BlueBattler

Something that popped into my head the other night as I was contemplating a new story.

There are quite a few characters in COX that are either extremely long lived or even physically immortal. Strangely enough, none of them seem to have dated their fellow immortals.


We've all either seen or heard of plenty of May-December relationships. Most of those in real life tend to be older men, younger women, but there are some women out there who prefer to date younger men.


So here's the point I'm getting at.

Marcus Cole is more than a hundred years old. He's one of the most famous men in history, and he's one of the world's greatest heroes.

What kind of woman would it take to be in an equal relationship with him? Could a "normal" woman have the experience and force of personality it would take to be his partner?

I'm thinking that an 18 year old fresh out of high school would probably not fit the bill ...

In the novel Freedom Phalanx Manticore was 19 years old or so. If the eternally youthful Sister Psyche (who would have been close to 60 in the 1980s) had expressed a romantic interest in Manti would he have had the experience to enter a relationship with her as an equal?

Was just perusing the response thread to these questions, and there it states:

I've done two of the Patron Arcs, and I have the other two lined up on some 40-somethign level villains that I have, but a lot of times I skip Grandville entirely and head into RWZ to finish leveling a villain.

Sometimes, it's because my Villain isn't really all that evil, but a lot of times it's because I don't like the idea of my 40ish villains being treated like they were still level 1 errand boys.

How many other people do the same thing?

I don't normally put much stuff into MIDS, and this guy I had a good idea what I was going for as I had taken an elec/elec scrapper to 50 already.

Since I don't have access to the same Epic pools, I'm not sure what to put into his last two powers.

And I took Black Scorpion because I had already done Ghost Widow and Scirroco's arcs. I've got Mako on my Fire/Therm Corruptor so I can run all the patron arcs.

I'm funny like that.

The main thing I am doing with this guy is beating up Rikti in RWZ. I hope to eventually do the Lady Grey TF with him.

He's now 45. Black Scorpion is his patron.

I have two power picks left and I'm not sure what to take on them.

Already have Taunt for my eventual Lady Grey TF.

What would you recommend for my final two powers?

I could possibly see taking Thunderclap-- again, to help with the TF-- and/or another Travel power as my account is old enough I can get the actual travel power without having to pick one of the prereqs. So one idea is Thunderclap/Super jump. (He already has super speed.) I'm not crazy about Thunderclap at all.

I could see taking Tough ... but that means throwing away the other power for Boxing or Kick.

I could maybe take a couple of patron powers.

Or the Medicine Path.

Anyone have some suggestions?

Got my Arachnobots.

First impression: Those guys are big!

Second impression: I'm glad I'm not arachnophobic!

Third Impression: I want to make them blue!

To test his mettle, I set Spider Blue to Plus 0 plus 4 and took him into RWZ and ran the first instanced mission. A friend was along on his pre SO Ax/WP Brute.

We did all right, but I was really noticing the increase burning of endurance for Spider at that setting.

I'm going with a pet and backpack emphasis. Not taking any gun related powers at all. I

Will the increased damage on the Arachnobots be enough to reduce my end usage for soloing and duoing on a higher than base setting? I have all the toggles now but Offensive and Assault, and I'm planning on taking those two as well.

For attacks, I've got Longfang, Channelgun, Suppression, Venom, Frag Grenade, Frenzy, and Omega Maneuver. I've got endurance reduction in three of those attacks and plan to put one in each. (Going to use Base IOs till 50 and then maybe get something better if I can figure out what to slot.)

Yesterday I was playing my Crab, Spider Blue, working on getting him to 38 so I could try out my second set of pets. I wound up doing Hardcase's arc of all things.

Now I'm going to preface this by saying that most of my villains are not mustache-twirling evil to begin with. Still, very few of them are going to take kindly to being ordered about or sent off to rescue people.

Now several times Hardcase says something to the effect that being a villain doesn't mean not looking after your own ...

And that really clicked for Spider Blue.

Spider grew up in the Rogue Isles, under Recluse's philosophy. He did the Dark Reflections arc, and arguably that was the first time in his career he ever showed mercy to anyone. (He didn't save his own clone because the time ran out on me, but he would have.)

"The strong thrive. The weak perish. That is as it should be."

(My take on Recluse's philosophy.)

But after the Dark Reflections arc, and then Hardcase's ... well... now Spider's philosophy is "The strong thrive-- and protect what's theirs. And that includes people."

All of a sudden, I have a new handle on Spider's personality that really makes him come alive for me as a character. He's a hero!

But a hero in the mode of Namor. A Namor with a sense of humor, but ...

He'll protect what's his, but he'll fight Longbow and Paragon's heroes because they've invaded his home. He'll fight against the Rikti to preserve his people, and in the ITF to save his time, but he'll have no problem with stealing money from Paragon City because he views it as a foreign invader.

Because of that, he won't go Rogue. He's not going to leave the Rogue Isles. I don't see him working for any of the patrons with the possible exception of Scirroco because he sees them as putting their own interests ahead of the Rogue Isles. I'm unsure if he feels that it would cause more problems for his homeland for Recluse to be overthrown than it would be if he remains in power yet ...

Anyway, the thing is, this post is about when you have a moment where a character really clicks for you-- you know who they are-- or discover they're actually someone other than who you thought they were...

Tell me your best "Oh yeah" stories please.

I did the HEAT arc back in 05. I'm working on my Spider's now. I have to say that so far the worst HEAT arc is still pretty good compared to the VEAT.

