Meme

[appleofhiseye]

It's been forever since I did one of these and Apple hit 32k...sometime this weekend? SO LET'S HAVE A QUESTION MEME. Ask me things and I will ask you things back! I can do those dot things and heart things too but you will have to link me to them because HTML is hard.

I have Apple/Shirayuki and Haruki at Aather
Machika, Leo, and Jack at CFUD
Apple/Shirayuki at Decollage

I like the colors okay

Comments

[artificialcommand]

That is a terribly painful question. She would stay in Aather without question, because that’s what she decided to do! She promised Mau that she’d stick with him and Red until the end and see it all through. That decision won’t change. But as things are now she’d be pretty miserable about it, because she doesn’t feel like they’re doing anything and if she had all of her memories back there wouldn’t even be the option of supporting her friends in games. …It would actually probably completely destroy her self-worth so GOOD THING SHE STILL HAS TONS OF MEMORIES. 

…I am running out of questions, hmmmm. Do you think Sapphire’s way of playing games has shifted since Selenia got in? What’s Selenia’s IC perception of how it’s changed?    

[glorious]

When Selenia was new, he ended up in a lot of games with Mau and Red that became "WHO OF US WILL DIVE INTO TRAFFIC THIS TIME?" As evidenced by this game thread with Mau, Red and Selenia all arguing over who gets to run into traffic. (f-forgive my typos in that thread orz). ...And it's also important to note that this is how Selenia learned about games from Red in the context of 'who rushes to take the hit' (...the answer being 'Red' but CLEARLY that just means Selenia had competition!). So, understandably, his impression of Sapphire was that it was a self-sacrificial team and that he would have to line himself up to take hits every now and then, and that he'd be competing for that role with Mau and Red. He also learned that Sapphire was very lucky and had no deaths for as long as Red was on the team (outside of Mal) but I can't find the thread for that. And this all happened when he arrived just at the end of a trauma game train and then there were no trauma games for a while where the damage was avoidable. So he both a) got the assumption that games weren't that bad and b) that in the event that things go bad, Sapphire will stand to protect other teams at the cost of their own safety if necessary.

...And then they were all crushed to death and the team didn't like it so he went a good long while thinking that everyone on his team just DOESN'T UNDERSTAND that when you self-sacrifice, there's an actual sacrifice involved! And feeling greatly insulted that he felt like he died for nothing and that the ideals he was hoping to uphold meant nothing to anyone else.

Buuuut as he's been in more games with Apple after her heart game and such, he's gotten the idea that the ideal that Sapphire upholds has changed from 'protect others at all costs' to 'defy the Personae and their expectations as much as possible'. Which ideally isn't a bad thing and he would've gotten along just fine with it, except for the fact that Sapphire also seems to try and defy the games as much as possible without every understanding that their are consequences involved and sometimes those consequences means dragging everyone else down with you (like expecting Red and Apple to catch fire in the game and maybe the whole team would burn to death because they wanted to make a point). He thinks Sapphire has great ideals but that they aren't tempered with any sense of reality whatsoever and that they end up dying a lot for nothing, which is the worse part of all.

...OOCly I think he's being a biiiiit overdramatic about it. I say, to understate things. BUT YES, Sapphire has definitely changed in the year I've been on it, but that's to be expected with turnover and the fact that we ended up with new teammates with different ideas of how things are to be done and even teammates who have stayed as long as they have have also changed their tactics. (I know there was at least one game where Red chose not to self-sacrifice, which is a huge thing if you know Allen Walker from DGM canon. And obviously, Selenia's ideas have changed to be something closer to what he had in canon too, as an example of change happening in the opposite direction.)

But this is an interesting question. Does Apple think Sapphire's tactics have changed?

[appleofhiseye]

A bit, yes! She’s only recently been self-aware enough to notice that she’s changed her own tactics too. She came into Sapphire with the idea that she helps people and heals people, she doesn’t hurt them! So she was willing to run into traffic to protect other people and the teammates she broached the subject with were of the same mind. I don’t remember the thread but she was also informed that sometimes people die in bad games, but Sapphire hadn’t died (outside of Mal). And if I recall correctly there were a few trauma games before Jabberwock’s, but they were able to work their way around them (?) (I could be remembering wrong). Overall it gave her confidence that they could work their way around the tough games and still be able to help people.

AND THEN THEY DIED and dying sucked? But she didn’t regret it; she more…regretted that so many people were upset by it. She might have handled it better if there hadn’t been a lot of conflict around it afterwards. And the conflict around it distressed her because she’d thought they were all on the same page about it. Finding out they weren't on the same page was baffling and more than a little distressing. Dying…did really suck, and she felt Sapphire’s stance shift from that (and the Cry Wolf game).

Up until that point, and I THINK up until her heart game (my mental timeline is skewed though so I might be off) she would provide input but in the end it would always be Red, Mau, or Selenia making that final decision and providing a rational response to whatever they were presented with. But then she hit a point where she started making her point more known and being excessively stubborn about her choices, even the ones she knew were rash. This was in the same general timeframe when she felt Selenia’s ideals shift (after the Cry Wolf game, basically) and he’s usually the one ALWAYS present during games with her. Having him not be on the same page as her (and kind of feeling like not all of Sapphire was on the same page anymore) and feeling a slight shift in the way they approached games made her want to reaffirm what she believes in. Mostly because she still holds “protect others at all costs” as a big ideal and wants to keep holding that as an ideal despite dying for it (or rather because she died for it), but “defy the Personae and their stupid games” is another factor, but that’s her frustration towards the games in general since like, Wonderland.

But she thinks at the core of it all their ideals are the same—that is, they want to try to protect everyone as much as possible! With the turnover, though, she also recognizes that not all of the newer teammates (of which there are 4, now) are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others. Which is fair! And she doesn’t want to force anyone into that, because if they don’t want to do it then they shouldn’t have to! Plus their tactics have shifted a bit because everyone’s just…tired. So there’s a vague apathy towards games and not caring if they fight back or not because they just want to get through it so it’s done and over with. But it’s shifted from “everyone on Sapphire arguing over who gets to run into traffic” to “Apple stop running into traffic please” <- As she sees it, at least! That obviously does not necessarily indicate the actual shift in thinking, just her perception of it. And the perception that wanting to help people is a problem rather than something that they collectively want to do.

That was more about Apple than Sapphire as a whole I’M SORRY…She tends to view everyone on the team as a separate individual rather than as a collective “Sapphire” so it turns into what she thinks of how each team member approaches games as opposed to how they collectively approach games. On that note (and to continue being long-winded about the topic) she sees the shift because of the individuals that are and aren’t in the games a lot. Like Mau is someone who helps her calm down and think rationally about a situation, but he can’t play in games with them anymore. Selenia is almost always in games with her and put himself up as the decision maker as often as he can, so if his views on how to approach games shift then it makes a big impact! Likewise Red is a decision maker but he isn’t always in games and it’s not like she always agrees with him either, but his presence tends to mean they strive more to break the system or refuse the rules of the game.

...I like this question REVERSE FOR ESTELLE. Or, how does Estelle see her role in games, and has that changed or shifted? It's very different for a knight as opposed to someone on a team, so I'm curious!

[fullmoonblooms]

ESTELLE...Is interesting cause while Saya was still playing in games, I tended to leave Estelle out when I didn't think I could handle three. (Later on, I have learned that this was wise of me. NEVER DOING THREE IN A TRAUMA GAME EVER AGAIN. Only bad decisions and burn out lie that way.)

Anyway, I think as a knight she's had a...different experience than most on the basis that most people tend to look at her and go "We must protect the cute girl" and also that the trauma games she made it to were usually ones where knights were together and the 'protect the cute girl' thing was more in play. The only experience she's had to the contrary of 'protect the cute girl' was the issue with Heliodor and Peridot in Peter Pan's knight game, which was just her being scared of fighting and also kind of feeling betrayed that her Heliodor friends threw her under to 'win a game'. There was some expectation from some teams that knights are meant to be used for teams and that...stuck a bit. Though she's also played with Peridot and they did their best to ensure that she didn't have to do anything she didn't want to, and they figured out a fair system that worked for everyone.

I GUESS...To sum it up, with knights there's a little more trepidation in trauma games, because you never know which team you'll be with in a game, or whether or not that team will respect your input and limits or if they'll just view you as a sort of doll to toss around in whichever direction they think would help them win. Most teams are pretty decent and Estelle has mostly good luck on who she's been with. However there's definite awareness that she is not only at the mercy of the Personae, but the mercy of the team she's with and it's a very vulnerable position to be in. (I think this is the reason people tend to app hardier characters in as knights, because the unpredictability means your character has to be able to withstand whatever comes their way. There's both less IC control and less OOC control, since you do not have a consistent team to ICly and OOCly discuss boundaries with.)

...And I JUST NOW realize you said 'games' and not 'trauma games' o-oops. But the idea is the same. If a team has a certain way of doing things, it isn't her place to kick them out of it unless she very strongly feels otherwise. Most teams have allowed her to have input in the more creative games (since she is a natural storyteller!) and very rarely has she had arguments, but she also has been in games where a team member is very insistent on doing this Like This so she tends to go with the flow.

...Unless it's Turquoise. She will troll Turquoise relentlessly, especially Echo.

Hmm...If you wanted to app a knight, who would you app for the role? Pretend that you magically have no issues with playcest and can app from AnS and di[e]ce too.

[appleofhiseye]

Oh no that's so hard, I'D APP ZEN SO FAST he would be a really good knight. I would cry over not being able to play off a Zen but I'd still totally do it. He's sturdy enough to handle it and would be good at dealing with most of the teams, giving his opinion or holding back depending on the situation. If teams are having trouble or arguing he can mediate! He is good at being able to Set his feelings aside to deal with people, even if he can't always turn his feelings off, and it would be a lot harder during tough games. He'd also do good in a team environment because he's good with groups, but he tends to take a leader role which might cause problems on a team if they don't want their newbie trying to take charge :|a But it would depend on a lot of factors so I could only speculate, especially since he would be different with amnesia; the point is I would have a lot of fun playing him as a knight. I also considered Machika as a knight vaguely because we need more badass lady knights, but she is...very hotheaded and headstrong and will do what she thinks is right, so she would cause a lot of Problems on teams and get mad if she doesn't get her way. She also likes to hit people to get them to listen to her :')!!! I CAN'T IMAGINE THAT ENDING BADLY AT ALL. I wouldn't mind playing it but I also wouldn't have the energy and I would feel bad being That Person Causing Drama all the time or something ;A; because while she has a really big heart and would love helping and giving quests and all the things I think would make her a good knight, she would also be a problem child. Uhmmm another one I'd considered is Shinichi from DCMK because he is sturdy like Zen and would be good at offering advice and the like but also being able to take a step back if needed. Basically being...able to read the situation? he also has a flare for being dramatic and would give riddle or puzzle quests all the time and his first skill would be shrinking into a small child so everyone would be like D:!!!! Which I just think is funny. That has nothing to do with him actually being a good knight but he would be! All three of them would also do really good in group environments though so if I did app I'd just do hero instead of knight because...knighting looks hard and I don't have the energy for it sob.

Iffff....you could app a fourth character and could balance it with your other three and playercest didn't matter, who would you app???

[avemaria]

I thought long and hard about this question, mulled over my options and came to this conclusion:

I would app Cross Marian to troll the fuck out of Red. I NEED NO OTHER REASON FOR IT.

This is a good reason, y/y?

[appleofhiseye]

...That is the perfect reason to app anyone.

[avemaria]

I may get the balls to do it one day after Saya moves on with her teammate. Maybe.

[appleofhiseye]

And everyone that went into Red's heart will know who he is and all the boys will be traumatized and all the girls will be like ////?!?!? IT WOULD BE AWESOME.

[avemaria]

then after a week he'd fuck off with whichever Personae would offer him the most sex and booze and never be seen again.

[appleofhiseye]

Goldie

I bet he'd run off with Goldie or Chance, I dunno which other ones would offer him a better deal. But it would just kind of be magical to have someone app him, wreak havoc, and then run off with a Personae omg LEAVE RED IN TEARS

[avemaria]

I guess Dream has a love hotel. That would be pretty tempting...

Magical and in-character! Why commit when your character won't!