Dante

Good to see you back pal, hope the festival was good.

We're in the middle of a task force at the moment and I'm not sure whether we can invite more people to it once it's started. Can anyone confirm this? Otherwise we may have people without a team to join on Thursday.

No, I just like to include all of them for good luck.

I agree, it has become a most bodacious event. Dude.

Personally, I think recaps will be very handy as I certainly can't get there every night and if plots start developing people will need some way to catch up (like me).

As for directions, I always click on the Fateweaver to get myself there.

[ QUOTE ]
And just think of the wonders TV celebrity status might do for Saff's musical career

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed, but she was rather hoping to keep her identity secret. Don't be surprised if she goes all shy around the cameras...

Oh gods.... this could be interesting....

No worries pal, if you're there, you're there. I think that we should be prepared for people who are going to turn up at the normal time without reading these boards and then won't be able to join the taskforce because we will have started. I would recommend that anyone who doesn't know that we're starting early or doing to taskforce team up with anyone else on the team and do a separate mission. Not the perfect solution I know, but I'm laying money on people turning up at 7:30 as usual.

I agree, it's a tough one. I occassionally play a character who is very sarcastic and cynical but as with all text-based communication, it doesn't always come across in the way that it was meant and I end up being accused of griefing someone. Sometimes even when you're being careful, someone could end up getting offended.

If you don't want to delete the character or stop playing them, you could always tone things down a little. Change his appearance a bit and as suggested, perhaps tone down the accent a little. Ireland has a wealth of myth to draw on so you could always slide sideways into playing a fairy/fae/dwarf/sidhe type creature. Just a suggestion but I hope the situation resolves itself.

I try not to psychoanalyse any of my characters to much as they reveal some disturbing facts about me. I mean, why do I feel I can RP better with female characters? Who knows.

My main, Dante, is almost where I'd like to see myself when I get to 40 (except for the flying, immortality, magic etc...) so that can work as an extension of myself. Other characters are inspired by people I know, storylines in the game or other heroes (although, of course, without infringing copyright or just playing a lame rip-off). Sometimes I've just wanted to try something I've never done before. For example, most of my characters are quite "dark" in their outlook and origin so when I rolled Amber I wanted to play someone innocent, positive and somewhat naive just to see what it was like. Good luck in finding your inspiration, I'm sure it will come in time.

Email from Saffron to Meriam
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Hey! Did you hear the news? Sabrina’s been arrested! I got this message from the Ministry saying that she’d been deported! For like, crimes in her home country or something. I can’t believe it! I’ve been watching the news for any mention but it seems to have been hushed up. What should we do? The poor girl.

On other things, glad you’re ok. That drink and a chat is available any time. I may need it soon myself. D’s sweet an all but he seemed a bit drunk when he came to the open mike so I’m not sure if he’s actually interested or was just a bit tipsy that night. It’s not like I get chatted up very often.

Did you get a chance to check out that bear guy as well? He looks scary but his fur’s really soft. Real strong too it seems, I saw him pull apart a couple of zombies with his bare hands. I don’t think I’d want to annoy him, cuddly or not. Seems like the Ministry is sending a few new reinforcements to us these days.

Oh, and do you know who’s been eating all the food at the base? I went there the other day and the cupboard was empty although I could’ve sworn it was full last week.

See you soon.


Saff

Good on you for opening this up to the community. I suspect that it's probably in character and if the player had a real problem with you, they would send a tell or something. But it's a good point, some things do press people's buttons and it's better to be open and honest about it all and see whether someone genuinely is offended.

I second that. If we're going to start at 7, could I suggest that we all meet at Synapse ten minutes or so beforehand? We should also put a note on the SG Message of the Day so that anyone who doesn't get a chance to see these boards can read it.

I'm afraid that I only get to play during the evenings (mostly) and Wednesdays are a big no go for me. If we could do it at our usual time (maybe half an hour earlier perhaps), that would be preferred for me although good luck to everyone if they decide to do it this evening.

Ooh, so we can all set up homes in the tower? That'd be cool. Although some of the neighbours... I dunno, you want to be the one to tell them to turn the TV down?

[ QUOTE ]
I don’t know how to say this but there was this phone call last week. Between you and Sabrina.

[/ QUOTE ]

((Apologies, these are the kind of stupid mistakes I make writing when very tired. I hope that it's obvious that I meant the conversation between Saffron and Sabrina, not the way I wrote it. Sorry everyone. ))

Global Name: @Dante
Server: Union.
City of Heroes/City of Villains
RP Characters:

CoH
---
Dante Carver
Lady Lillith
Unit 29
Tenebrae
Dryadora
Anathema
The Amber Banshee
Pyroclastus

CoV
---
Dark Rose Tara
Lord Erebus
Incisor
Unit 42
Lady Imogen

Type of RP: Casual, In missions, statue and clocktower.
Can be contacted: In game mail, Forum PM's.
Times on: A couple of evenings a week, mainly Thursdays for teaming with SG or Mondays when I'm up for anything.
Timezone: British Standard Time.

I'm cool with the idea of a motif of some sort. I mean, we could just decide on a colour scheme of some sort if we wanted to, but a logo can be adapted to anyone's costume.

Wednesday? Argh, would be so good but unlikely. I will have to see. I've never had the time to do a whole taskforce so it would be a shame to miss out. I'll see what I can arrange.

Although Amber's at 17, Unit 29's only at 14/15 so if we need a tank for Thursday, I'm sure he would be able to come.

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Stalingrad. Have a Kitten. Of Evil.

[/ QUOTE ]

Are those the ones that shred the curtains and leave little 'presents' for you on the carpet?

Should be there tonight with someone or other. Glad that this is *touches wood* going well. I hope it continues.

[ QUOTE ]
I guess I was also a bit curious as to how welcomed a new face at GG would be. From reading the forums for a while, I get the impression that most of the regular GG crowd know each other fairly well, is it cliquey?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say it would be like anyone new turning up to a group of people who are familiar with each other. Just turn up and say hello. I'm not a regular myself (too many RL commitments...) but each time I have turned up people have been welcoming and friendly even though I must confess I was intimidated too in the beginning.

Email from Saffron to Meriam.
---------------------------

Hi there. Thought I’d drop you a line as I didn’t get to speak to you much last night. How are things?

I don’t know how to say this but there was this phone call last week. Between you and Sabrina. I think a lot of us heard it but I didn’t want to bring it up in company. I saw that you and Sabrina were chatting last night when I came but I didn’t want to interrupt you.

We whooped that freak’s [censored] big time last night though didn’t we? I was real scared though. I am in big trouble though. My friend Rebecca is furious that we took him on. She’s been wanting a piece of him for ages now.

I do hope you are ok. But if you want to come and chat, you know where I am.


Saffron

Wish I could come but I'm away for the weekend. Hopefully I'll be back for Monday when either Tara or one of my alts will turn up.

Twas a good night and fun to take down my first AV. Who's next?

Those screenies are going to form the basis of my wallpaper for the week. Good times all.

No probs with a Kheldian on the team, we did have one briefly. Though it will be a shame to lose Hyper, he was kinda fun. But it's all up to you pal, whatever makes it fun for you.

Nah, I thought he was funny. And the accent came across real well. I didn't get to speak to you (I was Tara) but I was listening. Leprechauns rock.

Damn man, that sucks. I hope you do get on later.

The Vaz is fine with me tonight. Amber's after anyone who does kidnapping so he'll be great to go after. See you all soon.

It was late afternoon when Saffron arrived at Dr Alexander’s workshop. The days since her live performance had passed in a rush. Even though she’d only performed three songs in her set, she’d been passed a card by some chap who had invited her to come to his recording studio some time. Although that had been exciting, she wasn’t sure whether it was that which had blown her mind that night.

As she stepped inside the cavernous warehouse in the Agosy estate, she saw Unit 29 spread out on a table. Literally spread out. Lying in pieces, she saw Dr Alexander sat at the enormous desk pouring over a thoroughly dismantled 29. If it hadn’t have been for 29’s head and torso being still in one piece, she would not have recognised him.

“What the hell happened!?” she cried as Dr Alexander looked up to greet her.

“Hello Miss Amber,” he said. “I’m afraid we had a bit of an accident here.”

“A bit of an accident?” she said incredulously. “It looks like he’s been to war!”

“In a way, you’re correct,” he said, returning to where he was working on 29’s leg. “We had a rather unexpected turn of events over the weekend, hence why I was unable to attend your performance.”

“What happened?”

“Well, it all started happily enough,” he continued. “On Friday I discovered that another one of the HAICUs had developed intelligent cognition. Unit 42 was becoming interested in his environment and was calculating abstract concepts.”

“How exciting,” said Saffron. “Where is he?”

“Ah, that would be why Unit 29 is in pieces in front of me,” said Dr Alexander with some reluctance. “I was glad to see another Unit becoming sentient but on examination it seems his neural net was very different to 29’s. It was much more unruly, almost wild as if it belonged to a wild animal of some sort. 29 was quite chuffed at first, he thought he was going to finally have a brother of sorts. However…”

“However…?”

“42 is not like 29 in any way it seems. While 29 was on downtime, it decided to plug itself into 29’s net and copied all the information within it. Rather than reading it all slowly as 29 did, 42 just took it all in one go. He went from being neophyte to expert in one download.”

“But why do that?” asked Saffron.

“Jealousy perhaps? In truth, I don’t know,” confessed Dr Alexander. “It seems that Unit 42 is a lot more, ahem, direct than 29. His neural net has evolved in a different pattern. He may have the same information as 29 but how he interprets it is very different. It’s certainly the only reason I can think of as to why he’d try and kill me.”

“He did what!?” said Saffron, surprised.

“Unit 42 is quite homicidal it seems,” stated Dr Alexander quite calmly. “He said that it was natural for the created to destroy the creator. If it hadn’t have been for 29 here stepping in, I’m fairly certain he would have squished me. 29 was able to fight him out to Independence Port and disable him but at great cost along the way.”

Saffron looked over the table where 29 lay dismantled. “Will he be ok?” she asked.

“Oh yes,” said the doctor, unfazed. “He’ll be up and around in no time. His jump drives are shot to pieces but I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something, don’t you worry your little head about it.” He reached up and ruffled her ginger hair, much to her annoyance.

“What about Unit 42?” she asked. Dr Alexander shrugged.

“Hopefully lying at the bottom of the sea. I should get a dredger and find him sometime but I think poor old 29 requires my attention more don’t you think?”

Saffron nodded in agreement. As the doctor resumed his repair work, she picked up Unit 29’s static face. Maybe it was just the light, but he looked tragically sad.

Inspired by a question on the main board as to who your hero’s nemesis would be, my chronic altitis caused me to create a villain opposite for all of my heroes. Fortunately, most of them have been culled now but one or two remain and the following is a by-product of a possible meeting between my main and his adversary in the time honoured (and incredibly clichéd) tradition of a chess match. Please feel free to leave feedback, it’s always appreciated.

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Somewhere, a long time ago, a hand reached across a chess board and moved its bishop forward. The hand in question was old and knarled and the chess board ornate and beautifully inlaid, the pieces carved from finest ivory and rosewood. The bishop, so gracefully positioned in its new place lasted approximately ten seconds before it was removed by a younger, better manicured hand and replaced by one of the rosewood knights.

“You git,” said the owner of the wrinkled hand, taking a sip from the glass of coffee sat next to the board. There was a sigh of contentment from the opposite side as the offensive player sat back in his chair.

“You wanted to play this damned game,” came his voice.

“I haven’t the faintest clue why,” replied the first person. “I just thought that it was the type of thing that we do. Drink coffee and make stupid allegories out of our lives using the medium of chess.”

“Type of thing we do?” came the response, mimicking the first man, “As in heroes and villains? Where on earth is it written that we have to sit down and play chess like civilised men? I’ve read most works of the human hand and I’ve never come across it.”

“So you’re a hero now are you?” asked the first person with some humour. “When did that happen pray tell?”

“Haven’t a clue,” said he of the manicured hands, “I think it might have been 1564, bar brawl in Spain. I was hit with a rather large bottle of gin because I asked a man to apologise to the landlord’s daughter. I seem to remember fighting for others after that point. In fact, surely that means that I should be playing with the white pieces?”

“I’m not about to start the whole damned thing over again!” came the angry response from the other person in frustration.

“Ok, just asking,” said the other person, mollified. “You happy being a villain?”

The first person stretched out their wrinkled hand and moved one of their pawns into a sacrificial position.

“Well, life is more fun without a conscience to bother you,” was the considered response. A sudden thought struck him. “Does this mean that I have to develop a maniacal laugh and wear lots of black?”

A shrug was his opponent’s response.

“I don’t know,” said his voice. “I thought I was the one that wore most black out of the pair of us.”

“And the armies,” continued the first person, “am I going to have to raise an army of the undead to fight you…?”

The second person leapt out of his chair and drawing a short rapier, thrust it through the chest of the first person, piercing cloth, flesh, bone and finally the chair as it was driven through his body. The victim gave a strangled cry as the thin blade bit deeply, pinning him to the antique furniture. The second person stood back, admiring his work. It didn’t surprise him when his target raised his head and glared at him.

“Now that was just… rude!” stated the man as he started to remove the sword from his chest. The second man leaned in and thrust the sword back in, this time right up to its hilt. More blood leaked from the mouth of the first as it sunk into him.

“That,” said the second man, pausing for effect, “was to remind you that I am a killer. And that I will end you without compunction should I ever find you interfering with humanity again, chess match or no chess match.”

His threat delivered, he spun on his heel and headed for the door, polished leather shoes clicking their way to the exit.

“You’re rather violent for a hero aren’t you?” said the man in the chair, staring after him. “They’re never going to make an action figure out of you, you know.”

The man stopped at the door and glanced over his shoulder.

“Erebus my old friend,” he said, “If I can have my way, they are never even going to know that I exist.”

And then he was gone. The old man sat back in the chair, oblivious to the sabre sticking from his chest. He reached out and took one of the pieces from his absent opponent’s ranks, knocking it over with his knight.

“Oh my dear Dante,” he muttered, considering the piece he’d picked up, “always making the same mistake. Always leaving your queen exposed.”

Then he sat back in his chair and quietly died. Once again.


FIN