Captain Uni

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P L A Y L I S T

Stealing Bounce's format that he stole from Mao Mao.

The Question: Human Enigma

_{Vic Sage Theme: The Who - My Generation
Vic Sage Theme (Alternate): Simon & Garfunkel - The Sound of Silence
The Question Theme: The Doors - People Are Strange
The Question Theme (Alternate): Carpenter Brut - Night Stalker
Hub City Theme: Charles Mingus - Moanin'
Ending Theme: The Band - The Weight}

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what is this rp about?

@Pantie Sniffer

Not too sure Mr. Pantie Sniffer, I'm wondering that myself. I wonder if the GMs can shed any light on the situation.

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Finished up my CS with a backstory and some reference posts. Hope it's up to snuff.

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I swear to God, MGS3 cursed me with the inability to climb a ladder without humming Snake Eater to myself.

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@Hexaflexagon
Something something Nadia has to climb a long ass ladder to escape a laboratory she infiltrated that's located thousands of feet underground.

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Ended up scraping my original idea and came up with something a bit more interesting. [Wanted to push myself beyond street level again lol] Still need a sample post, but I'll try and get that up this weekend.

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WASP

Nadia Pym, Age 16 (b. 1952)
_{Based in The Red Room, Undisclosed Location, USSR
Active since approximately 24 Hours Ago}

Character Concept

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In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym became a spy for the USA, using his recently developed Pym particles to sneak beyond the Iron Curtain. One such mission saw Dr. Pym trying to flip a known KGB agent known as Maria Trovaya, a known member of the Soviet's secretive Black Widow Program. The two quickly fell for each other and it was perhaps those feelings that made them sloppy. On the night that the pair was bound for Constantinople via a cargo ship in Odessa, they were caught by Red Room agents. Pym was able make it out alive using his Ant Man technology, but Trovaya was captured. What neither of them knew at the time was that Trovaya was pregnant.

Head researcher at the Red Room Doctor Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin was curious to see the effects of in utero exposure to her super serum as up to this point it was believed that the serum caused complete infertility and requested that the embryo inside Trovaya be extracted before her execution for treason. In time that Embryo placed inside a biological containment chamber would grow into Nadia.

Thus, from her "birth" onward, Nadia one and only home was the secretive compound that the Red Room ran its operations from. From a young age two things became apparent, Nadia was gifted with both her Father's superior intellect and had trace remnants of her mother's super serum in her blood. And so, like her mother before her Nadia was to be trained in the Black Widow program.

Nadia along with twenty other orphans including one Ava Orlova - who she quickly became friends with - were posed to be the next generation of Widow agents. The thinking under Khrushchev and later Brezhnev being that a modern cohort was needed to represent a Post-Stalin USSR that could truly position itself as a global superpower against the Capitalist West. Alongside her regular combat and espionage training, Nadia's handlers sought to fine tune her intellect with Doctor Kudrin personally taking Nadia under her wing seeing Nadia as the only one worthy to inherit her position as head of the program.

A week ago, Nadia passed her last examinations and was declared fit for active duty having been given the codename: WASP. However, when her first mission leads her on the trail of Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov, a former Red Room scientist and an associate of her Father. The past that the Red Room desperately tried to keep from her will finally catch up. And Nadia must then face the question of where do her loyalties lay?

Generally, my plan is to mix a Cold War spy drama mixed with some more classical super heroics. I've always liked Ant-Man as a character and he and his supporting cast tend to get underutilized at times. Our Cold War setting though allows me to hopefully fix that problem by working form the prospective of Nadia. Her whole abducted by the Red Room and raised by the Russians fitting perfectly with the setting. Allowing for the moral quandaries of such classics as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to hopefully shine through, though admittedly tonally I'm going much more for Snake Eater or an Atomic Blonde than I am le Carré.

After Nadia defects to America in search of answers at the end of her first arc. I hope to be able to get involved with other players especially the other young superheroes out there. As I feel that Nadia's position will make an interesting fish out of water dynamic compared to the Americans she will be running into.

Key Notes

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Central Cast

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Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym

_{Nadia's father currently MIA.[Is willing to work around this if there are any Ant-Man players out there]}

Janet Van Dyne

_{Shield Agent and Hank's on-off again girlfriend. Currently investigating into Hank's disappearance by looking into his past. This will lead her on a Collison course with the Red Room. [Omnce again see above notes. I'm willing to not use Janet or Hank completely if another player really needs them :3]}

Maria Trovaya

_{Nadia's mother. A former agent of the Black Widow program. DECEASED}

Doctor Lyudmila Antonovna Kudrin

_{The Head of the Red Room. See's Nadia as the daughter she never had.}

Ava Orlova

_{Another up and coming agent of the Red Room. Nadia's best friend.}

Aleksey Lebedev

_{The original Red Guardian. Now combat instructor at the Red Room.}

Yelena Belova

_{A Gen-1 Black Widow and Espionage instructor at the Red Room.}

Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov

_{A professor with ties to the Red Room and Hank Pym. Nadia's first target.}

Current Plot Threads

From Russia With Love

Nadia is sent to track down Professor Grigor Ivanovich Pchelintsov, a Professor with connections to her past.

References / Sample Post

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Working on it!

@Hexaflexagon

You had me at "Snake Eater".

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With this many martial artists, I await the League of Assassins Tournament Arc that seems to keep coming up in the comics.

Uatu the Watcher can referee the 1968 totally-not-Mortal-Kombat.

Also, since 1968 is the year this show first debuted nationwide in the US... my money is on Mister Rogers winning the tournament.

@Bounce

"The Champion stood, the rest saw their better: Mr. Rogers in a bloodstained sweater."

E: It is only after posting this that I realize you linked The Ultimate Showdown in that post lol.

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Some Faceless Bastard

T H E Q U E S T I O N

Victor C. Sage, 26-27 (b. March 15th, 1941)
_{Vigilante based in Hub City, Illinois
Active since late November 1967}

Character Concept

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"I wish I could say I haven't seen these things for myself, but I think I speak for all the natives of my hometown when I say this: Hub City isn't a kind place. One night, it's a soft and warm mistress, seducing you with whispers of fortune and glory right in your ear, and the next night it's a rotten bitch, robbing you of all your money and throwing you in the gutter. Life ain't easy in The Hub.

"I walk down the street and see all sorts of depravity. Cops are kicking the shit out of minorities and arresting them for having the gall to look left instead of right. Men manhandling their wives in department stores because the little ladies decided to say that maybe, just maybe, their husband shouldn't buy his sixth case of beer in the last two days and binge drink it all as soon as they get home. Promising young men being arrested for toying around with recreational substances such as pot and LSD or, worse yet, getting drafted into the increasingly meaningless War in Vietnam to fight and die for a country that couldn't give less of a shit about them. All this happening while fat, rich pricks profit off our suffering. One of these rich pricks is Hub City's delightful mayor, Wesley Fermin, who uses his power to have the corrupt cops and his lapdogs in the Gospel of Sinners keep the people down.

"This isn't a problem exclusive to Hub City. This sort of crap happens all over the country: Gotham City, New York, Star City, Los Angeles. I'm just gonna say what I'm sure all my readers are thinking: these cities, many more cities and this entire country are going down the fucking drain. And I've just about had it. I want to see the proud, bright young men and women of this country rising up against our set-in-their-ways oppressors. The police, the government, the slothful rich. Fight the hell back! Make sure they see that we're fed up with their hokey-pokey bullshit and we won't take it anymore.

"How are we gonna do this? I don't got the answer to that. I'm simply asking you a question: how much longer can you sit around and watch your country be torn apart by the corrupt and the damned?"

- Excerpt from "America Is A Depraved Beast And It's Our Job To Tame It" by Victor Charles Sage, the cover story of the November 1967 issue of "Starrstruck Monthly" celebrating the magazine's first anniversary. Sage was arrested the following week for libel with his bail posted by the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Sam Starr.

I'm just gonna be honest: I love this character and it hurts me that I've never done a successful run with him in these Hype style RPs. You know what else I love? The 60s: the culture, the background of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, the music. Everything about this RP hits every single nail on the head for me and I would be doing myself a disservice by staying out of this one. But the sheer excitement I have for this RP and what will come out of it is enough that I feel I can keep up with it this go around.

As for where I'll be taking the character, I intend on exploring my own unique take on the Question amidst the 1960s; one embroiled in the counterculture movement and facing down organized crime and political corruption. Serial killers, corrupt politicians, biker gangs, cults, mobsters, petty crooks: you name it, it's on the table. And hey, maybe hunting down a Soviet spy or two.

