"Subtle" Drama

Okay, wised up a little today. Put the logs onto my flash drive so I could refer back today while I worked on a post. Don’t expect this level of brilliance to continue.

There was a lot of more subtle drama last night. The subtle stuff probably needs more explaining than the in-your-face melodrama that actually can be easier.

So, let’s start at the beginning. Frost had a hot cup of coffee. No big deal, right? It is to someone who could never eat or drink anything without turning it cold. It was too hot for Frost, though. Because he’s not used to it, or because the amulet is wonky? Good question.

(As an aside, I noticed this before, but… the NPC’s in Pocket D talk entirely too much. Shut up, already. And, there was a character in Pocket D while Frosty was having his coffee, talking in Broadcast named “MANCRUSH“ running around, saying “MANCRUSH mancrushes on“ and he‘d throw in a random name. *snicker*)

Oh, and we can’t forget E, Mason and Frost geeking out to Pikachu and friends. Fyre and I were both lost, and we both resisted commentating. Much.

That was Carnies and Praetorians. Frost has Carnie issues as we all know. But, he handled it well. Fyre and I are of the opinion it was mainly because there were about seven Carnies in the whole mission. The team backed him up, both with tactics and with moral support. But is that going to be enough if there are hordes of Carnies? It’ll be interesting to see.

Small detail Fyre noted: Mason mentioned Jack. Very minor mention, but it’s the first time she’s heard Mason talk about him since he was angry at Jack about the Star thing. Mean anything? Maybe not, but noted.

Frost called it a night, and E, Mason and Fyre did an uneventful Nemesis mission.

And then Malta. Fyre actually should have been more panicky, but I backed off a little. I’m probably… failing the character some, but I just can’t do long drawn out melodrama, I think. I made an effort, but I’m not sure how well it worked. Instead of totally freaking when she saw the Malta, she zoned out for a few minutes. She stayed that way through mission, in some degree or another. If someone would ask her now what happened during the mission, she wouldn’t remember much.

E and Mason tried to convince her there was nothing to worry about. Fyre said she didn’t want to do it, and E told her, “Someone’s going to die if we don’t.” In Fyre’s not-quite-correctly-functioning mind, she heard that someone else was more important than she was. After all, someone already had died, and she isn’t looking forward to doing it again. Then, E tried to make a joke. Mason jumped to her defense, and possibly even over-reacted a little. Having Mason defend her to E woke her up a little. It’s not supposed to work like that, after all, right?

Fyre was hesitant, timid, and quiet. Again, I may have been too subtle. Fyre doesn’t necessarily like fighting, but she’s never been hesitant about jumping in, even if it gets her beat up. She figures it’s just something that needs to be done, and trying to avoid it doesn’t get anyone anywhere, and usually just makes it worse.

Mason said, “I don’t remember them hitting that hard.” Fyre wanted to argue. Of course they hit hard. She’s proof. Then he qualifies it by stating that it was when he was covered in rock. “Oh,” she says. That does change it. She knows that he still has issues with not being as tough as he was, so she understands. And, it does make sense.

It was bound to happen, but there was a Malta Quantum. That revs up the panic level some. And it was about this time that I realized the game was trying to help me out. Fyre has the Warshade version of tp-foe. (Picked up in the last power-picking round, it’s brand new, unslotted) And it wouldn’t hit a damn thing. Well, that’s perfect, isn’t it? Fyre’s light-headed from panic, she’s shaking, she’s about to run out the door, or throw up, or something. Of course she can’t hit anything. I couldn’t have planned it better. (For actual use, that power needs an accuracy, stat.)

A few groups later, E wants to send Mason in his dwarf form into the room first. What?! They’ve been trying to tell Mason that he’s not a tank, pointing that it usually ends in a face-plant, and E wants to use him as a tank now? Is he trying to kill Mason, or what? Fyre wanted to argue, but Mason didn’t wait for it. And he was fine.

Next group, sapper. Uh-oh. Sappers aren’t fun, even when your character’s not deathly afraid of them. (This was the only sapper in the entire mission. I think they try to break new people in on Malta easy. Because I KNOW they usually aren’t this easy. I’ve been stomped by gunslingers and sappers way, way too many times). E suggests another teleport, setting the sapper “right where Doppy can see him.” Fyre has been thinking about E’s ghosts, and their real role. She’s starting to feel bad for them, even. So, she apologizes to Doppy first, then misses, again.

Mason makes a meant-to-be-harmless comment and spurs Fyre into a mini-anxiety-attack. Which, again, I probably under-played. She settles down, tries again, hits, they move on and rescue the hostage without much further incident.

The hostage identifies E by name, and Fyre thinks she recognizes him. E’s player had sent me a tell earlier, and we decided that the hostage is one of Fyre’s “people.” Styrm missed his deadline, remember? He’s going to step it up. He doesn’t seem like he’d take losing very well, so she’s been expecting something. Fyre would have made a phone call and confirmed that it was one of the people she’d had guarding E, though she’d called off that guard once they all realized that the ghosts weren’t going to let anything get past them. Of course, that’s what she was going to do. But, roadblock.

Fyre’s been rubbing the back of her neck. She has a scar there, from the Malta ambush that killed her. Remember, Fyre is still rather vain. Not only does she have an imperfection, but she’s carrying a reminder of a traumatic death. (is that redundant? Can a death be not traumatic? Anyway…) I don’t think she even realizes she’s been doing it, but when Malta comes up, she reaches to touch the scar.

(No, E, it’s NOT a crescent moon shaped scar. But… On that subject, Fyre has been wearing a purple crescent moon as a brooch on her cape since level 30, on the purple outfit. I know, it’s small. I changed the shade of the clothes once, and the cape once, and lost the fishnets, but the brooch has been there, untouched, for 12 levels. And no one’s noticed. What’s it mean? Nothing? Who knows?)

Mason has noticed her motions. She did it again when they were leaving the mission. He says she needs a massage. She catches what she did and figures Mason thinks she’s too tensed up. She thinks about it, and it sounds like a good idea, so she says she’ll call her masseur. Mason hesitates, then says, “Maybe I could do it for you.”

Hold on, time out!

The first time that E touched her more than casually was after a mission against something with a TON of knock back. Fyre didn’t stay on her feet for more than couple of minutes at a time, and complained about being sore. E offered a backrub. Fyre pointed it out to him then, and it should be a universal rule, if a man suggests a back rub, he’s got a lot more than a back rub in mind.

But, wait… Mason’s gay, right? Right? Isn’t he? Oh, sure, he’s said, “I’m not gay,” but that’s not what he meant, right? He’s just not ready to admit to total gay. He says he still likes looking at the Carnies, and he complimented the “hot little number” Fyre wore to lunch. But, women know they can admire and appreciate other women, and not be attracted to them. Fyre’s even told Frost he looks good in his cowboy hat, but that doesn’t mean she wants him. Mason wants E, certainly not Fyre.

Whew. Nothing to get worked up about. Right?

E doesn’t seem so sure. He takes an unfocused, round-about shot at Mason. Crackerjack box… Yeah, anyway. E goes off to talk to his contact.

Mason, somehow, has become the group comforter. He’s the one who talks E down when the Circle sends him into scared-out-of-his-mind-babbling mode. He’s the one who stands between Frost and the Carnies, and now Fyre and Malta. Right now, she doesn’t have any conflicts going with Mason, and again, if he’s gay, there’s no confusion. E has entirely too many of his own issues. She doesn’t trust his actions or motivations right now, and he’s not doing so hot a job at the comforting. So, she’s going to gravitate toward Mason for the moment, when she needs someone.

She has sympathy for him, too, for what she sees as his unrequited love for E. When he says how brave she was for facing Malta, she protests, and adds that she couldn’t have done it without Mason and E. She qualifies her statement when E asks over the comm by saying that he and the ghosts did a lot of the work. Mason says, “Don’t ever forget about E,” and seems upset. She sees it as Mason thinking about his feelings for E.

E comes back in time to say he’s calling it a night. He has mysterious “appointments” the next day again. Fyre tries to get him to explain what, but he avoids the question. He also references a comment Fyre made a long time ago, which I don’t remember completely, but it was something about cockroaches and E, and it wasn’t nice. Fyre flinches but doesn’t argue.

Mason offers to walk Fyre back to Pocket D, where she decides her next stop is.

Now, I’m going to go off on a small tangent here. Mason had said at one point that Fyre liked to hang out at Pocket D. She actually doesn’t. Back when she had a demon and an evil sorceress whispering in her ear, she was afraid to be around people. If she wasn’t with the E or the team, she stayed away from people. If she failed for a minute, Katherine was going to start killing people, whoever she could reach. The less people around her, the better. With the threat of that, and her early lack of control of her powers, she didn’t even want to meet Jen when E wanted her to. She got over most of that, and obviously met Jen and spent time with her, but Fyre still didn’t like crowds. Too many targets, still, and later, too many potential enemies. Later, she got used to E being around, but when he was gone, she felt more alone than ever. And recently she’s almost afraid to be alone. In Pocket D, she can be alone with people around. She can’t hurt anyone there, and no one can hurt her. She can’t sleep, and she’s way too stressed. So, she spends as much time as she can stand there, off and on.

They get there, but Mason’s ready to pass out, and Fyre protests that she does NOT need a baby-sitter, so she sends Mason on his way.

And that’s where we all left it. Thursday is supposed to be villain’s night, but I don’t know if we can let the angst rest for an entire night. We’ll see.

Oh, and just to keep you updated: I still hate I9. I got an orange salvage drop last night. It was only worth about 5k. *sigh* Apparently, I9 doesn’t like me much, either.