Natty

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

Red Robin #10 - Before the looking glass
Location - Gotham City, New Jersey.

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By the time Red Robin had taken himself to the skies, Gotham City had already fallen into chaos below him. The breakout at Arkham Asylum had thrown everything into disarray, with the HUD in his cowl buzzing with information more and more by the second. Emergency services were scrambling, as police transmissions, CCTV footage, and the occasional social media post flashed before Tim’s eyes, giving him a rudimentary view of the carnage as he swung back towards the Belfry.

Tim was already tired enough after his attempts to deal with Mr Freeze mere hours ago. His side still ached ever so slightly from the blast he'd received during the scuffle. He couldn't let that bother him now. He had a job to do.

Whilst a number of the escaped Arkham inmates were already finding themselves boxed in by the initial blockades set up by GCPD, from what Tim could see, a few had already begun to spread out around the city. Thankfully, none of these reports detailed anything too dangerous, with the majority of them already being followed up on. Tim wished he could do more himself, yet he knew that given the large scope of this problem, the best place for Red Robin right now was coordinating the rest of his “co-workers” from the Belfry. Someone needed to manage this mess, and he had the perfect tools for doing so. If not, then those hours of tinkering with the Bat-computer would’ve gone to waste.

Still, he felt guilty. What if his inaction led to someone getting hurt? Or worse?

That worry soon came into fruition, however, as the sound of gunfire rang out on the streets below him. Snapping his eyes away from the information feed, he quickly turned his attention to the ground, where a small skirmish was currently taking place. Adjusting the swing of his grappling hook, the vigilante landed elegantly atop a fire escape, giving himself the space to take in everything before him.

Deever and Dumfree Tweed, two cousins with an uncanny resemblance to one another, had plagued the streets of Gotham for years. They weren’t big names within the criminal underworld, with the two often finding themselves working as muscle for hire for a number of Gotham’s worst. Strong and durable, the two were the perfect enforcers. It was during their time under the Mad Hatter, Jervis Tetch, that the two began to model themselves after Lewis Carroll's Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Whilst that partnership had ended long ago, the two cousins still carried that moniker, continuing their schemes in matching outfits reminiscent of the Alice in Wonderland characters.

Today, those flamboyant outfits were replaced by the orange jumpsuits of Arkham Asylum.

The duo stood boldly within the smashed in window of a storefront, firing out wildly as the street before them. Two police cruisers, now riddled with bullet holes, sat clumsily across from them, as their occupants hid for cover behind.

It was clear the two weren’t being apprehended again without a fight. What more, Tim knew that if he didn’t get involved soon, that fight would ended up much bloodier than it needed to be.

Gritting his teeth, Red Robin swung down into the fray.

Natty's place for storing character sheets because that seems like a good idea

This may look familar...

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

M A G I K

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^{_{I L L Y A N A R A S P U T I N A ♦ E X - D A U G H T E R O F B E L A S C O ♦ W A R D O F T H E S O R C E R O R S U P R E M E}}

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

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^{"For many years a man named Belasco tried to bury me. But I demanded to grow."}

At the age of six Illyana Rasputina found herself taken from her comfy home at her family's farm in Russia, and transported to the fiery hellscape that is the realm of Limbo. There she found herself imprisoned by the man known as Belasco, who claimed her as his daughter. There she spent the next seven years of her life, with her tormentor turning Illyana into his cursed weapon. He trained her in the arcane arts, corrupting her soul and drawing her deeper into his clutches. His downfall came however when he attempted to teach her the art of creation magic. Illyana's own life force energy formed the Soulsword, a powerful weapon that gave Illyana enough power to use her sorcery to escape from Limbo and return to the mortal world.

As a teenager raised in the depths of purgatory, Illyana struggled to readjust to life, turning away from her family, as well as other mutant safe-havens, and venturing off on her own. During this time, she caught the attention of one Stephen Strange, this realm's Sorcerer Supreme for the last 15 years. Having traced her from the magical energy she had been exerting, he took her in, giving her a home at the Sanctum Sanctorum. There she became his ward, honing the magical abilities Belasco had so brutally engraved into her. She sheathed her Soulsword, no longer needing the blade, and instead formed a new extension of her soul; the Soulstaff.

She has been in Strange's care for a few months now, with the Sorcerer Supreme only recently deciding to begin to bring her along on some of his mystical cases.

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

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I'm aware I've done this before, but I do plan to take this concept in a slightly different direction this time. I want to focus a bit more on the dynamic of Magik and Strange, with the duo working on a series of magical cases, which can allow for some potentially fun collaborations with other players. Given Magik's status as a mutant, I also hope I can collaborate with some of the other X-Men players in the future.

Following are the key characters I intend to make use of:

♦ Doctor Stephen Strange: The current Sorcerer Supreme, Strange became a surrogate father and teacher to Illyana after her time in Limbo, helping her hone her magical abilties.

♦ Wong: Doctor Strange's loyal assistant, Wong runs and cares for the Sanctum Sanctorum. This loyalty extended to Illyana once she made the Sanctum her home, and in time a friendship between the two blossomed.

♦ Belasco: A being of pure hate, Belasco is the ruler of Limbo and the being who trapped Illyana there for the majority of her childhood.

Following are characters who whilst I am planning on using/interacting with, I am by no means claiming as my own:

♦ Piotr Rasputin AKA Colossus

♦ Megan Gwynn AKA Pixie

♦ Parker Robbins AKA The Hood

More to follow...

S A M P L E P O S T:

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It's on it's way I swear

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

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This section is not necessary, but a procedural listing of your linked posts will make it much easier and more convenient for all involved.

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

@TGM @ever faithful I'm aware we've been awkwardly stuck in this collab for months now. Would you be cool with me wrapping it up in a post, with Tim calling for the two Robin's to escape after hearing word of them needing to help with the Arkham breakout going on?

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

The question remains, however...what are you looking for from a Batman/Bruce Wayne in this setting? What weight does he carry in your stories, and what arcs and character moments are needed from him? MB was approaching an old Batman grappling with the physical and mental consequences of aging, and I'm not against a Batman who is significantly more progressed in his vigilante career.

@Roman

Apologies for the late response!

My version of Tim is currently at a crossroads where he's either going to continue his life as a vigilante and build himself up to being more of a larger figure within the city such as Batman himself or move away from the vigilante lifestyle altogether in lieu of helping the world in other ways. As such, I guess I need a Batman who's prepared to give out some good ol' fatherly advice. Also, one who's hopefully ok with having Tim going around playing with the Batfamily computer network constantly.

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

Hey all, just wanted to do a role call for some of the folks I haven't heard from. Would like to ideally have a bit of a headcount to better plan the event and update the roster.

@Lord Wraith

Been busy but I'm happy to try and keep going with Tim. That said, I believe I'll probably drop Red Ant for the foreseeable future; I do like what I had planned, and may revisit the idea in the future, but I don't think I have the time for 2 characters right now.

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

Red Robin #8 - An Icy Recovery
Location - Snowy Cones Ice Cream Factory, Gotham City, New Jersey.

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Tim had expected the initial shot of Mr. Freeze's freeze gun, readying himself to leap back into a flip, his body arching over the ray of frost. Unfortunately, his jump landed him in the perfect spot to be hit by Freeze's second shot, with his left side erupting into searing pain as the cryothermal energy hit him. He found himself flying backward from the blast, tumbling down onto the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Damian charging forward, sword in hand. However, he was in too much pain to focus on that fully.

This had been his fault. He'd tried and failed to reason with the man. He thought that bringing up Nora would've made his stop. Instead, it simply made him more irrational. How could he have been so naive to think that they could've just waltzed in and Mr Freeze would've accepted their offer of help? He was way too egotistical for that. So they'd have to help another way.

Letting out a grown, his hand moved to his torso, where a large chunk of ice currently resided. Even with his gloves, it was cold to the touch, with any slight movement of it causing the pain he was experiencing to temporarily skyrocket. Thankfully his suit had been designed for such occasions, with the insulation within the padding having been tested again such attacks. This meant that the cyrothermal blast at least wasn't fatal, just extremely painful.

Gritting his teeth, Tim's hand moved further down his body, before clicking a small switch within his utility belt, before reaching for a batarang. Immediately Tim felt a rush of warmth throughout his body, as the inbuilt heater churched into life. It was lightweight, so not the most powerful of Tim's suit modifications, but it did the job.

Managing to prop himself up with his elbow, he used the projectile to chip away at the ice, before taking a look at his surroundings.

As he had briefly seen beforehand, Damian had engaged their enemy immediately. The way he moved, dodging and weaving to avoid the blasts of ice launched towards him, was almost beautiful. Tim really had to commend the kid. He certainly knew what he was doing.

Feeling more confident with their situation, his eyes drifted from the skirmish before him to the now open door to Freeze's lab. Just within, he could see the brightly lit screens of the mad scientist's computer system; the home of all of his research.

As a smile set across his face, Red Robin chiseled one last chunk of ice off of himself before charging forward.

Natty's place for storing character sheets because that seems like a good idea

B L A C K A N T
B L A C K A N T

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"Any problems?"

"Well I wouldn't say problems. More

"Is that a finger?"
"Did you chop off his fingers?"
"No no no. Just one of them."

"Why on earth would you do that? You absolute moron?"

"Christ, I'm sorry! I forgot the scanner."

"That's really messed up, dude."

