sequel brainstorming?

[Lex]

When Rica first opened me up to the option of joining back in, I knew it was almost over and I was seriously okay with that because I figured we'll all be getting busy pretty soon, with the onset of school and all. I was just soooo happy and grateful that I could slip back in at least for the finale.

Maybe it's 'cause now that I'm officially "in," my heart is really back into it ~_~ idk. But I was just thinking today about how sad it's going to be to REALLY see everything end. And like... idk I guess I compare us and this RP project to like, a bunch of guys sitting around playing cards. It's harmless really, as long as we keep up with our important day-to-day responsibilities like work and school. It's not just a silly RP it's a really fun social activity for us to enjoy together. And I just figured, since we're DEFINITELY still going to keep our friendships, maybe we could keep an RP going, just at a slower pace?

Blah XD seriously, like the subject says, if you're thinking "shutup Lex, stop being sentimental and LET IT GO" right now, just reply and say it. 'cause I know I'm probably not being so rational >_< I mean it's been like... four and a half years. Granted, I was absent for two of those years, but still... it's such a massive project and I know it really does deserve a final ending. x.x I don't wanna drag it out to the point where it's just getting old, I just... idk >_<; haha

My feelings are so mixed!! I don't even know why I decided to post this, I guess because I'm having all these sad feelings about it ending and I needed to share it with you guys. I was thinking a lot today and I know a really awesome way to get a sequel off the ground. I guess I just wanted to feel out how interested you guys are in keeping this going, or what your feelings are on it ending. Do you think that now is the time it should end for good??

Haha I guess I also feel like some of our charries haven't had enough time to develop and come to satisfying conclusions. XD This could be my stupid sentimentality talking again, but I really feel like we could build so much more onto some of these characters...

If I'm getting out of line here, just holler and I'll shutup haha >_< I feel like I'm saying stuff I don't really have the right to say, or having feelings that aren't really rational to feel.

[waterlily43]

You're certainly not out of line >.< I actually am qutie reluctant to let Trin go too But before you joined the RP was kinda stagnant...but then...it is really a waste to just end it like that. Maybe we can work something out...only the pace may be slower when vacation ends for everyone. But that's probably better than nothing right?

[Lex]

That is SO better than nothing! Even if someone can only post once a WEEK or something, I find it worth keeping alive...

Me and Rica were talking on AIM last night and I tossed some ideas around at her that I came up with yesterday. She had told me a little about your guys' sequel idea when I first joined back up. Yesterday, I was thinking about it a LOT, and I basically used the framework of that idea (awakening ancients) and built a lot more onto it to give it a more fleshed-out plot.

Like I said, if you feel like I'm stepping on your toes -- any of you guys -- seriously, tell me and I promise I will drop it and back off. The only reason I even let myself daydream about ideas is because I got the impression from Rica that you guys didn't have that much planned out for the sequel yet. Plus, I just get excited about stuff and the plot bunnies come, and then I feel like if I don't share them I will explode... haha.

Anyway... Rica knows the gist of what the idea is from our convo last night, and she liked it enough that she suggested I make a post of it so we can all consider it and brainstorm together. ^_^

I can't very well launch into a big explanation of the idea right here and now because I'm sneaking onto this board from work and it's gonna be a MONSTER of a post >_<; BUT I'm going to make a post about it as soon as I get off work and have access to my comp!


I also just wanted to throw this out there because I want you guys to be aware... IF we happen to do a sequel and IF we happen to use this idea I have for it, I am in no way thinking I will be the ST or something like that. I actually think a cooperative-ST kinda thing with all of us involved would be an awesome way to do things. Kinda like how you guys are doing things now? So that we're ALL in on the plot and we ALL have a say in what happens. Haha good riddance to Auria the Tyrant ~_~ *shame*...

blah okay I'm starting to ramble. Basically, I'll throw it out on here tonight, and if you guys are just not up for it or you don't like the idea, it's totally cool. It's just something I came up with and felt it was worth at least sharing!

[Ash]

It's not that big a deal that trin is ending 'cause we're just starting up with a sequel! All our charries are still the same and together.

Jeez I can't believe after 4.5 years I still adore this RP and am still in love with the characters I created. I would think that I would get sick of my charries, especially since I created Blaze when I was 14 or 15, you'd think I'd get tired of her or something but I still love her and I love Deo XD I love everyone else's charries too of course! I still daydream about our charries in school LOLS.

I say we keep this RP going FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! there's never enough obstacles for them to overcome XD

[Lex]

hahahaha seriously?!?@!? AHHH *GLOMPSLIDETACKLES*

^_____________^ *dances around the room*


XD our poor charries, half of them hate eachother... AND THEY HAVE AN ETERNITY TO SPEND TOGETHER! MUAHAHA

ahhhhhhhhhh I'm so excited *runs in circles*

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hehe I pretty much told Lex my whole reply on AIM last night XD But really, the idea of ending the story at the ball grazed my mind only because I thought you guys feel like you want to let it go too. It was never definite! If you want to RP forever, or till we get the wheelchairs from the retirement centers, then what the heck, I'm game LMAO XD

I dunno if Al and Myacu want to RP forever, maybe only for a short time like 50 years more. I guess that's all right by me too HAHA

Hadrian: ETERNITY? O.O I have an eternity to spend making DroJun and selling them for ridiculous gils?! Hell yeah! I'm partying...!!

[Lex]

okay, so basically I got home from work and my freaking connection was down. I think it's comcast in our area or something because it's definitely not my computer, I checked all that stuff out. And Devin's is down too... and he has comcast and lives like three blocks away. so yeah. idk what the idiots at comcast are doing, but they need to fix it fast or I am about to unleash some wrath on whoever answers the phone at that company.

anyway... that's why I never posted the "monster" post I said I was going to. I should have the time tomorrow at work, since business is always slow on Fridays. plus I'm the only one in the office, so I shouldn't have to worry about people catching me using the computer for personal reasons XD so I'll try my best to get SOMETHING posted tomorrow morning/afternoon so at least you guys know what the heck I started this whole thread for x.x

ugh my connection has actually been acting really buggy for the past FEW days, it's even buggy right now. it randomly disconnects and crap. it's really pissing me off ~_~

[waterlily43]

I'm sorry about your connection Lex >.< And that cooperative ST thing you mentioned is brilliant ( I used it again so nyah)! Anyways we'll have plenty of time to thrash out all the little details so no worries

Jun: *accosts Hadrian* OH NO YOU DON'T! GIMME BACK MY REPUTATION OR AT LEAST 50% of what you earned! It's my name on there you're using!!

[Lex]

HAHAHA XD DroJun omg...

I didn't get it the first time I read it XD

[waterlily43]

Jun: Lex-sama *goes crying to you* I'll be known as half of a condomn now

[Lex]

aww Jun *hugs her and strokes her hair* there there...

Zacke: Hey Jun! look at it this way! at least your milkshake doesn't bring all the boys to the yard, like SOMEBODY we know XD


~_~; *sighs and hopes Stardust didn't hear that*

[Lex]

Okie dokie... soooo, I shall ATTEMPT to explain myself XD



As you probably remember (unless you have short-term memory problems, like myself, in which case you might have had to look this up to remember XD) in FFVIII, Adel was originally freed from a tomb in space by Rinoa, who was possessed by Ultimecia at the time. One thing I don't remember, though, is the game ever telling us how exactly Adel even came about in the first place.

Keep in mind that the Galbadians have been tampering with things they really shouldn't be tampering with since the First Sorceress War (in Laguna's time.) Galbadians excavated the Lunatic Pandora from that crater in Trabia and moved it to Tear's Point for further study. Galbadians established the Lunar Base and pioneered space travel.

Now, let's go back in time, to the era in which "Hyne's Daughters" lived. I LOVE the idea about them being the daughters of a great chief and not really Hyne himself, btw XD it makes the history so much more interesting! you guys are brilliant. Okay, so going with that... in this ancient era, the civilization that exists (known as the Centra) are a race of people that are human in appearance but not in nature. They are much more attuned to magic, more powerful than average humans. Humans actually don't exist yet, only the Centra, and I'll explain why...

The Centra are actually the first sentient beings on the planet, and both Humans and "Sorceresses" (humanity's definition of a magically-inclined or enhanced being) sprang from them. The Centra got involved in a huge civil war because some of them became corrupted by the power of magic. This Chief's three daughters were actually the ones came up with the plan for how to stop the war. They encased an enormous green crystal pillar inside a dark square-cornered structure, creating the Lunatic Pandora. Let's pretend that the crystal matter the Pandora is made out of is like a cup, and magic is like water. It can hold magic in or let it loose, depending on if you have proper knowledge on how to use it; but the crystal itself is not magical, it's just a conduit.

