Ravenswing

This is the joy of having a phone with a fold out QWERTY keyboard and Pocket Word. Though, as I said, you do tend to end up with a lot of errors to correct.

Try hovering your mouse over the power you want to view, dear chap. If that isn't working, there's something very odd going on.

Not signed. And I'm not explaining why, I'v done so so often that it's boring.

Nice character piece. I liked it, and not just because Ni is in it. (He does seem alarmingly interested in her, and it's interesting to note that Ni has him a little confused.)

Trains are apparently good for my writing. The part written on th train needed more corrctions, but is better writing (IMHO). Have to see what I can come up with on the way home tomorrow night.

And yet, levelling has been integral to Nitoichi. Her drive to get to level 35 and be allowed into Vanguard has been key to her character. Her subsequent search for something to give her life meaning after getting where she wanted to has caused almost all her current problems.

October 14th, 2am, Unity Tower

Annette turned onto her back, basking in the afterglow of slow, passionate lovemaking. Beside her, Linda was already a dead weight. Physically tired, Annette could not sleep, something was nagging at her. Finally figuring it out, she closed her eyes and sank into the darkness.

---

Her mind was silent darkness. Normally Ni would materialise as she did, but tonight there was nothing. A pang of fear made her catch her breath and she ran forward into the shadows.

Earlier that night, Psyan had brought herself, the new girl, Krystal, and then Linda into into Ni and Annette's shared minds. It had been wonderful, the perfect opportunity for Linda to meet both sides of her girlfriend at once, but Ni had carried the weight of keeping all their memories away from the other three girls. It had taken its toll. Annette was now worried it had been too much.

Something appeared in the darkness. A small shape, lying on the floor. As Annette got closer she recognised it. Ni was curled into a ball, her black hair now loose and covering her face. Her boots were gone, and her costume had large, ragged holes in it. "Ni?" There was no response to the question, and Annete closed the distance quickly, picking Ni from the ground and turning her over.

She almost dropped her again almost instantly. Her face was... haggard, that was the only word Annette could think of. Her bright eyes were dull, and she seemed not to see Annette, though her body shifted slightly, weakly resisting being rolled over. Her skin, normally in the flush of youth despite the pounding it took, was lined and sallow. Some of the wounds Annette had soaked away in her bath earlier were showing as gashes and bruises. One scar marred her nose, another was a gash across one breast. Annette hugged her mental twin to her. "Oh gods, Ni, what did I let you do?"

"Jus' tired." The voice was thin and reedy, but it was there. "Need to sleep." Ni was thinning again, as she had done just before Linda and Psyan left the mindscape. The lines on her face grew more pronounced, and her body became less so, as though it was fading away.

Annette pulled Ni against her, tears forming in her eyes and anger in her heart. "No! You don't leave me, Ni. Not over something as stupid and trivial as this. Not ever!"

"Jus' a li'l sleep," Ni said. "Be fine 'morrow, 'nette."

"No," Annette's voice was tearful, but with a hard edge. "I'm not losing you." And Annette began to glow. Her skin shone, bathing Ni in a warm, golden light. Her eyes blazed and she pulled the fading body of her 'head mate' to her, sharing warmth and energy.

Ni looked up, smiling childishly, and weakly raised a hand to point at Annette. "Angel!" she said. Already she was looking more solid, her eyes were brightening, skin clearing.

Annette buried Ni's face against her shoulder. "Yes, hun, angel. Don't you ever scare me like that again, Ni, you hear me?" She didn't, she was sleeping peacefully.

As the glow faded, Annette shifted Ni to cradle her in her lap and sat watching over her, gently rocking the sleeping girl and singing the nursery lullabies she remembered her bother singing when she was a child.

---

For the first time in three years, Annette, who owned neither a wristwatch nor an alarm clock, was late for work. Linda had to physically shake her awake, and looked a little concerned, but Annette looked so annoyed to have her state of health questioned that Lin let it slide.

Her boss was actually more worried that something had happened to her, his star attraction, than her profuse apologised and statements that it would never happen again.

