#but for now i mostly just use the gate concept to play around with crossover stuff. it all comes full circle...

[thiefking]

☝️🤓 she's a parasitic alien species who can eat anything. the life cycle of their species is to send an egg to a planet, hatch and immediately eat their egg and then any living creature nearby to use it as basically a skinsuit, then continue eating various creatures until they determine the planet's dominant species, at which point they eat an infant/juvenile member and replace them entirely in their family (you know like parasitic birds who lay their eggs in other birds' nests) to be raised as a member of that species and allow it to go undetected as an alien since it's been raised with all the social cues and body language it needs to blend in. the true body of this parasite grows as they eat but they can make themselves into a dense, hypercompact egg-shaped thing and they spend most of their time as a juvenile in this form. they can eat without unfurling too, but it's hard to fight, so the only time you ever see them unfurled is either when they're freshly hatched or when they're in full on attack mode. they are also seemingly completely indestructible when they are compact and STILL extremely hard to kill when they unfurl their bodies since their primary diet is eating rocks, minerals, and metals, and they can reconstitute them to reinforce their shell*. they will eat more and more and more as time goes on and their true body will get bigger and bigger and bigger and eventually when they're big enough they know no one can stop them, they unfurl semipermanently and start eating their very host planet. when they're done and now the size of an entire PLANET, they fly off into space to go find a mate and the cycle begins anew

i wrote too mjch the rest goes under the readmore.

* some theorize that the "shell" is an exoskeleton, and others argue that this is just their skinsuit thing again and it's more like a suit of armor that could theoretically be taken off. there's evidence supporting both viewpoints. since no one knows for sure, they just play it safe and call it a shell— and either way it's still 100% certain that they produce it themselves. it's still unknown what their shells are actually made of, but it's likely that it at least somewhat depends on their diet. they eat their own egg because the eggs have nearly the same strength as their parents' shells and allow for immediate protection. if you manage to find a hatchling perhaps you'd be able to simply stomp on it and kill it...

they are HIGHLY dangerous and because they're also extremely rare, there's very little research on them. no weapon has been seen to penetrate its shell, they're highly heat-resistant, they're seemingly borderline magic-immune (with the one caveat being they are only any good at DEFENSIVE magic, if they even learn magic at all)... it's hypothesized the only way to kill one is by having another member of the species eat it, but that might just make an even bigger problem... they haven't tried everything but there's only so much they CAN try with a species so rare and volatile. so um, generally the protocol if you discover one is to immediately launch it into space. which also doesn't kill it, it just makes it harder for it to get anywhere because they only develop the necessary appendages for space travel when they're planet-eating big. preferably you find them when they're still tiny and weak, because if they are then you have time to experiment and see if you can kill it before you call it a loss and launch that thing into and then out of orbit, but if they're big enough to be a danger to you then you just launch em

the one good thing is that their species prioritizes a BIG planet over a SMART planet, and their intelligence depends heavily on what kinds of brains they've eaten and how they're raised. they're highly adaptable, but only to the point they need to be and no further. if they land on a totally lifeless planet, they just start eating it and don't even bother with a disguise. their species values Bigness more than Intelligence and the parents try and get their eggs to land on big planets to make sure their offspring is gonna be popular. this is a point in favor of the "suit of armor" theory, because if they're perfectly happy on unpopulated planets, that suggests that its imitation/skinsuit behaviour is just the parasite using its armor ability in a different way with a different material. however, they've also been observed seemingly partaking in a molt— this was exactly once, ever, and it's possible that it was simply eating another member of its species that happened to land on the same planet, but it was indeed observed to be hiding away in a cave eating a piece of parasite shell. this is a big point in favour of the exoskeleton theory, as is the insectoid appearance of... Some... of the parasite's body, but "suit of armor" theorists argue that it could just be hermit crab-like behaviour of moving into a bigger shell and eating the old pieces to recycle them into its new shell

the problem is mia did not end up on jupiter like she was supposed to. mia's egg missed it and landed on earth. and now she has human intelligence. and then she got found out by The Magic Government.

this is kind of an ethical conundrum for them because launching the planet-eating worm into space when it is Literally dumb as rocks is a pretty sensible solution when you don't know how to kill it. but THIS one has human intelligence. and it is also rather big already. and it seems like a rather important magician has already taken a liking to it...

a lot of them still thought killing it would be best, but others brought up that its unusually high intelligence means that first of all it would fight back. and secondly it can probably be reasoned with. and it would make a FANTASTIC weapon and tool, and also our much more common problem is the gates, you know, those holes in the universe that are invisible to most regular people that when touched will transport that person to a completely different place in spacetime and are responsible for loads of unexplained disappearances and are an incredible nuisance? and presumably because their entire life goal is blending in and eating a planet, these parasites can smell gates and tend to Instinctually Eat Them because they're a rare edible form of raw magic which these things don't tend to naturally produce?

and so she is offered a deal. they won't launch her into space or try to kill her IF she lets them put a leash on her to use her as a gate-sniffing dog and/or living weapon. she begrudgingly accepts

the main way she is nerfed is by her own storyline: it's all about magic and she can barely use it. she has crazy hp, atk, def, and sp. def, but her sp. atk is like nonexistent. best she can do is status moves. magic resistance kinda goes two ways. also, while she can eat gates, she can't eat or digest any non-solid magic, which is... almost all of it. it would be like trying to "eat" electricity. so a magic shield offers complete resistance against a long distance stomach acid spray attack. she COULD just swallow them whole and wait for them to get too tired to maintain their shield and they'll get disgested as soon as it breaks, but if they can teleport, which is an exceedingly simple spell... it's a nonstarter. plus, eating them alive would give them a chance to see her insides and potentially discover a weakness to exploit if they have enough magic left they're willing to risk staying in there a little longer to explore. not worth it. her job involves eating gates so she actually has (comparative to other members of her species) loads of magic so she IS capable of using it & she's pretty damn good with making shields of her own, but in fights against magic users (in other words basically all fights) she's relegated to a defensive role and she kinda hates it & often feels more than a little useless

If your OC is considered over-powered for your setting, what is it that sets them apart from the rest? How do they use it to their advantage? How does it impact them?

[aion-rsa]

What’s Happening With Marvel’s X-Men?

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This article contains spoilers for recent Marvel X-Men stories.

A long time ago, back at the beginning of the interminable, endless month of March that the pandemic has trapped us in, Marvel’s X-Men books were barrelling towards their first big post-Dawn of X crossover, X of Swords. And then the world stopped, and plans changed for the X-Men while everything was paused.

Now that we’re back, plans have changed, and books are coming fast and furious. So what’s going on with Marvel’s Merry Mutants? Which book did Storm get sick in? What book should you read for a good Laksa recipe? New Mutants, but we can answer all your other questions on what’s going on with the X-Men below. 

While we won’t rehash the entire thing, House of X/Powers of X reset the entire X-Men line. Mutants can’t die anymore (or rather, if they do, they’re resurrected from clone bodies and emergency backup minds by The Five and Professor X). The X-Men, and all mutants alive, are now living on Krakoa, a living, mutant island in the Pacific that, at some point in the distant past, broke in half, sending one part of it to a dangerous, monster-infested realm with Apocalypse’s first Horsemen standing guard making sure it didn’t return. 

Humans are back to hating and fearing mutants on a wide scale, but this time it’s mostly because the mutants are vehemently anti-capitalism, flooding markets with cheap, life-extending and health-improving drugs and vowing to take down the human world with economic weapons of their own making. This has the humans initiating some pretty intense Sentinel programs, particularly around the sun, where Nimrod – the adaptive Sentinel whose existence dooms mutantkind in one Powers of X future – was very nearly created. 

And amidst all of that, Moira MacTaggert, the secret mutant mastermind with the power of Groundhog Lifeing (when she dies, her consciousness is immediately transported back to her prenatal self to be born again with all her old memories. She’s on life ten now, btw), is frantically trying to manipulate events so that mutants continue to exist in the long run as the next phase in human evolution, averting a future where man-machine hybrids (like Omega Sentinels and the Children of the Vault) develop while humans and mutants are busy fighting among themselves. She’s also not allowing Charles and Magneto to revive any mutants with precognitive powers, expecting them to see her plan and ruin Krakoan civilization.

X-Men

X-Men, by mastermind Jonathan Hickman with art mostly from Leinil Yu, is where big ideas are being seeded for later use.

This is where the story of Krakoa and its estranged, otherdimensional partner Arakko was further developed (following its introduction in Powers of X and setting up X of Swords, the first mutant crossover of the Dawn of X era). X-Men introduced Hordeculture (think the Golden Girls if they were also ecoterrorist botanists); reintroduced the Children of the Vault; showed how depowered mutants get in line to get their powers back; and saw Magneto and Apocalypse threaten humankind with the most terrible weapon of all: finance capitalism.

New Mutants

It also, just prior to the break, X-Men had a spiritual crossover with New Mutants, initially a split book by Hickman and Rod Reis on the space issues, and Ed Brisson, Flaviano, and Marco Failla on the Earth issues. Brisson, Flaviano and Failla’s story follows a group of Earthbound mutant kids (including Glob Herman and Boom Boom) as they track down stragglers to Krakoa, like Beak and Angel.

Hickman and Reis took the original New Mutants plus Chamber and Mondo into space to go pick up Cannonball (who was living on Chandi’lar with his wife, Smasher). On the way there, they stole a King Egg from the Starjammers and brought it back to Earth, where it turns out, we discover in X-Men, the King Egg is a bioweapon created by the Kree to control the Brood for an eventual war with the Shi’ar. Broo, the supersmart mutant Broodling from Wolverine and the X-Men, eats the egg and becomes the Brood King.

