#because i was explaining to her how i rp and write sometimes terrible people and how its interesting and even fun to write

[fleurladari-a]

not me having like a 2 hour discussion with my aunt on whether or not horror and writing "evil" things is okay or not .

[orionshounds]

I’ve been knee deep in dsmp lore streams and I just want to ramble about it

Dream smp lore is so good, it’s so good!!! Not only is the story itself just fascinating, but how it’s presented so uniquely through the medium of minecraft of all things is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of the lore is seeing how everyone on the smp has their own “style” they present it in, and watching them find the way they find the most enjoyment in is so cool. Literally no two streamer’s lore stream quite like each others and it’s just incredible! It just speaks to the flexibility of roleplay as an artistic medium and really shows everyone’s individual personalities. 

Wilbur was dramatic as hell and wrote eloquent speeches. He started a drug operation under the guise as a country, and it lead to a revolution in which he was able to explore the spiral of a man who loses control of everything he had built. And after his arc and he wanted a break from the server? He created ghostbur, an amnesic comic relief with just enough touch of tragedy that he is still able to make heartbreaking monologues when he wants to.

Tommy is able to run around with his friends and cause as much chaos to his heart’s extent, but there is so much more than meets the eye. He is incredibly social and isn’t afraid to start conflict with a lot of people, bringing them into the roleplay. He doesn’t back down from storytelling either. His character goes through terrible situations and he fully explores the trauma that comes from those experiences. His character goes against the “stereotypical” trauma I see alot in media; instead of being shy or scared he’s reactionary, he’s angry, he’s violent, he’s depressed. I’m actually really impressed with the heavy subject matter this 17 year old teen has managed to portray (I’ve connected with it quite personally at certain points), while still being able to keep the light hearted fun that’s so intrinsic to his personality. 

Tubbo isn’t really interested in serious lore as much. Even in dire moments he tells jokes and just has fun. So, in his recent lore, he just streams as normal while putting mysterious writing on screen that he doesn’t acknowledge or have to explain, which I think is just a genius work around for him to participate in lore. He still has his dedicated lore streams sometimes, and when he is in the acting zone he has some of the most powerful moments out of everyone on the server.

Ranboo, while having stake in the greater smp lore, is much more character focused. He presents his lore through long monologues and fucking heart-wrenching voice acting. He loves working in themes of horror and causing a specific feeling in the viewer. So he chooses specific music as a themes for events/characters and creates visual queues in his overlays to draw out that desired reaction. He also values improve a LOT, if something unexpected comes up he just runs with it and he has made huge changes to his lore as early as 30 min before a stream.

Technoblade, while arguably one of the most powerful people on the server, prefers a more light-hearted yet dramatic approach to lore. When Dream was at his house looking for Tommy, Techno had no problem joking around and making fun of him for being homeless. He tore down an entire nation on the server and had so much fun doing it! He’s more of an antagonist than a true villain in my opinion. And lets not forget how dedicated he is to the game, he’s cracked at the craft. He spends hours grinding and creating farms on the smp, for amazing pay offs (his several vault reveals, the withers, etc), most of which weren’t even on stream!

Karl Jacobs is extremely social, so he created Tales from the smp as a way to involve TONS of people in lore while exploring the past and future of the server (it was also a way for viewers who weren’t that well versed in dsmp lore to join and not have to worry about it!). And through this premise, he took the opportunity to develop his own character on the smp; making an incredibly tragic story of a time traveler trying to save his home while slowly loosing his memories. Not to mention the beautifully shot cutscenes of the Inbetween and the Other Side. He includes so many people behind the scenes as well, collabing with other members on lore, hiring building teams and people to make intros and credit scenes, and promoting fanart and fansongs from the community!

Quackity explores his lore through heavily scripted events and amazingly shot cut scenes. While the way he expresses his lore comes at the cost of improv, the payoff of the visuals and story is well worth it! The shots he makes of the smp is downright gorgeous, no to mention he’s the first person to include irl footage in his lore (not counting facecams)! He’s not afraid of thoroughly examining his own character, being one of the only people I can think of that shows us “past events” leading up to something that has already happened.

Badboyhalo, Antfrost, Ponk, Skeppy, Captain Puffy, Punz, Awesamdude, Hannahxxrose all work together on shared lore and the payoff is amazing! By introducing the Egg, a constant antagonistic force that constantly pulls on character’s relationships with each other, everyone is able to stream together to battle for or against the egg! There’s also plenty of room for people to do individual lore that's more intimate to their respective character. They spend hours changing vines, putting up posters, slowly shaping the smp in a way that makes it exciting to watch streams to see just what has changed everyday. Because there’s so many people necessary to tell the egg’s story, it does comes at the cost of time (the egg has been around FOREVER). However, they all work together super hard and I just admire their commitment to the story they’re trying to tell!

And Sam! He has several different “Modes” his character is in (and an entirely separate character, Sam Nook) that he gets to explore lore with. He’s a terrifying warden, he’s a money motivated businessman, he’s a conflicted lover, he’s a traumatized victim of the egg, and just so much more. Through having so many different “roles” in the rp he gets to explore relationships and plotlines with a whole array of people. Not to mention he’s absolutely cracked at redstone and has some of the most impressive builds on the server.

And Puffy! So much of her lore is calling into question the morality of the server and really makes you step back and think critically about the characters. Her character also has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting relationships with Dream, the main antagonist of the entire server, which is just fascinating to watch unfold. Not to mention she’s one of the first people to start exploring the backstory of her character!

George doesn’t exactly do lore. In fact he’s slept through so much of it it’s become a meme. And you know what? That mad man took that and ran with it. He explains his absence in the story by having his character literally being asleep through it, creating mystery where there used to just be an absence. He’s able to goof off with his friends and have borderline nonsensical streams, then at the end sucker punch the audience emotionally by “waking up” and have the viewers question just what was real and what wasn’t?

The smp has the freedom for people who want more independent lore to be able to explore their character’s that way as well!

Hbomb, Connereatspants, and Purpled don’t have a lot of lore on the smp, generally only coming on to have fun with everyone, but when they do have their moments it unfolds in very interesting ways!

Sapnap, Eret, and Schlatt maybe aren’t as active as some other people, but when they are on they actively participate in lore and have lasting impacts on the story (Ex: Eret’s betrayal, Sapnap’s visit to dream in the prison, Schlatt becoming president).

Philza mostly does his own thing, improving the server or making some bomb ass builds. He has incredibly devastating roles in lore (killing wilbur, blowing up L’manberg for the final time, starting the syndicate with Techno), but he also has quieter moments that speak to the depth his character has, such as fishing with fundy or reminiscing about his dead son and how it went so wrong. Like Techno, he doesn’t like to take lore completely seriously, often laughing no matter what’s happening or teasing chat after something big goes down, but his character is solid with a lot of potential for future lore.

Foolish has only started on his character and its already super interesting. The hints at his dark past as a “god of death” and his current conflict with the egg are intriguing as fuck. Not to mention the MASSIVE builds he does for everyone, helping to progress their lore as well.

Fundy has a lot of freedom with his character to participate however much he wants in lore. While generally he’s a trickster who loves to prank people he has enough tragedy build into his backstory he’s able to break the viewer’s heart with a flip of a switch. Not to mention his recent, almost surreal, stream that explored his character’s disturbing dreams that may or may not predict the future.

Niki is very character driven, exploring her character's grief of losing her best friend and her anger of being ignored in the very country she helped create. She has incredibly emotional moments, and even though she’s on her own building an underground city she still participates in other lore via teaming with jack manifold or the syndicate.

Jack Manifold’s lore is VERY character focused, and while he’s described his story as a “B plot that occasionally intersects with the main plot”, the story he tells is still fascinating. Being pushed aside not taken seriously his whole life, his character develops into a fun cartoony-esque villain who begs to be taken seriously, that has the depth of a truly conflicted person who is torn between wanting revenge on everyone who’s done him wrong and just wanting a friend.

Last but not least, the man himself, Dream. The most fascinating thing about his lore is that absolutely none of it is from his pov. All we know about his character is only from what we see from everyone else’s povs, and in his case it leads to a very intimidating villain! Not to mention, mans owns the damn server and yet has made himself the main antagonist! He is the only character I consider a “true villain” on the smp. His voice acting and writing is downright sinister. I could write a fucking essay on how his character’s obsession with power has led him to the point he thinks himself an unstoppable god

Everyone on this server is stunning and I love all of them!!!!!

[autumnslance]

I've got a writing question that's been on my mind for a while: how do you keep your OCs from becoming self inserts? Every time I think of developing an OC I realize that it's attributes that I

Oops, you got cut off! But in general: all your OCs are going to have traits of yours; it’s inevitable. Sometimes big things, sometimes small things. It’s how we relate to them, and also just natural, I promise. We write what we know, and we know how we interact with ourselves and the world.

But there is a difference between sharing some traits with a character and making them a self-insert. It’s letting their life, their community and culture, their experiences, also influence their traits and thinking, in ways that might be different from how you would respond in a similar situation. Even if you share those attributes.

This is me so let’s go behind a cut shall we?

Dark Autumn is as introverted and solitary by nature as I am; she can and does interact in professional and friendly ways with people (as I try to do), but needs alone time to recharge. However, Dark also has a very different outlook and relationship with her family than I, since her family is large and supportive, very close knit. If family is a lottery, I got the $50 scratch off prize while she hit the Mega-Millions. So I take that into account when thinking of her relationships not just with family, but with friends and potential romantic interests; Dark sees things through a lens of positive, low-drama familial relationships that I can barely fathom. This also means she has a support network and resources myself and other characters don’t, so gets some wish fulfillment of working through issues with care and grace instead of remaining in unhealthy places. She is my “comfort OC” so gets a lot of good things I wish I had—which shapes how she responds to others, like taking care of a FCmate and becoming something of a big sister figure for him, or the responsible older sister figure of my group of OCs. Which is me, really, idealizing my own older sister tendencies into this giant woman who’s better at it.

