Hound55

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel & DC Comics RPG

<Snipped quote by Hound55>

@Master Bruce

*Cackles Maniacally*

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel & DC Comics RPG

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

G E N ^{1 3}

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^{_{S U R V I V O R S / E S C A P E E S ♦ O R G A N I C W E A P O N S ♦ O N T H E R U N ♦ I . O .}}

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

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^{"Nobody wants to be alone... Not even we monsters." - Jonothon "Chamber" Starsmore}

After the escape of the man known as "Wolverine", the Government program "Weapon X" was swiftly shut down, packed up, it's budget diverted numerous times and it's purpose shifted to various shady and seemingly unrelated Government departments in order to evade accountability lest the failure return to the doors of those responsible.

Years later, and the Government has once again been emboldened to dabble in mutant weapons. Now under the banner of the C.I.A's "International Operations" or "I.O.", the Weapon X program undertook a cosmetic name change and became known as Gen¹¹. Followed naturally by Gen¹². Making the most of the latitude provided by the name change, I.O. chose to utilise ALL that had been learned about the mutant genome and add diversity, to provide a large slate of new options in their Generation 13 rollout.

Mental blocks were put into place by powerful psychics. The children were made to believe the facility was an expensive boarding school styled Academy, where they had been sent by their parents to best ensure a quality education. The truth was that none of these children had ever really met their parents, and by night were sleeping in Gen-Developmental capsules which aged the students and further pacified the students whilst in their subconscious state. I.O. had learned much from earlier programs, and the best way to maintain control was to ensure that authority was viewed as justified. Positive behaviour at the Academy was seemingly "rewarded" whilst negative behaviour "punished" but in reality, all behaviour was met with the same consequences - behaviour modifying drugs and psychic manipulation. This groundwork needed to be laid early to ensure control could be maintained once the children's powers would begin to manifest.

Whilst this method of control proved superior to more forceful methods tried in the past with operations like Weapon X, it required consistent utilization of the understood "rules" between authority figures and subject and would only hold as well as its weakest link. So successful was this method of control in fact, that some students took on more responsibilities in order to appease the controlling authority further. Such was the case with the subject Caitlin Fairchild.

Fairchild was a standout academic (particularly in computing and electrical engineering, but in general as well), albeit mousey figure, very responsible in nature and instilled with some greater privileges around the facility. Often functioning as a voice of reason between her fellow students, when they would listen to her. One night she staggered out to the bathroom, feeling unwell - the drugs had begun to cause nausea as power manifestation drew imminent, and she caught her name lit up on an unattended computer screen. Upon further investigation she discovered that the "Fairchild" it referred to was an "Alexander Fairchild" - her birthparents, which contradicted the information she'd been told all of her life and been made to believe by psychic manipulation. With quick thinking, Caitlin hacked in a "backdoor" access using her technological progress so that she would be able to once again gain access should she need to leave in a hurry. As soon as she had done this, she began to scan through the rest of her fellow "classmates" files and was shocked at the results.

The relatively passive method of containment employed depended upon two things:
A mutually agreed upon system of punishment and reward
And
A sense that punishment and reward was being handled justly by the authoritative presence.

These tacit agreements were breached when an “attendant”, noticing Caitlin up past curfew and accessing forbidden files, chose to respond by attempting to knock her out with the concussive force of a stun gun. However, fuelled by righteous indignation and the drugs prescribed to aid in the manifestation of powers, Caitlin shook off the attempt to bring her to heel. She grew dramatically, as her muscles rapidly became considerably denser and, not knowing her strength, knocked the attendant unconscious in self-defence.

Scared of reprisal and feeling alone in her knowledge of this terrible place, Caitlin fled and woke several of her classmates. She shook a handful of the others awake; Everett Thomas - because she believed everyone would listen to him, Jubilation Lee – because her seemingly willful disobedience would lead to her believing her story, Roxy Spaulding and Eddie Chang – because she believed Roxy was the “coolest kid in school” and people would believe her, and she happened to have been sneaking around with Grunge after curfew at the time, and Jono Starsmore – because he had been severely hurt by this place already, having accidentally blown away his jaw and part of his upper chest when his own powers manifested, which had changed his attitude about the “Academy” already.

After telling these five, it took very little time before the news spread and the others were awake and ready to leave.

But they’ve now learned something devastating about their previously pleasant Principal Ivana Baiul…

She dresses like a right trollop outside of school hours...

...Wait, no, that's not it. It's that she's a cyborg and has decided that she's willing to change up the program and try more forceful means of keeping them all here.

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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Teen characters, on the run together, trying to make things work whilst having their own issues in and amongst themselves, as they search for meaning, family and life.

By blending together two (well... if you're a GM three) different titles I should have a good depth of story matter to work with and should hopefully come up with some pretty interesting posts.

It's going to be very ambitious keeping all of these plates spinning at once and making sure they're still complex characters with depth... but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

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

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FAIRCHILD

Caitlin Fairchild - AKA FAIRCHILD

Caitlin Fairchild is smart, thoughtful and caring. She’s the epitome of the person who hasn’t yet grown into their body yet, she has a very naïve and innocent attitude regarding boys and their intentions due in part to the fact that for much of her life nobody has really considered her “that way” and she’s been too busy with her studies to have much of a social life. As a result she tends to take people very much at face value, but will quickly turn to anger if she senses she’s been deceived or exploited. She’s a natural leader and generally manages to stay cool, calm and collected under duress. The manifestation of her mutant powers turned her into a genuine powerhouse with a physique that has grown to match her brain, but she sometimes struggles with not knowing her own strength or size.

- Powers: Physical Powerhouse

BURNOUT

Bobby Lane - AKA 'BURNOUT'

Bobby is principled, and as one of the first students to have his powers manifest, has greater control than most over his own mutant capabilities. He can play the guitar and has a strong, if selective, interest in music. He’s very interested in Sarah Rainmaker, but that likely seems doomed due to her own shared interest in the fairer sex. Bobby’s powers manifested to give him the ability to generate high energy plasma which can burn extremely hot. He can fly by using this ability to superheat the air and creating controlled thermal updrafts. He can protect himself with fire shields which burn so hot bullets melt prior to contact, or use his flame as an aggressive ranged weapon as fireballs.

Powers: Flame/Plasma Manipulation

CHAMBER

Jonothon 'Jono' Starsmore - AKA 'CHAMBER'

The “angry, sarcastic embittered loner” of the group. The sarcastic Jono Starsmore’s first attempt to use his powers in a controlled setting resulted in blowing off his own jaw and a large part of his chest. Upon doing so he believed he saw glee in the Principal’s eyes when she “checked up” on him later in the Academy’s sick bay, as a result he has had his doubts about her and the entire program for quite some time. Ivana Baiul used the incident to isolate and separate him from the rest of his peers, which he is only too happy to go along with, generally choosing to wallow in self pity or keep his peers at arm’s length to “protect them” but also to protect himself from hurting anyone he may actually grow to care about. Has an interest in 'emo' music.

Powers: Vessel for Seemingly Boundless Psionic Energy

FREEFALL

Roxy Spaulding - AKA 'FREEFALL'

Rebellious, but “fun” by nature, Roxy is considered by many to be one of the “cool, popular” kids. But she often feels intimidated and jealous of some of the other students – particularly Caitlin, since her power manifestation seems to have very much caught the attention of Grunge, who she adores… for reasons known seemingly only to herself.

Her ability to control and countermand the effects of gravity are difficult for her to control, and can exhaust her, but it seems this may be due to the fact that she is the youngest in the class and her powers manifested “early” – this is due to her sneaking her pills in the corner of her cheek and hiding them in her room due to a lack of trust for the facility, followed by taking a higher dose of the stowed pills once she saw the benefits her classmates powers brought them.

Powers: Gravity Manipulation

GRUNGE

Percival Edmond 'Eddie' Chang - AKA 'GRUNGE'

Puberty hit Eddie Chung like a freight train, leaving him a very hairy squat youth, and brimming with energy. He is instantly recognisable by his classmates as possessing one of two odours; Either stinking of far too much ‘Axe’ body spray, or reeking of body odour due to an insufficient amount of ‘Axe’ body spray. Grunge is a simple man, he likes boobs, the music of the Foo Fighters, girls, kung fu movies, women in revealing clothing and playing flirtatious pranks of an overtly sexualised nature on the girls within the group. For some reason he has completely captivated the attention of Roxy Spaulding (Freefall) within the group, whilst disgusting most of the other women. Immediately became far more aware of Caitlin Fairchild’s existence when her powers manifested for obvious reasons.

