"Well, at least I can say I contributed, teehee..."
"I'd say you did plenty," Miria said with a gesture toward the unconscious pink team. "Unless those guys weren't also your doing."
There was a pause while Mr. Raptor introduced himself. Not the most original name, bit not like Miria was really one to talk, there. He didn't really stick around long, but did leave the crate he'd secured behind, and got a "you can count on me!" to see him off. She took a seat on the crate to continue the conversation.
"I thought magical girls were just a thing on children's television shows. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised with everything else going on in this town." And there go the comments Maple's probably already had far too often. "And you use magic." So she was mistaken. Magic...was probably worse. Another variable to worry about, certainly. And just something that made Earth curiouser and curiouser.
"I suppose I shouldn't pry too much into how your magic works, but I am curious. It's not like magic is something one just sees every day. I guess you're another of the heroes running around Grailham, then?"
The pink speedster and the...Magical Girl Miracle Maple, had handled the six-pack of coincidentally pink villains just fine. Meanwhile, team green tried to escape with the loot. Another new challenger, some sort of dinosaur person, beat Miria to the interception, claiming the crate for himself.
"You're not with them," it was a statement, not a question, directed toward said dinosaur-man. "Stick around and help me deal with the rest of these guys."
Two of the men in green were clutching their arms in pain, but the other four had taken up a defensive position of their own, eyeing the two interlopers. "Almost thought we had them with that gambit. Damnit, who the hell brought Jurassic Park into this?" one of them complained. "You two," the ringleader of this team remarked to the two injured members, "take a break.". The pair of garishly costumed villains began to dissolve into so much shimmering dust. The remaining members of Sinister Green weighed their options between the goddamned dinosaur holding their loot, and the lady. "I knew we should've brought guns, but no..." one of them lamented, before all four of them rushed Miria.
Miria proved to be a brick wall. She didn't even make any flashy gestures, just a few feet in front of her, all four of the Green squad slammed into something. "I told you, you wouldn't get past me," Miria taunted them from the other side of her glowing barrier. The hexagonal lattice rapidly moved outward, knocking the villains flying. A second one formed above them, slamming them into the ground with enough force to knock the wind out of them.
"Stay down," Miria said as she walked past her captive villains, toward the others still standing. One speedster who probably just got a hell of a show if his drones were on point. One person who might be using some form of transcendent technology. And one person who was also a velociraptor. "Well. We have some time for introductions before the authorities arrive. You can call me Shield Maiden. I really hope that's the last of those guys."
@Spin The Wheel@Crow@Crimson Flame (Now it's Team Watermelon, to tie up some loose ends. Might be a bit contrived, but now we can talk?)
As big and populated as Grailham was, it was surprisingly easy to be alone. Curious, for a supposedly social animal like humans ,but it suited Miria's purposes well enough. And some time just spent out by oneself was always good, anyway. An ordinary young lady would probably be concerned with walking around a city at night, alone, but she was far from ordinary and quite confident in her ability to defend herself.
In what was becoming an all too regular occurrence, explosions rocked the relative peace of the evening. It didn't take that long to get the general direction and begin running toward it. As some do in this city, either heroes themselves or the sort drawn to opportunities to see them. Either outcome was one Miria could be happy with. She'd get involved if she had to, though she wouldn't be too impressive in ordinary civilian clothing. She'd have to ask someone how they actually had those ridiculous outfits ready at a moment's notice one of these days.
By the time she arrived on the scene, a few others had already gotten involved. Including one she recognized. Dynamo. So much for a scoop, with that guy and his drones around. The sound of her hurried footsteps would surely have already alerted everyone there to her arrival. Silver hair streaming behind her, Miria hardly seemed to be winded as she burst onto the scene. "You and that crate aren't going anywhere," she announced with all the authority and command of someone used to giving commands. "You won't be getting past me, anyway." She didn't move to engage, but instead to head off anyone trying to get away, with or without the loot.
A race of machine lifeforms created by an ancient species as a proxy army and peacekeeping force. They outlived their creators, and have been forced to develop on their own as a result.
Age: Appears to be in her mid 20s.
Power: Force field generation
The force field Miria employs for offense and defense is standard issue for her kind. It functions by shunting the energy of attacks into a dimensional fold, to be released later in any arbitrary direction. When struck, the field tends to light up in a hexagonal pattern. While usually around her in a spherical form if she’s just defending herself, she can extend her force fields to form barriers, and can also shrink the coverage to a smaller area.
Offensively, she can use the same force fields to capture or otherwise contain someone or something, extend one in such a way as to hit someone with it and shove them around, or even create a local warp in space that would damage or destroy the objects occupying the same space.
Her force fields are safe to stand on if you’re brave enough.
The Custodians are a machine intelligence and the last legacy of their creators. Initially built as a proxy military force, after aiding their creators in a period of imperial expansion, the machine intelligence that would eventually become the custodians were repurposed as a peacekeeping force. In the distant past, their creators died out, but the custodians remained, continuing to be produced and serviced by automatic shipyards. When asked, the custodians are adamant that they did not kill off their masters, and instead their empire fractured and fell to infighting, with the modern custodians being one remnant who survived the war and are still looking out for the enemy who brought their creators low.
Essentially inheriting an empire in their own right (and with new organic species to protect and work with evolving within it), the Custodians are part of the galactic community. They’ve evolved and adapted since their creators disappeared, and operate as a sort of network within the territory they occupy, keeping the peace as they always have and coexisting with other species. Owing to their nature as a peacekeeping force, many custodians join up with the Galactic Alliance police.
Custodian bodies are based on a nanotmaterial basis, and run off an advanced, miniaturized power source. They are generally a “soft” sort of body, although they lack organs as such. The body’s construction does make one stronger and faster than an ordinary human, but they’ll lose out to a superhuman who specializes in any category. Her inorganic physiology is less susceptible to extremes in temperature or pressure, and completely unbothered by diseases or poisons. There is an actual core that her AI runs on embedded in her body that acts like the human central nervous system. Galactic speculation has it that the Custodians are actually their ships, and the bodies they use to interact with other species are just a manufactured extension.
Custodians do not need to breathe or eat, although they certainly can ingest (and digest) food. They do need sleep, for similar reasons as organic life: a period of low activity to process memory and other systems, and repair damage.
Miria weighs significantly more than a human of the same size, due to her construction. If injured, she’ll need to repair herself, instead of healing naturally. She can enact field repairs by moving around her available nanomaterial, but major repairs or replacement of lost material require a visit to her ship.
Acids are as effective against her as they are on anything else, as is ionizing radiation.
Limitations: Miria has certain programmed orders that are things she can’t ignore or countermand. She is to protect and rescue civilians whenever possible (and anyone in distress in space), and cannot kill (and can’t torture someone with things that they can survive, either). She also follows a continuum of force, and will match her response to the threat presented.
Due to the current advancement of Earth, technology protection protocols have Miria operating at a very low overall output.
Flaws/weaknesses: Miria’s force fields do have a limit to the energy they can absorb before they are saturated and collapse. She can dissipate the energy over time when not under fire, so sustained fire or very powerful single attacks are the most effective.
She needs to repair herself with additional nanomaterial when injured, and her only supply is her ship, so if she doesn’t have access to it, she’ll just have to wait.
Skills/Talents: Knowledge of the greater galaxy, its culture, laws, etc. Astrogation Hacking - As one might expect, an AI running on a quantum computer has little difficulty cracking into most electronic security on Earth. Makes electronic music as a hobby.
Personality: Miria is focused, composed, and confident. Even in the toughest situations, she’ll push through with sheer grit and determination. She can tend toward being aggressive or defensive, particularly to hide her own emotional vulnerabilities. She can get a bit overzealous when it comes to pursuing her job, but most of her activities on Earth don’t count for that.
She tends to come off as either very curious, or completely unsurprised, depending on the situation and how well she already understands it. Anything involving aliens or advanced technology is already quaint, anything involving human culture is fascinating. She is particularly intrigued by music, and composes some of her own, in her spare time, as a way to understand humanity better.
She tends to fight with efficiency and precision, avoiding collateral damage whenever possible.
Background/bio: Miria is a law enforcement officer of the Galactic Alliance, assigned to the Sol system. While the Alliance would usually consider such a planet something of an unimportant backwater, the increase in superhumans has piqued their interest. They also suspect that various criminals may be using the planet as a place to lay low.
Her mission is to search for any fugitives possibly hiding out on the planet, and to assess the Earth’s cultural and technological advancement for possible invitation to join the Alliance. She arrived and has set herself up with a civilian identity. Miria’s cover identity is a reporter working for one of the larger news agencies in Grailham city. The location is an excellent one for reasons of both being a major city full of all manner of industry, and for the large number of heroes and villains present, making it a good case study for the rest of the Earth. Her job was chosen mostly because it allows her a certain amount of freedom in gathering information.
With all the supervillains running around, she did eventually have to step in and defend herself and others, and has made something of a name for herself as a hero. The “Shield Maiden” moniker is one given to her by the news, but she’s stuck with it for now. She’s kept her origins a secret, of course, and people seem to really love lines like “I just can’t help myself,” for reasons to stop people breaking the law or acting to protect others. Never mind that to do otherwise would go against her programming. She is the sort to drop villains off with the police or otherwise ensure they are handed over to custody of the proper authorities, usually with as little harm to them as possible.
A race of machine lifeforms created by an ancient species as a proxy army and peacekeeping force. They outlived their creators, and have been forced to develop on their own as a result.
Age: Appears to be in her mid 20s.
Power: Force field generation
The force field Miria employs for offense and defense is standard issue for her kind. It functions by shunting the energy of attacks into a dimensional fold, to be released later in any arbitrary direction. When struck, the field tends to light up in a hexagonal pattern. While usually around her in a spherical form if she’s just defending herself, she can extend her force fields to form barriers, and can also shrink the coverage to a smaller area.
Offensively, she can use the same force fields to capture or otherwise contain someone or something, extend one in such a way as to hit someone with it and shove them around, or even create a local warp in space that would damage or destroy the objects occupying the same space.
Her force fields are safe to stand on if you’re brave enough.
The Custodians are a machine intelligence and the last legacy of their creators. Initially built as a proxy military force, after aiding their creators in a period of imperial expansion, the machine intelligence that would eventually become the custodians were repurposed as a peacekeeping force. In the distant past, their creators died out, but the custodians remained, continuing to be produced and serviced by automatic shipyards. When asked, the custodians are adamant that they did not kill off their masters, and instead their empire fractured and fell to infighting, with the modern custodians being one remnant who survived the war and are still looking out for the enemy who brought their creators low.
Essentially inheriting an empire in their own right (and with new organic species to protect and work with evolving within it), the Custodians are part of the galactic community. They’ve evolved and adapted since their creators disappeared, and operate as a sort of network within the territory they occupy, keeping the peace as they always have and coexisting with other species. Owing to their nature as a peacekeeping force, many custodians join up with the Galactic Alliance police.
Custodian bodies are based on a nanotmaterial basis, and run off an advanced, miniaturized power source. They are generally a “soft” sort of body, although they lack organs as such. The body’s construction does make one stronger and faster than an ordinary human, but they’ll lose out to a superhuman who specializes in any category. Her inorganic physiology is less susceptible to extremes in temperature or pressure, and completely unbothered by diseases or poisons. There is an actual core that her AI runs on embedded in her body that acts like the human central nervous system. Galactic speculation has it that the Custodians are actually their ships, and the bodies they use to interact with other species are just a manufactured extension.
Custodians do not need to breathe or eat, although they certainly can ingest (and digest) food. They do need sleep, for similar reasons as organic life: a period of low activity to process memory and other systems, and repair damage.
Miria weighs significantly more than a human of the same size, due to her construction. If injured, she’ll need to repair herself, instead of healing naturally. She can enact field repairs by moving around her available nanomaterial, but major repairs or replacement of lost material require a visit to her ship.
Acids are as effective against her as they are on anything else, as is ionizing radiation.
Limitations: Miria has certain programmed orders that are things she can’t ignore or countermand. She is to protect and rescue civilians whenever possible (and anyone in distress in space), and cannot kill (and can’t torture someone with things that they can survive, either). She also follows a continuum of force, and will match her response to the threat presented.
Due to the current advancement of Earth, technology protection protocols have Miria operating at a very low overall output.
Flaws/weaknesses: Miria’s force fields do have a limit to the energy they can absorb before they are saturated and collapse. She can dissipate the energy over time when not under fire, so sustained fire or very powerful single attacks are the most effective.
She needs to repair herself with additional nanomaterial when injured, and her only supply is her ship, so if she doesn’t have access to it, she’ll just have to wait.
Skills/Talents: Knowledge of the greater galaxy, its culture, laws, etc. Astrogation Hacking - As one might expect, an AI running on a quantum computer has little difficulty cracking into most electronic security on Earth. Makes electronic music as a hobby.
Personality: Miria is focused, composed, and confident. Even in the toughest situations, she’ll push through with sheer grit and determination. She can tend toward being aggressive or defensive, particularly to hide her own emotional vulnerabilities. She can get a bit overzealous when it comes to pursuing her job, but most of her activities on Earth don’t count for that.
She tends to come off as either very curious, or completely unsurprised, depending on the situation and how well she already understands it. Anything involving aliens or advanced technology is already quaint, anything involving human culture is fascinating. She is particularly intrigued by music, and composes some of her own, in her spare time, as a way to understand humanity better.
She tends to fight with efficiency and precision, avoiding collateral damage whenever possible.
Background/bio: Miria is a law enforcement officer of the Galactic Alliance, assigned to the Sol system. While the Alliance would usually consider such a planet something of an unimportant backwater, the increase in superhumans has piqued their interest. They also suspect that various criminals may be using the planet as a place to lay low.
Her mission is to search for any fugitives possibly hiding out on the planet, and to assess the Earth’s cultural and technological advancement for possible invitation to join the Alliance. She arrived and has set herself up with a civilian identity. Miria’s cover identity is a reporter working for one of the larger news agencies in Grailham city. The location is an excellent one for reasons of both being a major city full of all manner of industry, and for the large number of heroes and villains present, making it a good case study for the rest of the Earth. Her job was chosen mostly because it allows her a certain amount of freedom in gathering information.
