2523 Baggage Claim.

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I think sometimes that people forget that the characters aren’t omniscient. Every so often it seems like comments start appearing that imply the thought process of just taking what the characters say as gospel. The characters know what they know and react according to that. So Rulette is not describing Thomas as accurately as other characters might. Nina would probably be the best character to ask about Thomas right now. Carol might be closing in. Rulette is talking about a version of Thomas she knew a decade ago. Possibly an accurate description, but even that is subject to interpretation. Each character has a different perspective on how things are happening in relation to them. It’s not malicious generally. It’s just how they interpret their world. Real people are like that too. Which is why two people sometimes describe a situation they both observed in wildly different ways.

I guess this is just a reminder to take into account where the character’s heads are as they do things.

When we went to the store today there was a tornado very briefly. Two actually. We could see it from the parking lot. The one only touched down for a minute or so and wasn’t very big. It was over farmland. Still, we made it a point to leave the area quickly, since if one appears the conditions are there to be more. As we drove out of town many people were out looking at the sky. Which made my mom laugh because the warnings always say not to do that. In the midwest we look at weather because you can see a lot of it coming.

As always, if you’d like to support my work please use the links above. I will try not to get taken out by a twister till next I post. Also probably after that as well.

20 Comments

So, Thomas worked for Rulette before his current workplace? Am I reading things right?

Worked for her father.

Okay, the wording is suggesting the dad talked a bunch of shit about Thomas AFTER Thomas left, and that somehow made Thomas so mad he wouldn’t talk to Rulette. Is that what happened? Or did he CONTINUE to talk shit about Thomas, like he was just hard on the boy from day one? I just want to make sure I understand what’s being said here.

I hesitate to answer for fear of robbing you of working it out over time. Even if it becomes clear very quickly.

That’s fine. The phrasing just made me think I had forgotten something from a previous comic, or that I was misreading this one.

I get it, for a long time the easiest way for me to avoid being hurt was to avoid interacting with other people. I still haven’t fully gotten over it, I stopped dating in my late twenties and I never really got back in to it, now I consider myself too old, fat and self centered to even consider it. I’d rather focus on myself than having to worry about other people’s perception of me.

I consider myself a hedonist, so my policy is the meaning of life is finding the most possible enjoyment out of life without harming anyone else other than yourself. If anyone takes that away they are doing you a disservice.

With that being said, wisdom comes from age. I am not such a shit head now, I have friends I love, I let them know I love them and when there’s problems, I reach out to people to discuss these issues in a meaningful and thoughtful way without trying to directly blame them for the issues I have.

Mental illness can be super problematic for people, especially when undiagnosed. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went to see a doctor or a therapist and they came back with a laundry list off problems I have. At one point I was convinced my friends didn’t care about me when in reality life can be very demanding and busy.

Communication is key to any meaningful relationship and more often times than not I’ve discovered a lot of times it boils down to miscommunication.

At the end of the day, almost everything is insignificant, it’s the relationships you build and how they make you feel that is ultimately meaningful. I genuinely believe there are people better left out of your life, it doesn’t seem like Rulette is one of those people. Although it sounds like she could have tried harder herself. Relationships are two way streets.

Life is hard, it’s good to remember that. Not just for yourself, but everyone around you and you have no idea what kind of issues they are privately dealing with.

Depending on the person, sometimes it’s just easier to let them go.

It’s true though. Midwesterners CAN see a lot of weather coming. A lot of wide open space plus a lot of wide weather means you can see it pretty easily if you look in the right direction.

We all show different facets of ourselves to different people. My parents, brother, husband, co-workers and neighbors would all probably describe me in different ways. And you could argue that they are all right. Relativity baby!

Same here. All the world’s a stage. The problem for me is that I feel straight-jacketed by those expectations, at least with family. I feel weird being myself with the people I should feel most comfortable with, because they think I’m the same as I was decades ago and I don’t feel like revealing that it’s not true, and it only gets worse every year. I find the acting exhausting though.

So. I’d like to call a shot. It’s not that, in my opinion, people just don’t realize the characters aren’t omniscient every single time. In many cases (Mine at least), it’s that they expect the authors to forget the characters wouldn’t know certain things. There are a lot of authors in the modern world who just…forget that certain characters have no means of knowing certain knowledge unless it’s a major plotpoint that the character doesn’t know it, in which case they also have the character who doesn’t know the knowledge suddenly abandon 90% of their IQ for some reason as well to fall for whatever trap completely helplessly.

Is it fair? Not really, no. But it is a pavlovian response that’s been built up. If a character states knowledge on another character, more then half the time it feels like that’s the author directly nudging the audience with “This is the TRUTH!” to set up an upcoming arc. In this particular instance, even before the nudging I wasn’t so sure. While I definitely do feel Thomas plays to a Motte and Bailey of playing a lovable slacker who’s actually craftier and more cunning then he lets on so he can use the slacker attitude as a trap to make people underestimate him, he seems a fair deal more open about his emotions, thoughts, and attitudes then you’d expect. He likes to obfuscate them a tad, but if you ask him a direct question, you’ll get an honest enough answer. The answer might be “I don’t feel like talking about that” or “That’s my past, not really relevant to you” but it could also just be an indirect, pretty accurate summation of his current mood.

I wish we could still do that. I WANT to give an answer like that, but it seems to OFFEND people if you just say “Sorry, person I barely know, but I don’t want to discuss my private affairs with you.” On the other hand, sharing too much still puts people off, so we’re EXPECTED to evade the question or give partial responses. I also wish, when asked a personal question, that I could just shake my head and walk off, and not have it taken as a personal affront, like how dare I not verbally respond on demand! I don’t really know what to call it, or why it’s changed, or what to blame it on, but there has been this odd shift to where we are not allowed to be very private, but shouldn’t be TOO open either. It’s a minefield.

Miscommunication is one of the major reoccuring themes in The Saga of Tanya the Evil I really enjoy. Two (or more) people have a conversation, and walk away both in agreement but with absolute polar opposite viewpoints of what they agreed on.

There isn’t a lot to do in the Midwest/Great Plains, either, so watching for bad weather is a hobby a lot of people have.

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