Spotlight on: Kirby Riedlore

Full Name: Kirby Roy Law, later it became Kirby Roy Riedlore
Birthday: July 8, 1990
Method of Creation: #2- he's a homage to a friend I made in Europe.

Creation Story:

I'm really surprised I never did a spotlight on Kirby! I guess I don't talk about him a whole lot but he's definitely there! Kirby comes from the same person as Kenyon Nihael, actually. However, unlike Dr. Nihael who only took his name, Kirby is a slightly more direct homage and a tiny bit more tangible.

The friend I met on the trip was a very sweet, talented, and friendly oboe player from the midwest. We had a lot of fun on our many fabulous adventures! Anyway, he was playing Kirby on the plane on the way home, a game I had heard about but never played. Somehow this somewhat minuscule detail became the basis for a new person. He comes from the same source as Eagle Rivers and Winterwood Lightfoot in that I wrote a story about an international honor band and chorus that toured Catarika, based obviously off my European adventures. As it would turn out, whether I meant to or not, they all ended up going to the same college and therefore became very close friends on the trip and still are. In fact, Kirby lived with Eagle his freshman year. As another fun fact, it was this friend in Europe that was roomed with the most unique and different person on the trip, the kind of guy that is misunderstood because his way of life is so different, and what became the basis for Eagle Rivers and Isiador Lochgren being roomies in my version of the story.

Kirby's Birth Through Story

Eagle and Winterwood are obvious caricatures of two people I went to college with and had known for a year by the time summer 2008 came around and this story was underway. I forgot if Kirby was written in as Winterwood's partner in music or if I had him in mind first but whatever the reason he made his debut in my story as Kirby Law, because it sounded cool. He fleshed out pretty quickly, meaning that his story and background took hold pretty fast. Here is the very first thing I ever wrote mentioning Kirby, in the form of Eagle's journal:

What A Day!!
Saturday, July 5, 2008

"...We met up with a big group of people so get ready for some names: Joining us at a local Tabesai Taresu (Catin for "Food Restaurant" or "Deli") were Jag, his roomie Kevin, Winterwood, her roomie Rianda M, her oboe friend Kirby, his roomie "Burnsy", his sister Shelby and her roomie Kioraya, Magellan, Oja, Brogan and his roomie Aladdin, Naidel, Eric and Marvin. It was a wooden building with only two walls so it was open to the air. It had a front counter that had shelves with a bunch of the sandwiches and Kalii (sushi) that the Taresu made. Behind them was a large, colorful menu with pictures of everything else they offered."

He's not mentioned much, just in passing to show he sits next to Winterwood, his roomie on the trip was Ryan Burns (Burnsy), and he has a sister named Shelby.

Another excerpt also from Eagle's journal dated July 6, 2008 shows Eagle's initial impression of Kirby as a person:

"Kirby Law- With a name like that, how can he not be bright and cheery? He certainly is and like Burnsy loves trying the new things. Call it jumping into the deep end. He loves to dance and has a love for playing that is amazing. He's from Ravnik, which is an unheard-of town north of Kaytue, which everyone has heard of. Being from the studio and show capital, he knows a thing or two about sound systems so he's always there to help get everything ready and working. I was also very happy to find out he too is going to KU in the fall. Wow! I'm gonna meet everyone here! He plays the oboe and sits right next to Winterwood so they are always playing duets together. He has a twin sister who is pretty funny as well."

From this excerpt we learn that Kirby is from Ravnik, which he is proud of and still tells people even now. He becomes fast friends with Winterwood and the two are still close today.

This is another excerpt from an entry on July 7, 2008:

"After it was over I was talking in a group of people and found out, because it's such a small world, that Kirby Law is also going to KU next year! Eric gave us some great insight into a family friend that owned and rented out several houses along the campus so that'll definitely be at the top of my list of things to go when I make the big move to KU. If all goes well then Jag, Kirby, and I will share a house or apartment together."

From this article we pinpoint the moment in time that Eagle and Winterwood found out they were going to the same college as Kirby. The Eric mentioned is Eric Latham and this whole tour story was written because Eric went on it in 2008 and was in the chorus, thus I needed some stories to happen that he could write about. The family friend is, of course, Jimmy Charles who is also heavily mentioned in the Lochgren Series. I didn't realize that he even went back that far! It goes to show that I forget the origins of a lot of things that I consider mostly understood.

One of my favorite entries in Eagle's journal from this trip is the post that happens on Kirby and Shelby's birthday because it shows how much fun they all had together being silly:

Happy Birthday and a Slice of Fashion
Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Early this morning I got up and got ready for the day. It was another free day today and we would be having dinner at a traditional Catin Suta Taresu. As our little group got a plan going we quickly learned it was Kirby and Shelby's 18th birthday! Wow what a way to celebrate! We found our way to "The Strip" and began shopping in the stores. Finally I was able to purchase a fine Catin outfit. It looks so cool! It's red and blue and I feel like a king with it on. As all of us were shopping, especially the girls, we came across a mini amusement park with a carousel. We all had to get on and took turns taking silly pictures of each other. It was so fun! There was a hat shop and a kite shop nearby so we all got crazy hats. We all decided on lobster hats so our group all got one. Then we went to the kite shop and got some kites to fly in the wind.

We found our way to an outdoor octopus ride which we all went on and then treated ourselves to a Ferris wheel. Oh the pictures we got! It was so much fun! We then found a sweets shop and got one of those giant cookies for the twins. There was a market nearby so I took the opportunity to make Islander's Bridge Mix for lunch. It was so fun to sit along the beach and sing happy birthday and enjoy the cookie bits and Islander's Bridge Mix. We had a great time and lots of laughs. When we were finished we took turns flying our kites and looking silly :-). We even bought some bread to feed the seagulls and in the distance we could see Kile and Pangi flying over the water.

Kirby became tangible very early on. He stayed this goofy and funny guy permanently and is still bringing smiles to everyone's faces in rehearsal.

Having only been seen and described through the eyes of Eagle, Kirby was largely written only in Eagle's journals which I wrote from summer 2008 when he embarked on life after high school to summer 2009 when Eagle's life mellowed out a bit and the current story that I thought was worth journaling ended. However, Kirby always remained, being in the same class as people like Lesko Diamond and Eric Latham and has turned up in a couple short stories I wrote such as the one where Lesko finds out he is related to Franklin Sorela through their great grandfather.

Kirby's Wife

Unfortunately for him, a lot of his college life happened during that black hole period when I was depressed and therefore uninspired for like a year and a half. He was still very much in my head but a lot of those details were never written down. However, he met the beautiful Molly Clark, a girl who played trumpet in marching band and oboe in band (what an odd combo!), sometime during the first month of the fall 2009 semester. She was written as a pair of identical twins (Molly and Michelle) from Tarra who came here mainly to fill open positions in the band roster I was beginning to sketch. I do remember Kirby asking Lesko Diamond (the trumpet section leader) about her and if he could meet her (he played tenor or alto sax in marching band, just like my friend I based him on). They began dating sometime after.

Molly was a girl who was especially cool because she played Runescape and her account, Sadie Sage, had 99 construction and runecrafting (two hard-to-obtain masteries for non RS-players). At first, I wrote her to not be that into music and more into Runescape (just like me at the time!) but over time that changed. Their engagement on December 27, 2009 was documented on this blog as well as their wedding on March 30, 2010. By this point Kirby was starting to come back into my mind a bit more and he became yet another person in band married to someone else in band!

Kirby Today

In the past year, I've been having fun figuring out what sort of funny stuff he does with the people in his section, particularly pulling harmless practical jokes on Winterwood and making choreographed, elaborate entrances into rehearsal with his wife. Currently he is a senior and is finishing up his last year of band before he student teaches. Apparently he was originally a performance major but over the years ended up in the official roster as a music ed major which makes sense as he wants to move to Isle del Akai and teach band, which has been true since he met Eagle and Winterwood 3 years ago.

From Law to Riedlore

Kirby changed his last name when he got married. There were lots of influencing factors, the main one being that he wanted to move to Isle del Akai when he and Molly graduated and wanted a last name that was more like those seen there. Also, Molly Lynn Law sounded really weird to me so she was all for a new last name. They wanted to do Lightfoot but it still started with L so they went with Rivers. However, they both wanted to keep Law in their new last name so they combined the two, making Riverlaw, and then translated that into Keòen, thus coming up with the last name of Riedlore, which is a real Jadali crest taken by one of the Eldins (Trevin Riedlore). Thus, we now have Kirby and Molly Riedlore.

Kirby's Family

I decided to make Kirby's small family have a common theme. I usually hate this, but hey it's not my family it's his! His father's name is Darby and we already know that his twin sister and only sibling is named Shelby. His mother doesn't follow this trend- her name is Lynneli, a name I got by looking at my work roster and seeing that one of the workers was named Lynn Elizabeth but it ran together and got cut off at Lynneli. I really liked it so there it went!

Now that I've talked for a long time I think I'll skip a sketch since this post is full of them and just leave with a physical description and 5 fun facts!

Kirby isn't hugely tall, probably 5'10'' or so. He has brown hair, crew cut with spiky bangs. His eyes are one of the first things people notice because of their shape. I think he has blue eyes but they might be brown. He's always smiling! I made a really good Mii representation of him. He's not super thin but isn't ripped or anything like that. He likes to dance and especially loves to literally waltz into rehearsal with Molly or Winterwood or Benjamin or Carey or Zora or any combination of those people.

1. Kirby's favorite game is, no surprise, Kirby.
2. He began saxophone in 6th grade but hated it, switching to oboe in the 7th grade where he remains to this day except in marching band where he plays sax.
3. He is very close to his twin sister and they talk all the time.
4. He is known for being silly, energetic, and a class clown.
5. He has wanted to move to Isle del Akai ever since he learned about it, feeling like he was meant to be born there.