i-Anya

The social identity of avatars
Yes I am on a ‘writing about avatars’ blitz lately.

Questions:

* What do you hope (if anything) that others will understand about you from your avatars?
* Are there any symbols on your avatars that have particular significance?
* Are there any common features across the majority of your avatars?

And, if anybody has time, would you please describe an avatar that I haven’t seen.

posted by Anya at 1:45:50 AM
1 Comments:

Perc said…

1) I don’t want people to ‘understand’ anything from my avatars. Except that I like Borg. Gyahahah!
2)Yes. Zhuge Liang’s little hat. It’s just, ya know… a symbol… a calling card…
3)They tend to either wear robes, or be from Chinese history. Most likely both.

The avatar: a moveable theatre of the self
If we take Baudrillard’s notion of the simulacra, which is essentially about the fetishisation of the represented object, we can think of the avatar as being hyperreal - an over representation, an object of ’scopic consumption’, in which the body remains profoundly absent. Using Braidotti’s work on the image of the model, we could extend this to say,

“The bodily surface, and the complex montage of organs that composes it, is thus reduced to pure surface, exteriority without depth, a moveable theatre of the self.” (Braidotti)

An avatar is a style, a mask, but subject to change at a moment’s whim, impermanent, changeable, fluid…

But aren’t we glad about that? For then we can transcend the limits and boundaries of the body and popular discourses about the body - we can transform our bodies… or are we buying into the discursive body regimes of ideal health and beauty with our avatars? By reducing the body to surface, does that not magnify the significance of other cues such as the language and interaction? Or does that cause the language to become hyperreal as well?

This continues to be a struggle I have with the idealised body culture of avatars. On the one hand I find it liberating to always appear young, beautiful, slender, and gorgeous with my avatar. Basically for me it means I can forget about how I am visually perceived, and concentrate on the social interactions. Yet on the other hand, by wearing these gorgeous avatars am I doing a disservice to females in general? Am I doing a disservice to my self? Am I setting myself up to be the subject of disgust to others when they see my grey hairs, wrinkles, and multi-curved body?

But its not just about the body (though as I argued in another post, in a more general sense its always about the body).

Its about having a presence. Its about power. Its about confidence to express your thoughts. And when I think about online interactions, I’m not so sure that the avatar makes the differene, its probably just that I have a receptive audience. But is the receptive audience in any way a result of the avatar? Possibly some of the time, but I don’t think it is in general.

Do you judge a person by their avatar?

I do.

Have you been judged because of your avatar?

More random late night thoughts about avatars are sure to come *grin*

posted by Anya at 1:39:12 AM
2 Comments:

Perc said…

I’ve been deemed scary and evil due to wearing either
1) Darth Vader
2) Bilbo going psycho (FOTR)
3) Sauron

Mwahaha! FEAR.
3:33 PM
Eowyn Skywalker said…

You know– I’ve had PMs about my personal favorite avatar. I had Eowyn and Aragorn in their sword fighting segment, but I edited them to have lightsabers. It was… fun. Everyone loved it.

I did use myself once, a while back– merely to clear up misconseptions. On BD, it was.

An avatar is a mask, a covering up for who we really are– but is it just the avatars we wear, or is it who we become? We allow ourselves online to become pictures of ourselves, to become someone we’re not– and to what end?

Is it merely to express sides we cannot easily in reality– like I use Tiana to take out all my frustrations of reality through– or is it merely because we love to deceive people?

What is the point of an avatar, but to deceive– to create an image of ourselves that we’ll never be.

Vader, eh? *grins evilly*

Avatars Again!
(Its so much easier writing a new post to respond to your comments so I am)

Thanks Eowyn and Perc - you two both made me laugh today! *grin*

So… you both dream about yourselves in your avatar forms, or in text / sig file. I think that’s fascinating. (And I have been smiling all day today every time I recalled your: “I found it frustrating that I couldn’t move my arms” comment Perc. That’s funny! :>

Thanks for the link to your picture Eowyn! Actually I think i had seen it months ago on GotE but didn’t put your name to that photo til now! You remind me of one of my high school friends! Love the cloak! I never liked sewing. In grade 7 I had a HORRENDOUS sewing/craft teacher who slapped me on the back of my head because I couldn’t thread the bobbin fast enough!!! I was such a perfectionist and goody-two shoes so this event traumatised me for life. I don’t know how they can let some people stay teachers.

Anyway yes, I can see that you’ve chosen avatars and images that are similar to your real self. I wonder how many other people do this?

My main avatar has the same colouring as me and represents the type of beauty I find attractive. She is a model but deliberately not a famous celebrity. If I chose a celebrity as an av I’d probably go with Salma Hayak, but I don’t want my avatar to be a celebrity - I prefer her to be a nameless model, so that I can bring her alive as me, rather than have preconceived ideas attached to her.

I also had an image of myself I used for a while, but even those images (like the one here on display) are idealised - I took the pictures myself, shone a bright light onto my face to wash out the wrinkles, took 10 digital pics til I found one I liked, cropped out everything but the face… so I never saw that as being real either. In visual literacy we call these degrees of reality in images: MODALITY - the avatar is low modality because it only shares a few similar attributes, the photo is higher modality because it has more of the realistic attributes, but it isn’t 100% highest modality. Its all a cline. And I’m not sure about this, but I think some people feel differently about how we/they are relating to others depending where on the modality scale their/our avatar fits. Or maybe they simply select different avatars for different purposes and different spaces - all depending on the possibilities open to them I guess.

I’d like to hear more about this idea of deception. In what other ways have you deceived people (intentionally or accidentally) online?

posted by Anya at 12:15:44 AM
2 Comments:

Eowyn Skywalker said…

Ah, yes… deception. Hows this– I have several aliases on MEI and exactly 3 people know who all of them are. *grins* Well, 1 does… the other two might not yet. (coughJANDALFANDPADMEcoughcoughADRIENNEKNOWSWHOALLMINEAREcough) I admit that it’s intentional, and… evil… and I do feel guilty at times… butit’s FUN. That’s the problem. When I’m the admin, people think of me as that. When I’m another member– just like them– they treat me different.

I PMed Jandalf once as an alias before she knew who I was… heh… couldn’t resist. It’s fun to see how different people react.

I think Trin knows most of my aliases too.

And there was one really annoying guy driving me insane, so I told him I was actually a grown woman from some weird place and I was from the CIA inverstigating some weird triple crossover agent thing… had one heck of a story going… haven’t heard from him since! *grins* I should see if I can dig up the details of that…

Bah. Sometimes deception is easier than facing the truth. It’s easy to slip into RP mode here… I’m going in character now, so… just a warning. Just to explain more about deception.

I fool my Master a lot– though it’s not really true fooling. It’s just simple little dodges of the point. Little things that make for easier escapes. People don’t always need to know the entire story.

I admit it, I hate lying. Especially to my Master, but sometimes I have to. Sometimes you have to lie to yourself– at least, it seems that way.

Over time I’ve learned in the long run it’s safer to just face the truth. Stop warping reality, and face it head on. Let it pass through, and all that.

Yet… I still do it. I still go distant whenever she asks me a question. I say it’s because I can’t explain it very well– but I don’t think it really is. I continue to deceive myself, and watch my purple skies fly by.

((back out of character))

That didn’t make much sense. Just a small explanation as to why Tiana is so… distant.

It’s true though– online we don’t just deceive others, we also deceive ourselves in a way. We let ourselves take things for granted, let ourselves think so much…

And it’s not always true, is it?

About that pic– yup, it’s on GotE. I should get a more recent one to show you, though. I dunno where mom put the one with me with green streaks in my hair… have to find it… heh.

BAD TEACHER! *slaps Anya’s evil teacher* NO SLAPPING STUDENTS! Honestly! Why do people DO things like that? If they can’t control their temper, they shouldn’t be teachers! Sheesh! If my Master was that short of additude… well… Tiana’d be dead. Snicker.

Hmm… can’t say I’m not a perfectionist at times… but… yeah. Heh.

Mom taught me how to sew, of course. She’s much better than I am. You should see the Legolas costume she made for my little brother! It’s really cool. (she also did Anakin’s costume for him too, and Luke for another brother, and Pippin for my littlest brother) (and she was Celebrian and I was Eowyn… that was before MEI.) (I was also Darth Maul. That was bothersome, I admit…)

Interesting how so many people think I look almost familiar… what’s REALLY interesting is Jandalf met up with one of my second cousins or something like that and recognized her as being related to me! That was freaky! *grins*

Put my name to my photo, eh? So… what is my name, then? Nah, just kidding– but I do wonder what name people would place on me just by my appearance if they didn’t know my real name…

Yeah, I always go similar to myself for my main characters. Makes things a lot easier, really…
8:57 PM
Perc said…

Deception!

Remember that whole Star Trek chat I went to? The nasty one? Right. Well, I decided to pretend to be someone else completely different. I mean, there’s my username (uh-huh) Then I chose a different name, posed as a 16 year old, and used this identity to infiltrate my clan’s enemy clan, so I could send information back…

Infiltration be hard work, yo.
4:40 PM

Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Avatars: consensual hallucinations?
Ahhh great comments Eowyn and Perc.

Perc, I read a review somewhere about that Bilbo going psycho scene and the reviewer said that despite all of the flashy horror effects, monsters and evil characters, the only scene that truly frightened her child was that scene. Something about the shock of a loved one turning on you being infinitely more horrifying than the known evil.

But my question to you is, why do you like wearing scary avatars? What is it about them that gives you pleasure?

One of my colleagues, Lois, responded to my post here, saying:

I agree that with the adolescents I have studied there is a sense of both the idealization of the “perfect” body in the humanoid avatars. However there is also an understanding that actual people rarely look like their avatars. These two ethics are constantly in conflict in that while teens would acknowledge that their chat partner was not the person pictured in the avatar, they would almost invariably describe the partner as having the same characteristics as the avatar - hair color, eye color, etc.

which I found very interesting. We’re all participating in what Cyberpunk writer William Gibson calls a ‘consensual hallucination’ (yes, I know some writers hate this term but it suits my purposes here to think in these terms) - we willingly participate in the idealised body culture of avatars and agree to live within the myth or the dream of perfection.

How would you describe your chat partners? Which features of their avatar would be reflected in that description? Physical attributes? Emotional? Your previous experiences with people who wear that type of avatar? Have you ever been discriminated against because of your avatar? Or know of any people who have? Have you ever been asked (or forced) to remove it? Are there types of avatars which make you instantly know not to bother talking with them?

One of the funniest moments I have had online was an evening when Percirion and I were chatting in the entrance of the palace. Perc was wearing his latest Chinese regal avatar which he’d modded into four positions: facing the left, facing the right, upside down, and laying down. He had his facing to the right (viewer’s right) avatar on. On logs somebody with an avatar of a very large buxom woman with not so modest attire, the avatar landing immediately to Percirion’s right, so that he is facing the bosom.

Anya [to the new person]: Err… careful there, Percirion is under 16, we don’t want to corrupt him!

In a split second within my saying this, Perc flips his avatar to face left, thus averting his (well, his avatar’s) eyes from the sight!

Exit the offending bosoms.

It was hilarious.

But we do make assumptions about who people are based on the avatars they wear. I had a long term friend that I knew offline but rarely saw - sometimes in my dreams I would see them - not as their physical body, but in their avatar form.

Have you ever dreamt about yourself in your avatar form?

I was also interested in Eowyn’s words (yes, somewhat joking but you know what they say, there’s truth in humour) about deception. Our avatars do deceive. Intentionally? I would like to know why Eowyn, you felt prompted to post your real picture ‘to clear up misconceptions’. What were the misconceptions? The main reason I want to see real pictures is to assure myself that you’re all the right age for my research! (You all seem so mature!)

I liked your thoughts about becoming online, that which we cannot be offline. One of the things I am most interested in is how your becoming online transfers in any way to offline. I think it does. My theory has been that you rehearse who you want to be online, and that it helps you become that person more offline. Do you think that’s at all true in any way? *smiles*

Thanks for your comments both of you, its soooooooo fascinating!

4 Comments:

Perc said…

About the Bilbo thingo?

I believe they call it a Defense Mechanism. Someone was being annoying, so out comes ol’ Bilbo… They tend to either 1) leave. 2) cry 3) concede defeat )4 all of the above.

Yes, I admit, I have previously had dreams that I am my AV. This is completely honest. I found it frustrating that I couldn’t move my arms.
3:12 AM
Eowyn Skywalker said…

Yes… I do dream about my avatar… and other peoples. Well, more, I have images based on the avatars myself and other people wear, and I use them to create a mental image, a perception of who I think they are. It’s interesting, really– I can picture one heck of a lot of the people I know online by their actions, personality, signatures, and avatars.

The face they show online is the face I try to let myself invision. I know Adrienne in reality– but when I’m thinking about Adrienne, and not her real self, I have a completely different perception of her. Same with Jandalf.

I suppose you’ve promted me to doing this, Anya… so…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v315/lightsaber/Other/me.jpg

That is what I look like in reality. You see, I don’t actually… fool people too much. I write my characters as looking remotely like that girl you see there. Mom says that I can get Eowyn’s expressions– and I can do a decent Skywalker impression too. So… I’m not lying TOO much. *grins* That picture is from April… forget the date… taken in West Ed Mall when I met Jandalf. That’s why I’ve got the silly cloak on. I don’t wear it ALL the time anymore… *grins evilly* Just most of the time. When I’m in a “mood”.

Now are you satisfied that I’m 15? (14 there…) I KNOW I seem mature. I hate that, sometimes. I have better conversations with people older than me for that reason. I used to be able to go on and on about banana plants when I was 7. It was impressive, actually.

People were assuming that, from my name, I was a tall person, had red hair… lots of weird perceptions. (though I love the person who pictured me as having a lightsaber and not afraid to use it… heehee) It was… interesting… so I cleared it up.

You’re right, you know– by becoming a person online, it helps you become who you are offline. As I’ve put it before– you can’t escape who you are without killing yourself. By letting yourself be who you are– who you want to be– through RPGs, chatting, and avatars, you’ll slowly find the courage to accept it in reality. Becoming yourself by being someone else… it’s really a paradoxal statement, but by letting yourself be something else, you can become yourself.

Confusing, eh?

I need to get onto the palace more often, and try to mold myself a few avatars.

I don’t wear scary avatars. I… usually use signatures, more– and make a matching avatar. The text I often use expresses my mood, or whatever. The characters I use fit to my online character. I do this merely to keep the perceptions that people get from my character going.

I used myself in a sig once on MEI, for a time. Got tired of it, though. Jandalf has herself in her sig too.

Why do we do this? Use ourselves, when we’re trying to mold another personality online? I’m not certain…

You’ll never know me online unless I let you. Maybe that’s why. Maybe it’s because I’m tired of deceiving everyone at every given moment.

Maybe I want to be myself.

All right, I’ll stop monologuing! Snicker…
10:38 AM
Perc said…

That’s a nice picture.

Well, admit it, deceiving the known world is easy when you’re a name with a little fuzzy bit on the end and words…

That cloak reminds me of something I used to wear, but… it was too small
4:53 PM
Eowyn Skywalker said…

Hm… thanks, Perc. Good thing you just say it’s “nice”– I slapped the guy who tried calling me ‘hot’. E-slap, all right, but it worked.

I made my cloak. *is quite proud of herself* I made two, actually– the one I’m wearing in that picture (made a brooch to go with it, too, but it gets in the way), and the one I was wearing today– my “Sith” cloak. And I’m working on a new one that looks less like a costume in a better fabric than broadcloth– it’s a brown false-swede stuff, and it looks really Jedi-like.

Yeah… I like sewing. Snicker.
6:29 PM

Everywhere I look I seem to be reading about Barbies…
We have:

the Versace Barbie (recently discussed at Boing Boing and Mobile Technology)

Punk Rock Barbie (if I have to nominate a favourite, well…)

and even a stunning Galadriel Barbie!

There’s discussions about about Indian Barbie that has a mobile phone as an accessory (a REAL mobile phone), the Arwen and Aragorn Barbie and Ken set, a Legolas Ken… its endless…

So what is the appeal of Barbie? And why is she so popular in pop culture discussions? Quoting Rogers,

Whatever else she does, Barbie leads us into the nooks and crannies of modern /postmodern cultures. In the end, our Barbie’s script is ultimately about selfhood. … Perhaps too, fantasy is as worthy a means of exploring selfhood as therapy, religion, career, activism, or any other endeavour capable of enlivening one’s imagination. When the fantasy takes its shape as from profit-oriented corporations, though, we’d best be on our guard. After all, the ultimate corporate fantasy is to have us all believing that to secure a self means to secure a lifestyle anchored in consumer goods and services. Barbie expresses that fantasy and thus speaks to the constant seduction of consumerism in modern / postmodern cultures. Seduced and seducer, Barbie is as much a threat as a promise. Therein lies her powerful allure.

(Rogers, 1999 in: Barbie Culture, p.153)

I liked the part about fantasy as a means of exploring selfhood. Play in many forms is a means of exploring selfhood. So is writing if its at all reflective. To paraphrase Alice from the Looking Glass, sometimes I don’t know what I think until I write it down. Sometimes I think about ideas for weeks, and they’re all a confused mess inside my head until I can pour them out onto paper.

I also liked the part about consumer identities. Bernstein would call this decentred indentities, where identity is projected onto a market signifier. (I think I made this connection last time I wrote about Barbies and avatars!).

But I tend to agree with Rogers - Barbie is more complex than being just dangerous pleasure or just innocent pleasure - it is a mixture of both.

And as such, Barbie “speaks to the surprises, contradictions, and paradoxes we live with each and every day of our postmodern lives… She is shaped more to the wild contours of cyberspace and the flashy contours of today’s commodity cultures” (Rogers, 1999, p.154).

Cyborg Barbie!!

Stolen from the Barbie satire pages!

Much more fun than reading, yes, you guessed it, Barbie’s blog!! - shopping, parties, more parties, more shopping, and cutesy animals…

Somebody is paid to write such daily drivel?

And yes, rather than commenting, its easier for me to post up a new post too *grin*

So… just a …er….ummmmm….. couple more questions:

1. What is ‘Awana’?
2. What sort of activities do you do in youth group?
3. What music do you like playing on the piano?

yes, please copy in some of the rune text - your mom was telling me about this as well, I’d love to see it!
i’ve made some links to your fanfic to the right - do you have other fanfics I can link to? or other links to include under your ’spot’ there?

4. Can you please provide me with a character description of Willow and a bit of her narrative arc?

5. Do you have a favourite bit of your RPG posts from Fantasy Forest that you could cut and paste and tell me a bit about?

6. One author has said that young people’s websites are a bit like their bedrooms - decorated in special ways to represent things that are important to them. Would you look again at MEI and the colour scheme / icons / design features and so on and tell me in what ways your site reflects you and what is important to you?

7. Another author has said that websites can be a place for young people to act out and rebel. DO you think this is true of your site(s) - and if so, how so?

i really liked the quote you gave me from Jandalf about letting your mind go blank, i’ll have to ask her if I can quote her! *grin*

8. I also really liked the stuff about the matrix. Do you think there’s a danger that you could get so immersed into your characters that when you are ‘unplugged’ there could be any sort of problems?

9. OK the stuff on feminism. Basically to me feminism means knowing that you have the full range of choices available to you in life and that nothing can hold you back, that if you want something, you can achieve it. So I believe that and call myself a feminist. It also means (to me) that I can be any sort of woman I want - I don’t have to dress in certain ways or look a certain way. And it does mean that I get angry if I see girls or women mistreated because they are females - like your fellow friends in fandom. I think you can be religious AND a feminist - I don’t think they are mutually exclusive. I would have thought that this type of feminism is something you seem to agree with, which is why I was surprised to see you say NO *smile* - do you disagree with this type of feminism? I don’t mind if you do - we all have our different beliefs.

10. I lreally ike those Mandy Moore lyrics. I don’t know much about MM - are you a fan of her, or just that particular song? What is it about those lyrics that you like? I’ve never heard the song - is there an audio clip online I can listen to? What genre of music is it? (pop?)

