Wwycd Oops!

[Enforcer84]

So a young and inexperienced super team has moved into the city. They are hipper, better looking, more fun, and at the moment, more popular than your team. Over the course of several adventures you get to know them; there's a lot to like. They are brave, helpful, concerned with protection and property damage. They are also smart, and work well together. One of their member is a precognative and they often get to trouble first. They contact you and other experienced hero teams before tackling foes.

However, they are full of the hubris of youth and their inexperience shows on occasion. Also, as of late they seem to resent the "Old Guard" showing up to save the day.

 

Then one horrible day, tragedy strikes. A terror of undetermined power (or possibly a mastervillain from your campaign) appears. The youngsters, confident that they can hand the situation do not contact the old guard. Your teams are alerted to the violence (or if you have Precog, they are just a little faster) and when you arrive, the young heroes have been decimated. Only their toughest hero and leader remains (kind of a Superboy style brick, was tough enough to survive the initial onslaught), the others incapacitated or dead.

 

The villain is defeated and the day is saved. But the youngsters are done. If any survived they are in intensive care for a long time and probably never fully recover and certainly never don their costumes and fight crime again.

 

The leader remains. He's in a fit of self loathing, and trying to hide from the world....Of course he has vast potential.

 

What do you do? Comfort him? Take him under your wing? Kick him when he's down? Inquiring Chad's want to know.

[Comic]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Tell him if he's lucky, if he's made of the stuff of a real hero, it'll hurt just as much next time, and the time after that, every time. And he'll honor the sacrifice the fallen were willing to make by living up to the highest ideals they represented.

 

Of course, if he's unlucky, then he'll let it sour and twist him, and I'll have to hunt him down and lock him up, as my way to honor the sacrifices my own fallen comrades have made.

 

If that doesn't work, I'll make up something else.

[Drhoz]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Assuming that his teammates didn't realise the kind of advice Vitus was likely to offer, and stopped him, he would lead the young turk off to one side, and spin him a few home truths.

 

"Look, boy. I lost teammates all the time. Mauled by panthers, possessed by archfiends, drained alive by the spectres of the dead. Hell, I never found out what happened to some of them! I think one got eaten by a god.

 

Anyway, it's not like you're the only 'only survivor' ever - I'm been the sole one walking away at least, oh, four times now. It's not like it's caused ME any long-term mental harm.

 

Maybe you feel a bit useless, trying to take down something down something outside your experience class, but there's nothing stopping you going after small fry, and getting a little revenge on the enemy in a general sense.

 

Buy yourself a black suit and mask, and go fry a few drug dealers a night. It burns off your frustrations beautifully - I'll even give you a few tips on how to find them, and how to dispose of the remains."

 

and if that doesn't stop him being a complete waste of skin, or I can't think of any other uses for him, then I wash my hands of the situation.

[OctoberRaven]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Mr. Nonsense: Have a bobblehead doll! Everyone loves bobblehead dolls! And by the way, if you take a swing, you'll miss horribly. I know.

 

Shift: Take him under my wing. Mold his anger into a positive.

 

Emerald Dragon: Kid, you got your whole life ahead of you. Don't screw it up by being a bad guy. Trust me, you'll regret it.

 

October Raven: Show him what his life will be like if he becomes a villain, show him what his life will be like if he stays a hero. Let him choose.

 

Tetsuhana: No good comes from thinking irrationally. Calm yourself down, pay respects to your fallen friends.

[Legatus]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

If the survivor is a girl and she potential she might be adopted by the First Ladies. If it is a young boy, he'll have to search for another team.

But advice comes at no prize:

 

Primadonna: "Let me sing a tune for you!"

 

Primaballerina: "I'll show you the way to inner peace via long-term meditation and expressional dancing."

 

Diva: "Your teammates are all dead. What a desperate situation! You must feel so aweful and lonely. But I can negotiate a deal with the tabloids, so you can tell your story and make some bucks. And don't worry, tomorrow you will feel better. I promise." (enters his mind to repair damage)

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

The leader remains. He's in a fit of self loathing, and trying to hide from the world....Of course he has vast potential.

 

What do you do? Comfort him? Take him under your wing? Kick him when he's down? Inquiring Chad's want to know.

