#mc concepts

But this is not because this MC has so much experience under their belt, this MC just doesn’t cognitively experience their most intense emotions. They only physically experience those emotions. Anxious? Their leg is tapping, but this MC doesn’t skip a beat and is pretty useful in the dialogue. Scared? This MC’s heart is pounding away, but they continue to press forward and even appear to think fairly rationally under the pressure. It’s a trauma response, to be sure - MC’s had it rough, and the best way to survive and keep their head above water was to shut down their emotional responses so they could use their brain. The body just didn’t get the memo. The kicker is when this MC falls for someone. They don’t really realize it themself - They enjoy the person’s company, sure, but they don’t see that person in a romantic light at first. This MC focused way more on friendship than they ever did romance, and so they’re surrounded by a cast of close-knit friends who love them and want to take care of them in any way they can. So this MC finds themselves struggling to sleep at night. They take stock of their body, and their body keeps saying “Hey, I need to be hugged” - It’s only a coincidence that they’re thinking of that special person whenever this happens, right? Soon, they find themselves unable to sleep at all after speaking with that special person. If it’s through text, the MC finds themselves looking through pages of shared chat histories, unable to sleep. If it’s through calls, MC finds themselves unable to sleep because they keep replaying the person’s words in their head. In person? MC can’t sleep because they’re too busy basking in the afterglow of seeing that special person. It’s just as bad when MC has a big event they’re looking forward to. The cast at large find this to be a mix of concerning and adorable. On one hand, their generally unflusterable MC is now so flustered that they can’t even sleep properly! It’s like a kid excited for Christmas. On the other hand, their MC isn’t sleeping well, which isn’t great for their health. So when the MC is struggling to sleep, you’ll get a mix of the cast trying to support them. If MC is attracted to someone, they’ll tell that person that they’re struggling to sleep, but they won’t tell them why. Cool-headed/responsible characters tend to try to take care of MC’s needs and help them avoid caffeine during weeks where they’ve got something really big and important coming up. Making them food, or helping them stick to a schedule. MC can’t stick to a schedule easily, but the food and reminders are really helpful for operating at less than 100%. Dumb-Of-Ass/Heart-Of-Gold characters will try to find various methods to knock MC out. “MC, I heard Melatonin can help you sleep better!” “I also heard that eating lots of peppers before you sleep can help you sleep better!” MC ends up getting some really weird-ass dreams and getting conked out hard (Almost unable to go about their day) because of these characters. Passionate/Family-loving characters tend to bring MC home remedies that their parents or grandparents or caretakers taught them for a rough night of insomnia. These are all varying levels of helpful. Sometimes they work like a charm. Sometimes they have zero effect. Sometimes techniques that worked well before don’t work the next time, and vice-versa. Home remedies are a complete gamble for MC, but the company of the people doting on them is always nice. Grouchy/Intimidating characters tend to hoist MC up and forcibly attempt to make them go to bed, thinking it’s just a matter of mind over matter. When MC is physically incapable of sleeping for four hours, spending the whole night tossing and turning, the Grouchy/Intimidating characters then switch tracks to finding someone who CAN help MC sleep better, looking for the answers so they can fix this problem. It’s much less about MC’s wellbeing (Though that is a big part of it) and much more about this lil’ insomnia problem getting in the way of activities they wanna do with MC. Rich/Resourceful characters focus on creature comforts for MC, making sure they’ve got good blankets and pillows and cozy things that help to soothe the nerves before slumber. They’ll cover every possible angle of coziness and comfort. Resourceful characters are discerned from Rich characters in that they’re not rich, but they certainly know how to get their hands on fancy shit. Nothing’s too good for their dear MC. Sweet/Gentle characters bring the snuggles - Offering to cuddle with MC to help them sleep better. Massaging into their back, scritching their head, nuzzling in close, helping to soothe them in any little ways they can, just delighted to get to share that level of closeness with MC. They’ll also buy or make MC food, doing everything within their power to help soothe MC’s nerves. These characters expect nothing in return, and are just eager to be of some kind of help. Gremlin characters find little trinkets and things to give to MC - An old sleeping shirt that helped them feel cozy, a necklace that’s supposed to help people feel safe, A weird little machine that projects stars around the room - They find the strangest and most interesting items to adorn and surround their MC with to try to help herald in good rest. Oftentimes, the trinkets and things are items of personal comfort that they’re sharing. Intelligent/Calculating characters try to research into insomnia and its causes, trying to find medical (Or magical, if the environment works for it) methods of combatting the problem. Depending on their level of shadiness, this can sometimes result in them showing up at MC’s room/place at 2am with a bottle like “Drink this to cure what ails ya’.”. If their shadiness is relatively low, then they’ll come to MC with a collection of options for sleep resources/clinics. The shadier they are, the more likely their solutions are to work. Gossipy characters will consider this an emergency of self-care. It’s time to dish about everything on MC’s mind while they do masks and skin care treatments to combat the lack of sleep. They have all the best supplies for MC’s body type needs, and they know exactly what questions to ask to shoot to the heart of the matter. Wise beyond their years. It’s like the sleepover that MC needed to gush about everything on their mind and their excitement. 9/10 times, works perfectly, and MC’s out within 2 hours. Gamer characters are the only ones literally not trying to help MC, and are actively encouraging MC to fuckin’ turn to the dark side and just play games with them all night. (This one goes out to my gaming friends in different timezones who get excited when I have insomnia, you fuckin’ sirens of the night)

