First off, thank you for your crit, and I'll definitely give it thought. The last thing I want is for my character's actions to come across as forced or OOC, and I'm glad you talked to me about it.
One of the challenges of playing Poland in this setting is that he's being exposed to a lot of ideas much more quickly than he would have in the real world timeline, which is part of why he... hasn't been very good at the closet, and why things have been moving more quickly than I feel like they would have if things had been left undisturbed. He's all of a sudden surrounded by people telling him that God doesn't actually mind things he's always believed weren't allowed, faced with six hundred years of history that everyone else knows about and he's honestly not ready to face at this point in his life, lost and disoriented and gravitating even more strongly towards the few people he's really comfortable with, and having more trouble telling his feelings about Liet to sit down and shut up than usual because of his jealousy towards Pakistan.
He's also kind of... not used to having many friends, or to keeping secrets from the friends he does have, which has something to do with how many people he's wound up telling about his feelings (which is something he would feel really awkward about, if it had crossed his mind >>; He really has no intention of ever "coming out", per se, because it will take him a lot longer than I'll be playing him for to really accept the idea that liking boys isn't something to be ashamed of). As to the crossdressing, he's been doing it more often than he's frankly likely to in the near future out of a little "wait... is this really okay? Can I really do this and not get into trouble?" sort of thing. It's probably going to be toned down fairly soon.
I'm curious as to what parts of the relationship seem rushed, since, well... they way that they're physical with each other is well within the bounds of close platonic friendship for their time, and the emotional side of things has consisted largely of Liet trying to repress his feelings altogether and Poland being convinced he can never say anything about it because it's bad and wrong and he doesn't want to either lose his best friend or drag him to Hell with him. Honestly, even if they get together, Poland isn't going to want to be public about it in the slightest, and they're likely to remain very physically chaste because of their religious beliefs. If we're talking about them having those feelings in the first place... How religious someone is really has nothing to do about how and when they start being attracted to someone. That's something we really can't help, which I suppose is getting into my own little Gay Girl Soapbox...
I have been putting thought into how I play him, and... I don't know. Honestly, I don't feel that his actions have been hugely OOC, and I hope that I've been able to convey why I've been having him act the way he has. If you still have issue with the way I play him, I welcome you to continue this conversation. Thank you for your time :)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 04:48 am (UTC)One of the challenges of playing Poland in this setting is that he's being exposed to a lot of ideas much more quickly than he would have in the real world timeline, which is part of why he... hasn't been very good at the closet, and why things have been moving more quickly than I feel like they would have if things had been left undisturbed. He's all of a sudden surrounded by people telling him that God doesn't actually mind things he's always believed weren't allowed, faced with six hundred years of history that everyone else knows about and he's honestly not ready to face at this point in his life, lost and disoriented and gravitating even more strongly towards the few people he's really comfortable with, and having more trouble telling his feelings about Liet to sit down and shut up than usual because of his jealousy towards Pakistan.
He's also kind of... not used to having many friends, or to keeping secrets from the friends he does have, which has something to do with how many people he's wound up telling about his feelings (which is something he would feel really awkward about, if it had crossed his mind >>; He really has no intention of ever "coming out", per se, because it will take him a lot longer than I'll be playing him for to really accept the idea that liking boys isn't something to be ashamed of). As to the crossdressing, he's been doing it more often than he's frankly likely to in the near future out of a little "wait... is this really okay? Can I really do this and not get into trouble?" sort of thing. It's probably going to be toned down fairly soon.
I'm curious as to what parts of the relationship seem rushed, since, well... they way that they're physical with each other is well within the bounds of close platonic friendship for their time, and the emotional side of things has consisted largely of Liet trying to repress his feelings altogether and Poland being convinced he can never say anything about it because it's bad and wrong and he doesn't want to either lose his best friend or drag him to Hell with him. Honestly, even if they get together, Poland isn't going to want to be public about it in the slightest, and they're likely to remain very physically chaste because of their religious beliefs. If we're talking about them having those feelings in the first place... How religious someone is really has nothing to do about how and when they start being attracted to someone. That's something we really can't help, which I suppose is getting into my own little Gay Girl Soapbox...
I have been putting thought into how I play him, and... I don't know. Honestly, I don't feel that his actions have been hugely OOC, and I hope that I've been able to convey why I've been having him act the way he has. If you still have issue with the way I play him, I welcome you to continue this conversation. Thank you for your time :)