Essay: My Year in Summer Camp. Well, not really. But sorta.
In two weeks, Rosalyn will have been in camp for a year. And lo and behold, over the course of a year, she's actually changed in a lot of ways, and some of those changes mean she really hasn't changed much at all. Yeah, that makes no sense, and that's why I'm essaying.
As usual, there are probably going to be spoilers for Okage: Shadow King under the cut, and any opinions and views of other characters found in the essay are the result of discussion with their players and not assumptions on my part.
Oh, and if you make it to the end, I applaud your patience and bravery.
At the start of Okage, Rosalyn, as the Hero, is pretty much bound by her Classification to make defeating the Evil King her mission. After her first encounter with Stan, she spent three years obsessively searching for him, and is fully prepared to compromise her beliefs and values to find him. (See: Joining a street gang to gain access to the Madril Sewers. Granted, Rosalyn actually cries about this, and rants about how degrading this is for a Hero to be doing, but she blames it all on Stan, and maintains that the end justifies the means, which is a personal mantra of hers, but moving on!)
Throughout the course of the game, she continues to stick fast to the whole ETERNAL RIVAL and ONLY I AM ALLOWED TO KILL YOU thing she has going on with Stan, and it can easily be said she defines herself as a Hero by him. In addition, as she gets closer to Ari, she begins to define herself as a person by him, and this begins to lessen, in a way, how much she defines herself by Stan, since, thanks to Ari (for more on Ari and his place in Rosalyn's life, please see my essay on him here) she begins to realise she needs to work at being a Hero in ways that don't necessarily involve defeating Stan. So, she's all geared up to fight Beiloune, then defeat Stan, and then...she ended up coming to camp.
One of the first problems Rosalyn faced upon her arrival to camp was the existence of other heroes, a good deal of them with superpowers. In Okage-land, Heroes don't work together, they vie for jobs and the prestige and glory acts of heroism bring them. Of course, that was before that whole mess with the Magic Square and Rosalyn getting reclassified as the Great (and only) Hero her world has. So, either way, it was hard to swallow, and Rosalyn's initial reaction was to assume there was no need for her as a Hero in camp, except for her original fixation on defeating Stan, and she threw herself back into that with enthusiasm. She ended up measuring her self-worth by Stan, and a big part of the reason she decided dating him was a good idea had to do with the rationale that since he was so important to her as an enemy and a reason for being a Hero, why not let him be the most important person to her in a romantic capacity as well?
And all this would have continued, except for a few things like how Rosalyn was pretty unhappy with her life in all areas except for when she was fighting with Stan. She wanted to behave more like a Hero again, she just had no clue how to go about that in a place like camp. Then, sometime in May, Tayuya approached her and needed to talk. Prior to this, they had only exchanged words on occasion, and didn't know one another as people very well, if at all. The important thing here was that Tayuya needed to get some issues that were bothering her and talked to Rosalyn about it because she figured a Hero wouldn't use sensitive information against her. The conversation had a profound impact on Rosalyn, in that someone was actually using her as she was meant to be used, and wanted to be used yes, I know how bad that sounds, and, in conjunction with the moon dropping around the same time, it caused her to realise she could in fact, make herself useful in camp.
Instead of just being there to police Stan, she decided that it was also her mission to do the things she's committed to doing now: help new campers settle in, contribute to boss fights, assist anyone in danger, or under the effects of a camp virus, encourage, motivate and alleviate emo, be a proper mentor to Ari, help train anyone who needs it and most importantly, work together with the other heroes in camp to keep the peace and uphold justice!
After a few months of that, Rosalyn began to develop a definite sense of self-worth because of her own actions, not because of anyone else's influence on her.
Stan's importance in her life was essentially down to him being her arch-nemesis and rival. And after their final breakup in October, after Stan, albiet unintentionally, upset Ari more severely than he ever has, Rosalyn realised that he wasn't the be-all-end-all in her life anymore. She was finally able to look at the relationship objectively and realise that Stan just doesn't cut it as boyfriend material. Arch-enemy? Sure. Arch-enemy with benefits? Hell yes, if it weren't for the small matter of Rosalyn having a girlfriend she proclaimed she'd be monogamous with.
This brings me to the matter of the events that took place over the last few days. Rosalyn and Stan's latest skirmish started out with the usual insults and attempts and maiming one another until the fact Stan had a body for the first time in months and Rosalyn had never gotten closure for their breakup caught up with them and their general unhappiness with how things turned out for them came to the fore. Stan admitted, as much as he's capable of admitting, that he overstepped the mark with Ari, and that Rosalyn still means more to him than any of his past relationships. Yes, they broke up for no reason. AGAIN.
Granted, Rosalyn would have been perfectly happy yelling at him and trying to beat it into his head that she deserved better, but Stan took matters into his own hands and walled her for great evil! and she was perfectly happy with that, too, even though she immediately hated herself for betraying Tayuya and finished up by kneeing Stan in the groin.
The outcome of this whole debacle, following a Serious Talk with Tayuya is that Rosalyn and Stan are now enemies with benefits. In order to explain the reasons for this, I'm going to have to essay a bit on Rosalyn and Tayuya's relationship.
In my previous essay on Rosalyn's views on monogamy, I discussed the reasons she doesn't have issues with polygamous relationships. Things have changed, however, because, while she still cares about Stan, and is intensely attracted to him, she no longer needs him, and far too many of her feelings for him used to be based around need. And surprisingly enough, she and Tayuya managed to find their balance, and have been working towards having a pretty healthy and functional relationship.
After almost seven months of that, Rosalyn finally has a grasp on what it means to be with someone who cares about her, and by which I mean all of her, good points and bad. Tayuya might not always agree with Rosalyn's fanaticism for justice and heroism, and she's not likely to admit she loves her anytime soon, but then, it's not like Stan exactly did either of those things. The difference here is that Tayuya supports Rosalyn's fanaticism for justice and heroism, will take matters in hand if she feels Rosalyn is over-doing things at the cost of her personal well-being, and she certainly makes Rosalyn feel loved; which makes all the difference in the world.
Conversely, Rosalyn has come to utterly love Tayuya and cherish what they have and give her a not!engagement ring, and she's not going to risk jeapordising it for any reason. That said, how come she's doing this with Stan? Well, love and attraction are two very different things. Both Rosalyn and Tayuya are attracted to a number of other people in camp, some of whom are the same individuals, (Hi, Lady! 8Db) but acting on said attraction is more trouble than it's worth, and of course, there's that pesky no-sex rule. Not to mention, not everyone shares their views on the subject, and in an enclosed place like camp, there's bound to be fallout, and attraction's just not worth the hassle of fallout.
The girls know exactly where they stand with one another, and that, as far as love and investment of feelings go, there isn't anyone else they want to be with. The rest of the Sound Four deserve their own essay in light of this, and this is not going to happen today.
So, if Rosalyn and Stan's fights result in makeout time, and it's free of mess and hassle, there's no problems here. Rosalyn isn't about to seek him out for a booty call, but if it happens, it happens and she's not going to feel guilty about it.
Likewise, if Tayuya had people in camp she could have the occasional encounter with without strings, Rosalyn feels she's welcome to it, heck, she's welcome to molest Stan if she's so inclined.
And besides, not dating Stan, but having a heck of a lot of UST with him during their fights brings them back to how things used to be before camp, so, I suppose the moral of this gigantic block of text is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Feel free to tell me I make no sense.
As usual, there are probably going to be spoilers for Okage: Shadow King under the cut, and any opinions and views of other characters found in the essay are the result of discussion with their players and not assumptions on my part.
Oh, and if you make it to the end, I applaud your patience and bravery.
At the start of Okage, Rosalyn, as the Hero, is pretty much bound by her Classification to make defeating the Evil King her mission. After her first encounter with Stan, she spent three years obsessively searching for him, and is fully prepared to compromise her beliefs and values to find him. (See: Joining a street gang to gain access to the Madril Sewers. Granted, Rosalyn actually cries about this, and rants about how degrading this is for a Hero to be doing, but she blames it all on Stan, and maintains that the end justifies the means, which is a personal mantra of hers, but moving on!)
Throughout the course of the game, she continues to stick fast to the whole ETERNAL RIVAL and ONLY I AM ALLOWED TO KILL YOU thing she has going on with Stan, and it can easily be said she defines herself as a Hero by him. In addition, as she gets closer to Ari, she begins to define herself as a person by him, and this begins to lessen, in a way, how much she defines herself by Stan, since, thanks to Ari (for more on Ari and his place in Rosalyn's life, please see my essay on him here) she begins to realise she needs to work at being a Hero in ways that don't necessarily involve defeating Stan. So, she's all geared up to fight Beiloune, then defeat Stan, and then...she ended up coming to camp.
One of the first problems Rosalyn faced upon her arrival to camp was the existence of other heroes, a good deal of them with superpowers. In Okage-land, Heroes don't work together, they vie for jobs and the prestige and glory acts of heroism bring them. Of course, that was before that whole mess with the Magic Square and Rosalyn getting reclassified as the Great (and only) Hero her world has. So, either way, it was hard to swallow, and Rosalyn's initial reaction was to assume there was no need for her as a Hero in camp, except for her original fixation on defeating Stan, and she threw herself back into that with enthusiasm. She ended up measuring her self-worth by Stan, and a big part of the reason she decided dating him was a good idea had to do with the rationale that since he was so important to her as an enemy and a reason for being a Hero, why not let him be the most important person to her in a romantic capacity as well?
