Complete Control Design Notes

Yeah, I was suggested to post the ideas I had for my show on the forum. I don't know where this all falls between unparalleled brilliance and unfathomable stupidity (why do I feel like I've said that somewhere already?), but I'm gonna give it a shot.

Characters
The 4 main characters.
-Alexander Everest, the telekinetic.
-Olivia, the alchemist/biomass manipulator/thermokinetic.
-Emily's character, the space-time warper/electrokinetic/photokinetic.
-Isaac Testardo, the telepath.

Villains.
-Ueli and his Dozen's Demise 14 right-hand-people who do his business three main associates, the Queen, Farmer and Storm.
-Terrorist group, or something. I dunno...they have guns and they're more prevalent in the beginning (due to being small fry compared to the big bad). They're objective is to control the neo population and prevent the Nova Stimulus so as to stop Decay.

Plot
Season one, Neo Birth.
-Introducing the heroes.
-Mysterious strangers severely injure the main heroes through various accidents.
-Alex, Emily, Isaac and Olivia begin noticing their powers.
-Terrorists attack the school. The main heroes and Peter's group team up and save the day.
-Finale: Daniel takes on the four heroes.

Season two, Neo Life.
-Congratulatory celebration for the heroes makes the pilot.
-Goodleader offers the heroes to join an underground organization teaching neos about their powers.
-Peter turns evil.

Season three, Neo Strike.
-Heroes are enrolled into an elite squad that goes on special undercover missions for fighting evil.
-Peter causes trouble for the heroes.
-Finale: The Queen goes on a full-scale invasion. Several countries, one being Canada, are under her (shaky) regime. Heroes are seperated.

Season four, Neo Dark.
-Life is shit for everybody.
-Over time, the heroes find each other and take refuge in a rebellion city.
-Assault on the Queen and her HQ. Heroes win. Countries are freed.

Season five, Neo Light.
-Heroes are celebrated, again.
-Heroes construct new goodguy organization, with each of them residing over a sector.
-Ueli corrupts society.
-All major governments collapse.

Season six, Neo Anarchy.
-After a time skip, the heroes have constructed their new country.
-Lots of savage fighting.
-Finale: two major governments have surfaced from the anarchy: the heroes' and Ueli's. The heroes try to fight Ueli himself and manage to hold him up long enough for the heroes' army to surround him. In a stalemate, Ueli declares outright war with the heroes.

Season seven, Neo War.
-Lots and lots and LOTS of fighting.
-Heroes fight the villains
-Grand Finale: full-out assault on Ueli.

Notes.
-Each season takes course over roughly a year, with one-year timeskips between 3-4 and 5-6. So the heroes start at age 17 and end at age 26.

There ya go.

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The Nova Stimulus and Media
It is a natural trend for superpowered humans as a whole to get stronger over time. Growth and training gradually increase the potential superpower energy (hereby referred to as Elixir [probably gonna come up with a better name later]) of any human. The combined Elixir of all living humans at any given point is called the Collective.

Eventually, the collective gets too large to stay stable. There is so much power that something needs to be done with it. The Collective pivots towards Media (neos with the power to manipulate other powers) The process of the Media connecting with the Collective is called a Nova Stimulus.

There are two theoretically possible outcomes:
1. By either choice or lack of control, the Media reject the Collective. All of the Elixirs rapidly convert into other forms of energy (kinetic, nuclear, thermal, etc.). This process is catastrophic and can take many forms. It may even be more than one specific event (such as multiple large weather patterns). The elixirs are lost and the Collective is set back to zero. This is called Decay.
2. The Media manage to take control of the Collective and spread its power across the whole planet. All people have their Elixirs unlocked, and everyone gets powers. This is the Supernova Stimulus.

