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[lavieanomaly]

PLAYER INFO.
✖ Handle: Stacey
✖ Contact: plurk: thepenguinred
✖ Are You Over 16: Y
✖ Other Characters Played in Consignment: Topher Brink

CHARACTER INFO.
✖ Character Name: Barnes, Rikki
✖ Canon: Marvel 616, Captain America #607
✖ Character Appearance: Link
✖ Character Age: 17
✖ Pick A Number: 616 or 919

✖ Canon Setting:

First, the psuedoscience-physics of existing in Marvel. The entire Marvel franchise exists as a multiple universes co-existing parallel to one another (also known as the multiverse), with each individual universe within it receiving its own (typically numerical) assigned name. The currently popular Marvel movie series, for instance, would be Earth-199999, while Rikki’s canon, the main (but hardly only) universe of Marvel comics, is Earth-616. All the many universes exist side-by-side and can be (and have often been) traveled between with the right technology. Along the same lines of to, but not to be confused with, alternate dimensions are ‘pocket’ dimensions. These dimensions exist within a space-time of a single universe rather than parallel to all other universes within the multiverse. These are also, typically, artificially created by a superbeing living in the universe it exists as a pocket within.

Rikki’s home Earth existed within such a pocket dimension within the 616 universe, known as the ‘Counter-Earth’ dimension. We’ll take a detour to talk about what life in this pocket universe is like before explaining how it came to exist and how Rikki left it. This Earth is much like our own save for a few geographical lines as different, a few additional nations that aren’t really important to Rikki’s life exist, the technology level is more advanced for select people (hover cars exist, for instance, but are only really available to the rich geniuses that invented them) and that Counter-Earth contains both superheroes and supervillains. These superhumans include people that have gained powers by: being modified by science (see Captain America and Spider-Man), stumbling into cosmic accidents (Reed Richards and the rest of his team), and born with mutant powers (Wolverine); as well as normal humans that are labeled superheroes that either use technology creatively (Tony Stark/Iron Man) or that just use training and team-work (Rikki Barnes is a prime example of this category) to take on threats. The key factor is these heroes take on an alternate identity to accomplish what they do. These people have helped shape history (with Captain America fighting in WWII, for instance) yet the general historical events of our real Earth occurred more or less unchanged in this universe (all major wars still occurred, AIDS and cancer still exist, etc). While several heroes work on their own as vigilantes, many superheroes work for the government agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D (or the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), a global peace-keeping organization that uses at times rather shady techniques to maintain that peace. Superheroes may act as the shining face of the organization, but missions that include assassination and coups of national governments are not outside of their playbook. While S.H.I.E.L.D technically works for the United Nations, it operates more or less under the direct control- or at least consistently in the best interests of- the United States government. Superhero agents of S.H.I.E.L.D mainly focus on combating superhuman or alien threats to the world, with the main superhero team being the Avengers. Rikki acts as the sidekick to one of the main Avengers, Steve Rogers aka Captain America.

This entire pocket universe was created by the main 616 earth superhero Franklin Richards (one of Marvel’s favorite living Deus Ex Machinas) to save all of the 616 Avengers of his world from Onslaught, an incredibly powerful sentient psionic entity (just go with it, the exact details of what Onslaught is are fairly irrelevant for this. The 90s were a crazy time for comics). The essence is that Franklin had created this universe to hide the heroes in, and part of this plan involved them thinking that had alwaysbeen part of the Counter-Earth universe. Each Avenger only had memories of having lived on the Counter-Earth ( with a slightly alternate life to that they had in the main 616 universe) until the plot called for them to remember otherwise. Rikki Barnes was a ‘native’ resident of this universe, having been created by Franklin Richards out of what seems to be the mixed up bits and pieces he knew of the adventures of the superhero Captain America and his sidekick during WWII. The exact details of this 90s event can be glazed over as we skip ahead a few years to the plot of ‘Onslaught Reborn’ as, though it is left unclear whether Franklin adjusted the reality of the pocket universe or created an entirely new one for some reason, the Counter-Earth pocket universe was altered in one key, significant way between its appearances. Specifically, rather than the Avengers of Counter Earth being people that belonged to the main 616 universe, this new pocket universe was updated to contain its own actually native set of the Avengers, along with a hodgepodge of other Marvel heroes.

