MissKyo

I'm going to skip the train trip to Icon. It was an awful lot like the train trip to City Hall. The walk from the train station to Icon...well...Paragon City could use some public busses in areas other than Atlas Park. I know other cities have them, why don't we? I did get to start practicing with my wings some more on the walk, but all I could manage were short, slow hops down the street, and eventually that got tiring. Besides, my bare feet were killing me.

I saw a few people I recognized from working at the library, but I don't think they would have believed me if I'd told them who I was. I didn't even wave-just walked on by. I wasn't Jodie any more, after all-now I was Snap Play, fledgling superhero fairy.

When I finally reached Icon, I was tired, hot, and generally out of sorts. I still hadn't eaten anything, so I was starting to get a headache. Apparently when my size changed, so did my metabolism.

I went straight in and asked to speak to Serge, the owner or manager or whatever. He had a lot of ideas for costumes once I told him my story, but they were all skimpy and revealing. Finally, we settled on a black sleeveless top with black tights under a bright green tunic. The tunic had a sheer design on the front that showed the black through it. On my feet I had green stiletto boots with a sheer design matching the tunic, and I also wore a silver belt with a round black stone around my waist. My wings picked up the green in the tunic right away, and the whole outfit was quite impressive. It looked heroic and modest, covering me from neck to toes.

Serge, of course, was not impressed with my choices. He kept asking if I was sure I wanted tights, or sleeves, or the black sleeveless top under the tunic. Finally, before I could lose my temper, I handed him one of the tokens and left.

It was time for a break while I figured out exactly what I was supposed to be doing, I decided, so I headed over to The Dirty Duck Bar & Grill, right down the street from Icon. I crossed the street several times over the short walk, trying to avoid the gangs of Outcasts in the area. Looking back now, I could almost laugh about it, but at the time, without having any control over my powers, it wasn't funny.

Once I'd eaten-and I ate a lot; like I said, my metabolism shot up sometime during my transformation-I sat at the table for a while trying to decide what to do. How did one start becoming a hero? With a sigh, I resolved to return to Azuria and find out. She would know, since she'd gotten the whole hero thing started for me.

Azuria was not at her office-"Out," I was told (rather rudely) when I asked one of her assistants. Somehow she had known I'd be back though, and she had left me a note.

It only said two things...the name of my first contact (which I can't even remember now) and "Return to the beginning to be found." At the time, I had no idea what that meant-where was the beginning supposed to be? And who-or what-was supposed to find me? I could only hope it was something good.

Of course, now I know different. That may be the only true prophecy Azuria ever made, and if it was, she won't talk about it-not that I go to talk to her all that much anyhow; only when a contact tells me that I have to because another item of arcane power got stolen from MAGI.

The next morning, I had a little bit of a chore to do before I could go anywhere. None of my clothes fit me properly any more-after all, I had shrunk over a foot, and lost probably over a hundred pounds. And then, of course, there were the wings. After searching through my closet and dresser, I finally found an old brown skirt that would make a suitable dress, if modified slightly. The top was a wide band of stretchy soft fabric, and the skirt flowed out from it in a drapey sort of way. I tried it on, then realized that my wings were in the way, so I cut a small oval shape out of the back and made it backless. Then I tried again, pulling the top band up to my armpits. It was too long, of course. Taking it back off again, I cut a few inches off the end, then a few more, and a few more, until finally I had a strapless dress down to my ankles. It was at this point that I began to realize that I was going to need some kind of straps to hold it up, unless I wanted to have to hold it up myself all the way to City Hall. I'm no good at sewing-never have been-so I had to hunt for some safety pins. Finally, once it was all pinned in place, I was ready to leave.

People gave me some weird looks at the bus stop. Looking back now, I should have expected that, I guess. At the time, I glared back at them and stood there, tapping my foot, waiting on the bus in my quick fix of a dress, carrying my now too-big purse. I had had to go without shoes entirely, but for the sake of propriety (and because I wasn't used to it being in my face) I had tied my hair back in a low ponytail.

It feels like it took an eternity for me to get to Azuria. It didn't, of course-Steel Canyon to Atlas Park is only a few minutes on the Yellow Line train-but the point is that it feels like it did. Probably because people were staring at me. I guess they'd never seen such an oddly-dressed fairy before-or maybe they've never seen a person with wings ride the bus. It's Paragon City, I wanted to say, get over it. I didn't say anything.

"I sense a soul in search of a mission!" she said grandly, rolling her eyes back in her head with a dramatic flair. "Come to me, child, and I will tell you what the Great Ones have prophesied for your future!"

"Actually, I'm not looking for a mission." I answered. "And I'm not a child! I've been turned into a fairy by a book, and you're supposed to be a magic expert, right? So how do I change back, already?"

She bent down and looked at me closer. "Are you a hero?"

"No!" I said, getting annoyed. "I used to be a librarian, and I'm enchanted or something! I bought a book at a store in Croatoa-I mean, Salamanca-and I read it and now I'm a fairy and the book is gone and I don't know what to do about it!"

"Oh." Azuria blinked at me for a second. Then she pointed one hand at me (drama, again!) and decreed "The Great Ones have spoken! It is your Destiny to become a hero!" She continued on and on in such a way for quite a while. I interrupted her once to ask her if she ever listens to herself talk, but she didn't even notice, just kept right on going. Finally, she had to stop for a breath.

I jumped right in. "So what you're saying is, basically, you have no idea how I got turned into a fairy and there's nothing you can do about it, and since there's nothing you can do about it I ought to become a hero. Is that about it?"

She made a movement as if she was going to start all her gesturing and mystical mumbling again, so I quickly continued. "I can't be a hero! I haven't even got any powers, that I know of! How am I supposed to be a hero with no powers, hm? Well?"

Azuria simply pointed down. Puzzled, I looked. I was hovering slightly off of the floor, and my fists, clenched in aggravation, were glowing green. "Oh." I said, settling back down. "Well, what good are glowing green hands supposed to do me?"

I was quickly carted off by an assistant for "tests", which mostly involved me trying to shoot green light out of my hands at targets. They told me it was radiation, but I believe it's magic. Why would a fairy be radioactive? I mean, I'd be dead, right? Doesn't make any sense. Anyhow, then once they decided I had "Radiation Blasts", they marked it down on a form and tried to see if I had any other powers. During this part of the testing I started to get bored, not to mention hungry-I hadn't had any breakfast yet, you see. One of the assistants noticed my distraction and brought me a cup of coffee, but she tripped on the way to my chair. Even though she recovered herself, the coffee sloshed over her hand and scalded her. Without thinking, I reached out my hand and bathed hers in green light-and the burn healed! "That settles it," said the guy in charge of the tests. "You're an Empathy and Radiation Blast Defender."

"Magic blast." I muttered under my breath as I was shepherded back to Azuria.

"A Magic-class Defender! Wonderful! The Great Ones tell me that your future is very bright, um...er...what did you say your name was again?"

"Jodie Wilkins," I supplied. Azuria looked slightly horrified. "What?"

"You'll need a hero name to register, dear. You can't use your civilian name!"

Annoyed, I thought for a second, then sulkily said, "Snap Play. Call me Snap Play."

She began to write, then looked down at me. "Snap...Play?" she questioned.

"This whole deal makes me feel like I've snapped and your precious 'Great Ones' are playing with my so-called 'Destiny'!" I snapped at her. "If you need a reason, that's why, okay?"

She scribbled some more, then looked at me again. "You're not going to wear that as a hero, are you?"

"I don't have anything else that fits!" I yelled. "In fact, since you've been no help whatsoever, except to turn me into a hero when I did not want to be, and since you can't change me back, how about a makeover or something? I mean, come on already! I have literally nothing to wear!"

"But we can't-"

"Oh yes you can! You can and you will, because otherwise I am going to send the City Scoop an article about you telling them all about your incompetence! At least three gang members have managed to sneak in here while you've been talking to me! Thank heavens your assistants are competent, they caught them, but you? You're worthless! All you can do is talk about Destinies and Great Ones and sound all mystical and dramatic! You're not even useful!" Panting, I stopped for a moment to catch my breath.

Before I knew it, I had been handed what the heroes call "costume tokens" and issued my hero ID card and shuffled out the door.

Apparently they don't like it when people make a disturbance in City Hall.

My name used to be Jodie Wilkins. It's not any more, not since I got turned into a fairy. Oh, right, I'm supposed to tell you how that happened, aren't I?

Well, I used to be a librarian. There will be a lot of "used to be"s in this story, so you might want to get used to it now. I also used to collect books. I still do, sort of, only now the ones I collect are magical and before they were normal books. At least, most of them were.

I'm getting off topic. I used to be a librarian, and I worked in the Steel Canyon branch of the University. One day, a professor asked me to go to the Salamanca branch (you know, Croatoa) to pick up a book for him. I figured, why not? I mean, technically it's part of my job. Besides, Salamanca is an interesting place, you know, once you get past all the monsters.

So I went to the Salamanca branch on my lunch break and I picked up the book, and on my way back to the train, I noticed this little book store. It had never been there before as far as I knew, but I figured that I had probably just not noticed it because I usually read while I walked. Reading is so relaxing, isn't it? I'm getting off track again.

I had a little extra time before my break was over, so I went into this book store, and they were having a sale! All of the books on one certain table in the middle of the store were on sale, really cheap. Well, let me tell you, I just couldn't resist. I mean, it was right there, and I had a little extra money, and I was sure I could find shelves for them in my apartment, so I started sorting through the stacks, looking for ones that looked interesting. Some of them were in really bad shape. I started stacking them in piles on the table while I looked, and I found the book that ruined my life. Well, or made it better. I guess you could see it either way. Where was I? Oh, right. This book. Well, it was a very slim book, about half the length of an ordinary paperback, and it had a hard black cover embossed with a pair of silver butterfly wings. As soon as I touched it, I knew it was the one book I had to have, no matter what. I went up to the counter, and an old, old man rang me up. Clutching my new book and the Professor's book, I got on the train and headed back to Steel Canyon.

After work that night I curled up on the couch with my new book, ready to start reading. This is where telling you what exactly happened gets a little tricky. See, I don't actually remember what happened! I know I started reading the book. I know that a week later, I stopped. I'm not sure what happened in between and I can't remember what the book was about, either. I've tried.

Anyhow, I felt really cramped when I stopped reading, and my back was really, really sore, so I put the book down on the end table and stood up. At that point, I should have noticed that everything was a lot bigger than it had been, but I was tired and achy. I decided to go into the bathroom and take a hot shower, figuring that would help me feel better.

See, when you go into the bathroom, the mirror is over the sink, right? That was when I started to realize that something was very, very wrong. I couldn't see myself in the mirror, and it was a lot higher up than it had been before. I dragged in a chair (also huge) and climbed up on it...and I got the shock of my life.

When I sat down with that book, I was a little closer to six feet than five. I was slightly overweight (okay, more than slightly) and my hair was frizzy and my skin wasn't all that great either. I'll admit it, if we were at a party, I'd probably be the last person you would ever talk to. Actually, I probably wouldn't have been invited to the party in the first place. I've never been particularly sociable.

What I saw in the mirror was an extraordinary-looking young woman, with big gray eyes and perfect skin and long, straight hair. After about ten minutes of staring at myself, I decided to take a shower anyhow and hope the water would wake me up. As I undressed, I found out why my back hurt so badly.

Hanging limply down my back under my nightgown (and they never have since!) was a pair of wings, exactly like the butterfly wings embossed on the book's cover. I touched them with my hands, and realized that I could feel myself touching them-that they were attached to me! After a little experimenting, I figured out how to stretch them out and move them. Once they were stretched, they never folded again, as I mentioned before, but sometimes I wish they would. It's hard to get dressed without bending one!

Let me tell you, and I know, I'm wandering off from the story again, but let me tell you, magic is sometimes a wonderful thing. My wings take color from anything I'm wearing, and I mean anything! They're like chameleon skin or something. I mean, I can will them to be other colors, sure, but they will always match my outfit! How cool is that?

Anyhow, the shower didn't wake me up, because I wasn't asleep. Instead, it made me sleepy, so I resolved to go immediately and talk to Azuria at MAGI the next day and see if there was a hero who could help me or something. I figured, if I was a fairy-and that looked logical-then it had something to do with the book (also logical) and someone should be able to turn me back. After all, a fairy can't expect a normal life anywhere, let alone in Paragon City! You practically have to become a hero or a villain. I couldn't imagine myself as a villain, and I definitely did not approve of some of the outfits I'd seen heroines wearing. Have you seen them? Skimpy little things, bikini tops and leather pants and miniskirts. I mean, really-shouldn't you be a role model if you're going to be a heroine? What kind of role model dresses like that?

I checked my messages before I went to bed. Unsurprisingly, after not having shown up for a week, I was fired. "Nobody even came to check on me," I said to myself, "so they can't have cared all that much, can they? I could've died, and all they would have done was fire me."

I went to sleep with the disturbing feeling of being completely alone in the world.

I need to stop and explain something again. See, at this point, I had been, well, not ugly, but certainly not much to look at for my whole life. And I knew it. You could say I had a little bit of a bad attitude towards people by the time I graduated high school, and college only made it worse. Kids can be especially cruel to anyone who looks different, especially if she reads all the time and collects books instead of dolls. I've never been good at making friends, and as for my family, well, they decided a long time ago that they weren't interested in me, and I decided around the same time that I didn't care. I spent a long time not caring about other people, which is what makes the main branch of my powers so ironic. We're not there yet, but when we get there, I'll let you know. Now, where was I...?

