These are some little factoids from our SL that I want to put out there for those of you who are playing with us now to familiarize yourselves with. I have been meaning to do this for years but never had the time nor did I think anyone cared and then the questions started to roll in so I guess, some do. Since I'm starting to receive a lot of questions lately, I thought it was time to set the record straight :)
You are not to use any of this information IC as your characters would not know any of it, directly, unless they were told IC. Because I know that many players have been confused over a great many things that transpire while around Brutin, Tara and other SA members, hopefully this will clear some of that up so you, the player, are aware why the characters say certain things or act a certain way.
I do not mind if players IM me with questions but I'd much rather they figure it out on their own, however, since we're "back" and I'm getting bombarded with questions, I'm going to use recent IC examples to get my point across.
The Slaver's Association SL was one of the largest on AOL back in the day and as it's Co-Admin, I am proud of what we achieved. We did not get this way by being boring. Brutin's player is one of the most creative people I ever met and he's all about having a good time while playing. I'm the same way. We encourage IC interaction and interesting, thought-provoking SLs. Sometimes we create them but mostly they're dropped in our lap. This, believe it or not, is the way we prefer it.
As always, if you have a question, feel free to PM me or email me.
You may notice that often Brutin and Tara will contradict themselves. One minute they might say, as an example (not that this was ever said IC), that paga is served in a coffee cup and then five minutes later, while speaking to someone else, they might say it is served in a bowl. Or, for whatever reason, they may say something that is incorrect but never actually clarify it. It is their way and while I cannot say here why they are like this (you're going to have to figure that out on your own like I did many years ago), I can say there is a very good reason for it.
Brutin is extremely vague and cryptic. He is not the type to hand you an answer on a platter. He says something and if you don't "get" him, well that is your problem. Tara, however, gets him, all the time and she's verbose as most of you may be noticing. She will "overexplain" things frequently either to trip people up or because she likes to hear herself speak. Whereas Brutin celebrates beauty and puts a price on it, Tara is the most shallow vain creature you'll ever meet and thinks she is the most beautiful person in the world and, coincidentally, priceless.
You may see her translating her employer's words for others because she knows that he confuses people all the time. There are also times where she won't help anyone out, even if begged. Again, there are reasons for this and I will say that if you see her snubbing someone's question, look at the type of person asking her for help and what was said to her prior as a hint. Sometimes it is not WHAT is said to her but WHO says it.
I will say though that if a conversation is going on between, say, Brutin and Joe Schmoe and then you all of a sudden see Brutin turn his attention to Tara and they begin yapping back and forth, quickly, about something unrelated to what he was just talking about, pay very close attention to what is being said because by doing this at least one of them is trying to get the person that was speaking to Brutin to wisen up. Usually this is the case. Other times, it could be Tara just had a thought and wants to tell her Boss about it. LOL.
We use a lot of allegory and what I have often called "codespeak" in our play. As an example, last night while speaking to Brutin, Tara told him she wanted to see what Nadine looked like under the Kumquat. Now, obviously, a kumquat is a fruit and when you look at the sentence it doesn't make a lick of sense but it does if you know what "kumquat" is a substitute for. In that particular sentence it was a reference to the Gorean Ravishment Lamp. Google this to see what it is and you will understand that little snippet better. We do this all the time, without warning and we're so in tune with each other that we figure out what the other is saying immediately. It's a game Brutin's player and I play together (we battle wits a lot and he always beats me LOL) and neither of us gives the other hints as to what we're talking about IC. We just type it out and if we can't figure it out, oh well.
This codespeak also extends to actions. The other night some players were confused by why Tara was breaking carrots in front of Nadine. I will not say here why she was although I did tell a few of you in IMs, however, think of what has been going on with Nadine lately. Why would she react the way she did, trembling, every time Tara broke a carrot? Is Nadine afraid of the vegetable? No. It's a carrot for Pete's sake. But she was afraid of something that breaking a carrot reminds her of. :: wink ::
We are all about symbolism in our gameplay.
