chase

hope the event went well. Incredible bar

some work issues arose over the weekend- already on track for a 80+ hr week. Trying to un-numb my mind with a post, but taking longer than expected. sorry

Pity poor Tabby and Flambeaux's "probation / rehabilitation officer." Sure, there was never much chance of getting Flambeaux back on the straight-n-narrow, but the headaches the lady's going to have over all this... almost inspires its own webcomic.

Q regarding Kallisti Green: 1) is her stealth mode just stealthiness, something biological like a full-on chameleon skin, or predator-style stealthing. 2) She seems like she'd be good at staying out of the public eye. Is she a publicly-known member of the Kallistiverse or at least known to rabid fanbois (who may or may not be misusing the police databases to keep up with details) or would their first thought be more like "Kallisti Gold in cosplay"

Although I haven't created the characters in-game, they're both in standard PPD blue/whites. In my mind's eye, Ito had a lot of the characteristics of Officer Drew Wu of grimm- who's Filipino, so so much for ethnic accuracy in my casting. Keegan lacks a direct reference. Part a college friend, parts Esposito and Ryan from Castle. Anyone here can feel free to use/abuse/neglect them as they see fit, just keep them alive.

Two posts after the long delay. Sorry for the wall of text. Officers Ito and Keegan are bit characters- two "ground level POV" characters I like using for introducing my heroes n heroines. Their story with Smokin Mira should be on the boards soon.TM I got on a roll with the banter- much farther than I'd intended.

Meanwhile, in Kallisti Lobby. Thanks for coming with me, Ito. I really wanted to do this for Mira, but I've never really had to hunt for one myself." "Not a problem, Keegan. Just... level with me. The two of you aren't ...dating, are you?" PPD Officers Ito and Keegan had only been partners for a few months, but it hadn't taken long for the 4-year vetern Ito to learn how to read Keegan. The rookie with the irish name and latino features embodied all the outgoing, brash, and overconfident machismo stereotypes from both lines of heritage and wore them proudly. Even a right arm immobilized in a sling and a green-hued slowly-healing bruise over half his face didn't slow him down. "What? No. NO! not... I mean, sure, there's some chemistry there... but we don't use the job as a personal dating service. Right?" "Because you two seemed to really hit it off..." "Dude, it wasn't like that, it was...." one read of Ito's face and Keegan knew he wasn't convinced, "Ok, it WAS like that, I mean, she's so hot, and even though she was getting into you, I figured with your furry thing you wouldn't mind if I worked a little Keegan charm and... then we started talkin and... well, she knew my great grandmother, Ito. Like- they played together as kids- my great nana! I mean, I know she's like 20 in her mind, but she's like... 90... and I... I don't know how to feel about that." "The perils of dating supers," Ito kept up the cool veteran act even on this topic despite his own dating life being non-existant (supers or otherwise) "... time travel/stasis/suspended animation.... speaking of time travel- let's go back about twenty seconds. My *furry* thing?" "Yeah, your furry thing. Everyone in the precinct knows you crush on the critter capes." "I do not ha-- what do you mean *everyone knows*?" "It's cool. I mean, it was the first thing that they told me about you- that you start actin up, trying to impress them the moment they show up. It's like me and..." "Smokin' Mira? Bewilder? Lady Tyche? Glimmerin? Reyana Frost? Kallisti Gold?" "Exactly- except I haven't met Kallisti Gold- or any of the rest of the Kallistiverse -and probably never will- but if I did... man," Keegan scanned the lobby with a hopeful look, " No chance of that happening, I guess." "Stop pretending you don't know that they moved into the penthouse here." "That obvious?" "I kinda figured you knew when you asked about the penthouse space for Mira. No way she could afford that." He knew before that- ever since the squad chatter had remarked on the limo unloading, he'd been expecting something from Keegan- a lunch break nearby, maybe a stop at the community college for some paperwork, a trumped up visit to Crey tower... something. "Ok, yeah, I just thought it'd be neat to meet them. From a professional standpoint." "Professional like the Gold pinups in your locker? Like the way you volunteered overtime on NINE different crowd control watches because she might be there? Like how we went twelve blocks out of our patrol range when that APB came up? Dude, you'd probably trip over yourself and forget how to speak if you ran into them." That went too far. Although neither of them were deluded to think imagine they'd have much chance with a super, you never called them out on it. Casting stones in glass houses and all that... "Well, better than posting fan-fic online the first time one shows the slightest interest in you..." Ito had one of those faces that rarely showed any emotion, but the tips of his ears flushed when he was embarrassed. "What?" "Callie, the Calico cat? Tabby / Callie, both cat markings. First half of it read like your police report with our first run-in with Tabby. Second half and all the other posts... I'm pretty sure that there was some creative license there beyond just the name and the fur pattern. " There was no denying it. "Does Tabby know?" "She spent enough time on that forum when I pulled guard detail- opposition research, she called it, but we never spoke much. She and RT hit it off. Me- she just looks at me like the guy who glue grenaded her to the wall." "First impressions are a bitch... but fan-fic aside, my relationship with Tabitha is purely professional. The PPD is not a dating service, remember?" Lee started heading for the exit. Fast. He wanted to edit his latest entries before there was any chance it could get tied back to him by anyone else. "So you're not interested at all?" "She's made it clear that she's not interested in me. I'm not dwelling on it." As they passed the security office, a great deal of chatter caught their attention. "Something's going on. Outside." Keegan had his good hand on a small baton that he'd hidden in his sling. After their last "super" run-in, he certainly wasn't ready for another fight. He reconsidered, sliding the baton back into the sling, "Maybe we can scout it out for them- maybe from a Penthouse?" Ito was just happy for the distraction. "Nice try. Let's go." The distraction didn't last as Keegan jumped immediately back, "You're telling me that if she showed up right here, right now, and said, "Let's do it?' You'd let the chance pass by?" "Never gonna happen. About as likely as you and the Kallisti gir..." "Sekkusu shimashou!" Ito was sure he'd just imagined that until Keegan spoke up, "Dude. That sounded like Tabby?... speaking Japanese? Do you know what she said?" Ito couldn't answer. His ears had gone crimson red. Keegan took one last look at the elevators before heading outside. He wasn't sure why, but it seemed like the odds were in everyones' favor today.

When you get the muse, it's tough to focus on other things. Looking forward to seeing the finished work.

Normally the kinetic "pop" from the mana blast was mostly directed outward. A little good footing to brace herself, and Tabitha would be fine. Normally, she hasn't dug her claws into her palms and added to blood to the enchantment. Normally, she didn't have flopping sleeves interweave with the spell energy. Normally, she wasn't compromising her footing so badly by taking an ever-widening-squat-stance trying to hold her soaking wet thirty-sizes-too-large jeans from sliding further down her thighs. *What am I thinking? Nothing ever goes "normall" with me. Typically, things don't go normally.* So, in a very typical way, things went the Tabby way. She didn't have to worry about the sleeves any more, as the energy surge did a good job of making the hoodie more of a muscle-shirt/skirt. The shockwave also blasted off the claw-caps on all her fingertips, save one thumb, where it was canted back in a grimacing position, had it been a real finger. She'd been flung back HARD and fast, landing on her backside on something hard, but not hard enough to be the ground. Stunned, she sat there a bit gape-mouthed as her sunglasses- still tangled in her hair- managed to land (a little off-kilter) on her face. She really wasn't liking this Cthubuki chick, or whatever that mask thingie is. Probably doesn't even know Japanese... she thought about shouting it out again, but couldn't form the words.

No worries. RL dumped a big lump of mess on my doorstep at the moment. been trying to dig out.

Actually, I think it could work rather well to not have psi defense. You're a psi-sensitive. that doesn't mean you're a master at all things psionic. It means that you're sensitive enough to perceive psi energies, and through that perception, mold it into focused attacks. Your defense set ( Energy aura ) is largely a "defense" set, so this reflects the manifestation of your psi powers' reading of the mental landscape. You detect the intent to pull a trigger before it's pulled and know whether a punch IS a feint or the real attack. You may even be offensively defensive- using your psi influence to affect accuracy or combat decision making in your foes. Your T9 "Overload" power reflects the moment you really reach "combat zen" - fully cognizant of every hint of psi activity around you, and using it all to your fullest. Every nuance, no matter how small is being registered. You're so in-tune with the slightest variation in the psi environment around you that when something massive BLASTS into the psi-space, it can overwhem your psi senses. It's like a firecracker set off under your seat during the scariest part of a movie. No matter how prepared you are for the jumpscare, you're gonna go FLYING. It could be a natural limitation of your powers or you could make it caused by your training- maybe you'd trained against non-psi's in combat your whole life. Maybe your pursuit for the various powers/IO sets with Psi defenses reflect your continued training to plug this hole, however so slowly...

