Marvel Rebirth: Discussion

[Makuta of Time]

@Flaredrick; You need to expand the profile. I'm not going to be a stickler on word limits, but that's simply too little for me to work with. In addition, you need to expand on his weakness a bit, so I can determine if it is adequate.

That's what I figured. I'll try to fix it by today or Friday. Plus it was the XMDD profile, so...yeah. I'll fix it.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Punished Snake

[Let's Henshin!]

Name: Dustin Snyder

 

Codename: N/A: Currently Searching

 

Gender: Male

 

Age: 16

 

Loyalties/Faction: Joining X-Institute

 

Power(S):

 

Dusting: Dustin has a unique power that he has named dusting. The name comes both from the power's properties and his name. As its name implies the power relates to dust. However the manifestation of such comes in two primary ways.

 

Teleportation: The first, and most used, method is a sort of pseudo-teleportation. To the unobservant eye it looks like Dustin is just teleporting from place to place. However if one looks a little closer they’ll see that Dustin’s body is actual disassembling itself into millions of tiny dust-like particles. These particles then travel at high speeds to another location before reassembling. The speed itself varies, however it tends to come in line of sight bursts. Changing direction will slow him down. For example heading down a straight 400 feet hallway may only take a second, but heading down a curved 100 feet area would take much longer and probably be tackled via bursts. Longer distances also slow down his speed, hence their wouldn’t be much gain between running 1000 feet and teleporting the distance.

 

While in his “dust” form Dustin can slip through small gaps for his movement, such as under a door frame, but sealed areas will contain him. In addition while it is nigh impossible to directly destroy his particles, things like a massive laser could still harm him, and would result in an incomplete reassembling. Fire is another major weakness in that it will agitate the dust particles and force them back into his default state for a period of time proportional to time exposed in the flame.

 

Converting: The other application of his power is the ability for Dustin to convert other objects into his own “dust.” This requires physical contact with the object and takes time proportional to the size of the object. Hence something like a small pistol may take only a second or so but a car would take much longer. In addition this change isn’t permanent and doesn’t work on organic objects. The time till the reverting is proportional to two things. The first is how spread out the “dust” of the object is, the more spread out the particles the longer the reassembling. The second is the size, larger objects revert much faster than smaller ones. Hence a car may take 30 seconds to dust but would only take 5 to reassemble. However the 1 second pistols might reassemble after a minute. Anything caught inside during the reassembling process is forced out to prevent any interference, the same applies to Dustin’s own form. All of the properties of Dustin’s “dust” form apply to his conversions.

 

Dustin’s power does rely on his own energy levels, longer distances and faster teleportation both take up more energy, which would tire him out much faster. In addition every conversion takes up energy with larger objects taking more energy than smaller objects. Without refueling via either food or sleep, Dustin is unable to convert more than a handful of objects before collapsing.

 

Appearance: Dustin stands relatively tall for his age, with tanned skin on a lean and relatively strong body. He’s built like a runner with long, strong legs and a tanned, strong body. His eyes are a dark brown color and he has dusty brown hair. For that matter his hair and face always seem to be covered in dust. His face is remarkably youthful with only the first signs of facial hair coming through.

 

In terms of clothing his casual wear consists of simple Jeans and a t-shirt of some sort. He tends to wear light jackets but there’s not remarkably interesting about his casual wear. In terms of his costume when vigilante-ing Dustin has modified a motocross outfit:

 

The outfit consists of a brown and tan motocross jacket over a black turtle shirt, black motocross pants and brown boots. To round things off Dustin has a sleek black motocross helmet and brown –tinted sunglasses.

 

Weapons: N/A: Dustin prefers to avoid weapons, finding them vulgar and pointless especially since he can just nullify most weapons.

 

Skills: To say that Dustin is quick would be an understatement. Since the day he was born, even before his power’s manifested, Dustin had always been fast. He ran faster than everyone else he knew and it was only on his feet that he was fast but he also had fast wits and a habit of rushing through work. However there are always limits to what the average human can do and hence it came as a great joy to Dustin when he discovered his powers let him go even faster.

 

In addition to his speed Dustin tends to be a gifted, if fast, speaker and is rather quick to catch on to academic topics, not that he bothers to expand that knowledge. He also has a little bit of basic combat expertise from getting into a few fights as a child. He also is a rather fast driver and proficient and motocross.

 

Personality: Dustin comes off as a little cocky and even a little childish. His focus in life tends to be on enjoying himself and having fun, somehow avoiding the crushing realities of the world he lives in. He tends to get bored rather easily which is why he’s constantly seeking out new sources of entertainment and excitement often strong arming everyone around him into joining.

 

Dustin also tends to quickly drop new things and ideas regardless of how easily he may have picked up the idea. Hence most theoretical books and academic work bore him to the point that he spends next to no time on them. On the outside Dustin does tend to appear very extraverted but if one pays attention they’ll see that Dustin rarely talks about himself, this is primarily because he cares less about himself and more about enjoying himself. He’s very much a hands-on sort of person.

 

Dustin also is a strong believer of ideals like Justice and Morality. He is very much someone who believes in helping the wronged even if he doesn’t always get along with the law. He has a disdain for those who look down on others, humans or mutants, and is fiercely loyal to those he deems deserving. Once Dustin sets a goal it’s nigh impossible to get him to back down from it.

 

Weakness: Dustin’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. He loves going fast to the point that he never stops to slow down and think. In addition he will rarely spend the time necessary to truly learn and understand something feeling that he just gets bored by doing so. Hence while he has potential he never bothers to maximize it.

 

He also has limited combat skills and his powers come with many drawbacks. His need for speed will drive him to many irrational decisions, often throwing him into situations way over his head that require someone to bail him out. He’s also extremely stubborn.

 

Bio: Dustin has had a rather generic life. In fact his life has always been rather open and shut in appearance. He grew up in the standard city household, his families neither rich but not poor either. They were well enough to get by comfortably and that was all that was needed. At school he has always been the smart but unmotivated kid. He was more than smart enough to grasp onto nearly any concept he tried to apply himself to but he found everything too boring to ever apply himself beyond what was necessary.

 

That behind said Dustin was not a genius his just what would be called a gifted child, but in the world he lived in that hardly mattered. Dustin was always someone seeking thrills, always trying to find something to excite him and that led to his obsession with going fast. He started running constantly and took up learning motocross as well. When he entered High school he joined the Cross Country team and quickly rose to become their fastest runner. However it wasn’t long before he began feeling bored, inadequate again, for in the world he lived his speed was nothing. Running did not take him nearly far enough.

 

That was when Dustin’s powers manifested and he soon found he could faster than ever before. He began experimenting with his powers, soon discovering the other applications of them, namely converting. Amazed and delighted by his new powers, Dustin began paying even less attention to school and was frequently missing from classes while he was out and about the town.

 

Dustin soon started following in the footsteps of many of the heroes he’d read up on in the past, becoming a costumed vigilante and stopping any crimes he noticed. He spent the time to design a costume inspired by the heroes of old and often ended up butting heads with cops going about their jobs.

 

However while Dustin does believe in helping the downtrodden deep down his true reason for being a costumed hero was merely for the thrills it gave him. Dustin has a blast helping people and thwarting crimes, the heat of the moment is unlike anything he’s experienced before. He enjoys it so much that there have been times when he’s stolen some money from someone he’s seen wrong someone else. Dustin always got rid of the money but he always loved the thrill that came with the theft.

 

However after one particularly nasty incident Dustin came home bruised and burned after meeting his match with a pyro kinetic mutant. When Dustin finally escaped and made it home it was revealed to his parents that he was in fact a Mutant.

 

Not wanting to draw attention to themselves or ruin the life of Dustin’s younger sister, his parents quickly hushed things up and sent Dustin to New York City. His school has merely been informed that he’s transferring because he was accepted into an elite boarding school, however the truth is that Dustin was sent with instructions to head to X-Mansion and enroll. The main reason he wasn’t directly enrolled was to avoid information leaking Dustin’s status as a mutant linking back to his family.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Commander Viral

[Krayzikk]

Dustin, despite the horrific pun, approved +1.

[Snelly]

Dustin approved

[Mr. House]

Hmm, I realize I didn't establish the city Vince's show is filmed at..

[Snelly]

Hmm, I realize I didn't establish the city Vince's show is filmed at..

Probably not New York, unless he just completely missed the giant robot attacking =P

[AuRon the champion]

Fixed it for you nick.

[Mr. House]

I'll make it Atlanta. And make GTN be headquarted there.

Edited December 20, 2013 by Mr. House

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

So, ran some numbers on the damage to cities in the Sleeper attack. I have the damage percentage by area for the cities I've been focusing on - haven't looked closely at some of the other ones, so it's a bit hard to tell, for example, how bad the damage to Sydney was.

 

0.74% of Manhattan - 0.053% of New York City (0.25 sq mi) - Estimate of 17,630 dead

0.04% of London (0.25 sq mi) - Estimate of 3,420 dead

2.86% of Blackpool (1 sq km) - Estimate of 4,000 dead

19.47% of Cardiff (0.5 sq mi) - Estimate of 3,200 dead

 

Cardiff kind of drew the short straw, in terms of the relative size of the chunk of the city that's gone, but Manhattan definitely had just about the highest casualty rate, though if the one in Tokyo hit an urban area, that could come close to the destruction in Manhattan.

 

So. Kind of puts the disaster in perspective.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Hm. Considering what happened when the USA was hit like this in RL....and applying that to a couple dozen nations.

 

The only realistic response, like Ymper said, is near-total war against HYDRA. I don't think Red Skull realizes what a huge mistake this was.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Basilisk

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

It's hard to say whether he realises, considering that Red Skull is an actual pants-on-head crazy person.

[Constructelf]

Wait, were these damage areas specified in game? I remember seeing a quarter of a square mile gone in New York, but I don't recall reading anything about what happened across the pond. Also, how'd you calculate all this?

 

And where are all the government organizations in this? So far, only the Roman Legion has responded. I tried to get an investigation team up and running, but apparently SHIELD NPCs are staff jurisdiction.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Man of Miracles

[AuRon the champion]

A million is only a statistic.

[Havelock Vetinari]

A rather important statistic for someone wanting to ride the outrage of the population into some very important offices.

 

See, the sorta thinking doesn't really work with our current mass media, who just love running stories about people killed in this sort of attack. Constantly. For months.

[Constructelf]

A million is only a statistic.

Emotionally, yes. Logistically, it is a disaster.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Yeah. Says alot when the only ones to respond in a quick manner is a shadowy militaristic legion and a wealthy, near heartless, fellow.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Basilisk

[AuRon the champion]

It's totally not as if there were three mutants, a robot, a mutant-hating archer, and some other people there.

 

No not at all.

[Constructelf]

... We were talking about military relief, yo?

[Havelock Vetinari]

That isn't the point and you know it.

 

The government, the military, all of this is kinda their domain. Their jobs. The search and rescue part, the "defending the nation" part but there has been zero government response. Well, zero effective response.

 

Believe it or not, the important stuff isn't over after the hurricane passes, or in this case, when the mech blows up.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Basilisk

[otter]

Waaait. The Roman Legion responded? Those Gauls better look out.

 

#ConquerIberia

 

#VeniVidiVici

 

#DictatorCaesar2013

[AuRon the champion]

Realistically, it's only been a few minutes/hours since said robot went kablewie. Not a lot of time for armies and stuff to mobilize. Especially not enough time for the US congress to respond. Alex has been preoccupied, so he hasn't gotten the chance to make a JJJ post about it yet.

 

It doesn't help that I've now evoked BZPtime, and for some people it's a day later. What's happened almost twentyfour hours later hasn't been described yet.

[Constructelf]

Well, in this RPG, the staff control the government and the miilitary, and they haven't posted as them yet for some reason... Is this just BZPRPG time or are they actually planning on not intervening?

[Havelock Vetinari]

Realistically, it's only been a few minutes/hours since said robot went kablewie. Not a lot of time for armies and stuff to mobilize. Especially not enough time for the US congress to respond. Alex has been preoccupied, so he hasn't gotten the chance to make a JJJ post about it yet.

 

 

.....You realize, relief arriving a "few hours" after a massive disaster is kinda horrible and is the sort of thing that ruins political reputations forever? Getting aid to areas effected by disasters is kinda very very important. The kind of thing alot of money gets spent on.

 

The kind of the thing the national guard is there for.

 

Empty excuses.

[AuRon the champion]

Have you lot ever simply considered that the admins are busy at times (which they are currently), especially with a holiday the next day?

 

yeesh.

[otter]

Peeeeeeeeerhaps we let staff post the necessary things when they can that will dispel the argument here?

 

That seems like a wonderful idea.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Considering the city has been burning for quite a few RL days before this, the staff has had plenty of time to post a government response.

 

Also:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMA

 

Entire government agency dedicated to this sort of thing. What with the rash of attacks on NYC, there should be plenty of response infastructure in place.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Basilisk

[AuRon the champion]

Alex has been busy with life, Tyler's busy with BZPRPG and life, Nathan's the one who started this, and Nick has been busy with life.

 

Long story short, the admins are busy, and will post when they can.

 

kthxbai.

[Advent Child]

While I agree that the staff is likely busy and such, and so may not have had time to post government reactions, it does stand to reason that since they are busy, details like this may be overlooked in favor of advancing larger plot details, so it does, or rather can help to bring details such as government aid to the forefront in a forum for discussion such as this one.

 

May help to make sure those argument dispelling posts actually get made rather than glossed over when free time is actually had.

Edited December 24, 2013 by .:Advent Aeternale:.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Your excuses wear thin. There are quite a few staff members, plenty of players they could contract out too, not to mention the staff members seem to have had time to post as their characters, so frankly, it seems like this was simple IC incompetence.

[otter]

Mate, I don't know about you, but the staff here, like myself, don't have particularly much time on their hands. Wait till after Christmas before you start complaining about how they've had "more than enough time to respond." They're trying to get their personal characters out of the way now so that can have time to actually write something good with all those NPC's.

[Havelock Vetinari]

The Sleeper blew up on the 16th, it is currently the 24th.

 

They could have easily slipped a mention of it into those posts. I'd thought this lack of response was intentional....but, you seem to be indicating it is not.

[Advent Child]

I agree that this holiday means it makes sense for staff not being around to handle things as far as NPC progression, but this isn't only a holiday related problem.

 

While it's totally understandable, the showrunners have very little time on their hands in general due to real life, which would imply that either posting should slow down so as to not create a backlog that makes it seem like everything and it's mother are happening with no actual plot progression or There should be a change in priorities and/or some reaching out for help to make things keep running all smooth-like.

 

If there are 4 staff members, and none of them have time, even aside from the holidays, somethings gotta change.

[AuRon the champion]

The Sleeper blew up on the 16th, it is currently the 24th.

 

They could have easily slipped a mention of it into those posts. I'd thought this lack of response was intentional....but, you seem to be indicating it is not.

It's not as if the game is moving in real time. Besides, for me that hasn't been a very long amount of time. That's not even ten days.

[Havelock Vetinari]

Ten days? It takes barely a minute to write "Oh, and the government is responding according to the radio/news channel/etc".

 

I do hope this is intentional. If it is not....well, I must agree with Advent.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Basilisk

[AuRon the champion]

I don't think you guys realize that it's just a game, and not the greatest priority in life. This is just something fun we do in our spare time. They'll get around to doing those posts when they feel like it.

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Not much to contribute on the debate regarding the state of the response, except that different players are moving on rather different time scales - for some characters, it's been less than fifteen minutes after the explosion, while others have seen up to an hour pass. Generally speaking, the characters in this game are not all synchronised, which makes coordination and understanding of what's going on a bit difficult.

 

Now, for how I figured up the numbers - the dense structures in Manhattan and London would have stopped or slowed the blast wave, reducing the area affected - this sets 0.25 sq mi as the minimum blast radius. For Blackpool and Cardiff, I increased the blast radius by a somewhat arbitrary amount. Death tolls were based on area affected and population density figures.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Ymper Trymon

[Havelock Vetinari]

I don't think you guys realize that it's just a game, and not the greatest priority in life. This is just something fun we do in our spare time. They'll get around to doing those posts when they feel like it.

 

.....Wow. Implying I see this game as the greatest priority in life instead of you know, college, my job......

 

Yeah, uh, there is a difference between saying "Really it'd only take a minute to make a one-off sentence establishing the government isn't blindingly incompetent" and "I DEMAND you spend every waking moment on this game!"

Edited December 24, 2013 by Basilisk

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

Now, folks, let's keep the vitriol and/or condescension to a minimum.

[otter]

Would you rather a half-arsed post that said almost nothing, or something well written and descriptive so that you actually know what's happening, Basil?

 

As for how long it's taken to respond - remember that three of the staff were high schoolers who have been rather flooded with homework and finals, and that the other one is an adult who has to support himself. After Christmas, things should open up for them and you'll get the posts you want. As it stands they simply don't have the time right now, and it's rather disappointing to see that almost completely ignored as a possibility prior to its being mentioned, and then dismissed as an excuse.

[Advent Child]

I don't think you guys realize that it's just a game, and not the greatest priority in life. This is just something fun we do in our spare time. They'll get around to doing those posts when they feel like it.

 

I think you're missing the point. It is totally understood that people have lives outside of this game. As it is, in fact, a game. But that doesn't change the fact that they are responsible for running a successful source of amusement. It wouldn't hurt them too much to dedicate a couple of minutes to dropping an NPC line now and again, and if they truly don't have time to do that, then they can recruit others to handle small scale things while they can't manage to do so.

 

It's not even a particularly mighty grievance. But it is a valid one.