[OOC] Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

[Lord Wraith]

Not to mention the completely indecipherable interpersonal drama that seems to be unfolding, which I can't say is a turn-on.

@Dead Cruiser

You might be reading too much into a long-standing joke between Uni and Byrd.

[Hillan]

<Snipped quote by Dead Cruiser>

You might be reading too much into a long-standing joke between Uni and Byrd.

@Lord Wraith

Or be better at reading us than we are.

[Dead Cruiser]

@Lord Wraith Emphasis on indecipherable, then. Still probably for the best, you seem to be running a tight ship here.

"I don't want to belong to any club that would accept people like me as a member." -Groucho Marx

[Lord Wraith]

[Stein]

Sample post pending, here's my app. The storm's about to get wild in here.

Sparks

The Sparks is the defence mechanism.

The Sparks has the authority to take action to restore the balance.

J E N N Y S P A R K S

---

^{_{J E N N I F E R M E I S P A R K S ♦ F O R M E R L Y ██████████ ♦ L O C A T I O N U N K N O W N}}

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T:

---

<sub>To wake, and know
your heart sinks
dark and heavy,
hardening into stone...

Slowly the sea lifts its waves,
slowly the trees turn red in the gorge,
slowly the fires begin to lap in hell,
slowly the truth dawns...
O L A V H . H A U G E</sub>

Jenny Sparks is sick of letting the world pass her by. So many years on this Earth, and what has she actually done? What has she achieved? Nothing. All she has to her name is a past she’s not proud of, the uncertainty of what she is, and the question of what she’s been brought here to do. She spends her days drinking and smoking her annoyingly long life away, doing nothing, achieving nothing. Being nothing. She reckons it’s about time she changed that.

Stryfe was an eye-opener. Watching America’s superheroes rally to defend the innocent made her realise something... they were doing it wrong. They’re disorganised, messy, reactionary. A far cry from the heroes they no doubt wanted to be. The world’s in a precarious place now, and shit could hit the fan at any second. It needs saving. But when the help you’ve got is just going to make things worse, what’s left for you to do?

Well, that’s easy. You’ve got to do it yourself.

Jenny’s new mission is going to thrust her back into a world she’s tried very hard to leave behind. Covert ops, secret intelligence organisations, superheroics, capes and powers and metaphysical superscientific bullshit. To make the world feel right again, she’s looking for a group of like-minded people – and her search is going to lead her right into the middle of the metahuman arms race.

Jenny is a very grumpy, old, powerful woman, and she’s done sitting on the sidelines.

Don’t piss her off.

C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:

---

Jenny’s spent her whole life (and that’s a lot of life) trying to figure out why she’s been put on this Earth. How is she over a hundred years old, but doesn’t look a day over twenty? How is it that she was born with powers, but doesn’t have a single metahuman gene in her body? How is she not dead yet? And just what the hell is she supposed to do with all these so-called gifts, which have thus far condemned her to a life full of bad decisions and countless disappointments? She still can’t answer most of those questions, but she thinks the last one might finally be in her ballpark. Maybe she’s supposed to save the world.

But to do that, she needs a team.

Through Jenny, I’ll be injecting some new, interesting concepts and characters from Warren Ellis’ Wildstorm catalogue into the Absolute Comics universe. I love these characters, and I’m excited for the chance to tell a story that can have far-reaching consequences not only for them, but for the Absolute universe as a whole.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:

---

Apollo and the Midnighter. Data unavailable.

Battalion, Fahrenheit, Impetus and Winter. Data unavailable.

Henry Bendix. No known records in existence.

Cole Cash and Michael Cray, covert operatives specialising in wetworks.

Nick Fury, director of SHIELD.

Kaizen Gamorra, the dictator of a west Pacific island, indicted by the ICC on multiple counts of crimes against humanity.

Jack Hawksmoor, a powerful superhuman with a fractured mind.

Shen Li-Min. Winged metahuman.

Angela Spica, a gifted engineer and physicist working at Stark Industries’ R&D division.

John Stone, an intelligence operative with many black operations to his name. A former colleague of Jenny’s.

Jeroen Thornedike; the Doctor. Humanity’s shaman.