 

Black Cat - In reference to the downed teammates that are still alive - 8d6 healing.

She would take the leader under her wing, and invite him to join the team as a provisionary member. To get through his pain, she would go into the mistakes she has made, and how they were huge too. She;d make him her psersonalproject to help - not just because he is a powerful super, but because he is a friend (or acquaintance) who needs someone to be there.

[Karmakaze]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Bolt, in her campaign, wound up retiring from hero work after accidentally racking up a body count (none of it was her fault - just some really unlucky dice rolls, but her Code vs Killing couldn't take it). She wound up working on her Ph.D. and only coming out of retirement for major crossover events (er... big emergencies, that is.) and occasional mentoring. Her advice would run, "Look, take some time off. The spandex thing is the obvious thing to do with your powers, but it's not the only thing. You'd be amazed how many ways there are to do good in the world that don't involve hitting people. Give yourself time to heal, and then put yourself on call for search and rescue work. Volunteer to build low-income housing (that power set should really cut down on construction time and costs). After all that, if you still want to go back into the field, just be careful. Everyone makes mistakes and all you can do is learn from them and go on."

[incrdbil]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Hornet curses himself for not talking to them enough to prevent this in the first place. He's taken up the art of supergroup leadership just as much as science, and he knows villains, powers, tactics, psychology, and probably saw this coming. Feeling ashamed he couldn't prevent this, he would do all he could to help the survivor recover physically and psychologically. He'd tell him the real tragedy would be for the city to lose another Hero. He'd want him to recover, but getting back to the fight as soon as possible is a very valid goal.

 

Hornet also checks to the battlefield--after all, there's 'dead' and 'presumed dead'. Hornet knows 'presumed dead' usually means 'alive somewhere'. To the rest of his team..well, this bloody attack on such a young team won't go unpunished. Chicago is AKA Heroes turf when its all said and done, and nobody gets away like this. He unleashes the lmits he'splaced on Crossfire when it comes to dirty deeds, and there is a full scale hunting by the rest of the team to bring these villains to justice, then a life behind bars.

 

Blaze is more, well tough love. He knows he has friiends better at the consoling and helping. He gets the kid to safety, tells him that in the big fight, sometime you take losses, and Quitting won't make it easier. He stosp there, because Blaze knows his usual style just wont help this kid. Blaze will hunt down the villains, with no mercy, though in his own sort of primitive way he might invite the Survivor to join in finishing off the killers of his team, unless he's one of those namby-pamby 'fair trial and jury' types.

 

Seer He holds his private thoughts about the foolishness of youth. He's a mentalist, so he'll assay the mental condition of the survivor, and try to do what immediate help he can, then find the best source of long term care. Seer's not making any commitments to anyone outside of the small circle of friends that comprise his team, the few people in the world he trusts to any degree. Since the team is mobile, they won't be around long enough to help, but if they have some time to spare, Seer wouldn't be opposed to checking for other survivors or finding out where the killers are.

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

The leader remains. He's in a fit of self loathing, and trying to hide from the world....Of course he has vast potential.

 

What do you do? Comfort him? Take him under your wing? Kick him when he's down? Inquiring Chad's want to know.

 

Well, of course, a lot of this depends on whether or not it was a threat that more experienced team would have been able to handle without similar casualties, which isn't so clear. Was their wipeout a matter of taking on more than they could chew without thinking about it, or of facing off against somebody who'd have wiped the floor with anybody who'd taken their place?

 

After all - Kid Heroes get their tails handed to them by The Monster or Grond, it's a bit different from getting it from, say, Doctor Destroyer or Takofanes.

 

What scale of failure are we looking at?

[Enforcer84]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Well, of course, a lot of this depends on whether or not it was a threat that more experienced team would have been able to handle without similar casualties, which isn't so clear. Was their wipeout a matter of taking on more than they could chew without thinking about it, or of facing off against somebody who'd have wiped the floor with anybody who'd taken their place?

 

After all - Kid Heroes get their tails handed to them by The Monster or Grond, it's a bit different from getting it from, say, Doctor Destroyer or Takofanes.

 

What scale of failure are we looking at?

It's a big threat a multiple superteam level dude.

