Deconstructed YA Sci-fi // Teenagers with Powers™
In a middle-class suburb in the midwest, a ragtag gang of misfits accidentally unearth a global conspiracy: Bodysnatching aliens. These extraterrestrial invaders have dominated earth in secret for thousands of years, and have maintained their rule by walking among their subjugated hosts in disguise, implanting subliminal messages to promote capitalism and warfare, which are really only part of a formula to keep their hosts alive and running for as long as possible. Just about every famous person ever, from The Beatles to Christ to Hitler, have been aliens in disguise, essentially playing roles that inspire everything from admiration to hatred, in order to instill beliefs that the parasitic invaders see fit. One question you could ask is "If they're trying to keep humans alive, why not reinforce messages of peace?". This'll be explained as Earth not being the first of their subjugated planets, and that warmblooded carbon-based lifeforms usually respond most predictably to greed. Thus, Capitalism was created!
These invaders live by implanting themselves in the ears of the host, usually by another controlled host or while the victim sleeps. Though they are vastly more intelligent than humans, capable of controlling bodies they inhabit and accessing host memories with psychic abilities, their physical forms are little more than maggotlike slugs that lack any sense but touch. As you might've imagined, a hideous spacefaring race who need to forcefully implant themselves in the brains of their victims to experience life have developed a pretty equal number of superiority and inferiority complexes, making them just irrational enough to make believable villains.
Our characters will be a group of teenagers. As you might've expected from every single one of my RPs some other stuff I've done, the RP itself will be based on character interactions, character relations, and character arcs that play out in a mostly episodic nature. For all intents and purposes, the characters will be walking 90's tropes who deal with interpersonal drama that plays an equal part in the story as their war against an intergalactic arm. I've been on a kick with literary themes and characters with multiple vague motifs and themes, so that might also be a thing. Expect obnoxious color coding.
If you couldn't tell already, I'm borrowing largely from two sources. Animorphs and They Live. They Live, because, conspiracy capitalism aliens. Animorphs, because brainslugs and teenagers with alien powers. Wait, what did you just say, Deadbeat? Do mine own ears deceive me? Nay. Teenagers with alien powers. They'll be bestowed by a dying member of a rival race to the bodysnatchers. If there's interest in playing an alien, we'll have a copilot survive or something, but they'll need to disguise themselves somehow. Maybe species disguises are a common thing in outer space. Anyway, the powers are still undecided, though I'll probably either go with general hancock-style flying brick superpowers, specific powers, or a shared power like the Animorph's morphing or The Power Rangers' suits. If anyone has any suggestions we can all agree on, I'm willing to hear 'em too.
Current Power Ideas
Flying Brick
An assortment of abilities including but not limited to: Flight, Super Strength, Super Toughness, and usually at least one of Super Speed, Eye Beams, Super Senses, or Super Breath. Part of the reason for the popularity of this power set is that it allows for a flexible variety of story situations that are easy to set up within relatively normal human definitions, albeit to a superhuman degree.
Powered Armor
Somewhere between The Power Rangers, Blue Beetle, and Iron Man. The characters will be given pseudosentient power suits to fight baddies that probably clamp over them with cool sound effects. Jetboots, laser cannons, possibly shoulder-mounted guns and whatnot. I'm drawing a blank as to how they can be different suits with different powers, so this option will focus combat more on strategy than special, personalized powers.
Morphing
Disguising as another species is a thing the invaders do, so it stands to reason that the heroes can do so too. This option, our characters will have an animal transformation power and the RP will more or less be "deconstructed animorphs", especially considering the timeframe. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I love me some merphs.
Psychic Powers
Don't let this dissuade you if you're really into the other options, but this one is my favorite. Our characters are gifted with ESP-style psychic abilities, and will probably get a little X-Filesy. Telekinesis, mindreading, subconsciously performing several manual tasks at once because it looks cool, etc. Think Akira, without the japanese apocalypse or biker gangs.