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The Big Bad
He was born in the mid-1700s. He lived a fairly normal childhood, but then his elixir opened. He soon made contact with a secret group of neos, the nomads known as the Troop, who encouraged the growth of his powers. He was a truly exceptional specimen; his elixir was varied and growing rapidly. However, a tragedy struck; many lives were lost, and the young child was scarred.

Witnessing first-hand the evil of elixir, he dedicated himself to warning neos not to let themselves run loose, pleading them to hinder their elixirs. The Troop ignored him, calling him paranoid. This greatly angered the young man, and one night, he ambushed them. Killing dozens, the group was scattered.

He was powerful, but not enough, It was one thing to deal with one Troop, it would be another to take on a whole world of neos. And so he bid his time, making acquaintances, gathering knowledge, honing the elixir he so despised.

He had a plan, but it would take years, decades, perhaps centuries. Even with regenerative properties, he might not survive to go through with his entire conquest. And so he constructed a sanctuary. With a combination of super-speed and time-manipulation, the young man shot through time while his associates carried through with his plans, stopping only when absolutely needed.

This young man's name,
is I don't fucking know. I'm thinking something European.

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Well, I have absolutely no expertise in the field of the historical development of surnames but:
How does Isaac Testardo sound? Testardo is literally Italian for "stubborn".

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Season 1, Episode 1 Overview
We are introduced to our main characters on a bus to a field trip to a science museum. We get a few minutes of them just walking around, letting the audience get accustomed with them. Then a bunch of shady guys (having trouble choosing their allegiance) set up some shit and blow everything the fuck up. Or, something.

Okay, the main point is that the main characters have a brush with death, and their powers begin to activate.

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I generated 10 random integers between 1 and 4.
1 = Blonde. Showed up twice.
2 = Brown. Showed up once.
3 = Black. Showed up 4 times.
4 = Red. Showed up 3 times.

It's official, Isaac has black hair.

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Temporary name for Big Bad is Ueli. It is the Swiss nickname for German Ulrich (which means "prosperity and power"). I choose Switzerland as his nationality simply out of irony (Switzerland is known for its neutrality).

Scale of power
Over the seasons, the heroes' powers strengthen exponentially. What they can accomplish in Strike is many times greater than what they can in Life. Here's a rough guideline showing the range/destructibility of someone's attacks for each season.
Season 1, Birth: Car.
Season 2, Life: DCVI's property (school, field, etc).
Season 3, Strike: Stratford.
Season 4, Dark: London.
Season 5, Light: Greater Toronto Area.
Season 6, Anarchy: Nova Scotia.
Season 7, War: Texas.

Openings, Soft Phases and Scarring
The activation of an elixir is spontaneous but undetectible. It is referred to as an opening. While it is a very instantaneous event in itself, there is a much longer timespan of several days before and after opening that leaves the elixir very fragile. At the very start of the show, the heroes are in their soft phases. This is why they are attacked by Ueli's henchman (I've decided they are work for Ueli).

If a neo-to-be is put is somehow gravely injured, this can interfere with the elixir's activation severely. It will open only somewhat. The result is scarring, a narrowing of a neo's set of skills. For instance, a telekinetic who is scarred may only be able to move earth.

This is what will make our heroes special. As I will delve into later, Ueli has a very large task force dedicated to finding neos and scarring them in order to weaken them.

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For now, the good guy leader's name is Mason, and his organization will be called Encore.

Why Don't you do Anything, Mason?
Remember in a previous post when I said the heroes would be able to nuke Texas by the end of War? Well, Mason, Ueli, and the 14 are each stronger than that. Each 14-member could probably nuke, say, 3 Texases. Mason can take on a good chunk of the 14 by himself, hypothetically speaking, and Ueli is even more powerful. It's a very Cold-War-esque situation, where both sides have their fingers on their respective buttons, ready at a moment's notice to nuke a shitload of Texases.

Mason hides his true power from the majority of Encore, because a lot of people would have trouble understanding the plight that Mason is in. He'd love to flatten the brigade coming at you with a flick of his wrist, but he has to look out for the dozen-or-so physical gods with their eyes on him like a group of Texas-nuking hawks.

