I’ve mentioned how some characters alter stories because of their personality or evolve groups.  Sari with the sexual undertones and gypsies.  Fritz with gnomes and Aedyn with priests.  Nyx with magic and Trinity with the chaos elves.  Well, I may have hinted at a character who changed the ENTIRE game for me.  A third-string, two scene toss-away character that I would never hear from again after her truth was revealed.  May I introduce the character that decimated storylines:

Kira Grasdon.

The original idea for Kira was that she was a prissy, annoying female student named Linny who was the ‘obvious’ choice for the hidden heir.  I added her in during the 2nd editing run.  She was the red herring that Luke was going to consider because he isn’t always the sharpest sword in the armory.  So, Linny originally had the introductory scene, only she had hurt her leg by tripping over her own foot, and the recently posted equipment shed scene.  After that she was gone, never to be heard from again.  Now, to write a spoiled heiress that public would want to slap, I needed a source.  This was June 2004 and while created Linny, I heard an interesting fluff news report on the television.  Linny was originally this:

It’s nearly impossible to find a decent picture of this woman!

Yup.  I created Linny in the wake of the Paris Hilton sex tape scandal because I needed a basis for spoiled and loathed heiress.  So, Linny had blonde hair, blue eyes (no idea if that’s right), and the overall build of Paris Hilton.  I finished the editing run and walked away for a few months due to wedding planning.  I would return to do another editing run and then everything went to hell . . . Linny was not amused.

It started with the equipment shed scene editing and Linny constantly toyed with Luke who was getting flustered.  There was a sudden disappearance of the spoiled brat and she was replaced with a flirty brat.  She began popping up in other scenes as background or attempting to talk to Luke about something on her mind.  I was writing a lot of this at 3am and she was taking advantage of my exhaustion.  Around this time I was told that Linny and Luke was confusing, so she became Kira.  This only empowered her for the most amazing power move that a character has ever done to me.

*Spoilers alert*

Kira began talking about a special weapon that she was getting from home.  I created Bor’daruk at this point even though she looked nothing like a woman who grew up in a desert region.  I wasn’t sure where the weapon was coming from since I had recently read up on all types of medieval and japanese weapons.  Apparently, Kira snagged one when my back was turned.  So, the big battle of Hamilton Military Academy began and this mystery weapon started making an appearance.  Needless to say, I was confused and annoyed that it cleared up a problem I had with the battle.  Kira had turned herself into a capable warrior and was proving herself.  She had a depth that her original form couldn’t contain and was cast away like a butterfly leaving its cocoon.  I’d say a snake, but I can already feel her not liking that analogy.  This lead to the big physical change where she now looks like this (minus the bow):

Princess Farah from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

I’m already seeing signs in the outlines that she’s going to become a force to be reckoned with.  Not at the level of the main heroes because she isn’t a chosen champion, but she will get to a point where she can hold her own against Sari.

You wonder why I picked Sari as the example?  Well, the funny thing is that Kira was NEVER in the game where Luke and Sari were romantically involved.  Kira stole him from Sari before the gypsy was even introduced.  As I said, Kira changed the ENTIRE game for me and I had to do a major rewrite when I saw that Luke and Kira were falling for each other.  It didn’t matter how aloof I made Luke, he kept thinking about her and she kept looking for ways to get attention.  It got ridiculous when I wrote a scene where they got in a fight and just began pummeling each other . . . then they began making out in the middle of class and Selenia beat them down.  The scene was changed to a sparring match between Luke/Kellia and Kira/another student.  After that, I added a few blossoming romance scenes and a few awkward scenes.  Kira was appeased, Sari was oblivious, Luke was confused, Nimby was laughing, Fritz was cheering, and I had run out of rum.

So, this is the origin of Kira and the origin of where I gave up trying to force my characters to always obey.  I’m happy if I can win 60% of the fights because they seem to know better than me.  I still don’t try to control Kira that often, but she does know I have a ‘punishment’ prepared for her.  She wants to be a heavy hitter in Windemere then she’s going to become one.  I’m so going to get the last laugh on her.  🙂