forum Conflict for siblings in a superpower-exclusive college

Started October 24, 2018 by @mckapo

tune

Yes, yes, I know this is a rather cliched idea, overly done and whatnot, but I love me some gifted high school stories for some reason.

Anyway, the initial idea is that two sisters (or brother/sister) enroll into a school for gifted students to find clues about their missing father.

What could be a good conflict to add into this?

I have one that someone gave to me: [s/n] changed to brother and sister

***I think if your sisters' father was a supervillain it would make for a super interesting plot. You could start by throwing in a few red herrings - the sisters could suspect that a minor hero was their father, then eventually start to think that the supervillain's arch-nemesis was their father, and finally come to the terrifying conclusion that the supervillain was their dad. Then you could tie the second sister's superpower in with the villain's. For example, if he can control fire, have her control either something similar or opposite - not something totally unrelated.

The conflict between the sisters could evolve as the second sister's genetic tendency towards evil begins to blossom and the other sister starts to fight with her over certain choices she's making or ways that she handles things. Then you could have the climax of the story basically be the second sister's choice between good and evil.***

Also, one sibling has vibration manipulation and still thinking on the power for the other sibling

• Maybe they know a little bit about their father's life, and know that he hasn't been the best person. Therefore, one sibling (the maker, less forgiving one) wouldn't want to search for their father while her sibling (happy optimist) would be convinced that they could "change" their father and help him "come back to good" and whatnot.
• Maybe they find out that their father, being a super villain, is trying to track THEM down and kill them.
• I like the idea of one sibling becoming like a villain. If you want the story to take a darker turn, perhaps that sibling could become the villain for the rest of the book, and in the end there could be some massive showdown between the two siblings.
  Those are some of my ideas. A little bit cliche, I know. Hope they help you out!

The above are all great. Also the reveal of oh this one we thought was the hero was actually the villain all along. Dear Lord I need to look at my principles again… Conflict in these stories is mainly driven by ideology, and moral dilemmas. Sometimes it is misinterpretation of how things happened but that ties into the ideology thing of "how could they do this, or who are they to think they know what's best for me".