Junior Nova! (TWS)

In 1998, the Space Station Galatea exploded, blanketing the Earth in a form of radiation known as 'Quantum'. The very next day, a firefighter named Randel Portman was on the scene trying to stop a school bus fire. When things went wrong, he began absorbing the energy of the fire unexpectedly! Randel became known as the Fireman, and the first of many soon to come superpowered individuals known as Novas.

A decade later, Portman is the frontrunner in the presidental election, and somewhere in California, a Nova named Beatrice Donner figures that kids growing up with superpowers could use a guide to helping them understand their place in the world!

Never mind that nobody's ever actually developed superpowers before the age of 16, and even those are rare. But hey, every kid dreams of that one in a million chance of being a Nova.

Still, an educational video game is developed, but it is never released to market. Apparently shut down post-production by the Aeon Society, that Nova philanthropy group. Nobody knows why. There are rumors that the finished project is out there, secretly distributed on the OpNet to those with Nova potential. But other rumours state that somebody likes to send viruses to kids claiming it's this mysterious game.

The year is now 2013. You are 14 years old. You weren't even born when Galatea exploded, so you figure your chances of becoming a Nova are slim. Er. Slimmer.

Still, there's this message.

It was just sitting there when you woke up, in a new window. No name, or even email address attached to it. You tried messaging back but you got no response.

: Enjoy!
Attached: juniornova.exe

With a little hestitation - you've got pretty good antivirus software, right? - you click the li- oh great. This again. Thank you Viasoft for making this thing... that definitely can't be disabled... definitely... you'll get to it eventually.

Hi! It looks like you're trying to access a suspicious file or link! We're just gonna have you verify a few things before we let you at that!
Real Name:
Email Address:
Birthday: MM/DD
Mother's Maiden Name:
Name of First Pet:
Hometown:
Password:
Confirm Password:
[X]Continue sending Viasoft usage information to help improve your experience and performance

SpoilerShow

so i kind of already have a superhero adventure planned. Let's call this a prequel or worldbuilding or an expansion pack. Before the actual main adventure.

What you should know: This world is the world of Aberrant, a superhero RPG from White Wolf Games, them people that made vampire the masquerade and really love stats represented by up to five dots.
Aberrant actually takes place in the Trinity Universe, which is, like, there's an RPG called Adventure! that takes place in the 30s in this universe and then there's another RPG called Trinity that takes place like 100 years or so in the future that i know very little about.

Basically I've got a vague idea of what events and parts of the original setting I want to keep as is, or have my own ideas about, but hey, let's fill in the gaps or at least see how long I can bullshit my way through this nonsense

Real Name: Henry Greeves
Email: NiteBat64@fanfiction.net
Bithday: 3/11
Mothers maiden name: Stonejones
Name of first pet: Qwerty
Hometown: Adelade
Password: 2Strongth4u
Confirm password: 2Strongth4u

Uncheck that box!

Real Name: Olivia Walton
Email Address: OrbitalFlipkick10@horizon.com
Birthday: 10/3
Mother's Maiden Name: Walton
Name of First Pet: Harley
Hometown: Portsmouth
Password: asdfgg73okDONE
Confirm Password: asdfgg73okDONE

You must be registered to view this content.

Real Name: Victor Lauder
Email Address: v.lauder@calhigh.edu
Birthday: 11/09
Mother's Maiden Name: Sørsgard
Name of First Pet: N/A
Hometown: Angelica
Password: LF%9O>4VY$cvgVIK
Confirm Password: LF%8O>4VY$cvgVIK

Real Name: Victor Conrad
Email Address: OrbitalFlipkick10@horizon.com
Birthday: 03/11
Mother's Maiden Name: Georgia
Name of First Pet: Pepsi
Hometown: Angelica
Password: asdfgg73okDONE
Confirm Password: asdfgg73okDONE


You uncheck the send usage information box, again, and hit submit.

An icon appears briefly in the taskbar, all you're able to make out before the screen goes black is it's purple and black.

A series of famous Novas appear on the screen.
Admittedly, you can't recognize all of them, whether because it's going by too fast or you just aren't as familiar with celebrities as some others, but you obviously recognize the current president, and a few other superpowered philanthropists you can't necessarily name, but at least know of.
The pictures fade into a circle with an upwards facing arrow running through it. The Project Utopia logo.
PROJECT UTOPIA MEDIA is displayed beneath it.

The logo fades away and an upright cartoon reindeer runs in from off-screen, carrying a bucket of paint, before skidding to a stop near the center of the screen. In a mess of animation wipes and action lines, it paints DONNER GAMES in colorful writing, poses for a bit, and then hops down off the bottom, as if it were on a ledge. The logo itself falls off in a similar direction soon after.
The screen goes black.

