Basilisk

"Yeah, this should be fine, thanks."

He sat down and began carefully studying the menu.

Rock-hopper paused a moment, considering.

"Y'know, I came in 'ere lookin' for a drink or two, but now that you mention it, I could go for a bit to eat. Yeah, just meself tonight, thanks."

He brushed a speck off of the tight-fitting spandex penguin suit's sleeve.

"'M I good like this, or should I change into somethin' more formal?"

A light breeze blew his cape about as Rock-hopper stood on the roof opposite the restaurant. He'd heard rumours that the place had re-opened, and the sign in the doorway confirmed it. He smiled under his mask. It was a good time for a drink.

He opened the door with a gentle push, his heavy booted feet thumping heavily on the floor as he entered the building. The place looked just as he remembered it. He nodded a greeting to the man at the podium.

"Decided to open the place again, did ya? I came by a while back, an' found the place closed. Nice to see you're back."

((Sounds good! When the grand re-opening happens, I'll be sure to stop by. ))

Any plans as yet to bring Mayhem missions to CoH? Or will it be Villain-only?

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It's something that has always irritated the hell out of me, and I have learned to accept it. But at the same time, I really dislike when people say "It's something that anyone can pick up," because it's not. I'll admit that I am jealous of people who can pick up a piece of paper and just draw.

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Okay, well that's a different case entirely and I apologize for painting with such a broad brush and offending you.

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No offense taken. It's just something that some people don't realize and a point that I like to haul out every now and again. You folks who can draw, make sure you appreciate it, because despite what some people say, not everyone can do it.

There's only one real correction that I have to make. I can't draw freehand. I never will be able to. It's not a matter of practice, or knowledge. I have a minor condition that plays hell with my fine motor control. After a short while drawing or writing, my hands start to shake uncontrollably. If I have a ruler or something, I am ok, but if you put a piece of paper in front of me and ask me to draw something, you might get something recognizable.

It's something that has always irritated the hell out of me, and I have learned to accept it. But at the same time, I really dislike when people say "It's something that anyone can pick up," because it's not. I'll admit that I am jealous of people who can pick up a piece of paper and just draw.

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How I made my animated logo:

- Installed the latest GIMP for windows
- put the different hearts to animate in different layers
- under ScriptFu/Animation picked "blend"
- saved result as animated indexed gif

too simple

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um... I think the answer is 7, but I could be wrong here.

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I'm there, dude.

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Woohoo! I love those animated ones!

>.>

Shame I suck at that! >.<

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Join the club.

And when this comes up on the main forum page, I see the title as "Valentine's Avatar Ban..." Are the forums trying to tell me something? Maybe small candy hearts are against the rules?

Bah. you've got me switching to the dark side. BEEFCAKE WILL RETURN!

Oh, and a candy heart custom made to aggravate defenders.

Now here's the question- Do I dare take down the beefcake for the sake of jumping on a bandwagon? I might get served my head on a platter if I do...

I've been planning a new release of it for some time now, but real life cuts heavily into my writing time. Theoretically, I only need to take an evening to pull something like this together (it is a quick guide after all), but it seems I start to get around to it and then end up distracted. (OOH... Shiny!) I'll see about putting something together on the weekend, but I can't make any promises.

Name: Rock- Hopper

Race(Black, White, Alien): Maori

Origin(Mutant, Science): Science

Hero or Villain: Hero

Archetype: Ice/Stone Tanker

Former Job(If Any): Lt. Col, Australian Army

Current Home (Can be anywhere you quest at, or hang out at, or anywhere your character was born, go nuts.): Maintains citizenship in New Zealand and Australia. Has a work visa in the United States. Owns an apartment in Steel Canyon. Main patrol areas are Brickstown, Talos Island, and Founder's Falls.

Brief Physical Description: 6'-6" tall, heavily built, approx. 300 lbs. Brown eyes, small black feathers instead of hair.

Brief Personality Description: Easygoing and kind. Tends to joke a lot, particularily when in tense situations.

Goals and motivators: Wants to make Paragon city safer, primarily from hidden menaces such as Crey or the Carnival of Shadows.

