Core Narrative 3

# CORE NARRATIVE MICRO-STORY #3

## **TITLE:** “SLUM LORD”

**CORRESPONDING MACRO-STORY BEAT:** "GRANDE SUCCESS". This is the part of the overall storyline when people have gotten used to the fact that spirit beasts have attached themselves human. They are getting adjusted to their newly acquired abilities, and are beginning to accept the new way of life.

**LOGLINE:** On the verge of a gang war in the middle of the city, a young homeless boy with a troubled past uses his powers, given to hear by a spirit beast, to make a difference and stirs up some chaos with local gang members. When he gets someone killed, he has to remember when he started helping people in the first place, and that if he doesn't, then the local gang will bring death and destruction to the city.

### **SHORT STORY SYNOPSIS:**

This is a story about a young boy named Jason, who has been through a lot in his life, and up until this point nothing has ever gone right. He has been homeless for about three years now, and has certainly developed some street smarts along the way. He lives in one of the roughest parts of town, where the government has left people to fend for themselves, and to make a living however they can. This neighborhood doesn’t look anything like the technologically advanced suburbs you read about or watch on TV.

People are dying almost every other day around him.  Some of the local gangs know him, and have asked him to do runs every now and again, and he never refused, so they respect him. When the first siting of spirit beasts was reported, he was stealing out of a grocery store not too far where he was sleeping, which happened to be in a back alley in the basement of an apartment building. He managed to break the small window and slide through, and no one has noticed yet. It’s really dirty, dark most of the time, and smells like trash from people dumping things near there.

He’s learned to be tough, and fearless on the outside, and has even done some things he isn’t particularly proud of in order to feed himself, and to live another day. Not too much is known about where his parents are, or why he’s living on his own these days because he never talks about it. He’s the type of kid that wants to do right, but he doesn’t mind doing what’s necessary to get ahead.

For weeks now, he has had to deal with a spirit beast that has latched on to his body, and now has to learn how to harness its power. He hasn’t told anyone yet, because he hasn’t been able to make sense of it all, and with the way things are looking for people who are taken into custody from reporting their new abilities, it’s definitely safer this way.

He’s been able to use his new abilities once or twice, but is terrified by what’s happening to his body, until he’s had success in controlling them for the very first time. His power is being able to absorb information through technology, and use it, something that he feels can be very useful. He feels like there’s more to his abilities, but he can’t seem to figure it all out. The only drawback is that he blacks out for periods of time, something that may cause bigger problems in the future.

With these new abilities, he been looking to do some good in his community, but what he doesn’t realize is his actions have consequences. Throughout his journey of giving back to make up for all the bad he’s done, he runs into the local gang in his city, and when asked he refused to run their errands, and things go south. They learn of his powers, and force him to do some things for them, until he gets helps from an unsuspecting friend. They team up and work together to take down the gang members, and now feel like local heroes.A few days after their victory of the gang, the government steps in and picks him up, and take him to a secret lab out in the desert, where they begin experimenting on him.

**GENRE:** Adventure/drama

**PROTAGONIST:** Jason is the protagonist, and little is known about his past. He's been on his own for about three years now, and doesn't remember life before he was homeless. Jason has to successful learn how to use the abilities that was been given to him by the spirit beat that has attached itself to him. The need for this is because his powers will attract other people with similar abilities to joins forces, and take down the bad people trying to use spirit beasts for all the wrong reasons. Emotionally, Jason was to do something right for a change. He sees how much of an impact his powers has on his neglected community, so he feels compelled to help those who are helpless like he once was. Jason’s fatal flaw is that he can’t get away from his past, and the people he used to hang with. His survival mentality is what stands in his way when he wants to change his life around.

**ANTAGONIST:** The local community knows him as Slum Lord, and he has no past because no one knows where he came from. He just popped up out the middle of nowhere about two years ago, and slowly built his criminal empire at the expense of others. He never shows his face, and no one knows what he really looks like. The antagonist believes he is justified in his actions because he has been in control for a long time. They believe people should do what they, or the city won’t run properly without their help. He think he is their savior.

**MAIN SUPPORTING CHARACTERS W/ DESCRIPTIONS:**

Matt Drummond - is a local gang member, around the same age as the protagonist, who is really good friends with Jason, and wants to keep Jason safe. He’s like an older brother to Jason, and has an attachment to him because they shared some time in the streets together, as well as the juvenile detention center, until the local gang picked him up and gave him food and a place to stay. Matt is torn between being loyal to his gang family, and making sure people don’t get hurt at the expense of his gang family.

Sarah Hunter - She works at the grocery store that Jason stole food from one time when he ran an errand out of town for the local gang a while back. She runs into him right before a local gang member was told to kill Jason when he stopped one of their robberies from happening. They team up and join forces, and begin working together to help the local cities.

**PRIMARY LOCATIONS WITH DESCRIPTIONS**

(an abandoned warehouse) - The is an old clothing factory that closed down years prior to the gang taking over. They use it as their headquarters, and they have one other location, but no one knows where it is because only the take five gang leaders meets there to discuss very confidential business. No one knows the gang meets at this warehouse except for a few people. This is also where Jason meets with the gang to talk.

5th Street Alley- This is the alley where Jason lives, which leads to a basement underneath an apartment building. It is a dark and nasty alleyway, and is not often used. There is a few dumpster in this s alley, and a dog that Jason has been feeding and taking care of for quite some time

Grocery Store - This is where Jason and Matt meet up from time to time to talk about what's going down in the city. It's a pretty small space in the back of the store, and out of site from the main part of the store.

**ADDITIVE COMPREHENSION:** This story adds new insight into the storyworld that looks and feel completely different than the rest. It will also give you some core narrative that pushes the macro story along. Jason’s DNA is what the government uses to start their trial of experiments on people, which goes horribly wrong, and cause the incident that kills the wife and son of an Army Veteran. This leads us down another ancillary story that takes place in another story called Disappearance, where we get valuable info on some of the backstory of the main character’s family, which leads him down a path of destruction.

**MEDIUM:** Series ofShort Stories

**WHY IT WORKS IN THIS MEDIUM:** It makes sense to use this medium because it can be told in greater detail without a financial strain on the overall project. It can also be split up, and told on different platforms to generate pre awareness for a younger demographic audiences, as well as, capture a more mature target  audience depending on where it’s placed

**PLATFORM:** Facebook/Instagram TV stories

**WHY IT WORKS IN THIS PLATFORM:** I can see this short story being delivered/experienced on a audio with photographs to narrate. This keeps the budget cost low,  as well as give us an opportunity to get creative with facebook, and Instagram TV stories. Adding pictures will help our audience follow along, and gain a visual of the story world that won’t be seen in any other way. Also, this gives us a chance to break up the short stories and keep it short enough for our viewers to want more in between some of the waiting periods of our bigger projects.