(no subject)
This entry is about a trip I took for the purposes of gaming. It will include stories of other stuff besides the actual games, so feel free to skim through it and only read the bits you want to read. Onward!
So, a few weeks ago I started making the plan. I'd set aside the cash, and so all I needed at that point was to work out the details of the trip. See, there was this gaming event in Kansas City that some of the Lincoln Camarilla players wanted to go to. I won't even drive my car to Omaha, which is only an hour away, let alone out of state, so we had to figure out who had a useable ride. Isaac got the okay to take his wife's car, a large-ish vehicle with room for 3-5 passengers. With the transportation taken care of, I only had to work on getting a definite yes or no out of Warren as to whether he was going. When he confirmed his decision to go, I e-mailed Isaac to make sure we were on his passenger manifest. Chelle was uncertain about her availability, but a few days before the trip she found out that she would be able to go, so she was the fourth member of our little band of gamers, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, it seemed everything was planned. We'd leave at 6 or 7am from Isaac's place and head down to KC. Should be a three hour drive or so, maybe four if we stopped enough times on the way. We'd get something to eat and go settle in at the game site, maybe see if they needed help setting up or anything like that. Play Changeling, get food, play Requiem (well, I didn't play Requiem, but more on that later also), possibly get food again, head home. That was the basic plan, and it was good.
Just a note on my mental state when it comes to things like this: I like a plan. No, I LOVE a plan. If I'm going to be going that far away from home, I MUST HAVE a plan, and if something even seems like it might be going slightly wrong, I panic and stress out. Even if we have several days before the actual trip. I'll make frantic phone calls and send desperate texts, trying to fix things before departure. And I'll worry, and I'll stress, and I'll complain to everyone who will listen. I'm sure you can guess why I had to tell you all this. That's right, an issue came up.
A few days before the trip, Warren texted me, all stressed out himself. He'd volunteered to work at the hockey game on Saturday, completely forgetting he was going to be in KC that day. After the initial dizziness and urge to vomit passed, I texted him back saying he should just tell his boss he'd forgotten he'd be out of town that day. He did this, and the verdict was: "find someone to work your shift and you can go." When he texted me with this information, I began to calm down. It would be possible for him to go after all, if he could get ahold of one of his work friends who would probably be willing to switch shifts with him so he could go with us. It took all day, and I didn't hear the final answer until the next morning, but it ended up being yes and Warren was able to go to KC after all. Panic averted. Plan back in action.
(Oh, by the way, in case you hadn't figured it out by now, I'm insane.)
So everything was okay. Warren spent the night on my sofa Friday, so we could just leave from here. He was going to shower before bed, but then he said that he'd end up looking like a Polish chicken in the morning. "Warren, please tell me you're not talking about your penis," I replied, because it's my job to make these jokes. It's what I do. So he gave me the "you're insane" look again (I get that one a lot from him) and we both headed off to bed.
Let me tell you something else about myself that is important to stories of road trips: I get sick. Every time I'm going to be doing something big - like taking an all-day road trip out of state, for instance - my immune system shuts off and I get some kind of cold or sinus infection. It sets in a few days before the trip and lasts for the entire time I'm having fun, and goes away a few days or a few weeks after I get home. (The only exception to this is when I'm going to spend several months in CA. If I get sick before leaving, I get well after a few weeks.) Anyway, this trip was no different. I got a sinus infection. But I refused to back out. I had never gone to a gaming event in another state before, and I wanted to go and play and meet new people and stuff. Plus, I love road trips with my friends. We get weird.
I went over that because it was important for the next bit. Which is, the sleeping bit, the sleeping that I wanted to do before leaving. Which did not happen. I had to prop myself up on three pillows, so I was almost sitting upright, in order to stop coughing. It wasn't my lungs that were the problem, it was the sinus drainage. Ick. But I got in bed, and four hours later, at 4am, my alarm clock went off. And I was still awake when it happened.
I showered and wrapped up in the bathrobe, and got onto the computer. I had told Warren I'd wake him at 5 so he could shower before we left, so I had some time to dry off and check my Facebook apps and my e-mail and everything before I had to go downstairs and get him. This time passed quietly, I got dressed a little before 5 and then went to wake up my friend.
I've nearly been injured doing this in the past. Not every time, but if he's passed out on my sofa and he's having a nightmare, I'll usually try to get him to wake up or come out of it at least, and reaching toward him when he's in that state is not smart. (The sprained finger feels much better, by the way.) So I approached from the head end, keeping a wary eye on his arms and hands. Luckily he was all tangled in the Snuggie, so it would've been difficult for him to do any damage. Nothing like that happened though. He does not wake up happy, but he woke up. He felt a little better after getting cleaned up and dressed in clean clothes though.
My mother had agreed to drop us off at Isaac's place so she could have the car. I felt better about that idea than the other option, which was to park her car on the street at Isaac's and leave it there all day and most likely all night. If I'm leaving town I'd rather have my mom keep the car, in case she needs it, and also because we have a garage. So she drove us out there, and we chatted a bit on the way. She met Isaac, who was packing his stuff in the back of the car when we got there. At this point it was about 6am on Saturday. We loaded our stuff into Isaac's vehicle and went inside to wait for Chelle.
The house was strewn with toys. Isaac has small children, and they're a lot of fun, but they were sleeping so we had to keep it down. So we petted the bunny, played with their toys, and hung out. It was fun, and I don't get to see Isaac much outside of game. We really do need to hang out more. Movie nights wouldn't be a bad idea. Anyway, Chelle made it to his place around 6:30 or 7ish, and we got all packed into the car and headed out.
We stopped at a gas station outside of Palmyra, NE to get gas and snackies. I had used the bathroom at Isaac's twice before we left, and I had to go again at the station. And at every station between Lincoln and KC. I drank a LOT of plain water and LifeWater, and apparently I didn't retain any moisture at all. At that first station I also bought a big box of Kleenex to have in the car for the trip, because my sinuses were badly plugged and I was sniffling a lot. With all the nose-blowing i did, my nose is now chapped and raw, and my lips are dry and cracking. But I refused to back out of the trip. I wanted to go, and THE PLAN WILL NOT BE CHANGED. That's right, by now the Plan had become an entity unto itself and I was eager to defer to it in any and all situations. This is just how I am on road trips. Insane.
So, the first gas station passed. An hour later, as we approached another exit, Isaac asked if anyone needed to stop. "I would like to piddle," I replied, feeling the urge to pee hit me at the exact moment he'd asked the question. It got a laugh, and we stopped. A variation on this exact situation happened every time we neared an exit with a sign advertising gas stations. And to be fair, I wasn't the only one who peed at any of these places. However, I was the only one who peed at all of them. I can't explain my increased need to urinate. That one was new. Usually I can go on a good long trip without having to use a restroom more than once or twice, at most. Ah well, it's probably nothing to worry about, right?
RIGHT???
Anyway, we arrived in Kansas City. Now, I don't mean to insult the good people of Kansas City, but I must admit, I do not know the difference between Kansas City Kansas and Kansas City Missouri. I did see State Line Road, so I saw where the dividing line was, but I can't look around and immediately know which side of the line I'm on. I'm from Nebraska. And what's funny was, two years ago I went to see my friend Angie get married right around where we were going, and later that night I went to the Eddie Izzard show at the Uptown Theatre. My friend Cole was with me then, doing the driving. And on this trip, things looked familiar. We actually went by the hotel Cole and I stayed at, and the place where Angie got married, and I was able to point them out. Kansas and Missouri should not look familiar to me. I don't spend enough time in either place for them to look familiar. But apparently, they do.
Oh, and I did make sure to point out every single fireworks warehouse along the way. Isaac would not stop for explosives, however, and Warren kept saying "No explosives, Loki!" in a very worried tone. So we didn't get to buy fireworks out of season. But one day, I will take Warren shopping for explosives. (Snicker.)
So, we got into the right town. And we drove up and down a main road three or four times before we found the turn we were looking for, and located the game site. We were early, so we went into town again for lunch. Ate at Dairy Queen, and of course I had to go next door to this little grocery store to use the bathroom. But we ate, went to the game site again, and put our stuff in the kitchen. (This game site had a kitchen. It was the basement of a Masonic lodge. Awesome!)
There were six or eight other people there besides us, but we were early. Now, normally I like meeting new people. In a gaming situation, I love it. They become friends via the sharing of a common hobby, gaming. But here we were, and here the strangers were, and we were all gamers, and suddenly I was afraid. Well, not seriously afraid, but majorly shy and reluctant to leave the safety of the others I had come up with. Chelle and Isaac scattered though, so I hung back with Warren, who had also never been to one of these things before, and worried quietly that the strangers would not like me. And then a funny thing happened. Warren also hung back, seeming a bit on the shy side. Usually he's all about talking to people we see out in public, but not this time. Maybe he was picking up on and being affected by my fear, or maybe gamers we'd be spending all day with are different for him than someone who sells us food at Cane's, but he wasn't having any of it either. And when I saw this, I knew that one of us would have to grit our teeth and get us introduced to people. So I took over. With fear in my heart I dragged him around to everyone who wasn't busy and made the introductions until he felt comfortable speaking to strangers on his own. It happened fairly quickly, but I was surprised that he was that reluctant to do it in the first place. Also, I was surprised as hell that I was still that shy. Maybe it never goes away completely, but I really thought I had worked through that kind of fear enough to not be affected by it as strongly as I was.
After the first few people, I was mostly okay. Still a little afraid they wouldn't like me, but I was able to put it aside. Good thing too, as the place was starting to become crowded. The first game would be Changeling.
At one point, I found myself standing in the kitchen, chatting with random strangers as they passed through and having a pretty good time. One guy said something, and I said something about Loki, and he laughed and made a comment, and I mentioned that I was a follower of Loki. He looked at me in surprise. "Really? Because I'm a follower of Thor..." he said with a grin.
Yipee, a kindred spirit! I thought. "You know," I pointed out, "after the games are over for the night, you and I have to go out and get drunk and kill some giants." We both laughed. Later in the evening, I found out he lives about 45 minutes from Omaha, and may be coming into Lincoln for Changeling. A new friend! I don't actually remember his name at the moment, but if he does come down it'll be easier to learn it without dozens of people all over the place. (P.S. Chelle is a follower of Freya. Just a funny little coincidence right there, right?)
So, we got the Changeling game going. I'm not going to bore folks with the details of what went on during the game. Basically, my character had never been to a really large gathering of Changelings from other places before, and she met some interesting people, got to talk shop with another surgeon/mad scientist type, and made contact with a member of a group she wants to join. (It became one of my goals for the character after Warren showed me the entry in the rulebook about it, and I have started on the path to achieving that goal.) So it was a good day for the character, even though she doesn't normally enjoy social situations or large groups of strangers. (Also, it was really nice for her to be able to talk to that other doctor. His name was Igor and he was covered with blood, and the two of them had similar interests. Namely, people's insides. She never gets to talk to anyone about people's insides.) She brought home a frozen hobgoblin and a bottle of mead made from honey that was produced in the Hedge by a Changeling worker bee beast-kith PC. He made the honey himself, turned it into mead, and sold it to her. Actually, she traded some extract of a goblin fruit and a memory for it. (Sorry, I know I said no details, but just a little bit, for the gamers in the crowd.)
So the Changeling game was fun. We had a couple of hours in between the end of that one and the beginning of Requiem, which I do not play. (But I probably will, before too long. More on that later.) So, one guy was recommending a barbecue place for dinner, and it sounded good. Warren, Chelle and I went with him and another guy from the crowd. Geoff and Kevin. Great guys, lots of fun to hang around with. Food was great. Spicy, but good. I couldn't even finish the fries. The sandwich was basically pork and spicy sauce on a bun. Lots of pork. You know you've eaten too much when you stop eating and you're exhausted. From eating.
"Oh man, I ate so much pork," I groaned, stuffed.
"Random dick joke," Warren replied. This is a running gag that started at the Hunter game a few weeks back. When you hear something that could lead to a dick joke but you can't think of one right at the moment, but you don't want to waste the opportunity, you say "random dick joke" to make sure that there is some kind of dick joke there. It's my job to make sure that no chance for dirty jokes go by without a dirty joke. I can't let one pass, and the rest of the Hunter crowd can't either. Warren and I have spread this to the other Cam groups we're in, and now, we've spread it to Kansas, Missouri, and anywhere else those people might have been going back to. It is now the official Dirty Joke of the Lincoln Camarilla. Random Dick Joke. You're welcome, gamers of Lincoln. (P.S. Anyone can use this at any time. You don't have to be a gamer.)
So we ate spicy barbecue, and then we sat and talked for a while. At one point Kevin got up to change for the next game. While he was gone, I thought it would be funny if we moved to a different table, ordered new food, swapped shirts and called each other by different names. This made the others laugh too, but it would've been a lot of work to pull off, and most of us didn't really feel like moving all that much. When we left, we had to cross State Line Road to get back to where we were going. I don't know the two KCs at all, but at one point it started to look like we were driving in circles. That started the jokes about kidnapping, which led to mentions of the movie Suicide Kings, which led to "Hey, does this washcloth smell like chloroform to you?" The joke, not the actual situation. Geoff did not kidnap us. However, I did feel it necessary to point out to Warren that he and Chelle and I had all willingly got into a car with strangers. (Because Warren still pokes me for getting into the car with a stranger several weeks back, which led to me being phone-stalked by a delusional idiot.) Then, of course, we had to ask Kevin and Geoff if they believed they were human, which led to a discussion of delusional idiots. More laughs, and we eventually returned to the game site.
The second game of the night was Requiem. Now, I tried this game when it first came out, for about six months or so. I hated it - seriously, my opinion was that if games were people, Requiem was Hitler. It was terrible. The system was brand new and it felt clunky and awkward and completely useless. They used some of the clan names and words from the old system - Vampire; the Masquerade - but they had those words mean different things, and they changed the way the clans worked. It felt like they were trying to trick Masquerade fans into playing Requiem by using their words, but then surprising those players by completely changing the meanings. I resent the fact that my clan has been turned into an obscure bloodline offshoot of the Ventrue. I am a Malkavian, not a Malkovian, and certainly NOT A VENTRUE. So I hated Requiem more than I hate most things, and I think I still mostly hate it. (More later.) Anyway, I had brought a book to read while everyone else was playing Requiem, so I stationed myself in the back room and got to reading.
I could hear the people in the front room, having fun. Sometimes they had in-character meetings in the back room, and I made sure they all knew I wasn't playing and so I did not represent any characters at all, and technically did not exist in the game. So they'd have their meetings, and once or twice there were so many people in there that I was surrounded. I'd go on reading and they'd do their thing, but I could feel their presences in the room and it was strange. Not bad, just weird. But the gamers sounded like they were having fun. And suddenly, I wanted to be out there gaming with them, even if it was Requiem.
No, I told myself. Requiem is Hitler. You don't want to play Hitler, do you? I tried to hold onto my hate, reminding myself of the clunky system and the awful character choices. But it's been several years now, and the system has been tweaked and updated since it came out. Plus, now the people running Requiem are used to the system, and they know how to work with it, how to modify it to suit their gaming needs. It might not be Hitler anymore. These thoughts crept quietly into my subconscious and began spreading to every corner of my mind. My sense of fair play says I ought to give the game another chance. My desire to hang out with my friends says that I know the local Requiem gamers and they're great folks. It's stuff like that. And even as I sit here, desperately trying to find even a tiny bit of the old familiar hatred for Requiem, I am planning to go downstairs and read the Requiem books Warren loaned me. And see what kind of character I might like to play.
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
But anyway, I can't give any details at all about the Requiem game because I didn't play in it. I don't know anything. So, it went on, and it ended. Afterward, some people talked about going to Waffle House to hang out and talk. We'd planned to go with them, but we had a three+ hour drive ahead of us, and Isaac was starting to get tired. We ended up heading out instead. We stopped at a gas station in St. Joseph to pee and to get food, and then we were on the road again.
It was after midnight and pitch dark out. In Kansas and Missouri, there are no light posts along the sides of the interstate for some reason, and a lot of the road was newly paved and very black. Car lights seemed brighter, and Isaac started to have problems, so we pulled over at another gas station so I could drive for a while. Once I got a feel for his wife's car, which is very different than the one I'm usually driving, it was no problem at all. I was tired too, but my eyes were fine, and I wasn't fall-asleep-at-the-wheel tired. I drove until we got into Nebraska, and by then he felt more awake and able to take over. Plus he's driven the NE roads so much that it was a lot easier for him. Also, we have streetlights. And they almost never re-pave our roads.
We got back to my place and unloaded my stuff and Warren's. I'd considered taking him directly to his girlfriend's place when we got in, but it was 5am and neither one of us wanted to get back into a car. He sacked out on my sofa again and I headed upstairs to check into my e-mail and Facebook real quick before passing out myself.
I got up at 11ish and showered. Woke Warren up at noon or so, and we got his stuff packed into the car and headed out. We ate, and then we stopped at his place to pick up a few things. Namely, his laundry, and his roommate. They were going to another gaming session Sunday evening at Warren's girlfriend's place, and I had to do the grocery shopping. However, we went through a drive-thru so Tanner could get a sandwich, and then we went to the Juice Stop for smoothies and wheat grass shots. Then it was onward, across town and into the New Extreme North. I dropped off the boys and all their stuff, except for the Requiem books Warren sent home with me. They sat in my backseat, taunting me.
During the drive, we were talking Tanner into giving the Changeling game a try. I honestly think he'd like it, so I pulled the "resistance is futile" line on him, with the justification that resistance was indeed futile, as I was going to look at the Requiem books. Then something occurred to me, and I laughed. "Warren," I said when I could talk again, "remember back when you joined the Changeling game, a few months before Isaac had to quit being the Storyteller? And at every game I said you should be the new Storyteller? And the first time you were absolutely against it, and the next time you were still not entirely convinced it would be a good idea, and the next time you said you'd give it some thought, and the next time you said you were going to talk to Isaac about what you'd have to do to become the new Storyteller?"
"Yeah," he said carefully, suspecting me of some kind of joke, most likely.
"This thing where you talk me into playing Requiem is revenge for that, isn't it?"
He started laughing at that, and then said sure, why not. He had just ACCIDENTALLY PUNKED ME. This is good. He's learning. See, it's a good idea to inspect everything you say or do to figure out if it could possibly be payback for something the other person has said or done to you. Even if you don't intend for it to be revenge, it can serve as revenge, and then you don't have to worry about coming up with something else.
So, I'm probably going to play Requiem. And if I like it, I'm punked. If I hate it I can have the "I told you so" moment, which would be nice. But I'm actually hoping I like it. I'd really like to play some kind of game about vampires, and if no one will commit to running Masquerade, it might as well be Requiem. If I like it. I'm not going to continue to play a game I hate, but I'm going to give it a chance. Freakin' Requiem.
So, a few weeks ago I started making the plan. I'd set aside the cash, and so all I needed at that point was to work out the details of the trip. See, there was this gaming event in Kansas City that some of the Lincoln Camarilla players wanted to go to. I won't even drive my car to Omaha, which is only an hour away, let alone out of state, so we had to figure out who had a useable ride. Isaac got the okay to take his wife's car, a large-ish vehicle with room for 3-5 passengers. With the transportation taken care of, I only had to work on getting a definite yes or no out of Warren as to whether he was going. When he confirmed his decision to go, I e-mailed Isaac to make sure we were on his passenger manifest. Chelle was uncertain about her availability, but a few days before the trip she found out that she would be able to go, so she was the fourth member of our little band of gamers, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, it seemed everything was planned. We'd leave at 6 or 7am from Isaac's place and head down to KC. Should be a three hour drive or so, maybe four if we stopped enough times on the way. We'd get something to eat and go settle in at the game site, maybe see if they needed help setting up or anything like that. Play Changeling, get food, play Requiem (well, I didn't play Requiem, but more on that later also), possibly get food again, head home. That was the basic plan, and it was good.
Just a note on my mental state when it comes to things like this: I like a plan. No, I LOVE a plan. If I'm going to be going that far away from home, I MUST HAVE a plan, and if something even seems like it might be going slightly wrong, I panic and stress out. Even if we have several days before the actual trip. I'll make frantic phone calls and send desperate texts, trying to fix things before departure. And I'll worry, and I'll stress, and I'll complain to everyone who will listen. I'm sure you can guess why I had to tell you all this. That's right, an issue came up.
A few days before the trip, Warren texted me, all stressed out himself. He'd volunteered to work at the hockey game on Saturday, completely forgetting he was going to be in KC that day. After the initial dizziness and urge to vomit passed, I texted him back saying he should just tell his boss he'd forgotten he'd be out of town that day. He did this, and the verdict was: "find someone to work your shift and you can go." When he texted me with this information, I began to calm down. It would be possible for him to go after all, if he could get ahold of one of his work friends who would probably be willing to switch shifts with him so he could go with us. It took all day, and I didn't hear the final answer until the next morning, but it ended up being yes and Warren was able to go to KC after all. Panic averted. Plan back in action.
(Oh, by the way, in case you hadn't figured it out by now, I'm insane.)
So everything was okay. Warren spent the night on my sofa Friday, so we could just leave from here. He was going to shower before bed, but then he said that he'd end up looking like a Polish chicken in the morning. "Warren, please tell me you're not talking about your penis," I replied, because it's my job to make these jokes. It's what I do. So he gave me the "you're insane" look again (I get that one a lot from him) and we both headed off to bed.
Let me tell you something else about myself that is important to stories of road trips: I get sick. Every time I'm going to be doing something big - like taking an all-day road trip out of state, for instance - my immune system shuts off and I get some kind of cold or sinus infection. It sets in a few days before the trip and lasts for the entire time I'm having fun, and goes away a few days or a few weeks after I get home. (The only exception to this is when I'm going to spend several months in CA. If I get sick before leaving, I get well after a few weeks.) Anyway, this trip was no different. I got a sinus infection. But I refused to back out. I had never gone to a gaming event in another state before, and I wanted to go and play and meet new people and stuff. Plus, I love road trips with my friends. We get weird.
I went over that because it was important for the next bit. Which is, the sleeping bit, the sleeping that I wanted to do before leaving. Which did not happen. I had to prop myself up on three pillows, so I was almost sitting upright, in order to stop coughing. It wasn't my lungs that were the problem, it was the sinus drainage. Ick. But I got in bed, and four hours later, at 4am, my alarm clock went off. And I was still awake when it happened.
I showered and wrapped up in the bathrobe, and got onto the computer. I had told Warren I'd wake him at 5 so he could shower before we left, so I had some time to dry off and check my Facebook apps and my e-mail and everything before I had to go downstairs and get him. This time passed quietly, I got dressed a little before 5 and then went to wake up my friend.
I've nearly been injured doing this in the past. Not every time, but if he's passed out on my sofa and he's having a nightmare, I'll usually try to get him to wake up or come out of it at least, and reaching toward him when he's in that state is not smart. (The sprained finger feels much better, by the way.) So I approached from the head end, keeping a wary eye on his arms and hands. Luckily he was all tangled in the Snuggie, so it would've been difficult for him to do any damage. Nothing like that happened though. He does not wake up happy, but he woke up. He felt a little better after getting cleaned up and dressed in clean clothes though.
My mother had agreed to drop us off at Isaac's place so she could have the car. I felt better about that idea than the other option, which was to park her car on the street at Isaac's and leave it there all day and most likely all night. If I'm leaving town I'd rather have my mom keep the car, in case she needs it, and also because we have a garage. So she drove us out there, and we chatted a bit on the way. She met Isaac, who was packing his stuff in the back of the car when we got there. At this point it was about 6am on Saturday. We loaded our stuff into Isaac's vehicle and went inside to wait for Chelle.
The house was strewn with toys. Isaac has small children, and they're a lot of fun, but they were sleeping so we had to keep it down. So we petted the bunny, played with their toys, and hung out. It was fun, and I don't get to see Isaac much outside of game. We really do need to hang out more. Movie nights wouldn't be a bad idea. Anyway, Chelle made it to his place around 6:30 or 7ish, and we got all packed into the car and headed out.
We stopped at a gas station outside of Palmyra, NE to get gas and snackies. I had used the bathroom at Isaac's twice before we left, and I had to go again at the station. And at every station between Lincoln and KC. I drank a LOT of plain water and LifeWater, and apparently I didn't retain any moisture at all. At that first station I also bought a big box of Kleenex to have in the car for the trip, because my sinuses were badly plugged and I was sniffling a lot. With all the nose-blowing i did, my nose is now chapped and raw, and my lips are dry and cracking. But I refused to back out of the trip. I wanted to go, and THE PLAN WILL NOT BE CHANGED. That's right, by now the Plan had become an entity unto itself and I was eager to defer to it in any and all situations. This is just how I am on road trips. Insane.
So, the first gas station passed. An hour later, as we approached another exit, Isaac asked if anyone needed to stop. "I would like to piddle," I replied, feeling the urge to pee hit me at the exact moment he'd asked the question. It got a laugh, and we stopped. A variation on this exact situation happened every time we neared an exit with a sign advertising gas stations. And to be fair, I wasn't the only one who peed at any of these places. However, I was the only one who peed at all of them. I can't explain my increased need to urinate. That one was new. Usually I can go on a good long trip without having to use a restroom more than once or twice, at most. Ah well, it's probably nothing to worry about, right?
RIGHT???
Anyway, we arrived in Kansas City. Now, I don't mean to insult the good people of Kansas City, but I must admit, I do not know the difference between Kansas City Kansas and Kansas City Missouri. I did see State Line Road, so I saw where the dividing line was, but I can't look around and immediately know which side of the line I'm on. I'm from Nebraska. And what's funny was, two years ago I went to see my friend Angie get married right around where we were going, and later that night I went to the Eddie Izzard show at the Uptown Theatre. My friend Cole was with me then, doing the driving. And on this trip, things looked familiar. We actually went by the hotel Cole and I stayed at, and the place where Angie got married, and I was able to point them out. Kansas and Missouri should not look familiar to me. I don't spend enough time in either place for them to look familiar. But apparently, they do.
Oh, and I did make sure to point out every single fireworks warehouse along the way. Isaac would not stop for explosives, however, and Warren kept saying "No explosives, Loki!" in a very worried tone. So we didn't get to buy fireworks out of season. But one day, I will take Warren shopping for explosives. (Snicker.)
So, we got into the right town. And we drove up and down a main road three or four times before we found the turn we were looking for, and located the game site. We were early, so we went into town again for lunch. Ate at Dairy Queen, and of course I had to go next door to this little grocery store to use the bathroom. But we ate, went to the game site again, and put our stuff in the kitchen. (This game site had a kitchen. It was the basement of a Masonic lodge. Awesome!)
There were six or eight other people there besides us, but we were early. Now, normally I like meeting new people. In a gaming situation, I love it. They become friends via the sharing of a common hobby, gaming. But here we were, and here the strangers were, and we were all gamers, and suddenly I was afraid. Well, not seriously afraid, but majorly shy and reluctant to leave the safety of the others I had come up with. Chelle and Isaac scattered though, so I hung back with Warren, who had also never been to one of these things before, and worried quietly that the strangers would not like me. And then a funny thing happened. Warren also hung back, seeming a bit on the shy side. Usually he's all about talking to people we see out in public, but not this time. Maybe he was picking up on and being affected by my fear, or maybe gamers we'd be spending all day with are different for him than someone who sells us food at Cane's, but he wasn't having any of it either. And when I saw this, I knew that one of us would have to grit our teeth and get us introduced to people. So I took over. With fear in my heart I dragged him around to everyone who wasn't busy and made the introductions until he felt comfortable speaking to strangers on his own. It happened fairly quickly, but I was surprised that he was that reluctant to do it in the first place. Also, I was surprised as hell that I was still that shy. Maybe it never goes away completely, but I really thought I had worked through that kind of fear enough to not be affected by it as strongly as I was.
After the first few people, I was mostly okay. Still a little afraid they wouldn't like me, but I was able to put it aside. Good thing too, as the place was starting to become crowded. The first game would be Changeling.
At one point, I found myself standing in the kitchen, chatting with random strangers as they passed through and having a pretty good time. One guy said something, and I said something about Loki, and he laughed and made a comment, and I mentioned that I was a follower of Loki. He looked at me in surprise. "Really? Because I'm a follower of Thor..." he said with a grin.
Yipee, a kindred spirit! I thought. "You know," I pointed out, "after the games are over for the night, you and I have to go out and get drunk and kill some giants." We both laughed. Later in the evening, I found out he lives about 45 minutes from Omaha, and may be coming into Lincoln for Changeling. A new friend! I don't actually remember his name at the moment, but if he does come down it'll be easier to learn it without dozens of people all over the place. (P.S. Chelle is a follower of Freya. Just a funny little coincidence right there, right?)
So, we got the Changeling game going. I'm not going to bore folks with the details of what went on during the game. Basically, my character had never been to a really large gathering of Changelings from other places before, and she met some interesting people, got to talk shop with another surgeon/mad scientist type, and made contact with a member of a group she wants to join. (It became one of my goals for the character after Warren showed me the entry in the rulebook about it, and I have started on the path to achieving that goal.) So it was a good day for the character, even though she doesn't normally enjoy social situations or large groups of strangers. (Also, it was really nice for her to be able to talk to that other doctor. His name was Igor and he was covered with blood, and the two of them had similar interests. Namely, people's insides. She never gets to talk to anyone about people's insides.) She brought home a frozen hobgoblin and a bottle of mead made from honey that was produced in the Hedge by a Changeling worker bee beast-kith PC. He made the honey himself, turned it into mead, and sold it to her. Actually, she traded some extract of a goblin fruit and a memory for it. (Sorry, I know I said no details, but just a little bit, for the gamers in the crowd.)
So the Changeling game was fun. We had a couple of hours in between the end of that one and the beginning of Requiem, which I do not play. (But I probably will, before too long. More on that later.) So, one guy was recommending a barbecue place for dinner, and it sounded good. Warren, Chelle and I went with him and another guy from the crowd. Geoff and Kevin. Great guys, lots of fun to hang around with. Food was great. Spicy, but good. I couldn't even finish the fries. The sandwich was basically pork and spicy sauce on a bun. Lots of pork. You know you've eaten too much when you stop eating and you're exhausted. From eating.
"Oh man, I ate so much pork," I groaned, stuffed.
"Random dick joke," Warren replied. This is a running gag that started at the Hunter game a few weeks back. When you hear something that could lead to a dick joke but you can't think of one right at the moment, but you don't want to waste the opportunity, you say "random dick joke" to make sure that there is some kind of dick joke there. It's my job to make sure that no chance for dirty jokes go by without a dirty joke. I can't let one pass, and the rest of the Hunter crowd can't either. Warren and I have spread this to the other Cam groups we're in, and now, we've spread it to Kansas, Missouri, and anywhere else those people might have been going back to. It is now the official Dirty Joke of the Lincoln Camarilla. Random Dick Joke. You're welcome, gamers of Lincoln. (P.S. Anyone can use this at any time. You don't have to be a gamer.)
So we ate spicy barbecue, and then we sat and talked for a while. At one point Kevin got up to change for the next game. While he was gone, I thought it would be funny if we moved to a different table, ordered new food, swapped shirts and called each other by different names. This made the others laugh too, but it would've been a lot of work to pull off, and most of us didn't really feel like moving all that much. When we left, we had to cross State Line Road to get back to where we were going. I don't know the two KCs at all, but at one point it started to look like we were driving in circles. That started the jokes about kidnapping, which led to mentions of the movie Suicide Kings, which led to "Hey, does this washcloth smell like chloroform to you?" The joke, not the actual situation. Geoff did not kidnap us. However, I did feel it necessary to point out to Warren that he and Chelle and I had all willingly got into a car with strangers. (Because Warren still pokes me for getting into the car with a stranger several weeks back, which led to me being phone-stalked by a delusional idiot.) Then, of course, we had to ask Kevin and Geoff if they believed they were human, which led to a discussion of delusional idiots. More laughs, and we eventually returned to the game site.
The second game of the night was Requiem. Now, I tried this game when it first came out, for about six months or so. I hated it - seriously, my opinion was that if games were people, Requiem was Hitler. It was terrible. The system was brand new and it felt clunky and awkward and completely useless. They used some of the clan names and words from the old system - Vampire; the Masquerade - but they had those words mean different things, and they changed the way the clans worked. It felt like they were trying to trick Masquerade fans into playing Requiem by using their words, but then surprising those players by completely changing the meanings. I resent the fact that my clan has been turned into an obscure bloodline offshoot of the Ventrue. I am a Malkavian, not a Malkovian, and certainly NOT A VENTRUE. So I hated Requiem more than I hate most things, and I think I still mostly hate it. (More later.) Anyway, I had brought a book to read while everyone else was playing Requiem, so I stationed myself in the back room and got to reading.
I could hear the people in the front room, having fun. Sometimes they had in-character meetings in the back room, and I made sure they all knew I wasn't playing and so I did not represent any characters at all, and technically did not exist in the game. So they'd have their meetings, and once or twice there were so many people in there that I was surrounded. I'd go on reading and they'd do their thing, but I could feel their presences in the room and it was strange. Not bad, just weird. But the gamers sounded like they were having fun. And suddenly, I wanted to be out there gaming with them, even if it was Requiem.
No, I told myself. Requiem is Hitler. You don't want to play Hitler, do you? I tried to hold onto my hate, reminding myself of the clunky system and the awful character choices. But it's been several years now, and the system has been tweaked and updated since it came out. Plus, now the people running Requiem are used to the system, and they know how to work with it, how to modify it to suit their gaming needs. It might not be Hitler anymore. These thoughts crept quietly into my subconscious and began spreading to every corner of my mind. My sense of fair play says I ought to give the game another chance. My desire to hang out with my friends says that I know the local Requiem gamers and they're great folks. It's stuff like that. And even as I sit here, desperately trying to find even a tiny bit of the old familiar hatred for Requiem, I am planning to go downstairs and read the Requiem books Warren loaned me. And see what kind of character I might like to play.
Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
But anyway, I can't give any details at all about the Requiem game because I didn't play in it. I don't know anything. So, it went on, and it ended. Afterward, some people talked about going to Waffle House to hang out and talk. We'd planned to go with them, but we had a three+ hour drive ahead of us, and Isaac was starting to get tired. We ended up heading out instead. We stopped at a gas station in St. Joseph to pee and to get food, and then we were on the road again.
It was after midnight and pitch dark out. In Kansas and Missouri, there are no light posts along the sides of the interstate for some reason, and a lot of the road was newly paved and very black. Car lights seemed brighter, and Isaac started to have problems, so we pulled over at another gas station so I could drive for a while. Once I got a feel for his wife's car, which is very different than the one I'm usually driving, it was no problem at all. I was tired too, but my eyes were fine, and I wasn't fall-asleep-at-the-wheel tired. I drove until we got into Nebraska, and by then he felt more awake and able to take over. Plus he's driven the NE roads so much that it was a lot easier for him. Also, we have streetlights. And they almost never re-pave our roads.
We got back to my place and unloaded my stuff and Warren's. I'd considered taking him directly to his girlfriend's place when we got in, but it was 5am and neither one of us wanted to get back into a car. He sacked out on my sofa again and I headed upstairs to check into my e-mail and Facebook real quick before passing out myself.
I got up at 11ish and showered. Woke Warren up at noon or so, and we got his stuff packed into the car and headed out. We ate, and then we stopped at his place to pick up a few things. Namely, his laundry, and his roommate. They were going to another gaming session Sunday evening at Warren's girlfriend's place, and I had to do the grocery shopping. However, we went through a drive-thru so Tanner could get a sandwich, and then we went to the Juice Stop for smoothies and wheat grass shots. Then it was onward, across town and into the New Extreme North. I dropped off the boys and all their stuff, except for the Requiem books Warren sent home with me. They sat in my backseat, taunting me.
During the drive, we were talking Tanner into giving the Changeling game a try. I honestly think he'd like it, so I pulled the "resistance is futile" line on him, with the justification that resistance was indeed futile, as I was going to look at the Requiem books. Then something occurred to me, and I laughed. "Warren," I said when I could talk again, "remember back when you joined the Changeling game, a few months before Isaac had to quit being the Storyteller? And at every game I said you should be the new Storyteller? And the first time you were absolutely against it, and the next time you were still not entirely convinced it would be a good idea, and the next time you said you'd give it some thought, and the next time you said you were going to talk to Isaac about what you'd have to do to become the new Storyteller?"
"Yeah," he said carefully, suspecting me of some kind of joke, most likely.
"This thing where you talk me into playing Requiem is revenge for that, isn't it?"
He started laughing at that, and then said sure, why not. He had just ACCIDENTALLY PUNKED ME. This is good. He's learning. See, it's a good idea to inspect everything you say or do to figure out if it could possibly be payback for something the other person has said or done to you. Even if you don't intend for it to be revenge, it can serve as revenge, and then you don't have to worry about coming up with something else.
So, I'm probably going to play Requiem. And if I like it, I'm punked. If I hate it I can have the "I told you so" moment, which would be nice. But I'm actually hoping I like it. I'd really like to play some kind of game about vampires, and if no one will commit to running Masquerade, it might as well be Requiem. If I like it. I'm not going to continue to play a game I hate, but I'm going to give it a chance. Freakin' Requiem.