chase

I've thought about doing that, but the closest I have to date is some former Praetorians, trying to make a buck, have started recycling clockwork- ranging from basic companion models to some spare MkIV chassis' with what they've taken to call the [Tab]-E variant. They tend to malfunction a lot- maybe manufacturing defect, maybe something inherent in their logic circuits when trying to emulate a catgirl, who knows? Instead of speaking just clockwork-ese, they included the full library (royalty-free) of every utterance Tabby's ever been recorded saying. Fighting them is like fighting a "best of" album of all her most embarrassing moments.

Chase Arcanum and Partizan both served together under the man, the legend, Cole MacKinnon, and were two of the very few people to survive his command. Although Cole's (heavily redacted) memoirs inspired an entire blockbuster movie franchise and he's widely recognized as a hero, Chase hasn't bothered to see one of them... and not just because the writers took creative license with his character (renamed "Chance" and given an uncanny ability to stumble successfully through messy situations for comic relief- something Max (Partizan) loves to tease him about). Chase blames Cole for... a lot- for some legitimate reasons and some maybe less. I have an incomplete story for Chase. He's isolated in some Circle of Thorns cell, keeping himself sane by playing "spades" with his phantasmal army when his deceased squadmates manifest in each phantasm. They banter like they always did over the course of a few hands while lecturing to him about living and letting go and that sometimes- just sometimes, maybe, asking "what would Cole do" and doing the opposite is not the best show of leadership. They then help in his escape using classic Cole battle tactics To this day, he doesn't know if those were real manifestations or some sort of dissociative break. Cole, for his part, has always been struggling by the realization that killing (and ordering others to their death) came so easy to him. An old quote from an old military book haunts him- is this dark realization reflecting something terribly wrong in himself, or in all humanity. Which would be worse? I have (another) incomplete story set in the Chum Bucket- a conversation between him and Russian Blue, or as he puts it, "An old warhorse trying to find empathy and one of the world's most powerful telepaths trying to hide from it." I tried to dust off both decade-old stories and finish them for posting here but... hey! I guess I shoulda had trigger warnings on them because it ends up I'm not as ready as I thought to revisit them. Another time. Ima now gonna go write something weird and funny and embarrassing- bordering on torturous - to some catgirl that'll remain unnamed to protect the innoc for dramatic impact later.

Ok, so Tabby's rather unique, since her costume is a bit... nonexistant, but that doesn't mean there aren't different looks. I have 4 "main" costumes for Tabby In the image below "A" is the starndard Tabby. The purple "shoulder" pad is a jogger's phone caddy. It also carries her housekeys, her ID, loose change, etc, since one (of many) problems of going with such a simple look is no pockets. In "B", she includes her beat up nylon backpack, because sometimes you gotta carry more than just your basics, like carrying leftover food back from a supergroup recruiting event or your disguise In "C" This is Tabby Incognito. I have a variant with the tail hidden (tucked down a pant-leg) but to be honest- that thing has a mind of its own and will always find its way out. The oversized hoodie and jeans are incredibly uncomfortable with her condition, leading her to walk like someone with 2nd-degree all-body sunburn wearing sandpaper underwear, but sometimes Tabby just doesn't want to be noticed. This costume... doesn't do that, but so far, people are too polite to tell her that. "D" is why you always carry your backpack. Fireballs and fur don't mix, and when they sometimes do, a poof of particles and the smell of singed fur has Tabby checking if certain details are showing through. If there's a chance they are, she'll grab a teammates cape, maybe a hellions vest, maybe a Lost jacket and wrap it into some sort of cover. The remaining costumes tend to be variants of these. They tend to shuffle through what I anticipate needing in a given session. "C" unhooded and unmasked, for example, or a "singed Tabby" variant for a specific group (Tabby Crey and Carnie Tabby* variants clutter my "saved" costumes). *Yes, I know, a carnie-tabby really isn't needed, since the carnies live to party and have certainly heard the old Pocket D adage, "It isn't a party until there's naked catgirls on the dancefloor" and so there's really nothing she needs to change to fit in to one of their raves.... kinda disconcerting the way they cheer when she shows up ready to bust 'em, but...

I'll start with Chase Arcanum's for once. Tabby's will take longer (surprise) For him, it came down to one argument... and the rikti war. The hero Arkane of the midnight squad had tried to recruit the young college professor when he realized the young man's potential, but after his deployments to the Persian Gulf and his time under the command of the legendary Cole Mackinnon, Chase Miller was ready to return to civilianhood and seek out a "normal life." Chase explained that 'd paid his dues, and was determined to reap the reward- both for himself and for the friends that paid far more but would never have a chance for the same. Just a few years past legal drinking age, he'd seen, experienced, and felt things nobody should have. It was time for someone else to pick up the fight. Arkane offered him knowledge- the surest lure for an academic- but didn't want just another researcher for the effort, he wanted more than that. Chase consumed the knowledge but seemed determined NOT TO apply it. In one confrontation, Arkane broke his normal emotionless demeanor to confront Chase, "Why did you join the army, Chase- and don't give me the shit that it was for the money. You could have had any scholarship you wanted. You did it because you believed- and tired as you are- you still believe. Someday, maybe soon, maybe years from now, there's going to be a moment and you won't be satisfied with standing back and letting someone else pick up the fight. You WILL join it. It's who you are. The question is, will you be ready enough to do anything more than add your name to the body count." That was a week before the first Rikti invasion. Chase helped organize the evacuation of students on the PCU campus and joined in their defense. He saw his mentor and friend fall in battle. He saw student heroes- just kids- pick up the fight, disorganized and unprepared as they all were. He stood with them and did everything he could. It wasn't enough. It would never be enough. He'd learned that day that there is no chance for a "normal life" for believers- There was just remaining vigilant for the next threat, and protecting others from seeing the world he sees.