Powers: Able to Take On the Properties of Objects He Comes Into Contact With

HUSK

Paige Guthrie - AKA 'HUSK'

Paige is hard-working, optimistic and incredibly eager to please. Privately she finds some of her other classmates intimidating, but her response is usually to come back trying even harder. She has a rich Southern lilt, which she is subconscious about and often tries to mask, fearing it makes her seem “lesser”. So far her powers are yet to have manifested around the others yet, references to this fact by her classmates make her defensive. Can come across as "high strung".

Powers: Able to "Shed her Skin", Revealing An Alternate Form of Her Choosing Underneath

JUBILEE

Jubilation Lee - AKA 'JUBILEE'

Jubilee is dyscalculic and dyslexic, which combined with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder leave her at a sizable disadvantage in her academics, where she grades out the lowest in the group – something she’ll often make light of, in hopes that people won’t tease her about it.

Her difficulties focusing also reveal themselves in her use of powers, where it’s suspected that her command over combustible plasma could hypothetically be used in a similar capacity to Burnout. Where she struggles with focus and book-learning however, she more than makes up for it in creativity and quick thinking. Despite not having any kind of power augmentation that would aid her in that capacity, she still grades out as one of the most agile, and athletic amongst the teens. She’s also very sociable, and it is often pointed out that it is beyond her capacity to shut up.

Powers: Plasmoid Manipulation

M

Monet St Croix - AKA 'M'

Monet represents the concept of “perfection”. Monet was selected of the 13 subjects, in the interest of creating the most balanced “perfect” new organic weapon. Given natural physical and mental gifts that far surpass those of any human athlete or genius. Whilst not as durable or strong as Caitlin, she does possess a healing factor, has a healing factor and can read and absorb information far quicker than Fairchild as well. She is able to fly and also is a fairly powerful telepath; able to read minds, project her own thoughts and has some defensive telepathic abilities as well.

Her "stuck up" attitude does make it difficult for her to relate to others and make friends. Caitlin does have respect for her though, treating her natural academic prowess as a challenge and forming a friendly rivalry which pushed her even harder in her studies.

Powers: Physical Powerhouse, Psi Abilities, Flight, Mental Powerhouse

PENANCE

PENANCE

Very little is known about the mute mutant known as Penance, other than she is small, red, and extremely sharp.

…Oh, and for some weird reason, she seems to have some strange form of connection to M.

Powers: Diamond like skin, Claws, Almost Impenetrable Physically and Mentally whilst Conscious

RAINMAKER

Sarah Rainmaker - AKA 'RAINMAKER'

Sarah Rainmaker is au naturale. She is incredibly comfortable with her own body, has very activist Green leaning views towards the environment, society in general and issues pertaining to First Nations people as someone who identifies as being of Apache descent, who wields power over elemental aspects of nature may well be. She’s also a lesbian, and occasionally finds it difficult being the only lesbian in a school of about a dozen – which also impedes her own ability to properly discover her sexual identity.

Powers: Weather Manipulation

SKIN

Angelo Espinosa - AKA 'SKIN'

Angelo Espinosa’s mutant power manifestation resulted in the young man being given an extra 6 feet of skin. It takes some degree of effort just to maintain cohesion and he sleeps in a bath with the plug hole plastered over so he doesn’t drip out on his bedroom floor. Ange often jokes about his own predicament as a form of “owning” it and to project a confidence that under the surface may not really be there.

Powers: Additional Skin can be manipulated to mimic others, Has some close quarters advantages in combat

SYNCH

Everett Thomas - AKA 'SYNCH'

Everett’s “power” is heavily contingent on the people around him. He is able to project a mutant aura out from himself and “synch-up” with other mutants in the area, sharing in whatever power manifestation they may have. He’s a quality teammate and friend, who cares greatly about those around him.

Powers: Can Manipulate Aura to "Synch" with other mutants, allowing him access to their powers himself

S A M P L E P O S T:

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Sample post pending.

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

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Not Applicable - New Character

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel & DC Comics RPG

Might have a new... 90s-riffic... app coming up in the next few days. Just working through some of the Ins and Outs of what I'll use and what I'll leave aside.

A rather ambitious team idea.

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel & DC Comics RPG

T H E ‘ E M B A S S Y ‘

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^{Four Months Ago | Manhattan, New York}

"So wait-- explain this all to me again..." Ted asked the most recent applicant, rocking closer forward in his chair and pinching his goggles slightly off of the bridge of his nose.

"Am I going crazy, Beetle? Is that what's happening right now?" Booster looked slightly panicked as he addressed his friend.

The bespectacled man sighed in his tan trenchcoat. "We've been over all of this, my name is--"

"Uuuuupp-ahp-ahp-ahp-ahp-ahp..." Booster tried to stop the interviewee, holding a hand out.

"--Terrence Thirteen."

"--Ssssssssssssssssssssss..." Both Booster and Ted winced simultaneously at the revelation of his real name.

"We-- we don't do that here." The Blue Beetle tried to gently explain, gesturing between Booster and himself.

"I'm an occult detective. An ardent disprover of the paranormal."

"Yes. Yes, we got that much. Tell me again what you just said your powers are."

"Beetle, I don't--" "Shhhh!" The Blue Beetle leant further in still, waiting for the response.

"I just told you... I don't have any power. Aside from maybe being more resistant to magic than most."

"Nnng!" Booster took this poorly and started to rock back and forth in his seat.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you said--" Ted rocked back in his seat, sucking his molars and feeling secure in the knowledge that he wasn't mistaken.

"I HAVE gone crazy, haven't I BB? You can tell me. I can take it." Booster pleaded.

"No. No, on this one you're spot on. I just wanted to see if I could give him the chance to see it for himself."

"See what?"

"So, you're looking to join a SUPERHERO team, with the only power that you can claim being that you 'Might be a little more immune to magic than most', and the reason you're providing for that to be the case is because you 'don't believe in it'." Ted assertively fired off air quotes.

"Oh thank God, it's not just me..." Booster looked relieved.

"Yes..?"

"And you don't see the problem with that?" The Blue Beetle cocked a single eyebrow whilst leaning in once again.

"What's wrong with that?"

"Well, the value you're assigning yourself is contingent entirely on your premise that the situation that would require said value... doesn't exist."

Booster pointed wildly at Ted in agreement, then considered the words his friend had actually said with a furrowed brow and seemed further confused still.

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow you."

"Actually, I'm starting to be more unsure of myself all the time even as you explain things..." Booster scratched the back of his head.

"It's a paradox."

"..."

Ted sighed. "One of those things you're REEEEEEEEEALLY not supposed to do to the timestream."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Booster raised a singular finger, having finally understood.

"And there's another discrepancy here as well, when you first introduced yourself, you did it as--"

"Doctor Thirteen, yes?"

"--yes, and yet, when I look through your resume here under qualifications you've neither been IN medicine, nor hold a doctorate in... well, anything."

"Hey, if that huckster hoax Doctor Strange can call himself 'Doctor', then so can I!"

"I know Doctor Strange. I've actually been present whilst he's supervised over urgent field surgery that had to be performed by steadier hands... he IS a medical doctor. That's not some magical title. He's even kept up with the journals and work for the qualifications to still hold."

"Well-- well Doctor Doom..!"

"--Holds numerous doctorates in various fields. The man's a bona fide genius."

"Well..."

"In fact, if I had to try and convince Hank Pym to refer to you as 'Doctor', I'd never hear the end of it."

"Well... he could call me 'Terry'..?"

Booster Gold and the Blue Beetle both stared blankly at the man in the trenchcoat after his response.

"...I'll just see myself out."

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R A V E N ' S P E R C H

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^{2002 | Ugh... New Jersey}

The Blue Beetle walked down suburban Main Street with Skeetz floating close behind, all eyes were on the pair.

