|
|
Post by dans on Dec 5, 2022 19:22:52 GMT
Introducing... the Chimney Sweep! Anyone interested in writing an origin story or filling in Bert's day? Here's what I know about him:
Tentative intro into a story...
"Black Ash and Cinders! What the heck was THAT?!?!" In his office at the Wabash Institute of Technology, Professor of Mathematics Bert Dawes jumped to his feet, upsetting his desk chair and knocking a half dozen advanced theoretical math textbooks off his desk to the floor. "Someone is tampering with the stochastic field!"
Bert Dawes was the civilian identity of the legacy super hero known as the Chimney Sweep, a heroic legacy which extended back in his family for 6 generations. Bert was a tall, lanky man with medium-length dark hair and a long expressive face that was usually creased in a cheerful smile.
Legacy Background
In the late 1700s, an Irish chimney sweep saved a leprechaun's life and home from a fire, and the grateful leprechaun gifted his friend with a magic chimney brush. That sweep became the local hero known as the Chimney Sweep, and he passed the magic brush on to son who adopted the Chimney Sweep identity. The Sweep only worked locally and never really did anything spectacular that brought the attention of the world. Eventually he passed the magic brush to his son, and then to his son. At one point the Sweep and family moved to London and his feats became more noticed and his fame grew, but he still only did small things and really avoided widespread fame. In the 40s, the current sweep started expanding his scope and began fighting Nazis- and this expanded his enemy pool, and one of his Nazi enemies killed him. His widow refused to let her son take up his father's legacy identity, and she moved the family to the US. She left the magic chimney brush behind. But... the brush IS magic, and a few years later, her son found it, in Chicago, and decided to carry on the family legacy. But his heroic identity doesn't look at all as the name suggests, he considered other names but decided to honor his father.
Today
Bert is a Professor of Mathematics at the Wabash Institute of Technology, in the city of Freshport, on the southern shore of Lake Mishugami, state of Wabash, in the Allied Confederation of American States (his universe's analog to Chicago). He is a member of the the Equity Concord of America, the AlCon equivalent of the JLA.
He is about to investigate some interesting circumstances in Freshport that day: A number of weird things happened throughout the city that day. At a big horse track, the lead horse stumbled and fell, and the pack was disrupted, and only one horse finished. It was a horrendous tragedy, as a number of the horses had to be put down and a half dozen jockeys ended up in the hospital. But one bettor walked away with thousands of dollars. A greyhound race was interrupted by a similar incident, though none of the dogs were seriously injured. And again, one bettor won it all. A golfer in the big tournament missed a 6 inch putt, Maxxie Minosa dropped an easy popup. And several bookies paid a LOT of money covering bets affected by those events. More... The 'villain' who is winning so much above is a young man named Willie, a young criminal who, with 2 of his friends, recently discovered the long abandoned secret hideout of an inventor, who may have come into conflict with Doc Suave in the 30s and 40s, and discovered some prototype high tech pistols, including one that alters probability. Willie's friends, Joe and Harry, are also making use of the other two advanced pistols today. Joe is using the one that can induce limited mind control. Not sure what Harry's weapon can do. Joe has drawn the attention of Margo the Magician, the current leader of the Equity Concord. Harry is likely to come into conflict with the White Rabbit.
That's about all I know about this story at this point. If you are interested in continuing it, please feel free! I think he looks something like this: |
|
|
|
Post by redsycorax on Dec 5, 2022 23:32:24 GMT
Does it have to be just the original Chimney Sweep's sons, though? I can imagine some that some of the female descendants of the original might feel similarly motivated to take up the brush against criminal elements. One question- if leprechauns are real in this world, does that also mean that other faerie and nonhuman paranormal beings are as well? You could have considerable fun crafting a rogues gallery from those whose paranormal enhancements aren't used for the purposes of virtue. Or perhaps one of the descendants of Midsummer Nights Dream's Oberon and Titania is a member of the ECA? Perhaps magical talismans and paranormal beings are more commonplace on Earth-CS than our own Earth, rather like Steve and Virginia Matuchek in Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos?
|
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 6, 2022 0:47:15 GMT
Well, the current Chimney Sweep (current is late 50s in this particular world) is male - but very good point, some of them could easily have been female. And his daughter could certainly take up the broom when he retires! Thank you, I still need to be reminded occasionally.
|
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 6, 2022 2:15:31 GMT
One of the Chimney Sweep's teammates in the Equity Concord of America is the White Rabbit. I know a little bit about her, but not much...
Heroic Name: White Rabbit
Secret ID: Alice Liddell
Powers: grow, shrink, move fast (not as fast as the Rush), communicate with rabbits, leap long distances, superior senses
Backstory: a well-known collector of antique and rare books. Alice is a prolific author, and owns her own rare book store, and she was the first winner on the quiz show 'The $73,000 Question'
Anyway, which of these looks would you choose for her? |
|
|
|
Post by redsycorax on Dec 6, 2022 3:24:42 GMT
The one on the right, I think. Was Alice given her abilities when she inadvertently ate an alien mushroom analogue, which altered her molecular composition with the aforementioned consequences? Or perhaps as a consequence of an unscheduled extra-dimensional excursion with the same effects?  |
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 6, 2022 11:30:33 GMT
I haven't figured out Alice's origins yet. You are likely correct - some kind of local interaction with some other Terrestrial extra dimension...
One touch makes you larger, and one touch makes you small, and and after yet another, you can't do anything at all!
|
|
shlomo
All-Star
Enter your message here...
Posts: 84
|
Post by shlomo on Dec 6, 2022 20:05:47 GMT
Does I get good luck if I shakes hands with the ol' chimney sweep?
Does he also have some magic chalk?
|
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 7, 2022 0:50:04 GMT
Does I get good luck if I shakes hands with the ol' chimney sweep? Does he also have some magic chalk? Good luck will rub off when he shakes hands with you... or blow him a kiss, and that's lucky too!
It's been a long time, so I'm not quite sure how to work the chalk in, though.
His powers are going to be luck-related. I think of him as sort of like a less abrasive Talisman of the Justice Machine. I hadn't thought about him being able to share luck - that seems like quite an unusual power!
|
|
|
|
Post by redsycorax on Dec 7, 2022 21:45:11 GMT
I've just had an idea for a useful character for the ECA- Queen Desira of Venus from the Golden Age Wonder Woman! What say this is the alternate universe that the Earth-Two WW visited when she met Queen Desira? And that Queen Desira was inspired by her friend Diana's example to journey to Earth and join the ECA?: dc.fandom.com/wiki/Desira_(Earth-Two) |
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 7, 2022 22:35:19 GMT
You want to use these characters or their histories or just have this universe tied to a Wonder Woman story? If that's what you are asking, it is fine with me.
But it is a happy Earth, not one of the doom and gloom ones you write about so often. Don't put them on the irrevocable brink of Armageddon!
Other members of the Equity Concorde of America are yet another version of Margo, the Magician, her husband the Rush (Byran Ruzoe, nicknamed 'the Russet Rocket'), Pat Parker, War Nurse, Sturdiman, Sirocco, Gulfstream and Voltess. There are more than 3 dozen heroes and villains in the Allied Confederation of American States alone who got their powers through exposure to radioactivity, include "Minute Hand" who gained his powers due to wearing a glow-in-the-dark watch with radium hands and numbers. I don't have any backstories these heroes yet... |
|
|
|
Post by redsycorax on Dec 8, 2022 0:06:10 GMT
That's interesting. I used Pat Parker as a member of the Golden Society of Super Heroes on Earth-92, along with Madam Satan, Antaeus, Mother Hubbard, Spider Widow, Nightmare and Daydream/Sleepy. Although I got distracted and never managed to start writing a story about what happened to Pat, given that Earth-92's history diverged sharply from our own after their Republicans won the Spanish Civil War instead of Franco's fascists. Mussolini and Hitler were overthrown soon after, so fascism tanked and there was no World War Two on this Earth. Somewhere in this turmoil, Pat went missing.
So, how's this sound? She fell for one of Earth-CS' superheroes and they eloped to his Earth! And if this is a happy Earth, how does this sound for a suggestion? Because magic exists there and the laws of science are different, WW2 here was far shorter than on our Earth and was fought primarily between Darkholm Germany under the High Magus Athaulf against the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation. Unfortunately for Athaulf, the PLC had some fairly hefty defensive wards and things went terribly pear-shaped. The spell of enchantment that Athaulf had cast over Germany's inhabitants to seize power was short-circuited and he couldn't reinitiate it. As a result, he fled to the Argentina-Brazil-Chile Federation, a counterweight South American great power to the ACAS. Muscovy's High Magus Djugashivili came to a similar sticky end when he tried to attack the Austro-Hungarian Imperium to Poland-Lithuania's south. No arms race, no ethnic and religious hatreds, and very low crime rates. The ECA therefore spends a lot of its time fighting supernatural and extra-terrestrial threats to global security. ACAS never had a civil war because it didn't leave Anglo-French rule until the 1950s, so it abided by the British Empire's abolition of the practice in the 1830s.
|
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 8, 2022 0:27:00 GMT
sure! A lot more background than I ever expected. I suppose the guns the three bad guys are using above could be magic-based. I know Margo, the Rush, Sirocco, and probably Gulfstream, are all magic based. And Doc Suave could have been more magic based than Doc Savage.
|
|
|
|
Post by redsycorax on Dec 8, 2022 23:45:46 GMT
Okay, one thing that could be helpful here is the wiccan ethical provision that darkmagic use has negative consequences on the user. I imagine whitehat mages probably use their abilities in combat purely for defensive wards, or for protective responses if attacked, or if others are attacked. Using darkmagick to harm others or kill may cause long-term neurological or psychological damage, cause behavioural change, be carcinogenic, lead to cardiovascular or respiratory problems, or have other negative consequences. Suffice to say those villains who do resort to it get shorter lifespans and impaired health from their actions. If it's used to kill, the onset of psychological and physiological damage is accelerated in the user because of the gravity of the violation of the laws of magic. As for our heroes... Margo's abilities stem from talismans/descent from an ancient Martian civilisation; the Rush is empowered by a speedster deity of some sort, other than Hermes or Mercury- they're overused, IMHO; Sirocco was gifted her abilities by ancient Greco-Roman wind deities and has the attributes of her namesake- she can travel at high speed, wield heat, conjure up dust storms, abrade mechanical devices and cause malfunctions in automated buildings, and control tides. She also has a yen for anchovies when they're in season: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirocco |
|
|
|
Post by dans on Dec 9, 2022 2:01:03 GMT
I think the Rush gets his powers from a Mesoamerican deity. I think Margo is homo magi, which does not preclude talismans or descent from a Martian civilization - in fact, in this universe, that may be the origin of homo magi. I had originally thought that Gulfstream might be Scandinavian, but it's not clear how Scandinavia is related to the Gulfstream. Perhaps she is descended from a colony of Vikings, who somehow ended up on the eastern tip of Long Island, or the south coasts of Rhode Island or Massachusetts? White Rabbit probably got her powers from an autographed copy of Alice In Wonderland - perhaps the handwritten original?
|
|
|
|
Post by redsycorax on Dec 9, 2022 2:30:26 GMT
Hmmm. Perhaps the lessons about darkmagick weren't learnt properly on Mars, which led to the dessication of that planet and the downfall of its civilisation? Given its preponderance of magically adept individuals, it would probably also be logical to assume that homo magii are present in far greater numbers on Earth-CS than elsewhere in the multiverse. Gulfstream could have had her abilities granted by one of the Norse pantheon- probably Heimdall, the watcher god of that pantheon, who entrusted her with the responsibility to safeguard that area of the Atlantic. Perhaps they're hereditary and her ancestors might have also been gifted with them. As for White Rabbit and the autographed copy of Alice in Wonderland, perhaps Alice's author Lewis Carroll was magically adept on Earth-CS and imbued one of the original copies of his book with talismanic abilities- perhaps some of the 'nonsense' words in Alice are actually ancient Enochian words of power? Incidentally, could White Rabbit have a cat familiar named Cheshire, named for you know who and posessing its literary namesake's attributes? Perhaps it is the original Cheshire Cat, dimensionally transcendent?
As for the Rush's Mesoamerican deities, there are several who could serve your purposes. In the Aztec pantheon, we have (i) Mixcoatl, the god of the hunt and the stars (ii) Xolotl, the god of fire, lightning and death (iii) Tepeyollotl, the deity of earthquakes, echoes and jaguars. Perhaps Rush has a jaguar insignia to reflect that? Moving on to the Mayan pantheon, we have (iv) Kawiil, the god of lightning, serpents, fertility and maize (v) Chaac, a lightning god and (vi) Tlaloc, a central Mexican pre-European lightning god. Pick one. Perhaps Rush has Hispanic ancestors and/or this is another case of hereditary/ancestral pantheon attribute blessings?
|
|
