My Second Life (with capes)

2010-10-26T13:25:00.001-04:00

http://www.desf.qettt.com

Closed...we've moved

2010-06-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

We've moved to our own server!

http://paragoncitytales.net/gone-rogue

Endgame

2010-06-02T06:32:00.000-04:00

Safe Havens was born after watching my best friend, Cold Soldier, and his friend, Bankshot - also known as the Raynes brothers - get squeezed out of the SG that they had founded, Futura Force.

I know how it feels.

Last night I handed the keys to Havens to Kalius, who is keeping it as a "steward". Most likely, I've lost the group forever.

Masonry did this to me, too. It took me 2 years to get him out of my system. It'll probably be that long before I get Grim out. In the meantime, he's gone. I'm gone. You say it's a game? No. IT WAS MY LIFE for 3 years.

The sacrifice of one for the many.

Some will appreciate it, others will think "good riddance."

This blog is now closed. It was a nice run. Thanks.

Shift! Light-RP.

2010-05-31T18:13:00.001-04:00

After much thought and discussion, I'm going to switch gears. I'll play light RP with this group. PDA's will cause Grim to escape. No more getting so deeply involved.

Lue and Grim might still have their relationship, but off camera. Depends.

Also, my job in this SG is to foster the new people, get their stories out, and to most of all, go back to having fun. Especially with the new people, who have been window dressing these past few months. Five people should not drive the SG plots. And we all don't have to be involved in each other's plots, as alts or others. Some of us have an idea of where our own plot is going to go - and people should respect that, and not try and take over the plot from someone else, nor should they come between developing plots and come in to "save the day". This SG is not for you. This SG is for US.

Grim keeps saying that we should work together as a team, and that's one thing the player has always felt. Too many people have been relegated to the audience - if it's their choice, fine. But it's time to see what they can do.

Done (aka The Hissy Fit)

2010-05-31T05:05:00.001-04:00

Seems pretty obvious to me that nobody seems to care.

Why bother? Jack's player has Petite's player. Raina's player has LeBeau's player. Oh, and Jack's too, since all he did was run around placating her toons, while I waited. And waited. And was an afterthought. And when they did get together, his toon was "I just want to go to sleep".

Nobody noticed I wasn't on AIM. Nobody noticed I had cleaned out my globals. I shut off the Warehouse from everyone. Nobody even asked. Not one email. Not one OOC ping. Why? "Oh, it's just Grim. He'll be fine."

I'm glad you can assume that.

While doing a scene, my partner was browsing web sites. No wonder it took so long for a response. I guess I bore him. I bore Kal too, since he's jumped to Adam pretty much most of the time and has his own new beau who's more of a pedantic son of a bitch than Grim is. Obviously I can't fulfill that, either.

I can't fulfill people offline, I can't do it online, so you know what? Go off, enjoy yourselves. Maybe I'll check in with an old toon or two. But I give up, without a fight.

Why do you care? It's all RP anyway.

Right.

Regroup

2010-05-30T18:23:00.000-04:00

Taking a break.

The Referee

2010-05-30T07:54:00.000-04:00

LeBeau: "Bitch."
Jenna: "Idiot."
Grim: "Guys, this is between Jack and Raina. Champions for the tournament will be chosen later."

Grim, drunk, in Raina's room: "He's gone from one leash to another."

Friday night was pretty quiet in the RP world. Yesterday was when the shit hit the fan.

First, Grim and Lue shared a moment, and Grim found out from Lue that he had given Kat a jade amulet to help protect her against his poison. Grim was pissed. Here he was, trying to overlook the fact that Kat was consorting with the enemy, to try and be friendly to her for Lue's sake; and here Lue gave her an amulet, while he had figure out a spell that would stop the poison. And one was already in existence. Lue said that Grim's spell worked better, so that made Grim feel better. Still...and Lue knew that Grim would take a while to really trust him. "I'm a serpent. We're patient."

Grim found LeBeau and took him aside. He told him that Raina was going to need comfort, and to be there for her. Then, while he and Shadow were talking, Raina came in, depressed, but resolved. Grim offered to make her some chicken, and while he did it, Jenna walked in. Grim then took Jenna aside and told her that Jack was going to need some comfort, and to be there for him. Jack walked in and went right to Jenna. Grim said nothing, going back to Raina.

Raina asked Grim to give Jack the divorce decree that she had done up, and Grim refused. So she went and did it herself, and then took off. Jack signed it. Grim offered his place, but knew he was all set with Jenna and her apartment. Then he took position at the grotto, and whenever someone signed on, he called them to the base. He then "used the hammer" as Oblique put it, and repeated, "Jack and Raina got a divorce. Raina took off. Jack is with Jenna. No, I don't know the details, ask them." Actually, he did, but he's not spreading gossip and getting his words twisted around. He also tried to tell everyone not to pass judgment until they got Jack's side of the story.

Of course, everyone who showed up went running to comfort Raina. Grim knew this was going to happen, so when Jack called him to tell him he wanted to talk to him, that was the first thing he said. Jack explained his side - Grim knew that things had been heading downhill for a while. Jenna was just the final catalyst. Grim then told Jack that he should just take time, that Grim would do what he could to try and get people to see Jack's side. He didn't want Jack to go to the base, knowing he really wasn't up to a confrontation. But Jenna pushed him, and he finally decided to go. Grim gave up, and, again, labeled Jack as pussy-whipped.

Grim went in with Jack and Jenna. Of course, LeBeau was there, and he went nuts. Grim stood in the middle, a spirit summoned, ready to hold him down. Raina told LeBeau to stand down, and he finally did. Then Jack spoke, saying he still wanted to be there for her, for the kits, and for the team. He said that Jenna didn't 'steal him away', that this was a long time coming. LeBeau and Jenna went at it for a bit, and Grim stepped between them, too. Raina told LeBeau to give them the key to the villa. Jenna refused, tossing it back. LeBeau threw it back at her, harder. She threw it back. Grim commented, "Badminton anyone?" Raina said had she offered to make them happy and they were refusing it. Finally Jack and Jenna left.

Grim grabbed a bottle of J.D. and started drinking. You know things are bad when he starts drinking, and you also know he's going to get pretty drunk pretty fast. He went to the fire, and saw Raina crying on Mareo's shoulder. Raina asked for probes to keep the alcohol from the kits, and asked Grim for one swallow. He gave her the bottle. She drank it, "to take the edge off." She went to the kits to put them to sleep, and LeBeau apologized for his behavior. Grim said that Jenna was out of line in some spots, too, and he really couldn't apologize for her. "In fact, I won't. But don't solve this in here. Out there, anything goes." LeBeau agrees. Again, he told her to go to Raina. Grim also admitted that he wants to stay in the middle, that he doesn't want to favor one side over the other, he wants to hear all sides. He wants to be available for both of them. But he won't be a messenger boy.

He heads to Raina's room, and when he doesn't get anyone's attention from across the hall, he throws a rock through the window. "I'll fix it!" he says, and yes, he's already drunk. He goes in, fixes the window - it seals as a different color because, yes, he's drunk - and sits down. Raina brings up beating up the Sealers, and Grim begs that they just nuke them all. LeBeau, meanwhile, is hovering so close to Raina that if he could climb in her clothes, he would. Grim knew that was going to happen. He's at the point where he's sick of the whole thing, and wants to concentrate on Lue and keeping the team calm and together. He offered to take leader, but Raina said, "I have a lot of support here," which Grim took as, "You'll never be leader."

Grim knew Lue was right - he was being used, but then, he offered himself. Grim then knew that Jack and Jenna were pretty much alone at this point. He also knew that he was the only person to at least listen to Jack's side - if not take it - who was sitting in that room. And he was in no condition to argue being as drunk as he was. He was alone, too. Alone and unappreciated. In fact, Raina dismissed him and told him to go to sleep. With a pang of hurt, dampened by the alcohol, he left.

Apathy

2010-05-28T08:43:00.000-04:00

Gabsy: We need a powerful mage to break through the wards. *looks at Grim* Regretfully, we have you.

The action that happened Tuesday night - the rescue of Petite - never happened. Wednesday night, Grim and Lue went to the base and made salmon with lemongrass, giving some to Kat and Oblique. Raina showed, and Lue went to talk to her. Basically he told her that he would rejoin the team provisionally - that if they started anything, he'd push back. Raina said that the reverse would be true, and Lue said he'd expect that. He'd also accept help in his war, from people that he trusted - and Raina wasn't one of them. That made Grim go "whoa." "Grim, ready to go home?" Grim followed meekly, stunned.

They went home. Grim got exposed to the venom again, and his hand was burned to the bone. He tried to make it non-chalant, but Lue knew something was wrong. He went to get the anti-venom but he was fighting to be able to see. Lue had to inject him. Lue was angry at himself but Grim kept telling him it was all right, that they'd find something.

Thursday, and Grim was hanging around the base. There's a story up at Guild Portal that explains what he did in the morning. There may be another one of what he did in the afternoon. Mark and Grim discuss that Petite hasn't checked in. Grim reads this as concern, but only as a part of the team. And, dammit, another girl runs away. After a conversation of comparing themselves to the X-Men and other comic book characters, Gabsy comes over and Grim asks him to find LeBeau who would then find Petite. He agrees he will. "Thanks, Gabsy, you're a peach."

Grim and Shadow head to the library, and suddenly Gabsy doubles over in pain. Grim watches, slightly amused. He doesn't even ask what's wrong, he just looks at Shadow and says, "Well, let's go to the library."

He overhears that Gabsy feels that LeBeau's with Petite, and they're injured. Grim thinks about it, and returns to listen to the conversation. He sighs and gets his coat - let's go rescue Petite. This rescuing is getting old, Grim thinks. And it's always the women.

Priest shows up and he and Grim banter. Grim says, "The things I can show you..." Priest replies, "Bring it, blondie." Gabriel goes into the "gravity of the situation" while Grim, Priest, and Kat all sigh and wait for him to finish. There is an evil spirit that is holding Petite captive. Why? How? No explanation, it just is. Grim doesn't particularly care at this point. He just wants this over and done with.

Grabbed scrapper-Grim because we needed damage. They went to some mysterious realm - again, Grim didn't ask for details. Went inside, and about 15 minutes into it, my computer crashed. Opal Witch probably took down the wards to release LeBeau and then later Petite. They also defeated a "Herald", the one who allegedly tortured Petite. He was a "comet" who would return. Grim's going to call him Haley. Grim also thinks that maybe Kat would be useful to him and Lue. However, if he presented it to Lue like that, he wouldn't agree. So Grim has to figure out a way to say "We can use her" in a diplomatic way.

After the rescue, Witch sends Petite and LeBeau home via teleport. Grim mentions there's not much in Galaxy except the arena, and then he looks at Priest. "I challenge you, knave!" he yells, throwing down his glove.

They go to the Arena. Grim proceeds to get his ass kicked, with Shadow watching. (Though I would have loved to see how he would fare against defender-Grim - probably would have still got his ass kicked, but it would be worth it to see Priest cower at least once.) They return to the base and Grim comments that the medbay is probably crowded. "That means the bar is free," Priest says, and they go to the grotto. The two of them have drinks while there's action in the medbay that the players can hear, but the characters can't. It seems neither Grim, Priest, or Shadow really give a shit.

Priest heads home, and Grim also goes. On the way, Opal Witch stops him and tells him what happened. His response: "Cool. But honestly? I don't really care." With that, he leaves.

Myrrh, a long talk, Tsoo, and mistakes

2010-05-26T12:05:00.001-04:00

Myrrh:

Friday night Grim went over to the base. Shadow was there, agitated. It seems that Raina had changed that he should find Myrrh from three days to one. Grim was pissed, but didn't have time for it, as a new person was introduced, a wraith inhabiting a skeleton named Madam Rosemary. Parts fell off her every once in a while and Grim would pick them up and give them to her. Grim offers to help Shadow - they're going to talk to Hank. Hank really has no idea where Hecker is, but they're going there anyway.

They get there, and Hank gives Grim a stone egg that allegedly calls Hecker. He settles down to do it, and Hecker appears as a hologram. Rosemary goes to attack him and loses a leg for her trouble. The characters demand how to capture Myrrh. Hecker tells him that there's gems that if they touch her, they'll absorb her and then the gems need to be utterly destroyed. Grim has three of the gems in the magic room; Hank gives him another one. Then, while Shadow's talking to him, Grim finds the end of the hologram. Because it's actually magic, he can manipulate it. So he pulls the real Hecker through the line and drops him in a circle.

The real Hecker appears, bloody and coughing up blood. Rosemary puts his soul in a brooch. Rosemary, it seems has ADD - after that she puts the brooch on, when she's supposed to give it to Shadow for safe keeping. "Rosie. Rosie? Rosie, honey, look at me." She looks at him and bats her eyes at him. "Honey, please, give Shadow the brooch." Grim has another fan.

Grim has no mercy to Hecker, though, and doesn't even bother healing him. He lets him die in a pool of blood on the floor. Grim looks at Hank and says, "You'd better run."

With the gem in hand they go back to the base. Grim asks who has a good throwing arm, and Jack, LeBeau, and Para say they do. He gives them each a gem. He tells them that they're supposed to throw it at Myrrh and make sure she touches it, and then she'll be absorbed. Then LeBeau is supposed to crush it into powder and send the powder "into the sun, a black hole, somewhere". Grim tells Shadow that he needs to let Myrrh loose - but Shadow says they can go to the dimension instead. Fine, fine, so the three men go into the other dimension. LeBeau tosses the gem, and Myrrh gets absorbed.

They return from the dimension and then Grim waits for LeBeau to do his thing. Instead, LeBeau "travels" to the sun and throws the gem in it, and gets burned himself in the process. Grim shakes his head - that's NOT what he wanted LeBeau to do. So Grim walks away from it with the word "Dumbass" on his lips. They take LeBeau to the medbay. Jack goes off to make coffee. Grim starts to clean up. Rusty says, "LeBeau was nearly burned alive in the sun.... 'Who waaants PIZZA!'" Jack returns, they order a pizza, and they kind of stand around bullshitting. Meanwhile LeBeau is probably near death, and Grim doesn't care. Neither, it seems, does Jack. Or Shadow. Or Rusty. Well, Rusty cares, but as much as he would care if a member of the team got injured.

Aldin shows up. He basically tells Grim "how a technomancer takes care of things is his business and not yours." Grim is of the opinion that if you get a spell, especially the first time, you follow it to the letter. Obviously these guys take things and run with them, which is fine if you want to be a creative chef, but not so much as a mage. It was LeBeau's fault he got burned up. And Grim honestly doesn't care, knowing he'll be fine in the morning. Grim knows LeBeau has a deathwish, and he's no longer playing into it.

Grim leaves and Mase shows up and comes onto Jenna. He gets Jenna's phone number and promises to call her. Meanwhile Raina wonders if Grim is around at home.

Quick switch, and Rusty and Shadow visit Grim who comes out of the bedroom. Jack and Raina are with them. Lue refuses to come out. Grim shows them around. Then Raina takes a deep breath and apologizes.

Then I have to leave.

Saturday.

Grim and Lue get together and clear out a few places. Shadow comes over and visits at night, and Grim and Shadow talk about how Shadow brought out Rusty's anger and almost made him go nuts. Grim does tell Shadow that Rusty has a lot of hidden anger, and he should be allowed to express it in controlled conditions. "He just got his emotions back. That's like telling someone who just got their license to go take a car out on the speedway."

Switch to Mase, who meets Jenna in the D. She's drinking vodka from the bottle, and he knows that she's feeling badly. Mase talks to her, to distract her, and they spend a couple of hours there. Before Jenna heads back home.

Raina goes to talk to Grim. They have a long conversation about what it is that bothers Grim about her, so he's brutally honest: Her relationship with LeBeau, and the fact that she's suddenly turned into a big wimp. He keeps trying to tell her that support is not dependence, and that they're not the same people any more. Whether this works, that's another story.

Sunday.

Grim hooked up with Petite. She didn't apologize, and Grim didn't cause waves. She did admit that Grim was a powerful mage and respected him for that. He accepted it. Eventually the team filled up. Priest came along and actually called Grim's bluff when Grim came onto him. Sansa joined up and asked for help finding Carnival masks, one of which probably controls her. They all go to where there's some Carnie tents and beat up some people. After that, Priest and Grim went for a drink. Grim basically warned Priest not to underestimate Lue.

Monday.

I had a story idea, where I would tell the story of Lue's war from the Tsoo point of view. Tub Ci has gathered five men that he knows are excellent warrior/sorcerers, and they are meant to go after Lue. I did the first story under The Serpentine War, and I'm making AE's for the heroes to go into. The purpose of the AE is to tell a story, maybe give a challenge while I do it. If we can sneak through it to the objective, fine. Its main purpose is for RP, so I might not make the enemies difficult.

Anyway, I did part 1, "The Sorcerer's Crusade." Lue had heard that Tub Ci was in the Xiong compound and was sort of taking it over. They needed to flush him out, and one way was to piss off the sorcerers. Lue then suggests that he pass out one of the easier Tsoo spells in a pamphlet. Grim and Lue spend most of Monday passing out these pamphlets.

Grim then heads off to a section of Steel Canyon that they haven't been to, and Kat happens to come along. It ends up being a fight between Tsoo sorcerers and ink men. A Master Li was there, a trainer of Lue's brother's, a dual swordsman with dark secondary. (Yes, I love this mix and match of abilities). The three heroes went at him - went down once, but that was because there was so many other bad guys around. We took him down the second time. Grim and Lue try to tell Kat that it's too dangerous for her to come with them on their war - Lue is going to exact his revenge cruelly, and Grim is going to hold Tub Ci down to let him do it. Kat was a little put out by that. OOCly we're trying to figure out how to add her.

Tuesday.

Let's just say, I'm not quite sure what happened. Grim and Lue got together for a short time and then Lue had to switch to Caden. Caden was supposed to talk to Raina and Grim at some point. Petite took off, got captured, and Mark went to go find her. Grim has decided that unless you ask for help, or take his offer of help, he's not going to force you. They offered to help Mark, but he took off. So Grim just shrugged and sat around filling the new guy in on what was going on. Caden came along and brought Grim into the magic room. They started talking, but then Raina yelled for them. They ran to the grotto and Raina is pissed, "Oblique just told me that Mark took off to find Petite." Grim says, "Yeah." That really gets her mad. Raina wants to be constantly informed - Grim didn't think it was a big deal, since Mark does this kind of thing all the time. "Give some of us some credit--" he starts, and Raina starts, and then Caden yells, "Enough!" Raina says they're going to rescue her. Caden finds her in Croatoa somewhere. Actually, she's in the spirit realms.

Enter Grim, who knows his way around there (thanks, Hermes). The team goes to Croatoa, and from there takes a trod that Grim manipulates into an entrance to the spirit world. (Honestly, I don't think he can bring living people into the spirit world - I think it must mess something up. I will send this possibility to the muse to see what consequences Grim suffers.)

Now here's where it gets crazy. As a temporary measure, they're using the fae base as an "evil temple." There's a barrier. Grim starts to take down the wards or lessen them - I tried to leave it open enough for it to not be effective. LB was GM, but he was also a main player. I know from role playing, if you're going to GM and play, don't play the main character because you can't concentrate on both. All of us were doing things, or offering ways to get past the barrier. LB didn't respond fast enough - and I misunderstood one of his answers. Everyone attacked. LB's character passed out, and everyone ignored him until the last minute, when Caden tried to jump-start him. Grim walked past him saying, "Don't bother, it's not worth it." Then LB logged. We were all confused. I think we still are.

Personal opinion available on request. AIM: warwriter1939, or gmail: warwriter@gmail.com

Honesty

2010-05-21T08:39:00.000-04:00

Rusty to Grim: "I don't know how you can piss these people off. It boggles the mind."
Grim looks at Rusty and laughs.
Jack chuckles, "He's good."

Grim to Lue: "No secrets. I made that rule for Havens, and I intend to abide by it."

Grim: "I'd totally submit to you."
Lue: "I don't want your submission. I want you to see what I see when I look at you."

Grim is in Wentworth's when Lue shows up. Grim offers to take him out for dinner. They go to Faultline and get a pizza, and sit next to the fountain and talk. Grim then tells Lue what his initial intentions for him were. Lue says that "I owe you so much, it would have been your due." But Grim couldn't - and can't - bring himself to do it. He truly loves him. He begs Lue's forgiveness for thinking that way intially. Lue forgives him.

Grim then says he's going to Havens to just check in, to see how Raina's doing, that hopefully she's calmed down enough so that he can talk rationally to her. Lue says he'll wait at home for him. They're in public, Grim kind of hims-and-haws about whether to kiss him goodbye, so he just walks away.

He gets to the base, and sees Shadow and Rusty in the lab. He's happy to see them, but then Shadow tells Grim that he's been banned from the base. "I have to find Myrrh. And I have to look through every human mind in the world to do it." Grim's response, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

It seems that Shadow had taken out Myrrh and put her in a human body. (For some reason, she's got it out for Grim because when they first met she wanted to kill him - maybe it has to do with the fact that he tried to kill her once a while back? Or that Grim is a mage and she's afraid of him because he can control her?) Now Myrrh's loose and jumping from body to body. Raina banned Shadow from the base until he finds Myrrh. This pisses Grim off to no end.

They plan on trapping her. Grim makes up a few sigils and gives it to Rusty and Jack so that it makes it difficult for Myrrh to jump into their minds. Then the group goes to Talos and camps out at one of the islands there. Shadow gets her to appear - she's in a teenage girl's mind and using her ability to astral project. Jack sends a file that he got from Raina to Grim's phone. There are news reports of ten bodies dead in different ways, but the same MO of friends killing friends. The last body has Grim's face burned into the ground next to it. "I hope they got my right profile. My left one sucks." (One thing about Grim: the more emotion in a scene, the more he makes light of it.)

Grim goes into the astral plane with the avatar and tracks the girl's soul back to the train station, where she's lying bleeding to death. Shadow teleports them all to her (well, they have to get there) and Jack stabilizes her while Grim looks for a ley line. He finds one, and starts drawing from it to heal her. Then someone else starts using it and he balks (it's like a little tug of war) and he lets go. By then, the bleeding has stopped, and physically she's okay. Jack says he'll check in on her later to see if he needs to heal her mind.

Shadow meanwhile has trapped Myrrh in a vessel (a stone, I think) and Jack charges Shadow with finding her homeworld in three days: "Or we destroy it, or it gets sent to the Netherworld, or SOMETHING." They need to find Hecker first. To be continued.

Not of this world

2010-05-20T08:53:00.000-04:00

"Go forth and piss off Hell." Grim to Devil-Shot Smith.

Grim was in the cozy library nook in the base when Lue came upon him. Grim was kind of staring out into space, thinking about what he had done that morning (story on aScripta). Lue asked him what he was thinking of. Grim told him what happened and said, "You know what the funny thing was? I didn't think that you would do something like that to me. You wouldn't sleep with someone else. That's the first time I've ever believed it." Then Grim did say that if Lue ever caught him he would totally deserve any punishment he was going to dish out. "I don't ever want to hurt you." Then Grim almost admitted to what he was thought of Lue when they first met, but someone yelled from the entrance, "Hey mage, you in here?" Saved!

Grim and Lue came out of the library to see Devil-Shot Smith. The gunslinger was distressed - he had gotten more powerful and was able to channel the fires of Hell more. Grim and Lue both explained to him it wasn't where the power was coming from, but how you use it. Grim illustrated it with his own life. Smith wanted Grim to look at the guns.

Grim took them upstairs and looked at them through mage sight. They were indeed evil, and the darkness was entwined throughout them. All the bullets were marked with auras, the seven colors of the rainbow. Grim called Smith an instrument like he was - except Grim was summoned to do his duty. Smith wondered if he was actually summoned to do things. Grim explained that maybe he was, maybe he just didn't realize it. "You don't kill innocents, do you?" Grim asked. "No!" Smith said adamantly, "Everyone I shot deserved it." The road to Hell is paved with good intentions? Far be it for Grim to admonish him.

The guns themselves were not possessed with a human mage's power, but the power of demons. It's not quite beyond Grim's ability - he could probably unravel the power from the guns. However, Grim feels that if he does, it'll destroy the guns and the man. The man so far isn't corrupted. Grim has faith that Smith will choose the right path. He may act badass, but Grim can see through that. If the corruption gets through, then Grim will reassess.

Also at the same time, Frigid Blue came around and Lue created a water sculpture of her (something Grim would NEVER have tried) and Blue froze it. Grim and Lue said that they'd do some research to help Blue control her powers better - she touches things and they freeze.

Blue also watched Grim look at the guns. Lue also looked at them, and from what he could tell, they were very old, probably before gunpowder even existed. Smith left, ready to "dispense some justice", and then Blue followed right after. Then Lue proved that Grim can dish things out, but can't take it.

Mase showed up at Havens, and there was a new person, StoneJoe (stone tank, natch). StoneJoe was dumb as a stump, and that scared Mase, because he thought that he would eventually turn into that. Jack suggested that he talk to Mark about it. Still not sure myself I want that to change.

I think tonight Grim will check in with Havens again and talk to Raina. But, you know, nothing ever goes as planned...

Meeting with Kat

2010-05-19T12:34:00.000-04:00

Signed on first with Desert Witch and joined a Sister Psyche TF. It took just under 2 hours - we ninja'd a couple of the missions. It was a really good team, I was very surprised. Witch got 3 levels out of it. I think she's going to be sticking around, too, which means Dmitrius has to give her money and I have to put in my order. Now with the new ability to transfer influence by email, it's a lot easier.

Grim needed to meet with Kat, to let her know things were going all right. He told her that he had done his homework with Kal, that Kal said he was acting like a spoiled child because he didn't get his way, and that he was running away, that he had a larger ego than the technomancers. Lue peeks in, and Grim waves him inside. The two sit next to each other, because Grim feels that whatever he says to Kat he can say to Lue too.

Grim explains that he was always a bottom, the submissive one. "Except when I...teach." He always considered himself weaker, physically weaker (though he in reality isn't any more), and allowed people to abuse him. He doesn't mind surrendering, it's a "sweet surrender."

He tells Kat also that life's too short, and he's started becoming more undiplomatic and direct. "I don't have time or patience to cushion things." He's realized this because, as a Reaper, he's seen many endings, and heard many regrets. He doesn't want to face that. He feels that eventually they'll see his point, and, even though he might be wrong, he's at least drawn their attention to it. "Consciously or unconsciously, you've done something to change it."

He also assures Kat that when it comes to working with the team, he will work with the team, regardless of who's on it. Afterward, all gloves are off and it's back to the way things were.

She asks what his plans are, and right now they're to go after the Tsoo, especially Tub Ci. Kat dismisses them saying that she still wants to catch up with him every once in a while, and that she'd be happy to help Lue if necessary. Lue and Grim then head home.

Mark sees them, and apologizes to them. Grim and Lue also note that maybe they weren't the best at it, either - and Grim gives Mark a hug.

Grim tells Lue about Mark's possible "guest". Lue doesn't like the idea, but Grim seems to think he can hold him down. Lue says that if there's any threat against Grim, Lue will take the Komodo down. Grim accepts that, sealing the deal.

Welcome Home

2010-05-18T09:30:00.002-04:00

Kat: Now I have the images of naked men burned into my retina!
Grim: They need to have at least 7 inches.
Mark: Grim, tone it down.
Grim: But mine...
Mark: GRIM!

Gabsy: Do you know how much sleep I'll lose if I break you?
Grim: None.
Gabsy: Exactly.

There was some nasty bug last night. I brought out something like six characters, who would get a team, and then when we would head into missions, we would crash. I finally gave up and put Dmitrius in the hot tub - naked - to await people to sign on.
Mark showed up, but he seemed distracted. Dmitrius talked calmly to him while he still sat in the hot tub, and then Mark noticed he was naked. He freaked, and Dmitrius chuckled over it. "When you're on campaign," he says to Mark, "being shy goes out the window."
Dmitrius then mentioned to Mark discussing how to handle the Beast. Dmitrius has his own Beast, and thought to give Mark some pointers on how he handles his. For the most part, Dmitrius allows the Beast limited reign when going up against enemies, and when alone he lets him go. However, when he's hurt beyond something simple - like when Ares dropped him in the fireplace, or he loses a limb - he goes feral. Dmitrius follows the Road of Kings, where he believes that he is a superior being and his job is to protect the kine.
Dmitrius then tries to be nice to the Master Sergeant, proving to him that not all vampires are evil. Morris may - just may - be warming up to him.
Switched to Grim because I thought Mark's player wanted him, but when I got back, he didn't mean tonight. That's okay, I missed Grim. I had it so that Lue had remained behind at home and Grim was just coming over to check in. Kat was drinking wine, Grim was being his usual crass self, and Mark was talking to her. Then Kat mentioned that bestiality seems to be par for the course with this group, and Mark says, "What?" Kat explains that there's a human with a werecat, and that there's a human with a werelizard. Mark takes offense. Kat keeps on going. Grim watches this whole thing, knowing Kat's in her cups, and Gabsy comes into the scene.
Kat then asks Mark if he loses control when he's doing "it", and then Mark punches her. Grim jumps up to go pull him away, and Gabsy throws a fireball at them - Grim gets set on fire, entirely by accident since he was in the way. Grim gathers the water in the air and douses it. His shirt got caught, though. Mark steps away, and Gabsy's readying another volley. Rusty tries to step in, and Grim puts himself between Gabsy and Mark. "Step aside," Gabsy warns Grim. "Through me, first," Grim says, summoning his dark auras. He's trying to get Gabsy to stop and think. So long as he gets Gabsy to talk, he won't do anything violent.
Mark goes over to the fridge and Gabsy's going into how it's rude for people to hit other people to make a point. Grim goes over and says to Mark that he should apologize, which he does. So does she, for pushing him. Grim says that Kat made a mistake, things happen - Mark takes off - Kat follows, and the rest of them think that the best thing to do would not to leave them alone. They go to Mark's room.
Gabsy, in his usual diplomatic fashion, says, "Dr. Samuels, you have 30 seconds to open this door or I will break it down." When he doesn't, Gabsy teleports in, while Rusty opens the door and walks in. Gabsy puts up a force field, denying Grim and Kat entrance. Grim says he can teleport Kat in there, but he can't go in there himself. They're right outside the door, listening. Gabsy has lost patience with Mark. Mark wants Gabsy to leave, he won't, Rusty keeps trying to get him to leave, he still won't. Kat finally gets him to leave. Gabsy looks at Grim for a very long time, and the two don't say anything to each other.
Grim goes in and Rusty mentions that Mark can't do this kind of thing alone. Mark says he hasn't - Kat, Raina, and Petite have been helping. Then Grim says, "You're concentrating on your mind - you ever think that maybe it's your body? You can't control everything." Mark suddenly realizes that that might be it. He tells them that he's travelled through dimensions to find stable versions of himself and asked them for samples of their blood. He tried to break it down…and Rusty explained it best: "He's cheating, looking at someone else's paper. Problem is, they're not taking the same test." Grim then suggests that maybe Mark shouldn't only look at the right ones, but the "wrong yous" so that he knows what NOT to do. Mark says the best example was his Praetorian one.
Grim suggests they capture him and study him. "Raina and Jack want to kill him." So Grim suggests they hide him. First he suggests the Sentinel's base - Rusty is down with that. Then Rusty suggests Grim's place. Grim seems to think he could hold him with help (really: He could do it himself, but he likes to let people help if they want) - the ley lines are strong enough to provide the power to restrain Komodo. Of course, they don't know if magic will work on him. Grim's ready to try. "We hold him down, take a few pints, and send him home with a Fig Newton bar." (The reference, in case you don't know, is that when you donate blood, there's usually a "recovery area" stocked with Fig Newtons and other sugary things.)
Lue then calls Grim (I had to go to bed) and Grim says he has to go home. Grim still keeps the offer open - he'll tell Lue that they're going to get an unwanted guest for a short time, but he won't go into detail yet because he promised Mark he wouldn't tell anyone. Lue will probably not be happy, not at all.

Out of Retirement

2010-05-17T14:11:00.001-04:00

Out of Retirement

Wow, things are quiet without Jack or Grim around. I had taken most of my toons out of the SG, leaving behind Harmoniae, Womby, Mase, Dmitrius, and Eule. The ones that are out of the SG have the barest minimum of a storyline (I think KT is the most fleshed-out), so I didn't want to set them up.

Friday night I think was uneventful. Saturday we did the Moonfire TF and blew right through it. Also did a Sealer's mission and did not quite blow through that one, though it seemed to be slightly easier than the others we'd done. Either that or we're getting better, or the team composition is better.

Eule came out and he was flustered around Miranda, a new person. (I flubbed some dialogue, and covered it up by making him nervous. Not quite his character, but my excuse was that Miranda is older than him, and he's intimidated by older people. Priest scares the bejesus out of him, even if he did see him naked.) Then Adam and Jason came in and Eule retreated into a corner, seeing the two of them all lovey. He became totally silent, and left when Oblique mentioned true love.

I pulled Mase out on Saturday. Compared to Dmitrius, it was like I was driving a snail. Dmitrius is far more mobile and actually a lot tougher than Mase, except in Granite mode. Mind you, Mase is so old that he doesn't have IO's, just a few Hami-O's. I retired him around the time IO's were introduced, and I wasn't expecting to play him much at all after his exposure to Twisted Twilight. But against Dmitrius...wow. I love Dmitrius.

Mase is my most neutral character right now (for once!), and I'm bringing him back to his first basic story - that he has to take a serum in order to do superhero stuff, and the serum makes him stupid, at least for a little while. It makes him oblivious to social cues and jokes. However, he still is very nice to the ladies, complimenting them and being very supportive of them. He doesn't take the serum often, only when he goes out with the intention to fight crime. Without the stone, he's pretty weakened, but not worthless. I am making him "I won't speak unless spoken to".

Adam asked who he was when they were on a mission, and Mase introduced himself. Then he shut up and went about his business. Again, lack of social cues. When they finished the mission, he went and stared at the water in the pool. And stared. And stared. He didn't say anything until Adam spoke to him. Mase doesn't know about the magic fridge or liquor cabinet. He never thought to ask.

Petite came over and gave him a wolf whistle, which he initially didn't know was directed at him. Then Mase called her a "pretty lady" and complimented her. Mark showed up, and Mase saw their interaction, and then he clammed right up. When faced with blocks, Mase goes quiet and retreats into himself. He used to be the opposite, and would fight against them. But now he's on his last life. He's being more cautious.

The last entry for Bride Price will be tomorrow. I was thinking of doing a Prae-Mase (I had done one about 3 years ago when the other SG I was in at Guardian did the same thing, but I killed him off), but the Prae group has been established. If Grim ever gets captured by Prae - or anyone anymore for that matter - the rest of SH would probably be thankful.

Riot!

2010-05-13T10:10:00.000-04:00

Mark: "The medical teleporter will take care of the ones we knocked out."
Dmitrius: "We were supposed to knock them out?"

Tuesday night was pretty uneventful, because I went to do laundry and somehow fell asleep. Woke up around 10, and assessed what was going on. Grim is not really wanted by the group, so I got Eule. Poor guy was SO squishy. We went after some Sealers with Kiko - yeah, Eule died often.

After that, I respec'ed Eule since he had a free one coming to him. I finally got him a travel power, because invisibly didn't really do much for him.

Wednesday.

Grim has been exploring the ley line. He hasn't found bottom yet - but he suspects that although the ley line itself is natural, it's also being fed by the war walls nearby (powered by Rikti technology according to canon), so the power is going through an organic filter and is therefore useable by him. As he was extending his senses, which have gotten past the room to the hall downstairs, he sensed Lue come in. He had a strange look on his face. Grim eased off the power and went to see him. "What's wrong, love?"

Lue got a letter from his family in Laos. It seems they selected a bride for him and he's supposed to go and marry her. Grim is like, "Really? REALLY?!" Lue says adamantly, "I have no intentions of marrying this woman." But because of tradition, he has to go to Laos to face her and refuse both her and her family. He asks Grim to go with him. "This will be unpleasant." Grim says "I promised to stand by you and I mean that." (You know this means a new story arc, because I just love introducing clashes of traditions to my characters.) Grim then uses the power of the ley line to weave the spell to take away Lue's poisonous venom, hopefully for a week.

Grim then goes to Havens to let Jack know that he was going to Laos for about a week. Jenna was there, and Grim just talked to them.
Mark comes in and totally ignores Grim. Grim lets it go. Kalius comes in, and Grim then performs his homework: He asks Kalius why he thought he abandoned the team. Kalius says that Grim runs away if things don't go his way. He says that he's arrogant - worse than the technomancers (them's fightin' words!), that he's using Lue, and it doesn't matter anyway since Lue has chosen not to be part of the team. Grim tries and explains himself and Lue again, but Kalius won't hear it. Finally, Grim gets mad enough to throw a rune of force at Kalius, knocking him off the stairs. Kalius rolls to his feet, and Jack steps between the two. "Grim, I think it's time for you to go home and pack." Grim is furious, glares at Kalius, and walks away.

Dmitrius shows soon after. Mark meanwhile is watching TV, and something comes up about a riot in Steel Canyon. The heroes go there to help assist in putting it down - and find that Vizir is behind it. (Aside: The map that was used was cool!) They then go to a warehouse and take that down as well. After that, Kalius kisses Dmitrius deeply and drags him to their room.

Grim sees the shrink

2010-05-11T08:27:00.002-04:00

Brought out a couple of alts - but forgot they didn't have SG option on. Oops.

Rusty is working on redoing the spring, as people are actually supposed to go inside it. Grim did but got stuck. We need more power for the slow field for that spring area.

Crasella met up with Grim in the base and they talked for a while. If Grim liked girls, he'd be in love with Crasella. She's as ruthless and apathetic about civilians as he is. Next, Grim went over to the SH for "my daily punishment" as he told Crasella.

He went to the library and saw Shadow and Kalius there. Kalius was short with him. Grim asked why. "You're causing division in my unit."

Grim started yelling at him. "I've told you guys over and over and over, I DIDN'T ABANDON YOU! I just MOVED OUT." It also pisses Grim off that Kalius keeps calling it "his" unit. Jason asks to say something but Grim immediately jumps down his throat. Finally, Grim looks at Kalius and says, "I don't need you. Not anymore."

He stormed off, and Kat followed - he had wanted to speak with Kat. Grim calmed himself down and went to talk to Kat. Grim told her that Jack asked him to talk to her, and since he trusted Lue and Lue trusted her, he felt that he should at least try.

He told her that he didn't trust Gabsy, because of "the Seven Words You Can't Say on Television that cause somebody to spill the beans." She didn't understand what he was talking about. He explained that Gabsy prided himself on knowing 17 words to make someone fall in love and 11 words to make someone go insane. She was surprised about that. Grim noted it and let it go.

They talked about Raina and LeBeau's relationship a little, and Grim said he thought they were too close. He mentioned Jack told him some things that he refused to discuss, but he felt that if he was Jack and he knew this stuff, he would have divorced her, "kits or no kits." He said that he didn't understand how LeBeau could get women to eat out of the palm of his hand, how women fall for him when they know he just does the same thing to all the other women at the same time. "I don't fall for that." She asks him what he does fall for, and Grim smiled, blushing. "Strength. Protection. Devotion. Honor and respect. And appreciation."

Then Grim mentioned that she probably thought Lue was his whore too, and she suddenly realized the relationship that Grim and Lue were in. Grim said that Lue's a very private person, and he doesn't go around announcing it. "But he hasn't denied it, so I won't, either." Grim respects him enough to follow his lead in the relationship. They talk some more, like why he's there ("I'm an impulsive asshole and I want to stop it. I don't have a rune for that."), and she gives him homework - to find out from Kalius why he thinks he abandoned "the unit."

There were problems getting into our base, so Grim met Lue somewhere else and told him what he told Kat. "You're my chivalrous knight," Grim said, cuddling with Lue. Lue said that Grim owned his heart. Always.

The Tomb

2010-05-10T10:44:00.000-04:00

"He goes to help and all he gets in return is abuse and scorn!" Lue to Mareo about Grim.

Grim and Lue worked together to recreate Grim's avatar - the story is forthcoming once I clean it up. Here's a picture.

Grim got exposed to Lue's venom and had to rush to get the anti-venom. Lue was so upset, angry and shaking, "I won't let them take you..." Grim kept reassuring him, saying he was all right, that Raina's blood bought him some time. He promised he wouldn't forget the spell again, and Lue calmed down. Then Grim blurted out, "So! Let's get married!"

Lue stared at him. Grim stared at Lue. Both started to blush - Grim realized he had gone too far. He said he was kidding, and Lue said, "We can talk about it, after Tub Ci is dead and gone." Grim smiled, "You've tamed the tiger." Lue laughed over that, "Indeed."

Grim then said he had to go see Jack, to see how he was faring. Lue didn't think he should go, but he figured Jack was Grim's friend, so let Grim go. Grim saw Jack at the base and they sat down to talk.

Jack said that Grim had a polarizing effect on people. He called Grim charismatic, but full of hate. "Do you want to come back?" Jack asked him. Grim said he wanted to be available to help. "But physically, under the same roof? No. I want to go home at night." Besides, Lue sure as hell didn't want to come back.

Grim asked Jack what he wanted to do. Jack suggested counseling. Grim sat back, of two minds about it. One: he would just LOVE to twist the psychiatrist. Two: They'd think he was really a lunatic and follow through with the necessary steps to take care of that. Grim said that he'd ask Kat, since Lue trusts her, and if she doesn't want to take him on, to ask her to refer him to someone who would.

Jack admitted that he and Raina were going for counseling. It seems they have issues communicating with each other. "Since we lost the link, we have to talk to each other. Like NORMAL people." Jack admitted that he didn't really know Raina well enough - that he had fallen in love after they were together because of John. Jack is worried though, that this is "sink or swim" - if this doesn't work, the marriage won't. And he really wants it to.

Jack also admitted that he wants MindLord dead. Absolutely dead. Grim knows better, and will get out of his way. (Well, he'll hold ML down with leather tentacles first, then let Jack at him.) Then Jack expresses a promise to Grim. Grim was very happy, and offhandedly claimed it.

Grim next met the engineer who was building the Warehouse. Guardian of the Dead looked like a mummy - she looked after people and their afterlife. She said she had built these kinds of things for god-kings before. Grim was a little confused. "Your agent was very specific," she said. "He said that Havens was your home, and this was your resting-place." Grim facepalmed. However, for a tomb, it's pretty nice.

She (Rusty) did build the mineral spring - it's a waterfall with a small pool off to the side. There were heated stones, which would be used to make the pool warm. "This will be finished when you need it. I have never missed a dead-line." She also assured him that she would look after him in his after life, and Grim said, "That's comforting."

Played around with some alts for prestige purposes. Grim returned and told Lue to come to the base to look at the waterfall. Lue thought it was great. Mareo came, and asked Grim and Lue to take out an outpost and to get Crasella out of the jail in Nerva. Mareo would do a diversion for them.

Grim asked, but no one came, which was what both he and Lue expected. Then the two men teleported to Nerva (AE) and rescued Crasella. Grim tried to explain that he was there for Mareo, and Crasella laughed, saying, "Why should I help him?" Grim said, "Because you're cute." She really laughed at that one. Grim did like her. So what if she was an embodiment of destruction? He can overlook that.

Grim then brought her to the Safe Havens base, but stopped at the Grotto. Something was wrong with the new guy, Jason - he didn't like him suddenly. Lue felt the same way, and was very wary. Then Jason said to Adam, "You were so zoned out you didn't notice the blow job I gave you in the kitchen." Grim sighed - sure, there's nothing wrong being gay. However, Grim is a lot less crass when he plays around. Grim and Lue left in disgust, and Grim asked Lue to hit him if he's ever that rude.

Crasella meanwhile has met up with Pyre, and Pyre is still trying to figure out a counter to the spell. Grim gets distracted by Myrrh (who was taken from Oblique without her permission), who hates Grim and all magic users. Lue stood to protect Grim. Pyre walked away, depressed. Grim ran after her, and said that he had access to a larger library than the one there. He took the arrow, closed his eyes.

Grim is able to use his avatar to access the Akashic Records, and now that he and Lue built the avatar, so Lue, in moments of quiet, would be able to feel Grim take the avatar and Grim would feel Lue take it also. As the avatar gets used and worked with by both mages together and separately, other abilities may manifest on the material plane.

The problem with accessing the Records is that it's always temporary. He writes the things down, but after their use, doesn't understand them. So he did it again - wrote down runes as a counter spell. He gave them to Pyre, who didn't understand it, but Vanth did. He and Lue watched the proceedings, and the spell worked - Pyre got her powers back.

Lue and Grim started to leave right then, and saw everyone gathered in the dorm area. Grim should have just walked on by. No - he stopped and asked what was going on. They said that Shadow did some things to Oblique without asking. Grim said, "That happens a lot around here. Get used to it." He started to walk away, and Mark said, "Yeah, you'd approve."

Grim said it has to do with respect, and that there didn't seem to be any around here anymore. He started to walk out, and Mark started into Grim that he was a bigot against the technomancers and that he was a hypocrite. Grim turned the corner to leave and Mark said, "Coward."

Grim couldn't let that go. "WHAT WAS THAT?" He stormed back in. Mark said, without turning around, "You heard me."

Mareo asked Grim to stop. Lue advanced, however, spines out and at the ready, dripping venom. Pyre ran into the room sending out calming energy to calm everyone down. Petite said to Lue, "Think for yourself, you're not his tool." Grim roared, "HE IS NOT..." but took a few deep breaths as Pyre's calming hit him. Lue said, "You called me a WHORE!" Grim then said to Petite, calmly, "Maybe that's a common term for someone such as you." Petite said, "Maybe that was a bad choice of words."

Mareo asked Grim and Lue to leave. They did, reluctantly. Grim said, "I don't want anything more to do with your petty social crap any more. I'm done with this." Grim and Lue left, though Jason threw another barb as they did. Both of them ignored it. (I have some ideas for Jason and Grim, but I have a suspicious feeling that his character godmods.)

Lue was so angry that he was ready to eat metal and spit nails. Grim tried to calm him down, but he got upset himself. "They're only words, only words..." He tried, but choked back a sob. Lue turned and held him.

Mareo came to try and mediate. Mareo thinks it's pride. Both sides aren't listening to each other. Both Grim and Lue said it was about respect. "They treat him like a dog and call for him when they need his power!" Lue thundered. Grim wanted to stop this and decided to take the blame, so he said that it was all his fault, and both of them told him it wasn't. Mareo said that he was losing patience over all this. Lue said coldly, "Then go."

Grim said that Mareo was just trying to help. Mareo changed the subject about the mission. They said it worked out all right. Grim was this close to saying, "Just have them leave us alone," but he knew he couldn't do it himself - he needed the stimulation that Havens gave him, the feeling of being wanted and needed. Mareo said he had talked to them and got them to agree not to antagonize. Lue said he would never step foot in there unless Grim asked. Grim won't push Lue, either. Mareo just wants them to drop it, and he wants them to ignore the hateful words. Grim said nothing - he's not sure that would work.

Mareo left, and the two men remained. They both sighed at the same time.

Picture, sorry

2010-05-09T21:53:00.002-04:00

I'm sorry. I had to.

Severed

2010-05-09T11:16:00.002-04:00

That's the name of Jack's story about how his link to Raina got torn out, so here's the update, at least from Grim's/my characters' POV.

Dmitrius was at the base, explaining his rationale for attacking Lue. Suddenly, Raina went slack, and then jumped up and started attacking things. She was yelling at someone to focus and look outside. Dmitrius, Priest, LeBeau were all watching this, but LeBeau was the only one who had an idea of what was going on. Dmitrius waited for orders from LeBeau.

Raina took off to the mainframe, and everyone followed. Raina was frantically looking through satellite images of St. Martial. LeBeau and Priest also tried and couldn't get anything. Then Raina went into convulsions. Priest, LeBeau, and Dmitrius held her down. She calmed down, and Dmitrius carried her to medbay. Whatever was going on was in her mind, so he called Eule.

Eule arrived and helped to seal the holes created in her mindscape. One thing about Eule, when he's working, he's concentrates entirely on the job. He doesn't judge what the memories were, or question what happened, he tackles the issue and works it through methodically. Eule works on healing Raina's cat, knowing if he does that, she'll be able to heal faster. "Mate gone..." Eule calms her, and he and Mystic's Shadow work on healing the holes. When he's done with that, Eule leaves.

Grim shows up. Yes, sir, he has balls. He gets a brief rundown on what happened, and then he asks if they want him to scry for Jack. LeBeau says yes, and Grim goes to Raina and Jack's room to get something of Jack's to help. He sits on the bedroom floor, and sends out his avatar - a slice of his spirit - to search Grandville. There's a dark cloud over it that the avatar weaves its way through, and then when it is exposed, something grabs it and rips its wings off. This is akin to Grim getting pierced in his soul, and that combined with the snap-back effect of the avatar slamming back into his body, makes him scream in pain. The pain is intense, and he can't really focus. The rest of the group find him in Jack's room, curled up in a ball and struggling to keep the pain away. They suggest rebuilding his avatar, but it will take a long time to do it. Finally, he's able to swallow his pain and be coherent. LeBeau then suggests something, and they all pool their energy in to him so he can try and find Jack. It doesn't work, and bounces back again.

Grim, at this point, has the world's most pounding headache and is near exhaustion. He stumbles around, getting the kits for Raina, and then starts to head out. Raina asks for a sleep rune, and Grim gives it to her before stumbling out. He sees Mareo, and asks him if he's found anything out. He tells Grim of a place in Nerva, manned by mostly Thorns and not Sealers. Mareo seems to be asking Grim to lead a team, but Grim is in no condition to do it right now. He heads home.

There, Lue sees him, and he doesn't look too happy. Lue thinks that Grim shouldn't keep going back and getting hurt. He thinks that Jack isn't worth his time. Grim tries to explain that Jack is like a brother to him and he believes in him. "You didn't give up hope about your brother until the last minute," Grim says. Lue says, "I hope he appreciates the kind of friend you are to him."

Rusty then comes over and Mareo follows. Rusty doesn't like the idea of sending a huge squad in to rescue Jack, he thinks someone will get killed. Grim thinks that whatever they plan needs to go through Raina first - "She'll want to spearhead it." Grim really can barely stand. Lue gets him in the bedroom and Grim falls face-first onto the bed. Lue gets his boots off and Grim just climbs into bed, fully clothed, and passes out.

The next day, Grim begins rebuilding his avatar. He spends most of the day doing that. He finally steps out after Kalius comes on. Grim basically tells Kal that he needs to refrain his boyfriend. "I don't fight my fiance's battles," Kal says. "You have an issue, say it to my face or his."

Grim goes to help Kal so he can get his level, and while in the mission, he gets a call from Raina saying that Jack was in Vanguard's base, near death. Grim rushes there, and Jack is in very bad shape. Grim is able to heal him physically, like his internal organs to stop the bleeding, and then heals the bones and muscles. Dustin uses his water abilities to get some of the blood out of his lungs, and LeBeau uses his probes to take care of the blood. Grim goes and gets Eule to help heal his mind. They get Jack to medbay, and Jack is now coherent enough to tell his story - which is on the GP website. Grim then chases everyone out of the room so that Jack and Raina can have some alone time.

Grim finds Kalius in the training room. Kal has been beating up a bag and his gloves are bloody. Grim takes his hands and heals him. Kal feels so helpless since Jack's capture that he's taken to killing anything that moves and hurting himself in the process. Grim then makes things worse, as he's wont to do. He tells Kalius that maybe he should cut back, "You're a hero, not a super one." This seriously ruffled Kalius' feathers. "Are you saying that I'm weak?" Grim couldn't get himself out of that corner because he did think Kal was weaker now. "Yes," he says, "yes I am."

Can you say, "Oooooh"? Kalius then looks him in the eye and snarls, "Leave my home." Dmitrius is there, and he has no emotion whatever on his face, but he's ready to snap Grim in two. Kal leaves off a threat, and Grim turns around and says, "Don't do it, Kal, or there'll be hell to pay." "Then I'll pay it." Grim turns from him, saying, "You won't like it. Not at all."

Dmitrius then assists Kalius in getting his last level. Ares then appears and summons Kalius, who asks for the powers back. Ares gives him a bit of a hard time, and asks him if he liked Athena's powers more than his. Kalius doesn't, he wants to serve Ares. So Ares gives him his powers back. Then, he sends Dmitrius back to him, by dropping him off in the fire in the dorms. Dmitrius runs through the dorms, barely making it to the pools, and dives in - passing out and dousing the flames.

Kalius shows up, Dmitrius is a mess. Because he's so susceptible to fire, much of his flesh is burned down to the bone. Raina picks up what's left of him and hands him to Kalius, who brings him to the medbay. Kalius offers his wrist, and Dmitrius drinks - holding onto Kalius in a vise grip. He tears a larger hole, and starts to almost drink him dry. "Beloved, let go..." Finally Jasson steps in, while Kalius passes out. Dmitrius drinks from Jasson, and then realizes what he's doing. Kalius is carried to the other bed, and Dmitrius finally is healed up enough to swing down, and goes to his lover, apologizing profusely.

Kalius stabilizes, and he's pissed. But he's so tired, he passes out when they get back to their room.

In Northern Warehouse

2010-05-07T08:06:00.000-04:00

Grim invited Rusty to come over to see the new place. Rusty said it looked nice, "In a Dracula sort of way." It still needs more stuff, like a flat screen TV would be nice. And more books.

Grim and Rusty talked for a while, about how there seems to be a firm division in the ranks now. Grim is not seeing it that way - Grim thinks that he is creating space, so they can all take a breather and think. Rusty said, "Safe Havens is your home. This is just a place to rest." Grim pretty much agrees with that, but he tells Rusty that he's probably not going to go back to live in SH, especially because of Lue.

Rusty asks after him, and Grim says that Lue has pretty much washed his hands of Havens. He doesn't think Grim should even bother with them anymore, especially how they showed their true colors during the fight with Jack. Grim feels obligated - to Oblique, to Jack, to Raina, to Rusty, to Shadow, to many of the new people. He feels that he's their voice, since Raina - and Jack by extension - is twisted by the metal demons. "See how fast they dropped the whole treaty idea," Grim says.

Rusty himself feels like he's helpless and powerless. He knows there's something wrong, but he can't get anyone to listen, either. While Grim yells and beats a drum, Rusty is more calm and rational. The leaders are not listening to either one. Except one - Mareo. That's because Mareo isn't twisted.

Rusty heads out to check on everyone, and Grim retires again to the library below the entrance. Lue comes in quietly and stands there watching Grim, who is engrossed in a book. Grim looks up to see him and greets him. He asks Lue if he can somehow get a natural spring in the last room that's built, so that maybe they can have a natural spa of some sort. Lue says he would "speak to the earth."

They head back there, and Lue says there is a hot springs south of their location. He then uses his ability with the earth to bring the hot water to them, keeping it about 20 feet down so that the engineer can drill for it at her leisure.

Switched to Dmitrius, and discovered that the whole group was talking about Grim. Most of them hated him. The new guy went into how he was a "spoiled child" and "you don't give them what they want." Adam followed the new guy's lead, Kat hated Grim, Dustin did also, Raina wasn't thrilled, Mark wasn't either, Oblique and Rusty were on his side, Gabs and Jack tried to stay neutral. It was decided that they would do nothing, and that Jack would talk to him - however he had to go on a Vanguard assignment first.

Dmitrius apologized to the new guy (which I don't think he needed to do, but whatever) and then sat back and watched the show. Dmitrius said nothing, but his personal opinion is that the less Grim has to do with the group the better, because he hurt his Erastes, and he won't be tempted to kill him. However, Lue is right - they don't see the good he's actually done for the group. But this isn't unusual - when shit hits the fan, they often don't see the good that anyone does, be it the technomancers, all the way down to the individuals.

More Infighting

2010-05-06T08:32:00.000-04:00

More Infighting

Jumped on and off with a few alts to get some prestige for the base. Hardly any teams running. I'll work on them over the weekend.

Pulled out Grim and Lue hooked up with him in the sewer. Grim had heard an old friend was there and he was going to take him out. However, when he found him, Dretch had been possessed by a demon. Lue had no fear and went after him anyway.

After that, they headed back to Arcadia to clean up. As they were, Grim gets a call on his comm from Kal. "I want to talk to you about your boyfriend," he says. Grim tells Lue who says, "Let's go see what he wants."

First Kal wants him to go to the base. Grim says he can't. Mareo says, "There's several people there who want to crucify him." They go to Prometheus park, where Kal is waiting. First, Kal goes into how Grim ran away from the unit. Grim kept trying to explain that he was just giving everyone some time and space until he decides what to do. He hadn't given up on everyone, he was just sleeping somewhere else at night. Kal condoned that, however he believed that Grim was making things worse. Grim said that the "leaders" seem to not like him, they called Lue "Grim's whore." Kal said, "You do have a wandering eye." Kal tosses a few insults and Lue storms, "Is that what you brought him here for? To throw more insults?" Kal admits he still cares for Grim and hates this infighting. But things are different, very different.

Then Kal said that Lue had buried someone, "which is like torture." Dmitrius arrived and described the man to him. Lue said that Orphan (Gamekeeper) attacked him first. Dmitrius said that he was merely protecting his interests. He then told Lue to get the Warriors back. Lue said, "I don't take orders from you." Finally, Dmitrius grabbed him and threw him onto the grass. Lue got to his feet and summoned his armor. Lue kicked up and Dmitrius grabbed his legs, then stomped on his stomach. Dmitrius then tried to use that as leverage to pull Lue's legs out of his hips. Lue exploded in spines, one going into Dmitrius' eye. Dmitrius let him go, and stumbled back, bleeding from places.

Lue has poison, which, when it hit Gamekeeper, forced him to throw up blood. With Dmitrius, he can't seem to immediately heal, and his blood is thinned - instead of oozing out of wounds, it actually drips. Dmitrius punches him and he goes into the street.

Grim meanwhile was telling Kal to get Dmitrius to stop it, but Kal was all, "Let them beat it out of each other." Grim stood back, worried.

Dmitrius pounded him again, but Lue dodged and ran back. Then Mareo seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, grabbed Dmitrius by the back of his shirt, and stopped him from running at Lue. At the same time, Lue fossilizes him, and Dmitrius is frozen. And, at the same time, Pyre casts tentacles on Lue.

Grim yells at her to not do that, that Lue would freak out at being held, and runs to the tentacles to start hacking away at them. Lue goes into panic mode. Dmitrius is explaining that Lue chased away his "herd" and hurt his keeper, and he demanded that Lue rectify this. Finally, Pyre let Lue go, and he took off, with Grim right behind him.

Dmitrius goes into the story some more, explaining that Lue had crossed into his territory and that Orphan was just protecting his assets as he had been ordered to do. Mareo sees that something went wrong, and promises to get the story out of Lue.

Meanwhile, Grim watches as Lue calms down. They head to Oroborous, and Grim finds a place where they can sit calmly. He sits behind Lue and wraps his arms around his shoulders, and says that Lue didn't know, and he shouldn't be blamed. As they sit there, Pyre shows up to apologize. At first Lue and Grim are angry with her. It's hard to be angry at Pyre, so that goes away pretty quickly.

Mareo shows up, and Lue explodes in spikes again. Grim calms him down a little. Mareo explains that doing this to Dmitrius doesn’t make Grim look very good, because it does look like Grim put him up to it. Lue is of the opinion that Grim doesn't need Havens anyway. Grim doesn't want to sever ties with Havens. He thinks that Rusty, and Shadow, (though not Kal right now - he's really pissed at him) and a few others are still worth staying in contact with. He also promises to talk to Jack, and only Jack. "Nobody listens to him anyway," Grim says disgustedly.

Lue apologizes to Pyre. Grim agrees to help Pyre if she needs it for the runes, but looks to Lue for approval. (Can you say hypocrite? A man should not surrender! Uh huh...) Rusty happened to be there, and Grim went down to talk to him for a little bit. Rusty tells him that his new engineer - the mystic one - finished the base - actually, she ran out of money. Lue and Grim go to see it.

Rusty is a god amongst men, as Jack's player put it. It's beautiful! The entrance is on a platform, below which is a room that you get in through a door that's an open mouth. Books are at the side, and and there's benches and a scrying altar. Beyond the entrance room is a corridor, with a series of archways and torches reminiscent of Oranbenga's hallways. Above that hallway is a room, where the center has an altar with a crystal in it. There's plenty of room for expansion there.

Just off the corridor are two rooms, one which had a bed and a couch in it, the other empty. Beyond the corridor was another room, also empty. Must. Get. More. Prestige. I usually play my alts until 9, so hopefully I get some teams for the 3 hours that I'm on until action starts.

Checking in

2010-05-04T08:19:00.001-04:00

Checking in

Lue: “I deal death, I do not seek it.”

Kiko: “You need to stop and think.”
Grim: “That’s why I moved out, to think.”

Started working on the prestige for Northern Warehouse (aka NW). I have a ton of controllers and defenders there, and I have six more character slots left. Maybe more melee?

Rusty found a contractor for Grim and work is beginning on the NW base. Right now there are two rooms (entrance and oversight). I usually like to have a base with a rez ring, but I don’t know how often that’s actually used. Since it’s a sister to SH, it won’t need the full compliment of teleporters, vaults, invention tables, or other such things. So it’ll be more as a hide-away and used for RP.

Grim went to the base to see Kiko. Kiko thinks it’s a bad idea that Grim chose to leave, and she said that Mareo’s upset. Grim told her that he’s not abandoned him or the group, that he still has his comm., “I’m just sleeping somewhere else for the night.”

Lue came by also, after Grim told him that there were no leaders there. Kiko asked Lue why he was so angry, and Grim said, “That’s a hot question, Kiko.” So Kiko dropped it, but it’s more than likely well-known by now. Lue isn’t the type of guy to go blabber about it, and Grim is following Lue’s lead.

Kiko also pointed out that maybe this has to do with pride. Grim said that he’s not the only one who’s got that problem. “I’ll come back if they apologize to me. And to Lue. I intervened and I’m sorry for that.” Lue said coldly, “And I have nothing to be sorry for.” Lue said that they showed their true colors that night, and he doesn’t want anything to do with them.

Pyre asked where the wards to the front door were, and Grim turned to her saying, “I took them down.” She asked why. “Because they don’t trust me.” Grim did it for three reasons: first, that he didn’t want his “work” traced back to him and used against him; and second, because he believed that since they hate him so much, they probably don’t trust him or his abilities anymore. Third, he’s impulsive like that. Pyre got up and went to redo the runes.

In leaving, Grim went to Lue and said, “We’d better go before they show up.” Lue nodded, and they headed to Arcadia. There, Grim held onto the railing of the stairs as he was going up them. “Stop,” Lue said, and Grim did. “You’re favoring one leg.”

Grim told him that he got attacked by “some of your friends” and that the pain rune was fading. “The bone healing is just sore.”

Lue ordered him on the bed after he stripped, and redrew the pain rune, examining the wound. “Can you resurrect people, Grim?” he asked.

“I can, but it takes a lot of time and energy…”

“Because after they did this to you I want to kill Tub Ci. Twice.”

Switched to Dmitrius, who overheard that Grim had taken down the wards at the front door, and Pyre was redoing them. No one seems to know why he did it. Dmitrius just went around and stood staring at the guns, listening to the conversation in the nursery and in the hallway.

Raina was pissed, saying, "If he's leaving, why does he keep coming back?" Mareo was irritated. Jack didn’t understand why, either. Kalius came by and asked what Dmitrius was doing. “Eavesdropping,” he admitted.

Raina said, “You’re not the only one with good hearing.”

Dmitrius said, “Understood, Raina.” Kalius wanted to go bust some heads, so they headed out for some missions. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before so I had to skip out after two missions.

Moving on

2010-05-03T08:59:00.000-04:00

I moved all my toons that aren’t involved in any Safe Havens’ storylines out to the Northern Warehouse. This is not a reflection on anything going on with Grim in the SH group. Bubble Guns, Gamekeeper, Rowena and Bladeless (changed) don’t really fit in – they have no purpose there, and they’re really not fleshed-out characters. I put them in Northern Warehouse for the prestige bonus they give. I also coalitioned it with SH. Grim has offered it to the SH toons ICly as someplace to get away from the issues at SH. He expects it to be presently used more as crash space than anything, which means, honestly, that I don’t want people to switch.

Right now, it’s a catch-all for alts that you might have that don’t quite fit into SH. RP interaction between these characters and SH characters is not required, so if you have that wacky Traps/Arrow build and can’t figure out a story around it, you can throw it in here and at least have access to the necessary things such as SH’s teleporters. Eventually, maybe – I don’t know - Grim’s vision is to turn it into an artist’s loft for mages and others, where they’d have their own space to work and live, and knowledge would be shared among them and anyone who wanted to learn.

In case you want to picture which warehouse it is, it’s the warehouse in KR that you can find the “Smoky” badge.

However, before all that, Grim and Lue are still staying in Arcadia. Grim happened to see Rusty, and asked him if he could recommend any contractors or engineers to help build the base. (I tried to figure out stacking. It takes more time and patience than I have.) It will remain small – probably two rooms for Lue and Grim, maybe others added as they come aboard, if any do. It’s not going to be a stand-alone SG; it will be a sister to SH.

That done, played troller-Grim for a little while. Oblique came along and they talked. Oblique sees something wrong in the group, too, and really doesn’t want Grim to leave. “You’re too important to go,” she says. She believes that Raina is an inspiration as a warrior and a woman, but not necessarily as a leader. She also said that Jack was a good man but “wimpy”.

Adam says that he’s bringing a guest to the base. Grim shows up later, and sits down in the grotto to play with his iPad and his budget. (Story up.) Adam has found someone he can click with - and it's a guy. Grim's slightly disappointed, but actually happy for him. Grim talks to Rusty and tells him what happened, and Rusty said, “Wow…like they can take the high road.” But Rusty agreed that the best thing for Grim to do right now would be to get some space between them.

Grim gets a call from Lue and heads back to Arcadia. Grim hears Raina’s voice on the comm and tosses it across the room. Lue calms him down, saying Grim doesn’t need any of them. Grim still feels obligated to help. And he will still hang out in the base. Though that may be tempting fate…

Anti-Grim Coalition

2010-05-02T17:50:00.000-04:00

“You’re his whore of the month.” Petite to Lue about his relationship to Grim.
“I guess the metal demons won.” Grim to Lue, as they leave Arcadia for Havens.

Pulled out Grim for a few things. One of the things was that he talked over SG with Petite. Petite is sad that he left, but he said he’s still hanging around. Grim says that he could apologize, but it won’t be sincere, because he knows he’d do it again. He tells Petite that he really has no remorse. C’mon, he’s a dark mage. Of course they don’t have remorse.

Grim also met Cindy, a ghost who doesn’t want to go to her afterlife. Instead, she bakes cookies. People from the Paragonian Knights come around, and of course, Grim comes onto the male doctor. Nobody’s there to filter him, so he comes off as a hound dog.

Dustin comes in and begins a story. His White Lotus group has told him to go somewhere else for a while. Grim listens half-heartedly. Others show up, and Grim makes BLT’s for them. Grim pretty much tells Dustin that he can’t make teams so Dustin would have to do it himself. Some others come, and join his team. Grim figures “Oh, the hell with it,” and joins up also.

What follows was a nicely-laid out set of missions, using unlocked maps. However, they were BIG FRICKIN’ MAPS. We didn’t get to finish, because it was MORTAL KOMBAT time. I made a suggestion to Jack’s player that I could NPC Jack. He emailed me the costume, and I renamed Pyro-blades as “An NPC” because I seem to be able to do that pretty well. So if anyone needs a supporting actor/disposable toon, I can play it if you need one. You just have to direct me.

Now, for some reason, my logs didn’t copy the following, so I’m going by memory.

“Jack” went into the training room and was working out. Lue showed up and offered to spar with him. Dustin and Shadow came in, too. Jack agreed to spar. As they were, Jack realized that Lue was taking this way too seriously. He tried to get him to stop. “You don’t want to fight against someone who fights back?” Lue says. Then Lue constantly challenged him, and Jack refused to fight him. Finally, knowing that Lue was not going to give up, he figured he’d do it.

I tried to play Jack as a boxer, who could bob, weave, duck, and punch. Problem is, he got thrown against the ropes and I couldn’t get him out – and Lue wailed into him. Finally he knocked Lue back and got some room. At the same time during the fight, Petite, LeBeau, Dustin, and Raina were all telling Lue that he was being used by Grim.

Then Petite said the line at the top. Lue stopped and said, “How…dare…you…” Lue looked like he was going to kill her. That’s when he stopped. Jack also joined in telling Lue he was being used. Lue took off his comm and threw it at Jack’s feet, saying that he was quitting. Then he stormed out. Jack went to the baths, and heard Lue come in.

Jack reiterated his statements. "When he doesn't need you in his plans he'll drop you or chase you away." He also told Lue that if he ever wanted to come back, there’d be a space for him. Lue then told him that he fought well. Jack only nodded. Jack suggested to Lue to get Grim back and that they could help him, but Lue knew what that would mean.

Lue texted Grim, and went off to wander, thinking about all the things everyone there had said.

Got Dmitrius, who went up against the Sealers, and Kalius came with him. Dmitrius was knocked out and Kalius brought him home, waking him up by giving him blood. Dmitrius woke up, and apologized for taking Kalius’ blood – especially because he’s human now. Kalius collapsed in exhaustion, but Dmitrius woke him up.

The next morning:

Lue returns to Arcadia to find Grim asleep on the floor near the stairs. Grim had gotten the text, but waited at the door. Lue came over and shook him awake gently. Grim threw his arms around him, saying he knew Lue had to do some thinking (Grim thought it was because he didn’t kill Jack and needed to get that killing instinct out of his system) so he left him alone. Lue then told Grim everything that happened.

Grim was mad at first. He admitted to being promiscuous, but Lue already knew that and accepted it. Then he was sad. Grim is not the type of person to say, “Look at everything I’ve ever done for you” because he’s trying really hard not to have the usual mage scorecard. Instead, Grim decided that the best thing to do would be to leave. So he and Lue headed back to the base, and cleaned out Grim’s room. Grim teleported everything to Arcadia. He didn’t give up his comm, though, and as far as he knows, he’s still allowed in.

Grim also removed all his wards and runes. He was in the base for four hours, and no one disturbed him.

Plans

2010-05-01T13:57:00.000-04:00

Grim and Lue headed over to Arcadia, where there the castle lay abandoned. Grim took him around and showed him the different bedrooms. He pointed out Ryder's and said, "That's the satyr's bedroom." Lue picked that one.

Remember that Grim gets horny with satyrs? Okay.

Grim warned Lue, and it didn't take long before Grim started the tantric work. He cast the spell, and Lue suddenly glowed red. He got up, shocked, "What..?"

Then Grim grabbed him and kissed him, without saying the spell. "Love, no! My poison--"

After he kissed Lue, he said, "I had to see if it worked."

"What?"

So Grim explained the spell he had cast. It neutralized Lue's venom for three days. It didn't take away his sorcerer abilities or his ability to generate spines. "Is that okay?" Grim asked.

In answer, Lue kissed him. Then Grim told him what Jack did. He also told him about Gabsy kicking them down the stairs. Lue struggled to get up but Grim kept holding him. Lue was PISSED. Grim kept telling Lue it was all his own fault, he pushed Jack, to try and get him to see, and Lue, seething with rage says, "Why? You were trying to help, you did not deserve to be beaten!"

Grim said they thought he was intruding, and Lue says, "Because they are blind! Perhaps if I were to beat him, he would begin to understand!...Out of my love for you, I will spare his life." Then Grim went into details, about how he was hit, and how often. Oh, yes, this got Lue's blood boiling. Then the clincher, Grim says, "I think he's still my friend..."

"WHAT?!?!"

Grim crawled off the bed to get away from him. Lue was FURIOUS at this point. "He is no man, he is a dog! You would ask me not to kill him, but I doubt he would have the compassion to do the same for you! He beats a man who is only trying to help, a man who is not defending himself!" Grim gets him calmed down again and they spend the rest of the night there.

Dmitrius came out and did a few missions. Got Eule next, who basically wanted to tell Jack that he thought he was overcompensating. Jack's fully aware of it, and it working to get "in the middle". Then Dmitrius again, who wanted to talk to Jack. Dmitrius is of the opinion that Grim's insane and should be restrained. He believes they should try and flush him out. "A team of eight of us, against a mage?" Dmitrius says.

"Yes," says Jack, "but it might force us to have to kill him."

"So?"

"I'm not willing to kill him or risk us if it's not necessary."

"Sometimes it is necessary to kill people. You shouldn't be squeamish about that. If an animal goes rabid, you put it down. I truly believe that someone like that should be destroyed."

Jack says, "It may come to that. But I'd rather at least try to save him. I owe him that much."

Dmitrius shrugs and says, "If that's what you want to do. But do not be surprised if it bites you later."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Dmitrius then offers his assistance - Grim had hurt Kalius. "I do not forget."

"If it comes to that, I can count on you."

Dmitrius nods, and Jack leaves.

The CoX Playlist

2010-04-30T18:41:00.000-04:00

I have shut off my music for CoX, and instead replaced it with this.

