new avalon mods. (newavalonmods) wrote in avalon_ooc, @ 2015-02-22 02:23:00 |
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New Avalon is a neighborhood that's part of Staten Island, the part of New York City that's almost New Jersey. So it's a neighborhood within a borough within a city. It's not a town on its own, and it's simply a residential neighborhood. It's a large gated community, with heavy security/surveillance and a surrounding fence/wall/hedges -- to help ward off attacks from supervillains and other infiltrators like paparazzi.
There are no businesses, restaurants, or other shops within New Avalon -- just the Academy at its center. If you want to go to lunch or get a comic book, you have to leave New Avalon and enter the rest of Staten Island. New Avalon is strictly for living spaces, which ... some people will argue that the fact that they aren't a self-sufficient town means that they're not an isolationist community, but detractors say that's crap.
The houses run the gamut from modern mansions to kitschy cottages and pretty average homes -- just so players can choose what kind of place their characters live in. It's a mishmash of styles, largely because houses were built on demand to suit styles and budgets, and the neighborhood has been added to over time.
Nepotism at its finest. Not everyone in the superhero community lives in New Avalon, but you can't live in New Avalon without being part of the superhero community. This doesn't mean being an active superhero, but you as a resident must be part of the network of superheroes, spies, etc. Who you know gets you the chance to live there.
Residents of New Avalon have been accused of being both nepotistic and isolationist, and it's not really incorrect. There's a mentality that they need to be among and protect their own, though it's less like a mutants-only commune and more like an exclusive Malibu neighborhood populated by celebrities.
Kids in the community -- the superhero community. Basically, if your parents were part of this network of heroes in the Marvel Universe, you're in. NAA is not a substitute for Xavier's School/the Jean Grey Institute in Westchester; there are other schools for mutants and powered kids elsewhere in the country and the rest of the world. NAA is specifically for people who are part of "the community" already, so if Little Johnny from Middle of Nowhere suddenly develops powers, he's... not going to NAA, sorry.
Currently, no, though Vic Altman is trying to get Jes Rogers to reconsider. It's against the law for anyone under 18 to be a registered superhero or vigilante, and it's against the law to train children in powered combat with the intent of turning them into superheroes, mostly due to what the X-Men were doing, which got a lot of children killed.
This is a touchy source of much debate, but as of now NAA insists that they're not training "child soldiers" and they never will. Phys Ed classes do involve some power control and self-defense, but no one under 18 is encouraged to fight even if there's an attack. Children are led to safety and the adults handle it, ideally.
Basically, the events of the Marvel Universe have shaped the culture for the next generation -- we now live in a world where superheroes aren't just commonplace, they're an expected part of life in New York City and other heavily-populated areas. Laws have had to adjust in order to accommodate them, though some illegal vigilantes still oppose the idea of having to register and become part of a government system at all. For some, becoming a registered superhero is a legitimate career, and for others the idea of it being a legitimate career is repulsive.
These days, more famous superheroes are followed like celebrities. There are reality shows, they're featured on SuperBuzz! and other superhero gossip sites, etc. Trademarks and codenames and logos and branding are incredibly important, and superhero merchandising is a big, big business. Did superheroes sell out? Some sure did. Others have to sell out in order to keep doing what they do. Still others reject the system entirely and remain in the shadows.
The most respected superhero team in New York is the Avengers, hands down, but they're also the most restrictive, elite, and possibly the least genuine. That's not to say that indivdual members aren't good heroes with good hearts -- most of them are -- but members are selected in part by a PR team and their image is very, very carefully managed, particularly after Marvel Kaplan spent a year impersonating Owen Rogers and the scandal that erupted afterward.
Other superhero groups exist and fade out, but none of them really top the Avengers in terms of visibility and fame. The Sentries themselves are sort of D-listers despite having lots of famous members -- they don't put themselves out there in the way that the Avengers and other groups do.
Captain Marvel (Peggy Rogers) is one of the more famous independent superheroes out there, and indie heroes' popularity varies according to what the players want/need.
Illegal vigilantes can't market themselves, but tales of their exploits can definitely get around. Silent Knight (Jack Murdock) is a longstanding vigilante with a reputation that precedes him, but his identity remains secret and he does nothing to gain fame.
The X-Men aren't prominent in New York after the destruction of the school in Westchester that led to the building of New Avalon Academy in the 1980s. There are pocket teams of X-Men scattered all over the world, without any real central leadership -- but the two primary seats of mutant power right now are Utopia (formerly Alcatraz Island) and the New Xavier School in Canada (formerly the Weapon X facility).
Mutant communities are largely considered isolationist/separatist these days, largely thanks to Scott Summers, and it's not uncommon for X-Men to be mischaracterized as terrorists depending on their political leanings.
We've compiled a list of events on the Timeline that's... mostly up to date? Ish? which contains most of the information that your character would know as a member of this community. It's mosty public knowledge, stuff that made the news or at least made the rounds within the community itself.
Not necessarily.
If their parents were famous Avengers with public identities, it's likely that their kids grew up in the public eye (see: the Rogers family). This goes in degrees: some are household names, particularly if they became heroes in their own right as adults, and some are only known by people who follow superhero culture/gossip.
Some people become famous because of what they themselves do, even if their parents weren't well-known.
Not all famous characters are well-known for being heroes. Milo Pym, for example, is the son of former Avengers but he's now becoming famous in his own right for being a pop-science celebrity.