#open source character

"Howcome?" the contact asked. His voice was a two-tone thing at once, sounding like a young boy and a rumbling dragon layered atop each other. "You trust me, and I presume you trust you, and Marian's good at what she does.."

"Firstly kid," the Arm interrupted "I don't trust me. Never have, never will. Second, Faust always fumbles the bag on jobs like these." 

The line fell silent for a moment. The Arm narrowly missed a jump on her forehead as her contact leapt past her... to find a 1-up. 

"Firstly," the voice said, "They're the ones who do the least-fun most-important parts of it, and they've only failed twenty-five percent of the time." The contact's Mario landed on the head of The Arm's "Secondly, you call me Kid every time you're a doomer about these things, I'm older than you by a wide margin."

"I know, I know" she said. A shit-eating grin spread on her eye as she leapt on her opponent's head. It was a trade. "That's why I'm here, ain't I? Plan's still on, I'm still here, I just think it helps to be realistic."

"You mean cynical."

"The fact you think there's a difference is why I keep with ya." she retorted. She made a jump, now her contact was one down. But the plan was still on. Marian distracts them, Faust sets them up the bomb, when a hole's blown in the dome, she; the Arm picks off the elites they do send, then her contact brings in the cavalry to usher out the folks Faust n Marian get on the bus (also her contact) and hopefully the ol' lady doesn't have to get involved too much. She's been through enough as it is.

Waiting here, it was a bit like the old times, her waiting alone for a fight against overwhelming odds. But, it was never a willing fight. In lightless times, one believes that hope rides alone.

 But hope dies alone too. But maybe, just maybe, she could believe for a moment they could win. With a little help from her friends...

...Game, set and match. The game between her and her contact was over. But who won didn't matter. Because the real game was just afoot, with a slash of claws, and a baleful, howling, cackle...

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It's another character! She's named after Here Comes The Arm from The Protomen; and the aesthetic; themes and implied backstory kinda flow from there. Not that much to say, at least not before tomorrow's entry...

Today's org is, well, it's a couple of people actually. Namely, NSFW Journalist Ana Valens and NSFW artist Dieselbrain are right at the forefront of this fight against payment processor tyranny and the whole age-verification fight that motivated this, So if you wanna keep abreast of the issues and learn what to do, they're probably your best shot. Tho, given their other areas, probably not at work, but still.

Now, there've been some that say that the character's just... a cypher, a blank vessel without a work. Cartoonist Maxwell Atoms, no disrespect, said as much when I asked him about this.

But, I would beg to disagree. Characterization, as with much of fiction, is just as much a social phenomenon as it is of the core of ink pressed to page or pixels pressed to plasma. Anyone who's been in fandom, and seen the differences between fanon and character (which has lots of... problems, but that's its own discussion) would know as much.

But... the key problem is, often times it isn't really ours.

Sure fandom and fanfic strains against the bounds and chains, but they cannot break them, or they would be sued into the ground. Ao3 knows this, even if in their cowardice they build their warped Adompha-gardens instead of fighting back.

As an example, the talking point of the superhero genre being the new mythology died with the Disney monopoly, but before then it was near death with the swathes of Crises and Secret Wars and never-were Twilights of the Superheroes, worlds dying and stories being wiped away at a corporate whim. a

At first, it was for a cause or it didn't intefere too much, but more and more it came and devoured stories in an endless ouroboros, because, as the art-troll that Bob Iger keeps in his basement making comics in-between Pixar movies says, Marvel Need Money

As the man behind the curtain enters his final boss form, we see that we never really owned our culture in the age of copyright, we just rent it. But, so many people use this as a means of condemning the sharing of our current culture, viewing it not as a stolen commons to take back but as an Omelas to walk away form.

But we, in the Open Source Creation community, choose another way. We believe in creating cultural institutions that are not only shared, but shared in a way that nobody can take them away from us, for what is truly shared cannot be truly stolen.

Now, there are two schools of Open Source worldbuilding projects, roughly delinneated by aesthetic license, neither better than the other but both with their advantages and disadvantage of which this essay is too short and on too short a notice to cover.

There's the CC-BY-SA school, and the CC-BY/Public Domain school. Of the former, there are many successes, but the great eidolon above them is the SCP Foundation. But, of the latter... It is Jenny that leads the way, that holds the ever-shifting prismatic standard.

