i think i'm most interested in trying a Mushi-shi inspired RP! It's been a long time since I've watched it, so maybe it could just be inspired by the Mushi mythos? Maybe it could be combined with the "school for the gifted" plot, where we're both studying under the same Mushi master. and one of us could have been born with the ability to see mushi, and grown up surrounded by them and has formed a bond with different mushis, so they go to the master to improve their skills. whereas the other one just suddenly started seeing mushi and is totally freaked out about it and wants to stop seeing them, so they go to the master to learn just enough about them to get them to go away.
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Originally Posted by zigbigadorlube
Oooh, that sounds really interesting, I really like this plot idea! The freaking out character really resonates with me, haha! Would you be interested in playing the character that has already bonded with the mushi? Should one of us play the master too or should it be a shared role?
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Originally Posted by ghostPastry
Definitely! I'd have fun with that. I think it could be cool to have it be a shared role, so when one of us is talking to the master, the other one could be playing them. And the master could be some sort of kooky oddball who has an unpredictable personality, so every time we write them, they could sound different. And it would be fun to have them speak in like all really vague metaphors and koans that our player characters have to figure out, like each time we talk to him we get some new sort of educational quest to unravel.
Oops, I somehow missed this thread. I think I've finished my character profile so I'm ready to go when you are! Where do you think we should start? Should they already be partnered up on a mission? Should we start from Gisela's arrive on the premises? Should we start with a normal day of lessons? I'm up for whatever!
Also, how big do we think the school should be? How many students do you envision being there?
i think we should start at the beginning of a new year, so Gisela could be arriving at the school for the first time, and Suru could be returning to continue his studies. the first post could be us moving into/returning to the dorms; do you think we should be roommates or should we move into our rooms separately and meet in the first class? the benefit to solo rooms is more of an isolated feeling to the whole setting, sort of a monklike quietness. but a shared room would give a more communal feel, more like a plum village kind of bustling business. both are good vibes.
i think it should be relatively small classrooms, the size of your average yoga class. i think it's a hard program to get into, in that most people just don't have the capabilities needed to succeed in the courses. and maybe there's a big focus on 1 on 1 learning, so our characters often get paired up together to do partner projects, like each student is assigned to one other student by the master for the entire term and every time there's a project that requires a team, they have to work with each other.
i think the whole university would be small for a university, maybe like 1,000-2,000 students? and it could all be broken up into different schools of Mushi, so we'd be in the Kouda class, but there would also be the Uro class, Mugura class, Yasabi class, etc. not that people in a certain school are confined to just working with that one kind of mushi, it's more that it's their sort of mascot, like a way of building a community identity, and when they show school pride they do it by representing the mushi of their class, so our class would be all about rainbows and snakes.
Aw, those drawings are so neat! I was thinking, how tall is your character? I know it's really random but I'm curious, haha!
I wanted to ask how you felt about making the roleplay more intimate than a large university setting. I was thinking of the show and how it was so rare for there to be people who know what mushi are. As an alternative to a large school, the master could be like a kooky wise man living up in the mountains and our characters could be more like apprentices than part of a formal school. That would be more in line with the actual show but I'm also fine if you'd rather stick with the university since you did propose that idea. I just wanted to run that by you because I realized we had different concepts in our heads when you proposed the school of the gifted mashup.
i like that! i had been initially thinking of something small like that, so that sounds good to me.
hm i actually hadn't thought of that! i like the idea of him as a little roly poly, maybe like 5'1"? but they carry themself like he's taller, very confidently and self-assured and mindfully. people usually assume like 5'5" if he's far away or sitting. i want to do some more sketches, i'd like the torso to be shorter than the legs to give the illusion of being taller. what about Gisela?
Originally I was thinking of having her be very petite but I wonder if your character is shorter, if she should be taller, like a lanky girl--another reason guys aren't interested in her, a girl who is taller than them. It could also explain why she is so clumsy, all limbs and maladroit.
I'm wondering, if I get time would you like me to start the RP with an intro post or would you like to start it? Also, with this new setting, do we have ideas on where we'd like to start? It would probably be easier if Gisela has already moved in, maybe it could be waking up the morning after her arrival or it could be a couple weeks into training or it could even be them out on their first mission! Thoughts?
Originally I was thinking of having her be very petite but I wonder if your character is shorter, if she should be taller, like a lanky girl--another reason guys aren't interested in her, a girl who is taller than them. It could also explain why she is so clumsy, all limbs and maladroit.
Oh i like that! Especially in that culture, being taller like that doesn't fit that "idol ideal" body type, and Suru would be similarly counter-culture being so short for a half-German male-passing person and a little pudgy with the early grey hair. I think his gentleness would also make him stand out, almost like you could spot our characters' abilities from a distance.
I like the idea that the master could almost read the mind of whichever character belongs to the person currently writing the master, just based off of a facial expression, body language, or even a certain hairstyle-- sort of how you can tell what a Mushi does by the shape and appearance of it.
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Originally Posted by zigbigadorlube
I'm wondering, if I get time would you like me to start the RP with an intro post or would you like to start it?
You can start it! I still want to work on Suru's backstory and personality a little more before I jump in.
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Originally Posted by zigbigadorlube
Also, with this new setting, do we have ideas on where we'd like to start? It would probably be easier if Gisela has already moved in, maybe it could be waking up the morning after her arrival or it could be a couple weeks into training or it could even be them out on their first mission! Thoughts?
I think waking up the morning after she's moved in sounds like it could be fun! That way if you want you can describe the grounds a little bit from a new visitor's perspective, and I can have Suru describe it from a more familiar perspective, and we can sort of get a feel for how our characters behave on their own in that sort of atmosphere.
And we could each have an individual interaction with the master before we meet, like you could have an advisory consultation or like an entrance evaluation, and Suru could just be going to greet him for the new semester, so we can get a feel for how we want to play him too. And then if you want to do a timeskip after the first day of class or whenever we feel like we've developed the setting, we can jump into a mission a few weeks in. Does that sound good? I'm open to other ideas too, anything I say is totally open/optional, I just like to throw out ideas.
Yeah, I like that idea too that they're both sort of misfits.
The master almost feels like Yoda to me in my mind, haha!
I've gotten a post up. I tried not to go too far so you could also get a chance to either do some morning activities or bump into Gisela (as the master?) if you wish.
hahah totally, i love the yoda vibe. playful but strict he is
awesome! your post looks great, i love your writing style. is it ok if i find a riddle/koan for Gisela to gnaw on like in Suru's bio? there's no true answer to a koan, but the point is that you come to multiple valid realizations while you're trying to find the "true" realization. so whatever answer she would say to the master, he would always say it's wrong, but it would still be a lesson learned.
i finished Suru's profile and wrote his bio, i think i have a good feel for them now so i'll start writing my post tomorrow.
Yay, thank you! I had fun writing it. The koan sounds like fun! It's bound to make her grumpy which would be fun to play.
I just read through Suru's bio. I like how when he came to Japan that he was all like "these are clearly just native Japanese creatures". LOL!
Also--confession. Your character's pronouns are listed as they/he. This is a pronoun combination that I have not seen before (typically I see they/them or he/him). Can you let me know how this works so I can properly use their pronouns? Do you just use they/he interchangeably or is there a specific way they should be used?
i like the idea of him being a little naïve because it's funny with his seriousness, like once someone explained it to him, he would be so embarrassed, and he wouldn't be able to see the humor in his mistake.
Ofc! So, Suru is pretty open about what they prefer. I like to write it so I'm using them equally, but in a way that mostly tries to make sense? I mostly just choose which one feels right for him in the moment, how he would do for themself, like if I've said 'he' a bunch of times in a row, I'll throw in a 'they' next.
But for other people referring to him, he's fine with whatever's easiest and doesn't mind if someone else exclusively refers to him as 'he' or exclusively as 'they', or whatever level of mixture works for that person. He also has something referred to as "reverse mirror pronouns", where basically he chooses whichever pronoun out of he/they that doesn't match the person they're talking to.
i appreciate that! i know it can get a little tough to read sometimes, but i felt that it best represents his personality and it's fun for me to practice using them anyways, i've known a handful of people who used mixed/mirrored pronouns like that, and it's good to be in the habit for me.
i'm going to have fun with the challenge of making Suru very serious, because i am... SO not serious i think i'm going to have to funnel all of my jokes into the master to compensate
totally, i feel like he's very mindful and content, so he looks very peaceful, but he just has 0 sense of humor. and he's very talented with the Mushi, but that lack of playfulness is holding them back because it makes them overprepare and be a little too conscientious, even with their mindfulness, it's very regimented and planned out, like a star pupil trying to always get 100%.
Explained that way that totally makes sense. I wonder if Gisela will ever come to have fun with the mushi and find them wonderful or just be perpetually terrified of them.
There's a lot to be terrified of with the Mushi, I could totally understand becoming more and more freaked out the more she learns. Maybe the master has a goal with both of them to get them to see the lighter, more frivolous side to Mushi. Whether or not they reach that goal just depends on their level of hardheadedness
Ok, i've gotten something written up! It just needs to be edited, I got Suru and the master in the same room, and I've set it up so they're waiting expecting Gisela, but the instructions she's been given to get there are very confusing and the master is expecting her to be late and Suru is expecting her to be on time i hope it's ok that I didn't get the master up to conversing with her yet, the post had already gone a bit long after getting Suru to talk to the master.
ok cool don't stress yourself, i'm fine with whatever pace is comfy for you.
that's a good idea! we've established sort of a middle area with a pond and a well, right? as well as student housing and the master's home. and there should be a small kitchen the master can cook at, i think, and some sort of training grounds for any kind of physical/martial arts training if we want to tie that in. what else do you think would be on the map?
Thanks for understanding! I'm trying really hard to get all the apartment and home stuff cleared away before work starts up again Tuesday. I want to start the year out feeling a bit more on top of things!
I assumed it was like one of those big Japanese houses that were all interconnected but you wrote in a separate house for the master so that's totally cool! I'm really fine for whatever, I'd just like it to be in a remote area so maybe the area bleeds out into the forest or maybe there's a rock wall around the whole thing? Maybe there's a waterfall nearby if we want to do a typical waterfall training scene, lol! I was thinking there could also be a vegetable garden where they grow some of their own food. Should there be a small bath as well? Anyway, food for thought! Let me know what you think.
I like the idea of one big interconnected building where just the master's house is separate. And a rock wall could definitely work, maybe it works like a fairy ring where it sort of works as a metaphysical shield as well as a physical barrier? And the forest could gradually fade in past the rocks.
Definitely yes to a waterfall training scene, would you want the waterfall to be somewhere they go frequently, that's somewhat easy to get to, or should the whole journey to the waterfall be a trial as well?
A veggie garden sounds great too, and the small bath. Maybe also a chicken coop for eggs? And maybe the bath could be a deep wooden Furo, and the bath, pond, and well could all be fed by a natural spring. Then the layout of the map could be centered around the spring, with the connected housing forming like a square, and the garden and chicken coop and master's house being placed outside of the square but still inside the more circular rock wall, and then the waterfall being placed somewhere in the forest?
I feel like natural springs are such magical, mystical places it would make sense for Mushi to be drawn to that and it would explain our perpetual abundance of water, and with it also right near a waterfall, it would make a lot of sense as a place for this kind of school to have been built.
The fairy ring sounds cool! We can add in a few mushrooms for good measure, haha!
Hm, I don't have a strong preference on the waterfall. It might be fun to go there often but I could go either way on that one.
Chickens work for me! I could see a scene where Gisela talks to the chickens every morning because well they're not like the master talking in riddles or Suru being all stoic or whatever, lol.
I love the idea of that deep wooden bath. I wish my bathtub was that nice!
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A veggie garden sounds great too, and the small bath. Maybe also a chicken coop for eggs? And maybe the bath could be a deep wooden Furo, and the bath, pond, and well could all be fed by a natural spring. Then the layout of the map could be centered around the spring, with the connected housing forming like a square, and the garden and chicken coop and master's house being placed outside of the square but still inside the more circular rock wall, and then the waterfall being placed somewhere in the forest?
This sounds perfect! Would you like me to scribble something up to show it or would you like to do the honors?
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I feel like natural springs are such magical, mystical places it would make sense for Mushi to be drawn to that and it would explain our perpetual abundance of water, and with it also right near a waterfall, it would make a lot of sense as a place for this kind of school to have been built.
