Character Carnival--author scramble edition!

As I was reflecting on the recent failure of the collaborative writing threads, I realized that much of the fun of the first one (the first one I participated in, the second one made) was the unfamiliarity of it all. We were meeting new characters right along with our own characters, and that was a pretty cool feeling.

Now we've all been doing this for a while, we've had a lot of time to get to know each other and each other's characters.

Why don't we switch it up a little?

Anyone can pick any character that has appeared in any collaborative writing thread, so long as they aren't your own. This is a bit uninviting to people who have never done one before, but you can always read through an old thread to get a character.

Rules are, of course, that your character must not be your own. If you've got a character in a collaborative thread you don't want written, let us know. Please stay as true to character as possible, but feel free to fill in things that were never stated.

And now ladies and gentlemen, here goes nothing.

Quon moves through the crowds with a delicate grace, sunlight dancing off her hair and sweet, bubble-gum pink cotton candy melting on her fingertips. The lights and the music and the flavors and the smells run together into a solid thing of bliss and excitement—a carnival. She giggles, a sugar-spun, girlish sound, and wonders what to do next. Everything to do next. She runs towards an attraction on impulse—the viking's ship, and takes her place at the back of the line.

The character Quon is the intillectual property of QQQQ.

edited 17th Oct '10 7:11:58 PM by DaeBrayk

This seems AWESOME! Now let me read through the threads and see which one I can possibly pull off.

Quon is actually the property of BONES, inc. from the show Rah Xephon. I borrowed her waif-like character for these occasions because she had this airy and dreamy quality to her which I so admired.

Why don't you join me in the Therapy Room, Dae? I certainly could use a hand in managing my patients. Perhaps don the coat of a psychologist and help Noriko out? Or help eligram!Heather the receptionist at the waiting area?

But if you'd rather prefer to steward this thread along, it would also be fine.

edited 17th Oct '10 7:22:25 PM by QQQQQ

Oh, thank god ^.^ I was worried I had commited some writing faux pas. Well, maybe I have. But think of it as fanfiction, not plagarism.

Augh, ninja'd. Anyway, I didn't realize the therapy room was a colab. thread until after I'd made this one but this is still something completely different and...well, it just seems fun, if you're willing to give it a try. There's no harm in having two going at once, as different as these two are.

edited 17th Oct '10 7:25:18 PM by DaeBrayk

I'm not too good at writing other characters, so I'll likely have to think a while. I'll a) be honored if anyone uses one of mine, and b) suggest that if you do, you use This Page for guidance.

edited 17th Oct '10 7:35:14 PM by Morgulion

Alright, since it looks like Q isn't going to be joining this thread, I'm going to leave Quon for whoever wants her and write...

A girl stands in the middle of the carnival, stock still, cotton candy untouched in her hand. A little girl with long brown pigtails and a naturally dour expression. The crowd parts very slightly around her, never touching her. Never jostling her.

She turns her eyes skyward, unafraid or unaware of the blinding sun. A dimple appeares in her left cheek as her mouth twists in private amusement. Hundreds of years lived, miles traveled, and probably more people killed than both of them put together, and Gant had never before been to a carnival.

A woman approaches, concerned. "Are you lost, little girl?"

Gant pulls his gaze from the sky unhurridly. "No." says the little girl. "Not at all."

He walks past the woman and into the rest of the carnival, resolving to be less obvious in the future. That was part of the fun, after all. Part of the experience. He looks doubtfully at his cotton candy as he walks. Part of the experience, and yet... He pulls off a few fibers with his teeth—little girl's teeth, missing the left front— and lets them melt in his mouth.

He can't feel it. He can't taste it. He carries the sugary blue tuft around anyway, for effect.

edited 17th Oct '10 8:40:53 PM by DaeBrayk

Anyone? =(

Perhaps when Na No Wri Mo comes and goes, there'll be plenty of aspiring writers like us who'd like to showcase their characters in these threads. But I think now is not a good time — I myself have Real Life(TM) affairs to handle (like studying for the midterms), and I suppose others' too.

Let's try waiting for Christmas holidays to come. I'm sure we'll have plenty of free time then. Until the joyous season arrives, cheerio! and best of luck for you and everyone else.

edited 20th Oct '10 9:54:25 PM by QQQQQ

Oh, see you around then =) I'll keep checking in on this in case anyone has a change of heart, but you're probably right.

I wouldn't feel comfortable doing someone else's character.

I wanted to get in on the hike, but I realized that not a single major character I've ever written would be into hiking.

edited 20th Oct '10 11:28:24 PM by jewelleddragon

Alright, rule revision for Jeweled Dragon and probably whoever else is put off by the other-author's-character thing—it can be your character as long as they have never before appeared in a collaborative thread, ruling out the possibility of two people writing the same character. Also fixes it to be more open to newbies.

doublepost

edited 21st Oct '10 5:41:48 AM by DaeBrayk

Will you keep writing Gant?

Magos Cato Strixor sat, utterly glum as he watched the tides of people flow by, eating some thing that one subordinate had bought for him. The man had of course vanished by now, off to chase skirts or drink, or do something of his nature.

Cato had tried to explain that no , he could not just let go. If that happened, the years of work he had spent on military discipline would be an utter waste. It was his nature to eat little, drink little, and spend days perusing manuals of Magica Motorum and developing new ways to use his power.

Of course, the fact that if he truly forgot himself, everything around him might be divided into constituent atoms and rocket into the stratosphere had an effect as well.

Just for the hell of it, he activated his artificial eye, watching the people pass by in a haze of magical energy. His entire body appeared blank and white, but the others had a light tinge at best. Tiresome!

Ya, but I'm abandoning present tense. I know everyone else uses it in these but it feels phenominally unnatural.

Gant stepped up to a game booth and gave the woman inside a few coins. Break the porcelein plate with the provided projectile. A simple test of physical skill and precision. He stepped back for a more natural looking wind-up and saw something strange out of the corner of his eye. A man with a cybernetucally augmented eye was sitting, watching. It was quality work—Gant had nearly missed it, and Gant didn't miss anything. He resolved to look into it later and threw the ball, which smashed through the center plate and into the wall behind it with enough force to shake the rest of the porcelein plates from their stands. He received his giant pandabear in silence.

Astra, a cute 22-year-old blond, bounds into the carnival. "Elephant ears! Elephant ears! Elephant ears!"

Behind her trots a little four-year-old blond. She asks, with a lisp and some sort of European accent, "What's a elephant ear?"

Astra takes her hand and announces with great conviction, "Young lady, you are about to find out!"

Gant deliberated for a moment and approached the strange man.

"'Scuse me, sir." Said the little girl, "Watcha doin?"

The giant plush panda was tucked under one arm in a manner that the laws of physics did not quite agree with.

Cato Strixor looked down. "I could ask you the same. I was brought here to 'relax'. I don't see the point. Then again, I could ask you the same. No one of your age throws that hard."

"We're both standing out," he said with a smile. "I suppose this is why you approached me."

He tossed the snack over his shoulder. "I will guess that you are inhuman. It would not surprise me."

edited 22nd Oct '10 7:33:34 AM by Morgulion

Gant deliberated for a moment over how a child in his position would respond, thought of a few acceptable responces, and picked an unacceptable one for the fun of it. That's what carnivals were for, after all. Fun.

"That entirely depends on what you mean by 'human'." he said. "As for my age...well, I think you'll find you don't get to be my age unless you can throw that hard."

He jumped up onto the bench beside the man, legs dangling a few inches above the ground. "Why'dja come to a carnival if you don't like carnivals?" He had slipped back into character.

Cato Strixor looked at the odd creature. "Because my two adjutants dragged me here. They thought it would be good for me to leave the training ground for a few days. You know, move out of a comfortable zone... just as it seems you are doing."

He stands up, walks to a stall next to the bench that offers a chance to shoot a few targets. Throwing a coin to the proprietor, he picked up a gun, turned away, holding it with one hand, speaking to Gant as he placed a shot straight in the center of every target, snapping his arm left and right.

"Ten years," he said. reloading it with another coin, he pointed it straight up, firing six times. Each shot struck the target again, dead center. "Fifteen."

"And I would ask why you are here," he says.

Astra gives a low whistle. She tells the shooter, "Wow, you are amazing. Now there's good shooting and there's good shooting. You've got augmentations, don't you?"

Meanwhile the blond girl walks boldly up to the other girl and says, "Hi! I'm Margje. I like your bear. What's your name?"

Gant was sorely tempted to put the "sharpshooter" in his place. A carnival game? Child's play. He was interrupted, though, by a small voice to his left. He looked around sharply and chuckled to himself—an ill-fitting, high pitched chuckle. Gant hadn't appeared approachable to anyone, let alone children, in years. This was intentional of course, but a little change of pace never hurt anyone. "I'm Gant," said the little girl. "And you may have this bear if you like."

Margje's eyes get big and she looks up at Astra. "Astra, can I have it?"

"She said you could," says Astra.

"Wow!"

This is going to be a pretty slow carnival with just 3 participants. We should totally make it into an Amusement Park of Doom.

Considering that one of our participants levels cities and the other isn't a pushover either, that had better be a big DOOM.

Yeah, I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of a conflict I could bring in that Gant might actually have trouble with.

Gant handed the bear over to the delighted girl.

Meanwhile, along the edges of the carnival, thin fissures opened in the earth. Just a few inches wide, but miles and miles down. The hiss of sulpharic steam was drowned out by the cheery carnival music. The smell of it added a subtly nausiating baseline to air that was already practically sticky with sweet.

That second bit's just a set up while I hunt down a name.

Perhaps something to do with blackmail or extortion, not directly solvable by force? Could also be emotionally driven.

edited 23rd Oct '10 10:51:56 PM by Morgulion