Dante

“No way! I will not accept it!”

Tenebrae stormed across to the other side of the rooftop, quite determined to leave. Saffron dashed up to him, intent on stopping him.

“Andrew, please…” she begged.

“No Saff, this has gone beyond a joke now!” he shouted, “You’re not even old enough to drink and you’re hanging around with vampires!?”

“He’s just part of the team,” she said, “I don’t even know him that well. Please, can’t you see sense?”

“Sense!?” he shouted, “Do you have any idea what those things did to me? How they tortured me? All to make their beloved hybrid? No Saff, vampires are evil and that’s the end of it. You have to leave this team of yours now and if I ever come across this ‘nice’ vampire of yours I will destroy him. Is that clear?”

“But…!” she began to protest.

“Either you quit,” he demanded, “or your mother gets to find out what her daughter’s been up to recently. You choose.”

“You can’t do that,” she stated firmly, “we had a deal.”

“Well now I’m breaking it,” he retorted, “You’ve got until tomorrow.”

Turning his back on her, he leapt from the rooftop, disappearing into the shadows beyond that he preferred.

Saffron sank to her knees as the sun dipped below the horizon. It wasn’t fair. She’d let down her team-mates and now she was letting down her cousin. She knew he hated them but Tristan had seemed ok. Cold, but ok. How could he ask her to choose between his trust and the team she felt so comfortable in? Life stinks, she thought as the sky behind her turned purple in the fading light.

I have only recently started fielding a teenage hero (already in an SG) but I'd be curious to give this a try even if only for the social aspects. An evening would be the logical time, but what day?

Amber will be around from about 5:30 till 8:30 tonight so I will be keeping a look out for you all. Hope to see you tonight.

Monthly events on a Monday night? Sounds grand. I will do my best to be there. Not sure which alt it will be though.

Extracts from the Diary of Saffron Mackenzie, The Amber Banshee

Thursday 8 June 2006

I am so miserable right now. Last night was going so well up until the last half hour. I got asked to lead and ended up wandering into Perez Park. We all got confused and lost and so many people ended up getting hurt, it was terrible! I’ve decided I’m never going to lead the team again, I can’t do it. I really screwed up.

There was also some new guy there last night called Hyper and he really was. He kept hitting on me though, gave me the creeps. He can’t seem to sit still for five minutes as if he’s always got to be on the move. I was the only girl on the team which was kind of nice but also a bit lonely.

The weirdest thing is, I met this Tristan Moyle guy. Turns out he’s a vampire! After what Andrew had told me about them, I was real scared. But he seems ok, if a bit odd. I don’t know what to do. Maybe it’s just the vampyrii that are evil. I mean, Andrew’s half vampire and he seems ok (apart from the temper that is).

Got a letter from Tara. She says she’s depressed and bored. At least I’m not the only one.

I'll second that. In fact, the IC teaming is making the rest of the game seem bland in comparison. Bring on more IC teaming I say!

Personally, I'm not that keen on the Hollows but acknowledge that there's some good XP to be had there. Plus, it would be great to see the whole team together as a 'task force' if you will, interacting with each other. I look forward to seeing you all there.

This could make for an interesting evening....!

Any team want to take Amber? I may be a little late on tomorrow night but hopefully not too late.

Interesting idea. Might help us gel as a team a bit more.

My game times are sporadic but I am on all night two Mondays out of four so I will always be looking for IC team ups then if I'm around. I will be looking at the Militia channel and also Fusion FM which I belive has been mentioned before. I have also taken to displaying "Roleplayer" in my team search but I prefer a Tel first to establish if someone IC is asking me to team. If anyone wants to get hold of me, PM me or find me at @Dante in game. I intend to be getting Amber up a few levels tomorrow night so that we're at a good level on Thursday. I'll be looking to see if there are any other Rpers out there.

[ QUOTE ]
((Always a great read this thread))

[/ QUOTE ]

((Agreed. So much great stuff from everyone!))
-----------------------------------------------------------

Itch, itch, itch…

“So, can anyone tell me in what way could Da Vinci’s portrait of the Mona Lisa be considered surreal?”

