WELCOME TO RE/ALIGNMENT

[re_alignedmods]

Hello, players, and welcome to Re/Alignment!

This is Mindy using the mod journal to post a greeting to you all. I'm your Head Mod, aka the local despot - player of Prima, Nexus Prime, and Vector Prime. Assisting me is a whole bunch of others whom I'll let introduce themselves. TL;DR awesome team is awesome.

At present, our tentative start date is a week from now; June 21st. This is to let us get in a few more players, work out a few last kinks in the system, and basically get as prepared as we can to run this new game. Any kinks/errors/etc you see, please do us a favor and point it out!

No, really. Do. (For example, I just noticed that the current Accept(ed) blurb doesn't mention the Player Contact page. Mind filling that out for us?)

ANYWAY. You can hit me up on plurk as artoni, on AIM as 'twixtthestreams' (I'm often invis, so just shoot me a message if you need to get in contact with me), or here on DW as artoni as well. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help make things more awesome for you, but for now, make sure you're acquainted with all the help pages - setting, FAQ, world, etc.

oh my gawd guys i am so nervous ;A;

Comments

[automobile_enthusiast]

I responded to your plot idea over in the other post! (To sum up, YES THIS SOUNDS GREAT.) But can I just say that the image of Korra painstakingly earthbending KO clean is actually really wonderful?

[not_halfbaked]

Just saw your response and replied to it. ^_^ (GLAD YOU THINK IT SOUNDS GREAT.)

I admit, I had that image in my head ever since I knew from tumblr how you were going to bring in KO banged up and I was planning to try playing Korra. I just thought it would be really neat, within Korra's character in that context, and something KO would probably really appreciate/need. So I'm really glad you liked that image too, thank you. :D

[automobile_enthusiast]

We'll definitely have to see if we can make it happen in-game! Primus knows KO's going to need the help, and I imagine he's going to be desperate enough not to be picky about who helps him (when it comes to his cleanliness/appearance, anyway.)

[not_halfbaked]

Yep, that's a goal I'll keep in mind! :)

And I think Korra will be desperate for any sort of companion in a world new and strange to her, especially anyone with an idea of what's going on. KO will at least know what/who the other robots are, something that'll be slightly reassuring to Korra.

[automobile_enthusiast]

And KO's not above fraternizing with anyone if he thinks it'll gain him something. He's not as ideal a companion as, say, an Autobot, but I think once he realizes the extent of Korra's powers, he'll do what he can to curry favor with her. If that means acting as her guide through this strange new world, well so be it.

...Although it occurs to me that language barriers will probably be an issue until the communicators get handed out by the Firstforged.

[not_halfbaked]

Certainly sounds like Knock Out. I rather love that about his character, that certain flexibility that can lead into gray areas.

I've been wondering about the language issue because Korra's show does air in English, though writing has always been consistently something else, i.e. Chinese. You can make the assumption that their verbal language isn't really English either when super in-story...OR you could say it's part of the fantasy mishmash of different RL cultures in that world, that though writing's Chinese, the denizens of the Avatar world essentially speak English even super in-story. I know it seems very canonically true that the entire world largely seems to speak one major language, as everyone seems able to fully understand each other. So maybe it could sorta be handwaved. Hmmm.

I actually always thought all the TFP!Cybertronians knew all the Earth languages as a precaution (if a bit paranoid). If Korra would speak in an equivalent to Chinese, maybe KO would understand her?

...Or maybe the language issue could be handwaved? Just go with the idea that Korra does speak English? Hmmm.

[not_halfbaked]

Though if KO at least knows written Chinese and Korra would know that, they could communicate through writing?

Though it might also be interesting to try communicating purely through body language. And even with just that Korra could still get the idea to earthbend the dirt off KO to placate him, if she notices him being obviously uncomfortable.

...Though I would still like to get them talking. Hmmm.

[automobile_enthusiast]

Well, they will be able to talk EVENTUALLY, just not necessarily right away. As soon as the communicators are distributed, the auto-translate function will take care of communication problems.

Until then... Hrm. It's probably pretty safe to say that the language in ATLOK isn't English, given how almost every culture aspect of the show is derived from Eastern/Asian/Polynesian sources. They might be able to communicate via Chinese-- is the writing system they use in ATLOK straight Chinese, or is it an analogue/lookalike? Because then you might be able to justify her speaking Chinese, or something close enough to it to be comprehensible to KO or any other Cybertronian with a comprehensive Terran language pack...

Admittedly, I've played non-verbal characters before, ones who had to communicate solely via body language. It can be REALLY difficult, but it's a fun challenge.

[not_halfbaked]

The "Art of" Avatar the Last Aribender book says the writing system is entirely in Chinese. (Though it was said it was typically classical Chinese, and archaic Chinese for texts about the spirits or the elements.)

From http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Writing_in_the_World_of_Avatar:

"All four nations use a common system of characters borrowed from the Chinese system for daily purposes.

Traditional Chinese characters are used for all writing in the Avatar World.

The set of Chinese characters used in Avatar is the traditional set, used regularly in modern Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as overseas Chinese communities."

So it sounds likely enough that with the writing really being Chinese, Korra would speak Chinese, and Korra and Knock Out could communicate that way. Sounds viable enough that we should try. Though the body language does sound intriguing, I think both would try to find a verbal communication first. Maybe a mix of both Chinese and body language?

[automobile_enthusiast]

All right, seems reasonable enough to me! Although you might want to run it by one of the mods just to be sure it's okay to have Korra speaking Chinese. I mean your logic totally makes sense to me, but that's the proper etiquette in a situation like this, since it's not entirely straightforward and she is from a fictional representation of the Eastern cultures.

[not_halfbaked]

Will do.

Do you have advice for RP with only body language?

[not_halfbaked]

Just asked on the mod contact page, waiting for a response now.

[automobile_enthusiast]

Sweet!

Uh. Honestly, not that much. The non-verbal character I played was, um, actually a dinosaur! So she was really physically expressive. Still, there's a lot you can do to convey meaning without words, from facial expressions to hand gestures. Probably my best is advice to actually try and act out any gestures or handsigns you'd want to have Korra use to make sure they don't look to ridiculous, haha.

[not_halfbaked]

Thanks. :)

[automobile_enthusiast]

No problem!

[not_halfbaked]

Mod said the language thing we talked about was okay. :)

[automobile_enthusiast]

Sweet!