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OO OO ME FIRST, ME FIRST.

Ahem. Looking at Voodoo's access list right now (which I tend to use as a sort of IC friendslist), I'd say that it's a mixture of both. The people he would consider his four closest friends - Ellen, Korra, Tommy, and Shephard - are split pretty evenly down the middle. Korra and Tommy are so similar to him it's fucking scary, what with the brash hotheadedness, ego, pitbull tenacity, and similar approaches and mindsets when it comes to the use of force, deadly or otherwise.

Ellen and Shephard, on the other hand, are foils to Voodoo. They're more even-tempered and humble, and more often than not they're the ones making sure he doesn't fall on his ass, or, if he does, that he doesn't make too big a mess.

The Kate/Voodoo relationship was the first one that really surprised me. Classy schoolteacher-turned-outlaw versus Irish kid from Southie-turned-SEAL? But it actually turned out pretty well. Me and Katemun have summed up the dynamic as something like "Kate's the schoolteacher and Voodoo's the kid who made a habit out of making spitballs aged 20 or so years".

Ellen/Voodoo also surprised me, but I can't really tell why. They just naturally click. It could be with how they're foils for the other, but who knows?

Korra/Voodoo was the biggest surprise for me, mainly because I basically threw Voodoo at her first EP on a whim with zero knowledge of her or her canon. Of course, after I threaded with her a couple of times, I got the first few episodes of TLoK and was promptly surprised by how incredibly similar she was to Voodoo (which is to say I spent like half the episodes going HEY VOODOO, IT'S YOUR LONG-LOST COUSIN WHO IS EXPONENTIALLY NICER THAN YOU. ALSO EXPONENTIALLY HOTTER.). After that, I marathoned AtlA and TLoK, and the rest is history.

X-23/Voodoo - X is basically the perennial straight man (woman?) to Voodoo's banana man. You just do not get much straighter than X.

Heh, two of my characters are like, "Are you kidding? X is A HILARIOUS DEADPAN TROLL OF HILARITY."

And only one of them is Trowa! Whose own sense of humor is deeply suspect.

Ellen ♦ Voodoo. Seriously, moirails.

OH, INDEED.

Edited 2012-09-28 21:14 (UTC)

I play pretty friendly pups, who tend to gather up a wide variety of Milliways' friends, so I'm just going to hit the high points.

Will tends to make friends really easily and the people he's connected with aren't too surprising, they tend to be loyal and comfortable doing what's needed. His two best friends are Atton Rand and Doc Scurlock, who have a couple of things in common with him, but then he does end up friends with a whole range of other people. Sariel is one that I wouldn't have predicted being such a strong friendship, but they really click.

William and Katya's friendship completely surprised me as I couldn't have predicted them. Also his friendship with Mary, since they seemed destined to not get along, but they're friends. She seems to exist in a very different part of the time and world than he does.

Charles makes friends very easily like Will and I think he's the most comfortable when he's amongst a mixed group of people. If you look at the group that he's helped teach psychic shields too it shows the range of his friendships; Sallie Reynolds, Tyler Marlocke, Alan(na) and helping Red from Once Upon a Time. So his friends in Milliways aren't too different from his friends in canon, which are also a wide variety.

Demeter's friendships continually surprise me because she just connects with many people. I never thought that she would get so close to Felix Gaeta with all the complications of BSG and the Greek pantheon, but I love it. She's another of mine where its rare for her to not like someone.

Jane's friendships are a little more complicated by her era, but she tends to connect with strong people, who remind her of what might be.

I never expected Sameth to become such good friends with Ava, but she helped him figure out what was going on with Nick and then protected them during the Allpocalypse. That's the only friendship of his that's unexpected.

Tumnus doesn't have that many friends in Milliways just because he's not in as much as my others and I can't think of anyone that's really that odd for him. He's friendly but he also tends to be a little shy, so doesn't open up as quickly as some of my other pups.

Moist surprised me by how he has made friends, some of the friendships are a little odd like his friendship with Claudia but work. In canon, he ends up getting a strange group around him because he knows how to make people like him even if he doesn't do deep friendships.

The Pirate King has had some romantic flings but is such an odd pup that he doesn't really have friends.

Amascut is tricky. Canonically, she wasn't very friendly, even when she was sane. In Milliways, she's looking to gather information and manipulate the multiverse to her favor rather than relax and socialize. The closest genuine relationships she has are rivalries, definitely with Yrael and The Fool, maybe with Kali and Tower.

Everyone is her opposite. EVERYONE. EVEN OTHER ANTHROPOMORPHIC ENTITIES OF DESTRUCTION.

Amascut's rivalry with Yrael is fantastic. Especially since he genuinely enjoys her company (the few times she's put up with him), and not just because she's fun to mess with.

Poor Amascut is so confused by Yrael. Ha!

Mwahaha, my evil plan is working.

Er... I mean... miaow?

Oooh, good question.

Alan(na) has been collecting people she deeply respects. People who have something to teach her. She definitely believes the Goddess had a hand in leading her to Milliways, and thus seeks purpose in being there. Charles, Splinter, Wonder Woman, Marion, Tavi, X, Caspian, and even the more baffling Raven and Carol Danvers fit into this mold. She considers them friends, but in the way she views her teacher/paternal figure Sir Myles as a friend, rather than how she feels about George or Jon.

As for LJ!Alanna, who still lurks about in OOMs: Alanna had lots of friends while she was here. Some she could relate to on just about every level (Marian and Caspian), and some who constantly made me use her WTF? icon (Lilly, Raven, Mike, etc). She felt very close to Mel, but by far her best bar friend is and was Raphael. They joined the first security team together, pranked the Barman together, and that was that. When they got locked in Tortall for six years, he became family in much the way Jon and George are -- only she has no romantic history with him, so in some ways she relies more on him to tell her like it is. They could not have come from more different backgrounds, but that has long since ceased to matter, especially since Raph started wearing loin clothes and tights to blend in. XD

Lizzie... heh. Lizzie isn't so great at friendships. I did enjoy Lizzie and Tonks together, though -- also Plourr. So did Elizabeth. She'd never really had female friends before. Tonks even turned pirate for PotC: AWE plot!

Doctor Evil needs only ~~the Littlest Loompa~~ Mini Me, but he did at one time make Fleur his new Number Two.

Oh, Grace. It's hard to crack Grace's circle of friends-who-are-really-family, all of whom work and laugh with her on a daily basis, and hold each other up when needed. I love the friendships on that show like burning. The bar has introduced her to some great people, however. She got on like crazy with Bela and Fi, who are not entirely dissimilar, and several others -- some she perhaps shouldn't have, like Vlad. But of everyone, I think she feels closest to Cal and Tommy. With Tommy... man, it's just this thing they have. Grace lives for the experience but she rarely meets anyone who experiences things quite like she does. Then there's Tommy, and they barely have to speak to just know. There's this hurt, I think, that they sense in each other, and they both know there's no use in trying to fix it, but recognition has its own power. Earl knew what he was doing there. See also: Sam. Grace and Sam had a wonderful thread about religion that surprised the heck out of me!

As for Thayet, I love everything about her friendships with fellow Queen Amy and Captain Rufus Scipio (Tavi).

ETA: Forgot Jim! Jim has led a quiet, sometimes lonely life. The bar can frequently be overwhelming. Only Ennis and Kate have ever truly put him at ease.

Edited 2012-09-28 13:21 (UTC)

'Ey! Those're Manly Leggin's, I'll have you know!

Yrael is strange about making friends. It's very hit or miss, and similarities and differences between Yrael and the other person aren't really a good indicator of whether or not they'd become friends. But once they are friends? It holds.

Sunshine, the friendliest of my characters, continually surprises me with her ability to make dedicated friends and allies of dangerous and powerful people (Assassins and outlaws, soldiers and sorcerers, oh my!). It's a canonical ability, though unconscious on her part. Maybe it's a side-effect of the cinnamon rolls.

Zelgadiss doesn't make friends easily, but he gets along well with those who have something of a wry sense of humor, and who won't draw attention to how he looks.

Edited 2012-09-28 13:31 (UTC)

See this icon? It happened years ago and I'm still not quite sure how it happened. But I guess it doesn't much matter since Mia will make friends with just about anyone. With her group of friends at home, it only makes sense.

Lucas, too, is a friendly sort and will get on well with anyone. Or that's how he was before the 'shrooms. I don't know who he might get on with now.

Lohengrin is so new that I don't know if he'd say anyone in Milliways is a friend yet. He gets along with people but everyone's still pretty much in acquaintance territory. But he is a Knight and willing to help those in need, which led to some tossing him at "damsels in distress" in the sandbox.

Okay, so-

Ray has made friends with kind of a lot of people, even though I don't play him as much as I used to. He wound up married to a Gallifreyan Time Lord (the cutest one, thank you very much), which probably says a fair amount. He's good enough friends with Atton Rand that I need to put him in more for talking to Atton and to act as a character reference for him for Security (FEAR). He did pretty well making friends with superheroes, wound up adopting an alien from Niven's Known Space series, got accepted as a Jedi apprentice (a head-blind one, but still) because Qui-Gon approved of him, etc.... and there's the thing with the Cybertronians. Ray will never forget having Optimus Freaking Prime ask him if he comes to Milliways for a nice relaxing sense of normalcy.

Medic seems to have acquired a couple of friends along the way, which was a little bit of a surprise in general, and then there's Cata, which was one hell of a surprise. And to think it all started with him telling her that 'assassin' was a fine and necessary profession in his experience...

Shephard gets along freaky well with the trolls. Seriously. And with Voodoo, but that's not a real surprise; somebody's got to keep that fucker from tripping over his own feet. And Kreyu, which was really kinda impressive and one more item in the category of "God fucking dammit why the fuck does all the weird-ass mythic shit fucking happen to me". (Profanity to the contrary, that's not an objection. He just wants to know why.)

Gordon... well. Annabelle Newfield, Divis Mal (although that's more of a good acquaintance than a friend thing), the Waco Kid- oh, that one's fun, Jim's the only person who knows that if Gordon ever finds out that he's a character in somebody else's fiction, Gordon's going to track down the author and introduce him to the crowbar up close and personal.

Ellen- well, there's Voodoo, that's kind of a big one. And Bryan Mills, way back when; that all started because she heard him talking and turned around and said, "Dad?"... and then had to wonder why Dad's voice was coming out of a white guy. She rather misses him, as he's the closest thing she had to a version of Dad who didn't spend nineteen years lying through his teeth and making very bad planning and personal decisions. She also seems to get on fairly well with superheroes, for some reason. And there's Alyx Vance, too. Takes a special kind of friendship to get past "WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME YOUR HOME TOWN IS CENTERED AROUND AN UNEXPLODED NUCLEAR BOMB." Oh, gosh, and William Evans, that's also an interesting one...

Edited 2012-09-28 14:44 (UTC)

Neither Cata nor Sam are really the friend-making type. On the other hand, one of my all-time favorite Milliways dynamics came from deciding Cata should talk to this grumpy German doctor-type... and how things have taken off from there. They're actually kind of adorable together, even though they're such horrible people they really shouldn't be. XD

The cross section of people Claudia gets along with is fascinating to me. She can have a civil conversation with Moist and Teja and Orpheus (though prooooobably not all at the same time). And then there's Cal, who she talked to once, almost forgot about, and then... well, when you ride out the Allpocalypse together, that's kind of an instant promotion.

Apollo gets along with most people (these days, anyway). Enzo is possibly the biggest surprise there, though his couple of interactions with Amascut have been interesting.

Nothing's really coming to mind for Imp or Regulus (though the fact that he's talked to... you know, anyone non-magical at all... is really something). I need to get those two in a little more often.

I knew Red and Charles had potential, thanks to sandboxing that came to it from the other direction, so to speak. But it's worked out very well indeed for her; she needs more people who know what happened and trust her anyway, so between Snow and Charles, she's slowly stopped thinking of herself as a monster.

I find it very hilarious who suggested today's Daily Entertainment in light of the question and my answer for it.

I have no idea what you're talking about.

My Puck/Havelock playlist is called "how did this even happen."

So. Yeah!

For the others, Aphrodite's total adoration of Hoshi came as a surprise to me, even though it is a very Greek thing to play favorites. Sheeeee loves that kid.

And Ava will get the most space here, because she came into Milliways believing she was still fighting in the Cold Oak Battle Royale and was more or less trying to get the drop on Sam so she could kill him. NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS.

Ava's one of those characters where "friends" is an awfully strong word that she and I use for convenience? But here are some people with whom Ava has developed rapport/bonds/genuine affection and I would never have seen it coming:

Sameth. I echo Fi's confusion. XD I think Ava genuinely respects Sameth for being good at what he does and not having any illusions about the dangers of his own world. Not that she would ever say so. To herself, anyway.

Elle. The first time they met was when Ava had attacked her with a demon and Elle fried her a little. Since then, they have danced, had incredibly awkward conversations, nail-painted, and never exactly trusted each other. AVA STILL TRIES. She's super confused about that part.

X. They bonded through combat, which is one of the surest ways to bond with Ava, and now X is surprising her by kind of Getting It.

Sam Winchester. It turns out that when you save someone's life, then try to kill them, then spend like two years convincing one of their friends to lie to them for you, THEN try to help him defeat terrible demons back on your mutual world, your relationship becomes ... um ... fraught?

Some relationships that do not surprise me at all include: Ava and Bela, Ava and Trowa (THEY'RE PERFECT FOR EACH OTHER), Ava and Riley actually.

