RWZ Pictures

First, I kept seeing This Guy-- no, I don't remember his name. Groundsomething. Groundswell, maybe?-- all around thr RWZ, but just for a second at a time, so I never got a good look. I kept thinking it was Masonry. Then, I ended up on a PuG with him, and realized what I was seeing. He was a good player, and he could type complete words. But, he was no Mason.

This was the goal of the mission-- the Rikti AV, also seen in the Lady Grey TF. No, I'm not even going to attempt to spell his name. The guy in white in front of Blaze (again, I don't remember the name. Not a clue this time) was a tank with an interesting pulling strategy. He had the eye-lasers from one of the Epic power pools and pulled them right to him. He only used it to thin the herd around the AV, and then pull the AV itself out of the room. It worked pretty well.

This was the room we pulled the AV from, and one of the reasons I'm becoming more amused with I10 as I see more of it. The maps are just awesome. I wish I could have taken better pictures, but I did get quite a few anyway, to at least give an idea of what it looks like. I don't even have captions for the rest of the pictures of it, but I'll post them anyway.

Trying to give an idea of the size of it here. It was huge. Almost as big as the skyscrapers in the city zones.

Okay, yeah, it's a death picture. But that's not the point of this, though I see death pictures have become a trend. ;) It was one of the few times the top of the crashed ship was clear enough to get a semi-decent picture.

Villain Fyre and Will's "boys" starting to fight the Legacy Chain and the Scrapyarders to get to the Sea Witch, in one of my current least favorite missions.

And this is why it's one of my least favorite missions. Swarms of Legacy Chain and Scrapyarders once we started hitting the Sea Witch = teamwipe, including Will and Keen Havoc's minions. Fyre became one with a steel girder, but look at those minions. Ouch.

Fyre and Will watching the Rikti drop ships come in. I still love that green sky.

The Lady Grey TF

Apparently, "death" pictures are expected of me now. So, this is from the failed attempt at the Temple of the Waters SF. +6's make for lots of death. That's Luna, embedded in a hillside in a cave, in her new "goth" look. Luna will change costumes much more than my other characters. She's like that.

I think it was the third team-wipe when we decided to give it up, and move back to Hero side and the new Lady Grey TF. I'm so glad we did.

Blaze and Shadow Fall make for bad screenshots. But I tried anyway, because the maps were just so freakin' cool. We cleared this room (first mission? maybe second) but Blaze stopped to take one last look.

This was the mission were we had to rescue Penny-from-Faultline from the Rikti. Penny and most of the team are in the center, near the portal




Lunar Midnight, one of our Pick-Ups, Frost, and Blaze. Penny's suspended in the purple aura.






Bad picture, partly from the effects in the mission, and partly because of my graphics quality. In the background is three of the four "Riders," the Rikti version of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. There was a fog throughout the mission, which intensified the auras around the Riders nicely.

My part of the "talk like a Rikti" inspired team, SYN-13. Yet another failed Crey experiment set loose to wander around Paragon City.

Invasion Pictures, and A Litte Info

Okay. One picture of... Team 3.1? The front guy is the Circle mage we were supposed to "rescue" from the Scrapyarders, who are, by the way, my current least favorite group. "Rescue" is in quotes because even though we freed them from the Scrapyarders guarding them, it didn't matter if they immediately died or not. And they did. Except for this last guy, only because he didn't have to fight anything. While we were there. We left him in the cave. That's Keen Havoc and the Tokyo Trio plus one, and Will's Boys. Out of the shot are Will and Schlachtfeld (and yeah, I had to go to Mason's blog to see how to spell that. German is not a language I'm familiar with.)

In the revamped RWZ, there are "pylons" that have popped up. First of all, don't get close on your own. They are perfectly capable of one-shotting. And they've got *range* There are... eighteen? in the zone. Once all are destroyed, the shields on the mothership will drop. The pylons will reappear after a certain amount of time, so the only way this is accomplished is with multiple teams taking down the pylons.

Once all the plyons are destroyed and the shields drop, welcome to the most chaotic Hami raid you've ever been on. There are TONS of Rikti on the ship. Teams will head toward the center of the ship, hopefully after planting at least one bomb per team. Bombs can be placed in the "duct work" of the ship by destroying "door" placed around the outside of the ship. Once you plant a bomb, RUN. They explode, you know. At least three bombs must be placed to spawn the ship's security chief, who'll appear as a GM with a name I can't remember. Supposedly, once the GM is defeated, there will be access to the inside of the ship. This, however, didn't occur while I was there.

Of course, there's lots more Rikti activity than just in the RWZ. You must be at least level 35 for RWZ, anyway. I saw level 54's on the ship itself. And given that Blaze cycled through over 400k in debt there, I recommend taking a 50, or at the very least a character you don't expect to level quickly. Expect debt.

