David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:35 PM
How are you doing, Calder?

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:35 PM
Sam suddenly coming back has to affect you emotionally more than me, considering.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:44 PM
I'm thrilled he's back

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:45 PM
The state of his home and professional life sounds like it's been nothing short of hellish these past ten months

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:46 PM
As much as getting the silent treatment for ten months hurt, I can't blame him for going incommunicado like he did

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:46 PM
Though I can and do blame his wife

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:46 PM
I think I've talked with you about my mother before.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:46 PM
Very reminiscent of that.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:46 PM
About how you don't talk

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:46 PM
About why we don't talk.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:47 PM
Different circumstances, but similarly awful consequences

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:47 PM
Maybe that's just too far in the past. Either way she's a manipulative cunt, and Sam is a champion for staying for the kids.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:47 PM
Did you notice by the by that he said he was trying to send us messages in the file names of his cards?

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:48 PM
I only saw dates in those

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 10:48 PM
11-9-18.jpg and such

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:48 PM
Google hangouts changes the file names.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:48 PM
I pointed this out to him.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 10:48 PM
" Ah, looks like I should stick to being a professor at ISU than cryptocypherist for the CIA. "

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:04 PM
Indeed

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:04 PM
Maybe include the hints in the pic itself next time

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:05 PM
I asked that. He implied his cards were being looked over by his wife.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:26 PM
This is pleasant. He's already talking about continuing WF

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:26 PM
His home life sounded nothing short of hellish

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:26 PM
Very much so

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:26 PM
Yeah, that'll be such an awesome Christmas gift

David Armstrong
Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 11:27 PM
to me
It reminds me a lot of really bad shit, so I'm trying to get him take it easy. But has he already asked you which you would prefer of three options for continuing?

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:27 PM
Yep

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:27 PM
I picked #4

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 11:28 PM
to David
Dive immediately back into the game/present time, and do the prep work concurrently. This is a slow medium. You have lots of ways you can drag out scenes to buy yourself time

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:28 PM
Hah! I picked a door #4 as well.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:28 PM
Sam goes to Tahiti and drinks until he wakes up off Cuba.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:28 PM
Sam's a little overly perfectionist sometimes

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:29 PM
But I know as a GM over this medium that it's incredibly easy to run scenes by the seat of your pants/without having all your prep work done

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:29 PM
I'd agree. But after so long, he might just want to read over logs.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:30 PM
Those have a brand spanking new format for him to enjoy, even

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:30 PM
Fair enough.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:31 PM
Good Christmas present.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:32 PM
In general. Not even the playing yet.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:32 PM
Indeed

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:32 PM
Great just to have him back

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:33 PM
I think I'll let our previous conversation sit awhile, so we don't have to poison this happy occasion.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:34 PM
Good by me

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:40 PM
I'll look forward to Amelie having corssovers with Lou and/or Cletus, too

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:40 PM
It's been a very long time since Sam was really a fellow player to you

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:43 PM
I don't think ever.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:43 PM
He was largely absent. We had 2-3 posts of him meeting Jacob mid-prologue.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:46 PM
You had a crossover scene between Cletus and Jacob in the present

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:46 PM
And interacted with some of the Boggs/Sangiovanni ghouls who Sam injected a ton of character into

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:47 PM
But long time ago with a way different PC

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:47 PM
Cletus pawned him off on one of his ghouls and they had a little scene in the bathroom.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:47 PM
It really wasn't much. But I was always interested.

David Armstrong
Dec 19, 2018, 11:47 PM
Lou even more so.

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:48 PM
Lou's a better paladin than most D&D paladins, as Caroline described him

Calder Rooney
Dec 19, 2018, 11:48 PM
* Pete described him

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 1:16 AM
to David
Also, since I want to post all of the logs from the past 10 months for Sam to read

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:16 AM
One detail that's going to come up in those is Amelie's age

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:17 AM
I had the thought of retconning her to be a couple years older

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:17 AM
(And changing references accordingly in the logs Sam has yet to read)

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:19 AM
To better fit with how she's been played

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:21 AM
For a 17-year-old she's been really confident, mature, and independent

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:24 AM
Can you see her at 20?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:24 AM
Doesn't that sorely toss every reason we have for her to have been where she is right now?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:25 AM
Foster system, McGehee, ect.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:25 AM
Nope, we can keep those elements

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:25 AM
Or rather, explain how she was an adult and still went through them

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:26 AM
Those are all way too big not to keep

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 1:27 AM
to David
But there are a number of state/regional foster systems and local foster care homes that allow youths to stay past 18 while they get on their feet

