Young Justice: Outsiders (OOC)

[Sean Renaud]

Oh no they're from Springfield!

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Actually, it's a small city of about hundred thousand that wants to be its own country, but the Moldovans want it to stay in their country and the Russians may grab it as an afterthought. I was a little reluctant to use it for fear of being political, but on the other hand, it did make a great backdrop.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Excuse me while I go feel stupid somewhere in a corner.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Excuse me while I go feel stupid somewhere in a corner.

My apologies. That was not my intentions. It was just one of those details I had actually been debating about.

 

[Sean Renaud]

You have nothing to feel bad about. It's not your fault that my knowledge of geography is so shitty I assumed Tiraspol, Springfield and Latveria were all adjacent to each other. That on me.

 

[GuyRP]

Good read to you too Gypsy, kudos on creating the foundation of a magical system based on platonic philosophy. Added kudos on your research into Moldova, and a part of the world we associate with gypsies, gymnastics, gothic castles, vampires and things that go bump in the night.

Ironically Odessa is just a little to the east and is associated with none of these things.

DC comics tends to create fictional areas (Like Metropolis and Gotham) as real world analogues. Maybe down the road we could do something in an imaginary rogue state in the area.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Ironically Odessa is just a little to the east and is associated with none of these things.

Seeing and exploring the catacombs underneath Odessa are on Veronika's To-Do List. But not on April Fool's Day. Veronika and I have both heard how rowdy the crowds get that day!

 

[Sean Renaud]

While this set up allows for us all to be new to each other if anybody wants to have a pre-existing relationship that's cool. Just so you know. For me Star has met Ben in the past. Mostly to keep me from talking to myself, and if Jeff doesn't have a problem with it Ben and Nightwing have met. Not particularly close but at some point during the Reach Invasion (that is the big defining moment of this verse right?) they were in the same place at the same time.

If we're sticking with the Plumbers being the psuedo official Earth Branch of the Green Lanterns Ben having met Guy Gardner in the past would be ideal. Mostly cus it would partially explain his general attitude that he spent some time learning about what it meant to be a hero from. . .yeah. Guy's a terrible human being. Those rings really don't have great judgement all the time do they?

 

[The Jeffinator]

Sorry, been busy at my friends. Dick wasn't fighting crime yet during the Reach invasion -- he was only eight at the time.

I'll read everyone's posts later tonight.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

While this set up allows for us all to be new to each other if anybody wants to have a pre-existing relationship that's cool.

I'd be up for that. Veronika might know Grayson (though not Nightwing) through the private school/rich family circuit. Veronika is smart, but not a supragenius, so she graduated high school at 18, then took time off to pursue her extracurricular activities, but still took a few courses online. Due to the limits she puts on herself, due to her connection with her sister, I could see Veronika having the undeserved reputation of being a cock tease.

Veronika knows of Ben, but isn't a fangirl.

If Grayson knows Veronika, he probably knows Nikoleta if he ever came over to the house. Nikoleta did graduate early and has a degree in literature and philosophy already. She's also published a book of poetry in English and Russian. It sold almost 500 copies and received critical acclaim in certain literary circles. It's doubtful that, outside of Veronika, anyone else on the team has it in their e-book's library. If Romanov and Nikoleta attended the same college, I could possibly see them both being in the same Calculus class together, but from there their two paths diverging, since Rick would be more interested in applied mathematics, while Nikoleta would have been more interested in "pure" mathematics for epistemological reasons.

But I'd be willing to discuss/investigate possible points of contact in the past.

 

[GuyRP]

I'm in for interweaving our backstories a bit.

I have been intentionally vague on dates so there's plenty of leeway to work with. The Scarlet Scarab/Red Beetle has been an active hero for a year and half to two years. His secret identity is unknown to the public at large and probably to most of the hero community. Scar is a very visible hero. I'm not saying he's high profile/news worthy, like Superman or other members of the Justice League, but with the Reach invasion a decade back, and Blue Beetle assumedly in operation, people recognize the armor. If anyone wants to have teamed up in the past year or so, that's a good hook.

Rick Romanov, on the other hand, probably knows a few of you with your masks on. He consults for the Justice League, he knows some heroes. He has probably met Nightwing and Ben 10, and may have been asked to look over the Omnitrix? Your call.

Rick was taking Calculus right around the time he was hitting puberty. While he was doing post grad work I could see him having met Nikoleta, and probably being attracted to her, but not acting on it. (It would have been a few years ago, they both would have been under age.) I'm assuming her academic career wasn't quite as meteoric as his, maybe he was a teaching assistant for her class or classes? Mathematics beyond calculus is a must for physics, chemistry and the like. Maybe there's even some mutual attraction? He may have met her sister too.

Actually, that's a pretty good hook. Rick could guest lecture at colleges. Maybe Barbara or Dick attended a lecture. They'd definitely be interested in the subject matter.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Star is extremely low key and local. At this point I don't even think most of his city the fictional locale of Sunridge an LA Suburb is even aware of him. I haven't worked out the details of how he met Ben but it's just a minor two guys in the same place. Probably went a bit like this.

Both: Get to safety, I'll take care of. . .why are you
Star: a four armed red giant?
Ben: Running up a wall?
Both: AWESOME!

As for Ben yeah him having let someone look at the Omnitrix is not at all out of character for him. It's a tricky bit of work though and only Azimuth really understands how it works. Ben has more than once either accidentally broken it or more commonly turned on a feature he wasn't aware of and been unable to turn it off. But he wants access to the master controls so if he met someone smart and willing to take a shot at it he'd probably ask.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Rick and Nikoleta wouldn't have had much crossover to begin with in their academic careers, since his was in the hard sciences, and her interests lay in such fields as (besides the arcane) literature, history, philosophy and archaeology. They are about a year apart in age. I mentioned calculus when they were both in their early teens since that would be a possible common point. After that, I could see Rick going for such classes as Ordinary Differential Equations and other "engineering" math while Nikoleta would be more interested in Abstract Algebra and other courses in Number theory and such. Applied Mathematics versus Theoretical Mathematics.

 

[GuyRP]

Fair enough. They took Calculus together. Connection established.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Fair enough. They took Calculus together. Connection established.

Groan! I hate being a bitch! I really wasn't try to force my view, just trying to explore possibilities. So please, throw counterarguments out there! But I do like the idea of unrequited puppy love. Nikoleta would have been feeling isolated while on campus, due to her age and accent, so Rick would have been a welcomed friend, though she wouldn't have had romantic thoughts. But now that they're thrown together, who knows? Of course, Rick will have to contend with the older sister if he pursues something romantic. And perhaps, since Nikoleta was living off campus, Rick might have met Veronika as well, unless her preferred just to meet Nikoleta on campus.

 

[GuyRP]

You're not being a bitch, or at least, I don't perceive you as one. As much as I enjoy a good argument, and I do, this isn't a dealbreaker for me. The only serious storyline contention I would have is that Rick would have tackled Calculus at 10 or 11, probably within a year after destroying his IQ test. That seems young for Nikoleta. So I would probably have them be in a teaching assistant/student situation.

I'm trying to make the situation as realistic as possible in a world of aliens, magic, and superheroes. A kid with doctorates at 17 is going to have a rapid academic career.

Or maybe my mind is a bit skewed toward academic scenes because of the detention and library pics you posted in your lounge thread. Yes, you turn me on.

I could see them having both been whelmed by their academic studies at the time and simply having been friends. And yes, Rick and Veronika probably met, at least in passing. Maybe meeting at the Justice League dinner they remember each other and now the sparks start to fly?

 

[GuyRP]

Maybe tutor/tutee at her house? Romanov is a Russian name, her aunt may have liked the boy.

 

[Sean Renaud]

She has a thread with pics? I don't know why there isn't a link for fucks sake!

Also she's totally not a bitch, complete gem that one.

On a side note there are other classes than math and science, many of which may not have been particularly accellerated. I wasn't a super genius like the kids here but I was in gifted and other classes like that and we still read Lord of the Flies at the same time as everybody else. We're just twice as bored.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Good point on the calculus age. That would have been three or four years before Nikoleta would have taken it, since I envision her entering college about thirteen or fourteen.

The tutoring angle might be a good idea. I figure that Rick might not have been thrilled at taking one of his non-core requirements and put them off? In that case, he might have met have shared a Literature class with Nikoleta, or history or something along those lines. A class that Nikoleta was ecstatic to be in, and perhaps Rick is thinking "Why exactly am I taking this again?"

So, if Nikoleta and Rick met as teenagers in one class (and it doesn't have to be that way, I'm just exploring and debating), there are a few options on how things develop, one of them being that Nikoleta could be assigned as Rick's tutor. Since Nikoleta's grandaunt has been using her circle of friends as tutors for her grandnieces since they moved in, I don't see the possibility of Rick being Nikoleta's tutor on a subject, and then the two becoming friends. Other options are:

1) They're just the pair of geeky teenagers in a classroom full of young adults who sneak peeks at each other during the semester but never do anything else beyond that

2) The two become fast friends. This would be Nikoleta's first real friendship that she made on her own. She would be thrilled, but it would be strictly platonic as far as she was concerned. How Rick felt about it would be yours and Rick's concern!

3) Something else entirely.

If #2, then do Nikoleta and Rick just meet on campus, or does she take him home? If they just meet on campus, Veronika would have heard (and felt) an earful about Nikoleta's new friend, and been happy for her sister. If Rick ever comes over to Nikoleta's house (a mini-mansion done up like a Russian tearoom by Nikolet's grandaunt, except for the rooms used exclusively by her grandnieces), Veronika oould have instantly taken a liking to Rick because of his befriending her little sister and, even thought Veronika and Rick are the same age, Veronika probably would have thought of Rick as a little brother. The same would hold true if Nikolata brought Rick home to tutor him. And the grandaunt would certainly approve of a good Russian boy.

Years later, if Rick and Nikoleta meet while both are in costume (before the Outsider episode), Nikoleta would have recognized Rick's aura (with your concurrence) because the two had been good friends. She would then confront him and reveal her identity. If, in the ensuing conversation, Rick asks anything along the lines of "How can magic actually work?" Nikoleta's reply will be "I'll explain that to you as soon as you can explain to me, in detail, how your scarab works...in terms an English Lit major can understand."

And then there is the dinner idea, but how does that work? And for that matter, does everyone know/learn everyone else's secret identity when the Outsider team is being formed and trained?

Thoughts?

 

[GypsyGirl84]

She has a thread with pics? I don't know why there isn't a link for fucks sake!

LOL! Sean, it's just a thread of random pictures I find and attach equally random smart ass remarks to!

 

[GypsyGirl84]

And Guy, since Romanov is a nice Russian boychik (is it okay if mix my Yiddish and Russian?), perhaps tutoring in Russian might also happen, and they meet in that way!

 

[GuyRP]

Heh, interrupted by real life. Took longer than I expected, but now I'm back in fantasy land where I belong.

I like alot of this. Rick didn't have a traditional curriculum. I could see him doing doctoral work in chem and physics while still finishing his core curriculum for his bachelor's. Bachelor programs tend to be sticklers about those core classes. If we do the class together, and it's a core curriculum class, why not leave my wheelhouse and enter yours? How about Philosophy 101: Antiquity? I know you mentioned something about platonic ideals...

As evidenced by his hobby of translating extraterrestrial tongues, Rick is a polyglot. Yiddish and Russian is fine, though I would expect Romanian too from Tiraspol.

