#about zen

Everyone: JUMIN NO!!!

Jumin: JUMIN YES!!!

Ask the mun!

@empatheticagent​ asked: ☂ : Spread some love: mention someone you’ve met that has influenced you or your writing in a positive way, and explain how.

15 questions about mun’s taste in muses.@thoseofonen​

1. how many muses, do you think, have you had in total while on tumblr?

Vivian.  Victoria.  Chloe.  Ros Myers.  Sarah Caulfield.  Elizabeta Starkova.  Vlad.  Duvessa.  Shadow.  Sera.  Shae.  Steve Rogers.  Natasha Romanoff.  Peggy Carter.  Sam Wilson.  Valkyrie.  Thor Odinson.  Loki.  Delirium of the Endless.  Despite what SatanFish and Thera-mun say, Doormaya does not count (because you need a personality before you can be a muse).  Even if she would bring it up to a round 20.  And I think at one point I was setting up another American Gods OC that was the personification of tumblr.

Most of these muses just exist, though.  I barely write on the bolded ones as is; the rest are more for when a specific idea comes up with specific partners.

3. do you often get ideas when watching new media? do you end up wanting a canon character, an oc in that world, or just things involving current muses in the world / with those characters?

Absolutely.  I’m prone to watching something new and immediately trying to place the muses I already write into that universe - or, more often, since Vivian and Duvessa and Sera, at least, are from what I consider to pass for an urban fantasy setting, figuring out how the universes would mesh.  I have a whole long list of properties I consider to be crossover-worthy - meaning Vivian, Duvessa, and Sera wouldn’t need an AU to interact within them as they are.  (Ros is an exception in that her first main verse is strictly real-world.  But she does have a urban-fantasy-esque secondary main verse.)

4. what’s the weirdest muse you’ve ever had?

...Define ‘weirdest’.  

I mean.  Vampire ballet dancer.  Vampire-succubus-chaos-entity mother of three.  Folklore figure turned cafe owner.  An ordinary, very spoiled, cat.  PERSONIFICATION OF MADNESS.

5. who is / was your favourite muse of all time to play?

IF YOU HAVE A CANON CHARACTER, answer in the sense of what made you want to play them, how you have come to interpret them differently -

PART ONE. what thing(s) initially inspired your character ? Okay so I’ve mentioned once today that I watched Spooks s7 because of SatanFish’s Lucas muse, and there was this awesome blonde, and we discussed the relationship between Lucas and said awesome blonde.  But what inspired me was, frankly, how well-written Ros was, even though I only knew the nicer, neater, second half of her story at first.  Here was someone who spent episode s7e01 kicking FSB ass with forks and ballpoint pens, only to fall apart at the death of Adam.  Who, in s7e02, trashed a fucking hotel room in her rage, which was impressive even without knowing the context for it, and then went on to nearly twist a man’s balls off and was positively chipper afterwards. Who, in s7e03, treated the death of Jawad as a tick on her to-do list, only to struggle to keep herself together when calling Jo after the explosion... and then who went on to dare her boss’ boss to fire her and find someone better (in front of her boss’ boss’ boss)... only to say he can’t because there is no one better, so please stfu and let her do her job.  I mean, I could seriously go on episode by episode, because Ros is fucking amazing. 

I think it was the chance to play a character who wasn’t a handful of stereotypes that inspired me.  There was so much to explore with Ros.  What motivated her decisions, what her relationships with her colleagues were like, how she balanced work and personal life, how she justified decisions to herself, where her limits lied.  She was amazingly written and there was so much to work with, and how could I turn down the chance to explore all that?

PART TWO.  how has their personality developed from their first concept ? As much as I shout now about ‘she’s not an Ice Queen’, I’ll admit I did lean towards fanon characterizations when I first started writing Ros, and it’s taken dozens of threads and countless discussions ooc to bring her to a balance between the emotional and the cold hard logic that I think characterizes Ros.  

I’ve also gotten the chance to explore something the show never delved into beyond one scene of Adam and Ros in bed together, which is her personal life.  Exploring Ros outside of the confines of the Section Chief Top Tier Spy has been an adventure, and has opened up new insights into her character.

