BrainedBySaucepans

Right, so I figure I've been lurking long enough, and it's well past time for me to actually jump into the RP hooves first by actually starting my own thread; no half-measures for saucy. My only active experience in the Mane RP this far has been in riverhippo's 100 Country Kisses thread, and I've not really done any forum-based RPing before Canterlot, so this may be a colossally bad idea. I have done plenty of tabletop and live action role-playing, I'm just unsure of how it's supposed to work in a forum context. Still, I want to give it a try, and hopefully people will be willing to help me out a bit. Since my OC (Professor Ashen Smirk) is a lecturer who has just made the move from Canterlot to Stalliongrad, I thought a good way of introducing my character and having some fun would be to have his new superiors arrange for him to hold an inaugural lecture, open to students, faculty and members of the public. Unfortunately, they didn't give him any warning, so the first he heard about this was when he arrived in Stalliongrad the night before, after a long hike (walking from Canterlot to Stalliongrad seemed like such a good idea too), and saw a student handing out flyers. My intention for this thread is to have Prof. Smirk trying to keep up his new happy & friendly façade while getting increasingly stressed, resisting the temptation to revert to his old lecture style (ie short-tempered diatribes against any topic that catches his attention, and Celestia help anyone trying to argue). However, RPing is a collaborative process, so this may end up going in a completely different direction (and I have no objections if this happens, sometimes that's the most fun part of RP). Some questions: Does this RP sound like something you'd like to be part of? Does anyone have any handy forum-specific RP tips that I may not have picked up from the guides already available on the site? Is anyone currently RPing any Stalliongrad University affiliated characters, either student or lecturer? If so, would you be willing to give me advice on how much the setting has been developed? Are there any issues with this that don't appeared to have occurred to me? Is this a terrible idea which I should feel ashamed for having had? If you have an answer to any of these questions, please reply here. I expect to have the first post ready to go up tomorrow (it's past midnight for me, and the only reason I'm posting this now is so I can't back out without losing face), unless any major issues become apparent. Thanks for your time, and I look forward to role-playing with you.

Such a relief to hear people saying that; my reaction on listening back to this - "Stop stuttering you halfwit! Think before you speak or write another script!"

Teaspoon, soup spoon, dessert spoon, serving spoon... I can go on you know.

Tenkan - oblivious to the possibility of spoon variety. And the best quote ever from Conor - "I'm Irish and I know all the spoons." Either put that in your signature, or it's going in mine.

Professor Ashen Smirk had never been fact to face with an angry griffon before, and regardless of the size of the creature in question, the experience was not one he cared to repeat. Thankfully, he wasn’t the target for long, as after a yell of “I'm not short!” Razor had spun away, only to be himself stunned by a verbal onslaught from the manic mare that seemed intent on monopolising him. Ashen’s train of thought was completely derailed by the barrage of blissful babbling that followed, collateral damage from a salvo which had left the griffon rather subdued. Ashen’s brain tried to keep up with the torrent emerging from the pink pony’s mouth, but could only process the occasional phrase. [colour=#ED458B]“…bet you'd have a pretty good advantage if you ever went bobbing for apples. OH! That's a great…”[/colour] [colour=#008080]This is ridiculous.[/colour] [colour=#ED458B]“…trying to make doughnuts but I wasn't sure how to put a hole in them, so I tried using the rim…”[/colour] [colour=#008080]I’ve been able to match wits with some of the finest-[/colour] [colour=#ED458B]“…go over too well. Did I mention you have really neat fur…”[/colour] [colour=#008080]-scholars Canterlot could offer. Surely I can work out the-[/colour] [colour=#ED458B]“…don't need to go on a diet, you're little enough! I mean uh, vertically challenged! Oh…”[/colour] [colour=#008080]-common thread here and deduce her intended-[/colour] [colour=#ED458B]“…stumbled into a den of raccoons! I frightened them, and they accidentally ran into…”[/colour] [colour=#008080]-message, no matter how cryptic she wishes to be about it.[/colour] At this point, two things dawned on Ashen Smirk. The first was that ponies outside the halls of Canterlot University didn't necessarily share the academic habit of treating conversation as an intellectual challenge. He had assumed that any diatribe as ostensibly chaotic as the one he was privy to would have some kind of hidden structure, some key that would open up another layer of meaning. The mention of raccoons threw that idea out of the window. In Professor Smirk’s esteemed opinion, the only thing that a raccoon could symbolise was a small mammal with distinctive facial markings. The second realisation was that he had been completely ignored. In academic circles he had been infamous if not renowned, and he had rarely left the orbit of the University since his late colt-hood. People had always listened to him, even if only to vehemently disagree with what he had to say. He resisted his inclination to object to this treatment, and then realised why. Being completely unheeded was actually rather refreshing. [colour=#008080]Another reminder of how toxic and self-absorbed the Canterlot attitude actually is; not everything has to revolve around academia. Besides, I won’t have to put up with it for long, Stalliongrad is bound to be more enlightened than this little town.[/colour] So thinking, he turned back to his former student, his grin vanishing into a thoughtful frown. [colour=#008080]“Well that was unproductive. I do hope such behaviour isn’t considered normal in these parts, although the fact that everyone else seems unfazed by that rosy ruffian’s actions would seem to imply that it is.”[/colour] The smirk flashed across his face briefly as he contemplated this irritating prospect. [colour=#008080]“Then again, it could just be they’re used to this particular mare. Aren’t you from these parts Doctor Snail, which is it?”[/colour] [colour=#008080]Please tell me this is just the local eccentric, you’ll be my favourite student forever…[/colour]

May as well: And again with with annotations: Want to know the worst part? This was after I tidied up.

huh. That would be nice...

I'm honestly confused about what my reaction should be. This is either the best or worst thing to happen to the franchise in the past 15 years. I just wish I knew which.

I'm officially back home from MCM expo, had a great time. Got tomorrow booked off from work, so I'll probably catch up with art & forum stuff then.

From the point I make this post, I will be deliberately avoiding Canterlot until the 29th (or possibly the 30th). I have to finalise plans for a meeting of my LARP group at an expo this weekend, and organising LARPers is like herding cats at the best of times; I can't imagine how hard it would be if I'm spending half my free time lurking here. This means that any art requests I'm currently working on are on hold (unless I specifically tell you otherwise after I post this). Sorry to anyone expecting something from me in the next couple of days, I honestly thought I'd be up to date by today, but real life keeps getting in the way. If it's any consolation, I've got Monday booked as a day off, so I'll probably be spending a good 8 hours arting then. Hooray for five day weekends! Not really relevant to RPers, since I'm only active in one RP at the moment, and there's probably a week before I'll need to post in that. Still, thought I may as well put this here...