"Sir, we seem to be attracting a lot of attention."

"Hmm? Oh, I see. Give me a second. I think I've got something for this." The hero said, reaching into his belt and pulling out a length of cord for his grapple line and attaching one end to Skeetz.

"There."

"I fail to see how this is any better--"

"Shh..! Someone's coming." As a local police officer approached, making his patrol round. Ted quickly stepped away from his job tying the knot and leaned non-chalantly against a wall.

The cop opened his mouth to say something, before the Blue Beetle pre-empted his question. "Fancy dress party. So I get left holding my daughter's balloon whilst her mother takes her to the bathroom." He said, pointing to the line and floating robot.

"Ah." He confirmed, seeming happy with the answer and walking on by.

"A children's balloon. Why was I built with the ability to feel shame?" Skeetz moaned as the cop walked out of earshot.

"My best guess? Because if humans have to deal with humiliation on a daily basis then why should you get off easy?" Ted answered.

"Let's get off the street, anyway. I need time to sit down and think." Ted walked into a large diner named 'The Jukebox' - if the overbearingly large sign on the windows and giant fibreglass '70s jukebox on the roof, seemingly designed to illustrate the fact for any who lacked the ability to read - were anything to go by.

Ted took a booth for himself and ordered coffee when the waitress made her first round.

"Now let's figure this out." He said to Skeetz once the cup was left in front of him. "Raven's Perch... Where have I heard of that place before?" He said to himself.

"It wasn't an article, or I'd remem-- Ah! I've got it!" He put the cup to his lips, treating the caffeine as if it were a reward for his recollection, before wincing at the burnt roast selection that passed for coffee in this diner.

"Sir..?"

"Magneto, Skeetz. Check your old archived news. Years earlier Erik Lehnsherr... or maybe he's in your files as Max Eisenhardt, committed one of the greatest acts of domestic terrorism ever on American soil. He attempted to set off a mutagenic bomb with the intention of deviating the evolutionary course of humanity along the Eastern seabord. Ironically, his plan was itself foiled by a group of five mutants. Eventually those went on to become known as the first X-Men, but that's not important right now. The point is, Magneto failed, but a very small amount of material leaked into the local reservoir, creating a marked increase in mutant appearances over the years in surrounding cities and townships like... Ravens Perch." Ted tapped on the table to emphasise the town where they now were, before realising how big a scene he might be making and leaned in closer to Skeetz to whisper. _{"So we may not be as out of luck as first appears... There may be someone here whose help we can recruit. We just have to keep our eyes open."}

The next booth over, three kids were sitting down talking to a middle aged man.

Skeetz responded, lights flickering, indicating towards their booth. "Sir, we might not have to wait long..."

Story Continues

"We didn't say 'No', yet..." The young man with the goatee answered.

"Just a second..." Ted got up, and stood over their table. "I've got a job for you all, right now. I'll pay you all--" The Blue Beetle hesitated, thinking of a price. "--five thousand dollars a piece. But my one term is that you cut that shyster loose right now."

"Hey, do you mind! We're talking business here!" The middle aged man protested.

The young lady held her hand out at the man sitting opposite, before replying to the Blue Beetle. "Five thousand dollars? For each of us?"

"That's what I said."

"And you've got this money?" Asked the other teen.

"Well, I'll be able to GET the money. After the job's done. I mean... TECHNICALLY I have the money, but I wouldn't be able to pay you until after it's done." Ted replied.

"HA!"

The three kids looked amongst themselves dubiously.

Ted scowled at the middle aged con man. "I don't walk around with fifteen grand on me, if that's what you're asking."

"So what's the job?" The girl asked.

"I'm a superhero from a few decades in the future, I'm trying to figure out how to get back to my time. Once I get there I can pay you all your money."

"HA HA HA HA HA! Hang on! I've gotta write this one down!" He laughed and pulled out a notepad and pen from his top pocket whilst Ted winced at the middle aged man's caustic laughter at his story. It did sound pretty suspect, now that Ted heard himself talk about it out loud.

He almost expected himself to be laughed out of the room along with the other man, until...

Story Continues

The three teens seemed to disappear into space, only to reappear a brief time later.

"Alright. We discussed this amongst ourselves. We're sticking with him." They pointed to Ted.

"HIM?!? Why?"

"Well, as far as we're concerned you BOTH sound like a couple of con-men, but given a choice I'll go with the one with a face like his who actually sprung for a superhero costume and a-- robot?"

Ted rubbed his chin. "'A face like his'? You mean honest?"

"Goofy." She clarified. "You don't look clever or conniving enough to come up with some kind of scam like that."

The kids got up from their booth, and the four left the diner together.

"So I take it you don't have to put up with con-men where you're from?"

Ted stopped and thought a few seconds about Max Lord before responding. "Ours wears nicer suits.

"I'm Laura, but you can call me 'Fateball'. That's Jesse Metuchen, AKA Jughandle, and that's--"

"The MIZE!"

"--Mize. Or Stuart Welles."

"The Mize." He corrected flatly.

"But he prefers 'The Mize'." Jughandle explained.

"The Miiiiiiiize." He repeated, trying to put a "cool" tone to it.

"Hmm... He REALLY prefers the Mize." Ted noted.

"So what do we call you?" Jesse asked.

"This is Skeetz, but as for me, we'll just keep it to 'Blue Beetle'. One of the first things you realize in this superhero gig is 'The Less People Who Know Your Other Identity, The Better'." Ted explained. "Life can be messy otherwise."

"So what exactly are we working with here?" Fateball asked.

"What do you mean? He asked.

"Well, Jughandle can open pocket dimensions outside of the timestream, where he's basically oblivious to harm and time can slow down for anyone in there. That's what we did in the diner--"

"'Oblivious'?" Mize asked.

"--Me, I have photokinetic reflexes. I can duplicate different actions I see."

"I don't think you mean oblivious. Imperious? Is that the word? No... Impervious? Impervious to harm?" The Mize continued talking to himself.

"So far I've used it to learn about four or five different fighting styles."

"Muay thai?" Ted asked.

"What's that?" Fateball asked.

"It's a fighting style. Uses elbows and kness as well. There's a movie out next year, Ong Bak has this guy Tony Jaa who's really good. If your powers work how you say, you'll probably find it helpful. That said... I don't see how that connects with your name 'Fateball'."

"Oh! Yeah, I have photokinetic reflexes, PLUS of course I have my fateball." She produced a Magic 8 ball swinging by her side in a bowling ball bag. "I ask it any question, it's answers always turn out. ALWAYS."

Ted arched an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Here, I'll show you. Blue Beetle here wants to get back to his time. 'Will We Get Blue Beet--"

"Whoa! No! Wait!" Ted stopped her, yelling out.

The three kids stopped, turned and stared at him.

"Let's... Not ask that question. At the moment there's still a degree of quantum uncertainty. Wiggle room we can use to get me back to where I want to be. If your fateball works how you say, if that answer comes back bad, then I'm stuck. Right now, I'm Schrödinger's Cat."

"What--? Mize spoke up, apparently for all of them.

"Didn't any of you kids take physics? Schrödinger's Cat? The thought experiment Edwin Schrödinger used to explain the problems with Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics to Albert Einstein?"

The three kids looked at him blankly.

"Okay, in order to describe the nature of quantum superposition... there's a cat in a box--"

"Aww, kitty..."

"--along with a flask of poison - or Schrödinger said hydrocyanic acid, a radioactive device and an internal monitor - some kind of geiger counter, for example - that can detect radioactivity to the point of the decay of a single atom decaying, and flick a switch which destroys the flask."

"You could have just said 'Smart science guy' when I asked what you do..." Fateball complained.

"I don't like where this is going for the kitty..." Jughandle said to Mize.

"Well, the Copenhagen interpretation states after a while that the cat is both simultaneously alive AND dead. The quantum superposition. Yet if someone were to look in the box, they would see that the cat was EITHER alive OR dead."

The three stared at him in horror.

"People in your time are SICK, man!"

"This wasn't MY time! This was back in 1935!"

They still looked disgusted.

