User:Distant Tide/Sandbox 2

"What a happy accident I guess..."

- Distant Tide's shit-epiphany.

Distant Tide's second Sandbox Page on Halo Fanon. A place for soul-searching.

Mission Statement
"I'm Confused..."

- Distant Tide trying to figure out his next big Halo Fanon activities. Circa. 22 January 2018, around midnight.

My current, major projects on Halo Fanon are my works involving Delta's Path, Delta Company, Vadumverse, RP:Jaeter's Protectors, Frontier Bazaar and Into The Unknown, at least, it seems.

After some difficult consideration - I'm now trying to radically rethink my projects. Alternate story paths and alternative concepts. Sandbox 2 will likely serve as the hub page for radical changes in early 2018, going forward.

Alternative Pathways
Among my most prominent projects is Delta's Path and Delta Company, tied to the miniature Expanded Universe known as the DELTA Initiative, a limbo concept between Halo Canon and pure Fanon. In the discussion over Delta Company's presence in other Halo Fanon Expanded Universes, I wonder what my characters would be like without being Spartans or if Delta never got off the ground. It opens up a new can of worms but also a whole new concept to look at my stories in Halo.

[THE DELTA CONDITION]
"Team Boson has not earned the right to call themselves Spartans..."

- Lieutenant Commander Cayden "Cadence" Slater, ONI Section 0.

By realizing that Delta Company might not be as concrete as I imagined it, I returned to my early concepts for Delta Company - multiple interpretations and versions across alternate universes as it were. I'm not a big fan of splitting my characters across different timelines or realities, however, I'm not unfamiliar with the concept and I've done it before. My teenage operators from Delta Company are among the most at risk of this issue and it seems I need to implement it now.

Team Boson
For Team Boson, my initial plans will be to narrow my focus and redistribute the prominence of certain characters. Sadly, initial push is to kill off Adryn-D111, known otherwise as Adryn Weaver, and Rox-D107, otherwise known as Roxanne Savage.

Because Adryn was discovered late by Delta Company and the loss of his father's company during the Battle of Tribute, Adryn would have died during the Battle of New Alexandria on Reach as he lacked the escape priority belonging to ONI. Roxanne, lost in a New Alexandria orphanage would sadly suffer the same fate. Both would likely killed off likely by plasma bombardment.

Daniele-D003, commonly known as Daniele Veracruz, without intervention by ONI Lieutenant Jeffery Korn, Daniele would have descended into a life of criminal activities, acting as a problem child. Things are generally the same for him through his childhood. His home, the colony of Skopje, is glassed by the Covenant. His mother is killed when a Covenant battlecruiser crashed through it. His father and him manage to escape on a transport headed to Earth. They arrive in San Diego. The War draws closer to Mankind's homeworld and now with the local governments unwilling or unable to sustain millions of starving refugees, they retreat to protecting the status quo of the local populations rather than the refugee undesirables. In an act of vengeance, Daniele's father, Stefan, plans to murder the Land Commissioner of California for shuttering the available land set aside for refugee housing. The police attempt to arrest him on account of intent to murder and conspiracy only for Daniele's dad to get murdered in a gunfight with police. Daniele ends up in the unprepared Foster Care system and Daniele's name disappears from the rosters. He eventually breaks out of the facility at the recommendation of local orphan and maverick, William Moresi. Daniele joins up with William as a part of the Child Crusaders, a local thieving ring run by children and teenagers. William was the leader, known as "Bunker Bill."

Eventually escalations with heists lead to social unrest in the city - adults are injured due to rioting but members of William's gang die in the crossfire. The Crusaders are eventually rounded up by the cops. Any stragglers go on to align with the local Cortez Cartel charter, breaking from William's vision for the group, now stuck in juvenile detention center with Daniele and others. From here, Daniele can go in any direction. He definitely becomes a criminal-type as he sees no life for him beyond the street. He becomes an enforcer either for the Child Crusaders or an informant for the Cortez Cartel. He can die or live, the outcome becomes irrelevant. His way of life means he doesn't hold primary significance anymore. Instead, William may replace him as a protagonist who decides to join the UNSC Marine Corps because of all the things he has seen and been through and wants a better life for himself.

