The Visage Collective
Seeing yourself in innovation
After an experiment gone wrong, a scientist and his bright-eyed assistant must track down their supernatural test subject with the begrudging help of a mysterious, potentially dangerous doctor.
Dr. Alexander Watts wants nothing more than to quit his job, however, his career isn’t exactly one he can simply walk away from. He knows too much about what goes on behind the curtains of The Visage Collective(See Yourself In Innovation™ ©). There are very few individuals who have the opportunity to have insider knowledge of the various supernatural wonders and horrors that exist in the shadows. His job is to dissect creatures' powers and learn more about where these evils come from. After an experiment goes incredibly wrong, a high profile test subject escapes the lab and he’s instructed to track it down with the help of fellow scientist and intern Piper Belmonte. They turn to a specialist Collective affiliate (a polite way of saying a forcefully recruited helping hand) Dr. Hugo Prakash on their hunt to pin down the elusive subject before anyone else gets hurt.
Dr. Alexander Watts is a scientist at The Visage Collective (Seeing Yourself in Innovation ™ © ) with a degree in genetics. On a particularly large research project, he was instructed to interact with a particularly intelligent test subject with a vast amount of medical knowledge, but showed no signs of being biologically human. The creature formed an attachment to Alexander, however, after a failure in the system, the creature got loose and left Alex with near mortal injuries. After the accident his entire outlook changed. He desperately tries to find a way out of his contract but his position is high enough that he isn’t permitted to leave the Collective completely.
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Dr. Hugo Prakash is currently using a plant shop as a cover for flying under the Visage Collective’s radar. Hugo is capable of entering people's dreams, and if he harms them while they’re asleep they die in real life. He likes to tell himself he uses his powers for good, oftentimes killing other supernatural entities but occasionally his morals are questionable. He was entangled in the Collective’s business before, earning himself a case file in their system, but they didn’t have sufficient proof to detain him. He avoids them like the plague because they have a habit of stepping into business that doesn't pertain to them and leaving a mess wherever they go. He’s grumpy and likes to stay to himself unless he’s with his equally reserved friends.
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Piper Belmont is a young, unpaid intern at The Visage Collective as they work towards their masters in psychology to eventually pursue experimental psychology. They’ve always been interested in the paranormal, and recreationally ghost-hunted when they were younger. After encountering an entity that was, truly dangerous, they were introduced to the Collective. Piper was told that their credentials were impressive for their age, but as they continue their work they suspect The Collective had some sort of ulterior motive. They are optimistic nonetheless, and are eager to help their supervisor, Dr. Alexander Watts, a man known for his poor ability work well with others. They aren’t naive, but people tend to underestimate them. Piper almost prefers it that way to occasionally get what they want, and even get a little leeway.
The Visage Collective was a shorter project of a potential sci-fi horror comic pitch. Heavily inspired by SCP, a collection of user submitted horror stories following a similar overarching narrative, I wanted to go outside of my comfort zone and try my hand at horror. The brief nine page comic that came out of the concept was made to showcase the overall themes of the story.
