... I think I'm going to call this a combo meme.
This... started out as an attempt to sort out where exactly I am standing with my characters because I just came out of a huge rut where I kept feeling like I should drop everyone. So it's like a combo between apping + reasons why I love the character + chicken soup + dropping meme and a little bit more. IT IS RIDICULOUSLY TL;DR BECAUSE I PLAY 12 CHARAS AND I LIKE HEARING MYSELF TYPE A LOT, so... that is your warning.
SHA GOJYO
APPING STORY: Once upon a time, Ame wanted to join CFUD. She was going through a biiig Saiyuki kick at the time and she thought it'd be hilarious to app Gojyo into a place where he could never ever get laid. ... Except he was counselor aged, so she joined with a camper in September '05 and was lucky enough to have counselor apps open the month right after. Thus, kappa was apped!
If we go into detail, I can tell you all about how Gojyo used to be my least favorite ikkou member and how much I struggled with that app -- this was back in the day when we only had like 20-30 counselor slots available, so I was super terrified of getting weeded on principle adjfkdsl. I haven't looked at that app in ages and I don't think I ever will unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic, lololol.
IN CAMP: O-Oh man, Gojyo's gone through so many things. Lots of people have come and gone, he's suffered all sorts of camp effects, he got killed once. IT'S BEEN FUN TIMES, and I feel like he has grown a lot. Maybe it's not that noticeable, but to me it feels as if he's matured a great deal and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Every now and then I worry that he's changed too much, but then I go back and reread canon and I can honestly say I'm satisfied with my play because I feel like he still sounds like himself despite having been in camp for over three years.
STATE OF THE UNION: Gojyo is happy! The happiest he's been in a very long while. All of his friends from back home are here and Nii hasn't tried to kill anyone lately (THAT HE KNOWS OF, ANYWAY cough cough :|), and while Sanzo is being a dumbtard and ditched them for Hazel again, he's cool because he knows that he can't get past the barrier even if he wanted to! /o/ He's still dealing with... having Hakkai around, after such a long time apart. And there's some UST and awkwardness and fail all around, but hey, THAT'S THE IKKOU FOR YOU.
ISSUES: NONE WHATSOEVER, tyvm.
EASE OF PLAY: 10/10. Gojyo can be played on autopilot and thrown into pretty much any post.
PLANS: Abusing Sanzo for ditching them again! An introductory/sex ed post. SOMETHING WITH HIS COCK! Drinks with Uryuu and Ari maybe?? MOAR CAMP EFFECTS, idk, I never need to plan stuff with Gojyo, IT JUST HAPPENS.
DROPPABILITY: HAHAHAHAH never. Or... okay, maybe someday, because I'd feel real shitty if the ikkou dropped and he was left here by himself again, but yeah. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF DROPPING HIM ANYTIME SOON.
OGIUE CHIKA
APPING STORY: dshae47 had just discovered Genshiken and she kept bugging me to read it, telling me about all the otaku meta and inside jokes it had. I kept going "yeah yeah sure later" and never actually reading it, until one day, while I was at her place, she sat me in front of the computer and was like "OKAY, all I ask of you is that you read this chapter. JUST THIS ONE, then you can go back to not wanting to read this."
The chapter was... Ogiue's intro. I was like "OMG TINY ADORABLE YAOI FANGIRL WHAT!!!" and so she went all 8) and made me read the next chapter. And by the end of it I was already thinking of how utterly awesome it would be to have her in camp shipping people and drawing porn of them, g-gj self.
As soon as I got home, I sat down, read through everything that was out so far and promptly decided she needed to be miiiiine. And I can't really remember the exact dates, but I know that I ended up apping her sooner than I had originally planned to and writing her app was a total blast.
IN CAMP: Hahaha, this is a fun one! As I mentioned above, I apped Ogiue before Genshiken was finished! I already knew all the stuff about her past and the hook-up with Sasahara from raws and summaries, but I didn't want to deal with that until I had proper translations. Not to mention I wanted to play with all of her guiiiilt and shame and ISSUES, so she was pulled from the middle of canon! Nowadays I can honestly say I don't regret this in the least, because... amazingly enough, a number of camp experiences have somehow made her develop in a very similar way to the way she did in canon! I will never tire of boasting about this because it's been an amazing ride and it's helped me understand her character better. I could probably update her if I wanted to, but I doubt it'd make a big difference! If I ever do this, I'll probably just do like every other people and give her uh... two sets of memories -- one from camp, and the other from canon. :|d
STATE OF THE UNION: Ogiue is mostly zen at the moment. It's been a while since I last brought her out which means she still technically has no idea that Yamazaki left! Still, I don't think she'll emo too much about that -- not because she didn't care about him, but because she's kind of mentalized herself that they will all have to leave someday, even if she doesn't like it. But right now she wants to keep enjoying herself at camp with all of her friends, for as long as she can.
ISSUES: ... None, really. She's never been a primary and I'm cool with this because she's still managed to connect with a lot of people and, like I said, I'm happy with her. She just hasn't been getting out a lot lately because of lack of icons, but... yeah. Sometimes I look back on her camp history and think "maaaan, haven't I played her out already? IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT FOR ME TO DO WITH HER?" and... the answer is yes. There's still things I want to do with her and so, even if she's overcome her main sources of existential angst, there's still lots of potential for her.
EASE OF PLAY: 8/10. She's not an auto-pilot, but she's fairly easy? Threading with her is complicated sometimes in the sense that she keeps a lot of things to herself and so her outside reactions don't match at all with what's going on in her head, but even this is something I enjoy, so!
PLANS: DEAGING AGAIN, and that other doujinshi rain we've been planning for a while oops. I also want her to get out and meet more people, because she needs moar friends. Annnnd I want to reread/rewatch canon at some point too, but that isn't a top priority. CATCHING UP WITH FMA?
DROPPABILITY: ... 0%. Even if I sometimes fail at bringing her out, I couldn't imagine not having her in my line-up. My yaoi fangirl miiiiine. :|
SOHMA HATORI
APPING STORY: ... I don't think I've ever told people at large the story behind this app which is kind of shameful because this app. It was so epic. Back when Akiha and Ayame started becoming close, I kept hoping someone would app Hatori, because it'd be awesome to throw Akiha at him and the whole "LOLOL GRUMPY GAY DOCTORS" paralellism with Umeda and, yes. I WANTED TO PLAY OFF A HATORI DAMMIT.
But counselor rounds went by and he kept... not getting apped. At which point I went "You know what? SCREW THIS, I'LL JUST APP HIM MYSELF." Hatori's always been my favorite/second favorite (it fluctuates 8D;) Furuba character, so the love for seahorse was already there. All I had to do was catch up with the manga and pray to all the gods above that I'd somehow be able to app/play him, because lol serious character (I'd suffered a lot with Renji because of this).
So I read everything that was out at the time in the span of 2-3 days and was like "HEY PUPPY YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULD APP SHIGURE >D." ... I'm not entirely sure what happened after this or how I actually managed to top her into it, but she read and loved it and the double app was decided! The catch? We wanted to ninja Nix. So we told some of the other Sohmas -- I think Rin was our biggest accomplice! Back then we didn't have beta posts or anything like that, so we hijacked the Furuba section of the wiki and Rin pointed it out to Nix and... yeaaaah.
... Have I mentioned that we decided to app uh, right after counselor apps were over? Say, at the end of July. So we spent the following months plotting and writing drabbles and quietly spazzing to each other about it. Then at one point, Nix came to me all "SO THERE'S A HATORI AND A SHIGURE APPER :D :D :D" and we got talking and... hahahah. WE TALKED ABOUT THIS MANY TIMES, and every time Nix would be all "I feel so bad for the Hatori apper, though. It's going to be real hard to write that app" a-and so on. And I'd just be like "hahaha, y-yeah I know right |DDD;;" I WAS SURE SHE HAD ME ALL FIGURED OUT AND WAS JUST DOING THIS TO MESS WITH MY MIND s-so when it became completely unbearable (around October, I think) I was just like "PUPPY I'M TIRED OF THESE MINDGAMES CAN WE REVEAL TO HERRRR ;;;;;"
So we left main chan, and dragged Nix into a separate chan telling her we wanted to talk to her about serious stuff. We said we had crit for Ayame and wanted to hear it. NIX WAS SO ADORABLE YOU GUYS, YOU HAVE NO IDEA. She accepted being critted, of course, and that's when we nickchanged for the very first time into Hatori and Shigure.
And then she beat us up a lot. |DDDDD
IN THE END, it turns out I was just being a retarded paranoid freak and Nix really had no idea we were the appers. Which of course, gained me a lot of mocking from everyone, stfu. :| But yeah, after that, things remained more or less the same except the spazzing extended to Nix too. Oh, and she made me promise I would playercest like a bitch for her. ALSO WRITING THAT APP WAS A ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS, but it was totally worth it. |D
IN CAMP: ♥♥♥♥!! I am also incredibly pleased with the way Hatori's developed over the years, because it's been really slow and gradual, but if you compare nowadays Hatori to the one from two years ago, you'll be able to tell he's matured a lot. Ironically enough, and despite being a total hermit, he's one of my characters with the most relationships. And most of these are non-canon, which only makes me happier! Hatori's grown to enjoy camp and love the people he has here a lot. He's become way less emotionally retarded, and while he can still be an Angsty McEmopants at times, he's gotten way better at dealing with all that.
STATE OF THE UNION: SEE ABOVE I GUESS? Right now Hatori is chill. He's generally oblivious to whatever messes Shigure gets himself into, he has his adopted camp children, and he's getting used to having Mayu around! Getting to know her better and stuff. He's also still kind of failing at things with Ayame, but this is perfectly normal for them. Also not-so-sekritly, he's happy Akiha is back, BUT SHHH, HE WILL NEVER ADMIT TO THIS probably.
ISSUES: Nooone. For all I worried about his playability/voice before apping him, I've never felt like his voice is off or anything like that. I LOVE SNARKING WITH HIM, you have no idea how refreshing it is for me to bring him out. T^Td
EASE OF PLAY: Uhh... I'd put him at 8 too, I guess. I worry about people who thread with him because he dots a lot and that can get boring real soon, sob. But yeah... I don't bring him out very often because he's a complete social recluse, but whenever I do, he ends up jumping/getting jumped by a lot of people, so it kind of balances out. ♥
PLANS: MASSIVE ICON REDO to match Shigure's and Ayame's. I wanna have trio antics at some poiiiint. Awkward times with Mayu? And uh... beyond that, I don't know, really. With Hatori I just go with the flow and plot happens on its own!
DROPPABILITY: It might happen someday, but so far it's never crossed my mind, not even for a second. Even if Shigure and Ayame both dropped he could stand on his own (though I would probably want him to go with them), so! Seahorse is saaafe.
REBECCA "BECKY" MIYAMOTO
APPING STORY: I first learned of PPD via a non-CFUD LJ friend. I never paid much attention to her posts, though, until Himeko got in. And then there was Miyako and the twins and Desu and Tmoo pimped hard and I started looking into it. JUST FROM LOOKING AT THE WIKI ARTICLE, I KNEW I WOULD END UP APPING FROM IT THE MOMENT I WATCHED IT. But finding it was nigh impossible untile Zazzle got in as Ichijou and uploaded it for the masses.
I downloaded and started watching! Back then I was pretty sure I'd app Serizawa so I was kind of ":/// WHEN WILL SHE SHOW UP BAWWW" at first. Not to mention I kind of hated Becky a lot. But I loved the show and it made me laugh a lot! So much that one day my mom walked into my room demanding to know wtf was making me laugh so hard. So I explained it was a series about a tiny genius teacher who got no respect from anyone whatsoever and showed her a couple of clips.
"Ohhh, so she's kind of like you!"
"Yeah. No. --What. HEY!"
A-And then she walked out and I stared at the screen and could do nothing but orz. I WAS DOOMED. I kept screencapping stuff for potential Serizawa icons, but... I also started screencapping for Becky. "MAYBE I'LL CHANGE MY MIND, I could still app like, Kurumi or Otome maybe!" b-but no, my fate had been decided by my mom and by the end of the series I could do nothing but think about how awesome it'd be to have Becky in camp and have a work status for IRC that would be actually relevant to my character. Sooob.
IN CAMP: ... I seriously never thought I'd get so much mileage out of her. I wanted a cracky character who could break the fourth wall and be adorable, b-but I never expected her to become such a tiny spam machine or end up developing the relationships she has! Which is both... a good and a bad thing, but I'll save that for the issues. Basically, I love Becky a lot and I'm really happy I apped her because I have tons of fun with her.
STATE OF THE UNION: She's... in a special place right now. She's happy because Meryl and Himeko wrote for Christmas and \o/!! At the same time, she's very "dggjdk" because... she finally admitted to herself that she wants to go to Auldrant after camp. She... doesn't want to stay there forever, because she has a family and a job and she'll miss both of those a lot. But she's resolved to create some kind of time/dimension-hopping machine to be able to keep in touch with everyone, hells yeah. :|
ISSUES: I have TWO of these!
1) AAAHHHHH WHY DO I SUCK SO MUCH AT PLAYING CRACKBABIES AAAAAAAHHHH BECKY IS A SHAFT CHARACTER WHAT AM I DOING TO HER?!!?!?
2) OH GOD SHE'S TURNING 13 IN MAY HOW DO I PLAY THIS OUT DO I KEEP HER FROZEN AT 11 I KIND OF WANT HER TO MATURE A LITTLE BUT AT THE SAME TIME NOT AAAAAHHHHH PLAYING CHILDREN IS SO HARD!!!!!11
The first one can be fixed easily if I make a conscious effort to play out her cracky side more. I've also been meaning to rewatch PPD for a while now, so once I'm really settled into the new place, I can do that and hopefully improve my characterization there. As for the second... it's hard, because obviously the easiest thing to do would be to just freeze her at 11 forever. But I enjoy character development too much and I like seeing her mature little by little. IT'S A HARD DECISION. ._.
EASE OF PLAY: 9/10 She's super easy to play and I can pull her out whenever I feel like it. It's just a matter of finding the right post for it, because lolol loli.
PLANS: As stated above, rewatch PPD! Teaching/tutoring post, maybe. FIND OUT YUKARI IS BACK. And I want to age her up again at some point, because the post-camp AU reminded me of how much fun it is to play her like that.
DROPPABILITY: I can't drop her for fear that Stelas will fly all the way to Mexico and beat me up. :( OKAY NO, I mean, that would probably happen yeah, but even though I've considered it briefly a couple of times before, I love her too much to let go. THERE WOULD BE A BECKY-SHAPED HOLE IN MY HEART THAT NO ONE ELSE WOULD EVER BE ABLE TO FILL AGAIN, so no.
YOKO
APPING STORY: I first learned of TTGL because my girlfriend has a tendency to mass download new shows every new season to try them out. She was like "Look, it's Gainax mecha anime!" and I was like ":O!" and we watched the OP and I was... very unimpressed and decided I didn't want to watch anymore.
Then Juri got her SPARKLY JESUS Nia icon and told me to watch. And then Stelas and Ari got in with Kamina and Simon and told me to watch too, so I went "OH FINE" and decided to give it another shot. I thought it'd be safe because Yoko didn't seem like my type of character -- awesome character design aside. I started watching and, as a matter of fact, I was not pinged by Yoko in the least, but I did love Kamina like burning. I remember Ari being all "WATCH UP TO EPISODE 8 AT LEAST BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE WE'RE PULLING THEM FROM" and then while I was watching episode 8, Stelas accidentally kind of spoiled me because he got his windows mixed up, GOOD JOB THERE, DAD. Anyway, I remember being all "!!!! omg this ship. I like it I like it a lot is that wrooong?" at the kiss scene, and then, of course, baaaawwwling like a bitch over the rest of the episode.
ANYWAY, I kept watching and ignoring Stelas' constant attempts to top me, because while I had grown to love Yoko, I still didn't feel like I needed to app her. ... And then... the beach episode happened. A WHOLE EPISODE DEDICATED COMPLETELY TO SHOWCASE YOKO'S LOSE AND FAIL AND BADASSERY. ;;;;;
So I decided I did kind of need to app her after all. I wanted to ninja Ari, so I told her I was apping Kallen (lol) that round. Meanwhile, Stel would PM me on a daily basis with "app Yoko."
THEN APPS ROLLED BY and it turned out Nia was ninjaing Ari too. And it was all sort of magical and awesome except for the part where Ari disowned us for ninjaing her, BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.
IN CAMP: I loooovelovelove playing Yoko. The fact that she gets to have a happy ending with Kamina and to retard it up some more without having to worry about the Helix King or anything like that. How she's so normal and retarded at times while also managing to being totally badass. She's also the closest thing I've had resembling a primary since Gojyo and Akiha! Not to mention I love TTGL and all of its unholy spinoffs like I'm blind.
