Maybe some ideas from here? https://workingtheflame.com/mythical-blacksmiths/ They're all dudes, but it could be a starting point.

Bryce could be a good rival, too, because she "doesn't have powers." She's got a robot. It's not even a battlesuit. I'm taking the "defend" move from the love/rival set, and it's easy for me to see Hellfish constantly trying to do Noctua's job...

I'm currently imaging them getting into a competition that pits Hellfish's powers against Bryce's inventions in a series of quick smash cuts. Escalating through more and more super-science until the final thing is him hefting a giant steel beam vs. Bryce with a crowbar.

Right now I'm leaning toward Miss Miracle? Or something else that's a little more... Gonzo, Silver Age feel to go with her super-science style of gadgetry. I want Bryce to be about hover platforms and shiny ray blasters.

Hellfish:  "Hah!  I finally outdid your dumb robot!  What do you say to that?!"

Bryce: "You've been exceptionally helpful with stress testing and supplying data points for the next improved models.  Thank you very much!"

Hellfish:  >:(

Cool stuff! I'm going to go ahead and write that in for at least the start of play. One of the fun things about the Bull's playbook is that those love/rival labels can swap around as play determines.

I could take that one!  I'm imagining Daisy as the sort of accepting friend you could confess anything to and she'd listen without judgement and would try her best to help sort it out.  Oh, Bryce invented a homicidal AI infecting electronics and threatening to end all life in Halcyon City?  That's not good, but I bet the tech is SUPER COOL, right?  Tell me all about it, then let's figure out how to stop it :)


^^^These are the Nova's Relationship questions.  The first one will probably be whoever is willing to play competitive video games together, sing karaoke, or be an accomplice to dangerous super-power experiments ;P  As for the second, I'm thinking that Hellfish and Horizon would be tough for me to hurt even by accident (due to Bull and energy absorption, respectively), so this will probably be either Contact or Bryce.  Who's game to get accidentally zapped? :)

---

Back to the topic of what brought our team together...  We had a few votes for these three scenarios I proposed, with one vote specifically for #4:


We can paint the scene by answering the 'When Our Team First Came Together...' questions on our respective playbooks.  If anyone has more or better ideas for how the scene goes then feel free to share :)  Who wants to start?

To compile the playbook relationships, in alphabetical order of playbook:





(I love how well the second sentence for the rival fits there, incidentally.)



Some work to do here to weave Contact into things!





(Suggestions here that the first involves "competitive video games...karaoke, or...dangerous super-power experiments." Suggested that the second be Contact or Bryce because they're probably easier to actually hurt with Zappyness than Hellfish or Horizon.)

I could take Nova's Zap for her losing control.

The 'My love to kiss', I was thinking "Girl at the Cafe" which would be Isabella, and somehow be the last one to know or never know that Isabella is Horizon.

Who would I tell all about my doom though?

Not my character, but as peanut gallery, I dig this.



Two thoughts: maybe Jack, since we're playing around with the idea that their backgrounds are more similar to each other's than they are to any of the others. Or he could have told Bryce in the hope that her giga-brain could somehow either provide a solution or at least some better insight.

Do you think he would have asked somebody hoping for support, sympathy, or insight?

Horizon would be a likely candidate for revealing DOOM to.  If, for no other reason, because she's connected to a larger super team.  If your boy's got trouble getting others to believe him about the Troll, getting Horizon to be on his side would surely benefit his goals.



I think Daisy might be a good fit here since she's a fan.  Might be the sort of thing where she was all excited to be on a superteam with Horizon and expected they'd all become good friends immediately.  Only for Horizon to be keeping everyone at arm's length and her helmet very firmly on at all times; depending on how Daisy responds to that sort of thing, she might even mistakenly think it was something she did that's making Horizon stand-offish.

LOOOOOL, thirded!  I love it so much that Contact has a crush on Isabella without knowing he's on the same super-team as her :)  That's some juicy teenage drama in the making.


I'm on board :)  Daisy would be at least disappointed and possibly hurt, depending how the rejection went.  She would have come on strong with the fangirling on Horizon at first and will still be a bit ga-ga by the time the game starts.  I think intellectually Daisy would understand the importance of a high-profile heroine's secret identity, and I think deep down she'd understand that she isn't the best one to keep that secret :P  However, she'd also feel bad not being trusted, and would endeavor to earn that trust.

Speaking of costumes, I made a silly mock-up of Dynamo Girl and Daisy using the character creator on the Teen Titans website!  https://www.cartoonnetworkme.c...-go-super-hero-maker  Pics in my profile :)  It was a fun exercise, but the creation options were limited and so I wouldn't consider this costume to be canonical.  I'll keep on the look-out for better art.  Dynamo Girl's costume will definitely need a mask of some kind, because her heroing has to stay secret!
This message was last edited by the player at 04:17, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

Yes. This is very good. I want it.



I think Naecht's question is exactly the right one to ask. Going to Jack would probably mean going to someone who can provide sympathy/empathy for being in a situation that seems to have changed (and destroyed) your concept of your life. Bryce is going to treat it as a puzzle to solve. I don't think either character would exactly have a demeanour that makes it confusing how they would treat it- so what would Contact be looking for? It would say quite a bit about his emotional state at the time- is he hopefully that this is a problem that can be solved, or is he moving toward accepting his fate and looking for support as he marches forward?

I'm going to take either Hellfish or Contact for my second line, depending on the outcome of Contact's choice.

My thinking is this:  Atka might be a pretty self-reliant person, finding a solution but be the sort of thing he would stubbornly attempt to figure out himself.  But seeing Jack's situation, he might have a sort of kinship for the situations they may have found themselves in.  Confiding his doom in Jack would be a way to tell both Jack and himself that they are not alone.  A way for Atka to feel that if he throws a fishing line out there, maybe someone he sees as strong/capable can reel him in when he gets in trouble.

(Probably Contact?)









Updated!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:11, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

I'll go ahead and volunteer Horizon for this one.  Just because Horizon refused to reveal her secret identity doesn't mean she's going to be cold to everyone, and she'd feel bad if she realized Daisy's feelings were hurt over the matter.  So she'd put effort into trying to live up to that role model image Daisy has of her and be a good hero example/teammate.  Plus Horizon would really appreciate having someone she could just relax with even while wearing the mask.  That, and Horizon's energy absorption power means Daisy can literally blow off steam safely with her.  ^^;

Influence Over
While it doesn't exactly fit the condition in the Janus Playbook (because Horizon is the only established, 'has her shit together' Hero on the team ^^;), I'm going to say that Bryce and Hellfish have Influence over her.  Bryce, because of her knowledge of the double-life, and Hellfish because Horizon just kind of thinks he's cool.  He's a good guy who was dealt a bad hand, and she doesn't feel like she has to put on airs around him, so she cares about his opinion.  And if the team ever does sparring practice she can actually hit him and not have to worry about killing him (and vice versa), which is something super-strong people tend to value in one another!
This message was last edited by the player at 18:54, Tue 10 Aug 2021.

I updated the post above with Daisy in the Nova's second slot. If that sticks, it brings the playbook connection totals (with one undecided) to:

Dynamo Girl 3
Bryce 2
Hellfish 1
Contact 1
Horizon 2

Pretty okay balance!

(HC, hope your neck is feeling better!)

NAECHT IS CORRECT

The last of Bryce's tags will go to Contact. She doesn't know the details of his situation are- yet, she will, she's literally The Smartest Person- but she knows that he's doing all of this because of the situation he's in. Bryce respects that. Turning something negative into a positive for society as a whole.

Influence Time
Bryce needs to give two people Influence. She's going to give to the people whose opinion she takes seriously: Contact and Horizon.

Stray thought: For Bryce's hero name, what about Magistra <???> rather than Miss? Add some Latin fanciness there without the potential diminutive implications of "Miss."

Jack gives influence to his Love and his Rival (and only them), so: Daisy and Bryce.

If Minerva is out, and Magistra is part of a recommendation.  I'll give some others.  Looking at Noctua...

* Guardian => as is Guardians of Ga'Hoole
* Herald => from the Wikipedia page "Little Owl", The call of a little owl was thought to have heralded the murder of Julius Caesar.
* Athene => Just to get the scientific name complete, although you probably considered that.
* Cortex => The prefrontal cortex figures prominently in several wisdom subcomponents

And I need to give Influence to "These people matter for what you need to do": Horizon for her dedication, and Daisy cause I might be a little jumpy over the last shock.

Perfect!  I think there's potential for some awesome combo maneuvers using zappyness to charge up energy absorption :D  I can picture DG and Horizon going to an abandoned parking lot and doing full-on wizard duels to test the limits.

---

As for Influence, Daisy will take the Nova's "happy facade" option and so gives Influence to three teammates:

• Horizon (because fangirl)
• Hellfish (because Bull-Love)
• Bryce (because Daisy wants the approval of the smartest person in the room)

Sorry Contact, no slight intended :(  Daisy still feels guilty over the time she accidentally zapped him and maybe doesn't know what to do with that!

---

I feel like the last major thing we have yet to settle on is the question of When our team first came together...  I'll float this again:


I'll kick it off!  We destroyed our surroundings in the fight.  Where was it?  What did we destroy?

Certainly.  There's also the option to swing all the way to the other side of the spectrum and have "cute, relaxed, casual physical contact" being a method too.  Horizon just needs to touch whatever she's trying to siphon power from, so the two could just as easily manage a lower-intensity version by holding hands or sitting relaxed against one another in their downtime.  ^^

In reply to Athenry (msg # 76):

Is there such a thing as double-Influence?  If so then Bella/Horizon would have it for that adorably wholesome recharging idea <3

Honestly inspired by one of my favorite artists, Gabriel Picolo, who does an entire run of various teen superheroes (Teen Titans, primarily, but others too!) just depicted as hanging out casually together and actually being friends.  It's really wholesome.  ^^

https://www.instagram.com/_picolo/

*I don't have access to my books right now, so can't update the Scion question to the Brain question, but I remember it being about making something helpful to the team.

We defeated The Arthronaut, an interdimensional insectoid entity composed of a mixed swarm of alien and robotic insects. The Arthronaut's goals are usually inscrutable, but its appearances in Halcyon City always seem to center on the collection of organic and technological material. Battle against the entity generally involves dealing with both dispersed swarms and swarm constructs composed of interlocking bugs. Punching alone is rarely enough to slow it down.

I got you, fam.

We paid a high cost for victory. What was it?

The cost of victory came in three waves.  While each by themselves might have been bearable, stacked together, they felt like the weight of the world.  Endangering the elementary school class that was having a day at the mall; You'd think it would be the fault of the Arthronaut, but nope. That's not how social media went.  Instant comparisons to other super teams who manage to get their villains outside went across every internet platform for 2 weeks.  The second wave came a few days afterward when each of us somehow got a visit from a random superhero of Halcyon City's retired roster.  For me, the lecture was worse than when Mom caught me out late with the hint of alcohol on my breath.  Believe me, the Purple Derby knows how to lecture for a guy in his 90's.  Then the financial cost came two weeks later, I know some of the other teammates are able to contribute more to the bill, but seeing the dollar value on the repairs and "stress" therapy made me wonder if my doom had arrived in a different form.