Character Development Thread--Discussion

@ladytanuki: By the "second part" you mean the one that beggins with the "he swallowed his pride" line? Or the middle part?

Anyway, if Dark!Cira and Light?Cira were to mix, results could be very varied, from becoming True Companions to deciding There Can Only Be One and ironically enough, ending up both dead, or any result in between. Hell, I can even imagine an unlikely series of events that could result in auto-incest.

Anyway, this does not really matter since I won't make then meet, so I dunno why I am posting this. Maybe because I am bored to death and making useless posts distracts me.

EDIT: and yeah, the song is far from a perfect fit. I was just bored.

edited 26th Mar '17 1:49:27 PM by EternaMemoria

@Ladytanuki: Alice is in a "holding position" until directly interacted with or she senses the trouble has passed, so don't wait on her behalf. She ain't going nowhere.

I mean the last verse.

Ah, okay. I had already written that post and removed it because I was hoping Alice would do something Gliosem can react to (especially if she was going to shoot Magdalene), but if this is the case, then I'll put it back (good thing I saved it).

And my post basically hinges on the fact that the vines are big enough to cause significant damage (I was picturing them anywhere from six inches to a foot in diameter with sharp rose-like thorns). I basically want Gliosem to leave this fight badly injured, because I figured there has to be an accidental casualty - as if to make everyone hate Magdalene even more. That and Laser-Guided Karma for her being an Actual Pacifist unskilled in combat deliberately flying into an escalated argument with a powerful Child Mage.

However, in my next post with her, I plan on having her recover just enough to make a last-ditch effort to calm down the combatants. Or maybe I should just edit that part into the post I just made... that would be good for Magdalene's reputation at the very least. Depends on whether there will be continued combat in the next few posts, because if the fight ends by the time it's my turn again, said post would be pointless.

edited 26th Mar '17 2:35:35 PM by ladytanuki

Honestly, if anyone deserves any sort of Laser-Guided Karma it is Magdalene, who attacked unprovoked with powerful magic while there is a armed woman whose soul/mind/aura/whatever nullifies magic with ease in the next room.

Not saying Alice should kill Magdalene, or questioning KC's choice of not posting a reaction... I am only surprised she didn't even leave the room. But then, she is grieving someone dear to her, so it makes sense for her to be in a colder mood. That and the meta reason of combat scenes sometimes being, at least IMO, a chore instead of a pleasure, something I think KC agrees on, considering what happened to Father Gabriel.

edited 26th Mar '17 2:31:15 PM by EternaMemoria

Regarding Space Liner, is it okay if I have 1.5 characters join one of the Nebula groups? The characters I have in mind are Conrad (seemingly a Draconic Humanoid himself with Space Master abilities) & his bodyguard Manicipum (a soulless Human Weapon he thinks is just a quiet professional).

Another character I want to introduce is named Reily Connors- Who, suffice to say, understands keenly the sanctity & fragility of life... So I want her in a group would she could have a proper discussion regarding the subject. Honestly though, the character whose not!miscarried daughter is forced into making them The Pollyanna would probably be less depressing.

Regarding Queen Maggie, she's definitely not an immature brat should Yome reveal the details- Though Maggie is an emotional child regardless, and those never take aggressive behavior well.

edited 26th Mar '17 2:36:56 PM by Kkutwar

While I freely admit it's finding a reason for Alice after deciding what she should do, her given reason for simply fortifying will be that she strongly believes that given her powers' brutal cause and nature, a fight would almost certainly mean either she or Maggie would have to die if they did battle. Partially, Alice doesn't want to dishonor her gracious hostess by killing a being Rin referred to as "just a child", Alice's own contempt for the "creature" aside, and partially, Alice isn't sure what happens if she dies here and isn't quite willing to risk Maggie getting a lucky shot. She's also pretty sure that a fight with Maggie would result in her powers irrevocably annihilating at least some of Maggie's souls, and that would likely destroy any hope of a peaceful resolution.

edited 26th Mar '17 2:43:14 PM by KillerClowns

Oh, I'm not denying that at all. Though KC specifically said Alice will not be participating in the fight, so Magdalene's karma is not quite laser guided in that sense (except in finding out how badly she's hurt the others during her tantrum). For Gliosem I'm going more for the Family-Unfriendly Aesop of Suicidal Pacifism.

And yes I think I will include the last-ditch-pacifism stand in my post, as that could either drive the aesop further home or finally end the fight. Going to go edit it now.

EDIT: And added. It was an opportunity to show off one of my own songs as well!

Heh, I am suddenly reminded of what Sinistrina would do if she were in that fight (since I had considered putting her in that group at one point). She'd basically try to tear off Magdalene's wings, releasing (though tainting) all the souls trapped in them - essentially an attempt at Your Soul Is Mine! minus Magdalene's own soul.

edited 26th Mar '17 3:19:34 PM by ladytanuki

Does this mean I'm up next in the Castle fight? It's getting late here, but I'll work on it tomorrow morning together with my Space Liner post.

@Snow Castle group: Yeah, sorry about going out of turn. Kinda had an itchy posting finger. I did, however, remove Megumi's last action, since MoC didn't notice it or something. So Megumi is now near Magdalene, awaiting the girl's next action, instead of manhandling Adam. (Which was a really stupid idea now that I've thought about it.)

Meanwhile, Rin is still paralyzed out in the hall outside the parlor.

I have barely a clue as to wether it's my turn in anyplace other than on Frontier.

edited 26th Mar '17 3:21:39 PM by WillDeRegio

On the subject of karma: Magdalene thinks her actions here are totally justified. These bullies did her wrong; therefore, they must be punished. The problem is that she tends to give several times better than she gets and has the emotional maturity of someone half her age. She's probably beaten the -arg- out of someone even before getting her powers.

On a side note, not that Sinistrina would know this in-universe, but Magdalene's wings are just a side effect of the fact her powers came from her world's fairies. They're more projections than anything; tearing them off wouldn't do anything to free the souls, or even do much to hurt or hinder her (she could probably just regrow them).

The souls are actually stored inside Magdalene's body, or perhaps even inside Magdalene's own soul. Freeing them would involve either talking Magdalene into releasing them, killing her, or something that'd be a spoiler for her story.

If anyone's wondering, I am still around! Sorry for not posting recently, but I've been totally swamped by schoolwork. Hopefully it'll let up soon, though!

Oh goodie! That means I don't have to send you shitposts! :D

Of course, Megumi's solution to Maggie is to knock her out, slap a bunch of general purpose ofuda^note (While she isn't an onmyoji, Megumi has some on her, just in case) on her, before rousing Maggie with smelling salts.

While I'm not above inflicting harm on my characters^note (Junko and Ayako are frequently in hospitals after major fights), I am quite reluctant to permanently kill most of my characters. Which means folks in my settings survive some pretty ridiculous stuff, albeit they might not necessarily be in one piece.

Hell, I'm reluctant to designate anyone as a Red Shirt. Except in cases where casualties are to be expected (like when fighting Ultra Giant^note size exceeding 1000 meters class monsters such as Typhon, a juvenile Fenrir, or a revived Orochi).

edited 26th Mar '17 4:07:48 PM by WillDeRegio

When it comes to being cruel to my characters, I don't like the idea of killing them without a care, as what binds me to a story are the characters first and foremost and I don't want to write something I wouldn't want to read. However sometimes it may be necessary to show that things are truly serious, and I am willing to kill characters.

However there is also an important detail to remember: Scars Are Forever, be they psychological or physical, and maiming or traumatizing a character in an irreversible way may carry as much weight as a death.

Another interesting fact: when you are writing fantasy, the possibility of having several degrees of death can add many tools to an author's arsenal as long as you handle it correctly. But then, if you don't your whole work will collapse under the weight of its Plot Holes.

Yeah, I'm more inclined to take the "severely injured but still barely alive" route myself. I did that with Yamiko in Frontier, though there's a possibility of permanent psychological damage (like Eterna suggested). Or bringing them back from the brink of a Death by Despair, like I am about to do with Sinistrina in Dream II. (Though in the latter case, Sinistrina would have a hard time pulling off such a death anyway because she'd have to destroy Friedrich, who would not be happy with that. Unless the Dark Priest would have destroyed him for her if she agreed to his offer.)

Besides that, I am very fond of either bringing characters Back from the Dead but not fully (as is the case with Zuri in Frontier), or doing something weird with their soul so that they become some variant of undead instead (as with Sinistrina in her story of origin, and Ferisen in Dream II - who, if she doesn't leave the Field of Souls or nobody does anything to help her, will become either a lich or a communicative spirit fully locked inside her latria, depending on what happens to her body).

edited 26th Mar '17 4:27:36 PM by ladytanuki

I make it a very serious rule to never betray my characters' personalities, which usually means I never plan for their deaths. However, like many things, death is the only way certain scenarios can even happen- Such as my recently mentioned character Reily grieving over the death of her little sister, the very reason she understands the fragility of possibility.

So, I only ever include death if it advances something I'm wanting to tell with a setting or character. Death should never be taken casually by a writer.

I wouldn't read/watch/etc. something where the characters I may have grown to care about get offed unceremoniously, and thus I don't write such stories. Generally speaking, my protagonists are going to make it to the end of the story in one piece; sometimes, everyone does. However, I'm not above the occasional Sacrificial Lion or two if it helps the development of other characters, and I'm definitely not above throwing setbacks or a Villain-to-Hero No-Holds-Barred Beatdown my protagonists' way (heck, that last one has a bit of Author Appeal for me).

@Kkutwar re: reaction to Tigris' last post

Not really. Whatever you see fit.

I'm going to post for Friedrich and Heinrich separately before working on Seilaan, and then Space Liner will happen sometime in between. I was going to post tonight but my cold got worse again for some reason so I'm going to bed early. Hopefully things get better tomorrow. Good night, my eyes are burning

I'll do Oswald later

Posted in both threads. It took longer than I had planned, but I've been feeling kind of exhausted for the past couple days.

I'm also not a fan of killing off my characters by the way, but injuries and traumatic events are plentiful. For the most part, I also try to avoid using redshirts, mooks, and other characters that are just there to get unceremoniously killed. Deaths should always have consequences, or at least some kind of emotional impact, imo.

Posted. Not really sure if I managed to clearly convey what Cecilia's actions were, but there you go.

Waiting on Mari in Frontier, then I'm going to look at splitting at least some the Mad Bastards away from the group to meet Connie etc then have them head out of the thread.

Made my Horizons post. Sorry for making it so short.

@Kkutwar: ETA on Discoverer?