💖Hi, everyone! Our writer, Rachel, got sick soon after Inksgiving and has been recovering slowly so us characters have been going through the questions you lovelies asked to answer them💖

How do you decide on an idea for a project - and do you find that you get attacked by new ideas when you're already working on something?

Looks at the piles of WIPs and writing To Do Lists…. 

Blake: Yes. She can become easily distracted by a new idea she stumbles upon. A lot of them appear when she isn’t in a position to note them down or doesn’t have any time to expand on them so that helps narrow down the options that make it past the “what if this idea happened?” stage. As for what actually gets written, a lot of that is decided just by how easy it comes when she goes to write. Life can get unexpectedly busy sometimes so if she gets stuck, most of the time a story will be put aside to work on one of the other ideas until the ideas for that particular story inspire her again.

Do you have a favorite and least favorite character? (This could be about who's easiest to write and who is usually more stubborn.)

Luce: Who could ever pick favorites? She obviously love us all equally…

Blake whispers something in his ear.

Luce: … I have been informed that while she loves all of us, writers do tend to have characters that are easier for them to write just like most people have coworkers they enjoy working with more because they’re easier to work with.

Dewi: Rachel would like to not specify any favorites at this time but wishes to assure her characters that this is partly due it changing at times based on situations and timing.

Mal: She’s got a soft spot for Blake and finds her more analytical, emotional intelligence lacking characters hard to write despite struggling with emotionally connecting with others herself in real life. …What? It’s true.

Following up on the last question - do you plan your stories out and let your characters play along with your plans, or do they kind of lead the way and create the plot with their actions?

Mel: Bold of you to assume I’m letting anyone else plan my story. We’re obviously voices in her head and she but our humble vessel. She may set the scene or create a situation but it’s our decisions that make the story.

Janan: Wouldn’t it be more accurate to view us as fragments of her as the author? She put little parts of herself in each of us when we were created… 

Tara: That’s a good point. I remember the story before your times that’s now hidden in the dark recesses… Those characters were more heavy handed about being fragments of Rachel’s personality.

Blake clears his throat. 

Blake: We’re getting off topic. The question?

Tara: Right. Rachel gives us a lot of free reign in our stories, which I for one love. Though she has been known to go back and make changes sometimes if something doesn’t work… For example, my owning and using headphones to listen to music wasn’t “setting accurate” in my story. She did let me keep them as long as we didn’t call them what they were and I never used them around others again, though, so win there.

When you finish a novel, do you feel pride or nostalgia? Is it hard to say goodbye?

Aariv: Wait. Say goodbye? Are we going to have to all say goodbye?

Mishal: It’s okay, Riv… Stories come to an end, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be for a long long time from now, especially with how our author writes. Plus I’m sure she’ll end things with us living happily ever after together. And just because the story ends doesn’t mean we won’t be sticking around in our own way.

Finny: Yeah, she really likes interconnected stories that might not seem like it on the surface.

Satoshi: And that is assuming that she gets around to finishing any of our stories properly to begin with. Her short stories of alternate worlds featuring characters of RomaMates are the only documentation of her completing a story. If she were to finish your story, she would likely continue using you in short stories to continue writing about you from time to time.

- What’s one line or moment in your work that you feel really captures its soul?

Dewi: Oh, I know this one for ours. It was a conversation between three of us… Let me find it in the manuscript;

“You didn't….”

“Didn't what?” Blake walks out of the restroom. “What are we talking about?”

“Oh, I was just telling Big Brother here about our romantic lunch on my second day here...” Dewi teases.

Blake responds by pretending to be hurt. “I thought I could trust you.”

“And I thought we had something special, yet you didn't even tell your brother about it.”

“Wait. The second day you were here? That's the day Blake double dosed…” Luce turns to Blake. “You said nothing happened.”

“It wasn't anything to worry about, I took care of it.” Blake mumbles worriedly. On the other hand, Dewi looks mischievously at Luce.

