I wonder if Darkstar will ever be able to pull his head away from Stratton’s arse
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Of coarse he will, if only to get under Stratton’s desk and relieve the presidents stress.
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Well, Nova could probably help with cool new (and sexy) combat gear for Mars. 
Of course we first still need to convince the boy to go and put his pretty ass on the line by joining the club. 
And yet creepy alter ego wants mc to catch up to Forlorn, so realistically not going to happen. Also a bit jealous of Aki now, since she gets the same power levels of the mc and lat…without having to deal with a creepy alter ego and with the assurance that her powers are really hers and not of some weird energy alien who has taken her body as a host.
Which leads me to the impression that within their home plane Q-continuum or whatever or whereever the energy aliens come from they may be far stronger but they are limited by how much power the mc and lat’s puny human forms can handle in how much of their power we can channel. Even if we do seem to get a bit better at it over time through training and reactive adaptation.
Seek seems too cunning for that, like most wise kung-fu masters he’d probably see through that tactic and rig it so the mc ends up doing more work for less credit.
Does seem to be the friend nobody likes, including my mc. Although even now that he has calmed down and mostly settled in my mc still does not like Forlorn and avoids him when possible.
Always one or two co-workers you don’t exactly get along with I guess, except if you are your own boss in a one man business. 
The impending trade of DarkStar for Mars is going to be great for my mc.
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Thank you for the kind words, Gio! I really appreciate them. Really nice way to open the day.
Yes, well, the problem here is that there’s not much actual technology that can stack up to the League’s top. Humanity lives in this weird limbo where a lot of what keeps current society stable is the belief that the strongest of heroes aren’t interested in ruling countries on their own.
Seeker, Forlorn and Ignis are faster than any piece of artillery the US can produce, and they carry more odnance in their punches than an entire US carrier. If any of them actually wanted to decapitate the government, they could, and the problem would only be how to get the people to accept their rule and make it so the rest of the planet doesn’t just turn on them overnight.
… Which is why nukes are a tad more important in this universe, I imagine.
I actually wrote a small section on how the different heroic groups perform and are organized a while back. Would you all like to see it?
Maybe on some level, but then you run into the problem that while Seeker doesn’t care even if he catches on (which he would), Forlorn and Ignis do. The former has a lot of respect for Seeker (and something else, but we’ll explore that later), while the latter is already sick and tired of Seeker’s “Lone Wanderer” shtick. You’d be souring your relationships with both, perhaps irreparably.
… And, of course, the time you spend observing instead of fighting is time you’re not getting stronger which shall be… interesting, let’s say, for what the end-game will be.
Yeah, he definitely could! Maybe we’ll see something like that.
I have plans for Mars and Nova, though. Their struggles are more personal than Aki’s/Seeker’s/Forlorn’s are, but they’re still main cast members, and they need to keep up with everyone else for the threats that are coming.
They’ll get theirs, rest assured.
Ah, well, you’ll soon find that Other!MC was… a bit off, in a lot of their estimates. Ignis is much stronger than they’re giving her credit for, for example.
Still, the MC will continue growing as we go onto future books, so don’t count yourself out of the running just yet. Forlorn-level is a very attainable goal, assuming you want to go that way.
Let’s just say, Aki’s gonna have her own issues to deal with. They’re incredibly heavy ones, and tied as strongly to the main plot as you and Lat are.
There’s also another aspect of powers in general that I want to tackle, and she’s gonna be the first demonstration of it. Stay tuned!
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Ah, so you’re like Cata then with some stat values, where 100% (or let’s say 90 as 100 isn’t really obtainable with fairmath) doesn’t mean the same as it would in book 2 then?
Well my mc does think of Ignis, not Forlorn as the leader of the league, because that is how she is acting in practice in the headquarters and when dealing with finance and the press and stuff.
Ironically it is the media Forlorn claims to hate who paint him as the “leader” but now that my mc is on the inside, so to speak, he can see that is not quite true. Forlorn may be the strongest individually, but he is not really a leader. Ignis and maybe in the future Mars and, depending on player choice, the mc all seem to have more actual leadership qualities than Forlorn does.
