State of the Muses: August 2013

[gorepasa]

character: Aang (savedtheworld) series: Avatar: The Last Airbender tagging priority: ■■■■□: He's often near the top, although the large number of tags he draws in can sometimes lead me to focus on others first. muse strength: ■■■■□: I feel like he's still one of my strongest - I just have to pay more attention to his Luceti development. cast strength: ■■■□□: Seems like things have been busy for many, but it's still a wonderful cast regardless. plotting capabilities: ■■■□□: He's easy enough to get involved with things, and always have a number of post ideas in mind. Most of them have just been stockpiled for the time being. general fun level: ■■■■□: One of the most fun monks. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: Yeah, he's more or less always good to stick around.

character: Rock Lee (niceguypose) series: Naruto tagging priority: ■■■□□: He can be second-ish. It depends. A lot of times it comes to me easier. muse strength: ■■■■□: He often feels very easy and strong. Maybe just some review to polish things more. cast strength: ■■■■■: I'll just quote Pi: "The cast can always grow, but you know. When you reach the point of having 20 characters in your cast, I think you have to give them a 5/5." plotting capabilities: ■■■□□: Pretty good! He's easy to throw out there and get involved in things. He's very handy when I need someone with pure muscle. general fun level: ■■■■□: One of the most fun. This was the other month, but his three-way post with Rapunzel and Ikki was one of the most fun things. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: He seems set to stick around.

character: Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler (wildbluevagner) series: X-Men Evolution tagging priority: ■■■□□: He's been kind of lower lately, particularly his non-event tags. That's partly because his event version self comes easier to me. muse strength: ■■■□□: His voice has felt off - or perhaps more generic-ish lately, and I've been doing some review here and there to try to get it back on track. I've mostly been doing his event tags partly because the voice feels more unique and comes to me more easily. cast strength: ■■■□□: As Marvelous as always. And now with Wanda's presence there's more awesome for out little Evo-family. I'll always wish for a Kitty, though. plotting capabilities: ■■□□□: I definitely have to throw him around more and work on developing more of his CR. He did have some cool things going on for him in the event, although it doesn't look like one intended purpose of having someone actually freak out at his appearance will pan out. Generally I have to plot some more stuff out involving him and move some kind of arc along. general fun level: ■■■□□: He is plenty of fun when I'm feeling him right. And especially when he's just a gigantic dork. likelihood of drop: ■□□□□: Somewhat of an obligatory square in case things don't pick up.

character: Jade Curtiss (yourfononsarewhack) series: Tales of the Abyss tagging priority: ■■■■□: He has been more or less on top lately. The event helped to revitalize his drive in a big way, and now it's only hampered from trying to tweak my characterization. muse strength: ■■■□□: I feel in some ways it's still a work in progress. I'm reviewing currently to try to get him into tip-top shape. He's finally received some crit and I'm doing what I can to try to deal with it. cast strength: ■■■■□: It's quite a lovely cast as ever. I'm very glad to have a Peony, and the potential in-comers for this and next cycle are very promising. plotting capabilities: ■■■■□: I feel like I've dropped the ball with plotting for him in the past - been faily at tagging plotty and Malnosso things efficiently enough - but I've been feeling much better with the event and its aftermath. Hopefully I can keep this going and Jade can be a consistent player in the plotting game. general fun level: ■■■■□: He can be so fun when I'm on a roll, although I know that his trolling needs some fine-tuning. likelihood of drop: ■□□□□: It's only an obligatory square for now. I'm reviewing and doing what I can to try to improve his characterization to the best that I can manage. If I can't get him to a more satisfactory level, then there could be problems.

Jade wound up being kind of non-existent in July since he wound up pretty much suffering the most from my vacation. However, the event helped to revitalize him and get him into full swing, even if that mostly was through playing an alternate, more horrible version of him. It's been a compelling arc to play out, that of it which I have been able to play out that is, and I'm still working through the effects it has on Jade. It's certainly not something he feels the need to atone for - and he doesn't really care what image of himself is held by others. If anything, what is sticking with him the most so far is the fact that he temporarily died when attacked by the Count, and that's something I can probably mine from to an extent.

He has been very different for my roster and certainly a challenge from the beginning. I have been wanting crit for him along the way, however, and I do want to do what I can to portray a fully-rounded and sufficient Jade. I have finally gotten crit, and I'm doing my best to work with it. One problem was something I think I've realized myself to an extent and have been trying to think over how to do better: overuse of him being trolly/snarky with others. Reviewing so far has helped to refresh me on how polite and formal Jade can be with others, particularly without immediately delving into trolling. I also have to work on maintaining his composure, as another issue was with my portrayals of him being angry. Although perhaps the one that does concern me the most is hearing that my Jade comes across as an earlier canon point one. That's definitely something I want to do my best to try to look into and rectify if I can, to make sure I'm not missing nuances of his character development and am portraying it all the best that I can. So, yeah. That's a summary of me vs. the crit and is an ongoing thing as I continue my review and try to observe more carefully how Jade acts throughout it. Hopefully, I can make the grade (and then transfer it to a New Game Plus).

character: Mytho (soheartless) series: Princess Tutu tagging priority: ■■■□□: He's someone I can tag with fairly easily and quickly most of the time - although lately I guess I sometimes hit roadblocks when I feel uncertain about if/how to ensure threads are engaging for the other player. muse strength: ■■■■□: One of the simplest voices. However, now that he's been regaining a number of his heart shards, I think I need to do some more review to get a better sense of how differently he could be acting at this stage. cast strength: ■■■□□: Vil's Rue is worth approximately fifty-eight boxes alone. But the loss of Duck/Tutu herself is still a blow. plotting capabilities: ■■■□□: He's not exactly in a state to get involved in overall plot stuff, but he has plenty of potential for player plot stuff. The heart shards plot has been fun but slow, and now it will be entering a halt once Duck is departed. There's still also the potential for doing things involving Crow!Mytho, but I'm still uncertain of the angle to take. general fun level: ■■■■□: He can be really fun simply through his plainness. However, I'm keeping in mind that I have to keep it fun for the other characters, too, and that's something to work on. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: He's fine. Mytho's low maintenance enough that dropping him wouldn't really get rid of that much of a load, anyway.

For Mytho, I am trying to work on making his threads more compelling and I have to try to get more actual CR for him. Especially without Duck and Fakir around, he could use some more of a support system and people who think they could look after him. I also have to put more thought into how his disposition will change with the shards he already has - and how it will affect the raven's blood within him (but more on that later). And I'm also thinking over what to do with the heart shards plot in the wake of Duck's impending drop along with others leaving the plot. There's a few possibilities. One that could be unlikely but maybe at least slightly possible is that if by chance we get a new Duck next cycle, I could just revamp the plot and get it going again. Another would be to compensate for Tutu's absence by working out some other method to return heard shards to Mytho - it could be an interesting opportunity for cross-canon fun. And the third option would be to keep things paused on this shard for a while and find something else to focus on in the meantime, such as Crow!Mytho.

Crow!Mytho is another thing which I need to think over regarding how to portray it. The raven's blood is primarily linked to the heart shard of love - however, even though he lacks the shard, the blood is still in his system. I've meant to try to hint at it working within his body increasingly with each regained shard, but I've kind of failed in that so far. Maybe I'll work some things in with the sorrow shard. Bringing out his raven form in a more full manner would be an interesting way to utilize him if we wind up keeping him from more heart shards for the time being. But it still brings up more questions. Could I justify it with the few non-love shards he has at his disposal, and how would he be different when he doesn't have the love shard yet? There's also the question of what to do with him. It certainly won't be a "he goes crazy and fights everyone" type of plot, and he can't work out his main plain from the show with The Raven being absent. I also am kind of hesitant about playing up that persona's seductive/abusive side in a large scale, so I'll have to think carefully about what to do with him. There is always the possibility of ultimately mundane acts of terror such as when he destroyed Mr. Cat's favorite dance shoes.

character: Van Hohenheim (philosophized) series: Fullmetal Alchemist tagging priority: ■■■□□: He's been around the bottom, sadly. It's partly been a mistake of how close his intro was to my vacation, and then others jeopordized my attention for Luceti Valley. Hopefully he'll get a boost as I work at getting him better established. muse strength: ■■■□□: He feels good and solid enough, but I'm still adjusting to him. cast strength: ■■□□□: It's an awesome but small family. plotting capabilities: ■■□□□: I probably have to work out more of a plotting niche for him, but he does have potential for interesting CR at least. Mostly I have to get him somewhat better established. general fun level: ■■■□□: I'm still getting used to his rhythm and how to have fun with him to some extent. likelihood of drop: ■□□□□: He would be the easiest to go if I had to, but I still have drive for him.

So, yeah. That's it. Six character central. Overall, I think I have been somewhat behind-ish in some instances. Partly because of how much there wound up being to the last two months - I had my vacation during which I mostly managed tags for a few characters; and then by the time I returned, event plotting was already a thing and quickly became a focus for most of my attention, and then Otakon also added a bit more busy for things. To an extent, I have been focusing mainly on the event still, although I guess it's starting to actually die down. I have to work through more post-event stuff and get Hohenheim better situated in general. Otherwise, working out Jade's characterization is also a thing to focus on, while Mytho's thing I won't make much of a final decision on until after this app cycle. No one's really in the drop zone at the moment - just some having warning signs - and of course apps aren't a thing for the time being.