So! Let me introduce the first regular feature for ElleShaped, something I’m calling ‘Welcome to Tuesday!’

Basically this will be a regular weekly look at what I’ve been up to this past week, and a place for me to pour out whatever weirdnesses have been percolating in my mind. The only thing reliable about it is likely to be the fact that it’ll happen every week!

Without further ado, here goes the first installment.

I am a monster…

Or at least I play one on the internet >.>

Other than The Secret World, most of my characters tend towards evil and frequently have no qualms about engaging in violence or other nefarious means to achieve their ends.

There’s the straightforward ones like Aethra Sunder, my EVE Online character.

She’s a pirate, a drug manufacturer and supplier, and even though she herself is a liberated slave, she’s got no objection to making slaves of other people she finds attractive or appealing.

On the other hand, she isn’t a sadist because she likes inflicting pain – for her it is more about freedom to indulge whatever desires she has, and a burning need to take and have – anything and everything, and that is what drives her into the black.

There’s Brielle, of course, my vampire matriarch in Elder Scrolls Online. She, too, is more complicated than just a simple ravening beast, though. She really wants security and safety for herself and those she cares about, and to please the Prince to whom she is beholden. Her past and her allegiance frees her from almost all other moral structures, though, and so her actions are quite easily seen as monstrous – she has kidnapped more than a few people and compelled them to become a part of the house, but once they fall in line she can be quite sweet… so long as she isn’t angry or peeved.

But now, there’s a new monster for me, and this one has no pretensions of personhood. The Kraken exists to kill, devour, and destroy, and it is driven mercilessly by them. Kill to eat, eat to grow, grow to survive, survive to kill again… and its escapades end up looking like this (gameplay footage of me playing ‘Evolve’):

And I’ve been loving every minute of the time I’ve spent playing Evolve. Even when I get my ass kicked – and when I come across a really organized, experienced team, I do – I find I’m learning new things in every match, and getting even better at being a monster.

So. Welcome to Tuesday. Be careful when you go out – there are monsters about!