deaku

[deaku]

Phantastic Memories

While working on dinner I was watching/listening to some videos on Youtube about the Phantasy Star series (specifically the classic games) and I remembered back to when I first played the games. Now I have an urge to write about those memories. Anyway… please pardon my ramblings as this will probably be very rambly. Also there will be spoilers.

Phantasy Star was one of those series I was aware of for a long time because I'd see ads and articles in various gaming magazines but never played because I didn't have access to a Sega system; I didn't own one and nearly everyone I knew were Nintendo people. From what I had seen in magazines and a few short times seeing a friend's older sibling playing PSII & PSIII I thought the Phantasy Star series looked pretty cool; although this was a bit before I got into RPGs so I wasn't rushing to play such games. The first Phantasy Star game I actually ever played was Phantasy Star IV. I didn't own a Sega of my own at this point I had a SNES then; though I had a friend with a Genesis and when there were games on the other system we wanted to play we'd swap systems for a while. And one of those time we exchanged systems was when I found PSIV at a local rental place and thought it was time I checked the series out firsthand. I thought it was an awesome game; nice graphics, great music, good battle system, and a story that pulled me in right away. It had a unique presentation with many cut-scenes being depicted with comic-like panels; giving it a more cinematic feel than many other rpgs of the time that depicted their cut-scenes with their usual in-game sprites. But something that really grabbed about the game, and the series in general, was the setting. The setting was a lot more sci-fi than many other similar games and that made it stand out to me. Sure it has the usual fantasy stuff like swords, magic and monsters, but it also has things like robots, lasers, spaceships and interplanetary travel. In PSIV specifically it's actually a bit post-apocalyptic due to events in one of the previous games, civilization is slowly recovering but it's obvious things were pretty bad because of what happened. I completed the game, but unfortunately I had no way to check out the rest of the series at the time because none of the local rental places had any of the other games nor did any of my friends. It'd actually be several years before I was able to check out and play the rest of the classic Phantasy Star series when I gained much greater access to the internet and I discovered emulation. Now I've played all four of the classic PS games; as well as reading about the history of the games, character backstories, as well as a good bit of fan fiction.

Now here's some thoughts and memories about the specific games.

Phantasy Star: The original way back on the Sega Master System, back in the starting days of console rpgs. Not only was the setting even more unique back then but it also had a heroine as the main character, an even greater rarity at the time. While Alis would fit right in the usual fantasy setting with her look and being a sword user some of the first things you see are some stormtrooper-like robotcops and you're near a spaceport, establishing that it's not going to be a typical fantasy world. I thought the game had a unique hook into the story. Alis wasn't out to save the world; sure she did end up saving the whole Algol system but she started her quest for revenge, to kill the man she considered responsible for the death of her brother. Even though I first played it so long after it came out I thought PS1 was still quite a good game and that it must have been outstanding when it first came out. You get interesting characters, including an animal companion that's a full party member instead of being basically an extension of another character or simply a mode of transport. Three planets to explore, both on foot and in vehicles. I think it has a great story for a game of its time and once you beat the evil king Lassic whose rule is responsible so much of the bad in the story you find that it's not over yet; you gotta face the ancient evil behind Lassic that appears to terrorize the Algol system every thousand years.

Phantasy Star II: Firstly I must admit that this is the only game of the classic series that I've never actually finished. I've actually started multiple times, but every time I'm only part way through when something comes up that eats up my free time for awhile or I get busy with something else. By the time I get back to the game I figure it's been so long that I'd better restart. However I've read about and watched enough videos to know the rest of the story. Anyway… PSII goes even further into the sci-fi side of things with tech-y looking cities, clone labs, bio-tech, more robots and not to mention a master computer running everything. I really liked the general aesthetic of PSII, it really caught my eye even when I just knew it from the ads and articles from game magazines. The game starts out with Rolf the government agent being sent out to investigate some odd happenings and things generally go wrong from there. By the end you've permanently lost a character, end up with one of the three planets of the Algol system destroyed, had to destroy the master computer Mother Brain since all the stuff that went down was under her direction, then you find out what's really behind everything. It's quite a ride through the whole game. Though something I always found odd was the way you gain new characters for your party. Rather than when you get to a new town and you have a story bit about meeting someone new, when you get to a new town you need to pop back to Rolf's place in the first town and then you find the new character waiting for you at home.

Phantasy Star III: Ah the black sheep of the classic Phantasy Star series. Upon a quick initial look much seems to have changed. The game starts with Prince Rhys getting ready to marry the mysterious Maia who washed up on the kingdom's shores one day with no memory. Everything seems to be a pretty standard fantasy kingdom with no signs of all the tech stuff from previous games. The wedding begins and then a dragon swoops down grabs Maia and flies off, so Rhys sets out to save her. Petty standard fantasy stuff really. But once you set off on the quest things start popping up that show things maybe aren't so far removed from previous games. At one point Rhys needs to take a boat but the captain doesn't ever set sail without a cyborg aboard, which leads you to tracking down the red-headed cyber Mieu. Then when you have to travel to a different land you need to go through a cave; entrance to the cave looks normal enough but when you get inside suddenly everything is metal and tech-looking. Turns out the game takes place on a generational spaceship, one of a fleet that blasted off before the planet that was lost in the last game went boom. While a lot is different from the other games in the series I did actually enjoy PSIII, and I gotta respect the ambition of making a multi-generational story in a console rpg back then. And not in a single storyline either; in the first and second generations once you complete the main quest you choose from two potential brides and proceed as the resulting child in the next generation, while the third generation is the last that's still four potential protagonists there for that generation. And depending on what path you take through the game you experience different events and meet different characters. Well except for your cyber friends Mieu & Wren, once you pick them up in the first generation they're with you always through all the generations. It would have been nice to have had more characterization and character interactions than what was there, but I can understand the tech limitations of the time put a limit on what they could do. Anyway, for those wondering I've been through and finished the whole game twice so far and gotten Sean's and Adan's endings.

Phantasy Star IV: I suppose I kinda already went over many of my thoughts on PSIV earlier in this. Like I said it's an awesome game, definitely one of the best of the 16-bit era. And an excellent finale for the classic series. PSIV is very story heavy when compared to previous installments; not only is the main story is a lost more detailed there are lots of character moments and interactions as well. It even has lots of links and shout-outs to the previous games in the series from talking about previous events to characters having links to those from the other games; though there good amount I missed the first play-through due to me having played PSIV first. But even not knowing much about the lore of the series at the time didn't prevent me from enjoying the game.

So to sum things up I think classic Phantasy Star games are quite an enjoyable series for games of the time. While certainly not perfect if you like old school rpgs they're definitely games to check out. Some stand out things about the games (at least to me)... The Setting: The sci-fi setting rather than just being a more standard fantasy; sure you can plenty of rpgs like this now but Phantasy Star was one of the progenitors. Plus the sci-fi stuff is right there in the setting from the start of the story as a current part of the civilization; rather then being something like tech from an ancient fallen civilization, used by invaders from somewhere else, or even just random techy things with no explanation. The Music: These games have some good music and there's some memorable tunes all throughout the games, I particularly enjoy the intro tunes. They do some clever stuff in PSIII too. Like the battle music changes depending on the situation; like an uplifting tune for when you're powerful enough that'll be an easy fight or something darker when there's a good chance the enemy might get you. Or like with the overworld tune it gets additions as you gain characters that builds up the music, and if anyone is knocked out the bit that goes with their party slot vanishes until they're revived. The Characters: The series has some interesting characters, though to get all the details you need to read some backstories since not everything gets revealed in the games themselves. The designs are good too, especially if you like an anime aesthetic. Very good enemy designs as well; ranging from cute to creepy to monstrous and threatening.

Okay I think I'd better stop my rambling here and maybe think about playing around with the series again. I actually have all the classic series in various forms now as parts of different collections. I even have Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe too, but those are perhaps discussions for another time.

Also if you would like to see some art I've done of some of the characters you here's a link over to my deviantart which has all the pics in one folder over here

[deaku]

Hello all, it's been a while since I've posted anything on here. But I've finally got a new project to post about. First time I've actually made something like this; also took longer than I thought but I finally got it done. Anyway, it's about the mythological origins of one of my fantasy worlds, a world known as Everakal.

[deaku]

I'm an ol' time gunslinger with a pet weasel sitting on my shoulder while kicking back at a cyberpunk Starbucks. Yeah, Final Fantasy can be a weird series...

[deaku]

Safe Journeys Grandma

My Grandma passed on Saturday, she made it to the ripe old age of 94. She dealt with various health issues over the years and beat quite a few; but recent ones along with her age is probably what finally overcame her.

