[drop meme; without any drops]
Rikuou
comment count: 55,900
Ahaha. I bet you weren't expecting me to complain about Rikuou! Rikuou is my number one, and I think he will stay with me for as long as I'm in camp. The problem is, I sometimes worry that I'm doing him a great disservice by not letting him go home. Rikuou has very important unfinished business to get back to. The longer he stays in camp the stronger his ties there become, but nothing will ever be more important than going home. Even if Rikuou knew with 100% certainty that he would forget everything that has happened to him and never see any of the people he's met here ever again, offered the chance he would leave without a second thought.
I don't think I'm out of character in playing Rikuou as... functional in his day-to-day life. Legal Drug as a series supports this. Rikuou can be out and out driven and still find time to tease and work and maybe even feel a little sympathy or affection. On the other hand, two years is a long time, and though he may not show it Rikuou is tense and worried about what his stay in camp is doing to him. I don't think this is ever going to render him unplayable, but I do think it's unfair.
A lot of what's letting me live with the guilt is hey, the series has been on hold for YEARS so it's not like Rikuou's getting any resolution from Clamp. I could see myself letting Rikuou go if they picked back up though. In fact, I'm pretty sure I would, if not immediately then if and when plot appeared, because I wouldn't really want to keep Rikuou from that and because I would be terrified of clamp contradicting me in some way- NOT A BIG WAY because I think I've done pretty well in predicting some things and skirting the Big Issues, but in terms of LITTLE QUIRKS that I've been playing Rikuou as having for. Years now.
Brainy
comment count: 4,949
Wow, the difference in those comment counts. Brainy is my comfortable backburner! Sometimes I'll go a week without playing him and then have ONE THREAD that makes me love having him all over again. I confess, there have been times when I've thought it would be easy to drop Brainy, but I've never actually wanted to do so. And the arrival of a bunch of new science types plus Lyle's appearance has pretty much SQUASHED THOSE THOUGHTS anyway.
Unlike Rikuou, I've never felt guilty about Brainy's IC frustrations, because Brainy is actually very zen about the passage of time (since it is, after all, relative.) What bothers him is that logically he should have invented a way out by now. I like to think that actually he has, several times over, but camp keeps cockblocking him, replacing his parts, etc etc. This is my way of getting around the fact that Brainy's a genius, and I think it works!
Tsuzuki
comment count: 12,894
I will drop Tsuzuki when my canonmates drop- it's just that simple. He's not unplayable without his support system, but he'd secretly be emo and scared and paranoid that everybody WANTED to leave him and go home, and I won't put him through that. It doesn't help that over time Tsuzuki's become increasingly canon-clustery. I do feel bad about that sometimes, so if you ever want Tsuzuki to jump you let me know! He's very easy to approach people with, but apparently doesn't make much of an impression from just one or two conversations- just another friendly face, you know? He rarely gets jumped by people who aren't his canonmates or coworkers. On the other hand, in a way this makes sense. Tsuzuki is very much an adult, and while he won't patronize you and wants to be your friend... without the magic of canon (where everybody wants in his pants), he's not always the sort a teenager would turn to first, unless they're looking for help. I love it when Tsuzuki helps people, but he hasn't had many opportunities lately.
I-in short I want to play him MORE, not drop him. But even if he had a million friends in camp, he would leave with Hisoka.
Ahiru
comment count: 7,182
...there have been times when I have gone so far as to tell my canonmates that I am seriously thinking of dropping Ahiru. NOT because her canon story is unfinished (Ahiru is very accepting- she's not the one writing it and she's doing her best!) but because I felt like I wasn't playing her enough and my wonderful cast deserved a more active Ahiru. For a few months after I got her in she was EVERYWHERE and then suddenly I'd done the big plots I wanted to, and almost everyone she was close to dropped at once. Finding new places to throw her was a challenge, and one I didn't really feel up to at the time.
...I hope my cast, past and present, don't mind my mentioning that each time I brought this up they talked me out of letting her go. I thank them for it. Over time, our play has evened out- they play a little less, I play a little more, Ahiru has very strong relationships that don't need CONSTANT attention but are always a pleasure to play out... I'm very happy with her. I'm also no longer feeling like the whole of cfud is on a Princess Tutu kick. She's still my most watched character, but I don't get the sense that everyone's waiting for the next Tutu weekend and the rest of the cast to show up anymore. .....though I'd love to do another Tutu weekend anyway.
So, again, Ahiru will leave when Mytho and Fakir do, and not before.
Doumeki
comment count: 3,619
...is first on my drop list. Doumeki has never really come into his own in camp. I love him, and I'm never dissatisfied with the threads he has, bu I can't help but feel that people must be... bored of him by now. I don't feel like there are threads where he shines, if that makes sense.
I must confess, I think that things would be very different if Doumeki and Watanuki were being played as primaries by their respective players. L-let me state for the record that I LOVE our mun's Watanuki, I LOVE the relationship we've got going here in camp, and I DO NOT REGRET that they have never fallen into each other's arms and had WILD SEXINGS, despite the fact that both she and I ship the two of them oocly >_> So I don't mean that having them as primaries would have developed their homo-homo-subtext feelings for each other, but that... if Watanuki was around more, and Doumeki was a) around to jump him more and b) out a lot in general so they had more to talk about, THOSE TWO COULD PAGESTRETCH LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS. And more people would notice them and their crazy antics, and so more people would have opinions about them, and it would be a cycle that would enable me (or anybody) to keep Doumeki up as a primary.
....now. Obviously that's not the only way to do it. Throwing Doumeki at EVERYONE would eventually generate other relationships, more things for him to react to. Making camp do all kinds of terrible things to him would give people a reason to notice him. Doumeki isn't social, but he could be made to have a place in society.
Watanuki isn't necessary, but he is the quick fix version. He's also the canon version, and I like the canon. There. I said it. I apped a reactionary, dependent character and I am not sorry for it. I don't want to change him. I don't want his focus to shift from Watanuki to other people. This is, perhaps, my failing as a player. I could do something about all this, and I chose not to.
But... this means there's not alway much to do with him. I don't think anybody would be very effected if I dropped Doumeki. I admit that there was a point in time when the fact that Doumeki wasn't getting primary play REALLY bothered me, and I even went so far as to tell Himawari I was probably dropping (this was why we first made plans to app Toya and Yuki.) Obviously I didn't do it because even the few threads he was participating in changed my mind.
Currently? I like the moments when I do get to throw him at his canonmates (eee can has Yuuko!), and... when I can get up the nerve to bore non-canonmates into threading with him, I love his voice, his icons, his mentality... I still love everything ;; But if you told me I had to drop someone today, Doumeki would be my obvious choice. If the number of characters I play ever overwhelms me, Doumeki will go.
Daisy
comment count: 4,030
Second on the dropping list, just because she's still so unhappy about being in camp. Her George hardly knew her and is going to leave without her for a new world, she can't have sex, nobody knows her movies, and she's one of very few adults in camp. I adore playing Daisy and the relationships she's created for herself (though I want to throw her at NEW PEOPLE now so I can play up her selfish side again >D), but in a way I wouldn't be sad to see her go just because Daisy herself wouldn't let me be. And she's... mmm, kind of a one-trick pony? I love the trick, but Daisy has been the way she is for over 70 years. Camp is not going to change her much more than canon already had.
I've noticed that when I make posts with Daisy primarily when I want her to socialize. This is because camp effects, camp plots, and even camp terrors don't really effect her. The closest she's come to that was meeting angels and demons in camp, and bodyswitching with George, and even then she just... chatted about what was going on with her friends, had a moment of silence and seriousness, and then went back to polishing her nails. Daisy is Daisy is Daisy. Daisy also doesn't get tremendously attached to people. She likes her friends, but she's had a lot of friends in her time- they come, they go. She doesn't fall in love, she wants to do you.
In short, I don't really feel like there are any unfinished plots, unplumbed relationships, or even any random posts I'd alway wanted to do but never got around to that are holding Daisy in camp. Another reason she'd be a logical character to drop IF I were going to.
