Caios

Caios!

As part of his Quickie Commissions, this one looks so cool.

( and I noticed he used the same angle Rowr. )

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I'm just glad you liked it.

It's been too long since I drew vampire characters and I nearly forgot how fun they can be.... so I also have to thank you for reminding me. Time to dust off the old Vampire characters....

EDIT:

Oh and in case you're curious, here are the several stages of this piece.

Concept Sketch (one of the few I presented)

Linework (the katana wasn't inked, so it comes out fuzzy in the scan and final linework)

Work in Progress

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ooh nice, thanks for sharing, and yeah it came out great! Should be cool to see what other vampires you come up with.

I think this peice turned out awesome! Gotta love the mix of beauty and violence.

http://caios.deviantart.com/art/Caio...tropy-86411050

Many thanks to LadyEntropy for a great job!

Hey there talented peoples,

I need some help and I find myself at a loss.
See I want to get some nice drawings done for my character, in particular my main, Caios, is in need of some cool drawings for use in various applications, like updating web databases and such. However I'm not sure where to go.

This isn't a lack of knowledge but quite the opposite, there are so many awesome talented artists around here that I just don't know who to ask. So instead I was wondering if I could put the offer out there and see if anyone was interested in doing a project or two for me. Pretty much any of the characters in my sig could use some artwork, so if you're interested let me know so we can get started.

Much appreciated!

(( for those interested, here's a story I wrote up of Caios promoting the calendar on Conan O'Brian ))

While watching TV later ...

Some seek to watch this program exclusively, others simply happen upon it while moving across the channels offered. However it happens, the show in question is returning from commercial, and the joyful upbeat melodies of the Max Weinberg band begin to play through the speakers accompanied by the perfect counterpoint of the audience applause. The logo of the “Late Night with Conan O’Brian” show displays vibrantly on the screen. It soon fades away replaced with a panning shot of the NBC studios where the show takes place. Conan can be seen talking to Alex Barewind, a very famous and talented actor with numerous Oscar worthy, and some less the Oscar worthy, movies to his credit. The scene then focuses on Conan who turns straight to the camera just as the music begins to die down.

“My next guest tonight ladies and gentlemen is a very controversial Hero.” Conan begins the introduction as he pulls out a calendar which he makes sure to position so it’s facing the camera properly, “She can now be seen accompanying several famous lady heroes in the ‘Heroines After Dark’ charity calendar. Coming to us from straight from Paragon City, please give a warm welcome to the one, the only … Caios!”

From behind the set Caios emerged to the crowd’s applause. She waved and smiled appreciatively as she walked confidently towards Conan. All the while the band played brass version of some Evanesance song. She wore a tight fitting pair of red leather pants with matching heals, and equally tight fitting black vest-shirt which showed off her bare midriff along with plenty of cleavage.

She gave Alex Barewind a polite handshake and kiss, and repeated the greeting with Conan before sitting down on the designated spot on the couch. As she sat down and the music and applause finally died down, she and Conan could be heard briefly exchanging greetings.

“Wow, thank you, this is a pleasure, Conan.” Caios said looking around the studio.

“Well we’re glad to have you on.” Conan said, “This is your first time on the show, right?”

“This is my first time on any talk show, actually.” Caios smiled.

“Well allow me to be the first one to welcome you to the whole talk show deal.” Conan added.

“Great, so you get to pop my talk show cherry.” Caios laughed, causing Conan to look over the crowd with a face of disbelief, all of which brought out even more laughter from the crowd.

“You know I think you just fulfilled one of my personal fantasies.” Conan joked, and Caios laughed on cue.

“Well only happy to help.”

“Great well I can’t wait to talk about this calendar thing you’re doing but first I wanted to talk a little about yourself. Now you are actually a registered superpowered hero of Paragon City, right?”

“That’s right Conan,” Caios said, “I’ve been registered for over two years now.”

“But you haven’t just worked in Paragon City, right?” Conan asked, “It says here you’ve been known to work all across the country, particularly in Los Angeles.”

“Well, I like to move around a lot.” Caios said, “It’s not like I go out of my way to fight crime in different places, but when I go somewhere and there’s trouble brewing I’ll generally try to put stop to it.”

