Musebox Post: Hope Minett

[ohwhenyouloveit]

This is a musebox post/CMO for my newest OC, Hope Minett! I need to voicetest her and also want to mess around in the setting a bit.

Setting Concept (Copied from Prof)
Modern Earth, but with magic-wielding humans called Mages who fight monsters to protect humanity. Mages can be magical girls, sentai heroes, or a variety of other kinds of flashy defenders of humanity, but the powers are fundamentally the same, and manifest at an early age - usually around 10-13. Mages fight monsters in savage battles of survival until they turn 18, at which time they surrender their powers so that magical energy can be recycled for the next wave of Mages to be able to defend humanity.

The thing is, this setup is a lie, perpetrated by a massive 300-year-old conspiracy. Its originators, the Elder Magi, are humans who hoard magical power to live forever as gods in the shadows of the world. Magic isn't actually a non-renewable resource - when a Mage offers up their powers, it's the power they were born with, not power recycled from others. The power taken from the Mages at age 18 is crystalized and put in the vaults of the Elder Magi so that they can continue to amass metaphysical wealth, living eternally in luxury and letting the youth do all the hard work of fighting the monsters drawn to Earth by its steadily increasing concentration of magic.

This story isn't named yet, but it's about young people realizing that they've been lied to by older generations about the form of a society built to exploit their suffering, and those kids getting mad and rising up to tear down the system that torments them to seize their own happy endings when the adults fail to help them.

Character Concept
Hope comes from a poorer neighborhood, and does her best to keep her chin up despite it. She has never been considered as a candidate to be a magical girl, and her neighborhood has been written off by the Elder Magi. So when an injured monster escaped there, they declined to send any magical girls to finish it off. Simply letting it die off there was seen as preferable. Who cares what it does to poor people in between that?

Unfortunately for the Elder Magi, Hope found the monster. And her first thought was that it looked like it was in pain. And her second thought was that she wanted to ease the pain. Unconsciously, she awakened her own magical powers-those of empathy. And for the first time, the monster recognized a human as more than a moving source of food. It allowed Hope to take care of it and slowly heal its wounds. As time went on, she slowly started to pick up other stray monsters-and then started to realize a disturbing pattern among some of them. They all claimed to once have been familiars who were forced to turn into this form and attack their contracted children, no matter how much they loved them. Slowly, she began to realize the truth behind the world of magic, and became determined to tear down this structure that hurt human and familiar and monster alike.

At first, she worried about the fact that caring for a monster might make her evil, and then decided to try and go full-force in that direction, embracing a "dark" magical girl form and the name Echidna, the mother of monsters. After she slowly realized that really wasn't her, she chilled out somewhat, but kept the "evil" aesthetic that she found she enjoyed. She's picked up biokinesis as another power, although she usually uses it to heal her monster friends and occasionally give them extra limbs to play around with. And she also has several powers based on avoiding attention, which she can share with others.

Hope's neighborhood is somewhat safer now, as well. Monsters that roam in are either befriended or driven away, and anyone sent by the Elder Magi to try and take her out is similarly dispatched. Hope knows that the rumors about the dark mage Echidna must be spreading to some degree, but at the same time she's not ready to leave her neighborhood behind completely. Still, her adventures will definitely take her away from home eventually...

Thread Ideas
1. Hope's setting - Is your character chasing a bounty? Trying to learn about monsters? Attempting to be an evil duo with her?
2. Jamjar - She's probably going to be fretting about her monster friends and what they'll do without her. Even if she has allies who know about them, do they know the right way to look after everyone?
3. Texting - Probably with a really cheap cellphone. She doesn't even have emojis.

Comments

[halffamiliar]

The rumors of the dark mage and her monster army had reached as far as Butterfly Rose's current haunts. Considering their nature, there was no way this wouldn't intrigue them. So, on a sunny day, a raven descends out of the bright and clear sky and, with a swirl of flowers and butterflies, turns into an apparent young woman in an obvious mage outfit. They seat themselves on a lawn chair and lazily recline, waiting for the Mother of Monsters to approach.

[ohwhenyouloveit]

A sudden transformation like that definitely attracts the attention of the neighborhood's magical residents, both monstrous and not. So soon enough, a shadow seems to peel away from a wall, resolving into the form of a stilt-legged, horned bird creature that peers over at Butterfly Rose. After a bit, though, a young woman in formal dress follows, striding elegantly behind, her hair resplendent with black roses. She certainly looks the part of a "dark mage," at least. She takes a deep breath before speaking. "...we sensed strange magic in our domain. You're not a monster, or a mage. What are you then, and what business do you have with me, the Lady Echidna?"

[ax_iom]

[When she first heard rumors about Echidna, Lily had no idea what to think. A magical girl helping monsters? Did she know the truth, or was she planning something?

So, a strange magical girl, a disgraced one named Lily, is found entering Hope's neighborhood, practically a beacon of magical power. Might as well use herself as bait to see what happens.]

[ohwhenyouloveit]

[Soon after Lily enters, there's the sound of claws scrabbling against a wall, and then a one-horned creature pokes its head around a corner to look at her. There's the sound of someone running, and a teenage girl comes hurrying after it.] H-hey! Be careful! You don't know who- [She seems to realize something, and draws herself up as tall as she can.] Greetings. What business do you have in the Lady Echidna's territory?

[ax_iom]

Lady... Echidna.

[She sighs, looking at this girl. Lily carries herself like one who isn't afraid at all, despite the monsters, despite Echidna, despite everything about this.]

You hardly look old enough to be anyone's mother, much less monsters.

[ohwhenyouloveit]

[She deflates a little.] I didn't have time to get ready- I mean, of course not! She's...watching over this from somewhere! I wouldn't be surprised if she showed up soon!

[...oh man, she's off her groove.]

[ax_iom]

[Lily just. Sighs.]

Do you want to transform before we talk, then?

[ohwhenyouloveit]

...it depends on what you want to talk about, I guess. [The monster that had been inspecting Lily now slowly moves to stand beside Hope, and she reaches out to pet its horn.] I...I guess I don't mind talking to you like this. [It can get a little tiring sometimes, acting the role of Lady Echidna.]