Byrd Man

The Bogus Byrd Man's Interest Check

Whatever would be comfortable with you or whoever. If someone gets super busy with real life stuff and can't find the time, then take as long as you need. My personal preference would be maybe once a week, and maybe a bit more if we're in the middle of a convo or any other back and forth that wouldn't require as much content.

The Bogus Byrd Man's Interest Check

Well I'm not opposed to longer posts. My last 1x1 partner wrote longer posts than me, but they were always filled with character development tidbits and lots of other great stuff.
I've been guilty of writing long posts plenty of times, but I usually tried to have them filled with plot advancement and other stuff pertinent to the story or character. I usually consider padding to be something like going into too much detail about certain stuff.

Give you an idea, here's one of the longer posts I've written on the new site: Link

I wrote what was essentially a short novella with one character on the old site. Just depends on my motivation with the story.

The Bogus Byrd Man's Interest Check

Figured I'd might as well give this baby a bump back up to the top.

Ultimate One Universe: Marvel/DC RPG

This is where I had to choose. Anto Radic, the former Serbian mafia man was also on my radar. Someone texted him that afternoon setting up a meeting tonight near the outskirts of town. If Radic was back in the criminal life then this would give me a good idea on who he's working for and what their plan is. Of the two assignments, what I was asking Dick is the most dangerous at first glance. For all I knew Radic could have been picking up a crate of fish for delivery. If this lead turned out to be nothing while I'm asking a teenager to square off with a crew of armed mobsters...

"I'm going with you."

A few keystrokes on the computer and Toots' crew and all their personal information was in front of us.

"Toots has five men in his crew, every single one of them will be armed. If we want to take them down before it's too late we need to work together to do it."

Ultimate One Universe: Marvel/DC RPG

"Good assessment," I said with a nod. "I'd say just about everything was spot on. The use of terror isn't necessarily indicative of childhood or early trauma. As you've seen before it can be just a really great motivator. Now the museum doesn't close until ten. I wonder if you'll help me out on something before then."

I quickly ran down my current investigation into the barrel of limbs and blood. From the first meeting with Gordon to my discovering Purple Hue and their habit of using reformed Eastern European gangsters as drivers. I then pulled up an audio file on my computer and hit play. The voice recognition software already cataloged the two participants in the phone call: Salvatore Maroni and Falcone capo Antoni "Toots" Legarrio.

"Years of FBI wiretaps has led to the the mob having the strictest phone discipline of any organized crime syndicate. They never talk business over the phone and only do it in face to face meetings. The Falcone family's fronts don't use Wayne Tech, but I cloned Legarrio's phone months ago and activate its mic whenever he's talking business. I was able to glean this from the mic on his phone a few hours ago."

"This goddamn mess" said Maroni. "These finocchio they can get away with doing this shit? They think we're week since Carmine went away? We need to show 'em who runs the city, you hear me, Toots? You need to send them a message."

"Just tell me when and where, boss."

"Billy the Beaut has a cathouse him and all his guys make rounds to once a week. Tonight is the night they go there. Make sure it's the last time they ever get laid."

The audio ended with the sound of Toots' deep chuckle. I turned away from the computer and back to Dick.

"Whoever killed all those men, it wasn't Russo or the Gnucci Family. What Falcone and Legarrio are about to do will incite a gang war in the city and endanger countless civilians lives that would be caught in the crossfire. I need your help to stop Legarrio from carrying out the hit."

All-Star Marvel: Age of Heroes

Part 2
Fast Break

Rucker Park
Harlem
4:30 PM

Remember earlier when I was talking about the history of Harlem? Rucker's one of those landmarks that's just as important as something like the Cotton Club or Alexander Hamilton's home. If Madison Square Garden is the basketball mecca of the world, then Rucker is the Sistine Chapel of playground hoops. Yes, I understand they're landmarks of two different religions but you get my point. Everyone from Jordan and Kobe to Magic and Bird have all passed through Rucker at one time or another. Back when the NBA and NCAA were tight-asses about the rules, Rucker was the one place a baller could let it all hang out and play his game. It's where Kareem perfected the skyhook, it's the launch pad where Dr. J first took flight. It's also where my snitch happens to spend his Sundays.

I rolled through the park that afternoon to find a good size crowd at the court. Sunday pick up games in the fall are usually devoid of any serious pro ballers, most of them are away getting ready for the upcoming season. At most you'll find a few pretty good college players and the usual pack of talented street ballers. I hung back in the crowd and watched the better part of the first half before slowly making my way over to DeJuan. He was too focused on the game to notice me come up from behind. He didn't even turn away from the court until I touched his elbow.

"What the fu--," he started before he saw me. "Cage..."

"You got money on the game?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you think?"

I looked over DeJuan's head at the sight of a boy about 5'5 crossing over a man a foot taller than him and dashing towards the hoop for an easy lay up between two taller defenders.

"I hope you got the team the little guy's on."

The look on DeJaun's face answered that one for me. I started to guide him away from the court to the fence around the park. He shrugged out of my touch once we were at the fence. He leaned against the chain-link and stuck his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. Trying to mug tough is DeJuan's MO.

"What the hell you want with me?"

I pulled out my phone and showed DeJuan the picture of the calling card with the bloody crown on it.

"Recognize it?"

"No," he said too quickly.

"No wonder you always broke, boy. As bad a poker face as you got, you might as well give them your money."

DeJaun sucked his teeth and looked away, cursing under his breath.

"A boy died last night, DeJuan. Not much older than yourself. He got killed by someone running with this crew."

"I don't give a shit. World's tough, shit happens."

The thing with DeJuan is that he sometimes needed a firm touch. I popped my knuckles loudly. The hardened skin made the pops sound like the loud ding of an aluminum baseball bat. DeJuan continued to look away, but his hostility had melted away.

"You getting your jaw shattered and having to eat through a straw is shit happening too."

"Look," DeJuan finally said. "All I know is I seen that logo on some tags up at the Wagner homes. All I heard is that it's territory for some new crew, and that's it."

"Alright," I said with a slow nod. "I find out that's a bunch of bullshit and I will be back. Believe that."

DeJuan scuttled off back to the crowd watching the game. I couldn't see what was happening, but the gasps and cheers told me someone had just dunked. I hoped it was the team DeJuan had bet against and started for the nearest bus stop headed downtown.

Robert F. Wagner Houses
8:08 PM

I had my hood up while walking through the project courtyard. The projects here are a war zone, one of the few remaining bastions of the old ripping and running drug trade of the 90's. NYPD and the politicians promise every year to clean it up and clear the criminals out, but they never do. Lots of good people living here, lots of bad people too. Clockers on the stoop of every building, kids acting as runners carrying bags of product from the stash house to the dealers out front. I get a lot of hard stares, but nobody tries anything. They know I ain't 5-0. but they also know I ain't someone to take lightly. Halfway across the courtyard DeJuan's info paid off. A bright red tag on a wall, a crown with blood dripping off of it. Twenty yards away from the tag were a crew of five clockers sitting on a stoop, drinking malt liquor and bullshitting.

"You up?" one of the kids asked. He looked about all of thirteen. "You deaf, nigga? I said you up? What you want? Crack, coke, speed, weed?"

"Which one of y'all is running this crew?" I asked the pack of kids.

"Yo, what the fuck you care for?" the same kid trying to sell asked. "You one of them civic pride having niggas? Want to do a citizens arrest, nigga?"

"Need to stop using that word. You call yourself and each other nigga, makes even easier for a white man to call you that."

The crew busted out laughing wildly. Laughing too loudly to be genuine. It seemed more exaggerated. False bravado like DeJuan's resistance at Rucker. They want to show me I'm a fool and that what I'm saying don't mean a damn thing to them. Finally, one of the older boys in the crew stepped forward. Maybe sixteen with a lazy eye and a Melo Knicks Jersey,. I had six inches on him, but he still eyed me up and laughed.

