(( APP ESSAY MEME, PART TWO ))
I'm never apping again.
8. Chao Lingshen #1. February 2006, 89.5% (51-6).
Chao #1 was a HUGE, HILARIOUS ERROR IN FORESIGHT on my part. :Dd
Negima! canon was in about volume 11-12 at the time. The Festival arc had started in volume 9, and the tournament was in progress. The longest arc in the series up to that point was 3 volumes long! Akamatsu tends to work in short arcs. O-or . . . did . . . up to that point.
One day in February I was wanting to app from Negima again, because I am a FOOL okay. |D I was planning on apping Ayaka, I think. (As a note, I've "planned on apping Ayaka" at least 5 or 6 times, and it never happens, and now it can't.) I didn't have anything written yet, as usual, and didn't know what to write, but I was pretty well decided!
Then one day in the chan, our current Sasarai-mun was talking about Negima and said something about how she should app Chao someday. It was funny because as soon as she said that, I mean like AS SOON, my brain just went "Oh hell no bitch, BECAUSE I AM APPING HER. THIS ROUND." XD I-I had never even considered apping her before, even though she was a character I liked at the time. Not my favorite, not even in the top five, but I did like her! And I liked how canon was starting to make her interesting and hint at this big thing she was doing, working to expose magic to the world. We didn't know why yet, but she was this adorable little genius girl who worked in the shadows and sometimes made comments about being a Martian, and you started sort of suspecting they were true. She was interesting to me, and I wanted someone who could do sciencey things, and the idea for the app was really obvious to me--"improving the camp wildlife!"
So I apped her and got in, and then uh, canon threw me for a loop.
It wasn't that the canon suddenly took her in a new direction or something. (That happened later.) It was that the arc . . . didn't end. I'd apped her knowing that we didn't know everything about her yet, but assuming that the arc would be resolved by the spring or early summer. And then the tournament ended and other stuff started happening. We'd get glimpses of Chao, but suddenly it was like "Holy fuck, whatever she's doing is HUGE."
It didn't take long--about 300 comments--before I just couldn't play her. I'd been planning on playing her a bit and then stepping up the spam once we got new canon info. But we didn't GET new canon info, because the arc would not end. XD So I knew she was the villain of that part of the manga, but I didn't know WHY, or how evil she was, or what was going to happen to her, or whether she was in charge, or . . . anything. The manga just kept on trucking without revealing any of this information, and I knew I couldn't work with that. I dropped her almost untouched because I just can't formulate even simple comments for someone if I don't understand what they're thinking. XD
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
9. Greed. July 2006, 95.7% (66-3).
After Chao, I was soured on apping for a bit, and I was also playing the hell out of Tomo and didn't feel the NEED for more characters. Around June, it was starting to become clear that soon counselors would open again. (I love how there's always that VIBE in the air. XD) I'd failed with Shigure, but I started considering possibly apping another counselor. My apping pattern is older men and younger girls, so everyone I thought of was a guy. XD
I'd started reading FMA, and when I got to volume 6--where Greed first appears for like one panel at the end--I was like "Oh holy HELL that guy looks cool." I bought volume 7 right away and devoured it, because it's basically the Greed Volume, and I just . . . loved him SO HARD. He was immediately my favorite character. I kinda wanted another immortal, amoral type, I loved the canon and I LOVED the camp cast, and I thought "I bet I could pull him off." I read volume 8, and his death sort of cemented it for me; I knew I wouldn't have to worry about him having a continuing or extremely long canon, and I loved how he died. >D He was just so COOL, god.
Before that I'd been considering apping the Dean from the Discworld series, but Greed's canon was a lot shorter and handier, and I wanted a sexy character. XD I AM SHALLOW. I reread his volume a few times, thought up a job for him, and wrote the app.
Greed's app is the app I worked the hardest on and had betaed the most extensively. I wrote it two weeks ahead of time (for me, this is WAY ahead of time) and I had Aviy rip it to shreds a couple times, among others! I kept tweaking and rewriting and getting it betaed, but it was fun every step of the way. The app was never stressful at all for me, and it was a blast to write, and my betas were fun to work with. I felt SO GOOD about it. XD Along with Tomo's app, it's the only app I've ever written where I submitted it pretty much knowing it would get in. It's the best app I've done, IMO, and I still like it.
I love Greed, too. I don't spam with him, because like Eva, he's not that kind of character and he shouldn't be. He doesn't form close relationships either. He doesn't care about anyone or anything here. And none of that has ever bothered me. I knew what I was getting into with him, and at times I have stressed over his voice and keeping him IC, but I think I'm better about that now and I like pulling him out when I feel up to it. I just like having him around to be sexy and retarded with. Even though Greed doesn't get out terribly often and never has, he's probably the last character I would drop other than Tomo (and maaaaaybe Asuna). I hope my castmates and the rest of you think I'm doing a good job with him, because he's just sort of nice to be able to call mine. |D
10. Uehara Miyako. August 2006, 95.8% (46-2).
Pani Poni Dash was a series I watched planning to app from it, and I was pretty sure Miyako was the character I was going to app. XD BEFORE I HAD EVER SEEN IT. Well, I had seen the first episode, and we had Himeko in camp, and I was like "God yes I have to watch it and app from it. I WILL APP FROM IT." I had Himeko-mun burn the series to disc for me and send it to me, and I watched it all.
I'd hear the music and seen caps of some eps (especially 24) prior to watching it, and had heard things, and I knew immediately that Miyako was going to be my favorite and I was probably going to app her. Sure enough, I watched it and fell in love with her. XD But--I loved Kurumi too. And when I sat down to think about apping and playing, I was torn. I had a hook for a Kurumi app, and it was like nothing camp had ever seen before, so I knew I could get her in. And for Miyako, I couldn't think of anything at all. Likewise, I thought about specific posts to make with them in camp, and for Miyako I just wasn't sure, while for Kurumi I had all these ideas.
But the problem was that I would go back to review canon for Kurumi, and I would end up fast-forwarding to the Miyako scenes. XD I love her SO MUCH, god. So I wrote both apps. I wrote a mediocre app for Miyako, and an app for Kurumi that was decent but unpolished, and I showed them both to my betas and explained the situation. "I like this character better, but I think this one is easier to get in/would have more to do." . . . And I got mixed responses. Like, exactly half my betas said to go for Miyako, and half said to go for Kurumi! I even posted on my Greatestjournal about it, lol. There, people who were uninvolved in CFUD told me to go for Miyako.
The day apps opened, I still hadn't decided. I logged on at like 2 PM--apps opened at 6--and told myself "Okay, neither app is good enough. I'm going to rewrite both and just send in the better one." So I picked up Miyako's app first, trashed 3/4 of it, and rewrote it. And then I sat back and read it and I was shocked that it was--good. XD I showed my betas, and they all said "Yeah, okay, you fixed all the issues I had with it, send it in." I didn't even bother rewriting Kurumi's, because when that happened, I felt like I had gotten into the groove with Miyako, and I should just go for it and app her! So I did! And it did awesomely!
With Miyako . . . when I apped Tomo, I worried I didn't have the energy for her, and that ended up not being true AT ALL. Miyako is the first time I actually ran into that problem. I found out that there are different KINDS of roleplaying energy. Tomo requires energy of stupidity and randomness and ALL CAPS! and being silly, and I have a lot of that. I don't use it much in real life, which I think is WHY Tomo is so easy for me to play--I have this Randomness Energy saved up and ready to use, and it has no outlet IRL. But Miyako required Angry Energy, and that's something I don't have. I'm absolutely not an angry person. XD I do get mad, but I burn out my anger very quickly. And Miyako is angry a LOT, even moreso and more openly than Chisame. It's like her major character trait. I would thread with her and have fun with the crack, but often I would just not want to play her, because it required actively putting myself into negative headspace, and I have a lot of difficulty with that. Her threads required me to be unhappy and pissy, and . . . Chisame's do too, to an extent, but Chisame has a lot more depth than Miyako does and she develops a lot more, so it's not such an issue.
I hung onto Miyako longer than I was planning to, but I had pretty much stopped playing her by January 1st, and I didn't miss it. Getting Shirley in sealed the deal. So Miyako was one of those characters kind of like Mutsumi, where I love her in canon and love watching her and would love playing with her, but absolutely cannot do it myself.
I probably should have apped Kurumi. Maybe. For the reverse of this story, see Mikuru.
11. Kashiwagi Yuuma. October 2006, 88.9% (48-6).
A lot of times when I have an app that's giving me trouble, I'll step away from it for a bit and then come back when it's really crunch time, and I'll be able to hammer it out quickly. See Miyako and Asuna! Yuuma was the first time this didn't happen to me. It was my first experience with an app actually being HARD.
It was also my first and only double app, and that was a big part of it, I think. I wanted to app from PPD again, and so did Himeko-mun, and PPD is like . . . the canon that's MADE for double-apps. Almost every single secondary character has a "partner" that they can be apped with. So we were kind of tossing around some ideas, but Himeko was full up on characters at that point, so we didn't think we were going to app. But he was considering dropping Mana. We'd joked about apping the twins before, and I wanted a girly, superficial, silly character, but Mana's drop wasn't cemented yet, so I started focusing on apping Serizawa or maybe Watanuki.
One day I rewatched some twin scenes and I decided "Okay, if he drops Mana, I want to do this." So I PMed him with just that--"Let me know if you want to app the twins this round." A couple days later, he had a Yuuna app written. XD I looked at it and thought it was hilarious, so I told him I'd write Yuuma's and we'd app together! He announced Mana's drop and I got to work.
Yuuma's app was the second-hardest I've ever written (and has the second-lowest percentage in besides). I felt really stressed trying to make it a GUARANTEED IN, because I was apping with someone . . . not only that, but that someone had dropped another character partially so that this app would be possible. So I knew I had to app and I had to get in, because having one twin in camp would be--doable, but awkward and difficult.
I also had to worry about the other issues that come with a double-app. I had to not contradict Yuuna's app and use the same premise, but also not repeat any jokes; I had to write with the other app in mind and reference the other character without relying on them. XD I have respect for anyone who can double-app and get in, because it's HARD. The app took me a long time to polish and I never really felt like it was "there" the way I do at a certain point with most of my apps. But I sent it in anyway, it did all right, and here we are!
Yuuma's a character I really need to play more. At one point, I felt very uncomfortable with her, because I'm not used to playing codependent, and she was also a new type for me. I just didn't know what to DO with her. Because of that, I tended to not play her much at all and would sometimes forget I had her. Whoops!
At some point though, I suddenly got over that and felt like I hit my groove with her. It's just that because I played her so little for so long, sometimes I FORGET that I'm good with her now. XD When I play her, I always enjoy it, even though she feels like she's still settling and I'm still trying to hit my stride with her. I just need to remember to bring her out more, because I think she could be a really awesome spamwhore if I just got my ass in gear. She's a blast.
Also, apping her will ALWAYS have been worth it for bringing the phrase "sobold" to CFUD. :(d
12. Kagurazaka Asuna #2. December 2006, 93.4% (57-4).
Soooo, in December, I was considering dropping Miyako because of aforementioned energy issues. I was also catching up on Negima! to try and figure out what to do with Chisame and where canon was going. And rereading/catching up on Negima ALWAYS makes me want to app. XD;
The character limit then was 5, and I had 5, and I wasn't sure I wanted to drop Miyako yet. But I kept eying Ku Fei from Negima and thinking "Hmmmm, man, she would be SO FUN." I had some great ideas for an app for her. I hadn't written it yet, but I was very seriously considering it.
The thing is, after I dropped Asuna #1, I never considered reapping her. Eventually the reasons I dropped her vanished--Chisame was no longer my main character, and canon had given them both more depth and it was now clear that they weren't as alike as they'd seemed. So I COULD have reapped Asuna! But it never occurred to me. It had taken me five months to come up with her first app, so in the back of my mind I was always like "How could I ever come up with a SECOND? ONE was almost impossible!"
One day though, about two weeks before apps opened, the idea to reapp her just popped into my head, and I was like "Okay, but what would I write? I barely had any ideas the first time." And to my surprise, I had a TON of ideas without even thinking about it. I realized that I still had her voice and it was still easy for me (Asuna comes to me about as easily as Tomo does). I was at school, and I logged into Tomo's account and made a private post and just WROTE THE WHOLE APP right then. XD I used a couple jokes I was going to use on Ku Fei (such as the joke about "half man and half man, but not the same man", which is actually copped from Woody Allen) and the rest of it I just sort of came up with spur of the moment.
On the way home from school that day, I decided that I would drop Miyako that afternoon so that I could app Asuna . . . and then I came home and checked the OOC comm and the character limit had been lifted. XD So Miyako had her reprieve, and I knew I was reapping Asuna. I had a couple people look at it, changed some of the middle around to make it funnier, and let 'er fly!
I'm like, STILL just so thrilled that I have Asuna back. She was still the Character I Wanted To Play, and once I realized that it was possible for me to do so now without worrying about those old issues, I was all JOOOOOY! Her voice is very easy for me, I love her so much as a character, and I have fun in all her threads. I'm glad I had that random thought that day about reapping her, because Ku Fei would have been a blast, but my heart always belongs to Asuna omg.
13. Shirley Fennes. January 2007, 87% (47-7).
Okay, here's the story of the APP FROM FUCKING HELL. XD Shirley's app is my lowest score, the hardest app I have ever had to write, and the only app I've ever sent in more than 15 minutes after apps opened.
I got a PS2 for Christmas! I'd never wanted one until CFUD, but you whores made me want to play Disgaea and Legendia and Suikoden and Abyss and ackpbht. So I asked for one and got it, along with Legendia, and I started playing, kind of figuring I might app from it.
If I'd gotten the game a week earlier, I would probably have apped Will. But instead, I got it about 3 days before counselor apps opened. There was no way I could finish the game in time to app him. Not that I was planning to--I didn't really WANT to until the second half of the game, after counselors were already closed, lol. But if I'd played the game a week earlier? You all would probably have a Will now!
I started the game and I just--fell in love with Chloe right away. She is so my type. XD LOL TSUNDERE GIRL WITH SWORD, MY TYPE? NEVER! So I started playing and immediately I was like "Oh fuck yes, I am apping Chloe." Camper apps were announced and a beta post went up. I had already told Senel that I was probably apping her, along with a few other people, and then--someone else commented to the beta post saying they were apping her. XD And I was like oshi. NO. MINE.
Buuuut I had to finish the game first! So I went back and played and played, and something funny happened. I started the character quests, which is when you finally get Shirley in your party, and I saw her fighting in that first battle and was all " . . . omg socute." And then you go back to Werites Beacon and you get some dialogue with her and it's really surprising. For the first half of the game I HATED--okay no, but I had no real attachment to Shirley. She's pretty annoying, and she's a plot device, not a character. But then in the second half of the game, you actually get to see HER, and . . . I fell in love really quickly. XD She's just so cute and Jesusy and awkward and retarded.
Eventually I decided that hell, we had another Chloe apper, and I didn't need another Asuna anyway. Also, I didn't have any nice characters. XD I wanted a nice, sweet girl! So I decided to go for Shirley. Which was, uh. A LOT easier said than done.
I'd had an app idea for her and I started writing it, and I decided it was OOC and had to scrap it--so I was left with nothing. Shirley's a funny character, but she's funny in a VERY subtle way, and she's not funny when she's monologuing, which is what an app is. And despite lol Merines and everything, she's very very normal, and very soft-spoken and kind . . . but she's not stupid or naive. So I didn't feel comfortable making jokes at her expense, and I didn't feel comfortable doing anything overtly sexual (there ended up being a couple references in there, but nothing actually HAPPENED to her), and she's just not the kind of person who would flail a lot or cry or whine. She's very quietly strong yet innocent and awkward and uh . . . how the hell do you write that? XD
I AGONIZED over her app. I wanted her so badly and I'd told Senel I was apping her, but. Everything I wrote was crappy. Finally, I gave up on her. I decided to app Nodoka from Negima! instead, and started making icons--this was the night before apps opened. XD
The next day, apps opened, and I hadn't written Nodoka's yet. I had the canon, but no app. I went to start on it, but I took a look at Shirley's instead, and I thought "No, I want this character more, I really truly want to play her." So I started messing with it again, trying a few different tactics, throwing out jokes, throwing in new jokes. Finally, 4 hours before apps closed, I had something. It didn't feel good and it didn't feel finished, but I decided to go for it anyway, because I had no idea how I COULD ever make it better. I figured there was nothing I could do, so I might as well go for it. Lo and behold, it got in. It didn't do extremely well, but it did better than I had hoped, and it was IN and that was all I cared about!
Shirley, like Yuuma, is a character I just have to remember to bring out more. I love her still, and she's fun to play and I think she's IC and her voice is good. I just need to spend a little more time getting her settled. What I should do is hiatus Tomo and Asuna for a week, but uh . . . lol. Alone of my characters, I worry that Shirley is boring to thread with, and this stops me sometimes from bringing her out. But I know I have to get over that and get her talking to more people, because then she can start being retarded and cute and goofy like she is in canon after you finally get to know her. Loev Shirley! ♥ But god, I never want to have to write an app like that again.
14. Asahina Mikuru. March 2007, 91.9% (57-5).
The story of Mikuru's app is pretty much an EXACT REPLICA of the story of Miyako's app.
Again, I went into Haruhi canon sort of expecting to app someone, because I loved our cast and the canon sounded so cool and pretty and fun to play with. I watched it thinking "If I like Mikuru, I will app her!"
I watched it and I did like Mikuru, yay! But--I liked Ryoko a lot better. XD I was FASCINATED with Ryoko. She's a minor character and would be hard to maintain and all, but I just couldn't stop watching her scenes and making icons of her and ackpbht!
Again, I wrote apps for both characters. Mikuru's was good, but a paragraph too short; Ryoko's was the right length, but was disorganized and needed rewriting. Again my betas were split on which character I should go for. Mikuru was the Kurumi--I knew I could get her in and I could think of more things for her to do in camp. Ryoko was the Miyako--she'd be harder to get in and maintain, but I LIKED HER SO MUCH.
Well, uh, last time this happened, I went for the character I liked more . . . and ended up dropping her. :D; So when it came down to decision time, I decided to do the opposite--I'd go for the character I liked less (but did still like) but knew would be easier on me to play. I added a paragraph to her app, decided it was good to go, and sent it in!
Was it the right decision? I still don't know. I still have trouble with Mikuru's voice and getting her settled in camp; she's hard for me to maintain for long threads, and I get paranoid sometimes that she doesn't sound right or that she's annoying people. I like Mikuru, and I'm not dropping her, although if I dropped SOMEONE, she would be the first to go--an easier decision now that Haruhi's gone as well. Mikuru is cute and fun and funny, and I do like her and am very interested in her as a character, so she's not going anywhere yet. I want to try and do her justice. But I'm hoping I settle into her more comfortably after playing her a bit (Yuuma took me like 4 months, after all) and can do her justice, because I still love her canon and I love my canonmates. ♥
15. Chao Lingshen #2. May 2007, 98.1% (51-1).
LAST BUT NOT LEAST. . . . Most, actually. XD I've never gotten an app score like that before.
Chao . . . made me so, so guilty. :D;
I totally knew I was going to app this round, just because there were so many characters I wanted. My list was HUGE, which hadn't happened to me in while. I considered several PPD characters (including Becky), a Koko wa Greenwood character, a Love Hina character, Evangeline, Ryoko, Misamisa, etc., etc. For a long time there hadn't been many characters I wanted to app--either I didn't want anyone, or each round there was someone I was totally focused on. This round I suddenly had this massive list. Augh.
At the same time, I was like "Oh my god, I shouldn't app, people will kill me if get 8." XD EVERYONE ALREADY THINKS I'M ADDICTED. I have a lot of characters and I keep them all active--I play them all at LEAST twice a week unless I'm totally swamped. But my balance is horrible, I know this! And with all this WHO WILL HIT 10 FIRST stuff and all . . . yeah, I felt bad even considering apping.
And then I decided to start a hardcore NEGIMA PIMPING PROJECT, and--it made me want to app Negima again, but that made me even guiltier, because how obvious could I BE? XD "Oh hay guys read this it's the best series ever, also ignore that Negima app next voting round." Then the real problem came when I started rereading bits--having decided NOT to reapp Eva--and remembered how much I loved Chao.
Chao's arc finally ended a couple months ago, in volume 18, after she reappeared and things got heavy in about volume 16. In that time, after the manga finally revealed everything and started to confront what was happening in her life and her past and in her relationships with Negi and the class, Chao went from being a character I was eh, kind of fond of and interested in to being a character I was totally obsessed with. XD She's now probably my second-favorite in the series--after Asuna, of course. That arc gets a lot of flack for being so long and somewhat bizarrely paced at points, but I really really enjoyed it all the way through because of how beautiful it was and the issues that it dealt with, and how it didn't flinch away from things like "Sometimes good people have to do evil in situations they don't fully understand for their own self-preservation, but that's the lot of humanity, and we'll shoulder that burden with you." ;;d And Chao is just this amazing character--she's someone who's hilarious and retarded and cracky as hell, and gets on well with people . . . but she's got these deep wounds and this horrible thirsty ambition when it comes to erasing them. AGH. Rereading it, I was like "I could play her now, because now we KNOW. I would know what to DO."
Which made me feel even guiltier, because here I am apping an EIGHTH CHARACTER and people should shoot me >D and not only that, but it's the most obvious app in the world. It's my Standard Canon which people KNEW I had been rereading, AND it was a character I had played before! Fail, me.
So I tried really, really hard to talk myself out of it. I really did. But I couldn't--I was making icons for Asuna and Chisame and I kept getting to Chao scenes and iconning her instead. And thinking of keywords and LJ names and jokes to use in her app. XD I knew I really, really wanted this character back. So I made a few notes on the app and then just let it sit in my mind for a week, and then two nights before apps opened, I opened a text file and wrote it all the way through. I had betas look at it and then changed the ending to make it more accessible to non-American audiences (the original ending was a joke about Chinese food which is apparently specific to America). I had EVEN MORE GUILT about the Dick in a Box joke, because I KNEW that was a Tell that the app was mine--I probably reference that sketch more than anyone else XD Not only that, but Ruu-chan told me the canon section was very obviously me. But I tried to fix those things, and I just couldn't. So I sent it in and then panicked and felt guilty again.
I-I really didn't expect it to do that well. XD I knew I loved it and it cracked me up, but I didn't think the humor would ping everyone, so I was shocked when I came home that day and it was up and it had 50 straight in-votes. I almost died ;o; It didn't get 100% in the end, but I'm pretty sure that's the closest I will ever come. (BECAUSE I AM NEVER APPING AGAIN)
I've only had Chao like two days, but I already love her and am so happy I got over my guilt and just apped her. So far she's easy and fun to play, and I hope things stay that way, because she's a character I love like few others. If I can get her settled into camp and having fun, I will be a very very happy girl. T^Td
. . . my hands hurt. :( SHOW'S OVER, GUYS. GO HOME.
8. Chao Lingshen #1. February 2006, 89.5% (51-6).
Chao #1 was a HUGE, HILARIOUS ERROR IN FORESIGHT on my part. :Dd
Negima! canon was in about volume 11-12 at the time. The Festival arc had started in volume 9, and the tournament was in progress. The longest arc in the series up to that point was 3 volumes long! Akamatsu tends to work in short arcs. O-or . . . did . . . up to that point.
One day in February I was wanting to app from Negima again, because I am a FOOL okay. |D I was planning on apping Ayaka, I think. (As a note, I've "planned on apping Ayaka" at least 5 or 6 times, and it never happens, and now it can't.) I didn't have anything written yet, as usual, and didn't know what to write, but I was pretty well decided!
Then one day in the chan, our current Sasarai-mun was talking about Negima and said something about how she should app Chao someday. It was funny because as soon as she said that, I mean like AS SOON, my brain just went "Oh hell no bitch, BECAUSE I AM APPING HER. THIS ROUND." XD I-I had never even considered apping her before, even though she was a character I liked at the time. Not my favorite, not even in the top five, but I did like her! And I liked how canon was starting to make her interesting and hint at this big thing she was doing, working to expose magic to the world. We didn't know why yet, but she was this adorable little genius girl who worked in the shadows and sometimes made comments about being a Martian, and you started sort of suspecting they were true. She was interesting to me, and I wanted someone who could do sciencey things, and the idea for the app was really obvious to me--"improving the camp wildlife!"
So I apped her and got in, and then uh, canon threw me for a loop.
It wasn't that the canon suddenly took her in a new direction or something. (That happened later.) It was that the arc . . . didn't end. I'd apped her knowing that we didn't know everything about her yet, but assuming that the arc would be resolved by the spring or early summer. And then the tournament ended and other stuff started happening. We'd get glimpses of Chao, but suddenly it was like "Holy fuck, whatever she's doing is HUGE."
It didn't take long--about 300 comments--before I just couldn't play her. I'd been planning on playing her a bit and then stepping up the spam once we got new canon info. But we didn't GET new canon info, because the arc would not end. XD So I knew she was the villain of that part of the manga, but I didn't know WHY, or how evil she was, or what was going to happen to her, or whether she was in charge, or . . . anything. The manga just kept on trucking without revealing any of this information, and I knew I couldn't work with that. I dropped her almost untouched because I just can't formulate even simple comments for someone if I don't understand what they're thinking. XD
TO BE CONTINUED . . .
9. Greed. July 2006, 95.7% (66-3).
After Chao, I was soured on apping for a bit, and I was also playing the hell out of Tomo and didn't feel the NEED for more characters. Around June, it was starting to become clear that soon counselors would open again. (I love how there's always that VIBE in the air. XD) I'd failed with Shigure, but I started considering possibly apping another counselor. My apping pattern is older men and younger girls, so everyone I thought of was a guy. XD
I'd started reading FMA, and when I got to volume 6--where Greed first appears for like one panel at the end--I was like "Oh holy HELL that guy looks cool." I bought volume 7 right away and devoured it, because it's basically the Greed Volume, and I just . . . loved him SO HARD. He was immediately my favorite character. I kinda wanted another immortal, amoral type, I loved the canon and I LOVED the camp cast, and I thought "I bet I could pull him off." I read volume 8, and his death sort of cemented it for me; I knew I wouldn't have to worry about him having a continuing or extremely long canon, and I loved how he died. >D He was just so COOL, god.
Before that I'd been considering apping the Dean from the Discworld series, but Greed's canon was a lot shorter and handier, and I wanted a sexy character. XD I AM SHALLOW. I reread his volume a few times, thought up a job for him, and wrote the app.
Greed's app is the app I worked the hardest on and had betaed the most extensively. I wrote it two weeks ahead of time (for me, this is WAY ahead of time) and I had Aviy rip it to shreds a couple times, among others! I kept tweaking and rewriting and getting it betaed, but it was fun every step of the way. The app was never stressful at all for me, and it was a blast to write, and my betas were fun to work with. I felt SO GOOD about it. XD Along with Tomo's app, it's the only app I've ever written where I submitted it pretty much knowing it would get in. It's the best app I've done, IMO, and I still like it.
I love Greed, too. I don't spam with him, because like Eva, he's not that kind of character and he shouldn't be. He doesn't form close relationships either. He doesn't care about anyone or anything here. And none of that has ever bothered me. I knew what I was getting into with him, and at times I have stressed over his voice and keeping him IC, but I think I'm better about that now and I like pulling him out when I feel up to it. I just like having him around to be sexy and retarded with. Even though Greed doesn't get out terribly often and never has, he's probably the last character I would drop other than Tomo (and maaaaaybe Asuna). I hope my castmates and the rest of you think I'm doing a good job with him, because he's just sort of nice to be able to call mine. |D
10. Uehara Miyako. August 2006, 95.8% (46-2).
Pani Poni Dash was a series I watched planning to app from it, and I was pretty sure Miyako was the character I was going to app. XD BEFORE I HAD EVER SEEN IT. Well, I had seen the first episode, and we had Himeko in camp, and I was like "God yes I have to watch it and app from it. I WILL APP FROM IT." I had Himeko-mun burn the series to disc for me and send it to me, and I watched it all.
I'd hear the music and seen caps of some eps (especially 24) prior to watching it, and had heard things, and I knew immediately that Miyako was going to be my favorite and I was probably going to app her. Sure enough, I watched it and fell in love with her. XD But--I loved Kurumi too. And when I sat down to think about apping and playing, I was torn. I had a hook for a Kurumi app, and it was like nothing camp had ever seen before, so I knew I could get her in. And for Miyako, I couldn't think of anything at all. Likewise, I thought about specific posts to make with them in camp, and for Miyako I just wasn't sure, while for Kurumi I had all these ideas.
But the problem was that I would go back to review canon for Kurumi, and I would end up fast-forwarding to the Miyako scenes. XD I love her SO MUCH, god. So I wrote both apps. I wrote a mediocre app for Miyako, and an app for Kurumi that was decent but unpolished, and I showed them both to my betas and explained the situation. "I like this character better, but I think this one is easier to get in/would have more to do." . . . And I got mixed responses. Like, exactly half my betas said to go for Miyako, and half said to go for Kurumi! I even posted on my Greatestjournal about it, lol. There, people who were uninvolved in CFUD told me to go for Miyako.
The day apps opened, I still hadn't decided. I logged on at like 2 PM--apps opened at 6--and told myself "Okay, neither app is good enough. I'm going to rewrite both and just send in the better one." So I picked up Miyako's app first, trashed 3/4 of it, and rewrote it. And then I sat back and read it and I was shocked that it was--good. XD I showed my betas, and they all said "Yeah, okay, you fixed all the issues I had with it, send it in." I didn't even bother rewriting Kurumi's, because when that happened, I felt like I had gotten into the groove with Miyako, and I should just go for it and app her! So I did! And it did awesomely!
With Miyako . . . when I apped Tomo, I worried I didn't have the energy for her, and that ended up not being true AT ALL. Miyako is the first time I actually ran into that problem. I found out that there are different KINDS of roleplaying energy. Tomo requires energy of stupidity and randomness and ALL CAPS! and being silly, and I have a lot of that. I don't use it much in real life, which I think is WHY Tomo is so easy for me to play--I have this Randomness Energy saved up and ready to use, and it has no outlet IRL. But Miyako required Angry Energy, and that's something I don't have. I'm absolutely not an angry person. XD I do get mad, but I burn out my anger very quickly. And Miyako is angry a LOT, even moreso and more openly than Chisame. It's like her major character trait. I would thread with her and have fun with the crack, but often I would just not want to play her, because it required actively putting myself into negative headspace, and I have a lot of difficulty with that. Her threads required me to be unhappy and pissy, and . . . Chisame's do too, to an extent, but Chisame has a lot more depth than Miyako does and she develops a lot more, so it's not such an issue.
I hung onto Miyako longer than I was planning to, but I had pretty much stopped playing her by January 1st, and I didn't miss it. Getting Shirley in sealed the deal. So Miyako was one of those characters kind of like Mutsumi, where I love her in canon and love watching her and would love playing with her, but absolutely cannot do it myself.
I probably should have apped Kurumi. Maybe. For the reverse of this story, see Mikuru.
11. Kashiwagi Yuuma. October 2006, 88.9% (48-6).
A lot of times when I have an app that's giving me trouble, I'll step away from it for a bit and then come back when it's really crunch time, and I'll be able to hammer it out quickly. See Miyako and Asuna! Yuuma was the first time this didn't happen to me. It was my first experience with an app actually being HARD.
It was also my first and only double app, and that was a big part of it, I think. I wanted to app from PPD again, and so did Himeko-mun, and PPD is like . . . the canon that's MADE for double-apps. Almost every single secondary character has a "partner" that they can be apped with. So we were kind of tossing around some ideas, but Himeko was full up on characters at that point, so we didn't think we were going to app. But he was considering dropping Mana. We'd joked about apping the twins before, and I wanted a girly, superficial, silly character, but Mana's drop wasn't cemented yet, so I started focusing on apping Serizawa or maybe Watanuki.
One day I rewatched some twin scenes and I decided "Okay, if he drops Mana, I want to do this." So I PMed him with just that--"Let me know if you want to app the twins this round." A couple days later, he had a Yuuna app written. XD I looked at it and thought it was hilarious, so I told him I'd write Yuuma's and we'd app together! He announced Mana's drop and I got to work.
Yuuma's app was the second-hardest I've ever written (and has the second-lowest percentage in besides). I felt really stressed trying to make it a GUARANTEED IN, because I was apping with someone . . . not only that, but that someone had dropped another character partially so that this app would be possible. So I knew I had to app and I had to get in, because having one twin in camp would be--doable, but awkward and difficult.
I also had to worry about the other issues that come with a double-app. I had to not contradict Yuuna's app and use the same premise, but also not repeat any jokes; I had to write with the other app in mind and reference the other character without relying on them. XD I have respect for anyone who can double-app and get in, because it's HARD. The app took me a long time to polish and I never really felt like it was "there" the way I do at a certain point with most of my apps. But I sent it in anyway, it did all right, and here we are!
Yuuma's a character I really need to play more. At one point, I felt very uncomfortable with her, because I'm not used to playing codependent, and she was also a new type for me. I just didn't know what to DO with her. Because of that, I tended to not play her much at all and would sometimes forget I had her. Whoops!
At some point though, I suddenly got over that and felt like I hit my groove with her. It's just that because I played her so little for so long, sometimes I FORGET that I'm good with her now. XD When I play her, I always enjoy it, even though she feels like she's still settling and I'm still trying to hit my stride with her. I just need to remember to bring her out more, because I think she could be a really awesome spamwhore if I just got my ass in gear. She's a blast.
Also, apping her will ALWAYS have been worth it for bringing the phrase "sobold" to CFUD. :(d
12. Kagurazaka Asuna #2. December 2006, 93.4% (57-4).
Soooo, in December, I was considering dropping Miyako because of aforementioned energy issues. I was also catching up on Negima! to try and figure out what to do with Chisame and where canon was going. And rereading/catching up on Negima ALWAYS makes me want to app. XD;
The character limit then was 5, and I had 5, and I wasn't sure I wanted to drop Miyako yet. But I kept eying Ku Fei from Negima and thinking "Hmmmm, man, she would be SO FUN." I had some great ideas for an app for her. I hadn't written it yet, but I was very seriously considering it.
The thing is, after I dropped Asuna #1, I never considered reapping her. Eventually the reasons I dropped her vanished--Chisame was no longer my main character, and canon had given them both more depth and it was now clear that they weren't as alike as they'd seemed. So I COULD have reapped Asuna! But it never occurred to me. It had taken me five months to come up with her first app, so in the back of my mind I was always like "How could I ever come up with a SECOND? ONE was almost impossible!"
One day though, about two weeks before apps opened, the idea to reapp her just popped into my head, and I was like "Okay, but what would I write? I barely had any ideas the first time." And to my surprise, I had a TON of ideas without even thinking about it. I realized that I still had her voice and it was still easy for me (Asuna comes to me about as easily as Tomo does). I was at school, and I logged into Tomo's account and made a private post and just WROTE THE WHOLE APP right then. XD I used a couple jokes I was going to use on Ku Fei (such as the joke about "half man and half man, but not the same man", which is actually copped from Woody Allen) and the rest of it I just sort of came up with spur of the moment.
On the way home from school that day, I decided that I would drop Miyako that afternoon so that I could app Asuna . . . and then I came home and checked the OOC comm and the character limit had been lifted. XD So Miyako had her reprieve, and I knew I was reapping Asuna. I had a couple people look at it, changed some of the middle around to make it funnier, and let 'er fly!
I'm like, STILL just so thrilled that I have Asuna back. She was still the Character I Wanted To Play, and once I realized that it was possible for me to do so now without worrying about those old issues, I was all JOOOOOY! Her voice is very easy for me, I love her so much as a character, and I have fun in all her threads. I'm glad I had that random thought that day about reapping her, because Ku Fei would have been a blast, but my heart always belongs to Asuna omg.
13. Shirley Fennes. January 2007, 87% (47-7).
Okay, here's the story of the APP FROM FUCKING HELL. XD Shirley's app is my lowest score, the hardest app I have ever had to write, and the only app I've ever sent in more than 15 minutes after apps opened.
I got a PS2 for Christmas! I'd never wanted one until CFUD, but you whores made me want to play Disgaea and Legendia and Suikoden and Abyss and ackpbht. So I asked for one and got it, along with Legendia, and I started playing, kind of figuring I might app from it.
If I'd gotten the game a week earlier, I would probably have apped Will. But instead, I got it about 3 days before counselor apps opened. There was no way I could finish the game in time to app him. Not that I was planning to--I didn't really WANT to until the second half of the game, after counselors were already closed, lol. But if I'd played the game a week earlier? You all would probably have a Will now!
I started the game and I just--fell in love with Chloe right away. She is so my type. XD LOL TSUNDERE GIRL WITH SWORD, MY TYPE? NEVER! So I started playing and immediately I was like "Oh fuck yes, I am apping Chloe." Camper apps were announced and a beta post went up. I had already told Senel that I was probably apping her, along with a few other people, and then--someone else commented to the beta post saying they were apping her. XD And I was like oshi. NO. MINE.
Buuuut I had to finish the game first! So I went back and played and played, and something funny happened. I started the character quests, which is when you finally get Shirley in your party, and I saw her fighting in that first battle and was all " . . . omg socute." And then you go back to Werites Beacon and you get some dialogue with her and it's really surprising. For the first half of the game I HATED--okay no, but I had no real attachment to Shirley. She's pretty annoying, and she's a plot device, not a character. But then in the second half of the game, you actually get to see HER, and . . . I fell in love really quickly. XD She's just so cute and Jesusy and awkward and retarded.
Eventually I decided that hell, we had another Chloe apper, and I didn't need another Asuna anyway. Also, I didn't have any nice characters. XD I wanted a nice, sweet girl! So I decided to go for Shirley. Which was, uh. A LOT easier said than done.
I'd had an app idea for her and I started writing it, and I decided it was OOC and had to scrap it--so I was left with nothing. Shirley's a funny character, but she's funny in a VERY subtle way, and she's not funny when she's monologuing, which is what an app is. And despite lol Merines and everything, she's very very normal, and very soft-spoken and kind . . . but she's not stupid or naive. So I didn't feel comfortable making jokes at her expense, and I didn't feel comfortable doing anything overtly sexual (there ended up being a couple references in there, but nothing actually HAPPENED to her), and she's just not the kind of person who would flail a lot or cry or whine. She's very quietly strong yet innocent and awkward and uh . . . how the hell do you write that? XD
I AGONIZED over her app. I wanted her so badly and I'd told Senel I was apping her, but. Everything I wrote was crappy. Finally, I gave up on her. I decided to app Nodoka from Negima! instead, and started making icons--this was the night before apps opened. XD
The next day, apps opened, and I hadn't written Nodoka's yet. I had the canon, but no app. I went to start on it, but I took a look at Shirley's instead, and I thought "No, I want this character more, I really truly want to play her." So I started messing with it again, trying a few different tactics, throwing out jokes, throwing in new jokes. Finally, 4 hours before apps closed, I had something. It didn't feel good and it didn't feel finished, but I decided to go for it anyway, because I had no idea how I COULD ever make it better. I figured there was nothing I could do, so I might as well go for it. Lo and behold, it got in. It didn't do extremely well, but it did better than I had hoped, and it was IN and that was all I cared about!
Shirley, like Yuuma, is a character I just have to remember to bring out more. I love her still, and she's fun to play and I think she's IC and her voice is good. I just need to spend a little more time getting her settled. What I should do is hiatus Tomo and Asuna for a week, but uh . . . lol. Alone of my characters, I worry that Shirley is boring to thread with, and this stops me sometimes from bringing her out. But I know I have to get over that and get her talking to more people, because then she can start being retarded and cute and goofy like she is in canon after you finally get to know her. Loev Shirley! ♥ But god, I never want to have to write an app like that again.
14. Asahina Mikuru. March 2007, 91.9% (57-5).
The story of Mikuru's app is pretty much an EXACT REPLICA of the story of Miyako's app.
