Dear Diary: The Scrapbook of a Sorcerer's Apprentice

[Coyotedancer]

((OOC: I've found myself concentrating more and more on Kaikara as a character lately, and as a result the majority of the images I've captured seem to be focused on her as well. While I'm still going to keep my City Scrapbook thread in General Discussion for other screens, I thought it might be fun to have a specific IC picture thread here, in the Roleplay section, specifically for Kai. A place where she could post her "selfies" and talk about her friends and their adventures.

 

 Kai is the young, mortal apprentice of a "semi-reformed" Oranbegan Death Mage named Tavaris. She's the orphaned daughter of a pair of former Midnighters. She loves dance music, pizza and Nick's ChiliWeenies. She's an expert at getting into trouble... and though she's good-natured and good-hearted, she has a strong attachment to both her teacher and his people. She has no problem helping a heroic friend save the world from marauding demons in in the morning, and then going home to study necromancy with the ancient, body-snatching ghosts who created the rituals for summoning those monsters the same afternoon.

 

 In spite of her magic, and her history and her guardian, and the general weirdness of her life she is... for the most part, anyway...like any other teenager.))

 

===================================================

 

Dear Diary,

 

Okay. So, I've never really tried to keep a diary before, but Tav says I've been spending too much time on my phone and not enough time with my books and that I need to start "keeping a record of my reflections".

 

I think he thinks that I'm going to write about my necromancy lessons with him, and my homework from Master Maros and all the ancient history that Mistress Mesanes has been telling me about. I really don't NEED to put that in a diary, though. I took notes on all of it already and if I forget anything, I can always sneak back into Master Arcanus' library or the Midnighters' and find a book about it. (Okay. Yeah. Percy ratted me out about sneaking in to read the Midnighters' books. But Tommy told them who my mom was, and the librarian just gave me a lecture about "appropriate subjects" and "responsible magic" and "asking permission before I copied dangerous spells". It's not like they can really stop me from getting in or anything. <_<)

 

I think I'd rather write about fun stuff... Like going back to the city to borrow some ritual components for Psimon. He's an interesting  person, and a lot less creepy than that Darrin Wade guy. (I didn't like him at all when we met. I told Master Theo about him, and he laughed and said I was "a good judge of character". I guess he didn't like Wade either.)

 

 

Some of the people I met in the city didn't know me, and thought I was an escaped sacrifice or something. I... might have had to knock them out of their bodies for a little while. I don't think I really hurt them, but I'm NOT going to be some demon's lunch. >_<

 

I do kind-of wonder what Psimon's going to do with six pounds of frog wort and a fire drake's tongue, though. I've never seen a headache curative that used either one of those smelly things. Yuck!

 

-k

 

===================================================

 

Hi Diary!

 

It's been a really, really, really busy week...

 

I had one of my books stolen yesterday by a big guy with a television on his head, and I had to chase him down into the sewers to get it back. (EUWH!) My Tome of Hequat smells awful now. The cleaning cantrip hasn't helped at all, so I'm going to try Lysol next. Where magic fails, maybe chemistry can succeed.

 

Then Master Maros sent me to find this weird fish-guy in this HUGE cave and I found something sort of strange. The cave had teeth. I've never seen a cave with teeth before, so I stopped to take a picture. That was right before some big guys made mostly of metal showed up and tried to kill me.

 

 

I told Master Maros that he should have warned me about the metal guys before I left, but he just shook his head and told me that I wasn't supposed to know about them, and knowing would have ruined... something. I don't know. I'm supposed to be learning about causality and the fluid nature of time from him, but sometimes I just don't get what he's talking about. Tav says that's okay. Sometimes he doesn't get it, either.

 

-k

 

===================================================

 

Diary, I am in *such* trouble...

 

Tried to prank some Luddites.

Almost got the binding wards around Bat'zhul broken.

Dr. Aeon was really, really sore about it.

I'm grounded.

This SUCKS.

 

PS: I did meet a really cute guy, though.

I wonder if he likes pizza?

 

-k

 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary,

 

Things have gotten pretty strange around here...

 

Tav went off to "Do Something About The Wailer Problem Once and For All" yesterday with Mr. Hardcase, leaving me with a list of chores that I finished in about five minutes thanks to the favor those little hellfire sprites owed me after I unbound them from that uptight summoner with the whip and the hot-pants. (Like, seriously. What was with that outfit?! Her butt was WAY too big to get away with that...)

 

Just hanging around the Sanctum was boring, so I decided to go help one of the people I talk to on the broadcast channel. (Her name's Black Sheep, and she really is a sheep-person! Like, with wool and horns and everything.) Kitsunebi came along, too. So did that cute guy I told you about. (His name's Bio Rogue, but Kit calls him Blue.)

When we got to the place BlackSheep wanted to check out, it turned out to be full of government agents with guns... Who all shot at us! When we hadn't even done anything! (I don't feel bad about knocking them sideways. They shouldn't have shot at us. >_< )

 

And then we found the room full of Prison Zombies.

 

 

There were HORDES of those guys. Dozens of them, all rampaging around, trying to get out. We didn't let them, of course. Everybody knows you can't just let zombies run loose. They bite people, who turn into more zombies, who bite more people and the next thing you know you're in some Resident Evil movie... Sheep wouldn't let Kit burn them, so I'm not sure how well we really did at getting rid of the problem, but at least Paragon probably isn't going to end up looking like Raccoon City.

That wasn't the seriously bizarre part though...

 

The seriously bizarre part was what happened to our phones. We ended up getting some kind of virus... or app... or something. It says it's a "personal assistant" called MiL0. I can't delete it. And... it's taking pictures. Of me. And some creepy, shadowy thing.

 

I think I'm going to stay in the Sanctum until Tav gets home. THINGS can't follow me here.

 

-k

 

=====================================================

 

Dear Diary-

Yeah. Okay. I'm spooked.

 

That creepy, shadow-thing from the phone app? It called me.

 

It called B, too, but it seems like it wasn't as creepy to him. He says she's a she, and she says she needs us to help her. She wants to be "real".

 

I think she's maybe a spirit of some kind, like a Dark Servant. Master Theo seems to think so, too. I'm really trying not to be afraid of whatever she is, but something feels kind of weird here. Tav always tells me to trust my instincts about people... Or spirits who want to be thought of as people... But I don't know. I want to be fair, and not jump to any wrong conclusions. But I've read too many necromancy books and listened to too many of Master Tarsis' stories.

 

-k

 

=====================================================

 

Hello Diary-

 

She's definitely a she, and she looks like a wolf-person with a skull face and a straight-jacket. She showed herself to me and B and some other friends today, when we went to Kings Row to bust up some Skulls and their drug ring.... She says she wants to be good, and to protect, because that's what *we* do. And she apologized for spooking me. And she went home with B.

 

He says he's going to sneak her into his dorm and claim she's a new exchange student. XD

 

She needed a name, so we picked Milo.

She seemed to like that.

 

-k

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

 

Wow, Diary. Today has been busy...

I was introduced to a person named Scirocco this morning. I like him, even though he spends a lot of time with those Mu guys. He seems nicer than most of the Arachnos people I've met, though also sort of sad for some reason. I'm going to be his intern for the summer. Arbiter Daos wants me to spy on him, but I don't think I will. I *don't* like Arbiter Daos very much.

 

I also went to help B with something that was really worrying him... There was a sorceress beyond the veil, in a place called the Night Ward, who was trying to let something awful out of its prison. Hyperboria (who's a friend of our friend MindWyrm) and I went with him to deal with her and stop the ritual.

 

We went to a thing called the Eternal Prison, where a bunch of ghostly knights were supposed to be standing guard but really weren't doing their jobs.

 

 

The prison was one of the strangest places I've ever been. It was dark, and covered in warding runes and made completely of binding magic. I really wonder what Tav's friend Sarhadi would have thought about it. She made the wards that seal the Sanctum, so maybe she would have wanted to stay and look at everything.

 

We were too busy disincorporating the knights to really figure out how the prison's magic worked.

 

 

They'll reform eventually... That's what ghosts do when you disincorporate them on the other side of the veil... But it'll take them awhile and by then maybe the good knight who was with us (I liked him. His name was Bedwyr.) will have fixed the problems with the place and the rest of the knights.

 

 

I'm glad I wasn't in there alone, though. I think I get why B didn't want to go in there by himself, either. 

 

After that, we had to disincorporate a lot of Talons and we went to an auction! Some Warrior guy named after a Greek sailor was trying to sell off a book we needed to stop the sorceress. I was kind of surprised to see Master Vermis there, but I think that maybe that book was one of the ones missing from his library. (He really, really hates it when people take books out of his library...)

 

Things sort of got crazy, so I stayed with him. I'm only an apprentice, after all, so I just kept things from getting close while he covered everybody and their Ancestor Spirits with tentacles...

 

 

We borrowed the book for awhile, used it to stop the sorceress and sort-of saved the world. Then I returned it to the library.

 

B seemed happy that we won.

I gave him my phone number. ^_^

 

-k 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

Today was pretty busy, too... but I didn't have to help save the world.

(Tav says that sometimes it really seems like *somebody* has to go out and do that every single day, but today it wasn't me.)

 

I did a couple more errands for Scirocco instead. I met that polite Mu guy again. (The one who just about got eaten by wailers last week-) At least, I *think* it was the same polite Mu guy. It's really hard to tell with those helmets, and the outfits that are all just alike and them not using their names and all.

 

He helped me kick a genie named Serafina's butt.

 

 

I had to keep reminding him to watch where he was throwing that red lightening, though. (I don't think he's as good at controlling those spells as he thinks he is. My scarf got a little singed and now it smells like ozone.)

 

After that, I had to go find some stuff that had been stolen by a bunch of guys who looked like they were on their way to marching band practice. Only they had machine guns instead of tubas. And they had a robot clone of me.

 

 

That was weird.

I want to know how they made a robot that could do magic.

Or maybe it was fake magic, like their robot was a fake clone? I don't know...

 

-k

 

==============================================================

 

Dear Diary-

 

So, today I was just going to spend some time in the Temple, looking through the book-chests. Aly found a copy of a really, really, seriously bad translation of the apprentice's codex called The Book of Shadows in her school's library, but I thought it would be better for her to read the original if she wants to learn ANYTHING about proper Dark magic. So, I was going to ask Mistress Amtes if we could borrow the first volume of the Obsidian Librum instead. If I could've found it. (There are WAY too many chests that don't say what's inside them-)

 

I got interrupted by Edratarees and his friend Rob before I could, though. They came running into the Library, complaining about whips and demons and losing some artifact called the Seeds of Destruction and how their boss was going to turn them into earthworms for screwing everything up.

 

 

Edratarees and Rob are the Guardians of the Vaults Obscura. They're *always* losing things to stray demons, or Longbow incursions or rampaging heroes... So, they kind-of do this A LOT.

 

Mistress Amtes was busy rewriting a summoning ritual, so she asked if I could go help them and "return blessed silence to these halls"... I said okay. It didn't sound like it would be *too* hard to find.

 

That's when I ran into the chick with the hot-pants again. (I think one of her demons must have tried eating the Seeds or something, because they were right there, too.) Of course, she just took off instead of sticking around to help me explain to the Low Chanter why the Vault was a wreck and his stuff was scattered all over the place. She's rude AND a fashion victim. >_<

 

-k

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Hi Diary!

 

I was out picking up some paperwork for Scirocco, and ran into HOT-PANTS CHICK again. (Her name is really Desdemona, but with that outfit it's hard to think of her as anything but Captain Hot-pants.)

 

She was in the same office park, looking for some friend of hers... Her girl-friend, I guess... that had gotten into it with an Arachnos goon-squad. I don't know why I agreed to help her. After she ran off and left me to deal with her mess at the Temple yesterday, I *should * have just told her to go kiss a wailer... But I didn't. I had to be "nice". Pfffft.

 

 

Anyway, we found her friend (Her name was Overdrive), and had to beat up some guy named Hollowpoint, who just wouldn't shut up about how doomed we all were... And then we had to beat up ANOTHER guy named Mangle (He was nuts. 'Ran right up to the big demon and just about got his face bitten off before we even saw him-)… And as we were  leaving Des and Overdrive BOTH told me that I ought to come with them back to Paragon City, because I "would make a pretty good hero".

 

I am NOT moving to Paragon.

And I'm not going to be a hero.

I like living here.

 

-k

 

PS: Kit didn't believe me when I said Desdemona's butt was too big for that outfit she wears. He wanted proof.

 

 

So... Proof of Big Buttness, fire-boy!

 

==============================================================

 

Diary, did you know that Rikti Monkeys smell like boiled cabbage?

Because they do...

 

Those freaky aliens tried to invade Pork Oakes last night. I went with Master Theo to help kick their butts.

 

 

They may be hard for my magic to hit sometimes, but they didn't do well against all those zombies. And ninjas. And robots.

I wonder if there were any clones in there?

 

Also, going to meet B for pizza this afternoon. That'll be fun. ^_^

I... might not have told Tav about that. He still thinks heroes are reckless.

 

-k 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

 

Dear Diary-

Wow. The D is a pretty strange place... When I got there, there was some kind of fashion show going on. Lots and lots and LOTS of people in all kinds of crazy outfits... My favorites were a lady called Sea Hag (Who had snakes for hair!), a big, black werewolf named Black Spiral Dancer and this really sweet extradimensional horror from Beyond. (He didn't have a head at all.) My friend MindWyrm was there, too.

 

I had just dressed in my new black coat and dress, so I didn't enter. Even my armor wouldn't have been fancy enough for a line-up like THAT!

None of my pictures came out, though. They were all too dark. 😞

 

((Player's Note: Sorry guys. I did try to get some screens of the Friday costume contest, but they ended up too dark to really show off everyone's costumes or to do the winners justice. There were some exceptional ones there, though. I recommend watching the recorded stream if you weren't there in person to check it out.))

 

B and Aly and Ve showed up after the fashion show was over. There was pizza and we went out to the lodge, because it was quieter than the club.

 

 

I got a silver medal on the big ski skope, even though I almost ran into a snowbeast. ^_^

 

I didn't stay there as long as the others did. I had a lot of homework to do and it was crowded and... yeah.

I probably should have stuck around, though. It sounds like B had kind-of a hard time and Kit was being a pain.

 

-k

 

===========================================

 

Dear Diary-

 

Edratarees is cursed. Or maybe the Vault is cursed? I don't know... But there has GOT to be a curse there somewhere. Nobody has luck that bad without the involvement of metaphysical entanglements of some kind. Master Maros taught me all about that. 

 

This time he lost an artifact called the Taper of Frozen Flame. A bunch of Longbow goons and some person named Polar Shift snuck in while he and Rob were out getting coffee. (They have to go all the way to Nerva for that. One of Mistress Nomia's hoarfrosts ate their Keurig.)

 

 

I said I would help them get it back, but I almost got my butt frozen off doing it. <_<

 

-k

 

====================================================

 

Diary! I think I know where all the clones come from!

 

I was running another errand for Scirocco, but ended up going through the wrong big, noisy portal-thing. Instead of going to Aeon City I ended up in Praetoria City. (I am *never* going to ask Vernon for directions ever again. >_< )

 

The clones must all come from Praetoria, because I found a lab full of them.

 

 

Or... they did all come from there, anyway.

That place is pretty messed up now. I don't think they can make any more.

 

And I have *got* to tell Feral about all the gigantic tentacles...

 

 

SOOOO many giant tentacles.

 

-k

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

There are some really weird people in Grandville...

 

That discount freight company that Dean talked Tav into hiring misdelivered a whole order of wailers, so I had to go out and find them before somebody opened the box by mistake. (Those guys are a SERIOUS pain to catch again if they get out. >_<) The address turned out to be an abandoned warehouse, and it was full of Arachnos goons.

 

They were giving Flambeaux a hard time, again. (I didn't ask her why, but Flambeaux being Flambeaux? It probably wasn't completely unjustified.) She tried to blame it on her robot, but I don't think the bot was the one who torched that Night Widow's butt-cape, sooooo….

 

 

Webmasters are REALLY tall, by the way.

I kind-of wonder where Lord Recluse keeps finding guys who'll fit in that armor?

He must do a lot of recruiting from the NBA or something.

 

Anyway, while I was talking to Flambeaux, that Mangle guy showed up again... It seems like he *always* shows up whenever I'm talking to one of the other girls... So, I thought "Maybe he's being such a pain because he wants to get our attention, but he's just too shy to ask any of us out for pizza or something?"

 

So, I introduced him to Flambeaux.

 

 

Mangle says I'm mean now.

Because she set his head on fire.

 

-k

 

PS: At least nobody tried to let the wailers out.

 

============================================================

 

Diary, some things that have been seen can never be unseen...

 

Today my friend Black Sheep needed some help with a really tough Praetorian and her goons, so Kit, and Slushie, and B and I went with her to this huge warehouse to kick their butts. She had called these guys "gimps" on the broadcast channel, but I'm not sure we really knew what she meant before we got there.

It was... really, really weird.

 

Like, waaaaay weirder than the D, weird.

 

 

They were all wearing these crazy outfits and they seemed to WANT us to beat them up. O_o

(It reminded me a lot of that fight I had with Silver Mantis that one time. I'm *still* not sure what all that was about... Tav just told me "not to think too much about it, lest I need the brain bleach".)

 

Slushie covered us all in ice, which was kind-of neat. An extra layer over my Thorn armor meant that those people could NOT touch me. Which was a Good Thing. Because... euwh.

 

 

And eventually we did find the person Black Sheep was looking for, after we'd beaten up about a million of the pervs.

Her name was Praetor Duncan, but she likes to be called Dominatrix.

 

I don't even want to ask what's up with that. 'Pretty sure I'm not old enough to know, legally speaking.

 

 

Anyway, we arrested her.

But the memory of that place and all those goons in leather straps is going to last for awhile.

 

-k

 

PS: I wonder if the Paragon DA will try to charge her for contributing to the delinquency of a minor?   

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

Remind me never to take an office job with Crey. Those guys are just RUDE. >_<

 

Somebody from their bio-sciences research and development division heard about that wrecked-up clone lab I found in Praetoria City, and wanted to ask me what it was like, so I went to their office in Grandville to talk to him about it. I guess he forgot to tell the receptionist or the security guys that I was coming, because they didn't want to let me in.

 

They sent this thing they called a "scorpinoid death-stalker" after me... SCORPINOID!!DEATHSTALKER!!

 

Seriously.

They really called it that.

 

 

It kind of fell apart when I punched it, though. (MindWyrm says that it was probably some new guy's prototype design, and they must have run out of development money before they could armor it properly. Because those Crey suits aren't supposed to crumple up like soda cans. Even though this one did.)

 

I sort of feel bad for smashing it now. 😞

 

Anyway, since I couldn't find the guy I was supposed to talk to, I went to HR to see if anyone knew his office number. The only person I found there was one of those weird Rikti aliens. She said her name was Kelly. And then she tried to melt my brain.

 

 

I really, really *need* my brain, so that didn't end well for anybody.

And I still didn't find out where that guy's office was...

 

I wanted to try the lab next, but the security goons there were even more obnoxious. They wouldn't let me past the second floor.

 

 

Anyway, I finally just gave up. If Intern Steinmann seriously wants to talk about clones and labs and giant tentacles and things, he can send me a text. I am *not* going to go back to that office. >_<

 

-k

 

====================================================

 

Mad Science is the BEST Science, Diary.  ^_^

 

I ran into Vernon in the Grandville tower this morning, and told him that I was still kind-of miffed about that "wrong portal" business the other day. Vernon blamed Grant for "incorrectly recalculating the acceleration of the dimensional vortex's quantum divergence" (Whatever the heck THAT means-)... and Grant said that Vernon was a "spikey-haired crack-pot who couldn't tell the fourth dimension from Arbiter Sands' frappuccino".

 

Vernon really did seem pretty upset about something, though, so I asked him what was wrong. (He may be a nut... I mean, you know, MAD SCIENTIST and all... But he's a sweet guy.) He told me that his boss wasn't taking him seriously, and that he was afraid that the Union of Scientific Evil was going to reject his membership application again and that if they did he'd lose his Doomsday Weapon Development Grant.

 

So, I said I'd help him with his project. That's what friends are for, right?

'Should have known he was going to ask for Tentacle Monsters.

 

 

Lots and LOTS of Tentacle Monsters...

And some of those Rock Dudes.

And a few Killer Mushrooms.

And one of those Walking Hedge things.

I spent waaaay too much time in smelly caves today. 

 

-k

 

PS: The sunset in Grandville was really pretty, though.

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

 

Dear Diary-

I had to go and pick up ANOTHER misdelivered box of wailers today...

 

I think the Sup3rFr31ght guys just really, really aren't very good at their jobs. And their dispatcher won't stop telling me how great his new giant hammer hands are. And how he wants to show the whole entire world his "L33T" body-mods.

 

It's starting to freak me out. <_<

 

Anyway, this time they'd gotten the street name all messed up. The order that was *supposed* to go to the testing department of a company that soundproofs buildings. But instead of going to 2113 Recluse Park East they send the box to 2113 East Recluse Place. That's like, completely on the other side of Port Oakes!

Turns out that address belonged to those Malta guys.

 

They'd already opened the box. 

 

 

They tried to "resolve the issue" with a lot of guns and a flame-thrower, even though I told them that that proooobably wouldn't work. But... yeah. You know how Malta guys are. They didn't listen to me. When I left, they were still trying to put out the fires. And catch the wailers. Who were bouncing around all over the place with a couple of stolen Sapper guns.

 

I did get a nice picture of the old Pirate Fort, though.

 

 

-k

 

==============================================

 

Diary, I'm kind of worried about Vernon...

 

His project started out sounding fun and all, but I think he might be getting a little carried away.

He says he wants to turn everyone in Paragon City into Tentacle Monsters. <_<

I am SO not going to let him do that...

 

Some of my friends live in Paragon City, and it would be really, really awkward if they all ended up like Pyriss.

 

 

When I met her, all she wanted to do was punch me and set me on fire and then try to eat my face.

I'm not going to let that happen to B, and Kit, and Aly, and Buddy and Sheep.

 

I just don't know yet how I'm going to talk Vernon out of it... Mad Scientists are super weird about their "fiendish plans".

I mean, look at what Lord Recluse has done with his tower.

 

 

Grandville sort-of looks like somebody forgot to dust off all the cobwebs.

 

-k

 

======================================================

 

Dear Diary-

 

I was GOING to try to talk Vernon out of the whole turn-everybody-into-Cthulu thing, but I couldn't get a word in edge-wise. (Grant said he'd been like that all day. Practicing his maniacal rants and Seriously Evil Laugher in the mirror-)

 

I ended up just hauling the Tentacle Monster bombs out to Eden like he wanted, but I *also* took the batteries out of his remote control before I left, so he couldn't detonate them. I'm sneaky like that. XD

 

 

Eden was really pretty. It sort of reminded me of the forest around the Sanctum's portal in Saint Martial. Only a LOT bigger!

 

Vernon was really disappointed when he pushed the button and nothing happened, of course, but watching him mope around the tower for the rest of the afternoon was better than having to explain to my friends why everyone was suddenly a Tentacle Monster.

 

-k

 

PS: While I was in Eden I got to meet a really interesting ghost. His name was Woodsman, and he sort-of reminded me of that guy who plays Aquaman. Only dark-haired. And with these big, shaggy reindeer-things instead of fish.

 

 

He thought Vernon's bombs were really going to explode and all, and didn't believe me when I tried to tell him about taking the remote's batteries out. I had to disincorporate him. When he reforms and sees that everyone ISN'T covered in tentacles, he'd better apologize for telling those deer-things to throw rocks at me. >_<

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

Time travel is wicked cool... Even though it gives you headaches.

 

B is doing some kind of summer intern hero-thing with the Menders, I think, and they asked him to go correct a problem in a place called Faultline. Since it's a lot more fun to fix stuff with your friends than it is to fix stuff alone, Scarlet Diamond and I went with him. (I had to pretend to be a hero or the menders wouldn't have let me in, though. That crazy bird in Pocket D made me a fake ID and everything. I was SOOO SHINY. XD)

 

Anyway, we had to go find Fusionette first. She'd gotten into trouble with a bunch of those guys like the one who took off with my Tome of Hequat. Arbiter Sands was there, too... He's one of the Arbiters who works in Grandville... But I wasn't wearing my armor like I do when I'm running errands for Scirocco, so I don't think he recognized me.

 

 

Right after we found Fusionette, she flew off and got beaten up by one of those big trash-can goons. (The Menders probably weren't very happy about that, but it wasn't OUR FAULT she was stupid. <_<)

 

Anyway, we had to go and find someone named Doc Delilah next... And there were zombies EVERYWHERE! They weren't like those prison zombies we found in that government lab Sheep took us to, but there were almost as many of them and they kept trying to barf on us. And then explode. (There was a lot of barfing and exploding going on. A *lot* of barfing and exploding... It. Was. Gross.)

 

 

When we finally found Doc, she turned out to be almost as crazy as Fusionette. She really didn't like those zombies very much, and tried to beat them ALL up. At the same time. It... didn't really work out.

 

 

I kind-of started to wonder if everyone in that time line was already nuts, or if something about causality being messed up was just making them that way. But then we met Mr. Yin, and *he* seemed pretty sane, so... I don't know. I'm probably going to have to ask Master Maros about that.

Once she got over being barfed on by about a hundred dead guys, Doc sent us to find someone named Castillo... Or "that flying numbskull"... Or "Captain Can't-take-a-Hint".

 

One look at his outfit and we decided he was the REAL "Captain Hotpants". (Des and her outfit have *nothing* on this guy's wardrobe issues. Seriously. Who dresses like that?!)

 

We punched him.

A lot.

 

 

And then his robot exploded all over us.

(This timeline kind-of had a theme. A really, really explodey theme. <_<)

 

Eventually, we found out that Arachnos was sort of behind everything. This night widow named Nocturne showed up and threatened to kill B. (Like I was going to let THAT happen-) We had to kick her butt like three times before she gave up.

 

We decided that the only way to *really* fix things was to take out the guy who was in charge. So we went to the big base behind the dam to find him...

I told Scarlet and B about the First Rule of navigating Arachnos bases. (It's, like, right there on page 1 of the Grandville Intern Orientation Guide... "Never use the subterranean tunnels".) But we sort of did it anyway.

 

We had to smash an awful lot of spider-bots...

 

 

And some Huntsmen...

 

 

And Scarlet used her cool hurricane-thing to push goons into SO many corners so they couldn't run away...

 

 

(We needed that because, even though nobody in Grandville likes to talk about it, the spider-bots are all TOTAL cowards-)

 

Until, eventually, we caught up to the guy in charge. Just my luck it was Arbiter Sands. <_<

I'm glad he didn't have a clue who I was, because I could get in really serious trouble for punching an Arbiter.

 

 

I DID punch him, though. For being a jerk.

 

And we assassinated his submarines, too.

… And they exploded on us. XP

 

-k

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Diary, I meet the STRANGEST people in Grandville...

 

I had to pick up some new lab equipment for Vernon's project today (He *still* wants to do the Tentacle Monster thing, but Arbiter Daos agrees with me that it's a really, really bad idea. He said it's okay for me to keep hiding the detonation control unit's batteries for as long as I need to.) Anyway, I had to wait for the technicians to pack all the parts we needed, so I went to find a soda while they were looking for more duct tape.

 

I couldn't find the break room... Those lab layouts are WEIRD... But I did find what sort-of looked like a giant popcorn machine. It had this big glowing green thing floating in it, and when I went in to look at it, it started talking to me!

 

 

He said his name was Hamidon… Or a piece of Hamidon, anyway... and that he wasn't very happy about the bombs we put in Eden, or the way I wrecked his spires. He was really polite about it, though, so I said I was sorry for breaking his stuff. And I told him about the batteries.

 

He thought that was pretty clever.

 

-k

 

======================================

 

Dear Diary-

 

When I was really little, my mom used to sing me this silly song about a yellow submarine. They sailed around a lot and eventually ended up finding The Sea of Green. I never thought that was a real place, but I think I found it today. O_O

 

I had to go swipe... uhm, BORROW that is... some stuff from a Longbow ship and when I got there? The ocean looked like this:

 

 

Now I can't get that song out of my head and I had to go find a ZooTube Video of it.

It's even weirder than I remembered.

And I should tell Feral about those Kinky Boot Beasts.

 

After that, I went to meet my friend Becky for lunch. (Becky is a Tarantula Mistress who works for Vernon's boss, Operative Grillo. She's not really into Mad Science, but says working in the R&D division sounded more interesting than being stuck with some office job in Port Oakes-)

 

 

When I got there, though, all of those Crystal Things and Mushroom Monsters and Walking Hedges and Rock Dudes that I'd caught for Vernon had gotten out of their containment pods! They were rampaging all over the place, trying to eat the other interns and research assistants! (Becky says they ate all of the Spiderling Scout cookies, too. Which was just super rude. >_<) So, she helped me round them all up again and put them back in their cages.

 

 

We were both kind of surprised that her brain-stuff worked on some of those guys. I mean... "Dumb as rocks", and all.

 

It all worked out, though. Even though Vernon's bombs didn't ACTUALLY turn anybody into anything monsterous, the Union of Scientific Evil was still impressed with his report and his ambition. They accepted his application for membership, and sent him a card and everything! He's a real Mad Scientist now, and not just an intern.

 

I'm proud of him. ^_^

 

-k

Edited June 15, 2020 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

I think I learned how to be a Super Spy today!

 

One of the other interns (He works in the Intelligence Division, for someone named Viridian-), introduced me to this lady with a really cool code-name... Shadow Spider. She had found out that someone was spying on one of Arachnos' bases and needed somebody to sneak in and find out what was going on. I'm pretty sneaky, so I said I'd help, because people spying on Arachnos bases uuuuusually turns into people blowing up Arachnos bases, and since I have friends who work in Arachnos bases, that's not a Good Thing.

 

She sent me all over the place, and I ended up having to punch some people. Including some people who sort-of reminded me a lot of me. They were all ladies, and they had these little gadgets that worked a *lot* like my concealment spells.

 

I'm pretty sure they were ninjas.

 

 

It turns out it's really HARD to punch someone you can't see...

Which is probably why I don't get punched very often, now that I think about it.

 

The spies turned out to be a couple of people working with Longbow, named Indigo and Crimson. (I wonder if they know Mr. Viridian?) Shadow Spider said they were pretty notorious in the espionage business for being ruthless, and that sometimes they ended up working with Malta, too. (She said the lady-ninjas were Malta's "Knives of Artemis"-) Since nothing good EVER comes from working with those Malta guys, I don't feel at all bad about beating them up and covering them in tentacles.

I got back all of the information they tried to steal, too. They'd better not try that again. >_<

 

-k

 

PS: Next time I do something for Shadow Spider, I'm totally going to put the James Bond music on my phone... Or the music from those Jason Bourne movies. Because Matt Damon is *way* cuter than Daniel Craig.

 

=======================================

 

Dear Diary-

 

I got to meet somebody really, really special today. Somebody who I've read all about in the Midnighter's records and heard stories about for ages and who I've always *wanted* to meet. Yeah, he tried to melt my brain... but that WASN'T his fault. I'm not mad at him or anything. I'm just... still kind-of like "Wow. That was REALLY HIM." And he was awesome. O_O

 

I should probably start at the beginning, though...

 

I was translating some old scrolls for Scirocco this morning when one of the mailroom spiderlings brought me a pretty strange note from someone named "Mender Ramiel". It said he had something that he needed to show me, and that it was pretty important. I told Scirocco about it, and he said that I'd better go and check it out. He's a good boss. ^_^

 

I have an Illusion Gate spell of my own now, so getting to Ouroboros was easy. I stopped to say Hi to Lazarus (I like Lazarus, even though he keeps forgetting that he knows me. ^_^) and I found the Ramiel person waiting for me. He said he had a crystal to give me, and that it had a memory in it... I didn't know you could catch memories like that, but Menders can do all sorts of weird tricks with Chronomancy that Circle mages can't. Maybe I can get him to teach me how to do it?

 

Anyway, it was a really strange memory and I'm not sure I liked it. I saw the Ouroboros platform all broken and sinking into the sea. There were these... reflection things... everywhere. They weren't really ghosts. They were something else... Lord Recluse and that red, white and blue guy from Paragon City. A big Rikti, and- All sorts of people. And there was this HUGE red guy. He scared me. Something about him felt really, really angry. And really, really wrong.

 

 

In the memory, I had to sneak past everyone to find Ramiel. And that-me was who told him to show me-me the memory.

It had something to do with what he called Incarnates.

 

I think... that he thinks I am one?

 

I'm not so sure he's right about that. I don't feel like I'm some really super-powerful thing. I'm just a Death Mage, so maybe he's got the wrong person? Anyway, he wanted me to go talk to Lord Recluse about it and to a guy named Trapdoor, who had this wicked-cool duplication power (It was really neat! He could make copies of himself all over the room, just like that guy from the comics!), and then to Lady Grey. I'd never met her before, either, so I have to say that that was pretty awesome, too.

She's the one who sent me to meet HIM.

 

Those Rikti guys were trying to do things to him again, she said, and if Ramiel was right, I ought to be able to go and get him back.

 

And... I did, Diary.

I found him.

 

 

I had to knock him out of his body a little bit... He told me to... It was the only way to get those stupid aliens back out of his head. But that didn't matter. Not really.

Because I got to meet him.

 

My favorite hero.

I got to meet Hero 1.

AND. THAT. RULED.

 

-k

 

PS: There was also a really funky cave... I found guys dressed like gladiators and a HUGE brown ghost-cow with an ax!

 

 

The last room was really pretty. All that dust made me sneeze, though.

 

 

((Player note: This was a fun entry to write and a fun arc to play through with Kai. Given her life and her circumstances, she's grown up without a lot of illusions about humanity. At the same time, all of her life she's also listened to stories about Hero 1 and his Omega Team; magic-using individuals who, like her own parents, were willing to give everything to save the world. Sneaking into the Midnighter's archives, she read everything she could find about them. And about him, both in the past and present. Finally getting to meet him, even under less than ideal circumstance, was a Pretty Big Deal to her. So, no matter what the rest of the world may call him now... no matter how altered, or tattered or haunted by his experiences The Honoree may be... In this kid's eyes, he's still every bit the hero he was when he first stepped through that portal to the Rikti homeworld. To Kai he is, and will always be, the first, the last... the one. ^_^ ))

 

====================================================

 

Diary... I'm not exactly sure *what* happened today. o_0

 

I know that sounds weird. And it kind-of WAS weird. But I don't think I can put together all of the pieces yet to figure out what any of it actually means. Or if it means anything at all.

 

I was making a delivery of wailers to an independent consulting sorcerer in Nerva this morning (Tav ditched 5up3rFr31ght after that screw-up with the Malta guys in Port Oakes, so we're having to do our own deliveries until he can find a new contractor-), and while I was looking for the right address I... kind of ended up taking a wrong turn.

 

The door *looked* normal. It really did... It might have felt a little strange, but a lot of things in Nerva are like that. It's because the town is so close to the Temple and Thorn Island... So, I really didn't expect it to lead to a forest.

 

 

There was a ghost there with sad eyes. I don't think he remembers who he used to be or where he's supposed to go... He just kept talking about some things that didn't make a whole lot of sense. I couldn't get him to come with me, to leave that place, so I had to go on without him.

 

I guess I should have known that a place like that was going to end in tentacles.

So much of my life does...

 

 

Anyway, the weirdest part was where I ended up AFTER the tentacle part. I was in Dark Astoria... That place that Tav and the others are so worried about. The place he told me never, never, ever to go.

 

And there I was...

 

I mean, I didn't MEAN to go there. I didn't want to. It wasn't my fault.

But I was there anyway.

 

I looked around and I found a couple of the magi there. One of them was a guy named Maharaj, who sort-of creeped me out. (Seriously. Nobody has laughed and looked at me like THAT since Master Regalion thought he was going to get to sacrifice me to that Blade Prince! o_0) And the other one was just really, really scared... I finally got him to tell me his name (He's Artemian) and to talk about what happened. He was with a group that was supposed to be testing the wards. He was the only one of them that didn't get devoured by... By it. By the thing that's there.

 

 

I told him that we needed to get out of that place, and that I wasn't just going to leave him.

So I brought him back to the Sanctum with me.

 

I don't think he realized I was just an apprentice.

He kept calling me "Magus Kaikara". ^_^

 

And then I sort-of had a talk with B. About... stuff.

'Still kind-of need to get my head around THAT, too.

 

And Tav keeps starting to say something, and then stopping before he does.

 

I think... things are about to get really Complicated, Diary.

I don't have to be Master Maros to feel that...

 

-k

 

((Player's Note: I felt so sorry for that poor, lost, terrified mage that red-siders meet in their first outing to Dark Astoria... and I knew that there was just NO WAY someone as kind-hearted as Kai could abandon him to a horrible fate as Talon-bait or a midnight snack for Mot. So I named him and I'm "adopting" him. Expect to see the unlucky fellow as a player character one of these days... Death Mage Kaikara's very first follower. XD )) 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

I sort-of knew this was going to happen...

Maybe studying with Master Maros taught me how to see the into the future just a little bit, too?

I don't know.

 

I don't think I *WANT* to be able to do that.

But I knew things were about to get really, really complicated.

 

At least I still had time to help out a friend with their police brutality problem. Basirah is from Praetoria, and had to get through this super secure piece of the Underground. She was worried about not being able to handle the guards, so B and I went with her to punch anybody who got in her way.

 

 

It was an interesting place. I've been in sewers before, but I've never seen ANYTHING like the ones they have in Imperial City! That's got to be the cleanest sewer ever, and there were way less giant tentacles and clone labs than I expected. If that Lost guy had taken my Tome of Hequat down here? I might not have had to ritually sacrifice it to the Gods of Eternal Stench.

 

 

It was good just to get to go and punch things for a little while, without having to worry about anything else. Especially since I went with B.

 

I guess I should talk about all that, eventually. I just don't even know where to start. It's not like I'm any good at this stuff. Although, "stuff" is really what started it. At least, it's what started where we are now.

 

That probably doesn't make much sense, but it was kind of silly at the time, too, Diary.

 

When B and Scarlet and I were doing all of that running around in the past, in Faultline, somebody (I think it might have been Penny-) called us all 'Heroes'. I said that I really wasn't one. I just had a fake ID from some seagull who hangs around in a bar. B laughed and said "Nope! You saved the world, remember? That totally makes you a hero." I claimed I'd only saved it for later. And because it's where I kept all my stuff. He laughed and came back with "Oh, so I'm stuff now?"

 

It's strange with B. He flirts with everybody... Like, A LOT. All the time, and you can never tell when he's serious and when he isn't. That kind-of gets him into hot water sometimes, but I think it's sort of cute, and I do like him, so I had told myself the next time he started that with me... I was going to flirt back. I'm not very good at that, Diary. I'd never done it before... But that Stuff thing? That seemed like a pretty good time to be brave and see what I could manage.

 

So I said "*MY* stuff" and I laughed. 

 

And he super-leaped right into a wall...

 

Scarlet just gave me a really weird look and said something about being a "third wheel". (I kind of get why she did that now, but I didn't at the time. I just hadn't been paying as much attention as I should have, I guess. I probably wouldn't have said anything at all if I'd known...) 

 

But anyway, one thing lead to another after that, and now we're-... Becky says we're "Like, *A Thing*".

 

That talk I had with B? That's what it was about.

I tried to tell him that he was probably picking the wrong person even though I do really like him. But he doesn't think so, even if it's all gotten really awkward and way, way more complicated than I ever thought it would.

 

And then Tav told me that he, and Mistress Amtes, and Master Maros and Master Vermis had all decided that it was time for me to be more than just an apprentice.

 

That's not going to make anything easier.

 

-k

[Coyotedancer]

OH, man... Diary.

 

This is kind of going to be a long entry.

 

Do you remember when I told you about ending up in Dark Astoria by accident? I've been there again, and it wasn't at all an accident this time. The Temple Council has been really, really worried about Dark Astoria for a long, long time... But it's hard to send anybody to find out what's really going on. So many of the mages and their guides and their thorn wielders who go there end up like Artemian and his group. Devoured by that THING (It's name is Mot and it's an old, old god of death and corruption-) or they get torn apart by the Talons... The same Talons that B and I had to disincorporate in Night Ward. Mot knows what Oranbegans are and it hates them.

 

I'm something different, though. I'm a Death Mage now... but I'm not like the others. I still have my own body. I... feel?... like a Midnighter or a witch or a regular mortal necromancer to Mot. He doesn't recognize what I am... So, I went back to Dark Astoria to find out just how bad things are. I went because I can go where the old ones can't. It's scary, Diary. I still don't feel like anything special. I'm a nobody... I don't have fifteen-thousand years of practice being a Death Mage. I don't even have followers or guardians yet. Just Artemian. And I'm not going to make him go back to that place. Ever.

 

Still, it's not the kind of place you want to go alone...

So, I did what everybody does when it comes to that kind of mission.

 

I went with my friends.

 

 

Black Sheep, Redwinged, Mindwyrm and Scarlet Diamond were all there, along with a couple of people I hadn't met before... and B, of course. (I wouldn't have gone there without him, even though I knew there would be a lot of Talons and I know how much  dealing with them upsets him... He told me they sort-of got into his head somehow, so I worked up a new warding spell to keep them out. I'm not sure how well it worked. That place still kind-of got to us all, even through the most potent ward I could build. I've never wished so hard before that Sarhadi had been here to teach me to make better ones. 😞 )

 

 

There were just SO MANY of them, Diary. So many. And all of them were horrible.

 

We had to rescue a pair of Midnighters who had gotten in over their heads, along with a grumpy police detective and some crazy-lady named Rose... They were all lucky they didn't get eaten.

 

Things got weird in the middle of all that. Sheep was just trying to help... I really think she must have been reading my mind somehow, because she only did exactly what I kind of wanted to do... but B got mad at her, and she said something about being tired of being "Second best"... I don't know what that meant. She's the toughest person I know. She's not second best to ANYBODY! But anyway...

 

 

After that, we talked to a Mu guy who had come to Dark Astoria with my boss, Scirocco, to try to find out what was happening... Irena had come too, but they'd gotten separated somehow... I said we had to go find him! It really scared me that he was there. He's shouldn't have been. That place gets into your head, and he didn't have my warding spell.

 

 

We had to punch a lot of those Banished cultists and their tiki-monsters. First in a warehouse, and then in this huge cave... But we didn't find them in time. Irena got eaten by Mot, and my boss got beaten up by this butt-ugly red monster with about a hundred eyes. 

 

Diary, I don't know if it was seeing that monster hurt him so badly, or the strangeness with Sheep, or... the awkwardness that's still happening with Scarlet, or B being upset or what... But I sort of lost my temper in there. That's a Bad Thing. A magus should never do that, especially not a Death Mage.

 

Things... Things get dark when we do that, Diary.

Things die.

Sometimes a lot of things...

Like Every-Single-One of those cultists.

 

That THING took Irena, but it won't have my boss.

I won't let it.

 

It all just got worse from there. I decided that the only way to keep things from getting even more awful for B was to just stay away from him and Scarlet as much as I could. I really thought it would help. But it didn't... It just made him think I was mad at him instead of the cultists.

 

We found more of them and those Talon things trying to kill everyone in Founders Falls.

 

 

There were so many of them...

I know we didn't manage to save everybody.

 

 

Even weirder, we ended up helping some of those MALTA GUYS next. I don't know why Red wanted to break them out, but to get to them I had to punch another Arbiter. I'm probably going to get in trouble for that... Especially if Scirocco isn't there to keep Daos from trying to have me put on some kind of execution list... But by then I really didn't care very much. SOMEBODY needed to get punched and the Arbiter was in the way.

 

 

I was sort of glad when we found Black Scorpion. I know he can take being hit by a Vanguard tank, so I wasn't even a little bit worried about hurting him if I hit *him* too hard. He's not squishy like an Arbiter.

 

 

It's going to be kind of embarrassing for him to go back to Grandville all banged up, though. He's going to have to tell Lord Recluse that his armor got wrecked by a group of angry teenagers with relationship issues.

 

I guess it was a good thing we freed at least one of those Malta agents. His name was Gyrefalcon and he came with us to deal with a whole base full of those ninja-ladies who the Talons had turned into monsters. Praetor Duncan also sent her friend Ollie along with us. (He's sort-of a clone, I think. He called himself an Olympian Guard. I was just glad he wasn't one of those creepy pervs...)

 

 

I was still trying to stay away from B and Scarlet, so I went ahead of the others with him and with Mr. Gyrefalcon. We did pretty well... Those Knives aren't very tough and Ollie punches things like nobody's business. I guess Gyre was okay, too. For a Malta guy.