Okay, first of all, ignore what the title says. This is not a fairy tale. Yes, I'm a fairy, and yes, it's a story-or "tale"-about me, but that doesn't make it a fairy tale, okay?

Fairy tales have-oh, I don't know, handsome princes and damsels in distress and castles and wizards and knights in shining armor and lords and ladies and moats and fanstastical creatures and quests and prophecies and...and magic, and things like that.

Well, okay, there is magic in this story. It's kind of a story about magic, I guess. And there is sort of a lord in it too. And I guess there are a few quests.

That still doesn't make it a fairy tale, though.

*blink* Uh...wow. That's...something.

To take over the world? This IS interesting.

Interesting. *hands T a nickel*

Her identity changed while she was in a coma? Hmmm...

*GROAN*

So that was lots of fun, wasn't it? The forums went down and I couldn't remember who had signed up...and then, once the team filled and we started, my ISP cut out 3 missions in and I didn't make it back until the last mission. D'oh!

All in all, an excellent run. Charlie said we couldn't do a Synapse in less than 3 hours, but with 2 Peacebringers, a tank, 2 blasters, and 3 defenders (someone correct me if I'm wrong), it was done in 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Granted, I'm basing "excellent" off the parts I was actually there for...

Next week, Sister Psyche, same time!

Arc Name: Fae and Feral
Arc ID: #100154
Morality: Neutral
Faction: Custom - Darklings
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Kyo-chan/Kyo_chan
Difficulty Level: Easy-Medium
Synopsis: Snap Play's partner, Blackrazur, has gone down to the Underworld to "replenish his dark powers" and hasn't returned. Go find out what's taking him so long and fetch him back.
Estimated Time to Play: It took us like 10-15 minutes...
Link to More Details or Feedback: If you want more details, all I'm saying is I created it to be a funny little mission. If you don't laugh (or at least sympathize with 'Razur) you have no soul. :P

Sounds like a plan to me. If the first run takes less than 2 hours, and if I can get a team together, we'll run it again.

Well, the last Synapse I remember running (don't quote me, it was a while ago on one of my alts) was around 1:30, iirc. I'm not POSITIVE.

I do know for a fact that it's nowhere near as long a drag as the Posi though.

Anyone who's done theSynapse recently, care to sound off on approximately how long it took you?

I'm looking at the Wiki list, and I'm seeing 5 defeat alls, 2 "talk to Posi"s, a hunt, 2 patrols, a hostage situation, and a couple of boss fights, as well as one EB, one AV and a GM (which we'll sound off on globals and get help for).

A lot of the stuff is ghostable and there are way fewer defeat alls than Posi.

So no, it shouldn't take nearly as long.

Thank you, I'm not sure where that 4 came from. O.o

I seem to be under attack from typo-demons lately.

Again, this Tuesday will be Synapse. I'll be running it on my tank and then, if I have the time, the inclination, and the people to do it with, running it again on my emp.

Synapse is 15 missions, worth 57 merits, and levels 15-24. The minimum size for a Synapse is 4 players.

The team thus far, as far as I know:
1. Kunoichi Kyo-chan
2. BlueStarr

Yay, more story! Interestingly creepy so far...can't wait to see what happens next!

Welcome!

We'll miss you, Ex. When I heard tonight during Thursday Night Fights that you were leaving your post as Community Rep, it sucked all the PvP joy right out of me. It won't be the same around here. Best of luck in everything you do, and hope to see you around the game if you ever stop by on Protector!

Well, for some reason the screenie showing the actual time did not take, but it was around3:05. Great job Task Force Los Alamos!

Next week: Synapse! Same time, same place to sign up!

This be's tonight at 8 pm EST, I will meet you guys in front of Posi.

I like it! Very nice, guys! And the new logo is hawt.

I'm usually on either really late lately or else during Thursday & Friday shows...I've been sleeping til 3 pm and staying up til 6 am lately.

Think I'll become nocturnal if my college acceptance letter doesn't come soon.

Yay!

Sounds like a plan for me. Any takers for volunteers? I'll do the FFA and CC.

Well, if it's one that will probably run over (i.e. one that NEVER gets done in under two hours) I can see me starting it on Monday and finishing it on Tuesday.

I picked Tuesday because I like catchy names and "Taskforce Mondays" doesn't sound as good. :P

If the kin has SB, you'll be everyone's bestest friend I think.