And all this would have continued, except for a few things like how Rosalyn was pretty unhappy with her life in all areas except for when she was fighting with Stan. She wanted to behave more like a Hero again, she just had no clue how to go about that in a place like camp. Then, sometime in May, Tayuya approached her and needed to talk. Prior to this, they had only exchanged words on occasion, and didn't know one another as people very well, if at all. The important thing here was that Tayuya needed to get some issues that were bothering her and talked to Rosalyn about it because she figured a Hero wouldn't use sensitive information against her. The conversation had a profound impact on Rosalyn, in that someone was actually using her as she was meant to be used, and wanted to be used yes, I know how bad that sounds, and, in conjunction with the moon dropping around the same time, it caused her to realise she could in fact, make herself useful in camp.
Instead of just being there to police Stan, she decided that it was also her mission to do the things she's committed to doing now: help new campers settle in, contribute to boss fights, assist anyone in danger, or under the effects of a camp virus, encourage, motivate and alleviate emo, be a proper mentor to Ari, help train anyone who needs it and most importantly, work together with the other heroes in camp to keep the peace and uphold justice!
After a few months of that, Rosalyn began to develop a definite sense of self-worth because of her own actions, not because of anyone else's influence on her.
Stan's importance in her life was essentially down to him being her arch-nemesis and rival. And after their final breakup in October, after Stan, albiet unintentionally, upset Ari more severely than he ever has, Rosalyn realised that he wasn't the be-all-end-all in her life anymore. She was finally able to look at the relationship objectively and realise that Stan just doesn't cut it as boyfriend material. Arch-enemy? Sure. Arch-enemy with benefits? Hell yes, if it weren't for the small matter of Rosalyn having a girlfriend she proclaimed she'd be monogamous with.
This brings me to the matter of the events that took place over the last few days. Rosalyn and Stan's latest skirmish started out with the usual insults and attempts and maiming one another until the fact Stan had a body for the first time in months and Rosalyn had never gotten closure for their breakup caught up with them and their general unhappiness with how things turned out for them came to the fore. Stan admitted, as much as he's capable of admitting, that he overstepped the mark with Ari, and that Rosalyn still means more to him than any of his past relationships. Yes, they broke up for no reason. AGAIN.
Granted, Rosalyn would have been perfectly happy yelling at him and trying to beat it into his head that she deserved better, but Stan took matters into his own hands and walled her for great evil! and she was perfectly happy with that, too, even though she immediately hated herself for betraying Tayuya and finished up by kneeing Stan in the groin.
The outcome of this whole debacle, following a Serious Talk with Tayuya is that Rosalyn and Stan are now enemies with benefits. In order to explain the reasons for this, I'm going to have to essay a bit on Rosalyn and Tayuya's relationship.
In my previous essay on Rosalyn's views on monogamy, I discussed the reasons she doesn't have issues with polygamous relationships. Things have changed, however, because, while she still cares about Stan, and is intensely attracted to him, she no longer needs him, and far too many of her feelings for him used to be based around need. And surprisingly enough, she and Tayuya managed to find their balance, and have been working towards having a pretty healthy and functional relationship.
After almost seven months of that, Rosalyn finally has a grasp on what it means to be with someone who cares about her, and by which I mean all of her, good points and bad. Tayuya might not always agree with Rosalyn's fanaticism for justice and heroism, and she's not likely to admit she loves her anytime soon, but then, it's not like Stan exactly did either of those things. The difference here is that Tayuya supports Rosalyn's fanaticism for justice and heroism, will take matters in hand if she feels Rosalyn is over-doing things at the cost of her personal well-being, and she certainly makes Rosalyn feel loved; which makes all the difference in the world.
Conversely, Rosalyn has come to utterly love Tayuya and cherish what they have and give her a not!engagement ring, and she's not going to risk jeapordising it for any reason. That said, how come she's doing this with Stan? Well, love and attraction are two very different things. Both Rosalyn and Tayuya are attracted to a number of other people in camp, some of whom are the same individuals, (Hi, Lady! 8Db) but acting on said attraction is more trouble than it's worth, and of course, there's that pesky no-sex rule. Not to mention, not everyone shares their views on the subject, and in an enclosed place like camp, there's bound to be fallout, and attraction's just not worth the hassle of fallout.
The girls know exactly where they stand with one another, and that, as far as love and investment of feelings go, there isn't anyone else they want to be with. The rest of the Sound Four deserve their own essay in light of this, and this is not going to happen today.
So, if Rosalyn and Stan's fights result in makeout time, and it's free of mess and hassle, there's no problems here. Rosalyn isn't about to seek him out for a booty call, but if it happens, it happens and she's not going to feel guilty about it.
Likewise, if Tayuya had people in camp she could have the occasional encounter with without strings, Rosalyn feels she's welcome to it, heck, she's welcome to molest Stan if she's so inclined.
And besides, not dating Stan, but having a heck of a lot of UST with him during their fights brings them back to how things used to be before camp, so, I suppose the moral of this gigantic block of text is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Feel free to tell me I make no sense.