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.