'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 13

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Boosting Books! Stuck With You by ’Nathan Burgoine

#QueerYA

When I was a queerling, none of the queer young adult books out there were available to me. They absolutely existed—but I didn’t know that, and no one was going to hand them over to me—and that has always made me want to add more stories of queer youth to the world. I remember when I got to the bookstore in the nineties, and gained access to Books-in-Print (on a microfiche, of all things) and saw just how many queer books existed… the mix of elation and outright fury over (a) having access to all these books and (b) never having had knowledge of or access to all these books before that moment was so very much an example of being a queer person.

You don’t know what you don’t know, until you finally know, and when you find others like you? The world opens up and you finally get to start being you.

So, for me, writing queer YA? It’s a little like time travel; I write the stories I wish I’d found.

I wouldn’t be able to do this if it hadn’t been for the queer writers of #QueerYA that came before me. And to the librarians and teachers out there fighting to put queer books into queer hands—thank you. You are changing lives.

My QueerYA Books:
“Leap” in Boys of Summer, edited by Steve Berman—My queer summer spark of romance short story included in this collection of summer-themed stories.
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks—My debut queer YA novel, about a kid who always has a plan in his bullet journal, and just wants to keep his head down and get out of high school and begin that plan for his life who instead develops a teleportation problem, which definitely isn’t part of his plan.
Three Left Turns to Nowhere, by Jeffrey Ricker, J. Marshall Freeman, and ‘Nathan Burgoine—This collection of queer YA novellas includes “Hope Echoes,” my story of queer friendship and community where a queer young man with a gift for seeing the past decides to try and deliver a long-lost lesbian love-letter while he’s stranded in a small town in the middle of nowhere, Ontario.
Stuck With You—My rom-com-esque book about a young man seated beside the last person in the world he wants to spend time with for a long train-ride, and the sparks that follow between frenemies who maybe didn’t really know that much about each other after all. (This one is a Hi/Lo—high interest, low complexity for reluctant readers, ESL readers, and those with reading disabilities)

Is it Midnight? Then it’s time to Queer Your Bookshelf! #QueerYourBookshelf

Hello all! Today I am lucky enough to be taking part in a massive—no seriously, it’s massive—gathering of authors of queer tales of genre. And these Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, and Romance titles? All $0.99 today (US and Canadian, and otherwise set as low as we’re allowed everywhere else)!

Also, that today thing is literal. It’s today, today, as in one day only. September 4th, 2023.

You can click the image below, or head on over yourself to: http://bit.ly.queeryourbookshelf. (Note: it has to be lower case, or you can just click that link right there, too.)

Given we’re talking 200+ queer stories—can I repeat that, because 200+ queer genre stories?—given you’re here there’s a solid chance you’ve already picked up Rear Admiral, but I’m going to say it a third time: 200+ queer stories! Go check them out and do the Control+F and sort thing to find your favourite authors, tags, keywords, pairings or the like.

And if you’ve not already grabbed Rear Admiral? Well, now is your chance to get my comedic and erotic, wee little romance novelette before the price hops up again. Russ and the “Rear Admiral” (from the High Seas Anal Pleasure Set) are at a standoff, and he’s running out of time before he meets Dom, the real-world porn star inspiration for the toy, face-to-face. Think meet-cute only disaster-cute, with sex-toys, a snooty wine party, and—because even when I write erotica, I can’t help myself—a happy ending.

Go. Go now. Go check them all out, then come on back. I’ll wait for you.

Now, you’ve probably heard me sing the praises of Hudson Lin before, but just in case you’re new around here or you’ve somehow missed it, allow me to take a moment here to cheer her for the work and effort taken to make Queer Your Bookshelf happen. You definitely want to go check out everything she’s ever written as well. As you know I am a lover of all things shorter narrative, may I point out those wonderful coffee shop shorts? Also, I cannot say enough good things about the audiobook versions of her Jade Harbour books. Go get them.

Last Day for 12 Days of Christmas… in July!

Twelve days flew by!

If you missed it, I hooked arms with a dozen other authors for 12 Days of Christmas—in July—and we’ve got thirteen Christmas-themed queer romances for y’all to take a peek at. My offering is Handmade Holidays—I’ve dropped the price down to $0.99—but even if you’ve already read my chosen family, Misfit Toys bunch celebrating their way through fifteen Christmases, you’ve got until the end of the day to check out the rest of the titles and maybe find a new favourite!

At nineteen, Nick is alone for the holidays and facing reality: this is how it will be from now on. Refusing to give up completely, Nick buys a Christmas tree, and then realizes he has no ornaments. A bare tree and an empty apartment aren’t a great start, but a visit from his friend Haruto is just the ticket to get him through this first, worst, Christmas. A box of candy canes and a hastily folded paper crane might not be the best ornaments, but it’s a place to start.

A year later, Nick has realized he’s not the only one with nowhere to go, and he hosts his first “Christmas for the Misfit Toys.” Haruto brings Nick an ornament for Nick’s tree, and a tradition—and a new family—is born. As years go by, Nick, Haruto, and their friends face love, betrayal, life, and death. Every ornament on Nick’s tree is another year, another story, and another chance at the one thing Nick has wanted since the start: someone who’d share more than the holidays with him.

Of course, Nick might have already missed his shot at the one, and it might be too late. Still, after fifteen Christmases, Nick is ready to risk it all for the best present yet.

“Handmade Holidays,” by ‘Nathan Burgoine

12 Days of Low-Angst Christmas… in July!

Hey all! I’ve hooked arms with a dozen other authors for 12 Days of Christmas—in July—and we’ve got thirteen Christmas-themed queer romances for y’all to take a peek at. My offering is Handmade Holidays—I’ve dropped the price down to $0.99 for the duration of the next twelve days—but even if you’ve already read my chosen family, Misfit Toys bunch celebrating their way through fifteen Christmases, I hope you’ll go check out the rest of the titles and maybe find a new favourite!

At nineteen, Nick is alone for the holidays and facing reality: this is how it will be from now on. Refusing to give up completely, Nick buys a Christmas tree, and then realizes he has no ornaments. A bare tree and an empty apartment aren’t a great start, but a visit from his friend Haruto is just the ticket to get him through this first, worst, Christmas. A box of candy canes and a hastily folded paper crane might not be the best ornaments, but it’s a place to start.

A year later, Nick has realized he’s not the only one with nowhere to go, and he hosts his first “Christmas for the Misfit Toys.” Haruto brings Nick an ornament for Nick’s tree, and a tradition—and a new family—is born. As years go by, Nick, Haruto, and their friends face love, betrayal, life, and death. Every ornament on Nick’s tree is another year, another story, and another chance at the one thing Nick has wanted since the start: someone who’d share more than the holidays with him.

Of course, Nick might have already missed his shot at the one, and it might be too late. Still, after fifteen Christmases, Nick is ready to risk it all for the best present yet.

“Handmade Holidays,” by ‘Nathan Burgoine

The Magic of Inkspiral Design

I don’t have a pre-order link yet, but I check out Inkspiral‘s awesome work! The manuscript went in today, so more news as events warrant, but… well, as always, their work is magic, right? (Sorry. There will be puns.)

Are You Brothers?

A restaurant, breakfast, before the vacation.
“Are you brothers?”
No, we are married.

(A restaurant, dinner, a birthday.
“Are you brothers?”
No, we are married.)

The airport, checking in.
“Are you brothers?”
No, we are married.

(A dining car, our honeymoon.
“Are you brothers?”
No. We are married.)

An airport, flight canceled.
“Are you brothers?”
No. Are there any other flights we can take instead?

(A restaurant.
“Are you brothers?”
Just one check please.)

An airport, another flight canceled.
“Are you brothers?”
No. We’re married. How close can we get to our destination today?

(Walking the dog.
“Are you brothers?”
No.)

An airport, midnight, the wrong city.
“Are you brothers?”
No. We’re married. Which hotel are you sending us to?

(Finding a new vet.
“Are you brothers?”
No. We’re married.)

Renting a car, nearly midnight.
“Are you brothers?”
No. I don’t drive.

(In a store.
On the street.
On vacation.
Out shopping.
Dog parks.
New neighbors.)
“Are you brothers?”

No.

We are
(just trying to eat)
(just walking our dog)
(just existing)
(deciding if this is worth it)
(considering your body language)
(wondering what your cross means)
(saw the Conservative sign on your yard)
(judging the crowd)
(unsure how you will react)
(potentially in danger)
(checking for an exit)
(checking for a friendly face)
(so goddamn exhausted)
married.

A fast-food restaurant in the middle of Louisiana.
“Y’all are twins, right?”
A table of men, staring.
“Y’all are twins, right?”
Guns on racks.
“Y’all are twins, right?”
Guns on belts.

Yes.

Yes, ma’am, we are.

Oh, and, ma’am?

Could we get this to go?

March, Part Ten (1997)

Now we come close to the end of the original team inspired by the original Pride Flag of eight colours—already down to six after 1998’s death of March Red/Zap and March Pink/Wrath leaving to vigilantism. The remaining team continued to stand up for queer rights, opposed hateful villains of a variety of calibres—including a resurgence of white supremacists, various “calls to morality” from right-wing organizations, and even sometimes just villains targeting San Francisco for reasons of their own personal gain—and always, Father Light grew in the background, and would be their near undoing. Father Light is inspired by any number of evangelical hate-spewing “faithful,” but given he just died a couple of days ago, and people always trot out that “don’t speak ill of the dead” crap, how about I remind you of the hate of Pat Robertson.

Alongside the threat of Father Light’s focused hostility and hatred, however, there was also a place made of love and support, Faerie’s pocket dimension of Sanctuary, and upon Faerie’s loss, the magical commune would need a new guardian. Sanctuary is loosely based on Radical Faerie Sanctuaries and Gatherings.

Father Light and the Seekers of the Source

René Lafayette was a sharp child born to intelligent, wealthy parents, and was raised with privilege and without want—if perhaps rather coldly—but he certainly never lacked for any of his needs. His family paid lip-service to faith, attending church regularly but without much in the way of true declarations of faith beyond nominal donations, and Lafayette’s interest in organized religion came more from curiosity about human nature than anything else: how did the church hold such sway over people to the point where they’d willingly devote their lives to it? He never found the answer, lacking much in the way of an epiphany himself, but his interest led him to psychology, which he studied voraciously throughout his early and post-secondary educations, eventually heading to university to begin an undergraduate degree and planning on becoming a psychiatrist.

In university, however, Lafayette found he was surrounded by those who seemed to flaunt tradition and normalcy, and he found the experience distasteful. Worse, all across the country it seemed like these attitudes were gaining ground, and Lafayette felt the stirrings of a his first real sense of a cause—his desire to halt the forward motion of the degenerates of humanity. This led him to joining self-styled moral organizations on campus, despite their seemingly always aligned with faith he did not have himself, but it was with one of those groups that Lafayette was protesting the Pride Parade of 1978 in San Francisco. Lafayette had a front row seat to the empowerment of the eight individuals who would soon became known as March, and his fury that somehow they were chosen as worthy when they were so clearly degenerates and the worst of humanity, ignited what had already been a strong desire to stand his ground into something nearly puritanical. He watched them. He studied them. Even as he finished his undergraduate degree and considered a career in psychology specializing in rehabilitating deviancy, he knew he was close to understanding what had happened, but just one final moment of epiphany away.

March Turquoise/Faerie gave him that moment. Never one to hold back about the mystical makeup of the world, at a well-televised rally of his “Radical Faeries,” explained what he believed to be the origin of the powers of March: the focus of the collective unconscious of queer people through a symbol, the Pride flag. Lafayette, keenly understanding of psychology and a student of mass consciousness, pivoted in his educational direction, dropping out and instead going into seclusion for nearly a year while he crafted a symbol of his own: a narrative about how what happened to the group known as March—and, in fact, nearly every empowered individual on the planet—was truly about tapping into a unique source of belief, a secular focus he called “the Source,” and how the truly strongest of humanity would do so through the application of conscience, morality, and leadership. Crafted as a philosophy and practice that would guide others in focusing their own thoughts in his direction, Lafayette waited until he had perfected “the Source” and then came forth as the leader of a new, secular movement, “the Seekers of the Source.”

His church grew throughout the early to mid 80s, and by no small coincidence—at least, not in Lafayette’s mind, and certainly not given the political machinations he contributed to behind the scenes, both legal and otherwise—the first stirrings of true power came to pass alongside the AIDS crisis, which Lafayette used as another focal point of how “the Source” manifested immorality through illness, and other rhetoric he didn’t believe, but knew would draw others into his organization. Though he’d been working behind the scenes politically to weaken or stymy March and any other “degenerate empowered” people out there since the opening of his “church,” the first time Lafayette felt the power his devout seekers had given him was in 1987. While speaking to his congregation, Lafayette began to glow with a pure, white light, just as he’d written would be the first level of coming into power would appear. As he’d also expected, that one, irrefutable sign would create a snowball effect in the collective unconscious of his followers, and his own empowerment sped up. By the time March was burying Zap, Father Light—as he’d become known throughout the last few years—had achieved a power on par with theirs.

By 1997, with his church having grown to cross multiple states and even into new countries, he had surpassed them. With an equally vocal wife and a son of his own turning fifteen and growing into the role of diligent supporter and heir-apparent, Father Light was one of the most well-known figures of secular faith in the country, and his summoned “Soldiers of Light” had been used on multiple occasions to defend the Seekers of the Source from attacks from militant groups—nearly always ones Father Light had arranged to attack him in the first place, to further promote his own ability and righteousness in the eyes of his people.

March’s every success, however, galled him as much as it had back when he’d been at that parade and first watched their powers—powers from flaunting their indecency and degenerate natures in public. Father Light had never put that disgust to rest. Having seen some of March’s greatest challengers all ultimately fail to defeat them, however, Father Light instead turned to what had always been his greatest asset: his patience, and his ability to study. The key to defeating March, he concluded, lay almost squarely in besting one of their members: Prophecy, who could almost always be counted upon to know when a disaster or challenge was underway. Faerie, too, had a more chaotic ability to stymy assault, but Father Light focused on Prophecy, and decided the solution to assaulting March effectively and making it clear to all his followers—and the world at large—that the path to the Source was the only worthy path to power, was to divide and conquer.

Father Light worked with a group of his inner circle followers—who had some power of their own at this point, though in their minds (and thus, reality) at his mercy—to call upon the Source to hide Father Light from Prophecy’s sight. To ensure this plan would have as much efficacy as possible, he also hired a group of terrorists to start a massive fire elsewhere in San Francisco when they knew Prophecy would be away from March Tower, at the time he planned to arrive at the tower for his own public display of power. His machinations worked: Prophecy sensed the impending arson attack and raced to save the people there, and Father Light was able to face down Faerie, Silvanus, Blood Sister, Lustre, and Decibelle on his own. Unleasing his “Soldiers of Light” and demanding March turn away from their decadent, deplorable ways, what Father Light had intended as a flex of his power soon turned sour as the remaining members of March attempted to defend themselves and their tower, not just refusing to capitulate to his will but outright denying his faith and morality and the Source itself. Father Light lashed out with all of his power, with his Soldiers of Light swarming March, and his own blasts of light damaging the building, and injuring innocent bystanders throughout the immediate area.

In the end, Father Light unleashed a barrage of destruction at the tower itself, declaring it a symbol of their depravity and filth, and given it housed a clinic, shelter, and other services designed to help the least fortunate, the death count would have been terrible, but instead, Faerie and Silvanus stopped trying to defend themselves from Father Light’s soldiers, and worked together; Silvanus creating a massive wall of roots to buy time for Faerie to open up mystic portals to allow the people inside to escape to elsewhere. Lustre, Decibelle, and Blood Sister tried to hold back the tide of Father Light’s “army,” but in the end they were overwhelmed, and Faerie, his attention fully on maintaining the gate for others to escape, was struck down by one of Father Light’s blasts, and he died in Silvanus’s arms in the yard in front of the Tower. Silvanus’s powers wrapped around himself and his lover’s body, encasing them inside a growing, twisting form of an oak tree that stands there to this day.

Faerie’s death—and Silvanus’s transformation—seemed to snap Father Light out of the blind rage he was in, albeit too late, and he left, taking his soldiers with him, and later he would not resist when officers came to arrest him, saying that a court of justice would see the morality in his actions. In many ways, Father Light was proven right—René Lafayette was found not-guilty of murder or manslaughter by a jury of his peers. The defense managed to use the lack of a body as a loophole: neither Silvanus nor Faerie could legally be declared murdered given they’d apparently turned into a tree, and it was enough to side-step a guilty charge.

Father Light did, however, end up jail: sentenced to twelve years mostly for massive destruction of property, and multiple other, smaller charges, mostly around others who’d been injured in the crossfire—though notably even these charges were about “innocent people who hadn’t been near March Tower on purpose, including four police officers” with the unspoken declaration that the people who were at March Tower were indeed of a lesser concern.

Father Light would continue to lead his Seekers of the Source and speak from his minimum-security jail until his death in 2007, at which point his son would take over the church, and his moniker of Father Light, as Lafayette had written (and thus preordained).

Father Light, 1997 (PL 12)
Identity: René Lafayette (Public and well-known)
Cis Male, 45 years old, 1.8m, 75kg, Blue Eyes, Greying Blond Hair
Group Affiliation: Seekers of the Source, Base of Operations: Seekers of the Source Church (until 1997), Minimum-Security Jail (thereafter)

Attributes: Str 1, Sta 1, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 1, Int 3, Awe 3, Pre 3 (28 points)

Powers: Armor of the Spirit: Protection 12, Impervious 12, linked to Flight 1 (26 points); Commander of Conscience: Ranged Summon 6, Controlled, Heroic, Multiple 4 (16 Soldiers of Light), Sacrifice (39 points); Wielder of the Source: Array with Lancet of Light (Damage 8, Penetrating 8, Reach) (17 points), AE: Lash of Light (Ranged Damage 5, Penetrating 5, Precise 2) (1 point)

Soldiers of Light (PL 6)
STR 4 STA — AGL 0 DEX 0 FGT 6 INT 0 AWE 0 PRE 0 (10 points)
Powers: Blade of Conscience (Strength-based Damage 2, Affects Corporeal); Unliving Construct of Light: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal, Innate, Permanent), Protection 4, Strength Affects Corporeal; Wings of Light: Flight 1 (Wings), Regeneration 1 (61 points)
Advantages: Defensive Attack, Improved Critical 4 (Blade of Conscience), Improved Initiative
Skills: Perception 4 (+4)
Offense: Initiative +4, Blade of Conscience +6 (Close, Damage 6, critical 16-20)
Defense: Dodge 6, Parry 6, Fortitude Immune, Toughness 4, Will 5
Totals: Abilities 10 + Powers 61 + Advantages 6 + Skills 2 + Defenses 11 = 90

Advantages: Benefit 2 (Fame, Wealth), Connected, Contacts, Skill Mastery—Persuasion, Well-informed (6 points)

Skills: Close Combat (Lancet of Light) 11 (+12), Deception 10 (+13), Expertise—Business 7 (+10), Expertise—Psychology 10 (+13), Expertise—Politics 10 (+13), Persuasion 11 (+14), Ranged Combat (Lash of Light) 9 (+10), Vehicles 2 (+3) (34 points)

Offense:
Initiative +1
Lancet of Light +12 (Reach, Damage 8)
Lash of Light +12 (Ranged, Damage 5)
Unarmed +1 (Close, Damage 1)

Defense: Dodge 9, Parry 9, Fortitude 7, Toughness 13, Will 17 (36 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 28 + Powers 66 + Advantages 6 + Skills 34 + Defenses 36 = 170

Complications: Motivation—Obsession: Father Light believes he deserves the power he has managed to collect, grow, and focus through his followers and their belief in “the Source,” but no matter how much he gains, he wants more, and anyone denying his abilities or standing up to him only makes him all the more intent on proving himself superior to them. Weakness—A Made Man: Ultimately, all of Father Light’s powers are intrinsically tied to his “Seekers of the Source” and their belief in him as the receptacle of their belief in morality, conscience, and focus. It might be possible to shake that belief, or to cut him off from it in some way, and weaken or even remove Father Light’s abilities. Unrelenting Disdain and Hate: Father Light’s disgust at those he deems “degenerate” colors nearly everything he does, despite him usually being a methodical, studious sort, and ultimately led to his downfall.

Sanctuary—1997

The pocket dimension created by Faerie and populated by queer people Faerie gathered and offered a place and time to be away from the real world, often to heal trauma, became known as Sanctuary. While the media often slandered Faerie as “recruiting” or “kidnapping,” nothing could be further from the truth, as Faerie, and his partner Silvanus shaped the realm to be a place of peace and restoration. None knew that better than Wéi Kyle, who, at twenty-two, was found by Faerie after his conservative Chinese family had kicked him to the street after finding out he was gay. Faerie offered him time in Sanctuary, and over the months thereafter, Wéi Kyle found himself falling in love with Faerie and Silvanus both, and the three formed a polycule of mutual love, support, and trust, with Wéi often acting as a guardian of the pocket dimension when Faerie and Silvanus needed to be elsewhere for any extended amount of time.

Sanctuary itself appears as an idyllic woodland beside a lake, with a clearing to either side of a spring-fed river, where a commune made up of multiple simple, stone-cottage like buildings in a large, loose circle forms around a central stone archway that was also the dimensional portal of entrance and egression. The commune itself exists in a perpetual state of warm sun or gentle rainy days, with cool refreshing nights under odd stars and a random number of moons on any given evening. Time always moved differently there—two days inside Sanctuary passed for every day outside—but as Sanctuary grew, Faerie worked further magics to ensure those inside didn’t age at all, giving them more time to heal or recover from whatever had brought them to his fey realm.

When the attack on March Tower began in earnest, Wéi Kyle, the lover of Silvanus and Faerie, happened to be in Sanctuary, and when Faerie died, and Silvanus wrapped himself and Faerie both inside an oak tree, the dimensional portal at the centre of the commune closed, and the nearly three dozen people in Sanctuary found themselves cut off from the outside world, with no real idea of what had happened. That evening, however, Wéi was visited by Ricky and Henry, and the two held him in their arms as they’d done on many a night, spoke to him of always loving him, and asked him to look after everyone in Sanctuary. Wéi Kyle agreed, and the three shared a tearful farewell, though Ricky promised they would always be with him. When Wéi woke, he found he was wearing a sashed robe not unlike the one Faerie often bore, though cut more like a tunic and bearing a hood he could pull over his head, and he also realized he grasped a wand made of oak. Realizing these to be gifts from his lovers, Wéi went to the mystical library in Sanctuary where Faerie researched and penned his theories about the magical realms, and began studying.

Three months later—though only a month and a half to the real world—Wéi Kyle had managed to restore the dimensional portal to some degree, tying it to a key he wore around his neck like a pendant, and through the two gifts had begun his journey into understanding the mystic arts to better be a guardian of Sanctuary and continue its mission to provide a place for those who needed to escape to heal from their traumas, or simply to find others of their kind who’d accept and welcome them.

Taking the same name as the dimension itself, Wéi Kyle became “Sanctuary” and though he kept out of the public eye as much as possible, occasional glimpses of the young mystic would happen, and stories of the handsome man who offered respite in another realm were whispered throughout San Francisco and beyond. A chance encounter in a hospital room where Wéi Kyle had come to offer a bashing victim a place in Sanctuary on the same night that The Purple Hand had come to track down the unknown assailants made for an unlikely ongoing partnership thereafter, with The Purple Hand often reaching out to Wéi when there is someone he believes could use time in Sanctuary. Secretly, Wéi hopes to convince The Purple Hand to spend some time there himself, sensing there is more than a little trauma there, too.

Sanctuary, 1997 (PL 8)
Identity: Wéi Kyle (Secret)
Cis Male, 27 years old (appears roughly 25), 1.76m, 88kg, Brown Eyes, Black hair
Group Affiliation: Sanctuary, Base of Operations: Sanctuary

Attributes: Str 0, Sta 1, Agi 2, Dex 2, Fgt 1, Int 3, Awe 4, Pre 3 (32 points)

Powers: Fey Mantle: Enchanted Object, granting array with Mantle of Protection: Protection 7, Impervious 8, Immunity 5 (magical damage, and AE: Spirit Shroud: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal), Removeable (17 points); Sanctuary’s Key: Enchanted Object, granting Movement 1 (Dimensional Travel—To and from Sanctuary), Affects Objects, Affects Others, Increased Mass 4, Easily Removeable (6 points); Magic Spells: Array with Air Bolt: Ranged Damage 4; AE: Earthworks: Create 4 (Permanent), AE: Phoenix Burst: Ranged Cumulative Affliction 4 (Resisted and Overcome by Fortitude; Impaired, Disabled, Unaware; Limited to vision), and AE: Nereid Hands: Move Object 4 (11 points); Mystic Awareness: Senses 3 (Mystic Awareness, Analytical, Radius) (3 points); Wand of Silvanus: Enchanted object with Strengthen Magic: Enhanced Magic 4 (+4 to all magic spell effect levels), and Aid Focus: Precise 2 (+2 to all attack rolls on magic spells), Easily Removeable (6 points)

Advantages: Attractive, Enchanter, Equipment 3 (HQ—Sanctuary), Ranged Attack 2, Ritualist, Skill Mastery (Expertise—Magic) (9 points)

Sanctuary (1997)—Large Headquarters, Toughness 6; Grounds, Dimensional Portal, Effect: Immunity 1 (aging), Infirmary, Laboratory (magical), Library, Living Space 2, Personnel (fey spirits), Sealed (pocket magical dimension), Self-Repairing, Temporal Limbo (Time passes slower in the real world than in Sanctuary), Workshop (magical).

Skills: Expertise—Magic 4 (+7), Insight 4 (+8), Perception 4 (+8), Persuasion 4 (+7), Sleight of Hand 4 (+6), Stealth 4 (+6) (12 points)

Offense:
Initiative +2
Air Bolt +4/+6* (Ranged, Damage 4/8*)
Phoenix Burst +4/+6* (Ranged, Cumulative Affliction 4/8*)
*with Wand of Silvanus

Defense: Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 8, Toughness 1/8*, Will 8 (24 points)
*while using Fey Mantle’s protection effect

Power Point Totals: Attributes 32 + Powers 43 + Advantages 9 + Skills 12 + Defenses 24 = 120

Complications: Motivation—Responsibility: Wéi Kyle feels it is his duty to maintain Sanctuary as a place for queer people who need time away from the real world to heal, to find community, or to restore or explore themselves however they need to. He does this as much in the name of his former lovers as his own belief in it being the right thing to do, and no matter what else happens, the pocket dimension and those who need it remains first and foremost in his thoughts. A Lot of Homework to Do: Wéi Kyle has a lot to learn, and he knows it. While he dedicated his original training to mastering some basic spells and ensuring people could come and go to Sanctuary through the dimensional portal, his background in magic consists mostly of what he recalls from Faerie’s lectures and his own self-directed research. Without his wand to focus and empower his abilities, his spells are much weaker, and he relies on the hooded mantle to protect himself in a crunch. Worn hood down, it armors him, with the hood-up he becomes intangible. Given enough research, Wéi Kyle can often come up with a ritual or create an enchanted object to suit his needs, but he needs time to do either. Secret: Though the pocket dimension of Sanctuary is somewhat known among the mystic community, Wéi Kyle is doing his best to maintain his own secret identity as the one capable of aiding people to come and go from the dimension, at least until he can restore the dimensional gate to function without the key he put enchanted. Wéi Kyle is also aware there are other mystic beings—both human and not—who would love to take Sanctuary from him.

March, Part Nine (1988)

Now that we’ve rounded out the original team inspired by the original Pride Flag of eight colours—in Mutants & Masterminds form, because nerd—let’s jump ahead ten years, to the team’s first major loss. Queer rights owes so much to groups like ACT-UP, which I’ve mentioned before, and we need to remember our loses and the people who fought for those of us who came before (and for those of us who came after).

So, it seemed only right that AIDS should touch my fictional group and change them profoundly—including sending one of their own onto a path of vengeance.

I also whipped up one of the repeat villains March faced down, Major Moral (a riff on the so-called Moral Majority, who were neither), and a vigilante who often worked at cross purposes with the group, The Purple Hand, based on the Night of the Purple Hand.

1988, and the Death of Zap

The original group known as March—Pride, Zap, Blood Sister, Lustre, Silvanus, Faerie, Decibelle, and Prophecy—worked both as activists without their masks and superheroes in costume, and spanned a decade before suffering a true loss. Battling prejudiced, stopping hate crimes, and rising to the challenges of being publicly queer in the late seventies and throughout the eighties, they mostly stuck to San Francisco, mostly remained “local” heroes. The secular and self-styled “moral conscience spiritualist” known as Father Light continued to rise in political power and influence—as well as material wealth through his “church”—all while he spoke of their power as something that would better be found in the hands of “good, moral people with good, moral consciences, and good, moral values.” Father Light’s attempt to focus a collective unconscious into empowering himself in a similar manner as to the spontaneous event that had created March would eventually succeed—his followers believing in him so fervently that he would gain powers of his own, and specifically described abilities he’d guided his followers into believing for him—but he didn’t make a direct move at first, instead using the first stirrings of his ability to sheathe himself in a kind of spiritual armor to further encourage people to join his belief system—which further empowered him. March often, though most unfortunately without proof, believed him behind the undermining of progress of queer rights as well as stoking violence against queer people, and Prophecy and Faerie worked hard to find anything they could to pin him down, without success.

While Father Light refused to bring a direct fight to their door, the team had their share of battles with powered villains as well as the more mundane sort. Of particular note was Major Moral (who was in truth neither), a self-proclaimed soldier fighting for the rights of moral Americans. March would clash with him and his Milita-men followers on multiple occasions, powers-against-weapons, but Major Moral himself would always manage to escape, until 1988. During the funeral of Zap, Major Moral and his followers arrived under the guise of mourners, set for lethal violence that very nearly succeeded, but for the last moment vision granted to Prophecy. While many funeral-goers were injured, none lost their life—mostly due to the efforts of Blood Sister, Silvanus, and Faerie, who pooled their efforts into defence and aiding the escape of the vulnerable—but this violent act at the funeral of one of their own was a final straw for Pride, and had it not been for Lustre and Decibelle, it is likely Pride would have beaten Major Moral to death, rather than stopping at disarming, disabling, and severely injuring him. Regardless, the news caught footage of the moment, where Pride had to be pulled off the already unconscious, bloodied, and defeated Major Moral by his teammates, and the media—especially those who’d already been opposed to the “super-queers”—spun him as a dangerous man.

Pride, instead of issuing any sort of apologetic statement or any of the other options available to him to mitigate some of the damage, instead chose to simply agree. His announcement of no longer being willing to allow people to harm his people without repercussion became a hotly contested speech, and his declaration that he would come after any others attempting to hurt queer people with equal or greater violence in the future wasn’t just contentious, it shattered his reputation as a hero among many—most especially those who weren’t themselves on the receiving end of queer hate. But Andy Parker didn’t care if anyone saw him as a hero or not. “You’ve been saying Pride is a sin for years,” he said, in his last televised moment as a member of March. “That we shouldn’t have pride, that I shouldn’t have pride. Fine. I won’t be Pride any more. From now on, I’m Wrath.” He soon lived up to the moniker, assaulting gay bashers without mercy or holding back, and within weeks of the funeral, the rest of March agreed they had no choice but to to publicly denounce his actions, reducing their number to six. Among the more radical liberation groups, however, Wrath found contacts, connections, and could work his reputation, wealth, and standing to learn where his powers were most needed.

Wrath would sometimes clash with his former teammates over the next ten years, and would end up teaming up with others from time-to-time as well, including martial artist known as The Purple Hand and the dapper mystic Green Carnation. He ranged further from San Francisco, heading throughout America to places where crimes against gay people had occurred and doling out vengeance.

Wrath, 1988 (PL 10)
Identity: Andrew “Andy” Parker (Public, and wanted for multiple assault charges)
Cis Male, 38 (appears 28), 1.88m tall, 86 kg, dark blue eyes, dark brown hair
Group Affiliation: Independent, Base of Operations: San Francisco, but active country-wide in the USA

Attributes: Str 8, Sta 8, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 5, Int 0, Awe 1, Pre 5 (14 points)

Powers: Alluring Touch: Affliction 8 (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced, Stunned), Limited Degree, Reaction: Skin-to-skin touch, Selective, Limited: Only affects those who find men attractive. (24 points); Leaping: Leaping 4 (4 points); Perfect Body: Enhanced Advantage (Attractive 2), Enhanced Strength 7, Enhanced Stamina 7, Enhanced Fighting 4, Enhanced Presence 4, Immunity 1 (Aging), Protection 6 (Impervious 10), Regeneration 2 (64 points); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point)

Advantages: Attractive 2, Benefit 1 (Wealth), Connected, Contacts, Daze (Deception), Improved Disarm, Fast Grab, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Trip, Power Attack (10 points)

Skills: Athletics 4 (+12), Close Combat—Unarmed 7 (+12), Deception 4 (+9), Expertise—Politics 5 (+5), Intimidation 6 (+11), Perception 4 (+5), Persuasion 2 (+7), Ranged Combat—Thrown Object 6 (+7), Stealth 4 (+5), Vehicles 4 (+5) (23 points)

Offense:
Initiative +1
Alluring Touch +12 (Affliction 8)
Thrown Object +7 (Ranged, Damage 8)
Unarmed +12 (Close, Damage 8, plus potential Affliction 8)

Defense: Dodge +6, Parry +6, Fortitude +10, Toughness +14, Will +6 (10 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 14 + Powers 93 + Advantages 10 + Skills 23 + Defenses 10 = 150.

Complications: Motivation—Vengeance: While Wrath is still motivated by the desire for queer people to be allowed to exist equally, legally, and openly, he is done playing Mr. Nice Gay. He’s not asking, he’s telling, and everyone who hurts queer people have, in his opinion, declared themselves his enemy, and he’ll act accordingly. Prejudice: Wrath is loud, proud, openly queer and sexual, and refuses to be anything else. He pushes boundaries, has a quick temper in response to any hate aimed his way, which leads to escalation—and that’s exactly how he likes it. Hey There, Handsome: Wrath is easily distracted by handsome men, and doesn’t always make good decisions when presented with the opportunity to spend time with someone he finds attractive, including other antiheroes, vigilantes, and even outright villains—though never those who target queer people.

Major Moral

Born in 1952, James Johnson grew up to idolize the notion of military men as the epitome of masculinity and bravery, and wanted nothing more than to be like them, though his parents, deeply committed anti-war activists, refused to allow him to join any of the youth organizations designed to lead him down that path—not even the Boy Scouts. Rebelling against them the only way he felt he could, James practiced, exercised, and did everything he could to mimic the training of a real soldier, and was obsessed with being stronger, faster, and better than the other boys. By the time he was in high school, he was an exceptional athlete, and though his parents refused to allow guns in the house, James secreted away into the nearby woods to practice knife-throwing, honing his abilities to a nearly perfect level of skill, and with every satisfying “thunk” of the knife, moving closer to his breaking point.

That would come with the imprisonment of his parents at an anti-war protest in the early 60s, during which he moved to San Francisco to live with his grandfather, who shared many views with the grandson he’d not previously met, and though a cold and rigid man, helped James put words to his feelings about the world around him: it was immoral, it had lost its way, and it needed to be set back to the ways of righteousness. While James waited to be old enough to enlist, he listened and took to heart his grandfather’s rantings about the people who would destroy the nation—basically anyone not straight, white, and Christian—and in 1970, on his way to enlist in the army, James got into a fight with anti-war protesters, threw one of the knives he always carried, and his path was sealed. He ran away from the scene of his crime, but fashioned a costume based on a variety of military outfits, and like people his grandfather listened to on the television and radio, he took on the mantle of Major Moral in honor of the Moral Majority—and his crusade against those who would weaken his country began in earnest, with Major Moral always claiming to act as the soldier he was (even though he wasn’t).

Major Moral clashed multiple times with March after their inception in 1978, and while he rarely maintained the upper hand, he also managed to elude capture every time, and he gained fame and notoriety for “standing up to the perverts” and “championing decency.” His influence grew, and he soon gathered what he would call “the Militia-Men,” after the second amendment (albeit with little understanding of the definition of “well-regulated”) and while he himself always stuck to his knives, his followers were far more willing to use bullets. During the AIDS crisis, Major Moral and the Militia-Men pushed back against protestors fighting to earn awareness or action, and he and Zap went toe-to-toe multiple times, often relying on his own anger and rage to withstand Zap’s empathic abilities. But it was Zap’s death that would be Major Moral’s undoing. He led his Militia-Men to disrupt Zap’s funeral in 1988, and when some of his followers began shooting, most of March defended the innocent mourners, while Pride came for Major Moral with everything he had, and was only stopped from actually killing James by the intervention of Decibelle and Lustre. Severely injured, this time Major Moral did not escape, and was unmasked.

Although some of his hardest and most loyal supporters continued to stand by him, the revelation of who Major Moral was—and specifically his complete lack of a military career—cost him nearly all his support, and the severe injuries he sustained at the hands of Pride at Zap’s funeral left him unable to recover his health enough to continue his “mission” in any meaningful way. While he tried to pivot to a radio personality instead, Major Moral’s lies about his military service, not to mention the pending and mounting charges from his assaults during his time in costume, dogged him endlessly after 1988, and in 1991 he vanished the public eye completely, without a trace—a fate some put down as lethal payback from Wrath, The Purple Hand, or any number of other vengeful people Major Moral crossed in his day.

Major Moral, 1988 (PL 10)
Identity: James Johnson (Secret until 1988, public thereafter, vanished in 1991)
Cis Male, Age 36, 1.8m, 84kg, Brown Eyes, Blond Hair
Group Affiliation: Leader of the “Militia-Men,” Base of Operations: California

Attributes: Str 3, Sta 3, Agi 6, Dex 6, Fgt 7, Int 0, Awe 2, Pre 1 (56 points)

Powers: Perfect Aim: Perception Ranged Damage 5, Easily Removeable, Strength Based (Thrown Blades) (9 points)

Advantages: Accurate Attack, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 3, Equipment 6 (Usually blades and other military gear and/or vehicle(s) for his followers), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Thrown Blades), Improved Initiative, Inspire, Leadership, Skill Mastery (Persuasion), Takedown, Ultimate Effort (Aim) (13 points)

Skills: Acrobatics 10 (+16), Athletics 8 (+11), Close Combat (Blades) 8 (+15), Deception 10 (+11), Expertise—Paramilitary Organizations 6 (+6), Expertise—Streetwise 6 (+6), Insight 4 (+6), Persuasion 10 (+11), Ranged Combat (Thrown Blades) 6 (+12), Stealth 6 (+12), Vehicles 6 (+12) (40 points)

Offense:
Initiative +10
Unarmed +7 (Close, Damage 3)
Blade, Melee +15 (Close, Damage 4)
Thrown Blade +12 (Ranged, Damage 8)

Defense: Dodge 13, Parry 13, Fortitude 8, Toughness 3/6*, Will 10 (26 points)
*with Defensive Roll

Power Point Totals: Attributes 56 + Powers 9 + Advantages 19 + Skills 40 + Defenses 26 = 120

Complications: Motivation—Nationalism: Major Moral espouses he is exactly that: a soldier for the Moral Majority, but is in truth, neither. His pick-and-choose brand of nationalism—for the straight, white, military-supporting, religious (but only Christian), “family-values” and “constitution-loving” populace gives him no short supply of recruits for his “Militia Men” (use minions to represent those), but scratch the surface of his idealism and it mostly boils down to “people like me are better and deserve more.” Fame: Major Moral has a following among those who fear the other, and he doesn’t just love it, he craves the attention and furore he can bring just by showing up somewhere and spreading his brand of “patriotism.” Secret: Though he often claims to be both a “veteran” and “soldier” of the “true” America, Major Moral has never served in any division of the United States military, and though he is highly-skilled and incredibly lethal, he’s not at all what he claims to be, and lives in fear of his true identity being revealed for precisely that reason.

The Purple Hand

On Hallowe’en night in 1969, when protestors outside the offices of the San Francisco Examiner had a barrel of printer’s ink dumped on them, those who didn’t fall victim to the police brutality thereafter ran through the streets of the city, using their hands to ink messages and handprints in the name of visibility and liberation. For twenty-two year-old Giovanni Russo, the protest was personal; his name had been published by the paper, and it had cost him his job, his family, and his future. And when three police officers caught up to him placing another handprint on a wall, it also nearly cost him his life. But as their batons cracked Russo’s bones, a trio of voices pierced the pain and fear and spoke to Russo, asking him if he was willing to accept the power they offered in order to fight back not just for himself, but for others like him. Russo accepted as he blacked out—waking what must have been hours later in the alley, now seemingly unharmed, but forever changed.

Visions of the three officers seemed to guide Russo to find those who would have killed him—or, perhaps they had killed him and the voices had brought him back, he wasn’t truly sure—and upon confronting the first, the true depth of his new abilities became clear as his strength and skill in a fight allowed him to best the man easily. Russo offered the man the option to confess what he and his other two officers had done, but the man refused, and Russo left him broken and barely breathing—and a purple handprint on the man’s apartment door.

None of the three officers would confess, and once Russo had dealt that vengeance, he learned of others who’d been harmed in the same protest, and visited a friend in hospital to check in on her. When he touched her, he found he could see clearly those who’d harmed her, and his next targets were chosen. The purple handprints became a calling card, and the vengeance he meted out was always preventable with the promise of confession, but rarely did people choose it. It left Russo more and more jaded with every night. Nine years later, the visions of March Violet led them to cross paths on multiple occasions, with her attempting to shift Russo from his path of violent vengeance and vigilantism to something closer to justice, and while Russo would have liked to believe it possible, given how few of his targets chose to admit to their crimes and confess, he remained unmoved and often had to work against March, rather than with them. March Turquoise would later note three dark spirits of Vengeance—perhaps even the Erinyes themselves—seemed to walk alongside The Purple Hand, but Russo already knew that. In 1988, when Pride officially left March after the events of the funeral and changed his name to Wrath, The Purple Hand sought him out and worked with him to track down all the so-called “Militia-Men” who’d fled the scene, as well as the deposed Major Moral himself. Parker and Russo had a brief but intense affair in the early 1990s, but ultimately went their separate ways.

The Purple Hand, 1988 (PL 10)
Identity: Giovanni Russo (Secret, Mystically protected)
Cis Male, 51 (appears 22), 1.79m, 80kg, Dark brown Eyes, Dark brown Hair
Group Affiliation: Independent, occasionally paired with Wrath, Base of Operations: San Francisco, and the West Coast

Attributes: Str 3, Sta 3, Agi 5, Dex 5, Fgt 12, Int 1, Awe 6, Pre 1 (72 points)

Powers: Endless: Immunity 2 (Aging, Sleep), Immortality 5, Regeneration 5 (17 points); Eyes of the Erinyes: Senses 6 (Postcognition 4, Limited to identifying inflictors of violence after touching those they harmed, Tracking 2) (4 points); Veil of Vengeance: Feature 1 (People cannot identify Russo, only vaguely describe him, unless he specifically tells them he is The Purple Hand) (1 point)

Advantages: Agile Feint, All-out Attack, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Favored Environment (Shadows and Darkness), Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Critical (Unarmed), Improved Initiative, Improved Smash, Languages 1 (English, Italian), Move-by Action, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Close, Concealment), Skill Mastery (Athletics), Startle, Takedown, Tracking, Weapon Break, Well-informed (23 points)

Skills: Acrobatics 6 (+11), Athletics 4 (+7), Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+14), Deception 4 (+5), Perception 4 (+10), Sleight of Hand 6 (+11), Stealth 6 (+11)

Offense:
Initiative +9
Unarmed +14 (Close, Damage 3)

Defense: Dodge 11, Parry 12, Fortitude 9, Toughness 3/7*, Will 11 (17 points)

Power Point Totals: Attributes 72 + Powers 22 + Advantages 23 + Skills 16 + Defenses 17 = 150.

Complications: Motivation—Vengeance: Giovanni Russo has a chorus of vengeful mystical beings entwined with his soul as part of an agreement he made to allow them to do their work on the mortal plane. Once he has had a vision of someone who has gotten away with violence, he finds it nearly impossible to resist tracking them down and offering the chance to come clean or face his wrath. Eternity is Lonely: Although Russo has only been The Purple hand for about thirty years, his body hasn’t aged since he accepted the Erinyes’s offer, except as he’s honed himself into a better and better fighter. While he occasionally does take a lover, his sense of being “not quite human” usually gets the better of him and ultimately self-sabotages the relationship. Some of his contacts and network sometimes reach out to him to attempt to create more of a friendship, as do some of the people he’s touched for visions, but Russo continues to hold himself apart. Empowered by the Semi-Divine: Magical or divine effects that target spirits, magic, or divinely-empowered beings affect Russo, and can disrupt his visions or wound him in ways his healing and immortality have trouble coping with.

