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[recollecters]

Welcome to Retrospec™, the last social media network you will ever need. You are one of the few selected to test this exciting new platform based on our cutting-edge algorithms. Less than two hundred invitations have gone out, and membership is not currently open to the public. However, we hope you will come to see how useful Retrospec™ is, given time. We have for your use a variety of features such as text, voice, video, and image posts. We encourage you to explore our many options. Anyway, now that the copypaste part is out of the way! Jim here, requesting you guys make your secret meetings a little more exciting. It's not like you're not trying with the whole "let's meet off the network!" dealio, but I have some serious concerns. For one thing, no secret handshakes or phrases? Not even dramatic meeting locations? The trying rating is about half a star if that. And I'm almost bored to tears with the whole back and forth about what's going on. Not bored enough to give you a cheat sheet, but still. I can't get myself taken off surveillance duty, so at least try to make it a little more exciting! You guys might like this wikihow. Later! Jim Halloway Research & Development Retrspec Incorporated Please feel free to use this post as a network mingle. Every toplevel can be considered a new post, and threadjacking is permitted. No NPC response will be given. Usernames are the character's full real AU names, not aliases or chosen nicknames or usernames, and seemed to have filled themselves in; nothing characters do can change or obscure their names currently. Characters who have been in game for more than one month will find they can change their profile pictures; newcomers are locked into their first choice. At various points throughout the day users will be sent images of themselves from behind, regardless of where they are. There doesn't seem to be any way to catch whoever might be taking and sending these, however, especially since being alone in a room doesn't seem to be a deterrent.

Comments

[thesettingsun]

What's in a name? A lot, if you're a writer. Or if you're already being stalked by some creep and would maybe not like to attach your real name to your social media.

[Juliet never had to deal with weird phone apps.]

But I've never thought Twitter was a great format for roleplay anyway.

[elevelvetor]

i admit, it is one of the more difficult ones. even facebook is easier due to its group ability.
still, i find it very fun and rewarding when i do find others! or did. i don't use it that much anymore.

regardless, are you a writer? or are you just someone being stalked by a creep, which i assume would be referring to our mysterious friend, jim.

[thesettingsun]

I don't have anything published yet! I'm still working on my first novel, I'll probably be done with the first draft soonish.

[He will not be done with the first draft soonish.]

Jim's a creep. I don't even know him and he's a creep.

[elevelvetor]

[ anyway fuck this jim guy, who cares, More Importantly— ]

what is your novel going to be about? if you don't mind indulging a little info.

[thesettingsun]

[He appreciates the interest! He's way cooler than Jim Whatshisface.]

Right now I'm working on a space drama! It seems to me like the current vogue in science fiction tends toward military dramas - battles between starships, interplanetary wars, etc. - or comedies. I'm really not interested in writing military wars, but I think there's a lot that can be done exploring the realm of science fiction as a setting for drama.

And I hate the arbitrary separation between 'fantasy/science fiction' and 'serious literature'. What makes a novel less serious just because its backdrop is on another planet? Is the writing worse? Are the characters less compelling?

[tl;dr he'll write space pirates but they'll be Serious space pirates]

[elevelvetor]

if i remember right, the official canon is just very picky about who it lets into its inner circle. it doesn't matter anyway--as long as a story is good and the author has put effort into it, then i believe it should be considered "serious literature"!

and it sounds as if you are putting plenty of thought into it. what sort of drama are you writing? relationship, political, other?

[thesettingsun]

Exactly! You get me!

[Elizabeth is now one of his faves.]

I was going for more identity/social - our hero starts out uprooted from the planet he's lived on all his life and has to adjust to living in a different culture with different values. He ends up questioning which of the values he holds are a result of his upbringing and which of them are too important to him personally to let go of. It's a commentary on moral relativism and the pitfalls of actually applying it.

I was actually going to try to avoid the 'obligatory heterosexual romance subplot' with this one, I know it's not my strength and I think it wouldn't add much to the overall story. There are pirates though. Mostly because I like writing about pirates.

[elevelvetor]

[ this is the part where she'd lament about him being long-winded but her initial post to retrospec was REALLY LONG so, well, she can't. ]

hmmm, i see.
rather than it not adding much to the overall story, i feel as if it might overtake it completely if you're not careful...
that is to say, as much as i do enjoy a well-written romance, i agree with you. though, you'll never get better at it unless you write it. in general, of course.

ignoring all of that as well ^ tell me about your pirates! are they space pirates? aliens? fellow humans?

[thesettingsun]

[When you get into a subject he cares about, he goes on and on, and literature is one.]

Space pirates! And aliens! I'm not sure how humanoid I want to make them yet - I know I don't want them to just be humans with pointy ears, but there are so many ways you can make aliens alien that it's hard to pick a design.

[elevelvetor]

[ here! ]