User talk:Spartan 501

=Archive: User talk:Spartan 501/Archive 1= =Archive: User talk:Spartan 501/Archive 2=

Oh hey I actually got a message from somebody :D
Since the Priory of Regret is mostly matt's thing, and he's already said it's fine, go right ahead dude. :P I'd love to pair the two together, gentry severely needs something to do. XD I should warn you thogh, August 31st 2551 is when Gentry ends up splitting into two sub-teams. If something happens on/after that you'll have to deal with only one of them for my personal storytelling purposes :/-- Den fryktedehodet  21:10, August 11, 2010 (UTC)

ARES?
Heya, 501. I was curious as to if I could create an S-II Class-III. I already checked with Matt, but was told to check with you as well. Thanks. :D Regards, Skalapp 21:48, September 27, 2010 (UTC)

Alright. Thanks, man! :D Skalapp 19:55, October 9, 2010 (UTC)

GASP
Alright I changed the tags thanks for your help too. Gun.

Thanks
Thanks. from gun

RE: Town stuff
The greatest state, absolutely. Kent being the greatest city is like people thinking Mario Kart is a more realistic racing simulator than Forza Motorsport. :P

Pew-al-lup

My accent is of the Pacific Northwest variety as all of my family, including my parents are from here. Even living in Japan, California, Virginia, etc. didn't give me enough time to form anything different. And boy am I thankful for that. :P


 * Being the great sports city means very little to me. :P

Mutual Inactivity
As you can probably tell from the article, I haven't made much in the way of progress either - I've become bogged down in the notion that I can't continue until I finish my tie-in fanfic VENATOR, and I've got writer's block for that - I've got my characters in some difficult situations, but I can't figure out interesting ways to take it from there. Hopefully, indulging in another part of VOR with different characters and a different history and objective will get me out of this funk!  Specops306   Autocrat     Qur'a 'Morhek   01:39, March 10, 2012 (UTC)

RP DRACO III JOINT SOC
Hello, the Office Of Naval Intelligence has sent you this letter via [TRANS-COM] to inform you that you are invited to the upcoming Naval RP The Battle Of Draco III (Naval RP).

You are invited to write for either UNSC, or Covenant assets. If you would please consider this invitation seriously, and get back to my office in the city of Visamere, Reach, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you --UNSC Office Of Naval Intelligence Captain Foster 17:48, March 15, 2012 (UTC)

VOR
By all means!

specops306@gmail.com

I've got university work, my own fanon stuff, plus a...project coming up very soon, so having someone else get back in the game would be much appreciated!  Specops306   Autocrat     Qur'a 'Morhek   07:29, March 28, 2012 (UTC)

Hey there, friend! I've been gone for a while, haven't I? Well, it's still not totally certain whether I'll be back or not, but I've been hooked enough these last few days to brainstorm ideas for my future plans. It's just a matter of connecting the dots and getting those things done - which of course is the most difficult part ;)

That said, one thing I'm fairly certain on, is that I'm going to reduce the number of spartans I have (I'll most likely not delete any - not those that have their own articles, anyway - but rather transfer them to Baccus; it serves the same purpose and doesn't render other people's articles obsolete), and try to connect them together a bit more, and convincingly so. As part of that, I plan to remove the Black & Covert operations stuff and simply have Laz be recruited by dear ol' DRACULA.

And regarding Laz, there's two things I'd like to run by you to see what you think:
 * 1) Since he's probably going to be DRACULA's lapdog rather than Admiral Rich's, I started thinking about a new codename, but I came up with several choices. So, which of these do you personally prefer? IMPALER (fun fact; the guy traditionally identified as Count Dracula was known as Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad Tepes in his local language), TEPES (see last one), DRAGON/DRAKE/HIGH DRAGON/DRAGONLING (both a reference to Dragon Age: Origins and to the fact that "Dracula" means "son of the Dragon"), SPACER (reference to Mass Effect - one of the background choices available for the PC), LAZARUS (sounds similar to his name, a reference to Lazarus from the bible and to Project Lazarus in Mass Effect 2), or NIGHTWING (after the superhero - it sounds cool, but see below for the other reason)
 * 2) When thinking about Laz's background again, I came to two conclusions; one, that I would like Laz to be more of a minority than he currently is (if you don't recall, he's genetically american but raised by hungarian parents), two, that I thought it'd fit better if he did suffer a few visible side effects from the augments (which DRACULA would then cure/fix/counteract, and thus convince Laz to work for him). Both of them made me think of possible alternatives for his appearance out-of-armor, and I got really attached to Kai Leng's character model in ME3 (which, btw, earned him the fan nickname of "Nightwing", because of his eye implants resembling Nightwing's mask). So, essentially, what I want your opinion on is: should I (a) stick to his old appearance (IE this) (b) change it (to this) or (c) not change it, but keep looking for other possibilities? The whole thing's mostly a nitpick, and I'm not planning a major personality change or anything to go along with the appearance plans, so if you're against any changes, I could be easily convinced.

I realize some of these things could affect your articles too in many ways, which is why I'm running it by you. Assuming I continue to stay active, I'll get back to you when I have more concrete plans for my other spartans - especially if they regard Rachel and the other Class IIIs/ARES, to make sure I don't cause you more trouble than necessary - though it would be hilarious to cause you trouble :P

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the immense wall of text. And here's hoping that your input isn't met with failure as I once again fell into the well of inactivity :P

Nice to hear from you. And don't worry about being late with the reply - I've been gone for at least half a year, haven't I? Probably a full year, actually. Though I suppose "better late than never" is still in effect ;) Now now, I don't hate them, I just use the gift of hindsight and realize there are more than a few flaws, then try to correct them. And after talking with Lomi, there's actually only two or three spartans with their own articles I'm getting rid of - none of which affect any of your stuff, I hope. And even the ones I'm getting rid of I'm passing on to Baccus so that they're still around, just not clogging up my category space unnecessarily. Speaking of the Class IIIs, one part of my overhaul of Laz's article includes shifting him from being an affiliate of the covert/black ops groups to working for DRACULA. Unfortunately, that also affects ARES, since at the moment they're tied to covert ops too. This could mean either: (a) we rewrite so that ARES is one of DRACULA's projects instead of Rich's (b) have ARES still be Rich's idea, and Laz just gets assigned to the project with DRACULA's consent (maybe Rich and D could've come up with the project together?), or (c) we cut Laz from the project entirely and use another instructor. Personally I prefer (a) or (b), but as the Class III article was originally yours, you'll have the last word regarding its fate, and if you have a different suggestion, let me hear it. Thanks for the help, friend - I hope you'll be willing to lend more of it when I have more concrete things to ask you about. I'll let you get back to work :)

Hmm, yeah, that sounds good. Good thing we could take care of that so easily. Plus, it gives me a bit of leeway for Rachel, in case I want to change something there as well. Once/if I'm done, I'd gladly be the one to write the necessary changes - saves you the time :)

He probably will, though we (I and Specops) haven't really decided exactly how yet. I'll think on it once I've finished planning the earlier stages of his career.

I do hope to get them running again, but I don't know if I want to do more of them while I'm still unsure of what exactly I'm planning for the future - I'm still weighing my options and considering alternate possibilities for many of my articles, as well as planning new stuff (two elite characters, among other things, if you're curious). Plus, I have to consider what entries I'll have to alter if I make a particular writing choice. I'm hoping we won't have to change much though - Laz could easily be lying to Standoff (poor guy) about the "working for covert ops" details to keep his cover and/or DRACULA's involvement secret (though having to do that would probably tear him up a little inside once getting to know the colonel - which is why I like it >:3). Suggestions?

