mousedroid

I guess there would be legal problems associated with giving them away as part of the Real World Hero charity drive initiative?

While the gold titles are nice, and much appreciated, can you imagine how much more money they would raise if every contributor also received a Coralax Code (limit one per account) for donating a minimum of say $5 or $10?

Gah, a new costume that I have no way to trade for? Nooooooo!!!!

"Chief Conrad Bochco." I like it.

I took note of Mags slamming that defeated Council Soldier into the wall last night, and probably should have said something - if not to him, at least to the rest of the team.

And now for something completely different...


Unlocking the door, PPD Officer Shannon Callahan slipped into her modest but tasteful apartment. A large orange cat lifted its head and gazed at her lazily from the spot on the coffee table where it was sprawled.

"Hiya, Buntzie, how you doin'? You have as rough a day protecting our apartment from silverfish and suspicious looking dust bunnies as I did protecting the city from super-powered maniacs?" the petite redhead asked as she rubbed the surly feline's prodigious belly. Buntz simply sighed and went back to napping.

"Anytime you wanna switch places big guy, you just >uff< let me know," Shannon grunted pulling off her boots and socks. Checking her answering machine she found one message. Suspecting it was from Lionel, the socially inept actuary her sister Lynn had set her up with last weekend, Shannon left the light blinking and sat down to go through her mail.

"Bill, credit card offer, bill, credit card offer, Christmas card from aunt Miriam, and... bill. Ah well, nothing that can't wait a few days. I'm gonna take a much deserved bath, Buntzter. I'll feed your fat *** later, ok?" Shannon said, scratching her largely indifferent cat behind the ears.

Shannon padded into the bathroom and began to fill the tub with hot water. She then lit several vanilla scented candles and stragtegically placed them around the rim of the tub. She dumped grapefruit-infused bath salts into the water as the tub filled, and then slipped out to the kitched to pour herself a glass of Pinot Noir. "I sure hope Giz, Mags and Hill Street never get wind of my girly rituals, Buntzie; it'd ruin my reputation!"

Returning to the bathroom, she shut off the water and began to slip out of her work clothes. She sucked air through her teeth as her pants slid past the massive brushburn on her left hip and the large bruises on her right thigh. Her left knee was swollen and aching from when a war wolf slammed her into a metal catwalk.

She grimaced in further pain as she pulled the dirty, torn t-shirt gingerly over her head. As she surveyed her reflection in the mirror she realized her entire right side was black and blue. "God, I hope I didn't crack any ribs," she thought. Long, but superficial claw marks from the "vampyre" that snuck up behind her marred both of her shoulder blades.

Dropping her no-nonsense white cotton panties and sports bra to the bathroom floor, Shannon eased her battered and bruised body into the hot, scented bath water. She laid back, took a sip of her wine, and, as hard as she fought not to, Shannon "Shenaniguns" Callahan began to cry.

She covered her face with her hands and soon the weeping turned to sobs. After a few minutes, Buntz walked into the bathroom. He sniffed the pile of discarded clothes and then sat down and started at the distraught girl in the tub.

"Hey there, Buntzie. Did my silly crying wake you up?" Shannon sniffed, dabbing her eyes with a tissue and taking another sip of wine. "Sorry 'bout that. I know you need your beauty sleep. The thing is, I don't know how I'm going to keep doing this. At first it was fun to face off against those creepo zombie makers, and the Heavy Metal magazine rejects, but now I'm out there fighting wizards, and aliens, and things that can tear me in half with their bare... claws.

"I'm scared, Buntzie. The martial arts classes and body armor help, but I don't have steel-hard skin, or super fast reflexes, and I sure as **** can't out run bullets. I'm just a normal human cop, and I couldn't ask for a better set of partners, but how long's it going to be before some evil robot or crazed sewer monster or whatever gets in a... a lucky shot?

"What am I gonna do, Buntzie?" Shannon asked as she began to tear up again. The normally aloof feline walked over to the tub, nuzzled Shannon's outstretched hand and began to purr.

"Heh. What in the world are you doing, you weird cat? Comforting me?" Shannon half-laughed. Buntz meowed in response.

"You're probably just hungry, but either way, thanks. I guess if it wasn't for idiots like me who fight super mutants and interdimensional demon-things, regular people like you wouldn't have a chance, huh?

"Good pep talk, Buntzie," Shannon smiled at her typically surly cat, "Just do me a favor, okay? Don't tell the guys about this, and you'll get a nice juicy can of tuna every night for the rest of the year."

Satisfied that his work was done, or perhaps bored when she didn't get out of the tub to feed him - you can never tell with cats - Buntz wandered out of the bathroom and left Shannon alone with her thoughts and fears.

Downloading patch now, and then I have to shop for some enhancements for the new powers I picked up when I respec'd Shannon.

Oh, and I have to straighten out her power trays too.

Oh my god - you guys should read some DC comics from the '60s if you think the '80s and '90s books were too wordy. At the NYCC I picked up some super cheap issues of Doom Patrol from around... 1968, I think. I figured they'd be a quick, fun read on the train home.

Holy crap was I wrong. It was like trying to read a text book in comics form! Not because the material was deep or anything, but because the characters just Never. Shut. Up. they were constantly wise-cracking, or spouting exposition about every little thing - even things that were happening in that very panel. "Cliff, look, Rita is getting into that car with a shady looking guy!" I just wanted Cliff to say, "No kidding, Larry, I'm looking right at her, just like you and all the readers!" It took me like three times as long to read one of them as it does a standard comic and by the time I was done, I felt mentally exhausted.

As for the topic at hand, I read Superman from Byrne's relaunch in... was that 1987(?) to about issue 35 or 40 and then dropped the title. I didn't drop it because it was too wordy though, just because the stories sucked IMO. Not sure if it ever got better because other than the Death of Superman event, I haven't read any Superman comics since then.

Sounds great, I will be sure to check it out!

The first post mentions Requests, does that mean song requests, and if so, can we post them here?

I guess I'll be the dissenting opinion here and say that I don't see anything wrong with including the footage in the new movie. It's not like people aren't going to see the movie otherwise, or that they are doing it to draw in a bunch of people who wouldn't otherwise see the movie.

It would be tasteless if they released a "special edition" of the movies to theaters with 5 minutes of extra Joker footage just to make a buck, but to include it as a footnote to a great character and a great performance? I'd be OK with that. Is it tasteless or a cheap stunt to posthumously publish an author's unfinish manuscript, or release songs a musician had recorded before he died?

If handled properly, I wouldn't have any problem with them including the footage, but it won't make me want to see the movie any less if they don't.

This just in - one of the scientists studying the arsenic-based microbes spilled a bottle of antibacterial soap on his desk and wiped out the entire species.

Around here we buy milk, bread and eggs when a snowstorm is imminent. Apparently French Toast is some sort of ultimate survival food.

I visit and read the forums daily, check all the announcements, and heck, I even go to CoH panels at multiple conventions every year, and I still don't know how the Incarnate system works because I haven't played with it yet.

I know it exists and I know there's special salvage you have to collect to craft special enhancements and you somehow slot those enhancements into new or existing powers, but so far that's all I know.

There's no "owner's manual" for this game and its impractical to write one since the game would change before it was ever published, but it sure would be nice to have a handy reference guide to look stuff up when you get confused. I know we have the forums and Paragonwiki for that, but I'm still more a paper and ink guy when it comes to instruction manuals.

I offer for your enjoyment, The Rogue Angel of Santa









From her bio:

"Hey kids, here's a tip: if you're dyslexic, and you're filling out a job application, make sure you use spell check! I didn't, and now instead of serving at the right hand of the Lord of Lies, I'm stuck doing good deeds, and handing out gifts to greedy, sticky little children for the next millenium - all in the name of a fat guy in a red suit.

"Saint Nicholas my sweet, grey butt! That's just a ceremonial title; like 'Queen,' or 'Pope.' He's nothing but an elf with a glandular problem and too much time on his hands. And I'm stuck working for him because I didn't take time to proofread.

"Oh, and don't get me started on the cold - what kind of sadomasochist lives at the North *%#$@ing Pole??? I'm a warm weather girl - I should be torturing sinners in a nice, hot pit of eternal hellfire, not hitching smelly reindeer to a sleigh at -103 °F.

"God, I hate my afterlife!"

Ice sword doesn't bother me as much as fire sword. Ice is a solid, you can form into specific shapes, fire is not.

I was also never as bothered by the eyebeam attack in the radiation set as I was by the fire breath for some reason, but I can see why others would be.

My guess is it's going to be something very mundane, and not about a discovery at all. Most likely announcements in my opinion are:

-- A new mission to search for life on... insert name of an extraterrestrial body here ...will be launched on... insert future date here.

-- A new telescope is being developed to replace the Hubbell, and this one will somehow be able to search for life.

-- A form of non-carbon based life has been found on earth (one of the panelists studies the possibility of arsenic-based life forms). Not that this one would be at all mundane.

So this would be like, the first (or last, or whatever) Tuesday of every month we play in Praetoria and every other week we play in Paragon? I could go for that.

As for playing Praetorian versions of our characters, or each others, I will have to think on that. I can see how it would be interesting to play the Preatorian versions of each other's characters, but at the same time, I wouldn't want to offend anyone by making them think, "[My character] would never act that way."

As such, and due to my protectiveness of Shannon, I'd lean towards playing her counterpart myself, but wouldn't care if you guys switched it up a bit.

Running late tonight. Please start w/o me & I'll catch up.

I think the offer ended either right before Thanksgiving, or right before the start of the Winter Event last year. I know I missed taking advantage of it by like 1 or2 days, even though the offer ran for a month or two. I don't want to make that mistake again if they offer the deal this year.

I just saw the "Cyber Monday Deals" announcement, and it made me realize I haven't seen a "Buy 6, Get One Free," or "Buy 12, Get Two Free" subscription offer this year.

Did I just miss it by not paying attention, or did they not make such an offer this year?

Pretty cool.

I'm taking a twice weekly Spanish class at work and I was able to understand about 2/3 of your untranslated Spanish. I'm pretty proud of myself considering that 7 weeks ago the extent of my Spanish was the strange insult, "Tu eres un pato grande"

Made a successful trade with another player last night, so thank you to all who PM'ed me, but I no longer need to trade of Meat.

Sorry if I stirred up bad feelings with this thread.

I used to think they could make a bundle selling a costume code pack as well, but now I'm not so sure.

There's a vocal minority on the forums who call for these things, but I don't think they would sell well to the general public. There's just not enough bang for the buck - you can't customize them at all and if you are mezzed or you use an Oro portal, they are suppressed and you have to turn them back on.

I frankly like them because A) I have a spefic RP character that they are essential to - a handicapped by who fights crime by possessing other people's bodies, and B) I'm a "collector" and collecting these, while often frustrating, is also kind of fun.

I just hope the two folks who have offered me trades are of the ethical variety as well.

Well, that's why I'm trying NOT to be silly and offering a straight up trade for a code I want, but don't have. That way, two people - myself and the person with whom I am trading are not exploiting the Dev's generosity for personal monetary gain.

Hopefully this thread won't be closed since I don't have any intention of buying or selling codes.