Post by The Author on Nov 24, 2008 6:38:32 GMT -5
Alright, I know I haven't posted a new w00tness in, like, forever, but that's hardly my fault now, given that my tablet has been fubar for several weeks now (possibly months - I've lost track). However, in the interest of keeping the forums alive (and because I can) I'd like to spout some ideas about w00tness that have been on my mind lately.
The first thing: Duo is really old.
This may not be really obvious, given the fact that I've only made passing references to this fact in the comic, and when I did so it was either poorly written or just mentioned briefly and never touched upon again.
However, there's actually quite a bit of backstory that I've come up with for the w00tniverse that I have yet to put down on paper, a lot of that involving Duo, and the fact that he's really old. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but while Duo looks human, he really isn't. The most obvious sign is the extensive use of augmentics and the "replacement parts" that the med-bots were able to use to replace his arm, but it's deeper than that. Because of his not-quite-human nature, he is really, really old. He's not quite a time abyss (the kind of characters that live so long, a few thousand years is like an eyeblink), given that his really old status only stretches back a few hundred years (I used to have an actual number, but then decided that "he's as old as the plot dictates" which translates to "really honkin' old"). Even so, the fact that he's lived with humans for most of his life has affected him greatly, especially since he hasn't seen any signs of he himself aging or of reaching the end of his natural life anytime soon. For one thing, that many years of life (as well as a not-quite-human brain) have given him a massive intellect, partly due to him having many lifetimes to achieve multiple doctorates until he finally exceeded mere human research in multiple fields of science. He has a brain that can match, and probably exceed, Tony Stark in sheer thinking, reasoning, and awesome power. However, for another thing, he has seen all his human friends over the years (save the most recent ones) all grow old and die, leaving him alone every time they die.
I know it seems kind of cool for a character to live a very long time, but we don't often think of how a someone that old would have to cope with us "mere mortals" - a lot of times, someone that old would try and stay away from any kind of relationships, because of how he wouldn't want to feel the pain of loss. Duo on the other hand, tries to ignore it by letting lots of people in his life. This is good and bad for him - on the one hand, he doesn't think about the loss of his past friends and companions, but on the other hand, even he sometimes feels that these people are only there to fill and empty void...
There are very few people that are an exception to this rule, however.
First example, and possibly the most squick worth: Ikara and Duo have a very interesting relationship. She's the AI that Duo created to help him maintain his lab, and is a computer program (a sentient computer program that is continually evolving, but a computer program nonetheless) that doesn't age. Given that Duo created "her", he sometimes looks at her like a daughter. When he created her, it was quite literal creation - she wasn't "programmed" in the traditional sense, and instead, Duo "taught" her (for lack of a better word) during her initial stages of creation, which allowed her to have a much more stable mental state than most AIs, as well as giving her the added ability of being able to learn (by rewriting her own code) on her own. A lot of times he views her as a research associate, especially when he's working on something - she is likely the only thing on planet earth that can think with Duo on even footing.
You know how I said earlier that the relationship was possibly squick worthy? Well, that comes from how Ikara views the relationship between herself and Duo. On the one hand, there's the whole father-figure aspect that is understandable, given that Duo created her. There's also the research associate aspect. However, she sometimes also views herself as a mother to Duo - despite his age and massive intellect (or possibly because of it) he can become extremely focused on on thing to the expense of everything else. She cares for Duo (since part of her expanding and constantly evolving programming involves emotions), and because of that, tries to keep his sometimes self-destructive obsessions from consuming him. Duo has come to rely on Ikara a lot ever since he created her, and would likely tear himself apart at the seams if she was to ever disappear. But there's something else - her care for Duo runs a lot deeper than just "motherly love". It's one of those things that she finds hard to describe, because she can't seem to wrap her electronic code of a brain around the emotions involved, and that in itself confuses her greatly. I think we can all tell where this is going, so for the sake of sanity and possible future character development, I won't go into it further.
Another exception to the rule about Duo and his relationships is Rachel. A note: that isn't her real name, by the way, it's more of a romanized version of what her name in elvish almost is supposed to sound like in english. Given that she's an elf, she has an incredibly long life span. That has the benefit of being one of the few people that has remained constant over the constantly changing backdrop of people and places that Duo has lived with over his many years. I mentioned in one comic during the Azarkas arc that they've been together for about 400 years, but due to the generally poor writing (that I'm the first to admit to) that came with the Azarkas arc, even I'm not sure how canon that is. Especially since Duo is an expy of me, and Rachel is an expy of, well, Rachel, and at the time of that comic, she and I had been dating for just about 4 years, and... well, honestly, the 400 years was just my way of referencing that at the time. In reality, it's probably longer.
Something interesting that I'd like to point out, since I haven't actually had any comics devoted to it, is that Rachel and Ikara have a bitter, unspoken animosity towards one another. On the one hand, Rachel came first, and shares an emotional bond with Duo that Ikara can never have. It also helps that Rachel and Duo are "married" but only as far as elves are concerned. However, since elven thought processes are vastly different from any human (and everything else for that matter), she sometimes finds it hard to communicate with Duo on "his level" (which is to say, incomprehensible technobabble) and understand some of Duo's more eccentric... well, eccentricities. Since Ikara and Duo share that connection by being able to think on the same level, Rachel is a bit jealous. Especially when Duo spends days at a time working on the latest project, when Ikara has him all to herself... She's able to control those emotions, putting on a calm facade, but eventually it's all going to come out. And since elves "feel" everything on a much higher level than humans... well, I'm sure you get the idea.
Speaking of divisions separating Duo and Rachel, there is the whole technology vs. magic thing. Part of why Rachel can't think on Duo's level is because elven brains are instinctively connected to the Aether, allowing them to utilize mana (unrefined and untapped magic energy) much more effectively and much more powerfully than very nearly everyone else. Mana and other concepts involvingmagic is anethema to the way Duo thinks. He's tried before to tap into Mana using technology, but he's failed in every attempt, and he eventually stopped trying altogether, arguing that whatever effect magic does, he can eventually replicate or make better with technology he's already created.
The last exception to the rule is Moog. Moog is a demon who is, quite literally, from hell. The reason I don't include barb (or stef, the other succubus that I put on a bus with the universe retcon) is because, while they are very old, they only just recently met Duo. Moog, on the other hand, Duo has known for a very long time. I'm still not entirely sure if he met Moog first, or if he met Rachel first. There are iffy details like that in the history of the w00tniverse that keep me from nailing down anything concrete yet. Regardless, Moog is unquestionably, unequivocally, and without a doubt the oldest character. Moog's history is... very complicated, put very simply. He's seen his fair share of shit, and he has literally seen the rise and fall of nations over thousands of years. He hasn't felt the effects of loneliness like Duo has (given that Demons are... different when it comes to emotions), and so hasn't felt the need to hide it like Duo has. On the other hand, his past (which I actually am in the process of fleshing out, by writing a story about his past) he does need to come with, because it's a few thousand years of horrendous, horrific bloodshed and lots of cosmic horrors from hell itself. When he was "younger", he embraced it, and now he cares nothing for it. He tries to hide it by being serious as little as possible, and lots of times acting in complete opposition to how demons are supposed to act. He's one of the other "people" that can interact with Duo completely, because of a bond of friendship that, literally, has lasted hundreds of years. It helps that part of that friendships stems from the fact that Duo has provided amnesty for Moog for almost as long as they've known each other. Despite the earlier appearances in the comic that I've tried to retcon out of existance (with little success) where he's shorter than most everyone else in the cast, he's actually really large - the closest approximation to a human figure he can muster is the 7 foot tall muscle-man with the pointed ears that just screams "I'M NOT HUMAN!" and if it was ever found out that he was a demon.... well, I don't think the humans or anyone else on Earth (or anywhere else) would take very kindly to him. Of course, there's other forces that Duo's hiding Moog from, but we'll not go into that...
So yeah. That's all I've got so far. If anybody reads this totally, I'll be surprised. This was really all just me trying to string together some semi-cohesive thoughts into something resembling something that was actually thought out before hand. More than likely, any of my other posts that I may get around to posting here will also be of the same vein, and if I try and tell any of you that I've planned out what I'm writing in advance rather than just letting it spew forth from my brain, I am lying. Horribly lying.
