WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

[Mutant for Hire]

This presumes a modern day campaign.

 

Your character gets on the Internet and does a Google under their name. They find a number of fan sites with most... interesting fan art involving a good deal amount of skin and often in company, not to mention fan fiction, some of which presumes a different sexual orientation than your character has. How does your character react and what do they do?

[BcAugust]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Cyrande would be... amused that Earthlings found this wierd, and likely laugh at it, maybe send congratulations to anyone that does good pieces, and likely save the artistic ones.

 

Nox would... freak out. As in major freak out. Then again, her hero form is a creature of shadow, that tends to give anyone sane the creeps. And the sex stuff would mostly embaress her.

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Starguard: -- have an attack of the vapors. Seriously. This is stuff she just doesn't want to know about, and will curse her eidetic memory for not letting her forget.

 

Dr. Pain: -- laugh at the M/F fic, get either puzzled or disgusted by the slashfic and the... more exotic fic.

 

Then he has his lawyer start sending out the Cease And Desist letters.

 

(His super-hero name and likeness are Registered Trademarks. Using them without his permission is a Very Bad Thing. )

 

Baron von Darien: -- wonder how the hell his existence got publicly known in the first place, given that he makes Batman look like an exhibitionist.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

This presumes a modern day campaign.

 

Your character gets on the Internet and does a Google under their name. They find a number of fan sites with most... interesting fan art involving a good deal amount of skin and often in company, not to mention fan fiction, some of which presumes a different sexual orientation than your character has. How does your character react and what do they do?

Millennium Will send a polite e-mail, saying that he appriciates the creativity, but please post a disclaimer that (1) these are works of fiction and (2) while Millennium does encourage responsible sexuality, he personally has chosen to remain celibate.

 

Cheeta Would e-mail pictures of himself wearing only a cheetah-spot Speedo and his helmet to all the sites portraying him as heterosexual.

 

Iron Will Would send e-mails reminding the site owners that he is 13 years old, and this constitutes kiddy porn. Remove it, NOW, or it will be reported to the authorities.

 

Snow Leopard Has better things to do than Google her own name.

 

Dolphin Would first of all be embaressed. But as long as he was being portraied with a proper ecologically aware attitude, he will do nothing.

[Metaphysician]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Microman II: Is an android. Would be very confused. Once explained, he would be rather disturbed.

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Uncle Slam doesn't surf the web. His access to PRIMUS databanks allows him to pull down as much info as he wants.

 

Audra Blue has read plenty of fan fiction, since she spends 2/3 of her day plugged into the net. She'd read it all, hack into the server it was on, and post grades for them anonymously. She's aware of every strange idea and perversion popular on the web so very little would surprise her; Though the idea that more than a handful of people know enough about her to post something would be a little disturbing.

 

Anthem would freak. She wouldn't know what to do about it, but she'd freak. She's never wanted to be anything more than a role model, so the idea that she would have fan sites would please her. The idea that they have her doing anything out of the ordinary would be dismaying. But she knows that's "Freedom of speech". She'd just make it a point not to go there again. Then weeks later she'd go through the whole thing again because she can't help but peek!

[ghost-angel]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Jessica - would probably be there because her boyfriend googled her name ... she doesn't like computers much. At which point it would go "done it ... done it ... pfft, lightweights ... woah, he needs a psychiatrist ... now that's new, hey honey! We need to do some shopping!" (she's not nympho, she's just very open, and monogamous at this point.)

 

Silence - **** an eyebrow, read a bit, not quite understand the point and wander off bored.

 

edit: haha!! I don't believe that got censored ... ok, "lift an eyebrow" ... I'm leaving the censor because that is just way way too funny for words. I didn't think about it until the little * showed up...

[OddHat]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Style - Would be very surprised that this many people outside of the Mystic World know who he is. Suspecting DEMON involvement, he would investigate and take appropriate action.

 

Flesh Gordon - "That never hapenned. Ok, that did. Dude, you can't blame me for that one; I was drunk." The items that resemble his real sexual adventures Flesh will put down to the machinations of the Flesh Gordon Revenge Squad. Those that he can't recall he will assume ocurred during one of his blackouts, or attribute to the actions of yet another dimensional analog. Someone would have to carefully explain fan-fic to him, several times, before he realized that some of these stories had been intended as fiction. At that point, he'd steal any good ideas and pitch them as movie scripts.

[caris]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

For the most part Adonis would just ignore it. He might read some of it if some of the stories seemed interesting, but most of it wouldn't really phase him until he got to anything involving minors, unless it was covering his own teen years and involved him with someone roughly his own age.

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Hmmmm . . .

 

The Greek would keep reading and googling, getting a kick out of the whole thing, and some educational content. She'd politely write to those who don't know about her vow of virginity and explain why the things they wrote about couldn't happen, then outline the things that could've happened, instead. She'd offer to provide pictures of reference for the better fan artists.

 

Beacon would read it all, absorb it, then wonder why she has a headache the rest of the day.

 

Weather Girl would get incredibly embarrassed, but not be able to stop reading until she encountered a story involving the creative usage of her body's constant electric charge. At which point she'd hide for a while, explaining, "people are scary."

[Duke Bushido]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Silence - **** an eyebrow, read a bit, not quite understand the point and wander off bored.

 

edit: haha!! I don't believe that got censored ... ok, "lift an eyebrow" ... I'm leaving the censor because that is just way way too funny for words. I didn't think about it until the little * showed up...

Oh, that's great!

 

I Admin a forum for novice bike riders wanting coaching / tech help, and we have problems with that very same word. See, there's three-way valve at the bottom of the fuel tank called the pet****. We have taken to referring to it as the 'rooster valve.'

 

As to heroes and their responses, most would vary by mood, content, etc, just like any other celebrity, I imagine.

 

Worth noting:

 

Mark II: laugh hysterically at the idea that people think he's a man in a powered suit. Inwardly, more of his soul would die as he realized that he never again will be a man at all.

 

Sliver: (no, not 'Silver') launch a cybernetic mind-clone to hack away at the site in perpetuity. Once it uncovered the identity of those responsible, it would begin to 'erase' their existance-- every computer file anywhere with any mention or record of the site owner. After launching the clone, she'd probably nurse a grudge for a while. "Damn. That's just rude!"

 

Patriarch: Note it as another piece of ammo in his fight against the 'insidious sedition' of the First Ammendment.'

[Whitewings]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Faye: She's actually a pretty decent programmer, and after checking that the site is actually located in a country where its content is illegal, will send the operators e-mail. "Have you heard of underage porn? Good. You have six hours to clean up this site and apologize publicly. If you do not, you will be shut down." At the deadline, send the URL to the local cops, flagged "Underage porn site." If the site isn't in a country with laws against its content, the site operators will find their site has been taken down drastically. Do *not* tick off a teenage girl with the power of a small army.

 

Serena: Web sites don't work well without power. People don't work well when they're the subject to an unremitting campaign of fear. She's a bit fanatical about her privacy, and her main stock in trade is psychological warfare.

 

Ika: She's a timelost cave girl. She predates concepts like modesty and individual rights.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Blackcat would likely have been aware of such things. She is a strong female hero and role model, and she has a teammate that she is best friends with who is also a strong female hero - and in talking with that character's player (the wife actually) we both realized that "xena syndrome" would likely have happened and they get latched onto by the Lesbian community.

She wouldn't be bothered by it, herself, but she would make sure that everyone had a big AU (for alternate universe) on the fics, and makes sure any art that was explicit at all was behind an age barrier. She would make them include legalese about it being fiction and unauthorised, but wouldn't shut it down. She might even occasionally get onto thier message boards to chat. She has a number of fanclubs and such is tries to be very acceessable to her fans.

 

Ballistic would be amused (and a little squicked by the same gender stuff, he is very oldschool in perceptions and attitudes he is an excop in the whole 70's/80's cop mode), and generally ignore it.

 

Meeb would just be completely nonplussed. Any erotic art with Meeb in it would end up really odd like tentcle hentai or soemthing.... how do you write or draw erotica with a man sized shapeshifting green pile of goo?

 

Terminal Velocity would think fan sites are really cool, and as he went deeper, would get really freaked out.

[Marketeer]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Blackberry would be of two minds on this. On the one hand, she is aware that she is attractive and sought-after by many. On the other, she is generally fairly conservative in her dress and mannerisms, so there's no basis from which to draw any assumption that she'd act in an overtly sexual manner.

 

Since she does quite a bit of work with charities and in the area of public relations, she'd certainly have some concerns, but she'd realize that acting on such websites could make the situation worse. She'd probably mention to her friends/relatives that these things were bothering her, and trust to them to end it.

[Tempuswolf]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Tensor would freak.

Especially the gay stuff.

Especially the gay stuff using his superstretching powers.

Especially the gay stuff using his superstretching powers with /Nighthunter when he was his sidekick, Elastic Lad.

Most especially the true stuff using his superstretching powers on Nighthunter. (Come on, Dan didn't have his body armor. WWYCD)

 

Lorecraft would be amused and gratified for a moment or two by the display of devotion; but, then the presumptuousness of the enterprise would hit him. Being the sybaritic exiled god-king that he is, wanton displays of flesh, pairings with his beautiful female companions, even an outside-the-realm-of-possibility tryst with cyborg Major Mason wouldn't phase him in the least. However, the evident lack of respect of doing this without his permission would set his jaw. Then, if he finds some demeaning depictions (dogcollars, spanking, etc.), the webmasters get a new Hunted. Corland would throw lots of money at the problem of finding each and everyone of them. Depending on how properly obsequious they are when he personally demands they stop what they are doing, he might let them go with only a warning. Truly, if they really make an effort, he might throw them some patronage (with certain guidelines of course). If they refuse or proclaim some sort of right to keep on doing this, he wouldn't hesitate before unleashing all sorts of twisted psychic surgery (ie, when a reporter on the payroll of a criminal organization started a smear campaign against him and his companions, he rewired her speech centers to switch a worthy Anglo-saxon four-letter with the reporter's last name.)

[sinanju]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

This presumes a modern day campaign.

 

Your character gets on the Internet and does a Google under their name. They find a number of fan sites with most... interesting fan art involving a good deal amount of skin and often in company, not to mention fan fiction, some of which presumes a different sexual orientation than your character has. How does your character react and what do they do?

 

This actually happened in-game to Hell's Angel in a PbEM game I'm participating in. She stumbled upon a website devoted to her. It included news reports of her appearances, photos, speculation about her background...and fanfic and fanart, including a great deal of very explicit sexual fic (and photoshopped pictures).

 

She was shocked and angry at first, but--given that in her real identity, she writes fanfiction and is well aware of how pervasive it is, including the explicit stuff--she eventually got over the shock. Now she's mostly just amused by all the attention.

 

--Begin Excerpt--

 

Gayle knocked on the door of Rachel's apartment. She heard Rachel approaching the door, and then it swung open. Rachel was still dressed for work in an elegant and expensive skirt and blouse, though her legs were bare and she was wearing an old pair of sneakers. Black dress shoes and a pair of nylons lay in a jumble by the door.

 

"So," Gayle said, stepping to the apartment, "what's so important that you wouldn't tell me about it over the phone?"

 

"I can't tell you. You need to see it for yourself," Rachel said.

 

"Will I like it?"

 

"I dunno," Rachel replied. "Some of it. Maybe." She made a show of studying Gayle. "Other parts--no."

 

"C'mon," Gayle insisted. "Give."

 

Rachel shook her head. She gestured toward her office. "Go sit at my computer," she said.

 

Gayle gave Rachel a long, appraising look. Rachel put on a poker face, giving nothing away. Gayle sighed dramatically and then walked into the office. Rachel followed.

 

Rachel's office was crowded. The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves, and every shelf was filled to capacity and then some. Hardbacks filled the lower shelves, with loose books laid horizontally across the tops of others wherever they'd fit. The upper shelves were double or triple stacked with paperbacks. The computer desk itself was buried under mounds of paper, piles of short story manuscripts, various drafts of novels, printouts of webpages, chat logs and text files. There was barely room enough for the keyboard and mousepad. A Matrix-style screensaver filled the room with a green glow.

 

Rachel stopped in the doorway and leaned against the frame.

 

"What am I looking for?" Gayle asked, sliding into Rachel's swivel chair. She heard Rachel start to speak as Gayle reached for the mouse. Her touch was enough to turn off the screensaver. Gayle gawked at the image on the screen.

 

It was the splash page for a web site. An image of Hell's Angel filled most of the screen. Gayle recognized it as an image lifted from a news photo of one of her first appearances. It had been manipulated to eliminate the cityscape and leave only the brilliant white, red and orange of the fiery heroine against a matte black background. Letters in similar colors below the picture spelled out the name of the website: The Hellfire Club.

 

"Oh my God!" she said. She looked to Rachel. "Did _you_--?"

 

Rachel was quick to deny it. "No, it's not my doing. I only found it today. That's just the home page. Keep going. There's more."

 

Gayle turned obediently back to the screen and clicked on "Enter." She spent the next few minutes exploring a site devoted to Hell's Angel. There were links to the few news reports of Hell's Angel in action, to a few more photos, and a discussion board with several topics. One was for reports (and discussion) of verified sightings, including news reports. One was full of rumors and innuendo about the heroine's identity, background, origin, intentions--pretty much everything about her. Following a few links at random assured Gayle that most of it was little different from the ramblings of the tabloid press.

 

Then she spotted the "Fiction" links. There were two options. G-rated and NC-17. Gayle felt the shock like a blow to her solar plexus. She'd read enough fanfic to know what to expect here. Hell, she and Rachel had been writing fanfic since they were in high school, though never about real people.

 

"Have you looked at this?" Gayle asked Rachel, without taking her eyes off the screen.

 

"...yeah," Rachel said after a moment.

 

Gayle clicked on the first link. It was just as she'd suspected. Mostly very short, very badly written action/adventure stories. The sheer variety of backgrounds ascribed to her was remarkable--she was variously portrayed as a repentant demon, fallen angel, mutant, sorceress, alien, robot and occasionally other things that weren't quite clear. It had never been as clear to Gayle as it was now how little the public really knew about her, after twenty minutes spent perusing this archive.

 

Gayle took a deep breath and then clicked the second link--and found herself looking at a thoroughly pornographic photo of a nude Hell's Angel crouched over an equally nude man sprawled on the hood of some kind of sportscar. The photo left no doubt about what they were doing. Beneath the photo was a long list of links to stories. As she stared at the image, Gayle felt a prickling on the back of her neck and heat rising in her cheeks and ears. She realized that Rachel was speaking to her.

 

"What?" Gayle asked. She stared at the image for a long moment, still struggling to process what she was seeing, before dragging her gaze away. She turned to look at Rachel. "What did you say?"

 

"I said, it's a hell of a Photoshopping job. It's almost a shame it's so obscene."

 

Gayle looked back, recognizing now that Rachel was correct. It wasn't a real photo--she knew that. It had never happened. But it was awfully damned convincing. Gayle looked at it and realized she was angry. It had been mildly flattering to see the rest of the website, but this--

 

The list of story links was no better. The one line synopses told Gayle all she needed to know. She knew that prurient material like this was inevitable. It was all over the internet. But she'd never been the subject before and it felt like a slap in the face. The thought of men like Jimmy Carlyle or the others getting their jollies by reading these stories....

