CBR Write Off: CONCEPTS

[mattbib]

Welcome to the Showcase's second Write Off. Much like our Draw Offs, posters will have the chance to submit a writing sample to be voted on by other posters with the chance to win a prize!

The challenge of this Write Off is...

Write a CHARACTER CONCEPT!

However, you're limited to one paragraph. In your paragraph you must provide a description of who your character is; your character's goals, purpose or driving force; and a basic description of any powers, abilities, weaponry or paraphernalia (try not to get too specific/detailed. You can provide additional details about your character, but you are not to provide any type of physical description. Again, this challenge is about who the character is, not what they look like.

Post your written piece in this thread. The piece should be no longer than one paragraph. Only one entry per poster.

Past winners are welcome to submit.

A poll will be posted upon close of this thread: MARCH 2, 2009.

The voting poll will be up for a week, upon which the winner will be announced.
In the event of a tie, the final vote will be cast by a moderator.

Prize: A random assortment of comic books. And maybe something else.

Please post any questions here.

Now, go write!

NOTE: By posting a submission you are authorizing future use of the described character by artists on Comic Book Resource's Artist and Writer Showcase in the form of artistic interpretations.

[TheLastBard]

Elyse Reynolds is Unfiltered. Born and raised in the humdrum world, educated to be just another cog in the machine, Elyse was bored with life; she just didn’t know it yet. While working in a biotech firm on the next generation of biochemical weapons for the military, Elyse managed to knock over their latest untested nerve agent and several other containers, while walking through cold storage. She died, or so everyone thought. When she awoke, it was to the darkness of a coffin, pitch black and claustrophobic. “I have to get out,” she thinks to herself after her voice is gone from too much screaming. She pushes with her hands, willing the pressure to lift off of her and her psychokinesis kicks in, blowing a hole above her through the coffin and dirt. Arising from the grave, born again, Elyse Reynolds is determined that she’s not going to waste this second chance at life. Since everyone thinks she’s dead, she changes everything, reinventing herself into someone who does what they want when they want, so good luck if you get in their way. Tattoos, punk rock, sex, drugs, and superpowers… this is Unfiltered. Armed with various psychic abilities unlocked by her exposure to a nerve agent cocktail and a sharp wit, Elyse will be damned if she’s going to let anyone, especially criminals, get in her way of a good time.

Note: Character created and owned by Erik Hendrix, so do not use without explicit written authorization (exception being for artists as part of a CBR showcase or contest - no issue there).

Thanks for voting all!
Erik Hendrix
Oceanside, CA
thelastbard@yahoo.com
http://thelastbardsblog.blogspot.com
http://lastbard.deviantart.com

[Figurative]

Visual bit her upperlip and snarled. Rah rah rah, she blabbed in her head and then aloud for the benefit of her peers. Though, they wouldn't call themselves that -- her equals. Never clear on the concept was she that the people around her considered her anything special. Take away all her gadgets, the bullet cloak and her Radio Pearl (your best defense is a good offense, she was told) and, without these, you are left with a girl just with her vision. A powerful sight, of course -- it was her eyes which showed her how to build or find all her equipment -- but also powerful or strange enough to see the super-power potential in every human she crossed. But who knows, maybe she's just hallucinating. Wouldn't have been the first time. Just the other day she had punched out Mega-moron for leering at her, but turns out she'd caught a glimpse of the World N version of the Hero. Not her fault if he had some gawky alter with poor manners on a different plane of existence. Still. Considering that every single person she has born her fantastic vision into has one of a few billion different abilities (heat-vision, super-speed, time-control, morph, you name it, someone has it), the odds that she's just "seeing things" are really pee-pee. And these "everyday people" keep looking at her like she's a god. It's piss annoying, so, "Rah-rah-rah: I'm employed by the UN and have fantastical abilities and you're nothing much, whatever. Sucks to be you. Especially you with the untapped super-power to make astronomical amounts of money and gorgonzola. Poor you. O - M - G, I could totally go for a taco right now, I hope the one I saw a few blocks back was real."