Like slaves cannot lie, Tara will not lie to Brutin. She did once and never will do so again. Everything that comes out of her mouth towards him is the absolute truth and this is a SL constant that never changes. Some characters have learned this after spending considerable time with them and will use this to their advantage when wanting to get the truth out of her by asking Brutin. But that does not mean Brutin will help them out either. Although, if it's a serious situation and someone comes to him asking him to question her and it behooves Brutin to know the answer, he will. Suede was a recent example of this. She was not getting what she wanted out of interrogating Tara so she asked Brutin to intercede. Once he did, the truth came out.
It's all about circumstances, who is speaking to her or him, respect the person has in their eyes (because believe it or not, especially in Tara's eyes, certain people rank higher than others and you will see her showing one person more attention than another) or basically, sometimes its a situation of "What have you done for me lately?" In my wiki entry on Tara I say that she loves to be flattered. Give her a compliment or a gift and she'll be your friend for life. Many characters know this about her so if they want to get in good with Brutin they will use Tara as a means to do that. Sometimes it works others it may backfire. There are certain unspoken rules Tara will not break no matter who asks her to intercede. Again, you can't have your character know this because I'm putting it here but they can learn this about her IC if they talk to her or witness someone else doing it.
Tara was never Brutin's slave. She calls him Boss all the time but when she says "Bossman" it is because she cannot say, "Master", to him although sometimes she does to get a rise out of him. She's a brat that way. She was slave to two men only: Savior Morin (his old SN was DrkSaviorX) and Kain Locke who was known as The Black Dragon (his old SN was XBlkDragon). Both men worked for Brutin. Read my "Memoirs of a Cockroach Killa" in this folder to see how she became enslaved by them.
Another thing I would like to point out is that Tara was never, is not now nor will she ever be a member of the Slaver's Association itself. Tara hates slavery as an institution yet she has owned slaves and does right now. But what kind of slaves are they? That, believe it or not, matters very much. When asked what her Boss does, Tara will say he sells hats and Brutin will back her up on it. When asked what the SA stands for, she'll say "Salesmen Association" and that the fedora is their top selling item. Fedora is another word for "pleasure slave" as "cockroach" is another word for enemy.
She has always been Brutin's secretary, working directly for him, and the responsibilities she has are kept under wraps, also for good reasons. It's secret and only Brutin and Tara know, for fact, what she does. :) One day she will act as if she is low-man on the totem pole, others she acts like she owns the place. She does this on purpose to confuse and shock people and it works almost all the time. The only person's opinion of her at the SA that matters to Tara is Brutin's. She does not feel the need to explain herself to anyone even when asked because she knows her place and how Brutin sees her. It's none of anyone's business as far as she is concerned. Again, look at the scene in question and who is around her when she acts in a way other than she usually does.
Because we always played in one setting, that being Brutin's office, Tara is very much a creature of habit. There is a routine at the SA. Every night upon waking up at seven o'clock Tara gets out of bed, makes herself pretty and goes to see Brutin. Everything she does is for his amusement, pleasure and happiness. Every item in Brutin's office means something down to the stapler on his desk. The Shaved Kurii now is a new setting for Tara. She knows what a paga tavern is but is unused to this new environment. You may see her inspecting things, making off-handed comments or generally looking uneasy. Her routine has been interrupted and in unfamiliar territory, she gets antsy. Brutin, however, is right at home in this new environment so to him this change is a good one. For Tara it's disrupted her entire life and she does not do well with change. Because I play her a certain way it will take Tara some time to get used to the new space and feel comfortable. I do not like to "voila!" things. I like to play them out as they should happen and playing Tara is very much a chore at times because I have to remember her little idiosynchracies which often conflict with how I would handle a situation.
