The New Pantheon; superpowers and superstars

Started by Nerdess, January 09, 2021, 11:05:20 PM

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Nerdess

Inspirations — The Boys, The Wicked + The Divine, even a dash of Hancock.  And yeah I’m still bouncing around superstuff, don’t think I’m better than me.

We had no real heroes.  Our worship was focused on those things that seemed unattainable; fame and wealth, no matter how they had been gained.  By cheating the system, by being in the right place at the right time, by stepping on the backs of thousands to be the one above, cults of personality made sure that those with the latter created the former.  But what worth was there in adulation the son of a slave mining operation who played with toys worth hundreds of millions of dollars when they would never raise up the starving masses?  What level of Twitter stanning did it take to write the song that would end oppression?  We had those in the spotlight.  But we didn’t have heroes.

And then we did.

To this day, no one knows how or why.  As best anyone was ever able to determine, you just had to be a certain level of famous already.  People needed to pray for you, worship you, buy your shit and put you on their five freebies list.  You had to be hot, and not just aesthetically.  Top the Billboard, win the World Series, become the richest man on the planet — that’s all it took to learn how to fly.. And when you can outrun the sunrise and sing the song that shows the future, good luck to anyone who’s up and coming from behind.  Being a talent agent was more than just managing egos, now it was managing international crises and making sure your diva with the death ray eyes didn’t let a flood just “happen” because there was honeydew in her fruit cup that morning.

It wasn’t enough for them just to be famous, not once they Ascended; they needed new branding, new people to point them in the right direction, new PR so they could make a difference and stay on top.  Because one day you’re the most popular thing on Earrh plus you’ve got superpowers — but if all the people who brought you to the top start to turn their back on you, then it becomes true that the stars who burn the brightest burn out the quickest.  The true heroes weren’t the first Ascended; the selfish and the petty and the cruel quickly saw their fan bases turn on them.  And it turned out nothing could simply go back to what it was; losing your followers didn’t mean going back to a simple life of elitism and photo ops.

You were Ascended; there was no humanity to return to after that.  To lose the world’s favor was to lose it all; the power, the fans, the fame, and your life.  Hollywood always had an expiration date.  The leagues always had someone younger and faster down in the minors.  The new gods of Earth would be replaced the moment they were gone, maybe by someone even more determined to cure societies ills than the one who came before them.

That didn’t mean they were all heroes, though.  If all it took to retain superpowers and notoriety was for the world to feel strongly about you one way or the other, a few bad eggs were always going to spoil the bunch.  Fascism was just as safe in the eyes of some as freedom was in the eyes of others.  And when ideologies clashed, fandoms surged.  Ratings soared.  Having a few villains for the handful of heroes to battle, that was just good drama — and whatever had kickstarted the Ascendency in the first place seemed to be fine with any side of the equation “winning” so long as they could sway the hearts and minds their way.

It wasn’t just about saving lives or destroying them: it was about the PR you made in the process.  Sex up that costume, be perfecter than your predecessors, have time for the fluffy interviews and for the runaway freight trains.  Whatever you do, never, ever stop entertaining. 



Or do, I’m a request thread, not a cop.  Tl;dr I’m looking to play a (real/realish) celebrity lady who gets that magical moment where she Ascends aka suddenly gets superpowers.  A little like Annie January, now she’s got a team trying to turn her image and her purpose into a whole new thing, male counterparts who want to help her do more than run lines or save lives, and a soupçon of bad mamma jammas who are all too happy to put a fresh face into place.  It can be breezy and fun it kinda super dark or anywhere in between, but the constants are pretty much light societal and social parody mixed with (ideally) lots and lots of sexual escapades and misadventures because hey, suddenly she can fly and do all sorts of new positions or maybe her awesome new fire powers don’t really come with flame retardant wardrobe (shit’s expensive).

If you’ve got a favorite celebrity or type you might want me to slap into a skintight crime fighting suit, or are inspired to figure out what fellas you might like to play and what sort of cool fame powers they might have ended up with, then drop me a line and we can talk shop.
o / o -- roll the dice -- a / a