Take the cilantro, leave the zamboni

I'm at work, and it's half an hour into the debates, but I'm going to home at 10:15 and that's just fine. And in the meantime, my roommate, bless her, just brought me tea. My continued hoarseness seems to have people worried, but I swear, I haven't seen any other cold symptoms yet and I hit the vitamin C hard last week and since the game.

I've been too worn out to warstory properly here, but I wanted to write down some of the feelings I had Saturday night.

I had hung out, playing Charlie, when most NPCs went off to hold the grum pep rally and do various other things. I stayed to run the magic mushrooms module, and I was sort of around to go help with the rest of the psy ops, but now that most of the monsters were out doing their thing there wasn't really a simple way of joining them, and I didn't want to confuse the sentries by wandering up there out-of-game to join the fun.

And then the first grum band attacked from the left side of the path before the lodge. I stood back, holding my sword, weighing Charlie's hesitance to approach the line against my concern that the PCs were stretched thin.

That's when the other band attacked, and I started to approach the line out of a feeling that I simply had to. I was feeling Charlie's frightened hesitance and my own calculating reluctance as an NPC simultaneously: "I don't want to get injured and let clerics spend spell points on me, and I don't want to get killed off and end this marvelous character someone wrote for me, and I'm not sure I can fight well enough not to go down quick after being in reckless crunchie mode all day, and I'm not sure I can fight quite as badly as Charlie should, and and and...." Then I saw the gap open between the tree stump and the lodge wall, and saw Sir Wesley stride through the gap yelling to hold the line, and saw Xavier come forward looking worried but determined, and I got between them, and there we were, plugging that gap and holding that line.

Sir Wesley glanced at Charlie and asked, "Are you okay?" "I'm okay, I'm okay!" Charlie yelled back, clearly only believing it by continuing to repeat it, and very nearly hyperventilating, which she suspected looked pretty funny, when she had a second to think about it. Xavier asked her same thing a minute later, just before he took a hit to an arm--or was it a leg--as a particularly wild-haired grum started laying about with a sword nearly Charlie's height, but hitting with the flat. The grum then got Charlie in the leg with the flat, and she found herself kneeling at the line, with one leg numb and throbbing simultaneously, but still between Xavier and Sir Wesley. We were all on our knees now, using our swords to block against that damn bastard sword, and I don't remember anything else specific until finally the grum band's spellcaster was killed and they retreated.

Again, Sir Wesley asked if I was okay. By this point I really WAS hyperventilating, repeating loudly, "I'm okay! I'm okay," simultaneously shocked and elated to be there. We held that line! No one fell around me! It was time for hyperventilating with joy, or something, kneeling there in the dirt. And feeling this incredible... camaraderie isn't right, was it admiration, hero worship, for Sir Wesley, for keeping morale up and caring and guarding my side. Xavier wasn't doing so good; I think he'd taken two of those hits with the flat of the blade. He got up to lean against the stump, but he was leaning hard. I leaned against him, gave him a hug, and once again I was me and he was havenstone, because Charlie probably wouldn't have hugged Xavier like that. And at the same time... "Where's my husband?" I found myself yelling. "He should be out here helping us!"

I haven't lost myself in a battle like that since... since Voyage, I think. And never as a swordswoman before, either. It impressed both me and Charlie that Sir Wesley (Kevin) was taking the time in that crazy battle to keep an eye on us. We were happy to bond with Xavier, and had a few fleeting thoughts of being brave and heroic and utterly kamikaze, which I'm glad we kept under control. (It wasn't a grand enough place to bite the dust anyway, right?) I would have liked to finish off Charlie's story, and play with her feelings for Owen some more, and sort things out with Johannes in the end, but even developing it as far as we did, with her holding the line in a battle, that was way cool.

Okay, bed now. Warstories will still be there in the morning.