mundens | Yakuza

Yesterday was interesting, a day of clumsiness on my part. though it started reasonably well.

Wandering down to pick up the car in bright sunshine, I passed a pair of college-age girls who were still dressed for a night on the town, presumably making their way back home from the train. They might even have still been drunk., because as we passed, one of them said "Hi, sexy". I grinned and politely replied, which I think they didn't expect, perhaps expecting the normal sort of response any indication of lewdness would garner from the local christian community, but then they recovered and dissolved into paroxysms of giggling as they receded.

Continued in to Upper Hutt where I discovered it had changed dramatically since the last time I had been there. Completely new buildings existed. Things had moved. Had it been that long since I visited our nearest city centre? On reflection it has been, because I only usually went that way with Ele, and so since she stopped being with me, I haven't actually been there, and that would make it months.. Gee, time flies when you're having a marriage break-up and associated things. :)

Bought towels, sheets, pillows, and a mattress from Farmers at half price. That means if people end up staying over in future they'll actually have a bed to sleep on rather than the sofa like

mashugenah had to use.

Got to the evening and cruised up to Piwakawaka for Victorian Nights and a quick hoover. Another enjoyable game, effectively just two scenes but they were long ones, and in the first one I got to play the crazy Tommy. Who unfortunately got staked, but then that was almost as enjoyable. Laughing and switching personalities between cold cruel Tommy, Lady Marie's enforcer (who wondered why the Martins were wasting their time with the mercenary Camille, why don't they just pay her and be done with it?) and the Tommy who spent years eating rats and avoiding human blood because it made him a bad man, and who probably realized somewhere deep inside that really the Matins were closer to his philosophy than Lady Marie.

Then the waking of the boy under the river. Most of Sebastian's fears were realized, after they discovered the boy was another vampire staked in an interesting way, Sebastian really thought unleashing another of the creatures in to London's night was a bad idea, and it would have been better to leave him or destroy him, but Sebastian was too wimpy to say these things when Miss Tarrant seemed so determined to assist the child, and Mr. Gray seemed so keen to help out too.

There were casualties, Mr. Gray was swept away in a maelstrom, and Miss Tarrant's fish was broken.

Sebastian fears that this whole expedition was a grave mistake.

Once the game was over we sat around for wine, cheese, and tea, and I tried to cut my finger off with the cheese knife.

That's why the title, looking back on it, the scene seemed reminiscent of the clichéd yakuza punishment, my finger trapped between a small sharp chopper and a wooden board.

It was also quite interesting that Camille had twice cut her fingers "in game" in order to bleed into a cup, once to help feed a Martin and the second time to transfer visions to the staked Tommy. It was

jarratt_gray, I think, who said that it would make it hard to tell people that we didn't actually cut people during our LARPS after this.

Still, it did give people a graphic representation of what bleeding from the fingers looks like and how quick the blood comes out. Good reference material. I was half expecting someone to bring a wine glass and say "Here, fill this up so we can see how long it takes, and take photos for reference material."

Missed opportunity for some Swedish Rules vampire LARPing there guys!
Where are the Blood Dolls when you need them?.

But actually, while I'm joking about it, it was fucking stupid of me, I should know not to put my fingers underneath a downward cutting knife! And it will mean I won't be able to play guitar until it heals properly, and it makes getting things done round the home annoying.

So that livened up the end of the evening, but I still managed to enjoy the port cheese, the brie, and the really interesting and tasty chilli-chocolate tea, another from T-Leaf.