Ezekiel

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

<Snipped quote by Ezekiel>

It read well to me. Kinda a return to a Kennedy/Regan type of president.

@Cyrania

Thanks!

Admittedly I find that period of American speech craft more interesting to write than just calling everything 'Yuge' .

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

@Ezekiel Would it be okay if I used the press conference as a springboard for a Genosha minipost? It will just involved Trish Tilby asking the Press Secretary about Genosha, nothing too wild.

@Mao Mao

Absolutely, reactions/springboards more than welcome.

EDIT:

Genosha probably features prominently in the thinking behind the Warbird Program so feel free to throw in whatever hostility you want.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

Another Carol post up before my x-men post? I suppose I have fallen into the trap of narrative momentum.

As previously mentioned I did have to use the US President for this part of Carol's plot, but I have also tried to keep things vague and in line with limited details already mentioned.

Also any Americans feel free to review my application of Presidential cadence as a Britbong.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

---

It was soon apparent to Carol that it wasn't just her who was new to whatever this situation was, while the pair had ended up making a good team, it wasn't an alliance that had existed prior to whatever this conflict had been. That was probably a good thing, at least from the perspective of her not accidentally getting the US, and possibly the Earth, involved in some wider alien conflict. That probably went against her bonus scheme.

“Oh…I can't do that.” She spoke as she motioned back to the now random point in space where the infinite horizon had shortly collapsed. “I probably just blew something up which triggered it.” She was still happy enough to take the credit, even if that seemed rather convenient. She wasn’t exactly sure how their communication was working, presumably something to do with the various bits of esoteric technology clinging to the forms of her new allies. She knew how ‘she’ was speaking, her ability to convert types of energy allowing her words to pass as heat through the vacuum then reconstitute as sound on impact with their physical forms. It wasn't something she felt the need to bring up that the ‘sound’ was actually her triggering vibrations across them, that felt a bit odd.

This method of communication, however, made it very easy to keep her words from being picked up by the listening device she was fairly sure was always on, embedded in her communicator hidden as an earring, so that when she spoke to the two, the Project back home wasn’t listening.

“Let's get to introductions, I'm the Warbird, I'd like you to explain yourselves in ways that don't mean I have to demand you come to the Pentagon for questioning.” The sweet as sugar smile she offered belied the threat entirely, although it truly wasn't one she wished to enforce. She might have quite willingly chosen to be a part of the Warbird program but she didn’t have any super powered peers yet and attempting to arrest the first she had encountered would be a really bad trend to start., even if she did back herself to finish the fight faster than a half pint of Yuengling.

---

Washington DC, The White House

---

The administration was rather well known for snap press conferences and announcements, so when the President had declared he would be taking the day's press briefing there was some buzz of excitement, yet nothing to expect news of an Earth shattering nature.

“My fellow Americans, I speak to you today in an hour of both triumph and tribulation for our great nation.” It was a stately start to an administration that had often been willing to bludgeon the opposition with ‘hard talk’ and that was enough to immediately perk up some interest from the wider press corps that may have expected a more traditional rant.

“We have watched the situation in New York with great concern and apprehension for our beloved city, and know well that the full support of the Federal government will aid in any response and recovery that will be required. We too, celebrate that New York has overcome this most recent trial.” Once more the generally positive language around the city was curious enough to pull attention. Perhaps this really was a momentous briefing.

“Yet, this was not the only threat our nation, our world, faced this day. Hours ago, our advanced warning systems detected what can only be described as an alien invasion force. We have known for some time that we are not alone in this universe, but this was a new and terrible danger.” As the President spoke, suitably grainy images of the Chitauri appeared on screens around the room. It was not that the United States Government did not at this time have clearer images of the aliens, but early focus group testing suggested that the imperfections added believability to the story.

“However, I can now reveal to you, the White House Press Corps, and by extension the world, that this alien menace has already been defeated. This administration has worked with great persistence to provide an answer to the great many threats that continue to arise, beyond the traditional and the mundane.” As the President continued, the screens around the room flicked with artificially created anticipation, before changing to an image of the Warbird, blazed in gold and shooting across the sky of Earth.

“Now, we provide our answer. Let the world know, that against these new dangers, be they domestic, foreign, or intergalactic, the United States will answer, and our answer is the Warbird.” The still image of the helmeted form of Carol Danvers soon transitioned to video footage of her in action, a blazing figure of gold weaving through the alien craft, and the destruction left in her wake. Quite ignoring, of course, the presence of any other powered individuals.

After a pause, the Press Secretary moved to speak.

“Will there be any questions?”

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

As for Bruce Wayne, I was pretty sure he died in an alley at the age of ten. Unless we have a new Batman application.

@Lord Wraith

Typical Bruce Wayne planning an overdramatic entrance.

<Snipped quote by mattmanganon>

Can you clarify is Shazam his plus one or Bailey? Cause a retired rich debutant taking a child to a gala is kinda giving a certain vibe...

@Sep

Release the Simm files.

EDIT:

The joke about me being Ezekiel is really coming back to haunt me on this one.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

<Snipped quote by Ezekiel>

@Half Pint

Just you wait I'll get a half pint reference into every post now.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

Carol post up with the rare accomplishment of me actually formatting the post.

Being hit by a big space laser felt like a good time for Carol to discover Binary form even if it was narratively earlier than I had planned.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

---

“Come on, Carol, gloves up.”

Carol blinked as she adjusted to the sudden glare of the overhead light, the back-and-forth swing of a far too old lightbulb blazing away as it hung from the ceiling of their garage.

“Wha-” She had no recollection of what she had just been doing, but it certainly wasn't this. She tried to focus on the moments before, but found the ghost of their memory slipping from her mental grasp before she could gain any meaning from them.

“Don't tell me I'm away for six weeks and my sister forgets how to take a punch like a Danvers?... Wait, that sounds really bad.” Her brother laughed awkwardly at his own words as he took a step back from Carol, allowing her eyes to adjust enough to see him. The flood of feelings that rushed over her as she saw Steve's slightly crooked smile down at her almost sent her bawling, but again, she couldn't remember why.

“Sorry, just…distracted.” She murmured, before mirroring her brother’s smile and pulling her fists up in a guard, the weight of the gloves she didn’t realise she was wearing suddenly familiar, as much a relief as the sight of a brother she was sure she had missed until just this moment. The thud of gloves on gloves soon resumed. It was an age-old ritual between the two; there was intensity and force to their swings, but no genuine attempt to defeat the other, just a back and forth to work out the mental stress of what it meant to be a member of the Danvers family. Boxing with Joe Jnr was different for them both: the middle sibling of the Danvers family had a more competitive relationship with both siblings, but Steve and Carol were far enough apart that sibling rivalry turned into familial responsibility.

“I asked your base about my application, and they said they never got it.” Carol’s flood of relief washed away as she remembered what had spurred her on to call for this particular spar with her brother, in the limited time he was back home. Bitterness poisoned her love, curdling around her heart.

“I told you Carol, it’s not so easy. Maybe when I’m back from my first tour.” The way he spoke to her was akin to when they were much younger, an older brother dismissing his sister's wild dreams, but this wasn’t just a game.

“Two of my classmates are moving in with their siblings in housing.” The thud … thud of her gloves picked up in intensity, putting the anger of her thoughts into each strike. “You think it’s easy for me still living here? He’s getting worse.” Her words were half pant, half snarl as she got them out. She knew her brother was delaying for reasons beyond what the state and Air Force bureaucracy demanded of him. He’d always promised he’d come back for her, and now with escape in reach, he floundered.

“It’s not so simple, I have to be mindful of -”

“That’s not what you promised!” She punched, hard now. Something burst to life within her, the rage of the one person she felt she could rely on proving himself just as flawed as the rest of them, turning the key in some internal lock. The punch was hard, harder than she had meant and harder than it should have been. Steve went sprawling, a moment later looking up at her in confusion. Confusion and distrust, a look she never wanted to see on that face.

Carol turned and ran, springing out of the open garage into the frozen Boston rain, ignoring the calls of her brother behind her.

---

“Carol.”

A new voice, distant. She couldn’t see. Everything was dark.

“Carol, you have to-”

The sound drifted away again. She couldn’t see, couldn’t feel. It was just her and an endless sea of nothing.

This wasn’t so bad.

“Carol Danvers, wake up.”

More insistent now, she didn’t so much hear it as feel the voice flow through her. A communication in a manner she had felt from only one being.

“Mar’vell?”

“Only you can do this Carol, you need to move, now.”

“I…I don’t know what to do.”

“Yes, you do, Carol. Only you can save yourself. There is nothing in the past for you. Only forwards.”

She wasn’t sure if the voice was real, but she felt it stir something within her. Whatever had pushed her into this state of nothingness was holding her back, but it had been power, and power was everything she needed.

With nothing but the grit of her own determination, Carol Danvers looked within herself and found the fury of a star.

---

The lance of energy had struck her before she could react, which, when ‘she’ was the target, meant it was damn fast. A weapon that would make the most advanced destructive capability of the human race look like a child’s toy cast her away with the force to crack a continent. In a moment the golden light of the Warbird went out, and Carol was just an inert form floating through the void, trapped in the broken shell of a still body cast thousands of miles into the vacuum of space. Without the energy her body was giving off, she became invisible to even the advanced sensors of alien craft, just a girl. A dead girl.

Then she ignited all at once.

Golden light so bright and hot it blazed into white cascaded from her form. If she earlier she had been a shooting star, now she seared with the intensity of the greatest points of light in the nighttime sky of Earth. A raging fury of force as every scrap of energy the aliens had expended in striking her burst back into reality within the nuclear furnace of her body.

“My turn.”

Back on Earth the warning signals which had detected the defeat of the Warbird suddenly blazed anew with entirely the reverse findings. She blazed with enough power that she wouldn’t be safe to return home, her every strike and blow enough to ignite the air for miles around. But she wasn’t on Earth, and there were aliens to fight.

She did not seek to interrupt the fight between the two figures she had attempted to aid before with the lion-man, combat between individuals seemed a waste of the blaze of power and ambition within her. Instead, she turned it on their ships, on the chariots which now raced after her as she returned to their sensors. While she had never felt like this before, a state of being where even her sense of self seemed to burn away next to the intensity of her existence, she understood it could not be forever, but she could still make them pay.

Carol might have felt invincible, but she didn’t feel the need to find out if a second blast from the more powerful of the enemy's weapons could be enough to burst through whatever state she had forced herself into, and she ducked, weaved and flew around them with all the destructive agility she had shown before, now simply better than she had been. The burning white intensity of her form did begin to dim and shift as she did, expending itself steadily back into the more normal gold of her power a moment at a time, but hardly fast enough to be too soon for the foe.

In the midst of her graceful rampage, reality began to collapse in on itself, pulling both intact and shattered craft towards it. She felt the pull of the event horizon in an Academic sense, like the presence of her own dark reflection as she blazed with the fabric of the cosmos itself. She turned to watch its final moments, allowing it to sap from her the extreme overabundance of power she still felt, the hungering break in spacetime leeching the heat from her, while it could not claim her entirely.

As it winked out of reality she felt herself shift back to normal. Suddenly where there was simply the light of her power, her form and costume returned. She was somewhat thankful for the later, quite convinced it might have been a casualty of her transformation, but it seemed whatever could make her into whatever that was, could also restore her in full. Suddenly robbed of the dehumanising intensity of such power, she recalled the two figures she had fought with and that such destruction would no doubt have been exceedinly dangerous.

Carol whirled around, a zip of golden light as she moved, before finding them with a sigh of relief that expelled no air out into the vacuum of space. She drifted over, the waves of her blonde hair drifting behind her, not restrained by her half-mask helm.

“I think I was a bit late to whatever party that was, mind catching me up?” She asked the pair, rather hoping it didn't turn out these were the evil aliens.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

<Snipped quote by Ezekiel>

True. I just mean basic facts should be maintained if they've appeared IC but the moment someone takes them on that takes presidence.

@Sep

Yeah taking part in a shared comic universe to me is most of the fun of these RPs so certainly events/facts for NPCs and such should be maintained, it's definitly a balance. I just think particularly for new recruitment we could stand to be flexible with characters we aren't actually playing.

Worlds Collide: A Merged Universe Superhero Roleplay

<Snipped quote by Cyrania>

My biggest question is do we need an active recruitment? We have enough of a core cast that realistically Coulson could form the Avengers and Tony could form a Justice League and there'd probably still be people running around independently.

I'm not against new players, just saying we have a good group now to keep moving things forward.

What may be easier though if you're recruiting is offer up people a list of characters who have been taken, and those that have some established lore.

Such as Arthur, the GoTG, Hawkeye etc.

People could theoretically apply for those characters but to line up with the roleplay there's certain hoops to go through.

@Sep

Speaking as someone who was largely on the outskirts of these games for a number of years the 'oh I am not actually playing that character but I'd rather they not be played or also they have to be played x way' is also pretty exhausting and off putting as a new arrival.

I think if we want to do a push for more players we should probably extend the leniency of not forcing people to stick to previous purged characters to also existing players being more flexible with the idea of people playing characters we may have mentioned or used as NPCs in ways we didnt anticipate.

Which isn't to say throw any and all restrictions based on what has already happened out the window, more just me bringing up an issue I know plenty of people have avoided these games over in the past.

Alternatively we don't reinvent the wheel and just keep chugging along as is because while we may have lost some people we still have a bunch of very active folks.

PS:

Keen eyes may note I didn't get my posts up. Had to deal with something quite serious IRL but I will endeavour to fix this ASAP.