I like playing heroes. I generally don't understand 'villains' and it could be argued that none of the 'evil' in my stories is very believable.
I quickly found myself frankly unwilling to play CoV because of the way the Player's control of the narrative was abrogated in most Rogue Islands stories. However! When Masterminds came out, they were only available Redside and I really wanted to play them. So I was forced to re-write the 'villainous' narrative and substitute my own plots. My Redsiders were not villains, but simply 'misunderstood'. They were not criminals, they were innocent and 'The Innocent' was more so.
This story has been reimagined to skip the whole 'sent to the Zig' issue. This Innocent is a hero.
[URL=http://s105.photobucket.com/user/fireheart5150/media/My%20Characters/Innocent_zpsdkedznyf.jpg.html][IMG]http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m207/fireheart5150/My%20Characters/th_Innocent_zpsdkedznyf.jpg[/IMG][/URL]<-- Click to Embiggen!
[h3]The Innocent[/h3]
[b]Real Name: [/b] Lilura (Lily) Veronica Normandy
[b]Archetype: [/b] Commander, Brigadier
[b]Movement: [/b] Flight, Long-range Teleport
[b]Primary: [/b] Pets 'Demon Summoning' or 'Darkness Summoning'
[b]Secondary: [/b] Support 'Vampiric Emanation'
[b]Tertiary: [/b] Utility Powers
[h4]History[/h4]
Lily was named for both of her grandmothers, Lilura being Basque for 'enchantment' and Veronica which means 'true victory'.
Ever since she was born, she’s been special. A little too smart. A little odd, even uncanny. Sometimes she seems to see things that aren’t there.
Born seven months after The Event, her parents knew they were pregnant at the time and were delighted to welcome a new life. At first, they were very concerned, but the doctors assured them that all was well and the pregnancy proceeded normally. There seemed to be no effects from the Event.
She was a beautiful baby and grew to be a beautiful child, who promised to become a beautiful woman. Yet, there was always something different about her.
She did well in school, impressing her teachers, and easily made friends of many ages. However, this is also when the trouble started. Some people disliked her, complaining that they didn’t like the way she looked at them. (It was like she could see their ‘sins’, and they didn’t like the ‘mirror’ they saw in her eyes.) Distressed parents drew their children away from her and some even tried to get her expelled from the school, but they could not give a credible reason for it.
The only particularly odd thing about her was her intense connection with her imaginary friend, ‘Charlie’. She insisted that ‘Charlie’ was real, but not ‘here’, that she could talk to him any time, but she did not talk to him all the time, and vice versa. They each just knew when the other wanted privacy, when the channel was there and open but neither was paying attention.
Lily could vividly describe the dark forested place where ‘Charlie’ lived, its sights, sounds, smells, etc. Seeing and knowing it from birth, through those other senses, it never seemed strange. Lily’s own senses were unusually sharp, as well.
On her way home from school one day, she was snatched right off the street by a notorious ‘trophy hunting’ child rapist. When she awakened from the drugs he’d used to subdue her, the man showed her what was under the false-bottom of his suitcase. His trophies, carefully preserved, the whole skins of a half-dozen victims of his twisted perversion.
Seeing the man clearly for the first time, seeing into his soul, seeing his prizes, Lily knew she was in terrible danger. She screamed, “Charlie, Charlie, Charlie!” while her mind called the true name of her life-long friend. She tore open a gateway in the veil between worlds and summoned that dark being into this reality. ‘Charlie’ promptly attacked the villain, ripped his heart out, and ate it.
When law-enforcement officers stormed in, they found a corpse on the floor and a sobbing girl in the arms of a ‘monster’. Lily saw them, cried, “Run Charlie, go home!”, shoved herself erect and stumbled into the arms of the flabbergasted officers. The dark being simply faded away.
Investigators soon found the corpse’s trophies, no evidence that Lily was anything but a victim, and ruled the situation ‘righteous’. ‘Concerned citizens’ proffered charges that the young girl had murdered the innocent man with dark powers. The judge and jury considered the evidence and swiftly rendered their verdict - Innocent.
Afterward, the Department of Superhero Affairs slipped in and spirited the whole Normandy family away. Mr. and Mrs. Normandy got new jobs and Lily got a new, private school, with plans to enter Hillwood Academy in a few years. Everyone made new, interesting friends and ‘Charlie’ enjoyed it all, vicariously.
[h4]Appearance[/h4]
A slender child with blonde hair and blue eyes.
She is a pleasant and friendly child, eager to make new friends, but she can be wary of those who have done ‘wrong’ in the past. She can be aggressive and confrontational towards those who do not wish her well and ‘Charlie’ is watching, from behind her eyes. She sometimes seems a bit out of focus, particularly if there is something ‘spooky’ going on.
To those that are alarmed by the darkness in her misty blue eyes, she says, “I am Innocent, what you fear is not in me, but in you.”
So, what do you think?
Be Well!
Fireheart
I pretty much never let a game's "lore" get in the way of the characters I want to do. At best I'll cherry-pick certain elements that support what I want to develop and discard the rest. I had to do that with most of my original CoV characters, especially before the Archetypes were completely shared between red and blue side.