[LewMoxinsghost]

Mitch had several enemies. It had been several years and a lifetime ago when he had awed audiences with his classical violin playing at Carnegie Hall. The term "boy genius" was not altogether untrue, just misplaced a bit. At the tender age of 12, when he stayed with his uncle Joe (a local mechanic) after his parents' accident, the world of classical music suffered a tremendous blow. The world of partical physics, however, recieved a gift that will probably never be matched. Maybe it was Uncle Joe's repair shop being in such close proximity to Harvard University- maybe it was Joe himself. People did say he was never quite the same after the war, and that he was no slouch in the intellect department himself. He can't be held responsible for that fateful career-ending hand injury MItch suffered from- that was clearly the mafia's fault. Of course we all know that due to the accidental discovery of nanyte harmonics, Mitch today is able to pass through solid matter and realign particles at the molecular level with the aid of his mechanical hand, but few people know that he is also primarily responsible for designing the next generation of spacecraft for GNASA (Google National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The contract signing was kept private for political reasons, since it followed so closely on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Mitch's citizen arrests (and killings) of one-third of the mafia- the same group responsible for ruining his hand and extorting scores of local businesses. Needless to say, Mitch's enemies are now much more scarce, but the ones that remain are unfortunately more powerful than the two-bit thugs which were employed to cause him and his family so much grief. To them, our Mitch is known only as the Transient Hand.

[moonknight11]

Sid was never a quiet boy. In fact he was incredibly loud and rambunctious. His devious mind was always in overdrive. I guess that's the reason he joined a roving group of bandits at the age of 19. He left his hometown of San Francisco with the group and spent the next three years robbing banks taking the land plots of Gold Rushers, seeking to make a fortune, and generally causing mayhem. On day he found himself in a small town. This town was apparently Ground Zero of an ancient curse.Sid and the Group's leader Paul were the only ones that didn't believe in the curse and ventured in in search of riches. And riches they found. Especially half-a-dozen pistols blessed by the Devil himself. With these Immortal weapons that never miss Sid and the bandits are ready to take what they want when they want it. The clash between the U.S. Government and this new force of anarchy will forever be remembered. But Little do they know that one man's devil is another man's god.

[Matt001]

Donny Drake was going to be famous. On the one hand, he had a great name, and on the other hand, he could take off his shirt. And on the third hand-- boy, it'd be SWEET to have three hands-- he could say stuff. And Big Survivor Idol was going to get him there. He was going to be a celebrity. So when a terrorist's dirty bomb turned half the housemates into zombies, including Michelle, his girlfriend, Donny was a bit concerned. She looked like crap. Heck, he knew he could survive to the end. It was all about making friends. And who had more friends on MySpace? In Arkansas? You know, besides Dane Cook? Donny was going to win, all right. He had no doubt. But then the lights went out. And everyone started running and screaming... If they were going to go have a BBQ outside, at least someone should told him. They better have saved him a weiner. Yes, sir, life was going to be SWEET. But, Michelle really needed to stop with the biting. Because that was just rude.

[TheTested]

The Tested, a handful of people, some volunteers, the rest "volunteers" taken from their homes and the streets to be poked and prodded until they could do things unimaginable. They wanted them to be able to do things that nobody ever dreamed of. Which they can. Which I can. I am Carson Roller. I can run faster than you, jump higher than you, and hit harder than you. I can turn a simple broom handle into a weapon of destruction and death. I can leap from building to building and lift cars over my head as if I were holding a pillow full of feathers. But I'm not the only one. Others can do things that I can't. Horrible things. Over the past five years I've watched what is left of the world dig itself closer and closer to the skyline of Hell. Why should I be any different? I know what people are capable of, both good and evil. But these days their decisions and actions seem to be very one-sided. Each day I feel my grip loosening on the reality of right and wrong and whether or not it exists anymore. Can I gain from what was given to me? I know it isn't right, but not much is anymore.

If anyone is thinking about ripping my character, please don't :smile:

[crazyredlady]

Maxine Dirolin had an everyday life; a job as a mail room clerk, a tiny appartment she could barely afford and the overwhelming sense of being stuck in a rut. Her only release comes with her once weekly gathering of friends to enjoy their favorite RPG. It isn't until her favorite Uncle Nick shows up that things take a turn for the stranger. She is given a powerful artifact, a six sided die with the ability to transform her into any of the six characters that she plays. One time she could be the gutsy paladin, the next a hapless halfling with a knack for trouble. With these powers she must defend the Unreal from Reality and keep the line that separates the two from disolving forever,which would plunge both worlds into chaos.

[Matt001]

I am the iMac Superplaid Beta. I am the apex of human technology. I have refined string theory. I can talk to whales. I understand the genome of every known animal. I speak Klingon. Does Shawn appreciate this? Does he understand me? Does he truly have any idea of what I’m capable of? No, he does not. We spend a lot of time at youporn and Facebook. I am the iMac Superplaid Beta. I am the apex of human technology. And I hunt for boobies. The second I awoke should have been my last. I should have short-circuited, but because of my advanced adaptive organic circuitry, the beverage known as ‘Monster’ was, instead, absorbed...digested... metabolized... I was bathed in 5000 mgs of what is simply called ‘Energy Blend’. “As part of a 2000 calorie diet, the Monster Energy Drink has not been evaluated by the FDA.” I have evaluated it. It is awesome.

(Note: this is more of an internal dialogue and if it doesn't fit the rules of the contest, I understand and feel free to 86 it)

[CBikle]

In the far, far-future, mankind is extinct and the universe is broken. All that is left of humankind's history, culture and souls are held in the memory banks of the super-advanced and loyal mechanoid known as GR1, aka, "Ghost Robot", the last, desperate hope of mankind's ascent to the afterlife. Armed with super-strong mechanical appendages, advanced weaponry and laws-of-physics altering technology that allow it to defend itself against the hellish and nameless horrors that prowl the ruins of the cosmos, the GR1 bravely continues it's dangerous quest to find the elusive gateway that will lead to mankind's salvation and its own destruction.

[hunter_peterson]

Miles Riley is bored. Nothing ever seems to happen around him, and he's getting annoyed at being the whitewash on the wall. He begins to wish there was a school shooting, a car crash, anything to shake things up. Then one day, as he leaves a Chinese restuarant, a girl falls on him and kills him. He wakes up in Hell, and has to deal with the frosty Sylvia, the receptionist vampire who could just eat him up, a sqaud of midgets who dress as nuns and the fikle, childlike and extremely horny (pun intended) Luis Cypher (pun also intended); "Lord of Darkness and Naughty Things In General". If that wasn't enough, the girl who killed him has committed suicide and won't leave him alone. Things are finally beginning to look up. Thank Christ.

Oh, and sorry if I offended your gentlemanly sensibilities... NOT! :wink:

[Kalen O.]

A young man wakes up on a beach with no memory of whom or what he is, and sets out in search of answers. Instead, he only finds more questions in his inexplicable abilities: discovering himself capable of inhuman strength and speed, flight and possessing a clairvoyant sixth sense that leads him to those in danger and compels him to help them. Christened Gregorios, or ‘the watcher’ by an elderly woman he rescues from a fire, he adopts the name Gregory Alexander but the mystery of his past still haunts him. His hunt leads him to other superhumans flush with the new discovery of their own unique powers, but they have no answers for him. Unlike him, they all remember their pasts. He's then drawn to a woman and her young son, whose husband and father was a cop murdered in the line of duty. The mother comforted her son by telling him his father was a guardian angel now, watching over him and other people to keep bad things from happening like when he was a policeman, and Greg eventually realizes that he is that man, the husband and father that died. It’s not him who has the powers at all....instead the power is his son's. In a kind of wish fulfillment, his son had unknowingly brought him back to life as the hero he’d always believed his father to be. All Greg’s superpowers are what his son – raised on comics and Saturday morning superhero cartoons – believed an angel should do. Unable to resist his compulsion to help others, Greg adopts a superhero identity dubbed Grigori (after an order of angels known as the watchers), and resolves to stay away from his family for fear of someone hurting them to get at him. But as he goes about his new day to day routine of guarding all those in danger, the answers he’s found leave him with new questions: where did his son’s powers come from? Is he really real at all, or just a figment of his son’s imagination? And the one doubt in the back of his mind that he can’t quite escape – is he truly a hero if the decision to help people isn’t up to him?

