Close to the bone

I'm getting ready to bring a favorite character of mine back into the game. Several people are helping me put the storyline together, to make it dramatic & suspenseful & interesting. (Thanks, guys!)

I'm excited by the prospect. This is a great character, very well-formed, familiar to me. And the plotline to bring her back makes it worth the effort. It ties up some loose ends from previous seasons, helps to propel the action in the game, comments on the game-world as we've created it, and opens up new possibilities for the characters that will surround her as we move through.

There's just one slight...challenge...with this character. Playing her in the game cuts a bit close to the bone for me.

It's not that my life mirrors the one I've created for her in any way. She doesn't even physically resemble me. But I've found that in role-playing, my most creative & effective characters are the ones who carry some bit of me inside. This one? I'm thinking it's her world-view. From slave to free to slave in the game, this girl accepts reality. She does what she has to do to survive. That could probably be said of all of us. What ultimately makes her unique is a very resilient core. She's been tested--god, how she's been tested!--yet somehow she's maintained an inner sense of honesty...almost naivete...that brings her back to a state of "peace" with herself & with her world. Sometimes that's easily done; sometimes not. But somehow it always happens. There's an optimism that never quite leaves her.

I'm guessing that's me, too.

That connection is what makes this character difficult to keep a rational distance from sometimes. It's also what makes her satisfying to play out in a game-world that needs honesty, optimism, naivete.

Wish her luck in the upcoming storyline. The girl's gonna need it. Oh, and by the way, her name is "Jade."

-Chyna

Photo source: copyright Cloud-9 "The Tribe"