Bounce

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel Comics / DC Comics Crossover RPG!

I believe @Sep used the wrong image.

This is what he meant to post.

One Universe: World Of Heroes - A Marvel Comics / DC Comics Crossover RPG!

I am interested in writing Billy Batson/Captain Marvel (aka Shazam)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Not So Innocent Nights of the 1950s

Interested.

One, I love period pieces. Two, I love VtM.

DC Universe: Genesis - Justice For All

It's still Friday on the West Coast, so I'll take it.

Ringing in Friday intensifies.

DC Universe: Genesis - Justice For All

K A I - R O

_{T A L E S F R O M T H E G R E E N L A N T E R N C O R P S}

---

---

_{ACT I: AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
Part 3: “Al-x”}

The young Tibetan’s eyes seemed even larger and more expressive than they already were.

Mouth agape, the black and green clad youth marveled at the landscape before him. It was a city unlike any he could have imagined. The violet hued sky above shimmered with sparks of green, as figures moved through the air as if propelled by the verdant light that radiated in streaks that vanished into the sky, or trailed through the streets of the alien cityscape.

A vine-like tendril looped around the child’s wrist, as the bulbous alien literally took the boy by the hand as the two emerged into this brave new world of Oa.

But for the guiding hand, the young monk would have walked into any number of people or objects along their path, as the child’s eyes marveled in sheer awe and wonder at the world in which he was being led.

“It’s really another world,” the boy uttered, the first time he had spoken since the two had left the room in which the monk had awoken. For that matter, the first time that he’d shut his jaw, which had been virtually dragging behind them at his surprise.

“There are many worlds, child.”

The voice in his head -- that is, the voice of the person who was talking to him without actually talking -- was named Apros. “Each is unique, though some may remind you of somewhere you’ve been. No one world is ever truly like another.”

From the street, the pair started up a winding stair that led them to a large structure that resembled the iconic form of the lantern sigil that the boy saw on the front of the strange attire that he was now garbed in. Variations of which seemed to reside on the clothing of everyone that they had encountered thus far.

“This is the Book of Oa,” Apros’ voice spoke, each word seeming to become Kai-Ro’s own thoughts. Entering inside, the walls seemed illuminated in green light, with all manner of shapes, sigils, icons, and other forms of writing tracing up and down the walls. “The repository of all knowledge that the Guardians of the Universe have shared with us.”

Craning his head around, the boy looked up at the tall, thin gourd. “The... guardians of the universe?”

“The architects of our future,” the voice replied. “Highly advanced lifeforms who seek to maintain harmony and balance among the various aliens that inhabit what you would think of as space. They created the ring that found you. Sent out among the stars to find rare individuals possessing extraordinary willpower.”

For some reason, that last statement seemed to trigger a memory for the boy. “It said that,” the young monk began, trailing off there as the recollection solidified for him. Finally, then, he turned his head back up as he recalled, “It said that I had the ability to overcome fear.”

“That is the first step.”

“The first step to what?”

Gilding the boy around the corner, Apros offered only, “For that question, I will leave you with a more appropriate companion.”

Confused, Kai-Ro turned his head and found himself staring at an alien who seemed roughly the same height and build as he was. He would have said that it was another kid his age, except this one had purple skin and pointed ears that seemed to stick out from the side of his head. And his eyes were large, almond shaped pools of pure white.

“This is Al-x,” Apros said, supplying the introduction as the vine at last unwrapped itself from around Kai-Ro’s hand.

Withdrawing from the two, the plant-like alien disappeared with a cryptic, “Al-x has waited to meet you for a long time.”

What was that supposed to mean? “Hi,” Kai-Ro said, turning his head back toward the other... boy? Maybe?

Did aliens even have genders like, well, people did? “I’m...” the monk began, though quickly found himself speechless as the purple kid leaned forward. Staring intently at him, the violet kid seemed to study him like a specimen of some kind “...uh...” Kai-Ro stammered, fumbling awkwardly, even as he took a step back away from the other kid.

“You look like a Graxian, except you’re the wrong color,” the purple kid stated flatly, slowly walking in a circle around the monk. Then, pausing back in front of Kai-Ro, noted “And, I’ve never seen a Graxian with brown colored eyes before.”

