Ciem 3

From DozerfleetWiki, the official encyclopedia of Dozerfleet Productions

Ciem 3 is the third installment in the Ciem Trilogy, which deals with the tenure of Candi Flippo-Levens-McArthur's as the Dozerfleet Comics superheroine Ciem.

The story begins with Candi McArthur and her husband Donte enjoying the temporary peace in the city of Dirbine following the recent death of Duke Arfaas of the Hebbleskin Gang. The couple is looking forward to their adopted son Charlie starting school. However, Henry Malestrom is abducted and transformed into the cruel Musaran II. Meethlites honoring Arfaas also unleash a the werewolf warrior "Lobe" on the city. Donte's cancer gets worse, so he takes a trip to get treatments from Ploribus Philippine. He takes the couple's toddler son Frank with him while Candi and Charlie stay behind. As the town heaps praise on Ciem, her nemesis-since-childhood Kimiyato Hiriyama resurfaces. Ciem's efforts to confront the new threats is complicated by the return of Botan the Plant-Man. Lloyd Kolumn captures Candi out of revenge and takes her to his secret prison facility in California, to await execution. Kimiyato captures Botan and uses an AI backvisor to brainwash him. Dolly Malestrom, outraged by Ploribus' inaction to Candi's disappearance, steals an experimental suit of armor to rescue Candi. As Dolly learns, the AI in the "Earwig" helmet proves treacherous. She must complete her quest before the helmet destroys her sanity.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Epilogue 1.2 Ciem Tomorrow 2 Characters 3 Production 3.1 Themes 3.1.1 Candi's near-death 3.1.2 Dolly 3.1.3 Tammy Daye/Delusia 3.1.4 Lobe 3.1.5 Botan's return 3.1.6 Concerning Kolumn 3.2 Development 3.3 Screen capture 3.4 Effects 3.5 Music 3.6 Release 4 Reception 5 External links

[edit] Plot

Using the last of the now-deceased Arfaas' resources, Lloyd Kolumn and the Hebbleskin Gang discover Ciem's secret identity and begin plotting their revenge. They abduct Candi after failing to frame her for child abuse in the case of her son Charlie. They reveal to her that they have captured several other Phaelite-created beings, and plan to drown them all in about a week's time. Candi, however, is to be ceremonially beheaded, per Arfaas' dying wishes. A now-powerless Donte and his young son Frank go into hiding with the ailing Ploribus and his son Lex; while Candi's archnemesis, Kimiyato "Milp" Hiriyama, wreaks havoc in the streets of Dirbine in Candi's absence.

Frustrated with Ploribus' inaction, Dolly Malestrom steals an experimental suit of armor with flawed, stolen Meethlite AI and assumes the title of "The Earwig" to rescue Candi. However, with the aid of villains such as Lobe and Musaran II, Milp gains the upperhand. Dolly instead finds herself in a battle with her helmet's AI for control of her own mind. Making things worse, Milp raises the stakes by transforming herself into a gigantic monster that threatens the destruction of Dirbine. Eventually, Dolly makes her way to the California coastline where Kolumn's prison facility is protruding from a cliff. Her helmet begins taking over, and she begins killing indiscriminately rather than freeing the prisoners she came for.

Kolumn, eager for a promotion in his new Meethlite ranks, escorts Candi to the Zeran portal room, where a chopping block awaits her. Realizing that she has no powers with the hormone bracelet on, Candi submits to her fate. Kolumn begins cheering hysterically when he perceives Candi's head falling at his feet, and proceeds to dance. The sound of cheering alerts Dolly that Candi is most likely dead, and in despair, Dolly surrenders to the Earwig helmet's wishes.

It is then revealed that one of Candi's new friends, Tammy "Delusia" Daye, actually created an illusion, after stopping time, to rescue the real Candi. The beheaded fake Candi, along with all her blood, begin to fade into nothingness, leading Kolumn and his closest men to maddening despair. Tammy and Candi tamper with a control panel, so Kolumn and company end up trapped inside the Zeran room with the Zeran Gate deactivated. Since flooding of the prison has already started to commence, Candi and Tammy realize they must free the other prisoners quickly.

Amidst the struggle though, Tammy forgets to give an illusion to one lucky guard, who sneaks up beside her and shoots her through the heart. Freed from her bracelet, Candi starts gaining her powers back. She dodges the guard's bullets long enough to get close to him; then she snaps his spine from behind. Candi bids the dying Tammy farewell, then proceeds to do her best with the dead guard's keys to free as many prisoners as possible.

The prisoners begin to realize that a ceiling hatch in Charlotte's cell is their best way out, and begin hoisting each other to their escape. Soon afterward, most of the prisoners scatter. The escape is made complicated when Dolly, having run out of other targets, begins attacking Candi's new friends. Candi recognizes from the voice's limited vocabulary that there is a Meethlite AI possessing the Earwig suit's wearer, and tells her new friends to triangulate and ambush.

Candi takes advantage of the distraction to force the assailant's helmet off. She wastes no time yanking the helmet's AI out and breaking it over her knee, just as she did with the Musaran AI. She tosses both the AI unit and its helmet into the ocean. Dolly begins regaining her sanity, and while apologizing for her methods, warns Candi and the others of the bad news in Dirbine. Candi and her friends realize that they will have to fight Milp and Botan head-on. At stake is not only the city and all of the heroes' lives, but also the soul of Jeral Cormier, the only being still capable of defeating Milp in battle.

Dolly is ordered to stay behind and not get involved, while Ciem and the other Forest Funnel Town Demolitioneers take on the Milliblob directly. As Dolly predicted, the trio prove no match for Milp being able to manifest slime clones of herself in every direction. Desperate, Dolly ignores orders and takes matters into her own hands. She steals a gun from a fallen officer and, with Botan distracted, takes direct aim at his backvisor. A suddenly-sane Botan arises, curious as to what happened. He is initially terrified when he recognizes Dolly's costume, but she assures him they're on the same team. She informs Botan that Milp's blood is the secret catalyst to him being cured of his plant-man status, and that it is he who will save the world if he turns against Milp.

Seeing herself as triumphant, Milp begins taunting her new prisoners, threatening to pick off and kill them one by one and saving Candi for last. Just before she can kill Kyle, however, thorny vines begin to grow around her main body mass. The Milp slime clones begin receding, and the Milliblob begins a desperate struggle to free itself from a gigantic manifestation of a carnivorous plant. Dolly calls out to her as well, and explains that the Hebbleskin Doom Oracle's "liPo" is actually the few non-washed out words in what originally said: "library. Position..." Therefore, Dolly, a former librarian, is the Chosen One sent to wipe out Arfaas' legacy, not Candi Flippo. Milp begins to suffer an intense emotional breakdown, unable to fathom how she and the Meethlites could have been stalking the wrong woman the entire time.

As predicted, the flow of Milp's blood into Botan begins activating his past treatments. Milp's body rips apart under pressure from being attacked by all of Botan's plant minions and his control over plant matter weakens as his body begins reverting to normal. Emily Cormier arrives on the scene just in time to see Jeral reverted to a human being again, and Jeral informs her that she has Dolly to thank for everything. An exhausted Candi and friends catch up with the ground crew, and they begin to discuss what they will do with their lives now that the Hebbleskin legacy is finally over.

[edit] Epilogue

As Candi and Donte begin to settle into their new lives in Kentucky, they ponder on the reward they find in finally being able to lead relatively simple lives with their children. While they go outside to spend time with those children, an epilogue sequence begins to play, revealing that, at the age of 37, Candi would go on to have two more children: John and Dana McArthur. She would live to the age of 53, and her daughter Dana would eventually replace her as Ciem.

[edit] Ciem Tomorrow

In one of the special features, the epilogue is expanded to reveal extra details of Candi and her family after Milp's defeat. This also serves as a prologue for a potential series: Ciem Tomorrow.

Candi's escape from Kolumn would not be her last encounter with a chopping block. She would be captured again, and beheaded in a nearly identical way to how Kolumn attempted to kill her. The last remains of Arfaas' loyalists back on Metheel would come to Earth and claim her head for their collection, to join Erin's. The Meethlites responsible for this also make an attempt on Dana's life, but a Marlquaanite rescues her. Dana becomes a new, futuristic Ciem, replacing her mother. Donte lives for a few months after Candi's death, and then dies of cancer. Dana's aunts, Miriam and Marina, are also be captured by the Meethlite faction that kills Candi. Marina would be put to death on a block the same way as Candi; Miriam dies by guillotine instead.

The loss of his mother Marina compels a now-fully-grown Andy Baret to become a vigilante, and he teams up with Lex Philippine and Dana McArthur to form a vigilante unit set on reclaiming Gerosha from the Phaletori sect. Eventually, Team Ciem gains some support from Miriam's children: Marie, Trina, and Larry. Charlie becomes a successful businessman, and helps finance Lex's endeavors. Frank dies while battling one of his father's old nemeses. John becomes Verdecent, and protects Farrenville. Even Jeraime and Dolly's children agree to get involved, along with Khumar and Lindsay's children. Together; the McArthur, Hamilton, Malestrom, Philippine, Baret, McLaine, and Flippo families continue to protect southern Indiana from monsters, aliens, and criminals of every kind.

As Dana kisses her boyfriend Devin Spanz goodnight one evening before heading to bed; it is implied that she can almost imagine Candi, Donte, Denny, Angie, and Frank watching over her and her adventures. This is the same as how Candi would sometimes imagine that Stan, Shalia, and Erin were watching what she was doing.

[edit] Characters

• Candi McArthur/Ciem: A superheroine, graduate of Viron University with a degree in forensic investigation and criminal profiling. Due to a flooded local market, Candi is forced to take a part-time job as a bartender until she and Donte can move to Kentucky. After the events in Ciem 2, Candi finds herself the mother of two children. She is eager to semi-retire from being Ciem so she can focus more on her family; but not all her enemies are willing to let her pass into retirement.

• Donte McArthur: Candi's cancer-plagued husband. Once the mighty superhero Emeraldon, Donte's cancer has weakened him and nearly crippled him. He needs treatments from Ploribus to survive long enough to be there for his children. However, he fears that he and Candi will never have any more children.

• Henry Malestrom/Musaran II: The nephew of Jeraime and Dolly Malestrom, who despises Ciem for blinding his uncle. Meethlites kidnap him while he is lost in thought dwelling on his hatred, and attach an AI backvisor to him to make him the new Musaran. He is saved from the Musaran AI by his aunt, but falls to his death shortly thereafter.

• Celia Winehart/Taterbug: A troubled, rebellious teenage girl whom Ciem had been working to reform. Ceilia is immune to centipede stings and has a history as a troublemaker. Not happy with her falling out at home resulting in her trying to survive on the streets as a petty thief, she tries devoting her life instead to thwarting off Meethlite activities. However, Kolumn captures her and decides to make an example out of her by having her executed on a chopping block. Her head is waved in front of Candi as a reminder of what Kolumn intends to do to Candi as well.

• Terry Silverberg: A cocky news reporter for H. Harvey Hensons's TV studio. He urges Candi to show up at the mayor's parade and be honored for working with Ciem to keep the city safe. He argues that it is only logical, since Ciem herself would want to be honored by the mayor on the mayor's birthday. Candi argues that Ciem is not that self-centered, and argues that she herself will not go because she is too interested in staying at home with her son. Physiologically designed to resemble a teacher at Ferris State University, Terry's personality is a parody of Will Farrell's role as Ron Burgundy in the film Anchorman.

• H. Harvey Henson: The friendly-but-senile owner of a local TV station. He briefly appears in the bar and Candi serves him a drink.

• Jeral Cormier/Botan the Plant-Man: A victim of illegal experiments by the Phaelite rebel faction known as the Phaletori, Jeral is a botanokinetic being capable of shaping himself as any plant and generating plant matter at will from the ground. His botanokinetic antics have drawn to him the ire of many, including his own family. This has forced him to become a fugitive as he has to sometimes kill in self-defense. By the time of Ciem 3, Jeral has a new wife named Emily; and the couple are desperate to find a cure for Jeral's condition. After the Earwig AI in the suit's helmet begins to influence Dolly's perception of reality, Jeral instantly becomes a target of her wrath. She attempts to justify her attack on him by claiming that Jeral nearly killed Candi while Candi was pregnant with Angie several years ago.

• Kimiyato Hiriyma/Milp: Candi's archnemesis since childhood and her former psychic tormentor. Milp was once a telepathic witch from Tokyo, who believed it was her mission to slowly wear down Candi's mind. However, when Angie Levens was born, Kimi's powers were destroyed. She has since devoted her life to hunting down Candi and getting her revenge. She initially plans to frame Candi for child abuse and leave her with no place to go, defeating her after demoralizing her. Under orders from new Meethlite management though, she is to take an experimental potion to become a gigantic millipede-like monster and destroy Dirbine as a demonstration. When Kolumn's plans for revenge on Candi interfere with Kimi's own, she takes the potion and becomes the monster. She believes that Candi will find a way to escape from Kolumn's facility, and lies in wait for the moment when the two can have their final epic battle.

Her villainous alter-ego is shorthand for milpiés, a knock-off of "Ciem" being a shorthand for ciempiés. Her name is also regarded as a shorthand for Milthuen Prototype, the type of Meethlite experiment that she is. Her suit is the result of stealing a prototype Imaki Izuki had made of the Ciem suit and reverse engineering it to a millipede theme. Aside from her skilled swordsmanship, she is only an average fighter in hand-to-hand combat. Unlike Candi, Kimi cannot sting enemies. However, her millipede powers do allow her to stick to walls, a power Candi does not possess.