STATE OF THE UNION: Yoko is in a good place! She misses Simon and Nia and Hei :< but she knows they're back safe in their world and she'll get to see them again eventually. She doesn't even need to worry about the future too much, because Rossiu and Kinon have told her that they win the battle against the Helix King, so she's cool in camp. It'd be nicer if she could manage to score with her boyfriend, sure, but oh wells.
ISSUES: Noooone. She was stuck in the backburner for a few months because I had her on Plus and... well, let's just say that after that, I've learned Yoko is not the kind of character that can be played with only 15 icons. But other than that, there's nothing I have trouble with!
EASE OF PLAY: 9-10/10. She's a tsundere but she's not socially retarded or anything like that and she can pagestretch easily with other people.
PLANS: I STILL WANT TO DEAGE HER, e-especially now that I have canon confirmation for her tomboyish childhood. A shooting post, and a post with Kallen! And I kind of want to redo her manga icons, but no rush in that. SHE NEEDS TO GET OUT AND MAKE MORE FRIENDS, TOO.
DROPPABILITY: Nooooooooooooooo. Reading the manga is making me fall in love with her all over again and I'm stupidly possessive of her, so no. Not a chance. She'll be going home with Kamina... whenever that happens.
SAKURA
APPING STORY: ONCE UPON A TIME, CLAMP DID SOMETHING VERY CLAMPESQUE INVOLVING KUROGANE'S ARM. I was invited into the CLAMP chan to wtf and lol with the rest of the cast, and I was stupid enough to say something along the lines of "one day I will app Sakura and top you all."
... Then Eryne PM'd me and topped me hard. AND REALLY, THE REST IS HISTORY. Once again, we see how Floor is an expert at topping herself.
IN CAMP: Sakura is my favoritest CLAMP character ever -- CCS!Sakura, especifically. But I decided to app TRC!Sakura because that meant I'd be able to recognize Toya and Yukito as well as Kurogane and Fay. YES THAT WAS THE SOLE REASON WHY I APPED FROM TRC INSTEAD OF CCS. But... in the end, I don't regret it, CLAMPings and all. Because while CCS!Sakura remains my favorite, I've grown to love the TRC one a lot and I did thoroughly enjoy getting CLAMPed as hard as I did. Not to mention that, like Yoko and Kallen, TRC!Sakura is a character that gets a lot of hate from fandom so I wanted to show my love for her in some way.
STATE OF THE UNION: Sakura is also happy in camp! She's come to terms with the fact that she will most likely not be able to go back home with her parents and Moko-chan, but she did make a promise with Cloney to remain together no matter what, so there's comfort in that. She's determined to make the best out of her time in camp and... that's about it, really. All she wants is for her loved ones to be happy. :<
ISSUES: N/A! It is a mystery whether CLAMP will bring her back to life or not. I'd love them to, but... let's be realistic, this is CLAMP we're talking about, so chances are we won't ever see her again. HOPEFULLY THE ORIGINALS WILL GET A HAPPY ENDING SOMEHOW. :(
EASE OF PLAY: She's something like an 8. I've gotten way better at threading with her, but her replies can take a little time sometimes. What I love about Sakura though, is that she can easily pagestretch with most everyone, no matter if it's someone close to her or not. She like, keeps talking and talking forever -- IF WE GET TO THREAD AND YOU WANT HER TO STFU ALREADY, FEEL FREE TO DROP THE THREAD AT ANY POINT. Seriously.
PLANS: I need to jumpstart her again and get her back in touch with her important people! Catch up with life, basically. I... probably had other plans for her, but I can't remember at this point. Also I should really finish redoing her icons at some point, huh.
DROPPABILITY: She'll most likely be going home with Toya and Yukito because big brother wouldn't have it any other way. I don't know when that'll be though, but I also don't feel like I need to drop her right now, so.
KOUZUKI KALLEN
APPING STORY: ... Hohoho, I'm getting to the easy ones now, since I've typed up most of the apping stories from this point on. Kallen's is here! 8D;
IN CAMP: I resisted the urge to app Kallen for the longest time because I had no idea how to play her in camp after S1, and playing her before that wasn't really much of an option since she wasn't aware that Lelouch = Zero and that would have made her difficult to handle. Also because I already had Yoko. Then of course R2 happened and I ended up apping and I was the happiest RPer ever. It turned out that my fear of her voice overlapping with Yoko's was completely unfounded because while they're both redheaded fanservicey tsunderes, the ways in which they relate to other people are very different.
One thing that I find both awesome and hilarious is the fact that... despite all of her tsuntsun and >:<-ness, Kallen's managed to amass one of the biggest social networks amongst my characters, lolol. It's kind of like with Hatori and how despite them being total recluses they never fail to get jumped by people when they're out. \o/
STATE OF THE UNION: Kallen is... a little melancholy, but overall fine. She's happy Lelouch remembers everything she does, but at the same time that killed her hopes of changing the future and that got her a bit down. But she still has a cause to fight for and she will keep trying her best to kick Britannia's metaphorical ass, so. >/ EMO MEANS NOTHING WHEN YOU'RE A SOLDIER.
ISSUES: Noooothing!
EASE OF PLAY: Hmmmm. It varies! I'd say it's 6-7 with certain castmates (lol geass lol) and then 8-9 with the rest of the world. Again, like Hatori, she dots a lot and I feel like her threads can get really boring for other people, so I try to make a conscious effort not be uninteresting with her. >:
PLANS: IDK my BFF camp effects? I honestly have nothing for her, besides that post with Yoko! \o/ --oh wait, weren't there plans for a Fire Cabin sleepover? I forget.
DROPPABILITY: MY TERRORIST MINE. I love her like burning and playing her is always a joy to me, so nope. I don't think she'll be getting dropped any time soon.
AMELIA WIL TESLA SAILLUNE
APPING STORY: Clickity! OH HOW I LOVE TOPPING MYSELF.
IN CAMP: Aaaahhhh Ameliaaaaa. ;; ♥ I lovelovelove my castmates and I have a blast dorking it up with them and being all "JUSTICE!!!11" at people. Slayers is one of my soulcanons and Amelia is a character I've played at like fifty different RPs (... okay maybe just 5 or 6). I love everything about her and new canon makes me happy in my kokoro. My problem is... I don't feel like I play her enough, BUT THAT WILL GO IN THE ISSUES.
STATE OF THE UNION: Amelia is... Amelia. She worries that Phil might be worried about her, but it's not the first time she goes off on a magical journey without a word -- not to mention she has hopes that time is really passing differently outside. That aside, she's happy to be with all of her friends from back home, and she loves the fact that camp is full of brave heroes she can look up to! And criminals to defeat to! It's like there's always something to do here, even though they're stuck.
ISSUES: Dfjkldf. SO MANY. It's a mix of... feeling like I'm not funny enough (again, let us refer to my complete inability to play crackbabies) and feeling like I don't play her enough -- which, hey, it's true! She's one of my default backburners.
The main problem with Amelia is that she takes up a lot of energy and I always end up sort of x__x after playing her for a couple of hours. This causes me not to play her as often as I'd like to, and as a consequence she doesn't have as many non-canon relationships as she should. And, like I said, I feel like I utterly fail at being funny with her. ALL OF MY CASTMATES ARE BRILLIANT AND sfjkglf it's kind of like what happened to me with Matoi at the end, I AM NOT WORTHYYYYY etc.
EASE OF PLAY: ... 5/10, for the reasons mentioned above. It's not that she's hard to play, she's just... a very draining character for me, sob.
PLANS: Right now I want to rewatch Revolution to start getting geared up for Evolution-R! She should make a hero post or something of the sort at some point and... just, GET HER OUT MORE!!!
DROPPABILITY: HIGH. The only reason why I haven't dropped her yet is because I know Evolution-R is perfectly capable of changing my mind about everything I said above. I am easily excited when it comes to new canon and I don't want to drop her again and regret it for the rest of my life. :<
KOUMYOU SANZO
APPING STORY: o/
I would also like to point out the fact that Koumyou's app is the first app that has actually made me crack up while writing it. Puppy can testify to this. I remember sitting down, start typing and then... in the span of 30 minutes or so, I had a rough draft done and I couldn't stop laughing at my own dumb jokes. WRITING THAT APP WAS CRAZY FUN and also kind of creepy, because his voice came to me way too easily and wtfs.
IN CAMP: A-Ahahahah. When I apped Koumyou, I was really really scared that I would only enjoy playing him off Nii and as a consequence he'd get dropped very fast. OH HOW MISTAKEN I WAS! Because while I do enjoy his threads with Nii a lot, throwing him at other people is always a magical adventure that keeps me going "o koumyou" every five minutes or so. Like Sakura, he's a character that can be thrown at anyone at all and I know I will get a fun thread out of it just because he is Koumyou.
