/dev/zero

and I went to the Santa Carla by Night Vampire game here in Santa Cruz Friday night.
We’d had sushi at Benten on N. Pacific Ave earlier in the night and walked by where the game was just getting started for the night, so he picked up his character booklet just in case he joined in this wee, then we went back to his place to play Civilization: Call To Power. Damn that game is addicting. This time we played cooperatively. The Scots started taking his cities and I had just enough gold and advances to hand over to him to hold them at bay.
Anyway, around 10:00 he decides he has to get to Game after all as his character has some important plot stuff going on. I decided to hang out and watch, as I’ve never actually observed a Vampire LARP. I’ve always been biased against them based on my experiences with the group I played with 10 years ago. That was table-top, but they still took things way too seriously and I got burned by the experience. When I saw the same people getting into LARP and not being able to separate reality from game, that formed the basis of my opinion of LARPers.
I was pretty intrigued by what was going on. Especially when I’d see players walk up to each other, indicate they were asking for information OOC, and actually get it. Hell, They even know things OOC about each other’s characters that would be damaging if the characters knew, and everyone was cool with it. Much more mature group here. (In the group I played with, everyone guarded their secrets so closely, you couldn’t even hint at talking about something OOC). I decided to give this a whirl, so I spoke to the storyteller and I’ll be creating a character this week. Debating if I want to resurrect my old Tremere (as he’s pretty cool, though I’ll have to water him down a bit to fit this game.) or create something new (but probably also a Tremere). After the end of gaming for the night I was yakking with the “prince” and kept getting the oddest feeling I was talking to and just not recognizing her. She was sitting in shadow and her voice was similar. It was weird. I was pretty sure it wasn’t her, but it felt weird. She had given me a smile and a wave when she walked past earlier, like she knew me, and it’s been a while since I laid eyes on Laura.
Anyway, Martin and I went back to his place to play some more CivCTP and finally called it quits at about 04:30. I crashed on the futon and woke up to him beating eggs in the morning. Breakfast, swing by my place so I could drop off my laptop and get a change of clothes, then we went “Spatzieren”. We found a nice little natural history museum down just off Seabright beach, with a tide pool and everything. Then driving around some of the neighborhoods just off the beaches on the south end of town, just to see what was there. Then up Bay Street to Old San Jose Road. I’d recently read about how this is an alternate way over the hill into San Jose, so we followed it all the way. Sure enough there were signs for Los Gatos, so we took it to the other end, which met up with 17 just past the summit. Must remember that in the future. Could save time when there’s an accident on 17. Now I know what that overpass on 17 is, just before you get to the summit on 17 southbound.
We ended up in Los Gatos. Martin wanted to check out The Cats. I warned him it was pricey, but we looked anyway. Sure enough, too rich for his budget (bless him for feeding me lately. Must go pester the financial aid people at Cabrillo more. I’m tired of being broke.) So we explored Los Gatos more and found a Hawaiian place with decent prices. Oh GOD the food was good. Some sort of pork wrapped in (banana?) leaf, with a little bit of salmon. It was yummy.
The return trip was over 9, just so we could say we made the full circle. Got back to The Asylum just in time for me to read to the girls. We’re reading The Princess Bride. It’s even funnier than the movie, and that’s one of my favorite movies. Tonight was the chapter about Inigo, with the sword fight at the top of the cliffs. They dialog in the movie really stuck quite close to the book; I’m impressed.
When I finished that and walked back into the living room, Martin was stretched out on the couch. I remarked something about “nothing like reading the sword fight scene from The Princess Bride to the girls” and he said “Why do you think I’m lying here, in stead of sitting in front of one of the computers”? Heh, he’d been listening to me read. He called it a night at that point and headed home. I went to my room and played some CivCTP, but it was a boring game. Went to bed, got up at almost 3 today (damn this time change!).