mattmanganon

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Eviledd1984 Would posts be easier on you if Taivas could see Zen-Aku even when he's just the ghost in Dotties head?

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Dotty smiled as Taivas reached over to the puppy to introduce himself. "No, silly, i'm not one of Pongo and Perdita's kids, didn't you hear me? They're my grea-great-great-" As she continued the loud crunching and grinding of stone suddenly disrupted her train of thought. "Ummmm... Han?" She asked wondering what the sound was. She sniffed the air. "Doesn't smell good"

"A dark presence approaches. Quickly, put the mask on." Zen-Aku ordered.

"No, Han says to look after Uncle Freckles!" She sighed.

"Which you can do a lot more effectively if you put the mask on." He said. Although, from the looks of things, Taivas was strong enough to deal with them on his own for the moment. Probably better not to put the strain on Dotty making her transform so soon after the previous one. Plus, this might give the ghostly Org a better opportunity to study his form and function if he didn't also have to focus on keeping himself safe. "Alright, sit there and watch, but if one of those statues gets too close, put the mask on to protect him." Dotty sat down and watched the battle start to unfold. Freckles sat next to her and barked his adorable high pitched bark at them.

"Is that strange pet something like Thunderbolt?" Freckles asked her between barking "And that would make you Lil' Lightning." Dotty looked almost horrified at the drawn parallels.

"UNCLE FRECKLES, ARE YOU BLIND?! THAT'S CLEARLY HAN THE HANDSOME!!!"

"Well, obviously you aren't being that you're pets, but he does act a lot like ol' Thunder." The puppy responded.

"Uncle Freckles, how many times have i told you, nobody watches your old Black and White shows anymore!"

"Never, this is the first time we've met." Freckles responded.

"Wait, you don't remember me?!" A small tear rolled down her face. "But i was your favourite!" She then realized something. "Unless..." Zen-Aku watched the gears in her head grind together, before quickly hyper fixating on Taivas, to try and block out the inevitable reference to- "Episode 71! Twisted Terror of the Time Terrier! Like when Han doesn't recognize Poodlewolf because he goes back before they even met!" She looked up at Zen-Aku with a beaming smile "That's why Han doesn't recognize us! We went back in time! He always said he didn't want to say his name before he was Han, Taivus must be his REAL name!!! Dylon's gonna be so jealous that i know something he doesnt!" She laughed maniacally as if suddenly the deepest knowledges of the unknown universe had been made clear to her.

Power Rangers Rebel Force

Michaela

Was about to ask something when she suddenly felt something... Pain? Anguish? Before she could ask, Ven informed them that the empire was attacking downtown. "Well, looks like it's Morphin' Time." She sighed, holding up the morpher and transforming. As they reached downtown and Ven began giving out the orders, she nodded as they were spotted and quickly challenged for a fight by the Empires Footsoldiers. "I am an Angel of the realm of Good Magic, i will NEVER fall to pitiful creatures such as you!" she cried, waving her hands and a large cannon appeared in her hands. Jumping high in the air, she flipped, and pointed it at a pair of the footsoldiers, blasting them wildly, a pair of shots hitting their chests as they were knocked off their feet, sparks flying through the air. As she landed and began marching towards them, firing carefully armed shots at their chests. She then ran her hand up the weapon "HEAVEN CANNON! FULL POWER!" She yelled as she turned and fired a rapid fire spread at a trio that advanced on her, them all falling over and being engulfed in a fire ball. She thumbed her nose through the helmet "Heh, Morphinominal."

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Little Bird Oh, trying to get away from them already eh? Are we going to have THAT scene?

In all seriousness, cool, just tell me what you want from Leon and Launchpad.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Eviledd1984 When are you available to respond to Dotty's latest deranged rampage? I'm waiting on you before i react to the statues.

@Little Bird Do you want me to have Leon and Launchpad wake up Hoshi for the fight?

