Igneous The Troll's All Night Pottery Shop

This post combines two disparate facts:
1. There is a PS1 game based on the Discworld novels.

2. My brother is living in our carport.

The game is of the point-and-click variety, complicated and frustrating but nice to look at. My husband and I played it all through the summer of 2000.

In it, the city of Ankh-Morpork has been beset by a dragon, and your character, Rincewind, has to deal with it. As is typical, the player gathers items and completes certain tasks before moving on to the next bit. It's clever and funny, and there are many things to do.

Most of the game takes place during the day, but there are sections in which Rincewind has to go out at night. There generally isn't much going on in Ankh-Morpork during these late jaunts. Depending on what part of the game you're on, you can wander into bedrooms or you can try to get into the Broken Drum without getting bounced by the door troll.

There is occasionally a back room or alley that seems promising, but on the whole, nighttime is one of those situations where you have limited options and little guidance. Needless to say, I spent much time wandering around the darkened Ankh-Morpork at a loss.

Eventually, after doing an arcane combination of things, you come upon a little shop on the corner. Inside, a troll is humming away at his pottery wheel. The sign reads "Igneous the troll's all night pottery shop."

 You have to take one of his pots.

He's not necessarily happy to see you, although he won't thump you if you're polite. When you leave, he cheerfully resumes his work. The game continues on at length, but this is the part that really stuck in my mind.

It's probably not too hard to imagine how much the concept of this shop appealed to me. As a person who's most alert in the wee hours and is most creative then, the thought of an all-night pottery shop seems like the best thing ever. When you spend many lonely hours wondering if any other soul is awake, you are glad to spot one of your own. Basically, that troll has my dream-job.

The image has stayed with me all these years. The rest of the game is good fun, of course, but the all-night pottery shop was special. I hadn't thought about it for quite some time though.

What brought it to mind again was disparate fact #2.

Since my brother and his wife split up (no great tragedy, really, they've been off and on again for ages) he's been staying here. It's not because he can't afford his own place, mind you. There's two things you should understand about my brother above all else - he's weird and he's cheap.

He also finds the rest of us annoying, so he's taken to camping out in the carport. Really. He's got a couch and a lamp and his books. In fact, he's out there right now - I could see his 44oz. Big Gulp soda outlined on his side table. Yes, he even has a side table. I'm sure he intends to make hay with his lawyers about how he's been reduced to living in a carport, but make no mistake, he's quite pleased with himself.

Well, the other night, it occurred to me that I should be annoyed with my brother, lurking out there every night when he's perfectly free to come indoors. However, upon thinking about it, I realized I wasn't. Seeing the carport lit up like a beacon, his dim silhouette busy with his iPhone, put me in the mind of something.

Oh yes, it was Igneous the troll.

There's something about the thought of having your own on-site troll that's oddly comforting.

Thinking about getting him a pottery wheel.