Hermit

On 12/15/2023 at 9:28 PM, Lord Liaden said:

Not really apropos to this thread, but for my game I used Timelapse to restore the classic Champs villain Neutron and his flunky Arc from their long-imprisoned, aged and weakened state (as presented in The Stronghold Files), back to their physical and power prime. I never got around to explaining why Timelapse did that, but as published his motives for changing certain people's ages are often mysterious.

Thanks, glad I'm not alone in finding it a fun idea I remember wanting to do this with Timelapse since the Little plotseeds thread of yesteryear (Some of which was sadly lost)

NT: Wicked Revival

The time manipulating villain known as Timelapse is hard to understand, but his powers are many. Recently, he used one of his most coveted- the power to restore youth, on a group of aged villains. Originally none of them were younger than 58 (and many much older than that), now they've all been restored to the physical ages between 21 to 26 years old.  He had a job for reach of them, to pay for this. And they eagerly agreed.

Those jobs done, the villains are young again, powerful again, and ... having to adapt to being back in the game among a generation they don't quite understand. Some maybe more evil than ever, a few may be having second thoughts. We look now at least five of these villains

Mind Wrangler

Before there was Clint Eastwood style cowboys in film, heck, before there was John Wayne, there was the singing Cowboy. Now rarely mentioned save as the subject of much parody and what some might call satire. Well, had scrawny Peter Billington but know that the cowboy hat he was trying on was more than your standard bit of Texas habberdashery, he might have just left it plumb where it lay. Soon enough he was transforming left and right to a singing cowboy hero folks to calling 'the Mind Wrangler'. He likes to sing and serenade his foes with powerful warbling ballads causing them to dance along, or mayhaps take a little siesta. Course, he can't talk what northern city folk would call 'normal' like this. Even if he manages not to sing, which is not easy, he still has a sweet western tone known to make the cows happy and the ladies all aflutter. Most feared of his powers is up to debate, but folks sure do not take a cotton to his form of telepathy. See, he don't just read your thoughts, no, the power in that hat makes one sing out your secrets for all to hear! To be fair, something in it makes you better than you'd normally be at the singing, but still, not many a desperado like confesses in a falsetto fashion bout his nefarious plans, or how he's pretty sure his mistress is  flirting with his no account henchmen on the side. Poor Peter comes along for the ride on these adventures, and is having a harder and harder time not helping those in need. You see, it's a white cowboy hat, and sure is tender hearted.

(Next person can do another hat then pick a new concept for another hero team, or just pick another hero team and skip the hat)

Anyone else got another in em? We only have to go up to four

Steel-Claw

Steel-Claw serves the glorious Golden Scorpion! Steel-Claw uses Steel-claw's mighty steelclaw, which Golden Scorpion gave Steel-claw to replace Steel-Claw's old left hand which was mangled! Steel-Claw prefers the Steelclaw! The hand was puny and weak. The Steel-claw is strong and snappy! Steel-Claw is strong! Steel-Claw is deadly at hand to hand..er hand to claw! Steel-Claw would die for Golden Scorpion! Steel-Claw does not use pronouns! Steel-Claw talks too loudly!!  Most find Steel-Claw tiring because of this!

Framboise
Eleanor Harris used to doodle, heck, she used to draw. When she was a girl, she thought about becoming an artist. Her parents gave polite lip service to her skills then, but as she got into high school they figured it was time to bring her down to earth. Art would not sell. Choose something more sensible, more logical, that they'd always need. Maybe accounting like dad, or insurance like mom.
So Ellie put aside her dreams, and did the logical sensible thing. The cautious thing. Two years community college, then the most economical college she could find for her finishing bachelor while she did her job in a cubicle. Don't stick your neck out. Don't make waves. The tallest nail gets hammered first, after all.
It is all safe, practical, secure, and oh so bland. Then? Just last month, she did something she hadn't done in years. She gave into a whim. It was a raspberry beret, the kind you hear about in old 80s songs or imagine on some French girl touring Paris. The sort that looks artsy, and even borderline rebellious. She bought it.
And when she put it on, her world was changed forever. The beret gave her a whole new wardrobe, and more than that, the ability to create flowing artistic force constructs of raspberry hue! Now she finger paints forcewalls , she gestures art nouveau entangles, she makes bold strokes of energy blasts! She also finds herself faking a pretty good French accent as she gives into a new found artistic temperament where she supeheroes HER way. Or is it the hat's way? It's scary, it's exciting, and it's fun.
She's not sure she can stay at her boring cubicle for long.

