Samuel_Tow

Life

You know, sometimes it feels so surreal how much my life has changed since I came here. There are days when I wake up and wonder if what I remember from my home really happened, or if it was just some strange, frightening dream. It feels like a lifetime has passed since I first set foot on this calm, gentle world, and so much has changed since then. So much... I used to find the so many things strange, used to distrust people and keep away from them. Now... Now it feels like home, like I had always been here. Many things still annoy me, sure, like the incessant noise of the city and the constant need to deal with irritating people. But... In some strange way, I guess I grew attached to all this, to the good and the bad.

Back when I first came to this world 10 years ago, all I wanted was to get away from the hardship of survival and to get away from my responsibilities of a tribe leader. The freedom and calm of Earth’s wilderness captivated me. Now, though... I’ve tried to leave the city before, to escape back into the wild and forget the troubles I had, but it just never works. The forest is just too quiet. Too calm. Too lonely. Once, long ago, I thought that that was all I ever wanted, but... I guess I got used to Malcolm’s crazy world. Got used to Malcolm. I... Don’t remember what I wanted any more, but it’s just not the same without him. It will never be.

And the ironic thing is I still HATE it! It still bugs me to have to deal with people all the time, it still bugs me to always be listening to vehicles and wailing sirens and thousands of people talking, to have to walk around that depressing landscape of ugly buildings. I still love open spaces and the look and feel of the forest, but... When I leave the city, when I go back to what I like, it feels somehow... Lonely. Like something is missing. I know I should feel good, I know this is where I belong, but I can never shake the feeling that something isn’t right. I guess I’m too used to this city now, for better or worse.

This has been happening for the past 10 years, ever since I dragged Malcolm’s sorry hide to the hospital, and then back to his apartment. We spent all of our time together, he doing his work against the bad men who shot him and I keeping myself in shape. We helped each other a lot. For instance, I taught him how to fight and defend himself. Well, he was always completely hopeless, but I managed to at least give him some confidence and a little bit of extra strength. Yeah, he was lazy and always ditched training, and I could never quite bring myself to punch him for his gall, but he did learn a fair bit anyway. In return, he taught me to speak English. See, at first he was the only person I could talk with, because he could read my mind and I didn’t speak the language. That was kind of a problem, since it meant I had to either avoid people or be with him all the time. But he worked with me, and I have to say he put a LOT of effort into getting me to speak well.

There is this... ANNOYING belief among people here that just because I come from a savage world without language or technology, I’m somehow stupid and not intelligent. Hell, there were even people who said I was too dumb to ever speak English. Well, not to my face, anyway, because the last man who said that to my face left with two broken teeth and a cracked rib. That, and a better understanding of when to open his mouth and when not to. The nerve of these people! Well, I showed them! I managed to just about master the language in only a couple of years, and though I’m still kind of struggling to write and I forget words occasionally, I think I’m pretty good. Really, it’s not that hard, it just takes practice, tenacity and a good teacher. And Malcolm was a very good teacher.

See, that’s the thing about Malcolm which I could never understand. He’s a wimp, lazy as a rock, incredibly whiny and a mouth on him that could throw a giant sloth turtle into a towering rage. And believe me, that’s saying something. Yet at the same time, he is so... Strong, I don’t know how else to say it. When Malcolm is inspired he is truly amazing. He speaks with such power and passion, he acts with such courage and strength... Trust me – I’m not weak and I am definitely not looking for a big strong man to look after me like so many shallow women in this world, but when Malcolm gets on a roll, he feels like he’s 10 feet tall and as strong as the mountains. Even in my darkest hours, even when I felt like giving up, like there was no point going on, he was there for me, and his words gave me strength. Alone, I may have been strong, but the truth is I was just a lost woman in a foreign world. With Malcolm, I was so much stronger.

Really, though, a lot of that was due to the fact that he was so weak and fragile. Malcolm was like a little dog – always brave and aggressive, but with almost no bite to back it up. He got himself into trouble all the time, both from criminals and from the various monsters on this world, and it always fell to me to pull his hide out of the fire. I’ve wanted to give up the fight, to just turn around and run from a hopeless battle so many times. But I knew Malcolm was in trouble, that his life depended on me and me alone. It’s amazing what you can make your body do when you quite simply have no choice. It didn’t matter if I was tired, injured or afraid. I had no choice.

And so we spent our years together, always engaging in what eventually turned into a game. After Malcolm exposed the men he was after and had them taken care of, he didn’t stop. He made it his mission to do the same to all evil in the world. When he finished dealing with one evil, he went on looking for another. When his employers kicked him out, he went looking for another job. Even when the world told him to stop, to let it go, to just calm down and live a peaceful life, he wouldn’t listen. Always pushing, always working towards a world where evil didn’t exist, and people didn’t have to worry about being killed, robbed or threatened. I never understood his vision, though. I just played along because I just knew he’d get in over his head and need rescuing. And so we played our little game – he would always try to convince me to be more idealistic, I would try to convince him to be a bit more practical, even though he kept missing his training.

At one point, Malcolm managed to convince me to get my own Hero ID. It’s this little card thing here. I honestly have no idea how this whole setup works, and truth be told I don’t really make much use of it. I try to be self-sufficient, so I don’t like depending on other people for help and supplies. I did meet a lot of these so-called heroes afterwards, though. And let me tell you – I was not impressed. Half of them had egos bigger than the gods, themselves, and the rest had some kind of tragic, sappy back-story that they constantly whine and moaned about. “Oh, no, I lost my parents!” Big deal! My mother died giving birth to me, my father was eaten by a 50-foot-long alligator and my entire people were slaughtered by giant lizards. Do you see me wallowing in self-pity? Ugh! And you know what the worst part is? A lot of those heroes are incredibly more powerful than me. Seriously, I’ve lost count on all the gods walking the Earth these days, and STILL all they know to do is mope and mourn. Is it any wonder I’m so pissed off at how weak this world is?

Oh, but that’s not even the best part! See, apparently being a strong, tall woman makes me some sort of an achievement in this world. So, I keep getting these annoying, pestering heroes always coming over and trying to woo me. Who do these people think they are? What, just because you have a square jaw and big muscles I’m supposed to swoon and fall for you? Get real! Hell, I’m taller AND stronger than most of these, but even when I’m not, they’re aren’t attractive. They’re just obnoxious. You cannot believe how much trouble I’ve gotten into over this. Who knew someone with the name “Super Invulnerable Man” would have a weak jaw, anyway?

Though, honestly, I kind of enjoyed all of their feeble efforts. Not because I liked it, oh no, but I just loved how steamed Malcolm would get when he watched some random man in tights trying to hit on me. Now, on the one hand I’m not buying it at all. Heck, I’m trying my darnest not to punch him in the teeth. But on the other hand, I can see Malcolm in the background fuming, almost foaming at the mouth, ready to jump the guy. That was so funny to watch I couldn’t describe. Oh, he always had an excuse, like he wasn’t for me, or he had a criminal past (why do so many heroes have that?), or he was being a jerk. Mind you, for the most part he was right, but it felt nice to feel he was watching over me. OK, I admit, I know Malcolm liked me, and for all his eloquence and strength, he could never quite muster the balls to tell me to my face, so teasing him like that was probably not a very nice thing, but it he was so cute when he pouted. I don’t know why, it was just fun to watch him when he got really heated up. He was normally always so in control of himself, so I just like getting into his comfort zone a little bit from time to time.

Truth be told, I liked Malcolm, too. I could never really tell him that, myself, because I was never really sure if I saw him as a man or as a child. Oh, sure, in his upper 20s at the time, he was technically a man, but keep in mind – I was pushing 40, and I’d spent very much my entire time here looking after Malcolm, protecting him, cleaning up his messes and watching after him while he slept. I mean, literally – I had to stand watch at night because he made himself so many enemies. He was really cute when he was asleep. He made that sweet baby face, and he was so vulnerable, so exposed. He was a heavy sleeper, too, not like my people back home. There, we all slept with one eye open, and only for short periods of time. With Malcolm, though, he could spend 8 hours asleep, barely moving a muscle, with his guard down completely. He trusted me with his life, and I just loved protecting him in return.

