[OOC] U N I V E R S A L ™ (Accepting New Players!)

[Parfex]

@Aro
No problem.
I've been thinking up a solution myself:

Spoilers

Ok, so the biggest issue is that we don't want alternate universes right?

What if Adrian Hunter has had 3 years of developing his "impulse" ability and nothing else and that's his hero identity that the media has given him?
Next, Dissonance comes back and for the next year, 'Impulse' gets in her way enough to the point where they learn each other's identity and she threatens to kill his mom if he doesn't back off.
Impulse calls her bluff "For the sake of justice and doing the right thing blah blah blah" and forces her hand and watches as Dissonance kills his mom before him.
Having nevery won a fight against her + seeing his mother die + the fear/anxiety of seeing Dissonance begin to get away AGAIN, he calls on his desire. His need to stop her/seek revenge/be a hero/etc:
He's lying on the ground.
Blood and sweat in his eyes.
Consciousness fading in and out;
He whispers "come back."
"come back"
"COME BACK!"
"COME BACK!"
The sound of concrete and steel splintering and shattering. A light post tears from the ground.
"Come back!"
*POP!* A fire hydrant rips at the seams.
Dissonance looks back in horror as she picks up the pace.
Suddenly, her feet slide backwards and she's lifted into the air.
She's hurled back towards Impulse, panic in her eyes. Impulse stands up on his feet. She fires a blast that slams into Impulse's shoulder, spinning him and sending him flying into the ground.
He drops her and she skids and tumbles but recovers to her feet.
"COME BACK!"
This was the loudest scream of them all.
She looks back lining up another shot, heart racing.
Something's wrong.
He looks... blurry, distorted.
The center of her vision shifts and twists. Light itself is bending in front of her.
"COME BACK!"
Telephone wires snap. Electricity crackles all around the void.
Fear, real fear sweeps over her.
She rips off her gloves, sweat and water from the hydrant drenching her ears and neck as she unleashes her full power at the void just to prevent herself from being pulled in.
"COME BACK! The distorted words one last time. Then. Silence.
Collapsed to her knees, Dissonance looks around at the destroyed city block. Alone.

[Omega Man]

@Parfex Officially accepted. Sorry I couldn't get to it sooner. @Aro was bragging on your IC post while I was stuck at work, so I figured there wouldn't be a problem with the finished CS. And I wasn't wrong LOL

~KL~

[Parfex]

@The Kid Lantern
Was he? =D
Awesome. Thank you for having me!
Cheers!

[Omega Man]

Gonna work on an IC post tonight, hopefully @Aro will be around LOL

~KL~

[Aro]

You've got a deep understanding for character development and you've been able to predict my original story almost perfectly.
So, here's the challenges that I'm facing, and maybe you can help me with these:
1. Due to the similarities in powers and the fact that Dissonance was thought up first, Vega has to lose to her. Almost always.
2. Vega Learns new abilities by trying to overcome disadvantages when fighting Dissonance.

@Parfex

1/2. Of course, that's a given from what I can gleam on your CS. You'll have to discuss this between the two of you but what I would do is during the first fight Vega has his ass handed to him by Dissonance. She's had the last 3 years to use and develop her powers whereas your character had a short amount of time to develop his own before being transported by the black hole. The second fight would take place after some time and you've developed your powers against other characters, in this fight Dissonance would still win but you would develop your ability more and be able to deliver stronger punches and kicks like you state in your CS. More time will pass and you'll develop your character further and be able to punch and kick as hard as Dissonance's own punches and kicks with her ability. During your 3rd fight with Dissonance is where I would develop you gravity pull ability, but not realizing that the ability works in a sphere around you, you mistakenly pull in rubble from the fight knocks you unconscious. After this fight you develop that power more learning the range of the sphere around you and learning to focus it. The 4th fight you use all of your abilities that you have been developing and this fight ends in more of a draw for the two of you than an outright loss for you. All future battle between the two of you I would talk about and determine who would win or if they would end in more draws.

3. Dissonance (unfortunately) got her powers 3 years after Vega in our universe, which throws out a simple time jump. Thus Vega comes from a universe where they both got their abilities at the same time and their stories unfold similar to what you said.

@Parfex

3. Dissonance didn't get her powers three years after your character, she got her powers 3 years ago meaning she got them at around 22 year old while still a member of SAS.

BRIEF Bio: Jen led a quiet life for her first 18 years. When she left school, instead of attending university, she joined up with the armed forces, determined to do good in the world. After a year of service, she was assigned to a special operations division, the SAS. She carried out missions for several years, seeing things that would make normal people break down and go insane. This led to her becoming withdrawn, often appearing emotionless to deal with what she had seen. After a particularly brutal mission, Jen refused the orders of her commanding officer when ordered to gun down some civilians. When threatened at gunpoint, Jen's powers awoke. She killed the rest of her squadron with them, partly due to their out of control nature, and partly because she wanted to. After that, she went on the run, dying her hair to help obscure her identity. She moved to New Athens, determined to change the world to a vision she wanted, one free from the governments and corruption she viewed as responsible for the atrocities she had to commit. There is nothing she won't do to see this happen.

@Carlsberg

That's why I recommended just a time jump. You received your powers at 17/18 and went missing shortly after. While at the same time Dissonance's character was completely normal until at about 22 when her powers manifested, that makes her receiving her powers 4/5 years after your character received his.

4. I cannot time jump without pulling everyone into the future, therefore I can only jump from the past.

@Parfex

4. I'm not quite sure what you mean here.

5. If this is an alternate universe, what happened to the original Adrian Hunter? (I'm thinking that he's dead too, like his mother) but Vega believes that the grave is an empty tomb made due to his disappearance, when in reality, it's not empty.

@Parfex

5. You keep talking alternate universes and I'm trying my best to find a compromise to keep us away from that because I think it would just be a lot of work on everyone's part. Because let's say that in our universe (The current one where the RP is taking place) Adrian Hunter found the meteorite that gave you your powers but in our universe it killed him. In your alternate universe your character and Carlsberg's went to school together and gained powers around the same time, that create a whole new history for an already established character that Carlsberg may or may not want to create. For instance, my character Reaper is a former member of STRIKE that faked his death and became a mercenary. In your universe he could very well still be a member of STRIKE. This is why I keep pushing the time jump, so we don't have to make secondary histories for characters in a universe that only your character is aware of.

If we do the time jump for the most part his grave would probably just be an empty plot with a grave marker or a coffin filled with mementos that others placed in the coffin.

6. If this is an alternate universe, Vega believes that is is only a time jump for now.

@Parfex

6. What I would maybe do is instead have him believe that it's an alternate universe, when in actuality it's only a time jump. That way he believes he can return to his own universe to save his mother from dying. This could also lead to how he treats others and until he learns that this is his universe and he was simply flung forward in time by six years he would then just try to find ways back in time while adjusting to the time he was found himself in, maybe trying to become a more civilian friendly hero coming to the realization that these people have their own lives that actions affect.

7. Due to the time jump (New universe or not) Vega believes that this timeline is "false" and that all (or most) of these events happened because he was absent in the time jump. He develops an unhealthy detachment for life because he believes that he's simply going to go back in time and "correct" any grievances that happened as a result of accidental or intentional misgivings.

@Parfex

7. Personally, I would stick with this idea as it's pretty much what every time traveler goes through.

"I missed the last 6 years of my life, and while the world continued moving I wasn't there to make any changes. What if I had been around? Would my mother still be alive? Would I be a better known hero? Blah, blah, blah."

Unless a better idea comes around this is basically every storyline any time traveler goes through. Take a look at DC's Flashpoint. Flash runs back in time and saves his mother, but the outcome of that changes the world that he knew. Friends become enemies, enemies are allies. So on and so forth.

8. This detachment from reality (and possibly humanity) sometimes causes people to perceive him as a villain even though he's not and still believes himself to be the hero of the past (That people either don't remember because this is a new universe or that people scorn for abandoning them if it's the same universe).
9. Vega still believes himself to be good and so he won't compromise his morals even in a "false" timeline however, it's hard to care about something (or someone) that may never happen in his "true" timeline (His outlook on his current life).

@Parfex

8/9. I would have him just come off as cold when dealing with civilians. He wouldn't do news interview or anything like that and he would just kinda push people out of his way so he can continue on with his mission. Like, let's say he's chasing my character down on foot and Reaper takes a hostage. I would imagine your character would just keep coming at me as if I didn't have a civilian at gunpoint. For the most part concerning your hero's identity from the past I would have it that he was just not a well known hero. Consider this, if in Spider-man's early days (when he didn't have his suit and ran around in a hoodie) he suddenly went missing no one would really have noticed. If he then reappeared after 6 years unless your hero was a well known hero no one would connect the dots that you and the hero from the past are the same.

As for what you posted in the spoiler in one of your latest posts. Reading it, while it's mostly just highlights, pushes into the God-mode territory which is a major no-no. If you went with something like that I would instead recommend that you can Carlsberg get together and exchange PMs or go into the titanpad to create a collaboration that way Carlsberg can control her own character and preform reactions appropriate for her.

@The Kid Lantern I may not be online but I'll be around. Just text me if you need me for something.

[Parfex]

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

1/2. Of course, that's a given from what I can gleam on your CS. You'll have to discuss this between the two of you but what I would do is during the first fight Vega has his ass handed to him by Dissonance. She's had the last 3 years to use and develop her powers whereas your character had a short amount of time to develop his own before being transported by the black hole. The second fight would take place after some time and you've developed your powers against other characters, in this fight Dissonance would still win but you would develop your ability more and be able to deliver stronger punches and kicks like you state in your CS. More time will pass and you'll develop your character further and be able to punch and kick as hard as Dissonance's own punches and kicks with her ability. During your 3rd fight with Dissonance is where I would develop you gravity pull ability, but not realizing that the ability works in a sphere around you, you mistakenly pull in rubble from the fight knocks you unconscious. After this fight you develop that power more learning the range of the sphere around you and learning to focus it. The 4th fight you use all of your abilities that you have been developing and this fight ends in more of a draw for the two of you than an outright loss for you. All future battle between the two of you I would talk about and determine who would win or if they would end in more draws.

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

3. Dissonance didn't get her powers three years after your character, she got her powers 3 years ago meaning she got them at around 22 year old while still a member of SAS.

<Snipped quote by Carlsberg>

That's why I recommended just a time jump. You received your powers at 17/18 and went missing shortly after. While at the same time Dissonance's character was completely normal until at about 22 when her powers manifested, that makes her receiving her powers 4/5 years after your character received his.

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

4. I'm not quite sure what you mean here.

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

5. You keep talking alternate universes and I'm trying my best to find a compromise to keep us away from that because I think it would just be a lot of work on everyone's part. Because let's say that in our universe (The current one where the RP is taking place) Adrian Hunter found the meteorite that gave you your powers but in our universe it killed him. In your alternate universe your character and Carlsberg's went to school together and gained powers around the same time, that create a whole new history for an already established character that Carlsberg may or may not want to create. For instance, my character Reaper is a former member of STRIKE that faked his death and became a mercenary. In your universe he could very well still be a member of STRIKE. This is why I keep pushing the time jump, so we don't have to make secondary histories for characters in a universe that only your character is aware of.

If we do the time jump for the most part his grave would probably just be an empty plot with a grave marker or a coffin filled with mementos that others placed in the coffin.

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

6. What I would maybe do is instead have him believe that it's an alternate universe, when in actuality it's only a time jump. That way he believes he can return to his own universe to save his mother from dying. This could also lead to how he treats others and until he learns that this is his universe and he was simply flung forward in time by six years he would then just try to find ways back in time while adjusting to the time he was found himself in, maybe trying to become a more civilian friendly hero coming to the realization that these people have their own lives that actions affect.

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

7. Personally, I would stick with this idea as it's pretty much what every time traveler goes through.

"I missed the last 6 years of my life, and while the world continued moving I wasn't there to make any changes. What if I had been around? Would my mother still be alive? Would I be a better known hero? Blah, blah, blah."

Unless a better idea comes around this is basically every storyline any time traveler goes through. Take a look at DC's Flashpoint. Flash runs back in time and saves his mother, but the outcome of that changes the world that he knew. Friends become enemies, enemies are allies. So on and so forth.

<Snipped quote by Parfex>

8/9. I would have him just come off as cold when dealing with civilians. He wouldn't do news interview or anything like that and he would just kinda push people out of his way so he can continue on with his mission. Like, let's say he's chasing my character down on foot and Reaper takes a hostage. I would imagine your character would just keep coming at me as if I didn't have a civilian at gunpoint. For the most part concerning your hero's identity from the past I would have it that he was just not a well known hero. Consider this, if in Spider-man's early days (when he didn't have his suit and ran around in a hoodie) he suddenly went missing no one would really have noticed. If he then reappeared after 6 years unless your hero was a well known hero no one would connect the dots that you and the hero from the past are the same.

As for what you posted in the spoiler in one of your latest posts. Reading it, while it's mostly just highlights, pushes into the God-mode territory which is a major no-no. If you went with something like that I would instead recommend that you can Carlsberg get together and exchange PMs or go into the titanpad to create a collaboration that way Carlsberg can control her own character and preform reactions appropriate for her.

@The Kid Lantern I may not be online but I'll be around. Just text me if you need me for something.

@Aro

[Carlsberg]

@Parfex@Aro

All this parallel universe stuff is making my head spin a little. Why does Dissonance need to have had her powers for longer?

[Aro]

@Carlsberg That is why I'm pushing for just a time skip.

@Parfex You just quoted the entire post and added nothing new?

[Carlsberg]

@Aro

But why exactly does Dissonance need to have had her powers for longer somehow? I'm wondering in case there is anything I can provide to help.

[Aro]

@Carlsberg Because Parfex's original idea was to have Dissonance and Vega gain powers around the same time (Age 17/18) to build up a rivalry between the two of you before the time skip happened for his character. But your character's powers developed when your character was about 22 according to a previous post by you and your CS's history. Giving Dissonance 3 years of heaving her abilities.

It was after that that Parfex mentioned the alternate universe, and I believe that it would be confusing as fuck and spiral out of control having to try and deal with two separate realities for our characters when only a single character would have had any form of contact with said alternate characters.

[Carlsberg]

@Aro

Ooh, now I see. Not really sure if I can think of anything to help, except saying they could have a rivalry some other way. I mean, depending on how strong Parfexs characters were, Jen could maybe beat him in a fight aged 19-20, just using experience from hand to hand combat. Buy apart from that, not much I can do.

[Aro]

@Carlsberg My original idea around this problem was to have Parfex's and your characters attend the same school (maybe instead of school your characters attended MMA classes or something?) but personally didn't know each other. Between the two of you, you could can decide on some kind of activity that the two of you would've taken part of during school that would've started the rivalry. But then at 18 your character would go and join the military while Parfex's would have found the meteorite that gave him his powers which would eventually lead to the time jump for his character. As his character disappears at age 18 and doesn't reappear until 6 years later at age 24 due to his powers you wouldn't be able to fight him at 19/20.

EDIT: Maybe instead of school your characters attended MMA classes or something?

[Parfex]

@Aro
I think we lost each other at step 3.

End of senior year:
-Adrian gets his abilities at age 18ish.
-Dissonance goes to the military for combat training

Three years go by:
-Dissonance becomes a badass solider and gets her powers
@Carlsberg fills in what new abilities she can do.
-Meanwhile, Vega learns to control his ability in 3 ways while fighting crime:
1. Impulse split second shield
2. Impulse kick/punch/etc.
3. Small range blast (i.e. shoot soda cans off a fence)

Year 3 to year 4:
1st encounter:
Vega is in the wrong place wrong time.
He challenges Dissonance and she shows him that she's a better fighter, a crack shot and he's in way over his head.
Military training aside, her powers hit harder and last longer
Vega looses and Dissonance doesn't even break a sweat.

2nd encounter:
Vega has been practicing because of his defeat. His impulses hit harder and last a little longer.
He's still no match for Dissonance.
By some turn of events, he manages to disrupt her plans just enough to have them called off.
Gets his ass severely beat for it.

Vega receives a warning message from Dissonance who learned his identity from their previous fight:
If you get in my way again, I'm going to kill your mom that lives at Blah blah blah Athens dr.

Due to some twist of pride and a hero's call to duty, he decides to call her on her bluff.

3rd encounter:
Through a bit of regret but a cold military heart, Dissonance follows through with her threat and kills Vega's mother right in front of him.
Vega (having just seen the last person he cares about murdered in cold blood) is flooded with emotion. He pulls from a great pit of need and manifests a new ability (The pull part).
This is where we learn that Dissonance and Vega are nothing more alike than flash is to superman in the fact that they both have super speed or wonder woman is to green lantern just because they both can fly.

Vega, in his need to hurt Dissonance actually ends up hurting himself by flinging himself into the singularity that he created from the depths of his darkest moments.

@Carlsberg,@Aro
Vega has lost every single time.
In the current timeline, he's trying to find Dissonance.
He's terrified of accidentally causing another singularity (because it almost killed him) and even with his new ability, we don't even know if hes caught up to Dissonance.
Dissonance has 3 years to develop new powers, grow stronger or gain allies that will help conceal her by the time they meet again.
He's also going to meet up with @Endrance to try and learn more about his powers to A) Control them and B) to try and go back in time to save his mom (and fail for now)

@Aro
As far as god powers go, I hate them. If I outgrow my rival, my character isn't able to grow anymore and that's boring.
We've got people that have super strength, cloaking, water-breathing, invulnerability to bullets and have their own sidekick that is stronger than most heroes.
We've got people who can generate whatever they want with their minds AND are combat and weapon trained.
But if you feel that Vega is still too powerful after all this, I'll make a new character.
I plan on making Vega strong just to lose to almost everyone at least once.

[Aro]

@Parfex Before we go any further. At what age does you character get sucked into the singularity.

[Parfex]

@Aro
22ish

[Aro]

@Parfex That is vital information. I've been thinking you were sucked into the singularity around 18, shortly after gaining your powers.

[Carlsberg]

Oh, well it makes a lot more sense now XD.

Also, who's invulnerable to bullets?

[Parfex]

@Aro
If he did, that would make him develop to a crazy level of power in less than a year with no one to push his abilities.
I'm all about growth and growth needs challenges.
I don't want to be the strongest, I don't mind loosing more than I win. I just want to tell a good story.

@Carlsberg
^^^ Bullets because of armor or something I read at 2am last night. lol

[Aro]

@Parfex Yes, it makes SO much more sense now, but in that case your powers are more developed than hers but she's been military trained. But, in that case I would get together with Carlsberg and write up the battle that leads to the singularity, and then hint back to it in future posts. As for the rivalry, Dissonance get's her powers at about 22 and returns home where the two of you run into each other and the fight ensues. Afterwards, when Vega is dropped 4ish years in the future he finds his mother is dead, an empty grave for Adrian Hunter and learns that much of the populace believes that Impulse, or whatever you'll be going by before the jump, is believed dead since he went missing for the last 4 years. Upon his arrival in the current time Dissonance will have had the years to develop her powers more making her for sure more powerful than you.

And when I mentioned God mode I didn't mean your power set. I meant that in the little synopsis you wrote about the fight between you and Dissonance that creates the singularity you used Dissonance and wrote out all actions for her. That is god-mode, when you use another players character and write their character's interactions. That's the big no-no, unless you have approval from that character's owner.

And not the way I was thinking of writing the character it wouldn't. At 17/18 he acquires his powers and begins to fight crime. In his spare time he practices with his powers. After a few weeks or months of practicing he uses his powers on some enemy far stronger than him and in the process his powers go out of control creating the singularity which sucks him into it. With him sucked into the singularity it quickly collapses on itself and closes before any further damage is done. This puts you in the current timeline at 24, as you aged while in the singularity but your powers didn't improve any. You wake up 24 years old with the same level of power you had at 17/18, all while Dissonance has had the last 3 years of her life to develop her powers. That's pretty much what I've been thinking.

[Parfex]

@Aro
Oh, that God mode.
Yeah, that was just a teaser.
It may not play out that way. I'd always ask permission first and fact check with the author.

If Vega doesn't meet up with Dissonance before the time jump, there probably won't be a rivalry between us.
So, if the jump happens at 19, Vega will be hell-bent on finding his mother's killer and won't care about anyone else unless they directly opposed him or is assisting him.