Wonderfall Academy (Superpowered School) [Sign-Up]

Names include all names one could possible go by or have gone by, generally listed in the order that they'd most likely use them.[1] Description is a section that would include both appearance and personality, as well as race, sex, sexuality, religion, age, or at least apparent age if that's appropriate. Feel free to talk about moods, clothes and how clothes and other accessories might relate to mood.[2] Background is the character's history up to the point when they came to the school, either invited by a recruiter or pointed in the right direction by a sympathetic party with the right know how to know about this semi-secret school.[3] Abilities obviously includes powers but also should include any other talents.[4] Questions I will not actually be including this in the sign-up like I originally thought but I encourage you to search for them and incorporate them into your profile. Some can be found here, here, here and a lot found here.

[1] Students of Wonderfall Academy are assigned a codename more for privacy purposes then anything else, as detail records of their powers and testing of their power are made and kept but kept under a codename. These files are kept by the school as well as an international database. The students think up their own codename or they are assigned whatever the scientists think up. Students are allowed to change it while in school but it's harder when they leave. It's usually a couple days after arriving before the codename is assigned, so you wouldn't have the codename yet. It'd be something the one playing your character will think up (Or allow me to).

[2] An interesting note is that some, a notable fraction of, metahumans in this setting literally possess the Most Common Superpower, called Mapped Cognition Self or MCS. They permanently transform into another form based on personal preference, often a more attractive version of themselves or simply what they'd prefer they look like but not always. Transgendered metahumans with MCS turn into their preferred sex (Looked upon with jealousy by Trans without MCS). Those with particular admiration for someone might resemble that person. Often, when they have others powers, these powers somehow influence their final appearance (Hence you get an unusual dumber of red-headed pyrokinetics). Sometimes, mental quirks or some accident (Or "accident") influence the 'Map' and you get something entirely strange. For this reason as well, ages can be, at times, difficult to tell with metahumans, as one with MCS can look 20 and be anywhere from ten years old (Extremely rarely though, as even with MCS you can 'grow up' and those who are particularly young would normally gain, at most, a couple years in appearance) or well into their senior years (More common, as those with MCS tend to stop aging at a certain point, much to everyone else's jealousy). Normally this power is comes with a side order of superstrength, but not everyone who has MCS has superstrength and not everyone with superstrength has MCS. It is very rare, though, to just have MCS. Even without MCS, nearly all metahumans have some physical mark that causes them to stand out.

[3] A couple things of note here. Firstly, appropriate ages for the school are from middle school to beginning college ages. These are the grades the academy normally support and also the safest range in which to manifest your powers. Earlier than that, and you're something rare and often very powerful. Older than that, and you're often something dead as your body is no longer quite as equipped to deal with the changes. People being born metahuman is something that happens once in a generation.

Secondly, metahumans are believed to have been about since the dawn of man but only after the first World War, where a lot of young men were sent into stressful situation, and then the second World War, did their population explode and super power beings emerged as something other than myths and legends. Not until the time of the Red Scare did a concerted and international effort go into really digging into the topic, establishing an international policing agency that might have grown a little too powerful by this point and a little antimutant. A result of this was the partial dismantling of the Masquerade, as supernatural beings that once hid from human sight kind saw the point was lost when a bunch of super powered humans were running around doing exactly what they could do (And then some) but in public, sometimes in bright colorful tights even! Most people still don't believe in magic, dismissing anything of the like as metahumans playing games, so all that goes bump in the night has decided to step out into the light.

Thirdly, Wonderfall Academy is located on international soil, subject to the laws of no one country but rather the purview of the UN. They accept students from all over the world and take steps to make sure everyone learns English since nearly everyone already speaks it, almost. However, despite the metahuman gene sequence being identified in about a third of the world's population, only 1 in 1,000 to 1,000,000 people actually manifest (Depending on the study, what year it was done, whether they were actually capable of identifying all the metahuman and then filtering out those were not actually metahumans but something entirely different), the majority of these cases happening in developed countries. No one knows why that is. Fourthly, there are organized anti-metahuman groups. They call metahumans 'mutants', a strongly pejorative word but commonly used among metahumans themselves. The anti-metas identify themselves as pro-human normally. The strongest of these movements are in the US, Mexico and in some third-world nations. In the former, hate crimes are not the norm but quite a few perpertrated were excessively cruel. In the later, hate crimes may not even be counted as crimes, as metahumans might not be considered human anymore. In Europe, South America and Canada, they are treated with ambivalence, in Asia and the Middle East they are elevated above others, especially in Japan, and in India and some third-world countries their are literal cults that worship them. Australlia is uniquely apathetic about metahumans.

[4] It goes with saying that I will be wary of gamebreaking powers. That said, feel free to be creative. It should be noted that powers may range to an instinctual understanding of some subject or procedure, an ability to invent things that disobey the laws of physics (In sharp rivalry to those with an instinctual ability to build things that DO follow the laws of physics and therefore far less likely to catostrophically fail), to even a strong connection to the supernatural, such as the ability to channel magic energy or allow oneself to become host to a single permanent spirit on to a rotation of spirits, compared to what is more commonly thought of as super powers.

X A few more terms to be aware of; Permanent Involuntary Shape Shifting: Distinctly different from MCS, as MCS is, in a way, subconsciously voluntary, kind of, usually. P-ISS is not one power but describes any power that causes some large deformation. Technically, all metahumans have it, but this term is normally applied to those with something very noticeable and normally undesirable. Sremtik's Disorder" A mental disorder unique to metahumans. When the stress of their powers, or just stress, gets to those who suffer it, they suffer a sudden manic mood swing. The neurons in the brain begin firing way to fast, and mental 'check points' that would usually filter out thoughts and actions, essentially Freud's superego, are flooded and 'overran'. This can be characterized by ranting as the suffered simply streams their thoughts, megalomania as delusions and dreams become impossible to pull apart from reality, sociopathy and psychopathy as the sufferer does not stop to consider their actions. Those who have it are said to be 'Tiking', playing on 'Sremtik', and an episode is called 'Detonating'. They are the largest selling point of anti-metahuman views and they are much reviled by even their fellow metahumans. Medicine exists for them but it is imperfect and many who take it complain that it makes them feel drained and dead, in the worse case continued prescription has led to suicide. More worryingly, there are noted to be some who are, in fact, addicted to the sensation of it and constantly seek out 'triggers' for their episodes. Uncontrolled Raving Syndrome: A Sremtik Spectrum Disorder and a low functioning one at that. When in the throes of their episodes, they lose all mental faculties and simply rage uncontrollably, or act on some other emotion but usually rage. They usually get labelled with extra classification, Omega, Gamma, Beta, Alpha. Beta class Raves show no physical difference but the much feared Alpha class actually becomes stronger in a Rave. Gamma class actually are detrimental to themselves. Omega class actually both gain and lose powers. Most people just call them Ragers.

~

Names:

Description:

Background:

Abilities:

edited 19th Oct '13 5:11:37 PM by God_of_Awesome

Can you please fix the formatting?

Of?

Wait, was the OP post supposed to be numbered in a list? Seems pretty strange to put asteriks there in the first paragraph without spacing them out.

I was attempting to do asterisk notations without having a butt load of asterisks, but I realize there is a better way to do it.

Better use the # listing. Or the usual wiki spaceup with *. Would make it notably less wall-o-texty

1. first entry
2. second entry
3. so on

edited 18th Oct '13 7:53:33 PM by Adannor

I hadn't realized that was problem, I had purposefully designed it to be an unbroken block of text. I broke it apart now.

Text just looks nicer with distinct paragraphs. (Aand now I'm going back to trying to think up a character for this )

Alrighty, another note, characters I make serve a few purposes. Namely, they serve to high light things possible in this setting. They also just let me create, because I love to create. They also are NPC's I can use but if it were just that I wouldn't bother writing them up, I'd just use them. No, these are PCC's players may, with my permission, use for their own purposes.

• Names: Matthew Streika

• Description:
  • Appearance: Matthew is a handsome young man of a distinctly Pretty Boy-esque look, though he is much more muscular than the typical Pretty Boy. He has shoulder length blond hair which is usually tied behind his head, blue eyes, and an overall look that would initially say "boneheaded Jock". He's almost always smiling, having a nice, affable smile. He usually wears a sleeveless black shirt underneath a letterman jacket, jeans, and boots. He stands at a height of 6'5''.
  • Personality: Despite all appearances and the prevalence of mean blond jocks, Matthew is an incredibly kind, sweet young man who seemingly lives to avert common tropes of his social group, much like what Buffy did with Cheerleaders. Despite acting dumb at times, and seeming rather stubborn, he's actually hiding a stronger mind than what is immediately clear. He does, though, seem to be almost comically blind to why anyone would consider him "attractive." He seems to enjoy cooking. Despite being a quarterback and any associated popularity, he's actually quite a prude, being the type that prefers to wait until everything's right to pursue romance. He has a great big red Berserk Button in the bullying of others, and will not hesitate to act in those cases, even against members of his own team. He is quite a Deadpan Snarker, not hesitating to display wit. Due to his role at the head of the team, he also has some leadership chops. He also tends to be a secret nerd.
  • Race: His (biological) dad is German, and his mother, Spanish from the Castile Region
  • Sex: Male
  • Sexuality: Heterosexual
  • Religion: Agnostic
  • Age: 17

• Background: Matthew lives with his young mother, Amelia Streika, and with his father absent most - if not all - of the time. He barely knows anything about his father, who it seems is either pretending to be dead half the time, or doing "shady business". Whatever the case, it seems Matthew is used to it. He was designated to attend Wonderfall Academy after he demonstrated his abilities, namely, summoning Gram to defend a close friend from a group of gang members. Ever since, his mother has tried to keep a closer look on what he does with his powers.

• Abilities: His first ability stems from the odd fact that it seems he has been implanted in the chest with "some sort of biological device". It generally resembles the head of a lance, but has integrated into his musculo-skeletal system. As a result of this, his natural human abilities have been "Reinforced". Otherwise, he can summon powerful, "ancient" swords, called Etheric Arma, though it seems that the weapon that is summoned is based on immediate factors and he cannot, at this time, choose what he wants to summon.

edited 19th Oct '13 12:05:32 AM by NickTheSwing

Remove the codename. As I've stated, whoever takes your character will decide on that. Otherwise, gimme another sec to look it over.

Okay, removed the codename.

Not accepted yet, I'm still debating whether I should make you establish more about them swords he summons or if I should have whoever takes your character do it.

Also, realized one of my links wasn't working: Whateley Academy apparently needed to be Whateley Universe.

Although, honestly, not exactly the best written series except for a few of the authors, suffers a lot from Mary Sue and Author Tract, I still enjoy the universe above all else and its justification and structure of certain Super Hero tropes.

By the way, Nick, I've decided. Profile accepted, I will discuss further details with the chosen player.

I'm basing this off an interpretation of MCS.

• Names: Cody Falls
• Description: Cody wears a white hoody with gray track pants. He has short brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. His appearance, height, and weight is average for an American male in his early twenties that isn't fat. Because of his ISS he can also transform into a humanoid thundercloud.
• Background: Cody was a normal kid living a normal high-school life. He possessed the metahuman gene, but it was inactive and had almost no chance of activating. He had made friends with a girl who secretly had a crush on him. She invited him over for dinner with the intent of confessing her love to him, and she was able to do just that. Unfortunately, her father, an anti-metahuman, was there that night and upon finding out of Cody's metahuman gene freaked out and tried to kill him. His daughter got in the way of the father's wrath, and in his anger he killed her. The father then told Cody how it was his fault for making him kill her, despite the fact that the metahuman gene wasn't even active. Cody was devastated from the death and just as the father moved in to finish him, his metahuman gene activated. Cody's first action upon activation was smiting the father with a bolt of lightning. As it turned out, his metagene was an ISS, which allowed him to shape shift into a storm cloud, reflecting his lightning abilities. He was devastated with what he did to the father, as a man from Wonderfall Academy went to him and offered him a place to learn and develop his powers. Cody accepted and with their help made sure he'd never smite anyone again.
• Abilities: Despite his form suggesting he is able to do this, Cody is only able to administer electrical shocks as opposed to massive thunderbolts. He is able to, but he, with the help of the Wonderfall Academy, set up limiters that reduced his powerful bolts into static electricity. He is able to use this in combination with his karate to create devastating attacks that administer a violent shock. Not enough to kill a man, though. His ISS allows him to take the form of a humanoid thundercloud, where he can send far-ranged thunderbolts, yet they still have the impact of a violent shock.

edited 19th Oct '13 4:29:41 PM by Psyga315

That seems less MCS and more Permanent Involuntary Shape Shifting. MCS has limits but P-ISS is also thing. While MCS is one part psychic phenomenon and one part quantum physics applied at large and is, itself, one particular. P-ISS covers several different powers that effect permanent wide scale changes over the body.

If MCS were, say, influenced by an mental ideal of the storm, the result would be more Anthropomorphic. It can still be rather extreme and if he had, say, lightning powers, it's a previously stated thing that that could influence his MCS.

edited 19th Oct '13 2:43:19 PM by God_of_Awesome

Hm... So... Take out the MCS and leave in the lightning powers?

