My Ifrit Costume - Keeping careful vigil, or poised to pounce?

Guh. After a few solid days of vegging out, I can finally consider myself recovered from the SlarpCon. Recovered being a relative term, of course, because I still sport several burns on my hands from last-minute hot glue gun accidents and I don't think my feet will ever be the same after teetering around in my Shadowrun costume for several hours. (The shoes for my demon costume, despite AH's concerns, were delightfully comfortable.) But, I'm no longer mortally exhausted, and they're just flesh wounds. We larpers are a hearty bunch.

So...SlarpCon...

Harry Potter was quite delightful. There were a few kids there, and it was so much fun to watch how much enthusiasm they had for the game. The set dressing was even better than I had imagined (I really love the little magic store they set up in the other room), and there were some great costumes overall. I threw my costume together at the last minute, but am quite happy with how it turned out. With the top hat and the little curls of hair, I looked (and felt) like I was headed out to do a kid's magic show. (Which, I suppose, was entirely in theme...) I like the simplified system that JBA and AP came up with, but it might have been nice if they'd incorporated a FATE-like way to force a challenge with someone. As it was, if you had great stats, you simply won. If you didn't, well, too bad for you. Not that it ever came up much. I never actually got into a challenge with anyone, and I think I only saw one or two other challenges take place. Everyone seemed to be pretty caught up in just having fun.

Cthulu was a blur. I was a stage hand/various NPCs, so I rather expected that it would be. I really have nothing to base this conclusion on, since all I saw was vague snatches of the game here and there, but I think it turned out pretty good. The beginning of the game was a little disorganized, and I know that several people got lost in the maze that is the Health Sciences building, but things seemed to be running fairly smoothly after a while. I had a wonderful time in my role as Dr. Cheney, the only one to survive the 'explosion' that occurred during the last test. I screamed, I raved and twitched, and generally enjoyed hamming it up. But it was a total shock when one group of players killed her by goading her into a heart attack. Cold. Totally cold. I loved it! I don't know how scary the finale was, but when I emerged as the monster (yes, that's me under there. I'm tied to CK's, err, backside. It was a running joke for the day), we got some screams, so I'm guessing it was pretty good. One thing's for certain, though. Next time someone runs a Cthulu game, I really, really want to play in it.

Mmmm... Nightmare City. I could go on and on.... Suffice it to say that the game rocked every bit as much as I expected it to. I had a wonderful time playing Mary's "pet thingamajiggy" (see - Ifrit). She kept me on leash for the first while, and I growled, sniffed things, and generally got to be feral. And then, as soon as she let me off my leash, I immediately started plotting a way to break myself free of her Bond. Fun! The Trents caught me with surprise plot twist out of left field, when TR's character revealed that he was in love with the Ifrit. I wish I could have seen my face. I'm sure the tusks on my jaw dropped, and I remember saying something to the effect of, "But, but... I'm made of the fires of the Earth!" The fights were well done, and the costumes were spectacular! (And no, I'm not just talking about my crazy-elaborate costume, either. M's costume was freak-tastic.) God, I hope TY runs more of these... Oh, and if anyone else has pics of my Ifrit costume, could you please send them my way? I'd be very sad if that is the only picture that was taken of it.

The costumes were equally as shwanky for Shadowrun. There were some great elves, orcs, and trolls, as well as all-around Matrix-y slickness. Thanks to JBA's gracious help, I actually got to play a character this year (in the past, I ran the Matrix runs in our glow-in-the-dark Matrix set), but I wish this game had come earlier in the weekend, because I was so out of it by Sunday night. I didn't really get a chance to interact with anyone else, partially because I didn't get briefed on my character until halfway through the night, and partly because I was also doing semi-ST stuff to take the burden off of the already far too stressed out Layne. Still, I got to do some dancing, and I had a great time clowning around on stage with WL's Jack Wylde. (WL as The Joker = scary!!!)

Extreme thanks go out to all the folks who helped me with setup for Shadowrun, and even more thanks go out to the folks who stayed after the game to help Layne clean up so that I could drag myself home and get a few hours sleep before work the next morning. You guys are lifesavers. And not the minty ones, either.

SLARPcon '06

Ok, boys and girls, It's time to get yourselves ready for a weekend of geekery! But leave your dicebags and rulebooks at home, kids, cause this weekend is all larp, all the time. (And no, not the boffer kind.)

The second annual SLARPcon kicks off tonight with JBA & AP's Harry Potter game. Having seen the fine array of bookshelves they made for the game, I have to say that I can't wait to see what other funky occult items they managed to dig up for this game. We'll have a few new LARPers in our midst, since we've attracted the attention of some of the HP fans. I should be a great time. I know I've got my wand and robes all ready.

The staffers for WL's Cthulu game, the Phoenix Project, gathered last night to rehearse, and I can tell you, it's gonna be some kinda freaky. This is one of the few games I can think of where being a staffer is likely to be just as fun (if not more) as being a player. If you're not playing - you should, and if you are... Well, me and the rest of the staffers will be seeing you shortly. Heh. ;)

Saturday is going to be full of costume changes. Aside from my three or so costume changes for the Phoenix Project, there is my ifrit costume for Nightmare City. I've pulled out all the stops on this one. Hooves, tail, facial prosthetic... You name it. Unfortunately, it's gonna be a bugger to get on, especially since Nightmare City is only a few hours after the Cthulu finale. Can I pull it off? Time will tell.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to the Wild West game on Sunday afternoon. There's a good chance that Layne and I will be scrambling to put the finishing touches on our props for the Shadowrun game, but if we manage to get things set up and ready to go in good time, I'll certainly drop by to check it out. But, things are coming together nicely for Shadowrun. I know it'll be difficult for the out-of-towners to stay for the Sunday evening slot, but the Shadowrun game will be well worth it. We've got a nightclub, munchies, and a virtual reality glow-room. How is that not awesome? (Oh, and orcs. Don't forget the orcs.)

Anyway, enough of my yammering. I go now to hunt down the last few costume pieces I need.... Let the geeking commence!

I have fond memories of watching Mr. Dressup as a child. Every morning before daycare, I would sit on my grandmother's orange shag rug, wrapped in the fuzzy HBC blanket, and wait for the familiar music. Right after The Friendly Giant, but before Fred Penner and his beard, Mr. Dressup would come onscreen and work his magic. He was jovial and unassuming without being creepy (see - Mr. Rogers), and always had the right costume on hand. I loved that show.

But will somebody please tell me - When did Casey get so creepy????

I remember Casey pretty clearly. He (she?) was Finnegan's androgynous, stringy red yarn-haired sidekick. (Most people think that it was Finnegan who was the sidekick, but I saw through that. Finnegan was way smarter, and was always the one to come up with the fun plans.) I vaguely remember the rosy cheeks, the way the hard plastic hands poked out of the poofy sleeves, and if I really think about it, I can even hear the slightly squeaky voice in which he always spoke.

In a fit of nostalgia, I looked up pictures of Casey and Finnegan. Finnegan looks exactly like I remember him. But Casey? Dear god. Maybe it's just the picture, but I know if I found -that- sitting up in my atic, staring at me with those beady little black eyes, I would immediately scream like a girl, firmly bolt the attic door behind me, and prepare to cleanse the evil from the house with a can of gasoline and a match. (Which begs the question - what sort of priest does one find to exorcise a puppet? And, do they even -have- Lutheran ministers who deliver sermons in mime?)

Still, as freaky looking as Casey is, he's nowhere near as bad as the squeaky pink fluffy thing they got to replace him. Godspeed Casey, you freak, Godspeed.

After pulling some long hours last week on film shoots and whatnot, I felt justified in taking off a little early on Friday so I could get to Edmonton. I'm glad I did, because we didn't end up getting out of town until nearly 6:00. It was a long hot drive, because we quickly discovered that the air conditioner was broken, but after some of the recent car troubles I've had on road trips, I was quite willing to take a minor inconvenience over a major malfunction.

See, there's something about the trip to Edmonton that makes my cars break down. It's like the #16 is cursed. I was willing to believe that my bad luck with cars was just a function of the fact that I used to drive a Dodge Shadow, a car known for being a bit of a lemon, but now that my 'new' car seems to be following this patterns, I have to wonder if it's the road itself. Leylines from Lloyd to Lashburn? Some sort of magnetic field generated by all the oil wells? Or is it me? Maybe I'm secretly a Fallen and just don't know it. Cars certainly don't like me. (Guns, either, but that's an entirely different story.)

Regardless of the reasons for it, we made the trip unhindered by whatever sort of bad juju has decided to befall my modes of transportation, and made it in good time to hang out with the Edmonton crowd on Friday night. Saturday we mostly hung out with T&S, and then got ready for the Paradise Lost game at DG's house. His new place is absolutely gorgeous, and I finally got to meet Ajax, his super-cute decorative mantle warmer. (see - cat)

It was great to be able to play Omen again after so long, and by great, I mean creepy as hell. She freaks me out. Actually, she freaks everyone out. It was sort of the whole concept behind the character. Given some of the things happening behind the scenes, I didn't expect her to last the night, but things seemingly went off without a hitch, so I will once again have to don the corpse-like makeup and giant sword at next month's game out at the cabin. It should be interesting...

We hung out a little more on Sunday morning, and then headed back to S'toon in time to get Layne to work Sunday night. We even made it back before anything broke down on us. In fact, I was ready to celebrate an entire road trip without car troubles when the alternator announced it wasn't going to work anymore by chewing up one of my belts and spitting it, smoking, onto my coolant reservoir while I was on my way to work on Monday morning. Luckily, I was already in the parking lot, and so I just glided into my spot and left the tempermental beast there for the day. And, even better, I was able to have it up and running again within a day, thanks to my incredibly helpful family. My uncle dropped by the next day with a new alternator, and we threw it in on my lunch break.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go and offer up a sacrifice to the Car Gods, since we're (hopefully) heading to the lake this weekend...