I mean at this point in-universe and now that he knows her a bit better he wonders if the whole presenting Forlorn as the “leader” of the League to the media wasn’t a bit of a prank by Ignis too.
Of course, on the other hand I can see some situations where Mars’ skills might be more valuable in remote support from headquarters. Media handling, logistics, coordination, intel and mission planning are often skills that don’t get the love they should in superhero stories. The Flash is a more positive example here as it isn’t “team Flash” for nothing.
Still I agree that Mars is not to be underestimated on the battlefield either.
Well that is my mc’s big problem right now in-universe, imposter syndrome, wondering how much control over his own actions he still has what with a creepy alter ego living in his brain/body now too and whether or not those powers belong to him, to the creepy alter ego or somehow to both? As well as worrying about how all of that is going to affect his chances with Mars.
Like I said, right now my mc worries a bit if Mars sees something in the real boy or the superhero front and that is without even touching on the crazy creepy alter ego stuff. Because to my mc that still sounds a lot like, if it is not an alien bodysnatcher, he may have either multiple personality disorder or beginning schizophrenia. 
Both, as well as mental illness in general, tend to do great on the dating market.
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Aha, well, he has been a rather serious inspiration, so… But yeah, stats are gonna change a bit as the story goes on, and the threats (and people to be compared to) grow more dangerous and stronger.
You’ll more than likely eat a “downgrade” when Book 2 starts, in the sense that the number in the stat will go down quite a bit, but context/powerscale-wise, it’d still be beyond anything you could have reached in Book 1.
Part of it is, I imagine, that Forlorn doesn’t have the same baggage that Ignis or Seeker do. The former was hated by the establishment from the get-go, while the latter’s legacy is… complicated, to say the least. He’s as likely to help American interests as he’s likely to break them in half, so he’s too fickle a figure.
Sexism likely played a part, as well. The League is an egalitarian group of course, but American (and general, as well) society still has its reactionary and hateful elements. “What do you mean, a woman leads the group?” was probably an exclamation thrown once or twice when hashing out the details, nevermind the fact that Ignis could nuke DC from orbit and has the most dangerous and ruthless enforcer on the planet eating from her hand.
That’s not to say Forlorn doesn’t have leadership qualities, of course. He is probably the most experienced at commanding others, it’s just that… the League isn’t the kind of unit he’s used to, and the situation atm isn’t the one he can flourish in. If things get sufficiently bad or tense enough, he’d probably be the one you want in your corner.
That is indeed true, and Mars’ support is something that’ll get touched upon in Chapter 5. He’s just as useful outside the field of battle. No war was won solely with the cavalry, I don’t think. 
That’s more than fair. I’ll admit that the MC thinking about this at this time in the plot wasn’t something I considered, but it’s a legitimate worry, so thank you for bringing it up. When listing how the player can feel regarding Other!MC’s appearance in Chapter 4, there’ll be an extra choice where they can wonder what’s the reverse of the medal regarding their new powers.
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Yes, please!
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Quick disclaimer: I wrote this on Discord for a couple friends, so please forgive the rather casual aspect of it.
With that said…
How the rest of the world treats super powered resources:
Western Europe
in general, europe works with an EU-based hero team. as seeker can mention, they favor quantity over quality. the reason for this is twofold: one, due to the amount of countries actually in the EU, they couldn’t realistically just load up a small team with french, english and russian* heroes without causing extra tension, so they accept a minimum of two heroes from any nation that is, or joins, the european union. and two, it’s just fucking unfeasible to get people on seeker’s, forlorn’s or ignis’ level, so they just don’t bother. while stronger people are scouted often, they’ve disabused themselves of the notion that they’ll match the League blow for blow. Much better to just get a bunch of average tools that work. Countries are still allowed to have their own personal teams, but they’re politely requested to leave the cream of the crop to the EU Delegations.
