Festival Recap - A Crown of Hearts
Apr. 12th, 2011 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mllelaurelMy Festival experience really began on Friday morning, when I came over to help wired_lizard prep and stuff A Crown of Hearts and Stars Over Atlantis. For she is a crazy biotch who ran two games. We were later joined in this quest by slipjig, nevacaruso and figmentj. My most difficult task while this was going on? Untangling a bunch of necklaces which were intent on having a necklace orgy in the props box. I'm very proud to say we only had to get the pliers out for the last three of the bunch.
Then came the games themselves:
On Friday night, I played in A Crown of Hearts I had a major challenge going into the game, seeing as how my character was mute. It was a challenge I deliberately asked for, since my primary way of getting things done in LARPs is to talk at people until they see my point. :) Moreover, I used to have a major problem, when it came to acting, of acting from the neck up, and that's something I've been working on fixing for years. I was interested in seeing how I'd do with my body and physical expression as my primary tools. Overall, I think it worked out pretty well, and I got to spend some serious time playing charades withelectric_d_monk, who was a great sport about it all. It helped that I had a magic harp which could convey my emotions to others, when all else failed. Really, abstract ideas were the hardest to get accross. Time and the passage thereof were what really left me banging my head against the wall. Remember, this is a world that doesn't really have watches, and miming time as the sun moving across the sky looks like I'm doing the wave.
Eventually, I figured out that our host had walls and I had a reliable source of paint (my hands were constantly bleeding.) At which point bloody awful stick figures made my communication much easier.
From the various things mentioned before, you might realize that my character, Ettany started out pretty screwed. Her origins came from A Little Mermaid and Swan Lake. She used to be a swan maiden of the Wild Kingdom of the Sea, until she fell in love with a prince. The prince was a jackass, but we'll get to that later. On her own, she could only transform into a human very briefly, but as luck would have it, she ran into the game's very own roving fairy godmother, Wilmerry. Wilmerry had given her a potion, which would transform her into a human for a year. If she could get someone to fall in love with her and give her his heart (an actual metaphysical/mechanical act, in this game,) then she could stay human forever. If not, she would die. She would also lose her voice, as a price of the transformation, and remain in constant pain. See also: Little Mermaid. Knowing all this, Ettany willingly took the bargain.
She found her prince, Issakar but while he was all too willing to sleep with her, he had no interest in giving her, or anyone else, his heart. Around the same time, she met Yerrodin. She'd actually seen him briefly before, but he was too tongue-tied to speak around her. He'd fallen in love with her, you see, when he first saw her transform into human form. The two bonded, but Ettany was still fixated on Issakar. She was a teenage girl. They do stupid shit like that, sometimes.
Eventually, the three got separated, due to stuff. And as of the night of the game, Ettany is running out of time. If she doesn't find someone to love her, and love them back, she goes bye-bye.
As luck would have it, both Yerrodin and Issakar are also at the ball she got a mysterious invitation to. And that's where things start getting complicated. You see, Yerrodin is accompanied by a swan (played bymirroredecho, who, upon closer examination, turns out to be wearing Ettany's swanskin, resulting in her smelling and feeling like Ettany - and claiming to be Ettany herself. And I get the weirdest feeling ever from this swan, like she's got something of mine, but also this complicated repulsion mixed with attraction. Gaaah! She proves, rather quickly, to be a total bitch, fucking with my friend's feelings, and acting all snotty toward me, but I still feel kind of bad for her, since being stuck in a shape that's not yours, and that you don't want sucks.
In trying to figure out which one of us is the real deal, Yerrodin inadvertantly reveals to me that my prince had been hunting swans, when I first met him (it's kind of hard to identify a crossbow, if you've never seen one before.) At which point, I totally break. I'm in love with a murderer, and not only has Issakar broken my heart, but I've kind of broken my own, having been that much of an idiot. Various people, including Wilmerry (Issakar's mom) and his little brother, Saxbend (v_cat) tell me I deserve better. Man, the rest of his family is way nicer people.
At this point, Yerrodin's established that I'm the real swan maiden, and the two of us are growing closer. When a floating head, who also happens to be the other swan chick's father (truthseeker) tells us that if I were to exchange hearts, I'd be able to stay human forever, but the person I loved would be haunted forever by wild magics, Yerrodin just looks me in the eye and tells me he can take the risk, and that's when I start panicking, because I'm scared of hurting or killing someone I love that much... Wait, I love him? Crap! I mean, this is good, I mean, what? Please advise, head! (My head, not the floating one. Not that my own head has anything to do with most of my decisions.)
It takes me a little longer to admit that I want to give my heart to Yerrodin. While this is going on, he learns that he's actually Issakar and Saxbend's older brother, who his mother had to send away due to complicated circumstances. Saxbend is thrilled with this, as it means Issakar is now 'the spare,' which is what Issakar has always called him. Yerrodin's not sure he wants to do the prince thing, but. I don't actually learn any of this till a little bit later.
In the meantime, I finally get up my courage to 'tell' Yerrodin how I feel. We try to exchange hearts...
What, you thought it was going to be that easy? When I try to draw my heart out of my chest, I double over in pain and get a voice ringing in my head, saying 'this isn't yours to give.' So I already have someone else's heart? What, was I drunk when that happened? I play the 'confusion' melody on my harp for like the tenth time that night, cause boy am I confused.
The next time I'm around other swan girl, we both get an extra jolt. This other person has my heart. Neither of us is thrilled with this. At. All. Not only do we have other love plots, but what we feel for one another is mostly annoyance, and having another person's heart is the utmost expression of love. I think the one thing we utterly agreed on in game was that we wanted our hearts back, thank you! Virtanus, aka Mr. Floaty Head, finally cracks and tells us that the Sea King (who he referred to as my father, though I think that was a snafu) had switched our hearts when we were both infants. It's really hard to ask why, when you can't speak. So an expedition forms to ask the Sea King to swap 'em back, led by Other Swan (tm)'s mom, Melara (played by Alison, whose lj username I don't know.)
This is the part of the game where plots start kicking into high gear, and a major (OOC) problem manifests. There are three characters in game who know like everything, and for a while, the game becomes Waiting for Carrokill: The LARP. Carrokill was the witch, played bycaptainecchi. While standing around is when I discover my new 'talent for painting.' I also convince Yerrodin to put on the crown he found, pointing out that he has a protection charm, so he probably won't turn into an owlbear. (It's a long story.) He puts on the crown and is extra powerful now. Yay!
He also shows me the bone flute he found at the same shop as my harp (which he'd given to me, much to Issakar's annoyance.) Since I seem to be the musical one there, I play the flute. Those of you who know your fairy tales probably know where this is going... Hint, it involves inadvertent canibalism. An eerie voice comes from the flute, singing a very disturbing song, involving said inadvertent canibalism (See: The Juniper Tree.) I drop the flute and fall on my butt, cause you know, disturbing! Moreover, Saxbend hears something familiar in the lyrics, and runs off to finish his quest. Apparently, he'd been having strange dreams, some of which matched what the flute played.
This is the last we see of him. The next time I see Wilmerry, I learn that her youngest son has died - the second he kissed Sleeping Beauty, which his dreams had been leading him to do, she woke up, and he fell over dead. I know it wasn't my fault, but I still feel vaguely responsible, since I played the flute. (Apparently, it's impossible for Saxbend to survive game.) So I'm kind of having sympathy overload, since Saxbend and his mom have both been so nice to me. I hug Wilmerry lots.
Various things suddenly happen: Melara's party comes back, telling us that the Sea King has been possessed by the Cherni (evil embodiments of darkness and evil,) and they'll need more variety in powers to defeat him. A GM runs up and tells me that I'm suddenly enveloped by a cloud of darkness. It's close enough to end of game, so I think hoshit, I'm dead! But instead of killing me, the cloud of darkness falls away, and I'm left standing there, still human, but no longer cursed. I'm not in pain, and I can speak! It takes some time to find my voice, at first. I've literally used a human mouth only once, back when I first met Issakar, and that was over a year ago.
