Unexpected Offer
Jul. 27th, 2007 12:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianI came home early today, owing to a continuation of the migraine combined with yet more protesters outside the Iranian Embassy next door. I elected to log onto JusNoctis for a nice, quiet bit of sceneage to celebrate the end of one character's week-long ban from the Mage-exclusive bar on site. And thus began one of the biggest up-down sorts of evenings I've ever had, RP-wise...
It started simple - my Cultist Astrid went out to Potion to seek out Alan, an eighteen year old Tytalan Hermetic with whom she is building a relationship with usual Cultist polyamorous aplomb. They started chatting and enter Zian, a Shi-Ren Akashic who joined the Mage crew recently.
Now, Zian is played by R, someone who's been on the site since its previous incarnation and was apparently something of a troublemaker. There's been aggro between R and a few other board veterans, including O, Alan's player. R tends to spend time on site saying things like, "No one can write up a real Mage paradigm anymore" or "All Sidhe, Satyrs and Pooka should be locked in a box of Banality and left to die", or complaining that characters who have built relationships for months and tend to therefore scene together a fair bit are "cliquish" or "just in it for smut", and generally sniping. To be fair, some of the other board veterans aren't much better, but from what I've been seeing, R tends to either start it out of nowhere or misconstrue something someone else said and then start a mess because of it. Either way, I've been trying not to get involved and deal with her in a reasonable fashion because sniping gets us nowhere, and desperately trying not to pass judgment. Anyway.
Zian the Shi-Ren Akashic (or, more likely, R) has decided that he must have the local pretty Verbena girl, Portia, who is very, very engaged. Zian knows this, but doesn't care - he wants her anyway. Astrid recently came upon a tipsy Zian and a rather drunk Portia coming out of a restaurant, and quite distinctly saw Zian taking a rather lengthy feel of Portia's arse. She didn't know how to handle it, though, because ... well, Portia was drunk and she didn't want to make a scene, but ... well, Portia and her fiance had some problems recently and she also didn't want this new guy on scene to jeopardise her friend's happiness. So when Zian walked into Potion today, she decided she'd try to find out if Zian realised that Portia was engaged - if he didn't know, Astrid could just brush it off as a judgment error on his part and move on. However, the response she got indicated that no, Zian knew that Portia was engaged, didn't care and tried to give himself a virtuous air by stating, "I would never pursue a married woman" (emphasis the character's). Now, Astrid may believe in free love, but she doesn't believe in interfering with someone's relationship deliberately - "Thou shalt not rend another's Passions", after all, is part of her code. So she wasn't overly happy about this, but was going to put it aside. Except Zian got offended at the (accurate) characterisation of himself as something of a self-serving arse-fondler. Astrid apologised for giving offense. It wasn't accepted. Astrid then left the bar, not wanting to make matters worse.
Too late, because Alan has been very close friends with Portia for a very long time, and loves her in a romantic way and has been trying to stay backed off, and now here's this guy doing this shit that he'd do if he wasn't more concerned with Portia's happiness than his own. But he stays calm - suggests to Zian that maybe he doesn't want to start getting on the wrong side of community gossip his first fortnight in the city, because shit's been going down and it would be dangerous for him to be left out in the cold if it all went bad. Zian construed this as a threat and responded in kind - well, sort of; the threat Zian made was physical. Despite R claiming that Zian's a pacifist. Alan didn't take very well to the threat and basically let Zian know that he (Alan) could hold his own. Alan being the one with the rep for using Forces when he gets pissed off ... the words 'well, duh' come to mind. R demanded a scene pause at that point while a ST was called...
Long story short, Zian attacked Alan. Tried to kill him. Nearly succeeded. With R practically gloating about it OOC, talking about how she was leaving but was going to kill Alan first, and how she wouldn't be doing this if O wasn't such an arsehole to her OOC. And despite the ST saying, "No, I don't see why this would have to come to violence" to all parties involved. Eventually, NPC bouncers pulled Zian off Alan, and Zian fucked off back to Hong Kong, with R blaming O for "losing [her] the character".
That's the IC shit, in a nutshell. R, incidentally, is on her last chance. She dropped her first mage because he didn't get accepted by the group immediately during a plot-related scene, when people who've been working together for months were trying to get shit done. The second tried to murder another PC. If the third one she rolls up fucks up, that's it - she's not allowed any more. Given the high-maintenance nature of this particular player, I kind of hope she does, but I'm not going to force it, and I'm going to keep OOC stuff in OOC where it belongs, because that's how it should be. If she doesn't, that's her problem.
OOC shit? Is even more interesting. R got into a bit of an OOC-chat pissing match with X and T (two more players who've been around since before the revamp) and it got ugly - people were either trying gamely to ignore it, stating in OOC chat that they were hiding, or just plain logging off. I got X (the only one of the non-R people involved with a character) into a scene with me to give him an out, but when the pissing match kept going ... well, I didn't want to take sides but it was really screwing with the other people who were only in OOC to have a good time, so I had to say something. What I said was, "Look, the Admin said that she didn't want to see this kind of ugly in here. Could you all just do her and the rest of this people in the chat a favour and let it go? If you have to do this, do it in PMs, so you don't completely disrupt chat?" And kept on that vein until, miracle of miracles, the Admin (M) showed up - apparently had got several complaints (gee, I wonder why?) and went over the logs to see who started what and that kind of thing. So when M tapped me in PM, I had to wonder what the hell I'd said.
What I got instead of accusations was, "Thank you for stepping in like that - you rocked", basically. I blushed and thanked her in that 'aw shucks don't mention it' kind of way; "We like our Admins to stay happy", and so on. And I thought that'd be about the end of it, not that I minded. Just being acknowledged for trying to help, even if no one listened to me, was enough.
Except ... apparently not. Next PM I got from M was, "Would you be willing to take up a ST post, if such was available?"
...After I got over the total shock of this, I said, "Very much so".
Then, shock atop shock, I get, "You applied for the Changeling ST job, didn't you? We said no because I didn't know your style at the time, and I gave a ST spot to an unknown quantity once and it was a nightmare. But if you're still interested, I'll talk to Siofra and with luck, I'll be telling you the need-to-know stuff by Monday."
...
"I am still very much interested," I typed. While, in RL, I was going, "OMGOMGOMGOMGSQUEE!" Apparently, patience and perseverance and no-nonsense politeness pays off in spades. And I get to keep my storytelling, TV-wrecking Gypsy Eshu stripper thing as a NPC because there's nothing like an Eshu NPC for tale-telling a plot thread or two for the PCs. I won't PC her, obviously, should this all come through, but she'll still be around, story-weaving and such. Small price to pay. Obviously, the fact that my Mage is dating one of the Changeling PCs really isn't why I didn't get the job in the first place. Best bit? R is banned from playing Changeling. I will not have to ST for this high-maintenance individual. Which makes me smile.
So, long story short: tonight was hectic, frenetic, crazed and scene-ridden, and it's entirely likely that I'm actually getting the Changeling ST position I applied for months ago.
The world is a strange place.
It started simple - my Cultist Astrid went out to Potion to seek out Alan, an eighteen year old Tytalan Hermetic with whom she is building a relationship with usual Cultist polyamorous aplomb. They started chatting and enter Zian, a Shi-Ren Akashic who joined the Mage crew recently.
Now, Zian is played by R, someone who's been on the site since its previous incarnation and was apparently something of a troublemaker. There's been aggro between R and a few other board veterans, including O, Alan's player. R tends to spend time on site saying things like, "No one can write up a real Mage paradigm anymore" or "All Sidhe, Satyrs and Pooka should be locked in a box of Banality and left to die", or complaining that characters who have built relationships for months and tend to therefore scene together a fair bit are "cliquish" or "just in it for smut", and generally sniping. To be fair, some of the other board veterans aren't much better, but from what I've been seeing, R tends to either start it out of nowhere or misconstrue something someone else said and then start a mess because of it. Either way, I've been trying not to get involved and deal with her in a reasonable fashion because sniping gets us nowhere, and desperately trying not to pass judgment. Anyway.
Zian the Shi-Ren Akashic (or, more likely, R) has decided that he must have the local pretty Verbena girl, Portia, who is very, very engaged. Zian knows this, but doesn't care - he wants her anyway. Astrid recently came upon a tipsy Zian and a rather drunk Portia coming out of a restaurant, and quite distinctly saw Zian taking a rather lengthy feel of Portia's arse. She didn't know how to handle it, though, because ... well, Portia was drunk and she didn't want to make a scene, but ... well, Portia and her fiance had some problems recently and she also didn't want this new guy on scene to jeopardise her friend's happiness. So when Zian walked into Potion today, she decided she'd try to find out if Zian realised that Portia was engaged - if he didn't know, Astrid could just brush it off as a judgment error on his part and move on. However, the response she got indicated that no, Zian knew that Portia was engaged, didn't care and tried to give himself a virtuous air by stating, "I would never pursue a married woman" (emphasis the character's). Now, Astrid may believe in free love, but she doesn't believe in interfering with someone's relationship deliberately - "Thou shalt not rend another's Passions", after all, is part of her code. So she wasn't overly happy about this, but was going to put it aside. Except Zian got offended at the (accurate) characterisation of himself as something of a self-serving arse-fondler. Astrid apologised for giving offense. It wasn't accepted. Astrid then left the bar, not wanting to make matters worse.