"Yo, listen to this Fredrick Douglass motherfucker over here. Spouting all that we shall overcome bullshit."

"I'm starting to lose my patience with you little--"

"Keep talking," the droopy eye kid said as he pulled a pistol from his waistband. "And you gonna lose your fucking life, nigga. Now, walk it off motherfucka before the Kings fuck you up."

I moved before he could even register it. The gun went off as I snatched it out of his hand. The bullet hit my forearm and bounced off the skin, burying itself somewhere in the brick of the apartment building. The crew of dealers looked on shocked as I crushed the gun with my bare hands and tossed it on shocked.

"Now, which one you little motherfuckers is gonna tell me about the Kings and who your boss is?"

"SCATTER!" droopy eye shouted.

The five kids all took off in different directions. I cursed under my breath and took off after the older kid in the Knicks jersey, hauling ass across the courtyard to catch him before he disappeared into the the projects.

The Fighting Fathers: An Alternate History RPG

I guess if nobody posts by Monday I'll move things forward again.

Marvel Comics: Sentinel Initiative [Characters]

Name: Capt. Carol Danvers, USN

Age: 31

Alias: Captain Marvel

Appearance:

Captain Marvel herself

Abilities:
Carol has superhuman strength and durability, along with the power of supersonic flight.

Personality:

EDIT: I had a brain fart and forgot to fill this out.

Carol is an adrenaline junkie pure and simple. She loved the thrill of flying a jet and flying now that she has superpowers. The years of hard work and preparation to become a fighter pilot instilled in Carol a strong sense of willpower. Carol's years of military training has left Carol with a good strategic and tactical mindset when it comes to combat. She also had a slight case of PTSD from the events of her abduction but managed to work through it with help from SHIELD doctors. Carol's not exactly the brooding tortured soul superhero type, relishing in the work she does with the government and the Avengers.

Bio:

Captain Marvel

Carol was born and raised in Boston by a middle class family. Carol always had a lifelong fascination with flying and becoming a pilot. She applied and was rejected from the Air Force Academy, but managed to get accepted in the US Naval Academy after graduating high school. Her dream to serve as a fighter pilot was discouraged by nearly all her instructors at the academy, each of them citing the long and grueling process that led to the cockpit. She ignored their advice and kept going down her path, no matter how difficult or hard. She graduated from the academy in the top five of her class with a commission as a junior officer and an assignment to flight school.

After going through intense physical and mental screenings, Carol passed through introductory and primary flight training with flying (*rimshot*) colors. She was then assigned to learn on tailhook aircraft, the fighter jets that serve aboard aircraft carriers. Finally after years of hard fighting and training, Lieutenant Carol Danvers emerged from training as a navy fighter pilot.

Carol served six years in various carrier air wings aboard different ships. Finally, Carol was promoted to Commander and given command of Carrier Air Wing Three aboard the USS Harry S Truman serving in the Pacific. One night, Carol was out on patrol duty in the middle of the ocean when a bright bolt of purple lightning struck her aircraft. The lightning caused the jet's left wing to catch on fire; the plane began to enter into a free fall above the ocean. The last thing Carol remembered seeing was a white light before she woke up back on the ship. The crew of the carrier informed her that they had founder her nearly twenty miles due west of where her jet had gone down, too far of a distance for her to have drifted given the currents at that time. Due to the crash and mysterious circumstances around it Carol was granted a six week leave in Australia when the ship docked.

Waiting for her in Australia were men from an organization known as SWORD. After an intense interrogation on what went down in her jet they attempted to place Carol in custody. Carol resisted and shrugged the men off. Her shrugging had the unintended consequence of throwing the two men ten feet in the air and into a far wall. Carol reacted in horror at what she had just done and ran. Her panic and confusion tripled when she began to take flight during her escape. Carol tore across the Australian outback at speeds topping Mach 3. The Royal Australian Air Force picked her up on their radar and dispatched a pair of fighters to take out the unknown flying object. Carol used her pilot training to out maneuver the scrambled fighters.

Over the outback she discovered the reason for her new and strange abilities. A tractor beam stopped Carol in mid-flight and transported her away in the blink of an eye. She found herself in a spaceship orbiting over the planet. The sole occupant of the ship was a humanoid alien named Mar-Vell. While Carol remained locked in stasis Mar-Vell informed her that he was the one responsible for her crash into the ocean, and that he abducted her aboard his ship. Mar-Vell was a scientist sent on a expeditionary mission to Earth by the Kree Empire. The Kree had taken notice of Earth after the Avengers repealed the Chitauri invasion. They moved to create an army that would be part Kree and part Human. Carol was the perfect mental and physical specimen for Mar-Vell needs, so he teleported her to his ship and spliced her genes with Kree DNA and extra genomes to grant her powers. Mar-Vell used the template of her DNA to begin cloning an army of super-powered Kree/Human hybrids. The army would protect the galaxy from its greatest threat... the planet Earth.

Angered, Carol broke free of her stasis lock and assaulted Mar-Vell. The Kree scientist gave as good as he got, trading blows with Carol across the massive ship. During the fight Carol was thrown into the lab. Inside were millions upon millions of cloned samples already growing in incubation tanks. Further enraged she broke through as many tanks as she could before Mar-Vell attacked back. Losing a fight she knew she couldn't win, Carol opted for another approach. She charged towards the outer hull of the ship and broke through into outer space. Once in space, she began to push the ship down into Earth's atmosphere. Both Carol and the ship caught fire during the descent into the atmosphere. While the ship disintegrated, Carol came through in one piece. She recovered from the free fall and came down off the coast of South Africa just in time to see the fiery space ship crash into the ocean. Waiting for her off the coast of South Africa was a naval armada and representatives from several security agencies, SHIELD and SWORD among them.

Carol was taken into custody by both agencies and she told them her story. SWORD attempted to place Carol in custody for further study, but Nick Fury intervened and offered a compromise. Carol would work for SWORD to assess and combat any extraterrestrial threat that didn't require the Avengers' presence. Carol would also work with SHIELD as a part-time Avengers member. For her heroic efforts Carol was awarded the Navy Cross and promoted to Captain. Carol chose the codename of Captain Marvel in order to honor her rank and not to forget that there were those out there in the stars that would use her and all of Earth as weapons.

Misc.:

I got rid of the concussive blasts Carol uses as Captain Marvel. I figure if we have an Iron Man then Carol can just work as a straight up tank.

Marvel Comics: Sentinel Initiative

I'm a civilian so I kind of based that tidbit on something I was told once. According to that person Air Force Academy is harder to get into than the other military academies.

Marvel Comics: Sentinel Initiative

Name: Capt. Carol Danvers, USN

Age: 31

Alias: Captain Marvel

Appearance:

Captain Marvel herself

Abilities:
Carol has superhuman strength and durability, along with the power of supersonic flight.

Personality:

EDIT: I had a brain fart and forgot to fill this out.

Carol is an adrenaline junkie pure and simple. She loved the thrill of flying a jet and flying now that she has superpowers. The years of hard work and preparation to become a fighter pilot instilled in Carol a strong sense of willpower. Carol's years of military training has left Carol with a good strategic and tactical mindset when it comes to combat. She also had a slight case of PTSD from the events of her abduction but managed to work through it with help from SHIELD doctors. Carol's not exactly the brooding tortured soul superhero type, relishing in the work she does with the government and the Avengers.

Bio:

Captain Marvel

Carol was born and raised in Boston by a middle class family. Carol always had a lifelong fascination with flying and becoming a pilot. She applied and was rejected from the Air Force Academy, but managed to get accepted in the US Naval Academy after graduating high school. Her dream to serve as a fighter pilot was discouraged by nearly all her instructors at the academy, each of them citing the long and grueling process that led to the cockpit. She ignored their advice and kept going down her path, no matter how difficult or hard. She graduated from the academy in the top five of her class with a commission as a junior officer and an assignment to flight school.

After going through intense physical and mental screenings, Carol passed through introductory and primary flight training with flying (*rimshot*) colors. She was then assigned to learn on tailhook aircraft, the fighter jets that serve aboard aircraft carriers. Finally after years of hard fighting and training, Lieutenant Carol Danvers emerged from training as a navy fighter pilot.

Carol served six years in various carrier air wings aboard different ships. Finally, Carol was promoted to Commander and given command of Carrier Air Wing Three aboard the USS Harry S Truman serving in the Pacific. One night, Carol was out on patrol duty in the middle of the ocean when a bright bolt of purple lightning struck her aircraft. The lightning caused the jet's left wing to catch on fire; the plane began to enter into a free fall above the ocean. The last thing Carol remembered seeing was a white light before she woke up back on the ship. The crew of the carrier informed her that they had founder her nearly twenty miles due west of where her jet had gone down, too far of a distance for her to have drifted given the currents at that time. Due to the crash and mysterious circumstances around it Carol was granted a six week leave in Australia when the ship docked.

Waiting for her in Australia were men from an organization known as SWORD. After an intense interrogation on what went down in her jet they attempted to place Carol in custody. Carol resisted and shrugged the men off. Her shrugging had the unintended consequence of throwing the two men ten feet in the air and into a far wall. Carol reacted in horror at what she had just done and ran. Her panic and confusion tripled when she began to take flight during her escape. Carol tore across the Australian outback at speeds topping Mach 3. The Royal Australian Air Force picked her up on their radar and dispatched a pair of fighters to take out the unknown flying object. Carol used her pilot training to out maneuver the scrambled fighters.

Over the outback she discovered the reason for her new and strange abilities. A tractor beam stopped Carol in mid-flight and transported her away in the blink of an eye. She found herself in a spaceship orbiting over the planet. The sole occupant of the ship was a humanoid alien named Mar-Vell. While Carol remained locked in stasis Mar-Vell informed her that he was the one responsible for her crash into the ocean, and that he abducted her aboard his ship. Mar-Vell was a scientist sent on a expeditionary mission to Earth by the Kree Empire. The Kree had taken notice of Earth after the Avengers repealed the Chitauri invasion. They moved to create an army that would be part Kree and part Human. Carol was the perfect mental and physical specimen for Mar-Vell needs, so he teleported her to his ship and spliced her genes with Kree DNA and extra genomes to grant her powers. Mar-Vell used the template of her DNA to begin cloning an army of super-powered Kree/Human hybrids. The army would protect the galaxy from its greatest threat... the planet Earth.

Angered, Carol broke free of her stasis lock and assaulted Mar-Vell. The Kree scientist gave as good as he got, trading blows with Carol across the massive ship. During the fight Carol was thrown into the lab. Inside were millions upon millions of cloned samples already growing in incubation tanks. Further enraged she broke through as many tanks as she could before Mar-Vell attacked back. Losing a fight she knew she couldn't win, Carol opted for another approach. She charged towards the outer hull of the ship and broke through into outer space. Once in space, she began to push the ship down into Earth's atmosphere. Both Carol and the ship caught fire during the descent into the atmosphere. While the ship disintegrated, Carol came through in one piece. She recovered from the free fall and came down off the coast of South Africa just in time to see the fiery space ship crash into the ocean. Waiting for her off the coast of South Africa was a naval armada and representatives from several security agencies, SHIELD and SWORD among them.

Carol was taken into custody by both agencies and she told them her story. SWORD attempted to place Carol in custody for further study, but Nick Fury intervened and offered a compromise. Carol would work for SWORD to assess and combat any extraterrestrial threat that didn't require the Avengers' presence. Carol would also work with SHIELD as a part-time Avengers member. For her heroic efforts Carol was awarded the Navy Cross and promoted to Captain. Carol chose the codename of Captain Marvel in order to honor her rank and not to forget that there were those out there in the stars that would use her and all of Earth as weapons.

Misc.:

I got rid of the concussive blasts Carol uses as Captain Marvel. I figure if we have an Iron Man then Carol can just work as a straight up tank.