Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 30

Thread: Checkmate?

  1. #1
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Barbara Gordon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    AKA
    Holly
    Location
    Gotham City
    Posts
    103

    DC Checkmate?

    I'm just wondering what (if any) Checkmate plans are in place. In one of my RPs there are crates of stuff labeled "top secret CHECKMATE" in a warehouse (in Steph's post) and I'm just wondering why a QC warehouse is holding them.

    Ultimately it won't really effect how I approach my post, I'm just curious as to the larger picture if there is one.

  2. #2
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    I, uh, totally just made that up as something sinister going on. I figured Checkmate is using QC as an asset, so would do something like that to hide their stuff.

    But I mostly just made it up to add mystery. I can edit it if it's a problem.

  3. #3
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer

    Droo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    AKA
    Droo
    Posts
    5,117
    Gamer IDs

    Steam ID: droogydroo
    I'd be surprised if an organisation like Checkmate plastered their name all over incriminating evidence. It would be a bit like finding boxes labelled "Property of MI5. Please return to Thames House, London. Ask for M." That's just my humble opinion.

  4. #4
    I doubt that something would be explicitly labelled Checkmate. They're like the Men in Black (both in the sense of the movie, and the conspiracy theory it's based on). They're a government agency that "doesn't officially exist", that is secret to the point that a lot of people haven't even heard of them. (Edit: what Droo just said - though M is from MI6 Droo, for shame!)

    You're more likely to have found something labelled as one of the mysterious vanished subsidiaries. Finding a crate labelled "Tyler Chemical" might be a good option, since that's the company that Green Arrow explicitly mentioned to Barbara.

    * * *

    In terms of the Checkmate plan at the moment, there's two aspects of it that have been "revealed" thus far (ie. two that we are focusing on):


    1) Mirakuru. Rex Tyler, the Golden Age hero Hourman, got his powers from a "Miracle" pill. It basically worked the same way as Captain America's supersoldier serum, giving him enhanced strength/reflexes/etc, except that the chemical broke down after one hour (hence his superhero name). You could only take the pill once per day as well, else you risked overdosing on the chemicals, and there were all manner of side effects and addictive properties that ended up meaning Rex Tyler had to retire; and he has spent the years since trying to perfect the drug - make it last more than an hour (permanently?), make it more potent, try to make it enhance mental attributes, etc.

    Part of that research has involved experimenting with the Venom serum that Bane uses. Bane is going to show up soonish, enhanced in such a way that he can go toe to toe with Supergirl and Superboy. This is also one of the main things that Checkmate will be testing on homeless people and drug users in the Narrows: they'll add ingredients to regular drugs to see if there are any side effects, they may end up testing versions of the Mirakuru compound to see if homeless people develop powers (and if so for how long), and that sort of thing. That may mean people are taking drugs and having superpowered smackdowns against each other... it may mean they're snatching people off the streets, experimenting on them, and then dumping their OD'd bodies in a gutter somewhere.

    You may be able to unravel this by following drug shipments to the facility where QC is mixing in their special ingredients... but don't rush through it too quick. This is one of the main Checkmate things at the moment, so if everything gets blown wide pen in the space of two or three threads, that's not gonna leave much for everyone else to go on... and it'd also put Barbara squarely in the crosshairs of Checkmate, at which point she would likely be a corpse floating in the river by the end of the week.


    2) Cadmus Labs. One of Queen Consolidated's mystery subsidiaries is Cadmus, who are the ones who made Superboy. While Rex Tyler is attempting to give superpowers to humans via chemicals, Cadmus is trying to unlock powers via genetics, which involves a lot of experimenting with alien and metahuman DNA. This doesn't just involve Kryptonians like Superboy: there'll be a long history with the Martian Manhunter which will come into play in the fullness of time as well. They'll also have a lot of interest in stuff like how/why metahumans have particular abilities, in trying to recreate the circumstances of their transformations, etc.

    In terms of stuff explicitly happening in Gotham, there's two angles. On the one hand, we have (or will have, eventually, when Dee posts) Oliver beginning to investigate Checkmate from the inside: because of his encounters with Superboy thus far, Cadmus is going to be one of the strands that Oliver will be investigating. On the other hand, there's Cadmus and their military allies who are going to want to get their Superboy asset back, which may mean throwing some of the other Cadmus genetic experiments at him, and/or drawing on assets from other QC projects - for example, borrowing Bane from the Mirakuru side of things.


    There's also going to be a tech-based side of things (ie. simulating superpowers through technology) which will open doors for cybernetic and robotic stuff, as well as people with freeze rays and that sort of business. That side of things is probably going to factor in with Booster Gold and the DEO, but I haven't quite sussed out who (player-wise) is involved with that side of things, so I haven't really spun those ideas out much just yet.

  5. #5
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Barbara Gordon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    AKA
    Holly
    Location
    Gotham City
    Posts
    103
    Ok, that sounds good. Thanks for the info! And Leah I guess yes to editing it to Tyler Chemical? If they look older that's better, as it's a vanished company.

  6. #6
    Supergirl
    Guest
    Well I was actually referencing Raiders of the Lost Ark >.>. Right down to the number on the crate, just with 'Army Intel' swapped out for 'Checkmate Intel' <.<. But I can change it.

