Horst Cabal (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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
Will I be the last to answer my own survey? MAYBE
How does your character feel about being in Taxon --
1) In general, do they like it here?
Rosalind just got here, so she's currently neutral-to-positive on Taxon. She's tried out a lot of realities, and this one's new and interesting and still a mystery, and that's exciting. She hasn't managed to locate her missing other half yet, but she has yet to start really worrying about that. As someone who doesn't fully acknowledge the bars of their cage, and who has no home reality to return to, Taxon's as much her home now as anything might be, and she's still exploring it.
2) Do they want to stay here? Do they want to leave? Do they have mixed feelings? Do they not much care either way?
Rosalind's main deciding factor on whether or not she wants to leave will be what's on the other side of the door, and if it's more interesting, or has a greater number of Robert Luteces than this reality does. What she does want, however, is to find the door itself, so she can peek around the other side and decide whether or not to stay.
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?
Rosalind's just gotten here, so no, there's nothing yet that she'd miss -- except perhaps her own programmed possession, Lutece Labs, but she has no home reality to return to, so that's not a consideration.
4) Does it bother them that Taxon isn't like their home reality?
Hahahaha no. Back when her home reality existed, she lived in a floating city full of evil cultists. But she's become quite used to adapting to new realities, so for her, reality-surfing is like backpacking through Europe.
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.)
Rosalind misses her double, Robert, profoundly, or at least she will. She also grudgingly misses the pathetically endearing Booker Dewitt -- and she misses the 30-foot marble statue of herself, commemorating in the form of a public monument her remarkable scientific achievements.
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?
Rosalind hasn't usually spent much time talking to people who aren't herself, but being absent the version of herself that she's accustomed to talking to, she now finds herself with more things to say than she has listening ears to say them to. She doesn't think of the lack of intelligent Extras as being a big annoyance in Taxon, but it's much more of an annoyance than she realizes.
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?
There's always a city. This is one of the constants between realities that she's come to expect. It would strike her as odd if she wasn't in some kind of city, and this one is as good as any other.
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?
If Rosalind can get paid to spend her time running experiments/research in her laboratory, then she'll be perfectly fine with it -- thrilled, in fact, to live in a universe where she can get funding with so few strings attached. If she has to take some other kind of job to get money, she'll be miserable about it.
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?
Rosalind is more interested in solving the mystery of Taxon than she is in trying to escape. Whether or not she can escape is, to her, a forgone conclusion -- she's certain she can -- but he question of what Taxon's deal is is still full of so many delicious and exciting question marks.
10) What's their current guess/theory about what Taxon is?
A controlled city in a reality where alien beings can pull things out of other realities and contain them, but she doesn't see how any of that's a theory, as it seems to be fairly common knowledge. She assumes they have a quantum contraption of their own by which they accomplish this -- that part is her own theory. Perhaps Taxon is a city composed of an alien's souvenir collection.