#rp prep

[notthe-latte-hottay]

Poe Party RP

George Eliot will be online from about 5:20pm GMT. Asks are open for him now, if you’d like to send questions or messages to him!

[jaxthejackrabbit]

HeadCannons I RP with

(Some of them might technically be cannon but shh)(any mental illnesses are ones I also have. I will never portray something I do not know about <3)

- Jax is secretly very depressed and has severe anxiety. On his meaner days is when he’s struggling the most

- Jax dissociates and often forgets what he was doing or what he was saying.

- Jax looooooooves being pet, and it pisses him off when the wrong person finds out

- Jax is Bi

- Jax has a lot less memories of the real world than the others, and doesn’t like admitting it

- Jax IS an asshole, but a large part of him wishes he didn’t need to be

(Might add more)

[dazed-ccnfused]

16 icons done for this damn blog, and more to go.

[ask-the-ladies-of-dragonball]

RP action tomorrow

Okay it's getting way to hot for me and my computer, but the library will be open tomorrow so if anyone wants to RP with any lady leave a starter or reminder in my ask box and I'll be back tomorrow

[starry-dreamer]

Working on Alternate Versions of Characters

So yesterday I randomly attempted character development out loud with Storybrooke!Mulan (and her grandfather) as well as my potential Hogwarts AU Linguist (I’m getting all that figured out, how that AU works…and now I feel real bad for having bugged nooneunimportant about it repeatedly because of my stupid impatience…I’M REALLY SORRY!).

With Storybrooke!Mulan, it was more of the same, her trying to get the sword back from Gold. Because I had been doing Eleven the same day as nooneunimportant’s Hogwarts AU muse, one time I meant to do Gold’s voice and accent and did Eleven’s by accident. Oops. (Seriously, perfecting my Eleventh Doctor impression for my Alys Reed fanfic audios has practically ruined my ability to do any other British accent. I learned to do a British accent for a play called Mr. Scrooge’s Christmas that I was in in 6th grade, and I just kept it up. But I used to be able to do a British accent - an RP accent I guess - for practically every tone of voice, from young girls to adult men. Now I find I’m losing that ability). I also did a scene with Mulan right after she leaves Gold’s shop where she meets David/Charming. I can’t do Josh Dallas’s voice or anything, but at least there’s no accent to worry about. At first, Mary Margaret was in the scene too, but then I remembered I set the sword thing after David’s speech in “We Are Both,” and at that point Mary Margaret and Emma are still in the Enchanted Forest. Then I did the aftermath, with Mulan telling her grandfather what happened and her grandfather going to see Gold. This bit included my attempt to sound like Belle. I love Emilie de Ravin’s accent but I just can’t quite replicate it. I just checked, she’s actually Australian. I don’t really know how to talk Aussie.

With Hogwarts Linguist (or Lindsey Kirke) I played with several scenes. This was mainly developing her friendship with Professor John Smith (nooneunimportant’s muse). To fit with her being a Time Lord in her Main Verse, I made her a Time Lord wizard like him. (I originally was going to make it a Fobwatched verse, with The Linguist in the human form she took to hide from House, but changed my mind after reading his bio again and being intrigued by the Time Lord wizard idea. Gah I really should not steal even background info from others’ muse bios…bad girl! But then again, maybe his muse wouldn’t mind having another Time Lord around?). Only she’s pureblood and her ability to see time the way their kind can do is stronger and more consistent. And she figured out long ago that he’s using a Time-Turner, but he doesn’t know she knows.

Unfortunately, I may have turned him into a bit of a bumbler, with him, for example, saying when she mentions nonverbal spells (after taking pity on him and unlocking a cabinet door for him with a nonverbal Alohomora), “I teach Muggle Studies, not Charms.” (Doing nonverbal spells is actually learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts, not Charms. It’s NEWT level and is introduced in book 6). Also I had him make that same mistake with the Time-Turner that Hermione did, of just missing himself, like where Hermione would leave Harry and Ron and then suddenly appear at the top of the stairs behind them.

I really shouldn’t pretend to interact with someone else’s muse without knowing a lot about them. I could be portraying the person totally wrong.

