Drunkard's Walk Forums

First off, I just want to say that this is ALL YOUR FAULT! Yes, you, who keep writing these wonderful Tales, and have made my muse drag me kicking and
screaming into writing this.

Secondly, this has not been proofed, and is, most like, riddled with errors. Especially tense errors. I've never, ever, gotten the hang of those, and this
being written in but an hour and a half, its probably rife with them.

Anywhen.....

Tales of the Legendary: Duty to the Innocent

Its been a couple of months since then, but I can still remember it pretty well.

It was a normal day at Uni for me, my friends and I had just gotten out of Rethinking Philosophical Connections (an unfortunate requirement for my English
major), and were heading towards lunch at the cafeteria. Maria and Jennifer were laughing about one of the questions James (who was slinking behind us,
mumbling something to Rick) had answered in class.

My hearing wasn't as good as some (Hell, Space and Reyshal beat me on hearing tests hands down, pointy ears and all), but it was good enough to hear James
and Rick discussing bets... about my supposed Heroing career. This was something of a sore subject for me. For the two years I'd been going to Paragon U,
there'd been bets and gambling about 'Who' I was. Heroside, that is.

I'd registered by my birth name: Elizabeth Glorien Jr. (Why Junior, Mom? Really, couldn't I have been the 2nd or something completely different?)
Between that and my appearance had led to the school community deciding that I had to be a Hero of some sort and immediately betting pools started to pop up
regarding my Hero Name, powers, even what my costume was like (Some of the more perverted artists tried drawing me in a 'costume' once. Once Admin got
word of it he stopped. I'm pretty certain he never started again.)

Needless to say, I wasn't really happy about two of the people I actually considered friends discussing something I really wished didn't exist. When
confronted them about it, Maria and Jennifer stopped laughing and glared at the two, who just withered and admitted to joking about it themselves, but not
participating, either in bets or info. At that point I just put my hands on my hips and looked up into their eyes (it really, *really* sucks being stuck in a
13 year old body), and said, "I still don't get why everyone thinks I'm a Hero anyway. There's gotta be people out there affected by a spell,
or mutants, or genengineered that choose not ta go the Vig or Vil route. Stars Above, guys! Its pretty much statistically impossible f'r every possible
Hero to be one! Jeez." After that, I just turned away and started walking again.

The four of them had cringed from me and then followed. I still just about heard the lightbulb go off above Rick's head. "Hey, E," he called,
"You didn't just say that you *weren't* a Hero."

I had stopped and mentally smacked my head a few times. We had been standing on one of the covered bridges between buildings with a good view from the front
lawn down the streets all the way to Founder's Square (Some of the engineering students took potshots over this bridge when they did their yearly trebuchet
competition.)

Jennifer had been the first to see it, her head turning and her mouth opening in shock, the rest of us following her gaze to see a sight not welcomed on the
campus (or anywhere really): A full bore Zeus Malta Titan. This particular specimen had been chasing two Heroes, each of them noticeably unwounded, but still
running as fast as they could towards the Uni, as if trying to get the police drones to eliminate the Titan. It might even have worked, had not recent City
budget reshuffling had deemed the University Campus' as 'Low Risk Zones' and taken away all but a few of the drones, which were stationed at the
major entrances and exits to the campus. The Heroes (and the Titan following them), were running straight across the front lawn, bypassing the normal entry
points and well out of the range of the police drones.

If the Titan had gotten to the buildings, it was likely that it could not have identified Hero from student. A massacre could have occurred. At least,
that's how the press put the spin on it, after the fact.

At the time, I wasn't thinking in those terms. I just knew that the killing machine would reap a swath through my fellow students, Innocent of wronging it.
And I knew with every fiber of my being that it was my Duty to protect them.

I had gestured to my friends, and commanded them to stay down (I don't remember the exact words, the adrenaline had burst into my veins), then I
teleported, landing perhaps thirty feet forward on the ground, and about a hundred and fifty feet in front of the Titan. I gathered my Fire, and took aim with
my arm, fueling the blast recklessly with magic before I let it go.