The Hatband aka the Mad Hatters

(A tribute to Oddhat)

The mysterious man in the flea market sold hats. None of which were the same sort of hat. He also seemed awfully picky about who which hat went to. Five people of decent enough nature ended up getting a hat. Only to find that after an hour of wearing it, the hat bonded to them, empowered them, and in some cases transformed them greatly!

Pick a type of hat (Be it Derby/Bowler, Tophat, Trilby, Cowboy, Fedora, Beret, or whatever) for your character as part of their costume. Each hat grants different powersets. This is not a Focus, but rather an Only in Hero ID (Or Alternative ID to use the 6th ED term) effect. The hats can't actually be taken away from our heroes, at least not for long. Each hat also seems to encourage heroism, and, on a smaller scale, influences the personality of their wearer in lesser ways while in that hero ID. Perhaps each is merely revealing what was always inside.

There are at least four members. Maybe up to six.

Goldcrest
Princess Charlotte Adélaïde is of the royal family of the House of Luxembourg-Nassau, a bearer of powered armor which she uses to aid the Peacekeepers in their humanitarian endeavors. Exactly who made this armor for her is unknown, but it is a work of art, borrowing designs from the National bird of Luxembourg, so it had lovely golden highlights in feather like designs and glittering extendable wings of great elegance.
The armor is not just for show. She can achieve great speeds in it, and while not as strong as Crooked Mick at his full height, the exo-skeleton can lift a lot. She has a sonic burst built in that can be used for combat, but is more often used to tunnel through debris to rescue those trapped in landslides and quakes before she flies them out to safety. It is also extremely agile with an amazing sensorary array. The government of Luxembourg refuses to divulge where the suit , which is as good as such as Defender's  or Anklyosaur's (Though behind Iron Ronin) or better, came from. Some say the government won't share, because the government doesn't know!  
The most outrageous rumor is that that the royal family of the constitutional monarchy of Luxembourg was approached by aliens  who decided they would do to speak for all of Earth Kind. If Charlotte can prove a true hero to the planet over the next few years, Luxembourg will be given some great uplift. Maybe faster than light engines, maybe food replicators, or even something greater!
It's unlikely this is so, but IF it is? No pressure.

Kith & Kin
The Mutant gene runs strong in the Goggin family and they are plentiful. While born of Appalachian poor, one couldn't deny their wealth when it came to breeding true. The family has three sons, and four daughters and each seems to be a mutant or shows good signs of aging into it. One of the older boys, Silas, had joined Kinematic's cause a few years ago, and used his superstrength for the mutant cause. Sadly, Silas was slain by PRIMUS agents, or so Kinematic told the family when he returned with the body for burial.

No one kills a Goggin and sleeps easy at night.  The next oldest set, twin girls Bobbi May and Bobbi Sue, paid their respects, and then went to avenge their brother with their mama's blessing. They had powers too, you see, though quite a bit different.
Bobbi May could create four duplicates of herself, connected as one by a powerful mental link. She took the name Kith because she was never without friends. Bobbi May's powers often have her more as support, but you don't come from a large family without learning how to scrap, and she's studying formal martial arts to add to it. More than one surprised PRIMUS agent has found himself literally surrounded, ganged up on, and pounded into the dirt by Kith.

