Alien Romance, the daily comic strip

[gs_silva]

Okay, where were we? This scene is weird because there are abrupt mood changes in each installment. Ella had accused Maurice of ogling other women, and Maurice denied it but described the conversation he'd had with Owen on the porch of their shared multifamily house.

So Ella teases Maurice about caring that he and Ren look 'funny' together.

"You can shag Ren sideways, for all I care. But Cathy implied you were checking out other girls," Ella says.

"I wasn't!" Maurice insists. "Okay, I mighta said some things. But they were judging me! I felt cornered! Owen with his whole, "Oh, I don't mean to be rude! Hahaha! You just look funny! And Cathy: "Don't be embarrassed! I still love you!" I'm NOT embarrassed. I've spent huge amounts of time making myself not be self-conscious. Even though all of society wants me to. TV thinks I'm nothing but comic relief. Undesirable. Feeling good about myself? Nope! Can't have that! I spent two years trying to figure out how to enter the dating scene, before Cathy showed up, 'cause there's no guide for people like me."

"I'm sorry, Maurice. You're right," says Ella. "Our society is needlessly hostile to Asians."

Maurice scowls and finally replies, "...I meant short guys."

Ella holds her head in her hands. "Oh! Oh geez. Recalibrating!"

"That too, Sure," Maurice says. "I haven't even dealt with that part as much. I don't know how to start."

"They're kinda related. Maybe you can double up and overcome them both!" Ella suggests. "Low self-esteem is hard, even when you don't feel like everyone is telling you you need to have it." She should know! Ella is the girl who realizes early in life that society's pressures on women are nonsense, but then doesn't have the tools to deal with this realization, so she just sits on it, occasionally being cynical about it, and the years go by. At this point she's just overcome the pressure of needing a man to make her feel complete, and would really rather be a lesbian. She has yet to realize that she can also be a tepid lesbian.

"I don't just feel it. That's literally what happened yesterday," Maurice asserts.

"Sorry. That sucks," says Ella. "Hey, Arzy, if it's any comfort, that time you asked me out... I did briefly consider it."

Next post will be another change in tone! Confiding in Ella isn't always a bad thing, but it helps to have a thick skin and be tolerant of whiplash. She's a quick thinker but not a deep thinker.

***

I have a character development concept I came up with years ago: how easily influenced a character is by external input. Very impressionable people who are insecure and/or who look for outside validation are on one end of the spectrum, and those who are self-contained and difficult to influence are on the other end. Of course, you can occupy different spots at different times. Maturity may also move you closer to one end than the other.

Ella is my most naturally self-contained character. What's going on inside her head is louder than what's going on around her. She doesn't know how to manage it, so she's developed a simplistic self-concept to explain herself to herself. Something like, "I'm weird and cynical and I don't make friends easily." Later generations might accuse her of being "too much" or "extra" or maybe "basic" (because 'extra' and 'basic' are nonsense concepts so you can just level either one of them at people you're annoyed at).

She's not dumb, and she'll actually adapt to unexpected developments in an instant. She's pretty good at utilizing the adrenaline rush in a crisis. And she's good at long-term management, too. But some people might feel like interacting with her is like hugging a porcupine.

She's purposely gentle with Maurice, but sometimes not enough. I intended them to be good friends, but on paper they bicker pretty much constantly. It's gotten me in trouble. I played them both in a freeform RP once and it blew up in my face so badly... OMG.... so badly. I don't even know why it went wrong, but multiple people swore up and down that it was so bad they couldn't even bear to discuss it with me.

Welp.

Two more RPs later (with completely different people) and I think I've sworn off RPing with these characters forever. If I forget this and decide to try again, please track me down and ring my doorbell and tell me you won't leave my house until I change my mind. It's not worth it anymore. It never was. Follow my instincts! I don't CARE how much fun it SOUNDS!

And I'm not that into D&D anymore either. I still love the concept, but I've started to struggle with the process of doing it. I think...

...I just...

don't roleplay anymore.

I'd still do crossovers. The kind where my contribution is playing off of other people's contributions, but still somewhat self-contained.

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Maurice scowls and finally replies, "...I meant short guys." <<

Yeah, society is really hard on them.

>>I'd still do crossovers. The kind where my contribution is playing off of other people's contributions, but still somewhat self-contained.<<

That can be fun.

Re: Thoughts

[gs_silva]

I've gotten some sour reactions to my material addressing the hard parts of being a short man (even having him get realistically injured hasn't always gone over well) (okay, I've only done it twice, and the recent re-injury wasn't remarked upon negatively, but someone had objections to the scene where he breaks his arm) but it's part of his story arc. It's not like every day or anything! He's got tons of scenes where he's not having or making an issue over it.

