21 July, 2012

a million faces, each a million lies

KDC, as a fetish shop in SL, has been around forever, it feels like. The designer's always had an atmospheric, impressive build, and while she doesn't put out a ton of new items a year, those items she makes are always more than worth the asking price and incredibly well done.

At some point, Miss Abattoir both got a Marketplace store and got into mesh and Petites creation, as evidenced by this link a friend passed me. The gloss and shine on that suit are unparalleled, and yes, she also makes "big people" versions, too.

If you need high-gloss latex for your Petite? I'd say KDC's your store.

This next bit is an exercise in misunderstanding from the Help channel in City of Heroes.

[Help] RAGA.: I know its in beta right now
[Help] RAGA.: I want my tats for female toons
[Help] Areni: What??


Misunderstanding the first: "RAGA." (and seriously, people: if you can get the name you want only by spelling it in all caps or with an end typographic symbol...COME UP WITH A NEW NAME; IT'S NOT HARD) meant "tats" as in "tattoos", here. As in, there's only one tattoo option for females in City of Heroes: namely, glove-layer gauntlets. Which I believe are green and red faded dragons, so there's not even that much choice on that costume option.

What Raga was saying was, they're testing out tattoo options for female characters in the beta game, with the eventual goal of transiting them to the main game release. Which is something we've all been asking for--some of us for years now.

[Help] RAGA.: check out beta if you can
[Help] Areni: This is city of heroes


Misunderstanding the second: Areni mistook RAGA's saying "check out beta" (as in, there's a beta version of City of Heroes that anyone can download to check out upcoming features and give feedback), as "check out this entire new game".

[Help] RAGA.: Cybertech costume bundle
[Help] Areni: Females by default have huge breasts


(from the City of Heroes album; close-up of the average female model from City)

That's only half true. Female models by default, in City of Heroes, are about five and a half feet tall, and they run about mid-B cups. Maybe this is my perspective, though, too--the out-of-the-box builds look as if they have breasts, but they're not huge ones.

That shot is a close capture of the average City of Heroes female model, with all the sliders untouched.

(from the City of Heroes album; the entire screen as seen during character creation)

This is the larger shot of the above close-up: with all the sliders listed. If I had to guess, personally, I'd say the average City of Heroes model runs about 5'6", 5'7" feet tall, B cups, 125 pounds--thereabouts. I could be low on the weight, but I think I'm fairly accurate on everything else.

Again, maybe it's just me--I don't think B cups are "huge".

There was some chatter at this point about how deeply the game needs new hair styles and a new face pack--it's an older game, so to be fair these are things that would help. I would disagree that they're all "hideous", however--I think a lot of the hairstyles work, and a lot of the faces work, too.

[Help] RAGA.: and for the record...there is nothing wrong with large breasted women fighting crime
[Help] RAGA.: :P
[Help] Areni: No, of course not
[Help] RAGA.: Real women have curves...nuff said
[Help] Areni: Agreed!
[Help] Areni: Though...
[Help] Areni: I think there is something wrong with all of the ones that do having huge ones :B


Again, the default City of Heroes model? Not huge.

[Help] Nocke Icron: I'm not a woman, not entirely, but I still have curves. And small breasts, and real real sharp psi blades.
[Help] Areni: Maybe I'm biased though
[Help] Areni: Not entirely, Nocke?
[Help] Darth-Killer: hormones ?
[Help] Nocke Icron: Not entirely, but I've got it all there.
[Help] RAGA.: um..I think someone started talking about themselves ICly for some reason
[Help] Nocke Icron: Hermaphrodite.


Misunderstanding the third: but this one is sort of all over the place. Some people in the Help channel thought Nocke was talking in character; some people thought she was talking about the player behind the screen. Lots of confusion, from lots of different directions.

[Help] Areni: O.o
[Help] RAGA.: oh...nvm then
[Help] Areni: I'm pretty sure that's not what you are


Misunderstanding the fourth: or maybe this is not a misunderstanding, but that moment of separation. Areni had decided, in the space of maybe two minutes (or less) of conversation, that Nocke was not only lying, but that the entire conversation had become offensive.

Of course, some people were still confused:

[Help] Darth-Killer: Hermaphrodite... you're a frog then ?

What? Wait. What?

[Help] Nocke Icron: I'm not? Well [@*$@#!], that changes a few things.

Just for clarity's sake: I was on a new character for this particular run through City of Heroes. New characters, by default, have censorship on for "adult" language. And, City being City, it doesn't just replace symbols for characters and have done with it; it's generally fairly randomized, so you can't easily count letters and come up with the "real word".

Though I'm fairly sure I can guess what Nocke did say.