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred Thank you. I have DM'd on this site on and off for 15 years and DM'd tabletop constantly for the last 8 years and if that experience has taught me anything is that situations like this will happen and i call them "A Bob Ross Moment"

The Bob Ross moment is when something has happened, due to nobody in particulars fault. Like, this wasn't expected, this wasn't planned, in the DM's perfect world, this was NEVER supposed to happen. But someone has made a series of decisions where you realize that the culmination of what was supposed to happen is probably not gonna. You then have 2 options. Carefully, craftily steer the RP back to where you wanted it to go, get the players back on the DM's masterfully create track with them having no idea this wasn't part of your carefully crafted, Machiavellian scheme... Or you can steer into it. Let the players have some actually natural, authentic moments where things just went a way you had NO idea it was going to go. And as it happens, you start realizing a story path you never considered before that you can take the players down which is just as good as before. It wasn't a mistake, it was just a happy little accident As such: The Bob Ross Moment.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@Little Bird Oh, i am very much looking forward to the "What do you mean he's the Leon you're looking for?" bit.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred See the main question that this raises is: If she's REALLY one of the original 16, then why would they be accepting of her now having a big demon mask and going off on her own? I mean, Perdita is a very protective mother who doesn't want to let a single one of them out of her site. Also, i would like to take her back to 101 Dalmatian Street at some point, interacting with her siblings there. I also have built her with that sort of chaotic energy that the puppies in that series have, as opposed to the far more wholesome and lawful behaviour that Pongo and Perdita have instilled in their own. If anything, i think that keeping her as from a different time would make her play off Pongo and Perdita even better with the pair questioning what the heck happened to kids in the time difference. Like, she's got the family smell on her, so they trust her for that reason, but are still worried that that chaotic attitude will somehow spread through the rest of the puppies.

Point is, i just don't buy that a pair as wholesome as them could raise such an agent of chaos. Whereas 101DS portrays the house as controlled chaos with Delilah and Doug being the only ones with any kind of real control over the pups, her attitude feels a lot more in line with that kind of upbringing. As opposed to the pups in the movie who have prim, proper attitudes. Even in the 96 cartoon, they mostly felt adventurous, but still fitting within this mold that Pongo and Perdita have raised for them.

It's also character acting wise. As i said before, if this was before i had started writing her, before i had properly gotten into the stride of her characterization and foibles i could have easily made her a lot more prim and proper, changed her fictional love to be more eccentric than obsessive. Designed her attitude around that sort of medium that those original 99 had. Changing her now kinda feels like you're pulling the rug out from under me just as i get into the real stride of the matter.

And also... I mean, 101DS Cruella is probably the absolute best version of her A descecated, practically zombified creature who lives entirely driven by purest hatred for those dogs and went Absolutely coo coo cachoo pants on head banana's just a smidgen off the rails after her defeat. Definitely playing up the "She's like a spider waiting for the kill" line with how she moves and acts.

I will say, i do like the idea you posted of Pongo and Perdita's London being the catalyst that breaks her. Seeing that house that she knows all too well broken and destroyed. Being forced to come to terms with her own mortality as she see's the world that she grew up in but at the same time, a place she never was even given chance she could exist. The thought that THIS world would never even have Dylon or Dolly or Diesel or Delgado or any of the others. Not even Doug and Delilah were given a chance to exist here. Giving her a crisis of confidence as she worries about her own house at 101 Dalmatian Street, how these Heartless might destroy that as well unless she gets the power to stop them, leading her down a darker path.

The alternate idea for now, might be to refrain from giving a definitive answer until such time as we have a better idea for where this story is progressing. I stop making references to 101DS (Except the Poodlewolf stuff) and other specifically named puppies and we retcon the other puppies name-dropped out and keep her exact origin up for determination until later when we have a better idea for where the story and characters are going at which point we can commit and go for it then. Who knows, you may find yourself watching 101DS and decide you'd rather go with that as well at some point, at which time, i'll have pivotted hard and it'll be too late to change it back.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

Well, i'm fine with starting the fight, but i'd like to wait to hear back from King about potentially having to heavily rewrite Dotty first. Like, if i'm gonna change and retcon things, i'd like to have to change a minimum.

