Notes on Calico Driftwood and My Namesake's Origin · 5:18am May 18th
Here's some background music. I'll be going on a bit of a tangent, so you may be here a little while. ()^_^
The chapter with Levi Vs. Calico is coming up pretty soon. There are some notes on the latter that are too lengthy for me to share at the end, so I'm going to lay them out here instead.
I've said previously that Gray and First Quarter were previously based on characters I'd made while I was growing up. Calico takes it a step further in that she's loosely based on my namesake, a character who dates back to 1994.
I'll give you a brief history. Curtis is my author avatar of sorts, in-so-far as he has my same first name and is based on my love of cats. In April of that year, my dad bought our first Windows-ran computer (a Compudyne, for those curious). For reasons I don't recall, this helped me breathe new life into the nonsensical stories I was writing for my own personal entertainment.
I got an idea from the cartoons I was watching and the games I was playing to gather the characters I'd created previously and make them into a dysfunctional superhero organization of sorts. They needed a leader, so I created a calico-furred felinoid with what I imagined to be a "cool" personality for that purpose. As to why I chose the calico pattern specifically, it's on account of male calico cats being rare; as a kid, I equated that with them being particularly special. In addition, I was under the impression that extra toes were specific to them (trivia: they aren't), which would make sense given that Curtis's backstory involves him being born a human.
(Male calico cats also tend to have shortened lifespans, but that was something I only learned about recently and isn't relevant to this post.)
(Artwork slapped together by me in 2000, 2001 or thereabouts)
Much later due to shenanigans with the character at a play-by-post game I was involved in for a while, I created his female counterpart Callista. Calli was an obsessive shopaholic who enthusiastically embraced life in all its forms, but also---at first due to a lack of power and abilities compared to Curtis, then later because the context of it made it funny---had a tendency to die to random events an average of twice a week in-universe. Her character interested me more than Curtis's ever did, so she's gotten the lion's share of development.
(Artwork done by a long-time associate of mine elsewhere on the Internet)
(Yeah, she became a mutant Delcatty-human hybrid somewhere along the way. That's another thing that isn't really relevant to this.)
How This Relates to M.L.G.'s Resident Kirin
Calico Driftwood is a combination of both characters. She has:
Curtis's monstrous appetite, short temper, combat ability (at least when she's empowered by the dragon scale mail), and his brand of social awkwardness. Calico's love of food should be no real secret; she hasn't yet had her emotions tampered with by the Stream of Silence; her performance against Leviathan will become clear when the next chapter is posted; and you may have noticed in a number of places, most notably in her interactions with Fiver, that her perspective is a bit wonky.
(Personally I'm inclined to think that Calico's a high-functioning autistic, but even speaking as someone who might be the same, I don't know how many of the boxes she ticks off. All we really know about her is what the story depicts her as being.)
Callista's horrendously awful snoring, equally awful singing (this last of which puts her at odds with others of her race by default), love of shopping, wanderlust, sense of justice, and ego. Calico's snoring has been described as whale songs by her own boss; an example of her terrible singing will be included in this coming chapter; she's made references to her love of shopping throughout the story, and her initial role in the attacks involved bamboozling a shopkeeper for sapphires; the fact that she's been traveling Equestria since before her village's Nirik incident is obvious enough; she despises Gates for being unfaithful to his ex; and her ego will be evident when the chapter's released (pay attention to how she'll interact with Leviathan).
A Break From the Past
There's a certain trick to taking a character derived from one's own self and making him or her genuinely likeable. If both MLP:FiM and MMZ had been around in the 1990s, and I'd tried writing the story then... I can guarantee you that the whole thing would've been an incredibly sloppy mess, stock full of wish fulfillment and nonsensical situations. Calico in particular would've hogged the spotlight when she appeared, she would've left Leviathan on death's door the first time they fought, and she would've gotten away with her actions scot-free after events ran their course.
(This is why I'm not proud of anything I've written prior to 2012. All of my stuff back then is too embarrassing to look at.)
I like to think that now that I'm far removed from school in all its forms---the last class I ever took was in 2007---and had more time to parse what makes a decent character, someone like Calico is a bit more... not sure if "plausible" is the word I want, but it's the closest I can think of. Calico has her share of strengths, but also a variety of flaws. She's not going to be curbstomping most characters, and she's nowhere close to being a perfect being.
And look at it this way: until now, the fact that I'd based Calico in part on my avatar wasn't known. Now that it is, does it really change anything? She's not truly Curtis Wildcat. She's not truly Callista Wilson. She's her own character. She's Calico Driftwood.
So after the next chapter goes up---probably sometime next week if I can get my eyes away from Pokemon Violet long enough---I'd like for my readers to think for a bit and consider a question: after what I've talked about here, did I succeed in breaking Calico away from her roots and making her into something other than a Sue-ish OC? Hold your answers until then.
Closing this post on an unrelated note, within the past month I've managed to motivate myself into picking up said video game right where I left off: on the academy's doorstep before the plot kicks in fully. It's... quite the time sink, and it's sapped a lot of time away from what I normally set aside for writing. ()^_^
That's all I can think of to say. Ciao mein everyone, and stay safe and sane!
Well, after hearing allat, I'm thoroughly attached to Calico now! I hope she becomes a more prominent character later on!
I'd say you've written her splendidly! Didn't even begin to suspect anything! Definitely a compelling character, looking back!