Exposing the Esoteric

The first of my three major 2016 plots is in the books, and now that Brawl Season and the fabled trip to Ohio are over and I've gotten a chance to rest, I can share some info about the plot. I'll break it down event by event, then show off what got cut.

This plot pretty much had to happen. I determined in 2015 after Sumireko graduated from Fite Club cameo to minor character and then to regular character that she needed a plot, but my initial idea was a pretty weak one-day affair, the specifics of which I don't even really remember any more.  However, Chao wound up reminding me about the Occult Balls, the magical and bizarre macguffins everyone is after in Sumireko's source game, and it was off to the races as I set a number of balls - seven, a classic number for macguffins if you ask me - and assigned each one a different attribute.

Let's go to the event rundown...

Event 1: From Boo To You
As the initial event, this plot was meant to be fairly lighthearted and silly. It initially began as something quite different - the original idea was a "find the Boos" plot wherein Lady Bow tasks the bar to help her round up a large group of the mischievous ghosts. I decided to switch to the Super Mario Sunshine-esque plot we got instead because of how fitting it was. King Boo being Lady Bow's father has been a long-time personal headcanon of mine. He's a king, she's a princess - it works!

I was disappointed nobody won Boolette - I should've altered the rules to make a winner more likely. The subplot going on with no input from me featuring Dave getting wayyyy more development than I expected from a Lightning Bolt Society member (especially this early in the season) was awesome, good work Brine and JRM!

Event 2: Lake of Rage
Here's the plot that debuted Rachel, AKA Red. As the title probably gives away, this one was heavily inspired by the Lake of Rage quest in Pokemon GSC. This was my chance to finally do a Nevada Lake Plot after the Neo Kobbers one wound up getting scrapped. I had a little fun with the boat ride and the big fish before moving on to the important part of the plot.

Rachel has tool powers because of the buzzsaws used by her inspiration, Red from the Undertale Red fangame. I had considered one of the battles against her using a "split tractor" gimmick to mimic how Undertale Red can cut up the screen with her sword, but couldn't iron out a solid idea for it and the many other ways she could fight made it unnecessary.

Event 3: Nightmares and Dreamscapes
This was one of those plots where I mostly just let people run wild. A plot about the dreams of other characters is ideal for letting people take an opportunity to do some characterization or plot advancement, and that's exactly what we got! Some folks like Komachi got important dreams that shed light on their backstory and what they might be struggling with during the season, and others like Sans had some foreshadowing for later events. And then you had Nitori, who was just silly.

I knew I wanted Sumireko's two nerd friends Viola and Gloria to get involved in the plot, and they'd appeared in Lake of Rage as mission control, but this was where they got to shine brighter. I'd had trouble finding a spot for Gloria, but plugging her in as the target of the Baku seemed to work well enough.

Event 4: Esoteric In Space
In contrast, Viola was very easy to use. Deoxys was one of the first bits of the plot I knew was going to happen, but the space battle was a later addition. Originally, the Avrocars were slated as the final boss of the plot! Senator Johnson was going to pilot one, and there were times when there was only one planned and times where a small fleet was planned. I decided to move the avrocars here when I came up with the idea of an eldritch abomination as an endgame opponent, but more on that later.

 I considered giving Deoxys to Viola directly, but I discarded the idea pretty quickly. While strange enough to be owned by a Hex Maniac, Deoxys doesn't really fit Viola's team style, and she has enough non-ghosts already. Instead, I left it up to the tractor, and the alien pogey went to Carlos. Perhaps we'll see more of him in Psychicplot?

Event 5: Secrets of the Museum
Originally planned as the second-to-last event, this plot swapped places with the next event to help ensure Harpy would participate, as I had really wanted Sonia to attend that plot. This one was a smaller event more about exposition and exploration than it was about fighting.

I've mulled over bringing back Baltan and Kauket for a long time. They were one-season wonders in our third year, which was also our weakest year in terms of posting strength, so it seemed I could get more out of them. My roster is too crowded to support them as regulars, though, so they have merely been cameos so far this year. There is a little something I have planned later this year that they'll be a part of, though it isn't a plot...

Rachel's backstory had been largely locked in ever since I wrote Friends Forever here on the blog. The idea to make both Rachel and Sumireko into Augusta-style psychics was a later idea and one I thought meshed wonderfully with both their powers and Harpy's plot, giving a fantastic extra hook for Carlos, who Harpy had been sending to every Psychicplot she could.

Event 6: Ain't No Party Like A Mario Party
So instead of getting serious near the end, Sumiplot got a break before the finale with this lighthearted, minimal-combat plot. Game Guy was originally a Fite Club opponent for Nitori I came up with way back in October of last year, but like Fiore DeRosa before him, I felt I could get more out of the character than just a cameo, so I elevated them to plot status. Thanks to my Gamble Man event last year, I knew building a plot around tractor-based casino games could work, and it was fun to compete in a different way against a "boss". I was very happy that Asmodeus actually put up a fight in the casino games - right up until the final game, it was scarily likely that he would win!.

Asmodeus had been considered by me as a ZFRP villain for years - since at least 2014, and possibly since 2013. After I used Mammon in 2014, I decided Asmodeus would be tied to the succubi the same way she had been. Asmodeus was originally planned to be a true villain, like Mammon, but various factors combined to make me decide to make him more sympathetic, including Harpy liking Mammon and then later making child support jokes about Asmodeus.

The fact that we got a Chatzy drifter named Asmodeus just before this plot was just icing on the cake.

The plot in its' original form - a dayplot where Sonia and other kobbers helped Morgan and Lily defeat Asmodeus - was originally developed as a sendoff for the succubi, who are slated to retire to cameodom after Season 6 ends (they're already minor). Seeing the possibilities with the occult ties, I grafted it on to Sumiplot, and then it mutated into whatever the hell it is we wound up doing.

I couldn't resist the Zivilyn Bane joke, not after Chao played Skies of Arcadia over the offseason and we wound up snickering to each other all game about how it was the same guy coming out of the booby-trapped treasure chests every time and he was showing up in places he really shouldn't be.

Event 7: Expose the Esoteric
Considering how hard I pushed the heel heat for Johnson, I was surprised how cautious people ended up being when finally facing him. I made sure he was killed dead, though, since I made him so cartoonishly, thoroughly evil that jailing him felt like an anticlimax (but I definitely wasn't doing that brainwash/body hijack idea Cornwind proposed unless multiple people begged for it to happen).

It took a while for me to decide what the Occult Balls would do. Harpy did a great job adding backstory to Chlonozakra/Spindlelegs and the balls, one I have no problem accepting as canon. One idea I had was kinda stupid and meant as a jokey anticlimax - Sumireko finds out the occult balls are eldritch abomination droppings they use to mark their territory, and gathering so many together convinced Spindlelegs that Area 51 belonged to it. In other words, Sumireko would have spent a month and a half gathering up poop. Eldritch poop, but still poop.

I was bummed Spindlelegs' special tractor flopped - it was very underwhelming in battle thanks to getting bad rolls. The impact of rolling a d41 would have worked a lot better if it'd gotten off a 36 or something before its' tractor began taking damage.

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Now for the unused images!

Here is an alternate design for Baku. Until I found the replacement picture just before the event by sheer accident (it's concept art for Bagan, a scrapped Godzilla monster), this was what he was gonna look like. While kinda creepy-looking, it seemed somehow benign, and the description attached to the image spoke of a mostly-pleasant beast as well. The Bagan monstrosity I used, though, now THAT was threatening-looking.

Here's an eldritch tree. One possibility for the finale was that Johnson had already opened the portal, spawning multiple abominations, and this tree would have been faced outside Area 51.

Men in black, specifically the agent enemies from Streets of Rage 3. These guys were possible mooks for Area 51.

This is a Grootslang, a mix of snake and elephant. This was the first choice I had for a boss when I decided to go with "the occult balls summon a monster". I also considered Senator Johnson using a genetic engineering/surgineering lab to create real-life versions of mythical beasts from tall tales and the like, such as this thing and the Jackalope.

Chao and I have joked about Sumireko having her own team of Pokemon. It would only be the most esoteric of pocket monsters for her, though! The team I eventually came up with was Sigilyph, Magnezone, Rotom, Unown, Xatu, and Sableye. Of those six, Sigilyph was planned to actually appear and join Sumireko for real, but I decided she didn't need additional combat options, Viola had plenty of Pokemon already (and she was slated to catch that Misdreavus to add to her team), and Sigilyph didn't really fit in anywhere, especially if no one was going to catch it.

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Anyway, I guess that's about it for this plot blog. Sorry it took so long! Reception to Sumiplot (and Sumireko herself) has been very positive. I'm so happy I was able to strike gold with my sole major Touhou character. Although, of course, she's only major because of the warm reception. I have no plans to retire her any time soon, so hopefully this lovable nerd will continue to nerd it up for a long time to come!