I love this game.

Havelock's group of friends is called 'wtf is this even i don't understand'.

I'm pretty glad it's worked out, though!

Raph:
There was a time when most, if not all, of Raph's friends were either women, or tiny children. There's just something about him that calls to the ladies and kids.

For the former at least, I think it's because he's the best ex-boyfriend ever. The kind of guy you can count on and trust, but that you're glad you're not responsible for.

His best friend, hands down, is Alanna. She took him in at his lowest point and helped him build himself back up again. That's no small feat, and he owes her a life debt because of it. I think him and Alanna are very alike in many ways, not the least of which is that they're both tiny people with bad tempers and a desire to constantly be proving themselves.

I say "both tiny" because Raph is really supposed to be barely five feet tall, but as a human he's six foot. In spite of that though, Raph still carries himself like a much smaller man compensating.

Mike:
These days I would say Mike's closest friends that aren't family would consist of X, Lilly Kane, Sallie Reynolds, and Guppy. In my head Mike always strikes me as being able to get along with just about anyone, so it doesn't surprise me how diverse his inner circle is.

The obvious omission from this list is that of Mel Fray. There's a special place for Mel in Mike's head, and even though they're currently on the outs...there always will be. Of anyone non-family, I'd say that Mel knows him better than anyone else. And she might even know him better than his brothers.

Splinter:
Nothing could have prepared Splinter for the relationship he has with Sallie. Nothing what so ever. She's his first real friend.

Bumi:
Thus far in game Bumi's met Kirk, Voodoo, Shephard, Steve Rogers, and Varric. While I don't know that Bumi has been around enough to really call these guys friends, they're certainly people that he respects greatly.

The Loompas:
They still don't like you, or consider you friends.

To be honest the only out of character or surprise friendship I can think of is the one William and Thalia managed. It gave her the one chance she'll have to know a romantic friendship and what love could have been like before canon takes it away from her.

ETA: No I know there are better answers but I lack the brain to come up with them right now.

Edited 2012-09-28 19:27 (UTC)

I don't think that any of mine can really say they've built up any friendships here, yet.

Erik, effectively hasn't come in. (He doesn't remember that first entrance, so it doesn't count, okay?)

Alfred, hasn't talked to the same person twice, yet. Though it was damn nice to meet Bruce here. And now X. He's quite enjoying talking to Margolotta, too.

Jack. Jack has had some wonderful conversations with Enzo about various things. I didn't see that one coming. I don't know that Jack has anyone he'd call a friend. He's certainly got people he knows and would consider aquaintances, though.

Looking at Sariel's closer friends in Milliways, I can definitely see some similarities in a few of them. Maybe unsurprisingly, Sariel's friends with quite a few military/gunslinger/outlaw types - Will, Gene Roe, Scurlock, River, Turanga Leela, Tanya, Ellen. Kirk and Data are her superiors, but they still count here. :) The outlaws might be a little surprising until you look at their dispositions and reasons. It seems like most of this lot come down on the brighter side of the spectrum, as opposed to the dark/evil side, if a bit reluctantly in a couple cases.

As for some of the others... Harding is an intellectual, Teller is too but in rather a different way, Seymour Krelborn couldn't flipping catch a break, and... huh. Sariel's been a conscious protector or defender of all three at one point or other. There's a case to be made for her moirallegiance to Harding, really. ... Gah, I need to knock off the quadrant descriptions. :)

I'm not sure how Sariel and Yrael get along so well, honestly. Chaos entity and Starfleet officer... But they do, so. As for Desire of the Endless? She's a special case, because well. Endless. And paradoxes. And accents. XD

Oh, Tommy and your strange and prickly friend-making ways. Let's see.

Michael Westen. They're similar in that their first commitment is to what they do for a living and the unfortunate fact that everything/everyone else often falls to the wayside. Ever since Tommy saved his ass in a fire, they've come to see that they're both pretty gung-ho, reckless, full of their own ideas about how things should be done. (Except Michael tends to blow things up, and Tommy tends to run toward the explosions, heh.) They also both had a thing for Emma Swan, but Tommy managed to back off.

And that leads to: Emma Swan. Tommy really digs her. He can lay on all the pick-up lines, and she will swat them off like flies, and they're both okay with that! He finds it almost refreshing that she doesn't want to sleep with him.

Voodoo. Birds of a feather, etc. etc. No surprise there, as indicated in Voodoo-mun's comment. Also, ALL OF THE BALL-BUSTING.

Grace Hanadarko. Put her and Tommy in the same space and they're like magnets. There's the grief and the loss and the pain that binds them, and it manifests in the physical contact, which is heightened because of the way they tend to not talk about the things that have hurt them.

