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writtenbyvenus · 4 years

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What We Do In The Shadows

Chapter 3: I Love You, I Love You Not

Werewolves and vampires: two species that are mortal enemies. But in a small town in Upstate New York, they seemed to find a way to co-exist by staying out of each other's way and minding one's business. However, the dynamics of the local pack of werewolves and coven of vampires would change when a certain pair got too close for comfort. Alfred is an over seventy-year old werewolf posing as local law enforcement, while Ivan is a centuries old vampire working at a blood bank. Both try to get through the struggles of being immortal creatures, who find themselves in a cultural and family struggle when they fall for each other. Between an anti-vampire pack leader, suspicious in-laws, and a death that could nearly tear two families apart, the pair questions if a relationship is a reality, or if they carry too much baggage.

( Warning, this is in RP format, but has been edited and proof read for grammar/flow. A change between writers and/or perspective with both characters is symbolized by a bold first letter. )

‘The life of an immortal is lonely, you suffer as the entire world changes while you stay stagnate. Unable to do the most natural thing all humans do: change.’

But Alfred didn’t want to suffer anymore.

Perhaps he would branch out. He didn’t want to have one night stands forever, it hurt his soul to say goodbye to someone he could see spending an eternity with. And the man was too scared to turn someone into a wolf, he felt like it was a curse he couldn’t bear turning someone he loved into it. It weighed too heavy, that choice. Sighing, he kept his eyes closed, enjoying every touch offered by Ivan. The man was right, he was cocky and proud. Even if he partly hated being a werewolf, there was still a piece of pride in it. He thought it was semi-cute that Ivan offered to lick up his wounds, but he was unsure if he’d take Ivan up on that offer. While adorable, weirdly, seemed too risky. What if he couldn’t control himself? Then he’d have to fight Ivan and was the last thing on his mind. He chuckled hearing how Ivan got his meals, it was just funny. But he was happy the man found a non-lethal way to get his blood. He would rather have him steal people’s blood and keep them alive. Humming, he grinned when he got a kiss on his forehead. Was he winning him over? “Okay. I’ll come over. Next time you work, I’ll be there. Better have snacks for me.” He teased, nuzzling his cheek into his lap again. “If you are bloodthirsty, we could hunt right now....” Alfred offered, but understanding if he said no.

Ivan was a reclusive individual so there wasn't much he had to cope with when he was forced to keep out of the sunshine or risk burning his skin. There wasn't much sun to fight against where he first turned anyway. Even New York was a frosty, shady place that kept him frozen. He could feel the chill, the heat. It was almost painful. With Alfred curled up on his lap, he was warmed up thoroughly. He just wished to keep the puppy for a moment longer, scratch his head, and squeeze him tight. With the number of nights he's seen the man stay out, he didn't dare pursue him. He didn't enjoy awkward moments between his neighbors if there was a miscommunication on their relationship. Over the hundreds of years, he had plenty of money to help him sit pretty so he could jump up and leave at any time. Bad endings hardly were ever a reason to flee, but after all the information he just admitted to Alfred. There may be a problem. As he sits and plays with Alfred's hair, he'd take the moment for what it was and love on his neighbor. Friendly, but not too friendly. "You asked me- no, you begged me to come over and watch a show with you and your eyes have been more closed than open the entire time I'm here." Teasing the other and his persistence, he carefully wedged Alfred up from his lap for a moment to readjust his legs. The blood in his body wasn't his own. It was a liquid patchwork gushing through his body and cutting off at his legs. Even the wolf's cute puppy eyes couldn't take away the uncomfortable amount of weight on his thighs.

He mentally rejoiced when he heard Alfred finally accept his offer. His fangs prodded and extended out of his gums just thinking about the blood slithering through the tube and out of Alfred's arm. He pulled a hand quickly over his mouth as he tried to calm his appetite. He was giddy over a simple dribble, it was near lustful and he despised the feeling because it distracted him when he was out in public. A small whiff of blood would send him prowling around someone like they were just prey to him. It was instinctive and it infected his code, but he's trained himself to control it significantly better. Living, breathing people, that's what he's killed and it hung over his head. Most of the people he stalked down, he had no idea if they were innocent or immoral. He tried not to mull over it too heavily. Thankful he had a new outlet to take the burden off his shoulders. Given the opportunity to turn back to the meat of it all and nestle his teeth onto some rapist's neck, he might have to give in and spend time with Alfred. It certainly sounded fun to him at the very least. "That depends on what you mean by hunting... You don't-" Letting go of his now presentable mouth, Ivan gestured, with his hands, a set of teeth opening and closing. "eat humans, right?" He questioned because deer blood was downright nasty to him. If prepared right, it was tolerable. "I always thought werewolves ate small animals."

Alfred snickered when he was made fun of for closing his eyes. It was easy to do it around Ivan, his soothing voice made him relaxed. No need to stare at the T.V. when Ivan was the entertainment he needed. Getting pushed off Ivan’s legs, he sat up lazily, missing his body. Sitting up straight, he let the man adjust his legs as he wondered how Ivan would feel on his lap.... His thighs were squishy, did the back feel the same way? Dirty thoughts, but he was only an animal inside. Humming, he saw in the corner of his eyes how excited Ivan got. Wow- so the man did want his blood? He wasn’t sure if it was a turn on or off, either way, it interested him. Ivan could get a small taste if it meant if he’d get more hang out time with Ivan. He was a tad bit mean, so he might only give Ivan a small thing of blood. Use the rest as bribery. With a thirsty vampire-like Ivan, he could probably convince the man to do a few things. “Yeah, I’ll stop by. If I’ll donate blood, we’ll see. Depends on my mood.” He teased, not letting Ivan know if he’d really hand over his arm and let him be drained. Teasing was all in good fun, wasn’t it? Raising a brow, Alfred shook his head at the question of eating humans. “Nope, only animals. Do... vampires, do you guys like animal blood? Can y’all live off of it?” He asked, wondering if it was similar to Twilight. Vegetarian vampires were an interesting concept.

Missing the contact he had with Ivan, he decided to be bold. Being bold was the only thing he could do now. He liked Ivan, and they were getting closer. Wanting to let the man know he liked the vampire, he decided to tease back about his first comment. “You know, you are right. We should pay more attention to the T.V....” Grabbing Ivan’s waist, he brought the man down with him as he laid back. It caused Ivan to lay across his chest. Holding the man tight, he enjoyed locking Ivan in his arms, keeping his head on top of his chest. Kissing the top of his forehead, he faced the T.V. His fingers played with the vampire's hair, taking pleasure how soft it felt in his fingertips. Ivan felt softer than he thought... he always imagined vampires were rock hard, tense, and dead. But Ivan was still alive, in some weird way. Just like him...

Ivan's excitement faded at the change of heart. It would require more reeling in before he could get what he wanted from Alfred. Two cups are all he could wish for and just a little bit of the man's time. Letting the talk of donating go, he shrugged his shoulders. The blood type wasn't hard to acquire, one in three people had O-positive so he wasn't going to jump on Alfred about it. Even if it was Alfred's blood. Something about the fact made it ten times more unattainable and sought after to him. He drummed his fingers across the couch when the other voice piped up. There were dozens of animals he hasn't sampled yet, so he couldn't judge the palette completely, but by the number of deer and bears he has tried, he found that animal blood wasn't for him. His body rejected it and wouldn't cooperate with it as if he was only designed to cater to his own lost species. He envied Alfred and his ability to not cannibalize the people around him, werewolves didn't have the problem of accidentally eyeing down someone too long to the point where they're uncomfortable. "Technically... yes. I can survive off animal blood, but it's grainy and almost stale- it makes me sick." He explained, distracting himself with the television

There wasn't much between him and ending Alfred with his big sweet smiling eyes when he was cradled down into his arms. At first, he considered snapping at the abrupt and out of line action, but he wasn't hurt by it so he didn't see the use in upsetting Alfred. Allowing himself the luxury, he rested his head against the chest and ran his fingers through Alfred's hair once more. Doing his best to ignore the flashing intimacy on the screen, he closed his eyes. "You're coming on a little strong, Alfred." Tugging slightly at the strands between his fingers as a warning, he turned his nose away from the awaiting pulses he could hear in the werewolf's neck. He couldn't tell if Alfred was ignorant or if he was asking for trouble. Steadying his heart, his thumbs brushed along the American's eyebrows. With a near millennium of experience under his belt, he didn't hold back his tongue when he was uncomfortable. Passionate moments were even more difficult to have him swooning over, but he still had fun playing with someone. He's learned his lesson in giving cold rejections. However, he was pleased to feel warm hands wrapped around him and a burning chest against his cheek. Alfred was someone he wanted to trust, someone he didn't want to bite, but still someone he wanted to taste. "Do you get this close to every vampire you meet?... I might have to keep my family away from you if that's the case." Poking fun, he relaxed and smiled at the strokes to his head while giving his share back to Alfred's. "Do you have family or friends other than Allen?"

Alfred was blessed that Ivan didn’t react negatively. Instead of biting or pulling away, Ivan laid on his chest. The wolf was a cuddly man, he adored nothing more than to snuggle up close to someone. Wrap his arms and legs around them, nuzzle his face into their neck, and fall asleep. His hot body always kept someone warm. And with Ivan’s colder temperature, it was a great balance. Closing his eyes too, he smiled when his eyebrows and hair were played with. He knew he was coming off strong, but he was an alpha puppy at heart. He knew what he wanted, and would put effort into getting it. Ivan was the untouchable prize; he’d fight for it. “Mm.... No, I don’t. Don’t sweat it, I won’t try to talk to your sisters. I only got room for one vampire right now.” He teased, meaning it. One of his hands went to Ivan’s lower back, stroking it back and forth. He attempted to be relaxing and soothing, letting the man untangle in his arms. He didn’t want Ivan to tense up and panic, that was the last thing. The more at peace Ivan was, the better. He wanted to see if he could convince the vampire to a sleepover. He wasn’t asking for sex, just a night of cuddling and watching T.V., but he’d have to find a way to propose this to Ivan without coming off as a slime ball. He just wanted to cuddle.... sure, if more happened, he wouldn’t complain, but he wasn’t going to try anything. Simple cuddling under his handmade silver fox blanket. Resting his chin on Ivan’s head, he started to think about his pack members. “My parents are dead, my brother is alive though. And so are his wife and kids. I only talk to my brother, his wife and kids think I died a long time ago. He’s the only person who knows the truth. I follow his kids on Instagram and stuff to keep up with them since they are my nieces and nephews... But I stay at a distance. It sucks, but it has to be like that...”

Ivan wouldn’t be able to see the hurt in his eyes, but he’d be able to hear it in his voice. It hurt Alfred not to be involved with his own family. He wanted to be the uncle everyone loved, that came around and spent time with the kids. Took them out for trips, shopping, helped them with homework, and gave life advice. In all honesty, he wanted that life for himself with his own children, but that would never happen. It was all taken away. That was the curse of immortality in Alfred’s eyes, the purpose of life was to create more, and he couldn’t. Alfred would always be... idling in life, never getting old but never growing, always at a plato. “My pack members... There’s a lot of them. They are all guys, for some reason I swear other werewolves only want to scratch dudes. Or maybe girls are immune to it... I’ve heard some werewolves say that most females are- but anyway. There’s a lot of us, but I would rather not say the names. It’s their secret, not my right to share it. I shouldn’t have mentioned Allen’s name anyway.” He didn’t feel comfortable naming all his pack members. Privacy and their oath to it was an important virtue in their culture, and he wouldn’t risk it to swoon over an alluring vampire. Only if they got really closer. “I already know who’s a vampire in this town. I can smell them. So you don’t have to tell me about your vampire sisters. I know. It’s just something us dogs can sniff out.” He joked, kissing Ivan’s forehead softly again.

Letting out a sigh, Alfred reviewed the interactions between him and Ivan in the past hour. The fact that the pair went from making slight threats to each other to now getting cozy on his sofa was a mixture of odd and not. The past two months of bonding doing chores grew a feeling of attraction, plus a yearning for trust. The pair wanted to get close, but fears of each other's powers and species kept them from opening up. Then again, Alfred is the type to move relationships and intimacy fast, it was usual for him. However, his vampire crush appeared to be more cautious and closed off; so he questioned Ivan’s acceptance of the change in their dynamic. “So, how did we go from not mentioning that we are immortals, to cuddling on my couch? Not complaining, by the way…” he asked, his voice calm but friendly.

Ivan snorted, agreeing with the oddness of the situation. He stayed quiet for a moment as he contemplated his behavior. Living so many lifetimes, he became used to the usual formula of getting close to someone. However, those were nearly all humans. Finding a fellow immortal that he found attractive and worthwhile to keep around made him want to cling and never let go. Jumping with both feet, as one would say. The reality that he could be making a mistake did stay in the back of his mind, but he wanted to keep it there. “I believe… us both opening up helped… You answered many questions I have been thinking about since we first met, and I could probably say the same for you…” He took a deep breath, one that matched Alfred’s. The relaxation from Alfred’s touches was foreign, it has had been a while since someone’s fingers had such an effect on him. “I’ve been attracted to you since I met you…”

Ivan never considered being close with someone a part feral dog. With his hands still cradling Alfred's head, it was uncouth behavior for himself. There was no result he had to lead the werewolf into a state of vulnerability and break that trust. It was never as if he pulled that trick often, but he could already feel the relationship ending terribly. So far, Alfred had been good to him and he wanted to keep that light in the puppy's heart. He figured that Alfred had a few years to explore his identity and form bonds with others of his kind, but something about locking Alfred down didn't feel humane to him. With every inch of Alfred's personality, he could read it. While there would be some tug and pull over whether he was right, he knew that Alfred didn't know what he wanted. The man was alone and deeply aching and he smelt it.

