Anstadon's Call [Freeform, Comic Book Style]

[JNAProductions]

System: Freeform, with some dice rolling to resolve conflicts
Player Count: Up to four
Style of Play: Heroics!
Allowed Content: Take inspiration from whatever you like! Obviously Marvel and DC are the big names in comic books, but go nuts!
Character Creation: A simple post on this forum is good for your PC info




Backstory: Skirt length
Experience: Competent, but still finding your place as a hero
Wealth: Per your backstory
Alignment: Heroic



Other Notes: Note that, while the blurb below states "You have powers," you can also be a non-powered individual who can keep up with parahumans in some manner.


Thirty years ago, 2003, was the first recorded appearance of a parahuman. The power was minor, weak telekinesis, but it was more than anyone had thought possible. Since then, parahumans have multiplied immensely, both in numbers and power. It's estimated that approximately one out of every thousand individuals is some form of parahuman, though many powers aren't noteworthy. Though, with advances in science made with the help of studying the parahuman phenomena, there is technology that exists to help level the playing field... For those who can get it.

Across the world, there are three primary Hero Organizations-the Americas have Anstadon; Europe and Africa have the Parahuman Coalition; and Asia has the Hero Work Force.
Australia was evacuated in 2010 due to dangers involving the parahuman Nuclear Man, and is still quarantined to this day by agreement of all three major hero organizations, the UN, and most governments worldwide.

You are in Chicago, which contains the fourth-largest Anstadon facility in the continental United States. You have powers-and with power, responsibility. So, when Anstadon Chicago put out an emergency call for parahumans to help, you decided to answer the call. You just hope you can handle whatever you're getting yourself into.

[Dusk Raven]

Interested. I have been getting a bunch of superhero concepts lately, though not as many as I'd like. I'll have to figure out which I want to use.

It'd help if I knew if there are any sort of restrictions on powers - or on the nature of the character. To explain why... well, my first thought was a character I tried to make in Mutants and Masterminds a while back, but their powers were transformation-based and so open-ended that it just wasn't doable in that system, at least not for a newbie like me. But the main reason I ask is that they're technically an alien. That takes the form of a human.

I do have backup ideas if you want to keep things human.

[JNAProductions]

Let's stick to planet Earth. Lemme hear some of the ideas, though! :)

[Plaids]

I haven't been involved in a lot free form games and am interested in trying one. Any idea of the scale of the game?
I have a couple of powerset ideas but not all of them would scale up and down seamlessly.

Ideas:
Being able to slow the passage of time for subject or in an area.
Being able to displace an object that is a component of another or adhered to another object. Think being able to displace a hole in wall like a magnet on a fridge or displace a stamp on a letter like a hockey puck on an ice rink.
Or maybe just someone who can turn their body into living metal and have strength to move that body without any additional strain.

[Illven]

How do you feel about demoness heroines?

[Lentrax]

Name: Abagail (Abbs) Baxter
Age: 24
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 152 lbs.
Education: BS in Criminal Justice, UCLA (Magna C. Laude); Graduate, FBI Academy (Top 10 percent).
Known Powers: Super Strength (Limit unknown), Invulnerability (Untested)

Abagail grew up in a familiy of cops and war vets. The call to serve was instilled in her from an early age, and she could unload a clip from a pistol into a bad guy before she knew how to drive. She knew in high school that the military would not be a good fit for her, and, not wanting her family name to be a leg up (or a crutch, depending on who you asked), she instead opted to move into Federal criminal justice, and spent her entire time in high school and college preparing for entering the FBI. During her senior year of High School, the military recruiters gave her the tests, just like everyone else. The ASVAB, to test her brain, and the Military Applications of Parahuman Application and Study Exam, or as everyone calls it, the Freak test. It showed that Abigail had some passive or latent gifts, but because they were not active, her test results were stuck in a file somewhere, never entered into a computer system, and forgotten.

She went to college, dated a few times, got engaged, broke up with him when he tried to tell Abigail that he wouldn't stay with her if she kept up with her going to the FBI Academy.

