xp_logs | Loglets from the Magic tournament

The conference room of the hotel was -not- airconditioned. Or possibly it was and the mass of people had just overwhelmed the cooling systems. Angie wasn't sure. What she -was- sure of was that she'd found a cool spot - under a small vent, where there was just a slight breeze. The heat was not so bad, considering. Espically considering that she had new cards to play with, a bottle of cold water, and Doug's head in her lap, crooning over his own cards.

Angie opened another package, and flipped through them quickly, sorting out the ones she had already seen and the ones she had not. "Huh." she muttered to herself quietly.

Doug flipped through the booster packs he had won in his first tournament, trying to get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the set before they announced deck construction for the next tournament he and Marie-Ange had entered. "Mmm. Vulshok Sorceror. My very own Tim. With haste! Even better!" He set that card aside quickly. He harumphed at a few more of the generic common cards in his packs, then he grinned. "Bringer of the Black Dawn. Crap artwork, but..." He flipped through the new cards again. "Ah, yes. Pentad Prism. Nothing like a third turn 5/5 trample to warm the cockles of my heart." He grinned voraciously and continued paging through the cards.

"Doug? Do you have a .. um.. Vulshok Berserker?" Marie-Ange contined to stare at the card in her hand, shaking her head. She lightly ran her fingers through Doug's hair, trying to get his attention, then finally tapped him gently on the forehead when he did not respond. "Doug?" she said, peering down at him.

Doug looked up at Marie-Ange, a contented smile on his face. He had brand spanking new cards and his head was firmly in his girlfriend's lap. All was well with the world. "Yes, love?" he asked.

"Do you have a Vulshok Berserker?" Angie repeated, still frowning at the card. "This is extra-creepy. You have to see this." She held the card out to him with a perplexed little smile on her face.

Doug nodded. "I know that card. Mirrodin common. 3/2 red creature with haste. What's so creepy about..." he took the card and looked closer at it. "Whoa," he breathed. "That is kinda creepy. You think someone at Wizards knows Logan?"

---

Jamie circled the display table interestedly, taking in the cardboard standups and other niftiness. He was definitely grabbing a copy of this campaign setting in July. Screw the Forgotten Realms. Warforged titans, mmm.

Some guy shoved abruptly past him, and he jumped aside; his protest died in his throat when he got a look at the guy's shirt. White, with a red armband, it had a crossed-out double helix on the back above the words "Friends of Humanity." Jamie rolled his eyes.

"Nice shirt."

The young man turned around, brushing his hair back in a practiced move. "Thanks," he said brightly, Jamie's sarcasm lost on him. "I have some pamphlets if you're interested in learning more..." He looked in the bag hanging at his side, digging around in it.

Jamie smirked. "Nah, sorry about that, I meant 'nice shirt' as in 'wow, what a bigoted asshole are you.' How's the hatred working for you, by the way? Good dental plan?"

The bright smile slid quickly off of the young man's face. "Oh. A mutie lover." He said it in a tone of voice laden with scorn. "How can you even...? They're not _human_, man."

"Oh yeah? How do you figure? I mean, did you fail high school biology, or are you just gullible?"

"Gullible? Man, it's all in here." He pulled out a pamphlet and waved it around. The front had the same logo as his shirt, and it looked professionally produced. "Here. Read for yourself," he said, thrusting it at Jamie.

Jamie took the pamphlet, but jammed it into a pocket unread. "How about you express a thought of your own, huh? Explain the whole 'not human' thing for me, because, y'know, right now I'm thinking the physical evidence? Not your friend."

The bigot spluttered. This wasn't going the way it was supposed to. This guy was supposed to read the pamphlet, and see the error of his ways, and then there was a phone number he could call to get involved, and...suddenly his eyes widened. "Wait, I've seen you before. On...CNN..." He grimaced. "You're one of _them_. From that school upstate."

"Hey, good for you, I thought Spike TV was the ignorant jerk channel of choice these days. Took you all of . . ." Jamie checked his watch. "Five minutes _and_ I was on TV. What's that say for your whole 'not human' thing?" He widened his eyes theatrically. "Oh my God! There could be other mutants here _right now!_ They could be _anybody!_ They could be _you!_ Who knows what nefarious plans they might have for these innocent hobby games!"

The bigot backed away, as if afraid to turn his back on the "mutie freak". After a few steps, he turned around and walked away at a pace just short of a run, spooked.

Jamie snorted. "Moron." Now, about that Warforged Titan . . .

---

Doug looked quickly over his shoulder at Jamie as they pulled out of the parking lot. "So, you have an okay time, man? I saw you nosing around the D&D stuff. They have anything interesting on Eberron?"

"They had miniatures. And some nifty maps." Jamie snorted and leaned back. "And some Junior Friends of Humanity Scout handing out pamphlets. I'm pretty sure he wasn't part of the display, though."

Doug blinked, startled. "Say _what_? The FoH? At a Magic tournament? Ugh." He shook his head in disgust.

Right up until Jamie mentioned the Friends of Humanity, mini-version, Marie-Ange had the not-quite smile of a girl listening to her boyfriend be a geek. It was cute, in a nerdy way. "Junior Friends of Humanity?" she asked, in irritation. "Good lord."

Jamie snickered. "Dude, did you just pronounce the acronym? Yeah, some idiot. I've still got the pamphlet, gonna give it a look when we get back. He got scared of the big scary mutant, though."

Doug's mouth tightened. "If I say the acronym, I can almost convince myself to not think about what it means. And, y'know, spit from the bad taste in my mouth at even _saying_ it." His hands tightened on the wheel.

"Sorry. This guy was just . . . clueless, anyway. Don't think he really knows what he's doing."

Marie-Ange twisted around in her seat to give Jamie a curious look. "What did you _do_?" she asked.

"Presented a better argument?" Jamie shrugged. "I called him on regurgitating his pamphlet instead of actually thinking, and then I might have sort of made fun of him a little. It didn't get too serious, he recognized me."

Doug snickered. "Dude, you're famous! Next thing you know, Hollywood will be calling asking for the rights to produce a made-for-TV movie about you." He grinned.

"It's a burden. I have to beat off groupies with a stick. This guy talked to me for five whole minutes before he figured out I was a scary mutant menace, though, which I'm pretty sure threw his whole little world all askew."

Marie-Ange snickered. "That's a terrible shame. I mean, that you did not have time to introduce him around. I'm sure Blinky would have loved to chew on his ankle for a while." She wrinkled her nose. "Or, maybe not. He has a delicate stomach.."

Jamie grinned. "Yeah, I think bigot would've given him the runs, and the last thing you need is an umlaut leaving little dots everywhere. Besides, the guy was strictly small-time. You guys have fun?"

Doug grinned. "I had an _awesome_ time. I felt a little bad about the little kid I had to stomp to do it, but I won myself some product. And incidentally...Angie and I found a card that we find incredibly disturbing. Show him, Angie?"

Shaking her head at Doug, Marie-Ange dug in her shoulder bag for her own cards and pulled one out. "It is creepy." she said, after handing the card to Jamie.

Jamie took the card and his eyebrows went up. "That's pretty creepy." Then he snickered. "Except the text is talking about the wrong mutant."

Doug cocked his head, momentarily confused. He quoted the text from memory. "He experiences every emotion with passion and repays every slight with vengeance..." He stopped and blinked. "Oh. Manuel," he said. "Yeah, I can see that. Although Logan isn't always much better." He winced in remembrance.

"Yeah, but can't you just see Manny saying that. "Hello. My name is Manuel de la Rocha. You spilled my Fanta. And because I experience every emotion with passion and repay every slight with vengeance, you must now die, mwaha."

Up until Jamie's joke, Marie-Ange had been frowning, and chewing on her bottom lip. Manuel, vengence and emotion in the same sentence was -not- a good combination by her way of thinking. Despire herself, she snickered. "He even has the sword for fencing.."

"Yeah, and all that crap about honorable dueling he comes up with when he feels like it. If he wasn't such a complete asshole, he'd almost be funny."

Doug chuckled. "Ah, but I know something you don't! I am not lefthanded!" he inserted randomly.

Jamie snickered. "We all know you're not left-handed, Doug. Good try, though."

Doug shrugged. "Yeah, I know, that was kinda weak. Do you think Manuel has studied Capo Ferro?"

"Manuel de la Cockroachia, greatest fencer in all of ... " Marie-Ange paused in thought for a moment. "Spain? Madrid? Perhaps Westchester? At least room two-hundred-twenty?"

"Greatest fencer in his own mind, anyway." Jamie snickered. "And good one, Angie."

Doug chuckled dryly. "Enough discussion of bigots and Castillian crapweasels, hm? Today is supposed to be a _fun_ day." He flicked the radio on to a pop music station and began to sing along as they drove.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

xp_daytripper

"Yeah, but can't you just see Manny saying that. "Hello. My name is Manuel de la Rocha. You spilled my Fanta. And because I experience every emotion with passion and repay every slight with vengeance, you must now die, mwaha."

*giggles helplessly* You three are Evil. Completely and utterly evil. Bad mental images not going away now.