On the topic of surprise gender in Dark Science (Patreon)

Just thought I'd share a little thing about the journey of the character of Asmodea/Lilith/Elith.

So as many know while I script the pages as I go, the overarching story of Dark Science was written way back in 2010, and while there are naturally tweaks that happened, I haven't ever really deviated from that. When I first put it together I had less of a story and more of a premise and location: a city that comically quantifies everything and a cast of characters who are all expressions of different conflicts of identity. Some are born for the role they were assigned (Melchior), some earnestly try to make it work even if it kills them (Vonnie), and some keep getting relabled over and over again (Kim).

So I went through a lot of ideas as I filled out the cast suited for the story I wanted to tell, and I kept coming back to someone whose role was the wrong gender. And unlike with, say, Yeong-Soo whose name and nationality were changed against his will, I wanted someone who unconsciously sought out a role to suppress who they were. And so one of the very first Dark Science characters I ironed out was Elith.

Elith implies they willingly took on "Asmodea," both to appease others but also in an attempt to fight what they felt. I found this extremely compelling a decade ago and WHO KNEW WHY

Anyway that's all, I just find it funny when my writing knows more about me than I do.