[SotP | June 2011]
State of Me: Dear God, this month. This month. Pretty much all the plans I had about getting my quieter characters out and about fell by the wayside, since my life took a turn towards the explosive, and it was difficult to focus on those voices that I can't just write in my sleep. I've already made reqs, thankfully, so I can tag at my leisure through the end of the month, but so much was a wash that I can't help but feel a little disappointed.
Next month, I'll more or less be MIA after the 17th, as I'll first be going to SDCC and then moving upon my return; while I suspect there might be some tagging, it's honestly not going to be a priority. My hope is to have all my reqs tied up before I leave, which likely means a lot of private threads that I'd prefer to start sooner rather than later.
Also, so I don't have cause to repeat myself five times, all of my characters will be involved in Rapture, but I do not have any concrete details yet. Just a lot of brainstorming.
PETER PARKER | 29 | The Amazing Spider-Man | daretodo
☢ Peter is currently living at Casa Stark & Potts, where he'll probably stay through the summer -- or at least until he's ready to brave his house again. Please note this isn't widely publicized; he hasn't technically moved out of his old place, so much as he's on vacation from it. He'll return in the near future (and then he'll have to clean all his walls and rebuild the furniture he destroyed).
☢ While only a handful of his icons reflect as much, Pete hasn't shaved in two months; he is, indeed, sporting the Beard of Sorrow.
☢ Upon finally realizing that he can't spend every waking hour trying to find a way off the Island, because his brain's more or less wired to multitask and work under extreme pressure, he's back to doing some of the side projects he abandoned last month, as well as doing some training with Steve Rogers. What's interesting to me is how differently Pete acts with Cap versus with Tony. Tony's very much the bro. He feeds into Pete's arrogance, compels him to acknowledge his strengths more so than his weaknesses, because Peter kinda wants to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak, and he knows he can't do so intellectually or technologically. What he has that Tony doesn't is experience, so he talks himself up a lot (which will probably come to bite him in the ass later, but it's a side of him I enjoy getting to play); Tony's really taken up Johnny's role, since he's the only other person Pete was likewise as frank and egotistical around. With Cap, however, he's more easily intimidated (and therefore more likely to go on the defensive, and prone to underselling himself). While Pete's incapable of truly seeing himself as an equal to Tony, they have a lot more in common. Cap's just this untouchable paragon of good, and makes Pete feel simultaneously good about himself and like, well, a chump. Anyway, long story short, Cap and Tony are fulfilling very different, but very vital needs right now.
☢ Eventually, I'd like to get him threading with some more women again -- not for romantic pursuits, I should add, he's done with love on the island, period -- because his circle's getting a bit testosterone heavy. That said, I have a bunch of plots for him in the works, which means the likelihood of me EPing him in the next couple of months is slim to none, so I guess this is more a note for me to remember next month.
☢ As mentioned in Merr's SotP, Norman might be making a return appearance, which is incredibly exciting to me; it's something we've sort of talked about since the last Osborn Plot (which is part of the reason why he had an alias, so we could bring him back again). Should everything work out, it'll likely mark the end of Peter's more... vocal grieving process, shall we say, and bring him back around to his normal self through the most traumatizing of ways. At present, he's still very angry, very raw. There are glimpses of Normal Pete, he's more likely to crack a joke, but for the most part, he's just in a very dark place, and I think being faced with something a lot darker will snap him out of it, and get him to pull himself out of the hole he keeps digging, because there's really no one else who can. If it doesn't work out, I will... Have to find something else, but fingers crossed!
JAMIE MADROX | 31 | X-Factor | howmanylives
♛ With Rapture in July and this month sort of slipping away from me, Jamie's item -- which has been approved! -- has been bumped back to August.
♛ Which means there's not much to report on his front, though Mala and I were discussing something the other day that really makes me want to devise a very intricate kind of plot down the line that speaks to Jamie's strengths as a character. He's at his most badass when he's orchestrating very elaborate (but contained) type schemes, so it's a matter of trying to figure something out on that front that can still allow for player collaboration, even if Jamie would necessarily be taking point. Whatever I come up with will probably have to be planned well in advance, anyway, but I'm currently at a loss for even a base idea to start as a foundation. I might need to borrow someone to think at. Maybe for October. That'd give me plenty of time to pull something together.
♛ Also, if I say I'm gonna tag you with Jamie, please don't let me flake out on you. There were so many EPs that I wanted to throw him in, but then got side-tracked, so this needs to stop.
BUCKY BARNES | 86 | Captain America | onlyapassenger
✪ God, so much went down for Bucky this month, I'm not even sure where to begin. There's Natalia's arrival, of course, which introduces a slight, but significant shift to his character, since I've never played him involved with anyone up until this point. Then there's Jason's growing attitude problem (that more or less makes Bucky roll his eyes, admittedly, because he has never and will never entertain that kind of behaviour) and pregnancy scare with Lux (that Bucky doesn't want to know about at all, because babies are entirely foreign to him with the exception of, like, Dani Cage).
Then, of course, there is Steve Rogers, with whom Bucky fought, and it's very rare that I like something I've written to the point where I'll actually reread it, but I am very proud of that post-truth plot thread; I think I did some good work there (Mala, of course, just always does good work, and everyone should tag Steve all the time, because he's phenomenal).
✪ There'll be some business with the shield going on, once Steve gets it back from Tony (backstory: it was Kate Bishop's item a couple years ago, since she was one of the more vocal proponents of no one except Steve Rogers carrying it back during Fallen Son, and it fell into Tony's care following her disappearance), so Bucky'll have that in his arsenal for a while, until Steve retakes the mantle down the line. My one hope is for Bucky to do something as Captain America that goes well -- not from start to finish, because that'd be boring, but that he can have that moment that makes people realize why he was the right man for the job. That'll be a plot that gets pulled together down the line, though, so I'm not too focused on that for the moment, except for in a vague way.
✪ And, despite saying I wasn't gonna talk about Rapture because those details are still up in the air, I'd really like for someone to take notice of how well he and Steve fight together during that plot, because, dude, it'd be like watching living history. If not in Rapture, then somewhere, because they should be given their due. (This is a thing for me, I guess, ensuring that characters get their due, and I think it's part of the reason why I'm frustrated about Jamie right now, because I haven't been able to give him his, and he deserves it just as much as the rest of mine.)
MATT MURDOCK | 33 | Daredevil | hasnobullets
⠲ Is still settling in, which I keep needing to remind myself is okay, because he was always going to have a bit of trouble finding a niche on the Island -- that was, in fact, part of the reason I apped him in the first place. That said, I'm insanely glad to have Natasha around, since she's more of a canonmate than anyone else presently on the island -- while we have a lot of Marvels, it's important to realize that most of them aren't buddies with each other in canon so much as they're simply aware of each other's existence -- and that's solidifying him a bit in my head.
⠲ On that note, I should really do a one-shot with him and Peter, since they'd... Be interacting a lot more if they were played by two different people instead of just me, and I shouldn't let my own dislike for pupsterbating get in the way of that dynamic. They're both from a point where they weren't particularly close -- Matt purposefully pushed everyone away for a year, and Pete's from the tail end of that -- so they don't need to be BFF, but I think they could probably stand for some more on-screen interaction.
⠲ Annnd here comes the awkward part of this SotP! Shipping is not a priority for me, it's not something I need to enjoy RP (and UST is often more interesting, anyway), but. But. Matt needs to meet more ladies. Ladies to flirt with and ladies to charm and just... Ladies. And I've been hesitant to really throw him out there, because I know both how all his relationships end and that he's a mess of issues, but I really shouldn't let my knowledge as a player affect his actions as a character. At present, he has a few crushes (that he would not call crushes, but) that he'd never act on, but I'd like him to start getting his flirt on some more, because... He should. Serial monogamist that he is, he's a flirt. In the words of Mark Waid, "He is a very open and empathetic man who'll listen to your troubles. Women know that if he's attracted to them, it's not because of the superficial. It's not because of how they look. How could it be? It's because of who they are. Plus, Matt's exciting. He's charming, he's confident, and any woman can tell just by watching how he touches things or how he eats a meal or smells a flower that he's unbelievably sensual. That's hot." So that's something I should get on. Volunteers and private threads are welcome, since there's no telling who he'll click with.
THOR ODINSON | OLD | Thor | havenoplans
⚡ NOTE TO SELF: Thor needs to find Mjolnir before Rapture goes down in earnest, so I think I might EP him on the 1st, and get that out of the way. This will also help the fact that I never got around to EPing him this month, due to the aforementioned life exploding. Upon finding Mjolnir (and after Rapture settles down), he'll probably build himself a sweet house -- Mjolnir is, after all, a tool to build -- and then the Big Three Avengers can all have awesome houses that fit their personalities~
⚡ He and Jane are... Well, I hesitate to say seeing each other, because Thor's just never gonna up and say, "This is my girlfriend Jane," (mostly because that's just not a term they'd use in Asgard, not because he's a womanizer, the man does not have commitment issues, he's just from a different world, with different ways of going about things), but they kiss. They're kissing. They're... kissers.
But the way I see Thor is this: he's not oblivious to the effect he has on women. The man's arrogant as hell; he knows. What makes him endearing, though, is the fact that he doesn't particularly care. He doesn't let it affect his behaviour; he just goes about his own business, because, frankly, he's the God of Thunder, and no one's gonna get him down.
⚡ Depending on approval, we maaaaaaay be getting a Loki next month, so, you know, THERE'S THAT, that's the big one. Lil bro onna Island, we have some ideas for an action-packed debut, it could be fun times.
⚡ Basically, my goals with Thor are a little less concrete than they are the rest of my characters. I just want to throw him at people, and have him be super friendly and without any ulterior motive, because that's how he rolls. Unfortunately, however, he's so different from everyone else I play that I am constantly worrying about him. While I'm sure this will fade over time, I am still very much in second-guessing mode, particularly when it comes to dialogue.
CHARLES XAVIER | 30 | X-Men: First Class | thebettermen
⚛ Yes, I'm going with the film version. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from the practical -- I already have four characters who get a shitload of new canon every month, I don't have the time to upkeep canon knowledge on a fifth at that frequency -- to the less practical -- I like Xavier's personality in the film better.
⚛ I hope to have his app in on the 1st, because I think I'd like to debut him in Rapture itself (which would honestly be his entire contribution to that plot, but I like to hit the ground running). That said, I haven't really spoken to anyone about this yet, so I don't have any ideas for who'd find him. A part of me wonders if it wouldn't be funny for Sean Cassidy or Wolverine to find him, ha. Or, conversely, someone entirely unrelated to the Marvelverse, to branch out right from the get-go. Whoever finds him, though -- and obviously this is dependent on me both finishing this app and it being approved -- I'd like it to be a small group to keep things moving apace, especially since I won't be around much in the latter half of the month. Speed will be a factor.