Chill: Vulture Culture

Today was Chill. I know, Tuesday night, whaaaat. Here's last time.

The envoys - Willa, Jennifer, Blake, and Samantha - are discovered in the garage of one Stanley Friedbach right after the poor SOB was stabbed. They're also wearing beekeeper suits. They're taken to the local police station and put in separate rooms - not under arrest, but Detective Jackson has some questions for them. Notably, "what the hell?"

For the most part, their story is straight. Blake claims that they were out looking into the weird hornet attacks, and that the guy with the weird head that they filmed earlier (and sent to Jackson) was the one that attacked Stanley. Samantha says something similar about the bees, but that they didn't see who stabbed Stanley. Jennifer really gets weird - she claims that Stanley was already stabbed and bleeding when they got there, but that she has a "healing gift" that she used to save him (which is true, but not something that Jackson understands). Willa gives the best answer of all to why they're in beekeeper suits - "is it illegal? No? Then let's move on." She, too, claims that they heard a crash, investigated, and found Stanley. 

Jackson is clearly confused by all this. He has them all give signed witness statements and lets them go, whereupon Jordan arrives with Annie Crawford, their lawyer. She gets copies of their statements just in case this becomes a problem, but at the moment they're not in trouble. Everyone heads out to get a beer and talk this through, and do a little tablet research. They show Jordan and Father Will the bracelet, and Samantha tells them about the vision she saw involving the girl with dyed black hair finding the skull. Jordan discovers that the beads on the bracelet spell "ELLE" in Morse code, and Father Will finds something called "vulture culture" - young folks who find bones in the woods and clean and bleach them for artistic purposes. They find Elle's Insta page, and indeed, she has a picture of a clean white skull on her bedside table. Willa messages her to say that she found her bracelet, and Jennifer and Father Will decide they'll go and talk to Eric Hill, head of the neighborhood watch, tomorrow. 

Next day, Willa has a message from Elle. They text back and forth and arrange to meet at a Starbucks (Willa wants to make sure to stay public so as not to spook Elle or be creepy). Jordan goes along. Elle is waiting for them, and is thrilled to have the bracelet back. They chat a little and Jordan steers the conversation toward urban legends, including the unfortunate decapitation (is there really any such thing as a fortunate decapitation?) of Roman Buchanan. Elle knows about that, but only through stories. She does know about Milton Hodges, the cop who was stung to death near the school - she goes to high school with Milton's daughter, Rina. Elle also claims that she bought the skull online; she's lying, but the envoys don't want to burn her so they don't press the issue.

Jordan offers to look at the skull and maybe given Elle some sense of how the person died; Elle says maybe she will. She leaves, and the envoys reconvene. They theorize that if Rina and Elle were tight, maybe Rina knew about the skull's location from her father and told Elle? 

Jennifer and Father Will go out to talk to Hill. The neighborhood watch FB group has some very weird takes and rumors - someone attacks Stan Friedbach in his house, there were people in hazmat suit around so maybe this is a government thing or a chemical spill, who knows. Eric is at first a little leery, but Jennifer charms him and he repeats some of these conspiracy theories. He also tells them that the watch is going to be patrolling in force tonight, and they're welcome to join - more bodies, the better. He pats a pistol on his hip. He intends to be prepared.

The envoys get together for dinner and decide they'll all go to the neighborhood and join the watch (but not in the beekeeper suits). They gear up, in particular taking glowsticks so they'll have light if the electronics go out again, and get some rest until sunset.

Next time: The exciting conclusion!

Atlantis: Swimmin' with Demons

After a goddamn year, we finally have everyone in this group vaccinated and back at the table. Holy shit, it feels good. Here's last time, you shadowy presences in my mind!

The characters hang around the town of Deshdara; Eithne brushes up on her Khem with Akala's help, Thanos reads and mellows out, and Imani and Masamba train their slaves in some basic combat drills. Come evening, the four Heroes are at the inn eating, when suddenly they hear a blood-curdling scream from outside. 

The Heroes, being heroes, rush outside and find Ashmerata, the magistrate of the town, standing next to a woman. Said woman is doing the screaming, and no wonder! There's a severed head on the ground in front of her. Akala goes to examine it, while Imani, feeling more tactful, covers it with a shawl (Akala still lifts it to have a look at the head, however). Akala realizes that the head was torn from the body, and the amount of blood in the alleyway indicates that the rest of the body parts might similarly have been ripped out. 