[Help] Areni: Having a gender identity that isn't cismale/cisfemale doesn't make you a hermaphrodite
[Help] Areni: Hermaphrodite is a much more -specific- thing
[Help] Nocke Icron: are you trying to tell me who I am?


I think more than a few of us were wondering that at this point.

[Help] Darth-Killer: Agreed with Areni. Hermaphrodites are male or female, simply can switch between one or the other

Errr...not usually...at least with bipedal lifeforms. Arthropods and fish seem to switch between sexes at will, with snails especially extruding sexual organs only when needed, and fish completely shifting from females to males when the female population lowers...but again, I don't think that's what Darth meant.

[Help] Nocke Icron: not only was that IN Character, you'll lose that battle, and hard.
[Help] Nocke Icron: No, that's sequential hermaphrodites
[Help] Nocke Icron: There are Sequential, and Simultaneous.
[Help] Areni: That's not it, darth
[Help] RAGA.: Who cares...[@!^%!].... [Help] Darth-Killer: simultaneous, then you're a plant... xD
[Help] Areni: :/


Again, Areni is still being offended about an issue that no one else seemed to have in this entire conversation. Oh, and Darth-Killer was being something of an ass throughout this entire thing.

[Help] Darth-Killer: Er, if you're talking about [$#&);+#@!], i call that a trans.... xD

Case in point.

[Help] Nocke Icron: ...And now we're in the third person.
[Help] Areni: Are you... ICly intersex, or OOCly intersex [%@#$%(*&;@!]


Seriously: why would anyone ask that in a game where the most important defining attribute is what powers you choose to beat up the bad guys? There's no way to be nude in City of Heroes. There's no way even to lie horizontally on a surface. All the adult play that goes on is entirely in private messages between people, or rarely, in small batches of local chat (though general roleplay conversations go on in all channels at all times). So...why be this invested?

And why curse after asking in the first place??

[Help] Nocke Icron: ....

And now Areni was irritating Nocke specifically, and many of the rest of us as well.

[Help] RAGA.: wow
[Help] RAGA.: ask personal questions much?
[Help] Nocke Icron: You're so lost.
[Help] Areni: Well they said they were intersex


No, Nocke didn't. Areni simply assumed that's what was said. That wasn't what Nocke said.

[Help] RAGA.: just how rude do you plan on being this morning?
[Help] Areni: That's pretty damn personal


Areni, after your opinionated declarations just a few lines back, you don't get to be offended when someone calls you on your behavior.

[Help] Darth-Killer: I'm not, that's vocabulary definition here
[Help] Areni: I was just trying to understand who they were talking about; themselves or their character


Then...couldn't you have just asked that without pushing buttons? Or, oh, hey, wait--couldn't you have sent a tell to them privately, if you really wanted to know something that personal?

[Help] Nocke Icron: not really at all, you just pulled out a microscope.

What Nocke said.

[Help] Areni: ...Yeah, I am completely confused. Sorry if I offended or anything.

Oh, NOW she apologizes.

[Help] Nocke Icron: THIS character, like most all my characters are Simultaneous hermaphrodites, it's part of their story.
[Help] Areni: Okay then.
[Help] Darth-Killer: Er, Nocke, we never talked about the real you. thought that was obvious... xD
[Help] Darth-Killer: simply analyzing definitions here
[Help] Nocke Icron: Yeah, but it didn't seem that way to Areni, from my perspective
[Help] Areni: Well what am I supposed to think; people don't generally talk in-character in the help channel


Really? Because that happens ALL THE TIME over the course of the last year, Areni.

[Help] Areni: I got confused!

Yeah, that's patently obvious.

[Help] La Chatte Noire: ((they don't? ))
[Help] Nocke Icron: When descibing themselves they usually do.
[Help] Areni: (( very, very rarely ))


AKA, not rarely at all, but thanks for playing.

[Help] RAGA.: Help chat isn't for rp'ing

Tell that to everyone who RPs in Help.

[Help] Pool Boy: HAHAHAHA I DID IT!
[Help] Pool Boy: Take THAT, server maintenance
[Help] Darth-Killer: what, Pool boy?


And then the server went down for maintenance, as it does every week at the same time.

Now, there's a lot of nonsense that goes on in City of Heroes, I won't lie. Oversexualized fetish characters that spend most of their time in Pocket D, RPing with this or that group. People who can't spell like it's a vocation, both in their character bios and for their hero/villain names. People who claim impossible things, both in character and for their own players beyond the game.

But I believe this is the first time someone's given out a character detail, and another player has baldly stated that they absolutely, positively, can't be that thing--and gotten offended on top of it when they were challenged for stating that opinion in the first place!!

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