Funny thing to note, there used to be a rather serious diplomatic issue between France and the UK in the past due to Seeker. The former pushed very hard to make overtures to recruit him (Seeker actually helped with the liberation of France from german forces in ww2), while the latter stood resolutely against. Seeker burned a lot of goodwill with the UK in his Japan runs, so they weren’t keen to trust him again after he so blatantly disregarded directives to do what he wanted.
This wouldn’t have worked anyways, Seeker wouldn’t leave Ignis (yes, Ignis. Not the League), but it still caused a bit of an issue.
*: The Russians do not give their heroes away to the EU. But the EU Delegation offers a lot of benefits, which means there’s quite a bit of ‘power drain’ (eh, eh, get it??) that seeps into the EU.
The Russians do not like that this is the case.
People's Republic of China
in china, things are a lot more strict. there’s no conscription, nothing so clear, but if you show even the smallest possible powered talent, you’re tested, and heavily advised to join up with the Chinese team. There are benefits to it, sure, but it’s still a rather… serious choice to make, I suppose you could say.
Unlike the League, or even the EU teams, China actually treats their superheroes like an army unit. They have barracks, training grounds, and a state-designed uniform that depicts their alliance. The possibility of independent action against directives like Forlorn or Seeker isn’t a consideration, because it’s heavily penalized.
Likewise, any construction or designing is done by the state, though they’ll break open the piggy banks based on whatever the team requests and successfully argues would be beneficial to their job.
Furthermore, as I mentioned, the chinese team is an army unit. They regularly collaborate and train with the chinese army in joint operations. They’re equally prepared for air attacks, land movement and amphibious assaults.
One thing, the Chinese actually currently hold two members who are rumored to be on Forlorn’s level. It’s not really something you can reliably prove, but it’s yet another part of the supposed superpower (hehe, get it?) rivalry between the two empires.
another thing, the current leader of the Chinese team is not its strongest member. His powers are actually rather mundane, he was born with falcon characteristics, so one has to wonder why he landed the position.
Japan
Japanese superheroes are more or less held to the same standards that the Japanese “armed forces” are. They cannot be committed to offensive ventures normally, and their job is explicitly to keep the order inside the nation. With the (relatively) recent changes, they can now be used in rear actions where the US is committed, but only then. Likewise, the US gets a list of all currently government-employed japanese heroes.
their team is rather small, not much bigger than the league proper, but they’ve been looking into expanding it for the past few years.
Shin’s wife is actually a member of the japanese team. she and seeker know each other from a while back (before she married shin), since seeker saved her grandfather during the atomic bombings.
That’s the same reasoning for shin and seeker being “friends”. sayaka was a small child during the bombings, and seeker saved her from getting GG’d.
(Yes, that would make Sayaka a… ‘mature’ woman when she had Shin. There’s a reason for this, as you can begin to guess from what Shin says about her when talking to Seeker about it).
Central/South America/Caribbean
here we run into a bit of an issue. see, due to the turmoil and general instability of these countries, there hasn’t been much interest into an international team.
still though, most countries know it’s not a good idea to let criminal enterprises monopolize these groups, so they still make an attempt to recruit at least a few for local work. some countries (like the dr, as i mention in the thread) actually make a bit of an event of it, having their powered people participate in physical events with the promises of cash and further employment and etc, which serve as testing grounds, as well as netting them a bit of a profit, and more importantly, demonstrates the ability of their heroes to the world.
Crete
Crete is a minuscule nation, as I’ve mentioned. They don’t really have the manpower to maintain a superhero team, so what they normally do when an issue pops up is flex their financial muscle. Greece is heavily indebted to Crete, which is a stupidly rich nation despite its size, so whenever they have an issue, they just pull that string and have a Greek hero come help out.
Beyond that, Crete is a bit of a militarized nation (in some aspects, though not in others. they’re really defensive for their lands, as the germans found out in ww2 when the Cretans sent their entire army, navy and air force to help the Allies in btfoing them after being subjected to Operation Mercury), so there’s a rather large trust in the armed forces as is. The reason for that is… rather obvious, in a sense, though it’s a bit unbelievable, so bear with me:
After the Monarchs took over, Crete has never fallen. No enemy has ever broken the country, no matter how many men or ships were thrown at it. When the Ottomans tried to use the country as a naval base in their wars against the Byzantines, most of their sent fleet sunk. What remained was put to flight by the Cretan army. When the Venetians tried, their fleet wasn’t sunk, it just burned. If anyone else tried, the result was more or less the same. If the attack was by sea, either a freak accident happened, or the Cretan navy put it to flight. If the attack happened by land, well, Chandax and the Monarchs’ Palace are pretty much an impregnable fortress. Say hello to having your army savage itself trying to break in while the weather does everything but drop a nuclear bomb in its attempts to kill you.
Of course, things may change nowadays. Superpowered people are more common, and world tension may be on the rise, so maybe Crete should try and beef up their defense.
Then again, the Queen’s Guardians may have something to say about anyone who tries to attack their Queen’s lands…
Those are the main nations I went into. Once more, forgive the somewhat casual aspect of it, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate in the slightest to bring them up.
Some of this stuff is subject to change, of course. International hero teams won’t become too relevant until Book 2, but the core on its own should be a reliable foundation that’s not going to be touched.
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Son of a senior party member?
Aka the one wet dream Senator Maxwell, President Stratton and maybe even VP Gloria all share… and my mc’s worst nightmare. And while my mc doesn’t really consider a coup to be viable he also does not want to be forced into the army. Being forced into the league by ultimatum was bad enough and he did that specifically to avoid government custody whether in jail, in a lab or in the army.
Like I said, if my mc himself becomes seriously popular and savvy enough and has enough time to spare he might consider breaking that other norm and endorse and maybe even actively campaign for Maia.
As while all of the others, including Lat, could presumably leave the league with the only hit being to their income, reputation and/or fortune our mc is in the rotten position of becoming a wanted terrorist again, should they ever leave the league. And life as a perpetual fugitive sound almost as bleak as being forced into the army under the command of Darkstar.
Are they also an army units, complete with barracks, formal chain of command, silly uniforms and all that stuff?
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, assuming they are still stupidly rich too are probably a bit like Crete in that they can just either request US or EU assistance, particularly EU as the big net oil importer or else and for more minor stuff pay superpowered to come and help out. Though in the latter case they may be subject to stupid “morality” requirements. So no chance they’d contract with somebody as openly gay as my mc, if we hadn’t been forced into the League that is.
India, I don’t know, could be like the EU, since they have a stupidly huge population which likely means a fairly large pool of powered people to choose from. One obstacle I can see for them that the EU lacks is the caste system. So it could potentially be a problem if they’d discover a Forlorn level amount of talent in an untouchable kid. 
It’s a law that always used to be enforced rather poorly and the Modhi government seems to have no interest in enforcing it at all. So it is still a problem. In practice, particularly in the rural regions the system still exists and even the urban upper classes are not exactly eager to see the lower castes become successful enough to play on their level and be(come) a threat to their power and privilege.
Well…head of government in this case. I presume a Japanese emperor is still head of state?
Though that could simply mean the powered heroes have to split their attention and resources between the two.
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Well, untouchability is a criminal offence in India nowadays,but your point stands true regarding middle east and India 
But It would be great to see heroes of all the said countries together fighting a common enemy 
No comment.
Well, I’m sure a decent chunk of the US establishment think China’s got it right in regards to the matter of heroic teams, though they’d never admit it for fear of bad optics.
Of course, whether that’s something they’ll still want or even remains a possibility by the end of this book is… a good question.
Not really, no. They’re really more used for ceremonial purposes than anything else, honestly. Unlike what certain media would like you to believe, Japan isn’t home to an inordinate amount of shenanigans from superpowered people, or some 70 foot tall radioactive dinosaur’s escapades when he gets cranky.
Japanese heroes are allowed a relative amount of freedom, nearly as much as the League, you could argue, but they’re more tied to the government. The Japanese Prime Minister (name pending) doesn’t have to request his hero team to serve as his escort. That is their job. Where the head of state goes, the team follows, come what may.
Ironically, and this’ll come up in Chapter 5, Shin’s wife is an armed combatant, just like Seeker. She keeps to traditional japanese blades though, even if they’re made in a way that manages to keep up with the level of force and use they naturally see.
