Unsocratic Dialogue

[Aura]

Disclaimer: I feel that this oekaki scene would need a disclaimer but I seriously don't have any idea what I would write if I made one.



Unsocratic Dialogue



"If I were you, I would start with something else than telling what the weather is. You always do that and it's getting old."

"If I were me, which I am, I would start by describing the weather, or other such things. It's called setting the reader into the scene."

It's cold. Really cold. Well, not inside here of course, but outside my window I can see the fresh snow fallen on the roofs of the nearby buildings and streets. It's still dark outside, only the mailmen and other poor souls who have to wake in the wee hours have left their footprints in the pristine white blanket covering the city. It's powder snow, the kind that rains only when it's dry and very cold in both the upper and lower parts of the troposphere, so it must indeed be very cold outside. If I were going snowboarding today, it would be perfect.

But I am not going snowboarding today.

"Did you notice that you actually didn't start with that?"

"Shut up, Rin."

I take another sip of my tea. It's ginger flavoured and very hot.

The word powder snow is a very good description of… powder snow. Which reminds me, I've read somewhere that the Inuit have a lot of words for different kinds of snow. I don't know if that's actually true or just a thing that became true because it's repeated so often.

"I think it's true. I have a lot of words for same things too. I like making up new words for things that already have words."

"That’s silly. If nobody else knows them, you can't really use them to communicate, which is pretty much a headshot to the purpose of language. It works with the Inuit because all of them know the different words for snow, and because they supposedly need all of them."

"I like making up words for things that don't yet have words, too."

She is not listening, so I try to continue from where I left off, but I already forgot what I was going to write next.

"Sometimes I forget what the words are for some things, and then I am not sure if they are things that didn't have words in the first place so I can't have forgotten them because they don't exist, or if I just forgot the words."

"You are not making any sense, and you are interrupting my thought process."

"I am making perfect sense. Why do you always say that I don't? Actually, it's Hisao who says it but I know you are making him do that."

"I think am more logical than most of the other people."

She doesn't have a voice of her own, but if she had, it would be sharp like a needle right now. Despite her easygoing attitude, Rin can get annoyed too, sometimes.

"That doesn't mean you are making sense. Besides, what's up with you and him? In any other game the main character is thrown on a crash course with a number of surprisingly lustful girls with obvious results. We're one third through the game and you guys haven't even kissed. And just for the record, it's the same even if he gets together with someone else."

My ranting doesn't affect her at all, like nothing seems to. Rin's relaxed eyes are just staring, or the closest equivalent, at the empty space I imagine residing inside my head.

"You just have to be content with plot with plot. Speaking of plot, I touched myself last night while thinking of him."

That one came out of the blue. Wait, how can she…

"You did not."

"I did too."

"Even if you did, and I'm not saying I believe you, what's that to me? I have to write everything from Hisao's point of view so unless he actually was present you could have been sacrificing squirrels and other small animals to the devil for all I care. Next time make sure he can see it."

"You know, there are other things to us than that."

"Tell that to Tc."

"Maybe you are making me too normal."

I almost snort a mouthful of tea out of my nose.

"In real life these things don't happen quickly like… something that happens very quickly. That's why these games are called fantasy."

"My life is pretty normal. You know, I could be a real human."

"You are not human. You are just a figment of my imagination."

"But other people imagine me too. Doesn't that mean that I exist also outside of your head?"

"Not really, since they certainly are not dealing with the same you as I am. You are obviously not a platonic ideal since everyone tends to write you differently from each other, so I keep reading through that stuff and all I can think of is that you don't use the word 'hardly'."

She laughs. The way I imagine Rin laughing makes me feel strange and uncomfortable, as if the act of laughing doesn't quite fit her character.

Strike that. She doesn't laugh.

"Are you… what's that word… jealous?"

"No. Well…yes, in an intellectually paranoid way. My way of perceiving you is not necessarily any more correct than anyone else's since strictly speaking I didn't create you, but I can't help feeling like it should be."

"At any rate, you most definitely exist only inside my head."

This time she laughs for real. It's a short and quiet laugh, the kind that shows that Rin is not accustomed to laughing.

"Hey, are you imagining me as a tiny me sitting on your shoulder like in that one movie? I know I am imagining you as a tiny you sitting on my shoulder. You know, telling me what to say and where to go."

"If you were my conscience, I would be pretty fucked."

"Someone will get offended if you swear."

I put my fingers on top of the backspace but don't press it, which makes writing harder as my right hand is now in an awkward position.

"I am allowed to swear whenever I want to if it's inside my head. Besides, nowadays it's more a punctuation than a naughty word, like a semicolon that you say out loud."

"Then use the semicolon. Nobody will get offended by that."

"Except the literature professors."

I decide to keep the word in its place. Fuck professors.

My fingers hover tentatively over the keyboard, waiting for something happen in the other end of the neural pathways. I can't think of anything to write now that my thoughts were completely ripped of the topic I meant to write about, but for some reason I am still writing, even though there is no real purpose to it. Even this sentence is pointless.

Better quit while I'm… well, not exactly ahead but not desperately behind either.

"See? We are at the end and that story about the weather and snow didn't lead anywhere. You should have begun with something else."

"It was a good setup for something I meant to write about."

"Also, shut up, Rin. You are not this nasty with Hisao. Which one of us is writing this?"

…You wench.










"I heard that."

[TheHivemind]

This is one of the best descriptions of the creative process I've ever seen. I don't think any other girl would work in this sort of a situation though; mostly because Rin's the only sort who'd even begin to think of this sort of thing. Pretty cool.

[Penguinmayhem]

You, sir, have blown my mind.

[Lulz]

Damn, reminds me of the recent RPing rampage me, delta, Ismuth and crud had quite a few days back.

Also, 4th wall broke.

[cpl_crud]

I don't think there's a 4th wall in VNs... maybe... 4th...person?

I dunno.

I do know that whilst Hanako doesn't sit on my shoulder and mock me, she does do things that I don't intend. Maybe that's a sign of my imagination just totally running wild, but still...

/me pats Aura

I know how you feel, I jsut can't put it so eloquently.

[PyTom]

I don't think there's a 4th wall in VNs... maybe... 4th...person?

Of course there is. I mean, the moment the game admits it's a visual novel, the fourth wall goes right out the window. That can be done for comic effect... but be warned, that would massively change the tone of the game.

Of course, it's also possible to have a character who's an eroge otaku (like wossname in Yume Miru Kusuri)... who can say stuff like "wow, I'd like to set _her_ flag", without breaking the fourth wall.

[cpl_crud]

I was thinking less metaphysically and more... stupid.

Give me a break, I spend a lot of time on the other side of that freaking wall. It's.... strange back there...

[Silentcook]

Thanks to Aura for letting me join in.

---

'So whatchadoing?'

'Writing, Emi. Well, trying to.'

She's bouncing on my right shoulder as the impatient child she looks like. Her legblades are a little bit pinchy through my shirt, but I guess it's my fault in the first place for having her being there, looking like that. It's not a big deal anyway.

'Writing about what? Ooo, that's me! Hey, wait a minute!'

'Hm?'

'Why is it that I'm on your shoulder? I mean, it's pretty weird anyway, but how come it's me? You don't write stuff about me. ...well, I guess you do, but Hive's the one who writes MORE stuff. So how come I'm here, instead of Misha, or some original character of yours, or whoever?'

'Ah well, that's simple. You're the one I like most.'

I'm not looking at her, since I'm typing out stuff at my keyboard and looking at my screen, but I swear I can feel the air next to my ear grow warmer.

'...um.'

I can't help but chuckle.

'Relax, I don't mean it THAT way. You have Hisao for that.'

'I-I knew that!'

'Anyway, it's kind of the point I'm trying to make, if I'm even trying to make one. I'm trying to write about writing, and when I write I try to write something I like. So I'm trying to write about talking about writing with one of you girls, and you ended up stuck with the job because of that. Does it bother you?'

I grin, and she makes a face. I still can't see her, but I know she does, because I just typed that out.

'Stop it! I swear, you're just as bad as Rin. And to think you seemed so... I dunno, straightforward sometimes. ...Anyway, no, I guess it doesn't, but don't go writing any funny stuff, got that?'

'What, don't you like comedy? Alright, alright, don't mind that. Anyway, I see myself as easy but not simple. And when I write, I try to make things like that. A really, REALLY big emphasis on 'try', by the way. I put in all sorts of little references, or subtexts, or injokes, or obscure details, so that you can enjoy the piece even if you don't know anything about them, but if you do, then you're left with the sense of having unearthed a little jewel. Please don't even get me started about the amount of obsessing I do over line breaks, synonims, repetition, and a slew of other similar things, we'd triple the length of this thing we're doing and it'd be thrice as boring too.'

'I... see. I think. Uh, what does unearthing a little jewel feel like?'

'Caught me. I have no real idea. Well, I do imagine and extrapolate how that feels like, but I have no real experience with that. I certainly haven't dug up any valuables in my life. By the way, since you caught me out, that means you now have a better idea about what I was trying to convey than I do.'

She bows her head and puts a finger to her forehead. I think I broke her brain.

'But isn't that... I dunno... dishonest somehow?'

'I can answer that, but it will make you uncomfortable. Are you sure you want me to?'

'Ergh. I'd ask how do you know that, but you'd do that "because I'm the one who is writing it" thing again, and we'd never get to the bottom of it. So yeah, just tell me, I'll take my chances and hope you're wrong.'

'OK. Do you think it's dishonest for me to write about female orgasm, since I'm a guy?'

...Uh. Oh. She's grinning like that time when she caught Hisao out. Not a good sign for me.

'What, you thought I'd get embarrassed by THAT? Puh-leeeze. It'd be like me getting embarrassed about, I dunno, not having legs because you do and I don't anymore. Only in reverse. Oh whatever, you know what I mean, but anyway of course not, you can't experience that, so why... oh.'

Her face lights up in understanding.

'I SEE! You're kinda saying than since there's stuff that's personal to everybody, you just write out what you feel it's like and let whoever's reading decide if it makes sense or not! Am I right? huh? huh?'

She's bouncing again, excitedly. I'm really happy to see her like this.

'Bingo. You got it right. I don't really know if it's an acceptable way of working, but I haven't gotten any mobs with literary pitchforks to come knocking at my door yet, so I think it's decent at least. I wouldn't really change it even if I did get those mobs though, because I think going the other way would be a horribly dry way to write fiction. Accurate literary realism belongs only in factual chronicles anyway.'

She hmms, tilting her head to the side and crossing her arms.

'But don't you rant all the time about realism in the game? How do you fit that dishonesty thing within THAT?'

I cough, making her eek and hold onto my ear until my shoulderquake is over.

'By making sure that I'm not writing things COMPLETELY out of my ass. With... research.'

'...Research?'

'Research.'

I can FEEL the wheels turning in her head. I'd prefer getting a bite on my ear rather than the slow grin that's forming on her face.

'Oho. I seeeeeee. DO tell me, was it good for you?'

I make an extreme show of scratching my face, with special care given to the right side. Man, my beard is itchy. And the computer is making the room uncomfortably warm, despite the fan I have placed at my back. Yeah.

'...Not gonna answer that. Do you think I did a good job of writing it?'

She is quiet for awhile. I'll be damned if I'm even THINKING about finding out what she's doing. See, there's privacy even from the writer.

'Um. I'm not gonna answer that, either.'

I think it's a draw. Time to quit before it becomes a loss.

'Already? Well okay, but anyway, STOP DOING THAT!'

Your wish is my command, Emi.

[toast]

Wait, how exactly would rin touch herself at night?

[Validus Razgriz]

Wait, how exactly would rin touch herself at night?

An anon on /a/ actually gave an answer to that.

Try touching your crotch with the ball of your foot. Rin's more flexible than the average person.

inb4 everyone getting sore legs

[Warwick]

I remember seeing the usage of tables and washing machines...

[WASSHOI]

I really enjoyed reading these two, especially since its 2 AM here at my time and took me a while before I got what was really going on in the initial post. Hell, when I first read it I thought it was Kenji who said he touched himself thinking of Hisao. After re-reading the post with understanding of whats going on I ended up enjoying it more than the first time.

I'm not really much of a writer myself, I pretty much make "spur of the moment" stuff whenever I do write up a story. Because of this all that really goes on in my head is pretty much just the scene I'm typing up, while occasionally I'll stop and think for a little to make sure that it isn't worded funny. Then I'll probably just run through the scenario once more in my head to see if it "fits". Wish I'd imagine a character persona chatting along with me as I type to better my ideas. It'd definitely make the writing process a lot more fun to go through with it and help me build on ideas.

But as I've said before, I pretty much work on short times when I feel the buzz to do so. As such, I usually never have the full story thought out in my head and just quickly bunch up the scene in my mind as I go. Just winging through it completely.


All in all, reading these made me reflect on how exactly I write stuff out. I had never really payed much attention to it until now.

I remember seeing the usage of tables and washing machines...

Mostly table corners, pretty sure the idea was spawned from the large impression the table masturbation scene in Code Geass had. Doubt we'd have seen this theory as early as we did if it wasn't for that.

[LeeEzekiel]

This what you guys talking about?

[SnigendePind]

Aura, your post hurt my brains. =|

[WASSHOI]

Aura, your post hurt my brains. =|

Try re-reading it after you've understood what was going on in it. You notice a lot more than you would have the first time if you actually know whats going on.