Ravenswing

I'd love it. No idea if it's viable, but it'd make my current main a happy bunny.

Cool. Sounds good to me, I guess.

Yes, but my other half is reporting lag and general, global irritation over in the WoW universe as well. Seems like it could be a biggish Internet problem.

[ QUOTE ]
"We can discuss it more formally at some point... Claudia, I mean, not the dance."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Uh-huh... after New Year. Claudia, not the dance. But first, I have to drag Linda away from the buffet and onto the dance floor." The elevator doors opened and she walked out, scanning the crowd. "So you go get on with your groping and enjoy yourself."

Locating Linda, Annette drove a casual wedge through the assembled people, scooped the glass out of her hand, and dragged her across the floor. "C'mon," she said, "I'm not letting all that work go to waste."

---

Actually, now Diana came to think about at, Dane was kind of comfortable, and he hadn't stepped on her feet once. But the hated Valeria must die! Um... later. She'd set fire to Valeria's dress or something. Yeah. Almost without thinking about it, Diana wrapped her arms around Dane a bit tighter.

---

[ QUOTE ]
He'd return in a minute or so, with plates laden with meats and a pitcher of water.

[/ QUOTE ]

The concept that cats and dogs should hate each other on sight had been an alien one to Tabby when she first turned up in King's Row. This was largely because she had never seen a dog before, and did not consider herself a cat. However, she had learned quite quickly what the rules were and responded appropriately.

Here, however, was a dog that brought food and water. In her book, that made him right up there with things she liked, such as string, shiney objects, and pouncing Diana.

"Ah..." She grimaced at her inability form a simple vowel. "Me lich you," she said, and tried a bacon bit of her own.

---

Claudia's flood of tears was interrupted suddenly as the door opened. For a brief second, she thought Annette had relented, but instead a Vigilant walked in carrying a mop and bucket in one hand and a large box of tissues in the other. She stared at the man for a second, and then burst into tears again.

(( I hope that was a suitably BODI reaction to a teenager in tears, Z. ))

---

[ QUOTE ]
“No sausage rolls! I mean that’s totally not right, how can you have a party without sausage rolls!”


[/ QUOTE ]

If one were listening carefully, one might have heard a growl coming from under the buffet table.

I'm tenacious. It'll die soon enough when I have to work for a living.

Wintery showers, two or three inches of snow and a high of 2C today, leading into a gusty evening with more snow and a low of -7C. More of the same, but colder tomorrow.

And in secure bases, the statues could mount plasma canon and attack enemies when they raid.

[ QUOTE ]
You okay, 'nette?" He asked, glancing at her and smiling gently. Straightening up, the young man offered her his arm.

[/ QUOTE ]

Taking Ryan's arm, Annette sauntered back toward the lift. "The feeling of anger and irritation, together with the associated adrenal secretions, are subsiding," she said. "By the time we get back to the party, I shall be happy, joyful, and ready to engage in some form of ritualised rythmic movement. Claudia will be sitting the party out until BODI decides she's fit to let back into society." He face clouded again for a second. "I don't know whether I'm doing the right thing, but I'm not having her spoil it for everyone else." She grinned. "And I claim a dance when you've finished groping Robert for a while."

---

[ QUOTE ]
"'sh pork." He gulped down the remainder.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tabby looked at the sausage roll in her right hand, and then at the drumstick in her left. "Whas porch?" she said, popping the sausage roll into her mouth anyway. "Tastes lich mice... looches like... squished mice... is mice."

---

Out on the dance floor, Dane was wondering how you danced while half-supporting a girl who was trying to make another guy jealous. He did have to admit that Diana had all the right bumps and curves and having her draped over him wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but tactically, he thought, she would have done a lot better if she wasn't constantly looking daggers at Valeria. On a basic principle of getting a better grip, he settled his cheek against hers and pulled her slightly tighter.

---

Claudia fumed. She would have thrown things, but experience had taught BODICIA that Claudia's room was best furnished with unbreakable items, and throwing things that did not break was, she had discovered, unsatisfying. So... Claudia fumed.

(( [ QUOTE ]
((mainly because I'm having trouble keeping up ))

[/ QUOTE ] Give me a second. Libby's going to be forced to dance when Anne gets back downstairs. ))

Frontpage headline, New York Times, 21st December 2008
Nuclear Alert!

Police and other emergency services were put on alert last night after several automated systems in New York detected abnormaly high levels of radiation in several areas of the city. Homeland Security officials are linking the alert with the discovery of 'dirty bomb' materials in Missouri earlier in the week.

An announcement by Homeland Security spokesperson Wanda Meerling stated, "Currently, there is no cause for citizens to be alarmed. We advise caution when opening packages from unknown sources, and constant vigilence. Please be on the lookout for anyone acting suspiciously, and for future announcements."

Additional security measures at post offices are expected to cause some delays to Christmas post.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Except, because these will be based off your toons avatar the devs need to write a script that takes your physique settings, applys an emote for a pose and applies a granite texture.

The statues in the game world are all custom modelled, but you do the modelling for it in the character creation.

[/ QUOTE ]

Except this doesn't make it sound any easier.

[/ QUOTE ]

It might not to you, but to me it makes it massively easier.

If you like, it the difference between building a model from an Airfix kit and by carefully carving it from balsa.

[ QUOTE ]
I am dubious about the "easy" ability to turn a "toon" into a statue.

[/ QUOTE ]

Correct. It's a very, very bad idea.

[ QUOTE ]
Ryan was already on his way up to the floor ...

[/ QUOTE ]

Annette bodily carried Claudia to her room, opened the door, and tossed the blonde girl down onto a couch. She was, rather uncharacteristically, fuming.

"How could you?!" She began pacing back and forth, glowering at Claudia. "You had to know everyone was watching. And then, as usual, you go picking the wrong target. I have no idea how Leo's sister knew something was going on, but after Cara went off in a rush with Leo looking confused... Are you totally stupid, Claudia?"

Claudia was wide eyed. Annette couldn't quite tell whether it was acting or actual fear. She started doing mental exercises to calm herself.

"I-I-I didn't think..." Claudia began.

"You'd get caught? Or didn't think at all? You are staying here. BODI, lock the door when I leave, and turn her TV and console off. If she seems to be behaving, you can let her out in an hour."

Without waiting for a reply, Annette marched out of the door which slid shut behind her.

---

[ QUOTE ]
Jackal growled, watching Tabby. "I share chicken, you share wrapped mice." He said firmly, eyeing the tray she had procured. "Though I know you cats are selfish." He added, nostrils flairing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Without saying a word, Tabby pulled her plate of mice around between them. "Ah..." she began, and stopped. "Ah..." she tried again, and stopped. "Ah..." This time she shook her head before continuing. "Me not cat," she said. "Ekchansh is fair barrterr." Grinning brightly, she sank her teeth into the drumstick again.

At level 46, you have:
16.5% RES(Def) from Battle Agility
20.625% RES(Def) from Active Defense
16.5% RES(Def) from Grant Cover

So that's 53.625% Resistance to -Defense. I'd imagine you should be able to see this in combat stats. Slotting won't make any difference to that, of course.

At the same level, an Ice Tank has:
16.5% RES(Def) from Frozen Armour
16.5% RES(Def) from Wet Ice
That's only 33%, though they can get an extra 16.5% from Glacial Armour, which still doesn't bring them up to Shield's level. Shield also has more resistance to common damage types.

Defense-based sets can be very hit and miss, and they are always going to be tough to use around DefDebuff mobs.

Could be worth monitoring though. Might be a bug.

[ QUOTE ]
The elevator opened, with Joanna, arm linked with Jamie’s finally stepping out into the party.

[/ QUOTE ]

Annette marched past Joanna and Jamie into the elevator, thumped a button, and allowed the door to close. She did not let go of Claudia.

"I don't know what you did, or to who, though I can guess the last part, and I don't care. You had your chance. You couldn't manage ten minutes. I am probably doing this all wrong, but you are getting a time out."

---

[ QUOTE ]
"Got chicken." Jackal shrugged

[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"Food sounds great, I mean... uh... was that a hand coming out from under the table to grab chicken?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Chichen?" Tabby said, blicking. "Chichen good!" She crawled forward, more or less stuffing her bottom in Jackal's face before leaning up and locating a couple of drumsticks and re-submerging under the table.

She waved a drumstick at Jackal, grinning brightly, before sinking her teeth into the meat, tearing off a chuck happily.

[ QUOTE ]
"Tabs, whatcho doing under here?"

[/ QUOTE ]

"Eating mice in rrappurrs," Tabby replied, grinning happily. "Moosic too loud. Oomans 'eep taking mice. You no want mice?" She frowned slightly. Dogs, she'd found, didn't like it when you scratched their noses. She flexed her short claws, just in case.

---

Diana ahd, of course, positioned herself so that she could watch Jacob and Valeria while apparently dancing with Dane. Dane had decided that his best course of action was to enjoy himself and ignore her up to the point where she got too silly, at which point he'd see if he could prize Annette away from Liberty Girl. He might only get the one dance, but, hey, it was worth a shot.

---

Annette's eyes followed the entrance of Gemini and the bee-line she appeared to be making toward Claudia. She had no real clue about Gemini, aside from the fact that she was Leo's sister, but if Claudia was involved, it was likely to be Claudia's fault, no matter what.

"'Scuse me, love," she said, putting her plate down and heading in the same direction.

---
(( See, this is why I hate forum RP... ))

Claudia blinked as the slap landed. It stung, but her father had done far worse things to her. She was used to pain. Her mouth opened as her mind rallied any of a number of interesting a painful mental slaps in return, but instead she said, "oof!" as Annette's arm wrapped around her waist, lifting the slight teenager off the ground.

"Lovely party," Annette said, smiling warmly at Leo as she continued walking, Claudia now draped over her shoulder. "Do try the food, it's gorgeous. Nice dress, Gemini."

And then she was gone, marching toward the lifts without breaking stride.

I'm not, honestly, sure what technical difficulties Phantoms is on about, but given the existing mechanisms we have, I'd go for something like the following:

There would need to be some method of earning the right to have a statue. Logically, this should be handed out by the SG leader, or someone with an appropriate permission to do so. You get a temp power with one use, which fires up a cut down costume editor.

The actual handing out of the temp power would need to be new coding. I would suggest something handled through the base editor interface. Yes, that would mean that the SG leader and the recipient of the power would need to both be in the base entrance to do it.

The costume editor allows you to select one of your current costume slots to be immortalised in stone, and select an emote of some kind to enact. Logically, you'll also want to be able to have your statue with drawn weapons, or not.

Once you're happy, you hit Accept, and the statue is dropped into your Personal Base Items to be positioned.

Standoff: I think your mechanisms are tying the statue too closely into the character itself. Once it's created, you really want it to be unconnected from the toon it represents. There quite often are technical difficulties with generating statues by taking animated models and locking them into one position. Depends on the engine, of course, but it's likely to be a difficult course to run.

Claudia wandered past Leo, her eyes following Cara as she exited the restroom. Sometimes, when playing head games, you didn't need to do it directly.

"Is Cara okay?" she said. "I saw her rush off. She's over there, heading for Sophie and that lovely white gentleman with all the metalwork." She smiled her cutest, most helpful smile.

The snow continues in Paragon City. With an expected high of -4C, but those showers will become more scattered as the afternoon goes on, fading out into the evening. There could be a little drifting, with wind gusts up to 20mph. The overnight low is expected to bottom out at -6C and there's little chance of any snow overnight.

Tomorrow the temperature should rise above freezing, but that just means we get sleet.

(( So much to respond too. And 7:55, FFM, eep! ))

[ QUOTE ]
"Thanks." Valeria smiled, looking a little curiously between her and Dane. "Jacob never mentioned you two were seeing each other. Well, unless you're just going to give each other company?" She smiled. "Which is nice to do too."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Err, well..." Dane began and was immediately interrupted by Diana.

"It's a recent thing, y'know... Oh, music! C'mon, honey, let's dance." To those watching, it might have seemed as though Dane's feet actually left the floor as Diana grabbed had hand and dragged him toward the dance floor.

---

Claudia frowned. Well, that was no fun. Who'd have thought Cara was so easy to wind up? Oo! She wasn't sweet on Leo was she? Hmm, that bore investigating. If she wasn't out of the bathroom in ten minutes, steps would need to be taken.

---

Annette politely clapped Ryan's speech, though the sound was utterly drowned out by the music, and she was actually paying more attention to what Cara was up to and the fact that Claudia was in the direction she had come from. There was also the fact the Leo was looking a little dumbstruck over there. If that girl caused problems tonight...

Still, she'd asked Juan to keep an eye out, and he was certainly the man for the job there. There wasn't a lot to be done yet, and neither Annette nor Ni had a clue how to dance to this. She grabbed a plate, scooped random food onto it and joined Linda for random chatter and food consumption.

---

From under the buffet table, a contented purring noise could have been heard by those with very sensitive hearing. Tabby sat, hiding from the music, a plate of 'mice' in her lap, and a big grin on her face.

Second page headline, Paragon Post, 20th December 2008
Amtrak Train Derailed, 10 Dead

Hannah, Pennsylvania. The sleepy town of Hannah was awoken in the early hours of Saturday morning by the sound of grinding metal and explosions. A night train bound for Scranton had derailed killing 10 passengers and injuring 34 more as well as 9 crew.

Eye witness reports speak of an explosion in one of the passenger compartments, but neither local police nor Homeland Security were able to comment at time of going to press. One local farmer reported seeing a teenage boy running from the wreck site just after the crash, but again, no official word on this was available.

[ QUOTE ]
"You look amazing too Anni, where's Libby got to though? Raiding the buffet already?"

[/ QUOTE ][ QUOTE ]
"I look forward to summer next year then."

[/ QUOTE ]

"Thanks, both of you, and yeah, I better go find her before she kills the table. Besides, I think Ryan might be kicking off the festivities." She grinned and wandered off to isolate Linda from the buffet.

---

Cluadia managed not to giggle, through use of the final mental exercise of pinching her own arm, and turned her shining blue eyes on Leo. "She's so pretty whe she blushes," she thought, and pushed it toward Leo, smiling like Christmas had come early.

[ QUOTE ]
"So Tab-cat, what've you got planned for this evening?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Tabby paused, mid-mouthful, and considered this. "Eat mice. Pounce Di-hanarrr. May'ee pounce 'Nette." She nodded and went back to chewing, and shuffled slightly closer to the tray of sausage rolls.

---

"When am I not nice?" Diana replied, smiling her sweetest smile. Well, she thought it was her sweetest. "Pleased to meet you, Valeria. That's a lovely name."

Dane was almost too embarassed to notice the jibe in passing. He grinned weakly at Jacob and shook Valeria's hand. The streets had taught him to fight, but they had not taught him to duck when Diana came looking for a date. He wondered absently whether Annette had any tips on ducking emotional attachments and his gaze wandered around to see where she had got to.

Annette chuckled. "You should have seen me in late summer. And no... I don't think they were really holding back. Well, Star probably did, otherwise she'd have kicked you through a wall, but she was asking for tips on fighting martial artists, so you obviously had her going."

She looked around, noting where Tabby and Claudia had got to. They both seemed to be behaving themselves, though she did wonder whether Tabby was now guarding a plate of sausage rolls.

Claudia wandered, apparently aimlessly, past the table where Cara had sat. "Leo looks yummy," she thought, wrapping the emotion and intention in a little ball of psychic energy and pushing it gently in Cara's direction. Wearing the expression of one who's mouth would not melt butter, she continued on her way.

---

Annette continued her rounds, checking whether Linda had returned to the buffet table, and wandering past Danny and Horizon. "Hey, Danny, H... looking good the two of you. Heard you did well at the sparring last night, Danny. Good work, us normals have to show the supers who's boss now and then."

Claudia spotted Reg and grinned. Oo, fun time. Then she spotted Susan and her pretty face fell. Trying to look casual, she wandered off in the same general direction as Leo was going.

"I had incentive," Annette replied, smirking at Jacob. "And he's right, way more arguments. Well, do enjoy the party. I just want to go and head off one thing before it gets out of hand."

Smiling, she wandered over to stand behind Claudia, and whispered something in her ear. Quite suddenly, the young blonde developed a sudden urge to be elsewhere.

Annette did her best dazzling smile at Richard. "I'll be expecting a dance later," she said before turning on her heel and wandering off again, picking up something peculiar, but tasty off a table in passing.

---

Tabby looked at the sausage roll with new eyes and proceeded to munch happily, if a little messily. "'lever oomans," she said through a moutful of pastry and meat.

---

Diana had to almost bodily drag Dane over to where Jacob and the detested girlfriend were standing. With Annette out of the way, she could move in. "Jacob!" she said, voice full of delighted surprise. "Fancy meeting you here."

Dane winced. Okay, yeah, that was the dumbest line she'd come out with in at least a week.

(( Looking like Pimms and being Pimms, too different things. And there have to be cannapes, all parties have them, they materialise, even if no one made them. ))

"Pleased to meet you, Valeria, "Jacob's my right hand man. Couldn't do without him. And it's nice to see him with an attractive young lady on his arm. I take it you're just a normal girl, like me? Not equipped with a superhuman stomach, like Linda here?"

---

Tabby looked up at Rho and grinned, showing a double row of very pointy teeth. "Why 'ey 'ut mice in 'ittle rrapurrs?"