Team up

[beccaelizabeth]

If you were running investigations into and defense from non-human threats in the UK, who would be on your team?
What roles, and what characters to fill those roles?
Would you work in secret or be public?
Where would your base be?
What would be your main focus?



I feel like setting up an RPG campaign or something.


I was just taking a story for a wander... okay, setting out on my epic MarySue adventures with the premise that it all went horribly wrong and I have to start over with contacts made in former adventures and equipment and other resources that all have to have a plausible source.

So far I've ended up in the Master's secret backup skybase/spaceship (somewhat smaller version), with James Bond (from Casino Royale) and that clone!Jack from Stargate (only college age now, and in no way jailbait). I'd steal Ianto for admin/organising but Captain Jack has a bigger benefits package than me. And I haven't thought of a techie yet. Or a languages&cultures person. I was thinking of recruiting offplanet for the tech - they might be a clumsy apprentice back home, but here they're the whizkid of the future. Languages is harder, about the only person on TV is Daniel Jackson and, er, I haven't finished watching Stargate so I don't know what's up with him lately. Giles knows a bunch of languages but he's the boss of his lot and not really a skybase kind of person. Cultures could borrow from Sentinel.

... I find myself wondering how many languages a certain mountie actually speaks, from how many different kinds of groups... wolf on a skybase could maybe be unmixy though...

We'd be Torchwood 5, because they locked up all of 1s resources and put a committee in charge of it but there's no rule against making up a new one. And then we'd fly around the country dealing with all the alien threats that don't happen to be in Cardiff or require UNIT scale intervention.



See, this is what happens when I'm bored.


If left to myself much longer I'll break out the GURPS books and start figuring out backgrounds and points costs for a plausible group.

Comments

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Please define "non-human threats".

And I will seriously try to wake up and think with my brain.

[beccaelizabeth]

I was thinking Torchwood/aliens or Watchers/demons.
I guess a lot of other threats aren't human neither.


icon :)

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

:)

I really enjoy thinking about this.

I'm also trying to separate it from my "ideal council" visual which is driven by the "make everyone happy and alive" agenda.

This could be really, really interesting... Hmm.

[beccaelizabeth]

happy and alive is also cool.


... now I'm trying to think up a team where they'd all happily date each other all at once.
... it's surprisingly easy with a ficwriter mindset...

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

You can put half of BtVS/AtS into it from the get-go - all trained in such fields, all "BYO subtext" oriented.

[beccaelizabeth]

*nods happily*

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Giles and Wesley. Willow, Tara, Spike. Ethan.

Methos obviously, hmm...

I used to have tons of fandoms, where did they all go. I want to say "Luthors" but to be honest I don't know where their canon took them by now.

And Illyria.

[beccaelizabeth]

Illyria makes an interesting addition to any team.

... I had more thoughts but someone seems to have started doing construction in the hall.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I lack in thought so much is that in the past... week? Two weeks? ....flat next door gets built in, meaning DRILLED LOUDLY in for several hours every day, starting with early morning.

I am in constant headache.

[beccaelizabeth]

woe.
my block is a building site, they're working on the opposite end of the building, but since it's a really long building I get less of the noise usually.

*sends anti-headache*

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Thank you :)

Every summer, half this city goes into a renovation-frenzy. I mean, they build all year round, but in the summer, every summer, it's all noise from all directions.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

Glasgow! Because the crazy, crazy man in the Torchwood Two got to hire people. But they're still in that tiny office in the subway.

Alan Meisner - From "The Getaway Special" - Tech
Viv Ahvren - From "A Matter of Profit" - Cultures and Languages (kinda alien though.)
Ariel and Gabriel - From "The Magicians" - Math. Really cool math that's pretty much indistinguishable from magic if figured correctly.

And with an OC to run the outfit at the moment, because I'm failing on thinking of someone.

[beccaelizabeth]

you've managed to choose 100% characters I don't know. New & potentially cool.

okay, I'll try!

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Okay, if it has to be UK, I'll limit it to UK characters, but you'll have to bear with me.

Methos (from Highlander) for information sciences (all around computer/research/translation/paperwork).
Siff'hah (from Young Wizards) handling hard science (engineering/physics/cosmology/magic).
Phoebe Green (from X-Files) for social sciences (psychology/sociology/interrogation/mind games, and also government liaison.)
And I hate to do it to her, but Martha Jones for biological sciences (medic/biology/genetics/epidemiology).
For team leader (coordination, logistics, strat/tac, training), I think Alex Rider, who doesn't have a lot of team experience, but knows how to get the job done, and is probably one of the few people who could keep the rest of them in line.
And Jack Starbright (also Alex Rider) along to supply tea, biscuits, kickass, chinese take-away and token bad American accent. :D

I think they're not so much secret as underground and highly unofficial; they don't advertise or take orders, but people know who to call, and they let the actual secret organizations take care of the cover-ups. And none of them are the sort of people who volunteer for this stuff, so they're a really loose-knit team who only do the work part-time as a side-line from their real jobs, and they originally expected that they'd just get together when absolutely necessary and forget about it the rest of the time, but it's started occupying more and more of their attention.

Because of that, they don't have a formal headquarters, but they've ended up meeting in the basement of Methos' backup houses often enough that most of them treat it like home when necessary (And Siff'hah basically lives there at this point.) They all have many skills outside their specialty, and they all have support systems and backup through their other jobs that they can tap into, so the roster can actually vary a lot from job to job.

Interpersonal stuff? Hmmm. Methos and Jack start out sparring together, and end up dating. Martha and Alex are the best of friends pretty much on sight. Siff'hah and Phoebe hate each other, but usually end up arguing on the same side against everybody else, which makes them both even crankier than usual. Now I'm tempted to do all the permutations, but that would get long. :D

I think they orginally thought they would mostly end up doing end-of-the-world, the-Prophecy-has-been-fulfilled type stuff, but lately it's mostly been robots. Giant robots. And people trying to tap into cosmic energy and overloading. And similar aftermath of epic stupidity.


If I was doing an anytime, anyplace, as long as they could conceivably get to 21st century UK ... that team would be different.

Re: okay, I'll try!

[beccaelizabeth]

oooh, Methos! He'd be really useful. I mean he knows computers and languages and all sorts. Any skill that's been around longer than a hundred years and he would plausibly have it. neat.

Phoebe Green... from the episode Fire? Youthful indiscretions atop the tomb of... urgh, some dude, anyway. Tendency to sex in graveyards very useful to the plot.
... no, really ...

Siff'hah the cat wizard? Heh, yeah, cause if you're going to go non-human for the techie you don't actually have to leave the planet... neat.

I looked up Alex Rider on wiki. Um, you're putting the 14 year old in charge of the 5000 year old? Because that would clearly work well...


I like the bit about keeping their contacts from before. On Torchwood not even Gwen seems to have managed that.


I didn't make any rules about when or where they're from. My team ended up UK based because currently my brain is full of Torchwood.

Re: okay, I'll try!

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Methos is basically my first choice for any crossover team. You get hacker, languages, research, and combat skills right off, and that's just on the Adam Pierson ID. :D

...And I am incapable of writing a crossover without bringing in all the minor characters, so, yes, they keep their contacts. Of course, they're all also already involved in their own vast secret organizations, so it's not like that's a security risk.

..I put Alex Rider in charge because there's basically no way anybody's going to lead this team unless they choose to be led, and there's no way MI6 would let it happen if they thought it could be a threat. And Alex is good at making people want to follow him, and good at manipulating MI6, and he takes no crap from grown-ups. Methos would let him lead because it's amusing, but roughly mentor him kind of like he does Richie in some of the better fanfics; Siff'hah is younger than he is - and used to fourteen-year-old humans being the best at what they do; Martha, I think, would treat him like a little brother and help him out whenever she could; and Jack is already used to following his lead. Phoene would think it was ridiculous to put the fourteen-year-old in charge until he had totally pwned her in every way and she realized nobody else was on her side, and then she'd sulk but fall into line. (Every team needs a troublemaker! One who like sex in graveyards.)

Whereas I think if I put an adult in charge of that team, he/she would have no luck whatsoever. Because Martha's sick of being second best, Methos doesn't give a damn, Phoebe would try seduction, and Siff'hah would have no respect, at all. But a fourteen-year-old's not a threat to their independence the same way. (I kind of imagine they held elections, and Alex was the only leader they could all compromise on.)

Also, Alex Rider is just really cool. If you can take James Bond I can have James Bond Jr. :D

I know you didn't make rules, but my anyone anywhere team starts with Bran Tse-Mallory and gets more obscure from there, most of them people who don't live on present-day Earth, so I set myself limits, which is probably better for us all.

Re: okay, I'll try!

[beccaelizabeth]

*reads and nods a lot*