#vetusta

[yael-art-den]

[yael-art-den]

So superheros. I know U.S. comics they tend toeards being vigilantes, wild west outlaws and war propoganda as big origin points. How do superheros work in your setting? Like you say professional level. Are they freelancers, government agents, have their own businesses, etc

The superhero business is regulated by a private, but state-funded company. What that means is that the Company© is public enough (like 5 or 10% of it) to not be a fully private company and the state can regulate and interviene in some parts of it, as it considers it provides an important service; but at the end of the day is a private company that focus on economic benefits.

To use your powers legally, as part of your job or just in public, you need to apply for a permit through this company. This permit also makes you elligible for a sort of Superhero Jury Duty in which, if they consider you have powers that might help an "emergency situation", you are demanded to Go There And Use Them. This emergency work is, of course, unpaid.

This has caused that most of the people applying for a superhero permit are people that already want to work as superheroes and are willing to put on the hours of (unpaid) labor to provide a service they see as morally important. It depends on the generation, but Pluton's hero generation and most of Iago's were following the "traditional" superhero way of having a secret identity, which was what was used as an excuse first to use heroes as unpaid labor, because knowing like, your bank account, would go against Secret Identity Policies. 'Oh you want to be compensated by the hours you're saving people from danger? You're supposed to do it because it's a good thing to do' sentiment was extremely prevalent, especially in Pluto's generation and before. In the current era, The Company© is flirting with the concept of NOT having a secret identity so sponsors can have a slot in the superhero business and now your ""secret"" identity is your Personal Brand, you can make tiktoks about it and get paid as long as you provide your entire personalmdata to them! Definitely an improvement.

Currently, as of 2016 (three years ago) in Vetusta, the current Company© was bought by a second company that implemented the sponsor system as a way for them to be compensated for their job, alongside other wonderful additions like an Elo System so they can motivate you to keep doing better with tangible points! And so they can fire you if you're not productive enough with a legal reason so you cannot fight back legally. And if you wanted to keep your secret identity? Forget about legal action my man you legally have never worked there.

This just formalized the clear tendency that had been there for decades: if you wanted to get better missions and conditions you have to play cop. Doing governent work, protecting important people or fighting 'ilegal protests' are high scoring missions that also put you in the "too important to waste their time with useless stuff like Helping People" pile, so even if you technically should be drafted for Hero Duty too, you won't have to worry about it. The top 5 superheroes currently like Fulgor and Candela are people that know how to play this game very well.

If you're just a dude who wants to help people and get cats down from trees, you can do it! That just means you can be called to act at any time, multiple times a week sometimes, unpaid with no medical support. But hey you're doing Good! That's what Spiderman is about, right? Don't you wanna be like those comic heroes? You better have a second job to support yourself btw.

It comes as no surprise that Iago's mentor (low ranked super) worked himself to an early grave, especially believing superheroes should be exclusively voluntary work.

[yael-art-den]

I never finished this but they are the two main protags of the whole superhero Plot B happening in Vetusta. What if the best, hardest worker in the whole world couldn't catch a guy who just appeared in a screen someday and is destroying your life's work. what then

[yael-art-den]

If you have any questions as to why Vetusta is a superhero setting/story but I specifically talk about magic is because that's what it is. I think in this timeline USAmerican comics reached popular culture at around the end of the dictatorship/early democracy and there was a huge push to globalize the country and americanize it in an effort to "catch up with the current times". It created a push to adapt whatever the culture already had with the golden era of superhero cómics and so the terms and concept of "working" as a superhero began. Though they don't follow the same rules or origins as american superheroes, they are now treated as interchangeable

[yael-art-den]

Also idk anything about your setting but I do have to ask if there is anything weird they'd consider normal. Is the moon in broken pieces, does the planet have rings around it, are there floating rivers that defy gravity, trees with electricity leaves, etc etc etc

The world itself it's just earth, specifically a fictional city located in southern Spain (that's where the namesake Vetusta comes from). Additionally there is another fake northern town where Iago and Plutón are from, Uruna, which comes from my grand hit 1400's vibe writing project wolfsong. And considering the guys in Vetusta live in 2019, most of the stuff we consider normal here is also normal there.

However, the elefant in the room is well. magic. Ever since some guys in the 1400's did something and the barrier between worlds got all funky, it's pretty normal to express some sort of magical or elemental affinity. Most people don't develop it, as it's a long process and working with magic at a professional level needs the same dedication as one professional athlete would need irl. So a lot of things in the world need to account for the fact that some people can just fuck with metal detectors or become invisible.

Another thing is that there are some people, especially up north who just have slight bestial features. It's assumed that it's some kind of magical side-effect but it doesn't always correlate with magic usage, just seems like an ancient bloodline thing. So i guess the most weird-normal thing is that werewolves were a thing that existed (RIP) in this superhero urban-fantasy setting

[yael-art-den]

A conversation starter question I love is: what is the largest animal they think they can take in a fight without a weapon. And then, with 3 friends and medeival weaponry, the largest animal they think they could defeat

I think the answer would vary WILDLY from character to character so I will pick the ones that would answer the question seriously and not go "what are you talking about" at the premise. AND I'm adding the extra rule of "not using powers in the fight".

I'm picking Héctor first because he's too overconfident in his abilities. I think he's the kind of man who secretly believes he could take a wolf 1v1. Of all three characters I will discuss here, it's the only one I think that could actually do it

For the others, I'm picking Marina and Aitor (Placeholder name). Marina thinks she could easily take like. a big goose maybe. Aitor(PHN) thinks he could take a wolf too (he cannot)

With medieval weapons, I think the three of them would work themselves up to fight a bear. TWO bears even.

With powers enabled, Héctor would actually be the only one who's actually useful in that fight, but with enough stuff around (or just the medieval weaponry) I think he can upgrade to woolly mammoth. just spear that thing to death while you're 100 meters away

[yael-art-den]

Have there been any horrible consequences to well-intentioned choices your OC made? How did they cope with that?

For any oc(s)!

Ohhhohoho, let's do it for my favorite group of well-intentioned, shitty people, Vetusta: Héctor: Tried to create a supervillain union, which got several of his friends incarcelated and/or killed after a very violent response from the agency. He has since dialed it down after the only member he has left is Twister (A VERY young one at that) and he has self-assigned the duty of protecting her from anything. Which is hard because her main hobby is getting into trouble.

Marina (Twister): Joined the supervillain group as a way to protest against the awful Super working conditions; now it's too deep down into the rabbithole/sunk cost to leave and she's too stubborn to take a step back. If something were to happen to her it would destroy her (already widowed) mom. She is also the first one to willingly reveal herself to Mirage, which it's... a thing)

Anastasia: If you KEEP proving yourself to others im SURE people will see your worth eventually. Remember girl, your worth is EXCLUSIVELY the work you can provide for others!!! Im sure the consequences will come later and will, FOR SURE only be good.

[aemiliae-conjectanea]

i’m just reading the introduction to Boethius’ commentaries in and translation of Porphyry’s Eisagoge, and when discussing his reliance on Ammonius, the commentator on Aristotle, he says that the lack of direct citations of Ammonius (even when pretty directly cribbing) doesn’t contradict his dependence on Ammonius, since it was usual for ancient writers to avoid citing their main source directly. (a comparandum might be how Macrobius sometimes takes sections nearly verbatim from Gellius, instead citing Gellius’ sources rather than Gellius himself, fooling no-one.)