This takes place between V-LARP 2, and V-LARP 3. It's not an essential story, but will provide some context for V-LARP 3 and V-LARP 4.
Chapter 2 Interlude - Ma-neigh-gement
The Knight finally reached the edge of the LARP enclosure, stopping the horses and carriage to the side of the black curtain. He hopped down onto the gravel road and made his way inside. It was night at this point, and the faint noise of rowdy people having fun in the nearest cities could be heard faintly. The bright lights of Elador and Stormveil flanked the black curtain, what looked to be a mile and a half away on either side of it. Of course, it wasn’t actually that far - being small messes with your sense of scale. In reality it was more like 10 or so meters. The enclosure was big, even at normal scales, but even it was nothing compared to the park they were in.
The Knight entered the curtain, spotting his co-worker behind the desk. It was busy in here before, but now everyone had gotten here and settled in. Now it was just a roofless, empty black room, with a row of chairs along the far wall, and a counter-top.
“Ah, you’re back. No incidents?” asked the grey robed priest, looking like a younger Gandalf. (An old wizard from Lord of the Rings)
“Yup! No problems, John and Jake are out back.” The knight thumbed back to the curtain. “We’re good to return to normal.”
“Good, good… I can’t believe she wanted the full royal treatment this time.”
“I suspect she wanted to impress her friends, they seemed new to this place.”
“Truly?” the priest stroked his long beard thoughtfully.
“Yeah, from what I could hear, it seemed like her friends were totally fresh to LARP’ing in general.” after taking a more serious expression, he continued. “I’m worried about how they’ll find the more… exotic, parts of our event. One of the girls seemed really nervous, we don’t want to scare people.”
“Worrying about our customers are we?”
“Well, contrary to my current appearance, I am a woman. Just looking out for a fellow girl, is all.”
“Right.” The wizard laughed heartily. “I’ll see if I can notify Gregorius.”
“Our resident princess seemed intent on taking them to his tavern anyway.”
“Truly? Maybe we’ll let things play out then. It’s not like they’ll be doing front-line stuff on the... first… what?” his sentence ground to a halt as he noticed the knight bite his lip.
“About that… the beast-kin girl, the fox one with the green hair and the spear?”
“You’re kidding?” His eyes shot open in realization.
“Nope. Seems the type who wants to ‘cut loose’, as she put it.”
“Oh god… I hope our little event tomorrow doesn’t make her regret that.” He put his head in his hands.
The Knight laughed. “I wouldn’t worry, Sally- or Lady Esmerelda, I mean, is a proficient fighter.”
“That’s true, and she’s been in this longer than even I have…”
There was a rumble as a giant person peered down into the black room. “Ah, welcome back Chrissie. Lets get you guys to the Venn Machine. We have a lot to discuss about tomorrow’s event.” The man lowered a silver tray into the box, the ones used for transporting tiny folks.
The Knight and the priest looked at each-other and nodded, heading onto the tray. The horses and carriage were already on it. They were carried up and into an ornate box, lit inside by two LED’s. The priest and knight sat at one of the built in wooden tables. The horses just looked uncomfortable as they had nothing to hold onto while the box shook slightly on their way to the Venn Machine.
-----
Soon the priest, the knight, the carriage, and the two horses were inside one side of the Venn Machine. The man that brought them there entered the other side, causing the doors to disappear. Due to them being tiny, and unable to reach the buttons, the Venn Machine decided to turn everyone to normal.
A nerdy looking man appeared, next to two women, and a buff man. They stretched out a little. Pressing the red button to leave. They all stepped out. The nerdy looking man, hunched, glasses, scruffy hair, and a lanky build was the first to speak.
“I really didn’t expect to become a miniature horse today, let alone two of them.”
“You did good. Been in two bodies before, John?” asked the other glasses wearing man, who was well built and had a light tan. He was more handsome than John was, but they had been friends for years. It was their idea to use the Venn Machines for LARP’ing in the first place, actually. They weren’t the first to coin the idea, but they were the first to convince management for this event. Earning themselves a spot on the team.
“Actually, it was my first time. I kinda enjoyed it.” John snorted. “What about you Jake? How was being a pretty carriage?”
“Not bad, a lot stiffer than being a bike, I’ll tell you what. No suspension in those things.”
“Wait…you’ve been a bike before?” The men laughed and walked off leaving the two women behind.
The women were in a discussion of their own.
“Being a hunky man is interesting, but I prefer being a woman.” said the mousey girl with brown hair, and glasses.
“I for one, miss the beard.” said the curvier bombshell of a woman. She definitely did not seem the nerdy type at a glance, but such stereotypes are only ever true to a certain point anyway. “Do thee know who’s playing as the star in tomorrow's event, Lady Chrissie?”
Chrissie giggled. “Still talking like Enceladus…” the other woman blushed ”…but yes, John will be playing the role.”
“Ah…well um…In that case, I’d like to join the event as my priestess.”
“As Encelia? I think that’s lovely Jane, Mark could use back-up at the tavern, given the amount of new players this month.”
“Plus…he’s so freaking hot as Gregorius.” said Jane wistfully.
Both women laughed. “Shame about the name though…” replied Chrissie.
“I think it’s cute!” protested Jane.
Chrissie shook her head and chuckled.
“Greg is a cute name!” reaffirmed Jane.
“If you say so.” Chrissie shrugged.
The woman left to go to the hotel after collecting their things from the lockers by the Venn Machine. The hotel was rented out by the event management for the weekend. Any players who die and don’t feel like returning to the game can stay at the hotel, free of charge, and simply enjoy the town until their friends return from the game. It was also where event management stayed.
-----
Renting 3 floors of a hotel and paying rent for a plot in the park, as well as the rent to close said park, was not cheap. It certainly wasn’t possible for them before Venn Machines. Management ran a side Venning business to help offset costs at first. It was a fun little venture involving a rogue-like dungeon that people would try and beat for prizes. The gaming community, and DnD community, had expressed great love for it - in the form of a large profit for Management. There were also some escape rooms, one of which was adult only and played exactly like SAW (the movies).
John and Jake settled into their seats in the hotel lobby as Jane and Chrissie caught up. Most of the management team was here, about 12 people total. The other 8 people were on night-watch at the enclosure, making sure animals and curious kids didn’t disturb the 400 or so miniature event goers. While 4 of those were running taverns in each city as priests to keep an eye on things inside the event.
The team were deep in discussion about Saturday and Sundays events, the topic of discussion was around front-lines. As usual, front-lines was the part everyone argued about the most.
“No! You can’t just drop something like that into the battlefield! Are you nuts?!”
“Of course you can! It’s not a real one! So it’s not the same!”
“Yer both feckin’ crazy, personally ah’d have mare ‘o the beastly creatures instead, give ‘em a challenge!”
“Shut the heck up, you Scottish nutjob!”
“Oi! Don’t disrespect mah homeland!”
“Aye! Ye bloody Englishmen have nae tact!”
And on and on it went. A discussion about monsters, devolved into insulting nationality and heritage, with borderline racism at points as everyone got passionate and heated. Amazingly though, everyone here would still be friends once this was over - it was a very British dynamic for sure. After about an hour of this nonsense an amicable agreement was reached.
“Awrite, ah have to concede this tae ya. That’s no’ a bad idea.”
“Sorry for insulting you, Scotty.”
“So we’re in agreement for Saturday and Sunday’s Front-line beasties?”
“Aye, as fer who’ll play the blighters… John! Jake! Up and at ‘em!”
John, Jake, Jane, and Chrissie had mostly been quiet, letting the arguments play out while sipping on beer provided by the hotel staff. Hotel staff who were very fed up with the loud din, and wanted their night shift to be spent quietly.
“Huh? What?” asked Jake, snapping out of his beer buzz.
“You and John will be playing this weekend’s Beasties.” repeated one of the team members.
“So what exactly will we be Venning into?” asked John and Jake, almost in sync.
“Oh, yer both gonna love this!” said one of the Scotsmen.
Jane and Chrissie, who had been paying attention giggled to themselves over what was to come. Saturday in particular was going to be great for John. Normally front-line monsters were pretty basic, but thanks to an ongoing storyline involving the Orcs and Beast-kin, this weekend’s monsters were going to be especially brutal. As John listened to what they had in store for him, he couldn’t help but feel grossed out, and more than a little frustrated.
Saturday was not going to be his day...
-----