PART THREE.  how has their appearance developed from their first incarnation ? She hasn’t, really.  I honestly don’t think I could separate Ros Myers from Hermioine Norris.  Norris did a phenomenal job of making Ros sympathetic, badass, awe-inspiring, flawed, and ultimately human.  The expressions I write are 100% taken from her nuanced portrayal, and I couldn’t see Ros without Norris’ face.

PART FOUR. what do you think most makes your character unique ? Have I mentioned that one article once called Ros the best female character on British television?  Because I couldn’t be more proud of that fact if I’d been one of the original Spooks writers.  Ros is... she’s older (closer to 40 than 30).  She’s a woman in a field dominated by men.  She’s flawed, omfg is she flawed, and we’re meant to read her as flawed, not as some delicate misunderstood flower.  We’re supposed to watch her destroying someone’s life and go ‘what the fuck you bitch’ and she doesn’t magically make it better.  She lives with the consequences of her actions.  There are lots of badass female action-oriented characters out there.  What sets Ros apart is that she’s not an attractive 20-something, she’s not a martial arts expert able to backflip across a room to kick her opponent in the face, she’s not hiding some deep traumatic past, she’s not trying to atone for something, and she’s not all but perfect.  She’s deeply flawed, unrepentant about some of those flaws, confident beyond belief in her skills and abilities, able to outthink her colleagues, supremely protective of the people she’s sworn to guard, and sometimes she loses.

More Munday Asks

@lunarruled​ asked:  What’s your first language? Do you know any others? Are there any you’d like to learn?

ONE ( ALIAS / NAME ):   Zen.  Both an alias and sort of my real name in that everyone including my parents uses it.

TWO ( BIRTHDAY ):  January 6, 1985

THREE ( ZODIAC SIGN ):   Capricorn / Rat

FOUR ( HEIGHT ):  5′10″

FIVE ( HOBBIES ): Reading, not writing, RPing, knitting

SIX ( FAVOURITE BOOKS ): The City We Became & the Broken Earth trilogy, both by N. K. Jemisin, and the Spiritwalker trilogy by Kate Elliott

SEVEN ( LAST SONG LISTENED TO ):  idek something that was on the radio before I turned on my ipod

EIGHT ( LAST SHOW WATCHED ):   Leverage (The Cross My Heart Job)

NINE ( INSPIRATION FOR MUSE ):  Gods, everything and everything.  Spooks, ballet, various thread crafts (I stg I’m going to pick up spinning yarn if I keep writing Sera), various mythologies, horror media, Crimson Peak, Victorian fashion, the MCU, WWII-era history, spy media, urban fantasy

① ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE ?

My father’s grandmother, actually.  Full name, too.

② WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED ?

About an hour ago - I got some chipotle sauce in my eye.

③ DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

No, and I don’t plan to.

④ DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT ?

It only makes up about 75% of my speech.

⑤ WHAT’S THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE ?

Whether or not I’m going to have to interact with them.

⑥ WHAT’S YOUR EYE COLOR ?

Hazel - brown-green.

⑦ SCARY MOVIE OR HAPPY ENDING ?

...Both.

⑧ ANY SPECIAL TALENTS ?

Nope.

⑨ WHERE WERE YOU BORN ?

New Jersey.

⑩ WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES ?

Reading, wanting to write but not actually writing, (actually on that note ‘reading’ should be ‘wanting to read but not actually reading’), casual gaming, wanting to RP but never actually writing anything IC, daydreaming about a life in which I’m capable of managing more than one or two aspects of executive functioning at a time, knitting.

⑪ DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS ?

No, but I’m about to embark on a quest to get an emotional support animal whether my landlord likes it or not.  I need a cat.  (Vivian doesn’t count.)

⑫ WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED ?

I do not do the sports thing.  I think I’m allergic to them, tbh.

⑬ HOW TALL ARE YOU ?

5′10″

⑭ DREAM JOB ?

Published author.

⑮ FAVORITE SUBJECT AT SCHOOL ?

History & English.