The Good, The Bad and The Spandex: Discussion Thread

Remote facility in the Great Basin Desert?

Also, I have an idea for a possible High Profile Superteam- kind of the Avengers or JLA of this 'verse, though they'd probably mostly be Heroes of Another Story (unless we decide to use them for whatever reason).

Like I said,ideas are also welcome. Of course, the more detail provided, the better the chance of their being accepted.

An AI gone wrong?

A group of purely mechanical characters?

The main arch-enemy of Charles Bates, Axel's dad, is going to be a fellow roboticist.

Sure, anything goes but to be clear I am not going to develop them for you, OK? You want your ideas used, give them as much detail as you would a character.

Oh I will. He's going to be similar to a The Protomen Wily.

"Metahuman" tends to cover a wider range of people than simply those born with the metagene complex. Some people try to discriminate based on the difference, but it's academic to everyone else. Whatever directions an individual's feeling are, they're usually the same across all "supers", be they born with it, later gained it or something else.

Concept:

Facility Kappa

In the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, there's a top-secret facility. Magically and technologically hidden from all sensors, it trains the next generation of metahumans to control their powers and use them effectively. After graduation, some metahumans go into the private sector, some hide their powers and try to live normal lives, and some become superheroes. All Kappa graduates are kept in a database in case of a crisis. The Kappa faculty consist mostly of mercenaries, spies, and government agents, many of whom have powers of their own. Facility Kappa is run by a mysterious benefactor- who, exactly, no one knows.

Typically, the facility tracks down recently-awakened metahumans before sending an agent with an offer of schooling. If they're turned down, they usually won't attempt to contact the prospective student again, though they will leave behind a phone number.

Students are typically allowed to contact their families once a week, but are not allowed to leave the facility except in dire circumstances. They take the whole secrecy thing very seriously.

Be cool to check out.

Concept:

Other Schools

There are others, some run differently. They will compete for students, although competing their students against each other is a recipe for disaster.

One is semi-public, but a working truce between powers on both side of the morality scale leaves it untouchable. Villains have been known to send their children there, and those willing to overlook that aspect will send their children there, trusting in the safety without need of the secrecy. The protection even extends to baseline families of students, and those who dare trespass find those without ethics or scruples after them with a vengeance.

Another is fully public and is effectively an unworkable circus. It promises to only train the next generation of heroes, but in practice produces a generation of super powered celebrities and divas. Its insistence on sending out teams of students and teachers alike for vigilante work makes it a constant target of vengeful villains. Only fanatically loyal alumni and parents that let glamor overcome good sense send their children there.

Sometimes, the schools get together for school dances and sports. These usually end with fights and property damage, but it's all in good fun.

About to go into some dark shit now.....

What about metahuman serial killers? Limited powers, which they use to kill others. For example, someone who is a telepath, but only uses their power to get inside a persons hide before he kills them.

Sorry for how creepy that is. I watched Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon.

More On Other School

[BLANK] Academy

The "Safety Without Secrecy" school, though they do prefer a level of discretion. The founders were villains, pragmatic heroes, neutrals and government alike. Some very bad people have sent their children there, and there children sent their children. They are expected to treat any threat to any child there, or their families, from major powers to near-baseline nothings, as a threat to them and theirs and respond with extreme prejudice.

Because of their status as accorded neutral ground, they are seen as a kind of breeding ground for villains. They produce as many on the side of the angels as they do devils, but ethics isn't a major concern with them. Control, improvement and application. Unfortunately, they have a bit of an unsavory reputation of letting the less scrupulous member of their student body run a muck, so long as they may do so without being caught. It's high school drama bullshit where high-end school meets a few low-class sensibilities now added with super powers. That very same attitude of neutrality makes the faculty hesitant to step in, lest they be seen as taking sides.

[BLANK]'s School For [SOMESUCH]

The school most everyone hears about, as constant media coverage will do that. It proports itself as the face of metahumans. Some kids are sent here simply because their parents never hear of anyone else. Ethics is hardlined here, and attention of heroic endeavors, such as search-and-rescue, police tactics and even negotiation. For this, the school is lauded.

It's derided, however, for its irresponsible encouragement and even support of child vigilantism, with even the teachers still working in cape crusading. The effort put into PR education is also looked down upon, albeit by different groups than the former. They see the time spent on building a good image is time drawn away from what really matters. There are those who nod their heads, however, and know how powerful a good reputation can be.

That it's the target of occasional attacks by anyone with a grudge doesn't help. Anyone with a hateboner for metahumans, or a need for some test subjects, will usually know better than to attack the Academy and might not have even heard of the Facility.

edited 6th Mar '17 1:40:42 PM by God_of_Awesome

Ok, I approve of all of these. However I'm only going to list Kappa until we get more details (like names) on the others.

Also don't expect these to show up soon. Except maybe namedropped.

Btw can Kappa be connected to TALOS?

Also if anyone has an idea for a Superhuman Overseeing Public Agency (NOT a spy organization) it'd be welcome.

edited 25th Aug '16 5:31:25 PM by Sijo

Kappa being connected to TALOS makes sense. Sure!

Any suggestions for names?

The Academy is inspired by the Whateley Universe and what I remember to be their shoddily run school, where some of the students operated like PG-13 cartels, with a staff that seemed very timid to put a stop to any of it.

The School (Mayhaps University?) is obviously based on Xavier's and it has its own problems.

The Facility, indeed, I even imagine many of the TALOS agents I gave Sijo are alumni from there. They are the safest and most comprehensive of the schools, if you ever hear of it and are comfortable with being so sequestered.

Champion University? It sounds kind of generically hero-y.

As for the Academy, maybe name it after another Lovecraft character? Ward, West, Pickman, something like that.

I tried to make the Facility the hypothetically-ideal superhero school in terms of not putting its students in unnecessary risks- although it still has creepy implications of being in an isolated area with limited contact home and being surrounded by people who could easily kill you.

I imagine students don't have codenames, though they might have numbers- codenames potentially reveal too much about power sets.

(Also, I just posted- I'll wait for Sijo's response since he's in charge of Cascade.)

edited 25th Aug '16 6:31:06 PM by emilyorthoclase

Whoops, I didn't see your post Emily, and posted other stuff instead.

Give me a few hours to write a proper response.

No problem!

@Emily: I leave it to you to figure out how to save Irene. Telepathic SOS maybe?

Woah, Omnitech became relevant a lot quicker than I thought.

Okay, so here's the gist of how they work so we're on the same page and I don't get the surprise of the most human robot ever built being built by them: They specialise in war robotics, and most characters that come from them are either tactical A.I.s (most of which are just are nonsapient as the others) leading mass production models, or prototypes that are far more powerful than their more cost-effective counterparts.

Their A.I.s' 'thoughts', in addition to being annoyingly verbose, are nothing more than glorified debug interfaces; Omnitech likes to make an art of separating intelligence from self-awareness (although if one DOES become self-aware, they'd immediately move to preserve its rights as a sapient being).

Currently, their "CEO" is just a front; in actuality, an as-yet-unnamed (because I usually call it Xanatos, which is harder when I'm on the website that inspired that name :P ) heuristic AI that I'd at least like to have a lengthy conversation about before its deployment as a character runs everything, and is currently in the process of attempting to grow the company so it can pour yet more funds into robotics development.

Also, have at Nexus, since I wasn't planning on using it until I got bored of playing glass cannons, but please try to not burn the character out too quickly, and as always, Happy Research :P

"A Dragon in Shining Armour?"

LOL you guys come up with the funniest titles. Wish I had that creativity.

Also great post once again Vampire.

edited 26th Aug '16 5:49:21 AM by Sijo

Thank you.

I'm actually thinking about becoming a writer.

Alright, so if Sewer King or the Warlock want to catch Mindseye before she goes, they can do so.

Wait, how did Mindseye know One Eyed King is a woman? I don't think I mentioned that. Nor could she read her mind through the link.

Oh well too late now, let's chalk it up to a brief clairvoyant vision. But she does not know her ID, OK?

Oh and the masks (and gloves) will vanish as soon as they are unwatched. Like leprechauns.

Oh and the Crumbling the OEK was talking about is different than willing dimensional travel like The Traveler's; think more Elder Gods invading. Not that even the King of Dragons probably knows about it.

edited 26th Aug '16 9:54:23 AM by Sijo