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Lots of guests coming and going in the next few weeks. I apologize in advance if I lag in posting
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6 yrs ago
Traveling for a week, and may not keep up with RPs. Thank you for your patience.
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6 yrs ago
Been busy and scatterbrained this week, and behind on RPs. Please excuse my delay in posting.
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7 yrs ago
Got back from a two-week vacation overseas. Give me some time to catch up with RPs. Thank you for your patience!
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7 yrs ago
I'll be going on a two week vacation starting tomorrow and don't know how often I'll have Internet access. Thank you for your patience. I'll try to be more regular when I get back.
Yeah Skrulls would be fine, but I'd like to refrain from having had a large secret-invasion scale event revolving around them prior to the start of the game. For clarity, if you want the FF to have faced Galactus off-world, or any of the other larger scale threats I have no problem with that at all. I don’t want to restrict your use of FF enemies, just trying to use common sense in terms of where we are as a game. It's not "Year One" but it's still season one.
If you would like to implement a Galactus style invasion at a later date, would love to discuss and coordinate that with you as that could be a fun cross-player event.
OK, I also agree that it's probably too early in the RP to bring alien threats directly to Earth's doorstep, so I'll say that one of the FF's prior missions was space exploration (a second attempt at Reed's experiment, which was to test a form of FTL propulsion) that sends them on a short trek through space where they encounter Skrull, Kree, and 'hear rumors' of the "Planet Eater".
Since returning, preparing Earth to stand strong on the galactic stage has been a constant nagging at the back of Mrs. Fantastic's mind. The FF have since fought off a few Skrull scouting parties, but nothing full-scale yet.
The 48 hour competition timer has now begun for the FF! If you're accepted I would just like to clarify the extent to which you would be attempting to involve Galactus, as him arriving on Earth for instance would obviously be quite a large development for the game as a whole, at least at this stage.
Ah, given that the FF are really old as an IP, there is definitely some anachronism. I wasn't sure how many omega-level threats the world has yet encountered up to this point in the RP, so if you think the world isn't ready for Galactus' arrival to have happened yet, I can definitely exclude it. On that note, what about skrulls?
Mrs. Fantastic (Sue Richards) is the leader of the Future Foundation and has the ability to turn herself and other nearby objects invisible, as well as project invisible force fields of any shape. She is a charismatic leader though decades of fighting crime, battling otherworldly forces, and dealing with international politics have left her grizzled and slightly jaded. Sue obtained her powers when she was bombarded with cosmic rays during a freak spaceflight accident. In this continuity, Sue's late husband, Reed Richards, sacrificed himself during the space mission so that the other crew members could return to Earth safely, leaving Sue to become the leader of the Fantastic Four along with the other founding members: her brother Johnny, Reed's best friend Ben, and Reed's close colleague Victor. A lot of her major canonical conflicts center around her 'womanhood' especially when it comes to her pregnancies and raising her and Reed's overpowered and unstable son, Franklin. I wanted to write a Sue who is allowed to step out of Reed's shadow and become a leader in her own right, unburdened by the existence of her children.
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
The Thing (Ben Grimm) is a member of the Future Foundation and their pilot. He was onboard the spaceship during the cosmic ray incident which mutated him into a rock-like humanoid with incredible strength and endurance. Ben is tough, friendly, and the stable foundation for the team. Canonically, due to his transformation warping his appearance, Ben saw his powers as a curse, so I wanted to play with the idea that, due to Reed's sacrifice, Ben sees his power instead as a gift and a responsibility, and throws himself wholeheartedly into superhero work. As someone who's 'stuck' looking the way he does, Ben has become a strong advocate for mutant rights.
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) has the ability to wreath his entire body in fire, fly, and shoot flames from himself. Johnny was present on the mission that gave Sue and Ben their powers, and obtained his own powers similarly. Canonically, Johnny is a bit of a cocksure diva and his youth and immaturity were always front and center in his personality and conflicts, so I wanted to write a Johnny Storm who was somewhat humbled and matured by the untimely death and sacrifice of Reed, his brother-in-law, while being given the opportunity to age up a bit, becoming more responsible, and even starting a healthy family as Reed and Sue never had the opportunity to start theirs.
C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T C H A R A C T E R P O R T R A I T
Crystal | Crystalia Amaquelin-Storm | 39 House of Agon | Inhuman | Member of The Future Foundation / Princess of the Inhuman Royal Family Manhattan | New York | USA
Crystal (Crystalia Storm) is a member of the Inhuman Royal Family (also known as the House of Agon) who was exposed to terrigen mist at a young age and developed elemental powers, able to control and manipulate water, fire, earth, and air. The Inhuman Royal Family started out as enemies of the Fantastic Four, but after discovering an internal, inhuman plot to pit the royal family against the Fantastic Four and seize power, the Fantastic Four helped the Royal Family foil this plot, and have been close allies ever since. Canonically, Crystal and Johnny have had a relationship, and Crystal has been a temporary member of the Fantastic Four. In this reimagining, Johnny and Crystal are married and Crystal is a permanent member, replacing Dr. Doom.
C H A R A C T E R N O T E S C H A R A C T E R N O T E S
P R E V I O U S R O S T E R S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ The Fantastic Four Founding Roster (1999 - 2006) ►Mrs. Fantastic (Sue Richards) ►Dr. Iron (Victor Von Doom) ►The Thing (Ben Grimm) ►The Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
The Fantastic Four Core Members (2007 - 2010) ►Mrs. Fantastic (Sue Richards) ►The Thing (Ben Grimm) ►The Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
The Fantastic Four Affiliate Members (2007 - 2010) ►Medusa (Medusalith Amaquelin) ►Crystal (Crystalia Amaquelin) -
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C U R R E N T R O S T E R ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ The Future Foundation Current Roster: (2011 - Present) ►Mrs. Fantastic (Sue Richards) ([color=00aeef][/color]) ►The Thing (Ben Grimm) ([color=orange][/color]) ►The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) ([color=red][/color]) ►Crystal (Crystalia Amaquelin-Storm) ([color=yellow][/color]) -
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S U P P O R T I N G C A S T ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ►Dr. Doom (Victor Von Doom) - Old friend, former member of the team, and dictator of Latveria ►The House of Agon (Inhuman Royal Family) - Various members of the Inhuman Royal Family, based out of the hidden city-state of Attilan located in the North Atlantic ►Cynthia Storm - Daughter of Johnny and Crystal -
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E N E M I E S ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ►Namor (The Submariner) - King of Atlantis. Wishes to marry Sue Richards ►Galactus - Cosmic entity ►The Silver Surfer - Herald of Galactus ►Skrulls - Space empire of shape-shifters
◼ Birth of Victor Von Doom (1971) ◼ Birth of Reed Richards and Ben Grimm (1975) ◼ Birth of Sue Storm (1977) ◼ Birth of Johnny Storm (1982) ◼ Reed, Ben, and Victor meet at State University, New York, becoming fast friends (1993) ◼ Victor's experiment results in an accident, scarring his face. Reed consoles him. Victor leaves the US to do some soul-searching (1995) ◼ Reed and Sue marry (1997) ◼ Reed's experimental spaceflight with his wife Sue, best friend Ben, and brother-in-law Johnny results in them getting bombarded with cosmic rays and obtaining their powers. Reed sacrifices himself to ensure his family and friends return to Earth safely (1998) ◼ With their newfound powers, Sue founds the Fantastic Four alongside Victor, who has returned to mourn Reed's death (1999) ◼ Victor takes a hiatus to resolve the instability of his homeland, Latveria (2006) ◼ Victor becomes dictator of Latveria, is labeled an enemy to world peace by NATO (2010) ◼ The Fantastic Four is renamed to The Future Foundation, reflecting a shift in intent and policy (2011) ◼ Johnny and Crystal marry (2017) ◼ Cynthia is born (2019) -
P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S ) P L O T ( S ) & G O A L ( S )
As one of marvel's oldest IPs, The Fantastic Four are burdened with a lot of outdated story tropes that are difficult to resolve in the modern age, part of why it's been so difficult to create a good Fantastic Four movie. Reed Richards has always been the 'main character' whose genius and importance overshadow the others. So I wanted to reimagine a Fantastic Four without a Mr. Fantastic, giving the other members the chance to shine in his absence.
I noticed an unusual throughline with The Fantastic Four and the threats they faced. Their enemies are often political entities. Namor is a king, Doom is a dictator, The Inhumans are royalty, and the Skrull are a space empire. it makes sense for Captain America to fight the Red Skull, but the Fantastic Four are not themselves seen as a political entity, so I wanted to imagine what it would be like if they got more involved with changing the world not just through fighting but through activism and altruism. Such activities would create an additional sort of drama as they start to aggravate existing power structures. Canonically, Reed Richards did found the Future Foundation to explore ways in which science can benefit all of humanity, so this idea isn't completely out of left field.
Due to the rising tension with mutants which seems to be the current major plot point in this RP, I would like to set up the Future Foundation as a place to which young, superpowered individuals, mutant and non-mutant alike, can apply to become affiliate members. Sue believes that mutants need non-mutant allies to stand up for them and provide them with opportunities or else the divide will only widen.
I am also reimagining a world in which the relationship between Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom had become one of friendship instead of rivalry. I feel that a touch of empathy and love might be enough to turn Doom's trajectory completely around. However, Doom still becomes dictator of Latveria, and is labeled a threat to global peace by NATO, who consider his methods counter to "Democracy", ie. capitalism. Doom still supports the Future Foundation under the table with his considerable resources and knowledge, but on paper, the Future Foundation has been forced to disavow Doom to maintain their public image. Given that my theme is to make things 'political', the continuing secret relationship between the Future Foundation and Latveria could jeopardize the Future Foundation's legitimacy in the eyes of Western Nations.
"A superhero and a supervillain walk into a bar..."
The beginning of a joke Johnny had told her passed through Sue's mind. Of course, that was the whole joke; there was no punchline. It was simply a statement made in jest at this little ritual that she participated in every year of the anniversary of the accident. She sat down at the bar next to a man in a trench coat, a hat, and a scar on his face.
"A 'Storm' approaches," the man says, chuckling quietly to himself.
"Very funny, 'Vic'," Sue shot back, gesturing to the barkeep, who knew the usual and began preparing her drink.
"Ugh, I hate that shorthand, it lacks...gravitas."
"Would you prefer Dr. V.D.? Sorry, Johnny came up with that," Sue smirked.
Dr. Victor Von Doom spat out some of his drink, choking in laughter, "Tell your brother to never change!"
Sue smiled wistfully. Whenever Victor was on television making some announcement related to his country, his thick Latverian accent was always front and center, but he could speak in a perfectly good American accent if he wanted to. He only did the accent out of solidarity with his countrymen, who were understandably wary of American interventionism. Similarly, he always appeared in public with his iron mask. But while most superheroes and supervillains wore masks to hide their true selves, 'Victor' was the persona, and Dr. Doom was who he really was. He was a man robed in deception, but Sue knew that beneath the layers of lies was a man who was dramatically and bombastically sincere with himself.
"How's Cynthia?" Victor asked about his god-daughter, and Sue's niece.
"She's healthy. No powers yet, so here's hoping it stays that way," Sue replied. Johnny just wanted their daughter to live a normal life, fearful that if she developed powers, she would be labeled a mutant and persecuted. Of course, Crystal was a bit more open-minded about it, offering to raise Cynthia with her family should Cynthia reveal her abilities.
"How's Namor?"
"Victor, please..." Sue rubbed her forehead in exasperation. Her drink arrived so she took a sip; the bartender left without another word.
"I'm serious," Victor insisted, "Despite his repeated, unwanted advances, the king is intelligent, handsome, wealthy... you could do worse."
"I could do better."
