Subject: Well,
Author:
Posted on: 2010-03-31 15:24:00 UTC
I could tell you that, but I would be lying.
Subject: Well,
Author:
Posted on: 2010-03-31 15:24:00 UTC
I could tell you that, but I would be lying.
Are there any Agents of potentially dangerous species or types? I have heard mention of vampire Agents, but I have not seen their profiles. I saw a potential Agent the other day that seemed to be a rather large intelligent bear, but I didn't know the fandom.
Could someone point me in the right direction for learning more about this?
There is a character that I think would make a good recruit in the Mission I am working on, but he is a pretty dangerous species. The personality and characteristics he has been given in the story make him much less dangerous than a normal representative of his species (and would make it a great challenge for him to directly fight one of his own kind, thereby preserving the non-super powered Agent requirement), but I wanted to know more about similar Agents before I tried it.
You know, I think that people don't need to worry esspecially about species: I mean, a unique, fallible human seems fine, right? All you need to do is design the agent, give the kid an interesting getup, background story, morals/way of thinking based on this, and some interesting strengths and weaknesses (the weaknesses are important, to make every mission interesting, and to prevent the unintentional spawning of Mary Sues/Gary Stus).
If you're worried that if the agent is a human, then the kid won't be able to have powers, just think: He/she could be a mutant/mutate as part of the Marvel-verse, and/or he/she could end up picking up some sweet toys and gadgets along the way.
Does that help at all? I'm sorry if this seemed too pedantic and rambly, but what I'm trying to say is: 'Why sweat the small stuff? An agent could be Mr Average-freaking-Joe but as long as he can get the job done, and get it done in an interesting, audience-grabbing way that makes people feel for him, then that's a job well done - just make sure he doesn't become a Sue/Stu for all of our sakes, or he'll be toast too.'
It is less that I am worried about them being weak (I have two pretty normal human Agents right now), than that I am considering recruiting a specific, non-human character from a badfic that I am working on, and the species is pretty powerful. They also have, um, unique dietary requirements. This particular character is written as being unusual enough from the species standard that I think he would be a good Agent-you know not plotting to take over the PPC or secretly eating other Agents--but I wasn't sure how the more powerful Agents were handled.
It seems from all the links I got that they are primarily assigned to fics that have very powerful Sues or particularly dangerous canons, so that their inherit power is barely enough to survive, just like a human in the less power based canons.
In fact, this character may be best used in a more powerful canon than what I typically read. Even without the typical bloodthirsty bad attitude and desire to take over everything, he will still have strength, speed, and stamina beyond that of a human, be able to regenerate nearly any injury, and be highly intelligent. Plus, of course, that special dietary requirement. *wicked grin* (I don't know how to make that smiley)
Well, I count some Sith, a seven-foot Barabel lizard-man with huge fangs and claws, a drow and a few other oddities among my Agents.
I point you to Cavan Shenn, my Zeltron Sith. Capable of doing all kinds of nasty things to a person, up to and including a lust whammy before the murder.
"Lust whammy"? That can't be good. O.o
~Neshomeh
As a Zeltron, Cavan has very strong natural empathic talents, which means he can influence a person's feelings. He also exudes pheremones which make him attractive to others, and when one combines both these abilities, turned up to full throttle, with the Force, it can create a pretty overpowering sensation of physical attraction towards the person. That's a lust whammy.
(Lucky for us all he behaves most of the time.)
Goldenrod explained it pretty well--the only danger of a powerful species is that they'd have it too easy and it wouldn't be any fun to read about them. However, power can be made up for in any number of ways, such as personality, the Laws of Narrative Comedy, and/or the Ironic Overpower preventing them from getting out of hand.
For example, my Agent Ilraen-Aroline-Fothergill is an Andalite, which (if you don't know) is a centaur-like alien with four eyes, no mouth, telepathic speech, and a very fast and wickedly sharp tail-blade. He also has the ability to morph into any species he comes into contact with, which has the potential to get really ridiculous given the access he has as an agent to the powerful races of the multiverse. HOWEVER, due to being "born" in a badfic and getting his personality from sessions in FicPsych, and the fact that he sucks at morphing, he's kind of a woobie. (He is getting better, though. Character growth and all.)
Another powerful-yet-fun agent I can think of off the top of my head is Agent Verra Rose, who was a frickin' dragon. I don't remember precisely how Kippur handled her, but I think she just didn't go on missions much due to being a wife and mom.
And then there's always the option of just not using one's superpowers. My character Jenni is one of the Powers That Be in her own universe, but the most she's ever shown of it in HQ is a bit of telepathy. She has Rules.
~Neshomeh
I read at least one Mission with Ilraen in it. I wasn't sure what an Andalite was, but his difficulty with morphing definitely took away from his power potential. Just curious, what and how do they eat with no mouths?
After reading Verra's entry on the wiki, I have read something with her in it. It was her first day as an Agent, I believe.
Have vampires and other dangerous, potentially human-eating, Agents ever been or had a problem around HQ? As a human, I'm not sure I'd want to be around a hungry vampire or dragon, no matter how civilized they normally are.
