Ciem: Vigilante Centipede

Ciem: Vigilante Centipede&amp;trade; is a canceled, alternate continuity retelling of Candi Levens and her origin story. It was to be a partial remake of the similarly-named webcomic, while serving as a reboot for the franchise overall. It was going to be told in two parts: "Birth of a Vigilante" and "The Centipede's Rebellion." These two parts each would have comprised several chapters of the overall work. The design intent was that if adapted to film, they'd be Volumes 1 and 2. The book was to be Issue #1 of Volume 6 of the Comprehensive Gerosha Collection. Vigilante Centipede was set to be part of a novella series, which would have included Ciem: Nuclear Crisis and Ciem: Condemnation as sequels. The sequels would have possessed similar plots to Ciem 2 and Ciem 3, respectively. Combined with remakes of The Battle for Gerosha and Path of the Ming-Cho, this re-envisioned take on the Ciem trilogy formed the backbone of the Comprehensive Gerosha Universe. It was canceled in favor of the series Sodality.

Plot
After writing in her journal about her family and origins, young Centhuen Prototype Candi Flippo in Gerosha, IN is over in Farrenville visiting her boyfriend, Donte McArthur. He is preparing to go to war against the Hebbleskin Gang in Qatar, where they have pulled out all the stops. He fears he won't return, and wants to have children to carry on his legacy as Evansville's protector. In spite his moral objections, Candi convinces him to sleep with her. He drops her off at her house a few hours later, so that she can feign having been home the whole time. He heads off to war almost immediately, along with his friends in the Wortell family.

Candi contemplates how soon she should reveal the truth of her and Donte's decision to attempt having a child. Meanwhile, she reminisces about how she battled Don the Psycho back in middle school. Her time with Donte helped her replace her negative experiences with Don with positive experiences under Donte. She also offers counseling to her sister Miriam, who is devastated by the suicide of her boyfriend Phil Couric. As the girls discuss their problems with each other, they try to keep it all a secret from their older sister and caretaker: Erin Flippo. They fear what Erin would do to get even with them if she learned that the girls had failed to preserve themselves for marriage.

Meanwhile, Duke Arfaas has implanted hitmen Gunner and Skellig Soorfelt in the neighborhood to spy on the Flippo girls. They plot for Duke Arfaas to send a doomsday ship over Gerosha, and wreak havoc as part of a campaign of revenge for the loss of Gerosha in 1990 when Fantisk was defeated. Outside the front window of the house where Gunner and Skellig plot to assassinate Candi, Don overhears. He determines to stalk Candi and get to her first, insisting that she is his to kill.

The girls head out on separate errands the following day. Erin goes to work at a grocery store, while Candi goes to visit with her godfather Imaki Izuki and childhood friend Jack Mercreek. Candi continues to attempt training, while Jack begins flirting with her in highly inappropriate ways. Given their history, Candi tolerates most of it. Miriam heads to a house party, but is ambushed by old classmates who inject her with a drug via a vaccine they shoot her in the back with. Under the influence, Miriam is dragged into bed by classmate Kenny Corsillo. The others at said party immediately degenerate it into a loud and drunken orgy.

Candi leaves Imaki's house, as Imaki and Jack prepare to head back to Arizona. She receives a call from Erin, and then immediately stops to see Arfaas' Doomsday Ship overhead. The sky turns red, and chaos immediately ensues. Candi warns Erin not to go home, and then breaks down and confesses to sleeping with Donte. Erin decides to ignore Candi's warning, and heads straight home. She is immediately assassinated by Gunner, who was hoping to kill Candi instead. Her head is taken as a trophy for Arfaas, but her body is left behind as a message of intimidation to Candi and Miriam. Police arrive at the party and arrest everyone present, including Miriam. Candi, however, races home to save Erin. She is suddenly ambushed by Don the Psycho. The two battle yet again, with Don being much stronger this time. Don eventually exhausts Candi and rapes her. However, she gains a second wind and throws him off of her. He flies right into a burning building, and some of the burning debris falls on top of him and kills him. Candi is horrified by the thought of having killed a man, but runs along. She arrives home to discover Erin has been murdered, and then immediately has a nervous breakdown. She heads out into the night, hoping to run away from town undetected on foot. She learns on a TV set that Donte's entire team was overwhelmed. They are all believed to be dead. Candi slips into a depression, her nervous breakdown reaching a boiling point. An officer driving by mistakes Candi for Miriam, and arrests her.

Candi soon finds out that Darius Philippine was plotting all along how to disappear his half-sisters. Miriam was to be sent to Alaska to start her life over. Candi ends up being dosed with knock-out gas and dumped naked in the woods, allowing her to fake her own death. She was to find her way back to society and adopt the new last name of "Stevens," since "Flippo" was no longer a safe name. She awakes in the woods, and saves a small child from a dangerous kidnapper. Said kidnapper is immediately attacked by a bear and eaten, so Candi steals his truck to get herself and the child back to society. She stows away inside another pickup truck and makes her way to Evansville. After failing to save the life a drug addict named Ann Marie, Candi decides to use her training under Imaki to clean up the streets of Evansville.

She also meets with Darius' men in secret, and adopts her new identity while claiming her fortune. She enrolls at Viron University. Candi also attempts to find a new church, leading to her befriending Rev. Wilbur Brocklyn. She stays in the dorms only a short while, as a blackmail ring tries to frame her for being a porn star by hiring an actress to impersonate her in front of the Viron University football team. She tries to shut them down, but they are killed by a mobster they messed with earlier. They also managed to hire Wayne the Vampire to rape her. She fights Wayne off rather easily, and he dies after she leaves him in the sun. Candi decides to get an apartment in town to get away from the drama in her hall. She also tries to get a job at the Hazy Eighties Bowling Alley. This leads to several Meethlites trying to ambush her. However, she gets help in fighting them off from a scientist/inventor named Denny Levens. The two return to his house to discuss matters, and quickly form an alliance.

Candi and Denny begin to discuss a variety of things with each other. However, some of the older congregation members at Wilbur's church don't trust Candi. As she is ostracized, she begins to fear attending church there. Amidst her depression, she decides to help Denny perfect his Remotach pill technology - by serving as his guinea pig. All the experiments prove a success, and the two soon find themselves engulfed in an intense friend-with-benefits relationship. Feeling guilty about it, Candi eventually forms a committed relationship with Denny.

The couple run into trouble when their efforts to help Jeral Cormier cope with the sickness that turns him into Botan the Plant-Man go horribly wrong. Meanwhile, the Hebbleskins kidnap Jeraime Malestrom and turn him into the heartless cyborg killer Musaran. Several months later, Candi and Denny are at a cabin. Gunner tracks them down and attempts to take them on single-handedly. However, he is overpowered by the duo, and dies. They burn him in the campfire, taking special precaution to destroy prior to burning him any evidence which would survive the fire. The adrenaline rush from having defeated one of their most merciless common foes leads to the couple losing control of their urges. Candi discovers a month later that the encounter led to pregnancy, and Denny quickly agrees to marry her. The new Levens family enjoys its honeymoon in Milwaukee.

However, Arfaas seizes the opportunity of Musaran being completed and Candi being out of town. He tests out Musaran as a Phexo killer by targeting a dorm on Viron University's campus known for housing Phexos. Candi finds that much to her frustration, being pregnant prevents her from being able to do anything about Musaran. Denny suggests that once she has the baby, they move out of town.

The night Candi goes into labor however, Musaran is sent to the Levens house to kill everyone. Candi arrives home late, and is unable to save Denny's life. The house is blown to bits by a bomb shortly after Candi rushes in and finds Denny's lifeless corpse. She survives the blast, but then has the baby. She passes out minutes later. Imaki and company find her and take her to the hospital right away. They are unable to save Angie's life; but do save Candi's. Candi's powers return; but she's put into a semi-comatose state and taken back to Arizona.

Imaki helps nurse Candi back to health, and reveals his ultimate plans for her. Jack also tries to seduce her; though she is initially less-than-receptive to his advances due to mourning the loss of Denny. He eventually manages to convince her to give in to her urges. No sooner do Candi and Jack awake the next day than a La Raza mob assaults the reservation where she's being kept. Imaki is killed amidst the chaos that ensues; but Candi and Jack manage to fight off the mob. Candi learns that Donte is still alive, but will be executed in a matter of days as Arfaas prepares to completely take over Evansville. She tells Jack that she will go back to Donte, and he decides to let her go.

Candi returns to Evansville, now dyeing her hair red. She does some research, and learns about Jeraime Malestrom. She also learns of Dolly Malestrom, Jeraime's wife. She determines that saving Dolly is the key to defeating Musaran and sparing Donte's life. She tests out her new Ciem equipment by saving a group of children, including young Maria Sanmarcos, from a dangerous group of pedophiles called the Kerpher Gang. She tricks the gangsters into killing each other off one by one, saving their leader Victor Nanale for last. However, helping Maria get home to her family results in another confrontation with Musaran. She gains the upperhand, allowing herself and Maria to escape. Musaran's interface is damaged, but Jeraime remains under the AI's control.

Candi then forges a plot to get herself captured. She is fortunately thrown into the same jail as Dolly, and the two explain everything to each other quickly. They take some of Denny's pills, and then wait for the Hebbleskins to take the bait. Both girls are beheaded; but use the pill technology to re-attach their heads once the Hebbleskin executioners' backs are turned. They seize the opportunity to sneak into various corridors between the ship's floors. Dolly gets a hold of a weapons stash, then aids other prisoners in staging a coup. Candi changes into her Ciem suit and finds Donte. She manages to get him out of the disintegration chamber in the nick of time; but learns he has cancer. The two discuss the complications in their relationship that have developed over their two years of separation. Donte decides to forgive Candi for her mistakes. No sooner do they get their issues cleared up than Musaran discovers something's wrong. Arfaas gets distracted when Darius shows up with the National Guard to take back Evansville. The streets soon are engulfed in chaos. Donte's powers soon return, and he gets a hold of an Emeraldon costume. He promises Candi that he will destroy the ship.

Ciem lures Musaran to an office park, and manages to defeat him. However, her efforts to destroy the AI backvisor lead to her damaging parts of Jeraime's brain. He awakes as himself, but soon goes blind. Emeraldon destroys the ship, and the Hebbleskin Gang is forced to retreat.

After burying Denny and Angie, Candi and Donte decide the course for their future relationship. They have new allies in the form of Laurie Pegol, Dolly Malestrom, Lindsay Hamilton, and Khumar Hamilton. Candi's in-laws via her marriage with Donte become more accepting of her, serving as secondary allies. The story ends with Ciem and Emeraldon preparing to defend Evansville from the Sapphire King's return.

Development
Efforts to make the book more detailed and interesting than the webcomic resulted in a lot of rewriting of Candi's history. Many of these changes were reflected in the Cataclysmic Gerosha narrative in late 2012 as well, though that narrative included additional revisions to the mythology.

Coming up with a few detail changes to the origin story took the most effort. The Ciem whips were to compensate for the fact that Candi's centilegs were made a lot shorter than in previous incarnations. However, the venom became more potent in a centileg in this version. With shorter centilegs, Ciem's fighting style had to become more brutal as well.

The difference in appearance for her world meant a different atmospheric sound and lighting, along with other changes. Whereas the webcomic used The Sims 2 as its primary screenshot source, a lot of storyboards for the book were generated with The Sims 3. To avoid conflict with EA Games' commercial derivatives licensing with its products, an open source program began to be used in July of 2012 for the creation of cover art. MakeHuman 3D Version 1.0 Alpha Build 6.0 became the default character modeling program for all Dozerfleet Comics cover art, whereas The Sims 3 remained the default program for storyboards. All backgrounds for cover art were actual photos, taken from Dozerfleet Comics photo stock. For several scenes taking place in "Evansville," downtown Grand Ledge served as a town double.

The use of Sims 3 and MakeHuman in this project resulted in both software programs being used similarly for Sodality. However, MakeHuman was updated to Alpha 7. Also, agreements were worked out with photographers at DeviantArt to produce more-realistic-than-ever renders of character models. That show took the ambition of Vigilante Centipede to an extra level, experimenting with rendering concept art in anaglyph 3D for use on DeviantArt.

Fonts
The visual style for this version of Ciem analyzed and reconstructed elements of its predecessor, particularly in regards to typeface. The original DSHW webcomic text feed used Calibri as a font. However, the novel was to be written in Segoe UI, the same font used for story text in Stationery Voyagers. Logos and headers originally used "Copperplate Centipede," a modification of Copperplate Gothic Bold. To find a sharper, more centipede-like font, several Windows fonts were experimented with. The one that popped up most prominently was Charlemagne STD. The current Ciem logo for all Ciem-related media (other than Sodality) uses a modification dubbed "Charlemange Centipede," created with Adobe Illustrator CS2.