Seeing as Alfred was desperate for comfort and affection, he'd be softer on him. There wouldn't be any nail digging when he deemed a reach to be lower than standard. Instead, he patted the dirty blond hair and stretched out one of his legs to situate the hand higher up on his back. Their hips weren't overlapping so could relax without any potentially fatal movements when he got comfortable. Alfred wasn't much of his to hold onto, but those sorts of displays of affection restricted to particular facets of platonic and romantic love weren't his to decide. He was having a pleasant time, so he'd worry about his real emotions later. As for the moment, he was more concerned with Alfred's own feelings in his unsteady words. Attempting some consolation, he straightened up the head of hair in slow-paced layers. "Not everyone can be as lucky as me, but I understand and I really do hate how pitiful you sound over it-... Watching someone you love to grow old without you is hurtful, isn't it?" He sympathized, plenty of the same scenarios rattled off from family friends and even lovers.

After mindlessly opening his eyes to watch the show and rub more gentle touches through the stiff strands, he decided to ask. "Have you turned anyone into a werewolf?... I bet you never even attacked anyone, have you? You don't have the heart for it." He wasn't mocking or teasing Alfred about his tenderness veiled by aggressive bluffs; it was something he admired. Something about werewolves always led them to be huffy or extremely playful and friendly. The fact that struck him interesting was the exclusion of females. Now that he considered it, he didn't encounter very many female werewolves. Vampires were more diverse, a blended mix of all demographics. They were a hidden subhuman society of subhuman that bred and carried on wreaking havoc across the globe. He, in particular, wasn't knit in with community life. His friends were few and far between. It had been a few years since he's spoken to his old close friend, the distance made it hard to keep in contact and it didn't help that he had a falling out with the now German vampire. Gilbert was one of the first vampires he met; he could never forget the distinctive odor the pale man carried, pungent. Alfred's fluffy puppy smell was much more pleasant, the blood perfumed, and blended with the werewolf olfactory calling card. He could nuzzle even closer to Alfred and take in more of it, but rushing that along wasn't a priority of his. "Do all werewolf names start with Al?... It might explain the lack of women if you ask me." Joking along, Ivan sat up and settled back into his seat. Taking Alfred's feet into his lap, he began running the tips of his fingers up the soles. "You seem tired. Maybe you should turn this off and lay down?"

Alfred didn’t want to spend to much time on the topic of romance and mortality. Staying young as the other grew old, it was a painful reminder that he was different. Unchanging, forever, and there wasn’t a single thing he could do about it. There was no cute to this curse, and Alfred was stuck being like this until the day someone buried his body. Keeping his eyes closed, he relished in each touch and careful act by the man. Ivan displayed a human side to him, one that was gentle and loving. Alfred took interest in that, locking it away in his brain and saving it for a time to give back to Ivan. Hearing the man bring up the painful topic of mortality, he nodded as he squeezed him tighter. “Yeah... It is.” He said, his voice low, lacking the usual gusto and life. Someone had sucked the joy out of it. Gulping, he squeezed Ivan again as his fingers rubbed circles on his back. Slow, gentle circles, his way of being non threatening and relaxing to his vampy crush. He mocked the loving behavior Ivan displayed when he got his hair pulled, showing that he did care about Ivan’s comfort. “No... I never have. Never will. I don’t want to give anyone the power of immortality, good person or not. I think someone might abuse it. And I don’t want to be that cause...” he confessed, sighing as he thought about the men who he'd killed. Many weren’t men who deserved to be alive, let alone given the chance of immortality. The chance of harming people, and getting away with it! They didn’t deserve that pleasure, and Alfred would never be responsible for it. He’d never bite or scratch a man who he did not want to kill. End of story. He didn’t play games, if he attacked a human, it was a good reason. He saved his human-hunting for the vilest of men, and those shouldn’t get the opportunity to have more victims.

He’d come to whine when Ivan pulled away and sat up. He found pleasure in having the vampire lay down on him. He was even getting used to the smell. He was quite smart with how they cuddled, letting his neck and shoulders rub all over it. That was the point, as his main scenting glands were there. The more he rubbed on Ivan from those spots; the harder and harder his scent was to remove. He did want Ivan reeking like a werewolf covered vampire all day? Yes. That’s how people would know to stay back, that’s Alfred’s. Due to being ticklish, he pulled his feet out of Ivan’s lap. He opened his arms, stretching them out as he cracked his back. “Yeah... I should lay down. You’ll stay over the night... right? My room is always really hot, and you cool me down. It’s super comfortable... Please?” Alfred asked, in the most begging, sugary sweet voice. His eyes even matched, begging with his voice. He sat up, his face going near Ivan’s own, working a pout. He wanted a cuddle buddy, the puppy was lonely and needy. And the vampire’s squishy, but cold body, was the perfect match for the needy, but a burning werewolf. Alfred was going to be good of course, keep his hands in the right place. No touching anything below the belt; only back rubs and cheek kisses.

The welcoming tightness was given a few tender scratches back to the blond locks. Ivan could sense the troubled and uneasy flex to Alfred's tongue. Something about the werewolf made him less pressured around him, he could rip himself away if he had to. The chipper American seemed to be a more even match, but he was sure if something terrible were to happen, he could slip off without a chunk of wood in his heart. He didn't want to square off with his close friend and end up hurt. If Alfred was specist and wanted to kill a vampire for sport, he knew that he would have been long snapped at and buried by now. There was no reason for him to feel unsound- he wasn't, but he didn't wish Alfred to see his serenity. Being hooked on a werewolf-like Alfred was a stab to his own ego. Ivan had time to sleep around, touch on a few mortals and immortals. Yet, he didn't seek out a good time like Alfred. It wasn't as if he was shallow or hardheaded, he just didn't find satisfaction in giving someone what they wanted so easily. He liked shows, he enjoyed watching Alfred bend over backward, but he knew it wasn't a one-sided attention endeavor. A whining pup wasn't a happy one; he liked earning a smile and getting to smile. He adored being touched, but he was sure that the pleasure was universal. With how open and clingy Alfred laid himself out to be, he assumed the feeling was nothing but mutual. He planned to pull and smooch on Alfred until his fur even had bruise marks where his lips have been.

His mouth sneered as he regretted pulling away so soon. He didn't even have Alfred's warm feet in his lap to keep him company. Hearing that he could stay for the night, he practically got scratched by a werewolf himself and grew a wagging tail. It didn't show significantly on his calm appearance that he was doing small cheers in his mind, but it was clear that he was content with the question. The begging and desperate pouts did have a way of convincing him and putting a faint smile on his face after all. Watching the American stretch, he rubbed a thumb to his chin and leaned back into the couch. "You want me to sleep in your bed?... Aren't you a little too old for sleepovers?" Fond of having someone to tease, he closed his eyes. Alfred was special to him, an experiment of sorts, a wandering curiosity that he could have fulfilled, but mostly a fuzzy sweet boy he found warm inside and out. If he was able to wrap himself around him without ending up a walking werewolf cologne bottle, he would. Cracking open his eyes, he gradually sat up from his spot. A few lingering puppy rubs to his skin would be alright with him. He closed the gap between him and Alfred, ghosting his lips over the other pair. "You're really lucky that you're so cute... I guess the puppy dog eyes are just a bonus feature that makes you harder to crush." Pulling away, he stood up from the couch and dragged Alfred up by his wrists along with him. Knowing the same layout of his apartment, he walked with Alfred over to his room. "Maybe you can go ahead and take off your clothes so I can see if you were bluffing?... I don't believe that you can change into a wolf at will." He just wanted an excuse to watch Alfred strip and blush before him. It was a pleasant atmosphere, but he wasn't surprised to note the pelts scattered across a werewolf's bed.

Alfred could feel his face getting red once Ivan closed in the space between their faces and agreed to spend the night. Pleased to see that his begging worked, he smirked, still rocking a cocky grin with red cheeks. Standing up with Ivan, he let the man lead him, even if it was his own house. “So you are finally admitting that I’m cute? Thank god, you have standards.” He teased, taking the chance to check out Ivan from behind. He seemed to check the boxes in Alfred’s departments of what he looked for in a man. Even if Ivan was a vampire, he could see himself spending a long period with the man. He just has to get over the smell... But he was already starting to forget about it. Once in the room, Alfred went with Ivan’s request to see him take off his clothes. He wasn’t shy, not at all. “I usually sleep naked, but since I have company, I’ll keep on my boxers.” He commented, throwing his shirt on the floor and kicking off his sweatpants. Mostly muscular, with a slight sun-kissed tan, his body had a few scar marks, the most noticeable over his heart. A deep slash was there, a symbol of what made him turn every full moon. To anyone who asked, Alfred made up some story about being attacked by a bear one-night hunting, and that wasn’t far from the truth. He was attacked by something, just a creature more dangerous and horrible than an average bear.

Hoping into the bed, he half covered himself with the silver fox blanket, letting his chest be exposed. Tapping the area next to him, he attempted to convince Ivan to get undressed. “Since I’m only in my underwear, don’t you think it’s only fair for you to be too? Don’t worry, I’m not a creep. I won’t grope you.” He teased, taking the remote and turning on the T.V., he let The Office playing in the background, thinking the comedy would be good background noise to let Ivan relax. Then he could put on something more romantic, put on a classic, something sexy but still, heartfelt. Alfred wasn’t fully a creep, he did and would respect Ivan’s boundaries. He was mainly looking for someone to cuddle and nuzzle against during the night. Only cuddles, rubs, and if he’s lucky, a few smooches.

"I should start calling you Narcissus because I've never seen such a short little man have so much ego." Ivan wasn't blind, he knew Alfred had some height, but he couldn't let people shorter than he forget about their sheer petiteness. A wicked grin jumped to his face when he caught Alfred with a red tint. There was no doubt in his mind that werewolves had the same blood that they were born with, but he wasn't positive if Alfred could show surprise. Catching someone blush was always gratifying; he found that it beat having to watch someone be sucked of any color.

In many ways, Alfred fits his outer crust. With the attention to the physique, he saw that the man truly cared about himself. His measly golf tee sized scars on his neck, they fell in comparison to the gash across Alfred's chest. Between puncture wounds with a burning aftertaste and a deep tissue scratch, he wasn't entirely sure which one he'd rather have to endure. That hadn't been his decision and it was a complaint, but he was used to his powers by now. Laughing at Alfred for neglecting the whole point of wanting him to strip, he pushed off his loafers. "Do you have short term memory loss or did you just stop listening to me when I told you to take off your clothes?" He ignored the request to follow in the other's footsteps and simply observed how Alfred prepared to lay down. It disappointed him when he didn't get to see Alfred pace around in circles and flop down. From the way it was described to him, he shouldn't worry too much if he spots a wolf walking around the apartment complex. It was simply Alfred, but a puppy edition. "Oh? Or is it that you were just talking earlier? You really can't change at will... too proud to take back what you said, I see." Slipping into bed away from Alfred, he shot a disturbing glare to the flashing television. There was a reason why bats were heavily associated with his kind. Dark, cold, and even damp environments were the most familiar ways for him to sleep. Sometimes he'd hang upside down if he felt so inclined. He wondered if Alfred curled up into a little compact ball and twitched when he had nightmares. Smiling upon the mangy yapper, he slipped his fingers behind Alfred's ear and gently scratched at the patch of skin and hair.

He eventually gave in to what was comfortable and unbuckled himself before shrugging off his pants beneath the covers. Sleeping with furs wasn't entirely foreign to him, but he forgot how outrageously warm they made him. He noticed that even Alfred wouldn't completely wrap himself up in the pelt. Tossing his turtleneck down along with his pants to the floor in a pile, he shuffled a short centimeter toward the blond. "Just so you know, I'm not asking for you to grope me." Warning the other, he stretched out his legs and adjusted his pillow. His fingers found the fur between them, pinching and petting the lifeless edges. He wasn't the biggest fan of hunting for sport, but he figured that it wasn't much sport to an animal and in a way, Alfred was an abounding pup. First keeping his distance for a moment, he ultimately moved closer to Alfred and squeezed his frame into his hold. "Ah... we forgot our clothes downstairs. Should we go get them before we become too comfortable?" He reminded and questioned himself even if he had no intent on leaving Alfred's side.

“Hey, I’m not short. You are just... freakishly tall!” He joked, not taking offense to his humor. Even though he was five-eleven himself, standing next to Ivan did make him seem smaller than he was. Seeing Ivan lose some clothes as well kept the grin on his face. He didn’t think vampires could be so... sexy, and his over sugar smell was starting to turn good. He couldn’t describe how, but Ivan went from smelling like burnt, over-processed sugar, to honey and flowers. Perhaps it was all in Alfred’s head, his crush on Ivan made his senses turn something gross into something good. Or maybe, due to him being a vampire, he subconsciously thought they all smelled bad, even if they didn’t. Whatever reason, he became more comfortable breathing through his nose around Ivan, as his scent didn’t bother him. He wished he could lean in to sniff him more, a wolf habit he had gained. He laughed again about the comment with his clothes, as he had no modesty, and he’d strip nude if asked. “I mean... I can take off the underwear if you want. I don’t mind being naked. But you gotta get naked too, only fair...” He teased, grabbing Ivan’s thigh and wrapping it around his waist. His hands stroked the man’s thigh, taking advantage of the free skin. It was cold, but soft at the same time. He imagined vampires being cold and hard, but Ivan wasn’t. He was squishy, had fat on his body. He did squeeze the thigh a few times, his hands enjoying the sensation of cold, yet soft. With Alfred’s body temperature being a few degrees hotter than the average human, cooler temperatures were soothing. Ivan’s body was like a nice fan on a hot summer day, cooling down the burning hot man.

“You being cold feels pretty nice…” He yawned, his face going into Ivan’s neck. While he wanted to kiss it, he kept to his promise and only nuzzled it. He purred when Ivan scratched his head, pleading with the sensations. “I can change on will, I just rather do it another time. Don’t want to scare you... and if the T.V. is bothering you, I can turn it off.” He mentioned, noticing how Ivan gave the light a dirty look. He pulled Ivan a tad bit closer, loving the cold Ivan provided. “Just forget about it, I’ll get them in the morning. This bed and you are comfortable... I’m not letting go anytime soon...” He said, giving in and placing one single peck on Ivan’s cheek. Only one, and then he returned to nuzzling his neck. The puppy was needy for the affection of any kind. Sweet words, rubs, kisses, his hands kept stroking back and forth on Ivan’s thigh. It wrapped around his waist made him more comfortable and feel safe. Having someone around you was the best way to sleep in Alfred’s eyes. Especially if the said person checked every box in appearances, and was starting to in personality. He was funny, flirtatious, but still held his ground. Alfred pulled towards strong personalities, it was who he was. So it was what he wanted.

The heat produced by Alfred drew Ivan in. He felt as if he was already holding onto some sort of animal, the fur blanket creating the illusion. It was like he was wrapped up in a fresh clean blanket from the dryer. Not as harsh as the sun that cooked into him, but the pleasant warmth of a cat curled up on his stomach. It made it difficult for him to keep his distance and his hands to himself. Assuming the rule would be the same for Alfred, he would respect the other body just as much as he wanted to be left without groping. Even if he wanted to run a finger over Alfred's scar and squeeze at his chest, he wouldn't go that far. He had to play it smart, he didn't want to give Alfred the wrong idea. The smell didn't have to emit off of the werewolf for him to understand that he wasn't his to keep. It wasn't clear to him whether his neighbor was taken or was someone who didn't like to be tied down to someone else. Either way, he knew better than to give in to his own desires and royally destroy the pleasant conversations he had with Alfred. To keep up the act and hold himself captive in the relationship he already had with the American, he didn't let his thumb linger too long over the smirking lips on Alfred's face. His eyes rolled at the comment, still not entirely sure if he was being teased. "I'd like it much more if you kept your boxers on... It will take a pint or more for you to convince me to lay naked with you." It was part joke and part genuine offer. A few times over, he has led bothersome individuals to an old cheap hotel room and bit into them. It wasn't his proudest way of maintaining himself, but it wasn't the bitterest thing he's gone through with. He was just happy to have some leverage on his kill count these days. In truth, he might have turned Alfred into a meal if he wasn't a hunting machine. If the man had been more of an intolerable creep, he would have considered it, but Alfred was sweet. It would be a tragedy for him to kill someone so beautiful.

"For someone who promises not to touch me too heavily... you're sure grabbing me a lot." He teased, not entirely upset. There were parts of him that still craved to be held, but he knew not to beg Alfred about it because the answer wouldn't be no. He adored Alfred, he wanted to play with his hair and kiss love into his ear, but he was patient. His rubs to Alfred's locks and down behind his neck were slow, dragging. "You don't have to sleep with it on, do you? I can just go back to my own bed and lay down instead. It's okay." He assured, avoiding the flash of the screen by taking his hand off of Alfred and shielding his eyes. "And- for your information, I've seen werewolves before. I'm not scared of them." Laughing, his fangs slipped down as he flashed his own grin at Alfred. "They should be scared of me." Referencing the conversation they had earlier, he nudged his forehead against Alfred's and gently grabbed at his side, bringing the body closer. Drawing his teeth up, he gave the small kiss back into his cheek. "Not you though, you shouldn't be scared of me... you're too much of a good puppy for me to hurt." He hummed, going back to pet at Alfred's hair. Everything about the werewolf was peculiar, he didn't understand his attraction to him, but it broke his heart to even consider hurting him. He wanted to keep Alfred safe.

Alfred took the remote and turned off the T.V., as he didn’t want any reason for the vampire to go up and leave. If that meant the room as to be dark and quiet, so be it. He opened his eyes and laughed when Ivan showed off his fangs, only going to squeeze his upper thigh. “You’re cute, even when you try to be scary...” More focusing on Ivan’s body and presence. Alfred took the chance and started to rub his neck on Ivan’s face, spreading his scent on the man. His hands and wrist were already doing work on Ivan’s legs currently. Scent marking was a big thing with werewolf’s, it was a great way to tell other wolves that someone was theirs and that they should stay away if they were smart. Werewolves in their human and wolf form had scent glands on their neck and wrist, as rubbing would brush their smell on the mate. It would only last a couple of days, but there was one way to make the scent-marking last weeks. Peeing or coming on a person, there was something about semen and urine that once on another person’s skin, would leave them smelling like the werewolf for weeks. Humans wouldn’t be able to detect it at all, their noses weren’t strong enough. But other werewolves would. All the werewolves would know not to touch Ivan, and to let him be. For now, he’d scent him more temporarily. He rubbed his neck on Ivan’s shoulder, his wrist going up to Ivan’s waist. Scenting his hips, he was happy with his work. He sniffed Ivan: Yup, he smelled like him! Grinning big and wide, he laid down with Ivan, placing the man’s head on his chest. Laying his head back in the pillow, he closed his eyes. “Wow. All I have to do is give blood for you to get naked for me? Noted... I’ll see you tomorrow then..” He teased, thinking that Ivan might be more willing to be playful back if he had an O-positive snack.

Feeling the cylinder of airways and muscle jump and bounce down his face, Ivan grunted. Heavy petting was generally fine with him, but having a neck smother his face was odd. He's seen and experienced some eccentric preferences, but being rubbed like that was new. It may have been that he read Alfred wrong and he wasn't some feverish little go-getter like he thought he was. Cuddling up with Alfred was a lot more unique and nearly awkward than he imagined. The idea of masking his own scent didn't even come to strike him, he just assumed that Alfred was unusual. He was at least grateful to be given peaceful darkness, bright lights irritated him to no end. His vision was catered to cutting through and seeing things when it was pitch black, but he could feel Alfred more than he could see him. He didn't fight back against the skin covering his body, instead, he leaned into the touches and soaked up the affection. His own fingers rubbed up and down Alfred's back and gingerly scratched at his chin. With his head pressed to the chest, he was tempted to lean in and kiss along the nasty gash across his heart. He knew it may be taken as a threat; if the was a faster way to suck someone dry than a neck, it would be the heart. It wouldn't take him but two seconds to kill Alfred off that way, but the werewolf would surely fight back. That's why necks were more optimal. They closed off the air supply. It took him a while to catch onto what Alfred was doing. The strange sniffing pointed in his direction being a key piece to bring the strange mannerisms together. "Who said I was yours to claim?" He would give the near slumbering pup a hard time about it because he had some fun hearing nervous excuses. There were enough werewolves in the area for him to awkwardly make eye contact with while the clingy mutt rubbed up on someone that was their lover. He even got growled at by some cretin for staring too long. It was hard not to stare at PDA when it was so obnoxious.

A glare burned into his closed eyes when he felt another teasing grab at his thigh laced with pleasing words. It was a guilty pleasure of his, to be fondled and groped, but he liked taking his time with Alfred for now. "You rub up on me as if you know me so well... and squeeze on me when I asked you not too." He hummed sarcastically, a faint smile leftover from Alfred's comment on donating. "That's fine." His lips guided themselves along the divide of the chest and up to Alfred's collarbone. Attempting to keep the werewolf calm and at peace, he continued to alternate between big and small circles being rubbed into his back. He was quite tired himself, his movements becoming slower as he put a kiss closer to Alfred's neck. The warmth was too soothing and beckoning. He wondered if Alfred was warmer as a sweet cuddly wolf. It was something he'd have to wait to pry out of his neighbor. A glimpse was all he asked for. Finally letting his arm lazily hook around Alfred's waist, he eventually joined him in slumber. He didn't move very much in his sleep, it was as if he was lifeless. It took a whole parade of a racket to stir him awake or else he would stay in a state of short hibernation and wake up a few days later. He was built to look and feel dead.

lfred knew that Ivan was going to give him a hard time about scent marking him, but Alfred just shrugged it off. “Mm... Me, that’s who...” He said in a tired voice. The man smelled like him, that was all that mattered. He smiled, snuggling up to him more when he was called a puppy. He was a puppy, indeed. He loved to cuddle, play fight, and scent whoever he adored. After scent-marking Ivan, perhaps in the morning he might pin Ivan down and play fight with him. It was fun to wrestle! To roll around in bedsheets, and see who was the strongest. He believed he could pin Ivan down easily and make him beg to be let go, and that it would be easily done. Then later they could cuddle, and Alfred could rub his scent glands on Ivan more. “My big alpha wolf inside of me sometimes is just a playful puppy. I think the same can be said about you... You seem like you can be somewhat innocent when you want to be...” He teased, giving a peck to Ivan’s forehead. “You smell good....” he said, yawning as he started to doze off.

His mind got hazy, especially with Ivan’s soothing rubbing. A lazy smile grew on Alfred’s face, wishing he could pinch Ivan to tease him for the backtalk. He knew not to take Ivan so seriously, as the man attempted to keep him calm and relaxed as well. He wasn’t pulling away or leaving the bed, so he mustn’t hate it that much. Whispering a few taunts back, he joined Ivan in falling fast asleep. Like Ivan, he was a deep sleeper too, who’s loud alarm was the only thing that would wake him up. With him always working the night shift, he usually slept all morning and into the afternoon. He did shift a couple of times but always seemed to pull Ivan close. He was a clingy sleeper, no matter what time it was, he’d find a way to touch whoever was cuddling him. There was one point at night where he had Ivan locked in his hold on top of him. But towards the morning, he was spooning Ivan, his arm and leg wrapped around him. His face in Ivan’s neck, he snoozed away, not wanting to wake up any time soon. He only got up sometime in the morning to pee, making an annoying sound as he pulled away from Ivan to use the toilet. Once he was finished, he flushed and returned to his warm bed and cold crush. He pulled Ivan close, laying on his back as he made Ivan lay on his chest. Enjoying the sensation of the Russian’s head on his chest, he let the man rest there, his hand stroking the leg wrapped around him. He felt safe like this, with someone wrapped around him. The cooling comfort of Ivan made it all worthwhile, and thoughts of donating some blood to see if his crush would loosen up a bit.

Ivan used to be a morning person, but his issues sleeping seemed to vanish once he was infected so he couldn't hate being a vampire if he could get his rest. Hardly did he toss and turn until his main source of warmth was stripped away from him. His fingers coiled and grabbed the sheets repetitively until he found Alfred again. He was in pure unbothered bliss. The only thing to take him away from his sinfully cozy spot around Alfred was the outrageously loud beeping of his phone. His eyes slowly drifted open as he assessed the situation. Jolting up from beneath the covers, he scrambled away from the heater of a body. If he lost his current job, he would lose his ability to provide for his sisters and himself. Unfortunately for him, blood banks opened early, but at least they were easy pickings. As cliche as it was, he used his time to gather a few degrees here and there. So, he was a certified nurse just so he could secure a position sticking a needle into some poor soul's arm. He adored his job and planned on keeping it. Getting to the floor, he searched his pants for his phone and quickly shut down his alarm. He religiously used multiple sounds to go off at once and he was, frankly, shocked to find his single alarm stirred him awake. Feeling bad for exposing Alfred to such a loud dominating ring, he dragged his pants over to the bed and tucked Alfred in. "I know it's loud, I'm sorry." His voice was low as he brushed a few complimentary strokes into the dirty blond hair. "I'm heading off to work, okay?... Will do me a big favor-" He sugarcoated his words, leaning closer to his face as he scratched behind Alfred's ear. "and bring my clothes up? You don't have to get up right now, but just make sure someone doesn't throw them away." It was something he was willing to do for a neighbor and he hoped Alfred wasn't too far gone to not be able to hear him. Shrugging on a pant leg, he put a kiss to each of Alfred's cheeks.

As he made his way towards the door, he pulled his pants over his hips and buttoned them up. He'd have to change into his scrubs once he made it back to his own apartment, but he wasn't going to risk walking out without any clothes on. At the doorway, he pulled his sweater over his head and turned to smile at Alfred. Out of habit, he chirped out what he usually left his sisters with. "I love you-" His mouth instantly snapped shut before quickly barking back open to try and correct himself. "No, I don't." Feeling as if he couldn't have said anything worse, he gave a simple wave to his crush. A mortified look staining his face as he stepped out of the room. A complete Freudian slip that had the potential to destroy his whole relationship with Alfred spat out of his mouth in one split second, of course, he was blushing with humiliation. He liked Alfred and he wanted to get closer to him, but he knew it was way too early to say anything close to I love you. It was too personal and he just said it out loud as if he was dating Alfred. He was burning again. Making it out of the apartment, he took a moment to hold his heart and get over himself. It wasn't long until he perked back up and hurried along to his own door to get ready with the awkward moment replaying in his head.

[ Link to Ao3, thank you if you read ! ]

#rusame #amerus #aph america #aph russia #fanfiction #werewolf america #vampire russia #hws america #hws russia #yeee have a good night

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shaonsim · 3 years

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There are so many of these tropes...! Enemies to lovers, soul mates (major weakness for this one), second chance.

You choose!

@medhasree

The amount of attention this game has gotten can be understood from me forgetting what this was before I had a light bulb moment and remembered that I had created a game for this. Because I love talking about tropes and story ideas, and because I love you, all three of these are answered bellow the cut ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Enjoy the wild ride that is me discussing tropes, talking to you and talking to myself, all in one place. 👌🏽

Enemies to Lovers

Do I enjoy this trope?

Well, I don't know, there is this show called Dhrubatara and I used to love it.. In one word, yes. I do enjoy this trope. Of course, there are some lines I would not cross, I have a comfortable limit and I stay inside that Laxman Rekha, if you will. Physical assault/abuse is usually a big, glaring NO, and everything that is perceived as worse than that goes hand in hand with this rule I have made for myself. In short, I don't like borderline abusive people, especially if becomes a common occurrence whenever the two people come face to face. I especially LOVE it if the enmity comes from both sides, and I have an odd taste for a enemies-to-lovers trope that ends with unrequited love [ the ANGST, the BEAUTY ]

Do I write fics (and/or original works of fiction) with this trope (enemies-to-lovers)?

Since my main fandom is Dhrubatara, of course I do. I have about three or four AUs and nearly all of them explore this same trope in various ways, so yes, my fics make full use of this trope. My original works are very bones and I am very ashamed to admit that I do not know if a enemies-to-lovers dynamic exists in them.

Is this trope a part of my current project?

Presently I am bouncing between two projects, and while the second project, a ON [cliché Bengali TV shows will always have their audience in me, at least for an episode or two, and this one toh I am following semi regularly, so obviously I need to give in to the writing bug] fanfiction lightly touches this trope, I don't think it meets the requirements of this ask. The other one though, my latest Dhrubatara fanfic... Depends. Is it an enemies-to-lovers trope if they have already done this dance before? Enemies-to-lovers-enemies-to-lovers, is this even a thing? You be the judge of that. And let me know if it counts.

Do I plan on writing this trope in the future?

Since many of my fanfictions depend on this trope, I guess yes, I do plan on writing it out, but the important thing is to write instead of daydream, and that's a battle I fight everyday.

SOULMATES

Do I enjoy this trope?

No, the all CAPS is not a symbol of my love and fascination for this trope. In truth, it isn't anything except I am using this phrase somewhere else and my phone autocorrected it here too, but I made the choice to leave it that way because I have a lot of opinions about this trope. For me, the beauty, the charm, the allure lies in the game of chance, the hit and miss, the ambiguity. The lack of surety that you have, indeed, found your soulmate. And, as an angst lover™, I need there for something to be at stake. Time, happiness, a sense of belonging. For me, the trope alone holds no charm, but the beauty is in the possibilities. The layers, the various directions this can go. What it means to have a living, breathing person complement you, what it means to know that there is a part of yourself you haven't found yet. I like how it is a gamble, a roll of a dice, how all you can trust, is your instincts, and how love might fool you into believing that you have found your soulmate, because at the end of the day, the voice putting the stamp on the person? It is yours. I loathe soulmate AUs and tropes where there are numbers involved, or writing on the skin, or injuries. Nearly not enough room for doubt chaos, if you ask me. And if it is not chaotic, what's the point of that, right? Right? I did a role play with someone where people got tattoos when they reached adulthood but they faded if one didn't find their soulmate within a year. That's the kind I like. But the kind I love, which one is close to my heart, the one I consider to be the true soulmate trope? There are no signs. Or maybe, there are plenty. It is everything and nothing, beauty and chaos and it thrums with the force of life.

Do I write fics (and/or original works of fiction) with this trope (soulmates)?

Few months ago, I would have answered in negative. But now I have a RP we never got to finish and a fanfiction in the making, so there you go. I have bitten the bullet and I have started planning things for a trope I used to hate so much, and I was only able to do it when I realised that my Soulmate AU does not have to follow the conventional ideas surrounding that trope.

Is this trope a part of my current project?

Well, I always have multiple projects in multiple stages, mostly inspiration and planning rather than in the drafting stage. I have one in the planning stage and oh I have so many plans for it, you can thank @litchicake for that <3

Do I plan on writing this trope in the future?

Yes. First for the thing I am planning, and if it opens up possibilities I hadn't considered before or if there are ideas I cannot properly explore in this fanfiction, then sure, I'll write more.

Second chance

Do I enjoy this trope?

Yes. Second chances are everything, and they have room for the features of both established relationships and a fresh love story, and the more I [ or other writer/creator(s) ] can play around, the better it is. Of course, the relationship and the things that destroyed the first chance should be within limits (same as the enemies to lovers one, but I am usually slightly lenient about emotional manipulation and such with second chances).

Do I write fics (and/or original works of fiction) with this trope (enemies-to-lovers)?

Fic Which Must Not Be Named is based on this same trope, and I also have other fanfiction and things planned for character redemption as well as entire stories and relationships getting a second chance, so it is a yes for this one too.

I wonder what you will have to send to get a no out of me. I like playing with possibilities.

Is this trope a part of my current project?

Throwback to naive Shaon who had thought that anything vaguely resembling 'current project' will exist in her life. Pass the glass of milk. I guess the answer is pretty clear from the above points, I simply hate repeating myself so I wrote nonsense.

Do I plan on writing this trope in the future?

Plans toh... My ideas thread has so many things that I put the deadline at December 2030, and no, that is NOT a typing mistake. I have plans Medha, I have so many plans and someone needs to (softly) scream at me to work on my WIPs. Which is why I made distapata but I have zero content to post there to pull people's interest towards my projects because I myself don't know the details... Shaon why are you like this 🙄

#please leave a message || asks

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all-of-your-mercy · 4 years

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UNDEADEIRA. SPILL YER THOUGHTS ABOUT ME BIH

One of the asks that clearly originate from one of the earlier questionnaires I’ve reblogged and forgotten, but I thought It would be still rather interesting to answer to see whether I’ve told you prior to how I had my first/later opinion about you and how’s the situation now.

Since we firstly met through the RP sphere, at the very first beginnings I didn’t form much of an opinion but knew the general idea of you as a person that you were oriented / had a preference towards gore or murder based on drabbles. Essentially, dark oriented themes which I’d consider rare more or less because no everyone is simply a fan and can write It as common.

I will admit – I could tell you had some form of timidness towards me as we interacted, and a lot of It showed through us discussing dynamics between characters and what could be a potential ship.

It was also easy to tell based on how you interacted firstly with other people, mainly because you were incredibly friendly and hyperactive towards them. That occured between us with time – when I was building interest towards you as a person and a friend, and as someone I want to be relied on If you ever need a shoulder to cry on.

OH, as well – There was a short period that left some bad taste in my mouth. It occured at the first few months we interacted, and I believe the subject was regarding how you voice your daily / weekly opinions towards [any subject].

Although that eventually passed because I learned your perspective and that’s your format when It comes to expressing. I didn’t like it firstly because the idea of posting your opinion, feelings was more or less deemed innapropriate on tumblr (my personal experience) and I believed in it myself for the time being.

I do the exact same now and It’s revelating, and It also allows people to assist you when they are personally available. It’s not an obligatory thing, sometimes you as a person just want to express something and leave it at that.

Other than that –

I’m certain you shaped my perspective when It comes to content creators that are … Furry-based? Is it insulting If I called you a furry more or less?

BASICALLY – You presented characters with plenty of animalistic or demonic features, and I originate from a RPC that only had human x animal-human hybrids as the only dynamic or species that where common tropes in most ships.

I had no dislike towards different types of OC-creation other than the one I was in, It simply felt unusual for me seeing a person who made very bright coloured or dark coloured with very-nice-bright-tones characters (Alex, Jester can be used in my first example, while Ace and Ichabod could come second on the other part) and haven’t bat an eye about it themselves.

Character with … Green hair? Golden hair and ‘stained’ black limbs? “Why not?” – That’s the idea I got from you.

In your world building, that’s more or less considered normalcy because you have such a wide range of characters that have human forms but clearly aren’t remotely human, the styles and the designs aren’t made to cater reality. I like when people do something like THAT.

It was incredibly interesting for me to see a person to form characters that aren’t the common choices of entities. I was intruiged by your own world building and ideas of species (speaking of vants and the concept of the hivemind) and that’s what personally kept me interested in learning and wanting to know more of the characters.

You may have characters that might be one of the “common choices”, but your interpretations make the common-choice ideas/species original just by how you interpret those characters being in that kind. It was refreshing.

In the end, I discovered you’re a good person with a good heart. You taught my that my rare-but-occuring destructiveness is a part of emotion and you can both learn from it or dismantle the distuctiveness piece by piece without needing to go hog shit sometimes and problems can be prevented.

Not to mention I rely on you as a second voice on conversations sometimes, as I sometimes find myself bluntly opinionated and that can come across as rude to anyone else that doesn’t know me well. You can read emotion through text well and suggest what can sound better as an alternative, which helps in me wanting to be more considerate as well.

The end

#undeadchow #long post #bye eirs reading comprehension #it was nice knowing you

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diveronarpg · 4 years

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Congratulations, GRACIE! You’ve been accepted for the role of LADY MACBETH with an approved FC change to Melissa Barrera. Admin Jen: God, I just can’t get over the beautiful, captivating vision you’ve presented to us, Gracie. One can’t think of Lady Macbeth without thinking of the power that she encompasses, and not only did you capture that with such fascinating plots and stellar imagery, you added depth and a crucial touch of humanity to it. She's not just a pawn in a game greater than herself, and she's not just a woman consumed by her wants and desires, either. She’s so much more than that, and we absolutely cannot wait to see her flourish on our dash! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | gracie

Age | 25

Preferred Pronouns | she/her

Activity Level | I am pretty around - work has slowed down majorly and I am looking for a new rp to fill the hole in my heart <3 I am almost always on mobile to plot and chat and I try to write at least every other day

Timezone | EST

How did you find the rp? | scoping out the tags!

Current/Past RP Accounts |

IN CHARACTER

Character | Lady Macbeth, Lucrezia Eleonora Falco nee Capuccio - I’d like to change her face to Summer Bishil pretty please!

What drew you to this character? | I have always held a soft spot for Lady Macbeth. Why are the traits that would be seen as positive, almost heroic, in a man the ones that doom her in the end? Why is she punished for her ambition and cleverness, the willingness to do whatever it takes to get ahead? Lucrezia to me answers the question of what if Lady Macbeth wasn’t condemned and drowned in guilt, what if she was able to remain as much of a force to be reckoned with throughout the whole play, not just the first two acts. Strength, competence, and ambition have far too often been seen as faults in women - in Lucrezia they are her crowning glory. By no means does that make her a good person, it makes her all the more interesting and dynamic. I also truly love that there is no deep violent or horrible reason that she is the way that she is. No tragic villain origin story. It was a deliberate choice, one that I feel she made freely and intentionally, to give into the longing for something more that the rose colored world she was born into. Something interesting and dark, to explore the innate cruelty that anyone can be capable of. I want to play with the darkness and with the idea that a girl could be given everything one could possibly want and still demand more.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

Give my rage back to me, I know how to hold it - Men have always sought to own pretty things, and he is no different. Til death do us part, you said with more than a little irony. Who’s death is still uncertain. Your husband wanted you because you were just out of reach, all poison laced smiles and velvet rage in a pleasing package. He held such promise in those days, made the game almost interesting enough for you to want to see it out to the end. And now that he owns you, slipped that diamond shackle on your finger and tattooed his name on your soul, did he really expect you to be happy one step behind him? You are never happy, you force his name higher and farther than he could even dream. But when you plunged your hand into his chest, the organ you pulled out was feeble and pathetic, not nearly strong enough to fill the emptiness inside your own ribs. You are a creature of rage, he knew what he was getting into. His heart did not satisfy your hunger, in fact it only made you all the more starved. You will taste every heart in Verona if you have to, and he has no one to blame but himself.

[ I love a twisty and toxic relationship! Mikael did not gave her a taste for blood and destruction, but he increased her lust and refined her palate. Lucrezia wants to play with her food and conquests, twisting the knife deeper and deeper until their heart slips freely into her stained hands. Rage is her tool and I want to explore her being held back and fighting against her husband or anyone who tries to tame and control her. I also want to see the consequences of reaching too far or biting into a heart that is perhaps more poisonous than her own ]

All that hard, glossy armor - You watch them call her names you yourself wear like badges of honor and see her flinch at every verbal dagger. You are not one to care for other people, you never have. Perhaps you see yourself in her, or what you might have become if you did not learn early to love the darkness for what it was, not what you wished it to be. You crafted your armor, lovingly cultivated this reputation into a weapon. You attack first, and if they are dumb enough to hit back they find anger and armor all the way down. She needs your help, a decision that surprises even you. Maybe you are bored, and think it might be interesting to try and create someone for once instead of destroying. You will teach her to take their venomous barbs and learn to love the sting until she has built up her own armor. And what if, in the middle of this, she discovers a tiny crack in yours?