She poured herself into her schooling. Graduated from College, got accepted into the Academy, and graduated near the top of her class. She was assigned to the Chicago Field Office, in the Major Crimes division. And so it was that she was called in to provide backup support to a search of a suspected crime syndicate, performing experiments on people in a food processing plant to try and 'bring out' powers in them to sell around the globe. During the search, a gunfight broke out, and Abigail, while trying to provide covering fire for her partner, was struck by four rounds in the chest and fell backwards into a piece of machinery that injects artificial dyes into foods. Paramedics where unable to get a pulse from her and she was declared DOA, and loaded onto a gurney with a sheet over her. She sat up a few minutes later, as she was being wheeled out of the building and the wheels hit a bump. The paramedics stopped immediately and began checking her over again. Abigail tore her shirt off to see that three of the four bullets had penetrated her vest and had mushroomed harmlessly against her skin, which had now been dyed a pale violet color.

[JNAProductions]

I haven't been involved in a lot free form games and am interested in trying one. Any idea of the scale of the game?
I have a couple of powerset ideas but not all of them would scale up and down seamlessly.

Ideas:
Being able to slow the passage of time for subject or in an area.
Being able to displace an object that is a component of another or adhered to another object. Think being able to displace a hole in wall like a magnet on a fridge or displace a stamp on a letter like a hockey puck on an ice rink.
Or maybe just someone who can turn their body into living metal and have strength to move that body without any additional strain.

Maybe around Spiderman level? Not QUITE that strong, but that feels about right.


How do you feel about demoness heroines?

So long as she's a hero, it's good. :)


Name: Abagail (Abbs) Baxter
Age: 24
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 152 lbs.
Education: BS in Criminal Justice, UCLA (Magna C. Laude); Graduate, FBI Academy (Top 10 percent).
Known Powers: Super Strength (Limit unknown), Invulnerability (Untested)

Abagail grew up in a familiy of cops and war vets. The call to serve was instilled in her from an early age, and she could unload a clip from a pistol into a bad guy before she knew how to drive. She knew in high school that the military would not be a good fit for her, and, not wanting her family name to be a leg up (or a crutch, depending on who you asked), she instead opted to move into Federal criminal justice, and spent her entire time in high school and college preparing for entering the FBI. During her senior year of High School, the military recruiters gave her the tests, just like everyone else. The ASVAB, to test her brain, and the Military Applications of Parahuman Application and Study Exam, or as everyone calls it, the Freak test. It showed that Abigail had some passive or latent gifts, but because they were not active, her test results were stuck in a file somewhere, never entered into a computer system, and forgotten.

She went to college, dated a few times, got engaged, broke up with him when he tried to tell Abigail that he wouldn't stay with her if she kept up with her going to the FBI Academy.

She poured herself into her schooling. Graduated from College, got accepted into the Academy, and graduated near the top of her class. She was assigned to the Chicago Field Office, in the Major Crimes division. And so it was that she was called in to provide backup support to a search of a suspected crime syndicate, performing experiments on people in a food processing plant to try and 'bring out' powers in them to sell around the globe. During the search, a gunfight broke out, and Abigail, while trying to provide covering fire for her partner, was struck by four rounds in the chest and fell backwards into a piece of machinery that injects artificial dyes into foods. Paramedics where unable to get a pulse from her and she was declared DOA, and loaded onto a gurney with a sheet over her. She sat up a few minutes later, as she was being wheeled out of the building and the wheels hit a bump. The paramedics stopped immediately and began checking her over again. Abigail tore her shirt off to see that three of the four bullets had penetrated her vest and had mushroomed harmlessly against her skin, which had now been dyed a pale violet color.

Nice. Looks good!

[Dusk Raven]

Apologies for the late response. In any event, here are a few of the concepts I've had:

A young man with the ability to emulate any biological trait of any non-extinct life form native to Earth, regardless of whether it makes sense for his own biology or not. Flying? Can do that without wings. Super-strength? He's no Superman, but he can lift a few times his body weight. Adaptation to extreme conditions? If the tardigrades can do it, so can he. For the most part, though, he's a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to powers, good at a lot of things but nothing truly groundbreaking. The real sauce, though, is if he emulates a strange ability of some obscure living creature... like the pistol shrimp's ability to create blasts of acoustic pressure. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpheidae#Snapping_effect) Which gets scaled up. ...As it turns out there's a DC hero with this schtick (Vixen, I think?), but I still really like the powerset, mostly because while it's very open-ended, it's ultimately a test of the hero's creativity and knowledge - and therefore, my own. How might bio-luminescence or bio-electricity help in this situation? Do any of the many, many toxins he has available have the potential to incapacitate this foe without killing them? And above all, is there some living creature with an ability that will help here? ...Might be a little too powerful, or potentially too powerful, or hard to judge. Hmm.