 

Kids didn't recognize the level of the threat until it was too late. This makes their tactic of not alerting the other heroes in town seem foolish.

[hfergus]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Volt - Encourage them, maybe take them under his wing "You messed up not letteing us know. Congratulations, you are human, and now more experienced. The only way to never make a mistake is to never do anything, and that is the biggest mistake of all. Do not make another by giving up or getting vengeful. Learn from your mistake, do not let the dead die in vain."

 

Olorin - Probably the same as Volt, if finally not so ignorant of earth culture, he'd almost certainly take them under his wing. He'd also heal any near death. "Son (or daughter if talking to a female), you done messed up. Welcome to the human race. Do not get depressed and with draw. I did, and thousands died because I did, including my third wife. I am 747 years old and have made many mistakes. I have lost everyone I have ever loved, and will do so until I die, either by finally aging or being killed. Notice I am almost always smiling. Life is a gift, do not waste it. And now you have more experience, and we need that. Talk with me, and I'll let you know more of my big mistakes. Once you feel up to it, let's plan how to get the bad guy, ok?"

 

Black Tiger "I wish you had told us; this probably would have ended better. Stop felling sorry for yourself and buck up. If it helps, consider "Vengence is a dish that is best served cold."

 

Futurian would be encouraging overall after he had his say, but would not take them under his wing. "Knowing what is going to happen isn't all it's cracked up to be, is it kid?"

["V"]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Jack-A-Dandy: Is the boy pretty? If so he'll find a new mentor who will teach him to be ruthless and heartless... And in terms of supporting the young fellow through his guilt: "Yes, you made mistakes. Perhaps you personally. And people you liked and loved were hurt or killed as a consequence. If you make mistakes like that again the same thing will happen. So don't. No, the universe isn't fair, but it can be a lot of fun if you stop moping around the place. You've already shed a thousand tears and not one of your friends has come back to life, and I can guarantee that you can shed ten times that and nothing more will happen. You'll dehydrate a little. Oh for God's sake, not storming out again? Well, while you're on your feet open up another bottle of Moet, there's a good fellow."

[Drhoz]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Jack-A-Dandy: Is the boy pretty? If so he'll find a new mentor who will teach him to be ruthless and heartless... And in terms of supporting the young fellow through his guilt: "Yes' date=' you made mistakes. Perhaps you personally. And people you liked and loved were hurt or killed as a consequence. If you make mistakes like that again the same thing will happen. So don't. No, the universe isn't fair, but it can be a lot of fun if you stop moping around the place. You've already shed a thousand tears and not one of your friends has come back to life, and I can guarantee that you can shed ten times that and nothing more will happen. You'll dehydrate a little. Oh for God's sake, not storming out again? Well, while you're on your feet open up another bottle of Moet, there's a good fellow."[/quote']

 

*thumbs up* would rep, but...

[Blue]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Uncle Slam: "You've been blessed with ability. You're either going to let it go to waste for a good long while because you ran into something that was more than you could handle, like I did. Or you're going to go home, get a good night's sleep, come back and help work up some tactics for dealing with this threat. I've been around a long time and I know... if you're a hero, those are only two possibilities."

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Give yourself time to heal' date=' and then put yourself on call for search and rescue work. Volunteer to build low-income housing (that power set should really cut down on construction time and costs). After all that, if you still want to go back into the field, just be careful. Everyone makes mistakes and all you can do is learn from them and go on."[/quote']

 

Probably the best answer here. Repped.

 

Also pretty much what Freedom would do. She would add, "You didn't know enough going in, child; you were caught in the chase and the thrill. You can learn from your error, or you can fight it. If you learn, then you will seek knowledge and training, so that you can act intelligently instead of reacting swiftly. If you fight it, then you will continue reacting -- and, in the end, fail at being human, much less a hero. Intelligence is the glory of God, and self-control the mark of a human. Seek all, and be willing to act wisely upon them, and you may yet become a hero ..."

[ghost-angel]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Wow, first WWYCD thread in a long time that didn't attempt to railroad characters with some percieved moral quandary. I'd Rep you E84 but it seems I've not spread it around enough.

 

Enigma: "It's not the falling down that matters in the end. It's what you do when you get back up." And she'd likely help him to his feet and take him under her wing, having lost both her father and mentor in her youth she's used to climbing back out of tragedy to face another go at it.

[Victim]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Shooting Star is of little use here - she doesn't really know what she's doing either, especially in areas of actually being a hero. And she'd be somewhat relieved that she wasn't taken out in the fighting too - so far she's 2/2 on nearly dying. "I'm not sure what you were supposed to do. Even if you let us know right away, we've kind of been busy dealing with another mastermind, and because of him there aren't lots of other options for help right now - if there ever was a time for you to step up and handle things on your own, now was it. And since the initial attacks were the worst, even a small delay on our part would have ended up with the same result. I'm sorry. Sometimes you just lose. At least you didn't run away."

[jkwleisemann]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Having thought it over a bit....

 

Void: Would probably take the kid in. Hardly the first super he's helped out, and God knows this kid's more effective than some of them. As for general advice, probably something along the lines of:

 

"You're right; you screwed up not calling for help. There's a *lot* bigger mistakes you could've made though. Your friends were hurt, badly... Darkchild's helping with that now, but at least one of them didn't end up *becoming* that thing you were fighting. Come on, let's get the friends a hospital can help into one... then let's talk."

 

That night, over some *very* stiff drinks (doesn't matter if the kid's underage - Void needs them if nobody else does, on this topic) he'd go over just *why* he's bankrolling a team of relatively inexperienced heroes, and where the old Colton Defenders went. If finding out that one of the pros saw his (now ex-)fiancee sadistically murder his former colleagues after being possessed by an Ancient Evil from Beyond doesn't help take a bit of the edge off, there's probably not that much that will.

 

Mr. Norton Hyde: Gets dragged off before he can do any *more* harm, hopefully. Otherwise we could be looking at a new supervillain in the making by the time he was done toying with the kid's brain. That, or 'hiding from the world' turning into 'heading off somewhere to find out just how hard it is to commit suicide when you can't just shoot yourself.'

 

Sparky: Hopefully, our Kid Hero here likes dogs, because about all Sparky could do would be try to be supportive and listen to him hash out the problems... the good news is, dogs are good for that.

[Hermit]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

So a young and inexperienced super team has moved into the city. They are hipper, better looking, more fun, and at the moment, more popular than your team. Over the course of several adventures you get to know them; there's a lot to like. They are brave, helpful, concerned with protection and property damage. They are also smart, and work well together. One of their member is a precognative and they often get to trouble first. They contact you and other experienced hero teams before tackling foes.

However, they are full of the hubris of youth and their inexperience shows on occasion. Also, as of late they seem to resent the "Old Guard" showing up to save the day.

 

Then one horrible day, tragedy strikes. A terror of undetermined power (or possibly a mastervillain from your campaign) appears. The youngsters, confident that they can hand the situation do not contact the old guard. Your teams are alerted to the violence (or if you have Precog, they are just a little faster) and when you arrive, the young heroes have been decimated. Only their toughest hero and leader remains (kind of a Superboy style brick, was tough enough to survive the initial onslaught), the others incapacitated or dead.

 

The villain is defeated and the day is saved. But the youngsters are done. If any survived they are in intensive care for a long time and probably never fully recover and certainly never don their costumes and fight crime again.

 

The leader remains. He's in a fit of self loathing, and trying to hide from the world....Of course he has vast potential.

 

What do you do? Comfort him? Take him under your wing? Kick him when he's down? Inquiring Chad's want to know.

 

Okay, first of all.. good WWYCD.

 

Aquatic-Aquatic is a bleeding heart to the degree that it is almost a running gag. He'd probably ask the OSC to help the survivors with therapy, and might even try to foot the bill as best as he could if required. He would visit the ex-leader and try to keep his spirits up, but he's not really suited towards it. Maybe he could get the rest of the Covenent to take the kid in, or push the lad towards the Shadow Guard (A group of teen heroes) if this wasn't the Shadow Guard to begin with. Fortunately, one of the more impressive NPC heroes in this game setting is also good with kids/teens and I think Aquatic would get pointed to him, and thus could point the surviving teens to him.