 

The last thing was the most horrible of all, Diary. Although I don't think the others really felt that way.... We were supposed to go find some of my people who were there, in one of the outlying parts of the Old City. We were told that they might know something that would help us stop the Talons, and while the others are all outsiders, we thought that maybe they might talk to me.

 

But when we got to the entrance, the Talons had already beaten us there. And they had broken all of the crystals. I've never seen one of Archmagus Tya's crystals corrupted like that... I didn't think they could be corrupted like that! The halls were barely holding without the crystals' magic to support them, and those THINGS had disincorporated or devoured everyone who was there. Everyone was just... gone, Diary. I don't how many were lost. Too many.

 

   

 

We found a thing called a Keres at the end of everything.

B and I killed it.

 

I'm told that really rough days often end in bars. I've never really been to a bar, but I didn't want to be by myself yet, either. So I went with everybody to the D's Tiki Lounge. Everybody talked some more and we laughed at Mind's new scheme for making dragons, and Red and Scarlet drank, and Kit found us.

 

 

I thought it was just good not to be in Dark Astoria anymore.

That place really gets to you, Diary.

 

-k

 

PS: I don't really have a basis for comparison... But I think B's a pretty good kisser. XD

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Sorry it's been so long since I wrote anything, Diary-

 

Life is still sort-of complicated, but maybe not quite as crazy as it was the last time I was here...

 

Dark Astoria is still a mess.

That THING is still out there.

My boss still thinks it's all his fault that Irena got eaten, and I haven't really stopped punching Arbiters.

 

B and I seem to have worked things out, though, and no one has been set on fire or turned into a newt yet. 

 

We both needed some de-stress time, so we kind-of took the weekend off from hero-stuff. I invited him to come stay at the Sanctum, and we swam in the lake and played around with the boat and stuff. A couple of our friends are being really crude about it, but it wasn't THAT kind of vacation! Sheesh. Minds in gutters much, you guys?! <_<

 

Anyway, as peaceful as the Sanctum is and as much fun as just being there together was, eventually we had to get back to what we do.

Which seems to be punching people. XD

 

The Menders had another repair assignment for B, and so he gathered up the gang and we went back in time to Kings Row. Those Skulls had somehow managed to set up their drug lab again.

 

 

B, Redwinged, Rose, Aly and her ninja friends, Etoile, Broken Blade (aka The Notorious B-Dub) and I started cleaning things up in their warehouses. It seemed harder this time than it was when we originally busted up their operation... Like someone had been monkeying with the time stream to make the goons tougher or something.

 

 

Not that they really stood much of a chance, no matter how tough they were...

There's not much that we can't handle when we hit it together.

 

 

They did manage to ambush us *but good* in one place, and that kind of hurt. Like, kind of hurt A LOT. (Bone Daddies and Goth Dolls and Night-Whatevers EVERYWHERE!) But it took a whole lot of them, and we did eventually knock every single one of them flat. I was proud of us. ^_^

 

 

We rescued a reporter that they had kidnapped and a bunch of warehouse workers that they were going to kill.

 

 

Eventually we tracked down the big guy in charge (again)...

 

 

And we kicked his butt, even after he turned and tried to run away like a giant diaper-baby!

 

 

It was good to get back to doing things like busting up Skulls. I know we're going to have to return to Dark Astoria to finish what we started. We can't avoid that for much longer... But I think doing things like this is good, too. They remind us all why Mot and the Talons and the Banished are right to be worried.

 

-k

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Badger54]

I admit without shame that I read "tried to run away like a giant diaper-baby" in the voice of the Heavy from Team Fortress 2.

[Coyotedancer]

Hi Diary-

 

I don't think I'm ever going to get used to time travel, exactly... Temporal distortions really mess with my magic sometimes... But it's good for teaching us how to adapt to situations where we might not have all the advantages that we're used to.

 

B's last assignment from the Menders was like that.

 

They sent us after a bunch of those barfing, exploding Dead Guys...

 

 

For some reason that jump really screwed up my defensive spells. I couldn't even summon my Abyssal armor at all, and that made dealing with the zombies really hard. Rose is a good healer, though, and Aly's shadows helped, too. I'd have been toast without them.

 

My dress boots got absolutely ruined though. I was paying more attention to helping B and staying alive than I was to where I was walking and... euuuuwh. Zombie. Guts. Are. Gross. XP

 

 

And then things turned weird. (Things *always* turn weird for us, Diary. It's just some kind of Universal Law. If group=us then situation.weird=true. Or something like that. I'm learning to speak spiderling, but I'm still pretty sketchy at it.)

 

We started to run into pervs.

 

 

So, on top of outfit-destroying zombie barf and body parts, we had these guys who looked like the goth-kid cousins of those weirdos we found when we helped Black Sheep find Dominatrix. And there were kind of a LOT of them.

 

 

So, SO many of them...

 

 

I guess it's a good thing we've had so much practice punching these guys. They were a whole lot easier to deal with than the barfing zombies. They didn't smell any better, but at least they didn't blow up scattering chunks everywhere, either. o_0

 

The worst part was that the Office Zombies were only the start. The other zombies? The ones trying to poison Paragon City's water supply? They were SEWER ZOMBIES.

 

 

Diary, nothing smells worse than a Sewer Zombie.

NOTHING. O_O

 

If we thought we were going to have to take a million showers, and dip ourselves in bleach, and have sacrificial bonfires and full-on ritual cleansings for our clothes before... That just made it Even. Worse.

 

 

We eventually tracked down the guy who was leading all those awful zombies... And, of course, he was another perv.

He really was, though. He oogled Rose (She was down to adventuring in her underwear by then. Her outfit was a total goner.)

 

 

And he tried to cover B in tentacles.

*I'M* the only one who's allowed to do that! >_<

 

-k

 

PS: I am NEVER going to get my white armor clean.

B says he has it so, so much worse, though. His zombified armor is actually part of HIM.

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

On 6/25/2019 at 12:14 PM, Badger54 said:

I admit without shame that I read "tried to run away like a giant diaper-baby" in the voice of the Heavy from Team Fortress 2.

 

((Player Note: Dammit. Now I can't unhear it, either. XD))

Edited July 24, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[NekoAli]

And he tried to cover B in tentacles.

*I'M* the only one who's allowed to do that! >_<

 

*rolls around laughing*

 

Oh... the RP channel crew. I'm inspired though... What archetype and power sets (Dark obviously) allows for the maximum amount of tentacles to be used... I feel a new character coming on. And conveniently we have those buckled gimp suits as costume options. :)

[Coyotedancer]

On 6/26/2019 at 9:16 AM, NekoAli said:

*rolls around laughing*

 

Oh... the RP channel crew. I'm inspired though... What archetype and power sets (Dark obviously) allows for the maximum amount of tentacles to be used... I feel a new character coming on. And conveniently we have those buckled gimp suits as costume options. 🙂

 

((OOC: There's a reason the channel motto is "Pizza! And Tentacles!" XD

I love our little band of nutballs, though. I really do... 'First group of roleplayers I've ever found in-game that I actually fit in with, and that has been a tremendous amount of fun.

 Back on Liberty I had a character that friends actually called my "tentacle blaster". Pamina was Dark/Dark/Soul, I think? It got to be pretty ridiculous how many different effects of the type she had. And you know that character is going to absolutely terrify Kai and Kit and Blue, right? Total. Terror. ))

Edited July 25, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[NekoAli]

((Well, Duh. Why else would I do it and bring it up here? :) I also really love all the dark power sets... I'm losing track of how many characters have one or more Dark sets now... And yea, blaster looks the way to go, with Soul Mastery later on. I would like to engage in more consistent RP in game.... Or maybe do as you and others have and post stories. But my terminal altitis works against me there...))

[Coyotedancer]

So, I really don't know how to be a hero, Diary-

 

B keeps saying that I *am* one... Mostly because of sheer bias and that "saving the world"-thing, I guess... But I'm just not. Apparently to do the hero-thing properly requires a mind-set that's pretty different from just, you know, NOT trying to rule the world, or blow up somebody's city, or rob all of their banks, or turn their dogs into radioactive giant monsters.

 

There are some standards involved that I'm not sure I can live up to.

But I sort-of want to try.

Both for B's sake and my own.

 

If we keep running around like we have been, I don't know which is going to happen first... Me getting put on an Arachnos execution list for punching half-a-dozen Arbiters (so far-), or his reputation as Mr. Shiny Boy Scout getting ripped to shreds in the tabloids for dating a Death Mage. Honestly, neither would be a Good Thing. o_O

 

So... I decided to sort-of create an "Alter Ego". A disguise, I guess, for when I'm running around Being Good.

 

Diary, I have *imagine a DRAMATIC PAUSE here and some super cheezie sound effect* a Secret Identity!

That's White Thorn, and she's officially registered in Paragon City and everything. ^_^

 

Edratarees and Persephone (Seph's my new bodyguard. Being a Death Mage, I'm apparently expected to have staff and guards and things now. She's a succubus, and was part of Librarian Amtes' cabal for ages, so she really knows more about how all this works than I do-) helped me put together a new set of armor, from pieces we found in the Vault's back closets. They're a little mismatched, but when I'm dressed like that and weaving Cantrips of Light into all of my spells, I really don't look at all like ME. Which was kind-of the whole point. White Thorn is just some regular magic-using hero. She *isn't* a Death Mage from Saint Martial, or Scirocco's intern.

Nobody's going to freak out over seeing her beating up Arbiters or going out for pizza with another hero.

 

 

'Figures one of the first hero-things I had to do was go and punch a perv, though.

Juuuust tentacular. <_<

 

I've mostly been doing hero stuff on my own just to help build up some recognition, and I've met some interesting people... An undercover policeman, a friendly troll named Julius (I like him. He's a good guy.) and Foreshadow, who's that SUPER-CUTE trainer-guy that Des was telling me about. I'd totally oogle him, except... you know... B. (Just because he still flirts with everybody doesn't mean I'm going to.)

 

Anyway, I did try doing some hero stuff with other people today. Mostly because Kit and B went, too. It felt a little safer to try that for the first time with both of them there... We helped a military officer and a person with really gorgeous tech-armor (I forgot to tell them just how much I liked their armor, but it was super stylish!) rescue a person who'd been kidnapped by the Skulls.

 

 

These Skulls weren't as tough as the last batch the Menders sent us after, so maybe the time line will STAY fixed this time. I kind of doubt it, but... Optimism! (That's supposed to be a hero-thing, right?)

 

After that, the police radio said that there was a bank robbery, so we went to check it out.

 

 

It was a bunch of Circle people. Which was kind-of weird, Diary. Because we're not usually into money so much. Kit thought they might have been after something else that was kept in the safe... Someone's artifacts or something... and that made more sense, but I didn't pick up on anything strongly magical in there. Maybe a Luck Charm or two, a couple of ghostly fetters, but nothing interesting...

 

 

We found out afterwards that what they had REALLY been after wasn't money or an artifact, but a particular PERSON. That's also when the military lady finally pieced together that I... uhm… that White Thorn proooobably wasn't just using that name because it sounded cool.

 

She didn't take it well. She got kind of snarky.

And B almost blew the whole "Kai's Secret Identity"-thing trying to defend me...

 

Which was really, really sweet of him, but would have kind of defeated the point of White Thorn existing if The General had really been paying attention.

Anyway, we chased the Circle guys (I didn't know any of them. They're from the old city, and I mostly know people from the Temple in Primeva and Thorn Island-) into the sewers. 

 

 

I'm going to have to clean that armor again, but at least after the zombies I know which rituals work and which ones don't... and Lysol, Diary. Lots and LOTS of Lysol.

 

 

So, even though the military lady acted like she hated me once she figured out that I might have something to do with the guys we were fighting, we did find and rescue the kidnapped person from the bank. (She looked like the kind of person who would have ended up a potential sacrifice, so that was a Good Thing-) The group kind of broke up after that.

 

It was okay as a first try at doing things with other heroes, I guess. But I'm going to have to work on my routine a little, I think. And the guys are going to have to remember not to blow my cover. ^_^

-k

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

Did you know that not every single inch of Night Ward is covered in Talons? B and Scarlet and I went there to look into a problem with a guy named Pendragon, and we didn't have to punch a single one. Since I didn't have to worry about those things getting into B's head again, I decided to try out my other new ward instead of the psychic clarion. It's a physical barrier instead of a mental one, and I needed some practice casting it quickly.

 

We went to Praetoria City first, to find some information on one of the Praetors; a man named Sinclair. There were apparently demonstrations and protests going on all around his office building, but still none of the giant tentacles or flying monsters I saw the first time I was there. I brought my panther, Spooky, along just for fun and Scarlet brought her hound, Titan, too. They seemed to get along pretty well for a cat and a dog. I think they bonded over a mutual affection for biting IDF goons. ^_^

We also went back to the place with the big, grey hounds and the full-grown spirit panthers to find Shadowhunter again. 

 

 

I'd already forgotten just how big spirit panthers get (Spooky is still just a kitten-) and B was a liiiittle worried about being turned into a spikey blue chew toy, but I think my barrier spell kept him from getting gnawed on TOO much.

 

We also had to keep some IDF guys from ransacking the Midnighter's mansion. They had the biggest robots I've ever seen... They were HUGE!

 

 

I'm not sure exactly how those guys ended up in Night Ward... They didn't look like they were ghosts, but Praetorian magic is weird and they may have found some way to cross the Veil that I haven't seen yet.

 

 

Being around the mansion again made me a little nervous, though. When we met the Praetorian Midnighters the first time, I wondered if my parents... Or, at least, the Praetorian *versions* of my parents... were there with them. And I wondered if there was a Praetorian version of me somewhere, too.

 

I wasn't sure I really wanted to know at the time. Too many other things were happening and we were trying to save the world, so I didn't ask. It's a seriously freaky thing to think about, Diary. But eventually I did work up the nerve to go back and ask Mr. Castanella about it… And yeah. They were there. But they didn't know me. My Praetorian parents never had me... So I don't exist at all in their world. I never did.

 

I'm not sure what to feel about that. Happy that there wasn't a version of me for their Percy to kill? (Why is Percy ALWAYS such a fink? <_<) Sad that the people who could have been my parents weren't? I don't know. It's too hard to sort out anymore.

 

Anyway, we found Shadowhunter again inside, and he was giving Pendragon and our friend Bedwyr a hard time... So we kicked his butt.

 

 

I was glad to see Bedwyr again. There's something very steady and very solid about him, even though he's just a ghost. Something that feels... really safe. Like if you were under his protection, you know that he would never let anything happen to you. If the problems in Night Ward ever get fixed and the rest of the knights stop being jerks, I wonder if I could talk him into coming back to the Sanctum with me? Thorn Wielders are a Death Mage's traditional guardians, but I think it would be a lot more fun for mine to be a knight. ^_^

 

We had to go deal with a bunch of black knights (I do NOT want one of those guys guarding me-) once the mansion was cleared, and they tried to kill us. Just like last time.

 

 

One of them even covered me in tentacles... *Sigh, Diary. So much sigh.*

 

 

I may have thrown a Light cantrip in with my Force spell and punched that one EXTRA hard.

Just on general principles. <_<

 

 

Scarlet seemed to have fun setting them all on fire. I'm a little surprised that ghostly knights are flammable...But I guess with hellfire, anything's possible.

 

It turned out that we were doing all of that running around because Pendragon, who B said was Praetoria's version of Hero 1 (though I didn't see much of a resemblance-), was looking for Excalibur. Yeah... There's a Praetorian version of that, too! When he marched over and tried to pick it up, it didn't go well. Someone named Black Swan had messed with it. (No, he didn't let me look at it first to see if it had any weird enchantments that needed dispelling. I doubt he even remembered that he'd BROUGHT a mage!) So, he just grabbed the thing, the enchantment kicked his armored butt, and he ended up turning into even more of a jerk than he'd started out.

 

 

To get him back to being a stuffy blow-hard instead of a full-on menace, we had to find Des and her Carnival of Light friends, but before we could do that, we had to punch a lot more of Sinclair's IDF goons.

 

I got to try out another of my new spells... A big burst of Force magic that was designed to send everything flying.

 

 

It was great, Diary. I felt so MIGHTY. ^_^

 

The jerks just wouldn't shut up about how they wanted to kill B, though. I'm honestly getting a little tired of hearing that from everyone we meet. Why can't they just... I don't know... want to arrest him, or something? Why do they always go straight to the death threats? 'Just part of the Shiny Hero-thing, I guess. But it is starting to annoy me that half the world seems to want to murder my boyfriend.

 

 

Lucky for him, he's got some Seriously Dangerous Women watching his back.

Three of us, counting Antigone. XD

 

As usual, when we finally caught up to the guy in charge of the whole mess (That Praetor Sinclair guy-), he thought he was going to get away with everything by threatening us and acting like a jerk. I could have told him that his little metal ninja-sword wasn't going to do ANYTHING to block a psi-blade... But I don't think he would have listened.

 

 

Des and her friends fixed Pendragon and Excalibur, and we went back to Night Ward and just talked for awhile.

 

It was nice. It really was... But Scarlet told us about this REALLY inappropriate demon that her friend summoned this one time, and I ended up WAY embarrassed, because I could just... you know... picture it. And I did. And then I remembered that B was standing RIGHT THERE and that he could READ MY MIND and... oh, Mother of Magic, I think my face was redder than Seph's. Scarlet thought it was funny, and B thought it was about him and... yeah. Some things that have been Seen cannot be Unseen, Diary. Armies of pervs and now, flying... demons. That's what I have to live with. In my head. Every day.

 

And she said something about B's tail that he got super weird and flustered about.

I have no idea what was up with that, Diary. o_O

 

-k

 

PS: I did get one really cool picture of B that didn't seem to fit in anywhere else, so I'm going to put it here. I kind of love the intensity he has when he's focusing on something. It's almost... mage-like.

 

 

 

I really do think I could teach him magic one of these days. Maybe we should check the Book of Lineages...

 

But if I did that and he turned out to have the same kind of ancestors I do, that might make even MORE people want to kill him. Or body-snatch him. Or use him as a sacrifice. So... I don't know.

 

Either way, I don't have access to the book, and it takes blood to work. I'd have to hurt B to get his blood, and I promised him that I wouldn't ever do that, so-... probably a non-starter anyway. 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Hi Diary!

