Captain Piett and the "Proto-Rikti"

Will had his freak-out last night. His player already posted in his blog, and I probably could have just made this as a comment to that, but I have more space to ramble here. Ramble, me? No, really, it happens sometimes.

Anyway.

We did three or 4 missions on the Dark Mavis/Dark Maverick arc.... how do you get from Dark Maverick to Dark Mavis? She calls herself the Dark Maverick, but she's listed as Dark Mavis. Did I miss something, or is it just one of those irritating little typo type things? Is a little consistency too much to ask?

Anyway.

Just those couple of missions caused quite a bit of ang-- er, drama. And, checking Wiki, I see I made an error.

I hate Task Forces. I've mentioned this. So, I don't pay much attention to them. They all sort of run together for me. My first thought when Mavis sent us on the trail of Aurora Borealis was the task force where you're sent by her husband to rescue her. Okay, if I remember that much of it, Fyre must have done it, right? Wrong! That task force doesn't exist any more, and it hasn't existed for a long time. Fyre couldn't have done it. I'm not even sure I've done it.

But, we'll play it as it stands.

So Fyre thought Aurora might know who she was. Well, of course not, but Fyre was slightly concerned. Then Mavis set them on the trail of Longbow's "sapper" tech. Malta has sapper guns. Malta killed Fyre, so she's understandably got some issues there. Then, one of the scientists involved in the sapper tech is now residing with the Lost.

At level 30, Lost become Rikti. We were 29, so there were bound to be some 30s in the mission, even at the Heroic-- er, Villainous setting. And there were. And Will freaked.

Fyre's pretty understand of the freaking. She's done it, both over Malta and once over a mission in an insane asylum, that I don't recall very well.

Okay, I don't recall, because it didn't actually happen. Back in the Team 1.0 days, either at or near 50, there was a mission to go after Malaise. It's set in the hospital/insane asylum map that we've recently run into villain-side with Team 3.0. Character-wise, Fyre freaked, and wouldn't have gone inside. It should have been as bad, at least, as her Malta-mission freak out. Probably much worse, because she wasn't nearly as tough as she is now. In reality, it was an "RP-lite" team, and it was late at night, and in tells it was decided to "pretend" she freaked, and just go on with the mission.

But, anyway, she's understanding of Will's issues, and she has sympathy and concern for him. She hasn't mentioned her own, both because she's not a "sharer" and because she doesn't feel they compare. Will's mourning the death of thousands of people, including his family. For her, the only death involved was her own. It makes her feel as though she's being selfish.

Quick aside: I love the way Will's player is using the minions. Sinatra, the commando, in particular, and to a lesser extent Taylor, the medic, are almost developing into characters themselves.

So, the argument of the previous night is more than forgotten, Fyre's concerned about Will, and Will finally acknowledges that Fyre wasn't just making up stories about the Lost and the Rikti.

And then we get a mission about an ex-hero that's come to the Rogue Isles and become a villain. "Again," says Will. "Again?" asks Fyre. Well, yeah, a couple of days ago, there was a Freak that had been a hero in Paragon. "It must be a trend," comments Will. Two isn't a trend, Fyre points out. "Four is," says Will.

Silence. Dead silence.

Will is, obviously, referring to Mason and Fyre. Fyre doesn't consider herself a villain. She hates that she might be thought of as one. She doesn't like being put in the same class as psycho-serial-killer Mason, either. Especially by Will, who doesn't hold Mason in very high esteem, to say the least. Was that an innocent comment, or did he know how much it would disturb her? If he knew, did he say it because of how much he disapproves of her actions, or is it some jibe to get back at her for being right about the Lost and the Rikti? Either way, it's enough to remind her how distrustful she should be. Just because she can identify with some of Will's issues, she shouldn't overlook what he is, or how dangerous he could be.

And, 3 more levels to fire imps.