There is a certain lack of integrity in my explanations of Bo's IC motivations for his comments at the dinner table.  Because his true motivations came from all of us in our OOC discussion.  My sole reason as the writer to have my character make those statements was that he seemed the most logical choice considering his background to insert that element into the game.  As I recall, we all discussed that there wouldn't be any sexual relations on the first night.  That we would wait, and perhaps on the second night have a game of truth/dare that migrated into something more intimate.  It seemed to me that it was going to be necessary for one of the characters to actually introduce that idea to the game.  Bo seemed the logical choice.  So I did it through him.<br/><br/>With the reaction that he got, it feels as if he has fallen on his sword for the sake of the game.  It is not a reaction that I expected, nor wanted, for introducing an element that we had all discussed ahead of time.  While writing with the tension between the characters has a certain appeal, having my character labeled judgmental for doing what I thought we all wanted is a surprising result.<br/><br/>My obvious mistake was in not making it clear in OOC first what I was going to do.  Perhaps everyone else's mistake was in forgetting what we had discussed and not making an effort to have that element accepted more smoothly into the game once Bo had introduced it.  Which, frankly, is what I expected when I wrote it.  And I don't have any real suggestions on how this can be "fixed" or if it even needs to be done so quickly.  I'm trying now, as in my last post, to write Bo working through it, and maybe that will be enough.  But I thought it helpful to remind everyone else of what we had discussed as well.<br/><br/>In any case, it is hopefully a good lesson learned for all of us as to why good OOC communication is important.  Especially in a game such as this where we can not be an island unto ourselves, even when our characters are stuck on one.  I'll play the "I'm new to this co-operative writing" excuse card and try better next time.<br/><br/>Thank you DD for doing such a superb job of keeping things on track.<br/><br/><br/>edit:  I have a whole stack of those excuse cards, btw.  If anyone needs to borrow one sometime, just let me know.<br/>