YouKnowWho

((I just want to say thank you to the people who have read my stories over the years. Though your taste in literature might be questionable, the nature of your characters is not. I wish success for all of you. Long life, true love, and good health. May we meet again in another life. (I mean like virtual life -- you know, another game or something. )

And now I think that's all the goodbyes I want to do. So... last post.

I <3 you Virtue. ))

I know she is working on a pretty big project right now, so yeah, she might have just overbooked. But we can all keep checking her devart site because if she finishes it, that's where it will be seen. And her site's worth looking at anyway because she is full of awesome.

Gosh... I'm going to miss this community so much. So many smart, creative people! Oh the stories you told! You kept me so immersed in this fantastic virutal world!

There will never be another group like this. Never.

Love and good vibes to you all.

I plan to go to Echo of Galaxy City and spend my last few moments in Gemini Park, the place where I started role-playing, the place where so many great stories were played out.

*stands in quiet salute to one of the greatest player-characters to ever grace City of Heroes*

Thank you.

Anyone still around? And where did everyone go? (Because I might want to go there too!)

Well said. I hope you run into some of your CoH friends in other games. There is a CoH group or two on Facebook and I've discovered a lot of familiar forum names here:

http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/

Nothing will ever equal the great experiences I've had in CoH over the years, so I know exactly how you feel.

Click. Read.
http://www.cohtitan.com/forum/index....ic,5445.0.html

I'm probably easiest to find at this website, since I check my messages there pretty often.

http://heroid.deviantart.com/

This really is hard. It's hard to log on. It's hard not to log on. It's hard to say goodbye to my characters and my friends. It's like when I graduated high school and I knew I wasn't going to see those people again, and if I did, they wouldn't be the same.

Go ahead and shed some tears.

Will server maintenance tomorrow end Atlas Park 33?

Inking...?

Oooooo...!

There's a free trial?

Will my Radeon 5450 vid card run it?

I hope to be there too, in Gemini Park, when it ends. I think a lot of us will be.

((I don't know if I will do this for all of my characters, but I really loved this one, even though I didn't rp with her that much. For those of you who read it, and those of you who read my stories over the past 8 years, thank you for your your encouragement. You don't how much it's meant to me. ))

Anola


Anola Dean waited at the bus depot and tried to ignore the stares of the strangers who had not been inside the War Walls, who were only passing through on their way to somewhere else, for whom Paragon City was still largely a myth -- a land of make-believe that drew so many superheroes to it that there were hardly any left for the rest of the country. Anola figured that most of them had never seen a single superhero fly over or run fast at blazing speed. She felt for sure that most of them had never seen a lizard girl.

One bag was all she had, a carry-on. In it was everything she had amassed in her three years away from home. A couple of outfits for when she shed her scales, a memento or two of her adventures, and a handful of postcards. The rest of her baggage was in the form of memories.

She hadn't said goodbye. She hadn't gone to Borderwalker Investigations to say goodbye to Robin. She hadn't gone to the coffee shop in Founders to say goodbye to Trey. She hadn't called her friend Tami or visited her to let her know where she was going. She hadn't even gone to find Whaley, even though they had been dating. He was hard to find even in the best of circumstances, and she just didn't have the time.

The news had been hard. She had cried the entire weekend. She had cried when she had been told that Longbow couldn't teleport her to Missouri like they had before because their resources were being allocated elsewhere. She had cried when she realized she couldn't afford to fly out. She was almost ready to cry now.

Her mom was dying.

All of the superheroic things Anola had done since she had left home; all the battles she had fought; all the evil she had vanquished... She was facing something now that she couldn't beat. The cancer was too far advanced. Even the best healer she knew wouldn't be able to help her. Magic, maybe? she thought, as she had often thought over the past couple of days. No, magic always extracts a price.

Anola looked out the door, back toward the City of Heroes. She had only seen it from outside the War Walls once, the day she had first arrived, a child of fifteen. She was going home a young woman. Her mom was proud of her. During their daily phone calls, her mom had always ended with, "I'm so proud of you." And Anola would reply, "I'm so proud of you too, Mom."

Her bus was ready to leave. The announcement to board was made and Anola carried her bag and tried to ignore the stares. A woman and a little girl walked hand in hand ahead of her. The little girl looked back and smiled. Anola smiled back, realizing she was going home to hold her own mother's hand one last time.

As the bus pulled away and Paragon City faded into the twilit horizon, Anola couldn't stop looking, couldn't stop watching for a flying figure to rise into the sky, even when the city was long out of sight.

Endings shouldn't come so sudden, she thought. The people you love should always -- always -- be there. She leaned her head on the window and closed her eyes.

The bus from Paragon City carried her away into the night.

*dries his eyes and joins the rest of the audience in a standing ovation, applauding until his hands sting, and applauding more*

"Bravo, bravo!" he shouts and hopes that there may be some tiny chance that this show may go on.

Hi, Sith!

And I am not thrilled with CO either. I know a lot of my friends are moving there so I'm making the effort but so far...

But we'll see how things shake out. You never know what might happen between now and then.

I always show up late for these things!

Hope your birthday was a great one.

Nice post Beatnik. Good words indeed.

Can I get a cuppajoe?