With all the supervillains running around, she did eventually have to step in and defend herself and others, and has made something of a name for herself as a hero. The “Shield Maiden” moniker is one given to her by the news, but she’s stuck with it for now. She’s kept her origins a secret, of course, and people seem to really love lines like “I just can’t help myself,” for reasons to stop people breaking the law or acting to protect others. Never mind that to do otherwise would go against her programming. She is the sort to drop villains off with the police or otherwise ensure they are handed over to custody of the proper authorities, usually with as little harm to them as possible.
I have weaknesses, but I’m not sure what limitations to give for super speed.
Limitations, hm...
The obvious is just a maximum speed. How fast can you go? Other limitations include endurance (how long can you sustain super speed?), and given super speed has a lot of applications (Looking at you, Flash), comments on what you can and can't leverage your speed to also do might be something to consider, too.
I have made a few alien races and I think I might populate a little of the universe with them. They probably won't make much of an appearance in the RP and they would be 'unknown' to humans, but if you go with an alien character than they might know of them. especially if they are supposed to be space cops. I was thinking of using an individual from one of them as a plot device at some point in the story, if you want we could set up some knowledge of that for your character in a PM, perhaps it could help explain why they are on Earth in the first place.
Always happy to discuss stuff over PM and see where it goes for better fitting a character into the world. And I definitely was going to leverage some angle of on Earth because there's alien criminals or lost technology artifacts or similar there. Got to be a little more to it than just "I'm assigned to this sector." or "We're observing your civilization to see if you're ready to join the greater galactic stage, and are also concerned about all these people popping up with unnatural abilities not normally displayed by your species."
I'll see if I can think of some good weirdness for an alien civ or the like. Though "a bunch of machines" does definitely lead to a few obvious unusual mindsets or quirks. I can think of a few on either that level or a personal one already, but will likely need to put a bit more thought into things, too. Including just how obviously quirky and strange she should be. Probably, gong to maintain a secret identity and all that, rather than be obviously inhuman all the time. Both for standard superhero tropes and to do otherwise would defeat the purpose of being undercover in the first place.
The biggest thing I probably need to do is narrow down a power set, given I've tossed around about half a dozen ideas there. I've got time, of course. About all I can comment on there is I may not want to lean too hard on things like just being a sufficiently advanced android and thus made of sterner stuff. I'll also have to think of how to do limitations and a sense of progression, if we need it, though have a couple ideas there.
Ah, but two vampires could be very different from one-another. Also, that reminds me: vampires make an amusing potential enemy for a regenerator. Their goal is simple: capture such a person and keep them somewhere where they can be used as a reliable blood source.
The challenge with an alien mindset is, well, writing a mindset that's believably "alien" when we're not. Doesn't make it impossible, of course, because it's not like one needs lived experience to write or roleplay something. Not sure if I have many thoughts on the mindset, though I can think about how that'd potentially work out. Though the other sticking point i can see there is if blending in is part of the point, can't be too "stranger in a strange land" either. Gotta break the prime directive sometimes, but can't just do it all the time, either. It does lead to an obvious limitation to the character as some sort of "technology protection" system that cuts in and puts a time or output limit on their stuff.
The thoughts I had so far for things are more the big picture stuff, and that's going sort of the way of the Zentraedi from Macross. Advanced precursor race creates peacekeeping/military force. Though, probably more machine intelligence, as I do like that angle. They outlived their creators (didn't go all Skynet and kill them, at least) and are more or less continuing in their original role, just also trying to figure out a place in the universe without their masters, and with plenty of other stuff.
The general feel I'd be going for is sort of Green Lantern space cops or the like, just as an autonomous system that's going "well, we still have all our orders to be space cops, now what?" Or...something like that.
And to cap off with more brainstorming on powers to play with, whatever origins the character has, something like manipulating force fields for defense (and attack) might be fun. I'll figure something out, but it might take a while.
I might as well toss around my own thoughts and ideas, because that is part of the fun. The tech-based ideas I have could go with a fairly normal cyborg or android sort of character using a lot of gear for most things. Alternatively, one way to play with the concept is to mix it a bit with aliens and such: the character's actually an alien pecekeeper (and possibly very advanced probe, not an actual member of some alien race) sent to Earth to check things out. That option does allow for more flexibility in powers, as we're looking at sufficiently advanced technology and could thus really run anything, instead of strictly weapon summoning or the like.
For other things like just power sets that might be fun, some sort of light manipulation, at least sometimes for making laser beams, might be fun. Or electrokinesis. Or maybe that Gambit-stlye charging stuff up with the ability to explode.
Izurich
