state of the RP: ULTIMATE EDITION

[noisyfanfare]

state of the rp: general
Actually, all things considered, I'm doing okay. I'm chipping away at my tags and they multiply when I go to sleep - the usual. But since I'm currently on sem break, I have all the time in the world. What I'm scared of is when I go back to school next month, because even though I managed to hold on to all my current characters without having to drop, I don't know how long I can keep that up. Sooner or later, my workload is going to increase, and I have to step up my game, academics-wise. I can still keep up with what happens at my games, at least. I still don't have the heart to drop old threads unless I absolutely can't think of anything anymore, ahaha. Also, backtags rule. Forever.

route 29
state of the game
I'm surprised that I can still keep up with Route. My main concern upon joining was the speed, but even after my first semester, I think I'm doing fine, and up-to-date, at least. Of course, whenever I'm busy and/or on hiatus, I can't tag around as often as I think I should. But overall, I'm glad I apped because even though I know precious little about Pokémon (only watched several episodes of the anime when I was in fourth grade, oh yes), I'm having fun and I got the hang of it. Even updating Clover's Pokémon isn't as tedious as I thought...although maybe I should keep track of her expenses too.



character: Clover [4leafcleaver]
age: 18
series: 999 (9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors)
time played: 5 months (May 2011)

muse strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Actually, after managing to keep it distinct from Kay's, I've gotten a good grip on Clover's voice. I played through the Ax End some time ago (wrong ending, I know, but oh well), which confirmed that she does sound like she should, at least. I can plow through her tags, although these days I try to put more thought into them and throw her at other characters. However, I haven't thrown around any puns yet (or at least, as often as I should), or anything about paradoxes. I chalk it up to the fact that Clover's just too busy training her Pokémon and hanging out with her friends, but still.

cast strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ □
I love love love my castmates, including Kosy (Snake) and Marion (Ace), who have already dropped BUT WILL ALWAYS BE LOVED. I always enjoy interacting with them, especially since many of them come from the true end. But being the Clover player, I still really want a Snake, even if she's...currently emotionally stable and has a lot of emotional support from her current CR, because I feel like despite everything, Clover's still missing something. A part of her. I really miss the days when we had a near-full cast (gonna need some 9th Man in here someday) and how they were dealing with that in Johto.

plotting capabilities: ■ ■ ■ □ □
There hasn't been a lot in the plot department if I'm not mistaken, apart from the Halloween Festival and the possessions, and I'm okay with chilling out for a bit, especially after I tagged a lot in the Halloween Festival log. Right now, my priority is strengthening CR and anyway, even without a definite plot or anything of the sort, Clover gets by just fine. She has done so for a while; in fact, it's easy to throw her at people because she's generally friendly and talks about almost anything. Almost.

shipping potential: ■ ■ □ □ □
I'm normally not one to play out ships, though I like to discuss them or mention them every now and then. Anyway, I think at this point, Clover probably isn't actively looking for a boyfriend. Sure, she has a lot of boy friends (that space in between is very significant), but she's not romantically attracted to any of them. Still, I'm okay with any of the guys flirting with her or doing nice things for her. She's 18, anyway. So I'm open to options, but don't expect shipping in the blink of an eye - I prefer to build up relationships like those from the ground up.

likelihood of drop: □ □ □ □ □
At first, I thought if I had to drop, Clover would be the first to go because she's the newest among my active muses. But I was wrong - excellent castmates, amazing CR and Clover's development (more on that later) are keeping me anchored to Route. And playing her is like a breath of fresh air because she's so carefree and cheerful. Not only that, as I've mentioned, her voice is really strong right now, so she's not as...high-maintenance. I swear, I would do my very best to keep her around.

development/final thoughts:
Snake leaving Johto was the turning point of Clover's development, in my opinion. She's so very dependent on him, but then again, she comes from after the True End of 999, so I think by then she has learned to be stronger without him. However, while she has learned to keep going without him by her side, Clover is now becoming more attached to others...though not as attached as she is to Snake, of course. Anyway, for a long time I thought it would be OOC for Clover to continue training her Pokémon and entering a gym battle after he left, but on the other hand, letting her mope forever wasn't the best way to go either, especially since Snake left her a letter and a four-leaf clover before departing.

Clover is more than just Snake's little sister. She's Clover, a girl who's been through a lot and can stand on her own feet - with a little help. I look forward to her making more friends, and sharing the meanings of the clover's leaves to other people. Instead of being a little sis, she is becoming a big sister to some characters, which is so cute to watch.

