Ruby City Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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rubycity_ooc2014-08-21 09:50 pm
rubycitymods) wrote in rubycity_ooc2014-08-21 09:50 pm
Character Development Meme!
Being pulled into a world different from their own can be taxing for any character and the relationships that they develop and experiences they have can alter them in many different ways, pushing them away from their canon personalities, appearances and more.
Some will change more than others, not always dependant upon how long they've been in the game!
How has your character (or your characters) changed over their time in Ruby City? Do they have scars they didn't have before; have their opinions on certain topics changed; how has their perspective been shifted by their time in the city? Which events - game-wide or personal - have impacted on them? What would they think if they came face to face with the 'vanilla' version of themselves?
Tell us all about it!
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England was my first character here and he's been here for two and a half years now. He's seen a lot of people come and go, but never been out of the place himself. Sometimes he does wonder why that is and he would love to know what's going on back home - it's so strange to be cut off from his people and he's still not used to it.
In the time he's been here, he's managed to reconcile his poor relationships with his brothers Scotland and Wales and rekindle a functional relationship with France, and though all three of them are now sadly departed from the city he still has the knowledge that, with a little work and outside of the political quagmires of their usual day to day lives, the bridges burned between them can be rebuilt. Maybe not as grandly as before, but they can be functional, if slightly ugly and rickety things. That is a thought that gives him some comfort as much as he knows it's not likely to be something that would ever come to pass back home.
The most important reconciliation, though, came between himself and America. The idiots finally admitted how they felt about each other not long into their placement in the game and they've been through a few ups and downs but more or less a solid 'thing' ever since. Arthur finds himself often exasperated by the younger nation, but you might say that his time in the city has mellowed him a little. It's hard to be mad at things when everything is always turning itself on its head anyway.
Over the years, he's ended up pulling a little entourage of wayward children under his wing. Starting with Alice Liddell in April of 2012, the little family has expanded to also include Ib, Garry and Hiroshi as well as four cats (and Alfred). He actually finds the domesticity to be comforting, in a way. He doesn't need to be 'England' in Ruby City, he can just be 'Arthur' and that's all that he needs to be.
Well, except when it comes to Arturia Pendragon. It never once occurred to him past their first meeting to think it strange that 'King Arthur' (or, a version of him) was in fact female. Arthur's had some strong women in his life and he has admired all of them, why should she be any different?
Speaking of strong women, a friendship that has certainly defined his stay in the city has been the one he holds with Helen Magnus. She's a complex, frustrating, delightful woman who reminds him very much of a certain redheaded queen at times and he values her friendship more than he would that of most people. They both have strong personalities, so they argue at times, but in the end it's only because they care about each other.
You could say he looks at things differently now. He has more patience than he did.. but he can still tsun it up given the right circumstances.
Dirk Strider came in not long after and has been here for over two years as well. This kid's really been through the mill over that time. With the absence of most of his friends for a large chunk of his time in the game, Dirk was never able to retreat to them and was forced to actually develop social skills. Over two years on, he's far better than he was, but still an awkward little shit.
His near-constant 'rock' has been Davesprite, the only person he's let get close enough to see him for what he really is who hasn't then been taken away. The two of them went from uncertainty to a slightly unhealthy co-dependency to such a strong bond that he can't really imagine what things would be like without him around. To Dirk, Davesprite is the real Dave.
That's not to say they don't argue - they do and when they do, it's always about something explosive. Though a lot of these arguments are things that push Davesprite through to new development, they definitely do the same for Dirk as well, forcing him to look at things in different ways or acknowledge radically differing opinions to his own as equally valid. He could have never anticipated Davesprite becoming as important to him as he has. If he met him in canon, who's to say he would even give him a second look? But Davesprite's happiness and the value he places on his own existence is something that's become of paramount importance to Dirk. He wants his little bro to be happy, he wants to protect him and make him believe that he deserves to exist. It's a work in progress.
He's not the manipulative asshole that he was when he came fresh out of canon. He still is manipulative, to a degree, but orchestrating a complex plot using his friends as pawns (because they'd only fuck it up if he told them what was going on) isn't something that he would think to do anymore. He's been forced to face down and admit to a lot of his many personal flaws - manipulation and gaslighting being only two of a long list - and his reaction to this, rather than denying them, has been to actively try to make himself a better person. There are people in the city - and memories of people who have been there - who he wants to make himself better for.
Because god knows they deserve someone better than him.
Someone else who really changed him was Xion. In the time that she was living in the same house as Dirk she went from someone who was afraid of him to his baby sister, his princess, someone he would lay his life down for and her loss devastated him in a way he could never have anticipated. Davesprite told him once that it was in his nature as the Prince of Heart to keep making connections with people no matter how much losing them hurt, because that was just how his aspect drove him. He wouldn't disagree with that assessment, but that doesn't mean he doesn't think it sucks.
Elena, too, is someone who has pushed him to alter his perception of things. The way that she makes broad assumptions without evidence and puts herself and others into danger without thinking frustrates him to no end, but he's only partly realised that it's because it reminds him of himself. He and Elena are excruciatingly similar, but he sees in her a lot of things that he hates about himself and a lot of things that he has tried to change. Still, they've managed to settle into a co-operative friendship of late. Hopefully it will be good for both of them.
Another important person in his life has been one Maya Fey. Though no one could ever take the place of Roxy and Jane in his life, Maya has certainly stepped into the role. She would be one of the first people he would turn to in a time of crisis, someone he knows he can trust and rely on and to Dirk that means a hell of a lot. Trust isn't something that comes all that easily to him, even now.
Meeting his own bro and Roxy's mom, too, allowed him to put a close on a lot of unanswered questions. He doesn't know if he'll ever be able to meet them using Sburb, but at least he did meet them. He made his bro proud... and that's all he needs to know.
Last, but certainly not least, the presence of one Jake English has been a cause of much confusion and uncertainty in Dirk's life, particularly after Hanna - someone he had utterly fallen for - returned to the city with no memory of him. At first, he thought it was just a rebound, but as time has worn on he's starting to realise (partly to his horror) that he still has some strong feelings for the other boy. More than that, he's realising that because of the way they've both grown and matured, they are infinitely more compatible now than they ever were in their own canon. A relationship with Jake is something that he can see working now, but he doesn't want to take the risk on it. He'll only fuck it up again.
Dirk has grown from a gangly sixteen year old to being almost eighteen and by now looking very, very much like a young version of Bro Strider. Though he hasn't gained access to his aspect abilities through a canon update, he's developed them naturally in the city. Ripping souls out and destroying them isn't something that he's sure he's comfortable with yet.
For someone who would always claim to be somewhat antisocial, he's possibly one of the most well-known people around the city by now. As of yet, he hasn't really used it to his advantage. The amount of loss he's been through has made him somewhat jaded, but he's not entirely inaccessible yet. He keeps trucking on, somehow, without cutting everyone out.
The Dolorosa has definitely been through some changes too.
She arrived from the canon point of her death, being shot through the chest on Mindfang's ship after years of mental and physical manipulation by the ceruleanblood. She'd been a slave for so long that she could barely remember anything else and now, though she still bears the marks of that time, it feels like nothing but a distant memory.
While she's been in the city she has been introduced to humans, a species that she had never been aware of before save for a chance encounter with John Egbert when the Signless was only a grub, and learned so much about them that she has begun to wonder if their way of life is not preferable to how things are on Alternia. She's been able to see the Signless again, and the other rebels and spend enough time with them to begin healing the wounds on her heart and she has grown bold enough to even stand up to Dualscar in the times he has made his appearances.
At one time, she was the only troll present in the city and it was at that time that she began to grow close to Dante - someone who she has now been in a relationship with for a year. He's helped her in ways he couldn't possibly know, as well as introducing her to the idea that love might not always be something that divides itself into quadrants. She understands how the Signless and the Disciple felt for each other far more now.
During her time in the city she's done her best, at times, to educate the uninformed on the specifics of her species. It's hard to miss her, yet most remain woefully unaware.
She's set up shop in the city's clothing store and enjoys replacing the rather dowdy fashions offered by the city with her own more colourful creations. Being useful and putting long-abandoned talents to use is something that she can't help but enjoy.
The Dolorosa has really come into her own, removed from the rigid social class system of Alternia and being mostly surrounded by youngsters. More often than not she's had to gently let them know that they have no reason to fear her and she tends to watch over them in a far more 'motherly' fashion than any troll normally would.
Being dead in her own world, she has no wish to leave the city despite the things that happen here. This life and the things she's gained here have far more value to her than returning to a painful death and oblivion.
