Question Hey WA, a few history questions???

To clarify... when the process started, there were no stories or a site. That was 2003-2004. (Babs, Bek, Maggie, Starwolf, and Scrambler J)

When the backstory building and planning phase ended and the first stories released (in Aug 2004), the original authors also invited others to submit to join. Those stories and the author invitation happened in Aug 2004 and the web site used at that point in the universe's history was Sapphire's Place. That second wave of authors (started adding stories a few months later). That was Heather, Dr. Bender, E.E., and Warren and me.

A year or so into stories with this group, our pace was too much for Sapphire and Bob Arnold set us up the original Crystal Hall site and forums. That was.. early 2006?

The next 'group' of authors came in one by one as they were recognized for their fan fiction efforts. That was Diane, JG, Tensei, Drunkfu

After Bob Arnold passed, Erin and Piper at BCTS took up responsibility for Bob's server hardware and the communities he supported. That was the beginning of our struggles with the old dedicated site as Warren and then Diane tried to keep our administrators engaged in helping us, until the point where we had no one on staff with admin access... I managed to pull a bit of a revival by getting an ftp access and doing some renovation.. but ultimately, no one was doing backups or updates to things and a hacker took us down.

However, during my renovation, I opened the doors to some recruitment of new authors and kicked off the Gen 2 project. The energy that this brought back into the community was enough to make it worth the effort to establish a new site to replace what had been knocked down... I did so and we're now several years into the operation of this site in its current configuration running off Joomla.

The point of all this (above) is to show that... actually, as far as the history goes; me and my little front page news posts are a very small recent part of things. While I've been an author from 2004, I wasn't one of the founders... and I've only recently been the site admin. I probably get more credit for the inclusion of GEO in the main plotlines, for implementing the Gen 2 project and for having the brains to say "hell, yes" when I got letters from Elrod and Morpheus when they asked if there was any way for them to participate in the canon team.

That gives you a bit of timeline to start from.

As far as what are the first stories? That's an easy one. Click on the main menu button to "Read Stories", click on the sidebar sub-menu where it says "Original timeline" and then, when the table of stories comes up, go over to where it says Published Date... and click on that to resort from oldest to newest. We have it in reverse order by default to make it easiest to find the newest releases... but when you're working through the collection from the start, THIS is the quickest way to get things without going out to the wiki to get the original release order. We've done our best to enter stories into the site using the original release dates specifically for this reason. Those first four stories will be "

Tennyo 1: Unexpected Consequences
Fey 1: Mom, I Don't Feel So Good
Toni 1: Enter the Chaka
Jade 1: Coming Out

I think popular opinion is to read "Enter the Chaka" first... but these four stories were the initial release of the Whateley Universe. All on the same day way back in August of 2004.


Bek might share a bit more about how the original team knew each other. And maybe we can release some of the original conversations from the Bible and from email discussions too. We might still have to edit some things out for spoiler reasons, but I'm sure we can get you some basics on how they round tabled hashing things out.

Yes, sorry... Renae, Motley, and Liliandra came in at the same time with Heather, Branwyn and I. E. E. got a bit of a jump on us... not enough to show up in the early planning roundtable transscripts but I think he was the first of the additional peeps to get a story on the released rolls. And then Branwyn had Sara and then Renae or I. I don't remember where Hart fit in.

It's been a while, you know?

I offered goodies... here's some goodies. The formation of the universe from its very deepest roots... the transcripts:

In the beginning…

(Mostly left around as a reminder of where we started, and what our original ideas were. None of this is really accurate any more.)

[Bek:]
I am cursed with coming up with more ideas than I can handle!

While reading Bab’s ‘X-Man’ story, I kept coming up with ideas for an X-Men: Evolution style story. But, with Woggie’s ‘XX-Factor’ story, I can’t help but feel that the X-Men: Evolution bandwagon is a tad crowded. Let’s face it, ‘Me, too!’ sucks.

