Character Development Infodump Part 2: Psychics

Most of the general psychic-ery stuff was inspired by Paranatural, which is a comic done by Zack Morrison about a kid who found out he had some weird powers and crazy bullshit. Also inspired by Earthbound and Mother 3, some of my favorite games that i never completed based around psychic powers. I wanted it to happen somewhere more familiar. Where discrimination was still rampant in all shapes and forms.

So I stared at a map of Maryland, pointed at a random city, and said, "I AM USING THIS AS THE BASIS OF MY STORY."

And so, that's how the Augusta series began.

Sammy Goddard - Shy girl with an Electric Personality

Originally, she was supposed to be that one girl in 2011 Alex worked with. I believe she acted as Lunar Woman in the whole "Dr. Triden" sequence in Tridenland? I forget. She was a huge fan of Megaman, but was more of a fan for the underrated Bubble Man rather than Air Man. Alex promised he'd take her to meet them next year.

AND THEN THE GREAT HARPY DROUGHT OF 2012 CAME ALONG AND I FORGOT ALL ABOUT IT

I wanted to create a character that symbolized all the things girls seemed to get trashed for: Body weight (the idea is seen as being skinny, and even though I'm at a relatively healthy body weight, I get shit for it), playing games ( 'lol go back to playin with barbies' ), and being in positions of power. Everybody uses girls as the butt of  insults: YOU HIT LIKE A GIRL and all. But when Sammy comes a-swingin, you're gonna regret saying that. Because what you really mean is "YOU WEAK".

Sammy still has the same sort of personality I planned for her to have earlier: Shy, bit soft spoken, sort of average and intelligent. Mostly around strangers so she doesn't scare anyone off or be labeled as a 'freak'. When she finds someone who doesn't judge or doesn't care or likes her for it, she's outright confident and suddenly becomes all Wheeler-like in speech (Sammy-like? how do you even definte her like this). Nothing brings her down. Well, aside from a sumo wrestler. Electricity seemed to represent her the most, with all the excitement she brings. Originally, she was supposed to be an ordinary businesswoman with yo-yos!

By the way, yo-yos were definitely taken from Ness. Sadly, I did not take PK Rockin' from Ness, because how the hell do you even describe it?

I hope to continue her arc through RP and through blogposts, since it's an interesting subject I like to explore more. Besides, Goops is a total fanboy lel

Carlos Sanchez- Ordinary Guy in an Extraordinary World

For every crazy confident gal, there has to be someone reigning her in. Carlos seemed to fit the bill, as he finds most of Augusta weird, he doesn't exactly like being a psychic all too much, and he just wants to go to pharmacy school, ya knoooow?

Originally, he was going to continue with the Janitor legacy, but midway, I thought that he'd be cool as a barista. A COFFEE Barista! A coffee fanatic! He probably has a good coffee rig back at home that friggin' dork.

I also wanted him to share similar interests with Sammy, a connecting point with them. His arc would be mostly focused on discovering who he is and fearing himself, because his powers cover a broad range of things and flipping out could wreck just about anything. It isn't helped by the fact that he has to use his powers for combat situations against demons and crazy fey, since Tae Kwon Do can only take you so far against a vampire. I never really got to explore deeply into that, but maybe one day, I'll be able to touch on that.

Sol Stanton - Steady as the Earth, Weeping over Soap Operas

I didn't get a solid characterization for him until early this year. He was supposed to be more of the mentor type, more quiet and wise. A friendly rival to Carlos, at least for Tae Kwon Do and martial arts. Then I realized he didn't have much more to him than that and I was recently watching Kill la Kill (shoot me), so I decided to base him sort of off Ira Gamagori in appearance and yet have a sweet personality.

And so, now you have a giant knitting sweaters for his wifey and making bento boxes and writing romance novels and eeee

Earth was a pretty good element for him, since he usually doesn't make rash decisions and usually remains calm. Earth can be fierce with earthquakes and all that, but look! It has such pretty flowers and plants and everything!

..Yeah I came up with that on a dime, mah baaaad.

I wasn't able to get much characterization in for him this year, but maaaaybe later, in blogposts, I will solidify it.

Yes. He was always meant to be that buff.

Angie Stanton - giant nerd of a scientist

I keep changing her. She used to be a police officer who had a gunbrella or some shit like that. Then an ordinary police officer. Then a scientist. Married to a giant.

I have no idea what's going on.

Basically, though, I wanted a non-psychic that relied more on gadgets than psychic powers. Angie fit the bill, and she's married to a psychic, to boot! I guess the best way to describe her is a giant nerd fitting into that sweet, loving wife persona. Very encouraging to all of her friends, more than likely to make lunch boxes and leave happy notes for her husband, and most likely canidate to kick your ass in Mario Kart.

She's probably better than Sammy, at least.

Nothing is really solidified for her personality, though, which I hope to correct through blogposts. That is my answer to everything related to character development that didn't come out during RP.


Michaelangelo Hunter - Fish-lovin Dual Psychic

Oh, boy. This guy originally was supposed to be a REPLOID. A fish reploid like Pisces, with the ability to switch between three different elements. A slacker, a ladies man, a coward, and the supposed leader of a group of several types of fish reploids.

That never came to fruition, so instead, we got a timid boy with no luck with ladies and really, really loves art.

His character arc is supposed to revolve around how he was adopted, his adopted parents don't know how to handle him, and how he joined a gang in order to feel accepted and understood. Something his adopted parents couldn't provide. He would be an antagonist for a while, until Sammy and pals managed to convince him that he is kind of working for someone who wants to destroy the world and rebuild it. Kind of like a more delusional god.

He'd help them defeat the leader of the gang, dual-psychic Francis, but in doing so, he wouldn't be sure who to believe and he would lose an important father figure. Since dual-psychics are more susceptible to mental illnesses, he would develop a split personality to cope. Thus, Gemini  was born.

So much for mental illness, though; that got corrected last year. Whoops. LOOKS LIKE I'LL BE SEEING SOMETHING ELSE TO PLAGUE HIM WITH nah j/k

I was inspired to choose Melanokinesis due to Ed from the Paranormal comic being one, and water because of the fish-related theme mentioned earlier. The plot development that happened this year with him being ashamed of how he actually snapped and killed Kit was an interesting twist I came up at the last minute, and although he's not acting as if he's affected by it, you can bet that it's a question still lingering deep in his mind.  What's right? What's wrong? Who can he trust?

A cycle of doubt.

Siren - a giant ball of what the fuck

Okay, let me be straight with you: I made her up on the spot.

Because nothing is more hillarious than a narcoleptic Siren who can sing and do crazy illusions doing hacking and learning about the world and playing WoW on Carlos's computer.

I wanted someone who used magic, but wasn't exactly a  psychic. I also wanted to use a mythological creature, so why not a Siren? Sirens were cool. I also wanted to emphasize that the fey and demons were based off of  mythos creatures, and that the fey, while they look cute and cuddly, can become batshit insane.

Kind of like how Siren set herself on fire.

She's a different level of crazy, although most of the time she is elegant, curious, thirsty for knowledge and Coca Cola. Just sort of... otherworldly, not exactly understanding the human world except through books and experience?

Her backstory is deeply rooted in the eternal battle against demons, the scar under her mask given to her by Jack the Ripper, a demon who took advantage of girls with low self-esteem and gladly ripped their faces off and let them bleed to death. I meant to do that battle against him this year, but I was overwhelmed, and didn't see a good time to do it. Maybe next year, though.

Maybe.