This new Counter-Earth could have gone on existing forever without ever knowing it had been artificially created by a superhero pre-teen were it not for the return of Onslaught. The creature followed Franklin Richards from the main 616 Earth to the Counter-Earth as Franklin sought to flee from him. This leads to a confrontation which ends up in Rikki Barnes sacrificing herself to keep her Earth safe, causing both herself and Onslaught to wind up in the Negative Zone- which will get a quick aside here. The Negative Zone is one of the main alternate universes traveled to by 616 characters (again, it is a true Alternate universe, not a pocket dimension). This universe was first discovered by Franklin Richards’ father, the superhero Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, during his quest to find a way to banish beings of amazing cosmic powers away from Earth (explaining why it was initially used as more or less a dumping ground). The Negative Zone is an ‘older’ universe than 616, having already experienced the theorized Big Crunch that follows the Big Bang, and is composed of ‘negative’ energy because that’s how science works in comics. The Counter-Earth Reed Richards had found the way to access this universe as well, and had also decided it was a good place to throw all of life’s problems into. Luckily we don’t have to go into too much further depth on this one, however, as Rikki is shoved clear of the Negative Zone by Onslaught and into the main 616 universe following her sacrifice.

616 main Earth is not really that different from the Counter-Earth setting previously discussed, save for a few slight differences. A few geographical lines are, once more, different, mutant-kind has been mostly depowered by the Scarlet Witch (though superheroes and villains are still abundant), and, most notably, the world has gone down the path of superhero Soap Opera far more than Rikki’s world. This mostly has to do with 616 continuity spanning decades and dozens of series more than Counter-Earth did. The most important drama occurring at the time when Rikki pops into existence is that the universe is in the midst of a Superhero Civil War. The US government had called for all masked heroes and villains to register their real identities with the government so that they could be better held accountable for their actions. Half of the superpopulation replied with a resounding ‘No, thanks’ to this new law. As a result, half of the heroes work for S.H.I.E.L.D attempting to enforce the law, half have gone underground to rebel against it, and the whole thing is just a giant, at times very poorly written, mess in general. Weirdly, Rikki is almost in no way impacted by this giant event which is occurring in and messing with nearly every other corner of the 616 universe. She comes to New York City (the city with the highest per capita rate of superbeings in the world) and becomes a superhero herself (codename Nomad) with essentially no trouble whatsoever. She also has no trouble setting up a whole new life as a high school student with only personal identification she bought off of a forger. The only way the Civil War is even mentioned in Rikki’s existence is that she arrives just before Steve Rogers, the original Captain America and leader of the superheroes rebelling against registration, was assassinated on his way to be tried for treason against the United States for leading this resistance. At no other time in her series is the Civil War or the many insane things that come after it even mentioned in passing, so there’s really no point to spelling them out here. Just know the 616 universe has a little more drama going down than Rikki’s native Earth.

I will conclude with mentioning that superhero titles are routinely passed down in the 616 universe once a person retires/is killed in the line of duty. Rikki, for instance, takes over a superhero name twice in her life. First she was the second ‘Bucky,’ the codename for Captain America’s sidekick in the 616 main and pocket universe, and she now goes by ‘Nomad,’ a name the main 616 Steve Rogers once used for a time when he was too disillusioned with the US government to call himself Captain America. The Captain America title has been passed on since Steve Rogers was assassinated, as well, though Rikki does not know who this new ‘Cap’ is.

✖ Character History: Thank goodness there is a wiki, because comic backgrounds hate us all.

✖ Character Personality:

Rikki is, obviously enough, a comicbook hero. That title alone stirs up certain words which all happen to apply to her: determined, dedicated, loyal, brave, and having just a bit of a martyr complex. Or, in Rikki’s case, more than complex when it comes to the martyr issue. Not every teenager has actually died to save the world, after all (or at least as close to dying as any Marvel character not Uncle Ben comes to). Really, her ‘death’ captures a great deal of Rikki’s personality in that one moment, with her love of the greater good and her belief in saving others over herself being most obviously underlined, as well as her courage and conviction. Her intelligence is also put on clear display here, as Rikki was the only one of the many superheroes gathered to quickly and immediately realize what had to be done to save the world: one of them had to die. It should be noted it wasn’t really a conscious choice on her part that as the sidekick she should be the one to do it, either. She just happened to be the one with the means to most effectively sacrifice herself in order to stop the bad guy, nothing more or less. Rikki very notably doesn’t hold any hard feelings about her sacrifice, either. For the entirety of her series, she mourns the loss of her home and family, wonders what her grandparents must think of her being gone, but never once wishes that someone else had ‘died‘ instead of her, or that she hadn’t made the choice she did. Heroes do what must be done to save the world no matter the personal cost, and Rikki Barnes if nothing if not a hero.

