Artist Anonymous

[Rousseau]

Err, at least for now.  Go ahead and ask questions and I might be nice and reveal my identity :)

[tdcpresents]

Well, I guess I'll start :) What was the inspiration for the character, and how long have you been with the ROC? Are/were you active anywhere in particular? (RFF board/Terrouge/etc)

[carelesswhisper]

Cake or pie? 

If you and Rousseau had to go on a date, who would pay?

Were there any events or character development ideas that had to be cast aside because they didn't mesh with the storyline?

[Rousseau]

TDC: The inspiration for Rousseau, similar to Alan, came from a recycled application and a couple aspects from other planned apps I was going to do, but the application categories for this contest wouldn't let me get what I exactly wanted, and so I had to change it just a bit. The original application for Rousseau was for a Shrew I was planning basically with the same premise. A shrew who basically preferred to be left alone and painted a lot all while mourning the death of her husband and child.  While I was preparing applications for this contest, I was beginning to write an application for the rabbit category named Patch, who was going to be a scullery maid slave in Kotir and was missing one of her eyes, becoming skittish and afraid of practically everything because of what happened to her.  Basically though, after thinking about it, I decided to merge the two applications, turn it into a rat pirate (because I didn't want to write a scene with her in Kotir) and thus Rousseau was born.  

I've been in the ROC for about four years now, but really haven't taken part in anything really.  I'm mostly just a survivor contest junkie, but I have been meaning to start roleplaying over at The Vulpine Imperium.

CarelessWhisper: I'm more of a pie person to be honest :)

Well, Rousseau is pretty damn rich... but... she'd probably force me to pay, and it'd probably be a very boring date speaking she wouldn't talk to me much and would probably just doodle or something to pass the time. Then again she might pay just so I'd shut up, as I'm quite talkative.

Only one to be honest.  I really really wanted for Rousseau and Clutus to have a heart to heart talk at the end, but his death made that an impossibility and so it had to be scrapped.  I'm at least glad at what I did in place of it though, and I do have an idea for something I'm going to do in one of my last posts that involves this.

[carelesswhisper]

Do you play an instrument? 

How do you feel about mayonnaise?

Have you applied to any other survivor contests?

[Rousseau]

I played the keyboard as a child, but have ceased to, though I may still be able to play some things on it now if I got a hold of one. I'm taking guitar classes right now as well, trying to improve a bit. (I can play the Harry Potter theme :D)

Mayonnaise is bleh

I've applied for five, I've gotten into three (counting this one)

[carelesswhisper]

Of the two other contests you've gotten into, what was the highest that you placed? 

What is Rousseau's favorite color? 

Classic or modern rock?

[Rousseau]

The highest I've made was 4th

Gray. She would like grays speaking they're some of the most universal colors when it comes to painting, they can pretty much be added to anything to add tone, shadow, and shades so she'd probably like them the most.

There are some modern rock gems, but classic rock is far better

[carelesswhisper]

Are you male or female? 

Did you find yourself having to alter your natural writing style to accommodate the word limit? 

What is your all time favorite band?  (If it's too hard to choose one, then the current "top three" will do)

[Rousseau]

I am in fact a male. :)

YES. Very much. I'm usually a really wordy birdy, and so I had to purposely write less description and things just to keep myself under the limit and even still, I think I had the highest word counts of all the contestants.

Top three... umm. Probably Florence + The Machine, Metric, and Mumford and Sons. I'm mostly an indie and alternative rock listener, so I usually stay within that genre.

[carelesswhisper]

I hope you're not offended if I say, wow.  You write females very well!  I've found that it's hard for a lot of people to coherently represent the opposite gender's point of view through a character, and I think you really pulled it off here.  

I'm sure it's probably me having a brain made of oatmeal, but I was a little confused about the original relationship between Rousseau and Reginald.  In the flashback scene, the attraction seemed pretty one-sided on his part.  However, in other places, Rousseau mentions that the last time she cared for someone, they betrayed for.  What were her feelings for Regi prior to his douchery, and did she ever realize that he was attempting to "buy" her affections?

[Rousseau]

I'm sure it's probably me having a brain made of oatmeal, but I was a little confused about the original relationship between Rousseau and Reginald.  In the flashback scene, the attraction seemed pretty one-sided on his part.  However, in other places, Rousseau mentions that the last time she cared for someone, they betrayed for.  What were her feelings for Regi prior to his douchery, and did she ever realize that he was attempting to "buy" her affections?

Actually, it was the last time "somebeast cared about /her/" that they betrayed her. And really Rousseau more thought of Reginald as a friend while he tried to make it much more, leading to her ultimate rejection. But yeah, I'll be expanding her backstory more in the coming posts. There's not too many left, but there's still time to get some loose ends tied up.

Also, congratulations at guessing my identity, carelesswhisper :)

[Rousseau]

I suppose now that I've finished my epilogue that I go ahead and reveal my identity, but not before adding something to a previous question.

CarelessWhisper: Were there any events or character development ideas that had to be cast aside because they didn't mesh with the storyline?

The reason it took me so long to get my epilogue done was because of this right here. I had a terrible scene during the talk between Reginald and Rouss that I had such mixed feelings about that I couldn't write anymore without going back to it and working with that one scene. In the end, it became such a hassle that I simply took out that scene because A.) I got tired of reading it, and B.) I didn't think it fit Rousseau's character very well, as the scene, not even kidding, literally involved a make out session between the two rats. It worked somewhat in context, but I just really couldn't get past that part during my rereadings and edits without giving it a second glance, so I took it out just so I could get my post done.

Anyways, without further ado, I will reveal my identity. I am...










Airan.

[Nallmian 2.0]

Hey, Airan/Rousseau! I know it's been a while since I've come by here, but I just wanted to congratulate you on a job well done. Rousseau had some really great character development over the course of this story -- in fact, hers is probably one of the longer character arcs I can remember from recent contests. I really enjoyed reading your posts from start to finish. I hope that you can be in another contest some day.

Unfortunately, these days I would settle for there even being another contest at all. I know the contest community seems to be withering, but if ANYBODY is thinking about running a contest, please drop me a line. I would be very interested in helping in any way I can.

[Opal]

If anybody's available and wants to chat about contest related things, be on AIM at 8 PM PST tonight. :)