Your Questions Answered:

How much of DP is inspired by real life?

rosewalker: There are a few very specific things we've taken from real life. A lot of Mary and Emily's friendship has come straight from the pages of history, with a few modifications. A lot of it is contained in the episode in which Emily's life flashes before her eyes. aikea_guinea and I really did meet on a swingset at recess. And although we never spent the night in any abandoned, haunted houses, we did sleep on her balcony once in the middle of February.

aikea_guinea: With Sparky the Electric Blanket, no less. I'm still not sure how we're not dead.

We know that DP has seen several incarnations throughout the years. How did the ideas evolve into the way the story is now? What is your favorite element of the old stories not incorporated into DP and why did you choose to leave it out of the current version?

rosewalker: The one thing that has always been there is Mary and Emily's friendship. When we set out to do this version of the stories, we wanted to make sure that the central theme was that friendship. We actually had a conversation about how we wanted to really go back to the roots of the stories. The original stories were very funny (sometimes on purpose!), whereas some of the later versions got much darker and dramatic. I think my favourite thing that we purposefully left out was the relationship between the Tristan and Mary character. Originally, those two were always at each others throats, and later in the stories we found out that Tristan was Mary's long lost older brother. We left that out of Deception Pass because we decided to make Tristan much older. Oh, and also because it was incredibly silly.

aikea_guinea: I'm not sure you'd strictly call it an element, but there's this particular scene involving Mary, James, and a dryer that we left out. Basically James decided he was going to move in with Mary after only knowing her a few hours, and for whatever reason Mary didn't call the police and have him removed. He was making her more and more angry while she was making dinner so she threw a knife at him which, much to her surprise, stabbed him straight through the heart causing him to 'drop dead'. In a blind panic, Mary stuffs James's 'dead body' in a dryer in order to hide her crime. The reason we left that scene out is pretty obvious--it's impossible to sim someone being stuffed in a dryer. XP

As far as evolution of the story, there's always been a core group of five characters-Mary, James, Tristan, Emily, and Andy. They're recognizable but very different now than they were when we first started, a bit more evolved I hope.

Music obviously has a deep connection with the series. What kind of music/artists inspire the series as well as how you want TVO to sound? Have you two always had the same tastes in music?

rosewalker: I'm not sure that I've ever had a specific sound in mind for TVO. I hear them as sort of gothic, but with the charisma of something just a tad more popular, like The Cranes meets The Beatles.

aikea_guinea: I've pretty much always heard them sounding vocally much like The Mission, musically like early Cure circa 'Seventeen Seconds', 'Faith', and 'Pornography' for their first album and 'Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me' for their second album, a bit more musically advanced in other words. I think I may think about this too much.

And Sara and I have been into the same 'type' of music since we met. I was heavily influenced by the music my older brother listened to in the early 1990s- The Cure, U2, Cocteau Twins. He has phenomenal taste in music. ^_^ I made Sara a couple of mix tapes and the rest is history.

How do you two manage to come to conclusive decisions? E-mails are quite helpful but what about ideas that one may want to share with each other right away, especially if it may be a last-minute rewrite before an episode's premiere?

rosewalker: Plenty of phone calls. Since I don't have the internet at home, the phone is very important. One of my favourite calls is the one when aikea_guinea read me the coroner scene from the episode in which Tristan died. She did the voices and everything, and I still giggle when I think of her saying "Son, do you need to go to a hospital?"

aikea_guinea: I remember going from sobbing to laughing to laughing so hard I was sobbing during that phone call. I'm surprised I was able to read through it to be honest. XD

As for the last part of the question, I don't think there really are any last-minute rewrites because the simming aspect of DP takes so long. Small changes are constantly being made during the entire processes by both of us.

If approached by either a TV or movie deal, do you think either of you would consider taking it? Would you rather see DP as a TV show, movie, or in some other medium other than its current incarnation?

rosewalker: I would love to see it as a TV show. Deception Pass is very character-driven, and I think it would play better as a television series. I do, however, think the process of making a TV show is heartbreaking, and I'm not sure if I want to do that to something so beloved to both of us.

aikea_guinea: If it were a magical perfect world without the heartbreak I'd say a TV show as well. But it would have to be a soap opera if it were a TV show, where we could keep it going decade after decade. I think Deception Pass would work as a graphic novel as well.

Did you have any writing training in school, or was it always just a hobby?

rosewalker: Mostly just a hobby. I know Danielle has taken some creative writing classes, and so have I. I majored in Journalism in college, but it was more on the advertising side than on the writing side. I personally feel that I have a long way to go before I become a "good" writer, but I also believe that the best way to learn how to write is to read everything you can get your hands on.

aikea_guinea: I actually turned in an early chapter of 'the stories' for my one creative writing class. I got an A. XD I was an art major my first (and for all intents and purposes last) year in college. I'm not sure what it means that I failed every single one of my classes. It never occurred to me until recently that I was probably in the wrong major.

Like Sara, I also think I have a long way to go before I become a 'good' writer.

What sparked your interest for writing "the stories"? Has writing just always been your escape from the stressors of life (school, work, family, friends, etc.)?

rosewalker: This one day in band class, Danielle showed me some pictures she'd drawn. They went with a story she'd been writing about a time-traveling scientist, a vampire and a wizard. I fell in love with the vampire character. I insisted she write me into the story, and then I began writing my own story, which was very horrible and ended with "Six months later, they all died." At some point, sort of simultaneous with all of this, she showed me "The Stories" which were the beginnings of Deception Pass. She wrote me into that one, as well, as Mary (because there was already another character named Sarah). Soon we began trading off the notebooks and we were each writing. It was definitely an escape from the real world, which, in middle school, was horrible. We've kept it up on & off throughout the years. It's just too big a part of our lives not to. I cannot even begin to fathom my life without these stories.

aikea_guinea: I moved a lot growing up. A lot. Until I met Sara in 7th grade I never really felt I belonged anywhere. The people in my head kept me company when I didn't have anyone else. James was there living in his hut in Medieval England with its dirt floors and really nice mattress making me laugh and sharing adventures.

rosewalker: Oh my god, I'm so glad you didn't move again after you moved here and that your mom kept driving you to school after they changed the boundaries. What would I have done without you? I don't even want to think about it.

aikea_guinea: That's one of those singular defining moments that make your head spin if you think too hard about them. 'What if mom hadn't kept driving me to Pioneer?' It boggles the mind. I'd be dead or in an asylum.

Is the story mostly complete or do you just write as you go along? Do you refer to some of your older material?

rosewalker: It's kind of a mixture of both. There is a huge twist coming up in a later season that fundamentally takes the story to a whole new level. I'm a little apprehensive about how it will play to the readers, because I can see it as a "jumping the shark" kind of moment, but I'm hoping we can pull it off. There are also things we've foreshadowed already that will hopefully make people go back to older episodes and say, "Oh! Wow! They've been planning this since the third episode!". It was important for us to lay down a lot of the groundwork for things to come.

There's also a lot we don't know yet, and certain parts just write themselves. For instance, as far as the love relationships go, we're really not quite sure who's going to end up together (and who's going to stay together). The characters will let us know in time.

aikea_guinea: The foreshadowing has been my favorite part of the series so far. I love leaving clues for people to find, sort of making people slow down and pay attention rather than spelling everything out for them. That's not what you asked, but Sara covered every thing else. ^_^

Before making the DP LJ and using TS2, have either of you thought of publishing your work?

rosewalker: I never seriously have. It's always just been our thing, between the two of us. Sometimes we'd pick up another friend briefly along the way. It always seemed like we were writing it for our own entertainment, and that was cool because we never had to consider what anyone else might think of it.

aikea_guinea: I never seriously have either. I'm still writing this primarily for the two of us. You can't really afford to start thinking too much about how people may take a character's actions, you just have to do it. It's impossible to please everyone, at the end of the day the only person you can really hope to make happy is yourself.

Do either of you "favor" some characters while writing or do you switch them off equally?

rosewalker: I love Chris. I absolutely adore him. I think he and Mary are my favourites to write just because they can be so off the wall. I love that Mary just says whatever she's thinking, it's a nice release to be able to get into the head of a character like that when you've spent all day at work trying to be nice to idiots.

aikea_guinea: I adore writing for Andy. He's so multi-layered and has all these different games going on with everyone he knows; it's tricky. He's completely hilarious to me as well, sort of in a blunt crazy sort of way.

I also love writing Glass and Jade. Their sibling rivalry is a constant source of inspiration. Plus they're just cool.

I'm still a bit nervous around Mary, but only because Sara is so brilliant with her that she seems to pale a bit in my hands.

rosewalker: Sure, but if you picked out the top ten most brilliant Mary lines, you'll find they were written by Danielle. For instance, "Is there even a circus in town?" has always been one of my favourites, it was sort of a defining moment for Mary in my head. I've used it as inspiration for a few other lines, like Mary in the Underworld asking if the Furies got the Food Network.

