View source for Talk:Life Hacks/Hallomod(tod-pre)/Give a somewhat kid appropriate answer to July's question about why your penis is big

Sooo... 2 things. 1. Loki does not appear on any of the other routes. Trying to keep the time-line consistent here, so every encounter with Loki after the first has been you going to him and not him suddenly coming to you. 2. This route was actually supposed to go toward possibly having something go wrong and have Summer start flipping out. That's a little less important than the 1st one though. At least have Xander be the one to think it up instead of suddenly having this literal Deuce Ex Machina out of nowhere. [[User:Jemini|Jemini]] ([[User talk:Jemini|talk]]) 00:43, 16 April 2019 (CEST)

Actually Loki randomly appearing happens in this route in the Xander's Families dining room. I actually got the idea for this from that, He showed up to check on Xander and gave him some ideas on things to do and an upgrade to his life hack. I decided to have Loki clue him in, to show that even with full stats Xander, despite his perfect stats is still not perfect and new at this game, with room to learn and grow, and his hormones could cloud his judgment. [[User:Telgar|Telgar]] ([[User talk:Telgar|talk]]) 18:01, 15 April 2019 (PST)

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No, that WAS the "1st time" I was referring to when I said that, although I suppose the confusion is easy since you could think I meant the 1st time at the beginning of the entire thing. What I meant was that it was at a point that made complete narrative sense at that point. It was when he was just coming back from using the "real world" bathroom, 10 minutes "IRL" translating to around 4 hours "in game," and those 4 hours are kept relatively consistent in all routes and in all cases he comes back it's for the exact same purpose. All other times Xander encounters loki aside from that one instance to give him the upgrades are Xander going to him.

The other point though is this is a literal deuce ex machina, both by definition and also by implementation (Implementation being the important part.) That's just universally agreed on as bad form in story telling. [[User:Jemini|Jemini]] ([[User talk:Jemini|talk]]) 03:27, 16 April 2019 (CEST)

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Ok, so, just started a different and more bold route to demonstrate kinda what I was talking about as a better general kind of route for this. Leaves Loki out of it while also adding the option for Xander to suddenly notice and think of this on his own.

* [[Life Hacks/Hallomod(tod-pre)/Give a definitely non kid-appropriate answer to July's question|Give  a definitely non kid-appropriate answer to July's question]]

Also, another thing, the reaction Loki's describing is how the reaction would be if all the stats were at 50. At 70-80, they would be uncomfortable with what you're doing but make excuses as to why it's actually Ok, and Xander wouldn't ultimately get into trouble. At the full 100, they would make the excuses and seem uneasy at first, but after doing it for just a bit they will have convinced themselves it's actually not just perfectly fine but also for the best somehow for you to be doing these clearly illegal things, and Loki would also know this.

This is why I've actually been kinda avoiding the routes with the maxed out stats, they really do make things a bit less interesting that way. The original idea I had in mind while making this route was to reveal just how far the stats would really go in what would be allowed, but never wound up writing it because of how boring the maxed stats route was starting to feel.

Also, even if Xander had nothing in terms of good stats, Loki would actually not warn him. He IS a trickster god after all, he may not actually be a god in this cannon, but that still speaks to what kind of personality he has and it would actually amuse him if Xander got into trouble like that. Also, he would respect Xander's intelligence enough for him to realize either that his penis is too big during the act or that he should think about the pregnancy after the fact.

(Sorry, it's just that I put quite a bit of care and effort into the character and world building here. Kinda has to be maintained in order to keep up the feel of the world.) [[User:Jemini|Jemini]] ([[User talk:Jemini|talk]]) 09:20, 16 April 2019 (CEST)
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Okay, whatever, I thought it would be an interesting twist to show that even with maxed stats, that Xander still can make mistakes, as this is all still new to him, and he still is human with flawed logic and hormones that can interfere with his thinking. To avoid a "Mary Sue" type character or situation, actually have him need the help of others and not be able to figure "everything" out for himself. I didn't and still don't see it as a deuce ex machina, mainly because it is missing some very key parts to qualify as this, first the character "Loki" has appeared in the story previously and has performed this very action previously, so it does not come out of nowhere, Second Loki didn't tell him "exactly" what rewards to buy, or how to distribute them for max points/capability, just dropped not so subtle hints as to which areas to look at, and in the end the choices were still Xanders. I see their relationship as more of a mentor/mentored relationship, at this time, thus the visit to see how he was doing again and a few not so subtle hints. Also as mentioned in a Talk previously, having maxed stats cause similar reactions to the rewards, lessens the value of the rewards, as all Xander has to do is max everyone's stats out and then he never has to buy rewards or experiment with them. I also thought it would be a fun little bit, to add to, as you describe "a bit less interesting" path, but whatever. Do as you wish. [[User:Telgar|Telgar]] ([[User talk:Telgar|talk]]) 02:11, 16 April 2019 (PST)