OOC - Ramblings

[cattygabriel]

Spent an hour or two looking over some old threads between Gabriel and Michael at stillasoldier 's journal. I really miss that RP. It was dark and gritty and perhaps a little depressing, but I loved the plot and the characters and everything. I loved tackling those themes in my characterisation of Gabriel there, which was greatly helped by stillasoldier -mun.

  It started out as SWS threads and logs at various character journals, then we had the synechist  comm - though we weren't able to do too much before OOC drama crap happened - and damn_divinity  never really got a head start. But the premise and the earlier threads and everything... I loved the darker Apocalyptic plot and the fact that with God MIA, the angels were all struggling to hold on to faith. Some demons wanted redemption, some angels wanted destruction, and there were shades of grey.

 I enjoyed having Gabriel struggle with holding on to his faith and hope in that setting, with God apparently not wanting to be found, with his family falling apart - Uriel insisting on choosing neither side, Raphael missing (until much later), Michael Fallen - and it was challenging but interesting to write. Gabriel and Michael would have these conversations about humanity, about faith, about their strategies and hopes regarding the Apocalypse, and rereading them made me long for more RP in that verse. Plus, it made for some awesome threads with others like the wonderful divine_tempest  and grace_descends . We even had a God player later on, sacredtrinity , and those threads certainly did a lot to renew Gabriel's faith and hope.

  I really love lt_safe_house , the players and characters and the interactions there, and I'm looking forward to future things in it. I particularly loved the nightmare plot, because there was a lot of psychology and characterisation involved and having the characters struggle with overcoming their worst fears appealed to me. Writing Gabriel's nightmares was tough, but rewarding for me. And the final confrontation with Primoris was awesome, in my opinion, especially considering our RL deadline. I loved playing Primoris and writing study pieces for him and I enjoyed that final showdown.  And I'm looking forward to the next plot that our mod Ricky is preparing - the initial, mysterious threads are already in place and little hints she's dropped about the preparation have me excited.

  I just... It's not that I don't enjoy lighthearted RP - I love it. angelofawesome /stillnotfallen , sunflower_mynah , misterbkeele  and I spent over a year parodying anything and everything through RP on AIM, to the extent that the last time I watched The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe I kept thinking of our spoof of it and giggling. The crack threads where Gabriel blows things up in Uriel's kitchen or the AIM conversation when Belial and Uri had a little Cold War of their own in Hell that started out with leaving confetti in each other's beds still make me laugh out loud when rereading them. Even in the darker Apocalyptic verse of synechist , we had lighthearted moments like this. And this. Crack is essential and I really do love it.

  But I miss plots. Especially darker ones set in a dystopian not-so-distant future with Armageddon imminent. I miss signing into AIM and getting IMs telling me that there's a battle going on in this SWS thread, or preparations for one, and Gabriel's presence would be nice. I miss the opportunities I had for character development in a world where God was not present, the lines between friend and foe were blurred, and the world was hurtling towards destruction. I miss those conversations on the nature of faith and hope and sin and humanity. I'm not insisting on every detail being copied, but I would really love to tackle something Apocalyptic. I want to see how my Belial reacts to a verse like that. I feel like I'm stagnating, a bit.

  I wouldn't mind some sort of epic mythology-based plots, either; I have two Egyptian goddesses, felineprotector  and shewhoscrivens , though Bast is the one with the stronger voice right now and Seshat's account is kind of just there in case I feel like doing something involving Egypt that needs someone else for Bast to talk to (and I consider Seshat awesome since she's the patron goddess of libraries). And the initial reason for creating Bast's account was so I could poke at more of Gabriel's backstory, which does feature Bast at times as he visited Egypt quite a few times, and have them interact. (and in case I wanted to poke at anything involving ancient Egypt)

  Mostly, though, I kind of really want to do something with the Apocalypse. angelofawesome , sunflower_mynah  and I had been planning to start a little RP of our own just for that but the plotting seems to be going nowhere. And I know it'll still be a lot lighter in tone compared to the synechist  verse, but still. I guess that one of these days I'll just have to grab them on AIM and try to get the creative juices flowing. It's not going to be a Synechist-substitute, I just really want to try another Apocalypse.

  But as I said, though, I really do miss RPing in the Synechist-verse.

 

Comments

[rhaphael.livejournal.com]

Heh, I started writing a series of stories called Eichelon (yes I know thats not how its spelled) and it was basically about these angels that had been trapped in Hell after the Crucifixion and eventually banded together in preparation for the Apocalypse. They were "grey" as you say, neither Fallen but still angels, rougues really... And while I do have some fluff moments the whole thing is really dark (you already know how dark my stories can get XD) I think if you miss Synechist you should take what you enjoyed about it and try to apply it to your own plot.