What was a Graxian? “I’m Tibetan,” the boy stated.

“Your planet is named Tibet?”

“Well, no,” Kai-Ro amended, fumbling for a moment. He wasn’t used to thinking in terms like this. “My planet is called Earth.” That really didn’t sound right. Was this how conversations in space went?

The purple kid’s head tilted to one side, an expression of what seemed like confusion apparent as he (?) asked, “So, you’re Earthian?”

“No, we’re humans.”

“But, you said you’re Tibetan?”

“I’m from Tibet,” Kai-Ro affirmed, with a nod.

“But you said you’re from Earth,” the purple kid quipped back.

“Tibet is a country on Earth,” Kai-Ro answered. Then paused there. “Well, it was a country on Earth. I guess I’m actually Chinese, except that’s, like, super offensive where I’m from.”

“Fascinating,” the purple kid uttered.

Seriously. What kid talked like that?

“You’re describing a system of division based on geo-political boundaries.”

Expressive brown eyes just blinked. “I’m..." Kai-Ro began. Then stopped. He blinked a second time. “...wait, what?” the monk asked, even as he tried to make sense out of what he’d just heard. “Are you really a kid?”

The purple kid’s head tilted over to the other side, as though contemplating this as a new question. “Are you?”

“I’m ten,” Kai-Ro stated.

“Ten?”

Yeah, ten. “Ten years old,” the monk clarified, pointing to himself and then gesturing toward the purple kid as he asked, “How old are you?”

“In order to have meaning, this ‘year’ requires a spatial or temporal context.”

These were words.

Kai-Ro understood that these were words. He even understood that these were words being spoken in what seemed like it was perfect Tibetan.

And he had no idea what any of these words meant.

Seemingly perplexed at his conversational companion’s speechlessness, Al-x touched a spot on the wall. As he did, the green light seemed to become malleable in his hands. Responding to his fingertips, soon there was a green construct of what seemed like an approximation of a planet and some writing in a script that Kai-Ro didn’t recognize.

“How did you do that?” the monk asked, in awe.

“What is a year, exactly?” Al-x asked.

“A year? Like, twelve months,” Kai-Ro said, though it likely sounded more a question. “Three hundred sixty-five days?”

“What is a day?”

“Like, one day to the next?” Kai-Ro responded, quite confused that the conversation had taken a turn for the, well, even more confusing. “Twenty-four hours, I guess?”

Consulting the various green icons, the purple kid gave a nod. “I think I understand now, your concept of time is connected to your planet of origin,” Al-x remarked finally. Glancing up, the purple kid stated, “You think in terms of orbital revolutions. Very well. If I understand your orbital mechanics, then I am one hundred and five of your years old.”

“One... what?” Did he just say one hundred and five?

“As for how I accessed this data, this is an archival data retrieval point for the Book of Oa,” Al-x noted, giving a wave of his hand. As he did, the planet and writing vanished. “You can use it, if you wish, to look up the relevant historical data regarding the Green Lanterns.”

“What’s a Green Lantern?”

“You,” Al-x answered. Then, amended, “Or, rather, you are a candidate. As am I.” Turning back toward the monk, the purple kid noted, “With your arrival, there remain two other candidates who will join us so that our training may commence.”

“Training?” Kai-Ro echoed. At some point, all of this was going to start making sense. Right? “Training for what?”

Tucking his (?) chin between the thumb and finger of one hand, Al-x seemed to ponder that question for a moment. Then, looking up, asked, “Does your planet have a concept of hierarchical governmental authority that is centrally controlled, but decentrally executed?”

Kai-Ro just blinked, again. “You keep using these words,” the Tibetan monk stated flatly. “I have... no idea what they mean.”

Re-phrasing the question, Al-x posed, “Are there authority figures on your planet whose role is the maintenance of society’s rules?”

It wasn’t a lot better than the first question. “Authority?” Kai-Ro echoed. “You mean, like, the police?”

“Policing?” Now it was Al-x’s turn to echo back a word. A slight nod, and a flicker of a smile -- as if what Kai-Ro had said was, in some way, funny. “A quaint societal mechanism,” the purple kid decided, finally, as he looked up and affirmed, “Yes, the police.”

Kai-Ro’s head went back. “Where I’m from, the police are the bad guys,” the child stated, in a surprisingly matter-of-fact tone.

Now, it was Al-x’s turn to be surprised. “You are an anarchist?” Then, the purple kid paused. “Or the product of a system of government oppression,” Al-x stated, amending his original theory with a few other snippets gleaned from the conversation. Turning back to Kai-Ro, the purple kid said, “Fascinating, but no. Green Lanterns seek to maintain peace and order among the various alien cultures which coexist. Like your Earth, space is also subject to many political boundaries that can be cause of conflict. And criminal elements may exceed the ability of any one planet to sufficiently address. These are the functions for which the Green Lanterns exist.”

The monk just gave a blank look, finally blinking before blurting out, “Are you really a kid?”

“I feel as though we have already addressed this,” Al-x stated crisply.

“I feel as though I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

Final Fantasy Crystallum en Absentia

_{[ Streets of Alexandria ] [ Nyan's Theme ]}

---

The streets were said to be unforgiving.

The streets were the repository for the trash that was cast out by society, become the last refuge of the downtrodden and the damned. Oddly enough, the young kit had always found that the people living on the streets were often far more welcoming than those who held themselves as society's betters. Those were unmistakable fixtures in any city anywhere. People passing by, wearing clothes that cost more than any one of these beggars might see in a year, or even a lifetime, with noses upturned and their gazes diverted.

What an eye sore, that people might have such poor taste as to be poor in their presence.

To be completely honest, the young Miqo'te wasn't even certain from just what city he'd even arrived. He'd hopped from one merchant caravan to another on the road, passing through what had seemed like more of a trading post than an actual town, and then arrived at the gates only to discover that this was the storied Kingdom of Alexandria.

The white haired kit was resplendent in the finest cloak no money could buy -- stitched together from stained and discarded sackcloth. It was not much to look at. Neither, for that matter, was he. But it suited him well enough. Seated an upended, broken pull-cart, the boy's tunic was similarly the mark of a pauper, being a patch-work garment. The black tips of his ears were not the only dark marks, as soot and dirt clearly betrayed the fact that the youth had been traveling for a bit and not seen a bath in as many days. If not weeks.

As it had happened, the kit had stumbled upon a boy perhaps two summers younger than he, who had belonged to a family that was turned out on the street. While they hadn't had enough porridge for themselves, let alone to share, but they had broken bread with him. It was stale, with mold that had to be scraped off, but they'd shown him a baker in town who could be relied on to make available what he didn't sell.

The kit had an eye on several carts that seemed to be getting loaded. There were likely to be one or more caravans that would be departing for destinations unknown. The boy didn't know that he planned to stay in Alexandria long enough to appreciate the baker's stale gift to the city's poor, but it was still nice to know where there existed the option of a free meal. Even if one had to scrape the mold off it beforehand. That was certainly preferable to rummaging a meal from out of the rubbish piles, which the destitute were apt to due when all pride had left and there remained no alternative.

But, life was all about capitalizing on the alternatives.

And with a city this size, there were apt to be merchants of all manner. Who likely had things of value, which could get misplaced or otherwise become both lost and found. Yes, maybe before he had to leave the city, he'd have the opportunity to make a slight withdrawal.

After all, where he was going, it never hurt to have some capital.

...even if he had no idea just where he might be going.

Details. He'd figure it out when he got there. Wherever. Maybe even home to Bellas, though that seemed a more fleeting possibility the more he hopped from caravan to caravan.

Final Fantasy Crystallum en Absentia

Name

Nyan
_{Full name at birth O'nyan Tia ("o nyh'an"), though this is unknown to him.}

Race

Miqo'te (Seeker of the Sun)

Age

12

Class

Thief

Place of Origin

Free Cities of Bellas

Personality

At first blush, Nyan appears no different than any other kit his age; usually presenting as an active, tactile youth who has difficulty with sitting still, inside voices, or quietly observing something. While it is true that he is a curious cat, and easily distracted, he's far more perceptive and intelligent than he leads others to believe.

