Symbiote RP Opt-in/out

[blacksludgeaffair]

Hello! So, obviously, doing rp with a slightly parasitic alien blob is going to come with some potential weirdnesses, and I wanted a way to make it clear that those weirdnesses are optional! So, with this post, I want to lay out some of the main questions/concerns to be addressed in regards to interactng with the symbiote. And even if you opt out of all of these, I'll still have ways for you to thread with it, so don't worry! The questions to consider are as follows:

1. Are you okay with your character's memories being read?

2. Are you okay with the symbiote bonding to your character without IC permission/explicit invitation (a.k.a. Getting Gooped)?

3. Are you okay with (pre-planned OOC) loss of your character's bodily autonomy?

4. If your character has innate abilities, would you be okay with the symbiote retaining them after a significant time bonded?

5. Does your character have any inherent magic or strange anatomy that you think would interact uniquely with or prevent interaction from the symbiote?

Feel free to answer any, all, or none of these questions here. If you want to discuss answers or decide on these things case by case, you can reach me at namakehruk on Discord. Thanks!

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

:) oh you know

[takethatnature]

In answer to 1, 2, and 3: I agree, OOCly. Wilson has some stuff around getting grabbed, glued, or tied down (in the literal physical sense) so he'd probably react worse than average.

4: I was going to say N/A, but I guess the symbiote could pick up the technique of Hammerspace Inventory.

5. Wilson's connection with Them has been severed, but the traces left over might... do... something? Or maybe not. Likely nothing major, but maybe it'd make him taste weird.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

I think Bastion would react very poorly to being gooped due to their history with being mentally taken over and used as a pawn by their manufacturer, but they're a robot so that probably wouldn't even work. Dodged a bullet there!

[thismaskismybadge]

canon event this girl

[pinballer]

1. Are you okay with your character's memories being read?
yes (but uh huge child abuse content warning if that happens)

2. Are you okay with the symbiote bonding to your character without IC permission/explicit invitation (a.k.a. Getting Gooped)?
yes

3. Are you okay with (pre-planned OOC) loss of your character's bodily autonomy?
yes

4. If your character has innate abilities, would you be okay with the symbiote retaining them after a significant time bonded?
yes venom can be good at pinball for a while

5. Does your character have any inherent magic or strange anatomy that you think would interact uniquely with or prevent interaction from the symbiote?
vance is a ghost, who knows what will happen, let's find out

[yournewsidekick]

1) Absolutely!

2) through 4), let's not for now, but that might change as I settle into the game

5) No idea how being a shapeshifter who basically disintegrates and reforms her whole body every time she changes forms might work with/against/whatever a symbiote, but I'll follow your lead!

[angrycrabnoises]

1. Are you okay with your character's memories being read?

Yes, love that stuff.

2. Are you okay with the symbiote bonding to your character without IC permission/explicit invitation (a.k.a. Getting Gooped)?

Yep.

3. Are you okay with (pre-planned OOC) loss of your character's bodily autonomy?

Sure thing.

4. If your character has innate abilities, would you be okay with the symbiote retaining them after a significant time bonded?

Karkat technically has abilities that he never unlocked in canon. It would be interesting if Venom could sense them or could hijack them or help him unlock them. Lots of interesting ways that could go.

5. Does your character have any inherent magic or strange anatomy that you think would interact uniquely with or prevent interaction from the symbiote?

I don’t think so. He does have a blood mutation and a whole theme around genetic corruption, so it could be interesting if he’s actually one of the more viable candidates for Venom.

Also, not a response to a question, but it would be 100% in-character for Karkat to burst into a restaurant that his ex and her boyfriend are at and yell theatrically at them while climbing into a lobster tank.

[glassaxolotl]

Yes to 1, no to the rest.
Dedue has enough trauma in his life, he does not need to be gooped.

[yourexoduslaughing]

Flan would LOVE to have a symbiote bond with her, but her 'falling' powers would kick in and yeet him against the wall as hard as possible after a few minutes. Until then though, he can absolutely read her memory and play with her powers. As well, he's welcome to try yoink her anytime.

[goodweather]

yeag :]

[teethoftherisk]

You are welcome to goop the cougar at will! His body is very Meat and should be easy for the symbiote to interact with and manipulate. A-okay to read memories (but watch out, Siffleur's mom is in there and might jumpscare him), pilot him around like a badly taxidermied animal and to steal his powers.