Names: Mohan McKenzie, The Mongrel

Description:

Mohan lives up to his given codename, appearing to be mismatch of several different animals and brightly hued in all the colors of the rainbow. Large horns, porcupine quill hair, feline face, a feathered torso, butterfly wings, horse legs, lizard tail, giraffe neck, snake tongue, arms with fish scales and webbed fingers, all of it red from the tip of the horns and running through the whole spectrum of colors in order on down to his cloven hooves wrapping back around to red and his literally spiky hair being purple. This bizarre-ness is topped with a face bearing three mismatched eyes, towering nine meters over the ground, and that is not including the horns.

Mohan is known as a creepy hermit around the school, sticking to his own assigned laboratory workshop at all times. He only emerges from his 'lair' if he absolutely has to, which the school says is indeed mandatory for his classes, or if something catches his academic interests. In the later case, he has demonstrated an ability to be intensely nosy and creepy, as well as summarily arrogant, assuming he has every right to study whatever speciment falls under his sight. Pride is his sin, outfitting himself with elaborate costumes and robes to show off his splendor and expecting others to recognize his genius. He cannot comprehend risks and will perform risky experiments despite anyone else's misgivings or what plain common sense tells him.

Mohan's virtue is his generosity. There are many who come to him for help, seeking some magical remedy for their problem, and he has often freely given his services. However, his pride has come into it as well, and he attempts to force his remedies on people he thinks need his helping. He cannot accept that there is a problem he cannot solve with his unparalleled genius.

Background:

Mohan is a native of Great Britain, growing up with an Irish father and an Indian mother. Even before he manifested, he had exotic looks, his mom's dark skin and his dad's blue eyes. He was a prima donna from the start, intensely sharp and clever on top of his good looks. Manifesting at 13 years old with MCS, transforming him into true beauty with the powers he bore only made it worst. He rejected the Academy's invitation, preferring to make his own way.

His powers being of magical nature, he came into contact with the underground magical community. There he instantly made friends and enemies. One of his enemies, a bright and gifted baseline sorcerer, was driven by jealousy and rage, of Mohan's powers and looks and from one too many petty cruelties on Mohan's part. He attacked Mohan in his home and Mohan defended himself by tapping a local well of wild power he had previously been investigating, far beyond his ability to control.

All of that raw magic should have killed Mohan, but he managed to kill his assailant with it instead. However, his Map was scrambled and over months the formly beautiful Mohan turned into a monster. His metaphysical third eyes, the source of his power, became truly and wholly physical, crowning his hideous form. This event should have humbled him and it did for a time. He finally accepted the invitation to joint the academy at 15 and he's been there for two years.

Over those two years, the hard lesson learned seemed to fail to sink in. Instead, he simply rejected social interaction where he would have embraced it, dominated it, before. Those he would have belittled, he shows kindness now, but those he once would have called his peer, the beautiful and popular, he sneers at.

He doesn't see the hypocrisy. The accident also caused him to start suffering from Sremtic's Disorder, causing him to fall into bouts of some extreme and manic mood swing when put under stress. Most worryingly is the possibility he may actually seek out episode triggers, operating under the belief that some other's who share his disorder that he does his best work while in the throes of madness.

Abilities:

On the mundane side of things, Mohan still possesses a vast array of social skills, niceties and weapons. He simply chooses not to use them.

His metahuman ability is an instinctual mathematical understanding of supernatural forces. He can pull apart the weave of essence and mana with a glance of his third eye. He can extrapolate magical effects and reverse engineer a spell to achieve it. However, since his accident, his third eye is a physical thing, and physical trauma to that eye will hamper his ability.

However, he is only a Iota class Mage-trait, and previously he was a Kappa class before his accident, not possessing an innate ability to unconsciously absorb the raw mana and quintessence required to fuel magic spells. This hampers his endeavors, but he doesn't quite care.

Finally, as one might expect of his body, he possesses advanced sense and above human strength, Eta class, more impressive than his Mage trait, but he rarely exercises them and their effective level is likely one or two classes lower for their disuse.

edited 19th Oct '13 3:46:42 PM by God_of_Awesome

You could say he has ISS, which he is turning into Voluntary Shape Shifting, but his body's natural inclination is to become a cloud, or essentially whatever you said.

If he kept his MCS, influenced, then in his human form he would still looking rather terrifying and cloud like, with a number of cosmetic effects.

Okay, I edited a bit of Cody to fall in line with the ISS thing.

Alright accepted.

I obviously added further terms of clarification in the first post.

I'm definitely interested in this, but can't post anything just yet. If you'd like Awesome, I can send you a plot proposition though PM.

Um, sure? Sure!

Discuss