Nexus 100 Insides, Outsides

[evillurks]

It seemed appropriate to put these up as a set.

Title: Evil in the mind
Fandom: The Shadow
Characters: The Shadow
Prompt: 004 Insides
Word Count: 224
Rating: G
Summary: Just an attempt at psychological analysis.
Author's Notes: I have thought long and hard about The Shadow’s motivations before I started role-playing as him. I actually feel that a lot of his behaviours point to a borderline antisocial personality disorder, which often leads to a level of superiority complex. I doubt he’d be so severe as to not see other people as real, but a milder form of the disorder would go a long way to explaining how and why he can live as he does. Unlike the movie version of the character, we were never given a specific reason why The Shadow of the pulps is a crime-fighter.

Behind The Shadow’s keen blue gaze lay an unusual mind. The same qualities that made him perfectly suited for his work also left him unable to lead a normal life. A genius-level intelligence left him ever restless for intellectual challenge. The puzzles of undermining criminal games kept him occupied at most times, but his mastery of so many skills stood testament to earlier attempts to occupy his mind. What was his greatest gift was also a burden, driving him relentlessly through life, devouring knowledge. Training in more esoteric mental arts had tempered and focused that drive, but without dimming it.
This impatient genius forced him to walk a line, holding himself to high moral standards out of fear that otherwise he could easily slip to become a danger to others. He knew that if ever he should turn his skills to crime, he was capable of becoming an unstoppable monster.
He was rarely compassionate, a man without a single real social connection in the world beyond his agents. At a distance from humanity, he had no emotional stake in the lives he saved. Only a strict ethical code, thought through and decided upon rather than handed him by anyone else, prevented him from becoming a terror let loose upon the world.
The Shadow knew what evil lurked in the hearts- and minds, of men.

Title: Changing Faces
Fandom: The Shadow
Characters: The Shadow
Prompt: 005 Outsides
Word Count: 153
Rating: G
Summary: Rambling about the art of disguise
Author's Notes: There are hints in the pulps that The Shadow’s own face is badly injured, and therefore only seen by a few crooks just before they die. He is a master of disguise, and Gibson was careful to never imply any face he showed was the real one.

The face before the mirror was never his own. In the midst of a thousand changes of disguise, his features bare gave him no sense of recognition. His real face, that never saw the light of day, was less his own than any other. Lamont Cranston was familiar, a hawkish profile and sharp cheekbones, and a leisurely manner to offset them. Fritz was easy, a battered cap shading the altered features that no one paid much attention to, regardless. James Rettigue was in the half-lidded eyes and lethargic manners as much as a change of face. A gallery of anonymous rogues could be summoned up with a bulky sweater and a little extra material to dull any other disguise. Make-up was only a small part of the roles he wore, incomplete without changes of stance and voice and gesture.
The Shadow was an expert at changing faces. He didn’t even miss his own.

Comments

[myra-reldon.livejournal.com]

Indeed they do go well together.

Insides - A really intriguing glimpse into the drives of The Shadow, and also, his ethical code. I like how his code was decided through logic rather than anything else, it feels so fitting. It also really compliments his emotionless approach to cases.

Outsides - I love the theme of the disfigured Shadow, and I think it's neat how he just doesn't seem to give his real face a second thought. He treats it as a mask as much as his disguises.

[evillurks.livejournal.com]

I very much like the idea that he tries so hard to be on the side of justice partly because he knows if he went over to the other side, no one could stop him. That's been brought into sharp relief by the recent game. I never saw any hints of some specific life incident that's put him on that path...

The accident may have been traumatic at the time, but The Shadow doesn't seem a melodramatic enough person to linger over it emotionally. The lack of a nose, which is a highly distinguishing feature, has made him even more versatile in disguise. I think he'd recognize that and move on.