Team UK

[Thevshi]

Well, we are now too UK focused to really be Team EU.  And as Ari states, Team UK is somewhat generic.  Naming teams can be tricky.  Crownguard?

[Thevshi]

Now some relationship map stuff:

 

The Ministry of Powers: As Ari said, it is likely the Ministry of Powers was connected with the old group, at least to some extent.  Perhaps even more if the group was a more official supergroup.  For Synapse, when her powers developed, the Ministry was involved in helping her learn to control them.

 

I have not come up with a name yet, but I was thinking that one of the members of the “old team†was also a mentalist, and helped Synapse learn to control her powers as well.

 

Finally, Synapse’s father, Lord Farrington, I was thinking he could be one of the few remaining hereditary peers in the House of Lords.  In that position, perhaps he is a supporter of the Ministry of Powers and the “old teamâ€?  Or, perhaps he has been more critical of them, using his position to scrutinize their work at every opportunity that arises? 

 

Not a lot at the moment, but a start.  I still need to clearly think some things through, including why Synapse is so rebellious!

[Ari]

Crownguard does sound nice and British! Good strong name.

 

One thing it does have is at least an implication they have stuff to do with the Crown or are sponsored/appointed by the royal family, and making them the premier superteam of Great Britain seems a little iffy in a 'killing Alpha Flight to demonstrate how bad stuff is' way. Yeah, I know they're most likely not dead.

 

I guess they could be an official Ministry group, like Thevshi suggests. That would make it pretty fitting. Crownguard, The Royal Squadron or something bombastic.

 

Okay then, map stuff!

 

Finally, Synapse’s father, Lord Farrington, I was thinking he could be one of the few remaining hereditary peers in the House of Lords.  In that position, perhaps he is a supporter of the Ministry of Powers and the “old teamâ€?  Or, perhaps he has been more critical of them, using his position to scrutinize their work at every opportunity that arises? 

 

 

That could be a great angle! Lord Farrington as the guy who liked and supported the old team, and is really suspicious of these newcomers who sweep in so soon after the beloved Crownguard vanishes. Sounds like the guy who would be even more sour about unaffiliated vigilantes. Like Osprey for instance, some creepy bastard sneaking around the docks and dangling smugglers from loading cranes.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Arichamus

[Tiffany Korta]

Personally I think Crownguard sound's like a brand of paint . Maybe we could have it both way's with a official name and a more tabloid name. I can see the Ministry would call it something like Team UK or Taskforce UK whilst the UK tabloids would give them a cheery nickname. If it's is a four man team it's probably be something Beatle's related like the Fab Four either that or something like the Fantastic Four, except that one's taken.

 

As for a the old team I have an idea for an old friend of Agnus's mum who had a very bad trip in the 70's. Agnus's mum then got her help from the Ministry and they've stayed in touch since. I was thinking psychedelic type illusions. Maybe called something like Lucy S Diamond? What can I say I'm having a Beatle's things today .

[Supercape]

NB: I am editting and updating the first post on this thread to keep up to speed on proposals and agreements. 

 

After discussion with Thev, I have added in "Headcase" an old team member. 

 

We are working on a premise that there is some project in the 70s/80s, height of the cold war, to increase the number of UK "Supers" as part of the cold war. Just that brush stroke now. Headcase was involved in trying to induce psionic powers in children, and Synapse is a success. He persuaded Lord Farrington he could do that to his children, and the Lord, wishing "the best" for his children, took up the offer. Working out with Thev other possibilities including ? other siblings and how they relate. 

 

Would Prof Blackpool be part of this? Did he experiment on Osprey?

 

No railroading you guys, just throwing stuff out to mull on. 

[Thevshi]

Okay, based on what SC mentioned above, I am adding Susan Farrington, Synapse’s older sister. Was also part of the project to create more supers, with Headcase inducing psionic powers in her as well. Unfortunately, things did not work out as well with Susan, who was eventually driven insane and has since been institutionalized.