“So is it true you forced a kiss on your brother, Mr. Perfect Sibling?”

Luce is shocked. “Blake!”

“... Mostly took care of it…” Dewi decides that moving in with these brothers is the best choice he ever made.

Aillun: Yours sounds entertaining but so wordy. Check out ours;

Exciting and interesting experiences, Melantha's ass. All the stories she'd read lied to her. If she had spent anything for the chance to participate in a new world, Mel would have demanded a refund. Hell, if it was possible, she might ask for compensation for the lackluster experience this whole “being summoned to another world” was turning out to be.

Janan: I think this line from my card reading of the situation sums our story quite well;

It was a connection like they hadn't seen in quite some time, like two plants twisting around each other as they grew.

Tara: As a romance, the core of our story would have to be the struggles of the relationships in it;

Recently, Arai thought about telling him all the time. She played around in her mind with the best way to say it. She imagined different situations; slipping it into a conversation nonchalantly, having a conversation with him specifically to tell him, or maybe just blurting it out randomly during a period of silence. But no matter what, she could never imagine what his reaction would be. Maybe it was because she was so scared of what it might be. Even though they had grown close, something was still holding her back. Did she still not trust him enough to give him the whole truth, or was it because they were so close that she feared saying it? A sense of guilt coiled around her other emotions concerning what she would not tell him.

What emotion did you struggle the most to write, and how did you overcome it?

Blake: As her writer characters, we should have similar struggles with writing as her, right?

Mel: Speak for yourself, Mr. storm cloud. Rachel gave me way more confidence in my skills than herself.

Blake: Whatever you say… Anyways, I think for the most part, it's not really struggling with a specific emotion as worrying if the right emotions are being portrayed well enough. Whatever she is personally feeling in a moment will obviously come easiest so the opposite will tend to be the hardest to write during that time. As for how we overcome it, the method varies depending on a number of factors but it can be anything from stepping away for bit to listening to music. Music especially tends to be effective for getting into a specific emotional headspace.

What's the hardest part of writing the story for you?

Aillun: “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

Abe: I don’t think that answers the question….

Tara: No, it does. Aillun is saying that finding the time to do things can be really hard with so many other things trying to take what little there is…

Aillun: I think how I answered had more flair. I’ve been considering including recitings in my performances. What do you think of this bit? “O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention!”

Tara: Another good answer to the question, for sure.

I have a question for Melantha: If you could redo a decision you've made, what would it be? And would you actually go through with it?

Mel: I AM THE CHOSEN ONE!!! What was the only question directed to a specific person, aka, me? Right, getting a redo… Hmm… Well, most of the things I’m unsatisfied about are things I didn’t really make a decision that caused them. I didn’t do or decide anything that could have changed the fact I’m in an unfulfilling isekai so I’m just doing my best to make the most of that situation. There are people I would have preferred to sleep with, but I shot my shot every time and it just happened to not work out. If I had to pick one regret I could have actually changed, it would have been our first guild quest. As the leader, I should have had us prepare better instead of rushing into that cave blindly. I would have definitely decided to research things better if I had the knowledge that I do now before going on the quest.

If your characters were animals, what would they be?

Janan: Ooo~ this sounds like a fun one. I want to make guesses about everyone who’s shown up in my story so far… Hmm… Abe is actually easy. Most would look at his high intelligence and would think something associated with smarts like an owl, but he’s actually more like an adorable bunny rabbit. Looks cute and cuddly but could do some real damage if he chose to. Art has that whole built like an ox vibe but I’m gonna place her as more of a wolf type. Social, protective of those she cares about and with the skills to back up her threats. I’m tempted to clock Nicky as a rabbit for very, very different reasons as his brother. Unfortunately for my guessing, his aura is harder to read but leans more to a fox in my opinion. Dusk and Dawn are obviously sharks and that’s all the attention they deserve. Which leaves myself. I’m a luna moth for reasons I will not be elaborating on at this time.