Aeryn was written to be on the ace scale; not my first character to be so, but the first written that way as I began to realize where my own orientations lie and wanting to examine that through fiction. That she fell for a certain rogue in the process of playing through MSQ again was not at all intentional. I like Thancred as a character—he hits a lot of tropes I enjoy—but in my own mindset, he’s a frustrating younger brother. I didn’t think I’d do NPC x WoL shipping. But there it is, because in determining Aeryn’s own experiences and how those shaped her, it ended up working out that way (and I spent the better part of 2 years writing the characters separately to figure that out and if it could work before writing them together because it’s not something that comes naturally to me).

Aeryn’s internal anger is something I have a difficult time with; it’s outside my own nature to carry things like that. I have my angers, certainly, but they are different from hers. I tend to need a lot to set me off and then it burns out hot and quick. Aeryn’s more of a long boil she keeps bottled up. I’ve gotten a few things through various fics, I think, but it’s why I do things like reference arguments but rarely depict them. Being non-confrontational myself (I’m meek and have hangups thanks to my own life) it’s a challenge. Aeryn responded to childhood traumas (that I never dealt with), bullying (that I did), losses (that I haven’t yet), and the responsibility she’s been given (thank goodness I don’t) far differently than I. Maybe I’d be more volatile, too, if I had her life. But I understand where her anger comes from sharing some of the reasons, I just shape it differently than my own.

There’s a lot of things about Dark and Aeryn that are accidentally similar, just due to the timing of their character generation and other RP OCs made for other games along the way; “Oh I haven’t done X or Y in a character in awhile” sort of thing, but how each approaches those similarities and why—their quietness, their issues with using magic, their tendency to “adopt” others as family—all come from different places and resolve differently, too.

C’oretta comes from a part of me that doesn’t quite want to grow up. That wishes I had been more of the peppy, active, cheerful, risk-taking, live it up stereotypical party kid, that “popular girl” archetype I felt so often on the outside looking in about. As my second character, I wanted her to be different from Dark Autumn—visually, emotionally, mentally. Where Dark is steady, C’oretta is flighty. While Dark is people oriented, C’oretta’s a bit selfish (like I often feel). Dark’s introverted, C’oretta’s extroverted. Much of C’oretta’s attitude is a deflection against the hurts in her life, a way to fight back against some terrible things. It’s a way I could never react. But I also can’t get away from a character who loves to learn and wants to try new things—but where other characters gain the ability to stick with and see them through, C’oretta gets my easy frustration and boredom, and then the “ooh shiny” of a new interest. There’s a history of ADHD (or whatever the acronyms are now) and even autism and learning issues in my family; it’s possible I have some undiagnosed ND stuff going on, and people have noted these things in C’oretta that I’ve based on my own experiences and those of people very close to me.

Many of my characters have traits I wish I had, or were better at; patience, kindness, consideration, convictions, courage, thoughtfulness, and so on and etc. They’re good at skills I haven’t the knowledge in, or the ability to do. They’re certainly more active than I am, or could be! Because I can take the time to think and plan and research and write those things out better, and just maybe along the way not only learn something myself, but try to practice it better myself. I can even sometimes let them teach me what I can possibly do or be, not just imagine it as an ideal that’s out of reach.

I try to let my characters make mistakes I wouldn’t—or in some cases, have in my past, and that’s OK. Especially if I learned from them, but maybe the character does not. Maybe they do but it takes awhile, or repeated instances until it sinks in. Maybe I let them make errors I still make, as a way to puzzle out better solutions I should probably entertain for myself.

Character voice is something I’ve felt I struggled with in keeping my OCs distinct. Do characters ‘sound’ alike, in dialogue and prose? Having distinct ways of speaking helps; C’oretta’s breathless chatty run-ons are certainly different from Dark and Aeryn’s quieter tendencies. I have to remember to trim down Aeryn’s dialogue more often, say less aloud, add more gestures and facial expressions. I tend to be a talker, an over-explainer (if you can’t tell), while the only times she gets like that are specific. Dark’s somewhere in the middle of those two, like I am. A lot of the reason I like writing NPCs and try to keep them close to my interpretation of canon is to practice distinct character voice to get better at it in my OCs, so they don’t sound like me!

And something I’ve never admitted to before is that I think for me, it helps that from the time I was a kid watching various series of Star Trek, I always have had an in-my-own-head-only self-insert. She’s always a support character (that’s what I’m best at). She has cool and unusual abilities to help the actual heroes, cuz heck it’s my internal fantasy and that’s fun. She has traits I want to be better at or wish I had, developed over time with more energy and focus than I can actually muster in reality. As time’s gone on, she’s become more of a mentor and Mom Friend as I’m now older and see a lot of protagonist characters as “my kids” now. She appears in nearly every story I’ve loved over time, in one iteration or another. And because I have a headspace character where I can say “this is what I, ideally, would say and do and be capable of in this situation…” My other characters that I actually write about can vary between doing something similar (if it suits them) to doing something completely different (cuz darn kids never listen) as I can compare them to the self-insert and decide where to diverge.

So it’s a mix of myself and my traits and knowledge, but taking into account how each character would respond and use those same attributes differently than I do or would. Write what you know, write who you are—and then add in some wish fulfillment, some what ifs, some bad choices, some good choices, and shake things up. Give the characters tics and tricks different from yourself and let that shape them, too, by remembering to take those things into account (even if you have to tape a note to your monitor).

And finally, don’t be ashamed of your self-inserts; I’ve known some great characters that started as self-inserts and grew, through their experiences, into wholly different people than their writers over time. Heck, the epic romance my original WoW priest was part of was with a character that started as a self-insert; his player began the game knowing nothing of the lore or roleplaying, but as he learned the story and how to RP, and determined how his character fit into the world and how that shaped him, the character diverged over time, while still sharing some key traits (some endearing, some frustrating, as people are and all part of that friend). It’s not a bad starting point at all. The rest can come over time and practice, especially if you make a lot of OCs and try to make them different from each other while also being aspects of yourself.

[colour-outside-the-liness]

Hii! Yeah don't worry about it! Live your life, the internet people can wait, I know I appreciate you taking the time to reply, no matter how long it takes! 👍✨

Oh cool! France and LA that must've been fun, have always wanted to go to those places. Will get around to it eventually. I've lived in Brazil, Canada, and now Portugal, but I've also visited Orlando (Disneyland) and Miami in the US. Hoping I can go to Spain next year to visit my best friend too.

What did you say that got people making fun of you? haha Which fic did you insert that in? The only reason I cheat while playing games is bc I get bored easily so I have to add a little bit of spice hahaha and my morals are questionable I guess. 🤷‍♀️ My mbti is the architect (INTJ-T) so I guess that explains things a bit (?). Do you know your mbti? Omg your poor roommate hahaha I mean that's the best kind of winner to be, humble winners are boring as hell lol

Aren't you glad you had those drunken experiences when you were younger instead of now tho? I can't promise I'll never do stuff like that again but I'm fine with it being behind me for now hahaha. Omg you're totally right on the accent thing, hadn't thought about it that way!

What!! You should watch Stranger Things with her! It's sooo good, it's a guaranteed fun time for you two. My favourite episodes of thobm are 4 and 6 too, I like epi 9 only up until Dani's bathtub incident.

I like doing accents too but only to myself bc I'm too self-conscious haha Although I pick up accents really easily it's kinda embarrassing, sometimes people think I'm mocking them. Do people get offended when you try to do their accents? 😂 I got a scholarship at a british english school in my home country when I was a kid so I had an RP accent growing up but ended up with a generic American accent after watching too many American movies and TV shows. Sometimes it comes out generic Canadian too haha. Nordern English accent became my favourite tho after watching Billy Elliott when I was a teen!

Awwh gee thanks! I'm happy you liked my damie fan art! Didn't know you already started writing for medieval AU, makes sense people already thought to send you prompts for it, it's a really cool universe! Looking forward to updates on all your WIPS, love them all! Take your time if you need tho!

Sounds like a really fun weekend! Yeah I know what you mean, don't worry we won't tell them you have a favourite haha. Congrats on coming second on that game of crazy golf! 🎉 and thank you, I will!

Awwh thank you for understanding!! I'll always reply to people's comments eventually it just takes longer sometimes, but I will always get around to it eventually!! France was fun I went to Disney Land Paris and shared a hotel room with my roommate (yes she was on the trip too because she was in another photography class... we have been friends for so long now) it was honestly a lot of fun and I went to LA to visit my ex-girlfriend while we were still together it was a long distance relationship and I went out to LA and my roommate was invited too so we had a trip out there and had a great time I would 100% go back to LA some time!! So jealous that you've lived in Canada that's one place I really wanna go I would love to live there it looks like such a beautiful country!! I would love to go to Orlando and Miami... I wanna see all 50 states eventually if I can... so far I've seen one so only 49 to go haha!! Awwh I really hope you can get out to Spain to see your best friend!! Which is your favourite place you have visited so far? Okay so... the thing I said is in Can't Buy Me Love and it's a bit of a long story so I'll shorten it down here, but basically a group of us were talking about myths and things and I mentioned the myth of being able to see the Great Wall of china from the moon (you can't) and to add to the myth as a buster I genuinely said "Well that's the thing, people say you can see the Great Wall of China from the moon... but can you see the moon from the Great Wall of China?" and it took a good five minutes of people telling me you could see it from my house and just about anywhere else to realise that, if the moon is out, and it's a clear night, and you're y'know facing the moon... you can pretty much see it anywhere... but that's what people still mock me about... that I asked if you can see the moon from the Great Wall of China... so I put that in CBML and had it as a story Dani tells Jamie. Haha I love your reason for cheating and think it's as good as a reason as any haha!! I do know my mbti... mine is the campaigner...EFNP-T... I don't know what these mean either I read it a while ago but forgot what it meant I just know what I am haha... oh yeah she's had a lot to put up with so she just won't play games with me anymore... oh yeah I agree humble winners are okay but I do like a good bit of bragging when you win a game I am glad yeah... although the road sign incident was only... 3 years ago haha like I would like to say I was a lot younger then but I wasn't haha the black out incident I was though... I can't drink much anymore though because of medication I'm on (life long medication) so I can have maybe one or two drinks and that's it so I can't do things like that again which is probably a good thing really!! Haha best way to be don't make promises like that because that is a sure fire way to definitely do it again the second you make that promise the opportunity to do it again will show itself haha!! Yeah Jamie just has no accent to me like she just talks like most people I know it's only when I saw people talking about it that I realised to some people the Northern accent is exactly that... an accent haha I LOVE episode 9 for me 4,6, and 8 are a joint favourite like I can't pick between them and then it's episode 9 because I do love it and I love seeing them be that happy for the first part of the episode but then it just gets so sad and I can't take it!! I do accents all the time around anyone even though I am terrible at them haha... nah people don't ever get offended they just sort of smile and shake their heads at me... some people have asked me to do their accent before but I mean, I am sure eventually someone will be offended there's a first time for everything... I just have an accent that's really similar to Jamie's it's not the exact same but it's very close I love that you've had so many accents for so many reasons... omg yeah the accent on Billy Elliot is my favourite accent ever, it is a northern accent but it's from a city called New Castle which is SO different to some

other northern accents... it's the Geordie accent and it's just beautiful I could honestly listen to people from New Castle talk for hours- people from South Shields also sound like that (SS is really close to New Castle) I can see why that accent is your favourite I wish I talked like that I loved that fan art I thought it was amazing!! Yeah I haven't written much of it but I have some of it written and when I say some I mean I have like 4 different scenes written from different points of the fic and each scene is only like 1k words so far!! It's such a cool universe and I am so happy people have sent me prompts for it!! Awwh thank you so much I'm glad you're looking forward to the updates of my WIPs that really means a lot to me!! I've had a great weekend but I am so tired now totally and utterly done after the weekend I've had haha... I wouldn't say I have favourites I have just spent more time with one niece than the other because since she was really young I've looked after her while her parents have been at work and I've had breaks from work / college / university so I have spent so much time with her and she's turning into a little mini me with some stuff she does but I love all my nieces and nephews the same (and I have so many nieces and nephews haha) Awwh thank you!! I appreciate that, still feeling really proud of my second place in crazy golf haha!! and you're welcome!! ☺️

[inexhaustiblywild]

Hello folks!

So, in the grand tradition of my people, I am here to celebrate the people that made my life infinitely better, colourful, and all the more happier.

I am not doing this in any particular order, I just want to celebrate all my friends here and say a few heartfelt words and let you guys know while the year was less than appreciative to all of us, I think you guys were some of the best parts of it.

@codenamepinetree: so according to this you were the first person to follow this blog when I made the move and honestly that move was a great idea. I was super shy about it at first but I think we have grown into a pretty comfortable (at least in writing) relationship. Sadly I am still a bit of an awkward bean on the chat but that’s Cricket for you. I love Jackal, he’s so infuriating to Ernessa and you gave us a story of corruption, twisted love, and you let me explore her years in the military which I almost never get to do.

Outside of our threads you are a great friend and I know I can call on you with any crazy plot ideas I may stumble on my way through the day. I see such great potential in our crazies and our muses. Hope this new year will bring out the best for you!!!

@ericbrandonrp: you are actually my oldest mutual here, staying with me for over three blog changes so far and I feel like I owe you a lot for making me feel welcomed in this community of OC’s and you gave Ernessa and I a great story of love and betrayal. I know our activity has a bit dwindled and that’s mostly my fault. I shall remedy that as soon as I can. Tho regardless of activity I consider you a great friend.

as for Eric I love him, he is such an awkward fellow with very good intentions towards his loved ones. I love his enthusiasm, how he embraces new things and experiences. I wish Ernessa was kinder to him but heartbreaks do make great stories I suppose.

@seesgood: just like your url you see the good in everyone and I think many would agree with me when I say you are one of the pillars of this community, you spread positivity, joy, and love to us all even when we feel down. I see you rally for people, and I cried to you myself several times about how this community made me feel at times. It is because of you that I still have this blog, because of you that I didn’t pack my shit and moved on. Both of us love you so much. If you ever need anything call me.

I don’t know how to explain Caroline without letting Ernessa take control cause as far as she is concerned Caroline is her everything. She is warmth on a cold day as she’d put it. I think Ernessa loves her selflessness so much, her desire to be loved, her insecurities and vulnerabilities which Ernessa will protect or fight with her life. She is the kind of a woman someone should write sonnets about and you made me a stan for life. Both for you and for Caroline. We love you!

@quiisquiliae: hello friendo, the year is almost over and I send you and my lil dude all the love! In my heart you will always have a special place for being the person who introduced me to the glory that is dragon age and since then I have played that dumb game three times and loved every moment of it. Sadly, we didn’t get a lot of threads out this year, such is life, but I enjoy our every chat and the stupid banter our muses get up to. You and your crazy trash boys are a must in this community.

I don’t know which one of your boys I should shout out for because they are all garbage and I love them. (It’s in the name people!) Writing with you is some of the most fun I had, and I think I will give this spot to Tal because in the end his enthusiasm about stabbing people is what this holiday is all about. Tal is a mess, a hot mess but a mess. A hero that someone should have probably left home, but he’s now stuck with it. He is fun, he is stabby, and he has colourful ideas on how to hurt people. 10/10 would recommend.

@anditsxsorrows: I think you were the most surprising friend of the year. When I moved blogs I didn’t think you’d have any interest in me. Idk why but I’ve always been a bit shy around you and didn’t think you’d have much for lil ol’ me but boy was I wrong. You are a welcoming, open minded, and over all such a lovely person. Each time we write you kill me with how good it is. I wait for it and the anticipation of it is great but the BAM the real thing knocks me out every single time. You are quickly becoming one of my go-tos in terms of plotting and other shenanigans.

Klaus is exactly like what Ernessa is. They are from the same soul or star, or idk. I am not as good as them in terms of poetry and talking nice. But they are certainly something. Klaus’ love of art and the immediate acceptance he showed to Ernessa is something neither of is will forget. She is so in love dude, like it’s such a terrible idea to get them together because imagine the death toll alone but I love them. I love Klaus and how pretentious he is sometimes, and how he shows great kindness to Ernessa. Klaus is not a good person by any stretch of imagination, but he is an amazing friend and a lover (at least to her and that’s all that matters.).

@fvk-destiny: I have been thinking and this year certainly wouldn’t have been as good without you or Lambert. I am still getting to know you but what I see is something I admire. You have been a wonderful friend to me so far and I see you interact with others and that only cements my good opinion of you. I am looking forward to knowing you more outside of rp. You certainly have been one of the highlights of this year.

Lambert is one of my favourite muses to write with because honestly, I can see him as I read it. I am an avid fan of the third game, and I loved him ever since he decided to go on a homicidal rampage for his fallen friend. We stan Lambert in this house. Then as the story progressed, I loved him more. Then you took all these things I loved about him and made it into something much more compelling, and deep, and you gave him the story he deserves. I read him and all I want to do is give him a hug. Also I command him for letting a random woman off the street to just barge into his business and start ordering him about. I can’t wait to see what else we can create with him! To many more years of story telling and friendships!

@mxuntainlion: so, I found you through Lambert and what I find it has been! You took a little-known character and run with him. That requires imagination, dedication, and a lot of love. I always admire people who can take characters like Aiden and make them whole. You gave him an incredible story, and I love that me and my girl get to be a part of that story in some little way. Talking to you off rp has also been a delight, though I worry sometimes about these things I am really happy to gather my courage and now I consider you a friend. This year has been shit for so many reasons, but you and Aiden made it a little less horrible.

In terms of story in canon we don’t know much about Aiden but then here you are giving him this amazing and heart-breaking love story, make him this sassy, snarky and confident character. I know that next time I play the game that mission is gonna be so much more emotional because you made Aiden a real person. Ernessa is imprinted on him like a little duckling, she needs a big brother, she needs someone that she can prank her favourite cousin with. Idk she seems to adore him, and they make a very lovely adventuring company. I can’t wait to see their stories develop.

@humilemvatis: I remember feeling a bit hesitant to approach you because I am a potato but then you were so easy to talk to! I think I’ve been bugging you ever since. You took a unique approach to Jaskier and while you kept all the things that made us love him, you gave us even more reasons to love him! I think you are a very talented story teller and I am sure your bard would side with me on this. I followed you at the start of December and within that time you have been an amazing friend and source of inspiration.

Jaskier, I sincerely apologise for everything Ernessa says and does and will say and do. Their thread is still in it’s stages of infancy, but I can tell it has the potential to go some unexpected places. I love this Jaskier you have, his immortality, his inability to see his own worth and value at times. He needs a good soup as my grandma would say. I love him so much already and Ernessa’s appreciation of him is genuine tho she admits she judged him too quickly at first glance. She’ll remedy that soon!!!

[dumb-hat]

Prompt #08: “Clamor” - FFXIV Write 2020

The problem wasn’t that Evander couldn’t still. Actually, if anything, usually the problem was that he couldn’t stop sitting still. Whatever it was that just made people get up and do things, Evander didn’t have it. Other people could just decide to do something, like clean or run errands, but for Evander, it often felt like some terrible inertia just kept him rooted—if he felt anything at all. Hell, it could even be something he wanted to do, something he’d been looking forward to for days, but switching gears to take on the new task wasn’t just daunting. It felt impossible. He could think, he could talk to himself, he could mentally scream and shout about all the things he had to do until his head was just a tangled cacophony of misdirected motivation and undirected frustration, but sometimes, he just couldn’t do.

And then other times, something would grab him and just wouldn’t let go. He’d be lost, elbow-deep in the guts of some machine he bought from some shady goblin, for hours. Sometimes it felt like he wasn’t in control, like instead some wild and untamed spirit was forcing him to do something, endlessly and unthinking. Usually though, it just felt satisfying, and to be honest, things rarely felt satisfying. When he was like this, all neurons and pistons firing all at once on something that he often didn’t choose to focus on, when he was most active, was when he strangely felt most at rest.

It didn’t help that people could easily notice these two sides to him—inertia and locomotion, silence and clamor—but couldn’t reconcile them. “Just do the thing. It’s not that hard. Once it’s done, you can do whatever you want. Organize your screw collection later.” After all, deciding to do something was the easiest thing, right? It’s how you do literally everything: you realize something needs to be done, you decide to do it, you do it, it’s done.

So, really, sitting still wasn’t the problem. 

