Bounce

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

I shall attempt to break away from Stellaris this weekend in order to give @Retired an excuse to make new timelines and not post in them.

It's not exactly a high profile job, but I take my responsibilities seriously.

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

S E A S O N O N E : H O M E C O M I N G

_{Location: Newport, Rhode Island}

New Mutants #1.07

---

Interaction(s): @Retired

The remainder of the day had been ordinary.

It made the X-Baby wonder what the point had been. They had failed Dani’s test and then just gone on about their normal school day. They were still her team. There seemed no consequences for how they performed. Or how they hadn’t performed.

“We did fine.”

Well, there was one change.

Cherub was eating dinner with Sammy Pare and Katie Power. Despite being Sammy’s roommate, the two had never spent any time together outside of the dorms or classes. And Katie Power was the most popular kid at the Xavier Institute. And the three weren’t even at the institute. Katie had suggested they go get pizza.

When he’d agreed to come, he’d expected they were going to the Pizza Hut in Westchester. It was where most of the student body ended up when the topic of pizza came up. Instead, they were at a bistro on the New England coast, courtesy of...

...well, to be honest, Cherub couldn’t have explained it even if he’d wanted to. Katie had a friend, who was also an airplane? Except it could also go in space. So it was a spaceplane? Actually, now that he thought about it, Cherub was pretty sure Katie had said that Friday was actually from space, so that would make it more of a spaceship. But that was just science fiction and fantasy, right?

Regardless, now that they were outside of the Xavier Institute, Cherub couldn’t have felt any more out of place. Having arrived from Mojoworld with only the Archangel costume on his back, his clothing was an assortment of hand-me-downs from among the students or the local Goodwill. To go out, he’d just thrown on a worn Gap Kids hoodie and a pair of jeans that he’d borrowed from Sammy.

Despite his orange skin and fish-like appearance, Sammy seemed perfectly at home inside the restaurant, decked out in North Face and Old Navy tags. His mother would send him clothes from home. Though, Cherub actually, had no idea where Sammy was from. The fact that he hadn’t even thought about until now because... well, they just didn’t hang out.

“We demonstrated that we can work as a team to accomplish a goal, and that we don’t let pressure get in the way of that.” Katie remarked, looking like a tween model in Aeropostle chic with her hair down. Picking up a french fry, the girl waved it in the air a moment as she added, “In fact, we should keep working on that,” before popping the fry in her mouth.

Cherub just kept his mouth shut. Everything around them only served as a reminder that this was an alien world. Even without his powder blue skin, he was out of place here. A few people inside the pizzeria cast some glances their way, but apparently this was a place Katie had been before. She said the owners were friendly to what she described as people with powers.

Were there even restaurants on Mojoworld? Until his escape, he’d never even been outside of the Murderama, but it was hard to try and fathom.

“How?” Sammy uttered, as the large pizza they’d ordered to split among the three of them arrived at the table.

“I’m gonna see if I can get us a timeslot in the Danger Room,” the girl stated simply, even as she passed out plates and napkins to the boys. “It’ll probably be a totally obnoxious time if I can get it, so expect it to be, like, lunch hour or something.”

Pulling a slice of pizza free from the pie, Sammy asked, “But what about Kitty and Bobby?”

“I’ll make sure they get an invite, but they have to want to be part of this team,” the girl offered with a shrug, before reaching toward Cherub and saying, “Give me your plate.”

Pulling a slice free, she placed the pizza on the plate and then passed it back to the awkwardly quiet X-Baby before continuing, “Short of that, we just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

“What are we gonna do in the Danger Room?” Sammy asked, in-between bites.

“They’ll only allow us to run a level one simulation,” Katie remarked, even though Cherub had no idea just what a level one simulation was supposed to mean. After a bite, the girl added, “So, it’ll be pretty low power and full safeties, but I’m hoping to generate an encounter with the Blob.”

“Wait, what?” Sammy blurted aloud, bits of pepperoni flying from his lips. “What are the three of us going to do against the Blob!?”

The girl started to answer, but Sammy just cut her off with an exaggerated wave of his hand. “Wait, wait, wait,” the Squid Boy uttered flatly. “I take it back,” he interjected, pointing between himself and Cherub. “What are the two of us going to do against the Blob? You’re just gonna blow him the fuck away.”

The F-bomb caused Cherub’s head to turn in surprise. X-Babies had a list of words that the censors would never allow on the air. That was one of them.

But, on Earth, people could just say what they wanted?

“He’s pretty immune to getting blown away,” Katie countered evenly, wiping some of the grease from her hands before reaching for a second slice of pizza. As she did, she offered, “And since he’s a physical opponent, there’s no directed energy for me to absorb,”. Taking a bite out of her second piece, the table was quiet as the trio ate before she spoke again and said, “Similarly, neither Cherub’s razors or the toxin on them will have an impact. We’ll have to work together to develop solutions in real time, just like an actual fight.”

Now it was Sammy’s turn to look surprised. “Wait, toxin?” the fish-faced mutant uttered, shooting a glare over at the blue-skinned kid.

“Didn’t you bother to read the profile on Archangel?” Katie asked, the exasperation starting to slip into her voice. Then, taking a breath, she explained, “Cherub’s wings contain projectile razors that are coated in a neurotoxin.”

“Oh great, another way for my roommate to kill me in his sleep!” Sammy exclaimed, slumping down in his chair. He stayed there a moment, then propped his head up as he said, “Anyway, are you high? I’m literally a fish out of water and he’s got aluminum foil for wings!”

Cherub edged over a little further from Sammy.

This... this was why they weren’t friends.

Picking up another french fry, Katie pointed it at the aquatic mutant. “I get it. You don’t shoot laser beams out of your hands. Which, let me tell you, is more trouble than it’s worth. My point is, it’s all situational,” the girl stated in the same even tone, before popping the french fry in her mouth. After she’d swallowed, she added, “And an encounter with the Blob is a situation where none of our individual abilities provide for a singular solution. It’s perfect for practicing team work!”

“It’s perfect for us getting our ass kicked,” Sammy tossed back flatly.

“What do you think its like being an X-Man?”

The question caught the X-Baby by surprise, both for its directness and the realization that he’d never thought about it. Even though, in a way, he’d been an X-Man on television all his life.

“I dunno,” Sammy quipped back, throwing a hand up half-heartedly as he deadpanned, “Totally awesome?”

“I don’t think it is.” It was the first time since they’d left the Institute that he’d spoken. He’d never thought much about it, but reflecting back on all the videos they’d had to watch in order to learn how to play their parts, Katie’s words were casting Warren in an entirely new light for him.

A french fry dipped approvingly in his direction, before disappearing in Katie’s mouth. “Blue gets it,” Katie noted simply, fixing her gaze on the slumping Sammy as she said, “It’s a lot of getting your ass kicked. Then getting back up and trying again anyway.”

“Then why would anyone want to do it?” Sammy tossed back.

“I don’t think a lot of people do,” Katie answered honestly. “And that’s one of the things I think Dani’s trying to teach.”

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

@DocTachyon

I'm calling foul if Wolverine's not on every team. Continuity be damned.

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

S E A S O N O N E : H O M E C O M I N G

_{Location: The Xavier Institute - Westchester, New York}

New Mutants #1.05

---

Interaction(s): @Retired

It was a locker room, not a dressing room. They called it training, not rehearsal. Yet, some part of him still felt as though the Xavier Institute operated a lot like the Murderama.

Not that he was complaining. The familiar elements helped make the rest seem somewhat less alien.

The morning classes had followed the assembly as though it had been any other day. People had whispered excitedly over the team assignments, which seemed to have created new cliques that were cause for either anguish or celebration. As for himself, Cherub couldn’t have said how he felt. Aside from that he would have preferred to have been on a team with Evan.

