Exchange of Realities

We know that grim, forbidding castles are good for public Hands of Darkness looking for intimidation factor, and secret lairs work best for those who consider no image to be their best image. But some of us need to look like productive members of society, and it’s hard to do that when you can’t invite people home, now, isn’t it? Hence the innocuous dwelling.

Essentially, the innocuous dwelling is what happens when you don’t feel like hiding your base of operations, but don’t want it to scream out “The Villain Lives Here!”, either. It can be anything from as small as a hut or a studio apartment to as lavish as a huge mansion or castle.

As the name suggests, the key feature of such a place is that it doesn’t look like it’s inhabited by One of the Bad Guys. In smaller innocuous dwellings, this is done with an air of normality—the white picket fence, the papers in the bin by the door, the witty little doormat, the normal-colored fire on the hearth, the scent of stew in the air. Normal. Possibly even humble, adjusted by how generally accepted and in style humility is. Of course, that’s harder when working with the trappings of the wealthy—when you have to do rich, the key isn’t so much to look unimportant as to look bright-souled. Try for beautiful, but avoid gaudy (unless, of course, you’re going for not-quite-rich trying to fit in, in which case arte poseur is perfect for you); a simple, understated beauty tends to do the best job of saying “Not a villain” in most societies.

The truly confident in their own darkness not only drop the trappings of evil entirely, but go for explicit, symbolic good rather than just visuals that read as good. While it does an excellent job of helping avoid people realizing your true nature, the true fun in this method lies in messing with the minds of those who know perfectly well what you are. Imagine when they walk in, fully expecting screams, black walls and blood-tinted glass, or bones littered around a courtyard whose shrubs are now skeletal branches grasping at a sky whose stars seem hopelessly dim and distant, and instead find themselves in a place filled with reverent, cathedral-like silence. When they walk past statues whose eyes rise skyward in awe, and come to a door emblazoned with an abstract symbol in pure gold and leader-of-the-heroes red, something that drips their kind of imagery and practically glows. In short, when they start wondering if this is really such a good idea, or if they’re even in the right place. If you can walk past that sort of décor without flinching, so much the better. And if all this imagery is, in its own way, completely appropriate to you or whatever manifestation of antagonism you serve, so much the better!

Don’t overdo it. Too much normality lands you right in the Uncanny Valley, and that’s only a good place to visit. Even I don’t like staying too long.

But keep it innocuous, and watch their little minds collapse under the confusion. Have fun!

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