Using Suede again as an example, last night she asked Tara to sit in a chair to tell Brutin about her day and Tara reacted badly to it, growling at the chair and looking very nervous. Suede did not understand why Tara was acting this way but I will say here why she did. In Brutin's office Tara has a pink chair with tacky tassles. This is her "throne" in that room. It is the only place she will sit unless summoned to Brutin's lap, which, if you see her in Brutin's lap there's some serious heat coming down on her even if Brutin is holding her close to him and talking softly to her. He hardly ever raises his voice but Tara can drive him to the point of rage. He may, if the situation gets intense enough, take out his blaster which scares the hell out of her. If she sees that, she'll run and hide, even if she was told not to move from his lap. She doesn't normally sit there because she knows that his lap is reserved for his slaves. It is a reward to sit there, in Tara's eyes, not commonplace.
Though sometimes she asks to sit there, if she is feeling scared or wants to be comforted, otherwise she's in trouble if she's there. The chair, on the other hand, is her space. It is from this chair where she conducts business along with him and dispenses advice and suggestions. The chair justifies her existence in Brutin's eyes as far as she is concerned. It was given to her by him and she cherishes it. Since the chair Suede asked her to sit in was not *that* particular pink chair in her office, Tara was basically saying to her "No, you don't understand, I cannot speak to Boss in this chair because it's not proper."
Another thing I'd like to point out is what Tara refers to as the "business of men". When she says this, she means that serious discussions are going on between men. Even if women are present, Tara naturally sees women as weaker than men because in her world, they are, whether they are free or not. When men are speaking Tara will not interfere and this should be a clue to others not to do so either. The only time she will step in is if someone says something contrary to what she knows to be true, thinks to be true, or if something is going on that Brutin needs to know about a.s.a.p. such as any of his people getting harmed or one of his slaves.
When I am playing Tara around Brutin, her focus must be primarily on him. He's the head honcho afterall and what he says she must listen to so if you type something at me and I "ignore" it or overlook it, I should say, do not be offended. Brutin takes precedence over all, going back to that ranking system I spoke of above. And while there is a time for play, there is also a time for work so please understand that, it's not personal, it's just......well.....business :)
Strange? Yeah but it's our thang.
I'll add to this if I can come up with more or if someone asks me a new question but these are the basic answers to some of the questions I receive on their dynamic or why something is happening a certain way.
Hope this has helped!
You are not to use any of this information IC as your characters would not know any of it, directly, unless they were told IC. Because I know that many players have been confused over a great many things that transpire while around Brutin, Tara and other SA members, hopefully this will clear some of that up so you, the player, are aware why the characters say certain things or act a certain way.
I do not mind if players IM me with questions but I'd much rather they figure it out on their own, however, since we're "back" and I'm getting bombarded with questions, I'm going to use recent IC examples to get my point across.
The Slaver's Association SL was one of the largest on AOL back in the day and as it's Co-Admin, I am proud of what we achieved. We did not get this way by being boring. Brutin's player is one of the most creative people I ever met and he's all about having a good time while playing. I'm the same way. We encourage IC interaction and interesting, thought-provoking SLs. Sometimes we create them but mostly they're dropped in our lap. This, believe it or not, is the way we prefer it.
As always, if you have a question, feel free to PM me or email me.
You may notice that often Brutin and Tara will contradict themselves. One minute they might say, as an example (not that this was ever said IC), that paga is served in a coffee cup and then five minutes later, while speaking to someone else, they might say it is served in a bowl. Or, for whatever reason, they may say something that is incorrect but never actually clarify it. It is their way and while I cannot say here why they are like this (you're going to have to figure that out on your own like I did many years ago), I can say there is a very good reason for it.
Brutin is extremely vague and cryptic. He is not the type to hand you an answer on a platter. He says something and if you don't "get" him, well that is your problem. Tara, however, gets him, all the time and she's verbose as most of you may be noticing. She will "overexplain" things frequently either to trip people up or because she likes to hear herself speak. Whereas Brutin celebrates beauty and puts a price on it, Tara is the most shallow vain creature you'll ever meet and thinks she is the most beautiful person in the world and, coincidentally, priceless.
