Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
From the Free Cities of Haven (all that remains of the devastated world of Competalia), the Ladies of Misschief are considered heroes by some, but are generally regarded as capricious thrillseekers by UP authorities.
Coming from a society where *everyone* has superhuman abilities, due to the expressed metagene that all Competalian descended humanoids share, the five members of this clique of 'heroes' have chosen to leave the spacefaring Free Cities of Haven behind, to join a larger universe where not everyone has the same sort of unique and special talents.
It's perhaps something of a misnomer to call any of them 'leader,' as they are all strong-willed and independent-minded, but the one who most often instigates their shenanigans is Vareena Liu, aka Miss Behave, who has the meta-ability to affect the inhibitions of others, causing them to 'act out' in spectacular and outrageous ways, or to be all-but paralyzed with shame and self-doubt, unable to act. Rumor has it she uses her abilities on herself, as well as others, keeping herself in a near constant state of loosened inhibitions, and serving to explain her often erratic and sensationalistic behaviors.
Miss Direction, Pardivak Mille, constrasts her 'leaders' wild attention-seeking nature by being the member about which the least accurate information is available, as she has a gift for deception that borders on the superhuman, having spread a bewildering plethora of lies and half-truths about her past, her nature, her abilities, etc. Her actual meta-ability is to redirect forces in her close proximity, sometimes to the extreme of being able to reflect hostile energies or projectiles to strike other opponents, or to cause moving individuals to fly sideways or upwards, as their personal momentum is redirected up to ninety degrees.
With powers reminiscent of Chemical King, Noma Vu, aka Miss Fire can catalyze any energetic reaction, causing batteries and chemical accelerants to burst into fire, or otherwise discharge. She can even, with concentration, cause oxygen in the air to combust, but is far more capable at causing weapons in her view to spontaneously discharge, making them far more of a danger to their weilders than to her or her allies! In contrast with her explosive and volatile powers, Noma herself is laid-back, appearing perpetually bored with the current circumstances, although she has a sneaky sense of humor. While as lovely as the rest of her travelling companions, after accidentally combusting her own hair (an incident to which she responded with mild annoyance, in her typically unflappable way), Noma has shaved her head and wears a spiky ornate head-dress that trails dozens of strands of tiny gemstone beads, in place of 'hair.'
Taraana Shen, as Miss Fortune, has powers over luck, and is perpetually hyper-aware of her surroundings, and powerfully manic in personality, always in motion and, to her teammates consternation, always talking. Her abilities allow her to sense probabilities as a form of 'pressure' building up in certain areas, and to 'push' at these concentrations of probability, causing seemingly improbable calamities to befall those she has 'jinxed.' The more often (and more spectacularly) her foes are afflicted by these misfortunes, the more she feels that probability is 'relaxed' around herself, and the more comfortable she feels, as she becomes increasingly *more* fortunate, the more she brings misfortunes to others. She actively pushes Miss Behave into risky and 'heroic' encounters, as the more conflict arises, the more chances she has to 'jinx' others, and therefore the luckier she herself becomes, giving her strong incentive to keep her teammates meddling in 'super-adventures' and not just partying and enjoying their celebrity status.
Miss Take, Jalakr Chanu, has the superhuman ability to 'take' anything she can see, up to about as large an item as she could physically carry in her arms, teleporting it from anywhere within her visual range to her grasp. She typically uses this power to snatch away weapons or stolen valuables, or even, in one dramatic case, to seize a kidnapped child hostage away from her kidnapper, but can also reverse the effect, and teleport any suitably sized item from her own grasp to anywhere within her visual range, allowing her to send an explosive high into the sky, or to 're-gift' a grenade to a distant opponent, or even to deliver medical or survival equipment to someone out of physical reach. The most capricious of the five Ladies of Misschief, she is the one most likely to have turned to crime, if left to her own devices (having a power eminently suited to a life of theft, after all, as well as a more chequered past...), and, even as a 'hero of convenience,' is likely to spice up her hero activities by snatching away a wrong-doers clothing, instead of merely disarming them.
