GENERAL | AATHER | ||
• Player ![]() • Height/Build Slightly below average height, built like a gymnast. • Hair Color/Eye Color Brown/brown • Notable Traits Vel has an assortment of unspecified scars. |
• ![]() • Relationships • Tags • Memory Registry |
Skill #9: Anima Powers
May. 25th, 2014 05:25 pmSkill: Anima powers (group of toys)
Form: Small silver locket
Basically, Joy can now command a population of toys. Aather's power cap still keeps that as 'roughly a person-sized pile'. Her canonical limit is over 1000 toys over an entire casino, and that was being drained by using her powers for a Very Complex Thing Elsewhere at the time, so she could probably do more.
(Basically Joy is a one-woman army when properly equipped.)
Form: Small silver locket
Basically, Joy can now command a population of toys. Aather's power cap still keeps that as 'roughly a person-sized pile'. Her canonical limit is over 1000 toys over an entire casino, and that was being drained by using her powers for a Very Complex Thing Elsewhere at the time, so she could probably do more.
(Basically Joy is a one-woman army when properly equipped.)
Skill #8: Defensive training
Jan. 8th, 2014 02:28 pmForm: [Skills come in the form of a small tube of lipstick in your team color! Apply it to receive your skill, and trust me, you like, totally look super fetching in that shade!]
So, Velveteen is the sort of superhero who should never, ever go toe-to-toe with another super. Thus, she was trained in the art of getting out of the way and staying close enough to the front lines to see what's going on, yet far enough to not get zapped. Some of her defensive training is just 'use your army of toys to keep the enemy from targeting your squishy body' tactics, while a lot is 'just plain dodging/staying under cover'. I suspect her team when she was a teenager also had team tactics of 'protect thewizard anima', given both of the boys had enhanced toughness and melee-based powers (Action Dude had super-strength and the Claw had... well, claws), and Sparkle Bright had fricken lasers.
(No, I will not derail things in terms of D&D parties. Unless you ask nicely. I also think it's interesting that canon points out that Vel is a total badass, while having the sort of power that people dismiss as 'support'* because she'd lose a person-to-person fight with nearly any other working superhero. Actually, it's a bit like the Batman-versus-anyone-with-power arguments, come to think about it...)
* At least in heroes. If villains raise an army of dolls, that scares people.
So, Velveteen is the sort of superhero who should never, ever go toe-to-toe with another super. Thus, she was trained in the art of getting out of the way and staying close enough to the front lines to see what's going on, yet far enough to not get zapped. Some of her defensive training is just 'use your army of toys to keep the enemy from targeting your squishy body' tactics, while a lot is 'just plain dodging/staying under cover'. I suspect her team when she was a teenager also had team tactics of 'protect the
(No, I will not derail things in terms of D&D parties. Unless you ask nicely. I also think it's interesting that canon points out that Vel is a total badass, while having the sort of power that people dismiss as 'support'* because she'd lose a person-to-person fight with nearly any other working superhero. Actually, it's a bit like the Batman-versus-anyone-with-power arguments, come to think about it...)
* At least in heroes. If villains raise an army of dolls, that scares people.
Memory #29: Princess comes to cheer Vel up
Jan. 5th, 2014 06:06 pmForm: [Memories are in the form of a small chocolate horse. One use.]
( It tasted like charcoal, but it was the first time anyone had cared enough to try, and so I ate every bite. )
( It tasted like charcoal, but it was the first time anyone had cared enough to try, and so I ate every bite. )
Memory #28: Bereavement Leave
Jan. 4th, 2014 04:29 pmForm: Form is a simple silver crown, you wear it to receive your memory. 8 uses.
( Bless your heart, I know it’s in the right place, but if you want to leave without us, you’re going to need to fight us first, and you’re going to need to fight us like you really mean it. )
What Joy Learned
This memory slots pretty neatly in between 'Tag gets put to sleep' and 'Getting very sick over the Pacific', especially with emotional notes. It also will discourage any 'go it alone' instincts in Joy, since Tiger's Eye would probably do the same thing.
