Ciem 2 (2009 webcomic)

The following is about the canceled sequel to Ciem'' in the 2007 narrative Gerosha universe continuity. For the 2010-proposed, alternate-continuity counterpart it evolved into, see Ciem: Nuclear Crisis.''

Ciem 2 was the canceled 2009 Sims 2-based DSHW machinomic created by Dozerfleet Productions. It was to be the second story in the trilogy of machinomics about the fictional superhero Ciem, and the third story of the Gerosha Chronicles. More complex plot points that were once mentioned below were since-then removed, to avoid spoilers for Ciem: Nuclear Crisis. When Nuclear Crisis was also canceled along with all of Comprehensive Gerosha, several plot points from Ciem 2 were recycled for the third season of the Cataclysmic Gerosha series Sodality.

Plot
Two years after the first story's events, Candi and Donte are piecing their lives together and plotting to marry. Candi struggling with sexual addiction and Donte with cancer, they nevertheless resolve to get their lives in order. They also plan to adopt the young Charlie Wortel. Meanwhile, a corrupt government agent named Lloyd Kolumn joins forces with Arfaas and the Hebbleskin Gang to steal the notorious "Ming-Yo" out from under the Chinese government&mdash;and frame Miriam Flippo for it!

Candi must jump into action as Ciem once again, this time to protect her sister from a dangerous international caper that threatens to literally mushroom out of control. Making matters worse, a Hebbleskin Gang victim named Simon Aardvonius is reincarnated as the termite-hungry Captain Aardwulf. This new foe knows no limits to getting what he wants&mdash;and he believes Miriam holds the secret to his ultimate treasure! It's up to Dirbine's orange-suited defender to find a way to protect her sister from a world gone mad. Joining the complicated mix are Mik-Non terrorists; Chinese MSS agents Black Rat, Stung Hornet, Tin Dragon, and Teal Hog; CIA agents Betty Harmin and Vienna Dockler, and more. The FPB briefly appears to cause trouble as well, believing Ciem and a targeted civilian they're after to be part of some "Navyrope" organization. Helping the heroes out is a rogue former NSA agent named Andrew Tinsel, out to expose Kolumn while protecting his daughter Sandy Tinsel and avenging the murder of his wife Margaret.

Chapters
The story was to be divided into several distinct chapters, with most chapter titles invoking forms of literary allusion About 23-24 chapters were planned, but only the following were given names before cancellation:


