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raitrolling · 8 years ago

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9, 14, 25, 27, 31, 40 and 41 for Katrin!

9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions?

katrin tends to keep a lot of her emotions to herself, and doesn’t really show them outwardly. she spends a lot of time in her own head, so she’s not really focused on how she appears to others and doesn’t think people would actually want to get to know her. when she’s stressed/panicky or particularly upset she’ll start talking really quickly and repeating words/phrases and basically go into stream of consciousness mode re: verbalising her thoughts. but otherwise, she’s usually fairly quiet and hesitant with her speech, which can make it hard to tell what she’s feeling apart from ‘probably feeling down, as always’.

she can be a little cheeky and mischievous when she’s around someone she’s comfortable with and she’s in a good mood, which usually manifests in somewhat unpredictable and almost out-of-character actions.

14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

katrin loves two things: money, and daydreaming about being rich. she writes as a form of escapism, and uses her stories to create an ideal world where everything is perfect and she’s super rich and loved by everyone. because of this, she tends to create plans in this fantasy world about how her life and the world around should go, and gets upset whenever things don’t turn out as planned (nevermind the fact that her fantasies are completely unrealistic). while her motivation to write tends to waver depending on her mood, she’s still very attached to her fantasies and tends to use them as a method to pretend her real problems don’t exist.

her love for money is what turned her to a life of crime, due to her ex-moirail’s influence and the fact that she’s really bad at running legitimate businesses. she’s fairly committed to her red-eyed raccoon persona, if only because she can kind of live out her fantasies as her self-insert character who is The World’s Best Thief. however, her lack of sense and inability to consider the consequences of her actions tend to cause her to lose any money she gains incredibly quickly (usually by purchasing more alcohol or wasting it on get-rich-quick schemes), but she still keeps trying because she doesn’t know what else to do otherwise.

25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it?

katrin wants, essentially, a fairytale romance. a handsome prince (or princess) on his white horse who’ll scoop her up from her dreary life and take her to his magical castle and solve all her problems and give her all the gifts (but especially all the money) and let her do whatever she wants and she’ll never ever have to worry about anything ever again. unfortunately, that’s both A. incredibly unrealistic, and B. katrin’s own issues (a terrible combination of being horribly dependent on other people but also having a tendency to isolate herself from those she’s close to whenever she’s having problems) tend to put a strain on her relationships, especially since she makes no effort to better herself and never learns from her mistakes.

what she needs is someone who is kind, gentle, and patient with her since it takes a long time for her to feel comfortable around someone, but is also able to put their foot down and force her into recognising her faults and working towards changing her ways. they’ll need to have a high tolerance for bullshit (since kat tries to take advantage of her friendship with people to try and get free things out of them, or just outright stealing from them but expecting to not face any consequences), but if they come across as being too violent or forceful she’ll get panicky and lash out or start avoiding them entirely. she needs to start taking steps towards considering the consequences for her actions, and being a bit more emotionally available to others and healthily depending on others (i.e. being able to share her problems and talk about how she’s feeling, instead of bottling everything up and making people feel sorry for her so she can use them for money/food/gifts/etc.), but she can’t do it on her own.

27. What do they strongly like and dislike, in any category? Why?

katrin loves money because it’s something lowbloods can’t normally have a lot of. she thinks it’s unfair that highbloods get to be rich and have all these nice things while she can’t, just because she got hatched into the lowest caste. also, money can solve all of her problems: you can buy food, you can buy nice clothes, you can go to fun events where there’ll be free food and drinks, you can buy nice things to decorate your hive and make it look fancy, you can buy things that’ll make you happy, you could even buy friends if you really wanted to. she’s very greedy and materialistic, but also sees material items as showing status, and believes that people will like her more if she has cool things she can show off. she also likes comic books and superheroes (particularly Wonder Woman, Black Widow, and Rocket Raccoon) for the same reason she loves to daydream: they’re full of super strong and super cool people who always win their fights and are loved by all. her reasons for liking anything are fairly simple and childish, really.

she has a strong dislike and is terrified of firearms, due to previously having a stalker who used sniper rifles and would try to kill her because he had a blackcrush on her. she’s quite hesitant of blackrom in general because of this and relationship with her ex-kismesis, and her views on what is considered a healthy black quad are very skewed.

31. Is there anything that counts as a “dealbreaker” for them, positively or negatively? What makes things go smoothly, and what spoils an activity or ruins their day? Why?

despite constantly taking advantage of people’s kindness and cheating people out of their money/possessions, she hates it when someone does the same to her. she thinks it’s unfair and cruel that someone would do such a thing to her, but when she does it it’s fine because she actually really needs whatever she took from them. she also doesn’t like it when people tell her she can’t do something she wants to do, though rather than it being a ‘dealbreaker’, its more of a thing she’ll get pissy about and then try to do it anyway (and then wonder why she’s getting punished for it).

and for the reasons mentioned in the previous question, she won’t fuck with anyone who uses guns as their strife weapon or happens to have a gun on their person. at least, she won’t fuck with them unless she thinks she can get away with it.

40. What do they wonder about? What sparks their curiosity and imagination, and why? How is this expressed, if it is?

i’ve kinda already been answering this question through every single previous question, since her imagination is so focused on her self-insert fictional world and the fanfiction she produces as a result of it. but she usually writes in journals, then types them on her computer to upload online. while she mostly writes original fiction, she’ll sometimes swap out the names of her own ‘characters’ (read: real people she knows), to characters from whatever series happens to be popular at the time in order to create fanworks in hope they’ll get noticed and make her rich. hey, if it worked for the 50 shades woman, it should work for her, right?

41. What associations do they bring to mind? Words or phrases, images, metaphors or motifs? Why?

since katrin started out as a self-insert i started rping for shits and gigs, when she became a legitimate character she kinda developed into something that somewhat parodies her own origin. she writes her own self-insert fanfiction and lives in her own fantasy world where she’s the perfect protagonist who is amazing at everything and everyone loves her and she has the best relationships ever and everything she does is always right and always goes perfectly and all that jazz. like every babby’s first oc who is a self-insert because we don’t really know how to write proper characters yet, her fantasies are always super idealised and nothing can ever go wrong for her, until reality comes crashing down on her which she tries to recreate her fantasies for real.

the concept/theme of time is also a theme that tends to crop up for her frequently, too. her sgrub au counterpart is a time player, her ‘true’ psiionic power is chronokinesis, and in times of turmoil she often finds herself wishing that she could either have more time to figure things out, or that she could go back in time to retry everything and make it better. she tends to find herself preoccupied with the past and what could have been, that she doesn’t consider the future and how she still has time to improve and actually make up for all her mistakes. there’s nothing particularly symbolic about it, it’s just something that happens to crop up from time to time.

i tend to associate her with bookish heroines (such as liesel from the book thief, briony from atonement, and matilda from... well, matilda) due to her writing habits and tendency to live in her own head. although unlike those characters, katrin isn’t really an avid reader aside from comic books. on a side note ive wanted to read northanger abbey because of its premise reminding me of kat, but i always find jane austen books to be kind of a slog to get through.

#katrin rissah #headcanon #finally gets around to answering this #here have an essay or five #scrambledtrolls #asks

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the-dragongirl · 8 years ago

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Pod-Together Icebreaker, Day 1

It’s that time of year again, folks, when authors and podficcers get together to collaborate on new and innovative projects that are written to be heard, rather than just read. I am participating in four pod-togethers this year. @knight-tracer and I will be creating a sequel to last year’s Obi-Wan/Anakin/Padme screen-play style story, and @lacefedora and @punsbulletsandpointythings and I will be creating another Star Wars story told through vignettes from vary varying points of view. However, I also have two projects with creators I haven’t worked with before: ladybrookeoflorien, and savvygambols. To that end, I’ll be posting the answers to the icebreaker prompts @pod-together is providing this week. So, without further ado, here are the answers for day 1:

1. If you could be any fannish character for a day, who would it be and why?

I am on major Star Wars kick these days, so I would have to say Leia Organa (though, probably EU version rather than current canon). Leia has been my fictional role model since I was three years old. I admired her competence and leadership, as well as her ability to give no fucks and get shit done. Fortunately, I get to live my dream at least a few times a month, when I appear as Princess Leia at events with the Rebel Legion.

2. Name as many books, movies, TV shows, animes, comics, celebrities, etc. that you can think of that you have felt or feel fannish about.

Okay, this list is rather huge, so I am going to sort it by category.

ANIME/MANGA (note that I am not really active in any of these fandoms anymore, and haven’t been since I was a teenager, ):

Cardcaptor Sakura; Fushigi Yuugi; Magicknight Rayearth; Naruto (in my my misguided youth); Sailor Moon; Saiyuki

BOOKS:

Jane Austen: all her books except Northanger Abbey (Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book ever); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Sherlock Holmes; Monica Furlong: Wise Child and it’s sequel and prequel; Mercedes Lackey: Valdemar Series (we all go through that stage, right?), SERRated Edge Series, Bedlam’s Bard Series; Gregory Maguire: Wicked; Anne McCaffrey: the Pern book, the Rowan books, the Pegasus books; Seanan McGuire: October Daye series, Incryptids Series, Indexing; Lois McMaster Bujold: The Vorkosigan saga; Garth Nix: The Old Kingdom books; Tamora Pierce: Circle of Magic books, Song of the Lioness Books; J.K. Rowling: I love the Harry Potter books so much, though I am not particularly inclined to interact with most of that fandom; William Shakespeare: all his plays pretty much (The Winter’s Tale is my favorite); J.R.R.Tolkien: everything he ever wrote; Timothy Zahn: all of his Star Wars EU novels.

CELEBRITIES:

No. Just no. RPF of any kind squicks me out.

COMICS:

Check Please; Girl Genius; Marvel 616 (though I have mostly fallen out of the Marvel fandom these days)

MOVIES:

Anne of Green Gables (the Canadian miniseries); Assorted superhero movies (again, I have mostly fallen out of this fandom); The Chronicles of Narnia films (though not the books, oddly); Labyrinth; Ladyhawke; Pacific Rim; The Peter Jackson movie versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; STAR WARS

MUSICALS:

Pretty much all older musicals, especially Paint Your Wagon, and Wicked. I love Hamilton, but I don’t interact with that fandom at all.

TV SHOWS:

Avatar (Last Airbender only. I haven’t seen legend of Korra); BBC Musketeers; Doctor Who (before Moffat); Due South; The Grenada Sherlock Holmes; Highlander; Firefly; Once Upon a Time; Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, Sense8, The Sentinel; Star Trek (especially Voyager)

3. List 5 things you enjoy in stories (e.g. a kind of trope, story line, kink, etc.). List 5 things that you do not enjoy in stories.

Not exactly five things, but here are the likes and dislikes copied from my standard Dear Creator letter:

Things I like: I love seeing greater inclusion of female, non-binary, and trans characters. I am a total sucker for healthy familial love and found families. I enjoy kidfic. I enjoy happy, consensual polyamory. Physical hurt comfort (that does not violate one of my squicks) is my favorite guilty pleasure. Beyond that, I enjoy world-building and fleshing out of minor characters.

Squicks: I will not consume fanworks which contain: incest, abuse (especially of children), rpf, on-screen sexual assault (references to past sexual assault are sometimes acceptable, provided it is non-graphic and is not trivialized or used as an h/c plot device), or extreme unmitigated power differences in relationships (such as large differences in mental/emotional maturity, or unnegotiated relationships between a person in guardian or supervisory position and their charge/ supervisee).

Dislikes: I really don’t like fanworks which erase or demonize existing female characters, or make non-villain characters in general super villainous (or, conversely, make villains poor misunderstood darlings without a great deal of explanation). I also generally dislike infidelity (note that i do not count consensual polyamory as infidelity.) While I don’t mind smut being part of a fic, I tend to get bored with PWP. I rarely enjoy modern AUs, coffee shop AUs, high school AUs, or anything in that genre. I usually don’t enjoy A/B/O either, unless it is subverted and used to question social views of gender and sexuality.

4. If you could have any super power, what would it be and why?

Looking at my icebreaker answers from a couple of years ago, I like the answer I gave then, so I will just repeat it: I think I would like telekinesis. It would be fun and useful, without introducing complex ethical quandaries.

5. If you were stuck on a deserted island, what 3 fanworks would you want with you?

Am I allowed to list series? Because if so, my list would be Sansukh by determamfidd, the Deeper Season series by lightgetsin, and Re-entry by deadcatwithaflamethrower. Embers by Vathara is a very close fourth.

What are 3 fun/interesting/not-commonly-known/etc. things about yourself (fannish or otherwise)?

Thing the first: I have two paid professional audiobook credits to my name. I don’t list titles, since they are published under my RL identity, but it still gives you an idea of how seriously I take narration.

Thing the second: Between the Saber Guild and the Rebel Legion (and, hopefully soon, the 501st), I am generally dressed up as a Star Wars character an average of once a week.

Thing the third: Yesterday, I bought almost thirty yards of fabric for $30, and that is pretty much the most exciting thing to happen in my life in months.

#pod together #icebreaker #podfic #I am so excited be getting started on all these projects!

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fictionadventurer · 2 years ago

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Gravitation: A Powers and Prejudice Story

Or, Northanger Abbey plus superheroes

Running across the ceiling would be faster. Henry scaled a bookcase, jumped, then flipped the orientation of his personal gravity and fell upward. He landed on the balls of his feet, found his footing, then ran across the empty expanse of the living room ceiling. He vaulted over the top of the door frame and sprinted through hallways, scaled the ceilings of stairwells, and dodged expensive lighting fixtures in the soulless, massive rooms of his father's house.

When all the furniture was hanging over his head, it was even easier to see just how hollow his father's lifestyle was. No one used all this space. No one sat in the furniture. No one got a moment's enjoyment out of the ugly, twisted modern art fixtures. It was all stage dressing for a pointless show that no one but General Tilney cared about. Henry was grateful he'd learned how to flip his perspective and escape his father's world.

At least, he told himself he'd escaped. Yet somehow, he always seemed to find himself falling back into Dad's orbit.

At last, he reached his father's study. Glancing upward, he saw light glowing beneath the door. He flipped his gravity back toward the ground, then reduced his weight to about a tenth of normal, so he fell gently and landed without a sound. Then he released himself back into the pull of normal Earth gravity and barged into his father's domain.

"Where's Catherine?" Henry demanded.

Dad sat in one of the leather chairs in front of the bookcase he never touched, a glass of whiskey in his hand. He sat up smoothly, unruffled by Henry's sudden entrance. "I sent her away more than an hour ago."

"What do you mean, sent her away?"

Dad set the glass of whiskey on the side table and snarled, "I told that conniving minx she was no longer welcome in my house, and if she wasn't gone within ten minutes, I'd call the police."

Eleanor had been right. Eleanor never lied, but just this once, Henry had held onto the hope that maybe their father wasn't quite as monstrous as he had seemed.

Anger was not a dominant part of Henry's nature, but here, now, he saw red. "What possible right did you have to do that?"

Dad's face hardened as he stood. "I have every right to throw out a criminal who entered my home under false pretenses."

Henry laughed, one loud, harsh bark, at the ridiculous idea of Catherine being a criminal. He'd never met anyone more guileless outside of an elementary school. "What pretense? You invited her!"

"On the understanding that she was a ward of the Northanger Allens and shared their superhuman abilities. But I recently learned she's nothing more than the ordinary human daughter of a dirt-poor provincial science teacher."

Henry was so enraged that he wanted to spit. Dad and his obsession with dynasty. Everyone in the world evaluated by his own stupid standards. They had to have the right amount of money, earned in the right industries. Had to come from the right superhuman families, with the right kinds of abilities. Henry had been shocked that Dad had bent his rules far enough to let Catherine come as an honored guest, but now it all made sense. As much as Dad ever made sense.

"So you threw her out because you believed the wrong rumors? At least tell me you gave her a ride back home."

"Why should I? That child has made enough demands on my hospitality."

Henry's jaw fell. He hadn't adjusted gravity, but he felt twice as heavy as normal. This was worse than he'd expected, even from Dad. For perhaps the first time in his life, he had no words.

But he found them. "You're telling me," he said, his voice low, "that you sent Catherine out into the city, alone, at night, when half the lowlifes in Northanger know she's connected to the Allens?"

Dad stepped around the chair and faced Henry, his weight centered, his shoulders thrown back. Dad typically kept his gravity at nearly twice Earth normal, and it made him dense, muscular, powerful. He looked like an immovable force of nature. "I did," Dad said simply. "Do you disapprove?"

That was bait, but Henry couldn't avoid taking it. "Of course I disapprove!" he shouted, gesturing wildly. "She could be mugged. Kidnapped. She could be bleeding in an alley or tied up by some superhuman scum who wants a ransom, and it's your fault."

Dad scoffed. "This isn't Pemberley. People walk the streets every day without being harassed by criminals."

Henry hoped he was right. He hoped with everything he was that for once his father was right. But somewhere deep inside, in that cynical part of him that the world kept well-stocked with pessimism, he knew that Catherine was in danger.

He whipped his phone out of his pocket. Catherine was too sheltered even to carry a cell phone, but maybe her roommate could tell him if she had made it home safely.

His phone buzzed before he could make the call. A text from Eleanor. A video link Eleanor had captioned Catherine.

The link brought up a shaky cell phone video, taken and uploaded only minutes before, showing a college-aged girl being ambushed by two superhumans. One of the superhumans incapacitated the girl with a blast of soundwaves. The girl wore Catherine's one-of-a-kind pink jacket.

Henry's fist clenched around his phone. Thorpe. The brother and sister had been trying to break into the upper echelons of Northanger's superhuman community for years, but Henry knew how little that world tolerated outsiders. Apparently, they'd given up on normal means of rising up in the world and had decided to go straight for ransom. The two weren't bright, but they were utterly self-serving. They wouldn't hesitate to hurt Catherine if it amused them.

Henry pointed the screen toward his father, an accusation and a condemnation. "She's been captured," he said and sprinted toward the door.

His body grew heavier with each step, and he was dragging his feet before he was halfway to the door. Suddenly, he found himself rooted to the floor.

Dad, who hadn't moved, glowered at him. "Where do you think you're going?"

Henry pulled with all his strength, but only managed to move his foot a single inch. "Dad, please," he begged. "I have to help her."

"Like some inane 'superhero'?" Dad sneered. "Maybe they do that in Netherfield, but in Northanger, we don't brawl with our own kind in the streets."

Henry strained to move his foot another fraction of an inch. "She's in danger. I can help."

"You can't do anything. You're a shiftless coward who never found a fight he couldn't run from."

If Dad was going to use this as another opportunity to berate him for his refusal to join the military, so help him...

Henry gritted his teeth. "Let. Me. Go!"

"I will not let you disgrace our family's good name by running into battle with some upstart no-name superhumans."

Henry, exhausted by his efforts, struggled for breath. He closed his eyes and focused on the pull of the Earth's gravity, which was aided by his father's power. He had never been able to overcome Dad, but maybe if he reduced the Earth's pull on him, just a little...

His weight decreased, and he found himself able to move. One step. Two.

In the blink of an eye, Henry crashed to the floor, crushed by an oppressive gravitational force that left him flat on his back.

Dad loomed over him, his eyes cold and empty. "So you want to do this the hard way."

Henry almost wanted to laugh--a touch of desperate gallows humor. Catherine had been right after all. Her imagination, primed by sensationalist superhero stories coming out of Netherfield, had convinced her that Dad's shifty behavior meant he was concealing a supervillain's lair somewhere in the house. Henry, when he figured it out, had found it more amusing than anything, and quickly set her straight. Yet she had seen the truth more clearly than he had. Maybe Dad wasn't a murderer. Maybe he didn't rob banks or construct death rays. But he was still a villain, and always had been.

Henry knew it was useless to fight. Dad hadn't done this in years, but only because Henry had made an artform of avoiding these confrontations. He had learned how to laugh off an insult, how to dance around unpleasant truths. He knew to tiptoe around his father's temper and avoided this house whenever he could. He had learned to dodge, dart, and downplay, because that was the only way to win. Henry could play merry havoc with the Earth's gravity, but when up against his father's will, Henry was always, inevitably, crushed.

That was the way the world worked. There was nothing he could do about it. There was no such thing as a selfless superhero, rushing to save the innocent. There were only people, made cruel by power, throwing their weight around to bend the world to their will, and they always, eventually, won.

Yet Catherine didn't believe that. And Henry was learning that Catherine, in her sheltered, innocent way, had strange habit of being right.

She believed in goodness. She had believed in him. He couldn't fail her when it mattered most.

Henry strained against the force of gravity. He tried to decrease the Earth's hold. His father only increased the pressure upon him. Soon, Henry was gasping for what shallow breaths he could manage. He was pressed so forcefully to the ground that his head tilted backward. His father, looming over him, appeared to be hanging from the ceiling.

Henry smirked as the solution struck him. It was so absurdly simple. All he needed was a change in perspective.

He gave up on trying to free himself and instead turned his abilities toward his father. He felt the gravity around his father's form--so much heavier than Earth's normal--and shifted its orientation a full one-hundred and eighty degrees.

General Tilney fell to the ceiling with a crash that broke the plaster. Stunned and injured, his concentration shattered, and his hold over Henry dissolved.

Henry leapt to his feet and bounded toward the window, then jumped through it and floated gently down to the street, laughing aloud. He felt light as a feather, and it wasn't just because he'd made himself nearly weightless. He had, metaphorically and physically, thrown off the weight of the world, of an entire lifetime under his father's power.

He had an idea of where Thorpe and his sister would take Catherine. He glanced around, got his bearings, and leapt over the house in a single bound.

Catherine made no secret of her love of superheroes. Henry hoped he could live up to her expectations.

#powers and prejudice #adventures in writing #northanger abbey #superheroes #northanger abbey superhero au #i don't want to write full stories in this universe #but it's the time of year for it to come back to me and this scene seemed simple enough to translate to a short story #nothing spectacular #very white-wall and floating-heads #but it gives a taste of the universe without me having to put too much work into it

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fictionadventurer · 3 years ago

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Forget everything I said about Henry Tilney’s superpowers, because I was wrong. His real superpower is gravity manipulation, because this makes the story more fun in several ways.

Henry’s core personality trait is that he deals with the serious issues of life by laughing at them. So we could get a lot of mileage out of the “gravity” vs. “levity” puns.

It’s extremely versatile and would allow him to display a wide range of physical abilities. He can make himself lighter to move faster, leap tall buildings in a single bound, possibly even create some antigravity levitation effects. Making himself heavier can increase his strength and make him difficult for enemies to move or injure. Shifting the orientation of his personal gravitation field allows for Spiderman-like abilities of walking on walls and ceilings, and combining this with the faster movement of lighter-gravity motion could make him a parkour master, which feels like a very Henry Tilney battle style. And if he can alter the gravitation of people or objects around him, he gets even more advantages in a battle, (though I’m thinking this is limited to one other person/object at a time).

He gets some of the superhero abilities that other characters in this universe have, but in a very different way, so I’m not just reusing powers that I’ve already explored.

Crucially, all these physical abilities require Henry to do a lot of mental calculation. It’s not as simple as just lifting something heavy or running really fast. It requires him to understand all the physics of what direction he’s facing, what he’s trying to move, how gravity affects everything, and how much he has to adjust gravity so he can do what he wants to do without causing other unintended effects or endangering himself. To get the physical advantages, he has to be mentally sharp, which is very right for Henry Tilney.

And it feels fitting to have Henry Tilney, who subverts social laws, become a Henry Tilney whose superpower involves subverting physical laws.

I especially like the Spiderman parallels, because Spiderman’s sarcastic battle quips are exactly what Henry Tilney would be like as a superhero.

(And we’d have to get a scene of Henry making fun of the Spiderman kissing-upside-down trope while he’s standing on the ceiling).

It provides a lot of ways for Henry to make casual use of his abilities in everyday life (and just mess with people because it’s amusing).

But once we head into the final battle, the many possible uses of his powers could make for some really fun and creative battle scenes (I mean, that was the coolest part of Alloy of Law).

And after seeing him use his powers only for light and pointless things, it could be fun to see him unleash the full extent of his powers in a life-or-death situation and realize that woah, this goofy kid is literally a force of nature.

I don’t know if I’d have the talent to write any of these creative scenes (having literally zero brain for physics), but since I shouldn’t be writing this story anyway, that doesn’t matter much.

....I’m going to have to write at least a scene of this by the end of the week, aren’t I?

#northanger abbey #henry tilney #powers and prejudice #northanger abbey superhero au #jane austen #adventures in writing

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fictionadventurer · 3 years ago

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Oh no, there are a lot of good reasons to write a Northanger Abbey Superhero AU.

Henry Tilney is squarely in my wheelhouse of sarcastic, cynical, flippant narrators. He could be the POV character!

Henry has a whole character arc! I could even condense the story into a relatively short piece.

I was wrong--he doesn’t meet Catherine by rescuing her. That’s how his arc ends. Showing that he’s learned to live up to Catherine’s ideals of superheroism.

At their first meeting (they’re both students at Northanger University), Catherine finds out about his powers and is a bit star-struck, and he teases her by poking fun at all the common superhero tropes, while insisting that real-life superhumans are nothing like the legends.

The sheer fun of watching him react to innocent homeschooled country bumpkin Catherine--moving from mild amusement and a sort of brotherly pity to genuine respect.

Instead of teasing Catherine about writing about this night in her journal, he teases her about being an intrepid girl reporter looking to tell the world about the latest exploits of the newest superheroes.

I was wrong again: Henry’s powers don’t include telepathy. Because not knowing her thoughts gives him opportunities to misjudge her before realizing that she actually is as sincere and innocent as she seems.

Henry Tilney could have electricity powers??? I’ve already got a P&P character with those abilities, but somehow it seems fitting to have sparks flying while he’s revealing his abilities to Catherine at their first meeting.

And as the story goes on, we can casually reveal that he’s much more powerful than he lets everyone believe, as he absentmindedly does Thor-level things like calling down lightning.

But he could also maybe have some speedster or teleportation type abilities on top of it? He seems like the guy who’d race into the battle and baffle bad guys by never being quite where they expect him to be.

I kind of love the idea of playing up his Shawn Spencer vibes by having him put on this act that he’s a barely competent goofball whose greatest talent is for the sarcastic quip, only to prove himself in the final battle as one of top titans of this universe in terms of sheer power.

Of course Catherine assumes that General Tilney is a supervillain and expects to find a lair in the hidden portion of the house. Henry would be more offended by these assumptions than the book version was, because he’d wonder if her suspicions were tied to stereotypes about superhumans.

(Henry quickly calms down and admits that Catherine was right, because his father may not have an evil lair where he masterminds all the recent crime sprees, but he is a villain because of his complete indifference to anything except his own desires).

General Tilney somehow got the idea that Catherine was connected to a wealthy family of powerful superhumans and that she just hadn’t come into her powers yet, and when it turns out that she’s an ordinary person, he kicks her out with extreme prejudice.

Which of course puts her in a dangerous part of the city at a dangerous time of night where she can fall into the clutches of the real supervillains.

(Who are probably John and/or Isabella Thorpe).

And Henry has to stand up to his father for the first time in his life, refusing to stay in their comfortable, self-serving world and finally revealing the full extent of his powers as he rushes to the rescue as a fully-fledged superhero.

Catherine is grateful and helps to save the day with good common sense.

And she’d be so proud of him, and he’d try to downplay it by making self-deprecating jokes, and then he’d very seriously give her all the credit for giving him the courage to stand up to his father.

Henry would be kicked out of the house after that and living on campus. He and Catherine could be a power couple--quite literally. Catherine already has designs in mind for improved costumes.

Like, Henry isn’t going to make a career out of superheroism (gotta finish college first), but he recognizes that heroes can exist and he can be one of them.

There’s an actual character arc! The P&P doesn’t have a character arc. It’s a superhero ensemble story. But this is a full-on origin story!

I could give Catherine her due as someone who helps Henry to grow as much as he helps her grow.

But I already have a sprawling P&P superhero AU underway and there’s no reason to start another WIP when I can just write these bullet points.

They’re fun bullet points though.

#northanger abbey #powers and prejudice #jane austen #superheroes #northanger abbey superhero au #henry tilney

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fictionadventurer · 2 years ago

Text

A Guide to the Cities of the Powers and Prejudice Universe

Netherfield

City within a temperate zone on a river (think St. Louis/Metropolis)

Very Art Deco Golden Age vibes

Has a very high superhuman presence with a diverse array of abilities and is the most tolerant of superhumans

Superhumans who want to live relatively openly among their own kind within a vibrant community tend to flock to Netherfield. This does mean that there's a lot of conflict, both within the community and between regular people and superhumans who use their abilities for criminal purposes

Longstanding tradition of costumed superheroes, drawing from old traditions of circus performers and professional wrestling. Vibrantly-colored costumes and masks are common and respected parts of the culture.

Superhumans are allowed to live openly and use their powers at will. However, if these powers disturb the peace, they will be held responsible for any damages caused. Costumed superheroes are responsible for working with the criminal justice system to bring the criminals to justice.

Use of superhuman powers is limited for those living a civilian life. Regular people, while more tolerant in Netherfield than most places, can be suspicious of superhumans, and in not-so-distant history, people with abilities that were too powerful/dangerous were commonly taken for study and/or punishment by the authorities, so most superhumans are very cautious in how they use their gifts.

Those who want more freedom to use their abilities to the fullest extent tend to put on a mask and take up superhero work, and secret identities are common and accepted. However, an independent vigilante risks being mistaken for a villain, so the safest way to take up superhero work is to get involved with one of the established superhero teams.

Growing discontent among younger superhumans has led to a worrying growth in exceptionalist philosophy that believes superhumans are superior to ordinary people and have a right to seize power. This means more superhumans attacking regular people, more work for the costumed superheroes, more battles in the streets, and more distrust from regular people, which means that there's also growing interest in other strategies/policies to subdue/restrict superhumans.

Home city of: the Bennets, the Bingleys, Admiral and Mrs. Crawford, Frederick Wentworth

Pemberley

Much denser metropolis that historically was neglected by inept/corrupt government and overrun by superhuman organized crime rings.

Attempts to restrict superhuman abilities only led to young superhumans being recruited en masse into the organized crime organizations, convinced that the government was their enemy

City was a crime-ridden wasteland until a couple of decades ago, when a masked vigilante known as the Archer began bringing superhuman criminals to justice, and the De Bourgh family began fighting corruption within the government and police ranks

Improvements to infrastructure have made Pemberley into a vibrant, livable city known for its beautiful green spaces

Had a period of unrest a few years ago when it seemed as though the Archer had left the scene, but a new man (widely believed to be the son and/or the sidekick of the original) has taken on the mantle and continued his predecessor's work.

New gangs are arising to challenge this new Archer, leading to bolder attacks than there have been since before the reforms

Catherine De Bourgh was recently elected mayor, on a platform that promised greater surveillance of superhumans and restrictions on their freedoms. Her nephew, Fitzwilliam Darcy, is rumored to share her anti-superhuman views--especially after attacks that left his cousin and sister heavily injured--but has largely stayed out of the public spotlight.

Home city of: the Darcys, the De Bourghs, George Wickham, the Gardiners

Northanger

As the name implies, the northern-most city within this setting. Sits on a large lake.

Known for its university, including research into superhuman issues

Superhumans believe themselves to be superior, but keep their culture almost entirely separate from ordinary people.

Several prominent superhuman families have high levels of power, wealth, and influence. These families hold sway over the other superhumans of the city; any who cause trouble are neutralized and punished by those within the superhuman community. The Netherfield model of costumed superheroism is held in high disdain, as something incredibly gauche that degrades their community by putting their conflicts on display.

City is thus largely peaceful, but the social hierarchy is stifling. The upper echelons are extremely insular and social climbing is a near impossibility. Fraternization between superhumans and regular people is highly frowned upon.

Within the upper-class superhuman families, powers are passed down strongly along family lines, with almost every member of a family sharing the same kind of ability.

Home city of: the Elliots, the Tilneys, the Crawfords, the Ferrars

Highbury

Small Midwestern plains city. Surrounded by farmland.

Has an abnormally high concentration of superhumans for a city of its size, thanks to the presence of the Mansfield Institute for Young Superhumans. Education there can be a status symbol among elite superhumans, but the school also provides guidance for students from otherwise normal families who are struggling with superhuman abilities.

Crime is mostly controlled by the regular police department, with assistance as needed from superhumans both within and outside the police department, thanks to Police Chief Knightley's good relationship with Highbury's superhuman community.

Mild outbreaks of Netherfield-style costumed superheroism/villainy, mostly among excitable youngsters from the Institute.

Mansfield's headmaster is a decent man, but is out-of-touch with what's happening in his own school, leaving things largely under the supervision of a few highly-ranked instructors who seem to be encouraging some troubling behaviors that are causing increased social stratification--and related bullying--among the students.

Home to: Almost every character from Mansfield Park and Emma.

#powers and prejudice #jane austen #superheroes #jane austen superhero au #pride and prejudice #sense and sensibility #mansfield park #emma #northanger abbey #persuasion #please don't think too hard about how all of this is supposed to fit in one coherent universe #i may imply a federal government but i'm treating these like city-states #so i can explore multiple types of common superhero settings within this one universe

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fictionadventurer · 3 years ago

Conversation

Me: The Pride and Prejudice Superhero AU is fun but it takes a lot of time that I should devote to other projects, so I should simplify the story and try to finish as quickly as possible.

My brain: So what you're saying is we need a Jane Austen Superhero Cinematic Universe.

Me: No, actually that's the opposite--

My brain: Persuasion is going on in the background of Pride and Prejudice.

Me: Ok, it fits, but it's really not relevant--

My brain: Northanger Abbey is going on in another town.

Me: Superhero Henry Tilney *is* a fun concept and maybe we can weave in some references that'll be useful to this story's worldbuilding, but we don't need to go beyond these books.

My brain: Mansfield Park as a knockoff Xavier Institute. Sense and Sensibility where the superhuman Dashwoods are mistrusted by the non-powered Ferrars side of the family. Emma's a superhero who wants a sidekick and Knightley's the non-powered civilian who tries to rein in her chaos.

Me, sobbing: Please, stop, I'm begging you, I need to sleep.

#powers and prejudice #jane austen superhero au #jane austen #superheroes #adventures in writing #why are ideas so much easier than writing #the worst part is that so much of these ideas are visual things that can't be translated into prose and i can't draw

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fictionadventurer · 3 years ago

Note

Emma Woodhouse for the superhero ask!

Emma is the least-developed idea for this specific AU, and I'm not going to go too far into nailing down character details (since this already backfired on me with Northanger Abbey, and because I'm rereading Emma right now and it's fun to read it without trying to figure out how to twist it into an AU). However, I will talk about the very basics of how Emma's story exists in this universe.

Emma lives in Highbury, a small city that's home to the Mansfield Institute for Young Superhumans. Emma never attended (her father was supportive and thought she was best nurtured at home), but she is curious about the students who attend there.

She did some minor hero work as a sidekick for the Miss Taylor character, and when Miss Taylor moves to another city, Emma gets it into her head that she's fully prepared to become Highbury's next protector.

To do this, she needs a sidekick. Fortunately, the Mansfield Institute provides many possible options, and Emma selects Harriet as a protege.

Harriet wants to settle down to a domestic life with the brother of one of her classmates, using her limited powers in small, practical ways. Emma convinces Harriet that she's meant for greater things and could develop her powers into something spectacular under Emma's guidance.

Mr. Knightley is a long-suffering detective within Highbury Law Enforcement. He has no powers of his own, but has long been friendly to the many superhumans in the city. He thinks Emma is nowhere near ready for independent hero work, much less for a sidekick, but of course Emma won't listen, so Knightley has to work overtime making sure that she doesn't cause more problems than she solves.

#thanks for asking!#of course in the course of writing this i came up with way more details than i had at first #so there's still a danger of taking this rabbit trail into another corner of this au #but i really can't do this especially since my attention's already been wandering with the na stuff #but emma would be a hoot and a half as a superhero so it's fun to at least get a glimmer of the concept #powers and prejudice #answered asks #emma #jane austen

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fictionadventurer · 6 years ago

Text

First off, YES to the massive crossover event. It would be glorious.

Time manipulation for Anne is kind of brilliant. It's insanely powerful, but it's something that the average bystander might not be able to detect, leading others to underestimate her abilities. Plus, if she's doing things like stopping time around her, she would appear to age faster than normal. Which would fit with Wentworth saying she's so changed that he wouldn't have recognized her. And involuntary invisibility is also totally fitting with her character arc.

