Writing prompt #15: Rivalries!

[Crystal Dragon]

(Thank you Papa Nandez on the City of RP discord for this suggestion!) 

Friendly or not. How/why did it start? How long has it lasted? Did the rivalry ever get resolved?

 

I'll be honest, I really don't know if Crys' has a rival or not. She just kind of does her own thing, helps people that ask for it, and kicks booty when she's called to do so. Otherwise, she's generally a pretty calm, laid back individual. I can only think of one time she had anything close to a rivalry, and that's with Areia, but it's more a tense sort of bickering friendship these days. That one lasted about three, or four months? They crossed paths over Crys' first mate, Darisek and Areia's interest had Crys' a bit cross with her for a while. I can't say it's been resolved but I can say that it's less of a tense situation than it was when they first crossed each other. 

 

[White Cobra]

((When I saw this writing prompt, my first thought was of romantic rivalry. It made me try translating a scene from an existing story I wrote; I am not sure the translation works absolutely well, it might have been better just using Google, but I hope you will bear with me…

 

The background is Emily having become somewhat attracted to a charismatic cryptozoologist investigating a spate of black dog sightings. True to her general track record of romantic misfortune, just as Emily was gathering the courage to respond to her budding feelings for him and open up a bit, Rei Mizuni showed up, and – in Emily’s perhaps not fully justified interpretation – did a full Tennessee Waltz on her, stealing her loved one away; and Emily is now struggling to deal with the emotional fallout at breakfast next morning.))

 

As I entered the restaurant, Tobias was busy foraging the buffet for his breakfast. It was just the two of us there. This would give us some much-needed privacy and – most importantly – Rei Mizuni would hopefully be nowhere near. I smiled as he gestured for me to join him at the table. Now I just had to make the most of this windfall opportunity. Above all else, it was critical not to let any hint of last night’s jealousy show.

 

“Where did you go last night Emily? One moment we were all on the dancefloor and then suddenly you were gone.”

 

“I decided to turn in early.”

 

“A shame.” He gave his eyes a trademark hypnotizing swirl. Its customary effect on my knees made me glad I was already sitting down.

 

“Well – you seemed quite preoccupied with Rei.”

 

I cursed silently. This was certainly going well. I might as well have spray-painted my face green while pinning a JEALOUSY billboard to the wall. Tobias looked hurt.

 

“It wasn’t as if that Archibald guy was giving anyone else a chance of getting near you anyway.”

 

 “Gah – don’t remind me. Dancing with him was a nightmare. His swinging was so wild. Especially to that reggaeton song - Gasolina. I thought he was going to dislocate my shoulder again.”

 

I pretended to sigh at the recollection, but really it was from the little touch of a warm sensation I felt inside from knowing that Tobias had been watching me too and had felt annoyed with Archibald’s possessive demeanor apparently. He smiled sympathetically.

 

“Poor you. He did seem a bit over the top. I noticed Rei doing everything she could to avoid dancing with him as well.”

 

He broke off and bit his lip as if realizing that returning to Rei had not been the smartest conversational move. The sooner I could turn the subject of discussion away from her again the better.

 

“She’s very beautiful,” I said.

 

What? Was my own mind really this determined to betray me? What in heavens name had possessed me to say that? Luckily my legs were crossed or else I would have kicked myself violently under the table.

 

“I guess.” Tobias squirmed in his seat.

 

“Are you seeing her again today?”

 

I appeared to have been completely consumed by the green Rei-envying monster inside, and to have lost any remaining traces of conversational free will in the process. Tobias glanced at his watch as if he would prefer to be somewhere else. Not that I could really blame him.

 

“She wanted to see the location of the herdsman’s sighting with her own eyes.”

 

He wisely avoided eye contact. I felt as if someone had stabbed me in the stomach with an icepick and was now enjoying himself twisting it around.

 

“Are you taking her … there?”

