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Tanks and atoms bombs explode, but I can only hear your voice
TOOK ME A FEW DAYS BUT I GOT MORE ANSWERS UP.
I should just make a disclaimer - for the next three weeks, I'm going to be a psycho and likely very useless due to the impending move. I need to figure out my health insurance situation tomorrow D: Also, even though I requested less work time this week, they keep on piling on surprise! hours for me this weekend. Gaaaaaaaaaaaah. IT WILL BE OVER IN A FEW DAYS AT LEAST.
17. Favorite protagonist and why?
Tie between Warren and Deon - this is actually because both of them are originated from one old RP character whom I loved but had to abandon, Leonard, though clearly they've each deviated into their own characters. Very obviously I find protagonists who have major personality issues to be incredibly interesting to play, and neither of these guys are short on self-sabotague, which I think is a much better antagonist than the Evil Overlord sort of antagonist. Warren in particular - with his mouth, I'm not sure how he gets by a day without getting beaten within his life by wooden spoons.
Would have labeled them as antagonists, as they pretty much antagonize EVERYONE, but well, both of them do have strong moral centers that keep their actions a lot more agreeable than their personalities and behavior. Deon in particular surprises me with his determination to keep up the fight, which he would always do even if he has to do it alone.
Those two are part of a laundry-list of characters I would love to adapt into novel heroes one day XD Roimata and Galen are two other strong candidates for that as well (Roimata actually resembles the male protagonist of a novel I'm developing, so...)
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
I am still incredibly fascinated by Liam (my Tam Lin character in Gesma), and pretty disturbed by how perfectly I think he turned out. He's on the (shorter) laundry list of characters whom I would use as antagonists - in fact, for my Pandora novel which I'm kicking around, he's basically doubling as my Eros character too. Mulli, who was the first female character I've made in a hella long time, also stunned me with how clearly I imagined her, and the sheer ruthlessness and anger I was able to channel into her. I'm still hella disappointed that we got to go nowhere with the Mulli - Xi ARCHRIVALS OF DOOOOOOOOM. That was so fun :<
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
Shockingly? GALEN.
Well. more accurately, my proto-Galen character named Hiram, from my 2004 Nano Sleepers Awake. He was supposed to be a very background, stock SCARY MUSCLED GUY WITH A MOTORCYCLE, CHAINS AROUND HIS FISTS, AND A SCOWL character, really only included cause his girlfriend was one of the central characters.
Well it turns out the scary!guy was starting to act very thoughtfully and carefully. And developed an amazingly cute rapport with his girlfriend. And offered the main characters downright practical advice and steady physical help during conflicts. Most astounding - the female lead character was my distinguished "healer" of the group (though that wasn't quite her true power, but they didn't know that at first), but it was HIRAM who was the most interested in aiding the other characters, setting bandages, sitting at bedsides, etc etc. So my supposed boarish-muscle man became this thoughtful, critical, concerned character who really ended up overshadowing the rest of the cast in depth very quickly.
So when I decided to give ANCD a chance at application, I thought adapting Hiram to the role of Asiel would be a perfect fit, and would let me get more chances to explore him.
Also related to ANCD - for the first two years, it was my conviction that nobody cared about Onayepheton because he was merely my PC's brother, rather than a lover/child (since those were the most popularized NPC chars in that game....oh Beacon City). So he really got shafted on everything for a long time.....but when I decided to bring him to the forefront when I attempted the New York City side-adventure RP, and I was REALLY shocked at how well everyone liked him, and how fascinated I was by this character who I thought was a dead-end street.
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
One theme people probably notice is that I often do stories as 'set-ups': one character is the 'straight man' (normally one of my primary chars), and I use a different character to point out ironic/hypocritical/ridiculous points in the primary's beliefs or actions. Most of my stories, in fact, are often restricted to one or two characters at a time, just because it is easier to highlight interactions that way.
I love love love writing family interactions a lot (see Question 21), generally between nuclear family members (I rarely write about grandparents or aunts/uncles/cousins). As I love to follow the evolution of relationships, you do see a lot of stories between my character and characters who are in development of strong friendships (Val and Loni being one example of that), or the romantic relationships that start slow and only get put together one small revelation at a time.
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
I. LOVE. WRITING CHILDREN. SO MUCH.
Most of the time, I am writing my own characters as they were as children - this is ridiculously joyful for me and I find it really interesting to see how a character was as a child, just to help illustrate their evolution as a person. I have to try SO SO HARD to hold back and not write more of this sort of story, cause obv. it loses impact after a while. My favorite RPs of "character when they were a child!" was Warren and Quinn in the 'Little Women' short story. Warren was a fucking adorable child, what went wrong? Angie and I had also done a story of Galen and Devo as kids, meeting at the hospital, and I could have died from the cuteness of it all. In terms of short stories, the best solo I did was toddler!Vay and his mother, when Vay was first trying to walk as a human. Really, all of my chars have stories of them as children, even if I haven't finished/posted them.
Okay now for the real question.
Canon-wise, Vay and Portia have a child, and I have one or two characters who have future!AU children. I love writing Vay as a father, and writing Guadalupe as well (she has a fully-formed personality in my head, and I am quite certain of what type of woman she will grow up into), and I'm pretty sure I pull off both well. For future!AU stuff, like Beacon City or one of the dozens Kingdom AUs, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to write my characters as parents, though Angie and I had a good talk about it on Sunday (Deon I imagine is a sort of Jekyll and Hyde dad - sometimes all about being fun and teaching the kids how to trick other people (er, particularly training them to cause trouble for other parents while out on playdates), but can quite suddenly put his foot down and be firm when it suits him. Rae I have trouble imagining getting married and having oodles of babies, but I can imagine her as a put-together single mom. Val would be a late-starter, but when he does he'll be a freaking adorable dad.) I would like to have more parent characters in the future, but the problem in RP in figuring out how to fit a child into the character's battles/life/drama/fantastic adventure. So I don't know XD
Something that is almost on-topic was that the other day at work, I was throwing around ideas for a fantasy story revolving around a pregnant woman, who is put in the role of stereotypical HERO OF THE STORY WHO WILL SAVE THE WORLD WITH A SWORD OF DESTINY but she is obviously worried about other things as well, and in a more delicate condition than most heroes (even though she is the type to feverishly deny any weakness in herself.)
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
*thinks*
...For Kingdom I do think quite seriously on a YGO! AU on occasion, plotting out what kind of decks I think characters would have, which characters would be Duel Runners (characters who play games on motorcycles vs. play standard), what the bikes look like, what the ridiculous outfits look like, who might be on duel teams, motivations for dueling, etc etc. I know that this is an AU that only I might be able to love and appreciate, so I keep the details to myself. And it's only for Kingdom because it is the only RPG I'm in that can even slightly remotely even START to cross-over well to YGO. And even that is not a perfect match, but I really wish I had a workable YGO!AU somewhere :<
(Pixie, if you are curious, I do imagine Dusty as being a big name in the motorcycle/card game circuit. I'm sure he's flattered.)
Most of my shame is AU! based, really. I blame work, which leaves me with just enough braincells for thoughts that ROFL, as opposed to serious business brainstorming while I'm on the job. Future AU!s get a lot of speculation too.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
Absolutely depends. You see me shoot off 31 Days stories within hours, but those are often uneditted and short. I have considerably more trouble writing longer pieces these days - something that is 2-4K words might take me a few days to a week, if I really have fire under my ass over it. Unfortunately, a lot of it remains in a half-finished state. I feel like the stories that I finish in a frenzy - most recently, the Riptide story I did for Kingdom - tend to be my better pieces, and I think that might be because a lack of inhibition while I write frenzied.
Typically I do not plan out my stories, even the Nano novels. And if I do plan, I find that my notes don't help me much XD To me, it feels like drawing up a map of Korea, then having to parachute in and fight a war there. For longer pieces, I rely most on my strength in character creation. If my characters have well-developed logic and motivations, then they know what to do, and I can trust them to guide the story.
ALSO I JUST BOUGHT FANIME TICKETS, GO ME I'M AWESOME.
Tonight: a walk, soup, Ru Paul's Drag Race, and Pride and Prejudice. In that order.
I should just make a disclaimer - for the next three weeks, I'm going to be a psycho and likely very useless due to the impending move. I need to figure out my health insurance situation tomorrow D: Also, even though I requested less work time this week, they keep on piling on surprise! hours for me this weekend. Gaaaaaaaaaaaah. IT WILL BE OVER IN A FEW DAYS AT LEAST.
17. Favorite protagonist and why?
Tie between Warren and Deon - this is actually because both of them are originated from one old RP character whom I loved but had to abandon, Leonard, though clearly they've each deviated into their own characters. Very obviously I find protagonists who have major personality issues to be incredibly interesting to play, and neither of these guys are short on self-sabotague, which I think is a much better antagonist than the Evil Overlord sort of antagonist. Warren in particular - with his mouth, I'm not sure how he gets by a day without getting beaten within his life by wooden spoons.
Would have labeled them as antagonists, as they pretty much antagonize EVERYONE, but well, both of them do have strong moral centers that keep their actions a lot more agreeable than their personalities and behavior. Deon in particular surprises me with his determination to keep up the fight, which he would always do even if he has to do it alone.
Those two are part of a laundry-list of characters I would love to adapt into novel heroes one day XD Roimata and Galen are two other strong candidates for that as well (Roimata actually resembles the male protagonist of a novel I'm developing, so...)
18. Favorite antagonist and why!
I am still incredibly fascinated by Liam (my Tam Lin character in Gesma), and pretty disturbed by how perfectly I think he turned out. He's on the (shorter) laundry list of characters whom I would use as antagonists - in fact, for my Pandora novel which I'm kicking around, he's basically doubling as my Eros character too. Mulli, who was the first female character I've made in a hella long time, also stunned me with how clearly I imagined her, and the sheer ruthlessness and anger I was able to channel into her. I'm still hella disappointed that we got to go nowhere with the Mulli - Xi ARCHRIVALS OF DOOOOOOOOM. That was so fun :<
19. Favorite minor that decided to shove himself into the spotlight and why!
Shockingly? GALEN.
Well. more accurately, my proto-Galen character named Hiram, from my 2004 Nano Sleepers Awake. He was supposed to be a very background, stock SCARY MUSCLED GUY WITH A MOTORCYCLE, CHAINS AROUND HIS FISTS, AND A SCOWL character, really only included cause his girlfriend was one of the central characters.
Well it turns out the scary!guy was starting to act very thoughtfully and carefully. And developed an amazingly cute rapport with his girlfriend. And offered the main characters downright practical advice and steady physical help during conflicts. Most astounding - the female lead character was my distinguished "healer" of the group (though that wasn't quite her true power, but they didn't know that at first), but it was HIRAM who was the most interested in aiding the other characters, setting bandages, sitting at bedsides, etc etc. So my supposed boarish-muscle man became this thoughtful, critical, concerned character who really ended up overshadowing the rest of the cast in depth very quickly.
So when I decided to give ANCD a chance at application, I thought adapting Hiram to the role of Asiel would be a perfect fit, and would let me get more chances to explore him.
Also related to ANCD - for the first two years, it was my conviction that nobody cared about Onayepheton because he was merely my PC's brother, rather than a lover/child (since those were the most popularized NPC chars in that game....oh Beacon City). So he really got shafted on everything for a long time.....but when I decided to bring him to the forefront when I attempted the New York City side-adventure RP, and I was REALLY shocked at how well everyone liked him, and how fascinated I was by this character who I thought was a dead-end street.
20. What are your favorite character interactions to write?
One theme people probably notice is that I often do stories as 'set-ups': one character is the 'straight man' (normally one of my primary chars), and I use a different character to point out ironic/hypocritical/ridiculous points in the primary's beliefs or actions. Most of my stories, in fact, are often restricted to one or two characters at a time, just because it is easier to highlight interactions that way.
I love love love writing family interactions a lot (see Question 21), generally between nuclear family members (I rarely write about grandparents or aunts/uncles/cousins). As I love to follow the evolution of relationships, you do see a lot of stories between my character and characters who are in development of strong friendships (Val and Loni being one example of that), or the romantic relationships that start slow and only get put together one small revelation at a time.
21. Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?
