Dr Archeville

Updated. Also added: April XX, 2009: Dark Star visits Eric "Malice" Micheals at Blackstone Federal Penitentiary. (Stars and Bars) May XX, 2009: Doktor Archeville visits Eric "Malice" Micheals at Blackstone Federal Penitentiary. (Stocks and Bonds)

Depending on when this happens, Dead Head would be interested. Carnie Folk are some of the few people he can mingle with ;)

.... SILENCE! Whatever format you wish. Could be a flashback to when you first put on the costume, how you felt when doing so, or to when you first decided to be a superhero. It could also be about your superhero name, which is a kind of mask.

We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! "We Wear The Mask," by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) FC:PbP is offering the community another "vignette" opportunity. If you'd like to read about our New Years Vignette exercise look here and here; info on our July 4th vignette can be found here, the Bloody Valentine/Friday the 13th one here, and the June Song vignette here. If you weren't around in those days (or even if you were), keep reading to find out more! Superheroes and supervillains are identified by their distinct costumes. For some, the costumes -- such as battlesuits or magical garments -- are the true source of their astounding powers. For others, the outfit has no intrinsic powers, but it's the symbolism in it and in the person who wears it that give it a kind of power. Costumes with masks can be even more iconic, due to the mystery associated with it. But we all wear masks, in one form or another. In fact, we all wear several masks in the course of a day -- you put on one face when dealing with your spouse in the morning, another when dealing with a supervisor at work, yet another when relaxing with friends. Most all of these masks contain elements of the real you, but only the ones you want certain groups to see. Changing your posture, your walk, your tone of voice and manner of speech, can all be used to alter your identity -- to a degree -- without masks or makeup. What masks do your characters wear, and why? This is obviously most easily applied to those with a Secret ID, or those with a distinct costume, but even those without one have some masks they wear. Who: Any player who is interested, for one or both of their characters. What: Write a one (1) page (single spaced) vignette about your character's costume/mask, or about the 'masks' they wear when interacting with others. Why do they wear what they wear? Was it something they made, or was it handed to them? Is it meant to evoke certain images (of animals, or a certain profession, or an ideal)? Is it worn to conceal your identity so villains cannot target your loved ones for retribution? Or to conceal yourself from some past misdeed for which you're striving to atone? Even if you don't wear a true costume or mask, is there anything about yourself that you hide from others? When: The deadline for submissions will be Saturday, October 31st by 11:59 PM EST (GMT -5). The vignettes themselves can take place at any time. Where: Anywhere. When you submit your vignette, please make a note clearly indicating in which forum it should be posted, as well as when it would be happening. Why: To enhance our community, to flex your writing muscles, to think more deeply about your character, and to earn a bonus PP for your character for the month of October. How: Once your story is finished and proofed, PM it to one of the Refs (AvengerAssembled, Ecalsneerg, Geez3r, MBCE, Sandman XI, or myself). When all the stories are in, one of our staff members will post them to the appropriate forums (which is why we need you to be sure to tell us where it should go!), and provide links to them in this thread. DO NOT post them in a forum yourself, otherwise it will not be counted for this exercise. Post here with questions.

"'Vinners' vas perhaps a poor choice of vords," Archeville conceded to Psyche with a small grin, "but you all seem to grasp mein point, vhich is enough." "Und, ja, cults of personality can be very powerful," he said, turning slightly to Ace, "a fact dat I, as a German, know far too well." Archeville chuckled a bit, then continued, "but de qvestion is, are dere vays dat dose can be used for de betterment of all? De individuals at de heads of such 'cults' do by definition haff strong personalities, vhich can make dem predictable, but such individuals are also inherently strong-villed, vhich can lead to unpredictability, especially if dey sense dey are being influenced by some outside force. Vhich is more effective, to convince de Freedom League or some other existing hero to endorse some plan of action, and dus encourage deir fans to follow suit? Or to engender some new face, von beholden to a group of... influencers from day von, insuring loyalty to de creators and deir particular vision? Or, to put it slightly differently, vhich is more effective, for a corporation to create a new mascot that vill work to vin de hearts und minds of consumers, or to convince a superhero to endorse deir product?"

Archeville replied in Russian. Doc lead Sam up a flight of stairs to a cozy kitchen, "do you haff a preference for food? Any allergies?" As Sam looked around, he noticed something: this was the first room in Archeville's home which had no robots scuttling about, or at least none he could see.

"I vould guess precious metals," Archeville answered, "silver und gold, or perhaps animal pelts." "Dere is some intelligence at vork here, dat intentionally brought us here, dough for vhat purpose I am unsure. De fact is happened so abruptly vould imply an element of urgency, yet none of us haff been approached by anyvon explaining anyding. Dis tournament," he gestured towards the assembled people, "may be a key element; de vons who brought us here may haff brought many others, und dey will only reveal de purpose behind de abduction to de vons who vin de tournament, who prove demselves vorthy of facing vhatever true threat remains." "I vas headed tovards de vons in charge here anyvay," he continued, "as mein earlier attempts at remotely viewing de castle vere blocked by someding mitin de structure itself. Curiously, as I made my vay here, no von seemed particularly surprised at mein appearance, so either I do haff some counterpart here, or de populace is used to having many, many 'strange visitors' popping in at all times."

