Dirge of Chaos

I plan to do 1-2 more this week. So by wednesday should have the next one live.

Oh yes!!!!! Thats so exciting!

I would love a 'blinking' teleport power set for characters as would so fit with some ideas I had that I am unable to make. That said still without wanting to become a broken record, I hope they at least keep some kind of way for people to warp to bases/zones even if there are restrictions of what areas you can use them in because it has become such an integral tool for role players going between areas/scenes of player created content.

----[ Part Three: The cat is out of the bag } ---- Before her now, where once there was just this small little blindfolded menace, now there stood three. Each of them were covered in strange gold and glyph saturated outfits, but she could see each were different. The silence of the room, formerly filled with just the beats of rain from outside, was now overtaken with what she assumed was.. bickering? The three of them, no sooner than they had appeared, seemed to already be at each other's throats with the strange words they had spoken before. It sounded familiar, but the speed with which they spoke it left little room for her to process it with all that was going on. For as boisterous as they were, it offered her the first moment to really get a true chance to look at them while they seemed so indifferent to her presence. Cats. They were clearly cats, weren't they? Tails, Fluffy ears... But other than that they seemed normal, human even. She had to stop herself as the thought crossed her mind. There was literally, absolutely nothing normal about this in any way, shape, or form. What was supposed to be a simple evening, taking care of a few things in her domain, was now shattered as completely as the jars. She stole a glance down at the smashed pottery on the ground below, but it felt so trivial now, as she looked back to the arguing cats, who seemed to be pointing at eachother as much as random things in the room. Priorities. Right, what are these things? She took a moment to look at the three, her analyst hat tightly on in a metaphorical sense. The one she had spoken to first, the short one, caught her gaze. She seemed to be the most wild in her chatter. It was so odd to see that her face was still covered in that strange blindfold that seemed to do little to impede her ability to recognize what was around her as she faced her other cats with no troubles or seemed to almost glance at things that were pointed out. She seemed paler than the other two as well, not that she was pale by any means. Amanda reckoned her own pale skin would burn red long before she could even get close to stealing a tan like that from the sun. It was only now she seemed to notice, her hair, her ears, and tail... it wasn't black, well not entirely. As her eyes adjusted to the light of the room, now that the sudden flashes had ceased, she could tell there was a faint blue to her hair. Or would you call it fur? It looked like hair... it moved like hair. Would it be rude to ask, she pondered for a moment, but realized now might not be the best time to ask, as she saw the little cat leaning over and thrusting an accusatory finger into the chest of the tallest one. She could tell their clothing was, well, it seemed vaguely Egyptian, but nothing like she had seen even in artistic interpretations or glyphs. Also... were those bones? She looked between them, and on each of their jaws they seemed to be wearing what looked like a jawbone, but they were made of gold. Morbid jewelry, she thought. Her eyes followed the accusing hand towards the tallest of the feline invaders, where as her eyes traced their way up to her face, she was somewhat dumbfounded. Where what she had expected to be frustration on her face, noting the tone they were passing between them with what she assumed were barb-laced words, she instead found a face fighting desperately to keep from smiling, as though she wasn't taking whatever was being said seriously. In fact, her entire body language seemed to confirm this as the tall one had her hands resting on her hips. She seemed rather relaxed, as if ready to dismiss whatever was being thrown her way. Amanda took a moment to pull her eyes from her, to try to get a better sense of what she was looking at. The tall one's hair was very dark, as black as she had assumed the first was wrongly, and her skin was much darker than the others... her eyes slowly looked down her figure and paused as she looked at her chest. It was... glowing? Amanda blinked for a moment as if to confirm her eyes were indeed working. An, Ankh? She almost blurted out but managed to keep her thoughts trapped behind her lips as she was dumbfounded. As if reflexively, she glanced to the others, there it was too! On each of them, in the center of their chests was a glowing rune. What did that mean again? She was sure she read about it a thousand times, but her mind being so distracted, found it impossible to draw upon her years of study. As she looked to the last cat's rune, she couldn't help but study the rest of her too. Her skin, not quite as dark as the tallest, but not quite as pale as the tiny one... she seemed different, her tail was white, and her hair. Even her... jawbone was it? That was a silvered metal as well, rather than the gold the others wore. Was she different? She pondered this for a moment, as her eyes darted around this strange creature, until in a moment she felt a chill go down her spine as her eyes locked with the white cat. She... was looking right back at Amanda.

I do appreciate your point of view and experience both in and out of game and the sentiments you express. I just hope as well there will still be an option for some of these functions that others have grown to rely on for other means. There are some players who play this game without ever caring to level up because they got their character to a point thats suitable for their roleplay. That said, being dismissive with 'dont tell me how to play' can also be used to dismiss some people who legitimately play games in other ways that aren't mechanically exploiting things in ways that would effect other styles of play. Yes I will not defend people trying to argue in favor of an exploit that totally shatters the intent of a game, but it does feel like your argument doesn't make any notion of concerns for entirely unrelated playstyles.

I would agree save for when it comes to things like its uses as a 'tactic' in PVP/Gameplay scenarios. That I am sure can cause so much frustration. I can get where the notions of it breaking the whole reason for those mechanics being something worth looking into changing. But yea if its just general frustration that its making it 'people aren't around as much cause they are always darting off to other bases and realms etc' then yea that wouldn't be a sentiment I could throw my support behind. I personally think it has a place, or rather there is a place for something that achieves the same result. Hmm, the other issue I can see is how much trouble would things be from a development point of view. It would be nice if say you could create specific bases/places and 'tag' them in a way where they would be able to be 'teleported to' like the base command. Something that has to be set so that its not everywhere to say give that option if you were to remove that functionality. I think some places like the nightclubs Jokers/Oasis/Afterhours etc would find it harder especially for newer players to participate if more barriers were put in the way.

You sadly threw a lot of words/acronyms I'm not familiar with yet. I apologize for not being as up to date on terminology yet however I was wondering with this 'system' would this reasonable hypothetical situation be possible? (Log into game, get message from friend to 'pick them up at pocket d for a night at jokers they are fashionably late for already. You logged in and urgh already at some other point in the world you last logged out of, no big deal. could you say Warp to your base which maybe you have built as a 'flat/studio' to make some last minute adjustments to character wardrobe. Portal to pocket D to meet your friend, walk to the bar to pick them up and exit scene with them out of sight then be still able to somehow warp to Jokers without waiting for a mechanical cooldown?

ANKH you so much for this its purrfect!

I'll be honest, I am new to the game, so i don't have the same level of high end or specific instance use experience so many of the other players have. I totally understand why someone wouldn't want this to be functioning in a zone set up for an active mission or especially in a pvp scenario as that defeats the risk of loss. I would agree there should be some way to prevent that. However for roleplayers I also see it as an invaluable tool for organization and coordination. it affords the freedom that wouldn't exist otherwise and can cut down on well trudging along to try to get things to work in an otherwise convoluted manner. On that same front, while I also think that noone should be criticized for not using it, I can also see the benefits for getting a group together at the same point TO start some activity where you wouldn't use it as part of it. If you are already going to be playing with those people, any tool to get that to work easier is A-Ok in my book rather than having everyone standing around idly. For example yesterday before I did a run with a friend on here for leveling, we all had to assemble at an area, i am very new and was a bit confused at how to get there and thought in grand total my diversion took less than 2 minutes... I could feel the frustration in some of the players responses. If there was a way to cut down on such things i wouldn't be opposed to it but yea I agree that using it in an exploitive way to say 'get out of being defeated in pvp' or 'warping out of a zone/mission you are supposed to be locked into for story reasons' isn't the best.

I happen to really enjoy the enter from base passcode especially when it comes to player clubs/bars etc. When you want to roleplay it, you can walk to a point thats more appropriate to 'travel from'. Also when you have a base to work on or for roleplay campagns where you need to organize going between custom locations and set up scenes naturally, it cuts down on any potential 'out of character downtime' to break such scenes. Plus it seems like its something that can be 'ignored' if people dont want to use it but removing it would effect more people.

