Sodality: Task Force Black Rat Character Pack

The Sodality: Task Force Black Rat Character Pack is a package made primarily for the Orient volume of The Gerosha Chronicles, translating Asian heroes from across Gerosha mythos for players of The Sims 4.

Plot
Ignoring the wishes of President Xi, one brave MSS official secretly and subversively put together a team of heroes whose individualism he believed would better work to save China from the Hebbleskin onslaught than a typical sheep of the state would.

He was inspired by the work of the ancient General Feng Shoo - whose wisdom kept Chinese society at bay after the discovery of nin-chyo.

The special task force created was dubbed "Team Black Rat," and was charged with seeking out all Hebbleskin activities that threatened China, and disposing of them.

Many of these in Team Black Rat would've been seen as enemies of the state, if they'd spoken their minds without first being sanctioned for this particular purpose.

As such, this band of quasi-righteous social outcasts routinely put their lives on the line. Not for the state, as the state wishes; but for those they love.

Little did they anticipate that China in their timeline would eventually fall anyway. Yet, they'd make new friends: the Sodality of Gerosha. And they'd defeat the Hebbleskins eventually, all the same.

Feud of Three Worlds
The pack begins with the ancient prototype for Task Force Black Rat: General Feng Shoo, the man who discovered "nin-chyo." As this substance was later transformed into the Ming-Yo and Ming-Cho nuclear projects, Feng's discovery would become the basis of Capp Aard's evil plan in Sodality: Determination and the envy of numerous criminal organizations in Path of the Ming-Cho.

It was Feng Shoo's unit that first discovered the "nin-chyo" substance that would later become the Ming-Yo and Ming-Cho nuclear projects.

As an Asian prototype of the Society of the Icy Finger teamed up with agents of the Hebbleskin Dynasty from the planet Metheel to claim nin-chyo, Shoo put his reputation as a general in the Chinese army on the line to keep nin-chyo from ever falling into the wrong hands. Alas, he never anticipated that his own countrymen, centuries later, under Mao, would become those "wrong hands."

===They Call Him...Black Rat ===


 * Shing Xu / Black Rat

Shing took in stride his election to lead a special task force to defeating the Hebbleskins, which was based only on his prior vigilante acts in rural areas toward the same goal. He found it odd that he'd be deemed worthy by anyone at State Security to serve such a role. He was, by all social accounts, a bit of a rebel. He wasn't part of "the sheeple," and had no intention of ever being.

Shing was fascinated by old Dick Tracy comics, and loved film noir fashion sense. He'd even heard legends of the late Fred Thernip, a detective in the 1940s who was pressured by the Phaelite Society of Earth and US government to work with treasure hunter Tobey Flippo to recruit the Phexo Quartet to fight the Japanese - while said Japanese were contemplating an alliance with the Hebbleskins. In fact, Shing even had a knack for embarrassing himself with his bad Humphrey Bogart impersonations.

He became one of the deadliest Hebbleskin hunters in the world - in spite being warned that all that old-time western media would "rot his brain." Shing was notorious for all the women he'd allegedly taken to bed. Alas, there was no shortage of women being asked to enter marriages they wanted no part of. Shing was often their last hurrah of rebellion, before having to jump into their societal obligations. But what saddened him, was that he couldn't keep any of these women. He yearned for more than just a one night stand.

One day, his prayers were answered. Mingmei, herself no stranger to being tossed around and used, joined the team. Shing tried to be coy about it at first; but it became obvious in short order that he'd finally found his true love. Then came the other big question: what would it take to win her over, and have her as more than just a teammate?

But first things first: more Hebbleskin scum to put down...after a martini, that is!

===Little Shanghai Hornet ===


 * Mingmei Cheng / Stung Hornet

Mingmei was born in 1995, and was trained early on to develop a love for mixed martial arts. She was also a tad flirty; but was not the favored girl in school. Some of her peers bullied her, and gave her the nickname "Stung Hornet" - to indicate she'd be an "epic fail" at life.

She turned it around, eventually out-performing her peers in almost every area; and never letting them get her down. She took the sting to be merely an indication of experience, which she'd turn around and do them one better.

