You know what single thing makes my game every time it happens? No matter what the venue, or who the character is?

It's quite simple really.

It's the point where I realise I've just discovered something new about my character. Something I didn't know before. Something that makes them what they are.

In some ways I'm quite of the belief that characters we create are something of ourselves - some part of our conscious or subconscious that surfaces and emerges primarily through the roleplay of that character.

Rocker for instance is an expression of my anger, the collected rage and emotion bottled up inside. (And there's a revelation for you as well)

But that gets away from the point of this post.

Last night, Laine revealed to me a lot. I know his goals, I know why he wants to expand his business, I know how he treats his friends and I know he hates being torn between keeping his Freehold safe and being Courtless.

So, yeh, Laine told me a lot last night. And it's up to me to act on that for him.

Tell me, do I sound a little bit crazy? Because it sounds to me like I am...

But since I got a DW account, I think I've been using LJ more...

Or maybe it's all in my head?

Have ideas for Scottish bouncing round my head. Need to write them down and stuff.

Shall do that later though.

You have a single adjective. Just one tiny, little adjective, to sum up a character. Which one do you choose?

The adjectives I've chosen represent them as they currently are in play (or not in some cases)

( current characters under here )


( past characters )


( Student Nationals Characters )

ETA: Lots :)

yoda_ic

For those fiction type stuffs I was putting on here.

Rocker cruises down the road, wind licking at his hair, throwing it round his head. The bandana he'd taken helped that. Less hair in his face. More able to see.

There was a peace to driving like this, roaring down the road at insanely high speeds. People in their boxes swerving to avoid him. He's only following the path. The line set out in front of him. And still they get angry.

Elaine tells him he should slow down, stay on one side of the road, but the speed is wondrous. The rhythms of the world come together when he moves this fast, it almost seems like the music is shouting itself out, naturally broadcasting the songs he hears to anyone that would listen.

But they're all too angry to listen. None of them listen, not to Rocker or the music. He was cursed, brought to this existence, this pain by the one who he seeks. And when he finds them, they will pay for every hurt, every slight, every iota of pain that he's received.

Vengeance will come. And Rocker shall not be stopped.

Angered, he guns the bike more, reaching higher speeds. Sirens and flashing lights echo behind him, but he ignores them. It means nothing to him.

I am now the proud recipient of Jobseekers Allowance. This makes me happy. And means I momentarily have money. And that I can keep myself afloat until I have another job.

Thing is, I sent the manager at McDs an email asking if I could maybe get my job back. Two hours later the DWP phone me back and tell me the first payment would be in my account yesterday (ok, so I'm late posting this - sue me).

This made Yoda much happy.

In other things, my Mortals reports are finally done - yay for 5-page long reports... and I've managed to hit the cinema recently. So in rankings of how much I liked them...

1. Star Trek
Simply blew me away from start to finish. There were a few points where I umm-ahhed, but they were few and far-between. I am not ashamed to admit that I had tears on my face after the beginning scene with Kirk's father. The film was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

2. Doghouse
More a horror than I expected from the blurb. You don't expect films with "zombirds" to be quite so scary. But it was. Comedic as well, with space for laughs and adventure, but my arm was dead from Ruth's death-grip...

3. Transformers: Rise of the Fallen
Classic plot, classic bad guys. Fantastic action and special effects. But there were just a few elements that made it somewhat... less than it could be. The "twins" weren't necessary, but did provide a good amount of comic relief which worked well. As much as I like that humans can beat Transformers, I dislike bringing in classic characters just to kill them off again. Like Devastator and the Constructicons. On the other hand, where's Hot Rod? Have to say I did like the new Arcees. They worked nicely.

William sighed, gazing up at the grotesque hanging from the ceiling. A poor parody of art fashioned from human parts, the grotesque loomed overhead.

Back to the penance. As his confessor required of him, he had spent his time painting. Poor shadows of his former art, but what life could he bring to his work when his only love has seen her final death?

There was no vibrancy to his art, no joy in painting. His skill had not lessened, but his heart was torn asunder and how could anyone expect true art without that?

His left arm still hadn't returned. William suspected the damage dealt while he was possessed was truly severe for it to take this long to heal. Not that he had a lack of sustenance. Jessica has seen to that.

And if he was desperate, there was always the mockery. Mockery of his existence, of his beliefs, of his life. The wretched pitiful ghoul. Jessica probably found it amusing to have the ghoul look after him. That Strix had a lot to answer for. Would that he could take out some of his fury on it, but they told him it was dead.

But still, the very fact that his blood was responsible for creating such a thing felt foul. He wanted nothing to do with it.

Jessica had gone out of her way to supply him with materials. The quality of art supplies she had obtained for him was far beyond anything he'd had access to in decades, if not longer. But still, it was wasted, his talent dead to him as he created only facsimiles of art. No true expressions of art, of the beauty of the world, the masterworks of man and God.

How could he express the blood and sweat that went into the creation of a cathedral when he couldn't touch the feelings such works inspire within himself. He felt as an empty husk, the wounds on the outside hardly representing the wounds he felt deep inside.

But still, he cannot rest, or lay idle. There are works that must be achieved before then. He looks at the bag Jessica brought him. Contained within are her remains. Claire's ash. The last he'll ever see of her. Perhaps.. perhaps he could immortalise her somewhat, make an artwork that would outlast even him and be revered for centuries to come.

Yes, that's something he could do. And then, to Paris again. He would see it one last time before he tried to set things right.

Simply put it comes down to this: have two characters die in spectacular fashion, but in different ways as a direct result of them dabbling with something they didn't understand. This was what happened at the Edinburgh Mortals game on Saturday.

The two characters in question had befriended a weird and creepy little doll-automaton they called Sally. Now Sally was a creation that horrified even its creator - causing him to run and hide. Not that they knew this. They uncovered Sally long after she had been abandoned.

And they made her family, at least of sorts.

Recently, an NPC group attacked the home where Sally was kept and "kidnapped" her. They forcibly removed the device that made her work and analysed it. The characters went on an quest to get her back. They got the body back and then they got the device back. With one of them losing a fair chunk of morality in the process.

They then attempted to put her back together. And when that didn't work tried adding blood. Still no effect, but they started tainting it and giving it an innate connection to them. One of them, being knowledgeable in such things, suggested investing a portion of will into the device. So they sacrificed first Willpower points, then a Dot.

And it worked, it came back to life. Except, they only had a 40% chance of it working the way they wanted. An additional 30% chance wasn't innately harmful. The last 30%, which is where they ended up, was malicious, harmful and ended up seriously injuring several characters, killing one directly and a second indirectly. The two that died are the two that brought it to life.

The other characters through a sheer force of effort and will managed to stop it - but it wouldn't have been possible within the time-frame they had had the first two not started the job.

But how the hell are they going to explain what happened to the freaked out TV crew, the ambulance men who turned up, the police...

What are they going to do with the remains of the Sally-thing? Will the opportunity for it to happen again be there, or will they try and destroy it?

Who knows? But they've had a lesson that things really aren't sweet and innocent in the World of Darkness.

Poll #1410859 ANST Mortals
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

Should I apply?

ETA: ANST Mortals is the position of Associate National Storyteller catering to the Mortals venue within the Isles of Darkness society (formerly Camarilla UK). The position has just gone up for an all-call (meaning they want people to apply to do the job) this morning. I've been the ANST Mortals Legacy (meaning I take over if something happens to the ANST Mortals [or they go on holiday]) for the past year.

On the one hand, it's something I've been thinking about doing for a little while. On the other, it's a serious commitment and I think I might have something else that'll take priority, but I can't comment on that at the moment, or even be sure if I'll be needed for that.

So, yeh.. just a bit of a big decision whether or not I go for it. I applied for it last year during the last all-call, and I'd been in the society 2/3 months at the time. Now, I have a few more responsibilities, and I think I might need to take care of things closer to home rather than look to the skies at the moment.

This was my first National, and overall, I had a great time.

Friday - Forsaken
I really enjoyed Forsaken. There were bits that were slower than I expected or where things seemed to drag a little, but I had a lot of fun. The alpha battle between Darren and Nathan was especially fun! Andy tells me it's really hard to stage losing - having done it before, I know it is.

I think a lot of the problems I had were actually down to me and Nathan rather than the game itself. Nathan doesn't have a lot of experience with the spirit negotiation thing, and is quite protective of people which dragged him away from the spirit negotiation. I found it amusing that he ended up vaguely mentoring a new Elodoth through a spirit negotiation though. But then it was also a tad annoying to have been using Scent Beneath the Surface for her all night then discover she had it herself...

The game itself I enjoyed, and had fun with. :D

Friday - Promethean
I wasn't sure what to expect from Promethean. Rocker was pretty much going to do what he always does and sit in the corner playing music - not as loudly as he would have due to it being on the awesome-phone instead of a laptop. But ah well...

I did expect to end up in a face-off with Imsety aka "The Coin-Operated God". But they kept their distance and there wasn't the inevitable fight scene.

The discussion with Widow was interesting. Rocker opened up more than he usually does and got rewarded with questions on all the topics that make Rocker angry. Much longer and Widow would have been getting lightning'd!

The bit I found most interesting was the bike thing. I, as in Yoda, was much interested in it. It seemed like a cool little thing and I wanted to know more. Didn't really want it for Rocker, but thought it was fairly damn cool. Rocker wasn't interested in it. He arrived late and never really talked to Rogue so didn't know what was going on with it. But he did strike up a friendship with Elaine (the ghost) and gave her her song (makes sense if you know Rocker). Elaine is actually Rocker's 4th friend in the whole world. And the 4th person to get a token from him. Why did Rocker do that? Because she talked to him, she didn't judge and she liked his music. That and they're just a little bit kindred spirits. Her and the bike is like him and his guitar. And it ended up with Rocker getting the bike - which wasn't my intention at all! So now I need to buy up my Drive... from 0.

Saturday - Awakening
Ahh, the joys of getting up at stupid-a-clock to help with set-dressing and getting kitted up. But it was fun and much laughs were had. Though the players took long enough getting to us... ;)

Playing the Smiling Man was fun as all hell. Though I did get a bit umm-ahh over powers occasionally - especially when Nick Webb's character asked me to kill him. I came up with a better solution than the 4 Agg I dealt him afterwards, but that was several hours later and it was a bit late then...

Still, it was much fun and annoying Cogito at the end was brilliant. As was the randomly suppressing life and withering of body parts. :D

Saturday - Mortals
Wasn't my strongest day for Spook. Not really having anyone to bounce off of for RP made things difficult and I didn't really want to have him go uber-crazy, or catatonic without provocation. So when the police turned up and Spook went "Have to go now.." it was kind of a blessing in disguise.

Cue bringing in Max, my secondary for his second game. He didn't do much socialising, but that's because he had a migraine from the ghosts in the room. He did exchange details with Hazel's pre-gen as well as getting some more RP with Forty.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to play either for ages... :'(

Saturday - Requiem
Ahh... the fun of playing a game with only one arm. Due to the initial arrangements made to stop my arm just sliding out the back of my shirt, I ended up cutting off my circulation. The second attempt was much better. I had some very nice RP with William - really enjoyed playing him. I have a feeling things are going to get interesting in the near-future as well.

Especially since he's just claimed the title of Bishop of Glasgow. :D

I'm going to be having a lot more Lance-related RP going on in the near future. Would be helpful if I was allowed on the bloody Lance list though. Grrr....

The game was much fun and I didn't even need to poke plot that much. After all, throwing McConnell across a room with only one arm was lots of fun :D

The National is in 8 days!

But, I'm on a canal boat in 2 days! And I won't be off that boat till Friday morning next week!

Suddenly, things seem *so* much closer!

I need to pack!

And tidy!

Argh!

I get to kick off a procedure that no one ever remembers having been done before.

So there's not even any rules set down for it.

Still, I think it kinda needs doing. Should consult with other people first though. Make sure I'm doing this for everyone's sake, not just my own.

I finally remembered to do things in time and so today, for the first time, my business cards for Laine arrived.

For those of you that are not aware, Laine is my Changeling: the Lost secondary in IoD who runs a Hotel in Inverness. And now I have many business cards that attest to this fact. :D As well as a free pen!

I also managed to get two rubber stamps for the princely sum of £0.08. One says "APPROVED" in black ink, the other "Denied!" in red. I'm going to have fun with those...

Also arriving today was my new phone - the HTC Magic (otherwise known as the Google G2). They're not actually out till next week, so when Vodafone phoned me yesterday and said "you know you said you were interested in upgrading to the HTC Magic? Do you want it delivered tomorrow?" I said "yes!" and lo' it did arrive and is currently charging. :D

So all I need now is a job...