So, yeah, don't piss off Mason, or he'll nuke Texas.

yayyy! Also, some of your formatting is off. Perhaps we can't change text size on this forum?

Kason Birdman wrote:yayyy! Also, some of your formatting is off. Perhaps we can't change text size on this forum?

Oh, there's a size option. I think it just doesn't change the size when the number's too high.

I've decided to rename Neo Light (season 5) to Neo Generation. I'm thinking of renaming seasons 2 and 4 as well. How about...Path, and Eve?

Scale of Power Revised
Remember this?

Mogotoo wrote:Season 1, Birth: Car.
Season 2, Life: DCVI's property (school, field, etc).
Season 3, Strike: Stratford.
Season 4, Dark: London.
Season 5, Light: Greater Toronto Area.
Season 6, Anarchy: Nova Scotia.
Season 7, War: Texas.

I did some calculations, and...some things need to be adjusted.
First, here's the area of each region above, in square kilometres:

Car: 0.00013 (using a parking space's dimensions.
DCVI's property: estimated at 0.0625.
Stratford: 27.
London: 420.
Greater Toronto Area: 7124.
Nova Scotia: 55 283.
Texas: 696 241.

Okay. So it's not perfect, but if you add a bit to each area, there's about a factor of 10 between two adjacent regions. With the obvious exceptions of the first two. Those are gonna have to be adjusted dramatically. New scale, by season, in square kilometres:

1. 0.7
2. 7
3. 70
4. 700
5. 7000
6. 70 000
7. 700 000

I'm actually quite happy with how well most of the areas worked out.

Villain of Birth
The terrorists are now more of a cult. The main villain is a regular old blue/white/idunno-collar worker, who had his elixir opened, and went crazy with power? I think he'll serve as a nice foil to eventual Big Bad Ueli. This guy isn't that strong, relative to, say, Mason Smith. Meanwhile, Ueli is MUCH more powerful, and much more level-headed. But with very similar ambitions.

Now I just need a name.

Do you guys still want to write this? I'd like you guys to have input on the story, but I don't want to pressure you into anything. I know you're busy with your own stories.

More plot for Neo Birth
I want to keep Heteros (Ueli's group) in the shadows for now. The bulk of season 1's plot will involve the four heroes coming to terms with their powers and clashing with Daniel (the villain of this season, as mentioned before) and his cult.

So I was lying in my bed last evening to rest my left knee. The room was dark, and the window was behind me. The lights that got through the curtains made weird lines across a portion of the ceiling above me and the wall in front of me. And what I saw really intrigued me. The light looked like a pair of very skeletal legs. The feet were on the wall, and the legs ran "up" the ceiling. I got the idea that the creature was very large, on account of me being able to see only its legs.

I want to see this thing get written into something.

LOLwut

The Troop is visiting (North England, early 1700s).
You're chopping wood for your family. Your wife is preparing supper, your five-year-old son is inside playing. You're just going through the motions, when you feel something behind you. You turn around and see a lightly-tanned man standing before you, wearing a calm smile.

He begins to speak long enough for you to recognize that he's not speaking English. He seems to notice too, as he abruptly switches to English. "Greetings sir, you've been invited".
"To what?"
"To the performance!"
As excited as the stranger appears, his words mean nothing to you. "And what kind of performance may that be?"
"Oh, I can't tell you. Not just yet. It's a secret." You begin to obje-"At the inn in your town, just tell the man in brown 'the Troop has invited me'".

The man walks away.

The Troop is visiting 2 (North England, early 1700s).
You go to the inn. Sure enough, a tall man, all in brown, stops you at the door. Slightly irritated, you are asked "what is your business here?". You answer as you were previously instructed; "The Troop has invited me". The tall man relaxes visibly. "Follow me".

You and the tall man in brown go to a table with 4 other people: a man and woman on each side. The pair by the wall begin to talk. They don't sound English.
"We want nothing from you. We just want to make an offer. And we choose you three to receive this offer."
"Stick out your hand". You do as they say, and they hold it, lightly. All of a sudden, a small flame appears, hovering just above your fingers. Instinctively you pull away and look around. "Don't worry. No one saw. We made sure of that."

You look at the man and woman on your side. "They already know. Although...they learned more by accident. A shame we couldn't meet sooner."
A pause. "We need to know: does this scare you? There's more of this. So much more. And we do not want to force anything. We are simply here to provide you with the support in any path you choose."
"And so we ask: will you walk with us?"

If you stay, you forget everything the next day. They are skilled in leaving no traces of their actions. It's better that way.
But if you walk, you join the Troop, a nomadic band of extraordinary people from many lands. Their goals include exploring the extents of elixirs and helping people open them up. But most importantly, they strive to live with these powers to the fullest. These are wondrous gifts from the heavens. There is nothing to fear; the power is yours.

I have no idea if 18th-century Europeans would talk like this. I also have no idea if I'm subconsciously ripping off the Matrix or not.

How elixirs work
Right from the get-go, this series already has some bullshit. People can't just move cars because they will it. That said, I'd at least like to make an attempt at some hard science.

An elixir is a term which refers to the maximum amount of energy that a neo can have on hand at any one point in time. It's mostly theoretical; you can't really look into an elixir, just the mind that houses it. But we know there's some sort of quantity because of conservation of energy.

So if an elixir powers a neo, what powers an elixir? Um...dark energy? Yeah, let's go with that. That's where all the unknown universal energy is; in elixirs.

If a neo wants to stop something (ie: a telekinetic sees a car hurtling at them [geez I have a thing for moving cars]), they need to provide energy in the opposite direction. You can't take away energy; you have to fuel a force that slows down the object.

And now, the thought of the day.
At first, a lot of these might be ideas I've already come up with.

When I was little, I had a Spiderman toy. It was a giant mecha of sorts, if I recall correctly. When I was little, I made the toy into a character, a Big Good leader-type. And then I made an evil version. I used him in my Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic ideas. Another villain with him was Sladeth, a dark-clothed woman with a black mask for a face.

The Queen, one of the main villains throughout all of Neo, is kinda of my modern Sladeth. So I think I should bring back the evil cyborg. Except turn it into an actual mecha piloted by a human being.

Sorry, Internet issues.

Tuesday's idea:
So there's the Big Bad, Ueli, the most powerful Neo in the world, with a wide assortment of power. He has three main subjects.

The first is the Queen (name pending), around 700 years old. Born into a low-class family, her elixir opened at a young age. As she grew up she used her power to rise to authority in her kingdom, to the point where she was regarded (and regarded herself; she's a little crazy you see) as a god. Her presence will be felt at first in seasons 3 and 4, indirectly through servants. She has a varied elixir.

Next up is the Farmer (again, name pending), around 250 years old and raised in the old west. While nothing quite sufficient for combat, his elixir contains a little bit of chemical power that sustains his body, if ever so barely. Bitter about his life but so very eager to keep on living, he seeks other powerful neos to kill so that no one may ever do the same to him. Reigned in only by Ueli. Has a slightly varied elixir, known mainly for two things: his absolutely unmatched and terrifyingly destructive telekinesis; and an odd sort of telepathy that, while a minor attribute of his elixir, is notable in that it only kills others.

Third is the Storm, around 1000 years old. Their origin is not completely understood, even to Ueli. One thing is certain; that...thing is insane. Often appears as a giant swirling cloud, or a slender person of ambiguous gender in either a royal Chinese robe or a German WW1 outfit. Encounters with the Cloud reveal possible information: telepaths will recount seeing what appeared to be a massive hive of smaller minds, all trying to steer the one being. Eventually, it's revealed that the Storm started out as a neo with an unfortunate form of telepathy that took nearby minds and "glued" them to itself. This hive-mind set-up makes the Storm unpredictable, sometimes joining battles, sometimes not. But when motivated, it loves to kill masses of people indescriminantly. Has a varied elixir.

These three replace the 14 now.

Wednesday:

Character idea: a small group of three young members of Encore (mid-to-late twenties) who go on special missions. They're lax and wacky, and they serve as big-sibling figures to the new recruits.

Thursday:


Alchemists, once skilled enough, can form entire new bodies for themselves with completely different molecular structure than our regular bodies. In fact, deep within the planet is a mental network of alchemists. They pretty much stay to themselves.

Reach inside.

A significant plot throughout the show will be about all the different factions of neos trying to establish civilization on the moon. Large groups of neos transport various gasses to set up an atmosphere, as well as water and basic vegetation. I'm hoping that this will keep higher-level neos busy during the first few seasons.

Evil rival character for season 3: Gus Smith. First seen in season 2 as a nobody delinquent who's disposed of in a matter of seconds, then comes back stronger and backed by minor forces of the Queen. Once he Takes a Level in Badass, he gets real arrogant and starts calling himself Augustus to sound cooler. The idea is that he wants revenge for being dealt with so easily, and he actually is quite a personal threat in season 3. 

His elixir is lazers. In my mind he is voiced by Egoraptor.

A piece of dialogue invented by Kason Birdman.

The scene is a cafe. There is a man sitting with a small child. The following dialogue is exchanged.
Man: Hey, looks like you need a little fixing up.
Child: I-I'm okay.
Man: Here, let me fix you up. *plays around with the child's jacket*
Child: *Visibly uncomfortable*.
Man: There, you look, you look sharp. Now we're just gonna sit around a bit, have our meal, and in a few minutes...it's gonna be twelve o'clock.

The idea is for the man to be as creepy as humanly possible. The child is not his, and he is about to do something horrible to the child. But he does not want to scare them, so all he says is that it's gonna be twelve o'clock.

Monday:

The setting. Where should our four heroes come from?

I had always thought St. Marys or Stratford, someplace small. But I'm beginning to think that Toronto would be a better setting for season 1, somewhere where crime is more rampant.

Tuesday:

Character idea for season 1: University student, spearheads her own little group promoting acceptance of neos.

Wednesday:

In battle, wouldn't it be easiest to just rip apart your opponent's body right away? Probably, yes. This is why Encore enforces all groups to consist of a balanced assortment of neos, to keep a low level of guard against all types of attack.

Thursday:

What kind of accident should the series start with, that has Alex, Emily, Issac and Olivia all in the same place at the same time? I'm thinking a high school trip, particularly to somewhere with dangerous high-tech stuff. It could lead the heroes to think that the accident gave them their powers. The first episode will have them go through the accident, and then a one-year time skip occurs that leaves them all in university.

Friday:

The timeline needs to change.

I want to make a three-year time skip between seasons 4 and 5. It gives time for the world to recover from the Queen's reign. I also feel some seasons need to be longer. How about this?

Birth: Two years (one-year time skip and one year of plot)
Path: One year
Strike: Two years (one year of training and one year of missions)
Eve: Three years?
Generation: Four years (three-year time skip and one year of plot)
Anarchy: Two years (one-year time skip and one year of plot)
War: Two years?

So that's 16 years of plot.

Saturday:

Isaac's mother is a CEO, his father is a Member of Provincial Parliament. He has an older brother, who acted like a bit of a delinquent at Isaac's age.

Can animals get elixirs? Yes very small ones. The most powerful non-human neo in all of the world is a gorilla housed in Finland who can rip apart cars with telekinesis.

To put that in perspective, the Farmer can literally level the entire United States of America in a single day. Animals do not make very good neos.

Alex's father was a firefighter who died on the job when Alex was just 6.