Bored one night, I went into Recluse Victory with my hero scrapper to fight some NPCs, hoping for a Respec Recipe. I flew around
invis to make sure there weren't any PVPers (of which, I was not) and there, under the Atlas statue, were several toons from both sides (red and blue).
But only 2 of them were battling in the center of the platform. The rest were all just standing around, watching.
I flew in and tested a theory. Expecting to get ganked, I dropped invis, turned off flight, and sat down on the edge of the platform next to a VEAT.
At first I thought they just didn't notice me. Then the VEAT turned to me, looked at me for a few seconds, and turned back to watch the fight in progress.
I was awestruck.
When I finally worked up the nerve, I chatted up the VEAT who explained they were doing challenges that night. When I asked him why he wasn't killing me, he said he would if I tried to kill him first, but he didn't see any point in it otherwise. And the rest of them seemed to feel the same way.
After watching several matches, just for grins I challenged the VEAT.
He said "ready" and waited until I replied "ready" (another jawdropping moment for me).
Then we started.
And then I was dead.
I used a wakie right in front of him. He just stood there and said "GF" (Good Fight) instead of killing me again. I didn't know what it meant at the time but I said "GF" back as I'd seen the other challengers do.
Everyone watched as I, this crazy PVE-build hero scrapper, staggered away back to the sidelines. I sat and watched a few more matches, getting advice from the VEAT how to better my build to survive PVP, if I wanted to.
Although I never did get into doing PVP, that night I developed an elevated respect - not only for pro PVPers, but the
type of people who were drawn to CoX as a whole.
I never forgot his name, and months later, on my stalker, we crossed paths at the black market. I thanked him for showing me PVP didn't have to always suck pancakes, and we global-friended.
As long as I live, I will never forget the night I was shooting distance from several PVPers who DIDN'T kill me, and the coolest one of all - the one that DID!