Who is your personal favorite DP character (if it's possble to pick a favorite child)?

rosewalker: I really can't pick! They're all part of something larger, to me.

aikea_guinea: Exactly as Sara said, they're all part of something larger. Every time I think I have a favorite I think of any of the others and they become my favorite. I don't even have a least favorite.

Can you give us any hints about what's to come in the series?

rosewalker: Plenty more angst and fun.

I've always wondered what aspirations the characters were created with, yano, Sim-wise. Were they picked just to hurry the creation process, or do they influence their individual personalities?

aikea_guinea: Because certain aspirations and zodiac signs cause sims to act in different ways even when they're just standing around, I did my best to match the sim up with the strongest personality traits of the characters. Here's a rundown of their aspiration and in-game zodiac signs:

James: Popularity, Aquarius
Tristan: Family, Pisces
Emily: Family, Aquarius
Mary: Knowledge, Taurus
Markus: Knowledge, Cancer
Chris: Fortune, Aries
Andy: Fortune, Aries
Deanna: Knowledge, Aries
Jacob: Knowledge, Cancer
Glass: Knowledge, Virgo
Jade: Knowledge, Taurus

I seem to favor knowledge sims. :X

I've also always wondered how much of the story you have "in the can" as it were. Obviously you've been writing these guys for a long while but do you have an "evolved" storyline? Do you sort of know where the characters will go/end up etc?

rosewalker: There is a definite line of development that each of the characters are following. The series, as far as we have it thought out, has about three acts. We're still in the very beginning of act one.


I've always wondered if your story for dp has been in anyway shaped by what you can and can't do in sims 2? For example, you can't write into the story that the characters turn into dogs because you can't have dogs in sims 2(well not yet any way, the new expantion pack will fix that)

rosewalker: I pretty much just write whatever I can think of and then Danielle magically makes it happen. There are a few things she hasn't been able to do, like the three-headed dog in the Underworld. We ended up just writing all of the beasties we needed as various vampire incarnations, and it made sense since that's really the only kind of demon Mary knows.

aikea_guinea: I still think I could have pulled off the three-headed dog if I'd had to. I'm just glad I didn't have to. XD

I think that I may subconsciously write things I know I can sim, but I don't go out of my way to actively avoid things because I may not be able to do it. There's always a way to get a scene done.

I know that Jacob and Tristan each have their own specific song (being Jacob's Ladder and Tristan). Does the rest of the cast have a song specifically for them? Meaning, if you hear the song on the radio, you immediately envision ... say ... James?

rosewalker: I usually have specific songs for specific scenes, rather than characters. But there are definitely certain songs that remind me of the characters. I just can't seem to think of any at the moment… maybe I'll come back to this.

aikea_guinea: Very recently I redid the character page over at the website and used song lyrics that reminded me of each of them:

Emily: 'Girl', Tori Amos
Mary: 'Spark', Tori Amos
Andy: 'Wake', The Mission
James: 'Lover I Don't Have to Love', Bright Eyes
Tristan: 'Tristan', Patrick Wolf
Markus: 'Fight', The Cure
Jacob: 'Jacob's Ladder', Patrick Wolf
Deanna: 'Here in my Head', Tori Amos
Chris: 'Climbing up the Walls', Radiohead
Glass: 'Suede', Tori Amos
Jade: 'Datura', Tori Amos

There are countless others that also make me think of everyone. I was just thinking about how when I hear 'Mercy Street' by Peter Gabriel I think of James. I think it has to do with the one line "Dreaming of the tenderness, the tremble in the hips of kissing Mary's lips". The song 'Reptile' by the Church has been making me think of Andy, I think it was what had me have Abigail call him a 'viper' to Emily during the dream episodes and again more recently. Generally speaking it'll be a single line or two that will remind me of someone, the list could be endless if I sat down and thought about it.

We have learned about Emily, Tristan, James, and Andy's past, but how come we learned almost zilch about Mary and Markus. I've always wondered why Mary shuns affection (especially with her parents still together and obviously caring). Yeah we got peeks at them, with the rape and Markus getting his ass beat, but there is always more to it. Should we be expecting some more insight in the up coming season?

rosewalker: I think the very first thing we wrote for DP was the character histories. So we already know what's happened to them up to this point. Our plan is really to use those histories to figure out how the characters react to things, and there are little pieces of everyone's history in nearly every episode. By the end of the series, you'd probably have a good idea as to all of the important things that have happened to the characters. We may have some more specific flashbacks at some point, if they serve the plot. There are certainly some interesting characters from the past who might show up.


