10-04-15 Grabbing a show

[brasca]

Plot twist that could happen down the line: The blithering idiot parents discover what Ruby is up to, and apologise to Amber for inflicting this embarrassment on her - they didn't know what a terrible person they'd raised, after Amber turned out so well...

But if she is immensely successful it may not matter since money buys respectability. This is a surprising turn and I love it. I feared Ruby might break at some point and follow her sister's lead thinking that she was somehow fighting the inevitable. Instead she may find a place behind the camera which can be far more lucrative depending on how far up the production chain she goes. She has been stumbling around since she is out of her element which is amusing to a point, but it is refreshing to see her back in business mode.

[Spidrift]

We don't know much about the Larose parents and their opinions on respectability, except that Amber doesn't feel able to tell them about her porn work despite having made at least an adequate living from it (which doesn't tell us much) and Ruby grew up with a serious hang-up on the subject (which may well just be Ruby). However, if they're passably well-off doctors with slightly old-fashioned views, they may not think that money compensates for any amount of sexual dubiousness - not when it's possible to make a decent living in a "respectable" field like medicine. Not everyone's morality is for sale.

And we haven't really seen Ruby in business mode at all - certainly not in an effective form. The print volume bonus strip comes closest, and she got cocky and carried away there. Like I said, she's pulling a Kiley here - suddenly remembering to play to her strengths.

Actually, Kiley may have done the same thing while sitting in that exact same seat. One wonders if it's lucky...

[Cortez]

It's nice to know that Ruby has a line she won't cross for this sort of thing.

And hey, she also knows a money making opportunity when she sees one.

And we haven't really seen Ruby in business mode at all - certainly not in an effective form. The print volume bonus strip comes closest, and she got cocky and carried away there. ..

I wonder, maybe she'll get cocky here too...

[Spidrift]

Oh, probably. But this doesn't look to me like a one-off gag; it looks like the start of a plot thread. Which doesn't mean that Ruby is going to turn into a millionaire live-action yaoi entrepreneur, but probably means that the idea won't just whither on the vine.

Mind you, the idea of a millionaire live-action yaoi entrepreneur who's also a blushing virgin has a certain comedy appeal.

[brasca]

We don't know much about the Larose parents and their opinions on respectability, except that Amber doesn't feel able to tell them about her porn work despite having made at least an adequate living from it (which doesn't tell us much) and Ruby grew up with a serious hang-up on the subject (which may well just be Ruby). However, if they're passably well-off doctors with slightly old-fashioned views, they may not think that money compensates for any amount of sexual dubiousness - not when it's possible to make a decent living in a "respectable" field like medicine. Not everyone's morality is for sale.

That could be a substantial hurdle that could wound her deeply or she might brush it all off as Amber is the favorite and just resent them and her.

It's nice to know that Ruby has a line she won't cross for this sort of thing.

And that could be the angle. While yaoi might not have the notoriety of most pornography for women it still seems like a crowded field. However, if Ruby can sell it as a non exploitative, guilt free, brand then she could be on to something big.

[Spidrift]

I think that if this idea takes off, and if Ruby's parents find out and disapprove (and we're jumping way ahead of the plot here), Ruby will understand what the problem is. It's sailing close to the line by her standards, and she'd probably have said it was well over that line just a week ago. She can sell it as non-exploitative and kind of romantic -- "artistic", as she described the infamous selfie to herself -- and she might be hurt if her parents refused to accept that, but she'd be hard-pushed to say that they were being really awful people.

The big question would be once Amber entered the equation. If big sis continued accepting their parents' affection after Ruby's relationship with them broke down over this, not admitting to the very obvious issue arising ... well, that'd be totally crappy of Amber by anybody's standards, and I think that Ruby would say so. It'd have to be Amber's cue to come clean over her own career. At which point, well, a lot of truths would shake out. I've said before that the test of Ruby's character growth would be when she chose her new life and new friends over her old home and her parents, not going home when offered the choice or even told to; she's probably already reached that point with Dillon, in that she considers a good person despite his little oddities, but she isn't anywhere near that point with Amber.

[wi1dfire]

Ruby, I'm worried.

But if you're going through with this, step 1, Nom de plume. Well, alright, step 1 is business plan, but step 2 at least! If it flops, you have a way of building some distance between it and your future endeavors. If it doesn't flop, you can retroactively take credit for it down the line, and start building a brand name around it.

[boredsilly]

Zii, Zii, you are good. It's looks like you're (potentially) responsible for two sisters getting into the porn industry. I hope Ruby has as much success as Amber, if not more.

[Spidrift]

I'm now imagining a human interest interview with the CEO of Minew Graphics Ltd. in 2020.