"But think about it, between you and Johnny, you would have Atlantis in one hand, and Attilan in the other," Doom gestured dramatically, as if embracing the sun.
"You're doing it again," Sue teased, referring to Victor's unfortunate penchant towards megalomania. "He doesn't respect me, Victor. And if you think he's such a catch, maybe you should marry him."
"Maybe... maybe..." Victor swished his drink around wistfully reminiscing about the past, and a future that was never meant to be. A silence fell between them as the topic inevitably arrived at Sue's late husband, Reed Richards.
"We're opening up the FF affiliates program to mutants," Sue declared, avoiding the subject, "Bring some young mutants under the FF banner, train them up as superheroes, garner some public respect and support... Sure, it's basically the same thing Dr. Xavier is doing at his school, but it's not enough if it's just mutants helping mutants, right? Us non-mutants need to step up and show solidarity. Show the world that cooperation and coexistence is not only possible, but also beneficial."
Victor nodded, "Latveria will also be granting our mutants full citizenship and protection under the law. Additionally, our embassies the world over will be offering political asylum to mutants who are not known supervillains."
"It could be dangerous. The Brotherhood might try to infiltrate your country."
"Let them come, and face the might of Doom!"
Sue looked at Victor and admired his honesty and single-minded dedication. "How long can we keep doing this?" she asked in a moment of vulnerability.
"As long as it takes," Victor replied with an uncharacteristic gentleness, "It's what Reed would have wanted."
Sue looked at her drink, then lifted it up, "To Reed."
Septishock stood, seemingly calm, at his station, though that was only how it appeared. Inside, his mind was racing. He had decided to stay here in the ship, not out of a sense of loyalty or bravery, but because how else was he going to study anything without the ships impressive array of sensors and research equipment?
"I will stay here and attempt to minimize the damage from the landing," Septishock declared, "If anyone wishes, you may evacuate, but do try to reconvene at the ship as soon as possible. There is research to be done." He then strapped himself in and tried to regain some semblance of control over the ship.
As the doors burst open, Septishock fired into the group, aiming at limbs in an attempt to disable the mutineers rather than than kill them, not as an act of mercy, but that they were probably more useful alive than dead. However, the fighting was soom interrupted by the appearance of what looked like a talking skull.
As the image finished it's announcement and dissipated, Septishock called out triumphantly, "I knew it! Previously undiscovered sentient life!" but his victory was short-lived, as an external force seemed to grab the ship and fling it into some sort of space anomaly. However, control seemed to return to the consoles, so Septishock braced himself and quickly set the scanners to make a comprehensive sweep of the portal as they passed through before the g-forces became too much for him to resist and he collapsed to the floor; no point wasting this opportunity to study a subspace event first hand.
As the shaking finally stopped and the ship stabilized. Septishock pulled himself back up to the console, only to see a warning: "Starmap not found, calculating position."
"We're lost," Septishock declared out loud, with only a slight hint of concern, "We should cease our belligerence for now. In an emergency situation, a full crew is better than half a crew. Destroy us, and you lose half the skill necessary for running this ship, and my previous threat of being stranded in space forever will most likely come to fruition. You seem like a reasonable, though misguided lot; what say you?" Septishock pointed his gun arm at the core group of Predacons still huddled around the door, ready to resume combat, staring at them with his single, inscrutable eye, which, while incapable of expression, appeared threatening nonetheless.
Though Ari is not arrogant, he does believe that the people of Moon River are ignorant and uncultured, and this is a bias that he will have to overcome. He has a sharp and philosophical mind, but though he tries to be a good person, mixed messages from his father's culture, his mother's religion, and the norms and laws of a secular nation have somewhat muddled his concept of what 'good' even means. Having faced his fair share of prejudice and microaggressions, Ari is wary of others, choosing to judge them silently before determining if he can trust them with his respect and friendship. Having been distanced from his old friends, Ari is dealing with a profound sense of loneliness. Raised with discipline and self-control as his primary virtues, Ari may be too mature for his own good, and finds it difficult to indulge in the normal but impulsive joys of youth.
