LeighB_EU

I’ve been lazy as well, so here the link to the directory on my server space with the pictures in: [linky]

The best one is probably the best: [linky]

The pictures don’t show how many foes there really were as things would only render for a very short area (and I’m not running a lowly comp’ these days).

Cracking event, well organised and well run. I may have got badges, I’ve got no really idea. I just had fun.

Thanks again Mr T.

Thanks for posting BF and another good addition. Glad that radio signal died or we’d all have to write in Southern accents.

As the forum is currently being swapped by writers, anyone else fancy posting next? Go on, you know you want to.

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Edit: Also hostile hostages? This mean after rescuing them we then have to defeat them too? Poor poor fusionette xD

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Poor Fusionette! I’ve been wanting to have a word with her for a while now and she never listens when I try to talk to her. She needs putting back in to hero school before she gets herself in to more trouble.

Yep, I had good fun again, and only died once when I got silly.

Thanks again Omega. Sorry I only managed one. Other guys couldn’t get on until tonight and they need me to walk them through it. Still a great turnout though.

More for next time.

Thanks for organising this, ML. We did a SG race in Heroes last year and it was so much fun (made even more so because we were all on Skype, so there were plenty of cries as people died and died again).

If you need another marshall I'll happily step forward. I'll do some spamming (cough), I mean broadcasting, in Heroes for a few nights before if you want.

My opinion on start time would be 21:00 UK time as this should maximize population levels.

For anyone who is interested a friend and I did it last time by exiting to the SG base (neither of us have the Pocket D TP) and then TPing out of the base to Kings Row.

The downside of this method is you have to do the last mission on the night as you can’t log out in the SG base (it’ll kick you back to Founders). Still with everything set to low you can finish off the last mission an hour before.

Just giving this a kick to find out if anyone is still interested. I am, but I don’t think it’d be right for me to write every entry myself.

If anyone is interested, I’ve now done the outline plot for my NaNo attempt and have started blogging about it. [linky]

If all goes well I’ll be publishing chapters as they happen (or a few days later at any rate) so if you get short of something to read you’ll have a CoH story nearly every day of the month. Oh, and I’m going to be so dead by the end. XD

School Daze - Unknowing
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Jessica pushed the half eaten bowl of cereal across the kitchen table and took the last mouth full of her juice.

Her mother looked up from where she was loading the dish washer. "You’re not going to finish that?"

"No," Jessica replied, “I don't feel hungry.” Thinking she needed to change the subject, she quickly added, "Dad been working through the night again?"

Her mum gave a little sigh. "Yes, he got a call at about two and didn't get back until five this morning."

"Oh," Jessica glanced at the clock on the wall. "I've gotta go, I said I'd meet Mary before school for some cheer practice."

She grabbed her backpack and headed for the door.

"Have you got your gym kit?" her mum called after.

Jessica's reply was cut off as the back door swung closed.

Mary was sat waiting on a wall as Jessica turned the last corner.

"Where have you been?” Mary asked, jumping down from the wall. “We're going to be late."

"I know, but I got up late," Jessica yawned. "I was on Myspace after I finished talking to you."

"Anything good?"

"Nah, I was listening to Rheingold’s album again."

"I thought you were going to download that?" Mary said as they turned in to the school gates.

"I can't be bothered," Jessica shrugged. "Guess who was out working all night again?"

Mary raised her eyebrows. "He's got to be a hero. Doesn't you're mum say anything?"

"You know what she's like, I bet she has no idea. Anyway, I'm going to follow him if he goes out tonight."

“Jess,” Mary exclaimed, “you're not!"

"Yeah, that's why I've been trying to stay up later. I keep falling asleep, but if he goes out early enough I'll catch him."

Mary looked concerned. "Jess, it could be dangerous. I know this isn't Kings Row, but there are still gangs out there, and the Rikti."

"I'll be fine. And I've got a dad who's a superhero. He'll look after me."

"That would mean he'll have seen you following him," Mary pointed out.

"You think too much," Jessica told her friend, pushing open the main doors to the school. “Let’s get to the gym and practice. I think I’ve got that step-turn right now.”

When Jessica got home that evening her mum and dad were both in, and apparently her dad had been in to the office that afternoon. Jessica stuck her head around his living room door. Her father was sat watching the news.

“Mum said you’d been working last night. Do they ever give you any time off?” she asked him.

“Hi hon,” he replied, his facing lighting up with a slightly tired smile. “No, they expect their pound of flesh for the money they pay me.”

Jessica pulled a face. “Well I think they shouldn’t get anyone to work at those sort of times.”

“One day someone will invent a computer system that only breaks in the middle of the day,” he said, laughing. “Until then I don’t think things are going to change.”

“Well,” Jessica said, “I still think it’s wrong. Are you going to have to go out again tonight?”

A shadow of weariness passed across his face. “I hope not, but the way things have been today I wouldn’t be surprised. That’s why I only did a few hours in the office this afternoon. How was school? Did your cheerleading practice with Mary go okay?”

“Yes, but Mary still keeps making a bit of a mess of the last bit. I hope she can get it right before the weekend.” Jessica decided that she wasn’t going to get any more information out of him and it was time to leave the room before he started asking her about boyfriends. “I have to go look at something before dinner,” she said letting the sitting room door close behind her.

He father shook his head at the retreating footsteps of his daughter. She’s always rushing around, he thought, to have the energy of youth again. He turned back to watch some more of the news.

Jessica spent the evening chatting to Mary on MSN and watching behind the scenes stuff from ‘You Want To Be A Star’. At 10 o’clock she kissed both her parents good night and pretended to go to bed. With just her reading lamp on and a string of socks wedged across the bottom of the door to stop any light escaping, she started to prepare in case her dad went out that night.

From under her bed she pulled out the small pile of what she thought of as essential supplies for a night of adventuring. There was a set of dark coloured clothes and a blue baseball cap along with some dark court shoes. She really wanted to wear trainers in case it rained, but she only had white and pink pairs and hadn’t managed to pester her mum enough in to buying her any more. Well, not yet anyway, but she’d win out in the end, she was sure of it. Next to the collection of clothes were the things for her backpack. A torch, an umbrella, her DS with some headphones (it could get boring if she had to sit around for ages), a pair of black glove, a Quickshoot camera (the one on her phone was no good at night), binoculars and a note pad to record anything important. She had thought about using her rollerblades when she went out rather than her bike, but if she had to climb stairs quietly it would make things difficult. There were also a couple of breakfast bars in her pile of things, because she didn’t know how long she’d be out for and she might get hungry.

Once she had swapped out all her school books in her backpack for the night time supplies, she made sure her bedroom window was open just a crack – she didn’t want it creaking as she used it to leave by – and settled down with her laptop. She really want to put her iPod on as well, but the last few nights the sound of music playing quietly in her ears had caused her to fall asleep and she did not want to risk that when she was pretty sure her dad would be going out tonight.

At about 11 o’clock she heard her mum and dad go to bed. For about twenty minutes she just lay on her bed listening to them use the bathroom and lock up the house. Her bedroom was next to theirs and she didn’t even want to press the keys on her laptop in case they heard them. She also turned off her mobile phone not only because if it vibrated it could rattle against the laptop, but also because she had positioned a phone key ring on her dresser against the wall where her parent’s bed was. Her dad’s mobile phone was how he got the call when he needed to go out and even though he had it on vibrate she was sure that the key ring would pick up the signal and flash when he was called.

The waiting around for something to happen seemed far longer than it was. By 12:15 she was ready to give it all up, but after eating one of the snack bars she felt like sticking it out for another hour and so settled down to finding cute boys her friends had in their profiles on Myspace.

At 12:50 the key ring started flashing and Jessica held her breath. After a very long minute she heard her father start moving about. Being as quite as she could manage, Jessica closed the top on the laptop, picked up her back pack and moved over to her bedroom door. As soon as she heard her dad go in to the bathroom she crept across her bedroom and opened the window the rest of the way. It was simple enough to step out of her window and on to the sloping roof over the kitchen extension, the more difficult bit was the drop from the roof on to the patio, and then it was a quick run around to where she had left the bike at the side of the garage.

She was in two minds as to whether to wait next to the garage for her dad to leave or go further down the street, but if he could fly he might take off from the back garden, so she decided to wait, camera in hand and see what he did.

There was some disappointment when Jessica heard the garage door open and watched as her dad’s car rolled out on to the drive. She put away the camera and sat poised on her bike as the garage door closed again. Maybe, she thought, he’ll be taking the car off somewhere so that he can get changed and stop her mum from realising what he’s up to.

Their house was at the end of a cul-de-sac so there was only one way he could leave, the question was which way would he turn at the end of the road. If he went left there was an alley only a few houses further down from where she was that would allow Jessica to cut through and keep up with him. Going right would mean she would have to cycle all the way to the end of the road and hope she didn’t miss him turning off anywhere else. With this in mind she edged the bike out on to the pavement where the trees gave her a bit of cover and moved down to wait at the entrance to the alley.

She was given a slight head start thanks to her dad’s need to use indicators even in the middle of the night, and as soon as she saw the left hand signal blink on she started peddling down the alley. It was then a headlong race, zigzagging across the roads and through the various alleys that linked them. Her pursuit was helped by the fact that the alley went gradually downhill and that her dad would never think of speeding no matter how clear the roads were. As she crossed each road she would get a glimpse of his car’s lights, each time getting slightly further ahead of her.

Where the houses came to an end the main road began to drop down steeply towards the city. Jessica had thought this bit of the route through and had decided that rather than try to follow the car, she would use the higher ground at the edge of the park that looked down over the city. She cycled through the last alley as fast as she dared, avoiding the railing that marked the edge of the park by cutting off to the right and jumping through a gap in the trees. Her landing on the park’s path was harder than when she had tried out the route and she nearly fell of the bike, but a quick touch of the brakes slowed her enough to stay upright and she was peddling hard again through the trees.

As the edge of the park loomed up out of the darkness she pulled on the back brake and slid to a halt just short of the railings. Not caring to lay the bike on the ground properly she dropped it and ran to the railings, swinging her backpack off at the same time. She had kept the binoculars in the front zipper section so was able to pull them out without any digging around. Then a she started scouring the roads below.

As she had expected there weren’t many cars on the roads and a after a quick look around she managed to find two that were heading in to the city having come from down the hill from the housing estate. It was then only a matter of checking the number plates on both before they got too far away to read. Her dad’s car was the first one she checked and to her disappointment it was heading to the low lying office blocks, not too far away, where the offices he worked at were situated.

Realising he must be intending to drop the car off at the car park around the back of his office building, where there wouldn’t be too many people watching, Jessica decided it would be best to wait in the park rather than try to get down there before he left. From here she could use the binoculars to watch for him flying away and then she would have plenty of time to cycle to where he’d parked the car and wait to get some pictures when he came back.

Ten minutes went by and she started to wonder if she’d missed him taking to the sky. Another five minutes and she started to wonder if maybe he couldn’t fly at all. She didn’t think he would have super speed as she was sure he would have had difficulty keeping that one a secret. In an interview of Synapse she’d watched he had said it was real hard to not to do everything fast. That would just leave teleport and super jump. If he had super jump she would have seen him leaving the same as if he’d flown away, so that must mean he had teleport. Giving the railings a little kick out of annoyance she put the binoculars away again and got back on her bike.

Jessica slowed down as she got closer to the group of low buildings that made up the office complex, and she started looking around for a good place to watch from. Her first thought was to wait across the road from the offices, but that would mean she wouldn’t be able to see her dad return and if he did have teleportation he would appear right next to his car. What she really wanted to do was get as close to the car as possible, although there was always the problem of security cameras and the last thing she wanted was to have the police turn up thinking she was trying to break in somewhere.

The answer presented itself as she cycled around the group of buildings. At the back of the complex was a service road that led to another set of buildings. A high wire fence separated the road from the buildings where her dad worked, but it ran parallel with the car park at the back of her dad’s offices. As she peddled down the service road she noticed there were only a few cars parked up. Probably just the night staff and security, she guessed. Once she had found her dad’s car it was just a matter of waiting the other side of the fence.

There was an industrial waste bin set back in an alcove of one of the buildings on the service road Jessica was on and after giving it a bit of a shove she managed to make enough room to slot her bike in and sit down in front of it. Now it was just a matter of waiting. She turned her iPod on and started playing games on her DS, all the time keeping an eye out on her dad’s car.

At 4 o’clock in the morning a small group of Skulls turned down the service road. They were on their way back from a night of clubbing and none of them were entirely sober. As they passed one of the alleys that ran between the buildings on their side of the fence a quiet voice called out to them.

“I don’t think you want to be going down that way.”

The group stopped and peered in to the darkness unsure who had spoken.

“Who are you to be telling us what we can and can’t do?” one of them said, finally getting up the nerve to talk. “We’re Skulls and we go where we want.”

A pair of eyes flared in the darkness, the faint light they cast illuminated the outline of a body, a cape flowing out behind it. Electricity suddenly danced across the hands of the figure.

“I’m trying to give you boys a chance, so don’t push me.” The voice sounded slightly distorted. “Now go back the way you came.”

The gang members glanced at each other. The one who had spoken up was clearly thinking about getting in to a fight, but the looks between the others showed they were in no mood to help him. Slowly they all began to turn around, glancing over their shoulders as they walked out of the service road and back on to the street.

In the alley where the hero had stood discarded paper and sweet wrappers settled back again having been whipped up into the air. Further down the service road Jessica was curled up in her coat. One earphone had fallen out and her DS lay discarded in her lap. Floating just above the bin a figure studied her for a moment then followed the direction she had been staring to the parking lot. The car she had been watching had already departed leaving an empty space under the lamp light.

“Time for you to go home, baby,” the hero said. “I don’t want you getting in to any trouble.”

There was the tiniest of flashes and a few snowflakes appeared over Jessica’s head. They floated down in the still night air and by the time they had landed on her face the hero was gone.

Jessica woke up with a start and brushed away the moisture on her cheek. She looked up to see if it had started raining, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Then, remembering why she was there, she looked over to the fence and noticed that her dad’s car had left.

“Damn,” she said to herself then looked down at her phone to check the time. “I’d better get back home.”

Retrieving her bike from behind the large bin she coaxed her cold, tired muscles in to life and started peddling home. Half an hour later she was climbing back up on to the kitchen roof and heading for her bedroom window.

“Jess, if you don’t get up you’re going to be late for school!”

Rolling over in her covers Jessica glanced at the clock by the side of her bed. Then, summoning up what small amount of will power she had, she kicked off the covers and started searching for her school uniform. Fifteen minutes later she was running down the stairs, her hair tied back as she hadn’t had time to wash it.

“Are you going to have any breakfast?” he mum asked as Jessica crashed through the kitchen door.

“No, mum. I don’t have time.”

“I didn’t think you would,” her mum told her with knowing smile, “so I’ve packed you an extra banana and a cereal bar. Make sure you don’t eat them too fast.”

“Thanks mum,” Jessica said, reaching up and giving her mother a kiss on the cheek. “You’re the best.”

“Well you just be careful, don’t run and fall,” her mum told the departing back of her daughter. A smile touched her lips and she added, “I can’t watch over you all the time.”

Hi Guys,

The first anime I watched was Akira, but my second was Project A-Ko and ever since I’ve loved the sometimes silly, teenage style, cartoons of everything from Bleach to Clannad.

This is, kind of, my tribute to that style. It’s not the best I’ve written, but I already like the characters and so there might be more to follow (hence the title).

As an aside, I think this story might suit a comic strip, so if any artists are interested I’d be happy to work with someone to re-arrange the narrative to suit.

Enjoy and as ever, let me know if what you think.

School Daze - Unknowing (PDF)
Background and Author Notes (PDF)

Ah, you’re just building it up for a big hug session with the two heroes, aren’t you, and here’s me wanting a fight.

I feel we’re getting towards a conclusion, and I’m looking forward it.

I like the stance and style, but I agree the face is a bit off. Not up to your usual standard.

I’ve still got some of the old Steve Jackson ones (Forest of Doom etc.) and love looking back at them every now and again. I’d agree with the rest, do it. I’ll certainly be having a go.

I loved the style and the little bits at the end (bonus picture page etc.). It made it all feel like an old school comic. I also liked the page layouts with the tick tock stuff in the side bars and other panes. Story wise it’s looking good and the humour from the characters seems to suit your writing style.

You can’t beat a good Princess Bride quote as well, or any of the others for that matter.

I’ve not read issue three yet as I’ll wait until it’s been finished, but looking forward to it.

Overall the start of the story is good. There is a hook there to keep the reader going and Detrich is likeable (from the little we see). Looking forward to reading more.

A couple of general editing points:

There is a change in the writing style which I’d recommend you avoid. At the start you are writing from the point of view of Detrich and then a few sentences later you talk directly to the reader ( But you had to feel sorry for the kid.). While this can be done, and I’ve read some really good stuff that moves between first and third person, it can confuse the reader some what.

Getting people to read things is more difficult than getting them to look at pictures. Because of this it tends to be a good idea to make sure the story and the formatting are easy to read. Anything that gets in the way will just mean the reader gets bored and wanders off. I would certainly advise that you use paragraphs.

I was obviously having an off day when I read the forums the other week as I missed this and another post. Sorry for the delayed feedback.

As you’ve said it’s unedited I won’t comment on that side of it. Story and character wise I like it. There is nothing better than a crew with lots of tech getting surprised by something (Aliens et al) and the isolation of Eden makes for an ideal setting.

There is good background for the main character. I would be tempted to add a bit of conversation in there (maybe Dmitri just answers a request from one of the men) as this is also a great way of building up the feeling that the team think they know what they are doing and are professional (again, look at the banter in Aliens between the marines).

If you take it as an opening chapter, I’d suggest doubling the size with some conversation and interaction which would leave it at a good size.

With regards to layout, I think you over use the pause created with … It’s okay to use it every now and again, but, in my opinion, it’s generally only worth using in the middle of dialogue to represent an exaggerated pause. A countdown is a good example, such as:

“Three … Two … One. Go!” Michelle shouted as she started the race.

Most readers will presume there is a short pause at the end of a sentence. A shift between something a character is doing, and something they are thinking is also normally presumed to be a pause of sorts.

Hopefully all that helps a bit and do write some more. Also, PM me or shout up if you’re not sure about something I’ve said.

Um. I was re-reading posts for the September nomination and realised I’d completely missed two. Sorry for the delayed feedback.

Another good bit of the story which moves the plot along nicely. This part gives some good background to what happened to Contessa previously and there is still the lurker in the dark. I’m now wondering if this could be another member of the family or someone she didn’t kill properly the first time.

I also liked the addition of the Nanozombies as this seems to tie the Contessa’s powers in to the game really well.

A few editing bits:

“Ah our daughter finally we see you again”. Should be: “Ah, our daughter. Finally we see you again.”

‘He was not mad as such, his manner of speaking was more a sort of eccentric royalty thing than any real sense of multiple personalities, …’ A reader’s perception is difficult to predict, not only because it changes depending on their culture, but you should try to avoid ambiguity as much as possible. In this sentence, on my first read I thought the ’He was not mad as such …’ referred to him being angry at her, because the sentence sounds a bit terse. It was only on the second read that I realised you meant mad as in crazy and hence it was part of the rest of the sentence. I would suggest changing the order of the sentence to something such as: ‘His manner of speaking had that eccentric royal twist to it, rather than any real sense of the madness of multiple personalities …’ This just sets the reader’s perception at the start of the sentence and avoids any confusion (but, maybe it’s me ).

“We are most displeased with your loses of before,. tThe loss of that island was not something that can easily be forgiven, it can be forgiven, however, it will take some time. You, as you are well aware, are special to us, to the future, if this was not the case we would order your destruction, however this would make us loose face in the grand chamber so we give you another chance yes? dDon’t disappoint us this time, you are not indispensable, another could be made our daughter. Do not forget that.” I’ve quoted the above and highlighted places where I would change the punctuation.

A couple of points about punctuation which might help you (and it’s the bit of writing that I’m also worst at ): Read something out loud and where you take a breath put a comma (unless you hyperventilate). If there is an ‘and’ you can miss out the comma as most people breath at an ‘and’; Where there is a longer pause, put a full stop and start a new sentence; Also use commas to separate parts of a sentence, to make it clear to the reader which bit belongs to which; Keep the grammar and spell checking on in your word processor. While the grammar checker in MS Word is worse than a badly dubbed anime (so don’t believe everything it tells you) it will pick up incorrect punctuation and even the typos sometimes.

With regards to conversation in general, try not to make it too real. That is to say, if you use your phone to record some friends talking and then type it out it will be horrendously difficult to read and horribly disjointed. What you have to do is write so it’s easy to read. There are exceptions to this, but even from the best authors it doesn’t make for easy reading.

When you’re posting stories I would also recommend using a line between paragraphs, trying to read it as it is at the moment isn’t easy on the eye or the brain.

Hope this all helps and by all means shout up if you are not sure of anything I’ve said.

There were two I really wanted to nominate for last month, but the one that gets my slip in the end is:

Usurper 3 Prophecy - comic with special guest!

I’ve really been enjoying the story and the style and this issue had the added bonus of a forumite appearing. Not only this but it moved the plot on nicely and kept up the pace previously set.

Bye Stasis. /em waves

No net connection is even worse. Get it sorted.

Hopefully you’ll come back at some point, but if you don’t, may you one day find a unicorn in your back garden.

Yay! Well done Abzzy and much deserved. Now go write some more.

Off the top of my head this should work:

/bind f "powexec_name Super Jump$$powexec_name Combat Jumping"

I use this kind of bind for characters with flying, jumping and a variation for TPing and they all work fine. I’m not in the game at the moment so can’t comment on why yours is giving you the zero-g pack, but give that a go and hopefully it’ll be okay.

Try it on another key if F isn’t working.

Guys,

I was poking around a police station in Paragon City the other day and noticed these. [linky] Does anyone know what they are? (Not in a game way, as they are not active, but just within the world of CoH.)

I was just planning a story and wondered what the police use them for.

Nice.

Although that looks like it’ll be a live release in November, if it hits open beta while we’re still in October I’m claiming a win for my prediction.

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Is it just my perception, or is anyone else noticing more people demanding buffs like this?


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Not more people, just the same number, which isn’t many. I remember this happening a few years ago when I first started the game, and every now and again I see it happening now. As I say, though, it’s few and far between.

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Why do people seem to think it's ok to tell a buffer that it's time for them to fire off power x?


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While playing a blaster I’ve had players tell me when to nova, and I’ve seen arguments break out about players not using (or using) powers when others want or don’t want them, so, yeah, I think it happens with other ATs, just not as frequently.

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Why do the people who insist on doing this seem to believe that appending 'plz' (never the word 'please') to the demand for the buff/heal miraculously turns the demand into a polite (and fully acceptable) request?


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I think that’s kind of a personal thing. Apart from the spelling, is there really a difference between ‘plz’ and ‘please’? It’s just that some of perceive ‘plz’ to be slightly more rude, when in fact the sentiment behind it is just the same. Personally I’d like everyone to say, “Please may I have a buff when you get chance to do it?” but I suspect typing that out would cause more deaths.

It’s kind of like the difference between saying, ‘thank you very much’ and ‘ty’. I always presume the sentiment behind both is the same and not that someone saying ‘ty’ is any less thankful than someone saying the fuller version.

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Why? Just Why?


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There have been the odd times when I am in a team on a mission that is stretching us all, and at times like that I’ve really wanted to keep asking for SB or some such, when I’ve been without it for a while. I’ve always stopped myself from actually asking, but the desire is often strong as the ground looms closer. Other times when we’re breezing through a mission, like a clipper with a strong wind behind it, I’m not bothered if I never get a buff.

Colonel Combat – My very first character when I’d never seen the game, the name just sounded cool at the time. His costume isn’t very good either, but I do enjoy the bind I did where he changes into a trench coat and dark glasses (over the top of his bright red uniform) and tells the team, “I’m just going to put on my disguise so that no one can recognise me.”

Global Warning – A man sent back from the future to stop humans ruining the world. His battle cry of “Kill the humans, save the world.” is fun.