Music
Main article: Ciem: Vigilante Centipede: The Album

Given the slightly more serious tone that Vigilante Centipede had compared to the webcomic, a moodier musical tone was desired. Story of the Year's song "Sleep" was carried over to the resulting new soundtrack, but a lot of other changes were made. Groups discovered to have a fitting sound included Search the City, the Cloud Room, Alive in Wild Paint, Groove Armada, Porcupine Tree, Jamie's Elsewhere, Winter Gloves, and the Legion of Doom. Air Traffic and the Silversun Pickups were considered after other songs from those bands made it into Q-Basic Gorillas: The Album.

Rejected artists
Husky Rescue's song "City Lights" was originally considered, but dropped due to unwanted association with lesbian themes in the music video. Abra Moore's "After All These Years" was to be included originally, given her inclusion in the original webcomic's tie-in album. However, she was deemed as "not fitting the new direction." Other bands dropped that were included in the webcomic's soundtrack include Staind, Cascada, Pete Yorn, Mute Math, Linkin Park, Junkie XL, Norah Jones, Papa Roach, and the Perishers.

Also dropped were Rise Against, as a careful analysis of "Ready to Fall" revealed it to be a left-wing propaganda video in favor of a radical environmentalist agenda. Their song "Hero of War" was likewise declined for inclusion in Q-Basic Gorillas: Orangutans of Fire: The Album, due to the Dozerfleet founder deeming the song to be defamatory to US troops. It was replaced on that album with "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars.

Differences from the webcomic
The book aimed to be a much-more detailed version of the beginning of Candi's Heroine's Journey, and took risks that were not possible with the 2007 webcomic. While the generic plot remained the same, the book looked into issues with Candi's rise from high school graduate with a murdered sister to CSI-in-training college student and part-time superheroine. It would have investigated topics that are relevant to Candi's motivations, and also would have tried to give the Hebbleskins more to do. It also would have explored the inner conflicts Candi dealt with being a hypersexual with a history of being raped and abused, as she tried to make sense of her moral obligations even as they conflict with her culture - and her own desires. Some of this was in the webcomic, but her struggles with temptation were not explored in significant detail until Ciem 2. Changing out the fictional Dirbine for real-life Evansville has also required changes to the story's handling.

With significant tweaking, many of these changes were integrated into Sodality.

Social issues, enemies, and allies
Numerous characters that had minor roles in the webcomic were not allowed to return for this version. Andrew the Truck Driver, a racist black man who hates Mexicans, was cut. Also cut was Claire Rauscher, Dagmar, and Poison Dart Eddie. Eddie was replaced with Wayne the Vampire, who also carried over to Sodality. Gary and Daryl were eventually exiled from continuity entirely, although they were going to appear in Nuclear Crisis, consistently with how they were to be in Ciem 2.

Tracy went from a close family friend to an unscrupulous lawyer. Darius Philippine was more of a jerk in this version. He was almost saintly in prior versions. A balance between the two extremes of interpretation was reached upon for Sodality. Ann Marie, while short-lived, became an ally of Candi's that she didn't have before. She replaced Merdie Dolon. Also, Candi met Denny at the Hazy Eighties, not at a theater. The entire reference to Rebecca Armsrong's 2006 visit to Ferris State was removed. Emile Kayne and Yuri Krennt were also gone. Kelsea Linney was another character ruled as fit for the webcomic only. This and later continuities have no desire to acknowledge the Evil Hair Maiden's existence. The house bombing was re-written to not involve her. The Hebbleskin Gang's ties with corrupt US government officials would have begun to be explored in the first story, so it didn't feel as arbitrary in the second.

Laurie Pegol underwent a few changes in character, but otherwise remained the same. Erin's body was left for Candi to find, and Candi replaced her lost clothes from her battle with Don the Psycho in her own home. She fled while trying to hide that she ever made it back home. Wilbur Brocklyn remained pretty much the same as before.

Imaki Izuki came to Candi's rescue in the hospital. Tom Flippo never existed in this version of the story, or any version since. Imaki died of a heart attack during Candi's hero training, much like he did in the 2005 version. Denny's parents had a slightly more significant role: Denny took Candi to meet them in Milwaukee for the honeymoon. They weren't saved for the sequel, like they would have been in the webcomics. Donte's relationship with the Wortells, and his time spent aboard a Meethlite prison ship, were to be explored in more detail. The adopting Charlie subplot in Ciem 2 was to seem less forced that way. In Sodality, however, Charlie's entire existence was retconned out.

