Born, like other comic book characters, out of an otherwise trivial but life-changing animal bite, the Rabid Librarian seeks out strange, useless facts, raves about real and perceived injustices, and seeks to meet her greatest challenge of all--her own life.
I don't want to make it seem like I'm too enmeshed in my character; I'm not. But when you roleplay to the extent we do, you really do put part of yourself into the character--we're not hack and slash sort of players, where you get treasure and kill monsters and that's about the end of it. Our characters have lives, sometimes rather messy ones, with ties to other characters and beyond.
I was on my way to pick someone up from work this morning and just with as real death, I found myself thinking of things unsaid, undone, and I cried a little. My character was pretty quiet, with a bit of a sense of humour, and wasn't the brightest or best, certainly. He was talented in photography, and in martial arts. Also, he was the best tracker and navigator in the Antarctic group, having survived cannibal cultists in the Amazon as his first Cthulhoid experience. He hadn't had a lot of play and had just one mission to his name, involving the Mi-Go.
Because I do so much writing during note-taking, I sometimes have trouble interacting and roleplaying, although the recorder is helping that. (It's the only real record I have of his sacrifice--I wasn't taking notes at that point.) He could have been fleshed out better by now. But now he's gone, in a horrible but somewhat noble death, and the record of his life is over, and there's no second chances, at least with this character. Maybe if I'm allowed a new one at some point, I can work more dilligently on bringing that one to life, or more importantly, develop the ones I already have. So I guess his death has some unseen consequences for me as a player as well as for those in the game. I have to learn to be less passive, more active, and really roleplay to my fullest. I've been doing this long enough that I should be able to.
But for the record, even though it's not real, here's a little closure:
Joshua Daniel Adler Born February 7, 1980 Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Died December 7, 2006 Western Mountain Range, Antarctica
He had dark brown hair, blue eyes, and was lanky, about 5'10" and 150 lbs. He looked very much like Adrian Grenier (see picture by David Shankbone). He had O+ blood. He was Jewish, somewhat religious, and kept kosher when he could. His father is Evan Adler, a professor at Hebrew Union College. His mother is Miriam Adler, a librarian, and his sister is Rachel Adler, an elementary school teacher. Nice, normal folks, who've never heard of Cthulhu. They've never come into play, although they may now that he's dead. How do you tell someone your son died to save the world? [SPOILER ALERT FOR Beyond the Mountains of Madness!] More likely they'll say he died in the terrible earthquake that hit the mountains, along with the other men who died during the trip. There isn't a body to bring home; his head and brain is incorporated into the Elder Things' machine, his body--skeleton, really, since shoggoths are very efficient--lies in an abattoir within the lighthouse.
from picking up a friend from work and running by the store in the middle of the night. I got some Luna bars for breakfast over the next few days (much better than Pop-Tarts) and some food I can take with me for lunch and dinner.
On the one hand, my pants are all loose and I fear they may fall down sometime at the gas station since I keep my wallet on me when I'm there, and that weighs my pocket down. On the other, I had lost 25 lbs but I've gained a little of it back over the last few days, so I need to start making better choices.
I went to physical therapy today between jobs. Last time the therapist did a really deep massage to my elbow to break up the fibres that grow crosswise at the tendon which can cause pain and limit mobility/strength. Despite being a great big wuss-baby when it comes to acute pain (I do pretty well with the chronic kind), I didn't come out of my seat wailing at how much it hurt, but I had to put ice on it later and it's been swollen ever since and really tender. I told them this today and the aide massaged it but it wasn't quite so deep, although apparently the tendon is very tight around my elbow proper (the pain itself is centred about 1-2 inches below the joint). This time they did the massage first, then iced my elbow during the e-stim treatment, and that really helped (although I really liked the heat last time--it was very soothing). Also, last time they gave me a band to wear on my arm that somehow cuts the pain. It really has helped.
Tonight was truck night at the station and we were fortunate to be back to three people rather than two, since there's a new employee that just started this week. We got all the order put up before I left at 9, so that was much better. The last two or three weeks, my co-worker and I have been swamped by customers whilst trying to put everything up. We'd been pretty short-handed.
Tomorrow I'm off from the store. At the hospital, I need to take some children's books to clinic and put them on the cart we have for our early literacy programme, where books are given to children 6 months-5 years old who come in. I also need to clean out my closet and put the remaining books there--I have a small wall of boxes still to be unpacked piled at the end of my cubicle. I also need to download/print off some reports and finalise our journal renewals through our subscription agent. Then there's a need assessment to design, work out some budget details, and schedule a library committee meeting, but that may be for early next week.
Saturday I'm working a little later than usual; I don't have to go in until 11 am, but I get off at 7 pm. Then a friend and I will make a large grocery run, so not as much fun as last week, where I actually got off early enough to go to a matinee of the new Mummy movie. Let me tell you, Evie is really just the deal-breaker on this one; it's just not the same without Rachel Weisz, and the chemistry didn't quite work. But I enjoyed the movie overall and will probably get it on DVD/go to future ones. The girl who played the son's love interest was very good, and the action scenes were well done, althought I thought the special effects were not as good as in the past. Also, no mummies were harmed in the movie because there, well, weren't really any mummies--terracotta warriors, yes, and skeletal remains under the Great Wall, but no actual mummies. Still, it had its moments. And never take a yak on a small plane, or at least if you have to, don't sit next to it. Thanks to M from the game, who gave me a gift card to the Regal theatre for the winter holiday. I like the Regal, although their popcorn is not that good.
Sunday should be fun. We're getting nearer to the climax of Beyond the Mountains of Madness. My character was nearly eaten by a couple of shoggoths last week, all because the most-annoying leader of the expedition, Captain James Starkweather, the Great White Hunter and general all around incompetent prick, had to shoot a giant albino penguin down in the bowels of the city of the Elder Things. Ignoring my pleas to leave (I could hear the distant 'Teke-li-li!'), he started to truss up the penguin, no doubt so he could have it stuffed and mounted. When the shoggoth showed up, he fortunately went temporarily mad and ran out of, rather than deeper into the caverns. Despite being much faster, I couldn't very well leave him behind no matter how much I wanted to (okay, I could, but there are those vows to protect humans from Cthulhoids), and in process, got trapped between two of the creatures, but my companions showed up in time and we exploded one with concentrated use of essence to power the Elder Sign through our swords. Yay for me--my character didn't die because of that idiot. Now the question is where Starkweather has run off to, since we are on oxygen, and whether the shoggoths will start coming up to the surface and attack the camp. This so isn't good--but it is fun. We're at a point in the game that the Lovecraft story on which this was based, 'At the Mountains of Madness', is encouraged by the writers to be read, so I'm doing that now.
Oh, by the way, I finished The Somnambulist. I enjoyed the style quite a bit, it was a good mystery, although the ending was not quite satisfying and more than just a little fantastical and well, bad. Oh, and all the descriptions and reviews that I've read keep calling it a Victorian setting, when it's Edwardian--the Queen was dead, long live the King and all that. Ah, history is not the friend of some.
Well, it's 5 am--I should head back to bed; I had an hour's sleep earlier, but I need more. Thanks for letting me ramble. Good night.
PS One last thing...I know this post is pretty long, and this is going to make it longer, but I thought this was an interesting short film set to Loreena McKennitt's 'The Mask and the Mirror' made by Mirrormask. Judging from the tags, the person is influenced by Neil Gaiman, particularly The Sandman, and certainly the visuals show that is the case.
All this watching TV from my youth had me half-remembering a show from Nickleodeon in the 1980s where there was a Mr Wilberforce, aliens, and kids with paranormal powers. I Googled 'Wilberforce TV Nicklelodeon' and behold, came up with The Third Eye (and here's the Wikipediaentry). It was a collection of different mini-series from around the world with unusual happenings in them. The specific feature I remembered was a New Zealand show called 'Under the Mountain'. I am now happy, mystery solved.
Here are scenes from that feature:
and a longer scene, where they find out Mr Wilberforce is not what he appeared to be.
The (bad) aliens' subterranean base looks ripe for Shoggoths, let me tell you. By the way, remember 'Shoggoth on the Roof'? Well, apparently it was a condensation of an actual musical published by the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. For more, check out the article on Wikipedia. Songs include: 'Tentacles', 'Byakhee, Byakhee', 'Shoggoth Prayer', 'If I were a Deep One', and 'Do You Fear Me?'
I'd love to get a copy of the original cast recording. It can be obtained here. For more on 'Shoggoth', check out the HPLHS' website on the subject, including the trials and tribulations of staging it with music (it was threatened legally by the creators of the music for 'Fiddler on the Roof' and even though a parody and therefore legally they'd most likely win, they don't have the money for legal fees.)
