Quick, hide behind the couch, it's another one of those damned memes

[varadia]

Three factors are working against me: 1). I am a sheep, 2). I am at work and horribly bored and not wanting to write my monthly report, and 3). I am insanely curious and already wonder what sorts of questions people might want to ask.

So.

Ask me a question about anything--fandom, real life, music, vegetables, etc--and I will answer you and then ask YOU a question. The whole process could be repeated if anyone wants to keep it up. If this works, by the end we could know each other so well we're sick of each other and have to quit one another for a while.

Comments

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Boxers or briefs?

0:)

[varadia]

I'm tempted to say 'commando', but really that freaks me out.

Boxer-briefs all the way, baby.

If you met one of your pups in a darkened alleyway, which one would you most prefer that it not be?

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Harth.

He scary little bastard, and would eat me. Providing he could reach my neck, the short-arse.

Doom or crack?

[rimestock.livejournal.com]

Squids or monkeys?

[varadia]

Monkeys.

Because if you find the right monkey, it can very well pretend to be a squid.

If you had to choose your favorite book of all time, what would it be?

[rimestock.livejournal.com]

Probably I'd go with Good Omens, I think. At least, that is what I tell people!

(It is hard to pick a favorite book, yo.)

Violin or flute?

[adiva_calandia]

Hmm.

What made you choose Raven for your first pup?

[varadia]

Ahahaha.

Oh, man. This question. *snerks* *loves*

I was thinking and thinking and thinking about who to choose, and I kept dismissing all the book/movie/TV characters because I wasn't sure I could successfully pull off something so clearly laid out. That, and all the ones I most wanted at the time were already around.

And I was remembering my fondness for folklore and myth and religions-that-are-not-Judeo/Christian/Islamic, and I thought, HEY! I could play Raven. Because he doesn't freak me out as much as Coyote, and he's a bird, and I already have a picture of him in my head!

Keep in mind that at the time I pictured him as a tall dark laughing man who played tricks with a smirk on his face and a more-than-vaguely dirty mind. Also he was meant to be a lighthearted character to help me get my feet wet before tackling a 'real' character.

Hence the laughter inspired by the question. *facepalms*

What is it that attracts you to playing particular pups? Storyline? Character? Giant Mac truck plot-holes?

[adiva_calandia]

*giggles*

Well, of the six I'm currently playing, two were requests, and one was less a request and more a tempt.

Mostly I play characters that I feel I can somehow relate to. Nita and I are both teenaged, bookwormy, fairly creative and intelligent types. Ann and I both act. Charles and I have a more esoteric literary knowledge than Nita. Carmela (when I actually play her *facepalm*) lets me ignore the bounds of reason and restraint, much like when I improv.

I can't really explain why Guinevere and Eustace -- the two requests -- are as strong in my head as they are. I think Eustace and I share a certain insecurity in our abilities/personalities. Guinevere and I both love, but I doubt I could do some of the things she did -- like cheat on my husband, or leave behind my son.


Coke or Pepsi?

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

How did you get into Milliways?

[varadia]

Way way way long ago, perhaps somewhere in October of 2004, someone posted an A/C fic based on some place called Milliways. And I was like 'Milliways, whut?', and I hunted it down. And then I read. And I read.

And I read some more, because I was a chickenshit in those days (unlike now, right? ahahaha) and was just so amazed at all the writing and the characters and the plot and the crack that I just didn't feel capable of it.

So I read some more. And then the Jive article came out (was that the magazine/online thingy's name?0, and I'd been at grad school for a year, and I was edging toward bored with all the stuff I'd been doing before, and I was tired of being afraid to do stuff I wanted to do, so I sucked it up and wrote the app for Raven.

And then it took me a week to start playing after he was approved (or maybe a little more), until one night I was just like 'self, you are playing tonight. GO.'

I did, and it was fun, and, you know, now I am addicted, whee!

When you read poetry, are there specific things that tend to call to you more than others, or is it a question of circumstance and where you are particularly?

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

It's more what I don't like.

I don't like rhyme schemes that are noticeable, or anything that feels contrived. If something is a sonnet or sestina or villanelle or what have you, and I am surprised by that, that is what I consider a success. I don't like overly flowery language; it's too easy to make beauty from flowers or sunsets. Making an onion beautiful is something to admire. That said, I don't like poetry that's too modern (in style rather than time-frame). I don't like street slang, but I do like Frank O'Hara. I love religious themes, and not just because of Aziraphael - religion fascinates me and all the trappings thereof; cathedrals and stained glass, particularly. I'm willing to try anything once.

What is your comfort food/book/whatever of choice?

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

Hm! What is your very favorite sort character? Tragic, comedic, inhuman, immortal? What is the sort of the sort of character you always want to read about?

You will get crack questions later.

[varadia]

In terms of the characters I love to play the most, generally it is vaguely tragic but only sometimes characters that tend to be very old and essentially immortal.

In terms of my favorite sort in general, I like the ones that know they have a duty, but are unwilling to let that compromise their lives--so they balance it as much as they can. And they whine occasionally. Like Buffy. And the Sailor Scouts, from what I remember of what I used to watch of the anime.

My favorite to read about, though, in books, are the really horribly conflicted ones who have some event happen that causes them to reevaluate their life, to deal with disillusionment. So--tragic. Like Father Emilio Sandoz. I am on a The Sparrow kick of late. *hugs that book*

What draws you to the characters you play? Does this affection carry over into non-RP situations, in that these are also the characters you prefer to see on-screen/on-the-page? In other words, the characters you play, are they the characters you identify with, or is it the fact that they are very different that draws you in?

(Yay crack questions! w00t)

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

Hm. This is hard to explain in a comment box without hand gestures.

I'm classically trained. Shakespeare, Wilde, Sophocles. All those dead guys. And a problem I've always had is that when I'm allowed to act, I'm never given a character with any sense of tragedy. I'm excepted to play comedic, happy ending roles when I am madly in love with senseless tragedy and death. I've been Elizabeth Bennett nine times in different ways. And Cecile from The Importance of Being Earnest four times since I started college. I have always longed to be Desdemona, but I'll never be cast in the role. My face and my baring will just never be suited to it.

So, when I decide to play a character in gaming, I go with what I long for and I can't play else where: ones with underlying sense of tragedy. I attempt to kill them off too, but no one ever lets me. Because the character is funny and they want them to have happy endings in some fashion or another. For instance, while I love the play Fleur, will always play her the best, and she does have this sort of underlying tragedy to her because of the way she views the world, but I have a real soft spot for playing Sailor Venus because I play her from the manga. That interpretation of the character, while she tries to live a normal life, knows that she will forever be denied the things she wants most, a career and love, because destiny has already decided her path for her. And it is interesting to me to find out how she accepts it and goes on to live her life.

I guess you could say that I'm also relating to the character through their tragedy. I do relate to characters that lean a bit more on the loosely moraled side of things because I am but not to the extent that I play it up in RP. There is always a bit of myself in each character. Some more than others. But it is there.

But, characters that I enjoy to read about and see on screen? I love the morally ambiguous ones. The ones that fuck with your head and you can't decide if they're good, evil, or completely neutral to the whole plot and just want to enjoy the scenery of attractive characters. And I love to watch them struggle with morality. When they find it, it's entertaining and I love it. But, man, when they search for it, still can't find it, and make the wrong choice? Oh man. I love that. I have this crappy book titled Red Sands, and it is just a very bland hero's journey tale with a group of herors and healers, but there is the thief! And he struggles and struggles and can just never find the difference between good and evil. And it makes me so happy! I don't relate to them at all, and I think that's why I enjoy it so much.


If you were a pineapple, how would you like to be served to be eaten? Sliced? Sliced and cooked over a BBQ? In a fruit drink? Tell me!

[jothra]

This does sound like fun.

What's your favorite Vienna Teng song, if you have one? I'm on a kick and asked chat last night, so I have a few.

But I must have MORE.

[varadia]

*shifty*

Um, I am not really really familiar with Vienna Teng, sadly.

Should this be amended?

[jothra]

Most definitely. I'll get you some.

So...if you were a Highlander, what would your chosen weapon of destruction be? (Tires don't count.)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

If you could be studying anything else within academia, what would it be?

[varadia]

Literature. Either English or French literature.

I am odd, in some respects, I know *eyes chemistry*

What's your favorite thing about the English language (or things written in the English language)?

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I think I have different favorite things, depending on my mood and what I've been reading. Today I'd say my favorite thing is the way it's changed vastly over the last thousand years or so, and the way that the following is still English and can be decoded as English, even though it might, on first and second glance, appear alien:

Ye knowe eek, that in forme of speche is chaunge
With-inne a thousand yeer, and wordes tho
That hadden prys, now wonder nyce and straunge
Us thinketh hem...

(Also, I keep using that quotation because it never fails to amaze me that Chaucer, too, was thinking in terms of processing linguistic change over time.)

Who would be playing music at your dream concert, and what kind of music would they be playing?

[crazedcrusader.livejournal.com]

Standard First Question, Ahoy.

If you could learn to play any musical instrument, which would you learn, and why?

[varadia]

I'd like to play either the piano or the guitar.

Because it would be nice to play an instrument I can sing along to.

If you could build a house, any size, and any location, what would it be like?

[genarti]

What's your favorite of your current or past hobbies? At the moment, anyway.

[rassatar.livejournal.com]

Where are you in The Sparrow? I just started reading it and haven't really gotten into it yet.

And because I cannot be bothered to log into my mail:
Do you have a favorite quote or short verse or some kind of saying
that you would like immortalized in alluminium?
I have three weeks left to make things and I’m running out of ideas that are easy.
Words are easy. Want some?
~Ras