Game Night [Fable]

[Fabula Caromed]

t3h h0l0n3tz, Legends of Mytherika 2, Frostfang Server, Ice Hounds guildhall
Headset? Check. Audio? Check. Test your hotkeys. On the screen of her (rather high-end and entirely custom-designed) rig, Jatie Graad's character shouted, glowed, and intricate graphics played around it. A tiny, digital woman with the most ridiculous green dress and an impractical bow started making grunts and cries that sounded like she was doing something quite different from fighting. Of course, since Jatie's suspension of disbelief was broken almost as soon as she logged on, she had seen no reason to maintain it for anyone else; "Gun_Bunny" trotted her happy ass into the main room to trigger proximity chat, and Jatie hit a key to quick-add herself to the guild chatroom.

Naturally, someone else was already talking. "-But every time he does this, he winds up getting dumped. I swear to the Force I am not helping that shitstain move again."

"Evening ladies," she started in, ignoring the conversation as it was. There was, of course, the immediate chorus of replies from her guildies. Each time someone spoke, a small, translucent box appeared on her screen with a name written on it. Not like she needed that any more. She had their names memorized by their voices alone.

"Hey Bunny!" Melkor. Shy little kid, probably younger than her. She was pretty sure he had a crush on her, but that might have just been her ego talking. Sweet kid. Ironically played the party's necromancer. Dem curses.

"Bout time you got your ass online." Shade_Tail. Kind of an nerf herder, but in a good way. Sort of? Spear warrior, melee deeps. He had a recurring issue with blowing his cooldowns too early and pulling aggro like a fool, but then...so did Jatie, sometimes.

"Just in time, Bunny." Gawein, the raid leader and, naturally, the tank. He kinda felt like the generic leader guy from Jedi comics, with no real personality beyond being the bland dude who held the rest of the team together like glue. Like Triclops on the X-Team.

Aaand one more. Only she didn't respond. "Fabble not here yet? I figured she'd be the first one here."
[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Jatie Graad"]

Whoever put mind-numbing professions in these games was some sort of beautiful monster. Fable had spent her night being blissfully unproductive in real life - which wasn't all that odd, honestly - and for once wasn't spending it watching movies. The Skyshoud finale wasn't until tomorrow night, anyway, and besideswhich, she was expected tonight. They weren't going to be able to clear the Demon Lord Maglubyet without their healer, right?

Well, maybe. Frostfang was inundated with healers since the last patch.

So involved was she in the zen bliss of tending virtual gardens that Fable had completely lost track of time; more than happy to let the ramblings of her guildies fade into a pleasant background hum while she worked. It was only when somebody mentioned her name that Fable snapped out of her fuge.

"I'm here! Sorry. I'm here." She promised quietly. The tiny box popped up to confirm - Fababble was in the chat. "...here."

"That's everyone, then." Gawain repeated needlessly, sounding fairly pleased with himself. Why shouldn't he be? Organizing raid night meant getting everyone's schedules to line up for a couple hours. No mean feat.

Shade_Tail laughed dryly. "You've been sitting in here silently the whole time? Woooooow." He teased. "One of these days, w're going to get you out of that shell."

"I don't have a shell?" Fabble defended half-heartedly. "Hi, Bunny. How are you?"

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Normally, Jatie and Shade got along relatively well. Both liked to make jokes at their own, each other's, or everyone else's expense, both had some impressive vocabulary when it came to profanity (Shade could actually swear in three languages, outdoing Jatie's two), and both had thick hides when it came to each other's jabs. The exception to this rule was whenever he decided to pick on 'babble. No bueno, muchacho.

"Ne'johaa, Shade. She was probably busy with something. Some of us don't live in our mother's basements with a hand constantly wrapped around our bevike, you know." Jatie was woefully unaware of the sheer, staggering irony of that statement. Not only did she live in her family clanhouse, but almost everyone else in the room lived with their parents.

