Middle Man: Hero x Reporter x Villain- LOOKING FOR HEROES

[Baphomini]

I LOVE THAT!! It's a really good dichotomy! The balance of bugs and plants clashing and relying on each other plays in perfectly to the villain and hero eventually falling for each other hehehe

[JewelSerket]

I LOVE THAT!! It's a really good dichotomy! The balance of bugs and plants clashing and relying on each other plays in perfectly to the villain and hero eventually falling for each other hehehe

@Baphomini

Thank you! I'm very proud of it. He is my poor, secretly anxious son. I'm currently thinking about Superhero names. He is very beetle themed, so I though about just calling him "The Beetle", but that feels a little cheesy.

[JewelSerket]

I am currently working on a character sheet for him, but I have a ballroom dance class in thirty minutes that will keep me busy for a few hours.

[Baphomini]

@JewelSerket No worries! Take your time, and just a few thoughts for names, maybe you could pull from different types of beetles, such as long horn, hercules, jewel, scarab, or even firefly. Maybe something like Captain Herc, The Jeweled Soldier, or Fireflier!

[Dragonfly 9]

@Dragonfly 9 You can still try out! This isn't fcfs, it's who I feel is going to offer the most substance for story and character interaction! Tell me your ideas :D

@Baphomini

Aight! :D Right now, I have two:

1. Minotaur Man! :D Could be that Jewel's character is a traditional gentleman, while Minotaur guy is (initially) the more traditional version of toxic masculinity. Or, at least, he seems to be a toxic jerk. In reality, he's more of a classic tsundere type; harsh and aggressive on the outside, but kind and a bit of a classic romantic on the inside. Could be that he was treated as "weak" by his family/the people around him, and tried to "toughen up" and "be a man" in order to compensate for that.

I have another, but I wanna see what you think of this one first. If it's too heavy for this, that's okay! I just often get a bit too into character depth while fleshing out my characters. :')

[Baphomini]

@Dragonfly 9 Oh man, I love me a good, "they were treated as an animal/object and need to figure out how to be a person" character arc, Li would definitely help with that reintegration and see the person this guy is beyond the animal he was made to be...Li would also want to punch whoever treated this guy so horribly, but that's probably not the best idea

Do tell me more!!

[Dragonfly 9]

@Dragonfly 9 Oh man, I love me a good, "they were treated as an animal/object and need to figure out how to be a person" character arc, Li would definitely help with that reintegration and see the person this guy is beyond the animal he was made to be...Li would also want to punch whoever treated this guy so horribly, but that's probably not the best idea

Do tell me more!!

@Baphomini

Aight! :)

So, I think Minotaur guy was born in Ancient Greece as, like, apart of an ancient Minotaur race(the myth was either inaccurate or solely focused on just one Minotaur, with the writer not knowing that others existed). The guy then got kidnapped by a time traveling scientist, who tried to study and treated him like an animal overall. He escaped somehow, taught himself how to read, write, and speak English, and became a villain in the city's eyes by trying to steal food from one of their stores(because he still didn't know how money worked). He then later embraced this role after a bit when he realized that that was probably the only role people would respect/treat him like a person in. At that point, Minotaur guy had fallen in love with all aspects of theater, so he took a page from its book, becoming a fearsome, loud and domineering villain, who just LOVEDDDDD to be EVILLLLL!!!

Beneath that, though, Minotaur guy is more of a soft spoken, socially awkward guy who thinks he'll never be loved as he is(and has always been very jealous of Hero Guy(or whichever character fills that hero role) for him being popular and loved by the city).

[JewelSerket]

@Dragonfly 9 Oh I love him. What a fine fellow.

[Dragonfly 9]

Thank you! :D

[Baphomini]

Hmmmmmm 🤔

I love him and he sounds like such a good boy, I just don't know how well I'm connecting

For one thing, I've never been crazy about casual time travel stories/usage. When I do time travel plots/elements, I typically have a lot of structure and rule to it, and even then it always gets complicated, so I usually try to avoid it 🫤
As it stands in this world, I'd rather not deal with it, simply because the story is so focused on the love story and character relations, it feels too messy to get into time travel ethics, if that makes sense?

