Question A Glow in the Darkness

Wow, this was an unexpected story for a couple of reasons.
I hadn't really thought Morpheus would bring in a new character like this. Or make it so dark.

I don't wan to spoil anything for people who haven't read it yet, and having a day or two to think about it would be nice before I comment, so I'll just say this for now: This was damn good story.

It was wasn't it.

An interesting twist which I think I saw mentioned in the bad ideas thread.

Got to ask though. Are there 4 or 5 lacky's that are now on everybodies hit list, and did they get there knowingly.

I particularly enjoyed Morpheus' trolling at the beginning as I tried to identify who Glow was. Is it James? His friend? His overly protective sister with a blue streak in her hair?

I made mention on the old forums about a mutant who switched bodies and Morpheus emailed me about having a gen1 character similar in raw concept. Glow must be that character. When the story is over I'll state my original idea fully. At the moment they are very different but I don't know what the future holds for Glow, yet.

For those commenting on how dark the story is, go read Morpheus' Legacy Universe stuff. There are parts of it that are just as dark, if not darker, especially the Dark Legacy, Mannequin, Lady Hexx, Grendel and Beowulf, The Witch Seed, anything with Nevermore. Even the Twisted Universe has some darkness, The Darkside being the obvious story there. Perhaps we overlook it in Morpheus' impetuous Imp stories, but there is certainly darkness there. The story of Ribbon's daughter is practically a Greek tragedy. Roulette's life isn't very fun either.

Glow in the Darkness is a most enjoyable surprise tonight. I'm not sure I see Glow being a highly featured Fall 2007 Whateley attendee. How does she attend classes? As Glow or as James? So many questions.

Definitely agree with how the others are saying that this is darker stuff than the usual fare for Whateley (at least this early, and ignoring Elrod's work ), yet still unmistakably Morpheus. On top of the darker beginning, it also appears to have some heavy content in the implications of DID. Furthermore it seems that I was not alone in going after the red blue herring either in terms of identity.

Other than a number of questions raised and a bit of speculation best left for another time and place, I believe we've seen one of the featured characters before. Specifically the Bronze Lady from Round and Round. It of course remains to be seen which team she's playing for, and if that is in line with her unofficial debut.

To be honest I was hoping that Mom would turn out to be an existing character to throw all us readers for a loop.



As always, looking forward to seeing more.

Well the transformation definately makes me think of Mega-Girl's PK shell,

the story isn't quite Elrod level dark, but we all know how quickly THAT can change, What I wonder is what will happen when they burn out, or Glow is forced to be "awake" for much longer than a few hours

A Glow in the Darkness Part 1 comments
Electric blue hair and eyes that glow in the dark, already have me hooked and wondering what she is capable of. Underage drinking and the attitude that Todd is giving off, Todd, Mike, and Steve must have done something to Glow to be her quarry. Territorial brutes who seem to think they have the right to claim a public place as theirs and theirs alone. No good ever comes from that kind of attitude.

Nice special effects with the teleport, never seen blue light used before. And Todd is a misogynist, believing that a girl can't be a threat. Men have died due to that attitude, never underestimate an opponent, no matter their gender, race, etc. They left a kid bleeding in a ditch, he could have died, and all they care about trying to teach her a lesson for telling them to back off from James. These are the kind of creeps I would be sorely pressed to restrain myself from going too far.

She teleports through another dimension and absorbs the energy there into herself!?! That alone is going to drive the power testing guys batty for a while trying to figure out what she does. And the energies boot her physical abilities each time, dang. Wonder what the cap is on that and if she could push it too far to the point of triggering a burnout.

And an energy weapon as well, she is just full of tricks and abilities so far. Demonstrated her powers and willingness to use deadly force without harming them, if they are stupid enough to go after James Merrick again I don't think they will come out with all their limbs, if they survive.

Beat the poor kid and trashed his only means of transport, it is a wonder someone hasn't done something sooner or the authorities didn't get involved. Attempted vehicular homicide, now I know I would have gone too far with those three. Vehicles aren't toys, they are tools and using them as a weapon is sickening. James is lucky to have survived that encounter with such minor injuries.

Is Melissa 'Mel' Terrance secretly Glow, i wonder. Right height and build, but features are off, wouldn't be the first mutant whose features change some when their powers are active. Wait, someone with glowing blue hair has targeted those who mess with James not once but twice at least, yet even though Melissa told him about the first time he doesn't remember the detail of the girl with the glowing blue hair. Something strange is going on here.

His mom is the kind of person who would send a super powered bodyguard to watch over her son, supervillainess perhaps. Or powerful and rich enough to afford such a thing. Tossing cabers instead of wee little balls, Mel is funny, never heard that line used before. Freezes up in competition and sometimes panic attacks in confrontations, that is worse than even me back in high school. And Mel not getting that it isn't something you just get over, even trained psychologists don't seem to realize this at times about their patients.

A braty younger sibling who is concerned about him with a single lock of hair dyed blue. But Glow's hair was electric blue all over and glows in the dark, so there would be no need to dye her hair. Wonder if she knows Glow herself.

John Merrick is a good man, helping his son out without expecting anything in return but a promise. And a sense of humor too, telling the younger sister to keep her older brother out of trouble. Ack! James has been tricked by Mel, they are definately going to more than the bike shop. So Mel's dad is a cop, too bad the victim has to file a complaint and the longer James waits the harder it will be to have any proof against the 3 thugs. Mel and Dinah should team up and bug James about it until he is so annoyed he acts just to shut them up. Could work.

James really needs to take Mel's advice, things won't get better if you just keep trying to avoid confrontation of any sort and let yourself be pushed around. I learned this the hard way, over and over again.

Nice, you slipped in a Rodney Dangerfield reference, one of the most underrated comedians imo. Todd needs to be knocked down a couple more pegs, still making threats despite what happened. Bullies gone and a car following them since they left the house, more people sent by mom to watch over James and his sister or worse. With James luck lately, definately not the former.

4 guys dressed like punks and after them because of their mom, possibly. Ganged up on, poor James. And how in the world do you get a permanent hand-shaped scar, along with the others. However he got those scars on his back might be the source of his freezing up during confrontations, psychologically he fears the same happening again if he fights back in any way. And confirmations this is all because of their mom, some guy she crossed is trying to use her kids against her. Talk about cowardly.

At least Glow knows not to cross the line into killing so easily, glad to see that. Wait a minute, how would Glow know that Mel always puts on a tough act? Ah, watching over James for 12 years, guess should would have noticed that in that amount of time. Someone appears in a burst of blue light and has a glowing blue sword at your throat, snap out of your confusion and answer their questions! If it was someone more ruthless they would have snapped the guy out of it by stabbing him in the arm.

Just when they have the chance for answers, the remaining two thugs appear! Glow has been watching over James for 12 years, her original description at the beginning of the story suggest a teenager, and yet she acts like a professional with years of training. What the **** is going on!?!

She can turn her sword into shurikens, she is a teenage mutant ninja [based on her powers so far] energizer! I have a feeling that for know, the most Mel or anyone will get out of Glow is she is James' bodyguard. Stoic and silent most of the time, the perfect ninja. *faces twitches in multiple ways in shock, yes this happened in real life* James is Glow and doesn't even know it! Okay, didn't see that one coming.

Wait, watching over him for 12 yearrs. Active since he was 4, that is either one heck of an early manifestation, Glow is some sort of energy-based entity or both. Could James be an avatar and Glow be the spirit inside him or is James just a split personality with no memories of his other half.

Mel is in the dark about those guys, wonder what James is going to have to tell her about his and Dinah's mom to make her understand the truth. And Dinah knows the truth as well, oh boy. I can see why Mel would think Dinah is glow, it is the most obviously conclusion to jump to based on the details she knows. DID, ack! My brother has that and it isn't easy sometimes dealing with his other personalities. Wait, what!?! Their mom is a superhero, not a supervillain like I first suspected. Another twist I wasn't expecting, definately not predictable, Morpheus.

Sinsear, a monster who tortured and broke the mind of a 4 year old simply because his mom is a superhero. But monsters, true monsters, need to be destroyed, imo. And Sinsear fits the bill all too well. Memory backout on anything bad and of Glow, this is serious. Glow is protecting his life but stealing it from him at the same time, I hope that Fubar can help.

Manifested at 13 but Glow has all the powers, oh boy. This just gets more and more complicated. I doubt even in someone with DID that one personality could hijack mutant powers, it probably is psychosomatic, unless something else is going on as well. Oh crap, James heard it all, will Glow simply block out these memories as well. At least now he has a chance to learn about his other half, if Glow doesn't simply remove the memories "for his own good".

James is going to need a lot of help from Fubar and Dr. Bellows in dealing with the fact he has another personality. But at least he now knows the truth, so he can truly get the help he needs. There has to be a way for him to recover all his lost memories, those times Glow took over and blocked him out. A recorded message from Glow, I wonder if she realizes some of the harm she has caused James.

You can just imagine the thoughts going through James' head upon seeing Glow for the first time. The fact he transforms into that hottie probably has him conflicted on multiple levels alone. At least she won't take his memories of her away from now on. Complicates things is understating it, and I can't believe their mother. Woudl rather be a superhero than a mom, ugh. I can see why Dinah would think their mom would take James away, probably try to raise him to be a superhero like her even those she abandoned her family years ago.

Oh boy, Mel's father is going to complicate things if he finds out that James and Dinah's mom is a superhero. Especially since it woud point to one of them as being Glow. Sinsear is after James again! I'm sorry, I know there is a criminal justice system and even murderers go to jail, but this scum should have been put 6 feet under years ago after what he did to James. If the authorities don't lock Sinsear up in a teleport-proof cell, I fear Glow will kill the monster.

Glow and James are seperate individuals...who just happen to share a headspace and body. I wonder what Glow's real name is and why she guards it so closely. Connected to the trauma of James' torture and breaking by Sinsear or something else, I wonder. At last Glow listened to reason and remembered her promise, she is a stubborn little sentinel. Losing 6-7 hours of his day, that would freak anyone out. Despite his fears, he is remaining surprisingly calm, shows that James isn't as weak as even he believes.

A devisor designed costume that adjust to the wearer, very nice and practical with James/Glow able to switch so quickly between each other. You can't fix your problems by running away from them, something it can take years or decades to learn and have it stick. Their mom trashed Sinsear so bad he shouldn't even be alive, that never keeps a determined supervillain down unfortunately.

Mom has been contacted and will probably show up at a tense moment or right when a threat is trying to take James to Sinsear. And no one wants to feel responsible for their friends and family getting hurt if they can help it, I understand why James wants Mel to leave. I also see Mel's side of things, James and his family are family to her and you don't abandon your family in their time of need.

Bwahahaha! Tofu burgar and can you put extra bacon on it, I love Mel and her sense of humor. Snickerdoodles, I agree with James, knowing something about Glow, even just this tiny piece of info, makes her seem more human. Awwww man, a perfect setting, a nice dinner and it goes and gets ruined by a mercenary.

No! A regener and John is down, hopefully not out. Crude, he wants to torture all of them but Mel is fair game for this psycho. At least Glow got out, thought this psycho didn't see James change, this is very bad. Bombastic, strangely it fits her force blast and her personality so far. Okay, not so sure she is a regen now or just that psycho she doesn't care about her own injuries.

Glow is definately a smart fighter, lure the threat away from the vulnerable allies and innocents, while building up energy the whole time to take her out. And a pure energy blast, another new technique to note for Glow. Bombastic's chest is a charred ruin and yet she is still alive, has to be regen or mid-to-high exemplar. Figures Sinsear wouldn't send in just one to capture the Merrick family. Probably a devisor, since the net reacted to her trying to activate her powers, something that would be difficult for a gadgeteer, I think.

At least Mel caled 911 and the threat is known, but that is for only one supervillain. Now there are 4 with Ironworks and the guy holding John added to the mix. And the villains confirm that it is Sinsear, the clue from the thug made that obvious but John was trying to deny it, afraid of what the monster would do to his family again. And I have to wonder if those rings the guy is using are a devise or another power at work. Targetting an innocent who isn't even involved because they didn't ask for details about their targets, sloppy.

Ginormous is their mom!?! Well, I was right about her showing up when a threat appeared. I hope that John survives with few long-term problems due to his injuries. And even after what Dinah says, Ginormous still uses an excuse about her image to remain bigger than her natural size. Ringleader, seriously. This guy has an inflated ego to name himself that just because his power involves rings.

After this is all done, Sinsear had better be dead, because anything less after what he has done will seem like letting him off too easily. Ironworks and Ringleader are going to regret getting family involved in this, nothing Sinsear offers is worth what they are going to be subjected to. And Dinah only sees her mother's failure, not that she tried as hard as she could against two tough opponents who have hostages and were willing to kill.

Dreamer wrote: And Dinah only sees her mother's failure, not that she tried as hard as she could against two tough opponents who have hostages and were willing to kill.

"...As hard as she could..." Well, maybe. But Gunny and Ito would ream her out for turning her back on her opponents without verifying that they were actually down for the count. She had no idea what their powersets were! Anyone who can spend over 12 years heroing and still make basic tactical errors like that is not trying as hard as she could.

You could argue that worry about her family made her forget her good sense, I suppose. But it didn't make her forget to showboat (Yes! Let's announce our presence and identity and completely forgo the element of surprise!) so I have difficulty buying that argument.

I think it's pretty obvious in context that Ginormous (heh. I had to wonder, why not "Gynormous"?) is not going to get the Mum of the Year award anytime soon. I mean, she left her family for superheroing.

As for James/Glow themself... after this story is done, assuming that (a) they are still alive and (b) they go to Whateley, I see three distinct (but overlapping) possibilities:

1. They stay separate personalities. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, school-wise -- James goes to the non-powers classes, Glow goes to the powers-related ones. Although they might double up on P.E. -- Glow in Martial Arts, James in Survival. But socially... well, it's Ayla all over again.

2. They start recombining into a single personality. That would be interesting. It would begin like the above, eventually reaching a more "normal" schedule.

3. They recombine *before* going to Whateley, at least to the degree that either personality can "come forth" from either body. That would pose some... interesting choices to James -- he can either present as a girl pretty much all the time he's out of Poe and hide his TG status, or he can alternate and face the harassment.

To 3 that's of course assuming that they will still be able to go back to the "James" body

Well there is always the fourth option, Jamie somehow 'dies' and there is only Glow left.

It's not beyond Morpheus, especially with the encouragement of ElrodW and EE, to do that now is it? Sometimes the three of them get a little dark in there stories.

Bonus points to really make Glow miserable, Jamie sacrifices himself to save her.

Fifth option: body split. Hey, it's been done once already! (Admittedly, the spirit transfer was accomplished by a baby GOO, and Merry (et al.) was way less stable than James is. But it's theoretically possible)


On a different note, Glow seemed to be aware of what happened when James was in control, but James was unaware of what Glow did. Additionally, Glow was actively suppressing memories that James had about Glow's actions. Can someone with more knowledge of DID speak to how unusual either of those two things are? And now that Glow isn't suppressing James' memories, do you think he'll start to gain awareness of what happens when Glow is in the forefront?

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Bonus points to really make Glow miserable, Jamie sacrifices himself to save her.

That would be quite terrifying for a reason I forgot to bring up in my previous post.

From what we've seen of Glow's behaviour, and more importantly her thought processes behind her actions, it seems that even from what little we've seen she could be defined as a sociopath. She seemed all too willing to grievously harm or outright kill the thugs, and it sounded as if she would have done so if not for the indirect harm she'd cause James.

So we've got at least three villains (Bombastic, Ringleader, Ironworks) who've been contracted by Sinsear (interesting codename - suggests someone who's evil and can heat up his hands to high temperatures so he can sear his victims - the pun could indicate he's either doing it for a cause or it's a cruel joke) to capture the family (and quite possibly our Steampunk Villainess as well), following on from the failed attempt of the four goons from the previous day.

Which all begs the question of why Sinsear captured and tortured James nine years ago (we know it was after finding out the identity of mum / Sarah / Ginormous, but why go after her four year old son and not her herself, dad or Dinah? What's the nature of his vendetta against her?), how long James was with him, the circumstances surrounding James' rescue and Sinsear disappearing, plus why he's waited nine years to come back.

In the light of events, it's also remotely possible that mum's apparent abandonment of her family may not have just been due to being addicted to heroing, but if she suspected that her 'base' of operatoins was under surveillance, a necessity.

As for what happens next, it's likely Mel and dad will be used as bait to persuade mum to do something - with the likelihood of torturing them until she complies, or killing them if she doesn't. Glow may be headed the same way, but is likely to be prevented from teleporting and may even be faced with the ultimatum of finding James or watching Dinah / Mel be tortured.

Hopefully when Sinsear (or friends) contact mum with their ultimatum, they'll make a mistake which will lead the cavalry to where the rest of the family are, or this is going to get considerably bleaker than it already is - with the distinct possibility of fatalities. Alternatively, Mel manifests with some useful powers immediately available...

mittfh wrote: So we've got at least three villains (Bombastic, Ringleader, Ironworks) who've been contracted by Sinsear (interesting codename - suggests someone who's evil and can heat up his hands to high temperatures so he can sear his victims - the pun could indicate he's either doing it for a cause or it's a cruel joke) to capture the family (and quite possibly our Steampunk Villainess as well), following on from the failed attempt of the four goons from the previous day.

Which all begs the question of why Sinsear captured and tortured James nine years ago (we know it was after finding out the identity of mum / Sarah / Ginormous, but why go after her four year old son and not her herself, dad or Dinah? What's the nature of his vendetta against her?), how long James was with him, the circumstances surrounding James' rescue and Sinsear disappearing, plus why he's waited nine years to come back.

In the light of events, it's also remotely possible that mum's apparent abandonment of her family may not have just been due to being addicted to heroing, but if she suspected that her 'base' of operatoins was under surveillance, a necessity.

As for what happens next, it's likely Mel and dad will be used as bait to persuade mum to do something - with the likelihood of torturing them until she complies, or killing them if she doesn't. Glow may be headed the same way, but is likely to be prevented from teleporting and may even be faced with the ultimatum of finding James or watching Dinah / Mel be tortured.

Hopefully when Sinsear (or friends) contact mum with their ultimatum, they'll make a mistake which will lead the cavalry to where the rest of the family are, or this is going to get considerably bleaker than it already is - with the distinct possibility of fatalities. Alternatively, Mel manifests with some useful powers immediately available...

12 years.

If Morpheus is in the mood to mess with his characters minds, I could see Dinah manifesting as a mutant during the ordeal - or discovering she already manifested and just didn't know it. The mind-fuck part of the manifestation is in her power set. While in her normal form, she wouldn't be anything special, her powered up form would be a 6'-something male with glowing yellow hair. Or in other words, what her brother's 'natural' exemplar form would look like - similar to how his powered up form has a real resemblance to what her 'natural' exemplar form would look like.

Upon rereading, I was struck by a particular paragraph:

Mel stood in the living room of her neighbor’s house, watching patiently as James and Dinah talked to their dad. Their father, John Merrick, was a stocky man who was only 5 foot 8, yet he somehow managed to look much larger and more imposing than he actually was. Mel wasn’t quite sure how the man did it, but she wished that he’d teach the trick to his son. James could really use a bit of that presence. If nothing else, it would keep people from messing with him at school.

What if James' dad is Sinesear and John Merrick is actually his mother, Ginormous? Think about it - we see John telling the others to run away, and the 'camera' follows their point of view. We then see 'John Merrick' being held unconscious by Ringleader. Dinah identifies him as her father, but this isn't corroborated by anyone else.

cprime wrote: If Morpheus is in the mood to mess with his characters minds, I could see Dinah manifesting as a mutant during the ordeal - or discovering she already manifested and just didn't know it. The mind-fuck part of the manifestation is in her power set. While in her normal form, she wouldn't be anything special, her powered up form would be a 6'-something male with glowing yellow hair. Or in other words, what her brother's 'natural' exemplar form would look like - similar to how his powered up form has a real resemblance to what her 'natural' exemplar form would look like.

Upon rereading, I was struck by a particular paragraph:

Mel stood in the living room of her neighbor’s house, watching patiently as James and Dinah talked to their dad. Their father, John Merrick, was a stocky man who was only 5 foot 8, yet he somehow managed to look much larger and more imposing than he actually was. Mel wasn’t quite sure how the man did it, but she wished that he’d teach the trick to his son. James could really use a bit of that presence. If nothing else, it would keep people from messing with him at school.

What if James' dad is Sinesear and John Merrick is actually his mother, Ginormous? Think about it - we see John telling the others to run away, and the 'camera' follows their point of view. We then see 'John Merrick' being held unconscious by Ringleader. Dinah identifies him as her father, but this isn't corroborated by anyone else.

Nah that's a simple body language trick- that simply requires someone to be of at least average height and the capacity to look threatening, involving good, but tense and/or aggressive posture and a straight or aggressive face, nothing special about that. Also parental units, and other authority figures tend to amplify this effect due to their status.

cprime wrote: What if James' dad is Sinesear and John Merrick is actually his mother, Ginormous? Think about it - we see John telling the others to run away, and the 'camera' follows their point of view. We then see 'John Merrick' being held unconscious by Ringleader. Dinah identifies him as her father, but this isn't corroborated by anyone else.

Nope, Ginormous showed up and in the last part before the villains fled Ringleader threatened John's life if Ginormous didn't back off. So his dad being his mom is out and I highly doubt Sinsear is James' biological dad if that is what you are suggesting. Ginormous left Sinsear in such shape after the original abduction 12 years ago John thought it would take a miracle for him to be alive.

Dreamer wrote: Ginormous left Sinsear in such shape after the original abduction 12 years ago John thought it would take a miracle for him to be alive.

Might not have been Ginormous. Might have been a villain following the "Don't touch the kids" code.

Uhh, isn't there a scene in the story where one of the Villains has the father (John) on a stretcher and is basically threatening him in order to get the mother to back off?

I mean, there is even a line were the mother tells the kids to get the father to medical help.

Sooo, unless there is some sort of 'body double' power going on, 'John' doesn't shapeshift into Ginormous to become a hero.

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Well there is always the fourth option, Jamie somehow 'dies' and there is only Glow left.

Or the reverse -- the Glow persona gets destroyed without integrating, forcing James to figure out how to stand and fight for himself or die.

Kettlekorn wrote:

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: Well there is always the fourth option, Jamie somehow 'dies' and there is only Glow left.

Or the reverse -- the Glow persona gets destroyed without integrating, forcing James to figure out how to stand and fight for himself or die.

Or partially integrated (mainly the things that aren't useful in a fight, like snickerdoodles and basic personal traits) and the rest gets destroyed, leaving Jamie stuck in the Glow body, with new personal quirks in HER identity..

And having to cope with seemingly alien tastes, made worse by the fact that Glow is very private, so she wouldnt know what she likes except for snickerdoodles....

It's likely James / Glow will end up at Whateley (duh!), which indicates some powers at least remain after this encounter. It may be that James goes 'into hiding' (so to speak) and Dr. Bellows will have to attempt to coax him back (even if retaining the Glow body for the sake of convenience - after all, with the possible exception of Reach and shapeshifters, gender flipping both ways routinely isn't exactly the done thing).

Meanwhile, given Mel's about the same age, has been kidnapped, and traumatic events can occasionally cause a manifestation event...

Her power is to merge with people, which she uses to save James and Glow from Sinsear by merging with Sinsear.

Ok, I FINALLY have time to put down my thoughts on the thread I created.

Can't really add much to what's been said already. But here's the basics.
-I love a good heartless villain, Sinsear definitely fits that role. Whoever tortures a child like that deserves to be put down hard.

-I generally don't like the whole multiple personality thing, as it's far too common and misunderstood in fiction. But how it's portrayed here and how it was caused hasn't set off my BS meter, and having the personality control the mutant powers is cool.

-Making Glow a bit of a sociopath, who is obsessed with protecting James. COOL! Anti-heroes for the win!

I can see one of the personalities dying or getting absorbed by the other, or forming some kind of united personality that sometimes has very conflicting ideas which causes serious problems at times.

Can't wait to see more.

We left off with Mel making her escape and Ironworks defecting from Team Evil. Meanwhile John has been busy with the Ringleader, he's pounded on him a bit more and discovered the artifact, devise or whatever that gives the Ringleader his powers. Being the smart guy he is he takes them and sneaks off to recuperate and think of how to take down Team Evil.

I really liked the scene (and the scene directly following) where James and Glow merged to form the new whole personality I am calling Rachael, even though that was the separate personality Glow's name, she didn't claim it outside of their head, so it is likely that is what the new whole will be going by when not powered up, perhaps that's why she never told anyone her name, so they could claim it when they merged, which would imply that Glow did research on what she is early on and planned for that for a very long time, a divergent (defensive) personality that recognized herself as an eventual danger to the primary and searched out the solution that allowed both to continue to exist but as one.... Holy cancer cow! A divergent personality that shows the potential to be a ARC level psychologist, moreover the result of a personality merge guided by the beta personality that shows the potential for that future having "cured" herself(s) the hard but proper way without outside assistance, this will interest Dr Bellows and Dr Oto immensely.

Also neat bit that James's gender (not sex) seems to have always been female, even if she ever realized or was able to come to terms with it. Of course they have to do a little test to see if Rachel has to relearn her tastes, by a plate of Snickerdoodles! And I suddenly realize that test sounds like something a Wondercute member would come up with.... Meh sanity is over rated.


EDIT: I also love how the plate of cookies was one of the few things on Glow's side of their headspace, I dare say that its wonderfully cute, imagine an Energizer/Warper who can teleport and make energy swords, and based on the aim, strength and durability factor (note minor injuries for what should cause major damage) I would hazard is possibly an Exemplar 2 or 3 and the shifting was a result of both personalities having had their own BITs, in Wondercute... Although Rachael doesn't seem to act like the type that would fit that group, yet, certainly not to the extent that Ribbon does. It will be interesting watching Rachael discover who she is, for she is both Glow and James, and yet she is neither, she is new.

Anyone taking bets that Mel wasn't seen by Ironshorts because of a burgeoning mutant power?

I prefer to think that even mutant villains have consciouses, and watching a sick fuck like Simister torture to death an inocent girl was beyond the pale for him. Since he's alone and there is nobody to call him on it, he's just gonna look the other way.


Either that or he is a robot that was ordered to "guard the perimeter from attacks", and stopping an escaping Mel is not part of his orders so he is ignoring her.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Anyone taking bets that Mel wasn't seen by Ironshorts because of a burgeoning mutant power?

Could be, or it could be that Ironworks is a deep cover agent,

I wonder if Mel knows how to properly use an improvised signal mirror, its doubtful she will find a pay phone (911 calls are free on pay phones) or at least a payphone that WORKS in an abandoned industrial zone. logically, she should follow the rail tracks, they may no longer be in service, but they will more than likely lead to a set that IS the question is, will she reach the nearest civilization before she dehydrates in 3 days, my guess is that the hideout was originally a steel mill, Carnegie Steel had a lot of their facilities in the area. the proximity to the rail is like that of many such steel mills

I wonder if Ringleader let himself be taken out? ... What's he wearing, to keep the his Ring Power Gem on his person?

Three days? This is Michigan (or maybe one of the surrounding states), not Nevada, you know. You can probably find signs of human presence within one hour of walking. I just had a look at a random rail line on Google Earth, and there were towns at least every 10 km.

And, regarding Ironworks... it could be that they intended to let Mel escape. After all, Sinsear mentioned a couple times that he was preparing a trap for Ginormous. He needs a bait. Now, the bait could be the logo that he "mistakenly" let visible in one of the photos... or it could be Mel escaping.

Granted, the particular circumstances of Mel's escape seem unlikely to be rehearsed; and Sinsear does not seem the kind to let an opportunity for "fun" such as Mel escape. But maybe when it happened, he decided to roll with it and treat it as a serendipitous opportunity.

If its an old industrial abandoned rail, those towns might not be very heavily inhabited, remember if it was a steal mill, most of the nearby population will have left when it shut down, or have become slums districts, also remember Mel isn't in the best shape herself, 10km isn't much, when you are in good health, but she's been battered and beaten so it may take longer to reach civilization, admittedly unless she sprains her ankle, and starts limping, 3 days should be plenty of time, but considering she's mostly running on adrenaline...

Of course there's the other possibility of why Ironworks "ignored" Mel... this could be part of one of Bombastic's mind games she isn't escaping, she's entertaining.

A Glow in the Darkness Part 2 comments
Poor Dinah, it is the not knowing what is happening to your loved ones which is the worst, imagining what could be happening to them or have happened to them already. Yeah, that trithoptor definitely sounds like a devise, although not too far out there so it could pass the devise test and be patented.

"Welcome to my home."

Ginormous needs lessons in tact, saying that just reminds her own daughter you left them to be a full time superhero.

After Sinsear got away with her dad and friend, Dinah is going to need solid proof she is safe from Sinsear and his goons instead of a promise. And there were two ladies involved in the attack, Bombastic and...the woman with the steampunk look. D'oh! Purple dress plus odd bronze decorations, the Bronze Lady is the woman with the steampunk look who captured Glow. And she thinks Glow is the one who attacked Ginormous' family, they need to work on their communications and Intel gathering skills.

Mom is going to interrogate the prisoner, Dinah thinking it is Bombastic and wanting to see her punished. Unique cells for different types of prisoners, at least they used their intelligence thinking those up. Crud! I got the facts straight, been holding Glow thinking she attacked the family, Bronze Lady better get an earful for this blunder. *slaps forehead* Just because someone refuses to talk or give you their name doesn't make them a villain. Bronze Lady should have gotten a description of the woman who attacked them, instead of assuming and making things worse.

Yikes! Something which makes Glow angry, figures it would be their mom who triggered that reaction. And Glow lets it all out, not caring if their mother knows the truth anymore. No wonder she is angry, she sees Ginormous as having let Sinsear do all those things to James and failed, both as a superhero and as a mother. And after all that Ginormous still doesn't get what Glow is implying, probably too in shock to process it or even think it possible.

Ouch, never knowing that Glow took on all the pain and suffering so James wouldn't have to, poor Dinah is going to be a mess when this is all over. And to see his mom for the first time in years like this, James is going to be needing a lot therapy.

A bucket! And only bandaged his wounds up, no proper medical care, by the end of this the villains had better be locked up or dead. Wait, Ginormous didn't have powers when they met and only 5'6", is she is an Origin or am I misreading what John is saying. Wishing to be a princess and now locked up like a video game princess waiting to be rescued, bet even when she was little she never imagined this happening.

Bombastic, the psycho cat, the psychoest cat I know. How anyone could work with someone like Sinsear is beyond me, with what he does seems like the kind of guy if you make a mistake or let someone escape he would take it out on you. Sinsear is barely alive or at least barely survived his encounter with Ginormous, yet still does all this. Guess he hasn't heard revenge is a sucker's game.

Ah, the eyes, no matter what the eyes can show what kind of person someone is. Sinsear is worse than I imagined, twisted monster without an ounce of compassion or mercy. Team up to take down heroes who have vexed them in the past, and torture and kill you if you renege on the deal; this whole group needs to be taken down hard. Danger Man and Crucibelle, wonder where they are from.

Trying to drink her troubles away, Sarah is going to regret that later. Okay, I don't care how attractive a male is or chiseled his looks, using the codename Adonis just says huge ego to anyone who hears it. And Sarah is refusing to listen to Eliza, focusing on the bad things instead of the good. Her kids are alive and well, they have a chance to save John and Mel, and yes Glow exist but least she isn't a self-destructive personality who wishes to harm James.

