hazliya | Voidstalkers!

So, this past weekend I was involved in Voidstalkers, a weekend-long and several-times-a-year LARP that follows the exploits of a bizarrely-crewed space crawler. I thought it might be best to play as an NPC this time around to get to know the story and universe before creating a character (when one fell right into my lap, more on that later). There were a lot of long gaps when players made up their own plots, which the GMs apologized for but we enjoyed watching/listening to, as we had a comm in the HQ room we waited in and heard the kind of snippets that make us assume the worst was happening outside. Or at least, the most bizarre. It was a barrel of fun.

The three NPCs (myself, Nandi, and Mel) went from being mute, mindless mining drones to rage-filled overseers the first day, then alien rebels (we realized that we should probably bring weapons to the meeting only after arriving before the crew, so as a GM ran back to fetch some, Mel and I slipped into blonde mode for a few minutes, to the tune of "Ohmigod! Like, where's my laser?" "Totally. Like, which end does it shoot out of?" just in time for the captain to arrive and stare awkwardly before saying "I'm going to leave and try this again." Mel and I lost it, and it was a full five minutes before we could continue) to super-uber-beast alien brute squad the second. Seriously - we weren't even given stats for the brute squad. It was more or less "They fail. Automatically." Which we could deal with well.

Then, just as the players found themselves in a pickle, the three of us were tapped to drive them in the right direction, in the form of the villain (more or less) and her two underlings. To signify that we were other-plane beings, we were given dozens and dozens of 3' bendy glowsticks to adorn ourselves with. This was a mistake, as we went crazy accessorizing with the rainbow-colored rave favors. We even got stared at in the hall by other guests of the hotel, one of which asked where the party was. At any rate, Mel was told to play the Mother, and Nandi and I were to play her still-rather-beast 'daughters' and, verbatim, "mess with the players until you get bored."

So that we did. We went around as flaky, not-all-there princesses are wont to do: poking the crew, blasting a few, brain-poking others, and so forth. Every once in a while, we would revisit to stir them up a bit. As a result, Nandi's sexually curious princess was promised the womanizing Ambassador as a pet, who reluctantly agreed to take one for the team. As soon as she and I sauntered back in, clinging to each other and simpering that we "did absolutely everything together," his tone changed dramatically and he followed us eagerly away from the rest of the crew. When he returned, half-dressed and very disheveled, he shared the fact that as part of a bargain, he would give the princesses a territory of their own to control if they helped the crew escape.

Here's where my character idea hit me, and I ran it by Will, who was more than happy to OK it. And was greatly amused by the concept. So the princesses helped the crew escape, Mother was super-pissed, and since I wasn't groveling before her, punished my character worse than her sister. We were both made human, and my brain was scrambled. All I could remember was "heal" and had a penchant for chewing on my collar. After some surgery, I eventually could speak, but was still as flaky and easily distracted as ever. My psi-powers were cut in half (though I'm still decent; I was beast to begin with) and I had a blank slate of abilities. Character creation, go!

So I am now a demolitions expert on board the ship. With a metric ton of handicaps, of course, including "absent-minded" and "lightweight." So ladies and gents, please don't get the alien princess drunk.

Heard over the comm.:
"Taking a shuttle now, thx bye"
"Can the doctor please report to med bay immediately? (5 min later) Can anyone with ANY MEDICAL TRAINING WHATSOEVER please report to med bay immediately?"
-
??: Captain, can I rig an override for ALL the shuttles so that Carnivale can't steal them again?
Capt: Go ahead.

elenuial: Huh. I was just gonna shoot the locks.
-
Nandi: (about the ambassador) I saw his thingy.
Me: He took his clothes off?
Nandi: No, I saw it in his head.
Me: So that's why it was so small!
-
Nandi: Let's look in his head to see what he likes!
Ambassador: Go ahead, ladies.
Me: I see schoolgirl outfits!
Nandi: And nurse uniforms!
Me: And big, plastic high heels!
Nandi: And big, plastic hair!
-
(after a few have been mauled by the tentacled Queen Mother)
Shannon: (coming out of the therapy room) I need paint and paper.

rhya: ...Why?
Shannon: They can't talk about it. They have to draw.
-
Shannon: I think the therapy's going well. I tried some word association.

rhya: Oh? What words?
Shannon: Well, I started with "tentacle."
-
Shannon: I told them to show me, on the doll, where she touched them. He said that you couldn't see it on the outside, so I lifted the stomach flap so that he could point to internal organs.
-
Ambassador: (teaching Nandi's newly-human princess how to eat) Now put it in your mouth.
(snickers from everyone else in the room)
Nandi: Bleagh. Mushy.
Ambassador: Now swallow, like you did before.
(snickers from everyone else in the room)
Ambassador: Oh, shut up!
-

rhya: It's gum. You chew it.
Me: ...do I have to swallow?

rhya: No.
Me: (calling to ambassador) You lied!
-
Me: Why are you being court-martialed?
Capt. Hattenschweiler: Because he stabbed Carnivale.
Me: ...so?
(they laugh)
Me: No, seriously. From what I can tell, no one would blame you.
??: Yeah, I don't think anyone would really court-martial you for that.

-
So I met some new people, got to know others better, and was happy to be back in my beloved Newport. All in all, a good way to spend the weekend.

-Haz