I am thinking that what happened with Susan was a large part of what led Synapse to become so rebellious against her family.

I was hoping to include a visual example of the relationship map, but when I attached it, I was not able to view it

Edited May 17, 2013 by Thevshi

[Thevshi]

Okay, I put the visualization of what we have so far up in the media section.  It can be seen (thought it looks a bit squished).

 

I included things that have currently only been mentioned as possible, but not finalized, just to add more to it.  As you can see, such a map can get rather complex quickly.  (which is the goal!)

[Supercape]

Tiff:

 

My thoughts are that the beatles wrote the song about Lucy DIamond (although this is not known) rather than she is named after the song!

 

I like the idea of her. So she is a freind of Agnus mum, a sort of aunt to Agnes? what is the relationship? where is Agnes mum now. Is Lucy Diamond a member of the old fab four?

[Tiffany Korta]

Oh I like that idea SC . Agnus mum and dad use to be a hippies back in the day before settling down in London to raise Agnus, they now run a Occult/New Age bookshop.

 

Maybe all of the previous team were all result's of the project who went rouge and formed there own team?

[Supercape]

I think ye olde team would be best as part of the Ministry and Project Crown, or whatever the idea was!

 

Hippies I like. Perhaps they experimented with some high powered LSD made by Prof Blackpool?

 

Also: Awesome work on the map, Thev!

[Aoiroo]

Honestly superpowered LSD has a lot of unfortunate implications.

[Ari]

Well if I understand Tiff rightly it's not so much "The drugs gave her superpowers!" as "the drugs awakened her natural powers!", that right?

Let me add my voice to those complimenting Thevshi on the relationship map. Real nice work!

Yes, Osprey was experimented on by Prof. Blackpool. I shall name him...Alden Richards. A dockhand who worked in the Newham Docklands, with some training in the chemical and biological sciences who turned to that work to support his family. As briefly considered in Chat he served as a willing test subject for the Osprey Formulas, intended to turn a human into a superlative ambush fighter by increasing reaction times, enhacing the senses, hardening and lightening bones and vastly increasing muscle density and power. It was a smaller, much more focused arm of the Powers Project, with an emphasis on private researchers.

He left the tests after a friend of his who also volunteered was badly injured during one of the sessions, apparently at Alden's hands when the man broke his restraints in a haze of pain and total confusion. The antidote he started taking, to his shock temporarily increased his abilities instead of reverting him to normal, and the oppression of organized crime in his part of London gave him the motivation to turn from an ordinary citizen to the Osprey, the mighty hunter of crime and scourge of smugglers throughout the docks of Merry England!

Edited May 18, 2013 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

Roo> good point about LSD. This will need some thinking on to refine. Tiff, any thoughts? I am thinking there is some highly dangerous chemical out there which has hallucinogenic properties but also can fry peoples brains. People experimented with it in the sixties, but soon realised it caused damage. Maybe it unlocked occassional psychic visions or the like? 

 

As for Lucy Diamond, maybe she is a bit loopy, although super-powered. She was a difficult element in the team because her brain was fried, but the chemical (? virus? "Astral Juice"?) did unlock something in her. 

 

Ari> And the power to communicate with Osprey's too! Perhaps the freind who got accidentally killed should be fleshed out, in accordance with Osprey himself (and why did he agree to the experiment? or was he an unwilling victim? perhaps an ex-soldier or SAS? if so, there may be army buddies we could add to the map)

 

TiffK> Do you want Agnes mum added to the map alongside Lucy Diamond? what is her relationship with Diamond? How does it feed into the Brittania Spirit she has?

 

I have a few ideas about the last two members of the old team, but I will hold back a bit to see if anybody has further ideas. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Well it doesn't even have to be a drug, though it could be something she discovered when she dropped out in Goa a traditional Indian secret.

 

The way I think it happened was that Lucy S Diamond came along during the psychedelic age and for a while was the toast of the town having the right powers and comeing from the right town (Liverpool). Then when the psychedelic movement imploded and thing's got rough in the seventies she fell into obscurity. Then in the mid-eighties Geri Powell, Agnus's mum who was a new Age Traveller, came across Lucy Diamond who was all but burned out and helped get her back on her feet and back to being a hero. This all coincided, or she helped cause, the Second Summer of Love.

 

Not long after this Lucy Diamond joined the team and Geri met Winston Stone got married, had Agnus and eventually settled down. Probably when she joined the team she dropped the S from her name and operated as just Lucy Diamond from there on in. The two stayed in touch and Agnus often saw Auntie Diamond, though she probably didn't know that she was a Super until she was much older, maybe helping her out a little when Agnus became YB.

 

Agnus is quite close to her parent's, they know all about her being YB, so they would probably get involved if Lucy Diamond when missing. So yeah I think Geri Stone should go on the map.

[Ari]

The power to talk to fish eagles is definitely possible, Supercape! But I'd prefer to keep it a little more grounded. Though that makes things less fun...I'll work something out, edited the history to be a tad better(no death, so no involuntary manslaughter charges).

 

As for folks connected to him, TiffanyKorta was kind enough to let me know about the Owlman, and mentioned that it was in just the right time period to be part of the Powers Project. So: early in his career, Osprey encountered a strange creature with similar avian mutations to his, and after losing the brief battle learned that they were called Tylluan, and left Alden after charging him to 'be wary' and not to trust 'the real powers', leaving hints that he was a result of the Powers Project himself, and that something terrible had happened before vanishing into the dark, reappearing every few years to help or hurt Osprey, seemingly without reason. In his more lucid moments it seems he wants to "lead Osprey to the Sun" to test his mettle, though what that could mean is beyond him.

 

His pal, Eileen Rose, went on to join a special branch of the SAS dealing with powers, having had much more success with the Formula after recovering from her injuries.

[Supercape]

Im going to start collating all of this over the weekend. If anybody has any further ideas, sing out. I would be particularly interested in:

 

1. Roo's thoughts on any further interactions she has as its only the Professor right now. Perhaps an emphasis on her past. 

 

2. Tiff's thought son the origins of the Brittania force (in the context of the map)

 

3. Any thoughts on the other two "oldies". I have a few ideas but I would like you guys to have the stage. 

[Aoiroo]

Jasmine's past has a lot to do with the fact that she grew up more or less with her cousins, and her uncle in well, a ghetto area while her mother was getting her degree. Not much to do with Europe, the Professor was likely one of her favorites, or someone she used to check her notes on things like her various projects and her doctorate thesis (which in this case is on the expansion chemical she is marketing for crop dusting (the chemical she uses for her obscure, the one that can cover a city block with fog even though the amount used is what can fill a paintball).

 

I don't know a lot about Europe, so playing someone new to this sort of thing fits my abilities best.

[Ari]

For one of the two unknown NPCs:

 

Champion/Francis Jenne. A flying strongman with powers awoken by alien technology. In 1979, 25 year old Francis was caught in the middle of a bizarre attack on the coastal town of Whitby, when a long-dormant ship rose from the sea and tried to take it over. He and the other prisoners managed to win their freedom when local heroes attacked the ship, but in the struggle his body was flooded with radiation from the ship's bursting power core, his bloodstream filled with extraterrestrial minerals that gave him extraordinary power while he was exposed to them, but which left if he couldn't get near them after a period of days. Taking the name 'Champion' he flung himself into superheroics, operating solo for several years before being invited by the Ministry of Powers to head the new Team UK, who wanted a popular, photogenic and clean-cut English hero to serve as the group's face and symbol to the public. To sweeten the deal, they offered to give him greater access to the vanishingly rare substance that gave him his powers. During his time on the team he's clashed on several occasions with Headcase and Lucy Diamond, his idealism and forthrightness jarring badly with the pragmatic and reserved psychic, and the psychedelic Lucy's liberalism struck sparks with Francis' conservatism. That aside, the four heroes gradually got into a working relationship, respecting each others' abilities and nature as they grew closer, and saved each other from scrape after scrape.