Which was all to the good, because Annette was in a foul mood, and knowing she was going to have to face what she was now calling the Spotty Perv Squad, was not helping. She felt as if she was about ready to skin someone.

Her mood lifted just before midday. She was watching a kid of about twelve in the comic section who clearly should have been in school, almost wiling him to try to steal something. I remember him, he won't, to scared to try. Ni?! The one and only. Well, unless you count you. I was worried... What, that you'd be stuck having to deal with all my mean attitude all day? No, that you'd... leave. And miss teasing Lin? Not likely.

Annette smiled brightly, and Herb, the manager, looked up from stock-checking dice. "That's more like the Anne I know," he said. "You've been under a cloud all morning."

"Just worried about a friend," she replied. "I just heard she was going to be okay."

Herb frowned. "I didn't hear a phone..." Then he grinned. "Ah, I bet it's some super-secret comm-implant that Mrs Rolando's cooked up. You heroes gotta have ways of talkin' without bein' heard, right?"

Ni grinned. "Something like that, Herb."

Herb tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially. "Hush hush, I get it." His expression shifted slightly. "You keeping an eye on that kid?"

I sure am... "Uh-huh, but he's okay. Too scared of getting caught." Actually, he's been coming in more and more lately. Never weekends, never after hours... "Just gonna check on him anyway," she said, a suspicion forming.

She wandered obliquely through the racks, circling the kid and letting Ni's superior sense analysis detect any movements he made. As planned, she came up behind him. He was reading an old issue of The Incredible Shadowe. Least the kid's got taste. Annette giggled and the boy spun around as though he had been shot. A pair of long, bony spines erupted from the backs of his hands and he dropped the comic, whimpering and hid his hands behind his back.

Annette raised an eyebrow, but smiled, and knelt down to pick up the comic. "Hey kid," she said.

"I wasn't gonna steal it!" The words came out in a rush. The boy's arms shuffled and he winced, but the hands stayed hidden.

"I didn't think you were. I'm..."

"You're Nitoichi. I've seen you. On the Internet." The kid blushed a little and Annette tried not to, she knew the picture he meant. "You're a hero."

"Yeah, some people call me that. So, you know me, but I don't know you..."

"Leonard... Leo, Leo Harrap." Oh, the school bullies would love a 'leonard'. Leo looked at Annette with a falling face. "You're gonna send me back to school, aren't you?"

Annette looked down at the comic she was holding, held it up to show Leonard. "I know this guy. Shadowe. I call him Richard. You ever seen him for real?" Leo shook his head. "He wears this black battle suit and he's all awesome and powerful, right?" Leo nodded, his face brightening as she talked about heroes. "Know what he does on the evenings?" Head shake. "He goes down to the big statue of Galaxy Girl and he sits there in a T-shirt and jeans and chats to his friends." Leo gawked a bit at that, he was still at the phase where he thought heroes slept in their costumes or something. "Know why he does that, Leo?"

Addressing him by name obviously demanded a vocal response. "No. I mean, that's not in the comics."

Annette grinned. "The licensing issues would be lethal. No, anyway... Richard does it to feel more human, less like some kind of freak. These days, I guess that's why I do it too."

Leo looked at her, frowning. "You're notta freak, not like this..." He brought his arms forward, rather timidly, showing her the spines.

"No," Annette replied, "I have my own bit of freakishness, but I also know a lady that can make spines, and vines, and all sorts of things grow out of her skin. Do your parents know about this?" Leo shook his head. "And you're scared you'll be bullied at school." Nod. "Okay, Leo, that lady I was talking about, she told me that you have to learn to love yourself before you can get very far. I think I know some people who can help you. Will you talk to them for me."

"O-okay," Leo said.

Annette took out her comm unit and thumbed a button. "BODI? I have a young man here I think Cindersnap and Alraune need to talk to..."

*Hands Floaty a power shovel, one that can dig through Impervium!*

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His biggest problem is his wealth. When you can afford to buy anything you want, you tend to throw money at your problems. This is due to be the focus of an upcoming plot by me, anyway, because even I recognise that the wealth he is purported to have is far too vast.

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Perhaps it's because he's very old, but Jason doesn't suffer from the "throw money at it" thing. He's probably the richest person at GG. He could finance the repairs to the Towers without breaking a sweat (if anyone thought to ask, he possibly might). He has almost limitless wealth, though huge sums might take time to liquidise, as with any very rich person.

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Dr Strange in other words?

Basically battling limitless powered entities from beyond mortal ken in his own series?

Not wanting to attract said things to Earth by using that kind of level of power, for Earthly matters?

But without the awesome stache

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Not really knowing much about Dr Strange (or even half the marvel and a tenth of the dc heroes) I guess that's a fair discription...

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Knowing more about Doc Strange and Jess, no, it's not even close. It's what she's doing right now, but it isn't Jess. Jess' saving grace is that you don't get involved because you'd break any plot you were in.

You're hardly the only one. Given a superhero game, people tend to go "Oo, I have to be the greatest, best <something> there is." It's almost always more fun, and more in-keeping with the CoH universe, to play people who aren't actually the best there is.

But this is all totally off-topic, really.

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Plus you can -really- screw Ellie over with LOUD NOISES. As I so love doing.


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Well, with super-hearing comes super-sensitivity to sonic effects. Sonic weapons make mincemeat of her.

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Of course, there's absolutely no reason that Ellie is: superstrong, supersensitive, has claws that can carve very big holes in any thing she wants... other than that you didn't want her as anything other than the most powerful entity you could think of.

No, Ellie's just a powerful kheldian... while all the other kheldians get by on being, well, kheldians.

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Absolutely spot on. Ellie IS pretty overpowered. That's what 3+ years of RPing will do to you, so it's counterbalanced by her being a creature of high emotion.

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Sorry, Floaty, Ellie was massively waced from day one, being both terminally overpowered and about as stable as a Francium atom. You don't get to plame anyone but yourself.

Frankly, being very mean, but to myself as well, Ellie and Jessica, and to some extent War Crow are bad examples of uber characters. They are uber because their owners thought that would be cool/wanted them to be uber. In my defense, when I relaised I'd made Crow totally unplayable, I IC retconned him to not be. FFM and SG still play their characters as pretty much gods.

Shadowe is different, and there are probably more examples, but I happen to understand this one currently. Shadowe is uber because his concept says he is, and it's a pretty cool concept. He really doesn't fit into the world the way it is, single entities aren't that powerful, but it would be a shame to lose him, and the way he's played maes him not too much trouble.

If anything, the worst thing about Shadowe is not his nature, it's his wealth and technology.

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As for the "uber" characters - sometimes that's an issue, sometimes it's not. My own issue with "uber" characters would come from things like forum RP, maybe like the recent Attack on Unity Plaza thread: Liberty Girl seems pretty useless in situations like that when the best she can do is occupy a few bad guys by engaging in painful and bloody fisticuffs while the assorted controller/defender/blaster types were disintegrating whole battalions with a flick of an eyelash.

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Pretty much my point! There does seem to have been fairly big power creep on the player side of RP and I've no idea where I come in to have a character who's fun to RP as a bit of a scrapper. it's hard to do when the fights either over in a second, or way beyond you!

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My own uber, War Crow, would not cause you issues, certainly not currently. He was always pretty much a Scrapper, it was just that he developed fairly godlike abilities which were mostly of use out of normal combat situations. They were specifically designed to take time (except when it didn't matter) so that they were out of the question in combat.

He's even more like that now, having taken away his own ability to do that ind of thing.

It's much more fun playing relatively normal people, however. The reason I don't play Crow these days is that he's not that normal. Plus, I rather enjoy playing Nitoichi, who's a normal human girl, even if she can do some really quite amazing things.

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with the sole exception that he is very confident that no one can actually kill him (ooh, look, I use a game-mechanic (no permanent death) but an alternative explanation for it).

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Jason Caine is based entirely on that mechanic. I thought "hey, why not create an immortal in this game... I mean, its not like anyone can actually die..."

Yeah, she's missing a Y-chromosome!

(Felt someone had to.)

Seven smiled pleasantly. "I am afraid you would be required to clarify. There are a relatively high number of variables involved in your query. However, if it does not matter, I shall give my thanks and those of Section 19 for 'saving my hide.'"

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Leaping over the top of the car he was hidden behind, Azure Arrow dashed over to where Seven had fallen and started trying to move her out of the way of the battlefield. "No time for napping, Seven!" He grunted as he began his efforts.

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Seven's mouth opened and she said, "Dave? That you?" Then the light in her visor flicered back on as her systems fully rebooted. She regained her feet and reactivated her defensive systems. "Thank you for your assistance, Arrow. I have regained operational status now. It appears that Doctor Johnson has, once again, escaped."

Think this was the conversaton going on with the huge girl, roman armour was mentioned. Chatting away at GG... Sarah Thompson, that the one? She yours Zeero?

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He reached out to see if the android Seven feared anything so that he could bring it to the surface, he had his doubts, such constructs are rational beings and he knew that fear was something they all seemed to lack.

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(( And a day at work does not help the sequencing, but... ))

In a control room in Peregrine Island, Eric Needlebaum's fist hit a console with sufficient force to make every technician in the room jump. "What the hell was that?! Why has she shut down? If I hear 'power surge' again I will personally sign all your resignation letters."

"We're analysing the read outs now, sir," one of the braver technicians barked. "We should have an answer, err... well, it wasn't a power surge..."

In King's Row, Seven's apparently lifeless form collapsed onto the road surface like a marionette with the strings cut.

(( I hope that was unexpected... ))

Aha... unattributable comment by dev... It's a force blade. You can think of that as 'monomolecular,' but not in the original sense of the term used in sci-fi.

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....okay i lied more jumpsuits, everyone wears a jump suit!

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In that case, I'm totally against it.

Not sure it is, having played with it. Is there anywhere written down that it is?

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now how often do you get the ceo's of MS IBM and Intel in one location for a off duty chat ..

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Mind you, how often do you get the CEOs of MS, IBM, and Intel being super-powered crime fighters? (Though there is a rumour that Gates wears his underwear on the outside of his trousers...)

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The worst bit of player canon storyline I can remember was probably FFM's uber-Nictus, but I think he can argue a case for even that, it just wasn't the kind of thing I'd have done.


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Hey! I've seen FAR FAR worse than him, and in my defense, I was relatively new to RP at the time.

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Please note qualifier: 'which I can remember.'

Okay, so Doc T used to break canon fairly hard most of the time, but he did downplay it a lot.

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Bear in mind though, that when he was around, ALL he did was <bleep> Ellie up, and wind Jester up. And explain to me how the latter was a bad thing?

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It was only a bad thing when the rest of us had to deal with your angsty Ellie plots!

I tend to side with official canon. The plots I build tend to use the main background, or to not override it.

The worst bit of player canon storyline I can remember was probably FFM's uber-Nictus, but I think he can argue a case for even that, it just wasn't the kind of thing I'd have done.

I've retconned characters because they started breaking too much plot, and I dislike characters that can. It's a slight bone of contention there with Ghosty over Grav Mistress. Her canon dictates that, to be honest, almost all normal plots can be punched out of existance by her in a wink. Makes creating plots rather difficult. That's why I retconned War Crow out of the mess I'd got him into.

Player housing? Doesn't bother me terribly. That said, Crow's courier business and Velvet's modelling company have offices in buildings, not entire buildings. The one large scale construct I have 'in-game' is actually in London, so doesn't interfere much with official canon. Both Shadowe and Nevermore placed their Batmanesque mansions outside the city limits, eliminating the need to justify their existance.

Not sure what's up with the Talisorian stuff. I just treat them as energy/force field technology weapons.