Degas Clayton | OOC | And pretend that he is Parson Brown

[preacher_in_reticence]

Surprise! It’s me, schnikeys! I am ambitiously adopting Degas Clayton. I beg for grace (🥁) and patience while I catch up. I’ve been doing what backreading I can! I will definitely be starting the inbox afresh.

First off, disclaimer: I do not intend to play Degas as vigorously as I plan to play Grace. I very much don’t want to leave anyone hanging because I’ve gotten overwhelmed, and so I will do my best to keep things manageable for myself in advance. This is to say, I don’t think I’ll be spontaneously tagging in places or posting top levels or what have you — I want to focus on playing Degas’s role as exposition fairy, local color, and, most importantly, on tagging in where invited, should people be so inclined.

Thoughts on 2025

To keep things simple, I am thinking that Degas from February to December was… honestly just chilling. In a shelter area in June, on Crane’s Ridge in November, just generally opting out, generally in a stable emotional state due to the growth he experienced from the support of friends and the community. Not grabbing attention, NPC’ing it up. This is a very vague plan, though, so please give thoughts if you have any.

Reading the scriptures

As mentioned above, I’ve already done some backreading. However, I will inevitably miss stuff, and this is an opportunity for a refresh! So: please comment below if your characters have CR with Degas that you would like me to know about. Linking threads would be excellent, but if you would prefer to just summarize, that’s also helpful! Or if you’d like to retcon in some CR, this is also a great time!

I’m thinking of this as an experiment in emulating character voice, so also do feel free to give close feedback once I start writing him. I want to know if I’m landing where aimed!

TL;DR

hi i’m playing Degas pls gib CR background

Comments

[lovethyneighb_or]

HI :-) Mulcahy and Degas are definitely friendly. Degas is aware of Mulcahy as having a firm backbone but very demure and shy and self-effacing. Otherwise they weren’t significantly close though, I think.

He’ll also know that he was very, very close with Angel, who was Degas’ apprentice; they had a queerplatonic thing going on, and Mulcahy handled the leftovers of Angel’s belongings when it left and took over its duties of tending to the bees in the Temple Yard. On several occasions Angel watched over Mulcahy as he slept in the chapel due to his paranoias and the fact that Angel didn’t need to.

Mulcahy is also best friends with Zivia, who is also very close with Degas, but I’ll let Batya take that one.

I’m out and about rn. I don’t think these two had significant threads together but I’ll check my thread tracker and get back to you.

[lovethyneighb_or]

okays i got them

first meeting: https://ph-logs.dreamwidth.org/28109.html?thread=3954637#cmt3954637

asking about contacting mortanne: https://preacher-in-reticence.dreamwidth.org/650.html?thread=43402#cmt43402

teeny birthday party thing: https://ph-logs.dreamwidth.org/64232.html?thread=12673768#cmt12673768

[preacher_in_reticence]

Ahhh, thank you so much, very helpful!

Link collection ... 2!!

[tehilim127_1]

As requested, for ease of reference!

First meeting -- scroll up to the main post for context (actually that's probably a good idea for most of these)

Help with weird religious things

Playing Never Have I Ever (click "Parent" to see what Degas is reacting to, but there's so many responses there that I'm linking directly to his)

A visit at home

A yard sale

Beach party, grilled vegetables, and a religious question

An exchange between Degas and two sort-of-ghosts from Zivia's past

An autumn holiday visit

Zivia's top-level at Aster's Casino -- definitely scroll up to the main post for context on this one, and read her conversation with Fever (second reply) before her conversation with Degas (first one)

Last year's Dance of Celestine

Givingstide

and finally, Degas's birthday, which didn't have much interaction but adding it in the interests of completeness

[graphomaniac]

I don't know if I have the threads on hand, but both Lev/Lyubov and Anzu were on friendly terms with Degas. Lev and Anzu were advising Degas and Zivia on how to navigate an interfaith relationship when the difference is ... quite significant, and when there's doubt as to whether there's much future in the relationship once the Barrier goes down.

I'd love to resume CR with Degas! He's got a standing invitation to the ad-hoc interfaith outreach stuff that's been sorta semi-formally going on, since he's one of the three dedicated faith workers in the Hollow along with Lev/Lyubov and Mulcahy (and Lev/Lyubov and Mulcahy are pretty good friends).

I think Degas knows Lev/Lyubov is prone to minimising their own skills and downplaying their own intelligence, and IIRC, he viewed Anzu as reliable and as a peer in terms of age and experience.