Backstory

A free spirit, Nyan hails from the Gloriannas Coastal region of Atles. A bastard sired by an ousted nuhn, Nyan was abandoned by his tribe on the streets of one of the Free Cities. Adopted into roving gangs of street kids, the boy was brought up in a nomadic chaos that valued sharp wit, keen eyes, and sleight of hand. Most of all, he learned how to move unnoticed in a crowd, lightening the coin purses or lifting a loaf of bread from a merchant's stall before slipping away. His penchant for travel was not his original intention. On the run from the town guards for a minor misunderstanding regarding proper ownership of a piece of fruit, a brass gorget, and possibly a bone ring as well (who's counting?), the young Miqo'te stowed away among the cargo of a caravan that had departed for the road before he could disembark from his hiding spot.

Now, he's on his own. With only his wits and a pair of daggers, the young thief hopes to one day make it into the Hunter's Guild (or, at least, score a Guild Mark) so that he might be able to travel without the fear of being discovered as a stowaway, sneaking his way into or out of towns. But, in the meantime, it's not as though Altes has given him a lot of options.

The Bounce House

I heard reworked canon.

"The Magic of..."

Name
Teth-Adam of Canaan

Alias
Shazam

Age
Approx. 3,500 years (Actual) | 12 years (Teth-Adam) | Mid/Late 20s (Shazam)

Personality
Courageous, Judgmental, Overconfident, Selfless, Ashamed

Powers

• Homo magi: As a descendant of Jebediah of Canaan, Teth was born with the ability to use magic. Even when not empowered, his connection to the Rock of Eternity marks him as the current Wizard and one of Earth's foremost magic users.
• Magical Empowerment (SHAZAM): When invoking the ancient magic, Teth is transformed into a demigod-like figure. Beyond the physical changes to his appearance, the effect imparts abilities associated with the heroes and gods of his native Ancient Egypt:
  • The Stamina of Shu (invulnerability)
  • The Speed of Horus (heightened reflexes, flight)
  • The Strength of Amun (super strength)
  • The Wisdom of Zehuti (genius intellect)
  • The Power of Aten (magic, immortality)
  • The Courage of Mehen

Weaknesses

• Electricity: As the use of the word SHAZAM is associated with lightning, if Teth receives a strong enough jolt of electricity while in his empowered state, he will revert to his normal form.
• Earth's Champion: Teth's powers are inextricably linked to the Rock of Eternity, the focal point of Earth's magical leylines. He was chosen to be the Earth's protector, and a consequence is weakened the further from the Earth that he travels. Beyond Earth's moon, he is sufficiently weakened as to be unable to use magic or transform into Shazam. This means that he is fully mortal and can experience both aging and death.
• Will and the Word: Spellweaving requires two elements; mental concentration and vocal utterance. Anything which interrupts or prevents one or both of those aspects will prevent Teth from being able to use his magic, including to transform himself into his empowered state.

Background Hero
Swamp Thing

Appearance

As Teth-Adam, he presents as a young "tweenage" boy of Semitic heritage whose bronzed complexion marks him as ambiguously Greek, Arab, or Hebrew. Small, by modern standards, his back still bears the scars from his time under the lash of slave taskmasters. He has wavy, black hair and green eyes (a trait once associated with Northern Egyptian people).

As Shazam, he presents as a herculean figure in physical prime, approximately mid-to-late twenties. His color, hair, and eyes are the same, with the figure seemingly the avatar of Teth's future self. A towering 6-foot-5-inches and 240 lbs, the black-and-gold clad figure is imposing even without his demigod-like abilities.

Potential Storylines

• The Orb of Ra: When archaeologists in Egypt unearth a relic of the ancient world, they unleash the very evil that Shazam was created to stop... Ahk-Ton.
• The Un-Men (Swamp Thing tie-in): Modern military research has succeeded in achieving a classified experiment from Nazi Germany's past. With the elemental balance thrown into chaos, Anton Arcane and the Black return to threaten the world with the Rot.
• Of Gods and Men: Seeking a return to the mortal world, the Demon Sabbac manipulates a once small time crook into selling his soul for power, becoming Shazam's equal in a race to stop Hell on Earth.
• Powerless: Teth finds himself on an alien world and has to overcome a challenge as a boy without his magic or powers.
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Someone from the League learns of Shazam living homeless on the street.

BRIEF Bio
Teth-Adam was taken into slavery at a young age, the victim of Egyptian raids on the nomadic Canaanite tribes of the region known as the Fertile Crescent, sometime during Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty. While still a child, he stood up to the task masters, earning himself a death sentence. Meanwhile, the balance of power in the Ancient World was disrupted by the appearance of a demonic artifact which the Egyptians had dubbed the Scepter of Ra, which corrupted the soul of a priest named Ahk-Ton and created what may have been the Earth's first supervillain. One of Earth's earliest heroes, the Wizard Shazam, found that he could not both fight the forces of Hell and stop the threat of their avatar in the mortal plane. Seeking a champion who could stop Ahk-Ton while he dealt with the unseen evil manipulating events from the shadows, the Wizard chose Teth for his demonstrated bravery and courage... though the fact that Teth is the last survivor of the Wizard's tribe may have also factored into that decision.

Rescued from death and given the power of the Rock of Eternity, Teth-Adam not only defeated Ahk-Ton but inspired a slave revolt that led to the creation of one of the wonders of the Ancient World, the founding of Khandaq -- the slave's kingdom. If Ahk-Ton was one of the first supervillains, then Shazam was one of the first superheroes, his exploits and adventures spreading across the globe to inspire many stories that followed, from Heracles to Gilgamesh to Beowulf. And, for a time, Teth was everything that the Wizard expected him to be, but being showered with praise and celebrated as a hero soon turned to worship and Teth spiraled into hubris in buying into the belief that he was a god above men. Chosen to be Earth's champion, his thirst for more power and glory led to his becoming the nemesis of the Ancient World. This led to a confrontation with the Wizard that led to Teth unleashing a spell that sundered his amassed kingdom, destroying its most ancient cities and forming divisions that still exist in the founding and borders of modern day Bialya and Khandaq.

Seeing his kingdom destroyed by his own hand, the gravity of what he had become sank in, and Teth accepted exile in the Rock of Eternity, where his removal from the mortal world would prevent his giving in his thirst for power. He became the Wizard's apprentice and, eventually, his successor. Thousands of years later, he is still working on himself. As such, he had no plans for leaving the Rock of Eternity, afraid of inviting temptation to return, but recent events and the removal of many of Earth's modern defenders have left its ancient champion no alternative but to say the word once more.

Notes

• Theme: Imagine Dragons [Bones]
• In his "alter ego" as 12-year-old Teth Adam, he lives on the street in Fawcett City, using an abandoned section of subway as a hideout and sleeping in an old railcar.

Sample Post

Hider

Thunder rolled in the distance.

Above the cityscape below, the clouds were illuminated by the flashes of light that momentarily lit up the sky at dusk. There was a bright bolt of lightning, the clap of thunder echoed across the atmosphere above. In the momentary flash, a solitary figure appeared in the sky.

Static crawled up and along the black and gold ensemble that covered the hovering enigma. As he turned his gaze below, the timeless magi found his mind already working out the points of orientation.

The message had been routed by watchtower. A break-in reported at the S.T.A.R. Labs in Jump City.

Descending down through the dark clouds, the raven-haired figure found himself floating over a structure that looked like it had been hit by a bomb.

Or worse.

Someone had wanted to get into S.T.A.R. Labs rather badly, it seemed...

The sound of sirens -- police, fire, and ambulance -- could be heard in the distance. The building seemed to tremble, as though the foundation had been disturbed. Moving quickly, the ancient warrior began moving through the building looking for anyone who might still be in there.

What he found, two layers deep, was ground zero.

A strange, reddish-purple ooze seemed to coat the ceiling, walls, and floor around where some kind of containment unit had been blown apart.

And some rather large, messy footprint made clear that something -- or someone -- had walked away from this. Bringing one hand up to the communicator recessed into his ear, Teth said, "I'm at S.T.A.R. Labs, but this wasn't a break in... it was a break out."

As the man followed the mucky trail, a decidedly squick squish drew a look of disgust that was instanteous. Looking down, his boot was now gummed up in whatever slime or sludge had re-decorated the interior of the place.

"Wonderful..." the child-hero murmured, floating up off the group as he moved through the air on the trail.

DC Universe: Genesis - Justice For All

Obligatory Rebecca Black Reference

DC Universe: Genesis - Justice For All

K A I - R O

_{T A L E S F R O M T H E G R E E N L A N T E R N C O R P S}

---

---

_{ACT I:AD ASTRA PER ASPERA
Part 2: “Oa”}

He awoke with a start.

His breath seemed to catch in his throat. He bolted upright, head on a swivel, as the environment around him was alien. All around him were smooth, reflective surfaces. The light seemingly diffused as if through crystal.

This was not the Buddhist Monastery.

Shifting his legs, the boy slid down from the slab on which he had awoken. As he got his feet under him, he looked back and saw that the bed upon which he had been lying was an altar or table. Simple in form, but it glowed -- as though it were made of light itself.

As if to confirm the ethereal nature of that construction, the table of light seemed to flicker and dissolve. Sticking a hand out, the boy’s hand pawed at where, just a moment ago, a solid object had been there.

...and was then struck at the fact that his hand was in some kind of white glove. Looking over himself, the boy marveled at the fact that his body was clothed in something different from anything he had ever worn before. The gloves and boots were white, with the arms and legs black and the torso green. A circle on the chest seemed to contain a sigil or rune of some kind.

Glancing up, the boy caught his reflection in the crystalline walls of the spartan room. The logo on the chest seemed to stare back at him.

Had he... seen that symbol before?

“Do you remember how you got here?”

A voice.

...but, it wasn’t a voice?

Turning to his left, then circling around to his right, the child did a complete circle. His eyes scanned the room and found only his reflection staring back at him no matter which way he turned. The only other object was a...

...a plant?

Craning his head to one side, the child took a step closer to look at it. It was a pumpkin? On a vine? Did pumpkins grow on vines?

Being from the mountain of Tibet, he’d only seen them in photographs.

But, something in the back of his mind seemed to recognize that he was not alone. “Kham sang?” the child uttered, the Tibetan leaving his lips even before he could have stopped it. Then, he remembered, there had been police.

Was this a Chinese interrogation room? Switching to Mandarin, the boy then offered, “Ni hão?”

“I believe the polite phrase is ‘tashi dalek.’’”

It was as though Kai-Ro was wearing headphones. The voice seemed to speak directly into his head. Almost instinctively, the boy’s hands came up to either side of his head, as though to confirm that he wasn’t wearing ear buds.

At the same time, it confirmed the feeling that he was not alone.

“Yes,” the voice said, though Kai-Ro heard it in perfect Tibetan. “I am in this room with you.”

The boy’s head started to turn, before he instead stared down at the pumpkin-vine. His mind was wrestling with a question, which seemed to come to a singular conclusion.

“Good,” the voice uttered inside his mind. As it spoke, the pumpkin and its vines shifted, as the plant raised itself up in the air.

It drifted forward, toward him.

Kai-Ro took a step back, away from it.

“You accept the reality that there are things which exist, even if you do not know of them,” the voice in his head remarked, as the vines seemed to undulate and curl in mid-air. “Now, do you remember how you got here?”

“There was a light,” the boy recalled aloud. Pausing there, his eyes darted from side to side, as though he were questioning his memory even as he recalled, “...and a... ring?” Had that been where he’d seen this symbol before? “And... and I was flying?”

“Flying where?”

The boy pursed his lips. He opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to doubt himself. “There was all this black... and stars..?”

“It seems impossible doesn’t it?” the pumpkin-vine-being spoke inside the boy’s head. “And yet, you know that you are no longer on your planet.”

The boy’s head craned up sharply as the suggestion cut straight to the well of doubt that he had been wrestling subconsciously with. “This is another...” he began, stopping himself before he could say something...

...well, frankly, something stupid.

The fact that he was talking to a plant seemed to throw that notion out the window though. “...another world?” he uttered finally, the intonation making clear that it was as much a question as it had been a realization.

“This is Oa,” the voice stated, before adding, “Which is different than the planet that I am from. Like you, I was chosen by a ring and brought here.”

“Chosen,” the boy echoed, as the word seemed to resonate. Taken aback for a moment, the boy seemed to hesitate for several seconds of awkward silence before he finally asked, “Chosen for what?”

“That, my young monk, is the right question.”