evilpii

(Yes, I traced a screenshot of Sophia from Battle Arena Toshinden. )

A native of Pentinon, Nerti is a citizen of the Galactic Union and was for most of her young life, a student of the Universal Science Academy. She specialized in robotics, producing the gynoid Mecha-Nerti as her final project for her first degree in the field. Her career would have likely progressed onto higher degree and scientific research had Liaens and his twisted designs not interfered. Taken from her world, she was forced to research Jurai’s weaknesses and develop a weapon to exploit them. Moreover, her gynoid was further augmented and mass-produced into ground troops.

Nerti is half of my “flagship couple” and probably the character I have developed and used the most. Created in 1998 for Reunion, she was designed to be the counterpart to Will Pii, the other most used character in my arsenal. She was purposefully written not to have any immediate ties to Jurai, Earth, or even Ryua, being someone who was caught by a foul circumstance. Also, being Pii’s counterpart, she has no real romantic interest in Masaki Tenchi. While she is a bright young woman in her specialties, she is intended to be closer to the average from the SA, rather than a genius prodigy like Washu.

Her backstory and abilities have gone through several iterations through the years, mostly through suggestions from peers and balancing with the existing cast. Initially, “Nerti Ro” actually didn’t exist, and “Nerti” was the character now known as “Mecha-Nerti”. This caused plenty of confusion in the early editions of Trilogy and took a lot of rewriting to retcon out. “Nerti Ro” finally appeared in Reunion as Jezibel’s puppet and Pii’s damsel in distress. However, both she and her beau both seemed very tacked-on in their appearances. Through several role-play stories in the late ’90s and early ’00s, it was suggested that she be Tokimi’s next avatar, purposefully bred to be the optimum conduit for the goddess’s power. This was an interesting idea, but after a few iterations, made her far too powerful in comparison to the actual Tenchi cast. Shadows of this concept are still present in Nerti’s current incarnation as a eugenics project by Tokimi to interbreed her power with that held by the Aelins lineage.

I have also strived to make her a believable addition to the Universe continuity. Admittedly, she did start out conceptually as a Mary Sue in many ways, which lead to introducing several flaws into her character. The first is in her knowledge-base, that she did not finish her degree and, thus, cannot be Washu’s colleague, let alone equal. The second is her power, that while she was given the ability to control NVO energy, she was never trained in its use, nor does she have all of its benefits. However, she does have all of its detriments, the largest of which is averse reactions to Jurai’s power. Thus, she will never completely be welcomed by Jurai, despite being an ally. Moreover, regardless of her talent for martial arts, she rather despises combat and tends to avoid it if possible.

In opposition to Nerti is Leon Tae, her twin brother, which will be revealed either in Homecomings or Demon’s Birth. Hence, most of his abilities and backstory match or parallel hers.

This despicable man appears primarily in F’95 and Homecomings, though he does show up briefly in Inheritance when Ryoko is captured on Ryua. He is also slated to be a primary antagonist in Demon’s Birth. The main theme for him is the bully, the one who beats and belittles you to make himself feel better or stronger. He was a classmate of Nerti’s and tormented her, among others. Unlike Nerti, he is taken in by Ryua under Tokimi’s order, a backup should her plans for Nerti fail in Inheritance. There, the Ryoans teach him the full range of his abilities eventually to confront the Masaki household, as well as Will Pii and Nerti Ro. However, his temper and shortsightedness keep him out of his hosts’ graces. They perceive him as a necessary evil, a weapon to be used and discarded. Naturally, he plans to discard them once he has no more to learn. Unlike Liaens and Jezibel, Leon is more chaotic in his pursuits.

In comparison, Mecha-Nerti and Illirg are far more simple.

Mecha-Nerti was Nerti Ro’s final project for her degree from the Science Academy. Simply, she was a mechanical replica of Nerti with an elementary A.I. Initially, she was childish and naïve, referring to Nerti as her “mother” and Will Pii as her “father”. However, that persona was overwritten by Kain III, installed by Liaens’s followers. The result was the main villain of Tenchi Muyo! versus Men in Black, as well as the side-story Frozen Fire. Unlike the childlike original personality, the new mentality was cold and cruel, executing her commands in a calculating fashion. Being possessed in a sense, I explore the notions behind two warring personalities much like I do with Ayeka and Kain II in Inheritance and Homecomings: Jurai, but with a more technology-oriented perspective and a lot more BAD END.

