Annotated 12-15
I could have mentioned this yesterday, but I like how this recap started by giving Rachel a connection to Gravedust, after her connection to Frigg was already partly established.
We have a Frigg button here, her epic smugface in panel 3. And I forgot that we’d already done HR’s button image a few days after his first appearance. So that’s six out of twelve… Frigg, E-Merl, Byron, Harky, HR, and Best down and Gravedust, Syr’Nj, Bandit, Rachel, Scipio, and Auraugu to go.
We originally thought that Frigg would be insufferable for a lot longer after learning the Sisterhood of the Unyielding Open Heart existed, but once she started actually spending time with this worshipful “kid sister,” her gratification would be brief.
Not until now do I notice Byron’s hand in the first panel yoink-ing up the shoulderplate. Nice detail!
So how does all of this tie in with the SepiaWorld arc? Was Rachel the character created after the bloodshot sisterhood arc? Or was she just chilling around in the sisterhood until the adventurers attacked?
When the adventurers do something, I guess it is kind of like a world event, with lasting circumstances? Maybe she was playing a bloodshot sister, and after the event she became what she is now?
Chrissie’s friends all entered as their characters at the same time (they may have played other roles before this), so I can’t see Lia creating Rachel too long before. The idea that the Apostate class was created in response to the “world event” of the Sisterhood’s end makes a lot of sense to me and it’s compatible with what we said later about the Battle of B’ial Vezk.
Granted, Lia might’ve had the basic idea for Rachel lying around but no opportunity to express it in the game, just as real players I know create characters independently and then look for games into which they can adapt them.
That’s interesting. On the one hand, you’re saying that Rachel likely didn’t exist til after the attack (when the class was available for Chrissie). But on the other Gravey, remembers seeing her previously.
Was Chrissie in control of Rachel at this point and just role-playing along with Gravey? Or did she log on one day to discover her character’s background was updated?
Also, how did Chrissie feel about having a character that worshiped another player character?
I’m going to assume you mean Lia here. She played Rachel, Chrissie played Bandit.
Rachel existed before the attack, but the opportunity to play Rachel as a character may not have. (From a gaming perspective, it’d be pretty boring to play a Bloodshot Sister who was under Scarlett’s direct supervision as they wouldn’t have much freedom of choice.)
All the people in Arkerra, whether they have corresponding players or not, existed at some point prior to their player’s experience. Bandit Keynes was once Carrier Keynes, Gravedust was once an infant, and Rachel was once an even younger, even more idealistic woman that Mother Scarlett was doing her best to shape and break as necessary.
As far as Lia was concerned, her moment with Gravedust was just a nice bit of improv that continued her integration into the group and gave her a chance to role-play how Rachel would take working with a former enemy. She didn’t have the specific encounter with Gravedust in her records, but she did know the history of the Sisterhood, including their attempt on Frigg that ended with the Peacemakers toppling them, so the detail of her encounter with Gravedust wasn’t entirely a surprise.
As far as Rachel was concerned, her life was her life and there was no firm dividing line between her memories of being with Scarlett and her memories of meeting Frigg afterward.
I tend to think of the relation between players and characters (outside of the Five) as like a pair of horseback riders who find their different paths becoming one for a while, then diverging when the relation ends. Both of them took their own paths to begin their journey before joining up.
Lia was definitely into the interesting challenges of playing Rachel. Her own relation with faith had been a contentious one (you get a glimpse of that, I think, in her Christmas story about Roger), and she wanted to try to recapture the joys of being a pure believer that she could no longer experience directly. It worked out pretty well, and some of Rachel’s positivity ended up infecting her life after she was gone, thanks to the friendships she’d made along the way and the real-life experience of seeking justice at personal risk.
Cool. Thanks for the response.
And yes, I did mean Lia (even if I didn’t know it at the time ;-) ).
Man, Scipio talks *a lot* in this one!
Scipio being ginger initially made me think he was talking about himself, but then I realized that Frigg is also ginger.
Only a ginger
can call another ginger “ginger”
Just like only a ninja
can sneak up on another ninja