But when I do find it, boy to I ever! Which is a good thing, because this is when the other swan (whose name I have at this point learned is Odeyla) and I get to have an epic bitchfight. Basically, she's hit a wall, with her love (Saxbend) dead, while I get to be with mine, and her still cursed, while I've been freed, and me still having her heart. So she loses it at me, when I try to talk to her. Since none of this is my fucking fault, I lose it right back at her, for being a high and mighty bitch who thinks everything is everyone's fault but her own. My character may be nice, but she's not that nice, and she's had enough of her shit. We pretty much simultaneously call combat (well, bitchfight) She wins RPS, but I have Issakar, who is in the vicinity, assisting me, so we tie. I learn that Issakar is the one who uncursed me, having gotten access to his heart back (it had a lock on it, since he was born a near-sociopath.) It's just gotten unlocked. He's not. Fucking. Happy about it. But he has gotten the ability to make three wishes, pretty much at will - so long as it's for the benefit of someone else. He uses his second to free Odeyla from the swanskin, so she's now back to her normal self. I pretty much just shrug and walk off since I'm good with her being uncursed, and she's not really worth my time.
(God, I'm rambling at length, but I feel like I'm still missing some stuff.)
The 'defeat possessed sea king' party is still missing an earth element user, which they need, so I wind up hollering to see if anyone around has a Crown with an earth type power. No one does, but [Bad username or unknown identity: natbudin's] character thinks he might know where one might be. (Our characters had actually known each other before and therefore trusted each other, though due to a cross-referencing error, I didn't have that bit in my character sheet, which led to a hillarious 'retcon everything I just said about not knowing him' moment.)
He goes off to get it, at which point the party is complete. They defeat the possessed Sea King (I watch OOC, since it's important to me, but there's no way to justify bringing along a non-combatant.) He dissolves, and reveals a crown. When they bring it back, I feel this crown calling to me and put it on. And then I read the item description card. And then I sit down. Because I am fucking TWINKED, yo. Basically, this crown gives me access to every single power in game, plus some nifty combinations thereof. In fact, it looks like I might be able to bring the dead back to life, which leads to various people who'd been close to Saxbend, including Odeyla, begging me to help. He was an awesome dude, so I'm all for it. Odeyla shows me the way to the Briar Wood, where he had died, and comes along with me. I try to revive him, and wind up contacting his spirit, who tells me that he was prepared to make the sacrifice and is at peace now. Owwww. I tell him to talk to Odeyla, since she'd loved him, and he gives her his heart from beyond the grave. When she accepts it, the heart turns into her own crown. The whole thing was fucking heartbreaking.
Apparently, if it had been anyone else, I would have succeeded at bringing them back. Saxbend is just that screwed. And his player was now busy playing Sleeping Beauty, whom he had woken up.
We go back, as things are wrapping up. I'm not entirely sure how things are with me and Odeyla, at this point, but we're at least capable of being civil to each other. The old wizard dude tells us he has a potion which could swap our hearts (since the not!Sea King's death didn't revert them automatically, grr!). He could have told us this earlier, but he's senile and busy. So he gives us the potion, we return our hearts to each other, and I finally, finally can exchange hearts with the man I love. Yerrodin and I perform the rite, and it works, yay! Together, we go to tell Wilmerry. I hug her again, then ask her for her son's hand in marriage. I'll be doing the same thing later with the peasant family who'd raised Yerrodin.
The game ends with Yerrodin and I discussing hillarity: Well, my father's an eagle, yours was a sea god, you were a swan, and I can turn into a fox... what will the children be like? (I think the game actually wrapped on that line.)
So yeah, I really enjoyed myself. It was wonderful, having a love plot withelectric_d_monk, and getting to have a spat with mirroredecho, and interacting with everyone. I do wish I'd been able to do more to save my own hide, but I did a fair bit with what I could, and I was constrained by my circumstances.
Other games coming later. This post is officially long enough.
wired_lizard prep and stuff A Crown of Hearts and Stars Over Atlantis. For she is a crazy biotch who ran two games. We were later joined in this quest by slipjig, nevacaruso and figmentj. My most difficult task while this was going on? Untangling a bunch of necklaces which were intent on having a necklace orgy in the props box. I'm very proud to say we only had to get the pliers out for the last three of the bunch. Then came the games themselves:
On Friday night, I played in A Crown of Hearts I had a major challenge going into the game, seeing as how my character was mute. It was a challenge I deliberately asked for, since my primary way of getting things done in LARPs is to talk at people until they see my point. :) Moreover, I used to have a major problem, when it came to acting, of acting from the neck up, and that's something I've been working on fixing for years. I was interested in seeing how I'd do with my body and physical expression as my primary tools. Overall, I think it worked out pretty well, and I got to spend some serious time playing charades with
electric_d_monk, who was a great sport about it all. It helped that I had a magic harp which could convey my emotions to others, when all else failed. Really, abstract ideas were the hardest to get accross. Time and the passage thereof were what really left me banging my head against the wall. Remember, this is a world that doesn't really have watches, and miming time as the sun moving across the sky looks like I'm doing the wave. Eventually, I figured out that our host had walls and I had a reliable source of paint (my hands were constantly bleeding.) At which point bloody awful stick figures made my communication much easier.
From the various things mentioned before, you might realize that my character, Ettany started out pretty screwed. Her origins came from A Little Mermaid and Swan Lake. She used to be a swan maiden of the Wild Kingdom of the Sea, until she fell in love with a prince. The prince was a jackass, but we'll get to that later. On her own, she could only transform into a human very briefly, but as luck would have it, she ran into the game's very own roving fairy godmother, Wilmerry. Wilmerry had given her a potion, which would transform her into a human for a year. If she could get someone to fall in love with her and give her his heart (an actual metaphysical/mechanical act, in this game,) then she could stay human forever. If not, she would die. She would also lose her voice, as a price of the transformation, and remain in constant pain. See also: Little Mermaid. Knowing all this, Ettany willingly took the bargain.
She found her prince, Issakar but while he was all too willing to sleep with her, he had no interest in giving her, or anyone else, his heart. Around the same time, she met Yerrodin. She'd actually seen him briefly before, but he was too tongue-tied to speak around her. He'd fallen in love with her, you see, when he first saw her transform into human form. The two bonded, but Ettany was still fixated on Issakar. She was a teenage girl. They do stupid shit like that, sometimes.
Eventually, the three got separated, due to stuff. And as of the night of the game, Ettany is running out of time. If she doesn't find someone to love her, and love them back, she goes bye-bye.
As luck would have it, both Yerrodin and Issakar are also at the ball she got a mysterious invitation to. And that's where things start getting complicated. You see, Yerrodin is accompanied by a swan (played by
mirroredecho, who, upon closer examination, turns out to be wearing Ettany's swanskin, resulting in her smelling and feeling like Ettany - and claiming to be Ettany herself. And I get the weirdest feeling ever from this swan, like she's got something of mine, but also this complicated repulsion mixed with attraction. Gaaah! She proves, rather quickly, to be a total bitch, fucking with my friend's feelings, and acting all snotty toward me, but I still feel kind of bad for her, since being stuck in a shape that's not yours, and that you don't want sucks. In trying to figure out which one of us is the real deal, Yerrodin inadvertantly reveals to me that my prince had been hunting swans, when I first met him (it's kind of hard to identify a crossbow, if you've never seen one before.) At which point, I totally break. I'm in love with a murderer, and not only has Issakar broken my heart, but I've kind of broken my own, having been that much of an idiot. Various people, including Wilmerry (Issakar's mom) and his little brother, Saxbend (
v_cat) tell me I deserve better. Man, the rest of his family is way nicer people. At this point, Yerrodin's established that I'm the real swan maiden, and the two of us are growing closer. When a floating head, who also happens to be the other swan chick's father (
truthseeker) tells us that if I were to exchange hearts, I'd be able to stay human forever, but the person I loved would be haunted forever by wild magics, Yerrodin just looks me in the eye and tells me he can take the risk, and that's when I start panicking, because I'm scared of hurting or killing someone I love that much... Wait, I love him? Crap! I mean, this is good, I mean, what? Please advise, head! (My head, not the floating one. Not that my own head has anything to do with most of my decisions.) It takes me a little longer to admit that I want to give my heart to Yerrodin. While this is going on, he learns that he's actually Issakar and Saxbend's older brother, who his mother had to send away due to complicated circumstances. Saxbend is thrilled with this, as it means Issakar is now 'the spare,' which is what Issakar has always called him. Yerrodin's not sure he wants to do the prince thing, but. I don't actually learn any of this till a little bit later.
