Spiteful Murkrow
Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
- Partners
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Author’s Note: This trivia section was written under the assumption that readers had caught up with the full length of the story up to this point. If you’re stumbling across this from before Chapter 16, strongly consider revisiting it sometime after catching up.
What inspired you to write Once a Thief?
How did you come up with Lyle?
How did you come up with Kate?
How did you come up with Dalton?
How did you come up with Alvin?
What PMD Games Did You Base Wander On?
You mentioned Xeno game influences earlier, what's that all about?
Why is there so much German?
What’s with the teasers?
What inspired you to write Once a Thief?
Once a Thief originated as a thought exercise during a creative rut in May stemming from a series of DMs with @Venia Silente in May 2019 about a throwaway premise for a shorter story with a more simplistic plot following Outlaws being forced to carry out an escort mission while being pursued and having to use their skillsets as thieves in the pursuit of a task more conventionally reserved for heroes.
The premise was revisited in an initial elevator pitch doc and progressively built on an on-and-off basis over the rest of the year, with the explicit goal of creating a work that would stand apart from Fledglings to avoid worrying about tripping over continuity and worldbuilding details due to it being a collaborative work and to experiment with different tones and atmospheres. As it so happened, those initial opening drabbles were being created in the backdrop of playthroughs of a few games from the Xenoblade series, which wound up influencing stand-in names and characters during the initial outlining phase, and eventually larger story themes after I started seeing resonance between their atmosphere and the one of the plot I wanted to tell.
Thanks to obvious events in 2020, I had a bit more idle time than normal that year, and opted to experiment with NaNoWriMo writings, which were primarily devoted to a script-level outline of the story as a whole that by the spring of 2021 added up to one that was largely complete. Looking over the work that I had built up up to that point ultimately convinced me it was worth setting aside worries about being overburdened and to take a leap of faith with actually publishing the story.
As recently as six months prior to initial publishing, a number of major structural details of the story were in flux, with concurrent readthroughs of other fics at the time helping to shape the final product. In particular Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rebirth along with a revisiting of Knightfall’s general body of work helped to zero in on setting details by coincidentally happening to touch on similar themes and tones, while one of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor was ultimately what convinced me not to airbrush out the Xeno series references that had piled up during draft development, but instead to indulge my inner hack and lean into them in order to share what I enjoyed about my experiences with that franchise with a new audience.
The premise was revisited in an initial elevator pitch doc and progressively built on an on-and-off basis over the rest of the year, with the explicit goal of creating a work that would stand apart from Fledglings to avoid worrying about tripping over continuity and worldbuilding details due to it being a collaborative work and to experiment with different tones and atmospheres. As it so happened, those initial opening drabbles were being created in the backdrop of playthroughs of a few games from the Xenoblade series, which wound up influencing stand-in names and characters during the initial outlining phase, and eventually larger story themes after I started seeing resonance between their atmosphere and the one of the plot I wanted to tell.
Thanks to obvious events in 2020, I had a bit more idle time than normal that year, and opted to experiment with NaNoWriMo writings, which were primarily devoted to a script-level outline of the story as a whole that by the spring of 2021 added up to one that was largely complete. Looking over the work that I had built up up to that point ultimately convinced me it was worth setting aside worries about being overburdened and to take a leap of faith with actually publishing the story.
As recently as six months prior to initial publishing, a number of major structural details of the story were in flux, with concurrent readthroughs of other fics at the time helping to shape the final product. In particular Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rebirth along with a revisiting of Knightfall’s general body of work helped to zero in on setting details by coincidentally happening to touch on similar themes and tones, while one of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor was ultimately what convinced me not to airbrush out the Xeno series references that had piled up during draft development, but instead to indulge my inner hack and lean into them in order to share what I enjoyed about my experiences with that franchise with a new audience.
How did you come up with Lyle?
Lyle’s origins are a two-part story, with his role in the story originating as a stand-in character role from a “Freudian Trio” of Outlaws that was used to initially cast the main characters outside of Irune, with Lyle being the “Ego” of the party and arbiter between a competing “Id” and “Superego”. Species was the next major detail of the party to be settled, with trios built around complementing types considered and Quilava chosen after settling on a fire-electric-ice trio.
Lyle’s underlying character significantly predates the process of building out the party roles, with him being a take off a character that I used in PBP RPs in the early 2010s. Said character was a bit of a troublemaker that was named as a throwaway after a character from Animal Crossing: Wild World. After fine-tuning his present portrayal to ebb towards being more withdrawn and cynical, he was a relatively natural fit. Lyle’s name ultimately kept unchanged due to it semantically meaning “the island”, which happened to fit thematically with the premise of a withdrawn character being forced to open up to others over the course of the story, and the rest was history.
