The rampant xenophobia plaguing Earth

[Fortuneteller]

I find this highly problematic.

[ArchVileTerror]

Aye.  It's been there since Launch, as I recall.  During my first year I tried to run an event on Victory to rally non-human heroes to speak out against that kind of mindset (mainly propagated by The Vanguard).  I didn't get much of a turn out, but I was also a new player at the time and didn't have much community pull.  I was going to try again the following year, but it was scheduled for November 1st.  I ended up going Redside with the release of City of Villains, and it would just feel disingenuous of me to run an event like that from the Etoiles.

 

But, if anyone does try to run some kind of non-human inclusion event, you can count on my support!

[Coyotedancer]

Yeah... My bird-things used to grouch to their human friends about those billboards back-in-the-day. They're pretty obnoxious IC if you're playing a non-human. 

[XaoGarrent]

Hey, it's the smooth pink skin's home planet. The weird hairless apes evolved there, built their nations and culture, did all the hard work themselves, and they have a right to it. You don't. Unless your planet got blown up somehow, you've got your own, go home if you don't like their rules. You don't have a right to simply migrate to other people's planets, you galactivist cosmonaut.

[Fortuneteller]

Well if that's the case. The next time a cat stuck up a tree needs a localised folded-space wormhole teleportation then I'm sure the Humans can create their own.. Because i don't know how else you'd get a cat down from a tree.

[Saeletra]

Levitation, Telekinesis, Treats. Lots of Treats.

[ArchVileTerror]

I find the most effective way is to make eye contact for a good long while, take long blinks to show you're not a threat or threatened, and then turn your back.

That cat's gonna want to pounce you SO BAD at that point.  Just make sure you're in range and that you're okay with kitty claws piercing your skull or skull-analogue-organ/limb.

[AerialAssault]

18 hours ago, Fortuneteller said:

I find this highly problematic.

You'll take my patriotic billboard from my cold, dead, human hands

[Verm]

ayy LMAO

[Alchemystic]

Oh no, imagine a xenophobic narrative in a comic book universe, whoever would write such a thing?

 

Spoiler

Everyone

 

[Ikmachek]

 

[Harpsong]

Considering Vanguard actually has diplomatic relations with one of the two Rikti factions now, I think it goes to show how they're astoundingly tolerant of Aliens for an organization meant to protect Earth from external threats.

We're closer to Chimera Squad than OG Xcom here, people.

[Heraclea]

16 hours ago, Fortuneteller said:

Well if that's the case. The next time a cat stuck up a tree needs a localised folded-space wormhole teleportation then I'm sure the Humans can create their own.. Because i don't know how else you'd get a cat down from a tree.

1./  Pull the tree out of the ground.

 

2./  Shake it until the cat falls out.

 

 

[ShardWarrior]

My main is an alien.  I never thought much about these billboards and what she might think of them.  I suppose she would find them odd.  Then again, she does despise the Rikti so I guess on some level it would make sense to her.

[chase]

On 5/3/2020 at 12:21 PM, ArchVileTerror said:

Aye.  It's been there since Launch, as I recall.  During my first year I tried to run an event on Victory to rally non-human heroes to speak out against that kind of mindset (mainly propagated by The Vanguard).  I didn't get much of a turn out, but I was also a new player at the time and didn't have much community pull.  I was going to try again the following year, but it was scheduled for November 1st.  I ended up going Redside with the release of City of Villains, and it would just feel disingenuous of me to run an event like that from the Etoiles.

 

But, if anyone does try to run some kind of non-human inclusion event, you can count on my support!

I thought that billboard (and the "still among us" billboard) came with Issue 10, but I may be wrong.   I made  a point of including it in the comic guide back then because it was hilighted to me by other players as something new.    I called it part of Vanguard's PR (Paranoia and Revenue) program.

[ArchVileTerror]

I'll take a look in my screenshots folder, but I am 95% certain that both of those billboards existed since Issue 0.

[FrauleinMental]

The billboards were certainly there when I started playing around Issue 6.

 

The world had just suffered through the Rikti Invasion and lost most of Omega Team, so a little xenophobia might be expected.  But it's something Kheldian characters are warned about pretty early.

[Llewellyn Blackwell]

Funny enough the Rikti barely count as aliens, alter- dimensional earthlings from a culture that embraced scientifically alteration likely would be more accurate. The real alien invaders ironically are exactly the one seen in the screen cap.

 

Kheldians. They can claim to be benevolent symbiotic energy based life forms all they want. I however see all kheldians as nictus ( both the RL me, and the way I approach the RP in game via ol berk and most of my other alts) You simply cant prove they dont consume the persons mind and simply know what they knew while pretending to be joined. Consider me a lot like early seasin Jack O'neil on stargate sg1 and how we views all the snakes no matter good or bad and even after being host to one never really changes because as he experienced as a host, the host actually had no real control and was at the mercy of the parasites will.

 

I play human form only khelds these days and do not consider them in anyway a kheldian, just like the power sets but not the forms.

 

In fact Vanguard really is not the main anti invasion defense force of Earth. That would be the Midnighters who have fought the path of the dark for at least a century( and Bentley Berkeley who knows how long  he may have in lore being the only Immortal human found in coh lore.

 

And considering in lore the Nictus menace has been on Earth for thousands of years, who knows just how much they are actually behind the various myths and legends of cohverse Earth. I mean its not at all hard to imagine for example that seeing them in the ITF, that time lost vampyre and warwolvves could easily be the source of vampires and were wolves in legends. Who knows what wild ones left alone might have mutated into. Likely why the only real people I rp with with such concepts are either from other worlds or do draw upon the war wolves or vampyri for ideas for their origins rather than going the world of darkness.vampire the masquerade/white wolf route with such things and try to push those other games settings on top of cohverse.

 

RP based bigotry as old as D&D. I mean every player of an elf with a friend or sibling playing a dwarf knows exactly what I mean.

[Coyotedancer]

I would say that that one HEAT arc (I don't remember if it's on the PB or the Warshade side. It's been awhile since I ran either-) where the Kheldian NPCs your character is sent to find have been pulled apart, both back into their individual selves, is a pretty good argument AGAINST the whole "You ate your host's mind, you evil Nictus you!" idea. 

 

Of course, BB may not actually know about that... 

[Heraclea]

I've always found it odd that the highest echelons of the Paragon Police Department are aliens or possessed by aliens, and none of their politicians breathe a word about that. There's a story hook somewhere in there. 

[Davy]

10 hours ago, Heraclea said:

I've always found it odd that the highest echelons of the Paragon Police Department are aliens or possessed by aliens, and none of their politicians breathe a word about that. There's a story hook somewhere in there. 

It's listed in the Awakened descriptions that it is considered a controversial thing.

 

Should also be noted that the Awakened Division is not the highest echelons of the PPD, it is an elite unit within the PPD, much like the Psi-Division or Powered Armour units.

[AerialAssault]

The Awakened Division are an odd inclusion to the game.

 

Personally, I would have extended the Psi-Cops and Power Armour PPD to level 50 and have Awakened as Bosses only, or as Elite Bosses in the same vein as Longbow Ballistas.

[Ashington]

It's all a plan by Lord Nemesis anyway.

 

[Greycat]

On 6/11/2020 at 10:29 PM, Coyotedancer said:

I would say that that one HEAT arc (I don't remember if it's on the PB or the Warshade side. It's been awhile since I ran either-) where the Kheldian NPCs your character is sent to find have been pulled apart, both back into their individual selves, is a pretty good argument AGAINST the whole "You ate your host's mind, you evil Nictus you!" idea. 

 

Of course, BB may not actually know about that... 

Didn't notice this earlier.

The NPC you mention isn't ... exactly separated into their old selves. They even say "I'm not (Warshade's name, which I'm forgetting.) I'm not me. I don't know who I am." (Paraphrased.)

 

Which -  more headcanon for me than "lore says this," though I think lore kind of leans this way, too - is more "This is the result of being forcibly torn apart" than "this is what happens to any separated host," since after all the host can force out the Kheldian with enough willpower... which they wouldn't have if they weren't "them,"

 

I tend to play mine as two conjoined but still distinct beings - you *can* talk to "the Kheldian side" in them. I've had them partially separate so one could keep watching Star Trek after their host fell asleep, or have the host in a coma while they (both) recovered (and they were able to be talked to, eventually.)

[Coyotedancer]

I handled my Anima Sola and Mist in Moonlight the same way. In Sola's case case in particular, the pair didn't always see eye-to-eye on particular subjects, which led to some... interesting... conversations. XD