I think the Cafeteria does cater to vampiric and even stranger tastes. I wouldn't want to be the one to ask how they manage it, though. >.> Then there's always the option of a side-trip to Generic Fantasy Land if they get desperate, I guess. So, no, not generally many problems around HQ.
~Neshomeh
I'm not sure that I want another Agent right now, but I do think this character would make a pretty good one. He's a character replacement, but as his own character he's not really done anything worthy of killing. I thought I might recruit him, and either save him for later or see if anyone else wanted to adopt him.
I think he might develop a taste for Sues. ;)
I'm looking for a partner for my agent. I wonder if your find would be a good match (read: source of conflict). It might turn out that I can't use him, but I would like to express my interest in that character if no one else wants him. What is his canon/species/story of origin/current name?
He is a wraith from Stargate: Atlantis. This is Todd.
http://www.stargatecaps.com/sga/s1/118/html/gift017.html Here is a more generic Wraith.
http://www.stargatecaps.com/sga/s2/211/html/thehive394.html And here is another one with a drone in the background.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5789570/1/TheLittleThingsGiveYou_Away This is the story of origin. The thing that bothered me the most about it, other than the idea of a Wraith falling in twu wuv with his food, is that this character has nothing in common with the character that is supposed to be in the story--Todd. He is a rather cool mostly bad guy, who has many distinguishing features. None of the them are present in this story, and the Suethor messes up the descriptions that are supposed to identify him.
He doesn't have a name, really. Inside the story, he is never named at all. In the description, it says he is supposed to be Todd. I have been referring to him as Not!Todd, so I figure he will want to pick a new name.
These are the traits that he has been given in the story: His personality is really that of a large pussycat. He has no ambition to take over the world. He likes to read. Wears his hair in a braid and enjoys it being brushed. Is very quiet, and has tattoos running down each side of his face and body. He also has sharp ridges of bone running the length of his spine. Is thoughtful of others, but emotionally distant in actual interactions. Has an apparent weakness for falling in love with Sues. Removed from the Sue influence he might revert toward more typical responses.
The Wraith: Typical characteristics.
They are life-force sucking space vampires, with bad teeth, white to green, sometimes slimy looking skin, cat-like pupils, and bad attitudes. They have a feeding slit on their right hand, which they slam into the victim's chest. They then inject an enzyme which keeps the victim alive longer, and proceed to suck the life out the victim until it is a dried up, mummified looking, husk. Their is a canon formula, if you can steal it from Michael-the most dangerous individual enemy they have in canon-that would turn him into a hybrid that retains most of the wraith biological advantages with no feeding slit, and the ability to utilize normal food.
The wraith are organized similar to an insect hive (they evolved from Iratus bug DNA mixing with human DNA). They have a queen, sometimes one per ship-which are called hives, sometimes one for several ships with male subordinates in charge of the ones with no Queens. The males come in two varieties--intelligent Lieutenant types, and drones that don't even have fully formed faces. The drones are cloned and grown to full adult size in very little time. The Lieutenants are born much younger (it never really says if they are physically born through gestation, though it hints that they may not be. I'd have to watch certain Season 4 episodes again to be more sure on this) and spend time as children who eat normal food. At puberty all human systems shut down. They are capable of swallowing food, with difficulty, but they are not able to draw sustenance from it.
I cannot think of a single time in canon when one of the wraith wore all their hair in a braid. It does seem like I might have seen some micro braids hanging down by the face, like in the sideburns, and in the little wispy beards they keep. They wear copious amounts of black leather-usually in trench coats, pants, and maybe shirts (the coats are usually buttoned at the top), and large boots. They come equipped with a self destruct device. They can frequently read Ancient in addition to Wraith, but I wouldn't expect any of them to be reading English, with the possible exception of the real Todd.
They are very intelligent and have very advanced technology. Their technology is organically based. Their ships are literally grown from a seed placed inside a sentient host. I believe they have excellent night vision, as their ships are always very dimly lit. They maintain the humans of the Pegasus Galaxy as cattle herds. They cull their herds by flying over in ships, called darts. They shoot out beams of light which picks up and stores people. When the people are rematerialized, they are heavily sedated as part of the process, which makes it much easier to put them in either the storage pods (like the Wraith version of a fridge), or into the holding cell where they hold the few they want to eat immediately. The storage pods are very slimy.
The Wraith have huge regenerative properties. If they are properly fed, they will never die of natural causes. They have huge numbers of hibernation pods on their ships, and will spend between 100-500 years at a time sleeping, with only a few guardians.
They can make you see shadows of things that aren't really there. They can also use some sort of mental link to contact their hive if they are stranded or captured. It has a pretty short distance, in that it doesn't reach across the galaxy.
