Love Interests, Romantic Partners and Hook Ups
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[confused]
[huh]Had not thought about that. It would be a logical explanation…perhaps the sneering tone they delivered those remarks was indicative of their pride, i.e. because things were not so simple for them, they had to pretend disdain for someone who was more capable of them?
[mellow]
Will have to think about this.
I find it kind of strange that Tom has not tried to hook up with anyone yet as he came across as a teenage boy. I get he is mature but unless becoming a demon changed him that much and destroyed his sex drive (arguably should do the reverse) it is really really weird that he has not boned anyone.
Well, Reggie certainly lost no time. His urges seems to be in oversexdrive. But then he is an incubus
However, I will point out that Tom has not mentioned having a girl friend or much of any friends back on Earth, so maybe he’s like one of those guys living across the hall from the sexy waitress in Pasadena while working as physicists…
I can say that as a rule, most new demons don’t get much action. Most start off with pretty solitary lives for a few decades or centuries, hanging in their caves by night, slaving away during the day. It generally takes them time to meet other demons, particularly demonettes.
And I can categorically say from personal experiences that demonettes are very hard to get. I’m pretty convinced that demonettes don’t like sex for some reason. Trust me, I have tried just about every trick in the book and had very little luck.
And let’s be fair, if someone as handsome, suave and witty as me has trouble wooing a demonette, just think how many more problems someone without all my gifts would have.
He is essentially a demon prince second only to the Conco-Tizzy, and arguably Lilith or Dadd-Sam.
Having a girl on earth true he dident but now he is a powerful demon god spawn. soooo he could get people just based on that i am sure. There should be people like Gastrophie except female in his life. Maybe he doesn’t notice but it should be there.
It kinda seems unrealistic that no one is trying to sleep with him to sway his mind or or anyone just generally attracted to the Demon because he is apparently attractive.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely so i am hoping that aspect is explored in some detail.
Love:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/QbzcFbhPV-o[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/q6RYixM70fE[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/xsYk8oCaHLI[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/-6ALzUGZsOQ[/youtube]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/pjJEXkbeL-o[/youtube]In response to the Author Guy, Maybe that should be addressed in a Book then because if he is any part teenage boy still and not a mature adult man or completely focused Demon Prince then it would be way more realistic to be focused the way he has been. Then get completely side tracked often because he should be flooded with Hormones that constantly are saying Screw that person, And that one, and that one, and those 4.
Its kinda unnatural that he has not, Also with getting all this power the fact that he has not even considered taking what he wants and having some moral debate over it, Even a few sentences is a little strange. Maybe that part of the character but with every other character being complex it also makes sense that someone would seduce him even for a night or he would just fall into a hook up.
Especially now that he has Food, Water, Warmth, Rest, just because he is a Demon that will always be covered. He now has Safety and Security which is provided by a Legion of arch demons and Fellow gods and a Bottomless Prison filled with “Do not even think of messing with mes’s”. He also has friends…. the next on the hierarchy of needs is Intimate Relationships. He already skipped that and is achieving Prestige and Self Actualization.
It just seems to be a clear thing that is missing in an otherwise well developed world with well rounded characters.
*I am not interested in a coming of age romance story, but the fact that there is nothing at all for him might mean he is Asexual or there is some weird magic happening to him
Nah, like TAG says, there’s just been no time. I’ve noticed in my own life that “personal cube-to-cube time” usually happens when we’re not sliding around like we’ve had our pseudopods cut off. When RL gets busy, we don’t.
In one of these books, Tom’s just going to have to take a week off, and when he does…
Well, let’s just say I doubt Mount Doom will the ONLY thing to erupt.
Having read the books gives me more insight into Tom than I get hanging around him…which seems odd, but then I can’t read his internal dialogue without a copy of the books.
But I think many people arguing that he’s not acting like a teenage boy is sort of missing a few points. The big one being that he’s no longer a teenage boy, he’s an immortal and there are other factors at work.
First though, his emotional state has been anywhere from freaked to depressed to paranoid and anxious. Right now he feels that he is perpetrating a huge lie, first to the D’Orcs, then Orcs, and now to the Etonians, and he’s scared he’s going to be caught/found out. He is also afraid of failing them all, particularly the little guys (he’s got some issues on this front–note his reluctance to break Rupert’s illusion about Tom being his father)
Fear and anxiety trump sexual desire in anyone of any age.