Too late, because Alan has been very close friends with Portia for a very long time, and loves her in a romantic way and has been trying to stay backed off, and now here's this guy doing this shit that he'd do if he wasn't more concerned with Portia's happiness than his own. But he stays calm - suggests to Zian that maybe he doesn't want to start getting on the wrong side of community gossip his first fortnight in the city, because shit's been going down and it would be dangerous for him to be left out in the cold if it all went bad. Zian construed this as a threat and responded in kind - well, sort of; the threat Zian made was physical. Despite R claiming that Zian's a pacifist. Alan didn't take very well to the threat and basically let Zian know that he (Alan) could hold his own. Alan being the one with the rep for using Forces when he gets pissed off ... the words 'well, duh' come to mind. R demanded a scene pause at that point while a ST was called...
Long story short, Zian attacked Alan. Tried to kill him. Nearly succeeded. With R practically gloating about it OOC, talking about how she was leaving but was going to kill Alan first, and how she wouldn't be doing this if O wasn't such an arsehole to her OOC. And despite the ST saying, "No, I don't see why this would have to come to violence" to all parties involved. Eventually, NPC bouncers pulled Zian off Alan, and Zian fucked off back to Hong Kong, with R blaming O for "losing [her] the character".
That's the IC shit, in a nutshell. R, incidentally, is on her last chance. She dropped her first mage because he didn't get accepted by the group immediately during a plot-related scene, when people who've been working together for months were trying to get shit done. The second tried to murder another PC. If the third one she rolls up fucks up, that's it - she's not allowed any more. Given the high-maintenance nature of this particular player, I kind of hope she does, but I'm not going to force it, and I'm going to keep OOC stuff in OOC where it belongs, because that's how it should be. If she doesn't, that's her problem.
OOC shit? Is even more interesting. R got into a bit of an OOC-chat pissing match with X and T (two more players who've been around since before the revamp) and it got ugly - people were either trying gamely to ignore it, stating in OOC chat that they were hiding, or just plain logging off. I got X (the only one of the non-R people involved with a character) into a scene with me to give him an out, but when the pissing match kept going ... well, I didn't want to take sides but it was really screwing with the other people who were only in OOC to have a good time, so I had to say something. What I said was, "Look, the Admin said that she didn't want to see this kind of ugly in here. Could you all just do her and the rest of this people in the chat a favour and let it go? If you have to do this, do it in PMs, so you don't completely disrupt chat?" And kept on that vein until, miracle of miracles, the Admin (M) showed up - apparently had got several complaints (gee, I wonder why?) and went over the logs to see who started what and that kind of thing. So when M tapped me in PM, I had to wonder what the hell I'd said.
What I got instead of accusations was, "Thank you for stepping in like that - you rocked", basically. I blushed and thanked her in that 'aw shucks don't mention it' kind of way; "We like our Admins to stay happy", and so on. And I thought that'd be about the end of it, not that I minded. Just being acknowledged for trying to help, even if no one listened to me, was enough.
Except ... apparently not. Next PM I got from M was, "Would you be willing to take up a ST post, if such was available?"
...After I got over the total shock of this, I said, "Very much so".
Then, shock atop shock, I get, "You applied for the Changeling ST job, didn't you? We said no because I didn't know your style at the time, and I gave a ST spot to an unknown quantity once and it was a nightmare. But if you're still interested, I'll talk to Siofra and with luck, I'll be telling you the need-to-know stuff by Monday."
...
"I am still very much interested," I typed. While, in RL, I was going, "OMGOMGOMGOMGSQUEE!" Apparently, patience and perseverance and no-nonsense politeness pays off in spades. And I get to keep my storytelling, TV-wrecking Gypsy Eshu stripper thing as a NPC because there's nothing like an Eshu NPC for tale-telling a plot thread or two for the PCs. I won't PC her, obviously, should this all come through, but she'll still be around, story-weaving and such. Small price to pay. Obviously, the fact that my Mage is dating one of the Changeling PCs really isn't why I didn't get the job in the first place. Best bit? R is banned from playing Changeling. I will not have to ST for this high-maintenance individual. Which makes me smile.
So, long story short: tonight was hectic, frenetic, crazed and scene-ridden, and it's entirely likely that I'm actually getting the Changeling ST position I applied for months ago.
The world is a strange place.
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Date: 2007-07-27 09:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-27 11:53 am (UTC)Congrats
Date: 2007-07-27 03:01 pm (UTC)