British culture is hard to explain if you don't live here, Just tell me where she's from in the UK and ill explain it.

If she grew up with the legend of the Dragon Slayer, she'd probably be born somewhere in Sussex, England, right? If so, let's go with that.

[trivial stuff] Actually, she WOULD have been born in modern Sussex (or whatever's correct) if she was alive today, but in her time (3500s or something), all these places technically don't exist anymore, so she was born in a place that was only named after Sussex.

The 90,000 survivors of The Invasion of 2200 were all relocated to Australia. The land was terraformed and the continent was expanded - a gigantic 300+ meter barrier of Hard Light was formed around the continent to guard against The Hive. (There's more to this, obviously, but I wanna get that out of the way.)

They then rebuilt the world and society evolved for 1000+ years. So the issue is this: The UK of 3500 is not the UK of 2014.

That said, about a century before the story begins, people started readopting the cultural/societal norms of their ancestors in some weird Renaissance way. For a while, every kind of era coexisted with each other through fashion and the media, and it was a really weird time. By the time of the story proper, things have settled to look like the 2010s-2090s, but with advanced societal norms and things like Hard Light. Cultures have also settled into a similar state to what they were when The Invasion happened, since humanity wants to "take back what was lost."

This would result in my British character growing up in a similar way that you might have. [/trivial]

...So, I guess explaining all that was kind of useless. BUT, it helped me flesh some stuff out, so whatever.

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Edit: Making some big adjustments to the main characters, and this one become slightly more important.

^So If they just went through a "renaissance" of sorts, does this mean they are entering an "industrial revolution", especially with the tech of the DBO? What is the most important INVENTION, not rediscovery, of these future humans?

I think the most important invention they've come up with is Hard Light.

You can "sculpt" it to almost any shape and it can be modded to take the aesthetic appearance of anything (like video games skins for characters or items). It's as common in this future as wood, metal and plastic are in our time.

The one thing that you cannot do with it (not because it's forbidden, but because it's impossible) is create organic material - in other words, you can't create animals or humans, or plants or food. Any gelatinous materials or plushy things can't be properly emulated as well, so it's limited to hard materials.

It was first developed because of scarce resources, and it had a relatively innocent use. When the monsters found their way on the continent, Xeuss weaponized it.

It's important to the story because the Engineers have it mastered to the point where they began creating nearly-organic material with it. It explains their weird biomechanical aesthetic, it explains why they all look the same, and it also explains the origin of the technology that eventually became the black goo.

^ That's pretty damn cool Bloo, but I have one very important question. Are all the Engineers bald or just some of them?

Something tells me that smooth skin is highly coveted by them, so they're probably all bald. I don't remember if any of them had hair though, so feel free to point that out.

An idea I'm playing with is that those extremely toned/beefed up bodies aren't their real ones. They're masters of organic creation - surely they found a way to create host bodies that have all the ideal characteristics of Engineer culture, like big muscles, humongous stature (compared to humans), perpetually hairless skin, etc.

The human Attractor Field was born of the Engineer's Attractor Field (actually, it IS the same Attractor Field, but that's a long story), so Engineers were probably a lot like us at one point... or they still are, and those big bodies ARE indeed perfect host bodies that need minimal food/sleep. Maybe as time went on, they evolved to a point where their natural bodies just became weaker and weaker, so they NEEDED to create host bodies?

In any case, the host bodies are human as well, but just bigger and better. They still age (which explains that old Engineer), but not as fast as their normal human bodies. They probably start out as fetuses and what not.

Aside from that, that's all I have. I dunno what their societies are like. I'll leave it up to Dark Horse's new Prometheus comic to give me all the other stuff that doesn't matter as much.

Edit: Last year I was thinking that all the Engineers had some kind of cancer or something, but the idea never developed beyond that. I like the host body theory more.

I could see that Bloo, but by this point wouldn't they just procreate with these superior bodies since they wouldn't need the old ones at all anyway? Future generations only seem to biologically improve unless they're inbred or something.

That's something I'm working out - I imagine that no matter what they do, their "perfect" bodies can't create a new host body, just another normal human body. So, their only choice is to artificially clone these host bodies.

That, and/or the host bodies aren't capable of reproduction. They probably make it that way so that they're relieved of any mental/physical inconveniences that come with the male/female reproduction systems/organs.

