[OOC] Monsters Hotel

[oakman]

@KawaiiOshiri Should be interesting, welcome to the hotel

!@Earnest Evans Comedic License.

[KawaiiOshiri]

Can i post in IC

[akje]

Can i post in IC

@KawaiiOshiri

Oakman invits you in, you are free to post.
So you've gotten an invitation letter to the monster hotel.
Have fun

[Earnest Evans]

Hey, sorry for not posting for the last couple days. It's finals week for my college, so I was busting my butt with presentations and tests. I'll grind out a post soon.

[Xenonia]

EY YO TONY WHERE'D YOU GET THAT FRESH APPERONI

As in can I apply

[Horrid]

Yeah pretty sure its still open for business. Just whip up onnah dem character sheets and you're golden.

[akje]

correct me if I'm wrong here:
I noted everyone's current location:

In a hallway on the... 3rd floor I think.:
Djedkare
Avelai & her servants
Like

Bar:
Alcaeus
Snazzy
Cain
Marie

Lobby:
Lord De Gravee
John Doe

In their room:
Jack

[Earnest Evans]

It's pretty clever of Avalai to force her minions to dissuade any feelings of guilt about controlling them like thralls by making them talk about how good being a thrall for the Red Queen is and how they deserve to be enslaved so long as they're near the Red Queen. It really fits her character to do that, you know? I'm impressed with your RPing capabilities, @ReaptheMusic.

[nerminator]

correct me if I'm wrong here:
I noted everyone's current location:

In a hallway on the... 3rd floor I think.:
Djedkare
Avelai & her servants
Like

Bar:
Alcaeus
Snazzy
Cain
Marie

Lobby:
Lord De Gravee
John Doe

In their room:
Jack

@akje

My character John Doe is in the bar, not the lobby

[KawaiiOshiri]

why is everynoe ignoring marie :(

[MonsieurShade]

why is everynoe ignoring marie :(

@KawaiiOshiri

She's not being ignored, so much as she's not really interacting with anyone at the moment and everyone is otherwise preoccupied. Going by your posts, she came in (granted said entrance involved smashing the doors open), ordered a drink, and spoke to Snazzy a bit. If no one is approaching Marie, perhaps she try speaking to one of the others at the bar. Please note that I am not attempting to tell you how to run your character, merely trying to offer helpful advice.

[ReaptheMusic]

@Earnest Evans

???

Well, thank you for the compliment but... uh... I'm not sure if you know how a thrall works o3o The oxford dictionary defines it as "the state of being in someone's power or having great power over someone." In this case, I use the former of the definition. In legend, to be a Thrall to a vampire or a demon (usually of the Succubus/Incubus nature, which vampires are a class derived from it in lore) was to be a servant to the being in question and to enjoy it by the benefits reaped by it. (See: Sex or, as I've used it here, to drink the vampires blood. In some stories that's how someone becomes bound to be a vampires servant or thrall is to actually drink the vampires blood and not the other way around. Vampire bite to kill, or vampire blood to keep alive and as a servant.) And usually, as illustrated by my post a little while back, servants are more than willing to literally kill themselves should the being they have residence under desire it. I'm not going to pretend I understand all the biology of it, it is just lore, but this is how I've always understood thralls to work.

In my post, I didn't really mention them saying that they deserved anything or that they felt necessarily good about it, but that it was just a job that happened to come with some good perks. It is true that she asked to dispel any guilt about the whole situation; but the will of a thrall here is free. Some thralls in legend DO have varying degrees of free will, which is how I can see you may have interpreted it, but they're pretty free in this case. Hence, his rather realistic and neutral answer.

It's just a job. He can go home if he wants, anyone can really be employed by Avalai if they have what she looks for. (*cough* if they're cute enough and she likes them in bed) That being said, Avalai is still not a good person >3> By any means of the imagination. She's pretty fucked up. It's better to be her thrall and protect your family than to oppose her and have everyone you love die. Thrall Neutrality works well here though because this rp is meant to be a comedy. I'm just glad Avalai can bring a little darkness to it ;3

[Earnest Evans]

@ReaptheMusic

So, your character demonstrably poses a threat to them and their families, routinely orders them to perform acts that would logically go against their personalities and basic self-preservation instincts, and treats them like animals unless they're sexy, but they stay with you completely on their own volition. That seems rather suspect, don't you think?