Kin, that is Bobbi Sue, has the ability to mimic any other mutant's power up to a point as long as she gets close enough to touch them. She stays looking like herself unless altered looks are part of the mutation, but many do get surprised when they find their own. After she touches them, she might as well be kin, powerwise. Ironically, she cannot duplicate Kith's power of self replication nor any other member of the Goggin family. Dr. Revelation finds that fascinating.

Their usual M.O is for Kin to join all of Kith's copies, the latter allowing her an easier time of touching a foe so Kin can mimic whover's power in the confusion, then cut loose.
The two (or is it six?) have become very effective under Kinematic's direction. They have mixed feelings about it, however. For Kin? She's not used to having this much power, because she can easily mimic others serving Kinematic with their blessing. She's becoming a bit of a bully to any poor mundanes. She's become super loyal to Kinematic who sees her worth.

Kith, however, is less comfortable with this. Oh, she wants to do right by family and avenge her fallen brother. But she's starting to wonder if Kinematic's story of Silas' death isn't quite matching up right. Maybe the man has been completely honest, but maybe not. If the facts are the latter, and Bobbi May finds out Kinematic left her brother to die and only came back for the body to motivate them for more Goggin blood?

She might well turn on him, risking a fight of Kith against Kin, with Kin well fueled by a stranger's power.

(Ignore any resemblance to any families surnamed Guthrie)

Ruby of Fire
Kyra Azar is a pyrokinetic from Iran. She cannot create fire, only control it, but that control is wide spread. Because of this, she is almost always on missions involving wildfires and the like, for she can, with a brief moment of concentration, snuff out it out over a square kilometer! She much prefers that to making fire hotter, or using it as a weapon for she's a gentle soul.
Despite her power, or perhaps because of it, Kyra has some problems. She finds her own home government oppressive, and is often torn between protesting it and risking her family being hunted down or imprisoned, or defecting, and risking the same. To placate the government and not make a fuss, she dresses in a hijab, though she sympathizes with those who have spurned it. Unbeknownst to most, she is also in a lesbian relationship with an American UNTIL agent who is not a believer (Which is a triple offense to some). Were this to be found out, it would certainly mean her forced return to Iran, or put all she loves at risk.

I admit, when I put up dropzone I had kind of missed the tongue in cheek 'any resemblance' bit. I am actually thinking of filling out  Kinematic's Group for my games so I figured this would be a good place to put up an idea or two.
Then I realized I missed a part of the theme

Still, for my own records, let me add...