Where has Writer MC been all his life?

Eventually, we started nesting the cyphers. Which means, taking the already cyphered message and running it through another cypher. This would result in paragraphs upon paragraphs, even upwards of pages of text that would amount to a message like “You’re the bitchiest bitch of all of the land and I bet you took too long figuring out this message. Fight me.” So I’m imagining an MC who, one day, decides to bring up cyphers to another character. They explain them, and show them how they work, and they send them a cypher message for them to decode. Only, it’s an insult and the MC is grinning like an idiot. Over time, this back and forth escalates between MC and the character, and they reach a point where they are sending pages upon pages of coded messages back and forth. Where coding comes into this, is that I’m learning coding (C++ and C#) and I was thinking back on this time period, and I wish I had a ‘fight buddy’ to fight through coding programs and stuff. Someone who we could go back and forth, having to analyze each other’s codes, compile them, and then go back and forth between the code and the program to decypher the messages, which would amount to insults. It’s a really great system. I’ve been told it’s akin to having a rival relationship, but super nerdy. Lmfaoooo I imagine this MC would get along really well with characters who’re book nerds/coding/programming/game design nerds? These would be your characters who’re obsessed with machines and programming stuff, or characters who love a challenge of unraveling something by their own wit and grit. When I fought my buddy, I’d go out and get help from other friends who were  well-versed in cyphers, so I also imagine this MC going and roping other characters into this little game and it just becomes a very fun back and forth, only the characters who get roped in don’t realize that they’re putting all of this work in to decypher an insult. Hahahahaha “I DID IT, I FIGURED IT OUT, THEY’RE USING A MODIFIED VIGENÈRE CYPHER!” “Ooh, what’s coming through??” “Y O U A R E A M E G A B I T C- What the fuck are we decyphering” “Oh I’m writing a rebuttal as we speak.” “We’ve been spending an hour on this” “Yeah, and now they’re gonna spend two decyphering our insult.” --- I just imagine this MC sitting with a group of folks, chatting away, and one of the characters just walks up and drops a stack of papers in front of them and silently throws a white glove in their face and walks away. MC, now looking through the papers, realizing they’re looking at code, just going “No.. no... NO.. NO I HAVE TO TRANSCRIPT THIS, YOU BITCH!?” and all the characters around them being confused like “What is happening right now” I love when tormenting people is a love language.

So I’m imagining an MC who just, casually wraps their own eczema without even thinking about it. They’re so used to it, and they’ve tried all the creams, and this is the best thing that works for them and their daily life. The second someone sees them wrapped in gauze, they are ON THEM. Extra points if they’re either from another world/are magical entity that’s not familiar with human ailments, or they’re just a little stupid. Like, the character rushing up like “Holy shit what happened to you??” “Eczema” “Oh my god you’re dying” “No this is normal, it’s fine, it’s eczema” “I now know the name of our greatest foe; Eczema! I will not rest until it’s been eradicated!!” Extra points if MC’s considered weak, because being covered in gauze never fails to make people go “Holy shit who the fuck are we killing” Extra EXTRA points if it means MC is great at wrapping gauze and they get a really lovely moment with one of the characters where they’re hurt and someone wrapped their gauze too tightly, and the character doesn’t realize why it sucks, and they’re just complaining about the discomfort, then MC’s like “Here, lemme re-wrap your gauze” and the character’s just in quiet awe. How did they know the gauze was too tight? How did they know how tight to wrap it? The mystery. The intrigue. I just really like the idea of MC showing up like “Whaddup guys” and they look like their hands were wrapped for 3rd degree burns and they’re just chill about it. Maybe I just like MC being doted over while being a wildcard. Something about characters being like “Ahhh MC!! You’re hurt!! Let me help you!!” or “MC, are you okay??? D:” just delights me. Like yes, dote over me. Let me soak in the attention and concern. Hahahahaha It helps that I’m weak for any scenes where a character gets to help wrap MC’s injuries and is gently doting over them as they do. Or scenes where the characters are in awe of MC being tough and being able to do things that are considered badass skills like wrapping their own injuries. Give me a good back-alley medicine scene in a bar with whiskey and I’m hooked.

MC's just more annoyed than anything because of the lack of sleep. Like, sure, their life hangs in the balance or whatever, but they wanted to get in their 8 hours.

I'm here for characters adapting to tenderly adding 'Lovie' or 'Sweetheart' to their sentences because it makes them feel warm when MC does it. Maybe sometimes it's teasing. Characters adapting to telling their feelings straightforwardly, catching people off-guard. Characters adapting to being physically affectionate with each other and comfortable and looser, enjoying their friends in new ways, creating a sweeter environment.

This could go both ways - You could get angst from it, (A sense that the MC has lost something since their childhood, whether it be their innocence, their love for life, their love for people, ect..) but you could also get a sense of comfort or comedy from it (An MC who has gained something since their childhood; Like bravery, or a conscience LMFAO or even strength that their younger self didn’t have) The conscience one would be really funny. Older MC is really responsible and a straight-shooter, very honest and reliable, but their younger self is like “LET’S COMMIT CRIMES” and no one expects it. Everyone’s like “Awwh, I bet they were an angel as a kid” but nah, younger MC’s addicted to the thrill of breaking all of the rules they possibly can. Maybe the responsible older MC became responsible after they broke a rule that resulted in someone dear to them getting hurt. Maybe the characters get to relive that shift in an incident and they get to see that spark of change? I just really like the idea of characters getting to learn something intimate about the MC in a way that hits them emotionally like a truck. Maybe they weren’t always so jaded. Maybe they weren’t always so distrusting. Maybe they even could have loved certain characters before something in their life made that too hard. Or getting to see MC in a different light that uncovers more about their personality. Maybe they weren’t always brave, maybe they weren’t always good-hearted. Maybe older MC talks about romance like it’s uninteresting, but their younger self is a romantic who loves the idea of getting swept up off their feet? Maybe characters who’ve always wished MC could be more honest about their feelings get to see MC at an age where they were honest and open and would happily share things about themselves that the character can use to be sweet to MC when they’re back to normal? There’s just a lot of potential and I love it. I’m partial to the angst ones, but that “Younger MC commits CRIMES” concept is hilarious to me and I kinda wanna write it now.