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We have lots of threads to ask questions to or about characters, but what about the users? In the vein of the Say something to the TH user above you! thread and the I want to see a TH user who... thread (and serving basically as a non-anonymous CuriousCat), this is a thread to help you get to know your fellow TH users better by asking the person above you a question. In return, the person below you will pose a question to you. After you're asked a question, edit your post with your answer!
If you're uncomfortable or don't want to answer the question you were given for any reason, just say so and leave a fun fact about yourself so the game still serves its purpose. If a question is truly problematic, message me with any concerns.
Rules:
- Don't ask questions that are very personal or could be uncomfortable, and bear in mind that many TH users are minors, so while I encourage you to look at the profile of the user above you and ask about something mentioned if you like (like their pets, their hobbies, or their current project), please don't ask very personal questions like exactly where someone lives.
- Try to ask something fun or interesting, but it's fine if you don't know the person above you at all-- getting to know each other better is the point of this thread! It's fine to ask something general like what their hobbies are, who their favorite fictional character is, how they came up with their username, which of their own characters is their favorite, or how they found ToyHouse.
- Of course, it's great if you ask something more specific, too! If you know they have a lot of fandom characters, you might ask how they got into that fandom, or if they have a unique art style, you might ask how they developed it!
- There's another thread for specific questions about characters, and another for worlds, but you can ask general/broader questions about a person's creations here, like how long they've been working on their story, or what inspires or influences them. I'm not going to keep writing examples, but you get the idea. Just use common sense and try to get to know your fellow TH users better!
- You can ask multiple questions in your comment if you want to, but only one is fine, too. This can be as in-depth or as casual as you like.
- Please ping the person above you so you make sure that they see your question! If you're not sure how to do this, you simply type @THEIRUSERNAME, and they will be notified! This will not work if you edit the ping into your comment later (like if you wanted to claim and then edit your question in); you must put it in when you first submit the comment.
- You are NOT ALLOWED to skip anyone in this thread. If you cannot see the post above you because the poster or you have blocked each other, wait for another person to comment before replying to the thread. Feel free to bump the thread to encourage others to participate!
- Wait at least a couple of posts before going again.
- Edit your original comment with your answer to keep this clear; please DO NOT add new comments to the thread just to answer someone's question. This gets confusing. Take it to private messages if you want to have an ongoing conversation.
- You can bump the thread as often as you like; I don't mind.
- Be nice and have fun! Please don't be rude if someone asks you a question you've already answered before! If that happens, you may link your previous response if you don't want to go over it again, but I recommend adding something new to say about the topic, if you can!
- Want to play the game in reverse? Answer a question from the user above!
The first person can either ask me something or just claim a spot!
Edit: my answer
"Hedgemaze Expo" is the name of the main characters' band in my comic! I've been using either HedgemazeExpo or Hedgemaze as a username ever since, which is to say since 2003! Most people just call me Hej for short now.
The name itself doesn't mean much of anything, other than that I liked both words and liked the sort of paradoxical nature of an exposition dedicated to huge structures that can't be moved (what do they exhibit, photos? bush samples? tiny mazes?). In terms of the comic, it's just supposed to be a unique, kind of awkward, and silly band name, because in-story, it's an inside joke between my characters Jill and Amber.
BroodingBungalow Simple question, but how did you come up with your username?
I find the way you create your characters and how you write their bios very interesting (y'know, being non-judgmental about them, writing their profiles how they would like them to be...), I love reading about it on Twitter! Have your characters' morality and actions ever been "misinterpreted" because of it? If the answer is yes, how do you usually react to it? Also, has your writing style for bios and your general attitude towards your characters changed throughout the years?
Thank you! :') That's a really interesting question.
The answer is yes, but it's tricky to say people are really "misinterpreting" them when it's more intentional misdirection on my part. There are antagonists with profiles that might lead you to believe otherwise, the same in reverse, and many characters whose profiles just omit very significant information about them, or straight-up have lies in them. (Not my lies, if it makes a difference: just in the sense that I write how the character would be seen when you first meet them, or how they would want to be seen, when those are not necessarily a factual reality.)
