#rpcdev

[immortalmuses]

Prince Henry the HorseBoy

          Henry enjoys the all-consuming focus required to play polo, even enjoys the competitiveness. He prefers to do some of the grooming and handling when he can, finding it fulfilling and meditative (although a bevy of stablehands and a restrictively full schedule often take that option away from him). But at the core of things, he really just likes the Horses.

          Polo ponies, in particular, are a unique type of horse. They're not a singular breed, but instead are chosen based on a few core traits: natural agility and a quick mind, an inherent ambition to outperform their peers, the willingness to assert themselves on the field, and -- above all -- an absolutely fearless "no fucks given" attitude.

          Polo ponies do not care about status, or money, or propriety. The rider on their back could be a king or a convenience store worker, it's all the same to them as long as said rider isn't a complete bellend that makes the pony's job harder. They have no patience for idiots or passive "passengers," they cannot be bullied or cowed like other breeds, and they absolutely will let a person know the instant something displeases them.

          It's refreshing for Henry, who has had a lifetime of deferential treatment and people at a loss for how to speak to him like he's a actual human being. From very early on, the Prince was treated as something fascinating and other, a spectacle to be gawked at or admired or resented, but only from afar. By comparison, his relationship with horses is... uncomplicated, in a way. Infused with nonverbal cues and instinct-driven behaviors that Henry doesn't need to second guess, that feel more genuine than most of the interactions he has with... anyone. On a horse, he feels like he can breathe and move freely, that there is no need for posturing or pretending (indeed, it's rather unwelcome), and that being entirely himself isn't something considered shameful or lacking.

          Do your fucking job up there, Henry can hear his horse say, hoofbeats matching the thundering of his heart as they tear down the length of the polo field. --And I'll do mine. And we'll get along fine.

[machiiatto]

Tea Room Event - Shippy in-character assumptions!

Event will start at 5pm EST & will run for up to 3hr (though you don't have to stay that long!)

IC Assumptions is a lightning round game where you submit a character to the roster, & let other players make (generally crack) assumptions about them within the theme of the game. Tonight's theme is relationships.

It will be both SFW & NSFW friendly, with NSFW assumptions being opt-in only & behind spoiler bars. You'll be able to indicate in your roster which you prefer!

All characters & fandoms welcome, including OCs - please be prepared to drop a single sentence elevator pitch about your muse so we can break the ice & get them included!

The goal for tonight is to generate or disprove enough assumptions you walk away from the game with a solid paragraph (or more) headcanon regarding your muse & how they handle relationships.

[chcyna]

rpcdev trick or treat - day 12

open // @affcgato for Brock

there are a lot of things she’s experienced in her life, but honestly? a party in the woods? it feels like something she should have experienced when she was YOUNGER, not now. but, then again, if not now then when? still, it seems off somehow and Daisy isn’t completely sure she’s comfortable with any of this. pulling her jacket around her a little tighter, she’s glad that she opted for it considering the not so warm outfit she’s in. it is a party, after all. she won’t be going to a party without looking good. at the very least she had thought ahead to NOT wear heels. as much as she wanted to wear a pair and boost her height slightly, but as soon as she heard the words woods and path, Daisy had known that fashionably low-heeled boots were the proper way to go.

“so, you never really did tell me whose party this is…?” she hedges gently, realising that AS she’s picking her way through a relatively narrow trail in the woods with someone is maybe not the best of times to be trying to get information on where exactly they’re going. she shifts her small bag under her arm, pressing it against herself to feel the reassuring shape of the pepper spray. she may be stupid, but she’s not THAT stupid, thanks. 

looking up as they round a bend and a glow becomes visible from a clearing ahead, Daisy almost wants to let herself relax. a bonfire? those are fun. though, honestly, who has a bonfire IN the woods these days? so irresponsible. maybe she’ll make herself stick around until it’s all over to be sure that it gets put out properly and they don’t risk burning the whole goddamned woods down for a party. at least people seem to be having a good time already, if the vague shapes that look like they’re dancing around are anything to go by.

as they get closer, Daisy realises that it’s not actually a clearing in the woods, it’s a total break in the trees completely and they’re heading towards an open field. hopefully an empty one. though, if anything is inhabiting the field, it’s probably long been scared away by the large fire and the hollering. although… she can’t hear the music they’re all dancing and yelling to. surely they’re not playing it quietly out of respect given the size of the fire and the amount of yelling and whooping they’re doing. frowning slightly, Daisy glances around, the trees behind her seeming much darker and yet somehow more inviting than the blaze of the bonfire that lays ahead of her across the field. 

