Yasuko got her start in a dream, what would become Chapter 1 of CeleKing2. I had this clear image of this young woman’s daring infiltration of an orbital facility via space elevator (which I had mistakenly identified as a skyhook before further research revealed the difference). I knew she was there for revenge, but the why and how had to be developed later. I believe I developed the trigger for her revenge plot before I had considered establishing Tío Jorge’s role in CeleKing1. The dream had identified her as the daughter of a common-born Imperial Guard (Batista) and a noblewoman (Masako), so when came to explaining why she was down on the service, being put in the care of her father’s extended family seemed like a natural choice. From there, abuse by the ruling Celestials leading to the death of one or both adoptive parents made for an easy justification for revenge. In other words, it didn’t take much effort to sort out the pieces provided to me by my subconscious, so with that out of the way, let’s review the character by the numbers.

Yasuko’s name (寧子) is in honor of Lord Ninghe, who helped Batista and Masako in CeleKing1. (You see the same characters read as “Neko” for the lead female in Brynhildr in the Darkness, but for those of you who are unaware, there are multiple readings for characters in personal names.) The child of a Celestial and an Infernal, she was in an awkward position from birth, ineligible to succeed her mother as head of House Suzuki barring a special dispensation from the Emperor. Although Batista had been knighted when he was inducted into the Imperial Guard, the fact that he was an Infernal would have haunted Yasuko had she been raised in the Capital. In a way, the assassination attempt that resulted her being put in Tío Jorge and Tía Nayeli’s care was ultimately to her benefit. It didn’t last long, but the time she had with Tío Jorge and Tía Nayeli was probably the best of her life. Even after Tía Nayeli died of tuberculosis, Tío Jorge did a pretty good job of taking care of her until he was killed. Now, the choice between being despised in the Capital and the hard-scrabble life she lived after Tío Jorge’s death is less clear. At very least, the experience toughened her up, both mentally and physically, which would prove essential to her survival, but it also fed her more self-destructive tendencies. For six years she did whatever it took to survive, relying on the kindness of strangers when she could but never setting down roots or making any real attachments. She studied ways to fight, learned what she could in various fields to help her put her plan for revenge into action. However, Yasuko is more of a tactical thinker than a strategic one. She can be rather clever in the pursuit of short-term goals yet blind when it comes to seeing the bigger picture. You see this in her occasional reflective moments when she thinks about how she never clearly sorted out the details of how she intended to exact her revenge and to what extent. This gets exploited by Sturla, who uses her impulsiveness to bring her under his power. Though she isn’t without moral sense, it’s been warped by her experiences and her lust for revenge. I can imagine she garners little sympathy with some readers because of this, but that’s partially by design. She is at least fairly self-aware of her shortcomings, not that the sting of her conscience is enough to stop her in most cases.

One point which may be controversial is how much Yasuko’s sexuality factors into her character. She definitely stands out compared to pretty much any other character of mine in that regard. Her age puts her at a stage of development where she isn’t fully matured mentally or physically, which opens up a lot of confusion that is exacerbated by Sturla and how he uses her. The perversity of Celestial society heightens this further. Because of her single-mindedness, Yasuko never really worked to sort out the issues related to establishing her sexual identity, shunning intimacy in all forms in favor of pursuing her goals. This left her extremely vulnerable to someone like Sturla, who uses sex as one of his many weapons. To this end, there are four particular relationships that highlight Yasuko’s struggles.

1. Prince Sturla is bundle of physical and psychological abuse, but as much as he’s basically everything Yasuko hates about the Celestials, she can’t deny her attraction to him. I wanted to explore the concept of physical attraction in spite of whatever a person might think rationally. Of course Yasuko had to deal with the occasional would-be predator during her years on the streets, but she had never been the focus of such concentrated attention in such an (unwantedly) appealing package. The fact that he can so thoroughly dominate her physically adds to that paradoxical appeal. There is an unconscious part of her that seeks submission, which is sharply at odds with her fiercely independent and rebellious personality. A part of her knows this and it only adds to her anger. Now, if you think this undermines Yasuko’s strength as a character, that’s your call, but we have a number of impulses and unconscious drives and what matters most is how we consciously deal with them. In the end, it isn’t the unconscious impulses but the conscious will that drives her to her final confrontation with Sturla. Even though she needed her father’s help to overcome Sturla physically, I would say that she had already won the psychological battle with him. Do with that what you will.