Ashmerata informs the Heroes that the head belonged to the husband of the screaming woman (said woman's name is Ea). Eithne and Imani spot footprints leading off down the alley and follow them, while Thanos and Akala stay behind to investigate a little more. Thanos senses magic, but in a residual sense - as a practitioner of the Dark Arts himself, he hypothesizes that whatever did this might have been summoned (which would probably make it a demon). Akala manages to calm Ea down, and she mentions that her late husband had fallen in with some bad men - bandits and raiders that live on the edge of town. He was saving up money to open a shop, though, he had severed ties with these men. 

Akala surmises that bandits might not be above summoning demons (or beheading someone, for that matter). Ashmerata asks them to look into this - her town guards have their hands full dealing with bandits and this isn't the kind of thing they're equipped for, anyway. Thanos asks if Ashmerata knows anyone who might be capable of summoning such a creature, but she doesn't. Akala, who, while not a mage herself, is pretty well-versed in the arcane arts, guesses that summoning this kind of creature would require space to work apart from anyone who might see or hear it - the edge of town, maybe.

At this point, they notice that Imani and Eithne aren't there, and go after them. In the meanwhile, those two have followed the prints to the oasis! The prints, which belong to a humanoid creature with six long, clawed toes on each foot, disappear into the plants around the water. Imani, throwing caution to the wind, charges in with spear drawn and very nearly impales an old man sitting in the weeds muttering to himself. 

He's apparently had quite a shock, but Imani talks him down. He tells her that he saw a creature enter the waters of the oasis. Imani tells him to go to the inn and get a drink, and he obliges, leaving the two of them by the water's edge.

Meanwhile, Akala and Thanos are following the tracks (both of them have superior senses, so it's easy). They notice they're being followed by a young boy - he's sneaky, but not enough to fool them. Akala tells Thanos she's going to fly ahead, and then swoops down and grabs the boy from behind. He yelps in fear, and she asks what he's doing. He says he was following them because, basically, they look like cool people doing cool shit (which Akala concedes is true). She drags him by the shirt to the oasis and asks the others to deal with him. Thanos bares his fangs and tells the boy that he'll show him some magic if he pisses off and stays away from the oasis. The boy agrees, on the condition that it won't be scary magic.

The characters look into the waters, and Eithne casts a spell and parts them, allowing them to see to the bottom. There, they see a crack in the ground, leading to...darkness. Akala decides to swoop down and take a closer look, but when she does, the demon - a horrible, blue, warty thing - leaps up out of the crack, grabs her ankles, and yanks her down into the water!

Imani leaps in, heedless of danger. Thanos follows, but casts a spell giving him and Imani gills so they can breathe. Eithne strengthens the water-parting spell, and then jumps down as well, but turns herself into a crocodile as she goes. 

In the dark water below, Akala looks down and sees the remains of an immense city. The more immediate problem is that the demon is holding onto her and trying to drag her down, however, so she tries, in vain, to kick free. Imani pokes around with her spear, but can't see a thing. Thanos summons up light, and Eithne swoops in and bites the demon's head.

This induces the demon to let go, but it's not getting any respite. Thanos calls up magic to widen its wounds, and Imani stabs it with her spear. It claws at the crocodile, but it's surrounded and outnumbered - Thanos blasts it with arcane energy, Eithne keeps biting, and Imani impales it. It slides down the spear to claw at her, but she kicks it off and yanks the spear out. It starts to sink, dying, and screams "Saramesh!" as it falls.

Eithne swims after the corpse and brings it to the surface with the others. They crawl out of the oasis to find Ashmerata and many other townsfolk peering into the water. As the heroes clear their lungs of water and regain their normal forms, the townsfolk cheer! 

Next time, perhaps, we'll find where this demon came from and what "Saramesh" is.

Predation: Story Time with Dakota and Tallahassee

SKRONK!

Recall that last time, Dakota and Tallahassee were led into the mountain, blindfolded, by a bunch of Butterflies. They're led into a system of caverns, and eventually their blindfolds are taken off. Tallahassee notices that their guards are deliberately avoiding stepping in certain places, and figures there might be traps. They arrive in a larger chamber with a bunch of Butterflies, and everyone sits down as one of them stands in front of them and tells a story.

The story, which has the tone of a religious recitation, concerns a Hunter and a Guide going back in time in a metal bubble. Despite the Guide's warnings, the Hunter leaves the path, killing a butterfly and dooming the future. "We are all the butterfly," says the storyteller. "Stay on the path, and listen always for the thunder." 