a snap of a twig makes her head whip around, purple highlighted hair flying in her face. she can feel a hand tightening on her arm as she lifts her hand to brush her hair out of her eyes, scanning the dark of the woods again. “um… you know what? I don’t… actually, yeah, I don’t think I’m feeling up to a big party with a bunch of people I don’t know tonight,” she protests quietly, twisting her arm free and taking a hesitant step back deeper into the trees. “you go on. I can find my own way back.”

[asoulofstars]

Trick or Treat - Day 1: A chilly, overcast autumn afternoon.

For @wintershieldedheart.

Riona knew that most of California would not agree, but she thought this autumn had been cooler than usual. She came from Massachusetts, and she went to school in the midwest, so she was used to having seasons and cooler weather. California was always different, but it was different now. She thought that last fall had been hard, not knowing where Margot was or if she was alive. But the chill in the air while Buck was in the hospital, comatose, after the lightning strike was haunting.

"How are you so calm?" she asked Margot. "Can't you feel the static?"

It was worse than an autumn in Massachusetts. And she was dying inside.

You are my sunshine; my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, Dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away.

Riona needed more people to feel the suffocating chill, to feel that something was wrong with the world.

[masterwcrk]

rpcdev's Fantasy Lounge Launch prompt - Portals.

(except I went on one hell of a vaguely related tangent, love me.)

🍄 :: Where is your muse’s favorite place in the world? If they had a portal that opened to one place, where would they want that place to be and why? Does it hold sentimental significance or does something else draw them there?

Portals are incredibly relevant for all verses built off her Centurian variant - Marvel, Supernatural, & The Last of Us being the current active ones. Each of those verses are founded on the plot point of Clary having isolated herself from her support network & anything familiar after suffering a pyrrhic victory during the Battle of the Burren.

variant from canon: In canon, Clary separates Jace (her soulmate) from her brother's demonic influence with the angelic sword Glorious & the battle ends with Sebastian & his army fleeing + Jace freed. In this variant, instead of freeing Jace, Glorious & its contained heavenly fire kills both of them instantly.

In fandom verses built off this variant, Lilith eventually tracks down Clary - now her universe's equivalent of special forces, a Centurian - & decides the only fitting punishment for killing her precious son is for Clary to suffer a similar loss. She opens a portal to a different dimension & throws her through it. Because of the nature of mirror dimensions, things are familiar enough that Clary will always be reminded of what she's lost in that the same buildings & streets will exist but they'll have drastically different purposes & the things that marked them as familiar or worse, home, will be absolutely absent.

In her Marvel verse, this has manifested with her taking up residence in what would have been her step-father's old bookstore & apartment. Initially, she tried to set it up exactly as she remembered but as time wore on, she eventually started putting her own spin on it & making actually home in her own way. She hasn't actually tried to visit the Institute yet in any incarnation of that verse, but given how strongly she associates that physical place with incredibly, painfully deep emotional connections, the fallout from seeing it stripped of everything that made it meaningful would likely be utterly disastrous.

In her Last of Us verse, I haven't gotten to explore the fallout but I do know that seeing the places she cared about so deeply having been abandoned twenty years prior to her coming through a portal, coupled with a complete & total absence of the people that once gave them that special meaning would go a long way towards nearly breaking her before she's even really had a chance to face any new developments, setting the stage for some pretty explosive emotions right off the bat.

Pan-verse, a lot of her growth centers around coming to terms with home being more than the stone & mortar of a physical place, as well as the value she ends up placing on relationships instead of nostalgia. In many cases, I’ve actually had to debate if she would take the offer of a portal home after she’s established herself in a new dimension or not.

The only verse I've gotten close to exploring this as a concept is her Marvel verse & that's hinged very heavily on what connections she's forged in her new life & the weight of the emotional attachment + time passed, but ultimately I think it's very, very possible that she might take a portal back to her former dimension to tie up loose ends - leave a message that she's okay, maybe, or to at least say goodbye - but ultimately even if she never sets foot across that threshold again, she'd be at peace staying in her new home dimension because home is the people she loves, not the physical place itself.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that Clary is very externally motivated. It’s not that she doesn’t value herself, it’s just that the people in her life are incredibly anchoring so if she has the choice to be with them or near them, she’s going to gravitate to them in not only a physical sense but an emotional one - no matter how comfortable she is in having just herself for company.