"Urgh. Fine. Well in that case we're doing it tonight." "Get your shit together boys, we're robbing S.H.I.E.L.D."

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

Apologies for those waiting on me; I'm no longer working from home and my company's building has the site blocked.

Hoping to get back on top of things this weekend!

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

B L A C K A N T
B L A C K A N T

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If there was one thing that Eric O’Grady was good at, it was making the wrong decision. His life had been full of such occurrences, from deciding to order burritos the night before his childhood friend’s Bar Mitzvah, to stealing a prototype Ant-Man suit, and to agreeing to sign up with the Avengers. The former had meant he had missed the big event, leading to Chris McCarthy getting with his teenage crush, Veronica King, before he had even gotten the chance to ask her out himself. The latter had resulted in his untimely death as his body was brutally pummeled. Both events were equally impactful to Eric’s life, and where the robotic copy of his mind drifted to whenever he found himself contemplating his choices.

It was where the mind of the Life Model Decoy of Eric drifted to now as he found himself shrunk down inside the wiring of this apartment’s security system. This current job was probably one of the riskiest he had undertaken since donning the Ant-Man suit all those years ago. And honestly, he wasn’t entirely sure if it was worth it.

He moved quickly, yanking wire after wire from where they found themselves soldered. The creator of his suit would probably have controlled a swarm of crazy ants to do this job for him – also known as Paratrechina longicornis apparently, according to the Wikipedia entry Eric had glanced at a long time ago - however, despite having ‘Ant’ in his name, Eric was never a fan of using the critters. The bastards creeped him out. Besides, the helmet needed to send out his brainwaves to work and given that Eric was now a walking tin can in a skin suit, brainwaves were rather hard to come by. On the bright side, the walking tin can aspect of his new “life” did come in handy every now and then, with Eric having downloaded the schematics of the security system into his mind a few hours prior.

With a solitary beep, the green LED lights of the security system's control panel flashed red momentarily, before fading. He was in.

A smile forming beneath his mask, the Black Ant squeezed his way out of the cheap plastic coating and out into the apartment proper, looking down upon the monstrous room now at his disposal.

Well, monstrous for his currently reduced size. It was actually a fairly mediocre room, with a small kitchenette spreading around one half, whilst the other was filled with a dingey couch opposite a flatscreen TV. The couch was currently occupied by a middle-aged man, who, given the snores, was currently fast asleep.

Pot-bellied and balding, Billy Koenig, was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He had been one of Eric’s supervisors during his time at the organization. A stickler for the rules, and a massive pain in Eric’s ass. From what he had been told, since his departure, Koenig had risen through the ranks, now finding himself working directly under the Director himself. It was a decent role, but if an apartment like this was the reward for years of service at one of the most important intelligence companies in the world, Eric was glad he had dipped from that life.

That was one good decision at least.

Leaping down into the room, the Black Ant shifted back to his full size, his eyes fixated on his former boss through the lenses of his visor, as his hand moved to one of the pouches on his utility belt.

He wasn’t here to kill the man, not that Eric would’ve been against such a job. No, instead he was here to rob him. Well, rob parts of him, to be precise.

Removing a small metal device from one of his pouches, he leaned over the sleeping man, his body moving as silently as he could will it to. Steadying his hand, he moved it to Koenig’s face, where as carefully as he could, he lifted one of his eyelids. Ignoring the disturbing nature of the blank pupil before him, he clicked a button on the device in his other hand, spurring it into life. The tip of it spun, as the numerous cameras within each of its stems began to flicker.

Scanning Koenig’s optical biometrics took longer than Eric would’ve liked, with the mercenary expecting the man to wake from his slumber at any second. Finally, however, he was done, with the device shutting down as quickly as it had started, with Eric let the eyelid close.

Now all he needed was the Agent’s fingerprints and he could leave the way he came.

He reached back into his pouches, where he began to rummage for the fingerprint reader he had bought. His hands moved back and forth within the pocket, before quickly moving to the next, and the next, with each search becoming more and more frantic. That was when the realization hit him.

He had forgotten it.

“Shit.” He mouthed the word silently under his helmet as the Black Ant stood back in disbelief.

How could he be so stupid? Why hadn’t he doubled checked his equipment? He shook his head disappointedly as he racked his brain for an idea, or even for just an excuse for when he returned to base empty-handed.

Landing his eyes on Koenig’s knife block on the kitchen counter, Eric O’Grady let out a sigh, before stepping towards them.

Another item to the list of bad decisions.

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

I have something I want to work on App wise but I'm going to sit on it as I don't have the time. How does everything think this is going? I know the pace has slowed but I think we're at quite a healthy place right now.

@Sep

I think it's going ok! While it is slowed, the quality of the stuff coming in currently is great! Looking forward to writing more myself in this coming week!