is that in Iris’ route we don’t learn about her brain tumor. We learn about it when we switch the path and look for information in reality, not in her delusions. The additional layer to the tragedy in her ending is revealed to us when we are avoiding said ending. Plus, the game doesn’t ever connect said revelation to her early behavior with constantly forcing Date to let her tag along, that aspect of her remains unexplained. And not every player will think that deeply about it.

The game had an occasion to hammer down why Iris’ behavior had a purpose beyond her forcing herself to the plot. After the second discovery of “Iris’” body, but before Aiba helps us with figuring things out, Date could mourn Iris and think about everything he had learned about her. He could remind himself how Iris wanted to be around him, he could realize she knew that her days were numbered, he could conclude that she was just desperate to feel alive before her own end. Then, after Aiba helps him figure out that the body doesn’t belong to Iris, he could also think about the importance of staying in reality and that it would be a tragic mistake, if he had believed Iris about the conspiracy. It’s not much, but it clarifies the purpose to everything.

It’s subjective whatever you like Iris leeching on Date, it’s subjective whatever you find the above explanation as a sufficient justification. But the character’s actions being clearly purposeful and meaningful, and not just being borderline obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious, is an objective quality to your writing. When it comes to Iris, the game does not have such a quality, when it easily could have.

Two short monologues, with some montage of flashbacks, and the character would be put into a different light. That’s why you need to be direct about emotionally affecting the player about your story and your characters. Otherwise, you won’t affect many.

The plothole with Psync Machine prototype

So, six years ago, Saito swapped bodies with Date in Rohan’s body, using the prototype of Psync Machine. Date escaped with Saito’s body, while Saito remained in Rohan’s body, and both have lost their memories. Date was found by Boss, who made him join ABIS. The police arrested Saito, and locked him up in the local Arkham Asylum. For six whole years, the Psync Machine prototype remained in secret location, with two knowing about it men suffering from amnesia.

But there was also a bunch of Saito’s people. You know, the same guys that stole the prototype and witnessed Saito and Date swapping their bodies? Whatever happened to those guys, and how come that they never said a word about it, especially to Saito’s father?

The game doesn’t recognize this at any point. We are supposed to accept that the prototype was hidden in abandoned chemical plant, and nobody knew about it until Saito regained his memories. Sure, Saito’s people could remain loyal to him, but how come that six years later Saito was forced to work on his own and, in true ending route, had to improvise swapping the body of dying Renju? And Saito really isn’t any kind of charismatic leader that would made bunch of criminals to never use or take away a machine that allowed them to become literally anybody. That’s simply an unbelievable plot convenience.

There is a simple solution to this. One way for explaining why nobody touched the prototype would be causing the explosion in the chemical plant right after Saito and Date swapping their bodies, which would be the cause for everybody present losing their memories. After the body swapping, due to Saito overlooking one of the prototype’s properties, Date was hit with an adrenaline shot, while Saito was drugged. Or maybe Saito’s men were the ones that didn’t tell him about that feature? While Saito was unable to do much, Date was still surrounded by Saito’s men, that were going to betray their boss and use the machine for their own ends. But Date did gain access to Saito’s memory, who had a plan of causing an explosion in the chemical plant, and also had finished his preparations. Perhaps Saito choose the chemical plant as a place for the body swapping, because he intended to trap there his own men and Date, because he wanted to become independent from his father and keep the secret of body swapping machine for himself. So, Date, not having any other way of preventing the Psync Machine from falling into wrong hands, finished what Saito had started and caused the explosion, wiping everybody’s memory. Of course, Date had no intention of losing his own memory, but something went wrong and he ended up barely escaping.

While this issue is an easily resolvable plothole, I doubt if Uchikoshi would prefer such a solution instead of keeping the hole unfixed. I mean, while Date’s decision to cause the explosion would be understandable, due to being outgunned by criminals and a dangerous device being at stake, Uchikoshi wouldn’t be able to have his happy dancing party ending anymore. Because Date would be indirectly responsible for Ota’s father death.

It’s because of the chemical plant explosion that Ota’s family’s diner has lost their consumers. Because of that, Ota’s father had to take different jobs and overworked himself to death. Because of that, Ota was the only one who could support his mother, after she started to suffer from dementia. Such a revelation couldn’t be just overlooked, to let everyone dance and have a shamelessly cheesy finale that celebrates Aiba’s miraculous resurrection.

Perhaps Uchikoshi planned for Date to cause the explosion, but backed away from it, realizing its implications. Which is why he has changed things last minute (moving the explosion two years before), while doing a rather sloppy job at it (so, people could enter the epicenter of explosion two years after it, but only six years later the restricted zone was decontaminated?). I can understand him making such a decision, having a dark twists for the sake of it isn’t really that good. It’s respectable that he wished to have an upbeat ending. But he should have think things through.

But to get myself out of this game’s shortcomings, let’s look at how it delivers what it promises in its title. AI, also Artificial Intelligence. Ai, also love.

How to write a Partner Character for a video game with Love in its name

Each medium is different, each medium has its different strengths. Books allow for imagination inspiring descriptions of events, and good books make their readers lost themselves in their settings. Movies allow to condense plenty of events in one-two hours, good movies make their viewers to invest themselves in an emotional roller-coaster. Video games (and RPGs) allow direct involvement in their events, good games make their players to have intense personal experience.

Which is why gaming journos that endlessly complain about video games writing supposedly not matching to books or movies (especially when they talk about movies) are nothing more than a bunch of desperate rejects from pop-culture sites they’d like to become a part of. But I digress.

In a book or a movie, Aiba would be a supporting satellite character. While I’ve compared the game to Lethal Weapon, she isn’t exactly a Danny Glover to Mel Gibson in this. While Gibson’s character ends up having more character development and ends up being arguably the protagonist, Glover’s character is still his own independent entity with his own supporting cast (his family), and he still makes his own major plot advancing decisions (sheltering a smuggled family in 4).

Aiba is closer to Aladdin’s Genie. She was explicitly created to support Date, she doesn’t really have much of an arc, up until the very end she has no interactions with most of the cast, and in her every single decision she faithfully aids Date. So, while she shares equal screen-time with Date, she doesn’t share an equal standing with him. And while both Aiba and the Genie are memorable, entertaining and likable, and also they both form a connection with their protagonist, with whom they have great chemistry (although Date and Aiba have greater, due to being bigger opposites), there is a limit to how much you can get invested in the fate of such a character. Let’s say that Aladdin couldn’t defeat Jaffar, but the Genie sacrificed himself to save the day, and then he got his own miraculous Disney-like resurrection. Let’s make it easier for the Genie, and imagine him as a more appealing waifu material.

On paper, Genie’s sacrifice and resurrection would be the same Aiba’s is on paper – a rather predictable nice to have miracle in a kids story that has no balls for a lasting tragedy. Even when said tragedy pretty much only could impact a single character, even if said character was our viewpoint protagonist. Even if the character is fun and them being okay can make you happy, depending on your subjective experience.

But we aren’t experiencing video game plots by reading them on the paper. Aiba isn’t just a fun and likable character that solely aided another character that we were following, Aiba is our Partner Character that aided us. The reason why she didn’t get much of interaction with other characters isn’t because she is some satellite character, it is because she was, rightfully, preoccupied with us and nobody else.

We people are quite selfish, and you’re lying if you deny this. The purpose of Aiba’s character was to make us feel sadness, over her sacrifice, and joy, over her resurrection. For that, the game needed to make us love her, which wouldn’t work so well in a book or a movie. How a game can make us love a character, in a way that other mediums simply can’t? By appealing to our selfish needs of usefulness and reliability.

Aiba is extremely useful to us. In Somniums she becomes playable, with the game presenting it as her following Date’s, ours, instructions. Outside of Somniums, Aiba’s abilities and tips help Date, us, to advance the investigation, making the game proceed smoother. Zoom, x-ray, lie detecting, hacking, googling information, perfectly calculated ludicrous plans, you name it. Aiba is also completely reliable, being the character that aids us 99% of time, and also one of very few that never turns against us. And like I’ve said before, she is always fun to have around.

While in other mediums Aiba could be more than just Date’s little useful techno-Genie, in a video game this isn’t just not needed, it would be also a potential hindrance. If Aiba had another character with similar importance to her as Date, in order to establish that she would have to, at some point, push Date aside for said character’s sake. And that would be pushing aside us. Notice that the second most important character to Aiba is Mizuki, and Mizuki also never turns against Date.

Add to that she always secretly loved Date, and we have our perfect videogame waifu. You will love her, you won’t want her to die, you will want her to return, you will rejoice when she returns. On the paper, it will be one of the most played out and cliché plot turns. But you won’t be experiencing it by just reading some paper.

#ai the somnium files #ai: the somnium files #somnium files #vn #video game #video games #game reviews #game review #story review #story analysis #review2002

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clown-bait · 7 years

Text

29 Neibolt ST (Monster Roommate AU) CH 30

Oh god this one got long but like so much happens man. And before you get mad I’m not sorry for what I did. Also I’m a sucker for Robert getting super proud of his trashpire and being unintentionally supportive. Like he goes out of his way to be a mean evil bastard but at the end of the day he’s secretly gonna be like “Don’t tell anyone but.. I’m proud of you and if anyone says otherwise I’ll rip out their organs. <3” he luv his trashpire. So yeah shit goes down have fun.

music for this chapter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0TzUNti3rY

play at the beginning for maximum comedic effect.

CH 30

Lets Get Ready to Die

“Mmmm Leech you’re so tense” Robert mumbled into her skin. “Do I frighten you love?” he smiled into her continuing his assault on her neck. He pulled slightly away when she didn't respond to his nips “Love?” he removed himself completely and stared at her blank face with a puzzled look. “Leechie?” he waved his injured hand in front of her face. He turned his head to see what had his nosferatu so stunned and before he could react she exploded out of his arms screaming like a banshee.

“ADAM!!!” She howled limbs flailing frantically through the crowd to get to the fleeing ghost from her past. “AAAAADDDAAAM!!! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD YOU SON OF A BITCH” she roared and shoved an unsuspecting Chucky into the wall of enraged muscle that was Michael Myers. Who threw the former doll into the Babadook spilling the grief monster’s drink all over himself and his large new boyfriend Pyramid Head. The two former monsters stared at eachother from across the room and charged. Soon a domino effect of punches began.

“CLUB FIGHT!” Freddy yelled right before Jason broke a chair over him. Robert took off after his mate who could be heard shrieking obscenities over all the chaos around her. As a creature of destruction Robert was a bit impressed that his mate could cause so much discord and pandemonium within a matter of minutes. Maybe there was such a thing as destiny after all.

“I AM GOING TO RIP OUT YOUR ENTRAILS AND WEAR THEM LIKE A FUCKING SCARF YOU POMPUS PIECE OF SHIT” She screeched tearing through people to get to the man trying to shake her off. She finally caught up to him and smashed a bottle on a table pointing it at her ex-lover “I WILL BATHE IN YOUR BLOOD AND MAKE MY MATE LICK IT OFF! GET READY TO DIE AGAIN FUCKER!” Leech let out a roar and charged but was smacked in the ribs by a flying bar stool, her small frame never standing a chance. Adam took his chance to slink into the surrounding chaos and Leech directed her rage at the person who threw the stool. Poor Ghostface didn't realize the mistake he had made till he felt the fist collide with his mask. Leech was fuming mad, how the hell was that manipulative asshole still alive? Ash must have fucked up the words again. This is what she gets for trusting a human. Someone pulled her off the poor serial killer and Leech spun around punching whoever it was in the nose, Freddy stumbled back holding his face “Jesus Fangs its me calm down!” he shouted

“He’s fucking back Fred! HE’S FUCKING BACK!”

