[SEP 2010] IGGY CENTERSPREAD

From left: Erlitto(Iggy)'s wife Toni, his two angels Anya and Izzy, and some random dude.

I approach the great warrior with some sense of reverence, all the while eyeing the sleek golden rifle slung casually over his back. His face is pensive, calculating; but there is a merry twinkle in his eyes as he welcomes you.

'Thanks for agreeing to this meeting,' I begin.

'The pleasure is all mine.' He flashes me his dazzling smile once again. 'Shall we start?' and motions me to a nearby stone table.

I flick open the end of my scroll and ready my quill. 'Umm... to begin with, what does your name, Iggy, mean?'

'Well...' he scratches his chin. 'Angel from GoDs first baptised me with that name, because Ignotus was too long for her.' he laughs.

I start to form another question, but he interrupts me before I can open my mouth.

'And before you ask, Ignotus was the name of one of the three brothers, from the beetles and the bard stories - which you should be familiar with if you read the rivetting Happy Totter series by J.K.Rolling. Fascinating read.'

My hand flies across the scroll. 'So, how long have you been here on the Red Planet?'

'Hmm... 2 years, and 10 months, to be exact.'

'That's a long time,' I reply out of politeness, and he nods in agreement.

'Too long, some might say, but I can't say no to a jolly crowd and some good ale.' he winks.

'Any fond memories about your first set here?'

'Let me see. First ever set here, I never reported to war briefings, hit the enemy with any attack imaginable, essentially being a noob, as you guys term it.' a sheepish grin forms on his face.

'Did you have fun, at least?'

'Oh yes... hahahah. Especially when I see my attacks penetrate my enemy's defenses!'

Spurred on by his enthusiasm, I ploughed on. 'And do you think you learned any lessons running a country and going on KillRuns on your own compared to being taught formally in a clan?'

'I can honestly say I think I have not learned anything on my own. I have never been trained in the ways of war since young, this is a fairly new experience for me as far as combat goes.' he pauses for a bit. 'All of my knowledge and experience came from being in clans - the Generals of Destruction (GoD) and the Legends of Time (LoT) respectively.

'I see.' my turn to pause. 'Who was your first instructor?'

'A guy named Stick. He was around when I attended my first war chat.'

'Any favourite instructors? And what made him or her special?'

'Hmmmmm. On the strategic side, I forced myself to do plenty of reading back in GoDs. Being active during warchats help too. If I had to pick one, it would be Marco Darius (MD). But, in terms of working with people, no one beats Angel.' Iggy smiles.

'You must adore Angel so much.'

'Took you long enough.' he chortles.

'Okay, moving on, any particular event during the time you spent with them that stands out from the rest?'

Iggy ponders this for awhile. 'Nothing specific, it's all a big fuzzy mess of happy thoughts, good old times... I guess warchat interaction was pretty crazy, you had random country related and personal advice flowing in from all sides haha.'

I give him some time.

'Ahhhh I remember one. The time when Pheebs' daughter had a problem. It was a tough time for her, and you could really feel the warmth present within GoDs as a family clan. We even carried out a country name theme for little Lizzy - her daughter's name is Elizabeth.'

Iggy laughs again, then his face turned grave. 'And then I think either PVO or LSD, the russian clans, made a mockery of our country themes. Completely unacceptable, of course. Well you know what happened next.'

'For the sake of the readers, can you state what happened?'

'Ah, right. In a nutshell, drama in the local taverns, and blood in the battlefield.'

'Now to more... interesting matters. When did you first discover your love for sniping, aka stealing the last hit of every kill?'

He grins but remains quiet.

'Well?' I prod.

'Maybe it started when I first taught myself to predict how close a country was to death based on the civillian loss return rate. And,' he adds with a twinkle in his eye, 'the blood sword and killer medals are great motivational tools. They look shiny on my uniform.'

I point to the rifle on his back. 'And who gave you the legendary golden sniper rifle you are now reknowned for?'

'It was bestowed on me by the great Cookster, back when I managed 21 or so kills in a single set. It was during the PVO-LSD-Us-RF wars, if I remember.'

'A fitting achievement, then.'

'Or maybe earlier, I can't remember... getting old hehe. I think it was the second set of LoT. Since its rebirth.'

'Okay, just to wrap things up. What gives you the inspiration to continue fighting on and leading your clan the way you are now?' I ask.

'I don't know honestly.' Iggy just smiles. 'It's you guys that's keeping me ingame, of course. We already have a very good foundation to keep LoT running. Friendship, loyalty, honour. And I have vowed to keep the LoT tag alive, even if I have to slug it out with only 5 members - that was a promise made by me and Xninja back then.'

'And what do you think Mars has taught you as a whole, all these years?' I decide to poke around a little more.

'I would say... teamwork. A rough knowledge of other members' experiences and cultures, and ooh so many humping techniques.'

'Ahhh yes, speaking of humps-' I glance at Iggy, who has suddenly disappeared. I feel something bumping against my leg and look down to see him brushing somewhat eeriely against it. 'Errmm...'

'Sorry, just had to do it.' he lets out a hearty bellow, and stops. 'You were saying?'

'-several newer members have been complaining that you are scaring them away with your (and most of LoT's) variety of humps as welcomes; what do you have to say about that?'

'Bahahah! They haven't got it yet? That's like out rites of initiation.'

I interject. 'But you seem to continue doing that all year round, at random intervals.'

'That's just one of the ways of showing LoT's closeness - just keeping in touch, if you know what I mean.' Again that grin.

'Alright,' I finish my frantic scribbling. 'To finish us up on a light note, what is your favourite humping technique?'

'Hmm... Inverted sideways. Now imagine that. And good luck.' he winks as he leads me to the door.

EXTRA : What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Iggy?

Terrace - Fear

Wip - Bald

KAMUT - Humping Iggy

Masta - Iggy who? Iggy the killer or Iggy the political leader? Either way it's the same - oh shit!

Derek - his uneasiness over my cacti fetish...o wait thats everybody.

d_d - grandson

Monty - Iggy is a sniping bastard and good friend

Coondog - Iggy possesses similar warring skills as the Coockster, but prefers the military option.

CLM - Iggy jiggy wiggy siggy liggy piggy miggy, its a great name for that.

HellsCrusader - crazy bold spy.

BK (after interview) - sideways inverted o_O

Article by : BK
Source : Iggy (IRC Interview)