They do sometimes keep worshipers, but the sole canon purpose was for the worshipers to infiltrate and gain intel on the societies that could be gaining potentially dangerous levels of technology, or to sort of try to charm info out of captives. Spies in other words. The worshipers are addicted to the Wraith feeding enzyme. The Wraith are able to give life force to a human or other Wraith, if they really want to, and they have the energy to give. The enzyme is highly addictive in large quantities, and has other interesting side effects, such as increased strength, stamina, and speed. It also lowers inhibitions, increases violence and is generally bad for you when coming off of it.
Please tell me that isn't a Linkin Park songfic...
Seems like he has the potential to be a great agent, and someone that would “work” with mine! Unfortunately, I know nothing about his canon and am afraid that I would just mangle his uncanonical personality. I was thinking that there might be a chance that I knew the canon, or that it was something that I could pick up relatively quickly, but I don't do well with television series (I know a few, but they are not something that I can watch for the sole purpose of learning the canon). Sorry!
That's okay. I think that I will go ahead and recruit him, then add a notice when I post the mission that he is up for adoption. If I don't get any takers, then I'll save him for later.
I love to read all kinds of books, but for some reason I almost exclusively read fanfic based on TV shows. Just a quirk of mine, I suppose.
Andalites absorb nutrients through their hooves. Mostly they eat crushed grass, but I think a few of them develop a taste for Dr. Pepper, too.
Given that most Agents, especially Assassins and Pyros, tend to be exceptionally well-armed, exceptionally violent, and exceptionally short-tempered, not wanted to be around them tends to be a sign of dangerous levels of sanity. [url=http://www.freewebs.com/bonsaimallorn3/Echoespart1.htm]Here[/url], for example, it's less about Agent Selene being a vampire, and more about her having a crossbow aimed at someone's head. I think one Agent did get in a lot of trouble for letting a were-sea-anemone run around during a full moon, but the death toll from that still wasn't much higher than someone going "Mr Rogers!"
It's a young-adult series by K. A. Applegate (and her stable of ghostwriters). Follows the adventures of five probably-high-school-aged kids and a bit later their alien buddy as they combat the silent invasion of the Yeerks, a race of slug-like, brain-invading, mind-controlling aliens. They can do this because an Andalite warrior, Elfangor, crash-landed in front of them whilst taking a shortcut home from the mall and, as he was dying, gave them the ability to morph with that fabulous piece of Andalite technology known as the Escafil device (or morphing cube).
Zan Holbar is also an Animorphs native, but she's a Hork-Bajir, which is one of the races the Yeerks have already dominated. They're also rather powerful, being seven feet tall and covered in sharp blades, but normally (i.e. not controlled by a Yeerk) they're dumb, peaceful, and only use the blades to harvest the tree bark they eat.
Picture of Zan
Picture of Ilraen
~Neshomeh, who drew'd 'em.
I have seen the books around, but had never read any of them, so I didn't know how they had gotten their powers. I might check a few of them out for my youngest boy. He is constantly asking me "If you could change into any animal, what would it be?" He also likes aliens and battles, so he might like those books, and hey, anything to get him reading.
Thanks.
Agent Selene is the vampire agent I've seen referred to most, a Stokerverse vamp with the ability to drop lightning around. While ostensibly not separate species, there's a number of shapeshifting Agents as well, both 'lycan'thropic or through more plainly magical means, although most have been forcibly retired. Marsha is dangerous simply by being a several-ton dinosaur. Agent Chliever is an avatar of a Chaos God of Disease. There are also a limited number of Time Lord agents. Agents Kana Yuuishizu and Kobayashi Risa are Bleach shinigami.
Dunno if that helps.
Does that mean you can have Death Note Shinigami, too? Although, now that I think about it, bringing in a an agent with the power to see the name of anyone that passes by, and who can kill people just by writing in their name into a notebook of death may not make for good reading - the Shinigami are and always have been over-powered. The only documented way to kill them is to make them fall on love with a human, so that if that human's life is threatened, the shinigami will write the name of the entity posing the threat, causing the loved human's life to be lengthened, thus killing the shinigami, whose only purpose is to shorten life, not lengthen it.
Yeah, so 'Any species can be an agent...except the Death Note Shinigami, who are killjoys'. Any thoughts on this, please?
I am, unfortunately, unable to point you towards those interesting agents, but I do think that I can answer the question about your possible recruit. The way I understand it, the main reasoning against super-powered agents is that it is not any fun to read about someone going into a story, making a list of charges, and killing the Sue/exorcising the author if the agent does so with ease and without suffering. As long as the average fic poses a challenge to the agent, I believe that the agent is not considered too strong. Using this reasoning, if you were worried about how strong an agent is getting, you might be able to rein him in by throwing really bad stories at him. Of course, that assumes that you can withstand a barrage of really-badfics, but you might be able to ease off if you can make your agent get more fragile. It seems like it might be a good idea to plan for this ahead of time, and give your agent some disability when he first arrives. I am going to be using this technique when I start writing--I will have a werewolf character who could probably beat most Sues easily, but who's mind and morals are threatened by his condition. It's going to be fun when I get him to snap.
By the way, I apologize for the length and the somewhat rambling nature of this post. I do that when I start getting tired.