This is a ST: TNG roleplay between @dreamshell and myself.

We have covered the general thought process we both have in regards to how we want to structure the roleplay and break it down into more small episode arches and take time to development the canons, as well as some minor OCs and canons along the way. We still should claim some major characters and figure out what our first mission or direction ought to be. You mentioned having some interest based on one of the proposed intros I shared, in which we had some mystery illness that we'd need to figure out, probably be sending a small away team to investigate. We could also have other dangers, aside from biological/medical.

What are your thoughts?

If someone has to play Wesley Crusher, I will accept that dubious honor. Mostly 'cause Wil Wheaton himself is actually a Pretty Cool Guy. But I'll see if I can't whip the boy genius into shape, learn him some tact and humility. IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU, WESLEY (except when the writers decide that it is 'cause you're their pet favorite)! But yeah, I always liked the idea he might have come back from his time with that weirdo Traveler in some later series with a wiser head on his shoulders and some serious foreknowledge into Big Things coming the galaxy's way. Sort of like Luke at the start of Jedi, if you get me?

Oooh, and maybe Guinan? Ensign Ro, if we use her? And/or Tasha if she's resurrected/brought back from an alternative timeline/the past?

Anyway. Uhhh... well, cultural complications in dealing with the illness? Bureaucratic? "Gee, what a shame this rebel faction/rival nation/opportunistic dick we can't strong-arm for some reason has all the [insert way to speed up and/or cure illness/save the day]! Maybe you Federation types want to take a swing at it?"

Another trick is the House tactic of having the first-stage 'cure' actually intensify the condition and necessitate super-critical super-urgent super-disestablishmentarianist methods that no one has ever been this crazy to try before! :P

I know Wesley gets a bad rap from the fans. I'm kind of on the fence so if you'd like to snatch him, by all means. He'll be useful but I foresee him being useful in small doses, depending on when and where we pick things up, in relation to the canon timeline of events/episode wise. Hopefully you can make him more...er...less of a fuckwit because he has no brain to think for himself sometimes. I'm not sure I want to give him too much to offer the others, upon his return. He made mistakes, he's smart but I see a need to develop his passion and figure out what he wants to do. He could become a useful player though, it just depends if we want to use him sparingly if he does, have some useful information or tip. And there's always using him poorly like a plot device haha.

Aw Guinan would be fun, I think, considering her role as confidant, she may be better shared depending on the scene. Ensign Ro would be fun, you can have her. I assume I'd play Geordi, Crusher, Riker and Denna? Or was I swapping Denna for Data...? I can't recall.

House tactics can hit or miss, and they often lead to people questioning your sanity while you look at porn in the holodeck because why not? XD

Okay let me spitball some situation, you tell me what you think. ^^ Also I had a drink so...humor me!

Idea 1 - Mysterious planet, has growing populace that is developing more modern inventions due to new uses for resources in the area. This planet is reliant on the use of labor of the lesser faction. The higher and obviously majority of the two factions, is healthy and pure, since fuck going outside, that's below them. So the small, weak faction spends generations out in the harsh planet and thus they're more exposed to the animals and whatnot. Due to the way evolution works, over time they become more immune to all the weird stuff, while the high and mighty folk are rather frail with their immune system. The low faction decides to stage an attack, they kidnap some important person, take them out into the wild, they get sick, negotiations happen and things are on a better track for the lower faction. The majority start becoming infected though and a war breaks out because of this. Was it on purpose? An accident? Who knows!

Idea 2 - Another mysterious planet. Funny, that? We have an equal race of people who are all in pretty piss poor condition. They came from a crash landing decades ago and have had to survive in said planet, with their beacon/distress signal pinging into the abyss for like, ever. In the meantime, they try to get by but while no one remembers how or why the vassal crashed, it was some dick who did it so he could play God to everyone around him. He's some mega smart guy who has been acting as leader. But someone else wants to take control since they have other ideas as to how to get help and survive. The dick doesn't like change, hes been in charge for like 30-40 years now. So he comes up with some biological virus to infect the others around him so he can then come up with a cure and be seen as some mega awesome guy again buuuuut...it doesn't work and they're fucked. Enter, the Enterprise seeing the signal and swooping in.

Idea 3 - And yet there's this other planet, somewhat mysterious and intriguing. This time this biological issue hasn't been created by some dick or done thanks to nature. This disease affects a certain gender/age/other random parameters. This disease has been assumed to be the work of some God the planet has been worshiping. We have the scientific folks clashing with those who hold onto tradition while saying those who are cursed and diseased, deserve damnation. This ends up changing when some important people from both schools of thought get sick. It only affects said planet, possibly due to where they are in relation to say, some wacky star or planet which radiates some toxin. Those infected, aren't connected by their gender or age or whatever, but because of where they've been unknowingly exposed. But plot twist, the infection is some sentient being (kind of like when stupid ass Wesley toyed with nanobots, but they're not) trying to survive as well and finds hosts to do just that.

So yeah, some weird brain things. Any stick out? Anything tweakable? Or should I go drink some more?

Okay, so please allow me to be a bit uncouth; it's Deanna Troi. Sorry, I was hoping my spelling would rub off without need for comment, but now you'll just have to be mortified! MWAHAHA- I mean, yeah, sorry. <_<;

You really can have Beverly, I care not a whit. Oh, I got Worf, though, right? I think I took up Deanna, too, for much the same reason as Wesley. That leaves Riker, Geordi and Data, who all seem to be real crowd-pleasers, so we can go halfsies on all three or continue divvying them up.

Let's break it down by numbers;

Genkai:
-Will Riker
-Beverly Crusher
-Geordi La Forge
-Data

dreamshell
-Jean-Luc Picard
-Worf "Son of Mogh" Rozhenko
-Deanna Troi
-Ro Laren
-Cameos from Guinan
-Tasha Yar as a surprise guest star???
-Wesley Crusher as the wild card!

(undecided)
-Miles O'Brien
-Reginald Barclay
-Alyssa Ogawa
-OCs?
-Others???

Since a few of those are up in the air/recurring rather than regulars, that makes us pretty even, though I can't deny that writing for Riker, Geordi or Data occasionally would be nice. At the least, I'd enjoy handling Lore if he ever pops back up so that damn hanging subplot between him and Data ("Brothers forgive," to quote the good Dr. Crusher) can get wrapped up already! But I find the arrangement pretty agreeable.

I don't know about any of these ideas yet, lemme digest, but god, I just had the weirdest inspiration for a crossover. Ever see the Alien Nation movie/TV show/TV movies? Well, imagine Alien Nation as part of the events shortly pre-Eugenics Wars. Though how we'd make that jive with first contact with the Vulcans, I dunno... But basically, I'm arguing for some Newcomers in Starfleet. :P But if you're unfamiliar, I'll just leave it alone.

Okay, I like having a culture in development. Maybe some rough equivalent of the Renaissance? See more below.

Your last idea could be interesting b/c we could have things that initially support either viewpoint: A religious devotee encounters one of the entities causing the illness or some phenomenon related to their presence, while a scientist makes some connection to radiation poisoning and the makeup of the nearby star. The revelation later is that these beings usually exist in the sun's atmosphere and so are saturated with the radiation, perhaps even need it to thrive, but some rare solar event (A flare or eclipse? Perhaps this is also something the religious people interpret and celebrate) inadvertently redirected them onto the planet. Oh, plus we can have the threat of a good ol' witch-burnin' that the Enterprise has to try and prevent.

Although, a lot of this behavior sounds like what you'd expect from a pre-warp drive people, which would put the Prime Directive in effect. So maybe this culture is descended from an expedition sent out by a warp-capable race that got marooned on the planet and lost much of their knowledge? Picard & co. might waffle a bit over whether this gives them leave to interfere or not (I don't know if there's some precedent on the show), before circumstances possibly force their hand (see following).

Additionally, to borrow from your second idea, maybe the survivors of the crash were deliberately manipulated by someone who's become a venerated, saintlike figure in their present-day religion, or even the god they worship? And so the higher-ups of the religious order know full well they came from another world and some other details about their origins and former capabilities, but the general public doesn't. These could be the same folk who 'force the crew's hand' by way of hailing them with secret comlink technology. Members of the crew might then have to go planetside to investigate, complete with surgical alterations or disguises and are viewed as foreign scientists or hermetic healers.

Hopefully that doesn't all sound too complicated...

EDIT: Aaaaand a good chunk of that seems reminiscent of "Thine Own Self," not to mention "Who Watches the Watchers," but it still has potential.

Now that we've moved, it's easier to get online now. Though any free time is often spent unpacking and whatnot. Even so, I'm here, now diving my time between roleplaying and getting into DAO which I treated myself to. ^^'

And whoops, sorry about the spelling! I guess I saw it spelled without the "a" once and committed it to memory. How embarrassing! I shall have to jettison myself off into space to avoid any more unpleasantness. Excuse me. *runs away laughing awkwardly*

I'm totally fine snagging Geordi and Data, I also think Riker could be good to have if you're the good Captain, of course I could foresee you needing him in your own post without waiting for me, which is fine. I'm easy either way we go. I wouldn't mind snatching up Barclay though, that guy is a weird nut and he'd be fun to tinker around with.

Solar flares tend to be fun, plus to my knowledge, they're only slightly predicable, compared to say an eclipse? Pus I do see more fun danger with solar flares, as I'd suspect they'd only spur more flares to begin occurring more frequently, possibly leading to a more rapid progression? I do like secrecy and deception, if we did want a crash landing to cause everything, ex: the solar flares and subsequent illness...possibly caused by or the cause of, said flares? That was worded poorly, I hope that makes sense. I mean, the crash could either cause the illness to appear over time (disrupting the flares getting to the surface or something) or that the crash was caused by the flares hitting the planet, thus giving the sentient being a home until the crash, thus things were distributed and they latched onto the new life forms/people?

Just a random thought.

I do think if the crash was random or planned, having some guy in charge (infected and hiding it or whatever) will be a good foil to what Picard and co. wish to do. We could even say something like, the faction who has chosen to become more native and shed their science sort of logic, could have found a beacon or signal and activated it unknowingly, hence a reason for an away team to go down and see that things aren't alright, even if decades have passed since the crash?

(Another episode I'm reminded of is "Galaxy's Child.")

Well, according to Wikipedia: "Current methods of flare prediction are problematic, and there is no certain indication that an active region on the Sun will produce a flare. However, many properties of sunspots and active regions correlate with flaring. For example, magnetically complex regions (based on line-of-sight magnetic field) called delta spots produce the largest flares. A simple scheme of sunspot classification... is commonly used as a starting point for flare prediction. Predictions are usually stated in terms of probabilities for occurrence of flares... within 24 or 48 hours."

So there's some gauging method, if a broad one, though the stranded descendants might not have reinvented the technology yet to make a definite connection. Maybe the scientist I referred to earlier is pioneering the correlation between sunspots and flares?

If I may be a touch pedantic, we might prefer to call them "stellar flares" since they won't be coming from Sol, Earth's sun. I don't think a progression of flares would occur naturally, but it could be manufactured. The entities that inhabit the sun's atmosphere or corona might, like us, be unable to travel in space unaided. In their case, they use ejected 'clouds' of ions, electrons and atoms - which are the very things flares emit. And if these entities are intelligent at all and have any sense of community, the ones 'back home' in the star's atmosphere may be trying to fabricate a 'bridge' or 'river' for their own wayward members to return by, the visible effect being an increase in flare activity. The difficulty for them might be in trying to recreate one strong enough to support a return trip, which has unfortunate side effects on the populace of the planet (in addition to the lost beings' behavior thereon).

The only way I see the flares being caused by the crashed ship is if it were some sort of research vessel that had been doing experiments on the star, triggered some reaction and were propelled onto the nearby planet. Whatever they did could have long-term consequences for the star, perhaps turning it unstable (artificially inducing its growth or collapse?), which puts them, the stellar beings and even the entire system at risk. Some initial (and probably hostile) encounter between the research team and the corona-dwelling beings might have eventually been translated into a mythical 'battle in the heavens' in the stranded group's religion, too.

As for the head scientist/commanding officer/what-have-you turned religious icon, I don't necessarily think they're still alive, since at least a few generations would need to have lived on the planet to forget most of their advancements and where they come from. But the leader's manipulation of the masses would be carried on through his church, perhaps led by a hereditary successor. That said, I'm unsure how a group of knowledgeable spacefaring folk could become members of a cult, but dire circumstances do crazy things to people and, if this is an alien species, they might have already had strong spiritual traditions that survived into their society's warp-capable stage of advancement. But the stranded people could either be a theocracy with a (re)burgeoning scientific underground, or the church might simply be an influential but not dominant facet of the newly arisen culture.

As for the entities on the planet's surface, they needn't have been there for as long as the people, though that's possible. It could support stories of 'demonic' encounters or something, though their proximity would need to be fairly infrequent if this illness is considered unusual by the populace. I imagine the beings are semi-solid or gaseous and plasma-based, largely invisible to the naked eye except for perhaps a vague shimmering outline, like in Forbidden Planet if you've seen it, or such as appears over blacktop on a hot day. In terms of shape and ambulation, they might mimic the helical, serpentine look of "coronal loops" or perhaps something in the vein of very bizarre deep-sea organisms. They might be angels or demons to the religious folk and could be called things like "sun dogs" (actually an earthly phenomenon, but still a neat term), serpents/snakes, dragons, worms, or otherwise, depending on what we model them after.

Oh, and some more TNG lulz. ;)

I'm fine with it being "stellar flares" in fact, it sounds even cooler, while also making more sense.

And the crash doesn't have to have caused it, that's fine. It was just a fleeting though, is all. It still could be possible one of the flares could have interfered with the shuttle craft, hence the crash. That's also possible but hey...they don't need to correlate. In terms of someone putting themselves into power, with the generations that have passed (we'd need to have a rough estimate of when the crash was and how much time has passed since then) it's likely they're not the original survivor or maybe just related to someone like that.

I do think having a very distinct line between those who have cast aside science and developed some kind of natural cult of living off the land, and those who rally behind logic and science, is the key here. I assumed most would be humans but I think it could be neat to have some kind of humanoid creature with certain differences, some alien species that's either been assumed to have been killed in the vanish of their transport craft (to say a new home planned by the Federation?) that way, their discovery would also be meaningful for historians perhaps.

Was Forbidden Planet when Geordi was stranded with that other guy who...wasn't too friendly at first? I think Geordi's vision was messed up due to the planet's environment. At any rate, I do think the other life form should be like gas or some kind of vapor/gas/mist. I would assume there would be some dust/glitter to be seen but most of it would be considered nothing or too small to detect/think about. We may also need to list some of the symptoms of what the "infection/virus" might look like to an outsider. Their resources would be very minimal, if any, even if only 30-60 years have passed. I'm sure things have waned by that point, so any new inventions, were on them and not thanks to how they crashed and what was on them at the time.

I think getting things rolling, the sooner the better, while getting down the important/main details is good. I don't want us to get too bogged down with this or that, since starting will be easy and then going over details or following one another's lead, can also work.

Okay, quick summary to get things rolling:

-Ancestral (research) vessel arrives in system, experiments on star
(-Possible defensive maneuvers by coronal entities)
-Researchers trigger reaction in star, damage vessel, which crash-lands on nearby planet
-Leader (either original commander of ship/mission or other authority figure) vies for control of survivors post-crash; cultivates a following, religious doctrine, saintly status
-Schism of scientists v. religious? (The gist, at least)
-Xty years pass... (Occasional flares which gain religious significance, rare encounters w/ marooned coronal entities?)
-Unknown increase in coronal entities' proximity to descendants causes epidemic; religious officials use concealed tech from crash to send out SOS, Enterprise receives it

So are you saying you think the people who crash-land on the planet should be a mix of different species and/or perhaps part of an earlier Federation mission? That's an interesting idea - a bit like the Bozeman in "Cause and Effect" (the one w/ Kelsey Grammer as a TOS movie-era captain) - but it could make things perhaps more complicated than they might be already. I'd definitely be up for revisiting the Bozeman or that kind of scenario later, though!

The episode you're thinking of is "The Enemy." Forbidden Planet is a '50s sci-fi movie starring Leslie Nielsen (among others). I definitely recommend it. ;)

You bring up some good points. A rough timeline would be good, as would some symptoms. I think the crash-landed party and their descendants need at least 100 years to have developed into what the Enterprise finds, maybe more. If the planet is especially hostile, lifespans and expectancy will probably be shorter and so more 'generations' may have passed than would on a civilized world.

Unfortunately, I can't think of much else for the illness other than radiation poisoning/sickness like in "Thine Own Self." Skin cancer, maybe, due to the profusion of UV rays that the marooned coronals exude wherever they go? Their presence (and/or their attempts to erect a "light bridge" planetside) might also ruin crops, deplete water sources and generally increase the surrounding temperature to intolerable degrees. Ooh, and perhaps some natural absorption process of local light waves does tricky things with eyesight, like blinds people or causes trippy, hallucinogenic light shows. Direct contact would probably sear or even disintegrate organic life. Anyway, I doubt it would be something contagious, but the natives might not know that.