...I have a feeling this development is the reason why she gets angry less often. But I still wonder if she's not moody enough. In fact, she's very much a doting mommy figure to her Pokémon and rarely ever gets mad at them. Clover WILL scold people who don't treat their Pokémon right, though. So I guess that's one thing that'll send her mood swinging.

sirenspull
state of the game
SP is fast, make no mistake about it. I promise to tag a log when it goes up, and when I wake up the next morning to tag it, there are already hundreds of comments. It has slowed down a bit recently, but there are still many player-related plots, as well as game plots in general. It might intimidate others, but they're usually optional, and sometimes you can't help but sit out of an event due to RL stuff or another plan. At first I had no idea what to do with Larry because there were so many possibilities, but I finally settled on what I wanted with him, and mostly stuck to it, trying to get into plots whenever I can, especially when they concern castmates.

I can't believe I've been here for a year. I thought I'd drop out because I wouldn't be able to keep up, but it turns out that I don't have to keep tabs on EVERYTHING to survive, especially considering who my character is (it's very permissible for him to be clueless ahahaha).



character: Larry Butz [troublesmells]
age: 25 26 in-game
series: Ace Attorney
time played: 1 year (Oct. 2010)

muse strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ □
Larry's voice is...actually pretty easy. At least, for someone who's as impulsive and as hyper as he is, ahahaha. I have no problem making him spazz and making him be all clueless and girl-crazy, but the reason why this only gets 4 out of 5 is because I'm trying to figure out how he should be while he's recovering from Edgeworth's disappearance - and how long he'll be down in the dumps. See, before Edgeworth left, Phoenix already left - so now, both his BFFs are gone. As in, gone from Siren's Port. And Larry can't follow them. And we all know how attached he is to his best friends. I can't churn out Larry tags as fast as Clover tags, but I think his voice is still clear. It's just that I have to adjust to the current circumstances.

cast strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ □
I partly joined SP to be able to join the amazing cast; I was nervous at first because OMG WILL I BE ABLE TO FIT IN OR AM I GOING TO FAIL SO HARD. Eventually, I got the hang of it, and I try my best to always stick my nose into my cast's business, because that's what Larry does - and also because my castmates COME UP WITH THE BEST THINGS. SERIOUSLY. However, this doesn't get full marks because Larry's closest links in the cast are already gone, though that certainly doesn't mean he'll isolate himself from everyone else. He has interacted with each cast member at least once if I'm not mistaken, and I look forward to more - because he's going to need them.

plotting capabilities: ■ ■ ■ ■ □
After my paltry showing of activity during the last AC in which I finally had to play the hiatus card (I only do so when I'm absolutely sure I have nothing to show, and usually I still have a bit of time to squeeze something in even though I'm on hiatus), I threw myself into several plots and logs (also partly because Larry will try to take his mind off losing his best friends and won't cancel plans just because of that) for Halloween. Actually, it's easy for me to toss him into a plot. Sometimes I'll chalk it up to him just being the Butz and a magnet for trouble and being in the wrong place at the wrong time because I'm so cruel like that, haha. But seriously, this means I'll be holding off on the plots for a while and focus on CR because even he's got limits, and I've got limits, and school is about to start. Overall, I wish I could get into more plots in SP because they're all really fun in their own ways.

shipping potential: ■ ■ ■ ■ □
He's girl-crazy, and I always mention in plotting memes that I am always looking for female characters (of legal age) who don't mind getting hit on or who wouldn't mind going on dates with the Butz. Right now, there are quite a few women who have drawn his attention for one reason or another, whether by looks alone or by looks and the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. I'm not sure which of them will end up in a relationship with Larry, and though I'm more permissive when it comes to ships with this guy precisely because he chases girls, I prefer to have any possible relationships planned out and discussed at length with the other mun. However, Larry doesn't flirt with EVERY girl he sees, especially since he already has two other loves - his job under food prep at Lion's Gate and being a freelance artist.

likelihood of drop: ■ □ □ □ □
To be quite honest, I'm not very sure what will happen to Larry now that both his best friends are gone. I mean, it's one thing to pop into Siren's Port alone, but it's another for him to experience having Phoenix and Edgeworth, and then to lose them afterward. But on the other hand, it's not like Larry will be completely broken and I'll have nothing to do. Knowing Larry, he'll finish mourning in a while and then continue onward with his friends and remaining castmates. I really like exploring his character and fleshing him out because most of the time, he's the gag character and the butt monkey in canon. After one year in Siren's Port, he's become less of a klutz and his interest in girls may have waned a bit, but when something smells, you know he's around. And Siren's Port will be smelly for a long time, I can imagine.

development/final thoughts:
I don't want Larry to come off as the usual girl-crazy hyper impulsive klutz (even if technically, he is). I believe he can be serious when he has to be, and he doesn't mess EVERYTHING up, and he's not as dim as some people think he is. The best part of playing Larry is seeing what he's good at, and the most difficult part is striking a balance. Sure, he's more than just the Butz, but at the end of the day, he IS the Butz. I can't have him falling all over his own feet all the time.

