A Minor Variation

Suddenly I find myself working on not one but three new characters - Irene on Marvels of Steam, which everyone already knew about, Rogue on Project Infinity, and Selphie on Soft Reset.

Because clearly I have lost my mind.

Film at eleven.

Some further answers to the character question thing, the first for the 2023 version of MU Squall, the second for the current version of the same character.

What place does Tri occupy in Squall's life and why?

( Read the answer. )

What did Squall think about Jubilee's gift and why?

( Read the answer. )

Because it's just too interesting a possibility to pass over, even though I've been gone half the week...

Stolen from infinitepryde:

Ask any one of my RP characters anything you like. I'll do my best to make them answer (but in Squall's case, I can make no guarantees). Just tell me which you're asking. Multiple questions allowed, 'cause I feel generous.

In other news, I'm back from Florida. Very tired, but glad I went, 'cause my brother was kind of freaked out from survival and resistance training and needed some people around. Also, we got his power and water turned on Friday, which made the whole situation much more palatable.

I had a really weird dream last night involving Wal-Mart, the dentist, secret agents, assassination attempts, and James Marsters. Go fig.

We went around yesterday to a few spots in Destin getting stuff for Phil's apartment. Stopped at a candy store and discovered that the Jelly Belly people are making Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans - you know, from Harry Potter. Of course we had to try them. This proved to be unwise. If anyone else has been wondering: yes, they really do taste like spinach. And grass. And black pepper. And sardines. That last was sufficiently disgusting that none of us really cared to try the ear wax or vomit ones, although my brother risked a booger one and claimed it was "salty."

Ladies and gentlemen, my family.

Hey, I got lumped into the same category as Kitalyana. I rool.

Also, apparently I'm a lesbian.

This seems a little nonsensical. If I prefer girls for the hot sex, why am I playing a male character in a gay relationship, since it's generally understood that the only reason a female player would play a gay male character would be for the hawt boy sex?

I mean, really.


Edit: Apparently I made some comments that constitute proof that I am a lesbian.

No, I have no idea what comments those might have been.

Although they're willing to allow for the possibility that I'm a man pretending to be a lesbian.

Or something.

As the subject has come up from two completely separate avenues recently, I feel obliged to ramble on it for a little while. Whee.

Now, I've had my share of mental scarring from bad fanfic and worse RP. I have nothing but contempt for people who throw canon characterization out the window for their own gratification, be it sexual or otherwise.

However!

Bad characterization is bad characterization. There is such thing as bringing one's own interpretation to an existing character, or taking said character in a previously unexplored direction through RP. This does not automatically equal bad characterization. If it did, all movie and TV adaptations, all novelizations and What Ifs, all spinoffs would suck. Unequivocally. 'Cause that's essentially what they are.

Furthermore, it is, or ought to be, fundamentally impossible to RP feature characters without deviating at least a little bit from canon. Because, y'know, stuff happens. Relationships are formed, not just sexual or romantic ones, but friendships and enmities and business partnerships, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam. Things happen that shape the character's attitudes and behaviors. They learn stuff. None of this means that the character is suddenly OMG NOT THE REAL THING any more. The essential character is true to canon, or should be if the RPer is doing a decent job of playing them.

And it can be fascinating to see alternate interpretations of a character, so long as the characterization is handled well. Canon doesn't show you everything about them, especially if they're not the main character of whatever work you've borrowed them from. With sources like comics, frequently a lot is glossed over, or only hinted at. Situations that could be very cool sometimes just never come up. If it's done well, it can be great to explore some of those things, to do a little bit of what-iffing, to put the spotlight on a character who's usually playing a secondary role, to shed a little more light on what makes them tick. That's why they call it interpretation, numbnuts.

Not to mention that, especially with series formats - especially with series formats that are handed from writer to writer like comics frequently are - canon doesn't always stay true to canon. Characters get written badly, subjected to horrible storylines, neglected in favor of more popular characters. Writers and publishers play to the lowest common denominator of their audiences. Things that might be entirely in character but wouldn't be accepted by a mainstream audience are avoided or carefully glossed over. Like, say, homosexuality. It happens. Some of the best interpretations have come about when intelligent writers and roleplayers have taken a horrible storyline and said "so what if this happened this way...?"

So, hey. If people want to complain about bad slashfic and gratuitous character-mangling, I'm right there with them. Just as long as we don't start tarring all fanfic and RP deviations from canon with the same giant brush. The folks who do that can bite me.

Now I'm going to go play some Diablo II.

It's only because I can't find a tabletop group!

Your Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Score
Category	Your Score	Average
Hacklust	78.3% Enjoys the occasional head-lopping	52.8%
Sensitive Roleplaying	20.25% All the game's your stage	49.1%
GM Experience	83.33% "Um... You guys are in a 10'x10' room..."	65.8%
Systems Knowledge	99.72% Played in a couple of campaigns	88.5%
Livin' La Vida Dorka	71.26% Goes nuts on the weekends	58.5%
You are 75.26% pure Average Score: 65.7%
Take The Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Test and see how you match up!

Constantine steals Seishi's underwear.
Seishi facepalms.
Constantine says "It's got little cartoon Holmeses on it."
Holmes imagines Seishi in Sherlock Holmes Underoos declaring that sometimes a pipe is just a pipe. But that is just about as PG as the snackbar can stand.
Seishi falls over. DEAD.
You say "I wonder if we can get Pete to draw that."

...So what is it about the repressed ones?

I didn't realize, when I apped Squall@MU, just quite what I'd be letting myself in for. I won't say every person, but certainly every other person that he meets either becomes determined to fix him or just wants to take him apart to see how he ticks. It's very odd. Gratifying, even flattering, but odd.

I feel like I owe Sherlock Holmes an apology, somehow.