Question: Should we address or handwave how large the population of original survivors would have to be to produce enough offspring to establish a sustainable society? I'm willing to handwave, but some at least perfunctory explanation would be nice.

That breakdown looks good to me!

If we did want a mix or even just two different species, that could be interesting, of course I don't want a clusterfuck to get in the way of a plot's progress if some people just don't mix due to their different races, that would surely be better suited for a less complex plot.

At first I thought you said Liam Neeson, now I'm a little disappointed. But old sci-fi films can be fun to kill time, so I'll be keeping an eye out for it since tv gets a little sluggish come summer time.

At least 100 years works for me. What if we said something like 125? That give us roughly...3-4 generations maybe more, the first folks surely have just died out by now? I would assume, if two factions of science v spiritual based people have emerged, the planet could have parts of it being fertile and lush, while also being hostile (possibly closer to their star in question)? I assume the location where much of flares hit the planet, is dry and hostile, barren, may be a place were some rowdy youths may challenge each other to travel to and get something, sort of the "prove you're not a wimp" things kids do to one another.

I would say we should feel welcomed to have other side effects or symptoms, considering this is so far in the future, our science should only predict so much. With different situations and species, they'd react differently if they were in our shoes. I'm assuming burns on the skin even if not in direct contact, you mentioned a play on vision which could impair their vision or make them see bright lights, perhaps as the lifeform begins to take over, they become more agitated in trying to find the nutrients they needed, as opposed to their host's needs? Maybe other issues would be inability to sleep? Maybe even feeling tingling around or inside their body. Would the sentient beings ultimately damage the brain, causing organs to fail, etc, soon killing the person infected since they can't ultimately provide the home needed for the alien life?

I think the original settlers/crashed survivors maybe...had say 15-25 people? That sounds a bit high but I don't think less than 15 would seem reasonable. What do you think? I'm not gonna head count people in the RP but it is good to know a general estimate. Say in 100-125 years, there would be about how many...like 300-500 people? Not everyone would produce and maybe some of the flares hamper quick reproduction for the humans or whoever we decide is left? I'm not picking a huge group of people on the planet, though what do you think?

Sorry for the lateness of my reply; 4th of July vacation and all.

Yeah, let's just stick with 'hew-mons' for this one, though I still like the idea of an isolated mix of races, perhaps ones naturally opposed to one another like in the "Birthright" two-parter.

Oh, man, I would totally endure a shitty remake of that movie just to have Liam Neeson in the lead role. XD

Some blasted stomping grounds of the world-bound coronals that serves as a rite of passage site for the descendants' children sounds great. d(^_^) Perhaps one can be the religious devotee I mentioned before who likens the encounter to facing a demon.

Wow, I totally overlooked the part much earlier where you had the idea these things use the natives as hosts! It could be cool to do, though I'd want to know why they do it (better way to absorb more stellar rays, have difficulty living on the planet without doing this for... some reason, etc.). But if that's the case, the host could show all kinds of neat symptoms. Unnaturally hot to the touch, weird bursts of energy/light if the host is in danger of being injured, lack of normal routine (eating, sleeping, seeking sunlight at the expense of all else, etc.), starting to look drawn, prematurely aged, organ failure, burns, cancerous symptoms, starting to wither to a husk and/or seem to 'fall apart.' It could get pretty ghoulish by the end; maybe once the coronal departs, the host just collapses into a pile of spent ashes or something. Of course, all these traits could be chalked up to 'possession.'

Re: population, I asked because, realistically, it'd probably be impossible for any small group to propagate an enduring society. Everyone would be getting it on with everyone else, women would have to birth a swarm of babies and incest would be almost inevitable... I was looking for some flimsy justifications for their survival. One idea that occurs to me, though, is perhaps the research vessel had some sort of plant- or culture-breeding laboratory implements that the people reconfigured after they crash-landed in order to procreate artificially somehow. This butts heads with the science/faith divide, but maybe it's another example of the church's sneaky use of technology, or one of the few concessions the faithful give the scientists to excuse their existence. Just something to consider.

Have you seen the TNG episode "The Price"? It's one of the early Troi eye-rollers where she has a sort of brief, melodramatic fling with an oily Betazoid negotiator who uses his empathic abilities (and some old-school flim-flam) to manipulate talks. Anyway, the actor had this shit-eating politician/used car salesman quality that would be pretty great for a church figurehead (cf. your average televangelist). I also like the idea he's youngish (mid-late 30s or early 40s or some equivalent) and smooth-talking, while the 'leader' of the scientific faction (probably much more splintered à la the Democratic party) is an old and sort of curmudgeonly man or woman without much rhetorical savviness.

Also, I got a kernel for another 'episode' idea down the road involving difficulties the Enterprise has in convincing some non-Federation spacefaring race to share some new whiz-bang tech or maybe a vital curative or resource with them as opposed to a company of Ferengi merchants. I feel like the Maquis or maybe some pirates could also get thrown in the mix somehow.

No worries, I've been unusually delayed these days...blame family matters. (Not the tv show)

Ya know, some older episodes were coming on tv (too lazy to get on Netflix) and it had more of the Deanna and Worf stuff, it was always fun to see since I wouldn't expect such a thing from someone like Worf. Though near the end of series, you can tell his character gets a lot more attention. I did note that the man behind Worf, is hoping to get some more ST on tv with Worf, which would be pretty fun. I also caught the last episode, I have seen bits prior to getting interested but now that I have more information, I am even more amused by the set up they had. I also find Q more interesting now. After knowing more, I'd say the finale pay of increased for me. I look forward to sitting down and looking at it again sometime.

That sounds fine to me, glad we're on the same page and building on it more. ^^

I had assumed them needing hosts would be their attempt to evolve. Or maybe it's to relocate for some reason? Maybe they have exhausted the resources on the planet's surface where the waves hit? I'm sure rotation would be far too slow to fix the problem of needing more nutrients or whatever? Another side effect or symptom could be that those under the influence, could be able to withstand heat, as you mentioned, they could also be warmer than usual. There would be a lot of complicated and difficult things to connect, it could be very fun (maybe not for Beverly).

We could use the whole "everyone getting with everyone" to also be a point of conflict. Maybe the science side thinks it's for the good of survival where those who become native, see it as vile and impure? If we had a way or the group of populate by another means as you suggested, it may also affect the alien life form?

Oh yes, I have seen that episode. Parts of it good, other parts...ya know...eh. That would be a good kind of leader for religious/natives who live off the land. We will need some larger than life folks butting to heads when the Enterprise shows up, after. *laughs*

That sounds fine with me, we should feel free to nurture other ideas/episodes as we carry on.

Pairing Deanna and Troi together definitely seems like it came out of writing their interactions in regards to Alexander. Plus, there's that natural play of opposites between them. And yeah, I'd love to see a show with Worf as captain! Especially since I think today's climate more than ever feels a lot closer to the spirit of social progress Star Trek has always been championing (not to get too political).

Well, the coronals might need something to anchor them to the planet. The surface gravity of a sun is usually much greater than its orbiting worlds. That's the best idea I can come up with offhand, anyway, though your idea that organic life-forms are better suited at "absorbing" the sun's rays (at least from as far away as the planet they're stuck on) sounds good, too. And I also like your thought that daily and/or annual planetary rotation could play some role.

I don't think we need to turn it into a "prudes vs. libertines" sort of thing; in fact, plenty of cults tend to encourage polygamy, anyway. I still favor it as either more guile being done by the church or, my real preference, part of the origin (and feeble justification) for the scientific faction. Other things like farming, construction, even medicine may have regressed to more Luddite-like methods, but the artificial preservation of the population would be harder to refuse.

We should probably start this soon, yeah? Eps typically open with Picard narrating, so I'm willing to go first, but I'll probably need a few days just to get into the right headspace and write something I'm happy with. I'd work on the basic setup and open things up for some of your characters (like Riker or Beverly) somehow. I'll probably also at least name the planet, unless you have suggestions for that or anything else. The rest we can do as we go.

if you'd like to get an Intro up, I'm happy to wait. In the meantime, I may be able to drum up some light CS for us to refer to, to at least keep track of who we are and who is more of a shared role as needed, scene depending. I think once we get things rolling, we can work out the kinks or just go with the flow. I'm not too stuck in the mud about the things we've talked about so if one of us makes a comment or something in the IC, I don't mind just going along with it, we can't perfect every detail after all. Hopefully as we write together, it won't be too tough to sort of pick up on each other's ideas and intentions.