Mingmei's family came under attack one fateful day, and this rendered her homeless. The man who killed her uncle personally, she believed, was responsible for staging the killings. She took to the streets in her quest to avenge her family - or if possible, convince authorities to care enough to take action and bring the killers to justice.

Her private espionage practice proved effective; and she was able to kill the man at the top. But also discovered his Hebbleskin ties. She was eventually arrested by authorities herself - while caught in the act of street prostitution whilst trying to seduce a mark into giving up information that would further her new anti-Hebbleskin crusade.

As punishment, Mingmei was forced to work as a honeypot for the MSS, under the tutelage of the sleazy Kai Yun. In spite of her boss and his demeanor, she was able to thwart a major terrorist attack on Beijing by Arfaas' forces - after discovering some key state officials were secretly in bed with the Hebbleskins. She was able to escape that life eventually, being reassigned to Shing Xu's new ragtag team. She also schemed for her ally in the Battle for Beijing, Zize Choi, to get a new assignment - escaping Yun's cruel control.

Mingmei would become a surrogate mother figure to a lost Miriam "Sniperbadger" Flippo, who'd join Shing's team after being gangpressed into it. She'd later befriend the Sodality of Gerosha, even at one point faking her own death with SCALLOP agent Brian Mizgel's help to aid their cause. She'd fight many battles to rid China - and everywhere else - of the Hebbleskins. But by 2026, she was forced to retire to a remote Chinese village and lay low. From there, she and Shing would marry, and lead a quiet life. The world needed to believe that Black Rat and Stung Hornet were finally dead.

Sodality

 * Wen Dù / Tin Dragon

The group's mechanic. Wen loves three things in life: cars, helicopters, and blowing stuff up. He likes to act like a tough guy; but has a soft spot deep down. He also has a tragic ending; as he doesn't survive the mission against Capp Aard.


 * Chen Táng / Teal Hog

A comedian with a penchant for distraction, who's surprisingly good with a gun; Chen isn't as innocent (nor as stupid) as he looks and lets on. This adorable goofball quickly won over Shing, who made him a part of the core team. He enjoys playing the part of the clueless James Bond wannabe.

Alas, after Plum Bixie revealed to Black Rat the secret location of Capp Aard's base - where the Ming-Yo was being stored - the trip to Oklahoma proved too dangerous. Chen was among the first to die on that mission. He was missed by all who truly knew him.


 * Steve McLaine / "Guan"

After the Hebbleskins stole the Ming-Yo and Ming-Cho projects, and Halal Affadidah took over the northeastern US to make his hellish state of "Ameristan," China panicked over its economy, and staged a move to colonize the "left coast" that Toklisana didn't want. This also lead to the acquisition of Alaska to the new "Chimerica." Steve McLaine agreed to join the core of Team Black Rat, if only to ensure he got to keep his science lab. When not touring about China to take out Hebbleskin associates, "Guan" is usually cooking up new arsenal and inventions in his Alaska lab.

Little did he know that he would one day be married to none other than Sniperbadger herself: Miriam Flippo! However, Miriam and Steve finding each other seemed inevitable. In the end, Shing's heart belonged to Mingmei. And Miriam had lost everything else in life. Team Black Rat...became her new family.


 * Huắjĭ Tiĕ / Forked Tiger

Trying to hide his past and present affiliation with an underground congregation, Forked Tiger ironically finds his freedom in taking over as leader of Team Black Rat when Shing is forced into retirement. His first major task, during the Vindication timeline? Escort Steve and Miriam McLaine and their children to the Forbidden City, to avoid SCALLOP apprehending them per the Kirby Act and Beliah Amendments Enforcement Drive!

Even so...Shing got to be in the Second Battle for Dephinapolis! How could Huaji ever hope to not live in Shing's shadow? At any rate, he becomes close friends with the McLaines, while defending their lab, on the pretense of being their overseer.


 * Zhe Wuxiang / Scratched Hen

Zhe had stumbled upon information given to her by a man from Hong Kong, about a world beyond China. This whetted her appetite for knowledge of freedom and individualism she'd never known. Yet, she found herself groomed for MSS service. She saw working with Huaji as her golden ticket to go where she could learn and experience what was not possible in China. As such, she agreed to be Huaji's partner in guarding the McLaines. And eventually...found herself a husband that way.

 The Tale of Plum Bixie

 * Zize Choi / Plum Bixie

Robbed of her family and her country, Zize is forced into life as a spy / sex slave. She breaks free from that control, only to find herself in Idaho during the Hebbleskins' aggressive takeover. She makes a new life for herself, and a new family, with the Wenzons from Ucon. However, that life is not an easy one to defend. Being unwittingly injected with a serum that gives her a handful of the same abilities as Ciem, however, she becomes a near-unstoppable force of rage-fueled destruction against her extraterrestrial enemies.

However, she loses her new family to the Hebbleskins in 2019, compelling her to hit the road on a warpath of destructive vengeance. The Hebbleskins feared that Ciem would be their prophesied doom. It was, in the end, Dolly "the Earwig" Malestrom that they should've feared more. Yet, they likewise also underestimated how Plum Bixie would become a huge thorn in their side.

The Tale of Plum Bixie is the tough tale of a woman who could've joined MSS Team Black Rat, along with her "big sister" and fellow former honeypot Mingmei "Stung Hornet" Cheng. But...she discovered that God hadn't abandoned her after all. He simply...had other plans.

In her war-torn alternate history timeline, villains would soon learn that just because she isn't a powerhouse of Marlquaan energy on par with Extirpon or the Gray Champion, doesn't mean they should underestimate a former Chinese spy with a healing factor...who simply refuses to die; and will gladly seek out any weapon necessary to let them know just how furious they have made her!

Decolarent THIS, Hebbleskin punks!

Contents

 * Team Black Rat (5-6-2020).zip (282 KB)
 * General Feng Shoo.zip (71.3 KB)
 * Forked Tiger and Scratched Hen.zip (141 KB)
 * Plum Bixie.zip (85 KB)

Expansions
The Task Force Black Rat Pack was released just a short time before the rollout of Eco Lifestyle for The Sims 4, thus that pack and any expansion after it are not required to run this custom pack.

Game packs
The Task Force Black Rat Pack was released before the rollout of Journey to Batuu, thus that pack and any game pack after it are not required to run this custom pack. In a strange twist of fate, none of these characters require StrangerVille to run.

Stuff packs
Note: The Holiday Celebration free pack is required for the Core MSS Team Black Rat subset. No free packs are required for anything else in this greater pack.

For all characters

 * Height Slider and Shorter Teens Mod v1.97 by SimmyTheSim at Mod the Sims
 * Defined Hand Overlay by Samantha Gump at Sims4Nexus
 * Defined Feet Overlay by Samantha Gump at Sims4Nexus

For all males

 * Ricky Male Skin Overlay by Wistful Castle at The Sims Resource
 * Body Hair V5 by Luumia

For General Feng Shoo

 * TianXia 3 outfit by ReminiSims
 * Path of Legends by Sacrificial's Kyutso

For all females

 * Ginerva Skin by SayaSims at The Sims Resource

For Plum Bixie pre-Texas
While not essential, the Fingerless Gloves for Women by Moicom on Mod the Sims is useful in depicting Zize as she appears in Idaho, and after she helps Gary Wenzon out - then marries him.

For Plum Bixie's post-Texas fox outfit
If you want to depict Zize as she appears after mourning Gary's death, and going to California to avenge him, and how she looks in her split personality mode after marrying Amado Marcones during the Swappernetters timeline, you'll want the following:


 * Legolas Bow by Karzalee at Studio K Creations
 * TERA Mask by PurpleLove
 * Note: Requires Sims 4 Studio to make a custom recolor swatch, as the item's recolor cannot be included directly. Photoshop / Photoshop Elements use is recommended.
 * Female Apocalypse Outfit for Teens through Elders by DGandy at The Sims Resource
 * Note: Requires Sims 4 Studio to make a custom recolor swatch, as the item's recolor cannot be included directly.  Photoshop / Photoshop Elements use is recommended.