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 1:27 AM
to David
They almost universally work out to better futures for those new adults

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:27 AM
Not in Canada, and none that would assist with citizenship moving to a whole other country.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:28 AM
I would explain things thusly with Amelie:

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 1:30 AM
to David
She couldn't/didn't want to return home after how things were with her father, and was fortunate to be placed in a local foster center (before she turned 18) that allowed her stay on for two more years after she reached age of majority (even though Quebec as a province doesn't allow that)

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 1:31 AM
to David
Alternatively, she could have just been booted when she turned 18 and lived on her own for two years, barely scraping by

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:31 AM
Either way, she is out of the foster system then

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:32 AM
She had previously dropped out of high school, or simply been held back

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:32 AM
Either of which is very common with foster teenagers

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:34 AM
to me
Not saying I'm comfortable with this, but by the time she was put into foster care she was practically running the smithy. She could have just returned there to work in other ways after her father probably threw out or sold the tools.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:34 AM
Dad might have sold the smithy

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:34 AM
Nothing to come back to

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:34 AM
That's not how that works.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:35 AM
Biccoline is all paid for and owned by a single landowner, who bankrolls the building of villages by donations and space rental.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:35 AM
That can be different in the WoD

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:36 AM
Or perhaps she simply didn't want to go back, surrounded by so many reminders of her broken family

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:36 AM
Or both

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:36 AM
to me
Without tools, and there are a lot of them, there would be no smithy anyway. And seeing as how it was already established that people from there were the ones who told and rescued here, I'm sure she could stay with the village witch awhile if she did go back. Broken family or not, there are still people there who cared for her.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:37 AM
Not enough to take her in after she was removed from her father's care

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:37 AM
Everyone knows how awful the foster system is

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:37 AM
What?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:37 AM
I'm not following.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:38 AM
She already didn't go back to her old home. She stayed in the foster system

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
to me
Why would they bring her back if they were informed there was family (Christina) present to take her in after a period? As well, her father would have still been 'working' in Biccoline for awhile after that, you wouldn't bring a child back to stay where the person they're running from is.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
The foster system up here is also loose.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
Which is why it's horrible.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
The foster system down here is pretty horrible too

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
It's incredibly easy to get foster children, and you get federal payment.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
My aunt has a 17 year old foster kid right now

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:40 AM
Im meeting him on Christmas eve.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:41 AM
That's good of your aunt

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:41 AM
to me
She's been doing it for 30 years, but she's still a shitty fucking person who just does it because she's failed at being a mother twice over, once over with adoption, and now she's trying it on a termporary basis.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:41 AM
That's how easy it is to get a foster kid

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:42 AM
Well, hopefully it's better for the kid than the alternatives

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:42 AM
There's a group home in this city called the murder house, it'd be better if they were just homeless.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:42 AM
I can believe that too

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:42 AM
But to take back the root of the issue here, I'm again not very comfortable with changing Amelie just to...gussy her up for Sam or something.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:43 AM
Sometimes kids grow up fast. Brook sure as hell hasn't, but Amelie?

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:43 AM
I had retconning Amelie's age on my mind for a while now

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:43 AM
But knowing Sam will be reading the logs motivated me to bring up the topic now

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:44 AM
Even fast-growing kids tend to grow up unevenly, I find

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:44 AM
Some kids are very intelligent and emotionally mature for their age, but can't handle being independent and taking a bus on their own

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:45 AM
What almost no teenagers are is sexually mature and comfortable with their bodies

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:46 AM
And confident in themselves if they have reason not to be

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:46 AM
When Amelie got taunted by those three girls in the bathroom, for instance, she saw how small they were being and ignored them

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:47 AM
When Yvonne gave her a backhanded compliment on her clothes/body she didn't let it slow her down

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:47 AM
She jokingly called one of the cholos "handsome"

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 1:49 AM
to David
For a girl who has ample reason to be insecure over her body/sexuality (burn scarring and all them dyke taunts), that sort of emotional maturity is much easier for me to see from a young adult who's 20

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:50 AM
Not totally grown up yet, but closer to it

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:50 AM
Were you bullied badly, Calder?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 1:51 AM
Highschool, middle school, anything like that?