To address your point, since it is a fair concern and a conclusion that I can see how someone could reach:
It’s not that the rest of Asia (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, India, etc…) aren’t relevant, it’s more that they are either bits of the world I’m still working on, or aren’t going to be supremely relevant at the moment (gotta wait till Book 2 for that). You’ll note that I didn’t mention Eastern Europe either, nor gave Russia more than a couple sentences, nor talked about Africa, which Seeker is from. It’s not that these areas don’t have their history or place in this story, they absolutely do, but they’re not places directly relevant to the MC just yet.
Japan gets its info because not only is it a country that the MC currently finds themself in and will bleed in, but it is also tied somewhat to Seeker’s own personal history (this is where his second biggest failure happened, according to himself). China gets its info because it is, atm at least, the biggest and most important geopolitical rival to the United States of America. Its entire apparatus is, at least in part, built to counteract and balance against American influence (which you are, for better or worse, part of). Western Europe gets its info because some of its leaders, as you can begin to see, have a vetted and personal interest in Gloria. For the rest of America, well, I’m biased, that’s the whole reason the DR even is in this meeting in the first place, but you get my point.
Once India, the UAE as Idlun mentions, Libya, Algeria, Egypt (which is actually the origin nation for a character in another story of mine), etc are places the MC tackles, they’ll get as much attention, if not more so, than the nations already explored.
Be careful what you wish for.
That’ll teach me to go on run-off tangents after midnight…
Yes, you’re right. There’s still a Japanese Emperor. Hirohito himself ruled as long as he did IRL, for one, to some characters’ great chagrin (like Shin’s mother Sayaka, who never hid her abundant and incessant hate for the man).
The Japanese hero team does need to split itself in protection of these two. There’s tales that the current emperor may be involved with a heroine on the team, but these are tawdry rumours that no one with a brain actually considers.
But, y’know, she always is part of his escort…
And two things, because I’m personally sick of it and don’t much want that to seep into my story:
- Japan is a much more liberal place in this universe. Its government isn’t mostly held by conservatives tied to far-right organizations like Nippon Kaigi. Birthrates are still low, its work culture is still somewhat toxic, and its economy keeps stagnating little by little, but its government isn’t full of ultranationalists.
No room for fascism in my story. It’s a stupid ideology, and not something I feel I ever want to tackle in any way that isn’t to mock it incessantly.
- The current Japanese Emperor is much younger in this universe. It’s a common trope by now in this book, the oldest state representative in the G7 is the Italian Prime Minister, who just barely hit 50. The Russian President is a few months from her 40th birthday. It’s not very relevant to the point but it’s important information to me. The reigns of this world are not held by people who will die long before their misguided actions end up dooming us all.
We’ll let the millennials take the blame on that one…
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This wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The fault lies (somewhat) with me since I was among the people who read this on discord a while back. Still, it contains a lot of interesting information/worldbuilding. The only thing I would add to this article to make it more in-line with my original question would be a “Power Rankings” between the Heroes/Teams.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the citizenry already does a version of this regardless of how (in)accurate it might be.
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Ugh, what’s even the POINT, then?
Petition to make this their actual name.
“Name… Pending?”
“My parents were very indecisive.”
What are you, the New York Times?
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Old people aren’t necessarily bad to have in government. If Bernie had been elected in 2016 the world would look at least somewhat different now, same goes for Warren in 2020.
The problem lies more in the uniquely toxic combination of neoliberalism that is morphing into neofeudalism in some places on one hand and newly re-emergent modern fascism on the other that dominates a lot of the established media and political spheres, but especially big media as we consider that Trump would not have been elected without billions worth of essentially free publicity. If the media had tilted half as hard in favour of Bernie or Warren coverage in billions of free publicity then what is politically possible would change…radically.
A lot of the new fascists are actually middle class kids of gen-z and younger.
Anyway for another tangent…what about the UN?
Does it have a team or plans to form one? Is it perhaps a persistent joke that the formation of a UN team is so tied up in red tape and vetoes that it is always ten years away?
