the blackout files @blackout-files - Tumblr Blog

welcome to another world of villains, vigilante's and illegal science!

The Blackout Files is a superhero fiction following several characters and story arcs. The aim is to, one day, turn this into a comic book series - but i'm not too confident in my abilities for that to happen just yet.

for now, there's this blog, which is bringing tbof out of my notes app and dm's with my friend and introducing it to anyone who happens to stumble across us.

it's still very much in it's drafting stage, a lot of the characters are only just starting to get their legs underneath them and a lot of the world itself is vastly underdeveloped but. if you're here, thank you for joining me on this exciting little journey to hopefully, one day, bring this thing to life <3

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BEGINNERS GUIDE <- START HERE

characters

Merrick | STREPERA

Liam

Shade | MORNINGSTAR

Connor | REYNARD

Rhiannon | ELECTRADASH

JELLY

STRIKER

Liz | DAZZLE

Effie | THE MAGICIAN

Murphy | PANIC ATTACK [X]

PJ | MUDLARK

Soren | MIMIC

Roman/Romy | OUTLAW

OILSLICK

Poppy

Timothy

Cassidy | MATCHSTICK [X][X]

Ozzy | SKETCH

worldbuilding

the black out files

SUNDOWN inc.

Con + Rhi history

Void City

The Sentry

JUDGE

playlists

connor's morning mix general effie jelly murphy liam x merrick shade & merrick merrick & pj & ronnie

PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT MY CHARACTERS AND VOID CITY PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE ahem. anyway.

#original fiction #superheroes #admin

and theres something about rhiannon who was a toddler when shade and merrick escaped, being the person to rescue connor from the very same lab and then years later ask strepera (merrick) for help to find connor after he goes missing. like there's a connection there that hurts me and i dont know how to explain it but you see it right??

#there was no one there to help them!! they had to get themselves out!!#but connor was SAVED. and here is his savior asking the one who fought their way out to save him again.#like a twisted 'be the person you needed' at the same time as 'had the timing been different maybe you couldve been saved too'

shade and merrick being kidnapped at the ages of 8 in 1998 (the year between two of the founding members of the sentry being born) and then escaping the lab in 2006 (roughly 10 years before connor would be rescued) just. makes them seem that much lonelier. that much more disconnected from the world around them.

like, by the time the other characters in the story are learning to walk and talk and play, shade and merrick have already endured body and mind altering experimentation and torture and are dealing with powers they don't know how to control.

they escaped at 16. they were each others whole world.

morningstar and strepera make their first appearances as villain and vigilante in 2011. roughly 20 years of age. it's the same year matchstick loses her leg. a whole year before 12 year old murphy and pj decide to be superheroes. a whole year after a 7 year old rhiannon jones gains superspeed.

the other characters are only just experiencing their life changing moments at a time when shade and merrick have learned what it's like to look your whole world in the eye and beg for them to come home. please you are the only one who understands, why can't you understand this? and watch them walk away.

like. even as enemies. they are all each other have, simply bc there is no one else who could ever possibly understand the experiences of their life like the other could. they never got to be kids. they only got to be each others.

#sherrick #shade & merrick #they make me siiiiccckkkk #working out the timeline for this fucking comic universe was devastating #WHAT DO YOU MEEEAANNN CONNOR WAS ONLY BORN 2 YEARS BEFORE SHADE AND MERRICK ESCAPED???#WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE WAS RESCUED IN 2017- 5 YEARS AFTER STREPERA AND MORNINGSTAR APPEARED???#murphy and pj were inspired by strepera to become vigilantes.#every active character in tbof was there for the rise and fall of morningstar and strepera #it was like pop-culture to them. hometown history.#they were children once. shade used to wear flowers in their hair.#merrick is the only one who knows that

tuesdayisfordancing

God I love “We’re enemies, but we’ve been enemies for a long time, which is sort of like being friends.” Great trope.

doomsday-dj

Especially when it comes with a side of “this OTHER enemy isn’t being your enemy in the right way. I will help you defeat them, so that I can go back to being your primary enemy, your correct enemy.”

#matches and panic #matchstick (crime lord)

i am so terrible at updating this blog, anyway here's what i've come up with

effie and matches are half sister's, but matches doesnt remember her

matches full name is cassidy harper-stone

this means kirby is effie's niece, but she obviously didnt even know the kid existed until murphy introduces her to the sentry

murphy, soren + romy are a throuple, but it's a slowburn cause of murphy's issues <3 emotionally constipated king <3

#tbof updates

blackout-files

the magician: you can never lose an argument if you say ''shut up nerd'' at the end

panic attack: yes you can

the magician: shut up nerd

blackout-files

ALTERNATIVELY

ronnie: you can never lose an argument if you say "shut up nerd" at the end

murphy: yes you can

pj: shut up nerd

#burnsey boys #incorrect quotes

dazzle: how is it, working with the sentry?

electradash: imagine the most well-mannered, civilised, quiet working people you've ever met

dazzle: oh! well-

electradash: and then throw that thought out the window

#incorrect quotes #the sentry

electradash: truth or dare?

panic attack: truth

electradash: how many hours of sleep have you gotten in the past week?

