The next chapter of 12-String has given me some trouble. It's not the writing of it, but more what happens in it.
I didn't realize until after she hooked up with Bobby, quite the person that Bobby is.
I know that people under the age of 18 can't usually be diagnosed yet with personality disorders. That being said, Bobby has narcissistic personality disorder. This is a type of sociopathic personality disorder.
Now, not all sociopaths become murderers, and so here I stand at a crossroads. I will not be in any way including this in the story, but Bobby attempts to rape Buffy.
The aftermath appears in the story however. All three paths remove her from the story.
Option 1: Buffy stops associating with the group, and the rape/attempted rape comes to light at a later date. It means I skip over this weekend and move on to Monday. Jake may or may not watch Sarah's performance on Friday.
Option 2: Buffy runs out into the desert, confused and upset, and becomes lost. A search happens. In this option, Bobby was successful in his intention. She may or may not die of exposure (up in the air for me) but Bobby is accused of rape and arrested.
Option 3: This acts as a tipping point for Bobby, who has raped before. (This is not different in any of the options. He is kind of scum.) Buffy refusing him, and mostly succeeding in getting away, pushes him into a rage. He kills her and dumps her body in the desert. Keith stumbles upon her during one of his many walks out there. Bobby is arrested on Sunday night for murder.
I know, this is giving away portions of my story, but I am having a problem finding the proper balance this time.
Desdemona is about to lose her band. That is a foregone conclusion. There are hints at Jake's problem, but you'll have to wait and see on that. Sure, all things considered this is sooner than most people have a problem like this in the music industry, but remember that they've been together for three years already, and some bands don't even last that long.
Comments
That basically means
That the story of a possible 'rival' of Sarah Carrera will be removed from the scene, for quite some time. I mean, without the band, Desdemona will have to go to Richard for support, or try and find someone else.
A question is, what is better for a victim, in long term - rape, or grievious bodily harm... Is it possible for the option 3 to have a variation that Buffy actually didn't die and was just presumed dead, and dumped in the desert. Keith found her in timely fashion, too...
However, this would probably mean that Keith would call Bobby to inform him of this. And he may start spinning lies, or run away, or attempt to finish Buffy off... Or just learn that Buffy is supposedly not going to come awake anytime soon and lets it lay - until something about his involvement comes to light unexpectedly for him.
Buffy had quite a lot of inner strength, and being formerly a football player is tough enough to have at least partial escape success. It would also contribute to her survivability.
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
I am not getting rid of Jake
I am not getting rid of Jake immediately, and we will be getting a more normal drummer soon.
This will be a gradual thing, but we are about to hit rock bottom and start moving out of the hole.
I did not consider an option 4 where she survives, but it is otherwise like option 3, and I might just do that one instead.
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage
Personally, I don't like any
Personally, I don't like any of the options, but if I had to choose one, I'd have to agree on Option #4. From the small amount of story involving Buffy, I always felt that she was, if not strong, than at least strong-willed to be able to come out so openly and so quickly as she did.
I don't like the idea of Buffy dying, even if she won't be in the story any more. Part of that desire may be that I wouldn't want this to happen to any woman, let alone a trans-woman, and part of it is probably because of the "happy" nature that revolves around most of the stories I write and like to read.
Either way, I think that the story would be better if Buffy lived, instead of having a second death in so short a time (narrative wise). I like the idea that she gets away without the event occurring, but I know that isn't often the case.
I may not like any part of how this turns out, but I do like the concept that you put into this story and I'll weather the storm if it means brighter days (and anything is likely to be brighter than this) ahead.
Megan
I vote for Option #1
I see that things will change. I do NOT like the idea of Buffy being killed, as I see possibilities for her later, but hey, this is your story. As my editor has tried to show me, bad things happen to people. I hate it, but...
I know this is hard, and I will be glad to wait for you to write it to YOUR satisfaction. Whatever happens, I'll read it. Just don't stop Desdemona. She can go far!
Wren
Some of this story has grown
Some of this story has grown as I've written it. Some of it comes out of left field. I knew that I was going to have a football player confront Keith about Desdemona. I also figured it would be because of self loathing because of his own feelings toward the same sex. Basically, I thought I was going to end up with a gay football player hiding his self loathing in gay/TG bashing.
I ended up with Buffy.
I also thought that she was going to be chasing after the Captain of the football team. She informed me differently.
I wrote a song about the trials of three girls. It was originally written as a response to the Sarah Carrera news conference, but it wasn't until I met Buffy, that I realized it was about her as well.
Now, I've got a problem. I have 1 week before Keith sees the press conference, and I have no idea who the third girl is. . .but that is another thing entirely, and more a matter of me being anal. Maybe it's not someone who Keith knows, and more someone who Gretchen knows. . .
Regardless.
Having read through this, and having related option 4 to my spouse, I will probably go in that direction. We'll see where it takes us. Thanks for all the help. Sorry for how deep it's gotten, but we've hit bedrock, and at this point we either have to stay here, or go up. I want to bring Desdemona into the sunshine, so I think it's about time for stuff to start going right for a change :)
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage