Character Development Thread--Discussion

I've also been wondering where everyone is. The lack of activity in both threads is a little alarming.

I'm here; so so sorry about not posting.

Will get to that now.

Same here. Except for the fourth itself, my weekend was pretty so-so.

All right. I was just wondering.

I don't think the lack of activity is necessarily a CDT one; all of Writer's Block has been pretty dead since Fourth of July weekend.

I've been about, but I needed people to post at, so.

I've been packing up for college orientation, which required cleaning my room. Let's put it this way: I haven't seen the surface of my desk in two years.

I'll finish posting in Archipelago in the morning.

College orientation is tomorrow. I'll probably be busy all day.

Hello people. I am shinobhi, or Snowy Foxes' humble slave. I enjoy writing and stuffz. :)

By the way, what are all the plots going on in Archipelago?

First off, welcome to the CDTs!

To answer your question about Archipelago:

• It's the start of the second day on Pax Island (the central hub), and people are still in the process of waking up there. Most of the activity is in the hotel's dining room, where Kaguya (me), Hayate (me), Adam (Masterofchaos), Jackson (Masterofchaos), and Howell (Ryuhza) are having random conversations.
• Also on Pax is the library/ruins plot, which is currently split into two groups. Group 1 consists of Saya (me) and Joesph (Ryuhza) discussing the nature of the island, while group 2 consists of Aseyu (Killer Clowns) and Adrian Kunstler (Crystal Glacia) in an observatory up in the central mountain exploring its secrets.
• The most active place right now is Castle Boreas, which currently is occupied by Vince (Crystal Glacia), Lily (Crystal Glacia), Iris (Crystal Glacia), Henri (Crystal Glacia), Seilaan (Snowy Foxes), Wilhelm (Snowy Foxes), Queen Iamatelle (Killer Clowns), and Beth (Killer Clowns). I haven't been following this one much so I don't know too much about it (and I probably missed a character or two), though I do know that there's experiments being performed on a severed fae head brought in by Iamatelle.
• Finally, there's the Nulburak Island plot, currently occupied by Tamara (Blackfire667), Askeda (Tera Chimera), and Layi (Killer Clowns). I'm fairly certain this plot is dead as no one has posted for it in quite a while and one of the major players had to withdraw a few days ago, but it's there.

edited 9th Jul '14 9:49:47 PM by Yomegami

Not much is going on at the moment, really. It's the morning of the second day of in-story time and some characters (Howell, Jackson, Adam, Hayate, Kaguya) are getting up and eating breakfast in the Pax Island hotel dining room.

Castle Boreas is also happening; most of the characters in there (Vince, Lily, Iamatelle, Beth, Seilaan, Wilhelm, Iris) are in the laboratory portion of the castle, watching a dissection (performed by Lazzaro and Cecille), and there's someone (Henri) in the entry hall ready to greet any guests who happen upon the doors.

Two characters (Saya and Joseph) are chatting in some jungle ruins, at an entrance that eventually leads to a mountaintop observatory where yet two more (Adrian and Aseyu) are attempting to solve a mystery.

There's also a plot on Nulbarak island that seems to have stalled, but which is closed to new characters as far as I can tell.

More detailed information about the thread in general, its locales, and links to descriptions of all of these characters is on our trope page.

EDIT: Ninja'd; it seems that we agree. You missed the two servants in Boreas performing the experiments, Cecille and Lazzaro, but they're very minor.

edited 9th Jul '14 9:57:41 PM by CrystalGlacia

Well looks like you've already got two responses, so I'll just say great to have you. Hope you enjoy yourself.

Bleargh, I always hate writing scenes like that, but it had to be done at some point.

I keep considering joining Archipelago (well, rejoining, but my original character only lasted like six pages), but it just feels too slow-moving - in terms of plot advancement more than posting rate - and disjointed. Inn's slow-moving too, but at least it's a casual thread without even much in the way of character subplots.

What was so painful about writing that scene?

It just always feels like a struggle to write my characters first encountering something in the CDTs that is absolutely, flagrantly impossible in their home setting, particularly since wondering if they've been unwittingly trapped in a simulation kind of is their probable first response (and not one that's terribly useful for the threads).

Ah, I see. I remember that when Qrlil first appeared.

Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about: she couldn't have any really meaningful interactions until she realized it wasn't a simulation.

Plus, as I've said in the past, ontological speculation in the CDTs is kind of a waste of time anyway.

Alright, I'm getting kind of worried. What's going on? Is everyone busy, distracted by other diversions, waiting on other people to post (if this is the case, please say who), having writer's block, what?

Oh, and this is directed at Yomegami and KC: in the observatory, I mentioned Kunstler reversing all of the switches on the panel, but I didn't expect it to do anything at all so I didn't really think much of it until now, if either of you are waiting on the other on that front. I've also edited my last post in Castle Boreas to make Lazzaro do something dissection-wise, and added in an update for the Entry Hall.

edited 10th Jul '14 8:29:39 PM by CrystalGlacia

Apart from time zone differences, I'm not having any problems, but I agree that things seem very slow with a lot of people.

I'm still having major motivational issues, although it isn't as bad as it was a few days ago.

Further messing with the switches in the observatory isn't going to be doing anything, at least as things as they are.

edited 10th Jul '14 8:50:15 PM by Yomegami

I'm waiting, and I'm content to wait if Yomegami isn't feeling well. I assume Masterofchaos is waiting on Yomegami as well, in Archipelago.

I could stir up some activity elsewhere on Pax with one of my inactive characters, I just don't know that there are any other characters to have them do anything with. If Shinobhi does join Archipelago, that's a possibility. Otherwise, most characters are kind of tucked away.

What time zone are you in?

Yeah, I expected that. Thanks for the tip, by the way. Kunstler's not exactly adept with technology, having only seen consumer tech up to the WWII era.

By the way, I didn't exactly intend for Castle Boreas to be the science-lab setting, but I suppose it is now. *shrug* I've been debating on moving Vince out to the Entry Hall with Henri once KC posts, but he might be sticking around in the lab after all, I think.

In light of the semi-recent discussions we've been having on bringing the same character to the CDTs every time, this is Vince's tenth thread and I've finally realized what, exactly, the big problem I keep having with him is that has made me keep bringing him back. It's one that the CDTs can't fix, and one that they probably have some hand in creating just as a consequence of the format.

I'm sure you've all heard that when you're writing a character who is smarter than you in some form, you have the advantage of taking hours, days, or even weeks to figure out their cunning plan that they'd come up with in seconds or minutes. Vince is supposed to be socially adept and very cunning (there was once a time when he had next to no abilities beyond that of a normal human with poor health, and had to survive Anakali politics that way), and I'm not. I've been finding that I don't really see what other people's characters say and do beyond face value until after whatever they said/did has ceased to be relevant and/or the thread's over. This isn't just me not reading closely enough the first time; I rarely notice anything even vaguely amiss until long after I've made Vince look simple-minded/incompetent/out-of-character. This happens to me in real life, as well, and just like the CDTs, you can't ask people to un-say stuff just so you can have another go.

So, yeah. Time to actually try to write the guy in a controlled setting. Unless I'm asked to or something really extraordinary happens, Archipelago will really be his last appearance for a long time. I've said that before, but I mean it this time.

I'll probably send in another character for you to interact with.

I can reactivate Samuel if somebody needs someone to talk to. He'd probably be down by the beach.

By my count, there seem to be only 10 authors in Archipelago, and it's actually probably less than that since m8e's characters and Samuel haven't done anything in some time and Nulbarak Island seems to be dead. So that's part of the problem right there.

Inn, on the other hand, just seems to have some people posting much more frequently than others. Although I'm not sure if Snowy's characters have dropped out or not, as I don't think they've done anything in a couple weeks.

Texas, but I keep very weird waking hours. Still, I could probably post more often if Gault's (and m8e's) regular posting time wasn't during local night.

Edit: Slightly ninja'd.

edited 10th Jul '14 10:46:06 PM by nrjxll