A few of our fans thought the wave of depression was the work of Everett and yeah, we've been foreshadowing that plotline kinda heavily, but I was a bit surprised that's where everyone's mind was going when we said this was an Insomniac chapter and he's already telepathic. It probably made the suicide plotline more of a twist, though, so I guess it works out? Accidental red herring? I dunno if it counts as that given we're still gonna have the payoff for that at some point.
Either way, this is what's been happening. The depression occurring across Sapphire City, that's coming from a telepath having suicidal thoughts. Thought it was sort of a neat twist; not even intentional, just something happening.
I wanted to make it really clear that Insomniac has diminished capacity. That's the effect of sleep deprivation and nicely explains him having less influence over his own powers. The thing with him trying to count came from a case study in sleep deprivation; the participant who was going without sleep was asked by researchers to count backward from 100. He got to the 70s before he stopped, and when the doctor asked why he stopped counting he said he couldn't remember why he was doing it.
I was a little worried the "not by choice" line was too humorous but eh, I kinda liked it too much to cut it.
This story has been in mind for the character for a loooong time, and here we are. As mentioned, yeah, the stuff that's been going on in Everett isn't factoring into this; we'll get to that later but this chapter's very definitively an Insomniac story.
In general do like how this one came out. Like having these bits of the kids just kind of reacting to his situation, and it being clear that they don't really know what they're dealing with and are kind of overwhelmed by it. Good show of that being how Nicky and Grant don't really have the most filter about the collateral damage he's unknowingly doing, plus Val just being incredulous about the whole situation.
Either way, this is what's been happening. The depression occurring across Sapphire City, that's coming from a telepath having suicidal thoughts. Thought it was sort of a neat twist; not even intentional, just something happening.
I wanted to make it really clear that Insomniac has diminished capacity. That's the effect of sleep deprivation and nicely explains him having less influence over his own powers. The thing with him trying to count came from a case study in sleep deprivation; the participant who was going without sleep was asked by researchers to count backward from 100. He got to the 70s before he stopped, and when the doctor asked why he stopped counting he said he couldn't remember why he was doing it.
I was a little worried the "not by choice" line was too humorous but eh, I kinda liked it too much to cut it.