#I appreciate you keeping the old RP stuff organized on Google Docs

[victorluvsalice]

Happy Birthday Squid!

@gaydragonwizards As per your request to actually see the moment that Beckett spooked Nines during the last-minute prep before the Nines/Arianna wedding (as per its mention in our old RP stuff) -- well, here's exactly that. XD Enjoy!

--

And lo, here I stand, an observer to that most strange and bizarre of rituals conceived by either mortal or kindred-kind...the wedding.

Beckett lounged in his corner, watching the goings-on around him with the air of someone doing his best to stay invisible so he wasn’t asked to hold a centerpiece or tie ribbons to a chair or anything else of that nature. Not that there’s an abundance of frilliness, he noted. You can see Arianna’s touch everywhere, of course, but – well. It still feels like an Anarch wedding. Goodness, Damsel isn’t even wearing a dress! He smirked. Shame – I would have paid good money to see her stuffed into the traditional wretched bridesmaid gown. And even better money to be well outside the blast radius when she finally got out of it. I suppose Arianna and Nines decided it was easier to allow her to wear something more to her own tastes, rather than get an earful. He glanced around the room. Where is Arianna? I mean, obviously getting primped and prepped, but I can’t discern the location of said primping and prepping. I do want to say hello before everything kicks off...

“Hey, Nines! Shouldn’t you be getting into the monkey suit?”

“I will in a sec, I just gotta double-check these seating arrangements. Bianca said Isaac just showed up, and if he ends up anywhere near Strauss...”

“I’d be more concerned about VV – she’s probably going to be making kissy faces in Strauss’s general direction all night.”

“I know, I know, but – that’s just a cross we’re gonna have to bear.”

“Good thing crosses don’t actually work on us!”

“Yeah, yeah, har, har...”

Beckett chuckled. At least the groom is easy to locate, he thought, watching as Nines intercepted an Anarch to fix a centerpiece before repositioning some chairs. If you can keep up with him – insert joke about Brujahs and Celerity here. I suppose he’s doing rather well for himself under the circumstances. Funny that he hasn’t noticed my presence, though. I would have taken him for a bit more perceptive than that. A sly smile curled his lips. I wonder...

Beckett slowly stood up straight, easing himself along the wall so he stayed out of Nine’s immediate line of sight. Then, after a moment’s examination of the hustle and bustle, he started forward, carefully easing his way through the crowd toward his prey. Most of the other Kindred present paid him little mind, too caught up in their various tasks – though one Alice Liddell spotted him and raised an eyebrow. Beckett gave her a nod and a smile before continuing his journey toward the harried Baron (now checking his watch for unknown schedule-related reasons). Closer...closer...and – “I think there have been wars fought with less planning.”

Nines nearly jumped right out of his skin, which was quite gratifying. Even more gratifying was the fact that he didn’t immediately try to punch his lights out. “Beckett! Fucking hell,” he groaned, pressing a hand quite unnecessarily to his chest. “When the fuck did you learn how to move so quietly?”

“Given the amount of fuss that’s going on, an elephant could sneak through this room and no one would be the wiser,” Beckett responded, grinning. “I just thought I’d say hello, offer my congratulations.”

“And somehow give me a heart attack?” Nines replied, giving him a look before shaking his head. “The congrats are appreciated, though. I’m glad you were able to make it – Arianna wouldn’t have liked doing this without you.”

“And who am I not to indulge my adopted childe from time to time?” Beckett asked with a little smile. “Besides, this may be a night of great historical import, if both Anarchs and Camarilla are in attendance here. Or did I mishear when you said ‘Strauss?’”

“You didn’t, though I wish you had,” Nines groaned. “The fucking politics – Arianna can fill you in on more of the details, but the short version is we’re not in a position to tell the Tremere to fuck off, so he gets to watch me get married.” He shook his head. “You and your recorder are gonna have a fun night.”

“You accuse me of wanting to record your wedding?” Beckett gasped, covering his mouth theatrically.

“No, I’m stating a fucking fact and guessing the damn thing is already on.”

“It isn’t, actually – I don’t think we need a record of you yelling about seating arrangements,” Beckett admitted, looking at his pocket. “Later...we’ll see.”

“Yeah, well, just don’t make any snarky notes about our vows or anything.” Nines jerked his thumb toward a door. “Arianna’s that way if you wanna say hello – I gotta go get dressed myself, before Alice physically drags me into the room,” he added, glancing over Beckett’s shoulder.

“I leave you to Miss Liddell’s tender mercies,” Beckett said, moving in the direction Nines had pointed. “However many she has.”

“Asshole. Remember to compliment Arianna’s dress!”

“Noted!” Beckett chuckled as he made for the door. “This will indeed be a night to remember...”

[bullet-pointers]

While you can expect Tumblr-based RPs to have some threading on Tumblr, there are a lot of other places people can thread. All have strengths and weaknesses, so choosing a location for any one thread should be an issue of what works for that thread. Some threads may even need to be moved in the middle of things if events shift unexpectedly. 

Tumblr Threads

What Are They?: Threads that take place as a series of Tumblr posts replying to one another through reblogs.

Pros

One of the best ways to have your threads all organized in one place. You may have to scroll/go through pages, but tagging makes it pretty easy overall to find threads if you need to check something or just want to reread.

If everyone has a blog, you can keep up with everyone’s Tumblr threads if you want. That involves a lot of following, but if you really want to read all that, you have the chance to.

If one mun deletes their muse’s blog, the content will still be available to peruse on the other muse’s blog.

Drafting makes it easier to work on replies at your own pace and save them as you go.

Notifications (when they’re working) are easy to track without being annoying, so it’s easier to keep track of what’s gotten replies and what you need to work on.

Conducive to sprites.

Really the easiest way to have an open available to anyone to start things off.

Cons

As you may have noticed, Tumblr likes to actively make itself worse. Especially with ditching editable reblogs—there’s an easy workaround if you have the right XKit, but good luck on mobile. Without clipping reply chains, the posts get really long really fast.

Not terribly conducive to fast-paced threads.

Half of the pros above don’t apply to three-or-more-person threads. These threads are still doable, but they can get disorderly very easily.

Private threads don’t work here. You also need to worry about trigger tagging a bit more.

Can make muns feel pressured to make/commission sprites or write longer replies.

Chat Threads

What Are They?: Threads taking place over Discord or Skype. They’re typically DMs including only the mods and the muns involved. Some RPs may have separate Discord servers where all muns can enter and hold chat RPs in separate channels.

Pros

Private by default. No one who isn’t directly involved in a thread (and certainly no one outside the RP) will be able to spy on the happenings.

Major spoiler information you don’t want unrelated parties to know (yet) can be posted here without risk. Likewise, if you're worried a thread might dive into sensitive territory, you can have it here without triggering any non-participants.

Generally less pressure to produce long replies. More conducive to one-liners and rapid exchanges.

Probably the easiest way to run threads with more than two muses.

Notifications are usually reliable.

No matter how long the thread gets, it’s all right there in a single link, even if you need to scroll a lot.

Cons

If you want to keep a record of these threads, you’re either going to have a whole lot of old DMs clogging up your chats, or you’ll have to migrate everything elsewhere. Especially beware Skype, which likes to randomly bar access to everything but the last message sent sometimes.

If you do want others to know what’s going on and/or appreciate your excellent prose, you’re also going to have to tell them yourself.

Shorter replies can mean more pressure to reply quickly.

Longer replies can quickly go over the character limit, sometimes requiring several messages to get everything through.

Sprites are inconvenient at best.

If you want to save replies as you go along, you’ll usually have to compose them somewhere else. Discord at least usually saves messages in progress, but you’ll still have to worry about the character limit.

Notifications generally go away once you check a reply, making it harder to be sure what all you still need to reply to. They can also interfere with whatever else you’re doing on the chat site.

Docs Threads

What Are They?: Threads taking place on Google Docs. Generally, one mun writes up a “post,” and some kind of horizontal line or other indicator is inserted before the next mun starts typing.

Pros

Relatively reliable as a site (to be fair, I’m comparing it to Tumblr and Skype here, so that may not mean much in context).

Appropriate for private threads.

More formatting options, if that’s your thing.

Sprites are easier to include than in chat threads. You can reformat/resize them as necessary without needing to alter the original image files like you have to do for Tumblr sometimes.

Cons

If you’re both on the doc, you can watch each other compose replies. This isn’t a con for everyone, but being watched can really make muns nervous. This might also lead to confusion if you type something out and then decide to delete it and take the reply in a new direction.

Sometimes weird stuff happens with permissions and doc access. This especially goes if you want people besides the involved muns to see it.

Google Docs is the most likely place for you to have actual productive stuff mixed in with RPs, so it might not be the best organization-wise (though folders are still a thing).

The entire thing can be edited by anyone with access. This could be a pro, and the track changes feature means you can revert it, but accidental deletions of your or the other mun’s writing are more likely with this format.

Relies on you checking the doc regularly or your thread partner telling you when they’ve responded.

Conclusion

This doesn’t exhaust the list of possible thread locations—there’s still RPNow, other RP sites, forum sites, and for all I know people are using Tumblr Messenger for it these days. But these three have been the most popular in this RP community while I’ve been around, and for good reason. While each thread’s situation is the top consideration, you also need to consider that different muns may be averse to different threading locations. Try to accommodate that when you can, but be prepared to go beyond your own preferences if you want to thread with everyone available. 

Click [here] for a listing of all guides!