I'm hoping to start off with some small, self contained stories before opening the door for crossovers with other players and the like. I'm down for anything and everything with anyone and everyone. Punching crooks, fighting Soviets, tackling supernatural horrors. You name it, I'm down to be there.

Key Notes

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Backstory

Charles Victor Szasz was born in 1941 to a prostitute, Charlotte Szasz. His early life was rough primarily due to his family's poverty; otherwise, things weren't particularly bad, as his mother cared and provided for him as best as she could (sometimes to the expense of herself) and Charlie got decent grades in school. It all came crashing down in 1948, with the death of Charlotte at the hands of her pimp, who murdered her over two dollars and seventeen cents. Following this, Charlie was put into Charlton's Home for Problem Children, where he acted out and generally caused a commotion.

At sixteen, Charlie was kicked out of the home and left to fend for himself. He turned to crime to help feed himself: conning unaware passerby, breaking into cars to steal valuables, or even mugging people at knife point. He would have found himself going down the path of a hardened criminal if not for the intervention of one Aristotle "Tot" Rodor, a local doctor who took pity on Charlie and took him under his wing. With Tot's help, Charlie was able to graduate high school and go onto college.

In college, Charlie took on the name "Victor Sage", hoping to distance himself from his past. During his creative writing class, he met Myra Fermin, sister of aspiring politician and rumored gangster Wesley Fermin. Despite being wary of the woman due to her brother, he found himself growing closer to her, the two eventually finding themselves in a relationship. It continued after both had graduated and gone into their respective lines of work: Vic working as a journalist for The Hub City Gazette, Myra on her brother's PR team.

Vic's writing for the Hub City Gazette was short-lived, however, as he managed to pull some strings to get a particularly damning article about Wesley Fermin's campaign for mayor into the newspaper. The article slammed the elder Fermin as incompetent, corrupt, and stating that his only interest is "lining his own pockets and leaving the rest of us to rot." The article resulted in Fermin's lawyers suing the Hub City Gazette for libel, Myra leaving Vic for what she viewed as horrific lies about her brother, and Vic being fired from his job to save face.

Finding himself blacklisted from Hub City's top newspaper and unable to get a job at any of the city's other newspapers, Vic found himself freelancing for magazines in the city, hopping around from magazine to magazine just trying to scrape by. During this time, Vic found himself experimenting with drugs, starting with marijuana before moving onto LSD and occasionally dabbling in heroin or cocaine. This was the doorway to Vic into the counterculture movement, appreciating the open-mindedness and rebellion it represented.

Vic's big break came in the form of Starrstruck Monthly, a country-wide counterculture magazine owned by Hub City local Sam Starr that was comprised almost entirely of short stories and articles written by freelance writers and journalists. Writing the cover story for the November 1967 issue of the magazine, "America Is A Depraved Beast And It's Our Job To Tame It", Vic slammed the American government, organized crime, and the Vietnam War while praising the rebellious youth and drug usage. He also took this opportunity to drag his old "friend" Wesley Fermin's name through the mud once more.

Vic found himself garnering a cult following from the story, becoming a local celebrity in Hub City's counterculture scene while making himself quite a few enemies among Hub City's politicians, crooks, and police. He was arrested for libel a week after the article was published, with Sam Starr posting his bail under the condition that Vic become Starrstruck Monthly's first full-time writer. Vic agreed. Shortly after his release from jail, Vic found himself wanting to do something more to fight back against the tide of corruption he saw sweeping the nation, but he wasn't entirely sure what he could do. That answer came in the form of helping out his old friend and mentor Tot Rodor.

Tot had helped to design a bandage in the 1950s with a man named Arby Twain. The bandage, pseudoderm, was designed to be skin-like and tightly bind itself onto skin through the usage of a "bonding gas". It worked wonders... Save for the fact that the bonding gas, when introduced into the blood stream, was highly toxic. The bandage was never mass produced or sold for medical purposes... Until Twain decided to try selling it to the North Vietnamese government for a high price.

Tot wanted to stop Twain but had no idea how, and Vic decided to help him out. He couldn't blow the whistle on Twain as he doubted anything would come from it (after all, the usage of the bandage would have had a largely negative effect on North Vietnam and its forces, so why would the US Government want to stop it?), so he decided to take matters into his own hands. Having Rodor design him a mask using what little pseudoderm he still had, Vic went after Twain and took down his operation, leaving Twain bound in pseudoderm in front of the police station alongside a written confession.

Ever since that incident, Vic has taken to vigilantism, using his pseudoderm mask to go out at night to either fight street thugs, dig up dirt on the local government, or try to put a dent in the criminal dealings of the Gospel of Sinners. Over the last month and a half, he has slowly started to become an urban legend in Hub City, going by many names. No-Face. The Shape. Faceless Freak. But chief among them is one, which Vic has adopted as his own vigilante alias...

The Question.

Districts of Hub City

Hupert Square

Named for the founder of the town, Hupert Square is the primary business district of Hub City. No one goes there unless it's to go to work. Filled with office buildings, law firms, and clinics. In the center of the district is Gaston Hupert Memorial Park, a small park dedicated to the founder of Hub City, Gaston Hupert, who was killed by Native Americans not long after founding the city. A statue of Hupert laying claim to Hub City is erected in the center of the park.

Jury Street

Once a residential street officially part of Hupert Square, Jury Street has grown enough to become its own district, extending out into the city limits. Primarily composed of high end housing with mansions further out of the city, this is where most of the criminal elite and politicians in Hub City live. The size of some of the houses are only matched by the decadence of the residents.

The Wedge

Officially Meadowview Heights, a residential district of Hub City filled with townhouses, apartment complexes, and locally owned stores. The Wedge is nicknamed as such because its shape on most municipal maps is like a wedge of cheese. The district was primarily a multicultural boiling pot at the turn of the century, where all the African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, Irish Americans, and Asian Americans lived. The Wedge is the unofficial home of Hub City's counterculture movement.

Gordon's Corner

Gordon's Corner was named for Isaac Gordon, Gaston Hupert's right hand man who took over the title of the city's mayor after Hupert's death. Another residential district composed of brick tenement buildings and rundown houses, Gordon's Corner has become known as a hotbed for criminals, be they biker gangs, human traffickers, ruthless murderers, or all three. Most people stay away from Gordon's Corner out of fear for their life. A lot of the low level associates in the Gospel of Sinners live here.

Hupert River

An industrial district stretching out for a few miles beyond the city, Hupert River is named as such because of the river that flows straight through it. Composed of factories, power plants, and rail yards, not far from these factories are houses and trailer parks, home to the workers and their families. At night, it's a popular spot for criminals to conduct business. Dumping bodies into the river, drug deals, weapon trades; you name it, it's happened.

Organizations of Note

Starrstruck Monthly

Est. November 1966
A magazine founded by Sam Starr, meant to counter mostly conservative newspapers by offering a more liberal alternative with no claims of being an unbiased opinion, Starrstruck Monthly is popular around the country among members of the counterculture movement for its no-holds-barred approach to news. Its writing staff consists mostly of freelance journalists and writers with a chip on their shoulder and a lot to say about the state of the country. The magazine's main office is a convenience store turned into a studio located in The Wedge.

Gospel of Sinners

Est. July 1928
Established by Reverend Hatch and Max Bine after splitting off from the Chicago Outfit, the Gospel of Sinners is a criminal syndicate with claws embedded in the throat of Hub City and quickly extending its reach to the rest of the country. While the name implies religious convictions, the only member to share them are Hatch, who believes he is doing God's work by "filling the Earth with sin, so that He may revel in striking us all down come Judgement Day". Wesley Fermin is a member and rose to power thanks to his affiliation with them.

The Depraved MC

Est. May 1946
Founded by a group of World War II veterans that struggled to adjust back into a normal life, The Depraved is officially a motorcycle club for those who live and die on the road. In reality, it's a gang of criminals looking to leave its mark on Hub City and constantly wrestling with the Gospel of Sinners to do so. Several chapters have appeared across the states in various cities and towns.

Characters of Note

Allies

Doctor Aristotle "Tot" Rodor

47-48 (b. June 13th, 1920)
Vic's closest confidant and mentor. The closest thing Vic has to a father figure, having taken the young man in and setting him on the path to college and, eventually, his career as a journalist. Inventor of pseudoderm and the gas used to apply it. Served in the US Army as a Combat Medic during World War II and opening his own clinic in Hub City after the war ended.

