Model Citizens: Unmasked (WIP - Update March 11, 2022)

Vincent (cause it is always Vince to me) seems to take everything like a challenge, so probably yes. Like almost everything else he probably goes way overboard with it. On the other hand my second mc is also leans to the more manic side of “crazy” so I guess grandma and the parents are used to a thing or two by now.
Honestly it I think it might be more difficult for his aunt to process my main mc going with Ricky.

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Buddy you just summarized the entire process of writing this thing.

:smiley: I’m excited for you all to meet the family options (I say that about every single detail mentioned here but it’s true), they can be quite the… interesting group.

Oh they take it as a challenge either way. If someone doesn’t like them then it becomes their goal to get this person to like them.

I won’t say you’re right but… you’re probably right.

They’re all pretty fun in their own way, I think (I hope). Your Grandma’s memories are planned to be very warm and fuzzy, the Parents can/should provide some interesting glimpses into Nickelport everyday lifestyle (especially since both of their jobs are very tied in with the whole superhero aspect, and how that effects work and home life), and the Aunt is the furthest removed from Nickelport and the heroic lifestyle which will also give a chance to sort of delve into the reactions of people for whom this isn’t a daily thing- but still a part of life, if on a much more minor scale.

One childhood memory with the Aunt that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to work in cleanly so mostly just sits in my notes as… well, worldbuilding notes, was about how in Nickelport, it’s just accepted if a hero comes crashing through your home in the midst of a battle, but in a small town where heroes and villains are more easily identifiable because there’s only so many people and also battles happen on a much smaller scale, it wouldn’t be as accepted. So the memory that was planned was, essentially, a hero crashing through your roof while you were eating breakfast, and your Aunt immediately stepping out and calling them out on it and how that wasn’t going to fly- followed by her pointing out that she knew who both the hero and villain in combat were and threatening to take them to the police if they didn’t repair her roof.

They did.

She doesn’t mess around.

You are 100% correct.

Again, 100% correct. :smile:

Ahah, it certainly make for interesting family get-together, if nothing else.

She’ll definitely be very confused, I can assure you of that.

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How lucky MC was when Lucy decided to choose MC over swarm of other more “qualify” candidates ? MC should definitely appreciate Lucy’s fondness and “sacrifice” towards me :slight_smile:

That’s why i could never had forget her…

I agree with that fully even though i am not a full vegetarian :wink:

Many forget that two can play the game … anyone play around gossip with me will eventually find that they will sleep at the bed of ill as well :wink: perhaps they should be an option for MC to warn them off ? If they know what is best for them …Lol :thinking:

Oh yeah…i remember Vera tried to attach to me and found that my wedding ring is intriguing… i wonder whether there will be jealous scene from Lucy in future ? If Lucy is “hurt” , she will react more ferocious right ?

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In speaking of family asks, am trying to imagine how they deal if the MC is potentially in a dangerous case as a journalist. Grandma might be more understanding but someone give mom/dad/auntie something for their nerves :))

(If the MC is dating Finley and this happens OH BOY)

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Well you’ll definitely get the chance to see her again!

Aha! Good luck squashing office gossip, that thing spreads like a wild fire

Hmm… Lucy would definitely get jealous in this regard considering she’s one of the ROs more prone to jealousy, but her reaction here will definitely depend on A: Her relationship with the MC currently and B: Her relationship with the MC in the past.

That would all also depend on whether or not your family knows what it is you do for a living…

Now that would make for an awkward family dinner.

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Actually. ROs and awkward family dinners? I’d pity Jacob and Eileen the most :))

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Yeah… i mean i could also dig up some dirt about those gossipers and ensure that their “hidden” dirt is even more mind blowing , which eventually everyone will forget about those gossips about the MC :slight_smile:

Journalism is an awesome job, especially when the family know MC get in touch with many super power beings ( and getting their signature)… not to mention we might date or marry one of them…
My family will be thrill to realise Valkyrie “was” one of us … she can even provide good massage to my parents with her strength

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I feel like Ricky might do the best here depending on which family we’re talking about. The parents and grandmother would be easy to smooth things over with if he draws on his charm. The aunt will have none of any of that and he’d be 100% lost on what to do next and probably a little intimidated by her, if I’m being fully honest.

Yolanda would be in a similar situation- she’d be able to smooth things over with most everyone easily… save for the aunt. Who would, also, intimidate and scare her slightly.

Finley has a lot of potential for awkward family dinners being, you know, the MC’s boss. But they’re good with people and good at reading people and generally most of the families would/do respect them therefore I feel like it’d be pretty easy here.

