Ok, this is going to be a long post but I thought it best to put all of my thoughts on paper as I had them.  If something doesn’t make sense, let me know.  It’s 1:00 am here and I’m half brain dead at the moment.<br/><br/><strong>DD</strong>– Thank you for the great summary of IC thoughts for Mila, Bo, Vince, and Nicci.  It’s always neat to look back at an RP and see reactions as they played out in real time.  Of course, seeing something like this during the course of an ongoing game can also have the potential for a negative risk.  Specifically that the very real possibility exists that writers will gut check their reactions before they write them now, thus losing some of the “reality” of their character actions and thoughts and may try to right the “perceived wrongs” of the past – which may or may not be wrongs at all.  Also, I think the idea of the diaries has merit and should be tried but I also don’t want to see writers stop writing their characters internal thoughts of the immediate moment.  To me, the diaries serve as an opportunity for a character to reflect back on what has occurred and talk about what they hope happens in the future.  Maybe cover their fears and what makes them nervous plus their joys, etc.  Real time thought processes should be noted in posts as characters have them though.  That’s my opinion at least.  As for the need to clarify any of Marcus’s thoughts/actions I don’t think it exists – or rather I’m not in the position to know if it does since to him it makes perfect sense; if, however, it doesn’t to anyone else, let me know and I’m definitely willing to explain where his head was at that particular time.<br/><br/><strong>TS</strong>– You’re a damn good writer.  I’ve said that to you before and I mean it.  And like all writers, you’re feeling very protective of your character while also trying to play him as true as you can yet have also taken on the burden of trying to keep the game true to the “script”.  Personally, I don’t think anyone, including Vince, ganged up on Bo (anymore than anyone ganged up on Vince), though I thought Vince’s reactions and then 5th’s were a little more heightened than they needed to be .  I think Bo made a suggestion, perhaps not handled as smoothly as he could have handled it (trust me, Marcus would have probably handled it worse), and it irked another character.  That character reacted accordingly and quickly (with the same type of ire that Bo displayed in his last post; Vince just got there sooner) which created a tense situation.  Yes, we had talked about a “plan of action” among us but as any good military man knows (and something Bo eluded to in one his earlier posts), all good plans go to shit fast in the first few moments of putting it into action.  That’s what happened here.  Bo chose to initiate the plan of waiting to get intimate until the next day but, like all good plans, it didn’t go the way it was supposed to – Vince reacted, creating tension, and then everyone else reacted to the tension.  The plan was completely forgotten in the face of that, as was Vince’s suggestion to wait until tomorrow to talk about rules and guidelines.  AND THAT’S WHAT MAKES THIS RP SO DAMN GOOD.  I put that in caps because it needs to be emphasized.  That entire dinner scene was so realistic it was unbelievable.  Think back to all those family get-togethers where mom and dad (or mom/dad and son/daughter) started fighting and things got tense.  What happened?  People got quiet, failed or stilted attempts were made to try and lighten the mood, and chances are at least one member got up and left.  That’s what happened with us.  Hell, let’s face it, Bo’s way of introducing the plan was awkward – there were a million different ways it could have gone – but what followed was perfectly normal as were his reactions to the other character’s reactions  (I LOVED his comment about Marcus as peacemaker and inane questions – it was sooo true.  I can remember myself thinking like that on many occasions in similar life situations).<br/><br/>Here’s the thing that we ALL need to remember.  We are 6 writers involved in a game and managing 6 characters.  We have an idea who these characters are but they know themselves better AND they are learning and growing each post we make.  I’m all for having a loose outline for a game BUT if we script this thing to death it will get old fast.  Right now, we’re scripting in OOC but not settling on who is taking us from one scene to another.  Is it DD as GM?  Is it me as the writer for Marcus?  Is it whoever takes up the charge that particular moment?  I think one reason we seemed to wallow in the dinner scenes was because no one knew who was responsible for moving us to the next scene (the other reason, of course, was because I think it was entirely realistic that it played out that way).  I know I keep waiting for DD to introduce the “transition scenes” or make it clear that she wants someone else to do it (like she did when she asked one of the guys to move us into the dining room) but I’ve never voiced that on OOC, which was a mistake.  We're still in the dinner scene so maybe we should decide that before anyone else posts.<br/><br/>Lastly, I want to echo something Elina said.  We ALL need to play our characters the way we think they would play AND that is going to change from time to time.  I know Marcus has surprised me a few times where I had an idea for my post in my head but by the time he was done reacting/thinking that post had changed.  Let’s not try to force our characters in any one direction in advance.  Let’s read the posts ahead of us, have an idea what we want to write, and if it changes in a way that doesn’t radically affect the story (which should not be confused with the “script”) we post it.  If it does radically affect the story, we save it and throw it up in OOC (the way Elina did when she asked if it would be ok if Mila ran to her room) before we post it.  Sometimes another post will sway us before we post (as it did with Elina who changed her mind after 5th posted) and sometimes it won’t.  Of course, handling things this way means we may not be able to post daily, as DD has asked in the beginning, but I would personally want to see slower posts that kept the story on track than fast posts that derailed things because no one waited for confirmation before proceeding.<br/><br/><strong>Bottom line</strong>– let’s let our characters become the people they will become and stop thinking so much.  Let’s have fun as Elina said.<br/>