Mason and "Red" Tag-Team

We're nudging ever closer to "angst." I guess with this set of players, and the characters that we've dragged into the new Virtue villain team, it was inevitible. Team Nevermastermind. For blogging ease, we'll stick with Team NM, but in my mind, it's Team Nevermastermind.

First, we had more fun with the sapper tech. I had no idea it came up once, much less twice. Will has a sapper gun. Fyre's not happy. Not happy is really an understatement. She's scared, nervous, unsettled, concerned, distressed.... etc. It's impossible for her to hide that level of discomfort from Will. He's seen the scar on her neck-- which I hadn't thought about being visible with her hair pulled into a ponytail until Will and his player pointed it out, but, yeah, it would be. Will was able to make the connection between the scar and the sapper rifle, but Fyre's not going to talk about it easily. While there are things to distract them from the issue, she's going to go along with the distraction.

Distractions abound.

Mason's stand-in, Red, and Havoc both join up. The Rikti appear. Unremarkable missions. (And, damn, wish I could keep Arena and Help out of my chat logs)

Then, Red hints and then admits that he's reporting everything back to Mason. Well, first "someone," but it was obvious, at least to Fyre, to whom he was reporting. At first, Fyre doesn't understand why Mason's so interested in what the group's doing. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, so why does he care what they're doing? (I see in Mason-the-player's blog that Mason-the-character thinks that Fyre might be forming some sort of army to go after Mason. Mason-the-character has officially lost it. Wait, lost it again? Still? Whatever. Had he mentioned that to Fyre, she'd never stop laughing.) Red says repeatedly that it doesn't matter. Confusion quickly turns to anger. Of course it matters.

Master Masonry: Why should it. Not like I have orders to kill you or anything like that. Sheesh.
Cpt. William Piett: ...yet.
Fyre-Hex: You wouldn't be the first from him to.

That's why it matters. How many times has Mason wanted to, tried to, or tried to get someone else to kill Fyre? Really, I've lost track. I think just in the post yesterday or the day before, I mentioned that Fyre was unconcerned with Mason as long as he stayed out of her way, which she now sees he's incapable of doing that. Mason doesn't like being ignored. Maybe that was part of his motivation?

Red has a completely twisted view of Mason, and of Fyre from the lies Mason has told him. Fyre realizes that quickly, and doesn't expect Red to believe anything she has to say about Mason, or about anything else. She should have simply told the "kid," "Buzz off. If I see you again, you're dead. Tell Mason to shove it." But, of course, we like long complicated, convoluted storylines and conversations, so it drags, and Fyre tells him things about Mason that he hadn't known. The truth, though she never expects him to believe her or any of it to make a difference.

Master Masonry: Because he doesn't trust you. It's why he's set me on you. He said you lie.
Master Masonry takes a moment.
Master Masonry: Wait... what?
Fyre-Hex: He said *I* lie? Ha! You don't know Mason very well, do you?

The irony is rather staggering.

Fyre's jumped on Red everytime that Red calls Mason "the Master." She finally tells him why.
Fyre-Hex: You know where he got the idea to have people call him "master?"
Fyre-Hex: From a guy who tortured his best friend almost to death.
It doesn't have much of an impact on Red. In fact, nothing has much of an impact on Red until Red finally catches on that Mason's gay. That's the last thing that Fyre would expect anyone to have a problem with. The betrayals, the lies, and the violence, yes. Homosexual tendencies? No. But that's what Red gets stuck on.

Master Masonry: He has people. He has people who care about him, who do what he asks and orders. You have to pay for your friends.
Master Masonry nods to Piett.
Master Masonry: You have no one who cares.

Is this hitting too close to home? Later, in Pocket D, Mason says something similar. It doesn't bother Fyre nearly as much as one might expect. She's been alone most of her life, with superficial friends and lovers. More after her powers surfaced. She's come to terms with it, so she's able to brush if off, especially as it comes from Red, whom she couldn't care less about, and Mason.

Right around here is where Fyre starts losing it, though:
Fyre-Hex: I told you, you idiot, why he uses that title.
Fyre-Hex: Do you think that's... admirable?
Master Masonry: Why... you just think that because someone else used that title that he took the idea from him.
Fyre-Hex: Mason wants to be like a guy who tortured someone to get them to give up their nine-year-old daughter. Someone who was supposedly Mason's best friend.
Master Masonry:
Fyre-Hex: The same little girl that Mason was willing to turn over to the first "master," for god knows what.

Red's stupidity and blind loyalty and admiration for someone as cruel as Mason, once Red's aware of the things he's done break through Fyre's lack of concern for Mason. She's so angry at Red and Mason both that she can barely see straight. If Fyre was any of the things that Mason's told Red, well:
Fyre-Hex: You stupid son of a bitch. If I was a witch, you'd be a pile of ashes right now.
Master Masonry: No... no...
Cpt. William Piett:If this was directed at me, he'd be a corpse decorating the bottom of the Pit.
Master Masonry: You're not doing... that because... you're too afraid.
Fyre-Hex: Of you?
Master Masonry nods to himself as if agreeing with his statement.
Fyre-Hex: Do you have any idea of the things I've gone against?
Master Masonry: Of the Master.
Master Masonry: You're afraid of him, you make these things up to discredit him.
Fyre-Hex: Your "master" wets his pants when I look at him wrong.
Yeah, she's exaggerating... a little. Mason is afraid of her, of course. We all know this, and Mason even admits it again later. But she's angry.

Red gets hung up on where Fyre's fire comes from. Now, Fyre and I were both surprised that not only Mason remembered, but found it important enough to tell his minions. And, like Fyre tells Red:
Fyre-Hex: Not that even freakin' matters.
Fyre-Hex: Mason used his hands and guns to kill your friends. Does it matter where he bought the guns, or whether he wore gloves or not?

Finally, Fyre says:
Fyre-Hex: You're an idiot. And you tell Mason that if he wants to know what I'm doing so damn bad, he can ask me his own damn self.
And Red takes off.

Oh, of course, not before Captain Piett shoots Diesel in the kneecap. Hey, he did warn him first. And with a gang, if you make a threat and back down from it, you lose more than face. Medical care in the Rogue Isles certainly made it a minor problem. Fyre was shocked until she thought about it like that, but then couldn't find much fault with Will's actions. And, the truth is:
Fyre-Hex: And... still better than he would have gotten from Mason in a similar situation.

Now, I knew if we put it off, I'd forget how angry Fyre was, and Mason's player was still hanging around.... so, we set up a meeting in Pocket D for them.

I wanted to take level 50 Blaster Fyre, not level 29 Dominator Fyre. I thought for sure the arena would be involved, and Mason was going to be either a level 50 tank or a level 50 peacebringer. Mason-the-character avoided any fighting, though. Mason was entirely too calm. Fyre even tried on purpose to get him rilled up, and he hardly stirred. Fyre was thinking maybe he was on some sort of drugs. (no, not Prozac... like, animal tranquilizers or something.)

Mason was hung up on Fyre "trying to undermine everything I built over there." Fyre had no idea what he meant. This must be a reference to Mason's paranoid suspicion about Fyre building some kind of army to take him out?
Masonry Redux: You're trying to undermine everything I built over there.
Keen Havoc: What are you building over there? "The Masonry Cult?"

Mason, and Red earlier, keep saying that Fyre is cheating on E with Captain Piett. Fyre ignores it. First, she's not doing anything with Captain Piett that would be included in "cheating." Also, she and E didn't have the type of relationship at the time of his coma that would ban any actions that would be considered "cheating." Is it more complicated than that? Of course it is.

Mason also brings up Fyre's ancestor and the demon.
Masonry Redux: Given up on getting rid of your curse, too?
Fyre Hex: Mase, I think you *are* my curse.
Again, Fyre and I are surprised that Mason's processed and retained any of that information. She manages to dodge and misdirect any questions or hints. She never lies, or even bends the truth. Anything she says about it is the absolute truth. She just doesn't elaborate.

Those two things are the only thing about the conversation with Mason that stays with her. She's concerned with Captain Piett's perception of the hints and accusations that Mason throws out, and she plans to talk with him about those as soon as possible. Havoc hates Mason enough, and is less concerned with her, that she doesn't consider his reaction as much.

Mason denies, misremembers, and misrepresents quite a few things they talk about, as usual.
For example:
Masonry Redux: I was having them watch you. What's so bad about that?
Masonry Redux: Not like I would have them kill you.
Fyre Hex: It wouldn't be the first time you've tried to have someone kill me, would it?
Masonry Redux: sighs:: So you say.
Fyre Hex: So I say? Do you have amnesia?
Masonry Redux: Often.
Fyre Hex: Obviously.
Fyre's used to him twisting... no, breaking the truth, so she pretty much brushes it off.

Mason mentions that one of gang, Jynx, liked Fyre. Fyre's pretty sure that Mason's lying. Had one of the gang expressed something that wasn't hate or contempt for her, Fyre figures that Mason would have just killed him for daring to think in a way different from Mason.

Mason gets shot down a lot. Captain Piett turns him down more than once, and a little later Havoc turns him down, too. Fyre points out more:
Fyre Hex: Mase, I don't care. I didn't want you, E didn't want you.... ::shrugs::
Masonry Redux: Nope. I can deal with that. Your loss.
Cpt. William Piett: As long as there are teenage necks to break, you'll deal.
Fyre Hex: Ah, but it's my neck he really wants to break. And it makes him so angry that he can't.
Masonry Redux: I've sworn off it. I'm going for a clean slate now. I have no choice.
Masonry Redux: glances at Fyre::
Masonry Redux: It does.
Fyre Hex gives Mason a blindingly bright smile.
Masonry Redux: ::mutters:: Bitch.
Fyre Hex laughs.

Mason tries to start with Havoc, by bringing up again that he's sleeping with Havoc's brother, which seriously bothers Havoc. Fyre tries to deflect him, because she sees how upset it makes Havoc:
Fyre Hex: Hey, Mase?
Masonry Redux: What?
Masonry Redux blinks.
Fyre Hex: When you're sleeping with Daisuke, are you dreaming about killing people? Snapping necks? My neck?

Fyre Hex: Stay away from us. Keep your boys away from us.
Fyre Hex: And, Mase.
Fyre Hex gives another bright smile.
Fyre Hex: Dream about me.
Masonry Redux: I'll dream about you all right.
Masonry Redux: It won't be pretty.
Fyre Hex: I wouldn't expect anything other from you, Mase.
Masonry Redux: Nice to know your expectations are so easy to satisfy.
Fyre Hex: I have low ones for you.

Finally, there were so many good lines. But the winner is the game. In the midst of the conversation in Pocket D, an NPC near Fyre came up with:
[NPC]Raver: Never date a redhead. Don't ask.