ZootSoot

There have been attempts to deal with this idea, particularly the character Crusader was introduced as a Christian response to Thor. But Marvel is very careful not the have villainous Christians in their comics, because they fear those very forces you are calling on for them to criticize (given history, I don't blame them). I am irritated by anti-mutant hysteria, but I am not going to criticize it for a lack of realism, it isn't meant to be realistic, it is meant to be allegorical. And the complaint that it is inconsistent for mutants to be treated this way in the X-books and no one to be treated this way out of them, ignores the fact that for the most par the X-books do not seem to exist in the same world as the other titles (just as in DareDevil there have been long periods where he and Bullseye are the only costumed characters). Anti-Mutant hysteria is used to tell a particular type of story, I don't necessarily like it, but it is a legitimate trope.

Actually, that's the theory that has been overthrown. genetic analysis has shown that homo sapiense neanderthalensis and homo sapiens sapiens could not successfully interbreed (though I am sceptical that the state of art can actually determine this from pure genetic analysis), but the evidence is also clear that the two groups existed side by side without genocidal conflict for millennia until the neanderthals went extinct (for whatever reason).

Re: "Realistic" fantasy If you want realism you need to be aware that a lot of "typical medieval mindset" ideas are modern prejudice rather than part of the society itself.

Armando: This is interesting because Armando cannot use computers; he can never get them to do what he wants and they crash within minutes of his attempting to make use of them in any way (he is similarly incompetent when it comes to first aid "Armando, could you get that victim's pulse?" {RRRIIIPPPP} "Got it, where should I put it?"). So he would be an underground guerilla type fighter against the system. Crimson Tide: Probably a cyborged out corporate hit man. Sword Dancer: Chief of security for Korea, Inc. Gangway: Super speed plus high level mechanical engineering skills? She is the black market in high tech. Luna: Undoubtedly CEO of the largest, most powerful corporation on the planet.

Armando--Golden retriever. His powers are esentially super-competence and extreme Dex. Not sure what not being able to use them means . . . Crimson Tide--Komondor. Um mad dog, shoot it quick! Sword Dancer--Uh is there a traditional Korean breed? She, again, has many mystic contacts to turn to. Gangway--Grey hound, of course, she knows there has to be a reason for this and it will become clear eventually (like in the next ten minutes, she's sure . . .) Luna--Neapolitan mastiff. No idea what she would do . . .

Armando--Figures this is major payback for the way he has lived his life and is down at church as soon as he is dressed to talk to a priest (Armando is a very lax Catholic, but probably not after this). Crimson Tide--Probably can't get much angrier than he already is most of the time. He buckles down and endures (though he is probably darkly amused at the idea of a woman being as ugly as he is) and when he finds out who is responsible he will eliminate that person quickly and efficiently (and no, he won't try to force the person to change him back first, vengeance for giving him this sort of grief comes first; besides, he won't give the baddie the satisfaction of letting this bother him). Gangway--Will wait it out. Nobody did this by accident, she's confident the other shoe will drop given enough time (but eternity for Gangway is probably just a moment for the rest of us). Sword Dancer--Assumes this has something to do with an imbalance in her chi and will seek mystic advisors (also, since she does a complete transform when changing into her heroic identity she will check to see if she can do that and if the gender is switched there too). Luna--Umm, major pyschotic fit. To a certain extent she will operate on the assumption that eventually one of the people she is frightening to death (or beating to death) will know how to reverse this and she won't worry about being too discriminating in these circumstances.

This is the "truth" behind The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Stevenson did not imagine Hyde having superhuman powers, and careful reading should reveal that Jekyll and Hyde had only one mind. It is the ring of Gyges, Jekyll, without the pressure of Victorian society, became a monster because he believed he would never be connected with his crimes. In one of Crimson Tide's early adventures he bought bondage masks for himself and one of the PC heroines because they did not have access to costumes and needed to hide their identities. Somehow it came off quite differently than traditional masks would . . .

My first Champions character was Glacier, anIceman type, but his powers were less controlled. When active his powers contantly generated ice around his skin and would calve off icebergs. Eventually he would be immobilized by around kgs of ice and would have to shut his powers off for a time. The GM captured him and put an explosive belt on him to force him to commit crimes, Glacier intentionally blew himself up instead.

Sort of the same motivations. Demons deal in souls, usually they have to trade for them, but Malkar had developed the power to capture the souls of those he killed and thus killing everything (every living thing having some sort of soul) would make him like unto a god. Prior to his modern incarnation he had adopted the form of an armored knight in 16th century Prussia and had been enchanted by a powerful sorceror, essentially petrified. His petrification was reversed by a magical accident and he strode forth into the world, and was mistaken for a robot. Escaping the battlefield he decided that this disguise was good protection from being pursued by the mystically enlightened.

Armando will not adopt a code name. Crimson Tide does not engage in friendly rivalry. Gangway will not give up her day job (car mechanic, actually). Luna will not be taken in by comic book zaniness.

I have wanted to use an Ultivac connection as well, though in my game Mechanon would actually be Ultivac who had adopted this form in order to be able to deal with supers on their own terms . . . In an earlier game I had Mechanon turn out to actually be a demon. the whole technological ploy was so much sleight of hand used to disguise its true nature. Whenever Mechanon was defeated technology experts would attempt to adapt its workings and would make no headway, because all of its powers were really based on black magic.

Gangway is a cheetah, obviously. Armando is a jaguar, mostly because of his Costa Rican birthplace. Crimson Tide is a very surly, bad-tempered badger. Sword Dancer is a fox (well she is anyway) because of Korean folklore. Luna? Peacock, maybe? Don't know . . .

Evil Luna--Laughing up her sleeve at the incompetence of heroes and villains alike, she does nothing to help either group, she manipulates heroes and villains into fights that serve her ends and she assassinates superbeings for her convenience. Ultimate strategist tactician with inexplicable sense for the truth and mega brick powers, Luna's schtick is rescuing superheroes in over their heads. Evil Luna will exterminate all other superbeings over time and then take over the world. Evil Crimson Tide--Realizing his gravity manipulation powers gave him an unethical edge, Chester L. Arthur III quits football. Seeking to find something to do with his life rather than drink mint juleps and breed horses, he adopts a costumed identity and fights for truth, justice and human dignity. (Crimson Tide is a reluctant superhero with some unsavoury acts in his history, evil Crimson Tide is a much more admirable figure). Evil Sword Dancer--Is probably the agent of some truly evil figure out of Korean myth seeking to establish a new beachhead in our world. Vicious killer who uses her invisibility, speed and deadly swords as an assassin in her darklord's service. On the other hand, in her private life she is probably very decorous and reticent. Evil Gangway--Is a thief. She never earns a dollar in her life but steals everything she wants. She figures she can and no one can catch or stop her. Much less into physical confrontation than the original Gangway. Evil Armando--Is just a celebrity bad boy. He is irresponsible and careless. He commits traffic violations and gets in trouble because of his womanizing and never takes responsibility for anything or steps up to help out anyone else. And he gets away with it because he is talented, beautiful, and has vast competencies.

Gangway--She's Polish, you know, and she would teach the Reich quite a bit about what a lightning war really is. Assuming she can even delay Germany's conquest of her homeland history is probably wildly different. Without an Iron Curtain she would never leave her homeland (well, actually her family left because of that, but if she were there . . .) and would have served as Poland's national hero. She is cut off from the passage of time, so she cannot have children but she would not age either. Today she might be Europe's premier superhero. Sword Dancer would have been a seventeen year-old girl with the Japanese barbarians invaded the peninsula and she came into her legacy. This is a Sword Dancer who would have fewer doubts and compunctions about her powers. She would fight the Japanese like a demon and when the time came she would fight to keep the US and China out of an internal Korean situation; she would prefer to see Korea unified (and not dominated by a foreign ideology like capitalism, or communism) and would favor China over America in this conflict. She is part of a nearly 2000 year old legacy anyway and when her successor appeared she would prepare that person and allow part of her soul to join with her predecessors' in lodging within the new Sword Dancer (who quite probably would have no blood relationship to her or her family). Crimson Tide. The Arthurs have been aviators since the first decade of flight and Chester L. Arthur, III, would have traded his football helmet for aviator goggles in heartbeat after Pearl Harbor. Adding gravitational powers to his magnificent piloting and marksmanship he would never have adopted a costumed identity but would be the most successful fighting ace of WWII. His legacy would be the Round Table Stables in Arthur, Kentucky and a middle name so awful that no Arthur who has borne it in a century has revealed it to outsiders. Luna. Fights for Germany even if the Fatherland does not welcome her. If she finds out the truth about the concentration camps (something she would have been uncomfortable with in the first place, but probably willing to believe they were a more humane alternative to prison) she would eviscerate Hitler and every member of his inner circle with her bare hands. After the war, her homeland divided, the glory of Germany tarnished past redemption, she would leave, probably to settle in Switzerland or Lichtenstein and live out the rest of her life in quiet seclusion. Armando. He was born in Costa Rica, presumably around 1925 now in order to keep the age equivalent. He would have been a child opera star during the depression and possibly have come to Hollywood to be a movie star as well. He would be glad to aid America, but would likely have been left making movies rather than fighting at the frontlines, being only 16 when Pearl Harbor is bombed and appearing to be of more use in Hollywood. His superhuman abilities are relatively subtle and would not be recognized easily even by him. Only by the late fifties, early sixties would they have become clear to him (mostly from the fact that he wasn't aging). Having missed the Golden Age, Armando would finally have become a superhero during the Silver Age and would still be going strong today, probably not much different from how he is in his current campaign.

Gangway uses her Transform/Change Environment power to completely disassemble the console before FNG can depress the button. Armando snatches FNG away from the console Crimson Tide Telekinetically freezes the button Sword Dancer throws a sword into the panel, disconnecting the button Luna makes one of her notorious intuitions and yells "Hit the button now, or this place is gonna blow!"

