XWhy

insomn14 · June 28, 2018, 4:07am

I must have forgotten the previous mention of Star Trek references from Alycia. Funnily enough, after years of thinking the original trilogy Star Wars was a universal classic that everyone knows… I’ve had to show it to like four people in the past year who’d never seen it before (not even kids even, one was an older coworker in his late thirties). I definitely pulled on that bizarre bit of culture shock when writing this. (In a odd bit of turnabout, however, I could imagine it was a bit of a guilty pleasure of Achilles. Given his age and when A New Hope came out as well its story glorifying the underdog rebels with a righteous cause, I would he’d let it be one of those bits of “propaganda” that he deeply enjoyed. Perhaps also why he wouldn’t let her see it, worried it might have to the same affect on her or, heaven forbid, if they watched it together she might see the mask drop for a moment during one of the moving scenes.)

As for Keri, that’s an interesting situation. Full disclosure: I literally know next to nothing about her. She’s a character Bill made that that I found supremely interesting because of her big sister mentality to Concord and Doyce luckily latched onto. Every other time I’ve ever written anything with her (the one time, come to think of it), I’ve literally emailed Doyce a draft and said “is this in-character?” So this is a bit of a step forward for me and everything her previous characterization has told me was “all go, no slow.” She’s supremely confident in her ability to just punch and soak damage. Getting told “hey, stop and make a plan first” is going to ruffle her feathers. “Wait until the people who need to get punched show up” at the XWhy base is a very different scenario. So seeing the gunmen in punchable range and not getting the chance to act because others are worried about collateral damage is outside her mindset. She’s a Bull that Leo could have been if friendship and understanding weren’t his superpowers.

Also, inferred from other details, I imagine there’s also some general age-related “I’m freaking immortal” and “you’re not the boss of me” impulsiveness involved. Though I obviously don’t have exact numbers, I imagine Alycia, Andi, Summer, and Aria are all about Junior or Senior age level. Keri is either Sophomore or possibly Freshman age (as Doyce told me she’s not too much older that Concord, but still in High School).

Further, there is that bit of (friendly?) rivalry between the JHHL (Keri’s team) and the Irregulators (the team A-10 leads, important distinction to made on this point soon) because, among other reasons, that A-10 turned them down for the spot. With their similar power sets, it’s not unthinkable that Keri might have gotten the “flying brick” spot only because Andi didn’t join the team and still have some hurt feelings over that. Also, with A-10 taking the lead, it’s not unthinkable that Keri might not take it well that she’s getting bossed around by people (to use a baseball analogy) on A-teams when she’s on a AA-team.

Finally, I wanted some inter-party conflict. It’s not unreasonable to think this makeshift team wouldn’t gel well after the inciting incident was over. Good in the moment, but not able to stick together long-term. Keri and Andi seemed like the best targets for this because A) it’s a pair of NPCs, so less characterization issues to worry about and I don’t have to worry about stepping on someone’s investment in their character’s interactions with another character, B) unless we happen to be interacting with both these characters at the same time, this spat can easily be ignored or even resolved off-screen between the panels, and finally C) they’re a pair of hotheads, so makes sense they would butt heads a little.

Also, now I’ve basically written out all my notes except some bits about Menagerie girls. I’ll share those too if anyone’s interested.

author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6530704

Dave · June 28, 2018, 4:29am

I definitely pulled on that bizarre bit of culture shock when writing this. (In a odd bit of turnabout, however, I could imagine it was a bit of a guilty pleasure of Achilles. Given his age and when _A New Hope _came out as well its story glorifying the underdog rebels with a righteous cause, I would he’d let it be one of those bits of “propaganda” that he deeply enjoyed. Perhaps also why he wouldn’t let her see it, worried it might have to the same affect on her or, heaven forbid, if they watched it together she might see the mask drop for a moment during one of the moving scenes.)

I love every bit of that explanation.

So seeing the gunmen in punchable range and not getting the chance to act because others are worried about collateral damage is outside her mindset. She’s a Bull that Leo could have been if friendship and understanding weren’t his superpowers.

I love that, too, along with the rest of it.

And, yes, conflict is good. In an attempt to keep it to a reasonable length (ha!), I elided over any significant conflict in my Part 2, keeping with Bill’s initial theme of fast and furious and relatively lightweight. Team rivalries, teen emotional brews, age differences, all on top of personality differences, would make that an unstable combination, to be sure, at least until the conflict causes significant problems.

As it is, you differentiated between Keri and Andi in ways I didn’t, so go that. I’d seen her as a bit more quiet and defensive. I like this take better.

