Post-Concordia Post

Wow -- I haven't had a game hangover this intense in quite some time.

Yesterday (for those of you not involved) was the Concordia game for Changeling, wherein Faerilyth got crowned High Queen and I, as Morwen, sat in a room playing the part of Condemned Traitor Awaiting Judgement. Which was not nearly so tedious as I feared it might be.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who came and talked to me during that time. Partly, of course, because that would have been one hella boring game if you hadn't, but even more because those were a bunch of truly fantastic scenes. No doubt I'll forget some people (that was a long game), but I recall having conversations with: Queen Mary Elizabeth, Queen Mab, Queen Morganna, Faerilyth before her coronation, High Lord Varich, High Lord Eleanor, Princess Lenore, Sir Seif, Duke Topaz, Duke Firedrake, Duchess Igrania, Duke Dray, Duke Kelodin, Duke Aeon, Countess Anne, Baron Weyland, Lord Mu, Sir Rowena, Sir Danwyn, Dame Airmed, Sir Ranulf, Adama, Ochun, and Vincent Cross. Plus a few others who wandered into the room in company with someone else but didn't really talk to me, like High Lord Donovan, High Lord Eleanor's consort Sir Tairngrim, Lady Ayame, and Midir, Adama's faceless assassin.

In other words, damn, I was a popular traitor.

I'm glad the scenes were so good, since Mab gave me her favor before I could even ask her, thereby rendering unnecessary the hours of trying to finagle a favor out of somebody I had expected to go through. And it was an interesting experience, spending 99% of the game sequestered in a single room, leaving it only long enough to a) do my level best to commit political (and very nearly literal) suicide and b) find out what the consequences of that would be. During the periods when everyone assembled for court and I was left alone, I stayed in my room instead of going to eavesdrop OOC, whereupon I paced back and forth and planned my speech of accusation. (That, for the record, was an idea I'd come up with at 2 a.m. the night before while trying to fix the sleeves of my dress so I could bend my arms, so that I would actually have something to do at the game, some goal to actually strive for. After all, politicking needs to be spiced up with a few Grand Gestures. Even if mine then got eclipsed by the Crazy Cold Iron Suicide). My one regret is that for OOC player reasons, Duke Rococco was not there when I did it, since I was later told second-hand that he might have taken up my challenge to Meilge. And wouldn't that have been interesting.

As for the dress, well, I didn't get all of the detailing done on it that I wanted to (the beaded chains for the sleeves and skirt got made, but not attached), and the organza proved too delicate for sleeves (the seams ripped out on both sides by the end), but on the whole, I think it was a success. If I can replace the sleeves with something a little sturdier, I should have quite a lovely dress, if one that requires about ten minutes of help to be laced into (thank you again, Prosewitch!).

Now, having made my post-game post, maybe I can get my head out of game space and start working on other things.

EDIT: Oh, and extra mad props to Sapphohestia, who ended up spending much of the game playing the part of my lady's maid, coordinating the lineup of people waiting to talk to me (a surprisingly necessary service), and bringing me water and food when I started to die.

'Twas Late After All

Stupid half-updated websites (though, to be fair, I can totally sympathize with the difficulty of hunting down and updating every spot on a series of websites where a particular piece of information is given). Turns out that, contrary to whatever webpage I was reading, the deadline for expedited HSC forms is Friday at 5 these days, not Monday at 5 like it used to be. Though she kindly told me that I probably wouldn't have gotten reviewed this Wednesday anyway, since they have a lot of applications piling up to review. So I won't know the results of my application until some time after Wednesday of next week.

I also want to hire myself out to the HSC people for the purpose of rewriting their forms. Not the wording, per se -- at least some of that stuff is federally mandated to be the way it is -- but to reorganize its presentation so that it, y'know, makes sense. For starters, the paginations are a bleeding mess, such that (for example) page 3 of the form is page 6 of the document, and when it tells you to do a particular thing involving page 3, you have to be sure you're looking at the right one. Second, they don't get around to giving you the nice instruction packet that tells you which forms you need to pay attention to depending on what you're doing until page five. But I think the one that takes the cake for me is the fact that an addendum to the form (the "Conflict of Interest" question, regarding whether or not anybody involved stands to make money off the research results) -- an addendum which, mind you, has been in effect for more than three years -- is on page two. Which is not part of the form. You have to go add it onto the form. The "Reminder of New Procedures" bit on page 3 is still giving you updates from 1999. One of the women in the HSC office told me the Conflict of Interest question was still up at the front because people keep forgetting to include it, and I had to bite my tongue not to suggest that people might be more likely to remember it if it were actually on the form it belongs with.

Gah.

But I managed to notice that question, and add it in, and the woman in the office who took my form (not the one with the dumb answer) gave me a big thumbs-up for having caught it. Apparently that's Reason #1 people's applications get rejected on the first round; they fail their Perception rolls and don't notice they need to put something from page two on page fourteen.

So now I twiddle my thumbs and wait to hear back.

Photography Envy

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I've just been turned green with photography envy. The Coyote's pictures from the Concordia game remind me just how much difference there is between the kind of photography I do (quick shots snapped off, sometimes with thought given to composition, but little to no understanding of light and other such matters) and the kind of photography you get with a good camera and knowledge of how to work it to the best advantage in the circumstances.

Case in point, three pictures of me from the Concordia game.

I'd link to the whole album of pictures if the Coyote hadn't requested we keep the password private. Suffice to say that the compositions he directed his subjects into go a long way towards capturing us-as-characters, rather than us-as-players-in-funny-clothes, and that the colors come through with wonderful richness. Coyote, I may hire you someday as my photographer for research purposes, since once of my recurring questions has been, how the hell can I show photos of what I'm working on, without them looking flat to an outside eye?

And yes, that would be the dress which ate my life lately. I'll have to find other excuses to wear it. (Once I replace the now-destroyed sleeves. And either get a new crinoline, or widen the waistband of mine so it stops pinching a nerve in my back.) ) You can see more detail of the fabrics, and also what I did to my hair, in this shot, but watch out for the blinding glare of flash off satin -- I was shiny that day.

Methinks I might photoshop these shots a bit -- with permission, Coyote -- to get rid of the scars and weirdnesses like that inexplicable patch of red on my neck. They're fantastic pictures, and I'm thrilled to have them.