So, lets begin.
When discussing this chapter in my head, I decided it was going to be largely comedic as the situation of looping through the same period of time over and over calls for a degree of comedy. You can't help but laugh a little at the absurdity of the concept. To maximize the fun of this scenario, I knew I had to focus on certain characters remembering the loop, but they had to be... out of their depth.
The answer was more than a little obvious after a while. I had been meaning to do more with Grunt and Zek makes an awesome foil to him. The honorable bloodthirsty warrior with a childlike perception of the world and the selfish asshole pirate out largely for himself. They were both clearly not the best people to be stuck in this situation as they have no idea how to resolve it. They're just not smart enough to deal with quantum physics and time travel and whatever other nonsense they'd get up to. Instead, the best people equipped to solve the problem are all affected by the loop and their only hope is two of the biggest problematic people in the fleet.
Yeah, shenanigans abound in that scenario.
Writing Grunt is something of a challenge. He's a krogan, a warrior, but he's clearly very childlike. His search history on the extranet is proof enough of that. I view him largely as Shepard's adopted son in many respects, so I take that to heart when I do write him. He idolizes Shepard to a degree and believes he's the best warrior ever. He's a bit immature, but he's grown up enough to respect authority and understand the importance of personal responsibility. Which is why he ends up being the adult in the time loop crisis despite being, well, him. I liked writing his character in this scenario, it was fun to see Grunt trying to figure out something so clearly beyond his abilities and he comes out of it a bit wiser for it. I'm not saying he's a scientific savant now, but he's gained an appreciation for what it is and is far less dismissive of it. I'd say he's more willing to learn and listen than before, at least that's my take away.
Zek's arc was different, one born of a lot of his development so far. He's an asshole and he's somewhat okay with that. He doesn't like a lot of people and enjoys getting some petty revenge on them. He's a dick and when given the chance to live without consequences he embraces that. He recoils from it at first because the whole situation freaks him out, but once he realizes that he can use it to his advantage he turns around on it. At least until reality catches up to him.
Given current events, I feel the need to explain WHY Taq won't forgive Zek. It's not because she doesn't want to give up hating him, like Zek with his father. She just recognizes he hasn't really changed. Forgiveness is not something you're at all obligated to give, it's yours to bestow. You're not entitled to being forgiven by someone. That's sad, it's unfortunate, but that's how it is. You have to earn it and Zek really hasn't. Because he hasn't changed, he hasn't done anything to fix himself besides acknowledge he screwed up with Taq. But that's not enough.
Zek believes all he needs to do to get Taq back is gain her forgiveness and it all goes back to how it was. That's not how it works though. She can't forgive him because he refuses to accept that it is over, that he can't take back how he hurt her. Taq refuses to accept his apology because she feels it is insincere, it is an apology with a caveat attached. "I'm sorry for what I did, let's get back together, please?" It lacks any angible substance because it's a craven demand for everything to be normal again and for her to just blindly trust him. And she refuses to do that. To give Zek that satisfaction. He has to learn what apologizing to her means. That he doesn't get a prize for saying he's sorry or accepting he was a shitty person.
I do believe in forgiveness, I do believe in people changing, but there has to be work put into it. I've seen people do just that. I've seen people earn the forgiveness. I don't like seeing Zek still paying for something he did years ago, but it's his job to make it count. He has to genuinely accept that Taq is not going to take him back. That is when him saying sorry will be real and not some plea for a return to how things were. I think people need to understand that more than anything. Forgiveness is a choice the person hurt has to choose whether or not to bestow. An apology is nothing without the time put into it to understand what you did wrong, how you're going make it up to the person or persons you hurt and an active effort on your part to change. To be better than you were. To understand that maybe you need to change and that you need to fix something you fucked up. It's never easy, but only then can we all move forward. Only then can we forgive.
Now for some less heavy handed stuff. Yo umay have noticed some key points of inspiration during this chapter. Groundhog Day, various episodes from shows where a time loop occurs, perhaps a bit of Edge of Tomorrow, all great works in my opinion. A significant portion, including the recording being erased and Zek's insane hedonism binge we inspired from the Starcraft SG-1 episode where a time loop occurs as well. SG-1 is one of the many influences on my writing style honestly, considering it is a fairly military minded series and indulges in more than a few bits of classic speculative fiction tropes. Although I was a bit sad that they never encountered more genuine aliens in their travels. I know the narrative reason, but it was always a shame it was just some human civilization on some other planet because they were former abductees. Meh, whatever.
The last little bit during the end, where time goes a bit crazy, I think that was somewhat inspired by various video games and time travel sequences I've played. Portal probably played a bit into it honestly, what with the way Zek and Grunt get teleported around at random. That was a fun scene to write, if only because it got so very weird and topsy turvy perspective wise. Always a plus for me in these sorts of stories.
You may have noticed a tie-in to BBR's story where in the latest chapter, Joker dared Boz to play songs that were as far away from hard rock and heavy metal as possible for an entire broadcast day. I did that intentionally to tie it in to this and explain why Boz decided to play a bunch of songs he really wouldn't normally. I choose the key one, Wake me Up (Before you Go Go), as this loop's version of "I Got You Babe" from Groundhog Day. Why? Because it seemed like the one song I knew Grunt would hate. Absolutely hate! You'll probably find out what the rest of that day was like in due time. But not right now, the next chapter for BBR would potentially spoil things for the main story, so I'm holding off on that until this little cliffhanger is resolved in full. Which could take a while. But I hope you all enjoyed Grunt's absolute hatred of a silly eighties pop song all the same.
I don't actually hate Wake Me Up by the by, just in case you were wondering. I try not to have all my characters agree on liking the things I like. It's why I had Zek have such a different, cynical take on How to Train your Dragon that I don't agree with. It makes the characters more real in my eyes if they don't always agree with me.
Black Lagoon should've been a show I referenced earlier. It's right up Zek's alley. I decided to use it here to illustrate Zek's romantic crisis. He's in love with someone who is not at all his type. He would probably have preferred finding a soulmate in a person like Revy, but sadly the heart doesn't work that way. I felt her character properly stated what Zek would think he'd be attracted to in someone, contrasted with who he's actually interested in. I do love the show by the way and I kind hope they eventually animate more from the manga. It will probably take a while though since Black Lagoon is very slow to update sadly. Meh, what you gonna do?
Tali appears more in this chapter so maybe it's more appropriate that I talk about something I've been meaning to discuss. I'm gonna lay it out for you guys, I really don't like a lot of interpretation for how quarians look. Far too many have ugly bits that make them look like weird Star Trek reject designs for aliens, others look too human or too elfish, far too many have ears. Something I feel is a mistake regarding the quarians. They should not have ears, I just feel that makes them too human, regardless of what other crap is slapped onto their forehead.
For me though, the biggest sin, is making Tali look too... well, sexy. There's not much of a way to put it honestly. I know, I know, Javik says the quarians were considered quite beautiful in his cycle, but he's a four-eyed weird looking bug thing. I think his perception can be a bit skewed. Besides, Tali is conscious of her looks regarding Shepard if he pursues her romantically. She says as much. I feel she needs to look cute, not supermodel or anything, just cute. She needs to look like a sweet girl next door type. At the same time, she has to retain some human features, although I could do with more people smoothing her nose down slightly, maybe. The point is, she has some human features, getting rid of all of them is a mistake in my mind.
So a lot of the ones people "like" as an interpretation for Tali's look... I do not. At all. They're either too outlandish or too generic or too wish fulfillment. So I've struggled with explaining how Tali looks without her mask. Even when I did take it off, I was purposely vauge. I described her hair as more akin to very fine quills, borrowing a design aesthetic from another author's story I enjoyed. other than that, I didn't say much about how she looks... until now.
This is because I've found a decent enough compromise, a way to center my ideas on how Tali looks when I'm writing sequences with her. It's called the Tali Romance Mod, it was created by some devoted Talimancers who felt she deserved a bigger slice of the pie when it came to romance storylines, considering she arrives fairly late in the game's second act. They mostly added new dialogue stuff they cribbed together from files buried in the code or from other lines Tali says at different parts in the game, they wrote some new emails for her to send your way, but the biggest thing was giving Tali a fullfledged sex scene and a face to go with. I can't show the sex scene, because... you see everyhting. And... I mean everything. But I can show you what they replaced the original stock picture of Tali in the frame she gives you after Rannoch wraps as well as a more up-close neutral expression.
Well, that's enough for now. Thanks as always for reading and I hope you're ready for the next chapter. Trust me, it gets... well it gets something. I really don't want to spoil, but part of me thinks you're all already suspecting what is about to happen.
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