So, why was being locked up in a dungeon that bad? All he had to do was sit here and lose himself in whatever interesting minutiae he could find. How many bricks lined the walls of his cell? How many bars were on the grate above him? Could he recall the plot of the last novel he had read? Did he know how printing worked? What about bookbinding? He knew some people got into restoring old books, and that sounded interesting. Could he figure out how to do that right now, without any research? He could guess, and then maybe later he would be surprised to see how close or how far off he was from the actual process. Speaking of books, he was going to need to get a book on crab care. He had no idea how to take care of a crab! Did he need a tank or a cage? Should St. Barnabus free-roam? Or maybe he cou—

His mind ran like an engine attached to nothing. 

How long had he even been here? Realistically, it could have only been a few hours. It was early afternoon when he was attacked and “arrested,” and it was… sometime now. Night. Late night. How long had he been out? It couldn’t have been days, could it? That wouldn’t make sense. And besides, if it had been days, that wouldn’t count because he had only been conscious for a few hours. So, really, the mental anguish of solitary confinement and imprisonment only counted… for a few hours.

Great. Fuck. 

Time was another problem. Sometimes it felt like he existed outside of it. Whether he was idling mindlessly, at the mercy of directionless mental free-association, or in the grips of some unstoppable hyperfocus, it was nothing for him to lose hours of his day. If someone asked him how long something was going to take, his estimates could vary wildly. If it was something he had done, or something like something else he had done, something he had context for, his estimates would be pretty reliable—if he could stay engaged and on-task. Any distraction would throw things way off course. If it was something new and novel, even the best estimate was a crapshoot. It could take weeks or it could take minutes. How was he to know?

So how long had he been here? Weeks or minutes? He had no clue. He cou—

Something split the silence. Something like a distant rustling of keys, then the turning of a knob and the creaking of an opening door, several pairs of shuffling footsteps, and then finally, a voice.

“Lieutenant, release this man at once!” 

Evander stared at St. Barnabus for one long, suspenseful second as the raspy basso explained that one of the prisoner being held in this cell—Evander pointed to himself, mouthing the words “It’s me!” to St. Barnabus excitedly—was actually an undercover officer of some import who had been imprisoned by mistake. Another voice apologized effusively, only to be cut off so that the basso could utter another set of orders, this time to a third individual, who responded with a bored, affirmative, but there’s something about the footsteps that don’t quite match the performative listlessness behind the voice. 

The next thing he heard was the tremendous groan of the grate above him being opened, followed by the clattering of a chain ladder down the wall of the cell. Within moments, standing before him was a familiar sight: a beautiful heart-shaped face, pale as the moon, framed in hair black as the night that it calls home. The immaculately tailored Yellowjackets uniform she was wearing was a surprise, though. She flashed him a lazy half-smile and the most casual of nods Evander had ever seen. “Hey.”

He tried to match her composure and failed miserably. Something had grabbed him, and it wouldn’t let go.

<<Previous Prompt |Master Post| Next Prompt>>

((I’d be remiss if I didn’t tag my partners in crime here: @luck-and-larceny, @argentrenard and @kestrelvylbrand. This RP continues to be a blast!))

[olivia-lovecraft]

Who We Once Were

Take a trip down memory lane, pull up the oldest ‘about’ post you can find for your character, and annotate what has changed and what has stayed the same in {Curly brackets}.

Originally posted: November 11th, 2017

Olivia came to Tumblr in August of 2017, but I was too new to know that people liked character sheets.

Olivia Lovecraft, Lover of the Unloved

~Appearance~

Gender: Female {Same}

Race: Human {Same}

Height: 5’6” (5’3” without shoes) {She some how shrunk one inch. I write her as 5′2″ these days. Not sure why, lol}

Eye Color: Green Hazel {Her eyes are just described as green because I found that people saw her that way even when I wrote “green hazel.” I am cool with it.}

Hair Color: Dark Chestnut {Same, though many people will call her hair black. I roll with it since I know Eva Green has black hair in several roles she plays.}

~ The Facts ~

Name Day: January 4th {Same}

Occupation: Seamstress / Designer and Scribe {Same, though her role as a civilian contractor to the military has come up a bit as well.}

Sexual Identification: Heterosexual {Same}

Romantic Identification: Monogamous {Same. This is simply how she identifies romantically, with no additional qualifiers, despite having been in a poly relationship.}

Relationship Status: Single (and hard to love) {She is arguably still hard to love, but she is now in a happy, long-term relationship with @carlkrogen​}

Alignment: Wicked Good {Oh...oh no. I thought I was clever, but Olivia is Neutral Evil, to be certain.}

Criminal History: No history of crimes committed, but she has a record of sorts. During the Burning Crusade, she voluntarily registered as a Warlock with Stormwind City. This comes up whenever someone looks for a criminal history, despite her innocence. {She still hasn’t been caught being shady or terrible, so no record.}

~ Favorites ~

Favorite Food: Rare Roasted Venison {Same}

Favorite Drink: Wine {Specifically sweet Dalaran Red.}

Favorite Animal: Spider {Same}

Favorite Scent: Lily of the Valley {Same.}

Favorite people: Sylaera, Quinaeris, and Zelmaris. {This has evolved, but not because she loves these people less. Since these characters don’t show up in her life anymore, she has new favorites. Carl [ @carlkrogen​ ] Dragaur [ @silentasagrave​ ] Darthea [ @darthea-the-demon​ ] Lorcan and Alle [ @lorcanbeithioch​ and @allebeithloch​ ] Alice [ @alas-ward​ ] and Quin [ @subjectragnar​ ] are easily her favorite people today.}

~ Randoms ~

Ten facts about Olivia Lovecraft:

1.     She has protection wards inscribed upon the tops of her feet. These intricate designs are made from an ink similar to henna dye, but give off a faint abjuration aura through her shoes. {Same.}

2.     Beneath her make-up, Olivia has freckles, and she secretly loves them. {Same.}

3.     With the leftover scraps of fabric from her clothing projects, Olivia makes dress-up clothes and outfits for dolls, and donates them to the Stormwind Orphanage. {Same.}

4.     By her appearance, it is assumed she is in her early 30’s, but Olivia has yet to tell anyone in Stormwind her exact age. {Same, though she does look just a little bit older.}

5.     While her education was social-centric, Olivia picked up a few skills which weren’t commonly appropriate for a young woman of the landed gentry. Her chaperone, and cousin, Kaliban Silentsun, taught her to shoot a rifle and fight with a saber. Although she never purchased a rifle of her own, she keeps, and occasionally carries, her cousin’s saber. { This one made me sad! Early in her story, when I had her just doing random rp in Stormwind, someone stole the saber from her. That person stopped playing the character before we could run the storyline for Olivia to get it back, so I have always assumed she simply lost the weapon forever and now I am sad for her. }

6.     Having never learned to swim, Olivia is hesitant to participate in voyages across the ocean. {Olivia learned to swim late last summer. She is not a strong swimmer, but she can at least swim enough to avoid drowning.}

7.     Olivia is a self-proclaimed lover of unloved things. She is drawn to people who are loners, collects chipped teacups, and considers spiders to be her favorite animal. {Same.}

8.     In all the years she has lived in Stormwind City, she has been mugged on six separate occasions. During these robberies, she has given up her gold and jewelry without a fight, even if she may have had the upper hand. To her, this stands as a testament of dedication to leading a normal life. {This number has surely increased, but I stopped keeping track. No shade, but a few guys have tried to rob her as a pick up line.}

9.     Olivia’s modest occupation as a seamstress is one borne out of necessity. She covets the finer things in life, but no longer has the means to afford the finished products from other designers. The raw materials, on the other hand, are not so expensive. {This is still true, but Olivia’s income has increased thanks to some IC connections she has made.}

10.  Olivia’s Duskwood home stands as the setting for numerous ghost stories. Accounts of young men and women sneaking into the empty home for romantic adventures often end with harrowing tales of escape from a siren-like spirit haunting the estate. Olivia is amused by these claims and makes no attempt to explain them. {Olivia’s Duskwood home burned down in a storyline in 2018.}

~Five Things~

Things she likes:

1.     Cool, sunny days {Same.}

2.     Tragic romances {Same.}

3.     Philosophical conversations {Same.}

4.     People watching {Same.}

5.     Unloved things {Same.}

Things she dislikes:

1.     Violence {Same.}

2.     Prolonged silence {Same.}

3.     Wide open wilderness {Same.}

4.     Uneven cobbles {Same.}

5.     Corsets {Same.}

Good habits:

1.     Punctual {Same.}

2.     Clean (Personal hygiene, anyway) {Same, and her housekeeping has also improved!}

3.     Attentive {Same.}

4.     Exercises daily (though you would be hard-pressed to catch her at it.) {Same.}

5.     Makes a wish at every fountain she passes. {Same.}

Bad Habits:

1.     Messy / Disorganized (She is one of THOSE people. One who doesn’t tidy up after herself but still seems to know where things are.) {This has changed significantly. She keeps a tidier home but still hates dusting.}

2.     Sarcasm / Dark Humor {Same.}

3.     Drinks (sometimes heavily) {Same. Although she has cut back, her habit is still heavier than healthy.}

4.     Occasionally summons demons (never in the city) {Same.}

5.     Really likes sweets {Same.}

Personalities she gravitates toward:

1.     Brooding {Same.}

2.     Dangerous {Same.}

3.     Mysterious {Same.}

4.     Masculine {Same.}

5.     Talkative {Same.}

Personality types she avoids:

1.     Aggressively Insecure {Same.}

2.     Misogynistic {Same.}

3.     Senselessly Evil {Same.}

4.     Senselessly Lawful {Same.}

5.     Overly Gullible {Same.}

Fears:

1.     Losing her eyesight {Same.}

2.     Succumbing to her demons (figuratively) {Same.}

3.     Dying {Same.}

4.     Spending her entire life alone {Same, though it is less of a fear now that she has Carl in her life.}

5.     Her cousin Diana {This is no longer a fear since Diana has approached Duchess Beithloch and she promises to pose no threat to the “silly girl.”}

This was really fun! Thank you for the tag @alyssa-ward​!

Tagging: Anyone who was tagged above as one of Olivia’s favorite people, but also anyone who wants to do this thing.

