I will read everyone's profile, everyone's posts in detail, etc. I know this seems to be a slowly fading view - but growing up in the warrior cat sphere and things like that were everyone was very close and in the same small area - everyone had a sense of interconnection. It was seen as highly rude to never go in and read anything. I still to this day, find it rude. I've noticed that it's very much a personal thing - and it might keep me from interacting rp wise (I don't feel like having a "close" IC friendship if you aren't going to read my character and we're going 'go with the flow' type of thing- though I will rp with you just as strangers, type of situation) but I don't like putting in a lot of effort if I'm not going to get anything back.

Again, personal preference I guess - but if I don't know if I'm going to get more than five posts in a thread out of your character with some basic questions in your DM's - well then that just means we're not compatible, and that's fine. I don't consider it plotting to know some basics about your character. I think it's fine 'pantsing' and 'going with the flow' but not when I have like 5 threads that are essentially, "hi how are you" "you may not know my name as I am the shadow of the moon" "okay, I'm going to go now" type of thread. I live in the south and there's an art to having a conversation I guess and I kinda try to follow that. We find something we like, talk for 4 hours and say nothing, then leave and forget each other's first names, lol.

I rarely hoard posts - but I can and will if someone requests it of me. For example, i can bang out replies in 10-20 minutes at the most. However, some people can only post weekly - so I keep them in a sticky note on the side and have reminders to post them- let's say on the weekends for that person. I really want to make sure I'm flexible. Some people use the weekends to post, so I post for them during the week - so that way they have them. Otherwise, unless I have a want ad or obligation, I tend to just reply as they come in.

I will forever find it funny that when I talk with feral cat people, we trade stories like we're trading war stories and usually the one dog person or the person who isn't really entrenched in cat rescue warfare are just quietly alarmed. I don't know how to explain it to those outside of the sphere I guess - but it is really funny. Though I think the most hilarious comment I ever got was like "neko, your health needs more help than a whole county of cats" and I just sat there wheezing for a minute straight, You're not wrong but still.

Also for updates, two oranges, Cas(tiel) and Gabe(riel) and the torties are Eve and Ariel. Eve is the only one I'm worried about because I don't think her hip grew correctly and she never seems to put weight on it. The vet says she's fine, but like...mm, I don't know chief. You don't see her walk. Though good news, the oranges can now eat out of bowls and not actually *eat* the bowl for twenty minutes. You cannot eat metal you idjits.

I am neurodivergent and have a problem with pragmatic language. I express myself as best I can. I treat roleplay as fun (as this is in character, escapism is in the game not outside of it) but I always make sure I communicate effectively outside of it and explain how things makes me uncomfortable or I try to question why something obviously went against my boundaries. I guess this might be a point of view, but if someone told me they view their characters as people so much so, that they are real people, I wouldn't rp with them. Characters, even if they have feelings, opinions, etc - are not real. They are not outside the board. The consent principle has been violated time and time again for me, and while it might not be for you, I believe responsible communication and tacit agreements are to be held above all else.

and while I don't treat this like a job, as those have quoted, I have firm boundaries of ic/ooc with the people I write with. If someone tells me our shared reality doesn't exist, then that's great, I'm just going to move along- however we should be up front about that, which is where I'm kinda getting at here. For me, characters have thoughts, opinions, etc, that I would not have. I however am not going to think they're real breathing humans with agency outside a forum. They can't do my taxes.

That's great between you and your friend, but again, this is a general. If someone takes a wanted ad from me as a dad, the express "okay we're going to do this" is an agreement. That's great to have such flexibility between you and your friends, but a stranger is going to have no idea that it was a flexible thing. A character has no agency outside of character, you do. If you enter in a agreement and it's not communicated or respected that other people might not work like you, the consent to the agreement is blurred. That's why if you're going to enter into a express agreement, a contract, one should respect the other's time. It's great you and your friend can mix and match but most of us are strangers on the internet. A character has no agency outside of the board, full stop. There is in character and out of character. You hardly ever fully commit, but other people do. Shirking an agreement that either one or both parties worked with and had the idea that it was at least a agreement - because some imaginary thing is a violation of consent and respect.

You and what your friend do doesn't mean other people will have that understanding that is what you do. Hence communication on that aspect and to communicate with a partner (not a character) to always making sure we're all on the same page is an absolute must.

since I caused a whole conversation - I am very much a either or and match my rp partner in how I plan. Usually I just need to know how they ended up in the same thread and a vague handwavey idea on where it might go. So like, I need to know they're going to have more than five posts in a thread. Despite me plotting and preferring it - I meet whoever with whatever. The point that Traveller put better than me - was when these decisions are used to shirk responsibility, agreement, and communication. You don't have to change a character's personality to get them to be friends, you do not have to have some grand narrative you need to plan to the iota - however - and this was my main thing, respect the person on the other side of the screen. Do not waste their time as you wouldn't want your time wasted. Don't shirk responsibility and agreements because certain things may be more your character's speed. If you agree to something, if something should change when it was agreed upon, tell the person that because that way that other person can consent if it's something drastically different.

When you end up saying a character is the one in charge (I do mean this literally, not figuratively like oh they want to go this way) then agreements for like want ads and decisions comes across as flaky and sometimes that makes people go "well who did I have an agreement with" and it blurs lines that need to be kept separate. We have had an ethos in the community of in character doesn't apply out of character. This is not something new - I am speaking of the same line and boundary. Respect someone's time and feelings so yours will be respected, that's all I meant by my previous posts. Do not have an out of character agreement, understanding, etc - and then say that a character, something that is not living and doesn't have any say outside the game, is deciding for you.

This has nothing to do with IC decisions or the game itself. It is purely outside of it, which is where I was quoting.

Also I have no muse, I just write - to the new conversation. I am very much in the idea of doing it to calm down my mind and I have no issue jumping from character to character.

I was not expecting Musication to have three of my favorite utaites in one band I'm suffering listening to it on repeat.

in a similar vein, I see a lot of people "oh my character decides on the plots and I don't know them" is a really odd position to me. We are in charge of the characters, we're typing for them, we make want ads for them, etc. What you're telling me - personally (And all yous general) is you can't take acceptance for possibly your own decisions. I run the other way when anyone says that and they tell me the character just 'did' something. Your character is not living and breathing unless we're talking about a tulpa situation or something of the sort.

A character is a character. You write them. You are in charge of what threads you make with other people - etc. If a plot isn't going to work, it's okay to say you don't think it will. But let's say I come to you with a plotting idea and you accept, should I have checked in with the character instead that cannot talk and cannot communicate? Like who did I talk to? You can justify a lot with a character, but it's you. It's not your muse or whatever, it's what we decide. I'm seeing a lot of this in some younger fandoms (warrior cats) but it's not absent in animanga either. We can justify a lot, we can figure out a lot, should we think of it.

If a plot doesn't work for me and I don't think I can justify it, how do I justify it? If I can't think of a way, I tell the person. I think it's good to have responsibility for our own character choices, sure - but we should also wonder how or what can be used to break the little brats into pieces if we need to.

I have kittens again (no one is surprised) - and they're two boys and two girls and I'm going with an Angel theme cause Mom named the stray angel and I lack creativity. But they got registered today so I got them in so they can be put up for adoption. I am pleased. I coded, I did all the fun things today.