RangerWickett
Legend
So I was talking with my roommate tonght (my real roommate; he's not imaginary) about the imaginary friend I have. For me, she's like an inside joke. She was a D&D character that was an NPC in the game I ran in middle school, and I was very fond of her as a character. You know the old classic of the DM's character, the one who gets all the special treatment? She was that one.
One time I was beta-testing an MMORPG, and I made a character based on her to play as. She briefly had an email address. This is mildly embarrassing to admit, but it wasn't twisted or obsessive. It was just amusing to me.
One time in a later D&D campaign, the character popped back up as an NPC again, and I wanted to run a bit of character interaction between her and a PC, so because we couldn't get together for a game, I made a screen name for her on AOL instant messenger, and I ran the conversation that way. I was happy that it was a strong in-character moment.
But then someone IMed me.
Some random person saw the profile I'd made for this fantasy character, and she sent an IM. As a lark, I stayed in character. And I liked the person I was talking to. So I kept the screen name, and would occasionally hop online to talk with my friend, staying in character, or rather in character, slightly modified. For the sake of this online persona, I decided that she had been visiting this world from her own world, and so she was the same person, but she was pretending that she was a normal girl from Wisconsin.
Then my friend from before noticed me online with this screen name, IMed, and asked what I was doing with that screen name. So I replied, "This isn't Ryan," and I stayed in character. My friend was amused, and we had a conversation, with me trying to figure out how this fantasy character would be online, chatting with my friends.
And then, somewhere down the line, I started holding conversations in my head with her. I swear that I was fully sane at the time, but it was just a fun way to pass the time, considering what this other person would think about things -- I tried to make sure we had distinctive preferences, or else I'd just be talking to myself, and that would be crazy. Sometimes still I'll talk with her; I've got a necklace that was bought because the stone reminded me of her character. I know I must sound nuts here, or weird, but hey, I play a game where we kill stuff with dice, so hopefully you're all at least not too weirded out.
But here's where things get a little weird.
She's an Elf. I tried to explain this to my roommate tonight, and he joked about her being a sexual fantasy. Like, 'hey, that's what Elves always are in video games, aren't they?' I tried to explain that I've known her since I was fourteen, and we're like siblings. My roommate just shook his head and said he was sorry that I was crazy. He asked me what she looked like.
And, um, . . . yeah, she's a dark Elf. I must be a total geek here.
Then, grinning at how nervous I was, he asked what kind of clothes she wore, dark Elf clothes, or modern people clothes (more like surface people fantasy clothes, actually). He asked if she had any weapons, and when I couldn't tell him, I tried to explain that I think of her more as a voice I talk to through IM, rather than a person I see.
My roommate said, "Obviously you're not paying enough attention to her."
I sighed, laughed for a moment, then said, "Okay, you're right. I'll go open an email account for her so I can send her an apology."
One time I was beta-testing an MMORPG, and I made a character based on her to play as. She briefly had an email address. This is mildly embarrassing to admit, but it wasn't twisted or obsessive. It was just amusing to me.
One time in a later D&D campaign, the character popped back up as an NPC again, and I wanted to run a bit of character interaction between her and a PC, so because we couldn't get together for a game, I made a screen name for her on AOL instant messenger, and I ran the conversation that way. I was happy that it was a strong in-character moment.
But then someone IMed me.
Some random person saw the profile I'd made for this fantasy character, and she sent an IM. As a lark, I stayed in character. And I liked the person I was talking to. So I kept the screen name, and would occasionally hop online to talk with my friend, staying in character, or rather in character, slightly modified. For the sake of this online persona, I decided that she had been visiting this world from her own world, and so she was the same person, but she was pretending that she was a normal girl from Wisconsin.
Then my friend from before noticed me online with this screen name, IMed, and asked what I was doing with that screen name. So I replied, "This isn't Ryan," and I stayed in character. My friend was amused, and we had a conversation, with me trying to figure out how this fantasy character would be online, chatting with my friends.
And then, somewhere down the line, I started holding conversations in my head with her. I swear that I was fully sane at the time, but it was just a fun way to pass the time, considering what this other person would think about things -- I tried to make sure we had distinctive preferences, or else I'd just be talking to myself, and that would be crazy. Sometimes still I'll talk with her; I've got a necklace that was bought because the stone reminded me of her character. I know I must sound nuts here, or weird, but hey, I play a game where we kill stuff with dice, so hopefully you're all at least not too weirded out.
But here's where things get a little weird.
She's an Elf. I tried to explain this to my roommate tonight, and he joked about her being a sexual fantasy. Like, 'hey, that's what Elves always are in video games, aren't they?' I tried to explain that I've known her since I was fourteen, and we're like siblings. My roommate just shook his head and said he was sorry that I was crazy. He asked me what she looked like.
And, um, . . . yeah, she's a dark Elf. I must be a total geek here.
Then, grinning at how nervous I was, he asked what kind of clothes she wore, dark Elf clothes, or modern people clothes (more like surface people fantasy clothes, actually). He asked if she had any weapons, and when I couldn't tell him, I tried to explain that I think of her more as a voice I talk to through IM, rather than a person I see.
My roommate said, "Obviously you're not paying enough attention to her."
I sighed, laughed for a moment, then said, "Okay, you're right. I'll go open an email account for her so I can send her an apology."