Reporter: It's rumoured that you don't have much of a private life...
Ruby Larose: I'm a busy woman. But I know what the rumours say, and I'll confirm that I've never been on more than two dates with any man in my life.
Reporter: So you're a love 'em and leave 'em sort of girl?
Ruby Larose: This isn't really any of your business, but no, that's my Head of Production that you're thinking of there. She lives her life and I live mine.
Reporter: I'm sorry, but given the nature of your business, some of my readers may find that surprising. Are you really still a vir...
Ruby Larose: (Interrupts) That is definitely none of your business, but for the record, I find it necessary to maintain some detachment and to focus my priorities on the business.
Reporter: Even when choosing new models or designing new product lines?
Ruby Larose: Especially then. In fact, I've guaranteed to my shareholders that I'll preserve my ... detachment ... until the company's market capitalisation passes one hundred million. But anyway, I'm afraid that I've got another meeting now.
Reporter: Thanks. Oh, by the way - where does the company name come from?
Ruby Larose: My toughest critic.

[Cortez]

Zii, Zii, you are good. It's looks like you're (potentially) responsible for two sisters getting into the porn industry. I hope Ruby has as much success as Amber, if not more.

Ruby wouldn't be in the porn industry, not in same capacity Amber was anyway.

It sounds like Ruby would be higher on the food chain, she'd be the one getting the bigger cut of the money.

[Spidrift]

Of course she wouldn't be doing the same job as Amber. Like I said, she probably wouldn't call it "porn" at all. What other people might call it is another matter - and being "higher on the food chain" in that business makes you worse, not better, in some people's eyes. You're the exploiter, not the exploited.

Anyway, I suspect that Ruby is about to freak Zii out a little; this isn't how Zii thinks at all. (Funnily enough, Zii might be someone who would call this porn, albeit without being judgmental.) But evidently, yaoi is like writing and sex; to begin with, you do it for love, then you do it as a favour for a friend, and in the end you do it for money. Ruby is just instinctively fast off the blocks.

[Cortez]

But Ruby wouldn't be doing videos, it seems she's focusing on portraits/pictures.

And being a producer doesn't mean she's being exploitative. Provided she treats her employees fairly anyway and we haven't seen anything yet to suggest she wouldn't.

[wm247]

Zii, Zii, you are good. It's looks like you're (potentially) responsible for two sisters getting into the porn industry. I hope Ruby has as much success as Amber, if not more.

Aaaaannd the corruption has begun. The Larose sisters would be legendary in porn hall of fame!

[wi1dfire]

But Ruby wouldn't be doing videos, it seems she's focusing on portraits/pictures.

And being a producer doesn't mean she's being exploitative. Provided she treats her employees fairly anyway and we haven't seen anything yet to suggest she wouldn't.

Whether or not she actually exploits her employees wouldn't stop people from assuming she was doing it. Facts are awkward; assumptions are much better organized and require less exertion.

Also, just because she might not see something as exploitive doesn't mean her employee would agree. And even if her employee agrees, doesn't mean third parties looking in would also agree. Look at how Amber and Dillon got the apartment in the first place: two different people came out of that experience with very different ideas of what happens. And again, with Amber's birthday present to Gary; whatever his feeling on the subject, many in the forums had Opinions about that storyline. Ruby may bend over backwards trying to make her employees as comfortable as possible, and still fail, because she doesn't necessarily share their frame of reference.

[Spidrift]

But Ruby wouldn't be doing videos, it seems she's focusing on portraits/pictures.

I'm not sure that makes a lot of difference.

And being a producer doesn't mean she's being exploitative. Provided she treats her employees fairly anyway and we haven't seen anything yet to suggest she wouldn't.

Oh sure. I like Ruby enough that I don't think she'd be any kind of bastard boss, though she might be hard-nosed and set high standards for her staff - and I'm sure that she'll be aiming for the softest end of the scale here. But, well, it is the sex industry we're talking about, when all's said and done, and a lot of people have automatic negative views of that.* (Yes, starting out with a nom de plume might not be a bad idea.) Basically, people in the higher levels of that business are assumed to be getting other people to demean themselves for money. That's not a good baseline image.

Or, you know, just what wi1dfire just said.

Anyway, I'm now imagining Zii's next 'phone call to Amber. "I ran into your kid sister today." "Oh. Right. How was she?" "She was ... amazing." "Uh, what?" "She's kind of weird. She had all these ideas that I'd never have thought of." "Zii! You didn't..." "Me? I didn't have to do anything! I just got her to tell me what she liked, and the next thing I knew, she was talking about consent and pro shots and stuff..."

(Come to that, if Allie is serving today, what are the chances of Ruby scoring a coffee pot kill within three strips?)


*And suddenly I'm flashing on a Sandman issue with a goddess in a strip club.