State of the Muses: February 2013

[gorepasa]

character: Aang (savedtheworld) series: Avatar: The Last Airbender tagging priority: ■■■■□: Aang can often be the easiest to write tags for, but he also winds up going around the most which encourages laziness sometimes. It's still likely that I'll go through any number of his tags first. muse strength: ■■■■□: Still fairly solid-ish! I did have a little shift inspired by a tumblr commentary which refreshed me on how Aang usually deals with grief, and that's been helpful in keeping him ICly energetic while things aren't completely okay. Now that his anniversary month is looming, I have to put more thought into how this year has changed him. cast strength: ■■■□□: We're down to the original three plus Suki and Ikki and Bolin from the future. It's still a solid if shrunken down line-up with the potential of all kinds of interesting stuff. plotting capabilities: ■■■■□: Aang's easy as ever to get involved in things, both through the Welcome Center and art club stuff. He has his involvement in Rapunzel's birthday lanterns for the near future. Also, I've been thinking of more low-key ways of doing air acolyte-ish stuff which will not require membership. general fun level: ■■■■□: He's still a blast most of the time. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: Been going solid for almost a year now. Hopefully it stays that way.

So for this month? There's been Katara returning to normal, Toph going home, Valentines shenanigans and Roku's more quiet home-going. So it's been a bit of a bumpy ride but one filled with good threads so far. Some of it's still ongoing, and backdated post-Valentines stuff should be a thing eventually, but it has all been interesting to play with so far (well except for Roku's depature, which hasn't really been worked into anything yet). Aang himself is in a fairly stable place right now where he can be grateful for what he has in Luceti, while also possibly feeling guilty about the Valentines effect. With the lantern ceremony and all, he may be able to start his second year of Luceti imprisonment with a renewed sense of hope.

character: Rock Lee (niceguypose) series: Naruto tagging priority: ■■■■■: He's pretty much been taking the lead lately. muse strength: ■■■■□: I still have room for doubt and probably should review. Or rather review the main series and quit trying to count Naruto SD as proper review. In particular I'm uncertain on whether or not I exaggerate his formality and humorlessness too much. And another thing is that sometimes I wind up fail on braining scenes where he's actually fighting. cast strength: ■■■■□: Our cast is solid and promises to grow even more solid. There is a need for a Naruto himself to main character it up, and there are various characters such as Gai whom I'll always wish for for Lee. plotting capabilities: ■■■■□: This month, Lee has had mostly Valentines-related plotting, which has been very fun to deal with. And he can also play a role in the Rapunzel birthday lanterns. He's still easy to get involved in things, even in weird and absurd ways, so there's plenty of fun plotting capabilities down the line - plus sad ones for post-update. general fun level: ■■■■□: He can often be the most fun, with his unique mix of absurdity and sincerity. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: The days of his being in danger are long gone.

Rock Lee's pretty much the little engine who could. He refused to be dropped, and now he's probably the most reliable in tagging with. And he's somehow wound up being my character with the most love life complications, after that event. And at the same time he's someone whom it's been interesting to put through horrible things such as heartbreak and potentially eventually learning about a close friend's death. He should be having a canon update in the near future. I shall just have to confer to Pi to figure out whether to put it through before or after Shikamaru's. This will open up new emotional territory for him, although I hope it doesn't dampen his fun too much. And he still has a chance of being spoiled prior to the update, which will leave him a depressed wreck of some kind.

character: Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler (wildbluevagner) series: X-Men Evolution tagging priority: ■■■□□: He has been taking a hit lately. I haven't been tagging around with him as much as I should (plus he doesn't attract much attention himself) and some voice troubles make me wait on his tags. muse strength: ■■■□□: I think I need more review in something. I feel doubting on his tags and do also feel uncertain sometimes of how to play him off of others such as the teachers. cast strength: ■■■□□: Gambit may be gone, but we still have have our lovely little mutant family, in their little corner of the massive amount of other Marvel properties. And Armor has also been a welcome/refreshing presence. plotting capabilities: ■■□□□: He has potential, but I haven't been doing much for him at all. I have been having fun with Valentines stuff in particular, but I have to think more about what to do with him around the village. Maybe there will be more opportunities with future drafts/missions as well as reacting to the portal plot. Thinking about Dream Shifters has at least provided some ideas. general fun level: ■■■■□: When I get into a solid groove with him, he can be fun. But I think I need more review to recapture his essence better. likelihood of drop: ■□□□□: I don't think it's that much of a possibility yet, but may be if things don't pick up for him.

Kurt has been struggling somewhat, recently. I guess it's mostly voice problems as well as figuring stuff out for him in Luceti. It is better whenever there are opportunities to thread those whom he's closer to. Some of his event stuff has still been especially sweet, and it will be interesting to explore the aftermath. I think I need more review and putting more thought into him. Or I might just need to get into a random mood which saved Ralph, who was in the same boat as Kurt around the same time.

character: Wreck-It Ralph (gonnawreckit) series: Wreck-It Ralph tagging priority: ■■■□□: His place wavers and may be closer to a 3.5. I was feeling a little dead drive-wise with him around the same time as Kurt and horribly took forever with his tags sometime - this also led to me not doing much with him at all during the event. His most recent post wound up being oddly fatiguing. However, this week I think I've been picking up with him and feeling a lot better with him. muse strength: ■■■■□: I think I'm good with him. Maybe some minor review and checking out deleted scenes and such could help. Sometimes I do think I might be making him too antisocial which could use revision. And I also have to be careful not to make him too name-droppy in terms of other video games, as much as I love to be able to use such references in RP, since he doesn't really do it that much. cast strength: ■■■■□: Vanellope and Calhoun are both valuable gems. Anyone else who's appable would be welcome, but particularly Felix in order to finish up the quartet. plotting capabilities: ■■■□□: He does have plenty of potential, lots of stuff can come out of the video game character-ness. I wound up not doing much with him this month, but I have been gaining more ideas in addition to those lying around such as Bad Anon. general fun level: ■■■■□: It's fun to play Ralph again after he started to tire a little. Once again it's refreshing to play a character who's not above acting like a jerk. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: He's at a good place right now.

So, yeah. RP's been picking up since January, and mostly now it's been working through general game slowness and such. I definitely had/am having a good time with my first Valentines event, and almost all of my characters have been getting to better places. And, yeah. I'll be shooting for the fifth character slot for the next cycle. ...And trying hard not to force in a sixth. It is weird to think about, it's been a year since I first made contact with Luceti, and next month will be the anniversary of bringing in Aang. Coming in here with only a brief previous RP history and one character I wasn't sure I could pull off, but everything's paid off greatly. And now here I am a year later with... more characters. Was this going somewhere? Anyway, grateful for all the great times and hopeful for more!

Potential apps:

Well there's one definite and several maybes so far!

character: Colonel Jade Curtiss, Malkuth Imperial Forces Third Division
series: Tales of the Abyss
why I might: I've pretty much been entranced by this character. His wonderful sass, his guilt over his past, the way he's still growing in terms of understanding death, his occasional childishness, his pseudo-familial dynamic with Anise and his interesting brand of logic/paranoia. He has that balance of humor and potential for drama that feels right for me. Not to mention that he can play off of pretty much everyone in the current Abyss cast interestingly. Potential posts and plots for him have also both come to mind... and I've wound up already voice testing his younger self, too. That could definitely be an interesting plot to explore. He will also be interesting for plot stuff because of his military stuff and sharp analytical skills. He's enough of a contrast to all of my other muses to be refreshing in a way.
why I might not: I'm still uncertain if I have the voice down well enough, although asking for a Q&A should be helpful in that regard. And generally wondering if I could hold all these characters.

This app is already underway. Any other characters are purely speculation or possibly will wait for the next cycle.

character: Ben Wyatt
series: Parks and Recreation
why I might: The potential for a sudden Parks cast is tempting. His nerdishness can be fun to play with. And he could be an interesting "straight man" to play off of the weirdness of Luceti.
why I might not: Too many characters. Right now it's too much of an impulse decision and I need review to him. Also I have only basic knowledge of two of his primarily canons - Star Trek and Game of Thrones. Not sure if I could capture his poltitical savvy too... plus he actually knows math!

character: Andy Dwyer
series: Parks and Recreation
why I might: Again, the potential Parks cast. But Andy can also play off of April, who could wind up being the only cast member we get this cycle. He fits my character type better and would be fun for a variety of stupid hijinks as well as for making dumb songs. He seems potentially much easier than Ben and much less in need of review.
why I might not: Too... many... characters! And again, impulse decision. And the other concern is that he's too close to my other characters, to the point where I could tire of playing of playing too many characters who aren't very intellectual.

It's also tempting to pick up some Zelda muse, but I can't think of any I definitely have a desire to play at the moment. TWW!Link is Aangblocked, plus my Midna spark died out not long after it was originally re-ignited all those months ago. It won't be in time for this cycle, but maybe I'll try picking a game to play at some point to see if what happens.