I know I need to get to working on his powers as well, because until now, Larry doesn't quite know how to work them. Even if he knows what they do. But it can be difficult when you need a very precise action (touching someone's forehead) to trigger it (temporarily erasing one memory). I don't want to rely on power-related events in SP; I know I have to get this moving myself somehow, and I'm still working on it because it would be fun to RP a Larry who is more aware of his power (and who may try to take matters into his own hands by using it for someone else's sake...somehow...however that works).

I get more conscious about tags too; I don't want to make him sound too dim-witted. As I've mentioned before, I don't think Larry is dim-witted...he's just really impulsive and doesn't think things through, and his skills lie in other fields (read: ART). Don't forget the part where he only finished junior high (he probably thought he could already get by with that, or got too lazy to study, or finally decided to get a job right off the bat). Really, Larry, I should send you to college.

somarium
state of the game
Somarium is the slowest game I'm in; each day can yield as few as less than five network posts, although there are plots as well. I mostly joined because I was enabled and I realized that I couldn't not play Kay for long. However, I needed castmates, and Somarium had two of Kay's important castmates. Not only that, I generally have fun coming up with dreams, even if it takes me forever to write them, and then I look back and wonder what I've made. Then again, they're only dreams, right? I tend to do them often, especially when I'm out of post ideas.



character: Kay Faraday [dedikayted]
age: 17
series: Ace Attorney
time played: 7 months (March 2011)

muse strength: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
It must be because I've played Kay at several games over the span of two years; her voice is something that doesn't leave me easily. When her voice does wind down, it happens gradually and is reinforced when I don't do anything for a long time. She's a very energetic character, and I love making her so...and at the same time, it's also fun to explore her other sides...the serious, okay-we-need-logic-here side, the brb-thinking-about-daddy side, etc. And...her canon review is actually the easiest. She only appears in two cases, not counting the flashback one.

cast strength: ■ ■ ■ □ □
The only two castmates I have, at least, know Kay and are very familiar with her - namely Franziska (played by the awesome Meygan) and Edgeworth (played by the awesome Yuli). Being the only other people from her world, Kay is getting closer to them - especially Edgeworth, being his assistant. There's also the whole YOU REMIND ME OF MY DAD thing and since she spends a lot of time with him, he is becoming...well, something close to a guardian or a big brother. Of course, that doesn't mean she can't be Franziska's assistant either; in fact, Franziska has "borrowed" Kay once. But I really want more castmates, not only from the AAI-verse but also from the other AA arcs...I want to see how she reacts especially to people she doesn't know, but who know Franziska and Edgeworth. Also, I'm just a sucker for castmates. But then again, I think even with only three of us, we're pretty solid.

plotting capabilities: ■ ■ ■ ■ □
There are a lot of possibilities with the whole Yatagarasu angle and STEALING THE TRUTH, but...urgh, right now I'm not sure what to do, especially since Kay has yet to start asking her friends who are willing to join her on her heists. She only wants people she knows she can trust, and...I'm flaking out on that too because I seriously need to tag around more and develop her CR. I need to get my game on here, and do my best to join more plots. Kay was involved in the series of murders that started at the police party, and I tossed her into the dream event and the Halloween Festival, but...y-yeah, I need to do more, considering who Kay is. She'd want to do whatever she can to steal the truth, fight for justice...and party. Party like a rock star. Or something.

shipping potential: ■ □ □ □ □
I don't mind guys flirting with Kay and everything, but again, I'm hesitant to actually work toward a definite relationship, especially since right now, Kay's priority is finding out as much as she can about Somarium. She's not interested at the moment, but boys can certainly try their luck. Shipping is not one of my priorities and I highly doubt it will be in Kay's case.

likelihood of drop: ■ □ □ □ □
Playing Kay really helps me unwind because she's so laid-back, so happy and so...well, young (youngest muse here oh yes). When I dropped her from her last game, I felt like there was a large hole in my RP life, because she has been a part of it for as long as I've been at it. At one point, when I didn't know what else to do with her at Somarium and thought her muse was winding down, I contemplated dropping her, but...I don't want to leave Meygan and Yuli, or the future possibilities of plots and such, or the other people I've met in the game. So I've decided to keep on actively searching for things to do...keep myself busy here as well as in the other games, so I wouldn't end up crossing that threshold where I sit down and wonder if Kay is going anywhere.

development/final thoughts:
Kay is really fun to develop in a game because she got so little screen time in Ace Attorney Investigations, and yet was an important part of Edgeworth's investigation team. It's really nice to see where she goes with her plans of stealing the truth as well as how she announces to everyone ever that she's a thief. But you would have to be willing to invest some time into thinking about this, and then discussing this with castmates and other significant CR, and putting it all into action. I really want her to uncover something...not necessarily something big, but something worth talking about.

I think compared to her canon, just-after-AAI self, Kay is toning down the hyper and the energy? Either she's been hanging around Edgeworth too often, or this is just her learning how to better deal with her situation or something. Then again, being overly hyper is also a bad thing, especially because Kay DOES know when to get serious. It's just that sometimes, she insists on lightening the situation.

I have to work on her characterization more.

soul campaign
state of the game
SC is the most plot-heavy game I'm in, and the one I've stuck around in for the longest time. My initial plan was to app Kay (or some other characters, but they were taken or reserved during that app cycle, so yeah), but I decided OH HEY LET'S TRY SOMETHING ELSE SINCE THEY DON'T HAVE AN EDGEWORTH YET. I crammed the app, I surprisingly got in, and I've never wanted to leave. It was also the place where I learned a lot of things about playing Edgeworth - like keeping a balance and knowing the things that make him tick. What I like about SC being plot-heavy is its constancy and the fact that you can expect something to happen sooner or later. And the missions...once I got Edgeworth to learn how to fight and harness his ability, it has been fun figuring out how someone as inexperienced as he is deals with this. I watched Soul Eater because of SC, by the way. The concepts of soul resonance, Weapons, Meisters and everything in between are all really interesting and fun to delve into from Edgeworth's perspective.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that after a whole lot of enabling, I have decided to try bringing in a second character again. This time, I reserved Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero, and I've got till December to read the novels. I am so easily enabled.



character: Miles Edgeworth [mr_fancy_car]
age: 26
series: Ace Attorney (Yes, I am a one-trick pony, thank you.)
time played: 15 months (July 2010)

muse strength: ■ ■ ■ □ □
Actually, it's hovering somewhere between 3 and 4 on a scale of 5. I have to be in a certain, calm state of mind when I'm tagging as Edgeworth, and it's really disconcerting at times to switch from one muse to him, because everyone else on this list is hyper and happy and the opposite of him. Not only that, I obsess over his tags more than everyone else's tags combined. I can leave a thread open and then just stare at it for ages, wondering how to word what I want to say. The thing with Edgeworth's voice is that you need to strike a certain balance. If you push it too far, you end up sounding like a freakin' monotone dictionary, and if you don't push it enough, you kind of lose his...essence, or make him sound too casual and less intelligent. Even after more than a year of keeping him at SC, I still fret and wonder if I have that balance in every tag.

cast strength: ■ ■ □ □ □
APP ME SOME CASTMATES. Several have come and gone for reasons I understand, and currently we're a small cast (usually AA is a small cast compared to other canons) - and my castmates are all very, very important people in Edgeworth's life (OMG YOU GUYS /single crystalline tear). But still, I'd like to have others who aren't as important, and those who come from different eras or times because I bet it would be interesting for Edgeworth to see them again after he has spent a few months in Death City (game time). Right now we have reserves for Iris, Kay Faraday and Trucy Wright, so I'm absolutely looking forward to this app cycle! Maybe I just want more castmates to further help Edgeworth...I dunno, mingle? Be more social? Or I'm really just this hungry for castmates. Forever. But even with a small cast, we have a lot of shenanigans. YAY SHENANIGANS. <3

plotting capabilities: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
Right now, Edgeworth is one of the heads of the Kuzunoha Detective Agency, which - yes, you guessed it - is a guest-run business that takes cases and undertakes investigations whenever necessary, and contributes to the security of the city. That alone already opens up a lot of opportunities for mysteries, and you can bet that if anything happens in Death City, those surveillance cameras are going to find something (most of the time) and everyone will be on the case, especially this guy. Not only that, if we're talking plots that involve invasion and fighting and missions, he's also okay with those because he has been training, and can actually defend himself if he has to. As much as possible, I try to get into plots because SC is a very plot-heavy game. And besides, it's just fun to keep this guy on his toes. Yeah, yeah, I can be cruel. I really like having Edgeworth involved in a lot of things.

