State of the RP (end of October)

character: Nara Shikamaru (

endgames)
series: Naruto
tagging priority: ■■■■□: Pretty much only second to sleep and work priority.
muse strength: ■■■■■: Despite always questioning myself, I will admit that I've never had a character I'm more confident in.
cast strength: ■■■■□: Four by virtue of the fact that since Naruto is huge, I always want more ~~fourteen is not enough FIGHT ME~~. But the cast we have is solid and I love them.
plotting capabilities: ■■■■■: ALL THE PLOTS. I've maxed out the stat bar here and it is still not enough. More on that later...
general fun level: ■■■■□: Since Shikamaru's my only muse, I guess this counts more as a RP fun level. I had a minor hiccup that I'm still trying to work around, but I'm getting back into things. He has great CR, and I never have trouble getting him involved in things. If anything he's a little too involved (see below).
likelihood of drop: □□□□□: 8|

• I should make a list of everything he's working on/will be because there's a lot. I think the big thing right now, which I have only mentioned so much, is stamina training/shadow clones (they go together). He's been on this since the beginning of September. Takes a good chunk of his day and wears him out like whoa (though it will pay off in the draft), but he's making progress.
• I need to be less of a plot hog with him. /head in hands. Concerns and wank aside, I think this is legit, because I'm seeing a pattern of me having so many things I want to do with him that I can't get everything I want done. This backlogs me and him, and thus he ends up having projects he should've gotten on months ago that I haven't been able to touch yet (see intelligence agency, which is on my agenda after the draft). So tl;dr: I need to take a step back and focus because he's going to get tired pretty quick if I don't. 8|a
• And to segue from that and back to fun levels: I might drop a few threads from my down period though. I think starting fresh might help me shake off that overhanging feeling of nervousness. But we'll see.
• Can I just wax poetic at you guys someday about how much I love his CR. Because I do. He has only has a handful of people he really cares about, but I love it. Masaomi is as close a friend to him now as he regards Chouji and Ino, and Katara continues to surprise him. And then this weird not-quite-equal-but-still-more-grown-up friendship he has with Tony. And I love his cast CR too, really building and defining friendships like with Neji for example, where canon only barely touches it. AND THEN. ALL HIS BUDDING CR. Buffy and Silver and Ikki and everyone?? It's like baby CR and I want to see it take it's first steps and hnnnngh. Love you all.
• OH. AND I WANT STUPID CRACKY SHIT TO DO WITH HIM AGAIN SOMEDAY TOO. Not right after the draft, obv, but soon.

APP CONSIDERATIONS

character: Jaime Reyes, aka the Blue Beetle (

bugsuit)
series: Young Justice: Invasion
likelihood of app: ■■■■□: To Lost Realm, hopefully. Not until mid-November at the earliest, but I really really want to play him now. ~~And hopefully I won't take so long that Charles ragequits on me ever showing up.~~

PROS
- He's awesome??
- Despite hero business and having an alien death machine attached to his spine, he'd be my most normal character yet. He's a regular teenager in the way Shikamaru can't be.
- Also, he's nice as hell. Not above being sarcastic, but it could be a good change of pace to have a character who gets along with people and will actually show it.
- Playing off his chats with the Scarab could be so much fun.
- He has (or rather his suit does) neat powers. I'm not a fan of overpowered characters in general actually, but as a lot of these are surprisingly mundane too (breathing underwater, lockpicks, translating, etc) there's a lot of potential.
- Unlike previous app considerations, he's still on this list and months later I only want to play him more. It's been years since I've been this excited about another character.

CONS
- My history with second games. Lost Realm is so much smaller/slower-paced than the last two games I tried, which should help, but I worry I won't pay attention as much as I should.
- I haven't had a new character in over two years what do I do. Sob.
- To branch off that more seriously: I'm worried if I rush this I might pysch myself out of trying him after the first voice test, thus I'll be practicing just writing him before that for a while.
- I like his Spanglish, but I know some find it offensive for some reason. Also concerns about my ability to play it well. Need to decide how to play that, if at all (since by virtue of how most games work I probably could).
- The Scarab. How to write it's dialogue, when to write it, etc. The only thing not making it a separate character is the fact it can't interact with anyone but Jaime.
- Stupid YJ hiatuses. The series all happens in a very neat timeline, but in real life it can take months to find out what a character's IC reaction a day later is. Worried about straying too far from how he would naturally develop because of that.