[OOC] Fire Emblem: Weight of the World

[Lord Orgasmo]

That would be an affirmative, capitan.

[Mercurial]

Obviously, I'm still here, having just posted.

[Zeroth]

@AmbraForgot my header and had to edit it in, dunno if that messed the mention up or not. So just letting you know Gorou's talking to Rhea.

[Marlowe]

@Zeroth Aight, thanks for the heads up.

[Kuro]

Posted for Arin. She's ready to go after her little incident.

[Redneckatron]

Yeah I'm still in this. Had a busy few days because of college registrations, but I'll be posting very soon. If not by tonight then definitely tomorrow.

Edit: @Ambra I'm not dead and I've posted, kek. I took your 'wait to post' thing to heart while I got busy with college crud. I'll be sure to keep more in tabs than before, count on it!

[Mistiel]

Sorry for the micro-post. About half the group still appears to be at breakfast while the other half is ready to go. I wanted to make sure Jauna was in the latter grouping.

[Marlowe]

@Mistiel I didn't want to say this, but your posts have been getting smaller and smaller every time you post. There is a significant difference between your first post and the rest of your postings. The RP isn't going as fast anymore, which means you don't have to rush to post. There were a lot of people you could have interacted with that could have made your post bigger. I would prefer it if you spent more time planning posts than rushing to get one in. It's really unfair to the rest of the RPers that post more high quality replies. Please lengthen your posts accordingly.

[Marlowe]

@Lord Orgasmo Need help posting somethin?

[Lord Orgasmo]

@Ambra Yeah, kind of. Albus is just waiting around currently.

[Marlowe]

@Lord Orgasmo We're waiting outside, getting ready to go. You can interact with one of the people there.

[Mistiel]

@Lord Orgasmo We're waiting outside, getting ready to go. You can interact with one of the people there.

@Ambra

I interact reactively to whoever interacts with Jauna. Hint hint nudge nudge! I'll try to be more proactive, but I'm the type of person who likes to be approached first and Jauna is the same way. @Zeroth had the right idea. :)

Lastly, the post may be small, but it could have been a lot smaller without the sword practice bit for other people to glom onto if they so chose.

EDIT: I have an idea now actually, but I'll wait for a couple more people to post first which will probably override aforementioned idea, so never mind!

[Marlowe]

@Mistiel I understand your point, but I'm sorry to say that isn't an excuse for small posts. There's always things to add to a post, such as inner monologues and the character's thoughts on the surrounding environment. There is going to be a time where your character won't be approached, and saying that you prefer to be approached is bound to get your character isolated.

[Mistiel]

@Ambra

I edited my last post and hope it's now satisfactory. En garde! >,>

(I'm actually pretty sure this universe wouldn't take too kindly to fencing terminology, or French, but allons-y!)

[Marlowe]

@Mistiel That is much better. Thank you.

[Zeroth]

@Mistiel I started writing some pointers to give you, if you want some advice on buffing up a post, but then I just kept rambling. I don't want you to think I'm complaining or criticizing you or anything, so just read it at your leisure and use whatever you like--or none at all, if I'm just being a busybody.

Pointers

Best way I ever found to pad out a post without it being too much meaningless filler is to add sensory information and body language to the usual "reactive writing" that RPing usually involves. And sensory goes beyond the more obvious things--we often describe whatever room we've entered, or where we are standing in it relative to other people. We often describe how our characters see the actions of others. But what does your character SEE? "Bob entered the banquet hall" vs "Bob entered the banquet hall, his eyes falling on elaborately embossed silver plates and goblets with long, delicate stems. The tableware glittered in the light from two high, stained glass windows, throwing splashes of red and yellow, blue and green over the dull, ancient stone walls. The bricks had been scrubbed so many times that the mortar wore thin, but from floor to ceiling there was not a speck of dirt nor moss."

This establishes an atmosphere as much as it does a visual continuity--if you'd described the cups and plates as "dented tins with rusty handles" and "scratched and cracked wooden bowls" and the walls as "cracked and peeling, with a creeping vine sneaking over the windowsill" you would have a very different MENTAL image of that castle--who owns it, its history, etc--as well as a physical image.

Smells and sounds often go ignored entirely in RPs in my personal experience but invoke the most internal associations because, unlike our eyes, they are not a direct 1 to 1 translation of our environment. A "crash" might be the sound of two cars coming together, or it might be the sound of someone falling down stairs. A "cloying, sour smog" might come from rotten fruit or noxious gas. If the character doesn't know, they have to speculate. Strong sounds and smells also evoke physical and emotional reactions--we recoil or flinch, we wrinkle our noses or cough and gag. Those actions--or, in some cases, lack thereof--can show a character's likes and dislikes, or give them information that influences their thoughts. Gorou figured out that Rhea was a dragon rider while several others were knights because he could smell horse on them, and "something that was definitely an animal, but not a horse" on Rhea.

The feel of touch is mostly only good for temperature--though that can still affect the atmosphere--and describing what goes along with physical action, so it's less useful for setting a scene. Great for fights though--when swords clash hard enough to shake bone and numb flesh, you know stuff's hitting the fan.

Body language is great because it speaks to one of the oldest, most often repeated pieces of advice given to writers: Show, Don't Tell. I also like body language because you can pull some whiplash with it due to the fact that different people have different "tells," and different emotions can sometimes be shown in the same way--some people shake because they're scared, other people shake because they're so angry they can't hold it in anymore. Here are some examples:

"Where are you going?" John asked nervously.

"To a friend's house." Susie said nonchalantly. "Why?" she asked quizzically.

Both of these suck because they state outright how a character is speaking or feeling, but they are telling, not showing.

"Where are you going?" John wrung his hands together.

"To a friend's house." Susie tilted her head and blinked. "Why?"

These use action to show how they feel. From these you can infer that John is nervous but Susie isn't and is wondering what's up with John. If you left it here, the reader probably assumes that John is a timid, maybe nerdy kind of guy. From the context, maybe he's trying to strike up conversation with Susie or maybe he's trying to come up with an idea that will make her want to stay and hang out with him, cause he's got a crush on her. Now, remember that whiplash I mentioned?

"Where are you going?" John wrung his hands together.

"To a friend's house." Susie tilted her head and blinked. "Why?"

John reached for the knife.

Now how much did your impression of John, and what he was feeling in the first sentence, change after the last sentence? Learning to write body language--and read it in other characters--helps a lot in figuring out what characters are feeling when they speak or do anything else, and can add a lot to a post even if all they're doing is talking to someone else--because between sentences, they're going to hop from one foot to the other, or they're going to rub their chin, or they're going to smirk and laugh.

[Marlowe]

@LordVoldemort @Aquanthe @Solace @Zeroth @Mercurial @Redneckatron @Lord Orgasmo @Kazemitsu @Tala Avana @Tenma Tendo

Forgot to mention, you're able to make more than one character if you wish. Since we've got a balanced group of characters, just about anything is open. Just run your idea by me if you want to make another character.

[Kazemitsu]

@Ambra I tend to stick with a single character unless I'm feelin really good XD

[Lord Orgasmo]

I usually only make one as well, but if push comes to shove, I've got a good idea for a shaman ready.

Side note: There's a Castlevania anime now. I don't know how to feel about this.

[Kazemitsu]

@Lord Orgasmo I'd feel disappointed. Movies almost never match games or books so it messes with what you already know.