Hello. I am really interested in this Role Play and would like to give it a shot if there is still room. I have actually created a character, but I need to know a few things before I can post him, to see if changes need to be made.

First off, do humans know of other species? Or is the existence of other species considered top secret by the government?

And would it be okay with one more non-human character since there is already one in the rooster?

Thank you ^^

Well since we already have one non-human, it's safe to say that the existence of non-humans are common knowledge at this point. As for another non-human character, it depends. Is it a humanoid with non-human features (like wings etc, like the one already submitted) or is it something completely non-human like/alien? Cause having another humanoid would be kind of meh, but an alien being (and I mean alien as in different too humans, not an actually alien, though that would be cool too) would be interesting to include.

It's humanoid and looks pretty much human with one or two distinct features but I am not married to idea. I can make another character ^^. I have a human with a power in reserve so it's all good.

That's cool too, and it's not a definite no either so if I was you, I'd just post both characters. That's something I should mention, if you guys want to submit multiple ideas that's fine as well. I'll pick whichever one fits best, based on my own opinion and I'll ask everyone else involved as well

Alright. I'll post both once I am completely done with the sheets.

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Another character chosen

I find that this is an interesting character, but having one non-human/ancient mysterious race kind of situation might be a little repetitive. Like, a lot of the interactions will be coming into cultural barriers and dealing with the fact that they aren't humans in a human dominated society, meaning that they might start to seem like the same type of character at certain points. I like the character overall, but I'm just worried that this character and the other non-human will fall into the same scenarios, making it a little bland.

However, I did say I would bring other's people consideration into this, so for everyone else interested in the RP, what are your opinions on this character? Should we keep it, or have him submit his other character?

Personally, apart from them both being non-human characters, I find them quite different in concept overall, and do not think it would pose much of a problem to have them both. I think Atrayen would provide a broader perspective of the universe as well, hinting towards actual relations between human and non human races beyond mere individuals. In typical stories with settings like this, you always just see one character from another race acting as a hero for a people rather than any actual discourse between the two cultures, aside from the occasional aquaman UN joke. Having an isolated species with real, albeit scarce, interaction with the actual human population seem like it would make the narrative much richer by its presence alone.

You make a good point, I never even considered that. I was only thinking small picture, while you were working with like, the sistine chapel size painting...You get my point. So unless anyone wants to provide a counter point, I actually pull back my previous statement and think this character should stay.

Yes, having two characters being representative of similar concepts has both up an down sides and, while I agree with Cryyptic's argument as well, I don't think it completely nullifies your points, Phantom.

Firstly, without going into much detail for the sake of retaining character mystery, the whole race thing was going to be a big deal for my character and a central point of her development and I do feel like having another weird creature from an isolated culture would impose on that and I do feel that, as Phantom said, we could be dealing with very similar situations. I know that Cryyptic said that our characters aren't similar except for them being non-human and I agree, however, from the human's side, they'd be much the same.

Additionally, Atrayen's arch nemesis is rather similar to certain aspects of what I had planned for my character's past, which would indeed be bland.

Looking on the bright side, though (I mean seriously, virtually anything can be made to work in Rp land) depending on Atrayen's general demeanor and opinion regarding humans, I could see our characters being interesting foils. I can see Aglaia's part in Atrayen's pursuit of his tribesman being quite interesting and I'd be interested to see how our characters react to the same situation. For example (a question for Shard) what would Atrayen do if he and Aglaia were walking down the road and someone started abusing them? Because Agalaia would probably try and rip the guy's head off. If Atrayen had a cooler head, then their interactions could be interesting, or maybe they'd feed off of each other's spitefulness, I'unno, I'm just kinda brainstorming and blabbering a bit but I can totally see interest in the fact that our characters are so different and yet Atrayen and his people could be facing similar issues to what Aglaia's people faced centuries ago and how different (or not) people are.

Then there's the fact that, if this world is indeed like DC, then there's all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures running around heroing and it could lead for interesting development for Aglaia to see the unity. I also don't think Atrayen's presence would interfere with her feeling isolated given that they still can't speak english and I think that the assumption that they'd be buddies just because they both aren't human could leave certain parties very offended.

So, anyway. I guess I stand a bit biased towards my character in preferring that a less similar character was used but, especially if nobody else has a problem with it, I won't kick up a fuss, I'm sure we'll work it all in.

I guess we could both post a second character, leaving Phantom to choose the best combination of the four, but again, if you've dropped the issue, I'm fine with us both just playing who we want to play the most ^_^

I'm glad that everyone is being so civil about all of this, makes my life easier, as well as everyone's life too. So, we have good cases for both sides, and if doesn't trouble either party involved, I would like to see concepts for second characters. They don't have to be fully fleshed out, just a bare bones idea of what the character is and does as a hero. Enough to give us an idea of how they'd work in this RP.

However if you don't want to shard, that's fine. I want to try and keep a calm environment without forcing anyone to do anything as long as it doesn't conflict with the rules previously established.

A bit off topic, but I liked Sammy (Confuzzler's character) quite a lot, too. I think she's cool even without her powers, where a lot of the time, superhero types are only interesting because of their powers. I quite liked Knightmare, too, I think we're getting a neat mix of characters.

I will try my best to get a simplified CS for another character out ASAP. It's just that it's the weekend for me which, as I mentioned back in the interest check thread, is not really a good time for me to get anything done with a computer. It's rare that I'd even be able to pop in to do these little OOC posts but I will definitely have something posted by the day after tomorrow.

EDIT: And yes, it's great to see everyone discussing things so thoroughly and with such civility. It's very exciting that these issue are actual points of conversation, means people are thinking about their characters and the dynamics.

I think that has a lot to do with you too, Phantom as too many GM's, no matter the rules and stipulations they put down before hand or claims they make regarding characterization being a focus, just willy nilly accept the first five applicants without question.

I have a good feeling about this Rp.

I can create a draft for another character, there is no problem there.

However to answer your question DancePants, Atrayen would keep a cool head because many of his actions are based on humanities view of his people as he acts much as an emissary. In many ways, he is the face of his tribe and thus he would think carefully before acting. While he is relatively new to human lands, he still knows the language fluently and understands their culture about as much as a person from one country knows the culture of another without having lived there for too long. ^^

Name: Kevin Miles

Alias: Paladin

Age: 21

Gender: Male

Personality: Ever since childhood Kevin has been a rather impulsive person. With little else to care for, he pursues his own goals with little regard for the future as he lives in the here and now. Kevin’s an adventurer and lives for the thrill, actively seeking out danger and excitement. He is a kind hearted individual but can be very sarcastic and enjoys joking a lot. Overall Kevin is a very laid back person though below this outer shell he displays extreme loyalty to the few people close to his heart.

Kevin has a paralysing fear of spiders and loves jewellery and accessories. One can never go wrong in getting him a bracelet or two when a present is called for. He is a very huggable and loving person who seems to have little to no knowledge of personal space.

Persona: As Paladin, Kevin's personality shifts towards an honourable knight. He turns serious, chivalrous and values honour highly. This is one of the reasons to his hatred for firearms, there is no honour in them.

Appearance: Kevin looks like a rather everyday person. He stands at 5’8” with dark brown hair falling down to his neck and bangs stretching down across his forehead. Without direct light, his hair would look black as night. A pair of light brown eyes rests above his nose and he would be considered a rather scrawny individual whom would do well with ‘some food and training’.

Kevin is most often seen in a pair jeans, sneakers, a black tank top and several leather bracelets across his right forearm with a single rainbow coloured one sticking out more than the other brown and black ones. On his left forearm he wears two black leather bracelets. It is not uncommon to see him wear a bandana consisting of a thin scarf life material with small golden chain of jewellery stretching out across the band.

Kevin’s overall appearance would point him towards the middle eastern part of the world, Egypt in particular. He changed his name for personal reasons, mainly to escape a complicated family life.

Costume: Kevin’s attire is a rather simple outfit consisting of a scarf that covers his shoulder and top part of his torso as well as a hood over his head. Below his hood he wears a sleek ivory mask protecting his identity.

Covering his body, Kevin wears a white coat with a white set of pants and knee high white, protective boots. This rather action movie inspired outfit gave him the name Paladin. Around his waist he wears a set of black belts with a sword hanging down his left side. His sword is a simple yet elegant straight long blade like that of western knights. The weapon has a story, but Kevin seems slightly reluctant to tell it.

Powers/Skills: Since childhood, Kevin has possessed a frame that’s rather unchangeable. He cannot gain weight, cannot build visible muscles and apparently seems rather scrawny. This makes it interesting then how his mutation grants him super human prowess. Kevin possesses strength, speed, agility, resilience and reflexes far above the average human but it has it’s limits.

Kevin’s strength is measured to the level where he is able to punch through a wooden wall with ease. He cannot do to the same to steel and such however, but he has been seen to be able to dent it. When it comes to speed, Kevin has displayed quickness rivalling that of a speeding car, but then, it depends on the car. He cannot outrun a racing car even if he tried. Due to his super human agility and training, Kevin has displayed immense acrobatic abilities and his reflexes makes him a very vigilant combatant. Finally, Kevin’s resilience stretches as far as bludgeoning damage. Getting hit will hurt, but his body can withstand basic punches and heights. Any bladed or piercing weapon will damage him just the average human being.

Rise to Fame: Kevin was merely at the right place at right time for fame to have struck. That day he had decided to buy himself a birthday gift. As per usual, Kevin stood with his hands in his pockets and an iPod playing in his ears as he was waiting for his turn in the jewellery shop.

A set of four men casually walked into the small store before pulling their guns, told everyone to get down and started the heist. It was rather late that day, and the shop would close only half an hour later. Either the men had miscounted or this was easier than a sneaking mission.

Due to the music blasting in his ears, Kevin only noticed the commotion as everyone else in the store started to panic and got down on the floor. He blinked in confusion, took off the headset and turned to see a gun pointed at his forehead. “Are you fuckin’ deaf, kid?” The grunt took a step forward and pressed the barrel against Kevin’s skull.

“Oh, sorry…” It was a rather exciting situation to say the least and Kevin couldn’t help but smile, albeit nervously. His heart was beating fast and he knew that the next few seconds would decide his fate. He could either do as the men kindly suggested or fight back. The latter was a stupid choice, but Kevin was never really a smart person.

With the gun pressed against him, Kevin quickly disarmed the man the with a powerful kick sent him into the other three standing my entrance. Before they were able to comprehend what had happened, Kevin dashed forth and delivered a few powerful strikes to knock them out before anyone else got hurt. He stood shivering in both excitement and fear before he dropped down to his knees. This was it, the excitement he was craving. It didn’t take long before the police came and Kevin handed over the criminals, however the mere feeling of knowing that he could deep destroy them at any moment was an incredibly scary and fantastic realisation. ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ is something constantly said by many but at that moment, he truly understood what it meant.

Arch Nemesis: Kevin is not the only one in his family with powers. In fact, he got the powers from his mother who possesses the very same set of abilities, albeit much more powerful. Kema, Kevin’s mother, trained him in martial arts and the usage of his power soon after he could walk and picked up the role of mentor. As the years passed, she turned darker in her ways and her teachings leaned more towards indoctrination than encouragement and Kevin, Majid at the time, noticed this slow progression towards something else, something darker.

It turns out that his mother was preparing her son for a place in a coven for equally powerful individuals possessing abilities much like Kevin and his mother. Kevin played along for a while until he was able to manage further studies of this coven and found out their villainous ways and power hungry struggle. Unable to accept this, Kevin grabbed the sword his mother had given him and escaped the coven’s clutches. He is now hunted by their wrath. While their first act would be to bring him back to their ranks, killing him is an equally valid plan Kema would be on the front of.

