That seems too prosaic to be true.
@Dave can tell me how on the nose Alycia’s reaction here is, but it feels authentic to me… Proceed [Y/N]
(Breaks [Y] key stabbing it repeatedly.)
As I was reading, I was thinking, “She has to turn her opinion around … this is right up her alley.”
Love it. While I’m sure this isn’t what you were going for, the rhyming alien is giving me some serious flashbacks to my childhood.
Tsk, look at Adam, not letting those two have their fun. He’s a nuisance I say. A nuisance!
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And so, the date was saved! And Summer has learned a valuable lesson: be more subtle when you spy on your roommate.
Thanks for reading. Hope folks enjoyed it.
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Octava (The Nomad)
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.
Look: woman, alien, sculpted body, extraterrestrial clothing (semitransparent bodysuit)
Abilities: rift generator (hyper-portal device), cloaking rig (holographic disguise)
Labels: Danger 0, Freak +2, Savior -1, Superior +2, Mundane +0
Backstory:
- 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)
- Putting down roots: no one has Influence yet
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.
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And, yes, the “potent pair” enjoyed the rest of the evening. Nudge-nudge.
Alycia at every social event.
This plot actually was a lot of fun for me to write. I enjoy seeing Alycia and Jason doing a sort of “Man from UNCLE” secret-agent deal, quipping their way through outlandish situations while always keeping their cool.
In-universe, I wonder if Maury and Nono would team up to write a pitch for “The New Adventures of Jason Quill”, a revival of the cartoon, where cartoon!Jason is teamed up with “Alex Chance” (who he learns is a girl, just as capable as him), meets his long-lost sister Medea, and generally engages in fictional versions of his life story (aka the stuff we’ve seen in game and in the comics) - but in that affectionate respectful way only dedicated fanfic writers can spin something. And I wonder if Jason - and Alex, er Alycia - would go along with it.
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