Blame Mars, starting to fall for Mars has my mc questioning a lot of things internally lately. 
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Huh, so my dream of beating up forlorn isn’t coming true I guess? I don’t dislike the guy but it’d be great to put him in his place regarding aki, like ‘‘your manipulation ends here you ugly mofo!’’, I get kind of mad in how he acts regarding aki, I’m sure he has his reasons but he doesn’t even let the girl live a little, if you let him have his messed up way the girl will end up being a depressive mess, and you don’t want a depressive hero, it can sooner than later turn into a whole superman goes world dictator after lois is killed, it seems to me that he cares for her well-being but he couldn’t give a damn about her feelings as a human being, also love can be useful… I know it makes you hella stronger, you push through the hardest walls just for the sake of the ones you love, a superhero fighting for love will always be stronger, dragon ball is a great proof of this too, where characters like vegeta and gohan get way stronger when they have to protect their loved ones
That’s true (as well as the rest of your paragraph), but I’d still argue some of this blatant media bias and the turning of the young into far-right ideologies still comes from the fact that a lot of the… “owners”, so to speak, remain old and entrenched descendants of dynasties that hold with an iron grip onto the machineries of government, which in turn are used to strengthen the belief that it’s only these same people who can lead us, on the basis that “experience” and “tempered ability” is what allows one to be a worthy leader.
That kind of thinking and reinforcement is part of what landed Biden the US presidency, and I’d rather not get too bogged down into it, but we can all see how well that’s going.
There’s plenty of younger people who I’d argue have a good head on their shoulders and could serve in positions of leadership, but the political scene is more or less turning itself into a club which closes ranks among those already inside means that the outsiders will remain outsiders, unless they’re capable of shaking the scene the same way people like Trump have.
And… well, we already know what people like Trump are like, and what they can be capable of.
Yeesh.
Some of it, I’ll admit, comes from my own local biases. The Dominican political scene is essentially just the descendants of the political groups established under Trujillo and eventually Balaguer, who still cast a massive shadow over the country since some people aren’t keen at all on the Dominican populace rocking the boat at all. It’s the exact same groups, fighting for the interests of the same groups, even as the vast majority of the country begs for a different direction.
… Besides, it’s fun to have boy-kings and child-queens as the authority figures. Makes them more approachable for the average reader, I think.
What about the UN?
It’s a big issue whether it gets its own team or not, yeah. The Security Council would naturally be in command of it, but that has the issue of Russian, American, and Chinese interests all clashing heads, nevermind the rest of the nations.
Russia, for example, is all-in for a UN team, but with the caveat that the Russian members of it come from the EU Delegation that so shamely stole them.
“Russia’s too big, you see, and we can’t further dilute our powered’s ability to protect the country simply because France, the United Kingdom, Spain and all the others have gone back to their ancestors tactic of stealing what they can’t produce.”
China is against the idea because, as they say, “the game is fucking rigged”, and this would just be another tool of the US to oppress and deny what China considers its rightful claims in the world stage.
The US is, surprisingly, split. Some of the establishment does not consider it a bad idea, if only because an UN established team lets them claim good boy points while knowing it’s gonna be useless because it’s the fucking UN, while others (like Gloria) are resolutely against. World peace and stability must be achieved and kept, but not by surrendering vital American assets to a group that hosts such anti-American positions.
Also, the Americans can’t even handle their actual national hero team, so good luck keeping this one properly shackled.
Don’t worry.
I’m not going to.
Ah, that’d have to wait a bit. I’m still working out some of the details, and the power levels of the groups are definitely still under construction.
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I like forlorn cuz he didn’t take Ignis from me
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I see that the main issue is a persistent Chinese veto then, the rest, including the Russian objection is just staffing issues but to hash out staffing issues you first need to pass a vote to form a team in the first place.
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Of course, that’s at this point in time. As I keep mentioning, the geopolitical situation of the planet by the time Book 1 ends is gonna be…
Unlike any before, to say the least.
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I’m sure this will have nothing to do with the attack on the G7 at the point the current demo ends.
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