20 years of X-Project - Cai
May. 8th, 2023 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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x_projectCai joined X-Project in 2010, taking on the enfant terrible of XP, Jean-Paul Beaubier/Northstar, and then Wade Wilson/Deadpool in 2010 and the teenage version of Clint Barton/Hawkeye in 2012. With the relaunch she brought back JPB and Wade, and killed off Clint, replacing him with his adult counterpart in 2015 and bringing in Theresa Cassidy/Siryn in 2018. Currently she has Clint and Terry and Wade is now a modsock. Cai is also a mod.
1) What brought you to X-Project?
A friend of mine kept raving about the game, its stability, the quality of the writers involved, the multitude of characters who could be apped, and the variety of powers available. Having come off of several different HP games, one right after the other and each lasting a year or less, I was very interested in a game with staying power.
Also, when I mentioned being interested in Jean-Paul Beaubier, my friend said, "No, that's a bad idea, everyone will hate him."
My response, obviously, was, "Challenge accepted." :)
2) What keeps you in X-Project?
The strength of the relationships both IC and OOC. I'm one of those people who struggles with bouts of writer's block and depression - XP is the only game I've ever been in where I felt like I could take the breaks I needed when I needed them without losing everything I'd worked on up until then.
People are friendly, understanding, and virtually endlessly patient, especially when real life rears its ugly head with its many, varied difficulties. It helps that XP is my happy place. It's where I come to write fun things to take my mind off of unpleasantness IRL and where I vent to friends who actually understand.
3) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that you wrote?
Genosha as an arc stuck with me pretty firmly, but my favorite parts were when Wade "abandoned" Doug and dove out a window to escape capture (then rebooted after "dying") and the part where Wade and MA met "Death" (or maybe just an MA-generated construct of an aspect of death). Also, Terry and Allison during the crab plot, that was wonderful. And probably my favorite Clint thing I've written is Along Came A Spider (Natasha's intro plot). It was just such a seamless thing with an amazing group of writers.
Clint grinned despite himself. "C'mon, risks are — "
Whatever he thought risks were, he didn't actually get a chance to say. A guard rounded the corner ahead of them, and Clint released his arrow. It hit its mark, but not before the man hit some kind of emergency button on his walkie-talkie. "Aw, Obviously Overcompensating. No..."
The moment Clint had loosed the arrow, Wanda had been on the move. The body was still in motion as she raced to it with hand outstretched to snatch at the arrow buried in his throat. She planned on tossing it back to Clint, aware of the low number of arrows he'd brought, but just as she ripped it free, his partner, Lung Cancer, turned the corner, gun drawn. The guard shot, but hadn't anticipated that she'd be so close and missed as Wanda cursed.
Wanda shifted closer, using his surprise to her advantage, and struck fast. Lung Cancer's scream of pain as the arrow bit into his eye was cut off into a gurgle as her other hand snapped forward and crushed his throat.
"Nice," Clint muttered, checking to make sure Obviously Overcompensating was down and out for the count before he made his way over to Wanda. "Too bad about Lung Cancer. Not really." He accepted the arrow from her and renocked it, quirking a brow. "I'll try really hard not to jinx us again. Promise."
Once again, they set off. They had a series of five rooms left to check before they reached the meet point in the middle.
The next two rooms had seen some recent use — a few dirty coffee mugs, a half eaten sandwich that Clint eyed with some longing as they moved past — but no guards. It meant they were either right behind the next rotation of guards or right in front of them, and Wanda wasn't sure which was worse.
She stopped outside of the third room, head tilted at a noise she thought she heard. The door was a thick wood, and it obscured what her strings could potentially be telling her. Was that a person on the other side or something else — a piece of machinery?
Clint paused, right shoulder turned toward Wanda's back as she listened. He kept his eyes on their surroundings as she opened the door and he covered her, bow nocked with an already bloody arrow. This was definitely not one of his most sanitary missions.
A shout came from the other side of the door, immediately followed by the unmistakable sound of men scrambling for gear. "Go!" He said, already turning to fire into the room.
The arrow flying over her shoulder was ignored in favor of the large man lunging for her, having decided that Wanda was too close to try to get to his gun. She ducked the punch and twisted as it clipped her shoulder instead of her head. Whatever training the guards had was more than decent and he — she realized it was British Tea Drinker — had already adjusted, trying to gain an advantage.
When BTD tried a jab to the ribs, Wanda blocked the blow and snagged his wrist, twisting it sharply as she stepped in and headbutted him. He yelled as his nose exploded in a mess of gore and blood. He finally went down with a gurgled as she blasted him point blank with an entropy bolt.
Clint followed Wanda through the door, dodging left as she engaged BTD. He fired his second arrow, taking out Watches Kittens on Youtube. He dove forward, tucking and rolling so when he came to his feet in front of Braying Laugh, he could whip his bow around the other man's neck. The move caused the disassembled rifle in its bag over his shoulder to thunk heavily into his kidney — he'd have to bring a disposable rifle on the next mission.
Twisting his bow once the string caught, Clint pulled up even as he dragged BL backward. He snagged his arrow from Watches Kittens on Youtube and used the tip to cut a very deep, very precise line over the man's carotid. Arterial spray spurted toward the wall, hitting with a splatter.
The sound of a safety clicking off was nearly lost in the ruckus but the gun fire was harder to miss. Or it would have been had it actually ended up being gunfire. Instead, the safety clicked off and the last guard in the room had gone to fire when Wanda glanced his way. She dropped BTD's limp hand as the gun exploded, killing Probably Jacks Off in the Restroom instantly.
As Braying Laugh sagged against him, obviously dead, Clint braced the body and unwound his bowstring from its neck. He retrieved his first arrow from Coffee Coffee Coffee and glanced toward Wanda. "I really like the exploding thing you did there."
"I am glad, especially since that had a fifty-fifty chance of happening the way I hoped it would," Wanda half-joked. She looked around the room and threw up her hands. "We are quickly running out of breathing candidates to question. We need to keep moving, and hope at least one of them does not make us blow their heads off."
"These aren't the guys we need to question, anyway," Clint said as he perfunctorily wiped off one of his arrows. "These are just the guards. Well paid, well trained guards, but they don't know anything worth knowing. Those guys will all be downstairs." Glancing up toward Wanda, Clint quirked a rueful brow and said, "I won't kill them all."
(a href= "https://xp-logs.dreamwidth.org/3790627.html#cutid1">read the full log here)
4) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that someone else wrote?
There was a bit in the group log after DPS where Gabriel's asking about bb!Clint and Artie just sort of shakes his head... honestly, it was such an elegant way of communicating such a devastating piece of information. That's literally always stuck with me since I read it. Also the entirety of Emma and Namor during the Halloween fiasco.
It was cold and wet. That was their first sensation as they awoke on the ground. Kane raised his head from the cold, snowy ground and looked at the mansion. It was whole, standing above him like it had for years. All around him were other mutants, slowly staggering to their feet as they view the site. There was no trace of the devastation from a few moments ago.
After Gabriel hopped to his feet – ignoring the throbbing pain in his head that he had to assume came from a reality shift – he started counting. While his compatriots stared at the newly viscera-free grounds and a mansion that looked as impregnable as it once seemed, he was scanning their faces, assigning them each numbers in his head.
This stitched-together world was quiet. Muted, and fresh. There was no sign of the hell they'd all been through. And all Gabriel could think to do was count.
"Hey," he said, mostly to himself at first. A puzzled expression crossed his face. "Hey," Gabriel said louder, looking around him. His heart started pounding, racing. "Clint." His eyes got big, and he started looking around more frantically. No. No, no, no. "Xorn forgot Clint." A pit was growing in his stomach, and he repeated himself, as if saying it again would change the inevitable, obvious answer; as if all it took to change this new reality was a few words and a hand gesture. "He — where's Clint?"
Artie, mentally numb and exhausted but still in better shape than most of the others, caught Gabriel's arm. He shook his head, expression grave and saying everything that needed to be said, tears burning behind his eyes. He wouldn't, couldn't cry here and now.
With Artie's touch, Gabriel fell silent. He faced the other man, staring blankly at him for a minute. A tear he hadn't noticed fell down his cheek, dropping off his face and into the snow. "No," he rasped. "No." Gabriel shoved the man's hand off him and, following the instinct he'd had for much of the day, bolted away from the mansion.
