Competitive edge.

Mat finally gets her Drake of the West Wind*

In the States right now it's baseball season. Mat's human has enjoyed her share of baseball games--big cups of cold beer, hot dogs, warm sun on face, more cold beer -- good times. Oh yeah - and there are men down there hitting things and running. Baseball players are notorious for their superstitions, routines, quirks, signals, and almost obsessive patterns. Extremely rational, scientific human beings will still knock wood or bypass black cats, just because, well, they don't want to tempt fate. Why take unnecessary chances?

One thing about sports in general is their analogous relationship to warriors/hunting. It's a primal thing--we need to get blood-pumped. Warriors' markings, tattoos, dances, chants, and huddles are all part of the posturing and swagger, which is intended to curry the favor of the gods, to buff us in battle, and so we can face our fears with our game faces.

Almost obsessively, compulsively, Mat will imbue her weapons with windfury and flametongue, spell not ready, spell not ready, spell not ready, torch up her lightening shield, and twirl around three times, tap boots with tip of bat, and nod to the pitcher. "R?"

"y"

But even the most sound of routines don't always have the magical effects we wish for. Fortuna is a fickle chick. In Grim today, she aided an achievement, Umbrage for Umbriss, and yet, group couldn't manage Forgemaster Throngus. Mat is convinced now she should have done a steroid screen on the hunter, (who was a free-agent) and the tank (a recent trade from the Cubs) who was most definitely in a state of roid-rage. Throngus and Mat go WAY back--almost old friends. They meet at the locker rooms, Mat nods to Throngus, "Sup?" Throngus, "How's it hanging?" He goes in his team's side, she in hers. She's not quite ready to resort to "performance enhancers" just yet outside of the normal ones - enchants, gems, flasks, and being well fed and buffed.

Her "team spirit" probably dissipated when she just helped the team earn that achievement, which means her focus was not on dps, but a balance of strong dps, and other strategies, and then to get the recount slammed in her face. That psyched her out a bit. The next go-round she was back on top, but come on, tank?! The tank and hunter were buddies, that much was obvious - "Hey Aaron -get 18k lol!" (Aaron did not get 18k, or anywhere close, unfortunately.) "K man!"

Yeah, whatever.

After hunter and tank managed to step in fire, die, pull unintentional trash, die again, they whined a bit. Mat thinks she'll go watch A League of Their Own again, because, bottom line: there's no crying in baseball.

imbue-wait-imbue-lightening shield!!

Theme song: Smells like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

*Only mentioned because doing the dailies is all part of the routine. She would have this drake much sooner, but man, Tol was taking its toll...


Postscript: Got in another semi-PUG later that was so much fun -- truly had a "team" feel -