Young Writers Society

@Mea aaaAH thank you!! I'm so excited to hear that you're interested! Of course I'll ping you. Because you mentioned it, I posted what I have for the plot up above. ^

As for character relationships, here you are (probably chock-full of spoilers, but I have no idea how to weed that out so whoops):

Character Relations

ELI WAGNER, MC, villain

Atlas: Roommate and friend
Sebastián: Roommate and friend
Celeste: Assigned hero/ villain duo, eventual friend
Emma: Assigned hero/ villain duo, eventual friend
Aniyah: Considers Eli a target to take down (but changes her mind eventually)
West: Eli's handler/ Program agent
Juno: No direct contact until late in the story
Mission: No direct contact until late in the story

ATLAS BECKETT, Injured Roommate, ex-villain

Eli: Roommate and friend
Sebastián: Roommate and friend
He is not familiar with the others until much later in the story.

SEBASTIÁN REYES, Roommate, civilian

Eli: Roommate and friend
Atlas: Roommate and friend
He is not familiar with the others until much later in the story, although he encounters West briefly and indirectly at one point, but doesn't know it's him.

CELESTE TURNER, hero

Eli: Assigned hero/ villain duo
Emma: Roommate and hero partner; they share a hero persona so as to better balance work and personal life.
She is not familiar with the others until Eli bursts into her life, bringing his problems (and relationships) with him.

EMMA ZHANG, hero

Eli: Assigned hero/ villain duo
Celeste: Roommate and hero partner; they share a hero persona so as to better balance work and personal life.
She is not familiar with the others until Eli bursts into Celeste's life, bringing his problems (and relationships) with him. Since Celeste's problems become her problems, Emma is also sucked in.

ANIYAH SODHI, vigilante hero

Eli: target.
She is familiar with Celeste and Emma's hero persona, but is only interested in bringing Eli to justice, and discovering the Program's true intentions. Otherwise, she knows of no one until she becomes familiar with Eli's mess.

WEST IVANOV, keeper for villains, agent for the Program

Eli: one of the villains on his list to keep track of, monitor, make sure he's not getting any ideas of exposing the Program's true intentions. Eli later becomes his target.
Atlas: another villain on West's roster. West determined that he was becoming too troublesome, had him taken care of.
Sebastián: quickly becomes a suspect in helping Eli hack into Program files. West is responsible for Sebastián's kidnapping.
Celeste: only connection is through her contact with Eli.
Emma: same as Celeste
Aniyah: known as possible threat to the Program, so West monitors the news for her.
Juno: West's sister, and superior. He despises her.

JUNO IVANOV, Program head

West: Juno's brother, and subordinate. She likes him just fine, doesn't trust him farther than she can throw him.
No personal relations with any of the others. What happens is just business.

MISSION, captive biological super

No relations. Completely isolated. The key to the Program.

UPDATED: Characters, Power Notes, Plot, Character Relationships

COMING UP NEXT: What is the Program? How do they determine the ENTIRE plot? Can I ever come up with a better name for it? TUNE IN TOMORROW (or eventually) FOR MORE DETAILS.

jk I posted what I had just now but I'll edit it up all nice tomorrow lol

Below: VERY rough guidelines as to how The Program works. I will brainstorm better names later, and edit/ format this later.

-hires college students for work pay and scholarships, makes them sign a contract for [determine amount of time, probably through college] (this is to get them hooked)
-gives students pill/serum/whatever that bestows them their powers. Origins unknown, and not really necessary. Suspension of belief. Powers are often reflected in personalities of the person.
-important: pills/serum is addictive. Need to be taken once a week, sometimes more. An excellent way to create the workers needed and then have control over them, force them to become dependent upon The Program. If someone acts out- deprive them, make them crawl back to The Program; give them a different sort of dosage that makes their powers "go on the fritz" and possibly injure them/ endanger them in battle, even flat out kill them. These pills are the basis on which the Program runs. The Program also won't hesitate to blackmail by threatening loved ones, taking hostages, etc, if needed.
-when students start out, they are involved in mere publicity and promotional activities for large companies that sponsor them/ hire them out through the program. If a company needs something destroyed illegally with no strings attached- villain. If a company needs protection from a villain- hero. If a company simply wants promotion through a hero's words or a staged fight on their premises, with the company name thrown around a whole lot- both.
-As students get more and more invested in the Program and prove their worth, their assignments grow in difficulty and in danger, as well as in sinister intentions. The villains tend to realize this earlier than the heroes, and are often tempted to leave first (and thus, punished and/or killed off first, but who cares if a few villains die?)

Ultimate motives will be added later in a different spoiler.

Quick note for today, but tbh I feel like "the Program" is just fine for a superhero kind of story, plus it's like vaguely threatening? If you don't like that as the official name - since it's not very official - you could always drop in a line like "it had a name, but everyone had called it 'the Program' forever, and most didn't realize that it was called anything else." That way readers know "the Program" isn't its *real* name but you get like a get-out-of-jail free card and a nice pass on actually naming it.

Plus I'm thinking of Beauty Queens, which is full of shady references to "the Corporation," which has no other name. It's not a superhero story, but in some books I def think that kind of vagueness can work, and I think this is one of them.

That's a really good point, @BlueAfrica. I do think that it seems kind of sinister as is, but I would think it would need to have a better public title, especially for when it's passing as simply a promotional company. I may end up going with that "everyone just calls it" line. Thank you!

Just gonna say, I love the idea of just calling it "the Program," even if it does have a more official name that no one uses. And all of this planning sounds so delightfully sinister.

I think I'll end up going with that, then. Thanks for the feedback, you two. And thanks, @Mea! It's hilarious to me... I started out thinking this was going to be a light-hearted rom-com action thing, and now it is getting to be very, very dark...

Setting Notes

Ohio! Dark Midwest vibes! Many of the chars are hailing from suburbia, coming to the city for college. Main college is probably going to be based off of OSU-esque thing, a large, city-based university with access to tall buildings, alleyways, businesses- allows for the classic superhero story vibe while still being in Ohio.

Edgewood University, in Bluford, OH (fictional names, for the time being).

Random Notes:

•I want to emphasize on the lesser-known diversity of Columbus/ Ohio cities: religiously diverse (mosques, temples, churches), Somali immigrants/ refugees, Chinese populations, large African American group, general second-generation teenagers, LGBTQ+ population, great diversity in food all over! obviously less diverse in the rural communities, but in my experience, though predominantly white, there's a great mixture of all people in the cities and suburbs
•University: sprawling through the city, students walk to their classes, underclassmen live in dorms, can get apartments or commute as well. (Eli, Atlas and Seb- dorm. Celeste and Emma- apartment.)
•I'm fairly certain that we'll be traveling to Aniyah's home town in the Time of Trial so. Hmhmhm, tbd
•What could be fun: driving thru stereotypical corn/ soy fields, hiding in farm houses, dodging through the fences of surburbs where all the houses look the same (Ohio aesthetic). idk if there could be an opportunity for them to be randomly transported to either a different dimension or different part of the world to have some fun with wild, unrealistic settings, but idk. I want this to be dark and somewhat??? realistic but also have that funky superhero vibe where anything can happen and nothing's quite safe.
•Random aesthetics/ visuals I love: traditional Chinese architecture, culture, etc; ancient Greek ruins the overlook the sea, salt water hovering in the air, community dogs roaming in packs; European cities that are so cramped and tight and filled with winding passages and hidden doors that every corner seems filled with magic; the red/ orange sprawling landscape of Arizona/ Nevada, cacti and other sharp creatures, where the clouds are the only thing that are soft in a harsh, bright sky.

Supersuit/Combat Outfit Designs

Contains spoilers but so does almost everything else so read at your own risk I guess

***Note! All Program-sanctioned suits have a space for the communication device on the wrist- allows Program to track and communicate with the supers. Looks similar to a Smartwatch-esque screen embedded into the suit, can be used as actual watch during everyday activities. Can text, call agents.

• ELI:
Clean, steam-lined look: practical, simple skin-tight black breathable mesh-type material with white designs (runs from shoulders and along torso, along thighs) with a full face mask. No skin showing; guards for the eyes, more open material for the ears, nose, mouth to allow breathing, speaking, hearing. Material is plasma-resistant- can still burn but protects him from would-be lethal blasts for at least a few hits. Works with his power- allows him to comfortably become intangible and phase through objects and people and remain clothed when he reemerges.
• ATLAS:
I'm thinking something black, sinister, with orange accents to emphasize his pyro powers and villain status. It would have to be completely fireproof but still allow the flames to erupt from his skin and run along his body for full ignition. Perhaps the orange accents also double as lines along which the flames can run and ignite, allowing him to have control but still let the suit remain functional. ***Note- this suit is taken away from him after he is blacklisted by the Program. After that, he dresses as he normally would. No more supersuits for him- he is Revenant, and he will hide no longer. (Besides, he can't use his powers anymore, anyway.)
• SEB:
no suit, no mask, normal civilian clothing.
• CELESTE/ EMMA:
Their suits are responsible for harnessing their powers- otherwise, they can injure themselves. The suits channel the ionic energy into openings in the wrists/ hands that allow the girls to create plasma force fields and blasts. It also prevents the plasma from burning their skin through protective material across the wrists/ palms (similar to Eli's suit's material). Appearance: I feel like it would need to be something obnoxiously positive, heroic-looking (which would drive Celeste absolutely up the wall and she would HATE it, while Emma would tolerate it but pray that no one ever found out it was her). Bright colors, probably... Yellow? Pink? Teal? overly dramatic cape? Goggles? Mask would need to cover their hair I think bc they have v different hair and need to pretend to be the same human so.
• ANIYAH:
Very modest and minimalist in dress, even in costume. Bullet proof vest with a long sleeved exercise (polyester) shirt over top- black shirt with green accents and a small patch of a cacti over the heart. Black exercise leggings. Running shoes. Mask that covers the forehead and eyes down to the top of her nose, but lets her hair be free and her mouth is exposed. Wears a small backpack with cacti on it to carry her Tesla car battery module, plus some additional portable chargers and batteries. She also stores a water bottle in the side pocket, but has to be VERY careful that it's sealed or, you know, risk of electrocution.
• JUNO, WEST, and MISSION do not have supersuits. West and Juno, however, wear bullet-proof vests and concealed weapons under their civilian garb at all times. They are both very fashionable. Mission wears hoodies, sweats, no shoes nearly all the time- but sometimes just a hospital gown, if it's a bad day.

OMG I DID NOT READ ALL OF THIS RN BUT YES TO ALL THE OHIO THINGS pls and thx waiting for the perfect moment to make my cameo

hahaha yAY I thought it was about time we get a Midwestern superhero novel