Indeed, that would be interesting, and my gives my little spartan some additional depth. Besides Laz, which of the ARES members do you figure would want to be there for Standoff when he breathes his last, or attend the funeral. I figure Rachel and Balduin would show, with the former bawling her eyes out for once :P Speaking of spartans, I think I've decided how and what I want to do with all of them. Listening to your and Lomi's opinion that I get rid of my spartans too often, I've decided to keep that to a minimum and instead subtly alter details or keep them largely the same. Laz I'm still considering what changes I will or won't make, but here's what I've come up with:
 * I'm placing my focus and energy (and writing time) in particular on three characters: Laz, Cassandra and Jane. What that means is I intend for those to be my "main" articles, IE the longest ones, and the ones I'll do the most with. This in turn means I'll try and keep them sufficiently different/separate from each other.
 * Laz will most likely be a solo leonidan agent for DRACULA most of his career, but I've also considered having him form a team out of class III survivors like Rachel, Balduin and possibly others as the teams get decimated.
 * Cassandra I'm planning on altering so that she did get crippled in the augments like canon says, but then eventually fixed and made leader of Gauntlet Team (though I need to discuss that part with Lomi).
 * Jane I'm hoping to keep roughly the same - IE as a headhunter - but instead of having her and her partner join Herald Team I'd give them to Winter Team (replacing two of the members that I didn't even plan to write articles for).
 * Rachel, Balduin and Hào will still have their own articles, but probably not as long as the previous three. Therefore it won't hurt if they're connected with each other and/or with the other three in some way.
 * Rachel and Balduin I want to keep roughly the same, though as mentioned above, it's a possibility to have them and one or two other surviving ARES members form a team with (or without) Laz.
 * Hào I intend to keep the same, just his team roster might be different.
 * Bonnie is the only spartan article (except for Mattias-256, which has nothing written on it anyway) that I'm considering to get rid of - and by get rid of, I mean give it to Baccus rather than have it deleted. That way, I get to combat my nagging annoyance with there being only male leonidans and at the same time not waste efforts on an article I'm not that concerned about nowadays. An alternative is that I make her a headhunter instead, have her lose her first partner, and then pair her up with Jane (or, she starts out as a leonidan, then gets assigned to headhunter, then get paired up with Jane).
 * As for the teams (Sienna, Winter, Herald, Yellow and Gauntlet);
 * Sienna's the team I hope to repurpose as the ARES-survivor group - which I need to discuss with Lomi, since he also has some of his characters assigned to it. Alternately, I come up with a different name and give the team to Lomi.
 * Winter, as I said, I'm planning on assigning Jane and her partner (possibly Bonnie, but more likely Nessa like before) to. Hào will remain, but Rachel and Balduin will probably go to that class III team.
 * Herald I'll probably delete: without Jane in it, it doesn't serve any purpose.
 * Yellow is unnecessary if Cassandra's removed - could always be mentioned as being her team during the training phase, but otherwise doesn't serve any purpose.
 * Gauntlet, I'm planning to assign Cassandra to, but otherwise I don't intend to make any changes. I'll have to discuss it with Lomi though.

I don't know if all that made much sense, but I hope you understand it well enough to give feedback. And if you have any counter-suggestions or questions, let me know.

Don't worry about being late - I haven't had too much free-time myself this last week, so I haven't really gotten very far on my reconstruction efforts.

Anyway, thanks for the input - for once you and Lomi had roughly the same opinion (why can't you always have the same opinion when I ask for help? *mumbles angrily*). Still, I think I'm coming close to a decision regarding Laz's appearance (wasn't easy - you want him to keep his old look, Specops thinks I should change it to Kai Leng, and Lomi apparently always considered him looking like Michael Hurst for some reason): as it stands now, I'll probably keep the old look for his adult appearance, use the Hurst pic to represent his older self (luckily Tudyk and Hurst looks reasonably similar to each other, at least to me) and use Kai Leng's likeness for another spartan - Hào probably. What do you think?

Speaking of spartans, I was also thinking about Balduin. When I conceived him, I considered him 'african', which in hindsight is very vague, as there are a lot of african peoples (the western world has really come to use 'Africa' and 'african' for things it shouldn't), so I thought about making him specifically south african - the offspring of a Boer (descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of South Africa, in case you didn't know) and an ethnic black man/woman (haven't thought about which parent would be which). Do you think that'd work? In addition, I've toyed with the idea of him being totally crippled by the augments and then getting repaired by DRACULA on Laz's insistence, to give him a slightly different reason to join Sienna than Rachel. Thoughts?

Hào's the one from DIVINE SON - the leader of Winter Team. And Steve the Pirate? I thought Alan Tudyk was mostly known for Wash from Firefly/Serenity. Although, I guess you haven't seen either, like me.

And you misunderstand; I'm not making ethnicity a big deal, just introducing some genetic and cultural variety to escape the homogeneous American people & culture we've mostly seen in Halo. As for Class III WIAs, nope, we've not written anything on them as far as I know. Guess Bal could be the first :) Matt-256 10:46, April 20, 2012 (UTC)

M16A8 Image
Hey 501, could I use your M16A8 image in one of my later projects?--B1blancer2 14:22, July 9, 2012 (UTC)

Missed Jokes and such
Hey 501, can I use your M16A8 page for my stories? If so, thanks, if not, I respect your decision.--B1blancer2 (talk) 22:12, September 30, 2012 (UTC)

Hey 501, I know I might come off as a bit arrogant, but would you be willing to help me in my series, Rebel Reprisal, on the UNSC side of things?--B1blancer2 (talk) 18:37, November 10, 2012 (UTC)

VOR - Laz
I like it! I think it absolutely makes sense that ONI would want an "inside man" in the Spartans, and that they would choose one of their own to go through the augmentations - providing an inside presence, intelligence, and access to field areas and material that their own forces can't get to without suspicion being raised. And while haven't actually had an opportunity to play Spartan Ops yet, I have been watching the Youtube cutscenes and while I like the story they're telling, I definitely think these new "Spartans" feel more like bulky Marines; gung-ho, cocky and arrogant, not the professional warfighters that the Master Chief and his own class, and even the S-IIIs, were. And I'm not entirely unconvinced that it isn't deliberate, either on someone's part in-universe, or on 343i's part to make the Chief look greater by comparison. I wouldn't be surprised if it was partially sabotage to discredit the notion of the S-IVs! I also like how you tie Laz into the Spartangate event - it feels natural, organic, and not forced.

I really wish I was more involved here again! I have other projects going on, and classes starting in a couple of weeks, so I don't imagine I will be able to make much of a return in the near future. Hopefully someday, when I have less on my plate, and more time on my hands! User:Morhek 03:02, February 7, 2013 (UTC)

I...LIVE!...barely
Okay, this is really, really late, so first of all, sorry about that. Heck, you're probably no longer active either. But hey, I did some reading up on Dwindling Flame and felt I had to thank Ahalosniper for trying to finish the damn thing, so I might as well leave a message to you too, just in case. Anyway, technical difficulties and conflicting interests aside, I'm alive - just not active on wikia much. Honestly, I kinda lost my enthusiasm a bit when I lost all my word documents with stuff I had written for the big overhaul of my articles and later when my second computer had to be sent in for repairs after just a couple months of use. Even now, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get active here for real again. However, after playing (and really enjoying, surprisingly enough) Halo 4, I've started getting ideas again, so I'm busy contemplating coming back (again). That said, this time I don't intend to come back until I've finished most, if not all, of my planned writing in word, so that I don't come back, write a few articles, start a story, and then just drop off the radar again without doing anything of note. Plus, this way I hopefully won't bring anyone false hope by showing up, saying I plan to do stuff, and then don't follow through (damn, Dwindling Flame was a fitting title, wasn't it?). TL;DR: I'm considering coming back and doing some writing in word now and again, but I'm not making any promises. For what it's worth, sorry for leaving you hanging, and I hope to hear from you sometime :) Matt-256 (talk) 16:57, June 25, 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, we definitely should :) Good to see you're still kinda around. Matt-256 (talk) 14:34, June 29, 2013 (UTC)

Still not sure if I'm coming back for real, but I did write some Ares Log entries and decided to put them up. All of 'em are Laz's journal entries, mostly his reaction to the augmentations, an explanation for Balduin being cited as being in the field with Orange despite being wounded in the augments, as well as setup and exposition on Laz forming Sienna Team with Rachel, Bal and Lomi's class IIs Silvie and Darcy - one of the plans I had for my previous "comeback" plans, and one of those I didn't feel the need to change. I also made a decision regarding Laz's leonidan status that means we hopefully won't have to change anything on the Class III article - he's still Rich's leonidan, but DRACULA (through the alias MORIARTY) gets to act as his handler, being Rich's second-in-command (and later in charge of the covert ops group after Rich croaks). Hope I didn't make things confusing this way. See ya. Matt-256 (talk) 20:11, July 6, 2013 (UTC)

Thanks :) I do have some ideas for an entry on Standoff's funeral. Don't know whether it should be a regular journal entry or a cam-recording (filmed by an ONI officer tailing Laz for whatever reason), or both. Then there's the matter of when it would take place, where, and what guests (Laz, Bal and Rachel are obvious, and I'm guessing Connor and Roger would pop by if they could, but who else? Do you think Standoff had any extended family or friends left?). Other than that, I could always fill out the journal entries between 2540 and 2548. Wish me luck :) Matt-256 (talk) 07:50, July 7, 2013 (UTC)

Will do :) Speaking of which, I just added a couple journal entries and an audio log about Rachel. It's funny how easy these are to write: I've been having writer's block on my actual articles, but these I manage to churn in just a couple hours. Oh, and I just noticed that the article was voted a Good Article - good job :) Matt-256 (talk) 10:28, July 7, 2013 (UTC)