Sometimes I wonder what I look like when I’m asleep. Even here on Earth, I never really slept very long at a time, usually half-hour to one-hour naps dispersed throughout the day. A few times I got injured so bad I slept for days at a time, but that tends to happen when doctors tell you you’re not going to survive that kind of wound. They were wrong, of course, but it was still very serious. I think I slept for a couple of days straight, something like that. When I woke up, I saw Malcolm sitting next to me, just looking at him sleep. He didn’t look like he had shaved in a while, so I suspect he’d just been looking after me the whole time. He denied it, of course, but he’s just hopeless when he tries to lie to me. I can tell at a glance. But you know what? I can’t say I disliked it. I was so helpless at the time, but it just... Felt good to have Malcolm watch over me. Oh, sure, I knew he wouldn’t be able to actually fight for me, but that didn’t matter. I trusted him, and I didn’t mind being helpless in his care. It’s kind of scary when I think back to it now, but even so... I kind of enjoyed it.

We grew very close over the years, Malcolm and I. But more than that, I was changing, little by little. I began to laugh more – something I had almost never done back home. And not always at funny things, either. Sometimes life just felt so good I wanted to laugh out of joy. Games were unheard of back home. No-one ever had time for such things. But here, I enjoyed our little games. They weren’t anything complicated. We just knew each other well enough to be playful just in our day-to-day routines. I just got so used to having fun, even over little things. But more than anything else, I just enjoyed Malcolm’s company. Back home, even with the entire tribe together, I had never really felt good to be around other people. We helped each other, we fought together, and that was it. With Malcolm, it was different. With him, I just enjoyed being with him, even when I didn’t really need him right then and there.

Those were the best days of my life. At the time, it felt like everything was right in the world, like nothing could ever go wrong. If only I’d known...

To avoid retreading all the arguments from the Death Scythe, I will simply say this - Spear, yes. Even with much the same design as you suggest. BLOOD spear, not so much. Hell, aside from the Build Up variant, the set could make a very decent pure weapon set, which I would much prefer. I don't even mind extending the -damage component to all damage types, not just lethal. The ATs you're likely going to give this to don't really have access to much of anything other than their primary damage source, which for the spear would be Lethal anyway, and if defence debuffs on sword-type weapons work for all types of followup attacks, I don't see why resistance debuffs can't work for all sorts of damage, as well.

And again to avoid retreading, let's say I talked about all the "finesses and continuous motion vs. start-and-stop strikes" and leave it at that.

Again - I'd like to see such a set, but I'd like to see it as a generic weapon.

Woah! Deja vu!

See, that's what I'm talking about. Reactions generally range from "it's OK" to "meh," but I just can't agree with this. I managed to buy into those reactions back when the alternate animations were first introduced to Test and I didn't have a very good idea what they looked like, but having seen them now, I simply cannot agree with this any more. Of course, I can see where people are coming from - you guys want more things with a specific martial art's (that's possessive, not plural) flair. And while I can't say you are wrong for wanting this, I also have to say that I never really held this game to any standards of realism.

Just like Jab wasn't a jab, Haymaker wasn't a Haymaker and Darkest Night didn't look anything like a night, I never really expected the game to hold itself to what was real in the real world. It's a slightly exaggerated, somewhat stylised world that is filled with absurd things, like people throwing their own bones, encasing themselves in a block of ice or blowing themselves up for kicks and giggles. So the new Martial Arts attacks not exactly look like a refined martial art. I don't mind that. They do what they were intended to do - they gave us the ability to look like someone who used some martial arts and some down-to-earth, unrefined brawling skills. Which, for me, was exactly what I wanted.

Are the new animations better than the old ones? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the old ones had a very specific style that didn't fit one of my characters, whereas the new ones do. No, because the old animations are STILL gorgeous and some of the best all around, and because they fit my other Martial Artist perfectly. Frankly, at this point I'm satisfied with what Martial Arts has to offer, and if I had a choice, I'd probably choose to see other sets for the next pass of extra animations. Broadsword, Battle Axe and War Mace can REALLY use some more variety, being that they use the same animations.

Of course, there is also this:

After being so negative lately (har har har), I decided it was time to post something positive for a change. Especially since pretty much everything I've heard on the subject has been disappointingly negative. What subject? The new alternate animations for Martial Arts, of course! Sorry if I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I just got to play around with them only now.

A little update - what do we have? Four attacks have new alternate animations, three do not. They are:

Thunder Kick - Nothing.
Storm Kick - A Boxing-looking attack that's rather a bit more "sharp."
Cobra Strike - An uppercut that starts low, almost from where Cobra Strike starts, and strikes upward.
Crane Kick - Nothing.
Crippling Axe Kick - A horizontal haymaker that starts way back and does a full right-to-left swing.
Dragon's Tail - Nothing.
Eagle's Claw - An attack that looks a lot like Stun from Energy Melee.

But I didn't make this thread to just list new animations. Oh, no, I made this thread because I wanted to express how much I just LOVE these new animations. When I didn't know what they were, I was sort of dubious as to what punching martial arts would look like (in this game). When we saw them, a LOT of people complained, claiming the animations were badly made, didn't fit, were ugly and all manner of other dismissals of the powers. And, to be fair, from just looking at them in the editor, I couldn't raise my voice to disagree. Having played with them a lot now, though, I have to say that they completely turned my Martial Arts Scrapper around. They turned her from a barely acceptable second-best impersonation of a concept, into the incredible fighter she was always meant to be. I got a much, MUCH better appreciation of the animations after using them for a while.

Even from the start, I LOVED the new animation for Eagle's Claw. This received by far the most criticism, with people calling it "a baseball pitch" and claiming it doesn't look like it does much damage. Because I don't want to inadvertently offend someone, let's just say that I disagree completely. One of THE biggest things I've wanted to see in this game is exactly what the alternate animation for Eagle's Claw is - a big, heavy single punch. I always envisioned it as a straight punch, but a "Juggernaut Punch" inspired downward strike is just as good. It's currently bugged, unfortunately, not retaining colours and interrupting itself, but when the animation DOES play, it is VERY impressive.

But that's not even the biggest thing, oh no! The punch that really sold the changes to me was the alternative for Eagle's Claw. Once upon a time, Martial Arts had a very specific style of play. You would assume a crazy pose, your leg would glow, and then you would kick with this glow. Of course, this took bloody ages to animate, so the pauses were cut, and the kicks you see today is what we got. Now, attacks just go through all their phases smoothly, and your legs start glowing somewhere mid-way. Not so with the alternative for Crippling Axe Kick. With that, the effect's creation is VERY well synced with the animation. In effect, you draw your fist back, and right at the apex of that draw, it glows. Then with that glow, you do a really wide, sweeping punch. And it looks amazing! I'm a sucker for a little show and a little choreography, and that punch is just perfect in how well it is timed. It's a pity it's a weaker attack, really. With the proper effect and screen shake, something with that choreography could easily make a heavy-hitter.

The Cobra Strike alternative I don't use too much, and I have to say I think I liked the old one better. Still, it fits the concept more closely, and it does look good. It's a sort of crouch-to-uppercut that just looks cool. The alternative for Storm Kick looks pretty good, but it's just a quick jab, and so isn't very remarkable. It should be noted, however, that unlike the overacted Boxing, the alternative for Storm Kick actually looks more natural and cooler. Boxing has a kind of weird body contortion that sort of twists the body and brings the pelvis forward, whereas the new Storm Kick is just a more direct punch. And a very FAST punch, to boot, which is actually pretty impressive.

I gotta' say, when I first switched animations, I was completely lost. I had no idea what anything was, which attack was which, and everything looked frightening and unpleasant. After all, my Scrapper had eight attacks, I switched the animations on four and replaced one attack altogether (Boxing for Flurry), so, essentially, all I had that I could recognise were Thunder Kick, Dragon's Tail and Crane Kick. But you know what? I got used to it. I learned what appearance to expect out of which power and I learned which powers I wanted to see more often. Looking at my little Scrapper now, I have to say she looks so very cool and so much closer to her concept after this change. But the best part of it is that my OTHER Martial Arts Scrapper is going to be almost completely unique, because on her I'm not going to change any attacks. I'll leave them just as they are.

We've had a lot of complaining about the new Martial Arts animations, but I just wanted to say I, personally, really, really like them.

I'd probably go the House rout and leave it blank. Or do what I do in real life and turn off my cell phone when I can't answer it. Or, you know, just let it ring and call the caller back when I can.

Bug: Character randomly drops out of combat stance.

Character model: Female

Character powers: Martial Arts/Invulnerability

Relevant powers: All of them, I think, I'm not sure.

Description: At random points in battle, my character will suddenly become unable to stay in combat mode. Immediately after being attacked or attacking, she will return to idle mode with almost no transition and absolutely zero waiting time. The transition back to idle mode will sometimes even interrupt attacks. I suspect it's this return to idle mode that's interrupting the alternate version of Eagle's Claw, which I have actually seen play out completely on a few occasions, but it still interrupts the majority of the time.

As of yet, I have no idea what causes this to occur, or what reverts it. All of the Martial Arts attacks that I could customize, I have picked an alternate version for. I tried them all, but individually, none of them produce this bug. I suspect it might have something to do with dodge animations in response to enemy attacks. The alternate animations for Storm Kick, Crippling Axe Kick and Cobra Strike put my character into an alternate combat animation, one that looks more like what I get after using Brawl, which has different "dodge" animations. These looks like they interrupt my attacks sometimes, and I suspect these are what bugs my character temporarily.

When I lose the ability to stay in combat mode, this is temporary, but it persists for some time. In combat, my character will ALWAYS return to idle mode after an attack or a dodge. Even out of combat, I will be unable to initiate combat mode. Normally, pressing an attack without a target present puts the character in combat mode, but when she is bugged, pressing an attack does nothing. This problem actually makes using Martial Arts really weird, because the character keeps wanting to return to an idle stance, and that just looks bad.

*edit*
As soon as I finished posting this, I saw this bug occur after only a single use of Eagle's Claw (using the Bright Face Smasher theme). I activated the attack with an enemy attacking me at the same time, my animation interrupted a fraction of a second before it finished and then dumped me into idle stance for the rest of the battle and the next minute or so, I was unable to initiate combat mode with Martial Arts attacks. I WAS able to initiate combat mode just fine with the Undead Slaying Axe, but even after putting the axe away (by hitting Esc twice) I was still unable to re-enter combat mode. It took a minute before this fixed itself while I was typing this edit.

It's definitely something to do with stances, though. What causes my character to get locked out of Martial Arts combat stance I have no idea, but when she CAN stay in combat stance, all of her attacks, including Bright Face Smasher, play out just fine. Other than Bright Face Smasher not remembering its colours, though, and always reverting to white as soon as I leave Icon. I DO know that if I get locked out of Martial Arts combat mode, going into Nemesis Staff combat mode and activating a Martial Arts attack fixes this bug and prevents it from happening until I go idle for too long.

Not to sound like a jerk, but why is it that we have one of these "Let's rename the game!" a week these days? I mean, yes, we're getting an expansion, but why rename the game over it? Blizzard didn't rename World of Warcraft over The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King, and I doubt they'll rename it over Cataclysm, and NCsoft have generally retained the Lineage II title even through their various expansions. Why rename City of Heroes when, at this point, the name is iconically representative of the game itself, rather than a wording of its basic premise?

Hell, I don't even like the CoX and CoH/V and so on acronyms. The title of the game is City of Heroes, even if you're playing a villain. That's not a subtle jab at villains, it's just what the game is called. It's not supposed to list everything that's in it in the title. It's a game styled after super hero comics, hence City of Heroes. You don't hear much about super villain comics or ambiguous rogue comics and so on. Super heroes are the icons of the genre, even if every particular story isn't exactly ABOUT them.

No preorders where I live (unless I want to be stuck with the EU version when I own the US game), so I'll wait for the Online store to stock it.

Home

Sometimes this world can be a confusing place. If you ask people here, they will say I am uncaring and cold. Indeed, back home, we never had very strong bonds of affection, my tribe and I. We stuck together, because that was the only way to survive. A man alone in the wilderness was prey for every monster out there. A man alone did not survive. Yeah, I know I’ve already said how I feel about the weak and powerless many times already, and to a large extent, it’s true. I would not condone weakness in my tribe. Those who pulled their weight survived, and those who fell behind died, killed by our hostile world. It was the nature of things where only the strong survived, and the tribe could never afford to carry the dead weight of the weak and crippled.

But at the same time, our bonds of trust were strong. We trusted our brethren with our lives, and they trusted us with them. Those who failed could not be trusted, and so we did not trust them, but those who fought, those who put their lives on the line in the name of the tribe, they knew that each and every other tribesman would put his life on the line for them when the time came. I, myself, survived the battle with the giant lizards in no small part because my own tribesman fought to protect me. We guarded each other with our lives, and through this unity we survived. And I, as their leader, always knew it was my sacred duty to look after my tribe and to keep them safe.

The many months I spent alone in Earth’s docile wilderness did a lot to dull my senses and blur my responsibility, but I never forgot. I guess this is part of why I stood up for Malcolm against the soldiers who wanted to kill him. In some strange way, I felt a connection to him, and so, I felt obligated to protect him. But it was more than that. Though he looked like a grown man, to me Malcolm felt very much like a lost child, alone in a hostile world. I have never had children of my own, and the mothers of my tribe never babied their own – as soon as they were able to walk, they were expected to pull their own weight. We trained our children to survive from a young age, because it was the only way. But with Malcolm, it was different. With Malcolm, I felt... I don’t know. I felt like I wanted to protect him. Even though he was week, even though he should have been able to take care of himself. Against all of my senses, I felt that I wanted to protect him from his own weakness.

I guess that’s why I waited for him in the Hospital when all my instincts told me to leave. I had already wasted my time and energy fighting a pointless fight I had no business getting involved in, and I had saved a man whom I owed nothing to. I had already gone so far out of my way out of some strange, awkward fascination, but even now that it was done and I wanted to leave... I still couldn’t. I guess I just wanted to be sure he was OK, to see him leave this odd place, this hospitality... Hospital, whatever. So I waited.

It was not a very pleasant wait, either. I was not used to being around this many strange people, and it was unnerving. I trusted my tribe and my tribe only. For some foolish reason, I trusted Malcolm, as well. But I did NOT trust any of the little people scurrying around the tunnels and chambers of that place. A few times these... Doctors, were they? They came to me and tried to tell me something. Malcolm explained that they wanted to look at my wounds, though they had almost stopped bleeding, but I wasn’t about to let strangers anywhere near me. I did as Malcolm asked me, and I did nothing to harm the little people, but I’m old enough to know there are more ways to keep foes at bay than outright violence. Any man who has ever faced down a giant bladed ape knows just how powerful a fearsome stare can be, and though few live to learn from this experience, I have. And, really, the people of Earth are so skittish it really doesn’t take much to startle them, especially considering I’m considerably larger than even the strongest of their kind.

It was a few hours before Malcolm came back from his, err... Opera... Operation... Opening... Something like that. Whatever those doctor people were doing to him to patch up his wound. Many times since, I’ve been told I should have been amazed that a man shot in the gut could so much as walk so soon afterwards, but from where I’m standing I wanted to slap him upside the head for being such a wimp as to go down from a single injury like that. I took several of the same shots in the gut and yet I carried his sorry hide for 50 miles. And did I complain? Hell no! So why should I be impressed that he is barely stumbling along after being shot once?

I think he was very surprised to see me still waiting there. I was surprised I stayed. I have to say, waiting in that little corner, surrounded by all these strange people was one of the worst experiences I have ever been through that didn’t include grievous bodily harm. Malcolm came out with three of those doctor people following him, tugging and pulling at him. He said they wanted him to stay for some reason I don’t remember, but he told me he was in danger, and that the men who had tried to kill him in the forest would be back to try again, and he couldn’t stay in the hospitality for long. I really hate it when he does that. He was in trouble, and I knew that if I left him alone, he would probably die. The soldiers I’d fought in the forest weren’t very strong individually, but if they struck at him at the hospitality... Wait, no. Hospital. Hospital, damn it! If they struck at him in the hospital, then all the skittish people in there wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop them.

So I didn’t think I had a choice. Malcolm was in trouble, and I felt like I was the only one who could protect him. So help me, I don’t know why I felt that way. I still don’t. He was weak and helpless. If this had been back home, I would have left him on the spot. But I didn’t. I’d known the man for all of two days, and yet somehow I trusted him. I cared about him. I... I don’t know if I ever cared about anyone before in my life. Back home we trusted each other, but that was based on pure utility. Each person needed the strength in numbers that the tribe provided, but no-one was ever really attached to anyone else. We shared a tribe. Nothing more, nothing less.

I guess Malcolm always had that effect, and not just on me. The things he said, the things he did, he just... Inspired me. He always did that. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be living in that forest, just passing the time, but he made me feel like I was needed. And I guess I just cared about him. For the life of me, I’ll never understand why. He was such a whiny, annoying, pathetic man whom I always had to look after like he were a little lost child, always getting into trouble and always relying on ME to get him out of it! Ooh! I wanted to kill him so many times it’s actually kind of scary to think about it now, just out of all the messes he dragged me into! But... At the same time, when it came down to it, I would fight for him and pull his sorry hide out of the fire again and again. It’s... Really embarrassing to think about it now, how much I went along with his craziness, but I did. And even though I’m ashamed to admit it, I... I actually kind of enjoyed it.

Life with Malcolm was always exciting, I guess. Even as soon as we left the Hospi... Tal? As soon as we left the hospital, we were attacked. I guess he was right that the soldiers from the forest were after him. Except this was no man that attacked us, but some kind of giant beast, tall as a spirit bear and made of some kind of metal. It was armed with weapons like those the soldiers had carried, only they were bigger and even more deadly. Luckily, though, the metals on Earth turned out to be quite fragile, at least as compared to what I had been used to. See, back home we had almost no metal tools, and the ones we did have were rare treasures passed down through the generations, because working the material was so difficult. To make my own metal axe, I had to hunt down and slay one of the hideously dangerous iron golems in the lowlands, then carry the ore deep into the core of the iron mountains, as only there could I find enough heat to forge the weapon. And in all the years I’ve had it, it has never scratched or blemished.

The metals here, though? Bah! I’m told that giant thing... I think it was called a “robot” or something like that. That thing was supposed to be heavily armoured, or so I’m told. And, to be fair, it was pretty hard to cut through where the plates were thick, but simply aiming for the joints and swinging hard enough was sufficient to slice the thing apart. It made a lot of loud noises and pretty explosions, and it even managed to singe the right side of my face, as well as driving a few more shots into my arm, but those were all flesh wounds. I had used to deal with injuries like this all the time. What I did to it in return, though... That was not pretty. Hell, if I’d known it wasn’t actually alive at the time, I wouldn’t have held back as much as I did. I don’t tend to go all out on living things, because when they’re in pain or cornered, they tend to become REALLY dangerous.

Once the thing went down, Malcolm said we had to leave or more would find us. Since he couldn’t really walk so much as limp and wobble, I had to carry him. Again. I wanted to leave this Paragon City and go back to the wilderness where I felt the safest, but Malcolm pleaded with me to stay. He said he needed to expose these people and... Well, that’s about all I got. He talked about it a lot, something about evidence, conspiracies, kids napping... I think. I’m really not very good with the more complicated concepts of this world. I just don’t get them. Malcolm always used to handle the complicated things and make the plans. I just stuck to doing what I do best. Though, I guess I really should start learning these things for myself, now that... Ugh, I still can’t believe it... I don’t even want to think about it.

So, we stayed in the city. Malcolm told me he had a home in there somewhere. Turns out it was just a few small rooms in some building. And, you know, I really hate cities. I’ve been in a few, and I have no idea how people can live like this, cooped up in little boxes all the time. How can you live without seeing the sky, or without feeling the breeze? That doesn’t feel like home, it feels like a prison. We got into a big argument over this, actually. Well, it was more me grabbing him by the neck and lifting him into a wall when he suggested I live in that “apartment.” We found a solution, though – as he lived at the top of the building, we agreed that he could have his apartment, and I would live on the roof. It wasn’t idea – the noise of the city was horrible, the air always smelled foul and the distance was always obscured by ugly, unnatural buildings, but at least it was better than living trapped inside a stone box day in and day out.

And so I spent a few more months of my life. Malcolm stayed in his little home below, working on his vendetta against the men who shot him and I spent my days looking up into the sky, practicing my techniques and training up my body. During my time here on Earth, I’d grown soft and weak, getting used to the easy life without constant danger. I was slow and sloppy, which is why I’d suffered so much injury in my fight with the men in the forest. I was just out of shape. I wasn’t going to allow this to happen again. Really, though, since I couldn’t exactly hunt for food in the city, I had a lot of time on my hands, and I didn’t know of too many ways to keep busy. And the fool in the city was revolting. I have no idea what people here did to “prepare” it, but they just destroyed the meat in doing so. Eventually, Malcolm ended bargaining with some hunters, I think, to get their catch whole so I could cook it for myself. Truth be told, I we rarely had the opportunity to actually cook our meat back home, but when we always did when we could, so that, at least, was some small measure of comfort I had in this weird city.

Of course, it wasn’t all boring like that. I don’t know what Malcolm was doing, but he had to leave our home often, to get pictures of things, I think. As I understood it, he was a journal... No... Journalism... Journeyman... Journalist! That’s it! He was a Journalist, and he was working on some sort of story about these men. So, occasionally we would have to go to all manner of weird places, and he would get pictures... I mean, take pictures of... Well, things. I honestly don’t know what he was doing. However, I do know that almost every time we left together, he got in trouble and I ended up fighting with more of those soldiers. One time we went into this strange building, he took a few pictures of the weird machines inside, and then suddenly this loud wailing started and armed men came out of everywhere. I think I cut down 50 of the on our way out and finally had to kick through a really thick wall. I was pulling bullets out of my back for a week, and trust me – that is NOT pleasant.

And even when he didn’t get me into this absurd situations, we’d get attacked by soldiers just walking down the street. A vehicle... Was it? A vehicle would stop, soldiers would jump out and we would take off running. They even came to the apartment a few times, but it was pretty funny, because the tight quarters there did NOT do large groups of invading men any favours. That, and kicking the bastards over the edge of the roof was actually pretty funny. It’s always amazing to me how fragile people are here. Back home, our, ugh... Gravity? Yeah, our gravity was a LOT stronger than what you have here, and we were still pretty nimble. Here, I can leap great distances if I put my mind to it, and I certainly wouldn’t hurt myself dropping off the top of a small building, but these men really went splat. Well, serves ‘em right, far as I’m concerned. Even if I have developed more of a respect for the individual human life, I have a really hard time respecting people who want to kill me.

Honestly, though, for all the unpleasant stuff that Malcolm kept dragging me through, I can’t say I really regret these times. It was... Actually a lot of fun. Which was a really strange experience to me at the time. I was used to fighting for my survival and not caring about anything else, like any wild beast. I lived with other people, but we were never close, not beyond needing each other’s help to survive. Enjoying myself was never really something I was even aware was possible. But here... Here I had someone to talk to. And even though he was maddeningly annoying, I... I kind of liked speaking with Malcolm. All my life I’d lived so focused on survival I might as well have been blind, but he opened a whole new world to me. Malcolm was a dreamer, always seeing the world not for what it was, but for what it could be. He could see the beauty in life in a way that I just couldn’t even imagine. He opened my eyes, and he opened my mind, and I could never, ever repay him for it.

When I first met Malcolm, I was little more than an animal – strong and proud, but also blind and feral. I didn’t want anything more than to survive one more day, because I simply didn’t know there was anything more to want. Even now, I’m not sure I understand all of what Malcolm has told me over the years, but I remember one thing – his approach to everything. He took on the world with hope and a smile, even though he was weak, even though he was powerless. He dared to dream and dared to imagine. Just being with him and watching him work, I guess I found a little bit of hope for myself. It was Malcolm who showed me that that there is more to life, more to look forward to and want, than just what we see, if only we just try hard enough.

And that is what made it so much fun. I enjoyed watching him work, and I enjoyed seeing him make a difference. He was just one man, alone in this big world, and yet his actions still mattered. And even though I always wanted to punch him for being so reckless and always getting us in trouble... I kind of liked that, as well. There was just something so... Enjoyable in protecting him. It made me feel so strong and important, but more than that, it just made me feel... Good. I knew Malcolm relied on me completely. He trusted me with his life, and he trusted that whenever trouble came, I would be there to save him. That kind of trust can be strangely intoxicating, I’ve found. Far from feeling I am being used, I always felt like I wanted to be there for him, my precious, fragile little man, to protect him from harm. To fight for him. And he, in turn, stood up for me and guided me through this strange, complicated world.

We lived together in this strange way for some time, and though the weakness of humanity on Earth still disgusted me, little by little I got used to Malcolm’s weakness. Far from being the eyesore I had seen it as at first, it became strangely charming, almost addictive. To protect him... To save him... My poor little Malcolm. And in time, this relationship would only deepen.