 * 1) Wrong Turn at Sappydale: Inspired by the phrase: "Took a wrong turn at Alberquerque," a quote often attributed to Bugs Bunny.
 * 2) Conflicting Interests: The phrase "conflict of interests," which partially describes Candi's conflicts between her desire for unity and childbearing with Donte while wishing to remain sexually moral and fulfill her superheroine vows.  Also a reference to the first story's fourth chapter, titled "Conflicting Celebrations."
 * 3) Northern Ambition: The TV series Northern Exposure, since both that show and this chapter take place in Alaska.
 * 4) Badger Karma: The TVTropes Wiki's article " Call It Karma ", and Jonti Picking's cartoon "Badger Badger Badger"
 * 5) A Rather Sinkable Reunion: This dream sequence chapter takes place on a miniature Titanic set built by Crocobura, in which Denny and Candi find themselves dressed up more or less like Jack and Rose in the movie Titanic.  Their family reunion is interrupted by the ghosts of Gunner and Skellig.  Even though the ship doesn't sink, Candi's spirits almost do when she believes she is dead.
 * 6) Tinsel Terror: "Tinsel Town", plus the bus rescue scene is a direct shout out to a train escape scene in Mercury Rising.  Likewise, so is the introduction of the villain character Lloyd Kolumn, who is loosely based on Alec Baldwin's character "Kudrow" in that same movie.
 * 7) Arfaas Orchestrates by Kolumns
 * 8) Path of the Ming-Yo: There are plans for a Ciem series spin-off titled Path of the Ming-Cho.
 * 9) Through Process of Substitution: "Through process of elimination...," and because aardwolf and hyena DNA substitutes for wolf DNA to make Capp Aard.
 * 10) The X-Scene Calling: The X-Files meets CSI: Crime Scene Investigation meets Tru Calling.
 * 11) Passing Go Doesn't Factor: From Monopoly: "Go to Jail.  Go directly to Jail.  Do not pass Go.  Do not collect $200."  Candi intended to visit Miriam/get her out.  She had no intention of going any place but to the city jail to bail out Miriam.
 * 12) How Much is That Ruby in Alaska?: Aard wonders what it will take to get the Queen Illaka Ruby, after completely taking over Simon's body and mind.  Also, the song "How Much is That Puppy in the Window?"
 * 13) Interview with the Centhuen Prototype: Candi and Miriam finally meet up, then get trapped inside while the Mik-Non unleash terror outside the police station.  They are locked in the interview room and trapped in the station whilst everyone else flees town.  As a result, the two must work out an escape.  Also, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire
 * 14) Theft of the Sabine Badger: The Rape of the Sabine Women, also Aard attempts to kidnap Miriam, only to be dealt with Ciem's interference.  When Candi starts having power failures though, Miriam takes matters into her own hands.
 * 15) The Flippos Face Hazard: The Dukes of Hazzard, since Candi and Miriam flee town in a stolen car, and make the car teleport to evade an officer.  Then, Candi gets really sick; but the two decide not to run to a hospital.
 * 16) Media Mediocrity: The first story's chapter 25 was titled "Media Madness," and Miriam goes to channel 26 personally to clear her name.
 * 17) There are No Aardwolves in Austria: Vienna and Capp Aard duke it out over the Ming-Yo, and Vienna barely gets away.  Then there's the song "There are No Cats in America" from An American Tail.

Characters

 * Candi Levens/Ciem: A superheroine, a crime lab intern, and engaged to Donte McArthur. She is tempted to cohabit with Donte out of convenience before their wedding, as Donte is unable to find a permanent residence and because of her inability to remain chaste around him.  As if juggling these multiple responsibilities weren't enough trouble for her, the threats to her sister push Candi very close to her physical and emotional limits, especially when a possible pregnancy leads to glitches in her powers.


 * Donte McArthur/Emeraldon: A semi-retired homeless superhero who longs to be married to Candi, in spite being less than amused at the thought of her previous marriage. His need for cancer treatment forces him to abandon Candi temporarily, so she must protect Miriam without his assistance.


 * Miriam Flippo/Sniperbadger, Candi's sister from a set of triplets. Miriam is an expert hacker who is engaged to treasure hunter Steve McLaine.  She and Steve share a cabin together in Alaska, and have been in search of the legendary Queen Illaka Ruby.  However, a sinister plot to frame her for espionage forces Miriam on the run, and only Candi can protect her and her unborn children from their enemies.


 * Simon Aardvonius/Captain Aardwulf: A divorced former seafarer and friend of Miriam Flippo. After the Meethlites became partly responsible his divorce, he begins refusing to pay extortion money.  He is taken to a lab to be experimented on, where he will become a werewolf prototype.  However, the lab's staff is short on wolf DNA due to packaging errors, so they substitute with aardwolf and hyena DNA.  Simon kills everyone in the lab and escapes.  He then mutates into a deranged part-man, part-aardwolf with hyena aggression.  He develops a fascination with termites and promises himself a "termite empire" to feast on.  To acquire this, he decides to earn money by selling priceless treasures.  These include the Queen Illaka Ruby and the Ming-Yo.  Since he knows about Miriam and Steve's searches in Alaska, he begins plotting to kidnap Miriam for information.  His molecules and mind both grow increasingly unstable as time passes.


 * Steve McLaine: Miriam's treasure hunter boyfriend, who will do anything to protect the both of them, especially after learning that Miriam will have his children.


 * Melvin Markus: A Meethlite sympathizer who blackmails Steve McLaine to betray the identity of Sniperbadger. After the Meethlites are indicted in the espionage scandal, Melvin finds himself murdered by the Chinese out of revenge.


 * Valerie "Vienna" Dockler: A CIA agent who wishes for the Ming-Yo to be destroyed, but is assigned to protect it. When Kolumn interferes in Candi and Miriam's predicament, Vienna soon finds herself involved.


 * Black Rat: A Chinese agent who reluctantly partners with Vienna to get the Ming-Yo away from Capp Aard.


 * Stung Hornet: A female Chinese spy recruited to help recover the Ming-Yo.


 * Tin Dragon: A Chinese spy who is ambushed and killed by Capp Aard after his own attempt to ambush Vienna.


 * Lloyd Kolumn: A crooked NSA agent allied with Duke Arfaas.


 * Duke Arfaas: The elderly yet vindictive leader of the Hebbleskin Gang. Arfaas wants the Flippo triplet sisters found, captured, and ceremoniously decapitated.


 * Charlie Wortell: A three-year-old orphan whom Donte wishes to adopt. When an obnoxious gay couple demands that Donte prove he can be a better father, this puts pressure on Candi and Donte to get married sooner.


 * Betty Harmin: Vienna's best friend and fellow CIA agent. Betty takes the Ming-Cho to Farrenville as commanded by Richard Dockler and Lloyd Kolumn.  However, she never returns.  It is revealed later in the spin-off Path of the Ming-Cho that she is killed by Chinese agents after the Ming-Cho is damaged and begins leaking radiation.  The Ming-Cho is later recovered by the Marrington siblings, who decide to fulfill Betty's original mission and have it destroyed in Nevada.


 * Denny Levens: Candi's first husband. He returns to Candi in a vision twice, and offers her warnings of the future and moral support.  In spite their residual feelings for each other, he urges Candi to start her love life over with Donte and not let their past be a hindrance.


 * Angie Levens: Candi's daughter, who died in infancy. She returns to Candi in a vision twice, and supports Denny's arguments to Candi.


 * Stan and Shalia Flippo: Candi's deceased parents. They return to Candi in a vision to offer her moral support.


 * Marissa Hood: Candi's deceased grandmother. Marrissa leads Candi in a vision to her other deceased relatives.


 * Dwayne Lloyd: Candi's deceased maternal grandfather. He immediately gazes on Candi's spirit with evil intent, but his ill will is thwarted by Denny's intervention.


 * Steve McNolan: Candi's deceased paternal grandfather. He and Dwayne both pursue Candi in visions with malicious intent.


 * Don "the Psycho" Mendoza: Candi's deceased grade school crush, and one of her defeated mortal enemies. Don's spirit appears in Candi's visions as well, having a heavier personal vendetta against her than either of her grandfathers.


 * Laurie Pegol: Candi's lab internship partner. As with before, Laurie is made in the likeness of cameo volunteer Liz Pegouskie.  Laurie continues to play a very minor role.

Development
Ciem 2 was being developed since 2005, with the version initially starting production in late 2008 and early 2009 being the second-ever attempt at this tale. The 2005 version, now described as part of "Gerosha Prime," introduced many of the plot elements which have carried over, but with some twists. Since Denny Levens originally was to become a villain named Dr. Leone in 2005 and 2006, his evil alter-ego was originally Capp Aard's creator. This meant that Candi's relationship with Donte was bordering on adultery, providing the original moral conflict that she faced. In addition to the moral support her family offers her in the Classic Gerosha version, her family in her visions also informs her that Denny is dead, allowing her to peacefully move on and marry Donte.

The temporary flu that infects Candi was a plot device in the second attempt to explain why her powers keep glitching. It was ruled that the original explanation for 2005's version didn't fit the character. Another change was the subplot involving Randy and Amelia Kinto, which has since been completely removed. In three years' time, the real-life Andrew Kincare that was the basis for Randy had changed significantly in personality and had moved away, making his character no longer a proper story fit. After his real-life sister Emily had a baby, her in-universe counterpart Amelia Kinto was also removed from having any plot relevance.

Candi and Miriam's pregnancies made a lot of other subplots about pregnant women in the 2005 version unnecessary for canon. Also, the numerous pregnant women being referenced in the 2007 version of Ciem meant that this theme needed to be explored a little less in the sequel. The theme of Ciem 2 is more about self-forgiveness and avoiding self-recrimination.

Inspiration from other works
All references in the 2005 version to Vienna having children have been abandoned. The original use of them was a reference to Jennifer Garner's character in Alias having a child, an unnecessary detail. Aard's dialog since the first attempt has been a combination of that of Doc Ock from Spider-Man 2 and Gollum from Lord of the Rings. His speech became less Ock-like and more Gollum-like throughout the character's development process. The crooked agent subplot with Kolumn was introduced as a way to explain how the Meethlites would have been able to get the connections to plant Melvin Markus inside the McLaine cabin to frame Miriam.

It was designed on numerous fronts to parody the film Mercury Rising. Kolumn's name, for example, is a deliberate mis-pelling of "column," the opposite organization field type of a row. Kolumn as a character is a parody of Alec Baldwin playing the character of Kudrow in Mercury Rising. Ironically, Steve McLaine's last name was in no way inspired by John McClane, the character Bruce Willis plays in the Die Hard film series. This was discovered later to be a pleasant coincidence.

Vienna Dockler is a parody of Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bistrow in Alias. Her last name comes from a previous misunderstanding. Sydney's last name was once thought by the Dozerfleet founder to be "Porter," not "Bistrow." Since ships in a port are near a dock, the name "Dockler" made sense. The nickname "Vienna" is used for Valerie Dockler because of Vienna, Austria. This was to parody the idea of "Sydney" as in Sydney, Australia.

Filming
New screen capture techniques were employed in contrast to those used in the first story, where the "C" button was employed to capture events. Under the old system, all images and captions had to be later extracted from the game, resulting in significant loss of image quality. For the sequel, images were captured with the game in "Free Cam" mode and with the UI hidden for the default camera using the F10 button. The "PrintScreen" button was used to copy each image to the Windows clipboard. Screen grabs were immediately sent from the game to Photoshop for editing. Captions were created in Notepad, by-passing the need for in-game storytelling albums. The biggest advantage to the new system is its ease of interaction with pseudo-chroma key. With the Free Cam system and a green screen room available, a cast may be composited into photos taken with a Nikon CoolPix P60 camera, rather than requiring a background made inside the same game as the characters themselves.

DSHW 2.0
Main article: DSHW The images, initially to be 500x282 pixels like with Ciem, were re-shot to be 800x483. This resulted in a new resolution of nearly 2-3/4 of the first story's. Shots were embedded on pages differently as well. Instead of embedding them with web &lt;img&gt; tags, the images became table backgrounds. One cell of that table per-page protects the upper two thirds of the image, while the lowest third (about 110 pixels) houses a "neutral-density glass panel" which contains a story text overlay. This is described as "DSHW 2.0," since all DSHW before this kept the page real estate allocations of image and text distinctly segregated. Navigation is now hidden on the story image of each story page, but can be revealed by simply hovering over a navigation area's assigned position.

Further improvements to the design of DSHW were implemented in May and June of 2010, after Ciem 2 was canceled. These improvements came to be known collectively as "DSHW 2.5."