The screen stays black for a few moments, before a white gloved hand peeks up from the bottom of the screen and taps on it. A couple of seconds later, a silver colored orb comes up from the bottom of the screen. It rotates upwards, revealing a purple screen with a :) face on it.

An androgynous synthetic sounding voice comes from the computer, along with a speech bubble.

"Hey, you're Victor, right?"

That's a little bit creepy. But the information is stored on your computer, so not impossible. If raising a few questions of security on that "security" form. Just as you're thinking about this, you receive a message in your chat messenger.

It's from the person that sent you the link.

: It was only late in development that any questions were asked if searching the computer for basic information like the user's name would be a bad idea. The program is good at seeking out relevant information, and Beatrice argued it wasn't doing any real harm, but ultimately, the project was canned before any final cuts like that seemed necessary.
The Flipkick Orbies : Okay who is this?
The Flipkick Orbies : That was very well timed and i had to use the bathroom before actually doing the thing that would let me launch the game so either youre a good guesser or
The Flipkick Orbies : Actually
The Flipkick Orbies : I think this app shows what i'm running doesn't it

You take a quick look at your profile. Playing an Unknown Game for 0:02
Okay somebody could probably use that to figure out the timing. STILL.

The Flipkick Orbies : You win this time, no-name.
The Flipkick Orbies : Still.
The Flipkick Orbies : Creepy.

Right. Back to this thing. You Alt+Tab back over to the game, and hit the YES button that has appeared.

"Hey, awesome! Well, Victor, do you have a microphone? Say something if you do, or hook one up first. Or you can hit that button there if you don't. It's fine. Things'll just go smoother if you don't have to type."

SpoilerShow

Hi this still exists theoretically. Stay tuned for another update next month.

If Victor hooks up a microphone, he needs to say something into it to confirm it for our spherical friend.

You've got a shitty headset somewhere under your bed. You may as well fish it out and say hi.

>Spend 10 minutes connecting and disconnecting a microphone and screaming into it before you figure out it's broken.

>Frustrated, just go to typing.

You do have a microphone, but you also have other people in the house right now, and you don't want anyone coming up and asking what you're doing talking on the computer

Pretty sure the computer has a built in mic! Turn that sucker on for HORRIFIC FEEDBACK.

Your computer monitor actually has a webcam built into it, and you're pretty sure a microphone, too. You just use it for taking pictures, largely, but if you hit this button on the side of the monitor-

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

You immediately hit the button again.

The orb's face changes to a :/
"Sounds like you've got feedback problems! I've adjusted the settings to reduce it but if you have headphones that'd be awesome. :)"

You're already looking under your bed, and find an old, duct-taped pair of headphones. Maybe you should ask about getting some new ones at some point. Eh, it's fine. Even if the right ear is slightly quieter than the left.
You plug the headphones in, and hit the microphone button again.

"Uh... hi?"

"Oh, hi, Victor! ^o^ Glad to hear you!"

The screen fades to white, and your 'host' moves to the center of the screen. The gloves really just float next to the kind robot lookin' orb head, and that's pretty much the whole of them. They wave excitedly.

"Well, Victor, now that you're here, I should introduce myself! I'm Aeon! :)"

AEON appears in bold letters above the little robot thing.

"That means Artificial Educator Of Novas!"

The text expands as they explain the acronym.
AEON added to glossary. appears on the screen briefly.

";) Now I don't know for sure you're a Nova, but whether or not you're destined for great power, I can tell you all about Novakind! :) The history, who they are, where they come from, and what they do!"

AEON rubs their hands together, and a purple aura builds up on it, crackling like electricity, and they make a large waving motion, causing a side-wipe transition to replace the whiteness with a cartoon depiction of Earth. They then point towards various spots, sending a beam of the purple aura towards them, creating what you can only assume are clickable hotspots.
A cartoony skyscraper bursts out of the west coast of the US, with the Project Utopia logo on it.
Somewhere in Europe, a very shiny white building springs up, and what you think is a strand of DNA lies in front of it. That's what that ladder thing is, right?
You're pretty sure the pyramid springing up in Africa is in Egypt, and it's got a fedora and a bullwhip in front of it, all in grayscale.
Visible just off the corner of the map is space, and a space station has manifested itself in that... space. You're pretty sure it's Galatea.
A book very clearly labelled GLOSSARY drops onto somewhere in Canada, perhaps just because the space is there.
Finally, AEON themself plops down in the middle of the ocean, with a slight splash effect.

"Your journey into knowledge starts... well, any of these spots, really. :D Dive right into one or ask me about them if you'd like! I'm here to help!"

SpoilerShow

We have always been at war with Eastasia and AEON has always been spherical.

Lets learn more about space explosions! >Click Galatea

Yes, we should find out more about Galatea :O

It'll be interesting if it tells us something we don't already know. SPACE it is!

Galatea is the thing here that you're the most immediately familiar with. Granted, that knowledge isn't much more than 'It exploded and now superheroes exist because of it,' but hey, it's something. Sounds like a good a place to start as any.

You click on the space station, and the camera starts slowly 'flying' towards it. On the way to the station, AEON floats gently in from the bottom of the screen a few moments after having panned out of view.
":| Hey, the Galatea is an important part of Nova history, and the three people stationed on it were great, great people. :) But the story of it is, in the end, :( a tragedy. If you feel like it, we'll gloss over the ugly parts when we get there. But for now, :) let me introduce you to what was at the time an amazing piece of technology, the Space Station Galatea!"

The space station has been silhouetted for a while now, and upon AEON finishing their speech, it becomes unobscured by shadows, revealing a kind of remarkably detailed piece of art. Somebody had fun drawing a space station.

Honestly, you hadn't really considered the crew of the station before. You suppose it's nice they give the option to skip that part, but you're pretty sure you'll be fine with it.

Oh hey, a message again.

: Beatrice had never met any of the crew of the Galatea. Considering she was 25 at the age of developing the game, this was unlikely anyways. But many of the members of the Aeon Society, who helped with the game, had, and were quite adamant about portraying their late friends in the best light possible. And so the fight between accuracy and memorial began.
The Flipkick Orbies : Kind of killing the mood here.
The Flipkick Orbies : Also this time there's DEFINITELY no way for you to have known where I was.
The Flipkick Orbies : So I'm mad about the clear spyware but not mad enough to stop playing.
The Flipkick Orbies : ...
The Flipkick Orbies : Really feeling like these conversations are a bit one-sided here.

You hear a brief chuckle in your ears. Since it's, y'know, directly in your ears, you can probably assume it came from the computer. You've just got the same stuff running as before, so it must be the game. You aren't sure WHY the game chuckled, but you don't even understand where the game came from so it's probably best to just roll with it for now.

When you load the game back up, AEON seems to just be idling, twiddling their thumbs.
"^_^ Oh, good, you're back! Thought I'd give you some details on the station! :)
Like I said, this is the Space Station Galatea! Launched in 1997, Galatea was a research station carrying a classified substance that we still can't tell you exactly what it is. :o I mean, I know, ;) but I promised to keep it a secret. :) What is public knowledge is that the substance had something to do with Quantum Energy. By the year 2000, much of the information was meant to be declassified, but, well, then Novas happened, and that kind of made everything more complicated! :o"

Galatea, Quantum Energy added to Glossary.

"If everything went well, Galatea likely would have become the base for an International Space Station, but due to the tragedy that took place in 1998, the United Nations had trouble uniting on such a thing. It's probably why there are so many countries with their own individual space stations today! :/ Everybody thinks they can do better on their own. :P I think we should work together, but what do I know?"

The space station exterior fades into a cross-section of Galatea, showing the interior, with three people in various parts of it. In one section, a man is staring at a crate that glows purple, taking notes on a clipboard. Elsewhere, a woman tinkers with some sort of machinery. Finally another, larger man stares at... a fish tank?

":) Three people were aboard the Galatea during its time in space, and these are them."

The view zooms in on the first man, who is now pushing buttons on the crate, causing the glowing to change colours.
"Hassan Nejem was a nuclear physicist who took a particular interest in Hammersmith Engines, he was particularly knowledgable about what would later be known as Quantum Energy. With him, he brought a collection of comic books, and made sure more would come with each supply drop."

Hammersmith Engines added to Glossary

The view shifts over to the woman, who has graduated from 'poking at' to 'hitting' the vague machinery.
"Diana Fantasia was a theoretical physicist and engineer. Largely in charge of keeping the station from falling apart, she also had a strong knowledge of the fundamental mechanics of the universe. With her she brought her history books, and her Tolkein books."

Finally, the view moves to the man by the fish tank. Kind of a weird fish tank, but it is a space fish tank.
"Herbert Kopparberg was a biologist, and the medic of the ship. He more or less demanded a variety of spices be made available to him on the station. They say he managed to work miracles with freeze dried space food."

It zooms out again to the entire ship cross-section, and AEON is there visible again.
":) Well, who'd you like to learn about first?"

Diana Fantasia, for WHY THE SHIP FELL APART??

>Kopparberg sounds like a cool dude and a five-star-class chef, let's learn about him.

And before you ask whether we want to learn more about his left shoe, his right shoe, his left glove, or his right glove, I choose his left shoe.

> Ask if they brought actual books or e-readers

Going to ask about Nejem just to make these suggestions hard to decide on :3

Let's go with Diana Fantasia.

Are you yourself most interested in cooking, comic books, or fantasy novels? Go with the one with the most relateable hobbies.