>I also want to give a specific shout out to the little things, like
>Goji-chan's clothes growing back being a nicely subtle indication that
>somehow, she is in fact a Friend at this point (if we needed more of
>one)

Goji's metagenetics were already pretty weird and a bit fluid, given that a genetically engineered lifeform with heavy Weird Energy mutations and two of Dìqiú's Great Spirits were involved. (And she's based on a version of Godzilla that spontaneously evolves in response to its environment, to boot.) She's a bit like an Eevee—apply the right stimulus and her physiology adapts. In this case, chowing down on a fistful of Sandstar. :)

(It didn't appear on screen, but Phil suggested that she has the habit of tasting minerals to gauge what they are anyway, so she might've eaten a little piece of Sandstar before we even saw her, just to confirm to herself that it really is a form of Energon.)

>the clever designs for Norway and Blackie (dialog definitely
>included),

Thank you! When I sent Kaban and Serval to Renraku City, I knew I wanted them to meet a Friend or two who lived there even though it's an abandoned ruin. I dug around the canonical list of Friends for a while, looking for animals that are plausible in that sort of post-apocalyptic cityscape, and then I thought, Hmm. Why not rats?

From there, I experimented with the more usual sorts of costumes for them (unsurprisingly, a lot of Friends' outfits have a school uniform vibe, even though they probably don't even know what a school is), until I hit on the "paramilitary urban survivalist" riff instead. ("Mad Max / Fallout 3 Raider" also got a look in before I settled on the BDU look.)

>>"Wow," Serval said. "I've never seen a Friend like her before. She's huge!
>>And look at those things on her back! She reminds me of Hammerhead."
>
>>"She does, a bit," Kaban agreed. Crouching down by the mysterious figure's
>>head, she bent to feel for a pulse. "Although you're right, she's a lot
>>bigger than Hammy."
>
>Which just... under normal circumstances, an 8-foot tall Kaiju girl is
>-not- bigger than a fully-grown stegosaurus. Which coupled with the
>way I'm reading that leads me to conclude that Hammy is -also- a
>friend now, which if I'm right is absolutely brilliant.

You are right, well spotted, and thank you. I was pretty pleased with that little tidbit.

(If anyone is curious, Hammerhead knows what her name is because she was "born" wearing a sort of belt or baldric, which used to be a collar, that has a metal tag on it reading MY NAME IS HAMMERHEAD. She couldn't read it, of course, but Professor Konoha could. She now styles herself "Hammerhead J. Stegosaur". The J doesn't stand for anything, but she felt like it didn't flow right without a middle initial. :)

>Now the follow-up would be what Gin Sheppard's reaction to meeting
>Hammerhead as a Friend would be.

Geoff's guess, when the idea came up in the studio channel, was that she'd be too busy being confused about being flying-tackled in the shins to register at first.

Mind you, Friends don't usually remember much of anything from before they were Friends, but like Pressly said, "I'd remember anyone who'd hand-fed me upwards of 20 tons of kalatamara leaves." So I like to think Hammy would recognize Shepard on sight, even if she doesn't consciously know why she recognizes her.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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