This is something she's actually forced to contend with heavily in this collection of verses; she punishes herself heavily by forcibly staying away from those people & those locations for a decade (in the variant verse itself) or up until the point she's thrown through the portal & now no longer has a choice in being near them.

TL; DR: The first few days, even weeks of those verses, she would absolutely no questions asked take a portal home but as time goes on she's going to reforge those connections in her own unique ways & ultimately it would heavily depend on what, or who, she ends up identifying as her special place (home) when the notion of portals comes back up as a viable option.

[iomadachd]

3.

Trick r Treat - Day 4: An attic full of musty clothes and antiques belonging to someone long-dead

To be quite honest, Copia hadn't realized there was anything left beyond what was shown in the Veneration of the Relics. Sure, some things had been preserved, such as a particular piece of writing, or a piece of clothing that broke with tradition, but by and large the past was past.

Good riddance.

There is a reason the Relics only include a number of his clothes, one of Primo's, and very little else. Of course, there is something from Primo, Secondo, and Nihil, but it's still on their bodies, much like Terzo's is on his. He helped curate the collection himself.

He stumbles upon the attic room quite by accident, and the most overwhelming scent is dust and mothballs. It chokes him for a moment, and he steps backward and out of the room until the worst of the smell clears.

He considers leaving it be, after all, he had only come up here to track a couple of his Ghouls who were otherwise nowhere to be found.

So here he is, surrounded by relics of the dead and not so venerated, and it's all so terribly old-fashioned that he considers leaving it to the past. He truly doubts he'll find anything worth repurposing, and most of it looks like it will fall apart if he even breathes on it.

Hand flicks away dust-laden spiderwebs, sneezing as they irritate his nose. Wonderful, he'll be miserable the rest of the day at this rate. He's going to have Swiss doing extra practices for a week for this.

A dull glimmer of copper catches his eye even beneath the layers of dust, and when he rubs his thumb over the placard, there's a name he doesn't even recognize: Papa Incassum. He can't imagine the man had any sort of effect on the Abbey, he'd have remembered.

He had made a point of remembering all major and minor contributions to the Church and who had made them over the centuries going right back to the Black Plague. Papa Incassum was such a forgettable name. Had he been given the choice, he certainly wouldn't have continued the Emeritus name. Those pesky bloodlines meant he'd had little choice though, because he carried Nihil's blood in his veins.

He still didn't know who had made the bigger mistake: that old bastard, or Imperator. Maybe both.

Peeling open the lid, it all but crumbles under his hand, but he's impressed by the finery in the storage bag inside. Intricate embroidery and jeweling that more than rivals his own, black silk with silver embroidery, and a visible cuff looks to have upside down crosses embroidered in a matte black thread against the sheen.

It's not the most complex design by any means, even Primo's was more stylized, but he supposes the Ghost Project was not even a glimmer in someone's mind when Papa Incassum lived. There would have been no need for glitz and glam that would compete with the Catholics. If this was from World War I, those were the dark ages of their Church, and discretion had been key, not recruitment. With the fall of so many monarchies, and the war itself, they had been forced to go underground for quite some time.

Still... there is something in its simplicity that has him snapping a picture of it with his phone. It might prove useful for the next tour cycle in terms of his own costumes, or perhaps a change for the Ghouls.

"You might be of some use to the Church yet, Papa. We'll just have to see what our seamstresses make of you."

[delugenal]

𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐂’𝐒 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐎 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒 -𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒 super freighters were a sniveling wail from what their name suggested. by design, the ship was no succulent queen fit to rule systems with a doonium fist. nor was the construction fit to brush against the hull of the word “super”, even as a darkly dressed joke. little more than a scrap heap cobbled together to capitalise on cheap niches in the galactic marketplace, ghtroc industries sold what little soul they had when they decided to not only release their deathtrap, but pollute the market when the false empress failed to earn back their investment.

      with no weapons and only flimsy shields to her name, ghtroc’s infamy was meant to transport fifty-thousand metric tons of mercantile. and, at best, eight passengers. only eight. yet twisted remains of a mediocre fleet of these damnable freighters were scattered across the beach and well into the shallows. each had been overstuffed with tarsunt refugees in the place of replaceable cargo. as per the resistance's last contact with the captain, the freighters were successful in bypassing a first order blockade.

      but those pretty smuggler tricks that could outwit tyrants proved paltry against nature’s wrath.

      wreathed in beads of blood and sweat, rain stood transfixed by a small arm protruding from beneath a smoldering slab of wreckage. the fingers looked so small, curled into an ochre palm. the hapan had never seen a tarsunt in the flesh before, but he imagined that a hand that size belonged to . . .

      a sigh shuddered from the damp cloth shielding his lungs from the smoke. his breath tasted of metal.

      the small retinue of rebels rain had accompanied to meet the refugees were already at work searching for survivors. rain doubted they’d find any. not on the shoreline. escaping the morbid pull of the scene before him, rain’s attention turned to the demarcation of deep water. if there were any still alive, the sea would not tell him. she had no intention of sharing her catch.

      even more heroes arrived, summoned by the unanswered prayer of a distress signal. uniforms bled together as the rescue team broke around him. only one stood out among them. rain never looked, focus returned to the fingers growing paler by the second. he identified the man by the attitude in his boot-falls alone.

      ❝ i did what i could. ❞

a sprawling grave in the wake of a storm for @sparkflight

[compendiumofconstellations]

Trick or Treat Day 2: Murky swampland with posted warnings to keep people away

Why is it always a swamp? Angel thought to himself as he was getting tossed out of the van.

Yes, he could have gotten himself out of the situation with brute strength, but he couldn't risk them uncovering him into sunlight. So, he instead was stuck with these idiots, and they were trying to toss their victim into a swamp.

He couldn't believe he'd let humans get the drop on him like that. And now he was going to have to deal with swamp smell in his hair for a week.

He supposed that now that he knew it was night, he could freak them out. But he really didn't want to deal with more bullets and potentially causing them to get the crocs or gators--he never could remember which ones were in this area--riled up and on their case.

He really didn't want to have to fight with the crocs or gators, either. So, he stayed still and silent, and he let them toss him out. He was able to pull himself out of the swamp water before anything came up to eat him, and he stumbled back towards civilization. He wasn't expecting the bright headlights, though.

[storyofwhoiam]

Open starter | Starter call | 🍂A chilly, overcast autumn afternoon

Amidst the soft hum of conversations and the comforting aroma of freshly brewed coffee, Amy found herself nestled in the corner of her favourite café. She glanced out the window that framed the gloomy autumn day outside. A cinnamon-spiced latte sat steaming on the wooden table, and an open book lay beside it.

Dressed in a cosy sweater and jeans, she took a sip of her coffee, relishing the warmth that spread through her. Her eyes scanned the pages, occasionally glancing up to observe people through the window.

Her phone buzzed softly, indicating a new message. Glancing at the screen, she smiled, recognizing the name of the friend she was about to meet.

[ithring]

Where is your muse’s favorite place in the world? If they had a portal that opened to one place, where would they want that place to be and why? Does it hold sentimental significance or does something else draw them there?

I think for Murtagh he doesn't have a defined place. Though when it comes to his homeland, he prefers deep groves in the woods, or ocean areas where moments of solitude can be found. He likes the quiet but he also likes places where he can enjoy the peace with his dragon ( Thorn). Murtagh has been known to find peace in the simple places and not people because he's not realy a people person. He prefers the nature and just being able to sit on a cliff side overlooking something or even being on the back of his dragon.

As for portals, in most verses I write for him, he stumbles through portals accidently out of his world. Or the magic in his blood from the dragon blood makes him end up in new worlds. I believe in it being acient enough to trigger something that makes him end up in places and it's how I write him into other fandoms.

He doesn't really see places as homes. He has people that reminds him of that. Given if he didn't have thorn with him, things would be vastly different. The bonds he forms with people matters a lot, he's done a lot of rework of himself to not be defined by what he had done or who his father was. To be able to be himself and not worry about what others think, that's where a home is for him. For him to have a system of friends that just know him for him, outside of his dragon of course.

[marvelforged]

Logan  &  Universal  Truths  |  A  Weekly  RPCDev  Prompt

what  events  or  qualities  are  so  innate  and  entirely  integral  to  your  characters  that  you  have  to  figure  out  how  to  translate  them  into  every  AU?  How  do  you  figure  that  out  across  genres?

