Musing on my Muses

[ceitfianna]

As inspired by in_the_blue I'm going to write about the various characters that I love playing. One thing that I found rather challenging as I was thinking about this is how to divide up this list since I think of my characters in different ways. I have a feeling that what I start out writing might not be what I end up with.

My Boys: Will Scarlett (Robin Hood), Sameth (Abhorsen Chronicles), William Evans (3:10 to Yuma)
Will is the first character that I ever wrote fanfiction abut when I didn't even know what it was because I wanted to know more. He represents one of my favorite kinds of characters which three boys capture, the side character who's so key, has their own issues and sometimes is forgotten. I love finding these characters and bringing out their stories and fixing them. All of these boys have issues with knowing who they are and where they fit in their worlds.

Will Scarlett does better since thanks to Robin Hood, he knows who he is but one thing that happens when I play him is he's conscious of all that he doesn't know. Sameth on the other hand has what he's meant to be doing but its not what makes him happy so he's constantly feeling like he's disappointing people. William is trying to fill his father shoes and take care of his family and find his own way. I think these boys capture a lot of my personal insecurities and I like that I can fix theirs since it gives me ideas about how to deal with my own.

Themselves: Demeter (Greek Mythology), Moist von Lipwig (Discworld), The Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance)
What I love playing with these three is that they know who they are and don't have to worry about anyone's ideas. Demeter makes me happy because she's so alive and embraces life from the cold of winter to the glory of spring. In another life, I pursued Classics into a higher degree and she lets me play with my utter love of the strange ways of the Greeks.

Moist is tricky and always up to something, he just has fun with the world too but in a more selfish way than Demeter. I wish I could get away with what he does and I adore playing someone who tries to game the world. The Pirate King is pure Gilbert and Sullivan combined with Kevin Kline, I don't play him very often because he's not a sustaining voice. He's a comet that goes through and burns things in its wake.

Shifting but Sure: Jane Austen (Becoming Jane), Tumnus (Chronicles of Narnia), Tiwa (Changeling OC)
These three characters have a sense of where they're going and they're still on that journey. Becoming Jane is a movie that I fell in love with the first time I saw it in Wellington right around my birthday, it was beautiful and witty and as someone who adores Jane Austen it made me happy. Jane is a character that I thought about playing since I first saw the movie but I was worried about messing her up. It took dynastessa who kept being stubborn to get me to play her. Now I adore her, she's not an easy one to play, because I hold myself to a high standard with her speech and manner.

Tumnus is another one that I just love but never even though I would play. I think once in a DE I mentioned that he was a character I could imagine playing and someone told me he was free. Then suddenly I was playing him, he's a quiet character but another one that I feel careful with since he's my childhood. He's found his place and he fits there. Tiwa, I love Tiwa because she's my chance to play a Changeling again and keep connecting to New Zealand. She's a shapeshifter who is learning to be a teacher and she has such a web of people in mixed_muses and I have such fun with her journey.

Connecting Tissue
One thing I've discovered about myself in my many years of roleplaying from tabletop to Larp to online is that I tend to play characters that I have things in common with and that aren't of the modern world. I've always loved reading fantasy, but the kind of fantasy where magic is just out of the corner of your eye is one of my favorite types. Charles De Lint writes this type amazingly well and one reason I got into Changeling: The Dreaming was because it felt like it could be his world.

For me Milliways has that same feel to it, magic can be hard to miss or just out of the corner of your eye. I tend to play characters that make people blink and reconsider their sense of things as they're from a place that's not Earth or a time when not everyone got an education. The past is another world and that's what makes is so fascinating.

I really enjoyed writing this and I know that I missed some things so I'd love anyone's questions, because I know what makes sense to me might not to anyone else.

Comments

[dynastessa]

Ooooooooooh.

This looks really interesting!

I may have to try this, too.

[ceitfianna]

Yes, what makes it so challenging is figuring out what grouping to put them in. Gwynne did hers in tiers but that didn't fit mine. Its also an excuse to write about roleplaying which I love.

[minkhollow]

I might have to give this a poke.

[ceitfianna]

I found it useful and interesting to look for patterns.

[minkhollow]

I find it interesting that I ended up with a lot of groups of four. As for other patterns, I'm less sure, but.

[ceitfianna]

Mine ended up in groups of three, but I don't have that many so it sort of makes sense.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

I like this idea. What is the basic criteria, just grouping them as best fits them?

[ceitfianna]

Yup, Gwynne did hers by tiers and I realized these were the groups they fell into.

I found figuring out how and what to call the divisions they naturally went into was part of the challenge but I also like just writing about my pups.

Oh and notifs seem to not be working so if I'm up in threads, let me know.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

I think the Demeter Happy Hour is the only one. I'm trying to decide what else Jenks needs to say if anything, in the thread with Sameth.


BTW Definitely pick up the Hound of Rowan if you haven't already. Very good. I do wish the female characters were better developed but I really enjoyed his world. If Percy Jackson were a modern telling of Greek myths, the Tapestry (the name fo the series) is a modern telling of the Medieval myths with a strong celtic flavor.

[ceitfianna]

Remind me of the author again. I just picked up the new Toby Daye book and if you ever get a chance, try Frances Harding and Fly by Night, I'm reading an ARC of the sequel.

We might be near a fade with Jenks and Sameth, Sam will get to work on the sword. I'll go check the Happy Hour thread.

I'm so enjoying how things from Valentine's Day are rippling out and I'm curious what might happen with Thalia and William.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

Henry Neff (http://www.henryhneff.com/) and I am so jealous of you right now. I haven't been able to get to a bookstore what with car loan shopping and work.

What is an ARC anyway? Fly By Night looks interesting!

And yes i am enjoying the William/Thalia. She may be feeling all out fo sorts but I'm glad she gets some bit of romance, however small, before she gives it up. Do we want to have them end it before Thalia goes back or have her disappear and then come back as a Hunter of Artemis and have it end that way?

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

Hey...this looks neat: http://www.amazon.com/Larklight-Rousing-Dauntless-Farthest-Reaches/dp/1599901455/ref=pd_sim_b_4

[ceitfianna]

An ARC is an advanced reading copy, librarians and reviewers get them and my friend picked this up at the ALA Midwinter conference.

My instinct with Thalia and William is just to let things play out and see what happens. I've found in terms of writing RP relationships is that the less you plan, the better they work. Though that's true of most things, so let's just see how it goes.

I was thinking that for their next meeting, it might be nice to do an OOM of coming across each other out back. That way we don't have to worry about length and can post it whenever we want.

[spooky-lemur.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan! =D

Off to the commute now. I'll try and tag back Demeter tonight but no promises.

[ceitfianna]

No worries if not and maybe when Dem and Thalia are at a good fading point, you can set up the OOM. I have a nice image of her maybe doing sword work or something and he walks out of the stables.

[in-the-blue.livejournal.com]

I like the way you organized this. When I did mine, I was thinking purely in terms of who were favorites, but there are a million ways to look at characters, what their significance is to us, and why we play them. You have a great basis in knowing why you pick the characters you pick and what they mean to you. That's cool, as Reno would say.

[ceitfianna]

I started out thinking about organizing them the way you did yours but then realized it didn't make sense for me. Then the challenge of how became really fascinating. Thanks, this reminded me why I like playing all of them.