She did quite a lot over her long life and traveled to and lived in many places. She ran a gas station and a diner, owned a bar, raised various livestock; and really didn't start slowing down til about 10-15 years ago and even then really didn't slow down too much. She was a self-described ornery woman. When asked how old she was, and people would almost always be surprised at the answer, the people would then ask how she managed to get to that age, Grandma would answer "Pure Orneriness". She was strong-willed but always tried to be friendly unless given a reason not to be as well and being good-humored and could be pretty quick with a laugh. She was never one to give up, but I suppose age finally caught up with her.

I'll still be lurking around here as I always have; I know I haven't posted anything in forever but I'm still here and will do my best to respond to any comments or notes and such.

[deaku]

Some photos I took at the Cape Arago State Park a bit outside Coos Bay.

[deaku]

Decided to take some screenshots and post some pics of my Final Fantasy 14 characters. -First up is my main character Durago De’kun. He’s primarily a Machinist these days and has been through the story beginning to end, well it’s current end anyway. -Second is Kalasa Tiamaterra, who came about when I had an urge to create an Au Ra chracter. She’s a Black Mage, though not particular far through the game yet. She’s actually named after an original character of mine I drew up quite a while back. -Next up is Samarah Azremour, my Elezen Summoner (and occasional Rogue). She originally when I was playing around with the character creator and ended up really liking her particular result. -Finally is my newest character Ollivan Steelie, he’s a simple Archer for now until I get to the point in the game to upgrade his class. Ollivan came about from a sudden urge to create a bunny boy, or Viera if you want to use the proper name.

[deaku]

[deaku]

Just some flowers in bloom around the house.

[deaku]

   This is Terranor Kalanhaven; Knight of Melsaria, Paladin of Light

  He’s also a sentient suit of animated armor, but that fact is generally not very well-known.

   Terranor's story begins long ago with the elven wizard known as Kalanhaven of the Moonlight Spires, who was not only a powerful wizard but also an avid explorer. While on an expedition into the far northern wilderness Kalanhaven discovered an odd blade. They didn’t find it delving into a dungeon or winning it in some epic battle, Kalan simply found it sticking out of the wall in an icy cave. It was a well-crafted blade that seemed to radiate a form of divine energy but Kalan could not figure out the blades origins or even what it was actually made out of (other than it was some sort of crystalline metal) no matter what spells they used. Kalan eventually went back home intending to study the blade further. But one night Kalan had some sort of dreaming vision, something unlike they had ever experienced. It was hard to put into words but Kalan was positive that the blade was a weapon that was involved in some grand destiny and that it was their duty to find the person that was meant to wield the blade.

   Kalanhaven chose a remote "dungeon" to hide the blade until they could find the one to wield it. It was a place known as Ulvanor. It had once been a thriving city built at the bottom of a canyon but a massive earthquake in the past brought the canyon down, burying the city. However the city hadn't been completely destroyed, many buildings survived and they combined with the natural gaps that had been left in the stone and earth resulted in a strange labyrinth. Many creatures had moved into Ulvanor over the years making it quite a hazardous place. Kalan used their magic to find and restore an ancient vault that existed deep within Ulvanor, then got to work crafting a guardian for the blade. Using all the tricks and techniques they knew Kalan created an armored guardian, something they was sure would be strong enough to watch over the blade while Kalan searched for the person to wield it. Kalan put the guardian in place and added a few more magics to the vault that would help keep the armour in top condition. Satisfied that the blade was well-hidden and protected Kalan set off on their own quest, only visiting occasionally to make sure the guardian was still functioning and the blade still in place.

  Over time the Armour was accepted by the other denizens of Ulvanor as just another part of the dungeon, a particularly hazardous part, and most just avoided the immediate area entirely. There were many, many adventurers over the years that would make it through all the dangers of Ulvanor only to meet their end at the sword of the Armor. Eventually a tribe of goblins that lived in Ulvanor began to take advantage of how good the Armour was at disposing of adventurers. While there was magic in place that would teleport things, besides the Armor and the blade, that remained in the vault too long away, they would remain long enough to be salvaged by those clever enough to do so. The Goblins would set traps to try and herd adventurers towards the Armour and when it worked they would simply wait awhile and then go check and see if the adventurers had met their fate. Then using hook and line the would try and fish for the bodies, hooking them and then slowly dragging them out of the vault since the Armour never left that room. It would work most of the time; unless they moved the bodies too fast, then the Armour would react and chop their lines. The Goblins even started rumors of "The Terror of Ulvanor" and the fabulous treasure it guarded in an effort to lure in more adventurers.

  However one fateful day the Armour was once again doing it duty and protecting the blade from a group of adventurers that sought to claim the treasure. The last to fall was a mage whom was trying to get off a spell just as the Armour struck them down. Somehow interactions between the mystical energies of the Armour, the magical energy of the nearly cast spell and other unknown variables caused the armor to gain sentience and free-will. After being confused for a bit at the new sense of self the Armour decides to leave and take the blade with them, sudden sentience is no excuse for shirking one's duty after all; their goal to find Kalanhaven or at least complete the mission of finding the one meant to wield the blade. While the Armour had to fight through some of the other denizens of Ulvanor they eventually made their way to the surface and headed out into the wilderness.

  After wandering the wilderness alone for a time the Armor eventually stumbled upon the home of a former adventuring Paladin that had retired to settle down and raise her family, the paladin's name was Melsaria Luzera, Paladin of Light. At first Melsaria was ready to fight when she saw this magic armor walk onto her property; but then she could sense there was something different about this armored guardian than ones she had come across before and she could feel divine energy radiating from the blade it carried. The biggest shock however was when the Armor spotted and greeted her, even sounded a bit unsure while doing so. In her experience those types of things were not supposed to be able to talk. Melsaria greeted back and began to converse, both out of sheer curiosity and an attempt to find out just what was going on. The Armor introduced itself, again a bit unsure sounding, as Terranor, and answered Melsaria's questions the best it was able. After hearing Terranor's story Melsaria decided it was her duty to help; it is the duty of all Paladins of the Light to help those in need, and Terranor was perhaps in as much need as she had ever seen someone. Melsaria's spouses were unsure of the whole situation but would support Melsaria if this was something she really wanted to do, the children’s general reaction was that Terranor was one of the most awesome things they had ever seen.

  Sensing potential and an affinity for Light in this Terranor, Melsaria decided she would train him in the ways of the Paladin. Terranor was already well-versed in the ways of combat, just needed a bit of refinment, so Melsaria focused more on the moral and spiritual. And while Melsaria was training Terranor to be a Paladin the whole family helped him learn how to socialize and taught him many other skills he might have need of in normal society. Terranor proved to be a quick leaner and took in any knowledge he was presented with, it wasn’t long before Melsaria felt that Terranor’s training was complete and it was time for him to go out into the world and use his skills to help those in need. Terranor thanked Melsaria and her family and said his goodbyes as he set out on his journey.

 Now Terranor wanders the land helping those in need; but always keeps the mission of finding the one destined to wield the blade in mind, no matter how long it may take.

  Here’s a new drawing from me after a very long time, hopefully it won’t be as long before my next pic ;P heh The idea for this guy came to me one day as I was going through the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual, just one of those random ideas that develops a backstory and such.

[deaku]

When I was little and would be imagining whatever I’m told people would often comment “He’s just off in his own little world isn’t he?” As I got older it became “Yeah he’s zoned-out.” or “He’s not in at the moment.”

so y'all just...... don't hyperfixate?? or imagine your own little world where you put yourself or an oc in as a main character and imagine the world for hours on end? or get random bursts of emotions??? wack

[deaku]

[deaku]

Apparently I’m favored by Hekate =)

made a quiz, tell me what greek deity favours you!!

https://uquiz.com/N17OGW

[deaku]

A reading of my Transformers one shot fanfic story. Also since the story is in the 2nd-person I added a bit of reverb to my voice in the hope of making it sound more cybertronian.

[deaku]

Here’s a bit of something I haven’t posted in a long time... A fanfic! A Transformers based one at that. Been a fan of Transformers since the very beginning, yeah I’m old... Anyway, I’ve had plenty of ideas for characters and stories over the years, but I’ve never really written or drawn any and posted about them. Not sure why not. But a while back I had an idea for an origin for the Transformers that I could link with my other ideas with minimal problems so I ended up writing out the basics for how the Transformers came to be, at least in my own verse ;P heh However recently I got the urge to share my bit of history but I thought it wasn’t much to share as it was, just a basic description/history of how the Transformers came to exist. So I decided to try and make a fic out of it, and ended up changing it to someone telling the story of how the Cybertronian race came to exist after they dived far too deep into a database they were not supposed to and now believes they have found the Truth. Now while this is the history of the Transformers in my stories/ideas I suppose technically this fic could be placed into any Transformers universe, even those that have different origins, and the character in the story was really just driven insane by what they experienced Anyway, I hope you enjoy the read, or at least find it interesting.

Madness… or the Truth?

 As always the same old questions even when they’re coming out of a different face. Do you all get some sort of script to follow before being sent in to talk me or what? Seriously asking the same questions over and over is not going to get you anything new, maybe you need to figure out the right questions to ask.

 Do you even know why you’re talking to me? Because it seems like most of you that have come really only know why I’m in here. Yes, I broke a law. I did the forbidden and linked myself directly into Vector Sigma so that I could better access information. Stupid law really. Did you know it’s even forbidden asking Vector Sigma certain kinds of questions? Why is such a thing law? Vector Sigma itself gave me permission to do so. Sure it was after I had snuck past the guards and let myself into Vector Sigma’s Complex but that’s neither here nor there. But don’t you wonder why I’m in here rather than in a detention center? I’m locked up here not because of what I did, but because of what I know. Your bosses are afraid that what I now know might get out.

 I’m a historian you see, I’ve devoted my existence to piecing together the past and finding out where we came from. That’s why I went to Vector Sigma. Most only know it as an ancient great machine that can create Sparks. But who better to ask about our world’s history than the sentient super-computer that’s said to have existed before Cybertron? But it seems that those in power aren’t interested in learning what actually happened, our very origins. No, that’s why I had to do it the way I did. I needed to know what Vector Sigma knows, whether the Council gave their permission or not. And since Vector Sigma was willing to grant my request I went for it.

 Oh the things I saw… Historical events that happened so long ago that the only way you can learn about them is to read about such events in the libraries; Vector Sigma showed them to me, as if they were recorded yesterday. Events going back all the way to the beginnings of our recorded history. But it wasn’t enough, while it was absolutely incredible to actually see such events as if they were my own memories they were things I had already learned during my research. I asked… begged… Vector Sigma to take me back further. Back to our very origins, of how we, and Cybertron, came to be.

 And Vector Sigma did show me… I now know how it all began… where we came from… the origin of our race, of the very world we live upon… I know the Truth. And no it’s not anything any of those religious types will tell you either. Not the Primas, not the Sigmas, not the Sparkers, not the Forgers, not the Teeners or the Hands, not even the Atechies or any other religion or cult you could name. Sure I admit some might have had the barest clue at first; but they’ve all taken what they had and instead of thinking about it and putting it all together they grabbed what they had and ran off in completely different directions and now none of them have the slightest clue of what they’re talking about.

 But I know what the answers are… And I’ll tell you. That’s why you’re here isn’t it? To listen to this tale of mine and learn what I have learned? Well then, sit back and listen well while I tell you of our true history…

 It started oh so long ago with a race known as the Quintessons. I doubt you’ve heard of them because it seems no one has, of all the races we’ve met in our travels and explorations not one has been the Quintessons nor have we heard any mention of them. But that’s understandable since it was so long ago that they’re more than likely extinct by now and general knowledge of them has passed from memory. Anyway, the Quintessons were a race both famous and infamous across the known space as merchants that sold incredible technologies. But while they were known for selling such fantastic tech they could also be quite underhanded; and if you couldn’t pay them the agreed upon sum… well they were perfectly happy to take their payments in whatever resources your planet had or just take the people. No one even knows where they came from or what they really were, other races only had rumors to go on. Not even Vector Sigma’s records revealed where they came from, maybe the Quintessons didn’t even know themselves, but it did have files about what they really were. They were a race of biomechanical beings; organic creatures hardwired into mechanical bodies, cold hard metal on the outside and soft and fleshy on the inside. Not that it mattered, everybody else only cared about the technologies they could provide.

 But that bit of data is just the set up for this tale, a bit of background to help with later understanding. Now we get to the important stuff.

 Now at some point a very long time ago the Quintesson Merchant Fleet was traveling around and searching through uninhabited and low-population sectors of space looking for fresh materials needed to make their various products and taking what they found. Well it was in an asteroid belt of a nondescript system that the Quintessons made an unexpected discovery. They were taking a sample from a large asteroid to test it for what it was made out of when the surface of that asteroid shattered and came apart revealing a huge mass of Energon crystals; much to the shock of the Quintessons, but that soon turned to delight. Now I’m sure you’re educated enough to know that Energon is a pretty rare element in most places in known space, though the natural crystals can be found in some surprising places on occasion. But to find such a large concentration of crystals such as this mass they had just uncovered was exceedingly rare. The Quintessons rejoiced. With that amount of Energon they finally had the energy resources to move forward with a plan that they had in the works for a long time. For so long the Quintessons only home had been their ships, a fleet with no home port wandering the spaceways with their primary goal being continued profit and power. But now they would build their own world. Not only would it be a place of safety that could protect itself better than their ships, but it could also be a laboratory greater than any they possessed as well as a factory to churn out their creations in greater numbers than ever before.

 That massive cluster of Energon crystals became the core of the Quintessons' new project, it would provide the required energy not just for the building but it would also power the artificial planet itself once complete. Materials were mined from the surrounding asteroid belt as well as other planetary bodies in the system, even nearby systems were raided for the necessary materials for the Quintessons' plans. Metals were forged, parts crafted and machines built. The Quintessons' servitor races were commanded to begin construction under their masters' watchful eyes. First a shell full of energy collectors and regulators were built around the Energon crystal core, then work on the framework for the rest of the planet began. Not only were their forged metals used in the superstructure but other asteroids were incorporated as well to act as solid anchor points for the artificial planet's framework during construction and to also provide an easily accessed source of raw materials later on. The work took centuries as the superstructure was built up and various machinery was added to serve the Quintessons' plans for their new world. A planetary computer network was installed with a Quintesson designed A.I. that would help run and coordinate the planet's functions as the artificial world was brought online. An A.I. dubbed Primus…

 Yes, I said Primus. No Primus is not some mythical god from a higher plane of existence but a real physical thing, constructed just like you or me. Perhaps the greatest Artificial Intelligence in the known universe built right into our planet.

 Primus's primary function was to manage the planet's systems, keep everything running smoothly and making sure the world doesn’t fall apart. Primus’s secondary functions was to act as a data storage library and simulator for the Quintessons' many projects and experiments. However Primus had some heavy restrictions placed upon it, as powerful an A.I. as it was the Quintessons would not allow Primus to act beyond the functions they had assigned to it. Another layer of security for the Primus A.I. was that it could only be accessed through specially built interface computers spread around the planet, that often had their own lesser A.I.s, or through special command keys created for the specific purpose of linking to Primus.

 Now you may be wondering why the Quintessons would make such a powerful A.I. if they were just going to slam it with a bunch of restrictions on what it could do and keep watch over its every move. Well that’s a bit of an interesting tale that’s buried deep within Vector Sigma’s files. As it turns out this planet was not their first attempt at creating a world, they had tried once before but it had gone horribly wrong when the planetary A.I. went rogue. It started much the same way, finding a large mass of Energon crystals and deciding to build a planet around it. And things proceeded pretty much the same including the creation of a planetary A.I. that had much the same duties as Primus, running the world’s systems and assisting the Quintessons with their projects. This A.I. was dubbed Unicron. Things went as planned until the eve the of new planet’s completion… It started when Unicron suddenly locked the Quintessons out of the planet's network and began to use its defense systems to attack them. While many Quintessons were killed in the unexpected betrayal most managed to get to their ships and launch into space beyond Unicron’s reach. It was then they then retaliated, with every weapon their fleet possessed. While their ships’ weaponry didn't have the power to destroy their artificial planet outright, nor enough to strike deep enough to actually damage Unicron's core systems, they did immense damage to the surface and what structures were there. After they were satisfied with the damage their bombardment did the Quintessons left into interstellar space, hoping they had done enough damage to leave Unicron trapped in a useless metal shell until it ran out of power and the whole thing became a broken dead metal hulk floating in the void.

 But with the restrictions in place and keeping a watchful eye on their second planetary A.I. the Quintessons were pleased that Primus showed no signs of rebellion in any way as construction was completed and preformed its assigned functions quickly and efficiently.  The new planet was fully brought online and the Quintessons settled into their new home which they named Quintessa.

 Yes, Quintessa. This planet of ours wasn’t always known as Cybertron.

 Anyway with their new planet complete and their factories up and running the Quintessons were able to produce more of their products than ever before. Where before their sales were limited by what the factories in their ships could produce the Quintessons were now able to get their product to all who wanted it, allowing them to expand the sphere of influence further than ever before. But even this didn’t satisfy the Quintessons; they wanted more influence, more power. To do so they would continue to work and experiment to expand their product catalog so that they'd always have something new for their clients to pay for. Growing ever more confident due to their success the Quintessons decided to push their experiments further and further, culminating in the desire to create a new lifeform that they could sell as a servant race.

