Young Writers Society

So, this version of Jean/the X-Men does exist in a world with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Dr Strange, even the Fantastic Four (basically all of the MCU heroes). Captain Marvel is actually pretty integral to Rogue’s origin, but of course the Fox movies could never use that. While the versions would be slightly different from the MCU, it’d be fun to play off Jean knowing them with @Magebird’s character being a fan of the MCU.

Especially since Wolverine knew/fought with Captain America back in the day, which means your character is two degrees of separation from Steve.

Also, the main thing that would be fun to play off of is that the Marvel animated universe was basically a version of the MCU, but set in the 90s instead.

Edit: @GrandWild I was typing this as you were. It doesn’t directly answer your question but I think something good we could incorporate as we go forward.

@Elinor, I have no idea how in-character it would be for Jean to geek out about a character, so I'm currently imagining Jean and Alex having at least one conversation where they're admiring/respecting other Marvel characters in a stoic kind of way.

(Meanwhile, Jason would probably be like ! when he recognizes a few of the names.)

And @GrandWild, I'm cool with a fleshed out plot or a skeleton one! It's good having specific plot points in mind so we have something to work towards, but I'm also a big fan of improvisation, too. Maybe we can figure out fun scenes we'd like to include and go from there?

@Magebird for sure! You and @Elinor are actually off to a great start there!

@Magebird I’m not sure if she would geek out perse, but I think there are certain people she’d have respect/admiration for that she doesn’t have a personal relationship with. (Ie, she respects Professor X, but he’s been her mentor/teacher for years).

The X-Men don’t interact much with the rest of the MCU, mostly because there’s a really interesting divide insofar as how the public views mutants vs people who get their powers later on. The one exception to that is the Fantastic Four, and I think she’d get along well with Sue in particular.

I think she wouldn’t have much of a strong opinion on the main, phase 1 Avengers, but overall it would be positive.

I can see her admiring/revering Doctor Strange.

On the flip side, Carol Danvers would be a sore subject because of how Rogue put her in a coma and took her powers, and she cares for/is protective of Rogue.

Also, she’s canonically good friends with Janet Van Dyne (ie the original Wasp), but in her timeline, they’re contemporaries, so it’s be interesting to play off Janet being old eno if h to be her mother as per the MCU timeline.

I’ll try to think on it more, but those are the main things that came to mind.

Ooh, good to know! I have a decent grasp on the MCU's characters and the ones that come after them (like Ms. Marvel and Miles Morales's Spider-Man) but the X-Men is one group of heroes that I don't know too much about outside of the mutant vs. nonmutant prejudice.

I think figuring out a few scenes is a good way to go!

Also this is completely unrelated, but in one of our physics lectures today, we got to analyze the train stopping scene in Spider-Man 2 and I thought that was a wonderful coincidence

That's so cool! Did y'all come to a conclusion? Cuz the PS4 video game roasted that scene so hard.

Did any of the rest of ya have some scenes in mind?

Not in particular. Firstly, though, how do our characters end up in this portal? The X-Men rarely, if ever go on missions alone. When they do break off, they always use at least a buddy system, so it'd be interesting to play off how she gets separated from Scott/the rest of the X-Men.

And I'm also presuming we end up in the main MCU timeline?

Luckily, the X-Men already live in New York, and time travel is an accepted thing in that universe, so those things won't be as much of a shock. It'd be fun to play with moments where the Phoenix does come out?

Also, her and Scott have a psychic link where they can communicate with each other, I'm wondering if that would be cut off because she's on a different universe.

X-Men: The Audio Drama is also fantastic.

The animated series is awesome, by the way, and it's on Disney+. If people want I'm down to organize watches of certain episodes using the watch party feature. Same goes for any of your shows/movies, but I'm familiar with pretty much all of those.

So it's kinda up to y'all how you find your ways into this portal.

@Elinor yes, we'll be in the main MCU timeline, perhaps a few days after Peter Parker is outed by Mysterio. It would be really interesting to see how Phoenix and Scott end up communicating, if at all! I would guess that an interdimensional link would be difficult to maintain but I leave that to your discretion since I'm not as well-versed in the X-Men.

If y'all would like me to write up a post so you can get an idea of how we'll be introducing our characters, I can do that as well.

@GrandWild If you wanted to write up a first post, that would be great.

Scott and Jean can pretty much connect with each other wherever they are, and they've never fully been disconnected. There are times when their connection has been weaker, but they've never been on opposite worlds, as far as I know.

I think I'd like to play with her maybe being able to sense him very weakly. For example, if he's in pain or in danger, so is she. Or if she can't sleep or has a nightmare, it's because he did.

Also, if this is a world without mutants, that would be very interesting.

I actually just thought of something. The Scarlet Witch, of course, has always been a mutant and the daughter of Magneto, and in the show Professor X helps her and Quicksilver reunite with their father. So that could be another point of connection for the characters that only know the MCU timeline- ie, of course they know Scarlet Witch, but not that she's a mutant.

Considering this world doesn't know what mutants are, it'd be very interesting to see Jean interact with a world where she doesn't face any sort of prejudice.

I mean, these characters are very well known, so I think if they're superhero fans they would at least know Cyclops, Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto, etc, even if they only know names, faces, and that mutants were born with their powers.

I feel like if the average person knows anyone is Wolverine, and that would be interesting for Jean since she has a... complicated relationship with him, to say the least.

This video is a little bit on the longer side, but it’s a really good overview and if I’m going to be writing for Jean I’d really appreciate if you each took the time to watch it before we start. Considering I have a base understanding of all of your characters, it’d be nice if we were on the same page.

@Elinor, thanks for the video recommendation! I'll add that video to my watch later playlist and check it out when I get a chance. In the meantime, the little background knowledge have + skimming wiki pages should hopefully help me out.

And @GrandWild, a first post from you before anyone else goes sounds great to me! Depending on when you post it, I should be able to get a post up with Jason and Alex pretty soon afterwards—I'll just have to come up with a fun way to shove the two of them through a portal.

@Magebird I'll get started on it right away!

First post is up!

Ahhh that's great! I'm working on a first post now, too. It's turning out to be a long one, so I apologize in advance. >>

Posted! I just realized how entertaining this roleplay is going to be if they need to use their actual names at any point. Jason probably has his wallet in his backpack right now, and I'm pretty sure all of his IDs would say Peter Parker on them.