Favorite Toons of Yours & What They Meant to You

I made my first character concept for this game before CoH launched. I wasn't in the beta, but I had him ready to go the moment I installed the game.

I remember in college, my laptop wasn't strong enough to really handle CoH, so I played for two weeks in a weird, greyscale, semi-transparent landscape. But I played anyway, because flying is fun whether you can see properly or not.

Autopilot - En/En Blaster

Autopilot was a bit of an Iron Man ripoff, but with a twist. A hero named Steel Thunder gets aced by some Crey, and before he loses consciousness he tells his power suit's autopilot to take him home. There, he gets medical treatment, but slips into a coma.

Problem was, he had restricted voice access to the suit's autopilot, so it never shut down. Eventually, it started following basic routines that Steel Thunder had followed - basic city patrols, identification of hostile/criminal acts, etc. As time passed, it began to expand its library of procedures, until Autopilot became a hero in its own right.

My favorite character is Chad Gulzow-Man. He's kind of terrible at being a hero, but he just keeps getting up and trying again. He's been a character I've used in stories and RPGs since 1997/98.

And in case anyone's missed it in the other threads I've posted in, yes, that is my real name with "-Man" tacked on the end. He perpetually wears the clothes I was wearing the first time I ever drew him: blue jeans, tennis shoes and a grey teeshirt. The red S was added as an inside joke between my highschool friends. It stands for "Stuff." I'm also fairly confident that Chad Gulzow-Man is the only hero in the entire game who is supposed to have a rattail [hairstyle].


I drew the one on the left in mid 2008. (Wow, time flies.) Had a friend from my SG color it for me, though. The one on the right was probably 2005/06.

If I can find it, I actually have a drawing I did in MS Paint of Chad Gulzow-Man in 1998. Craziness!

Oh, and here's the original in-game representation of the four main Gulzow-Man characters (prior to Null's inception as a Praetorian):

Chad's got the swagged-out Pocket D Jeans on now, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nethergoat it's NEVER too late to pad your /ignore list!

I made Lycantropus as a personal view on my world in a game setting. It was about my anger management, if nothing else, though it was a bit more.

I have a personal fascination with werewolf movies and the idea behind the creature that is the werewolf. The duality and struggle to maintain what is human beneath the easily scratched beast. The negative impulses that reside within most people made manifest.

Lyc wasn't my first character, but he had the most impact on my life as a person, and became my main very quickly. This became even more pronounced to me when "Going Rogue" came out. Because he was my main, he was also my main badge collector. I came to the decision, amost immediately, that he would never go vigilante, villain, or rouge, and only get the badges he could as a pure hero. For Lyc was a lycanthrope. If he even once gave in to the beast, he would be lost forever in rage and hunger. At the time it was a hard decision, but it was made the more vital because he had a choice in a tangible in-game way to get more badges he could earn.

That was the lesson I learned MOST from City of Heroes. In it's most simple terms, it isn't about the reward but the journey that makes the true hero. Lyc wouldn't fall, because he couldn't. This asked a simple run of missions that would easily allow him more accolades to put upon his mantle, but he refused them, and I applied these lessons to my everyday life.

That's what City of Heroes means to me.

The freedom the game gave me, gave Lyc himself the strength to choose otherwise, and made me a better person for it. Anger and desire are much easier to reach for than the higher goals. I knew that, but this game illustrated it nicely, which made me feel better for the choices I made for him as a product of it. Life is easier to explain in a game context, and City of Heroes offered that to me. What turned out to me my main villain, Master Designer, was a different story altogether.

My other favorite set of characters are the same guy, just 3 sets of power armor to represent the need he has to fill. His history is more detailed than Lyc's, but Lyc's has the most personal affect on me, so I'll represent that by leaving it at that.

As for me, there will never be another Lycantropus in any game anywhere else, by any developer. If you see that name, it will not be me outside of City of Heroes. That chapter for him is finished, when Paragon goes dark. That is my sacrifice in the name of what this game has meant to me. Do with it what you will.

Lyc~ one of the first werewolves of Paragon City to be a hero after the first Haloween event.

Just to point out, while Lyc isn't the first character I played, he's been around for over 8 years in the City of Heroes Universe. He's the second character I made.

It's an important distinction, since I brought up Going Rogue and the alignment system, which may have implied he was much younger. He was well before that, and the lack of a system enforced his code in my mind, but the point of the system's openess when "Going Rogue" came out solidified that concept in my mind and was a 'defining moment' for the character to the point that it was worth mention.

Anyway, on with the topic

My top 3:

Johanna Sinclair: my en/en blaster, otherwise known as the time-bending, troublemaking, techie pagan nun. I'd originally created her for a group of stories I'd written for the anime fandom of TRINITY BLOOD, and my first character here in COH was a superhero version of Jo. She took on a new life here, and when Issue 11 came out, she picked up an alt (Mender Anomaly), who was Jo 10 years in the future. Great fun... and she was my first 50!

Sorina Tavarisch: grav/kin controller. I'd created her on a lark to experiment with the set, but while she had something of a backstory (former Vanguard scientist during the war), she didn't REALLY take on a life of her own until quite unexpectedly, she let me know in no uncertain terms that she was harbouring a secret crush on Positron. And as I wrote the book THE COURSE OF SUPERHERO ROMANCE, she developed more and more layers until I was astounded at how much she had grown.

Last but not least, the irrepressible Andrea Blake. A dark/psi defender created because of a friend's request of how the powerset played. Once I'd created her, though, she leapt full-fledged from my imagination into the game. On the surface, she was a fun-loving, gung-ho, "I live for debt" superhero. However, she'd gained her darkness powers after being shot and killed at sixteen trying to stop a group of Skulls from assaulting a woman, and since then has not aged. Some characters have concept songs - Blake has at least two full albums. She's dated Castle, Foreshadow, Synapse, and who knows how many other eligible bachelors of Paragon City. Oh yeah... and she called Statesman a wuss in front of about a hundred people at a charity ball. I love that girl.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

At the top of my list is my namesake, Tenzhi. He's a regular alter ego of mine, whose story varies from universe to universe. He usually takes the form of a short little old man with large white eyebrows and facial hair, with the void of the universe where his eyes should be. Occasionally he takes the form of a dragon (exhibiting some physical characteristics similar to Chinese dragons).

And there's Eustace Black, whose story can be read here. I never got him past the middle levels, but I really enjoyed creating his look and backstory.

I've had quite a few characters in the 6 or so years I've been involved with CoX, but there's only one that really deserves to be mentioned;

Jay Reynolds - The Crimson Archer



Jay was the second character I ever created in City of Heroes, and my first proper RP character. He arrived in Paragon City as redneck trailer trash from Tennessee, striving to be a hero on his own, but soon fell into good company with The Militia (although his first impressions left a lot to be desired!).

Over time Jay grew as a character and his back story grew with him. He acquired a mutant sister and an ex-military father, a taste for bourbon and a dislike of bullies, and he came out to his friends, becoming in time an openly gay hero and role model.

He sacrificed a lot over the years and his story was not always a comfortable or happy one. Disrupting the Tsoo plot to take over the gangs of Paragon City became a major part of his story, with Tub Chi taking a personal interest in his fall from grace. Jay started using metabolic enhancers to try and keep up with his super powered colleagues, leading to lapses in judgement and leadership. He lost an eye and witnessed the death of his cousin, the archery hero Redsight, while involved in the rescue attempt of kidnapped friend, Amber Banshee.

After losing his eye, he lost his confidence in his prowess as an archer and pushed himself too hard to get back in 'The Game', eventually accepting the help of his greatest enemy and receiving Tsoo tattoo magic to give him back his aim. But the magic was also designed to warp his mind, and bit-by-bit he alienated himself from his friends and team mates, culminating in his near murder of Hope Jensen, a young hero who was under his charge.

Jay's story ended sadly, after spending time in The Zig for his assault of Hope and quitting as a hero, Jay was eventually killed in a mid-air explosion aboard his private jet caused by the Tsoo leader, Tub Chi, who was eager to draw a line under the feud now that he had truly engineered the fall of The Crimson Archer.

But it wasnt all angst and sadness... Jay made many friends and had adventures which still make me smile. The cover photos for Paragon Pride magazine; the Crimson Archer action figure line he was forced to endorse and got teased about; His always missing dinner at White Vampyr & Britannic's apartment... So many good memories and so much laughter that even now makes me smile.



In many ways, the character wrote himself. Sometimes it felt more like he lived through me rather than I was making him up. I'm immensely proud of Jay because he felt alive and real to me, and I've been told by others that they felt the same way. Without CoX, he would never have existed and I would never have had the pleasure of his company or the thrill of his adventures.

I am extremely thankful to everyone that has ever worked on City of Heroes for giving me the chance to know Jay, and I hope that, one day, I can find myself playing him again... although maybe a Jay from happier times!

My main is my forum name, Super Ready. He's an avatar of everything I aspire to be, even if the appearance is miles off.

The more astute of you will notice that the costume below in my fanart differs slightly from in-game - this is because I created Supes way back around 2001-2002, when CoH was still in development, though I never knew it at the time.
I've said a few times now that CoH is the only game I've played where I can bring MY characters to life - this is the proof that I really mean it.

This is how he looked way back when:


This is how he looks now:


This is the afore-mentioned fanart:



And I even made a model of him from an Aquaman figurine. See, Aquaman CAN be useful!:

Kiken was my first, conceived even before beta. He was just a kid from Tokyo with some tricked out mutant reflexes who liked getting into fights. His father took a transfer to America to get him away from the bad company he was falling into, and it was there that he figured out if you put on a costume and only picked on bad guys, you could get into as many fights as you liked. His timing sucked, though, as he put on his mask just in time for the Rikti to invade.
He banded together with a random group of other heroes who after the war stuck together to become the Paragons of Justice and slowly learned to become a real hero. He was my main through all my time on the US servers, and my first 50. He went into semi-retirement when I transferred to the EU, but various new builds have been made when power sets were proliferated or created.

Iron Anderson was my first real alt to stick on the EU servers. He was intended for RP right from the start, but the advent of IO builds meant that he ended up nearly as incredibly tough as his concept. Jake Anderson was the result of one of the many super-soldier programs launched during WW2. Bullet-proof, strong enough to pound through tank armour, he served with Captain Volcano in the Pacific. After the war he was stationed with the Occupying Forces in Japan for several years before returning to America.
There he eventually slipped into a life of crime, growing stronger and more experienced as time passed, to eventually become the hired muscle of choice for mad criminal masterminds through the 60s and 70s. He soon found that his aging had been reduced too, by something like half, so he had a long career ahead of him. Anything can grow stale after enough time, however, and eventually he came to feel that the disadvantages of a life always on the run outweighed the fun he was having. And so he decided to go straight, did some time and hit the streets a reformed man. More-or-less.
Which is where he was when I began playing him. RP-wise he hung around the bar, telling tall stories of his life beating up "White masks" and the crazy people he'd worked for. Eventually he ended up married, with two adopted daughters and the owner of a small but flourishing construction company. (Anderson Construction. One thing not getting i24 has killed is my chance to claim it was canon ) He would claim to not miss the old days, but he would get his fix of action by occasionally helping out a couple of heroes.

Lightning Kiss was intended to be purely a throw-away character RP-wise, somebody to break out when I wanted a little break from being all manly with Jake. As such, Claire Hamilton had only a very limited background and very simple personality. Somehow, however, she ended up growing through interaction with others into something much more complex and eventually replaced Jake as my main. She went from a spoiled idle rich Daddy's girl flirting with anything with a pulse to a slightly-less-spoiled happily married responsible(ish) Vanguard soldier. Who hosts great parties. Claire really is an example of one of those characters that created themselves with very little deliberate input from me. And it helps that Elec/Elec Doms can be pretty awesome.

I could talk about Dynexus (illusion/FF controller), my soloing badger for collecting story content. Or Fairy Tale (plant controller), my Freedom Horde alt whose social time brought me joy every Monday. Or Animorphosis (beast mastermind), who I had so much fun with I rolled up two more masterminds to play using the excuse of earning Hero merits. But instead I'd like to talk about my most meaningful alt...



