DISCUSSION ZEJ Character Discussion Questions

Of my characters, I would have to say that the one with the strongest backstory is Kyla Norstrom, who I plan to use for Land of Water in Galamion. Of characters I've already used, however, I would say that Tatsuo Yoshiro takes that place.

Both of them have their backstories in their profiles...

 

Hmmm... good question. See, the backstories of a lot of my characters are fluid to mesh with the setting they are ultimately placed in, of late, but if I had to pick a single character with the most chiseled out backstory I have made, it would probably be Captain Kristoph Palmer, sailing the high seas on the Retaliation. When I created him for the second incarnation of the Ultimate Tournament, I had no idea that he would be so much fun to play. Since that first brainstorm, I've used him in a great number of things, such as Mobius's TheZones Dueling League, Spaught's Pirates: Spyglass of Atlantis (though I regret how short of a tenure I had in that roleplay), and soon he will grace Galamion in The Land of Water.

He's also had an appearance in Jonno's Realm of Belief series, to my great honour.

Hopefully, our fearless captain will rise again out of the depths to steal, sail, and make the ladies swoon. Runner ups for this question would probably be Jackson S. Larke, of the Royal British Guard in an alternate Earth, Helena Galangar of Tales of Alidaire: The Struggle, or Kaya Escala of Oblivion Phantasy ~ A Decaying Flux.

 

Paging doctor @"Starrie"! The patients are searching for a new question~

 

That's a good question, I think. I am one of the people who likes to create a new character to fit the settings that I have to work with at my disposal, and I only have a few recurring, or 'iterative-form' characters. However, Kristoph Palmer and Jackson S. Larke, my two Ultimate Tournament characters, both stemmed from a universe called 'Terra Alternata,' which is basically just my alternative version of our fair planet. This was also the setting of my ill-fated statplay during the big statplay boom called Segregation. Personally, I have a ton of swarming ideas that I could use to flesh out this setting, but I doubt that any of them will ever be put into practice because of my inability to keep a solid focus for a major period of time...!

Other characters that I have made primarily have slotted themselves nicely into the home worlds of others, so I haven't felt a major need to flesh out any sort of particular 'home' for them on my own metaphorical turf. Maybe one day...

 

This may surprise some of you to hear, but all of my original characters actually come from one place-- or type of place, anyway. I haven't thought too much about the setting, but I guess most of my characters would have left this place because it felt too small, and didn't allow them room to breathe, if you know what I mean. Still, for all of them, it's their birthplace, so probably none of them can resent it too much, even if it is kind of stifling. I think coming from this place adds a lot of unseen depth to all of my characters, but hopefully some of you can still appreciate it. The place I'm talking about is of course their mother's womb. Very scenic. Little humid, though. Lucea is excluded from this because she is, of course, a cold, unfeeling robot

 

Okay so then. I randomly had this idea while in CoE. Basically, if your characters were in a (non-superpowered) high school slice of life setting, what kind of student/character would they be?

For example, I imagine Alban (My Mirror Magic character) would be an "emo hipster." He'd always have headphones on, be extremely aloof, dress in all black clothes (including hipster glasses), and just overall stand-offish. His music taste would be a combination of "typical" emo and hipster music, and he wouldn't let anyone else listen to his music, since they "Wouldn't even know about them and wouldn't appreciate their musical genius." There'd also probably be rumors going around that he cuts himself.

I imagine Tatsuo would be a lot like me in a high school setting. He'd probably be one of the top students, but would hate all the attention it gives him, and he'd get really embarrassed whenever the teacher used his things as examples.... And yeah that's all I can think of right now.

I'll probably post again with more of my characters. I just wanted to bring this discussion up.

 

Hrrm... actually a fairly interesting question, given that a lot of the roleplaying that tends to go on around here is very highly geared towards a fantastical setting, often paired with a garnishing of a superpowered cast (which is one of the reasons that things like this intrigued me so much; the option to be someone affected by that sort of a hypercharged world, but bringing something distinctly else to the table). If I had to place a couple of my characters in that sort of a 'typical' slice of life setting, powers removed... well...

To start off, India Conundra would definitely be that tech/shop teacher who is grizzled, and definitely not someone you would want to cross. Eventually, he might warm up to you if you are performing to his standards, but it does take a lot. He'd be something of a no-nonsense guy who doesn't think highly of the lower-year students, since they typically just lollygag around anyway. But, all the same, he cares enough to want them to succeed.

Kaya Escala. Constant overachiever. And I definitely want to re-emphasize the constant on that. She's flashy in a way that is understated and slightly modest, but she knows what she wants - and by God do you not want to cross her on the way of her getting there. She is the student who devotes a lot of her time to her studies, but still somehow finds a way to volunteer herself in local charities. But all the same, her social life never really took off. She's pretty, but nobody really has the guts to approach her, mostly because nobody knows what makes her tick. In that sense, she'd be a lonely lass in high school, but at least she has her brains and gets the recognition for the efforts she puts into her studies... even if she didn't really need it to begin with.

On another end of the spectrum; Reve Aisling would be a bit more on the aloof side. He is... smart enough, but he never puts in the effort that is asked of him. He is the kid that never really looks AT you while talking, but he always seems to look a little beyond you, or through you, at something that you can't exactly tell is there. In class, he's hardly ever paying any form of attention to what's at hand - rather, his eyes are fixed on either the window or the clock. Or maybe the ceiling tiles. Hmm... how many are there anyway? One... two... six... fourteen... Before you even know it, his head is on the desk and he's rolling a pencil back and forth along its smooth surface.

My good buddy Kristoph Palmer would be charming ladies out of their pants with that silver tongue of his. He would probably get a lot of flack around the school for it (undoubtedly, every girl would be giving him scathing looks in the halls for the way he treats women) but for some reason, everyone is drawn in by his charisma. He would be the guy you want to invite to your parties. Enormously popular, but never really the guy you would want to trust with your secrets. For those that actually manage to puncture his outer shell of bravado and mirth and charm, they would probably find someone loyal and lasting... but there are few who could ever claim to pass through his outer forcefield. The guy is definitely a machinegun when it comes to dating, and by the end of high school, no girl would (outwardly) trust him.

Offhand, that's just me trying to re-appropriate their overall personalities into another setting. In actuality, I think it'd make for a cool roleplay idea in and of itself if we were to strip our characters down to their naked personalities and try to create a relatively 'normal' life for them to exist within. It'd be nothing with a huge commitment attached to it, but something rather like Eternal Dream's The Tea Room (or the In-Character Chatterbox). Post when you feel you can contribute or carry a scene... Hmm...

* Eebit goes off to scheme.

 

Let's see...

G would be the quintessential class clown, and like Spud from American Dragon: Jake Long, would be extremely intelligent, but gets things wrong because he feels like it OR because, say, he's filling in the standardized test sheets so he can put them in a collage on the wall in his room to look like Beethoven, and he would overall be looked on as stupid by everyone but his close friends. He'd also be a tech wiz, and he'd be so much into gaming and other geeky things it'd be ridiculous.

Mirani would be like some New Age Retro Hippie. Like. I don't know how else to describe it. She'd probably always come in to school with flowers everywhere on her and she'd talk in that stereotypical way that hippie girls talk... Yeah.

Abel would definitely be a teacher, most likely for English or perhaps some kind of science. He would basically be that teacher that all the students hate because he's boring and strict. And to turn the tables around, he'd be the one constantly fiddling with a click pen, annoying the students to hell and back. And he probably wouldn't let THEM do the same.

Nositch would be that one aloof, cool kid that doesn't really talk to anyone, aside from one-liner jokes, or get into any cliques. He'd probably be in a lot of gossip about who's dating him (when there'd most likely be nobody he's dating, or perhaps if he does have a girlfriend, he'd definitely be going steady.). That said, he'd be a bit of a... Well, "boy scout" for lack of a better word. And if it was an anime they'd always do close-ups of him with a romantic background and lots and lots of sparkles.

I still have a couple characters I'd like to describe, but... I can't really decide on what sort of student/teacher they'd be.

 

Okay, so upon @"Starrie"'s recommendation, I decided to put this question in the thread. Basically, if you had to choose one ZEJ character (of your own creation) to be your 'Deck Master,' which granted you a special one-use ability, what character would you pick, and what would the ability be?

 

Well, that last question got a rather underwhelming response. Let's see if this can get a slightly better discussion going...

Not necessarily a "character" discussion question, but as it pertains to ZEJ and its roleplays, I thought it would be fine to post it in here. that and i didn't know how2title if i were going to make it a thread on its own

I've posed this question (or at the very least, one that is similar to it) to a couple people in the ZEJ-o-AMA section, but I figure that it's a pertinent enough question to pose to the forums at large.
If you could go through the portal of time, revive one dead ZEJ roleplay, and join in with a character of your own creation... which roleplay would you pick? Why would you choose to revive it? What character would you choose to play?