The brain is a strange thing (RP)

[thistlechaser]

Nowadays all my RP is on WoW, and all my IC characters are elves. In case you haven't seen one before, blood elves have really long ears (random image, first one on Google's image search). I love writing about the nonverbal, the way a gaze moves, lips pressing together, fingers moving restlessly, etc. So for these elves, the ears are generally something I'm describing (they change positions with emotions and reactions, twitch in annoyance or at some noise, etc).

I've been RPing characters with long, mobile ears for so long, I feel like my RL ears are the same.

It's the strangest, craziest thing. This morning I was remembering something embarrassing I did when I was younger, and I swear that I felt my ears pressing back against my head in embarrassment. Not my little people-ears, it felt like I had long ones and they were pressing back. Then I thought to myself 'Wait, I don't have long ears!' and the feeling faded somewhat (didn't totally vanish though).

I wonder if it's related to the phantom limb phenomenon? I've been RPing elves a while now (more than a year), but not anywhere near as intensely as I used to RP (sometimes I even go a whole day without any RP at all!). It's kind of sad, my new state of RPing*. I remember how cool (and scary!) it was to have a character's voice in your head all the time, being able to see the real world through their eyes, hear their opinions on things, I miss that. (Though I do feel a lot more sane with only one voice in my head!)

(* Edit: This is not a passive-aggressive comment at anyone, it is not a hint that anyone is not RPing with me enough, or that I'm unhappy with anyone. The amount of RP a person gets is a direct result of that person's effort to get RP. :) )

Comments

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It's interesting how many folks get the phantom limb thing. (And no worries, I almost deleted this post right away... then I figured that my whole flist must already think I'm a giant freak. :P )

but I'm not always certain precisely what they're thinking, which trips me up sometimes and makes me feel like a bad RPer. :|

Gah, I get that too sometimes! But I think/hope that other people don't notice as much as I do.

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure no one else really notices the little mistakes or slight breaks in character, but we just [i]think[/i] they do because we're too critical of ourselves. :P Not that realizing this has ever made me feel any better when I think I've screwed up.

[socksofjello.livejournal.com]

Goddamnit, I can't stop using BBCode. :|

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hee, I can read the bb code, no worries! :D And totally agreed!