Character Musings: A Whole Lotta Sephine

I remember when I first introduced Josephine. She wasn't supposed to be anyone special. In fact, that was the driving concept behind a lot of initial design decisions. She was a chemist, a very plain job that, in FFT, has the claim to fame of... the ability to use items. She wore plain dull-colored clothes. I gave her the height and body type of "the average woman". She worked a nothing job in a mall. Her text color was brown. Everything about Josephine was meant to say "This is an average girl with an average job living an average life. She is not exciting". The most she contributed in her earliest days was to play straight man to Sarah's ditzy, bubbly antics.

And then ZFRP happened.

First, the body insecurities. What started as a simple joke about Sarah's "Magical Weight Gain Prevention" became a significant part of Josephine's character, and when I realized I'd given the girl that worked in a clothing store a body image problem, I thought to myself "Welp, looks like I accidentally made perfect sense again". Then, Ariel started her "Rally For Reality" campaign and all of a sudden the joke wasn't a joke, it was a serious inner conflict. But with help from Ariel and Dirk, Josephine slowly but surely grew and changed.

Now Dirk, there's another fine example of character development. Dirk and Josephine played off of each other throughout the third season of RP, gradually growing closer as I worked on my first "slow burn" pairing, wanting to make this couple distinctive from Sarah and Alex falling in love quickly. It paid off, and the long-awaited big moments - Josephine's hallway confession of desperation followed by Dirk's reassurances, and then the climax on the Ferris wheel - were definitely worth the weight wait.

I love the contrast between the two pairings. Saralex is a fluffy, sweet pairing with very little lewdness to it, built around lots of small cute moments and dramatic rescues. Dirksephine, too, was built on a foundation of saving the girl (this time courtesy of Sir Periwinkle) but the slower development really helped it work in a way a quick pair-off wouldn't have after RP had seen so much. It's also a lot more "racy" than Saralex ever was, which of course led to taking Dirk's already-well-established love of butts and it leading to Josephine becoming a confident gal with a backside to match her newfound attitude.

Now she's heading to Las Vegas, where a side of her character that often doesn't see as much attention - her greed for cash - will no doubt take center stage. I initially added this bit to her character to try and make her more multifaceted, and it's been seen here and there in RP but has been more of a Chatzy gag than something that saw a lot of time in actual play. But this year, no doubt, Josephine will be able to make her pursuit of riches loud and clear.

In sum, then: Plain-Jane, meek, shy, self-conscious, yo-yo-dieting everygirl becomes brash, curvy, confident, gunslinging treasure hunter. Thank you, ZFRP. You do us proud.