I think they would have become friends. Good friends, but not necessarily romantic. Most of the girls in Rick's life at the time would be college co-eds he wouldn't stand a chance with, but lust is a driving factor in a teenage boys life. It takes serious discipline to get past the hormones and acknowledge that there is more to a relationship than boobs, boobs, boobs, and sex. And boobs. His time with NIkoleta would probably be a refuge from a world he can't control where he is always the youngest person in the room and everyone is talking about him not wasting his potential.

He would have likely meet Veronika, and the Grandaunt in her eccentric tea room. Rick likely would have accepted it without a second thought. He's a dirt pooor kid from the bayou. As long as no one's throwing empty vodka bottles at him and cussing him out because life is rotten then Rick's going to be fairly content.

Let's save the in-costume meeting for the Justice League dinner. That way we can roleplay it out. Though I have a feeling it would be similar to what you've proposed.

How's that sound?

 

[Tight_n_ready]

Ugh, I hate being able to read this, but not really being able to input, rest assured I should be able to contribute properly in a week or so. Also Jeff, expect a PM from me sometime soon

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Heh, interrupted by real life. Took longer than I expected, but now I'm back in fantasy land where I belong.

I like alot of this. Rick didn't have a traditional curriculum. I could see him doing doctoral work in chem and physics while still finishing his core curriculum for his bachelor's. Bachelor programs tend to be sticklers about those core classes. If we do the class together, and it's a core curriculum class, why not leave my wheelhouse and enter yours? How about Philosophy 101: Antiquity? I know you mentioned something about platonic ideals...

As evidenced by his hobby of translating extraterrestrial tongues, Rick is a polyglot. Yiddish and Russian is fine, though I would expect Romanian too from Tiraspol.

I think they would have become friends. Good friends, but not necessarily romantic. Most of the girls in Rick's life at the time would be college co-eds he wouldn't stand a chance with, but lust is a driving factor in a teenage boys life. It takes serious discipline to get past the hormones and acknowledge that there is more to a relationship than boobs, boobs, boobs, and sex. And boobs. His time with NIkoleta would probably be a refuge from a world he can't control where he is always the youngest person in the room and everyone is talking about him not wasting his potential.

He would have likely meet Veronika, and the Grandaunt in her eccentric tea room. Rick likely would have accepted it without a second thought. He's a dirt poor kid from the bayou. As long as no one's throwing empty vodka bottles at him and cussing him out because life is rotten then Rick's going to be fairly content.

Let's save the in-costume meeting for the Justice League dinner. That way we can roleplay it out. Though I have a feeling it would be similar to what you've proposed.

How's that sound?

Tiraspol is a Russian enclave, which is why it wants to be separate from Moldova, so it's why I went with Russian, though I suspect the girls know Romanian as well. OK, technically Moldovan, but that's just pretty much a dialect of Romanian. And it's a male free household, so no vodka bottle throwers! And it's established already that Nikoleta hasn't developed an interest boys yet. For the future, who knows? And Nikoleta probably developed between the time Rick last saw her and their meeting in costume. Which means...BOOBS! LOL! Also, possibly a course in Ancient Greek Philosophers! A subject that Nikoleta already knows about, but needs to get official credit for.

 

[GuyRP]

I do love boobs, so that's always a plus.

Sounds good to me. I had an inkling of an idea when I named Rick that his great grandfather was the illegitimate son of Czar Nicholas II. When his grandfather found out he tried to get acknowledged by the remaining russian royalty but no one would listen, so he legally changed his name to Romanov, ordered a russian bride and lived a quiet life of vodka and desperation. He had a son whom he always called the Czarevich, and expected great things of, but that son, Rick's father, also amounted to little and lived a quiet life of vodka and desperation.

I didn't really have a storyline ready for it, nor do I want to interfere with whatever Jeff has planned. Still, it makes for an interesting background. Or I spent too much time reading up on the backgrounds of the royal families during the build up to WWI.

Tight, no worries. I'm sure whatever you have planned for Ms. Martian will be excellent.