Aya

Love the portrait! Welcome back, and to the RPC as always! :-D

I like this

I tend to believe the simpler the better for basic character concepts.. you're certainly welcome to play an amnesiac, but I would think hard about what it is you're hoping to gain through that angle, and how you intend to play it, and resolve it (if it will be resolved). Its one of those things that can be so easily eye-roll inducing, while sometimes it can form a key element of a very interesting plot. I'd just make sure that you have a good reason for wanting to do so before adding the additional complexity to the character's tale Certainly any amount of ignorance about the world can be explained away by someone's upbringing or general character. Most people are broadly ignorant, some even moreso than others. That's nothing extraordinary or surprising, but in the hands of a character who is actually keenly curious and has simply been unable to explore the wider world (perhaps she had spent most of her youthful energy simple taking care of ailing parents, for example) could be as interesting as a recovering amnesiac. But don't let me dissuade you, I am just trying to be helpful. If that's the angle you'd like to take, and it works for you, then run with it

I enjoyed it! I felt less enthused about the film than I did during the high points of my first watching of Awakens, but it held up its end of the bargain to the very end, and my post-viewing judgement has been much gentler on Rogue One than on Awakens. Overall I think it fits a little below Episode II, and the original trilogy on my Star Wars list. Some thoughts... The first is that its simply not a good movie. Its charm is entirely in its relationship to a canon established through the original trilogy. Anyone watching this movie on its own would have, literally, no clue what or why. It cannot serve as a prequel, and that's a bit of a shame. The non-stop action allowed for no denouement. Some of this is due to the film literally moving immediately into A New Hope. Fair enough, but nonetheless I spent the entire film run wishing I could just take a moment to catch my breath. Not my usual type of film. The character's actually held together pretty well. None of them had any real depth, except perhaps the monk and the mercenary (or whatever he was), but one could only sense their depth while gazing in wonder at their easy scene-stealing manner. This contrasts starkly from Awakens, were literally no new character made any sense whatsoever. It was a tidy little plot that plugged holes left by A New Hopes opening. I do earnestly like how the Death Star's weakness is now covered. It makes sense as intentional sabotage. That didn't save Galen's character from being horribly lame. But, oh well. I never understood Cassien. Wasn't he supposed to be the audience stand-in in this one? I felt so at least, Jyn was clearly too wounded and different by her front-and-center upbringing. She was the chosen one. Cassien was... us. But what the heck man? I found him pretty much obnoxious and underwhelming throughout. He was definitely no Han Solo. The Rebel fleet appearing en masse was -amazing-!. I actually exclaimed in the theater at the sight of it. There's just nothing like an entire fleet dropping suddenly out of Hyperspace right on top of the enemy... especially when its the good guys! The entire final space battle was terrific. The ground battle felt, I don't know, incredibly silly? For such an important installation it sure was poorly defended (where were the fixed defenses? why was there only like a company of storm troopers? Why did they abandon exactly what it was they were supposed to be defending in order to fight on... entirely pointless beaches? I mean entirely pointless. These guys all have SPACE SHIPS, they don't need beaches. And why are there Storm Troopers with Beach Camo? Its like someone thought a remake of Saving Private Ryan starring Storm Troopers would be a really cool idea. I also don't get the whole "go right to the dish to use it" thing. They haven't discovered network cable or something? Speaking of Private Ryan, why aren't there more tanks in Star Wars? Seems like one of those would have stopped the rebel soldier dudes pretty fast. I like seeing the lesser force-sensitive characters. I wish Force Awakens had taken this route rather than the Super Hero route it took. The Force is with me. I am with the Force. A little hint of faith in the Force as a spiritual religion. More plausible and believable than most any other approach to the Force we've seen, yay! I read the comments about the wasted use of Vader (among many weird and out-of-place scenes in this film), and I couldn't agree more. Like Kylo Renn taking his helmet off early: WHYYYYYYYYYYY? Sometimes waiting is better. I feel like they should either have shown the entire construction of the Death Star, or skipped it entirely. Showing only the ray-crater thing being shoved into place was pretty pointless. And is that thing really supposed to be one giant piece? This isn't a lego set, and I'm just not buying it. That'd be a hunk of metal the size of a small continent that just happened to fit perfectly into place without need for adjustment or welding. Not even with Space Magic am I buying that! Taaarkiiiiiiin.. yeeees! Leiaaaa! Yessss! Mon Mooothma, and all these other cameos, YES! I loved the Droid, but he wasn't believable as a droid. Maybe that's just me though... Yo Imperial Guys who join the Rebels (I'm looking at you Mr. Droid, and Bodhi). AT LEAST REMOVE YOUR IMPERIAL INSIGNIA. And why did he wear his safety goggles for the entire movie? Were they afraid we wouldn't recognize him if he took them off? But, really, other than it being a pure-action movie and thus not really up my alley, I enjoyed this film and look forward to seeing it again