( Bless your heart, I know it’s in the right place, but if you want to leave without us, you’re going to need to fight us first, and you’re going to need to fight us like you really mean it. )
What Joy Learned
This memory slots pretty neatly in between 'Tag gets put to sleep' and 'Getting very sick over the Pacific', especially with emotional notes. It also will discourage any 'go it alone' instincts in Joy, since Tiger's Eye would probably do the same thing.
Memory #27: Leprechaun hunting
Jan. 3rd, 2014 04:37 pmForm: Comes in the form of a dollhouse chair, about 2" tall. You know you must attempt to sit in it to obtain your memory.
( Final count and analysis of the security recordings would show that there had been exactly nine hundred and two leprechauns within the confines of the Jolly Roger Casino when Velveteen cried havoc and let slip the dolls of war. )
What Joy Learned
This is another memory that shows Joy exactly how strong she can be without Aather's powercap. Context -- she has the memory after this -- might let her figure out that the tired feeling she has means she's keeping a second human alive on her powers, and she's still able to animate nearly 3,000 toys and direct them against a variety of threats. (This does take her full concentration, and she probably isn't thinking about individual toys as much as overall tactics: the toys have to have a high degree of autonomy for Velveteen to manage even a hundredth of those numbers.)
This also shows the peculiar overlap of anima powers and empathy. At the Oregon border, Vel sent all the toys that had homes home and took the abandoned ones in. In Vegas she can tell which ones 'belong' to someone invested enough in them that taking them would be wrong: she does animate souvenirs bought by tourists, but not ones belonging to kids.
I could write an essay on how I suspect a lot of Velveteen's powers are bounded by a mythology created when she-as-Velma was young, which is why she focuses on toys and the connection between them and their owners/playmates. Had she grown up in a culture where animuses (animi ?) had another form -- necromancers, makers of golems, roboticists -- her powers would likely have a different expression, since we know from canon she can control corpses, animate snowmen, and steal robotic automatons from their creators. Instead she has armies of GI Joes with My Little Pony air support.
(Canon also hints that Vel might be up there in 'most powerful current superheroes', but The Super Patriots Inc. constantly trained and treated her as a support hero partially so she wouldn't realize this, and partially because of spoilers.)
( Final count and analysis of the security recordings would show that there had been exactly nine hundred and two leprechauns within the confines of the Jolly Roger Casino when Velveteen cried havoc and let slip the dolls of war. )
What Joy Learned
This is another memory that shows Joy exactly how strong she can be without Aather's powercap. Context -- she has the memory after this -- might let her figure out that the tired feeling she has means she's keeping a second human alive on her powers, and she's still able to animate nearly 3,000 toys and direct them against a variety of threats. (This does take her full concentration, and she probably isn't thinking about individual toys as much as overall tactics: the toys have to have a high degree of autonomy for Velveteen to manage even a hundredth of those numbers.)
This also shows the peculiar overlap of anima powers and empathy. At the Oregon border, Vel sent all the toys that had homes home and took the abandoned ones in. In Vegas she can tell which ones 'belong' to someone invested enough in them that taking them would be wrong: she does animate souvenirs bought by tourists, but not ones belonging to kids.
I could write an essay on how I suspect a lot of Velveteen's powers are bounded by a mythology created when she-as-Velma was young, which is why she focuses on toys and the connection between them and their owners/playmates. Had she grown up in a culture where animuses (animi ?) had another form -- necromancers, makers of golems, roboticists -- her powers would likely have a different expression, since we know from canon she can control corpses, animate snowmen, and steal robotic automatons from their creators. Instead she has armies of GI Joes with My Little Pony air support.
