Wolfram

Jennifer backed away quickly, holding up her hands. "Alright. Alright. Not doing anything." She paused, and looked back in the direction of the warehouse; that was where she would be needed, if anywhere. "I'll just let you go home if that's what you want. You think you can get there ok from here?"

"Ok, don't worry. We won't do that." Jennifer hesitated. There was definitely something not quite right about this girl, but... no, it was crazy. She moved closer to put a comforting arm around the girl's shoulder. "Where do you live? Maybe I can at least give you a lift."

Jennifer looked around as the distant explosion lit up the sky. "Portent? Portent!" she shouted into her communicator. The only reply was a faint hissing from the device's speaker; either her field had fried its circuits, or... Oh, God. Ok. Focus. One thing at a time.

She turned back, missing the change of expression on the girl's face, though what had replaced it was still disturbing. Something was definitely wrong. She glanced down at her PDD; the screen had gone fuzzy, but it showed a flashing indicator right here...

Jennifer let herself descend to the level of where the girl was standing, approaching her slowly. "Look, you shouldn't be here. Why don't you come with me down to the precinct? It's safe there. We can call your parents, let them know you're ok." She reached out to gently put her hand on the girl's shoulder.

Asuka nodded, even as she felt the bile rise in her throat at the thought of the healer's talents being wasted on this monster. She did understand, and while she didn't agree, this was no time to lecture one stranger on why another deserved to suffer. And there was a kind of victory in this gesture of mercy. It said a lot that Calm could go through everything she had inside that warehouse, and yet still stick by her principles without fear or favour. She sat and watched silently as the healer set to work.

Barely waiting to see what effect her strike would have, Asuka dived for the still-open portal. She rolled as she landed on the hard stone of the Ouroboros citadel, landing on her feet... then staggered and fell to her knees as the last of her strength left her. She threw back her hood and pulled off her mask, drawing in the mercifully-fresh air in deep breaths. Wiping tears of frustration and grief from her eyes, she climbed unsteadily to her feet and turned as Edward spoke.

"Are you happy? Are you glad that you showed your face in there?" She clutched her forehead. "Just... get out of here. Now."

She walked away from him to where Calm was sitting on the citadel steps, in tears, and sat down beside her.

"I'm really sorry I put you through that," she said quietly. "You understand why we couldn't just... let it go."

As I suspect that my insane stunt in the Party Time thread is the target of some of the criticism going around here, take this for what it's worth...

The idea of having players give voice to what the Ordinary People(TM) think (or at least that they think the ordinary people think) of current affairs is a good one, in my opinion. The biggest question seems to be about how to format it.

Why not got for the simplest option, and base the thread around a superhero/villain discussion forum, with players taking up the role of fans, critics or (incognito) heroes commenting on the latest events? Forums are not exactly great for capturing the continuous flow of a chatroom or direct conversation. They are, however, surprisingly good for simulating forums.

Congratulations to both of you.

Edward's artificial arm began to emit steam and arcs of electricity, and a bright countdown appeared on its display. The Autumnfox tensed, concentrating everything she had on one burst of action.

10...

Asuka turned to Calm. "Get out of here. Now. Any way you can."

8...

She sprang forward, blades of energy shining with vengeful power. Ignoring the cyborg zombies, she closed with Edward as fast as her legs would carry her, already planning her attack.

7...

She lashed out with the blade on her right arm, aiming a blow with all her momentum behind it at the villain's nearest knee. Told you you weren't walking away from this, you son of a -

6...

***

Wavekite checked her speed as her quarry came into view: a girl crying, or... laughing? at the burning wreckage across the street. She re-opened her comm channel. "Portent? There must be some mistake here. It's just a kid..."

"Somewhat busy here. Use your judgement."

Jennifer hovered closer, lowering her weapon. The Portent's scan must have been wrong; there was no way this little girl had done so much damage.

"Hey, kid," she called out. "What're you doing out here? It's dangerous, you should be inside..."

Transmission source detected. Triangulating...