"Anyway... my point was, that like the cat I'm in the quantum superposition. Simultaneously able to get back to my time AND stranded here... entirely contingent on the decaying of a single atom. But if you ask the fateball that question, then that's like opening the box. No matter the answer, it's a fixed point from then. Unchangable. Quantum superposition ends and reality collapses into one of the two possibilities."

"Ohhhhhhhhh! You don't want me to ask the fateball about whether you make it back, because if the answer's bad then you're stuck here?"

"Yes!" An exasperated Ted answered. "...like the cat. Fate gone from being contingent on the decay of a single atom to being unalterably set in stone."

"Ah OK. I gotcha."

The four continued walking down the street before Ted realized there was still one unanswered question.

"And what about the Mize? What does he do?"

"Oh, he decays atoms..."

---

^{* Panels pulled from 'The Craptacular B-Sides #1, Published 2002}

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel & DC Comics RPG

<Snipped quote by Hound55>

I'll take this as a compliment

@Sep

It was meant to be.

Precipice Of War: The Reboot of a Reboot

On The Flag

The flag used is a modified version of the Australasian Flag that was used in the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympics. Which would put it post-Federation, yet still perhaps in the minds of a sports-mad Australian culture. The addition is an 8-point star on a red banner, representing the people of the initial 8 states of the expanded Australia: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Northern New Zealand and Southern New Zealand.

The 8 point star also represents the compass points, bringing together all of the peoples of the south Pacific region under the Union Jack...

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THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

"Australia has once been perilously near to the brink of disaster. No nation, even Britain, has been in greater danger in invasion and yet lacked the resources to defend itself." - Former Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, 3rd of February, 1943
After enabling militia to serve in a limited capacity in the Pacific South West.

Conscription was very much against Labor Party policy.

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Recent History:
With no definitive winner of the Great War, the people of Australia have been left cynical towards the Crown's ability to defend her native sons and daughters from over 15,000 kilometres away - as the crow flies. And that's before you factor in how well conscripted members of the armed forces were put to use by British officers in highly questionable situations such as Gallipoli. Followed by the country being very much left to fend for itself as returning soldiers brought back the Spanish flu, which led to even more loss of life and between a quarter and a third of the population getting pneumonia.

The results were the Anzac nations of Australia and New Zealand realized they would be best served by uniting as a single nation so that Defence could be more effectively utilised, as both countries seemed to have mostly similar values and a somewhat shared history. The Statute of Westminster providing the autonomy required for the former colonies to act. Australia swung heavily to Nationalism. Under a new party comprising of many Commonwealth Liberal Party members, but with reputable Labor head Billy Hughes pushed to the front in a leadership capacity. Once known to all as an incredible British imperialist, he saw the need for greater self-determination and the means to protect itself as its own service to the auld country.

Australia offered the former Nation of New Zealand a questionable deal. They could either join as a single new state of New Zealand and receive only twelve senators, or it would be permitted to double its level of autonomy by entering Australia as two states - Northern New Zealand and Southern New Zealand - with the cost being the expectation of greater economic burden. New Zealand, also valuing greater autonomy after the events of the war jumped at the chance for larger representation in the Upper House - viewing this new expanded nation to be in the best long term interests of maintaining New Zealander and British ideals and culture in the Pacific. This decision has led to Republicans and Maori natives wondering if The Right Honourable William Massey, the Reform Party of New Zealand Prime Minister, had just swapped one yoke around the country's neck for another, and began some bitter sentiment towards what would come to be known as 'Mainlanders'. Massey did however manager to secure one final policy point - that Maori citizens would still maintain their right to vote (gained way back in the 1860s) under this new expanded Australian aegis. A right that thus far had not extended to the Aboriginal Australian populations. On the topic of Maori seats in parliament, Massey was basically told "You get twelve senators per state, how you divide them is up to the people of New Zealand." and was not granted any special treatment in the House of Representatives - as the House seats are to remain relative to the population. To get this through the Maori were granted two of the twelve senators in both the Northern and Southern Islands. Previously, Maori electorates made up about 1 in 20 of the general New Zealand parliament, or around 5%. This 5 percent was gone in the lower house of parliament, but replaced with roughly 16% of New Zealand's upper house vote. This sounded fine on paper, but Maori soon became disenfranchised as they were largely outnumbered in the Senate by Mainlander senators, and white nationalism began to spread in New Zealand's southern island where it was felt by many that the Maori were over-represented as over 80% of the Maori population lived in the North Island and both island were granted two Maori senators.

In addition to this, it was agreed upon by unwritten rule, that should an Australian reside over the seat of the Prime Ministership of the Commonwealth, there would sit a New Zealander in the position of Governor General and vice versa. With the importance of showing unity amonst the two held of paramount importance.

With New Zealand now on board, "the Little Digger" as Prime Minster Billy Hughes was affectionately known, turned to the task of expanding the defence force. As Australia was now "Eight States Girt By Sea", it became immediately obvious that the main priorities were maximising the Royal Australian Navy, and rapidly enlisting and training the next generation's fighting force. The former was acheived by sending back to Britain for current cutting edge naval ship designs, whilst simultaeously developing an engineering force who would be able to build them once designs were brought back by steamer. To train a fresh set of engineers he injected a large amount of money into a South Australian saddlery company who were looking to transition into the automotive industry and the Holden Motor Company was born. They rapidly expanded and trained a new workforce, and with the sizable investment the 48-215 was soon born, with 5 prototypes and just under a dozen pilot cars coming out before they were ready for mass-production, and whilst the mid-sized, three-speed sedan was somewhat derivative and not terribly impressive in and of itself. What was impressive was how quickly the engineers were able to produce a functioning car, and how much they were able to learn from their first attempt. Their second attempt, the FJ was an enormous hit and very quickly flooded the streets. Holden engineers and workers were the talk of the country, and the Australian government handpicked select engineers to work side-by-side with naval engineers to get to work on expanding the Royal Australian Naval fleet with budding ingenuity and innovation.

Also looking to expand on this development and innovation field, Billy Hughes pumped in money to develop a new agency responsible for scientific discovery and research - the CSIRO. With the outbreak of Spanish Flu following the war, it seemed too important to get left behind on the scientific front. He also saw great value in the trend towards aviation innovation, putting forward £10,000 reward for the first person to successfully fly from the United Kingdom to Australia in less than 30 days. After Hughes' tenure even further investment was put into the aviation industry in general as both hard and soft power - with the development of the CAC Wirraway, followed by the CAC Boomerang and the CA-25 Winjeel trainer which gave way to the CA-26 and CA-27 Sabres, as well as the nationalisation of Qantas.

Many leading economists suggest that it was sizable investments into the defense, aviation and automotive industries by Labor leaders like John Curtin and, after Curtin's death-in-office, Ben Chifley, along with mining, metal processing, textiles/clothing/footwear and chemicals which provided an environment of high production (yet less reliant on exports), full employment and the heavy stimulus which saw Australia through the Great Depression mostly unscathed - a unique situation for the country which often saw it's economy rocked so heavily by natural forces such as drought, flood and infestation from introduced species. It's heavily regulated and protectionist, with Labor Policy maintaing the stance towards the 'White Australia' policy of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, back during the original Federation of the country. "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race." - John Curtin.

But the lines between the Labor Party and the Communist Party were becoming blurred. Years earlier the inauguration of the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge, a masterpiece of ingenuity that showcased Australian design, engineering, steel and construction industries, had been marred by The New Guard - A far right Nationalist movement who were strongly opposed to communists and New South Wales' Labor Premier Jack Lang in particular. A few left-leaning politicians would waver between stints at the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Industrial Socialist Labor Party (ISLP). In 1947, the Liberal Party were able to exploit this as Labor Prime Minster Ben Chifley went too far, and attempted to nationalise the banks. The High Court found this unconstitutional, the press and middle class Australians saw it as a bridge too far towards communism and it opened up an opportunity for the National Liberal Party. Chifley did however manage to pass the Commonwealth Bank Acts of '45 which gave the government control over monetary policy and allowed them to establish the Commonwelth Bank of Australia.

The strikes in the waning years of the 1940s in both Queensland's rail and the coal industry brought unemployment and hardship. Chifley responded by barring rail workers on strike from obtaining unemployment benefits. And sent in army troops to break the coal strike. This was because Chifley viewed these strikes as efforts by the Communist party to splinter Labor support and supplant them as the party of the working man. National Liberal Party leader Robert Menzies exploited Red hysteria to portray the Labor party as soft on communism, pointing at recent banking policy. Chifley was in a difficult position, under attack from both the right and left, and was unable to thread the needle of making a successful argument to the Australian people that "to the contrary, Labor is a bulwark against communism" and that the most effective way of weakening the strength of the Communist party is to improve the conditions of the people. The Australian people didn't buy it, neither on the mainland now across the Tasman, and Bob Menzies was able to secure the election. With Chifley barely being able to cling to a senate majority.

Chifley proved to continue to be a thorn in Menzies side from the Senate, where he remained as Labor leader and often was able to confound the Prime Minister, passing Labor amendments or outright blocking legislation. Menzies chose to respond to this by riding his high popularity at the time, looking to trap Chifley in a double dissolution election by introducing a bill to ban the Communist Party of Australia. He expected Chifley to reject it, opening up the opportunity to attack Chifley once more as being soft on communism at the ensuing election. Instead, Chifley zagged and passed it with a re-draft, and allowed the High Court to kill the bill as invalid - six justices to one. Menzies was later able to get his double dissolution election however, as he introduced legislation to change Chifley's Commonwealth Banking Bill. However, some damage had been done in the public's eyes towards Menzies with his attempt to kill the Communist party, regardless of whether the people would be willing to vote for the Communist Party his decision struck at the Aussie ideals of "a fair go". Menzies high popularity barely saw him scrape through, but not without losing seats to Labor. He did however achieve his plan of knocking out Chifley and the Labor Senate majority, and was now free to start moulding his vision for Australia into the '50s.

With the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy seeing massive expansion, Bob Menzies turned to expand the Australian Army. Still smarting from the previous election, Menzies chose to do this in a way to avoid conscription where possible. Sensing growing dissatisfaction from the Aboriginal population due to the vast disparity in rights between Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Pacific Islander rights and Maori rights, Menzies passed legislation that would enable Aboriginal and Islanders voting rights in return for Military service. He also saw the benefit of strategic allied naval ports, and began diplomatic proceedings to further expand the Australian Commonwealth to other Pacific Neighbours. Fiji was the first nation to join, in return for six senate seats and the written condition that their population would always be rounded up for an additional seat in the House of Representatives. Samoa and Papua New Guinea began murmurings of their desire for independence (Samoa having been 'roped in' to the Commonwealth under New Zealand rule) and were given two senate seats each as they were viewed as 'territories' of Australia and New Zealand. Both also received the 'round up' Lower House stipulation and this degree of self-determination mostly kept things orderly. Tonga was a different proposition, but was happy for their status as a 'Protected State' of the United Kingdom be diverted to the regional Commonwealth of Australia, particularly after experiencing heavy losses due to the Spanish flu. They remained a constitutional monarchy of their own, with Australia holding right to veto over foreign policies and finances... but seldom, if ever actually exercising that right. That desire to be left to their own devices swung both ways, however. They have no say in greater Commonwealth politics. With fears spreading through mainland Australians that their politics were about to be overrun with representatives from the island Nations. In response Menzies made two changes. First, that any new additions would receive the 'round up' rule in the House of Representatives providing they existed as a 'whole' nation prior (no 'splintering' grouped island states in an attempt to garner more political influence), but would only be represented by three new general Pacific Islander senators. Secondly, in a blatantly cynical move, Bob Menzies awarded two senators to a thusfar unrepresented territory - the Australian Antarctic Territory. With no permanent population in Antarctica, these were basically filled by the government's whim. Whilst particularly unfair, since the people who are IN Antarctica at any moment in time and are capable of voting there, do so at the Government's discretion, it's not technically unconctitutional since they are still 'free' elections otherwise. Menzies has stripped back the 'White Australia' policy, to allow free movement between all parts of the Commonwealth for all who can prove 'birthright' residence within any of its shores. However, being the 1950s, travel is still prohibitively expensive for most.

The year is now 1955, Robert Menzies is still Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, under his hand he now looks to direct the country into a new era of private enterprise and self-sufficiency. His Liberal Party controls both the Upper and Lower Houses, albeit by a slim margin. Now is the time for growth. The time for Australia to spread its wings and grow beyond it's quite heavily regulated economy, the time for Menzies show his power and grow his popularity amongst the Australian people.

Government

House of Representatives:
301 Seats - Proportional to Population, with former island nations getting 'rounded up' in seats.

Populations at 1955:
Australia (mainland and Tasmania) - Roughly 9.25 million
New Zealand - 2.13 million
Papua New Guinea - 2.09 million
Fiji - 335,000
Solomon Islands - 102,000
Samoa - 94,000
French Polynesia - 69,000
New Caledonia - 68,000
Vanuatu - 55,000
Cook Islands - 16,000

Senate (Sixty seven senators in total):
Mainland Australia (6 WA, 6 SA, 6 QLD, 6 NSW, 6 VIC, 2 NT, 2 ACT) - 34 senators
New Zealand - 12 senators
Tasmania (generally views self as 'mainland') - 6 Senators
Fiji - 6 senators
Samoa - 2 Senators
Papua New Guinea - 2 Senators
General Pacific Islanders - 3 senators
Australian Antarctic Territory - 2 Senators

Interesting points of difference and challenges:
After the war, Australia still cares greatly for the Crown... but is heavily into self-determinism and birthing a new Southern Commonwealth capable of taking care of its own interests.

This included looking to create a great Southern Royal Navy - which they have made good use of Britain's past naval supremacy to try and make up lost ground. Unfortunately, Britain's supremacy has started to sway since the invention of the submarine.

Australia has embraced the importance of the aviation industry, and is well aware that in that way lies the future. At this point, however, the main trait of Australian planes is reliability - and they rely heavily on pilot ingenuity to make up for deficits in areas like speed.

The population of Papua New Guinea feel heavily underrepresented and exposed. They have only two senators compared to New Zealand's twelve, despite having similar sized populations. The Aboriginal population also feels somewhat disenfranchised, with Maoris retaining rights that Aboriginals could only dream of from prior to joining the expanded Commonwealth. Maoris are disenfranchised as they have lost their 'Maori seats', and their senate influence (which was the trade-off benefit for losing those seats) has been diluted with the addition of fifteen other senators since they joined.

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel & DC Comics RPG

Sorry to be a pain but I think I'll have to let Red Tornado go. I have some solid ideas going for them, and some ideas I'm really excited for however I don't think I'll have time for both characters, and want to focus on Thor who is the more important of the two.... and I'm even more excited to play.

@Sep

If that means we get more Thor then I'm happy.

Precipice Of War: The Reboot of a Reboot

Alright, let me know how this is:

On The Flag

The flag used is a modified version of the Australasian Flag that was used in the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympics. Which would put it post-Federation, yet still perhaps in the minds of a sports-mad Australian culture. The addition is an 8-point star on a red banner, representing the people of the initial 8 states of the expanded Australia: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Northern New Zealand and Southern New Zealand.

The 8 point star also represents the compass points, bringing together all of the peoples of the south Pacific region under the Union Jack...

---

THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

"Australia has once been perilously near to the brink of disaster. No nation, even Britain, has been in greater danger in invasion and yet lacked the resources to defend itself." - Former Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, 3rd of February, 1943
After enabling militia to serve in a limited capacity in the Pacific South West.

Conscription was very much against Labor Party policy.

---

Recent History:
With no definitive winner of the Great War, the people of Australia have been left cynical towards the Crown's ability to defend her native sons and daughters from over 15,000 kilometres away - as the crow flies. And that's before you factor in how well conscripted members of the armed forces were put to use by British officers in highly questionable situations such as Gallipoli. Followed by the country being very much left to fend for itself as returning soldiers brought back the Spanish flu, which led to even more loss of life and between a quarter and a third of the population getting pneumonia.