I  have  alot  of  AUs  for  Wolverine  that  are  based  on  actual  alternate  comicbook  events,  so  are  kind  of  canon-compliant  (in  their  own  roundabout  way).  But  even  for  my  "out  there"  Alternate  Verses,  there  are  certain  elements  to  Logan's  character  that  I  keep  universal  regardless  of  the  timeline/scenario/What  If?  exercise.  Things  like:

Logan  always  struggles  internally  with  a  sense  of  being  out  of  control  or  at  odds  with  parts  of  himself.  He  doesn't  trust  his  ability  to  self  regulate  certain  emotions,  which  is  why  he  often  presents  externally  as  callous.

He  pretty  much  always  has  large  blank  spots  in  his  memory,  whether  due  to  injury/experimentation/trauma/etc.  It  plagues  him  with  a  permanent  sense  of  having  forgotten  something  important,  and  the  feeling  that  if  he  could  only  remember  what  he's  lost,  he'd  feel  whole  again.  This  is  true  even  when  he  does  have  his  memories.

Regardless  of  whether  he's  in  a  universe  where  his  clones  kids  exist,  Logan  always  has  a  strong  protective  instinct  towards  vulnerable  young  people  (and  since  he's  old  as  the  hills,  pretty  much  everyone  is  young  to  him).  He  would  deny  that  this  is  a  fatherly  instinct,  but  that's  just  because  of  point  one  above.

Speaking  of  "Old  as  the  Hills,"  my  Logan  almost  always  presents  like  that  'Born  with  an  Old  Soul'  trope,  no  matter  what  his  actual  age  might  be  ;)

[invocari]

9.

Nicknames - Trope Tuesdays @ RPCDEV

:: What nicknames have your muses been given? Who uses them? How does your muse feel about them? How does you muse feel about being called typical pet names (Babe, Darling, Gorgeous, Love, Sweetie, etc.)? Is it okay from certain people? Is your muse a nicknamer? Who in their life do they give nicknames to and why? ::

Manfred doesn’t have a lot of nicknames purely because he hasn’t had the chance, but “Manny” is the most common since it’s a shortening of his first name. Typically only his grandma calls him that, and he likes it because it’s familiar and reminds him of all the good times growing up.

On the rare occasion that he works with law enforcement, the nicknames are mostly derogatory in nature and gifted from cops. The most common are “Spooky”, “Miss Cleo”, “Ghost Whisperer”, “Human Ouija Board”, and more. He doesn’t really like them, but he also doesn’t care as long as he never has to see said cops again.

In terms of pet names, Manfred would be both flustered and delighted by them. Again, he doesn’t have a lot of relationships to work with on that, but even platonically, he’d be fucking feral for affectionate pet names. Babe is one nickname he’d be a little more reluctant about, and I think he’d only ever want that from a significant other.

He associates ‘Babe’ a little more strongly with romantic relationships than others, plus it’s close to Baby, and he can never decide if Babe is affectionate or infantilizing, but he’s definitely sure it’s romantic as opposed to platonic. He’d prefer not being called Babe, but he could deal with it easily enough if his partner wanted to use it.

Realistically, anything affectionately toned would be positively received by Manfred, i.e. Dumbass (affectionate), Disaster (affectionate). As long as it’s affectionate, he’s for it.

In regards to nicknames he gives people, he struggles with that aspect of socialization. He’ll often just follow the lead of others, particularly if it’s a shortening of the person’s name, such as Feej for Fiji, or Liv for Olivia. Even if he does follow that lead, he’ll often avoid doing it until he’s comfortable enough to ask that person’s permission. He never assumes he’s closer to someone than he realistically might or might now be.

[mangosmemes]

CAPYBARA SHENANIGANS PT 3.

Collected quotes from the RPC Development Tea Room Discord Server! Feel free to change wording/etc to fit your muse.