So the sisters then took a piece of the crystal back to their own city-states/tribes/whatever, and used the crystal to draw the spiritual/magical energy from EVERY citizen. Let's say that during this age, everyone was born with some form of wild magic in them. That was just the nature of their race. The "sisters" each channeled all the power of these people into three tiny gems, so the people lost all connection with the magic of the world, turning them into what we now know as Humans. They made these gems in order to form a kind of lock for the Pandora. Let's say, somehow, that the "good" civilization prevailed over Adel and her followers by trapping them within the Lunatic Pandora and "sealing" it using the gems. So, the first "Ah-hah!": Trinity doesn't work because the gems were never made to kill Adel, they were only meant to seal her and her followers away.

Now fast-forward to about the time right before Laguna's. When Galbadia excavated the Pandora and began studies, they unwittingly let her lose. Let's say the Pandora doesn't bar trespassers unless it picks up on some kind of magical aura. Naturally, humans don't carry this aura with them. So the scientists were able to open the Pandora for research quite easily. This is how the First Sorceress War came about... they basically awakened the beast. XD

Now you know where the story goes from there... she brings her wrath to Esthar, kidnaps Ellone, starts the First Sorceress War. This next part I'm not so sure about because I don't remember if the game ever tells you how exactly Adel was defeated... so if I'm screwing up a major plot point here, tell me haha. But I don't remember the game specifying. So, for the sake of our own story, let's say this is how she got up in the tomb in outer space: somehow they crycogenically froze her (idk if that's even a word x.x) and launched her into outer space.

Blah blah years pass... drama with Squall and Co., Rinoa sets her free, blah blah, she gets "defeated" and the Lunatic Pandora goes down in a pile of rubble.

Now you have the beginning of Trinity. More freaking dumbass Galbadia scientists start playing around with DNA found in the debris and OOPS WE CLONED ADEL!! Misson Trinity is planned and put into motion and our lovely characters do their thang, basically up until now.


Am I finally getting to it? Yes, FINALLY. Haha. Here's where the real sequel idea starts XD


Adel is defeated in the battle our charries are fighting against her right now. Once and for all. (umm about time? haha. she was starting to remind me of Goku).

However (DUN DUN DUNNNNN) Weiss and his bitches--I mean, Weiss and Waverly and Mitch and other misc. DotNA's that are now prisoners of Garden(XD)--manage to make an escape!

Meanwhile, the SeeDs and Opps kill Adel and everyone is BASICALLY happy with that. I mean, DotNA is still out there and going strong since their main leaders are now free, and that sucks, but there is still a Ball in recognition of prevailing over Adel. DotNA doesn't have their Sorceress and all of Esthar behind them anymore, they're just a terrorist faction. Garden figures they can deal with them in due time.

And then BAM!! Balamb Garden has been rigged with some kind of big ass bomb from the inside. This takes place after the Ball, but not long after... like a week or two maybe. It has to take place BEFORE Reese's trial, because... well it's basically what saves him from having to go to D-District Prison for being a scummy spy XD Anyway, like three quarters of the SeeDs and Cadets are killed in the event and Garden is damaged way beyond repair. The bomb really messes it up so bad it basically falls out of the sky. Our charries survive of course somehow, either because they weren't actually AT Garden when it happened or because they were just badass enough to make it out alive XD

Regardless... Reese comes forward with some inside DotNA information he somehow retained in that tiny cute little banged up head of his. He believes he knows the reason DotNA isn't leaving people alone now even though their precious Sorceress is dead.

This is when the "Awakening Ancients" comes into play...

Like I said, the ancient sisters sealed Adel and her followers inside the Pandora. Well, let's say that over the hundreds of years they were trapped in that thing, Adel's power over the other beings caused her to slowly siphon their magical energy. Eventually, she was the only thing left inside the Pandora, which is why when the Estharian scientists from Laguna's time opened the Pandora, she's the only one they let out... get it? She basically ate her followers XD but not literally... her power overpowered theirs and she leeched it all for herself.

When the SeeDs kill Adel, they are unknowingly releasing the souls of all those ancient followers of hers back to the ruins of Pandora.

As we know, DotNA sprang out of Esthar, which is basically the world mecca of forward-thinking and scientific research. Weiss and Waverly's father was a scientist who worked with a research team inside the Pandora, after Adel had been set free but before it had been destroyed (basically between Laguna and Squall's time). He found that the crystal matter inside the Pandora had once contained a fair amount of spiritual aura, and that the aura must have been pretty similar to that of a Sorceress.

