19 Apr 2018

Mecha Academy Episode 1 Chapter 8 Commentary

All over cereal, in Chapter 8.

Well, it wasn't over just cereal.  There were emotions tied to the cereal.  Rhiannon uses the cereal as a link to her brother.  If any of her other roomies had bought the cereal, she'd be okay.  Maybe not entirely happy, but she would't have tossed them against the wall.  Dusty, though, is tied to Gavin's death.  Communications might have prevented the violence, but neither young woman will speak to the other.  Rhiannon jumped to the worst possible scenario and Dusty, who already is feeling guilty, had no idea why beyond what was obvious to her.

Ric's role has changed since the original concept.  When I first came up with the idea of Mecha Academy, Rick was meant to be the hotshot pilot.  Right now, he's the social adept, the face, the voice of sanity.  Ric is the peacekeeper of the group, thrust into the role after there was no one else willing to step between Dusty and Rhiannon.  Well, Lars was, but only when the first meeting between Rhiannon and Dusty came to blows.  The new Ric is taking to the role well.  He's social, friendly, and a needed contrast to his roommates.

Dusty, for her part, isn't trying to hurt Rhiannon.  She can provoke, but she has her reasons there.  But to hurt Rhiannon on purpose?  That's too far.  Dusty is on an atonement arc.  Causing Rhiannon more anguish doesn't help there.  But, well, no one told her about the importance of the cereal.  She's just being helpful without wanting to call attention to herself.  If Dusty asked people what they needed, the entire cereal situation could be avoided, or at least delayed.

The last scene is more for world building and laying down the foundation of the culture.  The structure of nobility is inspired by the Traveller RPG.  But that's just the base.  I then added by doing a bit of research on British titles, with some extra work to find how to properly address not just the title holder but the rest of the family.  For extra fun, one of the local challenges for NaNoWriMo was to include a ten-word title.  The title wasn't specifically to be for the story or a chapter, so adding in Rhiannon's title, Cadet the Most Honourable Rhiannon Tudor, the Countess of Filton, the Baroness Curren, not only met the challenge, I also got to add thirteen words to my word count.  The scene could have been dropped, but there wasn't any good place to put it.  At some point, the future officers will need to know how to deal with nobles, especially those who are above them in the chain of command.

Friday, Mecha Academy, "Roommates" Chapter 9, "Obstacle Course".
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, Supergirl Season 1.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, comic book adaptations versus reality.

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