#mbav starxd

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Final AU Post before Rory week rolls 'round! Here's the squad, all shaded and textured.

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A new generation of superheroes must learn to work together as a team to overcome myriad threats... whilst trying to complete their homework.

This is the master post for Starcrossed, my new MBAV Superhero AU. Whilst I'm working on making content, this post will stay pinned— think of it as both a preview catalogue and a directory for AU entries. As new posts are made, new links will be created in this post, allowing you to easily flick through AU content without browsing through my tags.

⛦ THE WORLD:

Overview

Whitechapel

Starcrossed

Mythos

⛦ THE CHARACTERS:

Ethan

Sarah

Benny

Rory

Erica

⛦ OTHER:

Cover Art

Please do ask questions/engage with this post if you're interested, and be sure to check back for new updates. You voted and I listened, so posts start ASAP! Who/what would you like to hear about first?

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When Sarah fought her cultist kidnappers, she was simultaneously able to escape with her life and prevent the resurrection of legendary supervillain Reverend Black... but not without a cost. Now, forever tied to the sanguine forces to which she was almost sacrificed, Sarah attempts to use her curse for good, fighting crime as THE SCARLET SHADOW alongside the rest of her team.

When designing The Scarlet Shadow, I took a lot of inspiration from Sarah's looks in the show— she really rocks those scarves! The main body of the suit, with its side buttoning, is designed to reflect the more 'official'/'military' looks of many classic heroes, as I wanted Sarah to be the emotional leader/core of the team. As for the 'edgier' aspects of the look— I wanted her to be 'marked' by her powers, much like in the show.

Sarah's powers stem from her connection to the demonic forces that she fought against in her origin story. She is able to drain the life force of any creature by touch, and coming into contact with her nullifies any powers 'in the blood' (non-magical abilities). Additionally, she is able to shift her physical form into an incorporeal red mist. When in this state, she is virtually invulnerable to physical damage, and able to phase through both people and objects. She can even influence people enveloped by her red mist, convincing them to proceed with a certain course of action or rendering them blind to their own senses. In battle, she utilises her immaterial red ribbons as tendrils to ensnare enemies, immobilising them.

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A normal life was never on the cards for the mortal son of creation goddess Gaia. Even as the goddess's High Earthen Priestess sought to give young Benny an ordinary childhood, he'd often find himself at the centre of bizarre, unexplained events. It wasn't until he was older, however, that he came to know why. Eager to embrace his powers (and impress his 'grandma'), he took to fighting crime, adopting the name Spellmaster.

The starting point for Spellmaster's design was Benny's stage outfit in Siren Song— I immediately knew I had to give him a cape & a headband. The armoured look was then a consequence of the decision to make him an 'ancient gods & magic stuff' hero. Why the armour is worn with shorts & no sleeves, however, is only partially to evoke this; I also wanted to subvert the traditional 'gendering' of superhero costume motifs. And we all know Benny's happy to rock a skirt.

As the son of Mother Earth herself, Benny is innately in-tune with the forces of nature, giving him the ability to conjure and manipulate the elements at will. Naturally, his favourite force to utilise is lightning— whether it's hurling bolts at enemies, throwing a punch with shocking force, or just punctuating his annoyance with dark clouds and rolling thunder. Still, his arguably greater power is the one which he's named for— the ability to wield the magic of creation itself through arcane spells— a power with near-limitless potential... If only he could master it.

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As the happy-go-lucky son of the world's leading genetic and biomechanical engineers, Rory Keaner's charmed childhood came to an abrupt end when he was taken hostage and held to ransom by a sinister villain with a score to settle. Rushing into action, The Guild of Heroes were able to rescue young Rory... but not before irreparable damage had been dealt. Desperate to save their teenage son, Rory's parents used an experimental serum— saving his life, and granting him the strange new abilities he now uses to fight crime as Kid Chimera.

Kid Chimera's design is unsubtle in its silver-age inspiration— the thought behind this is twofold. In part, it's an attempt to show the shameless, unapologetic element of 'fun' to Rory's character; I wanted super-Rory to look unabashedly super-hero-y. The other line of logic was practical— a shapeshifter requires a lightweight, hyper-flexible supersuit. It's for this reason that the Kid Chimera suit has its glider wings in lieu of the more traditional cape. I wanted to create a suit where characters could potentially mock or question Rory for the choice, only to get put in their place by a really obvious practical explanation.

Kid Chimera is a shape-shifter— able to morph both the material and geometry of his own body. As his name would suggest, his preferred fighting style is to separately shift individual aspects of his body for specific functions, becoming the perfectly specialised 'chimera creature' for any given occasion.

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OVERVIEW:: In a trope-ridden world of scheming villains and caped crusaders, an aging Guild of Heroes works to train the new generation of superhumans at a highly 'specialist' school for extraordinary students. Beneath the surface of the mysterious Whitechapel Preparatory Academy, however, lies a further web of secrets— secrets that seem to be intertwined with a hidden ancient prophecy about a Starcrossed team of heroes... and which indicate that not all is as it seems within the school. Brought together by fate, five young heroes-in-training will learn to become a team in order to save the world at large, and unravel the mysteries of their own. After all, when you can't trust your heroes, who can you trust?

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Like most post-humans, Ethan Morgan had assumed he was just an ordinary guy up until his 13th birthday, when his strange powers began to manifest. As the first in his family to express any post-human characteristics, he spent months questioning whether or not his worrying dreams were a form of psychosis, until he was discovered by The Guild of Heroes and informed of his true nature as a superhuman. Fearful of the implications that this carried, Ethan made the difficult decision to lead a double-life, keeping this dangerous truth from his blissfully ignorant parents even when they celebrated his acceptance in the exclusive, yet mysterious Whitechapel Academy. Now fully aware of his abilities, a sixteen-year-old Ethan fights crime and formulates plans as the brains of Starcrossed under his new moniker: Revelation.

With Revelation, I wanted to capture a more tactical look, reflecting his reliance on the more practical aspects of hero-ing. Like in the show, Ethan's abilities don't allow him to physically strike out or defend himself in the same way that the others' do, so I wanted to give him that same self-sufficiency; he can make his own armour and weapons. With this in mind, his outfit was conceptualised as 'an X-men-style suit, but with more armour on the armoured bits.' The trench-coat/waistcoat thing was a later addition, as I felt the look was missing something, but didn't want to go with the 'edgier' option of the classic leather jacket. It's meant to be a more classic monster-hunter-esque twist on the Doug Falconhawk vests in 1.10.

Ethan's powers come from a mutation in his DNA, granting him the ability to see both through, and beyond time and space. In practice, this power often manifests itself as strange prophetic dreams, which Ethan has little control over, but he is also able to utilise it in combat, 'predicting' each move his opponents will make and providing the perfect counter-strike. Other uses of his power— seeing though illusions, looking through the eyes of others, and even seeing inside others' minds— a good for preventing combat entirely. In addition to his powers, as is often the case in comic books, Ethan possesses 'genius level intellect,' designing all of Revelation's weapons, gadgets, and armours. Strange though some of his technological creations are, his 'hunches' always mean that he's perfectly equipped for each and every mission.

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Tumbling to Earth as the sole survivor of a crashed alien vessel, young Er'yka found her home with a loving adoptive mother... but often looked to the stars, knowing she was meant for more. When her otherworldly powers began to develop, she seized the opportunity to become an ultra modern super-heroine for the new age: Atomica.

Atomica's design isn't too far removed from Erica's frequent 'leather boots and jacket' look. The sleek super suit is a design classic, along with the belt and gloves, and it keeps a familiar silhouette when it all comes together. The red and white colour scheme is a pastiche of American superheroes frequently wearing red and blue; let Erica be a symbol of hope for Canada!

Erica's powers are pretty classic— super strength and speed, flight, and near invulnerability. Her moniker, Atomica, comes from her immunity to ionizing radiation, allowing her to endure even a nuclear blast.