Maybe unfinished... maybe not on time... but definitely amazing!

I've loved Red Mage since the moment I was introduced to the original Final Fantasy Unfortunately its entirely off the table for Aya.. but I'll play it anyway, it just won't be an aspect of her in-character self.

Suuuuuuper Popoto saves Starlight from... from... evil snowmen?! :-D

No more bork! The Swedish chef is sad...

I really love the elegance of your style!

There are a few small communities here and there, and the name Jenova sounds familiar.. so you may find a small one there! There is a sizable community on Gilgamesh, with their own community webpage. Then there is the unbelievable and all-consuming RP community on Balmung (which is the best best). But, Balmung is locked and requires either exquisite post-reset timing, or a paid character transfer to get on.

Farewell to my favorite place. After so many "Hello, Friends!", I suppose it had to end sometime. I wish everyone from FoM the very best. So many happy memories. So many good times. To each and every person who joined us, passed through, or just laughed themselves silly, thank you. Thank you. Goodbye, Friends. Adieu.

I think Aya's still getting paid to do that... sign her up

Dress to Impress... he's looking for recruits, or looking for help recruiting? :-D That makes a difference (though Aya pretending to be a Naval Officer would be even more entertaining than her pretending to be a Lawyer).

You've already met Sounsyy, literally the best resource for FF lore anywhere! And lots of great advice here Welcome to the RPC!

Niihka! I haven't really taken part in this plot yet, but I'd love to have Aya hired to serve drinks at the art show!

Never underestimate the power of stew! One of the world's greatest creations... (and now I am hungry! :-D )

The sleepy RPC woke up I wouldn't feel bad, its something that nothing else has been able to accomplish lately :-D

Weeeeeeeelcome to Balmung and the RPC! :-D

Must battle with a Roegadyn who loves pancakes.

I'm still reading through this thread in more detail, and finding gems like this one. I know that sometimes the challenges of meeting people can feel and seem insurmountable. Failure and the feeling of rejection (warranted or not) are terrible things, and are absolutely no fun to deal with. Its also not the same for everyone. Some people face greater challenges than others (though I would urge no one to take the struggles faced by anyone else, even those they may imagine as being effortlessly popular, for granted). And the community, in whatever form it takes for that individual, can feel vastly more antagonistic than helpful which is truly unfortunate. But there's some great advice in here (like Roen's), and so many well-intentioned people (my suspicion is that everyone posting is well-intentioned, even if the content of their posts isn't what everyone wants to see).

People can go to events for whatever reason they want. As long as they're being respectful to the organizers and the attendees, why should they be complained about? Why should anyone presume they should be able to dictate the only proper reason to attend any event? This is a game. We play it to have fun. People have fun in different ways, that shouldn't be hard to respect.

If you cannot understand why people would move to a private chat channel during an event with immense chatscroll, I don't really know what to say. I wasn't at the event, but I have attended similar ones in the past, and am a veteran of some very high-chat-scroll evenings at the Quick Sand. I do not join private chats at these events (unless they are explicitly preferred by the organizers to keep public chat down, which I have seen before), but I completely understand why people would: the chat scroll is the sort of thing that cannot only detract from your enjoyment, but can be downright headache causing. In the end people attend public events for the same reason that they attend any event: to have fun. Whether or not that means being terribly outgoing, social, and friendly really depends on the individual and the circumstances. If people want to slip into private chat in order to be able to take a break from trying to scan the scroll, by all means they should not feel bad about doing so. Its so easy to miss things during these events (not to mention how easy it is for characters to actually fail to load, or become unloaded even when targeted). You simply cannot rely on either public chat, or visual recognition to actually get someone's attention. Whispers are your friend. I try to go out of my way to meet people I haven't before, and to try to involve those who seem to be off on their own. That's just part of what I try to do as a role-player, and as a member of the community. But, not everyone is the same way. Some are shy, some are tired, some aren't feeling very social. They're not under any obligation, and if you approach them with a presumption that they owe you a connection, you're both being unfair and setting yourself up for disappointment. The only real reliable ways to meet people and make friends is to both energetically put yourself out there, and to be persistent. This isn't fair. Life isn't fair. Its hard, and its hard to make friends in an on-line community just as it is in reality. Some people have an easier time with it, some have a harder time with it, and that unfortunately is the way it is. We can screw up our eyes, and ball up our fists, and cry to the high-heavens about the unfairness of it all, but it will not change. There's been some excellent advice offered in the thread so far, and I'd just like to re-iterate a few tidbits. 1) Public events are not good for meeting people. You can sometimes introduce yourself to people, but that's as deep as things are going to go. There is too much going on, too many distractions, and too many barriers to deeper investment. Sometimes people might step aside to engage in a deeper conversation, again, like reality, but more-often-than-not people spend most of their conversation time talking to people they already know, while mixing and only superficially engaging those they don't. The chat-scroll makes the situation even worse. After-Parties, and the similar, are vastly superior times to actually make a lasting connection. Once the event has quieted down and most of the people have left, the scroll becomes manageable and those remaining are most likely there strictly to be social. 2) Changing characters, and starting over again is a detriment to building contacts or making yourself known. One way to stand out is simply to be recognized. Even if someone has never met you, or talked to you, if they've seen your character about many times before, or have noticed them even by happen stance, or through forum post, or tumblr, or anything, they're more likely to decide to walk up and introduce themselves, or be interested in engaging. Faye pointed out that people are not as interested in devoting their energy to developing relationships with characters who they do not expect to last. I think this is spot on. It takes investment of energy from both sides to make a connection. Similarly, my usual advice to people trying to make friends is to find groups or linkshells and simply make sure to always greet people, and say farewell before leaving. Just be there get your name out there and make it recognizable. Changing names all the time is likely to completely undermine your efforts to become part of the community. 3) Everyone needs to vent at times, and its probably a healthy thing to do. But publicly complaining, and wagging a finger at the "community" is not likely to improve your chances or people's willingness to engage with you. They do not want to become the scapegoat, or the next example of animus, nor do they want to feel the extra "pressure to perform" when it comes to trying to engage with someone. Failure to have engaged anyone is not usually a sign of hostility or malice. There are numerous reasons why people may have failed to connect that cannot be attributed to either of those. Lastly, Verad is an amazing fellow. He loves to RP, and will use hooks and ropes to haul anyone into conversation. He also has an unbelievably large community of friends. Take his invitation, and make one of the best friends you could make on the server! Addendum, for #~5) Warren had an excellent note. Truly excellent. Build a character for yourself. A character that you find interesting. That you want to play. That you want to invest in. Be proud in that character, and unabashed. Don't change for other people. That's not to say that change is bad, but that change should be something that you want not something you think other people want.

Balmung: Its Worth It. So Worth it. Totally Worth It! This is my new catch phrase for anyone who asks about it I hope you're able to find a way on, welcome to our community! (Just check how far down this rabbit hole goes before you... too late!)

Ayaka's clever--I'm not So gonna be a bit of a problem but it'll work! It'll happen! I don't believe that for a minute! I have a suspicion that Aya's not the only one who's easily underestimated! :-D