Raf’s doesn’t handle awkwardness very well in general but he’s probably used to awkward family dinners in specific considering how much Cátia and Ayesha clash heads, plus add in the fact that he’s one of the ones who the families would approve of fairly easily (the aunt would have the most complaints, mostly to do with his more shy nature), so things wouldn’t be that bad.

Lucy is generally good with any kind of social situation but because these would be the MCs parental figures she’s especially stressed and trying to reign herself in and generally doesn’t know what she’s doing right now. She’d be most relaxed with the aunt, and most stressed with the grandmother.

The Informant most likely has 0 idea what to do in this situation and he just wants out.

Jacob and Eileen, like you said, are equally stressed out and confused and are trying to make things less awkward but neither of them have any idea what to do. Eileen is probably more successful with the grandmother, Jacob would be more successful with the aunt, both are equally unsuccessful with the parents.

V would probably end up making things worse.

A quick way to earn friends at the office! :smile:

It’s absolutely possible to tell your parents about your journalism! But the whole Rust aspect is one that you might want to be more careful of (not to say you shouldn’t but) even besides the whole secret identity some of your parental figures might not be as supportive of their child/nibling/grandchild going out and putting themself in mortal danger on a daily basis.

And dating a villain…? Even more awkward. But who knows? Perhaps you can win them over!

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Oh… my theory is that if we work in a hostile environment , we will only make “friends” when our “friends” are afraid of us :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Our family members are seriously paranoia towards “villains” ? :scream: I mean , i thought our parents and grand parents will be really grateful to have someone like Lucy to massage their backs everyday right ? I have no doubt Lucy can do it in a fast and effective way …but i never ask, is Lucy the kind of girl that like to hang around with our parents and other family members ? :thinking: Do she mind giving our parents and grand parents a massage ??

You remember about my idea of dedicating an article to appraise Valkyrie in the newspaper right ? I had just found the inspiration on how to do it… Here will be my newspaper column on what i will write :hugs: Do you think Valkyrie like it ?

        _**Not So Secret Tribute to Valkyrie**_ 

Yeah, You could be the greatest
You can be the best
You could beat the world
You could beat the war
You could talk to God, go banging on his door
You can throw your hands up
You can beat the clock
You can move a mountain
You can break rocks
You can be a master
Don’t wait for luck
Dedicate yourself and you can find yourself
Standing in the hall of fame
And the world’s gonna know your name
'Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world’s gonna know your name
And you’ll be on the walls of the hall of fame
You could go the distance
You could run the mile
You could walk straight through hell with a smile
You could be the Villain
You could be my Wife
You could get the gold
Breaking all the records that thought, never could be broke

Do it…

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Relatable. We stan 1 trench coat wearing mystery dude

Honestly though I can’t wait to see how much of a badass this guy is. The info broker of the city is no slouch job and 10x more amazing when even the best of villains or heroes for that matter don’t exactly know who he is

(Then it’s revealed he’s a socially adorkable nerd and ouch there is the bias)

(Badass and secretly a loser is an easy way to my heart and so many peeps here qualify RIP)

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Awww…come on Vince is super-cute, besides my mc who actually dates him is pretty “crazy” himself so it’s not like the family would be strangers to weird and eccentric by now. Particularly grandma, since he grew up with her.

Poor Ricky since my main mc mainly lived with his aunt on the farm, so she’d be the most important member of the family to convince in his case.

I think my main mc would be rather ashamed of his daytime job as fluff piece article journalist and very much not willing to divulge he is Moriarty. So to them he is probably a disheveled drunk in a perpetual funk ever since he quit the police force. Probably writes under the “John Smith” pseudonym for his “real” articles with non-Rust media outlets.

My second mc by contrast loves his easy, if very low paying daytime job of writing nonsense, fluff-piece and gossip articles but he too wouldn’t be willing to divulge his actual employment at the Rust. So I guess he would appear more like a lazy slacker with limited ambitions (the first part is true to an extent, the last one isn’t) to the rest of the family.

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I’ve just realized that despite this being one of my favourite WIPs (can I say I am a sucker for our exes?), I have yet to leave a comment. So let me fulfil my citizen duty and make a report on just how much I enjoy the story, its characters and the mystery behind the divorce.

Subtly (or not so subtly) provoking Ricky just might be becoming my new hobby, while I try to figure out whether I want to A) try to figure out V, B) stalk the Informant, C) get back with the ex (or die trying, haha). Oh, decisions, decisions.

Anyway, thank you for giving us such a lovely story and I hope to see more from you in the future :wink:

Just a little something I've noticed.

a pudgy man who’s bulging flabby neck threatened to spill over a high-buttoned white collar,

I think this should be a “whose”

a woman cradling a sleeping baby in her arms - frayed brunette hair and deep purple bags a sheer sign

clear?

and a skinny parrot of a man who’s nervous fingers twitched more than your pen taps

and a skinny parrot of a man whose nervous fingers were twitching faster than you were tapping your pen

Truth be told there’s very little he could add to your article- and you’ve little time to waste on unimportant meetings.

