1.
Pash’nar is a very interesting pc. And its been my experience they take on a life of their own. What is something about him that has surprised you and was not put into his original creation?I can't say anything has particularly surprised me. He's rather nice despite being grumpy and foul-mouthed, perhaps a little nicer than I originally planned in his conception. Not that he's not capable of his own forms of cruelty, but I can see more clearly now that a lot of his external gruffness is the result of a lot of internal conflict and self-medication with all the wrong choices. Children seem to like him even though they make him uncomfortable—and yet so far all of them have managed to win him over faster than adults. He also seems to have some weird secret fantasy of his own private island of Konti, and it seems to come up as some internal personal joke randomly in his thoughts during unrelated threads. Not that it would ever happen, I'm afraid, because there's no way he could live on an island for long in my mind, but it amuses him so I won't tell him no.
2.
Why did you choose to play a male character as a female? What appealed to you? Is there anything you don't like about playing a male?I never know how to answer this question. Even as a kid when we would all play pretend in the yard, I was never a fan of playing myself or a girl. I guess I wanted to be different if I was going to be someone else for an hour or two, so I tried to be as different from myself as possible. I also was an only child and I think I apparently really wanted a brother to play with; most of my friends growing up have been guys and my mom always bemoaned the fact that I was such a tomboy with dirt under my fingernails and skinned knees and a particular hatred for dresses and pink. I suppose it's also a bit of a holdover from MMORPGs where I generally hated playing female characters because 1) they'd always get hit on or 2) everyone thought I wanted free stuff. So, I don't know if that really answers anything specific. It's just a preference. Once a tomboy, always a tomboy, I guess. (But I don't mind pink and I do wear dresses these days.)
3.
Everyone has those moments where their creative juices are running low. What to do you do to help get yourself inspired?I always get inspired when I have a lot of stuff to do (fancy that). A couple of big web projects hanging over my head? I want to write! It can be annoying to my productivity, but I try to take notes when things come to my mind even while I'm writing CSS or PHP. Other than that, I have a toddler, so I have an endless source of inspiration in his books and games and stories and songs. When I'm really frustrated, I just go for a walk. That fixes everything.
4.
How difficult is juggling your stay at home job, your toddler, and your Mizahar activity? You inspire all of us with how much you do, but we seriously don’t know how you do it.If you notice my join date (April 2011) and the date I actually became active again (April of this year), you'll see that I really don't do it all. I'm kind of returning from an almost 3-year RP break. Having a kid and starting your own business is really exhausting. I learned that the hard way … but I missed it, so I eventually came crawling back.
And actually, uh, um, well, I don't always do a good job of balancing anything at all. I just make it look good. I tend to work too much and forget to spend quality time with my family while they're awake. My husband brought this up recently, so I'm attempting to make some changes to how I schedule work and what I do for entertainment. That, of course, doesn't mean that I'll be completely ignoring Miz, since everyone needs a bit of their own thing, but I do need to be mindful that everyone else in my household wants to spend time with me because, well, I'm me. Since I freelance from home, it's easy for me to hang out on chat during my work hours or sneak in a post when I'm tired of staring at code for a bit. That part makes the day go by better. It's reminding myself to unplug that can sometimes be the hard part since working for myself often leaves me in a social bubble and I enjoy the interaction I can find on the 'net.
5.
Tell us about Pash'nar's romantic interests? Crushes? Loves? Heartaches? Unnoticed and unrequited admirers?I believe there are a few out there who can better answer this question than myself when it comes to unrequited or unnoticed admirers. I'm more one to let things happen than 'ship, so I leave that to the professionals. I'm sure they know who they are and would be happy to comment (AHEM).
In my mind, Pash is unfortunately more interested in the romance than the commitment, if only because he's a little burdened by his own longevity, among other issues. He probably has a few favorite faces scattered across some various port cities, yes, but do I know who they all are yet? Nope. There's plenty of room for flashbacks, people …
Currently, he is a little distracted by Sariana (which has a fun OOC story to itself since Sari and I are RP buddies with history who just so happened to stumble onto Miz at the same time … yay for happy reunions *cough*), but I see that as being tumultuous enough considering he may suffer from a short attention span that will probably wander him off into trouble. Wandering back is another story, but I guess that's the fun.
Maybe there needs to be an eth dating service somewhere. It's so difficult being immortal and having needs.
6.
Your fans are eager for any Pash’nar related dirt. Can you tell us anything about Pash'nar that hasn't been disclosed in a thread yet? A dark secret? A sordid past? Bastard child in Zeltiva?I'm working on some things. I wouldn't call Pash'nar's history squeaky clean, but I'd venture to say sordid may be a bit too extreme. He struggles with some vices, to be sure, and as a fallen ethaefal, obviously has some personal issues with his god and his current earthbound situation. I could easily imagine a few accidental children in history. Svefra, perhaps? Heehee. I'm hoping to flesh more of the century of so of his pre-creation history out over the coming seasons as soon as I figure more of it out in my own mind. I don't think he was a fallen from the start, so there had to be some catalyst situations for that somewhere in his past. I have a feeling they'll revolve around love and death and the problem of immortality and some blaming of Leth all rolled into something deliciously sad or angry-making.
7.
Reading and writing tend to go hand in hand; most of us on the site are also avid readers. Do you have any fond memories correlated to books? Do you remember the first story you fell in love with?Since having a child, I don't read as much as I'd like to. The last books I read were by Stephen Hunt—
The Court of the Air and
The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. I loved his writing style and ate them right up. I'm also a big fan of Steven Brust and his Jhereg cycle of books (with the exception of Yendi which made me sad-faced and mad and I struggled to finish it), plus all of his histories of the world,
The Phoenix Guards and
Five Hundred Years After. Other than that, I grew up on books, video games, and tabletop RPGs. My dad was a reader and a gamer. I suppose my favorite books are the Lord of the Rings books. I mean. You know. They're kind of fundamental, in my mind. I guess I like books with obtuse writing styles and complicated names with a bit of humor and fantastical monsters, judging by my list of favorites.
8.
What PC NPC or Event has affected Pash'nar's life the most, positively or negatively? How did they meet?I feel too new to answer this question since this is my first season actively posting. Um, the Djed Storm? Pash almost drowned, ended up spending more time in a city than usual (Alvadas), found himself blatantly unemployed for the entirety of the season, and made more friends than he's used to keeping on a regular basis. Probably short of falling in 396, it's been a big year. Maybe there were bigger ones, but those haven't been written about in the past tense yet.
9.
If you were given a free pass to do anything you want on Miz for one day... what would you do? What would you create (even if it's against the normal rules)?A cross-gender ethaefal? One that was one gender in the day and another at night. Because, who doesn't want to petch up an eth's life even more, right?
Other than that, I have no idea what I'd do with a free pass. Pash would probably want a face-to-face with Leth, though I already know that's not entirely outside of the realm of possibilities. I think he'd just be the one getting his butt handed to him in the end, though, that would still be entertaining. Everything on Miz so far is already pretty awesome, so it's hard for me to fathom topping too much so soon.
10.
What do you fear may end up happening with Pash'nar? Stagnation? Death? Marriage? Just tell us your greatest fear revolving around this PC.I think everyone fears stagnation for their PC somewhere in the back of their mind. I don't want anything I write for a character to get old, contrived, or boring. Then, I'd get bored. I do want to make sure I stick to my character's original vision as much as I can, even though I'm open to allowing him to grow and change through the course of his journey—who he runs into and what situations he ends up in are obviously going to have an effect on his future self, hopefully for the better. Pash doesn't really fear death, and I'm actually curious as to whether or not he would be happy to experience it one day, painful or not. As far as marriage goes, well, good luck with that, people. Good luck. (Read: Bring it!)
11.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?I wasn't expecting this, so, uh, thanks! I feel really special. I've always enjoyed reading the featured PC sections of the site every month, even when I wasn't playing, so it's pretty fun to participate myself! Now I feel pressured to write better because I have a feeling lots of people are going to go back and read my current threads and pay more attention to my new ones. I'll try to live up to my own expectations, so hang in there and bear with me.
by Naama on June 1st, 2012, 9:59 am 
I loved the Court of the Air, too!
