@AngelOfTheBroken Maybe that’s what led to MC getting married or maybe that’s what led to MC getting a divorce?
@Megus @freelance That hero would probably be Red Light. Poor Red Light. Nobody deserves to bear witness to that.
For now I’m going to pretend MC and their Ex got married in Vegas, while they were drunk, and they had just met. They kinda rolled with it for five years, maybe.
I could 100% see one of the options for the ex doing this. Just like they meet up again and the MC is freaking out a little bit and the ex is just like, “Oh, hey.”
MC: Oh hey? It’s been four years since that and literally all you have to say is oh hey?
Ex: Uh… Hi?
MC: * facepalms *
Now you’ve got me squeeing like a fangirl! Thank you so much! (My plot to take over the word- I mean… stories that I want to write… is coming to a play!)
I’m crying, this is such beautiful imagery and I just imagine the MC walking up to the supervillain afterwards and tapping them on the shoulder, handing them a small notepad paper with an amount of money written on it.
Villain: What’s this?
MC: My drycleaning bill, you ruined my clothes.
MC: * casually walking out of their lair * I expect it in the mail by Saturday.
Megamind! I remember that movie- and the MC can definitely joke around with the trope.
This is so beautiful I might just put it in if that’s cool with you. Like the hero bursts in through the wall like:
Hero: Fear not, MC! I am here to-
EX: Ah great! Now I’ve gotta pay to get the wall repaired too?
MC: Forget about the wall! We’re having a conversation right now!
Hero: What… what is going on?
MC and EX: None of your business!
You can definitely react to the Ex sarcastically, and I love all these head cannons too. They make my day 100% brighter.
This is…
beautiful.
Sadly that which led to the MC getting a divorce is one of the few actually serious plot points in this book. (I mean, gotta have a li’l drama somewhere.)
Red Light would be so confused and probably debating his choice to become a hero.
… This is not one I had considered but is actually amazing. Would you mind if I added this in as an option for the player? (Or something along the lines of ‘it was on accident’ when asked for their reason for marrying.)
Go right ahead, it would be an honor.
I don’t mind at all and I’d be honored if it’s added in. Probably go with the ‘it was an accident’ choice so people can imagine it however they want. 
The “dangling over a shark tank” thing just reminded me of something I think is important. We won’t be forced into the Damsel in Distress™ role all the time, right? @AngelOfTheBroken did write in that the MC was already distributing their weight to land on the platform outside the tank and get themselves out of this mess – so, can we have the option to save ourselves, from time to time? Obviously, I’m grateful for heroes like Red Light saving my bacon in times where I can’t save myself, such as plummeting to the ground from an upper floor of a recently-detonated skyscraper. But I’d prefer not to be pigeonholed into the idea that powerless* = defenseless. Not that I think you’ll do that outright, I’d just prefer to avoid it where I can. Besides, when dealing with our ex, the MC has some experience with how they work, so we should know their MO by now, at the very least. And that could no doubt give us insight on how to deal with other villains. Maybe we even know some of them, if our ex had made friends/colleagues in those circles. Obviously, it would get plain boring if we knew exactly how to get ourselves out of what should be a suspenseful, life-or-death situation, but I’d just hope we have some prior knowledge on how villains work, or at the very least our ex-spouse. Still, after reading what you’ve made of Icarus Sun so far, I’ve no doubt that this one will be excellent too!
*I’m still not ruling out the possibility, if there is one, of the MC having powers, just because we have a “normal” profession. Maybe we were a hero/vigilante before, and that’s how we met our spouse. That would certainly justify divorcing them for turning to villainy. Not that it needs justifying, it would just make all the more sense, yknow? And, perhaps, if we were a hero before, it would make sense why we left that field. If, for example, we married them for love and we were a hero, their turn to villainy wouldn’t just be heartbreaking – it would be world-shattering. Of course, I’m just going off of what I imagine my reasons would be for marrying them, divorcing them, and then making the change to work at The Rust. Reasonably, I simply wouldn’t be the same as I was before – as a hero, as anything. So I’d think it would be for the best to retire. I’d initially call it “temporary,” but that’s clearly not how it turned out. Maybe it’s even part of why I don’t hate, but resent my ex so much now. Maybe I blame them for why I’m not a hero anymore, even though it was my choice to hang up the mask. And even though I know that was my choice, and no one else’s, I still can’t help feeling this white-hot flame of rage in my gut, whenever I see them, or even think of them. It’s smaller now, after all this time, time I’ve had to heal. But it was all-consuming after it all happened, and gets a little brighter, a little hotter whenever they try to pull me back into their life again, as if none of the pain I felt – and still feel, even now – ever happened.
(Sorry, I know you wanted this to be a light-hearted, fun project, but often I can’t help the dramatic turns I take when writing, or going off of other people’s writing.)
Same.
…I remembered how much I love this man.
Thank you, both of you! (I’ll be sure to put in a li’l thanks at the beginning as well since you’ve both helped me out!)
Can I just say how much this sentence made my day? I mean seriously, like, it just made me so happy to hear so thank you so much.
Anyway,
Of course not! You’ll definitely have situations where you’ve gotta/are able to get yourself out of trouble. Might even have to save a hero yourself… Plus, those times when you are put into helpless situations you’ll have the option to react sarcastically or in a non Damsel in Distress manner (taking Red Light catching you from the building as an example, there’s a rather sarcastic option available for how your MC reacts to the situation.)
Sadly there is nothing in the current plan that involves the MC having powers or gaining powers (I wanted to explore the world from the eyes of someone almost completely removed from the whole superhero/supervillain conflict, y’know?)
But may I just say your little side-note sounds like an absolutely fantastic book? The drama, it’s amazing.
Don’t apologize at all! I love to hear people’s tangents and speculations and trust me- I take dramatic turns as well when writing (and this story does have a lot of dramatic turns in it… I mean it wouldn’t be as fun to write if there wasn’t, y’know? Drama is fun!)
Now all I can think of is a gang of sea bass with lazers duct taped to their heads…
Quick question since there are super heroes and villains are they magical/alien in origin or are they just meta-humans?
They’re meta humans. Powers in this world are often hereditary, so a parent or ancestor needs to have some kinda super power and then the kid will (if all the genes work out) inherit a similar power, not necessarily the same power but usually somewhere in the same vein of that kinda power. (Ex. if someone had the power of regeneration it wouldn’t be too far off to guess that their kid could obtain the power of healing.)
That’s good my MC doesn’t have to worry about aliens or demons destroying the world 
Nope! Just a bunch of megalomaniacs with lots of power and a bit of grudge against anyone who works at The Rust. Also did I mention that the heroes aren’t exactly the biggest fans of your newspaper either?
No problem! For a second I almost felt like I was trying to steer your story in a direction you didn’t want it to go in, basically telling you how I thought the story should be. But you definitely don’t need any help from me, I have faith that you will make MCU great all by yourself. (Unless you ask for suggestions, that is. 
)
Thank you. Honestly, I’m a little relieved. The reason I tend to gravitate towards games where I get to play the hero, or otherwise, is because playing that role allows me to be something greater than myself, for lack of a better term. It’s nice to know that, in MCU, I can play myself (i.e., without any biological/genetic advantages) and still be just as capable as the ones wearing masks and bright costumes who seem like gods or aliens, from the perspective of an unpowered human.
Thank you! Again, I’ve taken an important part from your story and ran with it in some other direction, however far from the original it may be. I guess that just means this story has more potential than you thought! 
Gotcha. Then, I’ll just throw another headcanon out there: The MC was adopted, never knew/met their biological parents. Maybe they were even abandoned by them, left on the doorstep of some orphanage when they were only a baby, cliche as that is. (Achievement Unlocked!: Tragic Backstory) Therefore, nothing is known about their family’s medical or powered history. Depending on how these powers blossom, whether A) automatically within a particular age range or B) manually cultivated overtime by the powered individual (different forms of power conception, based on what “vein” the powers within your family are in), then I would suggest that either:
A) MC is a (really) late bloomer, or
B) They never knew if they could possibly have powers – basically Schrodinger’s cat, but for superpowers – so they had no idea where to start with activating them.
I began to realize, as I was typing it out, that B sounds like a long shot, while A might come off as lazy(?), but I really just want this to work somehow. It would be a great twist, for sure. No one knew the MC had powers, especially the MC themself, so it’s a shock to literally everyone when the MC’s powers manifest, seemingly out of nowhere, in an incredibly intense, suspenseful, hyper-climactic scene where all seems hopeless until they [insert superpowered action here]!
The only reason I think B might make sense is because, since there was no way of knowing if they had powers, the MC moved on from what looked like a pipe dream and decided to go for a practical career. Scenario A might be hilarious though, or at least elicit hilarious reactions (from everyone).
I’m always open to suggestions/ideas, it’s super fun to hear what other people come up with!
Also, don’t worry, it didn’t come off like that at all! Personally, I adore hearing where people think these stories might go or even just fun ideas about situations with the characters! Especially when we can riff back and forth about head cannons or ideas- those are the best, and super fun. (I use that phrase a lot, don’t I?)
Oh, definitely, I don’t think that the normal humans get enough credit in these kinda stories anyway. Like, it’s gotta take some friggin amazing survival skills just to get to work in the morning when flying people in skintight suits are constantly throwing giant robots into your office. (I mean the least they could do is make an appointment first.)
But more than that it’s gotta be stressful to try and be successful in that kinda world because there’s this whole other level of “success” via advanced powers, and you have to really learn fast if you want to match pace with someone who’s super-powered. But the MC will definitely have the ability to close that gap and show that some old fashioned non-powered ways of saving the day can be just as heroic as the heroes acts.
And it means I get to hear more kickass ideas from creative people which is A+.
It was a dark and stormy night- I mean a bright and sunny day… ahem… right…
B actually seems really cool to me. Imagine if the MCs whole original reason for becoming a journalist was because they wanted to try and find their parents (and they figured that a job that requires finding information would be a pretty good way to start). Especially for one that’s always dreamed of being a superhero-
Like, yes, okay, they don’t have powers- yet! But they just can’t know if they were supposed to have powers or not. So they spend their entire life trying to find out who their parents are, always holding out hope that A will be true and that they’re just a late bloomer.
Eventually they sorta give up, get a normal job and (like you said) move on- they even get married! (Okay… maybe it was on accident… maybe it was for an ulterior motive… but maybe it was also for love. For the purpose of dramatic head cannon I’m gonna go with love.)
They realize that they don’t need powers to have a good life- to have that dream that has always seemed like such an unreachable goal- a gap that could be bridged if only they had the right materials. But no, they already had those materials they just didn’t realize it until later in life.
And then… then it happens.
Then everything goes downhill.
Then they realize that not only did their spouse have everything they ever wanted- but that they used it for the opposite of what the MC wanted to do. That they were the villain the MC always pictured opposing their dream. And, boy, does it hurt to be right.
Now, as they’re divorced and alone again, they’ve become closer to that dream world- closer than they’ve ever been before.
And yet they’re further away from the dream than they’ve been in years.
((Now imagine if the MC was doing a study on a hero and found out that they were related… or a villain.))
…
Well… now I was the one who went down the rabbit hole.
Nothing wrong with a little venturing into said rabbit hole. It feels more like jumping, though, because I wanna see how far we can take this. It would be really funny – but also really wonderful – to me if this somehow ended up in MCU, even a tiny part of it. It would just be surprising because it currently only exists in theory, but I guess the beauty of writing is that a lot of it was just theory once too. It’s like, a few day’s ago, I commented on @malinryden’s Fallen Hero thread that I imagined one of the characters, Ortega, to play acoustic guitar, because my fc for Ortega is Oscar Isaac and he plays the guitar and sings really well in addition to acting. Then, other people started replying with their headcanons and later, Malin was like “oh no now these headcanons are entering my canon… at least the Ortega guitar one.” I guess dreams really can come true. 
They’re also a great way to find inspiration I think, either as just a writing exercise or if you’ve got the cursed writer’s block 
Exactly! That instantly reminded me of several examples, but I realized they’re all from Supergirl: Alex Danvers, Jimmy Olsen, Lucy Lane, etc. Point is, you don’t need powers to be powerful, or to be a hero.
Overall, sounds like a pretty good day to me. And if not that, then it’ll manifest into a great story.
Ooh, I love it already! And I relate to it a lot, in a way, because from an outside perspective it seems really sad, but if I’m the one on this journey, I’d be really optimistic and always try to have hope when I have no idea what the outcome will be.
Oh my GOD, that is perfect, but so sad, and I love it! It is such a fantastic premise, it’s almost a shame you’re not going for the dramatic, heart-wrenching tragedy. Not that comedies don’t have their fair share of emotional journeys. You could even spin it, or at least a particular path, like a “everything in my life goes wrong” comedy, which I would relate to the most. Maybe because my most often-used defense mechanism is laughing when I’m uncomfortable or playing things off like nothing is wrong.
Oh WAIT! I forgot tragicomedies are a thing! This day just gets better and better.
Man, they can’t catch a fucking break, can they?
Though, that could be a positive. Track down the hero/villain’s family tree and find out which of those relatives could possibly be one of the MC’s parents. The villain might be a little harder to convince, though. There’s actually a couple scenarios I’m thinking of, as to how the MC gets a sample of their DNA. They pretty much all involve getting close enough to the villain to get the sample. One involves seduction. Oh, wait, that’s gross, if they do turn out to be related. Forget that last one.
All I could think of here is that the villain somehow made a promise to the MCs parents to watch over them from afar and has been doing so and knows their related- so then when an MC who normally uses their erm… charms… to get info comes to try and find out about this villain things get really awkward because said villain can’t let MC know that they’re related (as per the promise) but also has to keep watching over them (again as per the promise).
And also…
It wouldn’t be as fun if they did!
I mean you’re really selling me on this idea so far… So… who knows?
Oh yeah! I remember that! (Which was an A+ headcannon as well, imo)
You’ve got a talent for this. 
Yes! Plotting out is one of the best ways to get rid of writers block, especially plotting out all the most dramatic or tense scenes.
Huh, I’ve never seen Supergirl… I’ll have to give it a try!
Very true!
Hey, now, who said this wouldn’t be heart-wrenching? (Tragicomedies are my jam, and while this one will be mostly lighthearted, fun, and with a li’l sass I’ve also got quite the few tragedies in mind… It just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t go overboard dramatic at least once in the story- too much fun to go without.)
You would get along well with Finley then, although for them it’s more playing it off with sarcastic humor than anything else.
Oh god, that’s hilarious. For everyone else but the people involved. Also sounds like something that would happen to me. It doesn’t even have to exclusively be a villain. Could be a hero, Red Light for example. Say he “runs into” MC again and again, while the MC is completely unaware of their relation or the promise he made to their parents. Eventually, MC is like “Damn, he’s pretty and saves my ass a lot. Speaking of asses, he has a nice one.” Then, MC turns on the flirt and perceives Red Light’s secondhand-embarrassment blushing as something entirely different. Hopefully, Red Light has the good sense to just cut his losses before incestuous mistakes are made. Not that I’m proposing Red Light and the MC are actually related, he’s just a placeholder for… whoever you want, I guess. I hope they’re not related, anyway, with Red Light being one of the RO’s (I think) you mentioned before. I don’t wanna have the same revelations as in Pendragon Rising. 
Really, you think so? Wow, thanks. I don’t have anything else right now, but I’ll try to come up with some stuff tomorrow and see what manifests. (I think it’s just that I’m not used to recognition and I got real nervous all of a sudden lol.)
Oh man, I’d recommend it anyway, but especially since you’re writing this. It’s obviously about a superhero from another planet, but the other, non-powered characters bring so much to the story. Like, Kara’s adoptive sister, Alex, inspired her so much and helped her become the hero she wanted to be. But there’s so much more! It’s great.
Yessssss! I love it when authors twist my emotions like a pretzel! If I’m sure of anything about this story, it’s that it certainly won’t be boring. I can’t wait, man. (Which is gonna get to me like an itch I can’t reach because I can be so impatient sometimes, and you said updates for MCU will be less often. But it’s worth the wait, I’m sure.)
I can already tell we’re gonna be tight. 
I don’t care if this has already been suggested, but maybe MC’s ex really loved them. So when MC found out their ex is a super villain, the MC told them that they were going to leave. The Ex not wanting MC to leave, grabs their arm and an argument starts and quickly devolves into screaming and destroying the house. Out of anger and frustration MC slaps their ex and their ex hits them back. Of course the ex would be horrified that they hurt their spouse (and maybe the MC is looking at their ex like they’re a monster) and just lets the MC run out the door. MC, of course, runs away to Nickelport and the ex gets divorce papers they never sign. Then the ex eventually tracks down MC to Nickelport and they do something that will definitely be on TV and that’s when MC sees them on the TV.
Such sweet, delicious tragedy if the ex happened to tell the MC this after showing up in Nickelport and after what I said above. I’m a horrible person, I’ll go ahead and say it before anyone else does.
Oh and I change my marriage headcanon, MC was drunk, Ex wasn’t, and it was still in Vegas… That probably makes things a lot worse. I’ll go think about what I’ve done. 
Too late. 
Always happy to amuse~
LOL! That doesn’t seem to farfetched, I mean once you’ve been married to super villian before, I’m pretty sure it’s a little hard to look at them all with the terrorfied awe and wonder when you know they are just people. But that might be my “I should sleep but apparently me and sleep are on a break and it decided to not tell me.” brain overthinking that.
And also who hasn’t wanted to be that awesome Report who always ends up in the middle of everything even it is at 2am being used as bait and you are standing there in your ratty old PJ’s like. “Come on, chuck, yeah I’m going to call you chuck. This is like the fifth time you’ve kidnapped me for nefarious purpose, I mean, are we not at the point in our relationship here where you can trust me to at least put on some real pants, maybe slippers and a coat. I mean come on, you’ve seen me in my skivvies. I don’t feel the kidnapped, kidnap-e trust here.” and are good at pretending to be chill even though you are freaking out a little. Ooor is super chill and have the whole situation a science after a certain point.
It’s a guilty pleasure for the fact it plays a lot with the typical super her, villain, reporter dynamic and it made me giggle for that.
man this thread has a lot of awesome head cannoning going on. XD
Ha! I imagine it’d be even more difficult for a hero since they probably have (or at least have to keep up the image of having) a bit more chivalry when it comes to turning down someone.
That was a great train of thought there and I could 100% see some MCs having that kinda train of thought which makes this headcannon even funnier.
Aha, don’t worry, they’re not related. (Wait, what happened in Pendragon Rising? I played that game but I don’t remember being able to romance someone you were related to… then again I don’t think I actually romanced anyone in that one so okay, I’m not exactly as well informed as I could be. )
Ahaha, no pressure! I just meant it as a compliment, y’know? (I mean, hey, it’s the truth, you’ve got a talent for it!) Do whatever makes you happiest!
Ooh, okay, this is now going on my ‘to watch’ list. It sounds super cool. (Excuse the pun)
Ahaha, they’ll be slow, for sure, but definitely come along. (The next update might come a little sooner also, since Icarus Sun’s current part has a lot of branching paths it’s gonna take longer to write, so just in general timeframe/length this one will probably come before that. Plus I’ll probably put up shorter updates on this one just to keep them from the dreaded 3-months-between-updates that happened with the last section of Icarus Sun, cause I don’t want that to happen with either this or that again.)
Funny you mention that because I just finished the part if the MC chose to go to talk with Finley today. (Yay! Progress!)
Oooh, okay, I can really see one of the exes doing this, completely the type.
Also my heart, ouch.
What if MC was drunk and thinks that ex was too, and then they get married and laugh about what a stupid mistake but y’know divorce is expensive and for a while they try to see about getting a divorce to make life easier. And then the idea just kinda… fades away. So years pass and then maybe MC starts to kinda fall for them. Then all this happens and divorce happens.
MC wonders why it hurts so much- I mean the entire marriage was an accident so it’s not like they should be upset about it coming undone. But that’s when they realize what happened. Then something happens and they end up meeting ex again in Nickelport and they get into a fight because tensions are high and it’s been a long time coming- but then ex lets slip that they were sober. (“It was all an accident anyways!” “I didn’t think it was!”) MC realizes that ex actually had feelings for them, actually wanted to have that loving, normal relationship that they kinda had (or were on the cusp of having, at least).
Imagine that.
Aha! I know that sleep-deprived feeling…
But yeah no I can imagine it would get old after a while. Probably why the MC has such a developed sarcasm in some choices…
MC: Oooh, ahh… I’m so scared… Save me…
MC: Are we done yet?
Villain: What?
MC: I did the scream, I did the cry of terror, I even did the plea for help- can I go?
Villain: Go? But I kidnapped you…
MC: Yeah, yeah, kidnapped, okay, great. Look, buddy, I’ve got a meeting at four and I need to get changed.
Imagine both though, like the villain comes to kidnap them and they’re just like: “One sec let me get my jogging clothes on.” 'Cause they know how this song and dance goes, how the hero will swoop in to save them and they wanna be comfortable when “running for their lives”.
I know! It’s great, I love it.
You don’t exactly find out you’re related until after the incestuous act/s… (Hint: It’s Morgan. Since I played a girl, Morgan was a boy. In the earlier chapters – after that first battle, when everyone is celebrating – you can choose to flirt with Morgan, then take it further, to your hut if you so choose. Obviously, I would not have made this choice if I had all the information beforehand… Anyway, if you hooked up with Morgan, after you exit the tomb on that island (haven’t played it in a long time; don’t remember what it’s called), you fall to the ground in agonizing pain. The one clergyman(?), Morgan’s father I think, rushes over to see what’s wrong. He reminds you that you were only supposed to enter the tomb one at a time, even though I thought I went in alone. I’m then informed that I am pregnant, assumedly with Morgan’s child. It’s not until after that when there’s an interlude, from Morgan’s perspective, in a conversation with his father. Of all fucking times, that’s when he decides to tell Morgan that I, Arta of Gwyned, am his sister. Then, I feel like I just swallowed a slug and it’s crawling back up my esophagus.) 
Nice, I’m so excited to see if it inspires any ideas for MCU! I can already draw tons of similarities between Kara/Supergirl and Eileen in MCU! They may not look anything alike, but I can tell they both have “the heart of a hero.” (Just my favorite quote from the show, that I plan to get a tattoo of someday, nbd.) 
Also, with me, you can throw out all the puns you want. It’d be a nice change of pace from my best friend looking at me like I have 2 heads whenever I make one.
Don’t sweat it, I think that is an excellent plan. Since I’m absolutely terrible when it comes to time/workload management, my standards are quite low for what is or isn’t a good plan, as far that goes. But I’d think the most responsible, manageable thing you could do is what you just said: spacing out your work in chunks, so as to not overwhelm yourself and to feed the appetites of your hungry readers. (Okay, that wasn’t intended to sound as creepy as it did…)
Woohoo!! Gold star for you! 
What if the MC starts to get captured less frequently, because it got around that they’re so unaffected by it at this point that they’re “no fun” to take hostage anymore? 
I can see this evolving as the MC becomes seasoned to supervillain-esque antics. As they get captured, escape, recaptured and escape again, they make a list of things that would’ve been useful in this or that particular situation. Plus, they expect to have their phone/wallet/etc. taken from them, if they’re held hostage for example, so they come up with a solution. Basically, a utility belt for the average citizen. Also, I would keep a concealable weapon, like a taser/stun gun in there, and probably lifeproof my phone. Or, keep a couple spare phones. And I’m guessing, in this world, there are at least a few insurance agencies that specialize in protection against property/personal damage caused by a powered person.
Where I was personally going with that was that the MC would eventually come to the conclusion that it would be a lot more practical to just become a vigilante, even though that is the complete opposite point of this game. They would just save so much money on clothes and their phone and all the other stuff if they had an outfit made specifically for these situations without the possibility of having their on-hand possessions stolen, wouldn’t have to buy a new wallet and new credit card every other week or something, etc. Plus, they could get information from the bad guys before turning them into the police, so everybody wins! (Except the bad guys, obviously.) They’d be doing their job while doing good all at the same time.
Or maybe that’s another thing the MC fantasizes about, yknow from always wanting to be a hero. But not having powers made them lack confidence that they could do any good that way, so that’s why they became a journalist.