(( further fuckery ))
So on IRC we were talking about our characters, their voices, their relative difficulty to play, etc. And sometimes I'm boring and chatty and long-winded, so here's a post about it! 8D Also, I have class tomorrow but it's the last day of vacation and my schedule's messed up and I can't sleep JOOOOOOOY~.
So here, have some babble. I'LL GO IN ORDER.
Chisame is relatively easy to play. I mean, she should be by now, I've been playing her for like 9 months. XD (8?) I used to worry a lot about her ICness, and I still do, but not so much anymore; she's being developed in the very recent manga, and luckily it's along the same path as I've been taking her in camp. She's adapting to the "bizarre" very very quickly for someone who claims to hate it (she remarks upon this herself--"Wait, have I already accepted this magic stuff?!"), has shown herself capable of joking and making sort-of-friends with "weirdos" like Chachamaru, and feels attached to and protective of Negi's personality almost against her will, as she has with similar characters here in camp (Ueki especially, Raenef, Hana, etc.). There's a bit I need to work on. Making her a little more confident, although still not overly so, and I also play her as a bit too socially retarded. XD It's true that she's bad with people and awkward, but she has some interesting insights about their interaction, too (provided it doesn't involve her), and is capable of giving good advice. I also don't play her violent or assertive enough. But all in all, her ICness doesn't bother me the way it used to. I made the right calls with her for the most part, and I'm kinda proud.
Chisame's voice is a lot like mine. This is probably why she's easy to play. She's a minor character who's similar to me, and so I worry sometimes that I'm projecting my own humor or outlook on to her. Occasionally in a thread I'll get confused as to who exactly I'm playing. XD This is a sort of natural extension of 1. our similar personalities, 2. the fact that I need to fill in minor facts about her, and 3. the fact that I've played her so much for so long. So, like. Threads like the other day's thread with Chizuru about the song "Sister Christian." I've stopped worrying about whether stuff like that is OMG TOTALLY IC FOR HER TO JOKE ABOUT 80S LOVE BALLADS! because--there's no way of knowing. Chisame's not a major enough character that we know her taste in music, or even how she talks to her friends. In canon, she HAS no friends, except for possibly Zazie and Yue to a minor extent and now, VERY recently, Chachamaru. So I've stopped worrying about throwing in jokes like that for the most part. Chisame's snarky, she's online all the time and presumably knows about pop culture and popular opinion, her series is current, and so on. And so in these ways--Chisame's voice is VERY close to being mine. Not close enough that it makes her difficult to play, but if I'm anyone in this RP, it's her, and she's the one who gets all my borderline OOC commentary.
There ARE times when she's very hard to maintain, and the reason has to do with her personality. Chisame's someone who cares what other people think of her. And her self-esteem isn't omg awesome. So sometimes she'll begin feeling inadequate in a conversation, and will suddenly drop the thread--hahaha you've probably all noticed me doing this. 8D There are people in camp that she worries a lot about laughing at her behind her back, or feels intellectually or socially inferior to, and if they seem amused or disinterested during a conversation she'll be completely at a loss as to what to say next. Robert comes to mind especially--Chisame likes him and thinks he's intelligent and interesting, but usually when she talks to him she ends up at some point suddenly thinking " . . . D: He doesn't like me!" When that happens, she doesn't have the balls to press any further, and will drop out of posts like a stone. This also happens with people like Near and Russel (whose confidence intimidates her a little, but she's gotten a LOT more comfortable around him), Kabuto, any of the counselors. When Chisame suddenly drops a thread on you, that's almost always the reason why. She can't think of anything "good" to say and has started second-guessing herself. Her threads don't last as long as those of my other characters for that reason. Tomo has an endless supply of conversation, Eva will talk to you for hours provided you're interesting to her (I think Athrun and I kept a thread going for like 8 hours once, heh) and don't "end" the conversation, and Chao always has questions if you seem willing to answer them. Chisame has snark, and when she feels it failing her, she's out of there. This doesn't mean she'll never talk to you again (she continues to approach people like Robert and Russel and hell she LIVES with Near), or REALLY thinks you hate her, but she's very sensitive to things like facial expressions and clipped answers.
Evangeline is . . . sort of middling to play. She's smarter than me, so she takes some effort. XD But in a way, her tone is sort of like "older and obscenely confident Chisame." She has the same snark and the same sense of "oh ho ho what treefuckery is THIS happening to these silly campers now?" But unlike Chisame, she has the boundless confidence not to back down from that. And she also has the tact not to actually come out and say it, much of the time. Evangeline is a quiet person unless she knows you very well. It's only then that she'll approach you to chat. And she has no real desire to get to KNOW many people very well. Eva likes attention, recognition, and company, but she's also limitlessly capable of going without it, and she's picky about where she seeks it. You have to either amuse her quite a bit or have earned her respect.
That's where most of my trouble playing her, such as it is, comes in: motivation. Not my own motivation to PLAY her, but the character's motivation to BE PLAYED. Despite the fact that I rarely play her, I have no plans to drop her, and I'm very attached to her. It's not that I have big problems playing her or worry about her characterization much. It's that there's rarely a reason to bring her out. She's not the sort to greet new campers, offer advice to the camp at large (she DOES love hearing herself talk, but she DOESN'T love looking like she's a nice person), freak out at the latest camp virus/event, or take a great deal of interest in . . . anything else. She watches things very carefully, keeps tabs, but it's hard to develop relationships with a character who has no driving urge to do so.
All the same, she DOES have relationships, such as they are, and . . . the frequency with which I play her doesn't bother me that much. I should play her more often, I know. I'm going to try to. But she's never going to spam, and that's okay. I love her and feel comfortable with her--she can sit on the back burner if it's more IC and my time is limited. |D
That said, if there's anything anyone wants to do with her or anyone they think she should meet, let me know, and I'll DEFINITELY whip her out. ♥
Tomo is . . . ahahah. This should be obvious. Tomo is ridiculously easy to play. I can log her in and play with her for hours straight without boring myself. She's the quickest to respond and the most likely to reply to ANY random post in camp and meet five new people in a night and continue to pester them forever. She's the easiest to come up with post ideas for--I have like half a dozen posts waiting in the wings and I think of more all the time. I don't worry about her characterization, for the most part, beyond MAYBE one minor issue regarding her intelligence vs. her voice.
. . . There are a few reasons for this! |D
Basically, to get Tomo's voice, I just turn off the filter between my mind and my mouth (typin' fingers whatever). I should probably be a bit disturbed by this. XD The first thing I think of is what I post, provided that I'm in the mindset. Because really, I can be a retard at times. Yesterday Tomo had a "AM NOT! AM TOO! AM NOT!" type of thread with Ash, and there was a bit where she was like "AM TOO! . . . I MEAN, AM TOO! . . . WAIT, THAT'S WHAT I SAID! I'm confused." That mistake wasn't deliberate. XD If I don't check myself, I will say incredibly stupid and/or cracky things just out of nowhere. I tend to randomly tell my mother that I'm going to bite her face off and such without even thinking about it! So any response you get from Tomo is usually the first unchecked thing that popped into my head, with minor alterations for ICness and relationship context. The same goes for making posts. This is surprisingly easy to maintain and fun to play with. In a way, it's a shaking off of everything NORMAL I do in my daily life. |D
Another thing about Tomo is that she's easy to KEEP a thread going with. She has those rare qualities of 1. not caring what anyone thinks of her (or more precisely: she cares, she wants to be liked, but not enough so that she'll EVER consider changing her behavior or exercising tact), 2. being unable to pick up on certain social norms of conversation, and 3. genuinely loving talking to people. And so a conversation that would be OVER for any of my other characters can keep going for 25 more comments with her. Like, for example, it'd sort of go . . .
Chisame: And that's what my school is like.
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Chisame: [ . . . I bored him . . . geez, I was stupid, talking about all that crap in front of someone I barely know, what does HE care? I'll just . . . mn.] Ah . . . I'd better . . . yeah. I'll see you around, if you . . . want.
Evangeline: And that's what my school is like.
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Evangeline: [has already forgotten about you because you're boring her by not bantering or reacting, bye.]
Chao: And that's what my school is like.
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Chao: [he's not volunteering any information, I see. obviously this conversation's basically over, judging by his tone; no reason to invest any more in it. but I do like him and he knows something, so maybe another time.] It was really nice meeting you, and thanks for the help! ♥ See you around, okay? Bye!
Tomo: And THAT'S what my school is like!
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Tomo: You bet! School's boring though, but the people were fun to mess with!
Camper X: Ah.
Tomo: You're pretty quiet, huh? Kinda like Sakaki! You like cats?
Camper X: . . . I guess so.
Tomo: Sakaki loves cats. What's up with that? I have a dog at home, so I can't have cats.
Camper X: . . .
Tomo: What's up with your hairdo?
Camper X: . . .
Tomo: Hey, your icon changed!
And so on and so on. XD This is why Tomo gets on with people like Itachi and Kimimaro. She likes either people she can talk at, like them, or people who will react explosively, like Ed and Ash. . . . Really, Tomo just likes people in general! It's also why she's easy to play. She's not preoccupied with coming off well, gaining anything from conversation, or being actively entertained by the other party. She's just talkative and thinks everyone will OBVIOUSLY be interested in what she has to say. OF COURSE THEY WILL, RIGHT?
She does drop conversations, but only if SHE'S gotten bored or can't think of anything else to babble on about, which does happen.
Chao I'm, you know, still working on because she's BRAND NEW~. Her voice is difficult so far, but some of that is because I'm breaking her in. It also has to do with the still-mysterious nature of her character, which is all up in the post over on elemntsinharmny. It's necessary to balance her between being cute and a genius, secretive and open, trustworthy and conniving, friendly and cutting. Because these are all traits she displays at various points in the manga. Her way of speaking itself isn't strong with me yet--I have to try hard not to make it too much like Evangeline, whom I would also consider a genius in specific areas of life by sheer virtue of experience (and, well, being intelligent). Her speech in the manga doesn't really come across as "I'M A SCIENTIFIC GENIUS" all the time. She sounds like a fairly ordinary girl unless you get her going on something. I need to work on that while still making it clear that she IS intelligent.
Right now she's curious about the camp and the people. Very curious. So that's what she's doing--poking around. But in some ways she's also an ordinary girl, and I need to start playing with that a little more too. I mean, we do see her chillin' with Hakase and Ku Fei and such just as a teenage chick, NOT as a scientist. Sometimes I forget that.
There's not much to write until I do more with her. I need to set aside plenty of time this week to play her and develop her in my own mind, because it's important to get off to a good start. |D I've liked her a lot so far! I just need to get comfortable in her skin and confident in playing her as a 3-D character. ♥
So here, have some babble. I'LL GO IN ORDER.
Chisame is relatively easy to play. I mean, she should be by now, I've been playing her for like 9 months. XD (8?) I used to worry a lot about her ICness, and I still do, but not so much anymore; she's being developed in the very recent manga, and luckily it's along the same path as I've been taking her in camp. She's adapting to the "bizarre" very very quickly for someone who claims to hate it (she remarks upon this herself--"Wait, have I already accepted this magic stuff?!"), has shown herself capable of joking and making sort-of-friends with "weirdos" like Chachamaru, and feels attached to and protective of Negi's personality almost against her will, as she has with similar characters here in camp (Ueki especially, Raenef, Hana, etc.). There's a bit I need to work on. Making her a little more confident, although still not overly so, and I also play her as a bit too socially retarded. XD It's true that she's bad with people and awkward, but she has some interesting insights about their interaction, too (provided it doesn't involve her), and is capable of giving good advice. I also don't play her violent or assertive enough. But all in all, her ICness doesn't bother me the way it used to. I made the right calls with her for the most part, and I'm kinda proud.
Chisame's voice is a lot like mine. This is probably why she's easy to play. She's a minor character who's similar to me, and so I worry sometimes that I'm projecting my own humor or outlook on to her. Occasionally in a thread I'll get confused as to who exactly I'm playing. XD This is a sort of natural extension of 1. our similar personalities, 2. the fact that I need to fill in minor facts about her, and 3. the fact that I've played her so much for so long. So, like. Threads like the other day's thread with Chizuru about the song "Sister Christian." I've stopped worrying about whether stuff like that is OMG TOTALLY IC FOR HER TO JOKE ABOUT 80S LOVE BALLADS! because--there's no way of knowing. Chisame's not a major enough character that we know her taste in music, or even how she talks to her friends. In canon, she HAS no friends, except for possibly Zazie and Yue to a minor extent and now, VERY recently, Chachamaru. So I've stopped worrying about throwing in jokes like that for the most part. Chisame's snarky, she's online all the time and presumably knows about pop culture and popular opinion, her series is current, and so on. And so in these ways--Chisame's voice is VERY close to being mine. Not close enough that it makes her difficult to play, but if I'm anyone in this RP, it's her, and she's the one who gets all my borderline OOC commentary.
There ARE times when she's very hard to maintain, and the reason has to do with her personality. Chisame's someone who cares what other people think of her. And her self-esteem isn't omg awesome. So sometimes she'll begin feeling inadequate in a conversation, and will suddenly drop the thread--hahaha you've probably all noticed me doing this. 8D There are people in camp that she worries a lot about laughing at her behind her back, or feels intellectually or socially inferior to, and if they seem amused or disinterested during a conversation she'll be completely at a loss as to what to say next. Robert comes to mind especially--Chisame likes him and thinks he's intelligent and interesting, but usually when she talks to him she ends up at some point suddenly thinking " . . . D: He doesn't like me!" When that happens, she doesn't have the balls to press any further, and will drop out of posts like a stone. This also happens with people like Near and Russel (whose confidence intimidates her a little, but she's gotten a LOT more comfortable around him), Kabuto, any of the counselors. When Chisame suddenly drops a thread on you, that's almost always the reason why. She can't think of anything "good" to say and has started second-guessing herself. Her threads don't last as long as those of my other characters for that reason. Tomo has an endless supply of conversation, Eva will talk to you for hours provided you're interesting to her (I think Athrun and I kept a thread going for like 8 hours once, heh) and don't "end" the conversation, and Chao always has questions if you seem willing to answer them. Chisame has snark, and when she feels it failing her, she's out of there. This doesn't mean she'll never talk to you again (she continues to approach people like Robert and Russel and hell she LIVES with Near), or REALLY thinks you hate her, but she's very sensitive to things like facial expressions and clipped answers.
Evangeline is . . . sort of middling to play. She's smarter than me, so she takes some effort. XD But in a way, her tone is sort of like "older and obscenely confident Chisame." She has the same snark and the same sense of "oh ho ho what treefuckery is THIS happening to these silly campers now?" But unlike Chisame, she has the boundless confidence not to back down from that. And she also has the tact not to actually come out and say it, much of the time. Evangeline is a quiet person unless she knows you very well. It's only then that she'll approach you to chat. And she has no real desire to get to KNOW many people very well. Eva likes attention, recognition, and company, but she's also limitlessly capable of going without it, and she's picky about where she seeks it. You have to either amuse her quite a bit or have earned her respect.
That's where most of my trouble playing her, such as it is, comes in: motivation. Not my own motivation to PLAY her, but the character's motivation to BE PLAYED. Despite the fact that I rarely play her, I have no plans to drop her, and I'm very attached to her. It's not that I have big problems playing her or worry about her characterization much. It's that there's rarely a reason to bring her out. She's not the sort to greet new campers, offer advice to the camp at large (she DOES love hearing herself talk, but she DOESN'T love looking like she's a nice person), freak out at the latest camp virus/event, or take a great deal of interest in . . . anything else. She watches things very carefully, keeps tabs, but it's hard to develop relationships with a character who has no driving urge to do so.
All the same, she DOES have relationships, such as they are, and . . . the frequency with which I play her doesn't bother me that much. I should play her more often, I know. I'm going to try to. But she's never going to spam, and that's okay. I love her and feel comfortable with her--she can sit on the back burner if it's more IC and my time is limited. |D
That said, if there's anything anyone wants to do with her or anyone they think she should meet, let me know, and I'll DEFINITELY whip her out. ♥
Tomo is . . . ahahah. This should be obvious. Tomo is ridiculously easy to play. I can log her in and play with her for hours straight without boring myself. She's the quickest to respond and the most likely to reply to ANY random post in camp and meet five new people in a night and continue to pester them forever. She's the easiest to come up with post ideas for--I have like half a dozen posts waiting in the wings and I think of more all the time. I don't worry about her characterization, for the most part, beyond MAYBE one minor issue regarding her intelligence vs. her voice.
. . . There are a few reasons for this! |D
Basically, to get Tomo's voice, I just turn off the filter between my mind and my mouth (typin' fingers whatever). I should probably be a bit disturbed by this. XD The first thing I think of is what I post, provided that I'm in the mindset. Because really, I can be a retard at times. Yesterday Tomo had a "AM NOT! AM TOO! AM NOT!" type of thread with Ash, and there was a bit where she was like "AM TOO! . . . I MEAN, AM TOO! . . . WAIT, THAT'S WHAT I SAID! I'm confused." That mistake wasn't deliberate. XD If I don't check myself, I will say incredibly stupid and/or cracky things just out of nowhere. I tend to randomly tell my mother that I'm going to bite her face off and such without even thinking about it! So any response you get from Tomo is usually the first unchecked thing that popped into my head, with minor alterations for ICness and relationship context. The same goes for making posts. This is surprisingly easy to maintain and fun to play with. In a way, it's a shaking off of everything NORMAL I do in my daily life. |D
Another thing about Tomo is that she's easy to KEEP a thread going with. She has those rare qualities of 1. not caring what anyone thinks of her (or more precisely: she cares, she wants to be liked, but not enough so that she'll EVER consider changing her behavior or exercising tact), 2. being unable to pick up on certain social norms of conversation, and 3. genuinely loving talking to people. And so a conversation that would be OVER for any of my other characters can keep going for 25 more comments with her. Like, for example, it'd sort of go . . .
Chisame: And that's what my school is like.
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Chisame: [ . . . I bored him . . . geez, I was stupid, talking about all that crap in front of someone I barely know, what does HE care? I'll just . . . mn.] Ah . . . I'd better . . . yeah. I'll see you around, if you . . . want.
Evangeline: And that's what my school is like.
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Evangeline: [has already forgotten about you because you're boring her by not bantering or reacting, bye.]
Chao: And that's what my school is like.
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Chao: [he's not volunteering any information, I see. obviously this conversation's basically over, judging by his tone; no reason to invest any more in it. but I do like him and he knows something, so maybe another time.] It was really nice meeting you, and thanks for the help! ♥ See you around, okay? Bye!
Tomo: And THAT'S what my school is like!
Camper X: I see. Interesting.
Tomo: You bet! School's boring though, but the people were fun to mess with!
Camper X: Ah.
Tomo: You're pretty quiet, huh? Kinda like Sakaki! You like cats?
Camper X: . . . I guess so.
Tomo: Sakaki loves cats. What's up with that? I have a dog at home, so I can't have cats.
Camper X: . . .
Tomo: What's up with your hairdo?
Camper X: . . .
Tomo: Hey, your icon changed!
And so on and so on. XD This is why Tomo gets on with people like Itachi and Kimimaro. She likes either people she can talk at, like them, or people who will react explosively, like Ed and Ash. . . . Really, Tomo just likes people in general! It's also why she's easy to play. She's not preoccupied with coming off well, gaining anything from conversation, or being actively entertained by the other party. She's just talkative and thinks everyone will OBVIOUSLY be interested in what she has to say. OF COURSE THEY WILL, RIGHT?
She does drop conversations, but only if SHE'S gotten bored or can't think of anything else to babble on about, which does happen.
Chao I'm, you know, still working on because she's BRAND NEW~. Her voice is difficult so far, but some of that is because I'm breaking her in. It also has to do with the still-mysterious nature of her character, which is all up in the post over on elemntsinharmny. It's necessary to balance her between being cute and a genius, secretive and open, trustworthy and conniving, friendly and cutting. Because these are all traits she displays at various points in the manga. Her way of speaking itself isn't strong with me yet--I have to try hard not to make it too much like Evangeline, whom I would also consider a genius in specific areas of life by sheer virtue of experience (and, well, being intelligent). Her speech in the manga doesn't really come across as "I'M A SCIENTIFIC GENIUS" all the time. She sounds like a fairly ordinary girl unless you get her going on something. I need to work on that while still making it clear that she IS intelligent.
Right now she's curious about the camp and the people. Very curious. So that's what she's doing--poking around. But in some ways she's also an ordinary girl, and I need to start playing with that a little more too. I mean, we do see her chillin' with Hakase and Ku Fei and such just as a teenage chick, NOT as a scientist. Sometimes I forget that.
There's not much to write until I do more with her. I need to set aside plenty of time this week to play her and develop her in my own mind, because it's important to get off to a good start. |D I've liked her a lot so far! I just need to get comfortable in her skin and confident in playing her as a 3-D character. ♥