I know how journals work.

[not_as_it_is]

I just don't type them. Anyway, this here is a collection of roleplay-related thoughts, seein' as we're comin' up on a big ol' curse. (I know that I should occasionally type about Real Life, but I only ever want to do that when things aren't going well. So no post is a good post? Right.)

NEW CHARACTERS: want_to_talk_about_it , whoo! I seem inclined to collect seventeen year-olds played by Anton Yelchin, so Charlie Bartlett will be joining Charley Brewster in my growing army of homeless Yelchins. I'd love to bring this guy to Poly, but there's no way I could handle another character.

DROPPED CHARACTERS: None! I know Penny was a little touch-and-go for a while, but I'm pretty sure I can't get rid of her.

I've been staying away from memes and such. They really aren't my scene, although I've had fun in the ones I've participated in. Most of that is insecurity, I think. I know Poly isn't isolated and that anyone can look, but it feels safe to stick to that community. If anyone wants any of my characters for a meme, however (especially the ones I'm not currently playing), do poke me!

Aaand Poly. I never know quite how to section this up, so I guess I'll go character-by-character and then touch on the curses. You know, since the school curse is basically the reason I'm posting.

PENNY
Strength: Fair to middlin'. I'm still feeling kind of 'eh' with her, but there have been some lovely moments. Highlight of the month so far is probably Penny sobbing all over Stephen. Maybe I'm only good with Penny when she's in anxiety mode?

CR: Sob, Derek Morgan left. He was one of her favorite City boyfriends. Otherwise, all's well, I think. She's still meeting new people, I'm still not updating her CR page very diligently (seriously, I don't always know when characters are dropped), things are still thing-like with Wilson, and she's still crushing on Dean and Steve. Penny's not the sort to make close friends quickly, but Stephen has most definitely elevated himself to BFF.

Other stuff?: THE PLAY. And oh my goodness, now to figure out what to do with the Youth Center. I haven't paid enough attention to it so I'm not sure what to do, but it would be entirely ooc for Penny to not offer to take over so Mercy doesn't have to worry about it. It's a good thing Penny's dead; if she wasn't, she'd be volunteering herself to death.

For the future: She and Wilson need to eventually realize that they're in a failationship (thank you for the word, Rae). This can happen slowly, though, since their pace is glacial (they both work very hard!). There should be karaoke. Er. Penny will be moving out of the apartment she's been sharing with Euphie and into the Youth Center (can't leave those youths unsupervised!) and... maybe there will be exciting new CR. Or maybe I should just keep up with the people she already knows.

Some day, I'd like her to find out that Steve's pretty much spoken for. I would also approve so, so much of more Dean time and more... Penny hanging out with friends time. She should party with her ladyfriends.

JUSTIN
Strength: The same as it ever was. Quieter, maybe, now that he's not actively suffering from any kind of mental/emotional breakdown and now that I have a Chekov. But, you know. Justin.

CR: PEOPLE KEEP LEAVING. He will be passingly (and mildly, always mildly) sad an then move on because that's the way it goes. He misses Blonde and Rosiel, though; boy does love his crazies. I guess Justin isn't going anywhere fast with CR, but that's about what I expect, especially with so many folks on hiatus. This thing with Euphie, though? Fascinating. On one hand, Justin quite literally killed one of his personal demons. On the other hand, he traumatized poor Euphie. It's very good that she reacted to this by shutting down. That's something Justin can handle because it doesn't involve real emotions.

He's just... I mean, I think I really hit on why Justin just isn't interested in sex. Passion and power and possessiveness and impulsiveness and all of that other stuff he doesn't like that much all come in one package to him. Intimacy is in murder, lust is a vehicle for an aggressive kind of passion, and love is something that happens in poems. Love, I think, is something he gets... it's just a matter of disentangling it from all of the other garbage.

I'm still interested in playing Justin as an asexual for my own nefarious purposes, but we'll see. My characters have a way of not doing what I intend.

Other stuff?: The police. Ugh. I'm sorry, but the police force is just... not a pleasant place to be, for me. I feel like there's no getting anywhere because no one wants their characters caught and punished and there's not enough communication between players. Dude, if your character is going to do something that the police will have to investigate, please give them something to go on. And don't godmod the force. If I had the ability to rage, that would make me do so. The police are understaffed, yes, but some of them are really good at what they do.

Did I have something else to say? I don't remember. I think that was it.

For the future: Stuff with Angela! Stuff with the poets! Stuff in general! No. I don't really have any long-term plans, but it'd be nice to see the kid foster some relationships. Different kinds of relationships, even. I love what's going on with Euphie, but I'm greedy and want different flavors of interaction.

CHEKOV
Strength: Considering how paralyzingly insecure I am with him, he is LOUD. It's baffling, having this incredibly strong voice when you're not entirely sure that it's the right voice or if you're on the right track or if you're deviating too far and the sequel will leave you bashing your head against the back of a theater seat. This is why I don't usually play with canons that aren't wrapped up. I mean, Chekov didn't get much characterization in the movie; we know he's brilliant and adorable and kind of flaily, but that's about it. How much TOS!Chekov does J.J. "Flaremaster" Abrams plan on bringing to the table?

Anxiety over a fictional character in a game that you play for fun. That's very clever.

CR: I want to roll in his CR because I love it, although it's sad that Liz left because she was also seventeen and he liked her. Not... that... I mean, Chekov's the kind of character who basically starts off liking everyone, so there aren't a lot of people he actively dislikes. I'm particularly interested in his relationships with his science buddies (Doc and Amory) because SCIENCE. He needs to poke Olivia more, too, since she has (to his knowledge) two aliases in the City and some knowledge of interdimensional travel.