Another point is I don't really see there being separate races/species in this world except maybe in the possibility of alien races (in the case of Superman types)? Mainly there's humans, and "metahumans" but metahuman is just a lable given to people who have these strange genetics and in the end they're still human. I don't see the meta gene being structured or consistent enough to be passed directly in family lines, and definitely not repetitive enough to create a whole new race 🫠

And lastly, I'm not sure if the his reasoning for becoming "evil" quite vibes with the structure of the story? It feels a lot like he kinda just stumbled into the villain life and doesn't have a true connection to it? And I'm looking for a villain who has a strong rise to villainy, and a solid reasoning and defined goal, if that makes sense??

Again!! I love him a lot! He's a really good character and sounds like a really fun guy to interact with, I just don't know if he fits the role?

[Dragonfly 9]

Hmmmmmm 🤔

I love him and he sounds like such a good boy, I just don't know how well I'm connecting

For one thing, I've never been crazy about casual time travel stories/usage. When I do time travel plots/elements, I typically have a lot of structure and rule to it, and even then it always gets complicated, so I usually try to avoid it 🫤
As it stands in this world, I'd rather not deal with it, simply because the story is so focused on the love story and character relations, it feels too messy to get into time travel ethics, if that makes sense?

Another point is I don't really see there being separate races/species in this world except maybe in the possibility of alien races (in the case of Superman types)? Mainly there's humans, and "metahumans" but metahuman is just a lable given to people who have these strange genetics and in the end they're still human. I don't see the meta gene being structured or consistent enough to be passed directly in family lines, and definitely not repetitive enough to create a whole new race 🫠

And lastly, I'm not sure if the his reasoning for becoming "evil" quite vibes with the structure of the story? It feels a lot like he kinda just stumbled into the villain life and doesn't have a true connection to it? And I'm looking for a villain who has a strong rise to villainy, and a solid reasoning and defined goal, if that makes sense??

Again!! I love him a lot! He's a really good character and sounds like a really fun guy to interact with, I just don't know if he fits the role?

@Baphomini

Yeah, that's totally fair! I don't think he fits the role as well, honestly! :') I just created and tossed him into the ring, in order to see if he would fit the role! Now that I know he doesn't, though, I'll probably leave it up to Crimson and/or some other person to fit it with their potential character idea. Thank you for humoring me, though! :D

[JewelSerket]

So I may have gotten a bit excited with him. Even if I don't end up using him here, I'm glad to have sat down and made him. My buggy boy!

Cricket Carvid

Name: Cricket Carvid, King Stag

Identity: He/Him, Bisexual/Polyamerous

Voice Color: #b9e09f

Powers: Insect Manipulation/Insect Aspect

Appearance: Cricket, in his natural state, is a tall (about 6’4”), muscular man. He hits the gym regularly and it shows. His hair is short on the top and shaved on the sides. At one point, he had a mullet, then decided it did not fit him. Cricket dyes his hair often but its natural color is a soft, almost blonde brown. His eyes are a brilliant green. He is afab, though he has had… something akin to top surgery. It has left a brutal scar across his chest. He wears oversized hoodies and loose sweat pants as often as he can.

Cricket has the ability to take on insect aspects. Namely, he takes on beetle aspects. This includes antennae, an emerald green beetle shell, sometimes a large horn, and fragile, thin insect wings. Other parts of his body take on a carapace which slows him down considerably, as it inhibits dexterity. However, the carapace is extremely difficult to puncture. Unfortunately, this form has some negative effects. A big part of why he goes to the gym is because of the weight of the insectoid armor. Finally, his flesh is covered in little pockmark scars from his initial interaction with the insects. It left many of his organs weakened and susceptible to damage. The moment his shell is damaged, he is incredibly vulnerable.

