What I Did With My Work Day: Fyre and E, Part 1

I’m supposed to be working. I have a rather large project that I haven’t even started on. I don’t have an internet connection where I am, so I thought I’d be safe from distractions. Oh, but I forgot about that chat logs saved on my laptop, didn’t I? What could a quick scan hurt, right? Well, here it is two hours later, and I’m still reading chat logs. So, at this point, I’m just going to go with it. I’ll post this when I get home.

The logs I have here are from when “Team 2.0” began. After Fyre and Mason’s transformations, and after E has been saved from his old boss, and the team met up again. The initial discussion is telling, but that’s not what I’m going on focus on at the moment. It was probably covered in Mason’s blog at some point, for one thing. For another, this is going to be long enough. I’m probably going to break this into at least two entries at it is. I think this is the base of E and Fyre’s relationship, as it is now, so even though it’s old, I’ll post it.

Briefly, though. E had a bad reaction to the Kheldians. It wasn’t overt, and it looks like Mason didn’t catch it, or it didn’t bother him. Fyre was having her own issues, so E’s reaction hit her much harder. Anytime E had a shocked, surprised, or disgusted reaction, she snapped at him. It got worse as the night went on. The next night, it kept getting worse, and exploded after Mason left them.

Again, remember, this all in the past. This is before Ben, before the team fractured from that.

During the first Warshade arc, the Circle is kidnapping Warshades. Significant here because Fyre knows E’s feelings about the Circle, and she’s seeing disturbing parallels.
Fyre: Well, you and the Circle have something in common, then.
E.VAC: Uhh... we do?
Obsydian Fyre: Your opinion of warshades, apparently.
E.VAC: Whatever.
More fighting, then:
E.VAC: Someone I thought I knew is now at least partly someone I don't. And the someone I don't isn't even human. Or corporeal.
E.VAC: It's not like I want to sacrifice you on an altar. I'm just not sure I know you.
A lot of this is through missions, but I’m just going to run it all together, because it’s a continious conversation.
Obsydian Fyre: You know, how about next time, I just die, to make the transition easier on you? Mase, too. We wouldn't want to make things difficult for you, I'm sure.
E.VAC:...thanks for that. Like I wasn't already beating myself up for that.
Obsydian Fyre: Yeah, right. I'm sure you were.
E.VAC: Like you know how I feel. Or care.
Obsydian Fyre: You've told us how you feel about the "things" that are, were, whatever, your friends.
E.VAC: At least I'm honest about being a little freaked. How long did it take 'til you... or the old you, anyway... to admit it was my empathic powers that freaked you out?
E.VAC: And after all that time spent in fear of someone touching your mind or getting into your head... well, now you've got someone in there. A complete stranger.
E.VAC: Somehow, it was okay for *that* reformed murderer to share head-space with you.
Obsydian Fyre: She's not a stranger. She's... she's probably the only person other than my father that actually cared about me.
Obsydian Fyre: You don't know anything about her.
E.VAC: Exactly.
Obsydian Fyre: At least she won't--
Obsydian Fyre: Forget it.
E.VAC: Say it.
Obsydian Fyre: No. You don't know what I was going to say, anyway.
E.VAC: I think I do. You were going to say she won't abandon you.
E.VAC: Like you think I did.
Obsydian Fyre: What does it matter what I was going to say, anyway? You've made it clear that you'd've rather I just died out there, instead of being this. Why don't you wait and you can give Mason a hard time next time you see him, and give me a break?
E.VAC: Because Mason actually cares about what happened to his friends.
Obsydian Fyre: Yes, he does.
Obsydian Fyre: So I don't care, is that what you're saying?
E.VAC: So it would seem.
E.VAC: Or maybe it's just that your new friend doesn't.
Obsydian Fyre: Ha, and Serra was trying to get me to go easier on you. Until you started referring to me as "that thing."
E.VAC: I'll bet.
E.VAC: What does it care about me? It's just happy to have a nice new body to inhabit.
Obsydian Fyre: She was actually plenty happy on her own. She saved me because no one else could, and there was no other way for her to do it.
E.VAC: Or so it tells you.
Obsydian Fyre: Quit calling her it.
E.VAC: Oh, I wouldn't want to make IT mad.
Obsydian Fyre: That's just childish, E.
E.VAC: Pot. Kettle. Accusations of African heritage.
Obsydian Fyre: And, continuing along the same theme.
E.VAC: Would you prefer "I'm rubber, you're glue"?
Obsydian Fyre: You're trying to irritate me by sticking to a small point, and ignoring the much larger picture. So, despite your stated opinion that you're simply following suit, yes, I'll still call that childish.
E.VAC: The large picture, as I see it, is that I spent the last two weeks being systematically tortured. I come home to find people I cared about died because I wasn't there and are now sharing head-space with alien beings neither they nor I know a bloody thing about. That about cover it?
Obsydian Fyre: No, it doesn't.
Obsydian Fyre: You're forgetting the part where you're acting like an ass about it.
E.VAC: Oh, then do enlighten me.
E.VAC: Oh, I'm so sorry I can't be instantaneously all right with the new situation. Maybe I ought to seek counseling about my inability to cope with my world being turned inside out.
Obsydian Fyre: Yeah, maybe you should. And it's not just your world, you know.
E.VAC: I'd talk to my best friend about it, since we were coming to care about each other a lot. But no, wait. She snarks at me every time I even mention what's bothering me.
Obsydian Fyre: No. You're wrong.
Obsydian Fyre: My first instinct was to help you with Jen. I was thinking what I could do, who I could call. But then you started... being a jerk about it.
E.VAC: I practically broke down in tears on the tram platform. Especially as Mas started talking about what he'd do to my ma... my old boss should he catch him. At what point was I a jerk about it?
Obsydian Fyre: The part where you could barely stand to stay on the tram platform once you found what had happened to Mase and me. "How could you let those things inside your head?" 'Cuz I could have chosen not to. I think you'd have been much happier with that decision.
E.VAC: If that's what you think, then you really aren't the Alexandra I knew.
Obsydian Fyre: Yeah, right. You're the same old E, for sure. Exactly what I should have expected. The only emotion you showed on that tram platform was disgust.
E.VAC: If our places were reversed, you'd be no different.
E.VAC: Or should I say *Alexandra* would've been no different. I'm not sure at all how *you'd* react.
Obsydian Fyre: If our places were reversed, I'd be happy my friends were alive, and I'm be working with them to figure out solutions to all our issues.
E.VAC: Bull. You're not even doing that now.
Obsydian Fyre: No, I'm certainly not. I'm very much doubting that you are, or for that matter ever were my friend.
E.VAC: Forget about me. What's the last kind word you said to Mas? What've you done to help him deal with his situation?
Obsydian Fyre: And you? When you weren't freaking out over a little eye-glow?
E.VAC: You're the one who said you'd be acting like Saint Alexandra in my shoes. I admit to having a hard enough time catching up with my own problems right now.
Obsydian Fyre: I don't know what to do for Mason. I don't even quite understand what's going on there. He's acting strange, but he's not the same Mason we knew, so.... Maybe it's not really strange.
Obsydian Fyre: But, you... Ha. I was still thinking of things I could do to help last night. How dumb am I.
E.VAC: Here's a suggestion: act like a friend instead of slamming me for daring to mention my problems.
E.VAC: Oh, but then you'd actually have to be my friend instead of... whatever you are now.
Obsydian Fyre: I'm "slamming" you for exactly what you did there. I'm a "thing," a "whatever." Why would I want to help someone who talks to me, and thinks of me like that?
E.VAC: You explode and turn into a flying squid that shoots lasers out of its eyes!
E.VAC: How am I not supposed to be freaked out?
Obsydian Fyre: Do you think this was what I planned on? I had a choice: death, or this. I chose. If you would have rather I made another choice, that's your problem. I'm adjusting. You'll either have to do the same, or stay away from me.
Obsydian Fyre: If you're that disgusted, or "freaked out," go away.
Obsydian Fyre: You are good at going away.
E.VAC: You're not giving me a chance to adjust. You're asking me to be okay with this right now. In the middle of every...
E.VAC: Now that's not fair and you damn well better know that.
E.VAC: I was only supposed to be gone for a weekend. Instead, I was gone for almost two weeks. Did you do anything about that? No.
E.VAC: It wasn't my friends who came and saved my ass. It was frickin' Longbow. Co-workers. People being paid to do the job.
Obsydian Fyre: Oh, so sorry, I was busy getting killed by Malta. And then spending time in the hospital where they had to drug me up to keep me there.
Fyre has an extreme fear of hospitals, which I’ll cover in another entry
E.VAC: So you're excused but I'm not. Spiffy. Glad to know where I stand.
Obsydian Fyre: I wasn't asking for or offering an excuse.
E.VAC: Asking for? No. You've already gone and assumed that I wasn't there for you by choice.
E.VAC: Offering? Oh, yeah. You've done nothing *but* make excuses.
Obsydian Fyre: For what? I don't have anything to make excuses for.
E.VAC: Of course not. You're perfect.
Obsydian Fyre: I am? No, definately not. I certainly never have been, and I don't expect to be now.
Obsydian Fyre: You, on the other, hand...
Obsydian Fyre: "Saint Alexandra," you said. More like Jason Pace, martyr.
Obsydian Fyre: He cares for everyone and everything, but no one feels his pain.
E.VAC: Now I know you're not her any more.
Obsydian Fyre: Oh, I'm definately me. But I had some time to think recently, and I've been listening to you go on about how much you cared for me, and how we were best friends.
E.VAC: Were you thinking? Or was *it* thinking for you?
E runs off to kill some Thorns.
Obsydian Fyre: A pathetic little insult, and then you run away, because I hit a soft spot?
Obsydian Fyre: Dammit, E, what are you doing?
E.VAC: My job.
Obsydian Fyre: You idiot. Fine. Get smacked around by the Circle. Whatever.
E.VAC: Better than being smacked around by the thing that looks like my friend.
Obsydian Fyre: You know, I was only your "friend" once we got into dangerous, exciting situations and you decided you were attracted to me. It could have been worse, I could have shot you with a rocket launcher.
Fyre is referring to E’s ex-wife, who did indeed try to shoot him with a rocket launcher. Fyre thinks E’s attracted to her at least in part because she reminds him of his ex.
E.VAC: Even when she hated me because I had mind-powers, Alexandra never would've taken that cheap of a shot.
Obsydian Fyre: It wasn't a cheap shot, it's the truth.
E.VAC: Which just shows more that you're not her.
Obsydian Fyre: You'd rather I was dead than admit you're wrong.
E.VAC: You just keep adding to the proof with every word now. Why don't you just drop the act? It'd save us both a lot of time.
Obsydian Fyre: Why don't you stop being such an ass?
E.VAC: Because I *am* an ass.
Obsydian Fyre: Obviously. I knew that. I hate when I forget important stuff like that.
Obsydian Fyre: I was fooled for awhile. I started thinking maybe I was just a subsititute for your crazy ex... same situation, same pattern, and all. At least now I know I was right.
E.VAC: Of course you were.
Obsydian Fyre: Too bad I had to die for two minutes to figure it out. If I'd been dead for four minutes, I'd probably be a genius.
E.VAC: You've always known best. And now that you're an alien, hell, you probably know all kinds o' stuff.
Obsydian Fyre: Oh, no. You obviously know *much* more than I do.
E.VAC: I couldn't possibly. I only have *one* brain.
Obsydian Fyre: You do? I would have guessed less.
E.VAC: Oh, look: you're right again.
Obsydian Fyre: That hardly counts. It was too easy to figure out.
E.VAC: Gee, I suppose you're... well, golly. Right again.
Madness Mage: Your interference in our affairs ends here, Obsydian Fyre. But don't worry. No one will miss a Warshade.
Obsydian Fyre: See? All kinds of stuff in common with the Circle. "No one will miss a Warshade." E.VAC: Heck, no. I kinda feel for the Warshades. They're reformed criminals and murderers after all. Nothing wrong with that.
Obsydian Fyre: I guess meeting you was just preperation for meeting Serra, then. Although, I don't think she was much of a criminal or murderer. Maybe you can compare body counts some day.
E.VAC: Well, hell. You knew me for months and never let me in. You knew her for less than two minutes and made her a welcome guest.
E.VAC: Guess I was just too human for you.
E.VAC: Or is that the real reason you keep calling it "her"? I hear that's all the rage among superheroines these days.
Obsydian Fyre: Funny, when the alien is more "human" then you are.
E.VAC: Yeah, I should've been able to see the humanity in its compound eyes. Or the number of tentacles.
Obsydian Fyre: I think you're getting confused with the roaches in your hotel room.
E.VAC: I can see where that confusion would be easy.
Obsydian Fyre: Well, get used to it. I hear roaches are immune to radiation, so at least you'll have friends.
E.VAC: Apparently the roaches don't like me much, eh?
Obsydian Fyre: They just can't see past your rough exterior to the warm caring inside, I suppose.
Team task completed.