Paradigm_Shift

Water assault made it into the game.

As energy blast.

Hot Pink.

That is all.

I'm fairly new to the AE system, and I've played through a few dozen arcs to get a grip on what I can and cannot do when creating an arc. So I've finally decided to sit down and make one of my own, but I've hit a road-block.

In some arcs I've played, certain words, lines or areas of text in the contact conversation windom will be enlarged, or different colors. In addition, some contacts have referred to my character by name, or by my archtype. I'd like to do the same, which is the problem. I don't know how to implement any of those. I tried the help system, which provided me with nothing. Then I tried paragon wiki, and then the Mission Architect: Stories and Lore Section, and finally the player guides section. None of them provided any help.

Can anybody tell me the how-tos regarding text-modification in Mission Architect? Is there any guide or directory that can help me out, and if so, can you direct me to it?

I would PAY in order to play an MA arc where you:

A: Beat the ever-loving crap out of Hardcase.

B: "Escourt" the kidnapped Hardcase to your base of operations.

C: Beat the everloving crap out of him again.

D: "Escourt" the kidnapped Hardcase to King's Row, far beyond the help of his contacts in St. Martial, and kindly "donate" him, still alive, to some Vahzilok Mortificators. Pay them to keep him alive as long as possible while performing their oh-so-careful-and-precise administrations.

I just have to say this.

Dr. Vahzilok and Dr. Vasilikos are both awesome.

This story is awesome.

Awesome + Awesome = ************************* -ERROR- -SHUTTING DOWN-

The nanites Sydonia released into the reanimation chamber were all assimilated by the mass of flesh growing inside shortly after making contact. Which presumably meant that it also had its own nanites...

And now it was trying to get out. Readings would confirm that it had suddenly awoken from its comatose state. The strands and webbings of flesh attached to the edges of the tank promptly formed metalic spikes within specialized sacs developed for the purpose, and shoved all of them into the sides of the chamber with the intent of breaking it open.

[ QUOTE ]
((Well, okay. While I'm not entirely certain of the logic behind people combing a room for things as small as missing bullets not noticing a self-propelled backpack, I guess I'm cool with it if you really don't want it found. Gonna take a little longer before they go away, though. Oh, and when did you manage to get your spot back from your characters? or be they slackin'? ))

[/ QUOTE ]

OOC:

Well, Gregory's dead and the Egregore Device doesn't talk, ye'see.

ADDENDUM: After a recent RETCON, possibly done intentionally for this purpose, the Egregore Device no longer talks.

OOC: Hey Devious, when I said the backpack patiently waited after retreating, I was implying that it continued to maneuver to remain hidden.

The lumpy mass of flesh stopped expanding suddenly in favor of growing some extremities. Several dozen web-like cords of skin started stretching out from the mass and towards the walls of the reanimation chamber the new being was contained within. And worryingly, the central mass began to sprout strips and cords of metal that started twisting around the webs as well, giving them a half-organic half-technological look. How it was producing metal in a chamber made to produce organic material would perhaps forever be a mystery. But fortunately, said cords and webs merely connected with the sides of the chamber and stuck without any apparent consequences or attempts to escape.

The being apparently had no interest in communicating right now, but brainwave scans would indicate that there was a high level of activity. If their sensors were precise enough, they would find that the being appeared to be receiving pain signals from almost every nerve and was currently unconscious.

***

The backpack retreated once more and patiently waited for everybody searching the room to leave before acting.

Yep.

A minor addendum to that, all five of them also have access to the basic wolf spider faction as well. Particularly skilled Hunters usually get elevated to desk jobs, (even more dangerous than being a wolf spider, really) and then if they survive long enough, Bane Spiders to personally guard Lord Recluse and Grandville.

The skull stopped singing once it was fully submerged in the gooey liquid. Now it was working.

