oh. hay.

[bornstrong]

Hi, everyone! It's Louisa here (for Iphigenia and a few others~), and I am trying very hard to get back into RP. Boo, work.

So! I have a kind of getting-to-know-you game we can play. Maybe it will be...fun? Hopefully? /cringes at self

I'm curious about everyone's pups' and their respective canons, and I'm hoping others are as well! So, in this post, feel free to link to video clips/blogs/general flailing about the worlds from which your characters come from. Go wild! Wax poetic! Just be excited about media!

Also, if anyone wants to use this post as a sort of ~enabling~ thing, go right ahead. We probably all need more characters to play, right?

Comments

[bornstrong]

So far, I just have Iphi here, and uh, her canon's kind of depressing (what else can you expect from a Greek tragedy, amirite?) but it's also kind of amazing.

I kind of want to ramble a little bit about Age of Bronze, which is a comic drawn and written by a dude named Eric Shanower, who is basically the George R. R. Martin of the indie comic world, because he takes 5ever to finish stuff. But when he does? It's good.

Age of Bronze is literally a comic about the Trojan War, from the beginning (what with the whole "golden apple" fiasco) to the end...which Shanower hasn't gotten to yet, because he's taking his good old time.

I love it primarily because it's so exhaustive--he's clearly done a ton of research, and he dresses everyone in historically accurate clothing (no togas! yay!), and he gives the women a voice and personalities and that's super great too.

I'd say it should come with a bunch of trigger/content warnings, because hey, this is Greek mythology. But it's still just...guys, it's super duper good. It's how I learned about Iphi's story. So...yeah.

/end tiny nerdy soapbox

[sumarusfinest]

Do you draw your Iphi from this comic book's retelling or from the traditional tragedy itself?

Or is it a mix of everything you could find on her?

[mayfairmonster]

This sounds so cool and unique. I've never heard of Greek myths done comic book style. I really want to read this. :0

[hellburger]

I needa put some holds in for that at the library! I want to brush up on my ancient history and a comic sounds like a nice, digestible format. I like pretty pictures. :B

[rekindledtitan]

Well-researched mythology that pays attention to the female characters? I think I also need this. :D It's been a while since I got my Ancient Greek fix.

[smartass_captain]

This sounds like so much fun. Oh man. I don't even...I wouldn't even know where to start with Jim here.

Is there anything anyone wants to know about? Before I just link my entire tumblr because I have a very sad obsession with this reboot world.

Seriously so thrilled about this idea

[bornstrong]

YES TELL US EVERYTHING

[pathfromdarknesstogrey]

HIYA. 'tis I, Kinto.

I play this gal, Dia'ndria Starfall (pathfromdarknesstogrey/pathfromdarknesstogray)

She's (VERY) loosely based on the Sith Inquisitor from Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is basically Bioware Does Star Wars as an MMO for some reason.

I say 'loosely' because I only used the barest skeleton of the storyline to build on top of it. A former slave who was effectively raised by pirates until she was a teenager and displayed her Force powers in killing their captain, she was sold to the Empire and subsequently trained in the ways of the Sith.

She was eventually betrayed by her Master (for fear of her becoming too powerful and independant) in being sent on increasingly dangerous missions until she finally failed one--only she did what he didn't expect: She failed, but survived, and figured out what he was doing and swore revenge.

The Nexus pretty much picks up about two years into exile, where she's been learning things on her own, and has since gone very gray instead of Dark like she was.

--

On the other end of the spectrum is Fortyskey (dembonyhips), another MMO character in the form of one from WoW. A Forsaken Undead Warlock who's self serving, angry at the world, and uses her felfire largely to never be weak or anyone's weapon ever again.

She's used to be fairly pro-Sylvanas, but since the Lich King's died and Sylvanas has lost direction, Forty's since gone more neutral.

She cusses. A lot. The f-word is a common one among anything she says and does. It's her primary form of social defense to act like an asshole to most everyone she deals with or meets. The orcs tend to find her hilarious, since she's this skinny spitfire full of angry and bitterness.

--

I'm planning to bring my Draenei Death Knight (servesthelightindarkness) as well, at Harrow-mun's urging.

--

Also feel free to ask questions! I barely need any excuse to ramble about any particular subject about my characters.

[brother_alone]

I like that Dia isn't portrayed from the end of the main storyline of the Sith Sorcerer but at the pivotal point in the story where her options are basically fight or flight.

This take on the character seems really interesting to me, having played through the entirety of the core game's story arc on every class >_>;;

------

Also as a huuuge WotLK nerd (since that was when I was hardcore into lore and raiding) Forty also speaks to my trash mmo heart on every level. Especially on the whole disillusion with Sylvanas Post the death of the Lich King.

[mayfairmonster]

OH MAN A CANON RAMBLING POST YEAH let's do this

What is The Confessions of Dorian Gray, you ask? Why, it's a series of radioplays! A series of radioplays about a man telling stories of his adventures, mistakes, and messed up supernatural encounters to his own captive soul-inhabited portrait in his attic. But you don't have to take my word for it, because the man is more than happy to explain, himself.

So, my muse's canon. I think one of the cooler things about The Confessions of Dorian Gray is how the radioplay's universe encompasses so many different canons, fictional universes, and time periods. If you, like me, prefer that your box of chocolates never yield the same flavor twice, there's a lot to sink your teeth into. On top of all the hedonistic bad life decision making and bow chika wow you might expect from stories about Dorian Gray, there are a lot of unique settings and situations that the writers play with.

So, get this: You've got stories set in more places and times than can be counted on two sets of fingers and toes, spanning from 1862 London to the late 2600s in god-only-knows-where, Space. Dorian ties into the Doctor Who universe, Sherlock Holmes' stories, Dracula, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and countless other sources of classical Gothic horror, real life cultural figures, and mythology. If you like your stories creepy, darkly funny, queer as a Liberace concert in San Francisco, and (oftentimes) tragic, it's a wonderfully entertaining and fast-paced series.

In lieu of links to videos and trailers, I'll share a few neat teaser-ey sound clips (incredibly gratefully) nabbed from another player's collection:

1. "The guests who simply vanish... It's those creatures that take them, isn't it?" (Small cw for violent action/strangling.)
2. You can't pull anything on Sherlock Holmes.
3. Literal Oscar Wilde cameo.
4. Fun and happy times. (Minor cw for descriptions of violence)
5. Plenty of sharp female characters who can give as good as they get.
6. Can a person change their nature? What does it mean to be either good or evil? Do such things exist?

As the clips (hopefully) attest, a lot of the fun of Dorian is in the sharply-written scripts and lively characters the writers come up with to throw into crazy immortal adventures. A lot of the stories are also genuinely unnerving, if you appreciate a little horror in your earphonebudthings from time to time.

On the enabling end, if I could tempt anyone to play a manipulative vampire with a preoccupation with death and decay and a tragically (adorably) dorky love affair with cellphones, Back to the Future, and ruining unsuspecting humans in shoot-em-up video games, I ...wouldn't be mad? /hides

[hellburger]

I'm always looking for new audio stuff to listen to at work! Gonna add this to my list!

[brother_alone]

I had no idea they did radio plays based on this! I always assumed it was based off of the book I totally read after nerding out with my dad over the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen came out forever ago!

[rekindledtitan]

Reading this makes me realize how well-prepared Dorian must be for the Nexus. I knew he was immortal, but I had no idea how much his canon encompassed!

Join me on a journey of 90s FLAVOURED EMBARRASSMENT

[ixis]

As promised, I'm gonna make this as embarrassing as possible for myself and everyone who has ever taken Naugus seriously.

Ixis Naugus is from the Sonic the Hedgehog comics as published by Archie Comics. His first appearance in that media was in Issue #53, published on Sept. 1997, drawn by Sam Maxwell and written by Karl Bollers. Here's the page containing his very first appearance and introduction:



Following this is some other notable depictions during this time in the 90's with just a hair of context beyond "this was the 90s, so." I'm going out of my way to find the worst/best stuff here.

This is a select panel from the same issue as his introduction that I just wanna point out for fun. He had his tail in the very beginning, but somewhere during the upcoming arc illustrated by Steve Butler, it vanished! Never to return until the recent reboot:



After his intro, he wouldn't show up again until Super Sonic Special #4, projecting fake versions of the good guys and soon possessing the king to do another attempt at at the crown. He never makes a proper appearance given that he's spending all his time in other peoples' bodies, except for this panel (once again drawn by Maxwell and written by Bollers):



Here's Naugus as a storm or "cloud-being", as he puts it. Also, canon demonstrating there are science ways to track him. Issue #61, written by Bollers, drawn by Steve Butler:



Cover to Issue #64, art by Patrick Spaziante.



Owned by a snowball. Issue #64, Bollers and Butler.



Check out that fucking title. Issue #65, Bollers and Butler.



I only now noticed he only had three fingers in the days of yore. Also, ugly face, big disgrace. Cover to Issue #66, art by Spaziante.



Naugus gets super weird-looking when he's souped by by a hojillion power rings. Issue #66, Bollers and Butler.



EYE LASERS!!! Issue #66, Bollers and Butler.



I'm gonna wrap up these pages with an infamous appearance of his. This was in the last issue of the Sonic Super Special, #15, that was headlined by a another showdown of Sonic Vs. Naugus. It was written by Ken Penders, a now-infamous figure in the comic's run, as well as 'breakdowns' being done by him. The art credit went towards someone called Many Hands, who had never appeared before and never would again. This story was SO bad that it was completely rewritten and redrawn for a Free Comic Book Day in 2011. It did not get a reprint in later trade paperbacks.

Also, my own sister got her fanart published in the back of this issue! They whited out a big section of it because ???. They also mailed us this issue for free thanks to her contribution, which is great because that meant we didn't have to pay for this hot mess.




Here's a page you can colour. Just stare at this face for the next hour and colour it, you animal.

(And here's the fanart submission, for fun. We still talk about the mysterious white-out going on here.)


Oh, you thought I was done? Naw, son, naw. Now we gotta talk about the cartoon. Because that's where Naugus actually originated from. He sadly/thankfully only got one proper appearance and one cameo. I'm gonna present without further comment that episode, "The Void", first aired in Oct. 1994.

The cameo happened on the very last episode. This is the end of that ep, "Doomsday Project", originally aired Dec. 1994. There failed to be a third season and one of the show's creators eventually disclosed that the eyes at the end are meant to be Naugus', who was going to play a big part in the coming story.

AND NOW YOU KNOW.

Re: Join me on a journey of 90s FLAVOURED EMBARRASSMENT

[bornstrong]

brb coloring that page :D

[shardofwinter]

It's incredibly impressive how, even with all his adventures, and a giant pincer, he manages to keep his beard so long.

Also, wow did the tv Naugus have a different voice to the one I'd thought he has.

[brother_alone]

I know you've told me a lot of this before, but it's another thing to see it all laid out like this.

YOU SHOULD POST ABOUT NAUGUS'S ORIGIN STORY!

[redheired]

If you want to know more about Persona 3, my suggested jumping on point is My Life Is A Goddamn Mess. Equal parts Let's Play (watch/read other people play games so you don't have to!) and fanfic, it's a good intro to the game story line. At least for the main game. Because Persona 3 was given no less than three releases. (Persona 3, original print, Persona 3 FES which is arguably the definitive version, and Persona 3 Portable which is an awesome purchase if you happen to still have a PSP; it has a female main character route!)

[brother_alone]

I know you tend to play an AU version of Mitsuru, but where in the story line roughly do you play her?

Pre-game or?

[twelve_not_fourteen]

You people might have heard of this guy and his fandom.

I tend to play my Han Solo based upon the Legends books, aka, the outdated canon. This is my dumping ground for my canon musings nonexistent_places. As I read and re-read the books, I tend to outline them chapter by chapter.

My course load has been pretty brutal, though, so that's been moving along kind of slowly.

Since I tend to play him most in his twenties, the books most directly responsible for how I write him are "The Paradise Snare", "The Hutt Gambit" and "Rebel Dawn."

I'm always up for answering any questions y'all might have, tho. I hope to play here more after this flood of schoolwork is behind me. As far as enabling, I keep hoping someone I'll find someone who wants to play one of his beloved ladies - Leia Organa or much more obscurely Bria Tharen.

Also thanks for letting me crash the movie night. It was really fun. I never did the in-character stream before. Would do that again for sure.

[ixis]

It was super fun having you at the movie night! I will open your beers anytime. :]

Is this content based on the EU stuff? Disney officially put the kibosh on it, didn't they? Which is a shame, but I also get it; it's a lot of content to follow up on and a franchise reboot this big might as well start fresh.

Either way, if that's the case, then our characters are also 'our stories got rebooted and now we just play the versions that once were' pals. Up high. ( ._.)/

[drehnifusbahi]

I only have nerdvahkiin Vanyel here. His canon is Skyrim, aka That One RPG That Ate My Life.

It being an RPG, the actual player character is a blank slate - so literally the only part of his backstory I didn't make up wholecloth is the part where he's the Dragonborn, destined slayer of Alduin, so on and so forth. (Well, that and his name, which I stole from a Mercedes Lackey character.) There's a fair amount in his profile, for those interested, but the cliff-notes version is: Lawful-ish Good mage, Ethical Slut raised by priestesses of the canonical sex goddess, became a hero without ever setting out to do so.

Some of what I came up with is based on the lore (or what I could piece together, given that information on 'modern' Tamriel is pretty sparse), or headcanons that seemed logical given what information I did have (like taking one look at the Stormcloaks and going 'lolnope'). Other things (like his tragic love for Erandur and Serana and disrespect/suspicion of Delphine) are admittedly based on my own feelings for the various NPCs/bits of the setting. And I am always, always down for discussing lore/setting/headcanon details.

I'm also currently working on what promises to be a fairly long write-up of his 'path' through the game, at least during the quests that give you options (such as whether to return a 'lucky charm' that got stolen from a shopkeep, whether to join the local guild of assassins or destroy them, etc).

Bonus fun fact: I don't know who they got to voice the actual Shout-y bits, or whether they got different ones for different races... but in my head, he sounds like J. Michael Tatum.

As far as Skyrim itself... there are many, many LPs and general discussions of it on YouTube, so you can dip your toes in without having to acquire a copy and or a PC/Xbox/PS3 to play it on. I recommend Swinton's Let's Plays; he has multiple, with different characters, and he tends to roleplay his way through them, so his commentary is almost entirely IC. I also really like Phobic Tribe's 'Skyrim Mythbusters' videos.

And as far as enabling goes... my kingdom for an Erandur, a Serana, or a Lydia. My soul for all of them. *hides face*

[ixis]

Is Vanyel post game? I never thought of that; for some reason, I just assume all Skyrims come from midway! This is also where I admit I have never finished a game of Skyrim despite putting in hundreds of hours...

Metal Gear Solid is like one big fever dream

[hellburger]

I don't even know where to start with Metal Gear? It's definitely an acquired taste. For those who aren't familiar with the series, it's a blend of military machismo, schlocky spy shenanigans, paranormal garbage, giant robots, global conspiracies, a dash of homoeroticism, and a willingness to laugh at itself at the same time as it makes grand statements about the nature of war and peace. There are also aspects of the series that make me cringe in a bad way, but I'll not go into them unless people ask.

Kaz has been in five games, but I chose to pick him up for RP during his Peace Walker days. This is mostly because he's still very personable and optimistic. (After Ground Zeroes and MGSV he's a big angry ball of bitterness and that's not as fun in this setting.) Also Peace Walker is one of my favorite entries in the series, despite being a low-res PSP title with terrible controls: the 2D cutscenes are rad, it actually features a set of great female characters (unusual for the series), and all-around has a lot of great fluff.

(Side note: I apologize to anyone who happens to be intimately familiar with the series for any of the shit I get wrong during RP. I'm tryin'.)

Some choice Kaz tidbits:
Kaz's upbringing -- aka one of the more surprisingly-nuanced and realistic backstories in the series.
The infamous Kaz date, with and without speedo -- Unlocked after you beat a massive pile of missions and avert a nuclear holocaust. There's debate as to whether or not this is considered canon, or just a ~silly joke~. (You know, because haha, two men would never fall in love hahaha. So funny. They are just very "passionate" men! :/ )
The "damn fiddle" meme explained -- MGS has great writing.
Hamburgers -- A series of conversations Miller has with Code Talker in MGSV regarding the perfect hamburger, the birth of "Miller's Maxi Buns." This is a serious game about war.

If anyone has the sudden urge to pick up the series, Konami released a great collection for the PS3 that features MG1, MG2, MGS1-4, Peace Walker, and the MGS1 VR missions. (My personal favorites are MGS1, MGS3, and PW.) Of course, there are always Let's Plays and "movie" versions that edit the games down to their story cut scenes if sneaky-shootin' isn't your thing.

[smartass_captain]

I read some pretty rad MGS lets plays back on the old SA forums way back when. I still don't know what's going on in these games, but they were a fun read.

And yeah for playing younger and personable Kaz!

[rekindledtitan]

Hoo boy, Destiny canon. So this stuff is semi-notorious for being largely outside the game, sometimes in some pretty odd places. (Part of the argument for Blaze’s City being located in Nepal is based on a t-shirt, of all things.) The lore you actually find in game is largely in scattered flavor text and, as of last year, the dialogue that goes with quest updates.

Fortunately there are some good online resources: you can access the entire official grimoire here, and some helpful folks here have been collating entries by subject/people referenced in them. The latter is still very incomplete, but it has the benefit of including some of the aforementioned flavor text and quotes from in-game.

I have a whole bunch of favorite entries I’ll point out/blather about for anyone interested, but these are particularly relevant for Blaze: the Titan/Striker and Exo entries, naturally enough, but also this one about Exo dreams. Wei Ning deserves a mention for being her hero/historical crush.

Also as far as I'm concerned this video is canon.

[brother_alone]

I have never seen a game where the lore is found on MORE obscure places.

[westfallcorndog]

Everything that matters about playing World of Warcraft:

The video: Agssd vs. Blackfathom Deeps (DW is cool and won't let me embed videos)

Honestly the series has like 20 years of scrambled lore and I wouldn't even know where to begin. I'd describe the world as a mix between classic fantasy, medium sci-fi, and dieselpunk. Swords and sorcery, spaceships, and siegetanks are all alongside each other, and somehow it works.

[brother_alone]

YES BUT WHAT IS HARROWS ORIGIN STORYYYY :O

Spoilers I guess!

[sumarusfinest]

The Best resources I can link for Persona 2 are a couple of fansites that were made ages ago for the two games that make up the story of Persona 2.

The Allegory of Whatever talks about the first of the pair of games, Innocent Sin or Tsumi as it's called in Japan. Crime and Punishment discusses the second game, Eternal Punishment or Batsu.

So which game is Katsuya from? GOOD QUESTION.

Technically he hails from post game Eternal Punishment.

Here's the basics. Katsuya's little brother is the protagonist of Innocent Sin and the game revolves around trying to stop the world from ending while also dealing with a lot of family issues surrounding the main cast.

And they fail. Even though they come together, overcome their personal struggles and fight back the Old God that is dicking them over, it's not enough. The world except for their city, which is now a massive floating island, gets destroyed. And as if that's not bad enough, the lady who has helped them make it this far (and the protagonist of the second game) gets killed in the final moments of the game. They gave it all they had, and they couldn't save her or their world.

So the god who they were helping offers them a bargain. He can't fix this world, but he can remake a new one. One where none of this happened. In exchange they have to forget everything. Give up the relationships they've forged, the growth they've achieved. They have to give up themselves. And they agree.

Everyone except Katsuya's brother. He doesn't want to forget everything. Lose everything. Have all they've done be for nothing. But it's too late. It's happening. Everything is gone....

Until he remembers.

Enter Eternal Punishment. This is the world that was remade after the last one got destroyed. But Nyarlathotep isn't so easily defeated. He wants to break this world like he did the last one. Thing is, he can't use the same pawns he did last time. What's an Old World god to do except for start a religious cult and try again?

Tatsuya remembers Innocent Sin, and heads out on his own to try to make things right.

Meanwhile some actual adults (debatable) including Maya Amano, a plucky reporter and gun enthusiast, (and dead lady from the last game) set out to make thigns right as well as discover whats up with Tatsuya. Because Maya can't shake the feeling that she knows him.

World gets progressively worse AGAIN and this time with the help of Tatsuya remembering the past and this group just plain kicking ASS the world is saved. Katsuya Suou is one of the party members in Maya's party. The game's token Strength character, Katsuya has the least magical prowess of his group, but makes up for it in endurance and strength.

He's a detective with Sumaru's police force and as steadfast and serious as they come. Katsuya isn't a genius where ideas naturally come to him. Everything he has he achieves through stubbornness and hard work. And nothing good happens to him ever. His parents are dead, his brother has run away from home and their relationship was strained even before the world started ending, he's stuck in a career he doesn't want...

By the end of the game things haven't improved for him much. He's learned to accept that he can't have a lot of the things he wants, his brother has gone back to the one from his world (which means all that bonding they did in game? This kid remembers none of it and still hates his brother), and there hasn't been any grand revelation that makes his life better. But he's been able to accept a lot of it and move on.

-------

There is SO MUCH MORE to Katsuya's backstory buuuut that is RP history from his time spent in the LJ community Dear_Multiverse a literal decade ago.

I'll add more if people want, but for now, that's the game canon info!

[icebearforpresident]

I have a lot of characters I play, but the main one is Ice Bear. Time to learn about the history of a polar bear and his older brothers.

Ice Bear hails from a series called We Bare Bears, which actually started out as a web comic called The Three Bare Bears: http://thethreebarebears.blogspot.com/ . In the comic, Ice sometimes talks out of third person and even curses / drinks. Eventually, Cartoon Network decided to pick up the series and turned it into a cartoon.

The cartoon is definitely more child friendly, but still has moments for adults. Here’s a random video showing some of Ice Bear’s funny moments: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=45oJjuS9n8s .

On another note, Ice Bear’s voice actor is comedian Demetri Martin, and most of his skits seem to be things I could imagine Ice saying. My favorite comedic piece is this one, where Demetri explains his life in a point system: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4qkkQIzQ4VI