Indie multifandom OC multimuse RP blog!
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Written by Awoo
Sideblogs:
stableddreams (Umamusume)
hollowhunting (Zenless Zone Zero)
"Man, it's weird... That feeling I'm forgetting something won't go away..." Even as Jane cooks breakfast and sits down to eat, another everyday morning for her, something keeps nagging at her. The back of her brain is telling her something, but what...? But then, her phone buzzes. Checking her phone, she sees an automated message from the phone's OS...
'Happy Birthday!'
...Oh. Right. Today's her birthday.
Memories wash over her, of seeing other kids get invited to their friends' birthday parties. Of asking her parents to throw one, only for them to immediately forget after they turned to go prepare one. Feelings of envy and longing as she saw balloons, kids, and cake through a chain link fence.
A celebration that these other children were born, gratefulness for their existence.
Affirmations never afforded her, because nobody could ever seem to remember she existed.
That's why she was feeling like she'd forgotten something... Even she was beginning to forget that she mattered. That she deserved to be born. That Jane Alan, 21 years old now, still took up a modest little place on this planet.
Anyways, I had an idea at work for a sort of tier system for how well people can remember Jane -
Tier 0 - Normal, Human Strangers || The tier for normal people who will completely forget Jane's entire existence the moment she leaves their immediately perception. Normal people who have no relationship with Jane, even as acquaintances, fall into this category.
Tier 1 - Unusual Human Strangers / Human Acquaintances || The tier for people who will still forget Jane's entire being the moment she leaves, but can be reminded of her via mentions of her in text or in passing, or by things like a photo of her, but will still have problems recalling her name (if they learned it at all) or how she looks. Whereas strangers are effectively meeting her again and again, those who are slightly more used to her, or those whose oddities ostracize them from society in some manner, can retain some subconscious memory of Jane. Likely where the majority of the idols started with her after the group fell apart, and where some might even still remain.
Tier 2 - Extraordinary Human Strangers / Unusual Human Acquaintances / Human Friends || The tier for those who can retain some memory of "someone" doing certain things or being somewhere at any given moment, but will recall Jane with more clarity when reminded of her existence. Humans with unusual powers or circumstances, acquaintances with unusual personality or psychological traits, or normal humans who've grown closer to her fall into this category, and is likely where more of her ex-idol group lay, as well as her parents. This is usually the limit that normal people can recall Jane.
Tier 3 - Inhuman Strangers / Extraordinary Human Acquaintances / Unusual Human Friends || The tier for those who are inhuman at least in part, humans with unusual powers that are closer to her, and odd humans who have grown closer to Jane, where she can be recalled akin to Tier 1's recollection of her when mentioned, albeit at-will. Direct reminders will give them a normal memory of events involving Jane, as if they recalled her like any other person.
Tier 4 - Inhuman Acquaintances and Friends / Extraordinary Human Friends || The tier for the inhumans and special humans who've grown close to Jane can recall her without issues, as if she was a completely normal human being, herself. None of the issues of prior tiers affect them unless they themselves have memory issues.
Tier X - Extraordinary Circumstances / Abilities || A special tier for those who would normally fall under a lower tier, but whose nature, skills, or other contingencies allow for easier recollection of Jane than they would otherwise be capable of. Individuals like Kana and the mysterious Agent E fall into this category.
[Jane, um...do have any free time, today? I got stuck in THE PRISON, again... Cheri's planning a breakout, this evening, if you could help out. This place reeks, and I still have an art commission to finish. ]
Of course, this was sent via text, since THE PRISON allows it's prisoners to still have access to their phones for some reason.
As for why she's in there...there's a strict rule about not sneezing three times, consecutively, and her allergies were acting up.
(It's not an actual rule, it just really annoys THE PRISON guards, and they tend to be pretty arrest-happy when annoyed.)
(To Jane)
Ugh, this place sometimes, she swears.
Kana: [ Don't worry, I'll have you out in 15 minutes. ]
Jane's very concern is why the residents of THE TOWN still manage to forget her once she leaves their sight, given how batshit crazy this place is. Maybe it's because this is their "normal"? Eh, things to think about later. At least it keeps her from having to worry about the majority of this place's weird "rules".
Luckily for Kana, breaking in and out of prisons has become something she's gotten... scarily used to as a career super spy.
I'm getting ready for work atm so I can't exactly go as far into the subject as I'd like, but as someone who writes a couple of "OP" muses here and on other blogs, it's important when writing such muses to remember that, while conflict is key to any good story, conflict =/= combat. Or whatever situation your muse is OP in.
Ultimately, unless your muse is capable of anything and everything (at which point, that's not a character, that's just a force of nature and is better relegated to some unfeeling, inhuman something out there rather than giving it a personality), there are things they can't do (or at least can't do well). And it's our job as the writers to put our characters in those situations, or otherwise use them to create the situations for others.
It's important to remember that a character's ability is just another character trait as much as their personality, background, and appearance are. It's not something to write an entire scene around, but to be used to inform how a story/thread/response etc. progresses.
An example I'd like to use is my magical girl, Larissa AKA Empyreal Iris.
She's basically a Superman expy in a magical girl wrapping. She's incredibly powerful and creative with her abilities, to the point where taking her on in a straight fight isn't likely going to go your way unless you're at a level of strength where you could just blow up the planet and be done with it.
But taking her on in a straight fight isn't the point of her character. She's not meant to be thrown into fights that she'll ultimately win, it's to explore the difficulties between balancing superheroics with a regular life, the stresses and pressure that come with the "job", and that self-sacrifice doesn't always mean giving up your life and taking hits for others - often times, it means giving up what you want for the benefit of others. She's meant to explore those difficult choices, and to be the person everyone else can look up to - the shining example for others to use as an ideal, to emulate, because she so desperately wants to live a normal life, but at the same time, she refuses to just simply turn away when someone needs her help. And when it comes time for actual combat, often times, the struggle comes in forcing her to protect others, to prey on her true weakness - her morality, rather than her strength.
Another, less combat-oriented example on my Umamusume blog is Man o' War. She is, effectively, the greatest Umamusume in America (and potentially the world) to the point where people literally worship her and she sees herself as living a lonely existence as a God among mortals. But it's not framed as a good thing, because she finds it hard to understand others when she's been treated so differently all her life and when her abilities just outmatch everyone else's. Her purpose is twofold - to serve as a source of internal conflict for other muses as they try to live or catch up to her legacy (Seabiscuit and Upset, on my blog in particular), but also to challenge others, not on the racetrack, but as people, to break down her walls and show her that she's just as much of a person as they are.
tl;dr a muse can be OP, but if you want to write them with others who aren't anywhere near their ability, that just means you gotta write them outside of their comfort zone, where they're not so overpowered. Put your muses in Situations™ that their powers and skills won't help them. Conflict =/= Combat.
It's the same reason Commander!Aislin's jacket almost seems to conform around her arms and show off her muscles even though she specifically chose it because it was big and baggy enough so she could have some breathing space.
Cosmic forces making ladies show off for the fans -
romaincrisis
yousharknotpass
blakekathryn
discoholicmusic
gummygunk
turnnoffyourmind
titsay