Another idea I haven't toyed much with is someone's who's an exercise in, "superhuman without being superpowered." That is to say, their power is perfect control over their own muscles, giving them precision that a human can't match. Coupled with this is another idea I've got, the power to slow down time, but only in one's own mind - they can't move any faster, but they can definitely react faster, and they also have all the time in the world to think.

...Hmm, I feel like I'm forgetting something. I'll think about it more.


How do you feel about demoness heroines?

Well, that certainly gives me an idea, but I don't want to step on your toes here. I am curious to see what you've got in mind though.

[JNAProductions]

Right, can I get a table of applicants?

Also, Imma close this to new interest. If you've already expressed interest, feel free to continue work!

[Lentrax]

Player

Character

Complete


Dusk Raven
?
?


Plaids
?
?


Illven
?
?


Lentrax
Abigail Baxter (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25972866&postcount=6)
Yes

[JNAProductions]

Thank you, Lentrax. :)

[Plaids]

I am still interested in participating! Here is my character proposal. Please let me know if the third paragraph of the backstory introduces elements that are incompatible with the established universe. An incompatible thing potentially being a military program trying to create super soldiers. Also, how frequent is posting expected to be?

Name: James (Jimmy) Swift
Backstory: James Swift was born into a broken household within a dilapidated house surrounded by a sagging chain link fence in the city of Chicago. James was raised by deeply flawed parents with their own demons and shortcomings. He was chased by his mother Grace from his home in front of his siblings at age fourteen during his Victor Swift's absences.

After being found sleeping in the stairway of a public library he was adopted by Thelma and Louis Hargrave and welcomed by his adoptive siblings. After completing high school and desiring to leave the city of Chicago he entered army ROTC training and applied himself rigorously to the highly ordered and disciplined program. After graduating his service in the army corps of engineers began, coincided with the manifesting of his parahuman abilities.

His abilities manifested after preventing the collapse of highway and saving the lives of many soldiers. After the incident he was recommended to Project Patriot, a government project to ensure preeminence of parahuman strength, understanding, and service of the United States, which he eagerly joined. Once the project failed to consistently endow parahuman abilities within volunteers or create new breakthroughs in understanding parahumans was cancelled. Some parahuman volunteers were returned to new military service positions. James Swift and several others were released from service and recommended to join Anstadon by their command officers. Hopefully with an influx of members with military service Anstadon now stands on the precipice of a cultural transition where military values of Honor, Duty, and Selfless Service can be instilled within Anstadon alongside the influence of the United States military.

Things James Swift might say:
"This isn't the time to cling to luxury beliefs. We have a problem and we need boots on the ground to fix it."
"I understand what your problems are like; the noise and arguments circling the storm at home. But it doesn't have to define you. I was in a similar situation, but I remade myself after losing myself in the service of others."

Potential backstory characters: Birth parents, birth siblings, adoptive parents, adoptive siblings, fellow officers from ROTC or Army Corp of Engineers, and members from Project Patriot.

Experience: Skills learned from army ROTC and service in the Army Corp of Engineers. Basic mastery of his powers through Project Patriot.
Wealth: The savings from military service.
Alignment: Heroic but strongly bent to lawful
Powers: Sheer Displacement - The ability to displace any component of an object, objects strongly adhered to a surface, or superficial aspects of an object such as color or texture.
Documented Uses:

Improvised vehicle - Cases of traveling urban streets by displacing raised traffic markers to use as makeshift roller blades have been observed.
Document forging - Officer Swift has displayed mastery in manipulating the lettering of documents in all materials from ink to burnt wood.
Component displacement - Subject was recommended for Project Patriot after preventing the collapse of bridge after a missile strike by militants. Simply by displacing the cracks in pillar to the guard rails prevented the deaths of troops sheltering beneath the highway.

[Lentrax]

Just poking back in here to see if everyone is still interested?

[Plaids]

Player

Character

Complete


Dusk Raven
?
?


Plaids
James Swift (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25975460&postcount=12)
Yes?


Illven
?
?


Lentrax
Abigail Baxter (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25972866&postcount=6)
Yes