 

Gayle closed the browser and sat quietly for a minute, taking one slow deep breath after another.

 

"Sorry," Rachel said. "But I thought you should know."

 

"You were right," Gayle said quietly. "But now that I've seen it I want to forget it for a while." She looked at Rachel and mustered a smile she didn't really feel yet. "Let's go out to dinner and talk about something else, like your love life."

 

Rachel returned the smile. "Oh, so its horror stories you're wanting, is it? I can do that...."

 

--End Excerpt--

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Badger has better things to do than playing up his ego looking for fan sites of him. Since he is a bit conservative he would be uncomfortable with most of that. Though his friends might get a kick out of doing MST3K treatment to the fan fiction.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Soulbarb has been trying to keep a low profile, and it hasn't always been easy. She'd be as upset about the very existence of such a fansite as about its content. If the stuff there seemed really vague & speculative, she'd probably try to forget it existed. If it was very specific, she'd wonder where they were getting their info from, and try to put a stop to whoever's taking pictures of her. Soulbarb likes her privacy.

[mikesama]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Snapdragon would probably be an explosion of her depicted as a hermaphrodite and would check the stories to see if anyone got a good idea for her shapeshifting.

 

Quantum would laugh at the fact that the only other male in the group is someone he can barely tolerate making the gay porn all that much more unbelievable.

 

Heavens sword would post highly inflamitory follow ups to the gay stuff as he is somewhat uptight about such things, going so far as to release through the press some of the posters names and a firm denial.

[Cancer]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Mr. Terrific has a 4-aspect Multiform, which are triggered by "Power Pills" of his own invention. (Oddly, the effects of a pill only last two minutes.)

 

He also gets really tired of all the Cialis jokes.

[Lethosos]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Queen of Spades would quirk her eyebrow at the idea that she's famous enough to warrant her own website (considering her Secret ID as an auto model is more interesting,) but she'd dive in. And get a kick at how wrong they are, at several points. Especially the fetish bits. She'd save a few things to laugh at later--anything for a morale booster in private.

 

If some of the artists are pretty good, she'll toss out a few indirect private commisions of several female villans and have fun with the chaos once they get 'discovered' in choice areas.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Dr. Anomaly's reaction would be a bit complex. First, on finding fan websites, he'd be a bit flattered, but probably concerned as well if any of them featured "helpful hints" as to how to go about practicing magic. (He's a gadgeteer and a mage, so any fan site with interest in him might have such a section.) Though those kinds of "helpful hints" would be 99% garbage, he'd tag a few to keep an eye on just in case they started publishing "the real thing", because magic in the hands of those who don't know how to use it is a sure route to disaster.

 

He'd likely be somewhat amused, in a slightly paternalistic fashion, by the speculations as to his origins, his true identity and personality, etc.

 

When he got to the 'erotic' stuff...to say he'd be a bit taken aback is about right. While he's not a "prude", he does tend to be a bit conservative in his outlook about some things, and finding himself the object of stories and pictures like that would be a bit of a shock; not upsetting or anything, mind you, but just completely unexpected. Though his secret identity (Dr. Solomon Kinkaid, wealthy-but-flaky 'New Age' scientist) has to dodge marriage proposals and similar 'traps' on a fairly regular basis, Solomon just isn't used to thinking of himself as a 'sex object', which is why it would come as something totally unexpected. People wanting to marry him for his money, yes...people wanting him for his body...? (He is physically fit and rather handsome. He just doesn't spend a lot of time contemplating himself that way, so when he's reminded of it it's always a bit of surprise.)

 

He'd consider writing a self-propogating worm to erase that kind of content from the web, but then realize that (a) given the nature of the web, human nature, and to a certain extent the freedom of speech in which he believes, such things are inevitable and ( taking action against websites like that would either stir interest in what was on them ("That site got taken down? Gee...they must've been too close to the truth in some of their speculations, or somethin'...") or stir up bad feelings, and he has no desire to cause either of those things to happen, and it doesn't "bother" him enough to make those things a viable cost-benefit.

 

The next thing that would cause him to really raise his eyebrows would be descriptions in stories of him using his magic, his potions and spells, and his gadgets in "bedroom play." He'd actually get distracted thinking about the descriptions given, and start designing those spells, effects, or devices in his head, almost by reflex...then realize what he was doing, get a bit embarassed by that, and move on.

 

It would also cause him to reflect, a bit sadly, that he hasn't had a "relationship", not even a date, in several years, and that he's aware of that lack in his life...but there just never seems to be enough time...there's always the next crisis, and in between them his research...

 

The last thing that would give him a start would be "slash" fiction. He himself has no leanings towards homosexuality, but he's not morally outraged by it or anything. If it works for other people, fine...it's just not his cup of tea. There's one likely "pairing", though, that really would make him blink.

 

You see, the team is headquartered in the top four floors of a building owned by Dr. Anomaly's secret ID, Dr. Kinkaid. Publicly Dr. Kinkaid does it as a tax write-off and as his "civic duty"; there's actually a lot of speculation that he agreed to give the team space in his building because he hero-worships Dr. Anomaly, and that Dr. Anomaly is who Solomon would really like to be. (Dr. Anomaly is a mage, while Dr. Kinkaid is a 'New Age'-er: into crystal gazing, meditation, feng sui, tarot readings, and so on. In other words, a wannabe idolizing the real thing.)

 

Soooo...from the "slash" writer's standpoint, proposing a few bedroom encounters between Solomon and Dr. Anomaly wouldn't seem at all unlikely, now would it?

 

Finding a story that had him engaging in a homosexual encounter with his alter ego would really leave Solomon blinking. He'd probably stare at the screen for quite a while, smoking a pipe (something he does infrequently) and wondering just what to make of it all.

 

Then he'd remember the other things he's supposed to be doing (replenishing used-up magical preparations, doing research for his next high-tech gadget, or whatever) and promptly forget about such websites until something brought them to his attention again.

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

This presumes a modern day campaign.

 

Your character gets on the Internet and does a Google under their name. They find a number of fan sites with most... interesting fan art involving a good deal amount of skin and often in company, not to mention fan fiction, some of which presumes a different sexual orientation than your character has. How does your character react and what do they do?

 

Astro-Knight: Groans, winces, gets disgusted and decides to go no further. Later, he asks Gloria, the NASA PR director what SHE thinks they should do about it, if anything. Then he'd follow her advice.

 

Gaze: The guy's in showbiz in his secret ID so that won't shock him much. He'd be more worried about it damaging his ability to scare criminals than anything, then again, depending on how it portrays them, IF they were dumb enough to believe it, it might scare them all the more.

 

"It's Gaze, he can control our minds!"

"To do what?"

"You -don't- want to know!"

 

Max Thunder: "Oh sure, they find out you're the Son of Zeus and they assume you're into EVERYTHING... geez o pete." He would probably write a polite email to the guy asking him to please tone it down because, not having a secret ID, he has to live with people taking this stuff as real and can't just hide from it.

 

Recluse: Recluse would whine a great deal and do nothing.

[ghost-angel]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Recluse: Recluse would whine a great deal and do nothing.

This is the best response I've seen yet....

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: Ignorance is Bliss

 

Eve would be really shocked, but realize this was something for grown ups. She'd tell her daddy and see what he'd want to do.

 

Tao would be intrigued as her knowledge of sexuality is pretty "Tab A goes into Slot B for purposes of producing offspring." After examing the site for awhile, she'd probably approach one of the rest of the team for a better explanation, or perhaps reenactment of some of thing things that looked more interesting. Comedy ensues.

 

Ivy would laugh it off. It had to happen sometime.