Miranda Zero, Jenny’s former colleague, an experienced HUMINT operative with an impressive resumé.

S A M P L E P O S T:

---

[+]

HELLO, WORLD

_{P A R T O N E :
N I C K , O L D M A T E}

---

<sub>"To wake, and know
your heart sinks
dark and heavy,
hardening into stone...

Slowly the sea lifts its waves,
slowly the trees turn red in the gorge,
slowly the fires begin to lap in hell,
slowly the truth dawns..."
O L A V H . H A U G E</sub>

P O S T C A T A L O G U E:

---

_{# 1 | H E L L O , W O R L D
^{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}}

01. Nick, Old Mate

@GreenGrenade

FUCK THE FUCK, YES.

Accepted. Granted I'm not a GM. But I've accepted it and that's all that matters.

XoXo Gossip Girl

[GreenGrenade]

<Snipped quote by GreenGrenade>

FUCK THE FUCK, YES.

Accepted. Granted I'm not a GM. But I've accepted it and that's all that matters.

XoXo Gossip Girl

@Stein

To the character tab!

[Lord Wraith]

@Pacifista Loved your first post. A great introduction to Bruce as a person and just a tease of the monster that lurks beneath the surface. More than ever am I excited to have a Hulk as part of the cast, I see a lot of great potential with this character moving forward.

@Simple Unicycle Great introduction to Question. Definitely interested to see how you're going to tackle the amnesia angle. Either way definitely a solid post and looking forward to reading more.

[Lord Wraith]

@webboysurf Now that's how you kick off a Season. Things just never go well for Roy eh? I wouldn't be surprised to see the poor guy back on drugs after being framed for murder and forced to go on the run from SHIELD. The inclusion of who I'm assuming to be John Diggle was a surprise but I better get more Grace down the line. She's definitely my favourite of Roy's supporting cast.

[webboysurf]

Well, here's Roy's Season 2 Sheet now that his epilogue is finally taken care of. @Lord Wraith

Season 2

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L

R E D A R R O W

---

^{_{R O Y H A R P E R ♦ M I L L I O N A I R E / V I G I L A N T E
S T A R C I T Y / V A R I O U S, U S A ♦ I N D E P E N D E N T}}

C O N T I N U I N G C O N C E P T:

---

^{"I was building military grade weaponry before I got my first erection, asshat."}

What happens when you put the stress of trying to save a city or even the world on a child? You inevitably get a washed up addict forced into service in SHIELD after getting sober. Roy Harper used to be a sign that even teenagers could take a stand against evil, but now is a reminder of the costs involved.

This Roy Harper has taken on the name “Red Arrow” as he begins to come to terms with the life he once led as the sidekick of the Green Arrow. However, his life has become increasingly complicated as he has been named public enemy number one after he was famed for the assassination of Director Jeffrey Mace. In order to clear his name, Roy has to uncover a web of conspiracy with the aid of his current partner in crime, a rogue SHIELD agent, and a metahuman hacker. At the end of this season, Roy is going to have to fully deal with the demons of his past in order to free his name with his team of Outlaws.

C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:

---

This season, Roy's goal is simple: clear his name. He wants to earn his freedom for being framed for the assassination of SHIELD Director Jeffrey Mace. He meets every challenge he can rather head on, and refuses to simply go into hiding and let the real culprits fly by. At the same time, there is a rather big reveal last season that Roy will have to come to terms with: his flawed adoptive father and vigilante mentor has become a cold-blooded assassin. And while Roy may not consciously believe he has to deal with this, it's only a matter of time before student and teacher will cross paths again.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:

---

Supporting Cast:

The Outlaws

Grace Choi (Artemis): An exiled Amazonian working with Roy Harper since saving him after a run in with the Watchdogs. She was a victim of mutant trafficking who swore to never let anyone suffer the way she did ever again.

Toshio Eto (Ronin): A SHIELD agent based in Tokyo. He is a metahuman with wind-based powers and years of training in the art of stealth and armed combat.

Daisy Johnson (Quake/Qu4k3): An underground hacker going by the screenname "Qu4k3" in some desperate attempt to legitimize herself in the eyes of that community. In reality, she is an exceptional hacker and a metahuman named Daisy Johnson with the ability to generate powerful vibration waves similar to an earthquake. She is wanted on various theft charges, as well as over 100 separate felony charges for hacking.

