2017/06/24 [TCaD 03-11] F is for fear

[Raskahn]

Wait, "fear and lust"? Did we switch out wonder? Have I missed a memo? 

[Tapewolf]

Wait, "fear and lust"? Did we switch out wonder? Have I missed a memo? 

Yes, you may have done.  I think that decision was taken a few years back... they never used it and it was a pain to write for, and when I took a step back they were acting more like a lust clan, especially Daryil and Cass.
Wonder is still something Jakob enjoys but it's not a clan trait any more.

EDIT: Heh, yes - it was actually replying to you!
http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,10365.msg381215.html#msg381215

[MT Hazard]

Couple of thing have been being bugging me, in the main strip Jakob meaning he isn't into guys, having experimented at SAIA, and actively dreads the concept of being forced to be gay via clan trait but in several recent strips he seems to be fully bi sexual, with a strong attraction to guys.

The other thing is that  Simeon was originally a relatively strong (if misguided) character who showed no sign of being homosexual, but later he turns up as the clan leader boy toy, very camp and useless in combat. This suggest that he was warped into his current personality by Daryil, possibly against his will. I see this as likely considering he was acquired by Daryil via deception. No one in the comic seem to take issue with this.

[Tapewolf]

Couple of thing have been being bugging me, in the main strip Jakob meaning he isn't into guys, having experimented at SAIA, and actively dreads the concept of being forced to be gay via clan trait but in several recent strips he seems to be fully bi sexual, with a strong attraction to guys.

The answer to this is complex because it's a complicated subject.  I'll give a TL;DR summary later on, but this is what's happening.

It's important to keep in mind that Jakob's life can be seen as various chapters or stages.  Let's look at the chronology of the stories:

930: Turning a New Page starts
1590: Turning a New Page ends
1600: Heads You Lose
1740: Strange Bedfellows
1960: Walk in the Woods
1980: Critical Mass
1985: Dark Angel
1990: DMFA present day
2140: Project Future, Daryil's ascension
2141: Tuppenny Man, Axeman Cometh
2164: To Catch a Demon
2165: Epsilon, Dark Lord Rising, filming of 'Book of Tenets' documentary
2170: Bounty Project

Jakob was born in a medieval time and place.  In such places, homosexuality is often punishable by death.  Whatever Jakob's natural inclination in his 20s, he would have kept it to himself or risk ending up as dead as his grandfather.  In SAIA, it's OK to be gay so Jakob experimented.  That's what he called it, anyway - we don't really know how much, we only have his word for it.
Jakob, and most other SAIA students would have had to bear in mind that it was only safe to do such things in Creature-run territory.  If he was going to go out into the world disguised as a Being, he would have ensure that his sexual behaviour conformed to what Beings accepted as normal, or risk being punished, executed, found out as an incubus or all of the above.  Certainly there are good reasons to suppress your own homosexuality if you're going to be living as a Being, and that kind of thing might become a force of habit that's hard to break later.

In 'Turning a New Page' Page tried to seduce him, but was politely turned down.  Jakob kept his options open, however and it's been deliberately left ambiguous whether they did it or not.  Either way, he was open to the prospect in principle.

After Azrael's death, it's a very different story.  Jakob goes peculiar and starts turning into a tyrant, obsessed with killing Page's murderers.  During this period we have Strange Bedfellows which is probably one of the earliest-written stories to have been turned into a comic.  At this point in his life, Jakob is taken back by Daryil's homosexual advances.  He also utters the line "I've tried it of course, but women interest me more" which is actually robbed from one of the Illuminatus! books.  Later,  Jakob regains his sanity and does a stint at SAIA, later starting Jayhawk Cybernetics. 

By the time of Project Future he's attempted to prostitute himself to Daryil in order to fund Project Future, which got him the money but not the 'boy'.  He's describing this to Dorcan, someone he barely knows so it's possibly he's being evasive about his sex life anyway.  Project Future is AFAIK the main story where Jakob is very cagey about homosexuality, and this is the story that marks the transition of Daryil from a pretentious wannabe to an actual Tri-winged clan leader.

IIRC, the stories where Jakob is openly homosexual are 'To Catch a Demon', 'Epsilon' and to an extent the Bounty project and Book of Tenets.  These are all set 25 years or so after Daryil's ascension.