Our creative jam exchanges are exactly the kind of thing I love... except in this post I was thinking more about "my characters meet person's characters" and we'd lob the ball back and forth over maybe a longer period than 48 hours... hehe... just because I take a long time. And you make it easy for me to research your characters! At some point I hope to follow the links and read up on one of them and give you a little fanart/crossover art. I think you're more exacting than me about canon, so when I do it, I want to get it as accurate as possible.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I've gotten some sour reactions to my material addressing the hard parts of being a short man <<

If they come from short men, then give them some serious consideration, especially "not X but Y" type feedback. If you see basically the same comment from 3+ readers, think about whether it's valid. But if you're getting random chaff from people who aren't short men, ignore it.

>> it's part of his story arc. <<

Exactly. Being a short man is HARD, and other people make it harder.

Something you might think about whether he does, because it varies culturally: short people reach things low to the ground, and tall people reach things high up, and nobody complains about either because they have agreed to a vertical division of labor. The problem comes when people don't match up the halves, just make demands of one side only.

>> Our creative jam exchanges are exactly the kind of thing I love... <<

Yay!

>> except in this post I was thinking more about "my characters meet person's characters" and we'd lob the ball back and forth <<

That works too.

>> over maybe a longer period than 48 hours... hehe... just because I take a long time. <<

Well yeah, you're drawing. For most people that takes longer, even when you're not paired with someone like me who writes at warp speed.

>> And you make it easy for me to research your characters! <<

\o/

>> At some point I hope to follow the links and read up on one of them and give you a little fanart/crossover art. <<

That would be awesome. :D Some series have faceclaim character images in the character sheets, others typically don't.

>> I think you're more exacting than me about canon, so when I do it, I want to get it as accurate as possible. <<

Often but not always true. I have a few that are designed for crossovers. This is the Shared Worlds page. Two of the open fandoms are The Blueshift Troupers and Schrodinger's Heroes, of which Schrodinger's Heroes is probably the best fit.

Re: Thoughts

[gs_silva]

>>If they come from short men, then give them some serious consideration<<

It was a tall... genderfluid person. Who was being female for most of our friendship, but who had real-life experience as a male. But tall! I'm not sure, but I suspect that her problem was that she'd been in a lot of fights, and tended to win them because of how she was built, but had trauma associated with it all.

The two people Maurice is brawling with are big, although he does win the brawl... by some definition of 'win'... well, I don't want to tell you too many spoilers. The winning wasn't my friend's problem. I don't even think she read to the end of that scene.

>>short people reach things low to the ground, and tall people reach things high up<<

I've done that, of course! Oh! I should post the laundromat scene. I'll need to redraw it - it's just in pencil and that sketchbook is in tough condition. But yeah, visual height gags abound.

I have a couple that take place in Lyon, too. There's one that I can probably toss up into a post. And then one that's in the graphic novel.

I can't seem to find my way into Schrödinger's Heroes, mentally. I haven't tried real hard. I keep meaning to spend some time looking around in it, looking for a hook. That's what I mean when I say that someday I'll read up on them. It's on my list of 57 things to do that's not my own book/comic. Someday!

But I do have kind of a double standard. I'm beamingly happy anytime anyone borrows my characters, no matter how far off canon they wander (as long as it's not bloody)... but when I reciprocate, I want to do a meticulous job. And I'm not up for that level of performance right now. Real life messing with my sense of reality.

I swear I went through an interdimensional portal over Baffin Bay back in 2015, and I'm homesick for my dimension of origin.

(That was the time period when +rumÞ's campaign really took off, so it's not as crazy as it initially sounds.)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> It was a tall... genderfluid person. <<

Probably ignore that.

>> The two people Maurice is brawling with are big, although he does win the brawl... by some definition of 'win'... <<

There are certain advantages to being small. One of my characters, Shiv, is a small man -- and among his favorite mundane methods is to duck down and ram a large man's solar plexus with his shoulder. It is very effective. A tall person's center of gravity is way high off the ground, which means a short person can get underneath it and destabilize the opponent.

>>I've done that, of course! Oh! I should post the laundromat scene. I'll need to redraw it - it's just in pencil and that sketchbook is in tough condition. But yeah, visual height gags abound.<<

That sounds fun.

>> I can't seem to find my way into Schrödinger's Heroes, mentally. <<

No problem.

>> But I do have kind of a double standard. I'm beamingly happy anytime anyone borrows my characters, no matter how far off canon they wander (as long as it's not bloody)... <<

I don't mind getting a few fanwork or crossover prompts, because I can use those for freebies. The March 3 Poetry Fishbowl theme will be "World Cuisine."

>> but when I reciprocate, I want to do a meticulous job. <<

Understandable.

>> And I'm not up for that level of performance right now. Real life messing with my sense of reality.<<

Real life can be a major impediment to creativity. My sympathies.

>> I swear I went through an interdimensional portal over Baffin Bay back in 2015, and I'm homesick for my dimension of origin.<<

*sigh* I know that feel. It's why I've chosen a career that lets me spend large amounts of time in dimensions that are not on fire.

Re: Thoughts

[gs_silva]

Here we go: a height-related sight gag and simultaneously an example of how Maurice deals with fights. You know, in case Shiv wanted to go mano a mano with him. :)

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

*laugh* Well played.