Two “little” in a one sentance. Maybe consider “there’s not a much he could add”

Aaaand I’ll stop here, since you have stated you want to enjoy writing this story and someone poking at your writing isn’t particularly fun. Hope you’ll find these helpful anyway :slight_smile:

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That definitely depends on how you view others who work for The Rust. You won’t get to meet many of your coworkers, admittedly (save for Finley, of course), but a few may pop up now and then.

Considering what they know of Valkyrie and her reputation? Very much so.

It depends. She’d get along great with the aunt since both of them have similar values and work ethics, but would be fairly uncomfortable with the grandmother who is more traditional in nature. She’d also get along very well with the mother, but less so with the father- who is more on the quiet side.

That admittedly might be a step too far, aha. She’s not adverse to hugs or other friendly gestures, though.

Amazing, she’d love it.

If there’s one thing the Informant is good at, it’s keeping secrets. If there’s two, then the second would be figuring others’ secrets out. Both of which make him extremely good at what he does.

The ‘super badass and awesome character who just so happens to be a gigantic dork’ is a favorite trope of mine…

So guilty as charged.

I’m not saying its impossible for V to win the family(/ies) over, just that admittedly crazy might not be their go-to wish for their kid’s significant other.

But who knows? Perhaps your MC can help Vince win them over!

It’s possible, but definitely going to be much harder than any others, this is true.

Neat! I love how different your MCs are- both very cool!

Thank you so much!!! I’m so extremely thrilled to hear that you enjoy it!!!

A very good hobby.

:smiley: Just remember the chant: Multiple playthroughs!

Part of the fun is going back and fixing my mistakes to make this story as good as I can! I always love it when people point out errors I’ve missed- even tiny ones! So thank you so very very much for pointing these out to me as well!

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WHALE NOISES

RAF ITS GETTING HARDER TO WRITE CASS AS STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU WHEN THIS IS HAPPENING

And yet his romance is a slowburn one /chinrubs

I wonder if he was aware the MC could potentially be (secretly) crushing on him or would potentially be blindsided by this fact like they find me attractive? W H E N?

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:smile: To be entirely fair, though, Raf would also fit into this kind of category as well considering his whole day job.

Though one of the things I am curious about is to see how or if people’s interests shift in ROs as the story goes on and you get to meet and talk with all of them.

Ayep.

Well, now, I suppose you’ll just have to wait and see, hm? :smiley:

Bet: the Informant is only good at his job and his personal life related perceptiveness is shite

Which is why this is a slowburn because the man first is demi and second of all is denser than dense regarding his own personal feelings

To also be fair to Cass, he’s likely the own who broke up with her and also is distant due to his job (“break their heart to save them” indeed)

Idk Raf. SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE IF YOU WANT HER IN YOUR LIFE ;A;

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But…but Silence is Golden , aren’t all Villains love Gold ? :wink:

I bet Valkyrie will be shock who her secret admirer is :slight_smile:

I am thinking of an idea of "manipulating " the informant’s information , something like the informant gives me something and assuming i will publish everything based on his/her version, but i will edit and then manipulate some of the information to alter these “secrets” into me and my allies’ advantage :wink:

i will provide you with an example … like when the informant told me that A is living in area 51 and he/she is a student of university B.
I will publish a story something like " Sinister conspirator had uncover Vigilante A living in Area 51 and studying at University B, it is with my best wishes that A be more cautious and careful with his/her future endeavor " It will garner sympathetic respond from readers, warn A and complete my task of unveiling A at the same time :slight_smile:

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:blush:

His romance is slow burn for a multitude of reasons… As to the reasons why you’ll just have to wait and see! :smile:

Again, I can’t give much other than :smile:

That’s one way to look at it, aha!

She may have a clue or two…

You’ll be given the choice when writing the articles how to present different aspects of them- which will in turn affect public opinion of whoever (or whatever) you write the article about.

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Is there an option to shade on the government? I feel like there’s def some form of corruption at work here /chin rubs

Or would that be too risky to publish (because the company is pretty much bought to be quiet about these things) and we’d have to be fired first or something to that effect?

/speculation intensifying

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we don’t have to call out the government directly , just make a reference to them indirectly … praise them a bit vaguely …make them think we might be on the same side :wink:

something like " The latest incident had link M to a government contractor , we hope that president X can clarify the issue and make a statement about it "

Teasing a super villain ex-wife is so much fun … love Lucy :blush:

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