In mine, I had one "speak" key that would say whatever was queued up and then load the next data file, either the next line in that scenario or, when the scenario was over, skip to the next in that "list" I had 3 keybinds that managed the lists. Clicking one of them would set the "speak" key to the next scenario and send a message to me in chat (an error message, IIRC) with the name of the scenario I was on. Each keybind managed about a dozen different scenarios based on theme (downtime, battle banter, and the soldiers attempting to flirt). I just had to pick the right scenario and then hit the speak keybind through all the chatter and emotes. So I'd be in pocket D, doing something with my soldiers over at the bar. "Shut up guys. Here she comes. Don't blow it for me." (turns to the approaching character) "Umm.. Hi." (the soldiers behind him making funny emotes, flexes, etc) (they all jump to 'at ease' as the main speaker looks around nervously) "Uh anyway... (back to the bad pickup line)" (back to funny emotes) (rinse repeat. funny lame attempt at a pickup line screwed up by his squaddies). (ends with /grief emote for main speaker, celebrate emotes for everyone else) similarly, a trigger to hold up "9" scorecards ... except for one guy who gets his upside down (6)... as everyone tries to discreetly get his attention to change it. At one point, I wanted to get them to do a Top Gun "you lost that loving feeling" homage, but it created such a wall of spam, I went back to the drawing board. Then the game ended. ... oh, and there was one guy- one of the facemask guys- that never played along and just stood slighly separate from the rest at the bar doing gruff deadpan commentary on the others' antics.

Preference toward good, but Time, mostly. I have many favorites I want to revisit and new things to create and the majority of them trend blue. Most of my redside characters were the kind of "almost hero" characters. They were either renegades "fighting the good fight" against overwhelming odds villainside or "pretty good" people with one life choice/circumstance that put them on the wrong side of the law. Like several noted here, the "villainous" tone of some of the missions made the me hold my nose through the story or retcon it away in various ways, but that doesn't keep me from redside. Time does. I don't powerlevel. I don't AE except for good stories to experience. I mostly duo with my wife, so no big-team XP. I've been playing since this opened and just finally got my main to incarnate. I do alt alot, so eventually I'll be on redside, but since I duo mostly, that won't change much for those not finding others to team with.

1) Welcome to Hyperman! 2) Lost a post due to unfamiliarity with the new forum. Regarding the next step at the building entrance, but Get the spell backfire on Tabby up. I can't let a chance go for making her life hell. QUESTION: Alarms if this place is equipped to counter folk like Sky Raiders involvement, then that boom's gonna alert someone. would this be just to staff, or (given the residents) alert the residents in some less-obtrusive way. I mean- this is Paragon CIty. If every time a baddie blew up something on the street resulted in an alarm, everyone would be sleep-deprived neurotic madme... ah, it all makes sense. Possibly some new "bit players" (recurring supporting cast)

Oh! you just reminded me- I gotta find my backups!* My merc mastermind: I made a whole series of banter for my soldiers hotkey-tied to my numpad. I used to have the solders heckle one another (and the mastermind) mid-battle or post-battle- some one-liners, some entire chains of dialogue. Some of them are too 4th wall breaking to be considered RP, like when they chatter among themselves that their boss always gets reckless with them when their recharge timer's done, or arguing over who should "pull." *and reroll my merc mastermind.

Looking for options that keep the groups engaged and/or pull groups together. - "Running away" would be an option for T at this point- though she's got few places to go. That's possible, and could let us 'time jump' to other scenes others may want. - What's the way to access the building? Keycard/DI could be melted, having her need to randomly buzz someone anyone (...penthouse?) to get inside. Of couse, building security might have issues with her pursuers. - Her (mostly) accidental act of vandalism could have her avoiding law-enforcement pursuit, along with anyone else who wants to avoid attention of the law (...the enemy of my enemy) eventually finding common shelter elsewhere. - getting detained in the back of a PPD van while they "sort this mess out" would similarly work, but don't know how other parties looped up in that confusion would want to play out. Thoughts? Comments? Smart Remarks? Any lurkers looking for a way to write themselves in? Send out hooks! I swear Tabby won't bite.