[ October 28, 2012, 11:59 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
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From Kathoon, the Night Watch...I originally came up with these guys to use as cannon fodder for a story I'm writing but I like some of them too much to just kill off now so I am gonna leave them sitting in limbo for a bit...ten points for the first person who gets the team they're a homage to...
Excavator: Camm Grogan created a clunky exoskeleton for the asteroid mining industry which gives its wearer enhanced strength, life support and protection against temperature and pressure changes, as well as layers of physical armor. The suit's sensor suite allows him to scan the physical composition and density of his surrounding environment, and it comes equipped with a blasting weapon. It was deemed impractical to put the suit into mass production, but when Camm saved a bunch of people from a mine collapse at its debut he realised he could put it to better use as a superhero.
Gimmick: Leck Pemberton's family has been filled with heroes from before they left Earth for Kathoon over a century ago. He has no innate powers himself, but his intelligence approaches human maximum and he has an ever-changing arsenal. His trademark gadgets are a supremely adaptable all-purpose tool called the Omnirod and his Tesseract Pouch, a belt-mounted bag which contains a seemingly endless array of bizarre weapons and implements stored in their own dimensional space (most of which he invented himself).
Comet King: Inspired by Comet Queen's origin (which itself was inspired by Star Boy's), Jep Sartro flew his space shuttle directly into the tail of a passing comet. His skin took on a chrome finish which protects him from the rigors of high speed travel, and he gained the ability to fly at super speed.
Bioluminescent Girl: Comet King's twin sister Janna wanted to follow him into a life of adventure, but she also wanted her own unique origin and not one that already belonged to a handful of other heroes. Turning to her work as a marine biologist for inspiration, she scientifically altered her own body chemistry so that she can now produce light at will like some deep-sea fish do. Her power can be used for a gentle illuminating glow or a more powerful blinding attack, but it's most useful somewhere like Kathoon where the world is in perpetual darkness to begin with.
Sea Serpent Sally: A work colleague of Bioluminescent Girl, Sally Marin was exposed to radiations given off by a weird undersea creature native to Kathoon's deepest ocean trenches. This gave her the ability to turn into a gigantic amphibious serpent herself. With practice, she has mastered the ability to partially transform herself, so she can gain the added strength of a hybrid form without losing her human limbs. Bioluminescent Girl persuaded her to use her abilities as a member of the Night Watch.
Nocturna: Anna Nara is the team's second shapeshifter. A native of Earth and archeologist by trade, she found a mysterious mystic amulet which gives her the ability to transform into any nocturnal animal. She applied for Legion membership, but was rejected as her power comes from her amulet and additionally, she can only use her power in the absence of sunlight. Coincidentally, Night Girl and Color Kid saved Anna from an attempted mugging on the way home from her Legion tryout...in gratitude for their help, she decided to move to Kathoon to protect Night Girl's world while the Subs continued their good work on Earth.
White Dwarf and Red Giant: When Euje Pukk and Walla Sesk met at an astrophysics conference, it was love at first sight. They collaborate on many work projects together now and so when a solar flare washed over Walla's space shuttle, both men were irradiated. Euje gained the ability to shrink down to a tenth of his size, though keeping the same mass. This makes him unusually tough the smaller he gets. Walla (already an extremely tall, burly and unusually hairy man) gained the ability to increase his size by a factor of ten. As White Dwarf and Red Giant, they are the two final members of the team.
-------------------- Read the alternate adventures of the Legion after Legion of Three Worlds! postlo3w
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
Ooh, I can't figure out what team you've based them on! I see echoes of Alpha Flight, 'though, but all mixed up with Nocturna being the token alien (like Marrina), but Sea Serpent Sally being more directly like Marrina, while Nocturna's powers, to turn into a very specific grouping of animals, seems more like Snowbird. Excavator's armor sounds like the Groundhog earth-moving armor that was later refined into Guardian/Vindicator's battlesuit. Gimmick with his Tesseract Pouch, seems like a tech version of Shaman. Comet King and Bioluminescent Girl have powers like Northstar and Aurora, and he also experimented on himself to replicate the origin of another hero like Sasquatch (who was attempting to replicate the Hulk's origin), etc. But I could be forcing the parallels...
Edit: Ah, now I see that the shrinker is named Euje Pukk, and any doubts have faded! Alpha Flight it is!
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I got lazy with Puck and Sasquatch (White Dwarf and Red Giant) and just threw in two characters I used to use in a role playing game because one is short and the other's a giant, so good work getting it despite those two only vaguely fitting, lol
On another note...it never occurred to me till I wrote this team up that roughly half of the original Alpha Flight had 'animalistic shapeshifter' as their schtick! I guess that's a mark of good characterization when you don't even think about how similar the power types are...
-------------------- Read the alternate adventures of the Legion after Legion of Three Worlds! postlo3w
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
After it's time under the oppressive yet fashionable heel of Sarya, the so-called Emerald Empress, the world of Venegar suffered years more of purges and pograms, as former supporters and enforcers of the Queen's will were hunted down and 'made to pay for their crimes,' occasionally at the hands of the law, but more often by angry mobs of those who suffered under her rule, and had only these 'collaborators' and 'quislings' to take out their pent-up years worth of frustrations upon.
An accusation of being a collaborator was a virtual death sentence, true or not, and some opportunistic souls used such accusations to benefit themselves, discredit or eliminate rivals or even just settle grudges.
All that changed with the arrival of the golden-gauntleted Venegarian hero, Dex Sinister. At first he seemed little more than a super-powered enforcer for the lynching mobs, but he somehow managed to transform the movement from within, and those his posse rounded up were always given over to local authorities, instead of hanged on the spot.
He has demonstrated the ability to fly, golden-armored fist held high, glowing with light like the sun, and to form the golden light into barriers or restraints of energy that resembles liquid gold, but can be strong as diamond. When resistance is met, the golden armor grows like organic crystal to cover the rest of his body in glowing plates of this material, protecting him from harm.
He keeps many secrets, including his true identity, hidden behind a mask pulled up over his lower face, long a symbol of the underground resistance against the Emerald Empress. His true secret is the source of his powers, a cracked golden yellow power ring that fell to Venegar from another dimension entirely, where the bearers of the yellow rings are forces of moderation, defense and restraint, and stand in opposition to the power mad users of the green rings of arrogance. His damaged power ring draws its strength from the fear and anger of others, making Dex Sinister dependent upon his passionate supporters for empowerment, and yet also draining them of their anger and fear, leaving them easier to control and placate, and stemming the terrible sorts of excesses they would perform without their local champion there to drain away their outrage, and channel it from a quest for revenge, to a quest for justice.
Dex Sinister cannot be everywhere, nor halt every excess of the Venegarian mob, but through his example, he provides to the Venegarian a symbol of justice through laws, instead of the crazed revenge of the mob, and is slowly turning the tide, taking some amusement from the knowledge that if he ever truly succeeds at his mission to end 'the Terror of Venegar,' he will have no more howling mobs fuel his damaged power ring with their emotional energy, and will become powerless.
He hopes that when that day comes, he will lose his powers only because Venegar will no longer need his services.
[ December 11, 2012, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
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I love the roles of the green and yellow energies being reversed, and Venegar is one of the worlds I have always thought would be cool to explore!
-------------------- Read the alternate adventures of the Legion after Legion of Three Worlds! postlo3w
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
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quote:Originally posted by razsolo: I love the roles of the green and yellow energies being reversed, and Venegar is one of the worlds I have always thought would be cool to explore!
Thanks!
I like noodling around with the Crime Syndicate's Earth 3, where morality is reversed, and I had the notion that the Earth 3 green power rings were rings of arrogance, overconfidence and bullying, prone to selecting self-obsessed megalomaniacs (such as the Earth 3 'green lantern,' Power Ring) as their 'chosen' weilders, while the yellow rings were rings of restraint, moderation and self-control.
