Going through Tumblr archives recently made me realize just how many details there are on each scene (like the "movie-like" posters which have each so many reference once you know the universe) and holy cow... you're the best at what you do.
So again, I've gathered a few questions I wished to ask you about, if it's alright.
What exactly happened after the crash on Dzheeron Dans for it to be so important to Louis and Ezo?
2. Xev being demoted after Tycho died seems a bit too harsh. I suppose something else happened back on the field? Or did he took full responsibility for the whole tripwire thing? And how did their colleagues react? Figes, Rodriguez and so on? Maybe even Sebastian ?
3. Who does the Ground forces usually fight? For example on Germinal?
4. Did you thought of a background for Kirk? Before he met Louis I mean?
5. Is the duel between the Percival brothers still considered canon? I'm having a hard time imagining the context in their respective stories.
6. Do you have any plan on writing down/drawing something for Stardust? From an exterior point of view it's already perfect to imagine the story. A simple summary, a Star Treatment character and a subtle mention of August. I wouldn't mind if it was left in this state to help narrate a bigger story, but I'm curious about your answer.
7. Concerning your stories, there is that one on the Tumblr stories called "The circuit". May I ask what it was exactly ? Some kind of early testing ground?
8. Overall throughout the years, what work are the most happy with? I think you already said to someone you can't choose a favourite piece, but then if it's alright to ask, is there one that was more enjoyable to make, made you progress with your skills, that kind of thing?
Anyway I guess that's it for today's questions, thanks for taking the time to read me and sorry for throwing so many things at you!
Wishing you good health Marshal!
The details have always been there, it just takes a degree of effort to see them when you've familiarized yourself with the lore- which it seems like you to a large extent have! Well done.
Without giving too much away, Louis is Ezo's apprentice for the first couple years that they're running an arms-running/arms-dealing ring through several star systems. Louis gets on board and proposes a couple of high-risk, high-reward heists, which Ezo goes along with, but a couple of them go not-so-well in the course of their partnership. Not all of it is on Louis, as some of those ideas are on Ezo as well. The one that happens before the Dzheeron Dans incident kind of goes uniquely badly, which leads to Ezo's separation from the arms dealing group and the gang's near-dissolution until Louis picks up the pieces kind of and starts from zero with Kirk.
Xever was not demoted because Tycho dies. Xever comes under scrutiny by his superiors because the circumstances of his conduct during the battle are mystifying. Usually an officer falling in the line of duty doesn't mean their immediate superior delegating their command to another office and going out of their way to find said officer, and then being basically unreachable, near catatonic afterward. The higher ups suspected there was something more going on between Tycho and Xever than senior officer-junior officer, which of course it was, and the powers that be launched an investigation. They suspected that Xever might have used his superior rank to advance on a lower rank, which would have been cause for removal, and in the largely conservative ICC Armed Forces, this thing was doubly looked down upon. That said, they found that Xever and Tycho's relationship started long before they were even in the same unit. The crucial testimony for that was Figes, who, wounded and bitter about Xever near-abandoning his post, maintained that the two's relationship existed outside of the bounds of military hierarchy. Xever's handling of command however was still deemed irresponsible.
Sebastian, disgusted at his son's "proclivities" yet still obsessed with living vicariously through his children's military careers, throws one last favor in to his friends on the inside, and "saves" Xever's career (arguably way worse for Xever's mental health than just being ejected), and the decision reached by Xever's superiors is a demotion and reassignment to a desk job.
Rodriguez is taken off-command after failing post-operation psych-eval, Wynn's busy with his own struggles.
Ground Forces is a tool of the ICC's foreign-policy and internal domestic security agenda. For the most part, they're mainly involved supporting factions in conflicts along the ICC's borders, on the side most favorable to the ICC, with the hopes of folding them into the political-economic union. The Germinal government (or, what's left of it in the face of the planet's rapidly intensifying ecological catastrophe) is favorable to joining the ICC, and insurgent groups on the planet are resisting ICC presence, largely (albeit wrongheadedly) blaming the ICC for the crisis. On Bostubor, the ruling government has basically collapsed, and several factions fight to take control of the planet, with the most well-funded faction clawing to become ICC-adjacent.
Kirk Laklan came from a large family of cats, with at least 12 other siblings between his housecat and lynx parents. Kirk did things by himself as his family was unable to really individually focus or nurture his interests, and his leisure time took the form of wandering the city, making little gadgets and gizmos from pieces he scavenged. He learned a lot of his tricks from Kitaitown and Little Chiapas handymen. Kirk would eventually work a number of odd jobs here and there, several weeks at a time as a sanitation worker, postman, fast food employee, barber, and eventually used parts salesman. It was through this last avenue that Ezo and Kirk met up, which got Kirk involved in the Zander's illicit affairs.
Xever and Louis show down, but it's being reworked :3
Stardust is a liiiittle later down the line. I'd like to finish Supernova, Star Treatment, and key segments of Louis Percivals before I do Stardust, so it's a bit low on the priority rung for me, but as I do more, the concept might just be juicy enough for me to pick up again anyway. I'm infamous for working in things out-of-chronological order anyway! Haha
The Circuit was a veeeery early concept story between me and my partner at the time. I'd like to think I'd still come back to it, because it has a bit of that Manhattan-like urban grunge that I really like, but also more importantly reminds me of a very happy time of my life. In a way though, I feel like coming back to write for that would be difficult, but I like to leave it up on the page because the memories are too good to leave unacknowledged. That said, Conrad the jackal character from that story still pops up every now and then in references, even if he hasn't been drawn in quite a while. He's known for demolishing bowls of ramen.
It's hard to say! I don't think I can answer that, even in the new spins you're proposing haha.
I think, at the end of the day, each different story, whether or not it's the scifi Percivals series, the satirical drama In the Red, or even the fan work stuff I've done for the Smoke Room, brings to me a different benefit emotionally, spiritually, and technically. I'll re-phrase your question this way: what work portended a turn in the way I tell stories the most?
I think the Percivals as a whole is too big to condense.
Star Treatment was the first story that got me to really sit down and focus on characters over the world at large, and taught me that it's okay to have a more emotionally grounded story than one that professes to explain every nook and cranny first. At the time in my life when I first came up with Star Treatment, I was working on the initial phases of In the Red, which was a much less-refined, much-less focused outline of what it is today. I was very concerned with the technical aspects of worldbuilding, like accounting for how many hectares of arable land were in the Vulpiet Union and the population of districts in the (insert name) Vulpiet Republic, etc. Star Treatment really forced me to question the point of all that if there was no point in the narrative. Was I doing it just to reembellish what I knew based on history? I dunno, I know that aspect is fun to some people, but in many cases since, it strikes me as a little self-congratulatory- and I say that as someone who got pins of my characters made haha.
I've spoken to a number of people who ask me to review their worldbuilds and have lore-dumps for every technical question I could ask, but when I ask "what is it saying?" conceptually, or how emotionally resonant can you get from what you have so far, the answers I receive oftentimes clash with the goal of relatability in storytelling. And to bring it back, Star Treatment, while looking back at it in retrospect and realizing a lot of the plot needs to be reworked to have a more cohesive message and better pacing, was the project that got me "off my high horse" so to speak.
I might rephrase your question even more, and turn it into "what has each story/work brough to the table for me?," but that would be a VERY long post, and I'd have to do that another day!
Thank you for your questions, keep em coming! I enjoy answering!