❝RUN RUN FROM THE BABYSITTER - not yet though❞ ❝I NEED SO MANY TOKENS.❞ ❝I'm expensive hired help.❞ ❝The hyper fixation is strong with me today but the braincell is fickle.❞ ❝i bet it tastes like candle wax❞ ❝[NAME] PUT THE VIBE AWAY❞ ❝I'M SO GOOD AT BREAKING THINGS❞ ❝I don't go here, I'm just the babysitter❞ ❝I recognize this cleared up nothing, but there you go. ❝I'm not a sign, I'm an omen❞ ❝I'd say "are y'all okay", but. I know you're not, so. ❝I swear to god, go to sleep❞ ❝subtlety, thy name is me❞ ❝if I got anything other than cat photos over snapchat, i'd nuke someone from orbit❞ ❝look, sometimes we gotta be extra for the drama❞ -walks back in- ❝AND ANOTHER THING, WHAT THE FUCK❞ ❝I'm a very excited Sugar Plum Fairy❞ ❝yes good. now explain what you broke.❞ ❝Remember the air holes!❞ ❝LISTEN TO THE SNEAKY INTERNET ALGORITHM❞ ❝I really really REALLY wanna try obama❞ ❝I am the rare, limited edition spouse❞ ❝yes hi i identify as shenanigans❞ ❝even the elder gods have no power in Florida❞ ❝why did that deal me psychic damage❞ ❝my accidental legacy, but yes.❞ ❝I can't be a godless whore at work.❞ ❝We’re the ones walking uninvited into the monster’s house.❞ ❝If [name] giveths [name] can taketh❞ ❝THE BABYSITTER! RUN!❞

[chcyna]

rpcdev trick or treat day 22

open / @affcgato

he’d heard the commotion the night before. so much shouting and people running, everything was so loud he could even hear it over the fierce wind that whipped the branches overhead. at first, he’d thought that he’d been found, but it hadn’t taken very long to realise that everyone was going well PAST his current hideaway. he’d managed to hold out nearly an hour after the majority of the mob had run by before his curiosity had gotten the better of him. there was something BIG going on and given that he was trying to go as unnoticed as possible, knowing what was going on and if he needed to move on is just strategically smart. 

the docks were both bustling and eerily EMPTY when he reached them finally, brows drawing down into a frown. he managed to find a group of older women clustered together, talking quietly among themselves, shirking his jacket before turning his gait into a rushed step as he yanked it back on as if just roused from his bed. they were distracted enough to not realise the ruse, filling him in on the alarm raised for two incoming ships blown off course that they were already off due to coming across each other in the dark. they had both run aground and now that the alarm had been raised, every able bodied person had rushed to the docks, taking out boats to try and find any survivors in the dark waters.

now he’s sat on the dunes having tested the winds and watching the water for a little while. the barest hint of a glow has started on the far off horizon is starting. he feels… a little guilty that he’s sat here and not out helping on the water, but he needs to take advantage of anything that washes up on shore, which should be any moment now. any supplies could be helpful in trying to survive away from civilisation until he gets far enough away that he’s not at risk being around other people.

which is why the sudden appearance of another person on the dunes startles him. the rustle of the grasses snaps his head around and he stares for a long moment. “uh… hello?”

[asoulofstars]

Fantasy Deep Dive: Roles

What role does your muse see themself in?

Riona sees herself as the caregiver. This is both because of the expectations put upon her by her parents and because of who she is naturally. In both her main verse as a faerie and in her human AUs, Riona’s parents end up putting an unreasonable amount of pressure on Riona to be the perfect daughter, and as the older sibling, it is her responsibility to care for Soll. However, Riona also put that responsibility on herself, because from the moment Soll was born, she did not want anyone else to take care of him. The only thing that she was willing to let anyone else handle for her was the breastfeeding, because she could not physically do it herself. This caregiver role was something that she wanted, and she desperately clung to it, and after Soll died, it was the only thing that she knew how to do. If she could be a caretaker, then she could prove her value to other people. So she clung to that role, she clung to that label, and she tries so hard to make sure to take care of everyone around her, and she does so at the detriment to herself. But her parents had proved to her that their love was conditional, so she needs to prove to others that she deserves their love. And if that means putting them first, then that is what she will do.

How does your muse feel about that role?

Riona defines herself by this role way more than necessary. She needs to do some serious soul searching and figure out how to take care of herself. She definitely becomes a martyr in a lot of ways for her caregiving role, and it is not something that she does on purpose, but because she is filled with so much guilt and self-loathing over Soll’s death, she believes that she deserves to suffer. She would be absolutely horrified if anyone else ever called her a martyr, but she has become a caregiver at the detriment to herself and has made a life out of self-neglect and suffering as penance.