The first thing: Duo is really old.
This may not be really obvious, given the fact that I've only made passing references to this fact in the comic, and when I did so it was either poorly written or just mentioned briefly and never touched upon again.
However, there's actually quite a bit of backstory that I've come up with for the w00tniverse that I have yet to put down on paper, a lot of that involving Duo, and the fact that he's really old. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but while Duo looks human, he really isn't. The most obvious sign is the extensive use of augmentics and the "replacement parts" that the med-bots were able to use to replace his arm, but it's deeper than that. Because of his not-quite-human nature, he is really, really old. He's not quite a time abyss (the kind of characters that live so long, a few thousand years is like an eyeblink), given that his really old status only stretches back a few hundred years (I used to have an actual number, but then decided that "he's as old as the plot dictates" which translates to "really honkin' old"). Even so, the fact that he's lived with humans for most of his life has affected him greatly, especially since he hasn't seen any signs of he himself aging or of reaching the end of his natural life anytime soon. For one thing, that many years of life (as well as a not-quite-human brain) have given him a massive intellect, partly due to him having many lifetimes to achieve multiple doctorates until he finally exceeded mere human research in multiple fields of science. He has a brain that can match, and probably exceed, Tony Stark in sheer thinking, reasoning, and awesome power. However, for another thing, he has seen all his human friends over the years (save the most recent ones) all grow old and die, leaving him alone every time they die.
I know it seems kind of cool for a character to live a very long time, but we don't often think of how a someone that old would have to cope with us "mere mortals" - a lot of times, someone that old would try and stay away from any kind of relationships, because of how he wouldn't want to feel the pain of loss. Duo on the other hand, tries to ignore it by letting lots of people in his life. This is good and bad for him - on the one hand, he doesn't think about the loss of his past friends and companions, but on the other hand, even he sometimes feels that these people are only there to fill and empty void...
There are very few people that are an exception to this rule, however.
First example, and possibly the most squick worth: Ikara and Duo have a very interesting relationship. She's the AI that Duo created to help him maintain his lab, and is a computer program (a sentient computer program that is continually evolving, but a computer program nonetheless) that doesn't age. Given that Duo created "her", he sometimes looks at her like a daughter. When he created her, it was quite literal creation - she wasn't "programmed" in the traditional sense, and instead, Duo "taught" her (for lack of a better word) during her initial stages of creation, which allowed her to have a much more stable mental state than most AIs, as well as giving her the added ability of being able to learn (by rewriting her own code) on her own. A lot of times he views her as a research associate, especially when he's working on something - she is likely the only thing on planet earth that can think with Duo on even footing.
You know how I said earlier that the relationship was possibly squick worthy? Well, that comes from how Ikara views the relationship between herself and Duo. On the one hand, there's the whole father-figure aspect that is understandable, given that Duo created her. There's also the research associate aspect. However, she sometimes also views herself as a mother to Duo - despite his age and massive intellect (or possibly because of it) he can become extremely focused on on thing to the expense of everything else. She cares for Duo (since part of her expanding and constantly evolving programming involves emotions), and because of that, tries to keep his sometimes self-destructive obsessions from consuming him. Duo has come to rely on Ikara a lot ever since he created her, and would likely tear himself apart at the seams if she was to ever disappear. But there's something else - her care for Duo runs a lot deeper than just "motherly love". It's one of those things that she finds hard to describe, because she can't seem to wrap her electronic code of a brain around the emotions involved, and that in itself confuses her greatly. I think we can all tell where this is going, so for the sake of sanity and possible future character development, I won't go into it further.
