With all this discussion about physical appearances, I’m curious about who y’all would cast as your MCs.
I don’t quite have a set image for my female (maybe Regina Spektor…?) or non-binary MCs, but I’m leaning towards a younger, more ginger Robert Redford for my canon male rebel MC.
I’m excited to see who all you imagine.
Hard to get a direct likeness for my (Lord) Flash since his characteristics, blue skin, gold eyes, pale blond/white hair are obviously not present in humans today.
You’d need to look at fine-featured and tall anime guys and then imagine them a bit more blue I guess
https://resinamoi.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/9f97cb5f73d9.jpg
As for real men I guess when it comes to physique Chris Hemsworth would be a decent fit for my Flash
http://fitnesshacker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/thor-chris-hemsworth-workout4x5.jpg
So even while not as strength enhanced as the combat bot in ordinary terms my Flash would still be quite strong, on the other hand he can’t exactly help Radjack or the Chevalier out by crawling through the sewers or ventilation ducts since most often those are not made to accommodate somebody his size.
Lastly Lord Flash will probably be the only one among them to sport long and stylish haircuts with the Rebel preferring mid-length and mage Flash cropping everything short.
Yeah, me too, rather hard to cast someone when your MC is green.
But if you’re curious, he has black hair and blue eyes, tall and slender.
Willing to take suggestions if any names immediately comes to mind.
ANSWER (that may or may not have been given before, bleh):
If you choose a path, basically you’re on that path for the rest of the game. I’m actually writing the scene in the Noble path at the moment where your ‘Mother’ decides which of the two groups she should dispatch her prize hunter Mr Finn after. You might be able to influence that choice, but then again maybe she’s just testing to see which one you’ll pick.
The three paths are very distinct stories, and as such don’t have a great deal of overlap. The Rebel path is more like a classic action/comedy romp whereas the Noble path is a political period drama and the Mage path is a bizarre sci-fi smorgasbord of different ideas and influences, so the characters that work best in one path could detract from the others.
Oh man… What can I give away without spoiling anything for later…
Hmm…
Ok, so you went to school with both Radjack and Momo, as well as Nex, Nira and Engel (Navi sat in the back for the first two years because you were all technically babysitting at the time).
The vague idea I had was for the whole lot of you to have normal friendly relationships and nothing even approaching a crush occurs until midway through puberty.
In Radjack’s case you think of him as just another boy until one day you realise he looks… different somehow.
Like… I dunno exactly what’s going on with his body now, but it’s all different-lookin’ and I can’t quite figure out how to stop thinking about it. Like, if I could just touch it for a second, I’d probably be okay and get over it then…
Needless to say, you would not in fact get over it then.
These strange feelings are basically just confusing to you until you see him rescue a baby bird from the ground and tenderly keep it alive in his jacket pocket, feeding it crumbs and building it a little nest out of twigs and bits of cotton.
Suddenly you realise that Jack isn’t just the nice kid from four doors down, he’s the good-looking diamond-in-the-rough with a heart-of-gold to boot.
Unfortunately everybody else in the neighbourhood figures this out at roughly the same time, meaning that you had a lot of competition.
Jack himself was entirely unsuspecting and even a little unnerved by all the strange attention he was getting, taking to hiding from the more forthright of suitors who would mob him with gifts and attention at all hours.
This actually made you (unusually) something of a wallflower, and so when Radjack asked you to hide him from a particularly lascivious paramour who was following him from place to place in their lovesickness.
Poor Jack thought he was safe with his dear childhood friend until…
He saw it.
That same look in your eyes. You had it bad.
Unfortunately (read: fortunately) for you young Flash had yet to learn how to disguise their emotions, and despite weak protestations to the contrary, Radjack eventually managed to get you to admit to your feelings and…
Well it just kind of escalated from there.
As for Momo, you had quite the opposite problem.
You’d seen her as such a big-sisterly figure in your life that you didn’t think anything of it when she started packing you lunches and making sure your favourite chair was always available in the Hewer.
This advice wasn’t particularly in keeping with Momo’s personality, as she was being ‘advised’ by her cousin Jhenna, who was getting most of her romantic ‘tips’ from a series of YA novels about gentle, demure lovers blossoming together. Jhenna was hoping that the two of you would read poetry to each other and craft sonnets praising each other’s beauty.
The only problem was that Momo thought it was utter horse-shit. However she didn’t exactly know how else to go about it, so she played along for a good two months, trying to act as elegant and dainty as possible in order to ‘awaken your inner poet’.
Naturally it weirded you out more than anything. Eventually Momo got sick to her back teeth of making sandwiches and reading fruity books about daisies and stormed right up to you. She yanked you by the scruff of the neck and ordered you to take her on a date this instant.
Well you’re right in the fact that Radjack does occasionally keep a bit of stubble around, that’s true enough.
Hmm… Ok, I’ll try and put a bit more physical description in the codex articles, but that might take a wee while as I’d like to focus on this next scene until I’ve really gotten over the worst of it.
True, and there is a plan to have one, I just need to figure out how to put it together without too many potential spoilers…
Thank you so much, this is a huge help for me. Coding will never necessarily be my strong suit, but I’m sure I can get to at least a semi-competent level with enough brute-force application.
Ooh, Ooh… Lemme see if I remember this one off the top of my head…
Unified the Eastern Territories under his rule some 1000 years ago, right?
That’s the tough bit with this storyline, making sure it doesn’t stray into grimdark territories while still attempting to maintain the emotional impact of the whole process.
This. I really want to see what people think about this.
True enough, the extra choices in that regard do make it a little difficult to pin down to a particular person. Nevertheless people seem to be doing a fine job of it regardless.
It ain’t easy, I’m told…
I absolutely adore these tiny bits but they gave me a mini emotional crisis because they’re both adorable and made me very happy but then I remembered that haha, jokes on me, Flash is dead now and then I became very very sad but also still happy and now I just don’t know what to feel.
Gosh darn it Moreau, your story keeps doing this to me and it ain’t fair man.
That being said I love it so so much. So I don’t exactly want it to be fair if this is unfair?? I have no idea what that says about me. Or this. Or anything in general.
This almost makes me feel sorry for choosing Momo over—
I am not in the slightest bit sorry for choosing Momo! It does make me feel a little bad for Momo and Jhenna—if Flash had a personality more like her replacement, she may have actually noticed Momo’s earlier gestures!
Yep, so the perfect name for a nice newly “noble” lad in the high-society of the Rings, eh? I suppose that’s why his new “mother” subtly suggested that name in the first place, right?
Still Ashley would also do for a noble boy since I associate it mostly with this man, despite the name being more used for girls these days, although considering how gender liberal the society of the Rings is I don’t think silly 21st century conventions would matter too much.
However considering the significance the name has within the Rings I’m probably going to go for Tychon for Lord Flash, as “Ty” would be a nickname I could live with too, if any character even bothers/dares to nickname Lord Flash in the first place that is.
Still mulling over the pro’s and cons of either “Kirk” or Crichton for “mage” Flash by the way.
Poor Momo in case of my rebel Flash as he went in bi and came out as a super-gay android. Ahh…the angst. 
If only I had ever progressed beyond stick figures I guess I could draw him, the picture is quite clear in my head but spelling it out in words is quite difficult and I guess this is why many authors around here are sparse and bare-bones when it comes to giving physical descriptions of their most important characters.
Oh I agree and we all know it the poor adorable rebs however don’t and I’m curious to see how they’ll react if they ever find out what exactly that forge did to the real Flash in order to create the mc.
Awww…that’s so adorable. 
Moreau. Moreau. You can’t do this to me. This game has only a handful of scenes. You cannot make me fall this in love with the characters. How do you expect me to deal with these emotions? And how do I choose?
cough Seriously though, I think you covered my two fav romantic setups with RJ and Momo there. (And then, y’know, made me repurpose Flash’s body for my own.) I think I’ll definitely have to tear myself from Radjack and kiss Momo at some point.
If you ever need a hand with coding/have questions about it, I’ll volunteer my services along with the others. Can’t say I’m elegant yet, but I enjoy the work.
I obviously haven’t seen the whole plot yet, but the intro gives me faith in your abilities. It was plenty dark enough to set tone, and served to make me very conflicted about my character’s existence while still wanting to see things work out for her.
I did not need these thoughts in my head but now I’m even more sad.
It also makes me wonder how their reaction would change depending on if they found this out before any of them got to know(/love) the MC versus after.
I feel like if they learned this before getting to spend time with the MC they’d probably come to, on some level, resent them? After it might just be painful, but I dunno.
I’m not sure whether this technically counts as a question for you, @Moreau, since it probably involves spoilers. But in case there is any info you can spare you know that I’d love to hear.
On an entirely unrelated note:
Hmmmmm… You got me thinking with this. This one is difficult, but I think I found some for two of my MCs I like to play as.
The first one is one of my two female MCs who right now I’ve been dabbling in with the Rebel path but I’m planing to take down the Mage path once that’s up as well. For her I’d go with:
The second is my other female MC who is one of two Noble pathers:
My sole male MC that I play as (and my second Nobel pather):
Ironically the one that I can’t find anything for is who I consider my sorta “main” MC. But, c’est la vie, I suppose I’ve gotta wait before finding someone who fits for them.
So I’m about a month late and 300 posts too late but as I’ve been quite absent from the forums for awhile please allow me to gawk at and praise your return. And at all the glorious updates I’ve yet to try! This is definitely one of my favorite wips and just about the only thread I’ll comb through for your witty and interesting comments. So I’m glad your back. And alive! Unless your actually some kind of lizard replacement in which case o would like to formally surrender to our new reptilian overlords.
Stand right there, I’m going to make my dog give you the old slobbering kiss for all of these good deeds, you wonderful son of a gun. I just had the cutest idea for fanfic based on the details you just gave us, good o’ fanfics. I actually was in the middle of writing one before this but it’s more for solidifying the characters’ personalities.
Momo falling in love sounds so wonderful I’m wiping a tear here, this is very not good for me heart. Though, Radjack’s is hilarious because it’s so relatable :DDD
Wait, I don’t know if others asked but is Flash because MC is flashy or fast or quick-witted?
It isn’t fair. And I’m not going to stop either. None of you can stop me now, the wheels of this terrible engine are turning under their own power now…
See? It all worked out in the end.
The most illuminating part of the whole exchange was the complete shock on both her and Jhenna’s face when that bold strategy actually worked.
Put enough effort into cultivating charm and political points and you might be able to convince them to put aside their romantic rivalries and agree to a provisional power-sharing deal over your disputed territories…
I’ll be sure to give you a tap on the metaphorical shoulder once I start putting the real wiring into the story.
That’s a toughie, I can’t really give too much away on this, but they will come to know what you truly are in relatively short order, and despite any sorrow or misgivings, they will still choose to hide and protect you.
So infer what you will from that, I suppose.
These are some solid picks here, I can especially see Kangana Ranaut fitting right in with the Rebels.
See, that’s interesting. Is that due to your main MC looking unusual (using the ‘special’ gene mods for skin, hair etc) or is it that you have a particular face in mind that sort of only exists in your head?
Happy to be back, do make yourself at home and grab a drink as the tray passes.
Well I certainly don’t think that I’m a reptiloid enforcer… But then again I do like to lie on flat rocks in the summer, so…
My body is ready.
I am genuinely excited to see what you come up with. You will let me see it, won’t you?!
Haha… neither.
Flash is a nickname given based on the fact that they spent most of their childhood buck-nekkid.
See after school everyone would go and play in the quarries (super unsafe but it isn’t like you could just toss them an iPad or whatever) and Flash’s mum was Proud™ and would tan the hide of any child of hers who dirtied up their clothes.
Flash’s solution was to store them in a sack, safely deposit them in a crack in the rock and spend the entire afternoon sprinting around the quarry as naked as a jaybird, often accruing a thick crust of dust and mud for your troubles. If caught by the miners a hoseful of icy water would scour the worst of it off…
However if you’d like to preserve your MC’s dignity, just pretend they were a little bit more like this:
This would be easy to do for “Lord” Flash, but somehow I see rebel Flash racking up far less political points. The charm though may stay the same, just expressed differently or at least more directly.
I infer that the rebs just got even more adorable then they already were.
Of course that much sugary sweet goodness may be bad for somebody like me who usually thrives on angst.
Well the original Flash as a successful magician would have needed to be relatively strong, dexterous, charming and most of all clever in order to fool people with his acts of “magic”. Not to mention quite the “flashy” showman as well as the over-the-top flashiness is just another trick many real life magicians employ too in order to misdirect their audiences/targets.
In my headcanon that did extend to a love of slightly more “flashy” and extravagant clothing then his peers whenever he could lay his hands on some. Which may, among other things, be what caught the attention of mr. Gray in the first place and made him the target for Calinas little project in the first place. So the fact that original Flash already worked to stand out a bit from the drab crowds around him may have been a big contributing factor to the original getting “selected” and ultimately killed come to think of it.
Poor original Flash…
Yep, Flash certainly wasn’t modest and did have a bit of trouble keeping his clothes on. And from the opening it seems this “trait” does translate to our Myrmidon mc’s, particularly in the noble opening. 
Well if she sends him after the adorable rebs, I hope Lord Flash and the Chevalier can frustrate his efforts and make his life much more difficult. On the other hand I’d like to see him try to go after Arinthas and Vitruvian as they seem quite capable of handling that situation by themselves.
Good news, I definitely will. Bad news, the current one’s about as long as I anticipated, which means I will crack my back editing this thing after I’m done with the draft. O well, don’t kill me if Radjack and/or Momo, or anyone else to be honest, end up being OOC, I make my own characters sound OOC, my own characters.
I’m trying to make the Android one more innocent and naive than Flash and more robotic, by-the-book. It’s a work-in-progress.
Though, now that I think about how the news sink in for the rebel that this isn’t their Flash and they, they need time to mourn, Moreau, please don’t throw them into the angst pit. Let them grieve, my poor children.
An excerpt blep near the end
“…Wait. Hold up, are you saying.”
“Well, you never asked.”
“What. Rostrum, are you messing with me?”
“Not now, at least.”
“I spent two months grieving over this.”
“That long? And you didn’t tell me?”
“Be quiet, I’m trying to process this.”
“Well, take all the time you need but there’s a way to make this go faster, you know.”
I’m surprisingly fine with this information and will embrace it fully. Let’s have the Rebels comment on their tendency for exhibitionism at least once.
On a side note, inspired by idonotlikeusernames, I tried to find a faceclaim for mine and I’m offended how I can only find face claim for my male Flash. The treachery! It’s so hard to find one for nonbinary Asian Flash.
The fun fact about this is that you could deliver the very same statement in a grand world domination speech and nobody would bat an eye. (Probably also because they’d all be puppeted by Dot-tech by that point but y’know… It’s the thought that counts.)
I’m gonna infer the same as @idonotlikeusernames here. They’re even more adorable then before and my heart is breaking even more for them then before.
Thank you! And right? Especially in that picture. She has a very… rebellious look about her. And I love it.
More that I have a particular face in mind that kinda sorta only exists in my head. That and my main MC is nonbinary and sadly nonbinary actors are hard to find. (Especially when you’re bad with paying attention to actors like myself).
Have I mentioned that I absolutely positively love that this is the reason for their nickname? And that it makes me love Flash as a character? And that it makes me even sadder that they’re dead? This is the gift that keeps on giving.
I want to protect the rest of the rebels as best as I can now… and I have a feeling you’re going to make that hard to do, haha.
I think it’s almost impossible for me to pick anything other than the rebel path after reading that 
Yeah rebel path is the one that tugs at the heart strings, join the plucky underdogs who love you.
That being said, I look forward to the technomancer path Being started to see what that’s like.
Ditto. I, personally, am especially interested in Ariadne’s character. She may get me to pull away from Radjack for a hot second, based on what we know so far~
Speaking of, in the codex, it says that she likes to write ‘letters’ to people. Would we be able to see an example of one of those letters?
Ryoko Hirosue for my brainiac, who is small and scrawny and rather irritable about it. She goes with Arinthas due to a mix of intellectual curiosity and being just arrogant enough to be easily swayed by the notion of having some grand destiny.
Anna Walton in her Hellboy 2 getup for my social chameleon. She will start a commie revolution with Radjack and friends.
I’m undecided about my warrior. Either he has red skin, white hair and yellow eyes (the most visually alarming combination I can think of) or he’ll have the look of an affable, unassuming boy-next-door type concealing the literal murder machine underneath.