You may see her translating her employer's words for others because she knows that he confuses people all the time. There are also times where she won't help anyone out, even if begged. Again, there are reasons for this and I will say that if you see her snubbing someone's question, look at the type of person asking her for help and what was said to her prior as a hint. Sometimes it is not WHAT is said to her but WHO says it.
I will say though that if a conversation is going on between, say, Brutin and Joe Schmoe and then you all of a sudden see Brutin turn his attention to Tara and they begin yapping back and forth, quickly, about something unrelated to what he was just talking about, pay very close attention to what is being said because by doing this at least one of them is trying to get the person that was speaking to Brutin to wisen up. Usually this is the case. Other times, it could be Tara just had a thought and wants to tell her Boss about it. LOL.
We use a lot of allegory and what I have often called "codespeak" in our play. As an example, last night while speaking to Brutin, Tara told him she wanted to see what Nadine looked like under the Kumquat. Now, obviously, a kumquat is a fruit and when you look at the sentence it doesn't make a lick of sense but it does if you know what "kumquat" is a substitute for. In that particular sentence it was a reference to the Gorean Ravishment Lamp. Google this to see what it is and you will understand that little snippet better. We do this all the time, without warning and we're so in tune with each other that we figure out what the other is saying immediately. It's a game Brutin's player and I play together (we battle wits a lot and he always beats me LOL) and neither of us gives the other hints as to what we're talking about IC. We just type it out and if we can't figure it out, oh well.
This codespeak also extends to actions. The other night some players were confused by why Tara was breaking carrots in front of Nadine. I will not say here why she was although I did tell a few of you in IMs, however, think of what has been going on with Nadine lately. Why would she react the way she did, trembling, every time Tara broke a carrot? Is Nadine afraid of the vegetable? No. It's a carrot for Pete's sake. But she was afraid of something that breaking a carrot reminds her of. :: wink ::
We are all about symbolism in our gameplay.
Like slaves cannot lie, Tara will not lie to Brutin. She did once and never will do so again. Everything that comes out of her mouth towards him is the absolute truth and this is a SL constant that never changes. Some characters have learned this after spending considerable time with them and will use this to their advantage when wanting to get the truth out of her by asking Brutin. But that does not mean Brutin will help them out either. Although, if it's a serious situation and someone comes to him asking him to question her and it behooves Brutin to know the answer, he will. Suede was a recent example of this. She was not getting what she wanted out of interrogating Tara so she asked Brutin to intercede. Once he did, the truth came out.
It's all about circumstances, who is speaking to her or him, respect the person has in their eyes (because believe it or not, especially in Tara's eyes, certain people rank higher than others and you will see her showing one person more attention than another) or basically, sometimes its a situation of "What have you done for me lately?" In my wiki entry on Tara I say that she loves to be flattered. Give her a compliment or a gift and she'll be your friend for life. Many characters know this about her so if they want to get in good with Brutin they will use Tara as a means to do that. Sometimes it works others it may backfire. There are certain unspoken rules Tara will not break no matter who asks her to intercede. Again, you can't have your character know this because I'm putting it here but they can learn this about her IC if they talk to her or witness someone else doing it.
Tara was never Brutin's slave. She calls him Boss all the time but when she says "Bossman" it is because she cannot say, "Master", to him although sometimes she does to get a rise out of him. She's a brat that way. She was slave to two men only: Savior Morin (his old SN was DrkSaviorX) and Kain Locke who was known as The Black Dragon (his old SN was XBlkDragon). Both men worked for Brutin. Read my "Memoirs of a Cockroach Killa" in this folder to see how she became enslaved by them.
Another thing I would like to point out is that Tara was never, is not now nor will she ever be a member of the Slaver's Association itself. Tara hates slavery as an institution yet she has owned slaves and does right now. But what kind of slaves are they? That, believe it or not, matters very much. When asked what her Boss does, Tara will say he sells hats and Brutin will back her up on it. When asked what the SA stands for, she'll say "Salesmen Association" and that the fedora is their top selling item. Fedora is another word for "pleasure slave" as "cockroach" is another word for enemy.