Healing Hopes (empathic defender): The name held a double meaning of what I wanted to be for those who were hurting and what I desperately needed for myself.

Like others, this was an alter ego created when my life was at such a low that I questioned ever making a positive impact in the world.

She embodies all that I strive to be: Protected, caring, respectful, optimistic, enduring (one of my few level 50s), beautiful, pure with a magical sense of wonder for the world, and yes, able to freely soar to heart's content.

Her theme song was "Light Of Love" by Yoko Kanno. After this last weekend "My Name Is Hope" by Kirsten Millsap will be her, and my, new steadfast.




May we always fly on wings of hope.

.

My favorite is an obvious choice:

Guilt Trip Girl



"Katie discovered that she had minor mental abilities at the age of thirteen. She managed to keep them a secret from her family and friends for well over a decade. She fell in love with her college sweet heart, and they soon got married. All was going wonderful in her life until one day when her husband stumbled apon an online superhero game, Town of Supers.

Fueled by her hatred of the game, she quickly learned to hone her latent mutant abilities, to the point where she could get him to log off just after logging on. After a few months she seemed to have influence over anyone and not just her husband. She then decided to use her amplified abilities, to take out her anger on all of the evil men in the world, which in her mind is pretty much any man."

She was born during 4th of July weekend in 2004. My wife wanted to go somewhere, but someone invited Tassel (my Scrapper main at the time and member of the Honor Roll) to a Positron TF. They said it would only be an hour or two, but it was a team of 8 all on the low end of the scale. Lets just say it went poorly, some couldn't even get to the second or third mission in Boomtown. All in all it wasn't fun, and was made worse by my wife's constant asking of "Are you done yet? You said you would be done." The next day I made GTG and she quickly became my favorite. And until the mid to late 30s, GTG was proven correct that all the evil in Paragon City was caused by Men.

She was my first 40 (and when it expanded 50). While she was always a Mind/FF Controller, I restarted her a couple of times (once to change her origin to join Paragon Mutant Corp, and another to restart going through the new content like the Hollows and Strigga Island, with Red Tomax).

I have so many memories just role playing with her as well. I had so many memorable conversations with the Simian Defense Force, Der Gluhen, and just about any other male character I interacted with that would play along.

I also have a Guilt Trip Gal, which I played as a Praetorian version of her. She was a Thugs/FF Mastermind (that I later revealed to be a Nemisis Automaton to discredit Guilt Trip Girl when the cyborg robot face came out).

All on Virtue

Heroside

Wulfen: My first real main, and the one I spent the most time on developing a backstory and character depth for, his life events were dictated by a large part of the events in-game both on the Virtue server events and stories and input of his in-game friends and family, shaping him to what he became. It was a path never set in stone, and I loved it.

Black Cloak: He was only intended to be a sometime player in stories, but Black Cloak was a favorite because he could be used to counsel others and help their with their character life paths and stories, which he often did. Enigmatic, mysterious, and possessing reality twisting powers, the Black Cloaks protected the web of the universe and creation called 'The Tapestry' so he never really intervened himself, but helped and advised others.

Villainside

Mister Scratch: Existing before CoV and my beta and main character for CoV (and well before the one that shows in the events) the suit wearing enigmatic 'Lawyer From Hell' was both fun to play, and fun to interact with others with (and got a lot of compliments on his bio and stories since he's such an insidious character.)

Exodus 22:18 named for the christian bible verse 'Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Witch To Live' this fanatic witch hunter used every weapon and skill at his disposal to wage unrelenting and unmerciful war against everything supernatural, hero or villain. As such he earned the ire of both sides, and it was always entertaining when he was in a villain team with supernatural villains or in public event places (like the Pocket D, whose rules forbid him for executing his prey in the D')

lots of good roleplay, and lots of tells, good and insulting, lol.

Surge Warrior on Virtue. lvl 50(+3) KM/Ela Scrapper

This became my main as soon as the incarnate system was announced. I didn't have a scrapper that felt more than street level, and I wanted to make something that really felt like it could be an incarnate. So, I did.

In beta I had no clue how to play /Electric Armor, but then GoliathBirdEater (GBE) gave me some tips, and all of a sudden I was bottoming out mob's blue bars with the end click. It was AWESOME. It led to a few arguments on the scrapper boards about what /Ela could and couldn't do. For some reason that end drain was never accounted for in survivability numbers, and Werner finely admitted it. I was pretty happy about that.

People trashed KM left and right for a while, and I just laughed at that... a LOT.

Really though the reason it is my favorite is because I got robbed in a costume contest. You guys may remember it. It was the one where you could win a 5 year sub (fat lot of good that would have done me ow) or one of 10 one year subs. Well I won none of the above.

What was cool though was the amount of PMs I got saying that I got robbed. Those compliments were better than winning. Now that my current sub will not even be used up, those compliments mean even more.

That contest burned on me ever entering another costume contest, and I would have loved to have cut Posi's hair. In the end though the praise of my peers was better than any prize I could have won.

Bulwark of Darkness- Dark/Shield/Fire scrapper. Oh man, when shield first came out I was goin' over all the power choices and dark just seemed to pair so well with shield. And was I ever right! I burned so many respects on this toon I ended up having to buy recipes to keep tweaking his build. The end result is pretty crazy and I'm insanely proud of it. I love scrapper and I always had a hard time rolling up a new one after this toon, I would keep comparing this toon to the new one and I'd want to go back to Bulwark to trash more stuff. I mean tanking MoSTFs, tanking Hami raid, heck this toon has done it all.

Mistress Hellflame- Ah my beloved Fire/Dark/Dark corr. It's very busy and active play style but jeez do I love it. Seeing a large amount of mobs stuck in tar patch and rain of fire brings an evil gleam to my eye. Or if I debuff their tohit enough I'll dive in and fire off soul drain also to really wreak some havoc.

Focused Psyche- I always wanted a ranged toon but no mez protection bugged me. But then a friend showed me what fortunatas were all about and jeez are they awesome. Moderate damage, insanely high defenses where you just have to stand next to someone to get them more than halfway to softcap and some controls? This toon was my official badge toon, not sure why I decided that.

Honorable Mention- Liquidate Claws/Nin stalker, Titan Valkyrie Titan/WP scrapper, Hydrokinetic Water/MM blaster, Lilith Ascended Mind/Fire dom, Umbral Eve dark/dark dom, Military Law soldier of arachnos

"With great moustache comes great responsibility" - Zee Captain

Silverwing - My first hero, and still my favorite. I made her in the Beta, and I've played her ever since. She's one of the few heroes still around who has all 8 anniversary badges and is commonly played, I take that as a sign of pride that she's one of the few remaining heroes to spring up after the Rikti War ended, and is still fighting crime to this day.

She's grown from a young, unsure college student into a full fledged hero, a mentor to dozens of younger heroes, a savior of the hundreds of lives over the years, and a determined woman who will never shy away from doing the right thing. She's grown harder over the years, but she's never lost her optimism. When I think of the phrase "super hero," I no longer think of Superman or Batman. I think of Silverwing.

People have watched me playing her and been amazed at how nothing ever seems to be able to kill her. I know I've inspired more than one person to pick up Super Reflexes just because they watched her in action. I like to think that's a reflection of the kind of mark she's left on her city.

Professor Bikini - Just like I have a hero that I'll never forget, I've also got a villain. Professor Bikini was originally meant to be a joke character to play with a friend who made a corresponding character, her sister Doctor Bikini. Imagine my surprise when the Professor actually became a serious character in her own right, with drives and ambitions to go along with her unusual name and costume.

These days, she's an arms dealer/manufacturer operating out of the Rogue Isles, and when she needs venture capital, she just goes out and takes it. A rogue through and through, she doesn't try to be actively evil, she's just not worried about being good. She's not my strongest character by any means, but she is my go-to inventor, and she's right up there with Silverwing in terms of the mark she's left on me with her personality.

I've got others, but those two... those two are my favorite.

My favorite toons? Well, I only have three, so this is easy!

The first one I created, TheCommander

was a very sad Mass Effect FemShep knock-off, right down to her red on black was-supposed-to-be-Colossus X-but-in-reality-she-looked-like-an-Arachnos-agent armor. I also didn't work on the face at all, so she looks like quite an angry lady. Which...would fit in with her being an Arachnos agent, now that I think about it. She was a Magic/Blaster, and though I never did anything with her(I think she's still at L2), I did at least get her powers colored pretty much exactly like biotic powers. So there's that. And if nothing else, the time it took to create her proved to me that I could be a lot more original with the design.

My second toon, Angel of Retribution,

was originally going to be a Magic/Blaster as well, but I decided to go Magic/Scrapper/Longsword. I came up with what I thought was a nice story.

Quote:

Angel of Retribution Amber Mitchell was a U.S. Government researcher doing advanced testing on relics found by Hero-turned-archaeologist Doc Delilah. As she was taking an ancient stone tablet to the mass spectrometry lab, an electrical storm blew out the lights of the research facility, causing Amber to stumble and fall in the sudden darkness. The tablet shattered and a nimbus of mystical energy enveloped her body. Stunned by what was happening, Amber heard a ghostly voice. "Whilst I have slept the otherworlders have grown bold; but I am too weary to put matters right. My life now ends but my purpose endures, and your bloodline shall continue my legacy. Henceforth, you bear the power of Nemesis, goddess of retribution." As the voice faded, Amber became aware of the power left behind in its wake. Reporting to her superiors, she was put through a battery of tests to confirm her new abilities and after being registered as a Hero, was sent to Paragon City for on the job training.

I spent literally days going over the costume, getting each piece to 'fit' with the others, trying color scheme after color scheme until it 'felt' right. She was also given an alternate costume with wings("Angel", remember) to use in boss battles(...I'm such a geek), hell, I even colored her longsword differently for that outfit(...I'm really a geek). This was the character that showed me how truly fun and different this game was. I can honestly, no-BS say that the time I've spent playing as her was some of the best I've had in over 25 years of playing games(I'm 35). Dropping out of the sky and busting out a Whirling Sword on a group of mooks never got old, nor did standing toe-to-toe with EB's and mashing their faces in. She was my first, and she'll always be my favorite, the one I ran around with, the one, when I was bored, that I'd simply fly around and explore an entire zone with.

My third character, Pale Fallen Angel,

was created on a lark. My best friend -- who was actually the one that got me into the game -- sent me an email about Peacebringers and Warshades being on sale, and I thought "Why not?" I immediately created her and reserved her name(got burned on that with AoR, which wasn't her first name choice, though I honestly can't remember what was), then just left her in Icon for a few days while I tried to figure out an outfit. But while I was doing that, I ended up writing a story for her, though the name comes form Hideyuki Kikuchi's eleventh Vampire Hunter D novel; it's not a 'by the book' PB name, but darn it, I wanted to use it.

Quote:

Pale Fallen Angel As an FBSA agent, AnnaSophia Shepard knew about the Kheldians, but since they didn't work with her section, she rarely thought about them until she watched a Nictus attack kill her husband and infant son. As the devastated Anna cradled her child's body, she saw nearby a fatally injured Peacebringer who had attempted to stop the slaughter. Filled with grief and hatred, Anna impulsively offered to become the alien's new host. After the joining, she took the name Pale Fallen Angel and dedicated herself to wiping out the Nictus. Even among other Peacebringers, she rapidly became considered particularly ruthless. When the FBSA questioned their former agent about her methods, they received a blunt response. "The Nictus must be destroyed. I cannot compromise, I will show no mercy. To achieve this goal, there is no enemy I will not assist, no friend I will not stab in the back, no ally I will not betray. The end of the Nictus will justify my means."

Yeah, I'm a sucker for tragedy, sue me. I died more than my fair share of times while learning the difference between a Scrapper and a Peacebringer. Although I have to admit that hovering in mid-air over Nocturne, blasting her while she ran around raging impotently below me, made up for all the Void Hunters. For a time, she was my favorite, I think more because of the "newness" of getting used to a ranged powerset instead of melee, though I did get used to it enough that I can switch between her and AoR effortlessly. But she was the one who gave me the deepest emotional connection to the game, someone who'd had it all and then lost everything, with only revenge to hold onto. I even went back later and gave her a "business suit" FBSA outfit.

So there you have it: my three characters. In closing, what did they mean to me? TheCommander, almost nothing. AoR showed me how easy it was to immerse yourself in this game. And PFA demonstrated how effortlessly any story that the players could come up with would fit into this world. That, if this does end, will be the legacy of City of Heroes to me. A game that let you be anything you wanted, and yet still made you feel like you belonged.

Ooh... this is a hard call. My first is easy: my Main, my namesake, the first character I ever created.

Shortspark (Fire/Fire Tanker)


"All her life, Tara Riley had been looked down on. Literally. Although diminuitive, she was tough, and made up for her dearth of height with a plethora of spirit. Mischievious and impulsive, she got into binds often from not thinking things through completely. Despite these occasional shortcomings and a temper hot enough to oxidize iron, she was loyal to her friends and never got into real trouble.

On the evening of her 21st birthday, she went out to a bar with a few friends to celebrate her drinking privileges. A mix of inebriation and crude pickup lines caused her famous temper to manifest in a fiery blaze that ended up torching the bar. No one was injured badly, but Tara decided to leave town. Searching for a new place to fit in, she heard of Paragon City, and left to seek her fortune in a city where a girl who sometimes caught fire wouldn't draw notice.

Shortspark doesn't bother with a secret identity. It's hard to avoid notice when you catch fire whenever you're angry."

So I after playing on a friend's account for a few days, I'd quickly cracked and gotten my own. I hadn't a clue what I was doing, I barely knew what archetypes were, I just created a character that seemed cool to me. So I ended up with a short curvy redheaded fire tanker with an anger problem. I liked the idea of anger manifesting in the form of fire, being wielded to great effect against her enemies.

I played no character but Shortspark for a long, long time. At first, she flew, then later switched to jumping. I ground my way through the early parts of the game, teaming, soloing, but mostly dragging an endurance problem I could not shake. First into every fight, never fearing, but always asking "Anyone got a blue?" afterwards.

By the time she reached 50, I had managed to handle my end problems. Judicious power use, along with Consume, Conserve Power, and Geas of the Kind Ones, could see me through any tough spot. But with the advent of Inventions, I suddenly had a new goal. I could now slot for endurance reduction without reducing any of my other attributes, and I could get recovery and Max END bonuses. My vision of Shortspark as an unstoppable ball of fire was complete. I could fight without stopping, my survival no longer dependent on an empty endurance bar.



Incarnates brought another iteration to Shortspark. No longer was I limited to my tanker powers; now she could REALLY wreak havoc. Shortspark had finally become what I had originally envisioned. Over 6 years of play, she had grown and matured from a brash young hero into a mature, competent, and fully self-sustaining fighter. In addition, she'd picked up a pair of sisters, making three fire-based anger manifesting redheads. But I digress.

For my second pick... I'd have to go with a much moar recent character.



Moar Power was created in the goal of making an overpowered character. He was a Cold/Ice def with no backstory and no concept beyond raw, overpowered fun. And oh boy, what a blast I had. When I was playing MP, I felt cocky and carefree. He seemed like a character that didn't have a care in the world or to give much of a damn for anything. He did what he wanted, went where he wanted and had fun.


My final character is The Nemesis Plothole.

He was conceived around a single idea; for all the complexity of the Prussian Prince of Automaton's plans, a single hero who keeps wrecking his plans. And not just foiling them; foiling them in a uncomplicated and easy to understand way.



He was a StJ/Regen scrapper. After supposedly being disintegrated completely in the 70's, he reappeared and had begun to take the fight to Nemesis once again. I had a absolute blast playing him to 50, and he ended up being on of my most survivable characters, assuming I paid attention and anticipated. At a time when I was starting to burn out on the game, he made it fun for me again by giving me a new playstyle.

I'm going to end it here or I'll end up trotting out every alt I've ever rolled. I'll just list some other characters that deserve a mention: Shortspark's sister toons, Emberblast (Fire/Fire Blaster) and Jessie Inferno (Fire/Shield scrapper), a wizard (Rad/Sonic Defender), Strongarm Sara (Inv/SS Tanker), and Sybil Disobedience (TW/EA Brute)

Biowraith - Dark/Dark/Dark Defender - he was my very first character, that I created in beta (and had sorta-planned with the rudimentary character planner that was available before I got into beta). I re-rolled him twice during live, before respecs were available. He was my first level 50. The few lasting friendships I've made in the game were made on that character. I've ended up using it as my primary identity across the web. And was still playing him up until the beginning of the end.

Roxxor - Super Strength/Invulnerability/Mu Brute - this was my very first villain character, although not my first villain to 50. He sprang from my love of the Freakshow villain group, and duoed most of the way to 50 with a friend's Rad/Kin Corruptor.

Lord Skull - Dark Blast/Kinetics/Power Corruptor - my second villain, and my first villain to 50. He was basically a parody character - at a time where others were parodying the darkity dark characters, I decided to go for the tendency to overuse the skull motif, by overusing the skull motif (for any given costume piece, if there was an option with a skull I used it).

Pinchy - Crab Spider - my favourite character overall. A hulking juggernaut of destruction; I used the Huge frame and moved all the sliders if not to max, then to 75%. He took the melee attacks and I just loved both the visual and the gameplay of opening up with an AoE barrage from range, before bearing down on whatever was left to hack away with his crab arms.

Honourable mention to Zombie From Space - just because the concept (a high tech cyborg zombie with a raygun) amused me greatly. Also Fortunata Atropos, because of all my characters I think her costume turned out closest to what I had in my head when I imagined her.

And for posterity I've exported screenshots of all my characters to a photobucket album. I'd have preferred to get them all in-game using their powers, but alas I dropped to premium a couple weeks before the closure announcement (which I'm glad of, since I was on an annual sub) and most of my characters are now locked.

By far, my favorite is The Hour Thief. He's a time manipulator from before Time was a powerset (a Grav/Kin controller with powers colored gold, like all the things representing "time" were before the actual time set showed up and was, inexplicably, not gold by default), played as a Midnighter from the earlier days of the Midnight Squad, who idolized the Dream Doctor growing up and started learning magic soon as he scraped together enough money to go to college. All this was decided a good bit of time after I rolled him - his concept, on creation, was based entirely on "Five Minutes," a short creepypasta... I had no more than that until I banged out a quick bio for him to bring him into my RP supergroup; basically just height, weight, DOB, distinguishing features, and a quick-and-dirty personality description. Then, a month or two later, he was promoted to IC officer, and I found myself playing him more and more... from there, his history and a far more comprehensive personality pretty much wrote themselves.



I don't feel I exaggerate when I say I came to love him. I have been playing him exclusively since the announcement of Paragon Studios' closure, and even before, he was my default when logging in - somehow, playing and writing him feels easier, more natural, even than playing characters who are objectively closer to being me (as a twenty-five-year-old female civilian, I have very, very little in common with a ninety-three-year-old-but-immortal male WWII veteran). Maybe it's because looking things up so I can play him for what he is better has led me to a lot of interesting stuff; maybe it's that I just like playing support ATs and he, as a /Kin and later a Time/ Defender, is my supportiest; maybe it's just a simple matter of his being smokin' hot - whatever the reason, he's what sprang into my mind as what I don't want to lose when I read the news.

I also like my Fortunata (an escaped superscience Rularuu-monster) and my Ill/Rad controller (a time-displaced woman scientist from pre-19th-Amendment Chicago) a lot. There have been times when they were my favorite, in turn, for various reasons, and for various reasons I don't feel like I'm done with them either. All three will live on as Mutants and Masterminds characters, and in the event I ever get to play them (fingers crossed) I'll be asking my GM to please allow their in-character acknowledgement of Paragon City's existence.