(no subject)
In case anyone is wondering, that last post was not me. But instead an impostor that broke into my hotel room while I was in the bathroom. Such a ninja like impostor!
But yes I am back from Chicago (where I went for my older brother's wedding) and it was a lot of fun :) And spending more time with attaining was also a blast! I'd say more, but I'm dead tired after a 9 hour train ride.
Instead I'll just...C&P a potential plot idea I have for Reno that I wrote on the train. Hopefully it is coherent, I'm not sure anymore. VAST AMOUNTS OF REST HAVE NOT BEEN ON MY SIDE THIS WEEKEND.
Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that I came up with this idea while suffering from sleep deprivation, boredom, motion sickness and all that jazz that comes from train rides that end up costing 11 hours of your life. But hey, sometimes you come up with your best stuff when your mind is not all there, right?
Or complete nonsense, either or!
Background Info:
Anyway, so for the past few months I've been struggling with Reno. It's been a combination of having bad luck with CR and the old roles he used to have in Paradisa being fulfilled by my other two muses. Allen has grown up enough where he is actually useful in crises that require heroes while Zoe makes the perfect neutral cynical snarker. Whenever I would try to put him into either slot for the sake of plots, it would just feel like I'm writing a substitute for those two. Which why would i need to do that when I could play Allen or Zoe for realz? It was to the point where I was honestly contemplating dropping him, and only hadn't done it yet for the sake of not giving more fuel to wank that seriously has nothing to do with me dropping him.
But then it occurred to me where my problem was, and it was my own failing. I had been trying too hard to shove him into the role he used to have in Paradisa. Which truth to be told, he has no reason to fall into that role any time soon. The first time he was here, the guy had friends pretty fast (Misa literally from Day #2 and she clung like a thistle to him), he had castmates (even if they had a crazy drop/app rate), strays he'd look after and most importantly he had Faith who seriously was one of the main driving forces that kept him on the right side of things. All of these things? Gave a character who seriously lives for his friends and family a very strong reason to wear a white hat and keep with atonement. HIs main dream both in canon and in first time Paradisa was to be able to stay with the people he cared about. And as time passed, it became easier and easier to wear that white hat since he had so much positive reinforcement to do so. By the end of his stay, he had no reason to even consider slipping back into old habits because he was happy with his life and doing the right thing was so easy now. Seriously, who needs to contemplate murder as a solution when you have flipping Superman as your bro?
This time in Paradisa, he has none of the stuff that made him compelled to do the right thing. His friends are sparse or distant, no strays, no castmates and the short time he knew Faith she was well...punching him into walls and essentially being the tsundere ex-wife from hell (thus making him have low desire to contact her now that she's back -- would you contact your crazy ex-wife if you knew she couldn't remember you? Seriously). So without any of those reasons, Reno's reasons to help out in Paradisa are pretty low outside of his own survival. Which...isn't even that great reason when he's someone who kinda doesn't care much about living to begin with.
In addition, he's someone that needs a purpose with his life, some sort of job. He choose to stay with Turks after Meteor even though he could have easily been a free man, he wanted that purpose, a place to go and atonement. So without the accompaniment of friends, I doubt the freedom that Paradisa gives him excites him very much. In fact it's quite the opposite, he hates being bored and really wants to do something with his life. Something more than just cleaning glasses at a bar (He only worked at the Deathmatch before because he was pushed into it by Travis and was friends with the entire staff by that point).
Sadly? The only thing he really knows what to do with himself without anyone really giving him a direction or the friends to aid? Is violence, killing and other scumbag things. Sure he was trying to get away from that stuff some but...when you got nothing really going for you and way too much time on your hands plus killing felt kinda good when you did it despite the serious drawbacks? You're gonna slip.
TLDR: Two equations that pretty much predicts a path of Reno in RP
Friends + Purpose + Positive Influences = Atonement good Reno
No Friends + No Purpose + No positive influences = Not so good Reno
Plot Idea:
So what I'm thinking is to have Reno start falling back into his old roles. Taking jobs from more shady townspeople simply to pass the time. Bodies will pop up as he gets hit jobs, people could go missing, rumors of a highly skilled assassin for hire will start spreading in the underground for anyone who pays attention to the crime in the city to notice. He wouldn't be stupid enough to throw around his real name or agree to any jobs that goes after castle residents, but it would be noticeable that something is going on to the people who pay attention to the city.
From there, I'd be perfectly open to anything people would want to do. If people wanted, the heroes could catch on to what's going on and eventually catch him in the act. I mean he's certainly skilled enough that it would take some serious footwork to catch him, but he's definitely not impossible to catch and once he is caught it'd be pretty easy to take him with multiple fighters or godmods. Or if he was left to his own devices for an extended period, the severity of the stuff he did would get worse as he slipped further. Maybe more innocents would wind up dead in his jobs and maybe he'd even take a few jobs that act against other castle residents. Either way, he'd probably get worse the longer he's at it and becomes more used to it.
If/When he is caught, I'd once again be open to what people would want to do to do with him, since it has a lot of interesting plot potential. I mean, what exactly do you do when someone who used to be a well known effective white hat falls from the good side? Lock him up for months and never speak his name again? (Note: I'd be fine with playing my character in jail...he's talkative enough where that is not a problem for posts) Try to appeal to his good side? Stare befuddled and wonder if this is a very long lasting loss? Let it slide and hope he cleans his act up now that he's been caught? It'd be interesting to see since i don't think they've ever had...a good guy go bad outside of short term losses. Not to mention this can be as large or as small scale as people want it and even people who have no idea who Reno is can get involved with catching him, hiring him or deciding what to do with him.
SO WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK? I swear it's so long because I had too many hours to myself on the dang train :C
But yes I am back from Chicago (where I went for my older brother's wedding) and it was a lot of fun :) And spending more time with attaining was also a blast! I'd say more, but I'm dead tired after a 9 hour train ride.
Instead I'll just...C&P a potential plot idea I have for Reno that I wrote on the train. Hopefully it is coherent, I'm not sure anymore. VAST AMOUNTS OF REST HAVE NOT BEEN ON MY SIDE THIS WEEKEND.
Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that I came up with this idea while suffering from sleep deprivation, boredom, motion sickness and all that jazz that comes from train rides that end up costing 11 hours of your life. But hey, sometimes you come up with your best stuff when your mind is not all there, right?
Or complete nonsense, either or!
Background Info:
Anyway, so for the past few months I've been struggling with Reno. It's been a combination of having bad luck with CR and the old roles he used to have in Paradisa being fulfilled by my other two muses. Allen has grown up enough where he is actually useful in crises that require heroes while Zoe makes the perfect neutral cynical snarker. Whenever I would try to put him into either slot for the sake of plots, it would just feel like I'm writing a substitute for those two. Which why would i need to do that when I could play Allen or Zoe for realz? It was to the point where I was honestly contemplating dropping him, and only hadn't done it yet for the sake of not giving more fuel to wank that seriously has nothing to do with me dropping him.
But then it occurred to me where my problem was, and it was my own failing. I had been trying too hard to shove him into the role he used to have in Paradisa. Which truth to be told, he has no reason to fall into that role any time soon. The first time he was here, the guy had friends pretty fast (Misa literally from Day #2 and she clung like a thistle to him), he had castmates (even if they had a crazy drop/app rate), strays he'd look after and most importantly he had Faith who seriously was one of the main driving forces that kept him on the right side of things. All of these things? Gave a character who seriously lives for his friends and family a very strong reason to wear a white hat and keep with atonement. HIs main dream both in canon and in first time Paradisa was to be able to stay with the people he cared about. And as time passed, it became easier and easier to wear that white hat since he had so much positive reinforcement to do so. By the end of his stay, he had no reason to even consider slipping back into old habits because he was happy with his life and doing the right thing was so easy now. Seriously, who needs to contemplate murder as a solution when you have flipping Superman as your bro?
This time in Paradisa, he has none of the stuff that made him compelled to do the right thing. His friends are sparse or distant, no strays, no castmates and the short time he knew Faith she was well...punching him into walls and essentially being the tsundere ex-wife from hell (thus making him have low desire to contact her now that she's back -- would you contact your crazy ex-wife if you knew she couldn't remember you? Seriously). So without any of those reasons, Reno's reasons to help out in Paradisa are pretty low outside of his own survival. Which...isn't even that great reason when he's someone who kinda doesn't care much about living to begin with.
In addition, he's someone that needs a purpose with his life, some sort of job. He choose to stay with Turks after Meteor even though he could have easily been a free man, he wanted that purpose, a place to go and atonement. So without the accompaniment of friends, I doubt the freedom that Paradisa gives him excites him very much. In fact it's quite the opposite, he hates being bored and really wants to do something with his life. Something more than just cleaning glasses at a bar (He only worked at the Deathmatch before because he was pushed into it by Travis and was friends with the entire staff by that point).
Sadly? The only thing he really knows what to do with himself without anyone really giving him a direction or the friends to aid? Is violence, killing and other scumbag things. Sure he was trying to get away from that stuff some but...when you got nothing really going for you and way too much time on your hands plus killing felt kinda good when you did it despite the serious drawbacks? You're gonna slip.
TLDR: Two equations that pretty much predicts a path of Reno in RP
Friends + Purpose + Positive Influences = Atonement good Reno
No Friends + No Purpose + No positive influences = Not so good Reno
Plot Idea:
So what I'm thinking is to have Reno start falling back into his old roles. Taking jobs from more shady townspeople simply to pass the time. Bodies will pop up as he gets hit jobs, people could go missing, rumors of a highly skilled assassin for hire will start spreading in the underground for anyone who pays attention to the crime in the city to notice. He wouldn't be stupid enough to throw around his real name or agree to any jobs that goes after castle residents, but it would be noticeable that something is going on to the people who pay attention to the city.
From there, I'd be perfectly open to anything people would want to do. If people wanted, the heroes could catch on to what's going on and eventually catch him in the act. I mean he's certainly skilled enough that it would take some serious footwork to catch him, but he's definitely not impossible to catch and once he is caught it'd be pretty easy to take him with multiple fighters or godmods. Or if he was left to his own devices for an extended period, the severity of the stuff he did would get worse as he slipped further. Maybe more innocents would wind up dead in his jobs and maybe he'd even take a few jobs that act against other castle residents. Either way, he'd probably get worse the longer he's at it and becomes more used to it.
If/When he is caught, I'd once again be open to what people would want to do to do with him, since it has a lot of interesting plot potential. I mean, what exactly do you do when someone who used to be a well known effective white hat falls from the good side? Lock him up for months and never speak his name again? (Note: I'd be fine with playing my character in jail...he's talkative enough where that is not a problem for posts) Try to appeal to his good side? Stare befuddled and wonder if this is a very long lasting loss? Let it slide and hope he cleans his act up now that he's been caught? It'd be interesting to see since i don't think they've ever had...a good guy go bad outside of short term losses. Not to mention this can be as large or as small scale as people want it and even people who have no idea who Reno is can get involved with catching him, hiring him or deciding what to do with him.
SO WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK? I swear it's so long because I had too many hours to myself on the dang train :C