@RyouguHonestly I sot of want to start myself over at this point.
This doesn't mean writing Marlene out, rather than making her a side-character. (Or, actually, killing her off in the woods. Her condition is pretty shit.) Because after this twist of events (And my over-reactive nature that caused me to just flat-out delete a post I worked over an hour on) I really just don't feel like writing anything for her despite wanting to post. I feel like I need to re-evaluate.
So this would mean one of two things.
1. I use Perdy. He's already been established and has his reasons for being on the island; And is equal level with the others. There's no imbalance here, and him and Mable are already off to a bad start (For stupid but hilarious reasons). He's a developed character, though I never intended for him to be used full-time again. The fashion prada and movie star could provide humor the cast needs though; As he's the disdain of both Hiro and Mable, as far as I'm concerned. And unlike Marlene's obnoxious bumpkin nature, Perdy's pretty useless in comparison; He's just got money.
2. I just do something completely different starting from the boat, which I can add to my bio for the new character. It can simply be assumed he shuffled off on his own and experienced things at a different pace than the others, or that he considers himself not an idiot and didn't need the help of the people in the first village, instead just setting off after perhaps meeting Imamu earlier and instead of beach-skimming he went for the Forest instead. His/Her levels would reflect Marlene's current ones for balancing purposes, with appropriate egg moves applied for you to approve.