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:51 AM
Complicated question and answer

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:51 AM
I only ever got in one physical fight in middle/high school

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:52 AM
I was never stuffed in a locker or had my head flushed down a toilet or anything like that

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:52 AM
But I was a pretty strange kid with poor social skills and just as poor personal hygiene/fashion sense

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:53 AM
I took a fair amount of verbal teasing/taunting

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:53 AM
There were a couple times when kids called my house and instantly hung up, or sent me anonymous "valentines" on Valentine's Day as part of a dare

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:54 AM
I didn't have many friends

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 1:54 AM
It was worst in middle school and got better as I got older

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:03 AM
Anyway

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:03 AM
I want to get this hashed out before I post the logs

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:04 AM
Once Amelie turnes 20 and is due to be booted from the foster center, social workers get her in touch with remaining family

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:05 AM
So that she can have some base of support vs. simply being thrown out on the streets

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:05 AM
to me
There was a kid a few doors down to me. His name was Katuhma. Katuhma was ‘handsome’, popular, and sporty. And I was intentionally made to be overweight with poor hygiene and fashion by who was raising me. He saw the state of my house despite my best efforts, the fact I walked my brother places, played with him in the yard, ect, basically raising him when we were in elementary and middle school. But a part of Amelie and Brook that comes from me is a fight response. The teasing was bad. Really bad. Every day. Wet bread stuffed into the holes of my locker, desk covered in hand sanitizer, girls spending entire semesters pretending to be interested in me. I remember vividly when I had my first actual fight with him. He called me fatty, I called him a nigger, he shoved me, and I lost it. I beat him so badly that he didn't come to school for three days. And he made sure that I had at least one fight a week from then on. All through elementary school. I had one friend, a vietnamese boy named Than, but I only ever went to his house once, and we just played make belief during recess. I moved though, for my first year of middle school. And by that time I was fatter and angier and had twice the work to do at home due to a stepfather who only cared about his balljuice child that I raised and a mother with munchausen's by proxy and an opioid addiction.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:05 AM
to me
Middle school was nothing. I was left completely alone, people avoided me like the plague because my house was so close to the school people knew where I lived and what my house was like just by walking by it. Completely shut out. I became reclusive, just did my work, wandered for recess, ect. To the point that a guidance councellor who got paid to send kids to a camp to ‘help’ them targeted me. The camp was for juvenile delinquents. It was 2 weeks of 5 degree celcius laps from a buoy in a lake back to shore, manditory bunk checks, and constant abuse from staff and kids. A week in I was beaten so badly by an 18 year old that I couldn’t see out of my eye for a week. And no one let me call home, not that they would have come to get me.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:05 AM
Highschool was punctuated by me being an aggressor. I was violent.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:06 AM
To the point I put two kids in the hospital. One for slapping me, I picked him up and thrashed him around until I threw out his back

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:06 AM
And another, off property so I wasn't suspended, I beat with the rear view mirror of his truck.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:06 AM
or side view, rather.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:07 AM
But I've been around the world. These two months have been the first vacation I've had since I stopped taking care of a family of 3 with a herd of animals.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:07 AM
I've been around, seen things, met a lot of people, let go of a lot of problems.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:08 AM
When I was 17, I was wiping drool off parents chins and keeping an elementary schooler fed and clothed.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:09 AM
to me
I was fixing and maintaining a house that an idiot would pull apart thinking he was a renovation king, to the point I stole money from their wallets to buy plywood so I could put down a floor to walk on in the dining room, so it wasn't exposed to the basement.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:10 AM
I had tiny groups of select friends that I was able to lie to to get them to give me just a few moments of peace away from all that.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:11 AM
to me
I like to think that I was and am pretty mature in a lot of aspects, patient up to the point of explosion even. But a fatal flaw I have after all that is that I cannot switch off.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:11 AM
Nothing can ever not be done.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:12 AM
to me
I find it difficult to pick up new skills and hobbies because I always have this sense in the back of my head that I'm going to hear my name and have to stand up and go and do something for someone. Or I'm going to hear a crash or somene banging their feet to get my attention.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:13 AM
to me
I still flinch in the street when I see teal saturn relays and white ford 150s because I have this niggling little doubt in my heart that tells me that they're coming to take me back

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:13 AM
So if anyone understands Amelie. Her level of maturity and what she is feeling.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:13 AM
It is me.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:13 AM
She has been called odd.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:14 AM
She has been called a Dyke long before our story has picked up

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:14 AM
And has still kept her hair that short.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:14 AM
to me
Until she was procted multiple times, she was insistent on getting back to work doing what she knew, not wanting to bother anyone to get her next level of education.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:15 AM
She has never really loved, because she used work as an excuse to not have to face as much heartbreak.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:15 AM
She makes a romance out of horrible greasy filthy times.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:16 AM
to me
And for the past scene she has been in full Biccoline mode, reverting to an acted way of speaking she put on for tourists to hide behind instead of trying to be genuinely polite in common parlence.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:16 AM
To look at this topic from another angle, one question you might consider is in what ways Amelie _has_ acted like a teenager?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:16 AM
All of which have been outline and all of which have been illuded to in dialogue with characters.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:17 AM
To look at it from another, 300 years ago, would she not have been considered an adult for quite some time now.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:18 AM
Vice is it plausible a 17-year-old could be as mature as she'd behaved--which I don't think it completely is, but that's a separate topic

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:18 AM
She could have earned her spurs at 16 if she'd been born with a cock

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:18 AM
* separate question, rather

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:21 AM
to me
As for your question, her gidiness showed through visiting the LaLaurie mansion. She's felt insecure at McGehee around so many other prettier girls. With Caroline she waxed about how romantic past events were, almost swooning. She headbutted the cholo out of frustration. She's been described as sititng in parking lots smoking weed with other people her age.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:22 AM
All of those are things I can see from a 20-year-old, honestly

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:22 AM
She definitely never felt insecure at McGehee around prettier girls

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:22 AM
Well then I guess what they say is right. We don't stop mentally maturing until 25

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:23 AM
As a bottleneck to this conversation, I'm going to have to hold fast on Amelies Age.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:23 AM
I'm sorry there, but I haven't been convinced that she works better at 17 than 29

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:23 AM
* than 20

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:23 AM
If anything, this conversation was me thinking about it, but now I'm rather settled.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:24 AM
Well...you don't make that decision.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:24 AM
Yes, I do

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:24 AM
She's a character. Mine.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:24 AM
She isn't an NPC

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:24 AM
Emil used to be a 30-something veteran FBI agent when he entered the game

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:24 AM
He got turned into a 20-something first-time beat cop and office worker as a result of how he'd been played

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:25 AM
Emil wasn't over a year in play.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:25 AM
I've had the age of a PC who saw a year-ish of play retconned

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:26 AM
She was 18 when she started play and went down to 16 because she'd been played immaturely

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:26 AM
Calder.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:26 AM
I'm saying no. Why are you trying to push past that.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:26 AM
Is this because we've been arguing lately?

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:27 AM
Because it's what I feel is best for the integrity of the gameworld, and consistent with the manner in which Amelie has been played

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:28 AM
Which is a mature, confident (_very_ confident) person who I can more readily see acting the way she did at 20 than at 17

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 2:29 AM
to David
I am, however, open to changing the particulars of Amelie's background to reflect her increased age, as there are multiple ways things could have played out there

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:29 AM
Ie, did she stay in the foster system until she was 20, or was she on her own for two years

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:33 AM
to me
She has had to be told to stop apologizing. She was hellbent on just getting back to work instead of pursuing education now that she had a chance. She is weird to the point I've been teased about her being autistic. Never styled her hair or wore makeup despite constant Dyke jabs. She insisted on rollerskating. She insisted on going to HEMA and playing at being a swordfighter. Her vice is overcompensating, because as we've discussed she has abandonment issues and issues with her not feeling good enough.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:34 AM
I find all of those things ok for a 20-year-old from her background and Social Attributes/Skills

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:34 AM
I want her to stay where she is Calder. And I'm feeling very much steamrolled here.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:35 AM
You opened with 'could you see her at 20' and we talked about it.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:35 AM
And I concluded no.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:35 AM
This just feels like another slap in the face.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 2:35 AM
to David
I expect you are. You've been willing to bend or compromise on few things lately, and while I can accommodate that up to a point, this is a game of give and take for players and the GM alike

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:36 AM
Haven't I tried in the past?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:36 AM
I mean, to the point I even wrote out a lot of Jacob's backstory and just sat quiet while you completely re-wrote it infront of me.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:36 AM
The past gives us context to the present, but it's the latter which will always have the most bearing

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:37 AM
It is though. Give and take. And I feel like I've been trying to keep that up for awhile, but have just been taken from a lot. A lot of player agency.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:37 AM
We were talking about respect earlier, this doesn't feel like that.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:38 AM
Well, frankly, years-old give and take with a now-ex PC is of fairly little relevance now

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:38 AM
I'm flustered and hard pressed to think of an instance in the past while, all points agreed on.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:39 AM
I am sorry if it doesn't. I've been given a firm "no" by Sam on topics like this one before, even after arguing until my face was red

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:39 AM
In hindsight, I actually wouldn't have argued those topics as much with him

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:41 AM
I don't even know what to say at this point.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:41 AM
Are you angry with me, Calder?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:42 AM
Have I been pushing too hard on something, and made you cold towards me?

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:42 AM
I'm actually not. I'm still in a very good mood from Sam popping back

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:42 AM
You are correct though that we have been butting heads more often of late

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:43 AM
And like most causes of player/GM conflict, there are reasons on both of our ends

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:46 AM
You feel disrespected, stripped of agency, and frustrated by IC setbacks/complications, while I feel (in brief) there are issues with how you've been portraying

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:46 AM
I also feel strangled Calder.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:46 AM
I feel like you've been trying to wrest more and more control over B&B.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:47 AM
That's not at all surprising, actually

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:47 AM
When Amelie was a mortal, we were on the same page with a lot of things

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:48 AM
I think you've been feeling dissatisfied as well. You've already said once when I described taking a break you were thinking about ending the game.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 2:48 AM
to David
Now that she's a vampire, there have been some big changes to her, and the ways in which you've portrayed those haven't been wholly consistent with B&B's setting

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:49 AM
Yeah, four different players announcing (or not even announcing) their intentions to stop playing definitely left me in a really sour-feeling space

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:49 AM
I think maybe that's another place a lot of this has been coming from.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:50 AM
Not so much anymore

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:50 AM
to me
Are you scared that if you let things drop off any more, the game will just cease? You haven't brought any other people on board after Navy, and even that was a rare case.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:50 AM
Sam has cleared up what was going on, and clearly wants to play in both games again

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:50 AM
Pete has been doing great these past few months

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:51 AM
I have pretty much zero complaints about anything to do with him

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:51 AM
Never thought I'd say that, but it goes to show that when things are going well for the PC, they tend to go well for the player

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:51 AM
Jack remains an absolute prince in his behavior

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:52 AM
It's too bad where things stand with Izzy, but in hindsight he'd always been playing at 50% ever since Em was retired

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:52 AM
He hasn't told you?

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:52 AM
What, that he's leaving?

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:53 AM
He's said to me he doubts he'll be coming back.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:53 AM
Yeah, he said that to me too

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:53 AM
But he still "wants to talk about it" in January anyway

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:54 AM
Which is a pretty clear case of the player not being able to make up his mind to shit or get off the pot

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:55 AM
I think in terms of player competence, I'm closest to Izzy.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:55 AM
Well 'player' competence.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:55 AM
You're well above him there, actually

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:55 AM
Izzy has a ton of problems as a player

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:55 AM
I know.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:56 AM
And yet still.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:56 AM
I said closest. Jack is stellar, Pete and you aparently went through Jedi training with Kain.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:56 AM
And he's quite mistaken if he believes leaving B&B is going to fix his problems, or that his next games will pan out any better

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:56 AM
Of all the game's players, Izzy has put the least amount of effort into anything

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:56 AM
IC or OOC

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:57 AM
Including actually trying to improve the game

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:57 AM
Of all the game's many players, there are only two I consider failures

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:57 AM
Him and Julia

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
I don't know who Julia is

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
Adelais' player

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
Ah.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
You were around when she popped back

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
Yes. All 5 of her posts.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
She was around a year ago before then, with maybe 20 posts

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:58 AM
She was as great a writer and intriguer as Pete or Sam

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 2:59 AM
But still a failure alongside Izzy

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:00 AM
I'm not good at arguing like this over text, Calder. I really am not.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:01 AM
So I want you to know that despite the fact I have issues with the game and how it's GMed sometimes, I still respect you.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:01 AM
But I think that in some instances, things go too far.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:02 AM
to me
The setting is black as can be, and I don't think my character has ever done well in it. But if I need to chance something about how I play certain things, I want to be able to work it out.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:02 AM
I want help on that. I don't want to be told to just change things and what to replace it with.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:02 AM
In-game descriptions of feelings and not actions.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:03 AM
Rules changes being so often that I lack confidence to put things on paper into practise.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:03 AM
The cold-ness a lot of things are approached with.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:03 AM
to David
I'm glad to hear that (so far as respect). Most couples say that communication is key to a good relationship, but some people (I don't remember who) did a study on couples who'd been married for upwards of 50, 60 years and found the thing they credited to a successful relationship was actually respect

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:03 AM
Not communication

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:03 AM
Mutual respect.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:03 AM
And thats an issue

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:04 AM
Indeed. If it's one-way that's a pretty twisted and dependent relationship

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:04 AM
to me
Because as much as I look up to you and feel respected by you, lately a lot of things that have been done in the game so far as GM, rule, and character choices have felt as though that respect is not reciprocal.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:04 AM
and feel respect towards you* rather.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:05 AM
to me
Being told to hurry up when asking for detail on very bare posts while trying to escape the morgue, to the point I didn't know what floor I was on or how many staircases there were.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:05 AM
The sudden rule about wits being my cap on asking for details, and then running out had three people ontop of me.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:06 AM
You were asking a truly insane number of questions about the area there, dude

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:06 AM
The whole health system fiasco, felt like it was brushed off despite the rather devastating implications it had for me.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:06 AM
to David
It was way more information than your PC could have taken in during the very brief time they had to assess their surroundings. If another player had been asking that many questions, they'd have received the same treatment

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:07 AM
"Ok, sorry, you've asked enough questions. You can ask X more dependent on your Wits."