It had been a long day for Todd Hildebrand- the open vacancies in the Records had hit new highs and he’d been struggling to juggle both the extra workload and interviewing new candidates. HR had promised him they’d do a better job filtering out the bad ones, but here he was with this latest “candidate.” “So, ms… Tabitha… Lachann. Did I pronounce that correctly?” “Yes” the catgirl quickly, eagerly responded. *Felinoid* Todd corrected himself internally, *Felinoid is more PC, and probably more accurate here. The term catgirl covered a large spectrum, including people wearing cat accessories like ears and tail, while here before him was someone far more biologically feline- with fur, ears, eyes, whiskers, the works. And tiny by human standards- probagbly 4 feet although Todd’s proximity to City Hall guaranteed that he’d encountered folk much smaller ... and much much larger for that matter. “Do you prefer a nickname- Tabitha… Tabby?” “Tabitha, Please.” Her ears perked, “Ok, so, um… Tabitha- I have to say you had some very fine referrals- Azuria and Montague Castanella both spoke highly of your proficiency, and you really impressed the first round of interviewers. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to meet with you then, but the demands of the position, and all.” “Oh, I understand completely, sir.” She said, nodding her head and smiling in a way intended to offer support but also something else- desperation? Hope? Anyway, I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to be a little unconventional here and just address some of the red flags here, right off the bat. I haven’t had much spare time to dig into them myself, so I was hoping you could help fill in the blanks.” “Red flags?” she asked, practically wilting in the seat. “Particularly, it seems you spent the past four years at St. Ives, a boarding school for youth adjudicated delinquent… could you elaborate.” She squirmed in the seat, “Well, y’know… it was… mostly moving violations.” The evasiveness was palatable. “You don’t get 4 years in placement for moving violations.” She nervously shuffled, “Well, it depends on what those movements were and what was violated, right?” and almost immediate regretted the phrasing. “I mean… that came out wrong. From a catgirl that kinda implies a different type of movement… not what I was suggesting at all. Honest. It’s nothing like that. Totally.” He ignored her, “Fortunately we can just take a look.” “I thought juvie records were sealed” she blurted out, suddenly appearing far more nervous. He let his eyes lead her to the department sign “records” and waited a moment for it to register before looking to his computer screen, “Well, you certainly weren’t lying were you? Driving underaged. Driving without a license, driving an unregistered vehicle on the public accessway. Speeding 40mph over the limit in a 55 zone.” “it was kinda an emergency” He continued, “...Speeding 60mph over the limit in a 25 mph zone. 23 counts of property destruction by vehicle… “Mailboxes, mostly. I hadn’t really driven much before, and have you ever driven a ‘72 duster. The dash is way too goddamn high. I shoulda maybe taken time to adjust the seat better.” “...Vehicular assault on another vehicle. Attempted vehicular assault on a pedestrian” “I don’t really recall those, but I’ll take their word for it- remember, I really couldn’t see above the dash very well.” “... wrong way down a one-way street. 14 counts of unsafe lane change. 33 counts of failure to obey traffic signals. Failing to cede to law enforcement.” “...I swear, if they ever let me drive again, I’ll get better.” “...It just keeps going. It’s like they went through the entire vehicle code and just checked everything” “Yeah, well, it was a scary moment- I was trying to find help with … well, a demonic possession- mine, to be honest. You kinda take desperate measures.” “...Operating under the influence. Underage drinking, too. That’s a rather serious one.” “Yeah, I know, and I totally fess up to that. Part of that whole demonic-possession ritual thing and couldn’t wait till I sobered up. Totally will never happen again. … “Operating an unsafe vehicle on the highway. Violating emissions standards…” “Yep. Dad was restoring the duster and it wasn’t street legal yet. No mirrors. No muffler. No exhaust at all, really. The fumes just flowed straight into the car cabin from the holes in the floorboard. Probably had a bigger effect on my sobriety than the booze to be honest.” “Ok, here we go with some non-vehicular offenses. Destruction of art valued at over $100k? Desecration of a house of worship..” “Kinda vehicular, and kinda the same thing, though desecration seems a bit strong. The church had these massive ornate ancient bronze-and oak doors and they were locked and I was really desperate to get in, so I kinda… sorta… thought if I nudged thema little with the car I could get through. Kinda mixed up the gas and brake pedal…” “Use of lethal force on a state official” “Oh, he didn’t die- and it wasn't intentional. Officer Bondell found me after I passed out and changed. I… kinda grabbed his arm.” She fiddled with her hand and snapped off a plastic cap that looked like the end knuckle of her finger, revealing an inch long cat claw, “severed a bunch of tendons and he almost bled out, but was totally an accident.” “This is the same Officer Bondell that’s in your references?” “Yeah, he’s a sweet guy. He’s retired now- on disability- and we try to keep in touch.” “Ok, well that seems to be all of it. It certainly explains the 4 years… Travis was the judge, too? That alone explains the 4 years. He’s always been a hardliner." “So, I guess that’s it, huh? No chance I can work in the records room?” “What? No. I mean, no, this doesn’t blow your chances. Maybe somewhere else, but this is Paragon City. We know all about how a superpower’s manifestation can lead to unintended disaster. Lewis in public affairs nearly committed fratricide the first time his lycanthropy manifested- he’ll probably share the story with you before your first week is done. “I’ll just need info on your social media accounts for the internet background checks.” “Internet background check?” “Yes- don’t worry, it’s nothing too big-brothery, we just do a check on all recruits to be sure there’s nothing too controversial or unsavory - Although some of us work far from the spotlight, we’re all still expected to represent the city in the best light. We've lost a few candidates to some rather raunchy nightclub posts, media posts supporting arachnos- an OnlyFans account, that kind of thing." Tabitha squirmed a little in the chair, opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, shifted again, made some kid of gesture, then tried again, “I… I don’t really post online myself. I try to keep it low-key.” “Oh, ok, that’ll make this easy then.” He gestured her to the door. “ If you don’t mind, I’ll see you out and then get the search started.” About halfway to the door, she stopped him, “ when you say search…” “I just google your name and any aliases, really. If you don’t have a social media presence, I probably won’t find anything.” “Are there filters- I mean, this is a government place, I’m sure you guys limit what employees can or can’t access on the web. Not that it matters or anything here. Just… just wondering.” “Here in records we get to work unfiltered- otherwise it wouldn’t even be possible to open some profiles, like Silver Mantis or Bobcat. Why? Is there a problem?” “No… no. I can’t say there’s a problem. Can’t say that I’ve ever… y’know… googled myself before, so… no. Just… y’know, there are a lot of catgirls out there, and I’m sure a name like Tabby isn’t that uncommon and… well y’know.” He smiled reassuringly, “I assure you, in the rare chance we find anything negative, we have a careful interdepartmental review to rule out incorrect matches- probably close to twenty people . You’ll be fine.” She didn’t seem reassured as he walked her to the door. Todd took a detour to the coffeemaker before heading back to his desk. She seemed like a nice girl. Quiet. Timid. She probably had such a scare with her brush with the law that she’s keeping a low profile now. He liked that. Records isn’t a place for excitement or distraction. He even berated himself for his first impression when he saw her, reminding himself how one has to constantly be vigilant for their own prejudices. She’s a library sciences major, after all, why'd he ever expect anything unseemly. Sitting back down at his desk, he thought, “this might take 5 minutes... at most…”

“Most embarrassing moment? Man… that’s…. Y’know that’s a tough thing to single out. It’s been kinda a rapid succession of embarrassing moments since I was 14. If you spent every day looking like an anime character-the hentai kind- you’d know what I mean. “But what’s the most embarrassing?” “I’ve… I’ve never really thought about it. It’s not something that I tend to talk about, but this stakeout IS going nowhere so… lemme think a moment. “Just keep this between us, ok? It’s not like I want something like this published on the internet. “I mean, OBVIOUSLY having hundreds of unflattering pics powering the internet’s meme-engine is pretty embarrassing, but i can’t really single out one of them as THE most embarrassing. The viral video-yeah, the one edited to suggest I was… umm… y’know… excited. Really Excited. Like REALLY REALLY excited over a pizza. You know what I mean with the 'When Harry Met Sally' Kat’z deli audio mixed in. “I still cringe a little when someone shouts, ‘Tastes like Victory’ or calls me the PizzaCat. “Don’t get me wrong, that’s all mortifying, but at least most of that isn’t in-person. It’s just crap posted online. Heroes gotta deal with that kind of crap when they’re in the public eye, right? The in-person mishaps have got to be worse- like when a PPD glue bomb plastered me to a wall posed like an Egyptian hieroglyph. “You saw that? Oh, yeah, the tiktok with “walk like an egyptian” soundtrack. I’d somehow managed to purge that from memory.. “As bad as that was, the worst part came afterward= when they tried to peel me free. What you (hopefully) can’t tell in the TikTok is that that foaming glue gets… well… it gets everywhere. That’s particularly bad for folk like me that 1) have a lot of fur and 2) don’t wear much else. "Get where I’m coming from? "They were consummate professionals, but sometimes professional is a little too clinical. They just wanted to keep me stuck up on the wall until a female officer could arrive and ‘discreetly help’ apply the solvent. -Yeah. Really. Leaving me hanging there until she could arrive. They wouldn’t just give it to me to apply myself ‘Sorry, we can’t risk this secret formula getin leaked to the public. Maybe if you were a registered hero...’ "Yeah. My ASS! “Heh, well, quite literally my ass, I guess. Eventually we compromised with them hitting the… uh… safe areas… and I just accepted I’d have a sticky semi-transparent bikini goo for the rest of the night. It looked as bad as it sounds, PLUS Every step I took felt like a real slow and painful wax job, “Sorry, was that too much information? “Hah! Now this conversation will be one of your most embarrassing moments, eh? “I figured I could just stick to the shadows and sneak home with nobody the wiser, but of course that’d be the night where the apartment across the street caught fire. Hard to sneak past 30 firemen, god knows how many lookie-loos, and a newscrew. "That… that hast to be pretty high on the list. “Oh! I almost forgot -there’s one time I stopped a mugging in the most catgirl-way possible. I kinda fell into the group when a fire escape was CLEARLY not up to safety code, and when i hit the ground on all 4’s they thought I was gonna lunge at them. "Really tense stuff- Guns. Hostage. All that. "To be honest, the fall was so bad that I really wanted to just curl in a ball and whimper. Totally unplanned. I did manage to activate my emergency 911 trigger on my phone, then did whatever I could to de-escalate things waiting on the cops. I went from crouched like I would pounce to just laying on my belly, propping myself up on my elbows and – y’know- trying to look totally relaxed and nonthreatening. "Unfortunately, I totally missed how all this looked from their perspective till I noticed they had trouble making eye contact. A few degrees south of my eyes, my elbow-rest was putting my boobs on full display, in the other direction, my rump did the same, with my tail snaking around like it was trying to hypnotize them. Damn thing always has a mind of its own. “I was absolutely clueless. Totally. I mean, sure they were muggers, but I would have never guessed they were into that furry thing. I just kept making it worse saying things like “Hey, I’m just laying here, not threatening you in any way, If you don’t like it, just tell me the place and position you want me in!” “Yeah, I really was a little dense that night, but I think part of the confusion was because they saw me as a catgirl. If a NORMAL cape was laying on the ground making suggestive comments, you’d kinda question whether there was failure in communication somewhere, but a catgirl? That sounds pretty par for the course. “ It was so bad that the muggers got visibly uncomfortable. - Yeah, really. “The most insane part was that it kinda worked. When we both realized the misunderstanding, everyone got all flustered and laughing and relieved. Ended up convincing them to put the guns away and go away, with even the guy getting mugged laughing the whole thing off. --- At this point, Tabitha paused. Her eyes went to the floor and and her tone dropped from a somewhat chirpy laugh to something more somber, “But y’know, in all seriousness, I think I’ve grown desensitized a bit over the years. When I think back to it, the stuff that really embarrassed me then are pretty mundane in comparison, but still hurt so much more. “My first week in placement at St. Ives, the other girls in Dorm B invited me to one of their post-lights-out parties. Ya gotta understand, I’d never really fit in to regular school before the change, really- always an outcast. I… I didn’t know what to expect, I figured I’d be even more of an outcast once this… condition too hold. The invitation- it kinda gave me hope things would be different. Maybe- just maybe- people would see something in the new me that they liked. Maybe I could be… y’lknow… I wasn’t aiming for popular, but maybe accepted? Mary Zane was probably the most influential girl in the dorm. Her vouching for me carried weight. “So about 8 of us gathered in Mary’s room, we all had introductions and awkward chatter. Girl stuff. Snuck some contraband booze, but there wasn’t enough to get more than a buzz, then they decided to play truth or dare. “I was kinda uncomfortable with some of the questions the other girls got, so I took a dare right off the bat. Mary said, 'kiss me.' “I was… well, terrified. My heart was pounding a mile a minute. I wasn’t sure what I expected but not that. I didn’t have a lot of experience kissing beyondt like a mom-or-dad type goodnight kiss and never a girl. The other girls were giggling and chiding me on playfully, letting me know it was no big deal, so I went along with it. “I kinda expected just a peck and be done, but Mary held my head there and turned it into- y’know, a real blockbuster leading lady/leading guy type lip-mashing. It seemed to last forever, and then when it ended, she gave this kinda intimate smile and giggle- her face still so close I could feel her breath on my cheek. “I… I wasn’t sure what to feel or expect or react. Like I said, no experience in that sort of thing, but God, after so many years of being the outcast, that moment…it was liberating. I think it was that giggle more than anything else. To be that close to someone else with your defenses so down so much. Vulnerable, but... safe. "I giggled too. “When she told Becca, the girl next to her, that she needed to try it too, I didn’t object or point out how it violated the rules of the game. We kissed. We smiled. Giggled “Then Becca and Mary huddled together and started chittering among themselves, not letting any of the rest of us in on their little conversation. I just stood there, a grinning idiot, wondering when I’d be let in on the joke. “I was the joke. “Mary Zane’s whole demeanor flipped like a switch, and every girl in the room flipped right along with their leader- insane Zane. She dismissed me like you’d dismiss waitstaff. I was so stunned, I guess I didn’t move fast enough, so she told me more explicitly to leave, that I was no longer needed there, and that she and Becca had just never kissed anyone with facial hair before and had wondered what it was like. "All the girls were taunting me. "I ran from the room. “Of course, by the next day they were all telling stories about me trying to kiss Mary and Becca and it had been all me and they had to throw me from the room. They claimed they were being nice by not telling the ward masters, since- after all- you know how catgirls are.” Tabitha could no longer make eye contact. She studied the floor, the ceiling, her hands, looking anywhere but you. She sniffled, “I… I never told anyone about that. It’s stupid, I know, that was over four year ago. One tiny fraction of a moment in time- and so many friggin things have occurred since then You’d think that with all the memes and messy situations I’ve stumbled through, I’d have forgotten all about that, but that… that’s gotta be the most embarrassing moment of my life.” She sniffled again. “Damn allergies.” “Can we maybe change the topic?”

Most of my young adult heroes or villains have gone through some sort of process in the juvenile justice system / youth services / foster program. Although I never experienced that, my first post-college job was with troubled kids in placement and I got to see many of the challenges, drawbacks, and benefits those programs can have on people passing through them. Maybe I like imagining the kids would persevere through the challenges I witnessed. Most of my characters are ALSO young adult. I'm well out of that age range, myself, but I just recall all the uncertainty and sudden ambiguity and self-discovery you're faced with as you start out on your own and imagine adding the challenges of hero-dom paralelling that so well. A majority of my older heroes are military veterans- probably also due to my own veteran status. I've witnessed many friends' challenges coming back from war, along with my own transition, and -again- I just find it such interesting ground to explore (and, sometimes, TBH, it's a chance to explore alternative outcomes. None of my characters are wealthy, and many are barely scraping by. Very few of my villains are actually stereotypically villainus. They're usually rather decent people with one bad character flaw or one bad choice that put them on the darker path. Sometimes that one flaw will continue to prevent them from ever being redeemed and sometimes their past leaves them feeling incapable of redemption.

Tabby's thinking fits GreyCat's "Cat"- the money's not hers, so as tempted as she'd be to get ahead of student loans or her phone plan, she'd first want to use it in some way to assure the people affected by the fire are "made whole" afterward. After that, before she takes a penny, there are a few other debts she'd want to clear out: In young Tabitha's desperate attempt to thwart/counter a demonic transformation, she took a lot of desperate acts- one that culminated in breaking into a church. The centuries-old massive oaken doors shipped over from the "old country" and covered in brass-bas relief depicting every book in the bible proved no match for the lockpicking techniques made possible through the front bumper of a partially-restored '72 duster. Even if Tabby wasn't judicially ordered to pay restitution for the restoration, she wants to. Feels like she needs to. Then there's the officer that found and woke Tabby post-transformation. The panicked girl grabbed his forearm tightly, unaware her now-catlike claws would shred right through flesh. He holds no grudge against her and is content with his pension, but she's determined to do better for him and his family. She could not let herself live a more luxuriant lifestyle than someone who she impacted so badly. Finally, after all that is paid out and she's left with very little, if any... maybe enough to reward herself with a nice dinner... her trademark terrible karmic backlash has to hit: Next tax day she learns that the lottery winnings were taxable and she never gave uncle sam his cut.

I blame the following on CrystalDragon for coming up with these writing prompts and Itsyagirl for raising the bar with a better (and far more concise) story teaser that should absolutely be expanded upon. -------------------------------------- A thoroughly bedraggled Tabby limped into her apartment, tossing a handful of mail on the kitchenette island just before losing her footing on the wet tile. Her backpack landed with a “splort” beside it. Even though nobody was present, she grumbled in a mock-authoritative voice as she fished around the cabinet for a plastic bag full of rice for her still-dripping phone. , “Sorry folks, looks like our supergroup recruiting dinner’s over Lusca’s threatening independence port again! Let’s make this into a trial by fire!” Dropping back to her normal voice, “I shoulda said *no thanks. I look too much like a live-action anime character to get anywhere near tentacles. Bye.* “I was only there for the food, anyway.” Done wringing her hair out over the kitchen sink, she plucked out a strand of seaweed- no, not a strand-, this was too big for that. Maybe a ROPE of seaweed- she could feel it sliding through her hair, up her neck from past the small of her back and up her tail as she tugged. It had to be a good 4 feet of cold, wet slime sliding up her back. Experiencing such a sensation so close to the topic of tentacles made her shudder. “Speaking of food…” Her tone lifted- far more upbeat as she turned her attention to the backpack’s contents. She’d snagged some grub from the buffet while everyone was heading out to Lusca, so with any luck she’d eat well tonight. Luck wasn't with her. She pulled out a gallon plastic bag with 6 pieces of fried chicken floating in about a half gallon of seawater. Her whiskers, ears and tail telegraphed her sagging enthusiasm even as her stomach growled in protest. The drumstick didn't look TOO bad, she thought as she flicked off something that looked like a barnacle. and dropped it in the microwave The soggy breading, already peeling off, sloughed off with an unappetizing squelch. Despite all audiovisual cues- not to mention the odor of wet cat with hints of petroleum residue- her stomach growled louder. She chose 4 minutes. "That oughta kill off anything else crawling in it... maybe. still gonna be salty. " She checked the clock. “Shit. It’s nearly raid time. Can’t be late. This is the final test for guild membership.” Tabby had been playing the free version of EverWar Online for over a month now. It was a relaxing way to wind down in the evenings (when her neighbor’s wifi bandwidth allowed it) and it was especially nice to be treated as just another human online. Yes, they knew she was a GIRL online, and yes that had its own pitfalls, but for at least ONCE the jerks and pervs hitting on her weren’t FREAKS chasing after catgirl tail. They thought it was HUMAN tail. She couldn’t say she welcomed the attention, but she welcomed that distinction. And now her new friends suggested she apply to their guild. YES! she'd found a community that accepted her. They didn't know she was a catgirl. They didn't know she was a cape. They didn't have ulterior motives. They. Just. Liked. Her. She’d passed the interviews- narrowly- lost some points for only doing voice, not video. She passed the stat check and had already nailed the social. The only thing left was the Crucible of Bezelbahumessel raid trial. Pass this and she’s in. She’d been stressing more over this than any of the supergroup recruiting luncheons she’d been attending. This was a chance to make REAL FRIENDS that embraced her for who she really was and not people caught up on getting the token hot-tempered crittergirl with daddy issues that every supergroup seemed to need. The laptop was on the island, right beside the pile of mail. Aside from a stool, the island was really the only thing that qualified as furniture in the room. Her bed was a pile of blankets in one corner and her old “desk”- a cardboard appliance box she pulled from storage- had started to sag and cause issues with the mouse. She couldn’t risk that with the raid. 20 minutes before raid time. Downloading… "A goddamn patch!" She bit her lip. "Great. Just… ok, it’s moving fast enough. I’ll make it* She nervously fiddled around with the laptop, opening a browser, then closing it to conserve bandwidth, then checked her batteries. Then… now what… “Oh, the mail” Spam Spam Spam A new phone offer. Keep that one, just in case. Spam “What’s this?” A brown envelope addressed to “Tabby” No return address. No postage. "Weird" She plucked off one of the rubber caps she kept over her claws and sliced it open carefully. Out fell a picture and a folded piece of paper. Some asian dude. Vaguely familiar.. Probably mid 20’s. Obviously in distress. Duct tape over mouth. Why does he seem so fam… “OhmyGod, is that MegOtakuPrime? What the…” Download be damned, she opened a browser to NaughtyNeko- the stalkery misogynistic community site obsessed with all things catgirl, most things crittergirl, and a whole new branch called Tights with Ti.... point is, they don't discriminate in their discrimination. Tabby had run afoul of them more than once and now maintained several accounts there as a form of "opposition research." MegOtakuPrime had become one of the more prolific contributors to the Tabby fanfic section in just the past month. His “My Time with Tabby” series purported to be “autobiographical, based on real events” and backed the claim up with pics- sometimes graphic- that always sparked debates. They were obviously photoshop or deepfake or deepshop or whatevertheycallit and creeped her the heck out. She’d put his posts on “ignore” weeks ago. Now she pulled up his profile and scanned through his latest posts. One was a shirtless “selfie” of him with what was certainly meant to look like the top-back of her head strategically positioned at his beltline. She looked back at the photo. Same guy. Scrawnier. No chance he had a 6-pack IRL, but clearly the same guy. This can’t be real…. She unfolded the paper already anticipating what she’d find: magazine print cut out and paste into a message. Br1ng 20k T0n1T3 2 yur S3kr3t Pl@c3 0R W3 CH0P Y0ur B0yfr13nd UP … She was laughing too hard to continue reading. Her boyfriend. MegOtakuPrime *Someone thinks MegOtakuPrime is my boyfriend. Someone actually believes his shit.* She examined the note again. *Freakshow, too- only they would go through the trouble of leet-speaking in cut-out-magazine type. They’ve probably forgotten the real spelling.* “What frickin poetic justice" the laugh filled with exhileration- as if a tremendous weight had been lifted. 15 minutes to raid. 70% downloaded. Another laugh. This one mid-bite on the now-overmicrowaved chicken. *Way too salty, but this is just too good. Justice. Justice is served. I hope they…* *What?* *They what?* *What will they do to him?* She froze. 10 minutes. 90% downloaded. 9 minutes. 95% downloaded. *They…* The chicken bone was hanging from her mouth. “They could really hurt him,” she muttered aloud, slightly slurring due to the bone. *Maybe kill him.* She finally removed the chicken bone and shook her head, "No, get that out of your head Tabby. Raid time. Get ready for this. Focus on the game. Head in the game. Focus on the important" She stared at the screen. 8 minutes. 98% downloaded. *He’s just some misogynistic loser asshole that deserves what he gets…* *Does he?* *Does anybody?* *… I don’t owe him anything. * *Where am I gonna pull twenty thousand dollars from anyway?* "It’s obviously a trap." 5 minutes. Updating… MegOtakuPrime’s ransom pic caught her eye again. She locked on his eyes. The terror was so real. He’s just a scared kid. 2 minutes. She’d just make it. *Maybe if we’re quick I can cut out and have time afterward....*. A quick Google told her the average time to beat the Crucible of Bezelbahumessel. 4 hours. Time stopped. She held her breath. She could see the game loading in the background. One minute to spare. The guild leader was already messaging her. ... *I could tell them. * *I know they take this shit seriously- I've heard the stories about other applicants that weren't dedicated enough, but if they knew what's at stake, I... I'm sure they'd be fine with rescheduling. I'm sure of it* *I just have to tell them the truth* ... Team invite prompt popped up. .. She clicked the X and closed out. The screen switched to the browser, open to the fanfic site. She stared at the profile pic again. "Goddammit, MegOtakuPrime. "I hate you. "I really effing hate you. "And after you see what I do to those freaks that kidnapped you, you’re gonna be too damn scared to write anything about me. Ever. It’s bad enough that they ruined my chances with the guild. but they’re forcing me to read through all your frickin shitty fanfic to figure out where our “secret place* is supposed to be. "They're gonna pay for that.”

Well, sadly Tabby's hardest choice to date didn't get a chance to get resolved. Such is the nature of sometimes-disurpted campaigns Tabby's paid her dues in juvie but still owes a TON of community service, which I have her paying off working for the FBSA as a kind of "provisional hero"- she thinks the whole schtick is kinda ridiculous- she's no super- but it beats doing trash pickup on Skyway roads. During the Self Conceit community story arc, she encountered a telepathic Zig escapee, Psychlone. Tabitha never really considered herself very fortunate, but Psychlone's FBSA profile read as if it was her own, but every single place where fortune smiled on Tabby, it frowned on Psychlone. The system not only failed her, it abandoned her and left her to rot. Where Tabby got a chance and support to turn things around, Psychlone was manipulated and weaponized and then locked away, deemed to dangerous to be rehabilitated. It wasn't long before another less-heroic character, Ragamuffyn, completed the trio, and again, Tabby faced someone who'd seemed discarded by society and bound down Psychlone's path if the authorities were involved. The FBSA was going to be constantly pressuring Tabby to bring the two in and follow the law. She wouldn't. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. She was the way she was becasue people gave her a chance. She was determined to dot he same for them. They could do some good and- if not be redeemed, at least be valued and given another chance by others. With some guidance and support step by step they'd turn this around. The FBSA knew she was associating with them- knew that she had opportunity to bring them in- may even suspect she aided them in their flight from the law. She risked her stellar record, losing all her bonus probation points, and -if things went bad enough- even losing her probationary status, but she was determined not to abandon them, even as both of them did things that terrified her or at least tore at her conscience. I didn't know where that was going to go or how it was going to end- there was little chance of true heroic redemption, but maybe the best scenario would have been the heroes save the day, the law closing in, and Tabby staying behind as Psychlone slips away. I imagined tropes like Long John Silver's escape in treasure island (Maybe she'd find solace from the constant mind-static surrounded by sea, even) Of course, that was almost as unlikely. Things could just as easily go the "hard lesson" approach of no matter what you do, some are still lost, leading to Tabby needing to "put down" the threat they become. Maybe she never gives up on them but becomes a fugitive with them, rebelliously sticking to the belief that sometimes true justice must oppose the law. Or maybe she burns bridges sticking with them, time and again, only to reach one line that she will not cross, ending up isolated and completely adrift. Maybe they'd draw a path that I could hardly imagine. Whichever way, it could have been a real charcter-transforming arc, but it never resolved.

Tabby lives in a perpetual state of tardiness*. Her regular routine is "sprinting to catch up" and anytime she feels like she's caught up, she naps. Even if she's not caught up, if she's in atlas park and its sunny and nobody's around to pester her atop the Atlas statue... why waste a good sunning moment? I mean, you're already hopelessly behind what's the harm of a quick nap. *Exceptions= if she's late for these, she's in serious trouble and a search party should probably be organized - donut days at city hall. - lunchroom fridge cleanup at the midnighters club, ("hmm... is this green stuff guacamole? nope, really old chicken salad. nope. maybe someone's eldrich experiment... tastes ok"). - any CATERED supergroup recruitment drive.

Chase Arcanum is inspired by... well... me... and a joke, but maybe that's redundan 😁. I had a friend that always played the nonhuman characters- the most non-human the better. He'd discovered City of Heroes and fallen for it, even though (particularly at lauch) most characters were relatively human. He knew that the fact that he'd fall for a game with that limitation would carry significant weight, so he stareted the conversation with, "You know how you always play characters that look like you?" That line was said in a game where my character was gyrating in a metal bikini mind-buffing his rodian. He got ridiculed for a good few hours. So, it only made sense that when I made my first chracter here, I'd make a bearded, pony-tailed former-army college professor wearing Khaki, a white shirt, and leather bomber jacket with a firstname relatively close to my own. The spellcrafting and mystic arts... well... as far as anyone knows, that's an embellishment. ----------------------------------------- Tabby- started as a GURPS supers NPC min/maxing project gone awry. Original concept was to make something that would be like a "savage lands tiger shaman" with notable physique, speed and magic, but as the broad range of points were spread out, it trade strength and size down, I started thinking less tiger-person shaman and more housecat with magic potential, but few spells. I decided if I was going to make a catgirl, she was going to be the most catlike but least catgirl-like, avoiding the typical sexy stereotypes while focusing on the most catlike (as portrayed by my own cats)- constantly napping, seeking food, and extremely fickle in attitude. Weirdly, players joked that these traits made her more sexy in a "girl next door" trope than the sexy stereorypes would have been for them. When it came to recreating her online, I was reluctant, as I'd already learned a lot of how out of control the "sex kitten" catgirl trope had gotten and wasn't interested in contributing to it. I felt a little uncomfortable about being mistaken for that, but a friend chided me with, "if it makes YOU uncomfortable, imagine how it makes HER feel" and pretty much created the whole self-conscious neurosis that Tabby became famous for that day. My friends, being asshats great creative minds, gleefully took every opportunity to making situations that Tabby would awkwardly stumble through, largely defining the entire online catgirl-lover-fanbase that torments Tabby to this day. ------------------------------------------

Tabby loves to read- all sorts of modern genres, that's a given, but she has an absolute fascination with REALLY OLD BOOKS- not just to read, but the wole experience- the binding, the hard leather tomes, the intricate work. Even if it's in a language that she can't read- (she'll try to learn, dammit) she still appreciates the whole book-feel, book smell, and visual experience. More mundane- she's started playing fantasy MMO's- only free accounts and leeching off her neighbor's wifi (budget constraints) . Never plays fantasy races- she's just happy to be portrayed as and accepted as a regular human being and get lost in the more mundane aspects of living a normal life. She gets a bit put off by some of the inevitable portrayls of the felinoid fantasy races on occasion, but tries not to let it ruin her night.

Tabby will tell you her family's dead, curse her father out in a way that makes it clear he's still with the living, then lament how much she misses him. Sometimes all in the same breath. Their relationship is complicated. For as long as she can remember, he was the stay-at-home dad living on a small disability check from a long-closed textile mill. That plus her mom's paycheck were barely enough to let them scrape by in the large-but-increasingly-dilapidated rural farmhouse her mom inherited. Isolated with few kids her age nearby, Tabitha's dad was her favorite playmate and she, his constant companion. They were happy. They hit a new level of poor after her mom passed away. Dad mixed booze with meds to extend the pain relief, then started selling doses he could spare just to provide for the family. As he became increasingly less sober, his friends came by less often and shared fewer hand-me-downs from their kids with him. The young pre-teen Tabby went from being taunted by schoolmates for wearing their cast-offs to being taunted for the ill-fitting, even older cast off mismatches of whatever she could piece together. The humiliation she felt at school became resentment toward her dad at home and for a good half-year before "the incident" there was barely a civil word spoken between them. Then the change and 4 years in juvie for Tabby. Her "home visits" never occurred because Dad was in lockup, then rehab. The journal entries she was required to keep were all addressed to "dad" but were clearly toward the memory of her childhood bestie, not the man that grew to inhabit that body.. Still, things seemed promising enough with his rehab and her coundseling that during her third year in placement, St. Ives arranged a reconciliation meeting. From all accounts what started with promise quickly decayed into a shouting exchange and furniture throwing before they were separated. A "student altercation" in the dorm later that day ended Tabby's chances for a nearly release. They haven't spoken since.. Some nights when Tabby's lying alone on a rooftop in Paragon City she can be heard talking to her dad as if he was there beside her. Friends of her dad say they often find him spending the night on the porch, doing the same.

There's some truth in the old adage that it's hard to let somebody love you if you don't love yourself. Tabby tends to miss the early signs of interest- writing them off as jokes or misunderstandings or just taking them far out of context- ("I mean-- it couldn't actually BE that they LIKE me that way, right? Hilarious." ) When the indicators become impossible to ignore, the nervous energy starts building up with each hint becoming hader to pretend was something else until she faces the now-obvious-to-everyone-else truth the only way she knows how- by blaming the would-be suitor: "What the hell is wrong with them?! " Of course she knows the answer- she's made the mistake of googling "catgirls" without safesearch on before (warning: don't). She just didn't expect that her new friend/confident could have been one of those FREAKS. "I mean- they seemed so NORMAL before... well, normal for someone that wears tights and taps extradimensional energy to zap bad guys wearing what seem to be broken appliances for armor... but normal where it counted, at least. "I'm usually such a good judge of character." She's not. After the initial panic abates (it doesn't) she has a measured and mature conversation about their shared feelings runs for the hills, avoiding said suitor and immersing herself in some new ill-conceived bound-to-fail potentially-self-destructive scheme to cure her current condition. After all, if she was human then someone could like her without automatically being a freak -maybe- and maybe she can forget the whole "hopefully-borderline furry" aspect of their personality. What about her own romantic interests? Well, when anyone asks about her own interests, she'll demur but with a hint of loneliness in her voice. saying she hasn't given it much thought. That might even be accurate- she's actively opposing so much of her own identity that maybe she's just not ready to face yet another aspect of it, let alone question how much of what she feels is real and how much is part of her condition. Then again, it might he that she gives it too much thought- the twisted anxiety that anyone she lets herself be romantically interested in might (gasp) express interest back and therefore be a FREAK that must be banished from her presence... and she can't have that since she likes being around them... but if she has them around and they maybe reciprocate... and she maybe... and then they.... and oh-that's SO wrong... dammit gottaFindACureFAST. Probably a little of column a, a little of column b. The issue's become harder... or easier... or just a damn lot more confusing since she discovered her fanbase's very active fanfic forum. She's been shipped with virtually every hero or heroine (or villain) that she's ever been caught on camera with and many more she's never met. Yes, 90% of them are total trash that just reinforce her belief that all catgirl-fetishists are absolute FREAKS in need of therapy, but that doesn't stop her from spending a lot of downtime sifting through them for the good stuff for "opposition research" (gotta stay one step ahead of the freaks, after all). Yes, they keep downvoting her anonymous suggestion for a story contest themed, "Tabby finds a cure and true love" but surely eventually someone will cover that topic- (...an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of keyboards...) . Sometimes it's just nice to not to feel so isolated- to imagine that something she's missing is really present- without so much freakiness (if she ignores a few paragraphs/pages/chapters/doesn't-click-past-the-title). That is, of course, until the next time she encounters those fanfic matches IRL...

