Loveless Survey

[youmaynot]

Please put your Name and Team Name in the subject line! (ie: Tiger's Eye - Phoenix)

For each topic you may list 2-3 threads that you feel exemplify your answers. You don't need to complete each section, but please don't submit incomplete sections. Surveys are due at 6pm PST on July 1st

Words

1. How well do you feel that you were able to use your words to exert your power over others? How effective were you in bringing those who opposed you to submission?
   
2. What change do you feel in your understanding of the power that words might hold now?
   
3. What harm did your words do to those you faced? What benefit did you find within them?

Bonds

1. How do you feel that this game has strengthened your understanding of your partner? How has it been weakened?
   
2. What strength do you feel you gained from the bond you shared within this game?
   
3. Do you feel that there is another who would have been more suited to partner with you? What reasons do you have for thinking such a thing?

Change

1. What changes did you observe in the physique of your companions? What do you feel was the criteria for such change?
   
2. How do you feel the treatment of those altered differed from those who were not?
   
3. If the private affairs of your fellow heroes and knights remained visible in such a way, do you feel it would be a welcome change? What makes you feel this way?

Any additional thoughts/comments:

Comments

Citrine - Ritsuka

[persnickitty]

Words

1. How well do you feel that you were able to use your words to exert your power over others? How effective were you in bringing those who opposed you to submission?

I'm the Sacrifice, not the Fighter. My words exist to support Soubi . . . though I guess, that's a power of its own, in its way. Not all power is negative, and you can use your words to do things other than harm, or force others to submit. I think that's really important. For me . . . I guess, I think, I don't believe I have a lot of power over others. Not really. But sometimes I think, the only way for me to have strength and be able to get through to other people when it's important is to put my feelings into words. If you can do that, it's really powerful—to get other people to understand your feelings by just speaking plainly and with conviction.

2. What change do you feel in your understanding of the power that words might hold now?

Is this what you wanted us to learn . . .? Of course words have power. And not even in the sense that we can use spell battles to create things and make them real. I think, along the way, the people that I talked to were also slowly coming to realize that. That spell battles aren't about the words you put together to create images and ideas. That won't win you a battle. It's psychology. It's the words that cut into you and make you question yourself, it's the ones that drive you apart from your partner, it's the ones that leave you tongue-tied and uncertain. I definitely saw a change in other peoples' understanding. I think maybe my own conviction is a little stronger now, too. Even if people didn't believe that what they could be doing was meaningful, it just became clear really fast that words can cut in ways you don't expect them to.

3. What harm did your words do to those you faced? What benefit did you find within them?

We tried not to hurt anybody. I don't like being made to harm anybody. But Soubi and I also weren't going to lose, either. Is that selfish and self-centered of us? . . . I think we only went there, really, when push came to shove. I think, when we battled Tactless, that things got a little out of control. Once your feelings get involved, it's sometimes hard to control your own words and the damage they cause. Dirk and Jason and Soubi . . . there were things going on there that maybe I don't even really get. But, I think, sometimes, we don't really make up our own minds about what's important to us, or the things we'd defend, until we find them challenged by somebody else's words. You can cause damage that's turned around into positive momentum. I know that's something I need sometimes to figure out where I stand. After that, though, I won't waver.

[with Dirk; with Jr; vs Boundless]

Bonds

1. How do you feel that this game has strengthened your understanding of your partner? How has it been weakened?

Our bond and understanding hasn't been weakened at all. It gets stronger . . . We were happy to have it back. We were -- I don't want it to be taken away again. The connection between me and Soubi -- that's ours.

Please don't take it away again. Please don't take it away . . .

-- but I don't, I don't need it. I don't need that power, to know that I'm connected to Soubi. I won't be afraid of being alone without that, and I can just work harder to make him realize that I'm his Sacrifice and I'll never leave him. That no matter how weird our memories are or how scary things get, he's my Fighter. He's Loveless too. I already told him, we don't need promises or bonds or anything else to prove it, and not any words on our skin.

Anything I understand about him is because of the things we share, the times we spend together and the things we talk about. Every time we talk, don't we learn and understand more? There's a lot I still don't know, maybe, but that doesn't matter either. We'll just keep going.

2. What strength do you feel you gained from the bond you shared within this game?

. . . I can't really comment on the bond any more than I already did. Because it wasn't really anything new that I gained—it was something I got back. I guess, just the manifestation of what was always there. But it was really interesting having it back and being able to battle other people that weren't involved in the . . . things going on at home. Soubi's really impressive. And I want to be a better and better partner for him. I don't really know what that entails, but I want to learn. From all the things people told me, in my memories, about what I should do, and what Soubi's asked me to do as well. I want to figure out what lets us work together best so I don't bring him down. For myself, I want to know. And—it made me a little happy to work together. I wasn't afraid.

3. Do you feel that there is another who would have been more suited to partner with you? What reasons do you have for thinking such a thing?

No. Absolutely not. Not ever.

[with Soubi; with Percy; vs Tactless]


Change

What changes did you observe in the physique of your companions? What do you feel was the criteria for such change?

Obviously I know what the ears mean?? I had to tell a lot of people, you know! That was embarrassing!

How do you feel the treatment of those altered differed from those who were not?

I think everybody was just really confused about it? And it's going to be really weird from now on now that everybody knows what it means for me, since I'm going to keep mine. I mean, I'm used to people knowing what it means, but that was always people who also grew up with it being normal and unquestioned . . . It's just weird.

If the private affairs of your fellow heroes and knights remained visible in such a way, do you feel it would be a welcome change? What makes you feel this way?

. . . I don't know. It would just be going back to normal for me. But—I guess, at home, I never really questioned why things were the way they were, or what sort of psychological effects it had. Now that I've been here and people have asked me about it and I had to explain it, I guess I've thought about it more. It's—the relativity of normality. I haven't really thought it all through yet, but—isn't it a sort of labeling? Of stigmatizing and othering, putting a normative value on something that's a social . . . construct . . .

Look, maybe it's just kind of messed up?? If it's not like that here then it doesn't need to be like that! It's just something else people use to judge others because of what they think's socially acceptable and I've had a lot of that kind of thrown in my face lately and I don't know if I care or not. I don't want to talk about it. What the hell am I doing? It's—it's just the same sort of thing everywhere you go, the pressure and expectations. This is just putting a different face on it, and it doesn't change how people think or act, so I just wish people would stop treating it like it's the fault of the ears themselves because talk about missing the point!

[with Jason; with Mirage; with Kit]

Any additional thoughts/comments:

I wonder what you really wanted us to learn from this . . .? I think there's a lot we could say. It's made me think a lot about things—like looking at my own life from a different angle. It's more subjective that way? I'm curious about other people took from it. I know, at least, from talking to a few people, that they definitely—I guess, learned some things about themselves, from the experience. But I guess there's other people that are going to be totally unaffected. I hope it helped a few people, at least, and wasn't entirely negative, even if I don't really know how I feel about it myself. There's . . . there's a lot of questions. But I guess, too, that questions are the way that I figure out what's most important.

. . . sorry. I'm tired now.