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:08 AM
to me
"You walk further to the of the of the hall where it splits in two. The window right in front of you tells you you're on the ground floor." "You walk up two sets of stairs to get to the roof

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:08 AM
Instead I had vertigo for most of that scene.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:08 AM
to David
I'm not sure what you're expecting either so far as the Health system, either. I actually don't even agree it had particularly serious implications for your PC, but I feel I've been nothing if not courteous in handling the matter, including the topic of requested compensation

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:09 AM
Of course. It still just felt cold. And rather it did or not at the time I very much felt as though it did.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:09 AM
I'm also annoyed to hear this topic coming up again, frankly, after the amount of OOC time that I spent covering it with you

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:09 AM
That's fine. We've put it to rest.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:09 AM
It's just an example towards what I'm trying to get at.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:10 AM
We clearly haven't if you're bringing it up now

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:10 AM
Then I apologize, it wasn't my intention.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:11 AM
I just feel that things have been cold. For awhile. And that I lack a lot of the facilities to steer this game like Pete does.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:11 AM
to David
You say it's "cold." Great. Like I said, I'm a flexible guy. I like give and take. If you a proposal in mind to make the game better, I really am all ears, since it sounds like you had more issue with how the topic was discussed than how it was dealt with, and changing my behavior there costs me nothing

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:12 AM
Honestly I think I'm making things worse trying to dig at this and fix it.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:12 AM
But you're going to need to put in more effort than simply "it felt cold" if you want to see changes

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:12 AM
This is actually really my issue with Izzy

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:13 AM
Who in many ways is the game's least mature and least flexible player, in a way that far outstrips even Pete

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:19 AM
I'm trying. I'm just fucking it up royally. Like I said I lack the facilities that Pete does in talks like this.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:19 AM
Or maybe just the confidence or something.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:19 AM
I'll just start with this: I want to be flexible for you.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:20 AM
But at the same time I feel like I've been under a lot of pressure to bend.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:20 AM
And like we've already talked about, that makes me feel intellectually shitty.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:21 AM
Then we share that goal, as your being flexible obligates me to be flexible as well

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:21 AM
And vice versa

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:21 AM
I want to be able to do things properly, but to be told what my character does and thinks, it doesn't sit well with me.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:21 AM
How she feels? That's fine.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:21 AM
And if you disagree with how my character acts on those things, we can talk about it.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:21 AM
Okay, this is a big topic, but there's no time like the present to bring it up

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:22 AM
Like with Caroline, it was going to degrade quickly into her treating her like...well, a surrogate mother figure.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:22 AM
But we stopped right then and there. And posts were even changed without my say so.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:22 AM
to David
You can have your character perform whatever actions you want in this game. I'm an extremely liberal GM in this regard, believe it or not

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:22 AM
If you diablerize Vidal, great, let's see what happens next

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:23 AM
I can respect that you want things done properly, but I want to be shown what's proper and not just made to do that.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:23 AM
But

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:23 AM
There are laws of propriety, which PCs and NPCs alike must follow, for the gameworld to maintain cohesion and for the freedom PCs enjoy to have meaning

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:24 AM
Foremost among those laws is adherence to the game's mechanics, which I am not at all flexible regarding

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:25 AM
When George frenzied, he described himself as tearing a guy's arm out of his socket

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:25 AM
I pointed out that George is only Strength 4 when he frenzies, which is not sufficiently strong to tear a man's arm from his socket

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:25 AM
And I had Dan rewrite the post

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:26 AM
George can do whatever the hell he wants to the guy, within the framework of those laws (game statistics) which govern his capabilities

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:27 AM
to David
George could attack the guy, surrender to the guy, turn him into a ghoul, turn him into a vampire, do whatever the fuck he wanted, so long as it's something the dice don't prevent him from doing

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:27 AM
And one thing the dice prevent is Strength 4 men ripping arms out of sockets

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:28 AM
That shit don't fly

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:28 AM
Likewise, if you want to describe your Strength 1 PC lifting a 1,000 pound weight over their head, that shit don't fly

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:29 AM
And the GM will describe it crashing to the ground despite the PC's intentions

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:29 AM
Physical statistics are the easiest examples to give in this regard, since they are physically measurable

