Tantavelist

"Oh, the thanks aren't due where I'm concerned BODICIA, I was totally ogling her" Nick responds to the AIs comment in an offhand and completely unembarrassed way before waiting to hear whatever Mary might have to say.

Nick sits in his usual relaxed, posture, though his attention seemed to be rather fixed on the screen. Once the broadcast cut off he turns to look at Ryan.

"Was she just not awake enough to realise how many people were watching, or is seeing her like that on a regular basis one of the perks of being in the Vigil?"

Nick ponders the situation.

"I've met her before, but not often enough I'd just be able to track her from that alone. I'll try seeing what I can find from her room, though. And if someone can find something linked to her- a personal item, hair, blood- then I could try a ritual seeking.

"I can get in touch with a few people too. I don't really know anyone in Nerva, but I can ask a few people somewhere else and see if they can give a few names to start with."

"So basically, incompetent morons with no political connections who committed the sort of crimes the public gets all passionate and torch-wielding over? Sounds good. Well, the child molester might be a problem, I'm sure that Arbiter would much rather he didn't go to a nice safe prison cell where he can't get to the guy. But otherwise good.

"So, we're just going to be hitting the streets asking people for anything on where our missing girl might be?"

"Sounds like a plan. Just wear normal clothes and don't use powers and nobody will notice you- worked often enough for me in Paragon City. Still, assume Longbow are hostile until one of them actually tells us in person they aren't treating us as such. Anything else and they'll just hose you down with grenades and miniguns before lighting what's left with a flamethrower.

"What are these targets we're after? Family, Circle of Thorns? Most likely ones in Nerva, though Arachnos is about too. But hitting them on their own turf when they aren't even the main target probably wouldn't be smart..."

"WE'LL care if word gets out the Vigil is raiding criminals. Remember, this is going to be in the Isles. They're going to have easier access to backup than us. Not as much as if it was somewhere other than Nerva, but worse than Paragon City. So ideally we don't let anyone with a bone to pick with the Vigil find out we're here. Throw caution to the wind if we have to, but once we're not a secret anymore the clock will be ticking.

"Oh yeah... Does Longbow know we're going to be around? The biggest problem in Nerva was always the Longbows, and they'll probably assume we're all supervillains and start shooting if they see people using powers. They aren't as nice about things as you see in Paragon- if in doubt, they'll hit us with all guns blazing. So we need to make sure that either someone knows about us, or people are in recognisable costumes if they find us.

"Crimson Cove itself isn't a bad place. No worse than King's Row really, just a couple of nearby islands linked by bridges with a slightly run-down seaport town on it. Lots of Family types, and people are a lot more open about shady businesses, but there's no supernatural threats or hordes of Crab Spiders waiting to pounce on us."

He glances at Richard. "Um... Yeah. Legal rights and all. Sure. Oh, and Recluse probably won't register us as a blip on his radar unless we take our time and make a LOT of noise. Same for the rest of Arachnos."

Nick waits as the rest of the group returns in various disguises.

"Nice look Ryan. Though half of you seem to be overdoing it a little... Anyway, I know a thing or two about the Isles, yes, so are there any questions? I haven't been told who we're going to be fighting when we get there, assuming anyone knows, but I've done some work in the area."

"First time on a plane? Guess that's a big deal when you can't fly. You're doing fine, better than Zeyna did and she can just spread her wings if the plane goes down. And don't worry, there's areas of Paragon City as bad or worse than Crimson Cove. Just figure it as being a trip to Boomtown of Dark Astoria."

Nick relaxes back into his seat.

"Hey guys" Nick comments as he takes a seat next to Ryan. He's wearing what looks to be his usual black leather costume, but without the skulls and with shades instead of the blindfold.

Unlike several other people in the compartment he seems fairly relaxed and casual, no more nervous than for any usual mission. He glances around him.

"Um... Are we taking on someone really dangerous today? People seem pretty worried" he asks Ryan.

Nightschild steps out of a patch of shadows near to the aircraft. He glances about, shrugs, and heads for the boarding ramp. It's probably the place, how many aircraft like this are fuelled and ready to go at this hour?

"BODICIA?" he asks as he walks up the ramp. This is a Vigil craft after all, and she seems to be plugged into just about every other piece of technology they own.

Nick IS a Mercenary, and a few people who already have his number IC are in the confirmed list. Just send an in-game mail to ask for a meeting sometime. Zortel and Coile both have his number and it wouldn't be too hard for Lunk to find it.

Consider this an OOC confirmation anyway.

They realised the RPers were there, and that's why they've turned up to make trouble. PD was pretty much empty whenh I started playing before christmas, and finally started taking off in the months following the end of the Xmas event. Then it began to be a popular spot to gather for RP.

My guess is it just took a few months longer for word of the crowds of RPers in the bar to spread to the idiots currently plagueing the place.

Subito, my new Ninja alt, is ready to join the group- as soon as I can find someone to get an invite from. I decided to go the route of him being a member of a different family branch that is too distant to show up on the family tree as drawn.

I'll probably drop by tomorrow afternoon, after taking notes of what the globals of members are.

Looks like the obvious family spots have already been taken while I was without an internet connection. Wasn't too sure about that aspect anyway, so I guess my Ninja will be from one of the Clan's other families. I picture each "Cell" of the Clan being made up of a core family (more than one for big ones) and several Ninja from other branches anyway.

The "Clan" idea incorporates the "Family" one, what with a Clan being an extended family. Just have a few families within the Clan, which are vaguely related. You get the family stuff, but at the same time make it easier to bring new characters in- they were posted elsewhere or still in training until now.

The Mercenary aspect is the one that should work the best for RP purposes- I prefer to do villains who are Amoral rather than Evil. Note also that the Japanese code of Bushido tends to be a lot more ruthless and pragmatic than Chivalry, so being noble and honorable, whilst still being villains, is very possible. After all, both Anime and Japanese Samurai films are full of examples of righteous and just characters who serve evil causes- to the Bushido-influenced mind, RIGHT is what your Lord tells you it is, not what the rest of the world accepts as such.

As you can possibly guess from my posts on this, you can count me in if a Ninja-aspected RP Villain Group does take off.

I actuaally proposed such an idea in the thread now called "Hyperion Watchmen OOC"- check out the second page. Obviously people went with the SG concept that became the Hyperion Watchmen instead, but the idea is still a good one as far as I'm concerned. I'd prefer a Villain Group of Ninja myself (I dislike how long-running players automatically reject Villain RP, and their attitudes seem to become a self-fulfilling prophecy).

My own proposal, for those whon can't be bothered looking it up again, was for a Ninja clan that had once been in the service of a Daimyo back in feudal Japan. The Tsoo had wiped the Samurai clan out centuries ago, and the Ninjas now operate as independent mercenaries, but never forgot their feud with the Tsoo. They moved to the Rogue Isles for both the increased employment opportunities, and for the chance to undermine the Tsoo operations their.

My own image was of a Clan hundreds-strong, but with only a hanful of Elite Ninjas represented by the PCs. The "grunt" Ninjas would be a Mastermind's pets.

Sounds good- people do tend to settle into small cliques and not mingle with "outsiders", this has the potential to shake the established groups up a bit. You'd have to allow a little more time than is normal with these things for each pairing, to allow for the fact that some people type slowly, but other than that- even if it turns out to be a disaster I'm sure it will be a memorable one.

I intend to use White' Wolf's Aberrant (probably sometime tomorrow) for the game stats. This system also has, if you own the Player's Guide as well, the potential to simulate beings of cosmic power at the higher end of the power scale- I hear Floating Fat Man might be in need of such a thing...

((I'll add a P&P version of Nightschild when I have more time. But a quick question... Is the statted version supposed to be an attempt to directly convert the character's in-game abilities, or is it the way you picture your character being if only you weren't constrained by the game powersets?))

Nightschild visited Pocket D again hoping for a break both from his own problems and from the troubles he was having locating a certain item Rose had mentioned. He encountered Powerstone and had a discussion regarding the merits of different spirits. Lady Patriot showed up soon after, and told him things were not too bad on the Shydow front. And further discussion was cut short by a plea for assistance via text from another member of the Court of the Blood Countess. He made his apologies and left.

Some time later, he managed to make it back to the club and found a large crowd gathered. He made his greetings, but the arrival of Feyth prompted him to relocate to another bar.

He ended up chatting to one of the newer recruits to the Court, Raven Gaiasbane, and impressively proportioned woman (both in height and figure). She claimed to have been empowered by the Earth spirit to stop the harm humans were doing to the planet, and Nick commented that this explained why she's ended up on the Isles- the Law being in the pockets of the big corporations. They talked about the reasons for money being such a great motivator for doing wrong, and Nick described Sharkhead Isle to her, which seemed to both anger and upset her in equal measure.

After he relocated again to avoid Feyth, he found that Alraune had begun serving at the bar, and Roselin Thorne had arrived in the meantime. He chatted with Rose for a time, and had just introduced Raven to Dinah when Zeyna turned up.

He excahnged a few awkward words, then retreated to an empty corner bar. Zeyna eventually followed, and they made an attempt at conversation. He wasn't able to talk or think straight with her there, though, so eventually she wandered back to the main group.

Nick made his apologies for an abrupt departure and left the club shortly after.

Er... Isn't there already a group based on the "Sailor Moon" style magical groups around? Check the threads, there's one about them down the list somewhere.

Nightschild visited Pocket D again last night, having decided that the best way to start feeling better was to try and get on with his regular routine. He sat, rather subdued, at one corner of the bar while everyone talked around him. Eventually he noticed there was a strange-looking girl huddled in the corner, watching everyone fearfully. With no-one else taking much notice, apart from occasional questions which merely resulted in her cowering furthere away, Nick decided to see what was happening.

The girl was rather fearful of everyone, but Nick eventually managed to get her to be a little less afraid of him. Blackrun, Arrow Flame and Vigilante Storm all noticed his attempts at conversation and wandered over one by one, though none of them recognised the strange language the girl was speaking- they did discover that her name was Zian, though. Realising that she seemed intimidated by the noise and the crowds, Nick coaxed Zian into a quieter corner where she seemed more relaxed. A patron named Alexandra, who claimed to have an ability with languages, attempted to communicated, but only got a few basic concepts. It seemed, though, that Zian had no idea where she was or how she had come to be here. Eventually Nick arranged for Zian to spend the night in one of the back rooms of Pocket D. Taken there, she fell asleep on the makeshift bed almost at once.

Nick talked with Rachel for a while afterwards. She told him a little about her past, and her association with the Lost. She also made a few impulsive advances, and while Nick didn't find them unwelcome, he still didn't feel over Zeyna enough that he felt right returning them.

Nick left the club hoping to find some magical means of translating languages which could be used to communicate with Zian. He sat down to a long night searching through the stores and libraries back at Castle Balthory...

Nightschild entered Pocket D looking for nothing more than a steady supply of hard spirits that would let him drink until he passed out- the few other bars that would serve someone his age tended to cut him off for fear of alchohol poisining after the first bottle or two, when his half-demon metabolism needed far more to have an effect.

He sat to one side drinking steadily for a while, and Mischevious showed up and said hi- then wondered what was wrong with Nick. Since Savannah was Zeyna's therapist, Nick assumed that she not only already knew, but had played a part in convincing Zeyna that they shouldn't be together. The discussion didn't go well- Savannah tried to be supportive, but Nick brought up her own troubled love life and asked how she was qualified to give advice if she couldn't help herself. Savannah left shortly after, muttering that this was why she never counselled teenagers.

By now starting to feel the effects of so much drink even with his constitution, Nick found that Alraune was becoming a little concerned with him, knowing how much he'd had so far. Blackrun and Energyneer overheard the conversation, with Mort commenting that he was obviously still hurting. Energyneer offered a shot to people from a silver flask she carried, saying that it was called Ambrosia and would make you feel whatever you wanted for a time- in his depressed state, Nick was more than willing to try the strange glowing substance and found that his heartache faded into numbness.

Vigilante Storm showed up at this point, and Rachel asked what was going on with Nick and found he was acting oddly. She was a somewhat upset to find that his state was due to some sort of drug, though even through the numbness of the Ambrosia Nick was somewhat shocked by her next revelation. It seemed that her behaviour towards Nick previously, consisting of interrupting his flirting with various women with sarcastic remarks and flirting with other men whilst standing near Nick was a cunning smokescreen ( ) hiding the fact that she had a "thing" for Nick.

They ended up talking about this in private. Nick accepted that as tempting as it may be, drugging the heartache away wasn't going to be a viable solution, and that he'd just have to let it heal with time. Rachel got a kiss and the understanding that he would think about what she'd said when his emotions got properly up and running after the ambrosia wore off. He wouldn't be getting together with anyone soon, though, but the knowledge that there was at least one other girl who found him attractive would help whatever else happened between them.

He left Pocket D to wait for his feelings to return, hopefully less painfully than was previously the case.



((The corpse of Nick and Zeyna's relationship isn't even cold yet and already the vultures begin to circle... As someone pretty new to the CoX RPing community, I have to wonder, is this normal? ))

An evening of woe and heartache for Nightschild began with him meeting Arrow Flame and Shydow Flysh in the Arena bar in Pocket D. He overheard Shydow saying how he had really loved Sarah and was genuinely broken about her leaving him- this was news to Nick, along with anyone else who'd heard only Sarah's point of view. Shydow left shortly after, leaving Nick feeling confused and slightly guilty- Nick had played a big part in convincing Sarah that she deserved better than the absentee and seemingly uncarinf Flysh.

Talking with Arc, Nick was surprised to learn that the Militia had not been informed of the fact that Lady Patriot, one of their members, was on the run from the law, having been arrested for the actions of her dopplelganger Fallen Patriot but resisted said arrest. Though not as surprised as the Militia members to hear about it several days after the fact from a supervillain, one would surmise.

Nick's interactions with the other patrons came to an abrupt halt when Zeyna entered the club and told Nick that they needed to talk privately. He had a sinking feeling that he knew what this was about- that Zeyna was going to try and dump him again- but this time, she was pulling no punches.

Nick was told that, simply put, Zeyna liked him but didn't love him, and never had- that she was in love with the idea of him, not Nick himself. She told him that it wasn't fair on him, and he was just being used by her, and that he deserved to be with somebody who loved him and could be with him all the time. He tried to protest, but she was adamant about it and he was too broken up to properly argue. He finally accepted her decision and left, radiating a shadowy cloud of angst and depression.

He was followed out of the Nightclub by Sarah2 (Fallen Patriot) and Blackrun, a Necromancer (Mort) who Nick had met in Pocket D and recruited into the Court of the Blood Countess. Apparently they had sensed the Darak energy he was radiating and came to investigate. He gavve a brief summary of what had transpired, and the three ended up in a bar in the Golden Giza on St. Martial.

Mort had to leave early, so Sarah2 was the one who got to listen to Nick rambling about how he simply wasn't good enough for her, and she'd finally realised that, and he'd been an idiot to believe that anyone could really want a short skinny kid like him. She tried her best to help him cheer up, but that wasn't going to happen so soon after the event and he ended up stumbling into bed in a very depressed state.

((This thread is something I've been considering for a while now. Following a conversation the other day, I've finally decided to implement it and see if everyone else thinks it'll be useful.

Essentially, this is where you can post anything about your character that is public knowledge. Perhaps it's a news report, or a widespread rumour, but it's known by most people in the business. The idea is that anyone can read what is posted here and freely refer to it In Character, as it's believable that they would have learned of it- "I read in the papers the other day that..." or "A guy I know knows another guy who said..." sort of things.

This way, people can read this thread and catch up with the major happenings that haven't directly affected their toons. It could help establish RP relationships ("Aren't you the one who..."). Also note that just because something is public knowledge, doesn't mean it has to be completely true...

So, if it's posted here and it's not in brackets, your characters know it, even if they don't necessarily believe it. I'll add some stuff about Nightschild later on, when I've more time.))