DotNA, the group, was not formed in order to protect and serve the Sorceress. They were formed for the sole purpose of making sure she lived just long enough to take care of the enemies they knew they would have to face (the Gardens), and then they were going to kill her. They want the power they know her death will release. They were just going to wait until she took out the Gardens, so they wouldn't have to. Lazy bums. But since the SeeDs have beat Adel and Galbadia and Neo-Trabia (Trabia rebuilt?) still exist, DotNA now has to deal with these people before they can become a world power.

Anyway, all those dark souls that are back within the shards of the Lunatic Pandora, are being "awakened"... their power is being harvested by the DotNA, who are drawing magic from the shards and making themselves like a bunch of mini-Sorceresses and Sorcerers XD so in a sense, the ancients are awakening through DotNA.


So in the sequel, our SeeD's wouldn't have their precious Garden or Xu's direction... they would have eachother and that's it. Reese has to be at least temporarily pardoned because he's helping them with DotNA info. and he's sowwy XD but that's beside the point. I also think it'd be cool if their enemy was something like DotNA... an organization, not a single being. makes a twist-ier storyline XD lots of room for even more drama.



anyway, that's the gist of it. change it, build onto it, erase stuff... suggest something totally different. brainstorm!

if I have confused you... I am terribly sorry. I was trying to get this done and make it as simple and short as I could but you know me... I get so wordy. okay shutting up.

[Lex]

Ahhhh one more thing... I mentioned that Reese would have inside info. Make that "a LITTLE inside info," because it would just be way too easy and no fun for them to know everything DotNA is up to right off the bat.

Plus, Reese was one rank underneath Weiss, Waverly, Mitch, and the other DotNA head-honchos. It would make sense to say that the Pandora shards were more of a top-secret thing that only Rank 5 DotNAs were in on, and Reese only knows the little bits and pieces he does because he was with Waverly.

I just wanted to make sure I mentioned that... cause yeah like I said, what kills the suspense more than knowing everything there is to know already? ~_~ As always, our charries have to be put through a few wild goose chases and at LEAST one or two brushes with death before we will let them get ANY info XD

[ani]

THIS IS GREAT!!! But I told you that already. I really think if we would just match some of the things here with what the statues said in the RP, it would be awesome.

And I think it's perfect if we name the Ancients as Cetra. And we can make Adel the "corruption" that caused their downfall. Or something XD

Yesh, RP ish definitely funner when you don't know everything. It's kind of flipping the pages of a book and reading what's it about at the back cover. You'll know the idea of the story, but you don't know how everything will turn out. XD

[waterlily43]

Oh I love your plot ideas Lex! They give much more depth than our original plot did! It's pure brilliance >.< *huggles*

But a few things though...the three sisters' statues were found in the underground garden in Shumi village...and I remember that there's a Centra continent in FF8 (where you fought Odin) so we may have to think how to link this up...maybe the three sisters led some Centra's to Shumi Village and built an underground hideaway to escape from Lunar Cry (which destroyed almost all of the Centra race).
And they lived there until they died.

Okay...I did some research from wikipedia (to check about the Centras, cos my memory of them was so blurred) and it says that it was the Estharians who built Lunatic Pandora so that they can house the crystal pillar. So...maybe the three sisters just created the crysal pillar and bind it with strong magics to seal Adel and followers and buried it somewhere obscure, only to have Estharians dig it up some 60(?) years later, by which time the magic might have faded somewhat and the scientists were able to decipher and unscramble it (like hacking through a code). And even though it was believed that the Crystal Pillar is from the moon (hence the association with Lunar Cry, but these can be explained away as false rumours), we can make it instead that the magics within the Crystal Pillar was attracting those monsters from the moon. Maybe it's a bid by Adel and her followers to escape by trying to kill the Three Sisters and those who had sealed them up.

As for the second Lunar cry using the Lunatic Pandora...maybe there can be a residue of magic that was left behind in the Crystal Pillar as Adel wasn't able to absorb it all (much like how we can't absorb more eggwash with a soggy piece of bread) ...thus causing another Lunar cry, but one that's much smaller in comparison (since they didn't manage to destroy any continents )

And for the three gems...it can just house the Three Sisters themselves as a last ditch effort for damage control against Adel. Perhaps they kinda expected that Adel probably can't be kept in her crystal pillar forever. I know it seems that they don't work now but...you'll see >p

It's too bad Odin was killed by Seifer. He might've been a great source of info since he's a Centra too.

Here's the link where I read up on Lunatic Pandora and Centra stuff...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Final_Fantasy_VIII

But if you still want to go with the Lunatic Pandora idea...we can make the Estharian Scientist who invented it look like someone who claimed credit for something he didn't make So...I dunno which choice do you guys prefer?