Kingdom Hearts: Heroes of Hope

@King Kindred Roight... So, turns out the 101 Dalmatians timeline is even more confusing than i thought. Pretty much, every 101 Dalmatians movie and series is it's own self contained thing with major retcons from the previous one, with ONLY 102 Dalmatians being an actual, total sequel to something that came before. The 1996 series is set in 96 and in America, as opposed to 1958 Britain (I got that wrong, but also, i don't know why i thought 1930's, considering they had TV, which wasn't really widespread until the 50's anyway.) BUT the events of the first film happened the way they did in the movie, but no time at all has passed as the puppies are still puppies. 101 Dalmatian Street takes place in another continuity where the Dalmatian Plantation was bought, but they also kept the London house and a bunch of the dogs moved back there... Also, he 96 Cartoon may be or may not be canon, there's a throw away line referencing it, but 4th wall humour is always subject to canonicity issues and- Oh no, i've gone cross-eyed

So, yeah, i'd like to request we go with either 1 of 2 explainatins:
1) original idea of "The same world with branching timelines can appear multiple times across the Space Between, don't think too hard about it." handwaving explanation. Because, as i said, this solves a lot of problems, doesn't cause any major ones and leaves doors open for more interesting stuff down the line. (Example, someone can do Atlantis world, another person could do Gargoyles world and despite the two stories taking place 60 years apart, they are confirmed a shared universe as, if the Atlantis cartoon series had gone ahead, there was going to be an episode where the Atlantis crew would fight Demona in Paris during her years walking the Earth alone.)
2) A slighty more handwavey explaination that explains how Pongo & Perdita ended up in Traverse Town from London with their 99 puppies, but the timeline continued on in London with them having been there, the result of which ended with the events of 101 Dalmatian Street.

Alternatively, we could go with a convoluted Time Travel BS story that KH is known for. But i would rather avoid that.

Point is that Dotty's motivation is that she DIDN'T go on any big adventure. She has no callousness to her, she's never really faced any real hardships and when she finally did, she had a secret god-mode cheat she could activate for it by just letting Zen-Aku deal with them. It's why she's so upbeat and has no idea of how the world really works. So, her having been kidnapped and almost made into a coat doesn't really fit with the kind of motivation i've given her. I just feel that, yes we could say she's one of the original 99 and handwave the Poodlewolf thing, but this just causes too many problems with her character background Vs the growth i'm trying to portray with her (The idea being that she will eventually be given that VERY real taste of just how small she is in the cosmos, growing more calloused like Zen-Aku, while Zen-Aku has to learn to be more upbeat and let go of the past that he can't remember to be more like Dotty, focusing on the here and now.) I mean, how can you have a character who's entirely blind to the horrors of the world because they have never faced them and who's only experience with them was through he medium of 90's grimdark melodrama stories, when they absolutely came face to face with their own mortality only a short time beforehand?

I'm sorry, i'm really not trying to be obtuse or argumentative or anything like that, but as i said, i'm finally on a path for the character that i like and i'd really rather not have to try and write in a big glaring hole in that character background. That being said, any idea's you have to keep the consistency are always appreciated. Just, preferably an explaination that requires minimal rewrites. But at the end of the day, you are the DM and it's your job to make sure that stuff like this doesn't fuck up anyone elses fun or any of the story you've got in mind for us going forward and if you say i've got to do he re-writes, then absolutely i'll do them. But i'd rather find a more amiable resolution.

@Sadu I'll be honest, i was a little confused as well, so i just went with he flow of what Taivas layed down. I don't remember any of the district lay outs as i haven't played KH1 in about 6 years and i only played it through, start to finish once. You may notice in my posts that i'm sort of hand-waving district lay-out descriptions, mainly just to avoid stepping on any toes.