#also apologies there will be some... lack of consistency... primarily in style because once The Monkey makes an appearance....

[runaria]

Part 1

[wayfares]

#𝚆𝙰𝚈𝙵𝙰𝚁𝙴𝚂  :   a  selective low - activity   western multimuse   sideblog  for  characters  featured  in  the  rockstar  games  red  dead  redemption  i  and  ii.     very  private  and  headcanon  heavy.     an ode to lost souls,  self recognition and self love through the other,  the kindness of strangers,  bloodstained hands chasing waterfalls ;  man and their appetite,  and the knife’s edge of love and greed.     made  11/13/21.     performed by jean,  23,  they/any,  cst.

documents.

dash rules. . .

you do not need to be following my main  to follow and interact with me over here.     however,  i do require that i be following you from there before interaction.

001.     activity

hey there !!    i’m jean,  23,  white,  use they/any pronouns,  and i write pretty sporadically.     this goes for ic and ooc interactions.     i un  /  fortunately work 40 hour work weeks,    and only get every other weekend off,  if that,  so my schedule makes consistent muse difficult on top of my focus.    sometimes i’ll be able to get out a couple drafts a week,  others merely once,  or not at all. if i haven’t replied or answered something in a while,  please know it’s nothing personal !     i’m just taking my time until i feel good about what i can put down.     i have other rp blogs i try to run as well,  therefore i might be very slow on this one at times.     i can be quite the flaky rp partner,  so i apologize in advance for that and completely understand if my antics   [  or lack thereof  ]   result in an unfollow.

002.     selective  

because of the previously stated,  i’m also highly selective with who i rp with.     i want to not to bite off more than i can chew,  and for the sake of pacing myself,  my activity will be reserved for mutuals only.     i reserve the right to drop threads with  /  unfollow  /  block anyone for whatever reason  ;  i won’t be exercising this left and right,  but it’s for my own comfort.     ocs  /  crossovers  /  duplicates are always welcome <3   [  duplicates let me know if you need me to tag same - muse posts and i’ll be happy to !  ]   mains are allowed,  as are exclusives if it happens organically,  but so far it’s not common if that’s a concern for any !

003.     etiquette

the basics  ;  don’t be an asshole,  any transphobia,  biphobia,  homophobia,  racism,  whitewashing,  pro - shipping,  incest,  etc,  will be blocked on sight.     no godmodding,  please cut your threads,  continue asks in new posts,  etc,  and no stealing of any personal concepts of mine.     loose inspiration is fine,  of course,  but if i see repeated similarities,  i may or may not approach you about it.     formatting - wise,  here is an example of my prose style.     i primarily use big ol’ text and static or no icons,  but feel free to format however you like and i’ll try to match you somewhat.     when following,  i generally keep an eye out for decent prose.     it doesn’t have to be anything fancy !     but if there are a lot of typos  /  missing commas  /  inconsistencies,  i will probably be less likely to follow back.     this is purely preference on my part.     if icons are used at all,  it will mostly be for primary muses,  otherwise i generally go iconless.

004.     shipping  

i’m all about exploring meaningful dynamics,  whether they be platonic,  familial,  antagonistic,  pre - established,  etc,  so feel free to shoot me a message if you’d like to plot something out between our muses !     while the mun of this blog is 18+,  smut just really isn’t my thing  ;  referenced  ‘ offscreen ’  as it were is fine,  as are nfsfw headcanons and such,  maybe fade to black  /  time skips,  but for the most part,  you won’t find any roleplayed smut on this blog.     this of course is muse dependent and does not apply to any underage muses.     romance is fine to some degree,  but again,  if they are a child,  anything beyond lighthearted and innocent experiences are off limits,  no exceptions.     if i see you’ve aged up a minor character for shipping purposes,  it will result in an instant unfollow.     if at some point i flesh out adult verses for them,  these shipping rules will not change.     on that note as well,  i do prefer to rp with muns who are also 18+.     i don’t see your age somewhere in your rules or pinned,  it will affect my willingness to follow.

005.     memes

memes from anyone,  anytime,  for the muse or for the mun,  are always welcome,  and often a go - to ice breaker of mine since starter calls make me nervous.     please don’t hesitate to send a good handful since i try not to cage myself into answering ones i just don’t have muse for.     i find if i force stuff,  i’m just less likely to ever actually get it done,  so don’t feel like you’re overwhelming me if you send more than just a couple for me to choose from.     asks from mutuals will be prioritized,  and i’ll most likely only continue threads with them as well.     please remember to specify which muse your asks are for unless it’s to one of my sideblogs.     if you want to start a thread from an ask,  i greatly encourage it !     i just ask you start from a new post to keep things tidy !

006.     triggers  

many of my muses have canonically been through some messed up stuff,  as well as leaning horror - adjacent to me in many ways,  and this blog will be portraying that accordingly,  including trigger - heavy content such as  :  depression,  ptsd,  panic attacks,  violence,  murder,  kidnapping,  self harm,  smoking,  abuse  /  neglect,  animal death,  horror elements,  cannibalism,  torture,  brainwashing,  death  /  resurrection,  religious imagery,  etc,  but i will try to tag it as  ‘ trigger // ’.     on that note,  please do keep in mind  :  any abuse present on my blog will be in headcanons or backstories,  never actual threads.     if i’m writing with villain muses,  physical harm may be present,  but i refuse to roleplay any domestic  /  animal  /  harm or abuse in any form.     my personal triggers are visual eye gore,  visual self harm,  and visual vomit.     please do feel free to say something if i forget to tag a post and i’ll try to tag it for you right away !

thank you for taking the time to read my rules,  and rest assured if i follow you,  that means i’ve read through yours as well <3

007.     blogroll

* enslaughts.     a low activity horror - heavy multimuse. active.

* dvrast.     a selective slow jesper fahey. active.     follows from enslaughts.

wayfares.     a selective low activity western multimuse. semi - active.     follows from enslaughts.

* vigilaent.     a selective low activity dc multimuse. active.

greatloss.     a selective slow five hargreeves. hiatus.

clericlost.     a selective slow william byers. hiatus.

mindsflayed.     a selective slow mind flayer + vecna. hiatus.     follows from clericlost.

[whetstonefires]

Do you think the DC fandom maybe, Infantilizes Tim a little too much? Like for a rich kid character who's main trauma for a long time was a getting left home alone too much there's an oddly amount of meta abt how much how much his parents hurt him~ compared to, y'know the two poor characters who grew up with physically abusive dad's+druggie mom's, or the two that were raised assassin cult's, etc

…well, yeah, I do kind of think that? His whole schtick for so long was being too old for his age in ways that didn’t sacrifice his jokey, relatable teenager energies. It’s weird how little of that we see anymore, sometimes.

And then DC broke him and discarded him and he’s sort of awkwardly hanging around getting reimagined as more woobie with every fan generation. It is weird!

But tbh I do get it. And I think the reason his parents’ failure of him and his vulnerability get played up so much, and Jason and Steph’s sufferings (while used a lot for things like motivation and context) not dwelt on quite so much in the same lugubrious style, are kind of the same reason.

Which is that canon didn’t commit to it. Jason and Steph’s experiences with bad parenting were foregrounded and retconned more dramatically awful several times. (There’s some definite classism in how that was approached imo, and I’m never budging on being mad about DC retconning out Catherine being sick and then ignoring her forever in all Jason characterization because a drug death invalidates a person ig, great message during the opioid crisis guys.)

They engaged and coped with it–Steph (and Cass, our #1 canon batfam parental abuse victim) pretty directly, Jason a little less so because of the dubious and fluctuating canon status of most of the content more specific than ‘poverty, homelessness, theft, parental drugs and crime in there somewhere,’ so most of his parent issues have been focused on Bruce. He sure has dug into them tho. 😂 Rarely well or productively, thanks DC, but it’s explicitly part of his character, is my point.

Whereas upper-middle-class Tim was always treated by the narrative as fortunate and unharmed by his experiences with his parents. Even though they were clearly behaving badly in several ways, and Tim showed signs of being harmed by it.

Tim outside of immediate moments of frustration always was of the opinion he was Fine, and Very Fortunate Actually.

Therefore a huge chunk of the numerous everyone who’s got parent-related mental and emotional harm, but has struggled to have that validated and hasn’t responded with a lot of anger toward the parent, identifies with Tim. The only one who’s never really lashed out at his parents for fucking up with him. The one who still needs it explored, because canon ultimately didn’t.

[editing post to put in a readmore because lol it’s long, post otherwise unchanged]

(Dick obviously didn’t ever have any Issues with the Graysons, but he Angry Teenagered at Bruce so hard it changed Bruce’s characterization permanently, rip.)

The things Jason, Steph, and Cass have been through are dramatic, obvious, and fit stereotypes because that’s what they’re based on.

That’s important content to have, but because it’s right out there in your face even people who identify with it quite a lot are less likely to feel the need to work all the way through it again in fanworks. That part’s there. It’s text.

(Well actually Jason having been physically abused kind of wasn’t? I think? It was mostly assumed on the basis of stereotyping and Jason’s not caring about the man much even as he felt possessive of information about his death, which is valid. I don’t actually know what’s up with Willis now, Lobdell did some weird shit that lacked emotional resonance or staying power because he’s Lobdell and has no soul.

Cass’ wandering years are also ludicrously underdeveloped. But very very few comics fans or writers can personally relate to being amazing child warriors with no grasp of language living feral under bridges. That part of her life is consistently represented in terms of absences, in terms of its deviation from the norm and the deficits of normality it left her with, which is typical but unfortunate.) 

-

The interesting things to do with these characters are often informed by the bad stuff in their childhoods, but there’s relatively rarely that much more to say about the fact that those things were bad. They know they’re bad. They’ve had a lot of on-panel rage about it, as discussed above. Steph and Cass both beat the shit out of their dads.

Jason is, in fandom especially, a sort of Platonic ideal of a kid who’s mad about his bad childhood and really bad at figuring out where to point that rage.

(Damian is a whole other kettle of fish, because he’s been lumbered by so many detailed retcons coming so fast no two people can seem to construct compatible models of what his early childhood was like, and even more because he’s still ‘a child’ enough that he’s necessarily in a different stage of processing than someone who’s officially only a few years older than him at this point, but still functionally 8 and also 20 years older, and whose parents are no longer in the picture to continue screwing up.

Also there’s no question that if he brings up an abusive thing the League did, he will be validated by his current environment about his realization that it was in fact bad. There’s a lot of fic on that theme! But it doesn’t have the same tone precisely because it is usually understood that that support will be there if he wants it. Realizing that his previous context contained things that were wrong keeps being made the focus of his arc.)

The badness of Tim’s childhood, on the other hand, was mainly in subtext. Even when we were clearly meant to understand Jack was fucking up, like when he canceled plans with Tim at the last minute to go on a date with Tim’s stepmother, or that infamous time he came to apologize for not being a great parent and got mad Tim was distracted by a crisis on TV so he flew into a rage and took the TV and smashed it and was like ‘that’ll teach you,’ it wasn’t leaned into.

The story didn’t treat Jack as a minor villain to be overcome but like a sort of environmental hazard of childhood, like homework, to be endured and coped with. Tim said things like ‘it’s fine’ and ‘at least he left the computer.’

