No More Innocence

**No More Innocence**, also known as simply **Innocence**, is an antagonist created and owned by Dumbie. He will serve as the secondary antagonist of the upcoming analog horror web series *The Virtual Files.*

He is an enigmatic Japanese spirit inhabiting a bootleg copy of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2*, which he created and hands out to victims using a human disguise to blend in and mask his identity as a Sega employee.

Specializing in targeting children, Innocence feeds off the addictive emotions of his victims to sustain himself, namely their love for the *Sonic the Hedgehog* franchise, turning their adoration of the series into an obsession to keep them playing the game and worsening their mental state by affecting them with a sickness.

He was voiced by InfiniteJrVA, who formerly voiced Pira-Sin, Scorched, the Void Hog, and Mr. Virtual.

He is currently voiced by TackSFM for the upcoming project Analog Funkin, along with being voiced by Prntzo for the upcoming project Sega Files.

## Overview

No More Innocence's lifeless expression only changes when his emotions are way too intense, contorting itself the more he loses composure (examples being genuine pleasure, laughter or frustration) he behaves calm and subtly. while he appears to be really cocky and over confident he keeps to himself a lot and communicates through text a lot of the time.

## Appearance

No More Innocence appears as a vaguely shaped monochrome imitation of Sonic the Hedgehog with a face resembling a decomposing human face/skull with realistic eyes and teeth, as well as being permanently covered in shadows and white highlights. His skin suit disguise is that of a vaguely shaped bald humanoid with inhuman facial features, a rotting face akin to that of his default form and wearing a black suit.

Although not shown, it's mentioned that Innocence's insides are completely black, and his "blood" resembles gasoline.

## Personality

A master of psychological torture, Innocence is an incredibly cruel, sadistic and cold-blooded entity that relishes in making and watching people suffer in various ways. Completely remorseless and borderline psychopathic, he especially takes pleasure in watching the parents of children worry and panic about their child's mental state as they become more addicted to the bootleg game, and, in some cases, tormenting the parents by making them think they're at fault for their child's fate. Innocence also likes to torment his child victims, reminding them that their escapism by playing the game will fail eventually as their problems in their home life get worse.

Innocence is a very clever and intelligent being. Being knowledgeable on various forms of psychological torture and abuse. He's able to enhance his infection in various ways and can carefully manipulate his victims to furthering their addiction towards his game, whilst also being careful to not let himself get caught by his victims' parents until he feels like taunting them after their child is damage enough.

Innocence is also highly arrogant, smug and somewhat flamboyant, likely due to his total control of his victims, the attention he gains from the media and the power he wields, being able to generate fear and panic within the public. Despite his arrogance, he doesn't view himself too far, and doesn't like being acknowledged as a god.

## Biography

Most of Innocence's past is shrouded in mystery, with the only things being known about him is that he's a spirit originating from Japan.

Innocence's earliest recorded appearance was shortly after the release of *Sonic the Hedgehog 2* for the Sega Genesis in late-1992. Around a week after the game's release, numerous reports came flooding in about nameless Sega Genesis cartridges containing poor renditions of the game, only marketed as "The New Sonic The Hedgehog Experience". The reports surrounding the bootleg documented the symptoms that children in possession of the game were showing, such as nausea, headaches and decreasing eyesight, all while proclaiming to be fine despite the varying intensity of their symptoms. However, all reports surrounding the case went completely undiscovered and were only unearthed years later, with ten recorded cases overall and seemingly spreading to America.

Most law enforcement officials involved with the case in the following years would begin to suffer from other symptoms, including a lack of sleep and growing paranoia. Although new cases weren't popping up, parents would regularly make phone calls to the police, but the calls themselves would either be distorted and blocked by static noises or interrupted by a third voice, blocking communication between the caller and law enforcement.

Eventually, a police department in Scottsdale, Arizona would make steady progress with the case and finding the cause behind the symptoms due to witnessing the symptoms firsthand, as one of the officer's kids had been experiencing the symptoms that came with the bootleg game. As the public's interest in the case turned to the events happening in Scottsdale, other cases began to fade into obscurity and get ignored. Eventually, the Scottsdale police gave up on the case and stopped reporting on it, with it being speculated that it had to do with the lead investigator's child being hospitalized due to the symptoms from the game.

Although the cases faded into obscurity, they seemingly picked up again during the development of *Sonic Adventure 2*, with posters being hung up near SEGA buildings detailing a mysterious individual handing out bootleg copies and lying about their position in the company, with it being clarified by SEGA officials that this isn't a real person.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Spirit physiology**: Innocence is a spirit of unknown origins that behaves similar to a poltergeist, and a very strong one at that, carrying a vast array of paranormal abilities that allow him to influence and torment his victims.
	+ **Emotional metabolization**: Innocence's primary source of sustenance comes from the strong emotions of children, primarily emotions that relate to the love and adoration of fictional media, with the one he's chosen being *Sonic the Hedgehog*. Innocence can feed off varying levels of love for media, ranging from mild enjoyment to borderline obsession and addiction, with those two descriptors also being factors that come into play when Innocence infects his victims' minds to make them more obsessive with the game. It can be deduced that the stronger the emotions are, the more powerful and/or sustained Innocence becomes.
	+ **Hallucikinesis**: Innocence can create hallucinations in order to make his victims see and hear things that aren't really there and further drive them insane. The closer the victim is to Innocence's presence, the more stronger the hallucinations become.
	+ **Intangibility**: Owing to his nature as a noncorporeal entity, Innocence is capable of phasing through physical matter.
	+ **Shapeshifting**: When in the real world, Innocence can shapeshift into a more human disguise nicknamed his "skin suit" to blend in with other humans, nicknamed "Makoto". However, the skin suit's creation was flawed, and due to its freakish appearance, Innocence normally hides in the shadows to conceal his human form. Innocence can also morph his face into a more human-looking appearance.
	+ **Telekinesis**: Innocence is capable of moving objects without needing to physically interact with them, mainly moving objects and closing doors.
	+ **Teleportation**: Innocence is capable of fading in and out of both the game and the real world, with the latter occurring whenever Innocence has a strong enough control over his victims' psyche.
		- **Digital transport**: Innocence's primary form of teleportation/transportation comes in the form of transporting himself through TV screens, being able to crawl out of them and manifest in the real world and travel between different TVs across a seemingly endless range.
		- **Media manifestation**: Innocence can manifest himself in different forms of physical and non-physical media, namely newspapers, phone calls and TV advertisements, although it appears to restrict his movements and speech patterns, likely because he isn't as powerful in these pieces of media compared to how he is normally within his bootleg game.
	+ **Virokinesis**: Innocence can infect his victims with disease that preys on their mental state and love for the *Sonic the Hedgehog* franchise. Namely, Innocence's symptoms include intense headaches, decreasing eyesight and nausea. Other symptoms tend to only appear several weeks after infection, such as difficulty standing up or walking. Regardless of the intensity of the symptoms, the victims will proclaim themselves to be perfectly fine and continue interacting with the bootleg game. Police officers and detectives looking into these cases have also experienced a lack of sleep and severe paranoia.
		- **Disease augmentation**: As well as being able to create sicknesses, Innocence can also amplify and enhance their effectiveness, making his victims' symptoms more severe and leading to their mental health worsening over time until they end up hospitalized. The symptoms can also be enhanced by looking directly at Innocence's face.

### Weaknesses

* **Arrogance**: Innocence's biggest flaw is his arrogant and egotistical nature. Being a powerful spirit, he views humanity as lower than him and is vastly overconfident, which can allow for him to be caught off guard and intercepted.
* **Cameras**: Innocence can have his form captured by photographs and videos, with this being more prevalent with his skin suit disguise.
* **Existing outside the TV**: Although it's not elaborated on, it's mentioned that Innocence can be harmed if he leans out of a TV, implying that he may be immortal within the digital realm.
* **Human disguise**: Innocence's human disguise is flawed in several aspects: It was quickly made without a lot of thought, thus appearing very inhuman, and his fake identity hadn't been thought of aside from a forename. Because of his disguise's freakish appearance, he's forced to conceal himself within shadows.
* **Weak bootleg distribution**: If Innocence's bootleg game doesn't get distributed as much as he wants it to, he won't have as many victims to feed on.