Where in the world did you come up with Zombie Platypus' from?

rosewalker: Ah, still one of my favourite episodes. This ep actually started out as Mary's parents coming to dinner and the interactions between everybody. When we got to the end we realized something was missing, and I went through a list of supernatural stuff we hadn't done yet. It included zombies. When we were kids, I had pet hamsters that had babies constantly. So Danielle & I always had these rodents running around, and hamsters seemed like the obvious choice for a zombie pet. The platypus thing was all Danielle, though, and I still giggle thinking about when she read that scene to me over the phone.

aikea_guinea: I'd been thinking about my little brother who was living in Australia at the time, and how weird all the animals there are to me. Platypuses are just fundamentally hilarious creatures.

Andy was bit, how come he didn't turn? Did he and we not know it? Was not enough blood taken? I was expecting to seem him suddenly go nocturnal on us. I'll spork you (ok not really, I just like sporks).

rosewalker: I think we have a very specific mythology for turning someone into a vampire in this series. We've already hinted at the vampire virus, so there needs to be an exchange of blood under some very specific circumstances in order to turn someone.

What are the characters bad habits? Do any of them bite their nails, twirl their hair, tap their feet, hum, spit a lot. Hmm?

rosewalker: Mary talks to herself constantly. She also always needs to be moving, she's not good at sitting quietly. I think Emily bites her lip when she's lost in thought, and I could see her being a hair-twirler. Chris smokes really stinky cloves, so he always kind of smells acrid and sweet. I think Tristan always has music in his head, so he either has a foot or a hand going along in time to it, but quietly, no tapping. James does this hand gesture in which he (lightly) pounds his fist into his palm when he's trying to emphasize something.

aikea_guinea: Deanna's a fiddler. Not that she plays a fiddle, but her hands have to be doing something all the time. If you were to see her sitting at a table, she'd undoubtedly have a pen in her hands absentmindedly doodling or something. She's a pen-clicker.

If you were each of the main characters (Chris included), step in their shoes and tell me what you think they would say is their best quality.

rosewalker:
Emily: I love deeply.
Mary: I'm independent.
Tristan: I'm intelligent and talented.
James: I'm so damn pretty.
Chris: James is a poof, I am the hawtness. And I'm really good in bed.
Markus: I'm strong enough to do what needs to be done.

aikea_guinea:
Andy: I'm damn good at getting what I want.
Deanna: I'm balanced and very comfortable with myself and who I am.

I've always wanted more Tristan/James back story. What happened after undead!Tristan scared the crap out of his family? How long did it take him to forgive James? What happened to the classy blonde chick (sorry, forgot her name!)? Will you ever give us a Chicago flashback?

rosewalker: There will definitely be some more back story. We actually laid some of the groundwork for it already in the season finale, though I doubt anyone will catch it until they go back to read it after this future episode comes out. I believe our blonde was named Anne, and yes, we do have her contracted to return for a future episode or two.

Okay, cos I'm selfish, what's the background/life-story-so-far for Jade and Glass?

rosewalker: I'm not certain, but I think it was pretty messed up and involved a genetics experiment gone wrong.

Has there ever been a time when Tristan and James have had a huge falling out that could have ruined their friendship?

rosewalker: Tristan wasn't particularly happy with James over the whole turning him into a vampire thing. We'll probably explore that more in episodes to come.

If DP was ever made into a movie or television show, who would you pick to play each character and why?

rosewalker: I think I would be drawn to lesser known actors, honestly. But for the sake of argument, here are the more well-known people I might choose:

Emily: Kate Beckinsale. I think her range from soft to strong is really fantastic. She can be both at once. And she's got this dark but innocent look going on that I just love.

Mary: Scarlett Johansson. She has a strong voice and she can say a lot just with a look. She's sexy but not dainty, she looks strong.

James: This is a toss-up… Jake Gyllenhaal. Because… yum. And the blue eyes. He can be scary and a teddy bear. Or Ryan Reynolds. Because he cracks me up.

Tristan: I'll have to concur with Danielle on this one and go with Johnny Depp, but only because I can't think of anyone else that fits quite right in my head.

Chris, Andy, Markus.. .my head hurts too much now. But I think Markus could be the hot guy from CSI. I'm pretty sure I actually have some really excellent people in mind for Chris & Andy, but they just aren't coming to me at the moment.

aikea_guinea: Sara covered them all pretty well. Just for amusement and confusion I think it'd be hilarious to see James Marsters playing Chris. To add a bit more to the Johnny Depp as Tristan thing, I primarily go that route because at the very beginning I found myself channeling a bit of Edward Scissorhands for Tristan.

What cheats and hacks do you primarily use?

aikea_guinea: I have very few hacks in my game. My most recent tool of choice has been the pulled animation painting I made myself that allows me to use any animation in the game at will. Because I made it myself I have complete control over what animations I have without having to rely on someone else to get the animations for me if/when they have time. Learning about how the animations work has been great fun as well as frustrating, but it's worth the blood sweat and tears to help bring more life into the pictures.

As for cheats, there's no way I could do this without them. My game is set up to run with testingCheats on as a default for instance. I also use the following:

boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false
boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true
maxmotives
motivedecay off
sethour [generally 19 since so much of this takes place at night!]
moveobjects on
showheadlines off
slowmotion [1-8]

What are the hardest types of scenes to set up?

aikea_guinea: Believe it or not, scenes that are mostly dialogue are the most difficult for me. It's challenging to give the reader something interesting to look at that doesn't pull away from the words.

Are these what the characters were originally intended to look like, or have they drastically changed over time?

aikea_guinea: I think the state they're in now, with their custom genetics, is pretty much how we've always seen them. Or at least how we've seen them the longest. Though Mary started out as a brunette now that I'm thinking about it. Emily was always supposed to be exotically beautiful, half-Japanese half-Caucasian. Tristan was always the 'pretty' one while James was always more traditionally masculine.

What one custom object/hack/mesh could you not live without?

aikea_guinea: The cheats. At this point I'd also be lost without my pulled animations.

Do you play these sims as a different story line, and then just take photographs for this story, or are they only used for Deception Pass?

aikea_guinea: I don't actually ever play the sims as a game anymore! It's become an illustration tool (not just for Deception Pass, but also for silly little photoshoots I do, and the handful of videos as well) above all else. Once in a while I'll go in and let everyone run around crazy with free-will because otherwise I'd forget certain aspects of the game.

Who lives in what "household," as The Sims defines a house? Do you just have 8 characters per lot, do only the major characters have their own lots...how does that work?

aikea_guinea: I found that I had to approach Deception Pass from a different angle than the way the Sims 2 is meant to be played as a game as far as households go. In the very very beginning I built Mary and Emily's house on the largest lot available at the time and built a fake road down the middle of it. Across the street was the studio everyone was supposed to work out of. Everyone was pretty much on one lot. Needless to say that didn't last very long. These days there are hundreds of lots and everyone gets moved around as needed via the tombstone of life and death. I rarely, if ever, save after shooting a scene. I think it's perpetually 8am Monday in Deception Pass.

Is there anything you have wanted to add to the story that you just haven't been able to make work in terms of getting the characters to act it out within game confines?

aikea_guinea: You know, I don't think there has been. If there is, I get artsy with the pictures, like in Episode 21, Part 3.

Once the Pets expansion comes out, will you utilize that in the game?

aikea_guinea: Jacob has a cat named Mr. Twinkles, so he'll at least get to have her in a state where she can move and not just stare blankly at him as she's been doing up to this point. Not that we've seen her in the series yet… At any rate, she was around when Jacob first came to me last year so it's more like the EP will give me a way to have her in the story rather than the EP inspiring the pet.

What mood/time of day do you find yourself at your most creative?

aikea_guinea: I think I do my best work after midnight during the week. The sun makes me irate and on the weekends my husband likes to spend time with me outside of my head. As far as mood goes it depends on the scene. There's a dance that goes on between scenes influencing my mood and my mood influencing the scenes.

rosewalker: I usually write whenever the mood strikes me. Most of the time it's pretty late at night, or at least after dark. It seems like the magic doesn't come out until the sun sets. But I also write a lot during the day while I'm at work, usually after everyone else has gone home for the day. I suppose really it's the absence of people that helps me, because then I can just let go and be completely myself. I have a hard time tuning in otherwise.

aikea_guinea: I can't write with anyone around, either.

I would like to find out more about Deanna. Ok, ok I'm not a huge fan of hers. I'm a Tristan/Emily shipper. But I've always been curious about her.

aikea_guinea: This will certainly be in a future episode.