Need character help for my Dominator

Hiya RP forums, don't think I've been around these parts before, but I ran into a problem with one of my characters that I'd like your input on.

Just to make what I mean clear, I'm usually a concept player, not so much a roleplayer. I make up a character concept and pick powers accordingly, or some times pick powers and make a character around it. I stick to CoH canon as much as possible, though, and I can easily say that all my level 50 characters have their own distinct personalities based on both their concept and how I played them. The point being that while I'm not really a roleplayer, I can slip into character fairly easily since I do know every of my characters well enough to RP back if RP'd at.

Except for one. I thought I knew her, but I don't anymore.

Heh, it sounds kind of weird to write that to me, but if I wanted build advice, I'd go to the Dom forum, however, I need character advice, so the Roleplaying forum it is. Like I would post a build in the Dom forum, I'll post my character concept here.

For the name (but don't take my advice wholly, I suck at making cool names), the first thing that popped in my head was Sclera, the white part of the eye. It sounds like a girl's name (at least how I pronounce it...that word rarely comes up in conversation....) and if you think about it, the sclera kind of contains the iris of the eye just like the evil side is holding Iris capive in her body.

Her last name is West, so how about Dusk? Sclera Dusk? Dusk can also kind of mean dark...

As for her story, she's mind/psy? When it comes to some duality characters (or clones/alternate version characters) I tend to think of them in a yin/yang sense. One is good/light and the other is bad/dark but this can also expand into other traits like brave/fearful, passive/violent, smart/dim witted...at least by comparison.

So far, beyond her path of good, she has no ace in the hole to combat her evil side. Perhaps, Iris can use her connections with time travel along with pure mental enlightenment to 'outsmart' her evil half into doing good with perhaps the illision she is getting something out of it?

"Sclera"? I kind of like it, actually. It has a harsher sound and it's part of the eye. I think I'll leave the evil side without a last name. Last names humanize characters, and Sclera doesn't need humanizing.

I kind of imagined that the first 20-25 levels Iris is dormant because she's panicking. It is a really terrible situation to be in. Iris does have an ace in the hole, but it's a little tricky to explain. Basically, Sclera is a hedonist, while Iris is reserved. It's something I tried to show in her costumes. Her original costume is a stained pink dress with a torn up jacket. What Iris wore at the accident. Her current costume that Sclera made is a lot more skimpy, but with a big cape and gold chains.

It's the time traveling where Sclera saved Atlas Park from the Shivans that I think is what snapped Iris out of it. A hole in Sclera's armor. She enjoyed the praise of being the hero. The plan is to appeal to Sclera's ego in order to push towards Rogue, but that's metagaming. It's the desired result, but I'm not sure how to get there. Now how exactly Iris can get through, I'm still thinking about. She's a lot more powerful than she thinks, though.

The idea is to have a new status quo before level 30 and the next costume. Perhaps have Iris become a conscience at this point. Or at least begin to influence Sclera a bit. The next costume will likely be "classy mentalist villain" look. Sclera's ego and flamboyance tempered by Iris' modesty and manipulation. "Come on, is THAT how someone powerful dresses? I thought you wanted people to take you seriously!"

I should probably tell my desired end point for this character, too. The idea is that at level 50, she'll "ascend" is the wrong word, but basically become mostly a mental construct rather than flesh and blood. A costume I look forward to trying to make. (And when I'll slot the Freebird +Stealth in Hover so she'll be transparent.) Yeah, it's cliche, but the idea was to start with the locked in syndrome and end with Iris pulling off a trump card that makes the whole battle for the body moot, as there is no body to fight over. In fact, this will be the "twist" of the character. Why did Iris lose control of her body? Because it technically wasn't hers anymore. She didn't need it, but she didn't know. The body basically ran on instinct, she could have left at any time. But who thinks about trying something like that? Especially when you're panicking? It also neatly explains why she can teleport. The end point is still a bit of a work in progress I'll admit. I think my idea is to have the transformation happen when she fights future Recluse, but there's over 20 levels to go until I find the specifics for that. Plans change, after all.

Oh, and a fun detail: Why is it important that is was Crey chemicals that triggered her psychic powers? Well, easy! Countess Crey is a powerful psychic, but those powers have no explanation in the game. She runs a megacorp that also makes chemicals. I took that and ran with it: Psychic chemical overdose!

I love comic book logic.

I have a had a similar thing going on with my main character, Beyond Reach. But the situation is slightly different. Instead of Sclera being created by this chemical accident, the villain Beyond Reach, after he gained his psychic powers, was created by his "good" side because that side's mind coyuld no longer deal with what was going on around it. It wasn't intended to be villainous, but like a child, the first experiences it had was of being told it was evil (long story) so it believed that was true.

I see Iris will take a much more present role in moulding and affecting their other side. With Frank (Beyond Reach's real name) he has completely retreated and actually does not want to come out. When he eventually does become a hero (which I'm currently working on) it will, to some extent, be forceful. Someone else is trying to turn Beyond Reach into Frank, and somehow hopes that Frank will resurge at the same time.

In the vein of your character eventually "ascending" you could have Iris take on the appearance of submitting to Sclera, and try and merge her own thoughts in to the villain's, so it doesn't seem like Iris is telling her what to do, but actually her own conscience (although they're kind of the same mind anyway). Seeing as they are effectively the same person, it will seem more fluid to Sclera. Iris will start making Sclera's decisions with Sclera even being aware of it. Perhaps in the future they could even become one in the same. Iris could come to the realisation that Sclera was always her, in a way.

Yeah, the idea has been on slow burn in the back of my mind all day, and I might have come up with a plan forward. The story, really, ends up being about Iris, and how she copes with the situation.

The idea of Iris becoming that "nagging voice" or a conscience of sorts is what I was thinking of, too. But instead of appealing to a sense of decency like a normal conscience, She's be appealing to Sclera's ego and hubris. Iris will be that nagging idea that petty crimes and random violence just don't have enough class. Enough style. And, of course, no gain. The initial idea being that at least Iris can stop that, and the time spent setting up grand schemes and style is time not spent murdering people.

I'd like this to lead to Grandville, and have the idea of climbing to the top of Arachnos be Iris' idea. I still need to figure out what I do with the final breakthrough, but Iris should never get to control the body, when she finally becomes dominant, she'll morph, body and all, into that mental construct. I'm thinking of a dual layered plan. Iris nudges things along so Sclera faces Recluse at his moment of triumph, planning to do the exact same thing to Sclera. As Sclera cheers, Iris strikes and breaks through.

It's still a work in progress, of course, but I just had a new thought. I know how Iris is. I know how Sclera is. But the final being... i have no idea. Even if it's just Iris, she became a lot more underhanded over the 50 levels leading up to it. It won't be sweet old kind Iris anymore. Hmm, this will affect where she ends up alignment wise, because I can see all four at the moment. It might be one of the middle ones, though. Rogue or Vigilante. The idea of having her finally be in control and becoming a Hero, only to discover that she's too extreme to be a Hero and end up Vigilante is appealing, in a way. Or take the tragic end and have her back at Villain. She will go to blueside at least once, though. I think, perhaps, that in the end, The Unseeing One just is. Not really evil anymore, not really good. Just there.

Which is where the Incarnate stuff kicks in. And I can't plan for that since we don't know a lot of the story yet.