Lurker > Inviso

Emet

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36. Father Jesse Custer

Father Jesse was a fan favorite in campaign one, serving as a territory leader after we deposed a church leader in charge of human trafficking. Despite being one of the strongest candidates for city leadership, he declined the offer (a fact that made him even better as a candidateseriously, if youre someone who doesnt WANT power, then youre exactly the person who should wield it properly). But regardless, Jesse was a great character and I think he made most of our top tens for campaign one, as he had this gruff, no-nonsense attitude, while still being kind and caring and effectively portraying how perhaps all religious people should behave. Also, he banged Huntress. Thats not pertinent information, but it does explain how he lost his eye, so there you go.

Coming back for campaign two, Jesses personality is largely the same, and the only reason he falls so low on this list is because campaign two is so jam-packed with characters, and theres only so much time for people to make an impression. Still, Jesses managed to get back on the list largely by his own merits (I fully admit there are some campaign one returnees that make this list with a heavy weighting of their initial appearance on top of what theyve shown in campaign two thus far), and hes once again serving as the preacher in Zonn Zorrs cathedral. Hes certainly found his niche, thats for damn sure, and hes good at it.

Now, Jesses introduction to the campaign doesnt really warrant a lengthy explanation the way that some other characters do. He showed up during a mission to Warpath (which was memorable forlets just say OTHER reasons), and we were just glad to see him again. And after we successfully escaped a Society incursion with only one major casualty, Jesse decided to come back with us to Zonn Zorr, where he quickly took up residence as the preacher in our vacant chapel. Its honestly somewhat strange, since so many other characters have major roles within the sessions they first appeared, but Jesse seems to have largely coasted on the back of his pre-established lore, since he was simply one of a large collection of characters that joined us via Warpath and the overarching Convoy storyline.

Once he settled into Zonn Zorr though, thats when Jesse came into his own as a campaign two character. A lot of the returnees have experienced dramatic change in the four years (campaign one was wallpunched from 1999 to 2004) since we last saw them, and Jesse is no different. He was an extremely overpowered ally in campaign one, sticking with us just about to the very end of the No Mans Land year of hell, because his Word of God power was so darn useful. But come campaign two, Jesses faith has been shaken, and he no longer has access to the very ability that set him apart from mere mortals in the first place. On top of that, the reason why he lost his divine gift is because he claims to have killed God Himself (or as we later learned, he set in motion the events that led to the killing of God via the Saint of Killers). Needless to say, theres something very interesting about a man of faith who no longer has that faith himself.

As a character in Zonn Zorr, Id say Jesse has been defined largely by his connection to two PCs. First, you have Rozetta, who knew him back in campaign one. Only this time, she has her adoptive daughter Susie in tow, creating a fun little dynamic with Jesse (or Father Jsse, as Susie calls him). Rozetta, even back in campaign one, was a big believer in Hronmeer (the Martian god of death), but in campaign two, shes passed that praise on to her daughter. Now, Susie visits Jesse on a regular basis, for religious education. It works out well that Jesse has lost his faith somewhat, because I feel like it allows him to slip more easily into discussions of deities from other religions. And of course, Suzie is enamored with this preacher who feeds into her affinity for death and the overall macabre.

Most importantly to THIS write-up though, I feel like Jesse has a decent connection with Pepper. As I mentioned above, he ranks somewhat low because its hard to keep up with each and every character I want to chat with in Zonn Zorr (there are so many, including several I still havent gotten one-on-one chats with), but still, our few scenes have been great. Pepper (or more specifically, her true identity: Alyssa Davenport) spent most of her life either ensconced within the Mormon Church, or later ensconced within the Protestant Church. Admittedly, playing a religious (and a scientist) character has proven difficult to maintain from an RP angle; I often times feel like I can maybe do one scene with Jesse about faith, or one scene about science and/or faith with Mr. Terrific before I start struggling to come up with new conversation hooks on the subject.

Still, when I talk with Jesse, I do enjoy the discussions we have, because Jesse has lost faith and generally lost conviction in his belief in God. Killing the Man will do that. Meanwhile, Pepper very much believes in divine predestination. Shes definitely questioning her faith, but she either truly believes, or warps herself into believing that everything that happens to her happens for a God-given purpose. Being afflicted with her acid powers is punishment for her scientific hubris, but at the same time, that punishment was used as punishment for someone else who ran afoul of Pepper during her first metahuman manifestation. As such, having this girl who somewhat believes herself as an instrument of Gods justice (especially since weve recently come across Wally the God Boy, who is the reincarnation of Jesses slain God) creates a fun dynamic for philosophical discussion.

Hint for #35: The roommate of a PC.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Pepper needs to tell Half-Life an interesting story of her past when her high school friends were total bitches but she doesn't realize it

I really need to prep some actual stories of things Pepper's bitchy friends did in high school. Or some of her training excursions with Lagoon Boy.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Half-Life is too old for Pepper anyway. Cute? More like cradle robber. He was like 40 when she was in diapers

You could call Tali a cradle robber by that logic, with several different characters.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Has been put in charge implies that action took place during the campaign, so Jesse

I don't think we talked Ramsey down, I think we straight-up just physically stopped him. But yeah, for killing a person, Pepper's melting through his neck to reach his spine to melt it to take his head off was probably not the most painless way.

Pepper likes melting through peoples' necks.

I mean...she's also gotten better at headshots with her finger guns now. That's how she became a crime boss in Vegas.

This is where we come back to Ramsey. As I mentioned earlier, Ramsey is the son of Peter Robinson and Kate Spencer (aka Manhunter), and his parents are divorced, in large part because Kates job (and her job) make for a less-than-ideal spousal relationship. This also means that Peter largely got custody of Ramsey, with Kate getting occasional weekends and whatnot. As a result, the family dynamic is very standard to what one might expect from a fictional family of divorce. The only difference is that the gender roles are flipped; Peter is the steady personality who raises Ramsey, while Kate is the cool parent who sees him on weekends and gains all the praise for being cool (and a superhero on top of everything else!) Its actually kinda sad when you think about it, especially given Peters impending fate.

Basically, we had this conversation with Brother Eye/Peter, with the ominous threat/non-threat of Peter being converting into a murderous OMAC by Mother Miracle, and most of those present are aware of this. Peter was tied up for fear of him becoming an OMAC, but he was largely unconscious and unaware of everything that just happened. Our party began debating what we needed to do, questioning whether we could risk bringing him back to Zonn Zorr, or risk leaving him to his own devices in Los Angles, or what our options were. Ramsey cleared that shit up REAL quick.

You see, Manhunter isnt one of those superheroes with some moral compulsion to leave criminals alive. No, she became a hero specifically to deal with people who manage to skate around the law. And as such, shes got a fuckton of weaponry around her house. And as her biggest fan, Ramsey knows where all the instruments of death are kept. He comes into the living room and pulls a gun on his own father with every intention of pulling the trigger. Our party only barely managed to talk him down, I believe, because at the end of the day, hes still just a fourteen-year-old kid, and its still his dad. But, knowing that Ramsey was willing to do that, even without us actively deciding to eliminate Peter as a variable, he really did make our decision for us.

Even if we chose to leave Peter alive and do something with him, there was a distinct possibility that Ramsey would just take matters into his own hands and kill Peter himself. The party hemmed and hawed about this for a bit, but this is kind of why Ramsey ranks on MY list and probably no one elses. We were still in that portion of the campaign where I think we were playing fast and loose, and not necessarily taking half an hour to make a decision. And wed recently come off the heels of losing our first PC in two campaigns as a result of Peppers actions. She (and me) had a had a lot of guilt built up, and she looked at this kid and thought I cannot let him kill his dad. That will destroy him inside. Its better than he have me as a target to hate instead.

So, she did it. Pepper killed Peter Robinson in a rather violent and painful fashion, but she got the job done. It is one of the moments of the campaign that I think has defined Pepper the most, because its the one moment that she can look back on and unequivocally say This was murder. This was an innocent person, and I killed him because we were afraid of what he could do. Despite all her bravado and efforts to be stronger so she can pass herself off as bad, Pepper largely hasnt been forced to DO anything evil. Except with regards to Peter Robinson. Shes a murderer because of him, and it eats at her (and shes reminded of it on a daily basis), but the one upside is that Ramsey does not have to bear that burden himself. I should also point out thoughwe brought Ramseys robot dog back to Zonn Zorr with us out of guiltand then it turns out he was transmitting our location back to Brother Eye as wellthus making Peters death completely pointless. More guilt.

Ive now used over fifteen hundred words on what is basically backstory to set up a character entry. Obviously, in the wake of Peters death, Pepper felt a lot of guilt and she avoided Ramsey like the plague for a while, because she couldnt bring herself to look him in the eye. She viewed herself as a villain in his story. But when she finally confronted him, she got a much different response than she expected. Ramsey very much respects his mother and her philosophy on superheroing, and Kate Spencer always did what needed to be done, regardless of how morally gray it may have been. Imagine my surprise when Ramsey looked at what Pepper did, and actually created a positive association with his mother. Pepper stepped up and made the hard decision, and at least for now, Ramsey respects her for it, rather than hating her.

Since this epiphany, Pepper has taken Ramsey under her wing. Were talking about a kid who lost his dad and his mom is a Fury (one of the superheroes Darkseid had brainwashed into his employ). He doesnt have anyone else, and without Pepper, I feel like hed easily get lost in the shuffle among all of the characters we have around Zonn Zorr. I try to have scenes with him on a regular basis, largely trying to watch over him and help him with his goals. With a superhero mom and a general desire for revenge against the people that have severely fucked up his life, he wants to be the kind of hero his mom is, complete with killing and just generally punishing the bad guys. He and Pepper work out together, which I think is a fair pairing; were talking a fourteen-year-old boy and a smaller, nineteen-year-old girl. I think they have a reasonable comparison as training partners in that regard.

Really, I just appreciate the storyline of Peppers one real guilt-ridden moment leading to her feeling compelled to serve as a big sister for this kid. Hes someone who I feel, in other circumstances, could have gone the Robin route as a sidekick or something, but these arent normal circumstances. Pepper wants to help Ramsey achieve his goals, and hes even gone so far as to sign up for her Society infiltration task force. Thatd mean sending him out into danger in the field, but I think thats what he wants, and by proxy, thats what Pepper. I just enjoy their dynamic, and Ramseys a fun little buddy for Pepper to have around. I can only imagine how Manhunters gonna feel about a semi-criminal/semi-hero like Pepper influencing her son though. Well see how it works out, because were getting closer to Manhunters return every day.

Hint for #36: Has been put in-charge of a section of Zonn Zorr.

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37. Ramsey Robinson

Like with Half-Life, this is a personal choice that I know probably doesnt resonate with very many other people. There are times when Im trying to have a nice little scene with Ramsey and just have some low-key slice-of-life content, and I worry that its not interesting to read, or even interesting to RP for Scarlet. But after a rocky start between our two characters, Ramsey is just a character Ive picked up as one of Peppers surrogate family members, and I enjoy his story. I KNOW theres going to be more to his character, and if I keep picking at that rock, I feel like Im going to unveil a true diamond in the rough. I just hope Im right and its not like a certain character from campaign one that I got really invested in, to the detriment of the overall enjoyment of all involved.

Ironically enough for their placements on the list, Ramsey first appeared, like Radio Tuner, during a mission to Los Angeles. A trip to Graumans Chinese Theatre ran us into Joe Hollywood (R.I.P.), Fake Firefly Dylan Battles, and a very REAL incarnation of Firefly who proceeded to burn the shit out of the famous theatre and chase us away with Dylan in tow. Dylan wound up leading our squad to a base of operations at the house of Kate Spencer, where we found several NPCs who would later become prominent figures around Zonn Zorr, namely due to their connection to existing superheroes. In addition to Dylan (who isnt a villain in his own right, but provides technical expertise and services to villains, hence how he got his hands on the Firefly suit), you have Damon Matthews (boyfriend of Obsidian), Peter/Ramsey Robinson (the ex-husband and son of Kate Spencer, aka Manhunter), and Thor (Ramseys robot dog). In other words, its a whos who of L.A. superhero liabilities.

Though we wound up safe at this house, something seemed rather off about the whole setting. It was all just a bit too nice and quiet and pristine, given how chaotic and destructive Darkseids invasion had been to major cities like Los Angeles. An investigation revealed that the house was bugged and had camera feeds watching them, which was unsettling in and of itself, until we added in the OMAC lenses. Early on in the campaign, we discovered the hard way that OMACs had the ability to camouflage themselves as normal people, and strike at inopportune times. As a result, we began using special contact lenses to check whether certain people were infected or not. And in a creepy setting like the Spencer House, those lenses led to us checking Peter and discovering the worst-case scenario.

It was still relatively early in the campaign at that point (only week 24, so not only half a year had passed), and our experience with OMACs hinged largely on two events. While wed certainly met OMACs early on, the formative scene with them, Id say, was our first trip to Mesa Verde, where we discovered the possibility of sleeper agents that could infect people and pretend to be normal humans, while still working against humanity itself. That whole sequence was terrifying, and it really highlighted the threat that the OMACs posed to our party. But that was within the first month of the campaign.

Far closer to the events of the Spencer House, wed had our second mission to Tampa, successfully infiltrating a power plant and freeing the meta-human imprisoned there. During the break-out, we first came into contact with Brother Eye, who was an offshoot of the A.I. in control of the OMACs. He was rather mysterious in that first encounter and made for an unsettling character to interact with, since he knew a lot more about us than perhaps wed want him to know. He didnt exactly stop us from fleeing after the successful mission, but that was still this lingering question in the air about whether Brother Eye was trustworthy or not, since we didnt get a TON of information from him at the time.

All of this: the introduction of Brother Eye and our knowledge of how dangerous covert OMACs could be, came to a head with Peter Robinson. Infected with OMAC nanites, he was a threat to us, and then we learned of his connection to Brother Eye. It turns out, Brother Eye was monitoring the entire household, both through his various security system, and through a sleeper agent in the form of Peter Robinson. Its still unsettling to think that Peter effectively became a meat puppet for a robot master, as Brother Eye tried to explain himself. But yeah, Brother Eye seems mostly harmless compared to Mother Miracle (the OMAC queen bee), and was even open to working with us.

At the time though, we had very little information to work with, and wed only met Brother Eye in difficult circumstances, so as a result, when he finished up his explanation and told us you can do whatever you want now, but just know that if Im ever taken down, Mother Miracle will control Peter and that might be dangerous, it raised some red flags. In retrospect, Im sure he meant it more as a Im your friend, and its beneficial to work with me, but theres still that needling to treat Peter like a potential threat as well. At that point, wed been RELATIVELY good about keeping Zonn Zorr hidden from the Society as well, so we certainly couldnt take Peter back with us, under any circumstances. It just raised a lot of questions, and we didnt have a lot of time to make a decision.

6:35:43

Dad

(7) The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

(15) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Like I said at the start of this write-up, I, Inviso, havent been GREAT at maintaining the relationship with Half-Life since arriving at Zonn Zorr, and Im definitely looking to fix that in the near future. But still, Half-Life has just had a very positive impact on my view of the campaign. For a long time, Pepper was largely feeling isolated and desperate for companionship; shes still a rookie to the superhero community, and she got kidnapped before the world went to shit, and has no means of seeking out her family at this time. So, she wound up getting invested in several failed romantic relationships, and then the lengthy trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix really fucked with her head. Having Half-Life just be there as a solid presence had a wonderfully calming effect on Peppers (and my) psyche.

I get that having tension and conflict makes for a more interesting plot, but at the same time, Im someone who needs the occasional safety blanket. Heck, Harry Matthews made this list for being almost exactly that, though more of a safety pillow than anything else. Just having that character you can go to and feel safe and comfortable with is absolutely needed in an apocalyptic campaign, and Half-Life has definitely taken on that role for me. Its just like in my real life; sometimes you just need that positive energy from another person to keep yourself going. And, in the time since initially writing this write-up, Pepper has opened up further to Half-Life (phrasing), learning more about his more carefree, party lifestyle and being cool with that. Theres some instinctive jealousy with regards to other women, but hey, what else can you expect from a relatively sheltered girl whos now gone of the way around the bases with her first real boyfriend?

Hint for #37: At least one of this characters parents has appeared in the campaign.

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38. Half-Life (Byron Stark)

I need to do more with Half-Life, because this is a character that is very much tailored to Pepper right now, and I feel like Ive been neglecting him. He has a lot of potential, and I just need to unlock that through continued RP scenes and nurture that NPC/PC relationship that weve already established. I think he kinda falls victim to my mentality of being drawn towards more damaged and chaotic personalities, because those lend themselves really well to continual storylines and new things to happen. Half-Life, despite his appearance, is just a normal, stable guy. Extremely rugged and reliable. And thats not a bad thing, but its also something I think that I need to work on as a player to focus more on than I do at this time.

Anyway, the Convoy storyline is one where I wasnt in on the ground floor, but my character is from Texas, so she wound up taking a vested interest in the goings on. The overarching plot is that you have La Dama in El Paso, who is a drug queenpin who controlled the city prior to Darkseids takeover, and you have La Llarona in Juarez, who is a revenge-driven water spirit who has it out for La Dama. Despite being diametrically opposed, these two women are forced to work together due to the overwhelming third party influence of Darkseid/the Society, and our party wound up brokering peace to bring everyone together and make a trek down through all of Central and South America to get over 50,000 refugees safely to our Antarctica base.

Half-Lifes role in all of this is that early on, La Dama was very much the villain of this storyline. This was while El Paso was still technically a free city, and of course the criminal drug lord has a negative influence over goings on in the region. As such, a coyote system began operating to ferry people out of La Damas influence, to the safety of La Llaronas territory. Half-Life was one of the primary scouts working as a kind of runner for La Llarona, and at first, that was his main role. He had a motorcycle, so he was useful in getting our small group quickly and efficiently from El Paso into Juarez. However, I think he (and Peacemaker Chris Smith, who served a similar purpose) became more prominent once the convoy started moving, and it became increasingly valuable to have someone who could lead a motorcycle battalion and scout ahead to keep the convoy safe.

As for why Half-Life makes it onto my list in particular, that largely has to do with his role in connection to my PC, Pepper. I hate to make this write-up revolve around my PC, rather than the NPC being ranked, but it is important to explain why I personally enjoy Half-Life. Now, as you can see from Half-Lifes picture, hes fucked up. His body is at LEAST 50% (I know the name is Half-Life, but pictures from the comics make it seem like more than just half) a mess of acidic and chemical slime, as a result of some alien abduction bullshit that also killed his pregnant girlfriend. Dude got absolutely whacked by the bullshit stick in his lifetime, and that sucks. And aside from like, three NPCs weve met at this point in the campaign, Half-Lifes physical make-up isolates him from contact with other people, because a single touch could cause severe and disfiguring chemical burns.

Pepper, however, before this campaign began and we had any concept of what expect, was designed with a similar drawback. She was a pretty, young Christian girl who was big into chemistry and got caught up in a lab explosion while she was prepping some illicit substances for her side hustle. As such, she has metahuman abilities now, and her body can alter its chemistry to produce acidic fluids (blood, sweat, tears, etc.). So, when we first met Half-Life, it was very early on in the campaign, and Pepper is one of the most rookie members of the party (at BEST shes ninth out of ten when it comes to having, and understanding her powers). And for someone who was normal before her accident, her brand of powers is not great. She often worries about accidentally hurting people because she cant control herself, and has developed a nervous habit of constantly wiping her hands dry, just in case of acidic palm sweat.

These two characters met for the first time as we were attempting to flee a wave of scarab beetles that threatened to consume El Paso, and we had a party of five players and a limited number of motorcycles with which to make our escape (plus not everyone had the driving skill). So Pepper, perhaps overjoyed to have found someone who she could touch and who could touch her without fearing for anyones safety, wound up riding with Half-Life. And given that Half-Life is a 1950s greaser-style biker (perpetually kept young by his affliction), this created an interesting pairing as the aesthetic bad boy and the aesthetic good girl kinda recreated that classic dynamic from a lot of old school fiction.

This sort of relationship continued for quite some time, since the Convoy was a long storyline, and Half-Life filled a very prominent support role as both our teleportation contact, and as a scout to safeguard the convoy against external threats. Whenever we had situations that required Half-Life to join us, either in scouting or just traveling to a location to make first contact, Pepper would eagerly hop on the back of Half-Lifes bike, scoot in close, and hold on tight. And together, Pepper and Half-Life make for a solid combat duo, since Half-Life is really skilled at maneuvering his motorcycle, and Peppers got an array of ranged attacks she can execute (even beyond just spitting acid).

Needless to say, Pepper slowly began to grow close with Half-Life and generally liked going on Convoy missions specifically to hang out with him, on top of helping the save world and all. This all culminated with the final escape from South America, where the majority of the Convoys fighters and civilian population managed to avoid getting slaughtered by OMACs, and to celebrate their survival, Pepper and Half-Life finally shared a first kiss aboard their ship en route to Antarctica.

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39. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown, aka Sally Beamish)

There are a trio of characters in this campaign that returned from campaign one, and theyve made an impact in their brief time in campaign two. All three of these characters were great and ranked at LEAST top ten, if not top five for campaign one, but they have the misfortune of being relegated to field missions, rather than regular Zonn Zorr staples, so I only really have their time in-session to judge them by in THIS campaign. Well be discussing the other two shortly, but right now, I have to rank Steph the lowest of the trio, if only because in doing these write-ups, I just feel like shes the one who has remained the most static in terms of where their story left off and where it is now.

Campaign one, Spoiler was beloved across the board. From the earliest interaction, when she saved us from Mad Hatters territory and started judging our hotness on the low end of a scale of one to ten, she was just such a fun personality. Now granted, she definitely grew beyond the scope of a one-note joke character, and by the end of the campaign, wed rescued her from captivity by the Joker and felt extremely protective of dear Spoiler. I think when we were selecting teams for our endgame rescue missions, she was likely high on many peoples lists (though she wound up going with Fastbreak and his goofy smirkand Tim Drake too, I suppose).

In the interim between campaigns however, we found out that Spoiler had been killed in action. Much like my own campaign one character, Tali, the loss of Steph was particularly devastating. This was a girl whod overcome so much just to survive No Mans Land, and even though she still had to deal with her criminal father, it seemed like there was hope she could find peace and live a happy life in the aftermath of everything that went down. But sometimes, there are no happy endings, and Spoiler fell victim to a tragic fate, shared by far too many who found themselves orbiting the black hole of tragedy that is the Batman.

Or so it seemed. Imagine our surprise when, on a routine mission to Bristol Township, in search of the Brentwood Academy and the imprisoned children therein, we were informed that a Sally Beamish was running the underground there, and helping kids escape the school. Granted, she wasnt doing the BEST of jobs, since her safehouse was found out and we came across several murdered children along the way, but still, theres only so much that one girl can do on her lonesome. After rescuing one such victim (who recovered from his head trauma and resides in Zonn Zorr to this day), we finally infiltrated the academy itself, fully aware to keep our eyes peeled for Miss Beamish and the underground. What we found instead was a fully outfitted and armed Batgirl, serving as the protector of the downtrodden in Brentwood Academy.

When I say Batgirl, I dont mean one of the three other Batgirls we met during Campaign One, but rather the only one I dont think actually went by Batgirl during that campaign. Nope, everyones favorite valley girl accent returned as we found out that Stephanie Brown faked her own death to get out of the Bat Family in the same way one might go into witness protection in order to flee the mob. And within minutes of meeting her again, it was like that campaign one introduction all over, for a group of us whose characters had never had the pleasure of meeting Spoiler before. She got into a verbal sparring match with Lush (inadvertently parroting the Pepper talking point that Lush is old), yet also came across like she thinks Pepper is a total nerd (not inaccurately).

I just enjoy Stephs personality. Its so easy to paint members of the Bat Family as super serious and focused on being the best they can be. After all, these are non-meta superheroes, so you would expect the training needed to be at their best to be higher than someone born gifted. But with Steph, shes a standard high school girl, and she refers to us as 2s or 3s (or a 1 in Lushs case, I believe). Shes inherently charismatic, and she feels like a relatable superhero, despite having that big name Batgirl pedigree behind her. She fucks up occasionally, of course; after all, she did send kids off to their doom, not realizing that her safe house had been compromised. But shes still doing her best to take charge in a shitty situation with authoritarian school administrators trying to convert kids into Equated minions.

Im surprised I dont have much more to talk about, if only because Steph has such a memorable personality. Weve only been to Bristol Township twice though, and in both instances, Batgirls presence was largely superfluous to the goals we had set before us. Still, its great to find out that Steph is still alive, and her presence in the campaign opens up so many opportunities for future developments. Weve already met with Leslie Thompkins, who helped Steph fake her death in the first place; and we also have a contact with Stephs father, Cluemaster, who she never exactly saw eye-to-eye with as a villain. Right now, weve got her mother back at Zonn Zorr as well, so close to her daughter, yet unaware of Stephs survival. Theres a storyline there, and weve just gotta unlock it further.

Hint for #38: A survivor from the Convoy storyline.

ScareChan posted...

Hmm. Gonna go with Jesse I think

Radio Tuner has had some great moments. One of most memorable is what coined Buddy from just something my character called him to the general accepted name of him. He gave everyone in the party laser eyes for the battle. My character just could not get it to work for her. One attempt sent her flying off the platform she was on into the sea, and as she fell called out "Buddy why!?" as she splashed down. It was a great moment.

"Buddy why?!" was a great moment for sure.

Zigzagoon posted...

That's true, Pixie could have used a new bed.

God, can you imagine her fucking ego if she had the Stanley Cup as her bed baskie?

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40. Radio Buddy Tuner

Alright, this is the last strictly comic relief character for a while, and Radio Tuner is probably the best and brightest comic relief character the campaign has to offer. There are a handful that rank higher, but ever since its introduction to the campaign Radio Tuner has just been an ever-present force among the field teams, almost serving as our eleventh PC. Thats not bad for one of the only characters in the campaign that I think was strictly created, wholecloth, by Scarlet. No DC influence on this one.

On a mission to Los Angeles, the field team wound up visiting a Hollywood studio and ran afoul of a handful of D-list villains that were just wandering around at the time. But as is the case with quite a few D-list villains weve met over the course of the campaign, they were not long for this world. In fact, Monsoon and the Tangler seem to have existed entirely to introduce Radio Tuner in the first place. They were just investigating this studio when music starts playing. Confused, they sought out the source and found a damaged iPod. But it turns out this was no ordinary iPod, and it soon sprang to life. It began playing music, trying to coax the two villains into a lively dance, and they did not take kindly to this invitation. And Radio Tuner did not take kindly to them not taking kindly to its song. What we then witnessed was a magical iPod proceeding to outright murder two grown adults with superpowers.

Our party then made their presence known and correctly realized that they needed to play Radio Tuners game in order to gain the trust of this powerful entity. After a fun dance party, Radio Tuner joined the team, and has been with us ever since. Its had a few moments since then; namely, revealing that it was created by campaign one fan favorite Trish McKenzie, and doing so by speaking entirely in song lyrics. But Radio Tuner is one of those rare characters whose best scenes come from campaign sessions, rather than Zonn Zorr RP scenes. Regardless of which configuration of five party members goes on any given mission, we always make a point to trade Radio Tuner off from one group to another, because it just makes missions all the more fun.

Heres the thing: not every session is going to have a combat scenario. But when they do, and when those sessions have lengthy combat sequences that are your standard big bad final boss sort of scenario for the given setting, we want to bring Radio Tuner into the mix. For one point of damage (whacking Radio Tuner against ones head), Radio Tuners power activates and changes the theme song for the battle. The running theme of these past few entries is comic relief, and Radio Tuner brings that in spades, often times transforming a rough and serious battle into something upbeat, lively, and fun.

Of the top of my head, I cant picture any specific songs that have played, but theyre always something fun that adds a crazy new twist to the battle. Nat 1s get turned into nat 20s, everyone is floating, everyone does nine damage no matter what, an overabundance of enemies swarm the arena, making the fight harder (yet more rewarding). All of this is accompanied by the anthropomorphizing of Radio Tuner itself, dancing around and dodging attacks and jumping onto peoples shoulders like an overexcited pet. But the biggest example of Radio Tuners contribution to the campaign is from a battle in Gotham. We activated Radio Tuner and it wandered off, leading us to think the power wouldnt work in that particular combat. And then Christmas music starts playing. Radio Tuner managed to summon the literal Paul McCartney, who is now a real character in the context of the campaign.

As an addendum to recent events: the other party went on a space mission, and an alien collector (interpret that combination of words either way, because both are accurate) called the Auctioneer showed up. He tried to kidnap Radio Tuner as a rare piece of reality-altering tech, and the party wasnt about to part with their buddy. This led to a whole session of Radio Tuner spouting off individual lines of songs to serve as dialogue, plus various NPCs requesting songs (Churljenkins dancing to I Touch Myself, Joe Gardner bopping out to Intergalactic, Gal Gardner defending the honor of Britney Spears). It all culminated in a massive boss battle against Auctioneer, where Radio Tuner played Chumbawumbawhich led to Saoirse summoning magical summons of Chumbawumba to play in stereoand then fake JFK gave a rousing speech, using the words of Chumbawumba. The whole scene was a glorious trainwreck, and it kicked off with Radio Tuner.

I just love Radio Tuners contribution to the combat sections of the campaign. Im always big on RP and interacting with the NPCS, and combat is lower on my list of prioritiesso anything that can spice that portion of things up for me, personally (I know other players are much higher on combat than I am) is great. Radio Tuner might largely be a game mechanic, but its a game mechanic with a fun, goofy personality, and the way Scarlet characterizes Radio Tuners general disregard for social norms makes ever scene it pops up in a winner.

Hint for #39: First appeared in Campaign One.

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41. Mike the Rooster

We had a brief pause with Tillall, but now were back to the comic relief section of the list! Before I discuss Mike himself, I feel like I need to describe the circumstances that led to him joining the campaign. For a long time, we had Las Vegas as a major site for our field teams to investigate, and we finally managed to plan missions there in conjunction with Tokyo. We get to Vegas, and we ended the first session with a drunken party that led to our five playable characters in a Hangover-esque scenario where we had NO fucking clue what wed done the night before. One of us wound up stuck atop the space needle, one of us woke up married to the Queen of Spades, one of us woke up missing a daughter (with an unexplained replacement daughter), and one of us woke up having made a multimillion-dollar drug deal. Sorry Data, but waking up next to a bum is the most normal thing that happened to us.

For the rest of the time in Vegas, we were either trying to piece together what happened during our drunken stupor, trying to FIX what happened during our drunken stupor, or through almost every one of our varying storylines, we found ourselves recruited into an Oceans Eleven-style casino heist, trying to break into a Society vault to obtain a weapon of unimaginable power. We eventually broke in, got into a city-wide brawl between half a dozen factions, and eventually managed to escape by the skin of their teeth, while successfully establishing a drug connection for my characters unique product. Thats the basic overview, and I feel its important to understand, given that this entry is about a character called Mike the Rooster.

One of the steps we undertook in our heist was visiting a pawn shop to get supplies and weaponry for use in the heist itself. There were a LARGE number of cool items and unique supplies with interesting stats and effects, and hell, we even had the Stanley Cup that SOMEONE thought they could successfully steal. However, the store owner, who had commissioned us to rob the vault, told us that she would only loan out three or four items to aid in the heist. No problem: even if we couldnt get everything we wanted, the party had five members and we could largely each get an item that would help us in the long run. And thats when Scarlet mentioned the shops rooster mascot. Or maybe he wasnt a mascot and was just around.

One of our party members, Data 7, is a talking dog who is one of our two translators when it comes to interacting with animal NPCs. And he happened to be the point man (point dog?) in interacting with the store owner. So, when Scarlet introduced this rooster character, Data was intrigued. Now, I dont know if Scar intended on Mike the Rooster becoming a prominent part of the campaign, or if he was just there for flavor, but regardless of the intent, we ASSUMED he was important. Its kinda hilarious, thinking back on that scene, how were trying to portion out which items are most valuable for our characters, and then suddenly the subject is broached: Hey, should we use one of our four item slots to take this rooster? And the rest is history.

The whole point of the pawn shop was to equip us for a difficult mission and we believed that having a rooster in our party would be to the benefit of the heist. Were now about half a year later, and I cannot think of a single in-game benefit Mike the Rooster has added to our campaign (against Darkseid, not the CAMPAIGN campaign). Its ACTIVELY hilarious, how we debated and hemmed and hawed, and eventually chose to just burn a supply slot on a detrimental NPC.

You see, Mike is a very skittish character, to put it nicely. To put it less nicely, Mikes characterization is that of South Parks Tweak, compressed into the body of a flightless bird. Mike is constantly paranoid, and when communicating in text, hes in all caps; when communicating in voice, hes still in all caps. And Mike is terrified of EVERY little thing. It doesnt matter what the subject is; Mike will find a way to frantically cluck and perhaps even excite himself to the point of passing out. And what makes Mike even better is that hes one of those minor characters that hangs out with us a bit more, so every so often, Data will just pull Mike and be like Hey, what do you think, Mike? And suddenly we get a frantic cluck, claiming its too much pressure to suddenly be put on the spot for his opinion.

Mike is just such a random character, and his origins in the campaign are so hilarious in and of themselves (we wound up taking him on the heist, and he largely spent his time ensconced in Datas earwhich is the worst place for a creature with Mikes volume), that I cant help but love every appearance he makes. Weve got a lot of good animal characters, but Mike just makes for quality comic relief.

Hint for #40: Has a connection to Trish McKenzie.

Tifa

Terra

(3) The Lego Movie

(6) A Silent Voice

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42. Tillall

I have not personally interacted with Tillall yet in the campaign, and in fact, Ive somehow managed to avoid most of the Martians residing in Zonn Zorr, outside of TelokTelar as a member of my villain infiltration task force. Yet in the few scenes weve gotten from Tillall (with Rozetta as a mother figure for him), its completely adorable, and I love watching them interact. Tillall is a White Martian that got picked up in a laboratory alongside several other captives, and the party rescued them and brought them back to Zonn Zorr. Now, White Martians, I BELIEVE, are historically the bad shade of Martians (compared to Green Martians like Jonn Jonzz), so theyre currently doing their best to masquerade as Green Martians, to avoid stoking the fires associated with their seedy past. Naturally, having them in Zonn Zorr, the base from which White Martians nearly defeated the Justice League during campaign one, creates a bit of a wrinkle in the plot.

None of that matters to Tillall though. Hes not one of the adult Martians thats been subjected to the horrors of the world and has the life experiences needed to survive around a largely human population. No, Zonn Zorr was recently attacked by Kobra, and in order to minimalize the threat posed by Martians and their psychic abilities, he tampered with the fire suppression system and trapped then within a terrifying wall of flames. Martians (and Saturnians, as demonstrated by our very own Rozetta), have an ingrained psychological roadblock in their genetics that renders them fully helpless in the face of fire. Again, the adult Martians suffered through this (including one who was subjected to horrific burning prior to his rescue from the laboratory), but for Tillall, the whole experience was new. Im sure he was aware that fire was bad, but hed never had to face it down the way his compatriots did.

As such, Tillall became a recluse, locking himself away in his quarters so that he would never have to risk confronting his fear again. The fire couldnt hurt him if it couldnt get to him, after all. And the contingent of Martians he had with him lacked the maternal instincts and compassion needed to set him right again. Enter Rozetta, who, while Saturnian, still shares some common ancestry, while still holding onto that feminine touch (not to mention her only matronly duties with her adoptive daughter). What we got from bringing these two characters together was one of the sweetest, yet most heartbreaking scenes of the campaign thus far.

Tillall finally revealed his fears to Rozetta, perhaps unable to do so to his male contingent due to fear of weakness (after all, White Martians are considered to be made of sturdier stuff than that). It was just really touching to have Rozetta slowly listen to him and talk him through his feelings, and just generally let him know that things were going to be okay. The pair transformed into fish together, specifically because fish live in water, and when youre in water, you dont need to worry about fire burning you or paralyzing you with fear. But thats just a stopgap solution, and I think Rozetta was able to convince Tillall to take a few other steps beyond just hiding away in his bathtub for the rest of his life.

I really wanna talk to Tillall, personally, but I dont know if theres every going to be a right time. I dont want to spook him, and I know that, on top of the fire incident, humans were very unkind to his people in that laboratory. I think for now, Im just going to have to watch from a distance and let him have more little scenes with his Saturnian mentor. Thats good enough for me, since those scenes are perfectly adorable.

Hint for #41: The first animal to show up on this list.

Skipping right over Cyborg Firestorm Body Horror to go for the big names, I take it.

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43. Dewormer

The Convoy was the longest-running storyline of the campaign that weve actually completed at this point, and its only natural that a bunch of Convoy-original characters are going to make this list (or landed in the honorable mention tier). On this list however, were still in comic relief territory, and I cannot get enough of the bizarre choice Scarlet made when crafting Dewormer as a character. I dont even completely remember why hes called Dewormer, given that Im fairly certain he doesnt really do any deworming at the point where we meet him, but thats just emblematic of how weird and inexplicable this character is in the best way.

About halfway through the geographic path of the Convoy, we made a brief pit stop in Santa Prisca (a DC-specific central American country). It was KIND OF on our way, but we had a secondary purpose of trying to recruit Bane for the Secret Six (to take the place of either Cheshire or Fiddler, both of whom had vacated the group for one reason or another, leaving just a Secret Four). Recruiting Bane wasnt a high priority for the convoy itself, so we sent a small expedition to break off and try and make contact. We succeeded, but it turns out that Santa Prisca was about to be under attack, and they needed help fortifying their defenses until the population could make their escape (and join up with the convoy). Naturally, were helpful people, and we offered up our services.

One of the defenses that robotics expert Trogg wanted help with was locating truffles, in order to capture boars for use against the incoming Equated army. Youd think locating truffles would be easy, but not so much. It turns out, we had to explore a mine field (also used to defend against the Equated) in order to find those truffles, and therefore we needed a special machine. Enter Dewormer. Originally designed, I guess, to dig up worms, Dewormer had been reprogrammed to find truffles. Fine, whatever. Thats not a top forty character. Or at least, thats not what it seemed like at first.

Dewormer had to maneuver through the minefield, and that meant one of our party needed to remote control him, dodging mines along the way. This task fell to Brennus who issomehow NOT the least technically-savvy member of our team. He might not even be bottom three, now that I think about it. But still, for the purposes of this task, hes not exactly someone you want handling sensitive electronic equipment. However, Brennus is still a very empathetic person, so when Dewormer started asking questions during their task, Brennus was naturally willing to respond. Dewormer finds a truffle, Dewormer asks Brennus a question. Dewormer finds a second truffle, Dewormer asks a second question. And slowly, we begin to realize Dewormer is special.

The questions Dewormer asks Brennus become more and more existential, and more and more depressed, and it just becomes crazier and funnier with every interaction. By the time the fifth and final truffle is located, Dewormer is openly asking if life is worth living, and contemplates self-destructing until Brennus depowers him and just carries the lifeless robot back to Trogg. This would be funny in its own right, but the gimmick continued. Trogg rebooted Dewormer and Brennus, bless his heart, starts talking to Dewormer like theyre best buddies. Rebooted Dewormer, however, has never met Brennus, and proceeds to have an existential crisis about the nature of its reality. Trogg reboots it again, and Brennus fucks things up again. Over and over and over. Its hilarious, because Dewormer winds up getting rebooted so many times because Brennus cant not say things that trigger his weird introspection.

Dewormer was the star of that particular session, but he made further appearances. In the final leg of the Convoy, Dewormer finally got his wish, serving as a suicide bomber to protect our fortress against invasion. And then in Zonn Zorr, after being rebuilt as a fucking armada of droids, Kobra had a hacker take over an army of Dewormers, who then led an assault on our base. And like he always wanted, Dewormer (and Dewormer and Dewormer and Dewormer) was destroyed in an EMP blast. He can still be rebuilt, and he can still bring his suicidal personality to the campaign in the future, but for now, hes just an extremely memorable and hilarious comic relief character.

Hint for #42: Pepper has yet to speak to this character in any way.

(12) Zootopia

(4) The Incredibles

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44. Toyman (Hiro Okamura)

We just did Carmen, but now we continue the list in a bit of a section dedicated to the goofier personalities of the campaign, who inject fun into an otherwise bleak storyline. The Toyman in question is the Japanese version, a teenaged boy with a great deal of robotic knowhow. While I was not on the Tokyo sessions, I did listen to most of them, and Toyman made a big splash on his very first appearance. We wound up with an end-of-session cliffhanger, as Toyman burst onto the scene and started attacking the party with an army of his toy gizmos and gadgets, only stopping once it became clear that the party was on his side when it came to protecting Tokyo. Also, it mightve helped that he wanted to impress several of the attractive women in the group.

Yeah, Toymans whole shtick is that hes your standard, perverted teenaged boy. Hes absolutely in love with Power Girl for two main reasons, I assume, but that hasnt stopped him from flirting with anything featuring two X-chromosomes. What makes it funnier is that he does not speak English, so many of his interactions are completely inferred through general leering. And yes, I know that Toyman likely isnt everyones cup of tea; I hate Mineta in My Hero Academia, yet I love Hanamura in Danganronpa. The pervert archetype in fiction has a very narrow line that it needs to tread along, and I think what it ultimately comes down to a certain level of sincerity. Its easy to make a character thats just an unrepentant pervert, but it to make that character LIKABLE, you need to make them sincere as well.

Toyman thinks a lot about women and their bodies, but he has put some thought into his beliefs. He finds women appealing, and is more than happy to simp for them if thats what it takes. It frustrated my rather puritanical PC in our only conversation thus far, but that just makes it funnier. Plus, Ive gotta give a shoutout to the Babe Squad reaction, since we had this team of babes in skintight scuba gear show up, and naturally Toyman was in heaven. And then they removed their helmets to reveal the faces of an anthropomorphic dolphin, seal, and lobsterand lets just say Toyman learned a valuable lesson about judging a book by its cover. He just makes for good comic relief, and Ive enjoyed his role in the campaign thus far as a result.

Additionally, since I first wrote this write-up, Toyman has resurfaced again, this time joining a duo of robotics experts to visit Leesburg and help repair a series of Superfamily robots. And wouldnt you know itputting a boy like Toyman in charge of repairing a Supergirl robot is like setting a kid loose in a candy store. The fact that shes female in form, while ALSO completely cybernetic, left Toyman in heaven, and he began offering her money (and making it rain yen) because thats the only way he understands to demonstrate his appreciation for the female form. The session ended with a terrified Supergirl Robot running for her life as Toyman sought after his beautiful prize. Once again, its comedic, but its comedic in the best possible way.

Hint for #43: This character has died.

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45. Carmen Leno

And now, its time for everyones (mostly Fastbreaks) favorite porn star, Carmen Leno! Yup, in campaign one we had a whole plotline revolving around the League of Assassins trying to kidnap Spirit (the youngest member of our team and current team doctor), and to accomplish this, they sent a pair of mercenaries known as the Body Doubles. The duo quickly became fan favorites, due to their Team Rocket-esque strategies for success (they became known as the Butter Babes for unleashing a deluge of butter upon out party when we closed in on them). Between the two, Carmen was the bigger personality, taking on the role of a goofball to Bonny Hoffmans straight woman, and she even ended the campaign, having gone on a lovely dinner date with Fastbreak. Bygones were bygones and our party left Carmen on relatively good terms as a result.

Campaign two rolls around, and wouldnt you know it: the Body Doubles are back. Attempting to wrangle some renegade personalities in Dayton, Ohio, our party once again defeated the duo and brought them into custody. This time, however, rather than letting the pair roam free, theyve instead taken up a seemingly-permanent resident in our holding cells. Given the clientele currently occupying the holding cells, Carmen works well as a source of comic relief. Shes one of the few prisoners weve got that has a goofier and more laid back personality. Shes constantly pestering and annoying Bonny from opposing cells, and just generally being a hilarious nuisance whenever anyone comes to visit.

Admittedly, this write-up is one of the shorter ones thus far, but its largely because, while Carmen is absolutely vital (otherwise Holding is a very bleak and depressing location), shes only comic relief for that small segment of the campaign, and I havent had any personalized moments with her quite yet. As it stands, she was the breakout start of the pairing in campaign one, but spoiler alert, I think Carmens role in campaign two has been more so to serve as the contrast to Bonny, and Bonny just does it better. Im sure shed rank higher though, if Xander Heartbreaker Stray would stop abandoning and/or ignoring his former love interests in favor of blonde politicians! Its your baby, Xander! Hes your son! *gets dragged off kicking and screaming*

Hint for #44: Connected to robotics in some fashion.

Now, at the start of this write-up, I called Aquazon one of the two characters whove made me actively hate them thus far in the campaign. To date, the only personal conversation Pepper has had with Aquazon is enough to earn that distinction from me. Things started out pleasantly enough, with Peppers usual shtick of trying to get friendly with a fellow teen and just putting on her best Ahm just a friendly Mormon smile. But then Aquazon got down to brass tacks, with what seems to be the focal point of her character. The world is fucked up and needs fixing. I agree, and were going to fight together to take down the Society. The existing systems led to this happening. Again, no argument here. Zatanna royally fucked us, and Pepper has a particular disdain for the government, due to personal matters. Checkmate is also part of the problem. Whoa now, hold on there a second.

For those of you reading this, if youve ever wandered into the Board 8 Politics Containment topics, you may have seen lengthy arguments in which I get increasingly furious with ChaosTony; not because I disagree with the core concepts behind his beliefs, but because I often feel like he ignores reality when it comes to what is required to achieve his goals, and misplaces blame for failure. With that in mind, Scarlet managed to capture the purest possible essence of THAT kind of interaction, when Pepper met Aquazon.

Aquazons whole deal is that the world sucks, adults fucked everything up, and its time for the youth to rise up and reshape the world to be a better place. On paper, I dont disagree with that, and Pepper certainly doesnt disagree with that. Hell, while Pepper may often times support the status quo, she also only unlocked her superpowers out of defiance for the unbalanced power of big pharma, and knows firsthand the corruption of the political system of 2007 America. She absolutely agrees that changes need to be made. However, she also understands that were facing an overwhelming evil, and perhaps ensuring their defeat should take priority. Aquazon wanting to lump Checkmate in for eradication with all the rest of the status quo, when Checkmate is the ONLY real bastion of resistance, did not sit right with Pepper at all.

Its at that point that Pepper, and myself by proxy, came to realize just how similar Aquazons mindset is the most infuriating aspects of the internet progressive movement (I am very sorry for bringing politics into this write-up, but its necessary to explain why Aquazon inspired such strong feelings). As we saw in Tokyo itself, Aquazon believes that the old guard should make way for the new guard. Thats not inherently a bad concept, but Aquazons vision of what that change should bring isnave at best, horrid at worst.

In terms of the campaign, we are fighting a many-pronged war against countless enemies, so bringing up the idea of tearing down the Checkmate structure in the middle of a war against OBVIOUSLY worse adversaries just felt short-sighted. Still, up to this point, I still found Aquazon more intriguing than obnoxious, so I tried shifting the subject. She wants to enact systemic change and cause a complete overhaul of the world to fix some inherent problems? Okay. You know what? Peppers fine with that. What fixes does Aquazon have in mind? Hmm. You hear that? Sounds like crickets chirping in the background. Yeah, Aquazons argument boils down to just tear everything down and I can be the face of the revolutionand someone else can come up with the solutions. Ugh.

I may get irritated at progressives sometimes, but at the very least, they have solid concepts behind what they want. They might completely ignore the reality of the world, but at least they have a goal. With Aquazon, theres no goal. Everything about her feels performative, which makes it impossible to take ANYTHING she says seriously. She just wants to be popular, and she JUST wants to be the face of a movement, because being the cover girl matters more to her than what she stands for. And for someone like Pepper, who genuinely wants to affect change, and has taken steps to actively do so, this is infuriating. And to make matters worse, by not immediately agreeing with Aquazon, Pepper was classified as old. Like wanting to have a rational plan is something to scoff at.

To craft such a bratty character takes skill, but beyond my personal interactions, Aquazon has continued her rivalry with Canary in Zonn Zorr. Aquazon basically wants to play the role of a J-Pop Idol, developing a following that way in order to show up Canary. I think it was literally the next scene she had an extended speaking role, after her conversation with Pepper, where she was playing a charity concert for the victims of the Kobra attack on Zonn Zorr. Despite badmouthing Checkmate, she immediately kissed their ass in her speech (which she gave in English, having learned just to show Canary up), leading to questions about whether its some scheme, or if Waller got in her ear, or what. But everything is petty with Aquazon, including making the effort to learn the phrase eat my ass, just to taunt Canary, so who knows where her end goals truly lie.

One final thing though, because Ive been harsh on Aquazon throughout this write-up. Yes, shes a brat, and yes, shes largely performative, but she still has the tiniest kernel of humanity to her characterization. After Big Science Action reigned supreme over Super Young Team, she and her father had a sort of reconciliation. And since he sent her to Zonn Zorr specifically to keep her safe (putting himself in harms way to protect Japan), Aquazon definitely has some internalized guilt. Occasionally it bubbles to the surface, like when she speaks with Minerva, but even those little bits help to soften a character who could easily be one-note and strictly detestable. I think thats enough for a top fifty-two placement, even if I still dont entirely like her.

Hint for #45: Has been an occupant of a holding cell.

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46. Shiny Happy Aquazon (Kim Kimura)

Part of me didnt want to include Aquazon on this list, because I dont like her. And I mean that in the sense that shes one of only two characters in the campaign thus far who have managed to needle me JUST right to get me pissed off and raging. The secondwho wont be making this listis DJ, who was a smug, self-righteous poser who had didnt have a single creative bone in her body, and proudly boasted about her ability to remix other peoples hard work to achieve ironic appeal. Fuck DJ. But ultimately, I decided that, despite my personal animosity for Aquazon, the fact that she can illicit such intense hatred without being some generic hurr durr Im big bad evil is worth praising.

To start things off, Aquazon first appeared in the LONG story arc that had our ten-person party split into two groups of five and trapped in Las Vegas and Tokyo for almost two months in real time. I was in Vegas, while Aquazon showed up in Tokyo, so I didnt get to experience her firsthand. However, this was during a period of time when we had sessions on Tuesday and Thursday nights instead of the alternate Tuesday/Saturday schedule, so I was typically available to listen in and get the gist of what was happening. And while I loved Vegas for the most part, Tokyo was a more-than-worthy partner storyline in terms of the overarching storyline and the unique abundance of characters it had to offer.

The general plot of Tokyo was this: the whole of the city (or was it all of Japan?) was protected from Darkseid and Society invasion by a magical dome, created by a sky spirit possessing a Japanese superhero. Blissfully unaware of the horrors beyond that dome, the only concerns the population of Tokyo had was the battle of the brands going on between the veteran superhero squad of Big Science Action, and the upstart group of the Super Young Team. Aquazon stood out as the face of the latter, generally being a brat and caring more about being a social media star than actually doing the work needed to be an ideal superhero. It also happens that she was the teenaged daughter of Waveman Kimura (later Junior Waveman Kimura) from Big Science Action, adding family drama to the mix of their little battle.

As a whole, the Super Young Team came across largely as posers, rather than the kinds of heroes needed to deal with the situation as hand. Also, they were using their hero personas to hock canned air, which was causing a tremendous build-up of carbon dioxide under the dome and would likely kill the population if the dome wasnt breached. Because of this, the easy choice to make was siding with Big Science Action, even if, admittedly, Super Young Team had the most interesting personalities from a storytelling perspective. The Tokyo team wound up beating Super Young Team at their own game, backing one of the lesser members (Crazy Shy Lolita Canary) in an effort to usurp Aquazon and take the Super Young Team down a peg, so theyd actually focus on doing legitimate hero work.

Despite their efforts though, solidifying Big Science Action as the leading hero team in Tokyo wasnt enough to stop the Society from breaching the dome and generally attacking Japan with the same ruthlessness displayed throughout the rest of the world. Opting to stay behind and fight, Junior Waveman Kimura insisted on sending Aquazon back to Zonn Zorr with us, specifically to keep her safe. Now, there are two important things to note about this particular choice. One, we brought Canary back with us as well, who you might remember was Aquazons rival. And two, Aquazon came back to Zonn Zorr as one of SEVERAL NPCs that does not speak English. Both of these facts will be important in assessing her character moving forward.

Now for my part, since it hasnt really come up yet, I should point out that my PC character is nineteen and tends to at least TRY to develop decent relationships with any and all of the other teenaged characters around Zonn Zorr. This is largely because Pepper never really wanted to be a superhero and had the role thrust upon her more than anything, so shes not really in the perpetual mindset of we have a job to do, and we should be focused on that above all else. She tries to take things seriously, but ultimately, she finds comfort in familiar situations, and without any friends or family from her normal life around, shes constantly trying to assemble a new circle of confidantes. As such, when she heard about Aquazon as this young superheroine, Pepper naturally sought her out, and even got a translator to overcome the language barrier.

(1) Wolfwalkers

(8) Ratatouille

scarletspeed7 posted...

I will mention one other aspect of Teena, and that's the treatment she received from her mother. It's hard not to feel sympathy for how she was treated like a hurdle by her. And through it all, Teena is resilient, resolute in her dream to be a hero like her mentor, Cyborg. I just hope I do the character justice; I never want to play her for laughs or anything like that.

I'll go with Traci.

Her mannerisms are a little comical in just how blunt she can be, but she is herself a serious character. I appreciate that about her.

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47. TNTeena

I was not on the original mission that brought TNTeena into our lives, but I did listen along to the jailbreak from Alcatraz, and Teena was right up at the top (alongside Young Frankenstein and Bunny) in terms of the memorable personalities and storylines that we came across. She happened to be Saoirses cellmate when the party got imprisoned, and with Saoirse being a scientist at heart, with naturally maternalistic tendencies, she quickly took to the shy, nervous young girl. Teena wound up in Alcatraz because shes a meta-human with the ability to pop off (and regrow, dont worry) her fingers for use as explosives. Well, that, and the fact that she loudly and proudly touts her status as a member of the Teen Titans Reserves (the only member?), having personally partnered up with Cyborg.

Part of me doesnt want to mention this next bit, but its kinda necessary to understand why Teena managed to make a big enough splash that she blasted her way onto my list. Teena is autistic in a Rain Man sense of the word. Shes very OCD, and her mannerisms are almost robotic in how she interacts with people. In that initial meeting at Alcatraz, when planning their escape attempt, obviously it helps to have a girl with explosive capabilities, but Teenas more than just a bomber. The whole time, shes talking through her thought process with regards to which fingers she can afford to lose in which order (pinky and ring on the non-dominant hand, if I recall correctly). Its honestly reminiscent of a character that I liked from the first campaign, Philo Zeiss. He was one of Azraels lieutenants, and he was very much high-functioning in a similar fashion (although admittedly he came off much more like Mordin Solus than Rain Man).

Meanwhile, when she talks about her time partnered alongside Cyborg, shes very quick to mention her arrest record and recidivism rate (paling in comparison to that of Ted Kord, but cmonTeds great). This COULD easily have been annoying, because even though her attitude is understandable, given her disability, that inherent lack of social grace leads to a hint of obnoxious smugness in just how she acts towards certain people. Its not enough to draw ire, at least not yet, but it could definitely go down that path. This is why a secondary bit of information is important to tempering Teenas worst traits.

As we found out soon after bringing her back to Zonn Zorr, yes, Teena is part of the Teen Titans Reservesbut its almost one of those Make-A-Wish situations (or perhaps more accurately, when you have a sporting event and its a runaway one way or the other, so one team lets a weak player who has warmed the bench all season to go out and live their dream). Yes, Teena has a strong partner in Cyborg, and yes, her recidivism rate is low, but at least from how I interpreted the discussions, its likely all for show (or at least MOSTLY for show). And thats the hook you need to get drawn back into liking Teena. Shes abrasive, but its not her fault, and shes trying the absolute best that she can.

When you really think about it, you have this girl with extremely dangerous powers, but theyre also not the sort of powers that would make her an especially useful combatant out in the field (on top of her disability). Shes in a really shitty situation as a result. I mean, Peppers powers suck for her on a personal level, but with enough practice and control, she can keep them in check, and even expand their potential to ungodly levels. In a way, theres almost a sense of camaraderie that Pepper feels towards Teena as a result of this, and in the one interaction theyve had, shes at least trying to be friendly and offer a hand (even though these are two girls who should ABSOLUTELY not shake hands).

Really, what intrigues me about Teena going forward is that it seems like she WAS largely being humored before, but now were in a situation where we need all hands on-deck, and shes going into the apocalypse thinking that she wasnt being humored or pitied. I think theres the chance that she can rise to the occasion and become a valuable member of Zonn Zorrs meta-human contingent, but even if she goes the other direction, its still an extremely interesting storyline to watch unfold.

Hint for #46: Another teen.

captaincanadian posted...

Auto for barret

For Faris please.

Emet

Now, all of this is largely to heap a ton of blame for how badly things are going on Zatanna herself. Where Misty comes in, is that Misty was essentially under Zatannas care, in the days leading up to the Society takeover of the planet (under Darkseids powerful gaze). When Zatanna was captured, Misty was left to fend for herself in a magical mansion, and she got locked away without food or water to sustain herself in Zatannas absence. On pure survival instinct, she scrounged up a few power bars, and she wound up hydrating by drinking the entirety of a scrying pool that Zatanna had hidden away from prying eyes. That scrying pool though? It turns out thats where Zatanna had deposited all the soul fragments of the various villains shed altered. So, when Misty drank the water, all of those different minds and personas became a part of herself.

Ever since we brought Misty back to Zonn Zorr, its a question of how to truly deal with her. She has all the signs of classic dissociative identity disorder, complete with certain catchphrases and verbal ticks to give a hint of which personality might be controlling her verbal functions at any given time. The most important relationship Misty has, however, is with Lush. Lush is a reformed supervillain in her own rightand it turns out shes only reformed because shes one of the fifty-two personalities that Zatanna altered, turning Ros into Lush in the first place. Feeling sorry for this girl, and definitely wanting to get to the bottom of her own problems, Lush has taken point in dealing with Misty, giving her a room to stay in (at least I thought this was the case as of the time of this write-up...I now know Misty has her own room) and interacting with her the most out of the party.

Beyond the Misty/Lush connection, theres also the absurdity of Lushs former boyfriend, Bolt, also being one of Zatannas victims, leading to quite a few babes being exchanged between the two roommates. But we also got the resurgence of the Carol Ferris version of Star Sapphire, who loves Hal Jordan, and resurfaced at a particularly inopportune time. Misty got weaponized in the romantic cold war between my Pepper, and Traci 13, and her Sapphire side was tricked into thinking Jaime Reyes was Hal Jordan. Both Pepper and Traci (however genuine she was being at the time) were understandably stunned to find Jaime making out with the confused little fae (oh yeah, we found out shes the daughter of Titaniaor maybe it was Glorianagiving her a connection to our fairy PC, Bloodfruit as well), and that torpedoed the poor boy pretty hard.

Most recently though, as I mentioned above, Lush and a few others had a mission into Mistys mind, where they got to see the extent of her fractured psyche. And it turns out that even the most generous interpretation of Zatannas actions can no longer be excused, because one of the personalities wreaking particular havoc in Mistys brain is that of Batman. Perhaps sharing my thoughts on the brainwashing scheme, Batman actively fought against the majority vote, and had to be put down in a similar fashion. Locking Batman up with a whole bunch of supervillains had a less-than-desired effect on the poor girl, but at least the big reveal seems to have finally given her some peace.

I think that special session is what gave Misty the push into my top 52, because while shes an interesting puzzle, Im not sure how I felt about her as a character before then. Since clearing the Batman from her brain (shes down to just 50 personalities now, since we also cleared out Campaign 1 Fan Favorite Trish McKenzie), it feels like weve gotten a little bit more of Misty as her own person. She still has verbal ticks and whatnot, but her original personality has shone through just a bit more clearly. I even had Pepper invite her out for a day of chemistry fun, and at least a few of Mistys personalities seemed to have fun with it. The fact that shes still got a crush on Jaime as herself, and not just a ghost of Star Sapphire is a cute twist on top of everything else, and I look forward to seeing her plotline progress as she becomes more and more Misty Kilgore Classic.

Hint for #47: The character that bumped Harry Matthews off the list due to recency bias.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/9/7/AAOJ0pAADbmp.png
48. Misty Kilgore

This is a tough ranking, because on the one hand, when I read Mistys various RP chats (mostly with Lush), Im intrigued by her. And the one-shot session into the tangled mess of her brain was interesting as well, because we could really put a voice to each of the various minds currently floating about in her brain. On the other hand, I feel like there is a bit of a disconnect between Inviso the player and Misty the character, so that even though shes an inherently interesting character in the context of the campaign, shes down here, towards the bottom of my ranking. But she DID make the list.

To explain Mistys presence in the campaign, I have to start by elucidating perhaps THE catalyst for everything bad thats happened to Earth to kickstart the events of the campaign. Within the superhero community, Elongated Mans wife, Sub Dibny, seems to have been universally-beloved. She is the focus of at least three plot points in the campaign as a result. However, noted vile scumbag Doctor Light (I should specify Arthur Light, since there is the much better Kimiyo Hoshi Doctor Light in the campaign as well) assaulted Sue and was put on trial by the Justice League for this heinous act.

Now, this next part is me editorializing just a little, but it reflects how my character feels as well, so whatever. The Justice Leagues whole mantra, because it reflects their heroic ideals, is that no matter how bad a supercriminal might be, they (the Justice League) cannot kill. That inability to kill is meant to be some sort of dividing line between heroes and criminals. Fine. I strongly disagree with that notion, because at a certain point, when youre dealing with violent, superpowered lunatics, you might want to consider execution, just on the basis of public safety. I, Inviso, do not favor the death penalty in real lifebut I can certainly find fault with not just killing a supercriminal like, say, the Joker for example. At that point, youre doing more harm than good by imprisoning him and giving him an opportunity to break free.

All that being said, the Justice League, as disgusted as they were with Doctor Light, refused to kill him, because they stuck with their principles. Good, right? Wellhang on a second. By a narrow majority vote, they opted to instead punish him in a far worse and far more evil fashion. This is where Zatanna comes into play and loops us back around to talking about Misty. Zatanna, being a mage, decided to wipe Doctor Lights memory and convert him to a completely different person. I dont know about you, dear readers, but to me, that seems not unlike just killing him outright. Youre effectively ending the life of a criminal, except his body is still intact and his heart is still beating. Its a loophole, and a fucked up one at that.

After brainwashing Doctor Light (and I cant be completely sure on the timeline just yet, but Im pretty sure he was first), a large number of other supervillains were similarly reformed. I mean, if you can find a way to get around your no kill rule, why not take it again and again and again? But heres the thing: if superheroes started killing supervillains, thats just a case of turnabout being fair play. If the whole thing that sets heroes and villains apart is that heroes dont kill and villains do, then the villain community wouldnt have much of a leg to stand on if heroes started just executing their foes. Hey, you cant kill us! Youre supposed to be the good guys! is about all they could argue, because its hard to take the moral high ground on killing, when youre a killer in your own right.

The second Zatanna opted to use her magical abilities to forcibly alter the minds and memories of villains and make them behave in chosen fashions, she gave villains the world over a rallying cry. While there are certainly villains with mind warping powers, the vast majority either cannot or would not take things THAT far in their evil behavior. As such, the Justice League ceded a GREAT deal of the unstable moral high ground upon which they once stood, and gave the villain community a singular, common enemy to hate. Thats the thing about villains: they benefit from a lack of moral hang-ups compared to their heroic foes, but their personalities lend themselves to isolation, and a general refusal to play nice with others (outside of any goons they might hire to lord over). With a common enemy though, all of these type-A personalities suddenly realized that they needed to put aside their alpha tendencies, and they formed the Society, specifically to counteract the biggest advantage that superheroes have: a willingness to work together and combine strengths towards a common goal.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/9/3/AAAe4tAADosF.png
49. Lono

As I mentioned with Manchester, there are certain sessions that I feel like I enjoy a lot more than other people. Typically, its when we go to a more enclosed city and deal with a specific problem that sets that city apart from its fellows in a memorable fashion. I just like more micro-scale stories sometimes, because you get the chance to have a more intimate exploration of the world, and some more personalized character work with someone like Lono, in a city like Tampa (which has been a fun excursion every time weve been thus far.)

Now, this might be recency bias, as we just went back to Tampa and met with Lono again for the first time in a long time, but hes great. Weve visited Tampa on three occasions now, and every time, we hook up with Lono and something absolutely insane happens. First trip, we show up at a burger joint just in time to watch this beefy, shirtless man with a CROATOAN tattoo murder a doctor, before trying to kill us as well. A misunderstanding, of course, and once we reveal were Checkmate agents, he lightens upbut he also informs us that Checkmate is dead and the Black/White Kings/Queens are gone, so hes going to find his own way to take power by ensconcing himself within The Trust (a group of thirteen wealthy and influential families from around the globe).

All of this is very standard for meeting a new NPC out in the field, but what stands out is what happened next. The burger joint gets attacked by an OMAC (ask ScareChan what that is), and we wind up killing it and fleeing in a pair of cars that engage in a lengthy highway pursuit. This was week twelve of the campaign, and up to that point, the car chase was perhaps one of the most fun sequences wed experienced. A large part of that was because of the reckless, manic energy of Lono, just spurring us on to go as full throttle as he did in our efforts to escape pursuit. Eventually, we did lose our tail, and that just gave us a chance to relax in Lonos parking garage base, planning our next move while Lono made unsavory comments and gestures towards the women or our party (namely Minerva).

Trip two to Tampa, we met up with Lono again (after he had previously punched out our teleporter out of pure machismo), but this was less us working directly with him, and more us giving him a task and sending him out like a one man army corps. While we infiltrated a power station (having gained access to the Societys recruitment station by stage a drug-fueled riot), Lono ran off and murdered a WHOLE bunch of people by invading a TV studio and blowing up their broadcasting tower. Our plan succeeded, but then we took a LONG time to get back to Tampa, during which time Lono became Tampas most wanted, with every two-bit low-life looking to make a name for him or herself by being the one to bring Lono in alive.

Long story short, we fought our way through a different parking garage, just in time for Lono to help beat the shit out of the last few bounty hunters. Thats one of the things that makes Lono great. Tampa is meant to be an early campaign mission, and Lono is OP as hell. While we, the players, are still learning the ropes, its fun to have an NPC that can just beat the shit out of whatever blockade stands in our way. And as we fled Tampa with him in tow, he managed to continue his streak of being a hilariously-unpleasant douchebag. Minerva gained the powers of telepathy to communicate between players across long distancesand she used this on Lono, which allowed him to beam back sexually-explicit imagery of Minerva herself. Thats the kind of quality dickbaggery Lono provides.

Theres just something fun about a complete asshole character whos nominally a good guy, working towards the benefit of the party, and because hes a good guy, you have to kind of tolerate his worst behavior. With Lono continuing to be a fixture in the campaign, Im sure hes going to similarly continue being a hilarious point of contact out in the field for the future.

Hint for #48: Has at least one pet living with them.

(7) Wolf Children

(2) Coraline

2:57:51

Celes Chere

Finally, the last thing I have to add, is that we have a variety of younger mages and magicians in Zonn Zorr, who are supposed to represent the Eighth Age of Magic, and as such, the older magicians of the Oblivion Shadowpact want to maintain a certain level of control over this new age. They want to have their number mentor the new blood. Nightshade serves as the mentor to Black Alice who, spoiler alert, is going to do very well on this list. And they make for an interesting duo. Nightshade kind of enables some of Alices more punk tendencies, which makes sense, since Nightshade herself is a bit detached from the rest of Oblivions goals. But at the same time, Nightshade has that kill all darkness mindset that shes trying to impart unto Alice, so it makes for some interesting conflict, as Alice has this teacher she really likes, but she isnt one hundred percent comfortable with some of the teachings she receiving. Its just a fun dynamic and further boosts Nightshades profile for me, as it gives her another character to play off of.

As an addendum since I first wrote this write-up, I recently had a scene where Pepper was formally introduced to Nightshade, since Alice wants to bring her best friend and mentor together. The result was an awkward conversation where Nightshade is a bit edgey, and Pepper is a bit not, and Nightshade very much played on Peppers apprehensions towards Oblivion and magic, and everything surrounding their introduction. Always good for a prank, Nightshade pretended to go full shadow witch, scaring the bejeezus out of Pepper and even making Alice think the rage was real. This is not to mention her general antipathy towards Saoirses recent advances as well.

You just never know what youre gonna get with Nightshade, because theres a very serious side to her that she maintains when it comes to her duties, but she also seems to lean hard the other way to try and balance that out.

Hint for #49: A member of Checkmate.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/7/8/AAQcMAAADjC6.png
50. Nightshade (Eve Eden)

In our first campaign, we played through the No Mans Land setting. Gotham City, in the wake of a massive earthquake, was decided to be unsalvageable, and was cut off from the rest of the United States. Our player characters had to navigate this Escape from New York-esque scenario and bring stability back to the city, allowing for the eventual reabsorption into America. Now, while many of the PCs in campaign two have somewhat established reputations in the superhero community, this was very much not the case in campaign one. All nine player characters actively gained their superpowers during missions in the course of the first campaign.

As such, we were all very much greenhorns, and as greenhorns, Oracle (the central mentoring figure of No Mans Land) decided that it would be ideal for each character to have a personalized Superbuddy to kind of provide that one-on-one mentoring to help us improve and get through No Mans Land in one piece. One such Superbuddy was Nightshade, who was paired up with Rozetta, our Saturnian transplant who has since returned as a PC in campaign two. While my memory is bad and I cant remember the EXACT logic behind the choice (I can remember mostly everyone else), Nightshade still showed up a couple times in the campaign, and her main scene was being recruited to teleport a sniper assassin out of the city, so we wouldnt have to kill him in front of his daughter (and the guilt this caused when said sniper murdered people out in the world after the fact).

The thing about a lot of the Superbuddies in campaign is that they werent meant to be major characters. They didnt take up residence in Gotham, so we had to actively seek them out through video conversations via Oracle. But this meant, when campaign two rolled around, those Superbuddies could suddenly become a lot more prominent and developed as characters. This is very much the case with Nightshade. She wasnt around from the very beginning of the campaign, but she showed up early on, when the Oblivion Bar took up residence in Zonn Zorr. We already had Fire (my characters Superbuddy) and a handful of other characters from Campaign 1, but it was early enough in the campaign that any familiar face stood out to us.

Now admittedly, as I mentioned in my Harry Matthews write-up, my character does not really jive with the whole magic element of the campaign, so I personally dont spend a ton of time dealing with Oblivion. But other characters certainly do, and Oblivion is one of the larger hubs of activity in the campaign; you cant avoid it if you want to stay up-to-date on what other PCs are doing. In that regard, Nightshade stands out as an interesting personality among the many major NPCs of the magical realm of the campaign. Shes not the most prominent resident of Oblivion, but she gets enough focus that she winds up right in that sweet spot where shes memorable, but not so much so prominent that it feels overwhelming, trying to grasp her as a character. For someone like me, who isnt as strongly invested in the magic storyline, Nightshade just feels more welcoming as a character, because shes not intrinsically tied to EVERYTHING going on in Oblivion. She has her own little magic story, and its narrow and focused enough that I can follow it without feeling overwhelmed.

Campaign 1 Nightshade was largely oh, shes nice and shes Rozettas Superbuddy, and she got upset when we asked her to help us spirit a serial killer out of Gotham. Campaign 2 Nightshade has a much more distinctive personality. Maybe its because the denizens of Oblivion are forced into hiding (again, as mentioned in the Harry Matthews write-up, the Spectre is a major antagonist of the campaign, and is actively seeking to kill any and all magic-users he finds), but Nightshade just has this jaded aloofness to her persona. A lot of Oblivions residents do, but many of the bigger, more prominent characters at least seem to be willing to put that aside to offer advice when possible. Nightshade acts like she hasnt a care in the world, and at first, it was great to see this in conjunction with her reunion with Rozetta. But Nightshade has very much developed a storyline of her very own, which I find interesting it its own right.

Nightshades primary powers revolve around manipulating shadows and darkness, and this campaign really leans into that. While the Spectre is a major antagonist, we also have the ever-present threat of Eclipso, who was, I believe, a similar entity to the Spectre, but become corrupted by darkness. On multiple occasions, weve come across NPCs that have been infected by Eclipso shards, empowering them and just generally wreaking havoc whenever possible. These shard encounters basically demonstrate the dangers posed by Eclipso, and by association, the potential dangers inherent in all shadow-users. This is what brings us back to Nightshade. Aloof as she is in Oblivion, her primary goal seems to be the outright eradication of all other shadow-users, so they cannot be corrupted by Eclipso.

What makes this more interesting is the fact that Zonn Zorr has SO MANY shadow-users. Weve brought back Nocturna (who hasnt really interacted much with Nightshade, largely because she has a high survival instinct), the Shade (who Nightshade has considered killing when he was in his weakened state), Silhouette/Nihkto (one of the campaigns PCs who seemed to have an infatuation with Nightshade, but is more just emotionally-stunted and wanted her to train him), and more recently, Lady Blackrock (who became the Kryptonite Woman, after we removed an Eclipso shard that was corrupting her heart).

That last one was the interaction that pushed Nightshade over the edge for me, into the top 52. We brought Lady Blackrock back, on the verge of death, corrupted and infested with darkness, and we came up with the idea that Nightshade could help us. So we brought Lady Blackrock to Oblivion and left her in Nightshades capable hands, before going to chat with someone else in the bar (Im pretty sure it was Constantine). In the middle of that conversation though, the realization hit: we left her with NIGHTSHADE?! Smash cut to Nightshade attempting complete and utter murder, because of COURSE thats how shed react. We talked her down, but it was still hilarious in the moment, and honestly, it was just great to see Nightshade in-action, instead of being calm and chilling at a table with a drink.

I'm halfway through as of yesterday, on pace to meet the deadline nicely.

Don't forget Tefe is kinda half Equated too.

@illuminatusbubu Do you have someone I should switch to? Please let me know ASAP.

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51. Ice Sickle

The med bay in Zonn Zorr is not an especially happy place. Yes, Dr. Spirit gives out dum dums to all of his patients, but were talking about a setting where people only really show up when something is going WRONG. Weve currently got Uncle Sam, the spirit of America, perpetually bleeding from his torso as he has been bisected in the course of his travels, and he just lays there in the med bay, suffering. We have a perpetually suffering demon laid-up in the med bay. For a time, we had both rescued victims from Manchester, who were tortured in HORRIFIC fashions. And, of course, Cheetah regrowing her arm in depression and isolation. I repeat: the med bay is not a happy place, despite any and all efforts from our resident Doctor and the occasional NPC to the contrary.

However, there is ONE exception to that statement, and he ranks here at number 50. He had a mission to Portsmouth, Oregon, which prior to our arrival, was assumed to tie into the backstory of Minerva, our campaigns Atlantean PC. However, a large portion of that mission, while tying tangentially into Minerva, really looped back into Doctor Mid-Nites presence in the city. Namely, we found ourselves in an overrun clinic, being manned by a pair of underprepared doctors in the form of Irwin Tan (who has become my characters underling, but will not be making this list) and Ice Sickle. While Irwin was a medical intern, Ice Sickle was Doctor Mid-Nites personal protg. However, as you might guess from his character image above, he wasnt exactly the professional sort.

Scarlets interpretation of Ice Sickle is that of Chris Tucker from insert Chris Tucker Movie here. The majority of his speech begins with a drawn out Maaaaaaaaaaan, before griping about being asked to do something, and often times playing the race card. Its funny as hell, because you pair him up with the highly professional attitudes of Spirit and Rex (the two resident Doctors at Zonn Zorr), and you get the Chris Tucker experience of the 90s and early 2000s. Despite his wacky mannerisms though, Ice Sickle gets the job done, and he takes his job seriously. We have people weve installed in positions at Zonn Zorr who largely just fuck around and cause more problems than they solve, but Ice Sickles good as a nurse figure, just helping patch up minor wounds when need be. His bitching is endearing more than anything, and hes a fun addition to the Zonn Zorr family.

Hint for #50: An occupant of the Oblivion Bar.

hombad46 posted...

Preston and Carol would probably make mine

edit: And obviously Bart but he's not applicable yet

I didn't even consider that, but it makes sense in retrospect.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/0/AAAe4tAADoZ6.png
52. White Lightning

Is White Lightning REALLY the 52nd best character out of EVERY NPC introduced in the campaign thus far? Probably not. She PROBABLY should be out before some of my honorable mentions, all things considered. But at the end of the day, this list is largely going to be populated by long-standing characters that we players interact with on a regular basis in our home base. Or major players who have multi-session appearances outside of Zonn Zorr. Or characters that might be coasting on their appearance in the first campaign. With that in mind, I feel like this placement is somewhat of an acknowledgement of all the quirky characters that got maybe one or two chances to shine, and deserve a chance to not be completely overshadowed by bigger personalities.

Why White Lightning specifically though? Well first off, I found her entertaining in our only encounter. We were on our second mission to Manchester, Alabama: the home of Kid Flash, and the city was all kinds of messed up. On our first mission, we found a school where most of the kids in town had been imprisoned and tortured to try and determine the identity/location of Bart Allen, aka Kid Flash. On this second mission, we got to explore the rest of the town, and witnessed the fascist regime that had taken control. Complete with book burnings. It was bad. And we were ALREADY tasked with tracking down an unfortunate young woman whod be captured by the Society forces in the town, so having seen the torture at the Manchester School, things were looking bad. In fact, you could argue that Manchester is almost entirely this bleak, concentration camp-esque setting with no levity to be had whatsoever.

Enter White Lightning. The first Manchester session offset some of the bleakness with the wacky return of Pinhead from Campaign 1, and the pretty fun introduction of Bagman. But this second trip through the town brought us into contact with White Lightning, who is practically the perfect in-session NPC for my character, specifically. See, I play Pepper Spray, who is an EXTREMELY rookie superheroine with chemistry-based superpowers and little in the way of combat ability. Im never big on the combat portions of our sessions, because Id much rather try to outsmart or outtalk an enemy than rely on my lacking brute strength. Furthermore, due to some issues in her past, Pepper has a feminist streak, or at the very least, she likes empowering other women.

White Lightnings whole deal is that she has this meta-human ability to manipulate men. And the party we had going into Manchester 2 consisted of myself, Minerva (Atlantean princess), and three boys: Artemis (a size-shifting dog), Brennus (a gay prince), and Spirit (an asexual doctor). Regardless of species differences, or the fact that Brennus and Spirit have no sexual attraction to women whatsoever, all three male party members wound up under White Lightnings spell (to an extent). So for me, it was kinda fun to be like one of the only sober people at a party, completely unaffected by White Lightning and helping to take her down. I should also point out that she was a fun enemy to interact with as well, because she spoke to the boys in this Betty Boop baby talk-style affect, which just gave a distinctive voice to her character.

Admittedly, the White Lightning sequence didnt go perfectly. The party was very spread out in terms of how we wanted to play the session, and we ended up knocking out unconscious twice, before I finally spoke with her and paid her off to develop an ally in the city. Thats kind of my characters thing: she believes in making in-roads with malleable Society member instead of just killing them outright. And White Lightning has a very interesting power, if we want to dethrone the NAZI ALLEGORIES THAT ARE CURRENTLY RUNNING MANCHESTER. Eventually, were going to head back to the town, and I think (or at least hope) that she will be a valuable ally to us moving forward.

Now, the other reason I rank White Lightning here, beyond just using her as the best of the best one-shot characters in the campaign thus far, is that I like Manchester. I feel like Im the only player in the entire campaign that has enjoyed it in either of the two sessions weve had there. Those sessions werent perfect, but I found them extremely fun, and Ill go to the mat to defend Manchester 1 and Manchester 2. Im probably the only person in the campaign that would even consider ranking a character from Manchester in their top 52 (and there are a couple other good ones that just didnt make my list), so yeah, Im going to give Manchester some love by highlighting my favorite character from the town.

Hint for #51: An ethnic minority.

Roba, I'm gonna tell you this, because while we disagree on YRP, you know my opinions are good when it comes to FF13.

FF5, whether you like the game overall or not...Faris and Galuf are awesome characters.

And to be fair to the rest of your "never played" list, so is Tifa.

Bleh. I'm sorry, Bubu. There was nothing I could do at the end there. I could've sworn I saw a Plasma trade open, but by the time I went to double-check, it was down to Emet/Alphi.

7:23:46

Sephiroth

Evillordexdeath posted...

Sephiroth

Autotrade Seph

For Faris please.

greengravy294 posted...

Auto dad

For Faris please.

Alphinaud

(3) Toy Story

(6) Kiki's Delivery Service