Since we’re having a bit of difficulty getting us all synced up to do anything with The Gifted, and since @anijeltaventry is having fun writing her own little spin off, it was suggested, since clearly both Anijel and I were having Ideas about the story, that we start a little spin off of our own, since she realized she missed the collab aspect of writing. I was on board, although I had no idea what to actually do. Plus, my muse was sort of drifting on other things, so…yeah.
But then @callistochan87 made the mistake of suggesting an idea, and…yeah. This happened.
The basic idea was the go with one of the other facilities that the Institute runs, and this time, it would be a story about one of the scientists and one of the captives. I ended up twisting it a little by accident, but it is definitely shaping up to be an interesting story!
We literally just started this yesterday, but I’ll admit that part of my planning process is coming up with character designs. This helped me come up with my main girl’s name, after all, since I had an idea of what I wanted her to look like, but no solid name.
So basically the premise of what we’re doing is that the facility is one what experiments on people who already have a Gift, what we call a subtle Gift. Subtle Gifts are the most common types of Gifts, and manifest in ways that people can’t actually tell they have a Gift. Think someone with a green thumb, someone who is pretty accurate at predicting the weather just by standing outside, someone who excels at swimming. The facility takes people with this subtle Gifts and attempts to make them physical Gifts, which are the sort of Gifts the characters of the main Gifted story have. These are Gifts that manifest themselves through character actions, like how Jacey can manipulate metal.
In any case, both Piper and Jaxson were born with subtle Gifts – Piper as a water Gift and Jaxson has a fire Gift. What makes them unusual is that they are secondary Gifts like Jacey’s – Piper’s Gift is actually ice and Jaxson’s is electricity. Piper has always been cold to the touch, although she herself has never really felt any different. Still, this leads her parents to think that she’s constantly sick. So when a medical research study comes to her attention, she joins it in hopes that it’ll help her understand her condition. Her best friend Emily joins as well as a show of solidarity.
Emily doesn’t have a Gift, but she witnesses when the Institute kidnaps Piper after learning that she has a Gift. Piper doesn’t have the best home life – her parents are divorced and her mother remarried, but her mother and step father ignore her in favor of her step-and-half siblings. So most people think she merely ran away. Emily knows otherwise, although only her parents really listen to her. She spends the next six years searching for Piper, discovering bits and pieces about what might have happened to her over the years. She learns about Gifts and the Institute, but she has no way of accessing the Institute. She ends up discovering which facility they took Piper to about two years ago, and selected a college and a major close by that would allow her to intern there when the opportunity comes up.
Piper managed to survive the ordeal when most didn’t, and is kept locked up in the facility because her Gift is actually rather dangerous.
Jaxson isn’t my character, but what we’ve come up with is that he has a shitty childhood, with his mother bouncing between boyfriends after his parents divorced, until she finally met the man that becomes Jaxson’s stepfather. The two get married when Jaxson’s about 14 or so, and the man makes Jaxson’s life even worse because he does not like Jaxson, since he takes attention away from his wife. Jaxson get into so minor trouble and his parents freak out on him, mostly through his stepfather’s influence. His stepfather suggests a new school to help end his ‘criminal tendencies’, which his mother agrees to because Jaxson used to be hyperactive as a kid thanks to his Gift.
Unfortunately for Jaxson, this was a school run by the Institute, and through a series of probably illegal testing on the students, Jaxson’s Gift was discovered, and he suddenly vanished from the school. When his mother inquired about why she hadn’t heard from her son, it was discovered that he was ‘never enrolled’ in the school and they have ‘no records’ of him. There was a big case about it, one that the Institute covered their tracks nicely, and his mother sort of gave up after a year or so, although she maintains some sliver of hope that he shows back up.
Jaxson’s Gift is just as dangerous as Piper’s, if not moreso. He tends to overload the entire power grid at times when they’re testing him/trying to get him under control. The town they live in is notorious for rolling blackouts with no explanation, and the people who live there have just learned to deal with it.
The story is mostly about Emily’s internship and her being assigned to help Jaxson get his Gift under control. For reasons no one can explain, least of all Jaxson, whenever she’s near, she has a calming effect on him, and he’s able to control his Gift. He sort of falls for her at first sight, although he’s not completely trusting of her until she explains why she’s there and she gives him reason to trust her. She, though her interactions with him and through helping plan an escape for him, eventually falls for him as well.
(Piper and Jaxson do know each other, mostly thanks to the fact that they’re the only two people who has survived the process thus far, and hey, its’s a male and a female! We should see what would happen if they reproduced together! Except Piper is a lesbian and isn’t at all interested, and forced reproduction puts a damper on the idea, anyway.)
So, for the designs, the first group is basically what they look like in the facility. We have Emily, Piper, and then Jaxson. Emily is actually in disguise here. She doesn’t normally wear glasses or anything too ‘fashionable’. But she’s trying to make sure no one recognizes her outside of work. I will say that she was ridiculously cute like this, though. And then Piper and Jaxson are in their jumpsuits that they’re forced to wear. (Jaxson's zipper and belt buckle are plastic, because I didn't really think of that detail when I designed the jumpsuit, lol) I was originally going to just give them gray jumpsuits, but I liked the idea of them wearing their Gift color. Makes it look a little less drab.
Their hair lengths are part of their captivity. They keep Piper’s short in general, whereas they buzz Jaxson’s off once a year or so and then let it grow, for some reason. (Maybe they cut it off when he’s being particularly rebellious.) His hair is white because it turned that color when his Gift went from subtle to physical. No idea why. I just thought it was a funny idea when Anijel said his hair was white, lol.
I like how Emily’s ‘color’ is purple here, since it doesn’t match any of the Gifts, thus showing she has none.
The other sheet is basically how they look outside the facility. I was mostly wanting to show off how Emily looks, but then decided to do Piper and Jaxson as well, since I’d imagine at some point, Emily manages to pull off the rescue.
A lot of rambling for some random designs, lol. I like how they turned out, Emily in particular, obviously. I had an idea of how I wanted to character to look, and I’m very pleased with how she turned out. I had less of an idea for Piper, other than the short hair, but I like it!