Ok I should go to bed now.

[starry-dreamer]

I got my tags page done for my RP blog last night. Thankfully, I had most of my tags written out already, so that helped. I found the most lovely theme for the page too. It's by nff-themes and is SO pretty. I was drawn to it I think cause the anime girl in it looks like my favorite Sailor Senshi, Ami/Sailor Mercury. I confess I messed up the layout at first when customizing it, so I had to recopy the original code and start over. This time I actually paid attention to the instructions in the code on how to customize it, and it turned out great! I also found a cool muse bio theme; it's actually the same theme arkytiorforeman is using, so I looked at her blog for inspiration on how to customize it. I wasn't originally going to do a special theme for that (I was going to just put all the bios on one page) but then I saw some when looking for main themes and thought, eh why not.

[starry-dreamer]

Saga of Mulan

So I finished Saga of Mulan. It was definitely better than the other one. Again, close to the source material. They did change it a little to add a romantic subplot between Mulan and her superior officer Jin. Also this girl falls in love with Mulan, believing Mulan is a man, leading to a rather melodramatic scene where the girl confesses her love and Mulan refuses. The mandarin ducks on the tassel the girl made for her sword should've tipped Mulan off, honestly (in ancient Chinese culture, mandarin ducks were a symbol of love, because they mate for life). Also in this version, they initially play up Mulan not feeling comfortable among the soldiers and getting teased by them, until she decides she must act more like a man so she can stay in the army. (There's an element of this in the Disney version also). The very end has a singing bit alluding to the meaning of Mulan's name ("Mulan" means "magnolia flower") and how she is a big part of Chinese history, which is cool. For being promoted as an opera, there is actually not nearly as much singing in it as in the 1956 opera film. It's more like a musical. There is a decent dialogue/singing balance. Also, unlike the 1956 film, where Mulan took the alias "Hua Muli," in this one she takes on the name of her father, "Hua Hu," which makes more sense. (By the way, "Hua Mulan" is the Mandarin rendering/spelling of her name. She is sometimes also referred to as "Fa Mulan," the Cantonese spelling/rendering. The Cantonese spelling is used for the Disney film). This film does make use of some lines nearly verbatim from the ballad too, like when the army at large realizes Mulan is a woman. That part of the research is done. There is still work to do though!

[starry-dreamer]

Done with Hua Mulan opera

So I finished watching the one Mulan opera. It was…interesting. The subtitles were in really bad English (I guess the really bad English description on the back of the DVD case should’ve tipped me off there) but understandable enough. The opera more or less follows the plot of the source material (an anonymous 5th or 6th century poem called “The Ballad of Mulan,” believed to originate from the northern nomadic tribes), fleshing out parts to fill in the 102 minutes. (The poem itself is actually pretty short). Chinese opera though…it is sung in a style which is loud and kinda screechy and not at all like Western opera in the least, so unless you like that sort of thing, it’s hard to listen to.

It amazes me though to think this came out in 1956, in the first decade of Communist China. Mao was all about abolishing the old ways and traditions, yet here we have an opera based on an old legend, praising filial piety (a classic Confucian concept). Women were held to be more equal to men in the Communist era, though, which might be why something like this would be allowed, since a large part of the story’s point is to suggest women can protect the country as well as men. This fits with Mao’s famous quote stating that “women hold up half the sky.”

Anyway, taking a break before watching the other DVD, a newer Chinese film from 1994 called Saga of Mulan. I want to watch them both today cause they’re due back at the library tomorrow.

There are other movie versions of this story in existence as well, besides Disney’s version. Disney’s version is good, but I think it’s enlightening to see actual Chinese-made takes on the story, especially since Disney’s version is only loosely based on the legend. And as OUAT Mulan is supposed to be based on the legend (there’s been no indication that she’s based on the Disney movie version, although other OUAT characters very well might be based on their Disney counterparts), I want to understand the legend to a degree, since OUAT has given us very little canon to go on as of yet.

Ok back to break. I need to work on Camp NaNoWriMo stuff today too…I’m SO behind. Oh and plus the series finale of Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is tonight, so there’s that to watch later!