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32. Traci Thirteen

Traci is a really hard character to properly rank, because I feel like no one in the campaign (PC or NPC) has really gotten to know the real her. Whenever someone interacts with Traci (and many of the PCs have at this point), I feel like she does her best to adapt to the person and what she assumes they want to hear. Because of this, while shes a really interesting character, it is somewhat difficult to grasp whats real, and whats just an act with her. Plus, it doesnt help that Ive only recently had my first real heart-to-heart with her after however many weeks it was of us being somewhat at odds with one another.

As with many of the characters from the El Paso/Convoy storyline (which was more collective in its characterization outside of the two central figures), Tracis time in the voiced sessions isnt necessarily vital to her character. Ill cover the basics all the same though, because the circumstances behind her introduction to the campaign DO inform her closest PC relationship out of all of us. To put it bluntly, Traci is a young mage and thus immediately has a connection with the magic portion of the campaign. This isnt necessarily MY cup of tea, but for the pair of mages in our party, Traci is a kindred spirit. And while the first time we heard tell of Traci was as part of Jaimes coyote exploits, trying to help her escape the U.S. into Mexico, Traci quickly became a much higher priority for all involved.

As I mentioned in the Half-Life write-up, the big bad early on in El Paso was a drug lord named La Dama, and on top of all the other evil things she was responsible for, we found out that she had kidnapped Traci while we were away, having taken Jaime back to Zonn Zorr to deal with his new superpowers. Fully aware of Tracis mage powers, La Dama had begun siphoning her magic away, and due to the conflicting opinions of our party, we didnt immediately bust into the prison to stage a breakout. We certainly could have, but we instead opted for discretion, leaving Traci imprisoned while we tried to instead work a deal with La Dama to secure her release. When this news got back to Zonn Zorr however, Saoirse didnot take kindly to it.

Brennus was on the field team for that mission, but Saoirse is certainly the PC most attuned to the magic aspect of the campaign. Hearing that a young mageat a time when she was trying to cobble together a group of all the Eighth Agers (of Magic) that remained fully empowered in the wake of a new shake-up in the magical orderwas being held and tortured, Saoirse insisted on leading the charge to get Traci out as soon as humanly possible. And so we did: La Dama kept her word, we made good on our deal, and we freed Traci from captivity, only slightly worse for the wear. She came back to Zonn Zorr with us, reuniting with her familiar, Leroy, and for the most part, she was just a very bright and chipper character. She seemed to bond well with PCs and NPCs alike.

It's weird discussing Traci, because I feel like we got to know her personality long before we really got glimpses of the backstory which informed that personality. I also think (and this is just my interpretation, so it might very well be wrong) that is took a little while for Scarlet to dial into the voice for Traci. At the onset of her time in Zonn Zorr, I think she was very much just trying to be nice and friendly with everyone and struggled to really stand up and make her opinions known. She got pulled into a sisterly relationship with Saoirse as a fellow mage, and theyre obviously close with one another, but still, I would say early Traci was still very standard in her characterization.

Ill fully acknowledge that this is a very self-centered view on things, but I think having Pepper in the campaign pushed Traci onto a path that has served her well in becoming a memorable and interesting character. On-paper, Traci and Pepper share a lot of similarities: they both put on this mask of aggressive niceness that may or may not be completely genuine; they both have relatively recent awakenings of their innate powers (which put them at odds with their fathers); they both aggressively seek companionship and camaraderie at the end of the world out of desperation for human connection (but only on their terms); and theyre both very ambitious, believing themselves to be clever and smart enough to stand out among their peers. In a way, Ive long considered Traci the magic equivalent of Pepper in this campaignand Traci even feels like a developing character on par with the campaigns PCs.

That desperation for human contact I mentioned? Early on, Pepper attempted to gather the various teenagers wed picked up on our travels into the Zonn Zitans. She was able to justify this was passing along her own experience in training with Lagoon Boy as a way for the youths of Zonn Zorr to train together and find their strength as fledgling heroes. But in reality, this was largely an attempt to cobble together a friend group by a frightened girl who was WAY out of her element in the early campaign. Peppers whole deal is that shes the most rookie member of the party (at least in terms of being involved in the superhero or metahuman community), and the circumstances of the campaign (getting kidnapped and held in stasis for months before awakening to the apocalypse) have been more terrifying for her than most. The original Zonn Zitans may not have had the most unified goals, but Pepper just desperately needed the calming effect of companionship to provide a sense of normalcy.

While the original Zonn Zitans consisted of Pepper, Brennus, Spirit, Freddy, Jaime, and Alice, there was never any intention of excluding future additions. And naturally, with her magical abilities, Traci was invited to join the team without question. But in the Zitans first (and really ONLY) full outing, the flippant attitude of the team sparked Freddys ire, which at least partially scared Traci away from the group. More than likely though, Traci was never fully onboard with a team cobbled together by circumstance, rather than genuine interpersonal chemistry. And as such, she became the first person to really accept the stupidity of the Zonn Zitans concept in general, and began actively fighting against it. Admittedly, it was also funny how of all people, she railed against Freddy the most for getting angry one time, when hes the most mature and rational of the bunch.