The summary, the TL;DR version is this:

In Project Future itself, Jakob is in denial.  After Daryil's ascension, he starts to open up a bit.  It may be that there really WAS a transition from wonder to lust during Daryil's ascension.  Either way, for whatever reason, Jakob spends the period from 1600-1900 apparently suppressing his gay side - either to conform to Being norms, or through simple insanity.   Later on, up until 2140 and Daryil's ascension, he accepts that he finds guys attractive but is ashamed about it.

In the more recent comics, 25 years or more have passed since Daryil's ascension.  And during those years Jakob has opened up completely and accepts that yeah, he does find guys attractive, no-one else will blink an eye about it so why should he.  How much of this is just another chapter of his life starting?  How much of it is Daryil's encouragement?  How much is a side-effect of Daryil ascending?  I wouldn't like to say.

The other thing is that  Simeon was originally a relatively strong (if misguided) character who showed no sign of being homosexual, but later he turns up as the clan leader boy toy, very camp and useless in combat. This suggest that he was warped into his current personality by Daryil, possibly against his will. I see this as likely considering he was acquired by Daryil via deception. No one in the comic seem to take issue with this.

There a a couple of answers to this.  The simplest one is that it was done as a joke.  Keaton's owner said that she'd like to see more of Simeon in future, so I made him Daryil's lover precisely because it was such a change, something that people would be unlikely to see coming.  It had the very welcome side effect that it pitted Keaton and Daryil against each other over Simeon's well-being.

However.  What works well as a joke doesn't always hold up to long-term scrutiny.  Consider Kria's farmer-eating shenanigans, the chameleon she blasted out of the window and possibly Hizell's envoy too.  It's funny in a dark humour sort of way.  But if you stop and think about it, it's awful.  Those people had family and now their loved one has been murdered.  Simeon becoming Daryil's lover is the same kind of thing.

The more complex answer is that, yes, Jakob did take issue with this.  He was absolutely livid in page 107, so upset he shouted at Fa'Lina, who can crush him like a bug.

However, we don't see what happened after that.  This was 30 years prior to DMFA, and we don't see Simeon again until 2140... that's nearly two centuries later.  It may well be that Simeon is naturally bi which appears to be the case with Creatures, but as described earlier, was forced to suppress his homosexual side in order to keep his neck intact.  Daryil might simply have pointed out that he doesn't have to do that anymore.
Even if we assume the worst, that Daryil deliberately reshaped him, 180 years is a long time for Daryil to have influenced Simeon.  It may not even have been perceptible to people if they were with Daryil and Simeon the whole time.  Or in a more benign form, it's worth bearing in mind that Simeon had gone through an awful shock.  Turning him into someone softer and less aggressive might have been part of the healing process.

[Raskahn]

Wait, "fear and lust"? Did we switch out wonder? Have I missed a memo? 

Yes, you may have done.  I think that decision was taken a few years back... they never used it and it was a pain to write for, and when I took a step back they were acting more like a lust clan, especially Daryil and Cass.
Wonder is still something Jakob enjoys but it's not a clan trait any more.

EDIT: Heh, yes - it was actually replying to you!
http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php/topic,10365.msg381215.html#msg381215

Tape, I have to tip my hat to your archive digging. I had completely forgotten that.

[Merlin]

I don't see why Simeon would show signs of being gay in "A Walk in the Woods". He spends the entire time trying to kill Jakob, so he's got rather more important things on his mind than being on the pull. He doesn't show signs of being hetero in that comic either. He is a strong if misguided character, whose sexually is not touched upon at all because the story doesn't go there. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be camp and fun outside of life-and-death, serious situations. Not like before A Walk in the Woods he had much chance to relax and be himself, I would suspect.

[Lying Foo]

 

...Keaton, you should not be in that panel... Jakob... a word...

[Raskahn]

...Keaton, you should not be in that panel... Jakob... a word...

She's not in there. That's Cassandra
But they are easily mixed up, it's mentioned in her bio as well.

"Owing to their similar appearance, Cassandra has often impersonated Keaton Jyraneth while victimising Beings. She has been beaten up by the real Keaton on several occasions as a result."

[Tapewolf]

She's not in there. That's Cassandra

http://projectfuturecomic.com/stuff/things/keaton_vs_cass.png


Putting Simeon in there probably didn't make things clearer.  If sexy Nigel had made it into the panel it may have helped.

[MT Hazard]

Thanks for the (long and detailed) answer Tapewolf, that does help things make more sense.

[Merlin]

Nyehehe, Cass strikes again

[Ragesquid]

I was actually wondering about Jakob's sexuality, too. The comics alone make the timeline a bit unclear(or more likely, I'm just a huge butt and missed it), but reading through your explanation, it's a really nice character development.