Character Traits: Cricket has a hard exterior. Sometimes literally. He falls into (often toxic) hypermasculine tropes in a desperate attempt to feel like he’s doing his sexuality “correctly”. That does mean, however, that he is a secret softy with a love for fantasy and cutesy movie dates. He is touch starved, which he often expresses through physical violence (think wrestling with his firefighter buddies or enjoying physical combat more than he probably should because it means he’s feeling the touch of another person). His humor is sarcastic and dry.

Motivation: Cricket craves feeling important. He’s estranged from his family. In a way, being a superhero gives Cricket a reason to keep going. Some of it is to prove his family wrong. Most of it is to feel wanted and needed.

Ambition/Dream: In an ideal world, Cricket would become an entomologist and explore his passions. He does not believe that possibility will ever come to be, so he tells himself he would just be happy to live in a house in the country and a comfortable retirement.

Cricket was born within the city to high class parents. They named him Ruth and raised him to fill the shoes of a traditional housewife, like his mother. He rarely had a chance to leave his home, save for school or to act as a trophy for his parents. When he did, though, he found himself escaping to the park. He would spend hours just digging in the dirt and watching the bugs.

When Cricket got older, he started trying to explore masculinity. His parents pushed him away from that life as much as possible. He was sent to an all-girls catholic school. They told him he needed to fit in the role of of a woman or risk ruining his family’s reputation.

Eventually, the abuse became too much. Cricket ran from home with nothing but a bag of clothes and some food. He found himself facing a cruel city with zero experience with real money and human interaction. Unable to pick up a job or find a place to stay, he found himself struggling to survive. As winter came and he still lacked shelter or food, Cricket found himself going to the park more often. It gave solace as he found himself struggling more and more to survive.

Maybe he should have died that harsh winter night. Maybe he should have frozen in the snow or starved to death there and then. Cricket did not starve, though. Instead, something was awakened in and around him. Bugs rose up from the dirt. Hundreds of worms and beetles, wasps and grubs. They crawled into him. Filled his tummy with nutrition for a cost. He could hear them, hungry. In that moment, he and the bugs shared each other. They kept him alive and full for the price of filling them with whatever flesh he could spare. A big part of this came from anywhere he had fat, which meant that much of his chest was simply eaten away.

The bugs were a source of luck in more than one way. They awakened the power in him to take on aspects of insects and to communicate with the, to a limited extent. This communication is much closer to how an ant queen would communicate with her colony. There was one other bit of luck, though. A passerby in the park saw the state he was in and called for an ambulance. When he came back to in the hospital, he was questioned about what happened. His explanation sparked sympathy and he was given a job as a part time fire fighter. The pay is not high, but it covered what he needs to pay rent and eat food. It also gave him the opportunity to learn and test his new powers, though he kept them generally secret for fear that they would scare away the first real friends he had ever had.

Cricket also quickly learned that most men at the station did not know about his biological gender. It allowed him to start an entirely new life in the gender he desired… with the constant underlying fear that he will be found out and his life will be ripped out from under him yet again.

The night Cricket decided to take up crime fighting came when he was on the scene for a brutal fire that had consumed a residential building. There had been a string of arson cases which the police had done little to take care of. In the beginning, the fire department handled the fires before anyone was seriously injured. Unfortunately, they could not always be that lucky.

There was a lot that scarred Cricket throughout his life. Abuse and bugs seemed so far away compared to that night. The firemen, himself included, had been delayed because of a car wreck. As a result, most of the building was already consumed by flames when they arrived. There is nothing quite like the image of McCloud, half melted, carrying a woman in his arms who had no right to be alive. Cricket could still smell the burnt hair. He was among the men who went in and carried out whoever they could manage to save.

The fatalities were high. Too high. McCloud never managed to get back into field work. His legs were made practically unusable. When the police chalked it up to an accident, something within Cricket snapped. Some research revealed that all of the buildings previously affected were owned by the same company. That research plus obsessive checking in on the last building owned by said company meant Cricket could catch the arsonist, a woman with fire powers who wanted revenge on the building owners, in the act.