[unelectedofficial]

my muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless

is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK

were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO

were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG

are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO / IDK

how’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL 

how strictly do you follow canon?

i  think  that  i  follow  it  pretty  well  ,  but  there’s  a  lot  of  gaps  that  i  have  to  fill  seeing  as  wicked’s  timeline  (  especially  from  act  i  to  act  ii  )  can  be  a  bit  unclear  at  times  .  also  ,  it’s  important  to  note  that  actresses  who  play  nessa  truly  do  put  huge  variations  on  the  role  that  affect  her  core  values  and  how  she  would  react  to  things  ,  so  that’s  important  to  take  note  of  .  while  the  lines  are  set  in  stone  ,  the  intention  and  intonation  of  how  such  lines  are  delivered  are  not  ,  which  it  part  of  what  makes  theatre  cool  --  but  also  blurs  the  lines  of  what’s  considered  to  be  “canon”  ,  especially  with  a  show  that’s  nearly  seventeen  years  old  .

SELL YOUR MUSE! aka try to list everything which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals

nessa  is  a  super  interesting  character  imo  !  most  of  the  characters  in  wicked  have  a  lot  of  depth  to  them  and  it’s  really  great  to  analyze  them  and  see  how  their  intentions  and  motivations  have  been  skewed  by  the  world  ,  their  pasts  ,  and  how  we  view  good  /  evil  .  nessa  particularly  is  interesting  to  me  because  of  her  negative  character  development  and  how  you  can  see  what  pushed  her  to  be  the  way  she  is  at  the  end  of  the  show  .  it  also  is  important  to  note  that  she  dies  ,  which  is  another  puzzling  thing  because  it  poses  a  question  :  would  she  have  improved  and  turned  her  life  around  after  she  realized  the  horrors  that  she  caused  ?  i  think  it’s  really  nice  to  have  the  emotional  diversity  of  her  because  in  different  verses  she  is  extremely  different  and  i  think  that  it  gives  a  lot  of  options  .  

now the OPPOSITE. list everything why your muse might not be so interesting (even if you don’t agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

people  don’t  really  pay  much  attention  to  her  in  the  fandom  (  not  the  wicked  rpc  or  general  broadway  rpc  )  and  i  honestly  don’t  really  understand  it  .  they  often  make  her  out  to  like  hate  elphaba  or  just  be  a  overly  terrible  person  .  it’s  hard  to  explain  but  it  just  it  very  :/  you  know  ?  also  ,  seeing  as  she’s  a  side  character  she  gets  ignored  a  lot  so  there  isn’t  a  lot  of  content  available  . 

what inspired you to rp your muse?

i  just  really  like  her  !  no  ,  but  i  had  seen  other  rp  blogs  and  thought  that  it  would  be  cool  to  join  them  and  try  my  hand  at  it  .  to  be  fair  ,  i  had  only  intended  on  trying  it  for  a  few  weeks  or  months  and  now  it’s  been  nearly  three  years  oops  . 

what keeps your inspiration going?

my  friends  /  mutuals  ,  lich  rally  sophia  for  listening  to  me  ramble  ( @cadyhcrons​  )  ,  and  probably  the  sheer  fact  that  i’ve  been  here  for  so  long  and  am  too  stubborn  to  leave  --  but  i  love  it  .

some more personal questions for the mun. give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO. /  i  think  that  i  do  !!

do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO.  i  have  a  google  doc  of  ones  that  i  have  to  write  out  officially  ,  but  i  haven’t  gotten  to  it  yet

do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO.  

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES  / NO. 

are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO / SOMETIMES.

are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?

i’ve  never  actually  gotten  any  ,  but  i  think  that  i  would  take  it  pretty  well  as  long  as  the  person  in question  was  polite  about  it  because  i  truly  would  want  to  improve  and  know  what  other  people  think  about  my  writing  !

do you like questions which help you explore your character?

i  love  them  ! 

if someon>e disagrees with a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?

i’d  probably  want  to  know  and  see  how  other  people  would  interpret  her  character  ,  though  i’ll  admit  that  often  times  people  have  cold  takes  .

if someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?

i’d  probably  just  be  confused  because  if  they  don’t  like  it  then  they  should  just  not  follow  ??  like  to  each  their  own  of  course  ,  but  i  think  someone  actively  disagreeing  would  be  kinda  rude

if someone really hates your character, how do you take it?

HAHA  this  happens  !!  in  the  past  i  will  admit  i’ve  taken  it  really  badly  and  gotten  like  personally  offended  by  it  .  there  have  also  been  people  who  have  used  this  to  their  advantage  to  upset  me  (  like  .  .  .  threatening  to  write  her  as  homophobic  )  .  now  though  i  think  i’m  more  chill  about  it  and  have  matured  more  ,  but  it  still  kinda  sucks  when  people  feel  the  need  to  tell  me  they  hate  her  .

are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?

i  think  if  it’s  done  in  a  way  that  isn’t  mean  or  rude  and  i’m  actually  friends  with  them  /  we  talk  ooc  then  i  probably  don’t  mind  !!  i  know  that  i  break  a  lot  of  the  rules  when  writing  for  the  Aesthetic  and  i  would  probably  be  kinda  mad  if  people  got  angry  about  that  because  let  me  live  

do you think you are easy going as a mun?

i  like  to  think  that  i  am  !!  i  try  to  be  nice  and  helpful  to  people  because  i  know  when  i  first  started  i  craved  help  from  people  lmao  and  no  one  ever  offered

tagged  by  :  @wldbirds​  ! tagging  :  whoever  wants  to  !

[alexthymiac]

how do you keep muse sjsjsjnd i’m silently suffering

honestly i feel you on this,the struggle of keeping muse is real !!  so i might get a little long explaining my thought process and rambling a bit

ok so i'm going to advise through my own experience

so my main muse is a very emotionally intelligent individual as well as the type to have quickfire mood changes, going from fine and dandy one second to hurting and depressed the next which isn't my choice, she has a mind of her own. and typically when i lose muse for her it's either one of two things.

1: she is too emo to deal with and it becomes taxing to play her at the moment, especially because she bottles things up and doesn't know how to express herself or go to people when she needs help the way i handle the first one is by taking a step back from her/the rp for a few hours and doing something else i enjoy, such as gaming, so that when i return i can look at her with a clear heart and mind, and also to give her time to cool down cause like i said her mood changes fast. But if that doesn't work i usually look at the source of what is causing her emotional distress and have her nip it in the bud and distance herself from it, but usually that's only if the source IE. another muse, has pushed her too many times and she's finally fed up.

or if a relationship between your muse and another is making you feel stuck, you should try and discuss this with the other mun, even though i know it may be frightening and stressful to do so, because most of the times they'll be understanding and be willing to work things out with you

or

2: (the main causal factor) she isn't getting enough interactions that have actual meaning to them, honestly most of her interactions are superficial and are basically the same bullshit on repeat. which gets old extremely fast.

this one is a little more difficult because i honestly don't follow the advice i’m going to give you for this one...but anyways. typically, if your muse isn’t getting enough meaningful interactions or are getting very superficial interactions, you can reach out to people and try and plot more with them. explain what you may be looking for in regards to interactions and even discussing how you would both like to see the plot between your muses going in the future, to give yourself a goal/something to look forward to, of course we all know things don’t always go to plan, but it is interesting to see how things evolve from what you originally started with

I write, 'm a storyteller through and through, so i like to daydream about stuff even though i know most of it will never happen lol and sometimes i write out these ideas i have, whether they be head canons or poems or just random little tidbits i've discovered about my muse. but obviously that's not for everyone. I also LOVE to read, and typically reading a story inspires my own ideas and gives me a bit of a muse boost

And finally, most of the time if you're losing muse, your mutuals probably can sense it and want to reach out and do more between both your muses, and may simply just not know how to approach you ~i know i can sense it when my friends are losing muse~. I know i for one am terrible at approaching people ~hence why i have taken none of the advice im giving you~ So don’t be afraid to reach out to them, because more often than not, they want to reach out to you as well and are just being weird about it like me.

just as an example: i personally love to para and come up with head canons, but just don’t know how to approach my mutuals about it, so i just wait for them to reach out for paras typically they don’t, probably for the same reason and obviously i should take my own advice and reach out to them, because i know they would likely be down to if i simply asked.

i know this was a bit long winded, but i hope this helped inspire some ideas in your head on how to handle loss of muse. I may comeback to this later to add more, because i feel like there's still more i have to say, but i cant think of anything more at the moment.

LOVE YOU!

is this my way of voicing my needs, and telling them to reach out to me if they want more as well, even though none of my mutuals will see this? Yes, yes it is. timidness for the win ! and honestly little secret, i'm always losing muse, im just good at faking it, plus i just love my baby too much so i force myself to power through

[sign-from-god-complex]

21 and 38? ~💙

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

ohhhhhhhhhhh I’m the worst at articulating my love for things but I am gonna Try My Best!!!

@impatentpending I mean, it’s obvious, but Elena’s my favourite author. everything she writes is an emotional masterpiece. I’m either genuinely laughing out loud or I’m like totally fucking swept away in this world that she’s conjuring up or sometimes both (occasionally I am crying too but I usually avoid too much angst cause I’m a baby).

I’ve said it a million times but A Night Like Tonight is one of my favourite stories cause the presentation is so fucking clever. it’s amazing. she manages to be fucking incredible at fluff and angst and that weird middle ground where everything is longing and crying without even noticing you’re doing it. I’m in awe of the talent she has, fr.

@tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors !!!!!!!!!!! Violet is an actual angel with a kind of expansive world I could only dream of having the creativity to come up with. the dynamics between the four boys in LAOFT is gorgeous and makes me so goddamn soft. I reread the LAOFT extras literally all the time; if I’m in the mood for fluffy LAMP and don’t know where to turn to, you can bet that LAOFT will be one of my first thoughts. also???? has made me cry on several occasions which is distinctly uncool and yet I’m not even upset cause it’s just so pretty that it deserves the tears I’d shed over it. 

it’s 100% impossible for me to pick a specific favourite fic cause I have about 10 that I can think of off the top of my head right now but I can absolutely pick my favourite line because I think about it every time I read it.

“But as they looked at him, eyes in three different shades and exactly one shade of hope, Logan couldn’t possibly have said no.” - First Dance

!!!!!!!! I can’t even explain why I love this line so much--it may be the whole, reality vs metaphor thing with the use of the word shades which is so clever--but when I first read it I actually paused for a second like,,, woah. and every time I read it still I’m like !!!!! good fucking line!!!!

even outside of LAOFT everything they’ve written is so??? good???? genuinely, this happens all the time, when I’m reading fanfiction and I finish a fic and go !!!!! ahhhhh, that was really good and then I get to the author’s note and Violet’s tumblr URL is there and I’m like !!!!! oh it was Violet!!!! I should not be surprised because they’re wonderful and yet it’s just amazing how many beautiful fics they’ve written.

@sleepless-in-starbucks I can’t do a list of writers without mentioning Lia, it’s 100% illegal. legit just the best possible ideas??? it’s completely wild to me that they’re out here writing stuff I wouldn’t even think of; it’s like they opened up an entirely new fanfiction world to me that I couldn’t have imagined. everyone’s always like,,, effortlessly in character and unbelievably gay--which I think we can all relate to--and I can’t even articulate the way their writing just,, fits them??? I don’t know if this makes any sense but like when I read their writing I get the sense of Lia, whether that’s through the character’s dialogue or the plot of the story.

and when they do play into tropes, I’m always sitting there like !!!!! yes, this is everything that I want, like the creativisleep gay chicken fic and the LAMP fake dating one, technically cliches and yet still unbelievably good and unique. it’s just,,,, it’s all so Good.

@notveryglittery Dani!!!! the queen of royality and also of fluff and also of our hearts--Dani owns a lot of titles. I honestly have not read enough of her fics--I need to make an evening out of that--mostly bc I don’t think she’s on AO3 and she doesn’t have a masterlist (to my knowledge). but!!! everything I have read from her has been fluffy and gorgeous and just absolutely lovely. like, it’s the perfect word to describe her writing, it’s just lovely. it’s the kind of fluff that just makes you feel like you’re bathing in sunlight or lying in a field full of sunflowers with your partner, holding hands and pointing at clouds--sleepy and soft and terribly in love. I appreciate her immensely.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

if Lia and I could come up with an idea it would be so fun to collab with them. I’ve never done a collab with anyone before outside of doing rps with my partner but like,,, anything Lia does is wonderful so I could only assume a collab would be the same. 

I have honestly considered writing a fic in the LAOFT universe and then gifting it to Violet (which is almost like a collab) but I’d be worried about getting the unique characterisation right. plus, they have all the good ideas and I am but a simple enby who appreciates fae a potentially unhealthy amount. I’m also not even sure if they would want that. who knows.

collabs are just not something I’m hugely familiar with. I’m a small self-conscious ball of fluff who is always worried about putting my writing out there before it’s been agonized over for a very long time (and sometimes even after that), so usually very few people are trusted to see drafted/not-edited versions of my work.

[abseowon-blog]

hey there. it’s hams and this is my man, moon seowon. under the read more there will be tidbits of the character and as well as of me (and some plot ideas). like this post so i know you’re ready for a plotting message.

about: ooc

name: hams

age: over 18

triggers: NONE- suggest whatever you want. i’m pretty much open to anything

loves: a n g s t

experience: never saw this anime (i mean i now am because of this rp haha), so bear with me while i learn about this universe! if there is something wrong in what i say during writing/plotting, please let me know and correct me!

wants:

communication! please communicate with me for anything. any doubts about my character, feel free to ask me. you want to express your feelings of our thread(s)? please do! there is nothing more greater than to know that you are completely invested in our writing! just let me know whatever, ok? c: will probs do the same to you~ (i mean just lmk if you dont want me to as well bc like... don’t wanna be a bother lol).

mutual understanding(!?)! please read up everything from my muse so there won’t be repetitive questions as we plot. i understand clarification questions (sometimes i could pass by some stuff and like i don’t make sense lmao but i promise i revised!), but i’ve had people in the past that asked questions that are clearly in my character’s about page. some things pass by our minds, we’re not perfect, but somethings are just right in front of your face and it can get frustrating. i will do the same for you!

needs work: replying! okay i’m terrible at replying to messages, but i will force myself to do so when i have the chance. i apologize in advance.

extra note: i wrote this character in hopes to integrate your characters in his life, so the timeline in his about is not set in stone. i kinda just wrote it as a guideline for me to better grasp the character.

about: moon seowon

note: some of these points are better explained in his about page, so please read that as well! 

32 year old perfectionist. likes to be neat and keep things neat because everything else in his life and brain is a shit-storm.

inspector turned enforcer.

is a divorcee with a 4 year old daughter he will never interact with again because he doesn’t want her to know her father is a criminal and well his ex-wife don’t want him around anymore.

used to be a big believe in the system, but now he’s somewhat there still, but believes more in himself more to do the job rather than the system entirely bc it couldn’t even get the father that abused him and his mom after all these years like...????

a concussion when he was younger caused by his dad made little seowon forget (locked away in his brain), but after seeing his kid with his father, the dude just lost it. remembered his past, saw red, and beat his father v much.

found out he likes the thrill of hurting [bad] ppl??? so he channels his anger towards judo.

can get out of hand if he’s extremely invested on a case; would need to get shot probs since his anger easily takes over him lol...jk...?

is very kind once you get to know him. just doesn’t show much of what he’s feeling or thinking, but will show it through various ways. like if he sees you shivering, he’d probs get you a blanket or his jacket without saying much... that’s how considerate he is. c:

bad think is, when he talks, he has no filter and not in the way like he curses a lot (he doesn’t really), but like he will speak his mind and won’t pay much attention if it hurt you or offended you. he’s just stating the facts/thoughts/opinions.

thinks he’s a really bad boy guy and because of his twisted mind, he believes every other latent criminal is the similar in that danger spectrum.

has a habit of covering his mouth/looking away when he laughs or smiles widely. he doesn’t like his smile. so don’t make him smile... (please make him smile)

plot ideas

only for inspector: the person he goes to to accompany him to see his daughter.

someone that doesn’t trust him/scared of him(?) after seeing him go berserk in the past

someone that looks up to him despite his demotion and he’s just like.. why!??!?!

someone he spars with in judo~

someone that annoys him but still has an endearing relationship?

they don’t like each other for some reason but manage to work perfectly together?

idk! let’s brainstorm because i just wrote these and i’m eager to write!

[prisoner56898]

Okay, it’s been a while now since my activity has been spotty at best, and I keep coming here and saying that I’ll be coming back soon, and then I don’t, and I know in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter, but it makes me feel so unbelievably bad because of all the people who put effort into writing replies and starters for me and are being ignored, so I figured it was about time I at least gave a more honest explanation to my absence. So if you’re interested, and since this got kinda long, just go into the read more. But even if you don’t, that’s fine, and I wanted to let you know that I love all of my followers and threads and plots and I’m so sorry if I made you wait.

I’m going through a really hard time since the last couple of months of 2018. A lot of intense social situations happened, which is already really stressful for me, and on top of that, right before I went into vacation at the end of November, I found out that my insurance will not be covering my psychiatrist’s appointments anymore. And I mean, it’s not that they won’t cover all psychiatrist appointments, but my particular doctor won’t be covered anymore. Which means I either have to pay her from my pocket (which I can’t afford) or I have to suck it up and find a new doctor. Which I should. I know that there are people out there in worse situations who can’t afford to get treatment at all, and I’m here whining about needing to find a new doctor. But man.

Just the idea of having to sit there in a new office with a new person and explain all of my shit makes my throat tight, my hands shaky, and I feel like crying just while typing this. That’s how bad my social anxiety is, especially when it comes to opening up about my internal issues. So I’ve been avoiding the problem, and in the process of that, I just stopped taking my meds. I just stopped. Again, I’m aware I shouldn’t, but I haven’t taken them for over a month and now it feels pointless to start taking whatever I still have left because I know I’ll have to go find a new doctor soon enough anyway. I tried to tell myself that it was fine and I wasn’t going to feel the difference so much, but it isn’t fine and I do feel the difference. I work home office, so most days I’ve been doing the bare minimum not to get fired and then going straight back to bed. I actually think I haven’t left the house or talked to anyone in person for over a week.

So yeah, I’m kinda crashing. On top of classes being about to start for me, and my campus is an hour away from my home, and all of this other shit I can’t even begin to talk about, I don’t know really when I’m going back to posting here, and that makes me so sad because writing usually makes me feel great, but right now I don’t have the mental energy to do it. So I guess this can be considered a hiatus warning? Maybe? I don’t know. I could be feeling better and coming back tomorrow, or in a month, or who the hell knows at this point. But I know I’ll be coming back here as soon as I get my shit together because I love Bucky and still have so much muse for him. The muse is here, it’s the mun that’s really not. So again, I’m really sorry I keep bombarding you with these shitty depressing explanations instead of actually being here to rp, guys. It really makes me feel terrible.

As always if you want to you can catch me at disco (acquainted with my own disaster#3870), sometimes it takes me a minute to reply to messages there as well but I’m still more present than I am here.

[marquis-teren-kiden]

Top 5 moments that really defined your time as an RPer.

[This is an incredibly long post. So, feel free to read it or not as you wish. Blessedly, there is no ‘NSFW’ alert associated with it. Brutal, visceral, and sometimes anguish or feelz inducing commentary, but nothing you can’t have up at work or around the (Grand)babies. So, have at!]

