Backstage Pass #58 (Patreon)

On this edition of Backstage Pass, I'll be talking about...

Incorporating Eilwyn into the story! If you've seen some of my previous Backstage Passes, you'll know that they actually were a late addition to the story.

The year is 2017. I have just started my run of PMD: EOS, and am considering using my first Wondermail clause to get a unique recruit to spice up gameplay. I go to my usual Wondermail S generator, and scroll around for a bit when I remember that I really like Milotic. I scroll through the list of possible pokemon, and I see Feebas... but no Milotic. Puzzled, I try a couple of other Wondermail S generators, with no luck. I try looking for an Action Replay code to turn a teammate into Milotic to achieve functionally the same desired end result- nothing. I end up settling on Meowth instead, having recently played HGSS and adoring the Meowth overworld sprite.

We fast forward, we are now in late 2020. I haven't picked up the game in months due to struggling with the game's flags and my Action Replay which is hanging on by a thread. I'm once again looking to peruse the Wondermail S generator, hoping to use it to get a Finneon recruit even though Finneon is pretty much useless. I go to my usual site, only to find it no longer exists. This is fine, as there are multiple sites preserving the generator out there. On a whim, I try out a new site I hadn't used before. Out of habit, I look up Milotic. It's on there. I look over at my partner, and tell her I have to find a place for Milotic in OBT now.

A month or two later, I'm running calculations day and night on how to incorporate Milotic into OBT, with little success. I hit a breakthrough. But not the breakthrough you're probably expecting.

Woo — 01/12/2021 2:58 AM
now for crack thonks (not serious):
- before they go to the future, the gang receives a mysterious egg as a reward. seeing how fairly odd parents had such great reception to having a Baby and people speculating about the Baby, this will be great for PR
- when they get back, rune finds that the egg hatched without her. insert rune and dielle's new daughter,

Pika — 01/12/2021 3:00 AM
if shes not baby, people wont be as apeshit, not good for pr

Woo — 01/12/2021 3:00 AM

ok she can be baby but not like, baby baby

she's like a 10 year old or whatever

has thoughts

Pika — 01/12/2021 3:00 AM

and a feebas

Woo — 01/12/2021 3:00 AM

no feebas doesn't exist

Pika — 01/12/2021 3:00 AM

sry she gotta be baby for you to win pr

Woo — 01/12/2021 3:01 AM

ok hold on like 5 min

a la baby nidoqueen

Pika — 01/12/2021 3:06 AM

gotta be feebas

Woo — 01/12/2021 3:06 AM

i knew you'd fucking say that

Pika — 01/12/2021 3:06 AM

there you go

Woo — 01/12/2021 3:06 AM

she stays like this for like 3 minutes and then evolves immediately when she sees rune

It wasn't a very serious convo, but at this point I was determined to use my newly minted Milotic somewhere in the story. In the meantime, I settle on a cameo in Chapter 4.

It's a Schrödinger's cameo, to buy myself more time to decide on what to do. And if I ended up using her later, I could cleverly point at this bit of foreshadowing.

Unless I found another love.

We are now in the year 2022, I am writing Chapter 7 for OBT and decided to take a break by doodling.

Woo — 01/15/2022 2:48 AM

new milotic just dropped

love that their heritage is like, at least a little less obvious than i make it look usually

Woo — 01/15/2022 3:29 AM

vaguely thinking about names for them from this list, any thonks?

- Dakota (a bit bland, but classique)

- Eilwyn (name: stolen)

- Gwyn

- Nicolai

- Raine

- Calyx

Pika — 01/15/2022 3:43 AM

you can always repurpose eilwyn since its a good one

raine is thematic

Woo — 01/15/2022 4:19 AM

i do like eilwyn quite a bit

History is made... but who did Eilwyn steal their name from? For that, we look to an old PMU campaign I played with some friends back around 2017. For the uninitiated, PMU is a PMD inspired MMO! You can find out more about it here if it interests you. In our campaign, I decided to choose Mareep as my player character, which gave life to The Original Eilwyn!

May she forever rest in peace.

With a name and a design solidified, it was time for me to decide how to actually incorporate Eilwyn into the story. Among the first things I decided on were Eilwyn's exploration style- I thought that they'd probably use a lot of items and use the environment to their advantage since during their time as a Feebas, they probably weren't strong enough to get into battles. From there, I thought it'd be fun to have a counterpart mentor in direct contrast with Skuntank in Chapter 6- someone who isn't very charismatic in their first impression, but genuinely cares about the wellbeing of the team they're paired with. It's been really fun seeing readers go through a similar arc the team went through, with initial suspicion about Eilwyn's intentions, but warming up to them as time went on.

And though Eilwyn will be out of the picture for the next few chapters, I can't help but say that they actually didn't die here, and they'll be returning some point in the future! Them leaving was initially done to give myself more time to decide on whether or not I wanted them to return, but after about 100 pages with them, I think I can comfortably say I want to keep them in the story. I look forward to seeing them again when they next show up!