Another exception to the rule about Duo and his relationships is Rachel. A note: that isn't her real name, by the way, it's more of a romanized version of what her name in elvish almost is supposed to sound like in english. Given that she's an elf, she has an incredibly long life span. That has the benefit of being one of the few people that has remained constant over the constantly changing backdrop of people and places that Duo has lived with over his many years. I mentioned in one comic during the Azarkas arc that they've been together for about 400 years, but due to the generally poor writing (that I'm the first to admit to) that came with the Azarkas arc, even I'm not sure how canon that is. Especially since Duo is an expy of me, and Rachel is an expy of, well, Rachel, and at the time of that comic, she and I had been dating for just about 4 years, and... well, honestly, the 400 years was just my way of referencing that at the time. In reality, it's probably longer.
Something interesting that I'd like to point out, since I haven't actually had any comics devoted to it, is that Rachel and Ikara have a bitter, unspoken animosity towards one another. On the one hand, Rachel came first, and shares an emotional bond with Duo that Ikara can never have. It also helps that Rachel and Duo are "married" but only as far as elves are concerned. However, since elven thought processes are vastly different from any human (and everything else for that matter), she sometimes finds it hard to communicate with Duo on "his level" (which is to say, incomprehensible technobabble) and understand some of Duo's more eccentric... well, eccentricities. Since Ikara and Duo share that connection by being able to think on the same level, Rachel is a bit jealous. Especially when Duo spends days at a time working on the latest project, when Ikara has him all to herself... She's able to control those emotions, putting on a calm facade, but eventually it's all going to come out. And since elves "feel" everything on a much higher level than humans... well, I'm sure you get the idea.
Speaking of divisions separating Duo and Rachel, there is the whole technology vs. magic thing. Part of why Rachel can't think on Duo's level is because elven brains are instinctively connected to the Aether, allowing them to utilize mana (unrefined and untapped magic energy) much more effectively and much more powerfully than very nearly everyone else. Mana and other concepts involvingmagic is anethema to the way Duo thinks. He's tried before to tap into Mana using technology, but he's failed in every attempt, and he eventually stopped trying altogether, arguing that whatever effect magic does, he can eventually replicate or make better with technology he's already created.
The last exception to the rule is Moog. Moog is a demon who is, quite literally, from hell. The reason I don't include barb (or stef, the other succubus that I put on a bus with the universe retcon) is because, while they are very old, they only just recently met Duo. Moog, on the other hand, Duo has known for a very long time. I'm still not entirely sure if he met Moog first, or if he met Rachel first. There are iffy details like that in the history of the w00tniverse that keep me from nailing down anything concrete yet. Regardless, Moog is unquestionably, unequivocally, and without a doubt the oldest character. Moog's history is... very complicated, put very simply. He's seen his fair share of shit, and he has literally seen the rise and fall of nations over thousands of years. He hasn't felt the effects of loneliness like Duo has (given that Demons are... different when it comes to emotions), and so hasn't felt the need to hide it like Duo has. On the other hand, his past (which I actually am in the process of fleshing out, by writing a story about his past) he does need to come with, because it's a few thousand years of horrendous, horrific bloodshed and lots of cosmic horrors from hell itself. When he was "younger", he embraced it, and now he cares nothing for it. He tries to hide it by being serious as little as possible, and lots of times acting in complete opposition to how demons are supposed to act. He's one of the other "people" that can interact with Duo completely, because of a bond of friendship that, literally, has lasted hundreds of years. It helps that part of that friendships stems from the fact that Duo has provided amnesty for Moog for almost as long as they've known each other. Despite the earlier appearances in the comic that I've tried to retcon out of existance (with little success) where he's shorter than most everyone else in the cast, he's actually really large - the closest approximation to a human figure he can muster is the 7 foot tall muscle-man with the pointed ears that just screams "I'M NOT HUMAN!" and if it was ever found out that he was a demon.... well, I don't think the humans or anyone else on Earth (or anywhere else) would take very kindly to him. Of course, there's other forces that Duo's hiding Moog from, but we'll not go into that...
So yeah. That's all I've got so far. If anybody reads this totally, I'll be surprised. This was really all just me trying to string together some semi-cohesive thoughts into something resembling something that was actually thought out before hand. More than likely, any of my other posts that I may get around to posting here will also be of the same vein, and if I try and tell any of you that I've planned out what I'm writing in advance rather than just letting it spew forth from my brain, I am lying. Horribly lying.