The event made the news, as it was shocking to see a massive bug man ending a string of arson and murder. Luckily for him, the transformation made his face unrecognizable, as a layer of chitin acts as a sort of helmet. The attention and his loathing for the failing police system made Cricket realize there was something good he could do for the world. He would not be a failure any more, relying on others for charity. Cricket could actually save people. It became a very unhealthy obsession. When he played the idyllic hero, not only was he doing real good, but he was finally worthwhile.
The role of hero has taken away much of Cricket’s free time. He gets very little social interaction outside of his workplace, which has left his love life in shambles. Cricket has tried dating a few times, but it rarely goes well because of how often he gets called away for work or being a hero.

Family: Mother (Mary Carvid), Father (Robert Carvid), Younger Sister (Eve Carvid)

Notable Figures: Austin McCloud (A sort of father figure to Cricket and the fire chief who took him in from the hospital)

Hobbies: Bug Pinning (especially beetles), Knitting (especially while listening to fantasy podcasts), Hiking (He goes out on week long hikes every few months if he can afford it), Gardening (though many of his plants end up getting eaten in the process).

Character themes: Beetles, Self loathing to Self Acceptance, Fear of Failure, Decay/Rot as a form of rebirth rather than destruction.

[Baphomini]

Ok, finally got my thoughts in order and have a moment to type

@JewelSerket I love him, and he's so well constructed. He has a very unique origin story, and I love the body horror aspect of it. You don't see body horror too often, especially for heroes, and I love how scientific it is? Like, with the bugs eating the fat? Idk, it feels really grounded and well thought out! I'll definitely be keeping you and him in consideration for the role! Same as with Crimson, I wanna wait and see what other bites I might get.

@Crimson Flame@JewelSerket
Right now I'm mostly just unsure how I feel about the transition from civilization to hero/villain? I'm really looking for something deep, powerful, interesting. Something characteristically and morally defining! I dunno if I'm explaining it right...

[JewelSerket]

@Baphomini Thank you! I was very proud of his "top surgery". I'm glad you enjoy him!

I think I'm understanding, but could you give an example?

[Crimson Flame]

Yes, an example pls.

[Baphomini]

Like, something personal and life altering that connects them to their decision to take up the role that they did. More than "Well I have these powers," or "I got rejected."

Consider if Professor Oak was acting as a villain as a means of protecting the earth and environment. Yes, in the eyes of society, he is "evil" but the fact is, he's a hero in his own eyes.

That's always the mark of a good villain! A villain shouldn't be a villain for the sake of being evil, but for a cause that is dear to their heart. They're fighting for something, something important to them that they aren't willing to abandon even at the cost of the lives of others or even themself.

The same can be said for a hero! They shouldn't be a hero just for the sake of being a hero. They should have something that drives them. Maybe the fire chief died, or was injured in one of the fires and the police doing nothing about it was a personal sting. Even heroes can be driven by revenge! Maybe the bugs want Cricket to protect people because humans play a big role in bug survival from planting flowers that bees pollinate, to leaving food for ants and other species, to their corpses being consumed by worms and the like! There's plenty of ways to go with it!

[JewelSerket]

@Baphomini Awesome. Lemme do a little reworking. Thank you!

[Crimson Flame]

Like, something personal and life altering that connects them to their decision to take up the role that they did. More than "Well I have these powers," or "I got rejected."

Consider if Professor Oak was acting as a villain as a means of protecting the earth and environment. Yes, in the eyes of society, he is "evil" but the fact is, he's a hero in his own eyes.

@Baphomini

His villian alias is Poison Oak. I appreciate the Pokémon reference though. :P

His motivation being to protect the earth and environment was my intention, but Pine is a hypocrite sometimes. 😬 I can make that clearer!

[JewelSerket]

@Baphomini I just finished cleaning him up a little. I edited the original post. The only real edits, save for some clean up, are the last five paragraphs of his backstory. Have I gotten a little closer to the mark?

[Crimson Flame]

I added some stuff to mine too. Hope it helps!