A/N: How's everyone!
I know what you're probably thinking: "What? I thought Salty does the Dialogues during the break period between the Bonus Chapters! Well, you would be correct. But since the OCs will always be in my heart (some more than others, mind you), I want to try something new with my MK OCs. I'm going to give you all a BTS on how I came up with these characters in a new section of the "Bonus" Chapters. I call it, Kombatant Koncepts. And it starts now! Today, I'm going to explain the concept of the Maddox Family, beginning with Benji Maddox!
Currently listening to Red Barrage Aquarium (Bad Taste Aquarium) by Too many people to name. Good listen, IMO.
Kombatant Koncepts: Benjamin Maddox
Back when I was just a wee lad (Like a Freshman in High School), I was really into stories and the lore building of a story's respective worlds. So, not really thinking too hard on it, I decided to build a tale with a fascinating lore. At the time, one of my friends hopped on board, and soon enough, my entire clique joined in to submit at least one character for said story. Altogether, we came up with an Immortal, a criminal with a pet Dragon, a hunter, a visionary, and a Doctor. Each possessed a distinct personality. For example, the visionary had a fear of women, not due to trauma, but having rarely encountered any. Oh, we were all young and stupid. The Doctor and hunter were my submissions, and with that, we can start talking about Benji Maddox.
For starters, Benji was always known as Benjamin. He was a Doctor, but not a Maddox nor a Medical Doctor. Benji began as a Physics Doctor. In fact, if the project ever made it far, it would be a running joke that when someone in the main cast was injured, they'd ask Benjamin for help, only for him to counter that he has a Doctorate in Physics, not Medicine. So, what was his name before I came up with Maddox? His last name was Paradox, and his backstory coincides with his last name. In the very first storyboard of this lost project, Ben was a Physicist who created a Warp Hole which sent him to 200 years in the future. That same Warp Hole ended up giving him control over space and time. He was laid back, easygoing and was the most humane out of the main cast which said a lot about the other cast members and that conceptually, Benji is my oldest OC that I've ever created.
The first concept for Benji was clearly overpowered because I didn't understand most writing concepts like Gary Stu's or Plot Macguffins at the time. So he unintentionally became powerful and therefore, busted. Needless to say, the first draft of Benji was also my first Gary Stu. It didn't matter after I created Professor Ben Paradox and wrote a few chapters of said project as everyone, save for myself and my friend, lost interest. But eventually, even he lost interest though continued to support the idea. Boy, was I an ambitious teen. I still have those chapters and look at them occasionally to see how far I've come.
At this point, I discovered FF and was blown away by how creative some of the stories I read were. I think it was me being a bystander that eventually lured me back into writing as a legitimate hobby. I went back into our failed project, tweaking everything with a better understanding of how a story and plot points should connect individual characters. Now I knew what and what not to do. I immediately looked back on Ben Paradox and saw him for what he really was; a Gary Stu. So I scrapped the Timelord shtick and went for a more refined, straightforward approach. His origins remained mostly the same, but instead of gaining control of space and time, he had the limited ability to bend reality. His Doctorate changed from Physics and Chemistry to Physics and Botany. This was at the point in my life where I was obsessed with the concept of Time and Clocks. After a miscalculation, Benji mistakenly placed his powers into a pocket watch, his ability limited to how much his body can take, similar to Urakara from MHA. If he did too much, it would make him sick. Pushing further resulted in severe injury or even die. But over time, Benji understood his limitations and what he can do at specific points.
The second draft of Benji went smoother than the first concept, and for a time, I was content with how he turned out. However, I reached a dead end. Sure, I had a halfway decent character, but no story, plot, and most importantly, no help. Defeated, I placed Benji on the back burner, going back to him once in a while, but just for viewing pleasure. I was still a casual reader on FF while writing in my spare time whenever I wasn't making anything music related (I'm a Music student after all). Senior year of High School was when I pulled the trigger. I became a FF Author, and JD the God of Salt was born in the winter of 2016. If you're a long-time reader of mine, then you knew that my first pen name was Jd the God of NaCl. That's Sodium Chloride or y'know… Salt. I thought I was clever but realized it was stupid and edgy, so I changed it to what it is now (Fun Facts).
I've had moderate success as a FF author with a few stories: Tales of a Mercenary and Monk, and Blazing Story which introduced two of my oldest OCs to date; Xan Shio and Wesley of Latasi respectively. But I was practically a nobody, an F-list FF author because if you've read those two stories, especially the first few chapters... Yikes. I'm glad that some people enjoyed them, but I was horrible my first few months, those stories are evident. But then on March 3, 2018; I released To Love a Druid, my first M Rated Fic with lemons. And that's what put me on the forefront for all but a few minutes (All kidding aside TLAD is still my most viewed story since I joined FF although I haven't updated it in five months). But then, I released Stories of the Tipsy Cherry Blossom, my first DOA Fic. This was the one that drew people to my work. It was through this story where my lemon warning debuted, and longtime readers know which chapter precisely. That was my first Fic I felt proud of publishing. Of course, TLAD is more popular, but for a long time, Stories of the Tipsy Cherry Blossom was my best Fic, until I started this one obviously.
I was 17-18 years old while starting my High School Senior year and was a horny teen (Puberty sucks), which is why I wrote so many lemons. Sex sells apparently, and I took full advantage. But I eventually grew distant from writing them and stopped entirely for a while. That's partially why I haven't updated TLAD or STCB for those who are wondering. It was here I came up with the concept of an MK Fic and who would be the star. Nothing came to a head at first, but it was now a sizable thought. Fast forward a bit to my Sophomore year in college where I had a decent following currently a D list Author. I drifted from writing lemons for the sake of reads and just wrote what my mind showed me, but I'll give credit where it's due. TLAD and STCB profoundly improved my writing, something I'm grateful for. Benji once again came to mind, and I decided to make his story part of the MK Fic I had conceptually thought of. The first draft was a post-apocalyptic setting fitting in like the final piece of a puzzle. Initially, I wanted to incorporate every member of the original cast but rework them so that they all fit into the MK verse. So I did. The hunter, visionary, criminal and pet Dragon were all worked into Special Forces as part of a secret division handling interdimensional matters.
But something didn't feel right still. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I wasn't content for the first time since I started writing for FF, prompting me to shelve Benji again. At this point, the story would never see the light of day. I gave up for a while, but Benji and the other cast members were too good to just trash, especially the hunter. So I still kept them in mind. Fast forward again to Spring of my Sophomore year, and I made one final attempt at this story, deciding to start from Ground Zero. I scrapped nearly every plot point of the original and every concept of the plot from the lost project. After changing a couple of things, Benjamin was now Edenian instead of an Earthrealmer, but since Edenia is practically as close as heaven as one can get in the MK verse, I made him more like the next step in human evolution. So he and his sister became a humanoid race. And they had to have last names, but since they were above humans, they had to be at the very least uncommon. So I thought about it. What is a very unique last name? I then thought of the people I hung out with. They all had some cool last names, myself included. And one of them, Meether, and my own last name, one of them anyway (I have two last names btw), Marcellin. But obviously, I wasn't going to use those but was on the right track. I concluded that the last name should start with M. And I can't remember what brought me to it, but I just thought of one word. "Maddox. Maddox. Benjamin Maddox!"
I struck gold. The name stuck and rolled off the tongue well. Okay well, he's not going to be a Timelord, so I had to come up with another method of power. I kept the fact he was a Doctor but switched his field to Medicine. What could possibly be a good source of magic for a Medical Doctor besides the typical White Mage stuff? That's when I thought of Necromancy, Black Magic if you will. And when I came up with that he and eventually Callie would leave Edenia, I realized I could make the Edenian populus conceited and narrow-minded based on one's decisions. Benji learning Necromancy was the perfect reason for their disdain. If you notice in his character sheet, I pointed out that he also knows enough about Physics and Chemistry where he could teach it. That was a homage to his first concept, but that's why I made it a Fun Fact. So it would be nothing but a callback.
Benjamin Maddox was finally born! The Gone, but Not Forgotten plot was good enough for me to greenlight this new project. However, since I didn't know if this was going to be worthy of anything, I posted the character sheets for the Maddox Siblings to see what people thought. Enough people expressed interest, so now it was up to me to properly set up our favorite siblings and why they left and grew to resent Edenia. The Prologue Trilogy garnered moderate success, and the rest is history.
Huh? Why has Benji developed a romance with Jade? Because... Jade's the best girl for him personality wise. Duh.
Kombatant Koncepts: Callie Ann Maddox
Callie concept wise is about a couple of weeks to a month younger than Benji, and the hunter I suggested in the lost project. Benji was on and off in my OC bank, but Callie always remained in my head. She is my first female OC concept-wise so in a sense she mothered, Yuki, Rei, Kole, Kalina, Akui, Tula, Balla, and even Ken. They all had bits of Callie's original personality. Yuki had her soft side, Rei had her undying loyalty to those she cared for. Kole had her love of fighting and snarky foreign warrior attitude. Kalina had her cold attitude towards her enemies no matter how small a crime they committed. Akui had her aspiring potential for growth, Tula had her no-nonsense demeanor while having a blunt but completely logical sense of humor. Balla had her conflict of not being womanly towards those she cares for. Ken had the final Callie's confident aura and an insane level of goofiness.