Also, you guys do know he is not a biological person right?
He’s (and me’s and all immortals) an energy construct, a being of pure animus that wraps itself in a material form?
He doesn’t actually have hormones…he only has them if/when he wants to have them, sort of like eating, pooping, breathing and sleeping (except at Mount Doom where competition for the mana generators sort of force the issue at least for sleeping and recovering mana)
Yes, by default, he previously had them, so they would be naturally turned on (plus everyone knows demons are sexual pervs so there is that component–>see volume 1, initial summoning, giant phalus and Jenn’s reactions) but…
The thing is, if his mental state is preoccupied by other things, other emotions, then any faux hormones that would normally be generated (because he and others thinks he has them) would likely be suppressed.
Finally, again book 1: Part of his form is determined by what other believe about him. People who convince themselves he is Orcus expect to see Orcus and while not like an initial summoning (where it is very intense) it does have an effect, albeit much smaller. Of course, I should note that this can be a real problem for some gods (more so than demons–people worshiping an idol and seriously concentrating on who/what they believe you to be, is pretty potent–particularly if you are sucking up their emotionally charged mana at the same–>hence the mana cleansing rituals the avatars do), and just thinking about it often makes them paranoid as to is it me, or what my followers expect?
But anyway, how belief shapes immortals will be discussed much more. Actually, Tom and a certain previously missing member of the Tartarvardenennead will be discussing it and similar topics in v.IV (very early on too)
But anyway, I digress, the point being is that Tom and other demons all have real emotional needs, however, physical needs are technically a luxury that we can choose to indulge in or not (mostly/sort of/sometimes–for example book 1, his rage and instinct to kill was that him or was that expectation)
The thing is, “it’s complex”
[quote=Tizzy;7166]Also, you guys do know he is not a biological person right?[/quote]
[youtube]https://youtu.be/LB9lObWclFQ[/youtube]Laibach! Every D’Orcs favorite faux fascist Slovenian industrial band!
Very surprised Melania didn’t invite them to play the inauguration, she’s a fellow countryman, and I am certain her husband would appreciate their style.
However, back to this song.
To truly appreciate what a fantastic job Laibach has done with this song, one needs to see the original Opus version:
[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/pATX-lV0VFk[/YOUTUBE]
[scared] Shudder
[size=6]Forget Tommus, he’s only been around 3 months, and just starting a new job. Surely he can be given some slack if he wants to focus on his career for awhile. Plus, dating for a single parent is always complicated. [/size]
My problem with this situation isn’t that he hasn’t had any desire, but that he hasn’t THOUGHT about the fact that he doesn’t have any desire. As a teenage human, sexual identity and desire becomes as much a HABIT, as it does a physiological response. Not just that you feel the desire to, say, be your own best friend, but after a certain number of weeks, it becomes a habit.
As with anything else, being busy will push the habit out of mind, but it’s still sitting back there in the back of his mind.
Once things slow down, even if he doesn’t have any actual physical desire, he should at least think about buffing the banana. Would be pretty amusing to have someone walk in on him doing the five knuckle shuffle.So, I will grant you the thinking about part; however, that is on purpose as I’ve tried to keep this a bit more PG rated, albeit the standard of what is PG has changed over time.
It also comes back to Blah64’s asexual comments. Asexuality is something people now talk openly about as a ‘thing’, but it is not not new at all, and in fact has a very very long history. Ostensibly, the whole monastic life in the middle ages was all about trying to create an asexual environment, not only for males (or women in an abbey) who the powers that be did not want procreating (second and third sons) but also individuals who didn’t want to participate in the alpha male power scheme for mating, for a variety of reasons.
Today, and admittedly, Tom now lives in today, although at one time he lived in the late 80’s/early nineties, there is so much more openness about sex and sexual activity that not obsessing about sex is considered weird. But for long periods of time it was something only discussed in the bedroom or dark alley etc and you didn’t share your sex life with your coworkers, parents and relatives (close friends/locker room yes, but not everyone on Facebook)
Tom is/was originally conceived as one of those “nerds/geeks” that for whatever reason was not strongly sexually driven to date someone. There were (and actually still are) a LOT of people like this. It’s not that they don’t want sex, but for some reason: “Looks”,”shyness”,”lack of self confidence”,”poor interpersonal skills” that were not actively seeking dates in HS, or felt it a lost cause.
In my day, you could spot these individuals in the library with a book rather than socializing, or if they were socializing it was playing D&D or smoking cigarettes/weed while dressed in black back by the dumpsters, or sometimes, they hung out inside their lockers or hallway trashcans if they were discovered by the jocks and the bullies.
Today, the stereotype would be the early (seasons 1 and 2) versions of The Big Bang Theory crew. Leonard, Sheldon and Raj would be very classic examples, Wollowitz being the example of the sex obsessed nerd who still wasn’t getting any.
And again, many people were just clueless at that age (a result of all of the above). I look back on my early and late teens and it wasn’t that I didn’t have sexual urges (I very much did) but my personal skills were such that I can honestly say I was clueless on “how to date” or even socialize outside of shared interests in SF/Fantasy/Gaming with similar social underachievers.
I now, in retrospect I now recognize missed opportunities, from a first girlfriend that I lost because I wasn’t moving around the bases fast enough, to a couple instances where I accidentally turned down opportunities for sex (e.g. classmate staying over who wanted to zip sleeping bags together because “we could have a lot more fun”) because I didn’t realize that’s what they were. I was clueless at socio-sexual dynamics.
Of course, today, unlike in the 80’s, it’s nearly impossible to be clueless about sexual dynamics and relations, but at one time it was much easier to be clueless about relationships. And of course, we also have people that are not clueless, but who may have sexual interests where it is hard to find a (local) partner with shared interests so they go it alone (or online) with fantasy or porn.
Anyway, Tom, before moving to Harding had been a social introvert, a book nerd, it was not that he did not have sexual urges, or a desire to be more social, he had just got into something of a clueless rut. He recognized it and wanted to change it, be more extroverted, that’s why he was forcing himself to go to this party. His natural habit would have been to stay home, read a book, play a video game, etc. But he wanted to have more friends, be more social.
So he goes out, tries, and immediately gets slammed/knocked down/enslaved for trying to rise above his “HS Social Standing”
There was supposed to be some subtle irony in that.
I also have to say, I’ve bounced around on the PG/PG-13/R rating of this book(s). Trying to figure out what the right level of sexual discussion is (outside of traditional romance) is appropriate for a very wide range of ages. I’ve tried to sort of keep it at the Prime Time TV standard, so you see people having bedroom conversations, and with then pushed it further with Reggie.
But it’s that Prime Time TV standard that explains why you don’t see Tom thinking or doing certain things, I am sure masturbation was a staple part of his human life, and I can guarantee if it was me, I’d be wanting to fully explore my own demon body in all sorts of manners. But that strikes me as just a bit too “pervy” for the Prime Time TV Standard. You note, masturbation is still pretty verboten in TV/movies, unless it involves massive humiliation of the perpetrator. There is still a LOT of stigma to self-pleasure.
Of course, this brings up a very real point, when I first started the book, I was in a phase (I was 17-20) where I hated the way so many authors (and adults in general) tried to juvenalize teens and not only sanitize things for them, but to sort of say they didn’t have powers of consent/self determination.
Hence, early on, we have more graphic descriptions of his transformation/equipment, later on in Book 1, when I am in mid to late twenties, things are back to bedroom scenes only.
So, I could argue, that I’ve fallen into the trap that I originally hated when I was a teenager, thinking that “they can’t handle it” or something, which would really have pissed me off.
But, the problem comes, you build a style/comfort level for the reader and if you vary too much from that, you really piss people off.
So anyway, consider this discussion pre-Beta v.IV in that I will deal with this issue in v.IV at least in terms of explaining what Tom is thinking, explore his desires or lack thereof or whatever is going on.
Plus, I am pretty sure Reggie’s work will start in this book so we’ll be going to the 10 pm (EST) hour of TV anyway, if not further.
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