Corey & Stella week, day 7

“I guess I feel like there can be some sort of compromise. I never want fighting…”
Name: Corey Crane
Alias: none
Birthday/Age: June 20, 16
Height/Weight: 3’5”, 31 lbs.
Relatives: Janice Crane (mother), Kelley Crane (father), Jane Crane (younger sister), Roger Crane (uncle)
Occupation: former student
Interests: singing, acting, journalism
Powers/Equipment: toy rifle
Weaknesses: his clockwork key, lack of depth perception, Stella

Bio: A friend of Gabe and Casey since childhood, Corey was the nice guy they could always rely on if something was going wrong. A nerd at heart, Corey shamelessly liked to imitate songs and dances from musicals, sometimes dragging one of his friends into it with him. His family life was stable, and his grades were good, and while his friends were dealing with supernatural weirdness, he went untouched. Life was pretty easy for him.

That is, until Luna Park came to town. Interested in the rides, he and his friends went to the carnival shortly before it closed for the year. They had a good time, but toward the end of their visit, Corey went to the bathroom, subsequently forgetting where the rest of his gang had gone. He poked around in some nearby tents in search of them, and found nothing, but came across a rather large wind-up doll. Figuring someone lost it, he picked it up, but instead it cursed him, turning him into a representation of itself.

Unconscious from such drastic changes, he was dragged off by carnies to a cell, where a clockwork key was first turned in his back, waking him. Seeing himself in a cracked, old mirror, Corey freaked out, catching the ire of a cellmate he didn’t know he had—Stella Angelo, a masked, ghostly magician, hovering in a far corner of the room. After a while, though, the two warmed up to each other, and Stella explained how the park had begun traveling for its next season, and that they were to be subjects of the carnival’s freakshow.

Wanting none of this, Corey wondered if there was a way they could escape. Stella devised a plan: the carnies were keeping her magic cane from her, but if Corey could somehow get it while the workers tried to let him out for a show, she could use that to get them out once and for all. They managed to do this, and are slowly making their way back to Fort North.

Corey has become rather depressed as of late. He can’t see any way that his life would get better. He wanted a normal human life, a normal human family, and now all that’s gone. Stella seems to comfort him, but she’s rubbing him the wrong way sometimes, acting a tad too sensitive and possessive—it’s almost scary. He’s become rather easy to exploit, too; his key can be removed from his back, instantly making him lose consciousness. All these factors combined have really been stressing him…he needs to see some of his old friends again, and soon.

Character History: Corey’s been around for a good while, and I’ve always loved him (he’s one of my favorite characters, period), but it wasn’t until DtF that he got a main role. I’ve always wanted to make a “living doll” character, ever since I played Super Mario RPG and saw Geno, but the idea didn’t hit me till many years later. Design-wise, Corey has influence from the Clockwork Soldiers of Luigi’s Mansion—it’s specifically where his toy gun and key-related weakness come from.

His key is sort of his trademark, though he has gone without it in a roleplay where he was turned into a wooden puppet instead (some people keep calling Corey a puppet…he isn’t! He’s plastic and clockwork! Oh well). This was especially uncanny to the poor guy, as the puppet happened to look like his human self.

His past has jumped around depending on the canon, too. Sometimes it’s his mom’s own fault he’s cursed, sometimes he runs away and gets punished, and sometimes, like here in II, he just has really bad luck. Really, the only consistent thing about him is that he used to be a blonde teenager, and that he always winds up as some kind of doll. The II outfit for Corey is actually a compilation of all his other outfits through the years, even including elements of one that he wore in one story after he was able to have a humanoid body again.“Stop! Stop looking at me!”
Name: Stella Angelo
Alias: none
Birthday/Age: October 2, 45
Height/Weight: 5’4”, undefined
Relatives: Otto Angelo (half-brother)
Occupation: former magician, former carnival act
Interests: sleight of hand, schadenfreude, the 1920s
Powers/Equipment: a magic-infused cane that allows her to perform mental manipulation
Weaknesses: her face, Corey, stages

Bio: Stella was always interested in magic, and learned some basic sleight of hand at a young age. Her parents enjoyed her talent and encouraged it, and it soon became her life’s goal to perform on stage in front of a large audience. By the time she was 25, she became a local talent, and constantly moved up through the ranks.

Her sudden popularity ruffled a few feathers, though. Attracting attention from a rival magician act, they planned to sabotage wherever she performed next. Unfortunately, Stella’s next act was her anticipated breakthrough—a performance in New York, where she’d hopefully garner a lot of new fans. It was a bigger crowd than she ever had before.

There, in front of the audience, she was cursed by her rivals, stripping her of her appearance. She became a sort of limbo between soul and body, looking rather ghostly, but very much alive, and most of all, her face was gone. Shocked, confused, and horribly embarrassed, she left the building in a rush, never performing again.

That is, until Luna Park heard of her story. They sought out information as to where Stella Angelo had disappeared to, and what she had been doing all these years. What they found was that Stella had become an obsessive recluse, honing in on other, more malicious magical abilities, yet showing them to no one. They later came upon her, abducting her, and forcing her to perform, making her facelessness a gimmick.

This pained her to no end. She constantly has flashbacks of when she was cursed, and sometimes they come on so strong that just looking at a stage makes her nervous. Never mind the fact that she has to show her facelessness to so many people! She wants dearly to refuse to perform one day, but she’s worried that if she disobeys orders, things will play out just like they did back at NYC, and she’ll become even more embarrassed.

To top it off, the carnies are keeping her precious cane from her, only giving it to her right before her show starts. With the cane, she can create illusions, and when in a sourer mood, she can manipulate others’ minds, causing them to see their fears. It would be a great method of distraction so she could escape her cage, if only she could get it back.

When she found Corey and he helped her escape, she immediately grew attached to him. They were both cursed, after all, so she could empathize with his worries. However, because of her years spent alone with all of her unresolved, bitter feelings, she’s become a tad too attached, acting as sort of his surrogate mother. Corey wants to go back to his home, but if he did, what would happen to Stella? She doesn’t want to be taken away from him, not after what they’ve been through. If she has to give him up, it will most likely be by force.

Character History: Stella goes surprisingly far back, much like Stephanie—in fact, she started in the same thing Steph did! She had a face then too. Her name was Christy Angelo, and she later incorporated elements of a different faceless character that I hardly got to use, and thus she added the mask. However, Christy happily used the facelessness as a stage gimmick, and didn’t consider it a horrible flaw.

Later on she was reincarnated for use in DtF, where she got her new name, and all her emotional baggage. She also incorporated elements of another character of mine, named Stevenson. It seems to be a recurring theme that Stella keeps merging different characters into one…I think she was even inspired by Mike a bit, which is weird, since Mike is in II now!

Her mask, unlike what you may think, doesn’t have any real inspiration. The slots in it, though, are specifically angled so that it doesn’t look like she’s expressing anything, to represent how she can’t have facial expressions anymore. This also makes it hard to draw, since they have to be angled just right, and not too far, or too flat…

Next week: your GP or your HP!