So, February is passing by quickly, and the new schedule is in full swing! As much as things change, they also seem to stay the same. As much as I would love to start an all new, original series, I'm finding myself drawn back to the series that were the initial roots of Square Zero.
The lone exception to this is Tentacle University. While set in the same universe as Accidental Demon Slayers and Pom Pom Angel, the series is kind of the odd duck out, and I couldn't be more grateful for that fact. The stories being told in that series are dark and twisted, and allow me to explore storytelling that I wouldn't dare explore in the other series. There is a kind of freedom to not sticking to mythology and just letting each story become its own entity. While Tentacle University was a more straight forward action story, Tentacle University 2: The Sorority is becoming something very different, with more of a focus on human drama, and truly twisted characters.
Even New Pom Pom Angel is a change up for me. Normally my stories tend to work in longer arcs, but I'm finding that Missy and her friends work better in shorter arcs that tell simpler, character focused stories. I'm not saying there won't be longer stories later, but for right now the series is working best as a series of short, fun tales about the lives and loves of these characters. It is also a nice contrast to the extreme darkness that is Tentacle University and Eye See You.
Speaking of Eye See You, Infection has kind of changed things up for the series. Instead of shorter, character hopping arcs, this current arc is running much longer than I had originally planned, and is staying focused on just one character. While I'm tempted to change things up, just to fit the format of the first year, I'm realizing that the story I'm needing to tell, and the ground work I need to lay for the future of the series, requires me to stick with Dave for a while longer. The changes that I've made to the world of Eye See You require me to establish a lot of details, especially the new threat of Virus, and so form must be pushed aside to allow the story to be told.
Even Rituals, and the Rebirth Cycle as a whole, is shifting. Instead of just focusing on life in a demon infested world, I'm looking at the series as a way to pull all my other work together, blending in characters from all my other series to create a larger adventure. It has actually been fun for me to figure out how I'll pull in specific characters, and what roles they will play once they are worked into the story.
The one thing that has changed in a big way was my original plans for the Cycles. Basically, the Suffering Cycle is dead. Well, maybe not dead, but for now it isn't really a thing. Letters from the Dead still happened, and the events will still work into future Accidental Demon Slayers stories, but the actual plan I had for the Cycle just didn't seem to work out. I may use the moniker in the future for when doing Accidental Demon Slayers side stories, but the full idea of the cycle has kind of dissolved. Those things happen, and the important part is how one recovers from an idea going up in smoke.
So, there is the state of things here at Square Zero. Hopefully everyone enjoys the series!
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