Kevin never knew of any other family except his mother, and was never told of his father.

Personal Arc: The coven would find Kevin and persuade him to return, or kill him. The latter is the most expected outcome as the young man would have no desire to return. Kevin has little chance against his mother but he knows that an inevitable fight will eventually come to pass.

I like the character, especially the realistic spin on ice powers (I mean why didn't ice man ever just smash the guys he freezes and end crime forever? lol) Still, I want to see DancePants' other character before making any final decisions on this.

Thank you ^^

Quick note here, I'm still interested in joining in! Working on my guy at the mo' but it should be done soon.

Coolio, thanks for the udpate

Name: Elijah Booker
Alias: Rat-Catcher, though the use of the ”Rat” part seems to have lessened over the years.
Age: 28
Gender: Male

Personality: Elijah is a calm man, and the kind who seems to seek comfort instead of adventure and new sights. It's almost as if the idea of changing environments scares him, preferring to stay safe at home instead. Elijah isn't the most subtle if he finds someone even a tiny bit aggravating, preferring brutal honesty to get his opinion across. He hopes for as much honesty from others, though as he's grown up, he has realized that expecting it is asking too much from most. Slow to trust, Elijah generally assumes the worst from people until they prove him wrong.
A neat freak, Elijah generally avoids less than clean environments and is almost obsessive about keeping his house and his body clean. Especially animals seem to disgust the man, and for the most part, animals don't seem to like him much either. That is to say, with the exception of rats.

Persona: Rat-Catcher is a twitchy son of a bitch. His head doesn't seem to stop moving, nearly constantly looking out for danger, a far cry from his much calmer civilian counterpart. The bluntness is still there, but it's either softened by kind words or made harsher by sharp, doubtful questions. This all seems to depends completely on the mood of the rats he's connected to.

Catcher is also unwilling to touch people. What's the point of saving someone's life if you're going to infect them straight after?

Appearance: 6'4'' and in good physical condition, Elijah doesn't really seem like the kind of guy who spends a lot of his time sitting inside. The dark circles around his brown eyes tell of long, restless nights. His curly hair is about as dark as hair can get, and is generally kept short. In general, prefers comfort over style, and he's stingy about using his money, leading to most of his clothing being bought from the flea market. Well hidden under his long sleeves are scarred bites and scratch marks from the early days, together with a few battle scars. He is of mixed race, his father African American and his mother of Finnish descent.

Costume: Elijah skipped on the fancy outfits, mostly out of practicality. He doesn't need much more than a dark hoodie, a pair of loose jeans and thick, durable pair of boots. A warm, comfortable jacket's added into the outfit during colder days of the year. All these are easy to replace if necessary. His hands are covered by thick, bite resistant gloves. All these are often burned after a few months use. As such his outfit isn't as consistent compared to some of his fellow heroes. The only truly consistent thing in his outfit is his gas mask, which works as a way to create paranoia and fear in his opposition and at the same time keeps his face protected from any possible nasty germs he might come across.

His weapons selection is limited to an army knife as he usually finds that he doesn't truly need them. A few quick strikes to all the wrong places take most people down easily. If not, a horde of rats surely will.

Powers/Skills and how they came to be: Part of a private special operations team, Elijah was ”offered” the chance to join into a program that were testing the ability to control animals in order to gain an advantage during field operations. His memories of the time vague and utterly terrifying.

What Elijah knows for sure is that he is undeniably connected to rats. It isn't anywhere near as bad as it sounds. Not only is he able to control rats, he's able to see, smell and hear what they do, making them a great help when looking for people in need and keeping himself safe. He is also able to sense their thoughts, though most of these are just a jumble of instinctual, raw feelings and nothing more. Elijah has noticed taming rats seems to lead to a bond that lasts longer and is more stable, and he can perceive their senses from further away. Elijah hasn't been able to create many such bonds with rats, as he views owning rats to be an easy way to be linked to his alter-ego. Therefore he usually finds himself using wild rats, which gets difficult when controlling a larger mischief. The larger and wilder the pack, the more energy and concentration controlling the rats takes.

While he can hold his own in a fight, Elijah prefers surprise attacks and quick take-downs to long, tiring fights. Thanks to the many eyes guarding his back, the man is rarely surprised and almost always ready for what's coming.

Rise to Fame: Elijah's rise to fame didn't come with the fall of the corporation. Instead, it came afterwards, when he was forced to fight one of the other test subjects involved in the program. He was the witness to his captains and closest friends seemingly sudden mental breakdown, the man suddenly considering humanity the lowest of all creatures. Elijah had always believed Cole to be a good man, and tried to reason with him, but ultimately he was forced to take his friend down, leading to a famously nasty fight in one of the city malls.

This was just the start, more of a quick push that got his hero-name out and helped him find a new passion in a new occupation. The Pied Piper that saved the mall turned into Rat-Catcher, which over the years transformed into the hero Elijah knows as himself.

Arch Nemesis: Elijah may have won the battle, but Cole, now known as the Tarantula, has become a well known villain in his own right. As the name tells, Cole controls spiders, and has honed his body to perfection thanks to continuous physical training.

Personal Arc: The public image of the company he worked for might have been destroyed, but the experiments are still running. The mind-control program that started with animal control has evolved further, now testing out the possibility of controlling more complex organisms than bugs and rats. It won't take long till they get to humans.
_

There we go. Uh, couldn't come up with a name for the evil corporation of evil, but it'll come to me after a good nights sleep. Every superhero story needs an evil corporation of evil? Anyway, there's a lot of great friggin' competition here, so I'm not sure if I can get in, but it was fun writing this no matter what the case is. I'm also very sorry for any possible typos. It really is just silly late in here and I might have missed a lot of things. Will fix 'em in the morning though, if necessary.

Haha! Way to take the rat idea and run with it, Lookie :P

Anyway, here is my second character, but based on Shard’s answer to my question, I absolutely think our characters could co-exist and even compliment each other in the roleplay.

Regardless, I actually got quite attached to this character as I wrote out her profile so I’ll leave it up to you, Phantom. I now feel sad that one of them will be left out 

Name: Gwendolyn 'Gwen' Gildermoore

Alias: Gwen n' Richard

Age: XVIII

Gender: Female

Personality: Gwen is a young woman who has seen much pain, giving her an almost saddeningly cynical and mature outlook for her age. She is worldly, knowledgeable on many topics and, at times, coldly logical, causing her to be an excellent strategist and tactition.

She can be selfish, because she has often been forced to ambitiously grab for what she wants to get anywhere and the habit has stuck with her, as has her focus, ambition and drive to succeed.

Despite the weight of all that has happened to her, however, one can still glimpse the brash, impulsive and exuberant young woman underneath, the little girl begging for freedom and adventure, even if it is somewhat muted by the fact that her only ability to communicate is through Richard's somewhat dehumanising vocaliser.

Richard himself is more than a suit of armour. He is a fully functional A.I. and an entirely separate entity to Gwendolyn, with thoughts and feelings of his own, simulated as they may be. He is stoic, logical and determindedly focused on his prime directive, keep Gwendolyn safe at all costs. Any thoughts beyond this base directive have stemmed from Gwendolyn’s influence over him.

Persona: When threatened, Richard's priority shifts from 'Defend Gwendolyn' to 'Eliminate all hostiles' and, while Gwendolyn is the 'commander' and generally issues Richard's orders, she has no direct input. What this results in is lethal balance between a machine's cold logic and computerised accuracy and a human's judgement and problem solving capabilities.

At least, that's the way if works when both want the same thing...

