Ah, I’ve been wanting to do this Behind the Scenes Ramble. You see, I’ve had the idea for the Jeff retcon in my head for a while now, back around when I was doing the very first story arc. That’s when the Riffs were exclusive to the Creepypasta Wiki, to give you a sense of time.
However, I didn’t really have much of a chance to tell the story. After I finished the first arc, I decided not to do any more. Then I did the second arc soon after to introduce another Riffer so that Dorkpool would have someone to play off of, and to resolve the first arc. It was only now I could get to telling this story.
Actually, this story was written with one goal in mind: tell a story with Jeff the Killer that’s actually pretty good. And, honestly, I think I sort of reached that goal. This arc had a lot of good points in my opinion, mostly the beginning parts. I think it was towards the end that the arc started being less than adequate. But I enjoyed writing this one quite a bit (until the end, but I personally think part of that is from Riffing “Lil’ Miss Rarity”).
Anyway, I’m now going to give the original plan for this arc, and explained what changed and why.
Alrighty, since I did this with my last arc, let’s do one here: an outline.
1) Jeff is introduced, along with a power of his that was mentioned in the Rifftiques: teleportation.
2) Dorkpool finds a file from the Project that says Jeff was a part of it. He’s not the biggest fan of that. Also, Dorkpool starts acting cocky and narcissistically (much to everyone’s irritation).
3) Dorkpool says to Mirror and Indometus that they need to find Jeff, tell him what’s going on, and see if they can’t fix him. Or something like that.
4) They eventually find Jeff, and Dorkpool goes down to confront him. He starts to explain to Jeff what’s going on, but then Jeff attacks him. They fight, and Dorkpool gets his ass handed to him. On the Cheese Doodle, Indometus asks Mirror if they should help. He says, “Nah, he’ll be fine. After all, he’s the one who killed Zorax, right?” He knows Dorkpool will heal up, but thinks that he needs to be brought down a peg.
5) Dorkpool is beamed aboard the Cheese Doodle (along with Jeff, who’s beamed straight to the brig) and asks what took them so long. Mirror says that he thought that Dorkpool could handle it, since he’s so awesome and great, right? This leads into a fight betwixt the two Dorkpools, which ends when Indometus says that Jeff teleported out.
6) Jeff goes on doing his serial killer thing, until he meets someone dressed in black armor with a skull-like face. This person decks Jeff, and takes him somewhere.
7) Back on the Cheese Doodle, the Dorkpools are still pissed at each other. Dorkpool is monitoring police bands from around the world, trying to see if he can find any trace of Jeff. Indometus talks to him, and asks if Jeff can teleport to different universes. Dorkpool turns off the police scanner, and puts his head down. Indo says that maybe Mirror could help, but Dorkpool is still pissed at him for not helping. Indo says that Mirror did have a reason for it, since Dorkpool is being kind of a jerk. They talk for a bit, and right as Dorkpool is about to say something, Mirror pops in, and says he found a lead on Jeff.
8) Mirror says that found security camera footage of Jeff being punched by some guy who looks a lot like Zorax. Dorkpool refuses to believe it’s him, since he killed Zorax. Mirror asks how good a swordsman Dorkpool is. Dorkpool responds by saying he isn’t much of one, but it was his smartassery that saved the day. Mirror responds by saying that Zorax orchestrated a plot that involved the deaths of quintillions of Dorkpools, and says that he doubts Zorax is really dead. Dorkpool isn’t happy about this, and thinks that Mirror is jealous of him. This starts to lead into a fight, until Indo tells them both to shut up, since she’s tired of their bullshit. She says to find out who this guy is, and then they can fight or whatnot. The two Dorkpools reluctantly agree.
9) We go back to Jeff, who was unconscious for awhile, and awakens to find the possible Zorax in front of him. His vision is blurry, and it seems like the skull face this Zorax has isn’t quite…right. He can’t figure out what. This Zorax says that he’s drafting Jeff into an army. Like it or not, he’s part of a war.
10) Dorkpool and Mirror aren’t talking very much to each other, outside of Riffs and investigation. One of them ends up finding something interesting: a document on the “Jeff Formula.” Apparently, there are a lot more like Jeff: people who, upon puberty, go insane and become psychotic killers. This is intentional, since they can be subdued and made to work for Zorax as a berserker army of sorts. Also, some females exposed to the “Jeff Formula” (the name of the chemical that makes them Jeff-like) have a lust for Jeff. This is done purposely, so that they can reproduce and make more berserkers. And it should be noted that most of them have psychotic breaks, in which reality and hallucinations start to blur, which is part of what makes them go nuts (in other words, “Jeff the Killer” is basically a hallucination. Makes a lot more sense now, don’t you think?). Mirror has an idea: since this Zorax abducted Jeff, it’s obvious that he wants to create an army. That means that they should find others who have been exposed to the Jeff Formula, and maybe they can track them to Zorax. Dorkpool says that’s actually a good idea, and that they should go for it. The rift is starting to be healed betwixt them.
11) For a little while, we cut to this new Zorax taking people from stories that have been Riffed: Nina the Killer, Rae the Killer, White the Killer, etc.
12) Eventually, our heroes find a Jeff wannabe, and track him/her to this new Zorax’s location. Mirror says they should ask his Poison for help again, but Dorkpool says that they can do it on their own. Mirror disagrees, but Dorkpool overrules him, and the trio goes down to confront this new Zorax (Dorkpool doesn’t believe it is Zorax). They beam down, and are quickly overrun by the Killers, and brought before the new Zorax. They all notice something interesting about him: he’s wearing a skeleton helmet/mask thing. Dorkpool asks who he is. He says that he is Zorax, and he isn’t. This new Zorax is the original one’s successor. In the event the first one was killed, the new one would take over for him. The original Zorax was starting to fray at the edges, losing his patience and his mind. By the end, he was able to seem rational simply through force of will. However, he was also growing weaker, which is how Dorkpool was able to beat him. So Dorkpool killed Zorax, but it wasn’t much of a victory. Anyway, after Zorax’s death, this new Zorax, Vorix (successor), took his place. Dorkpool still hasn’t quite absorbed all the information, and challenges him to a sword fight for freedom. He says that after beating Zorax, he’s done some practice when it came to sword fighting, and says that if he wins, they go free. Vorix accepts, and gets some swords for the two of them. They fight, and Dorkpool tries using his wit to distract Vorix, but fails miserably. Vorix simply laughs at his attempts to distract him, and promptly beats Dorkpool. He orders the three of them be taken to the torture chamber.
13) (Note: This part is made around 5/16/15, with numbers 1-7 sort of being done at this point. I’m going to use what already happened in canon to continue). Mirror Dorkpool and Indometus are just imprisoned, while Dorkpool is sent to a torture chamber. He’s forced to Riff some really bad and long Creepypasta stories. Alone. This goes on for a few days to a week. During this time, we sometimes cut away to Jeff (who is thinking of ways to stop Vorix; Vorix offered him and the other Jeff wannabes positions in his army. Jeff decided to take it, since the other option was death) and Mirror Dorkpool and Indometus. Eventually, Jeff decides to form an army of Jeff wannabes to try and stop Vorix. He also realizes that he’ll need more help. Like from a spaceship.
14) Jeff ends up breaking out Mirror Dorkpool and Indometus, and then breaks out Dorkpool (who says that he’ll stop making fun of Jeff’s stories. Jeff says he doesn’t have to, and Dorkpool says, “Good, because I wasn’t going to.”). During all this, some of Vorix’s non-Jeffish men have found the sword Zorax used to fight Dorkpool.
15) The two Dorkpools, Indo, and Jeff come up with a plan: they get to the communications console Vorix has, contact the Cheese Doodle, and get it to transport up the Jeff-wannabes (and them), then destroy the base.
16) The Jeff wannabe army fights with Vorix’s limited army.
As you might have noticed, there’s not much of an ending here. That’s because I couldn’t think of one at the time. Naturally, that changed. Also, part 13 was made after I’d started the arc, so that’s taken off from what actually happened.
Now, the reason why Dorkpool and Mirror Dorkpool weren’t sniping at each other during the whole arc is honestly because I didn’t want to have multiple days of them being bitchy towards each other, and having to use the Emergency Riffing Holograms. Yeah, the part where they all make up is, honestly, one of my least favorite parts of this arc. It just felt forced, but I had to do it. However, this made the whole revelation of Zorax not being all there have less of an impact. I kind of regret making them not be pissed at each other for a while, now that I think about it. Oh well.
Now, as for the effects of the Jeff Formula (by the way, that was named that way as kind of a joke, since many Jeff wannabes are known for following what’s called the “Jeff Formula.” Basically, something bad happens, character goes insane and becomes serial killer), those are still canon, but it could’ve been stated better. Hence that part where Jeff was hugged. I felt it was better than all of them trying to fuck Jeff on the spot. I mean, this was revealed during “Lil’ Miss Rarity.” I think there was enough weird sex going on at the time.
I mentioned earlier that part of the reason this arc was created was to tell a good story with Jeff the Killer. (I personally consider that character wasted potential, and really wanted a good story with the character to exist) There was also another reason: to make Dorkpool seem less super-duper-awesome-epic. These story arcs are, to an extent, self-insertion stories, and I didn’t want the main character to, like a lot of other main characters in those types of stories, seem too overpowered. Hence the reveal about Zorax and Dorkpool getting his ass kicked a lot. Also, Zorax was a character I’ve had in my head for about five years or so. I think that final confrontation at the end of the last arc did him a disservice. This was my way of sort of fixing it.
There were quite a few ideas and scenes that I didn’t mention in the outline that didn’t make it into the arc.
During the end, when Indometus was captured, I had planned to have a scene focusing on her and her thoughts. Mostly, that she was pissed, didn’t like feeling like she was a damsel in distress, and was trying to find a way out. I wasn’t quite sure where that scene should go, or how it would contribute to the plot.
I also thought that the Emergency Riffing Holograms should take over the Cheese Doodle if the crew isn’t on it for a week or so. That was cut out because it would’ve felt like a deus ex machina. Speaking of the Emergency Riffing Holograms, I had an idea that if they were left on long enough, they’d go nuts and try taking over the world or something. I didn’t use that because I wasn’t quite sure where to fit it in.
I had, at one point, considered bringing back Zorax. But then I decided that would kind of make Death look rather ineffective if he/she (depending on who witnesses Death) let Zorax come back not once, but twice. Besides, I just didn’t want to. I think Vorix would make a better recurring antagonist at this point.
By the way, I have no plans for another story arc for a little while. To any fans of them, sorry. To any haters of them, you’re welcome.
However, I didn’t really have much of a chance to tell the story. After I finished the first arc, I decided not to do any more. Then I did the second arc soon after to introduce another Riffer so that Dorkpool would have someone to play off of, and to resolve the first arc. It was only now I could get to telling this story.
Actually, this story was written with one goal in mind: tell a story with Jeff the Killer that’s actually pretty good. And, honestly, I think I sort of reached that goal. This arc had a lot of good points in my opinion, mostly the beginning parts. I think it was towards the end that the arc started being less than adequate. But I enjoyed writing this one quite a bit (until the end, but I personally think part of that is from Riffing “Lil’ Miss Rarity”).
Anyway, I’m now going to give the original plan for this arc, and explained what changed and why.
Alrighty, since I did this with my last arc, let’s do one here: an outline.
1) Jeff is introduced, along with a power of his that was mentioned in the Rifftiques: teleportation.
2) Dorkpool finds a file from the Project that says Jeff was a part of it. He’s not the biggest fan of that. Also, Dorkpool starts acting cocky and narcissistically (much to everyone’s irritation).
3) Dorkpool says to Mirror and Indometus that they need to find Jeff, tell him what’s going on, and see if they can’t fix him. Or something like that.
4) They eventually find Jeff, and Dorkpool goes down to confront him. He starts to explain to Jeff what’s going on, but then Jeff attacks him. They fight, and Dorkpool gets his ass handed to him. On the Cheese Doodle, Indometus asks Mirror if they should help. He says, “Nah, he’ll be fine. After all, he’s the one who killed Zorax, right?” He knows Dorkpool will heal up, but thinks that he needs to be brought down a peg.
5) Dorkpool is beamed aboard the Cheese Doodle (along with Jeff, who’s beamed straight to the brig) and asks what took them so long. Mirror says that he thought that Dorkpool could handle it, since he’s so awesome and great, right? This leads into a fight betwixt the two Dorkpools, which ends when Indometus says that Jeff teleported out.