#1. - Beyond the terrible graphics of the games at the time, my first real experience RPing happened when i was nineteen. A friend of mine from school had invited me on leave with her (Yes, it was that kind of education) to her home to get away from the boredom and strictness of our vocational training. I said yes, and while we were off at her place (which, also, was in the woods in the middle of nowhere, but in a different state) she introduced me to her Aunt, who was an avid DM. The woman had accumulated just… man. Volumes in binders of faces and forms of men and women - models, actors, singers, you name it - which she had rated from 1 to 20 for the purposes of allowing players to choose their character’s ‘comeliness.’She had it all. The picture books. All of the (2E) D&D books and supplements. She asked how long I’d been roleplaying, and I said I hadn’t. So, she broke it all down for me. Let me choose from an extensive collection of dice and line-by-line explained the mechanics of the game for me.My first character? A dual-classed Drow Fighter/Ranger. She made an NPC Human Paladin and the story for the background to explain the two of them being a battle couple was easy for me to come up with. She loved it. I killed myself with my own bow, and my own arrow, my first time using it. (I rolled a 1.) and she used the NPC to heal/resurrect my dumb Elf. Best introduction to RP I could offer to anyone, and it was mine.#2. - A Co-Worker asked me if I’d ever RP’d before, and I told him about #1 on the list, which had been five? Six years before. He said he would love to have me for a ‘beefy’ Campaign he was putting together, and after negotiating on the terms and times, I agreed. The Campaign was ridiculous. (Not in a bad way.) Just uber powerful creatures all over the place. So, he required every player to be half-something from the Monster Manual.I made up a Half-Halfling/Half-Celestial and made him a Bard/Psion. While we were at work, I rolled his stats (which were INSANELY GOOD.) And he sat and watched. (The stats were so good that one of the other Players, sitting next to the DM, accused me of cheating, and the DM laughed and said I watched them roll *my* dice. Those are their scores. I laughed crazy hard.) That Campaign about three years, and was insanely good fun. I eventually retired my Half-Celesital as an Avatar of Fharlanghn, the God of Travelers. (My Muse was a Psionic Nomad.) And the GM still phones occasionally to ask me to RP him as an influence on current or on-going campaigns.

#3. - My (now ex-) Boyfriend found out that I was an avid RPer in Guild Wars, and asked me to come RP with him (I think he was jealous of my Muse’s in-game Husband) in World of Warcraft. We rolled up a pair of Druids. But, within a week, two things unexpectedly happened. He got bored of his level 5 Druid and ditched me to go back to his level 54 Warlock. AND I levelled up without him looking for herbs, and on my first trip to Darkshore (Like, level 11 or 12?) I witnessed a pitched PvP Battle between a level 56 Night Elf Hunter and a skull icon (later learned, level 60 Raider) Tauren Warrior. I was Resto and started healing the Hunter. At the time, I had no clue what ‘flagging’ was, or that my Muse could be harmed by doing it. I just wanted to help the guy who looked to be putting up a hell of a fight given the disparity between them. (I assumed the Tauren was just a very powerful mob.) The Hunter won the fight, and greeted me ICly. Introduced himself. Thanked me profusely, and since I’d cobbled together an identity for my Druid before my BF and I had stopped playing together, I just rolled with it. The Hunter eventually became the Druid’s Lifemate.#4 -  The next two are more personal, and as you know (Nerd) Last year was absolutely devastating for me. I lost twenty-six writing partners during a significant IRL series of hardships involving losing my health, which cost me my job, which led to me losing my home, all while trying to take care of my kids and maintain a Guild with a massive storyline. 

The vast majority of the Co-Writers i had at the time were just relentless about wanting and needing to be ‘important’ to the storyline, rather than working together with everyone to solve the puzzles that were laid out. And, I was DMing two or more events each month from my cellphone out of a motel my family was paying for for several months. During that time, I lost two important friends who were RRP Partners for Teren. One due to refusal to communicate at all why they had suddenly started getting angry every time I mentioned RP (even when it wasn’t for Teren) and another who literally just… disappeared. Not just from me. From everything. All without explanation. Of the twenty-six acquaintences/Co-Writers who dipped on me during that SL, those are the two that still haunt me the most, and they are the primary reasons I keep my Writing Circle so small. 

Has their continuing influence on me been positive? No. I don’t think so. Not in the long run. But, has it been powerful? Has it shaped the future of my writing and my relationships with others in/out of character and IRL? Unequivocally. 

#5 - Mister Rogers (Teren, wtf are you going with this?) Mister Rogers once said that when something bad would happen, he would get scared. An accident. A fire. Something worse on the news. His Mother would tell him to “look for the people trying to help. There are always people trying to help. Look for the Helpers.”

At the bottom of the abyss for me, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically - there were people, IRL, OOC and IC, who were genuinely trying to help me. Even when I told them I just wanted to wrap up all of our mutual storylines and walk away from writing - not just Roleplaying, but writing stories at all - they did everything they could to help me. Help me figure out what their Muses needed. Help me figure out what my Muses needed. Helped me connect with strangers to tie up story elements that had disappeared with the people who were abandoning the large-scale Campaign that had been running off of my phone for months on end. 

There were at first a couple. Then a few. Then a handful. Now, there’s a little under a dozen people who have made writing possible for me again. Who stuck with me through all of the terrible shit that made even logging in to Teren’s old account an exhausting, heartbreaking slog. Who eventually helped me heal myself with self-care strategies I’d never needed before, and to give some solid foundation to Teren’s storyline so that - even if I couldn’t save all of my Muses - I could save this one. 

At the beginning of the year, I kicked off this blog, still unsure if it would last a month, or if I would walk away from it after all. Two months, three months in, I still didn’t know the answer. What I did know, is that I was (albeit slowly) getting the desire to write again. I was (slowly) feeling the urge to create again. And I was striving to interact on a level that would allow me to leave if the old warning signs started cropping up, without devastating my Co-Writer’s storylines. (Which is a lot of why so much of what Teren does happens in Nishan; which is only a small pocket of Azeroth as a whole.)

To wit, the amazing legacy and continuing tales of Teren Kiden and his life after 01/01/2018 aren’t a product of “A” moment. But, of People. People who recognized that I am a person and not a collection of pixels. People who empathized with the catastrophe my life had become and - instead of disappearing - did what they could. No one had to solve my problems. Most didn’t have to do anything but RP. But they all helped me to recover from the single worst year - IC, OOC, and IRL - of my life with patience, poise, respect and - most extraordinarily - with hearts that were strong enough to let me go, even though they desparately wanted me to keep holding on to our friendships, because that was what I needed most at the time.

[To each of them: @daughterofkiden, @summerbloom-fae, @karrista, @olivia-lovecraft, @news-nerd, @huntsman-hawthorne, @maluraunderchild, @renlavaye, @scassira, @waroftwowolves, @stonestridernerd, @phamguero, @oh-yeah-no @kelladen - you are all such beautiful, understanding, and exceptional people, and I quite literally wouldn’t be here, writing, without you. Thank you so much for your extraordinary strength and exceptional qualities of character. You are more deeply cherished and appreciated than you will ever know.]

[untameablesands]

sends URL via terrible terror. hi i'm love you ;w;

Send me a url and I’ll talk about them! [ x ]Accepting

My Opinion on;

Character in general:

         Endless screaming I love Hiccup so much- I just got back from watching the third movie (and I can’t remember if you’ve seen it so I’ll avoid spoilers just in case) and I just. I love him; he’s grown so much, he’s been through so much, he’s unfairly attractive like that messy hair w/ the braids and the freckles??? and brave, smart, SO SMART, and caring- like. Sure he’s kind of cocky and prideful but he’s also insecure and overwhelmed by everything, to see how far he’s come from where he started- ALSO HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH TOOTHLESS IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME skjdbfkjsdf I’m not explaining myself well I bet,  just know that Hiccup is a blessing and he makes me cry because he’s just so wonderful and deserving of all the good things

How they play them:

        So well! Like, it’s super clear that Sammy has a firm grasp on who Hiccup is as a person; threads are detailed and well written/thought out, dialogue is super well done- the stammers, the way he talks, his mannerisms etc just. Very good Hiccup yes, 10000/100% recommend following for great content tbh

The Mun:

        I. Cannot remember if we’ve talked before, and if we have it’s probably just been casual comments on posts, but you seem pretty awesome! Obviously passionate about your muse; a wonderful writer, you come across as being friendly and fun to write with, you’re a flatterer *finger guns* overall you just seem like someone who’s great to be friends with tbh, keep being awesome : >

Do I:

RP with them:

        Not yet D:

Want to RP with them:  

        Yes definitely!

Ship with them:

        …. Okay hear me out- after seeing this movie and falling in love w/ Hiccup again (because wow he’s just so great and look at how grown up he’s become) I’m. Highkey Lowkey already having a mighty need for a ‘what if Sundira was Astrid/took her place?’ au because that would be fun for many reasons (as much as I like Astrid)- it could work!  

       So ah, if you’re interested hmu 

         I’ll be waiting~

What is my;

Overall Opinion:

        I apologize if that gif disturbs you, it’s one of my favourites because it’s just so… Strange and perfectly encapsulates how it feels sometimes to be like GO ON to people- slowly sliding over and patting the seat beside you skdjbfskjdf ANYWAY ON TO ACTUAL OVERALL OPOINION- wow. Opinion, you’re fantastic and I would love to write with you one day aaaand I hope you have a great day >w

[kibibarel]

what are your rp pet peeves besides dropping a thread

hmm i must have a lot given how much i complain about shit related to RP but when someone asks me what my pet peeves are i blank on all of them lol………….usually it’s very specific things that piss me off but uhhhh

OOH one thing that annoys me a lot is people assuming shit about my character? the only character i’m writing rn is Lusamine and….people really just don’t know shit about her and love to come to me proposing these plots she would never take part in without even asking me if she would do the things they describe? the way i see it, it shows a complete lack of understanding of her character and disregard for me as a writer…like no, Lusamine will most certainly not torture your character to death with science equipment? your character is a complete normie so there is nothing she would gain from that and also she just got her nails done? what the shit are you talking about...like yeah she sucks and will do terrible things but she has standards... :\ aaaaand when i explain this to these potential partners, they sometimes get huffy and suggest that i’m making her OOC and i’m like man.....Shut The Hell Up When You Are Talking To Me

(this happened when i played N as well but like….in the reverse? in that they would assume he’d always pick the best, most Pure Good decision in a scenario when he would uh…not. because he’s N. and people forget he’s kind of a bigoted asshole with a limited worldview. they would be like WHY IS HE SO MEAN???? it’s the trauma and years of isolation)

on a related note, i also get a lot of people clearly not reading my info pages and fucking up on locations and shit……like my Lusamine’s default verse is post-SM, meaning she’s region-locked in Kanto and not acting as Aether’s President because neurotoxin bullshit……..and yet i very often get characters assuming she’s still in Alola and acting as President? not a huge problem, but it just shows they didn’t read my info pages at all…i also once voiced this annoyance to a partner of mine and they said something like “oh well everyone probably just assumes you’re playing her as mid-game” and that annoyed me like……yeah you’re probably right BUT it’s still rude…like it says RIGHT THERE that my default verse is post-game? no one ever assumed i was playing N as mid-BW when i first picked him up!!! they thought it was perfectly normal that i was writing him as a continuation of canon…same with all the other SM characters like Guzma, Lillie, and Gladion…why don’t people do that for Lusamine? it’s because they want me to play a very clearcut villain who does evil shit 24/7 and won’t develop at all even though i’d rather play a character than a plot device…

also people inserting their headcanons without my say…….this doesn’t always bother me and i can usually work with it but it’s definitely awkward when those headcanons conflict with mine…and sometimes they even conflict with canon? that’s the worst lmao

uhhhhh for tumblr RP specifically...ugly over-formatting that makes replies illegible……autoplay……..people that have the nerve to put “read my rules and about pages before following!” in their about and yet have themes that make it utterly impossible to find those pages so it’s like you gotta have a degree from NASA just to find out they won’t RP with Undertale characters…….i feel like everyone complains about these things and yet they’re still around somehow......

