Her Medieval Fantasy Ch. 01

“So, it’s like improvisational theater?” I asked, sitting in the now empty college classroom. Class had ended, but Malcolm and I were still talking.

“Yeah, LARP is pretty much similar. Live Action Role Play is what it stands for. It’s basically a Dungeons and Dragons tabletop, but in real life.”

My geeky eyes were shining behind my glasses. A girl like me, brought up on Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings–a geek, to put it simply, could not dream of something more interesting. I would always make these Elven warrior characters in RPG fantasy games and assume the role–now I could literally be one. Well, not literally, but close to it.

The concept of LARP was simple. A group of people meet in a certain place for a few days, where they pretend to be characters in a fictional setting, dress like them and act like them. Malcolm and his gang had been doing it for a few years, and I had recently befriended them due to our common geeky tastes. Most of my friends throughout my life had been guys anyway–it’s not like guys would run after me for dating and sex, not with with my fashion style more conservative than a young girl in a Catholic school’s, big glasses, my most daring hairstyle being my typical ponytail, and the fact that I was such a nerdy bookworm that I was the very essence of “not sexy.”

Not like I didn’t try. Part of me sometimes wanted to wear skimpier clothing and makeup; to feel sexy and feel the attention of boys, but I never really found the courage for it. I was stuck in that bookworm girl since high school. But hey, it made me friends with guys like Malcolm and his gang, who certainly weren’t complete nerds like me either. They were more on the “cool geek” side, where you wouldn’t be able to tell they were geeky at first glance. They all had some semblance of style unlike me, and were generally attractive enough that easily swayed me was having a different crush on a different one every week, including Malcolm.

“So you’re in?” he asked.

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m joining!”

The guys had spent enough time with me to know I was every bit a sword and sorcery fan as they were, so they invited me to their once-in-every-three months LARP session. Malcolm’s family owned a large area of farmland with a forest adjacent to it. He and the gang had built a few simple wooden structures there, and the two opposing sides, consisting of about 15 each, would raise tents together, effectively creating encampments. The immersion was going to be incredible.

Malcolm and I left the classroom and met with Ryan and Mark, who were delighted to hear I was coming. As we were entered Ryan’s dorm room to hang out there, Mark turned to me.

“Oh, one thing, Kylie,” he said. “Just so you know what to expect, we’re all guys over there. You’re definitely the first time a girl’s ever joined.”

I shrugged. I was used to being the only female among men. Being the only one among 30 was definitely unusual, but I could handle it just fine.

“So what character do you want to role play?” Ryan asked.

That was the beauty of LARP, you could become someone you weren’t–a mage, a mercenary, a sorcerer. I decided I’d be an Elven warrior, and the story would be that I had joined the Red Mercenaries–one of the two opposing groups of fifteen, to fight the Blue Mercenaries. Obviously we’d fight with foam weapons. Suddenly, that got me thinking.

“Shit, I don’t have any costume though,” I remarked. Malcolm had shown me pics of their costumes and armors, and they were super elaborate. After all, total immersion was expected. No phones, no modern objects, only historical/fantasy costumes and props were allowed. “Should I buy one?”

“Don’t worry,” Malcolm said, “I have at least five spare costumes and armor at the ranch. We’ll find you something.”

I knew the costumes armors were all super masculine though, and that wasn’t quite what I had in mind for my character. I was thinking of a beautiful, feminine Elf like Arwen more than a tomboy Viking–the femininity was something I really wanted to lean into, but hey, it was my first LARP. I could always get a better costume for the second one. What was certain, was that there would be a second one for sure. I knew I was going to have fun.

I had no idea just how much fun it was going to be.

We drove to Malcolm’s ranch in the weekend. As described to me by the others, it was an enormous piece of land, more than adequate to be the setting for a medieval fantasy adventure. In the distance, I could already see the blue encampment, ours, and the red encampment, that of our “enemies.”

“So the story-line is simple,” Collin said as I walked with Malcolm and Ryan past the ranch house, and towards the wooden cabin where Malcolm kept all his props and armor for the LARP events. “We’re the Blue Mercenaries and we fight against the Red Mercenaries. The reason for the fight is because we’re both fighting for larger kingdoms, we’re paid by them, basically. But since we’re not bound by loyalty to them, any number of options can happen.”

“So we might have a diplomatic solution with the Reds?” I asked.

“Sure,” Ryan answered. “It all depends on the role-play. We may ally, have a truce, etc. The story-line has been going for years, and it evolves based on the sum of our choices as players. It evolves organically.”

“And the role-play?”

“Simple enough. Once you have your costume, you’ll be in character, and the role-play begins. We address each other as our characters and act like them, but if you really need to say something in real life, you just use the code-word: out of game, and we’ll know the role-play is dropped momentarily.”

That part got me the most excited: being in role-play for a whole weekend without dropping character, talk about immersion and method acting. I couldn’t wait to get out of this modern world and enter a medieval one. I also couldn’t wait to get out of my clothes. Of course, I was expecting a cool armor to replace them, but I’d soon be proven wrong.

We entered the wooden cabin, and Malcolm looked for a few minutes, but then he came back with a concerned look on his face.

“We got a bit of a problem,” he said. “I always have spare armor in case newbies join for the first time, but I’ve been told there were more than usual this time around. We’re out of spare armor.”

“Shucks,” I said. I had really wanted to role-play as a badass warrior. “Ok then, do you just have some medieval clothes?”

Malcolm shook his head, not knowing what to do. “Nothing,” he said. “Literally the only piece of costume left, if we can call it that, is this.” He pointed to some iron restraints on the ground: ankle cuffs held together by a chain, wrist cuffs also held together by a chain, and a collar.

“Ah, fuck” Ryan said. “This is a problem, eh?”

I stepped in, trying to find a solution. “Don’t you have anything at all? Just a tunic, it can be the simplest one ever. Heck, I don’t really have any obsession over playing a warrior. I’ll be a maid, or a servant, I can just wear a really simple tunic.”

Malcolm explained to me that they were literally out of all the tunics and costumes they had in the place. It was starting to dawn on me that the weekend might be ruined for me, and that I’d have to come back three months later. I had looked forward to the whole immersion thing–the chance to lose myself in a different world, but without a costume, this was starting to look impossible.

“Guess there’s only one option left,” Malcolm said. “You’ll just enter the game zone with your modern clothing Kylie. I’ll issue a statement that we made an exception because of a mistake.”

My heart sank in my chest. “What? But that’s going to ruin it!”

Ryan put a supportive hand on my shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, Kylie, honestly, it’s not that important.”

“Not important?! The whole point of this thing is to create the most immersive atmosphere. I’m gonna look out of place and ruin it all with my 2020’s look!”

“What else are we gonna do?” Collin asked. “We invited you to join, you drove all the way here. Least we can do is accommodate you.”

This wasn’t accommodation, it was betraying the entire nature of what the LARP was. I couldn’t destroy the fantasy setting by entering with my modern clothes on.

“Then guys, you know what?” I said. “I think I’ll leave and drive back home. I’ll get myself a costume and come back for the next session in three months.”

“Kylie…” they said, despondent.

“No, for real, I’d feel much better this way than by ruining the entire vibe. Honestly, I was already feeling iffy about being the only girl. You had this whole guys’ thing going on, and I was going to barge in as a girl. I want to do it even less now that I’m gonna have to keep my modern look.”

The guys looked super disappointed, but they couldn’t do anything but shrug. Malcolm apologized for the inconvenience, and I assured them it wasn’t a big deal. I left the wooden cabin and began walking back to my car.

Truth is, it was a bigger deal than I admitted to their faces. I had hyped myself up for weeks–looking forward to the event like crazy. Role-playing in a medieval fantasy setting was a dream about to come true. Now it was postponed by three months.

I told myself three months was not that much, but I couldn’t believe it. Fuck man… I was THERE, at the location, the experience I had waited for and hyped myself up over was right in front of me, but I couldn’t have it.

And that’s when I stopped. An idea crossed my mind. The craziest damn idea I had ever had. An idea so crazy, I couldn’t believe I was seriously considering it, and yet, I was.

I didn’t want to give up on this weekend. I really, REALLY wanted to experience that LARP. With my heart racing, I turned back and walked to the wooden cabin, entering energetically as the aloof, despondent guys were discussing how it sucked that I had to go.

“Kylie?”

“I have a solution,” I declared, pointing to the cuffs and chains Malcolm had shown.

“I’ll wear those.”

“It won’t make your clothes look any more medieval, Kylie.”