...All the same, I do have material to blog about. I realized that I really wanted Ruby to have a trickster-type antagonist, one who was occasionally an ally and occasionally a foe. While almost all her rogues have elements of this, I wanted one that was defined by it, a guy who would occasionally fight with the Ruby Gang and yet occasionally fight against them, whichever was most convenient to him, with him being the type that'd backstab one side or both sides as he saw fit.

I've created his powers (the father Alexander Anderson-type power of creating blades), so now all I need is his name...and also, his fundamental reason for being the way he is. That one's actually the larger hurdle. I really want him to be a character in the story, but I'm not sure what sort of goal he's actually working towards.

It's alright not to know to begin with, but I have to know eventually, and have what he wants make sense with all his betrayals throughout the whole story. Still working on that, but if I pull it off, I'll have an interesting addition to the cast!

See, on Tuesdays, I wake up in the afternoon, generally giving me only a couple or so hours of free time before I leave for Tae Kwon Do--time I usually spend out in the living room, rather than on my computer. Even if I did spend it on my laptop where I blog from, I would generally not have much to talk about, given the day having just started.

And after Tae Kwon Do, there's only a small margin, of one hour, before TV shows begin that keep me busy until midnight...at earliest, sometimes until one or even two AM. Naturally, this means I either use the window like I am tonight, or I write a post-midnight blog...assuming I remember. Which last week, I did not.

They aren't happening. I can't form coherent thoughts. Every time I try, my mind shifts subjects. Sometimes out of fear, sometimes out of desire, sometimes because of dead ends, and stuff. It's still happening, even as I type this because I'm trying to recollect things that are disappearing before I type them.

Emotionally I'm a mixed bag, both bad yet somehow content. Mentally though, obviously a wreck. Makes no sense, I know, sorry, just the words keep changing, feelings altering. It's not as if my thoughts are there and I simply can't describe them. Common problem I have, yes, but not this time. The thoughts just keep shifting and changing in my mind faster than I can describe.

So no real blog post today.

Sorry.

Today, I primarily did some details of the Riders.

While this is certainly nothing new (I've gone over these details before in my head), and I have blogged about some of them before, I think the entire picture of what I did today was overall new.

So basically, we know the fundamentals. There's an unspecified thousands, potentially tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, of magical girls across the world, of various types. (Including magical girls who are actually boys. Legitimately boys like Gary, transformed-into-boys, transformed-into-girls-but-identifies-as-male, and technically, those like Ruby who are biologically born male yet are transwomen who become closer to their true selves when transforming.)

However, in spite of this, there are only a few hundred that are, strictly speaking, Riders. That's because Riders are a specific type of magical girl, one technically separate from magical girls (because technically, Riders are gender-neutral even though the majority just so happen to be female), yet at the same time, intimately linked to them.

There's a bunch of requirements, but some fundamentals to meet the specifications of a Rider include being Good, Pure, Moral, having good ethics, not using loopholes of these rules (basically, no "killing everyone is Good because Death is Peace"-type loopholes that'd allow doing evil acts), not being able of killing foes, possessing some form of spirit totem (admittedly Amy comes close to breaking this rule, but she still follows it--she has contacts that act as hers), and most critically of all, being of the Light Element with their powers.

Now, beyond that, basically anything's fair game. How much they follow the above rules can vary, so long as they are still following them. (For instance, breaking someone's arm, probably not the most good/pure/moral/ethical type of thing to do. Still allowed, though, for certain Riders, because it's incapacitating a foe non-lethally.) Most of those rules are things the majority of magical girls have, anyway.

But the light element part is one of the largest universal traits. What defines 'light' can vary. Some riders tie it to Holy, some to Spirit, some to literal Light, some to generic Magic, some just to Healing, some to Life, some even to Divine(religion) you get the picture; the definition of 'light' is very loose, and as a result, not all Riders' powers are the same. Some have their powers basically have no 'light' in them all, functioning more on said generic magic; others have their powers entirely reliant and derived from the light.

Some Riders are very, very weak, barely having powers at all, while others are completely godlike. (Including, eventually, our own characters, for good reason, though they don't start that way.) Having Light, along with having a spirit totem, are basically the main two things that make a Rider be a Rider, standing out from all other magical girls in that regard.

...Yet there's more. There are hundreds of Riders in existence...but all of them have that specific tie to the element of Light. They cannot, by definition, use multiple elements...with the singular exception of the Elemental Riders, the great heroes of legend and tale. (Which our protagonists happen to be the latest incarnations of.) They are special and unique among Riders, because there are only seven (later, eight) of them, one for each Primary Element.