Mr Bannister stood at the front of the classroom, scanning the sea of bemused faces all waiting to see if someone braver was going to answer the question. During the silence, he was acutely aware of someone near the back of the class fidgeting.

“Miss Mackenzie?” he said, in a manner to draw attention to her. Her head shot up, suddenly fully alert.

“Yes sir?” she asked, oblivious to what had been occurring in the class.

“Are you entirely comfortable there?” he asked, clearly irritated by her inattention.

“Yes sir,” she replied, lying through her teeth.

“Good,” he continued. “Then perhaps rather than shuffling on your chair, you could answer my question instead. Or would you rather visit the restroom now?”

The class erupted with laughter. Saffron sat and endured it although she was aware of the uncontrollable blush that had momentarily turned her pale skin bright red. It wasn’t her fault that her legs were itching so much. For the last week, they had constantly irritated her. She had tried everything, every cream and lotion possible but none brought any relief. She knew it wasn’t her clothing, having spent the last week with bare legs, despite the boy’s teasing about going “blind” from the glare.

Later, after more ritual humiliation at the hands of her least favourite tutor, she gathered her books and tried to get out of the class as quickly as possible. The only relief she got was when on the move so she headed out to the college’s tiny field to try and walk off some of the irritation. As she crossed the field, a soccer ball rolled out in front of her. Looking over in the direction where it had come from, she saw a bunch of boys looking back at her.

“Hey gingernut! Give us the ball!” one of them called to her. The other boys sniggered as they always did.

Putting her bag down for one moment, she wandered over to the ball and raised her eyebrows as if to ask whether it was this ball they were referring to.

“C’mon Ghost, give us the damn ball!” they shouted.

Saffron saw red. She hated her nickname just as much as she hated being teased for her hair colour. She kicked the ball as hard as she could towards them, putting all her strength behind it. The ball rocketed through the air, skimming the grass. One boy foolishly tried to intercept it. It slammed into his legs, knocking them out from beneath them. He landed face first in the mud, the ball rolling to a halt the other side of the field.

There was a deathly hush as the rest of the boys gathered around their fallen comrade to help him up, Saffron forgotten about. She picked up her bag and walked away, trying hard to suppress the enormous smile that was threatening to take over her face. She didn’t stop smiling until she got home and by then, she had completely failed to notice that the itching in her legs had stopped.

Hi there.

Just developing a story arc for one of my characters and wanted to know if there was any "mutant intolerance" in Paragon City. I would have thought that with the vast amount of super-powered people about, the population would be fairly tolerant of people "different" to themselves. However, the CoH manual states that mutants are "repected and feared" so is there any sort of misunderstanding or intolerance of them? (Especially at later levels that I haven't got to yet.)

Thanks.

I have just fielded my first teenage character, The Amber Banshee who is 17 but she's already in a SG. If there's going to be a teen SG in the making, I could be interested in fielding another.

@Dante

I don't really know much about bases so I'll go with the majority for now. I am going to need an invite to the SG at some time, hopefully next Thursday unless someone catches me beforehand.

Wow. Haven't seen one of those for a long time. So many alts to choose from. Ah, I'll just go for my current favourite.
----------------------------------------------------------

Given name: Rebecca Rhodes

Hero/Villain name: Anathema (given to her by the press but accepted by her as she considers herself an outcast or pariah to society for her crimes.)

Gender: Female

Age: 31

Powers: Technologically advanced rifle and devices, some cybernetic enhancements.

Description of Powers: Anathema’s rifle was purpose built for her following her trauma. She is able to fire a variety of rounds depending on her circumstances. Rubber bullets and concussion grenades for human/meta-human arrests, live rounds for monsters/undead creatures. Carries a variety of improvised technology to support this.

She has successfully improved her cybernetic implants to allow enhanced movement and speed, the silicon muscles in her legs giving extraordinary speed on flat ground. Her arm, although artificial, carries no superhuman strength but provides extra stability for firing.