“It sounds like you like to be the sheriff in town.” Conan jokes, moving into an impersonating tone of a slack jawed cowboy, “I’m here the new bad girl in town, and if there’s trouble brewin I’m a’ gonna put a stop to it.” His rendition was comical enough to draw out the desired laughter from the crowd.

“You’d be surprised.” Caios simply smiled with a soft chuckle.

“But you mentioned earlier that this isn’t like a job for you, this hero thing.” Conan said. “What did you mean by that?”

“Yeah well it’s still hard for me to call myself a hero, in all honesty.” Caios said, “For me it’s just doing the right thing, you know? I mean if you see some guy mugging an old lady across the street, and you can stop it without any real risk to yourself, well if you don’t do something to help then you’re just being a jerk.” Her delivery managed to get the crowd chuckling briefly, “I’m serious, let’s face it, most of the super powered heroes out there don’t have anything to fear from the average thug on the street. So not taking a moment to help out is just insulting really. No I think the real heroes are people like fire fighters and police officers who really are risking their lives, who really can die doing their job, just so they can protect the rest of us.” Her minor speech drew heartfelt applause from the crowd, to which she turned and smiled appreciatively.

“So let me get this straight,” Conan began as soon as the applause had died down, “You don’t really think you’re risking your life with what you do? I mean what’s to stop that thug from pulling out a gun suddenly and shooting you?”

“Yeah, that’s not really what I'd consider a life risking situation.” Caios replied, “I mean you pull a gun on me I can easily leave you unconscious before you pull the trigger.”

“Really? Well there go my evil plans.” Conan joked loudly, “But really I just find this fascinating, it sounds like you must have bad guys pulling guns on you constantly!”

“Oh yeah, all the time.” Caios said.

“I love how she’s just so casual about this too.” Conan catered back to the crowd. “It’s like, oh yeah, people shoot guns at me all the time no big deal. I’d like to see the sort of thing that would actually give you pause, like having some guy pointing a missle at you.”

“Actually that has happened.” Caios laughed at Conan’s shocked face, “You’d be surprised what sort of things the bad guys will throw at you sometimes.”

“Really? Wow.” Conan added, “So what’s the strangest thing you’ve been threatened with?”

“I don’t know, Rap music?” Caios joked, prompting a huge response from the crowd, to which she then turned and added “I’m kidding! No really it’s hard to say there’s been so many things, giant robots, high explosives, there’s even this giant ball of goo called Hamidon that likes to throw protoplasm at you. But probably the most annoying are these zombie guys that like to puke all over you.”

“Wow that’s pretty disgusting.” Conan added, “So if you don’t mind me conveniently changing the subject to something that I can actually stomach…”

The bad pun got a chuckle from those gathered and a simple, “Go ahead Conan” from Caios.

“So what exactly are your super powers?” Conan asked, “Cause if mind reading is anywhere in there, with what you’re wearing, I’m in serious trouble.” The joke drew the expected laughter from the crowd and a knowing smile from Caios.

“No I actually have a major thing against mind readers personally.” Caios explained, “Basically my powers are mutant origin, that’s the official term for it. But is simply boils down to enhanced physical prowess. So strength, speed, reflexes, as well as all my senses are supernaturally enhanced. I don’t shoot lazer beams out of my eyes or fly around like Statesman or anything. I don’t control any cosmic powers or anything, I pretty much just beat up the bad guys.”

“So basically you just hit people.” Conan said.

“Yes and I’m very good at it.” Caios smiled.

“So are you like a kung fu expert or something?” Conan continued.

“Yes, I’m actually experienced with a wide array or martial art forms, and just general fighting skills I’ve picked up over the years.” Caios explained, “But that’s just normal training on top of the extra speed and strength.”

“I can attest to her strength at least.” Alex Barewind spoke up shaking his hand, “At least if her hand shake is anything to go by, youch!”

“Oh I’m sorry Alex,” Caios said, “I figured I didn’t need to be careful around you. You play a pretty tough guy in your movie.”

“Heh, no that’s alright.” Alex smiled, “Most people assume I’m a lot tougher then I really am because of all the movie roles I’ve played, but really I’m a total wimp, just ask my wife.” The line was delivered with the expertise of a Broadway actor and as such generated a favorable response from the crowd.

“Well just how fast and strong are we talking about here?” Conan asked, “Like for example, if you were in a race, how fast could you run?”

“Oh if I go all out I could probably hit 80 pretty easily.” Caios deduced, “But if I’m trying to get from one place to another really fast I find it’s easier just to jump from place to place, it tends to be faster to jump over buildings in the way then run around them.”

“Wow, that’s amazing, so just how far can you jump?” Conan kept with the questions.

“Well, if I’m trying to get across town I can usually do the whole rooftop to rooftop thing.” Caios continued, “Although the rooftops in question are usually as much as 500 yards apart. But again, if I’m really trying I can probably clear half a mile without much trouble.”

“Really? Half a mile!” Conan exclaimed, “Talk about avoiding traffic, what’s that like?”

“Well it’s a lot like flying,” Caios said, “Only with a lot of interruptions along the way.”

“That does sound like a lot of fun!” Conan said, “Now the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. You’re known as a seriously controversial Hero.”

“Well I’ve never been the politically correct type.” Caios smiled.

“Well yeah, there’s that, but what about all these rumors I’ve heard about you?” Conan asked.

“What rumors?” Caios replied, “You’ll have to be specific, people love to make up all sorts of crazy things about girls like me.”

“Well I’m talking specifically about this vampire thing.” Conan said, “This one just refuses to go away.”

“Yeah, I don’t expect that one to ever go away.” Caios smiled knowingly, “But it doesn’t matter to me really. Rumors are rumors and people are gonna keep telling them no matter what I do. Really these days being labeled a vampire isn’t even that big of a deal, so my take on it is, who cares?”

“But there’s more then that when it comes to you and controversy.” Conan continued, “I mean you’ve had literally hundreds of honorary medals awarded to you for all the work your work in helping everyone around you. People love you for always helping out the little guy. And yet you’re still considered one of the biggest trouble makers in Paragon City. I think I read somewhere that you’re probably as high as Manticore in terms of people most likely to give Statesman an ulcer.”

“Oh I doubt I’m high on that list.” Caios admitted, “there’s a lot of crazy people with hero licenses.”

“But you can’t deny there’s a lot of controversy surrounding your superhero career.” Conan pressed.

“Oh I’m sure there are.” Caios confirmed, “But there’s really nothing much to say about that. Like I said before, I’m not in this to be the typical spandex and smiles superhero, I’m just out to help others. And again, at the end of the day I really don’t care what other people think of me. The fact that I don’t bow to public perceptions of what a hero should be is probably what’s at the core of the controversy, but I just don’t think it matters. In the end I honestly don’t believe I’ll ever be able to match that perception. So I’d rather spend my energy making sure that I’ve helped make the world a better place then worry about my public image.” Again her words stirred an applause from the crowd, which she thanked with a smile.

“Speaking of your public image.” Conan segwayed, “I think it’s time we talk about this calendar you’re doing. Can you tell me how this all came about?”

“Well like with any group of people, a lot of Paragon’s heroes will often get together when they’re not saving the world and just talk about what’s going on.” Caios explained, “It was at one of these gatherings that someone came up with the idea of a calendar of superheroes that could be sold for charity. Eventually that idea grew into the calendar you have now.”

“For those of you who don’t know,” Conan began as he held the calendar in question up so the camera’s could get a good look, he went over the sell points in a practiced tone. “This is the calendar you’re talking about, Called ‘Heroines After Dark’. This 2007 calendar contains pictures with 12 of Paragon City’s sexy female heroes. It's available in stores now I believe.”

“That’s right Conan.” Caios confirmed.

“And more importantly,” Conan added, “All proceeds from the sale of the Calendar will go to the Paragon City Children’s Hospital.”

“Yes, all the profits will go to help out these children.” Caios explained, “Many of whom suffered many debilitating injuries that they’re still dealing with as a result of the first Rikti Invasion.”

“That’s wonderful!” Conan said, “But I gotta say this certainly isn’t the kind of calendar that I would imagine being pinned to the wall of a Children’s Hospital. It’s basically showing a bunch of super hot heroines in their underwear.”

“Well the theme is a sexy slumber party.” Caios said, “And it’s technically considered tame enough for the kids, but just barely. It’s really up to the hospital whether or not they want to put it up.”

“Well let’s show the audience what we’re talking about.” Conan said, “Here’s the group picture that they have on the front of this thing. Can we put this up on the monitors now?” The scene fades to an image of a camera focusing zoomed on the calendar itself with a large picture of all 12 female heroes posing together in the middle of a bedroom set. The crowd quickly gave applause in response to the image.

“I guess you all like that right?” Conan asked to the crowd which made their approval known, “That’s what I thought. Now I know you don’t want us to show everything off, but I did want to focus on you in this picture, if I can?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Caios said.

“Great, if you can zoom in on the corner there where Caios is standing.” Conan directed the cameraman, who zoomed in as requested until only Caios could be clearly seen. Again the crowd gave a positive response towards what was being shown. “Now, … I’m not sure you realized this at the time. But I think that shirt is too small for you. I mean look at that! It looks like you’re about to have a wardrobe malfunction.”

“No it’s meant to go like that.” Caios laughed, “I’m actually not showing anything more then you see with some of the other girls in the picture, I just wanted to do something a little different. It was actually a really good fit, so no, sorry, there was no wardrobe malfunction.”

“Oh but that’s not all!” Conan added, “I wonder if you can show what’s immediately behind Caios here.” The scene showing off the zoomed in image of Caios darkened except for a small oval that was highlighting something hung just behind Caios. “Now correct me if I’m wrong, but is that a whip? or a lasso? What are you planning to do with that thing!”

“Ok that one’s not mine.” Caios laughed along with the crowd as the camera went back to her. “It was really just part of the set. But there was a point where we thought about using it on some of the other girls.”

“Oh?” Conan said with blatant curiosity. “Do go on, I’m sure we’d all love to hear this one.”

“We were just joking about it, I’m afraid, I don’t think anyone of us were serious about it.” Caios explained, “See a few of us there were pretty shy about the whole thing.”

“I’m guessing that wasn’t you.” Conan said sarcastically, “And again, I’m only going by the way you look like you’re just about to flash everyone there.”

“No, I was pretty comfortable about the whole thing, actually.” Caios said, “But if you notice next to me is Tarberetta. She’s really sweet and very skilled, but was extremely nervous about the whole thing. She nearly bolted out of there at one point. A few of us joked that we might have to tie her down for the photo shoot.”

“I would have loved to see those pictures.” Conan joked, though it was probably true.

“I’m sure,” Caios smiled, “But in the end she made it through, and she wasn’t the only nervous one there. Fortunately we were all very supportive with each other so it really made the whole thing very easy to shoot. Which is good ‘cause I think in the end we really wanted to do something that would sell a lot and to really provide as much profits as possible to help the kids with.”

“Oh I’m sure these will fly off the shelves!” Conan smiled. “I’m planning to take this one home!”

“I’m planning to buy one as soon as I leave here.” Alex Barewind spoke up again, “Just don’t tell my wife.” Again the expertly delivered line drew a laugh from the crowd.

“Don’t worry, it’s just between you, me, Caios, and the Millions of people watching.” Conan joked as he gave an overexaggerated wink towards the camera. Once the crowd settled down he continued. “So why don’t you talk about some of the other ladies in here?”

“Well I don’t want to give away too much.” Caios said, “You’ll just have to buy the calendar if you want all the juicy details. Like I said before, next to me is Tarberetta who really does glow like that when she’s nervous by the way. Below me is Sky-One, she’s a darling, very cheerful and smart. Behind us with the wings is Kai, she’s a lot fun let me tell you. She’s a real troublemaker, so obviously we got along great. Just in front of her is Blazing Tiger who is naturally shy and quiet, but she can be quite the spitfire in action. Then on the ground in front is Heather Mcbrae, she’s a very straight laced gal, a really good girl that one. There in the middle there you have Rowr and Valkarye.”

“Now let me stop you there a second.” Conan interrupted, “Rowr is certainly one of the most famous heroines in Paragon if not the world.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Caios agreed, “She’s, I would say, probably the most photogenic tiger and hero I’ve ever met.”

“And that’s Valkarye in front of her, right?” Conan continued, “I noticed Rowr has her tail wrapped around Valkarye. Just from the way they look here they’re certainly being very friendly with each other.”

“Oh well they’re certainly close friends.” Caios smiled. “So I’m sure they were just being playful at the time.”

“So what can you tell us about the other people in here?” Conan asked.

“Well let see,” Caios continued, “Just next to them is Moggie who’s always a pleasure to be around.”

“I gotta say, I love how she’s leaning over like that and winking at the camera.” Conan said, “And are those handcuffs on the bed post next to her?”

“Again, those were just part of the set as far as I know.” Caios laughed before she continued, “Now in front of her is Imp, that is Plasma Imp. She was extremely cheerful and playful the whole time. Next to them on the window is Dragonberry, she’s always fun to be around, and along with Imp was very goofy and playful the whole time. The two of them really made it hard not to enjoy the whole thing. And last but not least, all the way in the back there is Robin Magnum. She was also very shy and sweet, she was up there with Tarby in terms of how nervous she was with the whole thing, which was why she was standing in the back corner there.”

“Well that’s awesome.” Conan said, “You’re all very lovely and very sexy ladies and I wish you the best of luck with that.”

“Why thank you Conan.” Caios smiled.

“Once again the calendar is called ‘Heroines After Dark’ and is available now in stores everywhere!” Conan said to the camera, “All proceeds go to the Paragon City Children’s Hospital. So go out there and buy as many as you can! We’ll be right back after these commercials.”

The camera panned out to the three of them talking and laughing while Conan continued looking through the calendar. The crowd continued to cheer on cue while the scene faded to show the “Late Night with Conan O’Brian” logo once again. The screen fades to black before the next commercial comes on.

In all seriousness, let's be honest, how many people will roll a new character, waste a week grinding that toon up to level 15, JUST to experience the new Faultline? Are you seriously going to level a character through 15 levels of content you've already done a hundred times, just to experience 10 levels of new content? And then what? If the only reason you rolled the new character is for this content what are you going to do with this character once you've finished it?

I'm sure there's a bunch of people that might roll a new alt for this, but relatively speaking you're talking about a tiny percetage. Everyone else either just happen to have a character in that level range, or more likely they outleveled the zone long ago. Those people will be able to spend maybe an hour exploring and getting the new badges before they're bascially done with that zone.

I personally will definately be rolling alts, but not for the new content, but just cause I always have a ton of character ideas I can make. The chances of any one of them reaching level 15 is pretty slim. Despite all the alts I have and will roll, I have never made an alt just to experience new content. The only exception being perhaps when CoV first came out. Even then, the only reason to make an alt is because you want to play a new character. Maybe someday in the future one of these alts will be high enough level to actually enjoy the new Faultline, Maybe. Until then it's hard to find any enjoyment out of it unless you have a character already in that level range.

Go ahead and ramble your stupid comments at me, go ahead and pity me, whatever you want to make yourselves feel better. But my point is that realisitcally speaking, this is mostly wasted content for a lot of people. Denying content for gaining levels doesn't encourage people to roll alts, it just discourages them from playing their other characters. It's a valid concern that I feel really hinders the enjoyment of this game, especially when they do finally release new content that you're blocked off from.

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Faultline has undergone some pretty radical changes since its original state as a Trial zone. This guide describes some of the background fiction to the changes, and also includes an in-depth look at the zone by Cryptic’s own Melissa “War Witch” Bianco, game designer.

Read here for her perspective on the changes.

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Nice.

Too bad the entire zone, the storylines, the contacts, and the easter eggs are pretty much totally useless for those of us who already outleveled the zone.

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We've only reduced one power, since it was a kluge fix to the problem that is no longer necessary. Essentially, Super Reflexes power sets Defense will be the same in effectiveness at Melee, Ranged and AoE ranges. Currently, SR has a bonus vs AoE attacks that was added to help them against tougher opponents with higher Base To Hit values.