March, Part Eight

Eight stripes in eight days! Today marks the final heroine post inspired by the original eight-striped Pride Flag, Pride Month, and the Mutants & Masterminds superhero tabletop role-playing game. (If you want to go back to the start, it begins here.) This final stripe of the original Pride Flag’s rainbow is violet, and an homage to the “Mother of Pride” Brenda Howard, someone who definitely saw our way into the future.

March Violet (later Prophecy)

Among the colours of the original pride flag, violet represented spirit, and few were as spirited as Rachel Kohen. A bisexual Jewish activist with a strong voice and a lack of fear in using it, Kohen was an organizing force behind the organizing of the 1978 San Francisco Pride Parade that would empower her in a flare of light borne of the collective unconscious of queer people. After the flare of light, Rachel at first only thought she’d changed her outfit—now sporting an violet mask and shirt along with black trousers, boots, and gloves, but when she moved to dodge a thrown rock—and then saw the anti-queer hater stoop down to pick the rock up to throw it in the first place—she realized she’d glimpsed the future, and managed to smoothly keep others out of harm’s way while the rest of the heroes who’d also been born that day dealt more directly with the violence.

While March Violet’s powers were mostly passive, and often out of her own control, she understood how powerful a tool they were—they allowed her to see potential futures, and if there was anything she knew about activism, it was that seeing what was coming was only a benefit. Over the first few weeks, her visions mostly presented as warnings of potential violence, and she and the rest of March would arrive as pre-emptively as they could. March Violet would further hone her abilities alongside March Yellow and March Green, who taught her self-defence and hand-to-hand combat, and she learned to hone her skills through her sixth sense of what was a few moments into the future. She was never a front-line brawler, but she could stand toe-to-toe with even armed foes, often disarming them or tripping them before they could even land a hand on her.

Kohen’s background—Jewish, bisexual, feminist, anti-war, and pro-kink—had already shaped her into an activist, and her skills at organizing were put to good (and near constant) use by March as a whole, creating a cohesion they might otherwise have lacked. She was often the one who crafted the speeches March Red would deliver, was nearly always the one who alerted the team to potential danger, and was unflagging in her support of the various communities she belonged to. March Violet’s faith helped her come a long way to dealing with her ability to see potential futures, as well as her ability to send her senses elsewhere to offer reconnaissance, and she often debated and discussed her abilities through a lens of her faith among the team and with the rest of her community: Tikkun Olam, not only repairing the world, but potentially the future thereof.

March Violet suffered at the loss of March Red/Zap—her suspicion his end was coming was, in fact, underlined by a vision, and while she used that vision to ensure he had a chance to say goodbye to those he cared about most, it was a reminder that there were some futures she could not change. By then calling herself Prophecy, Kohen became all the more focused on attempting to hone her abilities after the 1988 Major Moral incident at March Red/Zap’s funeral, which for some reason she hadn’t seen coming at all until almost the very moment before. When the 1997 attack tragedy happened, Kohen was on the wrong side of the city, having had a clear vision of a large fire and death, and though she managed to save the lives of everyone involved, she eventually realized the arson attempt had been entirely devised to trigger one of her visions and take her out of play at the key moment. In 1998, when the second March team would take the torch, Kohen shifted into more of a mentorship role from day one of their tenure, and used her powers to guide the team, but rarely going out into the field as Prophecy again, instead using her gifts—powered and not—as Rachel Kohen.

March Violet, 1978 (PL 8)
Identity: Rachel Kohen (Initially secret, but eventually public)
Cis Female, 34, Height 1.64m, Weight 72kg, Brown Eyes, Brown Hair
Group Affiliation: March, Base of Operations: San Francisco, later March Tower

Attributes: Str 1, Sta 1, Agi 1, Dex 1, Fgt 1, Int 2, Awe 6, Pre 2 (22 points)

Powers: Precognitive Combat: Enhanced Advantages (Assessment, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Evasion, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Uncanny Dodge) and Enhanced Defenses (Dodge 10, Parry 10) (32 points); Precognitive Visions: Senses 4 (Precognition) (4 points); Sixth Sense: Enhanced Advantage (Luck 3), Enhanced Attribute (Awareness 4), Senses 1 (Danger Sense) (12 points); Spiritwalk: Remote Sensing 8 (Visual, Auditory) (24 points); Quick Change: Feature 1 (Transform into costume as a free action) (1 point)

Advantages: Assessment, Connected, Contacts, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 4, Evasion, Improved Defense, Improved Disarm, Improved Initiative, Improved Trip, Languages 1 (English, Hebrew), Luck 3, Uncanny Dodge, Well Informed (4 points)

Skills: Close Combat (Unarmed) 4 (+5), Expertise—Activism 6 (+8), Insight 3 (+9), Intimidation 2 (+4), Investigation 4 (+6), Perception 3 (+9), Vehicles 2 (+3) (12 points)

Offense:
Initiative +5
Unarmed +5 (Close, Damage 1)

Defense: Dodge 11, Parry 11, Fortitude 5, Toughness 1/5*, Will 11 (9 points)
*with Defensive Roll

Power Point Totals: Attributes 22 + Powers 73 + Advantages 4 + Skills 12 + Defenses 9 = 120.

Complications:
Motivation—Tikkun Olam: Even before she became March Violet, faith, upbringing, and her life experience already aimed March Violet toward doing what she can to actively make the world a better place. After acquiring visions of potential futures that alerted her to danger, she acted on every single one to the best of her ability, usually with the full support of March behind her, but sometimes when time or circumstances didn’t allow for much (or any) back-up, with whoever was at hand, or by herself. Prejudice: All the members of March are targeted for being queer, and March Violet is a bisexual, Jewish, kink-supporting activist who rarely, if ever, refuses a challenge, which can lead to altercations stemming from any number of bigotries. Visions: March Violet doesn’t have complete control of her visions, which means she is often at the mercy of when and where those visions occur in her attempts to change particularly violent or tragic futures from coming to pass. When she fails, no one is harder on her than herself, even when logically she did all she could. Both of these facets lead March Violet to sometimes border on obsessively attempting to plan for every contingency, and/or plunging into guilt or frustration.