— just give me mercy.

muse a tries to stand up for muse b in a bar but unfortunately cannot fight for shit. 

muse a is having plumbing troubles in their new house and muse b says they can fix it: except they can’t, they just wanted to spend more time with the cute neighbor. (bonus if muse a has to spend the night at muse b’s place because of it)

muse a works somewhere that’s open late and muse b comes in to take shelter from the storm. 

muse a is assigned to be muse b’s partner in an undercover assignment. 

muse a needs money and signs up to be in muse b’s clinical trials. (bonus if some kind of accident gives muse a superpowers and unwittingly makes muse b their accomplice in their goals)

muse b is a siren and muse a is one of the few people immune to their song, so after drowning the rest of the crew the two are stuck together. 

muse b accidentally creates muse a, the world’s very first AI. (Can work with or without a body for muse a, or muse b can struggle to build a body for muse a)

muse a and muse b as Olympic athletes forced to do PR together, photo shoots, interviews, cheese montages. 

muse b is an anent for a time travel protection agency and has been assigned to protect muse a after they have been targeted by another time traveler. 

There is nothing more discouraging when your character is trying to converse, but the other character keeps shutting you down or alternately, does not reciprocate.  It can be disheartening, exhausting, and no fun.  Even more importantly, it’s bad RPing. 

Examples of shut downs:

the character keeps giving negative responses

the character belittles or dismisses the other character’s thoughts, suggestions, questions, then does not add anything

the character is too shy or afraid to speak or take any action; waits for the other character to take initiative

the character challenges the other character to impress them somehow, before they decide to engage

the character refuses to engage in any way: refuses to consider ideas, shows no interest, abruptly leaves

the character will answer questions but then will offer no follow-up

there is a lot of internal exposition, but then the character only responds with a word or two

If you realize your character consistently uses a few of these tactics, you may think: “but my character is grumpy/an asshole/anti-social/really shy/scared/bitchy/a loner/hates people/has issues!  It’s natural for them to act that way!“

This might be true, but the Mun/Player does not have to write that way.  There is a difference between the Mun’s character’s personality, and the Mun’s writing. RPing is interactive and it’s a two-way street.  As a Mun, it is your responsibility to figure out how to be engaging and encouraging to your partner, regardless of your character’s personality.

Below the cut are some suggested ways to improve RP interaction, and make things fun for both RP thread partners.

There are three sections:

Classic Improv

‘The Best’ vs ‘Show Your Work’

Are You Not Entertained?

Infinite list of favorite ships → Usagi Tsukino & Mamoru Chiba (Sailor Moon)

↳ “Why can’t you keep your stupid shoes on your stupid feet, Meatball Head?