#dispatch community rewrite

[becasualcass]

Alrighty, so I'm slowly but surely piecing together my Dispatch rewrite. I've started with Robert first, naturally, and... I'm making him a single dad. I couldn't help myself.

It's not my fault his concept notes said he had a dad bod! And look, to me, the only way you can have dad bod is if you're a dad! Any bod is a dad bod if said bod belongs to a man with a baby strapped to his chest. That's just how it is.

[becasualcass]

Okay, brain fog is still kicking my ass so please tell me if this is something interesting or if I'm just waffling.

Shroud, in my Community Dispatch rewrite, who while is going after Robert for the Astral pulse is also paid and employed by some high up dickwads in the government to crush the SDN so they no longer have to fund it.

I think it just adds another layer of hypocrisy to Shroud that fits. He calls Z team turncoats while he's crushing a non-profit organization that's there to help anybody it can.

I feel like the hypocrisy is deeper than that, but I'm struggling to put it into words.

[becasualcass]

Okay, so I might've started the outline for my rewrite for Dispatch or AU thing, I'm not sure what to call it yet.

So, I'm thinking what if we ditch the whole weird security government thing that the SDN has going on and instead turn it into a non-profit organization, like the YMCA but for reforming villains by having them do community work and helping them get back up on their feet, getting them therapy and stuff.

I'm still trying to keep the whole dispatching premise of it all. So, maybe the community work this non-profit has the "villains" do is take care of stuff that people don't want or trust the cops to take care of in a reasonable manner. The SDN is in LA and cops suck.

Like maybe there's a drunk guy that's wandering the streets during winter, don't call the cops call SDN, (I might change the acronym) they'll send a volunteer down to see if he's okay and get him home or to a shelter.

I think I'm onto something here. Feel free to jump into my asks and give me questions and or to expand on this. I've found it's easier for me to develop stuff if somebody just asks me a bunch of stuff about it.

[becasualcass]

Something, something, Robert Robertson, who became Mechaman, not because he wanted to carry on his very distant father's legacy but because he wanted to protect and provide for his community and doing so was much easier in an already established hero's role.

Something, something, Robert Robertson, who has zero qualms lying about knowing the kind of man his father was and even playing up the hero's reputation he had to literally anybody questioning him to keep helping without having people breathing down his neck.

What do you mean his dad wouldn't support him helping rehabilitate "villains"? His dad believed in helping whoever he could.

What do you mean his dad would've said preventive measures such as helping establish various community safe spaces for superpowered individuals are a waste? His dad regularly donated to so many different charities that prevented a lot of bad shit.

Something, something, Robert Robertson who has difficulty discerning what's actually true about his father, versus the stoic figure his father presented to the public and the idea he built of him to fill in the cracks he left behind.

[becasualcass]

Okay, I've been looking at my Dispatch Community rewrite posts and in one of them I said I was rewriting Invisigal to be markedly different and I'd just like to say, I don't hate her. I mean, I don't love her either.

I'm just kind of indifferent to her when she's in the game, and she's not the only character I feel this way about. In some fanwork exploring her as a character and her themes, I think she's pretty interesting, but I feel like the fact that it is fanwork is doing a lot of the heavy lifting and I believe this to be true about the fanwork of every Dispatch character.

If I'm being honest with myself and everybody else, in a way almost all of the characters kind of fell flat to me – yes even my favorites – and I'm sure if I hadn't read those short comics before watching people play the game they'd have probably fallen even more flat. I much prefer them as concepts than the finished characters that they're supposed to be.

Which is also why both romance routes also fell flat to me, it just felt like there was no build up, no foundation, nothing really explored just implied but this could also just seem this way to me because I'm asexual.

Point is, if I can actually write this rewrite without my brain fighting me every step of the way, know that I'm not changing characters because I hate them – but because I want to lean into these interesting concepts that both Dispatch the game and fans present more in various directions.

I'm sticking them in the blender and seeing what I get.

[becasualcass]

Here are two of my Dispatch Community rewrite ocs, Dr. Do-little and Scrap.

Dr. Do-little is a reformed "villain." She ran with a crew super-powered criminals that robbed banks and jewelry shops to fund her medical transition. In this crew, she served as a distraction as she has the ability to shape shift into various animals as long as she has seen them in person. She did not initially join the SDN (still thinking of a new acronym) as a doctor but instead a volunteer who actually wasn't there to fulfill court mandated community service. She left behind her crew and was never caught. At some point during volunteering, she confessed to one of the workers that she had always wanted to go to college but just couldn't afford to when she was younger because her dad was sick. So SDN got her into a community college to help her figure out what she'd like to do, and she gravitated towards psychology. She does great and gets her GED and an associates degree, but she wants to do more, so SDN gets her into college. She got her bachelor's degree and became a licensed therapist. She returns to SDN afterward and works with them as a therapist for "villains" going through the process of reformation. Fun fact: She neither confirms nor denies having the ability to understand animals while transformed as them, but her villain name was literally Do-little, so take that as you will.

Scrap is a "villain" currently working on reforming and was actually in the same crew as Dr. Do-little as the getaway driver (and has romantic feelings for her), due to this, Scrap instead sees Mr. Whiskers for therapy. Unlike Doctor. Do-little who was never caught and volunteered, Scrap was caught while attempting a solo career in robbery after some sort of fall out with the crew and is at SDN for court mandated community service. Unfortunately, Scrap's abilities and appearance come from being hit with a magical Villain's power as a kid. She's been left with a rubber body that sweats ink and magical floating parchment as a head. Whatever she decides to doodle on the parchment is her face and will act as such. It's even more unfortunate that she isn't that great at drawing human faces. Fun fact: She's dispatched the most to kid related things and emergencies.