[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

by **Echelon** on March 10th, 2012, 10:30 pm

haha Goss *hug* We are all yuppies... it's true. And our electric cars aren't just green they are like NEON green. So I think we kinda just figure the giant truck with zero maneuverability will just slow down or get out of the way if we zoom underneath it's wheels. I mean it's only fair

For what it's worth I'm helping! I don't even own a car. Now THAT is environmentally friendly, and helps Jen do her job. I'm Brilliant.

by **Kadrath Onktaka** on March 10th, 2012, 11:00 pm

by **Echelon** on March 11th, 2012, 2:25 am

oooo pretty!

by **Gossamer** on March 11th, 2012, 5:11 pm

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Plotnotes & PCs

For She So Loved The Sea...

Lately I've been trying to understand my PC more... actually more than one of them to be honest. Plotnotes is a great way to do that. Yesterday I was in the worlds foulest mood because I had to work and knew it would suck (It did, the starter when out on the truck I was driving and I was stuck up north for hours waiting for a repair). So while I was lurking until it was time to go to work, I decided I wanted to think more about Kavala and her watery aspects. The best way I can do that is to photoshop something, so of course, photoshopping my pc underwater was the best recourse. I wanted something that made her look the part, that reflected her obsession and love of the sea. It's important to explore new things with PCs and decide what drives them. Knowing their needs and desires is sometimes the way to get out of that writer's block and throw some words up about them. I mean, you can do character traits or diamonds (I really hate that word) all day but situational and constant traits are only going to help you in figuring out why your PC has been so sad lately or so darn happy.

They need real and true goals. They need hopes and dreams and serious fears. So the picture above is my beloved Kavala - or her model at least - with a whole lot of painting going on around her. The hair and arms aren't hers, but I'd like to say the scales are since they are the ones I repeatedly use. I wish I could have gotten more color into it, but when I did, Gillar said it was just too busy. I believed him and took the color out. So anyhow... this is going to be my go-to inspiration for ocean threads.

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by **Ronan** on March 11th, 2012, 5:50 pm

You're so pretty Kav!

by **Kadrath Onktaka** on March 11th, 2012, 6:03 pm

Oh yea. Kav's amazing.

by **Gossamer** on March 11th, 2012, 7:25 pm

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Fears & PCs

How do you represent a pc never being free? Or having that fear? I want to go through and explore some of Kavala's fears in my next plotnote posting. So... in the true fashion of the artist I always feel I am, I sat down and started thinking how best to visually reference this. I collected a ton of chain pictures, but that didn't seem to really fit her. She's not bound in the awful sense of being in a cell or restrained. She's bound in beauty and her bonds are invisible but at the same time extremely real.

So I came up with the above image, that seemed to suit her prison extremely well. Nakivaks are pampered and have it well in Riverfall. No one can ever doubt that. But they still have fear... or is it phobia. I explored both.

I started off looking at lists of phobias. But the truth is in some sense phobias are different than fear. I mean, absolutely very little on the list of known and named phobias fit my pc. So, its time to get out of the sensible green car and get into the 4x4 with mud tires on it and go off roading in the proverbial sense.

So I went back to the core. What is the definition of fear?

Definition of Fear :

So there's two separate things. There's something you fear, and there's a state of being one can be in. That in itself lead me to an 'ah hah!' moment with Kavala. Because I'd planned on making a huge list of things she's been afraid of in the past or what's scared her. But... there's always a but... before I even got to that point I was at a dead standstill. I realized almost immediately, in that part of my brain where she resides, that one of her greatest fears is being afraid itself. Because when I was looking at the verb sense of fear, Kavala was going 'Oh no.. no no no.' And her fear of being afraid was hugely tangible. My little Konti is terrified of being afraid. I had to ask myself why... and then I realized because when one is afraid, one can't think straight, one can't move, one has a hard time even being rational. She's suddenly and completely not in control and maybe even paralyzed. And Kavala is all about controlling everything around her in the way that provides for the needs of those she cares about and keeps them safe.

And safety to her is not being in danger. She told me that loud and clear. Because on Mizahar, daily, there is danger. You can't control that and she's not stupid enough or naive enough to think she can. But what she is trying to do is provide a sort of shelter, a place, where people can feel safe. And what are they safe from? Their fears.

The rest, those pesky things I was expecting to list and give all the justification for, mean next to nothing to Kavala and are as fluid as time itself. So I started this exercise off thinking of lists and instead finished it with a very narrow and razor sharp insight into how my character functions and why. Honestly... I didn't know that about her. I didn't even remotely have a clue. Don't you love it when a PC surprises the hell out of you?

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by **Trident** on March 11th, 2012, 8:04 pm

I'm a little late to this, but...

Did someone say ocean threads?!

by **Paragon** on March 11th, 2012, 8:06 pm

Now I have to actually make use of Ronan's plotnotes. Stat.

by **Kadrath Onktaka** on March 11th, 2012, 8:43 pm

That's a good insight on her True fear. Finding the specifics on your PC is never easy because it has to come naturally. For example I say that Rath is claustrophobic, but not in the traditional sense. It's more of a distaste for restraint that makes him panic.

Now to consider the why of Kavala's fear. How can she continue to live the life of a Nakivak but still fear being out of control? Isn't her situation the antithesis of being in control?