In a tale that perfectly blends the medieval with the mundane, Arizona Department of Public Safety troopers arrested a Live Action Role Player in northern Arizona who, in a twist of poetic irony, was running late to a LARPing competition.
Now, we’ve all been there — that sinking feeling when you’re going to be late for something important. Maybe it’s a job interview, a first date, or a dentist appointment you’ve been dreading. For this particular individual, the stakes were considerably more dramatic: somewhere out there, a fantasy battle was beginning without him, and apparently his steed (a regular, non-enchanted motor vehicle) wasn’t moving fast enough through the Arizona wilderness.
One can only imagine the internal monologue unfolding behind the wheel. Was he rehearsing his battle cry? Mentally strapping on his foam armor? Calculating whether he could still make it to the opening joust? Whatever was going through his helmet-ready head, it apparently did not include a careful review of posted speed limits.
Arizona State Troopers, who deal with their fair share of colorful highway encounters in the Grand Canyon State, pulled over the aspiring warrior and discovered the full context of his urgency. To their credit, the laws of the realm apply equally to knights, wizards, and rogues alike — and none of the standard LARPing excuses, however elaborate, constitute a valid traffic defense.
The LARPer was arrested, his quest temporarily suspended by the rather less fantastical forces of modern law enforcement. No word on whether his guild managed to hold the fortress without him, or whether his character was unceremoniously slain in absentia.
The real tragedy, of course, is that the whole point of LARPing is to escape the boring constraints of everyday reality — only to be yanked back by the most mundane of real-world consequences. The dragon, one assumes, was not impressed.
His companions, somewhere in the northern Arizona highlands, presumably fought on without their fallen comrade.
*Source: AZFamily.com, via Reddit r/offbeat*
Original story via Reddit Offbeat