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:30 AM
I can look up the actual amount of force in newtons it takes to wrench an arm from a socket, and compare it to the amount of force a Strength 4 man can exert

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:30 AM
But the game quantifies Mental and Social Attributes too

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:32 AM
If your PC has Composure 1 and is a sheltered liberal arts college student, then happens to witness a Mafia hitman's gory execution of his victims, you are play

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:32 AM
You are playing them just as wrong as if they had Strength 1 and lifted a 1,000 weight over their head

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:33 AM
_How_ you play your PC within those constraints, however, is up to you

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:33 AM
You might have them scream

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:33 AM
You might have them throw up

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:33 AM
You might have them faint

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:33 AM
You might have them run away

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:33 AM
You might have them attack the guy in a manic fury

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:34 AM
You have as many possibilities as you can think up

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:34 AM
Minus the ones your stats don't allow, like making a nonchalant quip

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:35 AM
I don't consider this stance at all unreasonable, any more than I consider "you can't lift a thousand-pound weight overhead if you have Strength 1" unreasonable

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:36 AM
The game quantifies social stats alongside physical ones, and how composed your PC behaves is subject to the rules that govern every character

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:37 AM
If we were playing D&D, where Composure isn't a game statistic, I would relax that stance

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:37 AM
Since how composed a PC behaves is not, in fact, quantified in the game's rules

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:37 AM


Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:38 AM
There you have it. 1,000 lbs is normally well beyond the Strength 1 PC

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:38 AM
I was just looking for this while you spoke.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:39 AM
I agree with you of course.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:39 AM
I also consider supernatural powers such as blood bonds to be subject to the same laws that govern how a Strength 1 or Composure 1 PC is portrayed

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:39 AM
If not even more so

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:40 AM
Also, it's not just actions PCs take that players can potentially do improperly, but descriptions

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:40 AM
For example, say the Strength 1 PC's player says, "I pick up the thousand-pound weight."

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:40 AM
The GM says, "David's Strength chart says they can't do that."

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:41 AM
The player says, "Okay, they set it down."

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:41 AM
I'm still going to call shenanigans there

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:41 AM
Yeah, you didn't have your PC undertake an impossible action

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:41 AM
But you're doing a bad job roleplaying the action they did undertake

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:41 AM
You might describe your PC as sweating and heaving

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:42 AM
You might describe them awkwardly dropping the weight

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:42 AM
You might describe how their hands feel like they're blistering

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:42 AM
You might have them quip, "Looks like I need to start small"

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:43 AM
But just "PC X sets the weight down" is bad roleplaying

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:45 AM
It doesn't presume the PC to accomplish an impossible action, but it completely fails to characterize the action in a way that reflects the PC's capabilities

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:46 AM
I would think the PC in question had Strength 8, with how casually they were described as setting down that weight

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:46 AM
That's not accurate, they are Strength 1, their description does not convey that

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:47 AM
They are failing to convey the realities of the gameworld through their roleplay, and it is just as great a sin as a GM forgetting to mention there are three ra

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:48 AM
That's simply not acceptable from anyone, player or GM. Everyone's descriptions need to reflect the realities of the gameworld

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:48 AM
I don't ask that players devote pages of prose to every attempted action, merely sufficient clarity that readers are not led to draw erroneous conclusions

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:48 AM
"With how effortlessly he was described as setting down that weight? Probably Strength 8."

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:49 AM
Wrong! Strength 1

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:49 AM
to David
I don't consider this standard unreasonable either. On the contrary, I think it's completely egalitarian, and helps players make informed decisions about the setting around them

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:50 AM
If I tell players there are three doors when there are actually two, I'm wrong

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:51 AM
(Unless of course something is fooling the PCs' senses)

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:51 AM
Supernatural powers follow the same basic principle as Strength scores here

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:51 AM
They have very specific and clearly delineated effects

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:52 AM
to David
Some by the game's rules, some by my own personal interpretation of how the power works, and which are law throughout the setting

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:53 AM
to David
The blood bond causes instant love and adoration. No wait times. No "getting to know you" period. Instant love, even to a complete stranger who's in the midst of doing you harm

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:54 AM
Now, I understand that you understood this, but wished to convey Amelie's newfound adoration for Caroline more gradually

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:54 AM
to David
You understood the bond applied, but rather than immediately coming out and saying so, you wanted to show it through her actions rather than tell it through her thoughts

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:55 AM
(Correct me if I'm mistaken)

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 3:56 AM
to David
I don't have any inherent objection to how you present Amelie's newfound feelings, so long as that presentation doesn't lead a hypothetical reader to draw improper conclusions

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:56 AM
In that case, however, it did

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:57 AM
Pulling up the logs, you wrote this:

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:58 AM
Actually, I don't have it my logs, I replaced it with your replacement version

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 3:58 AM
Let me find it.

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:58 AM
No need

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:59 AM
I still remember how you described many of Amelie's internal thoughts and feelings upon drinking Caroline's blood

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 3:59 AM
None spoken aloud, existing purely within her head

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:00 AM
to David
The lack of blood bond-associated feelings were therefor conspicuous for their absence, and would have led a reader to draw a false conclusion

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:00 AM
to David
"Amelie's writer is describing how she's thinking about all this irrelevant and minor stuff, but no feelings of love for Caroline. I guess she isn't blood bound."

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:01 AM
So you had two options where describing Amelie's internal monologue was concerned:

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 4:01 AM
to me
(Waking up to pain. It's become rote. Waking up to the red haze of a blackout, however, is a worse fate.
She wakes to the pain, and flinches at the piss muddled into the short flash of bliss she is ever allowed.
Amelies eyes open to another familiarity.
Caroline.
In her half conscious mind, she recalls the joy felt on her 'last day' of life. The thought of working with the Krewes, the opportunities presented to her by this woman. Only for those around her to rip them down.
She feels a sort of pity for the blonde, and a distrust. An old, crude, and familiar feeling that roils around in her chest. Fear. Specific fear. What if she goes back on her word and abandons the young lick.
Bliss finds her again though, fear assuaged for a moment as thin useless muscles flex out of stasis and slowly pulls the towel tighter around her.
"Did we...find Wilkinson, Caroline?")

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 4:03 AM
to me
I will correct you where you are mistaken though. I never intended to have Amelie show it through her actions. I just meant it not to be her immediately salivating at her feet. We had a discussion about Amelie never having felt love romantically before, and how it would take her a moment to figure out how she was feeling towards Caroline. But you stopped me at that one post, the first one upon her waking up to see her.

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:03 AM
to David
#1. Don't describe ANY of her internal monologue. The reader doesn't know what's going on in Amelie's head, and deciphers it through her actions

#2. Describe ALL of what's passing through Amelie's head. Fear and distrust, plus the blood bond's affection

What you went with was this:

#3. Describe some of what's passing through Amelie's head. Fear and uncertainty, but not adoration, which would have erroneously led a reader to believe there was no blood bond. And that didn't fly

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:04 AM
to David
And I did stop you at one post, for the same reason I'd have stopped a player who described their PC as sweating profusely while neglecting to mention they tried to pick up a weight

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:05 AM
In a word, the realities of the gameworld were not accurately conveyed

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 4:05 AM
to me
I always intended to have Amelie slaved, to the best of my abilities, under the blood bond. When it comes to emotions however, not having it process all at once in an 18 year old with horrible mother issues felt right to me. If it didn't work for you after that first post, I happily would have corrected myself. Were her interactions with Caroline after that satisfactory?

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:06 AM
to David
That's where you're incorrect. Because IT DOES process all at once. That's how the blood bond works. 100% instant, immediate, non-gradual adoration. It is as immutable a fact as Strength 1 not being able to lift 1,000 pounds

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:07 AM
to David
I mentioned to you, as well, that's part of what makes the blood bond so terrifying. It completely overrides your normal feelings and brain chemistry

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:08 AM
For an impressionable tweenager who has a new boyfriend every week, the blood bond might not cause that much cognitive dissonance

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:08 AM
("Oh, it's my newest crush!")

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:09 AM
to David
For someone who's never been in love and is much slower to trust like Amelie, it should feel incredibly, incredibly weird (if not painful) that these feelings are striking her the way they are

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:09 AM
To go back to the weight analogy, it's like a Strength 7 and Strength 1 person trying to lift the same 1,000 lb weight

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:10 AM
Both of them will react differently to it

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:10 AM
But the weight's fundamental properties remain consistent between them

Calder Rooney <calderrooney@gmail.com>
Dec 20, 2018, 4:15 AM
to David
So it was thus with the blood bond. If you wanted to describe Amelie's internal thoughts, the laws of the setting dictated that instant adoration had to be included too

Calder Rooney
Dec 20, 2018, 4:22 AM
In any case, I'm headed to bed. Some variation of "Okay, now that I better understand your expectations, I think we'll have fewer conflicts in the future" will

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 4:23 AM
Sorry, I'm just trying to think how to word out what I'm thinking better.

David Armstrong
Dec 20, 2018, 4:24 AM
to me
I do think I understand what you mean better however. And I will endeavour to try and have us but heads less.