Generally I think it's fun, and very gratifying to see if people buy into my misdirection, because then I know what I'm doing is working. Sometimes it's kind of frustrating or sad that people won't see the character the way I do until much later, because I'm holding back the reasons why they would be loved (or loved to be hated).
You can kind of tell which bios I'm less happy with (in the sense that I think they do a poorer job representing the character because they omit significant information) by which characters I use more rarely in forum games. Toyhouse is really useful in telling me when how I'm presenting a character does or doesn't work, and I can sometimes make adjustments based on that.
I think it's really interesting how I've outright described some characters as criminals or in negative ways (like how I have a group I actively call terrorists, or how I've said that Bane has made a lot of mistakes that he's trying to get away from), but those are aspects of their characters that are almost never mentioned by anyone who comments on them. I don't really have a destination for that train of thought, but it's something I've certainly noticed.
Hmmmm, before Toyhouse I think I was really only writing bios for myself, in private. When I write them, bios for my own use are summaries of the full character: motivations, the challenges that face them, flaws and virtues and their plot arcs, and those aren't the kinds of things I put on Toyhouse, unless the character is an open book whose motivations would be obvious to everyone (like how Xero really wants to find his true love). But if it counts, I've become much more open about my characters since joining here, believe it or not (Roadie and Haggis being together in any way was something I never drew, wrote, or mentioned publicly once from 2006 to 2016; the original comic never got to that point). I used to reveal nothing whatsoever beyond what showed up on the pages, but I think it's more fun to let people get to know the characters now, even if I still keep a lot of cards up my sleeves.
My attitude toward my characters has changed over the years, for sure. The 2007 version of the comic was more of an obvious, comedically cartoonish parody/allegory of reality, so the bad guys and good guys were more obvious and stark; I was clearly judging right and wrong sides of the story. I think it's mostly the passage of time that changed that: not only me getting older, but also just seeing how reality shook out, how things weren't as simple as I saw them at the time. And I wanted to tell a subtler story: there were shades of this message as far back as 2002, but I'm rolling with it now, the concept that people are complicated and neither wholly good nor bad, that life isn't always fair or moral but we're all in it together trying our best. It's how I see people and the world in general now, whereas when I was younger I was far more black-and-white and fiery, righteous. And so that's how I see my characters and my story now, too.
Anyway, thanks so much for the question; this was fun to think about. :')
I find the way you create your characters and how you write their bios very interesting (y'know, being non-judgmental about them, writing their profiles how they would like them to be...), I love reading about it on Twitter! Have your characters' morality and actions ever been "misinterpreted" because of it? If the answer is yes, how do you usually react to it? Also, has your writing style for bios and your general attitude towards your characters changed throughout the years?
I've already answered to a similar question, tbh! You can read my reply here: https://toyhou.se/~forums/5865.forum-games/65621.ask-a-question-to-the-user-above-you-?page=1#post-1467906 (: It's kinda outdated at times but the main points still stand.
Oof I didn't realize that it was already answered before. Forgive me.
@judas-la-carotte
What led you to create the Flying Popcorn and Paradoxal Collection webcomic series? Have you come up with any concepts regarding those before you created them?
This is gonna be a very long answer, so...
1. I haven't fully gotten into FE as of yet, since I have yet to play the other titles besides Awakening and Heroes, though FE6 is my top priority. However, the formermost title was my first Fire Emblem game.
2. I started liking Lilina back in February of this year by the time the Love Abounds banner in Heroes started, and since I started to become more interested in FE6, she easily became my number 1 fave, which replaced Juvia from Fairy Tail, and I used to like her a lot when I was hooked to FT at the time, but though she still remained as one of my faves, I lost interest in FT as a whole. The reason Lilina is my fave is because I love her design! I'm a sucker for blue-hair characters, but she's adorable! I'm also interested in her character, which is why I wanted to play FE6 (Her game of origin). I also started liking best FE daddy best dad Hector for that reason.
3. I don't have a specific favorite/least favorite FE game, since as I said, I haven't tried any of the series titles besides Awakening and Heroes, but for now, let's just say Heroes is my favorite.
Historia When did you get into fire emblem? Why is Lilina your favourite out of all the characters? And what's your favourite and least favourite game from the series?
I honestly dont know ahahaaah. I was striking for a realistic style but appealing and unique in the first place but i somehow came to develop a soft and roundish style for some reason? It just came. Maybe because of my liking for soft style and cute things. Though i learn about lineart value and implement it by tweaking the opacity so there's that. Other than that, i have no clue.
I have lots of inspiration, but the ones that influence my style is Laetan for the roundish style, Doodlebound for the lineart and colours, and lastly Kawanocy for the style. worth noting that Akumanorobin inspired my lighting
Your story Revolving Door sounds like an incredibly huge project. I'm curious about this since I'm a writer too: when you write something big, do many things change as you go along? Or do you try to keep the story as you originally intended it to be? I feel like a story that's been in the making for 5+ years must have been through a lot of changes and rewrites.
Also, what does your username mean?
Edit response: That all sounds very interesting! It's obvious you've put a lot of time and thought into this project. Good luck with it!
My favourite story changes a lot, but right now it's Vincent. I'm especially proud of that story because it's a genre(?)/idea I've never really tried to write before. That, and the fact that I wrote the entire thing in a weekend. (It's only about 10,000 words, but still.)
I'm also very fond of my Vampire Hunters series even though I doubt that will ever be properly written and published. It's been in the making for over three years now.
My inspiration comes from all over the place. Sometimes when I'm out walking, I'll suddenly get an interesting/weird idea and think 'I wonder if I could make some kind of story out of that?' Other times, I might be inspired by other stories, by videogames, by events from my own life, or just my own messed-up imagination. I don't think there's really a specific place I get inspiration from.
RadiantRaindragon which of your stories/projects is your favourite? And what would you say are your writing inspirations? :o
Without a doubt, Toudaishuu. It's funny because it's not even the main story, it actually was a side story that totally went out of hand, and now it has a full fledged timeline and everything. I get super inspired about the events that happen in that continent or any characters, so it has more content does the main story, which is based around Xanadu. It's like... my baby.
For worldbuilding though, I think the origin story of the seraphs and how they fell was interesting. I don't think it's the most unique story ever, but I'm really proud of it.
muwi For worldbuilding, what is your favourite bit of lore/story that you have created? How about your favourite or the most developed world you have made?
Since I noticed you also really like worldbuilding, I actually really want to ask the same thing you asked from muwi! What is your own personal favourite bit of lore you have created?
And also to not be completely unoriginal, how long have you been consistently working on your current worldsettings? Have you ever completely abandoned any, and have things changed drastically as you have gotten older, or has it been a stable and gradual process?
Tell me a bit about your species, vetehi! I know about the name's connection to the Finnish language, but how did you come up with the species? Where did the concept come from and what were some struggles you faced with making a Closed Species?
It all started with a one-off design I made for a monster person group! I wanted some sort of long sea creature similar to an eel, but then I thought maybe water dragons would be more fun? I have always been a sucker for them ever since I was small, and I hadn't really seen mer characters with like a super long noodle torso! The gems came from the fact I had read Dragonology as a kid and there was a mention the soft scales of the dragon's stomach sometimes make gems get attached to them, and I thought the idea of vetehi attaching gems to themselves while their scales are still relatively soft seemed like fun and a good way to give something different I guess?
After that I mostly worked on the species by accident through the character (Nirve) I made, starting with how they travel around a lot because they are predators and how children can eat everything as a way to ensure their survival! They were a dying species in my setting because of humans hunting them, and I also explained a lot of sea monster lore with them + I mixed some different types of mermaid lore into it. This all happened in I think 2015 so it's been some time, but it was basically just me working on one character at first and defining the species through it.
Later I heard about closed species but didn't actually know much anything about them, and thought I could maybe use vetehi for that! I genuinely didn't know what a hornet's nest the general cs community is or how competitive the scene is or how absolutely entitled and terrible the people in cs communities can be, and I honestly think if I had known I wouldn't have done it. Even today I genuinely can't understand people who think cs are somehow worse than regular adopts, when the same rules often apply to both? At least with me my TOS is practically the same whether it's vetehi or random adopts, and lore is not a necessity for either of them. EITHER WAY THOUGH I just thought that since people seemed to be really interested in the species I could possibly make someone else as happy as I was with my vetehi by making it something I could offer as a product of sort - and really, seeing how much fun a lot of people seem to have with them I don't regret making them a cs, even though I'm super scared of the general cs atmosphere.
Did you have to change anything with the lore? What are some big, creative spins you've seen with people's vetehi?
I think my lore has stayed somewhat the same since the start, but I had to shape and elaborate on details for sure! Also, vetehi originally had eyes with "+" shaped irises, but I scrapped that when I realized it might have looked a bit off putting and I had sort of developed a dislike for their looks.
The first person who made the first myo actually gave me the idea for the "crown" shaped horns! We discussed about the limitations and I told her multiple horns are not allowed in common slots etc and she asked me would something to what I now have for the crown be acceptable, and I told her yes because the shape made sense to me, given it really went along with the coral shape of the basic horns. Likewise another friend asked me if it would be alright to draw vetehi with a dragon face since they don't draw humans, and I told them it'd be totally alright, even if not "canon" in the lore!
I also REALLY love the way people play around with human turned vetehi, like the way they write about those situations and what happened afterwards are so brilliant and exciting and so creative!!
Tell me a bit about your species, vetehi! I know about the name's connection to the Finnish language, but how did you come up with the species? Where did the concept come from and what were some struggles you faced with making a Closed Species? Did you have to change anything with the lore? What are some big, creative spins you've seen with people's vetehi?
Bless you KEK
Uh... Let's see... Two big inspirations of mine are Majora's Mask for the sinister, dark theme that overall covered that game. Like, no matter how hard you tried to save someone, and no matter how heartfelt their thank you to you is, at the end of the day you go back in time and it all resets, and all of that is for nothing. So that kind of sense of hopelessness? Idk, I really wanted to convey some stuff like that. I guess that's where, uh, my inane love for, uh, killing off lovable characters came from :3c The idea of masks containing powers, and masks in general, was also a fascinating concept for me, which is why I now love masked characters so much.
Ace Attorney was also a big influence, from the pun names to the twists in their stories. I enjoyed the limited perspective of each character, and how different each person was. The idea of holding the big twist while laying out some hints that are very obvious only after a second playthrough stuck out to me, so you can see me try to do that with writing now and then.
Other than that? I can't say there's been anything that's super stuck with me. Most of my writing and style comes from the writing styles I see from other people, or by books I read. Whenever I get in a bit of a slump I'll open up a book and read a little, and seeing the flow of those sentences gives me a little motivation and inspiration to get back into writing.
Your characters are always so clever, and all of them are utterly distinct! Are there any media that influenced your style for storytelling or character writing?
Is your name really hej? What do you like about professional wrestling? And how did you develop your art style?
Hej is just a nickname/short form of Hedge; it's not my real name. c:
A good friend got me into wrestling a few years ago, so primarily what I like is watching it with him! Besides that though, it's just very entertaining! Wrestling is an extremely athletic form of traveling theater and improvisation, and there's something for everyone! If you like more serious combat or technical skill, there are wrestling promotions that are centered on that, and if you're more interested in storytelling, characters, and humor (I am), there are promotions that are great at that! It's amazing to watch people who are the best in the world at what they do perform for their fans.
Hmm, I don't know, I guess I've just been influenced by a lot of things over the years? The way I use thick black lines and simplified but realistic proportions is heavily influenced by Alex Toth (Super Friends, Space Ghost, Harvey Birdman, etc.) and Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Clone Wars, Sym-Bionic Titan, etc.) in particular, and cartoons I grew up with like X-men Evolution, The Zeta Project, and Static Shock. The dot/line eyes I use I've been drawing since I was in middle school idolizing newspaper comics and hoping to create one someday. The bold-colored lighting is influenced by my love for concert lighting!
Thanks for the questions! c:
hedgemaze Is your name really hej? What do you like about professional wrestling? And how did you develop your art style?
"the concept of personifying the periodic table is really interesting! how did you come up with it?" I've answered that part already.
"and what got you so interested in the periodic table?" Well it's not an exciting story, or really a story at all, chemistry has always been my favourite part of science so it makes sense I would be interested in the table.