NaNo 2017 Planning stage

Long Way Down

Main Plot:
Super heroes exist in the modern age. People with special abilities have been around for quite some time and have either been benevolent or malevolent as they are still just regular people. Around World War II, a group of these special people were used in war to devastating affect leading the world to convene, post WWII, that the use of those with special abilities is highly subversive to human decency, ironic, when used by nations. Thus, a draft proposal was written up to control what super humans are allowed to do legally and what definition that have as a citizen in a state.

In the modern era, these super heroes, which legally cannot represent a nation, are instead privatized by corporations who foot the bill for those who need special equipment, costumes, transport, or any other support as they are just regular people with super human abilities. Being property, these heroes are allowed certain actions and must not do things that will affect their branding. On the most part, this goes fine with a world that mostly gets along, with political and economic sanctions being the main drive for aggression in the world.

We will follow one such super hero, a woman by the name of Kristen Lieberman. A woman born with some of the most powerful abilities seen in quite some time. She is super strong, super fast, nearly immortal as her wounds her incredibly fast, and has minor psychic abilities (i.e. she's an empath). Her abilities don't become known until puberty and thus ages normally until then. After an incident when she is 18 at high school, she is outed to the world, and herself as a super hero. With this knowledge, her life and her future is drastically changed as she becomes a different kind of legal entity.

The super heroes are thrust into a world of strife and secrecy as soon as they contracted to an organization with their original identities hidden and their past lives essentially erased. Kristen, who on the whole is a sympathetic person, bears the burden of the life change in stride and takes up the role of hero. During a mandatory grace period, she meets up with author Alex Sharp while incognito and begins her first real relationship with the man. The two hit it off almost instantly. After an accident that leaves him scarred and her outed, he finds out that she is a member of the super heroes and is also thrust into the life of one with his own history completely redacted from the world.

As global pressures mount to war, the rise of a "villainous" organization of supers changes the tide for Kristen and Alex as she is forced to do things that offend her character but are "brand" appropriate.

As their world changes, the two grow resentful of each other, being forced to be together for "brand" awareness, and at the organization that handles them. Subtle acts of defiance cascade to waterfalls of treachery as the two discover who they truly are by striking out against what they are forced to be.

This is the creation of a villain story. A story where the hero finds out that being a "hero" is all relative and that the veneer of niceness is a lie we tell ourselves sometimes.

Characters:
* Kristen Lieberman - Main protagonist and one of the major POVs for the story. She is late twenties with a slim build and dark hair she keeps medium length. Born to a hard working family, she grew up just below poverty and is keen to the struggles of those who were not as fortunate in life as others. She is charismatic and charming and people are drawn to her mostly frank attitude towards life. She is a super, and doesn't know that until after a gas explosion at her high school "awakened" her abilities and get her involved in the hero business. She is the poster child for being a "strong chinned hero with a heart of gold" but does resent the lavish life she is granted. She is insecure at times as she doesn't know if people respect her for who she is or who she happened to be born as.

* Alex Sharp - Second protagonist and next major POV for the story. He is tall, slim, with dirty blonde hair and appears older than he is. An amateur writer he is famous in a niche community for a Sci-Fi book he wrote and an article that won him some awards while exposing some shadowy use of supers in areas of the world under strife. He is driven by a need to recapture the success he once had and is secretly demanding of the praise it gave him. He grew up in a broken home where he was forced out of school at young age to help pick up the slack of a drunk father and nearly absentee mother. He is somewhat obsessed with fame and is driven by the need to be better than he was in more than dangerously way. He is rash, and impulsive and often gets in arguments as he doesn't like losing.

* Danielle Panaton - Danielle is the main handler between Kristen and the hero organization that has contracted her. She is well built with square shoulders and a sharp face. She is darker skinned. She seems to be ex-military but does very little sharing of herself to the couple. She represents Kristen and at least three other heroes during the story and is fairly, "by the numbers", about it. She is very driven and wants a better seat within the organization than being a babysitter. She uses Kristen and Alex later to further her own career even at great risk to their safety and well being. She is brutal, and quiet with little insight to her past.

* Reverend Whitehouse  - The reverend represents a growing populace that believe that the supers are an affront to god and the bible and believes they should be more tightly controlled. He is the figure head of a super church that is used in embezzlement scheme to fund private interests in the governing body of America. He is one of the main antagonists of the story but is never met with the "heroes" of the story. His machinations create the "villains" organizations that are more privatized and less forthcoming with the details of the business. Maybe a super himself. (tropey but whatever)

More Short Stories

Need to get some more short stories going. I should make a starter board here and see what feels the most intriguing. Your input is always welcome of course

That moment

That moment when you follow back someone on the internet, after what you hoped was just a trolling comment only to find that they are the living embodiment of a stereotype... Lovely. I just don't understand why people fight the notion that climate change is real? It's not some ideological thing, it's fucking fact. It's global. It doesn't care what you believe in, it just simply is. Can't understand how people just can't accept facts.