Floor 2 Notes (QueenNyanlathotep)

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**QueenNyanlathotep's Floor 2 Notes -** *Released with Floor 2 on 25th Feb 2021*

*These notes may not be comprehensive or ordered, as they represent the author's directly copied personal notes, with few or no edits made after the release of the relevant story entry.*

***Also be advised that these notes contain potential spoilers, though anything unused is mostly non-final and is here to serve as optional ideas for future authors to draw on.***

**NOTES KEY**

## Quick Character Notes (Floor 2)

* There's the full name of Michelle's ability--*Hell's Kitchen* *(If You Can't Stand the Heat...)*, as well as her vaguely implied secondary ability, *Gourmetamorphosis (You Are What You Eat)* which does more or less what it says on the tin.
* Then there's Cuckoo Clock's full name: *Schwarzwald-class Infiltration-type Time-Vehicle* *Cuckoo Clock (Condensed, Humanoid Interaction Mode)* and what it reveals about her true nature.
* Regarding language in the Tower, the language Michelle specifically is speaking is a unique, infernal language that explicitly cannot be understood by anyone other than demons (and which is therefore translated appropriately by the Tower as a language the listener recognizes but doesn't understand, such as French in Ashley's case or High Fae in Syl's). Call it 'The Illegal Language' or 'The Untongue' or something similar.

## Top of Tower Proposal: Babylonia

* So, first of all, I started by taking inspiration from the title Ascent and the idea of ascension. Since ascension typically means 'ascension *to heaven'* (with connotations of becoming god-like or one with God, etc.), I figured the top of the Tower should be a figurative 'heaven' occupied by some kind of divine, godlike entity (correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the impression that this is where *Tower of God* is going as well, right?). Specifically, I'm thinking a hungry god that eats anyone who reaches it (applying the ascension/union with God aspect in twisted, ironic kinda way).
* Anyway, 'god-like being' is kinda non-specific, so, continuing the Christian theme, I thought of the Tower of Babel. Babel is another name for Babylon, the ancient civilization represented in the Book of Revelation as 'the Whore of Babylon', who rides a seven-headed dragon. The Whore is obviously a symbol of lust, and dragons/serpents are associated with gluttony, both of which are /very/ appropriate here. Also relevant: the name of the highest rank of angels, 'seraphim' is also the word for 'fiery serpents'. Anyway, fusing all of these ideas together, we get:
	+ "Babylon" (or "Babylonia" or similar), a *gigantic*, angelic, glorious, blazing, godlike 'naga' who lives on the Tower's paradisaical final floor, eating only those souls who manage to reach her. She created the Tower as a means of both catching and refining her meals, hence why the Gatekeepers exist and set trials, etc. Also, she's rooted physically into the Tower by her tail, which can travel (extradimensionally) through the Tower, appearing on lower floors as giant snakes/naga/or similar (which would allow for some very cryptic foreshadowing). Since she could call them back and eat them at any moment, even the Overseers are kinda terrified of her and only refer to her and/or the final floor as 'the Mystery' (another title of the biblical Whore)--alternatively, only a handful of the top Overseers know her full deal, so she's literally a mystery to most of them.
	+ Related: the final Overseer/Gatekeeper should be called 'Ishtar', after the Ishtar Gate that protected the city of Babylon. Maybe she shows up in a later chapter to drop some cryptic hints, perhaps?
* Picturing her as an incomprehensible, ultimate evil, more a raw force that explains the horrors of the Tower than a detailed character (which has the advantage of making the overseers more sympathetic, since they'd be her victims as well rather than simply collaborators). Specifically, my two main ideas were:
	+ She's an incomprehensible self-righteous god who's so far above humanity that even overseers can't reason with her.
	+ She's a mindless glutton who's spent so long gorging herself that she's lost all higher reasoning. If treating her as an actual boss, this is probably the better option, as she could be tricked into eating poison or self-voring by eating her own tail, or both, etc.
* Cosmic horror was the approach I wanted to go with for Babs, but there's no need to make an exact decision. Let's see where other writers go first, assuming we ever use her at all. She;d tie the setting together well.
* **Alternate Take *(moonpunch101)*:** Maybe Babylonia's actually looking for someone to replace her, being an old, *old* goddess who's gradually growing tired of even the most exciting thrills. She's bored and fed up. Originally, she created the Tower without the floor system, in ages past, so people could climb to her and attempt to "slay" her, but no-one was strong enough to even make her notice most of them, and she began to think her methods were all for naught as the most enjoyment she'd get out of these try-hards was consuming them and marveling at their various tastes and natures. Then she decided to try a system of thousands of floors of challenges, calling on various friends and family built up over eons to help her build a gauntlet (maybe "Porter" and Verge are her demi-deity nieces?). Gauntlet would create powerful predators in her own image, and one way or the other, whoever reached the top would be worth paying attention to. If they couldn't best her, at least she got a gourmet meal out of it, but if they did... well, she doesn't *actually* want to be defeated. What she wants is excitement, and looking for a replacement is more something she half-jokes about.
	+ If taking the "lost higher functions" approach, perhaps Porter and Verge - as her daughters/nieces - were brought on as her jailers when Babs realized what she was devolving into.