 

EDIT: Changed name to Champion, no longer tied to Mastermind.

Edited June 3, 2013 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

Proposal for No 3 NPC: Rough draft up, feel free to suggest. 

 

Mr. Oak

 

A short and pudgy man with green skin, Mr. Oak appears to be half - plant. He carries a stout cudgel and has a friendly demeanour. 

He is not the brightest tool in the box (actually below average INT thanks to his plant brain) but he is long lived and wise. He is a pleasant man but defends England furiously. He is a stauch environmentalist, and this has caused some conflict with the Government and cities. His relationship to the ministry of Powers is therefore somewhat strained and conflicted (he is deeply patriotic but thinks the land is being ruined). 

 

Mr. Oak has a connection to the land of the UK. He had the Brittania spirit go back a long way. I have discussed this with TiffK and we worked out a connection between them, one she is sworn to secrecy with (to go on the map). 

 

I also have some secret relationships that Mr. Oak has (available if you want spoilers). 

 

? other relationships?

[Ari]

As per our discussion in Chat, SC, I'm revising Defiant's origin and so forth including them having a more active role in getting their powers. Keeping them as a Superman-esque idealist, however, it makes for a more interesting dynamic than if he's a faker.

 

As for Mr. Oak or Oak Kin as Gizmo punnily suggested, I'd say that's a pretty good character idea. For other relationships, how about he: distrusts Defiant because of the alien technology and minerals within him, enjoys Headcase's company due to considerable commonalities(keeping the long view, a measured and pragmatic approach to words and actions, etc etc...), gets along with Lucy Diamond similar to a calmly benevolent uncle and his visiting hyper niece and is very uneasy about the Powers Project both because of pollution caused by it and the dangers of giving people superpowers.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Arichamus

[Thevshi]

Ari, some of that about Mr Oak seems counter to what SC has already said about him.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Thevshi

[Ari]

....So it is. Edited the offenders. Sorry about that.

[Supercape]

I confess, whilst defiant is a good name in general, it is jarring quite badly for me, as it seems to go against an idealistic hero. Can we come up with an alternative?

For that matter, I don't particularly like mr. Oak or oak kin, and would welcome something green. However at least they don't jar.

Also, I got bad heatstroke so may be AWOL a day or two!

[Ari]

 

I confess, whilst defiant is a good name in general, it is jarring quite badly for me, as it seems to go against an idealistic hero. Can we come up with an alternative?

 

 

Well it does tie into a beloved(I think) national trait, doesn't it? I mean, that's why Gizmo suggested it! In that case I think it's quite appropriate for a British Superman to be called that.

 

Anyway, if it seriously does jibe that badly no reason not to change it! Aoiroo suggested Crossguard, which I'll keep on the side if the other candidate doesn't work, which is Champion. Nice and simple and descriptive.

Supercape, for the plant man hows about the Steward of Soil, or Richard Root?

 

So then, other relationship map details need to be worked out. Osprey/Alden has actually very few friends. Even at work he mostly keeps to himself and is standoffish to people, and in his course as a vigilante he rarely does much talking. The only exception is his fellow test subject and current member of the SAS Eileen Rose, who he trusts implicitly as a confidant despite her high-ranking position and placement within the Ministry, of whom he is deeply suspicious. Dawn Farrington is only known to him as 'that rich girl who's in the news sometimes', and is unaware of her superpowered other life. The old Taskforce UK is what he grew up seeing on TV and hearing about, and holds a place of honor in his heart as a symbol of(not really) normal people rising up and joining together to safeguard the world, with a strong admiration for Champion, who several times helped out near his neighborhood in Southwark.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Arichamus

[Tiffany Korta]

Well I feel that the team need's more gratuitous Welsh , how about y Dderwen? It basically mean The Oak and fit's some of his themes.