[OOC] Why We Fight? (WWII with superpowers)

[Afro Samurai]

@Oak7ree Great! I'll drop a CS later tonight. Also, how many powers are we allowed?

[ONL]

@Kessir TarkinNope, this is Norway ^^

Deal with it

@MegaOscarPwnI've understand it as Frenchmen not being able to pronounce the "TH" sound, and thus using a more "S" or "Z" sound.

[shylarah]

@Afro Samurai powersets are usually around one or two things, but have had multiple expressions. For example, Izkry and Anton are electricity/tech, and they can control machines and shoot lightning or shock people. Oscar can control liquids -- freeze them, boil them, move them around. There's a healer, who can also diagnose people just by looking, to some extent, and a guy with superior physical attributes -- strength, speed, and endurance.

Basically, not many, but how you can employ those powers is the fun part. Someone that can talk to animals might be able to train them, have them spy, see through their eyes even, or just have them take messages. A fire user could light or extinguish fires, but also generate heat and grab hot things without being burned. A water user could drown a man just by putting water in his lungs. Like that. ^.^

[Afro Samurai]

Walter Thompson

Name

Walter Thompson

Gender

Male

Age

24.

Appearance


Personality
Hardened. Possesses a searing hatred for discrimination. Will snap into erratic and irrational fits when angered. Hateful of his grotesque appearance.

Background

---

His head rose above the bubbler, he ran a charcoal black hand across his lips. The ‘Colored Only’ sign draped some inches above his head. Adorned in a short-sleeved white button up, brown slacks, black socks, and black dress shoes, he entered the church from the back door after a brief re-hydration recess. He took the stairs up to the balcony where the colored section was and sat himself where he thought the rest of the sermon could be heard best. A frivolous pursuit. This far back in the church, all one can hear are the occasional claps from the folks below and the pastor’s occasional “Thank you, Lord!”’s humming their way up the balcony, only for the sound to be sucked up by a sea of black bodies shoveled together in rusty seats. There were black churches, but Walter wasn’t one to subconsciously and indirectly propagate the social mores de jour—legal or not.

It was the Jim Crow south. 1942. War raged overseas, and the condition of the black person in the land of the free wasn’t much ado about freedom at all. America was fighting a war on two fronts: one for the freedom of oppression from the Reich; the other for freedom of her own dark sons and daughters at home. It was this patriotism--and secret optimism that he could elevate his status as a citizen by enlisting and becoming a war hero--which caused Walter to enter the war shortly after FDR announces America’s involvement in December of ’41.

What Walter—and many of his other black servicemen—did not expect is the segregation on the frontlines. Few and far were companies mixed together. All black infantry squadrons and platoons were the first ones sent into the fray, many of their members crippled (mentally and physically), thousands more dead or M.I.A. Hundreds of company men went A.W.O.L. Not only were these all black squadrons and their individual servicemen the objects of extreme prejudice, they were also experimented on. Across the Front one could hear the rumors; hundreds of horror stories of black service members subject to mustard gas, chemical baths, and serum injections all in the hopes of creating the ideal soldier. (Un)fortunately, it worked.

Walter was one of the middling subjects, a guinea pig to a near-perfect chemical bath whose strains had been tested for months to produce radical change within human cells. As a result of the bath, his skin is forever scarred, marked with: boils, discolorations, burns, and hardened scar tissues--a testament to the inhumane treatment he and many of his fellow colored servicemen underwent for the sake of liberty. But he didn’t desert, he couldn’t—if he went home he’d be a Negro and a deserter. It wouldn’t be more than a week before the valiant White Knights were knocking on his door with torches and nooses. No. He would earn his right to be called a hero—to be called man and not boy.

---

Superpower and how the character got it: Solar Empowerment: Walter’s cells became hyper-pinocytic, that is their ability to take in energy—the energy of the sun—was enhanced hundreds of times over. When Walter’s cells drink energy from the sun, his body can perform feats well beyond typical human capacity: superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, durability, energy conversion/storage, solar blasts, flight, and much more.
His powers are null come nightfall, and his cells can only take in so much energy before he must rest for several hours. If he willingly expels any absorbed energy from himself, he drains his power supply at a rapid rate.

(Meant to post this here, not Character's tab).

[shylarah]

@Afro Samurai Ooh, I like it. Very clever.

[shylarah]

Probably posting tomorrow. That's the plan, at least. ^.^

[ONL]

@Afro SamuraiI really hate to be that guy, but I'm not aware of African American servicemen being sent into battle as early as '42 except fighter pilots. Or am being horribly wrong? Not that this really matters, this universe allows for superhumans so who am I to judge? :P

Welcome to the group at least, nice to see new faces :)

[Afro Samurai]

370th Infantry Regiment
366th Infantry Regiment
Tuskeegee Airmen (fighter pilots as you mentioned)
93rd Infantry Division (Blue Helmets)
Harlem Hell Fighters
369th Infantry Regiment
9th Armored Division (the famous "Buffalo Soldiers" Bob Marley mentions in his song of the same name).

There certainly were not as many African Americans serving in WWII as there would be in following wars (Vietnam and on), but they were there--and some of them were even awarded for their bravery. Many of the all African American units disbanded in WWI were re-opened for WWII, and actually most of the regiments listed above were re-activated and put on the frontlines in '42. If you want reference for the experimentation I talk about in the post, check here.

@ONL

[MegaOscarPwn]

Guess we can't say the N-Word ICly now.
Tana Mongeau wins.
THIS IS THE END.

[Afro Samurai]

I'm a s-s-s-snake.

[shylarah]

@Afro Samurai Ooh, someone who does his research! *wriggles*
*says the girl that just spent like three hours last night between looking up various musical eras and classical composers, and figuring out when the first ladies were admitted to British colleges. And it was when she should have been sleeping* x.x

[Afro Samurai]

Am I good to post or do I have to wait for the whole approval thing? I want to jump in while things are still relatively mundane.

[MegaOscarPwn]

@Afro Samurai Dew it, just like Palpatine would say.

Hey Palpatine, what're we gonna do with this meat? Stew it.
Palpatine, can we uh, pray to Yahweh? Jew it.

[Kessir Tarkin]

As I am all goody two shoes so far I am going to post in response to our new comrade.

[Afro Samurai]

In the prophetic words of an ancient Wiz Khalifa scroll,

Black and yellow
Black and yellow
Black and yellow
Black and yellow

@Kessir Tarkin

[MegaOscarPwn]

@Afro Samurai I prefer this version instead. youtube.com/watch?v=3Q12xOukVAI

[shylarah]

@Afro Samurai Yes, usually you wait for DM approval. And he's newer than the others on the team? Has he been around for at least a month or two, or...?

@Kessir Tarkin Izkry will totally be friendly to both Kaneda and Walter. He's that sort of guy. He probably already has made overtures of friendship. Izkry thinks there's enough hating people over slights and perceived slights and would really rather everyone just get along. Everyone is better at something, and everyone is worse at something, and if you really do have to judge people do it by their actions.

...Especially since he knows Bel is actually caring, but nobody else can see it. And she doesn't show it well. And it's a very rough sort of care.

In fact, both his nickname and Belasy's were given by a teacher-turned-friend, the child of Slavic Jews that emigrated to Switzerland before the war, possibly closer to the time of the first world war. Bel actually talks to the guy, that's saying quite a lot. Not that either one knew he was Jewish right away, but when you're the one with the weird powers you kinda find yourself in a minority and that affects your view.

Bel...Bel has enough to hate without worrying about skin tone. She probably quietly eyed both Walter and Kaneda briefly, and then stopped worrying about it. Actually, Kaneda would be more of a rarity for her, since there are a number of Afro-Swiss, though the number increases far more after the war -- and far more in occupied Germany than Switzerland, but eh. *shrugs*

Curse you for making me get lost in more research. *shakes fist*

Post is being written now~

[Afro Samurai]

@shylarah My thought process was Walter got transferred after his last mission to a new regiment without explicit rhyme or reason from the higher ups, so he's been "around" for a few days;not long enough to know who everyone is. He's just rolling with whatever happens right now.

[ONL]

@Afro SamuraiThanks for the link, that was actually quite interesting to read. I like a well-informed player.

[shylarah]

@Afro Samurai a few days? Part of the reason for training is team-building. Someone so new...it would throw an already shaky team off. I guess if @Oak7ree said it's good then you're good, but Bel is definitely going to disapprove of that. Then again, she doesn't really like any of them, so you're in excellent company! *amused*

ooh, and I forgot the whole...mutilation thing he has going on. That very well might put both siblings off, though Izkry will try to work past it.