Leviathan’s the thing I’ve been poking at over summer. It’s had somewhat long breaks between writing parts of the first act; I’m finishing my degree, so sometimes weeks went by between writing parts. I decided – since it’s ultimately a look at the life of Hannibal and a way for me to revisit the character’s past before (and really, during) White Cell – that I’d group everything together, despite the length of in-story time it’ll eventually cover.
Enjoy reading about it! I always wanted to write a bit of the Great War, and the next part will have a lot of WW2 aerial ace type stuff in it.
Also, if you wanna contribute and have an idea, please hit me up. I get it’s a solo project in a few ways, but I’d be happy to try to arrange something.
Bully good show! It’s so much fun to see these characters back in action, and it’s really neat to visit the Sky Riders origin story.
And I love World War II fighter planes. And although I clearly took inspiration from World War II while writing about the Great War, I wasn’t a very good writer in 1995 and I’ve always thought what it would be like to go back and intentionally give the time its proper World War II trappings, but with Kupopolis style.
Let me think about some ideas – I’ve got a few half-formed thoughts, but let me get back to you.
And yeah, that was part of my goal; I wanted to portray a side that never was shown before, namely the WWII aerial aces thing. I plan for the next act to be a love letter to World War II dogfights. At first, I’d thought of doing something a little more bendy, but I think I want it to be a pretty straight WWII air combat feel that’d be at home in Tora! Tora! Tora!
I’m a little stuck on where to set it. I’ve debated Dragon, but I’m also thinking I may do Crystal and Tripport – and I wouldn’t mind some stuff with aircraft carriers because c’mon. On the other hand, Dragon could have a guest starring role with guerrilla-era Travin if they end up on the ground…
Decisions, decisions.
It was interesting visiting them again. Like, on the one hand, Hannibal and Mic came back to me fast. Darius and Lainer were essentially new characters, because I wasn’t exactly a great writer then, and they were “Marcus Antonius” and “Dude For Hannibal To Chat With.” I saw Rome so I could expand on Darius, but Lainer got changed to be what the story needed him to be… which, really, fits who Lainer was in the first place.
Well, if they do stuff with carriers, it could be interesting, because Howe is in charge of the Kriegsnavee, and he’s a fellow Esperian – though as a Figoran, he may have a different perspective! One of my thoughts was that they could do a Doolittle-style raid, where they try to launch an FF-style airship from the deck of aircraft carrier.
I kind of like the idea of Dragon…after all, Halder Skalice was also fighting in the guerilla movements of the time, and ever since our “Hal and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” I’ve been dying to do “Hal and Ted’s Bogus Journey.” And you also constantly hear about how things in Dragon really sucked during the war, so that might be interesting to show.