I have met some people that stay 'in character' as we run missions, but the RP does tend to take a back-seat to the gameplay. The game mecahnics here are too swift to do more than act in-character in brief moments between missions- something that can be frustrating for the RP'er seeking more substance while the interludes frustrate the gamer hoping to level, but feeling slowed by the RP. It's a difficult balance to reach for the whole team of strangers- far easier when you're in a supergroup with known people and set expectations, but still a challenge to manage. I play a lot of folk still in the midst of figuring out hero-ing, but I tend to burn leveling into the late teens or 20's just so I "flesh out" the powersets a bit and really define the characters. Once there, I try to RP out and level as the character grows, but I have to get better at turning off XP. I've had a few characters concepts that no longer mesh the character's "feel" in battle when they level too far. That's one factor that affects roleplaying during battle. For some of us, the more gameplay drives the narrative, the less the character feels like yours. I may play the game on +4 x8 to make a challenge to my SR scrapper, but I envision her as more intelligent than leaping into a fray like that. I've always preferred the hero stories where it's not so much the hero's powers that let them brute-force the enemy, but a degree of cleverness, desperation, good fortune, and sometimes-very-un-super decisions that win the day. That's not going to match how the "gameplay" suggests the event pans out, and sometimes the more distance between that gameplay event and the rp, the easier it can be to handwave away the differences into a narrative that better fits your feel. I have met people in-game that really use character level and powers to define what that character should be capable of, kinda like how you'd limit yourself to a character sheet in a pen and paper game. If you're a level 10 with TO's, don't even imagine facing off against a level 50 in RP-PVP. I can see this being reasonably used to curb others' potential gode-mode behavior, but some use it to justify their own godmode as well. Many RP'ers do want to focus on roleplaying without spending hours on gameplay or Mids min-maxing BEFOREHAND to justify their concept. Just because I haven't spent as much time leveling and investinging in every +psi option in my invul tanker doesn't mean I want to be a meat puppet for your maxed out incarnate mind-controller. Ultimately, if I had a choice, I'd go with narrative over gameplay, but I do enjoy playing through the game and would always respond IC-ly if encountering it in a mission and respond favorably to invites for such encounters. I just may not be adding those events to my caracter's own "meta-story" in the long run if the way the gameplay pans out doesn't mesh with my character. I really enjoyed the balance that City of Roleplay's Community Story Arcs allowed- even if my availability didn't allow for full participation through a whole arc. While the offline forum-RP was more accessible to me, I did get to hop on to team with others in the custom AE arcs, some of the exploration-based missions, and even a community social event that all stitched togeter into a much larger narrative. I haven't seen one running recently- understandable since they obviously take a LOT of work, but I'd strongly endorse trying those when they come up again.

You are each others' "content." If you aren't trying to make good experiences for others, don't expect others to try to make good experiences for you. If you seek to antagonize others, don't be surprised when there are no others to interact with. Same rule applies to PvP'ers

That's a good position to have. The term can be ambiguous or overused, (like "mary-sue") and adopted to mean anything that's beyond your tastes in a particular direction. I have to admit I looked up urban dictionary when the question came up, as I had my own understanding based on how I'd seen it used online, but wasn't sure it was being used correctly, and you can even see there that various posters draw slightly different extremes. Someone very much into the "powerpuff girls" type of superheroing might very well draw the limit of what they see as "edgelord" differently than what someone who's a fan of... say... "Invincible." For what its worth, I wouldn't take what you describe there as "edgelord" at all, but I don't pretend to be the norm. I consider "edgelord" to be a negative player attribute, not a negative player-character attribute. I have no issues RP'ing encounters with a character that's dark and edgy and provoking to the point of dysfunction with my character, but I have little patience for a PLAYER who seems hellbent on doing the same to other players and just shields his behavior from criticism saying he's "roleplaying."

Been there. I prefer playing characters just starting out in hero'ing, but several of these are incarnate-level in-game, so folk that DO take the "level" seriously in their RP have called me out on that, expecting me to be playing a more seasoned veteran at that level. I usually reply with some callout to absurd gameplay like, "She was partying at pocket D, only level 1 and some fire tanker invited her to check out Architect Entertainment. Sounded fun, but she passed out near the door and woke with a killer hangover and 30 missed calls from a 'Mender Ramiel'. WTF, right? She tried to explain that it was all just a mistake and he just said, "I get that a lot" and then sent her off on some mission...." I'd seen so many complaints about godmodding in emote-battle and collaborative stories that when I tried my hand at it, I toned it down a bit too far maybe. I'd still have skillful characters clearly capable of going toe-to-toe with another, but I avoided any finishing moves, left clear openngs in case my counterpart was not ready for this to end, and tried to telegraph the direction I was taking things in case it was truly counter to their hopes. The fighting style Klutz-fu can get painfully absurd if you are unknowingly battling another master of klutz-fu, and it can be abused if you have a godmodder that somehow imagines "winning" an emote fight shows OOC prowess, but I still prefer it over being overpowered.

Intermittent reader here- usually when your sig reminds me to check if Kai's had any diary entries (nudge, nudge :P) Maybe it's just me, but the forum structure and my infrequent visits mean I miss when things are updated. For FBSA, I convinced myself I'd sart with just what I wanted in the character bio, but had to edit down to make it fit- kinda a non-abridged version. Then I figured I'd amend it with the types of rumors or possible hooks that players might pick up without talking to me--we rarely meet someone "blank" - hearing about them at work or social media or a friend of a friend- so I figured this might let people that found it use it to "fast forward" through typical introduction chatter to points of common interest. Then... well, yeah, a rabbit hole, but I'd never imagined updating it with constantly-unfolding character biographies like I see in VirtueVerse. My God, that is a full time job! I'm very interested in your carrd pages. Back when I was a liberty-ite that felt out of place with VirtueVerse, I'd used an old blogger site to store character profiles and the old comic guides, then when the game was down I'd go and tinker on them in a nostalgia haze, not really caring if it was seen Carrd would have been far simpler.

I see a lot of lists of character lists and supergroup listings on the forums, discords, and wiki's out there, and I do notice some overlap, but not a lot. I'm wondering why you prefer to post where you prefer, What makes one more useful than the other to you? Do you cross-post for visibility? Is one just easier or generates more response? Is there a dealbreaker for one? My mains were mostly on Liberty back in the day so I never felt part of the VirtueVerse community- only ever got an account there last year, but felt like I was intruding, in a way. I'd look at the change history and see very little new activity, so maybe this was meant to be reflection of the live game, like paragonwiki? Then I find the "Everlasting" category with over 400 charaters listed and realize I may have thought wrong. I gravitated to the unofficial Homecoming 'verse alternative FBSA when Michiyo put it up less than a year ago. It's got a decent bit of activity in the 30-day history and 240+ articles is good for an unadvertised site, but it's also far less than the one VirtueVerse category. I also like seeing the "recruiting" category (for Supergroups) and "looking for contact" category (for players) but the few folk using it does underscore whether there's enough critical mass using those features to make it sustainable. Is there a similar field in VV? ) My work schedule's made my gaming time unreliable, so I haven't made much use of offline "looking for contact" lists in forums or discords, but I know they exist and am curious in how people have used them, and what their results were. I even see people post characters to various Facebook groups. Part of this is for my own interest- I've had very little time to participate lately, and when I have a chance TO participate, I'd like to understand the community and where different parts of it connect. Part of this is my interest is as a developer on what drives people to adopt one thing over another.

No, actually, my approach and expectation was somewhat similar to yours. I joke that it's the "comic book method" -- so many of those characters had a role and identity from a very specific point in their life, and that part of their young-adulthood (usually) lasted for decades in the comics. There may be tales of them when they're older or younger, but there's often a stage of life that really *defines* them and their role, and that's where my heroes tend to stay. There's room for growth, but not much transformational change. Part of that is my alt-itis and lack of gameplay time, but I can't say I would have progressed them at a life pace that matched reality. I do like to track my encounters with other characters and subtly introduce some character growth attributed to my interactions with them. I've never specifically brought up time, but I've been effectively called out and corrected- either by sideways RP statements or directly in OOC who did not seem condescending, but just intent to get me using "proper" RP etiquette here ( "the timeline of the "official releases" established that time progressed in line with reality" has been mentioned to me more than once before I effectively relegated my favorite (and most lore-tied) characters to a Non-RP server ) . I think that if I'd not tried so hard to tie my characters into game lore events and just left with themes, they'd seem less "stuck in time" than they currently do in these encounters

Playing devil's advocate: Would people know that there was an edit? You may be on page 2 of the thread and edit it to show you're still interested. I may assume that the first page is all old stuff, so I never scroll through to notice the change. On the other hand- re-posting in the forum, while showing that you're active, would create a lot of duplication over time and make it more difficult for a browser to sift through what's there.... That's why I was wondering if some curating or a periodically archived-and-cleaned thread might make it more useful. I don't know. I've struggled as a user with some of these befroe, but never as a planner.

So, there seems to be some contention on what the problem is that we're trying to solve for here, so I'll give it a go. We're a small community spread across many timezones, often playing this game in addition to other games, so our common online time is pretty low, and our interests vary greatly. The in-game options have limitations that may work well for larger communities or a certain critical mass of participants. Yes, we can pop online, hop through common areas and look for people with the RP flag. They may be already engaged in conversation with someone else, they may be doing something other than RP, or they just might not be interested in the type of RP you're into. All these filter down the odds of a successful encounter, and our time online is limited. We have an RP and OOC global. We have a "looking for roleplay" global. These don't seem to have much traffic when I'm on and seem to be used by a VERY small set of the overall RP population. Most of the common "social RP" locations are in spaces that cater to the nightclub/partier that may not reflect the character you want to portray or the environment you'd want to be i Some of us have social anxiety challenges that makes it particularly hard to frequently reach out, only to have to deal with rejection, ignoring, or just the discovery that we're not going to fit in. A sort of offline want-ads MIGHT help with that, as it lets you reach people who weren't online when you were and establish up front what your preferences and interests are, and lets you. It broadens your pool of potential candidates, extends the time that you're visible to other people, and allows filters to common interest groups. However This cannot be "build it and they will come." If it just appears without curating and active participation by a core group of people, it will wither and die. The first-posters will find that they posted, got no response, and never EVER check back. Why would they keep trying? I think that's one reason why GraspingVileTerror tagged so many here- if there isn't a consensus that this makes sense, is wanted, and is used, it's not going to be worth the investment. Community tools, like communities, need some curating as they develop. We should have people ready to engage and build confidence in the tool. This may just split the community. if it's already being done effectively elsewhere, are we just splitting the effort? The platform is important. Different online technologies have different community thresholds for success. if you're running a chat service and I post "hello", it doesn't matter much to me if I don't get a response in minutes, but in a forum, I could come back days later to have a conversation. The same goes for other things in perhaps more subtle ways. Two forums- one with a good search and tagging capability and one with none- will require different levels of participation to make a real community. Using an official forum probably gets us access to the largest audience, but is that the biggest need? There needs to be some structure. This is particularly true of you're repurposing something like a forum, rather than making something designed for this purpose. I've browsed "seeking connections" forums before just to find out that someone that posted HAD found someone and isn't seeking that anymore. I've heard complaints that threads get too large and people back on page 6 of a 12 page thread just never get noticed. Do you re-post? Should you edit old posts? Do you suggest using one of the "like" emotes to denote it's been acknowledged and you're no longer seeking or do you edit it away. Do you plan this as a quarterly thread that gets archived? Monthly? So, the topics I see as relevant to that discussion. do we have sufficient interest in pursuing this? Is it better for us to reinforce something that's already there? Is this the best way to meet most of our expressed concerns? If we are going to do this, where do we do this and what do we use? who will help curate it into a self-sustaining community resource?

Some have mentioned the City of Roleplay's discord channel. I like DIscord for serveral thing, but channels there seemed lesss effective than a full forum. It's hard to search, things quickly flow back into the timeline never to be seen again. If you're trying to find a specific kind of connection, you want a posting method that's more browse-able, search-able, and has more of a persistence. There's also a certain critical mass needed- you need enough people SEEING it and POSTING in it and GETTING RESULTS in it that it feeds itself and encourages reuse. Different technologies have different critical masses. I'm not 100% sure the discord (or the forums here) have enough critical mass to keep it flowing without a very concerted effort by the community to shepherd it along in the early days. Personally, I've been a fan of virtueverse and our FBSA equivalent for a long time. Yes, it's mostly used for character profiles of sorts, but a little bit of tagging would make it a great community finder- looking for a supergroup? An archnemesis? A Romantic Interest? A romantic RIVAL? Looking for a random interaction, but your character has a bunch of potential 'hooks' in their story? That method gets past the problem of a post disappearing into history or in page 3 of a 400 page thread or having people find a months-old thread. Pick the category, see the results. No longer interested in finding a character's rival, remove the category. Unfortunately, the wiki has far fewer people using it than the forums, so reaching a useful critical mass and recruiting more participants would be an even bigger challenge. The wiki-editing process tends to be a love-hate system, its lack of structure can be daunting, and the anxiety of trying something new and not looking foolish can be rather high.