And I was looking for an interesting 'hero' for post-Sarya Venegar, and based on my grandmothers experiences in post WW2 France (where an accusation of having been a collaborateur could result in your whole family getting lynched), and a yellow ring that by it's very presence was toning down that sort of auto-de-fe atmosphere seemed like a good fit.
Because I had dealt with a very different version of Venegar previously in my Emerald Legion fic, I kind of forgot that the canon Venegar would likely be a much different place, recovering from one of the 'five worst villains in the universe' conquering it and ruling it for a time!
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
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quote:Originally posted by razsolo: On another note...it never occurred to me till I wrote this team up that roughly half of the original Alpha Flight had 'animalistic shapeshifter' as their schtick! I guess that's a mark of good characterization when you don't even think about how similar the power types are...
[tangent] John Byrne has written that he tossed out the Alpha Flight characters as one-off foes for the X-Men and never intended for them to be anything deeper. When they became popular enough that he was approached about writing a standalone series about them, he was 'Uh, crap.' and felt like he had to basically make stuff up that fit their initial appearance.
He mentioned that, among other things, he *never* would have devoted two of the team's six or seven slots to a pair of twins with exactly the same powers, if he'd been intentionally designing a team for more than a single appearance!
Given how good the Alpha Flight series was under his hand, I shudder to think what the man could have made if he was approached to make a standalone series out of similar throwaway groups like the Imperial Guard.
In a way, having a team designed this way allows a creator greater freedom. When writing a story about, say, the Squadron Supreme, you can make choices (bold or foolish!) that you could never make if you were assigned a property that the company more strictly micro-manages, like the Avengers or the Justice League.
I suspect that this why some creators would rather work with their own creations or 'lesser' properties like X-Factor or Justice League International or the Great Lakes Avengers or Young Justice or the Thunderbolts, than have to deal with all the backseat editorial kibbutzing that goes on when trying to write the Fantastic Four or X-Men or Spiderman or Batman.
Plus it was a different time. If Alpha Flight was written today, in Byrne's two year run, they would have been dragged into a *minimum* of two mega-events, possibly eating up six or more of the twenty-four issues. I think those twenty-four Alpha Flight issues are stronger for not having to participate in a single 'Civil War' or 'Infinite Crisis.' [/tangent]
Re-reading your Night Watch, it just occured to me that White Dwarf and Red Giant are *perfect* to use the Fastball Special popularized by Wolverine and Colossus. WD shrinks to his hyper-compact form, and RG pitches him at the fight!
(I also like that, white and red, they evoke the Canadian flag, yet another Alpha Flight shout-out!)
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quote:Originally posted by Set: I suspect that this why some creators would rather work with their own creations or 'lesser' properties like X-Factor or Justice League International or the Great Lakes Avengers or Young Justice or the Thunderbolts, than have to deal with all the backseat editorial kibbutzing that goes on when trying to write the Fantastic Four or X-Men or Spiderman or Batman.
Also, Jack Kirby took on Jimmy Olsen rather than Superman.
Though let's not forget some of the really bad things that happen when editors get too hands-off. It's one thing to allow bold new directions, it's another to pay no attention.
From: Manhattan, NY | Registered: May 2011
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
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quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: Though let's not forget some of the really bad things that happen when editors get too hands-off. It's one thing to allow bold new directions, it's another to pay no attention.
Oh, that's true. All things in moderation, I guess.
A un-examined single author story runs the risk of becoming so self-referential or bizarre that it ends up only making sense to the author themself, as there's no outside voice to tell them, 'Hey, this part here? That's messed up...'
We are all our own worst editor.
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Savothians - The Savothians are a camel-like advanced humanoid species native to the planet Savoth
Tarzana- Felma Banla, like all Savothians, she produces a cotton like fur. However, she produces an extra amount of it, 7 feet extra to be specific. But her fur is also super strong and durable but light weight. She often uses her extra hair to travel around the trees, swinging from branch to branch.
