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21. Arthur Joseph A.J. Curry

When I was compiling this list, I originally included AJ as one of the possible candidates to make the field, but as I started sorting people out, I became more and more surprised at just how high AJ was making it on the list. Hes not a character Ive interacted with a ton, yet Pepper is tangentially connected to his storyline, as the second-most prominent proponent of the campaigns Atlantis missions. And really, hes a fascinating character that I wish I had more cause to speak to outside of underwater missions, because the entire concept behind his genesis makes him one of the campaigns major representatives of an alternate reality or an alternate timeline.

In the context of the campaigns universe, the Aquaman we know and love (and obsess over, in the case of our Atlantean PC, Minerva) is dead. With him out of the picture, the realms of the sea have been thrown into chaos with representatives from the various kingdoms under Atlantis umbrella all fighting to ascend the Atlantean throne and take charge for themselves. Minerva is one of these potential rulers, and her central quest at the moment revolves around gathering from the various kingdoms to prove her worthiness as a Queen of Atlantis in Aquamans stead. The point of all of this is to point out the vacuum left in the wake of Aquamans demise. Weve even met his adoptive father and rescued him back to Zonn Zorr as our lighthouse keeper, but his world was rocked by the death of his son all the same.

Its with this in mind that Minerva received information that led our team to Aquamans secret, underwater base, which served multiple purposes that will be discussed in another entry on this list. But we were largely going there for our own purposes, fully aware that Aquaman was dead. Imagine our surprise when we manage to get past the biometric sensors to gain access to the Aquacave, only to discover that we werent alone inside. Apparently, someone else had already gotten in before us. Given the state of the world at the time, and how many villains and OMACs and whatnot wed fought all over the planet, we were ready to fight one of the lesser members of Aquamans rogues gallery (not Sea Thief though, never Sea Thief). Now, while we DID run into a villain in King Shark, more important to THIS write-up, we found ourselves looking into the face of Aquaman himself, very much alive.

With rugged features and flowing blonde hair, it was impossible to mistake the face of the man we found in the Aquacaveespecially since hed managed to gain access via DNA scan in the first place. But something was immediately off about this interaction, because the Aquaman we met was certainly NOT a grizzled veteran whod served as a long-time member of the Justice League. No, this was Arthur Curry in his early to mid-twenties. We tried questioning him right away, and he had no idea who Aquaman even was, nor did he know what year it was. Everything about this blonde, Aquaman lookalike was off, and given that wed already started to question the nature of the multiverse at that point, it didnt take much prodding to give us the idea that this was an Arthur Curry from another dimension, who hadnt come into his role as the King of Atlantis.

In a lot of stories, this set-up would lead to a formulaic (not BAD, but very standard and obvious) plot of Aquaman is dead, but now we have this replacement from another universe who has to become the hero that the world needs. And maybe this is the eventual endpoint of AJs story. But as it stands, this is very much not the direction Scarlet has chosen to go, and I think that subversion of tropes makes AJ all the more interesting as a character. We met him in the Aquacave, and we wound up making a very bad impression by getting in a fight with King Shark. Since Shark was one of the first people AJ met in this new world (and they were paired up by Dweller of the Depths as one of the last representatives of the Parliament of Waves, knowing it was important to give AJ a fighting chance), he took offense to his attack on his buddy, and banished us from the Aquacave. This was also on the heels of Minerva actively offering him the Sword of Atlantis to start the ball rolling on crowning him the true king, only for him to outright reject the offer.

AJ and Shark did eventually come around soon after, joining us in fighting off the Society, but AJ remained steadfast in his refusal to take on the mantle of King of Atlantis. In doing so, he passed that task onto Minerva, which actually makes for a more intriguing campaign overall. As a PC, Minerva is inherently less powerful than any NPC (theoreticallysince Scarlet has the ability as GM to raise and lower power levels for narrative purposes as need be, whereas a PC is only as strong as their character sheet says), so making HER the potential heir to the throne creates this tension as to whether or not shell actually succeed in her mission. Plus, AJ taking on that role would be a lot like a repeat of the Captain Marvel plotline, where were similarly trying to help an NPC achieve his destiny through a series of trials. So yeah, AJ not wanting any part of what could easily have been his central plot is a fun subversion to the storyline on tap.

Upon returning to Zonn Zorr, Pepper hasnt really had a good reason to seek out AJ, which is unfortunate. I want to talk to him, because obviously Ive ranked him this high, but I struggle to come up with a good narrative hook for why Pepper would want to do so. Anything I have, I feel like Minerva would be better suited for the task, with additional positives to her relationship with AJ. Still, despite this stumbling block, hes still in my top twenty-five for good reasons. I feel like there are several characters still to come on this list that, even though they are either barely, or not at all characters Im connected to, Im still fascinated by their stories whenever they make an appearance in other PCs RP sessions.

Eight movies left.

Recent events have completely upturned my perception of Deadshot though, and I mean that in a good way. Deadshot and Catman were lieutenants together in the Demon God territory, back in No Mans Land. They were probably two of the most reliable lieutenants as well. Then, they both wound up in the Secret Six, refusing to join the Society. It seemed like these two guys were the closest pair of bros the team had as a result, having gone to war together on multiple occasions. Deadshots reason for sticking with the team was to rescue his daughter, but Catman was after revenge against Deathstroke, for killing his entire pride of lions. That was Catmans true family, and he lost just about everything by the Societys hand. It was the least we could do to try and offer him a chance at vengeance.

But then, we go to Lamumba, the site where Catmans pride was killed and buried. Over the course of the first half of that session, we visited the grave site as a mysterious voice whispered harsh truths in our ears about reality and falsehood. The Deathstroke mask that Catman had planted on the grave marker had worn down, revealing a hasty paint job to implicate Slade Wilson in the slaughter. In reality, the mask was that of pure silver, with one red eye. Deathstroke hadnt killed Catmans family; Deadshot did. Thats right, in perhaps the biggest betrayal of the campaign thus far, Deadshot fucked over his brother-in-arms, and this sent Catman into a downward spiral.

While Catman raged over this revelation, Deadshot was the one who took the brunt of the psychological damage. Always trying to keep his cool, he attempted to justify himself by saying the Society wanted Catman dead, and he couldnt bring himself to kill a friend. While this is pretty fucked up logic, I think that a certain part of Deadshot knew he was a monster for what he did. But to make matters worse, we found a magical stone containing the spirit of Hector, eldest lion of Catmans pride. Prior to his death and sublimation into the ether, wed only been able to speak to Hector through Artemis in Campaign One, but now he could speak unto anyone he so chose. And to Deadshot, he offered condolences, saying he forgave the man for his own murder. That broke Floyd Lawtons harsh exterior once and for all.

Going into the Cinque, we got an intro scene of Deadshot doing a Sarah McLachlan-esque save the animals PSA, trying to both feign innocence and take responsibility for his actions. He refused to discuss his feelings with Spirit and broke down in tears several times during the initial attack on the prison. The man was a mess, and all he had left in the world was this singular mission to rescue his daughter. He managed to maintain his composure long enough to get into a sniper position and guide us through the prison, but his words became more frantic as the mission went on. He kept insisting we leave open behind us, and admittedly, I thought it was because hed found some sort of valve that would unleash water to flush out the facility or something.

It wasnt until his desperate calls into the walkie towards the end that we realized he was trying to pull a complete bankshot and murder whoever had captured and harmed his little girl. Perhaps he realized just how justified Catman was in his desires for revenge, and he felt a little bit of that same mindset, wanting to hurt the people whod hurt his family, as though that could somehow justify his own actions. At the end of the day, despite everything else he tries to tell himself, Deadshot is a killerand killing is the only way he knows to solve problems. He doesnt want to kill Catman? Kill his lions instead. Zoe got taken? Kill everyone who could have possibly hurt her. The second he stops killing, or takes a moment to consider other options, he lets those pesky emotions in, and it weakens his abilities as a warrior.

All that being said, it was great to get Zoe back. If Tali was still alive, shed be glad Zoe was safe, and Spirit bringing himself to the brink of death for her was heartfelt and touching. It was a great scene, to have Deadshot go from desperate on the roof, trying to confirm our status so he could take the shot, only to magically teleport into a submarine where his daughter lay dying of Equation poisoning. For all the guff he gave Spirit throughout the campaign, when it came down to it, the boy was the only one he could trust to save his little girl, and theres definitely a greater level of respect there now than there was before.

Deadshots story isnt over though, and now, on top of being the guy who broke the Secret Six, hes also the only guy who has achieved the reward Mockingbird promised. Thats gotta inspire jealousy, and I feel like Floyd Lawton has quite a few trials and tribulations still ahead of him. Itll be interesting to see how he navigates life in Zonn Zorr now, especially since now he has something HE needs to protect, that Catman can take away from him.

Hint for #21: Has played annoyball.

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22. Deadshot (Floyd Lawton)

I wrote a LOT of my write-ups well in advance of me starting my actual topic, but this is one that Ive had to put off for like, two weeks now because it just happened to coincide with a mission to the Cinque prison that was going to feature a LOT of Deadshot. Its a good thing I waited, because it boosted him a good amount on this list, and I really wouldnt have wanted to retroactively add a massive chunk of his write-up like in addition, this happened. But yeah, I was debating lowering his ranking prior to the dual Cinque sessions, but with the developments that came about in breaking Zoe Lawton out of prison, Im more than happy to keep Deadshot this high in the ranking.

Now, first and foremost, I have to give the obligatory recap of Deadshot from Campaign One, and unlike some other entries, this is actually an important one. Deadshot was a character I liked enough, and felt enough of a connection to, that I chose him as one of my earliest picks for our final session draft (every player chose a team of three characters to join them in one final mission to help save Gotham). Deadshot started out the campaign as one of Azraels lieutenants in the Demon God territory, and while pretty much EVERY lieutenant was awesome (seriously, Deadshot, Catman, Zeiss, Crime Doctor, Lady Vic, Brutale, Electrocutioner, Stallion, Azrael himselfthat territory rocked), Deadshot stood out. Even in a territory that Tali was deeply connected to, Deadshot managed to rise above the rest as a persona.

See, a lot of the characters under Azraels employ were just content with him being in charge. It was a rare instance where no one really demonstrated a desire to usurp the throne or anything like that. As such, we got to know most of them as individuals, quirks and all. With Deadshot though, he initially cared about Tali, surebut then the wedding storyline came around. Tali fought off Heatstroke to secure her political marriage, and she was more than willing to go through with it, as was expected of her. Most of the lieutenants were fine with this, and either wanted Tali to leave them alone with her wedding planning, or wanted to get on her good side, since shed hold sway with the man in charge. Deadshot took a different route.