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As a long time SR user... I am actually happy to hear this.

1: It makes more sense from an RP standpoint.
2: It makes the choice to dump evasion that much easier
3: With these changes in place come I-7, we wil now get a free respec as this will probably be considered a major change.

I'm giddy.

To Arcanaville, thank you very much for your diligence in getting help for we defense based folks. If this change isn't proof that a player can put forth an idea that is actually implemented in game, I don't know what is.

I bow to your beautiful math and testing.

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I am equally giddy of this change. I don't think I would drop evasion once this took effect however, as it still provides a DefDebuff resistance. Rather my hope is that they will reduce the end cost of evasion to be more in line with the other toggles and compensate for the defense loss. If that is the case I will gladly welcome this "nerf".

Cool, I'll be there all three days. Look forward to seeing you guys. (Again for some of you.) It would be nice if you can let us know a good time to see you guys for those of us that will be attending. Or if you prefer a good time for us to NOT bother you.

Caios: Hey, I’m Caios and I just called to say a few things.

First off, Vanessa, Stop inviting me to your damned orgies!! I swear every time it’s the same thing, oh sure you say you’re concocting some evil plan to take over the mind of everyone in the city, and then conveniently leave your current address with a contact so I can find you. And sure enough everytime I get there it’s all “oh no, nothing like that, we’re just having a ‘party’, care to join us?”. The Answer is no, always is, always will be.

And Doc, Vazzi, keep your dominatrix wanna be freaks out of my way. I mean seriously, no one find them the least bit attractive, and I know a thing or two about attractive undead types. Which reminds me, put some fresh blood in your zombies, for crying out loud. I mean those things are just putrid, maybe if you kept their blood supply fresh they wouldn’t puke as much.

Oh, and “Clockie”, you still owe me twenty bucks for keeping Fyre too busy to play with all your “toys”. If you don’t pay up I may just have her do Synapse another “favor”.

And stop snickering Vandal, or I’ll sic her on your little robots as well.

DJ: I’m sorry, Miss Chaos was it?

Caios: Just Caios.

DJ: Right, just Caios, did you have a question?

Caios: You want a question? Alright. Vanessa, when are you going to STOP inviting me to your orgies? Doc, why don’t you put fresh blood in your zombies? And CK, when are you gonna pay the money you owe me?

… Oh and in closing I just want to add that the viscous rumors of me being a vampire are utterly untrue, thank you.

Five for Fighting's Superman

It makes so much sense for the character as a whole, though most people probably won't understand why, which is why it's SO cool.

Either that or the Triple H theme that Motorhead did, for when she's kicking a$$!

Yeah, The best way to deal with KSing on an RP server is to figure out an RP solution. For example, my character is the type that will help people if she feels they need it. So if I really think that someone needs my help I'll jump in and help them out, even if they didn't ask. This is the same reason why if I hear some citizen ask for help, my character will always help them, even if they're gray con minions that offer no xp or Purple bosses that will kill me if I stay too long. On the other hand, she's not going to jump in and help if she doesn't think there's a reason to. So if I think you can handle the guys you're fighting, I won't get involved, unless, of course, you scream for help.

Of course, people are sensitive about the KSing issue so if I'm helping somebody out, I'll try to give him the last hit so he can get the credit for it. But RP wise, I don't worry about it. So if I happen to get the last hit in and the guy I was helping starts yelling at me for KSing, my character will just shrug and think to herself "what an idiot" and just walk away. Then I'll send a tell (which are pretty much always considered OOC) explaining to him that I was just RPing my character.

P.S. and for the RP newbs;
ooc - out of character
ic - in character

People in RP servers will talk ooc all the time. Not nearly as much as other players, but it does happen often enough. The difference is that they specify they are speeking out of character first. Either by wrapping their ooc text in double parenthesis, putting 'OOC' before their speach, and several other combinations thereof. Also there is never any 733+ speak or anything lame like that. Often there are acronyms, (BRB, ty, afk, etc.) but they almost exclusively occur in OOC text.