Nemaisare

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

I... I managed... Guys, I think I managed to somehow avoid all mention of the fact that he is a mouse.

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

Brother Rigby

A mouse.

Born shortly after his family’s arrival at Redwall Abbey, Rigby has known only the kindly, often mischievous, and always friendly company of the Abbey dwellers. He roamed its halls and grounds as a dibbun and got into his fair share of trouble. Though he rarely acted as the ringleader, he was always a willing accomplice. His mother swears he’s the cause of every grey fur she’s got. He knows every inch of the Abbey from the high attic loft to the cellars, from the pond to the battlements. He also knows how to coax a tasty midday treat from the cooks and is happy to share his knowledge with the young ones when they start looking for a little adventure or an afternoon snack. Though now he’s more likely to play mediator and offer distractions that aren’t as… foolhardy as his were.

He loves all of it, and all the creatures living within the walls (and without), but his most favourite place to spend his time is in the gatehouse with the Abbey Recorder, discussing the Abbey’s history, well-known heroes, and stories so old the parchment’s started crumbling. The library is nice too, but the Gatehouse comes with guests and the chance to be first to hear the news. He has a very good memory and learned from his mother the art of telling a proper story, so he was making good use of that skill even as a dibbun but has grown into the role of entertainer at gatherings and feasts or whenever the dibbuns can coax him into sharing the newest story he’s learned. He’s just as happy to copy out the older records or jot down a note or two about their latest visitor, should it seem appropriate. He even got to write the official record of the last Nameday celebration, with supervision, of course.

His parents were wanderers who’d heard of Mossflower and Redwall during their travels, as well as many other tales they livened the hearth with many a winter’s evening, and though they’d visited it a few times before settling down, it was only after Rigby was born with a missing leg that they decided to stay on. Both for his sake and for the rest of their family since none of them were growing any younger, though he adapted quite handily despite their worries. He doesn’t seem to have inherited much of their wanderlust, though he’s always liked stories about travelling the best, and he does occasionally dream about leaving the Abbey walls and going to visit at least one of the places he’s heard about. Just to experience it, of course: trekking through the woods, or over the hills, or under the hills, wouldn’t that be exciting?

He has also, with rather less dreaming and more paws on practice, turned his curiosity to helpful inquisitiveness and learned the rudiments of a good many crafts. Some, like his father’s carpentry, he learned early on to make himself useful. Others, like beekeeping and cooking, he admittedly got into because they interested him, and he’d been hopeful it would involve a mite more taste testing than it does. But after properly realising that he wanted to become the Recordkeeper himself one day, he decided he needed to know a little of everything he could, to better understand the experiences of those figures in the stories, and the daily life that would have happened around them. Thankfully, although he isn’t always good at the chores he’s helping with, everyone’s been a good sport about letting him have a go. If nothing else, it’s certainly given him a fine appreciation of all the effort that goes into a good many things that make life so convenient at the Abbey.

He has been in more routine attendance of the gatehouse and the gate during the last season, and many of the regular Abbey visitors have gotten to know his particular brand of friendly curiosity and welcome and to recognise his slight brown frame and hopping gait as he opens the gate for them. He is most often wearing a green habit and is rarely seen without his crutches or the sling bag his mother made him, so he can keep his paws free. He also, almost inevitably, has a spot of ink somewhere on him by the end of the day, whether on his paws, or his robe, or his head fur.

Rigby hasn’t lost his youthful energy and might well never (he still races with the dibbuns and enjoys a good frolic), but once he’s settled into a task he can be as focused as any beast, with steady paws and a good eye for detail. He’s grown a good head on his shoulders and maintains a practical sort of enthusiasm for anything he might be doing, finding some way of making it fun, or at least, less boring. He’s always eager to lend a paw or a listening ear and has never been one to turn down a challenge either.

I know I've covered all the necessary information, but my mind is still telling me I'm missing all of the everything and I would like it to stop. That, or someone needs to tell me more specifically what I need to add, because ARGH! I just wanna write 'im!

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

When I tried asking people for a word instead of the generator, they gave me things like fishing, mammaries, and kumquat. And that definitely stole my focus from argh how to start, to uhhh sure, let’s just go with that.

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

I’ll probably be doing the same thing, Fading Memory.

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

Haha, my go to for posts I can’t figure out how to start is to find a random word generator and try using that. Just write whatever stupid sentence comes of it and follow up, since at least then the post is started, even if it’s coming from way out the left field.

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

It’s never you’ll manage t’please everyone…

Lol, I’d be good with it if it weren’t so long since I’ve written one. I was stalling out last night just trying to figure out how to start. But the good fallback is always backstory, so eventually I got the old noggin sorted and firing right.

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

I haven’t written a CS in an age and a half and here’s Wraith making it free form just to spite my brain. I wanna make it so much fancier than I know it’s gonna be. *flails forlornly*

Finally thought of a name though. Got it halfway written with barely a mention of it, haha…

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall

I apparently can’t even write a mole accent on my phone. It says no, every word is wrong. But are you sure we’re not tragically deprived of mole accents?

I have finally decided on the idea I’m going with! Not a mole, though it was close. A young mouse, instead. Though methinks he’ll have tried on a number of hats, growing up.

[1x1 RPs] How much should a character do in a post?

This answer entirely depends on the scene and your and your partners' preferences. If you find yourself hesitating how much to include or how far to move things along, ask them if they have a preference. That is, I think, one of the best things you can do because everyone has different preferences. Talking it out between you can ease up on that uncertainty far more readily than anything else can.

For 1x1s, I've noticed that as long as there is something for the other character to react with, most people can come up with a post. And even if there isn't something directly in the post, provided you both know where the events are heading, they still have a direction to push the character in. But, as with most things, if they're stuck, talking about it is a great solution. Offering to edit your post or add something in is probably always appreciated.

For me, I go by the rule of how slow and intimate do I want this scene to be (as in how much detail and character emotion and internal processes do I want to include)? And what is the scene's purpose? If you want to delve into those details, then you don't need to make a lot of stuff happen or even move things forward by more than a minute at a time. If you are writing in order to move things along or because it's fast action, then there's really no need to linger and you can roll on through the scene until your next slower moment. Unless your partner (or you) would prefer otherwise.

Another good rule of thumb to work with so that you can avoid that unintentional character control is that if you're writing and suddenly think that the other character(s) would definitely break in on the conversation or the action or just have a big enough reaction to whatever has been said or is going on that it might derail the rest of your post, that's usually a good spot to either pause and ask your partner what their character might do if your post feels toooooo short to post or just post it. As you write with someone and get to know their character(s), you'll more often be able to guess how they'd respond to various things you stick in your post, so this does get easier to judge between a casual reaction, like answering a simple question, or them suddenly throwing a tantrum because your character mentioned the wrong name... You've probably felt this already.

Also, if it just starts feeling like an infodump, feel free to stop at the next feasible point or go back and take some out before posting to save it for later, because information is good, but too much at once will have something being missed and your partner possibly going cross-eyed.

It's not a perfect science and most of us are probably at least a little concerned about this question no matter how long we've been writing. The key is to be sure that you are satisfied with the information you've conveyed, and that your partner is happy. If they're happy with the post, who cares if you think it was long or short or uninteresting or overly complicated? They liked it.

The Yurazen Prince - A Tale of Redwall [Interest Check]

Any NPCs besides the Prince, maybe? And are we keeping any of the historical figures besides Martin? Is it gonna be a between this book and that book time, or an AU timeline so no one has to worry about knowing what has or hasn't happened beyond Martin the Warrior was awesome?

Oh, and maybe including whatever size chart you most agree with. :P