2. Hongxia is in some ways an extension of Sturla’s abuse, but her rivalry with Yasuko puts her in her own category. Compared to the inexperienced and uncertain Yasuko, Hongxia is fully couched in her sexuality and its use as a weapon. She has the task of instructing Yasuko in the tools of her trade, but there isn’t the slightest trace of an amiable master-apprentice relationship. Yasuko’s unwillingness to do what’s demanded of her, her defiance, and Sturla’s interest in her all fuel Hongxia’s anger and jealousy. Yasuko’s prudishness is seen as a slap in the face to the courtesan’s open sexuality and her refusal to submit is an affront to her supposed position of authority over her. As Hongxia takes special pride in being one of the few partners able to keep pace with Sturla in the bedroom, the last thing she wants to do is train up a potential replacement. With such a twisted knot of a relationship, it’s little wonder how messily it ended. (Certainly there’s plenty that can be read into their fight.)

3. Yoon-hee is a more positive example but still tainted by the corruption around Yasuko. As noted before, Yasuko eschewed all forms of intimacy during her years of wandering, so the closeness afforded by a personal attendant was something quite alien to Yasuko. The one time Yasuko put the moves on her was more about her finding an unhealthy outlet for her frustrations than anything else. I’ll leave it to the audience to debate whether Yoon-hee is evidence of Yasuko being bisexual, bicurious, or simply in a romantic friendship. The waters are deliberately left muddy. Of course, whatever Yasuko’s feelings, the power imbalance casts a bit of a shadow over the relationship. Yoon-hee is thoroughly conditioned for obedience, so even what she would claim to be her own feelings may not accord with her heart of hearts. Of course, we don’t get to explore the possibilities further as Yasuko sends Yoon-hee away for her safety. How might things have developed otherwise? Who knows?

4. Lowen and Yasuko don’t spend all that much time together, but they represent a common pattern of attraction forming amid traumatic circumstances. Lowen was the closest to Yasuko in age among the survivors of his crew and he had the most interaction with her and the closest. The feelings were mutual and we saw how far Yasuko was prepared to go had Sigma no intervened. However, even if they would have had sex with each other, it wouldn’t have changed the final disposition of their relationship. The materials were there for something to be built, but Yasuko’s personality simply won’t let other people get close for long. This was exacerbated by the circumstances at the end of CeleKing3, having been responsible for the death of her father and the betrayal of her mother. Having lost the most fundamental relationships a person has, of course she would reject any others, particularly when she’d already spent a large chunk of her life pushing others away. Now, in another universe, it’s possible that Lowen might have had a stabilizing affect on her and maybe she could have had a more well-adjusted life, but that isn’t the universe we got.

With all her internal contradictions and conflicts, Yasuko proved to be an interesting character to write. She’s not the first character of mine to be primarily motivated by revenge, but her path was probably the most overrun with brambles and thorns. I know it’s a common moral that revenge does more to harm the avenger than the object of vengeance, but definitely in Yasuko’s case, her pursuit of revenge cost far more than she gained. Things didn’t work out so well for her, but are the paisanos she allegedly fought for better off on account of her efforts? Many of them think otherwise, as seen by the epilogue of CeleKing3, but if I had to wager, I’d say the people of Erdi got a better deal. Maybe not by much depending on who’s in charge at the time, but people have all sorts of opinions about such things.

Now that we’re done with Yasuko for now, I think I’ll go ahead with the idea I floated before to feature Masako and Sturla next. Stay tuned.

More progress on the epilogue of NagaTen. I’m so close to the end, I think I’ll go ahead and finish it even as I switch over to EM3. Stay tuned.

I made a little more progress on the epilogue of NagaTen. I was having to do some supporting research, so that was taking up writing time and so I ended up a bit under quota and definitely didn’t touch on my stretch goals. Still, progress is progress. I’ll see what I can do to add to that a bit more before switching over. Stay tuned.

I made more progress on Chapter 17 of TWH and Chapter 24 of NagaTen. If I could finish either or both by the end of the weekend, that’d be nifty. Stay tuned.

For the first time in a good while, I’ve actually had a bit of downtime at work and I was able to use that time to do some of that writing on TWH I was talking about, starting in on Chapter 17, which I’ll be needing the week after next. I also made respectable progress on Chapter 24 of NagaTen back home, so a rather productive day that’s helping to offset last week’s slacking. More to come. Stay tuned.

Another day, another fair bit of progress on Chapter 24 of NagaTen. Yes, I know I’m supposed to also be doing makeup work on TWH, but I haven’t got to that part yet. Anyway, at the rate I’m going in NagaTen, I may not only finish Chapter 24 but push on ahead and get through the epilogue as well. The final wordcount is looking to clock in around 40K. If I was traditionally publishing this as adult fiction in the US, I’d need to at least double the length. While I feel there’s a chunk of story I’m not telling, I don’t think there’s that much more to this particular book. I suppose it’s just as well that I’m doing my own thing on the Internet, huh? Well, not much point in worrying about any of that at the moment. All I need to do is continue driving onward. Stay tuned.

It certainly didn’t take me long to fall off the wagon. I was simply finding myself too exhausted to write and only having one day of weekend certainly didn’t help matters any. I thought I’d get some writing done Monday, but I passed right out in my chair and woke up a couple hours later to discover I’d written some fifty pages of “aaa”. Thankfully, I was able to get myself in sorts yesterday (likely aided by a nap I too when the mascot was being too pesty) and managed to more or less finish Chapter 23 of NagaTen and start on Chapter 24. To make up for last week’s shortfalls and to stay current this week, the goal is to write 3000 words of NagaTen and 1500 words of TWH. I’ve got a long road ahead of me yet, but I’ll see what I can get done. Stay tuned.

I’ve commented elsewhere that the older and more cynical I get, my protagonists become less and less moral paragons. Now, there’s a time and a place for more innocent and upstanding leads, but sometimes you need to get down in the dirt with someone who’s got some grime stuck to him. The general idea for Batista’s look (and the origin of his surname) is Jetstream Sam from Metal Gear Rising. He first appeared in the dream that would become Chapter 1 of CeleKing2. Interestingly enough, I was building a backstory for the character as the dream was ongoing. He was a centurion in the Imperial Guard from a common background who had won his place among the elite through his skill as a warrior. I would later go back and dig up an old idea I had about a society divided between Infernals and Celestials and a fallen Celestial taken in by an Infernal, which would be developed into CeleKing1. I decided that I wanted to introduce Yasuko’s parents and their story before she would take center stage, hence the structure of the CeleKing trilogy being what it is.

We get bits and pieces of Batista’s backstory throughout the trilogy, with an obvious focus in CeleKing1. He was the son of Zacarias Rodrigues, a restaurateur who was a former conscript, one who didn’t fall into banditry after being demobilized like so many others. Zacarias met Batista’s mother Isabella through her brother Jorge Avilar (Tío Jorge), who was in the same unit of conscripts. They settled not too far from where Zacarias was demobilized and Zacarias set up shop in the dusty little town of Ciruela. Taking on the family business was never in the cards for Batista, who was kicked out of the mission school for delinquency and frequently ran away from home. During this time, he’d commit a number of petty crimes and strained the law’s leniency toward minor offenders to its limits in several counties. He had a brief period of stability after Tío Jorge was discharged from the Regulars. He admired his uncle’s military service and started to apprentice in Tío Jorge’s tinker shop. However, there was a bone of contention in the form of Tío Jorge’s pretty young wife Nayeli. What started as an adolescent crush eventually got out of hand and led to a major falling out between Batista and Tío Jorge. Not long thereafter, Batista got his conscription orders. The main reason why he didn’t become a draft dodger was because he was seeking something different for himself far away from both home and his uncle. Though far from a model soldier, he proved to have a high aptitude as a fighter. He wasn’t eligible for enlistment in the Regulars due to his numerous disciplinary infractions, so instead he became a mercenary in the Regimiento de Rionegro. Most of his career as a mercenary was spent fighting in Viet Tay (Xiyue), and his record was a bit of a checkered one. War is never a pretty thing, but some make a dirtier business of it than others. There were few lines he wouldn’t cross and for those that he wouldn’t, he looked the other way while others did on more than one occasion. Although he was mostly aimless, going from one battefield to the next and enjoying what pleasures he could in between, there was a vague sense of planning for his future, even if he didn’t know what that would be. Many soldiers live paycheck to paycheck, but Batista was putting a fair bit back, savings that would be confiscated once he deserted. It was precisely his lack of direction which made it so easy Capitán Trieu to convince him to reup and take the promotion to sargento at the start of CeleKing1. Had Fate not had other plans for him, he would’ve continued on that path until he was either killed in action or too old to keep on fighting.

We’ve established that Batista was hardly hero material when he is introduced and while we later learn that his particular susceptibility to the Mandate of Heaven is a big part of why he rescued Masako from Coronel Obrado, there was also an element of pent-up guilt over all the times he’d turned a blind eye to unpleasant goings-on in the past to make for something of a perfect storm spurring him to action. From there, we have the adventure as you know it, with him struggling to keep both himself and Masako alive and out of enemy hands while trying to ward off the growing attachment to the young princess. Could he have made a clean break from her? It’s unlikely. Despite what his head is telling him, his heart is directed elsewhere, and tied to how the Mandate of Heaven has bound him to Masako, his efforts to maintain his distance most likely would have failed even without the ever increasing extremity of their circumstances. After the events of CeleKing1, he wasn’t able to maintain his professional separation from Masako for long. Due to their difference in station, despite being married, Batista was essentially the male equivalent of a concubine in the eyes of Imperial law. Although Imperial society on Erdi leans toward old-school patriarchy, most women of rank enjoy their gallants just as their male counterparts have their concubines, mistresses and whatnot. Had Masako remained exclusive to Batista, she would have been seen as more of an oddity and their children would have a difficult time inheriting House Suzuki.

Speaking of children, things changed significantly for them after Yasuko was born. An assassination attempt on Masako by remnants of Lord Feng’s faction led to Batista putting Yasuko in Tío Jorge’s care, something Masako was very reluctant to agree to. It drove a bit of a wedge between them, and before it could be resolved, Batista found himself assigned to Prince Wusheng out on the frontier. He could neither lead the hunt for Masako’s enemies, nor go fetch Yasuko once the coast was clear. Part of the reason Batista rose to prominence in the Imperial Guard, rising to centurion and earning the title of “Jiansheng” (“剣聖”, or basically “sword saint”) was because he was trying to earn his ticket back to the Capital. It was quite the stroke of Fate that he would finally return to the Capital at the same time Yasuko launched her infiltration. (You could just blame the contrivance of the author, to which the author might suggest that a certain scheming antagonist may have taken the opportunity to guide the pieces on the board according to his plan.) Naturally, Batista is thrown into confusion by the circumstances of Yasuko’s return and Masako’s new marital situation. However, much as before, he’s given the runaround by his duties to prevent him from taking a more active role in the situation. (Sturla obviously wouldn’t want him too deeply involved while he’s busy grooming Yasuko.) While his relationship with his wife and daughter is left strained and distant, he finds Prince Sturla moving in instead. He resents Sturla for taking his wife but is mindful of not just his political power but also his skill as a swordsman. Sturla being as familiar and flippant as he is only makes things more uncomfortable for Batista. This culminates with Sturla naming him his personal bodyguard after being crowned Emperor. Batista knows he’s being manipulated throughout, but he isn’t really in a position to do anything else but obey… until Yasuko defects to the New Earth Empire, that is.

Naturally, Batista wasn’t acting out of loyalty to Sturla or the Empire when he faced down his daughter. His intention was to stop her before she could attempt a fight she had no chance of winning, and, if possible, get to safety with her mother. He ended up pulling his punches, though, and he underestimated Yasuko’s new enhancements. From there, as you know, he had the choice of letting Sigma stabilize his wounds to give him a chance at survival or make one last effort to save his daughter from her archnemesis. For someone who had often strayed far from the path of a hero in his life, his own flesh and blood being on the line made the decision easy for him. Did he resort to a cheap sneak attack? You bet your buttons he did, because anything else would have almost certainly failed. His training as a knight of the Imperial Guard didn’t change his essential nature as a mercenary who fights to win. He accomplished what he meant to, which isn’t a bad way to go out.

What more is there to say about our boy Batista? He loved and lost, bled and bloodied. Quite a ride for some street punk who didn’t seem like he’d ever amount to anything. Next time, we’ll take a look at his progeny, who inherited a lot of his bad habits. Stay tuned.

Wednesday’s portion isn’t even worth talking about. I only finished a line left half-written in the previous session before the mascot pested me to bed. However, I was able to make up for it the next evening, not only in terms of wordcount but also in pretty well finishing Chapter 16 of TWH. All that remains is to go over it again before publishing it on Saturday. That’s one accomplishment, but now I’ve got to think about Chapter 17. I’ve still got a few days until the switchover, so we’ll see what I can accomplish. Stay tuned.

I once again fell short of quota, but not by much. I would’ve liked to at least round out the day’s 500, but my fuzzy efficiency expert was pesting too much, so I just had to give in and head to bed. I’ve got about a day’s worth of shortfall I need to catch up on. More importantly, I have just three more days to get the chapter done regardless of how much more needs to be written. We’ll see what I can get done and what the mascot will allow. Stay tuned.