Course I'm probably not the one to give advice when my plot stories always fail, but I think you and Jen and Mysti can brainstorm one :3 Think of it like cooking, start with a few ingredients (like your characters) add what you like (dark themes, imminent danger, loss of faith) see what you can come up with, remove anything you dont like and then just see what happens. Think the impossible - (Gabriel has been told Earth has ten -or however many- years left, all angels on earth are now stuck there on Assignment until the world ends. God has literally decided to let evil take over so humans can see what a world without Him would be, but leaves angels as thei only Lights. You could even throw in weird things like angels being possesed by demons or an eventual worldwide flood or the oceans are poisoned or something. Thats just an example, not an idea XD)

Regardless I think if you start somewhere you can just mix in what you like. If I were you I'd probably start with the "New Year" fic you wrote. He just signalled the end of the world. Who heard it? Were demons nearby that could have fought back/tried to hurt him/declare war? Try asking Jen and Mysti to add their own point of view of that story, see if you can get a villian (Lucifer?) to "stop" it and then just let it ride. If it doesnt work, go back to where you started not liking it, snip it off and try a different angle. I always ask myself What if? What if Gabriel were the only Archangel left? What if God decided to force his angels into remaining human for a time? What if Hell took over earth? What if there was a human extermination, thus leaving only a few human survivors and everyone else supernatural beings? What if Lucifer regained control of Heaven for a time? (or God allowed him to for awhile?)

I say dare to ask What if? Pick your favorite stories, throw 'em in a bowl and see if the explosion that ensues is something you can work with. That is one disaster that would work to your advantage because in stories, the messier the explosion the more fun the clean-up.

[rhaphael.livejournal.com]

This is what I use for my story maps if you'd like to use it. I do it in a notebook but you don't have to of course. And you dont have to use it but here it is if you'd like it:

PLOT
How does it start?:

Where does it end?:

Major twists or surprises:

Time Frame: (this is where I try to figure how many chapters but I'm guessing in RP it would be Timeline)

CHARACTERS

Major:

Name:
Purpose:
Their use in the plot:

Minor:

Name: (if any)
Purpose:
Their use in the plot:

Details:
(this is where I take each chapter and write a few sentences about what I'd like to happen in that chapter. For Raphael and now Erik's threads in LTSH I just made a few thread ideas and a possible summary, since I did not know what would happen in those threads ;3 In your case you could use it to map out when certain things happen:

• May 6th, the four horsemen ride out
• May 12th, the stars fall from the sky and poison the seas

LOCATIONS

Places of special interest:
(ex:

Heaven:
For whom and why?
What is currently happening there?

Hell:
For whom and why?
What is currently happening there?

• Sacred River (yes I made it up for sake of example)
Angels, it is a safe place that demons cannot touch them as it runs with continuous holy water. Located in Israel, believed to be streamed from where Jesus was baptized.

Because it is the only place safe for both angels and beings on their side, they live underground to rest and recover and plan. Demons cannot go near it and there are even markers put out by other demons as a warning to stay away.

OTHER IDEAS
(or just things youre uncertain of and feel like setting aside until if or when it presents itself to be used)

• Certain songs cause headaches to demons 
(list)
• Angels have no halos as they are cut away from God but they get their powers from the faith of others. The higher another human's faith is in them, the more powerful they are.
• Animals can sense good and evil. Certain animals are uncorruptable while others are easily trained for evil purposes
(list of animals which are corruptable, list which are not)
• Demons can posses an angel but only for three months before the angel cannot contain it anymore. If the demon does not willingly leave or is not expelled the angel dies (I dont know why but the idea of angels possesed by demons has creeped me out enough to seriously overthink it >_<)

I have character maps too, but you probably dont need that XD In any case, this is what I've used. Hope it's helpful but if not at least I hope you found it amusing and if nothing else, well, now you know what my fic notebooks look like heh XD

EDIT: FORGOT THIS! *facepalm*

SETTINGS
(Battlefields, countries etc... A little different than the places of special interest as this is where the major plots happen. In My Paper Heart this section looked like this:

Chamuel's place
• First appears in Chapter Two when Michael takes Raphael
• Has two guest bedrooms-
One is blue themed, striped wallpaper with tiny vine print. Woodwork painted white. Window beside the bed. Small closet and bathroom
Second one is mauve, stained woodwork. Large closet, no windows, bathroom with a large bathtub
• Kitchen is attached to the dining room and has a wall-sized sliding glass door which leads to the patio. The forest timberline is a few yards from the steps. Has a hammock and picnic chairs.
• Owns sheep
(there was more, along with illustrations, but I already feel bad about the long comments so XD)
 

[cattygabriel]