Doctor Revelation
Riza Mendoza was born Philippines though she did some college in the United States. She proved to be a talented biologist, and had a fascination with genetics. She hoped to learn what she could to return to her home country and help one day reduce birth defects. She knew OF mutants, of course, but rather than finding them offensive or frightening ,she found them fascinating. She even wondered what it would be like to be one?
It turned out, she was.  At least, she showed up on Mutant Detectors. She discovered this back when Genocide was still intact, mutant hunter robots and all! Despite her lack of powers, or even any cosmetic differences the human eye could tell, a Genocide robot in battle with a group of mutants turned and fired on her! She was rescued, and that's how she stumbled upon IMAGE. The mutant terrorists were hardly high ranked in their organization. They were bizarre and strange... and beautiful.
Riza saw them, and knew they were the future. This was like viewing God's dream manifest, infinite genetic diversity in infinite combinations. The trauma of the attack on her had done nothing to manifest her abilities. She knew it normally happened in puberty. She had aged out at a mere twenty five years of age it seemed. The IMAGE folks had little time for her, and she, while skilled, was hardly crucial to their cause as she had no powers to bring so they warned her of GENOCIDE and.. left.
Riza threw herself into genetics with even greater gusto, earning her doctorate, and learning all she could of the cutting edge of the science, even going so far as to learn what she could from the black market of Teleios' techniques. Her own mutation was dormant, but what was dormant could be awakened.  Risking her life, she experimented on herself, and nearly died from the shock to her body. The days after the experiment, she realized she had triumphed! Her mutant powers were hardly earth shaking, but they were there. She was strong, she was agile! She felt full of energy, and indeed, her body was now athletic and toned. Of course, it was also covered in green fur. GLORIOUS green fur all over her body, soft and sleek. Her eyes were of a lovely radiant red. Further study would soon show she had also extended her lifespan, but by how much she didn't know.
By the time she had done all this, GENOCIDE was gone, the IHA arose to take its place, and sadly, IMAGE seemed to be dust. Then she heard of Kinematic. of his call, and his crusade. He sought out allies, but she? She found him! While now more nimble than a howler monkey and stronger than an elephant, Dr. Riza's greatest power remained her intellect and scientific skill. It was no trouble for her to salvage and improve a mutant tracker of her own. And she had an offer for Kinematic no other could give him.
"So many of our brothers and sisters are sleeping, merely having dreams that they're homo sapiens sapiens. I can awaken them from that sleep, show them who they really are. Let me work with you, and we will help them embrace the same Revelation I have. In time, I'll get you your army!"
Kinematic was no fool. He dubbed her Dr. Revelation, and put her to work.
The experiments don't always work. Indeed, there is a chance of death during the operation for any dormant mutant, and they don't always gain combat ready powers. Mutants come in great and small, after all. But Doctor Revelation continues to refine her work. One day, she'll have a high success rate, and every volunteer who wants to wake up to their true potential will make it! When the numbers shift, the old human men clinging to the past will finally be overwhelmed by the many children of a bright and diverse mutant future!

(And to fit in better this time, there's obviously NO resemblance to Beast/Dark Beast, or even a redeyed Mister Sinister because Doctor Revelation is GREEN and a lady. Totally different, go away Marvel Legal team)

On 12/7/2023 at 6:46 PM, tkdguy said:

The holiday blues are nothing new for me, but this year is pretty bad, especially since I've been depressed all year. It's making me physically ill. My head is constantly in a fog, and I can't motivate myself to do anything. People say I should talk to someone, but that has never worked for me in the past, so I doubt it will do any good this time either.

Wish I knew what to suggest that you probably haven't already thought of or tried. I do hope things get better for you.

Dropzone

Daria Bowsman is a former military brat who was raised on patriotic high ideals as she was carted in her childhood and early teens base to base, place to place, all over the world. She actually considered joining the military herself, mostly to follow the family legacy, even going as far as learning how to shoot guns when most other girls were more concerned with make up and Boy Bands.  When her powers first surfaced, Daria was not alone. She teleported herself and several students by accident  to the roof of the school, an incident that resulted in one panicked peer going off the ledge and breaking a leg. Daria had been outed as a 'filthy mutie'. The rancor stunned her! While it would be folly to say her life was free of discrimination, she had bought hook like and sinker the lessons her parents had told her about how everyone on base , regardless of beliefs, skin color, or creed, was an American just like her. Apparently, this acceptance ended with mutantcy. She saw the disgust in her father's eyes, and the fear in her mothers. And her parents said she would be going away where they could.. fix her, and make sure she didn't hurt anyone else. With visions of experimental labs or isolated cells... Daria vanished, reappeared a mile away, and kept on going.

That was several years ago. During which Daria traveled the world under her own power, and did what she had to do to survive. Some of her actions would have put her in the supervillain category, or even super mercenary, but it all felt so empty. Her idealism had been shattered, but the shards of it, the need to believe in something to have worth, lingered and cut. Then, at age twenty one, she ran into Kinematic. He had heard of a teleporting woman who worked as a smuggler among other things. He explained to her she was not alone though she had been mislead. There was no unity possible between the super powered and the norms; the latter would always fear the former. It was Us Vs Them. But the mundanes had a lot of advantages, numbers, tech, and more. He could use her help.

Where once there was Patriotism, now came ideas of Mutant Supremacy. Whether you hate the mundanes or not wasn't the point, Mutants were at war, a war they didn't ask for, but they had to finish as the victors. The only other options were slavery or genocide. Daria took on the code name Dropzone, recognizing that her chief use for the team would be as transport for the loyal. She can, after all, teleport quite a few people well over a mile at a time, or just herself with greater rapidity and reaction time. She's also learned tricks, like teleporting a bullet so it comes from a different direction or bypasses a barrier. She's even reversed the attacks of others at her back at the attackers. The fact she speaks three languages besides her own (to varying degrees of fluency) and understands some other cultures better also comes in useful. But she has no illusions; it's her powers that make her worthwhile. Oddly, her teleportation always makes targets feel as if they're falling even when they aren't. Yet another reason she took the name "Dropzone"

1 minute ago, Asperion said:

We definitely need to do something to get medical bills under control in the USA. Looking at the primary reasons why people claim bankruptcy,  medical and education rank as the top reasons,  each taking MORE THAN HALF the bankruptcy cases. Market seems to be dealing with education,  but medical is a harder nut. Looked like something was happening,  but that is only a surface solution and medical needs a COMPLETE overhaul nationally. ACA was a great start, but certain people didn't give it the opportunity to work out the problems.  The government MUST be the agency that does this since they are the only one who has the size and power to force everyone. 

I agree. We have a big problem in America regarding healthcare.

However, discussion on it would best be at the Political discussion thread because I know, for myself, I'd get heated if I started to go on about it.

And I want to thank those who chipped in to help Bob. You're good people and I'm grateful.

9 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

So the fundamentalists replaced intellectual elitism with spiritual elitism.

Well, the latter does seem to require less homework.

I'm not sure if gofundmes go against the guidelines/rules of these forums or not, and I'm a mod. If it proves to be so, I'll remove this.

But a friend, a wonderful lady, has another friend who is in a bad spot. She asked if I could spread word to others.

Bob is a trucker, he suffered a massive heart attack. He's in the CTICU and medical bills are piling up.

I never met this guy, don't know him, and the holidays can be lean, but if you are the type to click the link above and give even a dollar to a complete stranger who is in dire times, well, it would be appreciated. Thank you.

I can actually see Keanu playing the Beyonder, the Secret Wars 2 version, have him go around clueless as canbe learning from various superheroes what it must be like to be human.

Now, the problem is, Secret Wars 2 is...well, not the BEST series, but I can still see Keanu playing it

Very belated birthday of joy

Ack. You'll be missed

“Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.”

"One day soon, man is going to be able to harness incredible energies – maybe even the atom; energies that could ultimately hurl us to other worlds in some sort of spaceship. And the men that reach out into space will be able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world and to cure their diseases. They will be able to find a way to give each man hope and a common future… and those are the days worth living for."

15 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

Hey, I can get behind him as President of Jupiter.  Let's make sure he gets to meet his constituents ASAP!

As long as he appreciates the Gravity of the office

Crooked Mick (Actual name Archie Green) took his handle from a Folklore giant of a man from his native Australia's tall tales. His power isn't nearly so fanciful. He can grow to forty feet tall, gaining great strength and endurance, but a side effect of the shift in size is that his features become far less symetrical, causing him to lurch (Though with his long strides he still moves faster walking than some men sprinting) and making his face just ODD looking as well as less attractive. That said, he's a good looking fella when at his normal 1.78 Meters with an easy going smile. Some mistake him for a rough around the edges chest thumper but in truth, he's got a brilliant mind with a deep education in archetecture and civil engineering. More than once, that knowledge has allowed him to shore up a crumbling building long enough for people to get out. He also is a fair swimmer, having  dived into flood zones and acted as a human life boat.

"You're no daisy! You're no daisy at all. Poor soul, you were just too high strung."