panic attack: dare

electradash: go to sleep

panic attack: i no longer enjoy this game

#he then proceeds to call rhiannon a killer of joy as she forcefully wheels him away from the monitors in his wheely chair #the sentry #incorrect quotes

the magician: you can never lose an argument if you say ''shut up nerd'' at the end

panic attack: yes you can

the magician: shut up nerd

#incorrect quotes #the sentry

morningstar: stop forgiving my crimes, i worked so hard on those

#incorrect quotes #shade morningstar

cringefailloserman

one of my favorite tropes if when a character goes from a weapon to a guard dog. like. they forced you to have this strength and they made you do unspeakable things with it. they made you train. they only kept you because you had a use to them. then you left. you grew. you found someone to trust. you lend them your strength to protect them. you trust that they won’t leave you when you’re weak. you give them your reins and you don’t doubt them for a second. you know you can take your leash back anytime yet you let them hold onto you. can anyone hear me i’m going insane.

#ROMYYYYYYYYY #roman mitchel

blackout-files

I HAVE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT SOREN AND MURPHY

blackout-files

i still don't know yet if this is how their relationship will take shape but it's definitely something i like thinking about

murphy always "goes after" unattainable people - he flirts with jelly and effie and the mums who pick their kids up from gymnastics and any other people he knows either wont take it seriously or wont genuinely reciprocate

but if someone in a coffee shop or at the pub or something were to approach him he'd be stiff and a little awkward and overly friendly rather than flirty - because that has the potential to go somewhere real, and that scares the shit out of him.

there are expectations when people get into relationships, expectations murphy isn't sure he can meet, so he doesnt even wanna try

(my man was not held as a child, and then a third of his soul died when they were kids,, yeesh)

soren, though, falls in love with him slowly and quietly

they become friends -- gradually best friends -- arguably the closest members of the sentry which is An Accomplishment considering how tightly entwined i want them all to be lol

soren just wants murphy to be loved, and he volunteered himself for the job. but he never expects anything from the other man but for him to be himself. he falls in love with cleaned-up-and-passionately-arguing-for-supervised-injection-sites murphy and sweaty-and-grinning-after-gymnastics murphy and hasn't-slept-in-48-hours-intolerable-gremling murphy and and and

he always sings his favourite songs on karaoke nights, and refills his coffee's without needing to be asked, and is always the one to patch him up after a mission or patrol

and murphy loves him back in the same ways; he meal preps and makes tea for soren's throat and volunteers to go with him when soren's parents want to have dinner

they hang out in the bathroom together and wash each others hair and murphy doesn't even think to second-guess it bc he and pj have been doing that shit since they were kids. he doesn't even notice that it feels different.

but the time he realises whats going on, it's not even something to fear it's just...something that is.

"Why didn't you tell me we'd been dating for the past year?" "you were letting me love you, i was worried if i said something it'd scare you off" type vibe yknow

#i had a whole conversation with myself about them and i wish id recorded it bc i do not remember half of what i said #soren (mimic)#murphy (panic attack)

I HAVE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT SOREN AND MURPHY

blackout-files

one thing i like (and am honestly sort of proud of) is that all of my guts-born characters have similar vibes. even if it's not obvious at first glance, when you start picking them apart they all clearly come from the same place.

like, despite specifically being about ronnie, murphy + pj growing up together, a lot of the songs on the burnsey boys playlist remind me of matches too. and when i was listening to effie's playlist, i was thinking about how 'that's life' could almost be a matches song -- except it's too...tired. to be her.

BUT it fits effie perfectly because of the resigned hope of it all:

"sometimes life sucks and youre face down in a puddle and people are kicking water in your eyes but you'll get back up eventually."

that's a very effie mindset, to shrug at the hardness of life and keep going because what else is there to do? what's the point in sitting in a puddle getting soaked?

blackout-files

effie: "that's life"

murphy: "is it?"

pj: "it doesn't have to be"

matches: "it shouldn't be."

#i like holding the four of them up to the light and seeing how it shines through different #also matches is void's hands and effie is it's mouth and i think that's so interesting #the void city guts

one thing i like (and am honestly sort of proud of) is that all of my guts-born characters have similar vibes. even if it's not obvious at first glance, when you start picking them apart they all clearly come from the same place.

like, despite specifically being about ronnie, murphy + pj growing up together, a lot of the songs on the burnsey boys playlist remind me of matches too. and when i was listening to effie's playlist, i was thinking about how 'that's life' could almost be a matches song -- except it's too...tired. to be her.

BUT it fits effie perfectly because of the resigned hope of it all:

"sometimes life sucks and youre face down in a puddle and people are kicking water in your eyes but you'll get back up eventually."

that's a very effie mindset, to shrug at the hardness of life and keep going because what else is there to do? what's the point in sitting in a puddle getting soaked?

#the void city guts #gutter rats (derogatory) AND gutter rats (affectionate) depending on who it comes from

blackout-files

who else up thinking about the crime lord matchstick haha

blackout-files

SHE'S MY GIRL. MY DOOMED BY THE NARRATIVE, DEAD FROM THE BEGINNING, NEVER GOING HOME, GIRL.

#i dont think ive managed to go more than 5 minutes without thinking of her since wednesday actually #matchstick (crime lord)

#she came out of nowhere man #matchstick (crime lord)

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