This is an Invasion in Peregrine Island, while the Rikti were teleporting in. There was some lag during this, but nothing like the first night. I don't know if this was due to the time of day (late afternoon/early evening), that it was a high level zone, or that two days have given the shiny time to wear off, and there just aren't as many people out and about.

Blaze in the center of an Invasion. The nifty new shield graphics still entertain me. Also, the only good monkeys are dead monkeys. (Please, save the PETA warnings. PETA doesn't care about Rikti monkeys.)

A slightly less chaotic phase of the battle. New shields, some crazy invention set wings, and dead monkeys.

Blaze posing with new friends in the RWZ. The guy in the purple on the left is a Vanguard Soldier. The guy on the right is a Vanguard Wizard. (*watches as Vagz drools.)

Which brings up another important point. Some of the Vanguard costume pieces and some other things (which I haven't investigated much yet) are available to players. You can buy these things with Merits. Merits are earned through Vanguard by fighting Rikti. Merits will occasionally drop fighting Rikti during the Invasion cycles. However, EVERY Rikti defeated while on the Mothership will drop a Merit.

VERY IMPORTANT: You must do the first set of Levantera's missions until you get the "Member of Vanguard" badge before you are eligible for Merits.

My first run on the mothership, I must have missed out on hundreds of Merits. After we were teleported off of the ship when the raid failed-- after the GM appeared and resulted in the repeated of deaths of dozens of heroes-- I ran back and did the missions. It's mostly running around and talking to NPCS, and one Defeat 10 Rikti. Very quick.

So I10's... okay. I guess. I'm happier with I10 than I9, at least. The Lady Grey TaskForce does interest me more than most of the other TF's. And repeatable missions in the RWZ make me much happier than repeatable missions in the Shadow Shard. Costume pieces make me happy. No, not inventable wings or boots. There are 2 new costume pieces available that aren't armor. I have one character who might be interested in the Vanguard armor, and she's level 27, and likely to stay there for a good while. So, costume-wise, the issue is disappointing. Am I disappointed with the issue? No. Blaze and Blaster-Fyre will probably be spending a lot of my newly acquired free-time in the RWZ in the next few days. Did I hope for just a little more? Yep.

Quick Pix

Fyre and Will teamed up with Keen Havoc and Master Masonry. Will, Havoc, and Masonry are all MM's. That's... 12 minions, and 4 players. I don't think everyone fit into the shot. And, I hate that annoying little HeroStats gibberish box.

Cass on a cliff in Talos during a Rikti Invasion. You can see the green sky, and that the forcefields of the War Walls are nowhere to be seen.

Blonde Fyre and Will's mercenaries.




The traditional death picture. What's harder to see in the background, though, is that Cage security guards are fighting the Rikti Invaders. The Ghost of Scrapyard also fights the invaders, which is fun to watch. However, it's difficult to call it a "fight," as he one-shots everything.

Delayed Invasion

I know, I know. I10 came out Tuesday (yes, as I predicted.) and today is Thursday, and I've barely seen it. I've read absoulutely nothing about it. And I've barely talked to anyone else to see what they've had to say. What's wrong with me?!?

Well, nothing. Brief "personal" interlude: My mom was sent to the emergency room Tuesday. She was diagnosed with congestive heart and lung failure. She was operated on early Wednesday morning and given a pacemaker. She did come home today, and she's doing very well. I've spent most of the intervening time at or en route to the hospital. Yes, and I was in-game a bit, later at night, but I was feeling less than social. I expect things both at home and in-game to return to "normal" shortly, or at least close to normal.

And I'm also going to log into the game as soon as I post this and run around the RWZ. Whee!

While I have been logged into the game, E and I have been playing Fyre and Will, who are at this point, unaware of the renewed Rikti invasion, due to their players keeping them in the dark and completely ignoring the huge drop ships, falling bombs, and wicked cool green sky. ("Looks like it's going to storm," Fyre says to Will. Yes, she's brilliant.) Living in a part of the country where severe thunderstorms are relatively common and tornadoes are not unheard of, I've seen the sky look like that, in real life, once or twice. That actually makes the impact of the Invasion sky more, not less. It makes the "what if" a lot easier to imagine, and the ability to see it in the game just heightens the "wow factor."

Like I said, I haven't seen much. So that explains why the sky is the most remarkable part of I10 for me. So far.

Strike Force Pictures

There's one child in the game of CoH/V. Penny Preston, in Founder's Falls. But there are tons of mini-toons (which tend to get on my nerves for some reason). And, the rare free-roaming midget.

If the mission hadn't been so freakin' insane, I would have tried to get better and more pictures, because it WAS cool, visually.

Awesome view. Except for the Sky Raiders


Ryu, Luna, and Bomber, after one of the mass-deaths during that final mission. Kain escaped and teleported the bodies to a safe place. Or, maybe I'm mis-remembering and there was a twenty on the ground.

Stike Force: From Hell

Okay, really, we were Strike Force Scalpel. Whatever.

A lot of it wasn't that bad. Most of it, even. We needed a base computer, which neither Winter's Fury nor Guns and Roses had, or the resources for it, so we got started thanks to Kit and Carnivale (with an "I"). Carnie stuck with us for the first couple of missions, including the first mission where even the minions were purple. It was like slogging through quicksand, but it was "CRAAAZY XP" and few, if any, deaths. We knocked it down a level, and we all leveled, so it got much easier after that. Until the last mission.

I do have to say, it looked cool as hell. Visually. Looking around and considering tactics and goals, it looked pretty sucky. And it was. Worse than it looked, even. We died, a lot. As a group and separately. And four people against an (unexpected) AV is a dicey proposition, to say the least. But, we did it. There were some complaints about the suckiness of the mission during it, but I saved mine for after. I won't do that SF again...

With that character. Eighty percent was destroying guns. And more guns. And yet more guns. Luna hates robots and inanimate objects. With good reason. Her powers don't work on them, or at least don't work well. Yes, you can confuse a Skyraider force field generator. You cannot, however, confuse an incendiary missile launcher. Trust me. I tried. I tried having the Sky Raiders fight their own guns, but they tended to head toward other Sky Raiders instead of the guns, when I could even find Sky Raiders in range of the guns. Plus, I just seemed to have bad luck. With Domination, I can hold or confuse just about anything. With the stealth, I can sneak up and confuse minions and lieutenants so they start the fight while I build up to Domination. I was working on that at the second attempt at the AV, hit Domination... and died. Sky Raiders circled around and set me on fire.

Sigh.

But, I did get a rare recipe that I sold for 500k infamy, which was a major plus since Luna was totally broke. I couldn't most of the IOs I wanted, but I subbed in SOs until I can. And I got about 2 1/2 levels out of it. I suppose it was worth it.

Sybil and her thugs got up to level 14. Instead of taking a travel power--which I usually treat as a MUST, except for all the nifty temporary travel powers-- I took one of the force field shields. No, I didn't have any yet. Normally, Sybil duos with E's elec/elec brute, REDS. He hasn't needed any extra shields, so I was concentrating on damage powers. The thugs died every three seconds from all the toxic damage they were taking, so I hope the shields will help with things like that when Sybil's solo, or with a different team make-up.

I noticed, too, somehow, the "anti" Mason doesn't seem so evil anymore. At least compared to the "real" Mason? Or was it just because it was a short session? Hard to tell.

I know E wants to put a couple of levels on Will before the Rikti invasion hits, and I don't think we have much time before that happens. Plus, after a day with Luna and the Strike Force from hell, I think I'm ready for a change. Fyre's still not into what I'd call the more interesting powers, so I'd like to get her there, too.

Pictures

I'm putting pictures in separate posts from now on. Pictures, for some reason, screw with my spacing, and it irritates me. Possibly, there's some other fix, but this is just as easy, if not easier.

Fyre and Will, "before."

Fyre and Will, "after." You can't see, but those are combat boots.

Blonde #2, Luna. She needed sunglasses because Sharkhead is just so darn bright.

I'm Not A Blonde, But I Play One on CoH

Not too much here. It seems pretty quiet without Team Angst, doesn't it? Team 3.0 is way calm. (Team Time-Bomb? Nah.) At least compared to Team Angst. Fyre and Will don't do much social-type talking. Okay, practically none. They talk about their missions, and that's pretty much it. I pushed them a little last night, and they got into an almost-argument about Fyre's trips between the Rogue Isles and the Steel Canyon Medical Center. Will thinks that Fyre's vigil for E is beyond pointless. Fyre, of course, disagreed. Had it not been so late for the players, the characters may have argued more.

Before that, though, they hit level 20. Life with Stamina is greatly improved. Neither of the players was entirely sure what to do with the second costume slot, but Fyre decided she needed a more incognito look. Will agreed, and suggested they come up with outfits that sort of went together, and also agreed that Fyre's red hair stood out. So, Will's in black leather (Oh, yeah, I totally hate that. Right.), and Fyre's a blonde. In a short black skirt and an almost-there top. *Sigh* What was I thinking? Blonde-Fyre got more looks, stop-and-stares, and comments in two hours than all my other characters over two years put together. I think I'm going to have to adjust the outfit.

It is entirely a coincidence that a few days earlier, Luna turned up a blonde. I'd pictured her as a blonde since I started creating the character, even with the short, bright pink hair, which I always knew was a wig. So, what's with me and blondes? No idea. Brown hair in the game often looks like mud. No, not always. I've seen brown pulled off very well, both male and female, though hair colors are rougher with the longer styles. Black hair is usually too severe, and looks fake. Again, no, not always. Unnatural hair colors are hard for me to deal with for long periods of time. Yeah, it's fun for awhile, but then it just seems to look wrong. To me. On my characters. No, I'm not saying all characters with pink, purple, or blue, or whatever hair are ridiculous, or brown or black. It's not a criticism, I'm just saying how I feel about my characters. And I've done red to death. Blaze, Cass, and Fyre (most of the time) are all red heads of one shade or another. So, the COTM (color of the moment) is blonde. It's a phase, I'll grow out of it.

Bomb and Boom

This should be a short post, so pictures first.

Dragon Ryu, scary scarred Bomber, Luna, and Kain.

Kain, Bomber with his shirt back on, and a better picture of Dragon Ryu.

Villain Fyre and Captain William Piett, aka "Bill Peterson, Paragon PD" in Pocket D.

We learned some more about Kain's Longbow problems. He doesn't necessarily want to kill them, but when we sees them, something goes haywire and he goes nuts. Bomber thinks Kain has a chip in his brain, or something, and related that to his own issues, and freaked. Psychotic-break Bomber is scary, especially with his helmet and shirt off.

Also we... uh, okay, the "we" here is "me and Fyre," or the grammatically correct equivalent... learned more about Captain Piett. He had previously alluded to "Baumton" several times, giving the impression, if not saying the exact words, that he had lived there before and during the Rikti destruction of the zone. I had no idea that a such a mission existed, but Fyre and Will were given the mission to go to Boomtown and do their best to stop the reconstruction. Neither was I aware there was "reconstruction" in Boomtown. Will initially refused to go, and they headed to Pocket D to talk.... where they wouldn't be over-heard. Uh, anyway... Captain Piett showed Fyre a Paragon Police Department business card with the name "Bill Peterson" on it, and that he was Bill Peterson, and then showed her an older picture of him with a woman and two young boys. And a dog. He said that he had lived in Boomtown during the time of the Rikti invasion, but had been working at the time that it was destroyed. His men, he said, had been in similar situations. Fyre refused to order him to go back to Boomtown and said she would accomplish the mission on her own. Will had doubts of her success without him and his men, and argued that they would go, anyway. Fyre was... confused, but rather than argue, she accepted his assistance, and off they went.

I'd never done the mission before, and it was pretty neat. It's rare that I run into a new map anymore, and this was new to me, though it wasn't overly elaborate.

I know that Will's player is up to something else with the character, but I don't know what. Fyre took Will's claims (or were they just suggestions of claims?) as total truth, but I have doubts, and theories. Poor Will. Whatever else may be going on with him, I don't think he'll enjoy I10 in the least.

Unnecessary Pictures.

Pointless? Absolutely. But, fun!

More death pictures. Fyre died, but the fire didn't go out. And HeroStats makes a really interesting inset when it's on

Just keeping with the theme. Luna and Ryu died, but they took some of the Legacy Chain with them.

More death. Luna died first, and the Longbow rushed to take out the rest of the team.

I have absolutely no idea of what exactly is going on here. Or why I took the screenshot. But, I bet those ninjas will feel awfully silly when they see it.

Villain-Fyre in an Arachnos base.

In the arc that has you "warning" Ghost Widow and then rescuing Wretch, there's a cut scene. I wanted to see if it would show up for screenshots. It does. So, Ghostwidow, Mu'Rakir, Huntsman Ohanko, and minions.

Strike Force Sunday and New Programs

So, I quit my job today. Well, gave my two weeks. I'll have some extra free time real soon. I've been putting in a LOT of hours lately, and I've had to put some pretty important things off, so I have some things to catch up on. Uh, no, the timing has nothing to do with I10. But, I'm sure some of that "free time" will be spent fighting off Rikti. What? I need a break, okay?

Anyway, though. Before TF Sunday... er, SF Sunday, I downloaded new cheater maps (Vidiotmaps. How did I ever live without those things? I hadn't updated it since back in.... I7, maybe.) And, just for kicks, I chose the download pack wtih HeroStats. So, download, install... no HeroStats? Huh? And the FAQ "Instructions for Dummies" picture links were dead on the page, so that didn't help me at all. But, by now, my curiousity had morphed to determination, so I downloaded HeroStats on it's own. Ohhh, there it is. I linked it with City Game Tracker, which you may notice off to the right here.

So, how's it work? Well, I'm not going into the instructions; you're smart, you can figure it out, if you haven't already. But, it's.... uh, okay. Doesn't help me at all, thanks. Do I care about XP per minute? Well, no. I'll admit, I felt a twinge when it slowly, slowly dropped while we sat and talked or took a break. Sure, it was nifty to see that the team defeated 104 "villains" in our first mission. And it was kinda cool to see how much infamy and prestige I earned. It is sort of helpful to see how many times each power missed, or what the average damage was when it hit. There was a small thrill of accomplishment when I saw the badges I earned during the play session listed. However, I am not a badge wh-- er, hunter, so even though you can link it to Badgehunter.com to "verify" your badges, I probably won't be doing that. So, nifty? Yes. Necessary? No. At least, not for me. I'll keep it, but I won't be running it every play session.

I'm still having some problems with Luna. Her powers are... okay. Once I get Total Domination, I'll be more amused, I think. That has to wait until level 24, though, and I just hit 20 yesterday. Stamina first, then I'll be free to pick "cool" powers. Her endurance isn't too much of problem, until I start "granting invisibility." That's a real drain, and sort of a pain to be chasing people around to make them invisible. Literally, in Bomber's case. The Bomb hates disappearing. I don't have the chat logs handy, but it mildly irritates Luna. "You're cute when you whine, Bomb." "Aww, really?" "No, not really. Cut it out." T3 doesn't have much defense, though, so I'll keep the invisiblity. I will, however, respec out of Luna's stealth and reverse "Invisiblity" and "Grant Invisibilty." I took "Stealth" as the prerequisite so Luna could sneak ahead and confuse mobs before the real fighting starts. I did that will my ill/emp over on... uh... Infinity? Pinnicle? Whichever... and it worked pretty well. It's slightly less effective with T3, but it's not completely ineffective, either.

Luna is starting to get more of a "voice," though. She's sounding a lot like someone I used to hang out with that ran with a bad crowd, sprinkled with someone from a soap opera (What? No, I don't watch it. My mom does. Really *coughcough*). A lot of the "comments" that I held back with on Fyre, Luna just lets fly. She *is* a villain, after all. Though none of our villains are especially evil, and Luna probably even less than the others. At least, at this point. She was having fun with "Green Corruptor," who's base costume is blue and yellow. Great costume, really. A very intimidating character. In fact, Luna and Bomb called him "the big scary guy" more often than not. When she wasn't calling him that, though, she was calling him "Blue." From the other side of the room, of course.

As a side note, one of my goals is to create an actual "evil" villain. Not just misunderstood, or morally ambigious. I've attempted it once or twice, but backed off. And, yes, this is probably a goal that will never be realized. But it could be fun for... oh, twenty minutes or so.

Fyre and Will are still more entertaining to me, though. Is it the characters or the powersets? Probably a little of both. I like burning stuff. That's kinda ironic, but neither here nor there at the moment. Fyre is still having horrendous endurance problems. Stamina will be her level 20 power, and she's about three bubbles from 19 at the moment.

Character-wise, she's still having "issues," too. She doesn't mind fighting any of the villain groups in the isles, or even the "RIPs," because it's blindingly obvious how corrupt they are. She has real problems with Longbow, though. Not only are they supposed to be "heroes," but E was Longbow. At first, she was able to justify it as Longbow did betray E and his daughter, but that only held out for awhile. Will and Fyre had a "steal something or other" with Longbow just the other night. They tried to sneak through using "smoke," but it didn't work out quite that well, and they had to fight their way through most of the base anyway. Will's pretty matter-of-fact about most things, except Rikti, and that keeps Fyre pretty calm, but I expect her to have some sort of break-down sooner or later with the guilt that being "evil" is giving her. I expect her demon to have a more active role in her actions, as well.

Fyre and I are also interested to find out more about Will. He's offered to sit down and talk with her a few times, as long as she buys the beer, but she's shrugged it off. She's not treating him like an employee, exactly, but at least just as someone she works with. She is paying him, after all, and that keeps her from looking at him as a friend. Or anything else. She's not paying him to listen to her problems, but to shoot things. She figures he's being nice because she's signing the checks.

I put a bunch of bids up for sets for Blaze. I'm sort of disappointed with what I had available for her, actually. As a dark/dark defender, her heal targets an enemy, so I need accuracy slotted, and "accuracy" isn't an option in the heal sets. The fear set bonuses just didn't excite me. So, I went for ranged damage for Gloom, to get the most out of the bonuses. Gloom is a good DoT damage power, so Devastation certainly isn't a waste. I was just hoping for something "more," I suppose.

Cass needs a respec. I hate doing respecs. But, the Epic powers weren't working for her, so I respeced her out of that and was just picking powers that sounded interesting, so I gave her Stealth. Character-wise, it fit, and the extra defense certainly couldn't hurt. However, I came across a Stealth IO, and shoved it into Combat Jumping. Nice effect, especially since she didn't particularly need it, anyway. And, no extra end drain, which is a bit of a problem for her still. I need to respec her back OUT of the Stealth, now, though.

I want to work on my Necro/Dark MM, too. Dominique De LaCroix. Yeah, I know, but the game hates spaces in names. I recycled the name from a "vampire" mind/psy Dominator, but now she's my creole/voodoo/goth chick. Somewhere I have a robot/ff MM, and Syn's got her "thugs," but I didn't have any zombies at the moment. So. Zombies was the real goal. I've goofed off with them, but never gotten past 20 with one, so I'm still interested. For the moment. At least until I role-play her and someone expects me to remember French. I'll have to Google some stuff and see if it jogs my memory. I don't have high hopes.

Pointless Updates

I don't really have too much to say. I haven't posted in over a week, though, so I suppose I should make an effort. Angst is extremely minimal with the new team, so there's been very little to explain. I had the vague ideas of a story where Fyre tells comatose E what she's really been up to. Very vague. But, I just read E's post of what the comatose E is thinking, and I'm slightly intimidated. And the only thing I've been really inspired to write is my resignation letter, which I'll probably be turning in on Monday. So, I may have lots more time to write very soon. I'll be able to post every hour, on the hour!

Okay, well, we might not do that.

Team 3.0 is... okay. I'm so used to damage, this "control"... er, excuse me, "domination" thing is taking a bit to grow on me. Once I get past the boring Fitness powers, and get into some of the more interesting powers, I think I'll get a little more into it. I can tell I'm not too into the character, too, though. Usually by at least level 16, about where we are now, I'm itching to get to 20 for that next costume slot. But... eh. I don't have any ideas at all for a new costume for Luna. Something without a trenchcoat, and with a more "normal" hair color, maybe.

I revived a version of my Necro/dark MM from CoV beta, and she's kinda fun. While Luna is almost a poor-man's version of Fyre, personality wise, Dominique is good old-fashioned shadowy evil. Not Jason/Freddy slasher-movie evil, but more like old black-and-white Dracula movie evil.

For whatever reason, though, I'm having a lot of fun with villain-Fyre and Captain Piett. Right off the bat, they had the "chemistry" that people talk about between actors and actresses. Will is a "tough guy," and I'll admit, I like tough guys, and you've gotta be pretty tough to hang with Fyre. And, okay, I kinda like burning stuff, so the powersets were a little more interesting to me. Fyre has terrible endurance issues, though, so I can't wait until Stamina for her. It's not too bad, since she's mostly just duoing with Will, so I don't have to try to keep up with a full team. They're level 16, so Stamina and more interesting powers should just add to the allure. Fyre with fire imps.... the potenial awesomness is staggering.

Character-wise, is anything going to happen with that "chemistry?" Too soon to tell, I think. For one thing, Will has some issues that haven't been explored yet. And yes, we all know Fyre has issues. Including a demon with a fluxuating level of control over her. Plus, poor E. But, either way, they're fun.

Even when Masonry appears out of nowhere and joins them. That was fun. I mean, honestly. It had potential for major angst. And there was some angst. But it could have been total World War 3... actually, I think they're up to War 5 or 6.... between Fyre and Mason. It wasn't, though, surprisingly. They mostly got along. The Rogue Isles version of Mason sort of scares Fyre. She's not really afraid of him, though. This is a nightmare version of Mason for Fyre, the version that was she was always afraid existed, but she chose not to believe did. Well, at least until the end there, when he admitted he wanted to kill Fyre and E, and Jen if it suited his purposes. But, anyway. When Mason killed his punk follower, it made Fyre nauseous. It makes her more sick to think that she can hardly find fault with him, as she's in the Rogue Isles for nefarious purposes of her own, and responsible for just as many deaths, whether she finds the glee in killing that Mason does or not. I'd planned to keep the villain version of Fyre as more experimental than cannon, but I'm not sure how that will change now.

Oh, and hey, pictures.

I don't know why I took this picture. I don't know what killed poor Luna. But.... well, there it is.

Bomber, Luna, and Ryu in a Council cave. Kain must have finally wised up and ran away from them.

Luna, Electryk (Which I'm probably spelling wrong. Forgive me), Kain, and Ryu's "children."

I almost posted the nice, pleasant picture of Masonry and Fyre sitting peacefully on a bench together, but.... nah. Besides, Mason already posted it. So, here's villain-Fyre, villain-Masonry and one of Will's army. Death pictures are funny today, I guess.

Renegotiating

She threw the door open hard enough that it bounced back half closed again, almost hitting her. She barely spared the room a glance. Her eyes were too blurry from lack of sleep to notice much, anyway.

She’d only been here briefly over the last few weeks, but thanks to the cleaning lady, it was in better order than if she’d actually been living in the apartment she’d called home for the past year. Too many people had wanted to do too many unfriendly things to her for her to be easy to find.

That wasn’t why she was here now, though.

“Where are you, you son of a bitch? I know you’re here!” She smelled smoke already. She’d been smelling it so often over the past few weeks, but the last few days there had been almost nothing but the antiseptic smell of the hospital. The sharp smothering smell of burning almost came as a shock.

Immediately, there was a low chuckle from behind her. She whirled around quickly, almost tripping over the coffee table. There was nothing there. Another low laugh from behind her caused her to spin again.

“Alexandra, my dear, I’m always with you, not only ‘here.’” The voice was the same as always. Rich, low, with throaty laughter just below the surface. More than pleasant, almost seductive. It made her break out in chills and feel slightly nauseous.

Though she knew it was futile, she still searched for the source of the voice. Another quiet laugh came from behind her, and she felt hot breath on the back of her neck for a minute.

“Stop playing games,” she demanded.

“Oh, Alexandra, this is far from a game, and I promise you, I am not playing.” There was a sharp edge in the voice. It may have given her pause, but she was past paying attention to small things.

“I know that… that’s you. You’re doing it, and you’re going to stop. Now.”

There was another low chuckle, originating from just behind and to the left of her. She turned, but saw nothing, not even an indentation in the thick carpeting.

“Stop? Would you have me let him die, then? That would suit me. Keeping him alive is quite the effort, you know.” The voice sounded thoughtful, but fake.

“You--” She stopped, the heat that had been building began to dissipate as confusion set in.

“Of course,” the voice said, sounding almost gentle. “Put aside that wonderful fury of yours and think, Alexandra. The doctors did tell you, didn’t they, that your… friend should be dead. That some mysterious force had kept him from death.”

After a hesitation, she regained her momentum. “That wasn’t the deal.”

“No?” The voice questioned.

“You know it wasn’t,” she snapped. The was a quiet noise from the direction of the kitchen. She turned but saw nothing. She couldn’t be sure if the noise had been real, or just her imagination. The air conditioner slightly shifting the air current, possibly.

“And our ‘deal’ didn’t include you playing hero in the Rogue Isles, either,” There was a distinct growl underlying the words now. “Did you think that busting villains in a new locale would be enough to meet our bargain?”

She was silent. She didn’t have a reply, for that was exactly what she’d been doing, and hoping.

“Not hardly,” the voice sneered. She felt the shifting of air around her, maybe something brushed her arm. She turned quickly, succeeding only in flipping her hair into her eyes.

“Alexandra, surely you must realize how important you are to me,” the voice began. The pleasant voice was back. It came from almost directly in front of her. “Your entire life I’ve been following you, watching you. Before that, your mother, though she possessed none of the… fire that you do. You look like her, you know. You have your father’s eyes, though, and his personality, of course. Your mother, she was a quiet little mouse compared to you.”

The scent of burning was overpowering and she’d taken two steps forward before she caught herself. “What do you know about my parents?” She’d meant the question to come out strong, harsh, angry, but it was barely more than a hoarse whisper.

“Why, everything, of course!” The voice replied happily. “Who do you think brought them together? Your mother was from my line,” it said possessively. “She was beautiful, obviously, but her temperament was lacking, and she had practically no magical potential. Your father, on the other hand…. Even then, the power he had! It was astounding, really. If only he’d been more corruptible.” The voice sighed, but quickly regained its cheery tone. “No matter, though. Practically all I had to do was arrange a meeting, and the rest is history!”

“You’re lying,” she whispered.

“Oh, no. Alexandra, I’ll never lie to you. You can trust me,” the voice was soothing, almost hypnotic. “I know, you’re tired of the lies, the betrayals. Friends, family. No one you can trust. I’ll never lie to you. I’ll never leave you.”

There was a long pause.

And then she burst out laughing. It was harsh, hoarse laughter, bordering on tears.

The voice sounded as though it was true laughter, though, as if they’d shared a joke. “Well, if you choose not to believe me, I suppose there’s nothing I can do about it.”

She gave another harsh bark of laughter. “You haven’t even kept up your part of this bargain.”

“And what have you done for me?” There was a growl and the hot breath was in her face. She took an involuntary step back and the voice continued. “You’ve gone out of your way to go against what I’ve asked you to do. I would be within my rights to remove my protection from your friend and give him the death he wants.”

“No! You’re wrong, you’re--” The protest was automatic, but the voice continued.

"You're my biggest investment, Alexandra. My favorite project. I have such high hopes for you. That's the only reason I've given you the leeway I have. However, if you want me to do what you've asked, no small thing, then you must do as I've asked as well. Begin living up to your end of the bargain, and I will do my best to complete mine."

The sofa was steps away, and she sank into it now gratefully. "Fine," she replied with a tired sigh.

"Excellent," the voice said. "Begin by retrieving the locket from the... person you've left it with."

She looked up, remembered that she wouldn't see the source of the request. "The locket? What?"

"The locket, Alexandra. The one that belonged to your ancestress."

"You're... joking."

There was a rumble of laughter from just in front of her. Too close for comfort, but it was near pointless to move away. "I assure you, I am not. You don't believe in coincidences, do you, my dear? As I've said, you are my favorite project. However, not my only one. The locket will enable me to more easily keep track of you and your activities. And to... advise you, should you stray from the path that we are creating for you."

"Advise?" She scoffed. "Hardly. That locket gives you entirely too much power over me. No way."

There was a growl and the smell of burning and the heat in the room increased exponentially. "You are my creation and you've made a bargain with me. Break that bargain, and face the consequences."

She flinched back at first reaction but quickly recovered and glared at the spot in the room where the voice seemed to originate.

The voice became softer, almost gentle again. "You are my creation, you know. You're as much my daughter as your biological parents', or the Kellys'. But if you renege on your end of the bargain, I will be forced to do the same. Your friend will be dead within hours."

She swallowed hard and took a breath, willing herself not to cry.

The gentle voice continued. "I can make it easier for you, Alexandra. Don't fight me so hard. Relax your guard. You won't have to suffer."

She shook her head. "No." The word came out soft, not much more than a rough whisper.

"Suit yourself." The voice was flat, gruff. "Get the locket. Follow my instructions. Or your friend dies."

There was a stillness to the room, and she knew the owner of the voice was gone, for now. She knew what she had to do.

She leaned back into the couch, closing her eyes. Exhaustion took over and she slept, but didn't rest. The nightmares were back, and she knew it was only the beginning.

Eye Candy

Now, I should write something substantial. There's been lots going on, both with, as Mason calls it "Team Vigil," and with Team 3.0. I have a scene I've been wanting to write out for a few days, about Fyre's steps after she realizes E's not waking up. But I'm not going to do any of that. It was a long day at work, even though it was a half day, and my brain's in neutral already. So, let's look at pretty pictures instead. And, yeah, technically, I should have put these in reverse order, probably, but... We'll deal with it this way, huh?

I just really like this picture. That was Skylar Blue, who was deleted awhile ago even though she was my very first character. I don't remember the name of the male character in the picture. He was from my old SG, which doesn't exist anymore. I think that was Skyway. We were waiting for the team to get there, and it was one of those "look at this" moments when emotes were a novelty. Still, I like the picture. It looks like a painting, or something.

Cassandra Noir, sometime before level 20. She had the leaning thing going on way back then. The other character was someone from the old SG. No idea what his name was.

No idea where I got this from, but I like it.

I found this one shortly after Fyre got the "Rise of the Phoenix," and this looks like it should be the "artist's interpretation." Or something. No idea where it came from, either.



Lunatrix flying through Port Oakes with her jetpack.



This is Fyre-Hex, aka "villain Fyre," and Cpt. William Piett with some random voodoo guy, who has kind of a nifty costume.



Cassandra Noir in Eden.



Fyre Hex and StarWyng in Brickstown.

Fyre Hex in the Carnie/Malta mission. She was... cranky.

Obsydian Fyre, with Masonry Redux and Keen Frost in the background.

Masonry Redux and Obsydian Fyre, during one of the rare times they weren't fighting with each other.

Sometimes, a Freak just needs some relaxation time.

The Night-Watch, Kat Astrophe in front, Johnny Backstreet in red, Swamp Fox in blue.

Obsydian Fyre, having a really bad day.

Warshades had some really interesting bugs for awhile.
One of them gave Fyre a shot-gun. I doubt she minded.

This was Team 1.0 fighting the Kronos that didn't one-shot half the team before disappearing. The higher quality of the picture is because it came from E's computer, not mine.

Fyre Hex, leaning on her good buddy Statesman, at the end of one of Team 1.0's Tyrant mission.

Fyre and E, in Pocket D, WAY back when E was jealous of Mason.

The Circle of Thorns and a victim in King's Row.

Demonic Angel Noir in one of the holiday missons.

Angel Noir in her "angelic" guise with Vagabond Mage in one of the holiday missions.

Angel Noir, a shivan, and the ugliest baby ever, aka "Baby New Year."

The Final Frontiersman, aka Sam, and Tess Frost during the holiday event. Sam and Tess were deleted, but I like to think of it as we sent them to a big farm, where they can run and play.

Vagabond Magus and Eve Moran in her Arachnos disguise.

Roxi Toxic, frightening civilians.

She's on Freedom, stagnant at about level 14 or so, and that was a bug that left harassed civilians to hang around, instead of fade away once they were saved.

Yeah, someone dropped a building on me. The striped socks are under the boots, and the Munchkins are off-camera.

Sybil Noir and her gang. She's on Guardian, at around level 12 or so.

E and Fyre, from Team 1.0, on "their" island.

Angel Noir, in some mission that I don't remember but had something to do with Coralax. I think.

E and Fyre, 1.0, at the train station in Croatoa. I think this must have come from E's computer, too.

That's most, if not all, of the good ones up to now. I hope to maybe get that scene written tomorrow. At work.