[OOC] Stories from Idumea: Children of Avveel

[taistelusopuli]

Ha! Totally forgot myself :D okay, I post now and then the round continues normally with @BytheSpleen

[Shikaru]

Very sorry guys, I'll post in my next turn. Been busy e.e

[taistelusopuli]

@ShikaruThat is understandable :) happy to have you back, hope you got your business done!

[nrtashi]

So..who posts now? Me or Shikaru?

[taistelusopuli]

Normal posting order =)

[taistelusopuli]

@nrtashi? Are you going to post?

[Baklava]

They haven't been online in 2 days. Maybe Shikaru should go?

[taistelusopuli]

Yeah, I asked since you posted 5 days ago and nrtashi didn't post when online. So @Shikaru you are up!

[Shikaru]

Kay. I'll catch up on the posts and post soon.

[taistelusopuli]

Thank you @Shikaru :) I will post tomorrow. Today I just managed to swing by and see if something had happened. Gotta love busy life -_-"

[nrtashi]

Sorry for not posting.
Just in case, I haven't dropped out or anything, I was just offline for a few days.

[taistelusopuli]

@nrtashi Good to have you still with us :)

@Lord Santa Let's begin a new round then! This time there will be some action.

In my last post I had the three simultaneous events open. Would you guys prefer it like that when it comes to narrative or would you like to have things behind a hider so you really don't know what happens if you are not at the place of events or reading hiders?

[Baklava]

I would prefer if hiders were used only for plot twists and stuff like that.

[taistelusopuli]

@Baklava Mhm, that makes sense. Anyone else have opinions? @Lord Santa@BytheSpleen(It's your turn by the way ;])@nrtashi@Shikaru?

[Lord Santa]

I don't really mind either way, I'll read 'em all regardless :P

[Baklava]

@Lord Santa I don't mean to be problematic, but why was Steven making such a big deal about those who didn't want to help the kid moving on and heading into town if he didn't have any ulterior motives whatsoever? I understand that helping progress the story is a thing, but if that's all it was for, I can't help but feel that it was at the sacrifice of normal social behavior. I mean-- honestly think about the words that were exchanged and tell me that sounds like a typical conversation:

Steven spots boy off to the side of the road.

"Hey, looks like that guy might want some help. Do you guys think we should?"

Lyra spots boy and wordlessly walks over and begins helping him, thus clearly showing that she is interested in helping him.

“I think we should definitely help the poor kid out," Abel replies. "Sure, why not, nothing much else to do," Illumina replies. Both characters have clearly expressed that they are interested in helping the kid.

Abel walks over to begin helping him. Elisha walks over following Abel and Illumina's comment-- thus implying that she might be interested in helping him.

At this point 3/4 people have clearly voiced that they want to help the kid.

The kid says he's looking for a flower. Steven asks Lyra what the kid says. Lyra repeats that the kid is looking for a flower and continues to try and help the kid by asking more about it. Abel does the same. Illumina and Elisha start having a conversation with each other that is about the boy and his search for a flower.

"Hey guys, you wanna look for a flower?" Steven asks for some reason-- he's basically asking the SAME question as before, "If not, pretty sure you can just go on ahead. If you wanna help that kid over there, then you can stay here." Why would he need to say this? They're close to town. Everyone is an independent adult. If they didn't want to help the kid, I think they already know that they can move on or do whatever they want. They don't need Steven to tell them this.

Kid tells everyone his name. Nobody responded to Steven's question because it doesn't apply to them, but he asks it AGAIN: "Anyway, if you wanna help... Säätur find a flower for his mom, you can stay here and help, but... It might involve some climbing. Maybe. It might not, but it'll be hard to find anyway, because I'm pretty sure none of us are from around here. In all honesty, It'll probably take a while, so whoever wants to go ahead should just go and leave whoever wants to help this kid."

Steven was the one who suggested helping the kid in the first place and now he's trying really hard to convince everyone to leave. There's nothing casual about his choice of words. He's clearly discouraging people from staying for some reason and he's posing the question to the entire group. At this point, the only person who hasn't 100% expressed their interest in helping Saatur is Elisha-- but again, he's not addressing her-- he's addressing the entire group.

