As the subject header suggests, I finally got around to making a series page for The Vocaloid Variations. I expect the Vocaloids' storyline will probably spill out of the Golden Age era eventually (I mean, we've seen Miku in the 2400s), but that's where it started, and where all the currently extant chapters happen, so it made the most sense to me to put it under that heading.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I'm kind of sad that Koemi is dead now (Miku talks about her in the past tense), and Abhi probably is too. I know there are potentially ways around it for the latter like becoming a Detian or cyborg, and that even death isn't always an obstacle in future story participation; but I'm pretty sure neither of them has won the Right to Return, and Miku doesn't have a Valhalla day pass to visit them.

So we should just enjoy the time we have with them, in the Golden Age, and be glad they didn't see the galaxy go to hell, and that they left behind friends who can carry their light into the future.

>I'm kind of sad that Koemi is dead now (Miku talks about her in the
>past tense), and Abhi probably is too.

Yeah, that bums me out too. In Koemi's case, I think it first occurred to me while I was still working on the original Variations, maybe during the making of the breakroom scene (which has some of my favorite imagery of the story in it, with Miku watching the airport snowplow do its thing--I dunno, I'm weird). As you note, there are ways around it, but I couldn't say right now whether any of them will turn out to be appropriate.

(Oddly enough, I was thinking about something along related lines the other day in a completely different context. I think I'll take that part over to the Games board, though.)

As I get older IRL, it becomes more obvious to me how much of my body of work is a visible flinch away from mortality. In 1992, when I was still immortal myself, dropping the whole Detian thing into UF seemed like just a clever way of getting a longer timeline to play with (because you can't have proper Big Space Opera within the puny confines of a human lifetime, and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of going multigenerational). Now that I'm 47 and showing a lot of shelf wear, that part feels more like wish fulfillment than the "two-fisted space hero" shtick ever did.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I may be a decade younger than you, but I'm nowhere near as vigorous or sharp as I was 10 years ago. Like you, I can hear the Reaper's tread behind me, feel time catching up with me.

And I haven't conquered the world yet.

Anyways, the good news is that, like Koemi, you've created something which will live on after you're gone. And the immortality stuff may be wish fulfillment, but I've had far more than my fill of stories that say "Immortality sucks actually". UF unapologetically says, "Immortality is awesome if you can find someone to share it with," and that's an entire cylinder of fresh air.

>I've had far more than my fill of stories that
>say "Immortality sucks actually". UF unapologetically says,
>"Immortality is awesome if you can find someone to share it with," and
>that's an entire cylinder of fresh air.

That, at least, has been a conscious choice. I've been done with the "woe unto the immortal" narrative since... oh, I think I'm gonna go with the ending to the original Highlander. Hang on, "The Prize" is... aging?! Macleod went through all that to win the right to get old and die? Seriously? Fuck off. That was my reaction as a teenager and it's still my reaction now. I mean, sure, it's not going to be nonstop giggles, but neither is an ordinary lifespan.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-16-21 AT 04:16 AM (EST)
 
Vocaloid Variations is one of my favourite minis, and I especially want to see more of Rin and Len. Thanks for putting it all in one place so I can say to people 'so, you like Fallout 4? Welllll...'

From what I've heard the authors say, the prize also grants the ability to have children. But my opinion is that it's more likely a trap someone made to get the immortals to kill each other before stripping the last one of his power,

>From what I've heard the authors say, the prize also grants the
>ability to have children.

I realize I'm kind of a cultural outlier in this regard, but, whoop-de-do. :)

>But my opinion is that it's more likely a
>trap someone made to get the immortals to kill each other before
>stripping the last one of his power,

That would be like the payoff at the end of a particularly brutal JRPG. "Congratulations! The whole thing was a setup! YOU DIED"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Sounds like the twist to a game I saw Jingles playing once on his channel. A side-scroller of a kid trying to escape a nasty situation. Lots of puzzle solving... I don't recall the name, but the end was subversive of expectations in who you were the entire time. Like the Revan twist of KotOR but worse.

>I don't recall the name, but the end was
>subversive of expectations in who you were the entire time. Like the
>Revan twist of KotOR but worse.

Aw, I liked that one, though. I can still remember the weird, paradoxical mix of completely surprised and not at all surprised I was when that cutscene rolled.

I do remember seeing a list of RPG Clichés once in which the "you were actually working for the bad guys all along" trope was described as the "Way to Go, Serge", after the main character of Chrono Cross. (I think that was the same list that contained the entry, "That Was a Load-Bearing Boss", which is probably my favorite riff on a classic RPG shtick. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>I do remember seeing a list of RPG Clichés once in which the
>"you were actually working for the bad guys all along" trope was
>described as the "Way to Go, Serge", after the main character of
>Chrono Cross.\

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConsoleRPGCliches145To168

> (I think that was the same list that contained
>the entry, "That Was a Load-Bearing Boss", which is probably my
>favorite riff on a classic RPG shtick. :)
>
https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/Load-Bearing_Boss