While there are many 'elements', only eight elements are considered Primary, fundamental, forces of the universe, each with their own unique mystical attributes. None of these attributes are universal (they exist outside the element and can be absent from someone with the element), but generally they serve as a guideline. Basically, primary elemental magic is one of the fundamental magical forces in the Rubyverse, on par with normal magic in importance. Light to show, Darkness to obscure, Fire to bring, Ice to take, Water to store, Energy to release, Earth to remain, Air to change. (More or less, anyway.)

And the Elemental Eight, as they come to know, each possess control over one element each, aside from light (or absolute complete mastery of it in Amy's case). They are one of a kind, and while not avatars of the elements, they serve as key beacons of the time. As a result, they are famously featured in many, many prophecies. This theoretically grants them celebrity status, if not for the fact that they live in a small city and generally use discretion.

Continuing along these lines, though, you can understand the reason why Ruby is the Chosen One. Beyond being a member of the Elemental Eight, she is destined to be their leader not for her personality, but for her symbolic role. (Though, arguably, which caused which? Her personality could have been pre-dictated by her eventual role.) Why? Well, while the Elemental Riders have always been destined for greatness, the Chosen One of them would have an extra edge.

In this case? Symbolism. Each primary element has an opposite. (Rather, a compliment. They may be able to nullify one another, but they also can serve to amplify each other--see also, why D.D. and Whitney fight together, and why Hannah and Sally fight together. They make good teams.) But of the opposites, none are more symbolic than the opposition between light and dark. Thus, as the only Rider (Riders inherently being of the Light element) of Darkness, she has the element considered opposite to Light as part of her.

The result? She represents not just light and dark, but the balance of all the elements, because light and dark are related to the idea of Yin and Yang in the world of magic-dwellers. Not just magical girls, but for magic-users everywhere. She's considered vital in shaping history as a result.

Note this would apply even in universes where she wouldn't exist. While the Darkness Rider may not inherently be the leader, they will always, always hold a vital role in determining the outcome of the world. For instance, in one alternate universe where Ruby never existed, Dion became the elemental rider of darkness, and Sally was the team leader. In that scenario, he was still important to things, and in a way still served as a leader, bridging into the supernatural world, but he was a supporter to the hero, Sally, while still technically being the Chosen One.

Ultimately, just because you're the Chosen One doesn't mean you're going to be doing the heaviest lifting. It just so happens that in the current iteration, Ruby does. She can, so she did. She easily could have given the role of heaviest lifter up to someone else, but keep in mind, while all this 'Chosen One' stuff sounds great in theory, it comes with a lot of baggage, baggage she wouldn't want anyone else to suffer.

Which is why Ruby will let others have their fun and contribute, even making them keep up with her skill-wise and not fall behind, but why she's always got more on her plate than the others. Not because it must be that way, not because she's selfishly hogging all the action, but because she doesn't want to see her friends get too badly hurt.

Though when it comes to destiny/fate, some things just work funnily. Earth Ridge is a strange case of being a bit of a paradox/self-fulfilling prophecy/closed loop. It's directly tied to the Elemental Riders--the Riders are there in part (large part) because Earth Ridge is, currently, the magical nexus of the world. ("Why here?" "Well, it's gotta be somewhere." "Yeah, but why of all places, here?" "...Luck of the draw?")

What that means is, basically, it's a super-source of energy which naturally attracts all kinds of attention. Yet Earth Ridge is in large part the current nexus because the riders were destined to all originate from there. (All eight of them were born and raised in some part of the small city.) And in the case of a couple, were to be drawn in after having been out. Thus, the disproportionate amount of supernatural activity in the area, including giving the reason why Lord Darkblood insisted it be his territory, and why he demanded the council meet nearby.

It also creates the self-feeding loop of power/number of heroes/villains in the area. While Earth Ridge is a city, it's a fairly small city all things considered, so it should generally not have more than two or three "big time" heroes. It has at least ten, generally more. The number of total big-time villains is actually disproportionately small compared to the number of heroes (there should be a minimum of three per big-time hero, yet there aren't thirty big-time villains running around Earth Ridge; there's a little over half that amount), but the amount of villains total is twice as large by percentage as that of a big city.

That doesn't even begin to go into power-levels; a big city would be lucky to have five godlike protectors, and since each Rider is theoretically on that level, Earth Ridge has a minimum of eight. Similarly, there should only be a small number of godlike enemies, yet half of the big-time villains are made up of them.

In short, Earth Ridge and the surrounding area is freakishly full of stuff, way more than should ever be justified, especially considering that the people outside the above demographics (that is, not heroes, not supervillains, not goons, and not supernatural creatures) are completely normal people that make up a good 90% or so of the population, meaning the concentration of freakish stuff is super-dense.