----[ Part Two: Eight Lives left } ---- Amanda blinked for a moment, her senses seeming to come back now that she was getting over the initial shock. She looked at the strange little figure before her, and had a sudden realization. "Wait. You... understand me? You can talk?" she uttered. "Of course," the catgirl replied, sounding almost offended by the question as she puts her free hand on her hip, shifting her weight with it to that side as her gaze seemed to judge every fiber of Amanda's being. "No I'm... " Amanda paused for a moment trying to find the right words. "Who... are you?" she said, finally having the courage and sense to ask. That question drew a long, pained sigh from the Catgirl as her shoulders dropped. As she did, her hand loosened its grip on the flaming sword she held , the flames dissipating into the air as she let go, until nothing remained even hinting it was ever there. Slowly, the same arm rose and her back stiffened, as she traced a line with her hand until it was pointing to Amanda, who reflexively brought a hand to her chest, pointing as if questioning if she meant that the cat was referring to her. This too drew another sigh from the cat as she shook her head and thrust her hand forward, as if accentuating the point. To this, Amanda slowly followed the invisible line from her fingertip, turning to see what she was pointing at until her gaze rested on the shattered pot on the floor below. Amanda, now feeling ever more confused reached down and lifted one of the small pieces and turned back, holding it up for the cat to see "You... mean this?" she asked. The catgirl, as if she was dealing with the most tiring of children, let her head sink back for a moment in exasperation. "Yes. Of course I meant that." she snapped back, with a tone of disappointment laced with impatience, as though this was the twelfth time she had to explain it to the same person. "To think they would leave a foolish person like you in charge of such... where is this? A museum you say?" She asked, tapping her foot. "Yes! The, um, London Museum" she said as she motioned with her hand around the room, followed by her eyes as she realized this really was more of a storeroom than the museum. "Oh, and I'm not in charge. I am just-" *CRASH!* she heard a loud smash which sent another shock down her spine as she quickly turned around to see to her horror, the young catgirl had come and knocked one of the other jars onto the floor. She nearly leapt towards it before she stopped. Looking towards the young creature whose hand was resting along the side of the last jar, slowly gliding it towards the edge. "No, please!" cried Amanda in horror which stopped the cat in her tracks, but only for a moment before she pushed the last jar onto the ground below. In an instant, the room filled with another flash of light, Amanda couldn't help but turn away, shutting her eyes tight as she recoiled from the blinding burst until slowly she could open her eyes and look back. Now standing behind the young cat creature were two more, two who looked very much like her. Their eyes all met, Amanda now outnumbered, staring at a sight she could barely put into words.

Just cause I thought I would share. Really proud of my kitties fashion senses.

