Yeah... I know. I wanna figure out what's gonna work, believe me. So lets work this out, yeah?

What I believe may work is a list of the pros and cons to each of my inactive characters coming back and staying away, from my perspective. I'd love to here who best works for everyone on site who's interested. While I'm thinking everyone's top five may be best to narrow it down, that doesn't mean five will be the number I stick with. Another alternative is that I start fresh, starting with Echo because she seems off to a great start. That could also be a vote in consideration.

@"Acacia Ruskin"

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Pros

• First character - Sentimentality
  
• Love this character, I also feel she's become a Charming Classic among a few circles
  
• Her sweet personality demands a happy ending, I just don't know how
  
  Cons
  
• Her background - a defining trait, but a limiting one, family oriented but I don't feel like going through another round of "pretty please take the Ruskins"
  
• Hard to thread - not a lot of people like half-breeds. While an intriguing plot point, it doesn't seem to go anywhere these days

Agape Lestrange

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Pros

• LESTRANGE - I've been dying for one for ages
  
  Cons
  
• I suck at playing kids
  
• By the time she's at Hogwarts, only Meta will be there, and I definitely wanted some more varied Lestrange influence

Alexander Hagrid

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Pros

• New
  
• DADA Professor
  
  Cons
  
• His muse dropped the moment he got excepted
  
• No immediate ties

Alina MacRae

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Pros

• Student
  
• WC
  
  Cons
  
• Her muse got fussy the minute her pre-retcon mother left. There was so much development, gone

Blossom Spinnakers

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Pros

• Vampire
  
• Funeral home - seems to be a con though, since no one hires them IC
  
  Cons
  
• Vampires are hard to find connections for, especially a MC one that's still actively trying to be a part of society
  
• She'd really need more staff

@"Cecilia Bulstrode"

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Pros

• Everyone seems to be interested in the season atm, don't even know what else is going on at this point besides hurling
  
  Cons
  
• Can I be real about something? I am so bad at hurling. Nothing ever seems to work out unless it's basically been pre-decided. That seems to be the thing with all of my ladies, no matter if they are indifferent or not. If it's too slow paced, I loose muse for it. Who even has time for fast pace hurling that won't end up turning into a thread that takes a year to finish?
  
• That's literally it. She's basically there for hurling
  
• She was there to be Frida's bestie, but they've never even had a thread

Charles Marshall

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Lets be real, he was just an Ace replacement and I think we all know he's not really working out. Elaine wants him in an awkward marriage, so I'll probably see where that goes though, cause that sounds incredibly entertaining.

Earth Beck

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Pros

• Cutesy
  
• Eccentric
  
  Cons
  
• IC tend to avoid eccentric
  
• Her family is really hard to pimp out
  
• She is incredibly family oriented so that is a huge problem

Evelyn McGonagall

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I bring shame upon this family and don't deserve her.

Henrietta Davis

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Will Aubrey ever be a real boy again?

Juliette Fernsby

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What is going on with the Fernsby fam? And it feels like I see way more mention of the Rose than their establishment when it comes to magical dress shopping.

She also has Cecilia's problem as well.

Leonidas Perks

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Really? I don't even know. I wanted a student, but I don't even know if I even wanna play a student. I want what the Gryffingroup have, but don't wanna try making myself part of that group so late in the game? Hestia's attempts felt so forced?

Liliana Parkinson

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This muse is never satisfied, but I love her. But I love to hate on her with Echo even more.

Opal Boggart

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She's so adorable, but she needs more things. I'm not good at classic deb, see above debs for examples

Richelle O'Connell

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Pros

• Lesbian
  
• Professor connections
  
  Cons
  
• COMC doesn't seem to get very much attention from students. I thought I would get more IC replies to class threads
  
• Really want the plot with the cousin and his lady played out, but no one likes my adoptables

@"Rosie Binns"

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Her plot would be so much more interesting with her husband played, but I just don't see that happening and it makes me sad. And her near affair didn't work out XD

Sweetie Whitledge

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Either way a marriage plot goes - whether she's happy with it or not - I'm not sure if I'll be satisfied with it. I don't think she's pleased as a spinster specifically because of her dependency on Handsome. I just don't think her muse would ever truly be satisfied if I ever brought her back.

I know, some of these didn't quite turn out as pros or cons.

  

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Magic by MJ

Juliette Fernsby - No clue, I struggle with Nicolette Muse as its all over the place and wants to be too many things at once and constantly is jumping between different voices. She also is way more interested in being out in the world and interfering with Juliette's life then her own. You could work with that if you want?

@"Acacia ruskin" - I'm also game to bring back Ariel if you'd like? Though I'm not sure because she's probably such a minor point in Acacias life that I don't think it'd matter. I only really dropped her because I wanted more family stuff for her and the family disappeared? And I was being lazy about finding ways to thread her outside the home.

Liliana Parkinson - ahh yeah I got nothing for that? Besides Anthea looking down on her for not doing anything with her life.

  

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So IDK if this helps with your decision process at all but here are some thoughts about hurling...

1) the season is over. It only runs May - September, so it isn't the focus IC right now. If you're not sure you have hurling in you atm, maybe reconsider those in May?

2) we all suck at hurling. How many times have you seen someone say "well, I failed this year, we'll bring him/her back next year" ? All the damn time. Unless you're focusing all your time and energy on a handful of threads and your character has a disposition where they're likely to move fast on romance it just doesn't happen.

3) If a character's main drive is hurling they'll suffer from the "happily married and never seen again" syndrome.

I think the best way to decide which characters to keep is to think about which ones are intrinsically interesting to you. If you were just writing them in a vacuum, without any other characters, would that be interesting for you? If yes, then you can get them involved in plots and hurling and everything else and it's all icing on the cake.

My example of that is Alfred - originally he had the Avalon expedition plot and it didn't really turn out as planned. His originally played BFF left, most of the characters who said they were going on the expedition didn't, I started threads on the expedition that died. But I just like him as a character so he survived that. Then Zelfred became his main plot thrust and Beanie got swallowed by election season for MONTHS... but I like him, so he survived that. And he's survived being happily married

The following 4 users Like Reuben Crouch's post:4 users Like Reuben Crouch's post
   Cassius Lestrange, Clarissa Cosgrove, Elias Grimstone, Madeleine Backus

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MJ made this <3

Acacia - she and maddie were friends once upon a time, but Maddie's weird path took her away from a lot of people, so having them reconnect could be nice?

Agape - I have mum, so we can do more mum/daughter threads, and as it's christmas she will also be welcome at Meserimus' christmas shindig

Hagrid- Meserimus would also be a connection for him, we could tie him to a Valenduris family member to give them a closer relationship but I'm open to adult threads there

Rosie - Emma is about to 'blossom' - so I'm about to change her face to a more adult one, so we could so some mother daughter growing up chats


Liliana- I love her, but I guess she has the same problem as many married women on the board. I'm up for chatting through some specific plotting for her and any of my dudes and dudettes but I cant think of anything off the top of my head.

  

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Seconding everything Lynn said! Being invested in the character by themselves is the most important thing, and then just sticking with them no matter what xD

So it comes down to choosing who you have most muse for, and maybe also who has most to do that's not otherwise dependent on adoptables being picked up to progress their plots – so I would pick whichever characters have independent, self-driven goals.

Other than giving them a 'Goal' or 'Want' to work towards (which makes basically every thread part of their character development, even an otherwise one-off thread! e.g. Barnaby is seeking 'fame', and he may be dead but this still gives him some clear ~direction), I would also suggest:
1) setbacks in their life to shake them up if a change in path is needed, give them what they don't want;
2) let them find a new hobby or interest! Those never hurt to make threads, even hurling threads, about something else interesting on the side.
3) Or find them a nemesis in life to bounce off. Everyone is fun when they hate something or someone a lot. xD

Anyway, when you have ideas about who you're keeping I can throw possible connections at you

The following 3 users Like Elias Grimstone's post:3 users Like Elias Grimstone's post
   Cassius Lestrange, Reuben Crouch, Tilda MacFusty

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look ANOTHER beautiful bee!set <3

Thirding the above! My characters who tend to be self-propelling - ex. August, who rarely has a main plot drive but I like throwing him into random situations because I think he's interesting - tend to last longer than those who don't. Try to think about who you'd like to keep!

Generally I have something for everything but young children, so happy to network more extensively later

The following 1 user Likes Cassius Lestrange's post:1 user Likes Cassius Lestrange's post
   Tilda MacFusty

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MJ made this!

Seconding everything above! Also I know Kayte does character rotations - they all technically still exist in the Charming-verse, but they drift in and out of active/inactiveness and are brought in on an as needed basis, which I also really like. Sometimes plots thin, and then thicken. And since we really only need to post characters once a month, sometimes just having one ongoing thread is enough. You don't always have to have them in the middle of every single plot for them to be considered of value to you!

I am also going to try and remember to hit this up later this evening.

Also we all have really busy RL schedules. Mental health has just plummeted for a lot of the world given the current state of things, so it's okay if muse is off or motivation isn't there. You're not alone, we're all struggling <3

Honestly sometimes just getting your writing onto paper (metaphorically speaking, my god can you imagine if we all hand-wrote our posts? My hand would fall off) is the hump you gotta get over.

Anyways, this was all very disjointed but I hope you can follow this lol

  

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I have connections for Acacia in Tabitha!

I also have Victoire Malfoy for any debutante connections. She, unlike her sisters, is quite open and friendly!

Earth is the same age as Elsie & Angie, and just one year older than Febby. Eva and Winnie are in that age bracket as well! Daff has similar interests and is only a couple years younger.

Really though, like everyone has said, find the characters with the most intrinsic motivation and flow and you'll get into it!

  

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MJ always makes her so pretty