    I kinda think it's comic books. You know, like how in Agents of SHIELD HYDRA's secret bases have their logo everywhere?

  7. #7
    Except that HYDRA didn't have it's logo everywhere, initially. Before The Winter Soldier, it's existence was utterly secret. SHIELD had no idea it had been infiltrated by HYDRA, because as far as they knew, HYDRA had ceased to exist after WW2. They were really, really good at hiding their existence: that's why the reveal was a shock to absolutely everyone, IC and OOC.

    It wasn't until they were outed to the world in the aftermath of The Winter Soldier that they started slapping logos everywhere. At that point, there was no reason to try and maintain secrecy, because the secret was already ruined.

    Checkmate is still in that initial phase, where people aren't supposed to know it exists.

  8. #8
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    Except in the flashbacks to post-WW2 in AOS where they literally had 'secret' bases with ten foot high metal logos sticking out of them

    But okay, I've edited. So don't worry

  9. #9
    Well sure, they had logos everywhere when they were being all overt and Nazi about it.


    ...in fairness though, when Checkmate showed up in Smalllville, they did kinda have their logo painted on the wall a bit.

    Edit:

    The floor was painted like a chess board, too. It was classy.


  10. #10
    Go big or go home with your company theme!

  11. #11
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    Yeah, see, that's not subtle . At least here it's in a restricted warehouse and printed on the side, and meaningless if you don't know what it is .

  12. #12
    *shrug* Regardless, our version of Checkmate is super-mega-secret, and probably wouldn't be quiiiiiiite that stupid. They're supposed to be pretty good at the whole secrecy thing. If you think it's daft to have a name/logo plastered everywhere, then our version of Checkmate would probably realise that too. Thought I'd managed to convey that with what I'd explained so far, but apparently not - my bad!

  13. #13
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer

    Droo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    AKA
    Droo
    Posts
    5,117
    Gamer IDs

    Steam ID: droogydroo
    The way I look at it is that, in a way, they're a potential Big Bad pulling the strings behind the scenes. Secrecy is their thing, and the thrill, for me at least, is in peeling away the layers of conspiracy to get to the truth. And to out them in such a way, so early into the game, would be a bit like Tony Stark approaching Captain American in the first Avengers movie, and saying "Hey, do you reckon Thanatos might be behind all this?"

  14. #14
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    Ignoring for the moment that I've already edited, meaning that you're kinda arguing for me to change something I've already changed (and also ignoring it's 'Thanos', not 'Thanatos' ), I was more thinking of this as being sorta like in the first episode of Sherlock, where Sherlock learns the name 'Moriarty' without having any idea who he is or what it refers to. Seeing the word 'Checkmate' would be meaningless. But it would be a hint that there's something else going on.

  15. #15
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer

    Droo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    AKA
    Droo
    Posts
    5,117
    Gamer IDs

    Steam ID: droogydroo
    I'm not arguing for you to change anything. I was expounding upon a point I made earlier, because it's important you understand that, when I say things like that, it's not because I'm trying to dictate to you how you should play in a shared sandbox, but because, in our shared sandbox, we collaborate, and share ideas and perspectives so we're all on the same page.

  16. #16
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    Yes, I understand. As I said before, that's not quite what I was trying to do, but it doesn't matter. I've edited, we're good. I think I might just stay away from the Checkmate stuff. There's plenty of other crime.

  17. #17
    Can I make a request at this point?

    I would really appreciate it if for now we could focus on Queen Consolidated in our investigations, and not Checkmate. There is plenty of material to work with there: what is Queen Consolidated up to? What is their connection to the gangs? Where have these disappearing companies gone? What are they putting in people's drugs? Why are they doing this? That should be plenty to be going on with in the meantime.

    I do really like the idea of Checkmate being a Moriarty-style name that no one knows what it means... but I'm really concerned that if we speed off too quickly down the Checkmate side of things before I've had an opportunity to get Oliver properly established, it's not actually going to leave me with anything new/interesting for Oliver to discover. I haven't even managed to get him working at Queen Consolidated yet, because I'm still waiting on people... but there won't be any point, if you guys have already found out about Checkmate and started to investigate it for other reasons. There's no point me investigating stuff from the inside, if the answers are easy to find from the outside.

    So yeah, if we could limit our investigations (for now) to what Queen Consolidated is up to, and give me the chance to actually get Oliver up and running before we bring Checkmate into stuff... it'd make me considerably less anxious.

  18. #18
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    I'm going to back off this arc for good so I can't screw it up further. You guys seem to know what you're doing with it .

  19. #19
    ...no one is asking or expecting you to do that?

    Like I said, there's still a whole butt ton of stuff to be getting on with on the Queen Consolidated side of things. There's no reason to "back off this arc for good" just because I'm asking people not to mention one particular word for a little bit.

  20. #20
    Stephanie Brown
    Guest
    I'm not saying I've been asked. I just think it's for the best. I feel like there are lots of little rules or things already decided with this that actually make it far more complicated than I think even you guys involved realise, but in truth, it's not free form to write with. And I feel like I would now be so paranoid I'd have to double check everything. So I think it's safer to avoid it entirely.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •