What are you too afraid to ask? (Iwaku/Roleplay Edition)

[MiharuAya]

Do you have a burning question you just NEED to get off your chest?
Well, here is your chance!
There are no stupid questions here, so ask away!​

 

[rissa]

a question to all: why do u roleplay?

for me, its fun, i love writing stories, exploring characters, and more than anything just brainstorming and squeeeeeee'in bout characters

 

[Fluffy]

a question to all: why do u roleplay?

for me, its fun, i love writing stories, exploring characters, and more than anything just brainstorming and squeeeeeee'in bout characters

Pretty much the same. <3 RP is a beautiful creative escape and a fun way to spend time with my friends. :]

 

[ImaginationGoneWild]

a question to all: why do u roleplay?

for me, its fun, i love writing stories, exploring characters, and more than anything just brainstorming and squeeeeeee'in bout characters

Very same reason; I adore exploring various stories anc characters, and just plopping them down into a setting to see how they will react to said environment/story. It's also great inspiration for writing stories on your own. : 3 Or artwork!

 

[Diana]

why do u roleplay?

I love stories 8D and I love being able to experience and feel emotions because of those stories. while books and tv and music are nice, roleplay IS THE BEST EVER cause I get to develop and guide the story where I want it to go!

I HAVE A QUESTION TO ASKS

For people who generally stick with one sexuality for their characters (for examples, I mostly just play straight ladies): Are you playing your own sexuality OR are you usually playing something different/opposite to your real self? Is it a comfort thing, interest thing, or trying to experience new things? O:

 

[firejay1]

a question to all: why do u roleplay?

Tbh for the characters and thems alone, almost. I just don't feel as free to do whacky BS with my characters on my own, because it could result in a horribly screwed up plot, LOL. I do enjoy squeeing with friends, but there are a lot of times I'm feeling socially drained so the social component of RP is more draining than exciting, so WHY is really all about the chars. Also tbh most of the time I HATE collaborative plotting, im terrible figuring out plots as it is, add another person in there with their own thoughts and biases and it can sometimes help lubricate the wheels, but it can also sometimes lead to clashing ideas that become stuck or pressuring. (Collaborative worldbuilding can be a dream, but it also moves a LOT slower than worldbuilding on your own.)

For people who generally stick with one sexuality for their characters (for examples, I mostly just play straight ladies): Are you playing your own sexuality OR are you usually playing something different/opposite to your real self? Is it a comfort thing, interest thing, or trying to experience new thingsthings

I will play either male or female, but I sexualities I usually stick to vaguely bi, straight, or ace (which I am). Sexuality is rarely a big theme in my writing, the only exception being when I'm specifically writing romance, and those I only do fxm bc it's what I'm comfortable with. So usually I auto-assume my chars are ace bc it just doesn't... fucking matter to me. Sometimes I find out later that I'm wrong (and that's usually when they turn out to be vaguely bi or I guess pan in terms of don't really care what their sex partner's gender is). When I was early on in my RP career, I made a resolution never to write homosexual characters, because I just didn't feel I was comfortable trying to write their experiences for them. I am a straight grey-ace cis-female who has been intimate friends with a total of one gay person and zero trans or non binary people. And tbh, I was very into yaoi for a while (still sometimes a casual reader), and I didn't at all feel comfortable with my knowledge of that experience, bc in my estimation yaoi often shows very little respect for the real lives of these real people. I don't feel comfortable fetishizing the stereotypes of their experiences and their pain I've been exposed to for my own amusement. The same way I feel really uncomfortable with how many people think they can write Asian or Asian American characters and then so clearly fail to see them as human beings with complex experiences and different cultural backgrounds, I don't really WANT to do all the research to not feel awkward writing gay/nonbin/trans, etc, when that would bring me no joy and if anything is just more likely to contribute to their marginalization by misrepresenting their experiences through the lens of a straight cis person which I'm sure they get enough of as it is. While I've since amended that slightly to be more open to the possibilities, for the most part my stance is, let them tell their own stories, it is theirs to tell, not mine.

I also use my characters a LOT to explore traits I don't have or wish I had or secretly have except they would totally be socially unacceptable, and I've never felt the desire to explore my sexuality and gender identity beyond "huh. Wait. I don't feel sexually attracted to people which supposedly is a real thing wtf I thought ppl were making that shit up, is there something wrong with me????" But that was more of a matter of not feeling like a freak, and once that was settled I was no longer interested in the question.

 

[Fluffy]

For people who generally stick with one sexuality for their characters (for examples, I mostly just play straight ladies): Are you playing your own sexuality OR are you usually playing something different/opposite to your real self? Is it a comfort thing, interest thing, or trying to experience new things? O:

I looked over my characters and realized the majority of them are pansexual, which does happen to be my sexuality. It got me thinking about why that is. I think it could be partly a 'comfort zone' thing. When I first got into roleplaying, I mainly did MalexMale roleplays because #1 my characters were always male (I didn't start doing female characters until years later), and #2 I veryverysecretly identified as a gay boy at the time, I was way uncomfortable with anything to do with female character interaction. Now, it's significantly different. I can play to the tune of really any romance dance, with any gender, because that's how I am IRL. I'm so purely attracted to the spirit of the person that the skin is more like, a bonus I guess. I'll love whatever your flesh suit is because it's what your spirit is living in. Gender matters not. My characters are pretty much the same with the way they approach love and/or sex. I have a small handful who are hetero or homo, but most of them are pan or bi. I can more freely explore things I don't have so much experience with now, too. It's neat to be reflecting on this and realizing how much more confident and 'complete' I feel as a writer now. o__o

Thank you, Iwaku. <3 For helping me grow.

