In reply to Master of Games (msg # 41):

I'm good with that. :) I don't have any ideas for who that person should have been, though. Suggestions, anyone? ^_^;

If you want to go with a person dying in the battle you could have them be connected to each of the PCs even if it's only minor. This is only a suggestion so feel free to disregard, change it or whatever you wish to do.

Say the hero worked with the Rebirth Program or was an advocate for Ironheart to be given a second chance. They also was someone Reverie knew back during her time, maybe even one of the people who was on her team or a former member. To Harbinger this was one of the people who she believed needed to live for her to complete her mission so now she has to figure out another way to solve it. For Leech, maybe this person was someone who was offering to take him in you know be a guardian of sorts or go the intel route like you suggested. For Argo this was the hero who apprehended him when he escaped from Orthrus the last time and basically saved the guy from their clutches even if that was not the hero's intended goal. The person could have been an established member of the community and maybe seen as the next paragon for New Atlantis and now they're dead because of the team.

If we're going with Dunamis Incorporated being one of the places that suffered during the attack I don't think it would make sense for that to include downtown. That being said if downtown works better for the prompt then let's go with that.

I'd assume the Dunamis HQ would be Uptown or Midtown, but there is no reason why they can't have some other facilities in the Downtown as well. Like a warehouse or a lab conducting sensitive tests that they don't want to get as much attention.

Re: Dunamis Inc being targeted in the attack.

I think this makes sense, and fits when Reverie will be saving good ol' Harold. From what we've been throwing around, I wasn't necessarily imagining the HQ, but a smaller office/facility - something with interesting, possibly secret stuff.

Re: high price

Leech: Is this person going to die or be injured in some permanent way? My suggestions will vary, depending.

(In either case, I don't really need or want them to be connected to Reverie's past. I'm really happy for it to be a New Atlantis native! Gotta have ties here and now, after all. :P)

Re: the GMs other team questions.

Team name thoughts: I'm very bad at coming up with team names which is why Reverie's old team doesn't have a name in her backstory. The Hey Yous? New Guardians? The Rascals? Society's Last Defense (used mockingly by others maybe shortened to the Last Defense)? Menace Squad? Pizza Protectors? >.> Like I said, bad.

Leader: No real thoughts here.

Premise: Right place, right time - is that why we were all there? It kind of feels like what might work here is a half and half situation - a couple members of the team just happened to get embroiled, a couple others were there pursuing leads or something, maybe a couple of them already knew each other out of mask or not, and boom they all wound up working together.

Affiliation: I don't have a strong preference one way or another here, and may feel more creative on the morrow.

Okay: some kinda-sorta stream of consciousness overthinking-while-also-not-thinking-enough thoughts. Sorry if that means I end up saying a lot without saying much.

Price Paid:

Personally I’d rather avoid anything too specific to Ironheart if possible. My own prompt is already factoring in some kind of loss, and I can’t help but feel like pushing anything notably distinct on top of that risks moving into overly angsty territory. It might not actually be a problem but it’s just a concern I have bubbling up.

Artiana’s already getting a push to stop hiding herself away from her own prompt, so I don’t think she needs another gut punch to convince her to be a hero.

Team stuff:

I feel like a bit of a spanner in the works is that a lot of this ties in (indirectly or not) to Cyclone Burst’s prompt. Obviously we can all make suggestions and try to rationalise things out but ultimately they’re supposed to be the one who casts the deciding vote on why this team stuck together. The answer to a question like that can have a lot of impact on our characters’ relationships, the tone we’re going for, and just generally the ‘aesthetic’ of the team itself.

Like I can’t help but think that the Team Name and Leader are going to have a lot to do with the actual motivations behind this team coming together. A group united (as a completely off-the-cuff example) by Harbinger going out of her way to make sure these specific individuals intersect and stay together might be themed to match her influence, while one put together by the proper authorities to keep us in check or with a sponsor might have a very different feel and distinct branding. There could be a big difference between what a group of teens might call themselves and the optics a bigger organisation wants to present.

---

How seriously are the PCs taking this team? Which of them are really invested in it? These things feel like they should have an impact on how we represent ourselves (and who takes responsibility).

I point to this in particular because Artiana probably doesn’t much care about that sort of thing. She’s not going to want to be the leader and she’s certainly playing too aloof to be caught dead suggesting team names that are anything less than SRS. I’m in no way suggesting we can’t have a more colourful name for the team, just that in-universe it’s going to be the product of someone other than her.

Reverie touched on this in the last post, but I think it’s maybe worth considering what the PCs' motivations for getting involved here were:

• Did they already have costumed identities?
• Were they personally invested in what went down or did they just want to help or get dragged in etc?
• What do they want/get out of being on this team?

Those seem like the sort of thing that might really play into who took charge in regards to putting/keeping a team together and what our mission statement and identity is.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Okay, let's just say that Downtown had a local hero called Brightheart, who had taken down a number of dangerous threats and seemed poised to become one of New Atlantis' signature champions. He and Leech had teamed up a few times before, and Leech considered him a mentor of sorts. When Scy and Char started their rampage, he was one of the heroes who appeared to stop them, but he was killed in the final showdown.

You can all decide if you want any personal connections to Brightheart or not.

ETA: Also, as far as leaders go... I vote "Not Me." :p My character has too much of a personal agenda and too little people skills to have much ability or inclination to bring other people together.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:37, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Team stuff:

I’m setting myself a goal of having a “proper” write-up for my backstory prompt for everybody by tomorrow. Noting that I think their coming together is probably a day’s worth of trouble—definitely a whole movie’s worth!—I think the basic beats for when we first came together so far are:

We defeated a dangerous enemy. Who? Char & Scy run amok. Fire! Destruction! Danger! Brute force! Theft! Did we mention danger? A Dunamis Inc facility is involved, perhaps one that was conducting super-powers-related research. No established heroes in sight. Teen heroes, assemble!

But wait, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We fought a terrible enemy from Ironheart’s old life. Who, and what did they take from Artiana? Separate from Char & Scy, Ash—a super villain formerly (?) part of the Corsair Network—strikes at Artiana, reformed villain on a jobsite downtown, bringing the firestorm from Char & Scy to bear. Thought you escaped your past, Artiana? It’ll never let you go. She’s left shaken.

Look deeper. The iceberg is a big one. Reverie’s future self was involved, and she tried to stop them. It took the rest of the team to help her succeed. How did we stop Vigilance’s plans? *abandons 'basic beats' format to dig in plottily* Here are many plotty words and please comment away or share thoughts. Yes, Vigilance used subtle psychic influence to kick the chaos off w/ Ash; she intended to use the diversion to move Mysterious Thing* off New Atlantis to an American hero waiting in the waters. Yes, Reverie figured out Vigilance’s goal, possibly because she recognized the signs of her own-style mental interference and dug deep enough in somebody’s head to put the pieces together—maybe in the middle of everything else going on, or right after they’ve helped Artiana with Ash and are turning their attention to the sh*t Char and Scy are still getting up to. Everybody’s skills basically contribute to a game of keepaway/reverse-heist. It ends when the Mysterious Thing is returned to owner (or destroyed/damaged so it can't be used any longer).

At first I wasn’t sure Vigilance would show up physically at all, and I’m still not 100% sure what would make the best story. Perhaps Vigilance shows up only at the end of the keep away game, just enough to do something morally ambiguous, and force either the hasty breaking-of-the-thing or the returning-of-the-thing. Then Vigilance probably just helped clean up the mess, all good will. But essentially: Perhaps with the team already bonding against external threats (Ash, Char, Scy), when Reverie notices the plotty shady underhanded dealing going on and asks for help, everybody’s down. Cue keep-away, while also defending downtown. Plot foiled when Thing is returned to owner and/or is broken.

Thoughts on Mysterious Thing: Could be a person who works for Dunamis Inc, perhaps, or Mysterious Thing can be a floppy disc or CD rom or microchip with research compiled from Dunamis and Storm Petrel or maybe something like a piece of music which is actually a key to a portion of New Atlantis’s defenses.

A real mess. We paid a high cost for victory. What was it? Brightheart, a local hero who came on the scene and who had some connections with the group, didn’t make it out to star in the sequel.

Note: I will def come up with a personal connection but it will probably be pretty basic. Like, Brightheart knows Elena, or just happens to be somebody Reverie has interacted with a bit. She does spend a bit of time downtown.

We stuck together after all was said and done. Why? How’d we keep in contact?

Over to you, Cyclone Burst!

We averted a disaster from the history’s timeline. What was the disaster? What effect do we hope it had on the timeline?

Over to you, Harbinger!

... I'm so sorry my posts are such wallcrushers, haha. I have more to comment on but I'll leave this one here for now.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:16, Mon 16 Aug 2021.

Sorry for the short post, it's been a long day but I wanted to get something in.

Team Name: I don't have any suggestions at the moment though like it was mentioned earlier it depends on how the characters are tackling teaming up. If some are more hesitant then maybe a team name has not been chosen yet. It's also worth mentioning how long it has been since the PCs first worked together. If it's not been very long then maybe a name hasn't been decided on yet.

Team Leader: What I said about the team name can be applied here as well. If I recall each time the team steps out to handle a scene we decide on who the leader is for that particular scene. So maybe an official leader doesn't need to be chosen. That or maybe whoever is picked should be decided as the game unfolds.

Downtown: I really had Dunamis only having the main compound but if there needs be a lab this away then okay. For it to make more sense that could be where Argo was taken for testing and also why he was close by when the attack happened.

Re: Brightheart. Okay, I can work with that! Feels a bit weird to have two heroes with -heart in their names so close together, but eh, it's as good a name as any. Any other details you may come up with will be appreciated, though I will fill in any remaining blanks myself. One thing in particular - approximately how much older is he suppoed to be?

Re: Vigilance's role. I assume the Thing was stolen from the facility? As a stray thought, if you are going for someone working for Dunamis, you might be able to unite that with the relationship and have Vigilance try to kidnap Harold. I can think of any number of (probably secret) reasons for why she would want the R&D head of a major corporation involved in superpowers research.

In this case, kidnapping can be achieved through long-distance mind control of the sort that's probably beyond Reverie's ability to effect... for now. Deniability is a major plus of this method, though she may still show up in person to keep Reverie from interfering. The chaos is excellent cover for someone to die or go missing. Even if anyone saw Harold, they might think that he was wandering around in a shock before falling into the water, terrible but easy to believe under the circumstances. It would draw Argo into Reverie's story more, which may or may not be something that you want at this stage (that said, PCs being dragged into each other's stories is naturally going to happen anyway).

Or you can go with something else entirely.

Re: Dunamis. It's your call, Argo, but to me it makes sense that a major group with such varied interests would have more than one building in the city. Though, we can have most of their other assets concentrated in the main compound. I do like the idea of this being the remote and secretive testing lab.

Re: leader, yeah, you can definitely just choose one on a case by case basis or wait for one to emerge during play.

It could always be a tribute (whether well-meaning or calculated) on Artiana's part as she didn't have an alias prior to this.

I guess maybe mid-twenties? Not a grizzled veteran, but definitely an older member of the same generation.

In regards to Dunamis and the lab, I'm fine with whatever works best for the story. Apologies for the short reply. It's been a long week and my brain is fried.

In case it was not clear, I still want some details from Reverie. What exactly was Vigilance after? How did you stop her? Answering that would be enough - there may be plenty of other mysteries left for later, such as why she was interested in Dunamis and whatever or whoever she took in the first place. That could be interesting to pursue during play.

While more information on Brightheart or any connections you may have with him would be welcome, I consider Leech's question answered.

Incidentally, if Artania picked her name as a tribute, that seems like it could easily backfire for someone with her playbook... at least at first. After all, it's "her fault" he died. Those who knew him as their protector are liable to take offence, or judge her even more harshly because of it. I think that could play out just fine if you're up for it.

Next we come to Cyclone Burst's question, and here we have a problem as his player has not logged in for over a week. I've tried to reach out by PM and rMail, but haven't heard anything since the last time I mentioned being in contact. I'm still hoping to hear back from PSinha, as there may be any number of real life problems that have their attention. If I do not get anything (whether a full post or just a quick status update) by... let's say 10:00 AM GMT on August 27 (Friday), I think it would be easier by this point to push on ahead with a five-member team, and try to answer his question and related ones by group consensus. While I would really prefer to keep him, I think the smaller team would work just fine, and there is no sense in us waiting forever in radio silence.

Sounds good.

Maybe the name itself is very charged (and she hasn't wholly thought through the consequences of using it) but to her it's statement of intent and cover in one. She can claim - honestly and disingenuously - to be paying tribute to a great hero while also labouring the point that she's not Brightheart if people get on her back and that it isn't her fault if they expect better from someone like her. That lets him occupy a space in her psyche as the (likely unreachable) aspirational goal she both chases and rails against ... which could probably make for a decent parallel with Cyclone Burst and his mentor now that I think about it.

