PD 12.5: Project Deca

PD 12.5: Project Deca is the twelfth episode of a meta complementary project for Project Deca. The following events are completely non-canon to the series and should be treated as such.

Episode
Attai, Millennia, and CaT (the cat) all sat at a table outside a cafe in Berlin, each of them holding a script. CaT tossed aside his script and yawned, sitting up on his haunches to get his head above the table.

"Alright, everyone, that's a wrap!" CaT said. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Project Deca is actually over."

"I don't know if saying 'everyone' to save time is necessary considering Millennia and I were the only two main characters to survive." Attai grunted.

"Don't get nitpicky with me asshole, that's my job." CaT huffed. "What did you want me to do, keep the hardcore Nazi around for kicks?"

"Ubermensch I can totally get killing off, but what about Mig and Terox?" Millennia asked. "They're not even your characters."

"Mig was already dead at the end of his own series anyway; retconning him back to life permanently just wouldn't feel right." CaT sighed. "As for Terox, I just felt like him and Mig going out together would be the best way to end their respective stories considering their relationship. At any rate, the original creator of Mig X liked it, and frankly, that's what I was really hoping for to begin with."

"Fair enough." Millennia shrugged. "Kinda surprised I got to live, honestly."

"Killing you off wouldn't make too much sense in my opinion." CaT said. "Your death wouldn't particularly impact anyone else's character arcs because that's really not what they were about, and just killing characters off for shock value leaves a bad taste in my mouth considering the original ending I wrote for Star Spirit."

"Sure, but something like that would still feel less cheap than oh, I don't know, pretending to kill off a character just to have them come back at the end." Attai tsked. "Hint, hint."

"Look, I know killing and resurrecting characters is kind of an overplayed trope in my stuff, but there really was a point to it here." CaT retorted. "You're Germany."

"Excuse me?"

"He said you're Germany." Millennia said.

"I heard him, but what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Attai demanded.

"I didn't just bring in the Nazis as the bad guys for the goof factor, you know." CaT harrumphed. "I included all the German stuff in this series as a nod to my own Germanic heritage and to make a point about the Nazis."

"Wh-" Attai's face contorted in confusion. "What kind of point could you possibly be trying to make about Nazis?! Everyone already knows Nazis are bad! And again, what the hell do you mean by 'I'm Germany'?!"

"I'm getting to it, I just need to set it up a bit because it's kind of convoluted." CaT scratched his ear. "Okay, so, first off, you're 'Germany' because as a country it got totally screwed in World War II for obvious reasons but ended up being rebuilt thanks to outside help and now lives a healthy existence as a country not made up of Nazis. You got hella shot up but got a new body thanks to help from Earth-83 and now no longer have a body made by the Nazis. You dig?"

"I'll give you this; that's convoluted, alright." Attai rolled his eyes. "Why would you go to that kind of trouble for a metaphor?"

"I only exist because my great-grandmother met a British soldier when the Allies were helping to reconstruct Berlin after the war and they fell in love and moved to the UK." CaT said. "Sure, highlighting that series of events in history might be self-indulgent, but it really does matter to me."

"And the Nazi stuff?" Millennia prodded.

"Well, the British soldier was my great-grandmother's second marriage." CaT coughed. "My biological great-grandfather was a Nazi soldier who died during the war, so I, uh...feel sort of obligated to address that whole thing."

"Okay, but as I said, everyone already knows Nazis are bad." Attai grumbled. "What's the point in addressing it here?"

"The Nazis might be old news, but white nationalism and racist assholes are still definitely a thing." CaT shrugged. "A lot of the problems with Nazism are still problems today, just in different packaging. I wanted the ending of Project Deca to sort of mirror out the reasons why that bigotry-centered line of thinking just can't work."

"True; at the end of the day, the Nazi ideology is self-defeating." Attai sighed. "The decisions that led to their defeat in the real world were mostly ideologically driven, similarly to their ultimate downfall in this series. Making an enemy of everyone because of your own ignorance is always going to limit your potential, whether you're trying to take over the world or not."

"See, now you get it!" CaT clapped.

"I get it, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's way too pretentious and complicated for something like a goddamn Ben 10 fanfiction to lay out." Attai snapped. "Why do you keep trying to get across 'serious messages' on this stupid-ass wiki?!"

"Because every time I try to write something without a point in mind it ends up crashing and burning like Star Spirit." CaT stated bluntly.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Attai pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just...please tell me your next series isn't going to try and make a point about a serious topic like this."

"It's about depression and dealing with the failures of Utah's mental healthcare system."

"GODDAMMIT!" Attai threw his script to the ground in frustration.

"Hey, pretty much every Tech 10 series is just one long vent about my depression, I don't see how this is news to you." CaT huffed.

"Shouldn't you be finding a healthier and more productive way to handle your feelings than venting them into fanfiction?" Millennia asked.

"Yes but I ain't gonna."

"Alright, noted." Millennia puffed out her cheeks. "So, back to Project Deca as a whole, you got any plans for it if it wins featured series of the year? Showing off those series was like half the premise to begin with."

"If it wins, I'll write a movie sequel/epilogue thing." CaT replied. "That's only if it wins, though, because I'm going to be focusing on writing Tech Cross from now on. I'm only going to take on both projects at once if it's warranted, and I wrote PD specifically to have its story wrapped up in twelve episodes."

"So what would the movie be about, then?" Attai raised an eyebrow.

"I already have a general idea for it, but I'm not going to be going into detail on it for a while." CaT said. "Suffice it to say it would be a new story with a new villain instead of rehashing shit from the main show."

"Got it." Attai nodded. "Anything else you want to self-indulgently overexplain to the audience before we wrap this up?"

"Nah, I'm good." CaT tsked, ignoring the insult. "I just want to say thank you again to everyone who kept up with and supported the series over the year. It took a lot of work to get out and I'm sincerely happy people enjoyed it. Have a good December, everyone, and I hope you'll join me for Tech Cross."

"Really?" Attai snorted. "You're going to end this by shilling for your new show?"

"Kiss my ass, you chicken asiago motherfu-"

Bis später, Space Cowboy.