Geography

 * Gerosha: The town of Gerosha is built on the remains of what was once Boonville, a town where Abraham Lincoln once studied. Its name change is due to the Gerosha Forest, so named after the Gerosha Stone discovered by Stan Flippo, and because in the Gerosha universe, Sgt. Luddin's forces overrun Boonville in the late 80's and early 90's and set up their tyranny there.

This officially makes Comprehensive Gerosha an alternate history. In Classic Gerosha, the town that Gerosha swallows up was named Craterville. As such, the town is still called Gerosha in-story; but Boonville-area geography is used to define it. It is a house in Boonville that becomes Erin's house. Unlike the 2007 depiction, however, Erin's house in this version is a yellow brick house with a 2-car garage.


 * Evansville: Dirbine in Classic Gerosha was a placeholder city. Real-life Evansville now replaces it, but some of the outskirts of Evansville still have name changes.

Burdette Park marks the southern border of Viron, and St. Phillips Rd. marks the western boundary. Highway 66 marks the northern boundary, as the area immediately north is Farrenville. Activities in Viron center around the university campus.
 * Viron: The University of Southern Indiana retains most of its shape, but it is still called "Viron University." The campus is no longer a parody of Ferris State, like in the 2007 version of the comic.  The region of Evansville that is dubbed "Viron" consists of all parts of town that are west of the Ohio River bend, with the border being 9th Ave. and Ohio St. by the Kinder Morgan building.


 * Farrenville: North of Highway 66 is deemed "Farrenville" in the story's world. This area centers around Farrenville Community College, which is the Gerosha universe's equivalent of Ivy Tech Community College.

Attire
The Ciem costume was retextured from its design in Classic Gerosha. The Sims 3 render of Ciem that was used was inspired by an earlier Sims 2 render of the same. This new Ciem suit was primarily different from the old in two ways: square centileg opening pores in the suit from the get-go (as opposed to a suit upgrade like in Ciem 2,) and retractable wrist-whips to compensate for the fact that centilegs are much shorter in this story. There were some thoughts of replacing the wrist-whips with "dart shooters" for Nuclear Crisis. This resulted in the suit for Sodality having dart shooters from the very beginning.

Buildings
Candi was to return to find the Hazy Eighties bombed, rather than bulldozed, after her week off from work. Complete bulldozing was only necessary in the webcomic because of RAM and graphics issues. Franklin Lanes was to be used as a template for Hazy Eighties, instead of the one seen in the webcomic. Victor Nanale returned, but with Kerpher Gang thugs surrounding him instead of bikini whores. They simply blew up the building, rather than buy it and convert it to a strip club.

About sexual mores
Ciem: Vigilante Centipede was described as nearly being a morality tale at its heart. While the surface journey is about Candi's coming to terms with the need to be Ciem and defeat the Hebbleskin Gang as a superhero, and the theme right under that is her quest for true love, there's another theme beneath that. It is also her journey to learn self-control. It is her journey to learn to stop making excuses for straying from the path she knows is right; and to stop letting her good intentions lead to bad decisions.

It is also about the mercy she is shown in dealing with the consequences of her bad decisions, as learning wisdom does not come easy to her in her insecure and needy state. She is constantly given temptations to stray from what she knows is right; both from within herself (due to being descended from Honeybee Samuel) and from the outside world. And while she slips up a few times and does what is wrong, she remains determined to make things right in the end.

This contrasts her with her less-moral sisters; who at one point or another in life, became lazy and apathetic about combating their moral deficiencies. The fact that Candi seeks to avoid this attitude is what spares her from suffering a worse fate than her sisters. She must, however, deal with the consequences of her actions even as she's shown mercy for slipping up. Unlike her sisters, who try to avoid responsibility for years, Candi is the first to accept responsibility for her failures.

At the same time, she is able to see how her sisters' rude awakenings were far ruder than her own. This becomes a motivating factor for her to want to adopt better mores in every area of her life, particularly her sex life. Witnessing her sisters' indiscretions is meant to be heartbreaking for her; and becomes of mirror that reminds her of the path she herself would have traveled. As such, she tries to fight the corruption within her own nature. But since she is weak in those regards, and emotionally needy due to her upbringing, she makes mistakes often. That she seeks to overcome her bad decisions means she is a model for other young girls who have made mistakes; to know that just because they've made a few, does not mean they have to give up on acknowledging right from wrong - and pursuing to live by that knowledge.

Candi draws a lot of inspiration in her desire to reform herself from her faith, convinced several times that if it weren't there, she'd have become as morally apathetic as her sisters. This provides youth with the message that they need not rely solely on their own strength to fight temptation; but that they should look for the Spirit to find that strength. That, if left to their own device only, many of them will only be setting themselves up for failure.

Candi is not a model for how a woman should live. She is a model for how a woman should yearn for redemption once she has failed to live as she originally should have. And in spite breaking promises to herself not to fornicate, Candi keeps one promise to herself: never, ever, cohabit; and do not make excuses for it. Since even Miriam failed to live by that standard, it becomes the platform by which Candi establishes that she will not let herself confuse right and wrong, even when it means admitting she'd done wrong.

About the nature of war
There was to be some debate in the book about the nature of war, and on whether or not it is okay to kill someone in the context of war. When battling ordinary criminals, Ciem either incapacitates them or tricks them into disposing of themselves. Most of them, she does not see fit to kill in cold blood. With militants working for Arfaas during the Battle for Evansville, she was killing soldiers in Arfaas' army that had been capturing and executing civilians taken as political prisoners. They had forfeited their humanity completely, in her mind, by joining with a political force of pure evil - and by visiting that evil on civilians. In this context, she feels it is her duty to execute a rabid dog before it bites more children than it already has.

She displays that same attitude towards Wayne "the Vampire" Norfine, who after attempting to rape her, tried to hunt her down and kill her. He argued that they were both soldiers in the Phaelite-Meethlite conflict, and that he had chosen his side. Therefore, he argued, it would not be "murder" if either one killed the other.

Candi turned that around to show that she was just as excused killing him if going by that logic. She was also able to use self-defense as a justification if discovered, and plausible deniability if not. That Wayne's body was never found meant she didn't have to address the manner. As the sun fried him to a crisp, any evidence that she'd done anything to him vanished. She still felt guilty about paralyzing him and leaving him to die. But she reasoned that he brought it on himself, and that she did the school a favor by defending herself. Otherwise, there would be more girls. And their fates would not be so pleasant as Candi's.

This also underscores the morality of transhumanism and what the effects of superpowers would be on an ethic debate. If someone acquires those powers to become a monster, and someone else is turned into a monster against their will, what is the morality of one monster killing the other, especially if done in self-defense? What becomes of the humanity of both when their essence divorces them from the social contract that the rest of humanity is bound to?

It is clear that Candi feels bad about leaving Wayne to die, even if he was a murderous vampire and a serial rapist. She goes out of her way to not kill Jeraime, in spite wanting to avenge Denny's death. That Jeraime cannot control what the suit and AI are forcing his muscles to do causes her instead take pity on him. She also ends up taking pity on Capp Aard; looking for ways to disable him without having to kill him. But due to his carelessness with radioactive material, Aard does himself in. However, Milp's sadism in Condemnation (and willingness to become a giant millipede-ooze monster and destroy the city) results in Candi losing some of her ability to pity the villain.

With non-mutated Arfaas loyalists, Candi desires to incapacitate rather than kill them; but she'll kill them if they leave her no choice. Her one major exception was during the Battle for Evansville, when she killed three Arfaas loyalists. One of them threatened to murder a small child, while the other murdered the child's parents and forced the child to watch. The third and last of them to be killed execution-style was Ann Marie's ex-husband. After remembering what happened to Ann Marie following the first Denny pill experiment, Candi had vowed to avenge Ann Marie if she got the chance. She decided to make the execution be about Ann Marie's slow and agonizing death, and not about Candi's own personal grievances.

Ciem's strong belief that there are only certain instances when killing is appropriate, but willingness to let criminals dispose of themselves, places her on a peculiar middle-of-the-road from Batman (always save lives if you can help it and never kill) on one end, and the Punisher ("just kill 'em all") on the other. This dimension allows her to be involved in a world with a complicated moral core, and allows her to be defined by something more than just her problems with hypersexuality.

Critical reception
Polling data indicated that the characters were perceived as being par-for-the-course for their genre. According to Esdn84 at GirlsAskGuys, she would be "really annoyed" if she met any of the women in Candi's world, including Candi herself. She went on to describe the girls as "spineless," and "lacking in common sense." She also stated that Vienna Dockler (in Nuclear Crisis) is the only one who shows "any amount of self-composure."

She mentioned that she found the theme of rape at the beginning slightly disturbing, as all three of the Flippo girls have been victims at some point. Ann Marie's drug problem made her the worst-received character, even though that character's death is part of what inspires Candi to become less self-centered. What was particularly "annoying" about Vienna is how utilitarian she is with her body.