Dakota is pretty confused by all of this, and worries that, as a hunter herself, the butterflies might have some ideological issue with her. After this odd ceremony, they talk with a woman whom Tallahassee finds kind of familiar, introduced as Aldaine Rhyne, Queen of the Butterflies. They don't have any problem with hunters, but they do have a problem with time travelers. They subscribe the theory that altering events here in the distant past might irrevocably flummox the future. Tallahassee, as an aeternologist, disagrees, and there's some tension here, but they all do agree that they're no fans of SATI.

Meanwhile, out in the woods, Omaha and Buffalo keep watch. They talk a bit about the others, and Buffalo opines that going with the Butterflies probably wasn't smart. Omaha says they might have to rescue them, but Buffalo isn't sure that's even possible, much less wise. They spot a red glow in the distance and go to check it out, and discover that it's a time anomaly. Omaha uses her time tap ability to check and make sure that Dakota and Tallahassee are going to get out safely. She sees a vision of them running in a cavern, and then their bodies getting pierced with spikes. It's decidedly not looking OK. 

Buffalo notes, too, that the flickering light of the anomaly is getting brighter, and it's emitting heat. They decide to leave, because that's never good. They find a place to hunker down just as a massive boom resonates from the area of the anomaly, followed by a blast of heat...and Omaha notices that the forest is on fire.

Inside the mountain, Rhyne tells them that Tentra shouldn't have showed them where this place is. Since she did, normally she would either have to convert or kill them, but since they found evidence of new time travelers, maybe they could help each other, or at least agree to stay out of each other's way? Rhyne asks them to tell the Butterflies anything they find out about these "future-SATI" folks, and to never reveal the location of the Chrysalis. Dakota agrees, but Tallahassee says that she's pretty talkative and generally tells everyone everything, but she really isn't interested in the Butterflies philosophy and so probably won't remember it. 

Rhyne doesn't seem exactly on board with this, and walks off, saying she's going to consult with some people. Dakota notes the tension in the room and feels danger in the offing, but it gets worse. Tallahassee mind-links with Kevin and sees him emerging from water (underground lake, maybe?) into caverns. He noses a door open...and the Butterflies around them start reacting. Clear an alarm has gone off somewhere. 

Kevin sees guards with guns, and they fire, shooting him and injuring him pretty badly. He stumbles back to the water. Tallahassee screams and the Butterflies guarding them hold them at gunpoint, but Tallahassee ain't having it. She activates a force field and draws her pistol. Dakota, likewise, activates a cypher to speed her up, and the two of them trade shots with the guards for a bit. Neither can score a hit, though, and finally Tallahassee just charges right through them, using her force field as a kind of battering ram. 

Outside, Buffalo and Omaha lead the dinosaurs downhill to a lake (with Omaha making weird noises to spur Klio into moving faster). They arrive at the lake and jump in, although Buffalo notes it's full of carnivorous fish. They're all picking at something at the north end of the lake, though. Sebie wanders around the lake and finds that the fish are picking at Kevin. She considers for a moment, and then calls the humans over. 

They fish Kevin out and Buffalo manages to get him breathing again, and they wait there in the lake for the fire to stop.

But meanwhile, in the mountain, Dakota and Tallahassee are running for their lives. Tallahassee is pretty good at spotting traps, so they avoid the worst of it - until she sets off a fire jet and Dakota tackles her through it to avoid getting burnt. They realize that no one is chasing them, so they take their time and check more carefully for traps. They do all right, until a spike trap drives a bunch of bamboo at them (Tallahassee is the only one injured and her force field absorbs a good deal of it). 

They eventually wind up at the door, and Tallahassee hacks it open. Upon stepping out, she sees a fish swimming straight at her, and she punches at it! Dakota just sees her punch nothing, and after a few frantic flails Tallahassee realizes that what she's seeing isn't really there. Dakota leads her down the hill away from the door, following animals away from this forest fire that's just come up, and they finally make it to the lake. There, Tallahassee realizes she was seeing through Kevin's eyes again, and races out to him. She patches him up and gets him fit as a fiddle again, and the characters are reunited in the lake.

But just then, a bunch of SATI drones swarm overhead, shining lights down on the area...

Slipstream: Diplomacy in the Sun

Tonight was Slipstream after a bit of a hiatus. Here we go! 

Our intrepid heroes had invited Prince Craw of Avia, whom they're pretty sure is in league with the evil Queen Anthraxa, to the nearby fragment of Idunn. Idunn is covered with sand and shallow, warm seas, so Zeenia is pretty much at home there. They arrange for a suite for Craw and his retinue, and meet out on a small island with a gazebo kind of arrangement to talk. Zeenia hires some local folks to carry her in her "receiving tub", so she can arrive in style.

Craw is lounging and sipping a drink, and comes down to meet with Zeenia. They talk about the various fragments they've both visited, and Zeenia mentions the difficulty she has with worlds that have a lack of water. Craw offhandedly mentions that any fragment can be "made habitable."

Zeenia asks the most exciting fragment Craw has been to, and he mentions he's been through the Dust Cloud, he's been to Amicus, and he's been to Simba recently. That catches the characters' attention, since they fought alongside a noblewoman from Simba (way back here). They ask after Lady Raoora, and Craw says he hasn't met her. Zeenia mentions that they plan to visit Simba sometime soon, and Iris notes a couple of the prince's retinue chuckling. One says to the other, in Avian, something to the effect that if they want to talk to someone from Simba, they'd better hurry.

Iris, not the most subtle or restrained of people on the best of days, calls them vultures, and Prince Craw puffs himself up and demands to know what she said. She clarifies that she was talking to his men, and he softens a bit, but does tell her not to speak to his retinue that way. Craw claims not to know Raoora, but says he met with the Tribal Council on Simba, including a Lion Man named Lord Raoor - maybe her father?

The conversation turns to the Avian royal family as Iris and Zeenia ask after Prince Boolar, Craw's brother. Craw doesn't seem the least bit concerned for his brother's safety, and when the characters bring up Queen Anthraxa's habit of kidnapping males (including Zeenia's betrothed, Zeemar), Craw downplays it, saying that the "Queen" is misunderstood and that the stories about her are mostly false. He is, of course, clearly lying.

Oola, listening to all this quietly, notes that the prince is wearing a circlet that seems to house some interesting technology, not too dissimilar to the device she uses to communicate telepathically. She makes the mistake of reaching for it and one of Craw's guards catches her wrist, but Zeenia jumps in and flatters the prince a bit, and he takes off the circlet and allows Zeenia to look at it more closely. Oola, also, takes a look, and notes that it is indeed the same sort of tech as she's using, just streamlined. She isn't sure if it would do exactly the same thing - maybe reading thoughts, instead?

The conversation gets a little testy towards the end of their meeting, as Craw implies that the "unruly" fragments can and should be brought to heel ("smooth off the rough edges"), and Zeenia slowly comes to realize that what he's talking about is subjugation. Zeenia invites him to her planet, saying that accommodations can be made for air-breathers, and Craw repeats his earlier mantra - any fragment can be made habitable. 

The groups part ways, and Iris laments that she wasn't able to drown the prince. The characters try to reach Simba, but they're too far away and decide to just head on out there as quickly as they can. Zeenia puts in a call to her father and secures some additional funds, and off they go!

Movie #628: Saw II

Saw II is, as the name implies, the sequel to 2004's Saw and stars Donnie Wahlberg, Tobin Bell, Franky G, Shawnee Smith, Erik Knudsen, Glenn Plummer, Timothy Burd, Beverly Mitchell, Emmanuelle Vaugier, and Dina Meyer. 

Detective Allison Kerry (Meyer) finds a note left for a colleague, Eric Matthews (Wahlberg) at the scene of one of the notorious Jigsaw's traps (Jigsaw being the crazy guy who puts people he feels are "unworthy of the life they've been given" in deadly traps that require them to mutilate themselves or others to get out). Matthews has his own issues; his son Daniel (Knudsen) is acting out and getting into trouble, and he's left a life of intense (and very corrupt) police work to work a desk job. He figures out a clue from Jigsaw, he, Kerry, and a SWAT team hit Jigsaw's lair, and find the man himself, a terminally ill cancer patient named John Kramer (Bell). 

But then there are these monitors that depict a group of people trapped in a house, slowly dying from nerve gas poisoning. One of them is Daniel, and another is Amanda (Smith), a previous participant in Jigsaw's game. From there the movie basically has two parallel points of action going, the story in the house as the subjects find their personalized traps and die off, one by one, and the story in Jigsaw's house, where Kramer tells Matthews that he'll get his son back if he just sits and talks with him. 