Tara: Trying to be mysterious? I see right through you… Never doubt a fairy-touched to observe the truth. Which is why figuring out the answer for my own fellow characters will be so much easier for me. Arai’s chosen moniker is practically a neon sign for her being a raven. Zeph is a beta fish. Finny will always be the dragon of my heart. I’m a tortoise. Victor couldn’t be anything other than a wolf. And Adrian is a little tough but a black cat fits her really well.

Aillun: I heard cat. As someone of a feline species, I feel uniquely qualified to speak on the subject.

Mel: We’re talking about what animal people would be.

Aillun: Oh. I’m still well qualified to talk about it then, being so observant and everything… Mel here is a spider. Her brother, Mishal is a kangaroo mama. Our residential dryad, Arriv, is an elephant. Pheonyx is an octopus. And me? Well, monkeys are supposed to be well known for being entertaining and acrobatic, right?

Mel: I… am not even going to argue with your assessment. I suppose that just leaves the RomaMate boys…?

Blake: Hmm… I feel like a lot of our traits that could affect what animal we’d be overlap with other characters but I’ll do my best not to just repeat others’. One of Lu’s nicknames references his mama bear protectiveness so gonna go with bear for him. Sato deserves the patreon bird of wisdom, owls, due to his insatiable thirst for knowledge. And I’ll never not see my adorable life partner as a fluffy white cat. Dewi loves warm naps in the sun and everything about him just screams to be cuddled. I suppose I’d be a crow.

Dewi: But I want us to be cats together!

Blake: Fine… I’ll be a panther… Happy?

What is your favorite scene or chapter?

Arai: When Zeph rescued me from drowning and we learned each other’s secret. Any time I get to see my cute “Princess” shirtless is a plus for me.

Zeph: The chess game in my summer home. I’m sure I would have won the second match if we hadn’t been interrupted.

Finny: Probably when I first met Tara. She was just so witty and ~sigh~ she was right that I dreamed about wooing her for so many nights afterwards.

Tara: Finny’s official confession was too adorably funny not to rank in my top ten favorites.

Adrian: I liked getting to show off my powers when I manipulated that filth of a Baron to attack my father.

Victor: Obviously when I found my little Adrian crying in the woods.

Luce: The Sato getting on ‘the pill’ scene. I was so nervous about everything going on and Shi-shi was putting so much effort to help me feel better, just to have that absurdity happen and most of my nerves were gone.

Blake: Cronos’ post-shower scene. Shamelessly flirting with Dewi is always a win.

Dewi: Blake passionately making out with me in the kitchen. It was the first time I truly saw that how Cronos treats me wasn’t just some far off in Blake’s future thing. Dude knows how to really go after what he wants and is just usually too anxious to do anything about it.

Sato: Cooking with Luce. It was just so domestic and natural… And I felt so close being allowed in his space during something he never let others help with before.

Arty: Hmm… I guess the flashback to my reignited belief in magic. It was such an important moment in my life.

Abe: The entire chapter “Independent Study”. Our story is foremost one of friendship and that is when I really started to see Artemis as a close friend instead of just a mutually beneficial situation… I’d found someone who truly gots me that wasn’t family.

Nicky: Watching my brother and his totally not girlfriend doing homework in sync while I was staying over.

Janan: Party girl has got to go with the freshman introductory party. I always love meeting all the fresh meat, but this year had some particularly interesting new faces.

Mel: Picking out my unique weapon and the revelations that came about during that conversation. 

Mishal: When Riv got a papercut and it sparked us having a whole conversation about each other and cultures and such… At least until my sister ruined the mood.

Arriv: My engagement. Or more accurately, what followed right after getting engaged.

Nyx: The festival. Walking around with Mel grounded me and gave me hope of a future being normal, even if my normal was much different that I had been used to before.

Aillun: My official introduction to the story. Ten out of ten, would minor chaos again.

Do you have a "theme song" that you associate with any of your characters?

Dewi and Blake pull out their computers and open multiple story/character specific playlists. Where would you like us to start?