Welcome to Gaia! ::

This test is designed to give us an idea of how literate you are, and what rank you can handle based on that. If you want to start off on a higher rank than default, you must take the test and pass. Each applicant must specify which rank they are aiming to achieve, and fill out the specified information for each question. Grading will be done as often as possible by Crew, Vice Captains, and the Captain. To take the test, simply post in here answering what's asked of you.

You are allowed one re-do, and if you wish to just one section that's your choice. You should do it as a separate post, and you will be re-graded on that individual section and your original rating will be changed depending on how much your original has improved.

Thanks for participating!

I'd like to reach at least an Intermediate level.

1. After about seven rounds Kasumi was tired her legs were skinned and her body was drained. She glared at the emperor he was controlling the whole thing this had to end. Suddenly he gave her a thumbs down and that meant one thing, death. "What but I fought we had a deal!" Kasumi shouted as the emperor sat up from his seat and then beggining to exit. She was angry her hands glowing with heat. Soon the sound of rising metal began tigers and men surrounded her as her prey. She saw the exit of the arena from one side she didn't want to kill anymore she wasn't an animal. The guards charged her and she had no choice, her hand bursted flames and she punched one of the guards square in the jaw incinerating his skin. He dropped an opening was visible a gap in their ring they created. This was her chance! She aimed both of her arms behind her diagonally and focused all her energy and realesed a blast of flames shooting her past them like a rocket everyone screamed in terror I had gotten away now just to get home...

2. Kasumi's eyes opened she had been in a frozen state for a while. The pod opened and she fell face first to the floor. The concrete hit her hard as she had gotten up her body felt fatigued. "Where the hell am I?" She asked herself. She looked around the room and saw two doors one labeled the expirimentation room. She opened that door and peeked through empty and walked in quietly. She noticed that their were other prisoners they had all were still in their stasis. She quickly walked over to what she assumed was the control panel and pressed the button labeled "OPEN" the pods opened making a steam like whistle as the test subjects were realesed. They stared at her gratefull, she suddenly got an idea, "If we all work together our skills might be able to pull off an escape. The army of super powered test subjects invaded the halls throwing the scientist out of their way like rag dolls. They ran down the stairs to the first floor one man blocking the exit. "Now hold on there none of you are leaving the minute I press this button the doors will- "You talk to much..." Kasumi said throwing a fireball at the man his screaming flooding the room as he dropped the switch and flames danced all over his body. They all charged out the doors and escaped each one of them able to return to their lives.

3. Kasumi was on the rocket which had been sent to space for one reason to destroy the threat. But things got awkward when they found out it wasn't an asteroid but a ship. "We need to blow it up! Earth is in danger we can't let it survive!" Said a hero who went under the name of starhawk. I approached her and shot down her idea. "We are talking about a living species if we can talk to them I'm sure we can reach an understanding." The heroes nodded in agreement Starhawk glaring which turned to a face of understanding. We reached communications and was able to contact them, they boarded our ship their skin was blue and their eyes were screaming in pain. "What do you want?" I asked concerned as I spoke to the alien. "We need your planet we need to survive..." It said they must have studied our race for a while. "How do you speak English if your an Alien?" I asked curiously. "We know many things of your people, our race tends to understand the race we are sent to drain it is a proccess we enjoy at first but then it sours into guilt." The alien's eyes were filled with sorrow, it continued in even greater detail that shocked everyone. "Our planet is dying and we cannot survive alone. So we harvest from other planets to live." Kasumi smiled she knew what to do. "We can help you, our planet is known for helping people we can become allies nobody has to die." Kasumi extended her hand and the Alien nodded tears streaming from his eyes, "Thankyou human we owe you a great debt." I laughed pleasently, " Please call me Blaze." We shook hands and that began the Alliance between our two species one that hyper extended our technology by millions of years and taught them off new culture.

4. I woke up flashes off lights coming from every window in the house my parents waited on the couch for me looking concerned. I sighed and walked over to them sitting down on a chair. "So, Blaze how long have you been fighting crime?" my mother asked me a cold look on her face. "About 7 years" I said looking at them my eyes filled with fear. My father shared my mom's response, "And when were you going to tell us Blaze?" I threw everthing off the coffee table causing a loud crashing sound. "Don't call me by that name!" I glared at them both their eyes filled with fear, I wobbled backwards and fell back onto the chair my eyes filled with misery my identity was revealed and my life was shattered. My father stood up along with my mother I suspected they were going to leave but instead they held me like when I was young. Somehow I knew it would be okay we'd find away to manage but this was going to be hell and for once that made me feel normal. "We will be there for you Kasumi be brave...." they whispered in my ear. Later that day I confirmed the rumor and warned anyone who wanted me gone to try because I'll be waiting for them.

Denied. I am sorry to say that you are being ranked poor for creativity. Through out all of your passages, everything worked out perfectly fine for your character, despite roman warriors, lions, armed guards, aliens, asteroids, bitter team-mates, and disappointed parents. I'm not saying that you should be pessimistic all the time, but these samples were meant to reflect the way you would roleplay on a post-to-post basis, and from these samples it looks as though if you were to join a mission, Kasumi would be that one person who always saves the day, one not always readily invited.

Another problem is with the interaction between Kasumi and the NPCs you created. In a normal roleplay situation, characters wouldn't bow to your every whim just because you shout at them or show them a hint of kindness. Kasumi is also surprisingly. . . bi-polar, especially in you last sample. In that one scene, she goes from fearing her parent's wrath, to almost burning down the apartment, to being on the verge of tears, and all the way back around to being ready to take on everyone and everything in Megalopolis. I understand that one paragraph is all the space you had to work with, but for a paragraph with that many mood swings should be way more than the 8 sentences you posted.

One of the worst things though is the amount of effort it took Kasumi to take out / evade all of her enemies. Your character showed no signs of fatigue or loss of energy through out all four passages, and that is a definite problem that needs to be addressed.
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Although I am giving you a poor ranking, you do show many signs of potential, and I am willing to round up when averaging out my score with Epic's, giving you a rank of novice.

For grammar, I give you the rank of Novice. While grammatically correct for the most part, the VAST majority of your posting is simple sentences. And while simple sentences are sometimes perfectly acceptable, every single sentence in every single post cannot be simple. It is WAY too repetitive and WAY too tedious to sit there and read through "She kicked his face. She said "I'm sad." She cried. She ran into her room." Now, that's an exaggeration of course... But your sentence types, in all honesty, were not that different. There were plenty of places you could have used a comma or semicolon instead; in fact, had you added only a few of these, I might have bumped you up a level. As-is, however, you're stuck at Novice.

Also, I'd like to point out that, in some of the areas where you used the - key, you either forgot or neglected to put a space between the following word... Not okay. Also, the - key, while sometimes acceptable for pauses in dialogue, is generally frowned upon other than for connecting hyphenated words. I also noticed there was a spot where you tried to put the hyphens in place of commas... That doesn't work either.

Another little notice; after dialogue of any kind, including thought (which you correctly put in italics, congratulations), needs some kind of punctuation before continuing to the sentence. A comma is generally the best when your character isn't exclaiming something, but !, ?, and . all work just as well. Of course, if you use a period you're moving on to a new sentence and have to capitalize the next word.

I'd like to reach intermediate or higher, but I'd be content with novice.

1. Sofia stood in the center of the arena, sweat trickling down her face. She was still trying to figure out exactly how she had ended up in ancient Rome, but that didn't matter right now. Somehow she had survived the past two rounds of attack, but was pretty beaten up because of it. This time, her opponents were many and much stronger than her. They were slowly closing in on her, the tigers too close for comfort. Fi wielded a hefty sword and shield, even though she had no idea if she'd be able to use them. Now she was worried about manipulating the vicious animals surrounding her. It was different with animals; their thoughts weren't as easy to control as coherent thoughts were covered by bloodlust. Fi started to move, backing away from the oncoming horde of attackers. The warriors' thoughts were all flashing through her mind, and images of herself being maimed and slaughtered were popular. She was starting to tire from all the thought manipulation and Sofia found herself tripping backwards into the sand. That sparked the tigers to pounce and the crowd to whoop and holler. Fi was sweaty, sandy, and soon to be bloody. She tried to stop the oncoming tigers, but the sword slashed the air weakly. In the distance, she thought she saw the Emperor chuckle at her predicament. How is this entertainment? A young girl being slaughtered is enjoyable? The immense pain of a claw broke her, already failing, focus. Fi screamed out as the tigers began ripping her to shreds in the sandy depths of the Coliseum. The warriors weren't even bothering with her anymore and started returning to the wings. The last thing she saw was the Emperor standing up and leaving before she blacked out.