Again, I went into Haruhi canon sort of expecting to app someone, because I loved our cast and the canon sounded so cool and pretty and fun to play with. I watched it thinking "If I like Mikuru, I will app her!"
I watched it and I did like Mikuru, yay! But--I liked Ryoko a lot better. XD I was FASCINATED with Ryoko. She's a minor character and would be hard to maintain and all, but I just couldn't stop watching her scenes and making icons of her and ackpbht!
Again, I wrote apps for both characters. Mikuru's was good, but a paragraph too short; Ryoko's was the right length, but was disorganized and needed rewriting. Again my betas were split on which character I should go for. Mikuru was the Kurumi--I knew I could get her in and I could think of more things for her to do in camp. Ryoko was the Miyako--she'd be harder to get in and maintain, but I LIKED HER SO MUCH.
Well, uh, last time this happened, I went for the character I liked more . . . and ended up dropping her. :D; So when it came down to decision time, I decided to do the opposite--I'd go for the character I liked less (but did still like) but knew would be easier on me to play. I added a paragraph to her app, decided it was good to go, and sent it in!
Was it the right decision? I still don't know. I still have trouble with Mikuru's voice and getting her settled in camp; she's hard for me to maintain for long threads, and I get paranoid sometimes that she doesn't sound right or that she's annoying people. I like Mikuru, and I'm not dropping her, although if I dropped SOMEONE, she would be the first to go--an easier decision now that Haruhi's gone as well. Mikuru is cute and fun and funny, and I do like her and am very interested in her as a character, so she's not going anywhere yet. I want to try and do her justice. But I'm hoping I settle into her more comfortably after playing her a bit (Yuuma took me like 4 months, after all) and can do her justice, because I still love her canon and I love my canonmates. ♥
15. Chao Lingshen #2. May 2007, 98.1% (51-1).
LAST BUT NOT LEAST. . . . Most, actually. XD I've never gotten an app score like that before.
Chao . . . made me so, so guilty. :D;
I totally knew I was going to app this round, just because there were so many characters I wanted. My list was HUGE, which hadn't happened to me in while. I considered several PPD characters (including Becky), a Koko wa Greenwood character, a Love Hina character, Evangeline, Ryoko, Misamisa, etc., etc. For a long time there hadn't been many characters I wanted to app--either I didn't want anyone, or each round there was someone I was totally focused on. This round I suddenly had this massive list. Augh.
At the same time, I was like "Oh my god, I shouldn't app, people will kill me if get 8." XD EVERYONE ALREADY THINKS I'M ADDICTED. I have a lot of characters and I keep them all active--I play them all at LEAST twice a week unless I'm totally swamped. But my balance is horrible, I know this! And with all this WHO WILL HIT 10 FIRST stuff and all . . . yeah, I felt bad even considering apping.
And then I decided to start a hardcore NEGIMA PIMPING PROJECT, and--it made me want to app Negima again, but that made me even guiltier, because how obvious could I BE? XD "Oh hay guys read this it's the best series ever, also ignore that Negima app next voting round." Then the real problem came when I started rereading bits--having decided NOT to reapp Eva--and remembered how much I loved Chao.
Chao's arc finally ended a couple months ago, in volume 18, after she reappeared and things got heavy in about volume 16. In that time, after the manga finally revealed everything and started to confront what was happening in her life and her past and in her relationships with Negi and the class, Chao went from being a character I was eh, kind of fond of and interested in to being a character I was totally obsessed with. XD She's now probably my second-favorite in the series--after Asuna, of course. That arc gets a lot of flack for being so long and somewhat bizarrely paced at points, but I really really enjoyed it all the way through because of how beautiful it was and the issues that it dealt with, and how it didn't flinch away from things like "Sometimes good people have to do evil in situations they don't fully understand for their own self-preservation, but that's the lot of humanity, and we'll shoulder that burden with you." ;;d And Chao is just this amazing character--she's someone who's hilarious and retarded and cracky as hell, and gets on well with people . . . but she's got these deep wounds and this horrible thirsty ambition when it comes to erasing them. AGH. Rereading it, I was like "I could play her now, because now we KNOW. I would know what to DO."
Which made me feel even guiltier, because here I am apping an EIGHTH CHARACTER and people should shoot me >D and not only that, but it's the most obvious app in the world. It's my Standard Canon which people KNEW I had been rereading, AND it was a character I had played before! Fail, me.
So I tried really, really hard to talk myself out of it. I really did. But I couldn't--I was making icons for Asuna and Chisame and I kept getting to Chao scenes and iconning her instead. And thinking of keywords and LJ names and jokes to use in her app. XD I knew I really, really wanted this character back. So I made a few notes on the app and then just let it sit in my mind for a week, and then two nights before apps opened, I opened a text file and wrote it all the way through. I had betas look at it and then changed the ending to make it more accessible to non-American audiences (the original ending was a joke about Chinese food which is apparently specific to America). I had EVEN MORE GUILT about the Dick in a Box joke, because I KNEW that was a Tell that the app was mine--I probably reference that sketch more than anyone else XD Not only that, but Ruu-chan told me the canon section was very obviously me. But I tried to fix those things, and I just couldn't. So I sent it in and then panicked and felt guilty again.
I-I really didn't expect it to do that well. XD I knew I loved it and it cracked me up, but I didn't think the humor would ping everyone, so I was shocked when I came home that day and it was up and it had 50 straight in-votes. I almost died ;o; It didn't get 100% in the end, but I'm pretty sure that's the closest I will ever come. (BECAUSE I AM NEVER APPING AGAIN)
I've only had Chao like two days, but I already love her and am so happy I got over my guilt and just apped her. So far she's easy and fun to play, and I hope things stay that way, because she's a character I love like few others. If I can get her settled into camp and having fun, I will be a very very happy girl. T^Td
. . . my hands hurt. :( SHOW'S OVER, GUYS. GO HOME.