The V6 Read-A-Thon

[Brackie]

gimme

[Maraoone]

hi hello new youfs for you

catche: Danny Brooks
brackie: Scarlett McAfee

[Pippi]

plucks character out of the bucket of v6

You are my child now

[Slam]

I have time now so I'll take another.

[Maraoone]

hands over kids in buckets

pippi: Benjamin Lichter
slam: Caleb Diamond

[Maraoone]

got another dm request

kotori: Kaitlyn Greene

[Courtography]

One child, please.

[Maraoone]

serves up child on a platter

courtney: Bradley Floyd

[Maraoone]

received a chat request

Jilly: Bernadette Thomas

[Ohm]

I'll throw my hat into this. I need to do more reading on this site.

[Maraoone]

for u

Ω: Henry Spencer

[KamiKaze]

May I? Need quarantine activities.

[Maraoone]

quarantines you alone with this child

Kami: Cameron Herrig

[MurderWeasel]

[+] Steve

Alright. Here we go. Before we get started, I suppose I should note two things: 1. Rattle has written some of my favorite characters on SOTF full stop. 2. The Steve OOC drama is one of the few V6 things I'm aware of.

Anyways, here we go!

Steve's profile is sparse. I won't rag on it too much but it feels like it needed another pass it didn't get (as an example, Steve is noted to let his hair grow out until it's unruly, then crop it short, but where on this spectrum it lies circa V6 itself is in no way alluded to).

Steve's bio is almost entirely centered on his family. This is something that others could learn from, actually, as it's an area often neglected. That said, it lets other things fall by the wayside or get only cursory attention. Most notably, there's a chunk detailing a withdrawal from social situations/possibly depressive span for Steve that is introduced and resolved within a paragraph but which apparently required intervention from the family doctor. His advantages and disadvantages are at best loosely derived from his bio and at worst come pretty much out of left field.

Steve's profile isn't awful or anything, but it's outdated—it feels like it's from V4. Fortunately, Steve's concept is "Kind of chubby anime nerd who idolizes his big brother and his cop dad and feels like he knows right and wrong better than everyone else because he doesn't go drink at parties." It's super grounded, has some depth, and just isn't the sort of thing that's likely to go all that bad in general, much less in what I know to be capable hands.

Steve has no Pregame whatsoever, so we land in his first post in the game.

Well, before that we meet a character named Bradley, written by Goose, who is burning ants with the first aid kit lighter. It's a freaking awesome entrance post. Then we get to Steve.

Steve is a trendsetter and does the stinger tag that became so very popular in V7. Steve is very aware of being watched, and of his own likely demise. He's afraid of someone who may "burn everything else around them," which is a really nice evocation of Bradley; in this way, his narrative riffs on the post above it (which frankly would've made this an intimidating thread to join) without be overly cute. Good stuff.

Steve muses, also about his parents. He examines his stuff. He has a sickle. Rattle writes this much better than I do in summary. He has a knack for unlikely and evocative turns of phrase, which are here in force. Interestingly, one of Steve's big concerns is over whether he'll be no more than a footnote in the tragedy.

Alba and Bryony roll up, an entire thread apparently under their belts already. Alba calls out and asks if Bradley's going to kill her, and he says no even as he murders her with sarcasm. Steve has a nice moment where he does the patented V2 dialogue remix but just to put himself stumbling uselessly over his own words in. His narrative has a mildly ominous musing on the importance of momentum, and a mildly ominous vocalization re: how nuts everyone may be.

Bradley calls himself an asset and Bryony says he should drop the "et." I chuckled. Bryony has this really interesting reflection about how the island changes people, framed in the idea of their being copies of themselves. It's cool stuff.

Steve gets pretty keyed up about Bradley casually waving his M-16 around like a prop, and muses that he's more keyed up than he expected. There are some nice ominous tones here, some foreshadowing that Steve might be a bit more dangerous than even he realizes. Anyways, he bails.

As opening threads go, this is pretty solid. Steve has an interesting voice (courtesy of Rattle's knack for phrasing), and while he doesn't really do anything, he's present in the scene and has some interesting insights to offer and we see the beginnings of a possible path. The other characters are also solid, though Bradley in particular steals the show because everything he does is on-point for his character, which appears to be infuriatingly witty jerk.

Steve's next thread is his last. I am given to understand quite a bit of time passed OOC, as he dies in 82nd place, after 25 of his peers. His first sentence includes a mathematical reference that sends me to Google to figure out what he's talking about; it's pretty clever. His post also plays with thoughts being interrupted by forgoing the usual em-dash and having a sentence just stop halfway. It's unsettling and jarring and effective. Steve has apparently run around a lot and in the process the sickle in his bag wore its way through the fabric and the pointy bit caught him on the leg, so he's going to do first aid, on on top of the helipad.

Isabel rolls in (also with the stinger entry) and given what I've heard of V6 I have no doubt she's here to kindly help bandage Steve's booboo. The wiki says she's killed three people by this stage. Isabel looks at Steve, thinks to herself he's a sucker, and muses that she could probably kick him right off the building. There are still like ten posts in this thread so I'm pleasantly surprised when that is in fact exactly what she does.

Steve's descent is very nicely written, and thought is put into how he survives (it's by landing on his legs, which get pulverized). I appreciate that the kill just got a whole lot more grim and messy. I like that Isabel gets irritated that Steve didn't die because now she has to go finish him off, even though she's already planning to go down to get his stuff. It feels like she's making excuses and actually she's mad her plan didn't work because she likes stuff turning out and was preemptively patting herself on the back for a job well done.

Steve's next post starts with this:

Breathing hurt.

Hmm.

Not breathing hurt.

That was unfortunate.

It's a good bit.

The post continues, and I learn what "proprioception" means. Steve tries to put on a brave face to Isabel when she arrives, while she showboats like a Bond villain, thinking maybe those darn terrorists will finally give her the BKA she so obviously deserves. Steve is asked which organ he considers most expendable, but he's not playing that game. He muses a bit on particularly gnarly historical torture methods that I actually do know about, and thinks maybe it'd be a small consolation, since he's going to die absolutely miserably, if he could have the most awful miserable death of all, but realizes those are long odds and decides to goad Isabel instead so she'll maybe hurry it up.

She's not biting, and puts her anatomy lessons to good use. Steve says it's been done before, and then musters all he has to make a final grab for his bag... to slash at his own throat with the sickle. But Isabel isn't about to let him steal her thunder, and though she can't make it as slow and painful as she wants, she axes him in the head and gets the credit. And Steve has some desperate last second musings, but only gets a little ways in before the impact.

So, then, how is Steve? He's good! Looking at him, I can pretty much understand the OOC issues and why he was controversial at the time, but years after V6 ended none of that stuff matters. His story is brief, but every post has clearly been given actual thought and effort, and he has a strong, quality voice. He doesn't have much of a story arc, but how much can you really ask for in two threads? As early(ish) deaths go, he's a good one with real personality, clever beats, and good chemistry with those he interacts with, and he does a really good job pushing Isabel as a villain by not just rolling over for her. He makes her work for it, which in turn makes her come off better in the scene. Would this have all maybe been better ten deaths earlier or whatever? I dunno, perhaps. But he's still well under halfway, so it's not like he's hanging around until right before Endgame. Back in V4 characters were still debuting at close to this point, so I'm kinda inured.

So yeah, I'd recommend Steve as a good look at how you can make the most of a character with a short run time and how you can do a lot of work with a death. Taken on his own terms, he's solid and fun.

I'll take another but I may not be super speedy.

[Maraoone]

my crops are healing bless u

toben: Coleen Reagan