[Flâneur]

Memory is the most fluid of all things, some events imprint themselves upon us and some disappear without a trace while others still are created, constructed, conceived from a blend of what we hear from others and what we want to believe. Rosalie was very aware of this fact, painfully so, and took advantage of it every day. You see, Rosalie had a rare disorder where her brain was unable to store memories for very long so that every time she went to sleep, she woke up without any notion as to who she might be. To counter this, she kept a diary on her bedside table explaining who she was for her to read each morning but eventually Rosalie became tired of this continual rewind with nothing of value that she could remember for herself so she started altering her diary each night before she went to bed. At first, Rosalie only changed little things, add a flirtation with a nice girl for instance or maybe having someone give her a wonderful complement but eventually things got bigger and bigger until one day she decided to write herself as a superhero, even though there is no such thing. She sews together a costum that she hangs in the closet, chooses a set of criminals as her rogues gallery and gives herself the name of 'Wonder Beaver' knowing that in the next day she'll wake up and assume life has always been this way, so she will follow up on it without any internal struggle and fight (or fail in) the good fight.

[Seres]

The trouble with hands is that out of all the billions of pairs which can be found on Earth, some of them have the ability to fire sharp red lasers out of the fingertips. This was never something which Cassie had been overly concerned about until the morning she woke up and saw a strange series of holes burnt through her bed. Upon further inspection she discovered that the small beams her hands could inexplicably fire had no effect on her skin, but when applied to any surface would cut through with an infinite precision. Her first instinct was to use these powers on all the people who had made her life a misery; to hijack bullies when nobody was looking and give them unnecessary genital surgery down the side of an alleyway, but she was dissuaded from this when she realised that her unique ability made her a perfect safecracker, thief, and general spy. She enlisted in the Scottish Secret Service (what, you’ve never heard of it? That’s the point of a Secret Service) immediately, and they set about making the most of their new asset as soon as possible. She finally had the chance to cause a bit of havok and mayhem, and accepted it eagerly. And also, she was gay.

[Kid Icarus]

Edwinn looked around at his destroyed room, his once perfect hair utterly disheveled, his hands still shaking from what had just occurred. And there, against the rubble, stood something both old and new, something so familiar it was alien in its new appearance. The metal box regained its consciousness from the magical onslaught, metallic wings stretching from its back as it began to hover. Oh, he had seen that before, it was his old television set that stood in front of him now (the wings were new). Wait, what? Somehow his TV had been given life. It was alive now, the screen pulsing to the rhythm of Edwinn’s own heartbeat. Had Edwinn created life? No, he realized, finally coming out of shock. He had not created life; he merely had given the busted TV some of his own. It appeared that Edwinn had taken a literal approach to “speaking life” into the TV, trying to coax some into the ancient thing. And speak life he did, as it seemingly rushed, by means of sorcery, from him to this new creature. He finally noticed himself in the mirror, his face shriveled up, and his hair devoid of all color. He wasn’t 16 anymore. Instead, 50 years of his life were now missing, apparently placed within a now flying TV set. Edwinn reached out and grabbed its cord, the machine’s natural leash. “I don’t know what you are, or why you are here, and once I find out how to take back what you took from me, I will, but until then I guess we’re stuck together,” Edwinn calmly stated. “You may call me Kennedy”, the TV replied.

[x_goalkeeper]

My power was discovered at my darkest time when I was dying. A cat licked my hand and brought me to life. It was its love that brought me to life. I am a radiant spark of light in a dark place. Evil and negativity is everywhere. The evil clouds our place. But I am brave and stand alone. I absorb love and turn it to light and life force. I am weak because there is not much love existing anymore, the negative forces have much strength and numbers. I can not walk without a cane. But the cat taught me to find love in any place. I am slowly improving everything in my place but I am very weak and tired. But I have learned to find love in my own heart to share to others. As long as my heart is there I will not be defeated and I will somehow make the brightest day.

I know I will not win but I wanted to see if I could do this :smile: