The Master of His Domain announcement and comments

[michaelscheppard]

Is ginny ever going to wear that outfit on the cover in story

[Tecknophyle]

Is ginny ever going to wear that outfit on the cover in story

Patience...

[Tecknophyle]

Incidentally, speaking of covers, while Episode 6's is a gimme in terms of inspiration, anyone got guesses on 7 and 8?

[Ghosthand]

I'm in love.... I'd call Carol mistress too, with or without the drugs!! I know it's not very PC nowadays but she just looks like she should be holding a long cigarette holder.

[Adon]

What hits me with this issue, and from your comments it WILL be addressed, is the whole notion of being mind controlled on your personality. Take Ginny and Carol -- they are Rudy's slaves thanks to the alien dude, and are perfectly happy with that. But they're happy with that, I suspect, because they've been made to be happy with it. They're doing things now that I suspect they would have been appalled at before they had the mojo worked on their heads... to the point where I'm not sure I actually like Carol, who has come off as very manipulative and amoral for most of her appearances. But again, how much of that is her, and how much is that the persona that she's been given? The same thing goes on the bad guys side of the fence. We have the bodyguards who have been reshaped physically to the point that they have no individuality, not even in their names. At least one of them remembers she used to hate the villain, or at least tried to kill him. Obviously, she's now his loyal servant but even there... how does she feel about that? Does she still hate him but is unable to act on it? (He seems canny enough to avoid that, but he also seems to have a cruel streak that might make him do something less than practical.) Or has that feeling been completely reversed? We know he's able to completely reshape a mind, like with Orchid, but it's unclear how long that takes. His latest victim is giving him the typical MC-victim spiel, parroting self-degrading lines... but has she been made to believe it, or just say it?

Basically, what I'm rambling about is that it's not always clear where the 'real' personality ends and the implanted MC one begins, if they're blurred or distinct, and so on. It does show how terrifying MC would be IRL, in any case, when someone can reshape who you fundamentally are and there's noting you can do about it. There's a reason why identity death is some people's squick point (meaning the point where it stops being arousing and just becomes disturbing). So I'm digging that you appear to want to address this often ignored part of the MC fantasy.

[xarielx]

There's a reason why identity death is some people's squick point (meaning the point where it stops being arousing and just becomes disturbing). So I'm digging that you appear to want to address this often ignored part of the MC fantasy.

I don't know that would be a fair assessment, citing other author's works, from Trishbot's Body Image where Valient Grrl becomes a willing thrall, to the Crissy Tanner-Chrome dynamic, to McTek's development of Miranda Von Ick, to Firstborn's series of serial conversions are all strong examples of identity death. I believe what does not work for me for this story is the lack of eroticism in the MC, and it stems from the fact that, to this reader, it feels like a misogynistic story, where it is male dominated even as female takes charge it doesn't read that way fully. It may be also that this is a real world setting and that may play against this site is dedicated to fantastical superheroines, and the expected eroticism is lost again. It delivers on a level that I find distasteful, I would daresay it isn't playful enough where MC is being treated as a side effect to a male-dominated story.

[Adon]

Sorry, just wanted to clarify... I wasn't referring to identity death being ignored, but the ramifications of MC, being MCed, and the aftermath. The placement of that sentence is my fault, and on reflection it looks like it refers to the previous one directly rather than the commentary overall. See, in stuff like the Metrobay universe, it's kind of taken as a given that being MCed doesn't have the kind of long-term consequences on a person's emotional state that it undoubtedly would if it were real. Being traumatized by long-term enslavement seems to be the exception rather than the rule, as the protagonists (I hesitate to cause them heroines at this point to be honest, since they rarely do much of anything other than get mind-zapped) seem to bounce back with the worst consequence being mild embarassment at the state of their clothing. And I'm aware that is by design. The Metrobay universe and the like are pretty much designed so that mind control is commonplace, easy, and doesn't do lasting psychological damage. As you mention, that's because the purpose of it is to titillate rather than make one think about it or be disturbing.

As I said before, I'm pretty atypical for someone who comes to this site. Sometimes, I do want something deeper. Sometimes I do want to see a more believable reaction than it being shrugged off as 'part of the business'. That's why I find this story fascinating, but I do understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea.

[Tecknophyle]

To be fair, I warned people when the first episode came out that it wouldn't be to everyone's taste.

One of the things I was going for in this was, as I said then, there's no reset button. A consequence of that is that you have to show consequences to a character, and some of them probably will be negative, but certainly not all of them.

I will point out that at this point, the "good guy", Rudy has only affected two people directly (and he's conflicted about his effect on them, and would be appalled if he really knew what was going on, at least at this point in the story). More to the point, even before Ginny met the Mysterious Entity That Is All Mysterious, she was having fun being the subject of Rudy's control. You didn't see the sex scene, but Ginny mentioned it, and from her point of view, without being forced to, she felt it was awesome.

At this juncture, I'll step into Author Lecture Mode and mention some things that I perhaps did not get across clearly. In the classroom sex fantasy, neither woman was being controlled except insofar as to make them play out the roles that they each subconsciously wanted to play. Ginny fantasized being the sexy subordinate character being told what to do. Carol fantasized being the sexy authority figure. I don't want to get too far into it since Episode 9 has a scene discussing this, but what I'm going for with Rudy is that "enslavement" means different things to different people that he controls: thus far we've seen one woman who has submissive tendencies, and another dominant (albeit subordinate to Rudy). Had they other inclinations, the fantasy would have played out differently. Other characters will have very different reactions.

As for some of the other characters...well, Lorenzo is an asshole. Complete Monster. The next episode (8) goes into this, and he is, by design, a very unpleasant character who does very unpleasant things. He's a bad guy. That's what he does.

[Tecknophyle]

One other thing: I view this as more long term story, and because the characters evolve, what you see them as, or even the setting of the story, its "universe", isn't going to stay the same.

For instance, I've mentioned that this story arc will go another 7 or 8 episodes, so we're about halfway. This gives you a taste of what I've got planned for a second arc (the full sized one is in my Extras gallery).

Oh, I should mention that while the subject of said arc may seem to be apparent, I obviously am gleefully folding, spindling, and mutilating the plotline that people have perhaps grown accustomed to.

[Tecknophyle]

What hits me with this issue, and from your comments it WILL be addressed, is the whole notion of being mind controlled on your personality. Take Ginny and Carol -- they are Rudy's slaves thanks to the alien dude, and are perfectly happy with that. But they're happy with that, I suspect, because they've been made to be happy with it. They're doing things now that I suspect they would have been appalled at before they had the mojo worked on their heads... to the point where I'm not sure I actually like Carol, who has come off as very manipulative and amoral for most of her appearances. But again, how much of that is her, and how much is that the persona that she's been given? The same thing goes on the bad guys side of the fence. We have the bodyguards who have been reshaped physically to the point that they have no individuality, not even in their names. At least one of them remembers she used to hate the villain, or at least tried to kill him. Obviously, she's now his loyal servant but even there... how does she feel about that? Does she still hate him but is unable to act on it? (He seems canny enough to avoid that, but he also seems to have a cruel streak that might make him do something less than practical.) Or has that feeling been completely reversed? We know he's able to completely reshape a mind, like with Orchid, but it's unclear how long that takes. His latest victim is giving him the typical MC-victim spiel, parroting self-degrading lines... but has she been made to believe it, or just say it?

One of the things I wanted to do with this story is to explore that "mind control" is a very vague, very broad term. What does someone mean, and what does someone else interpret that to mean?

For instance, consider a soldier (and I used to be one). In many ways, you wouldn't see much difference between the way a soldier acts and the fictional way a mind-controlled minion might act. When he or she has to, a soldier is expected to follow orders (within limits), obey specific rules and regulations, comport themselves a specific way, and so on and so forth. A soldier (at least in a volunteer modern military) does so willingly, trading in the personal freedom a civilian has in order to be in the military for whatever reason they joined the military, and for the vast majority even have behavioural changes that result from making that choice (slob teenager becomes neatly-groomed and neat soldier). Sometimes they may feel as if they had no option but to make the decision to join (need work, peer or family pressure, need to defend others, whatever), but they still do make that choice.

Ginny is meant to have been in that situation. What she was told made her feel she had no choice (in retrospect, I'd probably rewrite the dialogue to make it clearer), but she knew what she was getting into. There's a scene coming with Carol where she reflects on it and admits to herself that, given her fear of death however calm she appeared to be taking it, she probably would have still voluntarily and willingly agreed to be knowingly enslaved (ie Ginny didn't lie to her) if it meant she wouldn't die. Ginny walked into it with eyes open and considered (for currently unknown to the reader) reasons why it was necessary. Carol knows she would have done the same for her reasons. In that sense, they're not really that different from soldiers, are they? They both realize they're subject to control but don't necessarily consider that a bad thing in itself, but a price that had to be paid.

Lorenzo, on the other hand, is the classic mind-controlling sociopathic villain. The whole scene on the boat was to make the point that he enjoys inflicting misery on others. He didn't need to do what he did to get to his ultimate goal: he could have had Tony transformed when he was unconscious, he didn't need Chris to have sex with Tony, he didn't need to demonstrate to Tony what he was going to do by having someone else changed first. He did it because what good is having power if there isn't someone to appreciate it and lord it over? So yeah, while not stupid he's not above the basest forms of cruelty. The first scene episode 8 makes this very clear.

Interestingly, I expect some people to be disturbed by it (you don't actually see the incident in question, you hear about it) even though what happened is absolutely no different that what happens to a random female character in many Metrobay stories. It will be a good example of how the setting determines how you view an action.

[Adon]

Oh, it's actually one of the things I like about it... people doing things for reasons they consider to be good and justifiable, and the question of whether it is really that or something they tell themselves to sleep at night. Look at Ginny and Carol... they are both trying to ease Rudy into being more practical and less hesitant in making use of his abilities. However, the reasoning behind it isn't bad... presuming that this is leading to a confrontation with Lorenzo, Rudy will need to be willing to make use of whatever resources he has available to him, because Lorenzo plays VERY dirty. I have no doubt in my mind that if and when he targets Rudy and company, he'll want to have Rudy turned female so he'll become a slave to him, in turn enslave his wife, mother in law, and whoever else is unfortunate enough to be close to him, and will likely try to do it in as cruel a manner as possible. So to combat someone like that, Rudy will need to be willing to fight back with everything he has.

And yet... it's Rudy who has his nigh-omnipotence over what he owns, and neither Carol nor Ginny will ever be able to really understand how it feels to know that he's able to do something completely monstrous if he's in a bad mood and loses his self control. With Rudy it must feel like a tightrope he's walking on... if he slips up it's a long way down but a very short trip. He was very fortunate that Ginny was as understanding as she was that first time, not to mention the submissive streak that's been alluded to. It's not a stretch to say that if Ginny were slightly different she would have left him and probably couldn't have been blamed for it. So he's got his support system urging him to stop sitting on his abilities and use them while he's really the only one who can understand what a massive responsibility he has now, and how very easy it would be for him to become like Lorenzo. Having massive powers with only his conscience keeping him at bay? Yeah... it's gotta be hard.

Anyway, looking forward to the next installation.

[Tecknophyle]

They're ruthless and efficient, but is that all Lorenzo's female bodyguards are? Meanwhile, the plot against the Dennings Corporation starts moving as a member of the Montrose/Carter family enters the enemy stronghold, and our heroes do something that's going to put them on a collision course with Lorenzo's interests.

Episode 8 of Master of His Domain is now available at http://www.mccomix.com/gallery2/main.ph ... emId=53451

[kakyo001]

so, the Alphas actually hate their master and their only reason to guard and obey him is the control Lorenzo has over them... that could backfire badly if Lorenzo finds himself in a situation where his guards are no longer bound to his will

[Adon]

More and more interesting. Definitely feel for the Alphas, hating Lorenzo but utterly unable to act on it. It seems my thought about cruelty were right... he COULD have altered their personalities enough that they wouldn't resent their positions without making them useless, but instead he decided to leave them pretty much as they were but compelled to obey his every command without question or hesitation. Again, mostly I think because he needs to be a jerk to get his jollies. If they didn't resent him, he wouldn't be able to feel the satisfaction that they would shoot themselves in the head if he told them to. Ironically, it seems clear that their experience has made them better people due to their shared suffering. Too bad that they aren't able to act on those personality improvements. The only thing I can think of with them is finding a loophole in the exact wording of his commands, basically doing something that 'technically' is in his best interest or at least not against his best interest. Finding that opportunity is the kicker, though.

I think Carol has found her niche as a femme fatale, but I'm also finding her less and less likeable as time goes on. While it could be argued that what she does is ultimately for a good cause, she definitely seems to get off on turning people into her drooling sex slaves. I can't help but think that she may become a toxic presence in Rudy's 'side' because she lacks his restraint and looks to be perfectly willing to do things she regards as in his best interest that she knows he wouldn't approve of. Long story short, she's had a taste of power and she's already getting drunk on it, IMO.

Overall, intriguing stuff. Interesting to see how long Rudy can stay the good guy, or at least 'not the bad guy'. Because it'd be VERY easy for him to become 'only good in comparison to Lorenzo', which is damning with faint praise.

[Tecknophyle]

I think Carol has found her niche as a femme fatale, but I'm also finding her less and less likeable as time goes on. While it could be argued that what she does is ultimately for a good cause, she definitely seems to get off on turning people into her drooling sex slaves. I can't help but think that she may become a toxic presence in Rudy's 'side' because she lacks his restraint and looks to be perfectly willing to do things she regards as in his best interest that she knows he wouldn't approve of. Long story short, she's had a taste of power and she's already getting drunk on it, IMO.

Well, to be fair, you've only seen Carol in situations where she's doing the femme fatale thing for operational reasons, and not seen her off-duty, as it were, or had an opportunity to get inside her head. That said, way back over a month ago in this thread I pointed out that I had a complicated view of characters and that someone who is on the side of the angels could be a thoroughly unpleasant person (Good Is Not Nice, in other words), so whatever her personality might turn out to be (and again, you've only seen a part of it), just because she might be a ball-busting bitch doesn't make her all bad all the time or in overall goals.