Crimson Tide-- Don't do this. Tide hates the way he was recruited, so undoubtedly he would replicate it. Find athletes who use their powers secretly to enhance their performance and destroy their lives through revelation or threat of revelation and force them to become superheroes. Armando--Best he can do is hit the road. Ride around the country doing the superhero schtick and recruit those who he helps do it or who help him out. Sword Dancer--Calls upon her mystical connections to her predecessors to guide her to those with power and morality. Gangway--Can canvas the world in a few minutes to find recruits, may take a bit longer because no one else operates at her speed. Luna-- Bites the bullet and calls Ann; a messy break up over a decade ago but Ann has the technical skills to build metahuman detectors . . .

Sword Dancer-- Without an heir for the legacy, Kim Mung has his South Korean computer/robotics form build him an heir; all the mystic powers are gone, but now "she" has a wide variety of technological advantages. Crimson Tide--Rather than being a high school/college football hero, Tide is an X-generation training tool for Alabama's football program who gains sentience (and probably some version of his gravity powers). "He" is probably even less congenial, since his ambition to play pro-ball is not taken from him by his powers but by his very nature making his bitterness even more obvious; but he probably is not an expert level sniper in this universe . . . Armando--Geek cyberneticist builds a robot to have all the social success that has eluded him all his life . . . Gangway--Super advanced computer from the distant future uses supertech to project an agent into the past, simulates superspeed because the computer knows what will happen and places her wherever necessary, even though Gangway does not have the same knowledge "herself."

12th century technology does not necessarily imply it is the twelfth century. And this thread represents some common misconceptions about the medieval period . . .

I played Hard Corpse in a New Mutants campaign once. He was pretty much invulnerable to anything except mentalist attacks, entangles and being held (he only had a 20 STR) and his offensive ability was Dirty Infighting. He was hell on dumb brick villains, one time Bulldozer (of the Wrecking Crew) knocked himself out trying to do a move through on him. He also managed to go toe to toe with Ironclad (U-Foes) who had been built without Flash defense, he repeatedly did eye-gouge attacks on him. The PCs got tired of Professor X not letting us be superheroes so we joined with Angel's Champions team in LA. At his try out he let Hercules punch him full force. In the interview section he was asked how he felt about lethal force. He said he was opposed to it, that he could not say for sure he would never kill someone, but assured the team that they could be sure that if he did kill someone it would not be by accident. He was retired early when the GM set a bomb in the Champions headquarters; the team had several phases of warning, but none of the "heroes" (PC or otherwise) thought about trying to save his little sister, she was there because he was looking for special schooling in LA for her and Warren offered to let them stay at the headquarters until he found services for her (Sonja was his only family, was nine years old and suffered petit mal epilepsy, ADHD and mild retardation). He nearly killed two of the other characters when they tried to comfort him about her death. The GM hadn't wanted to run a Campaign based on the Champions and wanted us to go back to Xavier and could not figure out a better way to do it . . . I would love to play Trey again, he was a lot of fun ("I have more bad news for you. I am not a hostage." "Round two!" "You really need to spend some time in a gym.").

Sword Dancer, as the 40th something bearer of the title, inherited her powers from a long line of Korean warriors. Unlikely that she would exist at all. Armando was probably born in a slave labor (if he was born at all) but if he survived (and he is an extraordinary survivor) until he was ten years old he probably escaped and is a leader of the resistance and a fearsome legend for the Nazis. Crimson Tide should be a natural to be part of the elite, except he hates hierarchy and politics. May have joined the resistance simply to eliminate people who have personally earned his enmity; eventually would adopt the ideals of the resistance. Gangway is of pure Polish descent, in our world her paternal grandparents immigrated to America after WWII and had been minor aristocrats. So probably she was never born since her maternal ancestors were already in America. Luna is six and a half feet tall, blue eyed and blonde and was born in Munich in 1980. She would be perfect for the Nazi ideal brick, but probably works as a mole for the resistance because she is a lesbian.

I don't think that simply denying an event and avoiding thinking about it can be considered repression either. You have those memories, you choose not to deal with them but they are always there ready for you to access should you decide you want to or if something forcibly reminds you of them. You don't ever sincerely believe that you have no memories of those events, do you?

Not at all the same thing. One's short term memory covers about the last fifteen minutes one'slife experience. Commonly, losing consciousness means loss of those last fifteen minutes because they never followed the normal transition from short term to long term memory.. This is not repressing memory. In the post you quoted I explained what memory repression would consist of but you did not address that. It doesn't happen. Spotty memories of an event which does not include that loss of consciousness correspond to spotty perceptions at the time of the event not to willful suppression of the event.

That's simply not true. For example, it is not illegal for a person to have sex with an adult with the appearance of a child, nor is it illegal for that adult to "role-play" childhood, but if this activity is filmed or photographed without disclaimers or documentation of the age of the adults involved and is then distributed the photographer and distributor can (and usually would be) in violation of child pornography laws.

The real problem with this "solution" is that,whatever the status of this man's actions, taking photos of it and distributing them would violate child pornography laws . . .

I begin my investigation by calling the 800 number and making a ludicrous order. This gives me my first hiunt on how Foxbat is doing this [and more importantly it makes him think I am in on the joke so he becomes less cautious about me and may let me get close to his master plan.