I wanted to talk about two or three other subjects, but I think this will do for now. (Well, it also helps that I forgot two of the three...)

So today, I mainly hung out with the people around various parts of CF: moviegoers, chatzy-dwellers, strudelboard frequenters, and of course the normal forum.

I also made a nice image today of Ruby; that was nice.

So family night was tonight. Like last week, we watched Andromeda. This time, it was all of Disc 3 from Season 2--I'm pretty sure this was at the absolute peak of the show, in terms of writing, characterization, plot, humor, and basically, everything.

Every episode was excellent, from the hilarious diplomacy (rather, the magnificence of a certain Neitchzean or however that's spelled), and the following episode, and of course seeing the rather vital episode Ouroboros (or however that's spelled) which I know full well the consequences of. (More or less, anyway. It's been years since I watched the full show.)

So good times to be had. I just hope that the series doesn't go downhill too terribly much. (I've heard it does, but my childhood memory of the show is too hazy. I remember a LOT of the later episodes, especially the second-to-last season's season finale and the consequences in the following season, but that's about it.)

Soyeah, that was my day. Didn't really get around to doing much productive, unfortunately.

But I did do a lot of mental work on Red Hood Rider. Basically doing a little mapping out of the first episode involving Endless, a villain in Ruby's Rogue Gallery, and how it doubles as introducing a fair number of important things: training from Ruby, details about her fighting style and things she relies on, several details which come up in future arcs, and basically, a ton of foreshadowing.

And I also thought of introducing the arc where Jonathan Parker Harrison, one of Ruby's rogues, ends up helping Gary and Ana, and decided that would happen because of a second otherwise-combo of Ruby's entire rogue gallery (this taking place well after the first attempted team-up failed miserably): the seven survivors would serve as his, Hannah, and Sally's opponents, with Endless (the organizer of this group) personally supervising the assault.

D.D. and Whitney would have to deal with an initial trap of Mac Rose Sox, which later would be revealed to be him along-side the formidable Master Azev and Queen Edna...along with her entire legion.

Ruby would be with Dale (and Dion), fighting Black Lightning, Lord Deathbrinkdoomkiller and his legions, plus Damon the Destroyer, with them all showing incredibly above-par tactics.

And in a final group, Vili would be with Amy and Herald, them dealing with the combined might of Paul Tristan Reagan Geist, Marcus the Murderer, Saul the Seller (plus Saul's demon horde), General Aora, and his legions of doom.

In short, the first villain team-up was when there were less on the Ruby Gang, but it wasn't every villain, Ruby saw it coming and had planned for it, outsmarting them and destroying them slowly, also having the help of the Mole in the Ruby Gang undergoing a HeelFaceTurn to become a Reverse Mole. Plus it was just them fighting loosely, all as individuals, not really as a group.

In this second villain team-up, organized by Endless, Endless gave each villain an incentive to work with the others in destroying the Ruby Gang utterly, so they not only teamed up, but brought everything they had at their disposal rather than holding anything back. One villain bringing everything is respectable enough--all of them bringing everything is something even the Ruby Gang struggles to handle, especially since they're split into four groups, all scattered across the city rather than (as in the case of the first villain teamup) all together.

Jonathan helping turns the tides, but him being him, it's not without its costs. Plus, all that fighting isn't without repercussions; the city is absolutely devastated, and the villains are very much still holding the incentive to actively antagonize the heroes, rather than simply having the heroes get in the way of their plans. (Basically, it revolves around Endless revealing a secret about Riders and how Riders can, theoretically, be harvested...something most of the villains hold great interest in, for various different reasons.)

An all-around dark arc, but one I can't wait to get around to, since it's the point where the powers of the heroes really start to take off, out of sheer necessity. (Villains, generally, power up slower than the heroes--Endless sparks a change which makes them begin to power up just as much, if not moreso, than the heroes, and also get more creative in ways to subvert the heroes' powers.) A second unification of The Ruby Gang, in essence, to bring them together and show them how much they need to fight.

I. MISSED. A. DAY. OF. BLOGGING!
AGHEFJ+GRG!
Why couldn't I have forgotten today? I have a substitute-blog post that I could claim was for today, effectively meaning I'd have done a blog today in spite of no post, but yesterday?

No such excuse.


IOURGHUOEHFWOEFHWEOFUWHEFUOEWFHEOUIWFHWEF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uhg, there's just...been nothing going my way, today. I'm absolutely miserable right now, and the worst part is, I'm not allowed to talk about it in any detail.

Right now, I just...need some sort of hug. It's truly been a terrible Monday.

Too busy writing. New short story idea, think I can actually write the whole thing tonight.