HMD?

[werewolf_hacker]

Er, hi. [waves shyly] Ben's mun here. This, I guess, will be the Official Contact Post if you want to yell at me about something. If I do something egregiously wrong or stupid, please let me know. Or, you know, if you've got kudos, I love to hear that too

Comments

I want to be sure you see this and can respond.

[runsockrun]

As a mun who plays with you all the time (and does not approve of wolfensock), I have to admit he/she/it has a point. It's gotten to the point where my character flat out doesn't care when Ben is beaten to Hell and back. He's been desensitized, since Ben talks about nothing else to my guy, even when mine tries to change the subject and enjoy happy things. And Ben's attacked several times a month, it seems like. A few people have mentioned being frustrated that their angelic/magical pups aren't allowed to do a damn thing to help Ben out.

You could do so much more with the character. Right now, Ben's not as interesting and fun as he *could* be.

Re: I want to be sure you see this and can respond.

[werewolf_hacker]

*nod* I get that, I do. I got some other crit about the same issue on one of those threads the other day and have taken it to heart. I will try to improve in that area. Thank you!

[anonymous]

Sometimes, muns want to play characters that won't have their lives invaded by Weird. Please stop tagging new characters and immediately shoving demons and angels and werewolf insanity in our faces. Be a little more considerate and give us the opportunity to play characters leading (mostly) normal lives.

[werewolf_hacker]

...if someone doesn't want angels and demons and werewolf insanity, all they have to do is shoot me a PM or IM saying "please, no," or just not tag back. I am an easy person to get along with and in no way want to force anyone to play something they don't want to play.

[anonymous]

Lemme preface this with the fact that you are a good writer. That's not what I'm calling into question. You write well.

There's a problem that I'm trying to figure out if it's IC or OOC. Ben's got a somewhat sexist "protect all the wimminz" attitude (which I can see where it came from in his backstory), and Janni seems to often be only the perfect wife to demonstrate this with. She stress-bakes and is protected, and I want so much more from her character. After all, her username includes the word "fierce". Her caring saved Ben's life when they first met. She's observant and bold enough to act.

And I know you can't control the reactions other people have to your character, but I wonder: do you have any interest in forcing Ben to address his sexist attitudes? Can you do something to show Janni off for more than just her pie-baking skills?

[werewolf_hacker]

You bring up several good points, anon, and I will attempt to address them.

Janni is not a "warrior woman" and was never meant to be. However, she gives Ben something to come home to, something to live for, and it often takes a very overlooked sort of strength for someone to be there to hold a man during his nightmares and to protect him as much as possible from his inner demons. I probably don't address this very well in the scope of the RP, and I'm sorry for that. Whether I'll be able to, going forward, is an open question. My main focus right now is Ben, because he's in the middle of something we've been planning for (literally) months, but that may change over time. In fact, I hope it does, because the exploration of that "different" kind of strength could be very interesting and maybe even break a few paradigms. Janni is very much a side character for me in the RP, although not in their canon, and I'd like to change that once things calm down for Ben. Unfortunately, I have limited time to explore all the neat stuff that's

[anonymous]

How is it Ben has been demon-free for over a month and a half now and he's still saying he isn't 'fit for human company', he isn't sleeping, he isn't smiling, he's exactly as miserable as he was two months ago?

You've given him a therapist. You've given him time off from the beatings. You seemed to be curing his Issues. Now he's mysteriously backslid without any reason ICly. What was the purpose of the therapist, the vacation, the cute happy times with dragon eggs, all the hugs and comfort you demand constantly from other pups?

Admit it, you're not going to allow Ben to recover and get over his angst one inch. Reread the first crit in this post, that anon has some very valid points which you've promised to work on and nothing changed. Clearly, more than one person who plays with you is very tired of angst for breakfast, lunch, supper, and midnight snack.

[werewolf_hacker]

He is still worried because he still has this gigantic threat of a gate thing with Succorbenoth hanging over his head. Also, I'm pretty sure that a bare month and a half in real time, not even necessarily game time, is not enough to get him over his issues, especially since the damned sigil that a demon carved into his chest still aches all the time. He had PTSD before all this started. He's not going to be magically over it just because he hasn't been tortured for six weeks. Waiting for another shoe to drop is its own kind of stress.

I've barely been posting with him (or anyone) at all because I've been busy with RL things. I don't have the time to play with the intensity I was before, so any character development that happens is going to be more slow. Nothing has changed yet because his circumstances haven't actually changed. Once they do, then he will.

DA

[anonymous]

Actually, after two years of non-stop torment for Ben...

No one believes you. Like anon above said: Admit it, you're not going to allow Ben to recover and get over his angst one inch. For one thing, we all know you'll never let him go long enough without being tortured, because you never have. I can see characters getting tired of it ICly, which is downright sad.

If everyone is saying the same thing to you, it might be that the problem is YOU, not us.

Re: DA

[werewolf_hacker]

I won't admit, it, sorry. Mainly because I have no actual concrete plans for him after the thing with Sucky is over. And I realize that's taking too long to come to a head, but RL trumps RP.

[ellelovespink]

Hi! I don't know if you even check this anymore. But I am so glad you keep such detailed logs. I've been going back and reading things and I miss playing with you. <3 I'm currently playing over on IJ and hope you're doing well.

[werewolf_hacker]

Hey howdy hey! <3

I actually still play here on LJ (in a desultory manner) in PSLs. I've been concentrating more on writing I can get paid for, which has been good for me. In fact, Ben's origin novel has been published by WordFire Press, a short starring him is going to be in Plasma Frequency soonish, and I won Writers of the Future with a different werewolf story. So, amazing things happening to me.

And I'm glad I'm not the only one who goes back and reads old logs. Those were fun days!

[ellelovespink]

That's wonderful news. So one day I can say I knew you before you got famous. ;) That was a lot of fun and I'm glad it's not all lost forever like so many other things. If you ever have free time and want to do something, let me know. I'm aprylweather over at gmail. I'm really glad to hear how well things are going.

[werewolf_hacker]

Someday I will get around to updating Ben's bio with a link to the book.

Ditto for you! Hit me up on IM via werewolfhacker on AIM or agilebrit on Yahoo.