When she was younger her life wasn't the best it could have been. As a child she was raised by her grandmother, who was very weak and disabled. Having to spend much of her time taking care of her align grandmother Felma, didn't have many friends and barely finished school. When she turned 13, he grandmother passed away, leaving her in the foster care system on Savoth; which was nothing more than a sweat shop, where they were all shaved and mined for their fur. this is where she discovered her fur's strength and durability.
One night, when the power went out, she ran out of the sweat shop and rain into the surrounding forest. luckily with the power outage motion sensors were shut off and her chains were easy to unlock with a simple bobby pin.
When she realized how remote the sweat shop was, she realized that there maybe no other help to come for the other children. She felt for them and instead of leaving them to their doom, she decided to do the best she could by becoming a hero of sorts to the children there. she would steal extra food for them and sometimes try to sneak in a toy or two.
the children regarded her as a god send and the guards and staff thought she was nothing more than the children's imagination.
After years of doing her part to make things somewhat better for the kids, she saw a chance to have the place shut down forever. As she did her best to sabotage the entire facility she was able to free some of the children. She got at least half-dozen to safety. But unable to take down the facility permanently, she continues her battle to safe guard the children and free as many as she can.
-------------------- read the adventures of the Reboot Legion!
Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
While the visual of a humanoid camel swinging through the jungle with her Spider-Girl-like fur is an odd one, her backstory is very compelling. A race that enslaves it's own children to harvest resources from them? Yikes!
I like that her journey is just beginning, as well, and she has yet to complete what would be her 'origin story.'
I like the Buddha-like nature of her abandoning her own quest for freedom until she could free the others, as well. Very noble and selfless!
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
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Shimrah Karroc goes by no code-name, and haunts the ferrosilicate sands of the deserts of the western continent of Talokk VIII.
Born hairless and with bright red skin, that was already coarse like leather, the mutant child's superstitious parents quietly disposed of their infant, leaving him in the desert to fend for himself, according to ancient (and long-abandoned!) Talokkian custom.
Somehow, the apparently helpless baby survived for days, his nascent abilities proving sufficient to drive off scavenging predators, and he was discovered, nearly dead of thirst, by a wandering hermit-priestess, who took in the strange child and raised him in the sacred caverns she tended.
His nameless mentor named her adopted child Shimrah Karroc, 'gift of the desert,' in Talokkian, and her 'son' grew quickly and absorbed all that his surrogate mother had to teach him, learning also to control the abilities his strange body developed as he grew. He could burrow through the ferrosilicate sands even faster than a man could run atop them, using a 'swimming' motion, combined with some form of electromagnetic propulsion, as if the iron sands someone pushed him along, moving aside before him and sealing behind to conceal his passage. His body also generated a concentrated acidic secretion that he could expel with great force from his mouth, and in the course of movement through the sands, built up a powerful electrostatic charge, allowing him to burst from the sands with a lightning-like discharge.
His ruddy leathery hide, which darkened with age to a reddish-black coloration, and lean yet flexible body proved to be stronger and more durable than that of the average Talokkian, and he found himself able to easily best any disrespectful raiders who approached his mentor's sacred grounds, bursting up from the ground in a blinding stunning display, and then savagely beating the bewildered raiders back, ducking back beneath the cover of the sands, if truly threatened, able to survive deep beneath their feet holding his breath for up to an hour, aware of the movements of those above him carried through tremors and vibrations within the sands themselves, as if Talokk itself conspired to protect him, and give away his enemies positions.
quote:Originally posted by Set: While the visual of a humanoid camel swinging through the jungle with her Spider-Girl-like fur is an odd one, her backstory is very compelling. A race that enslaves it's own children to harvest resources from them? Yikes!
I like that her journey is just beginning, as well, and she has yet to complete what would be her 'origin story.'
I like the Buddha-like nature of her abandoning her own quest for freedom until she could free the others, as well. Very noble and selfless!
thanks Set! that a big compliment.
and i really love that list you gave me as a source! its come in handy big time! so much to play with.
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