Whitewings

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) *bump*

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Thank you. I choose Dawnstar

Re: WWYCD: the mermaid Well, Liane would assume that she was connected with a friend of hers, and attempt to speak to her in Lemurian.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Josiah Bender was a blacksmith, and a good one. Not an artistic sort, not really, but very good at his work. It had been a slow week... slow couple of weeks, actually, and he'd taken the chance to get ahead on the demand for nails and shoes, and for hinges and other common bits of ironmongery; he'd been doing OK until the rains came. Heavy rains, delaying his usual shipment of coal. Nothing to do for it, really, but wait around until the delivery guys could get through. Then the wagon came. A real fancy-talkin' guy needed his horse shod; he had a sick wife, had to get to Kansas City as quick as he could. Now Josiah didn't have much book learning, and he didn't talk fancy, but he spoke the truth. Without heat, he couldn't rightly work iron, now could he? The stranger agreed, but asked him to try anyway, and showed him his wife, the poor thing. Pale as milk, didn't look fit to last the night. Josiah sighed heavy, and said he'd do what he could, and went back in. The fancy-talker brought the horse in, and Josiah made the measurements, and went to work. He knew it was pointless, but... he really did want to help, and maybe, Lord willing, he could bend the metal by sheer strength. So he clamped it in a vice, and put a bar against one end, and hit that bar with the biggest sledge he could use in one hand. And the metal bent. Not just a teeny bit, it bent a whole lot - near an eighth of an inch. He hit again, and checked it against the horse's hoof. Perfect! So he hammered the new shoe on, and went to his little house. The fancy-talker moved on with his wife the next morning, but Josiah still didn't have any coal. So he went to the smithy and thought. He was a strong man, sure, but there was just no way one hit could have opened that shoe up like that. Something mighty strange had happened. Mighty strange. So he picked up a piece of rod stock, and clamped it, and pulled with all his might on one end. And it bent! That just plain could not have happened, but it had. He knew his trade, he knew his strength, and that bar hadn't been any easier to move than usual. So, with nothing else to do right then, he figured to try a little fancy-work on a bit of scrap iron. He put a little end-of into a vice, and took up a chisel and hammer and started to tap on it, and pretty soon he had a nice little picture of a shepherd girl and a couple of sheep, like it was straight out of a picture book. He looked at his tools, and the pretty little picture, and knew he couldn't possibly have done that with those. So he picked up the bent rod, and started molding it with just his hands, until he had a statue of a girl, without no clothes. It made him blush, seeing what he'd made, but it was a right pretty statue, like he'd heard was in them fancy museums. By then, it was time to make himself some dinner, and when he meant to bed that night, he added a little special thanks to it. Pretty soon, the whole town knew about what he could do. He joked once he was like a living forge, and the name stuck. So now he's called Force, and that pretty little gal Martha's starting to take an interest in his fancy-work, and maybe in him. Word's spreading, too; that fancy-talker's back. With his wife, too.

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues In the Lensman novels, telepathy is routinely used in trials involving serious crimes. But the Lensmen are, without exception, both uncorrupt and incorruptible, and what's most interesting to me is this statement by Kimball Kinnison, who is the most respected and admired of the Grey Lensmen, the most respected and admired (and in some quarters feared) of all the Lensmen, themselves the most prestigious of police and military forces in their universe. He's just been informed that two suspects are on trial for a murder, "a real sick-making one," and both have refused to be examined by Lens, which is entirely within their rights. His response is "Not surprising. A lot of perfectly innocent people can't stand the thought of being Lensed." The same attitude generally applies to thought-screens and similar protective devices: Yes, criminals can and do use them, but so do lots of legitimate people, and for perfectly good reasons. Lensmen aren't the only telepaths around, after all. In case you're wondering, he does examine both men telepathically, but he uses some showmanship to bypass the innocent man's fears (and he has Invisible Power Effects on his Telepathy) and as a Grey Lensman he's answerable only to his own sense of responsibility and personal morals, ethics and conscience. That's actually the main purpose of the Grey Lensmen, so far as I can tell: To do whatever is needed to serve Civilization, even if it's not legally permissible, and no Grey Lensman is ever given that rank who is even arguably unworthy of it.

Re: Dumbest thing... It's not new. It goes back to 1979, actually, and has come up since then at least once. I can't comment on how dumb the current implementation might or might not be, since I don't follow Spider-Man.

Re: WWYCD? Faerie Tale theatre Champion Wind probably wouldn't even notice: She's already a four way archetype of the hero with a double life, the warrior of the light, and the magician's daughter on *both* sides. Titania would be a particularly flamboyant Trickster. Phoenix... I have no idea.

Re: Humans are "Special"

Re: Humans are "Special" Here's a thought that I don't think has ever been used: Humans are special because of their voices. In real life, there are no other animals that can create the sheer variety of sounds we can, at least not that I can think of, so it's not inconceivable that alien species can normally communicate with only small numbers of other species: One race talks in whistles, which the trillers can approximate well enough to be understood. The trillers can be approximated by the high croakers, who can approximate the low croakers. The low croakers can imitate, somewhat, the clackers, who can, with effort, manage a rough approximation of the chirrers, who can sort-of manage the squeaker languages. Then along come the humans, who can croak, and trill, and whistle, and clack, and... Basically, humans are the ultimate go-betweens. *Everyone* can talk to us, and we can talk back.

Re: Humans are "Special" I think it unlikely that a race capable of building large interstellar fleets would be at war with itself, considering the effort and resources required to do so. This does not, however, mean that they'll be peaceful per se, just not busy fighting each other. For a (very) rough analogy, Britain couldn't have built its imperial fleet if the island were a collection of warring tribes, but the Imperial British were certainly not gentle, peaceful, and accepting of other cultures.

Re: The United States is a constitutional monarchy

Re: The United States is a constitutional monarchy I got my figures wrong; my apologies, I really should have looked up a timeline. I recalled the First Continental Congress being after the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution being declared in effect approximately twelve years after that.

Re: The United States is a constitutional monarchy It's often forgotten that after the Revolutionary War, the US' Founding Fathers did not immediately establish a republic; they ruled through a military junta for twelve years while they debated and planned the new nation's government. So how about this: During this time, Washington's advisers convince him to accept the interim title of King George the First of the American States, as a strictly temporary measure to give him and his government some extra legitimacy in the eyes of the foreign monarchies they're dealing with, so they don't seem quite so much of a rabble. Despite misgivings, Washington accepts the interim title, and creates the other founders nobles of suitable rank; these are also interim titles, of course. The ploy works very well, and greatly smooths diplomacy with the European powers. The people as a whole have no problems with it, they don't really care in fact; they're more interested in things like getting farms and factories going, and the titles are all strictly interim, so it's not as though the ideals of the War are being ignored. Not everyone's happy about it, but it's considered, for the most part, tolerable. So far, we have only a minor divergence, one that settles out at the end of the Continental Congress when Washington strips the American "nobles" of their titles and renounces his own title. But what if Washington dies eight or ten years into the Congress, of whatever sickness or injury or whatever? Maybe the others decide to put a new king in his place, and that new king decides that maybe this isn't such a bad idea, having a king and an aristocracy for dealing with foreign powers. So the new nation, by the end of things, has an aristocracy and a monarch. But, since they're still committed to the idea of representative rule, only the King holds any measure of actual, legal power, and he must rule through and with the aid of an elected legislature, including a Prime Minister. In theory, the monarch can do almost anything (there are limits in the Constitution, of course), but in practice, the political costs of tyranny are much too high to pay. So the king is there, And one last thing: The monarchy isn't hereditary; the heir is whoever the current monarch wants it to be. The aristocracy is hereditary, but their titles don't have power attached.

Re: Power up a TV or movie character. ON this line, may I suggest Barbie? Even ignored the licensed versions (Bewitched Barbie, for example), Barbara Millicent Rogers has an *enormous* array of skills and abilities: Scuba diver, rock guitarist, rock vocalist, elementary teacher, doctor, dentist, nurse, infantryman (the short-lived Desert Storm Barbie), fighter pilot (an ill-advised attempt by Mattel to get rid of some of their old GI Joe stock), astronaut, gymnast, ballerina, championship skiier and snowboarder, geisha (yes, there was a geisha Barbie released in Japan) and that's just off the top of my head.

Re: Power up a TV or movie character.

Re: Power up a TV or movie character. I still love his reply when he was asked why the Professor, with his utterly mind-boggling breadth and depth of scientific and technical skills, couldn't fix the Minnow. "If you were on a tropical island with Ginger and Mary-Anne, would you be a in a hurry to fix the boat?"

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Well, as there's only one entry the winner's easy to pick: Nexus. Happily, it's a very good entry, giving an origin, a power set, and at least some sense of personality. You choose the next.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Thank you. And for my next pick, I choose Metamorpho.