"Foot Chase" by Trevor Rabin
"Hit The Road" by Jochen Flach
"Galvanize (Album Version)" by The Chemical Brothers
"Breathe [Album Version]" by The Prodigy
"Firestarter [Album Version]" by The Prodigy
"Nara (Theme to Cold Case)" by e s Posthumus (Grim and anyone alone)
"Du Hast [Album Version]" by Rammstein
"Trapped" by Jochen Flach
"Impetus" by Lorenzo Piggici
"Lepcis Magna" by e s Posthumus
"Restless" by Evil Nine
"Clubbed To Death [Kurayamino Variation]" by Rob Dougan (Grim's theme song)
"The Battle" by From Gladiator
"Introduce A Little Anarchy [Album Version]" by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
"Man Versus Man" by John Powell
"HM2" by Frank Klepacki (Dmitrius' theme song)
"Breakdown" by Jochen Flach
"Here He Comes" by Jochen Flach
"Sniper Alley [Original]" by Chris Tilton
"Intelligence" by Steve Jablonsky and Trevor Morris
"At All Costs" by James Dooley
"Rampage" by James Dooley
"Busy Child" by The Crystal Method
"Weapons of Mass Distortion" by The Crystal Method
"Dark March" by James Dooley
"Sleep Now In The Fire" by Rage Against the Machine
"Hold The Line...Fire At Will" by James Dooley
"The Chase" by BBC National Orchestra of Wales
"The Mission" by BBC National Orchestra of Wales
"The Plot" by BBC National Orchestra of Wales
"Sound Of Madness [Album Version]" by Shinedown (Suggested by Jack's player for Priest, but I liked it so much I kept it)
"Just Like You Imagined" by Nine Inch Nails (Also Dmitri's song)
"Captain Jack's Theme" by BBC National Orchestra of Wales
"Helgrind" by Ars Arcana
"Dryka" by Ars Arcana
"Sanguine" by Ars Arcana
"Tyrannos" by Ars Arcana
"Trinity" by James Dooley
"Final Flight (Instrumental)" by Tom Salta
"Crimson City" by Steve Jablonsky and Trevor Morris
"Imperitum" by Immediate
"Going Out Of My Head" by Fatboy Slim
"Shield of Faith" by Immediate
"Empyrean Mercenaries" by Immediate
"An Epic Age" by Immediate
"Going Out Of My Head" by Fatboy Slim
"Trial of the Archangel" by Immediate
"Up Is Down [Score]" by Hans Zimmer
"Lacrimosa Dominae" by Immediate
"The Fall of Rome" by Kerry Muzzey
"Palladio" by Kerry Muzzey
"Chasing The Cure" by Kerry Muzzey
"Carmina Burana: I O Fortuna" by Carl Orff
"Immanitas" by Lorenzo Piggici
"The Bomb! Megamix" by The Bucketheads

Riftlord

2010-04-30T10:36:00.001-04:00

So…Grim still causes rifts. He saw Shadow in the base and talked to him for a while. Oblique showed up, and said that she had heard what happened. She was on Grim’s side and agreed with him, and told him that she would stand behind him. Then Mark showed up and glared daggers at him all night.

Para came along, and they commented on his leaving the force. “I got bored,” he said, and Grim said nothing to that. Idle hands, and all that.

Finally, Grim left, the tension being too much for him. He beat up a few things, and then went back to the base. Lue was there, along with another new person, Pyre’s fiancé, who is no longer dead. Obviously he’s fine since he got past the wards. Kat walked off in disgust.

Grim asked what about Pyre’s daughter. The whole room went silent, and Pyre turned sad. Grim got all uncomfortable and left the room, muttering, “Faux pas…” Grim was feeling sorry for himself, he was angry because it seemed like he couldn’t trust anybody anymore. And most of all, he was afraid.

Lue and Grim went back to the hotel. Grim expressed that he was afraid they’d lose everything they built. “Kalius has Dmitrius, Rusty is hands-off, and Raina’s in control of Jack.” He was especially disappointed in Jack. Then Lue said something that got him to thinking, “He is nothing, Grim. If he wishes to let Raina run his life, that is not your problem. You have more iron in you than any of them.” Grim knows he needs to throw his energy in another direction. So he will help with the Sealers – though he hasn’t had a chance to talk to Mareo – help with Lue, and help with any other new people that come along.

Grim expressed his fear, “I’m afraid of losing everything we built. Rusty, Jack, Raina, Kal and I.”

Lue said, “You cannot be who you are not, to keep the peace. That is wrong, and you know it. And you will not manage it for long.”

Grim then figures that the best thing to do would be to stay in the hotel for a while, if not get an apartment. Even if he moves back into the base, it would be nice to have some place to go to breathe.

They head to bed, and Grim asks him if he can just hold him. Lue asks if he wants a sleep rune, and Grim agrees. Lue draws it, and just as Grim drifts off to sleep, he asks Lue to protect him against the metal demons. “With all my strength,” Lue says.

Smile and Nod

2010-04-29T10:27:00.000-04:00

I17 came out. Everyone extolled the virtues of Ultra Mode - I turned it on, it slowed me down, and I shut it off, keeping it on "recommended." Yeah, it's cool for the first ten minutes, but after that, I'd rather suffer lower graphics than performance. I'll wait for the weekend before breaking out the demonlings and the whip.

Made an Earth Controller Grim (Yes, I know, call me Dustin) to reflect Lue's teaching him elemental abilities. This character will be weaker when it comes to the offensive spells - because these spells aren't quite that familiar to him yet - but his heals will be just as good as before. It seems when I get to around 30 on a character, I lose interest - Scrapper Grim is 30. Grim will still have his dagger and be able to use that in text fighting. I made an Earth/Thermal controller, and WOW, is it cool-looking. The first thing I did was change all the stones to different colors reflect different gemstones. I did a bind to announce the different stones. Thermal I turned into black fire. Both the aura and the heal-other are dark fire black/gray. The shields are dark blue and red - which make purple combined. Vereh sexah.

Grim went and joined Kiko in the base. Grim knew how to fool his own wards. However, he wouldn't be able to fool the wards in the nursery, because the moment he would make any action against the kits, he'd be killed. And that's why he can't go near them right now.

Kiko asked him what happened last night, and Grim told her his side. He told her that he knew he was wrong in making the assumptions, but he was following his gut. However, the last few times, his gut's been wrong. So that was one of the reasons he chose to step away, to give everybody some breathing space. Grim also said, "They want me to be quiet and complacent, the little kid in the back of the classroom with his hands folded and not a peep. Fine, I'll take my Ritalin and say not a word." Kiko said that was probably too extreme, but Grim shrugged it off. Kiko said that Mareo wanted her to lead a team to go after the Sealers, and Grim said he'd help.

Then Jack and Raina showed up. "We'd like to speak to Grim alone." Kiko and Shadow went OOC, and Grim stood up, hands behind his back, ready for the chastisement.

Amazingly enough, Jack did all the talking, which Grim found surprising but didn't say anything. Raina had been captured by a Mr. Revelation. Grim sighed at that. For a super werecat, she sure gets captured a lot. "We'll treat him like all the other enemies we have." Grim ALMOST said, "Your enemy, not mine."

First, Grim was told to stay out of his marriage. Grim said, "Okay." Second, Grim was informed that he and Raina were co-leaders now. Grim said, "Okay." Third, there were going to be some changes around there. Grim said, "I'll believe it when I see it." Grim stood there and took it, saying hardly anything until the end, when he laid into both of them. He called Raina a queen in an ivory tower, untouchable and unapproachable. He called Jack a mouse. Then he said, "You go live your life, I'll go live mine." Jack asked if he was leaving. Grim said yes, for a little while, until everybody gets their shit together. He'd still have his comm if they needed him. Grim stands still. "Now, are you done?"

"I see words aren't going to sink in," Jack says, and Grim expects another pummeling. Instead, Jack dismisses him. Grim tells him that someone else is going to have to teach the kids magic. Raina says, "I'll ask Pyre." Grim doesn't care. He goes to the teleporter room, trying to figure out where to go from there, when Rusty comes by. Grim follows him. "Did you hear about what happened last night?" Grim asks him.

"I heard that you spoke your mind and got beat up for it." Then Rusty looks at him and says, "Now you know why I don't tell them everything I think." Grim is disappointed in Jack and Raina - especially Jack. Rusty says he believes they don't trust him anyway, which is why he's been keeping a relatively low profile. Rusty said another quotable line (do I remember it? No...) and Grim laughs, saying "I love you, Rusty. So do you wanna...?" He nods to another couch.

Rusty says, "Thanks, I love you too...as a friend."

"Guess that answers that."

Then Kiko arrives. She tells Grim that he's taking things to extremes, from being vocal to being utterly quiet. Rusty says, "It's kind of part of being a superhero. It draws in those types." Kiko doesn't buy it, and then Mark calls for Grim. Grim goes and meets him in Faultline.

There, Mark says that he was trying to logically think of why Grim acted the way he did. "I came up with one conclusion that would fit." He walks up to him and says, "You're a hypocrite, pure and simple."

"Drinking from the technomancer font?" LeBeau had called him that a while ago. Mark then explains his reasoning - how he said technomancers shouldn't involve themselves in others' relationships, but he just did. There were other instances as well. Grim did not deny the charge. Mark said he wasn't sure if they were going back to the group; Grim told them to go back, because he wasn't there right now. "And one more thing," Mark says, as he leaves. "You could have waited until Jack was done. To do that in front of the kids..."

Grim says coldly, "They'll live."

Mark says, "...Goodbye, Grim" and doesn't look back.

Grim goes back to the hotel (better than the one last night). Lue calls him to tell him he's on his way home. Lue arrives with some Thai food.

Grim then tells him of his scolding. Lue says he doesn't understand how they don't see how wise he is, how they're throwing away his counsel and his help. Grim changes the subject and asks Lue about his patron, and about how he communicates with spirits. He says he wants to thank whoever it was that brought Lue into his life. Lue smiles and says "That would be my grandfather." Grim says he'd like to meet him, but wants Lue to call him, whenever he thinks is a good time.

Grim is not telling Lue about Jack beating the crap out of him. Not yet, there will be a time when he can. Grim said that all he needed was Petite, Gabsy and LeBeau to talk to him or beat the shit out of him, and he can move on with his life. Lue says, "If any of them touch you, I will unleash hell on them." And Grim knows he would, he would turn into somebody's nightmare. Lue knows something is bothering him, that something had happened last night, but Grim won't talk about it. Lue reassures him that he'll be there when he wants to talk. Then they go get comfortable.

A little while later, Kalius returns home, with Dmitrius right behind him. Kalius mentions the date of their wedding, July 24, and it'll be in the base. Zach comes over to see him, and they begin a stare-down. Dmitrius gets distracted when he hears LeBeau yell, "Pyre!" She was limp in Mareo's arms, and Mareo was taking her to medbay. Kalius looks over and says something like, "Same old Havens."

Dmitrius then asks to shake Zach's hand. "A double-dog dare!" Susan cries, and Dmitrius just waits. Zach puts his hand forward, and Dmitrius grabs it. His hand starts to smoke, then burn. He lets go, leaving bits of flesh behind on Zach's hand. Zach shakes them off, and they turn into dust before hitting the floor.

"Did that hurt?"

Dmitrius is examining his hand, black and exposed to the bone. "Yes, it did." He willed it to heal.

They get shown to their new room by Jasson and settle in.

Runaway Characters

2010-04-28T08:21:00.000-04:00

Visualize, if you will, how I write. There are two items of inspiration, my muses (described in the initial entry in aScripta), and the characters themselves. When writing out stories, I'm able to let the characters roam free on the page, and if it doesn't work, I toss it out. In RP, there's really no room for that - you're on a live TV show, and you can't go back and correct a blooper.

Masonry was notorious for taking his character on insane rides of pure carnage. When I tried to reign him in, he got worse, like trying to put an angry cat in a box. He worked himself out eventually, after falling in love, and his lover allowing him to do what he liked, without judgment, without guilt, without stopping him. He pulled a few more stunts, but eventually settled down after realizing it wasn't going to get his lover riled up.

Grim pulled the same thing last night.

First, Grim and Lue got together to talk. Then, Grim went to the grotto. While there, he saw Mark. They talked for a while, and Mark is thinking the problems between Raina and Jack are Jack's fault. That started the ball rolling - Jack and Grim had a long conversation, and Grim thinks Jack's whipped. Grim started into the fact that Raina was the one who chose to lock herself in there, and she was trying to be a martyr, and have everyone feel sorry for her. He was sick and tired of her yanking Jack around. The final straw was when Jack came in and got her some food. That put him right over the edge.

At that point, I totally lost control of the character. First, I never knew you could fit the f-bomb that many times in one sentence. Grim went off on a tirade, saying that Raina needs to grow up and everyone needs to stop kowtowing to her and her every whim, and it was especially worse because of the kits. Then he says since Jack can't seem to give her comfort, she can always go to LeBeau. He starts to walk away, and Mark says, "Grim, don't do what I think you're going to do." "I'm thinking about it," Grim says, and keeps walking. Gabriel walks by and says, "Cordial greetings." Grim says, "Fuck you," and walks past him to the stairs. He goes up to the top of the stairs and stops.

Initially, I was going to sign him off. I had to take care of something offline, and when I came back, Gabriel was there. He wanted to know, in that condescending manner of his, what was Grim's problem. Grim basically told him it was none of his fucking business, and started heading to Jack and Raina's room. They weren't there, and the nursery door was closed. Grim pounded on it, demanding to be let in. Jack opened the door and Grim strong-armed his way in. Mark kept asking him to leave them alone.

Raina, in ocelot form, hissed at Grim, and he blew raspberries at her. He told her that she had a serious problem, that she was treating Jack like shit, and that Jack was doing everything for her and the kits, and she thought it wasn't enough. She looked sad and then took off. Grim walked out, Jack started to go after her, and Grim told him not to. Mark, meanwhile, was saying, "Grim, stop, let's go."

Grim turns to him and says, "Don't get me started on how Petite has you whipped, Mark."

"THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!"

Grim walks away, calling them both pussies, and saying that the only one with any balls around here was Lue. Mark intercepts him, and meanwhile Jack is calling him on the comm. Jack sees them in the hallway, and he calls Grim. Grim answers, not looking at him. "Turn around. Face me."

Grim turns around. Jack says, "Now, before I beat the crap out of you, what the fuck do you think you were doing?"

"Waking her up."

Grim went on, I forget exactly what he said, but then he looks right at Jack and says, "...because you know what right now?

"You have no balls."

Player thought "OMG". After a few moments of silence, Jack says, "you...didn't...just..."

"I did."

WHAM! Jack punches Grim in the face and Grim falls into the wall. Now Grim taunts him. "Is that the best you can do?" Jack slams his knee into his stomach, and punches him again, knocking out a tooth and drawing blood. Grim keeps on taunting. Gabriel puts a detention bubble around them and kicks them down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, the bubble pops, and Grim starts laughing. Jack pummels him to the point of unconsciousness. Then he spits on his chest and kicks him in the ribs, hard. As soon as Jack gets back up the stairs, Grim regains consciousness and starts to move, albeit slowly. "Kat, make sure I didn't kill him," Jack says, heading to the kits.

Kat floats down to him and asks, "Are you insane?"

"HAHAHA! Wouldn't you like to know."

Grim rolls to a sitting position and yells, "JACK! Round two?" Meanwhile, Digiton is scared to death of Jack now. Grim stands up, and says to Jack, "You found your balls. Remember where they are, okay?" He stumbles toward his room, stopping at the pools to allow himself to heal. The rest of the team tries to figure out how to find Raina.

Jack goes to find Grim again, and finds him at the pools. Jack says Raina is hurt. Grim looks at him and says, "Her own fault."

"I need your help to find her, to scry for her."

Grim stands there, his arms crossed.

"Please..."

At that moment, Grim lost all respect for Jack. "Jack, don't beg, please." He agrees to help, though he's disgusted with Jack now.

He's only able to scry that she's in the Eastern part of the city, and that's the best he can do. I log off, and the player bitch-slaps him.

Grim Falls in Love. Again.

2010-04-27T06:06:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I pretty much dragged out all my corruptors/defenders. I realized I had a lot of them. They're also fun.

Grim meets the kits as they are adults. He got a video from Anwen, Watchmen 2. As he watched it, there was a part in the movie that showed visions. He told these visions to Jack, Raina and Lue, and knows he has to tell these visions to Gabsy and the crew.

Grim and Lue got a little closer on Thursday evening. Grim is still being very slow. Friday night, they made plans to hit a Tsoo gambling den and a warehouse. This is so he can "flush out" Tub Ci. Lue got scared again - so Grim backed off again.

A team of them got together and plowed through the gambling den and warehouse. Both Grim and Lue let themselves go full throttle, and Grim started killing. Hades hadn't allowed that. Afterward, Grim and Lue got lightly romantic, and Grim brought Lue back to his own room, none the worse for wear. When Grim got to his room, he heard voices - Hades told him since he liked killing so much, he was now called the Angel of Death. Stories will be on AScripta once Meeting the Family is over. Suffice it to say he killed a baby and a little girl. He took their souls and sent them on to the afterlife.

Sunday night, they went after the Sealers. Sealers are tough. Grim died often, but really not that badly. Problem is with the Sealers there's just SO MANY of them at once. When they got back, they saw Pyre was injured. Grim healed her, and saw that the arrow she got shot with had a spell on it, specifically for Pyre. He tested a hypothesis by cutting his wrist and asking Pyre to heal it. She couldn't. Her powers had been "sealed off." Grim and Lue headed back to Grim's room, and Grim was exhausted. He asked Lue to give him a sleep rune. Lue does, kisses his forehead, and leaves, saying, "Goodnight, love." Grim was asleep so didn't hear it.

Lue knew something was bothering Grim, so he told Lue what happened. Lue says that he'll help him next time. Then the gunslinger came in, and Grim practically jumped away from Lue. (Grim doesn't want to ruin Lue's badass reputation, so keeps a distance from him when in public.) Grim had gone with the gunslinger on a team, and he kept calling out the names of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Famine, Pestilence, War, Death. Grim went and got the Bible and quoted the Horsemen to him. The gunslinger had won his pistols in a duel, and the old owner gave them to him telling him to use those four words to have the bullets do certain things.

Now, the problem was, that Grim knew what was going on, but he didn't know why. He offered some theories. Maybe the guy he won them from was God or an angel, and he now has their job. As Grim started coming back, the gunslinger said, "The guy said his name was Satan." Grim almost vaulted across the room to strangle him. Grim left, feeling like an idiot. He sulked, and Kiko (I LOVE Kiko) and Lue came to talk to him. He felt better, so he went and made nachos.

Aysun showed up. Lue partially blames her, too, for what happened to him at the Sentinels' base. She said she was trying to help, but Lue wouldn't listen. Lue was in a panic at the time; he couldn't listen. Grim understood that, and kept trying to tell her that. "I'll never be caged again," Lue says, walking off. Aysun says she'll leave, and does. Lue then heads for his room, and Grim follows, asking him what he meant by "again." Lue tells of a time when he balked at killing, and the Tsoo locked him in a cage in a dark cellar. It was the locking up that made him panic, but nobody sees it except Grim. They did that kind of thing in the Circle, too, but Grim never had it happen to him.

Grim is trying to calm him down by touching or rubbing his shoulders. Petite notices this, and does not look happy.

Lue leaves angry because no one seems to understand Lue's side of the story. "I open up to you all, and you take their side still. So be it," he says, storming away. Grim follows. He goes in his room and slams the door - Grim begs him to be let in. He finally does. Grim tells him he understands and they sit together for a while. "I made an idiot out of myself, didn't I?" Lue said. "That makes two of us today." Lue's tired and says he wants to go to bed. Grim leaves him, and just as he's walking out, Lue looks him in the eye and says, "Good night, love."

Grim stands there like a guppy fish. "Are you sure?" Lue says, "I am. I cannot replace Stefan. And I may not be what you want. But I will love you, as a friend, if no other way." Grim kisses him, and leaves, saying, "Goodnight...love." He practically skips back to his room.

A Gunslinger

2010-04-22T09:27:00.001-04:00

Grim: "It's different with someone who loves you."

Played Winter Willow, who met up with a fellow and they ended up at the D. For three hours. It was very noisy.

Got Grim who was informed the night before about a rogue reaper wandering around the Hollows. Souls have been disappearing, but not going to Hades or the gods. Grim is sent to find the reaper and kill him.

Grim finds him, and realizes that this guy has no idea that he's sending these souls…somewhere. He's killing people, but the souls just disappear. Grim looks at him with mage sight and sees "Hunger." The pistols he has are cursed somehow. Grim can't kill the guy because it's not his fault that the souls are disappearing. He tells the guy that he knows mages who can probably help him out.

Grim gets him to the base, and kind of leaves him there (which is okay because Pyre is there and that's who he wanted to see). Lue is there, and Grim takes him into the magic room to continue the tattooing. They start talking about what their training entailed, and both of them happen to say the same thing but in different ways. They laugh over it, and Grim says, "Stop it!" Lue says, "You first." Grim says, "Okay," and comes around to face him.

Grim gently holds him and kisses him again, and promises Lue that he would respect him, be gentle with him, and never hurt him. For once, he'd take his time with a man, knowing Lue's not sure. Grim doesn't want to scare him away. Grim wants to prepare him, to teach and show him things. He's expecting Lue will leave him after Grim teaches him, so keeps bringing up when Lue will have a woman.

They then go to the grotto, and the gunslinger says that Pyre saw his pistols were cursed. Grim tries to get the gunslinger to sleep with him, but it doesn't work. Grim whispers to Lue that he can sleep with him any time.

Although Grim will still come onto men constantly, he may end up being a cocktease. Again, he'll respect Lue. And Stefan had already told Grim a long time ago that he understands Grim likes sex. Stefan loves and forgives Grim, knowing this is the way Grim is.

#END

Matters of Trust

2010-04-21T09:36:00.001-04:00

Matters of Trust

Nobody likes a lowbie controller, it seems.

I pulled out the two low controllers I have, Gamekeeper (grav/kin) and Desert Witch (plant/storm). Not one team. Could do a mission, but good Lord, was it slow.

Went back to Grim, and saw Rusty. Grim expressed that he thought something was wrong about the rescue last night. It was too easy. Maybe the children are changelings. Maybe the bad guys took their DNA and are planning to make clones. Rusty explains to him that clones aren't really worth the trouble. But maybe the DNA was taken.

Rusty says that he wanted to get the kids' DNA to study, but he hasn't asked Jack and Raina since they're very protective of them. Rusty says he would need to take the DNA from their bone marrow. "Ow?" Grim says. "Right," Rusty says.

Lue comes on, and Grim takes him in the magic room to do more tattoos. Lue says that he mourns his brother, and Grim tries to help him find out why. Lue says he's not sure, but there's one thing for certain, "I am at war." Grim asks him what the best course of action would be. "Should we start at the top and work our way down, or should we start at the bottom and inflict fear on the minions?"

Lue tells Grim that he's going to start from the middle, and that he doesn't want to drag Grim into his war. "You're not asking. I'm offering." Lue looks at him, his eyes full of wonder - he hadn't trusted people in so long, and had believed he would be alone. He trusts Grim because Grim knows and understands how it is to come from the dark into the light, and to carry around that baggage. They think the same. They're ruthless, and they mostly don't even consider the "high road" when faced with enemies.

Grim reassures Lue that he would never hurt him, and then he says quietly, "Stefan says I love too much." Lue looks at him, Grim looks back, climbs up on the chair, knocking over the inks, and kisses Lue. Both of them are taken aback. Grim has totally lost concentration and can't continue the tattooing at the moment. However, they agree that there should be more sessions - that nine-tailed fox is pretty big and detailed, after all.

Lue heads off to change - his jeans are soaked with spilled ink. Grim goes to the grotto and makes a blanket for a sleeping Para. He examines the children with magic sight and doesn't see anything wrong there. But they're still quiet. Grim tries to use the prancing unicorn rune for Anwen, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Petite and Mark come, and Grim leaves to give them some privacy with Raina, heading to a magic shop to get the materials to make new inks.

Eule shows up. Anwen is now animated with him around, and he plays with her while she's in Jack's arms. Jack relinquishes her to Eule, who sits on the floor and plays with her. Gabriel comes and says that LeBeau and Eth haven't checked in. Raina and Petite both "call" LeBeau. Eule senses Jack's jealousy - Jack clamps down on it. Eule telepathically tells Anwen to send love and caring to her dad.

LeBeau, a mother/father and son, and Eth are teleported to med bay to be healed by Pyre and Jack. Because, by then, the player had signed off.

Wow, that was fast

2010-04-20T10:07:00.001-04:00

Wow, that was fast

Brought out Konsp1r4cy Th30ry for a little while, while listening to a podcast, "Stuff THEY Don't Want You to Know" to get in the mood.

Got Grim for the rescue mission. He was actually on good behavior. And boy, did that rescue mission go fast. We plowed right through the bad guys (for once!).

After that, Grim waited outside the door of the kids' room - Raina asked him to check Anwen over. He looked at her with his healing sight and didn't see anything physically wrong with her. He left them for a little while, and Raina asked Grim to tell Gabe, Mark, and Petite that she'd talk to them tomorrow. While talking to Gabe (he calls him Gabsy), he asked if he put runes on the children if that would counter the probes Gabe would put on them. Gabe suggested that he do the runes Grim could draw on the probes themselves. Grim agreed to that, and will draw them the normal size, and Gabe can put them on microscopically.

Gabe said thank you, and Grim said, "Thanks for letting me help. That's all we want, Gabe, even though we know you can do it yourself, we want to feel useful."

Grim heads back upstairs to let Jack and Raina know the idea. The runes would reflect across the astral/auric plane as bright colorful lights. He'd put a rune on Raina's glasses, and teach Jack the spell, though it's probably better for him to also put it on Jack's glasses/helmet that he has for his uniform.

Jack and Raina are now overprotective parents, so Grim suggests that they take the kids to bed with them. Grim will redo the wards, but he needs to figure out something more than, "Those who seek to cause harm are not allowed here." He went to bed to figure out the runes and probably fell asleep amid papers all over his bed.

Sheepish

2010-04-19T15:59:00.001-04:00

Sheepish

Grim: Gabe needs the tech to keep it up. Can you imagine wires in that thing? ::shudders::
Rusty: Hydraulics.

Hello! Yes, I'm still alive. Of course a lot of things happened. My muse has had me in a choke-hold doing the Meeting the Family story, and there are two other stories in between that'll get posted after Meeting the Family. Right now, Calliope is taking a breather, so the reporter-muse Nellie Bly has woken up and decided at last to update this.

First, Stefan returned. Grim is very, very happy now - and could barely walk the next day. "I'm going to go old testament on Paragon," Stefan says. They celebrate for a couple of days, but then he has to leave for a little while again. It's okay, Grim can wait now, trusting that Stefan will return.

Next, Raina cut the ties with the technomancers. They were bullshit and pulled a hissy fit, threatening that some "big thing" was coming and they'd need their help eventually. Gabe says he won't teach Caden. Grim tells them to go to hell - Stefan can teach Caden, so there. Grim reads his tarot cards later, and sees that they'll be coming back, more powerful than before, and that Grim might leave.

Grim decides from that point on to hang out more with the new people, to find out if they need any help with their "demons". There's new rooms (I would so tackle-hug Rusty if I could) that are the "officer's quarters" with Jack and Raina's penthouse, and a new room for Kalius and Dmitrius (maybe with a master bath in it!). Grim won't move - he wants to be "where the action is".

Grim is also helping Lue with his tattoos. He had his arm cut off by his brother, Pyre healed it for him, and now he needs the tattoos back. Lue gave Grim a notebook - in English - of the different tattoos, inks, and spells necessary. As with most books, Grim memorized it. Grim is trying hard not to take advantage of a half-naked man sitting in a chair and he's sticking needles in him. However, he was able to tease out a spell that can neutralize Lue's poison, at least for a moment of contact. He has to, in order to do the tattoos, otherwise his poison would eat away the needle tip. And you do NOT want a tattoo with a blunt needle.

Last night, the kits got kidnapped right out of the base. It seems that someone was mucking around with the reactor cooling coils, and Pyre scented that it was technomancer magic, but not Gabe or LeBeau. It was figured out that the Praetorians are back, and it seems the Praetorians have kidnapped the kits. At first Jack, Raina and Grim thought it was LeBeau, because it looked like him, and they put him in the brig.

He headed back to go start scrying for the kits, and Grim met some people at the door, who introduced themselves as Caden and Anwen. Grim demanded proof, and saw Anwen's brooch - it looked like his work. When she took it off, she smelled like a werecat. That was proof enough. They also said that LeBeau didn't kidnap them, that the Praetorians did.

Grim had LeBeau released. Grim did some astral travel to look for the kits and found them in St. Martial. Anwen took him aside and asked him to stop hating the technomancers, that he was never this bad. He doesn't necessarily agree to it.

Then Gabe asks to speak with him, and Grim tells him to go ahead. Gabe asks for a truce. Grim agrees. "Shake?" Grim: "No." Gabe: "Hug?" Grim: "Let me grab your ass?" Gabe agrees and threatens that if anyone tells LeBeau…

They talk military strategy. My military history muse Rommel reared his ugly head - out of character for Grim, I realized later. Dmitrius is the military guy.

I have one other story to pound out, and then hopefully Calliope will have recovered enough to continue Meeting with the Family.

Grim loses patience

2010-04-02T08:32:00.002-04:00

Grim had just been informed by the Midnighter's that he wasn't allowed back in Cimerora. He's already not in a good mood. Kalius is pushing him really hard. He hooked up with the technomancers for a little while and said little to nothing. They joined Mareo and Mirthquake (stone tank) who kept running into mobs. Grim, as usual, would go in and try to save her but he died a lot of times - we had LeBeau's kin healer, and then he switched, and we had no healer.

After that, we heard that Rorri was 'spring cleaning' using toxic chemicals. And the twins were there.

Grim stayed away from the base, knowing that if he saw her, he'd kill her, Hades be damned. You can fuck with him. You can fuck with his friends. But don't fuck with his friends' kids. If I had 50 Grim I would have kicked her out of the SG. The character is fun but getting a little out of hand - there is no pausing. She's always doing something. Yes, she's insane and got ADD, we got that. But ease up for God's sake. It was decided that she was deteriorating, that they really can't handle that, and told her to stay away from the base for a while. LeBeau offered Sentinels, but no, Rorri played the martyr and headed off to Eden.

Grim lost patience and let her know that he'd had it with her. He was cold, angry, and entertaining murder. He went to the base and called on one of the ley lines to calm him down. When he did, he changed countenance - and showed himself as he really looked like now. Hank and Mareo had come in and saw it but didn't disturb him. Grim, of course, didn't notice.

He told Hank that he'd had it, and Hank mentioned she might become a criminal. "Then I'll have an excuse to take her soul," he said, and walked away. He found Pyre, Mareo and Jack outside the twins' room. Since Grim had calmed down, he admitted that they should be responsible, but she really needs to be in a psych ward. However, none will be able to hold her. Jack then suggests that maybe they need to do to her what they had to do to Matt - rebuild her mind from the ground up. Eule would disagree, and say it would take a battery of psi's to straighten out the maelstrom that's her mind. Pyre and Grim go and reinforce the wards that Lue had put up.

Grim returns to Mareo and Jack, and they decide to reassess Rorri in the morning.

Shorties

2010-03-31T08:27:00.003-04:00

Grim:

He chased Aldin out of the babies' room, basically telling him outright that he didn't trust him. Grim also made a leather band for Caden, with no runes on it. He would put runes on it as he sees fit, and the band would grow with him, shifting also, turning into a band of different colored fur.

Grim had completed his work for the gods, and now, for some reason, he was grumpy. He barely held his composure with LeBeau, and insulted Petite, basically calling her blind and stupid. He refused to talk to Rorri because she talked to the technomancers. He hurt Aysun. This whole hatred thing was getting way out of hand.

He had an idea - what if Jack could do to him what he did to Petite? If he could take away the emotions that he felt about the technomancers, the sheer murderous hatred, and just replace it with something like cool indifference, maybe that would make things easier. Then he wouldn't hate the people who associated with them, he wouldn't hate the entire group of technomancers, just the ones who deserved it. He would start with a clean slate. And, of course, if they performed any offensive action to anyone in Havens, he'd go right back to hating the one who did it.

Grim approached Jack, who balked at first. "If they hurt people, will you care?" "Of course," Grim says. Grim just wants him to take the edge off. Jack agrees, saying that both he and Eule will be able to reverse it. He does this, and when LeBeau walks in the room, Grim says hello, and that's about it. No desire to jump over the couch and choke him.

He goes to the entrance, and Rorri has brought a man for him. Rorri is bringing in all these strange and odd people. Jack had a talk with her to not do that anymore. The man isn't Grim's type. Grim likes big guys.

He feels something weird, and goes to the magic room. There's a Cabal witch there. It seems she's trying to escape the clutches of her sisters, and is looking for a place to hide. Grim knows the feeling, and lets her stay.

Then he takes her to the grotto (totally forgot about the implant) and she explains a little more about herself. I just realized, that none of the new people but Kiko know Grim's *real* story. Grim keeps things quiet about his personal life, though he's getting a lot better with the runes - he was able to make a rune to bring things to him, similar to telekinesis. It's fast, like a whip, and he has to have good reaction speed.

LeBeau showed up with a magic diaper bag, which included nuclear warheads. Grim fell asleep. Pyre took Grim aside and they went to look at a spell for sight. When they went back to Oblique with it, she didn't think it was a good idea, only because the Other could be let loose. There was a small blue stone, and when Pyre touched it, she could See her old home. She said it was a catalyst stone, a stone that controlled things. Pyre gave the stone back to Grim to see if he could study it. Grim tucked it under his pillow and went to sleep on it.

Eule:

Nothing much here. Oblique asked Eule if he had gone into any of the Praetorian's minds, and he said he did, but didn't want to talk about it, and left the room. It disturbed him for days, as he remembered what he shared with The General and himself. He's getting over it.

Dmitrius:

Dmitrius and Kal disappeared to Cimerora. Story forthcoming. Dmitrius had to come back to New Thebes to feed, and it was there that he met Phil Kagan, who he appointed his Gamekeeper. Story already up.

They returned to find Rorri acting like...Rorri. It was getting under Kalius' skin. Dmitrius had seen this kind of thing before among his kind (both Sabbat and Brujah) and he had learned to ignore it. Dmitrius threatened to bite her and actually did - and it was awful. (Not as bad as Mark - Mark's blood was like drinking chlorine and Pine Sol with Iron.) He didn't quite spit it out, but it wasn't pleasant. Rorri screamed over it, and Dmitrius thought that was odd, since his bite usually gives pleasure.

He put Rorri down and walked away with Kalius, who suggested that he could "wash the bad taste out". They sat on the couch and Kalius pushed back his hair for Dmitrius. Dmitrius did so, and Rorri accused them of having sex on the couch. "Would you want me to have sex on the counter?" she asks.

Line of the night, Lue: "If it'll shut you up for five minutes..."

Dmitrius almost chokes on laughter.

Then Rorri pulled out a bomb, and Dmitrius grabbed Kalius, throwing him under the table and covering him with his own body. That pissed off Kalius to no end and he dragged her kicking and screaming to the brig. Kalius called in Eule, who took one look into Rorri's brain and decided that there was NO WAY he was going in there alone.

Kalius left, losing patience. Rorri again accuses Dmitrius of doing it on the couch, and he lies and says that taking blood does not mean sex to a vampire. He goes back to Kalius, and they head to the grotto. Eule persuades Rorri to go apologize, and she does so, though not very well. Kalius warns her to behave. Eule says that she doesn't know how, and you have to be specific. (This comes from living with an ADD child.) Kalius refuses to be her babysitter, and then Rorri calls her dad. This shoves both Kalius and Dmitrius over the edge and before tearing her apart, they walk out.

Upstairs, they talk a little about her, and decide that they're going to take a cruise to Greece for their honeymoon to see their old haunts. The last time Dmitrius had been to Greece was on the way out of Constantinople to Cairo in the 1300's. (Time to research how they can board a cruise at night...)

New characters made: The Gamekeeper.

Also played Bubble Guns and Desert Wind for a while - Bubble is a lot of fun. Desert is, too - I do like storm, and I'm getting the hang of gale.

Mixed company

2010-03-25T13:11:00.000-04:00

Jack to Grim regarding Rage Kain's appearance: "Can you vouch for him?"
"Can't say I do."

Played my MM for a little while, solo. That was okay for a little while, but got pretty boring fast. Need to increase the difficulty.

Next got Grim. Grim met up with Kiko and told her that he saw Hades and he scared the shit out him. As he was talking to her, Jack and Raina show up with the babies. Grim gets Caden handed to him, and he holds it really uncomfortably. He's nervous. He goes out and buys some bouncy seats for them. (Yes, Grim is going to act like a godfather, even if he isn't.) Grim holds Anwen, and she smiles. Actually, they both smiled for him. So, yeah, he's softened up.

He heads up to his room, and Eule and Dmitrius show up. Eule loves kids, and touched Anwen, who sends out telepathically the image of a bird to everyone who's telepathic. Eule smiles and says, "Yes, yes, I am." He bounces little Anwen around.

Dmitrius comes in and sees a man standing by the entrance to the grotto. He glares at him - there's something wrong about him, and he doesn't know what. Kalius comes over and Dmitrius stands in front of him. Kalius demands what this man wants, and he says he has business with Michael. Kalius said he just left. Eule takes his leave (switching!).

Grim comes downstairs after Kalius calls him, and they go into the fireplace room. The man's name is Rage, and he's a reaper, too - except he works for the Creator of the Laws. Supposedly Hades is just an angel and is claiming souls illegally, because the souls need to go through certain Gateways and be judged and distributed from there. News to Grim, of course. Grim believes Hades to be a god (however, in the hiearchy of angels, he's below Stefan) and therefore powerful.

Rage says that he'll make a deal, that if Grim joins his cause, he'd let things slide. Grim's like, "Who gave you authority?" He doesn't know Rage, doesn't know what his cause is, and doesn't like that he just waltzes in here and think that he's intimidating enough to make him go over to his side. He sure as hell isn't going to ask Hades what's going on because the god scares him to death. Hermes is on the run, so that contact's out, too. That leaves Stefan, who probably will be peeved.

Rage leaves without further confrontation. Grim heads off to his room, disgusted and a little worried. Kalius and Dmitrius head to Cimerora, where Dmitrius points out the priestess (Sister Airlia). Kalius asks about Cainite politics (which the player really needs to brush up on a little more) and a man named Perseus the Great comes over and talks to them. (He's an RPer, but doesn't know what a punctuation mark looks like which drove me, the English major, up the wall.) This guy claimed to be Zeus' son. Dmitrius is not amused, and keeps his lover close. Eventually he leaves (d/c's) and Kalius and Dmitrius head to the house before the dawn hits.

Meanwhile, Grim goes over to the nursery and looks in on the kids. He sees Anwen has an angelic feather charm, probably from Marcus (it's invisible to all but magic sight). Grim thinks Caden needs something too. He goes back to bed, to figure out what.

Early Night

2010-03-24T08:12:00.002-04:00

"You should be intimidated by me." Dmitrius to Kiko.

Played Desert Wind as my OOC prestige earner. I really like plant/storm. I wish she healed better though. Got her to 12.

Switched to Dmitrius who informed Rorri of the rumors between Mark, Petite and LeBeau. Rorri wondered how to handle LeBeau. "Get something shiny and unattainable and dangle it in front of him," Dmitrius said. (However, he insulted Kalius, and that Dmitrius does not abide.) Rorri thinks it's Petite's fault, and is planning her demise. "I'll make it look like an accident! Mark will never have to know!" Dmitrius warns her that Petite is tough.

Dmitrius then went and sat in the grotto as people came on. He watches things, and finally he tells Kiko, "You are a hunter." They toss "what prey means to a hunter" ideas back and forth, kind of alluding to what each of them do. Dmitrius then explains to her that he's a Kuei-jin (Kindred of the East's term for vampires). Then they directly tell each other what they're meant to do. Dmitrius leaves, going to read.

I debated on signing another character on, but decided to head to bed.

Deciphering the Book

2010-03-23T08:02:00.003-04:00

"Who does he think I am, Carmen Sandiego?" Grim regarding Dmitrius cracking the whip for him to go find the rest of the gods' items.

Things didn't start happening until 9. Lue and Shadow showed up, so we did part 2 of the quest. Story on aScripta, and I did it in an hour with the barest skeleton of a story idea. Brought Dmitrius over to see who was on, and then Grim. Grim and Lue met in the magic room, and Grim asked Lue if he knew Portuguese. Lue didn't, but he still wants to go anyway. "This is fun!" Dmitrius met Rorri and scared her, which was what he was meant to do. Grim showed up in the grotto, and was blown backwards because the book they had found the day before sent out energy in all directions when they tried to decipher a page.

Grim went over to the book, and they all decided to go to the magic room. Dmitrius barred his way and told him he needed to find the gods' items first. Grim said he'd work on it, and Dmitrius stepped aside with "I'll watch you." Meanwhile he got stuck in the grotto with Adam while Rorri and Para tried to write up an internet dating profile for Oblique. I'm glad that one wasn't the live box. Dmitrius eventually suggests that they go and watch some football so they can get their sense of manliness back.

They went to the magic room, and Grim tried again, making a composite of the symbols that were on the page. It exploded and threw him into the wall, breaking his back. Pyre healed him, and the book mocked him by showing the words "Nice Try" on the page. Grim suggested they go meditate on it, and Pyre said that she would pinpoint the helm for him.

Meanwhile, Grim went into the never-full chest where he had put the arrows and found they were gone. Pyre suggested that maybe the goddess took them. She suggested Grim somehow contact them. Grim knows the way to Olympus, so he'll astral travel there, though he makes some valerian tea to help him along.

Dmitrius and Adam watched Mythbusters for a while. They talked about the fact that neither of them could actually let themselves loose, Adam because he'd fall through the bed and floor, and Dmitrius because he can't drain a person dry. However, and Dmitrius doesn't say this, but he knows he can let loose physically with Kalius, and Kalius can do the same to him. Dmitrius ends up going upstairs.

Judgment Day and Bludgeoning Seals

2010-03-22T10:10:00.001-04:00

"Don't come onto her LeBeau, for the love of God and all that's holy..." Kat regarding LeBeau approaching Athena.

Kalius, OOCly: "Talk about your ex screwing up your life..."

Dmitrius: "Is the training room destroyed...again?"
LeBeau: "It won't be." ::walks toward the training room::
Kalius: "I think Rusty can rebuild the training room in his sleep."

Friday, Grim told Kiko how he got his powers. Kiko said she would have killed him if she were younger, but now she sees he's redeemed (sort of) and won't. They do a little fighting, and then they go see Jack. Jack is still in his room. Grim has a glass of scotch and a bottle of root beer. Without a word, he hands Jack the scotch. Grim sits with him, and Grim still reassures him that he trusts him. Jack tells Grim he was almost going to off himself, but he got rid of his revolver - he had given it to Eule the day before for safe keeping. Grim refills the glass by drawing a rune on the bottom of it.

They clarify things, and then Raina shows. Gabriel arrives soon after, and Grim takes a position on the far side of the room, sprawling out on the couch nonchalantly. Gabriel then pronounces the Circle's judgment: Basically, not guilty. Jack had expected - no, wanted - to be punished. Gabriel then quote the Bible to Grim, who has memorized it, but doesn't know chapter and verse and has to look it up. The group talks for a while, and Gabriel says that he shouldn't raise Jack and Raina's kids because they'll be cold and arrogant. Jack leaves. Grim follows (Raina's eating) and checks up on him.

Jack's upset, and Grim sits with him again, putting his arm around his shoulders. Both of them decide to skip the celebration, and we alt out.

I forgot what happened after that...

Saturday they tackled the Sealers in their lair. Yes, we hate them. One: the special effects they all have bog down the computer - I just got mine upgraded, and I was lagging something fierce. Two: They're very powerful when they're all together, so you have to split them up and take them 2 or 3 at a time. They come at you in groups of 6-8, and with the boss, they crush you. So the melee guys can't go running in, you have to do a lot of pulling, and it takes a while.

We went back to the base, and Grim got visited by Ares, who was pissed that his spear was missing. Initially I was going to have it that Ares *would* take away Kalius' powers, but Kalius' player suggested that Ares *did* take his powers. We went with that. Kalius was PISSED - he broke his hand punching the stone of the fireplace. Pyre healed it, and Grim was like, "I don't know where they are!"

Then Athena appeared. She went to Grim and gave her the blessings of wisdom and foresight - but only his own, and only for the duration of this quest. LeBeau offered his and his brothers' services, and she said to him, "May your Order thrive." She left after giving Grim the blessings (mostly because the player is not so good at playing gods). Grim ran into the magic room to start scrying for the items and Pyre helped, too.

Sunday:
Played with some of the alts. Learned to like Winter Willow again - I didn't like her because I hated her costume. Now I made her look more like a goth slaugh. She got on a good team that appreciated shields. Still not sure whether I really want to keep her, though. We'll see if she makes it to 20.

Also had fun with Bubble Guns. She is such a fun character to play, and good Lord, is she stupid. Created Negata, who is for Lue, and I stole the idea from the book Soulless. Negata is more for RP purposes than actual battle - she can touch a person and take their power away so that they become human. The power has to be centered inside their body (no devices or power armor). I'll have to work out the finer details. She can make Lue and Dmitrius human while she touches them. It has to be skin to skin contact. I play Negata in OOC mode while on PuGs, and she's going to be a prestige earner.

Grim was working on getting plane tickets to Bangkok, where he found the spear, when Lue came in and offered his services. Since Grim doesn't know Thai or the lay of the land in that area of the world, he took Lue up on his offer. Shadow appeared and said, "I could teleport you." What follows is a story that's on aScripta, which I wrote in an hour, even while playing two other characters at the same time. I will admit that it came out pretty good (and Shadow and Lue's players liked it too). I signed on Eule as background - and Ares for Kal.

Ares is an ass, and refuses to explain himself. Ares know he did something wrong by taking Kal's powers away and will not apologize or take responsibility. He senses that Grim is traveling through the Void with the spear, and he is able to take it there. Then he gives Kal his power back (though he was going to tell Kal that he's whining, which Ares also does), plus more.

The three come back, without the spear. Grim doesn't know where it is, he hadn't let it go when they teleported. Shadow says he felt the same kind of energy that he feels when Grim takes a soul. Grim is at a loss, and then goes to see Kalius to get his punishment. He goes to the grotto to see Kalius and Dmitrius there, and Kalius is smiling. He looks at Grim, the smile fades, and his eyes spark fire. Grim knows he's got his powers back, and Kalius tells him Ares sensed when Grim had the spear and took it from him as they teleported back.

Grim went to bed at that, finally relieved. He hadn't slept the night before.

Dmitrius and Kal stick around for a little while. Para, one of "Raina's strays", has joined up with happy band of brothers. Oblique gave him a tour of the base - she was really fun to listen to, so she is official tour guide. Dmitrius asks him who he is and what he's doing, and they find out he's a cop. You could hear a pin drop. Oblique picked it up (as she's wont to do). Then, Mark ran out of the training room. Someone yelled for him to be stopped - Dmitrius got up and vaulted over the railing and ran at Mark, but misses. LeBeau punches Mark in the face, which pisses him off even more, and he turns on Mareo. Dmitrius grabs his arms and yanks them back, holding him against the wall. He uses his Animal Ken ability to calm him down. As they're ready to take him to the brig, LeBeau teleports him.

Mark eventually changes back. Kalius explains that Mark is trying to tame his Beast, and Dmitrius can understand that. He wonders if he should talk to Mark to tell him what path he follows. (Via Equitum - a belief that he is superior to humans, but also is a protector of the weak.) Dmitrius will have to talk to Mark sometime to find out if the beasts are similar. The reason they're having trouble is because "it's over a woman."

Things calm down from there - though LeBeau insults Kalius and Dmitrius doesn't care much for that. Dmitrius and Kalius head up to bed.

Aftermath

2010-03-19T08:34:00.000-04:00

"The rules change because of convenience? Let me know when you get your rules straight." Grim to LeBeau

Grim finds out from Mareo what happened, even though he had found out from Eule earlier that day. Grim is none too happy about Gabriel's accusations. He's decided to ignore that for now and concentrate on Mareo and his Sealer problem. Mareo tells him that they're heading into the teeth of one of their lairs, and Grim agrees to join them.

Got Timetripper and finished the Midnighter's Arc, so she's ready for Cimerora.

Grim returns and helps Mareo and Pyre in the RWZ, and Jack signs on. They go and visit him. Before Grim can reassure him, Mareo comes in and gives a wonderful speech that would have made Grim's look silly. So Grim just shut up (and player took out the dog). When player returned - LeBeau was there, saying that the technomancers were going to take a vote on whether or not they were going to remain allies. Grim suggested bribing them to get them to leave. Jack told Grim to shut up.

LeBeau says, "I don't know why I haven't killed you yet."

Grim counters, "Threaten me all you like."

They meet on the stairs. LeBeau says that what Jack did to Petite was worse than what Kell did to Raina. Grim is of the opinion that if something is done against the technomancers, it's suddenly wrong, but if it's done to anyone else, it's okay? That's bullshit. Grim's called LeBeau on it and didn't get a response. So since they obviously don't follow the same rules of magic that he does, he's decided not to bother trying to understand or explain them anymore.

Grim escapes, finding Adam at the bar. They talk for a while about how neither one of them seem to be interested in what's going on anymore. Grim suggests that it's gotten too complicated, too emotionally draining, that it's actually painful. Too much stuff is going on, and it's hard to both keep track or do anything to change it. Grim is the only believer in fate, and believes things should happen as they're meant to be, and that people shouldn't keep trying to change things, especially based on some old man's fortune telling.

Oblique comes over and tells Grim that her father's gone. Grim is like, "hooray" and figures that's the end of that. Oblique tells him more, and when he asks questions, she deflects the answers with confusing and piecemeal answers. Grim is not in the mood for more cryptic shit, and is short with her. Finally, knowing his mood has gone into the realm of grumpy, heads off to bed.

Fixing Jack

2010-03-18T09:34:00.000-04:00

It started innocuously enough. Grim was in Talos, admiring the view (i.e. lft) and Kiko appeared, startling him. They talked about the technomancers for a while, and Kiko offered this advice, "Ask them what they really want from you."

Did a few missions, switched to Eule. Gabriel showed up and borrowed Eule and Petite. He told Petite that he thought her mind had been manipulated, and wanted Eule to check and see. At first, Petite said no, and Eule fell back on his Hero Corps training and rules to balk at it. Petite finally agreed, and Eule entered her mind with Gabriel's connection. (He could have done it himself, but, whatever.) Gabriel guided Eule to where he thought the blockage was, and Eule tore at it gently to see what it was. He noted that the blockages weren't put there "with malevolent intent" and he didn't feel right to take it down, believeing that they were put there for a reason. He started taking it apart at the seams, seeing her memories and emotions attached to the memories. He got the blockages undone, Gabriel created a "sieve" for them to filter through so she wouldn't be overwhelmed, and Eule retreated.

He knew who had done it, because he had been in that person's mind before - Jack. However, Eule didn't say anything because 1) he thinks something's wrong with Jack in the first place and he might have done it "under duress" and 2) He didn't know or trust Gabriel enough to tell him. He was glad he didn't later, because Gabriel told the entire thing to the rest of the group - Eule didn't like that. Going into a person's mind is a very personal and private affair, and should not be discussed among mixed company, even if they are a danger. If they're a danger, the information should be shared with superiors, and details not devulged. (Technomancers obviously don't follow the "to be silent" Rule of the Sphinx.)

Dmitrius arrived and watched the exchange, and also told Kalius of the possibility of Assamite assassins. There's a contract out from him, from the Prince of Marsaille, where he had killed the Prince's childe because of a breach of the Masquerade. The contract is 600 years old, and the Prince is long since dead - but the Assamites know he's an elder and want his blood. They may show up, they may not.

Eule contacts Jack telepathically to ask him what's going on. Jack calls him to the magic room, and Eule arrives invisibly. Jack apologizes for bringing Eule into it. Eule feels that he should gain Jack's trust, so that way he can go into Jack's mind to see what's actually wrong and they can work together to fix it. He certainly doesn't want that mean old Gabriel and all the rest of the technomancers that are in his mind to see what's going on in Jack's, especially since he's such a blabbermouth. Eule is patient and slow, and follows Jack's lead. He's not sneaky and won't grab onto Jack's mind when he's not looking. Matt wants to talk to Jack, and Eule takes the back door out.

Rusty takes Raina aside, and says there's something wrong. They retreat to the lab, where Eule also listens in. Rusty expresses concern about Jack. Mareo agrees there's something wrong. Kal and Dmitrius follow, and at first they mention that maybe Gabriel is controlling Jack's mind somehow, or at least influencing it. Dmitrius gives a report of what happened during Grim's breakout and how Jack acted toward Gabriel. The rest of the group think Jack went over the line. Then the room starts getting really crowded. Eule finds his way out when Gabriel comes in and says, "Your husband told me to leave."

Eule finds Jack in the training room, unbelievably pissed off. Eule doesn't even have to touch his mind to feel it. Jack says he told Gabriel to leave, but Eule tells him he's in the lab. Jack gets absolutely LIVID, draws his hammer, and goes to head out. Eule stands in his way. Jack suddenly realizes what he's doing, and stops. Eule explains he sees something in Jack's mind, something wrong, and wants to help.

Raina comes running in. Eule steps aside, and Raina tries to comfort Jack. Gabriel doesn't help matters, by teleporting into the room and wanting to help. Raina asks Eule to help, and Eule does so. Caden also comes into his father's mind and directs Eule to a central "knot" where Jack's psyche and this dark one are intertwined. Eule undoes the knot and he and Caden start to get attacked. He does the only AOE he has - Psychic Wail. Yeah, it hurt, but Eule knew Jack was strong and could recover. The strings and tendrils of the dark one die out, and Eule boxes them all up and takes them out of Jack's mind. He goes to Pocket D and deposits the box with the trigger word "umbellet" in a particularly ugly villain. Then he heads home and crawls into bed at 1:17 am.

The Technomancer Problem

2010-03-17T08:58:00.004-04:00

"We avoid them, we walk away, and they still follow us. Do they *want* to die?" Grim regarding the Technomancers.

Grim has gotten a lead on where his powers might be. I created a two-part AE mission - short and sweet - with simple CoT. I did have an arch-villain but changed that to a simple boss. I didn't want people who joined to spend a ton of time with it.

Grim was in the bath house when Brandon came in. Grim talked him into the bath, and they talked for a while. They got out, then headed to the grotto - and ran into Jack. Jack pulled Grim aside to talk to him. Jack asked Grim for his help, and told Grim that he went after some Circle to get some information on where his powers could be, but he didn't get anything out of them. He didn't go into what he did with them afterward, and Grim didn't ask.

Grim said he had a lead, and checked to see who else would want to help. "Who do you trust?" He picked Mareo, and kind of hesitated about Petite. He had her join as well. Then LeBeau signed on, and Grim practically RAN to the site to get the mission started. And he refused to hire LeBeau.

The team plowed through the CoT, though you couldn't swing a dead cat and not hit one, they were that concentrated. They beat the boss, who dropped a scroll with a spell to get to Oranbega. Grim used it, and the team went there. Aside: in all the times I tested this mission, the objective was always in the middle. I told the AE to move it to the back, but I guess it thinks the "back" is the middle. This was no exception: the chest was found in the middle room.

In the chest was the glass tear drop that Grim remembered held his essence, along with other glass tear drops of different colors and markings. The first thing in Grim's mind was "MOTHERLOAD!" Then Petite called him on it and asked if he was going to keep it. While he attempted to frame an answer, Jack, said, "We'll take it and return them to their rightful owners." Grim's thinking, "Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!" and follows Jack's lead. Petite and Mareo are none too convinced, but they all leave anyway.

Grim heads home to open the chest and get his essence. Of course, story will follow.

Got Eule, who arrived at the base looking for help in calculus. He's going to college, right now as a liberal arts major. Jack helps him with the calculus (considering both players don't know much about calculus, we faked it). Eule finds Jack to be suddenly way too serious. He skims Jack's upper thoughts quickly, and senses that they're dark and cold. Jack gets really offended because Eule skimmed him - but Eule senses upper thoughts most of the time automatically, he was just paying attention to these.

Then Gabriel comes in, and Jack retreats. Gabriel says he'll need Eule for a big favor, and Eule says, "I don't know you." He also skims Gabriel, and finds only numbers. Eule shows no reaction, but Gabriel says, "I'd like you to stay out of my head."

Gabriel heads to the training room. Kat comes in, and talks to Eule. Eule gives up his story, of why he will no longer fall in love again. After this, Grim comes back out.

Yes, Grim's got his powers back. He runs into Pyre, who's so upset about what she did. Grim doesn't blame her, knowing it wasn't her fault. She explains she was being controlled by the ring, the twin of which was Dark's ring, so they're thinking the Sealers killed Dark. Grim asks where her ring is now, and Gabriel says, "I have it." Grim tells him they should cleanse it, but Mareo says it's not that easy. Then Pyre starts feeling faint, and they move to the other room.

Grim realizes that Jack is alone with Gabriel, so he runs back to the grotto. "Where'd you hide the body?" Grim asks Jack. Jack looks confused until Grim explains that he thought Jack would have done something to Gabriel. Then Grim shows Jack something new. Yes, story follows.

Grim goes back to the dorm room, and Mareo brings up they need to do something about the technomancers. Grim agrees, "Got any ideas other than killing them all?"

Mareo, in fact, does. "Positive negativity." Let them rant, talk, go - and then walk away. They've tried that. They've tried ignoring them. The mancers keep coming back. Grim had brought them on the brink of war before, but with LeBeau talking to Gabriel and Grim standing down, they avoided that. Grim even apologized. Still, they're treated like children, or Gabriel's personal recruiting ground. Jack leaves, Grim stays for more, and they basically reiterate their positions. Grim said he avoided the last war by standing down. "Would Jack?" Mareo asks. Grim honestly doesn't know - and in a way, doesn't want him to.

Vanth mentions something that Jack did, so Grim goes up to find out the details. Yes, Jack killed all the Circle in the lair, because he didn't want them to tip off the rest of the Circle or the Sealers. Grim doesn't have a problem with killing. Grim does have a problem knowing that it's Jack who's doing it. However, he can see Jack's logic, of getting things done, and the hell with anything in the way. Grim leaves, bothered, but not so much as to question it.

Eule, however, ponders.

Oops.

2010-03-16T09:06:00.000-04:00

My apologies for not updating this blog. Usually I update this at work, from memory, but work's picked up with this really stupid busy-work project, and I've been handed another girl's work because she's out on FMLA. So I don't have much time to sneak on.

So here's a really, really quick and dirty update.

Grim

Before being captured by Circle, Grim took LeBeau aside and basically "suggested" that he go after Petite if he really likes her that much and think they should be together. "But be careful what you wish for," because Petite seems fickle to him. LeBeau says she goes to him, that she loves him and really doesn't want to marry Mark. Grim, of course, treasures this information. LeBeau can be depended on to weave his own noose.

Grim, Dustin, Pyre, and Kiko go to Dark Astoria to beat up Circle. Dustin and Kiko head back to the base, and Pyre and Grim stick around. Suddenly, Grim's exhausted, and he falls asleep - not knowing that Pyre did this, as she's under mind control. He finds himself among the Circle and gets his powers taken away (see story in aScripta). Basically, his photographic memory is gone, along with the memories that were created in this way (this can happen - I know an epileptic this happened to after a particularly bad grand mal seizure). He can still read books, but he'll have to carry them around with him. He's also still able to tap into that energy where he can channel spells through him - but nothing sticks. There's a basic AE mission ready to go for him.

Grim is rescued by Stefan, Kiko, Jack, Dmitrius, Petite, and Mark - and, of all people, Gabriel. He's unbelievably happy to see Stefan. Stefan can't stay - he's in enough trouble already. But at least he was there to rescue him.

Also, last night, he interrogates Kat. He knows nothing about her, and thinks that she's part of the technomancers. She's not. The technomancers actually searched her out. Grim admits to her that he's biased, and that they aren't to be trusted. They make promises they never keep, and they expect Havens to fight their battle for them. They have their own agenda, though Grim doesn't know what it is.

Dmitrius

He and Kalius have been spending time together off-camera, working on the vacation home. Dmitrius went to the base on Saturday, and found Vanth attacking Mareo. He tackled Vanth, but she set him on fire. He ran into the pool to extinguish it, and now he's lost control. He tries to tackle her, runs into Mark and throws him aside. Petite gets between them and gets thrown into a wall, too. Dustin explodes in light and Dmitrius runs (I'm like, yeah, whatever). Mark chases him and finds him heading to the door. They wrestle - Dmitrius bites Mark and it tastes horrible. Mark bites Dmitrius' arm through the bone and tears off some rotten flesh. Lue shows up to restrain the two. Eventually Dmitrius' mind clears and he's okay. He apologizes, and Mark accepts it, understanding. Dmitrius heals his wounds and the next night it's fine.

Sunday, Jack summons whoever is available, and Dmitrius shows up. He's a little leary of Stefan, who assures him his fire won't burn him. They head into the lair of the Sealers, and rescue Grim.

The next day Kalius awakens with him, and Kalius has had a very vivid dream. Vivid dreams mean, to him, a message from the gods, but they can't seem to figure out what the message is.

Quickies:

Bubble Guns and Iron Shootist
These are my prestige earners. Shootist might be part of Havens, I'm not sure yet. I initially had him as a vampire, but I don't want to bring too many of them in. I do, however, want him to be "stuck in time". Maybe an over-the-top reinactor? Bubble Guns is my "omg, like, no way!" character. Total, total stereotype and irritating within the first ten minutes. Whenever I play her, I can hear Carl Wheezer from Jimmy Neutron singing in his offkey voice, "We're spies!"

Eule
He's gotten over Kal - is sad that he can't have him, but is happy that Kal's happy. He works diligently for the group.

Timetripper
Thanks to Kiko, she has most of the Midnighter's Arc done. We have the Lady Jane one to go, but I'm thinking of failing it anyway just to get it over with. After that comes the talk-tos and create the wand, find the Lost, and then it's over, and she can go into Cimerora for the ITF.

Field trip!

2010-03-09T08:17:00.001-05:00

Hank Gryphon: "Are you the cleaning crew?"
Jack: "Something like that."

When the demons show up, Grim: "Oh shit."
LeBeau: "C'mon, Grim, you can do better than that!"

Grim was around, and talked to Kiko. Well, Kiko talked to him. She said that she and Mareo talked the night before, and Grim's comment was, "And you're both still alive?" Whatever he said, disturbed Kiko from her vengeful thoughts. Grim thinks that Mareo is honorable to his friends and those he cares about. Kiko agrees with that assessment. Jack signs on and he's all happy. Grim acts grumpy. He's not really "grumpy", just flat. Pyre comes and they talk a little about Mareo being paranoid. Pyre looks up some runes with Grim's grimoire and points out a very tiny rune. "I'm going to take a shower," she says, and Grim says, "Will that really help?" Pyre just glares at him - and looks cute doing it, so Grim doesn't take it that seriously.

Shadow goes to help while Jack and Grim talk. Dmitrius shows up (to get his IO's and pay Jack) and goes to the library to finish with the translations.

Grim warns Mareo that Pyre's looking for him, and they find Shadow watching Pyre take a shower. Hmmm...okay - but he's actually helping to look for the rune. She finds it, and then tells Mareo what she found out. Mareo whisks her away to the dorms, and they look for the other runes. Meanwhile Shadow sends a thought to cheer Grim up. (Grim is much funnier when he's depressed.)

They retire to the grotto where Grim makes some nachos. People drift in. Mark is looking for Dmitrius. (Quick! Log him back on!) Dmitrius shows Mark what they've translated, and it seems the Eclipse Empire has different priorities, based on whoever the Vizir (their leader at the time) is. Then LeBeau walks in and punches Mark in the face. Dmitrius steps in and gets in LeBeau's face. LeBeau's ready to punch him again, but Dmitrius says coldly, "You punch no one." Then LeBeau goes over to the grotto - Dmitrius and Petite right behind him. Jack acts coldly to LeBeau - Grim gets Jack out of there saying he's going to show him how to change the fire into different colors. They bump into Mareo and Pyre - Pyre has to retreat from the angry voices in the other room.

Grim has talked to Oblique, and makes a decision to go to Nebraska to confront her dad. Jack, LeBeau, Petite, Mark, Mareo all go with him. They go there, into his mansion, and manipulate their way in. Petite is bullshit already. The man is a prick. (Why can most of us play assholes so well?) Grim is coldly confrontational, Jack finds his way into Hank's mind - Hank didn't do the actual action of putting the Other in Oblique when she was still in the womb, someone else did, and now Grim has his picture in his mind.

LeBeau goes to the rooms beyond, and Grim follows to keep him out of trouble. They get attacked by farm workers. The team comes and they plow their way through the bowels of the house. In one room, Grim senses dark angry magic, and sees an altar. He starts pawing through the stuff on it, and taking things from it that he senses he should - including an address of a Mr. Hecker in Cap au Diable. Mareo tells him to wait, but he doesn't - and suddenly, Bat'zul creatures appear. Grim turns from the altar and sees the team embroiled in battle, then joins in.

They all go home - everyone's disgusted because they didn't get to kill Hank. "Now I know where his house is," Petite says, and she may just pay him a visit as an avenging angel. Grim briefs Oblique, and when he shows her the robe he got off the altar, she passes out. He takes the items to go study them, to see where they're from and what they're made for. That'll give him a break from making the items Hermes wants.

Killing Kell - and Double XP weekend

2010-03-08T12:52:00.002-05:00

I haven't updated this since the team killed Kell.

Okay, so now you know that arc's ended. It happened in "Nerva" - we used Faultline. The technomancers took the body - Grim was going to burn it right then and there. Something tells me he'll be back in some way, shape, or form. His soul, however, is held in Tartarus (I left it open for that player to write Kell's final judgment before Minos and his punishment - Hermes is the lawyer for the prosecution, as he's got Grim doing something for him).

Double-XP weekend started on Friday. Jack's been running around letting loose with his powers and having a grand old time. Grim's keeping an eye on that, though he thinks Jack's actually got a handle on things. Raina is taken out of battle - her shifting is dangerous to the kits. She feels totally helpless.

On Saturday, Kalius and Dmitrius head over to Cimerora for a "date" - to go beat up Romans. Kalius falls and Dmitrius kills the Roman who does it, feeding on him. The two men go through the mission, taking out all the Romans and enjoying the blood and mayhem. When finished, Kalius turns to Dmitrius and asks him to marry him. Dmitrius, of course, says yes. They're thinking of doing it in Cimerora, with a small civil ceremony in Massachusetts.

Grim is mostly working on the items Hermes told him to. He comes out of the magic room cursing Greeks and their stupid bronze weapons. He sees Kalius and Dmitrius together and walks by them. Kalius tells Grim the news. Grim suddenly loses interest in his dinner and walks away. But he can't concentrate on the magic, and wanders through the base, numb. He talks to Kiko, and realizes that what he had thought was love was just physical expressions, "a romp with friends." What Stefan had shown him was true love.

Grim then contacts Stefan astrally and is reassured. Grim decides to wait for him (however, he's far from celibate, as he runs into a huge bear of a man in Pocket D). He still has Kalius as a true friend. Grim makes a decision.

Dmitrius calls his only two true vampire friends. He has other acquaintences in Texas, though, who he may invite as well. Kalius will call Kevin's parents and his friends, and the vampires and the mortals will gather for the "civil" ceremony.

Grim sees Kalius and tells him to wait. He goes and gets the deed and the key to the house he had bought for Kal and him in Cimerora. Kal and Dmitrius go off to see it - it's on a cliff, with a view of the sea. It's HUGE. (It's actually located behind the "Old Woman" contact in Cim.) However the cellar isn't that secure against light, though Kalius will check on it in the daytime.

Raina tells them all that Vizir has escaped. Mark mentions things about the Eclipse Empire and Grim suggests that he put together some sort of report to explain as much as they know. Mark has some books in Arabic, and Kalius and Dmitrius both say that they can translate it for him. While waiting for Mark, they find out he's in trouble and "getting the shit beat out of me". They all rush to Circe Island, to see a man - a Kheldian Technomancer - doing...something. Even I'm not sure what was happening - something about getting back a wedding ring.

At the same time, Grim was getting fighting lessons from Raina and Mareo. Raina left, and then Grim was talking to Mareo for a while. Another technomancer shows up, and Grim is not happy. Jack has showed up, and he's not thrilled either. (Line of the night, only because I got a comment: "Can't we put WD-40 or something around the perimeter so they don't come back?")

Off the beaten path, for double xp weekend I jumped on the bandwagon and made a Dual Pistols character: Bubble Guns. The story is that she sent away $69.99 to get a "spy degree". Now she wears cutesy outfits and runs around with pink pistols. She's a total stereotype.

Short and sweet

2010-03-04T07:16:00.002-05:00

Mystic's Shadow: "What's a techomancer?"
Grim: "A prick."

Did some STO and met up with another character. Myan's voice came to me, finally - he's in engineering. He's not all that smart, but he picks pretty good officers, who save his bacon. He didn't even want to be chief engineer - he just wanted to learn to work on warp cores. He knows jack shit about running a ship. He and Josi were friends in the Academy...maybe more? We'll have to see.

Got Grim, who wandered about. Raina called a meeting to discuss how to approach Kell, and the technomancers would not shut up, so Grim walked out. I fetched Dmitrius who stood invisibly in the back to listen to the instructions. Gabriel showed up, and told them that he was going to lead this team.

Meanwhile, Jack went to talked to Grim. Grim said that the technomancers just pissed him off, and of course he'd help Jack against Kell. Jack asked if he can take Kell's soul and destroy it. Grim didn't know if he could, but he'd ask. Then Jack talked a little bit about Raina being pulled out of battle. Grim mentions that he knows a spell where you can put the density of chain mail into a simple shirt. Grim suggests that to Jack, who agrees.

Mystic's Shadow comes along and tells Grim a different way of magic - using "base" runes and "sub" runes. Grim likes that idea and will work with it.

The mind is willing…

2010-03-03T10:07:00.000-05:00

STO: With thanks to Sarek, I got some better aft phasers and a science console. I have this extra science officer that I don’t know what to do with. Once you replace the bridge officers, you can’t get them back.

Defend missions suck. Patrol missions, not so bad. I want more ground missions, however. Also, sometimes you join a common mission team and then things go a lot easier. How did these people get photon mines, I wonder? I suspect it has to do with bridge officers. My bridge officer is big into the phasers, so I picked him just for that. I just wish my science officer’s abilities would work…Maybe he has a different ability that I don’t know? It’s already been bumped up to 5 – what more does he need?

Did I mention the manual sucks?

COH:
Got my pre-order for Going Rogue on both accounts, which means I have access to dual pistols. I might just wait for the furor to die down, or I’ll do it over this double XP weekend. Need to think up something more than a stereotypical gunslinger.

Signed on as Grim. Jack was on, and talked to him. Jack is afraid of his darker nature – he doesn’t like what he becomes. “It’s not darkness, it’s ‘relentless’ or ‘get the job done’.” Grim says that sometimes that’s good in magic. He mentions to him that Oblique wanted him to let loose, that he holds back too much. Then Oblique walks in.

Oblique thinks that the whole group has “holding back” issues. Grim says, “If you let loose, you’d blow things up. If I let loose, there would be demons walking the earth.” Xan shows up. He gets a bottle of wine and sits on Grim’s lap. Grim doesn’t move to get him off, and in fact pets him. Xan steps out for a minute, and then returns with elven wine. Grim is quite the lightweight, and it doesn’t take much to get him drunk.

When Raina and Jack arrive, Grim is quite drunk. He sings when he’s drunk. Why is he drunk? He’s still depressed. But Xan takes him upstairs to make him feel better.

Kal sees Grim and the satyr walk by and comments on this to Dmitrius. This absolutely does not endear Grim to him – he does have a boyfriend, who’s an angel besides, and he’s cheating on him. They go downstairs, and sit with the group for a while – Mark is on the phone. Player starts fading and was ready to call it, when Mark went feral and confronted LeBeau about sleeping with Petite. LeBeau claims to not have had sex, but Dmitrius knows he’s hiding something and mentions it to Kal, who agrees.

Then LeBeau asks if anyone wants to spar. Dmitrius offers, but Jack offers as well. LeBeau takes Jack up on that offer. Everyone retires to the training room - and the player passes out.

So, to cover that, Dmitrius goes and does something off scene – not hunting. I figure maybe he’s getting his financial affairs in order. He’s also debating on going back to Texas. Where’s down there anyway? His stuff? He told Kal the only reason he had stuff was for “happy memories.” He doesn’t need it any more because every day Kal reminds him of the happiest memories he’d ever had. He’s thinking of retiring from the Kindred politics, and concentrating his life on being with Kalius and continuing the partnership that was taken away from them all those years ago. However, Kindred politics is like the mafia, and you can't just leave.

A wrestling match

2010-03-02T11:52:00.001-05:00

STO update: I am so stuck, and things are going so slow. I really need better weapons or something - three Birds of Prey at +1 con crush me in three minutes. I do squat for damage. My tachyon shield for some reason doesn't work, and the manual is OH so helpful. The forums are not much better, filled with people mostly bitching about "Why can't I do this?" I am right now a Lieutenant Grade 7. I play for a couple of hours before things get started on COH.

Okay, back to the show.

Dmitrius signed on and spoke with Rusty about a few things, mostly about the lack of feeling. Dmitrius is starting to feel about people. Rusty says, "You've been sizing us up. I hope we're passing." Dmitrius only smiles and then LeBeau calls for help. Dmitrius and Rusty go help him, and Petite comes along. LeBeau acts very familiar toward her, calling her "love" and being close to her. Dmitrius thinks that is absolutely not right. He says nothing.

They go back to the base, and Dmitrius watches things quietly. He actually is assessing things - however, here he feels safer. He doesn't feel like he has to be locked up in a vault or buried in a cellar. If anything, Kalius would protect him. Dmitrius is also trying to fit in; he's read the files on the computer so he's familiar with the enemies the group is facing. (I have a group of enemies in mind for Dmitrius, if the group wants to jump in on that.) Dmitrius mentions to Rusty that he and Kalius were talking about the bath houses they used to go to, and Rusty says he'll build one. "It's a welcome diversion," he says. Dmitrius sees Mark, and asks him if Petite is his lady. "Yes..." Mark says. "Then why does LeBeau call her 'love'?" Mark goes silent.

LeBeau comes in and all the girls (what, three?) seem to fawn all over him. Dmitrius honestly does not understand why. Kalius comes, and the two sit with each other. Dmitrius mentions that the quartermaster may be building a Roman bath house. Kalius smiles.

The group drifts apart, and Kalius and Dmitrius remain. Dmitrius suggests a wrestling match. The two men retire to the training room and throw each other around for a while, having an absolutely grand old time. They destroy the fencing and some of the masonry in the wall. It's just like the good old days, "except more property damage" Kalius mentions. (I play "fortitude" that Dmitrius can take hits, can get broken and dislocated bones but feels no pain. Items fired at him at a long distance bounce off him, a reasonable range would get through but wouldn't hurt him, and point blank would definitely get through and cause a lot more damage, but he'd still feel no pain. It was suggested that he's actually very tough, so I'll probably play him that way also: Example: gets plowed through by a bus, would still have broken bones but be able to get up once healed, and he heals pretty fast.)

Yeah, well, anyway, enough with the mechanics. They hit the showers, then go to bed.

Another quiet night.

2010-03-01T07:11:00.000-05:00

Grim has decided to stay in Arcadia and study fae magic. However, Ryder warns him that time passes differently in Arcadia and he may need to force himself check in with his friends every so often.

Rusty, meanwhile, has added new rooms.

Dmitrius goes with the group for a mission, then heads to the grotto. LeBeau shows up, and there's quite the "love fest" with the girls. Dmitrius calmly watches the whole thing. When Mareo goes to the kitchen, Dmirtrius and Adam practically bolt after him. Dmitrius sees Jack go into the training room, and he follows, watching as LeBeau also follows him.

Dmitrius has not been introduced to LeBeau, nor will he introduce himself. LeBeau didn't even look at him anyway, and Dmitrius is too confident of himself to care about any slights, intentional or unintentional. Besides, Gabriel might have already told LeBeau - in case Gabriel even noticed or cared.

Dmitrius gives Jack a lesson in the hammer, and they destroy a watermelon, splattering it everywhere. Dmitrius knows that people will get satisfaction if they actually cause some sort of visual damage, and watermelons are very nice to destroy. Adam watches.

Jack leaves to take a shower, and Dmitrius stays to clean up. Kalius finds him mopping the floor, comes over and licks his face. "Tasty," he says, and Dmitrius chuckles. They go together to take a shower...and while there Kal muses about having baths like they did in the old days...

Taking his own medicine.

2010-02-28T20:00:00.002-05:00

Grim: "Ugh, satyrs..." Falls face-first on the couch.
Ryder: "Oh yes, one of them said you left this..." Holds up a pair of underwear, about Grim's size.

Grim (about Dmitrius): "If you're a good puppy, maybe I'll give you a bone."

The night before, Grim was angry at Kalius. He insulted Dmitrius, calling him Kalius' pet and puppy, and Kalius says it's because he's not comfortable with the group yet. Grim is angry, jealous, and hurt. He helped Kalius because he wanted to see him happy, and now that he is, Grim's angry about it. Is there logic behind this? No - but IRL I've seen it happen.

Grim goes to Arcadia and stays with the satyrs there for the night.

Dmitrius sees Kalius, and they talk about old times and soon retire for the night.

The next day was so boring, I made an AE. It's for when Dmitrius and Kal go to Texas (technically, I'm writing up their story). Nothing happened until around 9 pm EST. (Must remember: that's when the action really starts.) A cargo ship full of Sealers was coming into the harbor, the people who are going against Mareo and Pyre. The team went to set off bombs on the ship.

The Sealers had way too many effects, and between quicksand, snow storm, and gravity holds, I could go NOWHERE. We were picked off like fish in a barrel. We had to separate out the ones that caused the effect, or at least put them in different areas, so the effects wouldn't stack.

They came back and settled in the hot tub. Grim was grumpy, but got over it and jumped in. Then Dmitrius shows up, and he was all grumpy again. He leaves. Dmitrius watches, no emotion on his face. Kalius comes over and introduces Dustin, who gives Dmitrius the once over.

Grim, meanwhile, is half-heartedly heading to his room, and Oblique stops him, and lets him know she's there to talk. Grim doesn't want to talk. Grim's depressed and lonely - but there's plenty of people who would talk to him, and keep him company. He doesn't see that. He goes downstairs, and sees that Gabriel is there. He doesn't know what's going on, but Grim wants to make sure he doesn't go and mess with anything.

Come to find out, Gabriel has the last piece of LeBeau's soul. Kalius and Dmitrius go to see what's going on. Kalius had expressed to Dustin that Grim was acting like a drama queen, and Dustin said Grim should be allowed to. Kalius and Grim are glaring at each other, and Dmitrius decides enough is enough, and calls Grim out.

Initially I was going to have them disappear and I was going to write it out, but we got followed to Talos. Dmitrius starts beating the crap out of Grim, and when Kalius tells him to stop, he does. Then Grim takes out his dagger and stabs him with it. He was intending to injure his soul - and he did. It caught Dmitrius off guard, then Grim twisted the dagger in him. Kalius shoves the two men apart, and Dmirtirus is this close to going off on Grim. Kalius breaks Grim's hand to get the dagger away from him. (Forgot to show Grim's agony at that.)

Kalius explains that he loves Grim, but not like he loves Dmitrius. Dmitrius says that he doesn't hate Grim, but that he needs to grow up. Grim ignores them all, and asks for his dagger. Dustin won't give it to him, so Grim says he'll treat Dmitrius like LeBeau. Then he goes off to Arcadia.

Dmitrius and Kal go back to the base, and they discuss tactics. Dmitrius used to do tactics, and finds himself still doing it. Then he and Kal "retire"...

The General and the Seelers

2010-02-26T12:54:00.002-05:00

General Simmons sees a picture of a kitten in Grim's profile on the computer.
Grim: "I wouldn't touch that. The last guy who opened that turned into a girl."

Dmitrius awakens to see Kalius reading. He gets dressed and calls Tommy - except it's not Tommy who answers. (Conversation on AScripta.) His servants have been massacred and his property taken. Oh, he'll go back down there, all right, "when you least expect it." He crushes the phone in his hand. He is pissed - and barely keeping in control - he has his arms tight behind his back so he doesn't throw the couch out the window. He explains a little about the politics to Kalius. (Need to retcon some of it, though.) His fangs have descended, and he won't talk anymore (he would have a lisp if he did because of the fangs). He has to go out. Kalius asks him if he wants him to go with him, but Dmitrius says no.

Otherwise, the group is pretty much waiting for General Simmons to arrive. Vanth asks Grim to help her scry for the pieces of LeBeau's soul, but he refuses. "I don't have the heart for it," he says. He would give energy to Pyre, but he wouldn't do it himself.

Grim followed Jack and General Simmons to the lab and back...and General Simmons asked Jack and Raina to join up with him. Grim asked that they at least hear him out, and as soon as he says, "You join us but you can't go back," Grim walks out of the room, knowing that sure as hell isn't going to fly.

Dmtrius returns, saturated in blood and gore. He takes a shower - Jack shows up and waits for him to leave. Dmitrius hears him, and gets out, and stands in the doorway, naked. "I don't bite," he says, as he gets his bloody clothes. Jack strips quickly and jumps in the shower, while Dmitrius watches, amused.

He finds Kalius who gives him a new phone. They go to the Grotto, and Mareo says he found something that may lead them to Pyre's lover. They go to Talos Island and find an abandoned office - near empty. As they search for clues, they're ambushed by Seelers - a special group of Circle of Thorns who are out to get demons of all sorts, including incubi and succubi. They defeat them soundly.

(Much ninja afk'ing ensues afterward - let's just say my son is REALLY missing daddy.)

Kal and Dmitirus listen to Mareo tell of how he and Pyre came to Paragon. After, Kal and Dmitrius go to bed, and they talk more. The sun rises, and Dmitrius fades out, caressing Kal's hair.

The dead stay dead

2010-02-25T11:16:00.000-05:00

Grim: "Want to see the EMP gun I made?"
Jack: "Yeah!"
Grim: "It's fugly..."

Gabriel to Jack: "I'm waiting for the suggestion from your wife."
Jack: "The one where she told you to leave? Yeah, I like that one, too."

Grim has been messing around with electrictromagnetic pulses. In the daytime, he went to an electronics store run by a Freakshow and spent six hours there building an EMP gun from scratch. (They have plans for it on the Internet.) This is so he can get a grasp of the concepts of electromagnetism, and possibly use it to convert it to runes.

His use of runes is not too much different than a mathematician's use of formulas (like Rusty pointed out once). He takes a concept and distills it down to a symbol. Now, most grimoires that he has don't have anything about electromagnetism, and the grimoire Pyre gave him goes into electricity. He does have a start there, but he honestly is blazing new ground.

Anyway, Mareo shows up and Grim is in the middle of figuring things out. Then Jack comes and he shows him the gun. I had a website with an image - yes, you can make your own high-powered EMP gun for only $29,000. $15,000 for the fugly model.

Grim finds out from Jack that some General is coming to make sure that the TEMPEST files that the group had liberated from Vizir are "properly" destroyed. This goes against his belief of information should be free - but Rusty is making sure the files are elsewhere.

Grim visits Jack and watches him put together his armor. He asks why they're even bothering bringing LeBeau back. "Some people miss him." Grim's none too thrilled - he believes a man should stay dead if he's meant to be dead. "What if it was me?" Jack asks. "I would guide you to your afterlife," Grim says. Jack admits to Grim that he has a different perspective on death.

Dmitrius comes over and Grim escapes. Dmitrisu tries to give some tactical advice that he came up with. Basically: hit Kell fast and hard, in waves. Draw him out of his enclosure to a place of your choosing.

Grim has been stopped at the door, meanwhile, seeing Xan come onto Shar'mok. Grim is all right at first, but as he stands near Xan, he gets overpowered and has to leave. He makes a cup of fragrant tea and then goes back. Xan is propositioning Shar, and Grim suggests that maybe not. Grim decides to introduce Shar to tangerines.

They go back to the grotto, and Grim takes out some tangerines as everyone starts to come back. Shar was not really uncomfortable with Xan, but he didn't know how to take Xan coming onto him. Grim says that Xan's a special breed. Shar notices that Raina is female. Grim comments on how her mamilliary glands will eventually be getting larger, and he continues on this vein for a while until Raina pitches a carton of cream at him. It gets all over him, and he goes upstairs to change. He knows he deserved it, so he laughs over it.

However, when he returns, he sees that Dmitrius and Kal are sitting together and in each other's arms. Oblique had talked to them. Oblique comes over to see Grim and Shar standing together, and Grim has stopped short. Shar asks what's wrong, and Grim says, "Old boyfriend with new boyfriend." Oblique says, "I think they look adorable together."

Grim whirls around and if looks could kill, she would have been ashes. He storms up to his room. Kalius overhears it, and sighs. Dmitrius asks what's wrong and Kal says he doesn't like to see his friends upset. Then they both say at the same time, "He'll get over it." They talk about the past some more, and then both decide it's over, it was a long time ago, and they have a new life together.

Grim is up in his room when Shar enters. He puts his hand on Grim's shoulder and asks what's wrong, and if he can do anything to help. Grim jokingly says, "You can sleep with me." So Shar offers to do so. Grim says he doesn't want to take advantage of him. Shar says he won't, and only wants to help. Grim shuts the door.

Kal and Dmitrius are cuddling when Dmitrius hears a crash in the other room. They both get up and go into the dorm area, and RK has Gabriel pinned against the wall. Gabriel had touched the cup, it seems, and all the work Pyre did for three days was gone. They're telling Gabriel to get the hell out of the base. Dmitrius is ready to remove him and waits on Jack or Kal's command.

Finally, Gabriel leaves, but is in the grotto. They run in there, and chase him out. Everyone is disappointed that Gabriel did that, more upset that Pyre did all that work and exhausted herself for nothing. Dmitrius follows Kal to the other room, and tells him the sun's coming up. They retire upstairs and spend some time alone before the sun claims him.

Beating dead horses

2010-02-24T07:02:00.000-05:00

Dmitrius awoke with Kal again, and they talked some more. They're doing that a lot - there is over 2000 years of history to catch up on, after all. They go downstairs to talk to Jack about Dmitrius' idea: lure Kell to them by offering them someone he wants. He suggests an automaton or an illusion. Mareo suggests other things. Dmitrius usually is one of the tactical commanders in a territory - Kalius said that Jack was his commander, so Dmitrius pipes down until he's told to speak. (Later, however, he accesses the Havens' logs, and forms his own opinions on things that should be done.)

Kal's player signs off, and Dmitrius does soon after. Got Grim. They talked tactics. Jack asked Grim if he could make some sort of magical EMP. Grim will work on that.

They talked tactics some more. And more. And more...

Finally, Grim had had it, and walked out.

Somber

2010-02-23T07:16:00.000-05:00

It was a pretty quiet night from my standpoint - though a lot of action went on with other characters.

Jack asked Grim to show him some runes for power armor, and a sledgehammer. Jack is going to make the armor, and Grim showed him some preliminary runes to practice. He knows more complicated ones, and he'll teach him those later.

Jack decides he wants to forge the hammer himself. Grim gives him the phone number to a blacksmith in Newport. (IRL, there are blacksmiths in Newport, RI.) I would like to collaborate a story with Jack's player. I know a bit about smithy work, and what I don't know, wikipedia will provide.

Grim went to do more research, switched from him to Dmitrius. They went hunting, and Dmitrius fed from one Warrior and was satiated. He usually needed two or three - but, then, he did a lot of physical work. He wasn't going to be doing any right now. (We're using V:TM rules - we figured he's a 7th generation, and that means he has 16 blood pool, which is an awful lot for a vampire in this game. If he's not called upon to do a lot of physical disciplines, then he doesn't need to feed every night. Fighting "normally" doesn't expend more than one blood point, but if he's using his abilities, or is injured, that's when the blood points get used. Yes, I know I'm doing a lot of explaining, but I want people to know that I'm playing him a lot more powerfully than I usually play my characters.)

Anyway...he went back to the base and took a shower, got cleaned up. Mark and Petite were talking, so Kal didn't introduce them. They went to the other room where Pyre, Gabriel, and Mareo were, and Kal introduced him to them. Pyre is working on summoning LeBeau back. (Grim will feel very put out, but not angry, since Pyre has a demon helping her and Grim would probably be able to do the same if he had the demoness helping him.) As they walked out, Kal apologized that right now is a bad time for him to come into the group. Dmitrius says that what he'll do is watch and listen, to gather intel. Kal stops. "You sound like you're among enemies." Dmitrius says, "It's habit." Kal says that it's okay, no one is going to hurt him here.

They sit in the lounge and cuddle, and Raina comes in. Dmitrius is immediately on guard. Rusty comes, and Kal introduces Dmitrius to him. Dmitrius explains himself a little. He also doesn't discuss the more detailed aspect of his life (such as how vampire society is divided). He will do that only with Kalius.

They sit for a while, and Aldin comes in, Petite yelling at him to not touch anything. Jack also comes in, bloodied. They get up to see what's going on, and are ready for action if needed. Aldin was going to go in LeBeau's room and take his things, and Petite refused to let him. Damn, I wish Grim were there. Kal and Dmitrius go to the training room, and Dmitrius says he has to make some phone calls...

Resolutions

2010-02-22T10:54:00.002-05:00

Eule did some work with the new members of the group. Pyre was a little concerened about him but he dismissed it. He went to the base for a little while, and Kalius came. He was going to leave, but Kalius told him he should talk to Jack.

They went to the library and talked. "You're not the only one who did stupid things for love," Jack says, and tells him about his first mentor who he had a serious infatuation with. Then there was Morgan. Eule says he doesn't know about him - he had buried the memory. As Jack starts to tell him about it, Rusty shows up. "Hi, Rusty," Jack says, and Eule suddenly "wakes up" and remembers everyone from Havens. Rusty's name was the keyword to unlock the memories.

"The twins miss their friend," says Jack with a smile. When Eule sees Raina, he "talks" to the twins. However Caden suddenly hisses and "hides". There doesn't seem to be any threats that they can tell, and this worries Raina. LeBeau shows up, and he and Raina try and figure out what's going on. Mark comes, and tells them they're being sued. After much discussion about courts and how they handle things, Eule leaves.

Grim comes and explains that Trip has lawyers on retainer, "but they're criminal lawyers." Raina goes out, and promptly gets arrested. Seems that Vizir started it - then Vizir shows up at the police station. Jack, Grim, and Gabriel arrive to see to her and see Vizir. As they battle Vizir, they notice he's off...and it's revealed that there's a man with his mouth duct taped closed, and this "Vizir" is a hologram. Grim takes off the duct tape and the man starts yelling at them to run.

Grim does, and teleports Raina and Jack out also. He tries to lock on Gabriel but he can't. "I won't abandon him," Gabriel says. Grim feels a death coming on, and disappears. He walks back to the cell, while Gabriel's talking to the man. Then, he suddenly explodes. Grim gets a hold of the soul and stabs it through with the blade, sending it to "your reward" in Hades. (Grim takes souls for Hades himself, so even a Catholic will go to Hades - in that mythology, Tartarus.)

Gabriel goes back to the Vanguard base, and Grim follows. Grim gets his attention, and takes him aside. He apologizes to him, and tells him that he thought they were arrogant sons of bitches, but they've eased up since then. He then waits for the lecture. "It takes a strong man to admit he needs forgiveness," Gabriel says. He also realizes Grim's not the petty mage he once was and accepts Grim's apology. They talk for a while about the future of the Order, and Gabriel invites Grim to join them. Grim's totally against the idea of tech inside him - and, besides, he can't use it anyway because of Astor's gift.

However, Grim can't tell him that, and says he'll think it over. He goes home...and Stefan's not there.

The next day, Grim is reading a book on body trauma (so is the player, by the way), and Mareo comes in. Mareo then tells Grim their history.

Kalius comes in. "Want to do something stupid and dangerous?" Grim agrees - it's to do the spell on Dmitrius. "How are we going to bring him here? I can't bring Raymond (the horse) to the D." Kalius says he'll get him there. Grim gets the horse.

They find Dmitrius hunting Warriors (he happens to like them and Carnival because he loves bringing down Strongmen). Kal talks him into coming down - Dmitrius has nothing better to do, so he agrees. He puts on a front that he's amused, but Pyre the telepath sees that he really wants this to be true. He follows Kal to the magic room.

There, Grim is standing there with the horse. He already has everything set up for the ritual and has memorized the spell. Dmitrius steps down in the circle, curious, but acting amused. Grim raises the barrier, and begins the ritual. He sacrifices the horse, and puts the magic "cake" to its throat, sopping up the blood. He gives the cake to Dmitrius, who is visibly shaking because of all the blood. Grim tells Dmirtrius to eat it, and he does. Grim continues the ritual.

Meanwhile, Dmitrius slowly stops shaking. The smell of the blood that's putting him close to the edge doesn't seem to be bothering him as much. It's like someone who walks by a bakery - the smell is good, but he can walk past it. Grim finishes the ritual and stares at the dead horse, avoiding looking at Dmitrius.

Dmitrius slowly turns around to face Kalius. Kal gives him a hand up out of the circle, while Pyre eliminates the horse's body. Kal's power doesn't send him over the edge. His scent is pleasant, but not overpowering. He sees Kalius...and believes him. Not entirely - there's still some confusion there, like he can't believe this is really happening after all these years. Kalius and Dmitrius retire to the library, and Dmitrius tells Kalius his story.

Dmitrius had been taken away from Kalius and brought through the woods, and embraced there. Then he was "chained in a cave like a dog" and given what was needed to survive. He would be let loose only when he renounced Kalius as his lover, and take his sire as a lover. Finally, he gave in, and when he was strong enough, he killed his sire.

Kal tells Dmitrius that he fell into Grim's arms. He doesn't love him like a lover, more like a brother, a comrade, a good friend. Dmirtrius gets jealous, especially when he finds out Grim still loves Kalius. Well...that needs to be nipped in the bud.

I'll probably work on a more detailed backstory for Dmitrius at some point. This is originally Kal's player's character, and I want to respect that. He doesn't have the same kind of war experience that Kalius does; he's more of a brawler, and he works in the Camarilla. His bloodline is Brujah, and he puts up that tough-guy front for the most part, a sort of over-confidence act that he can't die, so go ahead and do your worst. He will pull out the "amused look" often.

He's a sheriff in Houston, and will probably quit that to move permanently with Kal (muse has a story...). He admitted to having "lovers", but they weren't really - "I craved the blood, not the vessel." He has servants: ghouls, addicted to his blood.

Kal takes him around the base. He sees Grim and threatens him. Grim walks out. Kal says, "You didn't have to do that." Dmitrius is a jealous type, and if any man even gives Kal a sideways glance, he pounces. Kal takes him to the medbay and gives him an implant. Then they go to his quarters, and share a brief moment. Dmitrius says he needs to go pick up some things, and promises to come back.

Meanwhile, Kell has captured Mark, LeBeau, and Petite. Grim and Kalius go to rescue them. To make a long story short (and Grim met up with someone who had no immunity to magic, but gosh darnit, Grim had CRAP for offensive abilities and everyone else was busy), Vizir was de-helmeted, Odyne was chased away, and Kell was teleported to Hades. However, he got out of Hades by folding space. (I figured, bodies don't go to Hades, spirits do, and spirits don't have magic...) LeBeau got vaporized, Petite and Mark got teleported out. Grim looked for LeBeau's soul, but couldn't find it - only pieces of it, like it had been shattered.

Greg also came out and went after Vizir until he got tired and changed back to Noctilucent. Grim and Kal stayed the hell out of the Grigori's way. Jack, meanwhile, was relentless against Kell, until Grim teleported him out. However, Jack still didn't kill Kell, and he was so disappointed about that.

Raina went out to hunt Kell down. Grim and Kalius went back to the base. Kalius talked to Grim, and Grim said, "I get to take my own medicine. You know how it feels." Then he walks away and starts throwing chairs around the grotto. He tries to make Jack feel better, but can't seem to focus. Jack leaves, and Grim goes to bed.

Kalius has gone to his room, and he and Dmitrius talk more. He still can't believe it, but has decided to accept it. Sunrise is coming up fast, and he can fight it until the dawn, but no further than that. He "falls asleep" in Kalius' arms.

Okay, much updating:

2010-02-21T16:44:00.002-05:00

Grim got Jade to begin teaching him "hedge witch" magic - or working with the elements. The first one was the Wind Spirit. Grim kept knocking over stuff. Jade says he's afraid of Jack, but Grim tells him to talk to Jack, to ask him to teach him psychic defenses. Jade's astonished that Jack would do that, but Grim tells him they're all a team and there to help each other.

Oblique comes over and talks to Grim. Oblique's been having nightmares about her "other self" and she's afraid of losing control of her powers. She doesn't know anything about her other self, so Grim suggests that they try and learn about her. Oblique breaks down and Grim comforts her. He then asks Mark if they can use the university's containment chamber to possibly study Oblique's "other self". Mark agrees to set up an appointment and LeBeau offers someone he knows to help.

The next night, Grim meets up with Shar'mok for more language lessons. Kalius arrives, and says he's going to see what Ganymede wants from him. However, he still needs to work with a villain, so Grim calls up his plant friend to go meet Kal in the D. They meet up and do the villain missions. By the way, a dominator and a scrapper are an AWESOME duo.

After that, Kalius goes to see DJ Zero to see what he wants. DJ Zero has a job for him from Eros - go beat up Snaptooth. When he arrives in Nerva, another passenger is with him - Dmitrius. (It's supposed to be Dimitrius, but we've all seemed to taken on the alternate spelling). They then proceed to battle Snaptooth and defeat him. After that, Kalius tells him his story, and Dmitrius listens, at first with amusement, then with intensity. Dmitrius is thinking that maybe this is possible...Kalius offers him his hand. Dmitrius takes it, and is so overwhelmed with the power Ares' gave Kalius that he immediately grabs him, puts him against the wall, and tries to feed from him. Kalius realizes what he's doing, and shoves him away. However, before he can fight, the sun is rising, and Dmitrius takes off.

Kal returns to the base, upset. Jack and Raina have returned, and they talk with them for a while. Grim gets a souvenir from them - a box with a Hand of Glory and a deck of rune cards.

The next day, Grim is in the kitchen and Kal comes in. Grim makes him some waffles and finds out about the events of last night. In the meantime, someone calls - it's Pyre, the mage who had given him the books of runes. She's been attacked by the Circle, and her boyfriend and child have disappeared - well, gone into hiding. She's contacted one of the only people that she knows who can help keep her and her friend safe.

Grim and some more members of the group take them down to the base and LeBeau shows them around while Grim talks more to Kal. Meanwhile, they're waiting for Oblique.

She comes on, and a group of them go to the Founders' University. Upstairs on the second floor of the science section of the University there's a circular desk area...yes, I remembered that. Magic use brings out the Other, who they then find out was "put into" Oblique by her father, and only her father can get it out. Grim is ready to take a trip to Nebraska.

Kalius goes back to the D, and the team goes with him this time. There, in the D, is Dmitrius. He pretty much ignores the team and follows Kalius to Ganymede. He still doesn't believe him. Sort of. Story forthcoming. They part ways.

However Kalius wants Eros. Grim sets up an offering and Kalius calls him. Eros does come. He tells Kalius that he's trying to put them together because he didn't like the way his father handled it. Now that the contract was done, he's able to do this because before he was under Ares' total control. Now Kalius is more or less a free agent, and Eros is trying to apologize. Eros also tells Kalius that it's him and him alone that is involved in this, and if the team chooses to get involved, then that's their business. But it's really not.

Kalius keeps saying that this is not the same man he knew, and Eros seems to believe it is. "He tried to use me as food," Kalius says. That was because of the power of Ares, Eros says - and then he looks at Grim. There's a way to resist it, and Grim knows how. He sure does. Kalius agrees to work the spell. The components are ready...all they need is Dmitrius.

STO: bloody long tutorial...

2010-02-17T11:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I bit the bullet and got Star Trek Online. I'm not a big Trekkie - I stopped watching after the first season of Voyager, so I'm clueless about anything after that. Never saw "Enterprise" or...wasn't there another one? I forget.

I ordered it on Saturday from Best Buy downloads. It was an 8 hour download. Yes, 8 hours. For treats, I got:

TOS Uniform Set (in-game item): 3 Uniforms from the Original series (blue, red, yellow)
Joined Trill: Play as a Joined Trill. Joined Trill come with a symbiote that grants you several lifetimes of experience. The "Joined" species trait grants you a bonus to 5 skills.
Exclusive “KHAAAN!” Emote (in-game item): An unforgettable moment from the second Star Trek Film. This exclusive emote allows players to relive Kirk’s unforgettable moment of fury, with the timeless cry… “KHAAAN!”
Exclusive Klingon Blood Wine Toast Emote (in-game item): Raise a glass like a Klingon! Greet and interact with other players with an exclusive Klingon gesture -the blood wine toast.
Unique Registry Prefix (in-game item): Give your ship the coveted NX prefix, seen only on a handful of elite Starfleet vessels like the Defiant, 22nd century Enterprise, and Prometheus.”
Unique Ship Item (in-game item): Automated Defense Battery. This Tactical Module that grants any ship a passive 360 arc attack power with a short range.

So I made my first character on Sunday, a Joined Trill: Myan Tuluth. I picked Engineering for an AT (Class?). Then I started the tutorial...

However, when it came to ship movement, I was lost. Ice suggested to remap the keys, which helped, but then I lost shield control. There are not enough hands to control this behemoth. I got a Tactical officer, and then I got a Science officer. Yes, I was lost about races...good thing they had cheat sheets.

I'm still trying to figure out how the skills work, and assigning those, and how promotion works...and I want an away team.

I'll probably play STO as soon as I get online at 6 pm EST, until COH starts up at 8:30-9. Or until I get frustrated.

Hell freezes over - and hanging out in Medbay

2010-02-17T11:42:00.001-05:00

Grim: I've been wrong recently. You have changed since we last met, and I haven't seen it. I was too jealous.
LeBeau: Um last time we met you tried to kill me. While I lay bleeding on the floor.
Grim: First met. Look, this is the first time I had to do something like this.
LeBeau: Well this wouldn't be for me... I've made a lifestyle out of making big mistakes... if it makes you feel any better you're doing just fine.
Jack LeBeauregard smiles sympathetically which looks a lot different then his trademark smirk.

Grim meets Shar'mok, and gives him an amulet that will help with the translation. While he's there, LeBeau comes in. Grim stops him, and apologizes for being a jerk. "I was wrong. I'm sorry." LeBeau said, "...what?" Grim looked him straight in the eye and was totally sincere. LeBeau accepted his apology, but he had to apologize to Aysun and Gabriel. Grim agreed - in fact, he half-expects to get hauled before all the 'mancers and be punished for his crimes.

Kal comes, and then asks Grim if he still wants to go through with the de-winging. Aysun comes, and then Grim apologizes to her. Grim agrees to be de-winged, and they all go to the medbay. Kal, in one swoop, lops off the wings, which gush out blood. Aysun puts a rune on to heal them, and Shar'mok also uses his healing ability. Combined, though, they not only stop the bleeding but make the nubs recede and he has no scar.

They go eat Jack's Jambalya - which makes Shar-mok break out in blisters, and Grim helps to heal him. Grim figures that the best thing for him would be to start with unadorned fruit, and then they'll work toward vegetables, then grains. Grim introduces him to a plum. Grim then tells Kal he's going to get in touch with his acquaintance from the Isles.

Signed onto Eule. Eule still has the nanites in him to make him a bomb, and Aysun sees this. She tells LeBeau, who tells Kalius. Eule is just eating quietly, and they ask him to come in for a medical exam. Eule shrugs and goes.

They find the nanites, and Aysun takes them out of him. Eule walks out without even a thank you. LeBeau wants to know what's going on - and Kalius explains what he thinks happened. "He's been brainwashed." Kalius knows who killed the General, but won't tell Eule. "He's at the end of his rope already," LeBeau points out. "It might put him over the edge."

Grim comes back and tells Kal he got a hold of his contact in the Isles. He'll be available tomorrow.

The Epic Battle

2010-02-16T11:35:00.000-05:00

Grey Maulkin finally got out of his hole. He swiped Brandon’s arm. He went into Mindlord’s office and just sat his butt down…and waited.

Meanwhile, Grim’s upset about Kalius. Mark came over and startled him, and Grim told Mark what was bothering him. "Hades sends prophetic dreams," he tells Mark. Mark is not understanding the magic, but he thinks the future can be changed.

Mindlord finds Grey Maulkin in the office, and Maulkin sees the mistress and Jack come in. Maulkin goes up to Jack and hugs him from behind, calling him sexy. They all think he's acting a little odd.

Then he goes up to Mindlord and attempts to kiss him. Mindlord goes to scramble his mind, but it's already scrambled. Meanwhile they're asking Maulkin what's wrong with him, but Maulkin is so hyperfocused on Mindlord that he can't hear them. Azrauel fills them in, "He is stronger."

Mindlord pulls out a gun and empties the clip into Maulkin. Maulkin only laughs - and black, inky blood oozes out of him. That's when they realize something's definately wrong. Az tells them what Maulkin did, and the General walks in.

The Mistress orders him to kill Maulkin. He goes to behead him, but he ducks, then runs at the General. The General impales him, and he stumbles back saying, "Oooh, pain. I like it."

Jack and Mindlord hold Maulkin down with TK, and the General swiftly beheads him. And there went my pain corruptor. Oh well, new character slot.

Scene now switches to outside, where Grim and Kal are waiting to go inside. The two of them stare at each other. "Kal, I..." "Grim, I meant it - save it for someone who hasn't lived," Kal says. Grim looks away.

They approach the building, both men in armor and weapons at the ready. "Once more, into the breech," Kal says, and they walk in the door.

There are a few people there, and Kal starts hacking into the guards that come at them. People panic. The elevator opens and Rusted Mind comes through. Grim automatically heads his way. He brings up shields, and Grim walks right through them. Unfortunately, his dark magic doesn't quite work, and he has to resort to physical means. First he uses his axe. Then he uses Hades' blade. That seems to get through.

Meanwhile, Rusted calls him an abomination, and Grim says, "I like that." Then Rusted gets distracted for a minute, and says that Mindlord has been infected by the same nanites that are in Eule - and when he hits a detonator to blow Mindlord up, he realizes he's just hit a detonator to blow himself up, because a little light goes on in his chest.

Grim dives behind a couch, but it doesn't help, as the explosion blows him and the couch out the window. He gets up, groggy, and looks over to see the General. He summons Hades' armor, and the two men go at it. Grim stabs him with Hades' dagger, and it slips right through his armor and plows right through his stomach.

The General stares at him, "How..."

"Hades wants you," Grim says, tilts the blade up and pierces his heart. Grim leaves the body and walks away, assessing the rest of the building.

Eule comes running out of the building and sees the General lying on the ground. He runs to him, and picks him up, holding him to him. Kalius comes over - he's been stabbed through the jaw and the throat and is bleeding all over the place. Eule won't leave the body. Kalius says he'll give him a proper burial. Eule tries to pick him up, but he can't. Kalius just picks him up like he's nothing and brings him to the base.

Meanwhile, at the same time another team is hitting the dimensional anchor in Praetoria. It takes them a while, but they destroy it, and Rusted Mind. The building then disappears back to Praetoria.

Kalius goes to the med bay, and Eule is staying with the body. He won't move from it. He finally did change his clothes, so he looks more normal now, but he's lost his glasses. Kalius gets medical attention and then check on Eule, who's holding vigil. Eule wants to know who did it. No one knows. Kalius shoos everyone out of the medbay so Eule can be alone.

Grim arrives at the grotto and gets introduced to Aysun. "You're one of *them*?" She nods, and he rudely turns away from her, ignores everyone else, and looks at Kal, who's just sitting there. He sits next to him, to see how he's doing, and to ask how Eule is. Eule's a wreck. "Physically, he's fine. Emotionally, I don't know."

Then Kal asks Grim if he'll do the funeral ritual for the body. Grim agrees. Grim mentions that he wants to get the wings cut off. Aysun says she can get them off. Grim doesn't want to deal with *them*. The rest of the team starts busting Grim's wings, and he leaves.

He goes to the magic room, and thinks for a minute. He thinks back on the conversation with Astor, and then realizes - Astor gave him tech. That's why Rusted Mind called him an abomination, he realizes this, and stumbles back to the grotto, violently ill. Crow isn't tasty at all.

Before he apologizes, he needs to do a Requiem. Maybe that will help clear his mind so he can be humble enough to go apologize.

Tearjerker

2010-02-15T16:55:00.000-05:00

Not much happened Saturday. Maulkin was still in hiding after the consumption of the demoness, and Cobra, good servant that he is, finally fell asleep at his post that he's been at for two days. Nobody's come to look for Maulkin yet. The only one who'd care would be the General, and he's playing with his new boy-toy.

A new member of Safe Havens arrives - he's an alien who's crash landed on Earth. We've decided to play with the language barrier for a little while. Kalius arrives and wants to talk to Grim, but Grim is being nice to the new member.

Grim is also of the cut-and-run variety. Eule doesn't want to stay? Fine, let him stay with the bad guys. He knows this goes against Kalius, who feels it's his fault that Eule left in the first place. Kalius wants to rectify it by getting Eule back. Grim stays silent.

Sunday, Kalius sees Grim staring into the water, staring at his wings. He thinks he looks really stupid with them and wants to get rid of them. Grim asks Kalius what he wanted to talk about the night before. Kalius had had a dream: he dreamed of his own death, that Eule was crying over him, and that Grim had been hurt, but he died. Grim says he won't let Kal die. "I can stop it." "You're not a god, just a servant of one," Kalius says. Grim refuses to let Kal go. "Hades won't be happy." Grim doesn't care what Hades thinks, but Kalius seems resolved. "Just know that I forgive you." Grim hugs him tightly, "I love you, Kal." Kal replies quietly, "I love you, too." Neither of them want to let each other go. Yes, player was in tears too.

Okay, breather, then Grim is back in the base. Mark comes around, and Mark says he's prepared some information about each one of the Praetorian members of their group. Grim suggests they do a briefing at some point. Jade steps away, and Grim asks Mark when the wedding is. Mark isn't sure. He isn't sure about the whole thing. Grim asks him why. Mark is worried mostly about LeBeau. "Now he's shifted his feelings of attraction from Raina to Petite." Grim says, "LeBeau goes after anything he can't attain. And the more he can't attain it, the more he'll go after it. It's not love, it's a conquest." Grim thinks Petite is smart enough to realize this. However, Grim says, "You should have let me kill him." Now Grim can't anymore.

Grim then offhandedly comes onto Jade, who gets very upset and leaves. Grim follows and offers an apology. Jade didn't take offense - he was just bitter. Rusty signs on, and then Kalius, and they go to the library for the debriefing.

Planning yields the following:

Kalius will go after Prae-Jack and Raina. Tear gas will be used in addition. Oblique will provide fields for the allies against the gas.
Jade will go after Komodo.
Grim will go after Prae-LeBeau (but he found out he's not going to be involved, so he's a little disappointed) and Prae-Rusty.
Mark and Rusty will work on sending the building back.
The fae will ride in as well.
Deciding who would go after Prae-Oblique and Prae-Kalius wasn't decided. Probably the fae.

Skye arrives, and plays around a little. Kalius gets really pissed off, and Grim takes Kal out of the room. He gets him a sword and turns the pell into wood, and tells him to go to it. Kalius isn't upset. He's worried and scared. Grim again says he'll stop Kal from dying. Kal says, "Grim, Save it for someone who hasn't lived." (Then player lost it.) Grim promises to take care of Raina's kids and to bring him back, "In whatever form the Fates..." Kal asks one more favor. "Make sure that my...Kevin's parents...know their son died saving others. And let them bury him." They hold onto each other, and Kalius says, "I don't want to die..." When he looks up at Grim, there's no fire in his eyes, and it's all Kevin. "They shouldn't have to lose their son..."

Finally, they part, and Grim kisses him on the cheek. "We'd better sleep."

Skye stops Grim at the door, and suggests that maybe they can do some sort of construct to keep Kalius' soul separate. Grim doesn't think they can, but will approach Kalius.

Oopsie.

2010-02-13T11:23:00.000-05:00

"Maulkin, you will crawl over here, to kiss the feet of Rusted Mind, and thank him for staying your execution."
Rusted Man holds his foot forward for the wizard.

Okay, so Maulkin fucked up again.

The wards had come down the day before. He knew his counterpart did it, but he had no idea how he had become a Shop-Vac for spirits. His demoness had given him a spell that would suck magic out of the building to him, but that would also mean it would suck out his own magic (no, it wouldn't - as he doesn't inherently have any, but he thinks he does, he's so full of himself). So he has this vial of demoness' blood, and a small voice inside him says, "Use the essence to control her."

He's too much of a coward to do such a thing. However, he has it in his mind that to prove himself, he can summon another lower demon to guard the place. Just before he's going to do that, he hears that he has another sacrifice waiting for him in the holding cell. He goes downstairs to take a look at it.

It's a technomancer, something the demoness hasn't had, and he doesn't know if she'd like it, being technical and all. Still, he shouldn't look a gift sacrifice in the mouth, so he makes his demands that the sacrifice be naked. In the meantime, Rusted Mind is yelling at a new intern - who's a girl, and therefore of no interest to him - and finally chases her out. However, it's Skye in disguise, and she's getting LeBeau out.

Also meanwhile, the MindLord is busy molding Eule. He suggests to Eule to be the General's servant and devoted lover, and Eule accepts that without a problem. However, he's still stuck behind the field. As the battle ensues for LeBeau - Maulkin is confused, and he sticks his arm in Komodo's mouth - who bites down on it and tears his arm off - he watches Kalius with adoration and awe.

They blow out the elevator shaft and Skye flies up with LeBeau on her back. Maulkin's out of commission, as his demoness heals him. Kalius' minions don't catch them, and they escape. Maulkin automatically goes to the medbay and heals up, though without an arm.

Then he gets called on the carpet for not putting up new wards. Rusted Mind comes to his rescue, however, and stays his execution. Maulkin then, in a pique, summons up a demon who's supposed to guard the building, but...is actually under his control.

Maulkin searches for an excuse to explain why his magic doesn't seem to work here. The demoness is a bitch, so he blames her. He then harps upon the fact that the magic here is different - sure, he can use that, nobody else would understand. Petite is ordered out to go get Dr. Samuels, but she's overwhelmed by heroes and returns without him. Maulkin sees the opportunity to get her on his side and says that it's really not her fault. She gets dismissed, and Maulkin follows her.

Maulkin then explains to her that they've all seemed to fuck up somehow. He believes it's because they were transported here without a clue, and expected to just waltz in and take over. They underestimated the heroes here. "We should lay low, disappear for a while, learn more." Petite gets summoned into the office, and Maulkin follows OOCly.

Petite is given another chance, and Petite says that Maulkin talked to her outside. She tells him most of what he said, and MindLord is none too happy. Maulkin is ready to cut and run.

Meanwhile, Kalius lays claim to Eule, who surrenders utterly.

Early night 2

2010-02-12T07:27:00.002-05:00

Nothing was going on so I went to bed early.

Besides, Grey Maulkin was probably hiding, Grim was exhausted, and Eule was silent.

Revelations

2010-02-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

Grimaulkin taps Jade Najah on the head. "It's all in here."

Grim has taken into staring into the fire at the fireplace in the base looking for any kind of insight. He's seen Jack and Raina in Mexico, Prae-LeBeau working with the Knives, and Prae-Raina establishing outposts and working with Malta, and taking men into that abyss to their probable deaths. He's studied the spell books from Infernal but they don't talk about the details of the organization, just general information. It was noted that they had no magic-user. However they had something like magic, since Grim couldn't penetrate the darkness that surrounded the building.

He heard Rusty and Jade at the door and woke up out of his reverie. He went to see them, still disappointed that they had no news on Eule. Jade mentioned that he was in Steel Canyon and he had to fight his brother or he would have died. Grim basically reassures him that it was necessary, but it's best that he evade them. Somehow the topic went to magic, and Grim tells Jade that magic is inside a person. "The rituals and the incantations put you in that mindset, but they're not the magic," he says. "The magic is your will and desire." Grim asks Jade if he can teach him his magic, "hedge witch" magic (natural magic). He'd be happy to teach Jade his own, too. "You make it sound like anyone can learn magic," Jade says. "Of course anyone can, as long as they want to." Jade is upset, "...more lies," he says. The Sorcerers had told him that it was because he was born under the sign of the Serpent. Grim says that he probably has a natural way to get at it, but everyone has access to magic.

Then he went to see Rusty, who was reorganizing the attic that Skye Spark had also reorganized. He's worried about Eule, mostly because Eule is trying to do the same thing to Prae-Kalius that Grim did to this Kalius. From what Grim could glean out of the book, General Kalius was in charge of security and had a great amount of charisma. Whether or not their Kalius was a reincarnated soul was unknown in the book. Grim has no idea what their Kalius is like, and for all he knows, he's nothing like this one. Skye says she can go see him by putting glamours on. She shows him, an intern. This will get past the magical security of ghosts, who have been ordered to ignore anything wearing the Mind's Eye logo.

Grim said he heard LeBeau was dead, and Rusty said, "That is...unfortunate." Rusty continues, "I never wished LeBeau's death." Grim says, "I did." Then Grim asks Rusty, "Tell me, why if you feel you have no emotions, do you hold life as precious?" Rusty explains that he has "rules" that he needs to follow, and that's one of them. "Once you kill, it's a slippery slope..." Grim retires back to the fire.

Meanwhile, Eule is pacing in his cell. The drugs are starting to wear off, because he's hearing voices in his head now. However, Rusted Mind injects him with something, and Eule placidly accepts it. The General comes and tells him that it was orders from above, he can put in what he believes, but he if it's orders, he can't do anything about them. Eule asks what the MindLord wants. "He wants your loyalty and your friends not to fight for you." Eule says he can pass a message to them to tell them not to. However...his friends are not in Havens.

Eule has locked them all away, all except Kalius. He remembers his interactions with Kalius distinctly, but they're in a vacuum. He remembers taking training with him, but not where. He remembers others with him, but doesn't remember who they are. He remembers conversations with Kalius, and his feelings with him, but he doesn't remember details or if he referred to other members of Havens.

Skye comes along and peeks in the cell. He's staring out of it, confused and lonely. He sees she has golden eyes, but doesn't think anything more of it.

Rusted Mind checks on his progress, and Eule asks him what's going on. "The General didn't tell you?" "No," Eule says. Then Rusted Mind says nonchalantly, "Did you know that the human body has all the components to make a bomb?"

Suddenly, it all falls into place. He's being used. Skye was right - the General is a liar. Eule lets out a little cry and retreats into the corner. While there, he cries quietly. Then, settled down, he reviews his situation.

Jack LeBeau comes along and calls him a traitor. Eule doesn't know what he's talking about. All he wants is to be with the General - however, now he's not so sure. Jack tells him he's nothing like the "whiny pussy" his counterpart is. Eule doesn't know a LeBeau. He only knows Mike LeBonte from Safe Havens. He tells Jack that the General wants him, and he's proved it - it wasn't a lie, he'd seen it in the General's mind. "How?" Jack asks. Eule almost tells him, and then refuses.

Jack leaves, and Eule climbs into bed, pulling the covers over his head. "Tomorrow may be better, prisoner," Rusted Mind says.

Early night

2010-02-10T08:15:00.000-05:00

"I wish I got laid again by Kalius." Grim, before entering the portal.
"...I wish I laid Mark..." Petite.

Relatively quiet.

First got bad Grim who had to see to his servant.

Got good-Grim to help Kalius scry for Eule. When he did, Grim saw only blackness. The building is like an abyss, no magic can get in or out (that includes teleports by magic).

Then got Eule, who pledged his support to the General. Mind you, the only information he has is what Hero Corps had.

Then got good-Grim to help with Rusty's foray into Praetorian Earth. Unfortunately I had to leave after that (I know, sleep is for the weak).

Further Depravities

2010-02-09T09:50:00.000-05:00

"I know you have a taste for the boy, but I will not hesitate to turn him into a bomb. Then you will need to acquire another pet." (Paraphrasing) MindLord to the General.

It's too damn fun to play evil characters.

Eule had been captured by General Kalius and was now in a holding cell. The General interrogated him and proceeded to soften him up. At the same time, Skye snuck in and tried to find out what Eule was doing there, and whether or not he was a friend and needed help. Every once in a while, while Kalius talked to him, Eule would check the General to see if he was lying - and he wasn't (to the letter of the question). Skye kept telling him that the "bloody Grumpy" was lying. Under the General's attentions, though, Eule gave in, and Skye left him to go to Havens and tell them what happened.

"He is not friend," Skye said to Grim, who couldn't believe it. Skye tells him "they acted like satyrs." Kalius arrives and Grim tells him that Eule is in trouble, "raped, possibly taken." They form a plan to break him out - Kal will be a distraction outside while "Team Sneaky" which consists of Grim, Skye, and Adam will go rescue Eule. When they arrive, Adam keeps them invisible. Adam is able to phase through the wall to get to the other side to open up the door. Eule is confused at first, but his training kicks in and he does as ordered. Then, as he's standing outside of the room and MindLord, Petite and Rusted Mind try to attack something that isn't there, Grim slaps a teleporter tag on him and sends him back to base. Eule didn't want to go.

Grim gets everyone out, and they go back to base. Eule is livid. He tells Kalius that he was fine, in fact, better. "He treated me like a man! He wanted me!" Skye keeps telling him that lust and love are different, and when Eule touches Kalius' mind, he sees compassion and caring there, without the lust. Eule doesn't want to hear it. He empties himself of emotion and goes to take a shower. Kal confines him to base.

Kalius says that Eule needs time and asks Grim to watch him. Grim agrees, and Eule comes out of the shower, ignores Grim, and goes to the library to sleep (he has no official room there).

The next day, Eule skips training, and Grim tries to talk to him, but makes things worse. Eule disappears. He then heads off to the Mind's Eye Enterprises and settles in to wait. Grim assumes Eule's gone there, but doesn't put together a rescue party - he's agreeing with what Skye said, "Let him go, he'll learn." Hopefully he won't die.

Meanwhile, at Team Evil:

Maulkin's servant/bodyguard (Prae-Brandon, named Cobra) has just arrived from the home world. Maulkin performs some training on him to make sure he's still his humble servant. Le Morte, meanwhile, is spying on him (yes, Maulkin has no wards on his workshop, thinking the demoness will keep people away, but she's languid and doesn't care). The demoness sees her and does nothing. He continues with his training and building energy in the servant.

LeMorte appears, and wants to know just what he's doing. "Ever hear of Tantric magic?" he asks. She finds that disturbing and leaves.

Maulkin throws clothes at his servant and they go down to see MindLord. MindLord asks what he's done about the wards. Maulkin patiently explains that the wards are pretty light, mostly haunts and ghosts that will frighten and attempt to suck life out of people if they go past the lobby. (They've been instructed to ignore those who wear the Mind's Eye Enterprises logo and those Maulkin knows well.) "What about guardians," MindLord asks. Well, first and foremost, guardians are a pain in the ass to create, and even harder to control. This Maulkin is lazy, selfish, and full of himself, and will do anything to get out of actually working, especially for MindLord (Raina, on the other hand...he'd do what she orders, though if she tells him to take orders from MindLord, he'll pretend and find excuses to get out of it).

So Maulkin tells MindLord, "With all due respect, they would be under my total control, and I don't think you want that."

"You're very perceptive."

Maulkin also tells him the offensive wards are not effective. "They're very fickle," he says. "And could backfire." In reality, they're another pain in the ass to create. Plus there would be blood everywhere.

He's dismissed, and retreats to the roof to continue with his servant, building up energy until he can't take it any more, and then releasing it in a summoning of stronger haunts. Maulkin feeds his servant and then trains him further before sending him off to bed. Maulkin goes and hangs out outside MindLord's office, and feigns sleep while his haunt reports to him what's going on in his office. It seems that Eule has returned, and they are thinking of using him as a bomb. The General is against that, figuring he can turn the boy into their servant. Right now, Eule's powers have been cancelled by amobarbital, so he's helpless against anything MindLord throws at him. However, he did lock away his memories of Havens from the time he was officially taken in by them. He only remembers what the Hero Corps files said about them.

Spoiler: Eule can take memories or his own abilities and lock them in "boxes". These boxes have keys which are trigger words which will open the boxes. Most of the trigger words aren't in normal conversation. His memories were locked away with a word that would be used in Haven's conversations, but not in normal conversation. If MindLord tries to look, what he'll see is blocks of blackness, with random words floating everywhere. Most of those words are keys to the blocks of blackness, but some are red herrings. It will take him a very long time to match the words to the boxes. Of course, MindLord could also take the mental equivalent of a sledgehammer to the boxes.

That said, the General asks him questions. Not only are his powers gone, but the General is the one asking the questions, and he's under truth serum, and he wants to make the General happy. He hasn't seen Jack or Raina "today", he tells the General. He doesn't know where they are. When the General asks him why he came back, he says, "I want to help you." The General reports this information to the MindLord. The MindLord then verfies it in Eule's mind, and chuckles when he tells the General, "The boy seeks to 'redeem' you." They all share a laugh over that, and the General says that he can get the boy to turn. "We can used a trained psi," he reiterates. MindLord isn't thrilled with the General's idea that the boy be turned, and basically tells him he'd better be right, or else.

He wakes Maulkin up and brings him outside. The General explains the foolishness of the boy, and tells Maulkin he'll keep Eule as a "bed-slave". "Where am I going to sleep?" pouts Maulkin. "With your bodyguard," the General says, eyeing him. "But I'll come by." In fact, he does that very night.

Oh yes, so fun to be evil.

Ebil. EBIL!

2010-02-08T07:14:00.002-05:00

Praetorian Week started on Friday night, but I was so exhausted that I couldn't even focus. I had to bail out and I ended up going to bed at 8:30 and sleeping straight through until 10 am Saturday.

Okay, so my Prae-week started on Saturday. Maulkin got an assignment - to hunt down the Primal Earth's Red Komodo and bring him to the HQ. Raina also got him some sacrifices for his demoness - young college jocks - which he raped one while alive, and one after it was dead.

Maulkin was dismissed, and then Kalius arrived. MindLord told Kalius to tell Maulkin not to be so insolent. "I know of your...relationship with him," he says. Kalius agrees to talk to him. Maulkin meets Kalius outside, while they "survey our conquest." They talk about what they plan on doing - the General won't go against the MindLord, but Maulkin is patient enough to wait until the MindLord is distracted or weak. In the meantime, he's marshaling his forces...just like he did when he was trying garner support for John. He does this for the Mistress who has been nothing but helpful to him.

Mark arrives at the Founders' Falls university, where Maulkin shows up to show him an image of Prae-RK, and tells him that he can introduce him to the scientist that created it. Of course, Mark's intrigued, and goes with him. Maulkin gets him to the HQ, where they all try to attack him. Maulkin had done a divination, and found that there was a surprise coming in the guise of "The Sun" - and then Temporal Assault arrived with his angelic harp. They got them both down and brought them to Rusty's lab.

Maulkin couldn't do anything about it, but they did knock it out of his hands. Petite put it in a containment field. Temporal Assault's player chose to join us, though we were all a little leery of his character. A demoness arrived to play a little with Maulkin, and they sent off Temporal Assault's character to go find Temporal Assault. Meanwhile, Jack and Petite get into the Safe Havens base and poke around, and grab a few things.

Petite changes into good-Petite, Jack signs onto Gabriel, Rusted changes into Rusty, and I sign Eule on. They're going to break out Mark. They arrive, and MindLord is the only one to stand against them. Can't have that! I get Maulkin. Raina then shows. Mark changes into Komodo. Now we're an even 4 vs 4. Maulkin honestly doesn't fight much, mostly because there was so much chaos, and I waited to see the results of other actions. (Best move - Maulkin has caught Petite after being TK thrown by MindLord, and Petite takes a caltrop and digs it into Maulkin's leg, dragging it up. Maulkin howls - remember, he hates getting bloodied.)

Eule gets taken out pretty quickly, mostly because he's confused about Kalius. He looks like him, has the same sword and shield...except he just knocked him across the room and proceeded to knock him out. Raina tags him with an anti-teleportation device, and they try to teleport him out - but it doesn't work. The General brings him to a holding cell. The General knows a few things immediately - he's young, and he seems to have a thing for his counterpart. What, he's not sure, but it's at the very least some sort of attraction. The General decides to use it.

He comes onto Eule, and Eule at first resists. "You're not him, you're not him." "No," the General says, "I'm better than him." And he proceeds to prove it. Meanwhile, in the other room, Maulkin watches with a little smile on his face.

Kalius reports to MindLord that the prisoner is pliable. Raina, in the meantime, is tearing Jack a new one. Maulkin rushes to his defense, reminding them that Jack had gotten into the base, and all the other things Jack had done for them. They give him another chance.

Maulkin and the General leave together, heading to the General's room.

Mage's Curiosity

2010-02-07T10:25:00.002-05:00

(Thursday night round-up)

"Direct your hate at the person...not the technomancers..." Astor to Grim

Grim and Raina had a short discussion, and Grim stayed with Raina all day to make sure she was feeling better. They played endless games of chess, Parcheesi, and poker with pennies. Grim is not very good at games, just so you know.

Grim left her napping and went down to the kitchen. He saw the new person, Stephanie, who felt kind of bad that she had come in on the heels of LeBeau "and everyone was throwing knives at him." Grim reassessed the cabinet for the cornucopia spell. (The only way he'll be able to do it is to rip out the cabinet.) He sees Mark and asks him if he knows where Petite is. He doesn't, but he asks why. Grim wants the ball of tech.

He gets Raina - in her ocelot form - downstairs to eat. He waits for Petite, and when she arrives, he asks for the ball. "I won't hurt her," he says, though he has every intention of somehow getting that tech inside him. Stefan knows this, and says, "You are already blessed with the gift of magic." Then the ball starts talking to him. It looks for its other half, or it will be returned to the Source and be lonely forever. A part of him feels bad for it, but the mage part is ready to do whatever it takes to get it in his system. Stefan put a hand on his shoulder, and he realizes that he can't force it. The ball wants to go back to Petite. He hands the ball back to her.

Grim wants LeBeau. He wants him to work the spell, now goddammit. Petite and Mark find LeBeau and bring him back - it seems that LeBeau had let loose on a warehouse full of Malta and killed them all. Grim said, "Dumbass should have done that in the Isles."

LeBeau's back, and says, "If Oblique shows up, we can do it in five minutes." I go to sign on Plan-B, Trip, but Oblique does show. Instead I get Eule. Everyone retires to the Medbay, where Astor closes it off. Oblique irradiates LeBeau, Grim sets the rune on the twins so they're not harmed by the drugs. Mark puts the drugs into Raina. Eule calms the kits. Then LeBeau begins the spell. He takes out his Tech and puts it to Raina, and then LeBeau tells Grim to suck out some of his life force. Grim more than obliges.

After that LeBeau continues with the spell, but needs to have his energy force back. He turns to Kalius for that. However, Kalius is pure anger and destruction, and not many people can take that - except Grim, who can filter it. Grim doesn't like it, but does it. In fact, he pulls energy from Kalius and pours it fast into LeBeau in an attempt to "overload" him. It doesn't work.

Meanwhile, Eule is calming the kits, until Kell shows up. Then they go to attack Kell. The kits get thrown aside, and Eule tries to protect them, but he can't grab a hold of them. Then, Grim realizing that Kell has entered the picture, puts another spell on the twins to enmesh them in a protective bubble. The kits, now inside that, are safe, and Eule turns his attention to Kell, who throws horrors at him. Eule has been taught in training to not show emotion when shown that - he'd already taken a walk in Kal's mind - so he just plows through them without fear or emotion. He emerges as his regular avatar, the Owl, and he attacks Kell with psionics. Jack, Raina, LeBeau, and Eule all beat Kell back and destroy the spell.

LeBeau collapses. Grim sees this as a good opportunity to try and kill him. Grim holds his soul-taking blade to him, and presses it against his chest. Petite knocks him, and it, away - Mark grabs the dagger and takes off. Grim chases him. LeBeau escapes and Mark throws the blade back at Grim. "You should give him a second chance," Mark says, but Grim isn't in that kind of a mood. Grim disgustedly takes back the blade and heads back to Medbay. He runs into Gabriel, who curses him with "May you live forever." Grim thinks that's an empty curse. Gabriel has Astor in tow. "Bring him back alive," Grim tells Gabriel. "Why, so you can kill him?" Grim says nothing, but keeps walking to Medbay. Part of him says "Yeah," but the other part says, "No."

Raina's in Medbay getting tickets to go to Mexico. She basically tells Grim he's in the wrong. Then, Gabriel arrives with Astor again. Astor asks Grim to come with him. Curious but wary, Grim goes. They go to the magic room. Astor gives Grim a blade, and then tells him to offer blood, and he'd give him information. Grim does, and Astor tells him that the Technomancers are going to reform the Circle, and that the only remaining Technomancers are the ones who are going to be part of it. Astor tells him to smear the blood on the blade, which he does, and also curse it, which he also does. The blade now has a virus that would go through his bloodstream nullifying any healing effects of his Tech. Astor tells Grim to put the blade at his chest, and then says, "Kell has killed my sister, revived my childhood friend, and left me to suffer. Now decide. Stab my heart now, killing me for being a technomancer, who just managed to order you around like a dog, as you believe, or spare my life..."

Grim stares at him. Warring inside is the "It's a 'MANCER! Kill it!" and Rusty's words, "But perhaps they will learn...Maybe you should teach them. You are a master teacher Grim..." Besides, LeBeau did something most mages don't do - clean up their mess.

Grim pulls up the blade. Just like attempting to steal the Tech, he can't kill him. Maybe Rusty's right - they are teachable. Not all, but some. Stefan did tell him once that he would be more than happy to teach him technomancy - however he needed to get implants. Grim won't do that, so he can't complain about not knowing how to do technomancy. And Grim will teach - if asked.

Grim then makes a further decision. He offers himself to help in the fight against Kell. He still doesn't trust - or like - Gabriel or LeBeau, but he does trust Astor. He hasn't met the other 'mancers yet, and he probably won't trust them, either. And nevermind Aysun...

They part, deciding that they're going to go after Kell. Grim goes to bed to find Stefan waiting there. They talk about the events for a while, and Stefan does agree with Mark that maybe he should give them another chance...

Raina Succumbs

2010-02-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

"You won't have the pleasure of going to hell. I'll make damn sure of that." Grim to LeBeau.

Changed the costumes of my main-account-Grim so that he and Eule could two-box if necessary. They won't let me change the colors of the Peacebringer powers, so we're just going to have to imagine things. Especially the tentacles. Grim loves tentacles. (Or, a thought, I could move my empath to Virtue and do a name change...)

Got Eule to do some fantasy role-playing, then he went to the base to watch Jack and Matt spar. Jack was heading to the shower and Grim showed up. Jack stopped, handed Grim his comm and told him to hold onto it. Grim at first didn't know what to do, but then grabbed some dirty laundry ("Now is not the time to go through his underwear, Grim," Matt said as he was looking for something) and tore up a shirt with Jack's essence on it. He used that and his divining rod ("'scuse me while I whip this out..." I just love that) to find Jack. He went to King's Row, and then left there, heading to Peregrine Island. Someone had captured Jack's father. Matt came with him and they found Jack outside of a warehouse (AE). Jack, Raina, LeBeau, Petite, Mark, Adam, Grim, and Matt went with into the warehouse.

This was another fun AE run, out to save George Whitney and "a little girl". Grim was coldly silent through the whole thing, not liking the fact that LeBeau was there, and also not liking that Jack was running on pure adrenaline and fury. The team saved both of them (I'm not sure what Candy was except for an emotional rise, which Grim didn't feel, as he was concentrating on not smacking LeBeau silly). Jack gave his dad a keycard and told him that he was staying with them now. And when they left, Raina was acting much weirder than normal. Grim asked her what was wrong, and she said, "...everything..." and took off.

LeBeau arrived and told Petite and Mark that Raina had kissed him, and he kissed her back. When she tried to go further, he stopped her. Petite slapped him across the face. Grim turned to him, and slowly walked over to him, issuing his threat. Then he walked out before he made good on it.

He found Raina in the foyer, and could hear Jack slamming things around upstairs. Matt tried to comfort her, but she didn't move. Grim tried, and she told him what happened. "I know," Grim said. "It's not your fault." Then he looks to Matt and asks him to take care of her, while he would see to Jack. Jack was upstairs, throwing things around. Grim went over to him and hugged him. Jack totally broke down. Grim held him close, also comforting him.

As he held him, he got an idea. Jack finally calmed, and Grim stood back from him, then kissed his cheek. Jack blinked, and Matt happened to walk in. "...What's going on?" Grim looked at him. "What?" Jack was so numbed by lack of sleep that he didn't even notice. Jack says he needs a drink, and Grim brings him downstairs to get one. He draws a sleep-rune (more like coma-rune) on the glass and gives it to Jack. Jack is very punchy, and Grim coaxes him onto the couch. Grim watches him and says, "Should be passing out in three...two..." And out Jack goes.

He goes to Raina and approaches her with his idea. "It's like what I did for Jack's dad, I made more of the good cells to combat the bad cells." (Wrong.) So what he's going to do is increase her emotions to override her lust. And one of the emotions he was thinking of using was her love for Jack and her children. Kal nodded, "They say nothing's stronger than the love of a mother for her children."

Grim takes out his blade, and uses that to draw a rune on her. This rune will help increase her love for her children, and thinking of her children will trigger it. They tried to involve Jack, but he's too sad, angry, and disappointed to involve himself. Grim doesn't realize it, but this rune is also engraved on her soul - she will always be tied to her children. He can never remove it, but he can lessen its power enough so that it's "normal".

Kalius leaves suddenly. Grim follows him, and finds him in his room. Kalius is staring out into space. "What you did for her," he says, "Thank you." Grim admits that this was the last thing he could think of, and if this doesn't work, "I'm at a loss."

Kalius then asks him, "You don't seem to be that into the self-defense classes like Eule and Adam. Is it because you want to spend time with me?"

Grim can lie now, but he instead deflects the question, "Am I bothering you being there?"

Kalius says he's not, "But I don't want to waste your time or your talents."

Grim admits that he does want to spend time with him, and asks if he can spend time with him as friends. "Don't push it," Kal says. "As long as we're clear it's not a date." Grim will take that.

He then finds Jack in the workshop, righting the table and talking to LeBeau. Grim ignores him and walks over to the Brandon and Ransal's suits. LeBeau leaves, and Jack walks up to Grim. "You spelled me, didn't you?"

"Who, me?"

"Yeah. You."

"Yeah, I did. Feel better?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

Grim then explains what he did to Raina, and says that he'd like to connect him as well. "Don't bother," Jack says.

"You still love her, don't you? And your kids?" Grim asks.

"I don't trust her." He said he was going to stay at his dad's, but he can't now. Grim then offers a place he rents in Cimerora. "It was for Kal and me," he says sadly. He decided to keep it as a "get away from it all" place for Kal. He doesn't know if Kal's using it or not, but he keeps up with the rent. "It has indoor plumbing." He can also buy him a slave if he wants. Jack takes him up on his offer - without the slave - and tells Adam he's going to stay there for a while.

Stories forthcoming, Grim and Jack's dad (pending approval)
Continuation of Grim and the mysterious young man from the bank.

Rusty's recovery. My multiple personality disorder

2010-02-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

Astor: "Why do you have a taste for killing Kell?"
Grim: "He hurt my friends. And my family. Nobody fucks with my family."

Monday, Eule had decided to "take the waters" in the hot tub, and LeBeau showed up and talked to him. Eule knows of LeBeau through Grim and Kalius, but he believes in seeing the person for themselves. After conversing with LeBeau, Eule doesn't find him to be as much of an asshole as both of them seem to think. However, he's open-minded enough to know that what a person shows and what they think might be two different things. Eule also doesn't judge people.

Switched to Grim, who had a spell for Oblique. However, Raina said that she had the schematics for the machine that took her powers away, and said that Rusty could have built it. If they could find him. Grim asks her where he was last located, and she tells him Faultline. Grim gathers up a party to go search for him - however, LeBeau asks if he's invited. "No," Grim says, walking away. "He's not."

They go to "Faultline" (actually an AE in Atlas) and into the sewers. They are met up with some robots that seem to have been put together by some technomancer Rusty ran into. It was challenging (didn't help that I crashed) and they succeeded in finding all of Rusty's parts and he got himself together to help fight at the end. It was a lot of fun.

Rusty went back to the lab to start working on the machine, and Grim joined him to talk. Rusty believes that the techomancers don't use magic, but science disguised as magic. "Then we need to learn science," Grim says. Rusty seems to think that they can do that. Rusty also thinks that if they can learn how to work the techomancer's science, they'd be able to defeat them. Unfortunately, they don't have access to it. The only way Grim would have access to it is if he gets implants, and he refuses to have technology control him.

Then we had a Prae-costume show. The group is really excited to play Prae versions of ourselves. It starts on Friday. I'm only playing Grim because Harmoniae wouldn't get involved, Eule is dead in that world, and Masonry is probably not even involved in that group. I might two-box Eule and Grim, but it depends on if he's needed.

Tuesday, brought on KT (okay, AR/Devices is FUN) and got him to 18. He's just marching along happily, and really good solo.

Next got Harmoniae, who talked to Kalius. She pretty much reassured him that Grim is destined to have a foot in both worlds, both light and dark. Kalius thinks that she serves the Christian god, but she tells him she first serves her father, Ares. "Were you sent here to keep an eye on me?" he asks. "Not only you," she says, but doesn't go into detail. "I am a messenger."

Then I get Eule. Eule still has a crush on him, even though Kal said nothing would happen between them. Eule knows deep down that Kal's actually a gentle person, caring and loving. Kal thinks he's an embodiment of war, and that's all. Eule has sensed different, seeing things through his memories, and glimpsing his caring nature. He tried to bring it to the fore before but Kal's warlike nature squashed it. Since "trying to kill" Grim, he believes even more fully that he's only meant to hurt people, to bring pain and destruction. Eule knows there's more. He wishes he could be the one to bring it out. However he knows either Grim or Dmitrius would be the ones to do it, "Your heart belongs elsewhere," Eule says, and sadly walks away.

Grim arrives. He tries to talk to Kalius but he won't look at him. Grim gets called to the lab to oversee Oblique getting her powers back, and to see if he can do anything. Grim knows nothing about radiation, and his magical knowledge doesn't really encompass radiation. He leaves, thinking to go back to Kalius, but he's gone. He sees Astor, and asks him what he's looking for. "A way to kill Kell," he says. "But I need an exit path." "Why?" Grim asks, thinking "one less technomancer..." Grim would help, but he can't do tech, and supposedly Kell is immune to his magic. However, he's not immune to physical attacks. Supposedly Astor burned out his tech the last time he faced Kell. Astor is bent on killing Kell, but he can't seem to hate him as much as Grim hates the technomancers. Grim could give him a battery, like what he gave Jack, Raina, Kalius and Rusty, but he doesn't mention it. Grim distracts himself by trying to figure out how to make the cornucopia spell for the liquor cabinet.

Jack is concentrating on runes, Rusty heads back to the lab, Raina says she wants to go beat heads. LeBeau jumps at the chance to join her. Grim goes to Jack, and watches as Raina, LeBeau, and Mark take off. Grim watches Raina go, saying, "She didn't even say goodbye." Jack looks up. "She didn't even say hello, either."

The two of them talk for a while. Jack's really starting to break. It hurts Grim to see Jack like this. Grim suggests offhandedly that he let her go, and Jack roars at him, "I'm not letting her go, God DAMMIT!" Grim changes tactics. "Okay. Then we take it into our own hands." He suggests that they assign a time when all the parties can get together, and if LeBeau's still not ready, then they lock him in the brig until he is. Both Jack and Grim believe that LeBeau's dragging his feet because he wants Raina to eventually come to him. Grim then tells Jack he'll do anything to help expedite this, even if it means he has to work with the cyborg. "I hate seeing you in pain like this." He offers to hug Jack, who tenses up at first but then relaxes. Grim lets calming energy flow from him to Jack, energy that he had when he was connected to the Light. It happens instinctively, without him concentrating.

Jack blinks, "Wha--"

Grim lifts his head, and the energy stops. Grim had felt it too, now that he noticed, and when he went running after it, it eluded him. Grim realizes suddenly that the Light is still with him, he just can't get at it consciously. He leaves Jack, his mind full of wonder.

Planning - Excecution

2010-02-01T09:19:00.002-05:00

Saturday, did lots of planning. Adam was going to go into Vizir's base and secure prisoners, suck out the mainframe, and get the blueprints for Project TEMPEST.

Sunday was the execution. Grim was a last-minute add-on. He got a special device that was used to walk through walls, and a set of goggles that could see through walls. (And the goggles, at setting seven, could see through clothes. Yes, Grim had a LOT of fun with that one, but kept it all to himself.)

We went to an AE and got smushed.

Yeah, Mark's AE was tough. And they saw through stealth, the bastards. We finally got through them with Raina and Jack's help. (For story purposes,they were clones that Adam was able to deceive.) According to the data downloaded, Vizir was going to capture Grim next week. Grim's like, "I'm a magic user, I'm not a mutant." Vizir will strap him to a machine and probably kill him, since he is pretty much human, after all.

Also on Sunday, Oblique got her powers taken away, so now she's blind and mute. Grim has been studying ways to make her see and speak magically and has an idea or two. He tried to get her to speak but ended up getting that entity of hers out instead. This is why he's kind of loathe to try the magic on her, because he doesn't want that entity out.

Grim taught Jack some more runes, and they talked about magic for a while. There had been a fight between LeBeau and Astor, and another woman who was supposedly an agent of Kell. Grim stood back and watched the whole thing, not lifting a finger to help, even when Raina asked. It's technomancer business, he thought, let them take care of it. Jack, however, asked him if they had attacked one of them, would he have done anything. Grim responded that he's already working with LeBeau ("that son of a bitch") with the complicated breaking of the love spell, "Not for me, not even for Raina, but for you, Jack. I want you to see your kids grow up." Grim's hate is actually because he loves the group and wants to protect them, and he sees the 'mancers as a threat. However, Astor is different than LeBeau, and different even than Gabriel. If only Grim would get past the fact that he's a 'mancer...

Eule was able to "meet the cats" and helped to comfort them. Eule is turning out to be a really nice character to play. He's gentle, caring, not tortured except for the fact that he follows rules scrupulously (some excerpts are here), looking for a boyfriend, has a crush on Kal, and really wants to be an actual hero. He's very creative with his powers, using lots of imagination and visualization. He wants to be helpful and understands when he's not needed, and doesn't take it personally.

In other news: Brought out the Mechanae. I really, really, REALLY like AR/Devices. I had an AR/Traps Corruptor, that was great fun on teams. (Yay, trip mines!) Electric/Electric scrapper seems to need a little bit of help. I'm figuring it's a late bloomer. Nobody seemed to like Whiteberry, but he solos well.

Also brought out Burrzerk and his character finally talked to me. His name is Burr - yes, just Burr - and he likes to keep himself under the radar. He enjoys strangling or holding people with his vines. He's voyeuristic. He's also an extreme carnivore - he won't eat plants in any form.

I think Dmitrius needs to be found, but not captured. Yet.

Also need to find ways to make Grim not so...bloodthirsty.

"Best. Idea. Ever." - Jack

2010-01-29T09:44:00.002-05:00

Got Harmoniae out for some PuGs. She's 33 now.

Got Eule to see Kalius. Kalius finally confronted him with, "Are you infatuated with me?" Eule wanted to crawl under the couch and die. Kalius said "I'm flattered" and basically told him that nothing will come of it. "You're not the first man I've trained to feel this way." Eule kind of knew this, but to actually hear it from him, it crushes him. He knew Kalius was capable of great love - he'd seen it in Kal and Grim's heads. "I hurt men," Kalius says. "I almost killed him."

Then LeBeau comes in and that gives Eule an excuse to fall suddenly silent. He half-listens to the conversation that's going on around him. He's conditioned not to show his emotions, or his reactions to things he sees in other people's minds, and it's this conditioning that makes him look pretty normal to everyone else, even though inside he wants to burst into tears. Finally, in a lull in the conversation, he takes his leave.

Grim comes, and sits down with Kalius saying, "Hey, cutie."

Kalius snaps at him, "Don't push it." Grim doesn't know why Kalius is so grumpy. Kalius tells him of the conversation LeBeau and Jack had with him - The technomancers were going to go to war with Havens seeing Grim as a threat. Grim tells Kalius that he doesn't want to drag the team into it - "If they want a war, it'll be a quick skirmish because it'll be all of them on me." He compromises. "Fine. I won't have anything to do with them, but I won't kill them." Kalius tells him to tell them that.

Grim tries to contact LeBeau, but he's gone. Mark tells him that he's probably with Raina in IP. Grim goes ballistic and heads there. While there, he runs into Rusty. Oblique sees them and runs into them, too. This puts a damper on the plans that Grim would talk to Rusty about the "technomancer terrorist cell" he mentioned in his phone call. Mark joins them as well. Rusty calls him Komoda, but Grim ignores it thinking he misheard him.

Then, they begin to plan. After much discussion, it was agreed to concentrate on Kell. It was then agreed to have Oblique talk to LeBeau and get as much information out of him as possible. Petite shows up, and Grim is disgusted with her for joining up with them. She says she joined them because if she marries Mark she's going to die "and I need all the power I can get." Grim then says that "Knoweldge should be free and given to all." Oblique says, "That's what this is really all about, isn't it?" God, she's perceptive. Grim warns Petite that she's going to turn into them and be a pompous asshole. "They *will* change you," he says. Meanwhile, Grim would shut up, pipe down, and go apologize to Astor to keep the peace.

He brings Rusty back to the base. After bringing him to the lab and getting him to sign onto the computer, he sees Astor and LeBeau in the library. He ignores LeBeau and goes right up to Astor. He makes his apology, it's accepted by Astor - Grim suspects that the man is tolerable, but, dammit, he's one of THEM. He finds out from Oblique that Astor wants Kell dead just as much as anyone else. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Grim thinks.

Then he gets an idea as he's looking at Raina. He's been working on Widdershins spellwork for Kalius - spells that are changed to be the opposite of what they intend. He's been trying to convert the ceremony that Kal found and turn it around to make it the opposite of what it's meant to be. He calls over Raina, and draws a rune of arousal on her, backwards. It seems to work - temporarily. That's okay, if that rune doesn't work, he's got a ton more of them in his head (you wouldn't believe the requests he got in Nerva for "magical Viagra"). He's going to teach Jack the runes that he knows, a few at a time.

Then they start talking about a general who got caught by Vizir. Then they mention Gabriel being captured by Vizir and "duplicated." Grim really doesn't want to hear it, figuring that's a technomancer thing, and he refuses to get caught up into it. He walks out. Kalius goes with him, and then they end up in the lab to see how Rusty's doing. There, 'Lucent and Rusty are fighting. Rusty suddenly does not look like the same Rusty as before...Grim summons up defenses and tries to use magic, but this Rusty is as immune to it as the other one was. Kalius gets his sword and shield without his armor and attacks. Rusty melts the area and turns everything into shrapnel. Kalius gets knocked into it, not before he gets his armor, so he's pierced with shards of metal everywhere. LeBeau comes in, and Grim yells at him to stop Rusty. The Jack shows up and sees the fighting, and he joins in.

Rusty gets pieces flown apart, and they all start heading to the door. Grim tries to catch them but "it's like catching a lizard, they break into smaller pieces." Rusty explains that "You might have stopped me, but the data's been uploaded. They will be here soon." See, this Rusty is Praetorian Rusty, and he's just passed on the information to the Praetorian Safe Havens...

Rusty's player is a genius.

Everybody's brakes went on and we all discussed what a great idea that would be. Rusty's player suggested we do it for a week-long event, and all us players at the time agreed. Kudos to Rusty! (Yeah, I thought about it all night...)

By the way, there is a "Praetorian" version of Emerald Flight called Sapphire Night. That Rusty is totally controlled by drugs, and the commander is absolutely ruthless. Grim's met her and worked with her. She's disgusted by him.

So...look for Praetorian Grim backstories...

Shifting Characters Without a Clutch

2010-01-28T09:48:00.000-05:00

"I have enough egos and drama in my life, and I want you egomaniacs out of mine." Kalius to Gabriel.

"Kell, Grimaulkin. I want him. Find him." Jack to Grim.

"Jack, we're leaving." LeBeau to Jack.
"Halle--" Grim.

Grim.

Grim is in the base reading when he sees Jack. Jack says he hasn't been sleeping, mostly because of worry. Grim suggests they tackle one problem at a time. He wants to eliminate Kell. Grim suggests a portable biosignature reader of some sort, so they can use it to find him. Matt comes in, and Grim asks Matt if he can make such a device. He asks what for, and they tell him. "No," he says and starts to walk out. Matt is disgusted with himself, and feels like he constantly screws up everything. He doesn't feel like part of the team - he feels like he's actually hurting it and making it vulnerable. Grim tells him that Tyron asked him to help him to get his father to stay. This bothers Matt, and he leaves.

Jack asks Grim exactly what he can and can't do, and Grim explains that he takes souls and uses them for his own use, and then he sends them on to Hades when he's done. They can do simple tasks, such as healing and scaring, but they can't communicate to anyone except Grim. "Sometimes they scream," he says, and then Marcus shows up. "So th' rumors 'r true..." Grim embarrassedly dismisses the ghost he'd summoned. Now Grim feels horribly guilty. "Stefan seems to think I can go back to the Light...slowly." Finally, he can't take it any more and runs away...

Eule.

Eule shows up and sees Adam and Jack. Eule tells Jack about what he found out with the "piece" of Kell's communications array. It's organic in nature (meaning there's no tech involved) and seems to have one set of instructions - to heal itself if it gets attacked. Jack mentions that maybe if they get it to "forget" to heal itself, they can cut it down to size. They enlist Adam for that - that he would go in and make the thing "forget". Eule suggests to "fool" it into thinking it's not being cut apart. Adam says he can do that better. Armed with this, they head to the library.

There, they settle down, and Jack connects them. They find the area, and Eule - as his snowy owl avatar - tears off a piece and boxes it. It doesn't heal. Jack and Eule continue to work on it, tearing it apart, while Adam blinds it and makes them invisible to it. After cutting it all away and boxing it, Jack and Eule work on creating a "mesh" in Jack's mind so that it won't be so easy for Kell to get in. Eule takes the "box" with him, then they collapse. As soon as he's able to get up, Eule goes over to the D and gently deposits his "box" into someone else's mind. All the boxes he makes are locked with a trigger word, which is usually not used in common conversation. Sometimes he even uses Klingon.

Grim (again)

Grim returns and Oblique is suddenly very sick. At the same time, he gets a call from Rusty. Rusty tells him that the FBI is still looking for Grim, something about a terrorist technomancer cell. Grim is quite intrigued about this, and Rusty says they should meet and talk about what the FBI wants. However, Oblique is stumbling around being sick, and Grim knows he's wanted in the medbay. Actually, Trip is...

Timetripper.

Trip shows up and takes a Geiger counter to Oblique. Her readings are steadily rising. Then, suddenly, she changes into something, another type of being. She takes off and runs through the base, getting radiation everywhere. Finally they corner her in the magic room. Jack calls the quarters to make a circle to try and contain her. Trip calls for an evacuation of the base. She changes back to Oblique, and Trip gets Oblique to put on her suit. Kalius calls...

Grim (at the same time, had to use PB Grim)

Grim gets into the base, and sees Kalius passed out outside of the magic room (Trip, naked, had dragged him out and Astor was standing outside the door. She blushed and ran back in). Astor is standing there. "You'll do," Grim says evilly, and takes some of his life force to heal Kalius. He ignores Astor's protests, and goes into the room. He confronts the thing there, who tells him he might have been the only one able to stop her. This malevolent spirit wants everyone dead because they're human and weak. Well, shit, Grim's dealt with demons before, so this doesn't scare him (however, this spirit's not a demon). It breaks the circle (it shouldn't have been able to do that, and I didn't think to warn the player) and runs to the door to try and get out. Kalius keeps the door closed by his sheer strength. Meanwhile, Grim attacks it with his athame, which not only cuts flesh but also souls. (Note: Grim can also grab a soul by hand, just like he used to.) He continues to stab her, even as she changes back into Oblique. When he searches for the soul, it's gone.

He looks down at what he's done and knows he can't heal the extensive wounds - he uses the person's essence to heal, it's no longer from within himself. He gets Oblique to the scanner (not sickbay) to keep her contained. Trip follows, dressed only in her armor - her suit has been destroyed. Grim then checks on Kal (while we OOCly try and figure out how to realistically clean up the base). Trip comes over and tells them that the decontamination procedures were going to start, and she needed them out. They end up at Las Sombras, in the incomplete medbay there. Grim heals Kal's second and third degree burns that are all over his body (he had his chance of getting closer to Kal, but he concentrated on healing Kal). Finally, Trip completes the decontamination procedures and she goes to the hospital. (She's going to be out of commission for a while because she now needs to get a new suit.) Oblique was supposed to go, but Mark finds her and brings her back to the base.

Grim really can't do anything about radiation - that's science, not magic. He can deflect it for a time but that's about it. However, Oblique is also suffering from the wounds Grim inflicted on her with the athame. Jack asks Grim why he took Astor's life force without asking permission. Grim says he thought Kalius was dying so he wanted to save him. He won't apologize for it. Mark asks Grim if the athame has any special properties. Grim says, "It hurts souls." Jack and Raina both leave the room, angry and sad. Grim still won't apologize. "They use us. I can use them, too. They don't like it?" Kalius says that Grim is starting to sound like them. That shuts Grim right up.

Jack approaches saying apologies won't be necessary, since Raina's leaving. Then he tells Grim he has a proposition for him. Grim wants to know where Raina's going, so Jack eventually tells him. Then, LeBeau and Astor come in and say they're leaving, too. Grim almost jumps for joy. Astor doesn't look too happy about going, though. Jack gives them an "Are you sure?" lecture. Kalius wisely keeps silent. LeBeau gives up his and Astor's comm, and they leave. Jack returns to the propopsition - get Kell. "Raina wants to shred his body. I want to shred his mind. His soul, that's yours." Grim agrees.

Jack then tells Grim that there might be something left of the spell Kell used to contact his mind. Jack let's Grim into his mind and he finds the area, like an open wound. He's able to extract a "signature" (every mage has one, but Grim is an expert at forging other mages' signatures). I'm thinking he can manipulate spells with that signature, but that might be asking too much.

He and Kalius go to the Grotto for a celebratory drink before bed. Gabriel shows up. "What would you want for us do to avoid a war between us?" Kalius eloquently puts it that he doesn't want them involved at all. Grim says, "Jack and Raina don't have a problem with you. I do." Astor says, "You're as dark as Kell." Grim says that maybe it's a good thing, because he can think like him and predict his moves. Gabriel agrees to, I think, leave them alone, and leaves. Oblique comes along, and tells them that maybe it's a bad idea to kick out the technomancers. Grim says, "People are here because they got into trouble not of their own making. They make their own trouble." Grim says that if he makes his own trouble, he doesn't expect the team to help him out of it (they might anyway). Oblique sees his point.

Grim asks Kalius about the scroll, and Kalius goes to get it. Grim realizes that he kind of blew his chance to get close to Kal in the medbay, and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "It's better this way," Kal says. Grim is going to get to the point where he's going to yell at Kalius to stop saying that.

Grim will concentrate on memorizing Kell's signature, knowing he can use that to find where he's been. Whether he can use it to attack Kell, deflect or manipulate his spells remains to be seen (need to talk to Kell's player about that).

Story forthcoming: Grim's athame.

Cut short

2010-01-27T08:34:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I had to leave game suddenly. My son, who's been depressed these last couple of days over his dad, had a meltdown last night and didn't want to go to bed alone. I shut the computer off with the on/off button, not thinking.

What happened up until that point: Grim was hanging out in the base. When he's upset, he reads classic fiction, like Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre. (He tried to read the Twilight series and burned the book.) When he's really upset, he tackles the tough stuff, and last night he was plowing through Les Miserables. Tyron came over and told him about his dad not wanting to leave his room. Then Astor came along. Grim tried to settle down in the same area, but just hearing his voice grated on him. He ended up taking his book and leaving.

Tyron followed, and told him that he's been trying his own Cheer spells on his dad but they're not working. Tyron's afraid that Matt will make them leave, and he really doesn't want to leave Raina and Jack. Grim suggested that what Matt really needed was a boost of self-confidence, and one way would be to stage a capture of someone and Matt could come and save them. "My dad's not an idiot..." (Actually a thought was that the villain they surrendered themselves to would be a total parody of a villain or a lot stronger than they expected.)

Stefan, then Raina, then Jack, then Mark, show up. By then, however, I was ninja afk'ing so not paying attention. When Petite showed up, it was the last straw for Grim. Grim doesn't know Petite's decision, but he does know that she was considering it, and that's bad enough for him. Once Grim knows Petite's decision, he'll avoid her as well. And yes, probably put her on the list of "them".

What Grim has decided, and hasn't had a chance to tell anyone, is that if the cyborgs or 'bots (that's his derivative term for them for now - there'll probably be more) are in the base he won't kill them, he'll avoid them. If they're on a team he's on, he'll do the minimum amount necessary to keep them alive for the mission, and that's all. (Player, of course, will do differently.) He won't help them if they need help, he won't save them if they're in trouble. However, once they're out in the field, alone, not on a team, not with the group, as far as he's concerned, they're fair game. He'll reap their souls and enjoy it.

Stefan's and Grim's story didn't quite go where we expected. Grim was never meant to be fully redeemed. He was always meant to be irreverent with his dark magic, making light of everything and flirty with men. The whole white-light story line threw me right for a loop and I know it wasn't played right, turning Grim into a holier-than-thou hypocrite. Stefan is not a guide - he's a guardian and he's meant to keep Grim from hell. Grim is not supposed to be babysat or told what to do. Grim's ultimate end is to perform the duties of a guide of the dead and the underworld, and possibly also a so-called Reaper. I'd like him to be a gray mage, with access to dark and light magic and using either as he sees fit.

So...I'm working on getting Grim to lighten up. I am honestly at a loss to figure out what would change his mind about the technomancers. Right now, he's going to concentrate on enjoying his new job.

Harmonia assists; Grim returns

2010-01-26T09:39:00.000-05:00

Technomancer Astor: "I know I'm not supposed to use the 17 words, but can I use 5 and see you naked?"
Timetripper looks at her watch. "Damn, would you look at the time..."

Grabbed Eule to do the training mission with Jack, Raina, and then Petite, Oblique, and later Adam. Switched to Harmonia to deliver the news to Kalius that's in the AScripta story. First, she sees Jack and Raina struggling to deal with the fact that LeBeau was in the base. She stops and asks if they want her to "assist your will." She then gives them divine assistance (kinetics boost), which helps Raina's will to suppress the lust she feels LeBeau. Harmonia also assists Jack to assist Raina. Raina shivers, and then is able to stand it and walk out the door. Harmonia's "blessing" will last the night.

Harmonia sees Kalius and greets him. "I have good tidings."

"Ares will give me more time?"

"No. Hades will." She explains that Hades will wait for his soul now, however he still needs to do the mission for Ares. Kalius asks what Hades asked for in payment. Harmonia told him (now them, since Jack and Raina joined) that Grim is a servant of Hades. "He's a Reaper," Kal says sadly. The rest of the team looks sad. Then Harmonia says that he killed four men in Sharkhead. Jack can't believe it - Grim's reverted back to his old self. Harmonia leaves, and says she'll report to her father. She asks Kal if he has a message. "I'll still do his work, it'll take some time to get the men and materials."

Meanwhile, there's a fight going on in the Grotto. Mark is going to tear LeBeau's face off because it's Gabriel who caused the problem - but no, it was Kell disguised as Gabriel. If Grim were there, he'd help. Or he'd happily fulfil his promise to LeBeau and take out the tech - while he was still alive. I stick around OOCly to see what's going on.

Trip arrives, since Oblique and Mark are available. She goes into the stasis chamber and takes off her suit, giving it to Mark to analyze. Mark will analyze it and create a similar suit for Oblique. Technomancer Astor, a new guy, follows her out, and tries to pick her up. Trip lets him down.

Get Grim to return. Nobody's around when he walks in, except Astor. Grim is initially friendly enough, and when he jokingly says he's Gabriel's spy, Grim throws his duffle bag at him and attacks. "You're one of them," he snarls, and he's exactly like Kalius had been once when John approached. Grim held his athame under Astor's nose and threatens, "I'll flay you alive and don't think I don't know how to do it." Raina cautions him, and Grim lets him go. "Just stay the fuck out of my way," he growls, picking up his bag, and walks away. "Did Gabriel touch him in a naughty part?" Astor asks as he leaves. Grim doesn't hear it.

He starts to walk by Kalius' room, and Kalius calls to him, "Why?"

Grim stops, comes in, setting down his bag. "Why what?"

"You know better than to make deals with the gods."

Grim basically tells him that it's not something he doesn't want to do. "It's like I've been doing something for free all this time and this time I'm getting paid for it." Now Grim is not only the psychopomp, but the Reaper as well. However, he keeps some of the souls he reaps for his own use, but will return them to Hades "when I'm done with them."

Kalius tells him that he and Stefan are to help guide him. Grim immediately says, "We go kill LeBeau...TOGETHER!" Kalius thinks it's a bad idea for him to be Grim's "moral compass", but Grim says that's because he's a good man underneath it all. "You showed me the light." Grim squeezes Kalius' shoulder, and Kalius leans into Grim. They hug for a while, comforting each other. They talk about the scroll, and Grim is sure that he can do a reversed spell.

Grim doesn't want to leave. Kalius really doesn't want Grim to, either. They stay like that and talk about things. Kalius asks Grim if when the time comes, "Will you be the one?" to take his soul. Grim doesn't know, but he'll make sure he does it as painlessly as he can, and would bring him to the Fields himself. That they both hate the technomancers, and that Grim refuses to help them any more. They also talk about Raina's dilemma, and Grim says that maybe he can help. "Magic and tech don't mix," Kal says. "I have contacts," Grim replies. Finally, Kalius gets up, and he says he hadn't slept the night before. Grim gives him a rune to sleep, kisses him on the forehead, and goes off to bed.

Basically:

2010-01-25T10:14:00.002-05:00

Grim got the Light taken away from him by an order from God, although Stefan has been given orders to guide him, a little more forcefully if necessary.

Kell it seems whispered the alleged 17 words that make you fall in love that technomancers know, and now Raina is in lust with LeBeau.

This was the last straw. Grim has now absolutely, positively, had it with all technomancers. He will kill them on sight. He also thinks Raina and LeBeau are actually enjoying this, and that they're enjoying hurting Jack.

So, to avoid any further issues, Grim left.

We attempted the ITF. However, more debuffing was needed at the end. It didn't quite work.

So, stories forthcoming are:

Grim in the Isles.

Harmonia speaks to her father and her great-uncle.

Eule assists

2010-01-22T07:18:00.002-05:00

Kalius: "Why do you care, kid?"
Eule blushes.

Eule came out to help Stefan. Our last mission, however, was horrid, and it made me realize that we really needed a healer. Maybe I should bring out Defender-Grim for these larger teams. At least we'd have a chance. We were mostly damage, but we couldn't damage them fast enough.

Eule then asked for a break, and they all headed to base. Eule saw Kalius training. "You don't stop, do you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're always fighting."

"It's what I do."

"You don't have to."

Eule had had other boyfriends, normal men. Eule usually soothes them, making them receptive and calm. He so badly wants to do this with Kalius, to comfort him. However, the rules that Hero Corps has taught him binds him from doing so.

He didn't tell Kalius that he had gone into Grim's mind to get "briefed". He only told Kal that Grim briefed him, "but he's biased." Eule is a lot like Trip, in that he doesn't judge anything he hears about other people. He prefers to make these judgments himself, and even then, he doesn't really judge. Hero Corps encouraged that.

Eule tries to comfort Kalius with words, and finally Kalius breaks the punching bag he'd been hitting, looks at him and asks him why he cares. Eule's thought resistance immediately goes up (even though Kalius isn't a telepath, it went up instinctively, because he didn't want Kalius to know his real feelings). He blushes, and deflects the question. He's also sure Kalius must know why, especially after he blushes. Kalius has been doing this kind of thing for centuries, so he would know when one of his trainees had a crush on him.

Eule sees Raina and Jack (he's been calling everyone by the names Grim calls them, no more "sir" or "ma'am") and greets them. He asks if he can eat something - Eule hasn't eaten at the base before, because Hero Corps people consider themselves hired help and they don't utilize the comforts of any bases that they're working with. Now that he's not with Hero Corps any more, he feels he can use the base's amenities, and one of them is food.

He goes to the fridge, opens it and finds it empty. He's staring at it when Kalius comes back. "Can't decide what you want?"

"It's empty."

Kalius tells him how the fridge works, and Eule opens and closes it to get what he wants. He thinks that's the best thing anyone ever invented. Oblique comes over and says, "Yeah, that fridge is awesome-sauce."

Grim meanwhile is trying to find his way to the kitchen, still blind. He's calculated how many stairs there are, how many steps it takes to cross a room, and he follows the walls to get where he needs to go. He bumps into someone in armor - he asks if it's Stefan. He concentrates to see it, but it's not Stefan's aura that reflects back to him. Grim finds his way to the kitchen and bumps into things as he goes to the fridge to get some cheese sticks. He can see Kalius' red aura without concentrating. He can also see Jack's when he concentrates, and others around him. Eule leaves, taking Grim with him to the stairs.

Grim goes upstairs and gets back into bed with Stefan. Stefan holds him, and Grim's vision slowly starts to clear, so the first thing he sees is Stefan's smiling face.

Eule, meanwhile, wishes he could make Kalius feel better, and does so in his dreams.

Meanwhile:

Some Fallen have a meeting (story forthcoming)

Masonry goes home.

Rusty meets with the lawyer.

Grim goes blind

2010-01-21T08:39:00.000-05:00

"Why do you assume that if two men are taking a shower together, they're having sex?" Stefan to Raina.

First off, the Captain Degenerate story was taken offline and finished up in story form over on safehavens.guildportal.com. It's in the IC forums. Kudos to Jack for doing a lot of the writing, and taking my character and capturing him so well.

I pull out Eule to talk to Kalius, to introduce them to each other. He knows Kalius is a pure warrior and that really turns him on. Eule is a sci-fi junkie and refers to Moorcock and Star Trek, though Kal doesn't understand the references. He tries to get him to talk about himself, but Kal says, "It's complicated" and doesn't really want to talk about it. Eule says he can go into Kal's mind, but Kal warns him, "You don't want to go there." Eule will talk to Grim (story...maybe?).

Grim and Stefan teamed up for a little while - Grim joined him on his excursion with more members. Stefan's gotten to 34.

They retired to the base to take a shower together. Except Grim got excited...until Raina turned off the hot water. Grim came out, soaking wet and freezing, and Raina gave him a lecture of how they shouldn't be having sex in public places. They weren't, really...but Grim wasn't about to go into detail. They go up to their room, and Stefan passes out. However, Grim's listening over the comm and he heard they'd found Matt. Grim didn't want him dead, and thought that he should go find him.

Finally, he gets to the RWZ. Matt is a wreck, confused, weakened. Kell won't stop talking to him or controlling him. There's no telepaths in the area, and everyone seems helpless. Grim knows that he can change into light form, he can go into people's bodies (Marcus had done that to him) and maybe there would be a way for him to somehow ease and block Matt's mind. Grim changes into light form (he's silent when he does this) and goes into Matt. He finds the connection that Kell has - he's able to envision it the same way Kell does. With that, he slams shut the connection and does one better; he purges Kell's presence and replaces it with his own. However, he doesn't use it to control Matt, he uses it to get Matt back to him, even though Matt is really weak and running on pure adrenaline.

Grim returns to his form, blinded as Marcus had told him would happen. He uses the wall to find his way around, and Adam takes his shoulder. Adam guides him to the portal, and gets him to medbay. Grim is fine, he just can't see. However, if he concentrates, he can see people's auras. Only if he's really looking, though, so most of the time he's bumping into things. Like he told LeBeau, "Walls don't have auras."

He tries to heal Matt, and he can't get into his head again. He calls Eule, who comes over and gets into Matt's head. He finds out that there's no presence, nothing controlling him, but he's fading fast due to exhaustion and lack of sleep and eating. Eule says his mind is fading, and Matt collapses. Grim carries him to the bed and has to feel Matt up to find the spots to draw the runes for sleep and healing. Matt is very concerned about Raina, and keeps saying her name. Grim keeps him down, while he gets an urgent call from Jack - Raina's being attacked by Kell in the RWZ. The troops run off - Kalius and Eule included.

By the time they get there, Raina's drugged and Kell's gone. However, Petite and Eule were at the entrance and saw Kell there, who spoke to Petite. Eule caused an aura of confusion that made Kell back away. Kalius gets Raina back, and LeBeau asks Grim for help in healing her. He approaches the bed - bumping into it - and then gets touched by Kalius, who fills him with his power. "Take what you need," Kalius says. Grim doesn't have time to enjoy it, and sets to work, thought he's barely holding back Kalius' power. Eule, meanwhile, peeks around the corner and watches this in amazement and awe, staring at Kalius.

Grim converts the toxins to something harmless that Raina can handle (since when is Grim a chemist? He's not, he did it entirely by instinct, and Grim's absorbed the Pius, not just read it - though he's not done). Then Raina says she can attack Kell through his link. Grim knows Kalius is tired, and keeps asking, "Tonight?" Raina is hell-bent, and Kalius is all for it, so Grim pours energy and force into Raina, taking it from Kal. Raina blinds Kell in his other eye. Kalius slumps, exhausted. Grim knows from experience that Kalius would be, so he tells him to sit down. He almost calls him "love".

Kal brings Raina to her bedroom, and LeBeau guides Grim to the stairs. From there, Grim finds his way to his room, and bumps into Stefan, waking him up. Grim quietly explains what happened, and Stefan understands, knowing he'll probably be hanging around Grim for the next 24 hours or so (except when Stefan has his angelic duties to perform). Eule, meanwhile, waits for Kal.

Kal comes out of Raina's room, and Eule follows him to the grotto. "What did you do? You were on fire." Kal explains it's magical fire, Ares' power. Eule is just amazed and enraptured by him, and when he finds out he's teaching people hand to hand combat, he jumps at the chance to be in Kal's presence. So what if it means he gets worked like a dog? He gets to see the warrior fight.

Eule goes home and dreams of Greek warriors.

Exhaustion sets in

2010-01-20T06:53:00.000-05:00

Pulled out Doc Hoss when I got home, and he quickly got 3 levels. Everybody loves an empath, even if he looks like a brutish goat.

Got Grim and played a few missions. Another character, Siphon Shift showed up and he looked like Jack, Raina, Matt, and Sarah all together. He/she was silent, and kissed Grim on the cheek and walked away, dragging his arm across his shoulders as he did. He finally joined up with the team, but by then, I was exhausted and couldn't read the chat balloons. Adam also caught Grim in his "secret" costume - the battle kilt that he likes to wear for Stefan.

I was in bed by 9:45. Sorry, guys.

Sad

2010-01-19T12:12:00.000-05:00

"...the rage and jealousy, it wouldn't work out. He's better for you. I'm toxic." Kalius to Grim.

Grim to Occlude: "Do you know what this means?" ::puts his finger over his lips::
Occlude nods.
"Can you do it for two minutes?"

Grim misses Kal. He knows one thing that would make Kal happy - training someone. And if this meant he could spend time with him...

Grim goes to the training room. As he walks by, he sees Adam passed out on the couch. Obviously Kal put him through his paces. Grim goes in to see Kal working on the bag. "What did you do to him?"

"Training," he said, and kept on punching the bag. "I didn't hurt him. I've been doing this for centuries. I know better than to break my own trainees."

"Can you train me how to do hand-to-hand?"

"Why? You're a mage, you don't need it."

"Sometimes I do."

Kalius finally stops, and regards him, then starts to train him. He does it automatically, as if he's on autopilot, totally without emotion, like he's done this routine before many times. Grim's finally exhausted, and they stop. Grim tries to talk to him about their relationship again, and that's when Kal starts saying, "He's better for you. His god is love and happines and all that stuff. Mine is war and death."

"Sometimes I want that," Grim says. "Sometimes I don't feel all that happy."

Kal shakes his head. "We're going in circles, Grim. Just move on." He admits that their relationship probably wouldn't work out anyway, considering Grim is so open and flirtatious. Kal would be killing everyone Grim even talked to.

Grim finally left, sad, realizing that Kal was right, that it wouldn't work out. He gets called to the D to see to someone, who's named Occulde. Occulde is a real chatterbox, and Grim has to calm her down to talk to her. He had gotten a call from Jack, who needed to see him at the D. He saw him walk by, and then went over to talk to him after getting Occulde to leave with Mark.

Jack, it seems, needs a glamour. He was accosted in Cap au Diable right in the middle of the square and barely escaped with his life. (Pulled out Bandit for that one - he's a thugs/poison MM, and he has Antidote which he uses on his minions and they won't go to sleep. Bandit fired a tranq dart at Jack and knocked out his powers temporarily, but Jack was able to escape.) Grim doesn't ask why he needs it - he figures that he would, because if he was caught in the Isles as a known hero, they'd flay him alive. He takes his belt and draws runes on it, empowering it with a glamour. He puts runes on Jack's belt as well, to return him to normal. Jack tries on the belt later - he's quite rugged and handsome. Leave it to Grim to make a man turn into eye candy.

Grim then meets up with the Fed and asks him what his problem is. "I'm trying to show that you're not criminals," the Fed says. Grim doesn't buy it, but leaves him alone. He goes to help Stefan. Morgan asks for a magic-user to help her, so he goes to help her as well.

There, she asks him to take a look at her to see if she's contaminated with B.E.M. (Black Energy Magic). He does, and the dark magic tries to attack him. His adrenaline kicks in, and he stands fast - it's only dark magic, he's worked with it before, right? It's not quite the same kind of magic he's used to, and even though he tries to grab at it like he used to, he can't get a hold of it. Instead, it explodes around him, and starts to decay him. He tries to heal himself, but it's not fast enough. He sends terror over the connection he has to Stefan.

Stefan asks what's wrong, but Grim's comm is outside the magic room. Stefan rushes to him, but Grim's finally calmed down. Morgan now knows she's contaminated, and she asks Stefan to help get it out. Stefan does so, and Grim's upset with himself because he can't do it. Morgan tells him that she did what she had asked, but Grim still feels inadequate. Stefan cheers him up and encourages him, saying there's things that Grim can do that he can't.

They go off and do another mission, and Grim's exhausted and goes home to take a shower. He joins Stefan, and has a flashback to what Kalius had done. Stefan calms him down again.

Meanwhile:

Western Bandit is loading up some more tranq darts and has shot up his immediate minions with antidote against sleeps and holds.

Degenerate has a new prisoner, and is working on getting into his mind.

Degenerate's Arachnos contact comes to visit (story soon).

Bladeless is obsessed with the shield and has practically lived in the RWZ, to Frosty's confusion.

Womby gets accosted at school (story soon).

Rusty cleans out the liquor cabinet. Again. Grim contemplates using the cornucopia spell for liquor.

Matt turns

2010-01-17T09:36:00.001-05:00

Got Grim to play with Stefan for a little while. Then pulled out some scrappers and Eule to play with Stefan again. (Eule is a twink and has a crush on Stefan.)

Grim came back, and we redid the attack on Jack. Matt came into the base and Grim accosted him. He turned magnetic, and pulled all metal to him - tugging on Grim's belt, so he tore it off. Then Matt kidnapped Raina and took her to the RWZ. The team followed, and met up with Kell. Kell seemed to have thrown off most of the team's attacks, so Grim got physical - he pulled out Gabriel's hammer and started attacking Kell with it. "Oh, that's sophisticated," Kell said, but it worked.

They get back to the base, and Grim finds Gabriel and Petite talking - Gabriel makes an offer to Petite to be a technomancer. Grim just shakes his head at it.

Trip gets a hold of Grim to tell him his dad died. Grim walks away.

Other stuff was going on which Grim wasn't needed for, so I signed off.

Boom.

2010-01-16T17:55:00.004-05:00

Grim and Raina have this uncanny ability to find strays and take them in. Grim goes to the D, and comes onto some really big guy (the purpose was initially to get Boom into the group). So we may have another guy (Everfreeze) - and then a villain came along and they had a REALLY long conversation about whether heroes actually help people or are hurting them more. Grim gave up the argument, because the guy was really good. Too bad he was a villain. However, I globaled him anyway - actually, I tagged them both.

During the time, Boom mentioned that he could do something special, and Grim grinned, suddenly with an idea in mind. Everfreeze thought that was scary. Grim and Boom made an agreement.

Grim brought Boom down to the base. Boom is very loyal to Grim, for getting him out of the D. Matthew came along, and Grim asked him how he was doing. Matt said fine, and when his back was turned, shocked Grim and paralyzed him. (Not before Boom blurted out what Grim wanted to do, and Grim had to tell him that it was a secret.) Then he did the same to Boom, and carried them to the closet and left them there.

Got Harmoniae so we could get a play-by-play. She watched as Matt shocked LeBeau then Mark, then talked Oblique into checking on Mark and shocking her, too. Meanwhile, Mark went feral and started attacking LeBeau (because he was closest). She watched as Mind tried to take Mark down, and Raina tried to take him down too. She did nothing. think she'll allow fights to continue between members of the group. Morris comes along and patches up LeBeau and tells Matt to take LeBeau to the med bay. However, Matt is distracted by Raina, and it takes a lot for him to finally get moving and get LeBeau to medbay.

Grim and Boom get up, and stumble their way out the door with a blinding headache. They tell Grim to go see to LeBeau. Grim thinks about it, then goes. Boom, meanwhile, is very shy. Grim helps to heal LeBeau. Then he stays with Boom for a little while, making sure he's okay. He heads over to the Grotto but LeBeau starts into something - and Jack leaves, and so does Grim.

I sign onto Captain Degenerate for a little bit of taunting for Jack. Jack has found out about Granny Mae gone missing, and of course Cap gloats about what he did to her. Adam shows up, and shows himself. Cap studies him, as if memorizing him. He will be able to project it to his minions when they go looking for him - and they start looking for him the next day. They talk a little more, and Cap offers Jack two tickets to his next performance which will be at Cap Au Diable. Jack takes them, disgusted.

(There was an attack on Jack, but we're doing a do-over.)

When a bell rings...

2010-01-15T08:51:00.000-05:00

Grim and Stefan were showing a little bit of lovin' and Oblique thought that was cute. Kalius came in, with his usual silence, and it really bothered Grim, so he followed him. He told Kalius to stop moping, and Kalius pretty much brought up the fact that he wasn't good enough for Grim and Kalius himself had chased him into the arms of another man. Grim asked him if he wanted to go back on his promise. "Too late for that now, Grim," Kalius says. Kalius is still angry at Grim, and the more Grim pushed things, the angrier he got. Finally, Grim asked him if he wanted him to leave him alone. "Fine," Kalius said, standing up, and looking Grim in the eye. "Leave. Me. Alone." Grim walks away, hurt. Stefan consoles him, saying Kalius needs to take up a quest, and tells Grim that Kalius only needs time.

Then suddenly, there's a flourish of trumpets and harps in the Grotto, and Stefan says a messenger is coming. Everyone looks up to see a cherub come down from the ceiling, holding a package. He gives it to Stefan, and then leaves. Stefan is muttering, "Show off" as he opens up the package. Inside is a note, "Start Wearing It." He pulls out something that looks like a circle of light, and sets it atop his head - it's a halo.

They then do a mission, and then Stefan heads up to bed, exhausted. Grim stays up in the Grotto, wandering to the training room, and back out to see everyone at the portal door, accosting Matt. LeBeau, of course, is threatening Matt and Grim, who's come in late to the conversation, tells LeBeau it's not his place - and three people at the same time tell Grim to shut up. Then Raina suddenly gets a telepathic communication from Kell, and while that's happening, Grim leaves to go watch TV, plugging in The Lair. Adam busts his balls about it, so he changes it to Monty Python's Holy Grail.

Adam asks Grim if it's wrong to want to have a normal job along with powers. He thinks it'll be a gimmick, and Grim doesn't understand why he wants to even do that. Grim's a magic user and proud to be one - and wouldn't want to be "normal" or to use it to show off to people who aren't magic users.

He gets called into Medbay because something's wrong with Matt. Matt, it seems, has a probe (Ok, player is getting sick and tired of probes appearing on people all of a sudden.../vent) and LeBeau needs help getting it out. It's another one of those explosive probes that these technomancers love so much. Grim helps LeBeau pull it out of Matt's skull, and LeBeau tries to explode it, but it won't. Grim then takes it out of Matt's body - it looks like a red ball of light, the size of a small diamond. LeBeau puts it into a vacuum vial and will study it later.

Grim makes sure Matt's asleep, and then leaves because LeBeau is going off again, and Grim doesn't want to start trouble. Adam follows and they drink a while, discussing things. LeBeau comes to thank Grim. Grim just accepts it - he's really trying not to be flippant, and deep down he knows LeBeau's offering an olive branch, so it would be cruel of him to slap him in the face about it. They talk more, and then Grim leaves to go to bed, to wake up Stefan...

Rusty turns himself in

2010-01-14T08:46:00.002-05:00

"It seems my consultation is no longer needed..." Rusty

Brought out Captain Degenerate and did a little RP with Jack. Jack chased him to Steel Canyon and was going to arrest him there (Jack used telekinesis to beat Cap up - very smart, since Cap is a mind dom, too). He almost had him but Cap escaped. In the meantime, he told Jack that he had left tickets for him at the D's monkey bar for him to witness a "performance" - he had an 80 year old grandmother from Naples, Florida, and was going to use her...story forthcoming.

Spent most of the night helping Stefan get his level. He hit 30, so it doesn't look like he has too much further to go. He's been really working hard - he has about a week to get 5 levels, and if we keep doing what we're doing, he'll be able to make that. Grim in the meantime was grumpy, see story on AScripta. He's thinking Womby's right - but he might not be right about the "not caring" part.

We made it to Croatoa (one of my more favorite arcs, even with the huge-ass maps of dog-moose and redcaps) and Grim met up with the Cabal, who he really dislikes. (Non-canon: Circle and Cabal have a rocky history, even though one uses the other often enough, they don't trust each other at all.) Grim went home after a mission, and had a rum and Coke. Grim confessed to Adam why he was grumpy. He wonders if he doesn't care, and Adam presses it, asking him whether or not he really does. Grim's filled with feelings he's never really had before - friendship, trust, caring. Therefore he doesn't trust himself. He thinks there's an ulterior motive underneath the way he acts - that's how a mage thinks. Womby's absolutely right that Grim has to think differently now, and that he does have to give up control.

Sarah shows up with her father. Her father's an alien mage, and Sarah introduces Grim as the person who would teach her magic. The father, Ren, takes a knife and cuts off a piece of Grim's arm and eats it. Grim yells, "Hey!" and heals himself. Ren pronounces that Grim is acceptable to teach her daughter magic, and Jade and Le Morte come in to watch. Grim treats the "demon" with respect, mostly because there's undefended people in the room (See? He cares.). Le Morte is disappointed, expecting a fight.

Jade says that Grim is an excellent teacher (calls him Master Grim). Jade had done a ritual in the magic room. Grim is curious, but refuses to ask him about it ("To be silent" - one of the tenets of magic). Rusty comes over and says he wants to talk to Grim. Adam leaves, and Rusty says that he's figured out that they really don't need him any more. Grim doesn't agree and tries to persuade him to stay. Rusty says he's going to turn himself in to the FBI. Grim keeps trying to explain that he's really necessary to them. "You're our only voice of reason!" he says to Rusty. "It seems that no one is listening to it anymore," Rusty replies, and takes his leave of Grim. Grim tries to stop him, but Rusty keeps on walking.

When Grim tells Jack, Jack gets pissed. Grim is upset - he really cares a lot about Rusty and is considering turning himself in. Jack says no, "Hell no." The FBI has Rusty, all they need is Grim, and if Grim didn't have Stefan, he would have turned himself in, that's how depressed he was feeling. He goes to see Stefan, who reassures and comforts him.

Never trust a mage

2010-01-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

LeBeau: Thinking all too often leads to action when people allow fear to dress up as reason.
Grim: What book did you get that out of? Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?
Technomancer LeBeau replies flippantly "Taoism for Dummies."

Created another character for Hollow Mechanae, Konsp1racy Th30ry. As the name sounds, he's a conspiracy nut, mostly about technology and the internet, though he knows most of the conspiracies out there (donate to Wikipedia now). He's an AR/Devices blaster and became a "hero" so they wouldn't take his guns away.

Brought Grim on. He cautioned Morgan against using magic so freely in the base, especially because of Rusty. He tried an experiment to see if the magic Morgan was using on Oblique was causing her powers to manifest more, but they weren't. Oblique is worried that her powers are getting out of control, and GIFT was supposed to check her out - however Rusty suggested their "scanning chamber" that would do the same thing. Oblique went in it, and Rusty found that she was in the early stages of organ failure, and that her powers were indeed getting out of control. Morgan suggested a "band-aid", that she would join her life force with Oblique's. Grim freaked, saying that was a bad idea.

Grim can't see joining his own life force to someone, even Stefan's. When Kal mentioned marriage, he did the same thing, knowing that bound people. He and Stefan can sense feelings between each other, though it's nothing like Jack and Raina's link. Grim doesn't consider himself "bound" to Stefan, because they don't share their life force between each other - so he thinks. Grim shares his life force with everyone, as he uses it to heal.

He goes and helps Stefan for a while, then checks in to see how the ritual went. Morgan and Oblique are now joined, and it's a beautiful thing - for them. Grim still thinks it's freaky.

Grim then helps to get a team together for Stefan, and they tackle some Banished Pantheon. Raina, meanwhile, goes to talk to Gabriel. They return to the base, and Raina gives them some news: The daughter supposedly can't handle the Tech, so the deal is void. Grim says, "Knew they'd find a way out of it..." and constantly commented from the peanut gallery. Jack finally threatened him, and Grim shut up. It seems the deal now is that Gabriel would remove the Tech, provided that they be allowed to teach the child if it wants to learn about technomancy. A much, much better deal, but Grim doesn't trust them, and believes they'll make demands later. He doesn't even acknowledge the thanks that LeBeau gives him for disguising his tech-enhanced swords. He grudgingly agrees, and leaves before he opens his mouth some more and gets into more trouble.

He meets up with Stefan again, and he says to him that he hates the technomancers. "The feeling is mutual," Stefan says. They work together some more, but Grim is exhausted, both by keeping up his anger and putting himself through the paces of beating up Sky Raiders. He goes to bed, leaving Stefan out to do some more work.

There's a couple of stories brewing.

Discussions

2010-01-12T07:18:00.000-05:00

Adam: "I didn't sign up for a war."
Number 161: "How about Team 'Let's-all-be-friends' gather over here."

Played Whiteberry until he hit 2 bars below ten - also got a couple of nice comments about his bio. Jack and I were talking about our characters, and Jack mentioned he might need a new nemesis. However, this one, we decided, needed to last longer than a week. With the advent of free server transfers, I suggested one of my other characters from Freedom. I sort of developed a story around him on Freedom - his origin doesn't quite fit - and chose to improve upon it.

Enter Captain Degenerate (sorry, love that name). Jack and the Cap met in the Zig, where Jack really found him distasteful. I'm assuming that since he was a villain, he boasted constantly about his exploits to Jack, and since they really couldn't go after each other with powers, Jack must have shut him up in different ways. However, Cap isn't going after Jack to beat him up, or to right a wrong, or for revenge. He merely likes to use people. And he's a villain, a slightly crazy one at that.

Cap texts Jack, ending with "Oink!" and the pig-jokes continue for the duration of the conversation, with him calling Jack "Porky". My twisted muse had a field day, and Jack's player really liked it. He's a better nemesis for Jack because he does everything Jack hates about psionics. Now, the problem is, how to keep him from getting turned into villain-goo by the rest of the team. We're going to try to keep it between the two of them so that the story lasts longer, but the team will most certainly get involved - and I hate to god-mod.

I also pulled out Harmoniae for Noctilucent to play with. It's been a while since I played a flirty girl, and it was hard to keep her from sounding like Grim. I mistakenly did that with Symlin, so I'm going to not make her quite so flirty. Grim showed up again to see Jack with a determined look on his face. Grim mistakenly thinks that it's about him, and apologizes for his actions last night. Matt comes along and asks what's going on. Jack explains...AGAIN. Grim and Red talk about the fact that maybe they should fight the technomancers. Grim agrees, Adam does not, and neither does Harmoniae. 161 shows up and doesn't agree either, and they polarize. Grim, however, doesn't think LeBeau will help, but Mark seems to think he will. They try and figure out a way to get them out of their ivory tower - Grim suggests beating the shit out of LeBeau. Petite shows up, and asks they don't do that - in fact, that they don't involve LeBeau at all. Grim doesn't agree, since LeBeau brought them here.

Mark heads off to bed, and so does Grim to join Stefan. Harmoniae also leaves.

Tension

2010-01-11T15:58:00.000-05:00

Jack: "You think we sold you out?"
Grimaulkin looks him in the eye. "Yes."

"You're our leader, not our mother." Grim to Raina.

Grim, being a mage, knows how they work. Grim doesn't trust them, especially mages who like to be "mysterious". Grim also knows that they use people. Grim, to be honest, is putting his own self on others. He's assuming all mages are like he was.

Grim is of the belief that the whole deal about Jack and Raina's children means that the group will be forced to fight in a war of the technomancer's making, that the technomancers will use them as cannon fodder. "We escaped that from John," Grim says.

Also, he's of the belief that the kids will be brainwashed by the technomancers. "When they get shown all the power and glory of being a technomancer, who wouldn't pick that?" He knows that they'll be taught by "teachers of our choice", but Grim doesn't trust them. They're mages, after all.

Jack takes Grim and Stefan aside and asks him if he has a problem with the decision they made. First, Grim doesn't like it that the team wasn't consulted about it. Second, Grim doesn't trust the mages. Third, Grim thinks kids "make people stupid." "So you think I'm stupid?" Jack thunders, and Grim wisely says nothing. Stefan tries to turn Grim away from this belief, especially after Grim says out of Jack's earshot: "They should get rid of them and start over. It's just an embryote." Stefan is disappointed in Grim and leaves.

Grim wanders, grumpy. Trip shows up to mostly talk to Unimpressed to let her know she's not alone. I park her to overhear some conversations.

A meeting is called, something about Petite, where the entire team would be involved in something big. Then, LeBeau hijacked the story and he and Mark take off to "rescue" her. I pull out both of my characters: Trip goes home, and Grim goes to the Pius. Stefan finds him, and says, "I'm not upset with you." Grim then explains why he says he hates kids so much: "My mother died for us." His mother gave up her career and her life to raise three kids, and he didn't realize it until much, much later - and by then it was too late. Kids don't care about anyone but themselves, he says - though Stefan counters that saying that they actually do and giving him an example.

However, LeBeau has him pegged as a hypocrite, and Grim certainly is. He says one thing, and does something else. Grim actually does like kids - older kids, kids that he can talk to. He doesn't like babies at all. Why? Because he feels they control any situation they're in and he hates being forced to do something. Just the idea of a child makes people immediately think with their emotions, he thinks, and they don't think clearly or logically. He doesn't realize it, but he does exactly that with Zach and Rorri, and a lot of the other people he considers "kids".

Stefan then says he'll talk to Jack, because he wants to find out the exact wording of the pact. Grim stays invisible in the background (though easily scented by Raina). Rusty comes over and really has a problem with their decision. "Do what you like. But don't say it's for US." Grim is inwardly cheering, because he believes that (see first reason above). Rusty leaves, and Stefan grows angry. At who, Grim isn't sure, but it really is scary to feel an angry angel.

He calms down, and asks Raina for the exact wording of the pact. The technomancers will help them (Grim thinks, "Yeah, right") and the group will help the technomancers. The children will be exposed to technomancy by a teacher of Jack and Raina's choosing. It really isn't that bad, but Grim is too angry at them making a decision without discussing it that he can't see that. "This group is not theirs to give away," Grim says to Rusty quietly over the comm.

Then, something else occurs. It seems that an FBI agent had contacted Jack and told him he wanted Grim and Rusty to be turned over to him. Jack said no, of course. Then the agent offered something else: let him join the group and "infiltrate" them from the inside, to see what they're like. Jack said he'd ask the rest of the group. (Grim, of course, is thinking, "Well, you sacrificed us for your kids without asking, why don't you sign him up without asking?") Grim comes over and asks what's up. Stefan recaps. Grim wonders why they want him. "To stand trial." Grim isn't worried - he really didn't do much under John (kidnapping, attempted murder, murder) because his time there was brief. Now, if they wanted to look at his time in Nerva...and some of the time when he was a hero before going to Nerva...THEN there would be some interesting developments.

They go off that topic and back to the "You sold us out" argument. Grim tries to be more gentle to Raina. Raina thinks it was in their best interests to do these things. "Isn't that my job as a leader?"

"You're our leader, not our mother," Grim says. Leaders listen to what others have to say before making their decision. Leaders organize, and know what others' capabilities are so they can make the team more effective. That's how Grim leads - he figures out what everyone can do and lets them do it. He stands aside. Raina finally gets disgusted and leaves. Jack, though, is pensive. "...I'll talk to her."

Unimpressed comes along and points out that "This shows that you care."

Grim says, "I love them to pieces. I hate seeing them miserable like this."

"What do you want?"

"To know. To understand. And to teach it."

"What do you want for Jack and Raina?"

It takes him a while to answer this. "I want them to be happy."

"Then you should ask them what will make them happy and do it."

Grim ponders that, and then asks Stefan to go to bed. From now on, Stefan will go to bed with Grim, and if he gets called away, he'd wake him up to let him know.

The End of the Innocence

2010-01-10T09:36:00.002-05:00

Friday night was a blur. I introduced Harmoniae - the goddess Harmonia which is a rename of Mianji. She's a stunner, that's for sure. I'm proud of her.

She's also awesome in teams. The speed boost really helps. And I finally got a phantasm! That's another one of those "moves" that I've always wanted. The next one on the list is Lightning Rod.

LeBeau also came to Grim looking for help. This was certainly a first. Grim swallowed his animosity - thank you, Light - because the need to help overrode his hatred of the man. He used automatic writing to draw some Chinese ideograms that he could use on his sword to disguise their tech. Then he gave him a spell, and some runes so that they could disguise his own tech as well.

Saturday created the mysterious female character Symlin for Hollow Mechanae and got her to ten so she could create the SG. It'll be an SG in name only, as the group doesn't have an actual "base". (Symlin, by the way, is IRL an anti-diabetic medicine.) I'll be creating another character, a guy, a controller of some sort, I'm not sure what. I might rename Jack's ACME Storage, though it's cheaper and easier to just start over.

Saturday night drama

We haz it.

First, we've brought in a new person, Unimpressed (great name!) who was impressed by our base. Of course, she's a little odd. But then, she was pretty much locked in a closet for most of her life - literally. She said she saw something in the magic room, and Grim and Stefan went to check it out. At the observation deck, she barfed all over the railing. Grim got her down, and she later admitted that she had seen her dad's face in the circle. Grim promised to do a thorough cleansing of the magic room.

In the meantime, Rusty came over and asked Grim if it was true Jack mindwiped Matthew. Grim admitted it. Rusty didn't like that: "We're changing people to be what WE want." Grim, of course, wasn't there at the time it happened (Bladeless was, however, and he wouldn't have seen the problem with it), being in California. Rusty would have probably tried to stop it - Grim, I'm not so sure. Rusty suspects that the soul that's in Matthew probably isn't the same one that was in Matthew in the first place. Grim wonders about that and may just take Rusty up on that idea and check Matthew out. In fact, I think Grim should find in the Pius how to check people out.

They went to the Grotto. There, something was going on with Petite. From what I gathered, Vizir was going to start singing like a canary about Petite's involvement in some unsavory activities. Morgan - a new fae - said that she could go back in time and erase her existence from that time. Grim, at first, was intrigued in trying a spell no one had tried before, but as he thought about it, he didn't care much for the idea. There's a few things that Grim won't muck with, and one of those is time. He can - though he doesn't know it yet - astrally project himself backwards and forwards in time to observe, but he can't affect anything there. And, mind you, time is not linear, so what he sees right now could change at any second. He sees one path, not all paths. He talked them out of it, and instead Jade Naja went to the Vanguard base to assassinate Vizir, but he was gone. Petite didn't want anyone to put themselves on the line for her, so she turned herself in.

Grim headed over to the showers, and saw Kalius in there. He went in, stripped down, and went to join him. Kalius warned him to leave, telling him, "You know what happens to me after a battle."

"Sure, you get horny."

Then Kalius threw him with his super strength against the wall, shoved his head into the wall and said, "No, you don't."

What proceeded mirrored a scene that I had written offline to shut my own muse up. I pretty much pegged most of it, except for the additional broken bones. I even got Kalius' reaction afterward.

Jack happened to come by, and peeked inside the shower to see both men naked on the floor, Grim a bloody crumpled heap and Kalius in tears trying to revive him. "I lost control," he kept saying, and Jack immediately stepped in to heal the worst of Grim's wounds. The bones reset to their proper place, and his punctured lungs filled with air. Stabilized, Jack telepathically carried him to medbay and healed him some more. Then he got LeBeau, who finished the job and wakes him up. Meanwhile Kal is a total wreck. He says it was his fault. Grim woke up and one of the first things he said was "This is all my fault." Raina took Kal out, while Jack talked to Grim. Grim explained that he thought he was helping Kalius feel better. Jack said that right now what Kal needs is space and time. "You have to let him go, Mike. You made your choice."

Kal then talks to Jack, and Jack offers the comm to Grim. Grim and Kal talk, and they both admit that it was both their faults. Grim says he'll give Kalius a wide berth, that he still loves him "as a comrade, a friend, and a brother in arms" which was what Kal loved him as before Dmitrius came back. Kal has changed since then. So has Grim, though Grim wouldn't admit it. Grim hangs up the comm, saddened that he has actually made things worse for Kal, and huddles in the medbay bed to sleep.

Angel Squad

2010-01-08T07:01:00.000-05:00

Nothing much to report from last night. I was exhausted so I had an early night of it. I meant to bring out Trip to meet LeBeau. Instead I played Harmoniae (Mianji renamed) with Stefan. He said if we add Marcus we could be the Angel Squad.

Adam joined us for a couple of missions, then I noticed I was nodding off in the middle of the missions. That's bad. Tonight and this weekend should be better. We'll work on getting Stefan his levels. He wants to be ready for the ITF.

Shadows

2010-01-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

Grim met up with Kalius in the library on Tuesday night. Kal was looking for two spells: One to have Grim no longer be a servant of Aphrodite, and the other to separate his soul from Kevin's body to release Kevin. He didn't give a timeline, so Grim took that to mean he could take as long as he wanted to do it. And the second one, Grim already knows spells that do that. However, Kalius didn't ask that.

Wednesday morning, Grim went to Timetripper to try and get her to kick LeBeau out. She said no. Story on Ascripta, and on the SG website.

Meanwhile, I pulled out Eule for some work. Eule, let's remember, works for Hero Corps and was hired by Grim early on to help Jack weed out people. Technically, he's not really needed any more, but he still needs to put his time in. He worked with Stefan and Rusty on some missions, and Raina signed on. She went nuts that he was from Hero Corps. Eule said he understood - a lot of people don't like or trust telepaths. (People don't understand the rules telepaths put themselves under.) He left the party, and Grim came on to check his email, to find a letter from Eule asking that he terminate the contract. Grim went nuts as well. He offers help, and has been rebuffed. So screw it, screw them, and if they want his help, they can ask for it. From now on Grim will offer once, and only once.

He goes off with Stefan, after being ignored by Raina, and beats up a few things to feel better. Then he asks to talk to Raina, but she says coldly, "After this" - to which he is not invited. Rebuffed again, he goes to get a drink.

The new kid shows up. His name is Adam but Grim will forget that after he leaves. He's a bartender, and he mixes Grim a drink, which he really enjoys. Rusty, who does not trust the ways of magic, joins them. They find out that Adam has the "gift" of being unnoticed, and being able to seemingly disappear. Right now, he only does it if he's threatened or scared. First Grim tries to get Rusty to intimidate Adam by being BIG RUSTY, but that didn't work. So Grim goes after Adam to hit him - and Grim is deceived to going to the wrong place, while he puts a force field on himself. Grim hits nothing. Adam says he wants to control his powers and then go back to a real life - Grim suggests that maybe he take up spying. Adam seems to like that idea.

They go back to the Grotto, and Stefan arrives to tell him Raina's on her way. Raina comes in. Raina basically tells Grim the same thing Trip did - that LeBeau came to them for help without actually realizing that he needed help. She says, "Did you know that he's been studying in the library to try and combine his abilities with yours?"

"Why the hell didn't he ask?"

"Maybe he thought you wouldn't listen."

"He needs to listen, too."

It's basically resolved that maybe the two of them should have a sit-down. However, Raina thinks Grim hates LeBeau so much that it wouldn't help matters. Grim hates what LeBeau symbolizes, and hates that he's an arrogant son of a bitch about it, and he's jealous of LeBeau's powers.

Then Raina asks after Kalius. Grim tells her he wants to separate his soul from Kevin's body, and tells her what I mentioned above. "I thought he'd be stronger," Raina says. "You endured..." Grim makes excuses for Kalius. Raina continues, "He doesn't want to be anyone's shadow. It was alright for you to be his shadow..."

Grim says that maybe he needs to do what Kalius wants as part of his own atonement. Raina says, "If it comes to that...you shouldn't carry that burden." They walk out of the grotto, and there's Kal, on the other side of the wall. He had heard everything.

"Can I talk to you alone?" Kal asks.

"Sure."

They head upstairs, to what had been their bedroom. Stefan is already there, however, and Grim puts his hand on Kal's arm to stop him from opening the door. "He's in there, isn't he?"

"Yes," Grim says, knowing he can't lie. The look of hurt that passes over Kal's face breaks Grim's heart.

Grim takes Kalius into Stefan's old room so they can talk. That hurts Kal, too. Kal says, "Did it hurt you as much as it hurts me?"

Grim says he could tolerate it most of the time, but, "When you talked about Dimitrius as we lay together, yeah, it hurt."

Kal never realized it. Grim says he only wanted to make Kal happy. Kal apologizes that he didn't mean to hurt Grim so much, and he makes the decision that he's not going to abandon the team, his unit. "I never did it before, and I'm not going to start now." Grim is very happy about that. He reassures Kal that if ever wants company, that he would be more than willing. Kal still doesn't understand how Grim can do that.

Then Grim parts, saying, "I love you, Kal."

Kal replies, "I do too. But not in the way I thought."

Kal then goes to talk to Jack, and player evesdrops until Mobius catches up.

The next morning, Eule resigns his commission, and Grim goes to buy a Blackberry...

The Decision

2010-01-05T08:40:00.000-05:00

"I'm not perfect enough for you." Kalius to Grim.
"I'm going to take my time killing you, Grim." LeBeau.

Grim, depressed as normal, finally confesses to Stefan that if Kal didn't show up that night, he would make the decision to get that arrow out of his chest. Kal did sign on.

Grim tells him his decision, and explains his reasoning. "I can't give you what you want." Kalius wants him to be all his. Grim can't do it, not anymore.

Finally, Kal storms away, and sees Stefan at the other end of the grotto. He walks up to him and slugs him in the face. "I hope you're happy."

Stefan wipes the blood away and says, "No...are you?"

"No, but it makes me feel better."

Then Stefan tries to explain. Kal says, "Is monogamy so bad? To not want my lover to sleep around? I want him to think of me, to fight by my side to the death."

Stefan says he would do that, not just for him, but for everyone there. Stefan then asks, "What about what Grim wants?"

Grim pays close attention to this answer. Kalius doesn't seem to answer it. He leaves, shutting off his comm. Grim runs from the Grotto to his room, and Stefan comes up to try and comfort him. Grim feelsthat Kal was being selfish, not thinking of what he wanted, but only what Kal wanted. That doesn't mean he loves him any less.

Finally, Grim calms down enough and got up to get the ring. He puts it on Stefan's finger and suddenly the arrow turns real, blood spreading across the fabric of his armor. Stefan guides Grim to the floor as Rusty walks in. "Hey, Rusty."

"You've been shot. You should go to medbay."

Meanwhile Stefan slowly pulls out the arrow, while Rusty admonishes, "You should do that in medbay. There could be the possibility of infection. Did you even wash your hands?" (Player loves Rusty.)

Stefan heals him with divine fire, and Grim passes out. Stefan puts him in bed and Mark comes in. They talk Stefan into trying to see Kalius, which he does but returns saying that Raina and Jack are talking to him and he didn't want to disturb them. Grim goes to medbay to get checked out. Raina arrives, and she's frustrated. "I should have gone right for her instead of her messenger," she snarls.

Grim comes out of medbay, and LeBeau is hemming and hawing with his usual drama. Grim, back to normal, offers to rent an arena for a bigger audience for LeBeau. Then LeBeau tells Raina she's pregnant. With twins. And one's a technomancer.

Grim and Jack go ballistic. Jack, in his usual calm manner of generating enough power, and Grim swearing up a storm and ready to hit things. Grim, being the helpful guy that he is, offers to kill it. (Remember, he hates, hates, HATES babies.) LeBeau says one might be his or Kell's, and that just makes things a hundred times worse. The front desk is the only thing standing in the way of Grim vaulting over and killing him - which he so would have done if Raina had not reminded him of Kal's issues. Grim mutters, walks away. Marcus then tells him he has to guard both children and Grim doesn't believe he should - "One's not natural."

Jack meanwhile is undeniably upset. Jack leaves, and communicates with Grim saying that he should get LeBeau's stuff and get him out before he gets home or he's going to kill him. Grim goes into LeBeau's room - the wards hit him, but he ignores them - and he packs everything. Then he throws it at LeBeau's feet and tells him to "Get out."

"Not happening," LeBeau says.

"Your funeral," replies Grim and walks away. He goes into the other room, sits on the couch. Stefan sits with him and pulls him into a hug. Finally Grim breaks down. He's so distraught, so upset, so helpless and angry, that all he can do is cry in frustration.

Then, suddenly, LeBeau appears and throws a shadow bolt at Grim, yelling "Fuck you!" Grim gets it full force, and ends up tumbling over the couch. Stefan vaults over to see to him, and Grim is merely singed and stunned. They chase LeBeau to the medbay, where he's talking to Jack. Stefan and Grim are both ready to kill, and Jack calmly says, "Stand down, gentlemen." He wants LeBeau to get off his chest everything about Jack he wants. So he talks. And talks. And talks...and Grim interjects every once in a while. And still he talks. Jack lets him finish, and tells him that he can stay. LeBeau goes running to Raina to talk to her. Grim can't believe Jack's letting him do it. However, Raina doesn't want to talk to Jack. Jack chooses to spend the night at his dad's. Stefan tries to reassure Jack that this is part of their relationship. Jack's too depressed. "She may not want me, but she can at least have her friend."

Jack goes to King's Row to his dad's. Grim and Stefan go to bed.

Meanwhile, a confused vampire is standing in a vacant lot, where there were once two warehouses...

2010-01-04T11:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't been able to keep with the blog. This is a really busy time of year for us at work, so I had to concentrate on that for the most part.

First: we have a site on guildportal, safehavens.guildportal.com.

Kal and Grim's vacation was mostly described in the story in AScripta. Thank you all for reading it, I hope you enjoyed it!

They went to the beach on the day after Christmas and Grim watched Kal surf, mostly because he liked him in the wetsuit. Kal kept falling in because he had lost most of the reflexes with his new memories.

The next day they went snowboarding. Grim was the one doing most of the snowboarding - well, falling down. Now, during the vacation, Grim kept going back to the base, mostly to see Stefan, a lot of times to check in. He missed the action, and felt that he was needed. Kal too his comm and crushed it because he kept going back. He had lied to Kal saying he was going to snowboard, and went to the base instead. Grim was in big trouble now, because he had lied to Kal.

Kal cut the vacation short and went home, pissed. Grim couldn't talk to him, and Kal told Grim that he couldn't trust him anymore because he was a liar. Grim knew that he was, and knew that he would be a constant liar. He walked away. Instead of going to Stefan for comfort, he went to the magic room and summoned a demon. He didn't have all the things he needed, didn't properly prepare himself, so the demon he summoned was weak. The more he chanted his request, the stronger he'd get. However, before he could do much, the doors were broken open and the team ran in. They tackled the demon - Stefan challenged the demon to him - and the rest of the team easily defeated it. Stefan, angry and hurt at Grim, left.

Marcus, meanwhile, put his soul into Grim and refused to let Grim go. He fills him with Light. Grim now knows the Book, its meaning, and what he's meant to do. He's full of pure Light. And he passes out. Marcus lies seemingly dead next to him.

Marcus's soul stays with Grim as they bring him to Medbay. Grim wakes up, with Marcus' prodding, and helps him get over the hump of now realizing what he is.

Here's what he can do:

Stun by blinding.
Summons light, which can manifest as anything he wishes. They're pretty harmless though (even though they're 3-slotted for damage...)
Punch things really hard. (He has some super strength, but no where near Kalius.)
Is denser and harder to knock down.
Has shields, which can encompass those next to him. These shields, when up, protect him against physical and mental attacks. Mental attacks are reflected back to the sender.
Summons souls, but they must be laid to rest when he's done.
Senses demonic entities. He doesn't have the urge to fight them, only to help them (but not to cause harm to others).
Continually has the desire to help any and all people who are hurt mentally or physically.
Flings white fire, which will no longer stick to something to burn them, but will only hurt them initially.
Becomes a ball of energy, "The Light" as Marcus calls it, but is immensely weakened and is initially disoriented when he returns to human form.
Heals at a distance.
Still able to generate calming energy and other energy to assist people, but no longer needs Kal to do it, though he thinks he does.
Can take energy from others and convert it into light or hold it in himself and dissipate it.
Is still able to summon protective circles around people.
No longer needs a circle to practice his own magic.
Still uses runes.
Can be in two places at the same time, but is not able to do actions in both places at the same time. He needs to be calm, still, and centered in one place in order to do actions in the other. Typically, he is in the cave with the Pius, reading the Book when his body is still.
Senses foreign objects, both magical and physical, in a person.
Physically, he's still weak, and will take hits when the shields aren't up. He heals instantly now, though.

What he can't do anymore:
Blind with darkness.
Open a portal to the Netherworld. Though he still knows the spells and can teach others.
Heal using a person's own energy.
Use fear or the Netherworld's energy to hold people down.
No longer able to call up tendrils.

(However, to explain the use of Defender-Grim for the ITF, we're going to say that his armor still allows him access to the Netherworld, and he's not comfortable using it and now finds it extremely distasteful.)

Okay, back to the story:

So Grim awakens with these new abilities which he'll learn to use as time goes on. In fact, he'll learn to use them very quickly.

Meanwhile, Kal is still not trusting Grim. Grim decides to prove his love by summoning Aphrodite, and pledging his service to her. In return, he asks that she keeps Hades at bay for as long as he loves him. She agrees, on one condition: That he can no longer lie to his lover. Any of them.

Grim finally tells Kal about Stefan. Kal is angry and tells him that he needs to make a choice. "I want you to be my one, my only, first and foremost, to give your life for me like I would for you." Grim doesn't feel he should be only for Kal - he loves too much, too easily, and now with the Light in him it's even worse. Kal refuses to share. "Not this," Kal says, and storms out.

Grim stays in the training room, stewing. He doesn't understand why Kal can't accept his choice, when he had accepted Kal's choice back when he still loved Dmitrius. Grim feels like what Jack had mentioned a long time ago, he's Kal's Plan B. Grim walks out of the room and sees LeBeau teasing Raina. He walks up to LeBeau, grabs him by the scruff of his jacket, and punches him so hard he goes flying into the wall. "Don't touch her shit," he growls, and walks away.

LeBeau finds him curled up in a chair and asks him for a duel. Grim is burning with fury, and agrees. The two men go to the training room and get it on. LeBeau tears down some masonry, while Grim finds out that his offensive abilities aren't really that great. His shields hold, and he's able to slip out of this dimension, to the cave. He's also weakened and can't really hit LeBeau as well as he can in full form. They fight for a while, then LeBeau stands down. Grim also stands down and walks out.

Grim tries to talk to Kal again, but Kal refuses to budge. Kal packs his things and moves to another room on the far side of the dorm area. Grim goes to bed, but is visted by Anteros, the god of unrequited love. (See AScripta story.) Anteros shoots Grim with an arrow and basically tells him that he no longer loves anyone but Kal and Stefan, and won't be released from that until he chooses one of them. Grim tells everyone, and the longer it goes on, the more depressed he becomes. The only times he's happy is when Stefan or Kal are around - and Kal has gone off. Grim makes his decision - he realizes that Kal will not let him love anyone he chooses, but Stefan will. Stefan will even allow Grim to love Kal as he has - though Kal has to be the one to accept that.

Now, the problem is to get Kal and Stefan on at the same time...or, barring that, having Grim tell Kal his decision and then when Stefan signs on give him the ring, so we can get this stupid arrow out and things will go back to normal again.

Meanwhile, Grim has become quite the depressing character. He still flirts, but his heart isn't into it - it's a habit. A lot of us miss the old Grim, the player included.

Welcome to California

2009-12-24T08:28:00.000-05:00

"Glad to see there is such universal patience when I lose control." LeBeau to the team.

Grim and Kal arrived in California safely. Grim was able to contact the base via comm link (yay for super-interdimensional communications!) and caught himself on the tail end of a conversation between Mark and Jack. Mark was this close to getting the person who broke into his apartment, and they were going to try and find him/her that night. Mark said that whoever it is wants his research. Grim suggested he publish something, or give a lecture to draw them out. Mark thought that was a great idea and went to prepare it.

Brought out Bladeless. No takers.

Brought out Grim again. Created a quick and dirty AE to establish Kal and Grim's hotel room and the parent's house. Using the stuff from AScripta, we played out what happened after the first day. Meanwhile we overheard most of what was going on via the comm. Signed onto Bladeless to get as much of the story as we could.

In the magic room, contained in a magical barrier, was a little girl asleep. From what I could gather, this little girl was Mark's daughter, and he experimented on her. Stefan said that now that he knows this path, the future has changed - Grim would have said the same thing. They all went to the magic room and Bladeless was scared of Stefan. They reassured him he would be all right, so he came out cautiously. Jack then offered to show the girl's memories to Mark, but if he did that, Mark's beast would come to the fore. Raina said that her cat would take care of it.

Jack showed him the memories, and he changed. Bladeless stepped forward with the intent to hold him - but LeBeau teleported across the room and established a gravity field to hold him down - and everyone else. Bladeless tried to tackle him but he got caught inn the gravity field and crushed. Of course, that pissed him off.

Stefan had to blind LeBeau and then the gravity field dissipated. He got up slowly, grabbed LeBeau and hauled him up. LeBeau asked him to put him down, so Bladeless lifted him a little higher and threw him to the floor. "You're down." Then he advanced on him, saying, "I don't like to be hurt." Raina told him to stop.

LeBeau had "lost control of the tech" and felt badly about it. Bladeless was ready to kill him, "I can snap his back like a twig." Jack was in better control, telling him the best thing for him to do would be to get on the first flight out of here. LeBeau takes off. Soon after, so does Jack, and Bladeless.