----[ Part one: Night at the Museum } ---- It started like any other night at the London Museum, although it had been a rather busy day. The dark skies and rain brought an eager crowd of locals, eager for ways to pass the time. This business had been very trying for young Amanda Locke. She was new to the museum although her studies in history had served her well. So enthusiastic she was to try to earn her way to some sort of curator position. She was so pleased with herself when they finally gave her the chance to help preserve, clean and sort some of the old artifacts they kept in storage. To her, she was like a child having first been brought to a toy store, every day she clocked in. It wasn't work, truly it was something more, like fulfilling a lifelong dream. It was surprising so much was just kept in archives and storage. So many things the general public would never get to see, and after a day having to help act as an attendant she was all too ready to get back to her prized treasures. She walked the rows of shelves, tracing her hand across them as she did, barely stopping to read the tags. She had read them all so many times before that she felt she knew where everything was better than her mentor, the forgetful old man that he was. No, this was her domain now, she mused as she started to move towards the back. Though the public may not get to see all the great things until some exhibit or function needs them, they were hers and hers alone for the perusal tonight, and every night she wanted. A true lord of her own domain, that was the feeling she had, laced with a sense of awe and pride, something she would be very reluctant indeed to admit. *BANG!* With a crackling roar and a shake, the room shuddered as the storm outside decided to make itself heard once more. The sound tore Amanda violently from her thoughts as she stumbled back into one of the shelves. She quickly put a hand to her chest as she caught her breath... but the rocking and rattling behind her quickly stole a gasp of air from her as she looked back. Two small jars were shaking back into place. But where was the third? Her eyes darted to the side just in time to catch one rolling off the side of the edge. With every fiber of her being that she could muster she reached out, so desperate to catch, to somehow stop its fall, but it was too late. The prize eluded her fingers, barely able to brush against it as it made its way to the floor below. It was as if time stood still for her as she saw the jar shatter, spreading dust with it. She couldn't even register the sound it made, such was the horror of the sight before her eyes. A priceless artifact, a treasure from a time she could never hope to go back to. In that moment she could feel her heart sinking into an abyss so dark and dreadful it threatened to swallow her whole. It was then, and only then the flash of lightning engulfed the room. So bright and blinding, even if for a moment, she had neglected to even consider how strange it was to see a flash in a room with no windows. As her eyes adjusted, blinking as if ensuring they still were there for her, she gazed down at the horrific scene at her feet, falling to her knees as she did. With shaky arms reaching out towards the field of broken pieces before her, but unable to bring herself to grasp anything. She quivered in horror, staring at the unimaginable act she had done. Just then, another flash of light, although not as bright...and warm... it was beside her. She looked down and saw, fire....flames?! She was about to leap back but as her body tensed, the fire drew closer to her neck, revealing it was controlled... a blade?! Without moving her head she traced a line down the blade, and up to its point of origin, which seemed to be even more surprising than the fire. A young girl? She looked in disbelief trying to take in the details. As she started to study the figure, she noticed a few things that seemed even more strange; The outfit...she had never seen anything like it. Gold, old, so strange was it... and her face. Her eyes were covered by some sort of cloth, and are those cat ears?! She blinked in bewilderment before the figure stepped forward, keeping her blade to Amanda's neck. Her stance made it clear she was angry, but the way she seemed to be glancing around the room seemed to indicate confusion. Her tail wagging wildly, her tail?! Her mouth was starting to drop in shock at the scene unfolding before her. Suddenly the silence was broken by a flurry of words Amanda didn't understand. The figure before her seemed to be shouting to her in some language she did not at first recognize. Was that Arabic? Wait, no. She knew some words, this sounded different somehow. She blinked as she looked to the cat girl who seemed to be growing increasingly frustrated with each passing moment until she withdrew her sword, still rambling at Amanda, but it seemed she was just as confused as she was angry. As soon as the blade was released, she started pacing, although her ranting continued, seemingly now to herself, as if she was having some kind of existential debate. Amanda, confused but somewhat curious by this turn of events took the moment while the cat-thing, was distracted to stand, dusting herself off as she did. Only then did it strike her now that she is at her full height. Tiny. Whatever this little cat thing was, it was short, like a child. Her fear seemed to subside as she looked down on this poor creature. Where did it come from, she pondered, looking around, however her sudden calm was shattered by this creature now taking another step forward and pointing directly at Amanda's chest in an accusatory manner. Raising her hands defensively, Amanda blurted out "I...I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know whats going on!" she cried. Her words seemed to freeze the young girl as she looked to her motionlessly for a moment, before her head tilted to the side ever so slightly and she spoke, this time in broken English. "Who... are you? How did you get in temple?" asked the girl. "Temple? No, no this is a museum" Amanda offered back This seemed to catch the catgirl off guard, as she was silenced the moment before she was about to speak. Instead, she paused for a long moment before looking around the room again. But how can she see with that blindfold on, Amanda thought to herself. After what seemed like an awkward eternity, the catgirl turned to face Amanda once more. Her ears lowered slightly, as did her tail. Slowly, the sword wavered as she softly spoke, "This is not the temple."