Hippo Notes

VANGUARD: Basically, Overwatch

  • Olympia (currently 'dead'; actually gone underground to form a dark-side Vanguard)
  • Sebastian Hardin ("The Machine"; a man with a robot head who is a computer scientist and controls tons of drones)
  • Christopher Corhill ("The Flame"; a reluctant occultist and the current inheritor of the Infernal Skeleton)
  • Angela O'Hara ("Red"; just a professional agent)
  • Weapon (disassociation)

THE LAB-RATS: On the Run from Myrmidon, Seeking the Land of Oz

  • Alex ("Warhead")
  • Seph ("Seph")
  • Sunny
  • Machine-Head

MYRMIDON INT: Anomalous Weapon Manufacturer

INSURGENCY: Kinda Bad? Kinda Complicated?

  • Mulhausen (a frail assembly of anomalous levers and pulleys)
  • Madison Craggs (maybe?) — "Mikes"

INDEPENDENTS

  • Southern engineer
  • Mr. Crimson (that guy with the murder-hands)
  • The Multiplier (someone who can create clones)
  • Ghost haunting a tank? Something else?
  • The Gun? A gun that can morph into other types of technology? Techno-cowboy?

Overview

After losing control of normalcy, an inner circle of the Foundation (the Black Chamber?) continually resets reality as part of a long-term containment strategy for the Empyrean Parasite. In this iteration, the Foundation is absent — they operate from outside our view, adjusting events so they happen in precisely the right way to prevent humanity from 'blooming' from its 'chrysalis'.

Themes

  • Loss of Relevance: How does one cope with existing in a world that's moved on? Reflected in the Foundation (who won't let go), and the Gallant Society (who maybe has?).
  • Abandoned Parentage: Fathers and mothers who left their children behind?

Random Ideas

  • The Machine: A person who remote-pilots drones via a high-resolution EEG interface. Possibly a version of them controlling a robot from the future.
  • Center of Attention: Ability to make anything suddenly target you.

Dump

i have a lot of thoughts about the archival division (i also really like this name) — I don't want to define everything to the point where i breed disinterest (on account of you not getting to define your own corner), but there's a couple of themes i really, really like, and want to hit on:

  • obsolescence, the stories we've left behind, unfinished stories, historians of the foundation — ghosts of the past (figurative or literal) rising up to haunt us — broken things that don't work right anymore and can't be fixed because no one knows how
  • all of the characters are, in some sense, obsolete; they are all pathetic in some sense — the world we know has left them behind. they're not all literally old, but they're all 'old' in the sense of being forgotten or otherwise incompatible with the modern world. all the characters are living anachronisms — literally, figuratively, and/or emotionally
  • the stories aren't epic in scope — i'm thinking psul's golgatha stuff as a standard; like, a lot of the stories are about weird shit, but even the stuff that seems like it ought to threaten the world never quite works right (broken technology, etc)

regarding the structure of the narrative itself, i also really like:

  • episodic format (each story is self-contained; you might have a two parter here and there, but otherwise, each story can be consumed and digested as its own thing)
  • each story focuses on a weird quirk or idea of the foundation canon — some piece of weird lore that tends not to get much attention or focus
  • there's an overarching plot that spans across the whole series, popping up again and again until the end (i have an idea for this)
  • there's maybe… five, six characters? we can each define three, maybe? but we can pass them among each other and play them however we like
  • the main character/our primary anchor is olympia. she's not in every story, mind you, but she's kind of like Hellboy in regards to how we're introduced to the BPRD: She's almost kind of the unofficial mascot. More about this:

- Olympia doesn't know she's Olympia. She's introduced in an initial first story (i'm thinking the O5 kid story isn't the first story; it might be the second — I'm going to work on the introduction/orientation story at some point when I'm feeling less messed up) where she's essentially shuffled to the Archival Division because no one knows what else to do with her.
- She effectively has amnesia, and part of the reason she's in the Archival Division is to look herself up and figure out who she is (I realize amnesia is kind of a cliche, but I really like how functional this makes her reason for being here: Where else would you go to find out your past but the Archival Division?)
- Her arc involves her working for the Archival Division and discovering her past, along with her relation to the villain (more on that later, depending on how you feel about all of this)

Random Notes

  • Self-destruction is a super-power
  • xavier's, but evil (land of oz)