[lasorciereviolette-blog]

On Witch

(So RP’s are a bit slow right now so I might as well continue down the saltapalooza that has been opened up due to a post on how Sega’s flanderized Amitie over the years. 

This one’s kind of all over the place, because it’s not a strict flanderization argument per se and since Witch is my favourite I like to gush about her. I’ll try to keep on topic as much as possible though.

So I’ll start by saying that honestly, this could be a lot worse in several ways. Sega’s done at least a little homework on Witch. It took them nearly a decade to put Witch in one of their games (no, 7 does not count since she has no lines) but it looks like she’s here to stay seeing as she was kept on the roster for both Tetris and Chronicle.

But... Now what? See, my analysis has led me to the conclusion that Sega have absolutely idea of what to do with Witch.

I didn’t always have that viewpoint. At one time I thought Sega had done a pretty good job with Witch. She showed up, her story was reasonably funny, and she was actually allowed to behave like a selfish jerk unlike certain characters. 

However, a little while ago I came across a translation of Yon’s cutscenes. And I came across an unfortunate discovery: Witch’s campaign in 20th is nothing new at all. Nope. It’s just a copy-paste of her few scenes in Yon, and one cutscene in Sun.

Let me elaborate. See, in 20th Witch is trying to collect ingredients to create a potion in one of Wish’s spellbooks. Collecting these ingredients involves taking parts off of certain cast members, namely Draco’s tail, the Acorn Frog’s eye, an imp’s horns, a ladybug, a dark wizard’s hair, and a fish’s scales. On the surface this isn’t a bad premise. I didn’t mind it too badly before I knew anything about Yon. Except in Yon, Witch’s goals are almost identical. She needs Draco’s tail and Seriri’s scales, and wants to collect Carbuncle’s finger grime (... somehow) just in case she ever needs it. When she comes across a sleeping Dragon, she also tries to seize the opportunity to grab some snot.

The details aren’t exactly the same, at least. Which is nice, because if the scenes were word for word the exact same I’d be even more peeved. I can at least give the writers that much. The thing is, after waiting so long for a beloved character’s comeback, why did they decide just to recycle half the cutscenes from other games? I suppose this can be forgiven since it’s an anniversary title, but it’s still a little odd.

And then we get to Tetris, where Witch has a total of... One scene. When DLC was released, she got another very short scene. While these were both original, there... Really was nothing to them. All she wants to do is perform an experiment with blocks in one, and in the other she mocks Draco, which would have been absolutely unsurprising if you had played either Saturn or Yon in the past. Witch’s appearance is very much a token one and she doesn’t even really interact with other characters besides Draco Centauros when there was an opportunity to have her bounce off of the members of the Starship Tetra, or Amitie, or Ringo. Or maybe to put her in Primp and have her hang out with some of the people she used to. Talk about a waste. Witch is a fun and dynamic character who has been allowed to remain a bit of a jerk. There was plenty of room to have her interact with new characters, but instead they threw her into space and called it a day. Hell, she’s a comet witch and she doesn’t even notice she’s in space!

Which leads me into the next part of this rant, the fact that Sega only really seemed to look at Yon and one cutscene in Sun and determined her entire character from there. Before Yon Witch was primarily a comet witch. While she did make potions in Seriri’s Happy Birthday, Witch’s gameplay was focused more on flight and spellcasting. Based on her moveset in other games, Witch not only shares most of Arle’s spell set (being proficient in fire, ice, and lightning magic, as well as being able to cast Brain Dumbed and Jugem) but has her signature Meteor spell and a few other comet style magics such as Big Bang. These spells have a distinctive star theme when she casts them, distinguishing her from Arle.

Pretty cool, huh? She is also somewhat of a melee fighter, not being afraid to swat people with her broom. (this isn’t the greatest of examples but it’s cool so)

Coming back to her broom flying, a whole game was built around it called Comet Summoner. It didn’t have much of a story, but it did feature a bunch of cute levels and a powerful boss that may or may not have been Witch’s future self. And this future self was strong, with a huge red aura, several health bars, and the ability to not only zip around the stage at high speeds, but cast spells of her own and combo you with a mix of melee and magic if you fuck up and get too close to her.

Witch would make a good fighting game character. 

This is getting a bit off topic, but point is, Witch is versatile. But unfortunately it seems that apart from her spell names Sega can’t be bothered to remember her versatility and just wants her to make wacky potions. I’m not opposed to her making wacky potions, it’s not necessarily bad, but at one time she was a lot more than that.

She was more complex as a character than she seems to be in 20th or Tetris. Maybe not in Yon, where she appears very little, but in Madou Monogatari she got some attention. Yes, Witch is selfish. Yes, she’s pretty power hungry. Yes, she’d probably sell quite a few people out for a single corn chip. But there are some people who are dear to her, like for example her grandmother Wish. While again, I can’t read Japanese, Witch Leeroy Jenkins’s into a room when she sees her grandmother’s body on the floor in Tower of the Magician. Afterwards, Witch’s body language is pretty clear to see.

She’s clearly very worried about Wish and does not appreciate any harm coming to her. Even jerks have loved ones, I guess?

Let’s give Sega the benefit of the doubt, maybe that one trait just hasn’t come into play yet. After all, Wish hasn’t appeared (but she has been mentioned). Sure. However, there are other traits that the Sega games ignore when it comes to Witch’s character.

First, Sega has arguably made Witch into an even worse jerk. In Compile’s games, Witch is often abrasive and rude, but she will defer to an expert’s judgment in a situation she doesn’t understand. Case in point, Saturn. Upon coming across the Yog smoke, she avoids possession because she immediately listens to Arle and Rulue’s advice. She doesn’t argue, she just does it. 

Contrast this with 20th. 

In general, Witch is crafty and rather full of herself in Saturn, but not so much as Rulue. She has a low opinion of martial arts and so that makes her play well off of Rulue (It probably also explains her animosity towards Draco), while she has a high opinion of her magical skill and loves to soak up praise. Witch also shows little ill will towards those who quit the tournament after a Yog presents itself, which might hint at some sensibility the character doesn’t tend to have much of after this. 

Witch is also a bit of a snarker in this game:

There’s character here besides her excitability, or getting pissed off when things don’t go her way. Now Saturn does bring up Witch’s legendary temper, but we don’t really see the results of that in-game. 20th really pushes that informed attribute into the spotlight, where all her thoughtfulness and cleverness go out of the window for her to make a bad potion that obviously contained too many substitutions, to the potion not being useful in the first place, to her beating up Lemres for stating the blatantly obvious. Witch doesn’t really come off any smarter than Draco at the end of this, because all of this was obvious! She just comes off as an even worse ass than usual because of Sega’s wackiness mandate.

I also really don’t get what the point of her fighting Lemres even was. Lemres seems disappointed at the end that he didn’t get to talk to Witch more, but the story just ends. There isn’t any kind of payoff or character growth here. Just... Nothing. Again, a total waste of potential, having the two comet mages meet and then do absolutely nothing of value. Love it, Sega.

Oh yeah, there were two more things Sega forgot about. First, this.

Witch is probably an actual pervert, to contrast with Schezo’s fake perversion (which may or may not be real perversion too sometimes, because Saturn’s fun like that). So that’s another thing Sega forgot, for better or for worse.

Which leads me to the last bit that Sega’s forgotten. This too I can’t really say if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I like that it exists in Compile’s games, but if Sega remembered it would likely devour what remains of Witch’s personality. In certain games, there are implications that Witch may have a crush on Schezo. She fawns over him in athletic clothes in Puyolympics and as seen above, asks if he’s cool and wants to touch him in Saturn. Then of course there’s the whole “I want you” scene that solidifies the thing. For all I know there could be evidence for or against this in Tower of the Magician, which is a game where the two spend quite a bit of time interacting with each other, but since I haven’t learned to read Japanese in the last few hours I can’t comment on that, as much as I want to.

Now whether this is a good or bad thing for Sega to ignore really depends on your interpretation of this trait. I’m personally torn, because again I’m glad that Witch has not been reduced to a lovesick one-note failure. On the other, it’s a facet that a more competent writing team could have explored with some success. So it sucks that it’s been abandoned completely, but the end result could have been really terrible had Sega noticed this, so... Yay?

Okay, so I’ve written blocks of text. What does it all mean? Well, it means Witch isn’t immune to being flanderized in Sega’s works. It could be a lot worse, but there’s plenty of Witch’s character that’s been left out of current Puyo and plenty that has been aggrandized into a worse person. Right now Witch reminds me of a mixture of herself and Saturn’s take on Rulue, which... Really sucks, because no wonder Sega can’t figure out how to make Rulue stand out if they give her traits to other characters! Poor Rulue. Give her some love, Sega. She doesn’t deserve this kind of shafting.

As for Witch, you’re not going to get a total sweet kindhearted girl out of her. She was never that kind of character and that’s not a bad thing. But throwing on Rulue’s most boastful traits and making her a worse jerk, then giving her cameos because you don’t know what to do with her isn’t a good way to characterize her. Return some of that sense into the mix! Like I said in my Schezo comments, not everyone needs to be a wacky joke 24/7.