indeedsir_backup | Reeves and Chaser (Reply)

A couple weeks ago, I posted this, promising to report back later with the results.

First of all, we had about THREE Jeeves' at this camp.

First, there was...me: Victorian Female Jeeves.

This game took place at a Victorian auction (a MUSICAL Victorian auction, meaning that characters could burst out in musical-improv song at any moment. It was awesome), and I was handed my character sheet, Emily Lark, and was told "You're basically a female Jeeves."

Cue squeeing.

Unfortunately, I could talk the talk, but I couldn't walk the walk. Namely, I could SPEAK like him ("Might I inquire as to what appears to be troubling you, Mrs. Orwell?"), but I couldn't get involved in any crazy conspiracies. Too much space, too much noise. Also, I wasn't working for a Bertie equivalent; I worked for a family of five. Too many people to remember @_@ Still fun anyway. ALSO, the gamewriter made my Jeeves and Wooster clips required viewing for everyone playing a servant in that game. And we had surround-sound speakers. It was awesome.

Then there was Reeves. I will discuss him later.

Then there was cyberpunk-drug-dealer Jeeves.

Although I only call him a Jeeves because he had a black waistcoat, tailcoat, and a bowler hat. AND ALSO HIS NAME WAS FRY.

I mean, seriously:

So yes. Reeves and Chaser.

First, some backstory on this world: this game takes place about 500-ish years in the future after humanity has colonized the solar system (and Pluto is a planet again). One of their developments was something called the Final Frontier sentence, the most epically severe punishment the law can met out. What happens is, the person gets strapped in a life support system set to last one year and is then jettisoned out into space, left to drift and go mad until the support system gave out and killed them. Wilbert Chaser (as stated in the other entry) was subjected to this after being falsely accused of assassinating the President of Mars.

Unbeknownst to all, space was home to a brand of magic called Void, which replaced your soul if you went crazy out there, and turned you into an entity called a Soundless. That was before the start of this game.

This is the story of what happened next:

First off, here are the chaps themselves. You can probably tell who's who.

Chaser (or Chasyr, as his Soundless name was) had become MADE OF REVENGE and was frantically seeking Reeves out. Actually, he had a LOT of people on his Hit List, because some of the people who'd killed his family AND the actual assassin of the President of Mars were in his group. Late in the game, I reconvened with my group after stuff had happened and I heard someone yelling "Chord! We've captured a Soundless! Try your soul magic on him!" My character, Chord, was a half-Bard half-computer who had the power to create digital copies of her soul and upload them into people who had none. I was shown the Soundless in question and it turned out to be Chasyr. So naturally I thought "ooo yay! I get to give Bertie Wooster a soul!" So I hugged him/gave him an artificial digital soul.

And he completely broke down.

He dropped to the ground, started sobbing hysterically, and screamed "I'M GONNA KILL HIM! I'M GONNA KILL HIM! HE LEFT ME TO ROT! I'M GONNA KILL HIM!" I got down next to him and tried to soothe him, thinking "omg, I'm living out a Jooster hurt/comfort fic."

But then I stopped and thought about it. This scene was really intense and suddenly I started having revelations. I'd written everybody's backstory for this game, so I knew I was directly responsible for the craziness the players experienced in-game because of it. My own power of words had reduced one of my best friends to tears (he said later that he was actually crying during that scene) and, needless to say, it was a creepy almost Frankensteinian "oh god, what have I done?" moment: It was LITERALLY my own creations coming back to haunt me. And, believe me, watching my Bertie-spin-off crying in agony and blaming everything on his Jeeves was massively heartbreaking.

and then I realized that this had strayed far from the realm of Wodehouse-inspiration. It had evolved into its own thing. Which it had every right to do, and I think that made it turn out for the better. Still, I couldn't help thinking to myself "How can I turn this into a happy ending?" until I realized that it was impossible by this point.

Later on, they did meet up, but Chaser was human again now and Reeves had been converted into a Soundless by one of the other Soundless, so his memories were messed up and they didn't quite recognize each other. They never met up again. Reeves escaped with his Captain's sister (after the Captain's death) and her newfound love interest, both of whom had also been converted, but all of whom got their souls back when the god of the Soundless was destroyed at the very end of the game.

The way I have the epilogue set up, they do meet again and reconcile, but not until after Chaser has gone through YEARS AND YEARS of therapy. They're probably about the current-Fry-and-Laurie ages by the time this happens.

Also, I found out on the way home that David and Jason (the kid who played Reeves) were actually very good friends in real life. David thought I'd known that and used it in my casting decisions ^^;

And the moral of the story is:

LARPing is Serious Business. Really. Serious. Business.