Post by ( AJ ! ) on Sept 15, 2011 19:31:09 GMT -5
Open any superhero comic book and flick through its pages and you'll find yourself awash in a tsunami of fancy and fantasy. Elastic hands and leopard fur and balls of ice, you know? But time and again, all these tales trace their origins back to the Big Kaboom. Either a deadly strain escapes from some secret laboratory, awakening a thread of dormant mutant DNA hidden deep in the human genome, or the human race begins to evolve in defiant response to some horrific cataclysmic event. We're all about adaptation deep in those colorful glossy pages, right?
Not here.
GIFTS
Gifts – you know, superpowers – have always existed. Ever since the beginning of the world, since anyone can ever remember, people have been able to twist fire and sculpt air without restraint. There’s no explanation for this, just a quiet knowledge that it always has been and always will be. Of course, we try to keep it under the table for fear of exploitation and chaos, but we aren’t perfect. As a result, wild myths of thunderbirds, angels, and dryads have blossomed and extravagant cave paintings have sprayed across cavern walls. Over the years, the term “rara avis”, rare bird, has developed. We call ourselves raras.
There are two real defining factors that separates us from the average superhero story. The first is the weaknesses that come from birth with our gift. Everyone has a related weakness for each gift. Maybe a pyrokinetic is sensitive to temperature change, is afraid of swimming, or has small lungs. Catch my drift? These weaknesses are always severe and often are never fixed (more in the Gifts thread.) The trances are the second unique twist: we all go into a deep sleep (trance) for a day or two before we get our gifts. The dreams are spectacular, but the side effects suck. Side effects are the opposite of our gifts much like our weaknesses are; maybe pyrokinetics are extremely cold and can’t breathe and clairvoyants go into a confused daze.
THE ALLIANCE’S BEGINNING
The purpose of the Alliance is to keep rara existence a secret as much as possible, because if word ever got out, chaos would erupt and people would take advantage of us and there would be rara rights and everything you read in the comics. In an effort to keep our secret behind closed doors, we formed the Alliance. Historians among us trace the Alliance’s roots all the way back to the colony of Roanoke. You see, most of the Pilgrims were raras. They sought not only freedom of religion but the freedom to practice their gifts freely, away from the accusations of witchery that were rampant at the time. The leader of the Roanoke Pilgrims was a severe man, and he would either convince himself of either insanity or sleep deprivation if he ever found out the truth. So when he left on a trip, the Pilgrims receded deep into the woods, exchanging with the Native Americans goods for secrecy. There they dwelt in the beloved town named Alliance until it grew too big to be hidden any longer and the raras were forced to disperse.
THE ALLIANCE TODAY
Now there are countless Fellowships, little communities of Alliance raras, around the world, all of them forming the Alliance. Lesser Fellowships, or Lesser Fellies, regional branches of the Alliance, meet once every three months, and all Greater Fellowships, or Greater Fellies, national branches of the Alliance, meet once a year in the centermost Lesser Felly headquarters. Fellies are like huge happy families: everyone knows each other, no matter how many Allies there are, and each Felly has an HQ, like maybe a public library, that we rent to use for meetings. Our meetings are kind of like youth groups, if you’ve ever been to church. We treat each other like siblings, parents, and children. Oh, and before I forget, FYI: raras are the gifted, while Allies are raras or humans who are part of the Alliance. The only reason humans are part of the Alliance is because they’ve found out about rara existence and want to join the Alliance.
NON-ALLIANCE FACTIONS
Of course, there are some who laugh in the Alliance’s face. For whatever reason, they opt out of it. These opt-out-ers, whether rara or human, are called singulars. Then there’s those who use their gifts for their own sake, because of course there’s gotta be bad guys, and they’re called the flaunters. And the vigilantes, lone wolf singulars, of course, are out there going head-to-head with the flaunters. And the humans, those who don’t know about rara existence, are called humans. There aren’t any real groups of flaunters, singulars, or vigilantes, but rumor has it some are springing up...
GEM SCHOOLS
The Alliance is extremely spread out, and although the gifted are naturally drawn to each other – you’ll usually find them living next to each other or befriending each other – Allies sometimes find it hard to meet in the Fellowships. So we formed the GEM schools, the Academies for More Exceptionally Gifted Students (yeah, that spells AMEGS, but we switch it up. Don’t question the system. It’s better that way. XD) GEM schools are considered the “genius schools”, the “gifted programs”: you know how in the movies they always have the special schools for superpeople and use the cover of being a smart school? It’s not a half-bad idea and we use it. GEM schools are made of both humans and raras: we fill the spots with Allies, then singulars, then throw some clueless humans in the mix for cover story’s sake. So the clueless humans are the ones you'd expect to find in a “smart school”.
ALLIANCE DOINGS
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What exactly do we do in the Alliance? Well, we’ve got a bunch of things. Some of us research the gifts. Some of us search out and recruit raras and humans to the Alliance. Some of us are part of the AJP, the Alliance Justice Program: we feel responsible for the flaunters because we have the means to stop them and we should. So AJP people either work to keep rara existence quiet or prevent flaunters from being evil and all that. Some of us lead the researching, recruiting, and AJP. And the rest just go about our daily lives, eating cookies and watching Blues Clues. But lately something’s been stirring up. We don’t know what, but there are rumors… and that, I believe, is where our story begins.
If for whatever reason you’re extremely confuzzled, here’s a short-n’-sweet condensation:
>> gifts have always existed and the gifted are raras
>> trances mark the receiving of a gift and you have an opposite weakness for every gift
>> the Alliance is the worldwide community of raras trying to keep rara existence quiet
>> people who opt out of the Alliance are singulars, plus the flaunters (bad guys) and vigilantes
>> GEM schools are schools created to keep the Allies together and train all raras that use the cover of smart schools