 

He nodded silently, and I stared at my hands, surprised at how they remained folded so calmly in my lap. At least one small part of my body was still loyal and not hell-bent on betraying any attempt to hide my feelings. So he was taking her to see the place of the latest sighting. Had I really thought that was our special thing together? Who had I been trying to fool? Hotspots for black dog sightings had to be the cryptozoological equivalent of inviting a girl home to see your stamp collection.

 

Tobias glanced at his watch again.

 

“I should probably be off. She … It’s …”

 

He broke off and shrugged apologetically - perhaps unable to finish the sentence out of fear of hurting me even more.

 

“Of course. Give Rei my regards. I hope you have fun.” I couldn’t look him in the eyes.

 

When his departing footsteps had subsided, I finally dared to look up again, only to stare emptily at my plate. I took a sip of orange juice and studied the remains. Glass half empty, I thought, and wondered where I might get my hands on a collection of Rei Mizuni voodoo dolls.

[chase]

Gonna cheat here and post over part of Marzaana's  FBSA profile to start.  I'm still behind on other posts:

 

---

Extract from FBSA debriefing with Tabitha Lachann (Tabby)

 

''… Mary Zane?  Insane Mary Zane, of the “Zane Foundation” Zanes?  Yeah, that’s actually how she’d introduce herself- well, not the insane part, but “Zane Foundation,” part, like “my family’s so rich we have our own foundation” bullshit.   God, she was a pretentious bitchy wannabe goth-head. ''

 

''Y’know, when your boarding school makes everyone dress the same and won’t let you wear make up or jewelry, it takes real talent to pull off the goth look.   That’s about the only talent she had.  Oh, that and finding fifty thousand ways to fit “we have money” into a conversation.''

 

''… yeah, we didn’t quite get along.  You can tell?  She was all pissy and moaning that I got to do magic research but she wasn’t allowed.  Not that the no talent hack could do anything with the knowledge.'

 

''… Arch nemesis?  Well that sounds kinda extreme.  I mean, we’re not friends… not even frenemies… we just… hmm… maybe just nemesis.  I wouldn’t want to give her the satisfaction of arch-nemesis.'

 

''… she’s a necromancer now?  Seriously?  Are you sure she’s not just paying people to cosplay it up for her amusement?  She did that… like… I think it was our sophomore open-house.  Totally freaked the faculty till I ruined her fun..   Some ancestor of hers supposedly was known for being bloodier and more murderous than Dracula, or so she says. Like that's a good thing. Nuts. '

 

''Can I see that file? ...Marzaana!  Hah! An eastern-european death goddess!  See what I mean about being a pretentious bitch?  God, she probably just googled for "death goddess" and ran down the list of results.  Hilarious since most tales have Marzanna appearing like Baba Yaga.  A girl so obsessed with looks chooses an ugly old hag for her name.  Geeze, she can’t even spell Marzanna right.'

 

''...Oh, the name was already taken in the registry?'

''...By a real death goddess from eastern europe? 

''...Now here, in Paragon?

 

''...Can we, um, edit these transcripts.  Take out the “hag” reference, maybe? Just in case she reads this...  '

---

 

Tabby and Marzaana are constant rivals ever since very early in Tabitha's placement at St. Ives.

Unlike Tabby, who's quite convinced she's just an utter failure, Marzaana's determined to prove she's not.   Tabby sometimes points to Marzaana as proof that she's a loser, too- because everyone knows a hero's only as good as her archnemesis, and her archnemesis is such a loser.    They'll continue to spar against one another through the city for quite some time before Marzaana's quest for power peaks. When it does and Tabby's forced to be the one to step up, thwart her nemesis, that's when Tabby's defining moment occurs (soon(tm)).

[Placta]

Vanessa is your typical mad scientist, except she's not mad. Sure, she's brought some dead mice and rats back to life, but the final result of that experiment is a single vial of serum to be used on her in "the ultimate unfortunate circumstance" and she steadfastly refuses to test it on anything else, especially humans.

 

Gwen isn't trying to create life. She isn't trying to bring the dead back. She makes zombies because she wants to make zombies. She made shock gauntlets to control and power her pets via lightning because it's How Things Are Done. She's a cackling madwoman in general.

 

Vanessa sees Gwen as the epitome of everything she's worked so hard not to be seen as and a disgrace to science heroes everywhere. Gwen thinks Vanessa could be cool if she'd stop being so uptight, but Vanessa's dislike has rubbed off on her and she's stopped trying to be friends. It's hard to imagine Vanessa warming up to Gwen unless Gwen has a massive personality change, and unless she does there's no hope for settling their issues.

 

(Meta irony in spoiler tag.)

 

Spoiler

Vanessa's the one I made as a villain in the before times – one of my Original Ten, although I never got around to playing her much. Gwen's all new with Homecoming.

[Chrono-Bot]

Paragon University's Agricultural Department is very small. There's really only two professors in it along with the chair. One of them, Dr. Tracey Ellis, is determined that the chair will be *hers* soon, when the inevitable retirement happens. She's ruthless. She's done her time. The other professor? Toast on jam.

 

Anyway Dr. Art Maton, the other professor, is a Nemesis Automaton that's in such a stage of malfunction by this point it is completely unaware there's a competition at all. 

 

"A+, students! I'm just not myself without my coffee! Mondays, right? Remember to do your reading!" *head slowly rotates* Also his voicebox had started skipping since he got some Hamidon goo stuck in it after ending up in a raid when his navigation sensors glitched.

 

Tracey is going to feel pretty embarrassed when it finally clicks.

[Latex]

I usually play Villains or Rogues who have warped views of Heroes.

Most Heroes that feature on a news channel, in a movie or get any public spotlight (and purposefully bask in it's glow) sort of become an enemy of Kyrie Terror because shes bitter and twisted. She believes Paragon's society is a two party street, the Metahumans and the normies and there is no equality between them, one is essentially a walking potential world-destroyer or at the very least more than capable of enacting a 'hero coup'. Been trying to strike a vein where a Villainess has a point (and I won't lie that is difficult to get right) as well as having a relatable drive to genuinely dislike Heroes because I think too many stay on the fence. Though she is hypocritical at times feeding into the corruption in Paragon to make money to feed back to her to actually 'do something to stop the narcissistic Heroes', it's a never-ending vicious circle.

I also play a Heroine who is also based off this idea but in the opposite light, she is on TV, she is on some cereal boxes, or has her own T-shirts and she hates it. Hates how her life has become a corporatocracy. She is powerful, practically invincible and dislikes the attention of it all a great deal. She struggles to be a Hero because those wanting the latest scoop want to know everything about her (and to brand everything she does). Being from the deep south of America her Heroic persona is stereotyped, shes sponsored by firearms manufacturers and preaches the good book at Church events, she is heavily inspired by Starlight from The Boys. The thing she hates is the media and paparazzi, she would smash every TV camera she could if her reputation could take the hit.

[Seed22]

I've got a Rogue who is from a criminal island similar to the Rogue Isles. While he doesn't have a particular nemesis(yet) from my personal roster, he carries a negative view of Heroes and has actively spoke out against them on several occasions. He relishes the ability to enter into debates with many of them, only to openly point out their hypocrisy in front of all who would listen/watch, or, for the especially egotistical ones, utilize his curse magic to slowly but surely ruin them, if he is able. Some of this hatred is stemmed from him being what is considered a Doomsinger Warlock, one of the most sadistic of his kind, however, most of his hatred stems from their being no one to help on his island, and how other heroes knew much like the Isles how terrible it was, and still left them to fend for themselves.

 

And, much like above, most of my chars are Rogues with a healthy smattering of vigilantes.

 

I suppose a more direct rivalry would be between my freakishly strong Ice & Fire Mage and my sociopath avatar-esque shaman. He lets rip with his power, not caring about any killed when apprehending someone, and she of course is more hero-leaning of my vigilantes. They've butt heads several times, often with environmentally destructive results.

[Paragon Vanguard]

Hughe read through the ancient tome, hoping to find something he or any one of his fellow mages may have missed. The book was removed from the underground ancient city of Oranbega. and it yielded very little in the way of new findings. Much of it seemed like the ramblings of a mad man. 
Hughe's eyes wondered from the pages of the book to the large almost wall size television that was playing in the background. He did not appreciate technology, and felt it was a waste of societal strength that could have been better served at developing magic. Still, it had a purpose.
Hughe used the remote to take it off of mute. 
"....and so we feel that these strange lands, many of them destroyed, may yield some information concerning either where we have either been or where we may actually be heading," the man said, and people nodded and reporters begged to be able to ask more question. 
Mr. Amaze is what he was called, and Hughe had no idea what the man's real name was. He worked with the government and super groups and local authorities, for the betterment of mankind if you heard him speak about it, always for the betterment of mankind. 
Hughe did not buy into that concept. No one truly felt that way, he was sure of it. People who spoke like that usually had deeper agendas, even if it was to increase their fame and recognition. Or bank accounts. Hughe was not opposed to any of that, but he did not like the pure act from anyone. Mr. Amaze was not fooling him. 
"You really don't like him," Chance LaRue said, and Hughe glanced over at the man at the door. 
"It's not that, I just don't like the act," the mage said, looking back to the book in front of him. 
The battle mage just chuckled. Chance had known Hughe for a long time, and he was not fooling anyone. The purple clad mage had one goal, and that was to obtain and learn as much about the arcane as he could, increasing his own abilities beyond all others. Anyone else that was an expert in the field was either an associate or a rival. The super hero calling himself Mr. Amaze was neither friend nor associate, leaving only one category his friend would have put him in.  

[TigerEmperor]

I have sort of thought that Raphael Firestar wouldn't necessarily have an outright hero-ing rival so much as someone who'd be the other side of the Batman-Superman duo: someone who's stricter or looser morals than he does but they don't really interact too much outside of larger-scale activities or crossover plots due to working in different parts of town than each other, most days. And preferring to avoid letting super-work spill over into "normal" life. But naturally, he'd also probably have some rollover from the time Ra-Akhnaten had possessed him and thus had some villain/rogue rivals and maybe even a few among the Mu Mystics working with Arachnos. His only for sure rival at the moment is his old university rival Reginald "Reggie" MacReady. They competed for test scores, research materials, books, lab time, pretty much everything. Even a seat at the union to have lunch. "Dammit, MacReady!" is now, thankfully, a much less common refrain, despite his having to catch up on archaeological practices. ...It may or may not irk him that MacReady's become a bit more respectable while his name went into the gutters but he won't let that stop him.

 

Ra-Akhnaten, wisely, cautiously, and perhaps a little paranoid-ly, considers all magic users potential rivals. The more advanced/skilled/knowledgeable, the more of a threat and rival he considers them. But at least it keeps him a bit more on his toes so he won't complain that much.

 

Raphael Firebane had rivals back in Praetoria from his time associating with Powers Division. To hear him tell it, comes with the territory. Especially as they were there for for a variety of reasons, such as to gain fame, to be less held back, to have the Emperor's blessing to crack down how they wished, etc. Which meant they got in each others' way a lot too. He naturally doesn't like talking about it as he ended up taking out a few who were just looking to do good because of his primary rival at the time, Blackbones, having set up the situation in an uncharacteristic fit of cunning. Even more so since he tried to focus his efforts on bringing down threats to Praetoria like the Resistance, not people who should be supporting it.

 

Carmilla De Borgia's primary rivals are/were some of her "Sisters" in the Carnival of Blood, others who were turned and became heads of their own branches of the Carnival. This meant competing not just for converts but also territory, supplies, 'food', and the like. Which caused no end of headaches and the like as she just wanted to look after her gals and enjoy life at least a little. But these days, she's also playing for bigger stakes, using her abilities for some measure of good and to take it to the Crey Corp. execs she knows happen to be... Less than ideal people. Even if they are her extended family. If it means she'd have the ability to look after her girls and set them up well... She'll make and break as many rivals as she needs to.

[Living_Hellfire]

This is a good one. Liv certainly has enemies but they tend to be groups and not individuals. He has allies and associates, but no real rivals. I'd never thought of it in those terms. The closest I can get to is that there are certain characters that he's met that are rather more villainous and yet he remains friends with them. Their conversations are cordial and even affectionate, but every now and again there's a comment made to the effect of "... but if I catch ye doin' it, yer done. Well done indeed."

[TigerEmperor]

On 12/22/2021 at 4:00 PM, chase said:

Gonna cheat here and post over part of Marzaana's  FBSA profile to start.  I'm still behind on other posts:

 

---

Extract from FBSA debriefing with Tabitha Lachann (Tabby)

 

''… Mary Zane?  Insane Mary Zane, of the “Zane Foundation” Zanes?  Yeah, that’s actually how she’d introduce herself- well, not the insane part, but “Zane Foundation,” part, like “my family’s so rich we have our own foundation” bullshit.   God, she was a pretentious bitchy wannabe goth-head. ''

 

''Y’know, when your boarding school makes everyone dress the same and won’t let you wear make up or jewelry, it takes real talent to pull off the goth look.   That’s about the only talent she had.  Oh, that and finding fifty thousand ways to fit “we have money” into a conversation.''

 

''… yeah, we didn’t quite get along.  You can tell?  She was all pissy and moaning that I got to do magic research but she wasn’t allowed.  Not that the no talent hack could do anything with the knowledge.'

 

''… Arch nemesis?  Well that sounds kinda extreme.  I mean, we’re not friends… not even frenemies… we just… hmm… maybe just nemesis.  I wouldn’t want to give her the satisfaction of arch-nemesis.'

 

''… she’s a necromancer now?  Seriously?  Are you sure she’s not just paying people to cosplay it up for her amusement?  She did that… like… I think it was our sophomore open-house.  Totally freaked the faculty till I ruined her fun..   Some ancestor of hers supposedly was known for being bloodier and more murderous than Dracula, or so she says. Like that's a good thing. Nuts. '

 

''Can I see that file? ...Marzaana!  Hah! An eastern-european death goddess!  See what I mean about being a pretentious bitch?  God, she probably just googled for "death goddess" and ran down the list of results.  Hilarious since most tales have Marzanna appearing like Baba Yaga.  A girl so obsessed with looks chooses an ugly old hag for her name.  Geeze, she can’t even spell Marzanna right.'

 

''...Oh, the name was already taken in the registry?'

''...By a real death goddess from eastern europe? 

''...Now here, in Paragon?

 

''...Can we, um, edit these transcripts.  Take out the “hag” reference, maybe? Just in case she reads this...  '

---

 

Tabby and Marzaana are constant rivals ever since very early in Tabitha's placement at St. Ives.

Unlike Tabby, who's quite convinced she's just an utter failure, Marzaana's determined to prove she's not.   Tabby sometimes points to Marzaana as proof that she's a loser, too- because everyone knows a hero's only as good as her archnemesis, and her archnemesis is such a loser.    They'll continue to spar against one another through the city for quite some time before Marzaana's quest for power peaks. When it does and Tabby's forced to be the one to step up, thwart her nemesis, that's when Tabby's defining moment occurs (soon(tm)).

 

I know you posted this about three-fourths of a year ago but is it weird that I can see some weird AU crossover stuff that's like, Carmilla helping Tabby stop one of Marzaana's schemes for some reason or another, regardless of hero or villain status at the time. Complete with a little "catty" banter about how Carmilla's lucky to have all the power thrust upon her [she's not happy about that and is trying to make the best of it] as opposed to Marzaana 'earning' hers, how the Zane Foundation Zanes are and were better than 'some branch cousin of the Crey family' ["Hah, yeah, my family's a bunch of no-good crooks, heard THAT before."], and the like, rebuttle culminating with a dismissive "That would be almost cute if I could take you seriously." sort of thing. ...Which would fit right in with Tabby's "I'm not that awesome!" attitude. ["See?! My nemesis can't even rate in the eyes of this other tough, 'powered individual!"]

Edited August 19, 2022 by TigerEmperor
Clarification and rewording a bit.