Callie always stayed true to herself, using a knife and various firearms, sniper rifles and pistol specifically. It wasn't until her final concept that I decided to give her a Repeater Rifle. At the time, I was playing a lot of Red Dead 2, which is where I got the Lincoln Repeater from. But initially, Callie was a Hunter sent 200 years in the future with Prof. Paradox after catching him making the Warp Hole. She was about to report him before she and her pet Falcon were sent with him. This happened during the first concept because of Callie being sent with her Sniper Rifle, the gun itself gaining powers along with herself. Her ability Hawkeye laid dormant, and her Falcon was for scouting for distances that she couldn't see. The overpowered part of her character was her gun. It practically became the Lawgiver from Judge Dredd. If you don't know what the Lawgiver is, it's a firearm that could shoot multiple ammo types and had numerous functions. It was voiced controlled, so when a Judge wanted different ammunition, he would speak it to the weapon and confirm the change the gun spoke back. For example: "Ricochet." "Ricochet."
Her Sniper Rifle became a Lawbringer but limited to her imagination. I had functions like Light Speed, Corrosion, Shock, FMJ, Grenade Launcher, Godslayer. Yeah, her Sniper Rifle was a broken piece of weaponry if I ever saw it. So when the lost project was scrapped, I kept her around. What's funny was that she was a kinda Tsundere because she hated Prof. Paradox for sending her here and she was not trustworthy because of it. But it would eventually blossom into a relationship between the two. When I got around to the second draft of Callie, I didn't change much. I shifted her Lawbringer to a pistol she hid in her back pocket. Callie fights using Gun-Fu and a combat knife as I got rid of the Falcon and shelved Hawkeye for the time being. The Sniper Rifle remained, but I also drastically changed her personality. Instead of hating Paradox and having a Tsundere-like attitude towards him, Callie, in turn, hates the Criminal. Her relationship with Paradox would be that of him and the Visionary being the only people she can trust in this group. I gave her a sharp tongue while making a habit of eating apples with her knife.
Over time, I grew fond of this character and Callie as a concept was partially why I kept going back to the lost project. When I decided to make the lost project an MK fic, I modified Callie so that she was an Edenian and that part of her character stuck. Ben was an Earthrealmer at first but over 200 years old, and that's how the two would initially bond. I also changed their relationship to that of a sibling bond with the Visionary being their pseudo child. It was during this draft where I settled on making her a loudmouth as she was a stoic Hunter. But I dropped the story yet again.
When I picked it back up and scrapped the original plot, I kept Benji and Callie because they were my OCs and I did too much to shelve them both. Before I made Benji an Edenian as well, they were initially going to be close friends who grew to be lovers. But I scrapped that idea but imagine. I wonder how this story would've gone if I went through with the idea? Oh well. I changed the relationship so that they were siblings with ages reversed. Benji was now the older of the two, and Callie had trust issues because of what happened with Mai and Joseph.
The idea for her to romance Kung Lao and Skarlet as well as the plan to involve Sareena with Benji and Jade came after AD became my Beta Reader. But other than that, the Iron Maiden of Edenia was born! And as of right now, Callie Ann is easily in my top 3 for OCs.
Kombatant Koncepts: Madeline "Mai" Maddox
The Mai we all know and love is the first version of the character. She's the second youngest OC conceptually wise and the only OC of mine younger than her in terms of creation is Ken. Mai was a one-take character, and her personality was filled in as Arc II progressed. But as I thought about bringing Mai into the story, I thought about making her a villain, but scrapped that idea and just made her a tragic hero instead, which I think fits her much more. Besides how bad the Maddox family had it, I had to throw her a bone somewhere. So I made Mai without beating around the bush, a failure as a mother at first despite the siblings welcoming her back with open arms. Mai secretly doesn't feel like she deserves their love and is honestly shocked they didn't push her away. Well, Benji did slap her in the face, but Callie just lost it for lack of a better term.
The reason why Joseph will stay dead is because of Mai. Her husband instructed her to fake her death so she can be a proper mother proper, even if it meant barring herself from making conversation with their children. That explains why Mai didn't just reveal herself to them earlier all ties back to her, thinking that she doesn't deserve to be a part of her kids' lives. But that's a secret Mai will take to the grave. But when times were dire, she decided to make her presence felt to which everyone did. Making Mai an illusionist was a brilliant idea, and her role in the later Arcs will hopefully blow your minds. Despite Mai's story coming full circle in Arc II, I don't think her character development has reached its potential. More of Mai? Yes, please!
A/N: And that's it! The next time this is updated will be the dialogues for Arc II. I hope you enjoyed this installment of Kombatant Koncepts. I don't think there will be a lot of installments since I'm doing this for the OCs but one for Okada will definitely be done after Arc III. So with that being said, I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Take a look at my Profile for my other stories, vote on my poll leave me a Review and or a PM (I respond mind numbingly fast so we can talk if you want to.) and I'll see you later.