The last two members of Team Boson, Andra-D054 and Merlin-D032 are protected in this case by plot armor. They get to live as primary assets to any story I tell - even as their narrative remains unknown at the moment. In this situation, the two are named Merlin Ljang Byod and Andra Bradford.

Andra Bradford would be transferred to Earth, getting a little preferential treatment as the child of military personnel and being a family friend of future Spartan, Naiya Ray who worked in SIGINT for the UNSC. Andra was still emotionally and physically abused by her father before his apparent suicide. Due to Ray's occupation as a Spartan, her ability to care for Andra is near nonexistent and this leads into whatever happens going forward. It's likely she would be enrolled in an Earth-based military academy.

Merlin Ljang Boyd would be allowed to stay on Ballast as the colony managed to survive a Covenant attack supposedly. Instead, Merlin chose to go to Earth and maybe look into becoming a ONI officer like his parents before him. By leaving his planet of Ballast, he is running away from his parents' memories while following in their footsteps. On Earth, he could end up at the same academy as Andra - continuing their journey and trope as an inseparable duo. How their personalities might shift in this case, however, is unknown.

For these two characters to pursue a full romantic relationship compared to their more platonic relationship as Spartan supersoldiers, only time will tell in this case, however, it has a higher possibility.

Delta Company
While they are not my own characters as a whole, if Delta Company never happened in the first place, I feel like it would be in my best interest to at least give a few of the characters involved in the program that I have immediate jurisdiction over get some prominence. In this case, I would be focused on Team Photon and Team Quasar. There is also Daiki-D217's sister, Shizuko-D081.

Due to the lack of prominence that Team Photon has received during my handling of them as a Spartan Team so far, I find it sad but acceptable to eliminate the lot of them from receiving any further development as characters in the secondary timeline where Delta Company does not kidnap them. Among the team, only Mei-D214 receive extensive development due to her design likeness to that of the Major from Ghost of the Shell - there's more to work with in terms of character design and personality compared to the rest of her team and so I'll have to make the tough call. Maybe in the future I can give the rest of Photon more development and focus. It will depend on how any future plot might develop, however.

Mei-D214, as Jiang Mei, could probably be adopted into some family - not sure where the story would go from here at all. She's such a blank slate that I could do anything with her honestly.

As for the Matsui siblings, I would think that their early childhood would remain the same. Given that I am acquiring them from early lives on Minister - primarily the Palaikos borderlands, among the refugee camps. They wouldn't know any life beyond being a refugee, having been born into poverty. They'd grow up stealing and scavenging to survive. Their younger brother, Matsui Jun, would likely suffer from some kind of malnutrition leading to a young death caused by a number of factors most probably - weakened immune system, starvation, some kind of conditional disease, given the circumstances.

the Matsui siblings would receive the nickname "Wolf Children," for their wild nature - this nickname will carry over both timelines. Daiki and Shizuko can go onto many different paths from here - due to being in their late teens by the time of the Created Crisis, however, their options as characters are limited of course. Probably the easiest method to explore is to give these kids a similar treatment to own Zoey Hunsinger. Every single one of the characters chosen to be explored in the secondary timeline would likely get this kind of treatment if they are a teenager during the Created Crisis to give them a better chance to survive and adapt under the circumstances. I feel like it would only be natural, however, due to the tithes that the Matsui children have to LEGION in the Vadumverse that they both end up in a similar situation, working as gang members or something of that sort, with the unlikely chance of developing beyond street urchins.

There is also the case for Jardon-D156, however, due to a lack of development or establish with exception to two RP sessions - he lacks the opportunity to get some real development. I'll either fill in major plot holes with him or let him fade into obscurity like the majority of Team Boson, Photon, and Quasar.

Child Crusaders
For my treatment of dropping Delta Company as a setting in the secondary timeline, I think it might be best to stow the prominent children among the ranks of the reborn Child Crusaders after William Moresi has left the organization due to circumstances involving hostile takeover and his juvenile delinquency record. I would have to put more thought into it honestly.

ZOD Infoboxes
In preparation for overhauling many of my characters and materials into Zenith of the Dismantled, I'll be updating old articles with new templates. I'll start here with characters since its currently what I have available to me.