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Thanks! Good to be back
I had a blast coming up with them. There’s one surviving member whose older modern-day self I have to produce then on to the next story arc…Triad, having disappeared after the team disbanded, re-emerges at the LGBT youth rally in a disheveled and unhinged mental state. He ends up causing the disaster that grants Spectrum their powers after cracking open the extra-dimensional prism that was the source of his powers. He disappears again in the ensuing confusion.
Having moved into Spectrum’s fast, let’s get to the future
Following their tense encounter with the Anarqueers, a slightly more experienced Spectrum has to deal with the rising political and social momentum of the Golden Choir. Started by charismatic philanthropist, Ezra Simon, the Golden Choir had come from seemingly out of nowhere. While not overtly belonging to any religion, the organization espoused ‘traditional’ values and proposed itself to be the answer to the ‘moral degradation of society’. One of its specialties happened to be reparative therapy for LGBT youth, advertising its program as the cure for homosexuality, drug addiction, and all social ills.
Needless to say, Spectrum was more than disturbed by this rhetoric and Rosemary publicly denounced Simon’s teachings. He responded with a smear campaign on Spectrum and its members, buying out media vendors and curtailing favor with extreme-right leaning politicians. All the while the Golden Choir had something seedier going on behind its facade as a rehabilitation clinic and charity organization. Rosemary vowed to expose Simon for who he was, but she had no idea the scope of the forces involved and the danger she was putting all of them in…
With that out of the way allow me to introduce Ezra Simon. The charismatic and well spoken leader of the Golden Choir. He appears human, but his origins are far from it. He has vast telepathic power, his mind working like a virus, planting itself in the minds he comes in contact with and eventually overwriting them entirely and fusing them into a vast telepathic hive-mind. His powers don’t seem to work on the members of Spectrum, due to their exposure to the extra-dimensional energies of Triad’s prism. Something in his past is tied to Triad and the source of his powers, as yet unrevealed…
What good is a cult leader without mindless drones to do his bidding?
This is an example of one of the Golden Choir’s members. Unfortunate LGBT youth and other such runaways, either picked up off the streets or sent into the Choir by bigoted and misunderstanding families. Once cut off from their friends and family they are physically and mentally broken, subjected to rigorous discipline and experimentation. Eventually they end up like this unfortunate soul, a thoughtbreaker strapped over there faces, amplifying the signal of Ezra’s telepathic virus and preventing their own minds from reaching coherence again.
Ezra uses them as his personal footsoldiers, amassing an army to fight for him. In their inevitable confrontation Spectrum will be hard-pressed to combat these foes, unwilling to harm these victims who act under duress with no compulsion of their own.
This is a character I’ve been planning to introduce for a while, after realizing I neglected a newer segment of the community.
This is Allison Abernathy. She was one of the many runaways sent to the Golden Choir by concerned parents, fearing what they could not understand. Ordinarily she would have been folded into the hive mind along with the rest of the youth that Ezra comes in contact with, but Allison was special. She had vast untapped telepathic potential, that Ezra could sense buzzing just beneath the surface. So instead of the usual treatment, Ezra had his technicians cut into Allison’s brain and used his powers and his technology to bring out her abilities.
Allison becomes Ezra’s second in command, Ziva. She gains the ability to broadcast powerful waves of telepathic static, thoughtcasts that overwhelm higher brain function and immobilize her victims. Instead of joining the hive mind in the usual manner, Ezra tethers his mind directly to hers. Allison is a gentle person by nature, but is wholly enslaved to Ezra’s will.
Not to spoil the storyline, but eventually Allison is freed from Ezra’s control and comes to grips with her identity. Allison confirms her identity as an asexual. Thus Allison joins the team and my acronym has its final letter (I mean technically the full acronym is LGBTIQQAAP with the final P standing for ‘pansexual’ but I really don’t think I need to come up with an exclusively pansexual character. Let’s just say Stonewall is pansexual. There. lol)
A- Asexual. A person with a lack of sexual attraction to anyone or low or absent interest in sexual activity. They may still form romantic relationships with others.
Quandary – Allison Abernathy – Powers: Telepathic thoughtcasts that inhibit the mental functioning of those around her.
And an amended groupshot to include Quandary
I made her color gray (continuing my black + one solid color costume theme) because gray is a prominent element of the asexual pride flag. Also all of the other colors of the rainbow were taken.http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/l607/DiCicatriz/Spectrum_LGBTIQQAA.png
I really love the white with gold colorizations,It just looks nice on the eyes!great group and I love the group shot of the retro’s and the sepia adds the tone!Always a good ride on your thread!
Thanks guys! I really appreciate the feedback
I thought the gold would look ostentatious enough without going overboard. Something regal and classy. Fitting for a telepathic megalomaniac, no?Also I have to give a pair of shout-outs to to AMS and Scatman for their amazing use of gradients, for inspiring me in the first place to use them more in my own designs.
Going behind the scenes of what’s really going on with Ezra Simon… in their clashes with the Golden Choir the team continually encounters this mysterious figure, known only as Yrys. Rosemary and the Bear sense a familiarity with his energy signature and the kinds of manipulation he performs with his magic. They seem to be similar to their missing former comrade, Triad, except on a more sophisticated and far more powerful level.
He teleports in during Ezra’s public appearances, screaming at him in an unknown language. On one occasion he lashed out wildly at him, destroying the venue and endangering civilians. Despite their opposition to Ezra, Spectrum stepped in to protect the people. Yrys’s abilities were too versatile and he was difficult to overpower. At one point Enigma (our young man in the Questioning category, if you’ll recall) was in between alters and Yrys had an opportunity to deliver a devastating blow (possibly fatal, although his intentions towards Spectrum remain unclear), but paused. Something about Enigma intrigued Yrys. He whispered something to him and then disappeared…
I had a blast coming up with them. There’s one surviving member whose older modern-day self I have to produce then on to the next story arc…
I made her color gray (continuing my black + one solid color costume theme) because gray is a prominent element of the asexual pride flag. Also all of the other colors of the rainbow were taken.
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