(And like. It’s not about having a TV and computer in his room. It’s about not letting a child have boundaries, pointedly not respecting a child’s possessions, creating an emotionally insecure environment, punishing minor infractions in proportion to their momentary impact on your own ego, physically lashing out at a proxy for the child…)

Rather like Tom King later didn’t understand about the punching from Bruce, whoever did that story (probably Dixon? I don’t care enough to check) did not understand how serious a case of bad parenting that scene was. That is most definitely textbook abusive behavior. (It’s a hell of a lot more common abusive behavior than being a lame supervillain or shooting you when you screw up, and a lot more specific than ‘was a thug, might have hit me, dead now.’)

And Tim was never allowed to be mad at his parents about it. It was fine. He needed to be ignored so he had the freedom to be Robin. He deserved his dad being mad at him because he was keeping secrets. He complained too much, although objectively he did not.

The universe punished him for ‘complaining,’ more than once. We cut straight from him shunting aside his disappointment that his postcard from his parents was just to say they weren’t coming home yet after all with ‘if it will stop all the fights they’ve been having lately it’s more than fine’ to them getting kidnapped.

He agreed not to come on the rescue mission. His mom never made it home, and his dad was in a coma for a while. And then ultimately Jack died as a result of Tim’s decision to be Robin, immediately after finally deciding to accept it.

So Tim walks around feeling a huge burden of responsibility for his parents’ deaths, and completely unable to process any hurt they did him as real or valid, especially in comparison with the far more blatant awfulness other people have been through, and canon is clearly never going to address it. Or even acknowledge it properly.

Let me repeat that because it’s kind of my main point:

People are fixated on getting Tim’s emotional abuse validated because that’s an incredibly important step in recovering from emotional abuse, and it’s one canon consistently denied him.

How ‘bad’ things are ‘in comparison to’ problems other people have is a bad and unhealthy way to engage with trauma. Okay? That’s just a really harmful framework to apply to pain.

It’s also a way that both Tim and people with experiences similar to Tim’s are encouraged to engage with their own experiences, compounding the existing problems.

So. Not a form of relatable DC was ever actually aiming for when they tried so hard (and pretty effectively) to make him a relatable character as Robin, but an enduring one for a lot of fans.

-

So Tim’s childhood is a natural target for fanworks in a different way than the traumas that have been made explicit and taken seriously by the text. And then a lot of that got compounded by the way the introduction of Damian as Robin was handled, and the lack of resolution that got. And his current status as not quite having a place in the family anymore.

So between the level of projection encouraged by that context and how relatively difficult to access Tim’s Robin run has become ten years after the fact, this has led to a lot of fanworks on these themes that are based mostly on other fanworks, and stray further and further from the original content.

So at this point there’s an entire wing of Tim’s fandom wherein this side of him has expanded enormously, and he primarily exists to suffer, frequently in ways that 1) escalate to a point that is inarguably ‘valid’ and hard to dismiss and 2) set him up to rebound from it in whatever way the writer finds emotionally satisfying or useful–being ultimately cared for and reassured by people who value him (the most infantilizing option but like, popular for obvious reasons), or unveiling his brilliant scheme that was causing him to pretend to be passive in the face of mistreatment, or turning around and using his genius ninja skills to wrest power back from his abusers, or just laying down some sick burns about being treated fairly.

But not that many of the last one, because that’s mostly done with other batfam members.

Tim’s become a vehicle for a lot of vicarious coping that Steph and Jason just aren’t appropriate for, because they get angry and they get even. And those are stories that exist already, so there’s less scope for telling your own.

And because Jason’s reaction pattern is ultimately so masculine (i’ll make them all sorry! with my guns! blam blam!) while Tim’s is pretty gender-neutral, the demographics of fanfic mean that the bulk of the people using Tim vicariously in this manner are female-aligned, which has over time feminized this archetype of him a lot. Sometimes in ways I find really uncomfortable, like there’s a lot of forced pregnancy stuff which activates my panic buttons. x.x

But, ultimately, it’s fandom. People are going to do what they’re going to do, DC in their perpetual fail has hung Tim out to dry in narrative terms, and I’d rather the people who are using Tim for victimization narratives over the people who can’t dismiss or discredit him fast enough now that his position has been filled. 🤷‍♀️ What we gonna do? Fave’s in an awkward spot. DC hates us. This is the life in this comic book pit. XD

-

Also if you’re the same anon who left me a callout about op of that weird Steph post in my inbox, or if you aren’t @ that person, 1) I refuse to get involved so I’m not answering that ask 2) those aren’t even particularly dramatic fandom crimes? That’s pretty normal? That’s just…Caring Too Much About Ships And Disagreeing With Me.

Do I also feel those opinions are kinda bad? Yeah. But I disagree with everyone about something. Chill.

[scripttorture]

Bit of an odd situation for this one, so I apologize if it's out of your scope. CharacterA was a child soldier in Russia, groomed from around age 6 to be an assassin and honey trap. Due to time travel bullshit, CharacterB has now found themselves in charge of a 3-year-old CharacterA who has much of the child soldier mentality and trauma still present. What kinds of lingering issues should they expect/keep an eye out for, and how could they best help this child recover? Modern setting. Thanks!

I might be able to help a little but I don’t know anything about childhood development. And that means that because of the age of the character there’s going to be a lot of important stuff I miss.

 Scripttraumasurvivors had some posts on how abuse effects childhood development and how kids at different ages express symptoms. I’d suggest taking a look at their blog.

 The impression I get is that the outlook for child soldiers is generally poorer then that of other children but there’s a lot of variability and it doesn’t necessarily have to be as bad as it is now.

 There are a lot of different factors that lead to child soldiers having shorter, poorer and less healthy lives and some of those factors can be eliminated.

 The biggest one is rejection by the community. People typically don’t want to care for child soldiers. They are often an easy target for the anger and frustration victimised communities feel towards armed groups.

 Isolation exacerbates mental health problems. Isolated children are less likely to learn acceptable social behaviour (a big problem when they’ve been taught violence is the best solution). And rejection reinforces the narrative their captors push on them: that the only home they’ll ever have is with the armed group.

 The cases I’ve read about are all with much older children. Typically child soldiers are much older then this. They’re usually in their teens.

 It’s also important to remember that ‘child soldier’ encompasses any child working within an armed group, whether they are actively fighting or not.

 Self esteem problems, mood swings and difficult behaviour (sometimes violence but more often aggression and inability to respond to social cues) all seem to be common.

 I’m not sure what these would look like in very young children. However one of the things child soldiers often talk about is difficulty going back to school, getting training or finding jobs. They’re very aware their lack of training has handicapped them. I’ve not read any accounts of them being put back in school among much younger classmates but I imagine at least some of them would find it humiliating.

 I’d say that whatever the age (and whether they’re in school or not) this character is likely to feel isolated from and unable to relate to their peers. These feelings may include a degree of jealousy that their peers have access to things Character A does not.

 I honestly don’t know how to write these complex feelings manifesting in a three year old.

 I do know that in young children the symptoms and emotions at play often get read as the child ‘being difficult’ or ‘acting out’.

 Patience and compassion are important.

 I think the other main thing to keep in mind for Character B is repetition.

 Children raised in these kinds of indoctrinating environments are- They’re subjected to a lot of repeated messages some are about things the group wants them to believe and some are ‘accidental’ lessons. So for instance the group might put a lot of effort into teaching children that ‘You can’t trust anyone outside the group’. And they might accidentally instil things like ‘Do not eat in front of bigger people because they will take your food’.

 It would be perfectly normal for Character A to be consciously aware of some of these lessons and unaware of others. For instance if they were explicitly told not to trust outsiders they’d be aware of that and able to verbalise it. But they might not be able to verbalise (or properly think through) something more complex like ‘when you raise your voice I become anxious because I associate that with anger and I associate anger with emotional or physical abuse.’

 This is something that applies to adult survivors and I expect it would be more pronounced in children: people can’t always explain why something feels bad or even what about the situation made it bad.

 Which means that care takers like Character B need to be patient and be careful about the behaviours/lessons they reinforce.

 Any rejection, however small it seems, could be read as ‘evidence’ for that common cult-style lesson that ‘no one outside the group can be trusted, no one outside the group will care about you’.

 Undermining these things takes a lot of time. And it can be complicated by the fact that someone can know a feeling is irrational yet still feel it.

 Again repetition, providing a consistently safe and nurturing environment, is key.

 Any form of physical punishment, whether it’s smacking, sending a child to bed without supper or making them stand in a corner, should be avoided. There’s considerable evidence that smacking at any level is harmful to children. In this particular story I think any sort of physical punishment would worsen the relationship between carer and child, while also reinforcing the message that the people who trained Character A were right.

 Beyond that I tend to get a bit more vague because while I know a little about child soldiers there’s still a lot more reading I need to do.

 There is a lot of variety in outlooks and outcomes for former child soldiers.

 A fair proportion of them go on to have normal lives and contribute to their communities. That proportion increases when there are concerted efforts to welcome them back and care for them.

 Some former child soldiers are scoped up by criminal groups. I personally think that a lot of this is because of communal rejection and a lack of other options. Without schooling and skills former child soldiers are relatively easy targets.

 I don’t have a breakdown of common mental illnesses in former child soldiers. The general symptoms of trauma are typically the same regardless of the trauma, so you could pick some symptoms from the list on this Masterpost here. They would all be in the realm of possibility even if I can’t tell you how common or uncommon they’d be for child soldiers in particular.

 I haven’t read enough about or by child soldiers to feel confident guessing a number of symptoms. If the character survives abuse or torture as part of their time as a soldier then I’d suggest following the guidelines in the Masterpost of around 3-5 symptoms.

 Because we don’t have any way to predict which individual survivors develop which particular symptoms I always recommend approaching this choice as an author and considering what works best with the story.

 You might want to rule out using some symptoms because of the character’s age. You’ll also want to consider how the character’s age would effect the expression of symptoms.

 Anxiety (and related mental health problems) can cause a rapid heart rate, pain in the chest, shakes and a light headed, dizzy feeling. Depression (and related mental health problems) can manifest as tiredness, lack of appetite (or conversely much increased appetite) and nausea (sometimes vomiting).

 In a character who can’t necessarily express what they’re feeling (who doesn’t know mental health terms) these symptoms can be confused with physical illness.

 My impression, based purely on anecdotes, is that many mentally ill children are labelled as ‘problem children’ long before there’s a suggestion that they might be unwell. It can be difficult to know how to help someone who doesn’t have the vocabulary or experience to express what is wrong and how to fix it.

 It’s also really natural, whatever the character’s age is, to get angry at the lack of understanding and accommodations for mental illness. It’s especially difficult to be patient when you’re in pain.

 The only other thing I can think of in terms of Character A is that they’d probably say a lot of things adults would find very disturbing.

 They’ll not only have been exposed to a lot of… It’s not even really ‘age inappropriate’ so much as inhumane things. They’re told these things are normal. They’re used to being praised for them.

 If this child is used to being given positive attention for- Pointing out how someone could be manipulated or killed then they are likely to do it once they begin to trust Character B.

 And the problem here is that responding with horror, or telling the child to stop can damage their trust in the adult. It can feel like rejection and it can be difficult for very young children to understand why something they were previously praised for is now wrong. Even when a child understands being unable to express or share things they’ve come to see as ‘normal’ is difficult.

 All of which boils down to this: Character B has a damned difficult job ahead of them.

 It is hard to rehabilitate traumatised kids even for professionals with experience. For someone who doesn’t have that background it’s stressful, intense and they might not expect so many moments when things seem to get worse instead of better.

 They need a lot of patience and an absolute commitment to winning Character A’s trust. Which could take months or more. Consistently providing a stable, safe, loving environment is essential.

 What that should look like to best serve the characters isn’t a question I can answer precisely.

