01 - Intro
This is a list of characters/places/things that are referenced in the story but I haven’t managed to name them yet, so, this is kinda like a checklist.
VERY OBVIOUS SPOILER WARNING
You will in fact, spoil yourself if you read this, you could be new to this project, or a veteran, this list includes minor spoilers
02 - The things
In no particular order, here are the things I’ve yet to name;
The Caretaker
known as the father figure and general caretaker (hah get it?) for iku, i have never actually ended up deciding on a name for him. it’s not that i couldn’t find a name for him, but i don’t want it to be a boring name, and yet.. it can’t be an exotic name either since that would make him stand out too much, I wanna find the male equivalent of Veronika (not literally, i know it’s Viktor.) a name that is somewhat common yet has such a harsh sound to it, a name that commands respect and fear… so for now, he’s our friendly caretaker.
The city
it’s embarrassing to admit how many major story elements have basic ass descriptor names, and you’ll see a lot of them on this list.
the city has also been a pain in the ass, as originally it was supposed to be somewhere in LA, not wanting to do a Cyberpunk or a Gta V i have moved it to tampa florida, and neatly enough the lore gives me space to do terraforming and overall modification to the city.
but that modification to the city is the exact reason why i am having trouble finding a name, i can’t call it tampa, it’s nothing like it anymore, it’s a weird fucked up mix of tampa and LA, with terrain over what used to be a pretty flat land, and underground sections of the city. The vibe i am going for with the city is a welcoming yet uncanny feeling. The RE.U.S can try pour as much money into as they want, people will still catch on that most of it is manufactured.
Money
since the U.S. is not a thing anymore, i can’t really have USD as the currency. My vision is an alternate dollar, maybe headed by the RE.U.S. that has the same value that the usd had, maybe it’s worth a little less, who knows, it’s a question that i haven’t figured out myself.
like, there might be even more types of dollars, as the rest of the countries try their best to compete with the re.u.s.
i’m sure i’ll figure something out.
Last names
this is a tough one, last names.
for iku and Anna, the plan was always to not have one, as this adds to their somewhat mysterious origins, however iku could definitely benefit from having one.
last names in general are ignored by me, and Adam and his family is giving me a task of finding a last name that doesn’t suck.
i don’t really know if i’ll ever actually find last names for them.
The hotel
ough… adding to the embarrassing amount of main story elements being unnamed: the hotel.
iku’s hotel needs a name, no denying. i just don’t know if i should go with the generic hotel name angle or something more fancy, as iku herself is a pretty down to earth person (i mean in things like this, otherwise no she’s a dick). i just don’t quite see the hotel having a generic name.. but i don’t see it with a super fancy name either, this is a major thing that i need to figure out fast.
Fake brand names
mcdonalds, subaru, mitsubishi, thinkpads, iphones, AK, KSG, all are names that i cannot use in any way.
this has always bugged me in media but i 100% get the reasoning, licensing a big brand name comes with a huge cost and brand guidelines that limit your creativity. (take apple for example, bad guys can’t have apple products, iku by nature, is a bad guy.)
however i always get the feeling that it’s somewhat like a shitty parody of the real brand, like in gta.
i want my fake brands to be believable where it doesn’t make the reader fall out of the universe completely, so.. making believable alternatives to big name brands.. not a small task. for now tough, i’ll just refer to the actual brands in writing.