I'll go ahead and post my tiny bit I wrote, and talk about it afterwards
I thought this seemed like a nice way to nod to the out-of-story cause, while making a choice his SI would probably make. I mean, Raj himself might make this choice. It leaves open the chance of returning -- the WH communications office was notoriously tumultuous place to work, even early on. If he returns, he could say something about his old job like "omg it was awful, I had to get out" or "it was great, but fucking RINOs forced me out" or any of the honestly hundreds of plausible reasons to leave. It's also not a position that intrinsically implies any dishonor, especially not in 2017.
I really don't think it would imply a return to the story either. The guy spent a few months working at a new job, then got a different job. This happens thousands of times a day, and I haven't run into any of my old coworkers lately -- and I've only ever randomly run into one guy who I went to university with, once I moved out of town. People move on. If we give it a sufficient air of finality, readers won't question it.
I dislike Rob's implementation, because it makes James out to be a bad guy, and Sebastian tips his hand too much. The approach might be good, though. I think we can integrate all three of these ideas:
1. Tenants start to grumble about James, possibly online and upstream
2. James defends his values on the forum, because people are wrong on the internet!!1!
3. Sebastian thinks that perhaps James isn't working out, causing him problems, but actually thinks he can be useful to his purposes.
4. Sebastian uses his political connections (I'm sure Ciel has some in both parties) to get James another job offer in DC
5. James accepts, because he finally gets a chance to work with people who share his values, and to help shape the country
6. How good or evil he is in politics is his choice, but happens entirely offscreen. And the other apartment managers are the ones still literally working for a demon.
I just want us to do a better job than what we normally do in RPGs where a person leaves the game. Just imagining that they run off on some other unnamed quest or whatever isn't fun. I thought maybe we could do the equivalent of "gets a feof from the local king". There was one game where I ended up playing a former player's character -- which is how I ended up playing a black South African neurosurgeon who liked animals much better than people to an often amoral degree, and was followed around by a silver fox spirit animal. All not choices I would have made, but he was fun to play! But in this case there isn't really enough characterization for any of us to play James in his stead, so anyone coming in later would want to run their own group.
Quote:"What ever happened to James, anyway?"
The dark butler replied, "Oh, Mr. Bostwick? Well, I called up an old friend, and managed to set him up with a new job."
"Wow, that's ... surprisingly charitable of you," Brent said, his words dripping with suspicion.
"I simply offered him a place where his abilities will be appreciated. And indeed, Mr. Bostwick jumped at the chance to work in President Trump's communications office. It is merely what he deserved after his service."
Brent squinted as he facepalmed. "That sounds like a Hell of a job."
"Now, Mr. Laabs, I cannot have an employee embezzling my lines," Sebastian mock-protested, glad that someone 'appreciated' his work. "I can always find similar accommodations for you."
"No thank you, sir." Brent had expected to work for an heartless, evil corporation at some point in his life, but hadn't expected it to be quite so literally demonic.
I thought this seemed like a nice way to nod to the out-of-story cause, while making a choice his SI would probably make. I mean, Raj himself might make this choice. It leaves open the chance of returning -- the WH communications office was notoriously tumultuous place to work, even early on. If he returns, he could say something about his old job like "omg it was awful, I had to get out" or "it was great, but fucking RINOs forced me out" or any of the honestly hundreds of plausible reasons to leave. It's also not a position that intrinsically implies any dishonor, especially not in 2017.
I really don't think it would imply a return to the story either. The guy spent a few months working at a new job, then got a different job. This happens thousands of times a day, and I haven't run into any of my old coworkers lately -- and I've only ever randomly run into one guy who I went to university with, once I moved out of town. People move on. If we give it a sufficient air of finality, readers won't question it.
I dislike Rob's implementation, because it makes James out to be a bad guy, and Sebastian tips his hand too much. The approach might be good, though. I think we can integrate all three of these ideas:
1. Tenants start to grumble about James, possibly online and upstream
2. James defends his values on the forum, because people are wrong on the internet!!1!
3. Sebastian thinks that perhaps James isn't working out, causing him problems, but actually thinks he can be useful to his purposes.
4. Sebastian uses his political connections (I'm sure Ciel has some in both parties) to get James another job offer in DC
5. James accepts, because he finally gets a chance to work with people who share his values, and to help shape the country
6. How good or evil he is in politics is his choice, but happens entirely offscreen. And the other apartment managers are the ones still literally working for a demon.
I just want us to do a better job than what we normally do in RPGs where a person leaves the game. Just imagining that they run off on some other unnamed quest or whatever isn't fun. I thought maybe we could do the equivalent of "gets a feof from the local king". There was one game where I ended up playing a former player's character -- which is how I ended up playing a black South African neurosurgeon who liked animals much better than people to an often amoral degree, and was followed around by a silver fox spirit animal. All not choices I would have made, but he was fun to play! But in this case there isn't really enough characterization for any of us to play James in his stead, so anyone coming in later would want to run their own group.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto