Thursday, October 29, 2009

Finally giving Larísa’s feet some air

After more than 2.5 years I finally let Larísa take off her shoes. It was about time you could say. I dare not even think about the smell that spread around her.

The triggering event was that I gained my Frostsaber mount. This creature is different to most other mounts in the way that it hasn’t got a ton of armor and decorations on it. It’s a plain tiger. And that’s where the beauty of it lies.

While grinding for it, a vision came up in my mind. I wanted to let Larísa have her first ride on it dressed in a similar manner, in a simple but yet beautiful dress, barefeet and free from her duties and free from heavy armor and weapons that she normally drags around.

My choice fell on the Lovely purple dress. It was such a perfect match with the white/purple shimmering mount and the distinctively pink pigtails.

The inventory became rather cramped as I took off any visible gear, just keeping a couple of rings, trinkets and a wand equipped, since they weren’t viewable anyway.
And you know what? I was surprised at the fuzzy feeling I got in my stomach as I saw Larísa happily taking off, so beautiful, so relaxed, really living up to her title “Merrymaker”.

Secret roleplayer
I guess it was another hint from the secret wanna-be-roleplayer I nourish inside. This was something I realized as I shortly after this read a passage at Too Many Annas in a post where she gave the basics about role playing:

Would you want to sit around in a park with your friends while wearing an entire suit of armor and padding, unable to bend half way? I know I wouldn’t! So Aely usually wears pants, a shirt, and a vest, with some leather boots when she’s just “hanging out” – simply because as a /person/, it makes more sense. (Even Knights from the Medieval era didn’t wear armor 24/7)
Even if I’m not into RP, I must say that makes sense to me. I can’t help feeling a bit silly though for not thinking about it earlier. As far as I can remember it happened once before. I remember letting Larisa taking off her shoes, enjoying some relaxed fishing in Hinterlands after an especially crappy raid night. I also think I put on a festive dress when we had our guild anniversary. But apart from those occasions, Larísa has been decked out in equipment intended for warfare. Day after day, week after week, year after year. She hasn’t had any vacation ever. She even sleeps in her uniform!

Switching gear
One reason for this is that I’ve never gotten into the habit of switching my whole gearset. If you’re playing a hybrid, you’re probably used to carry around several sets, and you’ve been using wardrobe addons for years to manage it smoothly. You’re also probably pretty good at keeping your bags clean to make place for all those different sort of clothes.

Playing a mage is a different thing, especially if you like me don’t have a complete PvP set. Sure, I’m dual specced and I’ll certainly change a few pieces if I’m switching from arcane to fire or if the hit rating needs vary depending on the group. But most of the time I’m wearing the same thing. It was only thanks to my adventures into druid levelling that I became aware of the new standard gear change feature in the default UI.

Suddenly one day the insight reached me that as long as I keep my bags fairly tidy, I should be able to redress Larísa entirely with just a simple click.

I don’t have to do the tedious task to move item after item individually to the inventory and then back again, afraid that I’ll miss something. OK, I’ll have to do it once, when I create the new gear set, but when it’s done it’s done.

In real life I prefer to walk barefeet when I get home from work, changing my clothing for something more comfortable. And with the new support in the UI, I really can’t blame my laziness any more for not letting Larísa relax, taking off the dirty and uncomfortable warfare uniform when she’s not actively fighting the enemy.

Disadvantages
There is still one little problem connected to it. Even if I from an RP perspective would like Larísa to go to sleep in a pyjama as I log out for the night, it doesn’t quite work with my raiding ambitions.

Logging out in Lovely Purple dress didn’t go unnoticed in armory. And this meant that my gear score fell from 617 to 52 at Be Imba. Not that impressive if you’re trying to find a pug and someone is making a check on you. And it will definitely mess things up for you if I try to run an updated optimization check in Rawr.

So my solution will probably be a compromise. I’ll give Larísa’s feet some air while she’s fishing, crafting or making deals at AH. But she’s doomed to keep spending her nights dressed in full armor. Smelly or not.

6 comments:

Tessy said...

You think may Larísa smell bad? At least she's a mage and fights her fights from a distance! :P

Think of all those poor rogues and feral druids out there who bleeds their enemies all the time? That blood and assorted other gooey substances and hair tufts and stuff ends up on their leather armour, and do you know how hard it is to get that stuff out?

You can always jump in a lake to rinse blood from plate or metal, but that won't work as well with leather!

The ferals often carry around a set of clean clothes for healing or boomkining, but those poor rogues most likely don't and have to live in that dirty, sweaty, smelly, bloodied armour all the time.

The only way a seasoned rogue should be able to stealth up on an enemy would be doing it from downwind :-D

Everblue said...

Post a screenshot or it didn't happen...

Anonymous said...

Of course im the leader of this trend with my James bond suit and rocket helm !!!


Cacknoob (the man with the golden gun)

Anonymous said...

Nice post. I enjoyed reading it. I'm becoming a daily reader of your blog and always say to myself before clicking your link in my favorites "what's pinky got to say today?". :)

Thistle said...

If you were ever interested in trying out RP, what someone's wearing is a big clue as to if they're looking for RP or not. Sometimes (but far far from always) having "casual clothing" on is also a sign of how good of a RPer they are.

Larísa said...

@Tessy: Rofl. I never thought about the rogue situation, but you’re absolutely right ofc! It’s a miracle that stealth works.

@Everblue: ohhh.. This isn’t one of those screenshot blogs, I’ve more or less given up on it, since my talent for screenshot taking is as non existent as my photo editing programme. It happens occasionally that I’ll take a picture anyway. But it’s been long since the last time. Might come up with something though. I’ll bear it in mind.

@Cacknoob: The man with the golden gun hasn’t been seen for long now on the IF bridge… Off for a secret mission somewhere?
Btw yesterday I found a strange Chinese silk pyjama collecting dust in my bank vault. You should see it! Looks just beautiful, and nothing you normally see people walking around in.

@Anonymous: thank you so much! This was about the nicest “Anonymous” has ever written to me. Cheers!

@Thistle: Hm… I should definitely get myself something more casual casual clothing. Not just festive beautiful dresses, but plain everyday clothes… I can probably craft some, being a tailor. Although being on a non-RP server, I doubt that anyone will understand what I’m doing.