ways_back_room | DE: Hello Me, it's Me again

All of the pups I tend to collect as headvoices, whether I've actually had the chance to play them yet or not, tend to be fun-loving, a touch rebellious, and/or slightly mad? There's Revan, Scorpius, Atticus, Gawain, and Ron, for example.

Edited 2012-08-27 13:15 (UTC)

By and large, my pups tend to be smart, self-starters, and just a bit nervy. They are, with the glaring exception of Gibbs, usually authority figures to some degree. They tend to be methodical, even if they deny it. And all (except Gibbs) would land on the Lawful Order section of the Lawful-Unlawful Chaos-Order scale.

I have a lot of killer/ridiculously dangerous geeks (Gordon, Mordin, Medic, Arcade, Ray- Ray's not a killer but you cannot tell me that man isn't dangerous), as well as a fondness for characters who are brilliant but have weird speech patterns or issues (Gordon, Mordin, Bumblebee, Vergil, possibly Medic given the over-the-topness of his 'German' accent).

Also a friend of mine pointed out once, quite some time ago when I still had Wells and Ironhide, that I seemed to have a good many characters who started off life as ordinary examples of their daily lives and professions and then had OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL thrust upon them rather than going for people with Destinies or people who were Special All Along. Gordon: ordinary physicist, Black Mesa incident. Shephard: ordinary Marine with ordinary motives, Black Mesa incident. Harry Wells: ordinary soldier, omg wtf werewolves. Ironhide: ordinary construction 'bot, Lord Megatron goes supervillain, Ironhide signs up as the Autobot weapons master. Bumblebee: ordinary courierbot, Megatron, etc. Ellen: ordinary if not terribly well liked Vault kid, Dad leaves, look at what happened. Etc.

I've always had difficulty finding much of a pattern, but -

- My characters do nearly uniformly have father issues. I mean, I've actually played in-bar at some point three different characters whose fathers were terrorists. I'm... not really sure what to say about that? I'm really not devoid of father issues myself (though thankfully not as severe as any of that), though everyone but Asami predates those. I think it may be a more issues-with-parents thing (as there would be the Cylons I used to play - and Behrooz really had mother issues, too) that attracts me, and fiction tends to go to fathers more often.

- ... Asami and Elle are both rich, have father issues, and electrocute people?

- Yeah see this is where I run out.

I was trying to come up with some other connection among the characters I play at one point, and ... what I concluded seemed really vague, but I'll share it anyway. Most of my characters tend to get really determined when they want to be. They may not be that way about everything, but once they set their sights on something and decide they really want it, they'll go after it, no matter how many brick walls they hit or other obstacles they encounter, they're going to find a way to get whatever they're after. Leslie's probably the most obvious, exaggerated version of that, but I think all of my characters have that: Manny's whole storyline kind of comes down to "dammit I am going to do this one thing even if I reach a point where I am basically making up my reasons for doing it, I will!"; Elle was raised to perform in a certain way, and therefore can't really let go or leave things if she was set on them; Asami tends to be more patient about it, but when she wants something, she'll really dedicate the work and the time (and set aside her own nerves or other feelings) to see it through.

But... I still feel like that's a vague character descriptor, I don't know.

Gen (at least, I think it was Gen) once pointed out that all of my pups are a step or two outside the mainstream in some way. While Gaeta's not as much of an outcast as he used to be, he's definitely still on the outskirts of Galactica's "core" group; Bolin grew up on the streets; Olivia is a female agent in the FBI's boys' club; the Trickster is, well...him. And considering my past pups run the gamut from Wash to Sylar, that seems like as good a linking thread as any!

Not all of my pups fall into this pattern, but I tend to play a lot of bookish nerds with poor social skills. Gee, I wonder why? ^.^

I only have the one pup currently, but I have a collection of prospectives that all seem to be superheroes.

Can I ask who? *shamelessly curious*

Currently on the list of possibilities being entertained: Mr. Incredible (presenting a strange synchronicity of heroes with the letter I on their chest), Four from "Wildguard," and because Geoff Johns is doing some serious awesome with him in the New 52, Aquaman.

I should add that I have other ideas for prospective characters that aren't superheroes, but none of them are particularly mundane either. (Garret seems to be making noise in my head these days, which means I should go replay the games and see if he solidifies.)

Edited 2012-08-27 17:59 (UTC)

...Can I vote for Aquaman? (And never, before the New 52, did I ever think I'd say that.)

I've tried various kinds of character types over the years, but I always seem to fall back on either White Knights or screwed-up men who want to do the right thing but aren't very good at it.

And who are doomed. *scowls*

Edited (damn Children of Earth) 2012-08-27 15:43 (UTC)

Previous trends include characters whose names start with C, people with a lot more computer-fu than I have, and teenage boys or older guys who act like teenage boys. I also used to have a hell of a lot more Bad Guys than I do now.

My strongest current trend is people who choose their own family, and that's also one that's more or less been there all along (Angel was very big on chosen family, and even Jane, to some extent, did it). Of the current set, Cata and Sam both identify much more strongly with the Guild than their biological relatives (this is not Sam's mother's fault, under the circumstances; his father, on the other hand...); Claudia still loves her brother dearly, but her job is more like a family than a traditional workplace and you better believe she'll defend them to the death; Apollo considers his favorite people his family, in a way (sometimes more so than his children); and Red has lumped Snow into the family box (and Ruby does the same for Ashley).

Imp and Regulus haven't really had chances to choose their own family, at least on that deep of a level.

(Another recurring theme, somewhat related to the first: If you were to Sort my characters Potterverse-style, I have a preponderance of Hufflepuffs. The ones who aren't are generally an even split of Ravenclaw or Slytherin; Red is possibly my first active-play Gryffindor.)

Edited 2012-08-27 21:09 (UTC)

Comics or comic related media seems to be my biggest common thread. I do have two pups who have body issues (Ben Grimm & Hank McCoy) and three with childhood trauma (Kate Kane, Beast Boy & Jessica Drew). Actually Ben has childhood trauma as well as Thalia and then I have a potential who has major childhood trauma.

Perhaps that's a bigger common thread, pups with bad childhoods who overcame (or will over come) the pain but still remember it.

[ warning: The following will link to TVTropes. Click at your discretion. ]

The most common tropes among my past brood are,

Patrick Bateman, Tom Ripley, Josie McBroom : Serial Killers.

Ana Pascal, Alba DeTamble : MPDGirls.

Ghost, Roiben Rye: White-haired pretty boy with a side of troubled but cute.

Tony doesn't fall into any of those, but he might have more in common with either the sniper or the chemistry teacher that I'm trying to figure out the voices for.

Edited 2012-08-27 16:39 (UTC)

.........oh wow I had no idea that was you

HI FLUFFY

Preferable that way.

And, hi.

Alba was you? Whoa, I never knew that! Hi!

I miss seeing her inna bar.

Heh. Hi there.

Well, Elrond and Clay both love the woman in their life unconditionally.
Clay and Eric are both - blond? And Elrond and Eric are both - old?

Yeah.

If I app Connor from Assassin's Creed 3 in November, all my characters will use tomahawks. (John gets it from DLC.)

Other than that...

...I 'unno.

I seem to have a weakness for the animal people.

There are things you can get away with when portraying a nonhuman that are entirely too much fun to pass up.

Ahahaha I am legit writing about this in my Plurk right now.

I concluded that my characters tend to be:

- people whose identities are strongly tied to something, usually their jobs/roles in society

- people who are strongly connected to someone

- characters who lend themselves as well to comedy as they do to drama. Even the ones who seem 100% comedic have some dark elements in their canon (like. KIRBY.)

- Nintendo protagonists. The next Smash Bros is happening in my head as we speak ~~which must be why my brain is so messed up if Sakurai's the one handling the controls~~

Edited 2012-08-27 17:08 (UTC)

Looking at my LJ Login roster of characters from the past several years, including OCs, they've been mostly:
1) a human male
2) foulmouthed
3) flirtatious/sexually aggressive
4) a sweetly dumb sidekick
5) a sweetly intelligent sidekick
6) nobly-mannered
7) incapable of [insert basic human emotion thing here] thanks to some Trauma That Happened In Their Past

eta: 8) addicted to something! (Usually alcohol. How did I forget about this.)

Edited 2012-08-27 21:40 (UTC)

I tend to think of my crew as being pretty assorted, but Georgia has pointed out on more than one occasion that I play characters who come at the world at a forty-five degree angle. They just seem to have slightly off ways of looking at and interacting with the world. Temperance Brennan certainly did. Castiel, Dumbledore, Luna, and even John Winchester and Mary Bennet do as well, to greater and lesser degrees.

Parker's my little odd-ball because she's fairly straightforward, but even she has her moments.

Parker's straightforward and pretty normal, but that itself is at a forty-five degree angle to most of Milliways!

This is very true! :)

Redheads, and especially redheads with sibling issues.

I also have a fondness for people who are very much secondary (or even tertiary) characters in their source material. I like having room to embroider around the edges.

Once upon a time, I'd have said I played thoroughly ordinary, baseline human types, but given my current roster includes a witch, a werewolf wizard, an unfallen angel, a queen with fairy gifts, and a fanatical demon, I'm not sure I can still lay claim to that.

I also have a fondness for people who are very much secondary (or even tertiary) characters in their source material.

I should have added this to my answer. Even my pups who are the primaries in their canon are from smaller, less popular canons.

I play big-mouthed extroverts who write checks with their mouths that the rest of them cannot cash, for the most part. Also flirts.

I think the big exception to that rule would be Juliet, who's more of a hyper-driven badass type, and Kronk, who's your everyday joe-slash-cloud cuckoolander.

I started out with a type I currently think of as 'The Exposition Fairy'. They'd be the character that explains how FTL works in that setting or gives the 'As You Know' lectures.

That's... shifted somewhat lately. Not very much though, just what the pups are willing to explain.

It may also be part of the reason why I'm having trouble getting Marika out of the sandboxes and into the bar proper. Besides her being a workaholic, sociable and a very long list of things I'm not really she, understands the value of a secret pretty much reflexively and play her cards close to her chest.

There's also a strong trending toward secondary or lower ranked characters, but that's been easing up lately.

I tend to play immortals with phenomenal power sets (which generally but not always includes shapeshifting), and cranky assholes, jerks, and/or trolls.

The Venn diagram overlap between these two is VAST, but not total.

Good times!

I mean this in the best of all possible ways: You play cranky assholes and jerks so well!

*grins*

Thank you, I do try!

*laughs*

<3

These days, I think I tend more towards the flawed hero type. I used to love my bad guys, or at least those lacking morals, but these days it mostly seems to be protagonists who struggle with Stuff.

Also, lead characters. I tend towards the first-names of the majority of canons I've played in, unless they've already been taken.

Also also, way back in the mists of time, I had three characters with the initials JB (Bond, Bourne and Bartlet) - though I think that says more about script/writers than me, possibly.

First: okay, I know I only decided for sure ~a week ago to go to D*C, but where is my damned post-card?

I trend towards some subset of: mentor/father figure; strong sense of responsibility; Has a Destiny; Epic Central Hero's child; fearless, reckless, creative, insatiably curious, snarky; has killed; damned powerful in combat; high intelligence/geeks (subset: dubiously-sane-genius); Strongly Charismatic. They're almost exclusively Chaotic Good. One current and one potential had to raise a sibling; most had at least one absent parent and at least one Awkward-to-Bad relationship with a parent. And I usually play guys.

Lois is refreshingly female, and even her 'destiny' is almost mundane. Tavi, on the other hand, could fit any depending on his age.

I cannot think of one fandom pup of mine, past/present/potential, who doesn't fit two or more of these.

My characters tend towards those who have dry/snarky senses of humor, are generally "good" (with a heavy "-ish" afterward for Yrael), have a lot of issues that don't always make it to the surface, and whose instincts in a fight are to always use lethal force.

Whoops.

Lethal is good! What are you saying "whoops" about?

I tend towards secondary characters with a few exceptions. Characters who have a very specific way of approaching the world and I have a thing for teachers and people who provide support. I like characters that are creators versus destroyers and they all are terribly passionate about something.

Also my characters tend to be incredibly connected to their place and time, they are of a community or sometimes create one. This is one reason I've had trouble trying to play in ship in a bottle games, my characters need a way to get to their home or else they just don't work.

Now I'm off to go meet and be introduced to the incoming 6th grade class, this job feels like the right fit for me. Teachers want to work with me.

....

They all come from the same canon?

I really need to explore other canons and maybe let a headvoice move in before I can answer such questions honestly.

Hmm.

I'm not sure this is really the right wording for the pattern I notice, but... mine seem to have little connection to other people. Several of them would like more connection, but one circumstance or another prevents it from being a current thing.

Shawn and Fry are both fond of 80s pop culture, fitting the era they grew up in. (Which is kind of hilarious considering when Futurama actually takes place.) They're also both totally in love with women who should probably be out of their league but somehow love them back anyway.

So basically I have a fondness for goofy, immature guys who love kickass ladies. Not sure what that says about me. >.>

Brisco's sort of the odd man out among my current pups, since he's definitely the most traditionally heroic character I've ever played. He and Shawn do share the ability to think quickly in a crisis, though.

I think the best way to describe most of my pups is alien. Which seems kind of weird since almost all of mine have been human.

Homestar was pretty alien to about everything and everyone.

Farley, Lucas, and Lohengrin were/are all alien to modern society. In Farley's case, it's holding onto outdated bigotry and sexism. For Lucas and Lohengrin, it's due to living in worlds that follow extremely different societal norms.

Mia and Nash are both literally alien, being from Lunar. I enjoy playing up the alien side to them, toying with things like their diets and how they say certain words. (Mia still can't quite say elephant right.) One of these days, I would love to see some Earth pup freak out by visiting Mia's world and seeing the Blue Star up in the sky. Somehow this hasn't happened yet.

For the record, I suspect that if any of the My Little Pony characters went to Lunar, they would freak out for a somewhat different reason.

My pups, with few exceptions, tend to have more than one language immediately at their disposal - Sariel is obvious, and check

mm_chanter for might-have-beens. In addition, most of mine tend to have one specific language they switch to when distresses/joyful/in some sort of specific mood. See Sariel during Chain of Command eps in the bar or when reunited with Gene Roe, Megan in livejournal's MM when she figured out the not!bar, Sintonizao in one of DW's sandboxes.

Yes, I have a thing for language and languages. As my might-have-beens will show, I also have a thing for Portuguese. Shush.

Oh, and this is plainer than plain, given Sariel specifically and interests I've talked about more generally: I <33333 minor characters, as in truly minor. The ones hardly anybody else notices in the background of a scene? That offhand mention? The person who shows up and vanishes again, never to get another paragraph? I spot them, and I tend to love them and latch on.

Speaking of Sariel, I'm going to put Ellen in the Bar tomorrow if you wanted to steer Sariel her way, since bartending's scrolled off the front page.

Ooh, sure! Sorry about the missed bartending... I'll send Sariel Ellen's way when the ep turns up. Sariel will likely get one of her own as well, if anyone else of yours wants to drop in. She and Arcade should really play chess again.

Cool beans. I got her post up here.

There's a lot of variety in my pups, but there are a few patterns I've noticed between the six of them.

For one, none of them are from present-day Earth - the closest any of them comes is Borgel from 1990. (Kane is, ATM, from 1997, but is from a universe with an alternate WWII).

Second, I tend to favor main characters or first supporting characters. All of my characters fit that mode (Doctor Who companions are basically the second lead, after all).

Edited 2012-08-28 05:36 (UTC)

DE: Hello Me, it's Me again

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