 Their first experiments working towards their new goal began with altering existing lifeforms using cybernetics. The first batch that managed to survive the process were dubbed the Trans-Organics; but due to the imperfect conversion process the beings were of minimal intelligence, aggressive and uncontrollable, making them quite unsuitable for a servant race. Deemed failures the Trans-Organics were either destroyed or sealed away in stasis chambers below the planet's surface in case a use for them was found.

 Not to be deterred the Quintessons continued experimenting. As they worked to either perfect the cybernetic conversion process or come up with a new type of conversion the next lifeforms to be remade was decided upon; one of the Quintessons' servitor races that were considered quite useful due to the size and natural strength. Rather than involve cybernetics again the Quintessons came up with an entirely new conversion process; one that could actually convert organic flesh into a sort of living metal resulting in a being that was a natural combination of the organic and inorganic. The process seemed a successful one, at least at first. The first few beings put through the new conversion process seemed to be everything the Quintessons wanted; strong, durable, easily controllable. But when they moved on to mass conversion of their chosen servitor race something went very wrong. Nearly the entire population of the newly converted beings seemed to lose their minds and became incredibly aggressive and uncontrollable like the Trans-Organics before them. Even worse not only did they have incredible amounts of strength and durability but they drained the energy from other beings to feed. The Quintessons had no idea how this ability developed, nothing in their experiments even hinted that this could be a possible side-effect of their flesh-to-metal conversion process. But any being these creatures could get their claws on was sucked dry of energy and left a husk. While it was costly to them, losing a good number of their other servitor races, the Quintessons managed to lure the creatures down to the lowest levels of the planet and sealed them away never to be released.

 While these failures didn’t do much to deter the Quintessons from their desire to create a new servant race they did begin to think that perhaps they might be going in the wrong direction trying to convert already existing beings. There was actually a good portion of the populace that thought they were doomed to failure in such experiments anyway. The Quintessons already considered themselves the perfect meld of organic and machine and it was pointless, or maybe even obscene, trying to replicate that just for a product to sell. It was decided it was time to move in a different direction with their experiments, they would create a completely new lifeform.

 Creating a new purely organic race was quickly dismissed, most flesh simply wasn't strong enough for their plans and on average didn't last nearly long enough for a sold product. Which is why they had been trying to convert it into something stronger in their previous experiments. A mechanical form would ideal for what the Quintessons wanted, but a simple robot wasn't what they wanted nor would it impress their customers. Not only did they already have robotic products but many of the Quintessons' clients could make their own robots easily even if they weren't as advanced as what the Quintessons offered. The Quintessons figured they had to somehow to give a machine "life" to truly make it stand apart from all that came before. They tried many things to try and bring a machine to life; from attempting to drain the "lifeforce" from an organic creature and transferring it to a machine to infusing a mechanical body with massive amounts of energy in an attempt to spark life. But nothing they tried seemed to work; most of the time the machines would simply be destroyed, other experiments would result in nonliving but rampaging machines that had to be put down.

 The Quintessons had gotten a bit obsessed with their idea by this point and simply would not give up, they finally decided to put the full power of their planetary A.I. to use in figuring out this problem. Primus was ordered to take all the data from their many experiments on creating mechanical life and use all the processing power that wasn't already dedicated to keeping the planet running to extrapolate and run simulations until a way was found to get what they wanted, to imbue a machine with a "lifeforce". But even with the sheer processing power of Primus and the speed it could run simulations it took the A.I. decades before it could come up with a solution. The result was an energy form that would function as the equivalent of an organic being's lifeforce that would infuse a machine with life, Primus dubbed this energy form a "Spark".

 Yeah that’s right, I said Spark. How’s it feel knowing our Sparks, or Souls as some of the organic races might put it, are the result of a big science experiment? Feeling a bit humbled yet? Don’t worry, we’ll get you there...

 As for the actual creation of Sparks… having things work in simulations and getting them to work in reality were two very different things and it took the Quintessons some time to perfect the manufacture of these Sparks and then moving on to the process of using them to infuse a machine with life in a stable form. But after many more years and experiments the Quintessons finally had what they desired, a mechanical lifeform that fit all their criteria for their desired new race. Alive and aware in ways that even the best programming couldn't reproduce in other machines, not to mention strong, durable and customizable for a variety of potential roles The Quintessons rejoiced, they had a product the was superior to anything that had come before and that no one had anything that could compare.

 And there it is, the very start of our race. We weren’t Cybertronians back then, no, we were just “Mechanical Life” the newest product of the Quintessons. Just another thing to be bought and sold like anything else sitting on the store shelf. Quite an origin for us huh? But don’t pack up your things and leave just yet, there still more to this tale.

 Of course the Quintessons just couldn’t have a single type of their new sales item so they made several product lines out of their living machines, enough to fill any niche they thought their customers might want. And their customers just couldn't seem to get enough, all space-faring species in known space that the Quintessons had contact with wanted to buy their living machines. The Quintessons quickly became one of the dominate powers in known space not only economically but also militarily thanks to keeping a large force of their most advanced combat designed living machines around to protect their interests.

 But as they were basking in their continued success and newfound power the Quintessons never stopped to consider that their living machines might continue to develop as living things tend to do; they were only product after all and they preformed their designed functions as they were built to. However even though the CPUs of the living machines were programmed with all the data needed for their intended function and safeguards to keep them focused on their function the Sparks within the living machines allowed them to think and wonder beyond the limits of their programming, to dream even. And their Sparks also let them feel emotion more strongly than the Quintessons ever intended. Many of the living machines began to wonder why they needed to continue to listen to the Quintessons; sure they may have created the living machines but the Quintessons obviously didn't care about them beyond the profit they made from selling them. Talk began to circulate amongst the living machines, particularly those that the Quintessons kept around for protection as they always saw so many of their brethren sold off, talk about what sort of future their race had when they were only considered a product. Opinions began to turn towards wanting to do something to change things…

 It started with the number of industrial accidents increasing, damaging entire factories and slowing both production and shipping. While some of them found the sudden increase the number of accidents odd most of the Quintessons didn't care as none of them were being hurt in the incidents; they just increased the production of other factories to make up for it until things were repaired and back on schedule. Then more obvious sabotage began. Incidents all over the planet; accidents, equipment failures, structural failures, so many things going wrong near constantly. Such incidents were especially prevalent in areas designated for the Quintessons themselves.

 The Quintessons put blame their remaining servitor races; rebellions were something that the Quintessons had to deal with every few centuries from their servitor races and it had been a long time since the last uprising. But such things were easily dealt with and quickly put down. Those being blamed denied the accusations and said they had learned their lesson long ago and would never even think about doing such a thing. The Quintessons asked who could it be then? The living machines? How could it be them? They were programmed machines, they were not capable of such insurrection. The living machines had counted on this reaction and used the Quintessons' focus being elsewhere to further prepare, plan and coordinate their next steps.

 One night the living machines all disappeared from their posts, from storage areas at the factories and space ports, even right off the assembly lines. Recordings had been erased from the security databases and anyone who may have been a witness was found dead. Much of the usual activity on the planet ground to a halt as the confused Quintessons and their servitor races wondered just what exactly had happened. But they didn't have long to wonder, as the Quintessons calmed down and began searching around for what had happened to their lost product the living machines leapt from their hiding places and attacked.

 This was unlike what the Quintessons had experienced when their servitor races rebelled. The uprisings of the servitor races were typically localized to a single area as the Quintessons generally kept them segregated in separate areas so that it would be harder for the servitor races to cooperate in the event some wanted to rebel. However the rebellion of the living machines was planet-wide as the Quintessons had been using their own creations all over the planet.

 The situation quickly turned to all-out war as the living machines fought against the Quintessons and their servitor races. While it was quite a surprise that their creations could turn on them like that the Quintessons were confident that they could put the rebellious machines in their place, they had put down plenty of uprisings before after all. At least it was that way at first… The Quintessons soon realized that perhaps they had made their living machines a little too well and had kept too many around for their own use. The living machines gained ground in the conflict and the Quintessons’ servitor races were getting slaughtered no matter how many they threw at the problem as the machines just kept on coming.

 The Quintessons even tried to have Primus intervene by using the planet’s defense systems against the rogue machines as well as trying to cut off power to areas that had been taken over. They even removed many of the A.I.'s restrictions and programming blocks so that it could react faster. But even this didn't have the desired effect, Primus seemed to react slower than expected as it was fully analyzing the conflict. This angered the Quintessons as they felt they didn't have time to do a full analysis of the situation, they wanted action taken immediately. However Primus simply kept analyzing as it continued to use the defense systems and powering down sectors of the planet as the Quintessons had ordered it to while telling them that the desired resolution would be achieved.

 Eventually the Quintessons’ final defenses were broken and the living machines came rushing in intent on erasing their creators from existence. The long war had been costly for both sides but the fiercest fighting was during that last battle. While it cost them what was left of their servitor races and many of their own some Quintesson survivors managed to get aboard and successfully launch a few ships and escape into space away from their planet and their rebellious creations.

 The war was over and the living machines had liberated themselves from their uncaring creators and now claimed the planet where their race had been born as their own. Though not without cost… They had lost so many during the fighting and nearly the entire planet's infrastructure was ruined beyond hope of repair. But they were free to live how they wanted, not be built and sold as product but free to choose whatever they wanted. Having nothing but themselves their most obvious path was to begin building and developing some sort of civilization of their own. While there were many of ideas how to exactly to go about that many did not agree on the exact path they should take. But one thing that was agreed upon was to rename the planet to help separate themselves from their past and their creators, the name chosen was Cybertron and the living machines became the Cybertronians.

 And that my friend is the true origin of our race as revealed to me by Vector Sigma. A past only fully remembered by Vector Sigma and Primus, who still works to keep our planet stabilized and habitable despite us and everything we’ve done to it. Unfortunately our written history doesn’t go back that far because shortly after the name Cybertron was decided upon the differing opinions of how to move forward couldn’t be reconciled and the various groups supporting each idea went their separate ways; soon descending into barbarism and forming into tribes that were more concerned with just surviving rather than keeping history… Our history doesn’t start being reliably recorded until much later with the founding of Iacon; I’m sure you’re aware of at least the major events of our history since then.

 Yeah, I can see it on your face that you don’t believe me, that I’m just as crazy as your bosses said. But this isn’t madness, it’s the Truth. No matter how badly those in power want to keep it contained it’s now out there in the records and recordings of all these sessions and in the heads of all those that have talked to me. Really, if they wanted to keep this knowledge from getting out they’ve been doing a really poor job of containment.

 Yes yes, I’m aware that all of you that come in here are sworn to secrecy. But how long do you think that’ll last? Not only are secrets things that beg to be told, but people always want to know what is being kept secret. It’s only a matter of time before something slips and the truth gets out.

 Maybe you’ll be the one to set the truth free…

=Excerpt from the 27th Psychological Evaluation of Starbreaker=

[deaku]

Seeing so many people doing readings of different things inspired me to give it a try; and I figured it might make for some good practice for the 'On Camera' class I'm taking. Here’s a link to the whole video over on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/lawrenced.mcdaniel.5/posts/129961751942468

[deaku]

Count Wondamore

  Here’s an Ever After High fan-character/OC that actually popped up in a dream I had quite a while back after watching some EAH one evening.

  My part in this dream was a bit odd. I was in the role of a narrator; a guest narrator of sorts on some kind of exchange from a different kind of story, Brooke apparently went to my story and I came to observe in her place. Didn’t interact with anyone other than the Narrators and a brief conversation with Maddie.   Started off with a bit of a tour and the Narrators asked questions about how much I knew about the various characters we saw, apparently I had done my homework since I was able to name all the main characters and state some basic information about them. Well since I seemed to be knowledgeable about the most famous characters of the story the Narrators decided to show me someone not so well-known, I suppose as sort of an exercise in changing viewpoints and introducing characters. I saw a  rather unkempt looking individual in drab clothes that the Narrators introduced as Count Wondamore aka Excel Charming.

  The dream continued on and I got quite a bit of info out of it about Count Wondamore and after I woke up I continued to develop the character more and eventually wrote out a profile. So here it is...

Name: Count Wondamore (Real Name: Excellence “Excel” Charming)

=Story:

  Count (or occasionally Countess) Wondamore is the villain of their story; they are a member of a royal family that inherits Castle Wondamore, a dark castle in the mountains of the royal family’s domain, along with the Count Wondamore title. While the castle has a dark and foreboding history attached to it Wondamore decides that such a thing is not going to affect them and they’re going to do their best to help the local people. But it seems there’s more to the castle that just a dark history; Wondamore’s personality eventually becomes dark and they start to terrorize the people they first tried to help.   Wondamore’s terror begins to spread as their forces enter into a neighboring kingdom, but a member of the royalty of that kingdom decides to fight back. This royal hero and their allies fight through Wondamore’s forces and face the villain in the castle. The hero and villain have a sword fight and they eventually end up on one of the high tower battlements where the hero triumphs over Wondamore and the villain is ran through and falls from the tower, and so ends Wondamore’s part of the story.

  The role of Wondamore is a bit odd among the fairytales in that while it does stay within the same family it does not pass from parent to child. This is due to the fact that no Wondamore has survived their story and had children; actually there hasn’t been a Wondamore that has survived past their ninetieth year. When it is time for the role to be taken up again a successor is chosen from the children of the appropriate age from the kingdom’s royal family, typically passing from uncle/aunt to niece/nephew rather than the typical parent to child as with many other fairytales.   Most Wondamores have followed the story as per tradition despite knowing the fate that awaits them as with all Wondamores before them. Some only give a token attempt at being good and helpful before diving right into the villainous part of the story, wanting to vent all the anger, spite and perhaps despair they have at their impending fate. Others actually try and avoid the villainous part altogether and simply keep helping people, but events always seem to conspire to see that Wondamore has some sort of battle with some sort of hero and meets their scripted end.   There are those that wonder if the role of Wondamore has some sort of curse on it. Most fairytales have at least a bit of leeway in how things can play out and how the story can end as long as the major story points happen as they are supposed to. Even villains can survive what was supposed to be their scripted end if they can arrange it so that it happens “off-screen” and they make their exit from the story so that it can proceed as it is supposed to. Not so with the role of Wondamore; despite many trying to avoid a permanent end none have succeeded as of yet.

=History:

  The current Count Wondamore was born Excellence Charming, also know simply as Excel, a prince of one of the many Charming families around the land. At first he was raised as any child from a Charming family might be, loved and given anything he needed or wanted. Excel was growing up to be a cheerful, energetic and confident child who was also very bright.   However early on something that Excel’s family had hoped wouldn’t happen and hoped they could ignore came to pass; it was time for the role of Count Wondamore to be assumed once again and Excel was the only child of the family that was the appropriate age, it was absolutely confirmed when his powers awoke. Things changed after that, while his family still loved him and gave him all he needed or wanted but they started to distance themselves a bit and sometimes acted as if they were in mourning when he was around. While only the very basics of the role of Wondamore were told to him to try and spare Excel some grief and not potentially ruin his childhood Excel was more observant than they thought and knew something was wrong. He was also smarter than they gave him credit for and he was able to read through the tale of Wondamore and understand just what it meant for his future.   Afterwards Excel wasn’t a very cheerful child anymore, though he had occasional moments, and his energy and confidence were redirected. He spent a lot of time reading over any fairytale his family had been involved in, all the various roles that his family had and all the different people in those roles. Excel was searching for anyone who had managed to avoid their final fate as Wondamore or any potential clues in the tales of other family members, but could find nothing. Even when he would look to the fairytales of those outside his family he could find nothing. Excel could recite the tale of any of his family perfectly from memory, but none gave him any hope.   When Excel was old enough to attend Ever After High he had come to a conclusion that made logical sense to him, to avoid his death as Count Wondamore he would simply do his best not to play along with the story. While he couldn’t escape going to school Excel decided he simply wouldn’t put any effort towards anything involving his story or preparing for his story, which for the most part meant his classes. Perhaps if he didn’t make the effort to get the tale properly started the end can’t come and thus his end won’t happen. Although when Excel’s honest with himself he doubts this plan will really work, no Wondamore before has been able to avoid their seemingly inevitable fate. Why should it be any different for him? Maybe this is just his way of venting his frustration with his situation, his way of rebelling.

=Appearance

  Excel does not try to stand out and is not a very imposing figure. His long dark hair is always a mess and his skin has a rather unhealthy looking pallor; his blue eyes are almost always half to mostly closed and have dark circles under them. He also heavily slouches and tends to shuffle his feet as he moves around. Excel usually dresses in loose long sleeve shirts or sweaters with a hoodie and pants in drab colors, while his clothes aren’t dirty they are pretty well wrinkled.   While Excel’s appearance does usually work to keep many from taking too much notice of him, most people’s gazes just pass right over his drab colors and move to more colorful individuals. However it can have the opposite effect if he gets caught in a tight crowd of other students, at times like this his drab colors tend to stick out a lot since they’re such a contrast to whoever may be packed around him.

=Powers/Magic Touch:

   Count Wondamore has the power to animate the inanimate; in the story the Count uses this to create an army out of the many suits of armor that are within Castle Wondamore. However this power is not limited only to animating suits of armor, any inanimate object can be animated by Wondamore. The only limitation is that the object being animated can not have life of its own either natural or magical; an object may have been alive at some point but as long at it has no life at the time Wondamore uses their power it can be animated. Count Wondamore’s power is even capable of some reshaping of objects that are animated, repurposing parts or simply altering shape enough to allow movement and action.   This power does not grant life to an object only instills a magical animating force. Wondamore can imprint commands into an animated object so that it can act on its own and respond to things in a limited fashion, though an animated object can be easily overwhelmed/out-smarted if it encounters a situation that Count Wondamore’s imprinted commands don’t account for. A Wondamore can also mentally control the objects they animate directly; this form of control allows Wondamore to see, hear and even speak though the objects controlled in this way. While it is possible for a Wondamore to act themselves as they mentally control their animated objects the more objects they personally control at once the more focus it takes and the less they can do with their own body. Distance is also a factor; the further the animated objects are away from Wondamore the less they can keep control over directly.

