Ex_Libris

Martin awoke to a commotion in the hall. The shouting had reached a fever pitch when he stepped groggily through his room door. The noise led him past the nurse’s station to the medication storage area, where the sight that met him there chilled him to the bone. A teenager wearing Freakshow colors, and sporting a couple of cybernetic enhancements was at the medicine locker, holding off a dozen nurses, orderlies, and doctors with an arm that had a wicked-looking jagged blade where his hand should be. His other arm was locked around the throat of a terrified woman.

Martin’s mother.

“Put all the drugs in the bag! NOW!” the thug screamed, indicating the duffle bag on the floor.

Martin never felt so helpless in his life. He knew he might be able to do something to stop this, but he didn’t dare approach for fear of shutting down his mother’s heart again. The gangbanger had the ragged edge of the blade against Martin’s mother’s throat, and was digging gouges into her skin because he was twitching and shaking so wildly. It was obvious that he was either on something, coming down off of something, or both.

“I mean it! I’ll do her! Right here! Fill that bag, now!!”

“Look, don’t hurt her. She didn’t do anything to you,” it was nurse Grey. “If you’ll just calm down, we’ll give you what you want.”

Martin fought to control his anger. It bubbled threateningly, just beneath the surface of his psyche. Since he started using his martial arts training to control it, he had become aware of his temper, crouched just behind his consciousness. Martin had begun using visualization to enhance his calm, and imagined his mind as a still serene lake, with a constantly brewing storm on the horizon. Nurse Grey had described his countenance at times as “eerily calm”. Now here he was, bending all of his will to keep ripples out of the water, but the thunder was already sounding in his head. Across the scene, Nurse Grey looked pointedly at him. She knew what was going on behind his eyes.

“Which drugs do you want? We’ll get them,” Nurse Grey offered, trying to defuse the situation.

“The blue ones. And the yellow ones. And give me some bottles of the clear stuff.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific,” said Nurse Grey, an unmistakable air of desperation in her voice.

“ARE YOU MESSING WITH ME?!?” the thug screamed.

“No, no! It’s just that there are hundreds of medications in there, and many of them are yellow or blue, and most of the bottles have clear liquid. Maybe if you could tell me what they do, I could narrow it down.”

Martin had his anger under control, and was trying to determine if he was willing to chance some fine control over his power. He hadn’t tried anything so exacting yet, and the creep’s mechanical arm was positioned in such a way as to be dangerously close to Martin’s mother’s heart. Martin would have a margin for error of only a couple of inches.

“The blue ones, they waste you real good, and the yellow ones make you fly. The clear stuff you shoot. It takes the edge off.”

“I need more. Please. I want to help, but I have to know what you need.”

“Just put it ALL in the bag! NOW!”

“I can’t do that. This bag is far too small. It’s only a duffle, and this storage locker is full of medications.”

At this, the thug’s eyes gleamed with avarice. He began trembling in frustration and confusion. “You’re messing with me, aren’t you? I TOLD you not to mess with me!!”

“I’m not! Please, I..”

“DON’T! MESS! WITH! ME!!” the thug spat, and drew the rusted edge of his blade across Mrs. Thorne’s throat. So deep was the cut that she was dead almost instantly. He dropped her body, and lunged at Nurse Grey.

“NO, MOM!!!!!!” Martin screamed, as he dove towards his mother’s side. He cradled her lifeless head in his lap, and sobbed.

With Nurse Grey under his arm now, the thug yelled, “You see what happens when you mess with me? You just cost this feeb his mommy! Now you give me what I need NOW!!”

Martin had been sitting on his knees at the feet of the thug, and caught the back of the thug’s arm aross the temple, sending Martin sprawling eight feet away, but he was back on his feet in a half-heartbeat. Nurse Grey trembled, and the thug foolishly assumed in his drug-addled delusion that the shivering was out of fear of him. Martin had snapped a glare onto the thug like a pronouncement of doom, and Nurse Grey had met that gaze. Inside Martin’s mind, the serene lake was riddled with whitecaps. Shearing winds blew the once-peaceful waters into a frenzy. A blinding flash of lightning split the skies of his mind’s eye. The storm had come.

Martin would try these exercises for hours on end, developing the ability as best he could. It was like working atrophied muscles, which technically he was, but they were muscles that do not normally exist, so he had to learn how to use them before he could develop them.

Martin’s mom had identified his father’s body. The burns were electrical burns, so Martin no longer wondered who was responsible for his father’s murder. He now had a sizable score to settle.

Since he was no longer technically injured, and had developed reasonable control over his “Stromberg Organs” as they called them, he was allowed free reign to wander the hospital. The nurses took to shooing him away from their stations, since Martin had discorvered a penchant for playing pranks on them by randomly switching off their equipment. It was great fun, and served to help him hone the ability to control his power. He hadn’t really come to grips with being a meta, but the fact that his unique power enabled him to be on some sort of even ground was some small comfort. Martin even visited Darla from time to time, and reconciled with her. They became very close, and Martin was disappointed to find that Darla had no family, other than foster parents that wanted nothing more to do with her, due to her troublemaking past. Martin elected not to tell Darla about his power, since he didn’t wholly trust her yet, but did talk with her at length about her former friends.

“So I assume that your ex-buddies haven’t come to visit you lately?” Martin asked her with a chuckle.

“No. I don’t want to hear from them, anyway.”

“Don’t blame you. So, where do they hang out nowadays, do you know?”

“No. We USED to go to the warehouse district. We.. That is.. They would get a kick out of Zapp sending shocks though puddles of standing water when someone would walk through it. We used to steal stuff from there, also. My power came in handy for that. No one ever really got hurt, though. I think even then I was having second thoughts about the whole thing.”

“Steal stuff, huh?”

“I know. I felt bad then, and now I feel positively ugly inside.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“Just whatever we came across. I don’t think anyone ever cared what it was, as long as it was sellable.”

“Think they might still hang out there?”

“I don’t know. Martin, stay away from them. They have become truly dangerous. They’ll hurt you or worse, given the chance,” Darla rasped, wincing at her own voice.

“I wouldn’t worry about that. I’d worry about you. You get out of here in a couple of days. The state paid your hospital bills, but once out, what will you do? Will your foster parents take you back in?”

“I doubt it. They won’t even return my calls. I don’t know what I am going to do.”

“We’ll work something out.”

“I hate my voice. It’s so ugly now. I would give up my power completely if I could just have my old voice back.”

“I kind of like it. It’s kind of sultry and mysterious,” Martin said. Darla blushed deep crimson at this. “I’ll talk with my mom. Maybe she’ll let you stay with her, since I will be headed off to college after graduation. I’ve been saving for it for a long time.”

“You’d really do that for me? Why?”

“Well, you seem genuinely sorry, and interested in changing for the better. Plus, I have always been a sucker for lost causes.”

“Thanks a lot.”

Martin grinned widely.

“What are you going to study?”

“I haven’t decided, but here lately, I have been giving serious thought to medicine. Perhaps even mutant physiology, to better understand some things.”

“Ambitious.”

“Hey, I have to do SOMETHING with my life. I can’t lie around here being the doctors’ punching dummy my whole life.”

Nurse Grey poked her head into the room and told Martin that it was getting late and he needed to get back to his own room. On an impulse, Martin reached over and gave Darla a thorough hug. After all, everyone needed someone, and if he could help her feel better, so be it.

“Thanks, Martin”

“It’ll all be okay. You’ll see.”

“I really am sorry about when we met,” she whispered, staring at her bed again.

“I know.”

With that, Martin left. Once back to his room, he drifted off to sleep, and had the most amazing dream involving a certain pretty brunette with green eyes, and a breathy whisper.

Post deleted by Moderator1

sides...hurting...laffing...too...much

[ QUOTE ]
Silly humans, from what I've read and heard all you do is question your actions. Of course you aren't "making a difference" as you eloquently put it. All these criminals need to do is wait a few hours and get out because of your misguided "laws".

You want to stop crime? Stop arresting them and start beheading. A few well-placed pikes will make that young punk think twice about snatching a purse.

[/ QUOTE ]

Astro Creep likes the way this guy thinks! You wimps who "can't take another human life" make me wanna puke. There are already too many humans on this hellhole of a planet anyway. Back on my home planet, we had wars every year, just to weed ou the weak and useless masses, and keep our gene pools clean. If you humans would start doing that, you might not need guys like me to save your pathetic [censored] from some two bit punk in a skull mask.

*bumpz0r* for Tehdeacons little story.

Post deleted by Moderator1

Look, the fact is that they are not going to make an official roleplaying server. It's expensive to set up a server, and then train your gm's to toss people for not roleplaying, etc. BUT....

Here is a question I ask. Would you be willing to pay 19.95 instead of 14.95 to have the privlege of being able to make characters on a roleplaying only server. NC can count money, if this thread blows up with people saying yes, I'd bet they'll do it.

Personally, I'd pony up 5 bucks to have a server where I wanted to stop and talk to each and every character, and didn't have to play next to such characters as "pooter" "QUEEF" and "Al_Sharpton"

I vote yes. Anyone else?

[ QUOTE ]
<(

I don't know who Grey really is, but if he comes from a comic book then don't use him.


[/ QUOTE ]

Dorian didn't come from a comic book, he comes from a story written by Oscar Wilde. The book itself is now public property, you can find and read the story for free just about anywhere on the interent. Here's a link to just one of the hundreds of sites that carry the story.

That's why this one is a good argument, since nobody can do anything to him for using the name and look of Dorian Gray.

Dwarf Star! What's up, bud. It's Nighttide, remember me?

nice story

Looking around worriedly Lobe asks, "What is going on, can I help?"

Someone get me a bucket!

May Hero Threat Database has been updated.
Please feel free to give feed back

No, we are not making a difference. Pardon me, I said 'we.' I do not consider myself one of you so called 'heroes.'

What do you do? You put people off the streets, only for them to return and do more damage. You're more harm than good.

As for me... I pick my fights as need be. If something looks like it should be taken care of, that's what I do. I know we, those who were blessed with these powers, can do nothing to turn the tides.

So I just sit back and wait for the apocalypse.

I've read through the posts and it appears Virtrue holds the largest amount of role-players. It also seems there's a handfull on Justice. Are there any other servers out there in which the players role play? It's seems silly when your the only one doing it, so I'd rather do it with people who are also doing it.

[ QUOTE ]
(ooc) Ok, here was my mistake... I tried to look at this from a ROLEPLAY stance... which makes since, seeing as it was posted in the roleplay boards...

Anyways, here is the point - He wasn't doing it in roleplay, he was doing it because he was pissed off at someone trying to take his prize kill...

In the thoughts of game mechanics and the way you play the game, maybe what you did is right... but coming here to brag about it wasn't right... If you want it to be taken from a roleplay stance, then in my ROLEPLAY eyes, you were wrong.

[/ QUOTE ]

OOC: Not entirely true. Depends on the type of hero. Take for example the Punisher - he WOULD let a fellow hero die! In fact he has in several points of the series! If someone were RPing a similiar mindset - then they should let the other heroes suffer. I still side by the fact that in a gameplay sense he did the right thing (esp. after they asked the other players to leave). As for the RP aspect - no one but Gamble truly knows how the character is supposed to be played. It is entirely possible that his character really would let other heroes suffer for stepping on his toes. If that is how he chooses to play his character who are we to judge him. Not everyone wants to play a goodie-goodie super dweeb!

Yes, it is possible he let OOC feelings influence this - but it is also possible that he was just RPing his character. Either way, what is done is done. And i'm sure that anyone will think twice next time before helping/KSing any of the Knights of Paragon! Which i'm sure won't bother the Knights at all!

[ QUOTE ]
Is there anyone out there interested in RPing similiar characters? If so post here with name / background. All characters should be made on Virtue, not be a carbon copy clone of the original, have some from of original backstory, and be willing to actually RP. Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

I would love to, but since I have no imagination, and cannot roleplay very well at all, I will have to , at this time, pass up your kind offer. I hope to see you around virtue sometime, I will gladly tag along and stand back to watch your team in action, and if I ever find a char that I love as much as you do Dorian, I will send you a mail and let you know. Good luck!

OOC:
Obnoxious and rude behavior has a detrimental factor in any game. I don't see anything wrong with what KoP did, if you look at it from a gamers perspective they didn't want to fight the kraken with the other team, they wanted to do it alone. If they just wanted the xp they would have kept fighting regardless. They warned the other team, and they didn't listen. They got what they deserved.

If a team came up and started attacking, and they hadn't warned them before they pulled away that'd be a different story. However, they were under no obligation to keep fighting just because the other team was. You people are making it out that when someone is trying to kill steal you its not only your duty not to get angry, it's your responsibility to make sure they don't get killed by what you were fighting. Doesn't that sound the least bit ludicrous to you?

It doesn't matter whether you find KSing a big deal or not, players do not have a moral responsibility to help those KSing them. They warned them, and I think that was mighty kind of them to do that at all. Many people would have simply left them to their fates without so much as a simple 'please stop'.

*shifts slightly, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand* I never really thought about it much, but when I found the book....I mean,THE BOOK...the one that actual experts in the field of the occult said no longer existed, Destiny laid its hand on my shoulder..*laughs at his own melodrama*..sorry. I KNOW we make a difference. I feel the shift in the furies when good or evil makes its move. I never knew it would be this way. Anyone who had their eyes opened the way I have, would understand. You must push back the darkness...the alternative is just...cold.

All of these are great comments guys!

I slightly disagree with the imaginative part of using someone elses charcter. It is in fact sometimes much harder to play, interact and expand upon a known charcter then it is an entirely original concept. After all when playing a character such as Dorian, one must try to remain faithful to the authors vision while making the character something more! Yes, some will just cookie cutter anothers work. With this example in particular it is not the case. I have expanded the character dramatically beyond anything in the books, comics or movies!

In order to not get him deleted - since I will be pumping alot of time into him - I will be using a different name in this game.

Since I have concluded my first dilemma - I pose a new question for you:

Is there anyone out there interested in RPing similiar characters? If so post here with name / background. All characters should be made on Virtue, not be a carbon copy clone of the original, have some from of original backstory, and be willing to actually RP. Thanks!

err, and sorry for the double post.. I just wanted to make sure reached everyone I could if they were interested.

Silly humans, from what I've read and heard all you do is question your actions. Of course you aren't "making a difference" as you eloquently put it. All these criminals need to do is wait a few hours and get out because of your misguided "laws".

You want to stop crime? Stop arresting them and start beheading. A few well-placed pikes will make that young punk think twice about snatching a purse.

COH's very first ever Beauty Pageant invites all roleplayer lads and lasses to attend or compete in this monumental event.. possibly one of the first of its kinds in MMRG history.

Please see our invitation here:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...o=&fpart=1

Thank you very kindly for your support and friendship!!

Yeah, Starman is pretty cool - but White Diamond is a babe - schwing !!

I honestly disagree. To use your Superman example, sure if you Rp Superman you're continuing the story or what not, but when is the last time any of us has been surprised by what Supes is going to do or what he does? We always know what he's going to do, he's been around for over 50 years, in hundreds of incarnations, suits, respecs, and what not. The Hulk is the same thing, there are no surprises there, no stretch of the imagination.

So I guess, I still stand by my original post. You can do whatever you want to do, I'll just question your imaginative capabilities.