...perhaps surprisingly, Daisy does not fall into the same trap as Rikuou. I know I'm going to get new canon for her, and soon, but if I don't like it I just won't update her. I'm sorry, but the DLM movie that is coming out was written by different people, serves a different purpose than a TV show, and they (were forced to) recast Daisy. Odds are high she WILL NOT be the character I base my play on, and if I don't feel like bending to the changes imposed on the character, I won't.
Toya
comment count: 2,736
Aha um. Toya needs to come out more. He's not new anymore and he's got some fine relationships, but I worry he's settled as a secondary without ever having been a true primary, which I wanted him to be :/ ANYWAY, that's neither here nor there. I love Toya, he's my "everyman" character, he's soooo easy to play, and I'm having a lot of fun with him. The only way I can see dropping him is if my cast told me they wanted somebody more active.
On the flip side, Toya would be perfectly playable without his cast(...s), but I think I would lose the drive to keep him very quickly. I love stalking my Sakura(...s), glaring at my Brat(...s), worrying about the Tsubasa people, and of course, the toothaching adorableness of playing Yuki/Toya (...Yuki tops ;;) Sooooo he's probably another "will drop if the cast drops" person.
Dru
comment count: 896
Haha that comment count. Okay, so Dru is my other comfortable backburner! I knew when I apped her that her choice of threads was going to be limited, that there were only so many battles I would want to fight, and that she was going to be a lot of work to think like. She's actually easier than I thought she'd be.
...I also wasn't expecting her to have relationships. Honestly, I went into playing Dru thinking I'd probably be able to play her for a couple months before I got sick of weirding people out and getting attacked all the time. I wasn't really expecting people to be sympathetic to her, to like her and be liked back. Yeah, I knew we had villains, but Dru is CRAZY and villains are often self absorbed. My apologies, players of cfud, I underestimated you.
So... I thought I would want to drop Dru, and I really don't? I'm happy with when and how she gets played! Plus I held out and I HAVE A SPIKE NOW so as long as he doesn't mind cooking up crazy schemes for Dru to get involved in, I am going to RIDE HIM FOR ALL HE'S WORTH. --I mean. No, that was what I meant.
Polly
comment count: 259
M-My problem child. POLLY DOESN'T COUNT, K? I AM NOT DROPPING HER FOR A LONG TIME. I am uncomfortable with where she is, but I can explain why to my satisfaction, so that's okay. Because I have nothing else to do with this character's section, I WILL LIST MY REASONS.
Firstly: There are some points of development I really want Polly to hit in camp, and a-about two weeks ago I hit something of a snag because Mal, her only canonmate and relative "safe point" was on hiatus. As with Doumeki, yes I could work around this, shift focus, go ahead without the help and ignore the plot threads I really need Mal for. But in this case this is a temporary situation. Polly has only been in camp for about four weeks. I've got time, and I'm willing to wait a little while for what I think will ultimately be a more fulfilling.... uh. Experience for all involved. Plus I'd actually like to have a few more interested parties, so throwing Oliver at random people is all cool!
Secondly: I was setting up a necessary relationship. This is rare for me (happened for the first time with Dru, but only a little), but Polly absolutely had to know Rikuou. T-This is what happens when you start getting back into your character's friend's canons because of their relationships. I devoted Oliver playtime to this, but obviously a relationship where I control both sides of the conversation doesn't really count. I can steer too well. I didn't really get a sense for how I'd feel playing Oliver in an unexpected situation, because I was never surprised. If that makes sense.
Thirdly: a LOT of the past week has been christmas/new years oriented. These aren't Oliver's holidays, nor does he have anyone particular to celebrate them with (even if Mal had been off hiatus... he... really doesn't count for this?) Admittedly I could have thrown him around going 'wut's all this?' but in this my other characters, with their established relationships ALL took priority, and I don't feel badly about that at all. I'm at home and haven't had as much time to play, and I still got about 50 comments out of Oliver, so I FEEL GOOD about writing off the week as far as advancing his status in camp and my comfort level with him.