Heya, folks! Chief here with… GET OFF THE KEYBOARD, FUZZY! Crikey, I can’t go five minutes without him deciding that the best place to sleep is my keyboard. He’s finally found a place between my keyboard and the monitor, but that gives him the perfect place to swipe at my fingers as I type. There’s only so far adorable can take you… At least he is giving me more ideas for Alexi. Anyway, back to the update!

Wordcount: 3411 (This week was mostly focused on getting Brilliant Shadows and RA: Spark off of my books, so I didn’t get as much writing time as I’ve been in coding hell. Good news is that they should be off my plate soon and full efforts will return to Fates. Going to start my marathon. My goal is to get 100,000 words done before the end of March. I want all of the core done for the voice actors.)

Merchandise shipping: Weather and the front office made all of my shipping materials take forever to get to me. They held it for two weeks without telling me… Anyway, I’m getting the stuff in the mail this week.

Sprite update: Almost all of the sprites are done! Only two supporting characters, both of whom are unlikely to survive to the end of Fates, are awaiting to be finished (currently sketches) and Natalie’s sprite needs to be started. That will bring our final cast to… 21 people. Here’s one of the finished sprites that was just delivered to me, another one of the minor characters you will meet in your journey. Bonus points to those people who can recognize the character as she belonged to an apprentice of mine who had to quit for health reasons.

Last week’s questions: To all the folks who have sent me comments, messages, and e-mails, thank you so much! I’m behind in getting all the responses out, but I have read and appreciate everyone’s feedback. Right now, the pro-Name protagonist group has a pretty dominate lead in that aspect. I’m going to let the sister rivalry go forward. Now, the three-way fight for the route isn’t going as cleanly. It’s a pretty close fight between Syl and Yoi. Turns out very few people love Lenna after the Sol debacle, so she’s been eliminated. I’m gonna let another week go for more opinions. Also gonna talk about Yoi this week.

Voice acting update: One week left to audition for the 6 largest roles in Fates! There have been a staggering amount of auditions so far. If you don’t get chosen, there will still be chances to work with the studio for the large number of supporting characters. I mean, Faye isn’t even part of the first run. Tons of awesome characters still are coming.

Today’s update is going to be about Yoi since she’s currently leading the pack. This is a bit of an old update, but it is still a good one, pertinent, and pretty likely nobody ever read it back in 2012. I updated it to match Fates.

Name: Yoi Mono

Age: 20

Gender: Female

Species: Half-Elf

Birthday: November 15 (Earth Standard System)

Favorite Pet: Bubbles

Bio: The daughter of a Katajion Director and granddaughter of the Trilani Rangers’ patriarch, many thought that she would have a life of ease. However, her father was assassinated in office while she was only three. She was then sent to live with her mother as an elven ranger trainee. Many in the community resented Minako Mono’s husband, leading to her exile from the world of Troplain. The council also wished to banish the young Yoi, but the Patriarch refused, saying she had commit no offense and would permit the girl to continue training as a ranger and the eventual heiress of the Trilani Rangers.

Yoi grew up with very few friends, suffering the scorn of being a half-elf in a pure blood society. Nonetheless, she tried her best to make friends, often coming off as hyperactive and talkative to conceal her loneliness. In an effort to help his granddaughter out and get her away from the racism, a deal was brokered between the Katajion Directorship to permit Yoi to attend the Space Academy, making her the first Trilani ranger to also attempt to be a combat pilot.

After her academy days, Yoi was assigned to a squadron with former friends Lenna Edeck and Sol Hackett. Unbeknownst to them, Yoi was on an assignment for the Trilani Rangers. Her mission was to assassinate Commander Anton Rogers. After her mission failed due to shifting mission objectives, Yoi accepted a mercenary job as Commander Roger’s bodyguard (Anton is a bit of an odd man…). Yoi now serves as Anton’s personal pilot, tracker, and occasional pain in the butt.

Chief’s notes: Yoi is a reoccurring villain in pretty much everything she’s ever been in, despite her best efforts to be on the side of good and justice. She’s manipulative and crafty, but she gets rerouted easily. When I was first developing her character, I started out with a slightly modified Rikku for FF10. Yoi was a very minor character who was there for an energetic comic relief character for Lenna. That didn’t stick. Yoi was a very dynamic character who kept ending up in places I never intended her to be.

One thing that has always ate at me while writing Yoi is her energetic, bubbly personality. It always seemed to suit her so well, but something just felt wrong. It was like petting a cat the wrong way. It is still fuzzy, but you know your hand was just seconds from being shredded by claws. Her happiness felt legitimate, but at the same time, I could see her using her own nature as a shield from her feelings. Yoi would be sad, hurt, and emotionally ripped apart in a scene, but she’d just keep acting like everything was fine. The more I wrote her, the more it dawned on me that I didn’t understand a thing about the character I had created. It took me several rewrites and books before I finally saw the true Yoi, a mature girl hurt by years of solitude, forced to hide behind a mask so long that she couldn’t figure out which was her true self.

One thing that is rather special about Yoi is that she’s the first character I’ve ever drawn. I used to draw her so much! Since I’ve dropped out of art, she doesn’t get drawn nearly as much. One thing people might notice is the difference in her hair from Rising Angels and Katajion’s Dream to Anton’s Vacation. To me, it seemed fitting as she uncovered more and more of her true self and found her place in the universe. I personally liked the short, spiky style more, but as we move away from her early days, we move back to her longer curly hair.

In Red Rose (and subsequently Hope), Yoi is slowly adapting to a world where everyone ISN’T out to get her. The problem is that she still has a very “ME” attitude, which results in a lot of pain for Faye. While she grows to realize that there is more to the world than making herself happy, Yoi still is a pretty two-faced friend. Fates’s Yoi has grown up a bit, both physically and emotionally. Under Anton’s tutelage and support, Yoi has managed to conquer some of the ghosts of her past. While she is still a pretty heavy flirter and still a tad greedy and selfish, Yoi’d learned to harness her talents to help those she cares about. Murder and manipulation, Yoi can do it all with a smile. There is still a torrent of confusion behind it, but the smile she gives is more often real than her favorite mask. If Yoi gets the route over Syl, rest assured that it will be the most upbeat of them all.

And that wraps up the twentieth Fates weekly update! Can you believe I’m still out here ranting every week since August? I’m amazed as well! Next week we should have some CG art to share and some chit-chats about Syl.  Until next time, Chief out!

Video of the post? Of course! I stumbled on this video again recently.  Such awesomeness.