In the meantime, I finally get up my courage to 'tell' Yerrodin how I feel. We try to exchange hearts...
What, you thought it was going to be that easy? When I try to draw my heart out of my chest, I double over in pain and get a voice ringing in my head, saying 'this isn't yours to give.' So I already have someone else's heart? What, was I drunk when that happened? I play the 'confusion' melody on my harp for like the tenth time that night, cause boy am I confused.
The next time I'm around other swan girl, we both get an extra jolt. This other person has my heart. Neither of us is thrilled with this. At. All. Not only do we have other love plots, but what we feel for one another is mostly annoyance, and having another person's heart is the utmost expression of love. I think the one thing we utterly agreed on in game was that we wanted our hearts back, thank you! Virtanus, aka Mr. Floaty Head, finally cracks and tells us that the Sea King (who he referred to as my father, though I think that was a snafu) had switched our hearts when we were both infants. It's really hard to ask why, when you can't speak. So an expedition forms to ask the Sea King to swap 'em back, led by Other Swan (tm)'s mom, Melara (played by Alison, whose lj username I don't know.)
This is the part of the game where plots start kicking into high gear, and a major (OOC) problem manifests. There are three characters in game who know like everything, and for a while, the game becomes Waiting for Carrokill: The LARP. Carrokill was the witch, played by
captainecchi. While standing around is when I discover my new 'talent for painting.' I also convince Yerrodin to put on the crown he found, pointing out that he has a protection charm, so he probably won't turn into an owlbear. (It's a long story.) He puts on the crown and is extra powerful now. Yay! He also shows me the bone flute he found at the same shop as my harp (which he'd given to me, much to Issakar's annoyance.) Since I seem to be the musical one there, I play the flute. Those of you who know your fairy tales probably know where this is going... Hint, it involves inadvertent canibalism. An eerie voice comes from the flute, singing a very disturbing song, involving said inadvertent canibalism (See: The Juniper Tree.) I drop the flute and fall on my butt, cause you know, disturbing! Moreover, Saxbend hears something familiar in the lyrics, and runs off to finish his quest. Apparently, he'd been having strange dreams, some of which matched what the flute played.
This is the last we see of him. The next time I see Wilmerry, I learn that her youngest son has died - the second he kissed Sleeping Beauty, which his dreams had been leading him to do, she woke up, and he fell over dead. I know it wasn't my fault, but I still feel vaguely responsible, since I played the flute. (Apparently, it's impossible for Saxbend to survive game.) So I'm kind of having sympathy overload, since Saxbend and his mom have both been so nice to me. I hug Wilmerry lots.
Various things suddenly happen: Melara's party comes back, telling us that the Sea King has been possessed by the Cherni (evil embodiments of darkness and evil,) and they'll need more variety in powers to defeat him. A GM runs up and tells me that I'm suddenly enveloped by a cloud of darkness. It's close enough to end of game, so I think hoshit, I'm dead! But instead of killing me, the cloud of darkness falls away, and I'm left standing there, still human, but no longer cursed. I'm not in pain, and I can speak! It takes some time to find my voice, at first. I've literally used a human mouth only once, back when I first met Issakar, and that was over a year ago.
But when I do find it, boy to I ever! Which is a good thing, because this is when the other swan (whose name I have at this point learned is Odeyla) and I get to have an epic bitchfight. Basically, she's hit a wall, with her love (Saxbend) dead, while I get to be with mine, and her still cursed, while I've been freed, and me still having her heart. So she loses it at me, when I try to talk to her. Since none of this is my fucking fault, I lose it right back at her, for being a high and mighty bitch who thinks everything is everyone's fault but her own. My character may be nice, but she's not that nice, and she's had enough of her shit. We pretty much simultaneously call combat (well, bitchfight) She wins RPS, but I have Issakar, who is in the vicinity, assisting me, so we tie. I learn that Issakar is the one who uncursed me, having gotten access to his heart back (it had a lock on it, since he was born a near-sociopath.) It's just gotten unlocked. He's not. Fucking. Happy about it. But he has gotten the ability to make three wishes, pretty much at will - so long as it's for the benefit of someone else. He uses his second to free Odeyla from the swanskin, so she's now back to her normal self. I pretty much just shrug and walk off since I'm good with her being uncursed, and she's not really worth my time.
(God, I'm rambling at length, but I feel like I'm still missing some stuff.)
The 'defeat possessed sea king' party is still missing an earth element user, which they need, so I wind up hollering to see if anyone around has a Crown with an earth type power. No one does, but [Bad username or unknown identity: natbudin's] character thinks he might know where one might be. (Our characters had actually known each other before and therefore trusted each other, though due to a cross-referencing error, I didn't have that bit in my character sheet, which led to a hillarious 'retcon everything I just said about not knowing him' moment.)
He goes off to get it, at which point the party is complete. They defeat the possessed Sea King (I watch OOC, since it's important to me, but there's no way to justify bringing along a non-combatant.) He dissolves, and reveals a crown. When they bring it back, I feel this crown calling to me and put it on. And then I read the item description card. And then I sit down. Because I am fucking TWINKED, yo. Basically, this crown gives me access to every single power in game, plus some nifty combinations thereof. In fact, it looks like I might be able to bring the dead back to life, which leads to various people who'd been close to Saxbend, including Odeyla, begging me to help. He was an awesome dude, so I'm all for it. Odeyla shows me the way to the Briar Wood, where he had died, and comes along with me. I try to revive him, and wind up contacting his spirit, who tells me that he was prepared to make the sacrifice and is at peace now. Owwww. I tell him to talk to Odeyla, since she'd loved him, and he gives her his heart from beyond the grave. When she accepts it, the heart turns into her own crown. The whole thing was fucking heartbreaking.
Apparently, if it had been anyone else, I would have succeeded at bringing them back. Saxbend is just that screwed. And his player was now busy playing Sleeping Beauty, whom he had woken up.
We go back, as things are wrapping up. I'm not entirely sure how things are with me and Odeyla, at this point, but we're at least capable of being civil to each other. The old wizard dude tells us he has a potion which could swap our hearts (since the not!Sea King's death didn't revert them automatically, grr!). He could have told us this earlier, but he's senile and busy. So he gives us the potion, we return our hearts to each other, and I finally, finally can exchange hearts with the man I love. Yerrodin and I perform the rite, and it works, yay! Together, we go to tell Wilmerry. I hug her again, then ask her for her son's hand in marriage. I'll be doing the same thing later with the peasant family who'd raised Yerrodin.
The game ends with Yerrodin and I discussing hillarity: Well, my father's an eagle, yours was a sea god, you were a swan, and I can turn into a fox... what will the children be like? (I think the game actually wrapped on that line.)
So yeah, I really enjoyed myself. It was wonderful, having a love plot with
electric_d_monk, and getting to have a spat with mirroredecho, and interacting with everyone. I do wish I'd been able to do more to save my own hide, but I did a fair bit with what I could, and I was constrained by my circumstances. Other games coming later. This post is officially long enough.