Effects


Ciem 2 makes extensive use of Photoshop beyond the first story. The Seasons expansion pack used for the first story was uninstalled to allow for improved textures. The Ciem suit was altered from its original form for the sequel. Details in the chest centipede were sharpened to create more elegant curves. "Septagonal weaving" was added to the suit to further provide improved texture. Clone-Stamp removal of mouth and ear details from Ciem's mask were also fine-tuned, in order to not lose too much mask detail in those regions. More intimate attention has also been paid to the eyepieces to keep them more consistent in size. The Ming-Yo itself is simply described as a "technologically-wired blue rock, with plastic encasing, bearing as much power as a nuclear bomb but capable of having its energy directed through a machine into selective energy emissions." This is because the Ming-Yo was originally portrayed in the 2005 version of Ciem 2 by the Mood Adjuster that comes with the InSimenator. The Ming-Yo's presence on-screen is kept deliberately minimal, to avoid excessive controversy over its specific material definition. In the 2005 version, the scene where Capp Aard activates the Ming-Yo merely consisted of Aard playing a videogame while in front of a hovering Mood Adjuster. The Mood Adjuster in its default form was set to function as a relative clone of the plumbob that normally hovers over a Sim's head. That scene was merely blue-graded in Photoshop. For the second attempt, a more original depiction of the Ming-Yo was preferred.

Capp Aard's suit in 2005 was a traditional ship captain's uniform. The torn brown khaki pants and a brown trenchcoat were seen to make a more believable costume. Aard's head was partially a facepaint modified from an actual photograph of an aardwolf. His skintone is a modification of Abragon's Werewolf Warrior from Mod The Sims. It is unknown what he will look like in The Sims 3 and in Ciem: Nuclear Crisis, but he most assuredly will look a lot less like Alfred Molina.

Music
Music For and Inspirational to Ciem 2 features "Screaming Infidelities," as covered by Joanna Pacitti, "Light Up the Sky" by Yellowcard, and "When She Cries" by Restless Heart. Other acts include the Charlatans (UK), Joshua Radin (who is explicitly mentioned in the story), Daughtry, American Hi-Fi, Rocket from the Crypt, and TI's song "Dead and Gone" featuring Justin Timberlake.

An original theme tune for all Ciem-related media was created for the DSHW main menu.

WebCD art
Artwork for a Ciem 2 box cover was completed on July 5th of 2009. The background image on the front cover where Ciem and Miriam are standing their ground against Capp Aard and two Mik-Non helicopters is actually an alleyway in Grand Ledge, Michigan. Box art for Spider-Man 2 was used as a primary inspiration, though several details were altered to reflect that the work is a DSHW on CD rather than a DVD of a film.

Buildings visible
The alleyway in downtown Grand Ledge, Michigan where the WebCD's cover photo was shot contains the backsides of several businesses in that area. The Log Jam and Miller's Pharmacy are the two front-most businesses visible, followed by the Okinawan Academy of Martial Arts, a store called "About the Home," a photo studio called Image Projections, another store called Bead Dazzled, the Piece of Mine Pottery Studio, the Blue Earth Botique & Salon, Taylor Tax Services, and Lou's Nailworks.

All these businesses were set to be credited on Ciem 2 's Credits page, along with Biggby of Big Rapids, which served as a double for the fictional "Scarface Beverages" franchise. Scarface Beverages, in turn, is a parody of Starbucks.

Cancellation
Due to the release of Tom Six's The Human Centipede, the entire Ciem line was re-branded. The 2007 Ciem trilogy became known as "Classic Gerosha," and a new continuity replaced it. In order to make time for the new Comprehensive Gerosha and for Ciem: Nuclear Crisis, all production of Ciem 2 has been stopped. Ciem 2 was a major source for promotion for the second generation of DSHW HTML, but DSHW 2.0 has now been replaced with DSHW 2.5. A short machinomic may be planned in the future for DSHW 2.5 promotion, but most DSHW from Dozerfleet will now be photocomics. Machinomic DSHWs from Dozerfleet will be made with The Sims 3, and all Sims 2 production was declared set to cease by September of 2010. By December, it'd been decided that Sims 2 and Sims 3 would be used simultaneously for depicting Gerosha characters in promotional art, based on what was possible in either game. Neither game allows for everything needed by itself. Promotional art is sometimes also done with the aid of HeroMachine, courtesy of UGO.com.