STATE OF THE UNION: Koumyou is... a little bit more assumed, as far as Nii is concerned. He tries not to think too much about the fact that they might be in some sort of romantic relationship, UNNECESSARY THOUGHTS! And he's still kind of worried over the fact that Nii got himself killed and then came back to life all messed up, but shhh, it's a secret. He's still delighted to be able to get more time with Sanzo, and he has lots of fun meeting and socializing with other people. Now just wait for him to find out that Sanzo ditched the ikkou (again) and there'll be fun times for the whole family, I'm sure.
ISSUES: ...... Surprisingly, none. I've said it before and I'll say it again, pretending to be a silly old man on crack on the internets shouldn't be so easy/much fun. :<
EASE OF PLAY: He's at a 7 if only because he's super vague and half of the time I don't even know what he's saying. Trufax, in multiple occasions, I've had to reread the most recent comments in a thread in order to fully understand wtf he was talking about when he started beating around the bush. O-Oh Koumyou.
PLANS: ... he needs to get bunny'd. And he needs to get out and socialize some more. I could maaaaybe deage him sometime? But yeah, it's mostly a matter of tossing him at other people.
DROPPABILITY: Hahahaha no. Loev Koumyou and loev castmates and loev the whole world. Boom-de-yada.
KURAI
APPING STORY: The long version is here. The short one? Aviy tops and I'm nayami's bitch. The end!
IN CAMP: Oh man, Kurai took me so long to get settled in. She was like, on the verge of being dropped for a good while there, because while I loved her deeply, I felt like I just wasn't clicking with her and I kept fretting over every single reply. I'd decided I'd at least wait until counselors because there was a potential Hatter apper and unf unf unf. If things still didn't work out after that, she'd get the axe in December/January.
A-And then... I think it was a thread with Kouryuu? Yeah, it probably was. ANYWAY, one day I had this awesome thread with her and then another one and so on and I... realized. That even if I didn't get a Mad Hatter, I was already comfortable enough with her that I could keep her no matter what! And this is where I am right now. While I still worry a lot over voice/characterization, I am considerably more confident and I have a lot of fun whenever I pull her out, so! \o/
STATE OF THE UNION: Kurai is a little less bitter towards camp right now. She still hates being trapped in this place, but she's now moved from a perpetual state of grumpiness to a... ":/ okay maybe this place isn't so bad after all." She's been making friends and having fun and even though she still hasn't realized it herself, she does enjoy being away from all the madness that is her world, what with the war and all. LET'S IGNORE THE FACT THAT ROCIEL IS IN CAMP TOO, LA LA LA.
ISSUES: Mmnnn, I still second-guess myself every now and then when it comes to replies, but whatevs. Nothing that can't be fixed with a little canon reviewing.
EASE OF PLAY: 6-7/10! I need to get even more comfy with her, basically.
PLANS: PLAYERCEST WITH HATORI! And a dragon post! I want her to meet Sakubo and Hali and other assorted trap/sexually confused people. Annnnd I kind of want to redo her icons -- or at least 30 of them, since that's the amount she'll probably keep, but that can wait until I'm done with Sakura's and Hatori's.
DROPPABILITY: It might happen, but not right now. o/
NIOU MASAHARU
APPING STORY: It goes... more or less like this.
ACT I
TOHRU: [APPS POT!!]
ME: OH LAWD.
ACT II
TOHRU: HEY FLOOR HEY APP POT
ME: NO WAI
TOHRU: COME ONNNN :< we need more Rikkai and I'm planning to app Niou in December.
ME: ... Niou is. Actually. The one PoT character I'd seriously consider apping. ............. BUT THIS MEANS I DON'T HAVE TO APP HIM, RIGHT?
TOHRU: BITCH NO, NOW YOU HAVE TO APP HIM.
ACT III (two hours later)
ME: ... Oh fine, you win. :|
TOHRU: \o/
IN CAMP: PoT is my forever fandom and Niou is my favorite character from it. I have been roleplaying him in other games and private RP for... what, something like four years now. The things is... most of this RP takes place in either AUs or the future. Which means this is actually the very first time I play Niou as he is in canon! This is exciting but very stressful at the same time because lolol PoT. I have so much headcanon for Niou already that I need to always be alert so that I don't end up mixing my own fanon with... well, canon. At the same time, though, it is incredibly fun to play Niou as the playful jerk he is in the manga/anime/whathaveyou. Every now and then I will look at his threads and go "OMG HE'S ACTING HIS AGE T^T" and be filled with stupid glee.
STATE OF THE UNION: Niou is mostly settled in camp nowadays. He doesn't exactly like it here, but he's learned that there's actually a lot of interesting things to do here and many many potential victims to pick on. He also doesn't like that Seigaku and Hyoutei are here too, but at least he has Yagyuu and that makes everything better.
ISSUES: Mnnrrgh, what I mentioned above about fanon vs. canon. I am always incredibly self-conscious when I play Niou and so his threads take foreeeeverrr sometimes. I live in constant fear that someone will come up to me one day and be all "OMG U R SO OOC D<" a-and gjkdl. HE IS MY FAVORITE POT CHARA I couldn't do that to him. .__.
EASE OF PLAY: ... 5-6/10. Because of everything I have already mentioned. orz
PLANS: FOR NOW, uh. Play him more! And once he really establishes solid connections, I can start dealing with pranks and so on. Also I will eventually buy him a paid account because 15 icons are not enough and I will probably need it for when I want to impersonate other people.
DROPPABILITY: He's also high in the list right next to Amelia. Right now I'm holding on tight to him, because I do enjoy playing him a lot aaaand he might be getting castmates this round or the next, so... yes. However, if I don't get over my dumb "AHHH HE'S NIOU I NEED TO PLAY HIM RIGHT" issues sometime soon, he will probably get dropped.
HARA AKIHA
APPING STORY: The first few months after his drop, I would randomly reread old threads/fics or the manga itself and get all "fsjfks ;.;" because I missed him a lot, but I didn't think I had it in me to pick him up again -- not to mention I had to app Koumyou first. Then one day, almost right after counselor apps were closed Mika mentioned that she regretted not apping Ebi for counselors because she thought she was badass. To which I went all "sdfjkd YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME AAAAHHHH" and was topped right then and there.
O-Of course, the fact that I spent a good while baaaawww-ing in PM at Haru, Puppy, and Nix didn't help. SHAMELESS ENABLERS, THE LOT OF THEM. But... yeah. Kind of like with Hatori, those 4-5 months were incredibly unbearable in the sense that I wanted my retard back and I wanted him now.
IN CAMP: Ahahah. I couldn't even begin to tell you how stupidly excited I still am over having him back. I don't regret dropping him the first time because he did need to go. It wasn't just a matter of feeling stale with him, but Akiha himself was all sorts of miserable and needed some time out. And... well, seeing him so |DDD now that he's back is proof enough for me that I did the right thing when I dropped and then reapped him a year later. Especially because it helped me understand him better and I feel like I can play a better Akiha nowadays than I did back when. /o/
STATE OF THE UNION: Akiha is super happy to be back! \o/ I've been playing it as if he'd only spent one month outside, but that was more than enough for him to miss everyone. Having a small break was really good for him, he got to fool around with other former campers and eat lots of candy and stuff. Now he's back and he has Ebi with him, which is really a big thing because he missed her like whoa the first time around. AND THERE'S SENPAI AND SOHMA-SAN AND EVERYONE ELSE AND AND \o/!!!
ISSUES: ISSUES? WHAT ARE THOSE?
EASE OF PLAY: Auto-pilot like Gojyo, fuck yeah. Welcome back, my second "official" primary, I missed you so muuuuch. ;; ♥
PLANS: ... finish his icons, um. Photography stuff and double dates and playercest and... more stuff! I don't know, it's Akiha, I don't need to plan stuff with him.
DROPPABILITY: IN A MILLION YEARS, MAYBE. o/
And so... after having typed all of this, I've come to the conclusion that despite my burning need to cut down on characters, I really don't want to drop anyone. A few of them are on probation of sorts and they may end up dropped or not, but as of January 10th 2009 I love each and every single one of the characters in my line-up and I will do my best to play them right, or at least... not drop without having seriously tried to jumpstart them again.