shipping potential: ■ □ □ □ □
THIS SHOULD BE STRICKEN FROM THE COURT RECORD - erm. Ahem. I can tell you the ladies I ship Edgeworth with OOCly, but I've never gotten past the stage where a woman drops hints in front of him that he misses, or dismisses as platonic gestures. Which is okay. And flirting is okay too, but in my opinion, it will take ages and ages for Edgeworth to understand hints, and more ages for him to drop the L-word (no, not lesbian). Not only am I not the type of person to RP relationships, Edgeworth's very personality (I say he's...heterosexual, although at this point he's more asexual because WHAT IS INTEREST IN THE OPPOSITE SEX) keeps me from prioritizing ships. However, he has had a woman write him a letter confessing her feelings to him after leaving, and he was kind of...unsure how to deal with it. In the end, he just moved on after enough brooding. He never reciprocated the feelings, after all, and only saw her as a friend. I mentioned that in-game ships, for me, require a lot of planning and discussion, right? Well, I'm going to need twice that for Edgeworth.

likelihood of drop: □ □ □ □ □
I...I really can't. I just can't. If I have to drop, Edgeworth will be the very last character to go on my roster. I love SC and its premise and all the really awesome people there. I managed to integrate him into the setting, and now that he's done trying to disprove everything, he's dealing with it just fine. Not only that, I'm interested to continue down the direction his development is going and see where that takes me. And I guess the fact that I've spent so much time on his characterization also makes me very, very, VERY hesitant to even THINK about dropping him. No matter how much I complain and whine about his voice, no matter how much I obsess over how I tag and how I write tags, I enjoy keeping him around Death City. It's such a strange setting to place a prosecutor, and yet...I can't believe I did it.

development/final thoughts:
Post-AAI is a really interesting canon point for me. Edgeworth has become more laid-back, and we get to see more of that PERFECT TRUTH, NOT PERFECTION attitude. Though he remains skeptical and snarky...yeah. AAI wasn't exactly a turning point, but it was more of an opportunity for him to strengthen the new beliefs and goals he developed before returning to the scene in Justice For All and Trials and Tribulations. He's still stuffy and pompous at times, but to a lesser degree. Here in Death City, he's slowly loosening up a little bit as he learns to work with people who were unfamiliar to him at first (hello, different worlds) and does things he never thought he would ever do.

Like...you know, learning how to fight. Taking martial arts lessons. Learning about souls and resonance and how to use his powers. Well, knowledge is power, but sometimes you need more than that especially when you're facing dangers that shouldn't be real, but just ARE. I myself didn't think I would have him actively participate in the war, but then again, 1) if the war ends, everyone gets to go home, and right now the odds of Edgeworth spontaneously being sent home are looking slim because he's been around for about five months, SC-wise and 2) looking for the truth? JUST GOT MORE DANGEROUS. The places where missions take place could have important clues and such, and if Edgeworth wants to know more, he has to be prepared to defend himself. So yeah, necessity...and the fact that he finally accepted the reality of his situation.

As I've mentioned, I'm really intrigued by this direction and how Edgeworth has changed in SC (well, getting tossed in the middle of a war and knowing that your city could be invaded every so often does that), and I want to do more. Who knows, he might actually become a really powerful Meister in his own right? Right now, he's actually helping other Meisters figure out their abilities; hey, that can also yield some knowledge. These changes become a source of anxiety for me (am I doing this wrong? Why is Edgeworth...why is Miles Edgeworth of all people fighting in a war?) and I wonder if I'm only rationalizing them, but then again, if you're in a war and you know hiding probably won't do you any good because the enemy can surprise you at any time (which it has done a few times in the past), the most logical course of action is to arm yourself, right?

...geez I get so insecure with him at times. I didn't expect that I would app him into a game, let alone play him for more than a year. He's so different from my usual character type, the character I'm so conscious about, and yet he's the muse I'm least willing to let go.

I think I need to canon review. Yeah. And eat something. Rambling makes me hungry.

Code yanked from here. YOU SHOULD DO IT TOO. RIGHT NOW.