 

[FenFren]

a question to all: why do u roleplay?

For me, roleplaying is my happy place. I only started doing it three years or so ago, but I instantly fell I love. I liked to write stories with other people and create a collaborative universe with two great minds. I've made great friends along the way, too, along with a romantic partner.

Even before RP, I've always loved stories and worlds beyond our own, and I wanted to create some myself! At the age of perhaps 8-10, I wanted to be an author (that changed to being a chef for a set amount of time, but we don't talk about that). I wrote a story with my little sibling a while back, no idea where that went. It was really fun! I'm pretty sure my sibling got tired of me asking to do it again.

Anyway, back to the topic of RP, it just—brings out a different side of you. A creative side, a dark side, ideas you never thought you had! And they're all brought out with inspiration from others.

That probably sounded really mixed up and unorganized, but in short; I just love RP.

For people who generally stick with one sexuality for their characters (for examples, I mostly just play straight ladies): Are you playing your own sexuality OR are you usually playing something different/opposite to your real self? Is it a comfort thing, interest thing, or trying to experience new things? O:

I really only feel comfortable playing homosexual men, I don't really know exactly why. Perhaps it's a comfort thing? I don't have a great history with straight men, seeing as I've been hurt by them physically, mentally, I've been manipulated, picked on, threatened, and all of this has been from straight men. I'm not saying all straight men are bad! I've met some pretty good guys with good intent, but I have had a good deal of bad guys, too.

Playing a female character also just feels kinda off for me, I'm not sure. I might try to RP as a female at some point.

 

[Nougat]

a question to all: why do u roleplay?

I specifically really like making characters! I have so much fun coming up with things like personality and backstory. I actually not as much a fan of the actual rping aspect because I don't like my writing lol. But I love reading what other people write and I want to see my characters do stuff so it balances out

For people who generally stick with one sexuality for their characters (for examples, I mostly just play straight ladies): Are you playing your own sexuality OR are you usually playing something different/opposite to your real self? Is it a comfort thing, interest thing, or trying to experience new things? O:

Recently I don't usually describe my characters' sexualities which I guess is the same as me as I don't generally put a label on my sexuality. If I have to add a label on them then they're probably pan or bi because on the (very off chance) there's any romance involved in the story I don't think the gender of their partner would matter.

That being said I used to always include a sexuality for every character because everyone I rped with did, and I think the vast majority of them were either gay or bi. Maybe a couple of asexual characters and very few heterosexual characters. I think it's just that I was very involved in 2SLGBTQ+ spaces at the time (not so much now bc I don't like leaving the house lol) so when I thought of sexualities then straight was usually not the first thing to pop into my head?

So basically in the past I guess it was more of a comfort thing, presently I'm just a lil lazy haha. It's rarely relevant nowadays in rps because I'm not really interested in plots related to sexuality. I do have a couple more recent characters with personalities and backstories where their sexuality is relevant though so I would add it in that instance.

 

[ImaginationGoneWild]

For people who generally stick with one sexuality for their characters (for examples, I mostly just play straight ladies): Are you playing your own sexuality OR are you usually playing something different/opposite to your real self? Is it a comfort thing, interest thing, or trying to experience new things? O:

I haven't checked my profiles in a long while but I think I have a lot of them who are straight women, and it's definitely a comfort thing because I'm straight female as well. I also think when it comes to smut scenes people tend to write about what they know, and what they like because it's easier to write smut that way. Now I feel more comfortable writing characters that aren't straight females because I like to experience the stories through different characters as well...(Although I may not be that good at writing them, lol. I still enjoy it.)

For me writing about sexuality isn't just about inserting slot A into slot B. For me, sexuality reveals another layer of their personalities, their values, and how they see themselves, their roles.
For example
I have a female character who is bi sexual but she treats the genders differently; with men she's aggressive and dominant because she feels the need to stay in control of them, to make them feel what its like to be woman in a man's world. To do and say as she does, without complaint, with a smile, and with a thank you. With women she's much more softer and protective. it's like she becomes the man in the relationship. To treat them like women should be treated, like she wished women were treated.

Another character is bi curious. He feels safe with women because he grew up with them, it's easy to be with a woman for him. He knows how they think, he knows what they like. It's easy...it's great...it's...something. He always has that little voice...
"What if?"...
"Should I or shouldn't I?"
"Am I or am I not?"
"Why is he looking at me like that?"
"My god, he's gorgeous."
"Omg, he's coming closer!"
"...He smells expensive..."
"omgomgomgomg"
"yes no yes no yes...wait no...yes!"
"I'M LATE FOR A THING! I HAVE A THING THAT NEEDS....THINGS!!!"
"Exits hotel"

Then I have another character who uses sex not only for pleasure but as a weapon. All shall bend a knee one way or another. He's straight but if he were to find out that a man had a thing for him he would not hesitate to use that against him or others.

Sexuality reveals more than just kinks for me. It's a glimpse into someone's psyche.