I was telling your mom tonight that I have enough data now to write TWO books here *grin* so soon I’ve got to stop asking questions!

—–

Okay… here’s another reply to Anya’s– this time two in one. Long, I know, sorry… sigh.
Okay… I’m just going to reply to two of your posts in one, Anya. Sorry about all the data… but… *shrugs helplessly* Oh well.

HI MOM! HI MASTER! *waves at the two of them who were in the tagboard*

Okay… to the post!

1) Awana stands for approved workmen are not ashamed– which is taken from a verse in one of the Timothys… forget the reference, sorry. It’s a kid’s club for grades K to 8, with different levels for different grade levels. It’s split up into their games (which range from dodgeball to relay races at our group), the handbook time, and council time, in which we get to sing and hear a story. I’m a leader. Which means I get to lead Green team for games… sigh. And sign off sections in handbooks, and all that. ‘Tis fun.

2) At youth group we just get together, watch movies, go skating, or whatever. It’s very informal– thank heavens. Because this year we have a big group, and I know very few of the kids… and the ones I don’t know scare me more than the ones I DO know!

3) I chord a bit– just adlib to songs… play some mild pop, and Christian stuff. I like playing the choruses we sing at church.

Rune text… hmmm… I’ll see about finding you some of my stuff, then.

Other fanfics you can link to? Okay…
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2080146/1/
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1907555/1/
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2072930/1/
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2082863/1/

And… also… just wondering, but why did you use that picture above my stuff?

4) Willow is very… new… but… I’ll do my best. Narrative better work– because I haven’t wrote anything transribed of hers yet. She’s existed for less than a week. FYI, W is Willow, R is Renée, JP is Jandalf present (mirror issue, there), and Tiana… is… Tiana. Hopefully this conversation makes sense, since to really understand it you’d need the entire thing, and it’s LONG. Not that this isn’t long enough as it is… (I got permission from Jandalf to post untransribed stuff… so… yeah)

Audreidi Ytho: JP: Well. (calls to W and R) You can come out, now. I assume we don’t have to fill you in on what we were brainstorming over, right?
Tiana Elass: W: *comes out with a sheepish expression*
Audreidi Ytho: R: Heh heh. I guess you guys don’t need that ride, then.
Tiana Elass: W: Umm… sorry? Don’t turn us into anything unnatural!
Audreidi Ytho: JP: (rolls her eyes) I’m tempted.
Tiana Elass: W: *raises hands*
Audreidi Ytho: R: No politicians.
Tiana Elass: W: *hits her*
Audreidi Ytho: JP: (agrees) No politicians.
Tiana Elass: W: Hey, what’s wrong with them?
Audreidi Ytho: R: Heyyy. I was just making sure.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: What’s wrong with who? Politicians?
Tiana Elass: W: You are implying it is okay to turn me into something strange, Renee.
Audreidi Ytho: R: …No, I wasn’t.
Tiana Elass: W: Well, it sounded like it.
Audreidi Ytho: R: Oh. Well…that’s not what I meant.
Tiana Elass: Tiana: Do we get to the point?
Audreidi Ytho: JP: Yes. Let’s.
Tiana Elass: W: Bah.
Audreidi Ytho: R: (hits her)
Tiana Elass: W: Heeeyyy!
Audreidi Ytho: R: MY bah.
Tiana Elass: W: MINE!
Audreidi Ytho: JP: Oy.
Tiana Elass: W: Um… sorry, Master Jandalf.
Audreidi Ytho: ((HEEHEEHEE))
Tiana Elass: ((heh))
Audreidi Ytho: JP: THANK you. Now.
Tiana Elass: W: Now what?
Audreidi Ytho: JP: Now we get to the bottom of things.
Tiana Elass: W: *sits on the floor* Who’s shorter, Tiana or me?
Tiana Elass: Tiana: *glares* Not short, Hobbit-height.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: (eyes them both)
Audreidi Ytho: R: Tough call, really.
Tiana Elass: W: *sticks tongue out* Let’s just get to the point, I suppose.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: Right. Do you two want to be teleported into possible danger or not?
Tiana Elass: W: *shrugs*
Audreidi Ytho: R: Hmm. Sounds like fun.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: (rolls eyes dramatically)
Tiana Elass: W: We’re the narrators– the story can’t hurt us..can it?
Tiana Elass: Tiana: I KNEW IT! *points* YOU’RE THE ANNOYING NARRATORS… erm… sorry.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: I’m not so sure anymore. You’re conversing with your own characters, who are acting of their own free will, or so it would seem.
Tiana Elass: W: Good point.
Audreidi Ytho: R: (cringes) You’re not going to kill us for making…interesting…angst…are you?
Tiana Elass: Tiana: Heavens, no, that would kill us.
Audreidi Ytho: R: Ah. Good point.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: Besides which, you didn’t know we were real.
Tiana Elass: W: *turns pale* Anyway… it’s to help you, you know.
Tiana Elass: W: No we didn’t.
Tiana Elass: Tiana: And she’d better not fall in love with Ani on me.
Audreidi Ytho: R: Okay. Now I REALLY feel bad. Which is a bad thing in itself, as it can be used as a guilt trip to convince myself to go over and…and…
Tiana Elass: W: Heavens, no! I’d rather be turned into something unnatural.
Audreidi Ytho: JP: (snickers)
Tiana Elass: W: We’ll go.

Umm… now… character discription… *pulls out sheet*

Name: Willow Twigg (was a joke between Adrienne and I)
Age: 15 Terran years
Race: Human (DUH!)
Appearance: Midlength gold-brownish hair, brown eyes, she’s 5″2 Terran normal measurements, built slightly like a Hobbit, wears green and brown, and a brown cloak as a joke.
Personality: As annoying as Tiana, Willow isn’t afraid to be annoying to get her way, though she doesn’t like the idea of being unnatural– she stays away from makeup, and nothing anyone says can change her mind. She isn’t afraid to stick up for her friends when the need is there, though this is sometimes a weakness on her point, as she always tries to be there. And she can’t say no very easily either.
History: She doesn’t have much history– she grew up normal– started writing fanfic– basically was herself without much story until now… when the characters *seemingly* came alive.

There’s your short profile. Hope that worked.

5) Um… *goes crosseyed* I’ll just post up one of the posts I did as Talnaver– if you want to read the rest of the scene, I’ll just link you.

Something… someone…

Talnaver stirred from a deep trance, shaking herself and jumping to her feet suddenly. The sounds of the forest surrounded her, a pure peace, and there was noice. Not too much, and not too little. Not the silence that forwarned of danger. What drew me from meditation? she wondered, picking up a slender staff that lay beside her. The grass was rumpled, and shown clearly in it was the signs of her sitting there,

The Mage sighed, and looked around– though it appeared only a glance, it was still enough to pierce the forest walls. The trees were thick and dark as they approached the mountain paths, and still the wind whispered among their thick trunks. The roots of the Forest were powerful here– it was why she made it her home. The feelings of her true home– Ruuan– were the most strong here– it was the closest to the safety those Shadowed lands now had.

Shadow…

Now why do I sense such a strong feeling of Shadows…

Confusion was eched into her face, as she strod to the edge of the small clearing, and into the thick trees beyond. There was a cleared area nearby, where sunlight touched all the daylight’s lenght. Talnaver had the faintest feeling that whatever had brushed against her mind would be found there. There was too much on her mind for her to know for certain, however… too much was happening. Mayhap it’s merely Yaldur, returned from where he tarried. Mayhap… She knew her hopes were not grounded, merely hopes.

She allowed them to diminish to a faint speck when she reached the clearing nearby– a young woman stood within, light of hair, and skin. Young, slender, and fair– her bearings showed her as a farmgirl, most likely– but why was she in the deep forests of the Magen?

As she entered the clearing silently, Talnaver was concious of her very non-royal clothing– the dark green tunic and leggings, and a leather vest. Clothing that was practical and comfortable, rather then the robes she wore when appearing in court. She only hoped that her eyes, and manner would show her as Magen. Talnaver raised her right hand in greeting, letting the staff fall to her left.