 

Doctor Sanguine He might find the youth a bit obnoxious at first, but as he grew to know them, that would soften. When the disaster hits, well, after the fact, he'd use his magics to restore and heal the youngsters as best he could. If he had, by this time, grown to know the lad well enough, he'd take him up to Omega Six's base where numerous survivors of Detroit work and ask if he'd like to help them. Sometimes the wounded work wonders at helping each other heal, at least in their souls, and the fellow would see he was not alone.

 

More later

[Badger]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Badger- Having his own painful past and failure to protect loved ones (though he was only a child then) he would probably take him on as a pupil. Though he would be a bit merciless in the training possibly even goading him with the poor guy's failure with intent to push him to a new level (if he is strong in resolve, and serious in redeeming himself, and continuing to do right). This is a war, and we have to know what this guy is made of, if we are to trust him.

 

Maybe a bit too much of tough love, though, I guess. But, he kind of considers training to become a better fighter the best med for the psyche (if not out and out going out and pummeling a bad guy)

[Narratio]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Crimson King.

Take him underwing. Help him build the memorials to his fallen team mates, make sure they're honored as they should be. Ensure that the press get the right story and stop the slanted ones about brash, youthfully folly... or try to mitigate the effects. Show him where he want wrong. Gerat Potential has to be put back on track.

[Amber Nytstar]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Flying Kittens

If the Kittens are still hanging around while the adult heroes are taking care of the casualties, they would try to cheer the leader up by telling some of the mistakes they've made before the adults took the trio under their wing. This would probably start a small oneupmanship contest until Trisk brings up the first time the Kittens faced this mastervillain, at which point he'll also admit that they only survived through bad luck on the villain's part, help from the older heroes, and Trisk's own realization that the Kittens were seriously outgunned. At this point it should become evident to the teen that the Kittens are younger than he is and are the "albatrosses" around the "Old Guard's" neck.

Over the next few days the kids would try to stay in contact with the teen, trying to convince him to, at least, continue helping people out by volunteering at a local hospital and keep him from falling into a fit of self-loathing.

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

The first thing Sir Johnstone does is get his new apprentice British citizenship. If he's going to be an apprentice to Sir Johnstone, he's d**n well going to be British!

 

Then he'd make the new apprentice train and train hard. As in Batman training the first Robin hard. But he'd be training him in butlering, crimefighting and how to be a gentleman, English butler style. If nothing else, the hard work should distract him from the emotional pain and guilt.

 

He'd follow that off with giving him the duty of founding the second generation of his dead team, preferably with any survivors, in honour of 'those who came before'. The apprentice will be expected not only to lead the team, but also to train the team should they need it, and to clean and maintain the team's headquarters and or vehicles.

 

At this point, Sir Johnstone would back off. He'd still visit the team headquarters once a month for a year, then once a year. When he visited, he would expect a perfectly clean base and a perfectly well-behaved team leader. If that was what he found, he would fight the team leader. If the team leader fought well enough, he would leave his congratulations and then go.

 

If any aspect of the visit went badly, he would just disapprove. By now that should be all it would take for the team leader to redouble his efforts.

 

Throughout the training he would remind the apprentice that he can, at any time, choose to stop the training and the visits. He also reminds the apprentice that he has a choice. He can be a super-hero or he can be a super-villain. Sir Johnstone doesn't mind which he chooses, but he reminds the apprentice that if he becomes a super-villain, they may end up fighting on opposite sides of a conflict. The fear of that should keep the apprentice on the side of 'God and Her Majesty'.

[DataPacRat]

Re: Wwycd Oops!

 

Mike the Demoness: "Look, I'm probably the /last/ person you should be talking to about this sort of thing. If you want to be tortured for a while as punishment for what you did or didn't do, I can probably help out with that, but really, it gets old pretty fast. If you want to try joining the fallen heroes, well, you don't need /me/ for that."

 

"You really want my advice? Okay. If you haven't already done it, figure out what your goals are, what sort of life you'll be happy leading, and do what you need to do to work towards it. You decided once before that you wanted to help people so much you were willing to risk your life to do it. Is that what you still plan on doing? If so, do what it takes to get back to it - counseling, a new costume, a seance to talk to those who also took the risk, whatever. If it's /not/ what you want to do, then go do whatever it is that /does/ bring you closer to your personal goals."