Appearance: Nobody knows what Gwendolyn (if that is indeed her real name) actually looks like, or even if she is more than a programmed apparition within Richard’s systems, though a police portrait of the girl who disappeared at fourteen that she claims to be shows a pale faced young woman with dark, wavy hair and pale green eyes. The only testimony suggesting her continued existence is an audio feed from inside the ten foot tall chassis of a battle robot.

Richard, the aforementioned mech is a vaguely human shaped, sleek and dangerous looking construct formed mainly from black brushed metal with glowing green lines highlighting trimmed areas around the armour plating.

His height and broadness clearly didn’t take day to day living in to account as he would bust the frames from the doorways of the average house.
The visor that makes up Richard's 'face' is V-shaped and similarly glows green, it is otherwise featureless, cold and inhuman.

Richard's entire torso area is a prism shaped containment unit in which the comatose and heavily damaged body of Gwendolyn Gildermoore is thought to be sealed while undergoing slow but steady treatment in a self contained life support facility.

On Richard's right shoulder is a two meter long, fully articulated cannon that can fold down flush against his back, in between two massive, backwards facing shoulder guards that also act as a form of jet propulsion for the machine.

Overall, Richard is built for one purpose, to defend Gwendolyn and to eliminate her enemies with extreme prejudice. To this end, his design is decidedly war-focused and suited for little else.

Costume: The only difference between Richard's defensive and offensive modes are that, when attack mode is activated, his thruster engines start burning, his missile ports open, his shoulder cannon activates and every glowing green line on his body turns crimson. As extra armour plating slides in to place and his loadout of weapons activate, he generally just looks bigger, scarier and more intimidating, if that were even possible.

Powers/Skills and how they came about: Gwen herself is little more than a comatose corpse being kept alive by a ten foot tall powered battle suit named Richard who in turn owes his existence to the financial investment of August Gildermoore, Gwen’s father.

On her own, Gwen is weak and frail but from safely within Richard’s battle chasis, she has access to great power and abilities, such as:

Increased strength and durability.

Near endless endurance.

Jet powered flight.

A massive, rotating, shoulder mounted missile launcher.

A hand held, high powered rifle with which she has computer aided accuracy.
Wrist mounted blades.

Machine guns that fold out of Richard’s forearms.

A translator for various languages used on Earth.

The ability to interface with other machines.

And an Mp3 player.

Rise to Fame: Gwendolyn, or more, Richard as not everyone recognises the claims that Gwendolyn Gildermoore is infact sealed in the combat chassis of the mech, came into the public eye by arriving at the house of August Gildermoore's widow and laying seige to the mansion, claiming that the current residents were usurpers and that Gwendolyn Gildermoore was alive and the true heir to the Gildermoore fortune.

Naturally, without proof, this didn't go over well and a laborious bunch of beaurocratic nonsense took place given that the 'criminal' was infact a machine and thus technically free from standard legal ramifications.

In the end, Gwen 'n Richard were able to avoid being 'put out of service' by agreeing to pay their debt to society as heroes defending the city.

Arch Nemesis: Matilda Whitlain, Gwendolyn's step mother who is in control of all of her late father's assets and, for fear of losing it all, is constantly making attempts to destroy or hack Richard and, by extention, any possibility that Gwendolyn may truly exist within the mech.

Personal Arc: Whether she actually exists or not, Gwen believes that she is not only being stabilised by Richard's systems, she is actually being slowly healed by them with the intent that she will one day awaken. At this point she will be able to prove (or disprove) her existence and have many decisions to make.

Her battle of wills with her keeper, Richard.

Her mission to take back her father's estate from her stepmother.

So there you are, I managed to slap it together after all! To summarise, in case it is confusing. Gwen is from a wealthy family and was seriously injured at fourteen. Ever since, she has been contained inside Richard who is protecting her, providing life support systems and gradually restoring her to health. The containment unit cannot be opened or she will die and, as she is comatose and only able to do anything via a neural link with Richard, she cannot confirm that she actually is human even to herself and thus, while she staunchly believes she is the real Gwendolyn Gildermoore, could possibly be just another A.I. within Richard. Hope you like her.