Life Experiences:
Ari was born and raised in California's Bay Area. His father, Gai Ogata, is a highly-educated Japanese immigrant who worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the US Department of Energy, who was relocated to Wyoming to contribute to a major geothermal energy project. His mother, Francine Ogata nee Meyer, is primarily a homemaker, although she does offer private piano lessons. Ari's father often has to spend whole weeks working away from home, so Ari spends most of his at-home time with his mother. Ari only moved to Moon River last year and had a miserable time trying to fit in, having to transition from an urban life to a rural one, from a cosmopolis to a hole in the ground. The idea had crossed his mind to just suck it up and focus on his studies until he could graduate and enter a prestigious college in a major city where he could engage with like-minded colleagues, but the thought of two years without any friends seemed too depressing, so he would try again this coming school year to socialize more and build connections with his peers.
Hobbies + Interests
Classical music and playing the piano
Japanese media, specifically anything to do with giant robots
Electronic media, ie. video games
Religion and philosophy
Running
Trivia
Because people made fun of his full name as a "girl's name" Ari prefers to shorten it to "Ari" or to just go by his middle name, "Akira", but also often just shortens it to "Aki" since Americans tend to mispronounce it as uh-KEE-ruh
Again, Luke Cage is a pretty well established character in his own right so I'm going to have to veto that like She Hulk and Kamala. If the goal is just to have a character with a similar powerset to The Thing, I would think that the easiest choice would be to just use The Thing. I'm not entirely sure what these changes really bring to the story beyond power sets.
No, you're right. I should just focus on the primary difference and catalyst for change, "what if the Fantastic Four didn't have a Mr. Fantastic?" My initial thought was that The Thing really always wanted to be cured, and despite Reed's best scientific efforts, Ben Grimm always remained The Thing. I thought that if Doom aided the FF instead of fighting them, he could provide a solution with magic, but I should consider the fact that Reed is considered the "smartest man on Earth", so a solution to The Thing's problem should not be trivial, even via magic, so I'll keep The Thing in the roster and supplement with one of the inhumans more closely tied to the FF lore like I originally planned. Thanks for regulating and keeping my "what if" ideas from running too wild.
My next post will probably be the application (finally), though I am currently traveling and will probably not get the sheet completed for maybe a week or two.
Ok. I did just come up with another idea, since the FF building is in New York, they might interact with New York heroes quite often. That being the case, Luke Cage has a power set similar to The Thing, so I think it might be a good fit to recruit him as an FF member. Let me know if this is acceptable, if not I'll go back to looking for an Inhuman to fill the spot.
So, I'm not going to be able to okay Jen and Kamala as members of the F4, sorry.
They're too popular in their own right to be bundled together as one "character". I know Jen has appeared in incarnations of the Fantastic Four but so have half the Marvel cast at this point.
This is reasonable. However I would still like to keep the number of members around four, so I think I'll poach some members of the Inhuman Royal Family (House of Agon), since I don't think they're that popular, and although they were former enemies of the FF, they soon became allies afterwards and collaborated often. Let me know if this is acceptable.
In regards to Doom, I would be inclined to see how you put this idea forward in the application; to my tastes a heroic, socialist Doom does seem less a reimagining in keeping with the core of the character and more bordering on an OC with a shared name. However, I fully hold my hands up and say I may just be being unnecessarily precious. As long as the idea is developed well there shouldn't be a problem
The main inspiration for "Based Doom", or "Dr. Fantastic", as I have started referring to my reimagining as, are these pages, conveniently analyzed in this article, which show that ultimately canon Doom's goals are for the benefits of humanity, but he is too willing to sacrifice others to achieve these goals, believing these as necessary. I feel the main impetus for Doom's villainy lie in his arrogance and vanity, as well as his hatred for Reed Richards. So the main difference in this reimagining is what if Reed and Victor had become friends instead? Of course, I am not trying to convince you right now, and will start working on an application once I get adding some Inhuman Royal Family members to the FF roster approved, and will let the application hopefully do the convincing.
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