Welcome back to another entry in Scrapbook! As always, all characters are property of their respective companies. Also, see the author's notes for details.

Writing: Backstage Pass (July 30, 2017)

Back at the Altar, about to finish up chapter 3. Also have some ideas about Psyche's role in the Semilocke series, and may start her game later tonight (well, the first one, she has two other than the final). Speaking of Semilockes I badly need to finish up the notes for those, especially on Psyche's… But enough about that. I should continue on with the Altar. I will save the Semilockes for after.

The third chapter of the Altar is finished and posted on relevant sites. It's the second longest work I've done, at almost 5000 words. I'm not sure how I feel about all the splitting up I've been doing, but at least it got done. In the end, it was the right decision. Now to take a break from it before doing chapter 4. Chapter 4 is still the chapter that will be the decision for longer hiatuses. Luckily, it should be shorter…

I'm also thinking of porting it over to the Nuzlocke Fourms, provided they don't use HTML. I may need to break up the run into smaller parts though, because I don't know what the limits on the site are.

The run is a tribute to a Nuzlocke, so I feel like it fits. However, I wouldn't be sure to put it, because it's not the entire run, only snippets of it. I will have to take a look at the site again before I post.

Speaking of Nuzlockes, the next Semilocke is underway. This one uses the Spyro series, but there are a few issues with it.

For one, I was hoping that Psyche would be the fire starter, but that instead went to Spyro. I wanted Psyche to be the fire starter so that she could re-familiarize herself with traditional dragon fighting techniques (fire breathing and physical attacks, both of which the fire starter has). However, that was not the case. Psyche is unlikely to see use of her original element, because ice appears late in the game. Right now, she's relying on flight but I don't know how long that will last. I eventually intend for her to get magic, but that's a long ways away. And I don't know if the Pokémon she is will hold out until then…

I'm also unsure when Psyche will learn of what's actually happening when others die. I eventually do intend to have her learn that the protagonist from Price of Rebirth is keeping them safe and reviving them, but the question is when. Do it too early, and the deaths lose meaning. Do it too late, and she'll be too consumed by grief to care…

Another thing would be that Psyche and probably Griselda will switch powers. Psyche may replace others and herself when they become too weak, gaining the powers of a new creature in the process. That would also keep Psyche relevant while at the same time making sure the powers eventually match her character (e.g. having a Pokémon that can use special attacks early, so Psyche can use her magic, as opposed to waiting until later). It also makes it easier to follow the rule of always keeping her in the party. It also may help for her to be something like Dratini, which would give her access to magic, power, flight, and physical attacks.

There are a couple problems with this though. For one, it makes no sense for Psyche to suddenly decide to not use a power when she has gained it. Furthermore, Psyche never switched attacks in her own mythos, while Spyro did. The first issue can easily be solved by earlier attacks no longer working, but I am unsure about the second.

There's the problem of what Elora's going to be as well. The closest Pokémon for her is Vulpix but that Pokémon does not appear in Pokémon Gold…

Finally, a problem I had was making a character appear too early. I caught a poison type and decided to name it Cynder, just to mess with Psyche. In Psyche's story, Cynder is supposed to be dead and Psyche is seeing her ghost. The problem is this reveal is not supposed to happen until later. I doubt Psyche can keep it secret, and the others would notice if she's acting skittish. On top of that, revealing the ghosts right there and now reveals a huge story issue. So I'm going to wait and have more ideas before I decide what to do.

Author's notes:

-So a bit more on Psyche, and a bit of the problems I had tried to make her fit into every game in the Spyro series. It's worth noting that Psyche originally wielded ice powers because they were one of the few elements present in every continuity. However, the most commonly seen powers in the Spyro series include fire and physical moves, which is why re-familiarizing herself with them would've been a big part of Psyche's story. Psyche gains the power of magic, but loses her ice powers for plot reasons. This all takes place many years before her own story begins, and is one of the reasons why she stands out amongst other characters. However, since Pokémon doesn't follow the same mechanics, it would have been easy for Psyche to get her ice powers back, or use them alongside her magical powers.

-Also, in the original draft of the Nuzlocke, Psyche and the protagonist of Price of Rebirth were supposed to meet each other. They would share information, and eventually team up to help everyone fight through the overarching conflict that connected both stories. The storyline was not used for two reasons.

One of which was that Price of Rebirth ended up having a very different protagonist than the one in the original drafts. The other was that the Nuzlockes were no longer connected to Price of Rebirth. This was mainly because, although an interesting story was developed for the two, it would be difficult to write because it would spoil each other. It would also be difficult to perform mechanically, because one story would not be able to progress until the other had reached a certain point. And for one of them, Price of Rebirth, that was near the end, with several major plot points being revealed. This would take a lot of impact out of many of plot twists and compromise much of both stories, so this idea was scrapped.