The baby would not be born with a "Reaver" face. Reavers were driven mad by the gas on Miranda. They choose to mutilate their faces, I don't think the gas did anything but screw with their brains. A baby born with a rever father may have the mental problems, but would not have any visible marks to show. But you could say he began cutting himself at a early age. Both my kids had "gloves" put on their hands when they were newborns, to keep them from scratching their faces. If they were strong enough or determined enough to get these off, and were left alone, and weren't crying, one could argue a baby could rip up its own face.

Here is an extended synopsis of the character

His mother was raped and impregnated by a Reaver and when he was born she committed suicide because his disfigured face reminded her of his rapist father.

At a young age, like River, he was experimented on and held captive by the Blue Sun corporation, and then he snapped, killing the people who experimenting on him and escaping the facility.

Now, walking between the line of sanity and insanity he is currently traveling The 'Verse while occasionally being chased by his past (His father).

seems more sad/horrific/heart wrenching that they just revert back to lonely, ashamed humans when no "normal" people are around to make them crazy. And all the crazy blood paint and bodies tied to the outside of the ships is just ptsd and them trying to cope.
(rever religion?)


Did I just make a sympathetic case for the revers?
man I should have been a lawyer

Sorry for the double post.

Found a time line
http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/mmx/timeline/view.php

if it is true, the war began and the Miranda incident happened the same year -2506

2511 is the year when the Serenity valley battle takes place

5 years, unless he was 16 when he fought in the Serenity battle (and hey, its your story, he very well could have been) he may not have heard stories "as a child."


If you still want a story where the guy "joins the Revers" maybe you could make him a "reader" (mild psychic) and through his powers he is able to understand the rever mentality and then assimilate himself into it so they think he is one of them. Maybe the twist ending is that he stays with them just for survival, and wants to sneak away at the first chance, but over time he begins to lose himself and his mind devolves due to the acts of violence he must commit to be seen as one of the pack. and at the end he truly becomes a rever and embraces the evil.

If you want to write about the "rever experience" I think you have to come up with a way they reproduce. its suggested they are rapists, but are children born of such revers?
doesn't seem likely. With as suicidal as the revers are, you'd think there would be a set limit on the number of years the original ones from Maranda could survive (flying ships without radiation shielding)

Captain Mall assumed that seeing revers in action could twist a man's mind and make him become one (but that was before they knew about Miranda) it just seems a whole lot more logical that they have times where they aren't crazy revers, and the insanity goes dormant. and maybe they don't call for help during those times because they are too ashamed of what they've become? Maybe they remember the acts they did while crazy and it makes them a "family of sociopaths"

Sorry for the double post.

Found a time line
http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/mmx/timeline/view.php

if it is true, the war began and the Miranda incident happened the same year -2506

2511 is the year when the Serenity valley battle takes place

5 years, unless he was 16 when he fought in the Serenity battle (and hey, its your story, he very well could have been) he may not have heard stories "as a child."


If you still want a story where the guy "joins the Revers" maybe you could make him a "reader" (mild psychic) and through his powers he is able to understand the rever mentality and then assimilate himself into it so they think he is one of them. Maybe the twist ending is that he stays with them just for survival, and wants to sneak away at the first chance, but over time he begins to lose himself and his mind devolves due to the acts of violence he must commit to be seen as one of the pack. and at the end he truly becomes a rever and embraces the evil.

If you want to write about the "rever experience" I think you have to come up with a way they reproduce. its suggested they are rapists, but are children born of such revers?
doesn't seem likely. With as suicidal as the revers are, you'd think there would be a set limit on the number of years the original ones from Maranda could survive (flying ships without radiation shielding)

Captain Mall assumed that seeing revers in action could twist a man's mind and make him become one (but that was before they knew about Miranda) it just seems a whole lot more logical that they have times where they aren't crazy revers, and the insanity goes dormant. and maybe they don't call for help during those times because they are too ashamed of what they've become? Maybe they remember the acts they did while crazy and it makes them a "family of sociopaths"

(sorry to geek out on this one but, first things first, double check the time line. I don't think he could have heard stories of the Revers as a child if he fought in the battle of Serenity valley. Check the date of the Miranda incident and that battle, I don't think they are too far apart? Still, anyone who hears the stories, even as an adult, would be pretty scared)



you make an interesting point "SECOND"
I've found that Rever fiction seems to work best if you really don't think about them too hard. ;)

If we go by the hivemind, maybe you could say the gas they used on maranda made most folks docile, but the ones which became revers, maybe it turned them a little psychic. Maybe the gas was developed by the same branch which was working on River and the other psychic children. If you went that line, then yes, it might be logical that a small % of people infected with the gas ended up with linked minds. Filp the coin and you might say all the other people on Maranda also had their minds linked, and when that many people are able to share a mind they realize how futile life is, so they all just sat down to die.
Just a (melodramatic)thought.
Maybe the rever group had 1 mind who was already psychic (king of the revers?) (wait, are there any female revers?) and because he was in the smaller group of linked minds they were different.

If you want an idea which fits with "I, Rever" maybe try this. What if they all have different minds, and mostly are in that heightened awareness homicidal state, but have periods of inactivity where their disease sleeps. During this period they revert to being less violent and take care of the gorup. Doing things like refueling the ships, welding hull parts together, and checking on life support.

Take that one step further, You might make it so that the "Rever behaviour" is like a cat chasing a string. your cat is fine, perfect logical and calm all day long. Then you get home and start dragging a string across the floor. Suddenly your cat is freaking nuts! Maybe Revers violent behaviour goes dormant, or regresses when they are around only Revers. Maybe they revert back to 60-80% human, and are able to do things like wield and make complex boobie traps to put on airlocks. They might even sleep in packs during these times (like when the Serenity crew passed the rever ship in the pilot episode) But when they wake up, and find them selves near another human who doesn't think "rever" thoughts, they get all stirred up. Just a thought :)
As I said before, Rever logic from the show, works best when you don't think about it too much.

You have my full permission to use any of those ideas as you see fit

but know this, I am working on another fiction to explane Revers, so we may have some cross over, but im cool with that if you are
enjoy :)

(sorry to geek out on this one but, first things first, double check the time line. I don't think he could have heard stories of the Revers as a child if he fought in the battle of Serenity valley. Check the date of the Miranda incident and that battle, I don't think they are too far apart? Still, anyone who hears the stories, even as an adult, would be pretty scared)



you make an interesting point "SECOND"
I've found that Rever fiction seems to work best if you really don't think about them too hard. ;)

If we go by the hivemind, maybe you could say the gas they used on maranda made most folks docile, but the ones which became revers, maybe it turned them a little psychic. Maybe the gas was developed by the same branch which was working on River and the other psychic children. If you went that line, then yes, it might be logical that a small % of people infected with the gas ended up with linked minds. Filp the coin and you might say all the other people on Maranda also had their minds linked, and when that many people are able to share a mind they realize how futile life is, so they all just sat down to die.
Just a (melodramatic)thought.
Maybe the rever group had 1 mind who was already psychic (king of the revers?) (wait, are there any female revers?) and because he was in the smaller group of linked minds they were different.

If you want an idea which fits with "I, Rever" maybe try this. What if they all have different minds, and mostly are in that heightened awareness homicidal state, but have periods of inactivity where their disease sleeps. During this period they revert to being less violent and take care of the gorup. Doing things like refueling the ships, welding hull parts together, and checking on life support.

Take that one step further, You might make it so that the "Rever behaviour" is like a cat chasing a string. your cat is fine, perfect logical and calm all day long. Then you get home and start dragging a string across the floor. Suddenly your cat is freaking nuts! Maybe Revers violent behaviour goes dormant, or regresses when they are around only Revers. Maybe they revert back to 60-80% human, and are able to do things like wield and make complex boobie traps to put on airlocks. They might even sleep in packs during these times (like when the Serenity crew passed the rever ship in the pilot episode) But when they wake up, and find them selves near another human who doesn't think "rever" thoughts, they get all stirred up. Just a thought :)
As I said before, Rever logic from the show, works best when you don't think about it too much.

You have my full permission to use any of those ideas as you see fit

but know this, I am working on another fiction to explane Revers, so we may have some cross over, but im cool with that if you are
enjoy :)

Not sure that I, Reaver would work as a title Villi unless your central character becomes a Reaver. If that is your intention for the storyline then it works. I really love Second's notion about the Reavers having a Hive mind, very cool. Love the idea of a 'kamikaze worker bee in the hivemind'. If you do write such a story Villi I would like to see some interaction along the way with our Big Damn Heroes even if they are not central to the story proper and only crop up at the end. Should be an interesting journey, good luck! Ali D :~)
"You can't take the sky from me!"

I'm doubtful there is any "I" in your I, Reaver story, unless all the Reavers together are one mind.

Give the Reavers a Hive Mind. I've not seen that done in a story about Reavers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hive_mind

In particular, an égrégore mind. Victor Hugo created the word to describe an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore

Do you think Reavers write operating manuals for their spaceships? I think not, but the beasts are able to cut apart ships and weld them back together again and have a ship that does not explode on launch. Astronauts and NASA engineers can't do that without writing and calculating, so how can howling mad Reavers build and operate spaceships? Hive Mind is my answer, which also explains why Reavers take no precautions with their own lives. A Reaver is not an individual anymore. A Reaver is a kamikaze worker bee in the hivemind. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hivemind