The results were the Anzac nations of Australia and New Zealand realized they would be best served by uniting as a single nation so that Defence could be more effectively utilised, as both countries seemed to have mostly similar values and a somewhat shared history. The Statute of Westminster providing the autonomy required for the former colonies to act. Australia swung heavily to Nationalism. Under a new party comprising of many Commonwealth Liberal Party members, but with reputable Labor head Billy Hughes pushed to the front in a leadership capacity. Once known to all as an incredible British imperialist, he saw the need for greater self-determination and the means to protect itself as its own service to the auld country.

Australia offered the former Nation of New Zealand a questionable deal. They could either join as a single new state of New Zealand and receive only twelve senators, or it would be permitted to double its level of autonomy by entering Australia as two states - Northern New Zealand and Southern New Zealand - with the cost being the expectation of greater economic burden. New Zealand, also valuing greater autonomy after the events of the war jumped at the chance for larger representation in the Upper House - viewing this new expanded nation to be in the best long term interests of maintaining New Zealander and British ideals and culture in the Pacific. This decision has led to Republicans and Maori natives wondering if The Right Honourable William Massey, the Reform Party of New Zealand Prime Minister, had just swapped one yoke around the country's neck for another, and began some bitter sentiment towards what would come to be known as 'Mainlanders'. Massey did however manager to secure one final policy point - that Maori citizens would still maintain their right to vote (gained way back in the 1860s) under this new expanded Australian aegis. A right that thus far had not extended to the Aboriginal Australian populations. On the topic of Maori seats in parliament, Massey was basically told "You get twelve senators per state, how you divide them is up to the people of New Zealand." and was not granted any special treatment in the House of Representatives - as the House seats are to remain relative to the population. To get this through the Maori were granted two of the twelve senators in both the Northern and Southern Islands. Previously, Maori electorates made up about 1 in 20 of the general New Zealand parliament, or around 5%. This 5 percent was gone in the lower house of parliament, but replaced with roughly 16% of New Zealand's upper house vote. This sounded fine on paper, but Maori soon became disenfranchised as they were largely outnumbered in the Senate by Mainlander senators, and white nationalism began to spread in New Zealand's southern island where it was felt by many that the Maori were over-represented as over 80% of the Maori population lived in the North Island and both island were granted two Maori senators.

In addition to this, it was agreed upon by unwritten rule, that should an Australian reside over the seat of the Prime Ministership of the Commonwealth, there would sit a New Zealander in the position of Governor General and vice versa. With the importance of showing unity amonst the two held of paramount importance.

With New Zealand now on board, "the Little Digger" as Prime Minster Billy Hughes was affectionately known, turned to the task of expanding the defence force. As Australia was now "Eight States Girt By Sea", it became immediately obvious that the main priorities were maximising the Royal Australian Navy, and rapidly enlisting and training the next generation's fighting force. The former was acheived by sending back to Britain for current cutting edge naval ship designs, whilst simultaeously developing an engineering force who would be able to build them once designs were brought back by steamer. To train a fresh set of engineers he injected a large amount of money into a South Australian saddlery company who were looking to transition into the automotive industry and the Holden Motor Company was born. They rapidly expanded and trained a new workforce, and with the sizable investment the 48-215 was soon born, with 5 prototypes and just under a dozen pilot cars coming out before they were ready for mass-production, and whilst the mid-sized, three-speed sedan was somewhat derivative and not terribly impressive in and of itself. What was impressive was how quickly the engineers were able to produce a functioning car, and how much they were able to learn from their first attempt. Their second attempt, the FJ was an enormous hit and very quickly flooded the streets. Holden engineers and workers were the talk of the country, and the Australian government handpicked select engineers to work side-by-side with naval engineers to get to work on expanding the Royal Australian Naval fleet with budding ingenuity and innovation.

Also looking to expand on this development and innovation field, Billy Hughes pumped in money to develop a new agency responsible for scientific discovery and research - the CSIRO. With the outbreak of Spanish Flu following the war, it seemed too important to get left behind on the scientific front. He also saw great value in the trend towards aviation innovation, putting forward £10,000 reward for the first person to successfully fly from the United Kingdom to Australia in less than 30 days. After Hughes' tenure even further investment was put into the aviation industry in general as both hard and soft power - with the development of the CAC Wirraway, followed by the CAC Boomerang and the CA-25 Winjeel trainer which gave way to the CA-26 and CA-27 Sabres, as well as the nationalisation of Qantas.

Many leading economists suggest that it was sizable investments into the defense, aviation and automotive industries by Labor leaders like John Curtin and, after Curtin's death-in-office, Ben Chifley, along with mining, metal processing, textiles/clothing/footwear and chemicals which provided an environment of high production (yet less reliant on exports), full employment and the heavy stimulus which saw Australia through the Great Depression mostly unscathed - a unique situation for the country which often saw it's economy rocked so heavily by natural forces such as drought, flood and infestation from introduced species. It's heavily regulated and protectionist, with Labor Policy maintaing the stance towards the 'White Australia' policy of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, back during the original Federation of the country. "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race." - John Curtin.

But the lines between the Labor Party and the Communist Party were becoming blurred. Years earlier the inauguration of the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge, a masterpiece of ingenuity that showcased Australian design, engineering, steel and construction industries, had been marred by The New Guard - A far right Nationalist movement who were strongly opposed to communists and New South Wales' Labor Premier Jack Lang in particular. A few left-leaning politicians would waver between stints at the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Industrial Socialist Labor Party (ISLP). In 1947, the Liberal Party were able to exploit this as Labor Prime Minster Ben Chifley went too far, and attempted to nationalise the banks. The High Court found this unconstitutional, the press and middle class Australians saw it as a bridge too far towards communism and it opened up an opportunity for the National Liberal Party. Chifley did however manage to pass the Commonwealth Bank Acts of '45 which gave the government control over monetary policy and allowed them to establish the Commonwelth Bank of Australia.

The strikes in the waning years of the 1940s in both Queensland's rail and the coal industry brought unemployment and hardship. Chifley responded by barring rail workers on strike from obtaining unemployment benefits. And sent in army troops to break the coal strike. This was because Chifley viewed these strikes as efforts by the Communist party to splinter Labor support and supplant them as the party of the working man. National Liberal Party leader Robert Menzies exploited Red hysteria to portray the Labor party as soft on communism, pointing at recent banking policy. Chifley was in a difficult position, under attack from both the right and left, and was unable to thread the needle of making a successful argument to the Australian people that "to the contrary, Labor is a bulwark against communism" and that the most effective way of weakening the strength of the Communist party is to improve the conditions of the people. The Australian people didn't buy it, neither on the mainland now across the Tasman, and Bob Menzies was able to secure the election. With Chifley barely being able to cling to a senate majority.

Chifley proved to continue to be a thorn in Menzies side from the Senate, where he remained as Labor leader and often was able to confound the Prime Minister, passing Labor amendments or outright blocking legislation. Menzies chose to respond to this by riding his high popularity at the time, looking to trap Chifley in a double dissolution election by introducing a bill to ban the Communist Party of Australia. He expected Chifley to reject it, opening up the opportunity to attack Chifley once more as being soft on communism at the ensuing election. Instead, Chifley zagged and passed it with a re-draft, and allowed the High Court to kill the bill as invalid - six justices to one. Menzies was later able to get his double dissolution election however, as he introduced legislation to change Chifley's Commonwealth Banking Bill. However, some damage had been done in the public's eyes towards Menzies with his attempt to kill the Communist party, regardless of whether the people would be willing to vote for the Communist Party his decision struck at the Aussie ideals of "a fair go". Menzies high popularity barely saw him scrape through, but not without losing seats to Labor. He did however achieve his plan of knocking out Chifley and the Labor Senate majority, and was now free to start moulding his vision for Australia into the '50s.