Lyle’s underlying character significantly predates the process of building out the party roles, with him being a take off a character that I used in PBP RPs in the early 2010s. Said character was a bit of a troublemaker that was named as a throwaway after a character from Animal Crossing: Wild World. After fine-tuning his present portrayal to ebb towards being more withdrawn and cynical, he was a relatively natural fit. Lyle’s name ultimately kept unchanged due to it semantically meaning “the island”, which happened to fit thematically with the premise of a withdrawn character being forced to open up to others over the course of the story, and the rest was history.
How did you come up with Kate?
Kate was the last of the “Freudian Trio” to be cast, and filled the role of the group’s “Id” that was primarily in Outlawry to indulge her own impulses, which still reflects in her depiction as a freewheeling and impish spirit. Her species was left floating for several months into development, with Sneasel ultimately settled on due to a mix of playing to type well with a thief character and wanting to try something different as an author.
If Kate’s personality happens to read familiar to you, then you likely have read fairly deep into Fledglings, since in the earliest drafts of the story, Kate was a fairly transparent stand-in of Alice the Sneasel from that story’s supporting cast. While she to this day shares a healthy number of character cues, she evolved in a more grounded and less optimistic direction as development continued on, which reflects in her name, a clipping of “Katherine” that ironically is associated with “pure” as a meaning.
The details of Kate’s character were largely fine-tuned in her presence in Thousand Roads’ Blacklight PBP RP campaign. That’s not to say that every detail of her portrayal there is canon, since it was primarily used as a beta test for the Sneasel thief that you’ve come to know and love, though most of the details of her depiction were nailed down by the end of that campaign, and having knowledge of it might make a few details in this story stand out a bit more.
If Kate’s personality happens to read familiar to you, then you likely have read fairly deep into Fledglings, since in the earliest drafts of the story, Kate was a fairly transparent stand-in of Alice the Sneasel from that story’s supporting cast. While she to this day shares a healthy number of character cues, she evolved in a more grounded and less optimistic direction as development continued on, which reflects in her name, a clipping of “Katherine” that ironically is associated with “pure” as a meaning.
The details of Kate’s character were largely fine-tuned in her presence in Thousand Roads’ Blacklight PBP RP campaign. That’s not to say that every detail of her portrayal there is canon, since it was primarily used as a beta test for the Sneasel thief that you’ve come to know and love, though most of the details of her depiction were nailed down by the end of that campaign, and having knowledge of it might make a few details in this story stand out a bit more.
How did you come up with Dalton?
Dalton was the second member of the original “Fruedian Trio” of Outlaws to be cast as its “Superego”, and intended to be a spirit from a once-privileged background who was led into a life of crime by loftier ambitions than merely grabbing ill-gotten loot and who’d use his profession as a means to chase after them. Dalton is the member of the core trio of Outlaws that was the most “just because” in casting, with his species initially chosen because I needed an Electric-type to fill my targeted dynamic and liked Heliolisk, and his name chosen initially because it sounded a bit more bookish and “stuck-up”, which survived into the final cut due to growing attached to it.
How did you come up with Alvin?
Alvin from the very beginning was cast in mind for being a character that could have a sense of camaraderie with Lyle with the pair balancing out parts of each other’s personality traits, to the point where in initial development, his working name was “Ego’s Friend”. His fate as depicted in the earlier chapters was a detail that was settled very early on in development in order to give more of an emotional punch to Lyle and his teammates’ loss of normalcy, even if there are things in Alvin’s future that are not yet written and a story for when this tale reaches them.
Character-wise, Alvin originates from a character concept for a companion that was meant for Lyle back in my PBP RPing days that was a bit on the naive side, just retooled and aged up a bit and given a less envious backstory. His name in this story was drawn in mind for his meta role as a character, which is a name descended from the Ancient Germanic “Adalwin”, with a meaning of “noble friend”.
Character-wise, Alvin originates from a character concept for a companion that was meant for Lyle back in my PBP RPing days that was a bit on the naive side, just retooled and aged up a bit and given a less envious backstory. His name in this story was drawn in mind for his meta role as a character, which is a name descended from the Ancient Germanic “Adalwin”, with a meaning of “noble friend”.
What PMD Games Did You Base Wander On?
All of them and none of them, as Wander is a setting that grabs bits and pieces of canonical PMD games to inform its mechanics, while not being beholden to them. Of them, Wander leans heaviest on Super and DX to inform its mechanics, and in general, it uses item designs that follow after the ones in DX with only modest, if any alterations. Keen eyes will likely be able to discern that there is also a good deal of trainerverse influence in this setting as well, along with shades of influence from various Xeno series games.
