V "Sketch" laCroix Q&A part 2

Here are more questions we were asked about the lore that we thought we should answer.

Q: Just how many bands is Sketch part of and what are their differences?

A: These are all of the bands that Sketch is part of in one way or another.

• One Minute Winter - technical metal with melodic metalcore and nu metal elements

• Blackstripe Squadron - Sketch's first band that's getting a reboot; strong thrash and technical death metal themes

• MXCHTXCH (pronounced mach-tech) - Sketch's newest band; combines technical metal with technical rap; strong nu metal, trap, and dubstep themes

• R-O-A-M - electronic dance-rock band that rebooted from the ashes of Rose and Mint; members are Rosaline as Rose, Ophelia, Avalon, and Sketch as Mincho; Sketch was the original Mint and the rebooted band consisted of only Rosaline and Sketch with each reprising their character roles but the culture shock ensued from the Nanashugi Rose and Mint and the original Rose and Mint being vastly different from each other. Eventually the actress that portrayed the second-latest rendition of Mint had to dress up and intervene to save the show, leaving the original bewildered. Sketch's character was then retconned into the new name Mincho (short for mint-chocolate) and the other Mint returned reprising the character from the Nanashugi version. The actress also doubles as the band's manager, being the wise one of the bunch.

• Echo 8 - While Sketch takes the lead guitar role in all other bands, in Echo 8 she takes the rhythm guitar role instead, leaving Serena in charge of the lead guitar role. Echo 8 falls much closer to the standard forms of metalcore and pop punk and thus focuses more on playing on-beat, playing as a tight unit, and being more energetic in front of the crowd and mostly having a good time as opposed to the first three bands which are much more focused on technical skill.

Sketch also occasionally fills in as either lead guitarist or bass player from the Black Roses.

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Q: If Sketch is a time traveller, surely there has to be several possible futures.

A: There are. There are three different possible timelines and they're labelled Red, Green, and Blue. The splitting point is the court trial that happens for Sketch's defamation case. These timelines are canon in their timelines and we plan to go about this just like the Legend of Zelda series where there are three different endings to one arc and all other arcs are told from their respective timelines and they are all considered canon according to the arcs.

Sketch had already been falsely convicted over multiple crimes through not only trial rigging but also illegal and unethical indictment. Half the media outlets were paid to put slanders upon slanders against her and deliberately misrepresent her words. She was battered and bruised and wound up in slave circles and prisons and chain gangs. She was repeatedly gunned down by hired guns from all around the world and barely rose back from the dead each time. This was all one massive conspiracy targeted specifically against her by her biggest rival corporation. With ample evidence prepared and having hired the most expensive lawyers on the planet, Sketch faces down the corporation one final time. In the trial, only Sketch, her lawyers, the judge, and the security guards are present at the courtroom. All others testify from their homes via video call.

Red timeline: Hydrogen bombs drop upon the courthouse in the middle of Sketch's testimony, killing all personnel in and nearby, as well as the entire French government and military, wiping the slate clean. The fascists take control of France and the new government quickly acquits the evil corporation, expropriates all of Sketch's belongings and assets, and hands them to the said evil corporation. The demon lord has taken control of Lilith, Karin, and Emily. The story from then on focuses on the rebel groups emerging from the outskirts of the fascist France.

Green timeline: The corporation is convicted, but as soon as the gavel slams, hydrogen bombs drop upon the courthouse, killing Sketch and the others in the courthouse. The fascists come out of hiding and strike but NATO forces arrive just in time to intervene. The fate of Lilith, Karin, and Emily are unknown. The story shifts back to the perspectives of the past crusades Sketch wound up in, except now they have to face the demon lord without her.

Blue timeline: The directors and the executives are all convicted and sentenced to death row but they have mercenaries that help them escape. Fast forward to the next election, while the new Republican candidate promises to finally put a permanent exemption from military draft for Sketch, the Labour candidate is revealed to be Sketch herself. She presents her new plan to put an end to the ongoing war and end the demon lord herself, known as the Shadowflame Task Force, which results in the military supporting the Labour party for the first time in history. As soon as Sketch wins the election through unanimous vote, she recruits her old Marine Corps unit, the old Knights of the White Ring that she wound up having to fight alongside for a while, several Matsumura Clan assassin dissidents, Fvijafolizen elven elite warriors, her weekend pirate crew, and many more into the new Shadowflame Task Force, putting an end to what started with her once and for all. Afterwards Sketch returns to her rockstar life, and more stories come up from the same timeline.