Thanks, but... I don't like just asking What if? too much. I do ask that sometimes for short stories (though msot of the time I get an image or a short idea and I work on that), but my problem is I always ask WHY. Why is this happening? Why are they reacting like this? Why would he do that instead of that? Wouldn't that be odd considering what we know of him? And hey, that's not supposed to happen, it can't happen because [source] says that if you do that, this happens instead. So I tend not to 'think the impossible' because implausibility always bugs me and I like to research the hell out of everything. But by now a typical Apocalypse fic that sticks to Revelations would be almost boring. XD

I love Jen, and I love her verse. And since we will be primarily playing in her verse or a sort of mixture, God will be a joint effort but based on her version, which means He's an affable Father to them, not someone who goes MIA and works in sadistic mysterious ways like the one from Supernatural or Lucifer. Plus, the presence of Jen's Michael pretty much guarantees that Gabriel will not Fall, because he is a source of strength for Gabriel, and vice versa. Can you see what I mean? The grittiness of Syn will not apply to RP with Jen (which I love for its own merits) because it is a fundamentally different verse with different characters. I mean, here's something stillasoldier-mun once said in OOC conversation.

Luckily Michael is okay with Gabriel hugs. Especially because he's one of the only brothers he's close to that he still talks to and hasn't fallen. He's sort of adapted the whole, "I'm going to hold your hand so tight I might crush it, and if you start sinking I'm tossing you back up there >/" attitude.

That level of desperation and faith and clinging to one another, with Michael Fallen and everything else, is not going to come up in the new RP because it would be OOC given their situation.

And mostly because 1) I'm too lazy to write everything out on my own and hate cleaning up and 2) I prefer RPing it out with others, though noone but Mikhail can pull off his Michael. XD I'm willing to try with other Michaels though.

(And with the New Year fic, war was already declared, and they were at Har Megiddo for the Final Battle. Everyone, every angel and demon there, heard his horn, so i'm not sure what you mean.)

I really appreciate the advice, though, and I will consider possibilities and ask what if. I'm just going to keep asking why as well, though I dislike having too much to clean up. We function very differently. XD I really, really suck at plotty stuff. I like RP because it's collaborative, so we worked together to get plots that worked for all of us.

[rhaphael.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's why I keep failing then XD Ah well.

[cattygabriel]

XD Hats off to you. I'm not fantastic at either plots or planning. I do list things like things in settings, or descriptions - I still have the original character notes for Gabriel, and the list of what was in his backpack - but my handwritten story notes aren't linear, they're all over the place. I am very, very disorganised. So the (very few) story notes I have for the Michael/Gabriel bodice-ripper spoof are in a Word doc, but just listed whenever I got one, so again they're all over the place (though they make sense to me). I might adapt your method for my Word docs. :D Thanks!

(I don't think it's possible for a demon to possess an angel because the exposure to so much pure holiness would kill the demon, and having such evil invade their very being would likely kill the angel.)

[cattygabriel]

No, it's nothing to do with you! We just have very different approaches to writing. What works for you may not work for me, and vice versa.

[rhaphael.livejournal.com]

Hahaha the difference being what works for me = fail, what works for you = win XD

I think I'm still itchy to write that Last Archangel fic, which is where most of the examples I gave you came from, heh. Maybe I should stop asking What if? and see what happens when I ask Why? When I wrote My Paper Heart I asked "What if Michael and Gabriel had to use their last resort to help Raphael?" "What if Raphael did attempt suicide?" "What if Hadassah returned?" If I had asked Why? it would have been a very different story. Now there's an idea, one of those AUs of an AU XD

Fireflies had that same idea, "What if Michael and Gabriel finally went to Venice?" "What if there was someone Gabriel couldn't track?" "What if Gabriel lost the feather Raphael had given him?" "What if Lucifer wanted Gabriel for himself?" I'll try asking Why? and see what happens :3

[cattygabriel]

Nahh, don't be so hard on yourself!

XD I dunno, you could experiment a bit with a short story and see if it works for you or not.

"What if Lucifer wanted Gabriel for himself?"

Sadistic mun that I am, this has me curious! If you do revisit it, I'd love to read it. Particularly because earlier tonight I was contemplating some things about Fallen Gabriel in the AU with Bird, and poking at a smut scene between him and Lucifer; it was interesting, the dynamics are different from scenes with Belial, Uri and Lucifer. Ever since having turned his back on God, Gabri has trouble letting Lucifer own him completely like Uri and Bel do, so while Lucifer still dominates him he has to work a little harder. But then again, Gabri likes it. XD I'm still trying to figure out exactly why and when he Fell though, I just know it was after Uriel did.

Oh, I went back to that shop today, and they had a lot of new glass pendants, but unfortunately the red and gold one that reminded me of Raphael's feathers was gone! I asked the shop lady about it and she said they change the stock often. So I couldn't get it for you. I'm so sorry. :(