The mother of all RP horror stories, Part III
Installment Three is here! Those of you that are following this saga, you know what to do.
Previous Parts: I, II
All right, so we're still trying to decide on a plot. After working through her half a dozen nitpicks about my character choice, she starts cheerfully rejecting my plot suggestions thirty seconds after proclaiming them to be perfect. First went the idea about a pair of actors whose villain/victim roles gradually began to transcend the set. Then when she realizes I'm not going to back down on my refusal to play Rasu as a rapist in the fighting ring idea, her next move is to throw away that "perfect" idea too and suggest one of her own.
Her justification is that Rasu won't have to be too evil or mean and that her character for the game is already somewhat developed. This idea had been workshopped once before and been aborted before she got to play the character (in retrospect, I can see why: the mun who bailed was smart).
After her last attempt at deciding Rasu’s role, I felt another reminder might be in order:
Izumiz Angel: Okay, shoot ^^ I will not make Rasu a total bastard. He can be rough, somewhat aggressive even, but it just wouldn't be IC for him to not care how badly he hurt someone that hadn't done anything to him. I'm okay RPing a total bastard as a minor character, however. As long as he isn't my main character. I'm not opposed to playing villains. I'm opposed to making a villain of my baby ;)
REPEAT: I’m opposed to making a villain of my baby. This is my most cherished character she’s talking about.
What’s her suggestion?
[redacted]: *nods* No problems. ;-) That's actually quite perfect for this plot idea.
Let's see...my character is a crossdresser who works at a gentleman's club with a geisha theme, and he looks quite convincingly female when he tries. ;-) The basic plot would be that the city is controlled by crime gangs, essentially, and Yuna (my character) is basically "owned" by one particular gang that runs the club and the general area around it. That gang naturally has a few rivals, and one is a rather bitter rival... ;-) So, it's pretty much a given that Rasu is from said rival gang. Speaking of bastard minor characters, I was thinking that Rasu's gang leader guy could maybe take a liking to Yuna...
How she thought my requirements for Rasu's character made him perfect for this plot I do not know. "He doesn't have to be evil-- he just has to have such a bitter grudge that he acts the part anyway :D" Don't think I missed that little line about wanting another evil character to be lust-ridden for her main, either.
She immediately follows her explanation with this:
[redacted]: I know, it's ironic that this setting would be in a club, since I said I hate that. XD
Note the XD face in an attempt to make light of her blatant contradiction, one of many more that would emerge. Like the fact that I was sure she’d said something about hating stereotypes, and set-ups like teacher/student because it’s SO overdone. But crossdressing and feminized angst-whore gay males are fresh and new? Oh yeah, nobody’s thought of that before. And didn’t she also say she didn’t like sex as the driving reason behind the plot? Oh, and what about the bizarre premise that Yuna is the most precious and important person to his owner? Isn't it a bit weird that in wanting to "get at" Yuna's gang leader of an owner, the rival gang wants to do bad things to that leader's sex object? I don't know, I'd think a love interest or family member would make more sense. Or taking out a friend or a valuable connection or a high-ranking underling or, you know. Someone that actually served some value.
I was very wary and unhappy with this suggestion, and not just for those reasons. This sounds a lot like it's going to be all about Yuna and his angst, and I wasn't exactly sure how Rasu and Yuna were supposed to have a great deal of interaction amongst all this manrape, which I’ve already made clear to her Rasu wouldn’t do-- though she's continuing to hint and nudge me towards turning Rasu into someone who would have some bitterness-based incentive for hurting Yuna.
The misfortune of it is that although I can see all of this plainly in hindsight, when it was actually happening in real time my brain was so overwhelmed by the stupid and the sense that something wasn't right that it just sort of short circuited. I knew I didn't like what she was proposing, but I couldn't articulate why. This is a common problem I have which I am aware of, and which I make efforts to compensate for whenever possible.
Knowing that this was one of those times such a break was needed, I pardoned myself for a few minutes, decided I didn't want to do the premise with Yuna, thought on some alternatives, then came back to offer a new game premise.
Now, I don't like to brag, but I must admit that for all the pickiness I was having to accommodate, I thought what I came up with was a pretty good idea. I put a lot of thought into figuring out an alternative scenario that would cater to all of her little preferences and squicks and guilty pleasures and stand a decent chance of being enjoyable for me too. This idea offered balance of every sort, ample opportunity for psychological exploration, and relief from whatever was causing that uncomfortable feeling I had about her ideas. All that together was quite an accomplishment, so I was feeling pretty pleased-- even excited-- when I came back and told her about it.
First, let’s take a moment to review our respective wants. The fun for her is in the non-con. She wants angst of a heavy kind and of a sexual nature with original characters older than 18, and loves the incorporation of BDSM. She’s also said in chat by now that she takes a guilty pleasure in playing the uke, and claims at least that she’s always playing the seme. I have said to her that I don’t want Rasu to be made into a villain, that I don’t mind playing another character as a villain type in addition to him, that I don’t want nonstop angst (balance is nice), and, since smut was such a necessity for her, that I don’t want to be stuck playing the top every time either. Let’s face it, playing either side all the time gets tiring after a while. I like having variety and I’m so not interested in having a plot about nothing but my characters raping hers.
I’m still not sure how we got to this from suggestions of gambling and brawls or an actor in a psychologically altering role, except that there are only so many possibilities that meet all of those requirements. My suggestion was for Rasu and her character to explore a BDSM club for the first time with a naïve trust that a little later it all ends and they leave like nothing happened. Instead, two guys interested in something more long-term slip off with them while they're restrained and imprison them in their home. We would each play one of the antagonists and focus most of that villain's interactions with the other player’s victim character.
This set-up allows a lot of potential for interaction-- four different character dynamics to explore, none of which require us to interact with ourselves. It also offers a balance of the character responsibilities so that neither of us is doing all of the work or always playing on one side of the smut equation. There's opportunity for scenes that aren't just about sex and angst, such as when the captives or the antagonists are alone together. Plot could include escape attempts, rebellions, efforts to more sneakily gain control. We could chart the progression of their mental states and the effects they all have on one another, slaves and predators alike. There's a better variety of things to be done with them, such as their being forced to do things to one another, cooperatively or competitively. I even pointed out we could incorporate her fight club idea: suppose they're pit against each other under threat of horrible consequences for the loser. It's everything she's asked for in both the survey response and the roughly four hours that we've spent talking, all condensed into one glorious little package just waiting to be opened and played out.
Naturally, she hated it.
On to Part IV
Previous Parts: I, II
All right, so we're still trying to decide on a plot. After working through her half a dozen nitpicks about my character choice, she starts cheerfully rejecting my plot suggestions thirty seconds after proclaiming them to be perfect. First went the idea about a pair of actors whose villain/victim roles gradually began to transcend the set. Then when she realizes I'm not going to back down on my refusal to play Rasu as a rapist in the fighting ring idea, her next move is to throw away that "perfect" idea too and suggest one of her own.
Her justification is that Rasu won't have to be too evil or mean and that her character for the game is already somewhat developed. This idea had been workshopped once before and been aborted before she got to play the character (in retrospect, I can see why: the mun who bailed was smart).
After her last attempt at deciding Rasu’s role, I felt another reminder might be in order:
Izumiz Angel: Okay, shoot ^^ I will not make Rasu a total bastard. He can be rough, somewhat aggressive even, but it just wouldn't be IC for him to not care how badly he hurt someone that hadn't done anything to him. I'm okay RPing a total bastard as a minor character, however. As long as he isn't my main character. I'm not opposed to playing villains. I'm opposed to making a villain of my baby ;)
REPEAT: I’m opposed to making a villain of my baby. This is my most cherished character she’s talking about.
What’s her suggestion?
[redacted]: *nods* No problems. ;-) That's actually quite perfect for this plot idea.
Let's see...my character is a crossdresser who works at a gentleman's club with a geisha theme, and he looks quite convincingly female when he tries. ;-) The basic plot would be that the city is controlled by crime gangs, essentially, and Yuna (my character) is basically "owned" by one particular gang that runs the club and the general area around it. That gang naturally has a few rivals, and one is a rather bitter rival... ;-) So, it's pretty much a given that Rasu is from said rival gang. Speaking of bastard minor characters, I was thinking that Rasu's gang leader guy could maybe take a liking to Yuna...
How she thought my requirements for Rasu's character made him perfect for this plot I do not know. "He doesn't have to be evil-- he just has to have such a bitter grudge that he acts the part anyway :D" Don't think I missed that little line about wanting another evil character to be lust-ridden for her main, either.