The Portent backed away as the barrels inside the crashed truck began to crack open, hideous mockeries of people beginning to claw their way free. He slung his empty trajector back over his shoulder and reached into his pocket, drawing out a small metal cannister that he threw into the midst of the monstrous creatures. It burst into a shower of razor-sharp caltrops. He charged his pulsar gauntlets, ready to fire.

Triangulation complete. Transmitting.

***

Wavekite was circling toward the burning wreckage of the diner when a locator flashed up on her data device. "Gotcha now," she muttered, turning in the air to swoop down toward the indicated point, bow in hand.

((Up to Cactus whether the right location was pinpointed))

Given momentum by Calm's push, Autumnfox ducked out of the way of the oncoming torrent of dark energy, still feeling a chill run through her as the nightmarish attack screamed past. She regained her feet with uncanny grace and lashed out with her right arm, sending a focussed pulse of energy from her bracer toward the largest of the robots behind Edward.

Autumnfox stared at Calm in disbelief. "You're not serious? He murdered this man - he said it himself - and you want to just let him go?" She shook her head. "Help me bring him in. I don't want any more violence, but he is not walking away from this."

Autumnfox started back as Edward approached, blades of spiritual energy flaring into life from her bracers. "What the hell do you think you're doing? He's already dead, you piece of - "

She fell silent, watching him carefully as he knelt over the dead hero's body. She wasn't sensing danger from him - not imminently, at least. But what was he trying to accomplish...?

She remained in a ready stance, blades extended, watching the kneeling villain. If he tried anything, she would be ready.

((Ok, this is probably biting off way more than I can chew, but a major disaster is now occuring, and on the Militia's doorstep, so...
The following occurs shortly after whenever the truck impact is.))

Outside

Light flared briefly as the Portent materialised a safe distance from where the police roadblock had stood. Setting his helmet system to a full scan, he advanced on the crashed juggernaut, his visor flashing warnings as it detected the flammable materials in the wreck.

He paused, glancing back at the scattered remnants of the police line. There might well have been survivors... but there was little he could do to help them, and if the truck's cargo exploded, it would not matter either way.

He drew his trajector weapon from his back and loaded the first of what were likely to be many cryo-gel canisters into it. As he scanned for the best place to begin freezing the hazardous cargo, he opened his comm channel. "Wavekite. You are in the Kings Row vicinity."

"Yeah," came the reply. "I heard what was going on, I - "

"Stay away from the hostage situation. The situation has become more dangerous. I'm attempting to track the perpetrator of the attack on the police line. Uploading all information to your data device. Find them."

"On it."

The Portent cut the channel and re-loaded his trajector. High above, Wavekite began to descend toward the city, watching out for any sign of a fleeing villain appearing on the Portent's sensor sweep.

***

At the building's main entrance, Autumnfox froze at the collossal crash of the truck making its unconventional entrance. She didn't know what was happening, but odds were it made getting the hostages out even more urgent. She darted inside, through the corridors to where the fight was ongoing.

The scene that greeted her inside was utter madness - heroes and robots and fire. The hostages were safe, or trapped, or both, inside a forcefield; Asuka turned her attention instead to a wounded man ((Pious)) who seemed to be lying still amid the fire. Cursing, she unclasped her cloak and threw it over the man, trying to smother the flames while dragging him to safety.

Not far behind, ostentatiously clad as usual in his dark blue robes, Sebastian Wolfram made his entrance. He glanced around the hall before moving forward to take his seat, choosing one at a neutral distance from any yet taken.

He sat a little uneasily, though doing his best to hide it. It was not his habit to seek out the company of other practitioners of the Art, but long years of experience told him that a mage who did not stand with the others when a crisis of this sort loomed would sooner or later face questions as to why.

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I feel like I'm in the minority here but I side myself with those who don't understand the importance of making a super uber character.. who can't back it up in game, thus forcing elaborate artificial (sometimes flimsy) excuses on why face planting happens... or why a friendly arena match ends up with severe and repeated beatings.

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Well, I would say that not being able to support a conceptual power in-game is no reason not to have that power in concept anyway. The number of power choices in-game is just too limited to allow us real freedom; even the classic hero concept of a super-speedster is currently impossible within CoX.

Some "extra" powers are just inescapable consequence of a reasonable concept. For example, if a character possesses their powers because they're a spellcaster - one of the main aspects of the Magic origin - then it stands to reason that they can cast a variety of spells. Likewise a character with cold-based powers freezing water in forum RP, even though there's no in-game power to represent it.

There are other reasons to add these things that have nothing to do with the desire to be "uber". The ability to speak an extra language (or nine) is technically an embellishment on the character, but it seems unreasonable to fault it if there's a good explanation. The power to heal at a slightly-above-normal rate and recover from any injury is already built into the way the game works. A photographic memory is quite a substantial benefit in RP terms, but it doesn't have any combat applications; it's not something that could be backed up in-game anyway.

[ QUOTE ]
In the Cage Fight thread someone said something on the lines of 'I'd participate but I can't explain why my (implied IC uber) character would get beaten by a broad sword wielding midget straight out of Atlas' or something to these lines.

[/ QUOTE ]
Arena fights complicate things even further. I would have presumed that most arena combat happens between fighters of comparable power level; to use a comic book example, imagine someone setting up a sparring match between the Punisher and Magneto, or between Green Arrow and Darkseid. In my view, if a character's concept is particularly high-powered, they should stick to fighting similarly-powered opponents; that way, either outcome is reasonable.

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, slightly OT here, but... Kheldians aren't superstrong? I assumed Peacebringers and Warshades were rather strong and tough, at least towards the upper limits of the human scale, if not more, due to being Kheldians. I've always played Luna like that... Is this not so?

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That was my impression too, though I suppose one might read the various PB melee attacks as being more about the energy discharge than strength. Still, if they can shapechange into Dwarf form, I think they can manage a little strength boost in human form.

[ QUOTE ]
Energy tends to trump the densest of matter, so it passes between and disrupts molecular bonds much like Talsorian weapons apparently do.

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Problem here - besides the more in-depth stuff mentioned by Khorak - is that all Peacebringer powers are energy based. If Ellie's claws being made of energy is enough to let them cut impervium, then her beam attacks will similarly punch straight through any target, no?

My closest character to "uber" status is probably the man himself, Sebastian Wolfram. He's a sorceror of considerable age and experience (though still a newcomer compared to some), which - theoretically - opens limitless possibilities. When I first began to consider roleplaying as him, I came up with a few limiters which are really supportable only by my own player canon: Wolfram has high skill with magic, but not a huge amount of actual power; he can only effectively memorise a limited number of spells; he prefers not to actively use magic if there's an alternative; and his reliance on a balance of positive and negative energy powers to keep himself alive restricts how far he can branch out. He's still a major potential risk in a RP environment, because none of these limits are very well defined. If I really wanted, I could justify all kinds of overpowered stuff within those limits.

I'd like to say that I'm with the camp that supports not messing with official canon unless it's "obviously" in place to justify game mechanics rather than making sense within the world. Unfortunately, actually saying that only makes the problem worse, because then you have to decide where to draw the line. Ouroboros is, plainly and simply, a system designed to let us play back over specific bits of content. Is it more or less of a game mechanic than security level? What about Wentworths? Sure, we can accept that Paragon has a number of prestigious auction houses, but do they really trade in enriched plutonium, or the personal weapons of gods? The divide isn't always as obvious as we'd like.

In the other corner, player canon isn't much better off. Firstly because of the lack of consistency; players' decisions about how the world works contradict one another constantly. But also because even if something is generally accepted (like certain items on restaurant menus being best avoided), these accepted points aren't written down anywhere. I didn't know about Up-N-Away's chicken salad, probably because I've never spent a lot of time around Galaxy Girl. Obviously that's a trivial point, as any contradiction can just be a difference of opinion, but the same applies to any player-generated idea that anyone considers fact.

As far as power goes, I do my best to exercise moderation. That doesn't mean that I'm against high-powered characters, but handling them well is a major challenge, and I never even know if I'm doing justice to the theoretically simpler characters I do play.

Barring any last-minute complications, I should be able to make it, as either a level 47 Claws/SR scrapper or a level 27 Rad/Dark Corruptor. I'm not going to win either way, but maybe I can find a way to lose memorably.

Sounds good. I can offer Wolfram as an all-purpose plotmonkey with regards to magic. Starlit Spirit wouldn't be a bad choice either, but she's out of town.

Update time

Global Name: @Wolfram
Server: Union mostly.
City of Heroes/City of Villains
RP Characters (varying degrees of active-ness):
Wolfram - Sorceror extraordinaire of the Knights Exemplar
The Portent - Conspiracy theorist of the Militia
Wavekite - Police liaison officer of the Militia
WarpLocke - Amoral Nietzschian nihilist of the Cadre

Type of RP: Pretty much anything, but favour IC missions/TFs, plots and intrigue.
Can be contacted: The Militia Forums, PMs here (maybe) or in game.
Times on: Mondays for Militia meetings; Thursdays for Cadre; erratically at other times.
Timezone: GMT

The Portent tracked the Shivan as it moved away from the meteor, waiting for a clear shot. Curious that it showed no further hostility, but it could hardly be a coincidence that it had emerged at this precise time and place to kill another extraterrestrial. He watched, curious, as the massive alien retrieved a selection of rather incongruous items and set off purposefully, oblivious to his presence.

He scanned his surroundings. He was surrounded by the exhausted, the wounded, and the dead. Nobody had won this battle... if that was even what it had been. There was nothing he could do to help the people here, but he could, at least, find some answers.

Engaging his stealth suit, he set out to shadow the Shivan... wherever it might be going.

The psychic pressure faded. The Portent took a moment to restore his mental focus, then clambered to his feet, a grim suspicion forming in his mind. He approached the pod, slowly.

It was lifeless. His sensors detected nothing deeper than the radioactive residues the attacking Shivan had left. The copies it had made had fallen or were gradually melting away to nothing.

He raised an arm, pointed at Steve, pulsar gauntlet charged to subdue the protoplasmic creature. "Stand back," he warned Commander Union.

The Portent sank to the ground as the psychic assault set his mind on fire. He knew he'd been foolish to even try approaching the object; it had already shown itself to be dangerous. But what options were left...?

His mental defences braced and prepared to drive back the attack. He could still make out the displays on his visor, but the attack had broken his concentration; the barrage of data was meaningless. He lay still, focusing on recovery. If an opportunity arose, he needed to be ready for it.

The Amber Banshee and her father seemed to be safe, for the time being. The Portent turned and began to thread his way through the battle toward the pod, relying on his stealth suit to keep him hidden from the hordes of clones. No doubt some of the copied heroes possessed superhuman senses that might pierce his concealment, but it was a risk that had to be taken.

He considered possible options. The "meteor" was clearly alive, so destroying it was out of the question; besides, it had already withstood re-entry and impact with the earth at terminal velocity. It would take a vast amount of force to so much as damage it, if that was even possible. But it needed to be contained...

He ducked behind cover and re-opened his broadcast frequency. "Militia. We need to move this object to a safer location as quickly as possible. Options."

From above, the Portent watched the tense situation degenerate into a brawl as the duplicate heroes attacked their originals. Whatever the intent of the pod that had apparently created them, it now had control of numerous superpowered beings, and seemed to have staked a territorial claim.

Action needed to be taken, but he was at a loss as to what. He was well aware that this was not a situation suited to his skills; he was not a diplomat, a scientist or a soldier. Up here, he was at the limits of his attack range, and unable to track targets in the swirling melee of dopplegangers.

Only one option presented itself. He scanned the crowd to locate the Amber Banshee... or both of them, engaged his cloaking field, and teleported to a spot near their position.