The "brain" as it was within the skull was a small little ball of meat indistinguishable from ground beef, and it was hollow to boot, with a very sophisticated apparatus contained within. The brain itself was not sentient at all anymore, being comparable to a chicken's brain stem. However, it could take and follow simple orders, and the apparatus within it was happy to oblige. At first it was content to sing unto ad infinitum until it was destroyed, but then it saw a chance: It could LIVE again. And the apparatus pondered this, and realized suddenly that this also meant it could live...While NOT under the Eternal Engine's control. Which brought up a slight problem: It had no will or ability to live as an organic construct. It came up with a solution to this problem quite neatly:

Revive the host PRE-Assimilated...

But then the apparatus ran into a problem. What was left of the original host was now smeared with black and yellow goo and in the process of decomposing in the research institute armory if they had not already thrown it away. And the apparatus did not have a single clue as to what a human body looked like or even how it functioned aside from the workings of the brain. Thankfully, it came up with a solution to this as well:

Revive the pre-assimilated host's MIND. Make up the body as it goes along.

At first, the process was very slow. The apparatus had a little less than an ounce of actual biomass to work with, but the liquid it was submerged helped quite a bit after it opened up some unnecessary passages, resulting in tendrils of flesh growing out of the skull in odd ways. Which then started forming a fleshy cacoon around the skull, which could have easily been mistaken for the reformation of a face.

But it became apparent something was wrong the moment the entire surface of skin started to grow randomly and rapidly in every single direction like some kind of malignant tumor with no regards at all to what a human, or even a humanoid should look like in terms of structure.

***

[u]Research Institute[u]

The Egregore Device, still hidden within the armory, discreetly checked to see if anyone was still inside or if the door was open.

Exceptional work, as always. One tiny nitpick though...

[ QUOTE ]
Good Clockwork King… You keep doing work like that, and we might have to make room for you in the Vindicators… Just ease up on Penny and—

[/ QUOTE ]

The same Clockwork King who kidnaps engineers, kills pedestrians for getting in his way or for wearing watches, vandalizes public property over the entire city...

Yeah. Then again, this is written from Malaise's view, so perhaps his opinion is different than the norm.

Self Destruction Activated

Legion exploded in Sydonia's hand with about the force of a firecracker, leaving absolutely nothing behind. The poor woman did not seem to be having much luck with machinery today, and it was only going to get worse.

Capture Averted

"I thought I had made it clear with my statement that I was requesting access from the vicinity's immediate superior. But since it appears you are demonstrating paranoia due to your recent event, I will not object to your calling up the good General to ask him for confirmation yourself. He will get ahold of this item sooner or later, and if it is later, you will find any credit you might have gained for its retrieval to be reassigned to him. It is to everyones' benefit to get such trivial business out of the way rather than escalating it, no?"

OOC:

The Egregore Device: A note for the future: From this moment forth, whenever the human host of the Egregore Device is vitally challanged, we shall refer to it as "Gregory" rather than "the Egregore Device." In the host's case this is merely a title. We are the Egregore Device. That is all.

BIC:

Legion was not TRYING to hide OR sneak around. Now, they were trying rather explicitly to gain somebody's attention. And they had quite a bit of data from Gregory's short-lived adventure in the research institute. It had all the details and particulars, and knew exactly how to take advantage of the situation. Since it was apparently so easy to board a military craft, Legion did so while simultaneously calling out to Sydonia.

"Designation: Sydonia Korovinova, General Toy Dispenser has been monitoring the research institute and received notice of an event of interest. He sent me..."

The me sounded forced, but only if one was listening carefully.

"To investigate, as he is unfortunately preoccupied with a different matter currently. I have reviewed the situation with your staff, and I request access to the recovered specimen of the intruder, which I detect is currently on board."

[ QUOTE ]
This actually makes a lot of sense. Considering psi attacks are pretty much the one glaring weakness in the Clockwork, I imagine the King would be a bit more wary and respectful toward psychics like Malaise and Sister Psyche, as long as they respect his domain in return. It's the heroes who jump right in and just start smashing his creations that he really despises.

[/ QUOTE ]

Eh. I always thought of Malaise as an illusionist first and a psychic second, if at all. :/ His profile claims he doesn't even HAVE any psychic powers, but interestingly enough, dark blast and kinetics powers. Interesting interpretation on Grey's part though, it does tie in rather neatly with Malaise's bio.

One Smooth Operator Indeed...

Intrigued. Continue.

OOC:

The Egregore Device: Our optical sensors indicate that there is no reason blue text would be harmful in any manner upon the City of Villains default red skin. We are now concerned that you have a previously unknown medical issue regarding the color blue when surrounded by dark red.

BIC:

The moment Legion detected the cybernetic skull moving, they changed plans and started heading for the flier as well, not even trying to be stealthy. Currently, they appeared to be on an intercept course with the medical team...

Back inside, the search team would find nothing out of place save for Sydonia's touch-pad, which she had not retrieved on her way out. Whether or not they decided this was relevant or not was, of course, up to them.

Statesman is a total [censored]. Supported by canon. I agree. That is all I have to say about that.

Synapse is a bit of a bum/slob/womanizer, but decent enough to deserve his current position. Laid-back and casual enough to be likable, smart enough to know when and how to be serious when the time comes. Rough around the edges, but reliable. Now, in-lore his grudge against Crey for what they did to him and Mynx is sadly underplayed. The only real time you see him in action is against the Council. I personally believe that he would honestly brutalize any Crey employees he comes across, and MIGHT even kill the Countess or Hopkins if he thought he could get away with it. Then again, maybe not. Honestly, Synapse is a bit too much of a nice-guy, and one of the more well-developed phalanx members. It's hard to develop out-of-canon opinions regarding him.

I, quite honestly, do not like Positron, the walking atomic/anti-matter bomb in a shoddy suit which falls apart with alarming frequency. Sure, NOWADAYS he's all Captain Kirk. I still don't like him, so I'm not really qualified to make any presumptions here.

Manticore. I loves Manticore. He already crossed his moral event horizon a loooooong time ago, and pretty much everyone knows he does not mind killing when necessary, AND that he doesn't mind going behind their backs with risky and dangerous plots. Don't even get me started on Wyvern. He strikes me as the kinda guy who is the biggest THREAT to Paragon City, merely because he knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING in regards to the city and its heroes in combination with his moral ambiguity. But everyone realizes the safest way to deal with him is to let him do as he pleases, and even the uptight [censored] Statesman needs to admit that people like Manticore are needed in such times. He never will, but [censored] him. In the end, I find it kind of funny how easily the other Phalanx members trust him, CONSIDERING. It's a bitlike:

Manticore: Heya Brawler, how ya doin?"

Brawler: "Good! Good! What have you been up to?"

Manticore: "Eh, you know. Maintaining my terrorist organization, going out of my way to deceive you due to how I'm smart enough to know you wouldn't approve of my plans, mapping out ways to not save the Rogue Isles but plunge it into total uncontrolled anarchy...The usual."

Brawler: "Ohhoho, you lovable cad!"

Really. Idiots. Still, Manticore COMPLETES the phalanx, because every major hero group NEEDS somebody of his particular caliber to get REAL, permanent results...At any cost. As far as what I think of his personally, I think his marriage to Psych is a total wash. It's not that I hate the idea of the relationship personally, it's just that Manticore feels like he's the kinda guy who would only get married to a TEAM-MATE for CONVENIENCE or some kind of plot/scheme he has in mind. Keeping a closer eye on her so the Jade Spider incident never happens again springs to mind. I don't think he loves her. Ironically, we can call HIM the ball and chain of the relationship.

As for the dear sister herself...She's older than she looks, third most powerful Psychic in the world, very wise...But very, very naive and far too idealistic. In the books, Lord Recluse once got a pardon from the president for all his misdeeds, and promptly used his position to try and take over the U.S. Psych reminds me of the kind of person who would give ANYONE an unlimited number of second chances. If Malaise goes bonkers again, ten says she defends him by saying that isn't the realm him and blah blah blah...Also, she relies too much on her powers. Case in point, she can't tell Manticore doesn't love her because she can't read people worth [censored] outside of mind-reading, which Manticore is pretty much immune to.

One second, my fuel of Moonbeam Absinthe is running down. I'll be back later.

Erik left Freedom Court and headed to Constellation row. It was still early, (to him, at least) and he planned on sleeping through the rest of the day to wake up around 11:00, completely refreshed and ready to do battle with a murderous unknown monster with Blake, if he decided to show up.

Erik reached the Southernmost warehouse, one of the largest in Galaxy City, yet also condemned and abandoned going on several years. A sorry sight in Paragon City. Erik went inside, sat at the desk right through the front doors, and drifted off while his umbrella kept guard in the soothing darkness.

OOC:

The Egregore Device: An astute observation designation: DeviousMe. Please bear in mind from now on that poor optical sensory input may result from using the City of Heroes forum default blue skin. Our Egregore advises switching to the clearly superior and more stimulating City of Villains forum default red skin, which exerts less overall strain on optical sensory input. So as you can see, our narrator was being quite serious with his previous remark regarding, quote, Let's Get Dangerous Semicolon Parenthese unquote, possibly in regards to inflicting needless pain upon the soft, vulnerable sacks of semi-solid fluid, optical rods and water that you use for eyes.

We would also like to express the hope that designation: Sydonia Teivosovna Korovinova, will remain active within your operation schedule. One could say that we anticipate working with her in the near future. That is all.

BIC:

Sydonia, if she could detect organic matter, or electrical signals, or brainwaves, or anything of the sort, would be able to tell there was genuine organic brain functions within the skull that did not appear to be in danger of ceasing any time soon.

***

Outside the research institution, Legion descended from the sky and examined the building's roof for any ventilation or duct ends he could use to infiltrate the place unseen.

OOC:

Baleful Turquoise: Kick me and I will rip your leg off before beating you to death with it.

And as an aside, my incompetent and, need I remind him, expendable narrator has been ordered to enter a narration blackout until such time I can deem enough time has passed for my scheme to be feasible.

OOC:

That's the idea. There always needs to be some surprises. If everything is pre-decided, the entire thing just gets boring.

That being said...Let's get dangerous.

BIC:

The moment Sydonia came in contact with the Caldok, the hard-light disguise unraveled as it encountered more force (about a standard punch in terms of power) than it could handle. Which is when everything went horribly, horribly wrong.

Sydonia was a 4th generation cyborg. Which meant she was gifted with heightened reflexes and reaction times. Unfortunately, this came with a small downside. She also had better comprehension time. And if her amygdala was still intact and functioning properly, she was about to receive a rather macabre sight. Before her was an empty SACK of skin a couple of inches thick. It was almost entirely hollow, with only three interior organs left and missing both its arms. Random flaps of it weren't even physically connected to other parts. The interior of each skin was coated in black and yellow ooze. The head was the only part that bore any semblance to a human still, and what was there was obviously cybernetic. A stripped-down barely basic assembly of skull, mouth and eyes were present.

Of course, Sydonia only got a while to look upon this, since her abnormally heightened abilities regarding her senses only stretched her perception of time so far. Without the solidity of the hard-light disguise to hold it up, the sack of skin sagged and collapsed lifelessly upon the floor. Black and yellow ooze drifted away from the remains, staining the floor. And then the mouth began to speak. Or rather, sing. An upbeat earworm worked its way rather pleasantly throughout the room via a synthetic woman's voice:

"...and believe me I am still alive
I'm doing science and I'm still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive
While you are dying I'll be still alive
and when you're dead I'll be still alive
STILL ALIVE, still alive..."

The mantra repeated over and over and over again until somebody smashed the skull or otherwise interacted with it.

***

[u]Elsewhere[u]

"Well, that could have gone better." An irate voice said in the darkness. A solitary light burst forth, revealing a red, glowing, half-sphere with a hologram of a very old man wearing robes that indicated him as a member of the Circle of Thorns.

"Meh. It would have happened relatively soon anyway." Another half-sphere lit up in the darkness, this one some distance away from the first. A Malta Gunslinger was projected above it. It just happened sooner rather than relatively soon. And we still got what we needed out of this little endeavor anyway. It was about time for a change, if you ask me."

A third half-sphere alit, again a fair distance from the other two. This one projected a member of the Cabal. "I, for one, look forward to the upcoming addition to our Egregore. She technically killed our host. Or at least his hard-light life-support anyway. New minds equates to more knowledge which equates to more power. I agree with #64, we came out of this situation with nothing but profit to show for it."

The old man shook his head at the other two holograms. "We are beginning to abuse our hosts now to the point where it is only for a minor and immediate convenience. We cannot discard hosts so carelessly every time we run into an unforeseen kink. You two have the nerve to say that what we just did was the best course of action? Now we will have to apply to the Eternal Engine from a different dimension than normal, and considering the state of affairs here, this Teivos fellow may very well trace such a connection straight back to the Engine!"

Sixteen lights came into being in the darkness, a garden of corresponding holograms springing up. Most of these remained silent, but several started speaking.

"LET them trace the Engine if they want. They are impotent and unable to hinder it. Let them tremble in fear before its vastness."

"The next member is a cyborg. I think she will be the first one. I wonder how she will deal with the integration process."

"#21 is wise, and we should do well to heed his advice. This situation has degenerated unfavorably to such an extent that retreat is now the only option."

"I oppose this woman's nomination to join our Egregore!"

This last remark gained a lot of attention. At least fifty additional lights sprang into being.

"She did not truly kill our host! WE killed our host when with withdrew and took his apparatus and chassis with us. She just knocked over a corpse that had failed to fall down. There is no reason to integrate her. There is also the risk she may oppose the Egregore even after joining. She is a cyborg! We have no idea of what her mental faculties are! AND she is from a different dimension than the norm. She is too alien. A foreign link in the chain weakens the Egregore as a whole."

This argument sparked lots of shouting between the vast gathering of holograms, until the Gunslinger roared above the entire crowd. "SILENCE, ALL OF YOU! Everybody is to immediately add their opinions to the Device so that the appropriate action may be taken."

There was silence. Several moments passed, and in the dead center of the gathering, something appeared. The death of meaning appeared, and delivered the verdict. The cyborg is to be added to the Egregore as soon as possible. As soon as a new host is built, we will act upon the Host Drive's current plan. We shall take these armaments and make them our own, and we shall construct weapons of great conflict with them. And with these weapons, we shall bring destruction to this plane and chase the interloper from it. The death of meaning vanished. The holograms winked out, their lights fading, one by one, and there was darkness again.

***

Amongst the shelfs of the armory, the central red diode of the backpack blipped. The Egregore Device was dead.

Now it was the Egregore Device's turn.

OOC: Remember these three important words, Devious.

Jingo.
Disco.
Leitmotif.

BIC:

"Tsk tsk." The Caldok said to Sydonia as she advanced. "Nobody shall remember you. While I shall be eternally memorialized." The plasma rifle began to glow, but again, that was just a hard-light illusion taking place, emitting no thermal signature. Perplexingly, the Caldok remained disturbingly still, and would remain still until something actually happened.

The backpack extended the tiniest of metallic tendrils to the touchpad, barely making contact with the casing and immediately drawing away, seemingly leaving the device alone. It then proceeded to carefully and silently burrow its way deeper through the arrangement of shelves until it became the proverbial needle in a haystack.