New Characters Say Hello

[Ezra]

The one with the pool that grants spot-of-light wishes, I think?

[rockeye_stonetoe]

yep

[Adelene]

And too bad, too, I really liked the premise.

[Asymmetric]

This is an old post and should not be considered up-to-date or used as a reference.

Heya! The name's Tricky, and I'm hoping to start glowficcing soon. Here's my cast of characters. They're mostly done except for finding icons -- if anyone wants to help or give advice at finding some, please feel free.

First up:
Cleo: (actress: ???, expressive face).
Full Name fir earthfic: Cleo Forrest
Father: Benjamin Forrest. Works as a (mundane) government bureaucrat. Dead since Cleo was five-ish.
Mother: Jenna Forrest. Works as a counselor. Very no-nonsense, good at getting people to admit things to themselves but kind of mean about it. Dislikes conspiracies/the supernatural on suspicious that they killed her husband. Is worried about Cleo falling in with a "bad crowd".

Cleo's distinguishing traits:

• Well-meaning. Believes it's important that people be civil to one another.
• Loves meeting new people and getting to know them. Loves people in general, really.
• Tends to be good at suspending judgement so she can get to know someone better.
• Is not awful at modelling other people, but tends to give them more of the benefit of the doubt than should be warranted.
• Runs via inertia. Tends to prefer to work through existing systems but has no moral objections to not doing so.
• Is good at being sympathetic and getting information out of people.
• Is, by default, demisexual and biromantic.

If she has a superpower, it is affecting peoples' feelings about their memories. She can cure PTSD and do some manipulation re: event importance, but she cannot outright change peoples' memories or delete them and even for a non-Bell her power is reversible if they're sufficiently luminous. She prefers to get people to remember things, not forget things, but she can do either. She can also give people eidetic memories. She tends to use this power to help people remember things or to help them with their meta-wants -- she likes being helpful. Importantly, this power does not work on herself.
(If she could actually pick a superpower, it would be an eidetic memory. Or just generally the ability to use her memory power on herself. She *hates* how it only works on other people.)

Because of these traits, without outside interference, Cleo usually ends up being snapped up by the Conspiracy. (She gives people the benefit of the doubt re: implicit nastiness unless she's in deep enough to see it for herself, and by then it's usually too late). Sometimes the Conspiracy wants her to use her power without her, or the victims', consent. If said conspiracy does this, even if it's not terrible for other reasons, Cleo will seethe and jump at an opportunity to change the status quo. She usually justifies staying by saying that otherwise the person who violated the Conspiracy would be killed.

By profession, if not snapped up by a Conspiracy, is usually a biographer, a journalist, a diplomat, or a therapist. Goals mostly including learning about the world, not affecting it in big ways. Likes to be close to the center of important things so she can write down what happened later.


Dearheart: (actress: ???, Asian)
Full Name for earthfic: Tabitha Su.

Traits:

• Very secretive. Good at working through bureaucracy, does not tend to change systems. Adaptive. Ascends the ranks of organizations quickly.
• Tends to be average-looking.
• Introverted. Genial. Helpful, prefers to leave people better than she left them. Sometimes motivated by spite.
• Has a big secret, often her involvement in a Conspiracy, sometimes special knowledge of something especially morally ambiguous or damaging.
• Is working to change this thing alone. Would be especially inclined to trust anyone who finds out her secret and who decides to help her.
• Has powers that are based on, and increase, mental instability and compartmentalization.
• Is such an amazing liar that she consistently fools lie detectors. Is also extremely good at half-truths.
• Very protective of family members.
• Depressed, had a happy home life.
• More likely to occur in settings with Masquerades/Conspiracies.
• Sometimes paired with Cleo queerplatonically.
• Is asexual, aromantic.

Whistleblower: (actress: Chloë Moretz, if not taken, otherwise someone else with a round face who smiles a lot)
Full Name for earthfic: Lilah McPherson
Mother: Faith McPherson. Stay-at-home.
Father: Kenneth McPherson. Inheritor of a financial firm.

Traits:

• Cocky affect. Too smart for her own good. Impulsive. Hero-worships easily.
• Young -- usually teen-aged. Usually from a rich family, the second-youngest of five siblings (Or a large number of siblings for a particular culture).
• Tends to assume people like her even if they don't. Confident even when it's unwarranted.
• Genki girl affect. Can tone it down. Usually doesn't.
• Her background is usually becoming aware of a Masquerade, trying to un-Mask it, and then getting her parents targeted and killed. Develops a hatred of the Masquerade as a result.
• If there is no Conspiracy, she tries to whistleblow on some big secret and achieves the same result.
• Is more likely to be alive in settings where the Masquerade is less omniscient about infractions.
• Is very good at internally shifting blame (for her parents' death and for other things) off of herself, even when she probably shouldn't.
• Is extremely flirty to both genders but usually goes for other women. Tends to prefer casual relationships.
• Is usually a mundane engineer working with information. (In universes where it is relevant, has Super Hacking Skills.) Tends to be good at acquiring information. Uses this ability to stay steps ahead of her pursuers, if they're still on her tail.
• In universes with non-pervasive magic, is terrified thereof. Usually because magic is what gets her parents killed.

Lady Knight:
Full Names for earthfic: Mary Rivers and Heidi: (Mary's actress: a light-skinned black woman with natural hair and glasses, somewhat frazzled) (Heidi's acress: a dark-skinned black woman with hair that's so short it's practically buzzed.)
Father: Jeremiah Rivers, family doctor, the main opponent of Mary's gender and (if he finds out about it), Heidi's existence.
Mother: Nicole Rivers, musician. Distant, usually at practicing, well meaning. Messy divorce with Jeremiah, few funds and no current spouse. Focused on her music.

Traits:

• Come as a pair, always. Heidi is Mary's familiar or tulpa. Sometimes people think Heidi is not real; she is very real, but in magic-less settings is only perceivable by Mary. (Being a tulpa, she is a *consensual* hallucination, thank you very much.)
• Mary is good at art and prone to be a drifter.
• Mary tends to be poor for many reasons, including a bad coming-out experience (she's a non-op trans woman) which required her to get early emancipation, the fact that art as a profession isn't very lucrative, and her hallucinations.
• If there is (familiar) magic, then Heidi becomes her especially autonomous familiar.
• Tends to have an unusually well-developed inner world -- this is where Heidi "lives".
• Tends to be selfless to the point of being self-sacrificing. Heidi is selfish and helps her keep her selflessness from being self-destructive.
• Personality wise, Heidi is loyal, untrusting, and emotionally stable. The strong silent type. Somewhat grumpy.
• Marys and Heidis are almost always in a sexual relationship; although they polyamorously include other people in principle, Heidi vetoes most people who would otherwise interest Mary.

A non-comprehensive list of titles I could glowfic is as follows:

• Fallen London
• Worm
• Harry Potter
• Full Metal Alchemist
• Naruto
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica (canon and To The Stars)
• Alicorn's Fairyland
• Final Fantasy VII
• Twilight-verse or Aurum
• Percy Jackson
• Death Note

Let me know if you're interested!

[DanielH]

What do you mean by Cleo’s power not working on Bells? Many Bells have no opacity whatsoever, and the ones who do often have exceptions of various kinds. I don’t think a Bell would decide to not have an eidetic memory if one were on offer all else being equal, so even if they could undo the effect I doubt they would.

[Asymmetric]

Ah, that was a typo! I was assuming for a while that Bells would necessarily be repulsed by the power; that's probably not actually the case. Will fix.

[DanielH]

They probably would naturally be repulsed by part of it, but unless I misunderstand the power probably not all of it.

[Asymmetric]

I mean, in Harry Potter Cleo would have a talent for Memory Charms; they'd probably at least be repulsed by *that*.
I think it may depend on (1) the universe / the organization the Cleo got wrapped up in, (2) whether the bell met the Cleo in a context where overthrowing the old system seemed possible, (3) the nature of the magic system.

[MaggieoftheOwls]

Most worlds don't have blatant monolithic conspiracies, and many of the ones that do don't really allow for people to be drawn in slowly, such as Cauldron or the Volturi. Why did you think that was an important thing to include about your characters? Do they have some strong attraction to worlds with suitable conspiracies?

[Asymmetric]

Those tend to be the properties that intrigue me most, honestly. And they're a common trait among most of the properties I listed. There's Cauldron, the Volturi, MSY in Madoka's To The Stars ... Plus the "conspiracies" don't have to be monolithic. My favorite worlds are usually earthfic with a magic system that isn't "out". And I love exploring the consequences of outing the magic system.
(I wonder if conspiracy is even the best word? There are even substantial differences between Cauldron and the Volturi.)
As far as "being drawn in slowly" ... I'm not sure what you mean. For Twilight, there's a difference between finding out that vampires exist and that the shadow government employs both Jane and Chelsea. For Cauldron, a person would get their foot in the door by buying a power.
Also, from a Doylian perspective, I suppose part of the reason they're so prominent is that my characters tend to be especially curious and also because it's convenient for me, as an author, to have them be privy to sensitive information.
Also, they all have interestingly different approaches to overthrowing governments. Cleo ends up having to be more secretive because she usually gets into a position where she can be blackmailed. Lilah, on the other hand, prefers messier power-changes that involve giving information to everyone and letting the chips fall where they may.