With the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy seeing massive expansion, Bob Menzies turned to expand the Australian Army. Still smarting from the previous election, Menzies chose to do this in a way to avoid conscription where possible. Sensing growing dissatisfaction from the Aboriginal population due to the vast disparity in rights between Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Pacific Islander rights and Maori rights, Menzies passed legislation that would enable Aboriginal and Islanders voting rights in return for Military service. He also saw the benefit of strategic allied naval ports, and began diplomatic proceedings to further expand the Australian Commonwealth to other Pacific Neighbours. Fiji was the first nation to join, in return for six senate seats and the written condition that their population would always be rounded up for an additional seat in the House of Representatives. Samoa and Papua New Guinea began murmurings of their desire for independence (Samoa having been 'roped in' to the Commonwealth under New Zealand rule) and were given two senate seats each as they were viewed as 'territories' of Australia and New Zealand. Both also received the 'round up' Lower House stipulation and this degree of self-determination mostly kept things orderly. Tonga was a different proposition, but was happy for their status as a 'Protected State' of the United Kingdom be diverted to the regional Commonwealth of Australia, particularly after experiencing heavy losses due to the Spanish flu. They remained a constitutional monarchy of their own, with Australia holding right to veto over foreign policies and finances... but seldom, if ever actually exercising that right. That desire to be left to their own devices swung both ways, however. They have no say in greater Commonwealth politics. With fears spreading through mainland Australians that their politics were about to be overrun with representatives from the island Nations. In response Menzies made two changes. First, that any new additions would receive the 'round up' rule in the House of Representatives providing they existed as a 'whole' nation prior (no 'splintering' grouped island states in an attempt to garner more political influence), but would only be represented by three new general Pacific Islander senators. Secondly, in a blatantly cynical move, Bob Menzies awarded two senators to a thusfar unrepresented territory - the Australian Antarctic Territory. With no permanent population in Antarctica, these were basically filled by the government's whim. Whilst particularly unfair, since the people who are IN Antarctica at any moment in time and are capable of voting there, do so at the Government's discretion, it's not technically unconctitutional since they are still 'free' elections otherwise. Menzies has stripped back the 'White Australia' policy, to allow free movement between all parts of the Commonwealth for all who can prove 'birthright' residence within any of its shores. However, being the 1950s, travel is still prohibitively expensive for most.

The year is now 1955, Robert Menzies is still Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, under his hand he now looks to direct the country into a new era of private enterprise and self-sufficiency. His Liberal Party controls both the Upper and Lower Houses, albeit by a slim margin. Now is the time for growth. The time for Australia to spread its wings and grow beyond it's quite heavily regulated economy, the time for Menzies show his power and grow his popularity amongst the Australian people.

Government

House of Representatives:
301 Seats - Proportional to Population, with former island nations getting 'rounded up' in seats.

Populations at 1955:
Australia (mainland and Tasmania) - Roughly 9.25 million
New Zealand - 2.13 million
Papua New Guinea - 2.09 million
Fiji - 335,000
Solomon Islands - 102,000
Samoa - 94,000
French Polynesia - 69,000
New Caledonia - 68,000
Vanuatu - 55,000
Cook Islands - 16,000

Senate (Sixty seven senators in total):
Mainland Australia (6 WA, 6 SA, 6 QLD, 6 NSW, 6 VIC, 2 NT, 2 ACT) - 34 senators
New Zealand - 12 senators
Tasmania (generally views self as 'mainland') - 6 Senators
Fiji - 6 senators
Samoa - 2 Senators
Papua New Guinea - 2 Senators
General Pacific Islanders - 3 senators
Australian Antarctic Territory - 2 Senators

Interesting points of difference and challenges:
After the war, Australia still cares greatly for the Crown... but is heavily into self-determinism and birthing a new Southern Commonwealth capable of taking care of its own interests.

This included looking to create a great Southern Royal Navy - which they have made good use of Britain's past naval supremacy to try and make up lost ground. Unfortunately, Britain's supremacy has started to sway since the invention of the submarine.

Australia has embraced the importance of the aviation industry, and is well aware that in that way lies the future. At this point, however, the main trait of Australian planes is reliability - and they rely heavily on pilot ingenuity to make up for deficits in areas like speed.

The population of Papua New Guinea feel heavily underrepresented and exposed. They have only two senators compared to New Zealand's twelve, despite having similar sized populations. The Aboriginal population also feels somewhat disenfranchised, with Maoris retaining rights that Aboriginals could only dream of from prior to joining the expanded Commonwealth. Maoris are disenfranchised as they have lost their 'Maori seats', and their senate influence (which was the trade-off benefit for losing those seats) has been diluted with the addition of fifteen other senators since they joined.

Hound's Wacky Shack of Miscellaneous Clap-Trap

On The Flag

The flag used is a modified version of the Australasian Flag that was used in the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympics. Which would put it post-Federation, yet still perhaps in the minds of a sports-mad Australian culture. The addition is an 8-point star on a red banner, representing the people of the initial 8 states of the expanded Australia: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Northern New Zealand and Southern New Zealand.

The 8 point star also represents the compass points, bringing together all of the peoples of the south Pacific region under the Union Jack...

---

THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

"Australia has once been perilously near to the brink of disaster. No nation, even Britain, has been in greater danger in invasion and yet lacked the resources to defend itself." - Former Labor Prime Minister John Curtin, 3rd of February, 1943
After enabling militia to serve in a limited capacity in the Pacific South West.

Conscription was very much against Labor Party policy.

---

Recent History:
With no definitive winner of the Great War, the people of Australia have been left cynical towards the Crown's ability to defend her native sons and daughters from over 15,000 kilometres away - as the crow flies. And that's before you factor in how well conscripted members of the armed forces were put to use by British officers in highly questionable situations such as Gallipoli. Followed by the country being very much left to fend for itself as returning soldiers brought back the Spanish flu, which led to even more loss of life and between a quarter and a third of the population getting pneumonia.

The results were the Anzac nations of Australia and New Zealand realized they would be best served by uniting as a single nation so that Defence could be more effectively utilised, as both countries seemed to have mostly similar values and a somewhat shared history. The Statute of Westminster providing the autonomy required for the former colonies to act. Australia swung heavily to Nationalism. Under a new party comprising of many Commonwealth Liberal Party members, but with reputable Labor head Billy Hughes pushed to the front in a leadership capacity. Once known to all as an incredible British imperialist, he saw the need for greater self-determination and the means to protect itself as its own service to the auld country.

Australia offered the former Nation of New Zealand a questionable deal. They could either join as a single new state of New Zealand and receive only twelve senators, or it would be permitted to double its level of autonomy by entering Australia as two states - Northern New Zealand and Southern New Zealand - with the cost being the expectation of greater economic burden. New Zealand, also valuing greater autonomy after the events of the war jumped at the chance for larger representation in the Upper House - viewing this new expanded nation to be in the best long term interests of maintaining New Zealander and British ideals and culture in the Pacific. This decision has led to Republicans and Maori natives wondering if The Right Honourable William Massey, the Reform Party of New Zealand Prime Minister, had just swapped one yoke around the country's neck for another, and began some bitter sentiment towards what would come to be known as 'Mainlanders'. Massey did however manager to secure one final policy point - that Maori citizens would still maintain their right to vote (gained way back in the 1860s) under this new expanded Australian aegis. A right that thus far had not extended to the Aboriginal Australian populations. On the topic of Maori seats in parliament, Massey was basically told "You get twelve senators per state, how you divide them is up to the people of New Zealand." and was not granted any special treatment in the House of Representatives - as the House seats are to remain relative to the population. To get this through the Maori were granted two of the twelve senators in both the Northern and Southern Islands. Previously, Maori electorates made up about 1 in 20 of the general New Zealand parliament, or around 5%. This 5 percent was gone in the lower house of parliament, but replaced with roughly 16% of New Zealand's upper house vote. This sounded fine on paper, but Maori soon became disenfranchised as they were largely outnumbered in the Senate by Mainlander senators, and white nationalism began to spread in New Zealand's southern island where it was felt by many that the Maori were over-represented as over 80% of the Maori population lived in the North Island and both island were granted two Maori senators.

In addition to this, it was agreed upon by unwritten rule, that should an Australian reside over the seat of the Prime Ministership of the Commonwealth, there would sit a New Zealander in the position of Governor General and vice versa. With the importance of showing unity amonst the two held of paramount importance.

With New Zealand now on board, "the Little Digger" as Prime Minster Billy Hughes was affectionately known, turned to the task of expanding the defence force. As Australia was now "Eight States Girt By Sea", it became immediately obvious that the main priorities were maximising the Royal Australian Navy, and rapidly enlisting and training the next generation's fighting force. The former was acheived by sending back to Britain for current cutting edge naval ship designs, whilst simultaeously developing an engineering force who would be able to build them once designs were brought back by steamer. To train a fresh set of engineers he injected a large amount of money into a South Australian saddlery company who were looking to transition into the automotive industry and the Holden Motor Company was born. They rapidly expanded and trained a new workforce, and with the sizable investment the 48-215 was soon born, with 5 prototypes and just under a dozen pilot cars coming out before they were ready for mass-production, and whilst the mid-sized, three-speed sedan was somewhat derivative and not terribly impressive in and of itself. What was impressive was how quickly the engineers were able to produce a functioning car, and how much they were able to learn from their first attempt. Their second attempt, the FJ was an enormous hit and very quickly flooded the streets. Holden engineers and workers were the talk of the country, and the Australian government handpicked select engineers to work side-by-side with naval engineers to get to work on expanding the Royal Australian Naval fleet with budding ingenuity and innovation.

Also looking to expand on this development and innovation field, Billy Hughes pumped in money to develop a new agency responsible for scientific discovery and research - the CSIRO. With the outbreak of Spanish Flu following the war, it seemed too important to get left behind on the scientific front. He also saw great value in the trend towards aviation innovation, putting forward £10,000 reward for the first person to successfully fly from the United Kingdom to Australia in less than 30 days. After Hughes' tenure even further investment was put into the aviation industry in general as both hard and soft power - with the development of the CAC Wirraway, followed by the CAC Boomerang and the CA-25 Winjeel trainer which gave way to the CA-26 and CA-27 Sabres, as well as the nationalisation of Qantas.

Many leading economists suggest that it was sizable investments into the defense, aviation and automotive industries by Labor leaders like John Curtin and, after Curtin's death-in-office, Ben Chifley, along with mining, metal processing, textiles/clothing/footwear and chemicals which provided an environment of high production (yet less reliant on exports), full employment and the heavy stimulus which saw Australia through the Great Depression mostly unscathed - a unique situation for the country which often saw it's economy rocked so heavily by natural forces such as drought, flood and infestation from introduced species.

But the lines between the Labor Party and the Communist Party were becoming blurred. Years earlier the inauguration of the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge, a masterpiece of ingenuity that showcased Australian design, engineering, steel and construction industries, had been marred by The New Guard - A far right Nationalist movement who were strongly opposed to communists and New South Wales' Labor Premier Jack Lang in particular. A few left-leaning politicians would waver between stints at the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Industrial Socialist Labor Party (ISLP). In 1947, the Liberal Party were able to exploit this as Labor Prime Minster Ben Chifley went too far, and attempted to nationalise the banks. The High Court found this unconstitutional, the press and middle class Australians saw it as a bridge too far towards communism and it opened up an opportunity for the National Liberal Party. Chifley did however manage to pass the Commonwealth Bank Acts of '45 which gave the government control over monetary policy and allowed them to establish the Commonwelth Bank of Australia.

The strikes in the waning years of the 1940s in both Queensland's rail and the coal industry brought unemployment and hardship. Chifley responded by barring rail workers on strike from obtaining unemployment benefits. And sent in army troops to break the coal strike. This was because Chifley viewed these strikes as efforts by the Communist party to splinter Labor support and supplant them as the party of the working man. National Liberal Party leader Robert Menzies exploited Red hysteria to portray the Labor party as soft on communism, pointing at recent banking policy. Chifley was in a difficult position, under attack from both the right and left, and was unable to thread the needle of making a successful argument to the Australian people that "to the contrary, Labor is a bulwark against communism" and that the most effective way of weakening the strength of the Communist party is to improve the conditions of the people. The Australian people didn't buy it, neither on the mainland now across the Tasman, and Bob Menzies was able to secure the election. With Chifley barely being able to cling to a senate majority.

Chifley proved to continue to be a thorn in Menzies side from the Senate, where he remained as Labor leader and often was able to confound the Prime Minister, passing Labor amendments or outright blocking legislation. Menzies chose to respond to this by riding his high popularity at the time, looking to trap Chifley in a double dissolution election by introducing a bill to ban the Communist Party of Australia. He expected Chifley to reject it, opening up the opportunity to attack Chifley once more as being soft on communism at the ensuing election. Instead, Chifley zagged and passed it with a re-draft, and allowed the High Court to kill the bill as invalid - six justices to one. Menzies was later able to get his double dissolution election however, as he introduced legislation to change Chifley's Commonwealth Banking Bill. However, some damage had been done in the public's eyes towards Menzies with his attempt to kill the Communist party, regardless of whether the people would be willing to vote for the Communist Party his decision struck at the Aussie ideals of "a fair go". Menzies high popularity barely saw him scrape through, but not without losing seats to Labor. He did however achieve his plan of knocking out Chifley and the Labor Senate majority, and was now free to start moulding his vision for Australia into the '50s.

With the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy seeing massive expansion, Bob Menzies turned to expand the Australian Army. Still smarting from the previous election, Menzies chose to do this in a way to avoid conscription where possible. Sensing growing dissatisfaction from the Aboriginal population due to the vast disparity in rights between Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Pacific Islander rights and Maori rights, Menzies passed legislation that would enable Aboriginal and Islanders voting rights in return for Military service. He also saw the benefit of strategic allied naval ports, and began diplomatic proceedings to further expand the Australian Commonwealth to other Pacific Neighbours. Fiji was the first nation to join, in return for six senate seats and the written condition that their population would always be rounded up for an additional seat in the House of Representatives. Samoa and Papua New Guinea began murmurings of their desire for independence (Samoa having been 'roped in' to the Commonwealth under New Zealand rule) and were given two senate seats each as they were viewed as 'territories' of Australia and New Zealand. Both also received the 'round up' Lower House stipulation and this degree of self-determination mostly kept things orderly. Tonga was a different proposition, but was happy for their status as a 'Protected State' of the United Kingdom be diverted to the regional Commonwealth of Australia. They remained a constitutional monarchy of their own, with Australia holding right to veto over foreign policies and finances... but seldom, if ever actually exercising that right. That desire to be left to their own devices swung both ways, however. They have no say in greater Commonwealth politics. With fears spreading through mainland Australians that their politics were about to be overrun with representatives from the island Nations. In response Menzies made two changes. First, that any new additions would receive the 'round up' rule in the House of Representatives providing they existed as a 'whole' nation prior (no 'splintering' grouped island states in an attempt to garner more political influence), but would only be represented by three new general Pacific Islander senators. Secondly, in a blatantly cynical move, Bob Menzies awarded two senators to a thusfar unrepresented territory - the Australian Antarctic Territory. With no permanent population in Antarctica, these were basically filled by the government's whim. Whilst particularly unfair, since the people who are IN Antarctica at any moment in time and are capable of voting there, do so at the Government's discretion, it's not technically unconctitutional since they are still 'free' elections otherwise.

The year is now 1955, Robert Menzies is still Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, under his hand he now looks to direct the country into a new era of private enterprise and self-sufficiency. His Liberal Party controls both the Upper and Lower Houses, albeit by a slim margin. Now is the time for growth. The time for Australia to spread its wings and grow beyond it's quite heavily regulated economy, the time for Menzies show his power and grow his popularity amongst the Australian people.

Government

House of Representatives:
301 Seats - Proportional to Population, with former island nations getting 'rounded up' in seats.

Populations at 1955:
Australia (mainland and Tasmania) - Roughly 9.25 million
New Zealand - 2.13 million
Papua New Guinea - 2.09 million
Fiji - 335,000
Solomon Islands - 102,000
Samoa - 94,000
French Polynesia - 69,000
New Caledonia - 68,000
Vanuatu - 55,000
Cook Islands - 16,000

Senate (Sixty seven senators in total):
Mainland Australia (6 WA, 6 SA, 6 QLD, 6 NSW, 6 VIC, 2 NT, 2 ACT) - 34 senators
New Zealand - 12 senators
Tasmania (generally views self as 'mainland') - 6 Senators
Fiji - 6 senators
Samoa - 2 Senators
Papua New Guinea - 2 Senators
General Pacific Islanders - 3 senators
Australian Antarctic Territory - 2 Senators

Precipice Of War: The Reboot of a Reboot

This looks interesting...

You might be getting an Australia.