An X-Men based setting with no X-Men!?

[Flux]

Is there any interest in reviving the X-Men as a faction? Is Redencion (pretend the accent mark is there) House going to become the new X-Men somehow? Or the MCU? Because we have an active Brotherhood, and we have Government Oppression (Like, 3 whole factions of it, almost) but no X-Men. In the Marvel Universe, there's a West Coast branch of Xavier's school from which X-Men issue forth and do battle/make PR/etc. Is there such a thing for Cullen's? I know the last iteration of Cullen's was more Soap Opera than Ass-Kicking Mutant Battles (at least, by my own evaluation), but that doesn't mean we can't dress all in black and yellow spandex and go out and thwart crime as semi-colorful vigilantes this time.

[Aidan Fox]

Presumably the X-Men are still active - it's just that the interest has migrated to the Los Santos setting. There was so much going on with trying to maintain a school that's also a secret training facility and a home base for international vigilantes that people either burnt out or lost interest.

But there's nothing to stop us from drumming up an X-Men West. Several of the Redencion House kids are getting old enough to take sides in the gene war, and a few are already being groomed by the Brotherhood. I think it would be great to have a heroic alternative, something more streamlined and focused than Cullen's turned out to be.

Carlos and Jacinda are going to be in town soon. If you've got a character in mind and can persuade them to join up, that would be an awesome core for a new team.

[Flux]

I was thinking that the school life part could be pushed into the background as part of the hum-drum. Nobody in the House posts about going to school, even though its part of her condition for people living there. It's like how nobody in Dungeons & Dragons roleplays pooping; we assume that at a natural break in the action, that happens.

So, yes, they attend school there, and yes, they live there, but we give the on-screen time to stuff like the Danger Room and altercations out in the world. Yes, there'll still be the interpersonal drama and whatever that can play out on-screen, but hopefully we can get it tied onto the actiony part.

I thought Carlos was part of the La Raza gang movement? Also, I have zero idea who Jacinda even IS. ; Like, as a character and a person who sits at a computer and writes. I vaguely remember a plan to have her make a hurricane, but...that's it. Hadn't realized I'd been gone so long.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Its also summer time, that's why no one's in school right now.

edit: I don't have a problem with the X-men being RPed, Redencion House is not a replacement for Cullen's it is a different setting not intended to "become the XMen." With Redencion we can tell intimate stories about 'real' people, and the characters are taking the forefront I think, not a super group of vigilantes.

Also when everything was originally being RPed at Cullens there were very few X-Men stories being done even then.

But! With the Los Angeles Mutant Riots about to kick off in an IC month or so, that is a big way to get the x-men involved if the members want to be, not to mention some of the things the Brotherhood is up to and probably needs opposing (or helping, as the case may be). Ethan and Saladin may need to work together!

[Flux]

I was referring back to before I disappeared, when it was spring, but yes.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Well, originally when we started Redencion it was spring, but we also had only NPC kids here (and you). We didn't really get very far before interest waned and people started bailing, only in the most plot important RP we'd attempted so far of course.

But yes, interesting things don't tend to happen at school.

[Aidan Fox]

I'd be resistant to the idea of a Cullen's clone in LA right now, because it would seem to make Redencion House redundant - at least as far as providing a home for mutant kids who have nowhere else to go. After the riots though... who knows. The house might get utterly demolished in the fracas. I could see Cullen's asking Anna to help open a new branch in LA. I still like the idea of still sending the kids to area schools, though. That way we wouldn't have to maintain a whole faculty of NPC mutants, and we can just focus on a few mentors like Anna and Aidan who help the kids cope with their powers.

But that's long-range speculation. I'm more than happy to discuss any ideas you may have now.

EDIT: Just want to add - as much fun as we had with the old Cullen's setting, I'm not interested in recreating it. In a lot of ways, it was unwieldy and confusing, which made it difficult to really advance the story arc. Redencion has been much more focused, largely because of the desperate circumstances the characters are in. We have very concrete sources of conflict, both from within and from without. Whatever the next phase is, I'd want to preserve that direction and momentum.

[Anna Fernandez]

After the riots things will be significantly different at the House, yes.

I don't see a problem with the X-Men operating in LA in the same way that the Brotherhood does now. *shrug* But there would have to be interest in it, and people who wanted to contribute to the overall story and not splinter our existing story-arc too terribly much.

[Taataani Meorrrei]

I had considered having Henri travel to Los Angeles to set up essentially a western campus of Cullens, but not gotten around to it. If there's interest for that sort of thing, I'd be game.

[Stern]

The MCU can offer self-defense courses or recruit outright. I am considering having Stern make the MCU uniforms different in a significant way outside of a patch on the sleeve of the uniforms.

I think adding one more faction to the mix might spread things out too thinly.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I think an X-Men group (was there ever really one to begin with?) cameo might be as far as I would want to go. Agreeing with Stern, don't want to spread out too thin.

And then Redencion rebuilding with Cullen's help. Henri could come over to help Anna, be a mentor to the kids, whatever.

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda is in New York right now, at Cullen's catching up with Dragon and Chartis. She will be heading west soonish, and yes..as Tempest she is one of the X-men and yes, she will be bringing that aspect with her, but.. eventually. She's going on leave for a while. They (Carlos and Jacinda, and I'm guessing Tess, Taya and Chris at least!) don't need to play students anymore as they've graduated, but she will maintain her ties with Cullen's and the X-men.

[Carlos Calaveras]

Carlos never was, and never will be, part of La Raza. Just for reference

I think an X-Men group (was there ever really one to begin with?)

There was! The majority of the faculty at Cullen's were part of the X-Men, on the side, along with a few of the olders students... but as with the Los Santos RPs, the focus was generally not on their exploits as the X-Men.. unless they were running training simulations in the Danger Room.

I think Carlos would probably be up for starting a chapter of Cullen's out west, but I can't imagine how that would come about really, unless Ethan Daniels instigated it.

Or it evolved from the Greek Club at Steve Rogers High. I know that some of the kids there had moved on to greener pastures (Lana, notably) but it would be interesting to see them acting as amateur heroes as they grow up.. and finally establish their own team, somewhere down the line.

Whatever the 'new X-Men' would be like, we can assume that the old team is still operating over at Cullen's, and that the 'new X-Men' would have to be set up in a way different enough from them, and Redencion House, to keep things fresh.

Definitely something to think about.

[Francoise Dupont]

Incidentally I am open to cameos with Francoise (who was one of the founding members of the X-Men, and is effectively the universe's Jean Grey.)

For those who aren't aware, she is still getting to grips with her ability to move through space and time - but is available for a cameo whenever someone needs the prophetic impetus to do something.

We could even do some 'First Class' threads, if that would be something the other original X-Men players would be interested in.

[Flux]

Wow, lots of great feedback and stuff. I wasn't thinking of setting it up as a school so much, since that was what bogged it all down in the first place. I was thinking a strike team, goes about their normal lives, then a Mission Control type character calls them all in, they do a mission, they disperse. There'd be a Danger Room, a Hangar for awesome vechicles, locker rooms and a briefing room, but that'd be about it.

I never wanted to marginalize the House or MCU, and I'm sorry I got Carlos mixed up with another character. Is it Pedro, then? Someone Calaveras is in La Raza, or else my brain no longer functions correctly. But, regarding the House and MCU, I would like to think the X-Men could come to the aid of the House in some way if it were needed, and maybe have a member or two play Batman to Stern's Commissioner Gordon.

Bottom Line: I want garishly costumed superheroes because dammit, we tag our threads with "X-MEN". If we don't make an X-Men team that's fine, but it started nagging at me last night and I had to say something.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I was thinking a strike team, goes about their normal lives, then a Mission Control type character calls them all in, they do a mission, they disperse. There'd be a Danger Room, a Hangar for awesome vechicles, locker rooms and a briefing room, but that'd be about it.

If someone had an idea for, or an existing, character who could fund/direct this, I don't think this would be difficult to pull off. Must put my thinking cap on...

[Flux]

No existing characters, but I did have an idea for a brother and sister, fraternal twins, whose powers of heightened strength, speed, reflexes, and agility was swapped between them by physical touch. I was going to have them share the codename Tradeskill and at least be part of the team, if not the instigators/leaders.

[Mirror]

I have this character I made when Cullen's was waning that never did anything. (This is Stern, btw.)

His power was that he could immediately copy the mutations of any mutant within a certain yardage of himself. That was how he found mutants to recruit.

Any of these ideas sound good, though.

[Riley Grace]

You know, we could use an MU version of Emma Frost, the way Francoise is our Jean Gray. I'd be willing to create someone to do it (I've had the idea for ages as it is) to be the source of funding and a team member. Riley would be willing to become a team member as well.

[Jacinda Blake]

Jacinda has just come into an inheritance, and she's seen in the future (thank you Fran) that she will one day be Prof. Calaveras so she'd be on board to help out! She was also a teacher's aid to the smaller kids at Cullen's so yay experience!