A solid beam of ignited air linked us for a breath, then all was silent for a moment. The Titan's chest armor had been slagged, but from what I knew of
them, it was far from dead. One of the Heroes took aim with her rifle and let off a short burst, the other fell to the ground and activated his Emergency
Medical Recall. I don't remember what the rifle-girl did after that, I was focused too much on the Titan itself.

As it raised its arms to fire at me, I teleported again, landing behind it. I focused my Ice, and touched the machine's feet, causing a cascade of ice to
form around them, encasing them in shards of ice and freezing it to the ground. As the Titan pivoted its upper half on its torso to attack me, again I
teleported, this time to its side, so that it's weaponry would be facing directly away from me. A quickly gathered and released blast of fire hit the back
of its head, not doing more than heating the armor there to a brilliant cherry red, before I teleported one final time, some fifteen feet above it.

As I hung in the air for a moment, I saw it pivoting around again, obviously searching for me. When the last of my spell let me drop, I positioned my hands and
formed my favorite weapon.

The spear of ice impacted directly on the heated metal behind the Titan's head, and with my own weight and strength behind it, shattered the armor there.
The spear kept going, deep into the machine's more delicate components. When I had judged that the point was in the middle of its torso, I sent another
focused burst of magic down the spear.

I'm told that from an outside view, my final attack appeared as if I had dropped out of the sky with my spear in my hands, impaled the Titan cleanly, then
caused the tip of the spear to explode in all directions, piercing the machine like it had swallowed a porcupine of ice.

At that point, my feet touched down on the Titan's back, and through my shoes I could feel the inner workings of it cease the hum of its electronics
breaking up, the whir of its machinery slow and halt.

And, as anyone knows, that's when the real pandemonium began.

If I ever feel like reliving that abominable circus again, I'll write it down, but for now I'll close this little tale. I know it isn't really
required for members to put their experiences on file at the base, and I doubt anyone really reads them over, anyway (I mean, who would really believe that
Space Mage can get her best powers from Myspace?)

But on the subject of Space, I'm stealing her little title, as so many others have done. This is just my little tale of the Duty that calls me, and that
called me back to being a Hero.

* * * * *

So, the way I see it, Brahela, the writer here, sees the repository of stories by other members of the Legendary as sort of a mission and joining summaries.
and doesn't quite understand why others would read them for entertainment. Meta-gaming wise, its my little way of rationalizing where all these stories are
going to, in game. Lora'lai likely has a small section of the computers set up to archive these as a sort of 'Living History' of the Legendary.

Of course, that's how I see it. Bob, Logan, feel free to reprimand and state the truth of the matter if you feel nessesary.

Reprimand? Moi? Gods forbid I get on anyone's case for being creative in the way they choose.

A good story is a good story. Regardless.

And that was a good story.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Muhaha, now you must write more!
-ahem- sorry did that come out wrong?
Good stuff. I certainly never gave thought to how annoying it would be to be known as 'super' when trying to maintain a distinct civilian identity.
I'm assuming that Brahela did some heroing before deciding it wasn't the life for her, for whatever reason?

minor nit pick:

Quote:"You didn't just say that you *weren't* a Hero."

doesn't parse right for me. My brain keeps flip flopping between:
A) "You never said you *weren't* a Hero." - more a statement of fact
B) "Didn't you just say that you *weren't* a hero." - more a question than a statement
At least that's how I read it. But then again I have been known to have strange mental parse trees.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Quote:doesn't parse right for me. My brain keeps flip flopping between:

No, it doesn't, but then, its a Philosophy Major speaking there, and he has a weird way of talking. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

And yes, Brahela did some heroing before. She started out with http://drogan.florestica.com/coh/purpose.htm]Purpose, and was introduced to the Legendary in http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/2244]Moving On, which also explains why she wasn't out active at the time. Eva was able to convince her to return to the Heroing trade.

What did you think about the idea that all the 'Tales' we have here are the ingame reports stored on the base computers, though?

Quote: What did you think about the idea that all the 'Tales' we have here are the ingame reports stored on the base computers, though?

Well, *I* like it, kinda. I mean, as meta-references go, it's pretty good. I'm not sure how literally I would interpret that, though.
Emphasis on the *I*, of course.

I've always assumed that the forums here kinda-sorta represent the Legendary master computer network, as passed through a reality-to-fantasy filter of some
sort. In-universe, if I were a Legendary member, I imagine it would read like a log or battle report. My recent submission, for example, would (to me) read
more like this were I standing at a terminal in the Command Center.

"Evangelia, 4/20/08: encountered 'Emerald Blast' while apprehending villains attempting armored car heist. E.B. accompanied me on cleanup duty
and was recruited shortly after. Personal note: don't touch her cat!"

The gist of the story is there, but that's not what I submitted here in RL. See what I mean?

But that's getting nit-picky, I suppose. For me, if I refer to them at all, it'll probably be an off-hand remark about the 'battle report you
logged yesterday' or something like that.

(I guess what it boils down to is I just can't imagine Emerald Blast, for example, typing up a *story*. She'll cheerfully fill out forms -- hell,
she'll cheerfully have her teeth drilled without anesthesia -- but writing a story about her day-to-day adventures just isn't *her*. Might be --
probably is -- different for other characters, about whom I have no say. )

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Who says the Legendary members are "typing up a *story*"?

Why can't all this be done through small video cameras? Perhaps as part of their "costume crystals"? I mean, they need evidence to jail the
people they're arresting right? Why not have it being taped automatically?

... well, I hadn't thought of that angle, that's why.

I think the base AI (every supergroup has one, right?) would have to edit the logs, though -- using my own play as an example, we'd run out of storage
space right quick with 3000 hours of standing around talking on the radio...

And hey, that'd explain how pictures and such show up for the nightly news, even down in the sewers or other deadly places where nobody except loony heroes
ventures.

Seriously, though? Cool idea. Wish I'd thought of it. For the record, I wasn't against the previous idea -- it just didn't seem to fit, is all,
without substantial alteration. This fits much better. In my opinion, your mileage may vary, void where prohibited, etc.

(Oh, and: Great. For some reason, I just had a flash image of a mutant giant turtle TV news reporter named 'Candid Gamera', following heroes around
all the time. My eyes!)

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Candid GameraGah.

If only you could do turtle shells in the character editor, though...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I dunno. I may see if I can find the Frog King again, ask him to build it and tell me what the settings are.

If you haven't seen him... well, let's just say that I mistook him for someone's *pet*, and thought to myself, "Hey, when did they add pet
frogs to the game?" for several minutes before he said something.

At which point I realized that, yes, that IS a player, and my god, that's the best costume I've *ever* seen. He really looked like a frog. Part of
that was emote usage, sure, but the HEAD looked like a frog's head, fer cryin' out loud.

Simply amazing.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Off-topic, responding to Sofaspud. If this frog head is the trick I think it is, you can't make it with a male body anymore. Disabled for clipping reasons.

But here's what you do. Use a green hood with a black face (sightless or bonehead). Add an assassin mask as detail 2 at this point, in red. Eyes are done by using a set of bunny/cat ears in black. Then you gotta tweak sliders extensively to get the right shape. Like I said, no longer possible since the ear options are locked out on hooded heads now. However, there's an old legacy costume option under Detail 1 for females, Cat Ears.



Here's a rush job I just made. Note, I'm not taking credit for the idea, just the execution. =)

Now, responding on-topic... I like the idea of there being some kinda actual record of what we've had going in the stories, in-universe, be it written or visual. Living history that's more than just dry after-action reports sounds very cool. The name 'Tales of the Legendary' could
very well mean something in-universe, given folks like Space and
Evangelia might be whimsical enough to actually use it.Also, I really can't claim credit for the name. That Space Mage story was the
first to use 'Tales of the Legendary' in the title of a full story yes, but
the original use was by Bob, for an Evangelia snippet.

Anyway, regarding this story...I really like the notion of someone with an
obviously...well, non-normal physique, shall we say, having to deal
with everyone assuming she has super-powers and fights crime. I do
remember poor Brahela - the 'permanently stuck at 13 years old' thing
tends to be memorable, and just emphasises her frustration.
-- Acyl

That's so very close to what I saw that I'm sure you've nailed the process, Acyl. It *was* a male bodytype, though -- which simply means it's
been around for a while, heh.

This is the sort of creativity that makes me shake my head in wonder. Howinhell do they even think to TRY that in the first place? Amazing.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs