Don't ask me to decide things for you.

[Chairubplay]

I hate, absolutely HATE when people look to me to decide their character's appearance and characterization for them. "What are your headcanons for [character I'm not playing]?" "How would you like [character I'm not playing] to react?"

I don't know! They're not my character! I'm not playing them! You are! How do YOU think they'd look or act? How do YOU want this to go? Figure out what you want to do for your own character, because if I don't like people touching my characters, I sure am not going to want to make all the decisions for yours.

[Nepeta]

Yesssss. Also 'Who do you want me to play?'. Like. I dunno??? I have it open to literally all canon characters. I didn't say 'No Xs' or 'Ys Only' so. Like. IDK. Pick whomever you like? I'm not you. I don't know where your strengths lie, or who you'd enjoy RPin me.

[Dave Strider]

Tbh that never happened to me and I'm soooo thankful for that. I'd flip my shit at anyone trying to pull this on me.

Except that one time when I took one of those shady NSFWE prompt because I wanted to troll the prompter? I gave up pretty quickly tho because I was too grossed out and couldn't handle it lmao

[Peridot]

I feel.
I'll occasionally ask where the other person roughly wants the rp to end up (so then if they say porn I can fuckigening run) but other than that I don't ask for decisions to be made
If I connected to a prompt and intend to play a character I know how I play my character - sure I worry maybe my and the other person's views on the character may differ, writing styles may clash but I wouldn't let that ruin the development of the character I play. It's been so many years, like hell am I gonna completely change my muses for an rp.

[Chairubplay]

I am so horrendously stubborn and picky that I refuse to compromise when it comes to characters I play, and I would rather die than force my views on somebody else because I hate having it done to me, so why would you WANT somebody to push you around? Where's your sense of adventure? Where's your individuality? Go with what your heart wants, not what I want!

[livvykitty]

This also applies to any responders that have a few ideas at first but then think that because they had a few initial ideas that they don't have to input anything else into the conversation

Like I had someone connect to my Steampunk Angels and Demons NAP and offer up some characters and ideas, and when I tried to ask them about ideas for political infrastructure and hierarchy, they literally said "idk man what do you think" like??? I have some ideas but this is an NAP for a reason??? I would like for you to please help me plan this all out instead of being like "lol I already had ideas now you do the rest of it"

[skeppsbrott]

Thing that happened on my crossdresser Cronus prompt, the only thing the person had said before this was asking if they could play a specific character.

◯:  //I'm gonna change that... I have like, two questions.
●:   ?
◯:  //Okay, Idk what does [my character] do??

And like, I don't. What. The prompt ends on someone visiting my character. So SUPPOSEDLY your character would be the person who came to visit my character. And since I've stated in my prompt that it wasn't expected, supposedly your character would have a reason to visit my character that my character was not expecting, supposedly they would also have some sort of reaction to my character looking like a woman. Because it is explicitly stated that it's not something he's told other people of.

I just. What. Why would you connect to my prompt.... if you need to ask me......... how you should reply...............

If I wanted a fanfiction I'd already written it.

Anyway, I'm still so annoyed about this because it's like one of three people who've picked up the prompt at all and they still haven't given me a starter despite picking it up almost a week ago.

[astrivid]

Okay this sort of ties into my BIGGEST complaint when making NAPs. I love to discuss OOC about set-up and headcanons before starting, but I get a slew of people not giving me any ideas, not giving me any headcanons, and just being bare bones in OOC chat. Be unique, contribute to this AU we're both making, please for the love of god don't be the bed starfish of ooc chat.

If you take a NAP then for the love of everything beautiful in this god forsaken rock we live on CONTRIBUTE.

[Fate]

I don't think this happens really often for me, but its often enough that okay, this is a fucking issue, dear /fucking/ god.

-nepeta gave me three headcanon options to chose from, even though clearly, they had one they wanted already. (? wtf)

- john asked me how i wanted them to play john. (?? um? play john?? how am i supposed to handle this)

- honestly there has been various times where this has happened. i just. and like, they ask if im okay with the headcanon and im like "yeah!!! of course its ur headcanon"

- also a frisk. and this is like, 3 days ago.

siiiigh....

[dirkshead]

Oh god, I start to get salty when people ask me for my character preference among the options I've listed, it just starts everything off on such a rotten note.

Like, often I'll leave things very very open (any canon character, usually) because I WANT TO BE SURPRISED. If I had parameters, rest assured they'd be right there. But no, a lot of people can't handle that many options and ask "who are you looking for?" "is X okay?" and while I get that it's reassurance they're looking for, I'd just love to RP with someone who doesn't need reassurance. Any canon character means any canon character--if you can bring Yaldabaoth or the Condesce or Andrew Hussie himself into my prompt, and carry it off in a semi-competent manner? I'll be over the fucking moon. Hell, I'll be over the moon for a semi-competent Dave or Rose or Terezi or *literally any canon character* as long as they just jump right in and go for it. If a timid little "can I be Solux?" noodles up to me, my enthusiasm takes a kick in the nads.

Super fucking tired of so many partners being so hungry for instructions. I'm not anybody's teacher, babysitter, or daddy.

[Chairubplay]

That and nothing else is why I started adding wanted characters to my prompts, just because I would get SO MANY PEOPLE wanting me to make their choice for them anyway that I just decided if it's going to happen regardless, why not take that step away? I would LOVE to receive a carapace against my Dirk or a cherub for my Alpha Bro, but I can't just offer "any canon character" and be done with it.

[Astro]

I mean, when rping more obscure characters like Yaldabaoth or the Condesce or Andrew Hussie, I think it would be considerate to ask if it was ok to play them, just because there are a ton of characters in homestuck and the prompter may not be aware/ didnt remember a particular character when they used the term 'any canon character'. But if they have a set list of, say, Rose, Rammom, or Dirk, then there's no real reason to ask if you're gonna be one of them, the answer's in the prompt!

[dirkshead]

Nah man, I'm so serious and literal about the don't even ask. Give them the credit of knowing what they want. Any canon character means any canon character, and if somebody's put that up on their prompt, you may as well figure that's exactly what they mean and drive your crazy train right into that station. I want to encourage anyone who sees that to just go for it. Pick your own character, pluck up your courage, and go for it.

What's the worst that'll happen? Mild surprise on their part, and a disconnect, followed by a clearer prompt? Congratulations, you have made that prompt better for that poster.

The best thing that could happen is you making the poster, possibly me, cry a single beautiful tear of joy at finally finding a partner with some got-damned confidence.

[Astro]

true! In the end, if they didnt want that character, they may have disconnected anyway. You cant make everyone happy