I was going to ramble about how my playing habits have changed and how this influences a lot of the above, but it's 5am and my brain is not with the sense-making anymore. Besides, that should probably go in one of those Playing Style memes I've never done before instead, so. :|d
HERE'S SOME E-BROWNIES FOR WHOEVER WAS BORED ENOUGH TO READ THROUGH ALL THAT. Dear god, I'm never doing something like this again. Thank you and good n--morning. orz
SHA GOJYO
APPING STORY: Once upon a time, Ame wanted to join CFUD. She was going through a biiig Saiyuki kick at the time and she thought it'd be hilarious to app Gojyo into a place where he could never ever get laid. ... Except he was counselor aged, so she joined with a camper in September '05 and was lucky enough to have counselor apps open the month right after. Thus, kappa was apped!
If we go into detail, I can tell you all about how Gojyo used to be my least favorite ikkou member and how much I struggled with that app -- this was back in the day when we only had like 20-30 counselor slots available, so I was super terrified of getting weeded on principle adjfkdsl. I haven't looked at that app in ages and I don't think I ever will unless I'm feeling particularly masochistic, lololol.
IN CAMP: O-Oh man, Gojyo's gone through so many things. Lots of people have come and gone, he's suffered all sorts of camp effects, he got killed once. IT'S BEEN FUN TIMES, and I feel like he has grown a lot. Maybe it's not that noticeable, but to me it feels as if he's matured a great deal and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Every now and then I worry that he's changed too much, but then I go back and reread canon and I can honestly say I'm satisfied with my play because I feel like he still sounds like himself despite having been in camp for over three years.
STATE OF THE UNION: Gojyo is happy! The happiest he's been in a very long while. All of his friends from back home are here and Nii hasn't tried to kill anyone lately (THAT HE KNOWS OF, ANYWAY cough cough :|), and while Sanzo is being a dumbtard and ditched them for Hazel again, he's cool because he knows that he can't get past the barrier even if he wanted to! /o/ He's still dealing with... having Hakkai around, after such a long time apart. And there's some UST and awkwardness and fail all around, but hey, THAT'S THE IKKOU FOR YOU.
ISSUES: NONE WHATSOEVER, tyvm.
EASE OF PLAY: 10/10. Gojyo can be played on autopilot and thrown into pretty much any post.
PLANS: Abusing Sanzo for ditching them again! An introductory/sex ed post. SOMETHING WITH HIS COCK! Drinks with Uryuu and Ari maybe?? MOAR CAMP EFFECTS, idk, I never need to plan stuff with Gojyo, IT JUST HAPPENS.
DROPPABILITY: HAHAHAHAH never. Or... okay, maybe someday, because I'd feel real shitty if the ikkou dropped and he was left here by himself again, but yeah. I HAVE NO INTENTION OF DROPPING HIM ANYTIME SOON.
OGIUE CHIKA
APPING STORY: dshae47 had just discovered Genshiken and she kept bugging me to read it, telling me about all the otaku meta and inside jokes it had. I kept going "yeah yeah sure later" and never actually reading it, until one day, while I was at her place, she sat me in front of the computer and was like "OKAY, all I ask of you is that you read this chapter. JUST THIS ONE, then you can go back to not wanting to read this."
The chapter was... Ogiue's intro. I was like "OMG TINY ADORABLE YAOI FANGIRL WHAT!!!" and so she went all 8) and made me read the next chapter. And by the end of it I was already thinking of how utterly awesome it would be to have her in camp shipping people and drawing porn of them, g-gj self.
As soon as I got home, I sat down, read through everything that was out so far and promptly decided she needed to be miiiiine. And I can't really remember the exact dates, but I know that I ended up apping her sooner than I had originally planned to and writing her app was a total blast.
IN CAMP: Hahaha, this is a fun one! As I mentioned above, I apped Ogiue before Genshiken was finished! I already knew all the stuff about her past and the hook-up with Sasahara from raws and summaries, but I didn't want to deal with that until I had proper translations. Not to mention I wanted to play with all of her guiiiilt and shame and ISSUES, so she was pulled from the middle of canon! Nowadays I can honestly say I don't regret this in the least, because... amazingly enough, a number of camp experiences have somehow made her develop in a very similar way to the way she did in canon! I will never tire of boasting about this because it's been an amazing ride and it's helped me understand her character better. I could probably update her if I wanted to, but I doubt it'd make a big difference! If I ever do this, I'll probably just do like every other people and give her uh... two sets of memories -- one from camp, and the other from canon. :|d
STATE OF THE UNION: Ogiue is mostly zen at the moment. It's been a while since I last brought her out which means she still technically has no idea that Yamazaki left! Still, I don't think she'll emo too much about that -- not because she didn't care about him, but because she's kind of mentalized herself that they will all have to leave someday, even if she doesn't like it. But right now she wants to keep enjoying herself at camp with all of her friends, for as long as she can.
ISSUES: ... None, really. She's never been a primary and I'm cool with this because she's still managed to connect with a lot of people and, like I said, I'm happy with her. She just hasn't been getting out a lot lately because of lack of icons, but... yeah. Sometimes I look back on her camp history and think "maaaan, haven't I played her out already? IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT FOR ME TO DO WITH HER?" and... the answer is yes. There's still things I want to do with her and so, even if she's overcome her main sources of existential angst, there's still lots of potential for her.
EASE OF PLAY: 8/10. She's not an auto-pilot, but she's fairly easy? Threading with her is complicated sometimes in the sense that she keeps a lot of things to herself and so her outside reactions don't match at all with what's going on in her head, but even this is something I enjoy, so!
PLANS: DEAGING AGAIN, and that other doujinshi rain we've been planning for a while oops. I also want her to get out and meet more people, because she needs moar friends. Annnnd I want to reread/rewatch canon at some point too, but that isn't a top priority. CATCHING UP WITH FMA?
DROPPABILITY: ... 0%. Even if I sometimes fail at bringing her out, I couldn't imagine not having her in my line-up. My yaoi fangirl miiiiine. :|
SOHMA HATORI
APPING STORY: ... I don't think I've ever told people at large the story behind this app which is kind of shameful because this app. It was so epic. Back when Akiha and Ayame started becoming close, I kept hoping someone would app Hatori, because it'd be awesome to throw Akiha at him and the whole "LOLOL GRUMPY GAY DOCTORS" paralellism with Umeda and, yes. I WANTED TO PLAY OFF A HATORI DAMMIT.
But counselor rounds went by and he kept... not getting apped. At which point I went "You know what? SCREW THIS, I'LL JUST APP HIM MYSELF." Hatori's always been my favorite/second favorite (it fluctuates 8D;) Furuba character, so the love for seahorse was already there. All I had to do was catch up with the manga and pray to all the gods above that I'd somehow be able to app/play him, because lol serious character (I'd suffered a lot with Renji because of this).
So I read everything that was out at the time in the span of 2-3 days and was like "HEY PUPPY YOU KNOW WHAT YOU SHOULD APP SHIGURE >D." ... I'm not entirely sure what happened after this or how I actually managed to top her into it, but she read and loved it and the double app was decided! The catch? We wanted to ninja Nix. So we told some of the other Sohmas -- I think Rin was our biggest accomplice! Back then we didn't have beta posts or anything like that, so we hijacked the Furuba section of the wiki and Rin pointed it out to Nix and... yeaaaah.
... Have I mentioned that we decided to app uh, right after counselor apps were over? Say, at the end of July. So we spent the following months plotting and writing drabbles and quietly spazzing to each other about it. Then at one point, Nix came to me all "SO THERE'S A HATORI AND A SHIGURE APPER :D :D :D" and we got talking and... hahahah. WE TALKED ABOUT THIS MANY TIMES, and every time Nix would be all "I feel so bad for the Hatori apper, though. It's going to be real hard to write that app" a-and so on. And I'd just be like "hahaha, y-yeah I know right |DDD;;" I WAS SURE SHE HAD ME ALL FIGURED OUT AND WAS JUST DOING THIS TO MESS WITH MY MIND s-so when it became completely unbearable (around October, I think) I was just like "PUPPY I'M TIRED OF THESE MINDGAMES CAN WE REVEAL TO HERRRR ;;;;;"
So we left main chan, and dragged Nix into a separate chan telling her we wanted to talk to her about serious stuff. We said we had crit for Ayame and wanted to hear it. NIX WAS SO ADORABLE YOU GUYS, YOU HAVE NO IDEA. She accepted being critted, of course, and that's when we nickchanged for the very first time into Hatori and Shigure.