And, what we need is a standard-bearer, because what we need is a movement. In another day, another article, I may go over the many of them, but there are other Open Source Characters in that vein. But they are scattered, like grains of sand in a haystack.

They're isolated. But, Jenny is the codifier. Though there were a few other precursors before, she was the first modern incarnation of the concept. She is the link between the worlds we need. The one who can be everywhere in not just a narrative sense, but in a metanarrative sense.

Between worlds, between breaths, between the tick and the tock she can be there, to bring our shared characters together. To bring shared worlds together.

To bring us together. In a world united, but in a world free too. That's what it is.

I have more I have to write, but my queue-based self-imposed deadline is running short, as evidenced by the ideas expressed in pathos and egos-drenched lavender prose rather than in restrained logos. That's probably for another article to elaborate.(edited)

But, if there's any message here, it is that we need a world where culture is truly free, and to lead the charge there's few better than Jenny. if you are writing a story, bring her in, perhaps.

The Gunsmith is an enigmatic character. One would think the greatest forger of firearms on this earth would be an unscrupulous arms dealer, one for the highest bidder, but the reality is; if anything, the inverse.

They are quiet, content to craft and be sought by the desperate and seek those who may be desperate. Yet, at the same time, when they are under threat or they see some cruelty, they are ferociously violent but with a frightening speed that suggests a desire to end violence as quickly as they begin it. As they will be more than happy to tell you after all, "Warning shots are bullshit"

What has been gleaned was they were a fighter for freedom upon a world dominated by a brutal autocratic monarchy, an empire of godlings and god-emperors. But, against all odds, the fighters for freedom won, with hands unshackled even as they were stained red. The Gunsmith notes their hands were the most stained of all with a bitter tinge in their voice.

But for a time, there was peace, even happiness. Until the last dregs of that bloated aristoceacy contacted the network of the Antidisestablishmentarianists. Which, if you are unfamiliar with that mythos, think the Dark Enlightenment on a cosmic scale for the short version.

The planet was wiped clean of life in a matter of days. If it could not be dominated, it could not exist. The gunsmith only escaped through one last weapon forged in haste, flung through worlds, body broken and mind screaming in horror.

But they rebuilt themselves a body forged on the violent weapons they knew beyond all others, and rebuilt their mind on one goal again: The death of those who would do to other worlds what was done to theirs.

Their body is mainly shrouded beneath a hat and cloak (Likely much larger on the inside than out by the few times they have taken it off in their full violence), but it is essentially entirely made of guns, akin to some sort of human Ship of Theses, or Nick Chopper if you read the Oz books. Any firearm or bullet you can imagine off your head in five seconds, they likely have use of at a moment's notice, manipulating objects through a combination of clever mechanics and bullets of their own design that create spectral hands for the manipulation of objects.

While they would be the first to admit they are not the greatest gunslinger in the universe, that is in fact an extremely high bar to clear, and they are still indeed one of the greatest. But, their true skill is; appropriate to their apellation; at forging firearms; mundane; superscientific; magical; and all between and beyond, reachable in their strange fortresses of weaponry across the spheres (Because, yes, they can and will apply their knowlege to fields as diverse as architecture; medicine and mathematics and beyond, such as their skill.

While they could be richer than the vaults of Hell from this, they cater to the small, isolated, and revolutionary, refusing the rich and powerful sometimes politely; but usually violently;

Ideologically, they are akin to one of those left-anarchists with very strong opinions against gun control. And yet, they do not crave violence, but its swift end. And they refuse to die until the last bullet is fired, and the last king is dead...

As per usual, this lone gunslinger is free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY 4.0 license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

And, if you wanna support me, maybe check out my Patreon, or even just send a Ko-Fi my way! Every penny is appreciated, and I am eternally grateful for those who donate!

Or, if you wanna commission me for a pic like this, my commission info is thisaway!

The concept basically came from "I want to come up with a character to use as a basis for the sorts of wacky Gungeon-type guns I come up with in photomanips," the body made of guns came from trying to come up with a unique design gimmick, and the cloak and hat came from both the desire to evoke a gunslinger but also to avoid actually drawing the full fucking body made of guns.

Regardless, the drawing has been finished in my drafts since Febuary, and I only just now got to making the damn profile. Hope ya dig it!