What's your favorite IC moment?

[Siiri]

I thought I'd bring this topic up to have everyone share their favorite in-game/in character moment, whether because of its pure awesomeness, it gave you that weird fuzzy feeling in the pit of your stomach, or it's because you-hate-it-so-much-you-love-it kind of thing. Or whatever, really.

Mine happened recently, courtesy of my favorite Badger Lady, Colombina (much love for doing this quest!).

Trapped in Hai, Siiri is surrounded by about six Zith who had just killed a fellow Myrian, Koa. Abandoned by her companions, having no avenue for retreat (which she refused to even consider anyway), Siiri is forced to fight them. Through sheer ferocity, she managed to dispatch three through the course of the melee but the remaining others were beginning to overwhelm her. The noise of the fight has attracted even more Zith and she could her their flapping wings in the darkness above. Strength flagging, hope for survival fading, she utters a prayer to Myri, even as she continues to fight the losing battle.

Her prayer is answered in the form of a being of light, a god she does not recognize. It is Yahal, reuniting her with a lost companion and warding off the rest of the Zith from joining the fray (and quite possibly overwhelming her) with his radiance. And then her own patron goddess speaks in her mind, telling her that the god of justice would not take the glory of battle away from her but nor would he allow others to interfere with it.

Bina didn't write it in so many words though. The way she wrote it, less is more and it became even more epic for me. I still get goose bumps reading it.

That quest started here for anyone who wants to read it!

So what's your favorite IC moment?

[Julian]

I haven't been here for very long, just around two months, but I do know I have a favorite. Julian hasn't had a lot of time to develop as a character yet, but he's been involved in several threads. Most of them are pretty managable, conversations or minor tasks - pretty easy stuff for a guy with major father issues and still getting over his spouse's death. However, there's been ONE story arc that's really tested who he is as a person, beyond all his private, repressed emotional baggage.

In Lhavit, Julian was jumped by a group of vicious thugs, who chased him down an alleyway in early dawn. He tried to fight back, but was sorely outnumbered (and had no real combat skill). Thankfully, Shinya Acolyte Elhaym Furuma (Pain) was patrolling nearby and happened to overhear the scuffling. She came to the rescue and kicked a little butt. Julian was still kind of rolling around, being semi-conscious and in a lot of pain. Elhaym held her own for a while, but as one woman standing against three men, the tide quickly turned on her.

As Julian recovered, he saw what was happening, and knew he couldn't let this strange woman (who he guessed was Shinya - he's not native to the area!) get beaten up by these guys just for saving him. But he wasn't very strong or fast, and he didn't know how to fight, there wasn't a lot he could do! There was only one option: Hypnotism. He wasn't very good at it, not yet, but he could at least try to confuse them while he went for his knife.

One of the thugs, who'd received a kick in the chest from his friend (sort of accidentally, sort of not really) was already mad at his partner. Julian fed off that, and drove him to punch out his friend. Immediately after, he realized he had no idea why he'd done that, and quickly figured out that Julian must have manipulated him. However, Julian had already snuck up behind him. The cellist put that knife in the thug's shoulder, then bludgeoned him over the head. After he was down, he helped Elhaym get away from the area and they both limped off to find help.

Before that night (or morning, really), Julian had NEVER hurt anyone so severely as that! Truth was, he had never really been in such a dire life-or-death/protect-the-girl situation before. At the time, he didn't really think about it, but later he began to wonder: in a crunch situation like that, is that REALLY who he is? Cunning and ruthless?

It was definitely my favorite moment so far. I have a lot of hope for Julian, and I have no idea yet whether he'll stay toward the side of good or tend toward evil, and a lot of it depends on the types of people he gets into threads with. He's such a polite person on the outside.