Personality: Deeply traumatised by her experiences, Rebecca is extremely shy and can become withdrawn very easily. Once these are overcome however, there is a kind and intelligent person underneath. She suffers occasional mood swings and irrational episodes but these are becoming less frequent with time. Very sensitive when discussing physical appearances, children or hospitals.

Physical Description: 5’ 10” tall, Anathema is very thin for her height. This is mainly due to the effects of her bodily changes. Unable to eat a normal diet, she has lost all the colour in her skin and most of her body fat. The drugs that she has to take to prevent organ rejection turn her hair grey so she combats this by dying it bright colours, most notably green. Her most striking feature is her artificial right arm and her eyepatch which hides her missing right eye.

History/Backstory: Rebecca was once a respected researcher in her field, developing replacement organs for injured or disabled people. This specialism brought her to the attention of Dr Vahzilok who persuaded her to develop new devices and fit them to comatose patients. Once she discovered that the doctor was abducting people from the street and creating monsters, she confronted him and threatened to go to the police. Vahzilok responded by abducting her and taking various body parts from her to fit to his monstrous creations, including her eye, her arm and other organs. To increase her suffering, he anesthetised her body but kept her mind conscious during the procedure so that she could feel every cut of the knife. It was only the intervention of another hero that saved her life.

Rebecca was able to recover and use her expertise to put herself back together as well as develop specialist weapons with which to extract her revenge. Although revenge is her primary motivation for hunting the doctor, she cares deeply for the city that she has grown up in and what has happened to it since the invasion.

The effects of her experiences at the doctor’s hands have caused her massive psychological scarring as she feels personally responsible for the monsters that he has unleashed. To her, every cadaver that she destroys could have been one of the people she worked upon and therefore brings her one step closer to redemption. She is very sensitive over her appearance as the technology she has used to repair herself can cause her to resemble the Eidolons in appearance. There are no mirrors in her apartment.

She has several friends amongst the superhero community, most notably, her flatmate, Tenebrae who has developed quite a crush on her, although she is unaware of this. Recently, due to advice from her therapist, she has taken to meeting with other heroes to try and reduce her psychotic episodes.

Anathema’s confessional can be found here:

http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/sh...fpart=1#513698

It sounds like a good time was had by all. Shame I couldn't make it. Will definitely be there for next time although Amber may well be out on Monday to get levelling up to 10.

Regarding alts, as far as I am aware, our base rent is calculated on the number of members we have so if we all add our alts, we may end up pricing ourselves out of a home. I'm not sure on this point, but I'm sure someone with more experience of SGs can advise.

I was too late to get in on the CoV equivalent but I'm mulling maybe running something similar on Monday nights (real-life commitments depending...). If anyone missed out and thinks they'd like to try the same, let me know. If there's enough takers, maybe we can organise something.

Thank you to all the people who left feedback for my previous effort. Below is the next part, with perhaps one more to follow if I get the chance. Peace.

-----------------------------------------

Absolution - Part 2
-------------------

The explosion ripped through the office, turning furniture and paper into so much burning chaff. Anathema crouched outside of it, hastily fitting another grenade into her rifle. That should have been enough to get their attention, she thought. Standing, she hurried to the other side of the corridor and waited for their approach. Soon enough she heard the tell-tale sound of shuffling zombie feet, far too many of them. She cursed herself, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to deal with more than three at a time. Reaching into her belt, she pulled out a handful of sharp caltrops and tossed them into the hall.

“That might slow them down a bit,” she muttered, checking her rifle was fully set. Damn, she thought, this was going to be so easy as well.

-----------------------------------------------------------


Standing outside Chiron Medical Centre, Rebecca was reminded of stories told to her by doctors years ago about people who were terrified of hospitals. As she stood in its cool shadow, she felt she could relate. It had been a year since she had left this place in a wheelchair, minus her eye, her arm and the other parts of her body that Vahzilok had seen fit to remove. But now she stood outside of it, her robotic arm a satisfactory substitute and her own silicon organs working in the absence of those that had been stolen. She still regretted the eye though, no technology seemed to be able to replace that.