I'd been thinking about this some more, and thought I'd break this apart into "methods" vs "styles" of roleplaying, as I usually see them. Method involves how the medium affects play, whereas "style" involves the content (pg-13 drama, mature, erp, dark, comedy, romantic, adversarial). Regarding methods, I've noticed: - Forum Roleplay- I most liken to a collaborative-writing effort. It's generally slow-paced, as you try to give time for people on different schedules to participate, but I find it's great fun- and a good thinking exercise, as you often get people moving in directions you don't expect or focusing on something you didn't expect them to focus on in your last posts. It's a great challenge. - Discord/Chat Roleplay- These tend to be much closer to in-game chat roleplay- faster pace of interaction, much smaller posts of text. Unlike the game, you have no visual cues, so descriptive actions matter. In a lot of ways, it's like the "chat with your characters standing there" roleplay someone mentioned earlier, just with the game client removed. I actually prefer THAT over the "chat with your characters standing there" because without the game client, you're freed to express your characters powers, stories, and experiences in so many different ways where the client would limit you. New powers open up. New interactions. Yes, you can do this in-game chat, but the visual cues in the game put another level of "suspension of disbelief" in the way that's gone if you're JUST dealing in chat. -In-Game Social Roleplay- I covered the text-only in-game chat above. This is different in that you're trying to NOT have my character just stand there. We're attempting to include emotes, navigation through the screen, and environmental cues to breathe some life into those 3d models. You don't need to describe walking over to the bar if you just walk over to the bar, obviously. You may wish to add text describing the mood/tone/style of the actions- particularly if the visual cues weren't that telling. I'm SOO out of practice with this. Once upon a time, I had character-specific macros that would both execute an emote and provide some character-specific descriptor text. Now I barely remember the emotes... or where to position a character for a specific "sit" emote to work with the furniture. I tend to get so slow in the interaction as I'm trying to find HOW I want to interact that it gets a bit frustrating- like I'm a terrible actor. Also, I've been told that to avoid RP griefers, many people avoid using the emotes and just stay in private chat- regardless of whether the topic is mature or better-left private. Just emoting without visible text can be enough to draw the ire of RP griefers, so emoting goes away too. I find this SO disappointing, as there's so much atmosphere that could be added to the game with small groups of public performances from the RP community. It also limits the ability for other RP'ers to overhear and join in when it would be appropriate to do so... I totally understand the reason- it's just disappointing. -In-Mission "Quick" Roleplay- These are simple acts of expression during lulls in the mission. Lines you say in-character, emotes you may make without having to chain things together into full experiences, walking over to examine the body (before it fades away) and commenting on it, etc. They're fun, flavorful elements, but I usually make sure that everyone wants them. Many achievement groups just want to steamroll through a mission and these serve as a distraction. -Curated Mission Roleplay- Back in the day, this was a mix of regular mission fights being chained together by the team leader to create a story that's substituted. They line up a fight against the council for Striga, but it's not for taking down the Maestro (as the mission says), but to free a capture hero. This mixes in-game and in-mission quick roleplay with greater pauses in the play and longer stretches of self-expression. I haven't experienced it, but I've heard that AE really let this develop even more- the team leader creates the arcs that he wants to use for that particular narrative, then plays along through the arcs with the players. You get better control over the maps, pacing, and the timing at how they're strung along.

Yeah, I left room to interpret / react to the arc of water and see where it goes. Semi-related topic: saw the trailer for "cats" and I think it changed my perception of Tabby's default (non-) costume :P

Ok, so, Tabby's spells never go good for her, but she's had a bad day, so I'm putting this up to suggestions: There are varying degrees of how bad this can go for this poor catg... feliform female. level 0: goes relatively positively for Tabby. the kinetic blast explodes a few feet from her hands. Not powerful enough to damage the fountain, but good enough to send a blast wave of water in an arc away from her and toward the camerafolk. level 1: as above, but the sleeves of her hoodie draw a good bit of the energy, practically atomizing in the blast, too. level 2: as above but the blast really shreds all her hoodie. level 3: as above, but the shockwave knocks her back onto her butt... quite literally outta those baggy pants. level 4: who would she land on? Keep in mind that her "battlecry" here is a bad translation of "f** you!" so for any viewers knowing japanese, in the worst case scenario, they'd see her shout "let's have sex!", detonate herself out of her clothes, and tackle somebody nearby. A bit much. Tabby hates the pocket-d catgirls that validate all the catgirl stereotypes, but she can be her own worst enemy sometimes...

Under the soggy sleeves, Tabby's fists clenched. She just wanted to crawl into a corner and die. Everything since coming to the city had gone so wrong. She was supposed to have come here, found some expert to reverse her spell foul-up, go to college, pay off her debt to society. basic stuff. Her plans to keep a low profile blew away with the viral videos. Her first apartment, demolished. Her secluded community service job, revoked. Her student loans- still not approved, and not a damn person has been able to help her clean up her friggin transformation mess! She'd weathered it all- sometimes with a good cry or shout into a pillow or punching a wall- but she took it all in stride. But nobody mocks her to her face- especially some bitch calling her a "catgirl." She stopped and turned slowly, her grip tightened to the point that several claw caps popped off, allowing her claws to dig into her palms, drawing blood. The energies started forming even before she started the gestures- the traces of blood mixing, enhancing, and perhaps corrupting the spell. she pulled back her sleeves and traced the spell. *This is gonna work this time. I know it is.* Tabby had studied this spell several times- she loved seeing the arcane blasts of energy on heroTube. Bright energy arcing from the caster, unerringly homing in on their targets. It was ... well... magical. Unfortunately, all her attempts failed- the energy formed easily enough but kinda just popped as they left her hands. This one was different, though. It was gonna work. It had to. She'd intended to aim for the phone, bump it out of her hands or something harmless, but the energy here was too much. She worked frantically to contain it, to siphon energy off, but it just kept growing. Her sleeves fell back over her hands and were now flopping along with the gestures and making it tougher to fine-tune the spell. *I'm gonna get in trouble for this. This is assault. I can't be shooting this at her* *no. There's no backing down now.* *What the?* The Cthubuki bitch hadn't mentioned that! She diverted all her built-up rage into repeating her Japanese F-phrase, " Sekkusu shimashou!" and released the spell after the drone. It burst a few feet from her hands, nowhere near the drone, but precariously close to the fountain, where the blast of kinetic energy turned the pool of water into a large airborne arc in the directions of both her unwanted videographer and the unknown photographer.

Not sure if this is what you intended, but I prefer to avoid "cosmic level" topics, or "global disaster" stories and go with the more personal arcs. In comics-terms, I got bored by galacticus attacks and engaged when it was just the x-men goofing off picnicking and playing ball between missions. I like drama, but not overwhelming gloom or angst. I accent it with humor in a way that can be off-putting to those that like to keep it dark. My favorite balance is closer to a good late-season episode of MASH- able to cover some somber topics and great character development, but with the drama punctuated by levity.

more!

oh my. keep em rolling :D

Hah. beautiful. still mulling over next post. I don't really have a direction for Tabby, but I wanted to start out with the foundation that self-image issues are Tabby's kryptonite. Hiding who she is via the cumbersome disguise hinders her agility (they really do "rub the cat the wrong way") and keeps her off-focus. Using her powers to the fullest extent is similarly limited by the fact that they don't work like she wants them to work. She ignores that they're still useful. (again: Kinetic/Will stalker identifying as a Energy/SR sentinel) I intend at some point (maybe a nighttime run across rooftops) to bring out that other aspect, but a natural (non-scandalous) opportunity to shed the clothes hasn't presented itself. Yes, "getting the catgirl out of her clothes so real action can begin" again fit the pocket-d-induced catgirl stereotype. Totally unintentional, I swear. In my defense, I hear it happens much faster in the stereotype.

To be clear here, I'm very much with you in my RP style, but I do want to defend the "Lore" RP'er that I've come to know. They're expressing their preference in a more strict adherence with the "Lore." They would prefer to keep operating within the narrative and story that the devs provided. Adding to that story is natural, and we all do it by the nature of being a roleplayer, but they try to tie in with what's provided first and foremost and distortions of the lore for personal stories is frowned upon. That may sound a little conceited or elitist, but note that they're not making judgement calls on the rest of us. They're not saying our RP is "bad" - they're saying they prefer Lore-centric RP, are seeking other Lore-centric, and asking that you accept that interest. Just like we wouldn't force mature RP on people not interested in the subject, we shouldn't think we're justified in forcing less-lore-y RP on these players. Now, that said, a lot of Lore RP'ers may try to "correct" a less lore-centric character by mentioning something in the lore that contradicts it. This can certainly seem like someone's trying to impose Lore-based RP on non-lore-centric RP'ers, and sometimes it is. However most lore folk know and understand that the game's rich backstory is scattered across so many sources that details can often be missed, so they share those corrections among themselves when this comes up. Among other lore'ers, this helps them learn and adapt and make characters that more accurately reflect the lore (something they value). Because of this, don't jump to conclusions that a lore-centric player is "correcting" you as negative just because they bring up odd trivia that contradicts what you do- oftentimes it's intended as a constructive invitation to engage further, not an attempt to put you down. Consider it in that context first. If they eventually turn out to be total asses, then bring out the heavy artillery.