Hell, there's even less of a reason for these people to stay with you than the Ghouls of other vampire fiction, because it doesn't seem that they get any special powers beyond "vampire blood tastes good" and "maybe I can screw the person who just forced me to kill my coworker to prove a point". Thus far, it doesn't seem that there are any perks that could make a person with any semblance of free will stay with you. Vacations, money, and drugs are things that can entice a person to commit evil acts, but not to this extent and not without changing them as a person.

If they were all people with a lack of conviction that allows them to do all the things you've had them do, Avalai wouldn't be a noblewoman with a crowd of hangers-on and party boys, she'd be a cartel owner.

For the record, the entities closest to your thralls would be the Ghouls of the World of Darkness. These poor fellows are biochemically and magically forced to adore their master's blood. Going cold turkey off Blood for more than a month gives them withdrawal symptoms on par with getting off multiple hard drugs, and so a Ghoul is effectively brainwashed whenever their master comes up.

If you had taken a page of the World of Darkness and said "these are Avalai's meat-puppets and her blood is their life now", this whole thing would make much more sense. As it is right now, Avalai's thralls zigzag between "completely devoted minion" and "friendly coworker" depending on how you feel. You can't have your cake and eat it, you know. It has to be either "thralls are my mindless minions and do whatever I say for just a drop of my blood" or "thralls are merely servants who are kept in line through good employee benefits".

You've clearly demonstrated that the thralls have something close to free will only some of the time, and make them into semi-mindless slaves for the rest of the time. This whole thrall thing is needlessly edgy and often provides mood whiplash within the same scene for little to no reason.

[oakman]

@akje erm the Lord is in his Study.

[MonsieurShade]

<snip>

@Earnest Evans

If I might interject here before a possible argument takes place- you raise plenty of fair points here Earnest, however one must remember that this Rp is, at it's core, a comedy based RP. It's not really meant to take itself serious, and as such, neither are the characters.

[akje]

Thanks for the corrections:
I noted everyone's current location:

In a hallway on the... 4th floor I think.:
Avelai & her servants
Like

Bar:
Djedkare
Alcaeus
Snazzy
Cain
Marie
John Doe

The Lord's Study:
Lord De Gravee

In their room:
Jack

[akje]

@ReaptheMusic@Earnest Evans

So if the mechanics are like in World of Darkness, they would tell her whatever she wants to hear.
"Do you like working for me out of your own free will?"
"Yes I am free and happy! Just gimme one drop pleeeeaaase."

[Earnest Evans]

<Snipped quote by Earnest Evans>

If I might interject here before a possible argument takes place- you raise plenty of fair points here Earnest, however one must remember that this Rp is, at it's core, a comedy based RP. It's not really meant to take itself serious, and as such, neither are the characters.

@MonsieurShade

Of course I understand that, I like the powers these characters are coming out with. I want Avalai's powers to keep with a static "mood", you know? I expected either a sadistic queen who keeps a group of happy, willful minions through legitimately good benefits, or a sadistic queen who keeps her minions loyal through fear, threats, and literal brainwashing. I'm just not sure which side @ReaptheMusic wants to stick with. Is she a good boss, or does she order her minions to fight to the death on a whim? Does she give them a chance to unwind and party, or do they stay close to her, eyes dulled and muscles tensed?

[akje]

<Snipped quote by MonsieurShade>

Of course I understand that, I like the powers these characters are coming out with. I want Avalai's powers to keep with a static "mood", you know? I expected either a sadistic queen who keeps a group of happy, willful minions through legitimately good benefits, or a sadistic queen who keeps her minions loyal through fear, threats, and literal brainwashing. I'm just not sure which side @ReaptheMusic wants to stick with. Is she a good boss, or does she order her minions to fight to the death on a whim? Does she give them a chance to unwind and party, or do they stay close to her, eyes dulled and muscles tensed?

@Earnest Evans

But the combination of both is the darkest answer of all!
I'd vote for the literal brainwashing + lying to herself about it.
They play and have fun but it's all just because she makes them do those things, so she doesn't have to admit to herself she is forcing these people using her blood. Like a mental self defense mechanism. Deep down she knows full well she's a tyrant, but she'll make them praise her over and over again until she herself believes she's a fair and just monarch.

Though I must admit I'd like that path best because it's dark as hell and provides a starker contrast to the comedy.
I enjoy dark comedy a little too much sometimes.
Which is why I'm having Like poke at the sore spot. It allows Avalai to explore this story arc further, while it fits well for Like because he is a trickster archetype.

[MonsieurShade]

@akje
That...is brilliant.