...who he’d only met today, and then only because Evan seemed the only one willing to talk to him.

It seemed like whoever Evan was a clone of, they both had some connection to Warren Worthington. The fact that Cherub had no idea what that connection was had made him aware of how very little he knew about the man he portrayed on the X-Babies. After all, what was there to know? Cherub was supposed to just be the X-Man Angel. It was really just about flying and looking the part.

He didn’t actually know anything about who he was supposed to be.

The blue-skinned child had changed into the black and gold ensemble that formed the uniform for when the students trained their powers under the supervision of the school. The meeting place for the team was out on the lawn, so the boy had stretched out his wings and taken to the air.

The campus fell away beneath his feet. The boy’s blond hair free and wild in the breeze as his metallic wings seemed to resonate with a peculiar hum as they flared back. As the youth was lifted up, the rapidly shrinking mansion seemed to dip. The horizon rolled in a dizzying blur, as the ground was replaced with an endless blue sky.

It was so different from the polluted smog of Mojoworld.

The horizon rolled in another dizzying blur, as the boy rotated back toward the ground. He shot down from above like a speeding bullet, sailing down and then arcing across the roof of the mansion. The peculiar hum seemed to resonate again, as the techno-organic wings flared outward as the boy arrested his momentum. The child’s body seemed to bounce upward briefly, before his wings folded in against his back and he dropped back to solid ground.

He knew three of the four – Katie, Bobby, and Sammy – mostly just because they were either in his same classes or, in the case of Bobby, because he was popular with the underclassmen. The fourth, a girl who seemed Bobby’s age, had an impatient look on her face as the blue-skinned youth walked up to the group.

The fifth was one of the teachers, though Cherub wasn’t sure he knew what she taught.

“My name is Dani Moonstar,” the woman announced. “While I am in charge of your training, you will address me by my codename; Mirage.”

At the mention of codenames, a few eyes were cast his way. To be honest, he was still confused over this idea of codenames. He hadn’t even realized Angel wasn’t Warren Worthington’s actual name. “X-Babies only have one name,” the boy offered with a shrug.

Seriously, why did these people need, like, two or three names or whatever?

“I've got several tests for you today so I can determine where you're all at individually and as a group.”

Just like the Murderama back home. She called it a test. He called it a scene.

Directing their attention to the hedge maze, the woman offered, “This maze will be the first. Earlier this morning I took it upon myself to see how fast I could make it to the center. It took me almost seven minutes.” Pausing there, she got their attention again before adding, “I'm giving you all five to make it there.”

The boy’s head just went back. Five minutes? He could fly there in under five second...

“And no powers. We're doing this the old-fashioned way.”

Oh, the boy thought. Though, now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure Katie couldn’t fly. He knew Sammy couldn’t fly. So, he supposed that wouldn’t work for everyone anyway.

At the start, it seemed two people were going in different directions. The impatient girl was off like a shot, even as Katie called after her.

Bobby was the other, who uttered something under his breath and gave a dismissive gesture as he was just walked away from the maze.

“Un-believable!” Katie snapped, at the realization that the teenagers had just split off on their own. Then, motioning for the two boys to follow said, “Stick together. Hopefully we catch up with Last Action Hero.”

As the trio of kids jogged into the maze, Katie asked, “Sam, Blue, either of you got any ideas?”

“Uh, one of us could see over the hedge walls if we lifted them up?” Sammy ventured aloud.

“Recon,” Katie mused with a nod, slowing to a halt as the group arrived at their first choice of which way to go. “I like it,” the girl remarked, reaching into a bush to snap off a twig.

Stooping down, the girl made an circle with an arrow pointing left. Then, straightening back up, looked at the three and said, “We mark our turns in case we get backtracked.”

“What’s the point?” Sammy asked, as the three broke into another jog through the maze. Katie marked another turn, as the boy explained, “If Dan... er, Mirage, couldn’t do it in five minutes, what chance do we have?”

“That’s not the point,” Katie offered flatly, marking a third turn and then jogging on.

“What do you mean, that’s not the point?” Sammy tossed back at the girl, throwing his arms out as he said, “That’s, like, the whole point!”

The girl shot the fish-faced mutant a brief glance as she replied, “It’s a test, right?”

The two boys exchanged a look, then both gave a nod back to the pig-tailed girl.

“What is it that you think she’s evaluating?”

“But, she said...” Sammy began.

“Oh!” Cherub murmured, the proverbial lightbulb going on over his head as realization of what Katie meant sank in. “Not, like, navigating the maze. But how, like, we navigate the maze.”

“Close enough,” Katie remarked, coming up to a stop. Turning back to the boys, she said, “Lift me up.”

The simple request turned into a brief demonstration of cheerleader stack techniques, after which the pig-tailed girl’s head peeked just over the top of the hedge. “We’re turned sideways right now. We need to try going right again,” Katie noted, as she hoped back down.

The kids were probably already going over four minutes, and were not going to finish anytime in the next sixty seconds.

Rogue Continuum: The Singularity Crisis (A DC and Marvel RP)

---

_{something wicked this way comes}

---

“We're surrounded by enemies, don't know what they are, don't know where they're coming from, and we don't know how many there are.”

The cowboy had a firm grasp on the situation. Six couldn’t help but share the strategic analysis as the man named Hex spo...

“We got them right where we want them.”

The boy’s head spun around as if on a swivel. A look of confusion twisted the child’s features that were visible beneath the hooded cowl and domino mask. Was the cowboy making a joke?

The Nomad spoke up, asking the boy, “I'm assuming by predator you don't just mean a lion or, I don't know, a big crocodile.”

The boy’s black and red cape fluttered around the youth’s ambiguous form, as he began floating in the air along the path they had chosen. “Both would be apt comparisons,” the child remarked cryptically, as the group arrived at a dead end.

There were shadows. Six could always...

“Allow me,” M’Gann’s voice announced, as the woman pulled the hovering child back a pace, before she ghosted through the barrier.

Picking back up on the question that Steve had asked, the boy explained, “What I feel is a killer, but... there’s no malice. No envy. None of the usual sins that I’d associate with murder.”

Barry decided to take a jog as they talked, though no sooner had the Flash departed than the door came off the hinges as M’Gann tossed it aside. “Apologies for the delay. It appears I did not have the proper credentials.”

The boy murmured his approval, still hovering in the air as he floated inside of Harper’s office. The Martian had handled that quite efficiently. In fact, it sparked a thought. Her ability, as well as his own, meant that they could potentially split up to cover more area...

It seemed M’Gann was already of that same thought. “I am going to scout ahead. It will be quicker for me to move alone.”

With that, the Martian was off, leaving the boy to contemplate doing likewise. Barry would have a good catalogue of the hallways and pathways, but M’Gann and Six could venture between floors or...

“Computer.”

Steve’s voice broke the silence, commanding respect as he... thought he was using some kind of voice recognition operating system? “Access camera feeds.”

On second thought, maybe leaving the office to the cowboy and Nomad wasn’t the most efficient use of teamwork. Floating down to the ground, the cape seemed to dissolve into the child’s small frame as it became visible, a black suit with white lines reminiscent of the chains that seemed to bind him. It might have been remarkable to realize just how small he was.

Coming around the desk, the boy examined the computer there. A screensaver was active, but the desktop immediately appeared when Six moved the mouse. No password protection thus far. “If there was a voice assistant, it’d probably answer to ‘Siri’ or ‘Alexa, play Despacito,’” the boy commented, reaching forward to explore the keyboard and clicking around on the desktop.

“The clock is set for the U.S. Eastern Time Zone,” Six commented aloud, before adding, “Current year is Twenty Twenty-Two.”

