Shadowe

Sam's seeking eyes didn't find what she was looking for, which didn't prevent her from descending significantly faster than safety mandated. Catching the mood on the beach, she sighed, constantly glancing over her shoulder.

"Look, the fighting's over, okay? No one's going to help by wrestling in the sand - unless you'll let me get a film crew in, first, along with exclusive rights. There's so much wrong here today that it's insane."

Settling swiftly, she looked around at the gathering crowd.

"First order of business is to help the whale. I'm not getting much except animal confusion and pain right now, which means we need a competent vet to have a look at it. Second, if anyone can find out where it came from, that would be rather good - the more I'm seeing the more I think this whole thing is staged. Third, if it is staged, then someone, somewhere did it for a reason. Is there anything going on somewhere else in the city - or on this island - that this would make a good distraction from? Fourth, while I might not like it very much, some of us here, including myself, have behaved in a disgraceful fashion today, but if we're going to have a screaming argument, can we not do it in front of the cameras? Every registered hero in Paragon knows their duty, and does what they think is best - if anyone thinks those of us who took the reactive path here today think we need to be held accountable for it, then take it to court. Please. There's no point wrangling it out here. What's done is done, and now we just have to do what's best for the people of the city."

I'm fairly sure that I remember the BBC having held an internal tribunal and reaching the conclusion that the phrase "That's so gay" was now so far removed from it's originally intended slur on homosexuality that it now simply means "lame, pathetic, worthless" to the majority of the populace, and should be considered intended as such if ever used in BBC programs.

Sam floated overhead, watching the scene unfolding before her, and examined her actions. She'd been distracted by something. That was the only logical explanation. Excessive psychic outbursts always made her a little tense, but she had never lashed out in such an unthinking fashion before.
"Helena? Replay from timestamp of last teleport, please."

For a few long minutes, she watched herself arrive, fly down, exchange a few words with Ellie and the Warshade, Michael, fly up into the air and...

There!

It was subtle. Almost unnoticable. But there was a tiny warping of the image that was unlikely to be image degredation.

She recognised it, and the colour drained from her face. Whirling around, she scanned the lines of sight, frantic and afraid. "Helena! Combat data analysis radius to half mile. Now!"

((PPD Datafile 2176253: Luminescence. AKA Samantha "Sam" Huntington, wealthy philanthropist, joint-owner of "Huntington International" (see Datafile 2105792: Shadowe. AKA Richard Huntington), Doctorate in Computer Engineering and Software Design, creator of the Huntington Engineering Lifeform Emulation Neurological Array (HELENA - see Datafile 2634177a-d), Leader of the registered Super Group "The Fletched Alliance" (see link - also see link re: suspected terrorist activity) known powers include psychic control, flight, telekinesis. CAUTION: Subject is highly radioactive, controlled by subject's psychic capabilities. Known associates: Black Providence (see link), for more information select HERE.))

Rolling her eyes, Sam shrugged. "Well, the alternative is to telekinetically move it, but... nah, you don't want that. Good luck."

Sam turned a condescending eye on Vox. "Oh, I don't know - trying to convince it to go back into the water? See, in my experience, if you'd bothered to ask before coming up here on your high horse about something, there's this little thing called an 'adrenaline rush' that mammals get when they're scared. The natural inclination is to flee. In fact, most mammals are capable of quite amazing feats of strength when they're afraid, so if that thing's not making much headway right now, perhaps it could, if given the right nudge? So why don't you shut the hell up and let me get on with my job."

Sam laughed heartily, and scanned the area. Pretty much zero threat to anyone nearby, as long as you count a large number of heroes contending with a whale to be safe.

"I've got no problem chatting to you, no matter what shape you are, sugar, but it might be an idea to finish dealing with the big nasty, first. I don't suppose you can think of any "yo momma" jokes that would offend a whale, can you?"

As she skimmed through the air, Sam sent a psychic torrent battering at the whale's mind. Against a human it would induce mind-numbing terror, but she had no idea how other mammals handled the emotional influx.

"I think this is where I make a joke about our main weapon being fear. Fear and surprise... or is that going to be lost on most people?"

Samantha watched as the man shifted into Hulmanim form, tentacles weaving in the air as the shadow-of-memory energy form scudded toward her.

"Nice to meet you, Michael. I'm, uh, Luminescence... oh, who cares? Call me Sam. Everyone else does." Gravely, but with a twinkle in her eyes, she extended a hand toward the - frankly - butt-ugly shape in front of her. "You're much cuter when you don't have so many appendages waving around in the air, you know."

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly with a smile, trying to project her thoughts in a tight focus so that only the bonded Kheldian in the air with her would "hear".

<Oh, and I'm trying really hard not to listen to you two arguing, you know. You're not making it easy. Now, don't mind Ellie - she has a thing against ex-nicti, it's not personal. Let's go drag some people out of the water before mister blubberpuss squashes them flat, eh?>

I had noted that you had mentioned you'd looked for them - in fact, I only found them by performing a search for "Message Board Rules and Guidelines" which I can only assume became un-stickied during the forum merge, since it used to be stickied at the top of every section of the EU forums.

For anyone interested in the history of "cracking" the Enigma code, please read THIS.

As usual, wikipedia, not necessarily true, blah, blah, blah, utterly ignores the Russian involvement, yada yada.

(I'm finding it a cracking good read - no pun intended - and especially the anecdotes, like the silly (cilly?) German operator who sent a whopping message that was just LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL...LLL)

Spotting a familiar face, Sam swooped down to hover beside the Peacebringer.

"Hey, sugar! I'll get on with the people side of things - you get on with handling the big nasty. He's putting out a lot of psychic energy, and I really don't want to tangle with that right now."

Her eyes were slightly distracted as she gazed around at the unfolding scene, and she turned a dazzling smile on the man nearby. "Want to help me get these people safe, sugar? Or are you going to spend all your time chasing that tail of hers around the beach?" With a saucy wink and a grin, she patted her own rump. "Of course, you could see where chasing this tail gets you, I guess."

With a throaty chuckle, Sam rose another thirty feet or so into the air, before glancing below her once more, looking down at the man past her fluttering skirt - it might have been a smart idea to put on her coolant suit before coming out here today, but there hadn't been time to change - and she blew him a kiss. "Oh, and sugar? No peeking, okay?"

<Elsewhere>

Samantha Huntington's head whipped up as the message began.
"Mistress Samantha? There is a disturbance on the beaches of Talos Island. Insufficient data to process threat at this time. Current information indicates threat may be psychic in nature."

Grimacing to herself, Sam hastily finished her current... task, straightening her clothes with a muttered imprecation about the chosen timing of inconsiderate villains, and stepped quickly into her bedroom.

"Helena?" Her voice was testy as she addressed the Artificial Intelligence she had built. "Activate teleport network, drop me off on Talos as quickly as you can."

A familiar lurching wrench turned her stomach and an instant later she found herself standing on a long ridgeline, looking down at Spanky's Boardwalk and the chaos below.

* * * * *

Back in the apartment, one of Helena's avatars - sophisticated android constructs designed to fulfill a number of roles - walked through Sam's bedroom and peered around the door, sighed, and strolled in to actually flush the toilet.

* * * * *

Wincing to herself as psychic messages flashed around nearby, Sam took a deep, steadying breath, and relaxed her will. A brilliant glow formed around her, the air shimmering in the sudden outburst of radiation. Applying a tiny fraction of her attention, she telekinetically diverted the flow of energy and lifted herself into the air, pirhouetted with delight, then dove toward the beach.

She stretched out with her mind, trying to touch everyone she could find who was frightened, and sent soothing messages to them, instructing them to remain calm and proceed in a swift yet orderly fashion away from the disturbance. It would have been easier to mind-blank the lot of them, strip away their memory of the strange whale and the battle, and force them to move, but that just wasn't how she operated.

At the same time, she sent out a questing message with her thoughts. Luminescence, here. Who's on the spot?

Can't resist taking this In-character:

Psychonova: It must be decorated with the entrails of the vanquished Americans, the floor strewn with the scalps of the fallen, the water fountain filled with the tears of the weaklings we are here to rule...

Luminescence: Well, sugar, I'd quite like some strapping men with oiled chests to serve the drinks, okay? And if we can't have that, I've gotta wonder why you expect me to stick around here for very long.

Shadowe: Well, old bean, it strikes me that it would be a rather fortuitous circumstance if we were lucky enough to have a number of attractive young ladies around to converse with, as we lounge in comfortable armchairs, sipping brandy, smoking cigars, and generally enjoying the largess with which we have been so fortunately provided.

Helena Huntington: I would be most happy if there was sufficient air-conditioning to ensure that my circuits can operate at peak efficiency.

Liz Ross: Just somewhere quiet, where I can sit down and forget all my cares, and a dance floor where I can party. That's good enough for me.

Calas: What need have I for worldly comforts? I am here, and I have my quest. Nothing else matters.

And for me: Just a bunch of comfy lounge chairs, a decent TV and sound system, lots of books, and enough computing equipment to keep me playing games until the day I die.

Ignoring a lot of the vitriol and pro-farm, anti-farm gubbins that's been spouted around this thread, here's a couple of thoughts from someone who is happy to let farmers get on and do their thing as long as it doesn't interfere with me doing mine:

1) Trademark/Copyright infringement must be stopped to prevent lawsuits against NC. Reporting missions that break this is absolutely the right thing to do.

2) Simply reporting a mission is no assurance that it will be removed. That's up to the GMs.

3) As long as everyone votes with their conscience, they have done all that they can.

4) Anyone referring to someone who reports as a "snitch", a "rat" or a "grass" needs to consider why they feel hard done by when someone does it - if you are not doing anything wrong, then you know the mission is safe, and you have nothing to fear, so actually the people reporting those missions are doing you a favour, because the GMs will tick it off the list and you can carry on playing it. The only reason I can think of for having a go at someone for reporting a mission is because you believe that the GMs will remove the mission, because the mission is "inappropriate" for whatever reason... in which case, I have to wonder why that mission was created in the first place.

As Ghostie says - when someone attempts to RP an insanely stupid character concept, the best defense is ridicule.

When it comes to "what people can find out about my characters", my personal recourse is to point them at the Handbook of the Union Universe to look me up - the character data on the right hand side is all in-game publicly available information, and should be more than enough for anyone to go by, in addition to the stuff in the bio.

But the general rule is simple: Ask. If it's not in the bio, don't make assumptions. Asking usually gets decent results. If someone new comes up to my main and sends me a /tell asking if they are likely to recognise him, my response is typically something along the lines of "in these (civilian) clothes, he's pretty famous in the scientific and engineering communities, but not so much outside that and the hero community - given that, I'll let you decide". RP is collaborative storytelling, and I try to be accommodating - on the other hand, I do have one character who would be very distressed if anyone knew more about him than he's told anyone. Admitedly, given that he lied on his registration about, well, pretty much everything, that's not really a surprise.

Cherokee: Don't see any particular need to bash you - you're perhaps a little too vehement for my tastes, and I believe that you have made a false assumption about the topic that was being discussed (re: difference between "sex" and "sexual orientation"), but that's no reason to "bash" you. You're entitled to your opinion as to what is and is not appropriate for discussion on a game forum where there are teenagers present, too. My disagreement with your perspective on the discussion does not in any way constitute an attempt to tell you that you should not have or voice that opinion. I have merely pointed out that your perspective on the discussion does not appear to match the perspective of the majority - if not, all - of the posters on this thread.

I will also point out that I wasn't actually calling you an <censored word for donkey>. It is a metaphor that my mother has used since I was a wee small child. Translated into literal-speak, it goes something like this: If you say something and one person disagrees, ignore them. If you say something and three people disagree, then perhaps they have a point that you should consider more carefully.

But, at the end of the day, the only people responsible for policing the discussions on this forum are the Rednames. Neither I nor anyone else here has that right, and your demand that the topic be closed came across as rude (to me, at least), and your perception of the topic at hand seemed flawed (to me, at least), and I responded to that.

Personally, I sincerely hope that the Rednames don't lock this thread, because it has been a very interesting discussion, quite insightful, and very well behaved. No one here has condemned anyone on the grounds of race, colour, creed, gender-preference, country, gender, age or, in fact, anything other than (perhaps) the words they have chosen to say.

As, in fact, has been stated numerous times on this thread, by a large number of people, and paraphrased here: I will judge no man or woman on ought but their words and deeds.

Cherokee, as far as I can tell (and, as always, I'm willing to be proven wrong), nobody in this thread has, with any level of seriousness, posted anything that has "sexual undertones".

There is a vast difference between discussing the social interaction of people who have different sexual preferences and actually discussing the act or desire of sex (whether same-gender or hetero) in any way.

I've made my position perfectly clear, I think, and I am pleased with the way that people on both sides of the discussion (it certainly isn't an argument) have responded.

Nobody here is actually promoting sexual activity in any way, and nobody here is lambasting sexual preference in any way. The only person who seems to find any form of "undertone" here is you, and thus, I quote my mother: "If one man calls you an ***, take no notice. If three men call you an ***, buy a saddle."

Edit: Gah, darned American language sensibilities *** = alternative word for donkey