Much like Saw, the central conflict here is that everything you need to understand and survive Jigsaw's puzzles is right there in the instructions, but you need to look past the immediate trauma of what's happening and follow those rules in order to do that. Saw II ups the ante from the first movie, as any good sequel should; while the first one showed some violence but also left a great deal implied, this one gives us lovely close-ups of Xavier (G) cutting skin off of his own neck, Amanda getting thrown in a pit of needles, Obi (Burd) being burned alive, and so forth. 

The strength of the series (this is the only one I own, because while I like the original I don't think it's quite as tight as this one, plus Carey Elwes really overacts) is the mythology that comes up around Jigsaw, Amanda, and his victims, and of course the ingenuity (if you want to call it that) of his traps. With that said, there's a lot to keep straight, and the genre is very much more on the side of torture porn than slasher. Also, I had never realized quite how many flickery jump cuts and smash cuts and strobe lights there and, and it gets a little much. 

But there's something weirdly engaging about it, and I kind of want to watch the rest of the series just to see where it goes. Leigh Whannell, the writer of Saw and co-writer here, went on to write and direct The Invisible Man, which I thought was really solid (he also wrote the Insidious series, which I haven't seen). So I guess I'll keep getting these DVDs from Netflix (yes, that's a thing they still do) and see where it goes. I suspect they'll keep getting worse because horror franchises usually do, but what the heck.

My Grade: C+
Rewatch Value: Medium, which is higher than you'd think

Next up: Say Anything, once we're done with Oscars

Cairn: The Last Frogs of Autumn

Here's last time, on we go.

Our heroes are headed to the spooky ol' lighthouse south of Cairn. They arrive at the coast as the fisher-folk are pulling boats out, and spot the otter that they talked to last night. He agrees to drop them at the lighthouse, and tells them to just signal him when they want a lift back. 

He takes them across the lake and they disembark at the dock, and rows off to fish. They start to head for the lighthouse, but the dock immediately collapses. Ratatosk, Russelet, and Snootabur jump clear, but Rumdiggle loses her footing and falls into the water...and then immediately faints, because that's how possums do.

Ratatosk casts a spell to prevent her from sinking, and they tow her to land and wake her up. They head toward the lighthouse, but as they get closer, they all feel...slimy, like the emotional equivalent of having a slug-trail on their palms. Russelet flutters up and perches in a window, but doesn't hear anything untoward coming from inside. 

Ratatosk calls on his druid magic once again and calls a seagull over. The seagull confirms that there is indeed a frog in the lighthouse (rather, Ratatosk extrapolates that from the information the bird can give him), and that it's dangerous - it eats seagull chicks. Ratatosk passes this along, and they decide to take the bullfrog by the horns, as it were, and kick in the door. 

Ratatosk kicks in said door, and the door screams. Ratatosk nearly falls into a shallow pit of mud and worms. He manages to cling to the wall, and the others crowd into the doorway, to see a huge bullfrog in the middle of the room, wearing tattered robes and looking...rather disheveled and dirty. Snootabur tries taking him to task for stealing the worms, but he doesn't even acknowledge that he took them - they're just his. (Snootabur, as a worm rancher herself, also points out that this isn't the best way to keep worms alive, but the frog just says the worms won't be here long enough for that to matter and eats one.)

Russelet throws his voice to confuse the frog, and it works - the frog (his name is Brock) glances around and then wiggles his fingers, and the whole place goes dark. Russelet, of course, can function just fine in the dark, and flies into the room. Ratatosk starts moving around the room on the walls, but loses his footing and falls into the worm-pit, and winds up with worms squirming in his tunic. Snootabur goes down into the pit and makes her way toward where she thinks Brock was, and Rumdiggle hangs back and sings her little heart out.

Russelet senses Brock moving toward Ratatosk and flies to intercept, and gets a sticky tongue all up on his belly. He's yanked across the room and Brock grabs his wing, preventing him from nocking an arrow. Snootabur fires an arrow at the commotion, and Russelet bites Brock's tongue, which does compel him to let go. Russelet falls back and fires a sleep arrow, but if either arrow found its mark, Brock is still on his feet.

Ratatosk moves closer and swings his staff, but misses and winds up face down in the worms again. Brock leaps forward and stabs Russelet in the shoulder with an iron knife, and he cries out. Ratatosk decides, once again, that "fuck it" is the better part of valor, leaps on Brock (and winds up halfway down his throat) and pours all of his remaining sleeping draught down the frog's gullet.

Brock spits Ratatosk out, stumbles a bit, and passes out. The darkness goes away, and Rummy pulls Brock over into a corner while Snootabur starts taking the worms outside. Rummy notices, however, that Brock isn't breathing, and reports this to the others. Ratatosk pours a healing potion down his throat and he revives, but they tie his hands and stick him in the corner so Russelet can watch him.