Also, now I’ve basically written out all my notes except some bits about Menagerie girls. I’ll share those too if anyone’s interested.

I’ve a large enough ego that I am always interested in what people think about Alycia.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: XWhy | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

insomn14 · June 28, 2018, 5:06am

*** Dave H. said:

As it is, you differentiated between Keri and Andi in ways I didn’t, so go that. I’d seen her as a bit more quiet and defensive. I like this take better.

Fun story. I put Keri into a stronger weight class than Andi (though after certain levels of super strength, that’s just splitting hairs), though I see Andi’s powers more versatile. While we don’t know a lot about Thunderbolt, I believe it was mentioned he had some sort of mystical senses that I don’t think Andi has yet. Also, she can summon a giant spectral bird like a JoJo’s-style Stand, so I imagine she also has some mystical connections that she hasn’t dipped into yet (probably like Shazam [ugh, formerly Captain Marvel… changing things because you don’t own the rights to book titles…]).

Keri just punches crap and flies around.

One is a sledgehammer and the other is multi-tool hatchet that’s only used the hammerhead so far.

*** Dave H. said:

I’ve a large enough ego that I am always interested in what people think about Alycia.

Ahh, so Alycia. I had comparatively little about her, but what I did have was points she was like the other girls, but also different.

In a lot of ways I saw her as a similar outsider to Charlotte’s, only where she is extroverted and feeling, Alycia is introverted and thinking.

Her and Aria both can read a room, but where Aria looks for possibilities and what could be, Alycia judges and puts things into boxes.

Keri and her both lean into action, but with Keri it is an instinct and emotional, but for Alycia it is deliberate and trained.

Andi and Alycia can both make command decisions, but where Andi will try and give people chances (that hope for a better world mentality), Alycia’s instinct will be to finish the fight (not quite the means justify the ends, but close).

You’ll notice though, I put all of those as instincts and first thoughts. She’s trying to be better, so while she may come at a situation from those points of view, she could pivot under the right circumstances.

Also, if she says a line and I couldn’t imagine Daria Morgendorffer saying it, I need to reexamine the line.

“Yeah,” Alice whispered, “don’t you want to go track down another evil criminal lair? But this one’s likely someone’s apartment that one of their parents pays for?”

This was literally my favorite line when first broke the story outline and I fought to keep it even when I did make changes. I might have lost the part where Alycia ID’d the perp’s guns as off-the-shelf models with minor illegal mods because it meant adding a third manufacturer to be the Marvel Hammer Tech equivalent for Halcyon City, but I was keeping the snark dammit.

author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6530802

garrett · June 28, 2018, 6:08am

I’m still pretty sick and heady from all the Nyquil so this will be short.

Avoiding talking about boys at the end: I’d had in mind something like the girls talking about how the school attack would have actually been simpler if they’d just gassed all the students, how the only-boys effect was basically a heavy-handed political message, and how a misandrist organization apparently had a big goddamn blind spot by assuming girls at Gardner wouldn’t be able to fight back.
I generally defer on an NPC to whoever’s done the most writing or shown the most interest, so that’d be Mike for Keri right now. It’s cool to check with the GM whether something’s in character, but from experience I also don’t think Doyce has fat manila folders of NPC notes somewhere, and seems usually okay with whatever we pitch.
Intraparty tension is generally okay, especially when it makes sense. I’d draw the line at intraparty conflict. I saw a lot of the former and none of the latter, so good job.
Overall: I’m glad to see you guys are taking these ideas & running with them.

author: Bill G.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6530920

Dave · June 28, 2018, 1:31pm

Mike:

Fun story. I put Keri into a stronger weight class than Andi (though after certain levels of super strength, that’s just splitting hairs), though I see Andi’s powers more versatile. While we don’t know a lot about Thunderbolt, I believe it was mentioned he had some sort of mystical senses that I don’t think Andi has yet. Also, she can summon a giant spectral bird like a JoJo’s-style Stand, so I imagine she also has some mystical connections that she hasn’t dipped into yet (probably like Shazam [ugh, formerly Captain Marvel… changing things because you don’t own the rights to book titles…]).
Keri just punches crap and flies around.
One is a sledgehammer and the other is multi-tool hatchet that’s only used the hammerhead so far.

This all makes sense to me, to the extent I think it would be fine (barring objections) to fleshing out the wiki entries some. Frankly, I went to them to help with the character stuff, and they were pretty thin.

In a lot of ways I saw her as a similar outsider to Charlotte’s, only where she is extroverted and feeling, Alycia is introverted and thinking.

She’s thinking by force of will and by training. She actually feels a lot, which causes her no end of trouble. But from an outward PoV, it wouldn’t be that visible (and if it were, she’d be kicking herself).

As to the introversion, yeah. To the extent that’s nurture, Achilles Chin was apparently self-defeating in creating a leader to take on his legacy, at least not in his mold. She’d never be comfortable at the podium with a room full of troops shouting her name; she’d never be the easily popular commander. Which doesn’t mean she couldn’t lead, but it would be on a small group or one-on-one basis, and require more investment of energy and trust than she’d be likely to do except in an extreme.

Her and Aria both can read a room, but where Aria looks for possibilities and what could be, Alycia judges and puts things into boxes.

Danger evaluations. Where’s the next threat coming from, or is it already here? How do things fit here, and what doesn’t? Yup. Highly analytical and (as a weakness) judgmental.

Keri and her both lean into action, but with Keri it is an instinct and emotional, but for Alycia it is deliberate and trained.

Actually, impatience and leaning into action is probably one of the places were the emotional part of Alycia takes control – a desire to do something, to fix the problem, to resolve the imbalance, to take the initiative. A lot of that is emotional reaction, because her training will usually tell her to sit and wait and bide her time. She can do that – she’s disciplined – but “lean into action” definitely describes what she wants to do, especially when there are emotional stakes…

Andi and Alycia can both make command decisions, but where Andi will try and give people chances (that hope for a better world mentality), Alycia’s instinct will be to finish the fight (not quite the means justify the ends, but close).

Given the choice between saving the bad guy dangling from a rope over the lava pit, and capturing the bad guy who’s fleeing, Alycia would probably choose the latter. Completing the mission is big for her, sometimes to the point of inflexibility.

You’ll notice though, I put all of those as instincts and first thoughts. She’s trying to be better, so while she may come at a situation from those points of view, she could pivot under the right circumstances.

I think she’s recognizing that her training and upbringing aren’t always leading her to correct decisions … or right decisions … in more areas than she was aware. Taking the next step and figuring out the alternatives is not trivial, however. That’s where being on this team can help, and is another reason she’s here (whether she realizes it or not).

Also, if she says a line and I couldn’t imagine Daria Morgendorffer saying it, I need to reexamine the line.

Heh. I need to go back and rewatch those sometime.

Thanks. You’ve picked up on a lot of what I’ve been trying to do with her, which tells me I’m conveying it properly in my writing/gameplay.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: XWhy | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Dave · June 28, 2018, 1:41pm

Bill G. said:

I’m still pretty sick and heady from all the Nyquil so this will be short.

I hope you feel better soon.

Avoiding talking about boys at the end: I’d had in mind something like the girls talking about how the school attack would have actually been simpler if they’d just gassed all the students, how the only-boys effect was basically a heavy-handed political message, and how a misandrist organization apparently had a big goddamn blind spot by assuming girls at Gardner wouldn’t be able to fight back.

I tried to address this a bit, but among the “bad guys”. It was a pretty big blind spot, driven by ideology (boys are the enemy, as well as the girls there are brainwashed to obey orders from the boys, and therefore will not be a meaningful threat) but also by just making a mistake/oversight. Even the bad guys do that, and these weren’t Rossum/Chin-class hypergeniuses. If Hecate had been managing them more directly, she might have spotted that flaw, but working at a remove as she was, the Furies were largely on their on in tactical planning.

Also, microorganisms with proteins encoded to resemble runes or some other symbol of power as a means of techno-magical attack is just so awesome an idea that practically any distortion of the plot justifies using it.

Also, having that sort of after-action discussion would have been a good idea, regardless. Sorry I didn’t think of it.

(Also, the new text editor does a somewhat better job of letting me apply quote formatting without frelling everything up, but it doesn’t allow me to break into the middle of a quotation, so there’s more selective cutting-pasting involved.)

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: XWhy | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

insomn14 · June 28, 2018, 2:44pm

Bill G. said:

I’m still pretty sick and heady from all the Nyquil so this will be short.

Sorry to hear Bill. Hope you feel better!

Bill G. said:

I generally defer on an NPC to whoever’s done the most writing or shown the most interest, so that’d be Mike for Keri right now. It’s cool to check with the GM whether something’s in character, but from experience I also don’t think Doyce has fat manila folders of NPC notes somewhere, and seems usually okay with whatever we pitch.

Oh I know, I’m just that guy who worries he’s going to break something by accident. But I feel like I’m getting better about that.

Bill G. said:

Intraparty tension is generally okay, especially when it makes sense. I’d draw the line at intraparty conflict. I saw a lot of the former and none of the latter, so good job.

Same. And a better distinction than what I previously made.

author: Mike
url: Community Forums: XWhy | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop