chase

"Thanks. Maybe later?" She gestured toward the paperwork. "I think I'm supposed to inspect the place and report back any issues or something like that. There was some mention that it had some sort of recent renovations, but the "reinforcements" should hold, or something like that." Her voice warbled a little at the end. "I guess with this kind of tenant group, that's kinda common... Anything in particular I should watch out for? Glowing mice escaped from some mad science project? Faulty teleport shielding? Walls adorned with ancient occult symbols only visible through blacklight?" Her face was a weak dry smile, trying to joke about the unexpected, but her eyes pleaded *please just say no. My heart can't take much more.*

One area I try to NOT let build limit me is the scope of powers. Yes, it's good to be able to represent things in-game, but I do like having aspects of the powers that don't just fit the powerset box. As an example, I have a stage magician critter mastermind. She has all the pets in the game, plus rabbits, mice, doves, and all the traditional stagecraft critters. They're all trapped in a magical gem (she was too- until recently) and she can pull a bunch of them out and provide minor Telepathic guidance OR swap-forms with one of them. Her mind in a mouse body, to slip in unnoticed or possess a bird to fly up to a penthouse balcony, etc. possess one of them. I represent that a little with teleport powers (popping away from X and appearing at Y) and the purchased panther travel power.

... I just gotta ask. HOW COULD YOU MISS THAT CONNECTION? What'd you do? Finish your hot pocket and she was gone? Nemesis crash the party? Distracted by carnie wardrobe malfunction? Someone bombard the place with flash grenades? A nemesis carnie automaton with strategically-installed flash grenades drawing attention via a wardrobe malfunction while you were finishing your hot pocket?

Giving up on untangling her sunglasses, Tabby popped off two claw covers, holding them in the corner of her mouth like two stubby cigars and started cutting the knots of hair around the hinges. Her voice took on a sardonic air only slightly muffled by the pieces, "We'f got the same pr... contact in thity hall, so I did her a favor once. Then the was being a priss about her thelebrity status and her Insta-Twit-whatever followers.. Our thriend put her in her place by showing her the damn Tabby Tracker follower count. Lots more zeroes there than on her feed... lots more zeroes there, period. Thuddenly the wanted to be besties." Tabby paused a moment, getting a little self conscious about the topic. Nothing ever good ever came from sharing details about herself. "Did you say you studied abroad? Before I came here, I don't think I ever traveled more than 30 miles away from where I grew up, that's only because of the school bus. Pretty pathetic, I know. What was it like? "

To be clear: Tabby's only concern with police-drone zapping Flambeaux would be whether she got her $50 before the zap or not. Now, if Flambeaux is clever enough to use fear of the police drones to draw Tabby out to a more photogenic spot that would better hilight her features... that's another thing.

I try to represent what I can powerset-wise, but most of my RP characters really are concept builds not meant for performance. I've experimented around with a cop character as a club (police baton) scrapper just because dual-pistols seemed too much the "out of control" cop. I've planned a cop dual-pistol sentinel that focused on fighting pool attacks, switching to guns only when lethal force was warranted. Tabby, my Forum RP character, is a kinetic melee (not claws) because the animations were too savage. Instead, she's using what little spellcraft she can to energize the air for the blast (I have the rune aura on hands the same color as her attacks to make it appear something like spell weaving). I made her willpower because her occasional clumsiness makes super-reflexes seem odd. I'd probably do more if we had some more broad pool powers or alternate animations for pool powers. Tabby would have the occasional last-resort claw attack. My melee cops could have something more than a single pistol recipe. My gun cops could have more melee variety- maybe a police baton...