She immediately follows her explanation with this:
[redacted]: I know, it's ironic that this setting would be in a club, since I said I hate that. XD
Note the XD face in an attempt to make light of her blatant contradiction, one of many more that would emerge. Like the fact that I was sure she’d said something about hating stereotypes, and set-ups like teacher/student because it’s SO overdone. But crossdressing and feminized angst-whore gay males are fresh and new? Oh yeah, nobody’s thought of that before. And didn’t she also say she didn’t like sex as the driving reason behind the plot? Oh, and what about the bizarre premise that Yuna is the most precious and important person to his owner? Isn't it a bit weird that in wanting to "get at" Yuna's gang leader of an owner, the rival gang wants to do bad things to that leader's sex object? I don't know, I'd think a love interest or family member would make more sense. Or taking out a friend or a valuable connection or a high-ranking underling or, you know. Someone that actually served some value.
I was very wary and unhappy with this suggestion, and not just for those reasons. This sounds a lot like it's going to be all about Yuna and his angst, and I wasn't exactly sure how Rasu and Yuna were supposed to have a great deal of interaction amongst all this manrape, which I’ve already made clear to her Rasu wouldn’t do-- though she's continuing to hint and nudge me towards turning Rasu into someone who would have some bitterness-based incentive for hurting Yuna.
The misfortune of it is that although I can see all of this plainly in hindsight, when it was actually happening in real time my brain was so overwhelmed by the stupid and the sense that something wasn't right that it just sort of short circuited. I knew I didn't like what she was proposing, but I couldn't articulate why. This is a common problem I have which I am aware of, and which I make efforts to compensate for whenever possible.
Knowing that this was one of those times such a break was needed, I pardoned myself for a few minutes, decided I didn't want to do the premise with Yuna, thought on some alternatives, then came back to offer a new game premise.
Now, I don't like to brag, but I must admit that for all the pickiness I was having to accommodate, I thought what I came up with was a pretty good idea. I put a lot of thought into figuring out an alternative scenario that would cater to all of her little preferences and squicks and guilty pleasures and stand a decent chance of being enjoyable for me too. This idea offered balance of every sort, ample opportunity for psychological exploration, and relief from whatever was causing that uncomfortable feeling I had about her ideas. All that together was quite an accomplishment, so I was feeling pretty pleased-- even excited-- when I came back and told her about it.
First, let’s take a moment to review our respective wants. The fun for her is in the non-con. She wants angst of a heavy kind and of a sexual nature with original characters older than 18, and loves the incorporation of BDSM. She’s also said in chat by now that she takes a guilty pleasure in playing the uke, and claims at least that she’s always playing the seme. I have said to her that I don’t want Rasu to be made into a villain, that I don’t mind playing another character as a villain type in addition to him, that I don’t want nonstop angst (balance is nice), and, since smut was such a necessity for her, that I don’t want to be stuck playing the top every time either. Let’s face it, playing either side all the time gets tiring after a while. I like having variety and I’m so not interested in having a plot about nothing but my characters raping hers.
I’m still not sure how we got to this from suggestions of gambling and brawls or an actor in a psychologically altering role, except that there are only so many possibilities that meet all of those requirements. My suggestion was for Rasu and her character to explore a BDSM club for the first time with a naïve trust that a little later it all ends and they leave like nothing happened. Instead, two guys interested in something more long-term slip off with them while they're restrained and imprison them in their home. We would each play one of the antagonists and focus most of that villain's interactions with the other player’s victim character.
This set-up allows a lot of potential for interaction-- four different character dynamics to explore, none of which require us to interact with ourselves. It also offers a balance of the character responsibilities so that neither of us is doing all of the work or always playing on one side of the smut equation. There's opportunity for scenes that aren't just about sex and angst, such as when the captives or the antagonists are alone together. Plot could include escape attempts, rebellions, efforts to more sneakily gain control. We could chart the progression of their mental states and the effects they all have on one another, slaves and predators alike. There's a better variety of things to be done with them, such as their being forced to do things to one another, cooperatively or competitively. I even pointed out we could incorporate her fight club idea: suppose they're pit against each other under threat of horrible consequences for the loser. It's everything she's asked for in both the survey response and the roughly four hours that we've spent talking, all condensed into one glorious little package just waiting to be opened and played out.
Naturally, she hated it.
On to Part IV