 There’s a list of sources on child soldiers here that you might find helpful. Also my salty complaints about Cambridge University Press’ search function.

 Barber’s book (which I haven’t read yet) focuses primarily on recover and rehabilitation so it might be helpful to you. However age is a factor and I am unsure how many children in Barber’s data set were under 14.

 I hope that helps :)

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[theodyssian]

reviews

First of all, you have a strong writing style. You are good with words and you keep a consistent tone. And no worries about your fear that you have gotten worse. On contrary, I think your writing has improved. I remember reading some of your earlier stories. You are now adding more details which really improves the world building and portrays a better vision for the story. I love how your stories make use of different locations and cute little romantic moments you sprinkle throughout. For what I.say below, I will try to keep it general (although I have to use specific examples to make certain points). I hope what I say next can be utilized to improve future stories. I understand not wanting to make major changes to your current stories. :) In Generation, I struggled in being drawn into the world because I was uncertain what your story was about. By “about,” I mean the main plot. Compare the first chapter of Generation to the first chapter of Fallout. In Fallout, the opening leaves no doubt to what the story is about: a man is kidnapped and will have to figure out how to escape that situation. It starts in the middle of the action, an immediate attention grabber. Of course, not all stories have to be action-oriented, but they all have a main plot. I recommend that before you begin, figure out what your story is going to be about. What are your characters’ goals? What do they want and what’s in their way? That question should be brought up in a story as soon as possible (usually within the first chapter). Of course the answer to this can change. Jason, in Generation, starts out with a goal to find Jerry’s wife, but as more is revealed, the plot thickens considerably and goals change entirely. One of struggles with Generation is that we have to wait nearly 10 chapters before the plot truly begins. That’s a lot chapters for mostly character moments and backstory. Not surprisingly, around chapter 10 is also the point when the story begins to pick up pace and becomes more interesting. The second half of your story is strong. The first half isn’t poorly written; it has some great lines and moments, but it lacks direction. Much of the first half focuses on romance (which yay Jasonnie) but it might be helpful to think of romance as a subplot in a story like this. In a story about a couple, one of their initial goals should be about their relationship or involve their relationship in some way. In this case, it’s easily to see that in the beginning of the story, Jason desires to be closer to Connie - and vice versa. Rather than exploring that all at once, you can work that goal into the main plot. How can they grow closer together and work through past pain while on their quest with the agency? Tying the different plots together. Of course, you can have a story where romance is the main plot - though that’s still something that needs to be decided before writing, and it still has to introduce a central conflict. If you do that, I would recommended writing two different stories, like you did with some of your earlier stories, breaking them into separate stories.

Finally, one last thought. You may be familiar with the saying “show, not tell.” My writing background is primarily in screenwriting, but I think this is applicable to novel-style writing as well, particularly how it relates to dialogue. Characters don’t have to say everything they think or feel. In fact, they shouldn’t say everything they think or feel. If there’s a way to show it instead of saying it, that usually the best route to take. For example, what if Jason can’t find the courage to say “I’m sorry” so buys Connie a series of gifts instead which she misinterprets? Bonus in this situation because it is building to a potential conflict. Most relationships have conflicts (miscommunication is often an underlying cause) and can bring people closer in the end, a deeper understanding. The great thing about novel-style writing is that you can get into the character’s heads. If that scene was a film, we might see that Jason doesn’t apologize and think “what a jerk,” but in writing, we can hear his thoughts even if he doesn’t say them aloud. If the reason he doesn’t apologize is because in his past he knew people who apologized and didn’t mean or show it, suddenly his behavior makes sense. Or another great quote: “less is more.” In this example, consider less dialogue. :)

[thehuntedhuntress]

THE RULES

//Oh for the love of... Tumblr get your freaking act together and fix your damn mobile app. 

Rules under the cut because they’re hella long

((First off, I’d like to apologize for the length of this page. I tend to add more stuff as it becomes an issue, though the top section usually holds a succinct summary of my most basic rules to roleplaying with me. Here are those rules:

One of the most important things in the roleplay community is respect. If you respect me, then I’ll respect you. I don’t mean character to character, but Mun to Mun. I understand that some characters are simply jackasses, and that’s a part of who they are. That is perfectly okay, and even welcome. But if you start disrespecting me as a Mun, I will cease to respect you, and therefor cease to roleplay with you. Part of this respect involved respecting the rules laid out here. That is why this is rule number one.

If you are not an RP blog, or are not a part of the thread I an roleplaying with another person, please do not reblog threads you are not involved in! It messes with my tracking system. You can like the threads all you want, but please, please do not reblog if you are not the partner or partners I am RPing with in that particular thread. This is my one exception to my three strikes rule. If you break this rule, I will block you immediately, no questions asked. I’ve had too many people break this rule now, and I’m not going to be lenient anymore regarding this. As a sub-section of this rule: If I make a starter call for mutual followers, I will also block any non-mutuals that like or reblog the post. Again, no questions asked.

I am a selective blog. This means that I prefer to roleplay with mutuals only (a.k.a. people who follow me with whom I am already following). That being said, if I am not following you, you’re free to send me an ask regarding roleplaying together. Be advised, however; I’ll usually take a brief look over people’s blogs when they follow me and see if they look like someone I’d be willing to roleplay with. Please note that I don’t mean a starter. I mean an ooc request to roleplay. I also reserve the right to decline roleplaying with anyone if I don’t feel I’d enjoy roleplaying with them. Please see the F.A.Q. section below the rules for more information on my roleplay style and pet peeves.

Regarding the above rule: If I don’t wish to roleplay with you, then I don’t wish to roleplay with you. Every person has their preferences, and I have just as much right to refuse a roleplay, since I do this for fun, and it’s not a job. Harassing me, trying to force roleplay interactions, or sending either myself or my roleplay partners hate will not be tolerated.

I do not follow back every person that follows me; however, I will usually take a brief look at most of my followers blogs to see if they are someone I would like to follow back. I only follow those whom I either enjoy reading what they write with others, or I wish to interact with myself.

Do not assume that just because I once followed you in the past that I am still following you. I frequently go through my list of people I follow and clear out people who either haven’t posted in a long time, people I don’t think I’ll ever actually roleplay with, and people I no longer enjoy following anymore for one reason or another. If I have not interacted with you in a while, or if I seem to consistently not respond to asks/replies/likes, you may want to check to see if I am still following you.

IC does not equal OOC. Just because my character may dislikes yours, it doesn’t mean that I dislikes your character, or you. In fact, at least a couple of my favorite roleplay partners plays characters that mine simply does not get along with.

OOC communication is important. If you have a question or concern, bring it up. I can’t fix something if I don’t know about it.

Regarding the above rule, no one is a mind reader. Don’t assume someone knows what you’re thinking. Use your words!

Don’t god-mod, meta-game, power-play, or auto-hit without permission. That’s all sorts of rude and I guarantee it’ll make people dislike playing with you. Myself included. (Hover for my definition of each item.)

Please respect the canon of my character, and don’t force your canon (relationship status, sexuality, etc) onto her. I’ll do the same for you. In such a case where there are clear canon issues, such as AU’s and reality crossings, talk to me ahead of time so we can determine how best to go about it.

If a Roleplay starter is marked private/closed — or if it is marked for mutuals only — ask before jumping in! I can be semi-selective with who I roleplay with, but if you ask me, and I honestly think our characters might be able to work together in an roleplay, then I may be willing to give it a shot.

Please don’t harass me for a reply. It’s okay to ask if I got your post, but don’t nag me for it. I’ll get to it when I get to it. Roleplaying takes inspiration and interest and free time. You never know if I’m busy IRL, or how many other roleplays I have waiting on me.

Any thread that has been left unanswered after 2 weeks (14 days) by either myself or my partner will be considered automatically dropped. If for some reason my partner really wants to continue the thread, they are free to send me an ask so we can discuss continuing it.

Please respect my boundaries. If I don’t want to do something, don’t make me. Be it a kink/fetish, a relationship, or even a simple interaction.

And finally, when it comes to smut: As the Mun, I am well above 18+, and have done smut before. However, I will not, I repeat, WILL NOT do smut with another Mun who is a minor, regardless of the character’s age. Not only is it wrong, it’s illegal, and I could get in trouble for that. So if I even suspect that you are under-aged, you can forget it.

Because I have had problems with people not following my rules repeatedly, if someone ignores my rules more than three times, then I will be blocking the blog in question. If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns regarding my rules, feel free to message me. Other than that? Happy Roleplaying!))

((Things to know a.k.a the really long and detailed section))

((For those who have been watching my posts, you can probably see that I tend to be a para to multi-para poster. However, this does not mean that I expect the same of you. It also doesn’t mean that ALL my posts will be para-posts. Simply put, the quality of my posts depends on 3 factors: my inspiration, time, and the post I am replying to. If you give me only a couple lines, I’m more likely to only give a couple of lines back unless I get whacked upside the head with the inspiration stick. Which does happen on occasion.

I primarily at this point Roleplay mostly with mutuals. However, I will Roleplay with just about any type of character, whether they Para-post or not, as long as you follow the rules of engagement as listed above, and will message me politely regarding the possibility of Roleplaying with your character. Look down at the F.A.Q. section for more details.

Given that Valerie is being played uniquely with each individual character he interacts with, unless otherwise agreed upon, I will assume that each interaction exists in it’s own sub-verse within it’s general verse. It might cause a few hiccups now and again, but I’m willing to work through things if the other person is too. So long and short of it, don’t be afraid to message me if you want to roleplay!

F.A.Q.

“Where did you get your icons?”

//Most of my still icons were collected from various free to use icon dumps, though a growing number were made myself from screenshots and using either Krita, Avatarmaker, or ezGifs. Nearly all my gif icons were resized and edited myself using a combination of GifMaker and ezGifs. All official art is property of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon, and any icons based off of fan art, the art is property of the respective artists. You can find the list of artists whose art I’ve used in icons here.

//No art on this blog is mine unless otherwise specifically stated.

“How open are you to OCs and characters from media you’re not familiar with?”

//It largely depends from character to character. I have several people I role-play with that are Original Characters, and I am slowly branching outside of the fandom my character originates from. However, I do tend to be a bit more picky when it comes to OC’s and characters from fandoms I’m not as familiar with.

First off, if they don’t have a fairly detailed “About” page, then I won’t role-play with them. Period. I need to know at least a little bit about what I’m getting into when role-playing blind. If I cannot honestly see how our characters would interact, I may decline role-playing. I also tend to judge based on what I’ve seen them roleplay with others, and I’ll make no secret that I’ll go through a few pages of their blog to look at how they role-play; if they roleplay in a style that I don’t feel will be compatible with mine, or they have the little things that would really bug me as a role-player, such as frequent improper spelling and lack of capitalization and punctuation, then I am just that much less likely to want to role-play with that character/mun.

I should make a note that I will NOT, under any circumstances, rolelay nsfw content with someone who I am not certain isn’t a minor. So if there is nothing listed on the blog and I have no way of confirming, then smut will not be happening. And even if someone claims to be of age, but the way they type makes me believe otherwise, then I’ll err on the side of caution and deny doing any nsfw roleplayinging.

That all being said, some of my favorite people to role-play with are actually OC’s or cross fandom people. And I know that some people complain about role-players being too picky, but to put it frankly, I do this for fun. If I don’t think I’ll have fun playing with a muse, whether or not they’re Canon, OC, or Cross Fandom, then I’m simply not going to try and force myself.

I’ve been role-playing for 18 years (since summer of 1996). That’s longer than some of my roleplay partners have even been alive. I think I’ve earned the right to be a little choosy now and again. And while I know that I am by no means perfect when it comes to role-playing, and that even I continue to learn and evolve my style as I go along, there comes a point when I am simply not willing to go through the mental struggle of roleplaying with someone I have no interest in roleplaying with. If someone is willing to learn and improve as they go along, I may give them a chance. But if I can see that they’ve been roleplaying for a while, and there is absolutely no visual improvement on how they roleplay when it’s a style that doesn’t jive with my own, then I’m not going to waste my time and energy.

Because yes. I put time and energy and thought and feeling and all sorts of other things into my roleplays. And if I get stuck with a partner that isn’t willing to put at least a decent amount of effort into what they’re doing, then I feel like I am wasting my time.

TL:DR

Yes, I’ll roleplay with OC’s and other Fandoms, but I’m very choosy. Your best bet is to send me a message requesting an roleplay together, regardless of whether you are an OC, In fandom character, or out of fandom character. I’ll give your character a look over, and if I think we can make it work, I’ll give it a shot.

I would suggest something a little more than just a “wanna rp”, or an opener with just the word “Hello”, however.))

“Are there any blogs you won’t roleplay with?”

//I have a couple types of blogs that I can guarantee I won’t likely roleplay with right off the bat. The first of these is multi-fandom blogs. Because I follow every person I roleplay with, this means that anything those people reblog end up on my dash. Many multi-fandom blogs tend to have at least one or two fandoms that I don’t want appearing on my dash. Plus, most of them have what feels to me like an excessive number of characters, which makes it hard to follow what’s going on, or know who you’re going to end up interacting with.

I will on occasion RP with multi-character blogs as long as the characters are from the same fandom, and there isn’t a ridiculously excessive number of characters. If you’re a multi-character blog who is literally roleplaying every single character in a game/anime/book/etc., then I probably won’t want to roleplay with you. Sorry.

Other than that, blogs that I see doing nothing but an excessive amount of smut roleplaying, I probably will not want to roleplay with either. While I don’t mind occasional smut, I don’t like jumping into an RP with someone with the expectation that it’s going to happen every RP. I like relationships to be organic, forming naturally, and, well, I don’t see my Valerie just jumping into bed with anyone and everyone.

“What does it mean when you roleplay with mutuals only?”

//While this was somewhat covered in rule 8, I’ll go ahead and put it here. Simply put, a mutual follower is someone who follows you, who you also follow back. I don’t follow back every person who follows me. I like to keep my dashboard clean, and typically only follow blogs that are relevant to my interests, or I would like to interact with. So simply put, if I follow someone, I’m interested in talking/roleplaying with them.

The longer I’ve roleplayed, the more I’ve found myself becoming selective. I’m a cranky old coot and somewhat set in my ways, and I’ve gotten to the point where if I don’t feel like I’m going to have fun roleplaying with a person, I’m not going to go through the hassle of going ahead and giving them a shot only to have to tell them I’m not having fun. That tends to get people all upset, moreso than simply declining in the first place.

As I mentioned before, I make no bones about going onto someone’s blog who has asked me if I’d like to RP, and judging their roleplay based off of how they roleplay with others. And I’ll look through a few pages worth. If I see things that fall under my pet peeves, or I just simply don’t think I’ll enjoy trying to have my character interact with this person, then i’m going to decline roleplaying.

“Do you roleplay with people who don’t write super long replies?”

//Absolutely. I am well aware that my replies can often times get very, very long. I do not, however demand that anyone ever match my length. I do request that in whatever length of a reply you do give me, that you give me something to work with, be it dialog or action. My character needs something to respond to, and if all you give me is “S/He smiled.” I have absolutely nothing to work with. I’m not asking for people to give me a college dissertation in response to what I do, but if I’m giving a longer reply, I would like something more than a one-liner, please.

As a side note, however; I roleplay with the intention of creating character interaction and hopefully development. One of my biggest pet peeves is people starting a thread with me, only getting 1-3 replies in, and then the other person dropping it out of nowhere. I’ve had it happen a lot with a few people, and if I see it become a trend, I will unfollow. Sorry, but it’s something that frustrates me to no end, and rather than get upset about it, I’d rather just not roleplay with people who do that frequently to begin with.

“Do you have any triggers and/or subjects you will not role-play?”

//I don’t have any particular triggers, per say. At least not in the classical sense. However, I do have to be careful about the level of gore, or the intensity of angst, as it can negatively affect my mood sometimes. But I can tolerate it pretty well, at least in written word. If you want to use images, however, I would suggest talking it over with me first.

//As for subject I will or will not role-play, I’ve actually done a lot of triggery materiel before, including abuse, self harm, suicide, rape, and death, though not all necessarily on this particular muse. I do these somewhat sparingly, and only if my partner has not only agreed, but that we have discussed at just what point will we take it. All triggery materiel will be tagged and put under read-mores in deference to my followers.

//At the risk of sounding redundant… if the other mun isn’t at least 18 years old, I will not do sexual nsfw materiel. Period.

“Do you have any particular Role-Play pet peeves?”

//Yes, I do. They fall mostly under the category of technical issues, and role-play issues. The technical issues are things like not using proper capitalization, punctuation, spelling or grammar. Now, I know my own grammar is not the best, and sometimes it’s intentionally so. I write as I think, or as someone would speak. And very few people naturally speak grammatically correct. But if I have to spend more than 5 minutes just trying to decipher what in the heck you said, I’m not going to want to role-play. And I personally feel no one has an excuse for obvious spelling errors, save for those odd typos that spell checker doesn’t manage to catch because you technically spelled a word that exists. For everything else, Google exists for a reason, and most computers have an automatic spellchecker in place.

// In addition, I do NOT RP script style, and don’t really like RPing with people who do. This is the style where you annotate actions using asterisks (*). Example: “ *wanders into the building* wow it sure is dark in here. ” To me this style is very clunky, visually unappealing, and doesn’t lend itself to my preferred methods of roleplaying, such as para and multi-prara posts. Having those symbols in there disrupts the flow of the roleplay, and is very distracting.

//Also, please don’t put out of character comments within the RP post itself. That’s what tags are for. It really throws the thread off to see OOC commentary in the post itself.

//I also highly dislike when people frequently use the wrong words for things, such as the “they’re there their” trio, or words like sore and soar. I get very irritated by things like that, so if it’s a frequent occurrence in someone’s writing outside of maybe an occasional typo, I’m going to be disinclined to RP with that person.

//Also, for the love of God, please trim your threads! There are ways to get around it on mobile, and if you’re on a computer you have no excuse whatsoever. Or ask your partner to do it for you. At the very least, if you can’t cut a thread, then put the whole thing under a read-more so it doesn’t clutter people’s dashes. There is nothing more annoying than having to scroll down several pages worth of one-liners because someone wouldn’t take the effort to try and trim their posts.

//Role-play issues involve the typical things like God-modding and auto-hitting. I also greatly dislike insta-shipping. If you come up to me before our characters have even met and ask me if your character can be my character’s boyfriend/girlfriend, I’m going to tell you flat out no. I will not just have my character instantly be in a relationship with yours. I want the build up and anticipation, if such a thing is even meant to be. And sometimes it isn’t.

//Another roleplay issue I have is replies. While I never expect someone to match my length, it is really disheartening to have written out several paragraphs, and be given a one-liner in response. I purposefully try to write in such a way that gives the person I’m roleplaying with plenty of opportunities to react, respond, or even initiate new action in the responses I’ve given. While I do occasionally do one-liner threads, those are usually lighthearted, and not very emotionally invested for me. And I’ll be blunt; if I look at someone’s blog and ALL they have are a ton of uncut threads filled with nothing but one-liners, I’m probably not going to RP with that person.

As mentioned above, I also highly dislike it when people drop a thread only a few posts in, before the characters have had much of a chance to interact. This is something I find very frustrating, and if it is something that happens frequently, I will likely unfollow because of it.

//Valerie has a mind of her own. Sometimes I will ship something, and she will absolutely refuse to go along with it. I’m not going to try and force her into a ship just to appease someone else. Tried that once, regretted every moment of it.

//Finally, I tend to have issues if I check a blog and find a complete lack of a Rules or About page. Those are major red flags to me regarding RPing with someone, because then I have no idea what I’m getting into if I decide to RP with someone. I often will refuse to roleplay with someone who has no rules or about page.

“How long are you willing to wait for a reply?”

//Due to the nature of how I typically reply, I have a tendency to limit how many threads I actually have going at any given time. I greatly dislike having people wait a long period of time for me to post, and I know that getting bogged down with too many replies at once can be rather daunting and make it that much more difficult to have the desire to get to my posts. Because of this I set a limit on how many threads I will have going at any one time. This limit usually wavers around the 20-30 active threads.

//However, this causes a problem. I am finding myself frequently stuck waiting for my partners to reply, to the point where sometimes it’s been weeks, and in a few cases even over a month since I posted my last reply to a thread. This seriously limits what I am able to do, since as I’ve said I try to limit how many threads I have going at any given time. The times when you seem me with long stretches of inactivity is often because I am literally waiting on ALL my partners to reply.

//Because of this, I decided to implement a new rule: From this point, any thread that has not been replied to after 2 weeks (14 days) I will consider to have been abandoned and officially dropped. It becomes very difficult at times when I receive a reply out of the blue to a thread that hasn’t been answered in ages, and I’m having to try and look back to see what was even going on in that particular thread.

//This rule also works in reverse. On the rare times that I am the one who has a draft sitting in my draft folder and cannot for the life of me think of how to reply, if it’s been over two weeks since my own reply, you can consider the thread having been dropped as well.

//I understand that people are busy, with real life commitments and other interests that they get involved in. I understand that sometimes a muse just isn’t there for a thread, or that a person might be in the mood for a different type of roleplay. This is not an attempt to guilt any of my partners. This is to help me be able to openly interact with more people, or to be willing to try and start new threads. Given that not too many people respond to any memes I’ve posted of late, that often means that I myself would have to send out asks, and I have a tendency to hesitate to do so when I know I’m waiting on a reply from them, for fear that they will think I’m trying to hassle them for a reply.

//This also meant to hopefully serve to help out some of my roleplay partners. I know that many of them do get bogged down with a plethora of replies. So if any of my current partners have replies out there that are between our muses that are beyond that two week time limit, here’s your chance to weed them out of your drafts.

//That said, if there are any threads that you really, really want to keep roleplaying, don’t hesitate to shoot me an ask so we can discuss it. Depending on the thread, and depending on the circumstances at to why you may not have replies, I may be willing to keep it going. If a thread I am particularly interested in continuing seems about ready to expire, I may send one final notice to my partner to let them know the thread is about to expire soon.

//I’m sorry if this seems harsh, and I apologize for the inconvenience, but to be entirely honest I’m tired of feeling like I’m having to beg people to roleplay with me. And I’m tired of feeling like I’m limited because I don’t want to chance everyone suddenly replying all at once, which has happened before on occasion. And it isn’t fair to me to have to sit on my thumbs waiting for partners to reply who seemingly have no intention of ever getting around to it.

//If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to shoot me an ask. Thank you all for your time.

“What is the best way to contact you, as the Mun/Mod/Player?”

//My ask box is always open, so you can always feel free to drop me a line that way. Mutuals are free to ask me for my Skype, Kik and/or Steam usernames.

//If you actually read through this entire wall of text, I will be very impressed. The password is “Rubber Baby Buggie Bumpers.” Just a note, you don’t have to send me my password, though I do appreciate knowing when people have read through my rules. Sending me my password in no way affects the likelihood of me either following or roleplaying with someone.