It just occurred to me when I was thinking about a new RP that most of the girls in Shokushu have been brutally raped at least 4 times a year since coming to the school. That seems like a lot for even our stalwart lasses to handle, so I have to ask: Why bother? Does your student believe that if she passes all her classes she can graduate and escape back to a normal life? Is she afraid of detentions? Are her clubs and friends important enough to risk an encounter with one of the island's guests? Or is she secretly hoping that something will find her and break up the monotony?

Good question. With Pia I really struggled with motivation for a while, and I even let her go through a depression.

Astrid is pretty simple. She had not had much experience with monsters yet, and besides, she needs to be a good example to the other Tramps. Besides, she is highly gregarious and has a lot of energy to burn, so she needs to be up and about. Not that she cares very much about her grades, as long as she passes. She mainly goes to class because there is where all the other people are.

Pia is more complicated, and her motivations have changed a lot over the years I have been playing her. She does not care an iota about her classes and grades anymore, and usually puts in minimal effort. Being pretty well learned, her minimal effort is usually sufficient. She also volunteers at the library, something that felt natural as she spends much of her time there anyway.
Otherwise, she is motivated by her girlfriend, Susan, her mentor, Kanoe, and by trying to learn as much as possible, especially about the occult (or just about anything else that strikes her fancy). Her biggest reason for not just giving up is pride and stubborness, though. Pia wants in her quiet way to show the monsters, the staff, prefect/headgirls who might think her weak and easy prey that she cannot be broken.

When my character was a student... one thing she did was try to defend the students, especially her friends. She's never been one to back down from a fight though.

That would make sense in many cases Madison. In the military when all you have in fucked up situations is the guy, or gal, next to you, sometimes that's all you need, all you can cling to.

She was doing that even before I joined the military. ^_^

I feel like this is actually more true for the less militant students than the ones who came to the island "prepared" for what they would face. The ones who spent half their lives training, only to discover that they are completely impotent against the monsters, have to deal with some pretty earth shattering realizations of what it means to be strong. They know they should be able to do more, to be better, to fight back, but every time it is just the same.

At least the regular girls are aware of their limits. If a regular girl trades herself for another student, she knows she did everything in her power to do the "right" thing.

Speaking solely for Juniper? She can feel the sands of time shifting under her.

She doesn't know what waits on the other side of graduation, but she's damned sure that's it's not a slap on the rump and a ticket home. The school wouldn't have it's sterling reputation if it's victims were allowed to talk, after all. So, while it's a great unknown something, she's willing that on a scale of Bad to Worse it's somewhere between Sold Into The Sex Trade and Soylent Green.

So, every day spent hiding in bed, wallowing in self pity, is just another day waiting for the headsman's axe to fall. Every afternoon lost to detention or correctional activity is an afternoon she could have been digging for facts, trying to find her way out. Every hour of sleep an hour that could have been spent compiling her findings. It's like the minutes themselves are tumbling from her finger tips.

And that's why she gets up, and tries to spin bad deals in an impossible situation, and challenges the unknown even when it leads to new nightmares and fresh violations. Because when she finds her way to freedom, real freedom not the sham of power the Headsmaster is passing out, hopefully she'll open the door for others as well, and their salvation will make all the hurt worth it.

Daphnee is a bit confused. She's been told this and that and has to sort out the truth for herself. Her first year had been brutal and the delusions she suffered were now real. Further she sort of sees the bigger picture and is motivated in escaping deciding to err on the side of caution with what she has learned.

Recently things have moved beyond simple torment with stories involving Vex, Slime and Ania but before then she had been awfully close to hitting that dark spot were death seemed to be a better option than a life of servitude and despair as she sees it so the hope of escape is her huge motivator in doing what she can with her remaining years on the island.

Bria is a bit different giving her sleeping sickness and the fact that most of her attacks have been on a mental level. She doesn't admit that any of it is real thinking that it's been hallucinations though she has her doubts as she knows she is only fooling herself but right now is in the whole denial stage.

Stephanie learned from her first thread that humans are to weak, that she could resist or submit, those being her only real options. Submitting hurts less and she has focused on her lover Vanessa. She's in the dark about a lot of things though as I have played her (and Bria) far less then my main handle.

Fenris first came to the school as a monster hunter adept, so it just came naturally to her to go out and start looking for these things after her first attack. She never really caught onto the fact that she could never win, although she knew that something was disrupting her ability to fight effectively. Circumstances changed whenever another student was directly involved, however. Fenris would often give herself willingly to a monster in order to spare a fellow girl from sharing the traumatic experience.

Things really changed after she fell in love with Adena. She stopped actively hunting monsters, but then the monsters started coming after her with greater frequency. Then it simply became a drive to protect her girlfriend.

Fenris always felt a dark energy about the campus, but never really suspected the school itself to be involved directly until she was abducted and taken to the NICE Labs offshore station. However, just as she started to put together the dark plot that she was a victim of, she disappeared. The next thing she knew she was back in the dorms, several years had passed without any memory of them, and Adena was no longer amongst the student body even though they were a part of the same graduate year.

So, lately my student is driven by the desire to find her missing lover and any information pertaining to her disappearance and/or whereabouts. She no longer has a desire to actively hunt monsters or discover what plots the school's administration is involved in. She doesn't even want to leave the campus, not yet anyways. Until she finds Adena or is forced to graduate, her priorities are focused entirely upon finding answers about her past.

Hm, the motives of my various students differ but her goes:

Etolie
She's rotten and motivated by self interest. While she's been shaken a bit and has made a few slight reforms she's mostly afraid that Tidal left Shokushu as she swiftly became Tidal's protege when the option was made to turn on her fellow students.

Bad things happen. Her aim though is to keep Tidal's interests to make things easier for her as she couldn't give a damn about many people unless they serve her interests in some fashion so she hasn't really focused on what graduation will bring only that something bad is likely to happen though by sticking on Tidal's good side she hopes to avoid it. Self preservation and the hope that there could be something better for her later on.



Midori

Somewhat new and a darker back story then the others I think she'll adapt well. She can see into other dimensions and has glimpsed things from time to time so she's use to horrors. Actual monsters in her reality though, well that should take some getting use to.

It's too early to say for certain with her, I allow my characters to grow independent of my interests to see what happens though I suspect that she'll simple accept what the future brings but will fight it all of the way.



Rhaine

She hasn't really dwelled on the future. Her lover, Dani, doesn't like speaking about the attacks so she doesn't. She'll try to get out of a jam but if there are no options open to her she submits being submissive by nature.

She has seen that there are many horrors on the island and has chosen to submit rather than resist in hopes that she and her lover Dani can survive whatever terror the island brings and so she has embraced her role thinking or perhaps hoping to endear herself to her monstrous Mistress that frequently visits her.


Rebecca

I haven't played her in many scenes with monsters but she has encountered 4 and half of which raped her. She is obsessive and wishes to beat Siferus (who she was suppose to have many reoccurring encounters with). She's suspicious that something is going on but does not know about the inhibitors and has made a 'hit list' of monsters to take down though she won't move to the second until the first is bested then the second, third and so on.

She hasn't thought much about graduation but figures there is no good to be had there though it is her focus and motivation to best even a single monster before then.

Well Vera is still a student. Let's see...

Well it is her job as a Head Girl to get up every morning, attend class, and perform her duties. Refusing to do her job would introduce rather unpleasant... consequences.

Besides the obvious benefits of Vera's position, the most she can provide students is a means to live on the island with as few bumps as possible. Those who stick their noses where they don't belong only cause problems for the whole. Rebels can only look forward to much more pain and suffering when it comes time to graduate.

I would think everyone's motivation to get up out of bed is because they have class and refusing to do so would result in seeing Vera personally.

Hmm...motivations for getting out of bed.

Well its hard to tell what Yohko's motivation is right now. She is sort of in this period of unstable transition where she could land just about anywhere. While her club activity involves helping the university nurse, this isn't by choice but rather the school plopping her there deeming her physically unfit to partake in other club activities. After her stay with the labs though she doesn't mind this as much though. She also tends to a shrine on the weekends in the forest for both mental purposes, and that random students get dropped off by monsters. Yohko generally tends to purify these students while there unconscious, making the attacks seem more like nightmares. Right now she is a bit mentally unstable trying to figure out if the monsters are real, or figments of her mind she created as some sort of mental barriers, which she has to tear down. At the same time she can feel the darkness of the island pulling at her. The desire to have a pet of her own, or even to just toss a student to a monster while joining in. To teach others the pleasures and joys of the island, or maybe she is trying to teach others how to cope.

Sara right now is still new that her motivations or deeper motivations are unknown. Right now she is more interested in the fauna and flora of the island and studying them. She is also sort of a big sister type, I guess, trying to help other students become more comfortable with themselves.