scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/2yo2xe.md

## [BST][RT] First impressions, looking for directions

* Author: u/FakeOutrage *
* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/2yo2xe/bstrt_first_impressions_looking_for_directions/
* Score: 5

* Created: 2015-03-11T11:48:50

### Post:

I've got the very, very basic starting ideas for a story.  The ideas interest me (as they should), but I'm looking for some feedback on what about these ideas interests *you*, and what directions you'd be interesting in seeing the story explore.

So I have four main points - plot and worldbuilding to come (my image of this is that the rules of the world *are* consistent, but possibly not known - even to me at this point):

Avery, the male protagonist, is a wanderer.  He has some power, but tends not to use it until there’s a big ‘flash-bang’ moment - overwhelming force and dealing with the problem quickly.  He gathers power and artifacts, just in case he ever needs.  He’s cautious, and grinds more than he thinks will be necessary before entering a new area.  

Raeni, the female protagonist, is a social manipulator.  She’s ambitious, and surrounds herself with friends - useful ‘friends’.  She has little to no true physical power of her own; that’s why she avoids situations that would make that be a disadvantage.  She plays her true cards close to the chest, and switches out faces depending on who she’s interacting with.

Looming over the world is a dark mountain.  Weird things happen around it, forces swirl and strange, unpredictable phenomena appear.  There’s been no shortage of adventurers trying to approach it over the years, but the expeditions become rarer and rarer the longer it sits there, still and silent - only the bravest and most foolhardy venture there.

There is also an epically powerful homunculus who makes their home in some hidden location.  They have been around for long enough that legends have grown about them; how they are knowledgeable of many of the world’s mysteries.  They are also a common target for adventurers to track down - and those who claim to have met the homunculus bear wonderful gifts and strange wisdom.

So yeah: what interests you about these ideas? What would you like to see in a story such as this?

### Comments:

> **u/alexanderwales** [+7]  *Time flies like an arrow* (3 hours later)
> 
> Heroes are generally defined by their flaws, and character growth is generally about overcoming those flaws.
> 
> If I had to take a stab at it based on those initial sketches, Avery's flaw is that he's overcautious, and he would complete his arc of character growth by doing something reckless in service of a thing that he loves (whether that's a person or an idea). Raeni's flaw is that she's ambitious, or possibly that she lacks empathy, and she would complete her arc of character growth by throwing away a position of power in service of a thing that she loves (whether that's a person or an idea).
> 
> If I were sketching out a completely standard story, they would meet each other, find an attraction in things that they shouldn't be attracted to, and eventually have a falling out before coming back together at the completion of their character arcs. The homunculus are a narrative stop on the story path which leads up and into the mountain, and they're the place where the characters increase in power, and where Chekov's gun is handed to them. (Standard isn't derogatory - it's the standard because it works.)
> 
> If I were sketching out a less standard story, only one character would complete their character arc in full - the other would complete their arc by succumbing to their flaw, making one half of the story a tragedy and turning a one-time protagonist into an antagonist. I might also swap the genders (which would make the characters more atypical), remove any hint of romance, etc. I don't actually know if you intend a pairing here, but standard storytelling for two protagonists suggests it.
> 
> Okay, so things that interest me:
> 
> * What's at the heart of the dark mountain?
> * What are the characters' internal conflicts? What's the source of their flaws? (Avery's brother died while they were out in the woods, which is a part of why he treads so lightly. Raeni was betrayed by an early lover, which is a part of why she keeps up her false faces.)
> * How does magic actually work? You talk about it in terms of simple power, but what are we talking about here? Do the characters control swarms of small pearlescent creatures which are visible only with their third eye open? Do they bond to a material to give them power over it? Do they scream "Fireball!" at the top of their lungs while depleting their mana pool? (Magic is a really easy thing to get wrong, especially if you're figuring out what it can do on the fly. I strongly suggest mapping it out before writing too much.)
> * What motivates the homunculi to give out their gifts and wisdom? What's their connection with the mountain, if any?

> **u/TimeLoopedPowerGamer** [+4]  *Utopian Smut Peddler* (13 hours later)
> 
> Reddit has long been a hot spot for conversation on the internet. About 57 million people visit the site every day to chat about topics as varied as makeup, video games and pointers for power washing driveways.
> 
> In recent years, Reddit’s array of chats also have been a free teaching aid for companies like Google, OpenAI and Microsoft. Those companies are using Reddit’s conversations in the development of giant artificial intelligence systems that many in Silicon Valley think are on their way to becoming the tech industry’s next big thing.
> 
> Now Reddit wants to be paid for it. The company said on Tuesday that it planned to begin charging companies for access to its application programming interface, or A.P.I., the method through which outside entities can download and process the social network’s vast selection of person-to-person conversations.
> 
> “The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Steve Huffman, founder and chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview. “But we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free.”
> 
> The move is one of the first significant examples of a social network’s charging for access to the conversations it hosts for the purpose of developing A.I. systems like ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular program. Those new A.I. systems could one day lead to big businesses, but they aren’t likely to help companies like Reddit very much. In fact, they could be used to create competitors — automated duplicates to Reddit’s conversations.
> 
> Reddit is also acting as it prepares for a possible initial public offering on Wall Street this year. The company, which was founded in 2005, makes most of its money through advertising and e-commerce transactions on its platform. Reddit said it was still ironing out the details of what it would charge for A.P.I. access and would announce prices in the coming weeks.
> 
> Reddit’s conversation forums have become valuable commodities as large language models, or L.L.M.s, have become an essential part of creating new A.I. technology.
> 
> L.L.M.s are essentially sophisticated algorithms developed by companies like Google and OpenAI, which is a close partner of Microsoft. To the algorithms, the Reddit conversations are data, and they are among the vast pool of material being fed into the L.L.M.s. to develop them.

> **u/RolandsVaria** [+2]  (6 hours later)
> 
> The nature of masks.
> 
> You say Raeni switches out faces depending on who she's with. What I'm wondering is, how much of any given face is real, and how much of it is a fabrication? People take on different behavioral patterns around different people after all, but can any of them truly be considered false?
> 
> What about her feelings towards her friends? How much does she think she values them, and how much does she think she's using them? Does she care for any of them more than she thinks she does, or does she thinks she cares for them more than she actually does? Does she ever show acts of genuine affection? Is it possible to show genuine affection when you know that you're at least partly doing it for your own gain?
> 
> As she deceives more and more, as she becomes more accustomed to those patterns of behavior, does she become comfortable with that behavior? Does it feel more natural to her than if she were to act how she used to act? Where does the act end and the "real" person begin?

> **u/diraniola** [+1]  (52 minutes later)
> 
> Sounds like the hook for a D&D campaign. I would play.
> 
> The characters seem a bit generic. I would like to see the genders reversed, making the female lead a wanderer cautious wanderer with a power fix, while the male lead relies on manipulation and favors over physical might.

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