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it sounds like you're asking how i landed on her energy, and tbh that might just be a matter of writing preference and style (mine could be described as 'trying not to take it overly seriously') 🤣 it's smth you'll naturally develop as you refine your taste, take inspiration from media, and figure out what aspects of your character (/writing) you want to convey, but i know that's a very 'draw the rest of the owl' non-answer LOL

otherwise, knowing who your character is in broad strokes And what you're trying to say through them is the only way i've been able to make my characters' behavior feel intentional to their character writing 👴 in this case, maggie was the product of a couple character tropes (the popular queen bee, the dumb blonde/beach bimbo, the california 🎶 girl) that i liked and had Opinions abt and wanted to iterate in a certain way, so i had a good idea of who she was, how she'd act, and the general direction of her story from the start. and when i say 'iterate a certain way', i mean that me wanting to see a specific down-to-earth interiority from That Girl, without disavowing the superficial qualities of those tropes, informed everything from her emotional profile to how she would occupy the role of 'an mc of a romantic sol vn' 🤣

my sensibilities regarding what 'down-to-earth' looked like within an idyllic but largely frictionless story like olba's meant that maggie often acted beyond its status quo, and ymmv on this, but i think you Should reject some of what the game asserts abt mc in the process of writing your character 🤔 editing bc i probably wasn't making much sense, i think it's important to keep in mind that olba's intended experience means the default mc is 'a player avatar' first and foremost and 'a character' in function only. bc the game can't assume intent behind its player’s choices but still needs to give 'the mc' some diegetic presence in the text, it just leaves a cardboard cutout in the space where a cohesive narrative arc/distinct individual would go lol - i consider all its mc-related dialogue or flavortext to be stock that you should season to better serve your character 🤣 but when establishing the circumstances that influence who they are or where their story goes, taking what the game Does give you and working with it (ppl are partly the cards they're dealt lmao) rather than ignoring everything might even help you find their voice!

i imagine that ro actually has a bachelor's in civil engineering but got an architectural master's (or dual majored, godspeed and rip) bc he takes after maggie as a designer and has liz as an aunt 🤣 i was originally thinking abt disability infrastructure when i like, bestowed him the terrible fate of going to school for engineering And architecture lmfao, so it’s probably important to wherever he works