Clementine Johnson. Tommy thinks she's the perfect booty call, but he really does like her for more than that. She's a bit broken and sad inside, just like he is, and again, he's drawn to that. The way she expresses herself isn't something he's usually attracted to (tattoos, smoking weed), but she's blonde and has a healthy sex drive and has a nice rack so, hey, he can appreciate that.

Kate Barlow. ~~SAD LADIES ARE HOT.~~ She really isn't the usual type Tommy chases after. They got off to a rather shaky start with their first conversation, but what he first saw in her was a challenge. And even when he overstepped her boundaries, he couldn't let her go because, again, she was broken and grieving. Tommy has an innate need to comfort and protect, and so the more Kate pushed him away, the more he wanted to 'save' her, in a sense. He never thought getting into a romantic relationship with someone from Milliways would ever happen, so now he's eating his words.

Link. B'aww, Link. This has got to be the most surprising relationship, because in my head, I was like TOMMY, WHY ARE YOU CONCERNING YOURSELF WITH HIM SO? But Tommy's paternal instincts flare up when he's around Link, and I think maybe he wishes he could've spent this much time with his own son, and excuse me, I have to go wipe my eyes as it's raining on my face.

Edited 2012-09-29 01:14 (UTC)

Link. B'aww, Link. This has got to be the most surprising relationship, because in my head, I was like TOMMY, WHY ARE YOU CONCERNING YOURSELF WITH HIM SO? But Tommy's paternal instincts flare up when he's around Link, and I think maybe he wishes he could've spent this much time with his own son, and excuse me, I have to go wipe my eyes as it's raining on my face.

T___T

they're both pretty gung-ho, reckless, full of their own ideas about how things should be done

I have no idea what you're talking about.... *side eye*

*snort* We need to throw them together again soon. I know I keep saying that, but I think maybe Tommy needs to catch him in the infirmary. :p Totally agree with everything you said. Hah.

I don't play them anymore, but Ash Williams, Arthur Dent and Nicholas Angel had some of the best "friends who become family" relationships ever.

I think Elle is the only character I've played long and often enough to really do this. And I can't really think of any clear patterns in the people she… responds the best to (that is really the best way I can think to describe it – it's not that she's really even opposed to the word "friend," but it's still hard to think of her as actually having friends so much as people that don't mind or even enjoy her company). I would say I think people who generally or at least in the given moment feel apart or separated from their current social situation/setting/whatever seem more able to communicate with Elle in a responsive way, maybe because they're better able or more willing to accept just how bad Elle is at conforming to most social situations/settings/whatever. Or they're like X and even worse at it in their own way, maybe.

As for surprises… I don't know, X and Elle probably surprised me at the time – they didn't like each other from the off, and before there was, well, affection, I think they mostly had just gotten to a point where they found each other's company agreeable. I also wasn't expecting Elle to show affection for much of anyone, but… it's also been like four years since I first brought her in, and she's pretty different now. But a lot of the way she's turned out has to do with her relationship with X, whom I knew nothing about before they started threading, so obviously I wasn't expecting it (and couldn't have expected it, really, as I don't think I've ever really played out a relationship like Elle-X before it). But that relationship is difficult to define and… I'll save it for when we do the "write a block of text about how your character feels about mine" again.

Also Elle-Jamie threads were the only time I sort of toned down Elle's antagonistic behavior for OOC reasons being that I felt bad for Jamie :( And I think there are things that surprise Elle, like… every interaction she has with Sam Winchester because she's ridiculous, or the fact that she felt bad about hurting Ava's feelings by not trusting her, but they do not really surprise me, because I know she's ridiculous.

But looking over her Memories, I think that thing about people feeling "apart" does kind of stick.

But my others or pretty new and/or sadly underplayed. Asami's the first in forever for whom I've actively sought out friendships (rather than like… bothering people with Elle), and I'll be more surprised when she doesn't get along or see any reason to attempt to get along with someone. But I also like having some narrative flow going on in the background for characters, giving them specific reasons to meet up and talk to others, and being mean to them, hence why I'm throwing her headfirst into plot.

And I did not at all expect Leslie to enjoy eating waffles with a talking pink pony OH WAIT YES I DID.

My pups are social butterflies. Total. Social Butterflies. So Clementine has a close relationship with Elrond and Enzo her while being love with Sam and being drawn to Tommy and Amara and having fun sexytimes with other folks.

Juliet loves everyone, Dixie is a flirt, and Pinkie is the Magic Unifying Goodtime pony, so yes, they're all similar.

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