Common Themes/Tropes in Your Writing?

Some sort of physical infliction, impairment or handicap. Missing arm is probably my fav but non-verbal/mute might be my second.

Always a tragedy, I know cliche ?

Never wrote many smart characters. And the smarties I did write ended up dying.

Also, I tend to write a lot of very “true blue” - Joey, Bitan, so on and so forth. Not a lot of moral ambiguity.

I always make use of cliche's. I also make my storylines similar in some way to another storyline that's happened in a movie, video game and/or comic as a sort of easter egg. There's enough original work there, but I like to include something familiar in my stories because I love easter eggs. I want to see if anyone can spot them. Most of the time, they go unnoticed but every once in a while someone mentions, "Hey, that was like such and such!" and I like it when people notice. It brings a smile to my face because it brought a smile to theirs. ^_^

For a few of my non-Native English speakers (most notably Shiho, and now Valentina), a misappropriation of common English phrases. Shiho was another level because she was borderline-mute, spoke mostly Japanese, and her English was all broken up, to the point where eventually she'd just revert to speaking her native tongue like Anderson Silva before he got more fluent.

Even Valentina, whom I've marked as fluent in several languages including English. She speaks perfect English when she wants, but will pretend to be less fluent depending on social context, in order to play on certain social stereotypes and ideas for her advantage (e.g. because of the tendency for us to default assume less intelligence when foreigners try to speak our language and have a hard time). However even when she's not playing that game (like her inner thoughts or when she's feeling more comfortable and assured), I like to make use of common English phrases - just slightlyoff - to mark her coming from a different culture where those phrases may not be as common. So the technical knowledge is there, but culturally still different.

My characters almost always have some kind of ranged weapon. LL had laser vision, Kratesis had a bow, Amaranth revolvers, Ivana a bow, Hawkshade his Iaculum.

Every villainous character I've ever written has been morally irredeemable. Brahma Bull, Satar, and Ezra Strix. They are incapable of moral growth, and they all have selfish or irredeemable goals with which they use irredeemable (sometimes sadistic) means to achieve.

That is interesting. Another thing I noticed was that each of those villains was one of the best villains ever on the vine. I was gone for most of Ezra Strix's run but I read some of his posts and I was blown away at how unsettling he was.

@hawkshade: That's very high praise! Ezra was probably my most irredeemable character ever. I don't think I could have written a more evil character, LOL.

Masochism.

Ezra's gonna die too. Messed with the wrong folks.

@grimmwald: That thing where he ripped his own face off.. holy #@^%&%^

@hawkshade: Yeah Ezra was all about that kind of stuff. I always try to make him seem unnatural, even in a world with metahumans, gods etc. So I devoted a lot of energy to making him feel unnatural, like there's something off about him, even by the weird standards of the world all our characters live in, LOL.

• Gambler being my partner in crime (occasionally includes heroic runs).
• Multi-layered duplicity.
• Being on the opposite side of the LLaw (which is ironic since she was my mentor-person). It's almost always friction with us.

Also, in my writing I like to leave little hints in what I do, and it all hinges on creative use of language.

Long-term planning in general.

Evil.

My villains-to-anything else ratio is probably something like 5-1.

I use the same phrases over and over and over!

Sacrifice has become a big one over the last year or so.

Drones.

Being a total idiot.

The climb - Being a nobody and going on to become super important.

Attracting enemies without even trying, for things you wouldn't expect.

• Shiho was chosen to lead the Court of Arcani and made Impero; Tranquil wanted her dead for...I don't know why. Then the Myrmidon situation.
• Abby attracted just as many new enemies - if not more - when she tried to retire than when she was active. Just because people hated her morality.
• Antonia got a huge target on her back from people who should otherwise be "good guys" because she defeated a terrorist....and wouldn't hand him over. >_>
• Now the haters come for Valentina just because she gettin' money. But that's okay. Her haters are her motivators.

She should make a return at some point.

Probably just a bunch of scary stuff.

Words.

@deicidium:

Hot

@grimmwald: First things first, Impero stop. That is bad behaviour and you shouldn't encourage it.

But oh my God I really want to, too! I feel my mind being pulled in so many directions and that's one of them! Nord's been trying to get her to tag team with Dog for over a year now.

One common element in my writing has been an absence of a secret identity. Liberty Prime did not have one, Kratesis did not have one, nU Liberty didn't have one, Amaranth didn't and Ivana did not either. Which is odd because I always enjoyed characters who do have a secret identity and who try to keep it secret. Hawkshade is the first main I have ever written on CV who does have a secret identity.

Ineffectual loner .

Vincent has trust issues do to the way he was raised, and other external influences. He's always under the impression that if someone is generally being nice to him, it's because they wanna use him as a pawn in their machinations.

This is a commonality with me as well. Most of my characters don't have an outright masked/secret identity, it's more that their less than legal deeds are kept quiet by people who are interested in maintaining that assassin's/thieves/criminals social contract.

But it's really because he's calling out for help?

Hehee, no I'm kidding. He's a good guy and I like that. That reminds me of something.

I wanted to do this, this time around but it's definitely not worked out in the old school way because I'm not using a masked look.

IC, I like to chalk Abigail's lack of a secret identity to naive oversight (she was only 18 when she left for New York), and in some ways it actually was that for multiple reasons. And I think a lot of mine don't, but a number of them have had duplicitous false identities, which I classify as different from the secret identity in a Batman/Wayne sort of way.

Part of me wishes I played more with the secret identity thing more when Toni was around, and I wanted to pick back up with that as Nastya. But here I am with Valentina.

I normally aim to write characters with realistic problems, normally to the villainous side of that spectrum.

A criminal who's gathering funds to support a child, or a hero who want's to do good things with decent intentions but is also battling their personal demons that interfere.

A veneer of confidence masking underlying deep insecurities and neurosis. Normally being good at hiding it, but I like to hint at cracks in the surface when things happen to breach that.

@rosso:

I wanted to do this, this time around but it's definitely not worked out in the old school way because I'm not using a masked look.

Someday I want to do with a villain what I am doing with Hawkshade. The slow burn. Build all their equipment piece by piece, have them maintain a secret identity to evade the law (maybe they'd even work in law enforcement) and start at the bottom of the criminal hierarchy. Working as a thug or something for another villain character maybe.

That said I don't think a mask look is 100% necessary. Lots of people in the real world use fake identities. They're so valuable stealing identities is an extremely profitable business.

@hawkshade: That's sorta what I'm doing with Closure! But all depending on the nuance. I really like the idea of one working in law enforcement and using that to evade the law. That's something I don't think we've really seen. And I would've loved to see a "questionable law enforcement" angle when Cassandra was a cop. A part of me wishes I could've had Gambler as her senior partner, sort of like Denzel in Training Day, and Impero as the Lieutenant who covers for us when there's something questionable we may have to do "for the greater good," (like stealing a helicopter) but he doesn't know G's actually crooked, and possibly gunning for his position to consolidate power with his corrupt buddies. And that's just one! Honestly there're so many angles you could take that.

And I find I actually like being in the "grunt" role, or otherwise "enforcer"/"secret weapon." Playing Didi as a soldier with a unique role - but still just an average (and physically below average) soldier - was a lot of fun. And ideally I'd have been able to play Nastya as an enforcer type. (It's still possible, but it hasn't happened.) Like...give her a small company of subordinates serving as an elite unit which she leads, they're like mini-bosses before the actual boss...There were a lot of things I want to play with, with her. (And in general but she could be a great vehicle to explore many of the things.)

@rosso:

I really like the idea of one working in law enforcement and using that to evade the law. That's something I don't think we've really seen.

Hrmm.. I've thought about making a federal Marshal or something. Someone with a degree of autonomy. That way they could go where they wanted and investigate whatever crimes they wanted. Maybe because they were close friends with their boss or something? Hrm. But they would also be an upstanding member of the community. Someone everyone trusted. The last person you'd suspect.

Maybe a semi-legendary figure within law enforcement, the kind of person who cracked seemingly impossible cases.. because they used their criminal contacts to find information otherwise unavailable.

Probably use some kind of technological powerset rather than mutation or something. Maybe based on components they stole, piece by piece, from the evidence room when super criminals were apprehended.

@hawkshade: Aha! My dad talked about Marshals in that way once! I won't lie, that all sounds super cool and I almost wish I was the type of person to steal it. But even more I think I'd enjoy interacting with it.

Things like

go where they wanted and investigate whatever crimes they wanted. Maybe because they were close friends with their boss or something? Hrm. But they would also be an upstanding member of the community. Someone everyone trusted. The last person you'd suspect.

That reminds me of a story I read about a girl (or maybe it was more than one) who'd been missing for years, and someone discovered she was being held by someone in the neighborhood. And everyone was just appalled, like "how did we miss this for so long?" And "he was great! We had dinner over his house, and he'd come to our house, and he just seemed like a good neighbour, a trusted friend for many years." And after all that, you find this about them.

Maybe a semi-legendary figure within law enforcement, the kind of person who cracked seemingly impossible cases.. because they used their criminal contacts to find information otherwise unavailable.

I would also totally be down to be a criminal contact. >_>

components they stole, piece by piece, from the evidence room when super criminals were apprehended.

That's just cool and almost seems like a natural thing that should happen.

One of the most common tropes about my writing is that most of my characters are paired up with Sha's. It's common for she and I to write a powerful duo of some sort. Thee Champion/Ziccarra Liafador, Amin Karrit/Ada Guillaume, Zedora/Aphasic (Original).

Stats below peak human.

Heroes who often have abilities typically associated with villains.

Google searches the likes of which make you wonder about your potential ranking on FBI watch lists.

Some form of healing factor. Highest of keys hate writing prolonged injuries.

The Rule of Cool

Expression Porn

Gun Porn

Martial Arts Porn

All (or almost all) of my flying brick characters are connected in some way. Some by blood relation, and others by more symbolic and intangible things like inheriting a mantle etc.

I believe some sort of mental issue conncted to a past trauma/event.

Tank has violent impulses and major lack of trust in others.

Deicidium is a psychopath hiding as a soldier.

I like exploring the human mind and how being shaped by events, past or present, affects the characters' personas.

An average human empowered with tech.

• Redheads
• Knives
• Kinky characters
• Ballet training
• Assassins

RPG Characters: A power that I thought would be fun to write

OC work: Active protagonist and antagonist

@tessa_callahan: Feels like I also do knives and ballet/gymnastics training quite a bit.

Also, a bio that doesn't actually say much about the actual level of skill a character has/is supposed to have. For the most part, I just lay down a baseline saying Character X has skills X, Y, and Z, and then leave it up to fleshing out how good they are through the writing.

It's 'cause great minds think alike.