BTS #3 – Incubus – Things I Decided Were Too Dark (Patreon)

With Incubus, I tended to go hard in the planning stage and then dial it back during the writing. I love dark themes, and when I’m in the mood I enjoy really dark themes, but… I don’t know. The real world feels dark enough sometimes. As shitty as Solace is, I don’t want it to be utterly devoid of hope. So, here are some of the darker ideas that I axed:

Chapter 5 – Mass Cannibalism

Originally, the homeless community was a lot larger, and so was the number of missing people. Everyone would be twitchy and miserable and unhelpful. It would later be revealed that Duke was influencing all of them, one by one, to eat each other. I walked that back because, ugh, I was being too exploitative of this nameless, faceless crowd of unhoused people that were only here for one chapter. I felt a lot more comfortable changing to a smaller cast with more defined personalities and roles. …Sorry you got the short end of the stick, Bella!

Chapter 6 – Snuff Ring

The illegal porn ring Ted’s hunting down across a couple chapters? Yeah, originally they were snuff movies. I toned that down mainly because it was only ever intended to be a background event but, like, how the hell could I justify the detective not getting involved in literal murder? I couldn’t!

Chapter 6 – The Argument

Flea’s crash out was way meaner and more manipulative when it was originally planned out. If the detective had feelings for Ted, Flea basically threatened to tell him right then and there; get it all out in the open. It was one of the first scenes I ever penciled so by the time I got to writing the script years had passed and Flea had changed so much in so many little ways that he was at a completely different point in his journey by then. So, I got rid of that shit real fast.

Chapter 7 – Ted Feeds Flea

Another super early idea that I knew I was going to get rid of as Incubus started releasing and the characters all settled into their roles. Originally, I wanted some kind of dynamic where, to save the detective’s life, Ted would need to give Flea some quick, emergency power via sexual energy. No one would feel happy about it and it would lead to a big fallout of complicated, conflicting feelings and—ugh, the story was so different back then. By the time I was writing Incubus for real I already had no interest in that messy, unpleasant drama-fest.