Does your character care about Freedom Corps/Arachnos?: He sees Freedom Corps as a practical solution to some of the city's crime problem, but feels that Longbow often bites off more than they can chew when dealing with villain threats. He believes that Longbow should operate more in conjunction with the heroes to be more efficient in their strikes against Arachnos.

He feels that Arachnos should have been dealt with sooner, and because they have been allowed to operate as long as they have, they are now a serious threat, when they could have been eliminated much easier before.

A typical quote from your character: "Right. So, which one of you wants to get hurt first?"

Do Heroes or Villains Recognize your character, if so how: Rock-hopper is a hero dressed as a penguin. Villains often laugh at him, and he is generally recognized by other heroes because of his unusual choice of animal. Aside from that, he is more or less just one of the many heroes out there doing his job, as a baker or an accountant would.

History: After the discovery of Superadyne in the 80's, many governments feared that the U.S.S.R would try to use it as an easy way to make super soldiers. As a preventative measure, several countries began secret research into their own super soldier serums, hoping to come up with a version that did not impair the subject's judgement while under its effects.

Independantly, a small company called Crey Biotech developed a process through which the DNA of two creatures could be combined. The preliminary tests combining an ant and a mouse created a super-strong mouse. The U.S. Government saw this as the answer to their problem, and not wanting to drive away their allies, set up a program whereby each country would send a group of their best soldiers to be treated and formed into an international army.

Jason Weathers was one of the candidates sent from Australia. Born in New Zealand, his family moved to Australia when he was 5. He was an average student in school, and after graduating, he pursued a career in the military. He excelled, and quickly rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was first on the list of Australian candidates and eagerly accepted the chance to join the project.

The animal that he was chosen to blend with was a rock-hopper penguin. The treatment was successful, but Jason's initial abilities were limited to a resistance to cold, an increase in jump height, and the ability to hold his breath for prolonged periods of time. He was nonetheless accepted into the Noah Project, as it was now being called, on the virtue of his combat abilities.

However, several months after the treatment, unexpected secondary mutations began to crop up. Most of the candidates developed phenomenal abilities, but shortly thereafter died from complications caused by having internal organs mutate into those of their blended animals. Some were had internal organs crushed by a heart the size of a blue whale's, others had their bone marrow start producing hemolymph instead of blood and died of rejection. In all, 99% of the candidates in the project died.

Not wanting to be associated with a failure of this magnitude, the governments withdrew support from the program, leaving Crey to deal with the survivors. Crey paid a settlement to each party and left them to their own devices. Most returned to their homes.

Back in Australia, Jason returned to the military after being unable to gain citizenship in the United States. Almost a decade later, the surviving candidates also began to show signs of mutation. The changes happened slowly, granting Jason the ability to form a thin layer of ice over his body, which he could use to defend himself from attack. His hair fell out, and was replaced with small waterproof feathers. Shortly afterward, he found that he could manipulate stone into heavy stone gauntlets. Donning the name of the penguin that had granted him these abilities, he took to the streets of Sydney for a short while as a hero, and was instrumental in the defense of the Parliament House in Canberra during the Rikti invasion. He has returned to Paragon following Statesman's call for aid, and has thwarted many threats to the City since.

Another list of 10... Damn iPod didn't fill up properly last time, so I still have a bunch of songs on here that are the same as last.

1) Chuck Berry- Johnny B. Goode.
2) Daft Punk- Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
3) The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
4) Jackson Browne- The Pretender
5) Status Quo- Paper Plane
6) Lynard Skynrd- Freebird
7) The Beatles- Strawberry Fields Forever
8) Foghat- Slow Ride
9) Black Sabbath- Paranoid
10) Cake- Going the Distance

-edit- Guess it's not that similar after all. I thought the Beatles were both on my previous list... Oh, and 11 now is Dire Straits- Money For Nothing

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Celine Dion is a myth! Even Canadians don't acknowldge her existance.