So, here is my idea. The background is a ‘specialty school’ for ‘gifted children’ (i.e. Mutants) set in a non-Marvel (and non-Lady Lightning) world with super powered people. We can work together on deciding what kind of world it is, what the faculty and students of the school are like, what the agenda of the persons behind the school is, what/who the antagonists are, and so forth.

Each of us will create a ‘Signature character’, complete with description, personality, power, background and so forth. The limitations on the character will be:

1> The character is an adolescent who is either a transsexual or somehow being changed by his power from Male to Female. We can assume that, due to the social complexities of the situation, that the faculty will place multiple characters in this situation together, for moral support (and to avoid unfortunate incidents)
2> The nature of the character’s power is a mutation, and therefore innate to their physicality or mentality. So, no ‘Mystic Transformations’, no ‘Power Talismans’, no ‘Alien Artifacts’, no Power Armor. That is, unless it really is a mutant power, and the ‘Mystic Transformation’ is actually a psychological crutch that the mutant needs to rationalize it to him/herself.
3> The power should have some kind of comprehensible (at least to the writers) mechanism by which it operates. For instance, if Scrambler J wanted to run a ‘Mega-Girl’ character, he might explain that ‘Mega Girl’ is a psychokinetic who can’t project the psychokinesis. Her ‘super-strength’ is her PKing something up to lift it as she lays hands on it; her ‘invulnerability’ is a PK force field, her ‘flight’ is levitation, and so on.

Those are the bare bones of the concept. The rest we can thrash out among ourselves.

The point is not a game, but sort of an experiment in ‘Round Robin’ writing. After we thrash out the details of the background of the world and the school, we write stories about our characters. Decisions about the background will be settled by consensus. (For instance, will the ‘powers’ be X-Men style mutations, or maybe they’re all applications of psychic powers)

Please this is strictly voluntary, you can beg off it you please. Basically, I’m writing this to get the idea out of my head so that I can go back to my ‘Advancer’ story with a clear conscience, but if you want, it sounds like it could be fun.


[Bek:]
Okay, folks, you’ve agreed to go along with this experiment, so let’s get down to thrashing out the particulars. We don’t have to nail down every single detail, just get a good idea of where we’re going with this.


We’re going to have to decide what KIND of stories that we want for this experiment; when we know what kind of stories that we want, the rest of the questions below will be a lot easier to answer.

How important are these characters to the world that they’re going to exist in?

What Power Level are we talking here?

How Serious do we want this to be? Comedic? Light-hearted? Serious? Grim? Serious with Comedy Relief? Light-hearted with serious spots? Light-hearted with serious spots and occasional lapses into total goof-ball schtick?

Is there going to be an overall story arc, or is it going to be entirely episodic?

[Maggie:]
Ok, for the campaign... I would think marginally important, mainly for what their potential is and whether these characters turn towards good, evil, or a more neutral stance.

Power level? Well, lets not get too crazy about things here. Probably something on the lines of X-Men Evolution? These kids are developing: power, identities, sense of self and where they belong in the general scheme of things, and most importantly - the TG aspects of what they are going through. So how about keeping things down to non-world shaking abilities for at least a while?

I like the lighthearted approach with occasional comedic episodes mixed with some serious stuff.

Story Arc: probably should start with character intro stories, then work on getting some sort of general reason for all of them to stick together. We could build that into an ongoing progression kind of thing?

[Babs:]
Yeah, “Evolution” style. Well above normal humanity, well below world-shaking (at least, as teenagers). Growth and evolution as the stories develop. Definitely comedy elements, and also serious elements. Hmmm, I want to see some TS tragedy and tear-jerking (I just don’t want to volunteer my character to be the main one to suffer).

Oh, and if we want this to fly with a mainstream audience, we’ll have to add a cute little dog.

[Bek:]
How close to Our World are we talking? Who are the players in the global political arena, and what is the balance of power?

[Maggie:]
Hmmm. We could set this in a world just as advanced as ours with a little less emphasis on civil rights - mainly because Europe is a single entity dominated by Germany (which would give a base for some group like those templars in the game) the Soviet Union no longer exists, but a strong Russian Federation has risen to replace it in competition with Europe. Mainly in self defense, North America (U.S., Canada, and Mexico) have become one political and economic block to counter those two. Asia is a mess with India, China, and Japan constantly at each other’s throats for dominance there. The big three, of course, aid and abet this quite gleefully.

Then there’s this problem with Brazil....

[Babs:] -- now very obsolete --
Yeah, okay, let me expand some more. I don’t want a world dominated by Nazis, so let’s say the Kaiser won The Great War (about a hundred years ago, in the early twentieth century). This is also why the Bolsheviks never seized power. I’m sure there are some truly fascinating details of Prince Nicholas and the coupe, and Princess Anastasia fleeing only to return with Prussian backing (got to secure that eastern border, you know). Of course, Holy Russia is still (always) paranoid about invasion from outside, so The Hun hasn’t had as much success there as the Kaiser might have hoped.

A few other suggestions: Adolf Hitler was an unsuccessful architect. He died of syphilis and no one noticed. Without World War II, there was no Manhattan Project and hence no bomb, and no nuclear arms race. “Atomic Power” remains the wonder technology that it was in the thirties and early forties. It serves as a frequent (and impressive) term to use in connection with rockets, super science, (non mutant) super powers, enemy weapons projects, things like that. It doesn’t carry the baggage of a generation that cowered in fear of the holocaust (another word that doesn’t share the connotation from our world).

Side note: Lacking the shocking impetuous of the holocaust, and the formation of the UN, the nation of Israel was never formed. Bad news for the Jews, who are still scattered without a homeland. Bad news for many Arab nations, as well, since they have no enemy to align against. With serious infighting, they have proven to be good targets for outside manipulation and exploitation.

Oh, and Japan is still Imperial Japan, the emperor is still divine (and few have heard his voice).

Words that no longer have such a serious negative connotation: Holocaust, nazi (what’s that?), genocide, concentration camp, Manchuria, The Bomb, ICBM, bomb shelter, fallout, communist, Marxism, middle east

Words that have a more positive connotation: Feds, G-men, secret government project, The League (of Nations)

If not for WWII, how did science advance? Through a long and enthusiastic cold war. We’ve had the space race, the race for atomic power, and some people suggest that we’re about to enter the “super power race.”

[Bek:]
I don’t think that Maggie meant that the Nazis are still around (or at least not and still wearing their swastikas). She means that the European Union, as we know and are amused by it, is around, ony with some real Geo-Political clout. It can- and does- stand up to the USA on various issues and make Uncle Sam sit and listen, even if he doesn’t feel like it. The Russian Commonwealth of Independent States is what Russia would be like, if they could get those damn kleptocrats under control.

[Babs] -- still quite obsolete --
Great Pacific War
Okay, thinking it over, there may not have been a World War II in Europe, but the situation virtually ensured a Great Pacific War. I suggest that Japan, China, Manchuria, Douglas Macarthur, (no atom bomb though), and the occupation of Japan happened pretty much like they did in our world. General Eisenhower wasn’t a war hero, so from 1952-1960 we had President Macarthur.

And, as Bek mentions in “Space Stuff” below, Nazis are just too darned fun to leave out of stuff. So… I don’t know, maybe they were a movement within greater Prussia or something. Still evil, still fanatical, and I think (for that authentic flavor) they still had an Adolph Hitler. Only in this world, he didn’t die in a bunker in Berlin. Possibilities, no?

So what do you think about Nazis, Maggie, Bek, anyone? The villains everyone loves to hate. Here’s a suggestion: They were an anti-Kaiser movement in the EU, and after a great battle (America was wrapped up in the Great Pacific War, but there were plenty of volunteers who went over and fought), the Nazis were soundly defeated – and fled to Argentina where they set up shop anew. (Or did they take over Brazil, Maggie?)


[Bek:]
What is the overall technology level? Have these people built Orbital facilities? Do they have Moon-bases? Have they sent probes into either Jupiter or Saturn? Do they have self-aware robots? Androids? Quick-growth clones? Chimerae? Cyborgs? Nano-Tech? Power Armor? Giant Robots? Giant Robots that transform into stuff?