And then she beat us up a lot. |DDDDD
IN THE END, it turns out I was just being a retarded paranoid freak and Nix really had no idea we were the appers. Which of course, gained me a lot of mocking from everyone, stfu. :| But yeah, after that, things remained more or less the same except the spazzing extended to Nix too. Oh, and she made me promise I would playercest like a bitch for her. ALSO WRITING THAT APP WAS A ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS, but it was totally worth it. |D
IN CAMP: ♥♥♥♥!! I am also incredibly pleased with the way Hatori's developed over the years, because it's been really slow and gradual, but if you compare nowadays Hatori to the one from two years ago, you'll be able to tell he's matured a lot. Ironically enough, and despite being a total hermit, he's one of my characters with the most relationships. And most of these are non-canon, which only makes me happier! Hatori's grown to enjoy camp and love the people he has here a lot. He's become way less emotionally retarded, and while he can still be an Angsty McEmopants at times, he's gotten way better at dealing with all that.
STATE OF THE UNION: SEE ABOVE I GUESS? Right now Hatori is chill. He's generally oblivious to whatever messes Shigure gets himself into, he has his adopted camp children, and he's getting used to having Mayu around! Getting to know her better and stuff. He's also still kind of failing at things with Ayame, but this is perfectly normal for them. Also not-so-sekritly, he's happy Akiha is back, BUT SHHH, HE WILL NEVER ADMIT TO THIS probably.
ISSUES: Nooone. For all I worried about his playability/voice before apping him, I've never felt like his voice is off or anything like that. I LOVE SNARKING WITH HIM, you have no idea how refreshing it is for me to bring him out. T^Td
EASE OF PLAY: Uhh... I'd put him at 8 too, I guess. I worry about people who thread with him because he dots a lot and that can get boring real soon, sob. But yeah... I don't bring him out very often because he's a complete social recluse, but whenever I do, he ends up jumping/getting jumped by a lot of people, so it kind of balances out. ♥
PLANS: MASSIVE ICON REDO to match Shigure's and Ayame's. I wanna have trio antics at some poiiiint. Awkward times with Mayu? And uh... beyond that, I don't know, really. With Hatori I just go with the flow and plot happens on its own!
DROPPABILITY: It might happen someday, but so far it's never crossed my mind, not even for a second. Even if Shigure and Ayame both dropped he could stand on his own (though I would probably want him to go with them), so! Seahorse is saaafe.
REBECCA "BECKY" MIYAMOTO
APPING STORY: I first learned of PPD via a non-CFUD LJ friend. I never paid much attention to her posts, though, until Himeko got in. And then there was Miyako and the twins and Desu and Tmoo pimped hard and I started looking into it. JUST FROM LOOKING AT THE WIKI ARTICLE, I KNEW I WOULD END UP APPING FROM IT THE MOMENT I WATCHED IT. But finding it was nigh impossible untile Zazzle got in as Ichijou and uploaded it for the masses.
I downloaded and started watching! Back then I was pretty sure I'd app Serizawa so I was kind of ":/// WHEN WILL SHE SHOW UP BAWWW" at first. Not to mention I kind of hated Becky a lot. But I loved the show and it made me laugh a lot! So much that one day my mom walked into my room demanding to know wtf was making me laugh so hard. So I explained it was a series about a tiny genius teacher who got no respect from anyone whatsoever and showed her a couple of clips.
"Ohhh, so she's kind of like you!"
"Yeah. No. --What. HEY!"
A-And then she walked out and I stared at the screen and could do nothing but orz. I WAS DOOMED. I kept screencapping stuff for potential Serizawa icons, but... I also started screencapping for Becky. "MAYBE I'LL CHANGE MY MIND, I could still app like, Kurumi or Otome maybe!" b-but no, my fate had been decided by my mom and by the end of the series I could do nothing but think about how awesome it'd be to have Becky in camp and have a work status for IRC that would be actually relevant to my character. Sooob.
IN CAMP: ... I seriously never thought I'd get so much mileage out of her. I wanted a cracky character who could break the fourth wall and be adorable, b-but I never expected her to become such a tiny spam machine or end up developing the relationships she has! Which is both... a good and a bad thing, but I'll save that for the issues. Basically, I love Becky a lot and I'm really happy I apped her because I have tons of fun with her.
STATE OF THE UNION: She's... in a special place right now. She's happy because Meryl and Himeko wrote for Christmas and \o/!! At the same time, she's very "dggjdk" because... she finally admitted to herself that she wants to go to Auldrant after camp. She... doesn't want to stay there forever, because she has a family and a job and she'll miss both of those a lot. But she's resolved to create some kind of time/dimension-hopping machine to be able to keep in touch with everyone, hells yeah. :|
ISSUES: I have TWO of these!
1) AAAHHHHH WHY DO I SUCK SO MUCH AT PLAYING CRACKBABIES AAAAAAAHHHH BECKY IS A SHAFT CHARACTER WHAT AM I DOING TO HER?!!?!?
2) OH GOD SHE'S TURNING 13 IN MAY HOW DO I PLAY THIS OUT DO I KEEP HER FROZEN AT 11 I KIND OF WANT HER TO MATURE A LITTLE BUT AT THE SAME TIME NOT AAAAAHHHHH PLAYING CHILDREN IS SO HARD!!!!!11
The first one can be fixed easily if I make a conscious effort to play out her cracky side more. I've also been meaning to rewatch PPD for a while now, so once I'm really settled into the new place, I can do that and hopefully improve my characterization there. As for the second... it's hard, because obviously the easiest thing to do would be to just freeze her at 11 forever. But I enjoy character development too much and I like seeing her mature little by little. IT'S A HARD DECISION. ._.
EASE OF PLAY: 9/10 She's super easy to play and I can pull her out whenever I feel like it. It's just a matter of finding the right post for it, because lolol loli.
PLANS: As stated above, rewatch PPD! Teaching/tutoring post, maybe. FIND OUT YUKARI IS BACK. And I want to age her up again at some point, because the post-camp AU reminded me of how much fun it is to play her like that.
DROPPABILITY: I can't drop her for fear that Stelas will fly all the way to Mexico and beat me up. :( OKAY NO, I mean, that would probably happen yeah, but even though I've considered it briefly a couple of times before, I love her too much to let go. THERE WOULD BE A BECKY-SHAPED HOLE IN MY HEART THAT NO ONE ELSE WOULD EVER BE ABLE TO FILL AGAIN, so no.
YOKO
APPING STORY: I first learned of TTGL because my girlfriend has a tendency to mass download new shows every new season to try them out. She was like "Look, it's Gainax mecha anime!" and I was like ":O!" and we watched the OP and I was... very unimpressed and decided I didn't want to watch anymore.
Then Juri got her SPARKLY JESUS Nia icon and told me to watch. And then Stelas and Ari got in with Kamina and Simon and told me to watch too, so I went "OH FINE" and decided to give it another shot. I thought it'd be safe because Yoko didn't seem like my type of character -- awesome character design aside. I started watching and, as a matter of fact, I was not pinged by Yoko in the least, but I did love Kamina like burning. I remember Ari being all "WATCH UP TO EPISODE 8 AT LEAST BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE WE'RE PULLING THEM FROM" and then while I was watching episode 8, Stelas accidentally kind of spoiled me because he got his windows mixed up, GOOD JOB THERE, DAD. Anyway, I remember being all "!!!! omg this ship. I like it I like it a lot is that wrooong?" at the kiss scene, and then, of course, baaaawwwling like a bitch over the rest of the episode.
ANYWAY, I kept watching and ignoring Stelas' constant attempts to top me, because while I had grown to love Yoko, I still didn't feel like I needed to app her. ... And then... the beach episode happened. A WHOLE EPISODE DEDICATED COMPLETELY TO SHOWCASE YOKO'S LOSE AND FAIL AND BADASSERY. ;;;;;
So I decided I did kind of need to app her after all. I wanted to ninja Ari, so I told her I was apping Kallen (lol) that round. Meanwhile, Stel would PM me on a daily basis with "app Yoko."
THEN APPS ROLLED BY and it turned out Nia was ninjaing Ari too. And it was all sort of magical and awesome except for the part where Ari disowned us for ninjaing her, BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.
IN CAMP: I loooovelovelove playing Yoko. The fact that she gets to have a happy ending with Kamina and to retard it up some more without having to worry about the Helix King or anything like that. How she's so normal and retarded at times while also managing to being totally badass. She's also the closest thing I've had resembling a primary since Gojyo and Akiha! Not to mention I love TTGL and all of its unholy spinoffs like I'm blind.
STATE OF THE UNION: Yoko is in a good place! She misses Simon and Nia and Hei :< but she knows they're back safe in their world and she'll get to see them again eventually. She doesn't even need to worry about the future too much, because Rossiu and Kinon have told her that they win the battle against the Helix King, so she's cool in camp. It'd be nicer if she could manage to score with her boyfriend, sure, but oh wells.