You mentioned Xeno game influences earlier, what's that all about?
As mentioned in the first question of this trivia, Once a Thief was cooked up in a backdrop of being written while I was playing games from that series and took influence from Path of Valor with regard to how to handle its references. Namely to throw caution to the wind and bring in elements from that series wholesale adapted to fit into a Pokémon context with varying degrees of blatantness, as you have likely noticed if any of the characters, places, terms, or general concepts floated in this story strike you as familiar.
Once a Thief attempts to represent elements from across all branches of the Xeno series in it while rearranging them into a (hopefully) unique combination, though some entries are leaned on heavier than others. Of them, Xenoblade X is thus far the most drawn-upon source of inspiration from the series by virtue of it emphasizing a sense of exploration in a large and dangerous world and being the only game in the series that is built in mind with a campaign centered around an OC character, which seemed appropriate for a plot centered around OCs. Xenogears is also homaged more prominently than most other entries of the series by virtue of it being an ur-template for recurring plot points and characters in the series up into its most recent entries, which felt only fitting to lean on in a setting that attempts to borrow the nuts and bolts of the franchise as a whole.
Once a Thief attempts to represent elements from across all branches of the Xeno series in it while rearranging them into a (hopefully) unique combination, though some entries are leaned on heavier than others. Of them, Xenoblade X is thus far the most drawn-upon source of inspiration from the series by virtue of it emphasizing a sense of exploration in a large and dangerous world and being the only game in the series that is built in mind with a campaign centered around an OC character, which seemed appropriate for a plot centered around OCs. Xenogears is also homaged more prominently than most other entries of the series by virtue of it being an ur-template for recurring plot points and characters in the series up into its most recent entries, which felt only fitting to lean on in a setting that attempts to borrow the nuts and bolts of the franchise as a whole.
Why is there so much German?
For a mix of homaging and meta reasons. On the homaging side, German language terminology is fairly prominent in older Xeno games, especially among Xenosaga games, and as a story with a setting that draws influence from the series writ large, incorporating German language content prominently felt like a decent way to incorporate that dynamic.
On the meta side, part of the prominence of German-language content is that my own headcanon about Pokémon is that they do not have a unified language among themselves, which reflects in the worldbuilding of my stories in general. Since hey, Game Freak paid good money coming up with a number of language localizations for their media, and I’ve always liked putting them to good use. In Once a Thief’s case, German is used as a tool for dealing with things from the setting’s past or particular social circles in it, which is why a number of names are German terms that have been phonetically corrupted in an attempt to mimic language drift. In addition, nuances for certain words and phrases in German can often have subtle but important differences from their English counterparts, which for those either with a knowledge of the language or else willing to dig a little deeper, is a handy tool for hinting at things to come in the story.
On the meta side, part of the prominence of German-language content is that my own headcanon about Pokémon is that they do not have a unified language among themselves, which reflects in the worldbuilding of my stories in general. Since hey, Game Freak paid good money coming up with a number of language localizations for their media, and I’ve always liked putting them to good use. In Once a Thief’s case, German is used as a tool for dealing with things from the setting’s past or particular social circles in it, which is why a number of names are German terms that have been phonetically corrupted in an attempt to mimic language drift. In addition, nuances for certain words and phrases in German can often have subtle but important differences from their English counterparts, which for those either with a knowledge of the language or else willing to dig a little deeper, is a handy tool for hinting at things to come in the story.
What’s with the teasers?
They are a flourish that I got the idea from from Knightfall’s writings and then Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rebirth, which are in turn based off a similar style of opener used in Incarceron. It was a flourish that I originally had considered using for Fledglings but ultimately backed out on thanks to a lack of inspiration and revisited for this story as a means of helping to differentiate it from my other works.
The decision to render the teasers in German was settled on within the last 4 months prior to initial release as a vehicle for showing glimpses of the world through the lens of old texts and social circles well outside those of the Outlaw protagonists’. Initial scripts for these teasers are written in English, and then translated by @Torchic into German along with edits to reflect any changes made to keep the German-language prose from reading like the lyrics to a Sawano song. He has my eternal gratitude for his hard work and support he puts into every chapter, and this story wouldn’t be the same without it.
The decision to render the teasers in German was settled on within the last 4 months prior to initial release as a vehicle for showing glimpses of the world through the lens of old texts and social circles well outside those of the Outlaw protagonists’. Initial scripts for these teasers are written in English, and then translated by @Torchic into German along with edits to reflect any changes made to keep the German-language prose from reading like the lyrics to a Sawano song. He has my eternal gratitude for his hard work and support he puts into every chapter, and this story wouldn’t be the same without it.
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