Re: The Godzilla Scenario Very true, and the point on which the Broderick film most failed. Gojira, in the original film, isn't just a big monster. Symbolically, he is the sins of Man come back to haunt him, and is defeated not with weapons, but with honour, courage, and self-sacrifice. Though I will give the American version for one thing: Visually, their Godzilla is vastly superior to the original. He's fast, agile, and scary. Now if the script had received the same amount of care and attention, the film could have been truly classic. As it is, though... well, there's a reason it's been nicknamed GINO: Godzilla In Name Only.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) In certain parts of Eastern Europe, orphanages are routinely overcrowded, understaffed, and underfunded. In consequence, even the ones with honest staff who genuinely want the best for their charges are disinclined to inquiring too deeply into prospective parents' backgrounds. A secretive group decided this was a prime opportunity, and under the cover of a "medical screening program" extracted blood and tissue samples from across the region, searching for toddlers with specific markers, then after returning the results (with certain omissions) to the appropriate staff, began adopting these children. Each child went to a respectable middle-class home, and if their adoptive parents were a bit distant, well, it was still an improvement over where they'd been. Once all of the children had learned to walk and talk and to read and write on a basic level, they were taken to a cheery-looking building, where they were told something very special would happen. Each child was told to take a bath, and then go directly to a room where the special surprise would happen. As each child entered a room, the door to that room was closed. They were isolation chambers, soundless and lightless, with padded walls and a carefully controlled air temperature. The children would not be let out no matter much they wailed. Three children got out by opening doors in their minds, and stepping into their bedrooms or back yards. Seven simply blew holes in the walls. Nine cried in their parents' minds to be let out, and were let out. Each child, upon departure, got a nice new set of clothes, and a party with cake and ice cream and games, and was made much of and soothed and praised. But one little girl did none of these things. She made a friend: A scarecrow. Not a scary, lurching Walpurgisnacht scarecrow, but a cheerful, friendly, slightly bumbling scarecrow, like in Wizard of Oz. They talked and played and sang songs, and when the little girl got hungry, the scarecrow said he'd get her something, and vanished. He reappeared in the cafeteria, got some food, and carried it back to the little girl's room - and when he pushed the door open, the girl got her new clothes and party and praise and soothing. The children were taught how to keep their abilities secret, but children are children, and they've used them when they probably shouldn't have. Our girl has sometimes seen other kids with troubles, and sent her friend to help. Being a sad and gloomy sort, her friend is everything she'd like to be: Happy, friendly, cheerful and helpful. And so the living scarecrow is becoming known, and the subject of tales and story, some good, some bad. Slowly, interacting with him is drawing his creator out of her shell.

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Julie Quinn is a mutant, or so the current speculation goes. Her power is... peculiar. She can spin at incredible speed, fast enough to whip up a highly localized tornado if she wishes, but her body cannot endure the strain of such swift rotation, and so when she spins up she also changes, liquefying and spreading out in a fine reddish mist, dispersed through the windstorm. Worse, she cannot spin down until she's exhausted, though she can moderate the strength of the windstorm she becomes. When she spins down, she pulls herself back together and resolidifies, but her clothing is another matter; the change usually shreds or scatters her wardrobe, and so between the two problems her power is very much an option of last resort, to be used only in response to the most dire of needs. Sadly, such needs have arisen a few times, enough that a few photos have been taken of this strange, miniature red tornado.

Re: WWYCD: Egg-olution! Champion Wind would look around at her team-mates, "I put perfectly ordinary mushrooms on the pizza, I swear! Ask Mother!"

Re: Re-Imaged Hero(ines) Tony van Hees wasn't much to look at. A little short, a trifle scrawny, average looking overall. Nothing repellent or ugly, just nothing noteworthy. Like many kids, he got a second-hand home computer for one birthday, and a game with it called Diablo. He got into the game, then its expansions and sequels, then into other Blizzard products, like Warcraft and Starcraft. Then one day, he was thinking about one of his characters, and how cool it would be to have a body like that, when he came down with a blinding headache. Stumbling to the bathroom, he groped for an aspirin, then looked at himself in the mirror and saw his character! It didn't take long, though, before he realized it was only a holographic projection he'd somehow covered himself with. Tony thought about this, and briefly considered crimefighting. Very briefly, he wasn't the cop type and he knew it. The idea of being a supervillain was even more laughable. So that left gainful employment, but as what? He was a high school kid. But he was a high school kid who happened to live in Newport Beach, just adjacent to Irvine, where Blizzard Entertainment is headquartered. So where else would a Blizzard fan looking to cash in on such an ability go? Eventually, after some interviews and some questions, and discussions with lawyers, he got hired to appear at conventions and special promotions, and to pose for game-related artwork. He's even discovered that his voice changes to match his appearance. It's not a separate power, he's just a really, really good voice actor with an extraordinary range. Now Tony's known as "the face of Blizzard," or sometimes just "Blizzard." He has spending money, recognition, and girls are even starting to notice him. Life is good.

Re: Comics are getting too steamy... Hmm... I thought it was a Firestorm issue, but it's been long and long since I read it. But yes, it was indeed Effigy. I recognize him.

Re: What would your inner geek pick? For me, it's easy: Mon-El, after he was finally immunized permanently against lead. Kryptonian level powers, handsome, well-travelled, intelligent and well-educated, and without the potentially crippling psychological baggage of being literally the last of his species. There's a whole bleepin' *planet* of people just like him, with loads of cultures and customs and all that good stuff, so if he wants to he can go home whenever he likes. He's not an orphan, refugee, or sole survivor, he's an explorer and scientist.