Following her departure from The Super Patriots, Inc., Velveteen spent several years living paycheck to paycheck in the California Bay Area before moving to Portland, Oregon to pursue a possible employment opportunity. She was accosted at the Oregon border by The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, but managed to enter Oregon before she could be apprehended. She was granted a superhero license by the governor, and became the official hero of Portland.
Since then, Velveteen has demonstrated the ability to adapt her powers to a wide variety of situations, and seems to have finally accepted that she is more than just a support hero. Do not approach without good cause.
Default costume: Brown/burgundy leotard, brown tights, burgundy boots and gloves. Brown bunny ears on a headband. Assorted toys and dolls for animation.
Known alternate versions: Roadkill, supervillain, Earth C-5; Marionette, supervillain, Earth B-1; Marionette, anti-hero, Earth B-2.
YELENA “SPARKLE BRIGHT/POLYCHROME” BATZDORF
Assessed power level 3
Age: Twenty-four.
Age at time of power discovery: Eleven.
Appearance: Polychrome is a Caucasian female, approximately 5'9", with blue eyes and short blonde hair. As Sparkle Bright, she wore her hair long and was rarely seen without makeup.
Power set: Photon manipulation, including self-powered flight, and basic construction of light-based illusions. She has shown the potential to create much more advanced illusions than she has demonstrated thus far in the field.
Profile: Sparkle Bright/Polychrome was acquired as a corporate asset shortly before her twelfth birthday, and proved to be an excellent subject. With the proper grooming and coaching techniques, she was trained to become a team leader, and filled this position with all apparent willingness until she came into contact with her former teammate, Velveteen, who had at one time been her closest friend.
It is unclear what gave Sparkle Bright/Polychrome the strength to resist her conditioning, but she began violating rules, carefully at first, and then with increasing boldness, until she left her position to join Velveteen in Oregon. Approach only with caution. She appears to hold a grudge against the corporation as a whole.
Default costume: Black body suit with rainbow sash.
JACKIE FROST
Assessed power level 3
Age: Unknown.
Age at time of power discovery: Unknown.
Appearance: Jackie Frost is a blue-skinned humanoid with white hair, blue eyes, and a tendency to glow softly in low light. She is approximately 5'10." Her ears are pointed, as fits her general “Christmas” theme.
Power set: Elemental control and creation of ice. Immunity to cold. Travel through “magic mirrors,” a designation which does not yet have a firm definition.
Profile: Jackie Frost is the daughter of Jack Frost and the Snow Queen, current guardians of the Winter. Efforts to convince her parents that she would benefit from membership in The Junior Super Patriots have resulted in all of Marketing receiving large amounts of coal on Christmas for the past several years (see Profile: Santa Claus for more information). She has thus been allowed to grow up without the tempering influence of other superhumans to balance out her naturally abrasive personality.
Jackie is impulsive, unpredictable, and a close friend of Velveteen’s. Recent events have indicated that she is being groomed to eventually become one of the protectors of the Winter Country. It is unclear whether this is something Jackie is actually interested in doing.
Default costume: Varies from appearance to appearance, but is always essentially a blue and white ice skating uniform. Jackie does not wear a mask.
Known alternate versions: Snow Princess, superhero, Earth C-5; Frostbite, supervillain, Earth B-1; Jacqueline Claus, superhero, Earth B-2.
CARRABELLE “THE PRINCESS” MILLER
Assessed power level 4
Age: Twenty-three.
Age at time of power discovery: Eleven.
Appearance: The Princess is a woman of average height, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and abnormally clear skin. She is generally regarded as being very attractive, although this may be a function of her powers.
Power set: The Princess possesses a variable power pool of all abilities assigned by the little girls of the world to their ideal fairy tale princess. She has reliably demonstrated the ability to talk to woodland creatures, command birds, animate vegetables, talk to furniture, shrug off supposedly mortal wounds, sing enemies to sleep, break glass with high notes, find her way out of supposedly infinite mazes, and never smear her makeup.
Profile: The Princess’s powers activated during a visit to a popular theme park, triggering a musical number which swelled to involve 90% of the park guests and employees before reaching a crescendo. Birds flocked to her side, and the park’s management offered her an immediate contract. She currently resides in the Crystal Glitter Unicorn Cloud Castle, an impenetrable fortress constructed outside the boundaries of reality as we know it.
The Princess is polite to a fault, something which most people attribute to her Southern upbringing, combined with her position as conduit of the world’s children. Her attachment to Velveteen and Jackie Frost is really the only questionable thing about her.
Default costume: The Princess frequently goes into combat wearing impractical ball gowns which do not seem to impede her movement in the slightest. She is one of the only known heroines who actually prefers to fight in heels.
Known alternate versions: Vamprincess, superhero, Earth E-9.
TAD “TAG” SINCLAIR
Assessed power level 3/informed power level 2
Age: Twenty-five.
Age at time of power discovery: Eight
Appearance: Tag is a Caucasian male of average height and weight, with brown hair and blue eyes. He does not display any visible deviation from the human norm.
Power set: Semi-autonomous animation of graphic representations of persons and animals, including minor transformation to grant access to speciesappropriate weaponry. No known secondary powers.
Profile: Originally “Graffiti Boy,” Tag was acquired as a corporate asset following discovery by his second grade art teacher that he could bring chalk drawings to “life.” Early examination showed his power levels to be limited only by the resources available to him, although he has difficulty maintaining multiple manifestations for long periods of time. Because of this, Tag is the only known animus to be officially classed as a level three hero. He is listed in all publicity material as a level two support hero, maintaining the corporate policy regarding animus.
Tag integrated well with The Junior Super Patriots, Midwest Division, but was dismissed due to abuse of his powers (see Tag: Dismissal Report for details). He worked temporarily under the name “Street Art” before settling on the name “Tag.”
Default costume: Black body suit, utility belt, domino mask.
Current status: Missing, presumed dead.
VICTORIA “VICTORY ANNA” COGSWORTH
Power level pending assessment
Age: Unknown.
Age at time of power discovery:Unknown.
Appearance: Victory Anna is short, standing only 5'2", with red hair which is customarily worn in sausage curls, blue eyes, and freckled skin. She has never been seen in what would be considered “street clothes.”
Power set: Victory Anna is a gadgeteer of currently unmeasured potential. Anything she can conceive, she can construct, and anything she constructs will probably begin trying to kill you in short order.
Profile: Originally from an alternate world where superpowers began appearing in the population during the Victorian era, Victory Anna was propelled into the multiverse following an unfortunate accident involving a broken time machine and a blackcurrant trifle. She became stranded in a transitory world for the next four years, where she established herself as an ally of the local supervillain community and entered a relationship with Polychrome, that world’s version of Sparkle Bright. She would probably have stay
ed there indefinitely, had the world not ended, resulting in her being propelled into Earth A.
Victory Anna is currently sharing a home with Velveteen, and seems to be quite bitter about the entire situation, although she has emerged on the side of the heroes in this dimension. Only time will tell if this continues to be the case.
Default costume: Victory Anna seems to have a limitless supply of what she calls “adventuring clothes,” and is never seen in the same outfit twice. She favors corsets, Victorian hunting jackets, impractical boots, and very small hats, to offset her very large guns.
APPENDIX B:
RELEVANT TEAM ROSTERS
The Super Patriots, Original Lineup:
Majesty: Flight, super-strength, invulnerability.
Jolly Roger: Magical hero, “pirate themed” powers.
Supermodel: Animus, control of others through manipulation of their life force.
Dame Fortuna: Probability manipulation, officially redacted from most records.
The Super Patriots, West Coast Division, Current Lineup:
Action Dude: Flight, super-strength, invulnerability.
Sparkle Bright: Flight, photon manipulation, photonic camouflage (ability untrained). DEPARTED
Uncertainty: Probability control.
Imagineer: Technopath.
Mechamation: Technopath.
Jack O’Lope: Spirit of the American West.
The Junior Super Patriots, West Coast Division, Current Lineup:
Handheld: Technopath, machine control, team leader.
Swallowtail: Flight, energy protection.
The Bedbug: Energy projection, insect communication.
Super-Cool: Limited invulnerability, super-strength, and flight. DECEASED
The Nanny: Weather control, limited flight. Apex: Flight, super-speed. DECEASED
Mischief (formerly “the Candy Sisters”): Candy-themed matter manipulation. DEPARTED
The Fairy Tale Girls:
Snow Wight: Phasing through solid matter, nightmare generation, limited flight.
Rose Dead: Phasing through solid matter, possession, limited flight.
Rampion: Prehensile hair.
Beauty: Shapeshifting (dire wolf form).
Brittle Red: Matter generation, specific type: weaponry.
Cinder: Glass-themed matter manipulation and control.
VELVETEEN VS. THE MULTIVERSE
August 2013
Velveteen vs. The Multiverse by Seanan McGuire was published by ISFiC Press, 725 Citadel Ct., Des Plaines Illinois, 60016. One thousand copies have been printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The typeset is Berthold Baskerville, Comicraft Atomic Wedgie, Comicraft Atomic Wedgie Outline, and ITC Kabel Ultra printed on 60# Nature’s Natural. The binding cloth is Arrestox B Blue. Design and typesetting by Garcia Publishing Services, Woodstock, Illinois.
Seanan McGuire, Velveteen vs. The Multiverse
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