Okay spinning off
Quinneapolis
's thing about AIs
Gabiluzbad
Okay spinning off
Quinneapolis
's thing about AIs
Okay spinning off
Quinneapolis
's thing about AIs
Gabiluzbad
TL;DR:
Gabiluzbad
In the cool sci-fi future, there are still magic martial arts
Gabiluzbad
Robots can't do them so people site that as proof that robots don't have a soul and thus aren't people
Gabiluzbad
One robot figures it out and everyone flips their shit
Gabiluzbad
My character concept
Gabiluzbad
A human soul artist (is that what we're going with? Soul arts and soul artists?)
Gabiluzbad
is like a wandering adventurer type who doesn't spend a lot of time with the big schools
Gabiluzbad
He thinks the soul artists who do are weak of spirit
Gabiluzbad
Or at least he thinks they're boring
Gabiluzbad
He gets restless if he stays in one place for too long
Gabiluzbad
Anyway that's why he's been out on the edge of known space fighting bandits and space monsters and shit
Gabiluzbad
For years
Gabiluzbad
He comes back to civilized space to pick up supplies or something and hears about an AI that is trying to develop soul arts
Gabiluzbad
And is like "This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard"
Gabiluzbad
"AIs can't learn soul arts"
Gabiluzbad
"What next, will this chair learn to paint?"
Gabiluzbad
"I'm going to put a stop to this"
Gabiluzbad
And he goes to just beat the AI up
Gabiluzbad
in a real kind of condescending and mocking way
Gabiluzbad
And the AI does soul arts
Gabiluzbad
And he's like "Fuck"
Gabiluzbad
And gets really angry and goes into denial about it and is a recurring villain for a little while
Gabiluzbad
but eventually comes to terms with it and is like "Okay fine. I'm grown up enough to admit that I was wrong."
Gabiluzbad
And then has to come to terms with another problem
Gabiluzbad
which is that all the other soul artists AREN'T accepting it
Gabiluzbad
And that they aren't accepting it because if they do then they have to accept that AIs and robots are PEOPLE and if they're PEOPLE then we have to like
Gabiluzbad
give them rights and stop exploiting them for labor and generally just change how we think about the universe
Gabiluzbad
And a depressing amount of soul artists hate the idea that humans aren't as special as they thought they were
Gabiluzbad
Still haven't really thought about like
Gabiluzbad
what his specific soul arts are
Gabiluzbad
or what soul arts even look like
Gabiluzbad
More setting details
Gabiluzbad
So for this guy I'm picturing like a Jotaro Kujo motherfucker
Gabiluzbad
Lots of passion but it's TIGHTLY controlled under a stoic and taciturn exterior
Gabiluzbad
says Yare Yare sometimes
Gabiluzbad
I'm trying to come up with like a cool power theme
Gabiluzbad
but
Gabiluzbad
It's a little intimidating to be the first one in an OCverse to come up with a power set because yours will inform the general scale and aesthetic of everyone else's
Quinneapolis
it's true
Quinneapolis
I think the scale is pretty big, since it's the future and people are willingly using soul arts instead of, like, guns
Quinneapolis
so the powers should be pretty nuts
Gabiluzbad
But probably not DBZ nuts
Gabiluzbad
no planet cracking
Quinneapolis
probably not DBZ nuts
Quinneapolis
maybe like
Quinneapolis
first-half Cradle?
Gabiluzbad
check
Quinneapolis
the parts of Cradle that take place on Cradle
Gabiluzbad
I'm thinking conceptually, it's gotta be a power that allows for explosive sudden strikes
Gabiluzbad
not explosive as in like causes explosions
Gabiluzbad
but he goes from 0-100 unnervingly fast
Gabiluzbad
All "Ugh fine"
Gabiluzbad
/puts down book
Gabiluzbad
/everyone in the room is defeated and no one is sure what just happened
Gabiluzbad
I'm thinking like
Gabiluzbad
almost shadow clone
Gabiluzbad
but they only last for a few seconds
ArtIsArt
Consider: After-images.
Gabiluzbad
So instead of having just a bunch of guys fighting together
ArtIsArt
Like double team in pokemon.
Gabiluzbad
It's just one guy attacks in 18 directions at the same time
Gabiluzbad
So it's kind of like
Gabiluzbad
Mario Brothers But With 1,000 Marios at Once
Gabiluzbad
Possibly not THAT many but like
Gabiluzbad
Okay that video is not what I thought it was
Gabiluzbad
But just one guy explodes into like a hundred guys all doing different things
Gabiluzbad
And it's all cool kung fu
ArtIsArt
I dig it.
Gabiluzbad
Specifically with the kind of glowy aesthetic of the Flash Shift in Dread
Gabiluzbad
So there's just a burst of total pandemonium as a hundred glowing figures all explode into action
Gabiluzbad
and then two seconds later 99 of them have vanished
Quinneapolis
definitely like several ranks out of Stacia's league when they first fight
Gabiluzbad
For sure
Gabiluzbad
He sticks to 2-3 doubles and still wipes the floor with her
Quinneapolis
it's a fight to evaluate, not to reduce to rubble
Gabiluzbad
Stacia does SOMETHING in that fight that is similarly beyond reason
Gabiluzbad
I dunno what her style is
Quinneapolis
me neither
Quinneapolis
I'll think on it
Gabiluzbad
And he's just like "Well"
Gabiluzbad
"That's different"
Gabiluzbad
A member of Soul Sanctum, albeit one who rarely shows up at HQ and doesn't have a lot of use for the politics and skullduggery that goes on there
Gabiluzbad
He'd rather be out there pushing himself to his limits
Makimerry🤶
Replying to this to have it on my own timeline. I still love him. The mastery of sound and silence
Gabiluzbad
Yo
Gabiluzbad
I feel like this guys general plot arc is gonna be some form of “I guess I’m your dad now”
Gabiluzbad
Grumpy space adventurer and his gaggle of android daughters
Quinneapolis
late-canon fights between this guy and Stacia would be fucking bananas
Quinneapolis
just colliding clouds of spirit clones and fractal swarming lasers
Gabiluzbad
The combat gimmick I have for him is this:
Gabiluzbad
The clones can last three seconds each
Gabiluzbad
They all come out at once
Gabiluzbad
The clone power has a five second cool down
Gabiluzbad
So he’s VERY powerful
Gabiluzbad
But he also just has a built in two second long gap of vulnerability
Gabiluzbad
During which he still has like a supercharged body but he’s still WAY easier to deal with
Gabiluzbad
So battles become a head game of trying to not only survive the clone rush but also guess where the real one will end up
Gabiluzbad
So you can counterattack
Quinneapolis
Stacia's described fighting style is actually pretty well-suited to face that
Quinneapolis
but for that first fight in particular, a good matchup doesn't close that big of a power gap
Gabiluzbad
I gotta name my guy
Makimerry🤶
I gotta say when you described him as a "dad" I was extremely amused because I originally assumed he was a young adult similar to the way that Stacia is depicted (both chronologically and visually) and with Jotaro being a teenager when he is first introduced. Him and Dora being similar ages is Hilarious. They have had enough of life in different ways.
Gabiluzbad
still settling on details
Gabiluzbad
but like
Gabiluzbad
Dad or Big Brother position