I'm just digging all of it. He kind of has this insular City family (Howl, Sophie, Charlie, and Tessa), which is both dysfunctional and adorable. It's also fun to have a castmate who's not so deeply tied up in my character's doings that they interact all the time. Don't get me wrong, I love castmates, but it's neat to be able to expand beyond canon. Oh, and girlfriend. I'm not huge on the romance (you wouldn't know it by looking at my characters) but it's sweet and teenager-y and omg-we-have-no-clue-what-to-do-with-this-thing. Chessa is the cotton candy upon which plots for YA novels are built. It's odd, in a way, since Chekov does try to be very grown up, but he hasn't had a lot of time or opportunity to develop emotionally and socially. So says I. When would he have had the time to do those things? He has the equivalent of a doctorate (I think) in theoretical physics. That doesn't leave a lot of time for hanging out.

Ginny is his latest friend. I like where that's going.

Stuff: I think I covered most of that already in the above babblings. I need to come up with more SCIENCE for him; even with a job and the failed efforts at creating replication technology out of nothing that I've been hand-waving, he should have come up with something brilliant by now. At the very least, I need to sit down with my physics books (I can't stress this enough, but I am in no way a physicist; I'm an English and philosophy major, dammit) and come up with a nice this-is-how-Chekov-thinks-the-City-works-today post.

For the future: Is it awful that I want basically everyone in the City who has a uterus to fawn over Chekov? Yes? No? Not romantically, just... fff. I don't even.

There needs to be more science and more oh-this-is-how-being-a-teenager-works. I would love it if someone would introduce Chekov to the world of video games circa 2012. I also really, really want to figure out how to balance the adorable I-am-sewenteen-ness against the I-am-a-legit-scientist-and-adult-ness, maybe with an emphasis on the adult bit.

Chekov has basically been in school his entire life and, upon leaving school, he immediately saw seven-eighths of his graduating class die, watched a planet of six billion collapse in on itself, and failed to save his commanding officer's mother. This is serious business, okay. He might be chipper and chatty and a little too enthusiastic about all of the things, but he's seen a lot of death and destruction and I guarantee you that it bothers him more than he'll let on. He has a busy brain. You can't tell me that the combination of a busy mind, a keen memory, and an aversion to failure of any kind isn't an unpleasant combo.

So yeah, more of that. I also like having his srs Starfleet cadet side poked. He might have stopped referring to everyone formally, but the kid still feels a need to take orders and please his superiors, whoever they are. And when danger calls, Chekov will be throwing himself at it because that's what they do on Star Trek.

FAST TIMES AT CITY HIGH
My tl;dr was a little too long. Um. Here are my basic plans:
 

PENNY will be a high school student because how awesome is that. I think she'll either be a junior or senior. I'd love to go into this curse with pre-established CR with other students and teachers, especially since high school Penny isn't going to reach out to a lot of people. She's shy, you know, and she hasn't had all that much time to deal with that. She would be a fairly anonymous student with average grades and no real social standing, but inoffensive enough to avoid bullying. This would be after her attempts to fit into various groups (goths, cheerleaders, etc); she would have, by now, embraced being anonymous, because you don't need people to notice you to be happy.

JUSTIN will also be a high school student because CANON. Okay, so he's twenty/twenty-one in the City by now, but he'll be aged back to canon (seventeen and a senior) and... it'll be like the last time, kind of, only he won't have a Rudy to punch in the face. For those who didn't see M8N (good on you), Justin-in-high-school is a socially awkward creature, generally reclusive in nature but not shy when it comes to educating his peers. Yeah, he's kind of a know-it-all. He'll only be a jerk about it if someone is factually incorrect. This Justin is more pretentious than the current model and still has things like hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Like ruling the world as a philosopher-king a la Plato's Republic. So basically, this is the kid you beat up to get the answers to the exam.

CHEKOV will be attending the university, thankyouverymuch. For the sake of scaling back the ridiculous ever-so-slightly, he'll be a recent import from Moscow working on that doctorate in theoretical physics. I'm not sure what to do with him. If there are any university students or professors who would like to be a terrible influence on him/adopt him, that'd be cool. (For the purpose of this curse, Chekov will know that he's Russian. Other than that, the deity deal is still in effect until the twenty-second. If his childhood or nationality comes up and his lack of knowledge concerning either presents a problem, I will probably do something magical and explain everything away.) But seriously, I want to play him and just... don't know how.

GRAB BAG
Just as a warning, I think that, time permitting, grab bag weekend this month will feature bb!Chekov (who may or may not know English already, I haven't decided) and girl!Justin. I'm ever so pleased with the girl!Justin PB and icons; thank you to whoever suggested Danes (Haunt, I think?).

Aaand... end scene.

Comments

JUSTIN

[not_as_it_is]

- Westerberg Public High School senior, age seventeen
- Wealthy absentee parents
- Complete dork with limited skills when it comes to... like, people
- Academically brilliant
- Not above correcting peers when they're wrong (and oh, are they ever wrong)
- Can usually be found reading or studying
- Will tutor for free (he just likes being smart at people)

FRIENDS: Er, none, really. Maybe some of those kids who hang out with socially incompetent people because they feel bad for them.

TEACHERS: Angela Montenegro (art) has been trying to get him to loosen up for four years now. He likes her. Todd Anderson (poetry) has irked him by not giving him a perfect grade. WHAT DO YOU WANT, SIR.

ROOOMANCE: ...None? Although I'm sure he moons over pretty girls while talking himself out of approaching them.

EXTRACURRICULAR: He's too busy studying to do things. Like act like a person.

SPECIFIC PLANS?: None that I can think of?