The way the quasi-federated multiverse works in my Chaotic Boy Energy/Girl Chaos world is that every series takes place on an instance. The same faces keep reappearing as different people because it's multiverse. Each face has one account (one character) on an instance, unless there's a chaotically feasible explanation, like they're twins or a solar flare interfered with server integrity or someone spilled a Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster on a server stack.

This is far from a perfect analogy, but it's sort of like characters can sort of see each other's posts on other instances if the circumstances are right. Except multiverse instances just happened because physics so there's no Activity Pub protocol to facilitate communication between them. What they get instead is a sort of vague sense of familiarity, sometimes very faint, sometimes stronger, sometimes not at all, depending on circumstances.

The circumstances in actuality are entirely my feelings about a series and the character interactions. Series I don't get on with are on blocked instances. Series I love in whole or part have better federation, except for the one that I blocked the main characters on and followed the second couple :)  When I saw the series matters too. The actors for four of my characters in Chaotic Boy Energy were in The Eclipse (my 2nd Thai series and that was very likely a subconscious influence on bringing them together (it is absolutely half the reason why I always want Khaotung and First's characters in any series to be happy and secure even if directors and GMMTV think otherwise; watching it in the days after Moonlight Chicken had opened me up to many of my griefs is the other half) but there are no similarities or connections carried over between the characters except who pairs up with whom.

Meanwhile, I met Prigkhing's Noinae in 55:15 Never Too Late after my story was (I thought) mostly plotted out and just needed some gaps filled in and the writing improved. At long last, a brilliant example of girl chaos to base a character on! She had to go in, but not as a prop for the boys, which is how she became super cool. I didn't feel up to taking on the rewriting to work her in as a full-time character so I gave her a big life outside that particular story and made her the older sister her brothers look up to. The interactions between Noinae and Paul (Khaotung's 55:15 character) were a delight so it was just fun to incorporate a few nods towards them.

I very much wanted to see more Prigkhing chaos beside Noinae and Yiwha fan-gothing the existence of magic in Enigma and ended up with The Shipper. Just the ticket to cheer myself up during an endlessly dreich winter. Main role for Prigkhing :) :) :), questionable sounding plot though :( :( :(, will surely be able to find a wee something to write between Prigkhing and First's characters as a wink towards the series in my story :) Did NOT expect to get so caught up in its outrageous brilliance. Anyone who has can probably understand why it keeps working its chaotic way into my writing.

Within my story, the behind the scenes canon is that these federated multiverse connections can be manipulated by one of Jennie's Angelic selves who has inter-server capabilities and are strongest around Prigkhing and First, and then possibly Piploy and Ohm. There's a reason within The Shipper for that. She's made it so Prigkhing and First's characters have stronger but still vague awareness of their alternate selves in other instances of the quasi-federated multiverse than other characters do, sort of like they're following them (to over-extend the mastodon et al fediverse example). I don't (yet?) know how aware Jennie's PAQTAG character is regarding any of this. Her Shipper character doesn't, or at least not to my knowledge because that is someone else's story and we don't interfere with other servers' integrity.

So within my story, First's character falls for Khaotung's character immediately because their characters almost always end up together and First's character senses this (oh, this actually works with Moonlight Chicken too); Khaotung's character takes more time because his sense is less strong and his personal circumstances are different. (Drake's character was probably more like, but perhaps not entirely, oooo cute new shiny because Drake's character in my story is a very completely engrossed in this exact moment kind of guy :)  I'm also playing with genre conventions but it's fun to have an "explanation" for it, like when Prigkhing arrived as a sorcerer's apprentice and suddenly the glitter effect fairy dust which had always been there had a reason besides being a weak attempt to visually indicate a link between two things.

Drake and First's characters' friendship echoes theirs in Blacklist, but most if not all of the multiverse Khaotung characters (who was given a thankless role in that) just blocked the Blacklist "account" outright. Well, I think they should have and I'm making this metaphysics up. If the actual Khaotung himself somehow showed up and said otherwise, I guess I'd have to unblock them but the chances of that are even smaller than Drake's character having a lie in so this is how it is. The Our Skyy follow-up for The Eclipse is perma-blocked by me because those characters weren't Ayan and Akk and it makes me grumpy.