Samuel Strickland (AKA Sam Starr)

35-36 (b. August 23rd, 1932)
The owner and editor-in-chief of Starrstruck Monthly, as well as Vic's boss and friend. Worked as an editor for various magazines across the country, making friends along the way; when the time came to establish his own monthly magazine, he used his contacts in the industry to get some articles and ensure Starrstruck Monthly would be on every newspaper stand and magazine rack in the country.

Myra Fermin

27-28 (b. February 23rd, 1940)
A politician like her brother, though much less corrupt. Vic's estranged ex from college and Wesley's sister. Doesn't know of her brother's criminal affiliations and, while she loves him deeply, she finds herself growing suspicious of him with every passing day. Occasionally runs into Vic when he goes around hounding politicians for interviews, she finds herself wishing more and more to just give him that interview, if only so he'd leave her the hell alone and stop hounding her brother, too.

Enemies

Wesley Fermin

37-38 (b. October 19th, 1930)
The mayor of Hub City, who seized power through manipulation, blackmail, and a bit of help from the Gospel of Sinners. His affiliation with the Sinners is an open secret in Hub City; everybody knows it, no one wants to talk about it. Loves his sister Myra dearly and tries to keep her out of his criminal lifestyle. Has a vendetta against Sage both for Sage's attempts to drag his name through the mud and his past with Myra.

Reverend Josiah Hatch

69-70 (b. April 20th, 1898)
A British-born man who fought in World War I on the Western Front and was sent home after being severely wounded by mortar fire, forcing him to use a cane to walk for the rest of his life. The horrors of war corrupted him and his faith in God, and he became a reverend not to atone for his past sins, but to revel in them in the belief that he is doing God's work. He made his way to America in 1924 and stayed in Chicago from that point forward, embroiling himself in the criminal underworld of Illinois. In 1928, he and some likeminded associates of the Chicago Outfit split off from the Outfit to establish their own syndicate in Hub City, the Gospel of Sinners. Hatch has ruled the underworld of the city since.

Maxwell Bine (AKA "The Banshee")

62-63 (b. December 3rd, 1905)
A notorious mobster hailing from Chicago who split off from the Chicago Outfit in 1928 with Hatch to establish the Gospel of Sinners. Brutal, ruthless, and cunning, Bine is primarily a businessman whose various casinos, hotels, and restaurants throughout the States are all either financing the Sinners or acting as fronts for illegal businesses. He is looking to extend his reach to Vegas by opening a hotel casino there.

Ongoing & Upcoming Arcs

The Hub City Happening

Young girls are turning up brutally murdered in Hub City. Word on the street is that a spree killer is at large. Vic decides to investigate and finds a little more than he bargained for: a cult worshiping a demon known as "Mephisto" and run by a drugged up lunatic.

Oh Danny Boy

The Question goes after Mayor Fermin and his corrupt crew of twisted politicians, mobsters, and crooks... Which ends with him taking a bullet to the head and a dip in the icy Hupert River.

Fear And Loathing

Vic takes a trip to Las Vegas to cover the opening of a new hotel and casino, the Siren's Call. The owner: one Maxwell Bine, a mobster known across the Midwest as "The Banshee", whose opening of the Siren's Call hides a more sinister agenda...

Born To Be Wild

When The Depraved MC burn down a building in The Wedge and the police do nothing to stop them due to lack of evidence, Vic takes it upon himself to infiltrate the biker gang. Pretending to be interested in writing a piece about them for Starrstruck Monthly, Vic works subtly to take them down while actually writing up that piece to meet his deadline for next month's issue of the magazine.

References / Sample Post

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For your consideration, here are three posts I consider to be the best pieces I've written for the Question:

• Sample Post (Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2)
• Triage At Dawn (DC Universe: Genesis - Justice For All)
• Night Driving Avenger (Absolute Comics - Justice Rising)

I believe my above character concept could also be considered a sample post as article excerpts written by Vic are something I want to incorporate into my posts going forward, so I'd like to posit that as my sample post.

Variety Hour: An Absolute Comics Roleplay

So my question here is: Why did everyone (that isn't new/making someone new) decide to take a go at these characters again? Why bring them back?

@Sep

Pretty much the same boat as everybody. My Punisher run in UOU was some of the most fun I've had with an RP and I really loved playing the character. It also helps that it was my most successful run with a character in one of these RPs. I decided to pick Chow Yun Castle up again in the hopes of reigniting that spark that UOU did and so far it's worked wonders.

As for picking up my interpretation of Vic Sage from Henry's run of Absolute Comics, I just really fucking liked that interpretation of the character and what I was doing with him. I want to continue telling that story and hopefully do it without flaking out. Plus, Question/Dogwelder crossver with @DocTachyon. I need it in my life.

Variety Hour: An Absolute Comics Roleplay

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L

V I C S A G E

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^{_{C H A R L E S V I C T O R S Z A S Z ♦ J O U R N A L I S T ♦ H U B C I T Y , I L L I N O I S ♦ W W N N ( H U B C I T Y B R A N C H )}}

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:

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^{"When other guys go on a quest to find their place in life, they get into something like meditation or yoga or designer drugs. Me? I move to a city I've never been to before and go around town kicking teeth in."}

Vic Sage wasn't a nice man. Hotheaded, stubborn as hell, and with a tendency to ruffle the wrong people's feathers. His unbridled ambition managed to land him a job working at the Chicago branch of Worldwide News Network, a small news network (ironic, considering the name) that had slowly been opening new branches in major cities in the East Coast and Midwest since 1998. Over the course of a year, he managed to work his way up from penning articles for their website to achieving a position as one of their newscasters. His career as a newscaster was rather short-lived, however; on the night of his first broadcast, he went off script and began to slam various businesses that backed the network, accusing them of having ties to organized crime on live television.

His superiors had their sponsors breathing down their necks, but the general public had loved it. The video of Vic's live rant had gone semi-viral and he attained minor celebrity in his hometown. They couldn't just fire him, so the best course of action was to send him somewhere where he wouldn't be a problem. That place was Hub City, home to the oldest (and most underfunded) branch of Worldwide News Network with the lowest ratings. No one would care about his rantings and ravings because no one watched it there.

Vic, for his part, has managed to take the move in stride. Besides, Chicago had been a little too quiet for him lately. He needs a new stomping ground if he wants to get serious about this vigilante thing, and Hub City might be just the place to start. Maybe someday he can actually do something about those corrupt corporate mobsters.

C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:

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I really like The Question. I also really suck at sticking with the character when I play him in one of these games. But this interpretation of Q was probably my best and I really, really want to pick it back up. Thankfully, this gives me a platform to do that. I'll be picking up where I left off and hopefully, just hopefully, I won't drop it again. But I have a feeling that with this format, I won't.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:

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Supporting Cast

Aristotle Rodor: An acquaintance of Vic's that he met after saving him from a mugging.

Vic's Mixtape

S A M P L E P O S T:

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Issue #1

V I C S A G E

_{Location and Time: Hub City, Illinois - New Years Eve, 11:34 PM}

Issue #1: Divide

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_{Interaction(s): None}

Previously: None

The pulse pounding beat emanating from my stereo combined with the three energy drinks I had just chugged were enough to keep the adrenaline flowing through my blood. These back roads are empty, far away from everyone that's getting ready to watch the fireworks from across the river. Part of me thinks that I could hit up the festivities when I'm done, but I have no time for those thoughts. Right now all I've got on my mind is a warehouse full of punks one of my contacts told me about. Some no-good gangsters squatting there, using it for drugs or weapons or whatever else I've got no clue, all my contact told me was that there was bad stuff going on there. I probably should take it with a grain of salt, after all Roscoe had a habit of hitting the sauce, but he's never steered me wrong before. This is much, much bigger than anything else he's brought me, though.

No time to doubt him though. I'm here. I pull my VW up to the warehouse, killing the stereo and grabbing the ski mask off the dashboard. Sliding it on and opening the car door, I step out and approach the side door of the warehouse. I open it slightly and peek in, gazing around and trying to gauge what's going on in here. Just dusty old boxes as far as the eye can see until... There. A group of men sitting around a table. Only a single light pierces the darkness of the warehouse, but from what little I can see I'm positive these are mobsters or some such. I can feel the cold dam of detachment that's been holding back my anxiousness begin to strain, begging to let loose. I haven't been this nervous since my first fist fight. I need to hit something, someone.

I keep a hold on my jacket tighter. No, give it a minute. Walk forward, announce your presence, give them a chance to surrender. Like a hero would. You're a hero, Sage, not some crazy vigilante. Continuing to hold back the building tension within myself with a snarl, I step forward into the single light so the thugs can see me. They continue sitting there until I see the motions of one nudging his buddy. Quickly, they all scramble from their seats and stare at me with apprehension. For a moment I wonder why I thought this would be smart as now one of them was definitely gonna shoot me. He spoke, "Y-yo, what do you want, man?! This is our t-turf!" The voice belonged to a teenager, and was that specific tone that indicated you were terrified yet still trying to be fearless.

Hearing his words, the growing tension within me died out slowly. I pieced it together; these weren't badass mobsters, these were kids playing at being a gang. My suspicions about this info had been right, and I was stupid enough to follow through anyway. Now I was facing down a couple scared kids trying to be cool. "Don't want anything. I came to the wrong place. I'll leave." I raise my hands as I speak, trying to appearing non-threatening.

One of the other boys steps forward. "Bullshit! You're probably here to take our place over. Well we won't let you! Me and the boys are gonna fuck you up," he says, voice steady and confident unlike his comrade. In a quieter voice I hear him whisper to his friends, "Just like we always talked about. Rush him on three."

The kid definitely has a future in politics, as his taunts toward me seem to bolster the confidence of his gang. They all grab nearby wooden bats and two-by-fours, probably never actually used as weapons before, and begin to take menacing steps towards me. Four in all. I can take them.

Quietly, I hear their leader count up from one...

Two...

"THREE!"

I step back as one of the kids rushes ahead of the rest and swings his bat at me, missing by scant inches. I throw a jab at him, catching him in the side of the neck. He drops his weapon and grabs his throat, letting out a gasp. I pick up the bat and raise it above my head, swinging it hard into his head. The wooden piece of sports equipment knocks him clean to the floor and sends me stumbling forward from the sudden stop against his head. A two-by-four finds its way into my gut and I stumble backwards, accidentally dodging a baseball bat that would have caught me in the side of the head.

I drop my bat to the floor, barely keeping my footing after the attack. With a yell the leader swings his bat at me, but I manage to raise an arm and block it. I feel pain shooting up the limb from the hit and give a slight hiss. Doesn't matter. I grab the bat and yank it from him, sending him stumbling forward and right into a left hook to the jaw. He falls to the ground and I kick him in the head, knocking him out.

The other two probably would have surrendered at the sight of me standing over their unconscious leader if they weren't about as high off adrenaline as I was. They both run forward together, one swinging his bat at my head while the other swings his two-by-four at my side. I use my bat to block the first hit while repositioning myself in an attempt to avoid the second. I manage to block one attack but the other manages to catch me in the ribs. The wind knocked out of me, I stumble back and barely have time to recover enough for another dodge as a bat swings right past my face.

I reel away and create distance between myself and my opponents. Looking around, I spot an empty, sturdy crate that looks just small enough for me to lift. Tossing my bat at the two punks, I manage to nail one in the chest and knock him back before I sprint for the box. The other comes running after me, readying his two-by-four as I lift the box up over my head. Barely stepping out of the way of a wild swing, I slam the crate down onto his head and send him to the floor with a grunt. To be safe, I give him a quick kick in the side.

The last one is steadying himself by the time I return to him, gripping his head and mumbling incoherently. I pick up the discarded bat and ready it, before giving a sharp whistle. He turns his head towards me and I swing, snapping his head back and sending him back to the floor. A bit worried, I kneel down and check his pulse; still alive. Good. Don't need to kill anyone.

I look around at the unconscious teenagers, shaking my head. What a damn idiot I was for believing that old drunk. The most he ever gets me is gangs like this, so expecting him to come through on a tip about an actual mob racket? Too good to be true. With a sigh, I drop the bat to the floor and leave the warehouse behind. Best not to call the cops on these little punks, they'll probably get in enough trouble with their parents as is.

Taking off the ski mask and tossing it onto the dashboard, I wince as the adrenaline finally begins to die down and my wounds come back to haunt me. Definitely gonna be some bruises. If I'm unlucky enough I might have cracked a rib or something. Guess I'll find out in the morning. I start up the VW and drive away from the warehouse.

I drive myself to Hubert Square, parking my car and approaching the gathering crowd that's waiting there and chanting the countdown. I look down at my watch. Just in time, only a few seconds until New Years. Smiling slightly to myself, I join in, "Five! Four! Three! Two! One!"

Happy New Year.

P O S T C A T A L O G:

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Issue #1: Divide
Issue #2: Night Driving Avenger
Issue #3: Rust