Excalibur

Excalibur is the shining star of the line so far. Tini Howard and Marcus To are growing the mythos of mutant magic with a very odd team that includes Betsy Braddock (now back in her original body and the new Captain Britain); Rogue and Gambit; Jubilee and her mysteriously dragonified son Shogo; new earth mage Rictor; and Apocalypse, who is clearly up to some stuff. Apocalypse picks a fight with Otherworld and places a newly resurrected but still batshit Jamie Braddock on the throne of the magical realm.

Excalibur was one of the first books to return from hiatus, and it came back with maybe the best single issue of the entire relaunch in issue #10. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Marauders

Marauders launched as the story about the Hellfire Trading Company, the corporate arm of Krakoa that distributes the miracle drugs around the world while also smuggling mutants in trouble home to Krakoa. But Gerry Duggan and Matteo Lolli’s book quickly turned into the mystery of Kitty Pryde – why she’s not able to use the Krakoan gates that allow instantaneous travel around the galaxy, and whether she can be resurrected by The Five. That story has just about come to a head, but it is worth noting that it still contains a great deal of Hellfire Trading Company intrigue between Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw, and a lot of drunken pirate antics. The resurrected original Pyro does get a tattoo of the Marauders skull on his face at one point. It’s fun.

X-Force

X-Force, by Ben Percy and Joshua Cassara, immediately killed Professor X. He was resurrected, of course, but it served as both a notice that everyone is fair game, and alongside Marauders, keeps some slight mystery to character death alive post-The Five’s perpetual resurrection machine. It’s also the story of the Krakoan CIA, so it sets up the global threats facing the mutant nation, and then sends Wolverine to get cut in half fighting them. Also, Forge creates a bio-mech loader suit and smashes the two halves of Logan back together at one point. If that’s something you find yourself chuckling at, this book is going to exceed expectations.

Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels focused mostly on resetting the current Psylocke’s status quo. Kwannon was brought back to life and placed in her old body shortly before the reboot (very quickly: Spiral switched Psylocke and Kwannon’s bodies, then before they could be reverted, Kwannon got the Legacy Virus and died, then when Betsy used a villain’s powers to recreate her old body and reinhabit it, Kwannon…uh…got better…). Here, she teamed with X-23 and Cable, with ops backup from Mister Sinister, to track down Apoth, a technological being selling cybernetic drugs to humans.

It’s mostly setup for Psylocke, X-23 (now Wolverine again, I think), and Sinister while adding another technological foe to the mix. It leads almost directly into Zeb Wells and Steven Segovia’s Hellions, a book about Sinister’s team of mutants who are all gleefully, unrepentantly screwed up and are currently on a mission cleaning up some old clones Sinister left lying around.

Cable, Wolverine, and More…

Cable, Wolverine and the Giant Size issues, are still mostly seeding future storylines. Cable, from Duggan and Phil Noto, has only had a couple of issues so far, but it’s brought the Galadorians (the Spaceknights minus ROM, who belongs to IDW now, I think) into mutant orbit and given Nathan a sword for the crossover.

Wolverine, by Percy, Adam Kubert and Victor Bogdanove, has Logan tracking down illicit Krakoan flower dealers, and also Omega Red works for Dracula now. And the Giant Size issues are mysteries piled on mysteries piled on incredible art. Hickman has scripted all three, and so far, Storm caught a technovirus from the Children of the Vault in the Jean Grey/Emma Frost issue (drawn by Russell Dauterman); we find out what’s up with Cypher’s techno-organic arm in the Nightcrawler issue (from Alan Davis); Magneto buys Emma an island from Namor with art from Ramon Perez; and we get actual backstory and incredible Rod Reis art in the Fantomex issue. 

Empyre

The recently wrapped Empyre: X-Men’s opening scene is simultaneously one of the most important to the metanarrative of mutant struggle that’s been developing since the Professor’s “No More” scene in House of X #4 AND the best setup/punchline in any Dawn of X comic. It also starts to deliver on some of the rumored-but-never-announced X-Men ideas that were floated early after the reboot – Angel and M are two of the leads, playing out a little of the boardroom drama we hoped for after an X-Corporation book was rumored.

X-Factor

X-Factor, from Leah Williams and David Baldeon, more or less just launched. It’s about the team investigating and verifying mutant deaths, to put those lives into the queue for resurrection. This feels like the book set up to deliver on the weirdest promises of the relaunch, and the creative team are inventive, fun storytellers, so keep an eye on this. Williams has a very sharp ear for patter and knows her characters well – while it’s not an X-book, Amazing Mary Jane is a stunning accomplishment of delightful character work. Early X-Factor is more of the same, with more mutant high concept.

And all this is leading to X of Swords, the new X-writers room’s attempt to outdo X-Cutioner’s Song: a 22-part Tini Howard-led crossover where everyone swordfights over half of Krakoa. And still dangling in the ether, unannounced but long discussed, are Vita Ayala and Bernard Chang’s Children of the Atom, following a group of mutant teenagers who idolize the X-Men, and a Moira X book that’s expected to fill in some of the gaps in Moira’s many, many timelines. 

The post What’s Happening With Marvel’s X-Men? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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