R-Root Volume 1 synopsis

Hello ladies and gents,

I've spent the last two weeks working on the synopsis of the comic book.  I've decided to go with the name R-Root.  Attached are a couple of illustrations, enjoy.   

R-Root Volume 1 Synopsis

-Chalil Cross-

R-Roots is the story of  an 18 year old community college student Chalil Cross. We first meet Chalil in his hometown Monroe Louisiana.   Chalil, his mother, and grandmother  live in the Harambe Park neighborhood, a historic community  whose roots are bound to Chalil and his family.  In the heart of the Harambe Park neighborhood is the Harambe tree and community garden.  During evenings, long after Chalil has spent his mornings  underachieving in his freshman college courses,  Chalil works with his grandma in the garden.  Unlike school, Chalil feels alive under the canopy of the Harambe tree.  Tilling the soil with his grandma and listening to her stories about their families rich history.   Little does Chalil know, that his grandma comes from a long line of West African witch doctors. 

Chalil is an idealist, constantly saying things like "if we could only get back to.......than we would." Chalil is forever lodged in a state of nostalgia, his latest craze is the 90's,  1992 to be exact.    Chalil's particular brand of nostalgic idealism has profound implications for his social life.  At his core Chalil longs for a world and experience that is fundamentally different from the one he's exists in, so much so that it makes him sick and socially reclusive.  Chalil finds it difficult to sincerely engage with anyone else, he uses Dewayne Wayne, a 90's sitcom character, as his his guide to navigate his  discomfort with reality.   The only place where his alter-ego need not follow him, is in the garden. The garden is the only place where Chalil feels that all is right.  In the garden there are no better scenarios,  the craftsmanship of nature is undeniable,  there are no historic, nor socio political forces that have degraded the Harambe tree enough to tarnish it's majesty.  The garden is  Chalil's affirmation that perhaps the past is not his fault that he  actually couldn't have done anything to prevent his father from getting killed.  Disclaimer, Chalil may or may not have little ptsd from watching his father get shot...?  But the garden gives him hope that despite all that has  went wrong in his life, there is still hope that his ideal life can still be realized . While the garden is the only refuge he has in life there are still pleasant distractions that abound.  Chalil's neighbor Jana Castle is one of his oldest friends.    Jana is self proclaimed white trash whose family moved up to Monroe from down in the bayou after her families house destroyed in a flood.   Jana grew up in the trailer park right down the street from Chalil and is the yin to his yang.  Jana attends the University down the street and extremely driven and entirely  too optimistic given her life circumstances.  Every now and then Jana does book keeping for the community center adjacent to the community garden that Chalil spends all his time at.  Chalil and Jana are close friends, but thats it.  When they were younger they thought that they'd one day marry one another, yet awoken to the reality that poor and black and white trash just don't go together, besides if the life of "Dewayne Wayne" is any indication of Chalil's destiny, then Chalil is to meet his future wife at his university, or community college.

-Chalil's Family History- 

It would later be revealed that Chalil's ancient ancestor is one the  most powerful witch doctors of all time,  Aye.  Aye was the son of a Portuguese Missionary (Father Fido) who raped the princess of the Ikore people (Umi).  The Ikore people were known for their agricultural prowess, which was said to have been taught to them by the harvest God, Kerubu who lived in the harambe tree at the center of the village.  Father Fido came to Ikore with a company of Portuguese explorers searching for an African trade route to India.  This company was lead by a man name Francesco Cabral lead by   Cabral.  Cabral and his company had heard rumors of the Ikore peoples a agricultural accumen and saught to learn the ikore harvesting practices, as many portuguese villages were suffering from famine.   Cabral would later discover that the Ikore credited their agricultural success to the Harambe tree. Seeking to harnest these capabilities, Cabral set out to cut down the tree.  Knowing this would destroy the Ikore way of life, Father fido convinced Cabral that all they would need was a branch and seeds from the tree.  In the still of the night Father Fido cut a branch, of the Harambe tree, and in that moment awoke the ancient fallen angel known to the Ikore as Kerubu, while also killing the harambe tree.   The demoned possessed Father Fido ravaged the village in it's wake.  The demon aware of the weak state of the vessel it wielded sought to replicate itself by transferring its life force to a virgin.  The demon chose the youngest daughter of the Ikore Oba, Umi.   In the middle of the ritual father Fido's close friend and soldier in Cabral's company, Fernado Castille, fired two shots into the head  killing father Fido.    After the Ikore massacre Cabral and his soldiers left the village. The obas daughter gave birth to Aye.  Aye would spend his entire childhood living on the outskirts of the village with his mother an Captain Castile.  Yet in time Aye, and the demon inside would grow.   Aye would wrestle with the demons, using his heart as a means to tame the darkeness inside, and his mind to cultivate the demons powers and use them to restore his people and resurrect the harambe tree. Aye would go on to live for almost two centuries, protecting his people, avoiding the temptations of domination and conquest for fear that such vice would result in unleashing the demonic rage that lived within.  Over the course of Aye's life he was able to master taming the the demon Kereubu and ultimately render the demon dormant upon his death.  Yet Kerubu's life force was so powerful that it remained in existence even after it's original host had die, attaching itself to the strongest of Ayes descendants. Yet still dormant, and without the leadership, authority, and power of Aye, the Ikore were not able to withstand the brutal  conquest of the West African slave trade. Rival tribes motivated by their envy of the Ikore and the promises of European weapons and technology enslaved and sold the Ikore to spanish slave holders headed to present day Louisiana.

-Collin Lassalle's quest-

Monroe Lousiana is a place where to be white is to be wealthy and  to be black is to be impoverished. The city recently became the headquarters of LifeHack inc. the brain child of Monroes own Connor Lasalle.  LifeHacks develops wearable technologies for both public and military consumption.  Lifehacks most popular 3rd lenses, a high-powered light weight version of google glass put lifehack and Lessalle on the map. Providing them with the means  to make an epic homecoming from silicon valley to monroe.  Not only does Lassalle see himself as a technological innovator but a social innovator.   Growing up in a crime infested city, stricken with poverty,  and lack of opportunity left an impression on Lassalle.  Lassalle saw Monroe as a microcosm of the US as a whole.  If he could restore monroe, he could restore the country, the world.  Monroe sees the happenings of the  city as the result of the intersectionality of criminal and impoverished pathologies and decaying institution run by apathetic leaders.  At his core, Lassalle is a reductionist believing that even the most complex societal issues have a simple yet elegant solution.  Lassalle unlimited resources  provide him with unprecedented political power, that he has channeled into his public monroe metamorphosis campaign.  The monroe metamorpsis campaign are a series of "data driven " intiaives.  The campaign seeks to make Monroe safe, successful, and sustainable (SSS).   The safe intiative provides police with cutting edge technoglies such as suits that provide them with strength, speed, and optical enhancements.  Additionally the force is equipped with advanced AI that aggregate statistical crime data highliting one where crime is most likely to take place.  The success initiative use performance metrics to assess the efficacy of every public instituition in monroe, schools, public libraries, community centers, and public housing .  The campaign would allocate funds to provide improved replacements for all instituition that were deemed inadequated and advise the city to demolish the previous instuition. The sustainability intiative suggested stricter enviornmental regulations for all facilties in the city, and provided funds to either renovate facilities that were not meeting the standards or demolish them.  Critics of the SSS argue that the campaign seeks to destroy the very heart of the Harambe Park Community; the safe initiative ravaging the communities young men, the success and sustain campaigns demolishing key historic community sites.  Lassalle knows the critique of his campaing deeply, and would openly embrace it if it did'nt cause so much disension.  Lassalle is seeking to destroy the Harambe park community.  The harrambee park is home to some of the most dangerous criminals and filled with poverty and blight.  Lassalle believes that excorcising the city of this neighborhood is not only in the best interest of the rest of the city, but also the residents of the Harambe Park neigborhood.  He believes the political correctness and racial rhetoric blind the inhabitants from seeking liberation.  Lassalle will stop at nothing to provide this liberation to the people of his city.  

-The American Aje-

In Every generation the life force of the demon Kerebu engrafted itself on the strongest descendent of Aye yet still remaining dormant.  Despite the dormancy of Kerebu the carriers still exhibited enhanced traits.   Each carrier possessed the ability to subtly manipulate plants,  this ability would express itself in different ways depending on the carrier.  Past carriers have had the ability to, reanimate dead plants, accelerate parts of plant life cycles,  manipulate the make-up of a plants-transforming a weed into a rose a shrub into berry bush,  plant telepathy/obtain information from the plant (Plant communicates: one root in the tree is dying -carrier deduces: contaminated soil- Plant communicates: one branch had a heavy load on it- carrier deduces a human or animal was hanging on it ...), and control the movement of plant life.  The common thread within each of the  carriers were that each carrier only possessed one of these traits, and that trait was expressed very subtly.   So subtly that many of the American descendants had no idea that they possessed these traits.  Yet if the carrier was recognized as having the trait, he or she was required to become the Aje  of the village, this determination was made by the Iye of the village( village mother).   As suggested earlier  the Aje tradition was nearly lost by the slave trade.  Thus far their has been one American Aje, George Washington  Carver, yup.  In addition to his other historic accomplishments George used his trait to grow the first Harambee tree in America using, you guest it a peanut.  

Chalil Cross is his generations carrier.   Chalil has yet display any carrier traits, yet his grandmother expects that such traits will reveal themselves in the near future.  However his grandmother has not shared the details of the carrier tradition to Chalil, fearing that Chalils is not yet ready to assume the role of Aje, a role Chalil would soon be forced into. The morning after a bad storm Chalil was cleaning the garden.  While doing so he climbed the Harambe tree to remove some debris that had been blown into the  tree canopy, while doings so he broke a branch and fell to the ground.   The mimetic nature of the act awoke the slumbering life force of Kerebu.  Chalil was overcome by what felt like centuries uncontrollable rage and sorrow rise. Chalils eye began to blackened.  Kerebu's life force began to effervesce from Chalils skin in the form of a pitch black smoke.  Chalil felt as if his very blood had been set a fire.  Then he felt cold steel pressed against his face.  It was his grandmother successful knocking him out with a shovel.  Chalil woke up days later.  His grandmother recognizing what had happen moved swiftly to cast a containment spell  that had been past down from Aye himself to keep Kerebu from taking over its carrier.  The Containment was permanent and needed to be recast weekly,  ultimately Chalil would need to learn to master Kerebu like Aye before him. The containment spell partially suppressed the life force of Kerebu, yet it still oozed out like a shaken pop can partially open.  Chalil begun to instantly exhibit traits.  Unlike past carriers, he exhibited all of them.  Kinda.  

Chalil Can: accelerate the growth of peanuts and transform them into large vines....most of the time

Chalil Can: manipulate the movement and  direct the shape of these peanut vines...some time

Chalil Can: retrieve information from plants.....

Chalil can not: accurately decipher what that information means.

Chalil can: turn cashews  into bombs mostly consisting of seeds and smoke- we're not really sure how, it has something to do with changing the make up of the plant and accelerate the life cycle.

Chalil can not pass his algebra 101 course: we're not sure about this either.

_The Black Hood-

Chalil has lived his entire life in Monroe's Harambe Park neighborhood.  His family has been in the neighborhood since he can remember.  Chalil's connection to the neighborhood, for better or for worse, have played a pivotal role in his perception of life. 10 years ago Chalil's father was shot and killed trying to protect a woman being pursued by local gang, The H-Park Goon (HPG).  The paradoxical image of the horror on the face of the teenage black boy and the devastation of the two hollow tips ripping through his father’s body.  All contained in that one moment.  That moment revealed the true nature of violence to Chalil.  Violence was a disease, a contagion spread like a plague.  It was the only thing that could explain the phenomon that took place right before him.  Chalil would go on to barry that filling in the tons of black soil along with the countless seeds he planted in the garden with his granny.  That is until he became the Aje.    Robert Townsend made an incredible movie called meteor man.  It’s about a black dude that gets struck be a meteor and gets powers and uses it to stop the gangs in his city.  Chalil new it was his duty to do just that.  However there was much more trepidation in challis case.  10 years after watching his father die before his very eyes,  H-park is still devastated by gun violence and gangs.  The stakes have been raised a new gang called the acolytes have all but exterminated the former HBG’s using high caliber pistols.  The acolytes are ruthless,  seeing violence not only as a tool for destruction, but as an art.  Victims have been found with bullet whole words carved in their body.  Much like the rest of the community Chalil is horrified by the prospect of getting not only killed but dismember by the acolytes.  Yet driven by the memory of his deceased father’s bravery, and puffed up by his ability to do cool things with peanuts, Chalil sets out to bring an end to the rain of tyranny by the Acolytes. Guided by the belief that violence is a disease,  Chalil believes the only way to achieve his goal is to convince his city that power can be exercised without death.  In order to stop the acolytes  Chalil’s message must become louder than  theirs.   The people of the bayou are’nt scare of men dressed in leather tights pretending to be flying rodents.  In louisana, “we scare of what lurks in the dark.  My city fears the dark arts, black magic, voodoo and all the demonic entities that come with it.  The Black Hood is no man, the black hood is a curse, the cries of the people made flesh.