Guess I was misreading what John said earlier, she was a mutant but hadn't taken on the identity of Ginormous yet when they first met. Guess having a power and not using it would be hard for most people, especially after having a taste of being a superhero. Sinsear was a sadist pretending to be a vigilante to rationalize his actions; a psycho from the start, should have sent in someone who could counter his fire powers. Burning down his own home to escape capture, then blaming Sarah and the police for the death of his girlfriend and unborn child. He could probably kill someone and rationalize it away that it was their fault somehow.

6 weeks of torturing her kid and he sent her pictures!?! Should have made doubly sure he was dead; monsters like him need to be put down. Divorced because of her keeping her superheroing a secret and endangering her family in the process, ouch. And not even being able to look at her own son with feeling guilt, double ouch. And feeling like nothing but a failure for all of this; she needs to get her spirits back up if she is going to be any help when they locate Sinsear's lair. Hiding behind her size all this time, only to break down and cry into her friend's arms, now I'm feeling sorry for her.

And James blames himself for everything that happened instead of the true culprit; Sinsear and his allies. Clinging to desperate hope is sometimes all you have in life to keep holding on.

"I can't fail him again," James' mom whispered tearfully. "I can't let that monster have John too..."

Ouch, I actually felt the pain in her voice. Though I guess it is something James needed to hear.

Jealous over his mom's best friend knowing her better than he does; I can relate a little. The original large barge/artificial island was found floating and they don't know who the original creator of their Liberty Island is. Sounds like mystery to investigate. Wonder how the Bronze Lady's husband is and his codename. Talk of him has me curious.

Freezing up whenever he remembers Sinsear, even the monster's death won't make his nightmares and memories go away. Guessing the Bronze Lady is used to his mother keeping what is troubling her hidden most of the time. And James is no longer frozen with fear, Sinsear is going to regret ever coming back into their lives.

So that is what Sinsear's twisted outlook is, that everyone is deep down evil and wicked and deserving of his brand of punishment. Makes me sick to my stomach thinking about how someone can come to that conclusion. Sinsear in constant agony due to being stepped on by Ginormous, yet survived. He is tougher than a cockroach to kill!

Teaming up for revenge on superheroes, bad idea. Once word gets out who is in the group and who they are targeting, the remaining superheroes and their allies will be prepared. With the build-up of how evil Sinsear is and what he has done in the past, along with his plans, if he doesn't die by the end of this it will be a let down.

Fun banter between the siblings, nice to see them getting along so well. At least Sarah can ham it up and act goofy, trying to deal with the pain the only way she knows how. Oh crud! Eliza is on the mainland all alone, she could be ambushed by Sinsear's allies. I know some people don't like certain foods, but how can you not like tomato soup to go with grilled cheese sandwiches, they are perfect for dipping into the soup.

If they could get the power gem off of Ringleader, that is one threat down. Ironworks just seems to be about random destruction, but could have an unseen goal, wonder what his source of powers is. Bombastic, her actions and words have proven her to be every bit the lunatic her file states she is. Fought two superhero teams and still hasn't been locked up, she seems like the most dangerous of the group.

At least Bronze Lady wasn't ambushed while out on her own. Still Sinsear is using the same old tactic of pictures to taunt Ginormous. Guess his ego won't let him stop, even though it lead to his being found the last time. And Sarah has a sharp eye, never leave any kind of sign or logo in the picture if you don't want your location traced. So obsessed with revenge, Sinsear made a rookie mistake.

Writing that makes no sense and keeps shifting and changing, common in dreams. Only a rare few, even with lucid dreaming, can read even a little in dreams. James is in his own mindscape and interacting with Glow, happened sooner than I thought it would. Oh boy, treatment of people with dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as multiple personality disorder, is a long and drawn out process that takes years if not decades, if it even works at all. Trying to make a personality simply go away tends to only make things worse.

Ouch, poor Glow, living like that all these years, rejected by someone she is a part of out of fear and embarrassment. Oh boy, Glow's only purpose is to protect James, yet to not save his father and friend from Sinsear would harm James. And there is a loophole! Lending him her power to save his father and friend, if he wishes to fight back. But what will happen to Glow or James in the process, will she simply loan him the power or will they integrate. But for her to have a name already, that would mean something big for James. Guess I will keep reading and see if my hunch is correct.

His mother's middle name and she was his imaginary friend as a child, a lot to take in at once. In the fight with the 3 bullies, her body suddenly felt right. A dream come true for any transsexual. All those memories, lost and forgotten or only Rachael's, at this rate integration is the only thing which can happen or James would be lost completely in the torrent. Had me tearing up as James fought to deal with the memories of his torture by Sinsear, all so he can save the ones he loves.

Screaming with his eyes opened and James' eyes glowing like Glow's do, dang. Never change this slow, definitely integrating with each other; too bad poor Dinah and mom have no idea what is going on. An hour to change and still asleep, that must have wiped James/Glow/Rachael out big time.

"I'm a girl..."

That should have been clue one that it isn't Glow, despite the body.

Remembering everything, especially the torture by Sinsear, I'm surprised she wasn't out for another hour or 2. And integrated, Glow and James together, Rachael. Tears of joy at being whole, definitely a mtf transsexual with that reaction at the new and probably permanent body.

Not going to hurt her, what does Ringleader call hitting Mel repeatedly. Twisted mindset that doesn't see that as hurting her. And following someone's orders when you find them distasteful simply because they are helping you with your own problem is the act of a true coward. And I can't believe Ringleader fell for the old damsel in distress, begging for mercy routine.

Wait, what? Ironworks simply let Mel get away. What reason could he have for doing that, simple disinterest, only following Sinsear's direct orders for now and anything else he simply lets slide, or a glimpse of some form of morality beneath the armor. But now what will Mel do, how can she get help and lead them back to the warehouse in time to save John. Because once Sinsear finds out she escaped, he is going to move operations fast, if he isn't a complete idiot.

Dreamer wrote: A Glow in the Darkness Part 2 comments


Wait, what? Ironworks simply let Mel get away. What reason could he have for doing that, simple disinterest, only following Sinsear's direct orders for now and anything else he simply lets slide, or a glimpse of some form of morality beneath the armor. But now what will Mel do, how can she get help and lead them back to the warehouse in time to save John. Because once Sinsear finds out she escaped, he is going to move operations fast, if he isn't a complete idiot.

I don't think she actually did escape, I think they're toying with her, the one of the few things worse than being imprisoned like that, is thinking you've escaped when it turns out, they LET you think that for the sake of having fun

Edit, Bombastic is a psychopathic cat, to her Mel is a toy mouse that moves, this is a sick game of catch and release.

She doesn't need to walk to the central Detroit police department; she just needs to find someone, anyone, who can call 911 for her. That is pretty much any person who wouldn't be a dick (or worse) to a young teen girl. Any farmhouse which shows signs of inhabitation will do, you don't even have to reach a town. And even in slums there are plenty of people who would help a girl who claims to have been kidnapped. Granted, there are some dicks too.

Sir Lee wrote: She doesn't need to walk to the central Detroit police department; she just needs to find someone, anyone, who can call 911 for her. That is pretty much any person who wouldn't be a dick (or worse) to a young teen girl. Any farmhouse which shows signs of inhabitation will do, you don't even have to reach a town. And even in slums there are plenty of people who would help a girl who claims to have been kidnapped. Granted, there are some dicks too.

True, of course there's still the possibility that Bombastic isn't far behind her, they DID decide that Mel would be "entertainment" and Bombastic sees people as toys, soo.... Yeah you don't have to be as twisted as Elrod to figure out what that means, Mel didn't escape at all, she just thinks she did, which will make it all the more painful phycologically when she figures out how helpless she really is, that her captors LET her escape just so that they could have fun capturing her again.

At least Bronze Lady wasn't ambushed while out on her own. Still Sinsear is using the same old tactic of pictures to taunt Ginormous. Guess his ego won't let him stop, even though it lead to his being found the last time. And Sarah has a sharp eye, never leave any kind of sign or logo in the picture if you don't want your location traced. So obsessed with revenge, Sinsear made a rookie mistake.

That's not a rookie mistake.

However, unless Bombastic has powers we're unaware of, she's now known to produce hallucinations - she's described as having claws, regen and concussion blasts. Added onto which, she's mentioned a previous 'toy' was decapitated and she keeps the head as a souvenir - Sinsear wants her alive - at least until Sarah turns up.

Thinking of which, he's somehow expecting her to turn up with both James and Dinah in tow. The business card may have been intentional (he is, after all, working on a significantly reduced timescale to what he'd like - namely until the rest of Sarah's team get back from their current mission), but then again setting off for the location immediately after seeing that, she'd be unlikely to bring either James or Dinah in tow, so perhaps he was expecting to drag it out a bit longer and torture John and Mel some more before sending the ultimatum to bring both children or dad and Mel die horribly.

After all, he still doesn't have full mobility, so may not have supervised every aspect of the setup. Ringleader and Ironworks may be cases of Even Evil Has Standards - ordinary villainry and even going after heroes is acceptable, but torturing / killing their families is a step too far. Going with this theory, the pair are only staying with Sinsear while the going's good, but will readily jump ship if things look as though they're heading South (and given Ironworks' reputation for property damage but presumably not theft or personal injury, may be a rent-a-villain who's paid to turn up and make entry easier for whoever comes next than a true standalone operator - heck, he may even be hired for insurance scams where the business wants to repair / rebuild their place but can't get it past the Board of Directors, so they hire him to make a more persuasive case).

It's also possible that with the compressed timescale, Sinsear's making mistakes he wouldn't do if he knew Sarah was a lone operator or the team were likely to be away for an extended period of time.

Do we even know that Ironworks is actually a person. Its possible that the it is just a robotic suit. My thought was that maybe it was only programmed to guard against people trying to get in. So it ignored Mel becasue she fell outside its paramaters as she wasn't trying to get in.

I got the impression that Ironworks let her go, under instructions. Unless he expects for his partners to get caught, he needs them to help him get revenge. So honking off Sinsear, and Bombastic would be a very bad idea.

Hmmmm. In the Round and Round fanfictin the Liberty League has the following members.
Super Star
The Gentleman
Bronze Lady
Adonis
Force Majeure
Ginormous
Twist

But Ginormous wasn't there for the takedown of Pinball and Sphere.

but the Bronze Lady was. I suspect that Glow int the Darkness is happening before Round & Round. I guess we'll know when the rest of the Team shows up, based on weather or not Adonis is still alive.

Glow is definitely before Round, or at least their appearance in Round, which is about two weeks later.

Now to go reread Absinthe 2 to see if Glow is in the background somewhere.

mittfh wrote: However, unless Bombastic has powers we're unaware of, she's now known to produce hallucinations - she's described as having claws, regen and concussion blasts. Added onto which, she's mentioned a previous 'toy' was decapitated and she keeps the head as a souvenir - Sinsear wants her alive - at least until Sarah turns up.

Thinking of which, he's somehow expecting her to turn up with both James and Dinah in tow. The business card may have been intentional (he is, after all, working on a significantly reduced timescale to what he'd like - namely until the rest of Sarah's team get back from their current mission), but then again setting off for the location immediately after seeing that, she'd be unlikely to bring either James or Dinah in tow, so perhaps he was expecting to drag it out a bit longer and torture John and Mel some more before sending the ultimatum to bring both children or dad and Mel die horribly.

After all, he still doesn't have full mobility, so may not have supervised every aspect of the setup. Ringleader and Ironworks may be cases of Even Evil Has Standards - ordinary villainry and even going after heroes is acceptable, but torturing / killing their families is a step too far. Going with this theory, the pair are only staying with Sinsear while the going's good, but will readily jump ship if things look as though they're heading South (and given Ironworks' reputation for property damage but presumably not theft or personal injury, may be a rent-a-villain who's paid to turn up and make entry easier for whoever comes next than a true standalone operator - heck, he may even be hired for insurance scams where the business wants to repair / rebuild their place but can't get it past the Board of Directors, so they hire him to make a more persuasive case).

It's also possible that with the compressed timescale, Sinsear's making mistakes he wouldn't do if he knew Sarah was a lone operator or the team were likely to be away for an extended period of time.

She doesn't have to produce hallucinations, ever read the short story "The most Dangerous Game" she may have physically escaped, but she is being closely followed, for sport, the ultimate mind game, give the target hope, and crush it to a pulp.

I've been thinking, at this point Rachael/Glow's legal standing is interesting, to say the least, thanks to the actions of James/Glow (before merge) on one hand you have the gang that put Jame's out of his last job, which on its own would have nebulous effect, then you have Glow "disarming" the assholes who tried to commit vehicular homicide on James, that can easily be aggravated assault and destruction, as for the gang that tried to capture them, you have self defense. Now as there are credible witnesses who can attest to Rachael's identity as James Merrick so she can file the police report on the attempted vehicular homicide but by the time they rescue Mel and John it'll be hard to prove, however, that doesn't stop the legal maneuver of offering to drop the vehicular homicide attempt, if they drop the damages, this could be made easier by Glow assisting in rescuing a police chief's daughter but then you risk the "kid sidekick" laws.. What a mess.

Valentine wrote: I got the impression that Ironworks let her go, under instructions. Unless he expects for his partners to get caught, he needs them to help him get revenge. So honking off Sinsear, and Bombastic would be a very bad idea.

Hmmmm. In the Round and Round fanfictin the Liberty League has the following members.
Super Star
The Gentleman
Bronze Lady
Adonis
Force Majeure
Ginormous
Twist

But Ginormous wasn't there for the takedown of Pinball and Sphere.

Well, John would be recovering from injuries, so SOMEONE has to take Rachael to Whateley.

looking at the powers page on the Wiki, classifying Glow's powers is complicated, either Faux-Energizer with the Warper trait or Faux-Warper with the energizer trait, but neither of them explain the form shifting. Since they all seem to be interconnected, I have to guess that the shifting is a variant of the Warper size change trait, but its hard to say WA:li;vb, and a question mark for the shifting

Wow, Glow is such a creative character. Morpheus has brought a new approach to PTSD and masterfully handled James' development. While I was glad to see James growth into a whole self with Glow, I would have liked to see how s/he handles life at Whateley with a dual identity.

I think Glow IS a warper -- she can teleport unaided, even when her power level is down, can't she?
As for the Energizer trait, I wouldn't call it "faux" as much as "specialized". She can absorb energy, but only from her gateway dimension.
And a very limited form of shifter.

Sir Lee wrote: I think Glow IS a warper -- she can teleport unaided, even when her power level is down, can't she?
As for the Energizer trait, I wouldn't call it "faux" as much as "specialized". She can absorb energy, but only from her gateway dimension.
And a very limited form of shifter.

Well the thing that we don't know is if she's really a true shapeshifter, which I don't think she is, I think that she might be a suppressed exemplar come to think of it, like Jade is a suppressed shifter, the Glow body seems like an ideal exemplar BIT, the shifting back and forth would be that Glow didn't let the BIT fully express itself when James was awake, this would explain why the last change was so slow, the BIT was making a all the more subtle changes like DNA and such, remember controlled shifters tend to need focus to stay in a non-base form, or at least trigger a change, if Glow is the alternate form, then they should not have changed in their sleep, but if James was the alternate form, then sleeping as Glow should have been common.

I think a warper trait is storing the dimensional energy somehow, her appetite doesn't seem to match an Energizer's though half a plate of cookies may beg to differ and say she's a really low level Energizer even if she gets her energy through a different mechanic than most Energizers but in my opinion, it's too closely tied together with her warper abilities to be a truly separate trait

marie7342231 wrote: Wow, Glow is such a creative character. Morpheus has brought a new approach to PTSD and masterfully handled James' development. While I was glad to see James growth into a whole self with Glow, I would have liked to see how s/he handles life at Whateley with a dual identity.

Well Rachael wouldn't be the first character in Whateley to have multiple personalities, look at Circuit Breaker, AKA Cyberkitty and Petra, Aka Merry, Mai, Chad and Chaddy. They held 4 way arguments, with themselves

mhalpern wrote:

marie7342231 wrote: Wow, Glow is such a creative character. Morpheus has brought a new approach to PTSD and masterfully handled James' development. While I was glad to see James growth into a whole self with Glow, I would have liked to see how s/he handles life at Whateley with a dual identity.

Well Rachael wouldn't be the first character in Whateley to have multiple personalities, look at Circuit Breaker, AKA Cyberkitty and Petra, Aka Merry, Mai, Chad and Chaddy. They held 4 way arguments, with themselves

How about Jade, she has arguments with herself too, and Jinn definitely has a different personality.

Valentine wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

marie7342231 wrote: Wow, Glow is such a creative character. Morpheus has brought a new approach to PTSD and masterfully handled James' development. While I was glad to see James growth into a whole self with Glow, I would have liked to see how s/he handles life at Whateley with a dual identity.

Well Rachael wouldn't be the first character in Whateley to have multiple personalities, look at Circuit Breaker, AKA Cyberkitty and Petra, Aka Merry, Mai, Chad and Chaddy. They held 4 way arguments, with themselves

How about Jade, she has arguments with herself too, and Jinn definitely has a different personality.

Are they more similar to the Glow-James situation, as Jinn's like Glow in the emotionless sector? Or have their personalities deviated too much from 'normal' to really compare?

Or would Circuit Breaker be a better comparison? ... And then there was Sara with her Kellith Head-thing... ...

Now I want to figure out how to write a Multi-personality club group Micro Scene, like the Unaging group one... Can't figure it out though. If anyone wants, they can take it...

I think this is more of a "character" discussion than a "story arc" discussion, so maybe we are in the wrong forum.
Anyway, James/Glow's situation might be more similar to Chimera... or Diamondback...

Malady wrote:

Valentine wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

marie7342231 wrote: Wow, Glow is such a creative character. Morpheus has brought a new approach to PTSD and masterfully handled James' development. While I was glad to see James growth into a whole self with Glow, I would have liked to see how s/he handles life at Whateley with a dual identity.

Well Rachael wouldn't be the first character in Whateley to have multiple personalities, look at Circuit Breaker, AKA Cyberkitty and Petra, Aka Merry, Mai, Chad and Chaddy. They held 4 way arguments, with themselves

How about Jade, she has arguments with herself too, and Jinn definitely has a different personality.

Are they more similar to the Glow-James situation, as Jinn's like Glow in the emotionless sector? Or have their personalities deviated too much from 'normal' to really compare?

Or would Circuit Breaker be a better comparison? ... And then there was Sara with her Kellith Head-thing... ...

Now I want to figure out how to write a Multi-personality club group Micro Scene, like the Unaging group one... Can't figure it out though. If anyone wants, they can take it...

I imagine a topic for conversation would be "Difficulties with Pronouns"

Sir Lee wrote: I think this is more of a "character" discussion than a "story arc" discussion, so maybe we are in the wrong forum.
Anyway, James/Glow's situation might be more similar to Chimera... or Diamondback...

Character introduction story topics tend to double as character discussion until the source material for the character discussion is more than just the introductory story, a dedicated Glow topic right now would die out or overlap significantly with this one,

Story side of things, MCO Grace from Morphs fanfics is mentioned in Part 2...

As soon as I saw the Bronze Lady I was thinking, 'did she capture Glow?' Nice bit of confusion there, which makes a lot of sense considering the situation.
The character interaction was great, the tension of the kids seeing their mom, the two of them trying to relax after everything. Even Ringmaster explaining to Mel why he was doing it, was well done.
Describing Ginormous feelings nad reactions to everything was superb, I actually felt sorry for her several times, even though I think she was almost entirely in the wrong.
I was expecting the melding to be more violent, but that probably would have been gratutious, so the still tense and well described remembering everything worked well enough.
So yeah, nothing much to add, just want to say GREAT WORK.

About 3 quarters of the way through Absinthe 2 Twist shows up at Poe and mames a comment about settling in a new student.

Was that an early form of Glow?

I'm not sure if I'm making the correct inference or not, but it seems to me that James was transgender for at least the better part of their life, but in accordance with the whole "protection" thing, seems to have been filed away in the Glow identity.

Good to see that Glow isn't entirely sociopathic at least, and that finally she becomes whole again.

Seeing a few more canonical ties to the still non-canon Round and Round and Absinthe. I hadn't realized that Ginormous would be with the group that meets Sphere (which for all we know is where they are right now - The Bronze Lady might not be joining them in this version), while there's mention of Crucibelle, who did the magical testing for Absinthe over in Seattle.

Ametros wrote: I'm not sure if I'm making the correct inference or not, but it seems to me that James was transgender for at least the better part of their life, but in accordance with the whole "protection" thing, seems to have been filed away in the Glow identity.

Good to see that Glow isn't entirely sociopathic at least, and that finally she becomes whole again.

Seeing a few more canonical ties to the still non-canon Round and Round and Absinthe. I hadn't realized that Ginormous would be with the group that meets Sphere (which for all we know is where they are right now - The Bronze Lady might not be joining them in this version), while there's mention of Crucibelle, who did the magical testing for Absinthe over in Seattle.

I picked up on the transgender thing too, and Glow (as the separate personality) is not sociopathic, she may have asocial tendencies, but that may have more to do with the fact she has a purpose

mhalpern wrote: I picked up on the transgender thing too, and Glow (as the separate personality) is not sociopathic, she may have asocial tendencies, but that may have more to do with the fact she has a purpose

The sociopath comment was more a continuation of my post following the first part, where through what limited amount we saw of Glow, she came across as potentially sociopathic. Now we know more about the situation (and how it has shifted), that is pretty much not the case now.

Ametros wrote:

mhalpern wrote: I picked up on the transgender thing too, and Glow (as the separate personality) is not sociopathic, she may have asocial tendencies, but that may have more to do with the fact she has a purpose

The sociopath comment was more a continuation of my post following the first part, where through what limited amount we saw of Glow, she came across as potentially sociopathic. Now we know more about the situation (and how it has shifted), that is pretty much not the case now.

Very true, Glow seemed to have the ability to at least partially separate herself from her emotions, it seems she used it to avoid the situation where she couldn't leave someone behind if it meant putting James at a greater risk than necessary, which is a trait that has been learned by many special ops forces of all colors and varieties, it will be interesting to see if Rachael retains that ability, and if so, to what extent? Before James/Glow used it as an ultimate emotional defense mechanism, as we saw with the fight where Mel and John were captured, the emotional wall's main opening is for Dinah, though she did react when John was in trouble, now though as Rachael/Glow, that same mechanism may very easily operate in the reverse manner, rather than to get out of danger, and err on the side of self-preservation over group-preservation, it may cause her to err on the side of group-preservation, or mission completion. It is a useful, but dangerous ability to have, top priority for Gunny, and the Team tactics crew for her will be teaching her how to make the distinction on when to put herself in that state to protect others and when to do it to keep herself alive, after all THAT state of mind is where survival instincts are a conscious decision, or rather where one can actively choose which set of survival instincts to follow, the group survival or the individual survival. She can already get into that state easily, the part where it gets tricky is where the situation changes to where the previously chosen form of survival is no longer a viable option, I don't know if she can change modes in that state. I worry because that kind of separation is a double edged sword, it can make someone far more effective, and keep them alive to fight another day, but it can also get them killed or cause them to miss the best options, should they get caught in the wrong mindset.

James/Glow was always in the "self-preservation" form of that state, this allowed John and Mel to get captured when a delaying action may have been enough to prevent that, knowing that backup was on the way. as in instead of being a distraction, she could have helped escort Dinah, Mel and John to safety keeping them in sight, by diverting Bombastic such a distance, she left herself an opening to escape and allowed Ironworks to move in, even if Bronze Lady didn't capture her, her actions were geared towards self preservation tactics. The question becomes, what happens when Rachael/Glow has to run and is in the "group-preservation" form of the same state? Will she be able to do so?

One thing to note is Glow has ranged options, categorically, she should be more of a blaster/ mover based on her power set, but she fights like a brick, preferring to go close in with her sword, and while she IS somewhat brickish when charged up, she seems to play to her weakness, I know this shows how untrained she is, but she teleports and has ranged attacks, moreover unlike most teleporters where teleporting is at least somewhat taxing, she gains energy in the process, yet that seems all she uses it for, I mean she does use it for evasion and clearly is capable of safely coming out in close proximity to a target, but she could be more effective with it, Ito would ream her for not using her teleportation to tag her opponents at unguarded angles as she's charging up for more powerful attacks, rather than charge teleportation being a separate action, she has rapid and precise teleportation, which feeds her strength, speed, and energy attacks, which would make her very powerful, IF she used those abilities together one attack leading into another but as is, she's gonna get hurt in Part 3.

Also who's placing bets for when Rachael gets hurt in Part 3 on who's gonna be the one to shout "James!"? Just for Sinsear to figure out who she is...

Glow's "Pronoun problems" made me think "she HAS to meet J-Team" but I am a little surprised at the end, no going to Whateley?

mhalpern wrote: Glow's "Pronoun problems" made me think "she HAS to meet J-Team" but I am a little surprised at the end, no going to Whateley?

I thought the exact same things.
And I was really impressed with how smart Lodestone was, I hope we get to see her at Whateley. That type of intelligent thinking is sady lacking in many villains.

Kristin Darken wrote: She isn't the first mutant in the universe not to go to Whateley.

True, but it does mean that she's less likely to appear in non-Glow stories

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote: Glow's "Pronoun problems" made me think "she HAS to meet J-Team" but I am a little surprised at the end, no going to Whateley?

I thought the exact same things.
And I was really impressed with how smart Lodestone was, I hope we get to see her at Whateley. That type of intelligent thinking is sady lacking in many villains.

I don't know, Diablick made like a bandit at Cinci, with the spoils themselves being at break even. then again there's thugs like Sparkler who don't plan on any of the bystanders being more powerful than they are

So, Mel has a power gem, and Rachel isn't going to Whateley... yet. Also, the Liberty League now has the lineup seen in Round and Round.

And I must say, I didn't expect Ironworks to turn out to be a teenage girl ferrokinetic. She reminds me a bit of Unity from Sentinels of the Multiverse, powerwise and generally being a teen girl. Lodestone is a pretty good name. She seems like a fun character - I hope she goes far, and doesn't go down the villain route too far. Why do I suspect that her "nemesis" is Powerfist?

I still think that Mel can turn invisible - her escape doesn't seem to have been planned, and Mel was hiding with impressive ease during the big fight. Combine that with the versatility that the rings seem to have, and I think she'll go far.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: So, Mel has a power gem, and Rachel isn't going to Whateley... yet. Also, the Liberty League now has the lineup seen in Round and Round.

And I must say, I didn't expect Ironworks to turn out to be a teenage girl ferrokinetic. She reminds me a bit of Unity from Sentinels of the Multiverse, powerwise and generally being a teen girl. Lodestone is a pretty good name. She seems like a fun character - I hope she goes far, and doesn't go down the villain route too far. Why do I suspect that her "nemesis" is Powerfist?

I still think that Mel can turn invisible - her escape doesn't seem to have been planned, and Mel was hiding with impressive ease during the big fight. Combine that with the versatility that the rings seem to have, and I think she'll go far.

Or Maxine just isn't a killer, or saw it as an oportunity to grab power, think about it, Mel was under Ringleader's watch, her escaping lowers the credibility of the one on prisoner watch duty.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: I still think that Mel can turn invisible - her escape doesn't seem to have been planned, and Mel was hiding with impressive ease during the big fight. Combine that with the versatility that the rings seem to have, and I think she'll go far.

This would also explain how Rachel/Glow missed seeing Mel at first when she was scouting ahead. If Mel can become situationally invisible in some way, perhaps when she's focused on trying to stay hidden, but then becomes visible again when she's not focusing on that, it would make sense.

mhalpern wrote:

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote: Glow's "Pronoun problems" made me think "she HAS to meet J-Team" but I am a little surprised at the end, no going to Whateley?

I thought the exact same things.
And I was really impressed with how smart Lodestone was, I hope we get to see her at Whateley. That type of intelligent thinking is sady lacking in many villains.

I don't know, Diablick made like a bandit at Cinci, with the spoils themselves being at break even. then again there's thugs like Sparkler who don't plan on any of the bystanders being more powerful than they are

I meant the genre in general. Whateley does pretty well with having smart villains, or at least villains with common sense. And this girl seems to definitely be near the top for common sense, hopefully she has the smarts to go far.

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

Domoviye wrote:

mhalpern wrote: Glow's "Pronoun problems" made me think "she HAS to meet J-Team" but I am a little surprised at the end, no going to Whateley?

I thought the exact same things.
And I was really impressed with how smart Lodestone was, I hope we get to see her at Whateley. That type of intelligent thinking is sady lacking in many villains.

I don't know, Diablick made like a bandit at Cinci, with the spoils themselves being at break even. then again there's thugs like Sparkler who don't plan on any of the bystanders being more powerful than they are

I meant the genre in general. Whateley does pretty well with having smart villains, or at least villains with common sense. And this girl seems to definitely be near the top for common sense, hopefully she has the smarts to go far.

Ahh yes, she IS a competent Villain, and not in the "do something stupid because it keeps working" way, speaking of which I am betting Madcap is a mangler and doesn't even know it, and the power items coming to life is part of her probability warping.

Interesting notes:
the Warper and Energizer traits feed off different "energies"
Glow is desperate need of a "Landing Strategy"
Rachael has about a week and a half to two weeks as of the end of the chapter before she finds out how complete her change is if I am guessing correctly... forecast says lots of teleportation and energy beams.

My thought on Mel's escape is simply... Maxine is a girl, about the same age bracket as Mel. It's easier to push oneself to plan the demise of the guy who (allegedly) killed your dad; it's a different matter to bring someone who you can't help but see as a peer to torture and death. And Mel's only "fault" was being a friend of the children of the person who her partner blamed. That's three levels of removal, too many for most non-psychopatic people.

And Maxine does not strike me really as a psychopatic killer. I think she is sorta going through the motions of what she thinks her father would expect from her. I hope she finds some other sort of catharsis before she becomes a killer in fact.

Well Rachael thinks she knows how to fight with her powers, and being a self-taught teenager doesn't help, fact in the matter is, she's sloppy, knows almost nothing about powers other than her own, so Twist will be very helpful, lets hope this doesn't make her overlook the prospect of holdouts.

As for Mel, if there is a reason why she wasn't noticed by anyone save for when she wanted to be, I don't think its invisibility, I think a clue was given here:
"From the corner of her eye, Glow saw Mel, emerging from behind a shipping container with a metal pipe in her hand. A moment later, Mel swung the pipe like a baseball bat, hitting Ringleader from behind and sending him face first into the ground. The glowing rings holding Ginormous in place vanished, and Glow’s mother dropped to the ground, where she immediately began growing."
If she does have a mutant power, I think it works less like invisibility and more like the Perception Filters of Dr Who, where you can only NOTICE her out of the corner of your eye or if you already know she's there, the tricky thing about invisibility is seeing your hands. or not seeing your shadow, and when you interact with something that isn't invisible, you set off alarm bells, but if you just don't get noticed or don't seem out of place, you only have to worry about automated systems.
I do wonder if the Doctor is right about the denial or is just not used to having changelings or at least changelings that are comfortable with the change.
I do wonder, for the few going the "Tutored by heroes" route (currently just Rachael and Stacy) will they cross paths?

Or Mel was just hiding amongst all the shipping containers and other junk on the property.

Valentine wrote: Or Mel was just hiding amongst all the shipping containers and other junk on the property.

Bingo.

Interesting note about Glow's dual powers and how one feeds the other through use, while having its own reserve. Should make for some interesting combat dynamics - especially given Morpheus' proven history in creative power use.

Definitely agreeing with the others about Lodestone and her motives. It seems that she's a lost child, barring her desire to avenge her father's death. I was surprised most by the fact that she appears to be another Sidhe, to be honest.

And as for Glow's future, it seems that for the moment at least she's not going to Whateley, but it appears left open for that to change in future. There's mention about how she might be in denial, and she definitely might feel alone and set apart by her gender change. But that's where Twist might come in, right? Get some peer support at Whateley, if required. Glow definitely seems to be staying put for now, but that's not to say things won't change.

I have to wonder about the choice of date to set this story. I mean, if she wasn't going to be at Whateley by beginning of classes, there was no particular need to set the story in August. I think Morpheus chose the date as another red herring.

Would I do that?

Sir Lee wrote: I have to wonder about the choice of date to set this story. I mean, if she wasn't going to be at Whateley by beginning of classes, there was no particular need to set the story in August. I think Morpheus chose the date as another red herring.

Except that's LATE August, DAYS before most schools start, including Whateley, however, the range that Liberty League covers would be a short commute to central Ohio by air, and well, a little competition is healthy for learning, provided it's controlled.

Well, there's precedent in canon for an expedited admission process. I mean, consider both Seraphim and Jolt -- they were enrolled around Christmas and were at Whateley for classes on the first day of Winter term. And that's at a time when lots of people would *not* be doing their jobs. Ms. Carson is not one to turn down students for silly bureaucratic reasons, if they need the help Whateley offers. And Glow certainly would qualify.

Yeah, Ayla and Ribbon had a few weeks more -- they heard about Whateley around the beginning of August. But both of them had issues that warranted extra caution on the part of the school (the Goodkind surname and Ribbon's past links to H1!), which wouldn't apply to Glow (on the contrary, she would get a direct recommendation from bona fide superheroes, which would simplify the background checks). So it would not be too much of a stretch to have Glow there on Labor Day with the other newbies, if that was what Morpheus intended.

mhalpern wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: I have to wonder about the choice of date to set this story. I mean, if she wasn't going to be at Whateley by beginning of classes, there was no particular need to set the story in August. I think Morpheus chose the date as another red herring.

Except that's LATE August, DAYS before most schools start, including Whateley, however, the range that Liberty League covers would be a short commute to central Ohio by air, and well, a little competition is healthy for learning, provided it's controlled.

A few dates for students entering Fall 2007.
Knockoff sent her application on Aug 25.
Ribbon met with Mrs. Carson on Aug 18.
Roulette sent her application about Aug 9.
Shine was accepted in July
Esoteric arrives at Whateley on Aug 30, Phase and Esoteric's roommate, Archon, are already present.
Mischief accepted in July.
Danny, and others expected to attend in Fall of 2007 all manifested earlier and presumably got applications in earlier.

Morpheus wrote: Would I do that?

Yes, you would.

Sir Lee wrote: I have to wonder about the choice of date to set this story. I mean, if she wasn't going to be at Whateley by beginning of classes, there was no particular need to set the story in August. I think Morpheus chose the date as another red herring.

Not exactly I think.

In Round and Round we have Twist being in the Liberty league and no Ginourmous, but it seems to be set in mid 2007 with Dana arriving after the normal year starts.

While Round and Round is not yet cannon, I suspect that the date in Glow is to line up with Twist being in the LL in Round and Round.

It's likely Glow will start off (at least) with private tuition, and may / may not transfer to Whateley later. After all, not every mutant in need of specialist training in their powers is likely to need the full 3+ years and it's possible that in exceptional cases, someone can attend for only a year or two (in any year - Fresh / Soph / Jun / Sen).

Meanwhile, as Mel's 'inherited' Ringleader's Power Gem (as it's implied he was immolated, he's not going to need it any more), it's likely she's going to continue to feature, rather than steadily drifting apart from Rachael and disappearing from the narrative. Maybe she gets into trouble using it or attracts unwanted attention, so ends up being sent for training with the LL...

There's also a (remote?) possibility of Mel having a manifestation event - perhaps during a misadventure with the rings...

It's fun to speculate / bark up epileptic trees

mittfh wrote: It's likely Glow will start off (at least) with private tuition, and may / may not transfer to Whateley later. After all, not every mutant in need of specialist training in their powers is likely to need the full 3+ years and it's possible that in exceptional cases, someone can attend for only a year or two (in any year - Fresh / Soph / Jun / Sen).

Meanwhile, as Mel's 'inherited' Ringleader's Power Gem (as it's implied he was immolated, he's not going to need it any more), it's likely she's going to continue to feature, rather than steadily drifting apart from Rachael and disappearing from the narrative. Maybe she gets into trouble using it or attracts unwanted attention, so ends up being sent for training with the LL...

There's also a (remote?) possibility of Mel having a manifestation event - perhaps during a misadventure with the rings...

It's fun to speculate / bark up epileptic trees

Well, there's the thing about Powers Theory being useful, as a situational awareness thing, especially because she's a Warper, and Warper abilities interact in interesting ways, also gives an opportunity to have Stacy learn the powers stuff without the worry about the abandonment issues associated with Whateley with someone else her age. Also the Madcap gig isn't gonna last, and politically, she CAN'T just stop helping the city, or being noticed, even if legally she shouldn't get involved in superhero stuff, so getting her rated for small aircraft and more specifically VTOL capable aircraft capable of flying in heavily built areas, could be useful, not all members of SPECTRUM can get around easily, and having a vehicle helps if they need to move equipment. From the Glow end I can see 'big momma' (had to, I resisted that one since Part 1) reaching out to find peers for Rachael, tutors are great, bringing Mel aboard would be fine, but Rachael will still be missing out on opportunities to make new friends, and that's an important skill, especially because she's now thrown into a new social structure and is at a disadvantage being an obvious mutant, the options for her to make friends with, to at least form a support buffer of people her age for when she deals with jerks, is small and all the more important, even if as James/Glow Glow was able to emotionally detach herself, that isn't a good idea to do all the time ESPECIALLY not as she's mentally healing and figuring out who she is, so she needs friends her age who didn't know James or Glow, after all how is she supposed to figure out who "Rachael" is if everyone who isn't an authority figure that she knows and talks to will be comparing her to her past selves? They are nice for a start, but they wont help fill in the gaps in her personality left open or smooth out the parts that don't mesh so much, because they will associate her behaviors with either James or Glow, and while Rachael is both, or rather WAS both, she isn't either of them anymore, to find out who she is, more than a shrink who could describe her in clinical terms and somewhat accurately predict how she will respond in certain situations, she needs a friend who would get to know her as she is now.

And Stacy could use a friend who also has to deal with the issues of being a mutant. Besides, "learning with another mutant teenager whom is attached to another superhero team" is a far more reasonable explanation for short term absences of the Silver Ghost than the ridiculousness that the prospect of "going to a boarding school for mutants" is (and the long term absence that goes with it, and Stacy is already home schooled, and absences could be short enough to avoid most suspicion, and provide reasonable explanation for. Addressing the "worries of 'concerned' citizens" in a reasonable, PR friendly manner that doesn't give H-1 any concessions, especially not if the two hero teams switch off on where they send the students. The trick would be as such a set up would grow as more kids who for whatever reason cant go to Whateley (being a social, political or psychological bad idea) pop up, how would it survive without the neutrality protections Whateley has? Unless they actually send the majority of their "applicants" to the academy and act as a front for recruitment offices, keeping only enough for appearances, and of those mainly the ones who have gotten considerable media attention, as in "they've been persistently active, and their situation isn't one where dropping out of the news under the guise of 'protective custody' would fly or the disappearance would be helpful to H-1. "

A Glow in the Darkness Part 3 comments
Should have known the integration of the two personality wouldn't go that smoothly. Still some kinks to work out. Lol, James/Glow would get along great with Jade, at least with the pronoun deal. Love the banter between the siblings, love each other but still get their barbs in. Memories can't hurt you unless you let them, easy to say, not always so easy to do.

I should have seen Dinah teasing about being a girl coming, classic sibling teasing. Now poor Glow is confused, time for a crash course in being a girl from her little sister and mom. Great, I'm pitying Sarah again, she has made a lot of mistakes but is reaching out to her children, trying to make up a little for all the time she has been gone. Only to get it thrown back in her face.

From worrying about rescuing John and Mel, to talk of Glow having a real name and the emotional reaction it got from mom. Any quicker change of emotions there and they could have gotten whiplash. Wonder how John and Mel will react to Glow and James being one now and in Glow's body for good.

Finally! The scumbag's location is found, time to teach them a lesson they will never forget. Oh boy, mom trying to protect her son turned daughter, they are both too stubborn to back down. Rachael's reasons for going should trump safety concerns, without her they are outnumbered and the hostages lives even more at risk when they go to rescue them. And I should have known Rachael would pull a bluff, her mom doesn't know the limitations of Glow's powers, thus doesn't know if she could really teleport all the way to the hideout without exhausting herself. Even in that tense situation Dinah and Rachael can still mess with each other like normal siblings.

Barely ever crash, still not something you want to hear without context. And her own personal boogeyman, that conjures up scary ideas, like what if Sinsear was a boogeyman and could invade your dreams. *shudders* A 4' tall mechanical spider named Beatrice, bwahahaha. Ginormous has a point, codenames help with the intimidation factor or presence. Imagine someone calling Batman by Bruce Wayne instead while he is in costume or Spider-Man by Peter Parker, ruins it.

Mel didn't get that far, hiding in the old shipping containers, guess she was too worried about being hunted down. Yikes, so that is why she is hiding instead of trying to go for help, Ringleader. And poor girl, feeling guilty about leaving John behind when there was nothing she could have done for him at the time. And the stupid building is the trap itself, the major limitation of growth powers, confined spaces and low ceilings.

I hope Glow's fear of Sinsear doesn't cause her to freeze up at a critical moment. While making plans, you are sometimes distracted, not a good thing in enemy territory. Ringleader is going to regret messing with them, doubt his powers are as strong as he thinks they are. Sliced into by an energy sword like Glow's and Bombastic only giggles, I know she is a regen but that had to have hurt a little. And she is learning how to time her blast to hit Glow, not good.

Rapid adaptive size-changing rings, Ringleader is more dangerous than I originally thought. Bronze Lady's blunderbuss is powerful, wonder what it is rated at to take out those rings with just 1 or 2 shots. And the 3rd member of Sinsear's group shows up and complicates things, Ironworks seems a mystery to me, how can something so big and heavy be so fast. Ouch, poor Beatrice got taken down by a one-shot. Ironworks is definately a strong brick.

Everyone is so distracted Mel slipped away unnoticed, with training she could be incredible at stealth. And Bombastic reminds me again why I hate dealing with regenerating opponents! Knocked out of the air but probably not out, otherwise Ringleader's rings would be a lot more dangerous if they could maintain position and remain in existence without him focusing on them.

Yikes! No matter how much you are concerned for your teammates, taking your eyes off your own opponent is a bad idea, as seen with Bombastic landing strikes on Glow. Mel has some good stealth skills already, to sneak up on Ringleader and not him out like that. Now the odds are better. Arrrgggh! I can't believe Bombastic used that childish taunt, she really is nuts. I find such things endearing from Imp, this psycho ruins them. At least she was blasted away even if but for a moment.

Sinsear finally shows his mug, about time. And the image of Glow's boogeyman is brought low by the truth. Darn it! Ironworks is too fast, that isn't power armor or a form of GSD going on, is it. Ouch, knocked down and attacked by Bombastic, plus having Ironworks go at her. Only to be saved by Sinsear's ego, can't have his greatest foe laid low by anyone but himself. Ouch, fight the fear Glow, use it to push yourself into action.

At least Bronze Lady is quick on her feet, though minus a weapon. Growing brick versus metallic brick, who will win in the clash of Ginormous and Ironworks. Bombastic, how do you put down such a strong opponent who heals so fast from anything you hit them with. RIngleader needs to be taken down, hard, along with Sinsear and Bombastic. A teenage girl gets the drop on him and he is vindictive about it, pathetic. Taunting your opponent about going after their family, Sinsear is arrogant and overconfident, that is the worst thing you can do in a fight. It always makes your opponents fight harder.

Nice use of Ironworks as a shield and projectile by Ginormous. Fighting smarter and using the environment. Yes! Glow finally hurt Bombastic enough to make her scream, was waiting for that. The capture web which Bronze Lady used on Glow, good to see it used on Bombastic. And a kick from Ginormous to knock her unconscious, that was just perfect.

Defending against two foes at once, Ginormous definitely has skill. She has to teleport to fuel her other abilities, but has a limited amount of energy to teleport with; talk about a balancing act. She held her own against Ironworks and decapitated him, dang. Short-lived victory, Sinsear has a lot of energy for someone living in pain constantly.

Ringleader captures Mel and is going to let Sinsear kill her, guess his honor doesn't count when someone embarrasses him. Glow has guts to take on Sinsear without her sword or energy blasts. Ringleader is being pragmatic, while Sinsear is fueled by blind hatred and rage. Killed his own ally because he didn't wish to postpone his revenge, Sinsear is a fool. Now Ironworks and Bombastic have no reason to work with her anymore, as they would always be afraid he would snap and kill them too.

Trying to murder John just so he can cause Ginormous pain, only to trigger a rage in Glow and push herself as never before, killing the monster with a powerful energy blast. Fitting end to Sinsear's life. And yet no time to relax and feel relief. And Ginormous comes through, keeping her promise of not failing Rachael or her family again. Family reunited at last, with a confused John wondering why Glow called him dad. Good thing he always thought of her as his second daughter, she is around for good now.

What the what!?! Ironworks was a teenage girl, a faerie mutant, inside a suit of armor she controlled this whole time. Didn't see that coming. Maxine Granger, interesting character. Wait, faerie-type, yet no harm from contact with iron and a ferrokinetic. Plus she just played possum because she saw no point in continuing the fight. Just how powerful is she in that suit of animated armor?

Ouch, a loving father despite being a career criminal who she adored, settling his old scores for him. And killed by a superhero; I understand he was a thug, legbreaker, and professional henchmen for a bunch of supervillains, but to kill him seems a bit extreme to me. No wonder she wants revenge and hooked up with Sinsear and his group; otherwise she might have met Glow under different circumstances.

Darn it! Why didn't they haul in Bombastic to be locked up in a super-max prison? Seems foolish to just leave her lying around. Maxine is clever and skilled at manipulating, though it might just be that Bombastic is easy to fool with the right story. Maxine manifested around 12 years old, no wonder she is more powerful; at least according to the older Whateley stories the younger someone is when they manifest the more powerful their powers are. And Loadstone when outside of her Ironworks armor, how will she uses her powers outside of the armor, I can't wait to see.

So the heroes left after rescuing John, but why leave Bombastic behind? Considered too much of a potential threat in their weakened state, probably. Loadstone has better control than I imagined for training on her own, turning the hammer into grey metal sand and then into a disk to ride on. Why do I have the feeling that Loadstone, as part of getting ready to take on the "hero" who killed her father, might end up at Whateley? At least make some connections in the Syndicate somehow.

And the one thing you almost never see in the comics or movies; the aftermath of a villain's attack, causing a family to have to move due to too many questions being asked, leaving behind friends and sometimes family. Poor Mel, conflicted about her feelings about Rachael/Glow and how it will change their friendship. She is lucky, to live in the era where keeping in touch with friends who have moved away is much easier than in the past.

Dang it, had to stop reading for a minute due to laughing so hard, the mental image of Todd, Mike, and Steve running into Rachael at school was too funny. Wait a minute, she took a strange piece of amber off of I'm guessing Ringleader. Oh man, that is priceless, the creep who hurt her and tried to have her killed by Sinsear, now she has his power stone and plans to use it. I can see an image of Ringleader in whatever afterlife he is in, being shown Mel using his old power stone and using it better than he ever did as part of his torments. All the while screaming "NOOOOOOO!"

Another psychologist, hope this one is better than the last. And this time Rachael actually wants help from Dr. Brooks, that is the first step, can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. Those are some strong senses, though not outside the realm of believability in the real world. Bronze Lady and the Gentleman, sounds like a superhero version of Scarecrow and Mrs. King when I say it outloud.

Dang it! Wish I could have a psychologist who simply listens and gives you their undivided attention; all I've ever gotten are ones who hear a little about my problems and interrupts with ideas on how to help, instead of hearing me completely out. Superhero tutors, bet it isn't as fun as it first sounds. And Rachael is being a stubborn teen, even the pros who have been at it for years can tell you there is always something you can learn about your powers from working with others you wouldn't on your own.

Bwah? Sarah actually took a dare from her daughter, Dinah, to stay at her base height for 24 hours. So, mom stays big most of the time as a way of dealing with her own emotional scars and fears caused by Sinsear. Monster messed up a lot of innocent lives. Nice to see they are mending their relationships.

With how Dinah feels and not fully knowing why her mom left them, it will take some time to mend those fences. At least Sarah is willing to work at it, something she seemed afraid to be in the past. Good reasons not to send to her Whateley, though the age part isn't a deal breaker. Spending time with and reconnecting with her kids though, more important. Plus at Whateley I could see Glow getting into a lot of fights due to idiots not taking no for an answer and her sense of justice driving to defend others. She would become the new detention queen in no time, as she wouldn't trust security enough to do their job and jump in to fights, siding with the underdog.

Warper and energizer, with energizer abilities tied directly to her warping; makes perfect sense with everything we've seen her do so far. Subconsciously locked herself into a form she feels strong in, I'm guessing it will be a long time before we see even a glimpse of her shapeshifter abilities again, not until after a lot of counseling and accepting some things about herself. So, denial isn't just a river in Egypt. Sorry, I've been saving that one and just couldn't resist.

Ah, so this is how Twist came to join their team and Ginormous wasn't around for some of the fights others have mentioned in the story thread. Character reference from Cornflower, nice, Twist has connections. A Poesie, so she has friends who are changelings, plus similar powers and fighting style to Glow. The perfect fit as Glow's tutor, plus Twist is someone we have met in previous stories so no introduction needed. Rachael might just be what Mrs. Carson and others have called Whisper and certain other students, a trouble magnet. They just can't help but getting pulled into situations. At least we know Sarah will do everything in her power to prepare Rachael/Glow for what is to come.

Dreamer wrote: Ah, so this is how Twist came to join their team and Ginormous wasn't around for some of the fights others have mentioned in the story thread. Character reference from Cornflower, nice, Twist has connections. A Poesie, so she has friends who are changelings, plus similar powers and fighting style to Glow. The perfect fit as Glow's tutor, plus Twist is someone we have met in previous stories so no introduction needed. Rachael might just be what Mrs. Carson and others have called Whisper and certain other students, a trouble magnet. They just can't help but getting pulled into situations. At least we know Sarah will do everything in her power to prepare Rachael/Glow for what is to come.

Have we met Twist before? I thought that so far she's only shown up in Sphere and Absinthe stories, which aren't really "before" so much as "coming".

I never read the Sphere or Absinthe stories before, yet I clearly remember Twist showing up in at least one other story, think it involved Silver Ghost.

Dreamer wrote: I never read the Sphere or Absinthe stories before, yet I clearly remember Twist showing up in at least one other story, think it involved Silver Ghost.

Hmm going to have to know which one

mhalpern wrote:

Dreamer wrote: I never read the Sphere or Absinthe stories before, yet I clearly remember Twist showing up in at least one other story, think it involved Silver Ghost.

Hmm going to have to know which one

Ran a search: whateleyacademy.net/index.php/component/...phrase=exact&limit=0

Seems to be Masks and Marvels' Twist you're talking about. And M&M isn't Whateley, but it is Fiction in Whateley... I think...

At the end of Absinthe 2, Twist shows up, dropping off a new student.
She wants to talk to a Sphere afterwards.

Domoviye wrote: At the end of Absinthe 2, Twist shows up, dropping off a new student.
She wants to talk to a Sphere afterwards.

She also has a role in Round and Round. But Dreamer hasn't read those two, and they are still fanfic at the moment.

True. It was more in response to Malady.

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

Domoviye wrote: At the end of Absinthe 2, Twist shows up, dropping off a new student.
She wants to talk to a Sphere afterwards.

She also has a role in Round and Round. But Dreamer hasn't read those two, and they are still fanfic at the moment.

D'oh! I found Round and Round and read it months ago, got my memories of it mixed up with canon stories. Explains my confusion on Twist having shown up in canon before, my bad.

Speeking of Twist, based on the name drop of Cornflower, I have to suspect we may meet her when she's a couple months younger, the question I have is how much of the Franks Family will be present, it will be great for character analysis. That's the only reason I swear, the image of kitties jumping all over the place trying to chase a light that suddenly changes location in my mind has nothing to do with it, honest..

When I was skimming the story again for a few details, I noticed that there is somewhat of an unusual level of character detail and backstory for a relatively short appearance of one Dr. Caroline Brooks.

Now that the Original Canon is starting to dip backward in time to flesh out the "present day," with more detail, should we expecting to see a cameo appearance of a very long-haired, blond, newbie heroine going out into action and then deciding that the superhero life just isn't for her?

The timing is beyond me, since it does take some time to get a doctorate and accreditation for psychology. I won't throw out any named possibilities in this thread, but there are a few valid options where the backstories (and graduation dates) might align.

Perhaps we will we be seeing her again in the aftermath of future events, or is her appearance a reference to something else that I'm just sort of missing?