I. LOVE. WRITING CHILDREN. SO MUCH.
Most of the time, I am writing my own characters as they were as children - this is ridiculously joyful for me and I find it really interesting to see how a character was as a child, just to help illustrate their evolution as a person. I have to try SO SO HARD to hold back and not write more of this sort of story, cause obv. it loses impact after a while. My favorite RPs of "character when they were a child!" was Warren and Quinn in the 'Little Women' short story. Warren was a fucking adorable child, what went wrong? Angie and I had also done a story of Galen and Devo as kids, meeting at the hospital, and I could have died from the cuteness of it all. In terms of short stories, the best solo I did was toddler!Vay and his mother, when Vay was first trying to walk as a human. Really, all of my chars have stories of them as children, even if I haven't finished/posted them.
Okay now for the real question.
Canon-wise, Vay and Portia have a child, and I have one or two characters who have future!AU children. I love writing Vay as a father, and writing Guadalupe as well (she has a fully-formed personality in my head, and I am quite certain of what type of woman she will grow up into), and I'm pretty sure I pull off both well. For future!AU stuff, like Beacon City or one of the dozens Kingdom AUs, I haven't had a lot of opportunity to write my characters as parents, though Angie and I had a good talk about it on Sunday (Deon I imagine is a sort of Jekyll and Hyde dad - sometimes all about being fun and teaching the kids how to trick other people (er, particularly training them to cause trouble for other parents while out on playdates), but can quite suddenly put his foot down and be firm when it suits him. Rae I have trouble imagining getting married and having oodles of babies, but I can imagine her as a put-together single mom. Val would be a late-starter, but when he does he'll be a freaking adorable dad.) I would like to have more parent characters in the future, but the problem in RP in figuring out how to fit a child into the character's battles/life/drama/fantastic adventure. So I don't know XD
Something that is almost on-topic was that the other day at work, I was throwing around ideas for a fantasy story revolving around a pregnant woman, who is put in the role of stereotypical HERO OF THE STORY WHO WILL SAVE THE WORLD WITH A SWORD OF DESTINY but she is obviously worried about other things as well, and in a more delicate condition than most heroes (even though she is the type to feverishly deny any weakness in herself.)
22. Tell us about one scene between your characters that you've never written or told anyone about before! Serious or not.
*thinks*
...For Kingdom I do think quite seriously on a YGO! AU on occasion, plotting out what kind of decks I think characters would have, which characters would be Duel Runners (characters who play games on motorcycles vs. play standard), what the bikes look like, what the ridiculous outfits look like, who might be on duel teams, motivations for dueling, etc etc. I know that this is an AU that only I might be able to love and appreciate, so I keep the details to myself. And it's only for Kingdom because it is the only RPG I'm in that can even slightly remotely even START to cross-over well to YGO. And even that is not a perfect match, but I really wish I had a workable YGO!AU somewhere :<
(Pixie, if you are curious, I do imagine Dusty as being a big name in the motorcycle/card game circuit. I'm sure he's flattered.)
Most of my shame is AU! based, really. I blame work, which leaves me with just enough braincells for thoughts that ROFL, as opposed to serious business brainstorming while I'm on the job. Future AU!s get a lot of speculation too.
23. How long does it usually take you to complete an entire story—from planning to writing to posting (if you post your work)?
Absolutely depends. You see me shoot off 31 Days stories within hours, but those are often uneditted and short. I have considerably more trouble writing longer pieces these days - something that is 2-4K words might take me a few days to a week, if I really have fire under my ass over it. Unfortunately, a lot of it remains in a half-finished state. I feel like the stories that I finish in a frenzy - most recently, the Riptide story I did for Kingdom - tend to be my better pieces, and I think that might be because a lack of inhibition while I write frenzied.
Typically I do not plan out my stories, even the Nano novels. And if I do plan, I find that my notes don't help me much XD To me, it feels like drawing up a map of Korea, then having to parachute in and fight a war there. For longer pieces, I rely most on my strength in character creation. If my characters have well-developed logic and motivations, then they know what to do, and I can trust them to guide the story.
ALSO I JUST BOUGHT FANIME TICKETS, GO ME I'M AWESOME.
Tonight: a walk, soup, Ru Paul's Drag Race, and Pride and Prejudice. In that order.