Tales of the Legendary
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Smouldering Decay: Staking a Claim (pt 4)
[Decay's head space: shaken, not stirred]
I'm not sure if the sense of frustration I felt was due to my libido getting crushed or watching someone I had put on a pedestal tear it apart. Gamma was everything I could have been, could be. She was respected by her friends; in a steady relationship with her boyfriend (and girlfriend!); in control of her her life; and changing the world for the better. From the moment I got here she was something to aspire to. Ok, maybe not from the moment I got here.
When I had first arrived in this dimension, I tried to fall into the same roll I had before. But the Portal Corps here had no need for a medic who couldn't pull their weight on the battlefield, or a spy with no proven loyalties. They were nice about it though, several people gave me business cards and told me to get back in touch with them when I got about 40 more security levels under my belt.
The hospitals had similar tales to tell. Sure they could use me, if I got a handle on that pesky radiation thing. I guess with the Rikti invasion settling down to almost a cold war they weren't as desperate for trained medical staff.
Hero Corps was happy to help me find a place to stay, for a fee. And what do you know, they could help with the fee too. Just go take care of some thugs who were harassing the civilians. It was a slippery slope to becoming a hero, and I didn't resist it all that much.
Then I ran into people who recognized me, or at least they thought they did. Heroes who had worked with Gamma, and who saw in me the same thing I had seen in them every day working in the ER back home. A dedication to the greater good. And I didn't want to disappoint them, even if I didn't think it was there. I ended up joining her supergroup's sister organization, because seeing her on a weekly basis would have been far too awkward.
I worked hard to live up to her example, I brought down the bad guys and rose up through the rankings.
I learned new ways to shape the magic that was my core. But it was never enough. She always kept her distance.
But I never gave up, not in the ER back home, and not in the hope that if I just worked hard enough, she would accept me.
Tonight I thought she finally had, except I totally screwed it up somewhere. Gamma ended up crying into her knees on my hallway floor and telling me just how scared I make her feel.
And then she got up and left.
I'm not certain if I should even try and see her again. I don't feel much like a hero at all right now.
----------
Ok, I feel the need to offer a bit of overview into character that Smouldering Decay has crystalized into in my head. Because I couldn't fit all of this into the story and still have it make sense and flow the way it needed to.
When she arrived here and saw the perfect* life that Gamma had, she developed a case of hero worship (this is what you could have been/could be)
This was not helped by the fact that neither of them are very comfortable around each other.
Gamma because 'hey look, there's you. Except everyone you know might as well be dead, and you just escaped from loosing a war to the ritki. And oh yeah she does magic'.
Decay because any common ground (hospital work) they have is so not a conversation she wants to have 'they got crashed into and I watched my coworkers get spread across the walls in the accident that got me my powers'
Because neither of them had any firm grasp of what the other was like, they both assumed that they were far more alike than they are.
Decay saw someone in a polygamous relationship without seeing any of the underlying emotional ties, and figured if she could integrate herself into that she would finally be accepted.
Gamma saw one more girl teasing Terr, and overreacted because 'she's you'. Add on top of that the unintentional sympathy, again cause 'she's you', and you get impending train wreck.
It wasn't helped at all by the fact that Decay has embraced their magical nature to an extent that Gamma will never be comfortable with (or even acknowledge the possibility of).
* Gamma does a good job of keeping the emotional rollercoaster that her relationship has been behind closed doors.
----------
why are all the characters I develop the most so broken? *cry*
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
[A Hero Sandwich Production]
Smouldering Decay: Staking a Claim (pt 4)
[Decay's head space: shaken, not stirred]
I'm not sure if the sense of frustration I felt was due to my libido getting crushed or watching someone I had put on a pedestal tear it apart. Gamma was everything I could have been, could be. She was respected by her friends; in a steady relationship with her boyfriend (and girlfriend!); in control of her her life; and changing the world for the better. From the moment I got here she was something to aspire to. Ok, maybe not from the moment I got here.
When I had first arrived in this dimension, I tried to fall into the same roll I had before. But the Portal Corps here had no need for a medic who couldn't pull their weight on the battlefield, or a spy with no proven loyalties. They were nice about it though, several people gave me business cards and told me to get back in touch with them when I got about 40 more security levels under my belt.
The hospitals had similar tales to tell. Sure they could use me, if I got a handle on that pesky radiation thing. I guess with the Rikti invasion settling down to almost a cold war they weren't as desperate for trained medical staff.
Hero Corps was happy to help me find a place to stay, for a fee. And what do you know, they could help with the fee too. Just go take care of some thugs who were harassing the civilians. It was a slippery slope to becoming a hero, and I didn't resist it all that much.
Then I ran into people who recognized me, or at least they thought they did. Heroes who had worked with Gamma, and who saw in me the same thing I had seen in them every day working in the ER back home. A dedication to the greater good. And I didn't want to disappoint them, even if I didn't think it was there. I ended up joining her supergroup's sister organization, because seeing her on a weekly basis would have been far too awkward.
I worked hard to live up to her example, I brought down the bad guys and rose up through the rankings.
I learned new ways to shape the magic that was my core. But it was never enough. She always kept her distance.
But I never gave up, not in the ER back home, and not in the hope that if I just worked hard enough, she would accept me.
Tonight I thought she finally had, except I totally screwed it up somewhere. Gamma ended up crying into her knees on my hallway floor and telling me just how scared I make her feel.
And then she got up and left.
I'm not certain if I should even try and see her again. I don't feel much like a hero at all right now.
----------
Ok, I feel the need to offer a bit of overview into character that Smouldering Decay has crystalized into in my head. Because I couldn't fit all of this into the story and still have it make sense and flow the way it needed to.
When she arrived here and saw the perfect* life that Gamma had, she developed a case of hero worship (this is what you could have been/could be)
This was not helped by the fact that neither of them are very comfortable around each other.
Gamma because 'hey look, there's you. Except everyone you know might as well be dead, and you just escaped from loosing a war to the ritki. And oh yeah she does magic'.
Decay because any common ground (hospital work) they have is so not a conversation she wants to have 'they got crashed into and I watched my coworkers get spread across the walls in the accident that got me my powers'
Because neither of them had any firm grasp of what the other was like, they both assumed that they were far more alike than they are.
Decay saw someone in a polygamous relationship without seeing any of the underlying emotional ties, and figured if she could integrate herself into that she would finally be accepted.
Gamma saw one more girl teasing Terr, and overreacted because 'she's you'. Add on top of that the unintentional sympathy, again cause 'she's you', and you get impending train wreck.
It wasn't helped at all by the fact that Decay has embraced their magical nature to an extent that Gamma will never be comfortable with (or even acknowledge the possibility of).
* Gamma does a good job of keeping the emotional rollercoaster that her relationship has been behind closed doors.
----------
why are all the characters I develop the most so broken? *cry*
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy