[OOC][PLOT] The Third Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[robkelk]

Yeesh, Rob. I'm getting left behind here. :V

Nice job, except when the heck did Index arrive? I thought she and Kamijou were supposed to be MIA still.

It's all there on the wiki, BA... But I can't actually write that story until we have the Halloween party finalized and I'm sure who's available.

Yeah, I gotta catch up in writing to Rob, seriously.

I get the hint... Instead of pushing the timeline forward, I'll do some more work on the Halloween story and go back and fill in some holes. For a while.

Mikoto nodded. "That makes sense. But we're getting derailed here. What do we do now?"

Oh, "derailed".  I get it!  LOL!

I hadn't intended that one, but I'll take it.

"It's a statement that functions as a request for information, but that isn't important right now."

"Did you just make a joke?"

"Yes. Was it a good one?"

"It's a bit cliched, but it's still funny. What did you want to know?"

Boooooo.  The kernel of a good joke is in there, but the timing is all wrong.  If she's doing it deadpan, which is what I assume for a Misaka sister, then you need a beat (maybe 3 seconds, even), not just a comma pause.  Or just leave off the second part.

Which is not to say that it's OOC, in fact, it's right in character.  Most of my characters have higher standards for humor, though.  

(I could see Anna Heart trying this joke, because she tries too much.  We really need to work on that girl.  She wants to be funny, she knows what is funny, but can't actually be funny because of issues.  The girl needs timing, and she needs confidence.)

One trick I try is that when I need a beat, I jam words into the middle to break up the passage.  `," she said, "` for a short pause, and for a longer pause more words `," she provided the dictionary definition, "`.  Not sure it works for everyone, but it does in my head.

Give her a break; it's her very first joke. (Not her first attempt at humour - that would be the canon scene where she suggested naming a cat "Dog" - but her first purposeful wordplay.) And Mikoto is shown in canon to have at least a bit of "compassionate big sister" feelings for the clones.

But, yeah - Niiko is currently somebody who has even worse comedic timing than Anna.