[ Gals helping gals we love to see it! This is an opportunity to explore Lucrezia’s armor and reputation - how she built it and what might threaten it. I want to play out what happens when someone finds a chink in hers - originally based on the Delilah connection, but could work for anyone who can get close enough. The inner turmoil of her trying not to care then realizing that she does and dealing with the repercussions of this is something I definitely want to explore! Give her a weakness, or someone else to see past what she projects and tries to be, maybe they can use this to hurt her or maybe they actually care. I want to test the strength of all that hard, glossy armor. ]

Then why does it feel like I’m losing my mind? - Madness sings from the blood of every woman, your mother once said, imploring you to resist its call. Can there be such a thing as too much love? Too much attention and coddling? Maybe you learned to love the cruelty and darkness just to spite them. They obsessed over the porcelain doll they thought you were, smothering and controlling and loving all too much. You learned to crave the thrill of chaos, the high that came from taking this love and holding it over their heads like a whip. And they made it so delightfully easy, tracing out the lines so clearly they were practically begging you to cross and smudge them. Because despite all that they tried to teach, all the loving words and sickly sweet affection, you knew you could never be enough. Even if you did exactly what they asked, dampened down the parts of you that were dark and interesting, resisted madness and her pretty call; you would never be enough. Perfection is utterly unattainable, to strive for it is a type of madness itself. If you are going to miss the mark, it might as well be deliberate and enjoyable. But guilt is a ghost who has followed you throughout your life, singing her own sort of haunting refrain. You tried to cut that part of you away and were mostly successful. She still finds you in quiet moments, crashing in with an alien emotion, methodically clawing away at that armor. You will not allow this imagined weakness to threaten everything you have built and so you double down on your devotion, cutting away that traitorous part of your mind again and again until maybe there is nothing left.

[ Guilt and madness and paying the price for ambition are huge parts of Lady Macbeth’s play arc and I want to explore Lucrezia fighting against these. “Madness” and “losing ones mind” seem to be the end, the punishment given for reaching too far. But what if they are a choice one makes to get there? Another tool like beauty and sex used to get ahead. I want to play with Lucrezia balancing right on that line between control and the loss of it. Likely her own actions and weaknesses will lead to some sort of confrontation, maybe an internal battle that leaks out to threaten her plans and ambitions. Is the idea of madness a choice one can make or simply the result of other choices? I want to see what happens when she is forced to deal with the consequences of her actions and choices, a reckoning for her rage. ]

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yes probably but I am fairly attached to her so I’d like to have plenty of time to play first. I don’t really want her to meet the same end as her literary namesake, ie if Lucrezia is to die, I would like it to not be by her own hand.

IN DEPTH

Please choose between the interview or the para sample (or both, if you like!)

In-Character Interview: The following questions must be answered in-character, and in para form (quotations, actions written out if applicable, etc). There is no minimum or maximum limit for your response - simply answer as you would if you were playing the character.

What is your favorite place in Verona?

“Twelfth Night Museum in the early morning,” she responded without hesitating, the truth flowing almost as easily as a lie. “I like the stillness and the silence, there’s a sense of peace that is hard to find elsewhere.” At this Lucrezia smirked at her questioner, peace was rare in such a tumultuous city. And for those who knew her well as an agent of controlled chaos (and even those who only knew of her), even the word peace sounded unnatural on those red lips. It was meant to be an offhanded question by some eager tourist looking for the locals perspective - ( Note: since when did she give off the approachable ‘ask-me-for-recommendations’ vibe? Lucrezia needed another espresso and quickly ) - but it lingered even after he was long gone. It wasn’t peace, she decided, there had always been a bit of unease in the empty museum, like she was intruding on a sacred crypt for the gods. Those moments in the early mornings seemed to exist outside of the normal confines of time and space, Lucrezia could walk through all ages at the same time. She almost expected to see the old masters adding a final touch while the elements whether away details on a nearby marble bust. Maybe that was why she loved it so much, a place both haunted by the weight of history and expectations while utterly, achingly empty. The museum held some sort contradictions as Lucrezia herself, and perhaps she wanted to co-exist just as beautifully.

What does your typical day look like?

“I certainly hope there isn’t a ‘typical day’, that would be so boring,” she resisted rolling her eyes, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting something different is a type of madness, is it not? So I would hope to never be typical.” Still, the questions seemed to have been asked in good faith, so Lucrezia sighed a bit dramatically and continued. “I guess I have to wake up every day, sometimes early sometimes late - it depends.” She had never been good at sleeping well, the task of quieting her own mind daunting but not nearly as exhausting as she wished. “And then I go to work. Or I go to the museum, I always make sure to find time to be alone and surrounded by beauty - art, music, places, maybe another person.” Her smirk was laced with honey but her eyes flashed in a warning. “Work is never boring, there is always something new.” Lucrezia did not expand on this, her companion did not need all the details regardless of how she longed to brag. Because she was very good at her job and thought that was something she should be praised for. Charm was second nature, she was expert at the delicate blending of flattery and threats. More than that - it was a game, the give and take of honeyed words balanced with a sudden shift to cold cruelty. And Lucrezia loved to win. “And then I come home to my adoring husband who loves to take me out.”

What has been your biggest mistake thus far? (Tw self harm kinda)

Lucrezia laughed harshly, “Getting married at eighteen” She spun that huge diamond around her finger, a nervous habit, feeling the bite of the gem in the well worn callous on her palm. She loved the ring, she liked the sharp edge. The pain kept her grounded, reminded her of the goal. She would sometimes count - one turn for every year with him. Ten to right, then ten more to the left, and she was back smile in place, momentary lapse in control gone. Mikael served a purpose, she knew this, even that young she wasn’t so stupid as to throw her life away on something as meaningless as infatuation that could be mistaken for love. His name gave her access, status her father’s could not. And he so prettily sank to his knees for her, feeding into that innate desire for power - her driving force. The strangest part? She’d made the initial mistake of showing too much, of letting him see too much of who she was, the rage and cruelty and force. And instead of running, instead of longing for the pretty smile and charming mask - he saw her for who she was, and wanted her even more for it. Lucrezia looked down at her hands, the ring still twisting - eight, nine, ten - and then back up at the questioner. “I just mean I was too young, we should have waited a bit more.”

What has been the most difficult task asked of you?

“Oh, I don’t know,” she waved an errant hand, as if to dismiss the question. “Probably some negotiation with a particularly horrible client. I am sure it was difficult and tiresome, but I persisted and won, naturally.” A lie, they surely knew that it was, but she wasn’t about to attempt to unpack the particular traumas of a picture perfect childhood. Because the most difficult task had always been the first one asked of her, the most spectacular failure of her life. Little Lucrezia Capuccio with her chocolate curls and wild gaze tasked with lessening herself, carving out anything interesting, shrinking and molding herself to fit into their expectations - the porcelain doll daughter they thought they deserved. She was a creature of rage, even then. And when they begged her to stop, to peel away parts of her self to please them - Lucrezia set fire to anything good and pure that might have remained inside her. They had it wrong, though, when they pleaded for her to be their little angel. Angels had always been vengeful, violent spirits - sent by God to punish, to kill, to make an example. There is nothing soft, simpering, or good about a creature who’s wings have always been dipped in blood.

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?

“War seems like a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?” She took a sip of her drink, “it is not so far reaching and tragic as all that.” She knew her side, had chosen carefully. Mikael had been her way in, but she’d long ago outranked him. But she had never had time for such dualities as black and white, good and evil; the battle-lines were far messier than the poets would have you believe. And that was the best part about choosing, she wasn’t bound to a side with anything as weighty and meaningful as blood or history. Lucrezia chose, and she would continue to chose - the next right thing, the next fortuitous position. One could only ever truly be loyal to oneself, any other pledge would alway eventually become a lie. “This situation,” she chose this word carefully, “provides opportunity for those who are able and willing to take it. We all want the same thing, right? What is best for those we love and our dear, fair Verona.”

In-Character Para Sample: Again, write as much or as little as you need to get your interpretation across.

(Tw mention of violence, tw blood)

On her wedding night, the newly minted Mrs. Mikael Falco considered killing her husband.

There wasn’t any particular reason, it was just the fact that she could. She wasn’t unfamiliar with violence, having dipped her toe in those depths more than once, but the particular sin of murdering one’s husband called out like a deliciously dramatic turn of events. Lucrezia thought she might make an excellent widow, she’d perfected false tears that still left her beautiful long ago. She could play vengeful, demanding the city run red with the blood of her husband’s killer. It could be a nice spark, instigating more chaos and violence between factions, an opportunity to climb even higher, not to mention how entertaining it would be to watch.

He looked so peaceful sleeping like this. Lucrezia watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest with every breath. She felt a sudden desire to touch him, to trail her fingers lightly along the outlines of his muscles, to trace the marks her nails had left earlier and then to press down harder and harder until he awoke and forced her to stop. Instead she grabbed the glass of wine from the bedside table, cradling it in both her hands to take a too large sip. Some heavy red, she remembered, not her favorite. Surely he would have learned her preferences by now, beyond the exquisite things his hands and mouth could do to her body. Then again, she might not have ever told him what wine she liked. Not that ignorance was an excuse she would accept.

Was being served the wrong type of wine offense enough to warrant the death of one’s husband? Asking for a friend.

Lucrezia took another sip of the disappointing wine and idly wondered if he’d ever thought the same of her. She wasn’t afraid of him, he wouldn’t have the balls to go through with it he was far too devoted - something she’d made certain of before saying yes. It was the headiest type of high to watch him carve it out himself and willingly place his protesting heart in her hands. She often tried to replicate that initial thrill and occasionally she got close, but never quite the same heights. Taking his life would surely do it, an incredible rush buzzing across her skin if she were to actually stain it with his blood. But it would be just as short lived as the last.

Since she was indulging this little fantasy, she might as well consider the details - she was nothing if not a very thorough planner. It wouldn’t be with a gun, the weight and heft of the weapon always felt wrong in her hand. And that was such a clinical, distanced way to harm. Lucrezia preferred a knife. Their intimacy had always teetered just on the edge of violence, he might not even realize her intentions until it was too late. And maybe, she let her self think for a fraction of a second, it was how he wanted to go. Mikael knew her better than anyone else, he saw her for exactly what she was and loved her anyway. It was almost frightening.

Fear and guilt are sisters - or so Shirley Jackson told her.

She finished the wine and reached over to place the glass on the table. Her husband stirred, his fingers twisting in her dark hair and Lucrezia let herself be pulled back into his arms.

“What are you thinking?” Even his half asleep whisper sent a spark of something down her spine and she smiled that arcane, cruel smile she knew drove him mad.

“I was wondering if I could be strong enough to kill you if I needed to.” Her honestly startled her, something about him caused intimacy and vulnerability. Or maybe she’d had too much to drink. He laughed then moved swiftly, rolling over on top of her while pinning both her wrists above her head with just one of his hands. The other gently caressed the side of her face and she met his burning gaze, wondering if her own eyes looked empty. He did not ask if she’d decided. She didn’t know if he thought she was joking.

He kissed her, hard, biting down on her bottom lip until she tasted her own blood and let out a gasp of desire. No, Lucrezia thought, I don’t think I could kill him. She reasoned that she would never be able to top that power rush, that he could still prove useful and the sex was excellent so best to keep him around. But really, she would be lost without his devotion, his obsessive love.

The gods only die when there is no one left to worship their names.

Extras: If you have anything else you’d like to include (further headcanons, an inspo tag, a mock blog, etc), feel free to share it here! This is OPTIONAL.

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/gracieewrites/lucrezia-f/

#accepted #accepted: lady macbeth

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soulvomit · 5 years

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Talking back to the Geek Social Fallacies: they’re a non-intersectional analysis that doesn’t take into account how diverse our community is, and assumes we don’t have agency in our own social relationships.

Geek Social Fallacy #1: Ostracizers Are Evil

From the website: GSF1 is one of the most common fallacies, and one of the most deeply held. Many geeks have had horrible, humiliating, and formative experiences with ostracism, and the notion of being on the other side of the transaction is repugnant to them.

I think this is true some of the time, but not all. Here is the problem with how this is framed. The biggest problem with this (like with the rest of the analysis of the GSF) is that it’s a non-intersectional viewpoint of a diverse set of spaces that have unspoken traditional power dynamics. People outside of those dynamics - women, POC, and or LGBTQ people - talk about those dynamics *all the time.* Plenty of geek social issues aren’t individual, they’re structural.

There is a lot of geek exceptionalism here: it’s as if geek culture exists in a hermetically sealed bubble apart from the rest of society or its dynamics, pissing contests, or biases, and it’s as if problems that take place within geek space, are specific to geek space.

It’s also as if geeks don’t have agency or ever choose their friends and spaces with intention, and never reject or ostracize people. Plenty of us are geeks/nerds because we don’t hang out with just *anybody* and a lot of us really do think we are smarter and or more successful than a lot of other people in our own social class (which is part of the unspoken class anxiety in nerd/geek identity). A lot of us have defensive walls up in non-geeky spaces - but there are some of us who actively think we’re more interesting, higher class, better informed, or smarter than non-nerdy/non-geeky people.

Finally, the problem with assuming that the problem is “Ostracizers Are Evil”

assumes that geeks/nerds don’t prioritize some friendships within their group over other friendships, and ignores that structural and or unconscious biases may exist in geek/nerd space just like they do in other spaces. The person asked not to be an ostracizer is so often someone who’s expected to do emotional labor/be “the Giving Tree” or who has a more subordinate status in the group. The people we’re expected to tolerate aren’t merely some elephant in the room that everyone is working around, the group is often actively prioritizing that person over the people who don’t like that person. They’re not merely tolerating them. They put up with Jason the Creeper and Cat Piss Man because they like them and/or Jason and CPM go way back in the group!

Geek Social Fallacy #2: Friends Accept Me As I Am

The origins of GSF2 are closely allied to the origins of GSF1. After being victimized by social exclusion, many geeks experience their "tribe" as a non-judgmental haven where they can take refuge from the cruel world outside.

Well... maybe this is true for some people, but the problem is, there are power dynamics *within* geek/nerd culture. This is another case where I feel like the author isn’t seeing the forest for the trees. Plenty of people don’t find geek/nerd culture to be a haven and don’t take acceptance for granted! Just because geek/nerd culture may be a haven *for some cis het men* from some kinds of gender essentialist tropes, doesn’t mean it’s a haven for other people.

If you’re somebody who is always fighting for space in that world because it’s the only space you get to have *anywhere*, and you’re always running into the power dynamics of other groups, then it isn’t that easy to miss in geek/nerd culture.

Geek Social Fallacy #3: Friendship Before All

I’m not really arguing with this one as a common problem within geek space. I do wish analysis of it would go further, because I feel there’s often an active codependent or enabling/co-addictive process. People really do get addicted to fantasy based stuff, and to video games, and to media. Even addiction specialists acknowledge this. But there are very few people doing analysis of addictive dynamics, anti-recovery, or enabling within geek/nerd space. One of the problems is that this is really pervasive in geek/nerd space and it’s almost impossible to get away from unless you completely quit geek/nerd space altogether, at least for a while. The thing is, many cases of “Friendship Before All” aren’t necessarily that the person has a broad feeling of this, as much as it reflects a specific codependent or co-addictive relationships within the group. (The fallacy I keep seeing here is again the assumption that geeks don’t have social agency, or specific social choices.) Some geeky spaces can even get into folie a deux dynamics or cult dynamics.

The problem I had dealing with maladaptive daydreaming (which is often seen as addiction-adjacent) was that geek culture, especially tabletop gaming, was actively reinforcing it, and I actively needed to get away from that group for a while to get a handle on the maladaptive daydreaming that was taking over my life. The thing I needed to NOT do was be around people who obsessively daydreamed about their “ships,” or in any space that encouraged me to spend ten hours a day daydreaming about my RP characters. (I do RP again, but only because I’m in a space where it doesn’t take over my life.)

I had a couple of uncomfortably intense friendships that were as enmeshed as they were because they were based around us sharing the fantasy lives that neither of us could share with other people, let alone reveal to the world, and because we enabled each other’s bad escapist tendencies.

Geek Social Fallacy #4: Friendship Is Transitive

Every carrier of GSF4 has, at some point, said:"Wouldn't it be great to get all my groups of friends into one place for one big happy party?!"If you groaned at that last paragraph, you may be a recovering GSF4 carrier.GSF4 is the belief that any two of your friends ought to be friends with each other, and if they're not, something is Very Wrong.

I won’t say I’ve never seen this, but in a lot of cases, I don’t think it’s anything but the behavior of *young and socially inexperienced* people in general. It also assumes that we are talking a group of people who are all potential in-group and none of whom are ever one-down or on the business end of bias. It assumes that geeks never compartmentalize their friends, which is wrong - lots of us do, especially if we’re social climbers (which lots of geeks/nerds are and won’t admit it). (Let’s be honest, would YOU really introduce everyone you have ever gamed with, to the people at your staid/conservative job that you’re trying to get promoted at?)

GSF4 ignores the phenomenon of gatekeeping. If you’re ever the person on the other end of gatekeeping of any kind, you certainly don’t experience every geek wanting to introduce you to all of their friends. It’s another case where I feel like the author’s viewpoint is just too narrow and that their generalizations are based upon a small set of people who are themselves always the gatekeepers.

Geek Social Fallacy #5: Friends Do Everything Together

GSF5, put simply, maintains that every friend in a circle should be included in every activity to the full extent possible. This is subtly different from GSF1; GSF1 requires that no one, friend or not, be excluded, while GSF5 requires that every friend be invited. This means that to a GSF5 carrier, not being invited to something is intrinsically a snub, and will be responded to as such.

This is another case that tries to oversimplify and lump multiple kinds of situations in geek/nerd space into one Grand Unified Field Theory: experience of *young* social spaces, experience of structural bias/gatekeeping, individual neediness (or projections coming from same) that also happens outside of geek spaces, and dynamics that happen with lots of subcultural spaces.

The biggest issue I have with the author’s analysis is about the structural bias, because GSF5 totally ignores

ignores the existence of bias and structural stuff in geek/nerd spaces. And I don’t deny that GSF5 actually exists, but it has to be analyzed intersectionally. In adult spaces, I feel like I’ve seen people more often accused of some form of GSF5 to gaslight them about elitism, than I’ve seen actually being carriers of GSF5.

I mean, what if you *are* being excluded and everyone around you is saying “don’t be silly, we don’t exclude people?” What if it *is* a snub and you’re told you’re imagining things? What if you’re actually not being invited to the thing?

There *is* an issue in geek space where individual cliques of friends intersect with larger groups, and friends-of-friends, and friends-of-friends-of-friends. But plenty of geeks just associate with their specific cliques.

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2doc-rp · 5 years

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Gorillaz RP

Heyo! I've got a specific plot in mind that I really want to roleplay and I'd love it if someone would be willing to start a long-term rp! Literate only please, reply lengths may vary depending on context, so sometimes they may be short or sometimes long but I would prefer to keep them longer!

Anyhow, the plot is Noodle is Murdoc's biological daughter. He hasn't seen her since she was a toddler since he was sort of a deadbeat and her mom had full custody of her until now. Her mother died, and now at 13 she is in Murdoc's care. There was a reason Murdoc didn't have anything to do with her, because he has no interest in being a parent. He doesn't have much of a choice now, and although he initially doesn't want to be a father there is a part of him that feels like maybe he could manage to be a good dad, and he doesn't want to make the same mistakes his own father had. He struggles to connect with his daughter (and most of the time is quite terrible) but he's trying and slowly will get better.

Stuart works at Noodle's school (whether you want him to be a teacher, or a counselor, or a school nurse or whatever is up to you!). He starts seeing more of Murdoc now that he's her guardian and especially because all of these changes in Noodle's life has her acting out a bit. Noodle trusts Stuart a lot, and when Stuart meets Murdoc he finds himself wanting to get to know the man more.

Russel is Murdoc's neighbor in his apartment complex. They've gotten along well for awhile but now that Noodle's around he's around a bit more often, mostly to make sure Noodle is being cared for properly and has everything she needs, and to occasionally lecture or teach murdoc what to do when he fucks up, especially because he's one of the few people murdoc will bother to listen to.

I'll be murdoc if you're interested in being Stuart! I'd prefer if you'd take on Noodle as well as I'd like there to be plenty of their weird father/daughter dynamic to be present, and so I'll take on Russel!

This plot has been in my mind in a while and I'd really love to find someone who'd be willing to play it out with me and explore the story!

If you're 18+, I don't mind incorporating nsfw stuff, but please don't make this be what the rp is centered around. I understand when it comes to shipping RPs it's an occurrence but when the rp revolves around them having sex, it just gets so boring and worn out. I want the focus to be on the emotional development between the characters and how their relationships grow and change as they get to know and trust each other. When it comes to Stu and Murdoc, sex might be a part of that, but I really don't want it to be the only thing!!

#gorillaz rp #2doc #2doc rp #studoc #studoc rp #sorry if this is weird and specific i just rly want to do this but i just want it done right yknow????#i think this plot is rly nice with a lot of different relationships to build so itd be a lot of fun to have it play out over a long time #and im such a sucker for murdoc noodle father daughter stuff i think it's so cute muds is the worst dad but he wants to learn to be better!#he wants to try!!#also the thought of noodle waking up one morning to find Stuart in the kitchen is funny lmao #itd be an awkward car ride to school

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familiaanteomnia · 4 years

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allllllllll the #s for the mun ?s !

Questions Often Left Unanswered: Mun Edition

1. Are there any characters in your fandom or faceclaims you refuse to RP with? Who and why?: See this is tricky- because it’s a back/forth answer. I am remarkably chill but it all depends. Namely on the rper, more than anything. Even the unliked characters/toxic dynamics with the right rpers is a lot of content I’d be interested to be explore. Just all about the mun, take and blog content.

2. Are there any plot tropes you are sick of/refuse to RP? If so, what are they and why?: Not really :P if anything I don’t get to explore a lot of them

3. As a mun, what are three of your biggest flaws when it comes to being someone’s RP partner?: I’m kind of here/there communication, engagement wise. Let old toxic experiences sometimes taint my interactions. Indecisive.

4. Have you ever dropped a thread because someone refused to ship their character with yours? If no, have you ever dropped a thread for another “unpopular” reason and if so, what was your reasoning?: Nope. I’ve usually only dropped because somebody wanted a certain plot/basically just their own fanfic and or forcing this/that. People who gave me nothing to work with, were just like talking to a brick wall. (Nice people but I’d go ‘hey please give me something anything’ and they’d be like ‘here is 2 unrelated sentences’)

I’m chill like I said so usually I only drop if I had to/it was tedious,etc. Or like it gets lost but that’s not my fault.

5. Have you ever RP’d with someone simply because of their character’s faceclaim, even if you did not like their character’s personality?: Nah if anything it bugs me when people just go fc thirst hunting,etc. Like you do you but I’m not here to write your self insert smut fics,etc.

6. Is there a character that the rest of your fandom adores that you just don’t like/are indifferent to? Who is the character and why?: ~Jace~ I hated him with a passion, warmed up over time but like I’m so sick of the ‘my soft boy does no wrong and could never’ when that literally defeats any depth to his characterization. Or you know ignores literally any version of canon that does exist… Plus like d.om’s face makes me die inside just a bit but so many people love using him. (There’s like a lot of hot, unproblematic blonde’s out there.. smh)

7. List three honest flaws your favorite character has and talk about how those flaws make them problematic: Fav? Okay, okay ummm Alec.

-Very stubborn which obviously leads to plenty of Issues-His upbringing’s affect on how he acts, thinks. Clearly he tries to do better but obviously at times he has a slightly superior attitude. Or says stupid things and doesn’t get what he did wrong. -Self destructive/very disconcerned with his own life. Leads to a lot of near death, unnecessary harm,etc. And because he bottles that shit up it’s like trying to pry a pebble out of concrete.

8. Out of the really popular pairings in your fandom, what’s your nOTP?: Obviously anything toxic; ie I’d explore say Jordan/Maia but I don’t like ship it with heart eyes. Big one though is R.izzy just I haven’t even really touched much of it due to it’s Yikes.

9. What has been the biggest mistake you’ve made since you started RPing?: Letting people use me, wrong crowds, some trashy horrible self choices due to shitty mental health- and all that garbage. But clearly I’ve made some improvements slowly and surely.

10. What’s something you really hate seeing on your dash that seems to be popular with almost everyone else?: Certain fandoms,etc but I usually just scroll past and move on. A big one would be people not tagging their tags even simply. So they spam with that stuff and I’m like ‘well I can’t blacklist time to live in my notifications’

12. What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to the fandom you RP in?: For s.hadowhunters, drama just all the drama and I’d say like those people who assume your take on a muse. (I’m show based ya’ll if you toss ‘blue eyes, black hair’ into a description of my Alec on purpose I die) T.ua, drama yet again and all the hecking i.ncest debacles. Otherwise I have done little s.tar w.ars, l.is is basically dead/same with u.ntil dawn.

13. Who is your least favorite character in the fandom you RP in? List three admirable traits about them:

T.ua: Luther- Caring, Authoritative, Room to improve

S.hadowhunters: Jace- Can have depth, Loyal, Loving

14. Without naming anyone specific, have you ever avoided someone simply because they RP with one of your RP partners? If so, why?: No, I’ve been terrified to interact because both parties are Cool. But that’s really it- I only avoid people based on their own content,etc if it’s fully necessary.

15. Without naming anyone, have you ever refused/simply avoided another RPer in the fandom because of things you’ve heard others say about them, or because of their popularity? If so, why did you feel the need to?: Nah, try to judge based on own experience/I’m not in any groups so just go off personal experience usually. *do pay mind to the occasional really toxic rper warning etc though*

#stardustcreated #long post cw #♥ i can’t breathe. 》 mun post #(Ie I'm precious and deserve protecc)

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beyondtheglasswall · 4 years

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😒 😩 🎭

Mun talks about the Muse

😒 Is there anything canon about your muse that you ignore?

i’ve mentioned “pandering” in regards to surge concerto, and yeah, it is unfortunately a thing. it is also certainly a thing that is expressed in earthes’s dialogue choices here and there, which.... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm--

in all seriousness, some of the dialogue options are nifty little character expression bits that i salvage from for details. but ones like that? where there’s some kinda weird perverted comment given as an option? ehhhh... i’m scrubbing those out of existence, quite frankly. i don’t think anyone would blame me, either.

😩 Hardest thing about writing the muse?

finding his voice when there isn’t quite one given is definitely around the top. silent protagonists are always interesting for me, because i always do try to give them their own distinct voice (i’ve RP’d quite a few, so this comes up a lot for me).

earthes is another case where this is both simple and complicated. his dialogue options waver between eager-to-please and a bit dense, level-headed and sincere, and Third Option. finding a consistent tone that mixes the three of these is something i always try to do, and it can sometimes be. a challenge.

still, i always feel good when it turns out alright, and i hope i can do that with earthes/takuya! ;v;

🎭 How similar are you and the muse?

somewhat? i tend to RP/write characters i can inject some of my own personality into without realizing, but there are plenty of degrees of separation between us.

i would say takuya borrows a lot from my own sense of right and wrong. we also share majors, which was something i was uncertain at first about doing, since i didn’t want him to become a literal self-insert (even if that is technically what he was supposed to be, in-canon). i ultimately decided to keep that in, since i liked the dynamic of him being good with software and ion good with hardware, and because it made the most sense in regards to getting him to the plot thread of interdimend (as well as explaining certain things).

aside from that, though... i would say we both like teasing people we like, and sometimes say stuff just to get a reaction out of people (both of which were traits taken from in-game dialogue options). but yeah, i can’t think of much else. i’m not as good at computer science as takuya is, and i also probably wouldn’t have made the exact same choices he does at certain points of the story (even if i technically did, given the nature of ar nosurge and earthes). it’s tricky, for sure.

#anglerfishnabe #;observing the observer [headcanons]#[thank you for the ask!]

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fyrapartnersearch · 5 years

Text

Let's Get Weird! [Seeking Primarily MxM Roleplay]

ᴏɴʟʏ sᴇᴇᴋɪɴɢ ᴘᴀʀᴛɴᴇʀs 18+

◢ TL;DR ◤

'Lo. I've dropped an ad here once or twice. If you've prodded once before, feel free to prod again. Currently craving “romance” between male non-human sorts of varying shapes and alignments. Twisted, dysfunctional, awkward, and treacherous relationships particularly adored. That said, I'm interested in any sort of engaging, relationship-driven RP with a few quirks so feel free to present your own ideas as well!

◢ CONTACT ◤

ɴᴀᴍᴇ ➝ Mask

ʙʟᴏɢ ➝ maskgas.tumblr.com {ɴᴏᴛ ʀᴘ ʀᴇʟᴀᴛᴇᴅ, ᴜsᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴅᴍ's ᴏɴʟʏ}

ᴛɪᴍᴇᴢᴏɴᴇ ➝ -7:00 GMT {ᴍᴏᴜɴᴛᴀɪɴ ᴛɪᴍᴇ}

ᴀᴠᴀɪʟᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ➝ Varies, typically 4-5 hours a day. Usually a 1 post a day minimum sort, with plenty of 5-10+ post days depending on the RP.

ᴍᴇᴛʜᴏᴅ ➝ Strictly Email or Discord. {ᴅɪsᴄᴏʀᴅ ᴘʀɪᴍᴀʀɪʟʏ ꜰᴏʀ ᴏᴏᴄ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄʜᴀᴛ}

ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ ➝ [email protected] {ᴡᴇ'ʟʟ sᴛᴀʀᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴇᴍᴀɪʟ, ᴍᴏᴠᴇ ᴏɴ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ.}

◢ WRITING MECHANICS ◤

ᴛᴇɴsᴇ ➝ Past Tense (Novel Style)

ᴘᴇʀsᴘᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ ➝Third Person (Novel Style)

ᴘᴏsᴛ-ʟᴇɴɢᴛʜ ➝ Varies comfortably up to the thousands of words. At least one solid paragraph for email play, usually three. Rapid-fire shorter posts may happen on chat-based mediums. Longer posts common for starters, scene changes, or exposition.

◢ CHARACTER TYPES ◤

ɢᴇɴᴅᴇʀ ➝ I play characters of all genders, but any most if not all detailed intimate relationships will be with men.

ᴀʟɪɢɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ➝ I tend to play the non-chaotic spectrum. Lawful neutral, lawful evil, and neutral good being the most common of late.

ʀᴀᴄᴇ/sᴘᴇᴄɪᴇs ➝ Any and all. I’ve got a particular fondness of punkish werewolves of late, but monsters, aliens, demons, angels, robots, they’re all a delight to play.

sᴇxᴜᴀʟɪᴛʏ ➝ While I play characters of all sexualities, my mains will most likely be gay or asexual. Any intimate relationships described will be gay, most likely.

ᴘᴏsɪᴛɪᴏɴ ➝ Varies, usually on the switch/vers side of things. I do play submissive and/or bottom characters out of preference.

ᴀᴍᴏᴜɴᴛ ➝ Depends on the scope of the plot, usually most RP’s will start with one character that I’ll play, and build to three or more supporting roles.

◢ ORIGINAL ENVIRONMENTS OF INTEREST ◤

ɪɴ ɴᴏ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴘʀᴇꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ ↴

ᴘᴏsᴛ-ᴀᴘᴏᴄᴀʟʏᴘᴛɪᴄ ➝ Particularly with wasteland expanses bordering wealthy, guarded city-states.

ᴍᴏᴅᴇʀɴ ꜰᴀɴᴛᴀsʏ ➝ See aforementioned punkish werewolves. Angelic/Demonic themes also quite interested.

ᴍᴇᴅɪᴇᴠᴀʟ ꜰᴀɴᴛᴀsʏ ➝ Did someone say dragons? Or was it druids?

ᴘᴏsᴛ-ᴍᴏᴅᴇʀɴ/ᴄʏʙᴇʀᴘᴜɴᴋ ➝ What’s the addictive drug of choice then? Virtual reality?

1920's ɴᴏɪʀ ➝ A particular love of mine. Crime was so much more interesting before advanced technology; and the repeal of the prohibition. sᴄɪ-ꜰɪ/sᴘᴀᴄᴇ ᴏᴘʀᴇᴀ ➝ Aliens and robots and space pirates, oh my! ɴᴏɴ-sᴇǫᴜɪᴛᴜʀ ➝ Another love. Outside our normal dimension. Alice in Wonderland? Hell itself? Heaven?

◢ CANON ENVIRONMENTS OF INTEREST ◤

ɪɴ ɴᴏ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴘʀᴇꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ ↴

ᴏꜰꜰ ➝ See aforementioned love of non-sequitur environments.

ʜᴀʟꜰ-ʟɪꜰᴇ/ᴘᴏʀᴛᴀʟ ➝ Just a fantastic sci-fi, horror environment.

ʜᴀʀʀʏ ᴘᴏᴛᴛᴇʀ ➝ Practically a prerequisite these days. Very interested in modern magic.

ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴛʀɪx ➝ An absolute love. Particularly to play on themes/environments explored in the animatrix.

ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴍᴇ ➝ Post-modern neo-paris? Fuck yes.

sᴛᴀʀ ᴛʀᴇᴋ: ᴠᴏʏᴀɢᴇʀ ➝ Always loved this series, plenty of opportunity to meet and… interface with unique species.

◢ MECHANICS OF INTEREST ◤

ɪɴ ɴᴏ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴘʀᴇꜰᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ ↴

ᴍᴏɴsᴛᴇʀ ʙᴏʏꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ ➝ Biggest craving, actually. Plenty of ways to go about it. How does society react? Do they know? Admittedly I’ve got a whole other subchapter on werewolves in there too.

ᴀɴɢᴇʟs & ᴅᴇᴍᴏɴs ➝ And perhaps humans thrown in the mix? Perhaps related to hidden warfare? A taboo relationship across pantheons?

ᴛᴏᴛᴀʟɪᴛᴀʀɪᴀɴ ᴜᴛᴏᴘɪᴀ ➝ What goes up must come down, no? Perhaps there’s a pending uprising in the works; and dare say our characters are on opposite sides of the wall.

ᴍᴀsᴛᴇʀ & sᴇʀᴠᴀɴᴛ ➝ Potentially a fun dynamic. Particularly if one isn’t quite so human. Vaguely Magus’ Bride-esque, no?

ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀ ᴍʏsᴛᴇʀʏ ➝ Particularly involved with a noire setting. Vague morality, seedy alliances, detectives getting in over their heads.

ᴘᴀʀᴀʟʟᴇʟ ᴜɴɪᴠᴇʀsᴇs ➝ All the better if one is stuck in the wrong universe, how do they get back, or even can they?

◢ BROAD CRAVINGS ◤

Monster boyfriends.

OFF based settings.

Half-Life universe based play. Sleazy characters and their bad, but none the less endearing attempts at romance.

Kinks… The list is long and varied, and there’s very little that doesn’t interest me. We’ll chat about this, no?

◢ NO-GOES ◤

Chat-based RP. Tried it. A lot. I’m done. I’ll use it to discuss ideas certainly, but I like my writing to be in email or a GDoc. Makes life easier.

Femme romantic interests. I’m an androphile, unfortunately. Feminine characters rarely, if ever interest me romantically.

One-Liner RP. See post-length preferences above.

So! There you have it. Drop me an email, perhaps including a few of the above mentioned concepts, leave your Discord if you’d like, and we’ll start feeling each other out.

#oc rp #para #semipara #long term #email #messenger #tumblr #submission

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fantroll-purgatory · 5 years

Text

Hello! It’s 2am, I’ve been rewriting this for 3 hours because words are the hard and I’m just tired. (Sounds like you are ALSO dealing with Time! But, that doesn’t make you a Time player either- let’s get into it.)

World: Alternia

Name: Tempus Facrem

“Tempus” means “time” in Latin, and “Facrem” is derived from “factorem” which means “maker”. Assuming I’ve not beansed the name (which is very, very possible), it should mean Time Maker which compliments her story and classpect nicely.

Age: ~8 sweeps

Theme/Story: Tempus is a hobbyist clock maker who’s hive is located in a quiet area of Alternia who tries her hardest to keep to herself and keep out of bother. Despite this, she’s often commissioned by trolls higher up the hemospectrum than herself and almost never has time to do her own thing or even make a clock for herself. I try to follow the general theme of time with her overall.

Goals: A general overview would be appreciated, as well as some suggestions for whatever I couldn’t decide on. As Tempus were originally created for a casual and definitely not canon-compliant Lords and Muses only RP session, I couldn’t adapt everything. (I am going to open my review here, because a General Overview of a character like this, by nature, turns into a Overhaul. I talk about Overcommitment To Gimmick A LOT in my reviews, because it plagues many fantrolls, ESPECIALLY Time Players.) (Your Troll is not the first Clock Themed Time Player Fantroll I’ve received, and I always point to canon. Aradia? Damara? Dave? When are any of these characters clock themed? You use the word “Time” 28 times in this profile, which points, once again, that that’s kind of her only thing.) (I will tackle alternate Aspects for her under Classpect. Much of this review is going to be trying to tease a more rounded character out of this. Perhaps your initial RP had more character for her? But, if there was, it hasn’t translated through to here.)

Strife Specibus: Sniperkind (or maybe riflekind, I can’t decide) (Riflekind is more general, and it’s what Jade uses!)

It also leads to some interesting questions you can ask yourself about her character- is she good or bad at guns? If she’s good at it, where did she learn and is this a passion? Is it just for protection or is there more? And if she isn’t good at it, why did she choose to pick it up and why does she stick with it?

Fetch Modus: Honestly no ideas here, chief.

I could probably make a cuckoo clock joke here, but I honestly don’t want to reinforce the already drowning-in-time theme.

God I could more jokingly apply a TikTok reference here. She has to make a musical.ly about the object in question.

Or if she’s fascinated with universal constants, she could have a more abstract time system, like an Orbit system. All the cards are locked into a central ‘orbit’ and can only be uncaptcha’d when they line up in particular ways.

Really, fetch modi usually involve alternate interests or coding jokes and it’s hard to think of any of those to apply here. I’d expand on her interest set and then come back to this!

Blood Colour: With reference to Fir3h34rt’s hemospectrum chart, between scarlet and cardinal.

I know we’re already making a lot of change recommendations and we’re hardly even half way, but I have to say that she really doesn’t read like a rust to me. We have to remember that rusts are rooted in Aries. The extended zodiac says rusts are wild, they crave adventure, they love drama, they’re dynamic, they’re quick to anger, they’re incautious- where is that in Tempus?

Further, clockworking isn’t a very low maintenance career. Most of the rusts we see have “menial” labor or things they can do on their own, adventuring out into the world without much equipment. If a rust can’t have prescription glasses, how are they getting a clock studio? Where is she getting the materials? Where did she get the startup materials? Did someone else act as her patron? Why?

This kind of niche skill and dedication to a craft isn’t something we see as emblematic of rusts, it’s something that’s more in line with bluebloods. That’s not to say I necessarily think you need to make her a blue (though I think it would be an interesting twist on the character and a good way to migrate her away from the obvious Aradia association). I just think you need to bring more of that Rustblood Fire to her, even if it’s repressed. Where’s the boiling under the surface tension? The desire to throw off her shackles and run free?

Her theoretical EZ symbol with your current assignments would be The Headstrong. Where’s the headstrong?

Symbol and Meaning:

A minimalist empty hourglass. Represents a lack of time. (I don’t have a better sign off the cuff, but refer to my comments above as to why I think this is a poor choice.)

Handle: I’m also not sure what to put here. This was another detail that I just couldn’t adapt. Her original handle was timeyWimey because she was meant to be a Lord of Time and my humour isn’t very creative. (I… actually think that’s pretty cute.)

Quirk: Regular capitalisation. Vowels are replaced with respective numbers, unless if the number created from the quirk is greater than 12. e.g. My n4m3 1s T3mpu5 F4cr3m.

Again we can kind of see the overcommitment here. I can’t fault you too much for it, but you might want to step away from the clock thing Too strongly here. You say she likes rhythm, tempo. Maybe you could think of different speaking patterns instead. Find syllabic patterns to give her, or even just chop her words curtly, monosyllabic. Ex: Give. Her. A. Drone. One. Syl. La. Ble. At. A. Time. It. Is. Slow. But. She. Is. Pa. Tient. Are. You?

But I again recommend looking more into her interests and then coming back to this later.

Lusus: Greater Skarthi, a dog-sized beetle with two horns. A very relaxed lusus who taught Tempus the value of patience. They share a good relationship.

I honestly think she could use at least a little conflict. Having a soothing lusus relationship is easy, sure, but how about the interest of trying to focus on her craft when her lusus routinely wrecks her shit? The stress. The Drama.

Interests: Tempus is fascinated with clocks and rhythm as a whole, seeing time as a universal constant that should be respected. She chooses to respect time by making clocks, and prior to her being frequently commissioned she used to make them in a variety of shapes and sizes through different methods for entertainment or to pass the time. (So… her entire interests are clocks and Time. A Time Player is not like this. Let’s look at Dave’s intro page: “Your name is DAVE. It is an UNSEASONABLY WARM April day. Your BEDROOM WINDOW is open to let some air in, and your FAN is cranked. Arguably even more cranked would be your FLY BEATS, which brings us to your variety of INTERESTS. A cool dude like you is sure to have plenty. You have a penchant for spinning out UNBELIEVABLY ILL JAMS with your TURNTABLES AND MIXING GEAR. You like to rave about BANDS NO ONE’S EVER HEARD OF BUT YOU. You collect WEIRD DEAD THINGS PRESERVED IN VARIOUS WAYS. You are an AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER and operate your own MAKESHIFT DARKROOM. You maintain a number of IRONICALLY HUMOROUS BLOGS, WEBSITES, AND SOCIAL NETWORKING PROFILES. And if the inspiration strikes, you won’t hesitate to drop some PHAT RHYMES on a mofo and REPRESENT.” Homestuck ACT 2, Page 312) (Aradia gets kind of a free pass for her intro page because she is… well… a ghost. And her stated remembered interest is Archaeology, not Clocks.)

This is where you have to ask your self some additional questions. How might she have gotten into clock making? Did she start with woodworking? Was she inspired by something else? Did she just do it out of convenience because she didn’t have one? Does she just like DIY in general? Because DIY could be a very interesting origin point for a character like her. A lot of self-crafts DO take a lot of patience and you can capitalize on that character trait in ways besides saying it.

And, of course, you should ask what she does in her downtime. Unless she’s a workaholic or is in extortionist circumstances, most people have downtime. Does she have unfair contracts keeping her working constantly and stopping her from pursuing old intrigues? Does she miss her other interests? Or does she choose to burn the candle at both ends and neglect leisure? Because if neither of these are the case, she needs other hobbies.

Appearance: Has long black hair, similar to Aradia’s but slightly shorter and a tad tidier. Her horns share the ram aesthetic of Aradia’s too, however they have significantly less curling and point downwards and forwards. Wears a tool apron with her symbol on it over a dark grey jumpsuit. (I would absolutely love it if you could draw your interpretation of her to see how it compares to mine, but it’s absolutely not necessary.)

Personality: While she isn’t particularly optimistic, Tempus is good at looking at a situation from different perspectives which can be confused for optimism. In reality, she’s far more calm and relaxed under pressure than she is optimistic. She’s incredibly patient, both with people and in a literal waiting sense, thanks to her lusus. As she has the patient of a saint. when she does rarely get frustrated it’s usually very small scale. In spite of this, she’s prone to cursing, but not often to directly insult someone or something and more for comedic effect. (I think we have the beginnings of a solid character here. The thing that she’s really missing is the Time sense of fighting. She’s got this serene, steel will which is a useful trait, but where’s the STRUGGLE? Where is the drama, where is that draw to cyclical destruction.)

^^^ You’ve given us red on red, here. Time and Rust together have an inherent drama and tension. I really think that’s what we’re missing here. I think you could easily do something with the fact that she’s been put on commission to so many highbloods. Is she playing up her patience? Is she putting on airs for her professional career? Does she have a fury boiling beneath her skin? If she about to snap? Is she one snide violetblood comment away from tearing a clock off the wall and committing murder? Is she trying so hard to be a patient person but god people make it so HARD don’t you just want to go APE SHIT?

Lunar Sway: Prospit, as she’s loyal to her acquaintances and often employs a creative approach to problems, even if they aren’t the most efficient ways of doing things. She also lives in the moment as she doesn’t always have the time to plan ahead. (Checks out to me.)

Title: Maid of Time. Don’t have much commentary regarding that :/ sorry

(And here it begins. Is this character a Maid? I don’t think so- Maids have a pretty classic character arc of being pushed around and then snapping and going absolute bonkers- Aradia beats Vriska to literal death, Kanaya chainsaws Eridan, and Jane…. oh boy, half of Act 6 is Jane’s.) (Is this character a Time player? I often use the phrase “Chosen by Time” in my reviews, because Time players are so DISTINCT, and required by Sgrub/Sburb. Time players aren’t chosen to be such because they like clocks or time, but because they have traits that allow them to whether the endless destruction and struggle that the Red Mantle puts on their shoulders. She needs a core of restlessness, a core of churning, if placid. EZ says that “at their worst they are ruthless, defensive, and impulsive”, which I think helps put them into perspective. Time players can and will lash back out at you.) (I think… this might be a Void player. She’d need an overhaul just to be something other than a walking clock reference, but she has the makings of one of those. A draw towards creation but in a lowkey sense, expanding on things that are already known…) (Otherwise, she may be a Space Player. She has that creation focus, and she reminds me more of 1-4 Jade than any Time player in Canon. Jade also leaned very heavily into her Time inversion for most of her life, to the point where she received Seer of Time powers for quite a while.)

I have to agree here. I think if you wanted her to be a Maid of Time you’d really have to lean into what I addressed under the personality section. She has to be ready to SNAP. Her narrative would have to be about being pushed around and then she lets go and finally embodies the full chaotic force of time. Otherwise, she’s just not a time player or a maid. Space player is where I’m leaning, personally. They embody the patience and mutability you describe here way more and they also tend to be of the craftier and more hands-on sort. Void player is also a great way to go for a creative. You’d have to lean into her interest in the universe, in the unknown- you address her caring about universal constants, but why? That’s the sort of question the Void assignment would ask.

#burgundyblood #submission #sa review #cd review #tempus facrem #tempus #facrem #maroonblood #rustblood #review #irradiatedbec

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thedeadflag · 5 years

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Hey, pretty soon I'll be playing a friend of mine is gonna be DMing Tyranny Of Dragons for me and a couple of friends, and I can't decide whether I should play a Monk (probably Open Hand, maybe Kensei) or a Ranger (either Beastmaster or Horizon Walker), 'cause I've never played either of those classes, nor has anyone at the tables I've played. Can you tell me a little about your experiences with these classes?

The Ranger has been one of my favourite classes throughout the editions of D&D in terms of flavour, and I’ve had some fun with monks as well. In 5th edition, both took a fair bit of a hit in utility (individual and within group dynamics) and power at pretty much all ranges. The Ranger was propped back up a little bit in Unearthed Arcana in the revised ranger archetype, but both are still largely considered at best middle of the road classes, and at worst, the lowest tier of classes in the game in utility and character.

That’s not to say they can’t be fun and have a lot of flavour, and still find use. If you’ve watched Critical Role, you can see Vex and Beau weren’t useless by any stretch. No class is junk in 5e due to the improved parity compared to some past editions. So power and utility aside, if you feel drawn to any class/subclass, and you want to dive into its particular brand of flavour, then I say go for it. I would gauge the rest of the party’s makeup in making your decision, because group synergy is important, but you have to make yourself happy, too, right?

Anywho, I’ll break down my take on both.

When it comes to Monks, I like Open Hand the best. If you want to have a Monk-style gameplay with weapons, then Mystic or Fighter are probably better options with some more flair and utility involved than Kensei imo, but if that’s the route you want to take, it’d be alright. However, Open Hand has quivering palm, which is pretty incredible late game as far as damage and flexible timing from a single person through 3 ki pts and an action. If you do ever reach level 17, I would recommend multiclassing after that if you’re allowed, since the rest of the Monk’s class progression is kind of junk in comparison, and it could use some much needed utility from 3 levels of another class. Anywho, I like open hand not just for the flavor of being a class that’s capable of being an unarmed beast in battle, but also because of the way it can work in alignment with fighters who can also control the battlefield, like any fighter with a sentinel/polearm master. The ability to shove an enemy up to 15ft with one of your flurry attacks, launching them into the range of a fighter who gets a free opp attack against them and can from then on lock down their movement with a successful hit? That can be an excellent tag team. The Monk isn’t excellent for utility, but the Open Hand technique is probably the best at providing utility in combat among all the monk disciplines. Like, another option after hitting with flurry of blows is to steal all reactions for the opponent until the end of your next turn. This can be especially helpful against casters, as stealing reactions = preventing counterspells. And Monks can get a lot of attacks = lots of attempts to disrupt concentration of enemy casters, so the open hand monk is especially helpful at being a designated mage wrecker with having the mobility to reach casters and the ability to destabilize them. It’s arguably the one thing (aside from unarmed damage) that (this one kind of) monks do better than just about anyone else, arguably.

Now, to Rangers.

Honestly, I don’t like beast-focused Rangers. I think they’re a lot of work in order to get the mechanical payoff most other classes can achieve without a lot of thought or effort. Generally, any class that can let me focus more on flavour and RP is one I’m going to prefer, and beast master’s just…unwieldy. A lot of people say the class is junk, and if you run it without getting into the headspace for optimizing, it’s probably going to be more of a frustrating experience than you’d have hoped for. With BMs, you’re managing not just your character, but your companion, and you have to keep up with the different mechanics of both, you need to be 100% on top of choices made while leveling up, you need to have a strong understanding of battlefield control and your companion’s capabilities from the get go, and you really ought to be the kind of player who is happy to take a backseat to everyone else in and out of combat because the way you’ll shine is by helping everyone else do what they do with a little bit higher odds of success than otherwise. Personally, I like playing that sort of character, but I can do all of that with other classes a lot easier, and usually better, so this isn’t the kind of archetype I’d choose for a character myself. If you really want to, and think it’s cool, go for it, though.

The first thing I’d do is ask if you can use the UA revised ranger instead of the PHB ranger if you’re going the beast route (it’s “beast conclave” archetype in UA). If your DM allows that and insists you choose your companion from the list provided here, take the wolf (pack tactics is v helpful, same with 40ft speed and being able to send enemies prone after attacking) or ape (climb 30ft, melee/ranged ability, good stat baselines).

The second thing you’ll need is to lock down a quality companion, and that can take a bit of wheeling and dealing with your DM to let you use one of the supplementary books as a source, which is especially necessary if you’re not able to use the revised ranger class from UA. You do not want a hawk, mastiff, or panther, the PHB offers some shit examples out of the gate (panther and hawk are only conditionally good if you’re only ever going to have your companion rushing around the map using the ‘help’ action, or scouting to some extent, and the latter becomes less useful and reliable the higher level you become). Don’t choose a CR 0 companion, or one under ¼. If you absolutely must use a hawk for character flavor, then a blood hawk that at least has pack tactics would be a must. But if you are hoping for a companion that can do damage, look for something with certain damage if it hits, like added poison damage. Look for good AC if you want a tank. Look for versatility in mobility and senses. Look for special abilities (the boar having a relentless ability where it’ll go back to 1HP if it falls below 0; the wolf spider has web walk and web sense which can really help with casters using web if players don’t want to wade into the difficult terrain or are having difficulty finding enemies caught in the web; etc.)

But yeah, beast-focused rangers will be best when they’re spamming the help action with their beasts, using their beasts to get enemies out of cover, using their beasts to help control the field and give others advantage/take advantage, etc. You need to be quick mentally to know what you want to do with your character and your companion each time your turn comes around (most DMs, myself included, aren’t going to let you have as much time as you need to figure out what you want to do on both fronts, so if you can’t juggle two characters at once without losing a step, it might not be the archetype for you). This type of ranger requires you to know exactly what you want to be able to accomplish for yourself and your party right out of the gate, so you’ll want to gauge what your party members will be specializing in, what they want to be able to do, and see if there’s a way to shape your ranger to aid in that, particularly in choosing a beast that can be the most effective in ensuring that. Group cohesion is the name of the game with this form of ranger, so you’ll want to consider race selection a part of this process, too. I’ve had one player bomb hard as a BM and re-roll a different ranger, and I’ve had a friend who ran one who was the group’s unsung hero a lot of the time during their campaign. If you’re looking at Vex from CR as inspiration, keep in mind she had an excellent set of stats from lvl 9 onwards, and plenty of magical weapons to make up for much of any class shortcomings as characters scale up…look at how often Trinket was useful (very rarely) and understand that the bear was essentially just flavour for most of the campaign, and Vex would have been considerable underpowered compared to the rest of the party if not for some considerable DM intervention in ways that make things a lot trickier for DMs (adding magical weapons/items can easily unbalance a campaign, and it’s a matter of experience in knowing how to dole them out without throwing balance aside…Matt Mercer’s comfortable handing out flying carpets and multiple +2AC items and superpowered magical weapons by level 9, I wouldn’t give them out before level 14 or 15 and it would really only be if a player was severely struggling and refused to re-roll a more appropriate character while dying or nearly dying most combats). Other classes and archetypes have features and abilities that scale as you level, some earn specific spells as they level up that others can’t get, etc., but with beast conclave rangers, it’s their beast that slightly improves in a few meaningful ways. So if you’re going that route, you need to commit to a great beasts that’s a great fit for you and your party, and you need to commit to making the absolute most out of them and knowing how to make the most out of them.

Horizon Walker’s a simpler archetype that has some badass spells, but the flavour for the class can be a bit…strange in some adventures. It might not fit well with Tyranny of Dragons, I’m not sure how much planar travel’s involved in that adventure. Which might not be a problem for the DM, or you. I still prefer the UA ranger conclaves, but out of the PHB ones, this one’s probably the best of the bunch, even if it’s mostly going to lean towards being a melee build (which, again, check your party comp to see if that’s something that is workable).

Anywho, those are my late night D&D ramblings. You can take my words with a grain of salt if you’d like, and as always the rule of cool applies…if you think it’s cool and you really want to go with something, go for it and I hope the DM will find a way to help you make it work, but yeah, these classes can be a bit of an uphill battle, though I suppose potentially a rewarding challenge if that’s what you’re looking for.

Best of luck with the campaign, I’m sure you’ll have fun!

#d&d #long post #Anons

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