baddecisiondzur | (no subject)

...Unsuuuuuuure. On the one hand, yes, this place needs to stop, it's a nearly dead world on life support (and he can FEEL that now that he has his full alchemic ability back), where people are being used and thrown away, and yes, for every one who wins, how many never go home again?

On the other hand, if they're successful, it's likely all those who HAVE come here who aren't out by the time they succeed may never get their wishes. And worse, may be trapped here... he's not sure how Messenger intends for them to get back to their homes and not be stuck on this dead world. And while he's been assured that those with Foreman and other Judges will be "safe" (inasmuch as they can be, anyway), everyone lost to the Old Man is likely beyond salvation, and that's hard to reconcile.

And worse, it's not something he can really discuss with much of anyone (he'll likely talk with Jace about at least some of it, but not even the full details there, and only because he trusts Jace with literally anything), so he has to try to work it out more or less on his own, which in this case is not the easiest thing to do. Del just got kind of a heavy thing dropped on them, and he's not entirely sure they can handle something like this, but he's not entirely sure they can't either, really.

How's Tazendra settling in so far?

Not bad. She had a bad first game in that being taken over by the Zerg and watching a teammate get shot down*, but recovered mostly -- though she still might be extra violent towards giant insects for a bit. Mostly she's impatient and a bit cranky that everyone here is more competent than she is, but basically okay.

OTOH, part of that is because she's Tazendra, and probably the only one short of a Viking warrior who thinks SLT is an entertaining afterlife. (A few more mental games and a badtouch from Mirror might cause her to reconsider.)

* Though someone joked in chan that the typical Duzrlord reaction to fear is Fear -> Anger -> Violence -> Okay.

Oh Tazendra... really I should dig out my books so I can read more of Brust's stuff while I'm here, I haven't really read a lot yet but I like it so far.

Hm... questions... what's the biggest positive and negative ping(s) for Akin and Tazendra right now?

Tazendra's positives: Team, magic and fighting. She also... well, really wants to win memories to find out what kind of person she was.
Negatives: Confinement and any type of mind-mongoling. Granted, she will respond with violence, which is a terrible idea with say, Mirror.

Akin's positives: mostly he's delighting in the wonderful world of being able to heal others.
Negatives: Right now some of the mindless grudges will get him pretty upset. A couple of bad games, or something where one of the more vengeful teams makes Canis a more active target, and he'll be pretty irritable.

Also, if you apped a second character, who would it be?

I actually have a mostly-completed app sitting here for Rakka from Haibane Renmei... I haven't really been hit with any major pings for a second character but I think she could be a fun, fairly easy backburner-type.

Any thoughts of an Ophi in the future?

Occasionally, but Marla, my only attempt at Ophi-ing, was the only character I idled out on, and she nearly lost her activity check the second time when I good-ended her. I wouldn't mind a third character, but I'm a terrible mid-boss.

What about you?

I've considered off-and-on apping Miran from Legend of the Legendary Heroes (Ryner and Sion's canon), as well as Erik from Phantom of the Opera, but the main things stopping me are being lazy about canon review, and being unsure if I can handle more than one character at a time.

Which, really, are the two points repeatedly stopping me anyway. XD

Give me a favorite and least favorite for playing each of yours?

Favorite about Tazendra: She is extroverted. To the extreme. It means I can jump in whenever I want with whoever I want.
Least Favorite: People know the canon. It intimidates me. It didn't bother me with Zel and Tailmon for some reason -- perhaps because playing Zelgadis in RPGs is habitual, and I've been a Digmon fan forever.

Favorite about Akin: He's just a nice guy who likes people. Personable characters are fun. Also, trying to picture the world as he sees it, which is both fun and hard because alien.
Least Favorite: Drawing my own icons. Seriously, I'd take the most crappy of adaptions* just to get some screenshots.

You ever run into that -- that is, playing characters from media like novels where you don't have a million icons? Or even characters form obscure anime where you have to make your own. (Not that I didn't make most of my Zel 'n Tailmon ones...)

* Though there I might have to use a different male Oankali, since Akin spends only about three chapters looking like he does now. Most of the book time is spent when he looks nearly human as a child.

To be honest, Ed's the first character I've done for an extended period of time... previous online* RP experiences included some OC/AU characters where I did have to draw all their icons, though, and even with ones (like Ed) where there's tons of icons available I've always just made my own anyway.** (And, should I ever finish the app, I did find a source of Haibane Renmei screenshots I can use to do icons for Rakka, though it's likely I won't go all-out and recolor them the way I do for Ed.)

What were some surprises you had in Akin's heart game? (I read through it all this morning XD)

* ...Well, Journal RP anyway, I also did some PBEM gaming in the past which was 100% text, no icons at all. And I tended to draw or get art for my D&D characters, mostly because it was kind of fun, not for any requirement of the game.

** Including at least one I did draw myself, and a couple I commissioned.

Surprisingly, none -- no one did anything too unexpected, perhaps because I put in obvious things to do, rather than 'here, let me drop you in the middle of Akin's repressed Pillar trauma ^_^'.

That will happen. XD (Ah, repressed Pillar trauma, it's good fun.)

It looked like you had a nice structure going in there, but it's always hard to say what's unexpected (unless it's Ed's heart and the Pillar's being turned into a My Little Pony, but really who could have called that?). Also reading it made me more interested in reading Akin's canon sometime.

Well, it's nice because Akin is only in one book of three -- the first one is pretty much 'how Mom became a traitor to the human race' and the third one is about Akin's much younger half*-siblings and Biblical metaphors I missed in the first reading, because I'm dense like that**. And it's still only three books (that nowadays are sold as an omnibus)

But Octavia Butler writes interesting aliens.

* Well, three-quarters-siblings, technically. They share all the same parents but one.
** I totally did get that Butler named Akin's mom Lilith as a reference to the mythological Lilith as the mother of monsters. (Don't tell him that...)

A three-book omnibus seems like something I could read in fairly short order... I may check it out, because I do like trying out more unusual stuff!