Sardonic_Paladin

I suggest taking him out for a night of steak dinners, then karaoke, which, of course, he'll never be able to accept until CapeCON on July 21!

(Weekend work schedules kinda suck.)

Signed, Just Another Average Joe. Yeah. That.

(This is a fictionalization of the roleplay that took one of my main characters from hero to vigilante, a career move from which the character has never fully recovered, even though he has returned to the path of a hero, albeit with a much darker soul. The story itself, sans title, clocks in at just shy of 600 words. I'm chatty.)


Over the Edge

Nat Prudeau was early to dinner with his mother and sister, who was in town from college. He knocked on the door of his mom’s Atlas Park apartment and was both surprised and alarmed to see the door swing open at his touch. He cautiously but quickly stepped inside, being careful not to make himself a target to would-be attackers.

It was in the kitchen that he found them, bloody and mutilated almost beyond recognition. The house was terrifyingly untouched otherwise. Nothing had been overturned, nothing had been searched through. Whoever did this came in for one reason, and one reason only – to kill the inhabitants of the house.

The only clue was a piece of paper that had been left in a pool of blood on the counter and had somehow slid off, so that it was hanging precariously on the edge, kept in place by the tacky, drying blood. He reached for it, thought better of it to preserve evidence for the police, and crouched so he could possibly read what was written on it. There, at a jaunty angle, upside down, were the following words:

“Psychotical: This was a warning, hero. There will be others.”

Nat called the police, filed his report, politely declined the offer of a grief counselor, and asked if he was free to leave. The police let him go, and he walked out in the muggy August evening toward the train station, his mind abuzz with the plans that he would have to make.

Calls to friends, distant relatives, his work followed. Days of funeral preparation took up his time. A week passed, during which the perfunctory ceremonial goodbyes had passed and the well-wishers had thinned out. He felt it was finally safe to move forward with the next stage in his life.

He went to the nightclub to pick up the package from a contact that he had met there previously – no questions asked, as promised. He got the package back to where he was staying – he couldn’t bring himself to go home for more than a few minutes since the murders – and checked its contents: tactical armor, supplies, disguise, falsified paperwork and palmprint, keys to a safe house, currency for the tiny nation he was about to visit. He packed the bloody piece of paper he lifted from the crime scene in with his care package, then made sure things were in order at home before locking things up for an extended vacation. On his way back to the nightclub to arrange passage, he dropped his enormous tabby cat Leo off with a friend for safe keeping. He said he was going out of town for a while to clear his head. Well, that was a partial truth, at least.

Back at the nightclub, he slipped into the washroom, changed into his new disguise, affixed the latex palmprint he paid a fortune for, and headed to the rose-tinted elevator door. He placed his doctored hand on the scanner while holding his breath. It all hinged on whether this worked, he thought. After a moment, there was a soft beep, and the doors slid open. He stepped inside, went through the elevator and antechamber, and stepped for the first time on his own into the musty air of the Rogue Isles, bloody revenge on his mind, all thoughts of doing well long gone.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At that moment, a special, encrypted phone rang at Nat’s apartment. The machine silently picked up.

“You’ve reached Psychotical’s secure voicemail. Sorry I can’t come to the phone right now …”

I'm looking at getting a netbook soon and wanted a realist's opinion of what I would be capable of doing in game with it. The machine I'm looking at is running an Intel Atom N455 1.66GHz processor with a 512KB cache and an 800MHz system bus with 1GB of DDR2 RAM (which will be expanded to 2GB as soon as possible) and integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics running Windows 7 Starter.

I have a quad-core desktop that is and will remain my primary gaming box. This netbook is basically just to give me a tool to connect to the Web while out of the house, and I thought I'd get a sneak peek at what it might be able to do in game. I know it will never see Lag Hill in Cimerora. But is it unrealistic to expect that it will be able to take roleplaying in the D or possibly the occasional solo mission on minimum graphics?

Look forward to your commentary.

American Patriot, Defender of Earth
Arc ID 446711

A vivid dream sparks a rush of patriotism in the face of one of Earth's darkest chapters.

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@Sardonic Paladin

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

The Ocho was about to discover firsthand the new definitions of balance in the Architect Entertainment system, now that Giant Monsters had been added. He was also about to experience firsthand the hospital jell-o in the AE building, which had quietly also been upgraded in issue 17.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

So without further ado, here is this week's picture!



When Kentucky Derby officials came to Nemesis Stables regarding their entry named "Greenhouse Gas Emissions," there was considerable argument on the correct spelling and use of the word "gilding."

So as soon as I got my first idea posted, the seed of a second idea germinated, and I had to do it, just for the fun of it. Introducing the FREEDOM PHALANX - FILM NOIR STYLE!

So here's my attempt. I wanted them to be more realistic but not necessarily harder edged, so I tried to make a point of making my entries incorporate textures that would be appropriate for the job. Like so many other revisionists, that means that spandex became leather and metal. I didn't want to play around too much with making the spirit of the costumes much different, since our task was to reinvent the costumes and not the character concepts. However, in a couple of places I did take liberties.

Here are my entries, with brief explanations following.









BACK ALLEY BRAWLER - I wanted to give him more of an urban look while staying in the leather/metal theme. Therefore I gave him brighter colors, a haircut, and updated eyewear. I also felt that he needed sleeves.
CITADEL - I felt that Luminary's favorite voyeur needed to be edgier, more artificial, and a bit more menacing, but not evil. Therefore I made him physically imposing, yet gave him a brighter color palette.
MANTICORE - Since Manticore is the only one of the Phalanx that sports leather in the original costuming, I felt he needed a change from it in the update. To reflect the mental discipline necessary to be an expert marksman with a bow, I gave him the Onimichi undergarments with leather gloves to act as a bracer.
NUMINA - I wrestled with how to photograph Numina's costume, but in the end felt that she needed to be displayed evenly with her original counterpart. I made her very thin, since she is essentially a spirit being. She also has the chaos buckles, since I felt that that costume was a bit *too* edgy for a hero, but the robe over it muted it considerably.
POSITRON - What you see is my seventh version of Positron. I had more trouble with this one than any other. I decided that he needed to stay very true to his original color scheme but needed to be streamlined a bit. The end result is a bit cyberpunky, a bit steampunky, and more "containment suit" than any of my six previous attempts.
SISTER PSYCHE - Like many people, I think Mrs. Manticore needs to put some clothes on. To make her more realistic and still desirable, I decided on the body-hugging patent leather outfit, lightened her signature green a shade, gave her a new swirl design, and gave her gloves and boots that I felt were designer-label worthy.
STATESMAN - I didn't want to mess with States much, since he's the flagship hero of the game, yet I wanted to give him a new approach. His faceplate is now a full helm and solid white, the cape resembles the flag they'll eventually make from it, and there's a new shading to his costume that shows a dynamic presence.
SYNAPSE - I went through several versions of Synapse as well, finally settling on a blue color palette. His hair is streamlined and his suit is minimally adorned for aerodynamics, and the straps pattern represents Crey's experimentation on him, forcing him into a sort of bondage with his powers.

Hi. My name's Jack. This is my brother Jack, and my other brother Jack.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.