On the Annals of Aylix Goth...

Day six seems to be coming down to the wire a bit - I've left it a bit late so I hope I can finish todays entry before the midght hour.
What have I been doing instead? Oddly enough - writing. Since SEPTEMBER last year, I've been roleplaying out my next LARP characters backstory over Skype with a wonderful woman called Jenni Wildman. We've been keeping each other entertained as my next character (Aylix Goth - a Mercenary and my first ever roleplaying character reworked for Fools and Heroes) travels through the country of Guiadon (basically France) as he makes his slow way home from a warzone in what is essentially the Middle East in the game world (political influence? Nah that never happens.)

She's been playing a character I just gave her the name for - the backstory that's been made for her is all Jenni, which I am VERY thankful for and she has done an absolutely beautiful job in portraying this beautiful, independant, strong willed Guiadonese woman who wanders as the wind guides her. Rani and Aylix have been through a LOT - in no small part to a piece of Aylix's past he knows nothing about that dogs and hounds them every step of the way. I won't say too much because... well it will give the game away a bit - but I have to say that I have never looked forward to a character more and I hope and pray that all the special bits of his backstory get passed with no problems.

But yes - Jenni has been playing a character called Rani Lucerina - two names which I think collectively about a dozen people on my friends list may recognise. Seperate friends, from seperate parts of my life... Some may frown, some may be slightly shocked... but I chose the names for a reason... as a form of dedication to two friends I've lost in the last six years - Kim and Ana.

Before anyone crticises me - I picked these names out of respect and love I have for those two people... I was close to each of them - and this is my way of remembering them. Jenni has done an amazing job of bringing the character based of those two namesakes to life despite me essentially throwing her in at the deep end and giving her the barest of character concepts and saying to her "run with it." We've had RP sessions last until two or three o'clock in the morning before - making us sluggish or late for uni or work the next day. Clever? No. Worth it - I'd like to think so.

We're coming to the end now, coming to the conclusion of where Aylix and Rani part ways and I'm sad about it. Together, we've churned out over 110000 words just for this section of Aylix's life - and I have much more to write besides. It has been the highlight of many nights in what has been a bit of turbulant eight or more months, to the decrement of other things some nights - and I apologise to anyone who feels like I may have neglected them some nights - but I've been so very wrapped up in this absolutely gem of creative endevours I've occasionally let some important things slip by a little bit.

Of course finishing this roleplay won't be the end of the story and it will need heavily editing to get it to flow well and not have it as a list of actions and dialogue. To get it out of the instant messaging format it's currently in - but I'm looking forward to doing it. I'm looking forward to working back over the past sixth months and re-read Rani and Aylix's adventure together. It's been wonderfully paced, there's been tension - there's been love, and betrayal and heart wrenching agony. It's been an absolutely beautiful ride and I'm going to be very sad when this part of it ends. And I get a feeling it will - which (spoiler alert) some measure of emotional finality.

But it's been a novel and unique experiennce - to share such a creative endevour with someone else who can pick up on queues of where you try and steer something without it feeling railroaded - we've passed the torch of "games master" almost back and forth numerous times as inspiration has hit and as we've thrown almost everything the Fools and Heroes game world has to offer that a couple of magicless, human fighters can try and beat back or escape from. With the game world itself there has been a bit of suspension of disbelief required now and again, but not enough to be flow breaking or story destroying.

So - that's been my main project - who knows, when it's finished I may put the unedited log somewhere online for people to read (with Jenni's permission of course) so you can read everything we've had this poor couple go through.

And I'd like to round this off by saying thank you to Jenni... I couldn't have done it without you.