"Oh, uh. er... well... I AM registerrrrrrreeed... " Her voice peaks at AM a level that few humans could ever aspire to reach before droning out. *Great. TOTALLY convincing, Tabs. * "I mean... ya know, nothing like the Freedom Phalanx or anything and I haven't been in town long. I... uh... do you know Councilman Hauger in Kings' Row-- I... saved his husband from kidnappers" (*... mugger... kidnapper... there was a gun and he wasn't allowed to go anywhere before I practically fell on them*) "and have gone a few rounds with the council" (*if by few, you mean once, and if by rounds you mean him spinning in circles and crashing into walls with me clinging onto his back.*) "It's not much, but I'm... uh... just getting started." She heard a laugh- a cackle, really. Tinny... distant... like through something electr... "Oh, my PHONE! One Second!" Whispering harshly to the telephone. "You're back? What did you ov... nevermind, I gotta go." ... "No, forget everything you just heard. " ... "No!" BYE! Oh, wait, please tell me Flambeau's got my money!" ... "Next week?" ... "No! She cannot bring it here! She can leave it with you, and I'll get it." Tabitha started pacing furiously, her tail thrashed wildly and in full bristle. Her sunglasses- still trapped in her hair, swung with each turn, slapping her in the face when she turned too suddenly. "Yes, I know you're not the vault reserve, but please." ... "You ALREADY GAVE HER MY ADDRESS? HERE? How did you even... nevermind. If she knows, then everyone will know real soon. " .... "Because last time she posted it on their goddamn forum!" ... "I dunno. ask HER!" *Why'd she do THAT? Because she's an attention whore hoping to get caught up in a meme with me to boost her popularity- DUH* ... "That settles it though. I can't stay here long." ... "You've seen firsthand the lengths they'll go through to get a shot." She nervously glanced around down the hall. *Did that shadow move?* ... "Easy for you to say, you're not the target." .... "A few days, maybe. She'll want to be there, obviously. " ... "Look, I gotta go." Tabitha shoved the phone in her pocket and tried to regain some composure, "So... uh, nevermind all that, ok, and I'll forget about everything you'd asked me to forget, kay?" "Oh, and does this place have any less-known exits? Doors to underground tunnels? Roof access?"

It's Tabby's usual logout point. Small response up. Still plotting something to continue the $500,000... wait $500,000,000 thread. For what it's worth- I don't know if there's a RP standard, but I tend to share Tabby's inner thoughts in ** for two purposes- - in case anyone plays telepaths, those are always surface thoughts available to you. - Tabby's a terrible liar, and subtle body cues- twitches, fur bristling, ears flattening, whiskers curling out, tonal inflections etc, will often betray the difference between what she SAYS and what she may mean. Sometimes I may not reference the actual cue, but you can assume there are some cues available to anyone looking for them.

Tabby untangled herself, briefly lost track of her sunglasses, only to find them now tangled in her hair. "I uh... yeah- well, registered but not enrolled. I missed the cut-off for the last term due to.. well, nevermind. I was looking at mid-term offerings, but might just have to start next semester.." She tried to work her glasses loose from her hair, probably making them worse. "...Do you attend or... teach... or... design?" she said the last part looking into the apartment and fitting platform? She gave up trying to untangle the glasses and instead tried to wear them atop her head. the mass of hair woven in them gave her quite the disheveled bed-head look. They didn't stay there long before they fell across her face. "As for staying here... I don't know. My Prob... err... someone I know in city hall... found this place for me. There was a... fire at my last apartment... and... well." She shrugged. *it's not entirely a lie... my PO DOES technically work close enough to city hall to count, and fires are a part of explosions, even explosions triggered by a Council rocket launcher...*

I truly admire the OP's dedication to the lore, but it does illustrate a problem. I wouldn't call any timeline in any MMO "Basic." Half the lore is hidden away in monuments not readily available until you've played and explored an extensive part of the game, yet you're trying to make a character up on day one, often before the full picture unfolds before you. Its difficult... and very frustrating when you find that your attempt at narrative has fallen flat. Flexibility in molding the collaborative narrative in a way that's helpful for eveyone is key, and sometimes it's tough. I have characters whose defining teen moment was the Rikti war. When I came up with them, they were just starting college. I still have stories I want to explore regarding that era in their lives, so I play them that way still... but there are roleplayers who play the time progression matching the real world, and their "teen Rikti war" folk now have teens of their own... Obviously, to make that interaction successful, both sides need to ignore the parts of the narrative that don't mesh and focus on the parts that they can have in common.

Edited to add a pic of Tabby in "disguise." Close enough, but imagine it even bulkier. Her preferred "attire" is far more... natural... (see below). but she feels like she's got to cover up to go unnoticed. Like nobody would question someone the size of a 10 year old dressed like a diva's terrible disguise... Tabby suffers from a form of tactile sensitivity. The nerve endings at the base of her hairs are sensitive enough that subtle shifts in wind can alert her to an attack she can't see... if she lets it. Tight clothing not only dulls that sense but leaves her feeling slowly squeezed from all sides. Loose clothing can be better until it rubs the wrong way at the wrong time. She tried a huge buraq once- with a bell-shaped wireframe holding the whole thing out several inches out from her body. It... went poorly. The clumsiness is only partly from wearing "too loose" garb and also from dealing with the constant distraction.

"Gah!..." Tabitha fell over backwards and practically crab-crawled across the hall into door and backpack before forcing herself to stand. The hood fell away and the scramble backward, and her sleeves had almost completely covered her fingers. Her sagging jeans now covered her feet allowing her tail to thrash wildly, though now bristled to triple its normal width. "Thanks, uh, but, um... I uh... appreciate it but...these... uh.... well, they help my fingers look... longer." Her voice wavered across a few octives as she wrestled out that admission, hoping it'd be enough, but something about the metallic lady's eyes... she couldn't read them or maintain contact. *Get ahold of yourself, Tabs, you're acting like a dork.* I'm uh... Tab.. Tabitha. H... here ...just until I get another arrangemen...t" *The eyes. It was like trying to read someone wearing sunglasses. Just can't tell... ...wait My Sunglasses* She scanned the hall, hoping to stay busy recovering her stuff while talking- hopefully not making any social faux pas while also getting out of the hall before she could draw any more attention. " The gel caps: without them... the claws retract, the FingersLookFatAndMyHandsLookMoreLikePaws and..." Partway through that sentence, she honed in on her sunglasses. That was the point she realized that in her hasty climb up from the crab crawl, she'd tangled her feet into her backpack straps. ...Well, actually, she figured that detail out about midway through her slide. *Real cool Tab... not a dork at all.*

Tabby's spent the past 4 years in an all-girls boarding school... the type for behavioral adjustment that the rich send their out of cotnrol brats too (Tabby was "sponsored") Her relationship with roommates- and many girls her age could be considered... catty... at best. "Insane" Mary Zane was the exception- more of an arch-nemesis there. She is REALLY looking forward to having her own place... She's also broke, desperate, probably didn't read the lease agreement thoroughly in her desperation to catch that little caveat, and that's perfectly consistent with the way her life goes. Do it.

Perfect. I'd name-dropped Flambeaux mostly because she's so attention-seeking, she seemed a perfect foil for someone that gets all the attention Flambeaux craves, and wants NONE OF IT.

Thanks, I just like seeing where the story goes. I'm open to anything aside from a romantic arc. My wife has a character that'll someday be Tabby's match, but Tabby has some growing to do first. Tabby's current mindset is that any human male that's attracted cross species to catgirls is a freak with a capital F, and she can point to hundreds of internet posts to back that claim. As for catguys.... She's totally not into furries.