I dunno, nothing's set in stone yet.

I dunno, maybe. They seem like the types to be overly indulgent to me, considering all their actions of selfishness. Sort of like the ancient Romans, but they were dumbasses, but I guess the Engineers are too. Considering their own black goo stuff basically put them into extinction and all, but the Romans did store wine in lead pipes, so... it's kind of a tough call which ones were bigger dumbasses.

Then again they could also easily be extreme proods all up in their science stuff, but there are always deviants. Plus the "what is this "ice cream" of which you speak?" stuff is always funny. Though I don't know if you have any Engineer characters, except the main villain one, right?

Yeah, deep down they're just a bunch of assholes, but they weren't all like the one that fought Shaw in Prometheus. All of the Engineers seen in the beginning of Prometheus + Alien's Space Jockey were probably really nice... like Engineer versions of The Doctor, probably.

Anyway, yeah, so far the only actual Engineer character I have is the villain. He's one of the few Engineers whose mind and soul weren't compatible with a host body, so he has a human-looking body. Also, he's a smart son of a bitch who helped develop the black and red Liquid Weapons. BUT, despite that, everyone looked down on him for "being weak," though his physical appearance was considered beautiful, even for their standards.

There's a prototype of his design SOMEWHERE in pages 21-28, but it's not final.

Is he the white haired dude on page 27?

I can think of a few reasons why they would be so smooth skinned and hairless. If they are members of sort of a cross between a Scientific organization and a Military one, it could be regulation like how the Army and such make their members have short hair. If it is a Science/Military group the hairlessness might be because how many contaminating particles and stuff one can carry in their hair/non-smooth skin.

Also if it is sort of a Military-ish group(since they are fucking up other peoples Attractor Fields and such in a hostile way) it would explain the helmet difference between the Space Jockey from Alien and the Engineer from Prometheus, the crested helmet of the Space Jockey being a sign of high rank or something, like he was Grand Prefect of some shit, or Minister of something if you want to get a more biblical or scientific vibe going. It's actually kind of funny how similar scientific and religious stuff is sometimes considering how they're frequently in conflict with one another.

It could just be a visual preference as well, sort of an advanced "Superior" appearance(in their opinion). It could just be what gets them horny too, for all we know. Or something their perfect host bodies just cant do, I mean if it was perfect at everything except growing and sort of hair I'd still use it.

Yeah, that's him. At first glance, he's meant to embody the typical "light haired/red eyed" pretty boy trope that's so well known in anime. Upon closer inspection, though, it'll be clear that he's meant to deconstruct that trope and show people that these ideas aren't inherently bad.*

I just wanna give depth to character types that don't usually get it. It's ambitious for an AVP fan-fic, but whatever - I wanna do it.

Anyway, that all sounds good, actually. BUT, I do wanna wait to see what Dark Horse comes up with in the new Prometheus comic - though I might not like what they create, so I'll consider your stuff for the time being.




*But the main reason I wanted to give him white hair and red eyes was so that he could have something in common with the main character. And indeed, they were both shunned for being different and they're both really smart - they could have easily been in each other's position, so it's a "not so different" kind of thing.

Edit: His character isn't one that I have as developed as the others. I know his basic story development and I have a definite ending planned, but a lot of things about him aren't fleshed out yet.

That's really cool, I'm pretty pumped to see this stuff in action. Also sorry to bombard you with ideas and stuff, I hope I'm not smothering you, I'm just really fascinated with your whole comic and how it works and stuff.

I didn't know they were making a Prometheus comic, that's cool.

Nah, it's cool that you guys are interested in this. I enjoy the questions because there's a chance you guys might bring something up that I haven't thought about, or you might suggest something better than what I already have.

I actually don't know anything about the Prometheus comic's story, but I hope it's alright.

Yeah, I hope it's decent too.

So I was sitting on the steps up to my bed thinking(it's a lofted bed), and after thinking about how I need to eat more often, I started thinking about your black goo and Space Jockeys and hard light technology.

Is the black goo in your work basically semi-organic hard light slime that is reactive to organic material and sort of merges with it? Also a hard light sword would be one bitchin' weapon.

Yeah, that's basically what it is. The black goo is an advanced form of Hard Light.

It's so advanced that it's pretty much a completely different thing than what human's Hard Light is. At the base of it all, it's just Hard Light, but it can emulate organic material almost perfectly. I say "almost" because it's not 100% organic - the only truly organic parts of a Black Liquid Monster came from the thing it mutated. However, if the creature is created as an embryo in a Xenomorph-like life-cycle, only 1% is truly organic material (because that 1% came from the host).

Anyway, HARD LIGHT SWORD. The Hard Light Gunblade is actually a DBO weapon. Think of the Forerunner weapons in Halo 4, except they're also swords. (It's partly Rule of Cool, but there's also a very good reason the soldiers needs to start using swords as opposed to guns.)

The idea would work poorly if it were made with metal and other such materials (like the pistol swords from a few centuries ago), but with Hard Light, there's virtually no recoil and absolutely no chance of a dull blade. They're kind of like lightsabers in that they can never be dented or scratched. BUT, they can't cut through anything. Still, they can shoot.

Awesomeness. Pure Awesomeness.

OK. I haven't been good on updating, especially not last month. Let me tell you what's up:

ART STUFF:

- Over these past 5 months, I realized I need to learn a lot of shit to bring my vision to life. So, the actual story won't start up for another 2 years, at best.

- BUT, for the sake of this year's 10th anniversary, every member WILL have a design finished before December. Said designs might change in the future, but you'll have at least a prototype.

- I've still been drawing a lot. BUT, the only thing I've drawn for you guys is the monsters. No new human stuff I want to show you. I've drawn humans a LOT, but all of it is just practice. Like I said, I have a lot to learn.

- I won't show you any of the monsters till later. I like updating in bulk and I feel this is for the best, in case I need to make any last minute edits to earlier designs.

- For example, it was a mistake to show you those early designs for the Dragon and Chiropteran - they look different now. Don't even get me started on how much the human characters have been changing; they're really different from what was previously shown and they'll keep changing until I'm satisfied. That's why I don't want to keep updating, because it would be a waste of time. I know it's hard to trust that I'm actually doing something, but I am. It's just changing a lot.

STORY STUFF:

- I haven't continued writing my outline since February. I'm scrapping it and starting a new draft.

- "Instrumentality" is a working title. It'll be called "The Atomist."

- A big reason this won't start up for a long time is because I need to learn about a lot of different cultures. Some of you guys have been good in helping me with that, but there's still so much I need to learn.

- And also sexualities/gender identities. Those need representation, too.

- So much has changed.

- This is definitely, absolutely, at its core, pure fan-fiction, so I technically have license to use the characters from all the franchises I'm throwing into the same bucket, but... I don't wanna do that. I don't even wanna use characters from Alien/Predator. It would distract too much. Imagine Danny Glover in a Gundam, fighting a Lacuna-made Terminator in the Dream World. That's not what's gonna happen. I'm not writing fan-fiction about the characters, I'm writing fan-fiction about the worlds, and what would happen if they all existed in the same continuity.

- Obviously Alien/Predator will take presidence over everything else, so that aesthetic will come out the most. It's hard bringing Giger's style out in animation-style. Still learning.

- I'm just gonna drop this on you: Chiropterans can shapeshift because their bodies are 100% Particle-Wave Matter, aka Hard Light. Particle-Wave Matter is, to put it simply, "organic" Hard Light. It's the same stuff the Xenos are made of. No, Xenos can't shapeshift. It's complicated.

- I mentioned all the cool shit Hard Light can do, so how do Predators even stand a chance? I'm working on the science behind this, but basically, plasma bolts can fuck up a Hard Light configuration. So, yeah, hot things are bad for Hard Light armor (Xeno blood included). Am I making any sense? You know what I'm trying to get at, right? Would that work?

- Teleportation is not a thing. It will never be a thing.

- That's all I can think of right now. So yeah, sorry for no pics since Christmas. I'll make it up to you with the creature designs.

- Oh, yeah - all the Black Liquid Monsters are made of that Particle-Wave Matter stuff. They're just known as animals, though, and not all of them want to kill humans. It's weird. I know it's weird. I'll clear that up later.

It's fine Bloo, I can relate on how art for projects changes over time and concepts for the storyline itself change, too. I look forward to December more than just for the next Hobbit movie now. I wish you luck in this endeavor Bloo.

Oh boy, gender identity. Here's partially why I don't support the idea that a concept that applies to bodies should also apply to the individuals that inhabit those bodies.