thank the goddess you were not seriously injured, heather.

i know all too well how scarey and traumatic a car accident can be. and it always seems that the person responsible for the crash is always unhurt, gets awaY AND winds up not being charged by the police. its terrible!
as for "forcing you" into a story? come on now. youre apart of a TEAM. whatever side stories you may have, you should be just as creative to work your way BACK to the main focus of the storyline when you are needed. Common sense should tell you that if Blaze is the senior ad exec for the Parthenon campaign that she would be needed at the press junket the day b efore the hotel chain's FLAGSHIP opens in NYC.
this is no different than the first storyline....when Shockwave and Prophet were out having drinks and Spellbinder and Black Widow were bickering at the diner...eventually i made it so all of them were drawn together.
you must let brandon direct and you must be flexible as you were in the first storyline and those to come afterward.
Brandon....to be totally fair, sometimes you may want to PM the character(s) that you will have specific need of for something....in case they are involved in a side story...just so they can QUICKLY adjust accordingly...BUT everyone should remember that even during downtime in the story, the stage for the MAIN storyline is being set by the director and you must be ready to be involved in that.
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I'm now closing "Pulled back from the brink" and "After the Storm"...Brandon and company can finish up in Paparazzi and Ill have a new thread waiting for everyone that Spell and Guardian are already in. We can have it approaching night time now.