(Canon also hints that Vel might be up there in 'most powerful current superheroes', but The Super Patriots Inc. constantly trained and treated her as a support hero partially so she wouldn't realize this, and partially because of spoilers.)
Form: The form is a chestnut that can be cracked into half. Four uses.
( I think it's pretty clear that who can and can't fly is totally arbitrary, and we shouldn't be stuck down here with a giant unstable gun in the car, surrounded by people who don't know how to drive. )
What Joy Learned
Just a day in the life.
( I think it's pretty clear that who can and can't fly is totally arbitrary, and we shouldn't be stuck down here with a giant unstable gun in the car, surrounded by people who don't know how to drive. )
What Joy Learned
Just a day in the life.
Come in the form of a crystal. Hold to view memory. Good for one use.
( The dinosaurs had been so pretty when they started to jump around. But that didn't matter now, because now she was In Big Trouble. The Biggest Trouble ever, maybe. )
( The dinosaurs had been so pretty when they started to jump around. But that didn't matter now, because now she was In Big Trouble. The Biggest Trouble ever, maybe. )
(Form: Come in the form of a Necco wafer in your team's color. Eat them. One use.
( I'm here because your friend hit me with some sort of stun gun while I was standing next to the payphone in Technophilia. I'm looking for you because I needed to talk to you. I'm trying to figure out where the point of divergence is, and you and I seem to be the big anomalies. I sent me. )
( I'm here because your friend hit me with some sort of stun gun while I was standing next to the payphone in Technophilia. I'm looking for you because I needed to talk to you. I'm trying to figure out where the point of divergence is, and you and I seem to be the big anomalies. I sent me. )
Memory #23: A Run for the Oregon Border
Oct. 29th, 2013 04:18 pmMemories come in the form of tiny edible ginger gears in a packet tied with string. Four gears per baggg.
( What evil have I done, huh? I flunked community college because there kept being 'accidents' in my apartment complex. 'Accidents' that always happened right after I turned down another offer from Marketing. I couldn't hold a job because these people wouldn't leave me alone. So I disappeared! So I went into hiding! I didn't do it because I was evil, I did it because I wanted to be left alone. They've probably told you that you can quit when you turn eighteen, haven't they? They've probably told you you're going to get a walk-away-free pass, that you can go back to the private sector. You're on the inside! You know what it's like! How many have quit? Huh? )
What Joy Learned
If Joy takes this one after her memory with talking to Sparkle Bright, she might figure out that final push was from Sparks. Not too gentle, because Sparkle Bright's photon manipulation isn't exactly trained for fine manipulation, but it got the job done. At the time, she didn't really care what happened.
This also hints what her powers are like without a powercap. She was controlling any toy within a several mile radius and without thinking about what each was doing, only in the general sense of 'drive off the kids and free me so I can get back on the road'. And she could feel what was going on in that general sense.
Given Joy in Aather, the whole situation will be fucked up times infinity. She kicked the ass of nine teenaged superheroes; if she had been a villain, she could have killed one or more. And Marketing had sent them in alone (at first). None of the kids were over eighteen and they had no business fighting an adult woman who could be willing to use lethal force to escape. At the time, Vel was more focused on her own concerns, but the distance -- and the presence of so many teenagers in Aather -- will make Joy even angrier. How dare they put kids in danger like that, and how dare they promise these kids that they can have normal lives afterward when Marketing makes it clear that you don't walk away from The Super Patriots Inc. if they want you to stay.
( What evil have I done, huh? I flunked community college because there kept being 'accidents' in my apartment complex. 'Accidents' that always happened right after I turned down another offer from Marketing. I couldn't hold a job because these people wouldn't leave me alone. So I disappeared! So I went into hiding! I didn't do it because I was evil, I did it because I wanted to be left alone. They've probably told you that you can quit when you turn eighteen, haven't they? They've probably told you you're going to get a walk-away-free pass, that you can go back to the private sector. You're on the inside! You know what it's like! How many have quit? Huh? )
What Joy Learned
If Joy takes this one after her memory with talking to Sparkle Bright, she might figure out that final push was from Sparks. Not too gentle, because Sparkle Bright's photon manipulation isn't exactly trained for fine manipulation, but it got the job done. At the time, she didn't really care what happened.
