[quote=@BrokenPromise]Tense just sounds better when it's past tense.[/quote]

I have to disagree on this. The present tense can be just as beautiful when in the right hands. I think it is often unfairly maligned as the sole property of frankly poorly written young-adult novels. But the present tense has given us novels like Hilary Mantell's Wolf Hall, Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, and Maraget Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. It's not a problem with the tool, its a problem with those who use it poorly. 

I understand why most people don't use it to RP with, because we want to have a consistent style while writing a story and the majority of people are most comfortable writing in the past. But when it comes to the poetry of language, the present is not inferior to the past in my opinion.

As for everyone's thoughts on collabs, I 100% agree. In fact trying to co-ordinate people to create collabs that don't read like an absolute mess is one of my personal banes when it comes to roleplaying. I always try to have it that whoever is the person posting the collab when its finished is the only one who gets to use interior monologues or thoughts. 

One of the things I like about collabs though (or switching to a more distant third person perspective in general) is how it can build a sense of mystery about your character. When we get out of a character's head, the reader does not know necessarily why they are doing what they are doing. It builds intrigue. So often, in pivotal moments I will either deliberately join someone else's collab, or I'll just switch to a more distant third person because I don't want to explain my character's actions. I want my partner to wonder at them, to be thrown off, to be surprised. I always love it when that happens to me in an RP.