Bringing the Fight from the Underground

[Shofet]

Okay, so Arichamus and I have come up with an idea for a superteam. This time would be like the Outsiders - a more underground group who tackle some of the more shadier elements of crime. The group's explicitly looking for people who have something like a monstrous appearance, or perhaps just a dark past they're trying to atone for. However, they must also have displayed in some way that they do, in fact, have some sort of moral fibre and are not totally psychotic. The group is looking for 4-5 members, two of those positions having been filled by the Penitent and Arichamus' character Wave-Eye. PLs remain largely unimportant, and minors will be considered, though preferably they should be turning 18 some time soon. No group member will explicitly be above the other, so there's a lot of team equality going on there.

Any suggestions by interested parties are of course, welcome.

[Raveled]

Starlight is Grue. So far she's avoided letting people know, but she's adventured with both Penitent and Wave-Eye, so there's some face-name recognition there, at least.

[Supercape]

I could possibly bring Synth into this, not sure if she is a perfect fit though. As you flesh idea out it may become more apparent!

[Cubist]

Are you sure you didn't have Jubatus specifically in mind when you and Arichamus came up with this concept for a hero group, Shofet?

Monstrous appearance: Check. In brute physical terms, Jube is largely indistinguishable from a large hunting cat.

A dark past they're trying to atone for: Check. Part of the reason Jube became a hero is because of an incident that occured not long after he took delivery on the permanent fur coat, an incident in which he thrashed the living bejeezus out of five thugs; at least one of said thugs came real close to dying in hospital…

Have some sort of moral fibre and are not totally psychotic: Check. Jube strives to avoid violence, has the proverbial Code Versus Killing, yada yada yada.

One thing Jube brings to the table, over and above the qualifications listed above, is that he's wealthy. He's no Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne, to be sure. But as one of the relatively few characters who even has the feat Benefit: Wealth, Jube is well suited to fund the needs of a small hero group.

What to call this group… hmm… let me offer up a few candidate names…

The Menagerie (this would be Jube's first choice)

Legion Étrangère

The Weird Ones

The Abnormals

You like? You no like?

[Shofet]

How about the Irregulars?

[Raveled]

Already got 'em. Kind of dead ATM, but already got 'em.

[Ari]

The Abnormals gets my vote, but I'm a sucker for obvious names like that.

Irregulars is taken by a PC Claremont team, Shofet. EDIT: Ninja'd by Raveled.

As another option, Monster Squad.

[Shofet]

Abnormals works. Anyone desperately opposed?

[Cubist]

Have worked up two different logo designs for "the Abnormals". If we decide to run with a different name, I can use these as templates for designs which use that different name.

Type A (w/ 'a' tweaked for clarity)

Type B

Preferences? Comments? Desired changes?

[Supercape]

Having had a little time to think about this, I don't think Synth is a good fit for this group. May tick one or two boxes, but no dark past, no monsterous appearance...

Best to bow out now, and wish you well!

[Ari]

Understood SC, and thanks.

Cubist, I'd say the first one looks better for 'logo' stuff. Though there's an 'e where I think you wanted an 'a' to be, just a heads-up.

Now, how do we get these folks together? Shofet, you mentioned in Chat you had an idea for a Shady Backer of some description?

[Raveled]

I'd like to have some moment where Starlight's Grueness is revealed, if she's going to be on the team. Just FYI for any planning.

[Shofet]

I could work with that, Rav.

Shady Backer is a possibility, yes. However, we could also have these guys get together out of a sense of "Well, if no one else will take us".

I'd like to get a group opinion, if possible.

[Raveled]

Well they don't really know each other, do they?

They could be investigating some things separately that all bring them to the same location. Then cue big fight, something important blows up, and they're framed for it (maybe because of their monstrous nature?). So now they have to Clear Their Name(s) and figure out what's really going on.

[Shofet]

A similar idea to that Arich and I were discussing, and it's essentially the same until the outcome - they're not framed, they've just made a major media enemy. Seeing that they work well enough together, they decide to form a team, all the while this particular media person paints them in the worst light possible.

A J. Jonah Jameson for the team, if you will.

[Raveled]

Could be interesting. Freedom City tends to love its heroes, though, so it might take some careful managing to make a smear campaign believable.

[Shofet]

Well, Bram's a guy who doesn't live anywhere, likes to drink and has a temper, all the while looking like a demon from Hell.

Wave-Eye is a fish-man with a dark past.

