What's your tell?

tsar

I play all sorts of characters. So I guess my biggest tell is that I don’t TS. I’ll flirt, write innuendo, and even make out. But the moment a pose drops the word “turgid,” it’s time to FtB.

If you think you may have TS’d with me, I can assure you, no you haven’t.

lol who the hell is using the word turgid, that’s definitely that person’s tell

Testament

@Roz The first one, if only because a number of different sites, like this one, will italicize the word. Like so. Also, Ares does it, and that’s been all kinds of helpful for me.

I used to use double spaces when I was real young, because I actually thought that’s how you were supposed to do sentence structure. It wasn’t until much later in life that I was told that’s not how that works. I realized that I wasn’t sure if believing that I had been told that in school was legit or if it was the Mandela Effect at work.

tsar

Wait no I changed my mind, I think turgid is @Jumpscare’s tell! In the TS they aren’t having, lol.

SpaceKhomeini

Upon realizing this is someone I know and actually want to talk to, the inevitable page of some 10+year-old unfunny inside joke that I will send them
Constant abuse of italicized or otherwise emphasized text
I’m probably playing an abrasive trainwreck
Numbered/bullet point lists

Solstice

My tells are that I use the word offer entirely too much, and I can’t seem to break the habit of talking about my character’s secondary characteristics.

Do they have long hair? I’ll post about it entirely too much.

Or if they have some sort of defining attribute? Again, I overdo mentioning it. Do they have unusual ears? A broken nose? A tail? I am going to fucking mention it multiple times per session, to the point where even though I notice it, I cannot be stopped.

Also, I pose kinda slow, and am generally more confident with my actions than with my dialogue, because at some point an English instructor wrote on one of my stories, “People don’t talk like this.” and it has haunted me and will continue to haunt me until the day I die.

helvetica

@tsar said in What's your tell?:

Wait no I changed my mind, I think turgid is @Jumpscare’s tell! In the TS they aren’t having, lol.

I don’t want to shame anyone but I was about to say someone has def used turgid at me before and now I wonder if it was the same person.

Snackness

@Jumpscare ‘Turgid’ should always be an insta-ftb, no matter one’s feelings on TS.

Third Eye

I feel like people I RP with often would have more interesting answers than I do. IDK. Probably overuse of sentence fragments for effect. I’ve also been told I have a very dry OOC demeanor, which, valid.

Testament

One thing I have changed in the last five to ten years was my utter abuse of ellipsis.

There was a moment some time ago when I re-read my pose and it had five moments of “…” in the pose itself. And I thought, no, I am not RPing as Christopher Walken. So I made a concentrated effort to really knock that off, save for unique times.

Tez

@Roz YOU DIDN’T MENTION ME.

I’m a _this type_ bc it formats automatically on some platforms, but it DOES make stand out on others.

Pyrephox

I don’t know them exactly, but I was amused when I mentioned who I was playing on a game and the person said, “Oh yeah, that’s who I thought, because that’s absolutely a you character and a you PB.”

So, for most of my MU* characters, a PB of a middle-age white guy with dark hair and probably some sort of interesting color of eyes? Almost certainly some sort of PC who can get involved in mysteries or crimes without stretching.

Writing tells. I overuse “well” and commas. I don’t know any of my others, but I’m sure I have them!

IoleRae

@Testament said in What's your tell?:

I used to use double spaces when I was real young, because I actually thought that’s how you were supposed to do sentence structure. It wasn’t until much later in life that I was told that’s not how that works. I realized that I wasn’t sure if believing that I had been told that in school was legit or if it was the Mandela Effect at work.

Is legit. Typewriters, you needed to double space at the end of a sentence. The APA didn’t change their stance on this being the “correct” way to do things until 2019.

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/punctuation/space-after-period

Note the date You can find news articles about the change too.

Jumpscare

@Meg I don’t know if I’ve ever RP’d with you, but if I had to guess what your tell is, it’d be that you’re proactive and deliberate in every pose.

@tsar said in What's your tell?:

Wait no I changed my mind, I think turgid is @Jumpscare’s tell! In the TS they aren’t having, lol.

Well now I want to TS just to see how terrible I can make it.

hellfrog

@Roz said in What's your tell?:

@Testament said in What's your tell?:

I know my usual thing is that I emphasize a lot of words by using * word *. I also know that I tend to play older characters, because my mind can no longer associate with being 20 anymore because anytime I try the character just sounds generally whiny.

My brain does absolutely notice what other people use for their emphasis characters. Are you *this type*? Maybe /this type/? Or even //THIS type//? SOMETHING ELSE?

I also tend to notice the folks who double space after periods, if only because it’s uncommon.

.* I * use //ALL OF THEM//

you’ll never catch me

Herja

Starting sentences with prepositions. Using -this- to emphasize a word. Talking about eyebrows a lot.

Jumpscare

@hellfrog said in What's your tell?:

@Roz said in What's your tell?:

@Testament said in What's your tell?:

I know my usual thing is that I emphasize a lot of words by using * word *. I also know that I tend to play older characters, because my mind can no longer associate with being 20 anymore because anytime I try the character just sounds generally whiny.

My brain does absolutely notice what other people use for their emphasis characters. Are you *this type*? Maybe /this type/? Or even //THIS type//? SOMETHING ELSE?

I also tend to notice the folks who double space after periods, if only because it’s uncommon.

.* I * use //ALL OF THEM//

you’ll never catch me

I use what everyone else uses.

Chameleon

tsar

@Jumpscare said in What's your tell?:

but if I had to guess what your tell is,

lol this sounds like a fun game

cirim13

One thing I definitely do is what I call A/N metaposing or just metaposing (I know other people use the term, not sure in the same way??) Something like, “Sue jumped down. Sure, she could’ve just taken the stairs, but apparently risking broken ankles is in this week.”

I also am a chatterbox. Sometimes my chars are too. But I definitely am.

and speaking of, my characters are often either some flavor of:

Bitter/jaded/apathetic and competent in some very specific field
Nervous (and troubled) young adult
Enthusiastic (sometimes frivolous) social bulldozers.

And I do a lot of ‘A (action fragment)’ midpose. A nod. A tilt of her head. A hand rises. A quick grin.

idk these may just be things I am self-conscious about.

Roadspike

Em dashes, “a beat,” describing small changes in body language, “I mean,” characters with tactical knowledge/background, characters with sports knowledge/background, and answering OOC questions on channels.

Third Eye

@Roadspike
I’m addicted to “I mean” as a vocal tic to the point where I’ve tried to stop, but idk if it’s successful.