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trojanhorst) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
taxonooc2013-07-30 04:07 pm
trojanhorst) wrote in taxonooc2013-07-30 04:07 pm
Entry tags:
Not Quite Hamsterball Material
Hi, Taxon! I meant to make this post yesterday morning, but I've been languishing with The Headache since then -- but since I cried off work sick today, I'll take a minute to put it up now, and I hope you'll all take some time to chime in. This isn't meant to upstage the official check-in post below, so please answer that one before you tackle this one. <3
One thing that's been weighing on my mind recently, is how do other characters actually feel about the Taxon experience? I think we kind of blanketly assume "okay, well, no one likes being imprisoned, duh," but this isn't just any prison, and the reality is that people are more complicated and have more things going on in their psyches than that, and there are plenty of reasons why individual Taxonians might have more complicated feelings about their present circumstances than that. Do they actually all hate it here? Are there some aspects they like?
So, in hopes of each of us learning more about what other people are exploring with their characters, the following little meme:
How does your character feel about being in Taxon --
1) In general, do they like it here?
2) Do they want to stay here? Do they want to leave? Do they have mixed feelings? Do they not much care either way?
3) Is there any reason they might want to stay in Taxon? Is there any reason they might not want to go home to their own reality? Is there anything or anyone they would miss from Taxon that might make them hesitant to leave if they had the chance?
4) Does it bother them that Taxon isn't like their home reality?
5) Is there anything or anyone they particularly miss from their home reality? (Is it pizza? Be honest, admit it, it's probably pizza. Just kidding.)
6) Do they wish Taxon had more fully sentient citizens? Does it particularly bother them that there aren't many people to talk to? Are they lonely or lacking the ability to socialize with large numbers of people, or is this something that doesn't much impact their life/happiness? Or do they prefer it this way?
7) Do they like living in this particular environment (climate/urbanity-wise)? Would they be happier if Taxon looked/felt like someplace else, or does this not much matter to them?
8) How do they feel about the Taxonian economy? Do they enjoy the financial security of Taxon's job/income system? Do they dislike the limitations of the sorts of jobs they are forced to take and/or the boredom inherent in doing them, or do they not much mind?
9) Are they interested in solving The Mystery of Taxon? Are they only interested if they need to solve it in order to escape? Or do they not particularly care what the fuck Taxon is? Do they think there's any point in trying to solve it, or trying to escape?
10) What's their current guess/theory about what Taxon is?
These questions are very freeform -- I put a lot of leading thoughts in there to try and draw out some of the complexities of the questions, but feel free to answer as briefly or as lengthily as you want, or to talk about any other aspect I didn't cover.
There are no right or wrong answers -- whether 95% of all characters have the same exact answers, or every single character feels entirely different, both of those are awesome in the end because it means we have a unified group of people (awesome) or a group of people who are bound to get frustrated with each other and bicker like hell (also awesome). I just figure we should talk publicly sometimes about what's in our characters' heads, not just what they've been up to -- so I thought, what the heck, I'll ask.
TL;DR HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER LIKE BEING IN TAXON, GO
One thing that's been weighing on my mind recently, is how do other characters actually feel about the Taxon experience? I think we kind of blanketly assume "okay, well, no one likes being imprisoned, duh," but this isn't just any prison, and the reality is that people are more complicated and have more things going on in their psyches than that, and there are plenty of reasons why individual Taxonians might have more complicated feelings about their present circumstances than that. Do they actually all hate it here? Are there some aspects they like?
So, in hopes of each of us learning more about what other people are exploring with their characters, the following little meme:
How does your character feel about being in Taxon --
1) In general, do they like it here?
2) Do they want to stay here? Do they want to leave? Do they have mixed feelings? Do they not much care either way?
3) Is there any reason they might want to stay in Taxon? Is there any reason they might not want to go home to their own reality? Is there anything or anyone they would miss from Taxon that might make them hesitant to leave if they had the chance?
4) Does it bother them that Taxon isn't like their home reality?
5) Is there anything or anyone they particularly miss from their home reality? (Is it pizza? Be honest, admit it, it's probably pizza. Just kidding.)
6) Do they wish Taxon had more fully sentient citizens? Does it particularly bother them that there aren't many people to talk to? Are they lonely or lacking the ability to socialize with large numbers of people, or is this something that doesn't much impact their life/happiness? Or do they prefer it this way?
7) Do they like living in this particular environment (climate/urbanity-wise)? Would they be happier if Taxon looked/felt like someplace else, or does this not much matter to them?
8) How do they feel about the Taxonian economy? Do they enjoy the financial security of Taxon's job/income system? Do they dislike the limitations of the sorts of jobs they are forced to take and/or the boredom inherent in doing them, or do they not much mind?
9) Are they interested in solving The Mystery of Taxon? Are they only interested if they need to solve it in order to escape? Or do they not particularly care what the fuck Taxon is? Do they think there's any point in trying to solve it, or trying to escape?
10) What's their current guess/theory about what Taxon is?
These questions are very freeform -- I put a lot of leading thoughts in there to try and draw out some of the complexities of the questions, but feel free to answer as briefly or as lengthily as you want, or to talk about any other aspect I didn't cover.
There are no right or wrong answers -- whether 95% of all characters have the same exact answers, or every single character feels entirely different, both of those are awesome in the end because it means we have a unified group of people (awesome) or a group of people who are bound to get frustrated with each other and bicker like hell (also awesome). I just figure we should talk publicly sometimes about what's in our characters' heads, not just what they've been up to -- so I thought, what the heck, I'll ask.
TL;DR HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER LIKE BEING IN TAXON, GO
seconding the 'great idea' thing
In general: yes. Paul certainly doesn't like the occasional dangers to life and limb, and he can never let himself forget he IS in a prison, but it's fair to say he is actually happier in Taxon than he was in the last year of his life in the real world, for a lot of reasons. Which I think I'll be expanding upon in some of the other answers.
2) Do they want to stay here? Do they want to leave? Do they have mixed feelings? Do they not much care either way?
Paul should be dead, in his world. The last memory he has of life on Earth was bleeding out in an alley. He is fairly sure that if he were returned to his world, he WOULD be dead, so.... life, even in a prison, is preferable to that.
Even aside from the 'dead' bit, Paul was a man at his wits' end before coming to Taxon. Bad life choices had gotten him into a no-solution situation that was a constant ethical struggle for him. Taxon has largely freed him from all of that, and even the occasional responsibilities he takes on in Taxon are less stressy than where he was at before coming to Taxon.
3) Is there any reason they might want to stay in Taxon? Is there any reason they might not want to go home to their own reality? Is there anything or anyone they would miss from Taxon that might make them hesitant to leave if they had the chance?
See: strong odds of being dead in his own reality (and if not dead, probably imprisoned in his own reality). Aside from that, there's this jackass cowboy running around whom Paul has grudgingly developed feelings for, so, you know, he'd miss
himthe sex. (Sure paul just the sex uh-huh.)4) Does it bother them that Taxon isn't like their home reality?
It's less 'Taxon' than it is the other inhabitants of Taxon. Paul has made vast strides in being able to accept people with superpowers/vampirism/magic/everything else, as compared to what he was like when he arrived, but... he's still an Earthling from a 20th century, mundane, earth. He's very aware that he is physically outclassed by like 2/3 of Taxon, and that, Taxon being Taxon, people sometimes attack other people for no good reason, like that time a vampire!Dawn bit his fuckin' throat. So there's a bit of low-level instinctual paranoia just in terms of safety, but also a big... gap between how he regards the world, and how people with superhuman abilities regard the world. I think no matter how jaded Paul gets, there will always be a part of him that misses a world that operates on the physical laws he accepts as 'normal'.
5) Is there anything or anyone they particularly miss from their home reality? (Is it pizza? Be honest, admit it, it's probably pizza. Just kidding.)
Lots of things, although Taxon probably has pretty good pizza by now. :P
-His ex-wife, who was also his best friend. It's a 25-year friendship that he deeply prized, and not having her here to call up and bitch to is a Thing.
-Connor and Murphy, with Mixed Feelings there. He's relieved as hell to not be dealing with them anymore, and feels guilty he's relieved, and still actually misses THEM, if not the ways they made his lives hell.
-Live opera
-Being in a genuine city that feels like a city, which Taxon does not to him; it doesn't have a nightlife the way Boston or NYC does/did
-Having cases to solve. Oh god does he miss that. He spent a 20-year career being really good at detective work and being a workaholic, and while, sure, Taxon is a mystery too, it's a completely different sort, and so far it's one he hasn't been able to solve, where many of his traditional skills are useless.
6) Do they wish Taxon had more fully sentient citizens? Does it particularly bother them that there aren't many people to talk to? Are they lonely or lacking the ability to socialize with large numbers of people, or is this something that doesn't much impact their life/happiness? Or do they prefer it this way?
Like Wyatt, Paul remembers when the Citizens were a lot worse. He's still intellectually aware they're not QUITE real, but they've gotten a lot less jarring and puppet-like. I think he probably prefers them to being a real populace that he would then feel somewhat ethically responsible for. As it is, there's a small pool of people he feels needs 'protecting'.
7) Do they like living in this particular environment (climate/urbanity-wise)? Would they be happier if Taxon looked/felt like someplace else, or does this not much matter to them?
Paul is a city-boy through and through. Taxon is not really City-like enough for him, even when it was much bigger. Organically-built cities have hubs and neighborhoods that make sense, they have rhythms and their own little ecosystems, kinda. Taxon is all wrong to his instincts, regardless of its size, but he's gotten used to it so it doesn't grate on him as much as it once did.
8) How do they feel about the Taxonian economy? Do they enjoy the financial security of Taxon's job/income system? Do they dislike the limitations of the sorts of jobs they are forced to take and/or the boredom inherent in doing them, or do they not much mind?
Paul was bound and determined like hell to never get a Taxon job and steal whatever he needed. There was no way he was going to 'buy into' the prison economy. He was content to fortify his survivalist fortress with nothing more than stolen goods and the survival allowance, and say a big FUCK YOU, HAMSTERS.
The aliens promptly decided to pay him for fortifying the Birdhouse, so. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
He's not so dedicated to his FUCK YOU, HAMSTERS that he isn't going to USE the money they've given him, especially after he got 'arrested' once for shoplifting. There are limits to even his pig-headedness.
But he still regards the entire conceit of the 'economy' as a psychological way to get the prisoners to play along, so he dislikes it on principle.
9) Are they interested in solving The Mystery of Taxon? Are they only interested if they need to solve it in order to escape? Or do they not particularly care what the fuck Taxon is? Do they think there's any point in trying to solve it, or trying to escape?
Paul's still, at heart, a detective, so yes, he's interested. But he goes in cycles of feeling it's pointless, and then getting back interested again. He also doesn't really want to 'escape', because of the whole 'does that mean I'll die permanently' thing.
10) What's their current guess/theory about what Taxon is?
Paul's observed that the aliens seem to draw people that he thinks of as 'dramatic' for lack of a better term-- either because of their personalities or their abilities, and sometimes both. Everyone in Taxon has a hell of a story, more or less. He is, of course, on the money with this, but has never made the connection (and likely never will) that they are all fictional people. He just believes the aliens essentially channel-surf between realities for 'interesting' people and then pop them in here.