[Maggie:]
Orbital facilities, sure. Moon Bases? Why not. But let’s not get too crazy with some of the other stuff or this world is really going to be a mess.

[Babs:] -- obsolete --
Good science, but I’d lean (slightly) away from nanotech/cloning/biotech, and slightly toward “Gernsbach science.” You know, the stuff they were predicting back in the 30’s sci fi pulps. Not exactly. The moon rockets aren’t riveted gold with sweeping fins. But the science tends to be a bit more in the direction of “weird science”. And maybe they’re only as the early stages of the computer revolution. (Let’s say, circa 1984 – I was on Usenet back then, but it was a specialist thing. PCs had been out for a couple of years, and the first Mac had been introduced.) Not to say anything against self-aware robots, but those wouldn’t be running commercial computer chips, they would require an electronic brain.

[Bek:]
Are there Extraterrestrials? Is there Magic? Are there Mutants? Are there Secret Societies? Are there SPECTRE/THRUSH type super-criminal organizations? How much does the Government know? How much does the General Populace know? If the Govt./Populace know, how do they generally feel?

[Maggie:]
Sure to all of the above. The government? Got enough problems, but does encourage the development of such powers in the people it shows up in. Probably with an eye to making use to them at some later date? The general populace would likely know at least the basics about the changelings. Feelings there would probably be a little uneasy.

[Babs:]
I would suggest that (for reasons I can’t fully justify), the government has remained more trusted than in our world. G-men, feds, and mysterious “intelligence agents” have an impressive cachet. We’ve decided (below) that there are moon bases. I suggest that this world never went through the disappointment of learning that the moon and Mars were dead worlds. They have known all along that there was life out there. Not necessarily intelligent life (and if it is intelligent, it’s no match for white, North American Christian life). Still, everyone half suspects that there are ancient civilizations on one of the planets, and there are all those stories of LGMs.

Of course the government has a member on the board! He sits directly across from the SPECTRE representative. The glare at each other throughout each meeting.

[Bek:]
The preliminary concept was that this was going to be a ‘school for mutants’, ala the Xavier Institute, but we don’t necessarily have to be stuck with that. The place could be a training ground for psychics, or a Dojo for people with fantastic Chi powers, or a school for the magically gifted. Personally, I think that keeping it with mutants sort of puts a break on complete gawdawful goon powers, giving the storyline some definition. Still, this IS a group effort, and the consensus rules.

[Maggie:]
I like a combination of mutants and magic, myself.

[Bek:]
Are there openly known about superheroes? Supervillains? Super/Hero/Villain groups? Do giant monsters go rampaging through major metropolitan areas with about the periodicity of devastating earthquakes or storms?

[Maggie:]
Why not? To all the above? We have to have some fun, after all.



[Bek:]
Who are these kids going to be facing as Antagonists? Other cliques at the school? Normal Kids from the local High School? Mutants (whatevers) from a rival institution, with its own sinister agenda? Rabid mutant-hating bigots in big mobs? Strange quasi-mystical beings from another dimension? Extra-terrestrial invaders with city destroying tripods? Sinister Federal Agents with weird gizmos who wear sunglasses all the time? Conventional Super-Villains? Bizarre quasi-mystical secret societies with bizarre power-doohickeys?

[Maggie:]
ummm foreign powers? Federal agents, of course, the feds would want to keep track of these kids and try to subvert them to their purposes. Conventional super villains, you bet! Rival Cliques would be better than a rival institution, I think. The Academy would teach both good and bad (as in social tendencies - not abilities) just because of the type place it is.

[Babs:]
Antagonists:
Sexual: Some kids have spotted the sexual identity problem. They’ve just turned into mutants. Nothing makes you feel so good about yourself as being able to bash someone else. Others, predators, are going to figure “that cute little girl is sooo confused – I’ll bet she won’t give me much trouble.” (Ugg, I’m not sure I want to read that story.)

Moral: Hey, and major organization will know about Whateley (CIA, Mafia, SMERSH, League of Crusaders). Nothing adds muscle to your team like recruiting Superboy over there. And he’s so young and impressionable… Following Bek’s suggestion from earlier, I figure on-campus recruiting is officially discouraged, which means these guys hide in the bushes, or lean casually against lampposts, while wearing trenchcoats.

Normals: All the normals ‘round hear are used to weirdness. But there’s a couple of things to consider: First, field trips. Second, Dunwich is located in (hmm, let me check my map) – the lower backside of nowhere. Which means that to get any interest at all, students will have to make

But the purpose of the school is to teach The Code, and that means it has to hold up under stress. I would suggest the younger students go on field trips, while the seniors have longer stints (like an doctor’s residency). All of these are set up to come into conflict with bigoted normals, while being monitored by staff.

Huge threats: Did I mention “field trips” earlier? Class, today we’ll be teleporting into the last known ruins of Atlantis. Please, no souvenir gathering.

[Bek:]
How many students are there going to be at this school? A Dozen? Twenty? A Hundred? A couple of Hundred? Remember, the more students that there are, the less that the faculty will be able to pay attention to individuals (which could be good or bad, from a writer’s perspective), and the greater the tendency for the students to fall into cliques. Also, the more students, the more likely that academics will be handled in-house.

[Maggie:]
How about several hundred students in a Freshman, Sophmore, Junior, Senior type setup like a normal school, which this would be during normal school hours...

[Babs:]
Yeah. Hmm, powers come out at puberty? Let’s say, Whately covers grades 7-12, with larger classes at each grade (as students grow up, they are more likely to be spotted, so the 7th grade class is pretty small). I’d say, the entire 7th grade is about 80, whereas the senior class is about 400. Let’s say, 1300 kids total. Maybe faculty of about 80, and other staff of about 200. So Whateley has a population of about 1600. That’s bigger than anything within 15 miles, and qualifies as the fifth largest town in Coos County (out of a total of 11 towns, once we add Dunwich). Coos county is pretty much the northern quarter or New Hampshire.

[Bek:]
Hmmm, this doesn’t sit well with me. A school with maybe 1300 kids, and those staying in different dorms are told to arrive on different days? Well, first of all, I really doubt that there are over 1000 students. Indeed, I’d be amazed if there are 500. Remember, mutants are by very definition very rare.

[Babs:]
Okay, next try (I’ve updated this doc to match). Let’s say 505 kids total, starting small in 7th grade, ramping up through 10th grade (as mutant powers are slowly discovered). How’s about 7th, 8th: 50 kids, 9th: 75 kids, 10th, 11th, 12th: 110 each. Faculty: 27, staff: 60. Total population: 592


[Bek:]
What is the faculty like? How many of them are there? Are they mutants as well? Are they very skilled normals who are as tough as the kids, even without the super powers? Who handles security? Who handles Student discipline? Is the agenda of individual members of the faculty the same as that of the Board of Trustees?

[Maggie:]
How about a mix of skilled normals who can hold their own with the kids, and other mutants just to keep things level? Security could be handled by several Mutants, with an assist from normals as needed. Student discipline would necessarily be the bailiwick of adult mutants, I think, just to be able to handle the ‘hard cases’ in school. We can work out individual agendas for the faculty as we go. Easier that way, I think, as long as we all know about how what particular teacher wants and is working towards.


[Bek:]
What’s the official line on inter-student hanky-panky?

[Maggie:]
Publicly frowned upon, but hey -- these are teenagers. How you going to keep them from experimenting? Sex-ed would be a mandatory course, naturally.

[Babs:]
Nope. Sex ed is offered, most take it, but you don’t want to turn off those parents that are upset by those things.


[Bek:]
Out of sheer necessity, the faculty will put the Signature characters together, if only not to weird out the other students. Do the other students know that these dynamite looking chicks (and let’s face it- we’re not going to write about a bunch of homely Transsexuals!) are actually guys? How do they feel about it?

[Maggie:]
Homely transsexuals? Nah, too real life there. (grin) The student body would have to have at least some inkling that these new ‘babes’ were not entirely what they seemed. Some would be grossed out, but given their own differences, I think a little problem with sexual identity would be kind of insignificant to most of them.

Old ideas, now obsolete
Babs was pushing for The Code (basically: super power types can fight lots, but if you terrorize the normals then it turns into a Bug’s Life scenario, and all us mutants are in trouble. Instead, we’re now going with Lassez Faire morality. Some aspects of the code are still enforced, but there’s nothing actually written. It’s more like, “become a big enough problem, and someone is going to fix you.” And everyone will learn this on their own, during their time at the academy. Beside, having things informal leaves open lots more opportunities for plots – dangers, temptations, threats, and particularly humor.

[Bek:]
The Academy rationale is to let the students gain control of their powers without having an agenda pushed down their throats, either way. The official policy of the Academy is a studied neutrality, with classes taught in the most unbiased way possible. This is because it’s widely held that this is the only way that the Academy could exist, without it turning into a battlefield. The policy is: LET THE KIDS FIGURE IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES!

Of course, everyone tries to get around this as much as they can. Heroes and Villains give lectures and seminars which are carefully written to present their philosophical leanings without being overt (which would then be bounced by the Faculty, who have as much on their plate as they can handle). Gov’t agencies and Secret Criminal Organizations try to recruit whenever they can. Esoteric Cabals keep an eye on the place, and offer ‘favors’ for ‘favors’. Of course, this is all done as sneakily as possible, because the Faculty has absolutely NO qualms about kicking ass when they have to.

Why?

Because it’s FUNNIER this way!

This way, you have government recruiters popping out of bushes to try and sell a likely prospect, and then ducking back into the bushes whenever someone comes near. This way, you have bizarre, convoluted schemes that can backfire hilariously, instead of doing it the simple, obvious way. This way, you have locals playing as many as seven different employers off against each other. And ALL of it has to be as covert and undercover as possible, even though everyone knows what’s going on, and everyone knows who everyone else is. Well, except for the first year kids....

[Babs:]
Yeah, you’re right. Okay, there are maybe a couple of classes on this topic, but I agree, it’s a reason for the academy, but not the reason for the academy. And it’s not the big deal I was making it into, either.


Babs had an idea about “societies”, including the “Ancient Order of Enrichment and Personal Benevolence Society”, the “Protectors of Civilization”, “SPECTRE Overlords, Junior Auxiliary”, and LOOMS, the “League Of Obsessive and Mad Scientists”. NAW, AXED. For one thing, that’s way more college than high school. Societies were levered on The Code (above) which is also out. And without specific societies, we can have all sorts of spies and goofballs waiting in the bushes, trying to make hit-and-run recruitments before someone powerful spots them. It just didn’t fit right, particularly once it was replaced with the superior cliques.

[Bek:]
We are going to have to talk about these societies.

[Babs:]
Maybe I’m thinking ahead to the college years, but something like this feels right. In an English school system you’ll bind together by school (“I’m an Eaton lad”). We need finer divisions. There will certainly be bindings by cottage (of course) but we need another level to add some friction and interest. And frankly, not everyone’s going to be a roleplayer, or a Furure Goodguy or Mastermind of Tomorrow. They need some clubs. The clubs need rivalries. And when you have clubs and rivalries with superpowered heroes...



[Bek:]
While you’re going to need a while to come up with your Signature characters, there are a couple of preliminary points that we could thrash out. For instance, we’re saying that our characters are either transsexuals, or people whose power is somehow changing them into girls. This sort of breaks down into the following categories:
Transsexual, can use power to change into a girl temporarily
TS, is changing into a girl over a period of time
TS, power is irrelevant to appearance, has to rely on conventional drag to pass
TV (whatever sexual orientation) can use power to change into a girl temporarily
TV, power is irrelevant to appearance, has to rely on conventional drag to pass
Straight, for some reason, power changes him into a girl temporarily, but coping
Straight, is changing into a girl over time and NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT!
OR you could come up with something of your own.

[Maggie:]
I personally go with the straight guy who is really turning into a girl. With all the hormone things teenaged girls go through, and isn’t real happy with it.

