JANUARY AU WORKSHOP

[neosapienmods]

JANUARY AU WORKSHOP

Welcome to the AU Workshop! We understand adapting a character for an AU game can be a difficult process, even if you have all the creativity in the world, so we've put this together to help! Just fill out the form and post it in a comment below, and sort of brain out which ideas stick!

Keep in mind this is not a reserve. Reserves will open on the 3rd, as always, and you don't need to use this if you're already sure of your ideas! This is just a fun creative exercise that we hope you enjoy and find helpful!

Be sure to check out our Premise, FAQ, Locations, and NPC posts for worldbuilding info to help you get started!

Here's the form!<b>PLAYER:</b> <b>CHARACTER:</b> <b>CANON:</b> <b>AU NAME:</b> if the character's name is different, you can note so here! If not, feel free to put n/a <b>AU AGE:</b> same here! <b>BLURB:</b> Write a short description of your character's AU! Are they a Meta-human? If so, what are their powers? Are they a normal human? Do they have anything else unusual about them, such as cybernetic parts or other features? What's their background? Hobbies? Anything interesting you want to say! <b>LOOKING FOR:</b> Are you looking for family members or friends or enemies for your character to be pre-planned? Or are you asking for ideas or feedback on your AU idea? Anything goes, just specify what you would like. <b>OPTIONAL ENABLE ME:</b> Are you torn between which character to app? Let us help! Post your ideas in a comment and let fellow players offer feedback and CR ideas. You can also use this section to ask for canonmates you would like to see in-game whether it be in your specific AU or for different CR.

Comments

[rubricatus]

PLAYER: Nix
CHARACTER: Magnus the Red
CANON: Warhammer 40000

AU NAME: Magnus last-name-to-be-determined
AU AGE: like... 47?

BLURB: Magnus is a Meta-human, and this is something obvious immediately on sight, because his skin is bright red and he is twelve feet tall. This has, without exaggeration, been the defining factor in his life. In his childhood, his family was forced to move from Central Ward due to his undisguisable differences, and this is just the first in a very, very long line of conflicts Magnus has had with The Establishment™.

Now, in his adulthood, Magnus is a well-regarded (if controversial) academic. He has a bit of a Marvel-style multi-disciplinary genius thing going on, except that his main focus is the social sciences, and his body of work focuses on sociology and anthropology as it relates to Meta-humans. His critics accuse him of being a Meta-human supremacist — and he is, even if he keeps those beliefs veiled in his professional life. He firmly believes that Meta-humans are nothing but the continuing evolution of humanity, that the path to peace is to elevate all humans to Meta-human status (though he will entertain debate about the precise methods that should be used to do so), and exclusively uses the term "post-human" instead of the more accepted Meta-human.

He also works with the NSO! He helps fund and organize programs related to access to education, with a focus on education concerned with social sciences, philosophy, and the arts. He's extremely passionate about learning in general, and making sure the under-privileged have access to it is one of his greatest concerns!

In addition to being red and Huge, Magnus has psychic powers that I'll fully decide on later. He is, unfortunately, someone for whom being overpowered is important to his character, so I'm still working out how to achieve this without being obnoxious.

LOOKING FOR:

• Magnus actually adores the Youths™ and falls into a mentoring role very easily, so I would love CR with younger characters! Particularly those that are artistically-inclined, academically-motivated, only in need of a gentle nudge to become so, or are just generally alienated from the world in a way that would make Magnus's own philosophies appealing to them.
  
• On the opposite end of the spectrum, adult coworkers and academic peers! Magnus is the sort of person who, by nature, has trouble connecting with others as equals, but I would love for him to have some working relationships that can maybe evolve in the direction of Magnus eventually seeing someone as being on his level.
  
• People who will butt heads with him, or at least challenge what he says! Despite presenting a facade of humility and openness, Magnus has a terminal case of "I'm always correct and if anyone disagrees with me, they're the one who is wrong" Disease, so of course he's gonna grate on some people. I'm interested both in people who overall get along with him but think he needs the ego check every once in a while, and people who just straight-up can't stand his stupid smug face.
  
• Conversely, I'm also all for people who... don't do that, and very much agree with the way he thinks, haha. Or people who have some other form of extremist views that at least follow the same trajectory as his, even if they don't match up with 100% accuracy. People he can speak openly to, essentially.
  
• Artists in general. Magnus isn't an artist himself, but he is a collector, and he appreciates creative types!
  
• People who will definitely make fun of him for being named Magnus, lmao.

OPTIONAL ENABLE ME: I doubt this is going to be an issue, but for the record, I'm planning on saying Magnus was adopted with his original family being ~mysterious~ on the off-chance anyone ever considers playing one of his brothers.

Anyway, so far as WH40k characters go, I'm also considering Mortarion. Unfortunately, however, their canon relationship is too significant for me to app both!

Mortarion would be a character that fits into a very different role, and interact with the setting in a very different way. The rough overview is as follows: In infancy, Mortarion was adopted by a Meta-human with disturbing powers, who used them to become a powerful crime-lord in the Last Ward. Kept in line with abuse, his father used Mortarion as a henchman for the first twenty-something years of his life. A few years ago, however, his foster father was taken down by one of the NSO's vigilante groups, who took Mortarion into their custody for rehabilitation after he aided them.

Unfortunately, Mortarion is going to need more than a few years to get over decades of abuse! Despite being a Meta-human himself, his view of them is very negative, thanks both to the actions of the man who raised him and his own powers being pretty nasty as well. Bitter and withdrawn, he's slow to trust, and doesn't have a particularly high opinion of the NSO's goals despite all the help that has been given to him. I would, if I apped Mortarion, be looking for pretty much the opposite of what I want with Magnus — more adult characters who are willing to put up with his glaring personality flaws to help him grapple with the trauma of his upbringing, and people who have a similarly conflicted view on their own identity as a Meta-human. Let me know if there's interest in a character like that!

Also, this isn't really the same thing, but I didn't have anywhere else to put it so: I'm not really sure how to say Magnus lost his eye in this AU, so let me know if there's any interest in, like, Meta-human body parts being a thing that gets sold on the black market.

[ayoungman]

Oh my gosh please help take care of this youth™, he's going to have no idea what's he's doing and End up making so many stupid decisions if he doesn't have a proper guide. Especially if he happens to end up going in the direction I want him to in this game.

[rubricatus]

Oh, absolutely! Magnus is a complete dad at heart, and a young meta-human discovering their abilities for the first time, learning to accept it as part of their identity and their place in the world, etc, will definitely kick those mentoring instincts into high gear.

[ayoungman]

Please oh please. Especially since I know otherwise John here is the type to make himself all too conspicuous by doing something stupid like take up his own vigilante roll and mess things up royally for the people doing it professionally. Y'know just like one of those cool old-school superhero movies from 100 years ago. Like Kick-Ass or something.

Speaking of, how does Magnus feel about cinema as an art form?

[rubricatus]

He prefers stage plays and opera. :)

That'll be his excuse for not engaging with John on his bad taste in movies, anyway!!

[ayoungman]

.... Bless his ability to have actual taste. Maybe it'll be a good influence on John.

[rubricatus]

lmao, nooo, he's just a snob. Like as many bad movies as you want, John!!

[theghostbird]

Despite both being scientists I doubt he and The Biologist would get along cause she's just such an asshole about Hard Science being The Only Way.

Liir however is the son of a prominent meta liberation terrorist and could definitely use some guidance as he's kindof trying to figure out where he fits and how he should grapple with her legacy. Magnus will seem ultra cool to him, even tho his affect is so flat it'll be hard to percieve. Also, Elphaba was doing research on meta gene splicing before her death so if he wants to try to recover her notebooks...

[rubricatus]

I was actually meaning to tag you, since given who she was, the stuff about Liir dealing with his mom's legacy vs his own identity is definitely in Magnus's wheelhouse. And god, yeah, anything about meta gene-splicing would have his immediate interest on top of that.

I'm glad Liir will think he's cool, though, because that's hilarious. Magnus is pretty good at picking up cues from people who don't emote much, too, so he might actually pick up on that after a bit fffff

(AND YES, he would be so aggravated about "hard science is the only real science." Given his particular beliefs, he knows enough about biology to have an intelligent conversation about it, why can't she return the favor!!!)

[raynos]

Jamie is a Youth and Academically-Inclined! He'll also probs be reeling pretty hard at the idea of being a meta and have a lot of Thoughts about that.

Also he does not appreciate or see the purpose of the arts because he's a dumb kid. Please frown at/enlighten him.

[rubricatus]

After looking at your own top-level: engineering/etc is generally the kind of thing that's outside Magnus's wheelhouse, but he actually does go out of his way to encourage it in others in one of the canon novels, so that's definitely doable! As is talking with Jamie about what being a meta means for his identity, etc etc.

Magnus will definitely frown about that, haha, and maybe try to reframe the idea for him in terms of the Artistry Of Machines. He's that kind of nerd.

[raynos]

lmao all of that sounds wonderful, esp. talking about Meta Identity things. Possibly helpful that Jamie's young and impressionable and could probably be nudged over to Magnus' school of thinking without too much trouble?

And machines are useful. Paintings just hang there on your wall. Defend your thesis, sirrah. :|

[rubricatus]

Yeah, Magnus is really good for talks about identity, because obviously it's impossible for him to hide or avoid his identity as a Meta-human. He's likely to softball the full extent of his beliefs at first, in part because Jamie is a child, but... Yeah, it's inevitable that they'll come up eventually.

IS A MACHINE'S VALUE SYNONYMOUS WITH ITS FUNCTION? IS THERE NO BEAUTY TO BE FOUND IN ITS MERE EXISTENCE, THE COMPLEXITY OF ITS INTERLINKING PARTS NOT UNLIKE A COSMOS OF MAN'S OWN DESIGN? TO THINK SO IS FOOLISH, AS SUCH A POWERFUL DISPLAY OF MAN'S INGENUITY HOLDS A WORTH UNTO ITS OWN. IN THIS ESSAY, I WILL,