(read the full log here)
5) What is something about X-Project that you really like/enjoy?
The variety of writing styles, topics, tropes, genres - anyone can find something to read in XP. I love writing with this group of people, the constant sharing of ideas and inspiration, just having people to throw information at sometimes. It's a joy to work with everyone here.
1) What brought you to X-Project?
A friend of mine kept raving about the game, its stability, the quality of the writers involved, the multitude of characters who could be apped, and the variety of powers available. Having come off of several different HP games, one right after the other and each lasting a year or less, I was very interested in a game with staying power.
Also, when I mentioned being interested in Jean-Paul Beaubier, my friend said, "No, that's a bad idea, everyone will hate him."
My response, obviously, was, "Challenge accepted." :)
2) What keeps you in X-Project?
The strength of the relationships both IC and OOC. I'm one of those people who struggles with bouts of writer's block and depression - XP is the only game I've ever been in where I felt like I could take the breaks I needed when I needed them without losing everything I'd worked on up until then.
People are friendly, understanding, and virtually endlessly patient, especially when real life rears its ugly head with its many, varied difficulties. It helps that XP is my happy place. It's where I come to write fun things to take my mind off of unpleasantness IRL and where I vent to friends who actually understand.
3) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that you wrote?
Genosha as an arc stuck with me pretty firmly, but my favorite parts were when Wade "abandoned" Doug and dove out a window to escape capture (then rebooted after "dying") and the part where Wade and MA met "Death" (or maybe just an MA-generated construct of an aspect of death). Also, Terry and Allison during the crab plot, that was wonderful. And probably my favorite Clint thing I've written is Along Came A Spider (Natasha's intro plot). It was just such a seamless thing with an amazing group of writers.
Clint grinned despite himself. "C'mon, risks are — "
Whatever he thought risks were, he didn't actually get a chance to say. A guard rounded the corner ahead of them, and Clint released his arrow. It hit its mark, but not before the man hit some kind of emergency button on his walkie-talkie. "Aw, Obviously Overcompensating. No..."
The moment Clint had loosed the arrow, Wanda had been on the move. The body was still in motion as she raced to it with hand outstretched to snatch at the arrow buried in his throat. She planned on tossing it back to Clint, aware of the low number of arrows he'd brought, but just as she ripped it free, his partner, Lung Cancer, turned the corner, gun drawn. The guard shot, but hadn't anticipated that she'd be so close and missed as Wanda cursed.
Wanda shifted closer, using his surprise to her advantage, and struck fast. Lung Cancer's scream of pain as the arrow bit into his eye was cut off into a gurgle as her other hand snapped forward and crushed his throat.
"Nice," Clint muttered, checking to make sure Obviously Overcompensating was down and out for the count before he made his way over to Wanda. "Too bad about Lung Cancer. Not really." He accepted the arrow from her and renocked it, quirking a brow. "I'll try really hard not to jinx us again. Promise."
Once again, they set off. They had a series of five rooms left to check before they reached the meet point in the middle.
The next two rooms had seen some recent use — a few dirty coffee mugs, a half eaten sandwich that Clint eyed with some longing as they moved past — but no guards. It meant they were either right behind the next rotation of guards or right in front of them, and Wanda wasn't sure which was worse.
She stopped outside of the third room, head tilted at a noise she thought she heard. The door was a thick wood, and it obscured what her strings could potentially be telling her. Was that a person on the other side or something else — a piece of machinery?
Clint paused, right shoulder turned toward Wanda's back as she listened. He kept his eyes on their surroundings as she opened the door and he covered her, bow nocked with an already bloody arrow. This was definitely not one of his most sanitary missions.
A shout came from the other side of the door, immediately followed by the unmistakable sound of men scrambling for gear. "Go!" He said, already turning to fire into the room.
The arrow flying over her shoulder was ignored in favor of the large man lunging for her, having decided that Wanda was too close to try to get to his gun. She ducked the punch and twisted as it clipped her shoulder instead of her head. Whatever training the guards had was more than decent and he — she realized it was British Tea Drinker — had already adjusted, trying to gain an advantage.
When BTD tried a jab to the ribs, Wanda blocked the blow and snagged his wrist, twisting it sharply as she stepped in and headbutted him. He yelled as his nose exploded in a mess of gore and blood. He finally went down with a gurgled as she blasted him point blank with an entropy bolt.
Clint followed Wanda through the door, dodging left as she engaged BTD. He fired his second arrow, taking out Watches Kittens on Youtube. He dove forward, tucking and rolling so when he came to his feet in front of Braying Laugh, he could whip his bow around the other man's neck. The move caused the disassembled rifle in its bag over his shoulder to thunk heavily into his kidney — he'd have to bring a disposable rifle on the next mission.
Twisting his bow once the string caught, Clint pulled up even as he dragged BL backward. He snagged his arrow from Watches Kittens on Youtube and used the tip to cut a very deep, very precise line over the man's carotid. Arterial spray spurted toward the wall, hitting with a splatter.
The sound of a safety clicking off was nearly lost in the ruckus but the gun fire was harder to miss. Or it would have been had it actually ended up being gunfire. Instead, the safety clicked off and the last guard in the room had gone to fire when Wanda glanced his way. She dropped BTD's limp hand as the gun exploded, killing Probably Jacks Off in the Restroom instantly.
As Braying Laugh sagged against him, obviously dead, Clint braced the body and unwound his bowstring from its neck. He retrieved his first arrow from Coffee Coffee Coffee and glanced toward Wanda. "I really like the exploding thing you did there."
"I am glad, especially since that had a fifty-fifty chance of happening the way I hoped it would," Wanda half-joked. She looked around the room and threw up her hands. "We are quickly running out of breathing candidates to question. We need to keep moving, and hope at least one of them does not make us blow their heads off."
"These aren't the guys we need to question, anyway," Clint said as he perfunctorily wiped off one of his arrows. "These are just the guards. Well paid, well trained guards, but they don't know anything worth knowing. Those guys will all be downstairs." Glancing up toward Wanda, Clint quirked a rueful brow and said, "I won't kill them all."
(a href= "https://xp-logs.dreamwidth.org/3790627.html#cutid1">read the full log here)
4) What's a moment that has really stuck with you that someone else wrote?
There was a bit in the group log after DPS where Gabriel's asking about bb!Clint and Artie just sort of shakes his head... honestly, it was such an elegant way of communicating such a devastating piece of information. That's literally always stuck with me since I read it. Also the entirety of Emma and Namor during the Halloween fiasco.
It was cold and wet. That was their first sensation as they awoke on the ground. Kane raised his head from the cold, snowy ground and looked at the mansion. It was whole, standing above him like it had for years. All around him were other mutants, slowly staggering to their feet as they view the site. There was no trace of the devastation from a few moments ago.
After Gabriel hopped to his feet – ignoring the throbbing pain in his head that he had to assume came from a reality shift – he started counting. While his compatriots stared at the newly viscera-free grounds and a mansion that looked as impregnable as it once seemed, he was scanning their faces, assigning them each numbers in his head.
This stitched-together world was quiet. Muted, and fresh. There was no sign of the hell they'd all been through. And all Gabriel could think to do was count.
"Hey," he said, mostly to himself at first. A puzzled expression crossed his face. "Hey," Gabriel said louder, looking around him. His heart started pounding, racing. "Clint." His eyes got big, and he started looking around more frantically. No. No, no, no. "Xorn forgot Clint." A pit was growing in his stomach, and he repeated himself, as if saying it again would change the inevitable, obvious answer; as if all it took to change this new reality was a few words and a hand gesture. "He — where's Clint?"
Artie, mentally numb and exhausted but still in better shape than most of the others, caught Gabriel's arm. He shook his head, expression grave and saying everything that needed to be said, tears burning behind his eyes. He wouldn't, couldn't cry here and now.
With Artie's touch, Gabriel fell silent. He faced the other man, staring blankly at him for a minute. A tear he hadn't noticed fell down his cheek, dropping off his face and into the snow. "No," he rasped. "No." Gabriel shoved the man's hand off him and, following the instinct he'd had for much of the day, bolted away from the mansion.
(read the full log here)
5) What is something about X-Project that you really like/enjoy?
The variety of writing styles, topics, tropes, genres - anyone can find something to read in XP. I love writing with this group of people, the constant sharing of ideas and inspiration, just having people to throw information at sometimes. It's a joy to work with everyone here.
