I’m trying to figure out the formalwear+amusement park combo. The date is really a MiB-style assignment from Parker, only the climax here is at Six Flags over Paragon rather than Flushing Meadows? They’re undercover for services at the ultramegachurch of Willy Sunday, whose property not only has a full-size amusement park for the kids but hypnospeakers in the main sanctuary to build his Holy Army? It’s actually opening day ceremonies at the Interdimensional Communication Array, and that’s not a roller coaster but a weirdly shaped antenna?
I don’t know, but they seem to be having a good time, so that’s what counts.
“Bill was lazy about costume choice” leads the pack of likely theories, but they can be attending a music event or something that’s in a concert hall on park grounds.
This is a bit of a departure from the usual Nomad, because she’s not originally human - at least as far as anyone knows - but her story fits the Nomad’s better than the Outsider or the Star. Gaining and giving trust is a major element of her story.
Who took you when you were younger? The Blot, an expansionist empire. Their people recognize and crave beauty, but are unable to create it themselves. They enslave others and force us to create and perform, but punish us if we cannot satisfy their cravings.
What farscapes did you explore? I traveled with a small group through the galaxy, seeing and remembering planets but unable to find one that would accept us.
Who was your favorite traveling companion? A dancer, who was blinded by the Blot for staring at me too often during a performance. His name was Joao. I would sing to him of the planets I saw, and he would dance to the music.
What brought you back to stay (for now)? The hope that Earth can fight back against the Blot.
When our team first came together, we had to deal with a danger I’d met while traveling the farscapes. What was it, and how did we send it away? The team fought off the Blot expeditionary force, and routed it thanks to Concord’s reputation.
Relationships:
Charade knows plenty that I don’t about this world, its people, and how to deal with them; I should follow their lead while I’m here.
Jason Quill is…well…boring. But that’s okay! I’m going to make them more interesting.
Decide for yourself if it’s funniest to flip these two.
Influence: No one has influence.
Nomad Moves:
Watched C-beams glitter (I tell stories and sing songs, I know much and remember all that I’ve seen)
The littlest space bandit (I am learning to fight, not just sing)
Random notes I came up with for writing Octava in the comic:
She’s an escaped slave, but not someone who had to do hard manual labor - that’s what robots are for (Summer will have words with people about that…)
Instead, her species was enslaved for their general pleasantness and artistic skill by the Blot, who love beauty but can’t make it
She’ll come off as a sweet, shy, and innocent girl because she was literally raised to be a Good Girl by bad people
She rhymes when she talks both out of habit, and to get accustomed to English by forcing herself to construct sentences
At bottom, though, this is a consequence of the abuse her people were put through, and isn’t a good thing (something Jason doesn’t know, and compliments her on anyway, and will feel guilty about if he finds out later…)
Getting her to a place where she doesn’t feel threatened to perform any more - where she could talk “naturally”, express unpleasantness or dissatisfaction, or (heavens to Betsy) swear - would be a major accomplishment
Basically, she’s a (very distant) take on an artistic child raised by a dour fundamentalist family, so write her as such.