• Lloyd Kolumn: A former National Security agent and now Arfaas' heir-apparent. After Kolumn's plans were ruined by Ciem two years ago, he has resurfaced in search of revenge. He proves to be more efficient at research than Arfaas and company were, and quickly deduces Ciem's true identity. He wishes to fulfill Arfaas' wishes by capturing and ceremoniously beheading all of Shalia Flippo's daughters. Candi quickly becomes the prime target for his plot when he discovers that Miriam and Marina have no powers and are therefore not a threat. He now runs an undercover prison facility along the coastline of California, where he captures and imprisons political prisoners of interest to the Meethlites. His eventual plans after Candi's execution include setting the facility to flood itself with its reserve water, drowning the remaining prisoners.

[edit] Production

[edit] Themes

[edit] Candi's near-death

Early on in the development of the plot for Ciem 3, it was decided that Candi had already learned most of the lessons she was lacking in her life. Instead, Ciem 3 focuses more on how her friends and family learn from her experiences and her example. Candi's greatest sources of grief have been all-but-completely resolved in Ciem 2, allowing her to come to a realization of her own redemption. Candi is no longer barely getting by; she is now the shining example of morality in the eyes of her friends and especially her children. She is nevertheless aware of her past mistakes and humble about them. She refuses to compromise on her definitions of right and wrong, but does not attempt to oversimplify situations either. Candi's firm principles have caused her few remaining enemies to polarize their fanatical hatred. She has already proven her willingness to risk her life for others. The question instead becomes: "If we require her to die a martyr rather than a hero, how willing is she to forfeit her life entirely?"

[edit] Dolly

The story also deals with Candi's friend, Dolly Malestrom. Dolly lacks the firm morals that Candi possesses, having a more pragmatic view of the world. As Dolly learns, the end cannot always justify the means. Dolly discovers that making compromises with evil to get a good result still yields evil in one or another form. It costs her the life of her nephew, along with the lives of several others, before the full reality sets in. Some morals are absolute, even when they are inconvenient.

[edit] Tammy Daye/Delusia

Candi's near-martydom is also a demonstration of the need for those in tight situations to not question that God can provide for them. Tammy Daye's willingness to sacrifice herself to protect Candi was the result of Candi's faith having an impact on Tammy's outlook. This changed an otherwise bitter and selfish illusionist into a genuine hero. It was this witnessing Candi did for Tammy while the two shared a cell that resulted in Candi's rescue; not Dolly's vain attempt to negotiate with the evil in her helmet to make it happen. Candi also realizes that she could not have possibly engineered her own escape. Kolumn ignored Tammy's potential; but had containing Candi down to a science. In turn, Dolly learns from Candi in the nick of time and risks her life to ask Jeral for forgiveness. Only through this was Dolly able to save her friends from otherwise certain death at the clutches of the relentless Milp. Likewise, Candi's example motivates Kyle and Charlotte to be equally courageous in agreeing to go with Candi to battle Milp.

[edit] Lobe

The character of Lobe was introduced to present the fact that the Meethlite experiments on creating a werewolf had finally successfully created one. While no more werewolves feature in Candi's timeline, her daughter Dana battles several in the future after Candi's death in 2052. Lobe was considered for removal from the script, as there were already four villains to deal with and Dolly's Earwig helmet contended to bring the total villain count to five. Since the future setup of the Phaletori rising to power in Gerosha in the 2050's was deemed too important to leave out, Lobe was given a minor role as a way to help explain Botan's reluctant villain status.

Milp's fluid nature as the "Milliblob" implied that she'd want a way to protect herself while in that form. She deduces that the one thing that poses the biggest threat to her is also the one thing that can most easily protect her from other threats: having Botan on her side. Milp was decided to be the humanity-lacking iconic villain for Ciem 3 since its inception in 2005. In spite the plot for Ciem 3 being radically altered from the 2005 incarnation, Milp as a character has changed very little from initial concept.

[edit] Botan's return

Botan struggled between accepting his fate out of despair and wanting to let up and accept Candi's offer in the first story. By this story, he has been remarried to Emily and looks forward to children with her. The quest to protect his new life from the Phaletori and his experiences in exile from Dirbine have matured him, so he is more willing to cooperate with Candi. However, he still has his condition and infamy to deal with. Botan's setup in the first story was deemed too significant to allow to remain entirely open. Therefore, he was allowed back for this story to bring closure to his plot arc.

[edit] Concerning Kolumn

Since Ciem 2 needed an explanation for how the Meethlites were able to use the US government's resources to their benefit to create the chaos in Dirbine that almost destroyed Miriam Flippo, Lloyd Kolumn was introduced as a villain. His role was very minimal compared to that of his agents. The subplot for Kolumn as made into an overt parody of the film Mercury Rising, with Andrew Tinsel even referring to Kolumn's involvement in "Project Vanadium." Since Candi seemed at first too composed a character to fall for most of Milp's antics and was too capable of handling herself against the normal version of Milp even after Charlie was injured, someone had to enter into play and be the reason for Candi's capture. The setup of Dolly coming to the rescue seemed to fit best if a conspiracy by an organized "government"-type villain arranged for the capture. It was only under the pretense of a "police"-like apprehension that Candi would not resist capture. All this culminated in the necessity of Kolumn's return.

[edit] Development

The story as a whole took a long time to organize, being figured out during time outs from working on the other two stories. The biggest challenge was figuring out how Candi survives her own block execution in spite having her powers disabled. Several ideas were proposed, including a man she secretly thawed from a frozen cell in Kolumn's facility. This man could become invisible and enable matter phasing that would protect Candi. Another idea was that such a man have advanced healing powers and heal Candi after her head came off. A third idea was that Candi is not brought back, and that the Ciem Tomorrow timeline would be scrapped entirely. Her friends would have to defeat Milp without her. Finally rejecting all these ideas; the Dozerfleet founder settled for Candi's cellmate being an illusionist named Tammy, who tricks Kolumn into thinking he's killed Candi while Tammy secretly rescues the real Candi and restores her powers.

The battle scene for the end of the story, where the Milliblob and Weed City structures fight Ciem and her new friends, was originally going to be a construction site. It was expanded to an entire block of downtown Dirbine, as the construction site idea was thought to resemble too much the plot of Spider-Man 3.

[edit] Screen capture

Current plans for screen capture of Ciem 3 are to imitate the techniques used for Ciem 2, but with more emphasis on special effects and on high-contrast lighting. There are plans to employ the use of a real-world camera and employ texture substitution for some of the scene composition, such as when the Earwig and Botan battle underground. This story will most likely employ extensive uses of pseudo-chroma key, a feature that is used heavily in Ciem 2 but which is mostly absent in Ciem. Principal screen capture is planned to initiate in March of 2010.

[edit] Effects

In addition to the visual effects mentioned above, extensive work is planned to improve the special effects for Botan. The character's suit was relatively simple in Ciem, as Plantsims are a paranormal state in Seasons that is easy to unlock. With this option missing after Seasons was uninstalled and the machinima studio was reverted to Nightlife accommodations, Botan had to be completely re-designed. A skintone file by HystericalParoxysm at ModTheSims2 was reverse-engineered to work with Nightlife as a custom skintone. With a few added adjustments to the facial genetics, Botan was ready to go except for his hair. A Maxis mesh was used as the base and a green repaint was used to produce the reference base for Botan's hair. The idea was that his leafy hair would then be painted into each frame with Photoshop and overlayed on top of the "grass" reference base.

As explained in the story, Milp created her suit to be an evil version of the Ciem suit after reverse-engineering its design from Imaki Izuki, accentuating her lifelong obsession with Candi. Little was done to the suit save to alter the chest centipede to a millipede and recolor the orange theme to purple. Initial promotional work shows the Milp suit as lacking the septagon weaving pattern, since the Milp suit was originally built on the first Ciem suit rather than the latter one. After transforming into the Milliblob, Milp is able to project globular representations of her former self in multiple places at once. These will lack the septagon weave texture on purpose, as they are to be semi-liquid projections rather than a still-human entity.

Kyle uses the same skintone as Captain Aardwulf from the story immediately preceding. The difference is that he does not use the aardwolf facepaint that Aard uses. Charlotte's suit is actually a two-piece suit, and was among the more difficult pieces to edit in Body Shop. Lobe, given that he is a werewolf in a version of The Sims 2 that does not have Pets installed, uses a basic version of Abragon's Werewolf Warrior skintone from ModTheSims2. Only Lobe's clothing and hair are deviations from the original design by MTS2 user Abragon. This is in contrast to Kyle and Capp Aard, who are brown-tinted variations on Abragon's design.

[edit] Music

Main article: Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 3

[edit] Release

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[edit] Reception

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[edit] External links

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