I'm thinking that Anne's story is that she is from a superhero clan that looks after a relatively small area. Wentworth had some minor abilities and invited Anne to join him to form a husband and wife superhero team in a larger city. Anne was persuaded that she and Wentworth weren't ready for the demands of the big metropolis, and decided to stick with her family team. Wentworth was heartbroken and left anyway, where his emotional turmoil sparked an awakening of really strong superpowers (I'm thinking wind and water manipulation) that made him one of the nation's most celebrated superheroes. And he returns to Anne's hometown as a vaunted hero, leading to all sorts of awkwardness until they eventually team up to defeat the supervillain version of William Elliot.

I like the idea of Cathy being a superhero fangirl who is overjoyed when she becomes friends with the famed Tilney family, and since she's just developing her own powers, she has a lot to learn about the reality of superhero life.

Bingley is a very energetic and very trusting speedster who is a member of this universe's version of the Justice League, along with Darcy. Darcy, though he has no superpowers of his own (just martial arts training, a lot of money, and a housekeeper who serves an Alfred role) winds up looking after him, because Bingley has a history of being betrayed by partners and sidekicks and evil clone and robot versions of these partners and sidekicks.

Mrs. Bennet has five superpowered daughters, and she is anxious to see them all safely established on prestigious teams (in this universe, I'm thinking you may be in shaky legal territory if you're a superpowered individual who's not on a government-approved team. Mrs. Bennet got into a little trouble in her younger years when her vigilante justice got misinterpreted as supervillainy.) Bingley and Darcy's team is the most prestigious in the world, and when they announce that they're taking new members, Mrs. Bennet is ecstatic, and sends all her daughters to be evaluated.

At the tryouts, Lizzie is incensed when she overhears Darcy saying that her powers aren't strong enough to be of use for the team (especially since this is coming from a guy whose only superpower is his bank account). Bingley is very intrigued by Jane (for sheer humor value, I like to imagine she has super strength or some other rough-and-tumble physical power that's completely at odds with her sweet personality). After the tryouts, Jane stumbles into one of Bingley's battles, and though she gets injured, she does impressive work, so Bingley considers taking her as a personal sidekick even if she isn't accepted into the wider league. Darcy thinks this is a terrible idea, especially when he finds out about Mrs. Bennet's past, and does his best to separate them.

When Lizzy doesn't make the team, she meets Wickham, who shares her hatred for Darcy, and tries to convince Lizzy to team up with him outside of the official teams. Darcy changes his opinion of Lizzy and offers to train her personally, but since she knows of his behavior toward Jane and Wickham, she refuses. But she starts to reconsider when he tells her about Bingley's past and Wickham's suspected supervillainous sympathies.

Lizzie distances herself from Wickham, but then he convinces Lydia to join his villainous schemes. Lizzie and Darcy have to team up to rescue Lydia from his clutches before she commits any crimes that would kill innocent civilians and get the Bennet family forever branded as a supervillain clan.

And...this response is already way, way longer than I intended it to be so I'll just end it here.

…I suddenly need to see a superhero AU of Mansfield Park. Where Henry Crawford is a charming supervillain who has convinced everyone that he’s reformed. Except for Fanny Price, whose telepathic abilities are undervalued (or perhaps unsuspected) by the rest of her superhero team, but who can tell that Henry’s less than genuine. And though Henry makes some genuine attempts at reform, in the end, he winds up betraying them all and nearly killing Maria. And Fanny’s probably instrumental in bringing him to justice.

#jane austen #jane austen superhero au #persuasion #pride and prejudice #northanger abbey #for the record i did not intend to outline the entirety of p&p in this post #it just kind of got away from me

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thatscarletflycatcher · 3 years ago

Text

Henry Tilney is definitely a speedster.

Oh no, there are a lot of good reasons to write a Northanger Abbey Superhero AU.

Henry Tilney is squarely in my wheelhouse of sarcastic, cynical, flippant narrators. He could be the POV character!

Henry has a whole character arc! I could even condense the story into a relatively short piece.

I was wrong–he doesn’t meet Catherine by rescuing her. That’s how his arc ends. Showing that he’s learned to live up to Catherine’s ideals of superheroism.

The sheer fun of watching him react to innocent homeschooled country bumpkin Catherine–moving from mild amusement and a sort of brotherly pity to genuine respect.

And as the story goes on, we can casually reveal that he’s much more powerful than he lets everyone believe, as he absentmindedly does Thor-level things like calling down lightning.

Which of course puts her in a dangerous part of the city at a dangerous time of night where she can fall into the clutches of the real supervillains.

(Who are probably John and/or Isabella Thorpe).

Catherine is grateful and helps to save the day with good common sense.

Henry would be kicked out of the house after that and living on campus. He and Catherine could be a power couple–quite literally. Catherine already has designs in mind for improved costumes.

Like, Henry isn’t going to make a career out of superheroism (gotta finish college first), but he recognizes that heroes can exist and he can be one of them.

There’s an actual character arc! The P&P doesn’t have a character arc. It’s a superhero ensemble story. But this is a full-on origin story!

I could give Catherine her due as someone who helps Henry to grow as much as he helps her grow.

But I already have a sprawling P&P superhero AU underway and there’s no reason to start another WIP when I can just write these bullet points.

They’re fun bullet points though.

#northanger abbey #powers and prejudice #jane austen #superheroes #northanger abbey superhero au #henry tilney

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