However, this also leads to some resentment, deep down. She may not even consciously realize it. But she is pissed at her parents for letting her assume this role in a way that no child ever should have assumed the role, and she hates them for putting that kind of responsibility on her shoulders. With therapy, Riona knows that she would not carry the kind of guilt she has over Soll’s death if it weren’t for this weight on her shoulders that he was her responsibility. She was a child herself, and it never should have been her responsibility. In her faerie verses, the age gap is wider; it is twelve years apart versus the four years of the human verses. Riona has her patterns and takes care of Soll during the days when her parents are doing their own duties amongst the community. In human AUs, it is a form of parentification at its finest. She was the eldest daughter of Irish Catholic immigrants; it was expected of her to take care of the house and family. She may have accepted it and doted on Soll, but that does not change that it was not her responsibility from the start.

What role(s) do other people believe they fall into, and how do they feel about it?

Well, the entire point of the novel trilogy is that Riona is the hero because she chooses to be the hero. She will never quite see herself as the hero, but her friends and her mentor, Morrigan, do. While she will never like or enjoy the hero label, Book 2 is especially about her journey of accepting this label. She is absolutely a reluctant hero, because she feels like she is just doing the right thing, the necessary thing. She does it for the sake of everyone else, because she is a caretaker, not a hero.

Are there roles they aspire to but fall short of?

I think Riona mostly aspires to be a caretaker, and she falls short of being a caretaker in a healthy way. I think that with time and therapy and self-discovery, she absolutely can be a healthy caretaker, but that has yet to happen within her current character development.

I think that the one she really aspires to be is an explorer. And in many ways, she succeeds in this, though she would never define herself as an explorer. But I think it fuels her, especially after the events of the novel trilogy or after her closure with Soll. She needs to rediscover herself and who she is and what that means, and she needs to explore. It is why she becomes an anthropologist in human AUs, why she is a writer, and it plays a huge role in her worldview post novels.

[masterwcrk]

rpcdev's Fantasy Lounge Launch prompt - Secret Heir

🍄 :: Does your muse’s family have a well hidden (or not so well hidden) secret? Is your muse in on the secret or is it something they have yet to uncover? How has knowing, or NOT knowing, impacted your muse? (500 words)

given her entire canon is founded on a family secret or two, I should probably actually dig into what that actually means for her, how it threads through her canon, & also how it shows up in her verses so here goes.

the big secret was actually four parts;

the first act was Clary finding out about the existence of the Shadow World as a whole, something Jocelyn had spent years hiding from her by going to the warlock Magnus Bane to have an enchantment laid on her daughter that would erase all signs of the supernatural as soon as she laid eyes on them. this enchantment had to be periodically renewed, & it was only because of Magnus being out of town during a crucial moment that it lapsed enough for her to fully shed the enchantment.

the second act was finding out the father she thought was dead was actually very much alive, very much hunting her & her mother, & also the cult leader of her world's extremist faction - as well as finding out she has an older brother.

elated to both of the above, Clary also found out that said father had experimented on both her brother &, unknowingly, her, before they were born using Lilith's blood on Jonathan & the blood of the angel Ithuriel on her.

finally, this is exactly related to the last major revelation - that even among her people, she possess a unique ability because of Ithuriel's blood in that she can create new runes.

while Clary has largely adjusted to each of these revelations, each & every single one of them shook her sense of self to her very core & she's had to rebuild everything she thinks she understands about herself - sometimes multiple times over in quick succession. interestingly, out of everything, the revelations she's had the hardest time accepting fully within her canon verses is the last one -- that even among the very people she's finally found that sense of belonging that's always somewhat evaded her, she's still different & somehow other.

sometimes, it's this piece out of all of it that gets under her skin the most & largely causes her to withdraw at times or feel emotionally distanced from anyone who singles her out for her abilities & not what those abilities have actually accomplished.

this also means that she tends to punish herself via these same abilities, i.e. not using the runes she's created on herself when needed for healing or relief, or stubbornly work through things the hard way instead of taking the "expected shortcut" if she feels like someone is trying to tie her sole value to her usefulness. this is especially true in her Centurion variant, & all verses associated with it.

her fandom verses still see threads of some of the above - the revelation her father is alive & hunting her & her mother is a heart note in most if not all of her AUs, but often the revelation of her abilities don't have quite the bite they do outside of canon given that unusual abilities are more normalized in a lot of her fandom verses.