Dr Archeville

I believe the consensus here is that, when you use Artificer/Inventor/Ritualist, you make Powers, not Devices. They're already a temporary thing, so they shouldn't benefit from the Device discount. (We've gone back and forth on it some over the years; Kenson said this when I asked him.) I'll leave it up to SC.

Looks good overall, though there is one thing sticking out at me: We've ruled that it's a 0-cost change to flip the duration of Sustained powers so that they're on by default and it's a Free Action to turn them off. You could do the same with this, without needing that Benefit. Something like Drain Constitution 2 (irradiate!; Extras: Aura, Duration 2 [sustained*]; PFs: Insidious, Slow Fade 6 [1 day], Subtle) [15PP] * Note: Duration is reversed (a +0 Extra). It is an active sustained effect for him to not irradiate/Drain Con from others, and if unable to sustain the power, he emits Con-Draining radiation. [b]Drain Constitution 2 ([/b]irradiate!; [i]Extras:[/i] Aura, Duration 2 [Sustained*]; [i]PFs:[/i] Insidious, Slow Fade 6 [1 day], Subtle[b])[/b] [15PP] [list]* Note: Duration is reversed (a +0 Extra). It is an active sustained effect for him to not irradiate/Drain Con from others, and if unable to sustain the power, he emits Con-Draining radiation.[/list]

Doktor Archeville's long-referenced, seldom-seen nemeses!

I'm still playing (both my guys are around 27), and would be be down for joining a team.

Science!: Sonic Powers Comics Examples: Angar the Screamer/Scream, Black Bolt, Black Canary, The Doctor (Sonic Screwdriver), Fiddler, Klaw, (Pied) Piper, Screaming Mimi/Songbird, Sonar, Tyroc, Virtuoso FC Examples: Coda, Erinyes/Furies Three, Fear Master (II), Maestro, Mary Minstrel, Rant, Silencer, Siren (I), Sonic. Gabriel, Rift, Wail. (quotemyname has said Breakdown is a vibrations, not sonic.) Tropes: Make Me Wanna Shout Captain Jack Harkness: Okay, this can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and a triple and full sonic disruptor. Doc, what you got? The (9th) Doctor: I've got a sonic... errr, never mind. Captain Jack Harkness: What? The Doctor: It's sonic, okay, let's leave it at that. Captain Jack Harkness: Disruptor? Cannon? What? The Doctor: It's sonic, totally sonic, I am soniced up! Captain Jack Harkness: A sonic what? The Doctor: Screwdriver! Captain Jack Harkness: Who has a sonic screwdriver? The Doctor: I do! Captain Jack Harkness: Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks "Oooh, this could be a little more sonic"? The Doctor: What? You never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up? --from the Doctor Who episode, "The Doctor Dances" Generally speaking, sound falls into three categories: sound that's audible to the human ear; ultrasound (frequencies too high for the human ear to hear unaided); and infrasound (frequencies too low for the human ear to hear unaided). The upper limit of the human ear is about 20,000 Hertz (20 kiloHertz); the lower limit about 20 Hertz. These limits exist because the middle ear serves as a filter; if sound contacts the skull bone and cochlea without having to pass through the middle ear, a human can hear frequencies up to about 50 kHz. Younger people can often hear sounds of higher frequency than older people, since the ability to hear deteriorates with age; some shopping districts in the United Kingdom have reportedly used ultrasonic devices to discourage teenagers from lingering in the area, since they can hear -- and be discomforted by -- the ultrasonic sound but older customers cannot. Many animals (such as dogs, bats, dolphins, various rodents, and some insects) can hear higher frequencies than humans. Loudness (Volume) Sound is rated in deciBels (dB). (Technically, deciBels are used to measure the effective sound pressure, the local pressure deviation from the ambient average atmospheric pressure caused by a sound wave.) It becomes painful to humans in the 120-130 dB range, and sustained exposure to sound as low as 90-95 deciBels can cause hearing loss. The deciBel scale is logarithmic: for every 10 dB, the energy involved goes up by a factor of 10. This sounds simple, but increases exponentially fast: a sound of 140dB is ten times as powerful as a sound of 130db, but a hundred times more powerful than a sound of 120dB, 100,000 times more powerful than a sound of 90dB, and 1,000,000,000 times more powerful than a sound of 50dB. The accompanying Decibel Table has a list of some common sources of noise rated in their average deciBels, for purposes of comparison. DeciBel Situation/ Level Source Of Sound 0 Faintest possible perceptible sound 10 Quiet recording studio 20-30 Quiet living room or office 40 Quiet conversation 50 Average living room or office 60 Average conversational speech 70 Normal piano music, a small orchestra 80 Typical home stereo listening level; a busy street; telephone dial tone 90 Heavy truck traffic; train whistle 500 feet away. Prolonged exposure can cause hearing loss 100 A subway; most musical instruments are in the 85-115 dB range 110 Typical power tools; lawnmower 120 Amplifier at full volume; planes on an airport runway; a cymbal crash; a jackhammer. At this level, sound becomes physically painful. 130 Threshold of pain for humans; pneumatic riveter 140 Loud rock concert. Short term exposure can cause hearing loss due to eardrum rupture. 150 Drums or trumpets played at full volume 5-6 inches away 160 A jet engine (close up) 165 Air begins to heat up due to compression 180 Hearing tissue is killed 194 Loudest non-distorted sound possible; above this, sound waves act like shock waves 200 Epicenter of a 1.0 earthquake. This level of sound can kill a human. 212 Sonic boom from jet 220 Saturn V Rocket launch 230 Epicenter of a 4.0 earthquake 240 F5 tornado 250 Thunderclap 257 A 1 megaton nuclear bomb 286 Mount St. Helens 1980 explosion 302 Tunguska event (estimated) Ultrasound Ultrasound (or ultrasonics; sound that is higher in frequency than 20 kHz) is used for a wide variety of applications. Ultrasound sensors can reveal a wide range of medical problems without the need for invasive surgery, and can help track the progress of pregnancies. Sonar uses some ultrasound, which allows for very precise close-up measurements of range but doesn't work as well as audible sound over long distances. Ultrasonics can clean jewelry, lenses, and the like, be used to find flaws in industrial materials, help to speed up or initiate certain chemical processes, humidify the air and administer inhaled medications (via nebulization), and