6) Jeff goes on doing his serial killer thing, until he meets someone dressed in black armor with a skull-like face. This person decks Jeff, and takes him somewhere.
7) Back on the Cheese Doodle, the Dorkpools are still pissed at each other. Dorkpool is monitoring police bands from around the world, trying to see if he can find any trace of Jeff. Indometus talks to him, and asks if Jeff can teleport to different universes. Dorkpool turns off the police scanner, and puts his head down. Indo says that maybe Mirror could help, but Dorkpool is still pissed at him for not helping. Indo says that Mirror did have a reason for it, since Dorkpool is being kind of a jerk. They talk for a bit, and right as Dorkpool is about to say something, Mirror pops in, and says he found a lead on Jeff.
8) Mirror says that found security camera footage of Jeff being punched by some guy who looks a lot like Zorax. Dorkpool refuses to believe it’s him, since he killed Zorax. Mirror asks how good a swordsman Dorkpool is. Dorkpool responds by saying he isn’t much of one, but it was his smartassery that saved the day. Mirror responds by saying that Zorax orchestrated a plot that involved the deaths of quintillions of Dorkpools, and says that he doubts Zorax is really dead. Dorkpool isn’t happy about this, and thinks that Mirror is jealous of him. This starts to lead into a fight, until Indo tells them both to shut up, since she’s tired of their bullshit. She says to find out who this guy is, and then they can fight or whatnot. The two Dorkpools reluctantly agree.
9) We go back to Jeff, who was unconscious for awhile, and awakens to find the possible Zorax in front of him. His vision is blurry, and it seems like the skull face this Zorax has isn’t quite…right. He can’t figure out what. This Zorax says that he’s drafting Jeff into an army. Like it or not, he’s part of a war.
10) Dorkpool and Mirror aren’t talking very much to each other, outside of Riffs and investigation. One of them ends up finding something interesting: a document on the “Jeff Formula.” Apparently, there are a lot more like Jeff: people who, upon puberty, go insane and become psychotic killers. This is intentional, since they can be subdued and made to work for Zorax as a berserker army of sorts. Also, some females exposed to the “Jeff Formula” (the name of the chemical that makes them Jeff-like) have a lust for Jeff. This is done purposely, so that they can reproduce and make more berserkers. And it should be noted that most of them have psychotic breaks, in which reality and hallucinations start to blur, which is part of what makes them go nuts (in other words, “Jeff the Killer” is basically a hallucination. Makes a lot more sense now, don’t you think?). Mirror has an idea: since this Zorax abducted Jeff, it’s obvious that he wants to create an army. That means that they should find others who have been exposed to the Jeff Formula, and maybe they can track them to Zorax. Dorkpool says that’s actually a good idea, and that they should go for it. The rift is starting to be healed betwixt them.
11) For a little while, we cut to this new Zorax taking people from stories that have been Riffed: Nina the Killer, Rae the Killer, White the Killer, etc.
12) Eventually, our heroes find a Jeff wannabe, and track him/her to this new Zorax’s location. Mirror says they should ask his Poison for help again, but Dorkpool says that they can do it on their own. Mirror disagrees, but Dorkpool overrules him, and the trio goes down to confront this new Zorax (Dorkpool doesn’t believe it is Zorax). They beam down, and are quickly overrun by the Killers, and brought before the new Zorax. They all notice something interesting about him: he’s wearing a skeleton helmet/mask thing. Dorkpool asks who he is. He says that he is Zorax, and he isn’t. This new Zorax is the original one’s successor. In the event the first one was killed, the new one would take over for him. The original Zorax was starting to fray at the edges, losing his patience and his mind. By the end, he was able to seem rational simply through force of will. However, he was also growing weaker, which is how Dorkpool was able to beat him. So Dorkpool killed Zorax, but it wasn’t much of a victory. Anyway, after Zorax’s death, this new Zorax, Vorix (successor), took his place. Dorkpool still hasn’t quite absorbed all the information, and challenges him to a sword fight for freedom. He says that after beating Zorax, he’s done some practice when it came to sword fighting, and says that if he wins, they go free. Vorix accepts, and gets some swords for the two of them. They fight, and Dorkpool tries using his wit to distract Vorix, but fails miserably. Vorix simply laughs at his attempts to distract him, and promptly beats Dorkpool. He orders the three of them be taken to the torture chamber.
13) (Note: This part is made around 5/16/15, with numbers 1-7 sort of being done at this point. I’m going to use what already happened in canon to continue). Mirror Dorkpool and Indometus are just imprisoned, while Dorkpool is sent to a torture chamber. He’s forced to Riff some really bad and long Creepypasta stories. Alone. This goes on for a few days to a week. During this time, we sometimes cut away to Jeff (who is thinking of ways to stop Vorix; Vorix offered him and the other Jeff wannabes positions in his army. Jeff decided to take it, since the other option was death) and Mirror Dorkpool and Indometus. Eventually, Jeff decides to form an army of Jeff wannabes to try and stop Vorix. He also realizes that he’ll need more help. Like from a spaceship.
14) Jeff ends up breaking out Mirror Dorkpool and Indometus, and then breaks out Dorkpool (who says that he’ll stop making fun of Jeff’s stories. Jeff says he doesn’t have to, and Dorkpool says, “Good, because I wasn’t going to.”). During all this, some of Vorix’s non-Jeffish men have found the sword Zorax used to fight Dorkpool.
15) The two Dorkpools, Indo, and Jeff come up with a plan: they get to the communications console Vorix has, contact the Cheese Doodle, and get it to transport up the Jeff-wannabes (and them), then destroy the base.
16) The Jeff wannabe army fights with Vorix’s limited army.
As you might have noticed, there’s not much of an ending here. That’s because I couldn’t think of one at the time. Naturally, that changed. Also, part 13 was made after I’d started the arc, so that’s taken off from what actually happened.
Now, the reason why Dorkpool and Mirror Dorkpool weren’t sniping at each other during the whole arc is honestly because I didn’t want to have multiple days of them being bitchy towards each other, and having to use the Emergency Riffing Holograms. Yeah, the part where they all make up is, honestly, one of my least favorite parts of this arc. It just felt forced, but I had to do it. However, this made the whole revelation of Zorax not being all there have less of an impact. I kind of regret making them not be pissed at each other for a while, now that I think about it. Oh well.
Now, as for the effects of the Jeff Formula (by the way, that was named that way as kind of a joke, since many Jeff wannabes are known for following what’s called the “Jeff Formula.” Basically, something bad happens, character goes insane and becomes serial killer), those are still canon, but it could’ve been stated better. Hence that part where Jeff was hugged. I felt it was better than all of them trying to fuck Jeff on the spot. I mean, this was revealed during “Lil’ Miss Rarity.” I think there was enough weird sex going on at the time.
I mentioned earlier that part of the reason this arc was created was to tell a good story with Jeff the Killer. (I personally consider that character wasted potential, and really wanted a good story with the character to exist) There was also another reason: to make Dorkpool seem less super-duper-awesome-epic. These story arcs are, to an extent, self-insertion stories, and I didn’t want the main character to, like a lot of other main characters in those types of stories, seem too overpowered. Hence the reveal about Zorax and Dorkpool getting his ass kicked a lot. Also, Zorax was a character I’ve had in my head for about five years or so. I think that final confrontation at the end of the last arc did him a disservice. This was my way of sort of fixing it.
There were quite a few ideas and scenes that I didn’t mention in the outline that didn’t make it into the arc.
During the end, when Indometus was captured, I had planned to have a scene focusing on her and her thoughts. Mostly, that she was pissed, didn’t like feeling like she was a damsel in distress, and was trying to find a way out. I wasn’t quite sure where that scene should go, or how it would contribute to the plot.
I also thought that the Emergency Riffing Holograms should take over the Cheese Doodle if the crew isn’t on it for a week or so. That was cut out because it would’ve felt like a deus ex machina. Speaking of the Emergency Riffing Holograms, I had an idea that if they were left on long enough, they’d go nuts and try taking over the world or something. I didn’t use that because I wasn’t quite sure where to fit it in.
I had, at one point, considered bringing back Zorax. But then I decided that would kind of make Death look rather ineffective if he/she (depending on who witnesses Death) let Zorax come back not once, but twice. Besides, I just didn’t want to. I think Vorix would make a better recurring antagonist at this point.
By the way, I have no plans for another story arc for a little while. To any fans of them, sorry. To any haters of them, you’re welcome.