Post by Lawrence Gable on Feb 23, 2024 22:59:55 GMT -8
I suppose this is kind of overdue, but who wants to learn more about Travis?
I'm thirty-one years old and I've been pretending to be a wizard on the internet since the Bush administration. My first role playing experiences were on the official Harry Potter movie message boards when I was nine years old. I remember I had this thread that I kept posting called "HE'S BACK" where my character just bursts into the great hall shouting about Voldemort's return.1 Literally no one ever replied to it, but that couldn't discourage a really stupid third grader who had just started reading.2 When I was twelve I joined my first Proboards role playing site and I've been role playing on Proboards sites off and on ever since.3
In 2008, I joined Hogwarts Magic. These were the formative years where I began developing my own style and voice which, in the early 2010s was a lot of fourth wall breaking for the sake of padding out word counts. Many of my characters originated on that site: Kermit Palantine, Theodore Platt, Martin Abbott, Lawrence Gable, and Bryant Tannen all started there.4 I also learned a lot about what I wanted from a Harry Potter role playing site. Hogwarts Magic was this special combination of really funny and creative people (many of whom are on Beyond Hallows today) and completely negligent admin who had absolutely no idea what anybody was doing on the site.5 The result was complete freedom to write whatever we wanted to, rewriting the Harry Potter canon in wild and creative ways. I've basically been chasing that high ever since.
Most important though, is all of the people that I met on Hogwarts Magic. Our own Lamp and Car were members of the site and always game to explore a crazy idea. And of course Steph, who I've known for fourteen years now and is my favorite person in the world.6
As a role player, I like plots that allow me to explore the outside boundaries of what we've seen in the books and films. The thing that's always fascinated me about the series is that there is this big, weird world operating beneath the one that we live in. I'd describe my writing as simultaneously melodramatic and absurd. Sometimes I'll put a ridiculous amount of heart into a post, and other times I'm writing Bryant. Many of my characters are detectives or criminals. I love dumb ideas and will explore literally any plot.7
Uh, I've probably written too much about myself here so I'm just going to close out with some quick facts. I have a degree in English from The Ohio State University and I work at a major financial services provider as a product expert for life insurance and long term care. I am in a minor position of authority over people and sometimes the corporate speak rubs off, so I'd like to apologize in advance if site wide correspondences sound like they've been approved by compliance. Die Hard is my favorite movie. I watch Arrested Development once a year and 30 Rock is my go-to sad time show.
Write with me! Bye!
1. I had not read the fourth book yet, but to be honest called it.
2. Okay, so, it's not like I couldn't read. I just chose not to.
3. My character was named Kyle Turner, a third year Gryffindor played by an extremely adult Jason Lee. I don't remember a lot about him except that I thought Kyle Turner was a really cool name.
4. A fun bit of Travis Lore: my first character was this girl named Majik Vonn Starr. Her deal was that she was just really awful to everyone? I don't know, I dabbled in shitposting in my youth. I was immediately banned from the site because I wrote a snarky bit in Majik's app about how the site's rule that characters couldn't date before third year was arbitrary (literally because, I quote, "boys think girls are icky"). The only reason I got back onto the site was because my sister was already a member there and she managed to get our IP removed from the ban list. Anyway, I've been terrified of authority since my fourth grade teacher put me on trial for a crime that I didn't commit, so I treaded so freaking lightly around that admin.
5. The site plots were fantastic. It was an alternate universe deal because the site was created before the sixth book even came out. The admin was a huge fan of Snape and elevated him to the role of main villain. At one point there was a stretch of time where Snape kidnapped Harry and locked him in a box in his office for two years while everyone just kind of went about their business.
6. She's completely responsible for how good this site looks and is always exploring new innovations to make it even better and I think that's neat.
7. I mean, why can't our characters who are complete strangers and grew up in different parts of the world but look vaguely alike be long-lost brothers?
I'm thirty-one years old and I've been pretending to be a wizard on the internet since the Bush administration. My first role playing experiences were on the official Harry Potter movie message boards when I was nine years old. I remember I had this thread that I kept posting called "HE'S BACK" where my character just bursts into the great hall shouting about Voldemort's return.1 Literally no one ever replied to it, but that couldn't discourage a really stupid third grader who had just started reading.2 When I was twelve I joined my first Proboards role playing site and I've been role playing on Proboards sites off and on ever since.3
In 2008, I joined Hogwarts Magic. These were the formative years where I began developing my own style and voice which, in the early 2010s was a lot of fourth wall breaking for the sake of padding out word counts. Many of my characters originated on that site: Kermit Palantine, Theodore Platt, Martin Abbott, Lawrence Gable, and Bryant Tannen all started there.4 I also learned a lot about what I wanted from a Harry Potter role playing site. Hogwarts Magic was this special combination of really funny and creative people (many of whom are on Beyond Hallows today) and completely negligent admin who had absolutely no idea what anybody was doing on the site.5 The result was complete freedom to write whatever we wanted to, rewriting the Harry Potter canon in wild and creative ways. I've basically been chasing that high ever since.
Most important though, is all of the people that I met on Hogwarts Magic. Our own Lamp and Car were members of the site and always game to explore a crazy idea. And of course Steph, who I've known for fourteen years now and is my favorite person in the world.6
As a role player, I like plots that allow me to explore the outside boundaries of what we've seen in the books and films. The thing that's always fascinated me about the series is that there is this big, weird world operating beneath the one that we live in. I'd describe my writing as simultaneously melodramatic and absurd. Sometimes I'll put a ridiculous amount of heart into a post, and other times I'm writing Bryant. Many of my characters are detectives or criminals. I love dumb ideas and will explore literally any plot.7
Uh, I've probably written too much about myself here so I'm just going to close out with some quick facts. I have a degree in English from The Ohio State University and I work at a major financial services provider as a product expert for life insurance and long term care. I am in a minor position of authority over people and sometimes the corporate speak rubs off, so I'd like to apologize in advance if site wide correspondences sound like they've been approved by compliance. Die Hard is my favorite movie. I watch Arrested Development once a year and 30 Rock is my go-to sad time show.
Write with me! Bye!
1. I had not read the fourth book yet, but to be honest called it.
2. Okay, so, it's not like I couldn't read. I just chose not to.
3. My character was named Kyle Turner, a third year Gryffindor played by an extremely adult Jason Lee. I don't remember a lot about him except that I thought Kyle Turner was a really cool name.
4. A fun bit of Travis Lore: my first character was this girl named Majik Vonn Starr. Her deal was that she was just really awful to everyone? I don't know, I dabbled in shitposting in my youth. I was immediately banned from the site because I wrote a snarky bit in Majik's app about how the site's rule that characters couldn't date before third year was arbitrary (literally because, I quote, "boys think girls are icky"). The only reason I got back onto the site was because my sister was already a member there and she managed to get our IP removed from the ban list. Anyway, I've been terrified of authority since my fourth grade teacher put me on trial for a crime that I didn't commit, so I treaded so freaking lightly around that admin.
5. The site plots were fantastic. It was an alternate universe deal because the site was created before the sixth book even came out. The admin was a huge fan of Snape and elevated him to the role of main villain. At one point there was a stretch of time where Snape kidnapped Harry and locked him in a box in his office for two years while everyone just kind of went about their business.
6. She's completely responsible for how good this site looks and is always exploring new innovations to make it even better and I think that's neat.
7. I mean, why can't our characters who are complete strangers and grew up in different parts of the world but look vaguely alike be long-lost brothers?