Okay. We can always revisit this if Cyclone Burst returns, but I thought it would make sense to start thinking about my second relationship now rather than leaving all discussion 'til the end of the week.

So:

Argo is ineligible for this as they've already taken up one of my relationships, but does anyone else feel that it might suit them?

What sort of heroes are your characters?

A quiet one, who tends to stick to the shadows. More a hero of opportunity than a crusader for justice - he's got a nemesis that he's focused on, so while he'll stop a mugging if he runs into one, he won't go looking for it.

Sadly, I've still heard nothing from PSinha, so we are going to go ahead without Cyclone Burst for now. I reserve the right to reverse this if I do hear from the player in the near future, but we shall probably have to move on.

Most of the Relationships and Influences seem to have been already decided, and I have updated the first post accordingly. Please correct me if I have made some mistake. If I'm right, though, Ironheart's "hero example" relationship and Reverie's Influence are the only things we need to resolve there. Plus Ironheart's Influence if that has changed. Incidentally, if she does go for the closed book approach, then it would probably make sense to give the one Influence and the relationship to the same person, given the phrasing.

Cyclone Burst's question does not strictly speaking need to be answered according to the rules if he is out... but it is something best addressed now anyway. Why did you decide to remain a team after that first incident?

For that matter, how? Do you have a shared hideout or hangout somewhere? Did you swap contact information? I suppose Reverie might be able to reach out to the rest of the team psionically, or maybe Harbinger made/improved a communication device. Or if you have outside backing, they may have provided for this as well. I think it's best to decide this part now as well, since it would be invaluable for setting up scenes.

EDIT: Oh, and also, how long ago was the incident? Sorry if I overlooked this, but I don't think that was decided?
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:22, Fri 27 Aug 2021.

I'd generally assumed the heroic example and lone influencer were going to be the same, yeah; it only makes sense. Still kinda hoping to get a little more clarity from Harbinger and Reverie on how they're looking to present their characters as heroes (what it means to them and how pragmatic/idealistic they are etc) before locking that one in.

---

I feel like there's a lot still up in the air when it comes to all that other stuff. By my reckoning the list is something like:

• Why we stuck together
• If we have any backers/oversight
• If we're a formal team or a loose group of individuals
• How long we've been together
• Probably some other things I'm overlooking...

I'm going to be the first to admit that I'm not super confident offering any definitive answers here. Not sure if I have any particularly strong leanings. As such don't think that I'm super crazy about any of these suggestions or attached to them enough that I'd want to fight for them. I'd be very open to taking things in other directions.

Why we stuck together

From Artiana's perspective the team are people who bailed her out in a rough spot and quite possibly both saved her life and prevented more significant collateral damage to an area she has no small attachment to. She owes them something of a debt of gratitude and respect - not that she'd ever be emphatic in expressing it - and is also probably intrigued by the idea of getting to spend time with people like herself (i.e. with powers) to get a better sense of how they express themselves and live their lives. Being involved with the team is also an avenue by which to prove and better herself.

I feel like as a team in general it's not that hard to put together a rough idea of why we stuck together. We've got two time travelers whose goals seem intertwined, if not strictly directly linked, and a bunch of others who've had pasts shaped by their connections to supervillains or at least 'bad guys' so there's a fair bit of common ground. Harbinger certainly seems to have a vested interest to have some or all of us on call, and I can definitely see some trading of contact information after the first outing leading into some general meet-ups and unofficial team-ups before we decided to make the team a definite real thing. We've all kinda got agendas of our own or a general want to do something good that makes strength in numbers pretty appealing.

If we have any backers/oversight

Artiana's always bringing some degree of oversight and has her own (not entirely legal) sources, but I'm not sure how I feel about wedding the team itself to something like that. It can certainly make sense - we're either in poor standing after making a mess of things or we've got someone trying to salvage our rep - but at the same time I think it maybe (?) risks making things a bit too corporate. Like there's a big difference between a group of teens running the hero game on their own time and those who are being regulated or supplied by an organisation above them. It could change the character of things in a big way.

Personally I don't think that's a bad thing, but at the same time it feels like the sort of thing we'd all need to be on board with before committing to. Shouldn't be the default.

If we're a formal team or a loose group of individuals

This is kinda tied into the last point.

I'd imagine that, as a team who mostly have less-than-sunny pasts, we're probably not the most keen to put ourselves out there and court the press, and Reverie likely would rather avoid giving Vigilance too much reason to pay her much attention. As such I'd suppose we're unlikely to have too formal a set-up. We might have a team name and work together but it's more of an opt-in job than a lifestyle.

Kinda curious about actual interpersonal connections. Like Relationships certainly imply that Artiana and Natalie are something like friends and spend time together, but how close are we as people beyond that? Are we just punch-clock friends and allies of convenience or do we hang out?

How long we've been together

/shrug

I'd assumed it wasn't exactly recent. Like it was the inciting incident that brought the team together but we'd developed an identity and dynamics that weren't wholly shaped by its fallout.

I've been traveling, but looking to answer some of these questions this weekend, everybody! Just popping in to say so.

First up, what sort of hero is Reverie. Lo, there was rambling: Reverie’s definitely an idealistic hero and an optimist, essentially a hopeful sort-of hero. Reverie has a (small) pragmatic streak, but even that’s guided by an idealistic belief that good is worth fighting for no matter what the odds. I mean, faced with this darkest timeline version of herself, her instinct isn’t just “figure out what happened and make sure it doesn’t when I go back to the past,” but ‘save’ Vigilance now, so just in case she can’t change the timeline, things don’t continue as they are.

She decided to do heroing now in the future rather than just focusing on getting back home or the Eidolon or Vigilance, because Reverie believes both that she has a responsibility to make the world better—but also that responsibility is a choice. Admittedly, she thinks she has this responsibility especially because in her view Vigilance isn’t getting the job done the way she wants herself to get the job done—but even if we don’t consider Reverie’s dynamic with her future self, it doesn't sit right with her to chill on the sidelines when she could try and make a difference. Reverie's big on hope, believes in second chances, big on trying to help people rise to be their most legendary self, big on freedom and personal choice and compassionate justice. She’s very used to being reckless with herself when the chips are down, which is something she still struggles with. Most of the Innocent playbook's moves seem to involve the Savior stat, so I definitely kept that in mind.

Sponsorship/Backers/Oversight:

A sponsor could be cool, whether it's an adult hero who's decided that it's best to give this gang some guidance considering/community service-orientated or some sort of organization proper. What does everybody else think? Would this add to the teen dynamic in a fun way? Would it be informal or formal?

That said, given her background, Reverie is anti-the idea of being controlled by any adult organization whatsoever. Which doesn’t mean that we can’t have a sponsor! Indeed, given her general schtick, might be kind of a fun contrast. She’d just be very cautious of it and constantly advocate for more independence, while gratefully accepting any help. Allies are great! Getting turned into an asset is not. Being used to further plans one doesn't have enough information to sign onto is not.

How long ago was the get together incident:

Same as Ironheart here.

I'd like it to be at least a couple of months, just to give us a chance to have established all those pre-set relationships/dynamics. Masks gives us the chance to drop into the action with a team already together, so why start at the beginning when we don't have to, is my general attitude ooc, although I don't mind it still being "newer." I think I said before I'd prefer them not to have been together longer than a year, just because I don't want Reverie to have been in the present that long yet, but I'm flex for how many months, etc. Two? Three? Six?

More later!

What sort of hero is Harbinger?
Harbinger's definitely more pragmatic than idealistic. She's laser-focused on her overriding goal, and anything positive that spins out of that is just sort of a happy accident for her.

Backers/Oversight: I feel like Harbinger would be fine with backers, but she's going to resent any sort of oversight. She's used to being the smartest girl in any room and bring in control herself, so she'll have a hard time letting anyone else have any kind of control over her, especially an authority figure.

Why/How did we stick together?
I think Brightheart, sacrificial guest star of Issue 1, was sort of Harbinger's "Plan A" for changing the future. When that plan went south, she had to scramble for a Plan B, and this team is what she came up with. A few hours in the workshop later, and she's got secure communicators for everyone and a brand new road map to a brighter tomorrow. Just gotta let someone else think the team is their idea, else it'll all fall apart if she ceases to exist because Causality.

With that in mind, I guess it makes the most sense for the inciting incident to have been a month ago, maybe two? Time enough to get to know each other, not enough time for the drama to set in and tear us all apart?


In the original timeline, Ash got out of this mess and eventually came back later with the power-enhancing technology of their dreams, but it was an unstable device and when Ash lost control of the situation, the resulting inferno crippled the city. In this timeline, Ash was defeated by a plucky group of misfits (Us. We're the misfits), and we hope this prevents them from acquiring and using the unstable enhancement tech that burned the island in the original timeline. For Harbinger, intervening was mostly an experiment aimed at answering "can I change the future at all, and would my memories change with it if I did?" (Spoiler alert: she can, they do, but now she's got two sets of memories regarding this event and its ramifications, and they both feel equally valid).

Thanks for the input, guys.

Ideally I'd wanted to avoid doubling up like this, but in light of what's been said I'll be going with: I’ve earned the trust of Reverie, and I follow their example of what a hero should be.

Main deciding factor was that Harbinger and Leech probably aren't a million miles from Ironheart in terms of their baseline position and I wanted something a bit aspirational for Artiana. Pragmatism and opportunism are things she can bring to the table herself, and while there's obviously conflict in wanting to do more/better but deferring to someone who has less lofty goals, I would rather Influence at least initially be something pulling her up rather than holding her back so to speak. That sort of thing can always change and shift as things go on anyway.

So that means Reverie also gets my lone point of Influence. Feel privileged, bestie :)

(Also it's kinda neat how this now leaves Reverie well and truly caught in the middle between Ironheart and Argo.)

Sponsorship: I don't see Argo being thrilled about having someone telling the team what to do even if having such support would be beneficial but I as a player am fine either way.

Incident: A couple of months sounds best. Like Reverie said, it's long enough that the relationship connections can be established and short enough that the event is still sort of fresh in the public's mind.

Speaking of relationships, I know mine has been filled out but I never gave any detail to one concerning Harbinger being Argo's rival and trying to control him at a crucial moment. I'm going to go ahead and say what happened. If it needs to edited it can but I think it works.

There was a time after the team came together where Harbinger and Argo were working together. Perhaps they just so happened to be nearby when the rest of the team was elsewhere or some other reason. That aside, they were trying to apprehend a villain when said person used civilians to try to escape. Argo went to save the people when Harbinger tried to get him to go after the villain. Maybe the villain being caught was part of her plan to alter the timeline or whatever their player wants to come up with. Since then though Argo has seen Harbinger being similar to the members of Orthrus in terms of forsaking innocent lives to complete the mission. I as a player am not saying that's the case but the Bull has to have some beef with the rival.

I think this is coming together well. For various reasons, I have become rather busier than I expected myself, but I think at the current pace we should be able to start the game proper in two weeks (if not sooner). At least, that is my current goal, barring objections and/or unforeseen delays.

Sounds like the incident was two months ago, then. Plenty of time for relationship-building in the meantime, like Argo's example.

About the incident: perhaps in the original timeline, Ash got the technology from the facility they attacked? Then everything unfolded as per Harbinger. The later, bigger fire may not have been enough to start WWIV or ruin New Atlantis by itself, but the damage it did to the city and its defenders would prove critical as other things went wrong in the future. For want of a nail...

Whereas here, Harbinger alerted Brightheart to the danger. From what I understand, at least some of those other misfits will have already been on the scene or nearby. So at least Harbinger wouldn't have had to run off to get more heroes (as I'm not sure if the situation would've lasted long enough for her to do so), and could have simply stayed behind to support and coordinate their efforts. Does that sound right?

Hmm. By the way, what happened to Ash, Char and Scy at the end? I suppose Ash was arrested by ATLAS or the police. The other two may have fought their way free in the confusion and made it to the nearest safehouse - or not? What would you prefer?

As for oversight, having some adult hero in particular be associated with you could be interesting. I'm not sure if it's really necessary if Harbinger is already there to micromanage you, but having an occasionally interfering adult ally to butt heads with her (and Reverie, and Argo...) could be interesting. Perhaps a superpowered agent or associate of ATLAS, given Ironheart's existing connection?

Pared down version of all the stuff we've chatted about re: Reverie's "when we came together" still coming, but as far as an adult superhero who checks in on everybody goes: A superpowered agent of ATLAS would be cool. Another possibility I'll throw out there: Someone associated w/ Brightheart? Their mentor or a team member of theirs? Which could make it a bit awkward to just resentfully shut them down in true teen style whenever the interference gets too annoying.