This also hints what her powers are like without a powercap. She was controlling any toy within a several mile radius and without thinking about what each was doing, only in the general sense of 'drive off the kids and free me so I can get back on the road'. And she could feel what was going on in that general sense.
Given Joy in Aather, the whole situation will be fucked up times infinity. She kicked the ass of nine teenaged superheroes; if she had been a villain, she could have killed one or more. And Marketing had sent them in alone (at first). None of the kids were over eighteen and they had no business fighting an adult woman who could be willing to use lethal force to escape. At the time, Vel was more focused on her own concerns, but the distance -- and the presence of so many teenagers in Aather -- will make Joy even angrier. How dare they put kids in danger like that, and how dare they promise these kids that they can have normal lives afterward when Marketing makes it clear that you don't walk away from The Super Patriots Inc. if they want you to stay.
Memories come in the form of candy pencils in your team color. They’re the size of real pencils, and break cleanly into three equal sections for three uses total.
( Bad things about going public [with a relationship]: every stupid supervillain in Oregon suddenly thought that if the two of them were together, they'd be an easy target, since they'd be so busy gazing stupidly into each other's eyes that they wouldn't notice the man sneaking up behind them with a lightning gun. )
( Bad things about going public [with a relationship]: every stupid supervillain in Oregon suddenly thought that if the two of them were together, they'd be an easy target, since they'd be so busy gazing stupidly into each other's eyes that they wouldn't notice the man sneaking up behind them with a lightning gun. )
Skills come in the form of little paper witches in your team color. Burn the paper witch to receive your skill
Vel can not only animate toys to fight, but to use them as scouts. She has to be able to see them to get their reports, like a general and an army scout, but she does understand what they perceive.
We don't know how that works either, since she's not so much seeing through their eyes as creating servants that know how to report what they observe through their plastic eyes and ears.
Vel can not only animate toys to fight, but to use them as scouts. She has to be able to see them to get their reports, like a general and an army scout, but she does understand what they perceive.
We don't know how that works either, since she's not so much seeing through their eyes as creating servants that know how to report what they observe through their plastic eyes and ears.
Tad/Tag is a sweet superhero boyfriend
Oct. 21st, 2013 03:48 pmCome in the form of a candle in your team color. Light it to view your memory. 9 uses.
( I mean, it took traveling to an alternate timeline that never actually existed for me to realize that I was having team-ups with my childhood roommate, and you and Torrey both just figured it out on your own. If it weren't for the part where I'm too stressed to beat myself up, I'd be kicking my own ass for stupidity right about now. )
What Joy Learned:
-- This shows a nice middle point with Tag/Tad. Given Joy remembers the 'oh shit' ending/pausing of their relationship and their first date, this gives her some insight of why she's fond of him. This also gives her a lot of Torrey's backstory
-- Joy is going to wonder if her dimensional trip (or trips) is what signaled the Darkness to her. Tad is right: Joy's anchor to her home world has been weakened, since she visited the North Pole so often, Autumn's Country more than once, and at least one full-on alternate timeline. If the Darkness was looking for folks not heavily moored to their worlds, Velveteen would be the low-hanging fruit. (So would Torrey, for that matter. Jackie travels dimensions, but is heavily tied to Winter as an incarnation of the seasons.)
( I mean, it took traveling to an alternate timeline that never actually existed for me to realize that I was having team-ups with my childhood roommate, and you and Torrey both just figured it out on your own. If it weren't for the part where I'm too stressed to beat myself up, I'd be kicking my own ass for stupidity right about now. )
What Joy Learned:
-- This shows a nice middle point with Tag/Tad. Given Joy remembers the 'oh shit' ending/pausing of their relationship and their first date, this gives her some insight of why she's fond of him. This also gives her a lot of Torrey's backstory
-- Joy is going to wonder if her dimensional trip (or trips) is what signaled the Darkness to her. Tad is right: Joy's anchor to her home world has been weakened, since she visited the North Pole so often, Autumn's Country more than once, and at least one full-on alternate timeline. If the Darkness was looking for folks not heavily moored to their worlds, Velveteen would be the low-hanging fruit. (So would Torrey, for that matter. Jackie travels dimensions, but is heavily tied to Winter as an incarnation of the seasons.)
Memory #20: Confronting Blacklight
Oct. 19th, 2013 02:34 pmMemory form is a packet of jello mix! You'll have to make it at your cabin and wait for it to set . . . or, just lick the sugar. Do what you want. I'm a cat, not a cop.
( I'm not going to put my mask back on. And if I'm delusional for taking it off, you're delusional for thinking that you could fool me like this forever. )
What Joy Learned:
* Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
* Also, all the feels. Both in canon and Aather, Vel is a 'you do not mess with my friends' type of person. Somehow playing both her and her best friend to make them hate each other is even worse than the other things, perhaps because it caused a lot of actual pain. Plus... well, a lot of Joy's memories of Yelena at this point were of her as a kid, when she was pretty timid.
( I'm not going to put my mask back on. And if I'm delusional for taking it off, you're delusional for thinking that you could fool me like this forever. )
What Joy Learned:
* Suddenly everything makes a lot more sense.
* Also, all the feels. Both in canon and Aather, Vel is a 'you do not mess with my friends' type of person. Somehow playing both her and her best friend to make them hate each other is even worse than the other things, perhaps because it caused a lot of actual pain. Plus... well, a lot of Joy's memories of Yelena at this point were of her as a kid, when she was pretty timid.
Skill #6: Meta powers
Oct. 19th, 2013 02:29 pmSkills come in the form of a nasturtium flower. You have to eat it.
In the finale, Velma shows the ability to manipulate the powers of other animuses (animii? someone help out with the Latin.). While she can't (or won't) mess around with other people's life forces, if someone is using life force to do something, she can halt or redirect it.
In the finale, Velma shows the ability to manipulate the powers of other animuses (animii? someone help out with the Latin.). While she can't (or won't) mess around with other people's life forces, if someone is using life force to do something, she can halt or redirect it.
Memory #19: The Plan, Step 1
Sep. 28th, 2013 01:48 pmMemory form is a card. Trade with someone else to view their memory—then trade back to view yours. Single exchange use only.
( You seriously have no plan beyond ‘let’s go and hit them until the candy comes out.’ Because not all of them contain candy. Candy is not a default filling. )
So this fills in some information, as well as letting Joy know that, unless the Darkness grabbed her at exactly the wrong time, the problem was Dealt With.
Also she has an army. (Sadly, she does not have a Hulk, but neither does the other side.)
( You seriously have no plan beyond ‘let’s go and hit them until the candy comes out.’ Because not all of them contain candy. Candy is not a default filling. )
So this fills in some information, as well as letting Joy know that, unless the Darkness grabbed her at exactly the wrong time, the problem was Dealt With.
Also she has an army. (Sadly, she does not have a Hulk, but neither does the other side.)
Memory #18: Confronting Santa
Sep. 17th, 2013 09:42 pmForm: Form: five pieces of team-colored candies, one from each Personae. The candies are flavored to your team (Peridot is lime, Tiger's Eye is lemon, Sapphire is blueberry, etc). One use per piece of candy, so five uses overall!]
( God. Why am I the subject of a seasonal conspiracy? Did I not buy enough greeting cards last year or something? )
( God. Why am I the subject of a seasonal conspiracy? Did I not buy enough greeting cards last year or something? )