Remus Lupin has gone through a large number of changes relating to his confidence in himself and his acceptance of what he is. When the Teen Wolf cast was still around, he was taken in by them and introduced to the idea that one can certainly be comfortable with being a werewolf without turning into someone like Fenrir and even though he wasn’t exactly like them, Derek had more of an impact on him than he was ever able to articulate and it eventually led to his outing himself to the entire city.
Most of them didn’t care, but it was never about whether or not anyone cared, it was always about his own opinion of himself and if everyone knows then he no longer has to feel like he has something to hide. It did wonders for his self-esteem and though he still refers to himself as a monster far too easily, he’s actually far more at ease with himself than he ever was.
Being pulled out of his own canon not long after the First Wizarding War, Remus came into the city at a painfully low point in his life. Three of his best friends were dead and another of them had killed them and subsequently been thrown into Azkaban. James, who had always supported him financially, can be assumed to have left him nothing (given that he was said to have taken a number of odd jobs until his employment as a professor) and after his death he was no doubt pushed into a life of near-poverty that was only exacerbated by the fact he couldn’t find much more than minimum wage employment thanks to his condition.
While in the city, he was able to learn – from Snape – how to create the Wolfsbane potion and not long after that, Sirius arrived. It didn’t take much from him to convince Remus of the fact that he’d been wrong all along, that it had never been Sirius and that Peter was the one to blame for everything. In a way, that made it worse. To know that one of his closest friends was innocent and rotting away in the worst hell ever created for wizards. It had broken him in ways that Remus couldn’t hope to understand, but he tried (and he’s still trying).
Something that’s affected him almost as much as coming close to being at piece with his Lycanthrophy is his relationship with Sirius. Admitting he’d had a crush on him for years was the first step and there have definitely been some (large) bumps along the way. Remus is peripherally aware that Sirius doesn’t think he’s good enough for him but at the same time he’s not all that sure about being good enough for Sirius, either.
He takes up most of his time experimenting with magic and potions, in particular ones that might be of benefit to the general populous as well as using some of his time for volunteer shifts in the clinic. Feeling like he’s actually doing something useful is a big boost for him, rather than just floating around trying to hide what he is and trying to get by from day to day.
He’s also found a close, singularly unusual friend in Sirius’ younger brother Regulus. Had you told him that he would form such a close bond with a Slytherin he might have laughed, but in the time they’ve known each other, Regulus has gone from something of a peculiar annoyance to someone that he trusts, despite Sirius’ warnings against it. He cares about Regulus a great deal, though that doesn’t mean that he won’t tell him when he’s being an idiot.
Which, let’s be honest, is fairly often.
no subject
She couldn’t revert back to the kind of pony she’d been when she first moved to Ponyville. Twilight needed her friends, she was lonely. Then, she found an unlikely friend in the form of one James E Walter, a prickly and easily irritated man who hated magic and well educated people and, in a word, everything that Twilight was. Despite this, though, the two of them ended up in an almost sibling-like relationship that, for a while, Twilight utterly relied on (whether he knew that or not).
Since then, she’s gained a few more friends, but JW is certainly the best one she has. There’s very little that she wouldn’t do for him, just like she’d do anything for her Ponyville friends.
After their most recent canon update, Twilight and Discord have also become firm friends. They had been partly on the way beforehand, but Discord’s capricious nature was still standing in the way of it. Really, they needed the finally few episodes of season four to cement their fondness for each other as much as they might both vehemently deny that their feelings go anything beyond tolerance.
Twilight is probably the one who has changed the least out of everyone that I play in the city and though her ideas about friendship have been altered, they’re no less strong. She misses Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity every day, she misses Celestia and Luna and her brother and Cadence, but she wouldn’t wish them to her even if she had the opportunity. It’s just not in her nature.
For a while, she was genuinely afraid of putting herself ‘out there’ and being visible in the city, mostly due to the kinds of reactions she got (on account of being a talking purple magic pony). She grew tired of this, though, and vented her frustrations out over the network, after which she was encouraged to ignore the haters and go about her business like anyone else in the city. It was advice that she took to heart and since then she’s been more confident in just walking around, though she’s still somewhat aware of being stared at.
Recently, she seems to be slipping back into teaching, as she did with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. From mapping the stars with Ib to teaching Ezio how to read English, she’s keeping herself busy around constantly practicing and improving her magic (and keeping Discord and JW out of trouble).