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  1. preadatordetector

    preadatordetector New Member

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    Help for a piece of dialogue...

    Discussion in 'Dialogue Development' started by preadatordetector, Dec 17, 2014.

    I have been trying to figure out how to get an interaction between three to four (the fourth is assigned to start fixing something she broke, in which one of the three has to leave to escort her, see the smart guy) characters, with one of the characters fixing a problem with ease via a hidden ancient device he has, while the other two are trying to get information out of that character in a "how did you do that" scenario.

    Characters:

    The first character has little to no commitments, and has seen little of how much bad and good the people and the world is capable of. He is generally seen as stupid and carefree, but this is not so much the case as him just being innocent while at the same time not caring about what is happening. He carries a device that can allow him to change how technology works, but it is not shown to the other characters at the time.

    The second character is an intellectual, able to use technology and machines very well. However he has the typical weakness of not being very strong sociologically, and vulnerable to peer pressure, mind games, and other forms of manipulation. He has low self esteem as well, and does not have a great amount of ego.
    Irrelevant info:
    He is running a company with the desire to compete with (and logistically disadvantage) a leading company that endangers the freedoms of the civilians, and also have captured his friend. He is not good at running it however as he is not able to stand against peer pressure well, thus his employees have been difficult to control. However they are functioning well in their purpose, damaging the financial support the antagonist has.

    The third character is some overpowered PTSD egomaniac that has been an engineered bioweapon, but not in the sense of disease. He is also not that good with people, but for reasons that contrast and conflict with the intellectual. He is resistant to manipulation, but he has an ego, is impatient, and has hawkish attitudes. Easy to aggravate as well. His PTSD is mostly a depression based thing that goes on when he contemplates and thinks about his future and past. Right now it is not affecting him.

    The fourth character already had her moment earlier, so I don't need to talk about her much right now.

    What just happened:
    The first character was able to just get into a building and resolve a situation that the second and third characters were endangered by and struggling with at the time. The first character was able to use his device to work with the technology he doesn't understand without revealing anything to the other two characters. Those two characters are now questioning the first character.

    Desired resolution:
    The first character was able to escalate the situation beyond the other two characters' control by asking for a price for the information they seek, something that is not of lots of value while at the same time being hard to find and takes a long time to get. The other characters get frustrated and decide to just leave the first character alone.
     
  2. lustrousonion

    lustrousonion Senior Member

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    I think you're not seeing any replies to this post because your explanation is hard to follow, and you yourself seem unclear about what you're looking for. You've obviously got a lot of ideas. But I wouldn't be sure how to help you until you can boil down your question a bit more.
     
  3. preadatordetector

    preadatordetector New Member

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    This forum doesn't let me edit anything...

    I have been trying to figure out how to get an interaction between three to four (the fourth is assigned to start fixing something she broke, in which one of the three has to leave to escort her, see the smart guy) characters, with one of the characters fixing a problem with ease via a hidden ancient device he has, while the other two are trying to get information out of that character in a "how did you do that" scenario.
    A summary of this is to make the first character be able to outwit his interrogators, the second and third character, after saving their lives from some kind of menace.

    Characters:

    The interrogated:
    The first character has little to no commitments, and has seen little of how much bad and good the people and the world is capable of. He is generally seen as stupid and carefree, but this is not so much the case as him just being innocent while at the same time not caring about what is happening. He carries a device that can allow him to change how technology works, but it is not shown to the other characters at the time.

    Interrogator 1:
    The second character is an intellectual, able to use technology and machines very well. However he has the typical weakness of not being very strong sociologically, and vulnerable to peer pressure, mind games, and other forms of manipulation. He has low self esteem as well, and does not have a great amount of ego.
    Irrelevant info:
    He is running a company with the desire to compete with (and logistically disadvantage) a leading company that endangers the freedoms of the civilians, and also have captured his friend. He is not good at running it however as he is not able to stand against peer pressure well, thus his employees have been difficult to control. However they are functioning well in their purpose, damaging the financial support the antagonist has.

    Interrogator 2:
    The third character is some overpowered PTSD egomaniac that has been an engineered bioweapon, but not in the sense of disease. He is also not that good with people, but for reasons that contrast and conflict with the intellectual. He is resistant to manipulation, but he has an ego, is impatient, and has hawkish attitudes. Easy to aggravate as well. His PTSD is mostly a depression based thing that goes on when he contemplates and thinks about his future and past. Right now it is not affecting him.

    What just happened:
    The first character was able to just get into a building and resolve a situation that the second and third characters were endangered by and struggling with at the time. The first character was able to use his device to work with the technology he doesn't understand without revealing anything to the other two characters. Those two characters are now questioning the first character.

    Desired resolution:
    The first character was able to escalate the situation beyond the other two characters' control by asking for a price for the information they seek, something that is not of lots of value while at the same time being hard to find and takes a long time to get. The other characters get frustrated and decide to just leave the first character alone.

    The main difficulty in this situation is the fact that the character being questioned does not have much in the way of intelligence on the surface, and even inside he is just a carefree person with little knowledge about positive and negative motivations people in the modern world have, making things like acting street-smart and throwing fits completely inappropriate for the character.

    In the mean time, his interrogators consist of an intellectual with little confidence and an egomaniac that was literally made for war, and the setting for the story is rather dark and sci-fi.

    The end result is that I want the first character to get off scot-free while the other two are too tired of the guy to care, and not in a sense that is deprecating to the first.
     
  4. AlannaHart

    AlannaHart Senior Member

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    What's the actual question ...?
     
  5. Jack Asher

    Jack Asher Banned Contributor

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    I'm with you. I think @preadatordetector wants some help with dialogue (or at least the thread title suggests it). But since all of the details are in very vague terms, and all we have are character sheets there isn't a lot to go on. Writing a description of a character is not a way to start dialogue. Because dialogue is usually the key insight into the mind and idiom of a character it's actually the exact opposite of what you are trying to do.
     
  6. Okon

    Okon Contributor Contributor

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    The following is my interpretation; don't take this too seriously.

    Louis Lane saw Clark Kent walk into a phone book and Superman fly out. Later, she asks for an explanation. Thankfully, the gullible Ms. Lane has deductive abilities lower than a sack of rocks, so Superman retains his identity yet again.

    The OP's problem is that these are critical thinking people, and that they want Kent to recreate this event (via means they are ignorant to) for their own selfish purposes. The OP wants Kent to refuse in some clever way or other, by asking for something impractical in return, and for the self-serving jerks to still think he's cool, but also pursue other means to reach their selfish goals.

    What's wrong with deniability? Kent obviously doesn't know anything about phone booths, so in response to "how did you do that?" he can just say that he doesn't know, or that he kicked something randomly and it resolved the problem.

    The actual lines come down to the nuances of your characters. If you need ideas, check out shows or books where the protagonist does inexplicable things and has to hide this from his loved ones.
     

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