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Q: What do you plan to make out of this lore?

A: We're not sure. A professor told me that the best case scenario with this lore would be a videogame series but I'm not quite sure if the important details are going to be able to stay what they are. We've been basically fed up with a lot of these music/band stories that people write that have this "technician vs performer" narrative but they keep celebrating the performer side of the dynamic while leaving the technician side high and dry. Very few people have been through the technician walk of life like we have and we want to reveal how unhelpful and demoralising those same told stories are and we basically want to show the frustrations that we have as the rare outlier technicians.

The basic frustration we have with the world in general is that people like us put in all the hard work in the world and keep grinding and grinding for years only for us to find out that everyone else is just starting out and they're gaining a following at a much faster pace than we are for a fraction of the work that we put in, and we find this very unfair and undeserved, and we see this happening over and over again so much that it's been a pattern. We're not saying that Katy Perry doesn't work hard, but what we are saying is that plenty of people work just as hard if not harder, and that it's not actually hard work that got her that far. Ultimately, she still lucked out, because hard work never pays off.

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Q: How did the dice design on Sketch's arm come about?

A: One of the majors she was participating in took place at a casino hotel somewhere in Canada. After her team won at the majors, the squad stumbled upon a Craps table with a game that hasn't started yet. Sketch had an extra $1,000,000 to spare so she placed it all on a horn bet: 30-for-1 box cars. The dealer then offers her two to pick from five blue dice. This felt a bit weird for her because the shooter typically loses if they roll 12 but the 12 is exactly what she needs to win $30,000,000. Needless to say, as soon as she won the $30,000,000 she quickly cashed out and left the casino floor. To celebrate, she got the tattoo.

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Q: Some media outlets claim One Minute Winter and Black Roses are bitter rivals while others claim each band has friends from the other. Which is the truth?

A: This is a long story to unwrap.

After years of being blacklisted from participating in the world finals at the TML, One Minute Winter told the officials that if the next world finals happened at the Blackpitch Chateau, they would cover the flight and lodging for the other bands, and through that, they were finally allowed to play at the world finals, clinching the top seed as they should. One Minute Winter and Black Roses would meet at the Grand Final. Sure enough, One Minute Winter won the grand prize and Sketch won the MVP. The MVP prize was a voucher for a custom bass. However, the systems wound up hacked and it was Black Roses' Lisa that received the voucher instead, much to Sketch's frustration. The same thing happened again the year after, with the world finals happening in Reykjavik, and again, One Minute Winter winning the event, Sketch taking MVP, winning an ROS-9 guitar, then the ferry that was meant to bring it to her winding up hijacked and the guitar going to Kaya from the Black Roses instead. Black Roses' management maintained that One Minute Winter gave the trophy instruments to the Black Roses while Sketch took to several platforms and news outlets refuting their statements and confirming that the instruments were stolen.

While everything seemed to be dying down, Sketch was secretly running a special campaign where fans could pledge to attend a grudge match between One Minute Winter and Black Roses and pre-purchase a seat for €10 each. With the tickets to the grudge match secured, the grudge match was ultimately sanctioned and everyone attended. If Black Roses won, they would get away with everything scot-free, but if One Minute Winter won, the ROS-9 guitar would finally be in Sketch's hands. The scoring was 50% crowd support and 50% judge evaluation. Although the panel of judges were Japanese, they were journalists that have been covering plenty of One Minute Winter content and have been viewing them highly. Even though One Minute Winter won the event, some insiders revealed that the makers of the ROS-9 did have a B-stock with different pickups installed in their warehouse and asked if she would take that instead. She received the B-stock instead, buying custom pickups for it to install afterwards.

Some time later, controversy emerged from the reveal that the Black Roses guitarist Kaya has one of Sketch's custom guitars. Kaya was in a tough spot because if she said Sketch gave it to her, they would call her out for lying. Sketch, however, revealed her side of the story, citing that she did happen to have an extra copy and she needed someone to road-test it for her and thus gave the copy to a friend of hers, and she ultimately revealed that this friend of hers just happened to be the Black Roses guitarist Kaya, and that they had been secretly friends for years due to Kaya having idolised her growing up. Some of Sketch's bandmates were also friends with the Black Roses singer Yukiko the whole time.