Background:

I have a set of pets I've dubbed "Within a Year" who all live in the same general fictitious land and who have intertwined stories. They also are vaguely coordinated with a month.

January -

I'm currently trying to flesh out their characters. Some of them I have a better grasp on the story for than others, as you can see from their profiles.

The one I'm stuck on is Leaps. All I know about Leaps thus far is that he (or she, I'm not 100% on gender atm) lives in a swamp and is inspired by frogs and the Fourth of July (although this fictitious land has absolutely nothing to do with the US).

I thought about maybe making him really interested in ammunition and creating fireworks, but the thing with that is that Opportunity is a boy from a fishing village who would rather play with fire than join the navy, so I've already done that.

I also have Hence who is bucking her parents' wishes and upbringing, so I really don't need to have that a third time.

I need...something, but I don't know what. Some sort of hook, some inspiration, that has something to do with swamps and July and maybe a tad patriotic but I'm coming up with blanks.

So, I've written this post hoping that someone could help me out. Maybe you know a lot about frogs and can give me a unique tidbit? Or...something. I just need a nudge.

P.S. The fictitious world is pre-industrial revolution but it's kind of on the cusp (they have a tin factory for canning fish, for example). It also has a small amount of magic (there's a witch, a semi-mythical being, a mountain made out of candy, and "unicorns" and "sirens" of a fashion) but not a lot.

Maybe something about nature conservation, saving the frogs with a bit of a freedom angle.

Maybe someone is capturing the frogs , or maybe someone is encroaching on or polluting their living space and shrinking the area the frogs can live in, trapping them in a sense. Leaps can either be a ecowarrior type of character (Blow up the polluting factory, disable the logger's equipment) or be more of a biologist type (study the decline of the wildlife, Protest more peacefully, educate the locals). To link it all to the 4th of july it is logical to let the character win at least partially to free the frogs. But it would also be interesting storywise to actually have them lose (and end up in jail, the oposite of freedom) or their win having unintended consequences (oops, now I have blown up the factory all those people got hurt/are out of a job).

Xotl are part snakey lizard too. You could do a jumping frogs of calaveras county subplot from the point of view of the frog. That would be a folk Americana story instead of something direct.

Sometimes revolutions start from within true but sometimes you need to make the world change in a significant way instead.

Sometimes freedom is a thing you find or invent anew. Magic is explosive or can be.

In Japanese mythology frogs and rain are associated. It could be a hot drought of a summer and the explosion and light could be lightning and thunderstorm. We know NPC Temprest has storm baubles, and Leaps could quest for them to free someone or herself.

The Big Bad in this story is known as the mogul of Candy Mountain, and I could definitely see him encroaching on the frogs' habitat and oppressing them in some way, cuz that's the kind of thing he would do (after all, he did enslave an entire people so that he could use their ivory horns and bones, complete with involuntary euthanasia).

I also really like the idea of Leaps being a scientist, and I think that there's something there in that it could work with their name (making leaps in technological advancement), and also it would separate them from their backwater (no pun intended) swamp environment but not in a way that makes them have to reject their upbringing, but rather protect it. And I don't have a scientist yet, and it could help balance out the magical elements some, because I'm not really trying to make a fantasy world here.

I'm not sure about the losing part - I've always thought of Leaps in a kind of lighthearted, almost joking way - but one possibility is that they end up working for the mogul, either out of naiveté or coercion, and then their story becomes one of both trying to save/free their people and themself.

Thanks for the ideas! I've got to mull on it some more, but I think we're on to something here. :)

Those are good ideas too! I have a lizard-esque character (Sufficient), so I haven't really thought of Leaps in lizard terms, but if I do go this "swamp land needs to be saved" route, I think it entirely possible that they have "cousins" from a more desert land that come to help them out (and may help tie Leaps with Sufficient).

I've never read that story before but maybe now would be a good time to do so!

We talking real science or Mad Science? Climate crisis from you big baddie's plot's side effects of their awful schemes could either freeze the swamp into tundra or dry it into grassland.

Leaps' eureka moment or satori would be recognizing this problem exists at all or in coming up with a sciences based solution. The "loss" would be the realization she will need long-term help from all you other pets throughout the seasons in order to succeed. There is no fairy-tale ending in RW style science.

I'm thinking real science with a hint of mad. Perhaps Leaps starts out playing around with magic and accidentally invents the scientific method, so there'd probably be a bit of cowboy science in the middle there.

Which would work well with your eureka moment, if Leaps starts mucking about (pun intended this time) with magic in the swamp and then stumbles upon some sinister effects that are caused by the mogul's meddling. I also really like that s/he would need to call upon the help of the other eleven.

I haven't really decided what the overarching plot will be (other than defeat the mogul, which may be enough), but I think it would be good to not solve all the subplots, at least the first go-around. If I like how this all works out, I may serialize it with multiple years and intertwined stories. So in that case, Leaps' problem would not be solved in the first year, and in that way I could work in some character-building loss without having a permanent unhappy ending.

do you have enough plot bunnies and character quirks to be non- cliche and non-stuck for now?

Yes, I have a direction to go in now so I should be able to figure out the rest to my own satisfaction. Thanks for your help!

You are welcome!