a bullet with my name on it

orz I personally fail at Christmas, and two of my five have only been introduced to the holiday through camp. This is my preliminary list of people who I THINK I need to think up presents for. IF I LEFT YOU OFF and you think you should be on, by all that is holy, tell me. I have a memory like a goldfish and I haven't been playing much lately.

Ash (not normally a Christmas celebrator)
Kieran
Violet
Robin
Harper
Pell

Layla
Warren
Will
Ash
Violet

Kastor (not a celebrator)
Mikah
Stiaan
Nunnally
Edward?

Otoya
Wataru
Puppy-chan
Ryoutarou
My Student (Domyoji)
Taiga?


Tsukasa
Makino
Soujirou
Akira
Aeris
Sheryl?

re: jumping
Too lazy for polls, plz to always jump me, if you want to thread just ask. I'm usually on irc (either as Ashes or Hanazawa^Rui) although I only pay attention to main chan when pinged. I'm also on gchat and gmail as alioth. If you can't find me, Morrolan, Pell, or Domyoji can.

( drop meme? state of the union? whatever it's called. )

So many new characters since last time. It kind of boggles me that I've turned over my entire cast since March.

River Tam (litl_albatross): 5,909 comments (13.08%), played from 2005-12-15 to 2007-01-20 (402 days at 15 comments/day)
Kaylee Frye (be_twixt): 2,648 comments (5.86%), played from 2006-02-22 to 2006-12-01 (283 days at 9 comments/day)
Sophie Gargamel (worthtempting): 22,294 comments (49.36%), played from 2006-09-10 to 2008-05-03 (602 days at 37 comments/day)
Ash Trine (bulletwthmyname): 9,612 comments (21.28%), played since 2008-03-03 (207 days at 46 comments/day)
Layla Williams (make_appleade): 1,302 comments (2.88%), played since 2008-04-28 (151 days at 9 comments/day)
Kastor Auberlane (twoblackswords): 1,025 comments (2.27%), played since 2008-07-01 (87 days at 12 comments/day)
Kurenai Otoya (bakibakibaki): 526 comments (1.16%), played since 2008-07-28 (60 days at 9 comments/day)
Hanazawa Rui (bookoverflowers): 1,848 comments (4.09%), played since 2008-08-25 (32 days at 58 comments/day)

Total comment count: 45,164 since 2005-12-15 (1016 days at 44 comments/day)

Up from 39 comments here. calculator still goes here

Bored, so.

Headcanon meme for Ash, Layla, Kastor, Otoya, and Hanazawa Rui. I like talking, make me talk.

I think Yuffie started this one.

Icon meme!

You comment here with the relationship, and I will give you:

- The one they most enjoy getting
- Any (if applicable) they don't like getting
- The most "you" face you have
- And an icon they are surprised you have

I play Ash Trine, Kastor Auberlane, Layla Williams, and Kurenai Otoya. Tell me who you play, I have no memory! If you have a multitude of characters that my characters know, please specify relationships, or you'll just get answers I remember until I get bored. Usernames are helpful too!

There's a bandwagon and you don't want me to get on it? Bah.

You ask questions, I try and answer them without using too many commas or overrunning my comment limits, but I make no promises. Relationships, why they do those crazy things they do, suggestions on what to name Ash's cat, my thoughts on dessert, crazy gender identity stuff and why Jesse loves giving me a headache, why the hell I have an icon of Ash drinking a milkshake, whatever. Hell, ask for drabbles if you want, I'll even try that.

I play Ash Trine, Kastor Auberlane, and Layla Williams. I used to play Sophie Gargamel, River Tam, and Kaylee Frye.

Maybe I'll do the zen meme that's been going around, but in general I am pretty zen, so instead, headcanon.

( will probably be added to )

A bandwagon, you say? I'm so there.

It goes LIKE SO. You comment here and ASK A QUESTION it can be anything CFUD related, OOC, IC, Relationship, psychology, thoughts, whatever. I.E. My character's opinion of your character or maybe what you have been wondering about this behavior or that, or general thoughts on my characters or canons or what, who I might consider raping you into apping, etc.

WHEN I REPLY I will also ask you a question in turn!

I play: Ash Trine, Layla Williams.
I played: River Tam, Kaylee Frye, Sophie Gargamel.

So, Ash just hit 4000 comments. In celebration of this and the anniversary of my natal day, a meme!

Relationship/reverse-relationship/questions meme goes here. If you ask, I will ramble at length.

Don't know that this is important enough for CFO, but. Since it is the week before my birthday, I woke up this morning to a laptop that wouldn't boot, sob sob. Then I had to go to work. If I cannot fiddle, assault, or pray it into working order tonight, then I'm going to have to buy a new one. In the meantime, I'm somehow going to have to attempt to live without the internet except on my phone when I'm not at work. Hopefully this will only be a short period of agony, or I'll go home and actually be able to make my computer see that it has a hard drive and thus render this post null and void, but in the meantime, no home computer = not-hiatus for Ash and Sophie. I will probably be around on the ghetto iphone version of gchat and I'll have access to my email, but threading via iphone is unpossible.

ETA: Laptop bricked, fire bad, steve pretty. Shiny new MacBook ordered, hopefully to be in my happy little hands on Thursday or Friday. Who has a computer addiction? Certainly not me. [clings to teh intertubes]

Because it's going around and I haven't done it for a long time.

River Tam (litl_albatross): 5,909 comments (17.67%), played from 2005-12-15 to 2007-01-20 (402 days at 15 comments/day)
Kaylee Frye (be_twixt): 2,648 comments (7.92%), played from 2006-02-22 to 2006-12-01 (283 days at 9 comments/day)
Sophie Gargamel (worthtempting): 22,294 comments (66.68%), played since 2006-09-10 (578 days at 39 comments/day)
Ash Trine (bulletwthmyname): 2,582 comments (7.72%), played since 2008-03-03 (38 days at 68 comments/day)

Total comment count: 33,433 since 2005-12-15 (847 days at 39 comments/day)

Down from 44 comments/day here. Needs moar playing.

calculator of love goes here.

This is a meme that I am stealing from Robin! Comment here with a character -- one of yours or one of mine (Sophie and Ash). I will reply to your comment with an answer. Thing is, it could be anything -- the state of the union, hot or not, relationship, how I see that character in a vampire AU, a song that epitomizes that character -- take your chances.

[there is a puppy scratching on the door to Boys' 15]

Sooo Ash broke 700 comments last night, which is UTTERLY UNPRECEDENTED for me in terms of level of spamwhoreyness, zomg.

In celebration, first impressions/relationship/you have questions meme! Ask me things, I will answer them. Fun for the whole family.

[threads get continued in here]

[it's likely as not that, were one looking for Ash in a quiet time, he'd be found with some sort of book in hand, either for reading or for writing in. the way he looks up when he realizes someone is coming, marking his page and smiling just a little bit, is indication enough that he doesn't mind the company]

Since 'empathy' is one of those powers that means a different thing in every series it shows up in, an explanation is a good thing! Thus, I babble.

Ash's Talent is considered extremely minor by the White Watch, so minor that it's overlooked in his first 'Survey' (read: psychic invasion of the brain). In fact, in prison he's used as a test subject to teach White Watch trainees how to find subtle or minor Talents. He's not aware that he has any sort of special Talent at all until they tell him so, because it's so integrated into his perceptions of the world.

What Ash does:

When his Talent is operating, Ash gets a very vague emotional reading on another person. He can feel major emotions--pain, fear, hate, happiness, surprise, anxiety, etc. He can also tell when a person is lying. He cannot read thoughts or minds, only emotions. Sometimes he'll confuse these emotions for his own, especially if they're similar. With someone who he is emotionally close to, or with another empath, it's possible to create a feedback loop. Touching another person intensifies his abilities, as does familiarity.

Ash can project his emotions at another person, especially if that person is at all sensitive to such things. In general, he doesn't do this on purpose, he just doesn't know how to shield his mind very well. If he's touching someone else who is empathetic/magically sensitive, they can also feel his emotions.

Canonically, Ash is extremely adept at getting people to protect him. Even before they're introduced, Kieran protects Ash from a nasty prisoner, and offers him protection in prison after they end up being cellmates even though it weakens his position with the other inmates. Ash is able to request information from guards that Kieran couldn't obtain, and convinces a guard to give him a pencil and paper, two items strictly forbidden to inmates. He does most of these things inside Churchrock, where his empathy isn't functioning. My theory is that they're behaviors ingrained by the subconscious use of his talent--because he could gauge emotional reactions, he's adopted habits that keep him safe. Again, Ash isn't aware he does these things. He is a naturally quiet, noble, harmless, and self-sacrificing type, with that sort of natural earnest nature that tends to make people either listen, protect him, or want to punch him in the face.

Trauma: Ash has it:
As an experimental subject in Churchrock, Ash was, essentially, repeatedly gang-raped in the brain. He was Surveyed by groups of trainees, some of whom derived sexual pleasure from tearing around in his mind and hurting him. Because of this, violent mind-probing will make Ash go completely catatonic. He literally vacates his mind. It will also make Kieran extremely unhappy. Other empaths or surface-skimming are okay, but please ask before poking around in Ash's head.

One of the side effects of Ash's empathy is that extreme violence and especially death in his close proximity make him go 'headblind'. It seems to be the psychic equivalent of a flashbang grenade--does little permanent harm, but hurts and means you can't see a thing. It makes him disoriented and shaky. If it happens close enough (or in quantity), he'll pass out, and may remain unconscious for an hour or two.

Powers from Medur:
It turns out that Ash is, aside from his regular Talent, a vessel of Medur. Medur is also called the Green Lady, and is a goddess of prosperity, associated with growth, healing, regeneration, and harmony. Medur ends up granting her power to Ash, on the condition that he attempt to save his homeland (and hers) from the White Watch.

After Ash absorbs Medur's power, he is able to do Pattern magic. This means that he can see, create, and manipulate magical Patterns. Everything in God Eaters has a pattern except metal, which sucks away magic. The patterns vary in complexity, with water being complex to the point where it's impossible to manipulate and tends to 'blind' the magical senses.

In canon, Ash uses Medur's powers for two primary purposes--breaking down wards and healing--though he also performs a few other tricks. He's able to disassemble two extremely powerful and well-crafted wards that have been standing for centuries in a matter of hours, although he almost kills himself in process. When his proverbial batteries are fully charged, he turns into Jesus has something of an aura about him, and can perform fairly amazing feats such as completely healing someone's traumatically amputated leg and convincing several hundred people that they don't really want to fight, they just want to escape, and should do so in opposite directions.

That's a potentially scary level of mind control going on there, so I just want to be clear on this: Ash will never, ever attempt to force someone to do something they don't want to do using his empathy. As a player, I really don't see a lot of situations in which the Jedi Mind Trick would come up. The reason it works in canon is because the two sides (prisoners and guards) really don't want to fight. The prisoners want to escape, and it's the guards' job to stop them, even while taking enormous losses and while their leader is being defeated. What Ash seemingly does is remove the anger and make it clear that everyone wins if they don't fight and just walk away.

Ash as a cockblock/situation diffuser:
This is what he's made for! Ash is pretty great at keeping Kieran's temper in check, and is a fairly natural negotiator and peace-keeper. He can see situations from both sides and keep his temper. Please, abuse his jesus powers.

Age: 19
Height: 6'1 3/4"
Eyes: bright blue
Hair: red and curly, down to his shoulders
Medical Info: Underweight, with two good-sized scars (one on his chest, and one on his back) from being shot. There is also a scar on his arm from a more mild bullet wound. He's had several broken bones and gets sunburnt a lot. Also mildly nearsighted. He can heal himself, so there won't really be any need for doctoring.

Physical traits: Tall, skinny, redheaded, and really pale where he isn't covered in freckles. He pretty much has an aura of harmless nerd unless he has need to be badass. It's canonically stated that people feel an unconscious need to protect him, but he can turn off the helpless mouse thing enough to intimidate other prison inmates.

What's Okay To Mention Around Him/Her: Ash is pretty open, and if he doesn't want to talk about his trauma, he won't. I'd rather not address the whole fictional character bit for the moment, though. He will probably be surprised initially by blantant displays of both homosexuality and magic, although by all means, boggle his mind.

Notes for the Psychics: As an empath himself, Ash is a bit of an open book unless he shuts down on his Talent. However, he's got Trauma associated with actual mind-reading. If you attempt to read his thoughts, he will do his damnedest to throw you out of his head, and possibly threaten to shoot. If you're an uncontrolled telepath (like River, for instance), the shooting part doesn't apply, but the shoving you out of his head part does. Violently entering his mind may or may not make him go entirely catatonic. His empathy can extend to implanting suggestions into other peoples' minds, although it's not a skill he would use unless absolutely necessary. See the post on his empathy for more details.

Notes for Magic Users: Like Kieran, Ash recently absorbed the powers of a god. Goddess, in his case, but nonetheless. He doesn't really do anything to contain this power, so people who are pinged by such things will probably notice. He's not skilled at using it yet, but he's picking things up pretty quickly. Also, unlike Kieran, his abilities are primarily growth/regeneration/manipulation based, because the goddess he got them from was the benevolent earth-mother sort.

Abilities: Ash is an empath and a healer. He's capable of healing extremely serious wounds--at one point he mentions that he would have healed a leg that had been entirely crushed by falling rock if it had still been living tissue--and with sufficient energy can heal entire groups of people at once. See separate post on Ash's empathy for more details. He's very good at puzzles, cryptography, and maths. He's also very intelligent and dexterous--canonically Ash can perform fairly complex tasks (rock climbing, packing up camping gear, shooting a rifle and actually hitting a living target, even without glasses) as well as someone experienced at them after only a few repetitions. He's an incredibly fast learner, and very organized and precise. A lot of the magic use we see from him canonically involves him building complex structures (a battery, a focusing lens) essentially out of thought. The gods he encounters find this ability extraordinary.

By the end of the story, he's exhibited some kenetic abilities too--he's capable of lifting and lowering himself through the air (ie to descend from a height or rise to the top of a cliff face). He is also able to draw energy from the Patterns around him (heat from the air, kenetic energy from raindrops falling, energy from wind, etc) to keep his body functioning when a normal person would succumb to fatigue. Taking in this energy restores his physical and mental functions just like sleep would.

As a fighter, he's only human, but he's quick and savage enough to intimidate prison inmates who originally thought he was just a bumboy.

Also, Ash has a constant empathetic connection to Kieran. They have a constant low-level feed of each other's emotions, and are capable of sharing thoughts when touching. They can also share power through this bond. Ash always knows where Kieran is, and vice versa.

Can I shapeshift/bodyswap/spit at/step on/etc?: Ask first! I'll probably say yes.

Kissing/Hugging: Ash loev cuddles. Ash does not want creepy touching from strangers. He is a fairly tactile person, but casual sexy things is a no and will also probably bring the wrath of Kieran on your head. Please note that touching Ash makes it much, much easier for him to read another person's emotions.

Fighting: He prefers not to, and is generally non-confrontational until pushed. When he is pushed, however, he turns pretty deadly serious. He's just a human, though, and not one that has been doing any sort of hand-to-hand combat for very long. His Talent powers aren't really geared toward fighting, more toward convincing someone they don't want to. Ash is capable of killing and has, but he really hates it and will only do so in response to Kieran being endangered.

Maim/Murder/Death: Injuring Ash is okay, he can heal himself. Killing Ash is not okay. He's a puppy, guys, you don't want to make him dead.

Cooking: He enjoys cooking, and is apparently good at it. In fact, he says at one point that if he can, he might like to be a chef when he grows up.