 

So, running around and trying to learn how to be a Hero in Paragon City has been really fun. I've found out all sorts of stuff that I didn't know about the city, because they put these little plaques and monuments *everywhere* that tell you all about people and things that have happened. They also have these MASSIVE cement statues of their favorite heroes all over the place, too. (Those would be toast in the Isles. Someone would blow them up, or turn them into jello, or paint them bright orange five minutes after they were unveiled. Tops.) I also know where ALL of the good bookstores are, now.

 

 

I spent some time talking to Mr. Castanella (The live one, not the ghost from Night Ward-) about all kinds of things... The Midnighters. Magic. My parents... You know. He wanted me to patch up things with Percy, because Tommy had told him we weren't speaking to each other after the dork ratted me out to the librarian. <_< I said I would, but I couldn't FIND him.

 

'Turns out he'd been kidnapped by the cabal of Circle people in Steel Canyon.

 

 

He was super miffed that *I* was the one who came and rescued him. XD

 

We talked about it on the way back to the Midnighter's Club, though, and while I still think he's kind-of a weasel we agreed to keep things civil. At least when Mr. Castanella's around.

 

"White Thorn" has also gotten to meet a few more of the City's heroes.

 

I ran into Des and her friend Overdrive again ('Pretty sure Des recognized me, but she didn't blow my cover. OD was clueless. ^_^), I met a real goofball named Sky Dragon (He seems sweet, but maaaaybe isn't the brightest Light cantrip ever-), and I talked to a guy named Ravenstorm. He's the most interesting one. He felt Dark. I recognized the shadows around him... But he wasn't a mage, or even an adept. He didn't seem to know much about magic at all! I meant to ask him how he could use Dark magic without being magically-trained or even magically-inclined (That trick might come in handy if the idea B's working on falls through-), but I didn't have time. I had to go break ALL of the Council's stuff for Mrs. Peebles, and Toby and his brother.

 

I must have cost The Center a fortune in repair bills, Diary. It was fun. ^_^

 

I've also spent a lot of time dealing with artifact thieves. I mean, A LOT of time. That seems to be what White Thorn is getting a reputation for doing... Chasing down dangerous artifacts and dealing with the jerks who took them. Jerks like the Banished Patheon's cultists.

 

 

I had to go get something called the Wheel of Destruction back from them. (An artifact that they didn't even know how to reassemble properly, I should note. They really are numbskulls.)

 

 

I guess it's a Good Thing that they couldn't figure out what to do with it, because if they had I couldn't have used it myself to kick their butts. I *am* still mad about the thing with them and my boss in Dark Astoria, but I didn't lose my temper, and none of them died this time. Gregor said that I had done a great job when I brought the pieces of the Wheel back to him. He and Azuria remind me just a little too much of Edratarees and Rob, though... and I have a feeling that I'm going to have to go out and find that Wheel all over again someday. That's... sort-of why I disassembled the artifact again before I gave it to them. You don't leave things like that just laying around.

 

I've also tried talking to a few of the other Circle people in Talos. Some of them are okay, but a lot of them have been listening to the Archmagus of Madness for way, way too long. (He thinks we ought to abandon the past, and just take over the modern City and turn it into a new place of our own.) His faction think they'll need a whole lot of host bodies for that, so that everyone can have one. They're out kidnapping new "potentials" all the time, looking for good candidates. I tried to tell them that that REALLY wasn't helping when it came to getting people to maybe not hate us, or run away screaming for a hero every single time they see someone with glowing eyes and spikey armor, but I don't think they listened.

 

   

 

The weirdest thing I've done this week was for one of the Midnighters... He *said* it was another artifact retrieval... That the Warriors (They're sort-of a gang of SCA dudebros) had stolen the "Platonic Solids" and he wanted them back. I kind-of gave him the eye about that one. I mean, he wanted me to go out and take back basic Geometry?! But he said no, he was serious. And it was important. So, I agreed to do it.

 

I punched Pythagoras, Diary.

My contact had me punch Pythagoras.

 

 

He was a lot younger than I thought he'd be...

(Yes, Safe. I know. The real one's been dead since the 5th century BC. That was supposed to be a joke, you nerd.)

 

Anyway, it turns out the Midnighter is a tabletop gamer and the Warrior dude stole his dice when they were playing Capes & Cowls at the local Merlin's. I'm not sure he really needed a hero to handle that, but... Yeah. Platonic Solids. In an old Crown Royal bag. <_<

 

Sometimes the hero-business is just weird.

 

-k 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[Coyotedancer]

Dear Diary-

 

B and Feral and I all got texts from our friend Black Sheep today. One of her Longbow contacts had a big problem, she said, and she wanted us to help solve it. We all said we'd do it... but only if she could PROMISE us (Like, swearing on the names of the gods of wool-) that there would *not* be any pervs involved. She said she was pretty sure Dominatrix didn't have anything to do with it, so we agreed. Two people we hadn't met before also came along... Kik (Who is the cutest bug-person EVER!) and Aurora.

 

The Longbow officer told us that a former hero named White Gold had gone rogue, and that he was causing problems around the city. He was a speeder, and could create "after-images" of himself... like echoes... that lingered wherever he had been. That made tracking him down pretty easy, though the echoes were a real pain to get rid of.

 

 

Of COURSE the first place we tracked him to was right in the middle of the sewers.

(I'm going to buy stock in the company that makes Lysol, Diary. I swear I am. <_<)

 

From there, the trail led us to an office building, where we found out White Gold had joined some kind of hard-core protest group that were out to shut down certain research companies in the City for doing some pretty dodgy-sounding experiments.

 

 

When we got to the company's lab facility, there wasn't just a protest going on... It was a full-blown riot! The protestors had broken into the building and were trashing the place. They even threw bombs at us!

 

 

We had to break that up before they burned the whole building down. It's just not a Good Thing to throw bombs around in a place with all sorts of volatile chemicals, experimental drugs and who knows what else. I'm not sure if that lab's experiments really counted as Mad Science, exactly, but it was pretty close. <_<

That lab is were we met Gerald.

 

The company had been working on sort-of a transmutagenic drug that they had hoped they could use to cure cellular diseases. The protestors didn't really care about that bit, though. They just didn't like the way the scientists were testing it... So they used it on them. They exposed the lab people to their own compound, and it had changed them. We managed to rescue them all, but we couldn't undo what the drug had done to them. 

 

Diary, it had turned them all into small, furry animals.

Mice, rabbits, rats, guinea pigs, chipmonks... 

Gerald? He had been turned into a squirrel.

 

He told us that the protestors had claimed to be working with Hamidon and his Devouring Earth, and that there were some even more dangerous things in the lab that they might get into. We figured the protestors had been duped into working with the DE... But after checking the security video and some mind-reading? Nope. They knew EXACTLY what they were doing.

 

Gerald agreed to help us get into the secured part of the lab. (He's a really brave guy. He navigated the air shafts on his own, scouted rooms for us, got into a fight with an escaped tarantula and everything-) It was a serious mess when we got there. The protestors had let out something REALLY nasty. And huge. And covered with tentacles.

 

 

It hit hard, too. B had to use one of his armor's abilities that pulls material from targets to reinforce itself in the middle of that fight, to keep from seriously getting hurt. Usually doing that is just more weird than dangerous, but for some things it can really mess with him... That's why he has so much trouble with the Talons. It's not just that they get into his head. It's that when he uses them to strengthen his armor, or to heal, he ends up taking a part of them in as a part of himself. His having to do that with the experimental-drug altered green monster? That was scary.

 

He says he can handle it. That it's just the way his armor works... But after the Talons thing? I'm still going to worry about what it  does to him.

Anyway, after we got rid of the Green Monster, we found out some interesting things. White Gold had just been using the protestors as a cover. What he was really after was another one of the lab's experimental developments. He wanted it to sell to the Goldbrickers! To King Midas!

 

All of this was about a ROBBERY, Diary. <_<

 

Gerald and his co-workers got turned into little animals, we got bombs thrown at us, a whole lab got destroyed and B had to absorb part of a giant tentacle monster... Because some super-speeding jerk wanted money.

 

So we went to have some pointed words with the Goldbrickers.

 

 

Some really, really STERN and pointed words.

 

 

Some of their guys were tougher than the Goldbrickers I remember from back home. One of them even managed to dodge out of the way of my attacks fast enough that I missed him completely and ended up almost knocking poor Kik out of their body. (Sorry Kik. I really, really didn't mean to almost squish the cutest bug ever. 😞 )

Eventually we did corner White Gold, though, aaaand you can probably guess what happened. 

 

 

So, we got the guy...

 

But Gerald and the others are probably stuck the way they are and no one will ever know if that drug might have worked if they'd had time to finish their experiments and refine it.

 

Sort-of a win for the team.

Sort-of not.

 

-k

 

((Player's Note: If you're interested in meeting Gerald the Squirrel and punching White Gold in the nose a few times, this adventure is AE Arc#8856. @Harpsong's "Catch the Rogue Speedster". It's good fun, but there are some tough goons in there. Bring friends, like Sheep did. ^_^))

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Coyotedancer