On the desktop was a folder labeled FIELD REPORTS. The contents contained monotonous notations on daily activities. “This facility is known as Cadmus Labs,” Six noted aloud as he browsed through the available data. “This report was authored nine days ago and it makes reference to a sentient weapons observation and response department...”

There were a lot of sub-folders within the directory. Sorting by recency, EVENT T-212-73 and EVENT S-89-17 were the newest entries. Both were password protected, but the file properties were visible. The two folders were created one week apart, six and five weeks before the current date.

And there was another folder in the main directory that caught his attention. THE DNA PROJECT. That was created six years ago, and wasn’t password protected. There were no loose files, only more sub-folders – with password protection on them. KR SUBJECT 01, KR SUBJECT 02, GENOMORPH, G-GOBLIN...

“Good God...”

Steve’s voice pulled the boy away from the computer. Floating up over Nomad’s shoulder, the boy stoically peered at the images of the bloodbath on the screen.

So what’s what he’d sensed.

Honestly, the vibes in that cafeteria would probably have been a good place to recharge. There was sure to be some restless souls or spirits of vengeance he could tap for some necroplasm.

However, now wasn’t the time to think about that. Instead, it had exposed an oversight and a vulnerability. They’d divided the team, but hadn’t established a means of communication. “-tt-” the boy uttered, disgusted with himself. “I should have thought to have the Martian link us telepathically before she ghosted out.”

It was a rookie mistake.

Closing his eyes for a moment, the boy applied his own, twisted form of empathy. The same miasma of killer instinct met him, except this time he pushed beyond the first impression. M’Gann and Barry were both out there. Whether they’d stumbled across the same information or whether someone had stumbled across them, someone had to feel some negative emotions.

Right?

“I’ve found Barry,” the Hellspawn announced. As he opened his eyes, green hellfire flickered from out of the eye holes on the domino mask. His voice was deeper, almost demonic as his cape seemed to furl outward, as though melding with the dark corners of the room. As the boy stretched out his hands, green flames seemed to flow along his hands and arms.

The Flash was uncertain. Afraid.

“I can teleport us to him,” Six uttered flatly, in the same altered tones.

Grudgingly, the Nomad and the cowboy seemed to exchange a glance. And then it was done. The lights flickered overhead. As the shadows consumed them, the three were swallowed by the cape that flowed from out of the boy’s body. And then they had vanished.

From across the facility, Barry might have noticed the shadows along the wall seeming to swell. The lights flickered, as the shadows detached themselves and took human form.

Then the inky darkness receded, revealing the black and red cape as the child appeared in eldritch hellfire. The smell of sulfur and brimstone seemed to linger in the air, as the hellspawn reappeared in front of the Flash.

.

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

<Snipped quote by DocTachyon>

1) Incredible Hulk is under rated and under appreciated within the MCU and is one of the best films within the MCU and I still stand that for a solo film it has one of the best, if no the best, final fight.

2) Endgame was overrated. I know a lot of people are like boo you just didn't like how Hulk was portrayed and that's right. More importantly I felt like it suffered from some real pacing issues, I understand why everything is in it and I wouldn't know what to cut, I just feel like it doesn't work.

@Sep

I try not to agree with Sep, but I think he got it right here.

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

@Bounce I am working on my intro (issue No. 0) post for Prince Thor, do you still want to play Loki?

@Dead Cruiser

I think I'm going to take a pass for now. I have a really solid idea for Loki, but I'm just not sure about the time to actually write it on top of what I'm doing now.

Rogue Continuum: The Singularity Crisis (A DC and Marvel RP)

An OOC post?

In this thread? What is this MADNESS.

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

@Lord Wraith

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

In relation to this we tried to build the VRA in a way that it could be interesting for you all to deal with IC, but in a way that doesn't force your hand by doing anything major like making all heroes that aren't registered illegal.

@Sep

What about immigration status for unregistered mutants born on a different planet and who entered the United States illegally via dimensional portal?

Asking for a friend.