That all being said I like your writeup here. It very loosely reminds me of the storyline from "[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Me_In_%28film%29]Let Me In[/url]" (based on the original "Let the Right One In") which was one of my favorite movies. As the wiki summarizes very quickly, "The film tells the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a female child vampire in Los Alamos, New Mexico in the early 1980s". The vampire is not strictly "imaginary" like your Charlie but she does stay well hidden from most other people so she effectively "appears out of nowhere" to help the boy when the need arises. I'd actually recommend it as a good story about a "relationship between a child and his darkly supernatural friend" which I think generally applies to your concept here. It's not a stupid "twinkly" vampire story like Twilight - she's actually pretty dark and nasty as far as vamps go and ends up horrifically killing a bunch of people along the way. Good fun. ;)
P.S. As a reference back to this being a game about superheroes the vamp in "Let Me In" is played by Chloë Grace Moretz (a.k.a. [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick-Ass_%28film%29]Hit-Girl from Kick-Ass movies[/url]).
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CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
For me, the challenge of an environment's lore is to find ways to Use it to support my story. Sometimes that means subverting it. However, to me, the oppression in CoV was more than mere 'lore', it was environmental.
That's an interesting angle. I grabbed the 'not-so-invisible-friend' meme to explain how a young girl might summon nightmare monsters, such as 'Demons' and not be corrupted by it. So I wrote her as a little bit supernatural, then tried to figure out what might motivate people to constantly accuse her of 'evil'. Thus, the 'mirror of sin' angle. People really object to having their petty evils 'exposed', even when nobody is doing anything about it.
I'm not at all into gory horror or supernatural suspense. I prefer my stories light and bright. Still, I needed that touch of shadow to make this story work. So I quite literally consulted a friend who has a grimmer/darker perspective, to help choose my evils. Even so, you might notice how light and fast I was in touching it.
Be Well!
Fireheart
Oh well, then maybe "Let Me In" might not be as good of an example for you as I initially thought. It's definitely got more "gory horror" elements than you were probably looking for but it's still primarily a love story, or a least a story about two "kids" (one's a several hundred year old vamp but she's still effectively child-like emotionally) who are sort of lost and find comfort and mutual trust/companionship with each other.
It turns out Owen (the boy in the story) starts out essentially innocent. But as he slowly learns about Abby (the vamp) he becomes more willing to do horrible things in order to save/protect her. By the climax of the movie he turns fully to the Dark Side by allowing a policeman (who's been investigating the trail of bodies left in Abby's wake) to be killed by Abby when there was a reasonable chance Owen could have saved the cop from her. What's great about this scene is that it's about million times more dramatic and awesome than the equivalent scene from the Star Wars movie where Anakin is "turned" to the Dark Side by the Emperor. If only George Lucas had managed to get Hayden Christensen to act anywhere close as well as these two kids did. ;)
P.S. When I think about it a little more the relationship between Abby and Owen is roughly similar to the relationship between Eleven and Mike Wheeler in Stranger Things (especially as it developed in the first season). So if you've seen Stranger Things you'll have a working idea of the "tone" of the story of Let Me In. Just replace "girl who can kill people with telekenetics" with "girl who can kill people because she's a vampire". ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
As the friend he consulted, I can honestly say that I pretty much had to twist his arm to get even what you see in the current version. There was a lot less explanation of who/what she and "Charlie" were, and a lot more glossing over parts that show what is going on. There were jumps at the suitcase and Charlie 'merely' attacked the bad guy.
The new version, in my opinion, does more to show that things aren't all in her mind, and she isn't a twisted psycho.
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For what it's worth I don't dislike Fireheart's take on this. Obviously it's ultimately his character so he can "conceptualize" it any way he wants.
As far as the "Let Me In" reference goes they kind of leave Abby fairly vaguely explained. In fact they make it pretty clear that she was turned into a vampire against her will and despite her chronological age she's still almost naïve about what she is in the greater scheme of things. Unlike many other modern "vampire stories" there doesn't appear to be any other vamps she's aware of in the world that she could have learned from. It basically implies that as a vampire she's essentially "self-taught".
At least like with Fireheart's idea the "Let Me In" story is definitely told more from the "innocent human" Owen's point of view. I guess I'll just say that if I were going to do a character like Fireheart's in CoT mine would likely be far closer to the Abby/Owen dynamic. Nothing wrong with that either way. ;)
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Please don't get me wrong, I like the write up on The Innocent.
My input was in helping to take her from vaguely disturbing to dark, which was what he was looking for when he asked for help. He has several other 'vaguely disturbing' characters, but The Innocent is his darkest. At least to my memory.
Also, while I had heard of the movie "Let Me In" I was unaware of the storyline until I read your posts. It sounds like the kind of movie my wife would like, so I may recommend it to her.
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Well like I implied earlier in the thread "Let Me In" is easily one of my personal top 100 all-time movies. I actually have a poster of it signed by Chloë herself. ;)
If you and/or your wife end up liking it enough I'd also recommend the original Swedish movie "Let the Right One In". Usually whenever a movie is based on an original foreign film like this the "remake" generally sucks but in this case I actually think the Hollywood version reworks the source material in a way that actually makes for a more polished/tighter overall story. But the original does have elements missing in the remake and it's interesting to compare/contrast between the two "tellings" of the same basic story.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
Thanks for that. I'll let her know.
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I conceived the Innocent as a person who was carrying some shard of 'forbidden' knowledge in her head/heart, continually developing new manifestations of dark Power as she grew, and continually misunderstood, as this hidden knowledge conflicted with the 'safe' assumptions of the people around her. So, in CoH, she was branded a villain and sent away to the Rogue Isles, to survive by her wits and her abilities, even though she was completely Innocent.
CoT won't have any such division between heroes and villains, so she'll be free to stay with her parents and grow up a hero. I may not be able to create her, it depends on powersets.
Does anyone have ideas for developing a better story? Do I drum up some witch-hunters from Salem? Might she find a mentor in town? How might this tale of the 'Spooky Girl' work out in Titan City, Mass?
Be Well!
Fireheart