[Babs:]
I’ve got a male full-time TV/CD who desperately wants to be a girl. He’s jealous of everyone around him who is transitioning.

[Bek:]
As for the powers, for some strange reason, super-groups tend to balance out powers wise there’s always
A Brick (super-strength, very tough, good in a knock-down-drag-out-fight)
A Blaster (energy powers of some sort, ranged attacks)
A Mover (some sort of transportation power- superspeed, teleportation, like that)
A Martial Artist (great reflexes, good but not astounding strength, pretty tough)
A Brain (either technology, magic or psychic powers)
A Weirdo (some bizarre kind of power, like being able to stretch)
Let’s call dibs on our stereotype!

[Babs:] A Flyer (often covered by one of the other categories)

Okay, this isn’t a game, but it might be a good idea to write up our Signature characters in the HERO system (for those of you who have the HERO system), just so that the rest of us have an idea of what she can do.

[Babs:]
Hero system? Can’t we use GURPS?

[Maggie:]
Give me the ‘Brain’ type. I could combine the ‘brain’ with ‘weirdo’ too. (rubbing hands together in gleeful anticipation.)

[Babs:]
I’ve got “weirdo, flyer”. Sort of like the X-men’s Jamie Maddox/Multiple, but not exactly.

And it looks like:
Phase (Scrambler J) Brick (among other things)
Tennyo (Starwolf) Blaster, flyer
Toni (Bek) Martial artist

So we still need a mover.


[Bek:]
Dear Babs,

Glad to have you on board.

The ‘round robin’ aspect is actually more of a ‘shared universe’ thing, with all five of us contributing bit, mostly centered around ‘our’ characters. This is what Starwolf, Scrambler J, Maggie Finson and I have managed to agree on. Feel free to agree or disagree as you see fit.

The Centerpiece of the universe is the Whateley Academy, just outside Dunwich in Northeastern New Hampshire (Lovecraft jokes purely intentional). The Whateley Academy was a rather routine boarding school that ran out of money back in the 1960s. It was bought up by a rather odd cabal of mutants and mutant syphathizers, who were worried that emergent mutants were being forced into a position where they were forced into outlawry by not being able to control their new powers. The Whateley Academy is supposed to teach young mutants how to control their powers, without political or social bias, so that they can make up their own minds as to how they will deal with the world. Apparently, both mutant superheroes AND supervillains contribute money to the Academy, hoping to influence students to follow their footsteps.

The School covers Junior High through High School, with College level electives. The ‘Signature’ characters will all be assigned to ‘Poe Cottage’ (the school uses the ‘Cottage’ system), which -unbeknownst to the majority of the Student Body- is reserved for students of ‘Alternative Sexuality’: Gays, Lesbians, and Transgenders.

Of the TS students (i.e. our characters):

‘Chaka’ (Bek D Corbin) a 15 year old African American with a superhuman ability to manipulate her Chi, and to heterodyne her Chi with geomagnetic energy. Also a low level ‘Exemplar’ (see ‘Chaka’ attached for explanation), who’s mutant powers are feminizing him.

‘Fey’ (Maggie Finson) a red haired boy with a superhuman ability to control magical forces, low level as yet, who’s powers are also feminizing him (this seems to be a regular thing for this crew). But, he isn’t anywhere near as happy about being feminized as Chaka is

‘Phase’ (Scrambler J) has powers that sort of blend the Vision with Kitty Pride. Also being feminized, also not happy about it

‘Tennyo’ (Starwolf) is based on the ‘Tenchi Muyo!’ character ‘Ryoko’- energy powers, some teleportation. Is not only being feminized, but is actually becoming an exact duplicate of the anime character!

Hank Declan (not a signature character) is a female to male transsexual. Largely inserted as the focus for ‘Tenchi Muyo’ style romantic rivalry between two of the signature characters. Has PK powers, with control problems.

So began the discussions. And for those of us who have joined afterwards? That's the foreward of the book we call 'the Bible'... of course, it hasn't been updated for ten years... but that's what email and forums post collections are for.

At some point Sentinels weren't being built by anyone... except themselves