On Masonry

I never expected E & Fyre to be anything more than just another duo. But somewhere in the Hollows, in the piles of bad players, we found a "keeper". Well, I should say, Fyre found him. I don't remember which Hollows mission it was, but there was this crazy Stone/Mace tank called Masonry. He was funny. He had skills. He had a clever name. And after the mission was over, Fyre said those immortal words:

"Can I keep him?"

The world of CoH would never be the same. :)

Let me start by forcing E to admit something: he has always been jealous of Masonry. If you read between the lines of his backstory, E became the kind of villain he was to earn respect or to be feared and to not have to be afraid of anyone or anything. While his priorities changed as he grew out of the villain and started growing into a hero, those desires remained, smoldering deep down, but still there. Masonry is good-looking, strong, and seemingly fearless. Women flirt with him and people like hanging out with him.

Warring with this sentiment, however, is the fact that Masonry needs help. Even though he's a little older than E, there's a very strong "little brother" feel to him. He's gotten himself in trouble. He does stupid things sometimes. He's earnest, and most of all, he was killing himself. Fyre and Mason have likened Mas to a big dog: loyal, strong, not too bright. To Jason, Nathan (Masonry's real name) is his long-lost little brother. Someone he has to watch out for, teach, and help out of bad situations, hoping that one day, Masonry will become a better person than E-VAC.

And E took Masonry's slowly killing himself personally (back in the Team 1.0 days). There was no way E was going to let Mason die. He was going to fight that tooth and nail, even if it meant stripping Nathan of his powers and showing him that he could still be a hero without them (I was expecting/hoping Masonry Redux would be an AR/Dev blaster or BS/SR scrapper or something).

Even now, this conflict of how to feel about Masonry wars inside E, made worse by the things that have gone on since starting Team 2.0. In addition to jealousy and brotherly love, other warring emotions have been added: fear (what is he capable of?), anger (he was willing to betray us), mistrust (mix the two). And on top of it all, Masonry has (in E's mind) always been his chief rival for Fyre's affections, made worse recently by Fyre's willingness to forgive Mason.

With Masonry's attitudes (and intelligence) having been all over the map through his career, E is never quite sure what's going to happen with him from day to day. One day, close friends. Another, deadly enemies. Friendly rivals, comrades-in-arms, priveleged favorite, ally in trouble... There's really no way to predict where this relationship will end up.