Become the One. Forget the One.
Attributes: In essence, The One Everyone Can Get But You has something to offer the world. Exactly what the commodity is doesn’t matter, but as long as the archetype can handle the supply, the demand just seems to create itself. To do that, she must attune herself to what other people want, and forego key personal needs in order to get the best possible price for her services. It’s often desirable, if not necessary, to give up a key part of her identity in order to project a better “brand image” and make herself more accessible to a wider range of customers. (It may be that by giving up her name in favour of a trade psuedonym and thereby forsaking her whole identity, not just a part of it, the current archetype was able to complete her ascension). The left wing activist who gives up his socialist views and breaks off ties with like-minded friends in order to appeal to more voters when he runs for office is channelling The One Everyone Can Get But You. So is the black businessman who goes against his roots when he swims with the great white capitalist sharks. So is the actress who turns her back on every ideal of emancipated modern womenhood to become nothing more than an image of desire that men can leer at but never touch or attain. These people all have one thing in common: ask them to choose between a personal commitment, such as a date, and some broader commitment to a much bigger group of people, such as a night at a photoshoot, they’ll opt for the latter every time. No one can make much of a living from a market that has only one person in it.
Taboos: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the individual, or the one. You’re stepping off the path of the archetype if you ever focus on a personal commitment to the detriment of more global, abstract concerns. A lot of people do manage a balancing act, but neither is that kind of compromise allowed. The bigger goal must come before everything else. This can also affect your work life: you can be employed by someone else, but you must also be your own master. If you get a better offer of work, especially one that opens up your services to more people, you must take it.
Symbols: The World card in the Tarot and just about any kind of widely-accessible image, especially anything from the porn industry.
Masks:Aphrodite (Greek), Romulus (Roman)
Suspected Avatars in History: There are vague rumours about Shakespeare, who spent most of his time being famous in London and left nothing more to his wife in his will than his “seconde beste bedde.” Napoleon may have been channelling the archetype when he divorced Josephine for reasons of state, and Marilyn Monroe was certainly a powerful archetype, if not the godwalker.
Channels:
1%-50%: Whenever someone needs a service you can offer, they will come across your name in some favourable context – a good review, maybe, or a recommendation from a friend. If you choose to actively promote yourself, you get a +10% shift on any kind of bargaining roll with prospective clients.
51%-70%: You can not only sell yourself well, but also trash the competition just as effectively. You just need to mention a competitor’s name in a conversation with a client, say something mildly disparaging (it can be stronger if you like) and make a successful Avatar: The One Everyone Can Get But You roll. That competitor will then be at -10% to all social rolls with the same client. It may even be possible to do this in front of the mass media, so that everyone who hears what you have to say on TV or reads it in print will be affected, but only if you get a critical or matched success on the roll (GM’s discretion)
71%-90%: You instinctively know what other people want, and what they’re prepared to do to get it. You don’t need to roll to learn if they need what you have on offer or not, but if they do, make an Avatar: The One Everyone Can Get But You roll. If it succeeds, you find out what the top price is that they’re willing to pay for it.
91%+: Just name your price and make a successful Avatar: The One Everyone Can Get But You. The client will pay that price no questions asked, unless he beats your roll with a Soul check. You can even offer and ask for intangible qualites with this power, such as increases to stats or skills, memories, personality traits or, that old favourite, the immortal soul.
There are probably a lot of people who have radically different ideas about this one, but I thought it might be interesting to have a go at interpreting it…
I think it’s a pretty good spin, so far. Feels a bit more altruistic than I had imagined, but that may just be leaking cynicism on my part.
Ms. Devlin, a one-time charachter on The Twilight Zone was certainly connected to this archtype in some way: she’ll give you what you ask for, but it’ll cost you everything you have, and it’s still not enough…