3 Mentors and a Lover

Waylon Jones (Killer Croc): A Reformed Serial Killer and general criminal. Saved Roy Harper when he suffered from serious addiction issues, and even sponsored Roy's rehab journey.

Oliver Queen [Missing]: Multi-Millionaire Oliver Queen has been missing for nearly five months. His disappearance has been explained away by Queen Industries as the Multi-Millionaire has simply gone to join a community of Tibetan monks. The real story: Oliver Queen and the Green Arrow haven't been seen since an encounter months ago against Merlyn. Those who know of Oliver Queen's secret life presume him to be dead.

John Diggle: Oliver Queen's former bodyguard, John Diggle serves as the founder of Queen Security Solutions, a high tech paramilitary security contracting company founded as a front for the Green Arrow's escapades.

Jade Nguyen (Cheshire): A member of the League of Assassins and former lover of Roy Harper well over a decade ago. She is a high-ranking member of the League of Assassins, and known for her prolific use of poisons.

The Law

Agent Phil Coulson: Phil Coulson acted as Roy Harper's late handler, and works for SHIELD in "asset management."

Agent Tony Masters (Taskmaster): A mutant who formerly served as part of the Howling Commandos, but has been reassigned to apprehend Roy Harper to answer for Director Mace's death. His mutation grants Masters "photographic reflexes" that allow him to perfectly mimic any individual's fighting style.

Enemies

Komodo
Madame Masque
Merlyn
The Dark Archer

S E A S O N O N E S Y N O P S I S:

---

Roy went on a personal revenge quest against the Watchdogs, who murdered a fellow SHIELD agent and personal friend when she tried visiting her father. After being released from his obligations, Roy posed as a priest and assassinated high-ranking members of the far-right terrorist organization. After traveling the road, he was tracked down by a few remaining members of the Watchdogs at a roadside gas station. When he was on the ropes, a passerby named Grace Choi saved the vigilante. The two began a partnership, in which Roy and Grace helped to take down a mutant trafficking operation run by a splinter cell of HYDRA. In order to provide refuge for the victims, Roy agreed to a temporary consulting deal with Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD. When the crisis began, Roy joined Captain America's team. He helped Captain America, Wonder Woman, and the Blue Beetle storm Four Freedoms Plaza and shut down the MSF devices. A month following the crisis, Roy Harper was framed for the assassination of SHIELD Director Jeffrey Mace.

Post Catalog

P O S T C A T L O G:

---

Season 1: Back in the Quiver

Album #1: Appetite for Destruction

Chapter #1: Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Chapter #2: Highway to Hell
Chapter #3: Welcome to the Jungle
Chapter #4: Paradise City (Absolute 2 for 1: Part 1)
Chapter #5: Estranged (Absolute 2 for 1: Part 2)
Chapter #6: Sweet Child O' Mine

Album #2: License to Ill (Season 1 Crisis Tie-In)

Chapter #1: So What'cha Want
Chapter #2: Fight for Your Right
Chapter #3: Sabotage
Crisis Tie-In
Chapter #4: Sure Shot

Season 2: Red Arrow and the Outlaws

Album #3: PLACEHOLDER

[Simple Unicycle]

Hat Roy is best Roy don't @ me

[Lord Wraith]

@webboysurf Looks good to me. Just overwrite your previous CS with the updated one.

[Lord Wraith]

@Byrd Man It's probably frowned upon to sip Scotch at eight in the morning but man, does your post ever make me want to find the nicest leather chair I can and pour myself a single malt. Were the story not declared to be modern it could easily fit into back into the 1950s. I'm hearing jazz and blues in the background, I can smell the cigarette smoke. All this post was missing is a leggy dame come to ask John for his help in the way only a femme fatale could.

[Retired]

Oh, Wraith's doing his personalized mini-reviews/comments again. I guess I need to post to get one, too.

[Lord Wraith]

Oh, Wraith's doing his personalized mini-reviews/comments again. I guess I need to post to get one, too.

@Retired

[Lord Wraith]

@HenryJonesJr Great first post with Booster. Definitely liking the corporate hero angle, curious to see how far you can take that before it blows up in her face. I suppose there's still the mystery of who Booster actually is UOU Gwen?, but this post doesn't provide any hints towards that as far as I can see.

Then again, who knows? Maybe you're being extra sneaky.

[Hillan]

@Lord Wraith
So, you think you're the only one who gets to do these? Think again, dirt-bag.

I loved the retelling of the Batman Beyond-Opening, a familiar, yet fresh take on how we all know Terry got to know Bruce. The post's so full of a bunch of references to the show that, if I hadn't re-watched it just a few months ago, I'd probably never caught. The pacing's tight and I found myself enjoying every bit of the post. It got me excited for the next post and whatever you have planned for Terry's second season with the cowl. I also thoroughly enjoy the little details you mention of Gotham that makes the place feel alive, like you actually know the place.

Great work, buddy.

[Lord Wraith]

So, you think you're the only one who gets to do these? Think again, dirt-bag.

@Hillan

I've never been happier to be called dirt-bag before.

[Natty]

Finished up this; will chuck it with my CS in the character tab.

Chilling Adventures of Magik 2: Magical Boogaloo

C H A R A C T E R C O N C E P T P R O P O S A L

M A G I K

---

^{_{I L L Y A N A R A S P U T I N A ♦ E X - D A U G H T E R O F B E L A S C O ♦ W A R D O F T H E S O R C E R O R S U P R E M E}}

C O N T I N U I N G C O N C E P T:

---

^{"For many years a man named Belasco tried to bury me. But I demanded to grow."}

Raised and tortured as a child in the hellscape of Limbo by the demonic Sorceror Belasco, Illyana Rasputina finally found a home with the Sorceror Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange. Becoming his ward, she turned her Soul Sword into a staff and sought to change her ways.

However, her torture continued to haunt her, and as such, she decided to finally get revenge once and for all. To do so, she sought to form a group of fellow members of the magical community in order to assist her in her quest. In doing so, she found herself pushed to her limits, encountering a number of foes, both new and old. The news of Belasco finding himself a new "Apprentice" rocked her to her core, leading her to finally redraw her sword once more.

C H A R A C T E R M O T I V A T I O N S & G O A L S:

---

After discovering from the Demons Three that Belasco has a new prison in Limbo, Illyana is now motivated more than ever to make her way back into that hellscape and take him out once and for all. She also finds herself battling to control the anger and pain that churns inside her, brought into being in the form of her Soul Sword. She is taking strikes to fight in two battles; one physically, and one mentally.

C H A R A C T E R N O T E S:

---

♦ Doctor Stephen Strange
^{The current Sorcerer Supreme, Strange became a surrogate father and teacher to Illyana after her time in Limbo, helping her hone her magical abilities.}
-
♦ Wong
^{Doctor Strange's loyal assistant, Wong runs and cares for the Sanctum Sanctorum. This loyalty extended to Illyana once she made the Sanctum her home, and in time a friendship between the two blossomed.}
-
♦ Ragman
^{Rory Regan is a Jewish vigilante in Gotham City who wears the mystical Suit of Souls. Rory has vowed to help Magik in her fight against Limbo, with him and Magik becoming close friends.}
-
♦ Belasco
^{A being of pure hate, Belasco is the ruler of Limbo and the being who trapped Illyana there for the majority of her childhood.}
-
♦ The Demons Three
^{Led by the vicious S'ym, the Demons Three are Belasco's chief enforcers in Limbo. They acted as Illyana's "guards" during her capture; torturing her regularly.}

Upcoming Antagonists and Allies

♦ Piotr Rasputin
^{Illyana hasn't seen her brother Piotr since she was taken to Limbo.}
-
♦ Elsa Bloodstone
^{Daughter of the monster hunter Ulysses Bloodstone, Elsa travels the world, taking care of dangerous mystical creatures as she goes.}
-
♦ Cullen Bloodstone
^TBD.
-
♦ Krakoa *
^TBD.
-
♦ Sapna
^TBD.
-
♦ Dani Moonstar *
^TBD.
-
♦ The Juggernaut *
^TBD.
-
♦ Banshee *
^TBD.
-
♦ TBD
^TBD.
-
_{* - Subject to change if these characters are required.}

S E A S O N O N E S Y N O P S I S:

---

Vowing revenge on her former captor, Belasco, Illyana Rasputin sought out members of the magical community in an attempt at raising an armry against Limbo. Her search led her to the Ragman, and his suit of souls. After assisting the Gotham vigilante with stopping a mystical being named Master Belaric Marcosa, Ragman agreed to join her. The two met with another potential recruit; the Canterbury Cricket, however, that just led to further peril. Just as he was trying to convince Illyana that she wasn't the blame for the bad things that had happened to her, he was slain by the Demon S'ym, one of Illyana's former captors back in Limbo.

After fending off S'ym and the rest of the Demon's Three, Illyana discovered that Belasco had kidnapped another mortal, trapping them in Limbo just as she had been. Before she had the opportunity to process this news, the United States of America was rocked by a vicious terrorist act led by the Metahuman Supremacy Front. Doctor Strange sent her to look over Star City whilst he helped handle the crisis within New York, leading to Magik confront members of the M.S.F. alone. The group brought her to her breaking point once they began to kill hostages, leading to her transforming her Soul Staff back into the Sword she had wielded down in Limbo. With the assistance of the local hero Green Arrow, they took down the terrorist group's presence within the city, stopping the crisis from worsening.

The morning after the attack, Illyana confessed to Strange about her plan to kill Belasco during an emotional conversation, leading to him walking away dissapointed in his ward.

P O S T C A T A L O G:

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_{S E A S O N O N E:}

• Ragged Souls
  
  • #1.01
  • #1.02
  • #1.03
  • #1.04
  • #1.05
  • #1.06
  • #1.07
• Crickets
  
  • #1.08
  • #1.09
  • #1.10
• Mass Panic
  
  • #1.11
  • #1.12
  • #1.13
  • #1.14
  • #1.15
  • #1.16

_{S E A S O N T W O:}

Same as before, this section is for a list of hyperlinks to your ongoing IC posts as they're created.

[Lord Wraith]

A N N O U N C E M E N T:

---

RE: UPDATED CHARACTERS AND ROSTER EDITS

Hey guys,

A lot of you who participated in Season One are currently finding the time to update your Character Sheets for Season Two. Just wanted to reiterate, that while I appreciate being notified that the sheet is updated, I don't need to pass approval on anything. You all know the drill by now, so I'm trusting you guys as my veteran players. Please ensure however that you do put the updated CS in place of the old one in the character tab. If your Sample Post from the original application is considered canon and was not reposted to the IC, then feel free to amend the template to include it or put the old CS in a hider marked 'Season One Application'.

Character sheets that have been updated on the roster will be marked with a little ' ^{U P D A T E D} ', at least for the time being. The wording might change to specifically reference which Season the sheet was updated for, however, that's not going to be a problem until Season 3 anyways. Additionally, character sheets that have been dropped or withdrawn but contributed heavily to the IC and more specifically the greater world have been marked with an ' ^{E S T A B L I S H E D L O R E} ' tag. You'll notice that certain characters were not marked with this tag despite their higher post count and that's because they didn't interact with anything outside of their story, nor were they referenced. As such, I feel those characters could be reinvented from the ground up without any glaring inconsistencies in the IC.

Anyways, I think that's it for this announcement. If you know anyone who might be interested in the game, pass along a link. We'll be accepting for Season 2 until November 30^th, 2019. After that, we'll close recruiting until we get closer to Season 3.

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to participate in the game thus far and I look forward to continuing to read and write with each of you.

[Lord Wraith]

@Hound55 I think one of my favourite parts of this is post is how it doesn't feel like a stand-alone issue in the world of Absolute. This post is heavily built on the lore and fallout created during Season One and it's wonderful. It ties together your story, the Crisis and even Star Lord's Wonder Woman. But it doesn't merely stop there, we also get a deep dive into the life of young Ted and a teasing introduction to Dan Garrett.

I have to admit, this first post has left me wondering if David will turn up as a potential villain for Ted down the line. But either way I'm very interested to see how it all is going to unfold from here.