Spin-off series which won't be made: our quiet superheros Jennie and Mrs Hong use the magic of spilling a pan galactic gargle blaster on a server stack to rescue Joe from the Blacklist server. We're having a debate as to whether Our Skyy not-Ayan and not-Akk should be left where they are or if a better Eclipse follow-up in which they become Ayan and Akk will happen if they're uploaded somewhere else. Yes, I am grumpy about this. The argument for is that it might work. The argument against is that it might be even worse.

In behind the scenes canon, this vague awareness is stronger in this world than in other series because it's a world with immortals and some degree of magic. Likewise, Prigkhing and Jennie's characters' proximity to magic gives them more awareness than other characters. I have an explanation derived from The Shipper for this too. It involves spoilers though so it's staying in my head until I find someone who's seen it.

None of my characters, except perhaps Jennie's, are currently aware that they live in a quasi-federated multiverse. Some of them just have weird intuitions they don't understand on meeting certain people and generally give up trying to figure out as the this-instance connections between them grow stronger and drown out the intuitions.

It is entirely reasonable that the quasi-federated multiverse works differently in other people's worlds. Like my friend who's easter egged my characters into hers <3 <3 <3

Anyway, this is the kind of thing I mull over when my brain is in pedantic rather than creative mode and I want to keep myself off social media. Cause how does this all work is fun :) And my memory is shite so it's good to have this written down somewhere for when I'm wondering what the shiaa I was thinking when I made this absolute nonsense up.

Update: Drake, Prigkhing, Piploy and First are planning a daring Top Secret instance-crossing raid to rescue Khaotung's Joe from the Blacklist server. Jenny is helping. I have no idea how this is going to work but they've thought it up so it has to happen now. Cupcakes, Ohm and an assortment of produce will be involved.
I also have no idea how to work the implications of this into my story world. If it's my characters doing this, then they KNOW that there are other versions of themselves all over the quasi-federated multiverse. (Drake's character has decided this is exactly what the story needs. I really need to stop putting ideas into that boy's 243 year old mind.) It can't be some sort of ur-Them because wouldn't that be the actors who are of course off living their own lives. (No it doesn't, you can make up whatever you want in this utter nonsense so long as the Rules and values are respected.) Or maybe I can imagine a new imaginary server for new characters to live on and they're all daring Top Secret instance travelers. Their second mission can be to infiltrate English-speaking audiences' minds and help them understand Tonhon Chonlatee.
Or maybe I should just take a nap.

The comedic elements have to be short. Giving them more detail bogs them down. Much respect for those who are able to write sustained comedic scenes.

The romance arc is able to absorb more detail. It feels unbalanced because of this. I liked it when it was only there because it's a genre requirement and it was spoof of genre conventions with a bit of healthy relationship development brushed over it. This side of it has probably been lost in the writing because of the need to keep humourous bits short.

The more I write, the more the romance arc approaches conventional and I don't want that. The genre conventions are simply being used as genre conventions rather than comedy. I can't figure out how to write in winks to the audience. I've also lost the knack of having multiple things going on at once. That was one of my favourite things in earlier writing.

At the same time, I like the more developed romance scenes I've written. I don't want to drop them or edit them down. Whatever strength they have comes from their detail.

Plot is probably able to absorb more detail. I like that there's no plot outside the romance arc, that there was chaos in the structure as well as in the events. I'm not sure how to add plot in for the non-romance characters. They're just living their lives. I like the underlying theme of familiarity within the found family, that they all know each other so well and what is surprising to us is normal for them. I doubt anyone else reading the story will realise this.

The sense of imbalance between romance and chaos/comedy is probably more to do with it being written. If it were shown as a television series, the chaos/comedy would have more screen time and impact and scenes which are a short paragraph of writing would be as long as the more developed romance arc scenes. I am at a loss for how to shift this in the writing without losing the punch of the comedy. It's at a point where I can't do it through sheer quantity.

I am shite at writing flirting. Not as dire as actually flirting myself but it's still frustrating. It might be a good way to incorporate more detail into the comedy. I'm also not good at writing the friendship elements outside of creating opportunities for boy chaos. I would like my characters and their friendships to be more rounded.

Ok, now that's out of my head and onto the page and maybe some of this might come through in the writing.

me, posting elsewhere: i've semi-dropped the only other social media site i'm using these days so i keep switching tabs to the dreamwidth page where i posted the story i'm writing as if the characters there might have done something new whilst i was away

friend, replying: Knowing your characters I wouldn't be surprised if they had done something.