Life in Stasis

Outmoded

Sasha was immobile and silent for a lasting moment.

"Are you bringing your Christmas tree, Alice?" What bewildering behavior. This girl seemed to have a persistent disconnect with reality. Sure the entire realization that vampires exist could unbalance most, but he was genuinely puzzled with this girl's behavior. "Or are you mistaking me for your maid?"

He rose from the couch, still twisting a pin between his fingers. Looming in toward Alice and the Christmas tree, he bent as if to reach for the cord of the lights, then at the last moment pointed out the pin and attempted to pluck her hand—revenge for those instances at the Timeless.

"Focus, Alice. Remember why we came here?" He glanced at the window, gauging the time again. They couldn't dally here too long. "You needed to make some calls and pack your projects. You've showered and eaten since we returned, but nothing you promised you needed to do. Can I rely on you or not?"

He sniffed at the Christmas tree.

"Cloying holiday, anyway."

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

<Snipped quote by Life in Stasis>

You know, I have an optimistic side. It may be hungry, lonely, and scared, having been locked away in the deepest, darkest, coldest region of my heart long ago, but nonetheless it's there, its heartbeat but a whisper in the dark.

The optimistic side of me wants to say that maybe this is what these people are looking for when they demand from their partners a particular shape to their fleshy protrusions. That they think males play male characters more plausibly than females do, and vice-versa, so really, they're just looking for the partners who can write their characters with as much accuracy to their respective genders as possible.

But this is the point where the realistic side rattles the cage and tells the optimistic side to cease its crazed rambling lest it won't get any bread and water for supper tonight.

@pugbutter

Well, to clarify, I don't judge male or female writers for their expected ineptitudes. What I meant is that typically (but not always!) they have certain interests respective to their gender. Women more often like emotionally motivated plots, romances, characters that have lots of feelings, plots that revolve around devotion or tragedy. Men on the otherhand like things a little more visceral and direct, less sappy and more grit.

Basically, men like action movies and women like chickflicks. But in RP terms. And obviously, just like with action movies and chick flicks, this is not universally true. Personally I'm a woman, I hate chick flicks, but I am admittedly drawn to plots that revolve around themes women find alluring, like powerful men and plots motivated by passions.

And though I support and even encourage RPers to play characters across gender lines, they often do it in particular ways. Men who play women often have them come across as pragmatic and sometimes emotionally flat, where women often play men who are a little more emotional and have their hearts on their sleeve than most men regularly are. These are just trends, not bad things. In fact I think women learn a lot about men, and vice versa, by attempting to play one.

Though I'm female, I most often play men, and I take it as a challenge. When I play a guy and people say they have no idea my character was played by a woman, I take it to mean that I played the role out superbly.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

I never write unless I feel like writing, or if I've promised to write something (which is rare) by a certain time. When writing becomes an obligation, there's no fun in it. And if there's no fun, what's the point?

I see these statuses in the sidebar talking about how their RP partners are lurking and spamming the OOC forums, but not writing posts. Like, who do you think you are? Are they required to devote every second to you? If they have a modicum of free time, MUST they do it writing posts to you instead of chilling out and relaxing? It's a lot easier to spam funny memes then to dig in creatively to write some post for some demanding jerk.

Go to hell. If I'm on the site, I'll do whatever I please. And if you get a post from me, you should be delighted, not placated.

(Disclaimer: This is not in relation to any RP I'm currently doing, I don't feel pressured, this is just my violent reaction to status bar messages and my RP partners of yesteryear who can totally go to hell.)

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

It's not mean, but it might be dishonest.

While it's not unreasonable to assume someone RPing with you might judge you by your gender (I do, to be honest, but only in so far as vaguely expecting women and men to have certain strengths and interests respective to gender), the terms get foggy when you're enjoying a story but fear they might lose interest if they found out you were x.

Maybe they're a little more invested in the RP's elements than they rightly should be, and maybe you're manipulating them based on that. Or maybe they aren't and it doesn't matter, but you don't want to risk it. It's definitely morally questionable, but the only one holding you accountable is you.

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

Here's another one:

<Snipped quote>

WHY DOES THIS MATTER!? I get wanting to only PLAY male or female characters (can't relate but I guess it's fair) but what difference does it make if the person on the other side of the computer screen has a ding-dong (OR DOESN'T)??!?!?!

I don't know why this continues to annoy me when the people who insist on matching player gender to character gender always turn out to be shitty RPers anyways but lord if it doesn't seem so...I don't know...pretentious? Arrogant?

@Drache

Creepy. It's creepy.

If the OOC attributes of your RP partner are that important to you, beyond personality or anything that would affect the dynamic of the RP, then you're interested in what goes beyond the RP, and that's creepy.

If you're INSISTING on it, you're basically insisting on some kind of pseudo romantic relationship with the partner. We just come here to RP, dude.

As Darkness Fell - A dark fantasy story

Sorry guys, my Internet went to shit for tye past week and it still isn't really all that good. I'll try to get a post in tho within the next 2 days still.

@Torack

No problem, thanks for the heads up.

Outmoded

It was a fleshy post!

Outmoded

Family turmoil. How tedious.

And she did have a sibling. A rather uncharming one.

It was ubiquitous and ever-present. Everyone had their own problems, a mother that didn’t love them enough, an absentee father, and abusive uncle, a too-friendly aunt. These were the things that ate up human lives and deprived them of any meaning. Every generation cannibalized the next with their unfulfilled expectations, their vicarious desires, their mental illnesses. And the cycle went on, time and again.

It was meaningless to Sasha. He lived in a world without these weights. Even when Alasdair lived, Sasha had free reign. These brands of partnership don’t last three hundred years without a workable dynamic.

But, in so tangling himself with this one human, Alasdair’s blooded descendant, so too did he begin involving himself in her affairs. Sasha was not without sympathy, but he simply had no human solutions to the problem. Snapping Alistair Senior’s neck would solve all of this straight away, and although Sasha knew Alice would for some reason protest, he couldn’t muster enough mortal parts of himself to care.

Still… for whatever reason, Sasha folded the letter and tucked it into an inner shirt pocket. Somehow he felt this information would be useful in the future. Either for manipulating Alice or… well it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that he might want to help somehow. Without killing anyone, even.

“Refreshed?” Sasha shifted his attention to his phone. It had buzzed in his pocket; he’d received a text message. “If you’d cooperated you could have had a hot meal instead of cold leftovers.”

His phone illuminated his features with a soft blue hue. Eᴅᴡᴀʀᴅ Kɪʟʙᴏʀɴ, 38, Sʜᴇғғɪᴇʟᴅ. Cʜᴀʀɢᴇs ᴅʀᴏᴘᴘᴇᴅ. Eᴠɪᴅᴇɴᴄᴇ ɪɴᴀᴅᴍɪssɪʙʟᴇ. Gᴜɪʟᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇɴɪᴀʙʟᴇ.

“Hm.” He clicked his phone off. “We’re to travel by car. The drive will be lengthy but we’ll reach the Channel Tunnel by dawn, and there we can stay until sunset." Sasha glanced casually around the flat, noting the mess candidly. He picked up one of the pins from the arm of the sofa and twirled it in his finger. "As prim as you dress, this is how you live? Have you so little respect for yourself?"

As Darkness Fell - A dark fantasy story

Waiting a bit to see what Torack/Eovaine does, but I'll post soon if he doesn't.

As Darkness Fell - A dark fantasy story

@Torack Around to discuss our next moves?