Even before the wedding itself, Tali had kind of established herself in Deadshots eyes by getting close to his daughter. You see, Tali was a dark-skinned Egyptian girl, and at the time of the campaign (1999 in campaign one, retconned to 2004 in campaign two), there didnt seem to be a lot of black superheroesor at least not a lot of black FEMALE superheroes for a young girl to idolize. Zoe Lawton is half-black on her mothers side, so having Tali around gave her a sense of comfort. Its a lot like Sarah Washington in the current campaign, and her feelings about Mister Terrific. For Deadshot, as I said, Zoes mother is blackand it seems that he kinda has a type. So, when this pleasant, beautiful princess was hanging around, and was so friendly and good with his daughter, Deadshot caught feelings. He didnt try to convince her otherwise, but he certainly made it clear to Tali that she didnt HAVE to go through with the marriage if it wasnt what she absolutely wanted. He was planting the seeds, basically.

Long story short, the wedding went off without a hitch, Tali became Talirah Isiset-Valley, and then the Joker attacked the wedding reception. Azrael was maimed and rendered comatose, and all in attendance had to deal with the aftermath. Tali, mourning the loss of her newly-wedded husband, found comfort in Deadshot. That is to say, Deadshot wasted no time and kissed Tali at the earliest opportunityand she kissed him right back. Honestly, Tali wouldve put him in charge of the Demon God territory in Azraels stead, right then and therebut Deadshot didnt want to lead. I swear, everyone who was level-handed and rational and WOULDNT be a psychotic warmonger in No Mans Landalso didnt want to be in charge of No Mans Land. Jesse, Nite-Wing, Deadshotyou guys couldve been the chosen one!

Anyway, given that people already suspected that Tali had been cheating on Azrael with Deadshot (or they just assumed Deadshot wanted to bang Tali), it was simple enough for the pair to couple up. Deadshot was a port in the storm for an overwhelmed Tali, especially when her best-laid plans came crashing down at the hands of the Joker. Now, Deadshot being a dad probably also played into her daddy issuesbut cmon, I cant hold that sort of thing against either of them, can I? Ultimately, he did help her fight and finally kill her abusive father, so he gets points for that. God, I still cant believe I rolled a nat 1 on that last moment, where Tali was trying to be a total badass and get her empowerment moment. Oh yeah, Father? Well why dont you meet my BOYFRIND! *gestures over to Deadshot* Nat 1. *Deadshot completely misses everything she just said and doesnt respond.*

Campaign one Deadshot was great, but then he came back in campaign two as one of the members of the Secret Six team. Up until very recently, I probably wouldnt have ranked him this highly. Its not that hes bad or anything like thathe still likely wouldve gotten a boost like Steph/Cass/Nite-Wing. Its just that, in the context of the Secret Six themselves, it didnt feel like he had the strongest story. Deadshots role in the group was to be the stoic badass who smokes cigars after killing people, and he was otherwise the rational member of the group alongside Scandal.

Now, thats not to say he didnt have his moments. Deadshots relationship with Spirit was ALWAYS fun when it came up, because Spirit in No Mans Land was one of the only kids around Zoes age, and as such, they became close friends. Fast forward to campaign two, when Spirit is fourteen and at that puberty age, and Zoes right there with him (in theorysince we only recently rescued her back to Zonn Zorr), and suddenly that relationship with Deadshot becomes much less chummy and much more if you hurt my little girl, I will kill you. Deadshot as a dad is one of my favorite aspects of him, and having him be both protective of Zoe (so help me God if you dont keep it in your pants, Davison), while also bringing it up as often as he does? Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much, and lets be honestif Deadshots daughter married a guy smart enough to earn his M.D. by FOURTEEN? Yeah, I highly doubt hed be THAT upset.

Also, Deadshot certainly made the strongest first impression of the Secret Six upon escaping to Zonn Zorr. Unlike the rest of his compatriots (I think?), Deadshot was one of the prisoners roped into Amanda Wallers Suicide Squad, and he was less-than-pleased about having to share a hidden base with her at the end of the world. He goes charging into her office, nearly running down Lush in the process (temporarily co-opted as Wallers bodyguard), only to have a massive stare down with the boss bitch of Checkmate. That was the Deadshot we knew and loved, with that hidden temper he kept bottled up and ready to burst at a moments notice. It was only after getting his little confrontation with Waller out of the way that he settled down and became more of the mature member of the Secret Six for a long time.

(8) Inside Out

(13) Mulan

hombad46 posted...

Okay I gotta object to this one because we put off building the trophy room for a long time, long after we passed the required trophy amount

To be fair, I though we'd already spent the points on it well before we actually had trophies. I wrote this before you all suddenly spent points on the trophy room.

RaidenGarai posted...

Dad is ded, and so is Ghido? Now who do I main?!

Faris and Celes are still alive to rep 2D.

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23. Valentina Vostok (Negative Woman)

Like a lot of the original denizens of Zonn Zorr, I feel like Vostok has become a BIT of a background character, as the PCs keep bringing people back and finding common ground with the characters we most connect with on a personal level. However, its impossible to ignore Vostoks presence or her contribution to the campaign. First of all, she fits the same category of badass bitch who doesnt take any crap from anyone that I described with Cheshire, which is an automatic bonus for me. But second, as Zonn Zorrs quartermaster, shes one of only a handful of characters that the players are almost FORCED to interact with in some capacity (along with Thinker, Waller, and Snapper). As such, weve all pretty much been treated to her glowing personality at some point in the campaign, and Ive enjoyed those interactions almost every time.

As we get closer to the top of the list, while these are still my personal opinions, I have to say that characters who make big impressions on multiple PCs beyond just myself are inherently going to have a slight advantage, because I can witness different aspects of their personalities at play. In Vostoks case, shes a hardass. Even when not interacting directly with the PCs, we have to go through her whenever we want to upgrade our base. This may not seem like much, but its here where Scarlets characterization really shines. You see, Zonn Zorr is the last bastion of hope for human against the forces of Darkseid, and as such, it should be as fortified and safe as martianly possible. There are a lot of potential upgrades to strengthen Zonn Zorr: a psychic shield, watch towers, turrets, etc. All of these things would be a major boon that the quartermaster would be perfectly fine expending resources to build.

Naturally, the focus of our PCs is on building a library for books we dont have, a game room for games we dont have, and a trophy room for trophies we dont have. You can understand why Vostok might be a bit annoyed at these construction choices, and as such, with every completed addition to Zonn Zorr, we tend to get a snarky comment about how pointless our frivolities are. This is made especially funny by the fact that Vostok is Russian (or a former Soviet at the very least), and thus a lot of her commentary ties back into the stupidity of capitalism, or how she was able to make due with scraps and didnt need any sort of fun or games to enjoy life in the USSR. Even when we finally get around to constructing USEFUL things, Vostok is never happy. Those instances usually end with an implied its about TIME you got around to building something to protect us from being wiped off the face of the Earth.

Thats one of Vostoks major quirks, but the other one is the running gag that solidifies her placement on this list. Vostok is a hardass for sure, and she very much takes her job seriously as quartermaster for Zonn Zorr. Tomfoolery is outlawed when you step foot in her Command Center. Naturally, given the untrained nature of the majority of our PCs, there have been numerous instances of us fucking up and Vostok adding our names to the banned list for the Command Center.

Lush got banned for her sword rampage and subsequent mouthing off to Vostok (after wasting resources on a fortune teller construction project); Saoirse got banned for getting drunk to the point where Catman dumped her in the Command Center for some reason; either Minerva or Bloodfruit (I think Minerva) got banned for insisting on construction of Harley Quinns psychologist office; and Pepper got banned for stealing a calculator during stealth training with Patch (a literal rat), and then going full teachers pet and confessing to the crime no one knew about. That last one was especially fun, because Vostok made Pepper add her own name to the banned list, and Pepper broke down in tears, begging for leniency. Vostok acquiesced, but only after revealing her Negative Woman powers and scaring the shit out of Pepper in the process. What can I say? Vostok doesnt take crap from anyone.

That last part, about how strict she is, is what makes Vostoks relationship with Brennus all the more hilarious. On paper, Brennus shouldve been banned from Command Center on day one. Hes reckless, impulsive, and leaves a trail of orange dust from all the Cheetos he eats (without ever trying to conceal any of this from anyone). Yet somehow, he managed to tug on Vostoks heartstrings in just the right way that she thinks hes an adorable little boy (hes 18, if I recall correctly). No matter what he does or what suggestion he offers up, shell just tug on his cheek and tell him hes doing a great job. Even recently, we added a pool to Zonn Zorr for exercise purposes, and Vostoks note was no Brennus, were not adding a water slide. I dont know what Brennus has done to soften the ice queen, but he manages to unearth a little bit of humanity whenever he and Vostok interact.

Hint for #22: Has either slept with a PC or TRIED to sleep with a PC.

Nanis23 posted...

Gotta love the NR vultures

Suprak traded me for Barret, so I don't think he's an NR vulture.

Celes

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Ill do that for Barret, please!

Will do.

Trading for Faris, auto. (Preferably not Celes/Tifa/Rikku)

Emet

There was a bit of animosity between Pepper and Lush after this line was drawn, what with Lush being very possessive, and Pepper not initially realizing Snappers new relationship status. The medicine worked somewhat, but it didnt prevent Snapper from overtaxing himself when it came to just how much he could transport on one of his snaps. With a trip to Haven, we wound up bringing back quite a few survivors from the villainous nursing home, which stretched Snapper to his absolute limit. Already struggling, the next session didnt go as planned, with Snapper getting lost in time and space, forcing a rescue mission with an untested Multi-Man as our teleporter. Naturally, Pepper felt guilt over this failure, but Lush was the one beside herself, trying to rescue her man.

Turns out Snapper didnt ENTIRELY need rescuing though. Yeah, the field team teleported into his last known location, only to find him happily coupled (to put it politely) with Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva, aka Cheetah. And wouldnt you know itLush was on the rescue mission. Yeah, she wasnt happy, and the aftermath of the rescue mission wasexplosive for Lush, to say the least. She and Snapper reconciled though, and they remain happily together, despite how clearly dysfunctional that relationship truly is. I mean, Lush has gotten drunkenly married in Vegas, and it turns out Snapper might not actually be divorced, since hes really bad at breaking things off with his exes. Also, hes terrified of Cheetah, whos got big crazy ex-girlfriend energy, as she believes him to be her property after claiming him for herself. This doesnt even take into account his ex-wife who he forgot to divorce, and his ex-girlfriend who he forgot to break up with, and Churljenkins, who makes me think alongside Cheetah that Snapper is a furry. The man is bad at commitment, is what Im saying.

Snapper just cant help but have the most hapless life possible, especially for a guy who was considered a mascot before the end of the world. But hey, at least we found his cat, Starro, very early on in the campaign, and he dotes on her constantly. Of course, Starro is devious in her own right, and fancies Data 7, so Snapper is less-than-pleased with Datas playboy (playdog?) lifestyle, especially when it pertains to his courtship/faux-courtship of Snappers precious little girl. Snappers got a regular menagerie on his hands with Starro and Pixie (who dont get along), balancing his relationship with Lush and all of her mental hang-ups, and the introduction of Misty as another wrench in the works of his life. Its a wonder he hasnt had a full-on mental breakdown at this point.

However, huch like with Thinker and a lot of the other early-campaign Zonn Zorr characters, Snapper has become somewhat less prominent as the PCs have found their niches and really focused in on specific groups. I know Ive been bad about keeping up Peppers relationship with Snapper for sure. But still, this is a character we see on a regular basis, and hes around the Snap Zone 90% of the time in sessions with a quip or some quirky moment to kick off our missions. Its always fun to keep things light and at least try to set a positive tone before diving into the bleakness of a world dominated by Darkseid. Plus, its funny how often Snapper comes across as completely annoyed at what his role is in the campaign, and how little he enjoys engaging in pleasantries with the wackier personalities around Zonn Zorr. At least hes a consistent presence and a consistent personality who brightens the campaign overall, and thats good enough for top twenty-five.

Hint for #23: Has alliterative initials.

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24. Lucas Snapper Carr

Given that every other NPC we met in the very first session of the campaign either died during that session, is the goddamn Spectre, orhonestly might still be alive and just roaming around Metropolis with SWAT trainingSnapper is the earliest remaining NPC from campaign two. We first met him after the fivesome of Pepper, Lush, Bloodfruit, Brennus, and Spirit woke up from tubes after having been kidnapped and tucked away in a bunker in Metropolis. We had no idea what was going on, but the world had gone to shit, and none of us had access to any of the metahuman abilities that we had before the kidnapping. After stumbling our way through a highly dangerous city (which, unlike Gotham, we have yet to return to), we just barely managed to escape with our lives, getting picked up by a Checkmate agent who was our first introduction to the resistance: Snapper Carr.

In the VERY early days of the campaign, Snapper was basically the most important person in the world. Amanda Waller might be running Checkmate, but without Snapper and his teleportation abilities, she would just be holed up within an ice fortress at the ass end of the world. No planes, no boats, no helicoptersjust a base to hide away until the food supply ran out and Checkmate agents had to start drawing straws for who would become food. That might be a bit dramatic, but keep in mind that Zonn Zorr didnt really have any metahumans early on, outside of Fire. So without Snapper, youd have to rely on Fire as the SOLE means of traveling in and out of Antarctica. Needless to say, Snappers unique abilities rendered him invaluable to the continued survival of the human race.

Now, all of this could be fine. After all, when the apocalypse hits, thats when you find out what people are truly made of. A heroic figure stepping up to do their duty is the epitome of what superhero comics are all about. However, the thing about Snapper is that (and I hope Im interpreting this correctly) hes not really a superhero. Snapper Carr becoming the most important man on Earth (for however brief of a time he held that distinction) is what happens when the A-List heroes all fall. Then the B-listers. Then the C-listers. Then most of the D-listers. Someone like Snapper suddenly rising to a position of prominence is exactly the sort of thing that makes this kind of story interesting. This is a man who was nominally part of the Justice League, but that was mostly in a mascot capacity. I dont think anyone really took him seriously as a heroic metahuman. But, at the end of the world, beggars cant be choosers. You dont have the safety net of a Superman or a Wonder Woman; all youve got is Snapper Carr.

Because of Snappers pivotal role in the campaign, and the dearth of personalities around Zonn Zorr in the early days, Snapper wound up being a major figure for the first several months (if not longer). People would constantly go to him to request supplies from the outside world, or certain luxuries they couldnt bring with them on their initial snaps. From a personal perspective, one of the earliest powder kegs was the growing rivalry between Lush and Pepper, and Snapper found himself right at the center of that. For Lush (and Scare can correct me if Im misreading things), Snapper was a handsome, young guy at the right place and the right time, who wasnt going to overwhelm her as she dealt with her muddled mind. For Pepper, as I mentioned with Ramsey and Sarah, she was isolated and desperately seeking some sense of familiarity. Given Snappers role as savior of humanity, it was easy for Pepper to impose the role of older brother onto him.
Now, Peppers whole character is that of a teachers pet/people pleaser, and when it came to Snapper, she absolutely saw that as an opportunity to ingratiate herself with one of the central figures of Zonn Zorr. Serving as the sole transport in and out of Zonn Zorr put a considerable strain on Snappers body, so Pepper concocted a drug to at least help alleviate that a little bit. This was at a time in the campaign when, as I said, Pepper and Lush were very much rivals, and while Pepper was very much trying to prove her worth higher up the chain, there was a small part trying to keep Snapper on her side in the brewing war. Of course, Pepper wasnt going to sleep with Snapper, and eventually, the call of booty proved too strong for her to win that power struggle. Snappers just one man, after all, and Lush is hot.

@illuminatusbubu Looks like yet another swap. Please switch to Faris moving forward, if that's cool?

From that point on, King Shark has been a light-hearted presence in the campaign. Hes certainly gotten a bit more screentime than AJ, largely because hes an inherently funny character, and I think that leads to more interplay with the PCs. Its easier to goof around with a comedy character than to have a meaningful conversation with a more serious character. Nanaue has obviously had a bit of a bond with Minerva, since shes Atlantean and deals with undersea efforts more often than not, and this led to a wonderful one-off scene. Seriously, weve had a few half-sessions that are meant to be more enclosed storylines, but Minerva and Shark is one of the few times where a PC was encouraged to meet up with a specific NPC, and they just went on an adventure together.

Basically, the duo was sent to investigate a downed ship near our base, and it turned out to be a Society vessel. Throughout this whole interaction, Minerva and Shark just had a pleasant little conversation with one another, where Minerva was largely expressing her feelings regarding Aquamans death and AJs appearance as a living replica of her hero, and all that sort of stuff. Nanaue shared a little personal information as well, and it was a really sweet bonding moment. But then the mission back to the forefront, and the duo came across a lava villainess named Hot Take, who had gotten stranded and had no real means of escape or outside communication. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to bring back a prisoner, and that was the plan. But then Minerva turned her back and went on a deep and meaningful soliloquy about Aquaman, and it was a very serious moment for all involved.

Then she turned around and found that King Shark had bitten Hot Take in half, rendering the whole mission rather pointless in terms of actually gaining information. It was the perfect comedic punctuation on the scene, taking this hyper-serious moment and just topping it with a perfectly-cut moment of comedy. Thats Sharks whole thing, really: hes ALWAYS hungry, and ALWAYS trying to eat people. Its hilarious how often we have moments where NPCs and PCs are just talking, and we have to spot our conversations to bark at him not to eat someone. But of, hes never REALLY gonna eat anyonehes just YAWNING. Really wide. Right over the top of someones head.

Data 7 makes Nanaues life difficult in this regard for sure, because his whole deal is always wanting to fight and get stronger and prove how strong and unstoppable he is. He regularly trains with King Shark, asking Nanaue to try swallowing him, so he can prove his endurance against the swelter conditions and crushing force of a sharks mouth. Its teasing the poor shark, thats what it is, but its still funny every time. Having King Shark around in general just makes for funny moments, because hes allowed to be the goofball to AJs straight man, while also getting to really be the goofball to MOST peoples straight man. And adding in the weak point of his poor widdle nose just makes for this hilarious juxtaposition, where you have this beefy brute of a character that can be tamed SO easily that it would completely neuter him as a threatIF we were meant to take him seriously. But since were really not, it allows him to work as both comic relief, and as a force to be reckoned with.

Hint for #24: Goes by a nickname.

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25. King Shark (Nanaue)

Yup, weve still got a couple comic relief characters to go on the list, Nanaue just happens to be one that has a bit more presence, and has thus earned himself a higher placement overall. Through a confluence of eventsnamely Minervas obsession with Aquaman and the revelation that the next stop on the Freddy Freeman Captain Marvel World Tour was Aquamans secret hideoutwe wound up traveling off the coast of California in search of the Aquacave. There were a few hiccups along the way (we found a trio of gods whod been turned into pillars of salt by the Spectre, and then some jellyfish attacked and paralyzed some of us as we were swimming), but eventually, we found refuge in the Aquacave. However, when we got inside, we werent alone.

Im not going to go too deep into A.J. Currys appearance in the Aquacave, because this isnt a write-up about him. Nope, instead, Im gonna discuss his partner in crime, Nanaue, aka King Shark. Surprisingly, King Shark was NOT someone wed seen in a campaign before, despite facing Shark, Great White Shark, and Orca in Campaign 1, and then fighting off a weird pink shark in Coast City in Campaign 2. DC has a lot of shark-themed villains, is what Im saying. But yeah, we arrive in the Aquacave and are confronted by this behemoth of a manshark, and it was wonderful. King Shark has already had a bit of a renaissance as a character in recent years, due to his appearance in Harley Quin, various DC animated movies, and the good Suicide Squad. Naturally, when we met him in a campaign setting, we were excited.

What we got from the campaign version of King Shark is a character that is fiercely loyal to his buddy, AJ, after the two of them were kind of thrown together by the will of the Parliament of Waves. And really, neither one of them is a really serious character at this point in time, so they kind of play off each other as just college bros (but not in a douchey and annoying fratbro kind of way). AJ is the pretty boy, and Shark is comparatively the comic relief. In this particular instance though, we quickly realized that Nanaue was descended from a kind of shark god, which meant that Freddys riddle was likely meant to lead him to Nanaue for the N in his CAPTAIN MARVEL quest. But Nanaue wasnt really interested in helping us, because despite everything, hes still a very id-driven villain. He just happens to have been cowed a bit by the Dweller of the Depths into bodyguarding AJ.

We wound up having to fight Nanaue, allegedly to gain his respect and earn the blessing that Freddy was searching. Once again, Brennus stood as Freddys champion and fought Nanaue inmostly single combat. Now granted, Nanaue is a big guy, and he loves eating people, so Brennus had his work cut out for himbut we quickly figured out the sharks weak point. It goes back to the old urban legend about sharks, and how if theyre attacking you, you just need to punch them in the nose to get them to back off. Brennus did exactly that, punching King Shark square in the snout (where he already had a scar), and Shark went down like a sack of potatoes, blubbering (pun intended) about how mean we all were. Despite Nanaue actively encouraging this combat, AJ only caught the tail end of it and thought we just beat up his bro for no reason, and he exiled us from his secret hideout. I mean, AQUAMANS secret hideout. Wink wink.

Thankfully, AJ and King Shark reconsidered their position and joined us in fighting off the Society atop a giant, melting salt statue. Nanaue imbued Freddy with his powers, giving Freddy super strength and a bit of invulnerability (if I recall correctly). I should also point out that Minerva tapped into Shark with her undersea mimesis and became swole AF with super strength in her own right, but that really only matters to a certain subset of Twitter users. I just happen to be one of those who might appreciate it. Ahem. Anyway, we saved the day, got Freddy a new power, and successfully recruited both King Shark and AJ to return back to Zonn Zorr with us. Not bad for a one-off mission to the Aquacave, if I do say so myself.

(3) Spirited Away

(2) Shrek 2

5:23:21

Rinoa

FFDragon posted...

Rinoa

Trading for her auto

For Faris please.

Emet

Johnbobb posted...

Gonna say Fred again

Ghost Patrol, interesting choice.

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26. Leroy

Long before we rescued Traci from the clutches of La Dama, we brought her witchs familiar, Leroy, back with us to Zonn Zorr. Leroy wound up proving his worth as a fun character very early on, through a perfect combination of factors. The thing about the early campaign (and though its diminished slightly, its still somewhat true), is that everything seemed to revolve around Lush. She was, and still kind of is, a central character in terms of the overarching plot of the campaign. And two major character traits Lush has going for her during the campaign are her fixation on the Zonn Zorr Mess Hall (as a cook, not just hanging around there for the sake of hanging around there), and her complete aversion to anything psychic in nature. The latter is certainly a prominent character trait, given her entanglement with Zatanna and the mindwipe incident.

Enter Leroy. If I recall correctly, Pepper specifically brought Leroy to the kitchen, specifically to let him bask in the warmth of a sink there (since hes a reptile, and Zonn Zorr is in Antarctica)and to annoy Lush at the same time. Imagine youre a cook, and youre in your kitchen, and suddenly theres a goddamn iguana just hanging out and chilling in there. Itd freak you out. But on top of that, Leroy is not ordinary iguana; hes a magical familiar. He can talk. Or to be more specific, hes able to speak telepathically with people. As a resident of the kitchen, hes privy to all the comings and goings of food preparation, and hes especially fond of chips. Potato or corn, it doesnt matterthe little guy loves his junk food, to the point where his campaign catch phrase is "Chip please." All of these traits combine to have a character that invaded Lushs personal domain, and then got in her mind, terrifying her on a regular basis. It was wonderful at a time when Pepper was in a bad spot compared to Lush.

But beyond that initial segment of his time in the campaign, Leroy was eventually reunited with Traci. This happened after he revealed himself to be a total badass, morphing from a generic iguana into this violent beast that could maybe give Data 7 a run for his money. He insists we not tell Traci about this though, lest she grow too dependent on his powerful abilities. Thinking on it, the familiars in this campaign are a quite interesting and eclectic bunch, arent they? Admittedly, Leroy has become a bit of a secondary character to Traci (who has herself become one of the major NPCs of Zonn Zorr, what with her storyline hooks to so many of our PCs, and major ties to the magical aspect of the campaign), but hes still a total sweetheart. Having recently had a decent heart-to-heart with Traci, Leroy was still a great opening act, serving as the bouncer for her room until Pepper got him some Doritos.

Finally, I cant end this write-up without talking about the cutest aspect of Leroy in the campaign: his relationship with Twiggy. Traci and Saoirse are witch sisters, and their respective familiars have become best friends at the same time. Whenever the girls get together, youre inevitably going to see a scene of Leroy holding out an outstretched claw, and Twiggy crawling down Saoirses arm to go ride atop his best friend. Theyre so cute together. And when Twiggy got snapped in half on a mission, poor Leroy had to worry over his best friend and hope that the magic would come together to restore the broken stick to his former glory. Its the little things like that which make Leroy an enjoyable addition to the campaign. Hes not the biggest or most prominent character, but he adds a great deal of flavor in the scenes in which he appears.

Hint for #25: Connected to the Captain Marvel storyline.

scarletspeed7 posted...

What catchphrase does Freddy have?

I was gonna ask this question, but then I figured "Captain Marvel" counted.

Halfway through the list!

HM. Honorable Mention OR Harry Matthews
52. White Lightning
51. Ice Sickle
50. Nightshade (Eve Eden)
49. Lono
48. Misty Kilgore
47. TNTeena
46. Shiny Happy Aquazon (Kim Kimura)
45. Carmen Leno
44. Toyman (Hiro Okamura)
43. Dewormer
42. Till'all
41. Mike the Rooster
40. Radio Tuner
39. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)
38. Half-Life (Byron Stark)
37. Jesse Custer
36. Ramsey Robinson
35. Sarah Washington
34. Rover
33. Blackbat (Cassandra Cain)
32. Traci Thirteen
31. Nite-Wing (Tad Ryerstad)
30. Thinker (Clifford DeVoe)
29. Fiddler (Isaac Bowin)
28. Miracle Molly (Mary Kowalski)
27. Jack Cross

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27. Jack Cross

Jack is another character, like Thinker, who made a big splash early on, but admittedly has fallen a bit by the wayside, what with the expansion of Zonn Zorr (and the general diminishment of amphitheater debriefing scenes as opposed to magic scenes in Oblivion, or space scenes in Oa). Still, that big splash made a very strong impression at a point when we were still largely dealing with more down-to-Earth narratives and mission planning. Having a snarky character that lacked any real desire to play by Amanda Wallers rigid idea of how Checkmate should operate created a unique opportunity for a character who is mature enough to know how one should behave, and still choosing to go a more chaotic route.

Early in the campaign, we woke up after being kidnapped and held in stasis, to discover that all of the PCswho had previously had metahuman or magical abilitieshad been sapped back to normalcy. We were informed of an agent in Mesa Verde who might have an answer to our problem, or at least some connective information regarding the OMAC threat (which hadnt truly established itself as dangerous at that early point in the campaign). So, off to Mesa Verde we traveled, and its residents were, for the most part, what you would expect of an off-the-grid and abandoned pueblo ruin. There were a pair of native American superheroes, a handful of older survivors, and even an outdoorsy trapper. Beyond them, there were only two NPCs that stuck out against the desert backdrop: Rocker (a Checkmate agent from Denver who surprisingly was NOT our contact), and Jack Cross.

Here's the thing that stands out about Jack Cross (and I do need to go on a little bit of a tangent here). The whole campaign revolves around an apocalyptic scenario where Darkseid has taken over the Earth and were one of the last handfuls of a ragtag group of survivors, trying to cobble together a resistance for the good of everyone on the planet (and the solar system, reallyif not more, given recent developments in the campaign). The NPCs we interact with largely fall into one of three categories: good-natured people, just trying to survive; villains that may or may not want to boost their profile in the eyes of the Society; or lunatics with bizarre fixations that render them unable to comprehend the more serious issues at hand (think the psychopaths from the Dead Rising franchise). Jack does not fit nicely into any of these categories.

What I enjoy about Jack Cross is how openly and blatantly self-interested he is. From the first moment we met him at Mesa Verde, he had his angles, and he stuck to them ferociously. Were part of a resistance group trying to save the world, and we cant get our powers back without the technology he managed to secure? Well then wed better keep him safe until we get him back to our base, because fuck the field team compared to his personal survival. Lo and behold, when the shit hit the fan and the OMACs started attacking, we got Jack to safety at the expense of literally every other survivor Mesa Verde had. Granted, several of them were already goners, but we couldve at least saved Chindi. Im still annoyed that we didnt realize we COULD get Chindi to safety. But whatever; Jack was what mattered, and thanks to him, we got back to Zonn Zorr in one piece, and regained our various superpowers.

From that point on, Jack continued to serve a very special purpose among the denizens of Zonn Zorr. You see, Checkmate has always been this shadowy, extranational organization, pulling strings and controlling world events without any sort of oversight. Under the current circumstances, having some semblance of structure to fight back against Darkseid is useful and comforting. However, Jack has a bit of a problem with authority, and hes not entirely comfortable with just laying down and letting Checkmate take over. Darkseid might be far and away the worse option, but that doesnt mean he has to like Checkmate. As such, there was a lengthy period of the campaign where wed have debriefings on our various field missions, and Jacks sole role was to sit in on those meetings and just crack jokes and talk shit about the missions (namely teachers pet Pepper). It provided some much-needed levity to an otherwise very serious situation.

Finally, I cant end a write-up on Jack without mentioning his extracurricular hobby. I dont know WHY this is a character trait Scarlet gave him, but its hilarious all the same: Jack is writing a science fiction novel. Its a BAD science fiction novel, but he IS writing it. Essentially, the character of Jack Cross is writing the in-universe equivalent of Mass Effect (no judgment towards, Scarlet, btwtheres a reason I always use existing songs in my writing, rather than trying to write something of my own when the need arises). Its completely cheesy, and every so often, one of us will ask Scarlet to give us another page or two from Jacks novel, and its just awful in the best way. Hes even started incorporating Rozetta, our resident Saturnian, as the inspiration behind some of his characters. The whole thing is just a comic character trait to further flesh out this interesting personality thats stuck with us since the early days of the campaign.

Hint for #26: Has a catchphrase.

(1) Up

(4) Tangled

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28. Miracle Molly (Mary Kowalski)

Las Vegas was a crazy session. For all of us, really, but for Pepper, it wound up being a really good time to start putting the pieces in place to get her drug empire plans up and running. After all, the goal of Peppers Operation High Society is to use drugsone of the major commodities in a world ravaged by an invading, alien forceto get in good with the Society and weaken them from the inside out. Whether said weakening is a result of drugging up the countless mooks and goons working for their supervillain bosses, or just putting us in a position to bend the ear of those who think themselves power players within the Society itself, Peppers drug business is an ideal scenario. Hell, by the time Vegas rolled around, shed already started manufacturing her own brand of narcotics, just to have something new and unique to offer any interested buyers.

Peppers drug plans put her in contact with many of the factions vying for control of Las Vegas: Mayor Deperto wanted to get in on the drug trade himself, and give Pepper a vast sum of money to kickstart her venture (which she was drunk off her ass and couldnt remember anything); Clawhammer specifically wanted her to bow down and serve him as a supplier, since he wanted to be the only drug lord in the game; the Royal Flush Gang, by way of Jack of Spades, offered a partnership that was sealed with a kiss. But the faction that most intrigued me was the Unsanity Collective. We were introduced to them early on via Vaudevillainess and her sales pitch/catch phrase of Hungry? Thirsty? Horny? Try Daizee Haze. Apparently, Pepper wasnt the only one in Vegas offering designer drugs.

After Clawhammer turned out to be a massive dick, and after Peppers hangover subsided enough to get her bearings, she opted, sight unseen, to try striking a deal with the Unsanity Collective. Surprisingly, we had a secondary in beyond Peppers drugs, since during Rozettas drunken bender, shed come into possession of Mollys daughter. Though it took us a while to get there, we eventually made our way to the Circus Circus Hotel & Casino, and gained an audience with Miracle Molly herself. And the girl certainly knows how to make an entrance, lets put it that way.

For starters, Im not sure whether we made the best first impression by returning Squeak, because on the one hand, yes, we brought Molly her daughter backbut on the other hand, what the fuck were we doing with her daughter in the first place. Regardless, we glossed over that rather quickly as Pepper tried to launch into her plans and desire for a potential partnership with the Unsanity Collective. This led to Molly turning an offered handshake into a very French back-of-the-hand kiss, at which point she started getting REALLY creepy about wanting to absorb Peppers powers into herself. And right after that, she called Pepper Alyssa, setting off a TON of red flags and terror at yet ANOTHER person out in the world knowing Peppers secret identity. This happenedas the session wrapped for the night, giving us yet ANOTHER classic cliffhanger to stew over for the rest of the week.

We spent the whole week fretting over that cliffhanger, because its important to note that Mollys appearance is that of a girl with a weird speaking cadence and a cybernetic eye, and she knew personal information about Pepper. Wed already had an incident in Gotham, earlier in the campaign, where a secret OMAC slipped up and revealed himself by calling Pepper by her name, when she hadnt offered it. As a result, even with the reveal that she had a motherbox, our minds did not immediately go to Mister Miracle as a possible connection. No, we thought Molly was a walking vessel for Mother Miracle, the A.I. in charge of the OMAC fleet. So we had all these contingency plans ready to goonly to get in session and Molly was offended that wed think she was connected to Mother Miracle. No, she was the daughter of Mister Miracle (one of the New Gods from New Genesis instead of Apokolips) and a random Vegas waitress who has a chip on her shoulder against Big Barda for stealing away her father.

Naturally, we all wanted a piece of this delightful lunatic, and since she was a chemist, putting together her own drugs for distribution throughout Vegas, Pepper naturally wanted in with her. A like-minded businesswoman? Yes, please. We wound up recruiting Molly and the Unsanity Collective into our big, Vegas heist, and her people played their partright up until everything went to shit, and the whole mission turned into a big ol free-for-all between all the factions of Vegas. But hey, Pepper protected Molly and Squeak, and got to blow a hole through Clawhammers head in the process, effectively reducing the drug trade in Vegas down to just Molly and her crew. We have a business deal in-place now, but alas, Vegas is a territory we cant easily return to, since Zazzala swooped in to take over while everyone else was licking their wounds. Still, Molly was an integral part of giving flavor to Vegas, and shes still fascinating as a potential New God in her own right. I cant wait to have the chance at meeting up with her again.

Hint for #27: Regularly attends debriefings.

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29. Fiddler (Isaac Bowin)

Weve had a lot of named characters die in the campaign thus far, either by our own hands in combat, or just running afoul of the forces of evil that reign supreme across planet Earth. And while some have certainly made an impression (Standing Bear, Joe Hollywood, Star Sapphire, Xlex), theres really only one for me that had such a strong showing that I cant help but include him on this list. Fiddler isnt the most impactful death for me, mind you (those would be Peter Robinson and our lost PC, Taliesin), but in terms of just a beautiful character arc and scene, I cant not include him on this list in some fashion. Yes, he was lost so early on in the campaign, but his presence will forever be felt by all of us in Zonn Zorr.

Fiddler was one of the original six in the aptly-named Secret Six. Im not entirely sure on the timeline, but I know one mission ended with the party finding the Secret Six, then there was a second mission to work with them in Canada, and then Pepper was only on the third and final Secret Six mission, which was originally intended to be just another field mission that sent us to a nursing home for old and infirm supervillains. It says a lot, in my opinion, that Pepper only really got to interact with Fiddler the one time, and he still managed to leave his mark on her soul all the same. I cant really comment on the Port-A-Demon mission, so Im going to unfortunately have to leave that out for the time being, and instead Ill focus solely on the parts of Fiddlers story that I was privy to.

The Secret Six (and Ill keep this brief, since several of them will be making appearances higher on this list) was a group of six supervillains who did not throw in with the Society (or perhaps left the Society when they realized it wasnt the greatest organization), and instead came under the employ of a mysterious benefactor named Mockingbird. Mockingbird made each of them an offer they couldnt refuse, so they worked for him or her as a sort of covert ops mercenary group. Now, for most of the group, you have dark, gritty personalities that come across as total badasses in one way or another (or theyre murderous psychopaths). But with Fiddler, he just felt different. Yes, he was still a supervillain, but he was an old-school villain. He wasnt some master marksman or knife-happy maniache was a kindly old grandpa villain, if anything.

Both Brennus and Pepper had friendly conversations with him about how he wanted to repair his legacy and just generally go out more heroic than his past might imply. It was a nice dream, and even though it was just as personal as the rest of the team, it just felt a little more positive than the drive for revenge, or even the desire to protect their children. Of course, redemption came a bit sooner than Fiddler anticipated, as Cheshire betrayed the team and sold out their location to the Society. After being overwhelmed by enemy forces yet again (seriously, in the first ten weeks of the campaign, it became almost a running theme of missions ending with swarms of Society, OMACs, Equated, or just the Spectre ending Peppers sessions in a definitive manner), it seemed like all hope was lost, and there was little we could do to escape the Secret Sixs hideout, unscathed.

Making true to his word however, Fiddler stayed behind, offering up his personal vehicle, the Fiddlermobile, as a means of escape. And as we drove off into the night, we were soothed by the melodic sounds of fiddle music, his musical powers holding the Society at bay long enough for us to flee. He played and played and played, and then the music fell silent, and we knew that our friend and ally had fallen to the might of the Society. Prior to that point, wed had instances of OMACs wrecking us in Mesa Verde, or the Society wrecking us in Quad Citiesbut this one hit home a bit harder.

This was a case of a villain defying his stereotype to stand up and sacrifice himself for the good of the group. Weve only really gotten that one time since (that I can remember off the top of my head), and Clayface/Lady Clayface just didnt have as much time to leave a positive impression as Fiddler did. Call me a sap, but if theres something in fiction that will always get me to cry, its a father/child relationship where a dad who had a hard life finds common ground in a child he gets to mentor. But after THAT archetype (which has nothing to do with Fiddler and was more a fun non sequitur about me), I love seeing a scenario where the chips are down, and even the baddest dudes realize where their loyalties lie. A villain having a change of heart to save the day will always be better than the heroes just powering out. Granted, Fiddler was straddling the line between hero and villain by this point, but still, he made for the noblest of sacrifices, and for that, he gets the twenty-nine spot on my list.

Hint for #28: A participant in the Las Vegas storyline.

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30. Thinker (Clifford DeVoe)

If this ranking took place within the first ten or so weeks of the campaign, Thinker wouldve easily made it to the top ten. He is an ever-present force in Zonn Zorr, serving as our A.I. (though not ACTUALLY an A.I., since hes a fully cybernetic human consciousness) and security system for all of the base. As such, Thinker has had a lot of interactions with most of the PCs, and almost every time he pipes up, hes funny. Unfortunately, hes one of those characters thats just so ever-present that it feels difficult to just go strike up a conversation and have new interactions and new backstory and whatnot. Thats not to say that Thinker is in any way bad; hes just been surpassed by more prominent characters since the beginning of the campaign.

Most of Thinkers best work comes from his interactions with others, rather than his personal story. At least based off of the content weve gotten thus far, hes not the most complex character in the campaign. He was a villain, but he rejected the offer to join the Society, and then when A-Day hit and computer systems the world over were flooded by the Equation, he managed to air gap himself and avoid getting infected. Since then, hes a bit of a prankster, but is otherwise a completely reliable member of the Checkmate organization. There is a certain personality that shines through though, because as a character who had his human form converted into digital code, Thinker is someone who very much respects two things: intelligence, and deference to himself. If youre smart and play by his rules, Thinker wont give you any problems; otherwise, youd better watch out.

Pre-campaign, Minervas big moment was basically being the Aquaman fangirl equivalent of Star Wars kid, and having a video recorded of her in a cape, waving a sword around her garage and yelling out Im Aquaman, Im Aquaman. Its adorable, but also deeply embarrassing. Naturally, Thinker has this video, and reminds Minerva of this whenever she begins coloring outside the lines, as one might say. Meanwhile, with Lush, for a long time she was kind of a self-centered B, and caused problems around Zonn Zorr that Thinker had to deal with as chief of security and the general base mainframe. So when Lush, wanting to do better, asked for Thinkers assistance in providing her notes from debriefings, he did exactly that. HUNDREDS of pages of EXACT actions from debriefings, including (but not limited to), various bodily functions, nervous tics, and just general unimportant motions. In her effort to try and better herself, Thinker absolutely does not make it easy.

Before I get to the big PC interaction, I do feel the need to address a few minor NPC interactions that help to flesh Thinker out. We, the party members, absolutely love both Susie Thompkins and Pixie, but they are objectively bratty characters in the context of the campaign. And while we tend to either humor that brattiest impulses, its good to have an NPC that will not take any of their shit. Now granted, Im not sure if Thinkers reaction to Pixie is an understanding that Pixie is a brat, or if its just him messing with Lush again, but regardless, he has gone out of his way to make her life more difficult by refusing to operate Lushs door like an automatic door for the hapless doggo that just wants to retreat to the safety and comfort of her bed baskie. And as for Susie, its funny to see her constantly bark orders and act like the Queen Bee of everyone else, and then Thinker just completely no-sells her. She demands something and he simply refuses, because SOMEONE needs to set boundaries.

But the greatest moment of Thinkers time in the campaign comes from his interactions with Brennus. Brennus is, and I say this with love, a himbo. In terms of outright intelligence, I believe hes one of the lowest of our PCs (alongside Data 7 and MAYBE Silhouette/Lush?) But in true dump stat, min-maxing fashion, Brennus is very charismatic and outgoing, which can be a very dangerous combination. I only bring this up to perhaps explain why Thinker might develop animosity towards the hyperactive Brennus. Well, aside from the cleanliness issues. But as I stated above, Thinker is very much in favor of intellect, and its only reasonable that he might take issue with this blonde boy running recklessly around Zonn Zorr. Now granted, Brennus is also quite gullible, and Thinker tried to take advantage of that early on, only to be thwartedso he may have overreacted a bit in retaliation.

Thinker, being a villain at heart (who saw fit to avoid joining the Societybut still a villain), cant help but try underhanded schemes whenever he so desires. So he tried to coerce Brennus into helping hack into Mister Terrifics computer network. Brennus, still very much in his heroic boy scout phase, ratted Thinker out to Terrific, perhaps forgetting that Thinker has audio/visual access to the entirety of Zonn Zorr. What followed were a series of increasingly harmful pranks to Brennus sanity, including dousing him with the sprinkler system, and having him labeled as a level four security threat. Early on, when the campaign was still rather dark and gritty, Thinkers rivalry with Brennus (one-sided as it was, since Brennus couldnt compare), brought some much-needed levity.

However, the pranks eventually made life too difficult for Brennus, and he begged Thinker for a reprieve. Thinker knows no mercy, however, and lulled Brennus into a false sense of security with a plea for help. In the equivalent of the Janitor eating a bite of laxative-laced pie just to trick J.D. into also eating some of that same pie, Thinker convinced Brennus that he was suffering and needed to be put out of his misery. Thinker walked Brennus through the steps of sneaking into his mainframe and deactivating it, conveniently going radio silent after a certain point, so Brennus would seem to have been acting alone. Brennus then sabotaged Thinkers mainframe, putting Zonn Zorr into a state of panic and making himself public enemy number one as a traitor and a spy.

Eventually, everything got sorted out, and Thinker got a stern talking to from Waller (as did Brennus, because gullibility is a liability for field work), but still, it was just a great demonstration of the lengths Thinker would go to fuck with someone who wronged him. Since then, hes largely mellowed out, but he still has his moments (see treatment of Susie/Pixie). And hes always good for a little bit of comedic smugness (like sending Peppers medical records to Brennus, exposing how much damage her powers do to Zonn Zorrs plumbing system, just as an example). Hes just a fun, ever-present character to have around.

Hint for #29: A member of the Secret Six.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/6/5/AAAe4tAADqGR.jpg
31. Nite-Wing (Tad Ryerstad)

Before Cassandra, Nite-Wing spent a LONG time atop my character rankings in campaign one, much to Scarlets chagrin. He was just such a fascinating character to me, because the No Mans Land campaign revolved around a Gotham City divvied up into various sectors and territories, and just about every territory had some major player in Gotham at the helm. Two-Face, Black Manta, Scarface, Jim Gordon, Ventriloquist, Poison Ivy, Penguin, Mister Freeze, Black Mask, Zsasz, Riddler, Harley Quinn, Maxie Zeus, Azrael, Cluemaster, Mad Hatter, the Falcone crime familywe had a ton of power players all jockeying for control of the city. And yes, there were a few smaller names on the field, but the LoBoyz and Street Demonz were always destined to be early campaign fodder to help teach us the ropes. We just happened to put it off for a long time due to choice paralysis.

However, caught right in the middle of all these big names, there was a small patch of land: Robinson Park. And within the borders of Robinson Park, a girl named Magpie reigned supreme. Well, on-paper she reigned supreme. Magpie had a mental disorder that rendered her very flightly and otherwise obsessed with trinkets and shiny things. Thus, the actual work of running and protecting Robinson Park fell to her (non-canon?) brother, Nite-Wing. Not Dick Grayson; thats the whole point. No, Nite-Wing, from what I can tell, was a very minor character in DC lore, brought into No Mans Land as a character from right around the time that the in-universe events would have occurred. And to me, he became a stand-out personality.

Every villain (or the police) in Gotham City wanted to amass greater power. They already controlled one territory, so why not go further? Why not take control of more territories and push their specific ruling ideologies on the masses? But not Nite-Wing. No, Nite-Wing wanted no part of any authority of rigid political structure. He was an anarchistlargely in the sense that he found the way the world worked pre-No Mans Land to be a failure, hence the edict coming down in the first place. With Robinson Park, he just wanted to protect his people and protect his allies and build a microcosm of society that would be better and more equitable than the real world. Also, he had a chip on his shoulder against the police, since he knew that several police officers had abused his mentally ill sister when shed been arrested. Thats enough to explain his defiance of authority, thats for sure.

My character in campaign one, Tali, had a complicated relationship with Nite-Wing. Seeing a leader so selfless and devoted to protecting his people, stood in stark contrast to the desire for power that shed witnessed corrupt her father. Plus, as a nave girl transplanted out of time, she found his mannerisms and attitude cute, not to mention her affinity for blonde hair. Nite-Wing developed a crush on Tali that she was too oblivious to see, which led to a sad falling out when she undertook a political marriage that she believed would be for the good of the city. Still, she tried to rebuild their friendship at that point, but the way the campaign shook out (giving power to the very police Nite-Wing despised) was never going to end well. He grew so disillusioned that he wound up abandoning his sister as well, and he and Tali had a major falling out with his decision to flee the city, instead of being the vigilante hero he purported to be.

This leads us to campaign two, and Ive already mentioned Hub City with regards to us finding and rescuing Sarah Washington. Something Ive touched on less thus far in these write-ups (because so many of them are about characters we interact with in Zonn Zorr) is the fact that just about every mission we go on sends us to a city or town that has a Society cell in charge of it. Some of these cells are headed by big name villains who have no interest in talking, and want to kill any intruders; some are headed by more malleable criminals who we can prop up. In Hub City, imagine my surprise when we ran into the leader of the citys Society cell, and it was none other than my boy, Nite-Wing. Accompanied by a handful of goons and losers from No Mans Land, no less. He doesnt quite fit the role of the malleable patsy, but hes far closer to that line than that of a violent ideologue leader.

After Tali spent all of campaign one trying to get Nite-Wing to step up and lead Gotham, he winds up falling ass-backwards into a leadership position in Hub City. Thats the thing about Nite-Wing; hes JUST villainous enough that you can understand why he would be inducted into the Society, but he also thinks of himself as a hero, in the same vigilante vein as Batman. As such, hes actually a perfect Society leader, even beyond Peppers personal strategy to try and get in good with the Society in order to manipulate them from within. Nite-Wing just wants to lead and be in charge, but hes not malicious or ideological about it the way that some other leaders weve met have been. Hes certainly not a book-burning Nazi, or a bloodsucking vampire, thats for sure.

Honestly, seeing Nite-Wings depiction in this campaign, its one of the major reasons I think I wouldve been better off flipping my two characters. Pepper feels like she would have fit perfectly in Gotham City during No Mans Land, and she has a bit of an anti-authority streak that would have meshed well with Nite-Wing in a way that perhaps Tali was always doomed to fail to achieve. Meanwhile, Tali wouldve been far better in a grander setting like the Final Crisis. But whats done is done, and I think theres still a great deal of potential for Pepper (or rather, her villain alter ego, Biohazard) to work well with Nite-Wing. She definitely agrees with her ideology, based on campaign one, and hes personable as a leader. We eventually want to consolidate Society leadership, so who knows? Maybe THIS time, Nite-Wing is exactly who we need to run things on a grander scale.

Hint for #30: Has been part of Zonn Zorr since the beginning.

Galuf

Seeing you mention your list, I started compiling one of my own, and holy shit TAN3 is a forgettable season.

Underleveled posted...

Haven't watched it.

You should. It's been pretty solid overall. Not great, but I'd honestly say it's more enjoyable as a television program than TAN, despite having an extremely similar format.

Pokewars posted...

Your tribal chief.

https://i.imgur.com/9VOe2oo.png

That divergence was the first real hint of Traci coming into her own, but the second pertained to her connection with Jaime Reyes. With several characters in this campaign, weve seen instances of established comic storylines colliding with PC desires, and Traci/Jaime is certainly one of those. From some brief research, Traci 13 is one of several romantic interesting Jaime has had during his time in DC comics, and she was originally part of his campaign storyline as well, having been one of the characters he was helping to coyote into Mexico before he got Blue Beetled and she got kidnapped by La Dama. As such, there is that natural storyline hook of Traci being Jaimes romaence partnaer. But, Pepper got in the way, and I think THAT really started Traci down her current path.

For reference, Jaime was helping coyote people, and we picked him up in week nine of the campaign, drawing him away from his duties and effectively allowing Traci to get captured. Perhaps if wed gone back right away and dealt with that plot early, we would have returned her to Zonn Zorr and she wouldve been smooching Jaime within a month of meeting him. However, due to the constraints of accommodating ten different people with ten different schedules and ten different sets of priorities, we didnt go back to El Paso until week sixteen, at which point we learned for the first time that Traci had been captured. And ultimately, after taking three or four more trips to the Texas/Mexico border, we finally rescued Traci at week twenty-nine. Thats twenty weeks, or almost half a year of real time between extracting Jaime and extracting Traci back to Zonn Zorr.

During that time, Pepper and Jaime began a slight flirtmance with one another, and despite Peppers inherent prudishness, she still had a big head start on Jaimes canon love interest (well, both of them, since she also got plenty of alone time with him apart from Brenda as well). But as I mentioned above, Traci is very ambitious, and shes all-too-willing to work for what she wants. So having Pepper be this pretty girl that Jaime likes, and she likes him back, provided circumstances for a rivalry. And Traci was very good at working that rivalry in her favor (though Pepper admittedly didnt do herself any favors due to general awkwardness in the field of flirting). It seemed like there was a certain period where Traci had just snatched Jaime away, and anything she did was meant to isolate him and pry him from Peppers clutches.

I played Pepper at this point like she was completely oblivious to Tracis intentions, instead viewing Traci as the sweetheart she purported to be. But once she became aware that Traci was a threat (after Pepper had already fought to overcome her fears of intimacy with the opposite sex and set her sights on Jaime), Pepper prepared the nuclear option. But there was Traci, ready and willing to counter that attempt, and the scheming little witch (not derogatory, since she is scheming, and little, and a witch) pulled a masterstroke of mean girl manipulation that fucked Jaime over TO THIS DAY, and sent Pepper (and me by proxy) spiraling for about a week thereafter.

Traci basically took her ball and went home. Pepper was somehow winning the war for Jaime, so rather than give her any sort of satisfaction (because Traci had it in her mind that Pepper was some sort of queen bee who always got her way), Traci decided to flip the board so no one could wind. In a platonic not-a-date, Pepper and Jaime went to a newly-opened burger joint, and Traci joined them, bringing Misty along as her plus one. And with some general coercion, Traci got Pepper away from Jaime long enough for a brain-addled Misty to start making out with him, under the believe that he was Hal Jordan. This shocked Pepper, but Traci acted up a storm, treating this make-out session like the ultimate betrayal. And that attitude somewhat infected Pepper, leading to general curtness from her, which led to Jaime torpedoing whatever relationship they may have had.

From this point on, Traci had her character. She is a schemer, and she is manipulative as heck. She has goals, either in terms of hooking up with Freddy or Kid Eternity or whoever (mirroring Peppers own romantic efforts, since she also attempting to land with Freddy), or rising in the ranks of Checkmate (much like the Rook state Pepper takes pride in), or just getting on whatever field team she wants. She has had RP conversations since then with Brennus, Saoirse, Lush, and now Pepper, and in every instance, she comes across as playing EXACTLY into the expectations of the person shes talking to.

Saoirse wants to protect Traci and treat her like a little sister, so Traci plays into that role, and uses Saoirses affinity for her own gain (getting onto the field team to Tokyo, to satisfy her tremendous weeb status). She plays nice with Brennus, disarming him with falsified fears of being taken advantage of by a guy (and claiming hes faking being gay to get in good with girls), and that leverages her power over him. With Lush, she seems less successful since Lush is very stubborn, but still, shes convinced Lush to look after Saoirse for her, despite a general level of disdain. And even Pepper has (falsely or otherwise) been drawn into Tracis web, with Traci playing up their similarities and claiming guilt to instill guilt of her own in Pepper.

Traci is a fascinating character because shes so inherently charming, and everything about her persona is designed to play off a general understanding of peoples psychology. This makes sense, when you consider shes Traci Thirteen, daughter of Dr. Terrance Thirteen, who makes a living debunking paranormal activity. Tracis investigative abilities have been honed to seek out bullshit, and that in turn gives her a great deal of insight into other people and what she can use against them to get what she wants.

But at the same time, that familial connection creates some problems, because Traci is a mage, and shes born to a father who outright denies her existence. Now, this could be complete bullshit designed to appeal specifically to Pepper, but Traci has shown ire for her father forcing her to remain closeted as a mage in this regard. Magic isnt real, so either shes wrong or lying, according to him. It certainly would explain her desire to strive for power, since thats the same mindset Pepper has. But again, this could be a lie in its own right; whos to know? Traci is just a big ol question mark, and I think she has a lot of potential to rise on this list once some more of those gaps keep getting filled in.

Hint for #31: A member of the Society.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/1/3/AAOJ0pAADcrp.png
32. Traci Thirteen

Traci is a really hard character to properly rank, because I feel like no one in the campaign (PC or NPC) has really gotten to know the real her. Whenever someone interacts with Traci (and many of the PCs have at this point), I feel like she does her best to adapt to the person and what she assumes they want to hear. Because of this, while shes a really interesting character, it is somewhat difficult to grasp whats real, and whats just an act with her. Plus, it doesnt help that Ive only recently had my first real heart-to-heart with her after however many weeks it was of us being somewhat at odds with one another.

As with many of the characters from the El Paso/Convoy storyline (which was more collective in its characterization outside of the two central figures), Tracis time in the voiced sessions isnt necessarily vital to her character. Ill cover the basics all the same though, because the circumstances behind her introduction to the campaign DO inform her closest PC relationship out of all of us. To put it bluntly, Traci is a young mage and thus immediately has a connection with the magic portion of the campaign. This isnt necessarily MY cup of tea, but for the pair of mages in our party, Traci is a kindred spirit. And while the first time we heard tell of Traci was as part of Jaimes coyote exploits, trying to help her escape the U.S. into Mexico, Traci quickly became a much higher priority for all involved.

As I mentioned in the Half-Life write-up, the big bad early on in El Paso was a drug lord named La Dama, and on top of all the other evil things she was responsible for, we found out that she had kidnapped Traci while we were away, having taken Jaime back to Zonn Zorr to deal with his new superpowers. Fully aware of Tracis mage powers, La Dama had begun siphoning her magic away, and due to the conflicting opinions of our party, we didnt immediately bust into the prison to stage a breakout. We certainly could have, but we instead opted for discretion, leaving Traci imprisoned while we tried to instead work a deal with La Dama to secure her release. When this news got back to Zonn Zorr however, Saoirse didnot take kindly to it.

Brennus was on the field team for that mission, but Saoirse is certainly the PC most attuned to the magic aspect of the campaign. Hearing that a young mageat a time when she was trying to cobble together a group of all the Eighth Agers (of Magic) that remained fully empowered in the wake of a new shake-up in the magical orderwas being held and tortured, Saoirse insisted on leading the charge to get Traci out as soon as humanly possible. And so we did: La Dama kept her word, we made good on our deal, and we freed Traci from captivity, only slightly worse for the wear. She came back to Zonn Zorr with us, reuniting with her familiar, Leroy, and for the most part, she was just a very bright and chipper character. She seemed to bond well with PCs and NPCs alike.

It's weird discussing Traci, because I feel like we got to know her personality long before we really got glimpses of the backstory which informed that personality. I also think (and this is just my interpretation, so it might very well be wrong) that is took a little while for Scarlet to dial into the voice for Traci. At the onset of her time in Zonn Zorr, I think she was very much just trying to be nice and friendly with everyone and struggled to really stand up and make her opinions known. She got pulled into a sisterly relationship with Saoirse as a fellow mage, and theyre obviously close with one another, but still, I would say early Traci was still very standard in her characterization.

Ill fully acknowledge that this is a very self-centered view on things, but I think having Pepper in the campaign pushed Traci onto a path that has served her well in becoming a memorable and interesting character. On-paper, Traci and Pepper share a lot of similarities: they both put on this mask of aggressive niceness that may or may not be completely genuine; they both have relatively recent awakenings of their innate powers (which put them at odds with their fathers); they both aggressively seek companionship and camaraderie at the end of the world out of desperation for human connection (but only on their terms); and theyre both very ambitious, believing themselves to be clever and smart enough to stand out among their peers. In a way, Ive long considered Traci the magic equivalent of Pepper in this campaignand Traci even feels like a developing character on par with the campaigns PCs.

That desperation for human contact I mentioned? Early on, Pepper attempted to gather the various teenagers wed picked up on our travels into the Zonn Zitans. She was able to justify this was passing along her own experience in training with Lagoon Boy as a way for the youths of Zonn Zorr to train together and find their strength as fledgling heroes. But in reality, this was largely an attempt to cobble together a friend group by a frightened girl who was WAY out of her element in the early campaign. Peppers whole deal is that shes the most rookie member of the party (at least in terms of being involved in the superhero or metahuman community), and the circumstances of the campaign (getting kidnapped and held in stasis for months before awakening to the apocalypse) have been more terrifying for her than most. The original Zonn Zitans may not have had the most unified goals, but Pepper just desperately needed the calming effect of companionship to provide a sense of normalcy.

While the original Zonn Zitans consisted of Pepper, Brennus, Spirit, Freddy, Jaime, and Alice, there was never any intention of excluding future additions. And naturally, with her magical abilities, Traci was invited to join the team without question. But in the Zitans first (and really ONLY) full outing, the flippant attitude of the team sparked Freddys ire, which at least partially scared Traci away from the group. More than likely though, Traci was never fully onboard with a team cobbled together by circumstance, rather than genuine interpersonal chemistry. And as such, she became the first person to really accept the stupidity of the Zonn Zitans concept in general, and began actively fighting against it. Admittedly, it was also funny how of all people, she railed against Freddy the most for getting angry one time, when hes the most mature and rational of the bunch.

Its with this knowledge in mind that we come to Boston. Much like the investigation that led to Cass during No Mans Land, the mission kicks off with a murder that the party needed to solve, lest they suffer an unfortunate fate. And said mission sent the party off to investigate the highest point in the city, from which an appropriate sniper shot could be fired. That point? Titans Tower East. The group arrived and ran afoul of a handful of teen supervillains (or misguided superheroesagain, I wasnt on the mission and am VERY sad I didnt get to be a part of this), with the big reveal being that Deathstrokes little collection of young warriors included a cast adrift Cassandra Cain, now going by Blackbat.

Both Spirit and Rozetta happened to be on this mission, and of the nine party members from campaign one, they were the two (after Tali) who had the closest connection to Cassandra. Yet she was having nothing of their attempts at reconnection and friendship. Blackbat is a woman scorned, with that bitterness and anger nurtured by one of the Societys highest leaders. Rozetta and Spirit both tried to reason with Cass and reconnect with her, but she gave them a warning: shed let them leave, having finished their investigation of the tower, but if she ever saw them again, she wouldnt hold back. This is a girl who was birthed of two killers and trained by several more, so her words carry weight.

But the saddest moment of that whole scene, for me, was the inherent sorrow when she actively had to spell out Talis name, because despite still having learned to speak, a small part of her reverted and couldnt manage to mouth her big sisters name. Thats another arrow of guilt, stabbed directly into my heart, because I loved Cass and I know Tali would never have wanted to hurt her. Yet here we are, with the entirety of the Clocktower Crew on Blackbats shit list. And with Tali dead, I dont know if theres any way to repair that hurt. I really want to get out there with Pepper though. I feel like mingling with Cass, but also with the handful of other villainous/gray area teens at Titans Tower would be really enjoyable for me. Heres hoping I get the chance some day soon.

Hint for #32: Uses magic.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/7/AAAe4tAADp4Z.png
33. Blackbat (Cassandra Cain)

I fully acknowledge that Blackbat is probably the least prominent character to make this list (aside from White Lightning, who largely made the 52 spot as a statement more than anything else). She appeared at the end of one session in Boston, serving as a cliffhanger, since obviously two of the party there already knew her, and then appeared briefly at the start of the next session. I wasnt even on that particular mission, and thus had no personal interaction. But Cassandra Cain, aka Orphan, aka Batgirl 3.0 (4.0?) was my favorite character in campaign one, and I fully acknowledge that there is a certain bias that comes with that territory.

In campaign one, I played Talirah Isiset, an Egyptian princess with severe daddy issues, since her father abused her and just generally treated her less like a daughter and more like a tool for his own legacy. Meanwhile, during No Mans Land, there was a plotline shortly after we wrapped up the Patchwork (a section of Gotham that wound up being pieced together from fifteen different universes), where a sniper began picking off various individuals from throughout the city. It happened again and again and again, and it became a real problem that we needed to deal with, especially since he tried (and failed) to assassinate Harvey Bullock, only to catch Jim Gordon in the crossfire.

So, we began to investigate the shootings, and they led to a series of sites where we discovered that an expert marksman was able to bank bullets off of buildings in order to attack targets well beyond the scope of a straight line. Arriving at the shooting locations, we began running into this strange, black-clad girl who seemed desperate to tell us something, yet could not speak the words she needed to say. We werent sure exactly what her purpose or her goal was in meeting with us, and she didnt seem all that certain either. It often times seemed like she couldnt decide between wanting to help us investigation, or wanting to hinder us from investigating further. Eventually though, after getting viciously outmatched in melee combat and seeing our tank get his butt kicked, we managed to take her down and knock her unconscious for interrogation.

It was at that point that we learned that this girl was Cassandra Cain, a mute not because of any psychological impairment, but rather because her fathers assassin training saw no need for her to learn how to speak. It was never made ENTIRELY clear why she decided to turn away from David Cain and help us (beyond an innate realization that the treatment she received from him was inhumane), but nonetheless, she became an ally. Cassandra led us right to Cains hideout, and we managed to break in and neutralize him. Our party was gunshy about killing him, and we couldnt risk imprisoning him (since everyone knows that prisons in Gotham City get broken out of even at the PEAK of the citys infrastructure), so eventually, we had to settle on teleporting him out via Nightshade.

During the interim period between meeting with Cain and removing him from the city however, is when Tali and Cass developed their bond. As mentioned, Tali was abused by her father, and out of concern, she found herself seeking out Cassandra after Cain effectively banished her from his family for her betrayal of his trust. It was here that she witnessed Cassandra sitting outside her fathers base and trying several times to sneak back in, only to become more and more bruised and battered with every attempt. She just wanted his love, and to be treated like a father SHOULD treat his daughter, yet Cain would have none of that. In that regard, Tali found a kindred spirit.

Soon after this all went down and Cain was gone for good, Batman took Cass under his wing, christening her the new Batgirl. For the rest of the campaign, Batgirl lived with us in the clocktower, curled up in a little hidey-hole at the base of the buildings elevator shaft. She also took up guard dog duty, protecting the clocktowers residents (and becoming rivals for the role of Batman protg with Spirit). Also, she had the cutest little Batmannerisms, namely how Batman (and Robin, and Spoiler, and Batgirl 2.0) would grapple off into the sky to depart a scene, but Cass didnt have a grapple gun. Soshe would just aim her fist to the sky and then run off. Its just cute, okay?

Anyway, Tali continued to make inroads with her, learning Cass punch language and (alongside Rozetta) teaching Cass to speak English just a little bit. She became Talis closest ally in Gotham, joining her on two separate occasions when it came time to face down Talis father, and finally understanding the bond that Tali felt upon seeing Cains cruel treatment. The pair wound up facing Pharaoh down in one final battle to help save Gotham (but really, it was Cuesh who saved Gotham). And of all the people Tali befriended and bonded with during the year of No Mans Land, Cass was easily her closest relationship. She was the little sister Tali never had.

I mention all of that campaign one backstory for two reasons. One, Cassandra means a lot to me from campaign one, so even if shes had a severely-reduced role thus far, Im incapable of not overinflating her placement on this list out of sheer bias on my part. But two, and more important for ACTUALLY justifying her placement on the list, campaign one needed to be explained, because over the course of the year (campaign time, not real time) in No Mans Land, those of us in the Clock Tower at the very least (Spirit, Fastbreak, Rozetta, Obrov and Tali) became Cass family, just as much as she became ours. We were all part of the Clocktower Bat Family together, and there was love and camaraderie there that Cass never got from her assassin father and warrior mother.

That closeness was what made it all the more heartbreaking for Cass when that family drifted apart. Obrov left Gotham to live with the Doom Patrol. Rozetta left Earth entirely out of disgust for what became of the Lex Luthor administration. Fastbreak became deeply tied with Cluemaster, aiding in his political ascent. Tali joined up with Max Lords new Superbuddies team, becoming the pop idol equivalent of a superhero more than anything else. And Spirit, though he never left Gotham behind, still left for a time, to go to college and get his M.D. All of Cass family that she loved and cared for, and who cared for her, left her behind. While I personally think Tali would never have forgotten her little sister, I can also imagine the distance being difficult, given the lack of technological knowhow between the two girls. Plus, Tali wound up being the only known P.C. death between the two campaigns, thus further isolating Cass and making the bonds she formed feel like nothing more than lies.

Maniac64 posted...

Woops I should have refreshed

I assume Rover plays Frisbee by having you throw a Frisbee directly to him so that he doesn't have to chase it?

No one knows. Rover is too terrified of it being a trick to play frisbee anywhere but a park.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/5/9/AAOJ0pAADbTT.png
34. Rover

I know I said I was pausing the comic relief characters for a bit, but Rover was originally higher than this and I realized I couldnt really justify him ranking that highly, so I bumped him down, and now hes much closer to the block Radio Tuner/Dewormer/Mike the Rooster/Toyman. Anyway, Rover is a good boy. Perhaps the best boy. Whos a good boy? Rovers a good boy. And Rover (aka Dumbass, a loving nickname provided by his owner, Alice) is always great for a laugh, or just an injection of emotionality into a scene. Alice is a rough customer, and shes had some bumps and bruises over the course of the campaign thus far, so its good to have a pet that it fiercely loyal and loving, no matter anything else.

But a pet is one thing. Weve got Data 7, who is a talking dog and is able to have various scenes with the numerous animals in the campaign. And with Rover, maybe Alices little nickname isnt entirely inaccurate. RoverGod bless him, hes trying his best, but hes a bit slow. Hes a classic dog, and he loves to play ballbut he doesnt like the version of ball where said ball is thrown, and you have to retrieve it. Instead, he prefers just having the ball and holding it, and thats how he plays ball, passing it back and forth to himself. Data 7 enjoys teasing Rover by shrinking down and curling up into a ball himself, and frustrating the hapless dog by refusing to play ball the way Rover likes playing. Also, Data 7 used Rover once to try and make Pixie (another dog) jealous, which only served to make her think Data is gay. Rover, of course, he no idea what was going on. Hes adorable.

Beyond just interaction with Data though, Rover is a beloved mascot of the campaign almost. Hes close with Alice, and Alice has a lot of interactions with PCs, so therefore Rover is usually around. Pepper especially loves Rover, because she has a dog back home, and Rover is very much your standard dog (a little dopey, but sweet and good-intentioned). His loyalty to Alice, particularly when shes sad and lonely, is so sweet, and Pepper wishes she had something like that; shes kind of latched onto Rover in that regard. As mentioned with Half-Life, having a sense of normalcy in that regard is very soothing in an otherwise chaotic campaign.

But beyond his presence as a lovable goofball, I have to mention one of my favorite Rover moments with regards to Pepper. In the very first session of the campaign, Pepper found a Superman frisbee as a weapon, and that partially influenced her efforts to become proficient with thrown weapons. But when interacting with Rover, if hes a normal dog, then you can play frisbee with him and have a great time, right? Well, Rover didnt like the offer and instead shied away for some reason, making Pepper sad. However, this is all explained by a Data 7 conversation. Beyond Rovers thoughts on ball, he also believes that a frisbee is only a frisbee in the park, and anywhere else, its a lie. So thats a callback where Peppers trying to play frisbee in the hallways of Zonn Zorr, and Rover is incapable of thinking this is a true event happening to him. His most memorable quote comes either from this, or from another Rover misinterpretation as a result: Its a mistake.

Hes just such a wonderful doofus, and every time he shows up alongside Alice, he makes for adorable scenes. Whether hes keeping watch outside Alices room when shes upset, or keeping watch at her bedside when shes in the hospital, or getting left behind because hes too slow to make it into the elevator in time, Rovers just provides great, brief moments of physical comedy. Plus, even though hes a dumbass, I think he helps soften Alice and humanize her a little bit, which in turn improves her character as well.

Hint for #33: Has the same name as another character in the campaign, and makes me confused whenever that other character is the one referred to instead.

Mask of the Phantasm

(1) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

(13) Princess Mononoke

This Is Her Year:

1) Faris Scherwiz

Genuine Top Tier Favorites:

2) Galuf Halm Baldesion (higher than Celes/Tifa because helping those who've helped me)
3) Celes Chere
4) Tifa Lockheart

Would Throw Saves To If I Had Them:

5) Rikku
6) Emet-Selch (higher than Jessie/Rinoa/Vivi because I'm loyal to trade allies)
7) Jessie Rasberry
8) Rinoa Heartilly
9) Vivi Ornitier (lower than Jessie/Rinoa because former champion)

Don't Really Like:

10) Aerith Gainsborough
11) Ramza Beoulve
12) Barret Wallace
13) Cecil Harvey
14) Dad
15) Tidus

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/1/6/AAAe4tAADpxM.jpg
35. Sarah Washington

Sarah Washington is a OMAC. Not AN OMAC. Never AN OMAC. But yeah, Sarah Washington began her role in the campaign as the central figure of Hub City, Illinois. We arrived in the city and soon found ourselves split between four different factions, each controlling a section of the city itself: the Society, the OMACs, the evil counterpart to our Oblivion Bar, and one sect of the Church of Blood. The city was in a constant state of upheaval as the mages, OMACs and Society all jockeyed for powerthe Church largely just kept to themselves and let the others fightwith only one thing uniting them all: Sarah Washington. All four factions wanted Sarah Washington for one reason or another, and it fell to us to track her down.

It turns out that this little girl had hidden herself away, yet apparently everyone in the city was completely incompetent, since we were easily able to track her down as a small group of five random newcomers. As we soon learned, Sarah was infected with the OMAC nanites, yet they werent able to take hold of her the way they could with everyone else wed come across. Sarah was effectively immune, and it was because of this that the city desperately sought her out. Everyone wanted to find a way to reverse-engineer the blood of this little girl, either to serve as protection against the OMAC menace, or to successfully find a workaround to prevent her immunity from being passed along to others. Also, Im not ENTIRELY sure what the Church of Blood wanted, exactly, since we only really found out their intentions for Sarah after wed already executed a plan to get everyone off her back, and thus my memory doesnt register it that well.

Anyway, we eventually managed to convince Sarah to come back to Zonn Zorr with us, faking her death and causing an all-out war between the mages and the Society that solidified our Society ally in power, while driving off the mage and OMAC threats in Hub City. Sarah, having demonstrated some sass with her haughty Yeah Pepper line, quickly became Peppers roommate. The goal was to keep an eye on her until we could go back to Hub and rescue her mother from the Society, but we hit a complication as Casey Washington had already been transported to Highland Land, into the nest of the Court of Owls. Were still working on that one, even though were certainly taking our sweet time (as of the time of this write-up) to get there.

Something that I think is important to note is that Pepper has a relatively large family, and for several reasons, she has been unable to seek them out in the campaign thus far. In fact, she went missing prior to A-Day, so her family (if theyre still alive and unequated) might very well believe shes dead herself. As such, Pepper has developed a compunction for finding surrogates for her various family members. She has several equivalents to her little sister, Hannah (including Ramsey, despite his Y-chromosome), but Sarah very much fills the roll of her littlest sister, Nessa. Sarah started out very precocious and independent, and she fits the age range, so it only makes sense that Pepper might find herself drawn to the young girl, keeping an eye on her.

What I like about the relationship is that Pepper does not want to be Sarahs mom, but rather just a big sister. She very much wants to find and rescue Casey Washington, specifically so Sarah can have her real mom back. This is in large part because doing so allows Pepper to maintain hope of finding her own mother, and I think some emotional breakdowns (due to Peppers fragile psyche earlier in the campaign) have conveyed as much to Sarah. However, Pepper also wants Casey to like her when she arrives, and as such, Pepper tries her best to keep Sarah focused and get her to do standard stuff. As a scientist, Pepper wants to impart the importance of schooling and education on Sarah, but Sarah gets bored with planned lessons, and just wants to play more Prince of Vlatava.

Efforts to assuage Sarahs loneliness via play dates resulted in the hilarious mismatch of Maxine Baker and Sarah (the only two little girls around Zonn Zorr for a time) outright hating each other for seemingly no reason. Sure, she found some friendship with Milagro Reyes, but Sarah still found herself retreating into her computer games. It turns out that despite her brave face, Sarah very much misses her mommy, and it brings Pepper guilt every time she makes a promise to bring Casey back, and is unable to deliver. As such, whether intentional or not, Pepper often caves into Sarahs desires to play video games at the expense of more productive endeavors.

Sarahs isolation has changed, somewhat, in recent days though. Susie took one of her weird death-related interests in Sarah, contemplating the possibility of weaponizing the OMAC nanites, and theyve been largely inseparable ever since. It gets a LITTLE weird and uncomfortable at times, but at least it makes things interesting with the two little girls as a duo. Plus, its fascinating to see the dynamic between Sarah and her alpha bestie, which is not dissimilar from Pepper and her own alpha bestie. Its thats a fun little coincidence of personalities working in sync with one another.

Hint for #34: A dog.

Not holding today or trying to snipe. Too much going on.

Galuf

3:03:54

Rinoa

FFDragon posted...

Rinoa

Trading for her auto

For Faris please.

Are any auto-trades still open that I'm missing?