Aberrant: 200X - A New Idea (Input Please)

[Tempest]

So I was considering bringing Conner over from the 2019 boards and one of the big issues I had with characters this young was how does the world handle them? Things like school and social interaction all of a sudden become a huge issue and cannon has no real answer or response.

To that end I thought it would be cool if someone had createed a kind of private school for high school aged Novas. Now let me be clear. I have no intention of this idea becomeing the Nova version of the X-Men school. There is no secret underground base, and no danger room. It is intended to be a school that will allow young Novas to interact and socialize in a "regular" or "normal" setting while finishing their high school educations.

The way I see it is the child of an insanly wealthy individual erupts with either lots of taint or enough physical mutations that make attending a normal school environment quite difficult to impossible. The parent, wanting the best for their child decides after much frustration, to found the school. That is the roughest of rough sketches.

Of course there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. Which is why I'm bringing this up here. This is a shared world and if this is to exist in it then I want as many people to be cool with it as possible. So here are someof the questions I can up with

1. Where is it located?

I'm not really sure where it should be put. I was thinking somewhere in North America simply because that is what I am familiar with but I can't really think of a good location. pretty much any community it ends up being close to is probably not going to be all that comfortable with a school full of adolescent Novas just around the corner. However if I locate it somewhere too isolated it drags in a whole other group of logistical questions to answer and risks the idea becomming too "comic booky."

2. What is Utopia's reaction to the school?

I see both a good and a bad reaction. Utopia has taken a few hits in the recent past and supporting the school could give the project a positive image boost. That said, Utopia has this nasty habit of trying to control as many Novas as it can so it could try to be pretty heavy handed with the school and propaganda could be very high as well. Then there is Proteus. There is a good chance that Thetis would see the school as nothing more than a good recruitment pool for the project and thus try to influence it to that ends.

3. What is The Teregen's Response?

I see some groups absolutely hating this idea (namely NV, The Primacy and Leviathan's crew) and some goups seeing value in supporting such a school (Raoul, The Mathematician and the Apothecary) other than that I don't really know what the overall reaction or "party line" would be.

4. What is The Directive's Response?

As allways the Directive would keeps it's mouth shut and bug everything in sight. More than likely some member of the staff would be a plant for the Directive to keep a well informed eye on what is going on.

5. How many students can the school handle?

I figure the school would be initially set up to handle between 10 to 20 students at most. This means the campus doesn't need to be huge.

6. What is the Baseline/Nova ratio in the faculty?

I don't know. I was thinking there would be at least a couple but I haven't given this much thought. What I did figure was that the founder would be looking for teching credentals over super powers.

7. How does this mess around with Cannon (like Tn2M)?

I don't know....

8. What other questions should I be asing?

So what do you guys think? Is this a plausible addition to the world or does it suck?

[Adrian Moss]

Okay, why isn't this totally a Utopian response? Seriously, they already have the facilities and the goals of educating young novas. Why would parents put their own money and expenses toward something that PU is will to do for free?

That being said, I like the idea. I suggest it be founded by an independent nova with a reason to mistrust novas. I suggest Doc Aeon (with hopefully a telegenic nova to recruit the kids.

Now, what would be the purspose of this? It could be money. Young novas can have a lot of it, but would this cover the cost of the equipment needed to train them (A machine that allows a M-Str.5 kid weight train is probably extremely high). Then there are field trips into space.

I think you have much of the reactions right on. Maybe one of the nova instructors worked for Proteus (I like the Medical Doctor being the mole). I suggest somewhere out in the Western United States, miles away from major air routes and human neighbors.

More when I can think of it.

[Tempest]

Originally Posted By: Adrian Moss

Okay, why isn't this totally a Utopian response? Seriously, they already have the facilities and the goals of educating young novas. Why would parents put their own money and expenses toward something that PU is will to do for free?

Two reasons, one IC and one OOC. The OOC reason is mainly beacuse Utopia is a pariah around here. How many characters are Utopians on this board? How many would willingly have their character's go to a Utopian run school?

IC is a similar reason. Many extremely wealthy people aren't going to want their children to be tools of propaganda for Utopia. A privately funded school that accepts help (And cash donations) from Utopia is far more likely to appeal to those individuals than a Utopian propaganda school.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

I can see this getting a lot of public backlash and support from differing baseline points of view, and I think you should play that up.

Support - It's safer to have our kids separated from this super-powered people who can snap my poor baby like a twig over a carton of spilled milk.

Backlash - All you're doing is teaching these novas that they are better than normal people. They need to be around kids without powers so they understand what everyone is like.

My only OOC concern is that there aren't that many teenage novas that a full school is going to be a feasible operation. While the population is growing, the number of people who could afford this kind of private academy initially are going to be very slim, and those willing to go send their kids there is another factor.

Saying that, it would still probably work...but I'd really advise going against a student population of more than 20 at any given time.

[Adrian Moss]

I was thinking ten to twelve, but twenty would be nice.

[Warren Verona]

Originally Posted By: Tempest

So I was considering bringing Conner over from the 2019 boards and one of the big issues I had with characters this young was how does the world handle them? Things like school and social interaction all of a sudden become a huge issue and cannon has no real answer or response.

To that end I thought it would be cool if someone had created a kind of private school for high school aged Novas. Now let me be clear. I have no intention of this idea becoming the Nova version of the X-Men school. There is no secret underground base, and no danger room. It is intended to be a school that will allow young Novas to interact and socialize in a "regular" or "normal" setting while finishing their high school educations.

A fine idea, providing it doesn't turn into what you already mentioned it wouldn't.

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1. Where is it located?

A large city or any capitol city of any state should be fine. Placing it in the middle of nowhere, you're right, would draw negative attention.

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2. What is Utopia's reaction to the school?

Negative - They get pissed because someone is doing what they are doing, ushering in new novas and helping them adjustto their powers... this later leads to the founding of 'Teen Tomorrow' where you can send your kids' mind to fucked by professionals, not small town hacks with a large budget.

Positive - Proteus likes it, thus Utopia lays off. It's far easier to study and recruit novas when you know exactly where to find them... and young minds are so easily swayed, not to mention innocent souls are simply delicious.

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3. What is The Teregen's Response?

"Who gives a shit? As a member of the One Race if you wanna go to school there, go, who's gon tell you 'no'? If those baselines give you any trouble... you just holla lil man, kay?"

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4. What is The Directive's Response?

"A surveilence team is nearby sir, 24/7. They can't even wipe without us knowing which ply toilet paper they use."

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5. How many students can the school handle?

I agree with no more than 20.

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6. What is the Baseline/Nova ratio in the faculty?

Unless it's charity work, I doubt they'd have the funding for a nova teacher. Abby is very clear that novas are greedy fuckers and expect far more than their asses are worth. Just because the founder is wealthy doesn't mean they can afford Resources 4 paychecks.

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7. How does this mess around with Cannon (like Tn2M)?

It doesn't. Canon doesn't touch base on this, so I see it as an original idea.

[Mr Fox]

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Unless it's charity work, I doubt they'd have the funding for a nova teacher. Abby is very clear that novas are greedy fuckers and expect far more than their asses are worth. Just because the founder is wealthy doesn't mean they can afford Resources 4 paychecks.

They might have one or two. Teachers as a profession don't make a whole lot of money and a great many go into the job idealistic and gungho to make a difference in the world.

(I started out as a teacher straight out of college working for one of the lowest paying districts in the State. All of my friends were starting out around 15 to 20K more per year than me in IT. I it took 3 grueling years before the idealism was crushed out of my soul and I decided to go work with computers instead of snot nosed little ingrates.)

Point is that if a teacher happened to erupt into a nova they might still have that idealistic streak and work for far less than their peers if the job feels rewarding to them. So it's possible they might have a nova teacher or two. On the other hand all of the baseline teachers would probably have doctorates. High end for a teacher pay wise even with a Doctorate is pretty low compared to other professions.
For example a teacher with 28 years of experience and a Masters degree in Lewisville ISD one of the highest paying districts in Texas makes 64K a year. That's not a bad salary, but that's at the end of a long career when you've hit the top of your profession. A decent computer programmer with a 5 years of experience could make that much easy. So expect a choice position like working with nova children to be highly sought after regardless of the pay.

PS. Despite how much I think teaching sucks, there were some aspects of the job I enjoyed and even found rewarding, but between the politics, favoritism, and cliches among the teachers and the ungrateful disregard you get from the students, I would not go back to it again unless I had no other choice.

[Juri 'Salamander' McClendon]

Originally Posted By: Adrian Moss

I was thinking ten to twelve, but twenty would be nice.

Well...I was thinking along that line as well, but I didn't want to sound like the buzz-kill.

[Warren Verona]

Originally Posted By: Mr Fox

Point is that if a teacher happened to erupt into a nova they might still have that idealistic streak and work for far less than their peers if the job feels rewarding to them.

Like I said... unless it's charity work. To forgo what your actually worth and work for far less because you feel you'll make a difference or just to 'help someone out'.

[Mr Fox]

Yep, I had that mentality once... then I decided to get a real job, one with financial rewards and far less stress.