The Pyramid of Jokes and Crowns

[Karakui]

It's based on a book? I thought it might be.

 

[Mundane Monster]

Yeah, it's based off of a yaoi manga.

 

[Karakui]

O.O Okay then...

 

[Headphones]

Sorry for being away for so long, everyone. Family matters and all. =3

@Polystical @Yokai

Truth be told, this was not originally my idea. In fact, I was planning to note this in the opening posts (until a system error ate the text away -.-).
Initially, this role-play was started by a user named Clear and it was their intention to base the story off of the system in "Caste Heaven". I was a mere co-GM, who made the landmarks, academy, academy timetables, site and overall lore for the role-play. Some time ago Clear simply vanished and, seeing as I had done most of the work, the majority of the remaining users voted that I should start the role-play anew.
If you were to personally ask me, I think of "Caste Heaven" as a disgusting meaningless, when it comes to storytelling, piece of pseudo-artwork, the point of which is only service for people, who are into that kind of stuff. I have nothing against single-gender-love and stories about it, if not I sometimes consider them more romantic that the soapy love triangle dramas that has been overflowing since forever, however, when there is only service and no story to be told, with the foundation almost completely being ignored (the game) in favour of pleasing the reader's interest, the manga's appeal drops down below point zero for me. Alas, different strokes for different folks. If you find it a pleasant read, don't let my opinion interfere, but remember, I am entitled to my own opinion.

As for the role-play itself, I am honestly feeling a bit, how should I say, uncomfortable. It wasn't started by me and the concept being used has a source that isn't entirely pleasant to me. I wouldn't have minded at all as a player and co-GM, but as a GM it's a different story. With me having this position, I would like to differentiate as much as possible from the manga, perhaps making the relation non-existent at first glance, but since the already accepted users feel comfortable at present, I do not feel the need to make changes to the system (names, positions, powers, etc.) for now.

Now, the question of Delinquents and Floaters has never been touched upon in "Caste Heaven" (because who needs story when we can do service, right?), nor did we get to that point when Clear was still with us. It is best that we have the matter settled, indeed.

 

[Headphones]

O.O Okay then...

Yes... I know... It's disgusting... Ok, I'm sorry to everyone, but I just hate that manga -____- It is traumatizing and I don't want anyone ever mentioning it again. My reasons can be read in my previous post.​

 

[Karakui]

I'd be fine if it was yuri or straight, but with that setting I do admit I'd much rather it focused on plot. If you're just going to write a fanservice romance there's no point coming up with such a detailed setting.

 

[firejay1]

Sorry for being away for so long, everyone. Family matters and all. =3

@Polystical @Yokai

Truth be told, this was not originally my idea. In fact, I was planning to note this in the opening posts (until a system error ate the text away -.-).
Initially, this role-play was started by a user named Clear and it was their intention to base the story off of the system in "Caste Heaven". I was a mere co-GM, who made the landmarks, academy, academy timetables, site and overall lore for the role-play. Some time ago Clear simply vanished and, seeing as I had done most of the work, the majority of the remaining users voted that I should start the role-play anew.
If you were to personally ask me, I think of "Caste Heaven" as a disgusting meaningless, when it comes to storytelling, piece of pseudo-artwork, the point of which is only service for people, who are into that kind of stuff. I have nothing against single-gender-love and stories about it, if not I sometimes consider them more romantic that the soapy love triangle dramas that has been overflowing since forever, however, when there is only service and no story to be told, with the foundation almost completely being ignored (the game) in favour of pleasing the reader's interest, the manga's appeal drops down below point zero for me. Alas, different strokes for different folks. If you find it a pleasant read, don't let my opinion interfere, but remember, I am entitled to my own opinion.

As for the role-play itself, I am honestly feeling a bit, how should I say, uncomfortable. It wasn't started by me and the concept being used has a source that isn't entirely pleasant to me. I wouldn't have minded at all as a player and co-GM, but as a GM it's a different story. With me having this position, I would like to differentiate as much as possible from the manga, perhaps making the relation non-existent at first glance, but since the already accepted users feel comfortable at present, I do not feel the need to make changes to the system (names, positions, powers, etc.) for now.

Now, the question of Delinquents and Floaters has never been touched upon in "Caste Heaven" (because who needs story when we can do service, right?), nor did we get to that point when Clear was still with us. It is best that we have the matter settled, indeed.

[ Continuation of the post in a moment ]​

Headphones, sweetheart, you don't have to explain your reasoning... Truth be told, I don't think anyone really cares, the concept of the premise itself is just interesting. Nor do I think you should criticize people who do like such things. Do I? No, I don't, I am personally not comfortable with rape stories, and I think that story was of a considerably lower quality than most for that author, but you should understand that people could be offended by your judgment, especially when it was not asked for. More importantly, the pertinent point is whether or not you want the delinquent role to continue, and your opinion on that, and I think it's more important to make a decision and elaborate on that, than to spend a paragraph on a disclaimer about your interests.

 

[Nemopedia]

I don't really see what this is all about, just that people are making a problem bigger than they are. Anyway, I'm going to apologise and drop out. You've lost my interest with the stalling and this... //waves hand around...

I wish you good luck with starting this role play up, though. If it ever starts.

 

[Wicked]

I was just thrown into this thread and man... I keep seeing words like "disgusting" over and over and plenty of budding drama over something really trivial.

So, yeah. I don't need that.

I appreciate the work that was made for this, but there's changes here and there that make me look at the whole concept with "Hollup, wait a fucking moment, this is not what I signed up for." Most of all though the reason is how I see people talking here, and as one of the people who walk under the rainbow banner, some of the things said here makes me cringe and feel uncomfortable. I hope you guys get this thing rolling and settle things down here, but I'm skipping towns, yo. I smell too much toxic in the air and I've had enough of that for a life time, which I'm sure of my buddy Nemo agrees with as we share some experiences. We've seen some shit, and we know when to run in the first sight of it.

Good luck and all that.

 

[Headphones]

Headphones, sweetheart, you don't have to explain your reasoning... Truth be told, I don't think anyone really cares, the concept of the premise itself is just interesting. Nor do I think you should criticize people who do like such things. Do I? No, I don't, I am personally not comfortable with rape stories, and I think that story was of a considerably lower quality than most for that author, but you should understand that people could be offended by your judgment, especially when it was not asked for. More importantly, the pertinent point is whether or not you want the delinquent role to continue, and your opinion on that, and I think it's more important to make a decision and elaborate on that, than to spend a paragraph on a disclaimer about your interests.

Excuse me, but when there is something such as this manga, I can not help but express my opinion. In any case, *ahem*, I was about to explain, before other posts came about.

un coin de soleil @firejay1 @Yokai​

Honestly, I like the idea of delinquents. I mean, think about it. If you look at this whole thing as an experiment, you're creating this dynamic of a very strictly enforce hierarchy in a very small, close setting, modeling a certain type of government, per se, but there are always dissidents. Without them, the model would be incomplete, but even with them, the power they have is limited. I think it's mentioned that delinquents don't usually band together. So they don't have the power of a group like the rest of the class does. Do you really think the King could freely get beaten up by a delinquent when he or she has at least 10 other students behind them? I think it creates an interesting and sort of realistic tension. On top of which, there's also the question of what people choose to do with the power they're given. Most people would want to play the game, I'd think, because people want other people, and that is one thing neither the delinquents nor the floaters really have. It also gives them the chance at power over most of the other students. Delinquents (and maybe floaters) have this power to go around beating people up, but if they had wanted to dominate, they would have joined the game, because even if they beat the shit out of the king him/herself, the other students are still required to support, love, and listen to the king, and the delinquent will still be forced out eventually. Knowing this, those who choose to be delinquents show a certain level of apathy for this system, the people in it, and the adoration involved, which gives them practically no incentive whatsoever to specifically target the king and ruin the system. As a matter of fact, I think the roles of delinquents and floaters was created so that these apathetic people wouldn't end up ruining the system by being forced to take part until they got so pissed off they lashed out.

Certainly it would be less "fun" to have delinquents running around, but I don't actually think the alliances thing would happen. It's true that none of the relationships formed by the caste are in any way real, but that doesn't change the fact that those who play do, week after week, have to maintain specific social interactions as dictated by the cards. I don't know, the way I see it, having the delinquents and floaters is almost a way to protect the caste system. If you force people to play who really don't want to play, there are four ways I can imagine it going:

1. The person just shuts up and plays.
2. If the person is rebellious and physically strong: They become joker week after week for refusing to play, and eventually get so pissed off they start becoming violent. If you get enough of these people, you can eventually get a casualty, and a casualty means an investigation into the school, and an investigation means a huge scandal, and a huge scandal means less funding for the school, etc.
3. If the person is rebellious and charismatic: They become joker week after week, and eventually decide to destroy the system from within, gathering followers from other refuse-to-play jokers and unfortunate people who are consistently low-ranked until they become the king by pure force, and render the card system useless.
4. If the person is really clever and wants revenge: They begin obsessively documenting every second of their torture in concrete forms such as video and picture, and once they're home for vacation, leak the entire thing to the media, which will pretty much destroy the school.

Giving a place to these people who really don't want to play seems... more beneficial to me than not, and it robs them of the power to destroy the system from within, since they are officially not within it. I'm not saying the above situations can't happen with regular jokers or delinquents, I'm just saying it's less likely to get situations that threaten the system when those willing to fight for a chance to destroy it are already out of it.

This is exactly how it is.​

As I mentioned in my previous post, Delinquents have the freedom of will, which allows them complete power over themselves, in other words, their physical power. They can do whatever they wish, so long as they case a disturbance every once in awhile, a small rule-break maybe, in the academy system, such as stealing a book, painting something on a wall, kicking trash cans, smoking, or more serious "crimes", if they wish, of course.
Whilst they do have their freedom, these people have no "vocal power", no dominance over other players. By choosing to be outside the Pyramid you chose to be outside society itself, you volunteer to step away and be labelled a "delinquent", which in the Caste Game is interpreted as "a troublesome person a person of society should not acquaint themselves with". Of course, if you have the physical power, you may go about and try to beat people up, but that does in no way decrease their prestige, because the card is still theirs and the roles must be played. If anyone of a high enough caste is under attack by Delinquents, they may order those of a lower caste to defend them and those too low to summon anyone, the Jokers, are Targets anyway, thus it does not matter.

The group formed by the Delinquent is, at the start of the role-play at least, overwhelmed by anarchy, as there are different opinions, different desires and simply different personalities. Some, as firejay has pointed out, become Delinquents out of apathy for the game, they don't wish to play so they decide to take a rest. Others are there for the privilege of causing mayhem or maybe even only for the brand "Delinquent". They have no possibility and no reason to band together, because the "government" will change in due time, making any attempt to rebel useless. After all, the students are following the system, not making it (or are they? ;) ). Why should they bother ruining their peaceful little lives with the mayhem above? It's like this in life as well. The average person, living splendidly in a nice house, driving an average car, feeding an average family, with a dog and a nice front lawn, has no reason to rebel (because he's an ignorant sheep, but that's another topic that most tophats don't like us lowlings to discuss XD).
Any student can just choose to live out the remainder of their school days as a Delinquent, without a care for the system, seeing how others are beaten and not doing a thing about it, causing some sort of mess at some point of the game's round and generally being an outcast in society.

Right, but they're not real delinquents. Anyone can opt to be one, which makes you exempt from the system for that week. Thus, all the physically strong people will just become delinquents and forcefully create a new hierarchy with them above everyone else. It specifically states that delinquents don't participate in the game, so there's nothing stopping them from breaking the whole system by planning to have a group choose to be delinquents and then use that immunity to start a new rank system.

But your forgeting one important detail @firejay1 (and if @Headphones had included it), there are no permanent position to the caste game, ergo, no true alliance to anyone that plays the caste game. This week your the king the next you'll be the joker. And let's not kid ourselves here... there is NO such thing as REAL friendship or bond between players playing the caste game, its survival of the fitest. If you show any form of weakness, it will be used against you. That is what I think how this roleplay is anyway. No one is genuinely a 'nice' person here. So, giving the delinquent the power to not be able to follow the king's command is somewhat silly, really. And to put it bluntly... completely ruin the fun of whoever is the current king.

That's only to those who play though. People who choose to be a delinquent every week are free to make alliances as they want. At least for the purpose of this RP, I think everyone playing ought to be people who didn't choose to be a delinquent.

Please, remember that this is a modern role-play, meaning that this is reality we are speaking of.
Albeit it has already been stated that it is nearly impossible for all Delinquents to unite under one flag or for all of them to even be exceptionally strong even, picture the following: a group of tough youngsters with gangster looks on their faces have been going around smashing the faces of many innocent students over some petty game. The moment even something remotely similar happens, the police will be called, teenagers arrested and most of the Delinquents will be expelled. Reguis is in no manner merciful and will kick you out if you don't watch yours step. That is part of the thin wire all of you must walk as participants. There are two systems to take under consideration - the academy and the game. Break either one's rules and you're in trouble, big trouble. This is indeed an experiment and the staff won't notice or react to some actions, however, this institution has the reputation of being an establishment of high standard and they must keep it as clear as possible, especially because of the fact that they accept students freely and from all layers of outside society, which is not fondly looked at by other academic structures.

Indeed, as Un has pointed out, you can never be certain of how loyal your "comrade" is and that part of the role-play is proving that people can never be nice all the time (unless... nope, I'll get too sidetracked), that at the core of the majority is the egoism that corrupts you from within, whispering and ordering you to strive harder and harder to beat your opponents. Exactly because of that inner voice most people join the treasure hunt and try playing the game, as expected. You tell yourself "Maybe I'll be lucky this time." or "If only I had a little bit more influence" or "Maybe if I play, he/she will notice me". The same reasons why the lottery exists or competitions in general. It won't hurt to try and, as it is in this case, if it does, it won't last that long. Next time you can just not play. But here's where, yet again, the idealistic egoistic part of human nature comes again. You will play again. Hope dies last, after all. Just like playing a game time and time again until you win, you're intimidated, agitated, hopeful and determined to give it another try. Some have the willpower to refuse, but the majority don't. This is simply how humanity is.

 

[Headphones]

I was just thrown into this thread and man... I keep seeing words like "disgusting" over and over and plenty of budding drama over something really trivial.

So, yeah. I don't need that.

I appreciate the work that was made for this, but there's changes here and there that make me look at the whole concept with "Hollup, wait a fucking moment, this is not what I signed up for." Most of all though the reason is how I see people talking here, and as one of the people who walk under the rainbow banner, some of the things said here makes me cringe and feel uncomfortable. I hope you guys get this thing rolling and settle things down here, but I'm skipping towns, yo. I smell too much toxic in the air and I've had enough of that for a life time, which I'm sure of my buddy Nemo agrees with as we share some experiences. We've seen some shit, and we know when to run in the first sight of it.

Good luck and all that.

NO, NO NONONOOOOO. Please, don't take this wrong! I am completely pro-rainbow! I don't hate the fact that they had that specific orientation in the manga. I disliked the fact that it was a rape manga, that its focus wasn't even being homosexual, but simply a display of that type of artwork. I repeat, I believe that one should follow one's heart and be with the person they love, regardless of their existence in this world! What I can not gulp down is pornography, even if it's this kind of art. It doesn't matter if it's people of one or of a different gender.

 

[Mundane Monster]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset everyone with my comment. I thought the GM was aware that it was based off of Caste Heaven because on the website there was a pyramid from the manga. But apparently they were not.

Please don't leave this role play because of me. And also keep in mind that regardless of whether the gm liked the manga or not, they were still reading a boy x boy manga so I find it hard to believe they don't approve of gay people. The manga, relies heavily on rape as a theme, so that was the reason that they had such strong feelings about it.

@Wicked @WishfulNemo


@Headphones
Once again I apologize, I thought everybody knew about it.

I'll withdraw my interest. (Not because I liked the manga, because I didn't, but because I feel like a homewrecker). Have a good day.

 

[Esmeray]

I'm slightly interested in this ^^;

I'm going to reserve a spot just in case rereading the thingy pulls me off the fence.

 

[firejay1]

I'm think I'm going to be withdrawing as well, just because I'm feeling a little uncertain about the future of this roleplay. And I'm a lot busier now as well, than I was when I first intended to join, sorry.

 

[Headphones]

Honestly, I'm surprised someone hasn't already pointed out the problems of the school even with the delinquent system in place. I thought the whole point of the experiment was to analyse the psychological effects, and an uprising of the peasants against the king is a fully valid psychological effect. To balance it you'd give whoever was king access to better equipment for that week so they can pay non-rebellious peasants to guard them.

Indeed, those controlling the experiment do expect rebellions to occur at some point of time. The subjects are at that age, after all. However, if the rebellion is against the system itself and not the king at present, the rebellion will be swiftly crushed before information spreads. In fact, such rebellions are crushed before being truly born. If a student is trying to gain supporters for a fight against the Game, they will be easily detected and, let us just say, getting expelled and slightly drugged will be the least harmful result. If they are working along, it will be harder, but the end is all the same. It won't hurt to try doing this in character, though. ;]

hmm... if they wanted to analyse the psych effects of peasants uprising against hte king, they wouldnt' change it every week. Definitely not. Uprisings happen over long periods of time, but I agree wth you, I'm surprised the problems of the scool haven't already come to ligh.t AGH. typos.

Yes, the main focus is not to initiate a usurping. The reason why they make the rounds frequent is a counter measure for that.

Well just to throw in my two cents o think the ones in the caste would keep quiet, hopefully waiting for their charge to be on top

Yes, the students keep quiet in hope of getting a higher position in.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset everyone with my comment. I thought the GM was aware that it was based off of Caste Heaven because on the website there was a pyramid from the manga. But apparently they were not.

Please don't leave this role play because of me. And also keep in mind that regardless of whether the gm liked the manga or not, they were still reading a boy x boy manga so I find it hard to believe they don't approve of gay people. The manga, relies heavily on rape as a theme, so that was the reason that they had such strong feelings about it.

@Wicked @WishfulNemo


@Headphones
Once again I apologize, I thought everybody knew about it.

I'll withdraw my interest. (Not because I liked the manga, because I didn't, but because I feel like a homewrecker). Have a good day.

Yes, I knew about the manga. I do approve of boy x boy relationships, because people should have the freedom of being with whomever they want. I was quite shocked when I was reading and found out what its true focus was. Honestly, part of the reason why I'm kind of angry at the manga is because they don't show anything else about those types of relationships other than that, which I believe is both food for fans and for homophobes.
And don't feel like a homewrecker! This was bound to come up sooner or later. I do not thing it was impossible to avoid it and me admitting that I did not like how the manga turned out, but kept the structure nonetheless. If you want to participate, feel free to! You haven't done anything wrong. =3

I'm slightly interested in this ^^;

I'm going to reserve a spot just in case rereading the thingy pulls me off the fence.

Feel free to read and post away =3

I'm allowing freedom to the character sheet, but I might post up an example. Remember, this is an advanced role-play, meaning that you are expected to write several paragraphs of decent description. No one-liners, now.

 

[Esmeray]

Feel free to read and post away =3

I'm allowing freedom to the character sheet, but I might post up an example. Remember, this is an advanced role-play, meaning that you are expected to write several paragraphs of decent description. No one-liners, now.

@Headphones

I typically write up around two paragraphs if that is enough? A big motto that flutters around iwaku is quality before quantity, which is something I like to abide by. xD

 

[Esmeray]

I'm surprised that this has attracted a lot of impatient and negative people. Some of you really need to pull that stick out of your butts. xD

 

[Headphones]

I'm think I'm going to be withdrawing as well, just because I'm feeling a little uncertain about the future of this roleplay. And I'm a lot busier now as well, than I was when I first intended to join, sorry.

I will honestly be sad to see you go, especially since you understood the concept to clearly. =< If you truly feel like it, I can not keep you here, but if we all quit when feeling uncertain, there would be far less successful people in this world XD Still, it's up to you.

A, perhaps, parting question. Have you ever posted in the forums of Chicken Smootie. I have the slight feeling we have chatted before during my younger years when I frequented that site.

I'm surprised that this has attracted a lot of impatient and negative people. Some of you really need to pull that stick out of your butts. xD

Some of them may be impatient because they were here when Clear was still around, so it has been slightly stalling. Still, thanks XD

 

[firejay1]

*laughing. I have not even heard of Chicken Smootie before, and tbh only started going on forums such as this about a year ago. And don't worry, I'm not looking for success, more things matter to me than that. ;) toodles!

 

[Nemopedia]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset everyone with my comment. I thought the GM was aware that it was based off of Caste Heaven because on the website there was a pyramid from the manga. But apparently they were not.

Please don't leave this role play because of me. And also keep in mind that regardless of whether the gm liked the manga or not, they were still reading a boy x boy manga so I find it hard to believe they don't approve of gay people. The manga, relies heavily on rape as a theme, so that was the reason that they had such strong feelings about it.

@Wicked @WishfulNemo


@Headphones
Once again I apologize, I thought everybody knew about it.

I'll withdraw my interest. (Not because I liked the manga, because I didn't, but because I feel like a homewrecker). Have a good day.

Don't worry about it, I'm not leaving about any comment in particular. Just that we are wasting way too much time over something very iffy and me just losing any hope that this role play will ever start at all.