My sense of time is completely thrown off right now.
It's also Brewfest!
And those two facts have nothing to connect them. Really.
Bear with me, fictional reader, for this post is a bit rambling.
I'm having trouble with my paladin character. She's not really a paladin, but I don't know what she is. Her name's Elren Beckley, she grew up in Theramore and has family, and that's about all I know. If she were a piece of music, I'd have a title and instrumentation, but no actual music.
Monday, Pirate's Day, was okay. I went to the party at Booty Bay, listened to other people's stories and songs, and shared my own using Elren. I was really nervous, which seems silly since it's just a game. Plus, I have years of RP experience, even if it's been a long time since I've been an active RPer. I think it because I don't know who Elren is.
I think I'm going to to stick with her being a musician, but I don't really have a grasp on her character yet. I don't like that. I don't really want to log in on her until I have a better grasp of "who" she is. If I don't know who she is, I don't know what she should be doing or how she should react to situations. That's not any fun, honestly. It makes it difficult and awkward to interact with other players. So I was nervous at Booty Bay.
When I write music, or stories, the best part is when, even if don't plan things out, I know the themes well enough that everything just flows. I say music or stories because both are really very similar in my head.
My best music are the pieces I've written without forcing it. I get inspired by a snippet of sound or melody, and everything flows from there. I usually have to make a conscious decision on some matters of form - is this a sonata? a rondo? something else? - and the music will fill that form. All I have to do is figure out the technical details. 'Light Be With You' was like that. I had an idea in my head, and I simply sat down and worked it out.
I think it's the same with stories and characters. One of my other hobbies in story writing, although I'm not serious about it. If you know your characters, and your world well enough, all you need is a prompt and it's like the story writes itself.
I have two characters I'm RPing right now on Wow. Elren, whom I don't know, and my priest, whom I do. I like my priest a lot. She's a gnome, and I love playing a character so small. I figure she needs to have a good personality to make it in the world of 'talls.' I created her first, and maybe that's why I know and like her better. I don't have any problem logging into her character, because I know who she is and what's she's doing.
Her name's Derscha Kettlebomb. She's a young adult gnome, who's only recently began traveling. She acts as a traveling salesgnome and field researcher for her father's medicine (and explosives) business, having taken over the position when her uncle disappeared during the Cataclysm. She has quirks: she'a a neat freak who has need to keep everything very organized, or she'll forget things. She loves food, and is little pudgy. She isn't very fit, and it's only the constant travel that keeps her from being actually overweight. She has a dream (open a bakery) and a temptation (become a misguided scientist).
I like her a lot. She has a reason to be almost anywhere I can put her. If she's in a city, she's selling goods or making business contacts. If she's in the field, she's doing research. She has props to work with: her uncle's travel journal, her sample bag of products, lots of snacks.
Basically, at any time, I can answer (or give a vague idea of an answer for) the following questions:
1) Why is Derscha here?
2) What is her goal at the moment?
3) How would she accomplish that?
It could be as simple as, "Derscha's at the Blue Recluse to enjoy her favorite drink. She would order it at the bar, and then sit savor it slowly." That's all I need to start RPing.
Derscha is my melody. I chose to write a rondo, and I know Derscha well enough that the music writes itself.
I can't do that for Elren. Yes, she can go to the bar and order a drink. But I don't know what type of drink she'd like. I don't know if she's the type of person who would drink by herself. I don't know if she'd have the money for a good drink. Would she drink it quickly and leave? Would she try to make it last?
(Derscha: anything with a interesting flavor, preferably something bizarre. She's not above adding her own ingredients. She would drink by herself- she doesn't need company to enjoy food. She doesn't have a lot of pocket money, but believes in the value of saving up for a good drink.)
So I'd rather not log onto Elren too much more until I get a good grasp on her character. Right now, I have some ideas about where she grew up, but not what she wants to do. I have a better idea what my PvE Lvl 85 priest would do in any situation! (Can't play a character for two years without developing SOME sort of personality.)
Right now, I'm pretty sure I want her to be a musician, though. Derscha's not a musician, and has plenty going on for her without adding that to the mix. I'd like an outlet to share the WoW-related music I'm writing. Or would be writing, if it weren't for a couple of things...
Did I mention it was Brewfest?
Brewfest is a huge time-sucking event. And now that I have two new toons, my completionist self is insisting that they both get Brewfest clothes(and maybe pets and beer and pony keg!!!?) Derscha has to have her Beer of the Month membership, after all! I spent Tuesday night after work getting all the one time quests done on my toons... only to have everything mysterious reset after midnight, making them available AGAIN. So, yeah, there went a lot my time.
And why was I up playing past midnight?
This is because on Tuesday night as I was leaving work, I was asked to switch to night shift for the rest of the week to help with inventory. I don't really mind taking on the occasional night shift, and was actually surprised I wasn't asked earlier. So when I went home Tuesday I had to force myself to stay up late (Brewfest helped). Then I slept most of Wednesday and went to work at 9pm. Came home at 8 am. Thursday because the shift ran long. Slept until 4 pm. I'm awake and relaxed for the first time since Tuesday morning, and it's now late Thursday.
I'm getting such conflicting signals from my body and my window. I feels like midmorning to me, and it's already dark outside. I should be thinking about lunch, and my family's getting ready for supper and bed. What's really nice is that I had two days scheduled off, so I can't go back to work until Saturday night. I've got two days to maintain a night schedule without anything forcing me to stay up or I'll just mess myself up again.
Sigh.
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