CaptainManbeard

Young Avengers

hmph Fine.

I was excited about playing a female role and I haven't done Avengers.

You care if I take a shot at somebody else? I know what you're looking for so I should take that and revamp another character?

Is that cool CM?

@role model

You can still play a female role, and you can still play Natasha if you rework her to fit better with the setting. That's why I suggested having her assassin training suppressed by hypnotic programming that she is not consciously aware of at first. That would allow her to be in the role of a rookie teen superhero along with the group and then begin recovering her full memories and recalling her assassin training gradually over time.

Alternatively, what are some other female characters you'd be interested in?

Young Avengers

One of my concerns here is that, in my experience -- I've been GMing RPs for over twenty years -- when you have one character who is so remarkably different from the rest of the group and not in any sort of mentor position, it can create a large imbalance in the story and will tend to frustrate other writers. Pair that with the fact that I was crystal clear in my original Interest Check that this was an RP about rookie teen superheroes, I'm sure you can understand why a government-trained assassin has no place with a group of rookie teen superheroes.

Young Avengers

Another idea might be to wait and bring in Black Widow at a later stage when the characters are all older and pick a different character for right now.

Young Avengers

What if she’s already weapons proficient. She runs away from home, ends up in New York. Then, gets all the extra assassin badass-ness from Terrigenesis? It would be building on skills she already has from getting halfway across the world undetected. Then as the RP goes on she has whoever still looking for her while she’s figuring out her new powers.

That might be a happy medium to maintaining the character’s integrity but mixing her in with the plot.

@Sincerely

But the big question there would still be why she is risking exposure to run around with a group of rookie teen superheroes.

Young Avengers

If this doesn't work I want to try something else. But, I mean she's 18 and she has weapons training. It's not unheard of. Then again I see what you mean. The way I think is that she's the cute, badass young woman who can match intellects with the other people because of her free state education. Being on the lam from EVERYBODY stretches it out in my eyes. But, I don't think it's that much of a factor.

@role model

I just think if she's already this super assassin right from the get go, then gets powers from Terrigenesis, there is not a lot of room for her to grow. Why would she even waste her time with a bunch of rookie teens and risk blowing her cover?

Young Avengers

I just don't think the way you're presenting her meshes well with a teen superhero RP. But I'm curious what everyone else thinks? I want everyone's opinion before I decide whether or not I'm going to allow this.

Young Avengers

IDK about the robot assassin. You may have read it as part of a story in canon but it sounds a little silly to me. My simple background is she was training to be an government assassin after she was randomly tagged and taken to training headquarters, where she did a few years and ended up informing to a watchdog group, which sent her to New York for protection. I'll say she's 18 and has snuck away from the government aid after she finds support from two ex-special forces Captains (on or not on the run for selling secrets).

What do you think?

Also, great opening posts everyone. I hope I get to join you.

@role model

Not robot as in an actual robot, meaning programmed like a robot to be flawless and to subdue her conscious mind while on missions. But I won't force you to go through with that, it was merely one idea.

So, if your idea is to say she basically narked on the Russian government to a watchdog group and then that group put her in witness protection in America, I'm assuming she is going by a different name in the States? And then if she sneaked away from that witness protection program, I'm guessing she changed her name again as she is now on the run both from Russia and the watchdog group? How is she handling identification forms and everything in the States while being on the run?

Young Avengers

So Nat is the Winter Soldier of our group?

@Crimson Flame

Haha, well, assuming Role Model wants to go with this idea, that would sort of be the case. Though instead of HYDRA tech erasing her memory it's the hypnotic programming that achieves a similar effect.

Young Avengers

This is mainly aimed at @CaptainManbeard I've been thinking about Black Widow (Natasha Romanova) being born an American and doing well in martial arts and getting hooked up in the Russian mafia and knows things like murder and extortion before she's 21? She would be an avid MMA practitioner and an antihero.

Everyone comment at will!

@role model

Having her actively engaged in murder and extortion may still make her at odds with her teenage peers. As mentioned before, the point is for them to be rookie superheroes figuring out how the whole life/crimefighting balance and all. What I would suggest instead is to have Natasha be a child of a Russian mafia boss and maybe she witnessed HIM killing, extorting, and interrogating people, and perhaps she has some lingering untreated PTSD or something. Maybe her father was pretty harsh in her youth and forced her to go through torturous training, but then after he was killed by a rival mobster, she was sent to live with her grandmother in New York or something. I would say to not make that recent, though -- Maybe it's been a few years since she came to live with her Grams and she has been seeing a therapist to work out her PTSD, but because of the subliminal programming her father beat into her, she can't deny the obsessive urge to continue training in martial arts. Maybe DOWN THE ROAD, after they've all gotten to know each other, maybe we can say her father also put her under secret hypnotic training to make her essentially an obedient robot assassin, but since he has been dead for a few years, he hasn't been around to say the trigger phrase, which could be "Красная комната" or "Krasnaya Komnata," which is "Red Room" according to Google Translate.

Each time the phrase is uttered, Natasha falls under a hypnotic trance and follows all orders flawlessly and efficiently without conscience or doubt or empathy. No one saw her coming because they didn't expect a little girl to be an assassin. Once the mission was done, she would return to her father, who would then utter "Запечатанный" or "Zapechatannyy," which is "Sealed Shut." This would cause her to fall into a deep sleep for a few hours, and she'd have no memory of the mission upon waking. This would preserve her capability as a perfect assassin without robbing her of the teenage inexperience that is vital to the early posts in the RP. She basically would have no memory of her missions or her suppressed assassin capabilities, for quite some time, until we get to a point in the story where we can begin to bring that side of her in.

Once that point arrives, we can work into the story a reason for her to go look at some of her father's belongings in storage, where she learns of the trigger phrases. Maybe the group is looking through the stuff together and David says the trigger phrase out loud and everyone freaks out as Natasha suddenly pulls a knife on him. Then they can start a very slow process of her regaining all her memories. What does everyone think?

Young Avengers

Oh, and also, I added colors to my intro post, let me know if anyone has any issues reading it. I stuck with brighter colors to make it easier to read. At first I had both Owen and David with different shades of green, but it looked too similar within a single post, so I changed Owen to sort of a dark yellow.

UPDATE: I also used their new signature colors on each character sheet.