and I got no illusions about it; guess what? I never did...

[enthusiastick]

I would swear sometimes that my brain is miswired, metaphorically speaking. It spends a large amount of time (and, presumably energy) on things I swear I did not actively direct it towards. Case in point?

Its compiling a musical.

As those of you who read this blog regularly are probably aware, whenever I am in the area of Ev IL I play in a game of Mage: the Ascension run by the inestimable pax_malificus. Partially because the game is quite good and partially because I love Mage on many, many levels I find myself fairly fixated upon this game. I think on it a lot; I analyze it and I cherish it and I miss it when I'm not around. And somewhere along the line it broke into that part of my brain I'm not precisely in control of, into that part of me that isn't quiet even when the rest of me is still.

I think the catalyst in this case was that I heard a song by Colin Hay, and because I was listening especially to the lyrics (as I tend to do when hearing new music) I thought to myself, "Huh. If [rollick's character] had a theme song, it might well go something like this." And then, spontaneously, other songs started to populate a list in my head that previously had not existed. I have long been in the habit of associating songs with people (and moods, and sets of circumstances.) Insofar as I have a useless superpower, it lies in having a song lyric or six on hand for anything that comes up.

Its not like this is the first time I've applied that knowledge to the meta-life of Gaming. I've had characters with theme songs before. I use music when I ST. But this game is different, more serious in tone somehow. And so now its like I've broken through some barrier. A less geeky person would have been deeply troubled by that. And I have to admit that I think its pretty weird, and ultimately pretty worthless. But its diverting and its harmless and, like I said, I'm not sure I could stop if I wanted to.

Without further ado here's the stuff I've got (more or less) for sure at this point:

[rollick's character] Shae's Theme: (excerpts from) Colin Hay -- Beautiful World
[spreadnparanoia's character] Helen's Theme: Green Day -- Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Song for the early interactions between [my character] Kit and Shae: (a modified version of) Wicked Soundtrack -- Popular
[Zoe's character] Psyche's Theme: Dispatch -- Two Coins
Song for that one time with Nick: Jefferson Airplane -- White Rabbit
Song for recent conversations between Helen and Kit: Lucky Boys Confusion -- Something To Believe

Comments

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Ha. You, sir, have been beaten to the punch. kreestopearq made a Mage-game mix-tape with themes for each of the characters during Mage v. 1. It'd take a little digging, but I'm sure I could find it again.

Shae's Theme: (excerpts from) Colin Hay -- Beautiful World I like this, and it seems appropriate enough, up until the last verse.

Song for the early interactions between [my character] Kit and Shae: (a modified version of) Wicked Soundtrack -- Popular Yow. Is Shae the Glinda character? I'm not seeing this, given that Shae just really wasn't interested in Kit being popular, famous, or even successful, so much as finding himself without offending everyone else who might have been able to help with that.

Song for that one time with Nick: Jefferson Airplane -- White Rabbit Beaten to the punch again. Chris actually played "White Rabbit" at us during a recent particularly psychedelic, magic-fueled road trip with Nick. Great minds and all. I've had it intermittently stuck in my head since then, and he's played it at a couple more Mage games, indicating that it apparently sticks with him as well.

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

No, you fool, Shae is Elphaba (although arguably, so is Ilyana, for the purposes of the song.) Kit is Glinda. I'll tell you what... change the phrase "we're gonna make you popular" in all its various incarnations in the song to "I'm going to teach you pop culture" and see if it starts to make any more sense to you.

And I was not beaten to the punch by pax_malificus on the White Rabbit thing. I have been told a few times now the story of him using the song, and I therefore include it as an homage to him and as a significantly musical part of the game.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Bah. You just don't know when you're beaten. BEATEN I say! With beatingness!

And yeah, that makes the "Popular" thing make more sense, but I still just can't see Kit as a giddy little chick.

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

I like it for its mood and tone. Kit shared Galinda's smug certainty that the thing he cared about was the key to the world, and anyone who ignored it was not merely foolish but ought to be educated as to the extent of their folly. And Shae has Elphie's quiet aplomb nailed.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

Does Elphaba have quiet aplomb in the musical? To me, she sounds a lot more like she really does want to accept Glinda's way of thinking at least half the time, at least up until "Defying Gravity."

[pooka-madness.livejournal.com]

Interesting point. I'd still say she's got quiet aplomb in the musical, or at least the quiet aplomb I think of as essential to her character comes through.

And for the record, I'm fully willing to admit when I've been beaten. kreestopearq beat me with his mix tape... beat me with beatingness, as you say.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

I freely admit it's not her fault if she can't manage quiet aplomb in the musical (have you seen it, or just heard the soundtrack?) — it's near impossible to pull off quiet aplomb while belting to the rafters.