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This weekend I was looking through some old pictures I drew a long time ago and I got to thinking...
When I was a young lad and role-playing gamer, I use to hate the way other guys played female characters. It drove me nuts how they use to play them as either screamers or bitches. As if women didn't have depth outside of superficial stereotypes. When they really wanted to stretch themselves, these guys might play their female characters as sluts. Oh yeah! (young guys can be kind of shallow...so can old ones now that I think about it).
Since this would piss me off, I use to play a lot of female character. I did it so no one else would. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how a woman would react to a given situation. Most the time I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't be much different than a man. The rest of the time, it was depended on factors in their lives that shaped their perceptions. You know; traumatic events, (un)stable family, or driving goals. Although I wouldn't play them as bitches, I generally found myself playing them with a ton of angst.
Hey, if Kevin can talk about his motorcycle, I can talk about my lady characters.
At the age of 16, her mutant powers began to manifest themselves (yes, my one and only mutant origin...deal with it) as she discovered that she was able to manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum*. When her father found out, he set his team to work on developing a focus that would enhance her gift. The day before he was schedule to present her with it (her 18th birthday) and begin her instruction, she broke into the facility to take it for a simple little test drive. Always eager to start something new as soon as possible, she stole away in a company car to play with this "power antenna"** in the countryside. Her father's scientists chose the shape of a daikyu (Japanese longbow) for its shape and structural strength. Oddly enough, it didn't have a string. After some experimentation, she eventually figured out that if she concentrated on her power and developed a static charge by rubbing her thumb and forefingers together, she was able to generate a shaft like force of energy. (Anyone remember the old D&D cartoon "Archer" character?)
Having figured it out and now pleased that she will be able to surprise her father with her knowledge, she drives back to the facility to return her prize. Upon cresting the hill, she sees smoke billowing from the top floor windows and emergency vehicles surrounding the building. People are rushing everywhere helping the injured or fighting fires. She discovers that there has been a break in that has resulted in many deaths with the labs likely a total loss. Her mother and father are among those reported dead. She couldn't remember whether of not she had turned the security defenses back on. Was it her fault?
And the hero's story begins...
**Her mutant ability gave her the ability to emit electrical impulses and effect the EM waves generated by things around her by adjusting its energy signature and thus its wavelength and frequency. The bow's core was wrapped tightly with coils of a ferrous metal (I forgot which) and was originally based on some reading I did on superconductors. Through challenging energy into this magnet and focusing her efforts she could tap up and down the EM spectrum (though visible was easiest for her). I can't remember much more of the specifics but I remember asking my science teacher and him telling me the "concept" was good science...fiction. Course, he could have been just trying to get rid of me. :-)
Hey, I was 16, give me some credit here. Anyone else hear Theodora and Roland screaming?
Anyway, for them what care, there it is.
Next up, Mysti Random
Daikyu
Kim Kymoto was half American (mother), half Japanese (father). Her father owned a large multinational research and development foundation that held the patent to many an invention that help change the world. Being raised within a strict Japanese culture, Kim's father always pushed her hard to exceed anyone's expectations. She was an overachiever in every sense of the word. She was a gifted athlete having won an Olympic metal in gymnastics and had awards for scholastic achievements in engineering. Growing up, she spent many hours in her father's labs helping and learning.
*The electromagnetic (EM) spectrum is a continuum of all electromagnetic waves arranged according to frequency and wavelength. The sun, earth, and other bodies all radiate EM energy. EM energy passes through space at the speed of light in the form of sinusoidal waves. EM waves are formed when an electric field (which is shown in blue arrows) couples with a magnetic field (which is shown in red arrows). Magnetic and electric fields of an electromagnetic wave are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of the wave. The spectrum of waves is divided into sections based on wavelength, which from longest wavelength to shortest include: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, optical (visible), ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma-rays (the "visible" range is the narrowest portion of the spectrum).