I had real life concerns arise, but seeing the events that have transpired during my brief departure, well, I wish to tell you a story. Please bear with me, as it is a lengthy story, and while it may seem vague and tangential I do have a sincere point. I am speaking from the heart here, something I never do on these sorts of forums as I am often mocked and ridiculed, just as I am for my overly formal tone. But I feel that it is time I came clean.
When I was a child, my parents took me on an international holiday to New York. While I was there, I saw Grand Central Terminal. As a young girl at the time it was a truly profound experience. Coming from Melbourne Central station with its four platforms it was truly the largest collection of trains I had ever seen gathered. My parents took me on one of the trains travelling out of Grand Central and it was a life-changing experience. There was another time where I traveled to the Grand Canyon for another holiday and much to my surprise there was a train that did take others there. Fortunately for me, my parents, knowing my fondness of trains booked us a ride on it. It is a childhood memory I will always cherish, mainly due to the friendly interactions I had with the conductor. Around the time of year when we went, there were not as many people aboard the train. A member of the waiting staff, who was amused at this odd young foreign girl's fascination with this method of travel, was able to help me get a chance to meet with the conductor before he set the ride into motion.
When I remember my father before his illness claimed him, it is always of his vibrant smile as he watched the conductor teach his only daughter how to operate the train. You must understand how important that is to me.
From that time on, I have always had something of a predilection for train rides. Much like Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory, it is how I prefer to travel. I catch a train to work. I catch a train to visit friends. I catch a train whenever I go on holiday. I have often been compared to Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII, because like her I truly adore trains. The toot toot of a steam train is truly a calming, meditative sound. In fact, I have to admit, this calming sound has caused me on occasion to pass the stops at which I intended to disembark from the train.
I have been on many trains in my lifetime. Private ones, dingy city ones, all that sort of thing. Before I dropped out of journalism to pursue STEM studies in that dreadfully male-dominated environment I even worked as an assistant to a documentary team in the Russian countryside, and their trains vary between streamlined and efficient and horrendously unsafe. Yet, even though I have had many bad experiences on trains during my lifetime, there is no place I would rather be than travelling on one. It should come as no surprise that I am actually writing this post on my laptop, on a train, heading to work. Even though it is at a strange hour and being on call is a frustrating experience for many, the trips to and from work happen to take the edge off for obvious reasons.
But, it seems that all my many years experience with trains could not prepare me for the amount of railroading present in this dungeon crawling adventure. If the precedent set by the previous thread remains with regards to player agency (that is, the complete lack of it), then I cannot participate in this roleplay in good conscience. Good day.
When I was a child, my parents took me on an international holiday to New York. While I was there, I saw Grand Central Terminal. As a young girl at the time it was a truly profound experience. Coming from Melbourne Central station with its four platforms it was truly the largest collection of trains I had ever seen gathered. My parents took me on one of the trains travelling out of Grand Central and it was a life-changing experience. There was another time where I traveled to the Grand Canyon for another holiday and much to my surprise there was a train that did take others there. Fortunately for me, my parents, knowing my fondness of trains booked us a ride on it. It is a childhood memory I will always cherish, mainly due to the friendly interactions I had with the conductor. Around the time of year when we went, there were not as many people aboard the train. A member of the waiting staff, who was amused at this odd young foreign girl's fascination with this method of travel, was able to help me get a chance to meet with the conductor before he set the ride into motion.
When I remember my father before his illness claimed him, it is always of his vibrant smile as he watched the conductor teach his only daughter how to operate the train. You must understand how important that is to me.
From that time on, I have always had something of a predilection for train rides. Much like Sheldon of The Big Bang Theory, it is how I prefer to travel. I catch a train to work. I catch a train to visit friends. I catch a train whenever I go on holiday. I have often been compared to Selphie from Final Fantasy VIII, because like her I truly adore trains. The toot toot of a steam train is truly a calming, meditative sound. In fact, I have to admit, this calming sound has caused me on occasion to pass the stops at which I intended to disembark from the train.
I have been on many trains in my lifetime. Private ones, dingy city ones, all that sort of thing. Before I dropped out of journalism to pursue STEM studies in that dreadfully male-dominated environment I even worked as an assistant to a documentary team in the Russian countryside, and their trains vary between streamlined and efficient and horrendously unsafe. Yet, even though I have had many bad experiences on trains during my lifetime, there is no place I would rather be than travelling on one. It should come as no surprise that I am actually writing this post on my laptop, on a train, heading to work. Even though it is at a strange hour and being on call is a frustrating experience for many, the trips to and from work happen to take the edge off for obvious reasons.
But, it seems that all my many years experience with trains could not prepare me for the amount of railroading present in this dungeon crawling adventure. If the precedent set by the previous thread remains with regards to player agency (that is, the complete lack of it), then I cannot participate in this roleplay in good conscience. Good day.