Captain-Electric

It wasn't white earlier today.

You're all crazy!!!

So I ran into George Takei one time, and it was an unemployed friend's birthday, and I just so happened to have bought his birthday card, so I asked Mr. Sulu if he'd sign it, "Happy birthday, <insert name>, now get a job, you lazy bum! Oh and cut your hair! Love, George Takei." For extra measure, I had someone take a picture of me and Sulu with our arms around each other's shoulders, smiling giddily at the camera, and put it inside the card.

Was thinking the same thing while typing.

There are a few bits during Civil War that explained the phenomenon in the Marvel universe, and if you Google 'Marvel floating timeline' you'll get some interesting reading. Authors have mentioned it in interviews and articles sporadically over the years. Time passes for individuals very slowly in the comics--which is pretty reasonable considering how much happens in the average 20 or 30-something page comic. Peter Parker is barely 30 now (in the mainline universe, not the Ultimate universe), because only about 13 years have passed in the Marvel universe since 1962. However, time passes normally for the world at large, which is the device that allows Marvel to exist alongside current events, and still retain its rich history.

City of Heroes has a floating timeline too. Events in the past and the future are always happening (not that most characters are aware of it), and our characters can experience the same event twice if they exemplar down to a lower level team. There's a bit of in-game text that appears in your chat box when you join someone else's team, letting you know that you're now experiencing the world as affected by their actions. At that point, your character is no longer simply him or herself, but rather a divergent path, an alternate self living in a world where the team leader and his friends probably witnessed Statesman's death or saved the Faultline dam instead of you and your friends.

I love this wibbly wobbly stuff, but it's all just fictional devices. But it's also the physical laws of these pretend universes. From an IC/RP perspective, Marvel's heroes and our characters typically have no way of being aware of any of this, because it all exists on the other side of the fourth wall.

Guy walks into Icon. "Space pirate with a laser gun?"

Serge: "We can do that."

I'd like to see someone try to lay claim to a two to three-thousand year-old story and character that predates our civilization and its system of laws.

Hercules does not belong to Marvel, or DC, or Paramount, or Penguin Books, or Random House, or 20TH Century Fox, or any of the gazillion other comics, books, movies and TV shows that have adapted Hercules to their stories. But we, and they, are all welcome to use him in stories, because he belongs to Humanity. He is a campfire tale.

I've already explained this. And explained it again. Rather than engage in a mature discussion about it, you gave me this. Which is why I think I'm done being polite with you. If I had known you would drag me into your squabble with CS as an example, I would not have offered you any helpful advice. What the heck did you do, try to report me?

I understand you're upset because your bizarre pursuit of a complete stable of names that exist in comic book properties has hit a snag. But you are very misguided (and not a little petty) to channel that frustration toward an adaptation of a mythological Greek character that is based on thousand year-old paintings, sculptures and The 12 Labors of Hercules, a 2,000 year-old tale.

My character is a historical figure and exists within the public domain. He bears little relevance to the quandary that you've found yourself in. Those I RP with on Virtue enjoy adventuring with him immensely, precisely because I have not attempted to re-imagine him as many of the comics do. I have 25 other characters that I've channeled my own spin into, but the Hercules I play is Hercules. This was not just a "cool name grab" for me. As a lover of mythology since a child, it is a privilege that I treat respectfully and with the knowledge that everyone I play with "owns" this character and his tales as much as I do.

Regarding that last link I referenced, I can't imagine it's helping your case if this is the level of maturity and patience you're directing toward Customer Support. It's quite likely that some of your names could have been appealed about reasonably, as that player who owned an original Phoenix character discovered. But those are people on the other end of the line at Customer Support. You've got to be more respectful toward people if you want them on your side about things.