Development
Desire for a pack like this to exist goes all the way back to the Classic Gerosha Heroes Set in its early days in the late 2000s, when different versions of Black Rat's team existed, that were mostly minor villains, as opposed to being portrayed heroically. In an early rendition of Ciem 2, Black Rat and Stung Hornet were the first two to be introduced. They didn't even gain their proper names of Shing Xu and Mingmei Cheng until Comprehensive Gerosha in the early 2010s. That early, primitive version of Capp Aard kills Stung Hornet off pretty quickly, before eventually also killing Black Rat and then kidnapping Vienna Dockler. This was all so that he could eliminate his competition for possession of Miriam.

Team Black Rat went through several revisions since then, adding more and more team members. In 2009, right before the transition from Classic to Comprehensive Gerosha, Tin Dragon and Teal Hog were formally introduced to the pack. Steve McLaine's origins were also highly revised from those of his Gerosha Prime form, allowing him to take the alias of "Guan" and become part of Team Black Rat.

As Sodality: Vindication was being deduced, it was decided that Forked Tiger and Scratched Hen would replace Tin Dragon and Teal Hog, after they were killed during the events in Determination. An early draft of base game-compatible Sims for The Sims 4 of Shing's team was released on DeviantArt some time shortly after September 19th of 2014, with a much younger and less threatening-looking version of Tin Dragon.

As Shing's team pack was revisited in 2020 for inclusion on DzMD, it became obvious that there needed to be significant revisions made to characters for both the future development of Sodality as a series and for the pack for release. Wen was made to look more like a mechanic, and his violent side was made more apparent. Including Feng Shoo in the new pack produced a variety of challenges, as it was difficult to locate any authentic Chinese outfits for him to wear from his time period.

Inspiration from Shangxhii Granfoo Ltd. saleswoman Sunny "Titanium Jessica" Yuan and from Far Cry 5 between the years of 2017 and 2019 led to Zize "Plum Bixie" Choi as a character being retroactively fitted into the plots for Little Shanghai Hornet, Sodality: Instigation, Sodality: Determination, and Swappernetters. While a full-blown pack for The Tale of Plum Bixie was being considered, time constraints in 2020 led to her pack being delayed. In the mean time, Plum Bixie was shoehorned into the Task Force Black Rat pack. This is in spite the fact that she worked under the same abusive boss as Stung Hornet before being reassigned to Black Rat's team, and was never actually a part of Team Black Rat.

Both Zize's 2018-2019 self as she appears in The Tale of Plum Bixie and her later outfit during the events in Adaptation and Determination are worked into this pack. Due to only 9 years passing between Adaptation and the first season of Swappernetters, and Zize's appearance not changing in any significant way in those 9 years, she was not included in the Supporting Cast pack for Swappernetters. However, her new husband, Amado Marcones, was included in that pack. Zize's future pack inclusions remain up for debate. If she gets her own separate theme pack in the future, then her first husband, Gary Wenzon; is set to be included.

Distribution
The pack was announced in late April of 2020, and was made fully available later that year on May 9th. As much as possible, older versions of characters from this pack remain on the Sims 4 Gallery - some of them even still base game-compatible.

Trivia

 * In spite her younger self more than warranting inclusion in this pack, Extirwraith was not included. Instead, an older version of her appears in the Swappernetters Supporting Cast Story Pack.
 * Charlotte "Mukade" Yamamura was to be included in this pack, as its only included Japanese heroine. However, she was removed in order to be the star of a planned later pack, to be dubbed the "Mukade: Reinvention Story Pack."  That pack is being withheld until more of its cast is figured out.
 * The pack was going to be called the "Gerosha Chinese Heroes Story Pack," but the name was changed in 2020 due to bad optics in regards to the Wuhan lab controversy. Also, there was a desire to clarify that it was not simply being Chinese that made them heroes; but the choices they made - including choices the CCP didn't like - that earned them the title.
 * The pack in 2014 was going to be called simply the "Chinese MSS Character Pack." However, as it expanded to include characters from beforehand, characters who are in it only by technicality but don't adhere to all Chinese ideology, and characters who defected from it, that original title didn't seem accurate anymore.