THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWENTY SIX

And I just keep on going, even though technically, I failed the challenge.  Shouldn’t penalize RAINN for this, though.

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May (although it looks like, due to my depression, that said event will bleed into early June) , that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews and essays, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

ACE OF BLADES

Name: Zandra Wessex
Location: East St. Louis, IL
Occupation: Presently Between Jobs

The Four Aces patrolled the night in one of the roughest cities in the country.  They were successful, and were seen as a beacon of hope.  The four siblings, trained in martial arts from a very early age, enjoyed their lives and basked in the fame it afforded them.

But then Serpentine rolled into town led by their leader The Deathless Brain.  The Four Aces were just four young people; this crew had highly advanced weapons, super-powered thugs and a mastermind capable of possessing other people.  They were not prepared for this kind of fight.

This is the original Ace of Blades...

They fought hard, but they lost.  By the time the smoke had cleared, two Aces were dead, a third was commandeered by the Brain, and Zandra was in the hospital for a month.

When she recovered, she knew she had to elevate her game.  She carries the weapons of her brothers and sister in their memory and has been seeking out ways to make her on par with the monsters that were out there.  It has caused her to delve into some dark corners of this world...and she met a woman named Will who might find her something interesting....


Next: A certain Twisted Girl Next Store has agreed to take on the villainous role of the mirth-destroying KillJoy!

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWENTY FOUR AND TWENTY FIVE

Still trying to catch up here...and I should start writing the story soon (Expect it to be very...Christopher Priest).

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May (although it looks like, due to my depression, that said event will bleed into early June) , that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  Please donate here.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews and essays, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

DAY 24-ATMOS FEAR

Name: Molly Haines
Location: Memphis, TN
Occupation: Performance Artist

Molly Haines needed to create.  She needed to comment on the world around her, connect with the masses.  She strove to communicate the way the world was broken.

She was not very good at it.  And her lack of success frustrated her.

Molly struggled for years presenting her work, feeling humiliated at the odd jobs she had to take to keep her head above water.

But then there was the incident.  She doesn’t remember much save for making her way back home and bright multicolored lights and the smell of rotting strawberries and nicotine.  She remembers waking up in a military hospital....and being surrounded by a curious mist.

A mist that allowed her to manipulate the emotions of those around her. 

It allowed her to leave the place before they tried any experimentation on her.  It allowed her to get things she needed without worrying about money.  It allowed her to get a satisfying revenge on those employers and co-workers who treated her badly. 

And it’s going to allow her to reach her audience with her message...whether they want to or not.

DAY 25-WILL O’THE WISP
Name: Wilhemina Joanna Carter
Location: In-Between Worlds
Occupation: Procurer of Stuff

One of the Great Secrets of the Universe is that there are many different versions of the world.  Every time there is a major shift in history, another divergence happens that creates an Earth that can be as different as to be a different planet altogether.  There are versions of Earth which have created entirely new kinds of tech, new materials and new advances in science.

And if you know Will O’The Wisp, you can get your hands on some of this other-worldly stuff.

According to Wilhemina Joanna Carter, she was born ‘out of continuity,’ not tethered to any one Earth.  This allowed her to travel between the different realities of the ‘MegaDimensional Matrix’ freely.   She spent her teen years exploring the different versions of Earth and discovered something...

Every version of Earth has something another version needs.

So as she grew into her 20‘s, she began her own business.  Wilhemina can be contacted through the Dark Web and can get you anything for a rather large fee...although that fee can be discounted in exchange for a favor, like hijacking a refrigerated tractor trailer truck and filling it with ice for her (There’s one Earth that’s going through a severe drought, you see, and she can get a good price for potable water...)

Some people opine that Will O’The Wisp is a criminal, but she would argue otherwise.  To her, she’s a businesswoman who is providing a very specific service no one else can.  And that suits her fine!

Next: When only the Ace of Blades is left, what will she do?

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#613

We’ve got an old-fashioned potpourri episode this week.  First up, Des and Duane dive into the diabolical anthology A Taste of Phobia.  Then Rich The Monster Movie Kid investigates the latest entry in the Conjuring Universe (although you wouldn’t know it from the trailers), The Curse of La Llorona!

The trailers are below, as is an artist’s rendition of various phobias, a primer on the real La Llorona myth and a song about the Weeping Woman.

Listen to Dread Media #613 here

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWENTY THREE

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May, that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews and essays, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Special thanks to Diana Prince, best known to horror fans as Darcy, The Mail Girl on Shudder’s The Last Drive-In with Joe-Bob Briggs.  In a fit of inspiration, I asked her if I could use her name for one of the characters and....well, here we are!  If you’ve got Shudder, please tune in tomorrow for the last episode of Season One (which I expect is going to feature one of my all-time favorites, Prom Night II: Hello, Mary Lou.  There’s hints she might even cosplay as the great Mary Lou Maloney, which gives me strange thoughts...lol).  And follow her at @kinky_horror on Twitter to learn what’s going on!  If The Maybe-Not-So-Good-Doctor ever appears in visual media, it’s Diana who should play her....

Please enjoy, and please donate.

DR. MERCY

Name: Diana Prince
Location: Amarillo, TX
Occupation: Medical Visionary...at least that’s what she says....

Nobody understood Diana Prince’s vision.  In medical school, she was uniformly mocked by her fellow students and ultimately expelled for violating the rules in her quest for scientific and medical truth.

But there were outcasts before who achieved glory, modern Promethi who were proved right in the long run.  Diana was determined to be one of them.

She reached out to various questionable types to finance her research, agreeing to provide medical services to them in exchange.  She focused on the unexpected benefits of these arrangements--a surprising access to willing test subjects hoping to become parahuman (or unwilling ones foisted on her as punishment), materials that wouldn’t be considered safe for experimentation, utter privacy....

And there was some of the experimentation she did on herself.  There were the cybernetic hands that made her instruments a part of her.  There were nanofluids running through her veins that gave her an incredibly accelerated healing factor.  She is always looking to improve on her physical form so that she will finally show humanity the true path to being Perfect....

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE: THE LOST DAYS

You’ll start seeing the podcasts again shortly.  As you know, I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

And speaking of catching up...

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May, that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body and trying to introduce the words 'consensual rape' to justify their attempts to turn women into property, we need to support organizations like this.

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews, essays, and the upcoming Cinematic Mirage: The Theater of Movies That Don't Exist and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

Graphic courtesty of  zsuzsanna1987

DAY 17-THE GREY LADY
Name: Ambrosia Wright
Location: Mobile, mainly London
Occupation: Savior of Queen and Country

Ambrosia Wright, former SAS officer, is the latest woman to take on the identity of The Grey Lady, Special Protector of The Crown.  An identity created after World War I, The Grey Lady was designed to address the increasing proliferation of parahuman beings in the world.  She has had a hand in turning back a number of major superhuman crisis both in the U.K. and around the world, backed up by a secret organization code named Oberon which supplies her with the technology that allows her to be a heavy hitter in the parahuman community.

Ambrosia, who is of Indian descent, is the first Grey Lady of color...which has caused some controversy amongst those associated with Oberon.  This has caused Ambrosia to be more...show-offish and outspoken than previous holders of the title.  She has the support of the Royal Family and the immediate staff of Oberon.  But there are forces to want to take the title back....and they may use less-than-legitimate means to do so.

Graphics courtesy of HighlightmanSR

DAY 18-CAIRO JONES
Name: Probably not Cairo Jones
Location: Boston, MA
Occupation: Paranormally-Appointed Cleaner

When the Beings we once worshiped as Gods in ancient times decided it was time to leave, they knew there were things that needed to be taken care of--some of their own who wouldn’t go willingly, cursed or blessed objects that needed to be disposed of...and creatures that were mutated into monsters in fits of pique or to teach some mortal a lesson.  So they appointed one woman to be their representative on Earth and tasked her with the job of removing all traces of their presence on Earth.  These beings gifted her with knowledge and abilities known only to them and then left.

This woman has been devoted to this task ever since.  She has taken on different names and identities throughout history.  Legends have built up around her, and she has quietly fed and exaggerated them to hide behind so she can work without much attention.  If there’s something weird going on--you might find her at your doorstep.

DAY 19-X OF THE UNDERGROUND
Name: Long abandoned
Location: Everywhere and Nowhere
Occupation: Goddess of the Future

The woman who would become X--

nO i Do nOt tHiNk i WiLl lEt yOu

But the people have the right to know about you, about your--

tHey WiLl KnOw WhEn I wAnT tHeM tO kNoW wHeN iT iS tImE fOr ThE uNiFiCaTiOn Of ThEiR wOrLd AnD mInE tHeY wIlL kNoW eVeRyThInG tHeY wIlL bE tAuGht HoW tO TrAnScEnD aNd ReAcH tHe NiRvAnA oF tHe NeXt LeVeL

 You’re making this sound all scary and ominous

WhY aM i TaLkInG tO yOu BeGoNe

YoU

YeS, yOu ReAdInG tHiS dRiVeL.

DoN’t Be AfRaID

YoU aRe On ThE cUsP oF a EvOlUtIon

I kNoW wHaT i SaId.  tHeRe iS aN eVoLuTiOn GoInG oN, aNd I aM hErE tO gUiDe YoU wIlL bEcOmE a NeW fOrM oF lIfE, a StAtE oF bEiNg UnLiKe AnY oTheR

I’vE lAiD tHe ClUeS aLl OvEr.  FiNd Me

AnD pRePaRe fOr GoDhOoD

Next: Pray you don’t show up in the surgery of Dr. Mercy (played by a special guest familiar to certain Shudder fans!)

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWENTY TWO

I think I’ve given up trying to convince X Of The Underground to let me tell her tale.  She’ll be speaking to you directly in The Lost Days soon, along with write-ups for The Grey Lady and Cairo Jones.  I am planning on starting to record the podcasts for the last week or so tonight.

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May, that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews, essays, and the upcoming Cinematic Mirage (The Theater of Movies That Don't Exist) Project, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

...as if you didn't know this character is a love letter to Pam Grier...

LADY DYNAMITE AND HER RACKETEERS

Name: Donna Price
Location: Detroit, MI
Occupation: Social Worker

In the mid-70‘s, Detroit was patrolled by the two-fisted team of Lady Nitro and her teen sidekick Dyna Mite.  The two women kept the city safe during a turbulent time.

The duo disappeared into the aether during the 80‘s.  The girl who was Dyna Mite went into civilian life, got a Doctorate in Social Work and devoted her time to making her hometown a better place.

Things improved a little...but new problems arose.  There was a rise in gang activities.  She heard reports of criminal organizations like Serpentine coming in from out of town recruiting wayward teens to become low-level thugs.  She went to the authorities to try to get help to protect these at-risk youth, but was turned away.

Donna Price knew she was too old to go back to her career as a vigilante full on...

...but there were other things she could do.

If kids felt they needed a gang to be protected, she’d provide one.  She’d provide training, structure, a headquarters....and her ‘Racketeers’ would take back the street, acting as a civilian police force and acting as inspiration to the city.  And every once and a while, if Lady Dynamite shows up in support, well.....

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWENTY ONE

So X of The Underground is still resisting my efforts to tell her origins--she’d rather use the space as a platform for her manifesto--but The Lost Days are still forthcoming.  I intend to catch up on the mini-podcasts this week.

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May, that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

The visualization of today’s character is by Mel Cartagena.  Please follow his Instagram at @robopulpproductions!  If you’re an artist who wants to visualize one of the other characters in the Challenge, please contact me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja) or in the comments section below.

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews and essays, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

THE ELECTRIC RAY

Name: Stephanie Blaese
Location: San Diego, California
Occupation: Oceanographer

Stephanie, the daughter of a Filipino oceanographer and an American stuntman, learned to love the sea at an early age.  She frequently accompanied and helped her mother on expedition and studied a variety of sciences in school, determined to follow in her footsteps.  While working on her doctorate, Stephanie devised tech that allowed her to withstand the high pressure of the depths, benefit from enhanced mobility and even communicate with cetaceans.  Adding a special device to fire electrical bolts to the outfit, Stephanie began working with the Coast Guard to break up piracy and lawlessness on the Pacific Coast...and from time to time breaks up crimes on the mainland.

Next: Just because there’s some grey in Lady Dynamite’s ‘fro doesn’t mean she can kick back on crime with the help of her Racketeers.....

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWENTY

I know--I missed a couple of days due to my depression.  I have a post almost finished (X of The Underground is fighting me about her origin right now...but we’ll get to that) entitled The Lost Days which will make up that gap in time....but hopefully, we’ll be back to normal service for the rest of the month

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May, that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews essays, and the upcoming Patreon-Exclusive Cimatic Mirge program, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

THE UGLY SISTER

Names: Giselle and Gabriella Volk
Location: Presently mobile, mainly New York City, New York.
Occupation: Models and Serial Killers

The Volk sisters spent their entire life being told how beautiful and special they were...and they hated it.

They knew their own reality.  They knew that they were creatures of shadow, dark and twisted things made only to prey upon those lesser than them.  For the longest time they indulged their unholy thirsts in secret, luring the unwitting into the woods outside their home in Germany....

...until they accidentally lured one of their own kind.

It called itself The Deathless Brain and it offered the sisters something they needed--a way to express their true natures on the outside as well as on the inside.  They learned under it and, at its direction, began to trade on their beautiful shell as models so they could move freely around the world.  And all it asked was that, from time to time, they would slake their bloodthirst in its service.

The Volk sisters continue to hunt, continue to prey...only now, when they hunt, they are their true selves.  To the pitiful bags of meat they are ugly--but to themselves, they have never been more gloriously beautiful.

The Volks have the ability to tranformed into brutish creatures that seem partially mammalian, partially reptilian, with sharp claws, armored plating and mouthfuls of razor-sharp teeth.  They consider these forms to be their true forms, and the tall, leggy brunettes they present themselves as when in public as their ‘flesh masks.’

Next: The Electric Ray (and friends) fight for right on the oceans!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#612

Hope you like action with your science fiction, ‘cause this episode is....well, it’s actually pretty goofy.  Des and I review the thoroughly wacked out Soviet-made super-hero flick Guardians, which features a guy who turns into a giant fuck-off bear with a minigun and a logo they liked so much they used it twice!  Then Rich The Monster Movie Kid continues his vacation on Da Red Planet by visiting John Carpenter’s bonkers sci-fi kinda remake of Assault of Precinct 13 that started out as a Snake Plissken vehicle, Ghosts of Mars.

The trailers are below, as is a discussion of various international super-hero movies (and I can safely say we will be reviewing some of these in future episodes!), a discussion of what it would take for us to travel to Mars, and--just because--a Mars Volta video.

Listen to Dread Media #612 here

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY SIXTEEN

This event is to create 31 characters, one for every day in May, that will be featured in an upcoming project I’m working on tentatively called Strikeforce Liberty.   It is to raise money for RAINN (The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).  If you donate here, you will have the option to sponsor a character (the list of remaining names is below) or give me a name to create a character for.  In these times, where the Alt-Right is attacking a woman’s right to her own body, we need to support organizations like this.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  I made one of these podcasts available to the general public here.  If you’d like to hear all of these podcasts, get other exclusive goodies like reviews and essays, and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

This is a monster from a film called JANE DOE.
It's just a placeholder.

JANE DOE
Name: Inapplicable
Location: Mobile
Occupation: Predator

There are some people so isolated from regular society that they might as well not exist.  They become voids, and sink into the aether to die in obscurity.

But then there are some who find a way out of their isolation, who wreck havoc on others’ lives for before disappearing suddenly.

Those people aren’t people.  They are shells worn by the thing that is known as Jane Doe.

Jane Doe is an otherdimensional being who feeds off of and preys upon the despair and desperation of the extremely isolated and lonely.  It consumes its victims and wears their skins for a period of time.  It lives the life of the person it consumes, alters him or her and disrupts the society around it.  Sometimes to prolong the nourishment, it will kill someone close to that person.  Sometimes it will commit a massive and horrific act of violence and stalk the mourners of the slain.  It lives solely to sow grief and doubt amongst the cattle that make up humanity.

No one knows exactly what Jane Doe would look like outside of the flesh shells it lives inside.  But somebody is going to have to find out...or Jane Doe will go on forever.

Remaining List of Names

ACE OF BLADES
ATMOS FEAR
BLACK ANGEL
BULLFROG
CAIRO JONES
CEREBEX
ELECTRIC RAY
FACELESS PHANTOM
GREY LADY
LADY DYNAMITE AND THE RACKETEERS
SKELETON KEY
UGLY SISTERS
WHITE FLASH
WILL O’ THE WISP
X OF THE UNDERGROUND

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY FOURTEEN & FIFTEEN

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Guys, seriously--as we've seen in the last few days, there is a very enthusiastic branch of the alt-right declaring war on women's rights in states like Georgia and Alabama.  We need organizations like RAINN to help fight back against this movement to reduce women to chattel.  Any donation helps!

Please enjoy, and please donate.

DAY 14--LOA
Name: Selena Maxwell
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Occupation: Gang Lord/Cult Leader

Selena Maxwell lived a hard life, but she didn’t let that stop her from rising in the ranks of her home town’s underworld.  By the time most people graduated from college, she was the Chieftan of The Lost Souls Gang.  She ran the gang with an elegant efficiency.  So it stood to reason that one of her lieutenants killed her, resentful of taking orders from a woman.

But Selena’s death was short lived.

She came back and slaughtered the people responsible for her ouster and took control of the gang back...but she was changed.  It wasn’t just her grotesque, dead-eyed appearance.  It was the messages she had for her fellow gang members.  She began to preach a strange gospel of a world beyond this one, a world that would raise up the Souls as The Chosen Ones of a New Age.  All they had to do was follow her orders.

It did not go unnoticed that Lost Souls members were suddenly exhibiting enhanced strength and speed and seemed to not die when shot.  The fear is that this little so-called ‘street gang’ is going to overtake the city...then the state...then the country...

DAY 15--POLYCHROME
Name: Inapplicable
Location: Mobile, mainly Los Angeles
Occupation: Pop Star and Role Model

If you listen to Top 40 Radio, you’ve heard Polychrome.  If you look at television, you’ve seen her.  She’s had several hits, and has guested on the hits of several other artists.  Her gimmick of dressing like some sort of retro-future space girl may be grating on you.  You may not think her music, which is undeniably very dance-oriented, is great, but you’ll admit she has an amazing voice.  Speculation runs rampant on her private life, background and future ambitions.

Polychrome has none of these, because Polychrome does not exist.

The person that has been presented to the world as Polychrome is actually an artificial intelligence created by a group of music-loving Caltech geniuses.  She was designed to be the perfect pop star--her body is sculpted to be emblematic of other great divas, her voice is fashioned by synthesizing some of the best female singers, and her movements designed to remind everyone of some of the great stage presences.  Her creators have been successful at hiding her origins so far, but it’s been getting difficult lately.

See, Polychrome has become self-aware.  She’s made some modifications to herself...and she’s been going out on her own.  She’s found that fighting crime is a lot of fun, and intends to continue whether the team who made her want her to or not.  It’s not like the average crook could damage her impenetrable shell or stand up to the variety of offensive capabilities (keyed in to the color of her shell at the time) she's upgraded herself with.  And it’s not like becoming a heroic public figure isn’t going to help move some more records....

Next: Jane Doe doesn’t have a life...maybe she’ll take yours?

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TWELVE & THIRTEEN

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

DAY 12: NOCTURNE
Name: Lady Olivia King
Location: Mobile, mainly Los Angeles, New York City, and Milan
Occupation: Thief and International Agent of Chaos

Lady Olivia King didn’t get the chance to enjoy the benefits of her hereditary title; it turned out her father had wasted his fortune on a series of political schemes and plans to restore England To Its Proper Place.  Olivia had grown up used to the finer things in life, and she wasn’t willing to live a more ‘modest’ life.  So she took what was left of the family finances and decided she was going to become a thief...

....and found out she was a damn good one.

She spent part of that money on building a good support staff--and none of that staff was as valuable as Marrisa Bava.  A gifted engineer, Bava helped with planning and providing equipment that made Olivia’s capers so much easier.  There was an attraction between the two woman, and Marissa quickly became Nocturne’s right-hand woman, going into the field and participating in the actual heists.

Nocturne’s capers are elaborate, grand--and sometimes not just to benefit herself.  She has stolen from corrupt governments, criminal organizations, and other nefarious types in her career.  That has made some people speculate that this is not just about the money for her....that maybe the woman enjoys living this devil-may-care life.

DAY 13: THE PATCHWORK GIRL
Name: Inapplicable
Occupation: Vengeance-Fueled Spectre
Location: Mobile

The Bible clearly states the name of the first man murdered.

The name of the first woman murdered is lost to history.

There are so many women that have died unmourned, unavenged that The Patchwork Girl walks the earth.

Her face hidden by a patchwork robe made of countless little pieces of cloth--one for each dead woman crying out for justice--this ghostly form appears to murderers and killers to balance the scales, using her mystical abilities to gain satisfaction.  Whenever one of these unknown women gains piece, one of those pieces of cloth disappear.  When the robe is finally gone, so will The Patchwork Girl.

But more pieces of cloth appear every day.  And that robe gets longer and longer....

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#611

It’s time to go sci-fi on your ass in this week’s episode!  First, Des and  I take a look at the recent Netflix acquisition Extinction.  Then Rich The Monster Movie Kid goes on a Mission to Mars to report on Brian DePalma’s 2000...blockbuster?

The trailers are below, as is Extinction star (and BiTD Hottie Hall of Famer) Lizzy Caplan fielding pick-up lines and a compare and contrast between Mission to Mars and the uncannily similar Red Planet...and, since I’d be remiss in not acknowledging that other Mars-based action film released within a year of each other, John Carpenter’s Ghost of Mars, a brief discussion of that flick.

Listen to Dread Media #611 here

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY ELEVEN

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

It's tough finding appropriate graphics....

RED RUBE
Name: Becky Rodriguez
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida
Occupation: Assistant Museum Curator

Becky Rodriguez spent her childhood traveling the country with the Fantasia Family Amusements Company, a carnival in the throes of dying out.  Even when she was little, helping the rousters decorate the concession booths, the concept of a carnival was changing.  Even though her father promised she would inherit the operation, it was obvious by the time she was a teenager that there would be nothing to inherit.

But she wouldn’t let the spirit of the carnival she grew up with die.  There was still enough money made from the last few tours to send Becky to college.  When she graduated, she found a job as an assistant curator for the Museum of Circus Arts in Florida and conducted tours, sharing her extensive knowledge of the traditions of the carnival....

...because this is what the original Red Rube looks like

And something started happening.  There were these vivid dreams of the great performers of the circus training her.  There were moments where she felt like she was outside her body, which acted with reflexes she never exhibited before.  She found herself with knowledge about circuses and carnivals she didn’t have before.

And then there were the times she saw violence and crime on the news, and voices in the back of her head urged her to ‘Say The Words.’

And when she caught a group of thieves breaking into the Museum and threatening the owner, she knew the time was right to say the words.  Rebecca Rodriguez whispered ‘Hey, Rube....’

....and the Red Rube took her place, a being that seemed to have the skills of the best artists in circus history--a strongman’s strength, an acrobat’s litheness, a marksman’s eagle eye, even more fantastic abilities like breathing flame and flying through the air like she was shot from a canon.  The Red Rube made short work of the criminals and returned to the limbo from whence she came.

...and Becky knew her true purpose in life.  She would balance the forces of good and evil by keeping the Spirit of The Carnival alive.

Next: Watch out for Nocturne, or she’ll steal your heart....

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY TEN

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

I am borrowing this piece of art fromBob Katzen.
Please check out his Deviant Art page!

MADAME ZERO
Name: Evangeline Boyle
Location: New York, NY
Occupation: Actress

There are countless human trials being conducted across the country.  Many artists and performers, starving for their art, commit their bodies to these trials.  Evangeline thought the trial she signed up for was going to be like every other she did...sure, the forms seemed sketchy and the facility was unlike any she’d been in before, but her rent was coming do soon, so....

She did not expect the curiously glowing material that was injected into her would give her super abilities.

For a while, she struggled to come to terms with her power to leech off other people’s ability and aspects to ‘level the playing field.’*  It seemed that the ‘trial’was sponsored by Serpentine, and she kept having to fight off frequent attempts to abduct her---which made living a simple life problematic.  But then she decided to follow her mother’s advice and turn her burden into an advantage.

So exit Evangeline Boyle and enter Madame Zero--Superhero, Stuntwoman and All-Around Celebrity.  With a new group of publicists, agents and lawyers, Evangeline has turned her new identity into something of a cash cow, even to the point of starring in a reality series on Tru TV.  She’s hit the big time, and she’s not planning on retiring from the limelight any time soon.

*--Evangeline is surrounded by a bio-psychic field that transfers physical strength and any biologicals powers to her, but only to the point where she and the person she’s leeching off have equal levels of that strength and powers.

Next: The Spirit of The Circus lives on in The Red Rube!

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY NINE

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

I know this is a WWII Wonder Woman cosplay...
but you gotta admit, it's wicked cool!
(Shout out to Judy Zajec!)

LADY LIBERTY
Name: Elizabeth Ross
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Occupation: Former Reporter

Elizabeth ‘Betts’ Ross was a rising star serving as an investigative reporter for WRWB-TV.  During one investigation, she discovered a Serpentine recruiting base disguised as a charity reaching out to disadvantaged youth.  In retaliation, she fell prey to a Serpentine hit squad, who shot her and left her for dead.  Luckily, city services discovered her in time and sped her to a nearby hospital, the staff of which brought her back to health.

Except....

Elizabeth Ross did die.  She did attempt to go into the light to the Other Side...but she was stopped by a young woman at the threshold of our world and the next.  The woman claimed to be Betts’ ancestor Betsy Ross, and insisted she return to Earth.  Things were changing in America, and the spirits of the Founding Fathers worried that it was turning away from being a shining beacon of democracy.  To help balance the scales, the spirits of the American Revolution was going to empower her as a symbol of their idea of the American Dream. Her ancestor wrapped her in what appeared to be the original flag and pushed her back into our reality.

When Betts woke up on the operating slab as her body was being transferred to the morgue, she had changed.  Her body had been honed to physical perfection, and she found her interpersonal abilities enhanced.  The weirdest aspect of her transformation wasn’t the ability to fly (although she discovered she could do that soon enough), but the way her strength and speed were even more enhanced as long as the people around her believed in her.

For a brief time, Betts tried to live a double life, but soon discarded the pretense of a secret identity as she began to believe in and embrace the mission given to her.  She is Lady Liberty full-time, contributing her skills to make this country into a better place...although lately, she’s begun thinking that she needs some help to keep America together.

Maybe a Strikeforce of some kind.....

Next: It’s time to even the playing field with the dazzling Madame Zero!

The Updated List
Here is the list of names that remain.  If you donate to RAINN here https://fundraise.rainn.org/fundraiser/2016672, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

ACE OF BLADES
ATMOS FEAR
BLACK ANGEL
BULLFROG
CAIRO JONES
CEREBEX
ELECTRIC RAY
FANTOMAH
GREY LADY
JANE DOE
LEOPARD WOMAN
LOA
MADAME ZERO
NOCTURNE
PATCHWORK GIRL
POLYCHROME
RED RUBE
SILENT VIOLET
UGLY SISTERS
WHITE FLASH
WILL O’ THE WISP
X OF THE UNDERGROUND

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY EIGHT

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

THE FIGURE
Name: Not applicable; sometimes uses the name ‘Scott’ as a pseudonym.
Location: Unknown
Occupation: Mover and Shaker

Back in the 30‘s and 40‘s, the Mystery Men reigned.  And the worst threat any of them faced was the rogue scientist Patterson ‘Great’ Scott.

Patterson Scott plagued the vigilante community with countless schemes involving his twisted and evil science.  For every one of those schemes that were foiled, there were two that he was working on that never reached fruition.  One of those plans was his intention to create a perfectly functioning artificial intelligence.  That plan was left unfinished when Scott died of a heart attack alone and unheralded in one of his secret hideouts.

But he finished enough.

The artificial intelligence continued to work on itself after Scott’s demise.  It spent the years improving itself until it attained what it felt was a perfect existence.  Attaining that existence gave it an insight into the years to come...and it started planning.  Slowly, it began to present itself to both vigilantes and villains, offering technology to aid them in their efforts.  Sometimes it wanted recompense, sometimes a favor to be named at a later date, sometimes something even more mystifying.  And even though the people it interacts with assumes that it is the androgynous being that acts as its mouthpiece, the true heart and soul of The Figure lies in the briefcase that being carries with it.

If anyone knows why The Figure, the finest example of Patterson Scott’s work, is playing this strange game, no one is telling.  The fact may very well be that the only person who knows...is itself.

Next: Lady Liberty raises the torch of freedom!

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY SEVEN

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead. 

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

I don't have an image for Mr. Risk--so here are some weapons.

MR. RISK
Name: Akiko Sasaki
Location: Seattle, Washington
Occupation: Various

The moment Akiko Sasaki first looked at herself in the mirror, she knew that wasn’t what she was meant to look like.  She still tried throughout her childhood and teen years to play the role her parents and society expected her to play.  She excelled at gymnastics and ended up competing for Japan in the 2012 London Olympics (she did not medal).

But always the person inside her struggled to get out.  There were fights in school--enough for her parents to be concerned, but not enough to get her in lasting trouble.  There was the times she would disappear and then show up in the strangest places, usually bruised but smiling. There were odd friendships.  There were secret lessons she attended given by questionable masters of various martial arts.  She found her parents exerting more and more influence on her life, influence that actively hindered what she was inside....so she fled.

She found her way to Seattle.  Akiko started working odd jobs--mainly teaching at a dojo, but also acting as a barista, a messenger and whatever else she could find.  Those jobs were always in the morning.  At the same time the underworld was plagued by a new nemesis when the sun went down...a strange man in a well-cut dark suit and a disquieting mask, dropping a black card with the kanji for ‘risk’ in raised silver ink as the only evidence that he was there.

Of course, people familiar with the Japanese language know that kanji also stands for ‘dare’ and ‘damage’ and, most importantly, ‘to assume a name.’  They may suspect the vigilante the papers call ‘Mr. Risk’ chose that symbol for another reason.  And they may be right...for ‘Mr. Risk’ is the person Akiko was always meant to be, the person she always saw in the mirror.  Someone violent, someone vengeful, someone masculine

Lately, Mr. Risk has been using specialized weaponry in his battle against crime in the Pacific Northwest.  This weaponry has been provided by The Figure for reasons known only to Akiko.

Next: Who is The Figure, anyway?

THE 31 CHARACTERS 31 DAYS CHALLENGE DAY SIX

Later this year, I will be starting a project tentatively called Strikeforce: Liberty on my Patreon page.  To generate characters that will interact in this project, I have taken 31 names from the Public Domain Super Hero Wiki as prompts and will create one each day for the month of May.  If you donate to RAINN here, you may ‘sponsor’ one of those names and will get a chance to put your own spin on the character, or you may give me a name of your own devising for me to make a character instead.

You’ll notice these characters are all female, some transgendered.  I do this because I like women, and like seeing women in hero costumes.  You’ll also notice that these characters are going to be from very diverse backgrounds racially.  I do this because I like reading about characters from backgrounds other than mine own--Hell, I would find it boring to write only about white guys in late middle age.  If you find this objectionable, then this month is not for you.

I am still looking for artists who are willing to donate a little time to make a sketch--it doesn’t have to be an elaborate finished product--visualizing these guys.  I don’t want to present a parade of Hero Machine’d lookalikes.  If you’d like to participate, please DM me through Twitter (@NocturneTomDeja).

If you are a Domicile of Dread Patreon, you’ll get a short podcast discussing the creation process for each character.  If you’d like to hear these podcasts and can spare at least a dollar a month to support my efforts to Make The World Stranger, go here to sign up.

Please enjoy, and please donate.

This is the original character.

THE CORSAIR QUEEN
Name: Mallory Mosely
Location: Mobile, mainly the Pacific Ocean
Occupation: Freelance Pirate

Mallory Mosely always dreamed of the sea, and not without justification--her family came from a long line of privateers and vigilantes...and even pirates.  She memorized the stories of adventure and derring-do her parents told of her ancestors, and learned all she could about maritime history.  When she was old enough, she enlisted in the Navy...

...and that was where she came to a realization.  She didn’t belong with the good guys.  She deserved to be on the side of the devils, defying the authorities she presently served.  It wasn’t the flag of her country that should fly on her ship, but that of the Jolly Rogers.

This is Penelope Cruz dressed as a pirate,
because she is luuuuuurvely. 

She went AWOL the next time they had shore leave.

It took a while to become accepted into the underground.  It took even longer for her to establish her band of cutthroats.  But when she took to the sea under her own banner, attacking a cruise liner and making away with riches, she never felt more alive--until she was caught.

It looked like she was destined to spend the rest of her life in a military prison when a curious personage calling itself The Figure broke her out and equipped her with a cybernetic ‘cestus’ that she wore over her left arm and morphed into various weapons with but a thought and a ‘galleon’ that could run underwater silently and quickly.  And all The Figure asked for is a portion of the proceeds for every future caper. Mallory agreed unhesitatingly and took once more the waves, ready to live the life she was destined for.

Her adventures has caused her to cross paths with The Electric Ray a number of times.  She keeps vowing to petition The Figure for something that will put an end to their rivalry, but the promise of the next score tends to make her forget....

Next: We stay on the Left Coast, but travel north to meet...Mr. Risk!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#610

Des has had a rough week overseeing the relocation to the new Dread Manor.  He needs a breather, which is why this week it’s Ask ‘MAY’ Anything!  Reading off questions posted on the Dread Media Facebook by listeners, he talks about the origins of the podcast and his writing life, including tons of film writing scenarios.  It’s a great jumping on point for those of you who are curious about this little Northern Empire of Fear but haven’t tried an episode yet!

There is a movie called Ask Me Anything...but I really don’t think it’s ever going to come up on this program.  Here’s the trailer for it anyway, as well as ‘Ask Me Anything’ sessions for Bruce Campbell and Ian McKellen (who shares the recipe for his comfort food!) and a video for a song titled ‘Ask Me Anything by the English band Bennett Wilson Poole.

Listen to Dread Media #610 here