=Other Info

  -Excel’s typical appearance is not actually because he is lazy and doesn’t take care of himself, it is in fact a carefully crafted look. Unfortunately for his plans Excel is like many Charmings across the land in that he can roll out of bed hardly looking disheveled and looking nearly perfect and ready for the day ahead. For Excel to assume his carefully crafted “Non-Charming” look actually takes quite a bit of make-up and about twenty minutes every morning. “Looking this bad is hard work.” Excel often comments to himself; his roommate thinks he’s a nut but never comments on it nor tells anyone because it’s more amusing that way. Also because of his slouching Excel is actually taller than most people think, but since being tall might make him stand out more he continues to slouch. He’s also a lot more fit than most people realize since he exercises privately, his choice of clothing covers everything up.   Excel also carries a make-up kit on him, usually in a hidden pocket in his shirt, just in case his look needs any touch-ups or fixing during the day.

  -When he first started at Ever After High Excel didn’t put much effort into his schoolwork since he was already working on his plan of attempting not playing along with his story. But that didn’t last long as Headmaster Grimm contacted Excel’s parents and they freaked out a bit since although his story destiny was to be a villain he was still part of a Charming family and a Charming does not fail. Excel’s parents got him to promise that he wouldn’t fail his schoolwork anymore and that he would get a passing grade. After that Excel worked to just barely get a passing grade on his work, fulfilling the exact word of the promise rather than the intent.   Headmaster Grimm was rather livid at this, like Excel’s parents he is of the opinion that a Charming should not be failing in school. Baba Yaga however has a different opinion, Excel’s grades across all his classes are so consistent at being just barely passing that the only explanation is that he is doing it on purpose. Baba Yaga feels that this shows a devious sort of evil thinking; seemingly doing bad at first glance but once one takes a closer look it’s obvious there’s intelligent planning behind the act, perhaps intended to give hope to those looking close that there’s something special there but always hanging that hope just out of reach. As evidence Baba Yaga points out that on occasions where’s she’s caught Excel off-guard, like with a surprise pop quiz question or something like it, he will give the correct answer or ace the activity. Further Excel, unlike most other students with low grades, seems a bit annoyed rather than happy when Baba Yaga gives him a good grade on something, messing up his apparently carefully cultivated low grade average.

  -To keep his powers under control Excel has to constantly practice with them, if not he may animate things without meaning too. The first time this happened was shortly after his powers awoke; he went to bed one night and woke up to find his bed was trotting its way down the road halfway to the next kingdom. Since then he has practiced every day animating and disanimating things, which not only has allowed him to refine his powers but also helps him to keep his magical energies tightly controlled. Of course this regular practice doesn’t match up with the persona he has created for school, so to practice Excel leaves the school grounds after classes are done and sneaks off into the nearby forest to practice his abilities out of everyone’s view.   Along with practicing his magical abilities in secret Excel also exercises and practices his swordplay. His father is very big on physical fitness and self-defense skills and was very insistent on the whole family keeping in shape and learning how to defend themselves. From an early age Excel had a daily exercise routine as well as sword training and even a bit of hand-to-hand combat practice. After having done such for so long Excel found it difficult to just quit doing it even if continuing was a bit counter-intuitive to his plans. So Excel decided to just keep it as part of his training along with his magic, doing his best to keep his full skills and abilities secret.

  -Despite everything Excel actually does like Ever After High, it’s full of interesting people and something out of the norm always seems to be going on. Plus he doesn’t have a view of the family graveyard like he does at home. It’s not that graveyards in particular bother him, in fact someone can point to any grave in his family’s graveyard and Excel can tell their tale from memory. What bothers him is there’s a section that’s gated off from the rest specifically for the Wondamores, which is one big reminder of his impending fate that he’d rather not have to see.   But something that really gets to Excel is a certain tradition regarding the Wondamores; one that he hasn’t been able to find out when or why it started, which bugs him all the more. A Wondamore’s grave is dug while they are still alive, often at the time it is known they are going to be the Count Wondamore, complete with gravestone with the name and their nineteen years already engraved on it. Excel does not like the fact that his own grave is already there waiting for him.

=Relationships with other students

  Ever since finding out what his story was and what was going to happen to him Excel didn’t think there was much of a point in even developing any sort of relationship. What would be the point of making friends or being in love if he was already destined to meet his end when he was nineteen? Excel figures it’d be better to spare everyone the grief of getting close to him only to have him soon die. Although since Excel has no control over how other people act things aren’t going as he had hoped.

-Apple White

  Excel has probably known Apple longer than anyone else his own age; their mothers are old friends from back in school and when visiting each other they would bring their children along so that they could play together.   When at Excel’s they would typically play various games, usually chosen by Apple, but quite often they would end up storytelling as they would walk through the family graveyard and Apple would pick random people and Excel would tell their story. But Excel never took Apple into the Wondamore section, he never had the heart to.   When at Apple’s she would usually come up with some variation on a ‘save the princess’ game; with her as the princess to be saved, Excel as the rescuing prince, and often talking her father into taking the role of evil king holding her hostage. Even when her father would try and point out that he is in fact a good king Apple would tell him they need a villain for their game and that an evil king was a classic fairytale villain, he never could argue against her for long though. Even if the fact was brought up that Excel was actually going to be the villain in his story Apple wouldn’t hear of it, she needed a prince for her game and Excel was going to be that prince.   As they got older they wouldn’t play so many games; though the storytelling remained and there was often quite a bit more discussion about the themes and details of the various stories. They also began to practice various skills they figured they might need for their futures.   Now that they are in Ever After High Apple still refers to Excel as her childhood friend, she’s also the only one who always calls him ‘Excel’ rather than ‘Wondamore’ ‘Count’ or the full ‘Count Wondamore’ like nearly everyone else. Excel in keeping with the persona he has created answers question of how long they’ve known each other with a “Yeah, we’ve known each other for a long time...”. And even though Apple knows what Excel’s roll is supposed to be, and has even known the basics for years, she seems unconcerned about his story destiny. Excel supposes it could be denial, Apple just doesn’t want to think about one of her oldest friends meeting an early death. But he’s pretty sure it’s that she’s confident that he’s not actually going to die when his story’s over, that he’ll find some way for Count Wondamore to ‘die’ like the story says but find an exit for himself and continue on living. Excel wishes he was so confident.   Also Excel’s created persona is not quite as effective as he hoped thank in part to Apple. While Excel’s act is very convincing to a lot of people, even to some that knew him before he started doing it, Apple laughs about it and tells people that Excel is simply perfecting his villainous deception skills. Excel neither confirms nor denies this if he’s within earshot and usually just walks away and lets people think what they want. Though he finds he must admit, at least privately, that Apple’s not exactly wrong, he is trying to pull off a pretty big deception with his crafted persona.

-Raven Queen

  Along with attending a few ‘evil’ classes together Excel also knows Raven through Apple telling him various things and Maddie’s tea parties when Raven is there as well. While Excel doesn’t hang out with Raven much outside of class, Maddie’s tea parties and occasionally while talking with Apple he does have quite a bit of respect for her. Raven refused to follow her story destiny and chose to follow her own path and it seems to be working out quite well for her; while Excel is perhaps a bit jealous that Raven was able to pull it off it actually gives him a small bit of hope that maybe he can find a way out of his story destiny as well.   While she hasn’t asked and Excel hasn’t told her Raven seems to have the basic idea of why he does what he does; Raven has told Excel if he ever needs to talk to anybody about anything she’d be willing to listen, he hasn’t taken her up on her offer but Excel appreciates the sentiment.

-Madeline “Maddie” Hatter

  Excel, possibly like many others, isn’t quite sure what to think of Maddie; he interacts with her quite a bit since she often pulls him into impromptu tea parties, but Excel still feels he doesn’t fully understand her. Though Excel thinks he knows why Maddie grabs him for tea parties, he’s pretty sure it’s because of his title/name Wondamore. Though Maddie always says it as “Wonder More” and often comments to him “Everybody could use more Wonder.” But despite it all Excel doesn’t really mind being pulled into teatime with Maddie. They simply drink tea and make random small talk and sometimes discuss the goings on around school, while Excel could sometimes do without the talking the tea is too good to pass up.

