Bread, and all variations of the aforementioned

Relatively short update, though with some important lore courtesy of Three. A new Marginal enters the stage. Her character is: Yes, I am homophobic. Yes, I am gay. We exist.

Originally a one-off character, she is now more important in the story, though still not one of the main characters. She will eventually appear in a lot of flashbacks or past events, as their personality has changed throughout the years.

In this chapter, we get our first explicit mention of the Objects. Eventually, they will play a more important role and we will meet some more developed Objects with more distinct personalities, but for Cycle One I am trying to lay out the rules of the world first before delving into much characterisation.

A segue: if I were to choose, the ideal format of Bread AVOTA would not be a comic but a video game. The concept would have you visiting each specific Marginalian world and being able to openly explore the areas. This would give one the freedom to naturally learn about the lore at one's own pace and choose which order of Marginal and Objects to interact with first.

A game is impossible for me to make though. I think the major pitfall of a comic format is that the order which the lore and characters are introduced is entirely dependent on me, which I feel heavily disrupts the actual pacing. I would have wanted. I know part of the issue is my own lack of skill, but it really is a challenge to work with the undesired medium.

Anyway, if I were to change anything now, I really would have slowed down the pacing. I said in a previous note I started rushing into img/img/ch7/ but I wish I had the energy and resources to devote more time into it. My desire is to really flesh out each Marginalian World. However, barely any of the World of the Curator will be shown, with the arc dwelling not on her World per se but the rules/logistics/etc. of entering a Marginalian World. A shame because hers is a particularly beautiful one.

Well, here is some self-indulgent lore about my self-indulgent species:

As has already been mentioned, each Marginal represents a World / Universe (in the story these two terms are interchangeable). Specifically, though, they represent a Dead one, as only one World can be Living at a time.

The Marginals have their own evolutionary history, meaning their abilities, appearances, goals, physiology, etc. have changed over time. They always retain the name Marginal because they reside in/as the Margins of Reality, but the Marginals of yore barely resemble the current ones.

All Marginals can 'update' indefinitely though, so even the oldest Marginals have the same core 'features' as the youngest ones. Case in point: the first Marginal, the Media.

Er, something like that. You could argue differently depending on your own philosophical beliefs… Marginals that 'embody' the same World are typically considered the 'same' Marginal, even when they are made of an entirely new set of Memories and barely if at all resemble or even recall/recognise their predecessors.

It is a typical 'Ship of Theseus' problem, although I think "perpetual stew' is a bit more accurate (and is also a funny pun). The perpetual stew of the primordial soup!

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The Media is quite a dorky and affable character, isn't he?

That was not really intentional. Originally, he was not going to be a main character. In fact, his only main appearance was originally just the SIU MV. When I was describing him to myself, I would think of him as an edgy, suave spin doctor type with blatantly edgy sadism to boot.

I have no idea why though but when it was time to actually write his appearances I just kept making him so jovial all the time, with his edginess turned into a joke. Even his Joker-esque smile turned cute. I suppose it's like a 'parody' of Tumblr Sexymen, although I'm not sure I think of him as a true parody. He's still 'meant' to be a straightforward Tumblr Sexyman. I suppose he's just 'a little to the left' the way everthing about the Marginals is.

I find I enjoy this characterisation more though. If anything, my new desire for Media particularly as the Marginalian 'leader' is to make him seem a bit careless and somewhat incompetent, as if he has no idea what he is doing. I feel as if the Marginals view him as the leader in the sense of him being the oldest, and with recognition for his technological prowess [ as by far the most important Marginalian achievement is their 'magical technology' ]

Personality-wise however he is probably recognised as quite, uh, awkward and easily agitated, and maybe quite condescending, but the Marginals see no reason to contest him anyway as he generally gets his job done, and most of the 'major' Marginal issues are solved not by direct interaction with each other but by automation and the Judges nowadays.

… that aside, the role Media plays is seen as a burden by everyone else and even if a Marginal feels they could play leader better, they would not want to. As a species they tend to avoid responsibilities and obligations [ and the primary purpose of having species-specific Laws is to force them into it ], which is why you get even the most competent Marginals like Reception, capable of running the country themself, refuse to even be a part of the Council.

mfw when armless, like the Homestuck.