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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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