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That's only because we figure if we ignore her, she'll go away. And it worked! She went to Vegas

The ten song shuffle from my MP3 phone gives me:

1)Black Black Heart 2.0- David Usher
2)Youth of the Nation- P.O.D.
3)Come out and Play (Keep 'Em Seperated)-Offspring
4)Hair of the Dog- Nazareth
5)Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds-The Beatles
6)The Great Gig in the Sky- Pink Floyd
7)Stairway to Heaven- Led Zeppelin
8)Turn the Page-Metallica
9)Immigrant Song- Led Zeppelin
10)We've Been Had- The Walkmen

So what does this say about me, I wonder? (No comment from UncleBob!)

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Question: Statesman posted this piece of information today. Given that Wet Ice only gets to 3% defense (which just seems so wrong), I guessing we should slot it for just 1 End Reduction now...unless I'm missing something?

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To be honest, I haven't had much chance to test various slotting combinations with my Ice Tank because I don't have a respec available. However, based on what I have been reading on the forums, I would say as it stands now, slot Wet Ice with one End Reduction- the +def boost from SO's won't justify the slots.

If, when I5 hits, I find I can enjoy playing Rock-hopper still, then I might release another guide updated for I5. Otherwise, I have a Sonic Blaster just calling my name . My advice for you at the moment is to wait. Play your tank on live, keep yourself abreast of changes on test, but too many things are up in the air right now to say anything definitively.

Another thing that I find very irritating about all these changes is that Ice will become very slot heavy for little gain. Think about it- We're pretty much expected to 6 slot:

Frozen Armor
Glacial Armor
EA
Permafrost
Tough
Weave
Possibly Hasten

That's 42 Slots to come up with a tanker that barely performs (Meaning if I focus solely on getting these six-slotted, I would be at level 37 before I could even start slotting anything else.) If it weren't for EA adding an End buff, we'd be royally hosed and would need Stamina too. God forbid I should ever want to do any kind of damage, because I can't be wasting my slots on attacks. Thanks States, but no thanks. Rock-hopper's still on the shelf.

(Edit: Gah! Stupid number keys!)

So, in getting a thread specifically for Ice tankers, we recieve a post from Statesman listing a set of global changes. Brilliant.

First off, I want to pipe in with my thanks to Circeus for his work towards our cause. If you're ever in Calgary, the beer's on me.

Now, getting down to business, I think that the first thing we absolutely, without-a-doubt NEED is confirmation as to whether or not Wet Ice and EA are working as intended or are bugged. If they're working as intended, then the Devs need to get real. There's simply not enough defense as is to make Ice/* viable. If they're bugged, then good. Get to work on fixing them. This thread might well turn into a non-issue if we could only know one way or the other.

As it stands, Rock-hopper is on the shelf. He won't be coming off again until such a time as changes are made to make him soloable again. It's preposterous to say that in order to do my job, I need a defender. I'm not talking about herding groups of 100, I just want to be able to keep up with the Joneses.

I've noticed that someone on the boards has in their sig something to the effect of "A controller minus the control is a "ler." I'm a ler." I can't help feeling like an "er"- a Tanker minus the tank.

If the tone of this post comes off a bit demanding, good. Frankly, I'm frustrated with the constant neglect that is shown by the devs towards the Ice tank. I've seen the same comments about Ice posted over and over and over on the Tanker board, only to have these concerns completely overlooked in favour of more mainstream sets. Yes, we have had a few changes tossed our way in the previous few issues, but more often than not, the changes were not for the better. To put it bluntly, on live Ice is a sub-par set. On I5, it's a waste of code. I don't plan on quitting CoH over this. However, I also don't plan on continuing with my Ice tank when my Earth/Rad controller tanks better.

Ice Tanks are heroes too!

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EA is already perma with Hasten and no recharges in it.

And it only takes 1 +0 SO Recharge to make it perma without Hasten.

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Hm... I stand corrected then.

I appreciate the kind words and the feedback. I had been planning to write an Ice Armor guide for a while, when a friend of mine came along and asked me for one, so it was fortuitous circumstance that this came into existence. It had lounged around in the guides section for some time, and I was beginning to wonder if anyone had even seen it. Then I log on after a brief hiatus and boom! It takes off. So, thanks again for taking the time to read it.

John accepted his coffee with a slight nod of his head, and began carefully measuring out sugar and cream to stir in. absently answering her question, he placed an order for soup, and continued to scribble in the pad with one hand, while stirring the coffee with the other.

Accepting the glass of sugar water, Rose took a careful sip of it. The sweetness of the drink being to her liking, she took a deep pull of it, leaving only about half the liquid behind. Eyes glowing a bright yellow, she looked to Beth and, in a voice that was somehow both pleasant and disturbing, said;

"Thank you"

With a light clink, the spoon fell out of the coffee, the hand that was stirring it now numb with shock. John stared at Rose for a moment, mouth agape, then, finally composing himself enough to form a proper sentence, he explained to a somewhat confused-looking Beth.

"She's never done that before! She directly responded to a social stimulus," he broke into a wide grin, "and correctly, too! We've always assumed she was similar to a high-grade autistic. She's never properly communicated verbally, just mimicking clips of what she's heard. I'm just flabbergasted!"

Obviously enjoying the attention, Rose was sitting with a Cheshire Cat grin on her face, warbling like a songbird.

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"Now, Miss, Sir," he nodded to each in turn as he handed over the menus, "would you care to start with a beverage or something from the appetizers?"

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John looked up from his scratchpad as if he were surprised that the man had returned. Rose made a sound reminiscent of running water.

"Oh! Uh... Yes, I'll have a coffee, and she'll take something high in sugar. Sugar water, if you can arrange it, otherwise a soda- any flavour- should do."

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Would you care to sit near the plants? I will have Beth bring out your choice of beverage, but the liquor board states definitively, no greater than eight percent volume beverages shall be served before five pm.

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John Remington nodded slightly, saying, "Not a problem. I'm on the clock anyways, so it wouldn't be wise to imbibe at the moment."

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I know the soups are prepared, and we certainly have bread. A moment and I shall provide menus.

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"That shall be fine, then. Thank you."

Interrupting a conversation between Fel Rose and a lobster, John escorted the red woman to the table that the Maitre D' had indicated. She sat, and ran her hands along the wooden surface of the table. As if responding to her touch, the living wood glowed a soft red in a trail where she had touched. She chittered softly, and the red glow changed to a verdant green, then to a neon blue before fading back to its natural colour.

She smiled at the young man, looking for all the world like a child eager to please its father, but John had not noticed the trick, and was busy scribbling notes into a very worn pocket notebook. A brief look of disappointment crossed her face, but that was quickly replaced by happiness as Martin returned with the menus.

The woman studied Martin suspiciously for a moment, as if concerned he would eavesdrop on her conversation with the plants. Seemingly satisfied that he was unconcerned about her dealings, she replied, mimicking his voice perfectly.

"Would you care for a booth or a table?"

From the doorway, another voice arose.

"Um... Excuse me... Uh... Have you seen a... Oh."

The question stopped abruptly when the voice's owner spotted the red woman. The voice belonged to a young man with sandy blonde hair an a round face. He wore a long white lab coat with the word "M.A.G.I." emblazoned on the pocket. Beneath that, there was a small nametag reading "Remington." His face was flushed from exertion, and the way that he was gasping for air suggested that he had been running. The young woman's face lit up at seeing him. Teleporting again, she popped over and enveloped the man in a fierce hug which, by the man's expression, was far more painful than it was intended to be. Releasing him, the woman began chirping and cooing happily at him. He interrupted her "monologue" with a scolding finger, like one might use to a misbehaving puppy. Concern was evident in his voice.

"Rose, for God's sake, you know you're not supposed to wander off like that. Azuria would have my hide if something had happened to you." He grabbed her by the hand. "C'mon, we should be going."

She began a low protesting mewling, pointing at the plants and the tables, before teleporting back into the restaurant.

"What, you want to stay for dinner?" He checked his watch, "I suppose we have time. Alright, we can stay, but we have to be reasonably quick." He looked at Martin, "That is, assuming that you're serving."

((OOC: Good to be back!))