AY SO I'm apping Baelheit & Milly, a father/daughter combo 2-pack from Baten Kaitos, and there is a WHOLE LOT OF cybernetics/cyborging going on with them and I'm still trying to figure out exactly where it fits in setting-wise.
HERE ARE THE BASICS (some of which are detailed in Milly's app; still working on Baelheit's): Baelheit is a scientist specializing in cybernetics who used to work for TRIDENT a long while back (and while rumors abound, nobody can prove it), until a TRAGIC SCIENCE EXPERIMENT killed his wife and severely injured little Milly. He used the power of MACHINA CYBERNETICS to save her life, and now Milly is a TEEN CYBORG, most of her body having been replaced with cybernetic implants after the accident. After this, Baelheit quit TRIDENT and once Milly was of age, she went off solo superheroing. Since he quit TRIDENT, Baelheit started his own private R&D firm and has been working on developing better and more refined cybernetics tech, and he is about to/has just made a move into the political world, running for SOME KIND OF POLITICAL OFFICE with CYBERNETICS FOR EVERYONE (as a way to better humanity and make people Better) as a big part of his political platform. The fact that Milly is a cyborg is a BIG SECRET and something she's ashamed of/uncomfortable with because she has daddy issues out the wazoo and it makes her feel less human.
This is basically identical to canon, except that instead of wanting to make everyone cyborgs, canon Baelheit ran for Emperor, won the office, and then tried to force everyone to live in a giant mechanical island but only if they would undergo a procedure that effectively incapacitated their spirits/hearts. Either way, he was still doing it because he Thought It Was Right (he thought that people needed to be saved from the power of their hearts by introducing machinery and more advanced technology) and because he deeply believes it is his DESTINY, which makes him the worst kind of well-intentioned extremist.
Where I run into fuzzy things is the legality of cybernetics in this setting. Harry mentioned that since it's (in theory) fairly new technology, there wouldn't really be any established laws about it yet, which I can run with. I just want to figure out the extent to which Milly is an ILLEGAL CYBORG so I know how to play it (although even if it weren't illegal, making your seven-year-old daughter a cyborg with technology developed in conjunction with a villainous organization is probably not the paragon of lawful good) and how to play Baelheit's political campaign. He'll have other issues on his platform (and I haven't really decided what kind of office he should be running for yet, honestly, so suggestions are welcome on that front) but he's really going to be pushing making cybernetics more widely available to people, as well as 100% TOTALLY LEGAL, and if there isn't any existing legislation on cybernetics he's going to be very invested in wanting to have a hand in making sure any future legislation is written the way he wants it to be. What he's been doing in the last 12 years since he left TRIDENT also depends on what the legal status of cybernetics is; he's selling technology he developed either way, but what technology he's selling (and to whom) depends on what the deal with cybernetics is.
Any suggestions/infos would be totes welcome as well as suggestions for changes if some of this doesn't jive very well wit the setting; I've tried to adapt their canon relationship and shared backstory into this setting as much as I can while remaining faithful to their intentions/motivations. Either way I'm HELLA PSYCHED to get my Milly & Baelheit on!!!
MILLY & BAELHEIT | RE: CYBORGS/CYBERNETICS
HERE ARE THE BASICS (some of which are detailed in Milly's app; still working on Baelheit's): Baelheit is a scientist specializing in cybernetics who used to work for TRIDENT a long while back (and while rumors abound, nobody can prove it), until a TRAGIC SCIENCE EXPERIMENT killed his wife and severely injured little Milly. He used the power of
MACHINACYBERNETICS to save her life, and now Milly is a TEEN CYBORG, most of her body having been replaced with cybernetic implants after the accident. After this, Baelheit quit TRIDENT and once Milly was of age, she went off solo superheroing. Since he quit TRIDENT, Baelheit started his own private R&D firm and has been working on developing better and more refined cybernetics tech, and he is about to/has just made a move into the political world, running for SOME KIND OF POLITICAL OFFICE with CYBERNETICS FOR EVERYONE (as a way to better humanity and make people Better) as a big part of his political platform. The fact that Milly is a cyborg is a BIG SECRET and something she's ashamed of/uncomfortable with because she has daddy issues out the wazoo and it makes her feel less human.This is basically identical to canon, except that instead of wanting to make everyone cyborgs, canon Baelheit ran for Emperor, won the office, and then tried to force everyone to live in a giant mechanical island but only if they would undergo a procedure that effectively incapacitated their spirits/hearts. Either way, he was still doing it because he Thought It Was Right (he thought that people needed to be saved from the power of their hearts by introducing machinery and more advanced technology) and because he deeply believes it is his DESTINY, which makes him the worst kind of well-intentioned extremist.
Where I run into fuzzy things is the legality of cybernetics in this setting. Harry mentioned that since it's (in theory) fairly new technology, there wouldn't really be any established laws about it yet, which I can run with. I just want to figure out the extent to which Milly is an ILLEGAL CYBORG so I know how to play it (although even if it weren't illegal, making your seven-year-old daughter a cyborg with technology developed in conjunction with a villainous organization is probably not the paragon of lawful good) and how to play Baelheit's political campaign. He'll have other issues on his platform (and I haven't really decided what kind of office he should be running for yet, honestly, so suggestions are welcome on that front) but he's really going to be pushing making cybernetics more widely available to people, as well as 100% TOTALLY LEGAL, and if there isn't any existing legislation on cybernetics he's going to be very invested in wanting to have a hand in making sure any future legislation is written the way he wants it to be. What he's been doing in the last 12 years since he left TRIDENT also depends on what the legal status of cybernetics is; he's selling technology he developed either way, but what technology he's selling (and to whom) depends on what the deal with cybernetics is.
Any suggestions/infos would be totes welcome as well as suggestions for changes if some of this doesn't jive very well wit the setting; I've tried to adapt their canon relationship and shared backstory into this setting as much as I can while remaining faithful to their intentions/motivations. Either way I'm HELLA PSYCHED to get my Milly & Baelheit on!!!