OOC for Genkai + TheBouquineuse

[Genkai]

Alright we have this established:

> A slice of life roleplay developing main and side characters over several decades

> Letters and other correspondences will play a vita role in the story

> Sexuality and gender roles should be challenged

I'm sure I'm missing something but I'll remember later. Genkai is so old haha. Anyway, we should figure out a starting point and then how to map out at least where they'll get separated, how/why/etc. And then of course there should be some meetings of the two, meeting the side characters they've heard about. I will make a note that if you do have time on your hands, "Five Centimeters Per Second" is a visual masterpiece and it has a lot of realistic situations which have inspired me to get back into slice of life. Anyway, did you have a main character in mind? Male or female? A starting age? I think we could do a series of very short/minimal character sheets to just outline our ideas of their nature/hobbies/etc and then add on as we go along. Did you have any idea how much you'd think you could start off by posting? Word count or paragraph count? I just wanna know where I should aim for first off. And is there a season you'd like to start in. I'm keen on: Winter, Fall, Summer, Spring...those are listed in order of most to least favorite setting. And any themes or symbolizing you wanna look into? It might help us pinpoint a title at least.

[TheBouquineuse]

As I may have mentioned, I've been very much into exploring human sexuality and especially gender identity through Roleplaying. This stemmed through reading Wandering Son (a great read if you're into Manga). And so I'm very interested in playing a very, very feminine boy (possibly a transgendered female).This would depend whether or not you were comfortable with this concept (though you seem like a very mature person). I would like them to start out at a very young age. I was actually thinking under ten (though this would be a small portion of the roleplay of course). As for seasons, I couldn't care less, so let's do Winter. What about you? We should focus on both of the character's lives and it seems that I need to know what themes you are interested in and what kind of character you would like to play before I can really consider a real plot, right?
Posting length... is 500-700 words okay to start out with?

Also, Five Centimeters Per Second seems pretty good. I'm going to have to check that out~!

[Genkai]

Oh yes, sexuality is something I forgot.

I think experimenting and all that is fine by me and breaking gender stereotypes. However I don't really want the idea of one's personal sexuality to eclipse the entirely of the roleplay itself (ex: one character is focused on his/herself and tends to make it their life goal to perhaps become the opposite gender for whatever reason) I think if we have anything that "heavy" it might be better suited for a side character to develop on their own while being able to add commentary to the main characters' ideas and opinions of perhaps said matter. I think 8-9 for starters is fine, granted we're not around it too long because it just makes me feel dirty. And I dislike children greatly but they do hold a cute charm, I'll admit. Winter is fine with me. If you're keen on playing a feminine male, I could probably play an androgynous female who rebels against the whole "long hair, pink dress" sort of expectation. And yeah, 500-700 words is fine by me. I don't word count per say but I like to imagine 1 paragraph is 100-200 words long.

And I'll look into the manga you mentioned.

Are you okay with anime pictures for appearances? I'm a visual person and would rather have a picture (in case banners are made in future) than a long winded description which I think belongs in the IC rather than a CS.

[TheBouquineuse]

Oh, I can completely understand not wanting sexuality to eclipse the entire roleplay, because lets face it, that's way too easy for a lot of us. Especially since everything seems to be completely self centered when it comes to most Rps. And I'm okay with the idea of two characters who simply rebel when it comes to the concept of gender norms. You prefer that the darker and more controversial concepts are left to the side characters? Of course ages that young would be left up to only a few posts. I kind of can't stand kids, so I'm okay with not focusing on them for too long.
I'm perfectly fine (and prefer) anime, so I'll start looking for a picture.
I think that we need to seriously develop a plot (or a semblance of one) in OOC before we start. Any ideas?
I lied. I'm actually going to bed now. I JUST remembered that I have midterm exams tomorrow. Yay being a senior!
So we will discuss this more tomorrow.

[Genkai]

I'll be heading to bed soon, the post I thought I was going to make has to wait once again.

I can post a CS up tomorrow, I generally stick to these: age, name, appearance, adjectives describing personality, hobbies, and hometown.

I assume we're sticking to Japan as a setting?

As far as a plot overall goes...if we're sticking to a modern Japan, we could use a tsunami attack as a catalyst for the entire thing, over could even if we set it back a few years to bring up us to the meat of the roleplay in today's times, it's still a possibility. What do you think?

[TheBouquineuse]

First off, let me say; your skill at making banners is amazing!

Character sheets... wow, it's been a while since I've made one of those, but I'll start on that.

And your idea sounds awesome! ^_^ I can see a lot of potential plots, articles, things of that sort, being made out of a tsunami. The only problem is the fact that I don't know much about Japanese culture.
As for time period, how does early 2000's sound for the beginning?

[Genkai]

Oh thank you. ^^

I don't want character sheets to be stressful, just a basic outline.

Well I've taken several years of Japanese and cultural studies. I'm happy to help if you need it. I'd say 2001 (is that 9/11?) would work fine.

[TheBouquineuse]

That's really neat! I think that through some OOC chatter about the culture and IC information, I should understand pretty well.

2001 sounds great.
With character sheets, how detailed should I be with the written appearence?

[Genkai]

I think if we did focus on water and not just the tsunami itself, we could use the water thing as a metaphor for life to think about.

For CSs, I tend to use anime pictures for the ages every so often, like 9, 14, 18, 23, 29 etc.

[TheBouquineuse]

Damn... that's really good 0.0 I feel like we're planning to write a novel that I would read in English class, but that's a very good thing. We read good novels
And okay... I should start that CS now...