For Squiggles' current game, I have chosen to play a Time-Manipulating Electricity Wielder, named Lachlan Sparkes (The Fourth...But he's always resented having an ordinal tagged onto the end of his name...) who attends Strangewood Academy For Learning - a fine, upstanding institution, where...well...weird things are prone to happening. Lachlan, or Locki as he prefers to be known, has yet to really get a good back-story. He's just been...well...I've been developing him "in the moment", as it were, and letting the good times flow as we play the game. This, however, has led me to really not know where I'm taking him (obviously...) and so I'm not really sure what I want to do with him, character development wise. I mean - what are his motives? Why does he care so much about helping people? Why does he so desperately want everyone to know him, and be his friend? Why is he so darned happy go lucky? And why is his school uniform so untidy all the time?
Well, tonight, I am going to answer these questions - both for you, as well as for me (and for Squiggles, who will probably find his story writing assisted by the extra information...I hope.) So buckle yourselves in, my dear readers, and prepare to know all you ever wanted to (or didn't, whatever...) about the character I'm playing in 'The Strangewood Academy Saga'...Apologies if it seems kind of poor, as far as writing style goes - I'm just developing as it comes to me...
Lachlan 'Locki' Sparkes IV
Locki was born as the son of wealthy Laurensvale socialites Patricia and Lachlan Sparkes III and, having been given such an excellent lot in life as far as privilege goes, you'd think that he'd be the happiest kid on the planet - and he is. On the outside at least. Locki is a lot of things on the outside that he isn't really on the inside. Everywhere he goes, Locki is seen as the typical 'happy-go-lucky' kid, just out to have a good time - he doesn't let anything get to him, and he's always trying to make every body else just as happy as he is. Really enjoy reading? Locki will go fetch you a book. Interested in craft? Locki will try and get you the best arts room he can find. Love miniatures? He'll spend his own money just to get you that single rare piece you are missing.
But this cheerful, bright exterior - what he wants everybody to think he is - has been carefully crafted, after years of observation about what people like to be around, about what makes them happy, and it hides a sad, lonely little boy within. Locki's parents have never particularly had any time for him, seeing him more as a hindrance on their social life than anything else - upon arriving home from his final day of 6th grade at the Laurensvale Private School For Juniors, his father's only words were "Aren't you an adult yet? Hurry up and grow up, would you?" His mother's reaction was even less affectionate.
That would be fine, you would think - after all, he spent 11 months of his year away at school. Why should he care whether or not his parents show him affection? It's not like he ever sees them - Can't he just hang out with his friends from school? Well...yes...that...Locki is...different from the people at Laurensvale Private, and in a world built on who you know, and how you act, different is bad. It's not the fact that Locki isn't interested in girls that is what is frowned upon by his "social equals" - it's the people he opts to hang out with. Locki doesn't dress in the latest fashions. He doesn't keep himself prim, proper, and tidy. No - the opposite indeed. And tending to dress in clothes that are a size too large for him, having what could most definitely be called a complete apathy for hygiene standards as far as his hair and socks goes, and keeping company with the local public school "skater" group is not how one wins friends in the world of the powerful. And even the skaters, bladers, and snowboarders ditched him once (at the beginning of 6th grade) they discovered that he was "one of those rich kids." Distrust and difference is powerful, no matter where you are from.
And so it was that Locki found himself in 7th grade, being shipped off to Strangewood Heights by his parents, in a last ditch effort to get him out of their hair. It was on the long bus trip to his new home (and oh how little did he realise how literal that was to become) that he started to craft his new self. If he could suppress the grubby little skater boy within him, and become the prep that seemed to win everybody over, then he could finally put all of his life behind him, and develop himself into a fine, mature adult. That would show his parents. He'd win them over yet.
His plan was going fine, for the first couple of days. He made a heap of new friends - everyone seemed to know and like him (and his exceptionally wide array of knowledge and interests was actually coming in handy!) And then it happened. During an...shall we say...incident at the mall involving a crazy 18 year old and a laser gun, Locki discovered that he could fire electricity...and that he could travel through time...oh yeah, and that not only was he suddenly 13 again, but he was no longer aging. He was stuck, for all eternity, at the most awkward, painful time in his life. Great.
Still, he made some nice friends (a girl who can turn invisible, a guy who can move at super speed, another girl who controls the elements, and finally a crazy girl who controls magical ether...) and things seem to be settling down...But you can't hold back the real you forever, sooner or later people will know who you that you're not that preppy kid who needs to "save the day"...Because the little grot in Locki isn't done fighting. And his clingy tendencies are starting to wear thin even on himself. Sure, he enjoys being the "happy go lucky" kid...But maybe...Just maybe...He could relax and start to be himself some more - after all, he's got a long time to be a dirty skater kid.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. No moral tonight - Just a crappily written piece of fiction. Blah.
Word of the wise - a lot of fiction is crappy fiction in the first writing ;) What you've done here is given your character a life, a personality - and that's what the positive is that you should be focusing on :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the details for Scott's game? If there's space I'd be tempted to jump in for a session while I'm up there.
Torry is very happy and excited now.
ReplyDeleteYou should not put your writing down - it may not be your usual witty monologue but it was still well written and captivating.