The Christie Apartments (Tabby) A diminutive form that could almost be mistaken for a child steps off the 6th floor landing. Wearing an oversized hoodie that practically came down to her knees, baggy pants a dozen sizes too large and sunglasses far too bigger for her face, one could be forgiven for mistaking the wearer for the victim of a shrink ray. Only the visbly-furry fingertips holding a cellphone and whiskered cheeks would lead one to suspect otherwise. "Yeah, it's Tabitha. I found the place. This isn't gonna work." ... "Well, I thought when you said free housing for my kind, I was hoping you meant maybe desperate college students or heck, even a halfway house for wayard catgirls... yeah, I woulda hated that a whole lot but I'll admit it'd be more accurate than this. I was just reading the lease agreement- this is for registered HEROES. With powers and fighting crime and...and..." ... "Registering was a requirement of my probation, not..." She shambled down the hall in obvious discomfort, like a person waking on the beach after an afternoon with no sunscreen. She'd occasionally pause to look at one room number, then another. "I really don't think breaking up a mugging by falling into it from a fire escape qualifies." ... "It shouldn't matter who was rescued." ... "No, that doesn't count either. " ... "Yes, I've seen the fight footage... half the damn internet has by now... " ... "ok, more than half. Please stop bringing up that stupid mash-up with the pizza and everything. It doesn't look heroic, it looks" ... "well, I was gonna say suggestive, but thanks for not holding back judgement. tell me how you really feel..." ... "Why can't someone in hollywood sue to have THAT taken down... its friggin humiliating. The "i'll have what she's having" thing is so overdone." ... "and that... let's let it drop, please." ... "Look, This isn't me. We've been over this. All I want is to work off my community service, find a way to fix this... condition... and have a normal college life." ... "Well, I shouldn't HAVE to. NORMAL. COLLEGE. STUDENT. Getting a bajillion memes made from your pictures - UNWANTED and UNSANCTIONED memes, mind you, shouldn't justify special extra "celebrity student safety" fees." ... "Totally not my fault." ... "Ok, THAT... I can see. But I shouldn't be the one paying ... even if I could, and I can't. That explosion took everything. I didn't have much to begin with, but what I have now I'm either wearing or carrying. Six ramen noodle cups, two tuna pouches, a laptop with a half-melted screen, my phone, and my old school uniform. Fire won't even destroy that damn thing." ... "Well, that's why I'm here. " ... "No. Unfurnished. Floor's better for my back anyway." ... "I do appreciate it, but... I'm really feeling like an impostor here. " ... "Switching topics." ... "Switchng." ... "SWITCHING!" Waitwhat? No switch back. No, my community service was supposed to be in the hall of records- out of the public eye, right?" ... "No, I don't care if you can get credit through that. Rewind this conversation, listen again. I'M. NOT. A. HERO." ... "Hold on, I'm at the door now. Look I'll just show up at the hall as usu..." Fumbling through all the creases and folds for pockets proved too much. First her backpack fell off her shoulder, then sleeves over her hands, and her phone and sunglasses slipped lose, resulting several epic seconds of batting them around before catching the phone and letting the glasses skitter several doors down the hall. During the mess, several small gray-black nuggets shot away with one rolling under the door across the hall. "Hold on, I lost a finger." She put down her backpack and started taking inventory. Three fingertips now ended in inch-long retractable claws. the rest were wore black jellybean-like caps that could almost appear like normal fingertips. "No, I'm not on drugs. My knuckle caps. The gel caps for my claws. Yeah, popped right off again. Gimme a second to fish it back..." ... "What? BANNED? By wh..." ... "It was a SCRATCH. Well, technically several, but it was reflex. He touched me." She'd given up on tracking the lost gel cap or the keys and just furiously paced the hall, tripping over the hem of her buky disguise increasingly more often. Her tail had worked itself free and was not thrashing with fury. ... "Yeah, he patted me on the head, but that's still unwanted touching." ... "If it's reflex for him, it's reflex for me, dammit. It's not like he needed stitches or anything." ... "So lemme get this straight. No more "special" community service projects, but I can run around the city fighting crime, like some caped crusader? I'm under 4 ft and not even 50 lbs. How do you think that's gonna work out." ... "No, I haven't been doing fine so far. I've haven't done ANYTHING so far, I just stumble into trouble and gett credit when it resolves itself." ... "Well, what about the "public eye" part of this? I'm trying to keep a low profile until I get better..." ... "Seriously? You just assume I have night vision because of the feliform, don't you?" ... "Well, yeah, but it's still rude to assume." ... "Yeah, I can hold. Tell her still owes me $50. Really, " The phone was already playing the on-hold musak- some synth/retro style instrimental of the new Lady Mercury ear-worm. She really hoped her probation officer would convey that last message to her other caller. "If Flambeau stiffs me, there goes next week's food budget." Tabitha leaned back and slid to the floor, banging her head back against the door in frustration before realizing that it wasn't her door. She scrambled back to her room number, fished for the keys, and was about to enter her room when she remembered the last remaining fingertip. Looking both ways to be sure nobody was around, she knelt at the door across the hall and forced her cheek to the floor trying to look underneath. Just as she glimpsed the damnable black blob her hoodie slid over her head, blocking her view. She let out a resigned sigh. "Typical"

Thanks for setting this up. Kinda rusty at this, so was waiting to see someone else post, set the tone, etc, but finally decided to post it. First post may be kinda long & a bit goofy for this format (sorry). I'd imagined making phone conversations with Tabby's P.O. into macro-ed in-game chatter in tribute to Ascendant once, but seemed to work a bit for her intro here. Some BG info on Tabby from her "internet infamy" - she has a "following" on the net, but more of the troll-type than follower. You may have seen the memes, "Spay and neuter your catgirl" was quite popular, as was the "hang in there" pic taken when she almost didn't make that cross-building leap. Think of any cat meme, and there's probably a catgirl meme variant with her image on it. Make one up and I'll even play along. - The "tastes like victory" video clip (heavily edited clips of her eating a pizza, fighting council, and saying the title phrase, coupled with the infamous "I'll have what she's having" meme hit "Gangnam Style" numbers. The pizza joint represented in the clip even capitalized in on the meme, changing its box art to include a cartoon catgirl saying the title phrase. Tabby has NOT seen it yet. - There's even a "tabby tracker" subsite on the "naughty neko" fansite that gives out weekly pizza coupon codes for the best pic uploaded. - she's working off community service hours with a caseworker, and those with access to police records will know they ranged from many MANY multiple vehicle offenses to vandalism and desecration of a church to the near death of a police officer (later dropped). Those without access to police records can still find tons of forums speculating on what she did to get "locked in juvie" for 4 whole years... many of them much more colorful. -

Some folk on Freedom had an event that challenged the notion of "gimped builds." We made our own strangest contradictory builds and ran through the gauntlet in random PUGs. My wife's contribution was Retinal Burns, a fire/fire blaster that slotted no accuracy and avoided ranged attacks wherever possible (this was pre-fire-scrapper). Mine was Major HMO- an empath defender with very little empathy. Major HMO is an empathy defender, but much like his namesake, he has very misguided priorities. In fact, it should be quick to note that the Major has only two powers from his primary set. The rest, unfortunately, aren’t covered by your plan. Major HMO is instead focused on keeping clients… err… foes… at a safe distance by maximizing the energy blast set's knockback powers wherever possible. Rather than attempting to provide the best healing services, he just wants you to stay away from anything that can harm you. From the pool powers, I've taken flight because, as the slowest travel power, his response rate again reflects the organization he represents. The fitness primary pool was also a must- as preventive care is much more cost-effective than reactive treatment. ...And of course, no Major HMO would be complete without a strong dose of evasive measures and the investment in the concealment pool guarantees that no matter who comes looking, only those with an appointment- or a referral- will see him.

My idea wasn't nearly as ambitious. I was just thinking of identifying certain unique maps that might exist in AE that would be good Roleplaying venues... What would REALLY make such a system would be a way to make the AE author kinda a mini-localized GM-- be able to assume NPC forms in their own game or spawn additional foes (no XP, of course, the abuse would be nightmarish). It'd make AE somewhat closer to GM'd adventures in Neverwinter Nights... ir a kind of a instanced StoryTeller mode from late SWG.

It seems most webcomics hold out hope of going print someday and adhere to the typical comic book format. After reading Scott McCloud's Understanding / Making / Reinventing Comics trilogy, I experimented with a more PC-screen-friendly format once upon a time, but it doesn't translate well to mobile and from what I've read, that is one of the largest viewing demographics reported by most webcomic software. I *did* have to zoom out on my wide-screen laptop to assure I had enough of the frame appearing at once to follow along- it expanded well to fit, but the vertical spacing had things a bit too cut off, but that was a minor tweak that anyone viewing a standard comic-book-formatted comic is familiar with.

I like it. I'd done something similar for tabby's origin story in Champions (she kept a fictional 'netjournal' ) but in this iteration, she's keeping a much more subdued social media presence and lower profile in general. but I've got another character fresh in Paragon City from China and she'd be perfect for this kind of sharing.

Looks sharp and rather bold step. I half expected a screenshot comic (nothing wrong with those, but the lack of facial expression was always a challenge for me in stories I wanted to tell... my (lack of) photoshop skills made trying to draw them on go hilariously awry, and you can only do so much with creative camera angles. Great formatting choice too- The columnar approach translates very well to phones in vertical format. Don't see that very often.

The INF sink always was a big reason for the 10% fee. The game's inf scaling as you level has always been a bit excessive and the devs needed some way (largely unsuccessful) to curb it a bit. I was more amazed at how well it DID work with the out-of-control MUDFlation we had. Sure, by the end, we had many alts sitting at the 2billion inf cap and they had to start introducing alternate currencies with new releases (vanguard merits, for example) but it was rather tame compared to other mud economic disasters.

Got my vote

I'd always enjoyed reading/lurking Whitmoore Apartments and similar threads. Never had much opportunity to reliably participate in them, but enjoyed reading them.