Announcements

Join the ongoing conversation on Discord: https://discord.gg/w6Tpkp2

Please read the current update for instructions on downloading the latest update. Players with Mac versions of the game will not be affected, but you will have a slightly longer wait for your version of the new maps. Please make a copy of your character folder before running the new update, just to make sure you don't lose any of your custom work.

It looks like we can give everyone a list of minimum specs for running City of Titans. Please keep in mind that this is 'for now' until we are able to add more graphics and other system refinements. Currently you will need :
Windows 10 or later required; no Intel integrated graphics like UHD, must have AMD or NVIDIA card or discrete chipset with 4Gb or more of VRAM
At least 16GB of main DRAM.
These stats may change as we continue to test.

To purchase your copy of the City of Titans Launcher, visit our store at https://store.missingworldsmedia.com/ A purchase of $50 or more will give you a link to download the Launcher for Windows or Mac based machines.

A Strong, Strong Wind – Flowers in the Rain

7 posts / 0 new
Last post
Kartanian
Kartanian's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/26/2013 - 13:54
A Strong, Strong Wind – Flowers in the Rain

Memorial Day 2019

Raindrops pattered down on the grass and grave stones with a steady, gentle rhythm. The flowers planted for Memorial Day swayed in the breeze, trembling from the impact of the rain. The little American flags marking the final resting places of soldiers dripped and swayed gently, holding their heads up proudly to the inclement weather like sentries at each graveside.

A woman and her four-year old daughter walked through the grounds. The woman with rain-dampened strawberry blonde hair somberly nodded at each marked grave. This was an ordinary cemetery. Servicemen and women and police officers and firefighters who had given their lives in the line of duty were marked here, but they were scattered sparsely throughout the wooded grounds. The ever-present breeze swirling around the woman lifted the flags and made them ripple as she approached each grave.

“Mommy, are there any heroes here?” the girl asked Gayle. “Do you know any of these people?”

“Yes, Spring. I knew some of them. And yes, there are some heroes whose bodies are buried here, too, but not many.”

Her daughter—simple blue knit dress and honey blonde hair as dry as if it were a sunny morning on a cloudless day—bent down and picked up a flag. She waved it and water sheeted off the wet fabric and wooden stick. She waved it some more and smiled. Turning her face up to her mother, she asked, “Can I keep this?”

Gayle peered down at the granite gravestone. “Don’t you think Sergeant Bernard Steers would like to have his stone marked for people to visit?”

Spring frowned and looked down at the wet stone face of the grave marker. “Who was he?”

“Let’s find out.” Her mother asked the question of her wristband electronics and extended her holographic display with a swipe up. Data flooded the screen. Gayle scrolled through it quickly and explained, “Sergeant Steers was a U.S. Army veteran. Born 1912 and died 1989. He served in the army in World War Two. He was in the D-Day invasion and fought in France, Belgium, and Germany. Um... let me check his record. He married Inez Gruenwald in Germany. They lived in Kansas and moved to Massachusetts where he was a supervising architect for lots of Venture City buildings when they were building the city after the war. They had kids and grandkids and great grandkids.”

“So, he wasn’t a hero? He didn’t die fighting the Nazis?”

Gayle shook her head. “Nope, he didn’t die fighting the Nazis. He was an ordinary guy who went through some horrible, terrifying things to help save the world for freedom, but he didn’t have powers. I can tell he was a leader, because they made him a sergeant. I know that he was brave because he was in lots of scary situations and did what he had to do, anyway. He probably gave the people who followed him a little courage to face their fears. He may have been a hero in those little everyday moments I keep telling you about, but he didn’t have to give his life for others. He died peacefully of old age, it looks like. And he left behind some great things—buildings, and parks, and the city water system, and memories, and friends, and kids. He did some great things and made the world a better place through his work and his family.”

The little girl considered that thoughtfully, turning from side to side as she idly swished the flag. “So, if he wasn’t a hero, then why does he need a flag?”

Gayle smiled. “Being a hero is about choices, dear. Mister Steers chose to serve his country, putting himself in danger to protect what he believed in. Lots of people were volunteering to do that then, but still, that was his own, personal choice. That was everyday heroism. That’s what we recognize on Memorial Day. We remember the people who gave their lives so that others might live, and we also honor the people who died later if they served our country.”