So, sometime between Sept 23rd (a Wednesday) and Sept 30th (also a Wednesday)? The 26th or 27th would put it on the weekend, in case anyone has a Secret ID with a Mon-Fri job to hold down.

Now a Tier 2 NPC.

Doc had put on a pair of khaki pants and a plain white t-shirt. Rather than black rubber workboots, he slipped into a pair of soft deerskin slippers. When Sam asked for a shirt, the Doktor pointed to a nearby coat rack, which held five more identical sets of khaki pants and white dress and t-shirts. "Dey may be a bit tight on you, but I can have de tailor let it out if you need. Though ve may vant to vait on dat until after ve eat!" Doc lead Samael back upstairs, past a large and well-stocked gymnasium and and through a well-stocked beer/wine cellar staffed by dozens of tiny robots. "Please, help yourself to a bottle or three!"

The zombie follows as Phantom tracks the trails, sniffing at the air and the ground occasionally. Wow, this graveyard smells really nice! As far as graveyards go, of course. He sniffed more once they got to the fence, and stared off into the same pools of shadows Phantom focused on. "Somet'in' dread be t'rough 'ere," it said in a thick Hollywood Jamaican accent. "Truly dread." Confused stares prompted him to continue, without the accent, "been hearin' some splinter group of Samedi's worshippers are up to something nasty. Something nasty enough that it freaks out the 'mainstream' Samedites, somethin' goin' down soon. If his power's behind this, the ones doin' this could be creatin' and movin' through the darkness." "So... anyone know where the Samedites hang out?"

Party in the forest!

I was hoping Tempest and Dead Head would get to interact sometime. ;)

Geez, you still wanna work with this?

My schedule's starting to get a tiny bit less chaotic, so Dead Head could do this. If you're okay with it, we could do it in September (or earlier), on the day Dead Head first comes to Freedom City, as he approaches from the west.

No, largely b/c that's the sort of thing that would need the Selective Attack extra, not the Selective PF. You could of course get Emotion Control 7 (Extras: 35-ft. Burst Area, Selective Attack; Flaws: Limited to Fear Only, Range 2/Touch), a 1pp/rank power.

Alrighty, here's your first approval.

All of the above added. Also: September 17th, 2009: A dimensional breach opens at the Ashron Mall in West End. Archeville's sensors detect it, and the man who exits. Archeville goes to greet him, but in addition to "Dr. Annihilate" he also finds Captain Knievel and Emperor, a young malicious magnetic Metahuman! The muscular man-mountain Atlas also shows up, but the villains focus on Archeville, putting a severe hurt on him. In the fight, the villains escape. (Annihilation: The Rise of Dr. Annihilate!) Atlas carries Doc back to his Hanover home, where he is treated by his own hyperadvanced technologiy. Then sandwiches are eaten. (Brains & Brawn & Sandwiches)

Fluff & Crunch both look fine. I would only point out that his Acute Detect Life has no range, so 'he' can only use it on things in direct contact with 'him.'

As soon as Archeville's body touched the liquid, two of the spider-bots crawled up his body and wrapped around the lower half of his face. Tubes extended from their backs and connected to nozzles along the side of the tank, and Atlas could see they formed a type of breathing mask for Archeville. As those two robots did that, others were swarming around him, removing his clothing and tending to his wounds. In almost no time, Atlas could see definite improvement in Archeville's condition. He was fully alert, manipulating controls on the interior of the tank, and after a few moments the blueish fluid began draining away. The tank opened and retracted back into its recessed holding area, leaving him dripping wet... and completely nude, though there was enough random laboratory equipment to obscure Atlas' vision. "Dank you so much for bringing me here instead of a hospital -- I vould be laid up for days mit dose injuries under conventional care. But now, I must eat; von side-effect of de process is extreme metabolic-" He paused abruptly, then began again, "Vould you like to join me for a sandvich?"

"It vas... dis!" Archeville said as he pointed to the Star Trek-like transporter on the roof of Claremont's cafeteria. "It vas built here, by a student, but activated by somevon from de other dimension," the super-scientist explained, "by a Grue signal from dat other vorld. Did you encounter any Grue dere?"

First follow-up visit today. She's healing very well, almost no swelling. Stitches come out next Monday. And it turns out she got two Comic Book Science! procedures. In addition to bombarding her tendon with high-frequency radio waves, her tendon was also bathed in a healing salve... made from her own blood! (They removed some of her blood, centrifuged it, took her platelets and mixed them with a few other things, then poured the mixture over her tendon after bombarding it with electromagnetic energy.) The cats are less confused, and are getting back to their regular routine. Which involves sleeping all day and running around like lil' idiots all night long, keeping the wife up. Especially when they leap over her.

Hellion fixed, I think Eal caught Quark. Speaking of, Sand, might wanna put links to your chars back in your .sig.

Let's see what's rattlin' around in Dead Head's noggin. Knowledge (Arcane Lore) - 22 Knowledge (Popular Culture) - 14 Knowledge (Theology & Philosophy) - 25

:D Okay, after Doc's run-in with Captain Knievel & Emperor, he is Bruised x3, Fatigued, and Staggered. Luckily, his HQ has Healing 9 (Extra: Total; PF: Regrowth). Can't help with the Fatigue, but can help the others. First roll is a 17. That removes the Staggered and one Bruise.