"From the very beginning we have always sought to reach out to one another,
and story tellers have found a new format for personal expression"
"Wondrous new tools will help us learn to bridge the gaps between us"
Good morrow nerds. My name is Cheyenne, my friends call me Az and I have nightmares about el ron hubbard's teeth.
Welcome to a LARP house!
So the death of Vine left a hole in all of our hearts,
we know this, but it was only a matter of time until something came along to fill that void.
And that thing was TikTok.
I personally have had a very interesting few weeks on that app
I joined TikTok in September hoping to see what all the fuss was about and I ended up discovering a much-needed
Low-pressure creative outlet that allowed me to put out work while I was still constantly dealing with the neverending maelstrom of personal chaos
There are so many facets of it that are interesting to me. So I wanted to highlight a few;
TikTok has a few good but simple effects and it's editing capabilities are limited
Which has caused users to have to get very creative and resourceful as far as practical effects
In fact, a lot of trends and tricks on TikTok are actually rediscoveries of early film-making techniques
Many TikTok users are out here reviving the ingenuity of Charlie Chaplin and Karl Struss in an app that was made for lip-syncing.
And then there's this collaborative aspect of it.
The duet and react features make it so that you can truly interact with other people's work in a meaningful way
Many people actually create their videos so that they are incomplete without someone else playing that missing piece
And some people are using these features to make art, process difficult emotions and even explore cultural or generational trauma.
"I'm just playin' baby, this the land of the free, where you can get a glock and a gram for the cheap"
"Where you can live your dreams, 'long as you don't look like me, be a puppet on a string, hangin' from a f*ckin' tree"
Seeing all of this has really been one of those moments that truly endears humans to me,
or other humans to me *chuckles nervously*
And that would be enough for me, but there's also a whole group of people on there using these features for collaborative storytelling.
The original character tags of TikTok are many and varied.
Some of the most popular include Mobster and Hogwarts Original Characters,
But it also includes Pirates, Middle-Earth, Star Wars and Star Trek, Neverland,
Post-apocalypse, Game of Thrones, Vikings, Seasonal stories, Demons Multiverse travelers-
So all that, for me, begs the question; are these OC tags on TikTok LARP?
Well I'd say yes! Some of them, definitely, and all of them, at least LARP adjacent.
You could make a very fair argument that it falls strictly into the category of online role play,
because people do plan and script their videos a little bit before uploading them.
And so that improvisational, in-the-moment element that is a hallmark of LARPing is missing.
However!
I do think it's important to expand our understanding of LARPing and immersive experience to include these digital mediums, and I'll tell you why
The classic going camping in the woods with foam swords or destination events style
LARPing is actually potentially very inaccessible.
That stuff can take a lot of money, time, mobility and physical strain that some people just cannot afford to spend.
Digital mediums like this lower the barrier for entry and open up the world to people who might never tried anything like this otherwise
It has even been helpful for me, who has made immersive experiences a large part of my job.
*stares in stress*
Personal reasons have me desperately needing a break from destination work.
I've got a stop breaking myself and get some Me Time in.
putting effort into things like
Recovery and getting back to the art that I want to make in the videos that I want to make and sorting out the next
phase of my chaotic life.
This app has made it possible for me to participate in collaborative storytelling with all of you
while still focusing on myself a little bit.
What's going on with Ruby Rothwell?
So Ruby Rockwell is a lounge singer who sold her soul to the devil
indefinitely to pay a debt that her parents owed the mob.
She has a good voice, a good memory and a freakishly high pain tolerance
so she sings at the club/headquarters
But also keeps her eye on things and uses code and songs to warn her people when stuff is about to go down.
Which means she has to know a lot about who's who and their relationships and how things run.
More of a spy than a mobster, She has been declared Baby and loves her friends more than anything.
So much so, that when she finds her dear friends best boy looking bruised like an old banana in JJ's place
She helps facilitate his great escape because Elisa is on the run
and can't really do anything herself.
Shortly after this escape, Ruby is taken in by the law.
Was it an anonymous tip called in to punish her or just a coincidence? We don't know.
It's probably nothing.
Ruby has had close encounters with good old police chief George before
but unfortunately for the detective, she has a spotless track record of not being a dang snitch.
But things are different this time
Enter Detective Yikes. End part one
What's going on with Ruby Rockwell? Part Two.
Ruby sends a good, old police chief George Wright into a den of thieves
hoping that will signal to her friends where she is and also really hoping they don't kill him.
We stan George in this house.
But now she's alone with Detective Yikes, who is just totally cuckoo bananas off the rails and will not hesitate.
Meanwhile, George stumbles into a hive of mafia people and after a minute of almost murder, Ruby's dearest friends are trying to figure out where
She's gone and if they can work with him to find her because we're all suckers for friendship here,
But now Detective Yikes is like super annoyed and has found a way to just bypass that pesky pain tolerance of hers
So now Ruby is spilling the medically-induced beans.
What's he gonna do once he gets the beans he needs from Ruby? Will the mafia friends try to kill George?
Will they find her will? Ruby ever see the first friend she made in the scary new life again?
*uncertain laughter*
Tune in next time on mafia Friendship is Magic!
What's going on with Ruby Rockwell and friends? Part Three.
The Gao Squad tries to slap the information
They need out of George but he's tragically good at taking hits.
A wild little sister appears!
Babe Rockwell is back from baseball camp (anger management) and not really a mobster, but definitely a rage gooney at least
*smashes glass* "Where the FUCK is my sister?!"
They fight each other but they fight each other's enemies more
Didn't know Ruby had a sister? Well, yeah. Neither did the mob. That's the point.
Meanwhile, Detective Yikes is at it again.
Ruby has been moved to what I can only describe as a nightmare palace and that isn't going super great for her.
The mob squad grows to include Morton and Bev as they try to formulate a plan
and some surprise bonding happens as Evey confesses some extremely precious feelings
To their new emotional support George.
Even Satine opens up, which is wild, but she has been having a real rough time lately.
I wONDer wHY??
Tune in next time on Mafia: Friendship is Magic
Now, TikTok has its issues just like any platform.
its censorship policies are just an enigma to me
But it's really just lit up my creative brain in a way that I have been missing for a couple of years now
And because I have extra-dimensional ADHD I *will* be using that energy.
I have no choice.
And then there's the fact that YouTube seems to be dying because it keeps killing off its creators channels facet by facet
But we're not gonna think about that today
"You ever wish you could just...
restart..."
"Everything's gonna be okay...!"
"Don't worry about it! You're gonna be fine! I think everything's gonna be okay."
"What would it be like if you could just restart?"
Hi!
I'm "Editing Cheyenne" and I'm here to make up for lost footage because it was talking about one of my favorite things
Friendship!
I want to talk about the community I've encountered on TikTok for a second.
The people and creators on this app that I've met so far have largely been absolute...darlings.
I would arm wrestle a bear for them...and win.
I have had the opportunity to work in some small way with so many
Incredibly skilled people and it is still bewildering to me that they would reach out and bless me with their talent
But I am NOT questioning it anymore and I thank them.
And it's only been a little over two months, but I've already made some really wonderful friends that I hope to keep around.
I will say to validate cosplayers who who have encountered a toxic community that I posted one,
a single one cosplay of a pre-existing character,
with an existing IP and let me tell you that comment section was full of entitled weirdos and mean 11 year olds
So it doesn't exist anymore
some cosplay consumers maybe, you know, need to learn how to act.
I can't imagine what that would be like if I only did cosplay all the time.
Cosplayers are strong
but in the original character tags
I have gotten almost nothing but love and
appreciation and it is it is a crazy thing to have you have your work appreciated by a lot of people.
*hyperventilates*
I am such a
painfully visual person, good ole' ADHD back at it again,
that Interacting with all of you can get lost in a sea of text on websites like Twitter and Instagram and even here on YouTube.
Having the opportunity to interact with people online in this more visual, more connected way
has been an absolute blessing for me and I am just taking some time to appreciate it
This also reminds me that I forgot to announce that I completely revamped the store
I redesign the old designs and I added a bunch of really cool new designs and if you guys buy some I
Would be able to buy some
The old store had a bunch of issues
I'm not really sure what was going on with it
But I am sure what's going on with this one and it all works now
So that's there and my anxiety says we're done talking about it now. So we're done.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming.
so if you want to see what I've been up to and what I will be up to you can follow me there or you
Can join the LARP House Patreon Adventuring Party, where I will be posting
compilations and tests in where you can have a say in future videos and...
stuff
and that's all I have for you this episode, nerds.
Thank you so much for watching, you are loved and cherished. If you have any questions, comments or emotional outburst, if you want to support
The LARP House in any way links for all of that will be in the description of this video.
And as always, thank you so much for liking us, subscribing to us and creating with us.
"I hate this motherf*cker more than Satan him f*cking self, you wanna (???) a little, f*cking bit..."
"So he broke up with me..."
"Why are you looking up?"
Need to cry but my foundation was $48