Interlude: Making Of “The Unforgettables” - A Song for the Laughter and a Song for the Tear, part 1.

Ramirez tried unsuccessfully to sleep on a restless night in his captive hotel room in Rocatrista. The night at the bar had been long, but even though he was tired to the bone, something prevented the magic man from shutting down his eyes. He checked the thousands of messages from his contacts, stopping at one from Petra a few days earlier—some nonsense about Jufei and Alphas. He thought to himself, "Yeah, it's another two months until they arrive somewhere; these questions can wait."

Ramirez made a pained expression, grumbling, "This crap is really fucking me up today!" as he undressed and went to the bathroom to check his back in the mirror. He looked like a middle-aged man with a well-preserved physique. After smiling at his alternative appearance, the magic man let part of his illusion fall, revealing a body that was hardly human—slender, weakened, and full of open wounds on his back. However, he didn't dare to let the illusion fall entirely to avoid gazing at his own face, at least not today. He thought to himself that he didn't need more nightmares for that night.

Ramirez grimaced, whispering to himself, his hands trembling as he perceived his precarious condition. "Argh, hell no, this is really bad—I screwed up and forgot to take..." Ramirez picked up a dirty glass left on the sink full of pills. In despair, his hands dropped some down the drain; he continued grumbling, "Crap!" as he managed with difficulty to push two huge pills into his mouth. He tried to swallow them dry but choked; he then turned on the tap and, with his hand, took a few sips of water to send all the medicine down.

After swallowing the pills, he raised his whole illusion again and spent some time looking at his own reflection in the mirror, waiting, slowly relaxing his body until his hands stopped trembling. He said to his reflection, "Alright, it worked wonderfully this time... but taking two at once? Probably a dumb move."

Ramirez prepared the bathtub and stopped the water flow early, allowing only his tired legs to soak in the hot water. He leaned against the bathtub with his arms open, looking at the opaque light from the ceiling. His body relaxed so much that his mind started spinning, and he seemed to lose consciousness right there as he heard the beep of his mini medbot turning on.

In his dreams, a semi-omniscient Ramirez was in Petra's homeworld, working as an interviewer for a fiction website and sitting at a terminal waiting to start an online interview with some random author. In his hand, he had a paper review of an incomplete book called “The Unforgettables.” He flipped through it, and it seemed to be the story of Petra and Frank after coming to Gate. He grumbled, "Unwise... Now my mind is having fun playing tricks on me." before fully entering his character within his delirium.

Suddenly, the author appeared on the other side of the call at the scheduled time. He was a guy who looked like he had styled his hair with a live wire, sitting in a small, poorly lit room with a yellow side light. They greeted each other and made cordial introductions. The author, always smiling, thanked him for the opportunity to talk about his work as the interview began.

Ramirez improvised a first question while checking if his pile of oneiric paper notes could help him in some way. "Well, let's start by talking a little about you," he proposed, only having time to check the author's profile. "I see that this is your first work, and you don't seem very young, so what did you do before writing?"

The author replied almost reflexively, "I work as a data analyst; I've done a bit of everything, from medical to social sciences; I even participated in teams that published academic papers before starting to venture into fiction."

Ramirez smiled in agreement, remembering himself working with data early in life and figuring out that maybe it was his memories messing up with his unconsciousness. "Ah, I see. It makes sense... I noted that some parts of your book are a bit weird. But before talking about the work, tell me why the hell you decided to write fiction?"

The author, always smiling, said, "Well, I plan on getting very rich…"

Ramirez burst into laughter and interrupted, "Are you pulling my leg? Seriously, where did the idea of writing this come from?"

The author apologized and continued, "Okay, I created a tabletop RPG system and an alternative world that I have been writing about since I was a child. I played it with my friends during university, but life took me on other adventures. Now I decided to put something on paper, and that's been 30 years…"

Ramirez realized that humans' lifespans might not be as long as in Gate and continued, "Do you have a date for all this?"

"More or less," the author reflected. "I started creating the game system and world between 1989 and 1990, and the really playable version only came about in the mid-1995s. But the story I tell in my book is much more recent; I started thinking about it during the pandemic."

Ramirez checked the date, 2025, and did the math. "Ah, so that's why you chose to set some of the characters on Earth during that time?"

"Not exactly!" the author replied, reflecting. "I have some baggage from that time, and it helps, roughly between 1970 and 2010, but also because things in the world are getting so crazy these days that I thought of an odyssey adventure placed in a previous period, embedded in the culture I lived in.” The author paused for a while, then resumed, “the name 'Western Culture' is a bit crude to define it; I'd rather call that time a ‘Cultural Symphony,’ making a parallel with ancient Greece's Classical Period."

Ramirez sank a little into the chair. "So the theme of your work is an elevation of everyday life from that time? Don't you find this comparison with Greece a bit over the top?"

"Regarding the story's overall theme, this elevation you mentioned is one way to look at it. The smaller themes are quite diverse, sometimes more critical and rational, but also tied to aspects of that time," the author reflected. "For instance, the ability of people with differing views to not only work toward a common goal but also form genuine friendships." After a brief pause, "As for the exaggerated parallel with ancient Greece, I agree with you there. We can't push anachronisms beyond conceptual comparisons, as the historical distance is far too great. The parallel I’m referring to is about the name itself, the concept we use to describe those cultural elements."

"Got it! Let us move on. Is your idea to reproduce more elements of an odyssey? I mean, during the adventures, you make references to cultural elements from the time and place of the characters' home, a place where they might one day return to? Is that right?" Ramirez guessed.

"You nailed it! But in this case, it's their homeland that might return to the characters, not the other way around," the author smiled.

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"Ah… I see! And I'm working toward that!" Ramirez blurted out.

"What?" the author asked, puzzled.

"I agree with you about the state of the world today," Ramirez thought quickly. "There’s so much anger, and by showing these themes in your work, it feels like you're honoring the positive aspects of that time that we may be losing since we are living in a time of turmoil."

"Ah, yes! It's a form of reverence, of love, of communicating and discussing ideas in a dance with the readers." the author responded.

"That's right; we need more love in the world today," Ramirez responded, relieved, returning to his role as interviewer. “But your work has elements of adventure and even horror, besides characters outside what would be expected for the role of heroes; why is that?"

"Regarding both the hero role and the horror of the unknown, we can think about modern-world dilemmas, the human condition, and consciousness of this condition, the incompleteness that presents itself as a double-edged blade of freedom and fear," after a brief pause. "The hero isn't necessarily born a hero, but their actions and intentions matter, both internally when referring to what each person thinks and collectively in their interactions and dialogues. Thus, the hero is not perfect or omniscient, and even the narrator doesn't know everything. But the hero changes throughout the adventure, and that's also why the style is a progression fantasy, intertwining the writing style with the theme."

"How so? Explain a little more about the moments of horror and the enemies because they seem completely alien to me!" Ramirez lied.

"They're quite strange and nightmarish material, in many cases utterly unknown, breeding fear just with the uncertainty of what might come," the author agreed. "But look at the nine confrontations that occurred during this first volume; they can be viewed as relatively simple symbolic images, not exactly an accurate description of the creatures encountered, but their figures function as complements to the description; they could be animals carrying some symbolism, such as rats, serpents, and spiders; or concepts of people, such as thieves, warriors, and traitors; or mythological figures, such as golems, zombies, and gargoyles."

"Nine?" Ramirez disguised the fact that he didn't remember reading everything. "I mean, is there a reason for that?"

"Ah, yes, sorry. I think there are only 7 in the unfinished material I sent you before. But for the reasons I did it, It's a limitation I set myself, given that I'm not writing poetry. " The author paused to think, "Er... In most cases, no."

"Unless a poem appears in a language that doesn't exist…" Ramirez commented. Remembering his attention was grabbed when his nano-translators were unable to deal with some of the annotations related to the last chapter that had been sent to him.

"Except for that part, at least it's easy to do the metrics when you can invent the entire language," the author joked.

Ramirez nodded, smiling back.

The author continued, "I was inspired by some creative strategies from authors I like a lot, but we may discuss the work's format later."

"So let us talk a little more about those enemies and their representations. These simple figures function as complements to the description as if they were the characters' interpretation of what they're experiencing?" Ramirez asked.

"Yes, it's a layer complementary to the narrative; sometimes the characters use these names to refer to what they're seeing, other times the image is implicit as a reference from the narrator's voice. That layered writing style works as a literary strategy," the author agreed.

"Right. What type of strategy exactly is that you're referring to? Bakhtin's polyphony? Or some intertextuality? If the game elements are relevant, would it be something like metafiction? And regarding that layer of figures, is it closer to the allegorical, as in Dante, or the liminal, as in Kafka?" Ramirez asked, now more comfortable with a topic he had studied more deeply in his distant past in Gate, remembering the time he first met Chester when he worked in an editorial department and revised human literature.

"Wow, calm down!" the author replied, impressed. "The authors you mentioned are giants, and I only know something about them as a reader and a fan. My work is more of a game—excessively experimental, perhaps—but trying to give you an answer; the polyphony is a powerful idea. I have an exclusive layer for the character voices, in contrast with the narrator, that is almost neutral, and there's another subtle layer only for him, which will be one of the surprises I've planned for later in the second volume. So, I could say that polyphony combines very well with the work's idea since each character complements their worldview and shows the reader what is happening through dialogue. Therefore, each character has its own voice, and each one progresses throughout the narrative following a personal path. As for allegorical or liminal, that depends on the context in which the figures are used; for a more grounded description, the allegorical is stronger, but when we go up the mountain and ask ourselves why things are being shown in that way, it becomes more liminal. As for metafiction, that's a weaker element; I kept the game elements separate to maintain a fluid reading experience, and I think it's something fun and should remain complementary to the narrative."

"And about those layers? And how does your writing process work?" Ramirez continued, shaking his head and writing something on one of his papers, noticing that his hypnopompic pen seemed to work fine.

The author lifted his head to try to settle his ideas and continued to speak, "Yes, regarding the writing process, first, I use a versioning strategy where I start with brainstorming in preliminary versions, then I go through the layers until I am satisfied with the result. In most cases, each chapter has 10 to 15 versions, but some have had more than 20. In terms of time, each version takes about four hours, more or less; at the end of each day, I save the modifications. Therefore, I need about two weeks of real-time per chapter, meaning that I need a backlog to be able to publish weekly."

Ramirez nodded but continued to listen.

The author continued, "As for the specific layers, well, that's complex. For each writing strategy, I have a separate layer, and the strength of each one varies quite a bit for each chapter. Some layers are structural—for example, the narrator's, the characters' voices, the main and peripheral themes, and the plot."

"Plot?" Ramirez interrupted.

"Yes, in my world, the trees fall in the forests even if nobody is watching. But this only sometimes appears to the reader," the author responded, continuing after perceiving Ramirez's waiting. "Well, but there are other layers, such as antagonists and combat; genres layers, such as humor, horror, and fantasy; there's a sci-fi layer that is generally soft because it's very much tied to fantasy; and there are bizarre things like the layer of strange loops and another one for artistic references."

"Cool; give me an example of one of these strange layers?" Ramirez asked, showing some curiosity.

"Well, that last one—artistic references. It often appears as a musical reference from the homeland period on Earth. It's powerful in the ideation of chapter titles, but not only that; I also like to make cross-references between lyrics and parts of the plot, generally intertwining things from previous chapters; this often occurs in the narrator's voice or even when characters remember something," the author said, smiling as he remembered something as well.

"But how does this work? Is the reference just a citation of the theme as a composition game? Or does it have direct relations to the narrative and the plot being shown?" Ramirez asked.

"It depends on the strength of the artistic reference layer and the chapter. In chapters where this layer is very weak, it's just a simple and fun reference to some music that the characters certainly listened to when they were alive on Earth. But there are chapters where these references are deeper, and there are few chapters where when the reader realizes which song is being referenced, it's worth reading the lyrics and hearing the song because the narrative can change substantially," the author thought.

"Hmmm…" Ramirez thought, remembering he hadn't read any entire chapters yet and that he was not a specialist in the music of that time. "Let's take a short break for coffee, and we'll return to this topic in ten, fifteen minutes, okay?"

"Okay, let's grab a bite. " The author cleared his throat and said goodbye momentarily, raising a glass of some strange-colored juice before pausing the video.