I had an idea:

Network Journal, 21

"My team. I find them strange, to say at least. I always found the life outside of the battlefield hard: the bed was too soft, the food was too much after eating raw nutrients for the most of my life. Also, I never was quite good at understanding the way people react. I believe that sooner or later, I'll be able to solve this puzzle by myself."

Network Journal, 24

"Nucleus wants me to spy on one of my teammates. Of course, she didn't say this outright, but even I can read between the lines. Swarm. I give her that: her capabilities - some sort of insect control - is versatile and useful. I can't say much outside of this, but I will be keeping tabs. I hope she takes the job seriously. It would be a shame to lose an important member like her."

Also, I don't think I've put this out there, but Alex is half-alien. Like, only Andrea and Alex's mom know that, but her actual bio dad is Gravitron who is some superman-type alien. Now that I think about it, I probably should have mentioned something about that before now, seems reasonably important.

The only person Alex seems to care about at all besides Riley (the human), and Andrea is Ian, who coincidentally is Riley's hang out buddy. This shit just writes itself. I mean, it could all just as easily be happenstance coincidence, but it seems awfully easy to connect the dots all the way back from Riley choosing to stay on Earth up to the modern day and difficulty establishing just what it is she wants to look like if it all boils down to she's trying to impress Alex, and hasn't figured out how to do that yet. ^^ I mean, maybe I'm just an attention whore, but it seems like it could totally work. Either way, if you're interested in pursuing that let me know. I'm also going to bed, though, so night all that are still up.

EDIT: One more thing, how do we actually identify Riley? Like, thinking about the possibility that she literally just followed Alex around and changed appearances to keep Alex from noticing got me to thinking. If my friend, uh, let's call this human person Taylor, right? Well, if my friend Taylor was a dark, tall guy yesterday, and today walks in as a short blonde girl, I wouldn't just be like, "Hey Taylor!" I mean, no, this chick would walk up to me and start talking and I'd be like, "Do I know you?"

EDIT EDIT: Okay, I swear I'm going to go to bed at some point, but what if courtship on Riley's homeworld is literally this? They have no pre-established gender or appearance, but at some point decide they like someone, follow them around, get as close as possible to them (as in inserting themselves into the other person's life) and go through this elaborate ritual dance type of thing trying to find a form that's pleasing to the other? I mean, that just seems like it should be a thing somewhere. It even plays into the whole Masks theme of self discovery and how much your view of yourself is based on that of others. Like, literally they discover what their biological sex/gender/whatever is based on finding the malleable meat suit piloting brain they like, and then the two just try out different shapes until they find one mutually pleasing to the other, and then that's just who they are from then on. I mean, they probably continue to shapeshift for combat and survival purposes, but then that just is their default appearance, and they have their mate based on what each other finally settled on based on what the other was looking for. It's even kind of twisted and romantic. In a creepy kinda way, but still. Alex for whatever weird reason just is already what Riley was looking for, and so now she's just doing her side of the dance trying to get to the point that she thinks Alex wants her to be.

I bet Riley didn't even run away from her bus in this potential universe, like she just straight up told her teachers that she found her courtship partner, and in their culture that's just that; she found the one, her one, and that's sacred, now she has to do what she has to do to make it work.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: @Hyper Harlequin Maybe I'm just not going to bed. So, Riley's people are aquatic, right? Well I doubt they have a whole lot of long, drawn out conversations. Obviously they're capable (at least in human form) of speech, but what if their primary ways of communication in their natural habitat are body language and pheromones? Like, smell is super important to them, it's their version of what speech is to humans, and even beyond that it's how they identify who they want in a partner. So basically, this field trip is way more than just that (after all, they just as easily could have watched a Magic School Bus). It is a way for them to explore different places in person, all with an either implicit or at least understood idea that they do this when they reach sexual maturity with the express purpose of looking for a mate. They have to go in person because they're literally looking for someone whose natural smell and pheromones match what the particular alien person is looking for. It all makes sense, too. I mean, why do we have sexes before reaching maturity? For humans, it's because we can't radically change our forms, but for shapeshifters? There would be no reason they would have a biological sex until they reached sexual maturity, found a mate, and worked it out so that they found some form of mutually acceptable form. I dunno, but I'm super stoked on the idea. If you don't want to do it of course we don't have to, but if not I'm totally using it for some other project down the line; I love this idea.

@Liliya
I have a question, though. I'm currently working on my character's opinion on other members of the team, so I wanted to ask whether Robert and Alex have met not only outside costumes, but also as superheros. If you do not mind, that is.

I'm sure we know each other (and if Ermine's cool with it, you should know Andrea, too). Like usually no one would know Alex's secret identity, but all the kids associated with the Guardians know each other and have worked together. We even have an app. ^^

but at some point decide they like someone, follow them around, get as close as possible to them (as in inserting themselves into the other person

But I dun care if we have more Guardian-connected people. -shrug-

@Raijinslayer True enough about demon bugs.

@Joshie

Oh, the great and powerful master of the game-to-be, I humbly ask of thee, so her my plea... shall I answer any questions about my character too?

Never before have I hated long shifts. You guys frickin blew up this thread with lovable material. XD

Yeah, I'm currently work on getting the OOC up and running to start this thing in earnest (we can finish up the discussion of when "we first fought as a team" on that thread, though please feel free to continue it here till I have the chance to make the thread).

We're just about ready I say! XD

EDIT:
@Tengri

May not be necessary as of yet, and if I do, I shall drop them in the ooc. Love the character, btw. :)

@Ermine
Hush! Don't encourage his bizarre desire for demon bugs. I'm sure that we probably won't face any during the game.

@Joshie
We won't face any gigantic insects during our game, will we?

@Tengri"Net, have you never heard if the term 'Where there is a will, there's a way'? "

@Raijinslayer"I must admit that this kind of determination deserves my respect. If only you have applied this determination to something more productive."

@Ermine
Hush! Don't encourage his bizarre desire for demon bugs. I'm sure that we probably won't face any during the game.

@Joshie
We won't face any gigantic insects during our game, will we?

inb4 we have to fight Beelzebub

@Raijinslayer Honestly, I should just insert Ian as someone with whom Robert teamed up before because this banter seems somewhat friendly, if a bit vitriolic, to me. Is this fine with you?

@Grey"A giant fly-demon. I wonder whether Swarm's powers work on such a thing, though."

If it does, that would surely be a total hax.

Speaking of Hana's power, I should probably sort out where exactly that's coming from.

Also probably gonna nix Venom Generation for something else. Dunno what, but I'll sort that out before the IC launches for sure.

@TengriI'm cool with bit, though you should note that before the dragoon incident, he was more of a stick-to-the-shadiws vigilante type hero. When you look like more like a villain then a hero, you tend to try to keep on the down-low. That's not the case anymore since he's apart of team Ian and the Ianettes.

That is totally the group name, because Ian should obviously be team leader. What coulkcoulkd possibly go wrong.

Team Name Suggestion: Dragoonslayers

@RaijinslayerNetwork isn't against vigilantism, though.

"Ian, you are such a card. I almost took your little joke about using such a repulsive team name seriously."

@Grey"Maybe something shorter? I propose the Vigil"

We are up and running.

OOC is up. Feel free to also post your playbooks in the Character thread.

I have the feeling that this is going to be great. XD