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| A trial run of self-writing a relationship in Tascell | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 16 2017, 05:25 PM (18 Views) | |
| spankmeimnaughty | Apr 16 2017, 05:25 PM Post #1 |
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Members of Tascell, As you may be aware, we have never allowed one writer to play two player characters in a romantic relationship. While this has potential to add to the story that we’re creating, there are even more potential issues with self-writing a relationship, hence the existence of our rule. However, after plenty of thought and discussion with our Lord High Governor Paris, we have decided that I will be trying out Yahru and Kuro in a romantic relationship despite the fact that I am the writer behind both characters. I want to make this as clear as I possibly can: This is not a rule change. This is a trial run. I’m trying to see if their relationship adds to the world of Tascell, and I will end the trial upon request from the other moderators if we determine that it’s not going well. Again, just so we’re clear: Don’t start self-writing player characters in relationships- this is not a rule change. This is a tightly-controlled test run that is the result of many discussions with the moderators of Tascell. This document is intended to show the level of effort and detail that I’m giving this relationship, and I will also list the many concessions that may be necessary to keep the relationship within reasonable bounds. I am making my entire thought process and the nature of the test run public to show that this is not any sort of favoritism or the moderators not being clear. We’ve always had a light set of rules in Tascell, and that’s part of what makes our group so great, but that doesn’t mean bending them is meant to be taken lightly. I hope to prove my intentions, plan and willingness to cooperate through this document. I will provide evidence or precedent for any claim or assertion I make, and I hope that this shows my proper thoughts on the issue. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to RPing with all of you in the future. Naughty Writer of Yahru and Kuro My Intentions Before I get into the rest of the manifesto, it is necessary for the moderators and community to understand where I am coming from in making this relationship happen. This isn’t the result of me simply “shipping” Yahru and Kuro together or trying to fulfill some other desire. As a writer, I see this relationship as a natural progression of the characters I have created. I don’t “want” the characters to be together in the sense that I want to eat a slice of cake, I want them to be together because it would be challenging and fun to write, it would force both of them to grow and change, it would make them happy, and they need each other. As a bit of a romantic myself, I am interested to see how I would handle writing a romantic relationship, and I think trying this will make me a better writer and help me contribute more to Tascell in other areas. These are the reasons why I am embarking on the trial. Everything that I write is carefully planned and crafted to be of some (even if quite small) literary value, and I intend to do the same with this relationship. I’m not claiming to be some great author, but I do put effort into making my writing have substance. To prove that I take the literary value of my writing quite seriously, I have detailed some examples of my devices below. 1a) All of my forum posts through "The Third Fall" begin with the word "the". The Third Fall is the post where Yahru finally achieves her goal of freeing Kuro. "The" is a definite article that is meant to reflect how single-mindedly Yahru pursued her goal. It's always The, The, The, The, which shows how THE focus of Yahru’s life is dismantling the labs. 1b) This is further shown by contrasting with the two posts after The Third Fall, neither of which starts with “the” as Yahru isn't as sure where to go from here as her goal has been achieved. 1c) My post “Her Liberation” also uses a pronoun that is usually definite, playing off of (1). However, there is a twist- it isn't clear whether the "Her" in question is Yahru or Kuro, spoofing the supposed definite nature of "Her" and inverting what I did with "The" 1d) The post "House Warming" is the second post in a row beginning with H, H being the first letter in Her, which is supposed to indicate that the "Her" in "Her Liberation" was actually BOTH Yahru and Kuro. 2) There are 3 Falls, obviously corresponding to Lille, Cannes, and Yahru's deaths. In fact, Cannes and Lille literally fall. However, there is a hint that Yahru will survive her "death" - there are 5 posts before the Falls begin. Yahru spent 5 years in the lab before she escaped it, which is the indicator that Yahru will escape her Fall as well 2b) In case the 5 = 5 hint was missed, there is a second one lurking right after it. There are 3 Falls, corresponding to the 3 years that Yahru has been free of being stuck in Nepal. This further hints that Yahru can escape her death. 3) Since Yahru didn’t die in “The Third Fall”, it would appear that the fall is actually missing. However, the subtle implication is that the waterfall Yahru hears in her hallucination/the afterlife (whichever way you interpreted it) is the real Third Fall, and perhaps it was always the Fall since Cannes and Lille would have heard it too if that actually was the afterlife. I understand that these are all subtle details and not all of them are actually meant to be discovered. However, they were all planned and demonstrate the commitment I have to creating valuable writing, and this same commitment will hold true when writing the Yahru and Kuro relationship. I will also demonstrate this level of detail and planning when going back over my posts in the next section. Justifications based on the characters To show you that I’m not doing this on a whim, I have detailed below the numerous reasons that Yahru and Kuro being together would make sense. This requires a look into each character’s head. I’m going to focus on Yahru, the more detailed and developed of the two, since I haven’t written Kuro’s backstory as fully yet. A deep dive into Yahru’s world view and history will clearly reveal that Kuro is ideal for her. Yahru’s story has been written to be female-centric. Specifically, I have often had Yahru reflect on the influence of her mother and grandmother, both of them being more emphasised in her personal development than her father. While her father was the driving force in her becoming the lightning warrior that she is today, the story of Yahru and Mavich has been framed to still be in a female context. In “The hope of a father”, we see that Mavich named Yahru after two warrior women, Yuuki and Nikos, and that he hoped for her to become strong and loved like they were. Her entire tension with her father- she hates him for experimenting on her but understands that the accident that led to his madness wasn’t his fault- is still decidedly female because accepting her augs and learning to care for those around her despite Mavich’s influence is in the context of the expectations that Mavich (through Cannes) placed in Yahru to become a great female leader like Yuuki or Nikos. We see this again come up in “The Third Fall” after Yahru’s apparent death. When Yahru speaks to Mavich in the hallucination/afterlife, she is less concerned with seeing her true father again and more concerned with her guilt that she didn’t live up to the decidedly female standard that he set for her in naming her after Yuuki. This expectation is further confirmed by Cannes in “The Awakened”. To quote: “But you're special, child. You've seen the unique hair and eyes we all share. But you, your mother and I aren't average. Your mother was a brilliant scientist. I was an elite soldier and the best medic in the world. You've got a legacy to uphold, and strength to harness.” Take notice of how Cannes specifically only refers to the female predecessors in Yahru’s life. While she links them all by their unique hair and eyes, there is a much deeper burden of legacy and expectation in her words as well. With so much focus on the females in Yahru’s life, it’s fitting that she is attracted to women. This fact is further reinforced by the time she spent in the experimental lab and her subsequent revenge quest. It is well established that nearly all the scientists who were involved with any of the illegal labs were men. Yahru was taken to the labs when she was only eight years old and didn’t escape until she was thirteen, meaning that she began puberty while being tortured by an almost exclusively male group. That puts a pretty dark mark on her psyche about men, and it is further confirmed five years later. After Yahru escaped the lab, she spent five years in Nepal and likely wouldn’t have even seen a male during that entire time. Then, when she finally does see one again, the base is under attack and the men kill her grandmother. While there would possibly have been some female soldiers present during the attack, having another group of mainly men doing awful things just reinforces the conceptions that she developed about them during her imprisonment. In fact, Yahru would have the potential to be scared or mistrusting of all men due to what they have done to her, except for one detail- she knows that she could kill any of them, so on an individual level she is able to be confident around and even befriend men. This sets up the biggest reason that Yahru would prefer women- relationships and sex always bring around a sort of vulnerability to anyone, and being in that situation with a man would remind Yahru too much of the labs and likely invoke her PTSD. Even if a “Mr. Right” came along, Yahru would be incapable of thinking of him in a romantic way due to the conditioning described above. Ok, so if we now know that Yahru is a lesbian, why choose Kuro? For starters, there’s the fact that it’s not practical for Yahru to be with anyone else for one simple reason- Yahru’s emotions can cause high electrical discharge. A heated fight between her and her girlfriend or sharing a bed while she had a nightmare would end with Yahru shocking her girlfriend to death. Yahru knows this, and she’s aware that this likely means she will end up alone. This fact was developed during a conversation in the bar after old Kali returned. So Yahru, who has never had any romantic experience, is twenty one years old and wants to be with someone despite the fact that she doesn’t think she can. This creates an incredible tension within her and she begins to hope for love if she meets someone particularly durable. Hold onto this thought. Changing paths, let’s look at what Yahru has been doing with her life. The breakdown is like this: 5 normal years 3 unhappy years as her father descends into madness 5 years being tortured and experimented on 6 months of a coma 4 years of rigorous training at the hands of her grandmother 2 years outside the city fighting to survive and gathering intel and means to return And the rest she has been destroying the last of the experimental labs. Starting with her father’s accident, that means that the last 16 years of her life have revolved around the accident, the labs and her quest for revenge. So she’s incredibly affected by and focused on that quest, and it’s the biggest thing in her life. Remember all the “the’s” in the forum post titles that were mentioned earlier? However, one of the key themes of Yahru’s story is caring for those around you, and we quickly see that she isn’t out for revenge anymore- what kept her going at the end was the hope of being free to return to her friends, but even more so the desire to prevent anyone from going through what she did and save those remaining in the labs. So Yahru enters the final fight in “The Third Fall” already placing her hopes and will to live on saving those trapped in that room. Remember that tension about meeting durable people? That follows her on her way to the lab too. And what does she find when she gets there? A pretty girl with blue-gray eyes. A pretty girl that went through the same thing she did. A pretty girl that she can’t shock to death. A pretty girl that saves her life. It’s just poetic that Yahru would fall for Kuro. She’s placed all her hope for atoning for her sins on liberating the experimental subjects, and this makes it an emotional and vulnerable moment for Yahru. Throw in the fact that Kuro quickly takes to her, can understand her insecurities and tortured past, and saved her life, and you have a recipe for Yahru to start falling for one of the two people in the whole city that she’s not a danger to. Furthermore, Kuro clearly needs Yahru, and after so long taking life from the world, Yahru wants to be needed. This was also reflected in how quickly Yahru took to Jeremy and Jane. There’s a lot of interactions between Yahru and Kuro that I have planned that will further illustrate this from both sides, but I’ve been holding off on writing them until I could finish the terms of this trial. For example, Yahru is going to have a particularly awful nightmare and discharge at a dangerous level for even her. That’s going to wake Kuro up, and Kuro will be able to steady her by putting her hands on Yahru and absorbing the current, slowing and stabilizing the discharge as Yahru awakes. That’s a situation that can lead to romantic feelings. Let’s take a brief look at Kuro’s side as well. For one thing, Yahru has already become Kuro’s knight in shining armor by rescuing her from the lab. Even more so, Yahru is financially and emotionally supporting Kuro in the time since, so Kuro starts with a very high opinion of Yahru. Their relationship also begins as one of a physical nature since Yahru is putting Kuro through physical therapy to help her recover. While this is not inherently romantic or sexual, Kuro would be incredibly vulnerable coming out of the labs, both physically and emotionally, and Yahru helping her with both needs through therapy and comforting talks at night would set up the potential for Kuro to develop feelings for Yahru. I understand that this is a short justification, but it’s still very meaningful as I continue to develop Kuro’s past. Another future development that will bring the two of them closer is a play on their roles. Yahru begins their interactions as the dominant member, with Kuro nervous and jittery coming out of the lab. Currently, Yahru has realized that her quest is actually over, as developed in “House Warming” and recent bar conversations with Jeremy, and is struggling to adjust to having a real life. Kuro didn’t get the benefit of having even a brief childhood like Yahru did, growing up in an orphanage that works the kids into the ground before kicking them out when they are eighteen, and since she is finally free and safe, Kuro wants to experience all the things she has missed out on for these years. Therefore, Kuro is going to be helping get Yahru out and about and live a real life, becoming the more dominant character in that aspect. This has already begun with the concert and Kuro planning a trip to the East gardens through Arke. Potential Problems and their solutions In this section, I will identify problems with the relationship and propose solutions. I’m going to give a full effort to adhere to my solutions, but I am human like everyone else, so it’s not going to be perfect at first. That’s why this is a controlled trial that could end at any time. Self Writing It should be obvious that one of the major issues with self writing a relationship is the self writing itself. Specifically, in a live RP such as in #ic_bar or #current_discord_rp, we like to stay away from self writing since one writer going back and forth with two of their own characters has the potential to dominate what’s going on and excludes other players from getting involved. Having those two characters in a relationship only makes this potential problem worse.This group is meant for everyone to be able to jump into different stories and have fun, and self writing can prevent that. I have several planned ways to address this issue and avoid self writing. First of all, the majority of relationship type interactions between Yahru and Kuro will occur on the forum, and writing the story yourself is what the forum is for. Putting most of their interactions onto the forum allows the relationship to occur mostly in the background and lets the other events in Tascell to go on undisturbed. Ok, so what about when they go to the live channels? Normally, I will only play one character at a time and eliminate this problem. However, it wouldn’t make sense for the two of them to never be together for a live rp. I will be avoiding self writing by running a dominant/background model when they are both out and about. Specifically, I will have one character do the talking and the other will largely be silent, contributing to the background of the events by reacting. This shifts dialogue almost entirely onto one character, and having a second there that isn’t speaking but does react will actually build the atmosphere of the events. This isn’t to say that the background character will never speak- they would speak when addressed by a different PC or when their knowledge is necessary to the ongoing events. Furthermore, any direct conversation between Yahru and Kuro will be very short and in the context of a larger conversation with other PCs involved. I will ensure that when they are both talking, which won’t be often, one of them is still more minor and it leaves plenty of room for the other characters to get their points in. Evidence that I can do this: I have already brought Yahru and Kuro to the bar on multiple occasions under this model. As you may remember, I did get called out for self writing the first time I did it, and I immediately changed my style to avoid this. I believe that recent conversations- such as Yahru, Kuro, Amono and Jeremy planning the concert- show that I am capable of using the dominant/background model. Furthermore, I played both Yahru and Kuro in a discord RP with M3-D1C and Takayama and while they did interact, I ensured that the other characters had room to do their part too. The Physical Nature of the Relationship So, any relationship can obviously be physical, but it goes a bit deeper with Yahru and Kuro. Since they both can use electricity and Yahru is known to almost enjoy some applications of it (think “happy sparks”, as Jeremy calls them) there is potential for that to get out of hand. However, I will stop this problem before it ever happens- as the creator of the electrical aug systems, I declare that they have limited use in pursuit of pleasure. Specifically, Yahru and Kuro sharing electricity could be comforting or have a mild pleasant feeling, but nothing that could be used in a sexual context. As far as general physicality in the relationship, I have already asked the other moderators about this directly to get full detail on what is ok and what isn’t, and I will continue to be in contact with them should any issue come up. Furthermore, the brief existence of romance between Jane and Valkris plus the recent development of the Hikaru twins gives plenty of precedent for what is acceptable and what is not. As Paris says, romance should focus on meaning and not detail. In the bar and live rp this is certainly true, but some detail becomes necessary to achieve meaning in a forum setting. I will ensure that any detail is properly targeted at deriving meaning, and any detail would be limited to simple romantic things like kissing. Basically, if it wouldn’t appear in a novel targeted at young teens, I won’t write it, fitting our PG-16 rule. Coordination and Cooperation One of the problems that could arise from self writing a relationship is that the writer could stop behaving how they are supposed to and deviate from our norms to fulfil the relationship and their own goals. A willingness to cooperate and stay within our guidelines is necessary to make any RP work. The existence of this document at all shows that I am taking this more as a serious writing venture than the selfish pursuit described above. Furthermore, the entire nature of this experiment is that I will be monitored closely by the moderators and could lose the right to self write the relationship at any time. I have freely agreed to this and will stand by it. This entire idea has been developed through discussions with the moderators, a key tenet of ensuring that I stay within reasonable bounds. I believe that I have proved that I am willing to cooperate and correct my behavior as necessary, and collaborate with other players even if their ideas aren’t what I had planned. As mentioned earlier, I quickly stopped having Yahru and Kuro converse too much in the bar when notified by the moderators. Some other situations where I have been open to the other party’s wishes and made the appropriate call: The speed misunderstanding during Yahru’s fight with Sohei from a discord rp The introduction of Takayama, which involved relinquishing some control of Yahru’s story Yahru not murdering Takayama despite many IC reasons it would make sense Arke’s involving Geras in the final assault despite an OOC plan that Yahru would go alone originally Yahru moving in with Jeremy and Jane much earlier than I would have anticipated My Promises I will be keeping all developments about the nature of this trial public so that everyone knows what is going on. I promise to work closely with the moderators and be open to suggestions from anyone about how to improve the quality of my writing and roleplay. I am committed to making a fantastic RP environment for us all, and if it ever becomes apparent that Yahru and Kuro are in the way of this, I will end things between them. This group has been a revelation to me, and I love the time that I have spent with each and every one of you. As MechKasu said, Let’s keep making beautiful stories together. ~ Your friend Naughty |
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12:11 PM Jul 11