At this point there are only three logical conclusions-- because this IS very unusual behavior-- he wants someone to go into town with him for whatever reason (Abel teasingly concluded that it's because he's scared), he wants the others to move on so he can stay and help for some weird reason, OR he is commanding the group around like he's the leader... for some weird reason.

Even his announcement/question alone is weird. Imagine if you were the kid-- some folks come up, ask if you need help, you tell them what your problem is and then some guy in the group turns to everyone and says "Who DOESN'T want to help this kid?! Everyone raise your hand if you DON'T want to help the kid! It's probably going to take a long time and be very difficult to help him! You can change your vote now if you want! Who DOESN'T want to help this kid?"

I dunno. Maybe this is just me, but it all seems very weird. Until now I thought it was intentional, but now Steven is talking to himself (since Abel is very clearly out of earshot) and clarifying that he had no ulterior motives. You don't ask a yes or no question multiple times while also trying to convince people one way or the other without having a reason to do so. If it was for story progressing purposes-- I think we should leave that to the GM. Because as it stands, at least with me, it sacrificed Steven being viewed as a person with even remotely normal social skills. NOW he's walking back just because he heard a really faint sound.

You don't have to explain any of this to me and I'm not asking because I'm upset. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the why behind what he's doing. He's your character and you can have him do whatever you want, but at this point, nothing is making any sense to me. And if it doesn't make any sense to me, it can only make so much sense to Abel.

[taistelusopuli]

Hmm, interesting. I never quite read Steven's behavior that way. To me Steven was first interested of what was up and invited others to tag along. Then he found out that the boy was dealing with a menial things that was not his priority in the end. Then he just voiced his opinion of going since he was not interested of staying to find a flower. I have a friend actually that would behave like that =D

[Baklava]

See, that DOES make sense to me, but the way everything was phrased (at least to me) didn't portray that train of thought at all.

If Steven didn't want to help, he could have simply said so and continued on. But he never says that. He NEVER expresses that he doesn't want to help-- in fact, NOW he's walking back to help. Even though he supposedly didn't want to. He instead keeps saying "If you want to help, you can stay. If you don't, you can go"--like that wasn't obvious. He continues to say that even after everyone has expressed interest in helping in spite of the menial task at hand. Like-- just go, dude. Nobody is stopping you. Why are you still here asking that same question? Thus why Abel drew the conclusion that he did.

[Lord Santa]

Well, it's actually something like this, Steven asked if they should help him because he knew that they had somewhere to be. When the group agreed with it, he went along with it because everyone else was too. When finding the flower proved harder than initially thought, Steven figured that it would take some time, hence people who don't want to stay behind should go (cause efficiency and stuff). The reason he followed people, however, is because everyone in the group is older than him and hence he is affected by peer pressure, to a certain degree, because they should know better. Sorta.

Basically, I said that we could split up because helping to find a flower wouldn't be very conducive to their actual goal, that is, to travel somewhere. Staying behind would basically just be wasting time, as the child and his mother aren't directly related to the group's goal. The reason he suggested people moving on was because some people weren't showing interest in helping him, or at least, I figured that'd be the case.

Hope that clears up some things.

[Baklava]

@Lord Santa That's understandable and I'm not so much arguing his desire to move on as the way it was all worded. If you're addressing 1 or 2 people, there's no need to refer to everyone. He should have asked Elisha and Illumina specifically-- otherwise it comes across and weird. If someone asked if you want to do something and you said yes and started doing it, you wouldn't want someone asking you if you want to do it over and over again because you already gave your answer. It's a small group, so when he says "guys" to no one in particular, it's assumed he's speaking to everyone.

"Does anyone want to head into town with me? Not much we can do here for the kid. I don't think there are any flowers out here anyway." is very different from "Those who want to help the kid SHOULD stay those you don't SHOULD go" or "If you want to help the kid, you CAN stay, but if not I'm pretty sure you CAN go." Who's permission are they needing to do either of those things? The only people I've ever heard talk like that in situations like this are camp directors and 3rd grade teachers. Like why are there only two options and why is he speaking using mostly commands rather than questions? Commands have a VERY different effect on people-- especially people you barely know.

All of this is basically flipped on it's head when Steven decided to turn back because of a tiny sound he heard, though. So it seems strange that, after convincing two (possibly three if Shikaru posts) people to leave, he's turning right back around.