“So, he was a hero? Just not like grandma?”

Her mother nodded. “He was willing to risk himself for others. So was Grandma Jen. But your grandma had powers, like us, and when the K’rk’ti attacked she was in a place to stop them. She used her powers to save others. Even though she knew she might die, she had to try. She might not have succeeded, but she did, at least for the people on those planes at the airport. And at her grave back in Milwaukee she has flags today.” Her eyes moistened as her focused drifted off in remembrance, having nothing to do with the rain.

Spring considered this with all the gravity of a precocious four-year old. She nodded sagely and bent down to insert the stick of the flag back into the wet ground. “I guess Mister Steers should have his flag. People should remember him, too.”

“That’s my girl,” Gayle replied with a wistful smile. “We remember our heroes, powers or not, whether they gave their lives or not. They made the choices that made them heroes, whether those choices were big ones or little ones.”

“I’m going to be a hero, too,” the dry little mutant girl declared firmly. “Like you and daddy and grandma. I can make it not rain on people.”

Gayle laughed. “You keep on making your own good choices and it will happen!”

She bent down and hugged her daughter.

They continued to walk through the cemetery visiting the graves of the veterans and the honored dead. Gayle didn’t mind the rain and Spring brought her own weather wherever she went. They paid their respects at each of the marked graves. Then they went home to Riverhaven, leaving behind only the flowers in the rain.

A Wing and a Prayer, A Strong, Strong Wind, All Forests are One, Power Struggles - Venture City metahuman novels in the spirit of City of Heroes and other comic book superhero fiction. (http://bit.ly/sdpbooks)

Kartanian
Kartanian's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/26/2013 - 13:54
(( OOC: My annual Memorial

(( OOC: My annual Memorial Day story. Some years I can manage a shared roleplay, while others I can't, but I write something each year. :)

In this case, I found one instance of a real Bernard Steers, but I am not sure whether he was a veteran or not. I used made-up birth and death years. No resemblance is intended here. ))

A Wing and a Prayer, A Strong, Strong Wind, All Forests are One, Power Struggles - Venture City metahuman novels in the spirit of City of Heroes and other comic book superhero fiction. (http://bit.ly/sdpbooks)

Kartanian
Kartanian's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/26/2013 - 13:54
(( OOC - And introducing

(( OOC - And introducing Gayle and Bryan's daughter, the weather controller! ))

A Wing and a Prayer, A Strong, Strong Wind, All Forests are One, Power Struggles - Venture City metahuman novels in the spirit of City of Heroes and other comic book superhero fiction. (http://bit.ly/sdpbooks)

DesViper
DesViper's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 3 months ago
Developer11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 03/10/2014 - 00:55
((OOC - So is Bryan around? I

((OOC - So is Bryan around? I remember it being implied that he wasn't. Also is this a somber shared RP or just your post?))


PR, Forum Moderator
My Non-Canon Backstories
Avatar by MikeNovember
Kartanian
Kartanian's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 6 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/26/2013 - 13:54
(( Just my short post. We've

(( Just my short post. We've had some shared stories around this theme, and Xcelsier back on our supergroup forums in CoH days started the idea. For that first one, about eight of us each posted a separate story on the theme of "That others may live." Some were superheroes, some were ordinary people, and some were retrospectives.

(( If I said too much about Bryan's current status, it would be a spoiler for "All Forests are One," but things do have a way of working themselves out where superheroes are involved. ;) I have to get the next book finished and off to the printer before I'll stop dodging spoilers on the previous book. Force of habit, I suppose. ))

A Wing and a Prayer, A Strong, Strong Wind, All Forests are One, Power Struggles - Venture City metahuman novels in the spirit of City of Heroes and other comic book superhero fiction. (http://bit.ly/sdpbooks)

DesViper
DesViper's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 3 months ago
Developer11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 03/10/2014 - 00:55
((Gotcha. Good stuff then,

((Gotcha. Good stuff then, Kar :) Cute and somber at the same time. I had a one-shot cooking about Smog and his black ops days, but maybe I can revisit it next year.))


PR, Forum Moderator
My Non-Canon Backstories
Avatar by MikeNovember
Foradain
Foradain's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 21:06
((I would have put this in

((I would have put this in the Backstory forum, personally.)),

Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
Foradain's Character Conclave
.
Avatar courtesy of Satellite9 Irezoomie