She has always been Brutin's secretary, working directly for him, and the responsibilities she has are kept under wraps, also for good reasons. It's secret and only Brutin and Tara know, for fact, what she does. :) One day she will act as if she is low-man on the totem pole, others she acts like she owns the place. She does this on purpose to confuse and shock people and it works almost all the time. The only person's opinion of her at the SA that matters to Tara is Brutin's. She does not feel the need to explain herself to anyone even when asked because she knows her place and how Brutin sees her. It's none of anyone's business as far as she is concerned. Again, look at the scene in question and who is around her when she acts in a way other than she usually does.
Because we always played in one setting, that being Brutin's office, Tara is very much a creature of habit. There is a routine at the SA. Every night upon waking up at seven o'clock Tara gets out of bed, makes herself pretty and goes to see Brutin. Everything she does is for his amusement, pleasure and happiness. Every item in Brutin's office means something down to the stapler on his desk. The Shaved Kurii now is a new setting for Tara. She knows what a paga tavern is but is unused to this new environment. You may see her inspecting things, making off-handed comments or generally looking uneasy. Her routine has been interrupted and in unfamiliar territory, she gets antsy. Brutin, however, is right at home in this new environment so to him this change is a good one. For Tara it's disrupted her entire life and she does not do well with change. Because I play her a certain way it will take Tara some time to get used to the new space and feel comfortable. I do not like to "voila!" things. I like to play them out as they should happen and playing Tara is very much a chore at times because I have to remember her little idiosynchracies which often conflict with how I would handle a situation.
Using Suede again as an example, last night she asked Tara to sit in a chair to tell Brutin about her day and Tara reacted badly to it, growling at the chair and looking very nervous. Suede did not understand why Tara was acting this way but I will say here why she did. In Brutin's office Tara has a pink chair with tacky tassles. This is her "throne" in that room. It is the only place she will sit unless summoned to Brutin's lap, which, if you see her in Brutin's lap there's some serious heat coming down on her even if Brutin is holding her close to him and talking softly to her. He hardly ever raises his voice but Tara can drive him to the point of rage. He may, if the situation gets intense enough, take out his blaster which scares the hell out of her. If she sees that, she'll run and hide, even if she was told not to move from his lap. She doesn't normally sit there because she knows that his lap is reserved for his slaves. It is a reward to sit there, in Tara's eyes, not commonplace.
Though sometimes she asks to sit there, if she is feeling scared or wants to be comforted, otherwise she's in trouble if she's there. The chair, on the other hand, is her space. It is from this chair where she conducts business along with him and dispenses advice and suggestions. The chair justifies her existence in Brutin's eyes as far as she is concerned. It was given to her by him and she cherishes it. Since the chair Suede asked her to sit in was not *that* particular pink chair in her office, Tara was basically saying to her "No, you don't understand, I cannot speak to Boss in this chair because it's not proper."
Another thing I'd like to point out is what Tara refers to as the "business of men". When she says this, she means that serious discussions are going on between men. Even if women are present, Tara naturally sees women as weaker than men because in her world, they are, whether they are free or not. When men are speaking Tara will not interfere and this should be a clue to others not to do so either. The only time she will step in is if someone says something contrary to what she knows to be true, thinks to be true, or if something is going on that Brutin needs to know about a.s.a.p. such as any of his people getting harmed or one of his slaves.
When I am playing Tara around Brutin, her focus must be primarily on him. He's the head honcho afterall and what he says she must listen to so if you type something at me and I "ignore" it or overlook it, I should say, do not be offended. Brutin takes precedence over all, going back to that ranking system I spoke of above. And while there is a time for play, there is also a time for work so please understand that, it's not personal, it's just......well.....business :)
Strange? Yeah but it's our thang.
I'll add to this if I can come up with more or if someone asks me a new question but these are the basic answers to some of the questions I receive on their dynamic or why something is happening a certain way.
Hope this has helped!