Rummy and Snootabur get the worms out of the water, and Ratatosk, as he tries to brush frog-mucus off his face, signals the otter to come get them. Russelet offers Brock a pipe and tries to get him talking about why he stole the worms, but all Brock says is that he was hungry. Russelet points out that everyone gets hungry, but Brock says "not like me." He then asks Russelet to untie him, and Russelet, strangely, finds that a perfectly reasonable request from his new friend Brock. He cuts Brock's bonds, and Brock leaps up to a window, telling Russelet he'll be right back.

The others find Russelet sitting by where Brock was, slowly realizing (as the Charm spell fades) that Brock isn't coming back. They load up the worms onto some boats and return them to Cairn, and then go the heck to sleep.

The next night, Meestar Snufflestar invites them to dinner, where they get a feast of worms (and some food more appropriate to a squirrel, of course). He's able to pay his worm-debt to Moriarty Sprit and Ripark, but does wonder how Brock was able to tunnel up to the worm ranch. They assume he got a mole to help him - but who, and why? That they don't know.

Winter is almost here, though, so while Brock might bedevil them again in the future, they need to prepare for the long nights ahead. 

Character Creation: Stuperpowers!

Hey I have a penny no I don't April Fools

The Game: Stuperpowers!
The Publisher: Evil Twin Comics
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

I have something of a fraught relationship with humor games. I'm all for them in principle, but I have found that games that rely on the players to be funny are asking a lot. Most people aren't funny, and, sorry to say, most gamers think quoting something funny is inherently funny, when in fact it's usually kinda tedious (I mean, a well-placed quote can be funny as hell, but "well-placed" is the operative phrase here).

Anyway, there's also the problem that, as the saying goes, comedy is hard. Some games manage it, but I don't know about Stuperpowers! The premise - you're playing superheroes with dumb powers, a la Mystery Men - is solid enough, but I worry it's going to veer into gross-out humor, which isn't a form of humor I find especially compelling. 

I will say, though, that when I was thinking of games to do today in honor of the "holiday", the first one that jumped to my mind was Stuperpowers! I got it in a recent bundle and they must be doing something right because I remembered the game existed. So here we go. 

The opening fiction, aside from falling back on the lazy "no one reads the opening fiction" joke, jumps straight from a gravely-voiced hero making out with his greatest nemesis, which I appreciate. The GM in this game is the "Big Mac Daddy," and while that's gendered, it winds up putting this song in my head, so we'll call that a wash. 

Making characters is largely random and consists of rolling up which powers you have, choosing or rolling an Origin, and...that's basically it (I mean, name and description and that kind of stuff). Characters also have Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs, but not at chargen, because they show up as the "heroes" get more well-known. 

Well, it's meant to be quick, so let's do this! Three percentile rolls for powers gives me...Street Sign Power! Cause 70s Hairdos! (It's spelled "Haidoos" but I think I know what they mean.) And finally, Glow in the Dark!

I think all that is workable. Let's roll up an origin. Coming home on Xmas Eve my SUV rolled onto some far-future...well, I'm not rolling on the last table because "hippies" is a choice and that's too perfect. So! Let's put this together. 

Gerry Girard, very much a millennial and therefore unversed in the aesthetic of the 70s, was on his way home from an Xmas Eve party when a strange glow in the road distracted him. He jacked the wheel and rolled his SUV over onto a...gaggle? Cadre? Cloud? of time-traveling far-future hippies. The hippies were, of course, crushed, but like, nothing ever really dies, man, and they each gave Gerry a gift: The power to glow in the dark, the power to cause people's hair to fly free, and the power to take the words on, like, signs, and make them, like, really mean something. 

Gerry latched onto his most impressive ability - glowing in the dark - as his signature trait, and fashioned a fairly nondescript-looking costume that lights up with psychedelic colors and whorls when he glows. He hit the streets as the amazing Blacklight! (That name has caused some confusion, but Gerry is happy to explain that "blacklight" is just a term for a UV light, and has nothing to do with race or anything like that.) 

And that's it! I dunno, it's cute, but a lot of the powers are gross or stupid in a not-good way (I just happened to roll three that weren't), so I dunno if I'd run this. Also the PDF isn't indexed and there's no table of contents, so finding stuff is difficult. That's kind of a prosaic note to end this on. APRIL FOOL.