Character Development Thread--Discussion

Boop.

Soup.

Hoop.

I'm thinking I could assist in having David realize the gravitas of the situation.

Would I be correct in assuming that David would follow the commands of some armed soldier types? I can always have some Red Shirts under Mael's control request that David and Joseph follow them, to be subsequently introduced to a session with Mael.

Speaking of Mael and his mind control, would said control provide any benefits like Feel No Pain?

Also, would being blind and/or legally blind prevent being mind controlled?

I've got plans to add the commander of the whammied soldiers as an actual character in Adventure Day 2.

Finally, refresh my memory. Does Mael want the Hunters dead or alive? Because certain officers in the Balamar Empire are quick to resort to... overkill methods. As seen with Haydn.

Mael wants the Hunters to be very much alive. He does not believe in killing children for one, and also the person who hires him would be very pissed off if they got killed.

Now anyone else who's not the hunters? Fair game (though again, kids and teens are spared).

ALSO the thralls can feel some pain, but not too much. They can be easily knocked out, though.

Edited by Masterofchaos on Jan 14th 2021 at 3:20:14 AM

Maybe under duress, or if he was convinced that there was a nearby combat zone he'd want to keep Joseph and himself clear of, but if his interactions with the Web of Friendship weren't a tip off, David does not like to submit to authority on the basis of authority alone. If they were to ask him to come with them, he'd ask why. If the answer wasn't sufficient, he'd refuse.

Edited by Ryuhza on Jan 14th 2021 at 5:11:27 AM

Considering adding other characters. Luereyathane was, I think, a failed experiment. The mixture of haughty arrogance, incisive observation, and neurotic obsession found in any Dead God not named Thuexatiqome (formerly Kokabiel) or the Gardener of Tomorrows is hard to write or endure in anything but small doses.

I'd kind of like to get some writing in with Qeyari Maxel ul'Valmoth (no relation to Aseyu beyond hailing from the same city), but she's literally just a politician. With a solid military career (the title of "Maxel" translates approximately to "General", i.e. General Qeyari of Valmoth), but she has no special magical abilities and her technology is mid-20th century at best. She doesn't bring anything to an adventure beyond being level-headed, good with a gun, and (hopefully?) charismatic enough to be believable as the head of the moderate wing of Qorisa's militarist party.

Edited by KillerClowns on Jan 14th 2021 at 8:55:00 AM

Not to beat a dead horse, but that sounds like another argument for launching a new thread...

I've been mentally spitballing ideas, but so far I'm not sure which of the two suggestions from earlier in the thread had more support - another Inn Between the Worlds, or the general idea of a location where characters have to shelter for the night (or whatever it was).

If someone wants to take dibs on setting it up and writing an initial post...

I can, if no others volunteer.

Well, but normally, didn't we brainstorm these things together?

Fair point, it's been a while, but someone's got to get this ball rolling.

Thoughts, comments, inputs, suggestions, what-nots? Keeping it simple, with locations and such designed to work as canvases, of course.

Isn't that what we already decided to do?

Edited by Masterofchaos on Jan 15th 2021 at 8:59:01 AM

I thought we were going to launch two new threads — one to refresh Adventure and the other under the same "violence is discouraged" rules that Space Liner was.

In other news, I'm trying to salvage my notes from a power outage.

That's the idea, though they don't need to be launched simultaneously. Adventure still has a little bit of wrapping up to do.

I always knew that Sarquoql wants to Take Over the World because he's disgusted with the current state of affairs and thinks he can do better. Back in his native story, his temporary success showed that his idea of "better" included gladiator arenas where he could evaluate who among the randomly abducted civilians showed some backbone.

But the exact details of why he did all that, aside from getting samples of populations to assess the likelihood of revolt, remained hazy. It didn't crystallize until I woke up with the sudden realization of what Sarquoql's opinion of Joseph would be if given a chance to minionize him: "It would be a crying shame if I passed up this opportunity to sculpt this useless lump of clay into magnificence."

In a twisted way, Sarquoql is fighting for the same goal as the Web of Friendship: to make a World of Badass, one changed mind at a time.

So does that leave us with Miss_Desperado or WillDeRegio? I don't want this to end up like the last Special K Bar at a Minnesota potluck.

Will. Definitely Will. I remember the last "skip Mael" incident.

That's sort of akin to Arku's take on Joseph, but less an ideal and more of a self-justification for all but evicting him from his own body. Joseph appearing (and feeling) useless is what drives a lot of the conflict within him and in his relationships with those older or more accomplished than he is. It's the intangible and most core nemesis of the first story I have mapped out for him; the thing he has to at least come to understand, if not vanquish entirely, in order to move forward.

But the other key to that is to be able to do it on his own terms. For all of his perceived uselessness, Joseph has a very strong sense of self. Plenty of figures think they know what is best for him, but most often it involves shoving -him- out of the picture. However good their ultimate intentions may be, they have no right to take control of his life. Certainly not for the crime of being a bit of a slacker at seventeen.

Looks like I have some posts to craft.

Speaking of World of Badass, I've decided that after the best humanity on Aria had to offer got their asses handed to them by an Eldritch Abomination's herald (mind you, surviving said herald is no small feat in itself), the Powers That Be decided that a) First Contact revealed that space is most likely chock full of Scary Dogmatic Aliens, and b) the world is hopelessly outclassed. From this, they determined that the best course of action is to ensure that Aria is just an Insignificant Little Blue Planet.

So, to make sure the world and its inhabitants were unappealing to would-be space conquerors, the Powers That Be made the completely imbecilic decision to turn a world where Everyone Is a Super into one fresh out of the Neolithic Revolution. And losing access to a good portion of habitable land in the process.

Aria is still recovering from this folly a millennium and a half later.

Edited by WillDeRegio on Jan 16th 2021 at 10:10:27 AM

Damn. My villian's motivations are like...two want revenge, one (the one in this thread) is a close friend to the actual Big Bad, the Big Bad themselves who's motive is a spoiler, and one guy who's literally only in it for the money. Either way, they're the reason why NCH ran away from home.

Also, Miss, I hope my latest post wasn't derailing!

-boop-

Oh. Well. You know. The thing. The other thing. Yadda yadda.

Waiting on Will in the Grasslands-bound truck (I'm ready to wrap this particular subgroup up for the night within a post or two unless Will has other plans) and then Miss>Pyxo>Will in the Hummingbird sick bay.

Had a COVID-19 exposure at my office. No symptoms on my part yet, and I could have dodged the bullet, but... anyways, I'll keep you all updated if it's gonna get bad enough that it'll interfere with postings.

x6: What exactly are Joseph's own terms? You say that Joseph has a strong sense of self, how does that affect his willingness to grasp at opportunities to change the parts of himself that he doesn't like when someone offers those opportunities up on a silver platter? For example, why hasn't he taken up the Web's offer to help him construct new muscle memory for his new body so he no longer trips all over himself in a fight, when he clearly hates that he's tripped all over himself in a fight and gotten yelled at for it? You say that feeling useless is the intangible and most core nemesis of the first story, and I can see why you would say that and how you've set it up. But from where I'm standing, I see the reluctance of accepting anybody trying to help him not feel useless as the most core nemesis, with the useless feeling coming a close second.

x4: You didn't derail anything. The most that will happen is Arilay starting a mental countdown. She was already going to review her plans anyway before that happened.

Edited by Miss_Desperado on Jan 19th 2021 at 1:51:10 AM

Agh, I hope for the best. I'm fairly certain I caught it around this time last year, before it had really blown up awareness-wise. I must have had fairly mild symptoms, as I'm still here and never went to a hospital, but it was the worst illness I've yet experienced.

That's part of the longer journey of his character. Joseph responds to intuitions he has about himself that he hasn't fully unpacked; things he feels, but can't clearly express to others. The stuff that forms the kind of person he is beneath all else. However, he is greatly driven by fear, both the fear of disappointing others and the fear of losing himself (which is to say, acting against his deeper intuitions). This often puts his fears in direct conflict and leave him in what feel like no-win situations. Usually, the fear of losing himself takes precedence.

One aspect of himself that he has yet to fully understand (or reconcile with his existing idea of masculinity) is that he's very noncombative. Like, all but conflict-averse. The closer he comes to the possibility of actually hurting someone, the more he feels driven to avoid it, like two repelling magnets. It's also why a lot of his anger winds up being self-directed. More than any physical clumsiness, that indwelling feeling is what kept him from quickly/accurately shooting the thief when push came to shove. The same feeling and the want to preserve it (even if he would rather not reveal it to anyone else) is what makes him reluctant to accept the Web's offer. That and a general fear of the unknown. Namely, he can't really understand their advanced training technique, and is afraid it would go beyond touching up his physical aptitude and somehow supplant his own values with those of the Web of Friendship, thus losing part of himself.

In short, he doesn't want to be better at harming people, and he fears that's what the training will do. But he's not quite able to express so much in words.

What if Soryn used his tail on Maelys? I can't decide whether he would try to grab her wrist and stop her slap, or try to bump her elbow and give the slap enough extra oomph to shove Mist's face forward for an Accidental Kiss.