[decrypter]

1. Are you okay with your character's memories being read? No, as ICly this would lead to extreme resentment and distress.

2. Are you okay with the symbiote bonding to your character without IC permission/explicit invitation (a.k.a. Getting Gooped)? This would be highly distressing to Helena and likely lead to mutual injury. I would need to discuss this with you ahead of time to determine how this could be planned.

3. Are you okay with (pre-planned OOC) loss of your character's bodily autonomy? No, as this would lead to a combo of 1 and 2 - Helena would immediately resent Venom for it and be actively trying to free herself as much as possible, up to and including dying to be free, and it would lead to her actively trying to turn others against Venom.

4. If your character has innate abilities, would you be okay with the symbiote retaining them after a significant time bonded? Yes - the symbiote could retain something akin to her ability to focus on sounds, or general parkour to gift to its hosts.

5. Does your character have any inherent magic or strange anatomy that you think would interact uniquely with or prevent interaction from the symbiote? No, she's merely human.

[freedomsuitsme]

1. Absolutely. I love writing Max's memories out, this man has TRAUMA

2. Yep. Feel like the beginning of their interaction is going to be very much accidental

3. Yep. Wouldn't be terribly new to him, honestly.

4. This one I'd want to discuss in more detail, Max's abilities aren't exactly inherent but he has a few odd quirks. Mostly, he has the ability to rapidly recover from psychic damage, and he can let his mind break into pieces without doing any permanent damage.

5. Actually, speaking of the mind-breaking... it would be interesting if the symbiote could, say, borrow a piece of Maxwell's mind while Maxwell is still operating on the other half. He also has some magically-altered anatomy due to over-exposure to Nightmare Fuel, and this anatomy is normally concealed by his illusion magic, but I'd be curious how aware the symbiote can be of these things (considering the illusion keeps even Maxwell himself from noticing or remembering most of the time).

[obeyseventually]

1. Yes! He's got a fake life that no longer feels like real memories, and some spare memories from all of the ADAM he's used. Long story, genetic memory hallucinations.

2. YES goop this man. Not the worst thing that's happened to him involuntarily or by compulsion, he'll roll with it.

3. Absolutely! Again, not his first rodeo

4. I for one can see nothing wrong with giving venom the ability to manifest bees.

5. For unique interaction, I'd say Jack has done a lot of unstable genetic modification drugs, so all that ADAM - unstable stem cells (but like cool sci fi version) with the potential to be rewritten into anything - might still be hanging around his system. There's something in his genetic makeup that seems to stop him from mutating the way certain others in the game have when taking an extreme amount of ADAM, so that might be something too. Er. part of his powers roster includes fire, I'm not sure if bonding with Jack would improve Venom's tolerance or if I'd have to get Jack some more fireproof modifications, but there you go!

sorry this is a jumble it's almost 3 and i am so tired-

[theotherright]

1: absolutely yes! But arthur is private and there are memories he Doesn't Fucking Share so this could potentially result in some very negative cr :)c

2: absolutely 100% yes

3: 100% absolutely yes, arthur can die mad about it

4: hell yeah! Arthur picked up a weird eldritch death-retrocognition thing in his world and Venom's welcome to kirby clone it

5: he's blind because his brain freaked out and stopped acknowledging his eyes, so venom could see through his eyes (if that's what he does when he goops someone idk), they work fine they're just not on speaking terms with arthur's occipital lobe

[fuelmayor]

1: Sure, but I might have to scramble to fill in anything from pre-canon.

2 and 3: OOC it's fine but he will not be happy about it IC.

4: Most of his abilities are learned, not innate, and shouldn't be that easy to copy without practice or study. That, and a lot of it overlaps with things Venom can already do. Having said that, maybe it could learn to summon fossil bones, particularly since Fuelweaver's grasp of the technique runs deep enough that he can still do that bone cage move while barely conscious from an improper reanimation.

5: I'm not sure if he actually has enough biology for the symbiote to work with. He has a heart, or at least a realistic replica of one made of shadow magic, but while it does beat it's not connected to any physical structure in particular, and the rest of his body's pretty much just fossils and Nightmare Fuel. I'm not against it and I think it'd be fun to find out regardless but I'm genuinely not sure if their goops are compatible.