Oh! Right. Yeah, then it helps.
That being said, @Jaybird said it all! It's why there's no need to redo the whole thing, really: you do you, basically. As for the deadline thing, I'm not sure if our current group would work well with one, but a round of posts might help! I'll wait to hear what they have to say.
I also don't feel the need to have a flashback round, however, I'll throw in another "you do you" on this one, because it could be interesting. Especially given Emilia's backstory.
Now, then! Here comes the brainstorming.
First of all, a warning. I wasn't kidding when I said this would be long, and that doesn't mean that any of you is required to have super-duper long ideas. It's just how I, personally, do things.
With that out of the way, let's begin!
Oh, also, since the supercomputer name's DZ-1043, Dizzy shall be her name. And I'll refer to her as a female because I think a villanous female computer named Dizzy is hilarious.
Important to specify, again: conflict is my specialty, and by that I mean physical combat, verbal jousts, and pretty much everything in between. In SBs, I'm usually the one who has character with the most written conflicts, but I always go out of my way NOT to force others into thinking that they should do it too.
In light of that, expect Sierra to be this place's resident magical soldier. My brainstormed ideas are pretty much extensions of that specialization of mine, so, there you go.
♦To start with, here are my plans for Sierra, specifically:
Spoiler
The way I'd make Sierra the group's resident fighter would be by having her show some interest in both Dracula's abilities, and the spell-casting skills of Baba Yada. Sierra would also express her interest in learning a thing or two from her, provided she can survive the grumpiness. Her reasoning's basically that they're trapped in a place where they're likely to encounter people or robots wanting to, well, murder them, so, she'd rather make sure that she has a way to make herself survive.
→The idea I have so far would be that because she's still a normal teenage human, she can't possibly learn to be a magical fighter the normal way, because, well, they prolly won't be given much time to learn anything before they're noticed and chased down.
→Because of this, the next idea would be to have Sierra link herself with a poltergeist able to live in her shadow. If she can survive both it, and the onslaught of cold temperature it always throws at her while being in it (because you know: #ParanormalGreatness), her body would become more receptive to learning supernatural skills like magic. I don't want her to suddenly turn into some overpowered witch or something, but just enough that she can combine it with just... moving around and fighting.
→While this is happening, I'd like to have Baba Yada, Dracula or even both of them work on changing Sierra's umbrella into the one magical artefact she'd use to fend off Dizzy's minions (by then she'd have told them she used to be into Bōjutsu, so, staff's kinda necessary). From there, Sierra would have simple spells, a simple weapon, and a body that's actually able to handle these new abilities.
→The idea I have so far would be that because she's still a normal teenage human, she can't possibly learn to be a magical fighter the normal way, because, well, they prolly won't be given much time to learn anything before they're noticed and chased down.
→Because of this, the next idea would be to have Sierra link herself with a poltergeist able to live in her shadow. If she can survive both it, and the onslaught of cold temperature it always throws at her while being in it (because you know: #ParanormalGreatness), her body would become more receptive to learning supernatural skills like magic. I don't want her to suddenly turn into some overpowered witch or something, but just enough that she can combine it with just... moving around and fighting.
→While this is happening, I'd like to have Baba Yada, Dracula or even both of them work on changing Sierra's umbrella into the one magical artefact she'd use to fend off Dizzy's minions (by then she'd have told them she used to be into Bōjutsu, so, staff's kinda necessary). From there, Sierra would have simple spells, a simple weapon, and a body that's actually able to handle these new abilities.
♦Second, General plot-related schemes.
Spoiler
→Since Sierra's conflicts are definitely going to be physical, having bosses to fight against would be pretty neat, so, there's at least three of 'em that came to mind.
→I work rather well with references, which I use as inspiration to shape them into something different based on my interpretation of 'em. And this entire plot kinda feels like a reverse Castlevania, in which instead of being members of a family of demon-killing awesome peeps that slay Dracula every hundred years, we're with Dracula trying to deal with what's trying to put him down. As a result, I'd love for Dizzy to have three specific lieutenants based on Castlevania and other Konami-related characters.
→First one that comes to mind would be code-named Belmont, wielding a whip with a spike at the end. Said whip would have the supernatural ability to redirect its own trajectory and increase or decrease its speed at will, which is basically designed to stab Dracula's heart from a distance.
Then, Fuuma, a katana-wielding red-haired woman (I say woman, but she could have been artificially-created, given the context), would have a blade specifically designed to cut through monsters like Undeads and causing them permanent damage if touched, which instantly puts Sierra and whoever else uses monsters to make them stronger or as helpers, because Fumma is literally Super Effective against pretty much everything, including Dracula. It would also mean that he'd have trouble regenerating if fighting against Fuuma.
Finally, Laiky, the last one, would be speed-oriented. He would be able to place spell tags on people that essentially mark them. Then, he'd be able to get their information and turn himself, partially or completely, into the monster or person he put the spell tag on, which essentially represents the idea that Dizzy can, through him, put anything in her database and used its info as she sees fit.
That also means that Laiky can easily turn himself into a chimera, which is designed to make it much harder for Dracula to take him on, because one spell tag and Dracula's stuck fighting Dracula.
→I work rather well with references, which I use as inspiration to shape them into something different based on my interpretation of 'em. And this entire plot kinda feels like a reverse Castlevania, in which instead of being members of a family of demon-killing awesome peeps that slay Dracula every hundred years, we're with Dracula trying to deal with what's trying to put him down. As a result, I'd love for Dizzy to have three specific lieutenants based on Castlevania and other Konami-related characters.
→First one that comes to mind would be code-named Belmont, wielding a whip with a spike at the end. Said whip would have the supernatural ability to redirect its own trajectory and increase or decrease its speed at will, which is basically designed to stab Dracula's heart from a distance.
Then, Fuuma, a katana-wielding red-haired woman (I say woman, but she could have been artificially-created, given the context), would have a blade specifically designed to cut through monsters like Undeads and causing them permanent damage if touched, which instantly puts Sierra and whoever else uses monsters to make them stronger or as helpers, because Fumma is literally Super Effective against pretty much everything, including Dracula. It would also mean that he'd have trouble regenerating if fighting against Fuuma.
Finally, Laiky, the last one, would be speed-oriented. He would be able to place spell tags on people that essentially mark them. Then, he'd be able to get their information and turn himself, partially or completely, into the monster or person he put the spell tag on, which essentially represents the idea that Dizzy can, through him, put anything in her database and used its info as she sees fit.
That also means that Laiky can easily turn himself into a chimera, which is designed to make it much harder for Dracula to take him on, because one spell tag and Dracula's stuck fighting Dracula.
♦Aaaand finally, how all of that would affect the characters around Sierra, because A: she's not alone, and B: she ain't the main character and isn't looking to be that.
Spoiler
→To start with, Sierra would be especially willing to have herself become a magical warrior because she'd notice that not all of the other teenagers would even consider doing that, because from a realistic perspective, A: not everyone's a fighter and not everyone should strive to be one, and B: It's... not an easy decision to make. At all. So, you know, nobody is expected to take it just because she does.
→ Then, Sierra believes that she should be the one fighting because she used to train for it, and because she still feel guilty about ordering people around: whereas to her, being a fighter that people point stuff at for her to smash down makes it feel like a righteous turnaround in which she takes orders without complaints and follows a strategy, which to her feels like the perfect way to atone for the terrible person she thinks she was. In reality, there is no NEED to go this far for this, but she doesn't believe that just yet, so, she's extra-motivated to do this due to a personal wound she has. It would then be up to the other characters to make her see that it's okay to be who she is, so, that could make for really fun interactions if we play our cards right.
There! That's all I've got so far. The final decision goes to Necromancer since both Dracula and Baba Yada are his characters and I'm not implementing most of this if it doesn't fit with whatever his vision for the story is. Same for the three bosses I came up with!
From there, y'all can comment, add your own spin for your characters, their challenges, issues or whatever else you come up with. I'm back to listenin' and commenting in a, uh, less verbose fashion.