Jubatus is a cheetah

And Starlight... Might be the squeakiest clean one until the Grue thing comes out.

[Cubist]

The logo: [evil grin] It's an upside-down "e". So it ends up becoming a funny-looking "a"…

Getting the team together: Could be Jube's fault. He's rich, so the question of "what do I do with the bucks?" naturally arises. So he spreads the word that he's looking for other heroes to work with, and the few who actually respond are Wave-Eye and etc?

[Raveled]

That doesn't tie into them all being monsters, though.

[Cubist]

Have tweaked the 'e'-looking 'a' in the Type A version of the proposed logo. Have hopefully reduced the tweaked letterform's resemblance to an 'e' that the confusion will be minimized.

Jube as the catalyst for this team: Why, if Jube asks other heroes to band together with him as a team, is he only getting monster-type heroes? I'm thinking it's a combination of Jube (a) knowing the limits of his financial resources, and ( wanting to focus on 'freaks' like himself, who would be likely to be overlooked by the existing support structures for heroes. Or it could be the luck of the draw -- for whatever reason, those guys just happen to be the only ones who did say 'yes'.

Media campaign: It's worth noting that the setting already has a pre-defined "newspaper that slags on heroes", that being the Daily Herald. From pg. 44 of the Freedom City sourcebook:

Known as the most conservative paper in Freedom City, the Herald is a morning daily. It focuses on business and political news and its editorials support one right-wing cause after another. Due to its frequent hard-line editorial stances on crime and other issues, the Herald building and its presses and staff are favorite targets of some supervillains.

The publisher, Lana Loeb, uses the paper as her personal platform to sound off on a wide variety of topics, following the tradition set by her late husband and former publisher, Lester. The Herald has questioned Mayor O’Connor’s spending practices and the efforts of City Hall to come down on corruption in the construction industry.

The paper questions the actions of the Freedom League and other heroes almost daily. If they make a mistake, they can expect to read about it in the Herald the following day, alongside a scathing editorial. Johnny Rocket is a favorite target of Mrs. Loeb’s editorial, as she questions whether or not “a known sexual deviant should be held up as a role model for children.†Her paper reserves particular venom for the “lawless vigilantes†in Southside. “These so-called heroes are little more than armed thugs,†according to Mrs. Loeb, “who should be arrested and taken off the streets.â€

So.

We have the Herald, a media outlet with no qualms about slamming 'good guys' who aren't the right kind of good guys—and I do mean RIGHT kind of good guys. We have Jubatus, a very undiplomatic soul who looks like a friggin' animal and is, among other things, an unapologetic atheist. Since Ms. Loeb is already defined as hatin' on gays (i.e., Johnny Rocket) and poor people (i.e., the 'lawless vigilantes' of Southside, a neighborhood with a high level of poverty and etc), it would seem very much in character for her to get personally torqued off at 'that Godless freak' Jubatus. She could have regarded Jube as ignorable when he was just another independent hero, but when he becomes part of a team of heroes… particularly a team whose membership also includes a demon and a fish monster…

Yes? No?

[Ari]

A pagan Aztec fish monster, no less!

And yeah, the Herald was in fact the very outlet I and Shofet had in mind for the smear campaign to originate from, though preferably with some slight basis in perceivable reality to make it more believable for the average citizen to think ill of our gang of assorted monstrosities.

Jay being the catalyst for the band does make sense, though I dare say he'd first want to pretty harshly grill prospective members to see if they possibly meet his standards.

Tying into them all being monsters, we could just go the easiest route and have them blamed for something a villain they defeated did, with no real means of countering that claim besides their(discounted) word. Of course, the 'Clear our name' thing isn't very optimal either.

[Shofet]

I rather like the idea myself, though I do imagine that a very staunch atheist might butt heads with a very devout Episcopalian like Bram at times, though that would only make things more interesting

[Shofet]

So, mi amigos, when would you guys like to get this started?

[Ari]

What we've decided on(if that is indeed what we've decided on and haven't changed) should probably be set down here: the Meta-Grue has decided in his infinite WIS score that it would be a great idea to disguise himself as one of the more monstrous-looking heroes of the city, which has the benefit of putting greater suspicion on those he impersonates than if he made himself look like Doctor Metropolis or Raven. So anyway, he does this deed, attracts the ire of the monster heroes whose forms he uses, they can't very well draw upon much in the way of outside help, and team up to bring this fiend to justice.

That sound about right? If so, as soon as can be arranged is my vote.

[Raveled]

that gets my vote.