At the heart of all this is the fact Rikki Barnes is resilient. While she is certainly a good person, as well as clever and fiercely loyal to the people she loves, this resilience is really the core of her character upon which all other traits are based upon. Her life, both in her original and adopted universe, exists as a series of upheavals and an ever shifting destiny for the young woman. From her own brother trying to kill her, to showing up in an entire new dimension, to watching her mentor be assassinated, Rikki simply rolls with the punches and pushes on the best she can, even if at that very moment she isn’t sure why she’s still trying. She sees no end in sight for the challenges in her life, but she relentless just keeps pressing forward towards more of them. In her own words, ‘the end of the tunnel just leads to more tunnel.’ What makes this resilience rather than stubbornness or blind determination is Rikki always seems to not only bounce back from these challenges, but to grow and improve with each one as well. She fights her own brother, then becomes a superheroes sidekick. She sacrifices herself to save her universe, then becomes a full hero in her own right. Rikki does not simply endure, standing and letting life wash over her. She actively pushes forward to rise to the challenges presented her.

That doesn’t mean she faces it all with grim solemnity, however. Rikki, like oh-so-many Marvel heroes, uses humor and sarcasm as a critical coping mechanism. Whether it’s throwing around quips in the middle of a life and death battle or mentally rolling her eyes at unbelievable events occurring in her life, Rikki is very rarely without some kind of humor to help her push through. Even when she is severely annoyed with another person, humor is her first reaction. A sarcastic verbal stab is a far more likely first resort for a reply over her giving a more simple, direct answer.

Though humor is the first line, it is far from Rikki’s only way of dealing with the world. Rikki is an incredibly driven women and often uses actively working towards some goal as a way to push aside any other sources or stress or worry. Becoming Nomad once she entered the 616 universe proper wasn’t just continuing a career for Rikki; It was staying sane. Being Nomad means solving crimes, fighting evil, and actively chasing down mysteries. Having that core purpose, that goal to strive towards, is one of the only things keeping her from curling up in a ball and spending the rest of her life mourning over her lost world. This goal impacts not just her outlook, but how she interacts with the world. She learns more about her new world in order to become a better superhero, meets her best friend through the job, and basically only feels really competent and complete when she is pushing herself to be the best hero she can be.

Part of this drive to be constantly improving also comes from the fact Rikki measures herself against a very impressive ruler: Steve Rogers, the original Captain America. Sadly, by her own standards actual success in living up to her mentor outright impossible due to all of Rogers’ accomplishments and positive personality traits being elevated to a whole new level through her sheer admiration and affection for him. But Rikki isn’t one to recognize that fact. She calls him both her teacher and second father, and she spends no small amount of time wondering What Would Steve Do during particularly tough choices. He means enough that, upon his death in the 616 world, Rikki questions her ability to ever adapt to a world without Captain America in it. This turns to her eventually extending her loyalty and high opinion to the new Captain America, trying for months to talk to the man and convince him to let her become his sidekick. Essentially, her moral compass has been strongly shaped by a man known to be the Avenger with the most integrity, and she tends to judge herself harshly when she fails to live up to the ideals he instilled within her. She always brushes herself off and carries on after, but continues to push herself to achieve the same level of confidence and moral integrity that she associates with Captain America.

For all the high opinion she has of her mentor, however, Rikki has a fierce independent streak. Steve may be the moral ideal, but that doesn’t mean he is totally free of bad ideas. After Steve’s return from ‘death’ (after Rikki’s pull point, but relevant here) she actually turns down his offer to quit being Nomad and train under him, having spent too long growing into her own person to return to ‘hero in training’ status. She also loses her temper at him a time or two when he instructs her not to join in on a dangerous mission or rush off to save her friends, pointing out that she isn’t just some kid and is capable of making her own choices and mistakes. Her old mentor isn’t the only one she stands up to, either. While Rikki is in no way against taking (and occasionally even listening to) advice, she always thinks over what course of action to take rather than thoughtlessly following along after someone else. The Black Widow warns her off from talking to the new Captain America (secretly James Barnes) for instance, and Rikki listens, but not before demanding answers out of the more experienced hero.

It should be noted that independence and stupidity are not the same thing. Rikki can make up her own mind, but that doesn’t mean she’s a maverick out trying to take on the universe on her own, refusing to listen to others and with no regard to health or safety. If at all possible she relies heavily on intel gathering over simply charging in, preferring to stalk a target (ever a friendly one) for a few days to get to know them before making a move. Though she is far from a master hacker, if she can’t outright stalk a person she also knows how to use the resources available to her (like, say, the internet and the local library) to gather intel indirectly on a target. She also knows when to bite her lip and endure a situation if that’s what it takes to eventually do the greatest good. For instance, rather than fighting and spitting out moral fury at the first chance, Rikki played nice with a serial killer until he finally dropped his guard so she could take him out. She knows that sometimes outright rebelling against a wrong will only inflict more restrictions and pain, making it counter productive. Rikki is her own hero now, but she was mentored by a master tactician: it’s the long game she’s looking to win, not immediate, petty points that amount to nothing overall.

Despite the fact she works mostly independently on the 616 Earth, Rikki also actually tends to heavily favor teamwork when it’s with people she trusts. It’s just that ‘trusts’ part that’s the key issue. On the 616 Earth she knows no one and the alternate universe version of her mentor is dead, so for a long while she works on her own more out of a lack of options than anything. Interestingly, Rikki tends to be far more easily trusting in her personal life than her professional one. Rikki will follow a strange man back to his house if he seems nice enough in order to help him with some chores no problem, but if a superhero she doesn’t know is investigating the same crime she is that’s crossing a line. She will outright express her distrust of that hero, even as she mentally catalogs all the reasons it’s irrational for her to suspect them. Part of this is how seriously Rikki takes her work. She naturally doesn’t like the idea of someone else that is less thorough and trained bungling her mission, or that the other person could be working with less than pure intentions to find something. Once another person proves they’re as serious and capable as Rikki of getting a job done and are doing it for the right reasons, however, trust comes relatively quickly in most cases. Often along with an apology for what a jerk she was that first time they met.

✖ Character Powers & Skills: Rikki has no powers of her own. Just a regular human on that one. For skills, however, she was heavily trained by SHIELD upon becoming Captain America’s sidekick and has continued to expand those skills since becoming a hero in her own right. She posses all the skills you would expect from a trained covert ops agent: being in peak physical condition, trained in a variety of martial arts and weaponry, possessing lock picking/other breaking and entering skills, knowledge in dealing with the black market, tactical training, intense physical and mental fortitude, very basic hacking talent, etc. She has also been trained to resist torture (she breaks her own thumb to slip her cuffs and escape an interrogation while the interrogator is too busy punching her to notice, for instance). Notably, however, she lacks any training in foreign languages beyond a basic high school education. Apparently it just never came up.

From before the whole superhero thing, Rikki is also a talented dancer (a skill set she actually attributes her later aptitude for martial arts to). She once had aspirations of going to Juilliard to study it professionally, but gave up those plans when she teamed up with the Avengers.

One last thing, and this is put here instead of in powers above as I leave it entirely to mod discretion(and control if it is allowed in, so I won't waste space outlining it if it isn't wanted for mod use). I do not, repeat do not, want Rikki to have these powers. Rikki doesn’t know she has this power and would never know how to use it for herself. But it could be something for NPCs to exploit if they so chose. Rikki has a piece of Onslaught, the creature she ‘died’ trying to defeat, living within her. In the 616 world, Onslaught is using Rikki as an anchor to eventually gain enough power and return from the Negative Zone into the 616 dimension proper. Onslaught eventually possesses Rikki in canon and does significant damage with her before she manages to convince the other superheroes to kill her in order to once more banish him. She does not know this anchor is in her at her pullpoint. However, Onslaught’s power has the potential to overwhelm her and use her as a conduit for mind control and mass destruction if some form of connection to the negative zone occurs. If the CDC would rather keep that as something they can eventually tap in order use Rikki as a living weapon of mass mind control/destruction, I’m fine with that. I’m also fine with this alien creature just being fully cleansed from her in medical when she arrives and the whole mess never being spoken of again.

