I got home late last night and I was tired. But I'm pretty determined to get that freakin' Essence of the Furies without paying 4 million influence for it. That means a PuG, at least. I hate PuG's eighty percent of the time, though, and want to kill them after about half a mission. Sometimes less. The last one I was on, I was targetting teammates for fun after the second teamwipe. I left after the third. I didn't used to have such PuG-hatred, but since I'm used to a consistant large group of players that know what they're doing, I have less patience with stupidity.
Anyway, hooked up with a group of the usual suspects instead. I think it was a Council mission I joined in the middle of. It was pretty quiet, really. Mason and Fyre have ignoring each other down to an art form, and everyone really seemed to have missions and the game more on their minds than characters or RP, which was absolutely perfect for the mood I was in.
During a Banished Pantheon mission, I got Hamidon Goo! Oh, guess that's not really the important thing to note, though. Mason whispered for Frost, "Ask her how E is." The emphasis is mine. If Fyre heard, she ignored him. Frost told Mason to wait until they were done. I think it was a mission after that, while they were waiting outside, Frost asked Fyre if she'd heard from E. "No," she says. And nothing else. Frost says that E's normally with the team around now. Fyre acknowledges that's true. Guess she did hear Mason ask Frost to ask? After a minute, she relents and realizes that Frost probably wants to know himself. She says that E's back in the locked ward in the hospital, but that's all she knows. Star asks who E is (she's lost her memory), and Mason says, "their friend." Blood question the "their" and Mason says E doesn't need him. Blood mentions E being grumpy the other night, and says, "The man is dying. He is going to be moody." Fyre bolts for Ghost Falcon and ignores the rest of the conversation.
Well, most of it. The Best Line of the Night Award goes to Blood, again.
Bloodshot: So, Mase are you a quarter or a dime?
Masonry Redux: I don't understand what you mean.
Bloodshot: Well you flip like a coin, just trying to find out like which one.
A Hydra mission is next up, a couple of missions later, and Red Pulsarion joins up. The rest of the team waits forever for Frost and Mason. Everyone's just kind of sitting around inside the mission. (out door map, plenty of space). Frost and Mason finally get there, and wonder where everyone is. "Fyre's there," says Frost. The rest are on higher ground on a rock. Red asks about Fyre, "She OK?" Fyre says, "Yes," just as Frost starts to say," She's bee-" I'm so glad he stopped. She would have yelled at him, and I really don't want her going off on Frost. It'd be like kicking a puppy. A sick, injured puppy.
Red starts working on me and Fyre early:
Red Pulsarion: (chuckles) Wow, Fyre.
Fyre Hex: What?
Red Pulsarion: They're just all on the floor before I'm even starting.
I love doing damage, especially after that wanna-be damage the Warshade did. I love lobbing a fireball into a group and watching all those orange numbers float up. Yeah, I know, but I can't help it. It makes Fyre feel useful, and the acknowledgement makes her feel appreciated, neither of which she's felt much of for a long while.
Towards the middle of the mission, Mason comes up with:
Masonry Redux: Fyre, what are we pissed off about each other for this time?
Huh? What? Burning Hydra here.
Fyre Hex: I haven't said a word to you, Mason.
Masonry Redux: Which means you're pissed off at me.
Fyre Hex: Those are the only two sentences you've said to me, also.
Masonry Redux: Now why, I forget.
Masonry Redux: For three days.
Fyre's screaming in her head to herself something like, "Because you're a jerk! And if we talk, we're going to fight, and if we fight, we might kill each other!" But she doesn't say anything in order to not scream at Mason.
The rest of the mission goes pretty smoothly. They even took out a Shadow Cyst Crystal without any fatalities. As soon as everyone zones out of the mission, Mason flies over to Fyre.
Masonry Redux: Hey. I'm sorry.
Fyre Hex: For what?
Masonry Redux: He's dying.
Fyre Hex: Mason, shut up. See? You "apologize" and then try to antagonize me again.
Masonry Redux: I'm not antagonizing you.
Masonry Redux: I'm stating a fact.
Fyre Hex: Leave me alone, Mason. You're not trying to help at all.
And she takes off for the next mission.
Mason and Frost explain a little to Red, and Fyre completely ignores them. Red tries to give Mason some advice, but who knows if it sticks. The longer they talk, the harder it is for Fyre to ignore them, so she finds some stuff to beat up so she can't hear them. Nemesis, Malta-- perfect. And this is the Malta I remember. Two white-conning Gunslingers and some blue minions knock her right out of the sky. I unexemp, and hit Rise of the Phoenix immediately, and she wipes out the now-grays. Red tries to get Fyre's attention. She asks if they're ready for the next mission, but continues attacking things. Red tries to chase her down.
Fyre Hex: Don't follow me, you're going to get hurt. Just let me know when we're ready.
She runs straight into Blood, who's come up on her with his stealth suit on, but she sees the boots when she practically runs into him, and Red comes up from the other direction and asks her to stop.
Red Pulsarion: (gently) Fyre. Can you slow down just a minute?
Fyre Hex: What?
Red Pulsarion: I just wanna say one thing. Then I won't bring it up again, OK?
Fyre Hex: ::warily:: Okay...?
Red Pulsarion: My wife... she died of cancer about a year ago now. (clears his throat)
Red Pulsarion: >50 years, almost.
Fyre Hex: I'm sorry to hear that, Red, it must have been tough.
Red Pulsarion: (nods, seriously) Yeah, there--well, there were a lot of times I didn't know how I was gonna keep going.
Red Pulsarion: More when I was pretty sure I didn't want to.
Red Pulsarion: But here's the thing I want to say. You're--not alone. You understand?
Red Pulsarion: You got people around you who want to help you. Don't be afraid to let them try. They'll screw it up sometimes, like Mase did.
Fyre Hex: ::gives a short, hoarse laugh:: You know, ye-- Nevermind, Red.
(She would have finished with, "You know, yes, I am.")
Fyre Hex: I am sorry about your wife, though. It's good that you're getting back in the game. You're a big help.
Red Pulsarion: (quietly) Fyre?
Red Pulsarion: If you ever need someone to talk to who knows what you're feeling--
Fyre Hex: ::looks away and mumbles:: Thanks.
Red Pulsarion: (sighs and nods) Alright, then. I've said my piece. What you do with it, well, that's up to you.
Red Pulsarion:For what it's worth, though, every minute is--precious. EVERY minute.
Fyre Hex: ::smiles a little:: Red, your hearts in the right place, but... well, it's hard for you to get an idea of the situation after hearing about it for ten minutes, you know?
Red Pulsarion: I heard about it a bit this mornin', too. And I've fought alongside him. But you're right, I'm kinda shooting blind here.
Fyre Hex: And, god knows, if Mason tells you that something's black, check for yourself before you believe it.
Red Pulsarion: ... (shakes his head slowly) Fyre, Mase can be a little clumsy, sure. But I'm pretty sure his heart's in the right place, even if his mouth isn't.
Red Pulsarion: (smiles to himself) 'course, you just said the same thing 'bout me, didn't you.
Fyre Hex: Yeah? You think? Because for the past three days he's been going out of his way to *prove* how much he doesn't care about E, and now he's all apologetic and crap. Because he has an audience. It'll be back to normal by tomorrow.
Red Pulsarion: Fyre. (scratches his chin slowly) How many guys have you gotten to know in your life? Not romantically, just--gotten to know.
Fyre Hex: ::laughs:: Mason's a jerk because he's a guy? No way. Sorry.
Red Pulsarion: (smiles) I'm trying to explain, Fyre. He's not trying to be a jerk at all.
Red Pulsarion: He's building walls, see?
Red Pulsarion: He can't deal with how much it's getting to him, and he's trying to get it under control by putting up a wall.
Red Pulsarion: Not entirely unlike some fiery ladies who've been flying all over blowing stuff up.
Fyre Hex:You know what? I don't care about his "walls," I really don't. Except that he feels the need to lob cannonballs from the tops of them.
Red Pulsarion: (nods) Well, I had a word with him about that. And if I hear he's done it again, he and I will have a few more words.
Red Pulsarion: But if he didn't care, he wouldn't need to put up the wall in the first place, Fyre. Might help to keep that in mind.
Fyre Hex: This is what I'm getting sick of.
Red Pulsarion: Hm?
Fyre Hex: I'm supposed to ignore all his bad behavior because he's got "issues." Fu-- forget that. We've all got "issues." I don't have the... patience to keep dealing with his. There ARE more important things than Mason.
Fyre Hex: It's like... we're supposed to give him a time-out and a slap on the wrist. "Now, Mason, you really shouldn't do that."
(Fyre'd had a very similar conversation with Kit the night before, or at least that's what she'd gotten from the conversation. Like someone said, it's like, "Poor Mason, he's so deep, you all just don't understand him.")
Red Pulsarion: Course there are. (smiles) And I didn't say to ignore anything. If he gives you grief, kick his behind all over the city.
Red Pulsarion: Just keep in mind while you're doin' it, he's got his own issues he's trying to deal with. That's as good as you can do, sometimes.
Fyre Hex: He doesn't have... compassion for anyone else. Let everyone else play enabler for him.
Red Pulsarion: ... Fyre, not to be blunt, but at the moment I don't give a rat's ass about Mase.
Fyre Hex: No? That's not the impression I was getting. I was hearing... well, something different, apparently.
Red Pulsarion: I'm more concerned about a young lady facing the toughest thing in her life. You don't need to defend how you feel about him. Not to me, anyways.
Red Pulsarion: Apparently so. (sighs) Lemme try again. Shorter, maybe.
Red Pulsarion: Your friends want to help you. Let 'em know when they're screwing it up. Loudly, so they get it. But--keep in mind, they're there for you.
Red Pulsarion: Don't push 'em away. It feels mighty good, because you're mad. But--it doesn't help.
Fyre Hex: *I* don't *need* help. And no one is offering it. Even if I did. If anything my "friends" are doing their best to cause more problems.
Red Pulsarion: (quietly) Alright, then, Fyre, I'll stop bugging you. But--just for the record--I AM offering help. You can take it or not, that's up to you.
Fyre Hex: Thanks, but... ::looks away:: Thanks.
Red Pulsarion: (nods) You're welcome.
Red Pulsarion: (looks around) I do believe I managed to blab all our fighting friends off to sleep, though.
Fyre Hex: Oh. Huh. The comm is quiet, isn't it?
Keen Frost: We're alive.
Fyre Hex: ::startles slightly:: Oh. Guess there are still people around.
Red Pulsarion: (surprised)
(Switched from Team to Local)
Red Pulsarion: (apologetically) I didn't realize. I'm sorry.
Fyre Hex: I didn't really, either, I guess. I was.. thinking about other things.
(And I totally wasn't thinking about the conversation being in-team or "on the comm." Between it being late, and the conversations we've had in the team channel but the other characters hadn't "heard," and just being involved in what I was doing, I never thought about it. I don't know if the other characters "heard" or not.)
Red Pulsarion: (nods) Yeah, there'll be a fair amount of thinking about other things in the days to come. (sighs) I wish I could tell you otherwise.
[Team] Masonry Redux: Hello.
Fyre Hex: bites her lip and looks away:: Maybe.
[Team]Keen Frost: ::clears throat::
[Team]Red Pulsarion: Mase, Frost.
Red Pulsarion: (nods) Well, one day at a time, right?
Fyre Hex: tries to smile and fails:: Yeah, guess so.
Red Pulsarion: (gently) Fyre? I know this isn't much, but...
Red Pulsarion: Right up to the end, there's good. Sometimes days, sometimes minutes. But they're still there.
Fyre Hex: ::turns her head away:: Nobody's talking about an end.
Red Pulsarion: (quietly) Course not. And you both keep fighting for as long as makes sense to. Who knows, might even pull a win out of the hat.
Red Pulsarion: If the time comes when you need to change how you think about it, you'll both know it.
Fyre Hex: softly:: He said weeks. Days.
Red Pulsarion: (looks down) Well.
Red Pulsarion: Then lemme make a suggestion.
Red Pulsarion: Don't spend your time listening to an old windbag like me. You don't have much time, maybe. So make the most of what you do have.
Fyre Hex stares at the ground and shakes her head without saying anything, refusing to acknowledge the tears
Red Pulsarion: Fyre...?
Fyre Hex shakes her head again, still not saying anything
Red Pulsarion walks up tentatively.
Red Pulsarion puts a hand on her shoulder quietly.
Fyre Hex lets out half of a sob before backing away and looking past Red's shoulder.
Fyre Hex: I can't... I have to go...
Red Pulsarion: (nods) I understand.
Fyre Hex: I'm-- Thanks.
And she took off. I imagine she went off and cried in corner somewhere, then went to the hospital to wait until she could see E or someone chased her away.
I don't think she's completely out of her denial, but she must be mostly. She won't acknowledge anything outloud, at least. Red showed concern for her, and that doesn't happen to her very often. Mason may have for a minute or two during her first Malta freak-out, but he ruined that about twenty-four hours later. E has, but, not only does he have more important things to think about, but she wouldn't accept it from him right now, because he does have more important things to worry about. Other than that, pretty much never.
Fyre's not "deep," or complicated. She wants to be cared about, but she's never been, so she doesn't expect it, and has a hard time dealing with it when someone does. She's got some of that "I'll hurt you before you hurt me," but she's not a mean person, so that doesn't come out too often. It's not hard to figure her out or figure out what her reactions will be. Sometimes that makes her too easy to set up or set off.
"Angst Force Sunday" should be... interesting.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Thoughts on Team 3.0
I’m not a planner. I haven’t really planned out characters, either RP or straight game-play. Maybe that’s why I’ve deleted so many?
I haven’t sat and planned directions for Fyre, ever. Yeah, I’ve had some vague ideas. Some, I’ve used. More, I’ve thrown out, because the “plot” just didn’t go in that direction. I have a couple of vague ideas of what might happen next from where we are now, but since I don’t know what everyone else is planning, and it’s apparent that there are Plans, I don’t know how Fyre will react. And, Fyre often has ideas of her own, and doesn’t bother sharing them with me until the last possible moment.
All this means that I have no concrete ideas for “Team 3.0.” That is, if Fyre exists for Team 3.0. E’s said that there won’t be an E3. (And then two minutes later, he pitches ideas to me of what E might evolve into for Team 3.0. Way to firm up those plans! ;) )
I have a very hard time imagining Fyre without some kind of fire related powers. In CoH, that pretty much limits me to a fire controller, or a fire tank. The idea of Fyre as a tank, or a fire tank in general, doesn’t excite me at all. That leaves a fire controller. I could do that. I’ve had various alts with the Kinetic powerset, but I’ve never managed to get them very far, so I still have interests there. I also see the Empathy powerset as a possibility. But, can I think of a reason why Fyre would suddenly have “empathy?” Not really.
I think, though, that Team 3.0 is leaning much more heavily toward CoV. Talking to E, I had said that Fyre doesn’t have the capacity for sustained villainy. And, I still don’t think she does. Fyre could kill someone in a fit of rage. Accidentally, or purposely. She could kill someone to protect herself or someone she cared about. Could she sit and plan out the death of, or a crime against, a disinterested third party? No. If there is a villain-Fyre, she’s going to have to be A) coerced, B) possessed.