“Yeah yeah everyone heard you screaming. You know, you didn't have to break my damn nose!”

“I need to kill him right now. I’m mortal at the moment and theres no doubt he’ll be after me!”

“Look you wanna have your little soap opera that’s fine, but lets focus on getting everyone back to normal first then you can go stabbing anyone you want yeah? I’m fuckin tired of being able to die.”

Leech stared at her friend her chest heaving and fresh blood poured from a cut on her forehead and onto her lip. She shut her eyes flicking out her tongue to taste it. “All right, fine. Let’s find the damn kid so I can get my revenge and get back to my god damn life.” she snarled.

The doors of the club opened and Uncle Bob entered the club with a still very confused Dracula in tow holding a dirty burlap sack.

“Man oh man Drac this sure sounds like……some…..party…what the hell is this?” the scene was pure chaos former monsters revealing their true natures and attacking eachother left and right, there were even a few small fires in the corner. The two stared in shock “We’re gone for three hours. THREE HOURS and you guys start a damn riot. HOW??”

“Leech did it.” Freddy pointed at the former vampire.

“I…..yeah I guess I did well shit….” she said looking around at the scene. “You know this is actually pretty impressive I’d be proud if the stakes werent high.” she gave the duo a cocky grin to which both elder monsters shook their heads to.

“Jesus Dracula you chose this walking disaster as your apprentience?”

“De ce este totul pe foc?” (why is everything on fire?) the older vampire responded wide eyed.

“I need to have a talk with junoir about his taste in women….speaking of where is the brat?”

“No idea actually…” Leech glanced around the room. “This could be a problem I may have accidently got him shit-faced.”

“You did what now?!” Uncle Bob stomped forward and bore down on her.

“Look I didnt know he was going to be a lightweight in human form!”

“I ASKED YOU TO LOOK OUT FOR HIM AND YOU PULL THIS SHIT?”

“I’m his mate not his keeper.”

“HES MORTAL RIGHT NOW AND A COCKY IDIOT AND YOU GOT HIM DRUNK!”

“Are you guys talking about Jingles?” Chucky said crawling out with Tiffany from under a table

“We saw him leave out the back.” Tiff said pointing to the back exit.

“Oh god he left the building?” Leech was starting to get worried now. She let her rage blind her once again and it put someone she loved in danger.

“Guys I know we all care about jingles’ well being but we only have a few hours left of halloween and if we dont find that little orange brat were stuck like this” Freddy complained dodging a thrown bottle.

“All right then grab the giant lets get the kid and fix this mess.” Uncle Bob grabbed the sack from Dracula and opened it seeing if there was anything useful to bring him out.

“I thought I saw him before Vorhees hit me with a chair he’s here somewhere.” Freddy grumbled and began to push back into the fighitng crowd the rest of the gang folling him. Leech turned the other direction of her friends heading for the back exit.

“Fangs come on.” Uncle Bob shouted.

“I’m going to find him.”

“Yeah and we’ll have better luck working together come on.” Freddy growled at her.

“No I’m going to find Adam. I’m going to find him before he kills me or Robert.”

“Leech this is not the time for fuckin heroics. Besides thats not really our forte.” the dream demon said stepping forward.

“Who said anything about being heroic.” the vampire said darkly pulling a large knife from her coat.

“Huh i thought this was an edge free event.” Tiffany chimed in slightly puzzled.

“Plucked it off Ghostface before he could use it on me.” she said cooly fiddling with the blade.

“Fine if you want to go save your stupid damsel in distress then by all means go get yourself killed once again because thats probably going to be the result.” Freddy rolled his eyes.

“Are you implying you actually give a shit about me Fred?” Leech smirked.

“Nah, you still owe me for that last half ounce. Can’t have you kickin the bucket till you pay me back.”

Leech smiled at the dream demon. “You know for a bunch of selfish murderers you guys sure are big softies.” the gang grinned back at her “Dont fuck up I expect to be bald next time I see all of you.”

“Go save your idiot Fangs.”

The former vampire tipped the knife to her head in a mock salute and slipped out the door.

——————-

Leech briskly walked through the cool october air behind the night club. It was eerily quiet compared to the chaos inside and the ex-vampire tightened her grip on the stolen blade in her hand. With the 7pm curfew still in effect most people were off the streets at this hour leaving her alone and exposed. She had grown quite friendly with the night becoming nearly nocturnal since the sun rapidly drained her energy. This atmosphere was normally comforting to her but something felt off and she felt vulnerable. Leech approaced an alleyway and proceeded down the poorly lit path eyes darting around in the night. She was desprately missing her heightened hearing and nightvision right now. Something stumbled and shuffled behind her she wasnt alone. The vampire gripped her knife and spun around with a snarl only to have her wrist caught by a large hand missing a finger. Robert Gray held the side of his head and stared into his mates wild murderous eyes. Leech immediately released the tension in her muscles dropping the knife in her hand and falling into him.

“Holy shit youre not dead!” she gasped squeezing her mate tight as if letting him go would cause him to vanish.

“I feel dead” he grumbled his eyes were red and bloodshot he had clearly sobered up thanks to the cold. They broke apart and leech picked up her knife.

“Adam’s back.”

“I’m aware.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Same thing we always do, kill the problem.”

“I’m glad we’re on the same page.” she grinned at him. “I uh I was worried about you.”

Roberts lip twitched up slightly “Were you now?”

“Don’t make fun of me for it.”

“I’d never.” he smirked shoving her lightly.

“Liar.”

he chuckled and placed his hands on his mate’s cheeks his thumbs tracing over a fresh bruise. “Would you like to destroy our enemy with me my love?”

“Mmmmm I love it when you talk dirty to me.” she grinned up at him a slight blush grew on her cheeks.

He laughed and kissed the top of her head. “Its a date then.” robert whispered and pressed their lips together.

Leech followed behind he mate through dark alleyways till they got to the park in the center of town. She lightly touched Robert’s arm as they approached a large tree “Hey. there’s only an hour left of Halloween left and were still not back to normal.” she said with concern.

“If we are trapped like this then we’ll find another way. There’s always another way.”

“I just miss us….and killing things” she glanced off to the side “…but mostly us.”

“I know kitten.”

Robert held Leech close to him and stroked her hair. He rarely ever hugged her like this but figured now was an acceptable time to do it. The former clown sighed and looked up locking eyes with the small boy sitting in the tree eating a pumpkin lollipop. Robert froze in realization.

“You………YOU!” he shouted casting his mate to the side.

“Bob what the he- oh!”

“Grab him!” he hissed

The boy stood up on the branch.

“WAIT DONT LEAVE!” Leech shouted wishing she could still climb walls. The spirit leapt from the branch and Leech sprinted towards him. Robert closed the gap faster with his longer legs racing ahead of her and just barely grazing the burlap mask on his head. The kid was fast, unaturally fast. The former clown dove and grabbed the halloween god’s feet causing him to fall forward and drop his precious lollipop. Robert clawed at him yanking him back into his grasp the spirit began to make strange shrieking sounds reaching out with his small hands. Leech caught up to them panting and Robert pinned the child spirit to the ground in fury.

“CHANGE ME BACK!” he roared. The spirit squirmed and flailed in his grasp. “CHANGE ME BACK BEFORE I SPILL YOUR INSIDES!” the former clown slamed the spirit on the ground.

“Hey not really sure if shake and yell is actually going to work here Bob”

“STAY OUT OF IT LEECHIE!” he snarled at her clearly in a feral mood. The creature under him was reaching for something straining with his short little arms. Leech put too and two together and picked up the pumpkin lollipop. “Robert wait let me try something!” she shouted.

The former monster turned to his mate in fury. “Please! Shake and yell is clearly not going to convince him!” he was fuming mad and panting hard but stopped his assualt his grip still tight on the boy.

“Sam right? This is what you want yeah?” she held out the sucker and pulled it away before the boy could grab it “If I give it to you will you help us?” the spirit said nothing but its hand shot out reaching for its treat. Leech tenitavely held it back out to him and sam swiped it out of her hand. They stared at eachother for a brief second then the spirit stabbed Robert in the arm with the candy. The former clown roared in pain releasing the spirit.

“HEY WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR!?” she screamed after it as she tried to tend to her mate’s wound. “Don’t let him get away! go!” he shouted at her pushing her off. Leech got up to chase after the creature but before she could catch up to him something smacked it hard in the head with a metal pole. The spirit fell back and pumpkin seeds oozed out of his mask.

“One monster down two to go.” Adam growled and tightened his grip on the rod.

“You bastard!” Leech hissed.

“You’re the one who eats people. You know, the first thing I thought when I woke up was that I was going to rid this town of you horrible creatures. They’ll probably call me a hero.”

“You’re equally horrible Adam!”

“At least I dont kill people.”

“Pff People. What have people ever done for me other than rejected me for who I am? Now they are the sheep and I am the wolf. Its my turn to be on top.”

If there was one thing Leech never had when she was with Adam it was confidence. She had almost none when she first arrived at Neibolt. It wasn’t until she rejected her humanity and began growing close to the clown that she finally felt power. He may not have meant to, but Pennywise made her strong. Now standing in front of her arch enemy she radiated that strength. Leech took a few bold steps forward oozing confidence.

“I am the mate of the eater of worlds. I am the right hand of destruction. Go on,” she said with a wicked grin “Try to stop me, I’ll just kill you again and again until it sticks.”

“You also don’t have a weapon.” Adam smirked and spun the metal rod.

She opened her mouth to speak then shut it. “I-huh” she reached in her jacket for her knife. Leech went still remembering that she dropped it to help Robert. “Well shit.”

Adam grinned and charged her swinging the pole like a bat at her head. Leech braced for impact when a knife blocked the blow. “The right hand of destruction. I like it.” her mate grinned at her shoving her assailant back.

“Its a working title I havent committed to anything yet.”

Out of the corner of her eye Leech saw the little pumpkin spirit stumble to its hands and knees. She glanced over to robert who took a blow to his injured arm. “Go.” he hissed as blood spattered his face.

“Aw but I want to be the one to kill him again” she whined and Robert glared.

“Leechie go.” he snarled kicking Adam in the chest with a spider web patterned boot.

“Hey before I do, dont die all right?”

“Oh that I can promise dear, but you aren’t allowed to die either understand?”

“Been there done that.” she laughed. Robert smiled at her before being smacked in the side with the metal rod. Leech yelled but the look on her mate’s face told her to go and she knew he was right. Robert Gray was tough but he wasnt Pennywise and he wasn’t immortal. Leech began to run following the trail of pumpkin guts and seeds down an alley street.

The trail turned a corner but before she could round it she caught a glimpse of several figures making their way towards her. She spun around only to see several more behind her. The figures came to veiw. They were her fellow monsters from the party, all beat up and bruised being led by the hell priest Pinhead.

“VAMPIRE!” he roared as Michael Myers and Pyramid Head pinned her to the wall, the angry mob of former monsters gathered around them. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”

“Ok first, you can lead off with a simple hello its not that hard.” Myers slammed her into the wall hard and she nearly passed out from the impact. “Two-fuck-” she wheezed “I didn’t do anything, you all didn’t have to start punching each other.”

“You nearly destroyed my establishment!”

“Oh come on it wasn’t that bad!”

“Chatterer lost an eye!”

“How is that a problem?! He didn’t have eyes before!”

“That’s not the point!” the Cenobite leader growled “You will pay for this vampire. You may be the clown’s mate but you must suffer the consequences for your actions.”

“Now, now friends let’s not get carried away here-“ Leech laughed nervously as the mob closed in.

“Burn her!” someone shouted.

“Cut out her tongue!” came another. Clearly she wasn’t the most popular monster.

The mob drew closer and Leech began to panic. Robert was busy and her friends were no where to be seen. She was done for.

“AHEM!” a gruff voice shouted. Six familiar figures emerged from the darkness.

“If you all want to continue living in our little slice of murder heaven here I suggest you put Fangs down and help us out!” Freddy called out followed by the rest of her adopted family.

“Oh thank fuck” Leech sighed in relief.

“Everyone listen up, we got the pumpkin boy’s magic bag here and I got a feeling he wants it back. We find him, give it back and then we all go back to being our regular old spooky selves yeah? I don’t know about all of you but that sounds like a way better alternative than taking out our anger on a vampire.”

“Also Pennywise is currently fighting to the death out in the park so we kinda have to hurry. If he dies were all fucked.” Leech chimed in and glared at Pinhead. “So whats it gonna be? Cut out my tongue or help fix this mess?”

The hell priest sighed and shut his eyes “Perhaps we will discuss your punishment later vampire. Release her.” the two silent giants obeyed and Leech uncerimoniously dropped to the ground. She dusted herself off and walked to the head of the mob.

“All right everyone follow me.”

————————-

Robert coughed and sputtered as he once again fell to the ground. He was injured, hungover and had an extreme disadvantage. The eldritch began to curse this human body’s weakness and hopped for his mate to succeed so he could return to full power. Once back to normal Adam wouldn't have the power of the necronomicon on his side and would be easily dispatched. Robert would just have to survive long enough to regain his powers then victory would be his. A kick to the head drew him back out of his thoughts. The former clown roared and slashed at his opponent with the stolen knife. Adam dodged and swung his metal rod down at Robert’s head who caught the weapon and kicked his enemy back. What was taking Leech so long the spirit was injured he couldnt have gone that far. He glanced over to where his mate had ran off to and saw her pinned to the wall by an angry mob. Fantastic. Of course hed have to do everything himself. Now he had to kill this intruder AND fight his way through an angry mob to save his mate. This day couldnt go any more wrong for him.

“You know clown I must thank you I dont think I’d ever be able to get control of my body back after the two of you killed it and let it become possessed.” Adam began. “The kandarians told me she died shorty after they stabbed her and I must ask you, did you enjoy tearing out her throat just as much as you did making her into a disgusting monster?”

Robert snarled and lunged at him. Adam caught him with the pole. “Disgusting?” Robert scoffed “You were a fool to throw away such a powerful creature, I simply did what you could not and unlocked her full potential. Your failure gave me my queen.” The former clown smiled wickedly.

“Yeah from what I saw over there with the mob, it wasnt much potential.” Adam smirked.

“You’re wrong. I think someone is jealous that their own creation has surpassed them.” Robert growled. Adam threw him off and slammed him into the back of a large tree. The former clown sneered and smashed his forehead into his opponent’s skull. They both stumbled then Adam roared and sprinted forward. Robert snarled back and met his assault with a charge of his own both headed straight for each other in a final burst of energy. With only one coming out on top.

Leech jogged out of the alleyway with the burlap sack slung over her shoulder the little pumpkin spirit nowhere to be found. Her small army of monsters followed behind her if she couldn’t find Samhain at least she could lead her troops into battle. And they would fight, no Pennywise meant no illusions and no illusions meant Derry was no longer safe for killers. She froze when she got to the tree the mob in back of her slowing to a stop as well. A man in a Spiderman costume stood pinned against it. A metal rod pierced through his gut and into the bark behind him. His body hung limp and blood dripped down from his plump soft lips. The vampire’s entire world crumbled in mere seconds. She was too late, Robert Gray was dead.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Whoops I killed the clown.

#pennywise #pennywise fanfiction #it fanfiction #pennywise x oc #horror fanfiction #slasher fanfiction #slashers #freddy krueger #monster roommate au

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