ISSUES: Noooone. She was stuck in the backburner for a few months because I had her on Plus and... well, let's just say that after that, I've learned Yoko is not the kind of character that can be played with only 15 icons. But other than that, there's nothing I have trouble with!
EASE OF PLAY: 9-10/10. She's a tsundere but she's not socially retarded or anything like that and she can pagestretch easily with other people.
PLANS: I STILL WANT TO DEAGE HER, e-especially now that I have canon confirmation for her tomboyish childhood. A shooting post, and a post with Kallen! And I kind of want to redo her manga icons, but no rush in that. SHE NEEDS TO GET OUT AND MAKE MORE FRIENDS, TOO.
DROPPABILITY: Nooooooooooooooo. Reading the manga is making me fall in love with her all over again and I'm stupidly possessive of her, so no. Not a chance. She'll be going home with Kamina... whenever that happens.
SAKURA
APPING STORY: ONCE UPON A TIME, CLAMP DID SOMETHING VERY CLAMPESQUE INVOLVING KUROGANE'S ARM. I was invited into the CLAMP chan to wtf and lol with the rest of the cast, and I was stupid enough to say something along the lines of "one day I will app Sakura and top you all."
... Then Eryne PM'd me and topped me hard. AND REALLY, THE REST IS HISTORY. Once again, we see how Floor is an expert at topping herself.
IN CAMP: Sakura is my favoritest CLAMP character ever -- CCS!Sakura, especifically. But I decided to app TRC!Sakura because that meant I'd be able to recognize Toya and Yukito as well as Kurogane and Fay. YES THAT WAS THE SOLE REASON WHY I APPED FROM TRC INSTEAD OF CCS. But... in the end, I don't regret it, CLAMPings and all. Because while CCS!Sakura remains my favorite, I've grown to love the TRC one a lot and I did thoroughly enjoy getting CLAMPed as hard as I did. Not to mention that, like Yoko and Kallen, TRC!Sakura is a character that gets a lot of hate from fandom so I wanted to show my love for her in some way.
STATE OF THE UNION: Sakura is also happy in camp! She's come to terms with the fact that she will most likely not be able to go back home with her parents and Moko-chan, but she did make a promise with Cloney to remain together no matter what, so there's comfort in that. She's determined to make the best out of her time in camp and... that's about it, really. All she wants is for her loved ones to be happy. :<
ISSUES: N/A! It is a mystery whether CLAMP will bring her back to life or not. I'd love them to, but... let's be realistic, this is CLAMP we're talking about, so chances are we won't ever see her again. HOPEFULLY THE ORIGINALS WILL GET A HAPPY ENDING SOMEHOW. :(
EASE OF PLAY: She's something like an 8. I've gotten way better at threading with her, but her replies can take a little time sometimes. What I love about Sakura though, is that she can easily pagestretch with most everyone, no matter if it's someone close to her or not. She like, keeps talking and talking forever -- IF WE GET TO THREAD AND YOU WANT HER TO STFU ALREADY, FEEL FREE TO DROP THE THREAD AT ANY POINT. Seriously.
PLANS: I need to jumpstart her again and get her back in touch with her important people! Catch up with life, basically. I... probably had other plans for her, but I can't remember at this point. Also I should really finish redoing her icons at some point, huh.
DROPPABILITY: She'll most likely be going home with Toya and Yukito because big brother wouldn't have it any other way. I don't know when that'll be though, but I also don't feel like I need to drop her right now, so.
KOUZUKI KALLEN
APPING STORY: ... Hohoho, I'm getting to the easy ones now, since I've typed up most of the apping stories from this point on. Kallen's is here! 8D;
IN CAMP: I resisted the urge to app Kallen for the longest time because I had no idea how to play her in camp after S1, and playing her before that wasn't really much of an option since she wasn't aware that Lelouch = Zero and that would have made her difficult to handle. Also because I already had Yoko. Then of course R2 happened and I ended up apping and I was the happiest RPer ever. It turned out that my fear of her voice overlapping with Yoko's was completely unfounded because while they're both redheaded fanservicey tsunderes, the ways in which they relate to other people are very different.
One thing that I find both awesome and hilarious is the fact that... despite all of her tsuntsun and >:<-ness, Kallen's managed to amass one of the biggest social networks amongst my characters, lolol. It's kind of like with Hatori and how despite them being total recluses they never fail to get jumped by people when they're out. \o/
STATE OF THE UNION: Kallen is... a little melancholy, but overall fine. She's happy Lelouch remembers everything she does, but at the same time that killed her hopes of changing the future and that got her a bit down. But she still has a cause to fight for and she will keep trying her best to kick Britannia's metaphorical ass, so. >/ EMO MEANS NOTHING WHEN YOU'RE A SOLDIER.
ISSUES: Noooothing!
EASE OF PLAY: Hmmmm. It varies! I'd say it's 6-7 with certain castmates (lol geass lol) and then 8-9 with the rest of the world. Again, like Hatori, she dots a lot and I feel like her threads can get really boring for other people, so I try to make a conscious effort not be uninteresting with her. >:
PLANS: IDK my BFF camp effects? I honestly have nothing for her, besides that post with Yoko! \o/ --oh wait, weren't there plans for a Fire Cabin sleepover? I forget.
DROPPABILITY: MY TERRORIST MINE. I love her like burning and playing her is always a joy to me, so nope. I don't think she'll be getting dropped any time soon.
AMELIA WIL TESLA SAILLUNE
APPING STORY: Clickity! OH HOW I LOVE TOPPING MYSELF.
IN CAMP: Aaaahhhh Ameliaaaaa. ;; ♥ I lovelovelove my castmates and I have a blast dorking it up with them and being all "JUSTICE!!!11" at people. Slayers is one of my soulcanons and Amelia is a character I've played at like fifty different RPs (... okay maybe just 5 or 6). I love everything about her and new canon makes me happy in my kokoro. My problem is... I don't feel like I play her enough, BUT THAT WILL GO IN THE ISSUES.
STATE OF THE UNION: Amelia is... Amelia. She worries that Phil might be worried about her, but it's not the first time she goes off on a magical journey without a word -- not to mention she has hopes that time is really passing differently outside. That aside, she's happy to be with all of her friends from back home, and she loves the fact that camp is full of brave heroes she can look up to! And criminals to defeat to! It's like there's always something to do here, even though they're stuck.
ISSUES: Dfjkldf. SO MANY. It's a mix of... feeling like I'm not funny enough (again, let us refer to my complete inability to play crackbabies) and feeling like I don't play her enough -- which, hey, it's true! She's one of my default backburners.
The main problem with Amelia is that she takes up a lot of energy and I always end up sort of x__x after playing her for a couple of hours. This causes me not to play her as often as I'd like to, and as a consequence she doesn't have as many non-canon relationships as she should. And, like I said, I feel like I utterly fail at being funny with her. ALL OF MY CASTMATES ARE BRILLIANT AND sfjkglf it's kind of like what happened to me with Matoi at the end, I AM NOT WORTHYYYYY etc.
EASE OF PLAY: ... 5/10, for the reasons mentioned above. It's not that she's hard to play, she's just... a very draining character for me, sob.
PLANS: Right now I want to rewatch Revolution to start getting geared up for Evolution-R! She should make a hero post or something of the sort at some point and... just, GET HER OUT MORE!!!
DROPPABILITY: HIGH. The only reason why I haven't dropped her yet is because I know Evolution-R is perfectly capable of changing my mind about everything I said above. I am easily excited when it comes to new canon and I don't want to drop her again and regret it for the rest of my life. :<
KOUMYOU SANZO
APPING STORY: o/
I would also like to point out the fact that Koumyou's app is the first app that has actually made me crack up while writing it. Puppy can testify to this. I remember sitting down, start typing and then... in the span of 30 minutes or so, I had a rough draft done and I couldn't stop laughing at my own dumb jokes. WRITING THAT APP WAS CRAZY FUN and also kind of creepy, because his voice came to me way too easily and wtfs.
IN CAMP: A-Ahahahah. When I apped Koumyou, I was really really scared that I would only enjoy playing him off Nii and as a consequence he'd get dropped very fast. OH HOW MISTAKEN I WAS! Because while I do enjoy his threads with Nii a lot, throwing him at other people is always a magical adventure that keeps me going "o koumyou" every five minutes or so. Like Sakura, he's a character that can be thrown at anyone at all and I know I will get a fun thread out of it just because he is Koumyou.
STATE OF THE UNION: Koumyou is... a little bit more assumed, as far as Nii is concerned. He tries not to think too much about the fact that they might be in some sort of romantic relationship, UNNECESSARY THOUGHTS! And he's still kind of worried over the fact that Nii got himself killed and then came back to life all messed up, but shhh, it's a secret. He's still delighted to be able to get more time with Sanzo, and he has lots of fun meeting and socializing with other people. Now just wait for him to find out that Sanzo ditched the ikkou (again) and there'll be fun times for the whole family, I'm sure.
ISSUES: ...... Surprisingly, none. I've said it before and I'll say it again, pretending to be a silly old man on crack on the internets shouldn't be so easy/much fun. :<
EASE OF PLAY: He's at a 7 if only because he's super vague and half of the time I don't even know what he's saying. Trufax, in multiple occasions, I've had to reread the most recent comments in a thread in order to fully understand wtf he was talking about when he started beating around the bush. O-Oh Koumyou.
PLANS: ... he needs to get bunny'd. And he needs to get out and socialize some more. I could maaaaybe deage him sometime? But yeah, it's mostly a matter of tossing him at other people.
DROPPABILITY: Hahahaha no. Loev Koumyou and loev castmates and loev the whole world. Boom-de-yada.
KURAI
APPING STORY: The long version is here. The short one? Aviy tops and I'm nayami's bitch. The end!
IN CAMP: Oh man, Kurai took me so long to get settled in. She was like, on the verge of being dropped for a good while there, because while I loved her deeply, I felt like I just wasn't clicking with her and I kept fretting over every single reply. I'd decided I'd at least wait until counselors because there was a potential Hatter apper and unf unf unf. If things still didn't work out after that, she'd get the axe in December/January.
A-And then... I think it was a thread with Kouryuu? Yeah, it probably was. ANYWAY, one day I had this awesome thread with her and then another one and so on and I... realized. That even if I didn't get a Mad Hatter, I was already comfortable enough with her that I could keep her no matter what! And this is where I am right now. While I still worry a lot over voice/characterization, I am considerably more confident and I have a lot of fun whenever I pull her out, so! \o/
STATE OF THE UNION: Kurai is a little less bitter towards camp right now. She still hates being trapped in this place, but she's now moved from a perpetual state of grumpiness to a... ":/ okay maybe this place isn't so bad after all." She's been making friends and having fun and even though she still hasn't realized it herself, she does enjoy being away from all the madness that is her world, what with the war and all. LET'S IGNORE THE FACT THAT ROCIEL IS IN CAMP TOO, LA LA LA.
ISSUES: Mmnnn, I still second-guess myself every now and then when it comes to replies, but whatevs. Nothing that can't be fixed with a little canon reviewing.
EASE OF PLAY: 6-7/10! I need to get even more comfy with her, basically.
PLANS: PLAYERCEST WITH HATORI! And a dragon post! I want her to meet Sakubo and Hali and other assorted trap/sexually confused people. Annnnd I kind of want to redo her icons -- or at least 30 of them, since that's the amount she'll probably keep, but that can wait until I'm done with Sakura's and Hatori's.
DROPPABILITY: It might happen, but not right now. o/
NIOU MASAHARU
APPING STORY: It goes... more or less like this.
ACT I
TOHRU: [APPS POT!!]
ME: OH LAWD.
ACT II
TOHRU: HEY FLOOR HEY APP POT
ME: NO WAI
TOHRU: COME ONNNN :< we need more Rikkai and I'm planning to app Niou in December.
ME: ... Niou is. Actually. The one PoT character I'd seriously consider apping. ............. BUT THIS MEANS I DON'T HAVE TO APP HIM, RIGHT?
TOHRU: BITCH NO, NOW YOU HAVE TO APP HIM.
ACT III (two hours later)
ME: ... Oh fine, you win. :|
TOHRU: \o/
IN CAMP: PoT is my forever fandom and Niou is my favorite character from it. I have been roleplaying him in other games and private RP for... what, something like four years now. The things is... most of this RP takes place in either AUs or the future. Which means this is actually the very first time I play Niou as he is in canon! This is exciting but very stressful at the same time because lolol PoT. I have so much headcanon for Niou already that I need to always be alert so that I don't end up mixing my own fanon with... well, canon. At the same time, though, it is incredibly fun to play Niou as the playful jerk he is in the manga/anime/whathaveyou. Every now and then I will look at his threads and go "OMG HE'S ACTING HIS AGE T^T" and be filled with stupid glee.
STATE OF THE UNION: Niou is mostly settled in camp nowadays. He doesn't exactly like it here, but he's learned that there's actually a lot of interesting things to do here and many many potential victims to pick on. He also doesn't like that Seigaku and Hyoutei are here too, but at least he has Yagyuu and that makes everything better.
ISSUES: Mnnrrgh, what I mentioned above about fanon vs. canon. I am always incredibly self-conscious when I play Niou and so his threads take foreeeeverrr sometimes. I live in constant fear that someone will come up to me one day and be all "OMG U R SO OOC D<" a-and gjkdl. HE IS MY FAVORITE POT CHARA I couldn't do that to him. .__.
EASE OF PLAY: ... 5-6/10. Because of everything I have already mentioned. orz
PLANS: FOR NOW, uh. Play him more! And once he really establishes solid connections, I can start dealing with pranks and so on. Also I will eventually buy him a paid account because 15 icons are not enough and I will probably need it for when I want to impersonate other people.
DROPPABILITY: He's also high in the list right next to Amelia. Right now I'm holding on tight to him, because I do enjoy playing him a lot aaaand he might be getting castmates this round or the next, so... yes. However, if I don't get over my dumb "AHHH HE'S NIOU I NEED TO PLAY HIM RIGHT" issues sometime soon, he will probably get dropped.
HARA AKIHA
APPING STORY: The first few months after his drop, I would randomly reread old threads/fics or the manga itself and get all "fsjfks ;.;" because I missed him a lot, but I didn't think I had it in me to pick him up again -- not to mention I had to app Koumyou first. Then one day, almost right after counselor apps were closed Mika mentioned that she regretted not apping Ebi for counselors because she thought she was badass. To which I went all "sdfjkd YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME AAAAHHHH" and was topped right then and there.
O-Of course, the fact that I spent a good while baaaawww-ing in PM at Haru, Puppy, and Nix didn't help. SHAMELESS ENABLERS, THE LOT OF THEM. But... yeah. Kind of like with Hatori, those 4-5 months were incredibly unbearable in the sense that I wanted my retard back and I wanted him now.
IN CAMP: Ahahah. I couldn't even begin to tell you how stupidly excited I still am over having him back. I don't regret dropping him the first time because he did need to go. It wasn't just a matter of feeling stale with him, but Akiha himself was all sorts of miserable and needed some time out. And... well, seeing him so |DDD now that he's back is proof enough for me that I did the right thing when I dropped and then reapped him a year later. Especially because it helped me understand him better and I feel like I can play a better Akiha nowadays than I did back when. /o/
STATE OF THE UNION: Akiha is super happy to be back! \o/ I've been playing it as if he'd only spent one month outside, but that was more than enough for him to miss everyone. Having a small break was really good for him, he got to fool around with other former campers and eat lots of candy and stuff. Now he's back and he has Ebi with him, which is really a big thing because he missed her like whoa the first time around. AND THERE'S SENPAI AND SOHMA-SAN AND EVERYONE ELSE AND AND \o/!!!
ISSUES: ISSUES? WHAT ARE THOSE?
EASE OF PLAY: Auto-pilot like Gojyo, fuck yeah. Welcome back, my second "official" primary, I missed you so muuuuch. ;; ♥
PLANS: ... finish his icons, um. Photography stuff and double dates and playercest and... more stuff! I don't know, it's Akiha, I don't need to plan stuff with him.
DROPPABILITY: IN A MILLION YEARS, MAYBE. o/
And so... after having typed all of this, I've come to the conclusion that despite my burning need to cut down on characters, I really don't want to drop anyone. A few of them are on probation of sorts and they may end up dropped or not, but as of January 10th 2009 I love each and every single one of the characters in my line-up and I will do my best to play them right, or at least... not drop without having seriously tried to jumpstart them again.
I was going to ramble about how my playing habits have changed and how this influences a lot of the above, but it's 5am and my brain is not with the sense-making anymore. Besides, that should probably go in one of those Playing Style memes I've never done before instead, so. :|d
HERE'S SOME E-BROWNIES FOR WHOEVER WAS BORED ENOUGH TO READ THROUGH ALL THAT. Dear god, I'm never doing something like this again. Thank you and good n--morning. orz