E and I had vaguely kicked around the idea of Fyre being a type of guardian for Jen in the Rogue Isles. I have problems with this because, if Fyre’s in her right mind, there’s no possible way that she’s going to let Jen roam around the Rogue Isles, or even be there in the first place. If she’s not in her right mind, then there’s no way Jen is going to be safe around her.
I had an idea of Fyre being possessed by Katherine, either part of the time, or totally. I don’t think I could play “Katherine” for long, so that leaves a part-time possession. Either back and forth, or starting as Katherine, and then Fyre regaining control and finding herself stuck in the Rogue Isles. Also, Katherine does not play well with others. Except maybe like how a cat plays with a dead mouse. Unless someone has a way to control her, she’s only interested in destruction.
If somehow the character makes it to the red-side, there’s a fire brute, a fire dominator, or a fire/thermal corruptor. Katherine could be (and briefly was) a fire brute. Fyre? Well…maybe not. A fire dominator would work. A fire/thermal corruptor would totally work. Absolutely perfect… BUT. I have a level 41 fire/thermal corruptor. I think I could do it again, though. It’s been a long time since I’ve played the other, and I could switch up powers and slotting enough that it would be interesting. Maybe. And… Fyre’s suddenly healing people? That might take some explaining, and I can’t exactly think of an explanation.
And we run into another thing to think about here. If Team 3.0 is anything like the original team or Team Angst, this is going to be something that I’m going to play just about every day, and something I’m going to want to play AT LEAST to level 50. I don’t want to get stuck with an uninteresting or frustrating AT, or, worse, character. On good days, Fyre is interesting, to me, among her other qualities. Is she going to continue to be interesting? Well, I think that’s one of those things that’s impossible to predict, because it depends on too many variables.
Another big stumbling block that’s been brought up is keeping a team of villains together. Why would “bad guys” hang out together for long periods of time? How can they continue to relate to each other without causing each other grievous bodily harm? We’ve had a hard time doing that with heroes, much less “villains.”
I haven’t sat and planned directions for Fyre, ever. Yeah, I’ve had some vague ideas. Some, I’ve used. More, I’ve thrown out, because the “plot” just didn’t go in that direction. I have a couple of vague ideas of what might happen next from where we are now, but since I don’t know what everyone else is planning, and it’s apparent that there are Plans, I don’t know how Fyre will react. And, Fyre often has ideas of her own, and doesn’t bother sharing them with me until the last possible moment.
All this means that I have no concrete ideas for “Team 3.0.” That is, if Fyre exists for Team 3.0. E’s said that there won’t be an E3. (And then two minutes later, he pitches ideas to me of what E might evolve into for Team 3.0. Way to firm up those plans! ;) )
I have a very hard time imagining Fyre without some kind of fire related powers. In CoH, that pretty much limits me to a fire controller, or a fire tank. The idea of Fyre as a tank, or a fire tank in general, doesn’t excite me at all. That leaves a fire controller. I could do that. I’ve had various alts with the Kinetic powerset, but I’ve never managed to get them very far, so I still have interests there. I also see the Empathy powerset as a possibility. But, can I think of a reason why Fyre would suddenly have “empathy?” Not really.
I think, though, that Team 3.0 is leaning much more heavily toward CoV. Talking to E, I had said that Fyre doesn’t have the capacity for sustained villainy. And, I still don’t think she does. Fyre could kill someone in a fit of rage. Accidentally, or purposely. She could kill someone to protect herself or someone she cared about. Could she sit and plan out the death of, or a crime against, a disinterested third party? No. If there is a villain-Fyre, she’s going to have to be A) coerced, B) possessed.
E and I had vaguely kicked around the idea of Fyre being a type of guardian for Jen in the Rogue Isles. I have problems with this because, if Fyre’s in her right mind, there’s no possible way that she’s going to let Jen roam around the Rogue Isles, or even be there in the first place. If she’s not in her right mind, then there’s no way Jen is going to be safe around her.
I had an idea of Fyre being possessed by Katherine, either part of the time, or totally. I don’t think I could play “Katherine” for long, so that leaves a part-time possession. Either back and forth, or starting as Katherine, and then Fyre regaining control and finding herself stuck in the Rogue Isles. Also, Katherine does not play well with others. Except maybe like how a cat plays with a dead mouse. Unless someone has a way to control her, she’s only interested in destruction.
If somehow the character makes it to the red-side, there’s a fire brute, a fire dominator, or a fire/thermal corruptor. Katherine could be (and briefly was) a fire brute. Fyre? Well…maybe not. A fire dominator would work. A fire/thermal corruptor would totally work. Absolutely perfect… BUT. I have a level 41 fire/thermal corruptor. I think I could do it again, though. It’s been a long time since I’ve played the other, and I could switch up powers and slotting enough that it would be interesting. Maybe. And… Fyre’s suddenly healing people? That might take some explaining, and I can’t exactly think of an explanation.
And we run into another thing to think about here. If Team 3.0 is anything like the original team or Team Angst, this is going to be something that I’m going to play just about every day, and something I’m going to want to play AT LEAST to level 50. I don’t want to get stuck with an uninteresting or frustrating AT, or, worse, character. On good days, Fyre is interesting, to me, among her other qualities. Is she going to continue to be interesting? Well, I think that’s one of those things that’s impossible to predict, because it depends on too many variables.
Another big stumbling block that’s been brought up is keeping a team of villains together. Why would “bad guys” hang out together for long periods of time? How can they continue to relate to each other without causing each other grievous bodily harm? We’ve had a hard time doing that with heroes, much less “villains.”
Interlude: Research
Alexandra found herself in a position that was becoming more and more familiar with, sitting in front of a computer a desk. Granted, she was dressing a velour jogging suit, with her hair tied in a messy knot, she was barefoot, and one leg was curled under her, but it was still a desk, with a computer. She snorted. The reading glasses perched on the end of her nose were just around the corner. She squinted at the screen thoughtfully. Nah, not yet.
She reached for the coffee cup beside the laptop and took a drink, instantly making a face at the room temperature liquid. She didn’t remember how long it had sat there to get that way, but she’d been involved in the things the on the screen.
Every day, sometimes every hour, more and more reports and research crossed her e-mail. Almost every day, some other type of reports and research were added to the growing virtual stacks. Some of it was deleted as unimportant. That pile was small. Some of it went aside to refer back to later. Some of it was sent on to be delved into further. Or, like the pages on her screen at the moment, sent to someone who could make more sense of it. The scientific jargon that looked more like nonsense words to her would come back to her in wording she was able to understand, if necessary.
Her accountants and business manager were baffled by the sudden and severe increases in her spending. Good people weren’t hard to find, just expensive. And even more expensive if you wanted to keep your interests to yourself.
She rubbed her temple. Another stress headache, or she’d been staring at the screen too long. Maybe the reading glasses where a good idea. She picked up her coffee cup and concentrated on the screen, taking more effort to get around the headache than it should have. In a minute, the coffee was steaming again.
She remembered how many coffee mugs she’d shattered trying to learn the fine control it took to do such a little thing. But, that was a long time ago. Before. She hadn’t been able to do it at all, for awhile, after she’d met Serra. Now, it was second nature again. She paused, watching the steam rise from the mug. She hadn’t made a conscious effort to reheat it, had resigned herself to drinking cold coffee. Apparently, her subconscious disliked cold coffee more than she did. She shrugged to herself and moved on to the next e-mail.
A report reporting nothing. Those were becoming more and more common. She clenched her jaw. Hitting walls was becoming more and more common. Lack of information, information that didn’t apply, information that had already come through from another source. It wasn’t accomplishing anything.
As hard as she was glaring at the screen, she barely noticed the smell of burning plastic. A second later, the mug shattered in her grip, suddenly boiling liquid splashing across the desk, the computer, her sleeve. She heard the faint echoes of maniacal female laugher. It was a familiar sound, and becoming familiar again.
Refocusing was much harder than it should have been. Coming back to herself, she saw the deep melted indentation under her hand, across the keyboard and the touchpad of the laptop. It was the second one she’d melted in the past week. She wiped wetness from her face. Instead of coffee, her hand came away coated with blood that leaked from her nose.
Her headache was gone.
She reached for the coffee cup beside the laptop and took a drink, instantly making a face at the room temperature liquid. She didn’t remember how long it had sat there to get that way, but she’d been involved in the things the on the screen.
Every day, sometimes every hour, more and more reports and research crossed her e-mail. Almost every day, some other type of reports and research were added to the growing virtual stacks. Some of it was deleted as unimportant. That pile was small. Some of it went aside to refer back to later. Some of it was sent on to be delved into further. Or, like the pages on her screen at the moment, sent to someone who could make more sense of it. The scientific jargon that looked more like nonsense words to her would come back to her in wording she was able to understand, if necessary.
Her accountants and business manager were baffled by the sudden and severe increases in her spending. Good people weren’t hard to find, just expensive. And even more expensive if you wanted to keep your interests to yourself.
She rubbed her temple. Another stress headache, or she’d been staring at the screen too long. Maybe the reading glasses where a good idea. She picked up her coffee cup and concentrated on the screen, taking more effort to get around the headache than it should have. In a minute, the coffee was steaming again.
She remembered how many coffee mugs she’d shattered trying to learn the fine control it took to do such a little thing. But, that was a long time ago. Before. She hadn’t been able to do it at all, for awhile, after she’d met Serra. Now, it was second nature again. She paused, watching the steam rise from the mug. She hadn’t made a conscious effort to reheat it, had resigned herself to drinking cold coffee. Apparently, her subconscious disliked cold coffee more than she did. She shrugged to herself and moved on to the next e-mail.
A report reporting nothing. Those were becoming more and more common. She clenched her jaw. Hitting walls was becoming more and more common. Lack of information, information that didn’t apply, information that had already come through from another source. It wasn’t accomplishing anything.
As hard as she was glaring at the screen, she barely noticed the smell of burning plastic. A second later, the mug shattered in her grip, suddenly boiling liquid splashing across the desk, the computer, her sleeve. She heard the faint echoes of maniacal female laugher. It was a familiar sound, and becoming familiar again.
Refocusing was much harder than it should have been. Coming back to herself, she saw the deep melted indentation under her hand, across the keyboard and the touchpad of the laptop. It was the second one she’d melted in the past week. She wiped wetness from her face. Instead of coffee, her hand came away coated with blood that leaked from her nose.
Her headache was gone.
Little Drama, Little Update
The drama’s been pretty quiet. Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s just the calm before the storm.
Mason and Fyre haven’t fought for two whole days. Fyre’s not talking to Mason. She doesn’t trust herself. She doesn’t want to upset E, and she doesn’t really even want to fight with Mason. She knows the chances are good that someone’s going to get hurt if things escalate anymore. She’s afraid of saying the unforgivable, but she’s more afraid of doing the unforgivable. She’s honestly afraid of killing him. No, she doesn’t want him dead, or even maimed. But control has never been her strong suit, and she can feel it slipping even more. He seems especially interested in pushing the bounds of the control she does have, so she’s trying not to give him the opening to start pushing again.
(By the way, I thought Mason’s Carnie outfit was hilarious, but Fyre was trying her best to ignore Mason’s entire existence, which was not easy with those pants involved.)
During the Malta mission, she chose to “space out,” rather than give the fear and anxiousness a chance to break the control she did have. I heard music running through her head as she tried to be anywhere but there, mentally.
E’s been questioning and hinting around Katherine’s and the demon’s return. I can’t deny their influence, but I won’t say how much they are influencing her. I can’t. She’s not even sure how much is her and how much is them. She’s… “stressed” doesn’t even begin to cover it… beyond belief, and she’s trying to keep it all bottled up. Is it going to find a slow release? Will something be able to simply dissipate it? Is there going to be a huge, fiery explosion? Aside from outside events that I can’t predict, a lot of that depends on the direction of Team 3.0.
Mason and Fyre haven’t fought for two whole days. Fyre’s not talking to Mason. She doesn’t trust herself. She doesn’t want to upset E, and she doesn’t really even want to fight with Mason. She knows the chances are good that someone’s going to get hurt if things escalate anymore. She’s afraid of saying the unforgivable, but she’s more afraid of doing the unforgivable. She’s honestly afraid of killing him. No, she doesn’t want him dead, or even maimed. But control has never been her strong suit, and she can feel it slipping even more. He seems especially interested in pushing the bounds of the control she does have, so she’s trying not to give him the opening to start pushing again.
(By the way, I thought Mason’s Carnie outfit was hilarious, but Fyre was trying her best to ignore Mason’s entire existence, which was not easy with those pants involved.)
During the Malta mission, she chose to “space out,” rather than give the fear and anxiousness a chance to break the control she did have. I heard music running through her head as she tried to be anywhere but there, mentally.
E’s been questioning and hinting around Katherine’s and the demon’s return. I can’t deny their influence, but I won’t say how much they are influencing her. I can’t. She’s not even sure how much is her and how much is them. She’s… “stressed” doesn’t even begin to cover it… beyond belief, and she’s trying to keep it all bottled up. Is it going to find a slow release? Will something be able to simply dissipate it? Is there going to be a huge, fiery explosion? Aside from outside events that I can’t predict, a lot of that depends on the direction of Team 3.0.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Keeping the "Angst" in Team Angst
I should have just called this post, “Shut up, Mason.” Fyre’s going to have a big posterboard signs printed and posted around Paragon, just to save time.
First, something I probably should have covered yesterday.
I won’t say that Fyre is getting over her Malta issues, but she’s so distracted and angry that it’s been pushed to the side, for now. Also, our Malta missions have been pretty easy. I remember Malta being a lot tougher. But, then, we ran Team 1.0 on a higher difficulty. Gunslingers were usually red to us. Is she going to freak again if there’s a team-wipe? Is she ever going to freak again if there’s not a team-wipe? Well, I don’t know. We’ll find out together, I guess.
And, I totally missed one of the best lines in the game, but I just caught it in the logs: [NPC]Reformed Freak Proprietor: L00k, w3'r3 r3f0rmed! W3'v3 g0t l1v3s n0w, 4nd 1'm 4 buz1n3ss Pwnz0r!
Freaks are funny. Well, until you do one of the missions where the Freaks leave body bags all over the place. Then, not so funny.
Okay, let’s talk about Fyre’s… fire. Yeah, I’m still frustrated with the WS, probably. But, now that I’ve done it, I’m not sure how or why she’d go back to her Warshade powers. I hate to abandon it at level 43, when 50’s around the corner. But…it’s a 50 I’d probably never play, anyway. Here’s the thing, though: one of the best things about a Kheldian merger for Fyre was that her evil ancestor and the demon may as well have been nonexistent. Thanks to Serra, not only could she not “hear” them anymore, but she could barely even sense them. By repressing Serra so much, she’s opening herself back up to them. And her anger, fear and stress are opening her further. It’s possible their influence could even be making those feelings more intense, creating a cycle with an incredibly dangerous and destructive climax. She’s seeing those possibilities, but doesn’t see any way, or maybe even any reason to find a way, around it. No one else has thought of it, either from not having the knowledge, or just not adding it up. If they do, she’s going to brush it off, especially if it’s E. She’s certainly not going to add to his worries. Or at least try not to.
When Fyre joined up with Team Angst, Lodestar was subbing for Mason. That made Fyre’s night. Much easier to deal with. Unfortunately for Fyre, after a relatively quiet Nemesis mission, Nate-Mason was back.
Oh, right. Mason’s tail. I won’t go into that much, I’m sure Mason will. Fyre thought it was pretty funny. When they had a minute alone, she tried to explain to E that Kheldians don’t go into heat, but she didn’t have Serra around to ask, so she wasn’t entirely sure. Mason and Frost are “going steady,” as Fyre said, or something equivelant. Fyre wished them good luck, and Mason seemed surprised, but Fyre figures they, especially Frost, are going to need it. After all, no one will argue that Mason is anything like stable.
During one of their Nemesis missions, E teleports into a group and sets off EM Pulse, which makes them all fall asleep. It actually worked really well, game-wise, but it practically gave Fyre a stroke. She jumped in right behind and Inferno’ed and knocked them all down, then yelled at E for being reckless. She’s not happy about him running with them, because she thinks he’s not up for it and ought to be taking better care of himself.
On a side-note, when Team Angst met up with Futura, it was pretty fun that Star “smelled smoke” from Fyre three quarters of the way through a mission, after she’d Inferno’ed two or three times. Fyre would never say, “Well, duh,” to Star, but she was probably thinking it.
So, relatively calm Carnie mission, and then All Hell Breaks Loose. You know, as usual.
E reveals the Scary As Hell costume to Kit and the others, and admits to Kit that he’s dying. Yes, Fyre is in denial still. I don’t know if Mason is just being contrary, or is somehow trying to push Fyre out of denial, or what, but snarling, “He’s dying,” at her isn’t going to force her out of it. She’ll keep saying, “Shut up, Mason,” until she’s hoarse, at the least.
Before I gloss over it, I want to note that Bloodshot signed on to the team that’s going to go after Strym (Um, when they do. If they do. Uh, whatever). Bloodshot sort of scared Fyre before. If she wasn’t exactly afraid, she still at least wasn’t sure of what to make of him. After his immediate response last night, though she may not completely trust him, he definitely went up in her estimation. (“Do we have names? Cuz I have bullets.” Loved that!)
Also, in the midst of Mason and Fyre working themselves up at each other (as usual lately), E brings up that Strym might have a cure for E. That gave Fyre some more ideas. I don’t know if she or I will act on them, or if they‘re even feasible, but it gave us both some ideas.
It’s been hard to tell recently whether Mason has been intentionally making Fyre angry, or if it was just a side effect. Here, it wasn’t hard to tell at all. Mason and Fyre were so intent on fighting with each other, they barely noticed E struggling to stay on his feet. And maybe that’s why they are fighting so much, because it takes their minds off of E. Fyre did try not to get sucked into the argument, but Mason just kept pushing. Kit got to see Mason in action, and seemed a bit shocked by the things he said. Fyre starts fighting back, and Mason comments on the faint quality of her insults. Now, Fyre has thought of some very hateful, hurtful things to say to Mason, and she hasn’t. She came close last night, but didn’t. Those things border on unforgivable, but if Mason keeps pushing, I’m not sure that she’ll be able to keep holding back.
E says that he’d really like to hit Mason, but he’s probably not strong enough to do much damage. Fyre protests that if anyone gets to hit Mason, it’ll be her. Mason offers to let either of them have a shot. Fyre says that she shouldn’t right now. Mason keeps on the same track, and suddenly Fyre start laughing, and keeps laughing for a minute or more. Mason doesn’t understand, she says. She thinks that Mason figures her “shouldn’t” is because of not upsetting E, but it’s really because she’s pretty certain that if she does take a shot at him, she’s not going to just “beat the crap out of him.” She just might kill him.
If Kit doesn’t exactly settle them down, she get them to stop for the moment, though it takes quite an effort. Eventually, Fyre manages to stop and she takes E back to the hospital in Steel.
Things haven’t looked good for Team Angst often. I don’t think it’s been this dark before, though. Team 3.0 should be all shiny, happy people all the time. Will it be?
Not a chance.
First, something I probably should have covered yesterday.
I won’t say that Fyre is getting over her Malta issues, but she’s so distracted and angry that it’s been pushed to the side, for now. Also, our Malta missions have been pretty easy. I remember Malta being a lot tougher. But, then, we ran Team 1.0 on a higher difficulty. Gunslingers were usually red to us. Is she going to freak again if there’s a team-wipe? Is she ever going to freak again if there’s not a team-wipe? Well, I don’t know. We’ll find out together, I guess.
And, I totally missed one of the best lines in the game, but I just caught it in the logs: [NPC]Reformed Freak Proprietor: L00k, w3'r3 r3f0rmed! W3'v3 g0t l1v3s n0w, 4nd 1'm 4 buz1n3ss Pwnz0r!
Freaks are funny. Well, until you do one of the missions where the Freaks leave body bags all over the place. Then, not so funny.
Okay, let’s talk about Fyre’s… fire. Yeah, I’m still frustrated with the WS, probably. But, now that I’ve done it, I’m not sure how or why she’d go back to her Warshade powers. I hate to abandon it at level 43, when 50’s around the corner. But…it’s a 50 I’d probably never play, anyway. Here’s the thing, though: one of the best things about a Kheldian merger for Fyre was that her evil ancestor and the demon may as well have been nonexistent. Thanks to Serra, not only could she not “hear” them anymore, but she could barely even sense them. By repressing Serra so much, she’s opening herself back up to them. And her anger, fear and stress are opening her further. It’s possible their influence could even be making those feelings more intense, creating a cycle with an incredibly dangerous and destructive climax. She’s seeing those possibilities, but doesn’t see any way, or maybe even any reason to find a way, around it. No one else has thought of it, either from not having the knowledge, or just not adding it up. If they do, she’s going to brush it off, especially if it’s E. She’s certainly not going to add to his worries. Or at least try not to.
When Fyre joined up with Team Angst, Lodestar was subbing for Mason. That made Fyre’s night. Much easier to deal with. Unfortunately for Fyre, after a relatively quiet Nemesis mission, Nate-Mason was back.
Oh, right. Mason’s tail. I won’t go into that much, I’m sure Mason will. Fyre thought it was pretty funny. When they had a minute alone, she tried to explain to E that Kheldians don’t go into heat, but she didn’t have Serra around to ask, so she wasn’t entirely sure. Mason and Frost are “going steady,” as Fyre said, or something equivelant. Fyre wished them good luck, and Mason seemed surprised, but Fyre figures they, especially Frost, are going to need it. After all, no one will argue that Mason is anything like stable.
During one of their Nemesis missions, E teleports into a group and sets off EM Pulse, which makes them all fall asleep. It actually worked really well, game-wise, but it practically gave Fyre a stroke. She jumped in right behind and Inferno’ed and knocked them all down, then yelled at E for being reckless. She’s not happy about him running with them, because she thinks he’s not up for it and ought to be taking better care of himself.
On a side-note, when Team Angst met up with Futura, it was pretty fun that Star “smelled smoke” from Fyre three quarters of the way through a mission, after she’d Inferno’ed two or three times. Fyre would never say, “Well, duh,” to Star, but she was probably thinking it.
So, relatively calm Carnie mission, and then All Hell Breaks Loose. You know, as usual.
E reveals the Scary As Hell costume to Kit and the others, and admits to Kit that he’s dying. Yes, Fyre is in denial still. I don’t know if Mason is just being contrary, or is somehow trying to push Fyre out of denial, or what, but snarling, “He’s dying,” at her isn’t going to force her out of it. She’ll keep saying, “Shut up, Mason,” until she’s hoarse, at the least.
Before I gloss over it, I want to note that Bloodshot signed on to the team that’s going to go after Strym (Um, when they do. If they do. Uh, whatever). Bloodshot sort of scared Fyre before. If she wasn’t exactly afraid, she still at least wasn’t sure of what to make of him. After his immediate response last night, though she may not completely trust him, he definitely went up in her estimation. (“Do we have names? Cuz I have bullets.” Loved that!)
Also, in the midst of Mason and Fyre working themselves up at each other (as usual lately), E brings up that Strym might have a cure for E. That gave Fyre some more ideas. I don’t know if she or I will act on them, or if they‘re even feasible, but it gave us both some ideas.
It’s been hard to tell recently whether Mason has been intentionally making Fyre angry, or if it was just a side effect. Here, it wasn’t hard to tell at all. Mason and Fyre were so intent on fighting with each other, they barely noticed E struggling to stay on his feet. And maybe that’s why they are fighting so much, because it takes their minds off of E. Fyre did try not to get sucked into the argument, but Mason just kept pushing. Kit got to see Mason in action, and seemed a bit shocked by the things he said. Fyre starts fighting back, and Mason comments on the faint quality of her insults. Now, Fyre has thought of some very hateful, hurtful things to say to Mason, and she hasn’t. She came close last night, but didn’t. Those things border on unforgivable, but if Mason keeps pushing, I’m not sure that she’ll be able to keep holding back.
E says that he’d really like to hit Mason, but he’s probably not strong enough to do much damage. Fyre protests that if anyone gets to hit Mason, it’ll be her. Mason offers to let either of them have a shot. Fyre says that she shouldn’t right now. Mason keeps on the same track, and suddenly Fyre start laughing, and keeps laughing for a minute or more. Mason doesn’t understand, she says. She thinks that Mason figures her “shouldn’t” is because of not upsetting E, but it’s really because she’s pretty certain that if she does take a shot at him, she’s not going to just “beat the crap out of him.” She just might kill him.
If Kit doesn’t exactly settle them down, she get them to stop for the moment, though it takes quite an effort. Eventually, Fyre manages to stop and she takes E back to the hospital in Steel.
Things haven’t looked good for Team Angst often. I don’t think it’s been this dark before, though. Team 3.0 should be all shiny, happy people all the time. Will it be?
Not a chance.
More Music
Before I get started on the drama, I think I’ll back up a few steps. I had brief random thoughts awhile back, that included some music randomness. And it caught on. My original thoughts, though, were so brief and random that I’m doing it again, more comprehensively this time, though.
Originally, I had a play list for both CoV and CoH. Then, each game had its own. Now, both of those play lists have grown and morphed, and have overlap. I won’t post the entire lists, both because they’re long and they don’t entirely stick to the subject. I’ll hit some of the highlights of both, though.
CoV:
Rob Zombie, “Living Dead Girl,” “Girl on Fire,” “Super Beast.”
Yeah, I kinda like White Zombie and Rob Zombie. And a lot of fits CoV, both musically and lyrically.
Billy Idol, “Body Snatcher”
Off of one of his later albums, possibly the last. Again, perfect for CoV, especially when I was playing my Necromancer MM, who was, of course, deleted.
Snake River Conspiracy, “Homicide,” “How Soon Is Now?”
System of a Down, “Toxicity”
Marilyn Mason, “Long Hard Road Out of Hell”
The Donnas, “It Takes One to Know One”
Nonpoint, “In the Air Tonight”
A re-make of a Genesis (Or was it just Phil Collins?) song that I’ve always liked. The newer remake speeds it up some and adds more of that “dangerous” feeling.
Filter, “Hey Man Nice Shot”
Limp Bizkit, “Click, Click, Boom”
Gotta be on pretty much every CoV play list. As well as:
Drowning Pool, “Bodies”
I think I’ve seen CoH/V movies on YouTube with both of those songs.
Godsmack, “Voodoo”
Joydrop, “Beautiful”
Nine Inch Nails, “What You Are”
CoH:
Full Blown Rose, “In the Light”
Nope, even I never heard of this group. It’s off the Elektra movie soundtrack.
Lacuna Coil, “Swamped
Gwen Stefani, “Danger Zone” “What Are You Waiting For?”
Not particularly “heroic,” not that a lot of these choices are. The first, I just love the lyrics and the upbeat music. The second is a song that helped get me out of bed at 5am for all day long, intense training classes.
Bonnie McKee, “I Don’t Need Anybody”
Kelly Osbourne, “Save Me”
Audioslave, “Show Me How To Live”
Beastie Boys, “Fight For Your Right”
Nickelback, “Hero”
Well, duh.
Garbage, “Go Baby Go”
Garbage comes up an awful lot on both play lists. And pretty much every other play list I’ve ever made. One of my favorite groups.
Janet Jackson, “Black Cat”
Bon Jovi, “Have a Nice Day,” “It’s My Life”
Boomkat, “The Wreckoning”
The Offspring, “Defy You”
Evanescense, “Everybody’s Fool”
Poe, “Control”
Poe also sings “Angry Johnny,” that one of Sybil’s thug henchmen is named after.
Prodigy and Sneaker Pimps, “Fire Starter”
Same song, two totally different versions
Miranda Lambert, “Kerosene”
Yeah, I listen to country, so what? But, not a lot of it made it on these play lists.
Maybe I should have added a disclaimer here in the beginning. These play lists are made for game play. Some of the lyrics or song titles may apply to characters, and I may even think of some of as theme songs for characters, but they have little to nothing to do with RP. If music is on during RP, chances are really good that I’m not even going to notice, much less pay attention to it.
Originally, I had a play list for both CoV and CoH. Then, each game had its own. Now, both of those play lists have grown and morphed, and have overlap. I won’t post the entire lists, both because they’re long and they don’t entirely stick to the subject. I’ll hit some of the highlights of both, though.
CoV:
Rob Zombie, “Living Dead Girl,” “Girl on Fire,” “Super Beast.”
Yeah, I kinda like White Zombie and Rob Zombie. And a lot of fits CoV, both musically and lyrically.
Billy Idol, “Body Snatcher”
Off of one of his later albums, possibly the last. Again, perfect for CoV, especially when I was playing my Necromancer MM, who was, of course, deleted.
Snake River Conspiracy, “Homicide,” “How Soon Is Now?”
System of a Down, “Toxicity”
Marilyn Mason, “Long Hard Road Out of Hell”
The Donnas, “It Takes One to Know One”
Nonpoint, “In the Air Tonight”
A re-make of a Genesis (Or was it just Phil Collins?) song that I’ve always liked. The newer remake speeds it up some and adds more of that “dangerous” feeling.
Filter, “Hey Man Nice Shot”
Limp Bizkit, “Click, Click, Boom”
Gotta be on pretty much every CoV play list. As well as:
Drowning Pool, “Bodies”
I think I’ve seen CoH/V movies on YouTube with both of those songs.
Godsmack, “Voodoo”
Joydrop, “Beautiful”
Nine Inch Nails, “What You Are”
CoH:
Full Blown Rose, “In the Light”
Nope, even I never heard of this group. It’s off the Elektra movie soundtrack.
Lacuna Coil, “Swamped
Gwen Stefani, “Danger Zone” “What Are You Waiting For?”
Not particularly “heroic,” not that a lot of these choices are. The first, I just love the lyrics and the upbeat music. The second is a song that helped get me out of bed at 5am for all day long, intense training classes.
Bonnie McKee, “I Don’t Need Anybody”
Kelly Osbourne, “Save Me”
Audioslave, “Show Me How To Live”
Beastie Boys, “Fight For Your Right”
Nickelback, “Hero”
Well, duh.
Garbage, “Go Baby Go”
Garbage comes up an awful lot on both play lists. And pretty much every other play list I’ve ever made. One of my favorite groups.
Janet Jackson, “Black Cat”
Bon Jovi, “Have a Nice Day,” “It’s My Life”
Boomkat, “The Wreckoning”
The Offspring, “Defy You”
Evanescense, “Everybody’s Fool”
Poe, “Control”
Poe also sings “Angry Johnny,” that one of Sybil’s thug henchmen is named after.
Prodigy and Sneaker Pimps, “Fire Starter”
Same song, two totally different versions
Miranda Lambert, “Kerosene”
Yeah, I listen to country, so what? But, not a lot of it made it on these play lists.
Maybe I should have added a disclaimer here in the beginning. These play lists are made for game play. Some of the lyrics or song titles may apply to characters, and I may even think of some of as theme songs for characters, but they have little to nothing to do with RP. If music is on during RP, chances are really good that I’m not even going to notice, much less pay attention to it.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Death and Dying and Team Angst
I retired the Warshade for the most of the weekend, for a few different reasons. It's going to be hard to go back to it. I don't like it. I just don't. Maybe I'll get over it. Probably. Maybe.
I played Cass for part of the weekend. I didn't realize how much I missed it until the first time I hit Unstoppable and tanked an EB. I played Blaster-Fyre over the weekend, too, and I love the damage, but there's just something about running into a group and cutting them down one by one... at heart, I'm a scrapper, I guess. Who would have guessed? (That's sarcasm, folks.)
Cass is different to play, RP-wise, than Fyre. Yes, game-wise, too, but that's obvious. Cass was kidnapped as a child by the Circle of Thorns and trained by them to be a new type of warrior for them. There were others trained as she was, but they either didn't survive or simply disappeared. Later, she was given to Crey to work for them, as what amounts to an assassin. Cass hasn't been socialized. She doesn't have friends, hobbies, or any kind of a social or "normal" life. She's usually teamed with Scrapper-Vagz. She does not "play well with others" so she doesn't end up in big teams often, and when she does, she doesn't have a lot to say. No, she's not shy. She just doesn't care. Like E remarked, Cass is very rarely amused, entertained, or even interested. It's all a job to her, one she's done for as long as she's been alive. She works as a hero, for now, because it suits her needs. (Vague thoughts relating to Team 3.0: If we were to do villains, and say one of our heroes became a villain, Cass would be the most likely to "go rogue." Not because she's evil, just because it's pretty much all the same to her) She gets along with Vagz partly out of habit. She makes some border-line sarcastic comments and he simply laughs. He knows what to expect by now, I think. She trusts him explicitly because he's proven himself to her. If he said to jump off the bridge, she'd jump and trust that he had reasons and a plan. It can be a little difficult to play her, keeping that dead-pan tone and perfectly even temperament. Still, she can be a lot of fun and was a nice change from drama-bogged, hyper emotional (not to mention squishy) Fyre.
When we first joined up Team Angst last night, I logged in the Warshade. After thinking about it for two minutes, I switched back to Blaster-Fyre. Why? Yes, partly because I'm frustrated and annoyed with the Warshade. But, more importantly, because it fits Fyre's disposition right now. She's scared, threatened, and angry. Fire is her "natural element." It's part of what she is. She feels more comfortable like that, and she knows she's more powerful and dangerous that way. In the Malta mission the other night, Mason told her, (paraphrased) "Make me afraid of you," while he was trying to amp her up to fight Malta. Well, if that's what he wants, she can do that. Yes, she's still angry with him. Is she going to forgive him? Well... not after the rest of the night.
Scrapper-Vagz stayed with Mason, Frost, and Fyre for an Anti-Matter AV mission. It was the four of them against an AV. An AV's a little tough for four people. Fyre died three times. I used an awaken I had, Vagz gave me one, and I un-exemplared for the two seconds it took to use the self-rez in Fyre's epic powers. I'm sure it made her grumpy. Frost got stuck with one of those buggy auras that you can't lose until you zone out, and the character freaked. He's already spending half of his time fighting off radiation sickness, and then Anti-Matter hit him with a good one. Mason freaks because Frost is sick.
Now, I won't go into it, but I've had some Haz-Mat training, both in chemical and radiation. I know a bit. Enough that I've been twitching every time someone talks about contamination or decontamination. Radiation in Paragon is incredibly common, so I'm sure some procedures are different, especially when dealing with super-humans. But, I felt safe in contributing some information in the decontamination process, and tried to let the players and characters run with it from there. Any mistakes or misinformation, though, should be attributed to me, and I apologize for anything that wasn't clear or was unnecessary. (If E or Frost ever explode radiation all over the place, I'll be glad to break out some charts and we can figure out how big the evacuation area should be and in which direction we should place the green-zone staging area. ;) ))
Fyre has an extreme fear of hospitals, so unless she heard screaming or some other horrible ruckus over the comm, she was waiting outside. Would she have gone in if they needed help? Yes. Even if it was Mason that needed help. But she would have been... "unhappy" and "uncomfortable" only begin to describe it.
While she was waiting outside, E come stumbling down the stairs. She stops him and tentatively starts talking to him, asking him how he is. Mason notices and comes rushing over, practically running over top of Frost to get to E. It's obvious that E's sick. Fyre thinks at first that E has "escaped," and tries to establish if that's true, and from whom or what. Mason's having a panic attack and Fyre doesn't have the patience with him to settle him down, so tells him to shut up. Yes, she's been saying that a lot lately.
I'll skip most of the details, because E and Mason both covered them well. Let me say, though, that when E popped off his helmet, it was a pretty scary sight. Heck, it scared me, the player, much less Fyre. You can see what the player did with the "costume" when you take a closer look, but from a step back, and probably a bit of imagination once you see what the player was going for, it's scary as hell. My first impression was, "Oh my god, E's a flaming corpse." I can only imagine what Fyre saw.
E finally admits that he's dying. I suspected, because of conversations that E's player and I have had. (By the way, the fact that Star and her player figured this out already, especially given the amount of time the character has been with the team lately, floors me. I swear, she must be psychic) Fyre, though, is shocked. She goes into complete and utter denial. She's likely to stay there, too, until, and if, something shocks her out of it. Yes, as Mason, character and player, has pointed out, her first reaction is to throw money at it. It's the easiest course of action, but not the only one Fyre has thought of or plans to take. She's in denial of the "dying," but not that there's a serious problem. They touch on a magical cure, and though E vehemently opposes the idea, Fyre is not above forcing it on him for his own good. She mentions that she knows some people and she may be able to "cut a deal" of some kind. There are possibilities here, but I'll see what happens before I explore those. So, if those are the "denial" and "bargaining" stages of grief, Mason gives her the perfect outlet for the "anger" stage. (Um, five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. But you probably already knew that.)
Mason is having his own personal issues with E's revelation. Maybe he's going through his own stages. But he's hit "acceptance" at this point, and doesn't seem to want to let Fyre linger in the "denial." I really, really thought they were going to get into the "throwing punches" stage here. Fyre's not going to take the first swing, though. She doesn't hate Mason. I don't think. But she is really, really angry at him right now. He has a special knack for waiting just until she's forgiven him and trusts him again, and then hitting her wherever and however it hurts the most. Fyre is... fiery. Yeah, it's a stereotype, or whatever, but I wrote it in, and try to stick to it. She feels things strongly, maybe not for long in some cases. Right now, she's angry and hurt because of Mason. But she's completely devastated by E's news. I'm sure she spent most of the night crying in a corner somewhere. (No, she didn't show much sign of that while the team was together. She's angry enough at Mason that she's unwilling to show a "weakness," and she wouldn't want to upset E) Again, even though she's in denial of the actual "dying," it's impossible not to recognize that there is a serious problem. But if setting Mason on fire takes her mind off of E's plight... well, that's alright with her right now.
She's going to continue looking for a solution or a cure. We've seen that she doesn't always take completely legal routes, (hiring someone to hack into Longbow records, for example) and I expect that to at least continue if not grow. She's also going to treat E as if he's glass, both physically and emotionally.
So, is anyone in Team Angst going to even make it to 50? E is... very Not Well, Frost is maybe dying, and Fyre and Mason are going to kill each other. Of course, that's if Strym and Malta don't kill them first.
I played Cass for part of the weekend. I didn't realize how much I missed it until the first time I hit Unstoppable and tanked an EB. I played Blaster-Fyre over the weekend, too, and I love the damage, but there's just something about running into a group and cutting them down one by one... at heart, I'm a scrapper, I guess. Who would have guessed? (That's sarcasm, folks.)
Cass is different to play, RP-wise, than Fyre. Yes, game-wise, too, but that's obvious. Cass was kidnapped as a child by the Circle of Thorns and trained by them to be a new type of warrior for them. There were others trained as she was, but they either didn't survive or simply disappeared. Later, she was given to Crey to work for them, as what amounts to an assassin. Cass hasn't been socialized. She doesn't have friends, hobbies, or any kind of a social or "normal" life. She's usually teamed with Scrapper-Vagz. She does not "play well with others" so she doesn't end up in big teams often, and when she does, she doesn't have a lot to say. No, she's not shy. She just doesn't care. Like E remarked, Cass is very rarely amused, entertained, or even interested. It's all a job to her, one she's done for as long as she's been alive. She works as a hero, for now, because it suits her needs. (Vague thoughts relating to Team 3.0: If we were to do villains, and say one of our heroes became a villain, Cass would be the most likely to "go rogue." Not because she's evil, just because it's pretty much all the same to her) She gets along with Vagz partly out of habit. She makes some border-line sarcastic comments and he simply laughs. He knows what to expect by now, I think. She trusts him explicitly because he's proven himself to her. If he said to jump off the bridge, she'd jump and trust that he had reasons and a plan. It can be a little difficult to play her, keeping that dead-pan tone and perfectly even temperament. Still, she can be a lot of fun and was a nice change from drama-bogged, hyper emotional (not to mention squishy) Fyre.
When we first joined up Team Angst last night, I logged in the Warshade. After thinking about it for two minutes, I switched back to Blaster-Fyre. Why? Yes, partly because I'm frustrated and annoyed with the Warshade. But, more importantly, because it fits Fyre's disposition right now. She's scared, threatened, and angry. Fire is her "natural element." It's part of what she is. She feels more comfortable like that, and she knows she's more powerful and dangerous that way. In the Malta mission the other night, Mason told her, (paraphrased) "Make me afraid of you," while he was trying to amp her up to fight Malta. Well, if that's what he wants, she can do that. Yes, she's still angry with him. Is she going to forgive him? Well... not after the rest of the night.
Scrapper-Vagz stayed with Mason, Frost, and Fyre for an Anti-Matter AV mission. It was the four of them against an AV. An AV's a little tough for four people. Fyre died three times. I used an awaken I had, Vagz gave me one, and I un-exemplared for the two seconds it took to use the self-rez in Fyre's epic powers. I'm sure it made her grumpy. Frost got stuck with one of those buggy auras that you can't lose until you zone out, and the character freaked. He's already spending half of his time fighting off radiation sickness, and then Anti-Matter hit him with a good one. Mason freaks because Frost is sick.
Now, I won't go into it, but I've had some Haz-Mat training, both in chemical and radiation. I know a bit. Enough that I've been twitching every time someone talks about contamination or decontamination. Radiation in Paragon is incredibly common, so I'm sure some procedures are different, especially when dealing with super-humans. But, I felt safe in contributing some information in the decontamination process, and tried to let the players and characters run with it from there. Any mistakes or misinformation, though, should be attributed to me, and I apologize for anything that wasn't clear or was unnecessary. (If E or Frost ever explode radiation all over the place, I'll be glad to break out some charts and we can figure out how big the evacuation area should be and in which direction we should place the green-zone staging area. ;) ))
Fyre has an extreme fear of hospitals, so unless she heard screaming or some other horrible ruckus over the comm, she was waiting outside. Would she have gone in if they needed help? Yes. Even if it was Mason that needed help. But she would have been... "unhappy" and "uncomfortable" only begin to describe it.
While she was waiting outside, E come stumbling down the stairs. She stops him and tentatively starts talking to him, asking him how he is. Mason notices and comes rushing over, practically running over top of Frost to get to E. It's obvious that E's sick. Fyre thinks at first that E has "escaped," and tries to establish if that's true, and from whom or what. Mason's having a panic attack and Fyre doesn't have the patience with him to settle him down, so tells him to shut up. Yes, she's been saying that a lot lately.
I'll skip most of the details, because E and Mason both covered them well. Let me say, though, that when E popped off his helmet, it was a pretty scary sight. Heck, it scared me, the player, much less Fyre. You can see what the player did with the "costume" when you take a closer look, but from a step back, and probably a bit of imagination once you see what the player was going for, it's scary as hell. My first impression was, "Oh my god, E's a flaming corpse." I can only imagine what Fyre saw.
E finally admits that he's dying. I suspected, because of conversations that E's player and I have had. (By the way, the fact that Star and her player figured this out already, especially given the amount of time the character has been with the team lately, floors me. I swear, she must be psychic) Fyre, though, is shocked. She goes into complete and utter denial. She's likely to stay there, too, until, and if, something shocks her out of it. Yes, as Mason, character and player, has pointed out, her first reaction is to throw money at it. It's the easiest course of action, but not the only one Fyre has thought of or plans to take. She's in denial of the "dying," but not that there's a serious problem. They touch on a magical cure, and though E vehemently opposes the idea, Fyre is not above forcing it on him for his own good. She mentions that she knows some people and she may be able to "cut a deal" of some kind. There are possibilities here, but I'll see what happens before I explore those. So, if those are the "denial" and "bargaining" stages of grief, Mason gives her the perfect outlet for the "anger" stage. (Um, five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. But you probably already knew that.)
Mason is having his own personal issues with E's revelation. Maybe he's going through his own stages. But he's hit "acceptance" at this point, and doesn't seem to want to let Fyre linger in the "denial." I really, really thought they were going to get into the "throwing punches" stage here. Fyre's not going to take the first swing, though. She doesn't hate Mason. I don't think. But she is really, really angry at him right now. He has a special knack for waiting just until she's forgiven him and trusts him again, and then hitting her wherever and however it hurts the most. Fyre is... fiery. Yeah, it's a stereotype, or whatever, but I wrote it in, and try to stick to it. She feels things strongly, maybe not for long in some cases. Right now, she's angry and hurt because of Mason. But she's completely devastated by E's news. I'm sure she spent most of the night crying in a corner somewhere. (No, she didn't show much sign of that while the team was together. She's angry enough at Mason that she's unwilling to show a "weakness," and she wouldn't want to upset E) Again, even though she's in denial of the actual "dying," it's impossible not to recognize that there is a serious problem. But if setting Mason on fire takes her mind off of E's plight... well, that's alright with her right now.
She's going to continue looking for a solution or a cure. We've seen that she doesn't always take completely legal routes, (hiring someone to hack into Longbow records, for example) and I expect that to at least continue if not grow. She's also going to treat E as if he's glass, both physically and emotionally.
So, is anyone in Team Angst going to even make it to 50? E is... very Not Well, Frost is maybe dying, and Fyre and Mason are going to kill each other. Of course, that's if Strym and Malta don't kill them first.
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