Prototype Various

OH LOOK

At some point I kinda accepted that, barring a miraculous resurfacing of actual written notes, a "true" Marathon: Prototype story ain't happening--and even if it turned out I did write notes, I'd still have to pry off the parts related to other series. So, this is more of a "how would I do it now" mental exercise.


* The UESC Marathon trio. My old art of them wasn't exactly consistent (though Tycho did come the closest to being so), so that obviously had to be fixed; part of that is giving Proto!Leela an outfit more in line with her brothers'. I didn't wanna add too much new stuff, but it was that, or "two lightly-armoured guys and their businesswoman sister".

In terms of story, I imagine that Tycho still eventually splits from the Pfhor like he does in Inm., except this time he ends up in Vylae space and is immediately apprehended by its new lord and mistress, Leela. They reach an understanding soon enough. (I can't remember how I thought they'd reunite back in '08, but this would be the simplest way to do it)

* Vic wasn't exactly a non-entity, but I hardly did any art of him compared to Durandal and never of him armourless, so I guess it's overhaul time. Viktor Romanov ("Vic" for short) could tell you that he lived on the Asteroid States long, long ago, and then on Mars for a while after that; there was also that one schoolyard brawl that left a mark on him. Everything else is kinda vague and wispy, to the point where he's not sure how many of his memories are actually weird dreams. Now that Vic has a stable life as a freelancer, he tries not to dwell on this for too long; his main concern is keeping his crew out of serious danger. He and Durandal often get snippy with one another, but Vic does care for him.

He probably exists in normal Inm. as a third-gen battleroid of the Russian Federation, with a similarly-spotty past.

* Junko Hasegawa had the misfortune of being an artificial human on the Asteroid States, where replicants and battleroids aren't allowed to exist. What she and her fellow replicants were doing there, she never found out; all she cares about is that everyone made it out alive. The AS forces tailed her longer than the others, eventually forcing her onto the Rozinante, to the confusion of Durandal and Vic; she's now part of the crew, often handling smaller jobs. Junko often claims that she wouldn't be bereaved if Durandal got stuck in a washing machine (although she could be persuaded to let him back out).

Originally, Junko was a mere twelve and somehow allowed on missions, which seemed fine to my sophomore self, but much less so nowadays (no way in hell Durandal would let her tag along into dangerous territory); she's in her mid-20s now. Junko was also meant to come from a separate colony of clones with similar/identical genetics, but it's been revised to the above for simplicity's sake.

* I don't think I ever drew Proto!Durandal in any outfit but his normal one.

* Mnemosyne, a Jjaro android, is essentially Rera the Architect's replacement. ("Wasn't Rera a Megaman OC?" nobody asks. Well, see that bit about about having to scrape off some non-Marathon stuff) Eons ago, she and her partner presided over Atlantis, one of the larger Jjaro Spheres; while this arrangement was always somewhat uneasy, for the most part they worked together as they were meant to...until their ideological rift finally exploded into a bitter fight. Mnemo's partner was deemed the guilty one, and as punishment, he was cast out in stasis with his memory suppressed. This would be good enough for most people, but Mnemo wanted him to suffer even more, and fumed about her inability to inflict more pain until that fateful day ages later, when she learned that he was active once more, and with his own crew to boot...

Mnemosyne likely exists in normal Inm. as Atlantis's sole admin...because everyone knew that trying to pair her with another AI would end like it did above. She may speak of justice, but the truth is, she's extremely vindictive if not outright sadistic.

--

Other story ideas:

* That partner? Was Durandal. And that android vessel he's using now was the one he had all the way back then (it's complicated, and also an attempt to reconcile that "there were android vessels on the Marathon" bit with Inm.'s "no there weren't"). My "Meeting the Forerunner" pic didn't specify who killed Rera, but I'm pretty sure that was meant to be Durandal; his and Rera's makers were from a flooded planet called Atlantis, hence the name of the Sphere.

At some point, Proto!Durandal gets to share his Inm. self's experience of learning, very abruptly and in a dangerous situation, that he's not exactly who he thought he was...

* Going with that, Proto!Tycho was partially based on Durandal's code. Tycho noticed how Strauss was always dissatisfied with him no matter what...

* Leela was created before the discovery of Durandal's inert android vessel; said vessel was hidden away on the Marathon in the event Strauss wanted to experiment on Durandal with him in it. A certain someone recovered it from the derelict later and covertly delivered it to the Rozinante--not out of goodwill, but so that Durandal would suffer when the time came.

* I don't have all the details down yet, but based on what little I remember of my SO musings, Vic's pre-Marathon life SUCKED, in all sorts of fabulously different ways than the ones in which Vince's pre-Marathon life sucked.

* Based on my old doodles, Cortana did interact with the Marathon trio, but under what circumstances, I don't remember (something tells me she wasn't Durandal's twin there).