She slightly adjusted the blonde wig she was wearing and the scratchy nurses’ uniform that had been hanging in her wardrobe. Her ID was in order although she prayed no-one would check it. If it wasn’t for the hope of a clue to Vahzilok’s whereabouts, she would never have come back here. Taking a deep breath, she strode up the steps to the front door.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Two down, one to go.

As the mangled corpses collapsed to the ground, Anathema levelled her rifle and sent a round straight through the head of the last one. There was a discordant groan and it slumped, it’s artificial life gone. But there was no time to waste. She could already hear the sound of running feet but this time, they were away from her.

As she entered the now ruined corridor, she could see a man in a suit running away from her. He was almost at the end of the corridor, dashing for the emergency exit. Raising her rifle, she took aim and fired.

The handle to the door sprung away from the door as the sniper round rendered it useless to the escaping man. He turned to see her then chose an alternative route. Anathema ran after him. She pursued him through several rooms of medical equipment, gaining on him with every step. He threw down objects in her path but there really was no point in doing so. She leapt over them effortlessly, the artificial muscles in her legs performing in a way that no human’s ever could.

The man burst through the door and out into the parking lot. He ran across the gravel, trying not to look behind him. She could have shot him then and there but that wouldn’t have been enough. Calling on her legs once again, she shot across the park at the speed of a bullet, ploughing into the back of the man and sending them both sprawling to the ground.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Dr Anthony Blake’s office had proven to be very interesting. Along with several files full of data on “prospective patients” for experimental surgery, there was also an encrypted file on his computer simply named “Chimera”. Unable to open it at his desk, Rebecca had copied the file to disc then stolen it, hoping to make good her escape while she could. It had been on the way down to the fire exit in the basement that it had happened.

Lying on a stretcher in the corridor, a young man, barely an adult was clutching his stomach in obvious pain. She would have walked straight past him if he had not have reached out and grabbed her arm.

“Nurse, when will they operate?” he asked.

Rebecca looked down at the waiting patient. She could have shaken him off, moved on, forgotten about him, it would have been easy. But she stopped, she didn’t know why.

“What are you in for?” she asked.

“Appendicitis,” groaned the man, “they said they’re going to have to take it out. Miss… I’m scared… I’ve never had an operation before…”

Noises screamed in her head. Operation, scalpel, pain, blood… The trauma of being awake while operated on reverberated around her skull, causing her to almost fall. She grasped the stretcher and tried to quell the psychological agony.

“Are you ok?” asked the man.

Rebecca recovered, touched her forehead and tried to ignore her screaming fear of going under the knife. But then she saw the man on the stretcher, with such faith in the doctors that were going to take all the pain away. He didn’t fear in the way that she did, but he needed her. He needed her to tell him that it would be alright.

“I’m ok, just a headache” she said and for a second, she believed it. She looked down at the trolley, the urgency in her mind of catching the doctor gone. “They’re just going to put you to sleep for a little bit. You won’t feel a thing. And when you wake up, the pain will be gone.”

“Won’t I feel anything?” said the man. Rebecca’s lip trembled a little.

“No, nothing at all,” she said, “They’re good doctors, they’ll look after you.”

“Thanks miss,” said the man, who was already looking more relaxed. Rebecca smiled, a rare event for her.

“That’s what I’m here for,” she said and walked on. She didn’t know where those words had come from.

As she walked away, the man suddenly realised how cold and hard her arm had been.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Anathema rolled the doctor over and sat astride him, wanting to get a good look at his face. She levelled the gun at him so that his eyes almost crossed to focus on the barrel as she stared down it. The sight of his eyes made her jump. She knew them from somewhere…

“Don’t kill me!” he cried.

“I should kill you right now you piece of filth!” she shouted. “Where is he!? Where is Vahzilok!?”

“I don’t know!” replied the stricken surgeon, “I don’t know anything about him apart from what’s in the papers!”

“You’re lying!” she stated, tightening her grip on the gun.

“I’m not! I swear!” he managed, “I saw those things, and then I saw you so I ran! I thought you were one of them!”

Anathema grimaced. He had a point. She had used technology stolen from Vahzilok to repair herself, should couldn’t help but looking like one of the Eidolons that he revered so much. Sometimes it was hard to look in the mirror.

“They were trying to kidnap me!” he continued, “And then there were these explosions and I thought you were after me!”

Anathema drew a deep breath. She stood up and allowed him to get up. She hadn’t quite relaxed her grip yet but the words were ringing round her head. What if he was right? What if he was just a bystander who had been caught in the crossfire? What if he was the surgeon meant to be operating on the boy with appendicitis right now?

It was too much. She put her hand to her head, the tears coming too easily now. Her body, so different from what it had been. Was she any different to the Eidolons? Were they now her siblings? She sunk to her knees, not sure what she was meant to do now. It was all so damn confusing.

The man began to back away from her, watching this confused and crazy person fall to pieces inside. When he was a sufficient distance, he turned and began to run.

Anathema cried, trying to gather the pieces of Rebecca’s memories. They were scattered and confused and made no sense at all. It was like trying to pick up grains of rice with a fork.

“Such pretty eyes,” came the voice. “I know someone who needs one of them…”

And there she was, again. Tied to a table, sedated but conscious. Over her, a man leant in as Vahzilok watched. She saw the scalpel descending towards her eye. Her eye, now gone… Her eye, lost… Her eye… his eyes! His eyes! She knew them and cursed them!

Standing, she raised her rifle again and fired an angry slug of rubber across the parking lot. It struck the fleeing doctor in the back, causing him to cry out and collapse against one of the cars.

As the car alarm screamed its protest, hard leather boots clicked across the lot as the doctor saw his doom coming for him…

-----------------------------------------------------------

When the authorities turned up to find Doctor Blake suspended by his leg from the fire escape, a strip of cloth bound tightly around his blackened and bruised eyes, it was the graffiti on the wall next to him that confused them most.

In blood red letters, her message to the world read:

“In the land of the blind, I SEE ALL!”


FIN

Just remembered, I'd like to say a big hello to all the new people who have joined if I haven't done so already. My character, Amber, won't be there tonight either but I'm sure I'll see you around soon.

I agree, there seems to be enough people around to form another group on Monday. I would love to volunteer to run a second group but I'm pretty new to CoV and my Mondays can be a little too sporadic for me to commit to it fully.

However, I will be on CoV on Monday night and will be displaying "Roleplayer" in my team search text if people want to contact me and perhaps form another RP villain group (if people don't mind us nicking the idea). I'll keep an eye open for any rogue RPers out there.

A parcel arrives at the address of each Militia member with the following note attached:

“Hi all! It’s me, Amber. I don’t know who got these last night but I’ve been told to send them out to you all. My friend Dr Alexander says that when I sing, I do so at the natural frequency of my target, creating a feedback loop that destabilises them on a molecular level. I don’t know what that means but apparently, it’s not good for you guys either so he’s made these earplugs that’ll tune out my song but will still allow us to hear each other.

See you all next time! Byeeeeeeee!!!!”

Extracts from the Diary of Saffron Mackenzie, The Amber Banshee

Tuesday 30 May 2006

I’ve just got back in and I’m exhausted. What a night! I got to meet so many new people in the team, they’re really cool. We went to Kings Row and fought this HUGE robot monster. It took ages. And then there was this new guy that turned up, Jay-C. I think he’s a wrestler, I’m going to have to ask Mark about him. Turns out, he’s an alien, but a good alien, not like the Rikti thankfully.

We took down another drug den, then ended up in the Hollows. Both Mom and Andrew would go ape if they knew I’d been there. I got knocked out twice and had to go to hospital. The guys were really sweet about it, kept blaming themselves for me getting hurt, bless them. I think a few of them are from Kings Row themselves. It’s not much to look at but the rent’s cheap. I’ll look there after my birthday. Going to bed now, I ache. And my legs are throbbing for some reason…

Well if there are enough people wanting to form another team, I'm sure that it could be arranged. I guess it's a case of supply and demand.

Hi chaps. The time is fast approaching when we choose our travel powers. What are people going for? I'm just nosey.

I'll be there!

Wow, I've missed out on this one clearly. If there are any spare slots, Mondays are my gaming night so I'd be more than happy to sign up for any slots that are left.