Wednesday, 27 April 2011

The Compleat Pirate

Heh heh - I made it back from my highly successful shopping trip ... I mean, weekend of LARPing.
I BOUGHT A NEW BASTARD SWORD! (It's been a few years since I've been into combat and the latex on my old sword had gone crunchy.) Oh, you have no idea how good it felt to have a weapon of my own in my hands again - it's a good heavy one but nicely balanced, and I use it two-handed because my brain can't cope with the multi-tasking involved with sword-and-shield.

I felt whole again.

I also bought a beautiful wool coat and a pistol that fires real caps. I am happy!



Other than the shopping ... well, being new to the Maelstrom system I did start with the overwhelming impression that I was being asked to sit an exam they hadn't let me see the course notes for, and this feeling persisted until, oh, sometime Sunday afternoon, but after that I stopped panicking. And got rather drunk.

In fact I was plied with a lot of free booze and cake that weekend. They are a generous bunch!

Things in real life that LARPing has taught me to be grateful for:
  • Zippers
  • Jeans
  • Chairs with backs on
  • Hot showers
  • Coffee vans that are open for breakfast
  • Not having to wear a corset unless I want to.

Ghastly Middle-Aged Moment:

I was swapping e-mail addresses with an Avian woman  (if you want to learn magic you are best doing it from another player in downtime). Avians are heavily made-up so I have no clue what she looked like under the feathers. I noticed she had a university e-mail address.

"Oh, are you at Durham University?" said I. "That was where I went, many years ago!"

"Hey! Were you in Treasure Trap?" she asked. [TT is the university LARP society]

"Yep. In fact, I was the very first person in the society to get myself a latex sword, back in the days when we all used gaffer weapons. But I sent off for a latex one through the post and everyone went Oooooh! That would be in ... oh, 1989."

"In 1989," said she, "I was two."
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4 comments:

  1. Eloise27 April 2011 at 11:34

    Saw your 1989 I was 2 comment... and this crossed a different part of my brain a bit earlier. But you reminded me of it.

    http://xkcd.com/891/

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  2. Danielle27 April 2011 at 12:03

    ah..that sounds like fun..great how happy you look with your capsule spitting pistol:-)

    by the way i went to a castele-market this weekendand ha dto think the whole time about how much you would have liked it there with all the costumes and swords:-)

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  3. t'Sade27 April 2011 at 13:49

    Heh. It reminds me of when my mom's friend was telling me all about her sexual adventures at the U of I's boat club. Of course, then she just leaned over, patted me on the knee, and said, "You weren't born then, but you would have liked me. I was such a slut then."

    God, I loved her. :)

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  4. Janine Ashbless27 April 2011 at 16:15

    Eloise, that is the most evil XKCD I've ever seen. I am going to lie down and fan myself in distress!

    Hi Dan! I'd have loved to have been shopping there :-) And t'Sade, that's a woman to totally admire.

    BTW, when she heard my pathetic age-related wailing, the avian said "No, no - you are a Revered Elder!" It didn't make me feel much better.
    ;-)

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