Training Team: Monsoon

When you have the power to invade people’s bodies and minds, should you use it? Or should you hold yourself back? What if you could stop all the persecution and hatred with just a flick of your powers?

In Team Monsoon, you’ll tell a story about the rights and wrongs of using powers that threaten the very core of people’s sense of self. Do the ends justify the means? How about when the people you’re using them on consider you less than human? Or is it your responsibility to always take the moral high ground?

You’re a mix of juniors and seniors brought under the tutelage of a teacher who’s seen this ethical dilemma from both sides, for good or for ill, and is the best guide you’re likely to find through this difficult moral terrain.

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25: S. Atkins // Flashback

Age: Senior Student, Origin: Operation V, Unknown Location, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Memory Manipulation

Atkins was a soldier once, a good soldier, loyal to a fault, before the Vengeance Lab’s experiments helped them to realise that there are far worse things than dying cleanly on a battlefield. In any war, even between the Marked and pure humans, both sides lose and all you are left with is scorched earth. Atkins will never forget this. But they can make other people forget things, and have done more than once – both Wojcik and Marino have been their victims, but of course they don’t remember. Atkins has even destroyed the memories of their own dying men, to save them from worse pain. But deep inside they feel that fundamentally their actions were still deeply wrong. Atkins never wants to do anything like that ever again. They want to build a world where they won’t have to.

Content warnings: Survivor’s guilt, PTSD, has done bad things for good reasons, I was only following orders

25: S. Atkins // Flashback Read More »

26: J. Park // Slipstream

Age: Senior Student, Origin: The Renegades, New Jersey, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Psychic Dreamscapes

Park’s parents were cleaners, who saved meticulously to buy their house in New Jersey. They always said that, one day, Park would do something great. Park believed them. Even before getting the Mark, Park had visions, seeing how people lacked empathy for each other. That is Park’s gift: they can join people, anybody who is touching them, into one shared psychic world. Sometimes, this power has been tough, as Park bore the weight of other people’s hurt. Often, though, it was beautiful.

Having helped so many, Park knows that they can bring about a just world if they can bear the responsibility of making it happen. That is why they left Glen Park and the Heap for Mistry Academy. They loved The Heap, they loved the secrets, they loved their parents, but the world needed Slipstream. So, without telling anyone, they slipped away.

26: J. Park // Slipstream Read More »

27: H. Singh // Whisper

Age: Senior Student, Origin: Frazer College, India, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Psychic Suggestion

Singh came from a senior army family: their parents were posted to a series of camps and garrisons all around India. It meant never putting down roots; and, when they were old enough, being sent to boarding school. This seemed like a welcome stability, and the chance to make real friends for the first time. Singh measured and understood the way that Frazer College society worked: the hierarchies and alliances. Singh and their Marked friends were near the bottom, but that was OK, it could be fixed. It turned out that people would still make concessions, grant favours, and remit punishments, when Singh really wanted that to happen. It was only after some time that they realized this was actually the exercise of their powers. This brought a crisis of conscience. Was it right to benefit from the powers by manipulating people in this way?

27: H. Singh // Whisper Read More »

28: M. Mikkelsen

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Salik's Boxing Club, Greenland, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Pheromone Control

As a child, Mikkelsen felt quite content; their home life wasn’t without its problems, but all in all things were good. Then the Mark showed up. When Mikkelsen’s power to control the emotions of those around them exploded and created mass hysteria, their mother promptly threw Mikkelsen out. Mikkelsen found themselves left to figure out on their own how to navigate a future they never wanted. They’re angry and frustrated with a world that seems to snuff out their dreams as soon as they appear. Can they find a new family at Mistry Academy?

28: M. Mikkelsen Read More »

29: C. Barrow

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Noasha Outreach Laboratory, Berlin, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Biological Manipulation

The protegée of the head researcher of Noasha lab, Barrow’s life could be described in the phrase ‘laboratory conditions’: up until now, they’ve only operated in controlled, sterile environments. They grew up with trusting parents who encouraged their Mark and sent them to prim and proper private schools. Their parents also inducted them into Noasha Laboratory where they learned of the sheer potential of their power and how they could best use it for the good of all humankind. Their ability to alter and control biology could cure all diseases just as much as it could wreck the human body. But when the lab was sabotaged and the group forced to Ministry Academy for their safety, Barrow is left in a dangerous new world where they’ve had to learn very quickly how to gain some field experience. They know they have the power to change the world – they just need to work out the what and the how…

Content warning: Body modification

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30: R. Aguilera

Age: Junior Student, Origin: Circus of Human Wonders, United States, Training Team: Monsoon /

Power: Mind-reading

Growing up in Tampa, Aguilera was a weak child, taunted by their schoolmates. When their Mark emerged, they found they could hear their bullies’ thoughts: frightened and angry and nervous. Terrified of the voices, they ran away from home, but they couldn’t escape their emerging telepathy. They were constantly surrounded by the worst of people’s thoughts, and whenever people discovered Aguilera’s Mark those thoughts became harsher still, often accompanied by physical violence. Aguilera’s knowledge of the depths of people’s hatred wore away all trust and compassion they’d had for pure humans. Cameron Redlaw seemed the only one who saw them without hatred or mistrust. After the attack, though, Aguilera heard the voices of others in the circus, who blamed the Marked for the attack and wanted them gone. Perhaps, Aguilera thought, war against the pure humans was inevitable. From now on, they are determined not to be weak any more.

Content warning: Bullying

30: R. Aguilera Read More »

53: K. O’Reilly // The Chimera

Age: Staff, Origin: The Remarkable Marked Alliance, Training Team: Monsoon /

Subject: Power Ethics
Power: Telepathy

O’Reilly grew up in Derry in the 1980s, right in the middle of The Troubles. The constant barrage of fear, pain, grief, and confusion was nightmarish. It culminated in them discovering the other side of their power: when they came across a fight, they told them all to stop – and they did, dropping dead on the spot. O’Reilly decided to use their power to end all conflict forever. They were almost inside the Houses of Parliament before being stopped by Mukherjee and Dr Mistry; but not before leaving a string of bodies across the Irish Sea. Once they entered the Academy and could protect themselves from everyone else’s thoughts, they began thinking clearly again. They put their hopes into education and diplomacy – two things that they saw making a positive difference for their students every day – and ignored the attacks from the press demanding their arrest. However, that hope has been shaken since Dr Mistry was killed. O’Reilly is beginning to wonder if the high road is worth it.

Content warnings: Sensory overload, PTSD and war

53: K. O’Reilly // The Chimera Read More »