Illirg, on the other hand, was a project forced on Nerti Ro. He was a creature forged by blending the genetics and powers of several known adversaries: Ryoko, Jurai Kagato, Kain, and the bug race from Men in Black. Liaens ordered his creation to make a more powerful warrior, one that could be mass produced for the upcoming attack on Jurai. The alternative would be to mass-produce a simplified version of Mecha-Nerti, which is what happens due to Illirg’s failure on Earth.

Admittedly, Illirg was a fanboy dream, merging all the major villains of the series into a single foe for all the protagonists to face together. His personality reflects this, being very singleminded in his attacking Tenchi and his friends, as well as the MiB. While he does serve a purpose in the plot, he is probably the most forgettable character I have ever written.

In 1997 when I wrote vMiB, Illirg’s end was written fairly quickly, but the ending did not seem satisfying. Enter Mecha-Nerti, created to give a more threatening foe as an “end boss”. As such, she seemed tacked-on to the story, and it took several rewrites to pepper allusions along the way to make her appearance less sudden. Also, with Reunion written a year later, Nerti Ro was retconned into some of those references.

Lastly, allow me to submit probably the most controversial character I have ever written.

Edward William Pii is the other half of my “flagship couple” and is often considered a self-insertion character, with good reason. He is human with brown hair and eyes, born on 20 January 1980, yet appears on the alien world Pentinon, attending an extraterrestrial school. Where have I heard that before?

Admittedly, Will Pii started essentially as a self-insert character with a lot of wish-fulfillment for myself. The armor he wears and the weapons he uses were ideas I pieced together as I grew up and played with my friends and family. I held onto those ideas and integrated them into this character, who essentially was the “other me”, the one who was not the geeky guy studying in the front of the room, the one who had the strength and will to fight back against bullies. In short, Will Pii arose from my own feelings of inadequacy and dejection in high school. Not surprisingly, he was very much out of place, and a Gary Stu at first. Originally, I had meant for him to be a trademark of sorts, appearing in one scene for whatever story I was writing, kinda like Randall Flagg in Stephen King’s work. As one might expect, the character received a lot of negative criticism, which I did not completely accept until I left undergraduate and matured.

Since his creation in 1997 opposite Mecha-Nerti in vMiB, I have rewritten and modified Will Pii, attempting to improve him as a fictional character. His backstory still has threads of the self-insertion origin, though blended with more Tenchi mythos, as well as an anecdote from my mother. She tells this yarn that for a while, her obstetrician believed that when she was pregnant with me, that I would be twins. Consequently, that idea has wormed its way into the story.

The Terran known as “Will Pii” was born on 20 January 1980 in Dimension 558, one of a pair of twins. Meanwhile in the main universe, a couple Pentinian scientists were researching the prototype for a fold engine, an unfinished project from the war in The 271st. Incomplete and misaligned, the machine rips a hole into 558, accidentally depositing the child into the new universe and planet. Since the engine’s readings were faulty, returning the babe was out of the question, and the researchers were not about to take him. Thus, he is orphaned on this world and must be raised there, becoming involved in the events that follow Nerti Ro.

Due to the time and nature of his creation, Will Pii’s personality reflects a lot of the emotions I had when I was young: anger, loneliness, frustration. As such, he was fairly “emo”, particularly in the early editions of Reunion. Luckily, a lot of those feelings were refined with age and time.

As with Nerti, Will Pii is not directly connected to the Tenchi story a priori. He has no romantic ties to any of the girls in the Masaki household, and his skills are below those of the household. While he did attend the Science Academy and showed promise, he also did not complete his degree, and his ability was second to Nerti’s, making him more average. Also, he gains a limited control over the NVO energy with Nerti, but like her, he has all the detriments and few of the benefits.

Together, Will Pii and Nerti Ro complement one another, the fighter and the academic. In that way, they are meant to be self-contained, allied with the Masaki household but not adding to its number. While both of them were based on different aspects of my personality, my teenage attitudes for Pii and my academic study for Nerti, I believe that the years of rewrites and modifications and separated them from the man I am today. As such, I do not take them to be self-insertion any longer.