can disintegrate cells and bacteria (for example, ultrasound is sometimes used to sterilize sewage). In game terms, characters with the ultra-hearing super-sense (usually defined as belonging to the Hearing Group) can perceive the full range of ultrasound. Even though normal humans can't hear it, ultrasound can still affect the mind (the "hypersonic effect"). Infrasound Infrasound (or infrasonics; sound that is lower in frequency than 20 Hz) also has many uses. Seismographs use this range of sound to detect earthquakes. (Infrasound can also result naturally from volcanoes, meteors, tornadoes, waves, and avalanches.) Because nuclear and chemical explosions can generate infrasound, agencies who monitor for such things use infrasonic detection devices. Many animals have the ability to perceive infrasound on some level. Because they can sense the advancing infrasonic wave from an impending disaster (like an earthquake or tidal wave), they know to flee the area long before humans are aware of any problem. Some animals (including whales, giraffes, elephants, rhinoceri, alligators, and hippopotami) use infrasound to communicate -- infrasound can cover long distances and travel around obstacles with relatively little dissipation. Experiments have shown that exposure to infrasound can induce feeling of anxiety, uneasiness, extreme sorrow, nervous feelings of revulsion or fear, as well as chills down the spine and feelings of pressure on the chest. (Some older reports go so far as to claim infrasound can induce nausea and vomiting -- the "Brown Note" -- though modern experts question this, primarily because air is a poor conductor of low-frequency sound.) Some scientists suggest that ambient infrasound may explain some hauntings or similar "supernatural" phenomena -- in addition to the feelings mention previously, infrasonic sounds at the proper frequency (around 18-19 Hz) can cause the human eyeball to resonate, generating visual distortions (such as seeing indistinct blobs out of the corner of one's eye). In game terms, the ultra-hearing super-sense allows characters to perceive the full range of infrasound. Sonic Weapons Researchers have experimented with the use of sound as a weapon. The most blatant and crude sonic weapons simply use intensely loud audible sound to rupture victims' eardrums, cause pain, or possibly induce vertigo, but many more sophisticated or less obvious uses might be possible: infrasonic shock waves can knock people over and injure them infrasonic sound can cause feelings of mild nervousness and discomfort (and possibly nausea) in groups, making it easy to disperse crowds nonviolently high-decibel ultrasound can cause headaches, feelings of nausea, confusion, vertigo, and similar symptoms with no visible cause infrasound in sufficient volume can shake buildings and rupture internal organs in some cases infrasound can vibrate the eyeballs, causing distortion of vision Some sonic weapons are designed for direct, offensive use, while others are more passive/defensive. For example, a "sonic barrier" might keep people out of secured areas by making them feel sick and dizzy when they try to cross it. Some sonic weapons can even penetrate buildings to affect the occupants (in M&M terms, they're Indirect). Sound requires a medium to propagate through -- typically air or water, but it could be a solid substance, an acid, or the like. Thus, in the vacuum of space, Sonic powers generally don't work. This could be represented with a Power Loss (Does Not Work In A Vacuum) Drawback (which is really a shorthand way of saying "doesn't work in any situation where there's no medium for sound waves to propagate through"). However, since FC PbP's adventures are mostly on Earth, in urban areas, characters are rarely exposed to vacuum or similar situations, so such a limitation is treated as a Complication. The speed of sound depends on the medium the waves pass through, and is a fundamental property of the material. In general, the speed of sound is proportional to the square root of the ratio of the stiffness of the medium to its density. Those physical properties and the speed of sound change with ambient conditions. For example, the speed of sound in gases depends on temperature. In 20 oC (68 oF) air at the sea level, the speed of sound is approximately 343 m/s (1,230 km/h, or 767 mph). In fresh water, also at 20 oC, the speed of sound is approximately 1,482 m/s (5,335 km/h, or 3,315 mph). In steel, the speed of sound is about 5,960 m/s (21,460 km/h, or 13,330 mph). Related to this is Mach number, the speed of an object moving through air (or any other fluid substance) divided by the speed of sound as it is in that substance for its particular physical conditions (including those of temperature and pressure). Subsonic speeds are anything below Mach 1.0, Mach 1 is sonic, and Mach 0.8-1.2 is called transonic. Mach 1.2-5 is supersonic, and Mach 5-10 is hypersonic; anything above Mach 10 is high-hypersonic. Most modern fighter aircraft are supersonic, but there have been supersonic passenger aircraft; most modern firearm bullets are supersonic, with rifle projectiles often travelling at speeds approaching and in some cases largely exceeding Mach 3. A sonic boom is the sound associated with the shock waves created by the supersonic flight of an aircraft. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding much like an explosion. (The crack of a bullet passing overhead at supersonic speeds is an example of a sonic boom in miniature, as is the crack of a bullwhip.) When an object passes through the air, it creates a series of pressure waves in front of it and behind it, similar to the bow and stern waves created by a boat in water. These waves travel at the speed of sound, and as the speed of the object increases, the waves are forced together/compressed, eventually merging into a single shock wave at the speed of sound. In smooth flight, the shock wave starts at the nose of the aircraft and ends at the tail; because directions around the aircraft's direction of travel are equivalent, the shock forms a Mach cone behind the craft, with the aircraft at its tip. There is a rise in pressure at the nose, decreasing steadily to a negative pressure at the tail, followed by a sudden return to normal pressure after the object passes; this "overpressure profile" is known as an N-wave because of its shape. The "boom" is experienced when there is a sudden change in pressure, so the N-wave causes two booms, one when the initial pressure rise from the nose hits, and another when the tail passes and the pressure suddenly returns to normal, leading to a distinctive "double boom" from supersonic aircraft. An observer hears the boom when the shock wave, on the edges of the cone, crosses their location. Since the boom is being generated continually as long as the aircraft is supersonic, it fills out a narrow path on the ground following the aircraft's flight path, like an unrolling red carpet, and hence known as the "boom carpet." An acoustic shadow is an area through which sound waves fail to propagate, due to topographical obstructions absorbing the sound or disruption or refraction of the waves via warm or rapidly moving layers/pockets of air; it is to sound what a mirage is to light. For example, at the Battle of Iuka, a northerly wind prevented General Ulysses S. Grant from hearing the sounds of battle (a mere six miles away) and so he kept his two divisions of Union soldiers out of the battle. Many other instances of acoustic shadowing were prevalent during the American Civil War, including the Battles of Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, Perryville and Five Forks; persons nearby would see the smoke and flashes of light but not the corresponding roar of battle, while those in more distant locations would hear the sounds distinctly yet see nothing. Related Abilities Thermal: Thermoacoustics, a relatively new field of science and engineering, is about the interaction between thermodynamic and acoustic phenomena. (Per the Ideal Gas Law, a change in pressure or volume will cause a change in the temperature of a gas, and vice versa.) Thermoacoustic engines (sometimes called "TA engines") are thermoacoustic devices which use high-amplitude sound waves to pump heat from one place to another, or conversely use a heat difference to induce high-amplitude sound waves; a certain ice cream manufacturer has invested heavily into thermoacoustic coolers as they have fewer moving parts and do not use toxic refrigerant chemicals. Vibration: Since sonics involve vibrations, it's possible that a Sonic attack could be particularly "harmonious" (or disharmonious) with a Vibration defense, making it more (or less) effective; the same could apply in reverse. Sonic and Other Descriptors Silence: Silence/Auditory Obscures are totally impenetrable to hearing, and thus to sound. Characters can't hear into, out of, or through it, sound generated inside it by Illusions or other sources cannot be heard at all, a Dazzle that affects hearing can't penetrate it, and so forth. However, that doesn't mean Silence/Obscure stops all powers with a Sonic descriptor; just because it blocks ordinary sounds doesn't convert it into a "Drain/Nullify/stop all Sonic powers" ability. A Sonic attack, such as a Blast, will penetrate an Auditory Obscure to affect a target inside it. The GM can rule otherwise if desired, but Silence is not an absolute defense to Sonic powers (particularly those that can cause physical damage). Similarly, just putting something sound-muffling -- headphones, earmuffs, plugging ears with wax or cotton, or so on -- does not automatically stop a Sonic power. That could easily constitute shielding one's ears from a Sonic Sensory power (like an Auditory Dazzle), but if a Sonic attack has physical effects and can cause actual injury, it's not going to be stopped just because ordinary sound can't pass through some obstacle; damaging Sound is a far cry from normal sound. On the other hand, just because a defense is transparent to sound doesn't mean it offers no protection against Sonic attacks. Most Force Fields are not sound-muffling, but they still stop Sonic Damage