Question Beltane

Kendall Forbes, I, personally (please do take notice I named myself Marie FORBES to show my appreciation towards this character), believe might be the most underrated character in the Whateley-verse. She's the definition of incredible! I believe Beltane is such a fascinating and layered character, there's so much about her yet to be explored, we get hints of it, but that's it. *cries*

Not only is she an amazing manifestor, who has achieved REMARKABLE feats, she is also a baseline mage! (uses magic well enough to be a TA in the Mystic Arts Department). She has overwritten somebody else's manifestation matrix (ISN'T THAT MIND-BLOWING???). A part of me fully believes Beltane has kept something hidden from her MID card (which has yet to be even revealed), I believe she is an ESPER of sorts, either a paragon or a precog. Silver Rose has even stated that Beltane sits up at night thinking up new tricks, NO ONE but herself knows all of her tricks! Which is believable since she's always got something new up her sleeve (wouldn't be surprised if she started using Gambit-like manifested tarot cards).

What confuses me a little is the fact that there's some inconsistencies regarding her ability since in Phase's stories her manifestor abilities have been greatly downplayed! As in she's not even able to animate them well enough to make them "speak", in her canon story "Ask Not For Whom Belle Tolls" she does that and more.

Beltane is not an stereotypical character, she has ALWAYS known she didn't identify with the sex she was born as, no forced feminization of any kind!. There's so much more to explore, and there's so much to go off of, AND I WILL SUPPORT MY CLAIM; her being responsible of one of England's most horrific hauntings (basically her origin story), her becoming a baseline mage, HER MENTORING ALAKAZAM AND "their" ONE-SIDED RIVALRY, growing into her powers and becoming such an skilled manifestor, her getting to become as attractive as she wants to be (she said she wasn't where she wanted to be yet, and also manifested shoulder angels of what I assumed to be her desired body), prank war with Thorn, pranking the Alphas, how skilled/powerful truly is she?! (THE ONE THING I'M MOST EXCITED ABOUT)

There's just so many things that could be expanded upon about this character *cries and manifests a mini rain cloud over my head*, this epic prankster, skilled mage, remarkable manifestor... Even the Alphas have expressed some special disdain/wariness towards her...

*uses Jade's rated 10 puppy eyes* basically... all I'm asking for is... More stories with Beltane as the main focus (or at least Foxfire, I'm here to advocate for dual types manifestor/mage rights!!!). Do mind your 'Ands', dears. *giggles*

((Also, I've always wanted to write a manifestor, would anyone pretty please be kind enough to slip me Beltane/Foxfire/Thorn's manifesting ratings/MID's? *re-attempts Jade's puppy eyes* )) And no, Thorn, you, my beloved freshthing have yet to dethrone her.

FWIW, Rob Rose is a sophomore.

Also, the Alphas have had some reorganization since Fall 2006. Do you really want a prank war to include Jadis Diabolik, Joseph "Crazy Joe" Turner, and whoever represents Wondercute on the Alpha Council?

Oh, I made the mistake of writing this from a gen 1, year 1 time perspective. I have little to no grasp on how the timeline works stories wise, so can't a story that took place in gen 1, year 1 but is yet to be told be published now? I guess that would avoid the catastrophic implications a prank war with the current Alphas would ensue.

Softdreams wrote: Oh, I made the mistake of writing this from a gen 1, year 1 time perspective. I have little to no grasp on how the timeline works stories wise, so can't a story that took place in gen 1, year 1 but is yet to be told be published now? I guess that would avoid the catastrophic implications a prank war with the current Alphas would ensue.

"Fox Tails" starts in Gen 1 Year 1, and has drawn some reader criticism for doing so. I think Fiddlerfox has good reason (though I haven't actually asked him), but that becomes a YMMV issue for some readers.

I personally would recommend reading everything related to the characters you want to prank, taking care to separate what you as a reader know from what your character has a reason to know, or even be interested in. Sometimes, what they think they know can only be wrong.

It's a tough sell to plant new characters essentially alongside existing stories. At some point it becomes too contrived that none of the previously-established characters happened to notice the new character.

OTOH, if you have the character's tale taking part in the 2006-2007 period, but *away from campus*, and they only get to the campus at a later date, fairly close to the "now" of the other authors, it's perfectly acceptable. That's roughly what ElrodW did with 'Shine -- his tale begins *before* Gen1Y1, but he only gets to the campus in Gen1Y2.

Sir Lee wrote: It's a tough sell to plant new characters essentially alongside existing stories. At some point it becomes too contrived that none of the previously-established characters happened to notice the new character.

OTOH, if you have the character's tale taking part in the 2006-2007 period, but *away from campus*, and they only get to the campus at a later date, fairly close to the "now" of the other authors, it's perfectly acceptable. That's roughly what ElrodW did with 'Shine -- his tale begins *before* Gen1Y1, but he only gets to the campus in Gen1Y2.

Exactly.
There is also the issue of power. If your character is powerful, its much more difficult to pretend no-one happened to notice them. Kamuro can slip under the radar, Kayda cant.

Astrodragon wrote: There is also the issue of power. If your character is powerful, its much more difficult to pretend no-one happened to notice them. Kamuro can slip under the radar, Kayda cant.

I'd say that schedules and associations matter as much or more. CoDZilla could be in 6th period BMA, but if all the stories are written about folks in 1st period or 4th period no one saw them.

Fey may not know or hang out with every Thornie, but exemplar memory + friends in Hawthorne means she would have seen a new inmate even if they didn't interact before. We know from Absinthe's story that she notices when someone's avoiding her and is hurt when she doesn't know why. The same cannot be said of Kayda.

I mean, I personally wouldn't write anything about Beltane, she's just too good of a character. But, there are a lot of things that are yet to be explored, many character she's pranked "off-story" have been mentioned/hinted at, so it wouldn't be too far-off to write these stories now. It's all up to Bek, though.