“Hail,” she greeted, as the newcomer turned to notice her.

And… that’s that one.

6) It doesn’t, really… it’s always been a darker scheme, made to reflect the darker feel of Middle-earth, yet, at the same time be almost welcoming. I made it with the goal to make it appear like ME, SW, and the Matrix, all in one. But the design features, yes, are my own. It has the tagboard in an easy to locate area– like me, it’s talkative. But it’s under a lot of text and news, and such. It’s not colorful, merely calm– a page that fits nicely to my personality– because it’s calm and hystarical all in one. It has the moving text– though it’s always on the move, it rarely really and completely changes.

7) No. Well… not rebel against my friends and family… I have to amend this, I do rebel with my page. I made it unique, different– and something that completely goes against the world of webpages. Something that fits into another galaxy, and yet is all my own. I do rebel with it, but not in the sense you’d expect.
Jandalf posted in the tagboard that she didn’t mind being quoted. Pth.

8) Yes. Yes I do. You can get so into a character that pulling yourself out hurts– that when you’re not in that world you wonder– you find yourself thinking as that character would at the oddest moments. You find yourself panicking when you realize you can’t get online. And there’s the danger that you’ll get so into a character that it will effect you in reality. Which is why I am very careful with my characters.

9) I’M NOT RELIGIOUS! I refuse on ALL costs to be called that! To me, you can be religious about TVs, or whatever– Christianity is NOT a religion. Now… back on topic… my thoughts on this are edgy. To me, to believe that a woman can do whatever she wants and nothing can stand in her way is akin to saying that men could do the same thing and become mothers, or whatever. I believe there are some things that are male only, and some that are female. I believe that a woman shouldn’t be held back in a career because she’s female– I believe that women can take any career they want, really.

Certainly I believe that you shouldn’t have to follow certain patterns of dress, or whatever, but I believe a female should look such– no bald heads, mens underwear, whatever. We were created with our gender, we shouldn’t want to hide it, or act completely away from it.

Clothing is a different thought– I refuse to integrate myself into the World. I’m the circle peg that they want to stick into the world’s square hole– they’ve got too many spair corners for me to really fit in.

So, per se, I’m a graysider.

10) I’m not a Mandy Moore fan, that’s my sister’s job. Yeah, she’s pop. No, I just have a few songs of hers that I really, really like. I searched and couldn’t for the life of me find a midi though… sorry.

And… your questions about storylines underneath the post to me…

Back story-wise: I almost always break canon. AU is much more fun to write, even if, in a manner, you are creating your own world in completeion there, just borrowing characters. And, true, it gets overwhelming after a time too… coughJEDIDAWNcough. Yet I do weave in backstory, and history. I’ve never really interferred too much with a character’s fate… true, we marryed Obi and Ani off to different characters, and such… but the Emperor still went evil, the Sith were still evil, the Jedi Order still frowned upon attachments (I think). We keep enough into co-wrote fanfic that it stays SW… though… with LotG it’s pretty well became it’s own story, as we certainly are not using much SW stuff beyond terms now.

New characters? As many as I need, really… In NSO I’m creating a few new Sith, I’ve made a few Jedi, some NFSs to talk to Padme… but not too many. LotG? Tons… I’m afraid. Usually to decide where to stick your main character/your character you go with the most logical place– near the beginning of the story so the character has a firm foundation.

As I RP more and more I do create more new characters, but… I admit it, we’ve never made any new planets. Yet. We created the Shadow Realm, but that was about it. I hate sticking to known characters, because OCs allow more freedom in writing.

Yeah… RPing does give you a form of power rush… you get the feeling that you actually can control your character, that you can control a person’s fate, even if they aren’t a real character… *shrugs* Which is probably why a lot of us write angsty things– to know that you have the power of life or death over a character, whether original or not… it’s…. facinating. Mwhahaha. Yeah… power-hungry control freak. *points at self*

To make a powerful character… well… you train them as a Jedi/Wizard/other powerful type person… you give them a high status… you push them to life and death and back again… you let them grow to become their own characters.

posted by Eowyn Skywalker at 9:02:34 AM 0 comments