attacks. Water: Sonic powers are particularly effective underwater; water conducts sound well (in fact, sound travels about 4.5 times faster in water than in air), so Sonic powers become more effective beneath the waves. ~~~OFFENSIVE/ATTACK EFFECT/POWERS~~~ Feedback: You can generate feedback, distortion, and opposing harmonics that distort, cancel out, and ruin other sounds. The effect is often temporary -- especially if whoever or whatever generated the opposing effect can easily create another sound -- but you can use this ability defensively to block (i.e., counter) incoming attacks if you times it right. Nullify (any one sonic effect at a time) [1pp/rank] Variant: Extreme Feedback: Your feedback and counterharmonics are so strong they can potentially nullify all sonic powers at once. Nullify (all sonic effects simultaneously) [2pp/rank] Infrasonic Dread: You can emit an infrasonic pulse that makes the target feel edgy, nervous, even fearful. Drain Charisma (Extra: Range [Ranged]) [2pp/rank] Paralyzing Roar: You can mimic the infrasonic roar of a tiger to paralyze your foes. Paralyze (Extra: Area [Cone, General]) [3p/rank] Psychoacoustics: You can generate infrasonic waves that can cause intense feelings of fear, anxiety, dread, unease, revulsion, sorrow, and nervousness. The somewhat limited range of emotions isn't sufficient for a power flaw; it's just in-line with the power's descriptors. Emotion Control [1pp/rank] Quiet Zone: Your control of sound allows you to cancel out all sound within a certain radius. In that area, no one can speak, play music, or otherwise generate sound, nor can they hear sounds created outside the area. Obscure (auditory) [1pp/rank] Variant: Personal Quiet Zone: You can create a zone of silence only around yourself, though you remains able to hear. Add Immunity 1 (own powers) [+1PP] and the Range [Touch] flaw [-1pp/rank; 1pp/2 ranks total] Variant: The Sounds of Silence: You control sound so precisely that you can hear sounds from within or without the zone. Add Immunity 1 (own powers) [+1PP] Variant: This Is Not Bat Country: You can cancel out ultrasonic sounds, making the echolocation abilities of bats (and certain metahumans) useless, without interfering with regular sounds. Obscure (auditory; Flaw: Limited to One Sense [ultrasonics]) [1pp/2 ranks] Variant: What Did You Say?: Instead of creating a zone in which sound cannot propagate at all, you create a zone that interferes with the transmission of sound, making it difficult (but not impossible) for anyone inside the zone to hear. add Limited [partial concealment] flaw [-1pp/rank; 1pp/2 ranks total] Shriek: You can project a beam of sound so loud that it temporarily deafens whomever it hits. Dazzle Auditory [1pp/rank] Variant: Deafening the Crowd I: Your shriek can deafen multiple people in the chosen area. add Area [burst, General] extra. [+1pp/rank; 2pp/rank total] Variant: Deafening the Crowd II: Your shriek can deafen multiple people before you. add Area [Cone, General] extra and Range [touch] flaw. [+0pp/rank; 1pp/rank total] Siren Song: You can create sounds so haunting, they are hypnotic. You delivers your orders to the victim by words in the sounds (singing or the like). Mind Control (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [auditory]) [1pp/rank] Variant: Group Song: Anyone in earshot can be swayed by your words. add Area [burst] extra. [+1pp/rank; 2pp/rank total] Solid Sound: You have the ability to create constructs out of soundwaves so densely packed that they're effectively solid. If you create chains or a wall of sound, it can stop people from moving; if you creates a sound-tiger, it can hurt people with its sound-claws. The only restriction on the power is that you cannot create sound-constructs in areas where sound cannot propagate (such as vacuums), or have them move through such areas. Create Object [2pp/rank] ~and/or~ Summon [2pp/rank] Sonic Blast: You can project a beam of focused sound capable of inflicting serious damage. Blast [2pp/rank] Variant: Deafening Blast: You blast not only inflicts damage, it temporarily deafens the target. add Linked Dazzle Auditory (Extra: Linked [blast]) [+1pp/rank; 2pp/rank total] Variant: Shattering Blast: Your power works especially well against rigid, nonliving matter, such as glass, walls, and metal armor (as worn by people or as makes up the skin of robots). add Linked Drain Toughness (Extras: Affects Objects, Range [Ranged]; Flaws: Limited [rigid objects & constructs only]) [+2pp/rank; 4pp/rank total] Variant: Sonic Bomb: Your Sonic Blast affects everyone in a large area, though the effect diminishes away from the center. add Explosion extra [+1pp/rank; 3pp/rank total] Variant: Vertigo Blast I: You blast not only inflicts damage, it temporarily dizzies the target. add Linked Drain Dexterity (Extras: Linked [blast], Range [Ranged]) [+2pp/rank; 4pp/rank total] Variant: Vertigo Blast II: You blast not only inflicts damage, it temporarily dizzies the target. add Linked Nauseate (Extras: Linked [blast], Range [Ranged]) [+3pp/rank; 5pp/rank total] Sonic Cone: You can project a cone of focused sound, immediately in front of you, capable of inflicting serious damage. Strike (Extra: Area [Cone, General]) [2pp/rank] Sonic Discomfiture: You emit a combination of sound that induces feelings of nausea and sickness. After sufficient exposure, targets may vomit, lose control of their bowels, or suffer similarly unpleasant physical effects. Nauseate (Extras: Range [Ranged]) [3pp/rank] Sound Manipulation: You can create fictitious sounds -- a conversation taking place where there's no one, footfalls approaching from behind, or whatever else you want. Since this power has range, it allows you to become a superb "ventriloquist" -- you can generate any kind of sound you want at a distance without moving your lips at all. Illusion (auditory) [1pp/rank] Stunning Sound: You can project a beam of focused sound that does not damage, but rather causes dizziness, disorientation, and even unconsciousness. Stun (Extra: Range [Ranged]) [3pp/rank] ~~~DEFENSIVE EFFECT/POWERS~~~ Body of Sound: You can convert your body to pure sound so that you can pass through any physical object that's not soundproof. Insubstantial 4 (incorporeal; affected by sonic and vibratory attack) [20PP] Silent Self: You use you control over sound to make you movements absolutely silent. However, you can only negate sounds in the normal auditory range -- infrasonic and ultrasonic sensors can still detect you. Concealment 1 (normal auditory) [2PP] Variant: Silent Self, Improved: You can cancel out those pesky infrasonic and ultrasonic sounds, too Concealment 2 (all auditory) [4PP] Sonic Immunity: Thanks to your control over sound, you reflexively negates most of the effect from any sonic attack made against you. Immunity 10 (sonic effects; Flaw: Limited [1/2 effect]) [5PP] Sonic Screen: You can create a screen or shield of intensely-focused sound waves to protect your body. The compact sound waves disrupt energy attacks, and either disintegrate or deflect physical attacks. Force Field [1pp/rank] ~~~MOVEMENT EFFECT/POWERS~~~ Riding the Soundwaves: You can use focused sound waves to propel yourself through the air, either by generating 'sonic construct' wings or a platforms (which may call for the Platform Flaw), or by simple sonic levitation. Flight [2pp/rank] Soundwave Travel: You can transform yourself into pure sound and travel near-instantaneously to a location. You cannot travel to or through areas where soundwaves cannot propagate, such as vacuums. Teleport [2pp/rank] ~~~SENSORY EFFECT/POWERS~~~ Augmented Hearing: Your control over sound allows you to enhance his ability to hear. You may buy one, some, or all of the abilities listed below. Combat Hearing: Super-Senses 2 (accurate 2 for normal hearing) [2PP] Parabolic Hearing: Super-Senses 1 (extended for normal hearing) [1PP] Ultrasonic Hearing: Super-Senses 1 (ultra-hearing) [1PP] Diagnostic Sonography: Like a medical ultrasound, you can see inside people by generating an ultrasonic tone, and interpreting the echoes as visual images. There are limits -- you have difficulty seeing through bones, pockets of gas (as in the lungs or intestines), and large amounts of fatty tissue, and you must be touching the patient because air between you & them can disrupt the scan -- but the technique is far safer than that freak with the x-ray-emitting, cancer-causing eyes! Super-Senses 4 (vision penetrates concealment; Flaw: Limited [see above]) [2PP] Echolocation: Like bats, dolphins, whales, and certain shrews and cave-dwelling birds, you can send an ultrasonic call out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects in the environment, which you can use to locate, range, and identify the objects. Super-Senses 3 (ultra-hearing; Enhancement: accurate 2) [3PP] Far Hearing: You can "bend" sound waves, causing sounds too distant for you to hear to reach your ears. ESP (auditory) [1pp/rank] Secret Speech: You can broadcast messages in infrasonic or ultrasonic tones (choose one when you take the power), inaudible to humans but detectable by certain animals, sensors, and super-senses (ultra-hearing). Communication (ultrasonic or infrasonic beam) [1pp/rank] ~~~MISCELLANEOUS EFFECT/POWERS~~~ Sonic Fire Extinguisher: The good people at DARPA have figured out a way to extinguish fires with sound waves -- using an acoustic field to shake the fuel, thus disrupting its surface, and using sound waves to increase the speed of the air in the area, thus thinning it out and disrupting combustion -- and so can you! Nullify Fire Effect (all simultaneously) [2PP/rank] Sonic Skillfulness: You can use his ability to manipulate sonic energy to improve your ability to perform tasks. Bluff, Diplomacy and Intimidate can often benefit (making your voice more impressive or soothing), as can Disable Device (manipulating parts inside mechanical looks with subtle sonic vibrations, masking characters from sound monitors and sonic-based motion detectors), Craft Skills (manipulating parts, ultrasonic/resonance scans, sonocatalysis), and even Medicine (imaging, soothing white noise). Assorted Skills or Enhanced Skills [1pp/4 ranks]

Speaking of, are there any Booster Packs you -- or any other long-time COHer -- would recommend (or warn against)?

Where the frack are the capes? EDIT: found 'em, ParagonWiki tells me you need to be level 20 to unlock capes. (but you can only get up to level 14 on the free trial )

Archeville checked the ground, but did not see the unknown teen there. Then he looked up, and saw him overlooking the roof, preparing to clothesline Xavier. Archeville finished the last adjustment to his Belt, and dozens of small bubbles of blue-gray light -- pockets of contragravity -- streamed forth from it, converging on Jubatus. They carried him up past the roof, and held him about ten feet in the air. "Are you alright?," Archeville asked the teen as he approached the roof. "Nice trick you pulled there!" He looked back to Jubatus, and shook his head ruefully, "I do not know if you can understand me, Mr. Xavier, but I am sorry. Good news, though -- I am reasonably certain I can undo the damage to your brain!"

"Making the final connection... now," the Doktor replied as he synched the two components to each other and to the satellites Victor had placed around the rock. "Right, I am on my way up and out," he said as he flew up the lightning-laced crevasse. "Everyone return to the spacecraft."

Archeville's meal, a stark contrast to Ferros', was a far more traditional offering from the Hanover biergarten: a small plate of assorted cheeses for appetizer, and potato salad and sauerkraut to the side of his main dish. Said main dish was a trio of fat sausages: a bockwrust (veal-and-pork sausage flavored with salt, white pepper and paprika, smoked over oak), a frankfurter (a boiled pork sausage, the prototype for the American hot dog), and a weisswurst (veal-and-pork sausage, flavored with cardamom, ginger, lemon, mace, onions, and parsley, and boiled in chicken broth), all with mustard. Plastic knives and forks were included in the bag, but Archeville pulled out his own set of metal silverware from an interior pocket of his lab coat. "Zu Ihrer Gesundheit -- to your health!" "It is nice up here," he mused between bites. "I admit, I do enjoy these nice little out-of-the-way spots the citizens and other heroes have set up. Provides an nice place to just sit and admire the view for a while, or catch one's breath, collect ones' thought while on a case." He smirked and laughed softly, "I am still not wholly acclimated to being called a hero, either."

Archeville flew to her, hovering up so he was eye level with her, and put his arms around her, hoping to offer some measure of comfort. After a few moments of just holding her quietly, he pulled back a bit so he could look her in the eye. "We made a pretty good team back there," he said, smiling, trying to get her to focus on the positives, "no serious injuries, worse was a waiter with a broken leg. We did good, liebchen. Do not lose sight of that."

Visiting family Saturday (sister's birthday), but should be back that evening, and around most of Sunday.

Installed new (er, older) drivers for my NVIDIA card, and I was able to play for two and a half hours last night! So how many folks are in Praetoria, and how many just started as a Hero in regular/Primal Earth?

"We cannot," the Doktor replied, looking up at where Fulcrum had flown, "she can fly much, much faster than I... and I think she wants to be alone for a bit. So, for now, we should focus on the people here." He headed towards the exit, "I must say, you conducted yourself quite well back there, calm and collected. I suppose you got that from dealing with the demands of the theatre, eh?," he chuckled. Once outside, he took a quick visual assessment of the evacuees, looking for any serious injuries. He checked over the waiter with the broken leg, performing some speedy first aid as the wail of police, fire, and EMT sirens filled the night sky. Once he was satisfied things were stable, he fished a business card from his pocket and handed it to Carrie "Can you tell the police what happened here? Give them this, it has a number they can use to contact me if they need more. I am going after Mona." "But you said we cannot, that she flies too fast." "Yes, we cannot," he replied, winking as the Belt-generated microwormhole engulfed him, "but I can." Continued here.

April 9th, 2011. Continued from here. A tiny pinpoint in the sky above Freedom appeared, rapidly expanding to a sphere that disgorged Doktor Archeville. A moment of freefall passed as his Belt switched from 'warp gravity to create wormholes' mode to 'warp/cancel gravity to fly' mode, but soon enough he was bobbing along in the air, and not far from where Mona was. "Hey!," he called out to her, "hey, hold up, liebchen!"

Archived due to busting down to PL 10.

:approved:

Do you want to spend the 4pp you earned for Torque in June now, or wait until later?

I think I've found why my CoH is crashing: NVIDIA driver incompatibility.

Game locked up on me 3 times last night, each after about an hour of play.

Great, now I'm torn between making Dead Head a Dark Armor/Battleaxe Tanker or an Invulnerability/Battle Ax Tanker! Did finally make Dok last night, Mastermind Robots/Force Field. The fields that he can only apply to allys, not self, can be applied to summoned minions, right? Minions don't count as 'self'?

See, I'd always heard the opposite, that the higher hit points & resistances of a Tanker made for a more forgiving experience (since you could withstand a lot more damage and would thus be less likely to die/would not die so often). Plus, the "everyone gangs up on [the hideous undead]" mechanic of Tankers seems fitting.

"[bg=#000000]Hunh?,[/bg]" the flying head asked, honestly unsure what Grim was referring to. Then the pieces lined up, "[bg=#000000]oh, right, that! Yeah, gimme a sec... hey, c'mere, you![/bg]" he called out to the headless body, which was stumbling blindly through the graveyard, stepping on the cultists as it went. ~Heeheehee~ Soon the two were reunite, organs sliding back into place and the neck rejoining so well one would think it had never split. "[bg=#000000]It's scapegoatin',[/bg]mostly. Folks is always lookin' t'find someone else to blame their problems on, lookin' fer some outsider t'oppose. I hope I see an end t'it... someday." He walked over to a spot where White Knight had been standing, knelt down, and patted a Mutt-sized section of air, "y'okay, boy? C'mon, wake up... wake up... yeah, that's a good boy!" Less than five minutes after her call, the FCPD arrived, along with a STAR Squad truck, to haul White Knight and the cultists away. Dead Head stayed out of their lights, sitting behind some tall headstones.

"All evacuated," Archeville said in that oddly flat, even tone, "minor injuries, one broken limb. Now," he turned to the downed robot. It fell even more limp as the magnetic force holding it released as Archeville re-adjusted his Screwdriver; as he did so, his right eye and both hands began to twitch, and his gait became more jerky as he approached the downed robot. He practically crawled over it as he examined it, mumbling and murmuring to himself, poking and prodding it with his fingers, his gadget, and at one point a plastic pen to work around some exposed wires. A few moments later, he stood, straight, facing away from Mona and Carrie, smoothed his loosed hair back, and turned to face them. He seemed far calmer now, much more himself, though his face carried a look of both shame and irritation. "Sorry you had to see that," he said to Carrie, "seeing me in 'work mode' can ruin my smooth and suave image." He managed a small smile, but then the look of shame was completely eclipsed by irritation, and shifted so he could address both women, "but I did find that this is an AEGIS project for an autonomous Terminus response unit. The original was scrapped 15 years ago, but someone revived it, or has tried to. He is on shaky ground, hence the kit-bashed construction -- he had to assemble it from cast-offs from dozens of other projects." Left unsaid was that, being an anti-Terminus unit, it had come for Mona, as he was not sure how much of her nature she had shared with Carrie.

Archeville shrugged, "we can do take-out, eat on a roof somewhere, or take it back to my laboratory." He began to fly up and out of the tree, "Have you taken much time to explore the city's skyline? There are some surprising things up here for fliers to find!" As they flew, he asked Ferros what places he'd been to before, and which ones he'd not been to but had been meaning to try. At last they settled on, as the young man insisted, a place of the Doktor's choosing: Der Augenblick, the Hanover biergarten Archeville had visited many times both as a student at HIT and as a famed hero/successful CEO. And because he was such a regular, and so famed, he was able to get two to-go orders with no fuss, and got them to whip up something that would not violate any of Ferros' Taoist proscriptions on food.