Complete Control Design Notes

Last Friday:
Using an elixir's power depends on knowing two data: location and what is there. To use your powers, you need to have a clear picture of where you're hitting and what is there to be affected. This means you can't set a tree in China on fire when you live in Canada, and you can't move anything inside a house unless you've already been in there.

Last Saturday:
Mason Smith likes to sail. It's a hobby of his.

Last Sunday:
Character ideas. Pair of pranksters. One can teleport, the other can make matter vibrate. Introduce them in season 2.

Last Monday:
Neo Birth is all about the mystery of superpowers. So at first, aside from the Quartet, I don't want to actually reveal any other neos. They will be represented by "phenomenon" that begin occurring around Ontario. Molten craters, floating chunks of concrete, piles of dirt heaped around the ocean. Indicators of neos with out-of-control powers.

Tuesday:
Let's make Yvonne one of the neos that Daniel rounds up in season 1. It would be a different point of view and make for a sympathetic opponent where there would otherwise be a flat character.

Wednesday:
Ji-hu is sent by Encore to scout out the neos opening in Toronto. So his powers should revolve around stealth and reconnaissance. Flight, invisibility, and he can open up portals to view targets.

Thursday:
This idea is less about Neo and more of a community thing. I was thinking of making a public domain character. I would gather a group of writers from various works - TV shows, games, books, etc. We would design a character that we would all use. The character would have the same personality, same appearance, and same backstory in every universe. What would change is what happens to the character in every story. One universe has the character raising kids in a suburbia, another has them rebelling against a global tyrant. It's more of an experiment than anything.

Friday:
I was thinking of cannibalizing that chemistry show I had in mind and just using the idea for Neo. Like, Olivia would be O, and other characters that interact with her would be based on the other elements. A group of friends based on H, C, N and B, perhaps an antagonist based off of F.

Saturday:
Powerset idea: a neo who can move around bacteria and only bacteria. Gather them together, push them out, migrate them from one town to another.

Question is, do I go the obvious route and make them a villain? Make them a very well-intentioned and very unfortunate anti-hero? Maybe I can make them zig-zag between the two.

man cephalo you put a lot of work into this. very impressive.

Italyins wrote:man cephalo you put a lot of work into this. very impressive.

Thanks.

Sunday:
Emily's Durnin sub-plot for season 1. Between pages 3 and 4 I touched briefly on each main character undergoing Power Incontinence. For Emily, I figured this would take the form of her teleporting randomly, unable to return home. She's freaking out because she has no idea what's going on. Meanwhile the public cites her as missing, and her family is terrified of the idea that someone has gotten to her. Which, to be honest, could happen with Daniel picking out neos.

Monday:
Mason Smith is in his 50s. He's married, with a single adolescent son. Neither his wife or son have powers.

Tuesday:
A plot point that could come up in, say, season 2 would be concentrated appearances of neos in certain countries. There's no pattern to openings; some countries will get more neos than others. Politically speaking, it would be a game changer. Imagine if Belgium announced one day that it just discovered 1000 neos inside its borders. It's a massive power source. All sorts of industries would skyrocket: efficient mining, faster manufacturing, and all sorts of new services.

And then you've got everyone else's reactions. Fear of attack, movements to build stronger relations, and alliances with other nations. Encore's job will be to keep track of it all and maintain peace.

Wednesday:
Powerset idea: someone who can turn into a liquid/solid form. They can also turn other solids into fluids and absorb them, effectively relocating the solids.

Thursday:
So I'm gonna allow time-travel. Travel towards the future shouldn't be problematic. The problem will be implementing travel towards the past. That's a big deal, resetting events and potentially making preventing them from ever happening. So I'm gonna set up a proverbial barrier, make it require a lot of energy. So much energy that there's only a handful of back-travellers on record for all time.

How it works is that the time-traveller becomes a focal point. The rest of the universe switches directions, going the opposite way in time, while the focal point remains unchanged relative to themselves. There isn't any alternate timelines; the original universe is just wound back, like a roll of paper.

So what if two time-travellers were to both go back at the same time? Well, the one going farther back would probably win over, and both would end up in the same place in time.

yeah what rory said, i wish i had this motivation for sharkasia right now. although i am putting some deass work into origins code

Friday:
Isaac Testardo's sub-plot for season 1. He has super-intelligence, so of course he goes investigating into the recent gang activity. Part of him wants to use his powers, but another part of him just thinks he's going crazy. He's keeping all of this a secret from his parent because he doesn't want them to think he's going crazy in case he actually isn't crazy.

Last Saturday:
Olivia's sub-plot for season 1. She wants to figure all of this out on her own, so she doesn't tell anyone about her powers. But shit keeps happening around her, and she gets roped into various skirmishes across town. It reaches a point where she gets mistaken as a member of Daniel's gang. So now she's being chased by the police.

Last Sunday:
Alexander Everest's sub-plot for season 1. He does the smart thing and tells someone about his powers. Namely, his family. So his mom, step-dad and half-brother take Alex to remote locations to hone his powers. Despite the Everests' efforts, Ji-wu finds out, and Encore starts offering Alex opportunities to learn more about his powers and neos in general.

Last Monday:
Powerset idea: a neo who's constantly phasing in and out of his current location. Let's him phase through stuff. He's a master thief.

Last Tuesday:
Powerset idea: a neo who can telepathically send any sound or sight they themselves hear, but only whatever they're currently hearing/seeing. If they're listening to music with earphones in, they can send the sounds to the minds of everyone in the area.

Last Wednesday:
Powerset idea: a neo who can reshape matter with their hands like putty.

Last Thursday:
What will season 2 build up to? There's a small group of neos (somewhere) who feel like society/Encore has screwed them over. They're master plan is to harness the power of an incontinent neo as an act of revenge. The neo in question, for the record, doesn't actually want this. (S)he is kinda "out of it".

Last Friday:
Villain team idea: the "Halogens". Not they're actual name, just what I think of them as. They're a hierarchy of criminal neos that are out to ruin society. The weakest ones represent the lower halogens. So "Chlorine" (Chloe?) is their leader. Or so we're led to think.

Saturday:
Villain idea: a main nemesis, on the same level as Peter. A woman with a semi-decaying body, immensely powerful, crazy. Her powers lean towards the out-of-control type. Kinda appears out of nowhere during season 5. She'll have a particular rivalry with Olivia (although, like Peter, she means trouble for all of the Quartet). She turns out to be in charge of the Halogens (she is Fluorine).