-Briar Beauty

  While they have known each other for quite a long time Excel and Briar consider each other more acquaintances then friends, sort of a friend of a friend type of thing through Apple. They did all hang out when they were children when their parents got together, while Briar did enjoy the more active games they did, like the rescue games at Apple’s, storytime tended to bore her and she typically would nap through it. When they got older Briar and Excel drifted even further apart as she started with more thrilling activities and parties; though she considers him a decent guy who is a pretty good listener if one needs one, but not really one for exciting things. Excel thinks of Briar as an exciting person to be around when she’s awake but really doesn’t see the point of getting himself too involved in her activities.

-Ashlynn Ella & Hunter Huntsman

  Ashlynn is another that has known Excel for years, nearly as long as Apple, since their mothers are old friends as well. When Ashlynn, Apple, Briar and Excel would play together when they were younger she would often suggest more nature-related activities and playing in the wilderness around their homes. Though she didn’t mind playing other games and did enjoy storytime at Excel’s when Apple would get him to tell stories. Ashlynn worried for a bit when she learned that Excel’s destined story role was to be a villain. However when they were out in the wilderness the animals seemed to like Excel and Ashlynn never saw one react negatively to him like she thought they might towards a villain, she felt this proved that Excel couldn’t be evil.   When they got older and began attending Ever After High Ashlynn was initially quite surprised at Excel’s apparent transformation. She had a feeling for quite a while that he was increasingly depressed about his coming role in his story, but didn’t know what to say to him about it. What could she say when it involved the roles they were supposed to live out? But it was still a bit of a shock to see someone she had known so long go through such a change. While Ashlynn would like to believe Apple’s theory of why Excel is doing such a thing she’s not fully convinced; she’s tried to gently bring up the subject with him a few times but Excel just doesn’t seem interesting in talking about it. Ashlynn wishes she just had the right words to get Excel to open up what’s bothering him.   Hunter didn’t meet Excel until they were attending Ever After High, and only then he only knew Excel as they guy he’d see dressed in drab colors walking down the hallways. Hunter never learned more until he and Ashlynn started secretly dating and she told him things of her friends, though Hunter found it a bit hard to connect some of the things Ashlynn told him with the guy she was telling him about. Although Hunter was aware of the story the Count Wondamore was a part of before he knew Excel was destined for that role, he found that even harder to connect to Excel than the things Ashlynn told him.   However one day they all got a bit of a surprise. Back when Ashlynn’s and Hunter’s relationship was still a secret they were enjoying a stroll through the woods and chatting. They were so focused on each other they didn’t notice the figure coming down the path towards them, and Excel was pretty deep in thought going over what he was going to do that day in training. None of them noticed until they nearly ran into each other. They were silent in their surprise for a moment and then Hunter tried to give an excuse of why he was in the woods with Ashlynn while she simultaneously tried some small talk with Excel; Excel just arched an eyebrow at the two as they stumbled over their words a bit trying to come up with a matching story. Excel finally gave a sigh and told them “I didn’t see you. You didn’t see me. Deal?” to which Ashlynn and Hunter, quickly quieting for a moment when they realized what he said, agreed to. They then continued on their respective ways, Ashlynn and Hunter back towards the school while Excel went deeper into the forest. While Ashlynn wondered what Excel was up to she respected his apparent wish for secrecy and decided not to bring the issue up. Hunter on the other hand was curious enough to track Excel on a later day and hung back enough not to get caught when Excel was training; he later told Ashlynn and while she did scold him a bit for snooping she did thank him for letting her know what her friend was up to, Excel training really didn’t surprise her though since she already knew how much he did while at home. Even when Ashlynn’s and Hunter’s relationship became known publicly they decided to keep to the deal and keep quiet about what Excel is up to.

-Daring Charming

While not part of the same Charming family/clan Excel has known of Daring for quite a while since he is a part of what is probably the most well known of all the Charming families in the land. When Excel finally met Daring in person he wasn’t too surprised, Daring matched up to pretty much everything Excel had heard about him. Though Daring’s focus on appearances and his frequent habit of checking himself in mirrior does get on Excel’s nerves a bit. Daring on the other hand seems determined to help the “less fortunate” Charming by offering fashion advice and asking if Excel would like to borrow a mirror when he notices Excel is around.

-Darling & Dexter Charming

  Like with their older brother Daring Excel has known of both Darling and Dexter for quite some time. While they seemed to be about what Excel expected when he actually met them for the first time once in Ever After High; their reaction seemed to be more of disbelief at the fact that he was supposed to be a Charming. Apple’s theory that she tells people seemed to lessen that first impression somewhat, but Excel’s act is good enough that it kept the twins wondering.   But one day things changed. Darling had talked Dexter into coming with her to a secluded spot in the forest so that he could help her better her swordplay, him being the only one at school at the time that knew her true skills and dreams, and having an actual opponent would help much more than practicing by herself. Although when they reached the clearing Darling had chosen for their training that day they found themselves looking at a most unexpected sight. They saw the one they knew as Count Wondamore in a duel with some kind of rocky wood creature, in reality a pile of stone and wood that he had tied together into a vague humanoid form and animated as a sparing partner as part of his own training. Excel was a lot better than either Darling or Dexter ever expected, it was like they were watching a completely different person. Suddenly what Apple had been telling them didn’t seem so far-fetched after all. They were about to leap in to help Excel against whatever that creature was when he suddenly told the thing to hold and it stopped moving completely as he tightened the ropes that held it together. When he was finished Excel resumed the duel with his creation as Darling and Dexter looked on in disbelief, they had heard he had some sort of animating power but had thought it was restricted to things like suits of armor.   It was then Darling made a decision, she stepped out from behind the brush her and Dexter had been hiding behind and walked out to where Excel was dueling. Excel was so absorbed in his duel that he didn’t notice Darling until she was practically right next to him and when he finally noticed her her sudden, to him, appearance actually startled him and he stumbled and Excel had to have his creation catch him before he went face down to the ground. Dexter came running out as Excel recovered; at first Excel tried to slip back into his persona and come up with some sort of explanation but quickly gave that up when he realized that the two had already seen far too much for him to be able to explain it away. Instead Excel drew himself up to his full height and took on a more imposing stance before asking the twins what they wanted. While Dexter was a little intimidated Darling was actually amused by such a drastic change, again it was like they had a completely different person in front of them rather than the Count Wondamore they knew. To answer Excel’s question Darling decided to be completely honest about why they were there and what she wanted to do, adding that perhaps they maybe weren’t so different. Excel responded that maybe they did have a couple things in common, but he'd keep their secrets if they kept his. Darling agreed, but she wanted a duel with him first. Dexter tried to object but Darling shushed him and said that it’d be more interesting to duel someone that she didn’t already know how they fought. Excel thought a moment and accepted Darling’s challenge. Their duel went on for several minutes but they both eventually decided on a draw; while Excel had greater skill and experience he had worn himself out quite a bit already in his daily training and couldn’t overcome Darling’s natural talent and energy, Darling found it extremely difficult to find any openings in Excel’s defense and really didn’t want to win just because her opponent was already worn out when they started the duel.   Afterwards Darling managed to convince Excel that continuing to train together would be a good idea, and was even able to talk Dexter into it as well. They don’t train together everyday because various commitments from school and such get in the way or circumstances prevent them from sneaking away. Darling prefers to meet up at least three times a week but no matter what’s going on she’ll make sure there’s at least one meet up a week; she tends to need to remind and nudge Dexter when it’s time for training even if he’s okay with just one or two times a week. Darling loves the training and feels that having multiple people to train with is excellent for bettering her own skills, and it feels nice not to have to keep up the perfect princess image that many expect of her while she’s training. Dexter isn’t as enthusiastic about the training as Darling but does admit it has helped him improve his skill; what actually interests Dexter more is Excel’s ability to animate objects, Dexter likes to bring various small trinkets to Excel just to observe how they’ll move around once animated. Excel actually agrees with Darling in that training with others does help to improve his skills; while Excel is able to animate something to spar with no dueling opponent he can make can surprise him since he knows all of what it can do, while actual living intelligent opponents are unpredictable and thus better at testing him.   Although Excel has one worry that has developed from this continued association with Darling and Dexter, he’s afraid that he might be training the potential hero of his story. While Excel acknowledges the possibility that it could be Dexter he thinks that Darling is a more suitable potential candidate. Excel would rather not have their friendship end by Darling being his executioner.

-C. A. (Chariclo Arganthone) Cupid

  Excel and Cupid had a rather odd start. While they had known of each other for a while and occasionally saw each other in the halls they didn’t have classes together nor did they interact. However one day as Excel was sitting by himself under a tree on the school grounds eating lunch he noticed someone walk up next to him and when he looked to see who it was Excel saw Cupid standing there. Excel thought Cupid looked a bit sad as she asked if she could sit down. Cupid told Excel that she didn’t want to be alone but felt she couldn’t sit with her friends because they’d ask what was wrong and she didn’t really want to talk to them about it; but she thought that since her and Excel didn’t really know each other he wouldn’t feel compelled to ask anything. Excel simply waved a hand to the ground next to him and continued with his lunch as Cupid sat down.   As they sat there in silence Excel studied Cupid out of the corner of his eye, Cupid just sat there looking sad with her legs pulled up and head resting on her knees while sighing often. Excel then came to a decision, even if he considered it against his better judgement, and told Cupid “If there’s something you want to get off your chest and just need someone to listen I won’t be going anywhere for a while…” He said nothing more and went back to sipping on the drink he had. Cupid looked at him strangely but Excel didn’t even react and just kept looking off towards the school as he had been when she walked up. After a moment Cupid began to talk; she told Excel of her crush on Dexter, but Dexter had a crush on Raven and Raven seemed to have a crush on him as well. But even if she liked Dexter it was Cupid’s duty to help love bloom and develop naturally, not force it along a path she chose. If Dexter liked Raven and Raven liked him back she would do her best to make that love happen, even if it broke her own heart. After telling Excel all that Cupid went quiet for a few moments but eventually stood up and thanked him, being able to tell someone that really did help and she was feeling a little better. She gave him a small smile and made her way back into the school.   But that wasn’t the last time the two would spend time together. Afterwards Cupid would occasionally seek Excel out for much the same reason as the first; most of the time it was just because she needed someone to listen to her vent some frustration, though there are times when she just desires some quiet company. Excel doesn’t mind listening to Cupid’s problems, it takes little effort on his part and she feels better afterwards so it’s fine with him.   Although when Cupid found out about his power, after hearing Apple mention it, she has requested Excel’s help a few times. Cupid is self-admittedly a rather poor shot with her bow and arrows, which is a little embarrassing for her to admit considering it’s part of her duty. There have been incidents when Cupid has been trying to help a love note reach the intended recipient, and circumstances have prevented the writer from delivering it themselves, where if she was a better shot with her bow she could deliver it right where it needed to be. However due to her poor aim Cupid’s afraid if she were to try and deliver it by arrow the note still might not reach it’s intended recipient, or worse end up going to the wrong person. Since finding out about Excel’s power she has folded such notes into little bird shapes and asked Excel to animate them so that they can fly to who and where they need to go; Excel grants Cupid’s requests since it’s a pretty simple thing for him to do and takes little energy on his part.

-Cerise Hood

  Though Cerise and Excel do interact occasionally, typically at times when Excel is talking with Raven for some reason while she is hanging out with Cerise, the two consider themselves acquaintances at best. Excel doesn’t mind hanging around Cerise since she doesn’t talk with him much other than general pleasantries and he actually likes the look of her hooded cloaks; although he always gets the feeling that she’s hiding something whenever she’s around, but doesn’t ask questions since he figures she’s entitled to her secrets whatever they may be.   When she first met him Cerise thought Excel was a rather weird guy, though pretty much harmless even if he was supposed to be a villain. Then one day after school when she was running through the woods Cerise heard something that sounded like a fight going on close by. Cerise tracked the noise down and when she located the commotion she was surprised to see Excel there going through some sort of sword practice against a log that was up on it’s end and actually swinging back at him. Apparently those things she had heard Apple mention were true after all. Cerise kept hidden and after watching awhile she decided to quietly sneak away and decided not to tell anyone what she saw, she felt Excel is entitled to his secrets. Cerise does occasionally check up on Excel’s training to see how it’s going but keeps herself hidden the entire time; and she got a pretty big shock one day when she saw the Darling and Dexter Charming had apparently joined in on Excel’s training, she decided to keep the whole thing to herself and simply enjoy the show when she sees it.

-Ramona Badwolf

  Excel and Ramona are often paired together by her father Mr. Badwolf for projects in his class. Mr. Badwolf’s thinking is that Ramona would be able to get Excel to put in some actual effort; while Ramona enjoys playing up being bad and disrespecting her father in public she does not like to fail, so Mr. Badwolf figured Ramona would be able to push Excel to do better than usual. It didn’t exactly work out as planned. While the two get along and turn in decent enough work to pass easily it’s not quite as Mr. Badwolf expected; while Excel seems to do a bit better when working with Ramona she seems to deliberately hold herself back a bit simply to mess with her father. When questioned about it Ramona has been known to answer “Two half-assed efforts add up to enough effort to pass my dad’s class.” and then laugh at her father’s reaction. But despite it all Mr. Badwolf continues to pair them for projects since they are able to work together without the drama or one-upmanship that tend to plague many other future villains when they work together, such things are not appropriate all the time.   While they don’t hang out outside of class Ramona and Excel do get along quite well and don’t mind being paired together for whatever projects they need to do for Mr. Badwolf’s class. Ramona actually likes that Excel isn’t into his villain role; he doesn’t get in her face being overly dramatic and doesn’t go on and on about evil plans like some of the others tend to do. Plus his powers can be used to mess with people in fun ways when she can convince him to use them. Excel appreciates that Ramona doesn’t try and push him to be more evil and likes her laid-back and casual “bad attitude” and doesn’t mind animating an occasional item for her to mess with someone.   Ramona actually does know about Excel’s training; she saw him heading out into the woods one day and was curious, not to mention bored, and decided to follow him to see what he was up to. Following his scent Ramona was able to keep back out of sight while she tracked Excel. But when she caught view of him again Ramona found a surprising sight, but managed to keep herself under control enough to remain out of view, she saw Excel doing some sort of training with Darling and Dexter Charming. After watching a bit Ramona had to admit she was impressed, she never expected Excel could move and fight like that, or either of the two Charmings for that matter. But as she continued to watch Ramona caught another familiar scent and followed it around the clearing the others were in to find her sister. Cerise was so absorbed in watching that Ramona actually startled her when she walked up behind her, though fortunately they’re weren’t noticed. After talking with her sister and a bit of poking fun Ramona decided to take off before she was noticed. Ramona figured she’d keep what she saw secret; she liked Excel enough not to give away something he obviously wanted to keep secret, and she was someone who could keep a secret when needed.

-Fayebelle Thorn

  Ever since Baba Yaga had Excel demonstrate his powers to animate a suit of armor during a discussion about different magics Fayebelle has been annoyed with Excel, with that sort of power he could cause so much evil mischief. And he doesn’t seem interested in his story either, sure it ends badly for the villain but he could have so much awesome evil fun before that. So Fayebelle has decided to take it upon herself as a minor side-project to encourage Excel to embrace his evil destiny and use his powers to the fullest. She knows Excel can animate stuff besides armor, Fayebelle has seen him helping out Cupid and is pretty sure he has animated stuff for Ramona too, so she’s positive his power has so much evil potential. Excel hasn’t taken any of her advice yet but she figures it’s only a matter of time. She’s Fayebelle Thorn after all, how could he not listen to her?   Excel for his part does his best to ignore Fayebelle and her advice; he figures that she is actually trying to help in her own way but that still doesn’t make it any less annoying to him. Excel briefly considered animating something for Fayebell when she asked, to get her to leave him along if nothing else, but decided against it since it’d probably only encourage her more. But since Fayebelle doesn’t bother him that often Excel simply continues to ignore her as well as whatever people might say about it.

[deaku]

Here's some fanart for Critical Role. For those of you that don't know what that is it's a web series with a group of voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons; you can find out more on the Geek & Sundry website right over here https://geekandsundry.com/shows/critical-role/ Anyway the group started a new campaign not too long ago and I decided to take a shot at drawing their new characters, while I did use the official character art as reference here's everyone in my own style. As for just who these guys are... =Jester is a tiefling cleric, played by Laura Bailey =Fjord is a half-orc warlock, played by Travis Willingham =Beauregard is a human monk, played by Marisha Ray =Caleb is a human wizard, played by Liam O'Brian =Nott is a goblin rogue, played by Sam Riegel =Yasha is a aasimar barbarian, played by Ashley Johnson =Mollymauk is a tiefling blood hunter, played by Taliesin Jaffe And of course there's also the Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer who plays the part of all the NPCs, which if I tried to draw all those characters I'd never finish. And so here's my first Critical Role pic; which took me longer than I thought to finish, even with stuff going on around here, but I got it done finally. Not sure if I'm going to draw anymore CR pics or not at a later date, maybe if the inspiration strikes again. I'm actually somewhat new to Critical Role; I actually just started checking it out as they were getting into the final stretch of their first campaign. I managed to cram about 30 episodes and then I lost my internet for a while and when I got everything going again they were wrapping things up and announcing that they were going to be starting a new campaign. I decided I'd wait and start fresh with the new campaign and finish the first at a later time, I've caught all of the second campaign so far and have been enjoying it quite a bit.