"Focus, everyone. Party buffs up." Boring leader guy though he might be, at least Gawein knew when to step in to avoid a shouting match. In four languages. Or maybe it was just blind luck and he really was more interested in the party staying buffed and mechanically functional than he was about them being emotionally and mentally prepared.

"Yeah yeah, keep your helmet on," Jatie grumbled. Three keys later, her avatar did a couple of swirls and flashed some pretty lights. Crits, elemental defense, and aggro reduction (for everyone who wasn't Jatie, her class didn't exactly pull a lot of hate) all free of charge. "Still a little fuzzy on your plan for phase three. Specifically the part about me tanking the adds."
[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Jatie Graad"]


"He's, uh, making it sound more complicated than it is." Melkor spoke up. "Just plonk the guys running in, and keep away from them. You're an archer, so you can still contribute to the dps. I watched a video, you'll be awesome at it."

Fable settled in and smiled to herself. Shade_Tail was alright, when his focus wasn't on her. Thankfully, Gun_Bunny kept him pretty distracted, which was a little cute in it's own way. Not as cute as Melkor trying so very hard to impress everyone. Especially Gun_Bunny.

"Since when are we good enough that we can listen to theorycrafters?" Shade_Tail complained. "I think we should have Melkor Dopplegang them onto Gawain, that's how the pros do it."

"We don't have their gear, Shade." Melkor noted dryly.

"Yeah, I don't think I can, uh, heal him through all that focus." Fable admitted, putting up her own set of buffs. Ancient Protection was just great - lots of HP for everybody, and a modest defense enhancement. A quick visual check, Fable confirmed that everyone was as decked out as they were going to be. "I think you can pull, Gawain. When you're, uh, ready." Not that he needed her permission or anything, but still. She liked to contribute.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Jeebus everyone was so cute. Sometimes it got a bit hard to focus when Jatie wanted to take half of her party home and nibble them like an affectionate kitten. Melkor and Fabble were, like, the product of a bunch of Ewoks having an orgy with a bunch of Jawas. Tiny, adorable voices with a lot of quiet babbling and a desperate need for approval.

Reaching to the side of her keyboard, Jatie picked up the sausage wrap she'd prepped before she sat down. Her snack supplies had dwindled in recent days, since she really hadn't had a lot to do and that seemed to necessitate her sitting by her holoterminal for like eight hours straight. Between clan exercises. "Yeah, yeah, ready up. I really need to hit the sparring grounds after this raid. Work some of this junk food off'a my fat shebs."

There was a very familiar laugh on the other end of the line. "Don't do it soon and they might use your chizk for target practice!"

Jatie snapped back a reply that was more indignant than angry, which would've been readily visible if they were doing a video call. Ever. "Shabuir! You'd know all about having a bunch of burly men unload on you, wouldn't you Shade?" There was a brave snicker from Melkor and an equally indignant response from Shade. Status quo maintained.
[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Jatie Graad"]

A slightly shocked gasp from Fabble, and a nearly audible eye-rolling from Gawain. Business as usual. "Right. I'm pulling." Gawain grumbled, charging into battle. The group followed after, once he'd pulled the Demon Lord's focus enough that the DPS could operate smoothly. At this stage, Fable had little more to do than just patch up the boo-boos from intermittent AOEs and the occasional cleave, which was fine with her. Less pressure to keep everyone standing meant that she could keep an eye on who was doing what, and where they needed to be in relation to where they were. Gawain and Shade_Tail were pretty good about that, by virtue of being in melee range where it was a basic requirement. Melkor, on the other hand, sometimes needed a little help.

Didn't help that he'd gone completely glass cannon this week. He really needed to focus on learning a build instead of trying to find the magical combination of numbers that'd make him invincible. There was no such thing, and Fable was glad for it. Otherwise, she'd be out of a fake job.

The Demon Lord roared in outrage, drawing a long, serrated pike from his back - one swipe was enough to knock Gawain backwards, forcing Shade_Tail to step in front of the huge, horned monster to keep it in place. "Phase two!" Gawain barked, scrambling to his feet. He sheathed his sword and gestured violently, heavy armor clinking loudly as he barreled between Bunny and Fabble. "Range, move to his left! Melkor, I want spectral walls up whenever he throws a meteor!"

Melkor twisted around, finally noting how woefully out of position he was. Long robes fluttering, he dispelled his voodoo totems and began running to meet Bunny and Fabble - but too late. The Demon Lord saw easy prey, and a with a guttural roar, paused his unmitigated beatdown of Shade_Tail just long enough to conjure a giant flaming rock and lob it at the necromancer. "Bunny! Harpoon him!" The spearman barked, bringing his weapon up just in time to parry another powerful strike.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Archer was one of those classes that was simple in theory, but in practice required keeping track of at least a dozen things every given second. The standard stuff, like cooldowns and positioning, was of course on Jatie's list, but only slightly below it was her quiver. Venom arrows to stack her DoT, fire and cold arrows to stack her debuffs, thorn arrows to do proper damage...yes, she was a safe class with powerful DPS, but Manda did she have some issues with keeping herself straight sometimes.

Fortunately, she heard the phase shift loud and clear. In order to CC, she needed cold arrows. Jatie hit a key and moved her character out of the big, flashing orange circles. "On it, skag!" Besh-9, and Gun_Bunny pulled back a quick shot, held it for a moment, and released an immense ice harpoon. It would knockback any enemy within a certain range to a point at the edge of that range, and stun anything it hit, ever.

Saving the day or not, she needed to get back to her rotation. Her dots and debuffs had fallen off by now, except the attack speed from cold arrows. Back to venom. "Melkor, k'olar! Get your ass over here before I put my boot up it!"

Somehow no one died from that. One could only assume it was because of Fababble. "Kandosii, Fabble!"
[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Jatie Graad"]

Fabble paused in her healing just long enough to thread her long sash through the hilt of one of her spellblades and, in the same smooth motion, swing the thing like a lasso. It wrapped around Melkor's waist and, with a mighty and divinely-aided yank, pulled the Necromancer out of harm's way a heartbeat before he was crushed by a meteor spell carrying enough damage to one shot anyone who wasn't the tank. Melkor mumbled a flustered apology before standing next to Bunny, making sure that his OWN debuffs and curses were holding steady. Everything in order, nobody needed a raise.

Gawain slid back into position, smoothly trading out with Shade_Tail to steal the Demon Lord's attention - which was a relief, considering how much better he was at parrying and blocking hits. The second phase was always rough on Fabble's magic reserves for that exact reason. "Use your cooldowns, please!" Fabble requested - specifically referring to Gawain, the only person who had any reason to be taking heavy, sustained damage in Phase 2. She needed some time to recuperate and recover power.

Shade_Tail took this as an order to use every damage buff he had up, unleashing a full torrent of power attacks, heavensward thrusts, and flashing blades upon the Demon Lord, threatening to steal back Gawain's recently-won aggo.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Oh snap, had she forgotten to use her cooldowns? For a moment, Jatie panicked and ran her eyes across her hotbar, hammering a few keys. Percentage damage bonus, on-hit effect, crit booster, attack speed...suddenly she was a machine gun of pain, and every few shots her arrows sparked into a new color. Red fire arrows burned the boss' armor, blue ice arrows crippled his attack speed, green venom arrows applied a DoT...and just as she noticed herself climbing the aggro ladder, Jatie had one more trick.

Two-minute cooldown Sparkler Arrow. Rather than shooting the boss with it, she shot Gawein, transferring half of the aggro she'd just generated onto him. A firecracker shot popped and crackled through the air as it left a trail of shimmering cinders behind it, impaling itself harmlessly on the back of their tank's armor. Shunting aggro was important right now more than ever...but that had nothing to do with what she was doing. Reposition. Gun_Bunny parked her finely-textured rear about a meter from Fababble, and Jatie hit one of her keys to play with a new macro.

[Gun_Bunny] gently slaps [Fababble]'s rear.

Aaaand back to the DPS! Her fire debuff was about to fall off. When oh when would she be able to go back into thorn arrows?
[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Jatie Graad"]

In all the excitement, Fabble didn't even notice the emote that'd popped up in her chat log - Shade_Tail had managed to get pretty banged up before Bunny dumped her considerable aggro onto Gawain, and she was busy trying to puzzle out how much of her waning magic she could invest in keeping Shade healthy while still having enough for the rest of the fight. Monks didn't have the best mana recovery, after all. If she could last long enough for Divine Gift to come back off cooldown...

[Shade_Tail] ships it.
Group [Melkor]: ...

"Guys, focus!" Gawain complained, as the Demon Lord staggered backwards with his breastplate split open - revealing a host of captured souls in his exposed, rotting ribcage.

As if on cue (or exactly on cue) a pair of skeletal acklays came charging into the arena, poison dripping from their jaws. Phase Three had begun. "Sorry!" Fabble offered lamely, embarassed by the whole mess, even if she hadn't done anything to initate or encourage it. She diodn't want them to wipe because of her, after all. Gawain was right, she needed to focus! Gun_Bunny was just tying to get her to relax a bit, and that was admirable of her.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Phase shift! Swapping to venom arrows, Jatie swapped targets between the two of them, shooting both with her poison shots to make sure she racked up enough damage to hold aggro even over the healer. She probably needed to switch back to thorn arrows soon. If not, she'd run out of venom shots to use on the boss himself, and that would just be bad. She was being too careful with her reload. Five minute cooldown would just wreck her if she did it wrong.

"Ibac'ner! Focus on the big guy." Alright, they were hers. Now...kite like your life depends on it. Circling clockwise around the chamber, Jatie pelted the two of them with a couple of shots each, then swapped to cold arrows and hit the closest one with a Harpoon Shot. Knockback, stun...run. Finally she had some use for thorn shots, anyway, and loosing two Barbed Arrows to apply a couple of bleeds, Jatie continued her kiting.

Without her hitting the king, DPS would be slower, but it would put less tax on Gawein and Fababble. Hopefully the tradeoff would be worth it in the end, because at the moment, Jatie was having hella "fun" almost getting killed once every two or three seconds.
[member="Fable Merrill"]

 

[Fable Merrill]

[member="Jatie Graad"]

Fababble twisted around to keep Gun_Bunny in her field of vision - while keeping Gawain up was her top priority, having the ranged DPS fall would be bad for everyone. Especially since Gun_Bunny going down would make those monsters go down to the next person on the aggro table - the healer. Chances are, she'd be gibbed before Gawain could pull hate off of her, too. The healer-monk flourished her twin blades and channeled her divine magics, the long red ribbons on each sword fluttering in magical wind as her power built. She just needed a little time to get the necessary buffs off, and that meant blowing a big cooldown so Gawain didn't die while she wasn't healing him.

With a flick of her wrist, Fababble twisted and hucked one of her blades at Gawain's feet, the edge embedding in the ground. The armored warrior glanced down at the weapon and grimaced. "What are you thinking? It's too early for that." He complained.

"Trust me, just take it!" Fable called out, already in motion - bouncing over the cracked landscape of the arena. Gawain set his teeth, but paused just long enough to scoop the glowing shortsword up and let it absorb into his arm, making him the new exception to the range of Fababble's spells.

"You're already blowing Divine Reach? What about phase 3?" Shade_Tail complained - as the spell allowed Fababble to temporarily double the range of her healing and cast while moving, and Shade_Tail had a bad habit of getting knocked away from the group, it made sense that this was a bad thing for him.

While bee-lining towards Gun_Bunny, Fababble kept up her constant healing of their only tank. As she drew close to Gun_Bunny - running the risk of impact - Fababble extended her hand for a touch spell - a powerful speed boost that'd keep the Archer out of range of the baddies, give her some breathing room, and most importantly, let her tease them along while still (hopefully) adding to the King's deeps if she had the skill to split her attention.

Divine High-Five!