So, I've never actually participated in any live-action role play, but I would be lying if I said it didn't kind of look like fun. I support any excuse to wear a costume, and frolicking through Hunter Park whilst humming "the Battle of Evermore" sounds sort of ethereal and romantic in a way.
Awesome, that admission just set me up for an inbox full of love letters from skinny pale guys with acne that play Dungeons and Dragons all day. Bring on the nerds, I guess.
Anyway, sometimes a strong sense of adventure and amateur sword-wielding skills pay off--namely when there's an unarmed burglar in your home.
From the Tulsa World:
Jesse Livingston's novelty sword worked well enough when it counted.
The 17-year-old knocked an intruder over the head with a blade built more for looks than for duels and chased the man out of his west Tulsa home.
"Apparently the guy looked pretty scared," said Leslie Livingston, the teenager's mother. "He kind of jumped out and surprised him."
Jesse Livingston was hiding with the sword in his bedroom when the man kicked in the front door about 10:30 p.m. on Jan 27 and went straight for the only light in the house.
Livingston tried to stab him at first.
The sword - real metal, but purchased as a decoration at the Tulsa State Fair - didn't break the intruder's clothing.
Instead, it left a gash on the man's head as Livingston flapped it around. The man stumbled out the front door and ran down the street.
"Jesse did tell me afterwards, 'I told you I might need that sword,' " Leslie Livingston said.
In the wake of home invasions such as the Jan. 16 shooting death of 66-year-old Tulsan William Zachary, Leslie Livingston was shaken up by the ordeal but glad her son protected himself.
"I'm probably worse off than him," she said. "All you hear about on the news is bad stuff, and you try to convince him that not everybody is bad, and then this happens."
She added, "I just hope this makes people realize that you can stick up for yourself."
Jesse Livingston, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was home alone when the man began walking between the front and back doors and knocking repeatedly on both.
Jesse took the sword from its display stand and hid.
If that happens again, his mother would like him to make it clear that someone is home - perhaps by asking who it is or threatening to call the police.
Police say burglars don't want to be seen, so they typically don't target occupied houses.
Leslie Livingston thinks her house was targeted because the porch lights were broken and most of the inside lights were off.
Okay, so the article never explicitly says Mr. Livingston was into LARPing. In fact, it's also reasonable to assume that he might fence in his spare time, watch a lot of ninja movies, or he just behaved exceptionally at the fair last year so his parents decided to reward him with a toy sword. But judging from his nimble manner of attack, I'd deduce that this is not Livingston's first rodeo when it comes to defending his honor.
Any way you slice it, this story is the perfect balance of asinine and badass. Homeboy heard someone rattling around outside. Rather than calling 911 or staging a Home Alone-esque party scene, Livingston grabbed the most intimidating weapon he could find and prepared for an attack. He straight up tried to stab the intruder, and when he realize that the sword was about as sharp as a mechanical pencil, he changed his method of attack and beat the burglar in the head. If this was my son, I'm not sure if I would ground him for a month, raise his allowance, or take away all of his violent video games Oklahoma now wants to tax.
Whether the intruder was frightened by the toy sword or the crazed look of vengeance in Jesse Livingston's eyes, there's something we can all take away from this cautionary tale--be it the colorful bottles of sand, giant ass teddy bears, swords, or Swiss army knives, those overprices trinkets you picked up at the last State Fair just might come in handy one day.
Follow Chelsea on Twitter at @xCawoodstock