CHARACTER SAMPLES.
✖ First Person POV:
Link
Link
Link
Link
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✖ Third Person POV:

One little crime to solve. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it? Sure, it was probably bad karma to wish for someone to be mugged or some priceless artifact to be stolen from the local museum, but come on. She wasn’t really wishing for people to get hurt to give her something to do. It’s just that whole saving bit was kinda the point of roaming the streets of New York in goggles and gloves to start with. Helping people. That was the idea. That actually solving some crime or mystery would help set her own mind at ease was totally secondary, no relation to her actual choices. Zip. Even if it was a school night. And Anya had already told her to call it quits. And…

Such thoughts were blissfully put from her mind at the sudden sound of a nearby scream. The relief was purely that she was there to help, of course. No surge of endorphins at the conveniently placed distraction from her inner dialog of what am I doing in this world? None of that. Simply saving someone was it’s own reward, right?

Nomad changed directions sharply, pivoting from one rooftop to the next as she rushed towards the source of the distress call. Questions could wait for later. Or tomorrow. Or never, really. She could work with never on this one. But the exhilaration of the chase was cut down somewhat by the actual scenario she landed in. If she didn’t know better, she’d say the woman had been waiting for her. And not in the ‘the cops promise to arrive in ten minutes or less’ kind of way. More of a very specifically standing, waiting for someone to come swooping down off the nearest roof kinda way…

But the echo of a nearby gunshot cut that line of thinking short. She’d been the one wishing for a case, and now she was going to get suspicious of the victim? Nomad landed in a crouch before the woman, not bothering to fully stand up. If she needed to dart back into action, better to stay on this level, anyway. She opened her mouth to demand to know what was happening, but, again, the woman seemed to anticipate her, crying out before Rikki had a chance to make a sound-

“Will you help me?”

“What’s the trouble-”

“Will you?”

Rikki narrowed her eyes at that,shifting, trying to see behind the woman into the alley the shot had come from.

“Miss-”

“Will you help?”

“Yes, of course, that’s what I’m here for, but if you could just-”

And then she wasn’t in New York anymore.

CHARACTER ITEMS.
✖ Pick a Team: Orange: Rikki states in canon the best way to get to know someone is to stalk them for a few days. While she is a superhero, she tends to emphasize information gathering first, punching after. She will be exploring and keeping an eye on the area she considers her turf no matter what team she is on, but she will be able do it the best on orange.

Green: On the other hand, she is also very much a trained soldier. She can pack a punch and, while she does tend to question authority, will act to protect her comrades when push comes to shove.

Red: Because I’m honestly fine with her being on any of these teams, why not a third option. As stated above, Rikki believes in stalking and digging into personal information as a way to get to know people. She also has experience being the person on the team that has to dress others down for failing to live up to expectations. While she would be VERY UNCOMFORTABLE killing anyone, on an OOC level it could be an interesting drama to make her deal with. So while she would never pick the team herself, oocly she has the skill set to be good in it.

✖ Reason for Joining the CDC:

Rikki was a zero-disclosure person, she agreed with no idea what she was getting into. But now that she’s there, Rikki will do all she can to help support and protect her fellow crewmates. As mentioned in her personality, Rikki is someone with little regard for her own safety compared to the safety of others, but she also is in it for the long game. She’ll be a good soldier until an opportunity to actually do something to change what is happening presents itself. I think she’ll be a good fit for the game based on those very reasons. She’s a person with a strong moral compass, but also with a sound understanding of tactics. Rikki also has only a handful of people she actively protects in a non-abstract (i.e. we’re heroes and we save the world) way in canon. In the CDC, she will have no choice but to get to know her fellow recruits, so having so many people she knows on a personal level potentially be directly impacted by any of her negative actions will be an interesting change. One that will force her to consider every step she takes even more.

✖ Mission Freebie: Photos of her family, both her grandparents from her original universe and her brother John from the main 616 universe.
✖ Personal Item or Weapon: Her Nomad costume, including the hard-light shield. The shield is activated from what’s more or less a bracelet on her wrist, and can be turned on and off by Rikki.

✖ Character Inventory:She has her costume on when she’s taken in. The only things confiscated should be her cell phone and disc-shaped flashbangs she uses as weapons.