Now that practically everyone can play a HEAT or VEAT if they so desire, any chance we might get some more official content or tweaks for them?

For example, maybe the VEATs could get a version of the PPD Radio where they're "assigned" to handle specific situations in their official capacity as an Arachnos Soldier.

The Kheldians could get missions specific to their origin: tracking down supplies of quantum rifles, putting down rogue Kheldians, that sort of thing.

Um, am I missing some of the VEAT story arcs or are they really short compared to the HEAT ones?

I admit that it's been about 5 years since I ran through the Kheldian Arcs on my PB, but it sure seems like there's not much meat to the VEAT storyline.

Even if they do glow, I hope there's more to the pack than those two things.

I was really hoping for a new wolf's head ....

Do you think that Luminary sends Positron a Father's Day card?

I'm been playing COH since just a few days after it went live. In over six years of play, I have seen people come and go ... and a few come and leave again.

I'm still here.

For me, COX has seen me through some of the worst times in my life. When I needed a diversion or escape I could always slip into Paragon City.

But it's more than that.

The world has a very rich lore. (Those of you who have read my fanfiction can attest to my interest in that!)

This is the first game I ever played where I got to make my OWN characters ... characters who could fly and run and jump and wear whatever costume I made for them ...

This game has some GREAT Devs ... I have had occasion to PM Hero 1, Manticore, and War Witch herself, and they were all very courteous and helpful, taking the time to answer my questions.

But it's more than that, even.

The thing that's kept me in Paragon City ... the reason that I'm still here ... is the Community. The people I've teamed with. The people on the forums.

I am hard pressed to imagine that there is any MMO Community that is as friendly and welcoming as this one.

There are some great people here, and that's why I'm still here.

How about the rest of you?

Joe the Titan is sort of a mercy killing ... kind of like putting down Old Yeller.

Still made me sad to do it.

But, yeah. The whole Hydra thing was kind of offputting.

Got my Crab Spider up to 35 today and took Spiderling pets.

Have to say, I was surprised at how sturdy they were. Granted, I was only running on Villainous, but I was still impressed by how much punishment they were able to take.

Corey Ekter sighed in exasperation as he walked into the deserted warehouse. How could one frumpy archaeologist cause so much trouble? Somehow, this mousy woman had managed to elude capture by an elite Crey Security division—now Ekter was forced to leave his own laboratory and deal with matter personally like some sort of common thug.

“Doctor Kellum, this is pointless. Every exit in this place is sealed. The only way out is past me—and there’s no way that’s going to happen. Give me the spear and I promise you no one will harm you.”

No response, of course.

Ekter frowned underneath the helmet of his customized armor. “Doctor Kellum, this suit I’m wearing gives me enough strength to punch through a solid steel wall. I’ve got sensors that can hear a pin drop from 200 feet away. I can see in near total darkness. I’m going to find you. The question is, how much pain do you want to put yourself through before I catch you?”

Valerie Kellum huddled behind a huge crate, clutching the spear in her sweaty hands. She was not a tall woman—brown haired, chubby, with thick glasses—she was no one’s definition of a hero. “Why couldn’t Delilah Stein have found this blasted spear?” she whispered to herself. “Why did it have to be me?”

At the time, it had seemed like the find of a lifetime. An artifact like no other—perhaps proof that some form of the Aesir had existed? She had blithely accepted an invitation to have the metallurgy labs at Crey take a look at it without once stopping to think that their intentions might not be benign.

Why had she fought so hard once they had tried to take it from her—where had the strength and skill come from that had allowed her to lay out that security team come from? Why didn’t she just give it up?

“I can’t,” she tells herself firmly. “I can’t let them have it—I WON’T let them have it!”

Ekter’s frown turned to a smile as he heard Kellum’s words. “Talking to yourself is a bad habit, Doctor Kellum.” He raised his hand and fired a blast of concentrated energy from one gauntlet.

Valerie Kellum had no chance. She had started to rise to her feet as soon as Ekter had started to talk, but it was already too late.

The crate that she was hiding behind turned into nothing more than shrapnel.

Ekter winced as he stalked towards the fallen woman. He was an engineer, a scientist. He did not take delight in wanton violence and destruction. If only the fool had given him the spear this would not have been necessary …

Suddenly, his sensors began registering a massive build up of energy from the spear that was still in the dying woman’s hands. Something was coming out of the spear, swarming over the woman …

What the blazes--?

Corey Ekter had worked for Crey for years. He had seen some great and terrible things. He had NEVER seen anything like this—

And because of that, he hesitated.

By the time he overcame his scientific curiousity, it was far too late.

Valerie Kellum was gone. The woman she was—the person she had been—her dreams and desires, hopes and fears—they all vanished in the burst of all consuming power that transformed her dying body and made her into something else.

Someone else.

Valerie Kellum died that night.

Corey Ekter watched in stunned awe as the tall, beautiful blonde clad in golden battle armor from another age rose from where she had fallen. “What—who are you?!” he demanded of that strange figure.

The voice that responded to him was nothing like the trembling voice of the woman he had killed. It was bold, vibrant, and with the hint of some strange accent. “I am the Spear of Justice, the Sword of Truth, the Avenger of the Fallen. I am the defender of those who cannot protect themselves. I am … VALKYRIE!”

And with a bold scream of vengeance, she hurled herself upon him.