2. When the pod opened, the bright white lights of the room almost blinded her. She managed to crawl out though, fearing it would shut again. Fi's body was shaking, but her mind was sharp. the room around her was white, sterile, but most of all, empty. Her mind though, was not. Thoughts were filtering through her as if she were a sponge. To her left, was a hall the she presumed was the spot where all the thoughts were coming from. To her right, it was deathly quiet.
"Which is better, silence or noise?" In this case, she chose silence. She just wasn't sure if she would be able to handle getting through the people-filled areas just now. Sofia crept towards the door, lightly twisting the doorknob; it was open. Who keeps open doors in experimentation facilities? Despite her doubts, Sofia continued on through the doorway. Now, she stood at one end of a room that made her sick. The smell of intense Pine-Sol wafted from almost everything as she stepped, barefooted, into the large room.
“So this is where is all goes down…” She murmured to herself. All around her large metal tables were set up against the walls. Large metal tables with large restraints attached to them. Various cabinets were set up around the room, containing needles and jars of mysterious liquids. Fi’s eyes were wide as she crossed the room. She had almost managed to cross it until a thought passed her mind. Someone was coming.
“s**t!” Sofia dashed towards a large cabinet and quickly opened one of the lower doors; it was empty. She got on the ground and crawled inside, folding in on herself so she could close the door. She was just in time to. Once the door was closed, the other door opened and footsteps began echoing in the room.
“The pod couldn’t have malfunctioned. I designed the blasted thing.” An annoyed masculine voice broke the silence in the room. Sofia bit her lip anxiously. She knew that once he got in the other room, she’d only have mere seconds to get out of the cabinet and get into the other hallway. She tensed, one hand on the cabinet door. Once she heard the door to the pod room creak open, she flew into motion. By the time she was halfway down the other corridor, she heard the shouts of the man.
"Guards! We have an escapee!" Sofia kept her mind at the ready, just in case she came across people. This hall was mainly empty, besides the quiet screams that she dared not think about. As she crossed an intersection, more thoughts started flowing to her. People were advancing on her from all directions and she was trapped. Where to go, where to go, THINK. She decided to run down the left hall, hoping that less guards were coming down this hall.
"Hey! Stop!" A husky male voice shouted out from behind her, not in front. Fi's mind centered on his and she started pumping in her own thoughts. You haven't seen me. Turn around and walk away. This hall is clear.
She listened as his steps faltered and then his own thoughts mirrored her own. Fi breathed a silent sigh of relief. That is, until, a sharp pain ripped through her shoulder. Someone had shot her. The pain caused a slight adrenaline rush and Fi just started bolting. She was barely aware of the multiple guards behind her and the shots that were whizzing past her head. The door was in sight. Another bullet clipped her side, causing Sofia to stumble and fall to the floor. Her willpower was great though.
"I will not be a lab rat." She launched to her knees, the pain almost causing her to crumple again, but she kept going. Once the metal of the door touched her fingertips, Fi felt free-almost.
Once outside, she noticed the large metal gate surrounding the compound.
"Great," She moaned. That didn't stop her from running towards it full speed.

3. Somehow, Fi found herself sitting shotgun in the rocket. The team that she was currently inhabiting seemed nice enough, but it felt strange for her to actually be with a team. Especially on a mission such as this one. The asteroid turned spaceship seemed like a daunting task, but she was working with capable people.
"So team, how do you all want to approach this?" The man that had taken charge looked over everyone. A few murmurs ran around the space, but no one seemed to have a set plan. The thoughts that Fi was hearing were disjointed and full of implausible ideas.
"No one?" The man sighed and began to launch into his own plan. "Seeing as someone has to be occupying this ship, Fi here can try to influence their thoughts. That's plan A." Sofia nodded in agreement and everyone else stayed silent. "Seeing how nothing ever goes according to plan, perfectly, Plan B. We'll board the enemy ship in teams. Three and three." He divided the gang up as he spoke. "Three of you will try to disarm any weapons or technology that would be used against our planet. The other three will take out or incapacitate any enemies aboard. Got it?"
"Understood, Captain." Fi laughed at her crack attempt at a joke. Thankfully, the other members of the team joined in.
"Not the time guys." The 'captain' turned towards the large computer screen in front of him; the enemy ship was within reach. "First I'll send a message to them. If they stop now, we'll leave them in peace." The whole ship became deathly quiet as the message was transferred over. A response was immediate and firm. No.
"Fi?" Again, silence descended over the ship as Fi slowly began to get into the unknown person's mind. The thoughts there were weary, but also determined and malicious. The audience in the ship tried to muffle their gasps as slowly a white glow radiated from Fi's tattoos and eyes. The silence lasted for only a few minutes, but it felt like much longer.
"I think it's worked." Fi whispered, closing her eyes and rubbing her temples. The team watched the screen as the ship slowly rotated and fired it's thrusters. Eventually it was just a speck in space.
"Mission completed, Captain." Another person chuckled from the back.

4. The phone just kept on ringing. Sofia figured it was her parents. She did not want to even deal with them. Ever since she'd been identified, by one of the scientists that experimented on her of course, she found herself in a vortex of fans, scientists, threats, and worst of all, her parents. At first they were outraged, thinking that Fi had become this way because she'd been kidnapped or tricked into the treatments. When they found out that it was voluntary though, they were furious. Actually, furious was an understatement. the outright disowned Sofia on the spot. Yet, they couldn't just leave her alone. Hence the phone calls. Fi turned over in bed, pulling her pillow over her face. She'd lost her job, lost her only family, and lost any freedom she'd had. Life certainly hated her right now. A knock on the door caused her to pull the pillow from her head, but when she heard the yelling of the postman she returned to her previous position. She didn't even want to think about the mail. It all went to the shredder. Sure it was cute to get the fan mail, but Sofia didn't want fan mail. She didn't want any mail in fact.
"Why was I such a stupid teenager?" She said this out loud, but didn't really mean it. No matter how man cons her powers came with, the pros always made them seem not as bad.

Intermediate. Your writing samples, for the most part, proved to be very original and seemed to take quite a bit of thought to put together, and I especially like the realism included into the roman passage. Although this is true, there are some places that seem to jump around to much while other places need to be fleshed out a little bit more. The passage that could use the most work is, surprisingly, the second one, in which Fi escapes the facility. Through out this passage it is normally very confusing as to whats going on, to the point where you nearly completely lost me right after she exits the cabinet. I had to re read this section multiple times, a very bad sign when it comes to roleplaying, just to figure out what was going on. Fi's chances of survival were low enough before she tried to execute a poorly designed planned, and I honestly feel it would have made more since if she had been killed. If it hadn't been for that section, I most likely would have given you an advanced ranking.

I would like to emphasis the need for re reading on your part. Although I am sure you always reread your writing, I would suggest reading it out loud ( if you don't already do this ) or having someone else read it before you post if you aren't so sure about your writing. I have no doubt that you will be advanced in no time.



Intermediate. So far, most people's execution of the second and last passages have been less than satisfactory, a trend that you have thankfully broken with your unique outlook on Jacob's predicaments. Although your execution was extraordinary for the second and fourth passages, as well as your first section being right on par, the third section needed quite a bit of work. Throughout the whole section, I might have been able to understand what was going on for a sentence or two. I understand that you didn't have much room to work with but your responsibility to follow rules just comes with the the ability to play the game. Unfortunately I cannot even grade you properly for that section due to a lack of understanding towards what was going on.

Your interpretation of the fourth passage has been the most original so far and I would like to congratulate you for that, though I wish you had written the third with the amount of creativity and readability as you did in the other passages.

Intermediate... Barely. While you remained grammatically correct for the most part, I noticed quite a few spots where capitalization was a problem. Also, there were a few run-on sentences, and a few missed single-quotation to show possession. I also noticed that in one or two sentences you misspelled words (difficult words, I give you that much), or missed them altogether. While I realize that these things happen, I'd ask that you use spell-check to minimize these occurrences. It won't fix the missing words, for that you have to rely on re-reading.

My apologies for the length of the first post. I got a little carried away by the fun of the story writing.

I would like to be considered for, at least, intermediate level skill, perhaps higher, if you deem it acceptable.

Also, I think you misspelled the word vicious for the first prompt, but the word viscous was far more fun, and I had a great deal of enjoyment using it instead.

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1:Your character has been transported back in time, into the days of the Roman Colosseum. As a gladiator, they are being forced to fight for their life and their freedom- and this round, they have been given the signal of death by the emperor. They release five viscous (?) tigers as well as the best warriors they have- a total of fifteen opponents. What do they do? (Minimum of 1 paragraph).

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Joseph reflected for a moment on his path here. He had almost been killed in the slave markets he had woken up in, until he ripped the sword out of the slavemaster assistant's hand and killed him by bashing him over the head with the flat end of the weapon. Seeing suddenly that he was not some fat northerner that couldn't speak Latin or any other civilized language, the slavemaster sold Joseph to the arena. It was mostly luck that he had survived as long as he did. Luck, and that miniseries on the Roman Colosseum he had caught on television.

The months of heavy work and desperate fighting had broken down those well-worn layers of fat. He was still short, but muscles adorned his body. No, the heavy work hadn't bothered him. It had been those three agonizing weeks of heavy sunburn he had to deal with while still training and fighting. Of course, this daydreaming self reflection was just a ruse, as Joseph tried to comprehend the gesture given by the emperor. No, that wasn't the case. Joseph comprehended the gesture just fine, as well as the roar of the crowd. He just was praying that his mind had decided to come up with a conclusion that was incorrect.

Of course, as the warriors streamed out of one gate, and the sinuous animals came out of the other, he decided to stop praying he was wrong. Instead, he should pray that he could survive. He recognized some of the men sent to kill them, but the tigers were a completely different story. They flowed and shifted, not quite solid, not quite liquid. There was only one conclusion for this. Freaking wizards.

He still had a few more seconds to think it through, and finally, Joseph decided the tigers had to be summoned. Short term constructs that would vanish when the wizard lost concentration. Alchemically created monsters hadn't become popular until the mid-1500s, and there was no way the Romans had gotten a hold of genetic manipulation. So Joseph had a plan. Find the wizard, destroy the tigers. Wait. First, survive the first wave. Worry about wizards later. The warriors were coming on faster than the first tiger, and so he set to work.

After surviving in the arena for so long, he had proven himself able to chose his own weapon. He immediately began using this ball and chain number, a fifteen foot length of chain with a twenty pound orb at the end of it. He had plans for it, but those would clearly have to be way-laid for now. Gripping the orb in one hand, and the links nearest it in the other, he pulled. After a moment of strain, the ball popped off. He lifted it experimentally, then turned to the nearest warrior, a scant ten yards away. Joseph braced himself and launched the orb at him. The warrior had tried to raise his shield, but he was launched backwards from the sheer momentum of the iron ball.

Joseph couldn't watch, he was already working on the next plan, and had snapped the chain in half, giving him two lengths of iron, both roughly seven and a half feet long each. He swung and tossed one of the lengths at the nearest tiger, half way through it's last leaping bound to get to him. The chain wrapped around its forepaws, tangling its landing.

Before anything else could get any closer, he began spinning the remaining length of chain above him and charged into the crowd of warriors.

One, two, three weapons were deflected before a light spear, more a javelin than anything else, darted in underneath the chain Joseph was swinging overhead. It pierced the skin between his ribs and he felt the tip break off somewhere between two ribs, scraping painfully but not deeply. He grabbed the arm of the man holding the spear and spun him around, Joseph spinning with him; their center of mass somewhere near Joseph's wrist. The man knocked away the other gladiators moving in for the kill. Suddenly, white blazing fire suffused his senses. Some thing blunt and impossibly strong had struck his back, driving Joseph to his knee, forcing him to cry out in pain.

Joseph reacted instinctively, pushing the javelin holder as hard as he could away from him. His extra bracing against the ground allowed him to use most of his strength. If he had been standing, most of the energy he would have used to push the man away would have been wasted on Newton's second law of motion, launching Joseph back into the men behind him as the javelin fighter went forward. Braced heavily against the ground, Joseph would maintain traction and only the other man held would be launched.

The man bowled over two men and Joseph didn't hesitate to follow. He couldn't hesitate; for at any moment, that intensely powerful blow could rain down upon him again and he wouldn't survive it. He launched himself after the body, pushing down on the earth has hard as he could.

Joseph could not fly, though with his strength came some small ability to leap and bound. No, Joseph found that jumping was never a problem. It was the fall. He flailed and tumbled through the air, seeing the earth, then the air, then the-oof! He hit the ground and rolled, hoping to transfer as much of the impact into momentum as possible. He finally rolled to a stop. He just wanted to lie down now, head resting on the hot sand, and let them kill him. He was covered in sweat and blood and caked in dirt and dust and silt. He couldn't possibly imagine a way back home. It would be so easy...

It would be too easy. Joseph sighed, or maybe just panted, and pushed himself up quickly. He looked at the battlefield again, trying to figure out where he was, how he was doing. The four of the tigers were tangling with another three warriors. Some confusion in the ranks, probably, as the wizard was not told there would be more than one target to kill. The men fighting the tigers lashed out and shepherded them away. Their weapons contacted the tigers, and they roared in pain, but they didn't seem to bleed, their liquid nature seeming to let the blades roll through them, with only some resistance. The crowd was roaring with excitement and bloodlust, things being thrown into the arena, from coins to flowers.

There were at least four other men still in fighting condition and one tiger circling around the outside, each of them facing him. He thought it might be the same tiger that he first faced, but he couldn't know. One of the men, one of the gladiators, seven feet all if he was an inch, smiled and waved to Joseph with his wooden club. The tall African man's teeth were a mess, and he was missing his right ear, but Joseph knew, since the second he felt that blow on his back, that he was facing another super. Joseph felt something sick sink into his stomach.

Then he realized where he was in relation to where he started. It was on the other side of the Colosseum, the opposite side of where he entered. The same side that housed the gate from which the tigers came. Looking around to get his bearings, he caught sight of it and sprinted as far as his pained lungs and back would allow. They would catch on to his ruse fast. He had no other chance. He sprinted towards the gate from which the tigers had emerged. He skidded to a stop before it, seeing nothing inside other than darkness and second gate, from which fighters entered. The gateway was empty. Nothing. But he had- There! The sorcerer was inside the cage, chanting and praying, maintaining his liquid tiger forces. He was bald, wearing vividly-dyed purple robes, and held his sliced and bleeding palms over the circle he had inscribed in the sand.

Joseph was about to try to lever the gate open when something crashed into him from the side, rolling him over longways, away from the gate. One of the giant cats had reached him and he fought with it, trying to pin it down as it rested beneath him. It was viscous and vicious, this tiger; impossible to hold for more than a second as its claws raked and scratched him. He fought a losing battle. Finally, he cursed his foolishness and gripped the tiger hard with both hands and rolled over.

The tiger was now above him, a better fighting position for it. But Joseph was beneath it, pressed against the ground, a far better fighting position for him. He gathered his knees and feet to press against it's stomach. Before the liquid nature of the tiger could counter his attach, he pushed out as hard as he could, launching the tiger away and further into the arena.

He didn't have time to see where the rest of his opponents stood. He felt one of the coins plink off his head when he wrestled with the tiger. It would serve his purpose. He quickly found the nearest collection of the coins, grabbed up two handfuls of them and stood, running at the cage with the summoner, throwing the coins at the dark corner where he stood as hard as he could. He didn't know which handful of three or four coins each had hit the wizard, but he did hear a distinct high-pitched yelp of pain.

Desperate to follow the coins, he bent down and seized the bottom of the gate with both hands. Taking nary a second to brace himself, he lifted hard and fast, the gate sliding unwillingly open, the chain that lifted the gate clinking. The bruises and cuts all screamed at him in the strain, and he felt at least one or two of the cuts on his forehead begin to leak blood onto his nose and into his right eye.

He only opened it enough to roll in underneath it. It slam shut behind him. In the cool darkness free from the hot sun of the arena, Joseph's job was incomplete. He crawled over, quickly to the wizard, who was trying to return to chanting. It was in vain. He stood, and excruciatingly, Joseph kept his eyes open to watch as he punched the wizard in the head. He couldn't bare to watch, but he couldn't look away. The mage's head rocked back, Joseph heard something crack, and the robed man fell backwards into the wall. Joseph took a moment to recover, staring down at the very dead figure.

Distinctly Asian, his eyelashes were long and he had earrings up his left ear. His exposed wrist was scared by the shackles of slavery, and the delicate hands were marred by the blood from his palms, the blood used to fuel his magic. His chest was full and legs were wrapped in sandals usually reserved for women. He was a woman. She had been shaved bald, and was vividly beautiful in spite of it, or perhaps because of it. Joseph cringed at the killing. It had been necessary, but all the same, humanity all the same, it made no difference. Joseph felt that killing women was far more heinous than killing men. He might be sexist because he thought this, or even possibly a feminist. The description that would be bestowed upon him didn't matter. Just the killing mattered.

Joseph heard a horrible noise, the ratcheting of the gate behind him, towards the arena. The tall black man, the other super, was bending down and still grinning at him, his hands slowly but easily lifting the cage door. Joseph couldn't help but watch in horror for a moment, before diving towards the woman, the sorceress. He began rapidly tearing at her clothes, looking, searching. If he didn't- the ratcheting noise was gone- he couldn't- ! Just as he grabbed something, a blow knocked stars into his head, and his body across the small staging room. He rolled, the air gone out of him, the fight gone, a defeated man lying on his back. He closed his eyes, the blood pooling into his right socket. Something suddenly lifted him, painfully and effortlessly by his neck. As the blood flowed away, and he was slammed, into the wall, he blinked the blood and tears and sweat away from his eyes, looking into the face of the super, the snaggly-toothed seven foot tall African.

Even if Joseph had been three feet taller, he could never do as this man had done, lifted a hundred and fifty pound weight effortlessly and without err. This super was better than him. The super had that mythical power of “leverage”. If Joseph had tried to lift someone up by their neck, he would tumble over. His body can't balance that kind of weight at such an angle. He was trapped by the laws of physics. As far as Joseph knew, he was one of the only supers to ever experience such weakness. This super was far more powerful than Joseph could ever be. He grinned at Joseph, saying something gloatingly.

Joseph assumed it was gloating, at least. He didn't speak the tribal click-growling language that the man spoke in. Joseph felt his vision swimming as he slowly suffocated. He tightened his hand around the object. He slammed it onto, into the spot just behind the man's jaw. The man stood, uncomprehendingly, as Joseph's strength waned. He let go of the object. It hung there, the center of his vision, the last thing he saw before everything faded to black. It was the hilt of the ritual dagger used by the sorceress, the one she used to cut her palms.

Both men tumbled to the ground. Joseph breathed. Once, twice, again, feeling himself return to consciousness. He was just a ball of pain and bleeding and tiredness. He sat there for what seemed like hours, but what couldn't have been more than a minute, or else the guards would be upon him. He rolled over, off of the dead super's body.

He pushed himself up and faced the inner gate. It was lighter. He could lift it. He thought. He shambled up to it, slowly pulled it upwards, and stepped in underneath. Battered and beaten and certain he would be killed any second, he shambled as fast as his mangled body would let him, only one eye open, but looking for the next opportunity, the next way out. It might just be right around this corner...
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2. Your character has been captured (due to their fatal weakness) by a private company and set up for experimentation. Stuck in a stasis pod, your character is granted one chance for escape- the pod malfunctions, opening in the middle of the night. The room has two doors, one leading to the Main Research Hall, which is a heavily guarded area under 24 hour surveillance, and one leading to the experimentation room. There are air ducts, but the ventilation system is filtered many times by sharp fans, heating pools, and other assorted dangers. How do they escape? (Same paragraph requirements.)

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The seal opened, and Joseph breathed a fresh bit of air before they hauled him out of the pod and onto the gurney. They usually used some sort of paralytic to keep him still for the first five minutes out of the pod because of his strength. He waited to be hauled out of the pod, manhandled, for the twelfth time.

After two minutes, he realized it wasn't going to happen. After four minutes he could move his fingers and arms some. After about six minutes passed, he could open his eyes, the last thing to recover from the drugs. The lights were out. The doors were open. He blinked. He carefully pulled the straps that bound him upright. He was wearing a plain white jumpsuit, notable only for its lack of any markings. He stepped outside the pod and looked at the options open to him. One bullet from the people in the front lobby would end him. The experimentation room held too many dark memories, and, by nature, was meant to keep the experimented on within its chambers. He saw the vent, and shook his head. Too obvious. No. He needed to remember what his mother always told him. Scale.

Scale was what separated the petty criminals from the supervillains. Scale separated small businesses from multinational conglomerates. Scale separated a good plan from a bad plan. Joseph needed a good plan. He knew where to get scale. He turned around to face the rest of the room. It was filled with pods, dozens of them. Any real research outfit knew that data could not be collected from a sample size of one. Joseph was glad that this place was not the exception.

He walked up to the first pod, examined it, trying to find a way to open it without breaking anything, without setting off the alarms. The display that showed the vitals of the person inside, various chemical reports and a few options. It was not password protected. Joseph smiled, then he laughed. One of the options was “Disable Safeguards?.”

He pressed it, and saw the pod begin to unlock. He explained what he wanted to do to the person within, then unlocked another and told them. Soon he had thirty one other detainees, freed from their stasis and very upset. He told them the best route of escape. “We have to get out through the main lobby. It is quickest and easiest method of escape. We move fast, we move hard and they won't even know what hit them. Got it?” They all nodded, eager. He told them he wanted to stay behind to help free others, any of those trapped in the experimentation room. They thought he was crazy, but they geared up and charged through to the Main Research Hall.

He stayed behind, and once he heard the chaos erupt from security, he sat down before the ventilation duct. He put his feet on either side of the vent and gripped at the slits, pulling the vent grill from the wall. While they were distracted from mopping up the mess of supers trying to escape the front door, he would escape through the ducts, the crumpled and bent grate an easy tool to stop the spinning blades of a fan.

Joseph didn't really like using his fellow man like this. It was cruel and evil and something his mother would have certainly done. But Joseph has never been a saint, and while his mother was something he loathed to become, she was not inherently wrong about everything. He could still hear the screaming and agonized cries of those he sent to death for weeks afterward.

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3. Faced by the certain doom of humanity because of asteroids, a last-resort defense plan by the military has gathered a bunch of heroes onto a rocket to go to the meteor and see if they can save the planet. Upon landing, they discover that the 'meteor' is actually a space ship traveling to Earth specifically to drain it of its natural resources. How do you proceed? (One paragraph).

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Joseph shouldn't be on this trip in the first place, really. He was a Low B-class hero, at best. Did all the other super-strength heroes have a lunch date planned during this trip? Before they even landed the rocket on the heavily iron-suffused asteroid, the entire crew knew it wasn't just some hunk of rock. It began slowing down just as it got past Jupiter's elliptical orbit. No, now that it was certain that this was an invasion, their plan was to sabotage their plans before they made it past Mars. Joseph stepped onto the “asteroid”, the magnetic coils at the base of his space suit's boots locking him firmly onto the outer hull of the massive invasion ship. He looked to their leader for guidance, some super-genius tactician, a half alien who was raised by some cow farmers in Texas. Joseph followed commands here. He was not the brains of this operation. If he had, he would say something he stole from Space Quest, something like, “We have to blow up their main power core!”, and thus look like a complete idiot. No. Joseph would just keep quiet and let the leaders do the leading.

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4. Your character's secret identity has been compromised by the public and now they are being overwhelmed with fan mail, hate mail, and open threats by fans, enemies, thugs, and assorted villains. How do they cope? (One paragraph).  

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Joseph calmly packed all the possessions he cared about into one suitcase. Honestly, Joseph was surprised it took as long as it had. His mother was a blabbermouth, constantly talking to her friends about how his life was going. It was inevitable one of them might tell the officials about him. So now he had protesters outside his apartment, with the building owner pounding on his door, telling him he was evicted, and evil, and how his mother killed her cousin in Prague-. He was out the window and up to the roof. He leaped to the next building. Tumbling over, unbalanced by the luggage. Then, for good measure, he jumped to the next building after that, climbing back down that building's fire escape. His mother, talkative though she might be, had taught him at least one good lesson. That there were three types of money. One: spending money. Money he had stored in his wallet and checking account. Two: Long-term money. Money he had stored in Swiss banking accounts and foreign stock exchanges. He couldn't get at either of these types. His name was a hot commodity. No, that left him with the third type of money: escape money. He had rented a small storage garage south of town under an assumed name. It was filled with crap and trash for the most part. But at the back, in a small shoe box, was seven thousand dollars in small bills. It would get him by for now. Long enough to get settled in a new city with a new name. Maybe in a few years he would return to Megalopolis. Even better, maybe he would lose his mother for a few years, so he could get out of her weekly phone call.