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pacificates) wrote2023-03-18 08:18 pm
pacificates) wrote2023-03-18 08:18 pm
rp tools | hurts, pains and traumas
As a Spirit of Compassion, Cole has a form of telepathy in which he can reads the minds of others — more specifically their hurts, worries, and traumas. He is drawn to those hurts, in a wish to help them. He can deal with this in handfuls of ways: often offering words of encouragement, or gentle nudging to people to act, or perhaps revealing information the person does not know. Other times he can simply take the hurt away and make a person forget it. Sometimes it may a case be reminding a person of something comforting, like reminding a dying soldier of a soup his mother made to comfort him in his last moments.
Often, Cole comments on those hurts — speaks them out loud as he comes to him, often in cryptic ways. Here are a few examples of such within canon.
"She is bare-faced, embarrassed, and she doesn't know. She thinks it's because of her. He hurts, an old pain from before, when everything sang the same. You're real, and it means everyone could be real. It changes everything, but it can't."
— Cole's comments on a Inquisitor Lavellan romance with Solas, had he removed her vallaslin and then broke off the relationship with her.
"An old name burns inside armor that shouldn't fit, lit by faces of the children he couldn't save."
— Cole's comments on Blackwall and his past actions.
"He sounds right again with the chains in place, but the music makes him sad."
— Cole's comments on Cullen, if he is told to resume taking Lyrium.
"A breath-caught smile from the Enchanter as the candle lights. The walls are safe; she will never be hungry again."
— Cole's comments on Vivienne's relationship with Duke Bastien.
For the sake of sanity/rp purposes, I've included a little fill out form for Cole's abilities to help me write out these pains, due to Cole's nature of speaking them aloud often — or him offering solutions/comfort to others, considering a character's pain doesn't need be something they're actively thinking about for Cole to sense it. Basically, give me food to work with! Please fill out for threads!
For Deer Country players: please feel free to add in game-specific hurts/memories /things in game that would comfort them, as well as canon ones.
additional examples of other canon characters
Jason Kolchek | House of Ashes
Canon: The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: 1. Jason in an unhappy/poor home. Canon is a little vague on this so I've dumped in a lot of headcanon. Basically he grew up pretty poor, he has an older sister that he loves, his Russian grandmother lived with them (where he learned how to speak Russian, was told old Russian folktales, learned to cook), and in school he was bullied/looked down on because of said poor home. "Trailer trash" was probably thrown around a lot. He has a Southern accent so headcanon is he was also looked down on for that, people assuming he was uneducated/not intelligent.
*Fandom also more or less agrees that Jason's grandfather is Joe Roberts, a World War 2 soldier who dies in Man of Medan (basically there's a bioweapon on his ship that makes him hallucinate and he and another soldier kill each other/die of fear). Jason wears a wristwatch fandom has decided belonged to Joe, so do what you want with that information.
2. Jason as a stoner. He states that he was stoned on 9/11 which was less than two years before canon starts (May 2003) and didn't even hear about the attack until a week later. He also says "my life was going nowhere fast" and "I jumped at the chance to sign up" which implies he did it to escape his life rather than a sense of duty. Headcanon says he super overcompensated with his "Remember" hat and the two patriotic tattoos.
3. Jason and Nick kill a civilian. Long story short, they see a woman at a checkpoint, think she might have a bomb, and Nick shoots her on Jason's orders. They find out she was just carrying groceries and couldn't hear them because she was wearing headphones.
4. Canon has all kinds of trauma Cole can pick up on. One of Jason's team, Merwin, is accidentally smothered by Nick. Jason also has to stake another team member Joey with a tent peg after Joey turns into a vampire. At one point Jason is dragged off by a vampire. We don't get to see how Jason got out of that alive but it's established the vampires just shrug off bullets.
5. Salim just in general. This scene is a good one to showcase them. Again not 100% canon but Jason basically did an enemies-to-lovers speedrun. He told Salim about his unhappy life back home, the checkpoint, being stoned on 9/11, and then chose Salim over his team by going back and saving him. Which is a pretty huge deal considering Salim is an enemy soldier.
6. Sorry I forgot to mention: his last canon moment was being interrogated by people wearing hazmat suits. IDK if they're from CENTCOM (central command) or some agency called in because of the alien vampires. They seemed focused on the "irregularity" of him "allying with an enemy combatant". Jason lost his shit and told them Salim was "worth five of you people". So do with that what you will.
How can Cole help: Jason wouldn't want to forget any of this, even the bad stuff. But Cole can remark on Jason's better qualities (being a good leader, keeping a level head in the midst of all they went through, getting the five of them out safely, saving Salim, etc). Cole is also welcome to say something about a sword and shield, as that's the motif with Salim (sword) and Jason (shield) or whatever you think he might say to all of this.
Bluestar | Warrior Cats
Canon: Warrior Cats (specifically Into the Wild).
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: (big warning for cat death)
1. Bluestar's first battle was two days after she began training for combat. She was six months old. Her Clan's leader (Pinestar) led an attack on an enemy camp, and her mother (Moonflower) was killed in front of her. The battle was pointless, unlawful and cowardly. Bluestar can still remember the smell of rosemary used during the funeral, robbing her of the scent of her mother.
2. Bluestar's sister (Snowfur) was hit by a car - she doesn't know what a car is, exactly, so she conceptualizes it as a giant monster with putrid breath. Her sister's mate (Thistleclaw) blamed her for letting it happen, and she was too stunned to fight it. Sometimes she still feels like her nephew (Whitestorm) must also blame her for it. (He doesn't.)
3. Bluestar had kittens with a cat from another Clan (Oakheart). She snuck her kittens to their father in the dead of night, to be raised by a new mother instead, and one of them died in the process. She's watched her two living children (Mistyfoot and Stonefur) grow up from afar, but barely knows anything about them.
4. There are positive memories too - training as Sunstar's apprentice, training her own apprentices and helping raise Whitestorm after his mother's death. The few times she managed to meet with Oakheart, and all the bubbly feelings that came with it. Warm days in ThunderClan territory, lazing around on the Sunningrocks with her Clanmates. There's a strong pride, a motherly love, that she feels toward everyone in her Clan. It's tainted by the fact that she can't even begin to fathom how she would get back to them. She's so used to sacrificing herself for them, that it feels as though everything will fall apart without her there.
How can Cole help: Bluestar has developed a bit of a savior complex, a fear that everything will fall apart if she isn't constantly burning the candle at both ends to protect her Clan. It would help to be reminded that ThunderClan survived before she was born and it will survive now that she's gone. She trusts Redtail to take over, right? It would also help to be told that StarClan (her warrior ancestors / pantheon) is still watching her, even in Trench - might not be true, but it's a comforting notion.
If nothing else, Bluestar loves teaching. Asking questions about her forest territory and the Clans would be a wonderful way to keep her mind off of things.
no subject
Canon: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: When Ruka was a child her father, a maskmaker, became obsessed with creating the Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, a forbidden mask used during a now-forbidden ritual dance on the island they lived on. He would put masks on Ruka which scared her and also caused her to develop a specific disorder unique to the island called Moonlight Syndrome.
Sufferers of Moonlight Syndrome become rather obsessed/entranced with the moon, erratic when it's a new moon and they can't see it, and start losing their memories and sense of self due to the interruption of their "moonsound"--a unique sound supposedly produced by a person's soul. The pitch could vary depending on the person's emotions at the time, but the underlying sound would always be the same. The sound by itself was generally weak, so it was considered beneficial to join it with that of others, and Moonlight Syndrome disrupted the sound.
Ruka was sent to a sanitorium on the island to try and recover, where she made friends with some girls her age, but the director's son kidnapped her and her friends to perform as the instrumentalists in the forbidden ritual he was trying to do. It went wrong--the mask the dancer was wearing broke--and it caused all of them to collapse and the girls to lose all their memories.
She was found a few days later by a detective hired by her mother, standing in the Moonlight Well staring up at the moon and was taken by her mother off the island. When she was 17 two of her friends from that incident died, so she and the remaining two girls returned to the now-deserted island to find out what happened.
Ruka is a dedicated pianist and one of the few memories she's retained from her youth is fragments of the lunar melody taught to her by her mother, a descendent of the island's Tsukimori Maidens/Guardians.
The moon, mirrors, masks, and the song are all big triggers to her for her memory.
How can Cole help: The melody triggers Ruka's memories but she doesn't remember all of it. In the game once she's able to piece together the entire melody she's able to remember everything a lot more clearly. She also is scared of remembering her father, because all she can remember of him is him always working and the scary masks he'd make her wear. It'd bring her some comfort to know he did love and care about her and felt some remorse for causing her to develop Moonlight Syndrome, or something like that.
cw; for lots of child and teen trauma due to hunger and abuse
Canon: Original
Character Memory/Fear/Pain:
Important Memories in Original Canon
- He met his first friend when she blackmailed him into getting her food with his powers or she'd report him to the robots to get a beatdown. Not a great thing for him to remember how their friendship started since it became genuine later. Feelings of being scared and bitter.
- When Glitch moved into the habitation for teenagers in his world, on his first day there after completing some grueling labour to get food tickets, he was beaten by a bunch of older kids and robbed. He and his Friend Torch (same one from above) ended up nearly starving since she had to work overtime for them both. Feelings surrounding that one is just how he became so distrustful of others and strangers, always thinking the worst. Feeling bruised, helpless, starving and hungry and angry.
- Glitch's first gift he ever received was from Torch. It was a hoodie that he cherished a lot. He was very happy when he got it, one of the few good memories he had living in the domes. Feelings of joy, being tingly, not really sure how to reciprocate.
- When a new bunch of kids entered the Teen dome, Glitch took it on himself to start taking care and protecting them from the other rougher and harsher teens. After his own run in when he first came in he never wanted another young kid to go through starvation or fear of being robbed. Intense feelings of protectiveness, loyalty, and fierceness. It all sort of this want to protect what little innocence there is left in the world since he's under the impression the world ended a long time ago.
- Him and Torch join an illegal fight club to amass food tickets to be able to feed all the other kids under them so they don't have to work themselves to death. Tense battles, being bloodied and bruised but victorious to feed the people he cares for. Always looking over his shoulder so someone doesn't try and cheapshot him and rob him again.
- Meeting a new small boy who came to the teen dome who claimed he could hear voices and people outside the dome. Glitch didn't believe him and then screamed at him to shut up about how their life outside. He was terrified the boy (Echo) would try something stupid and go out into the wastes and either never been seen again or come back lobotomized. Immense guilt over this memory for how he reacted, sadness, regret since it leads into what he feared actually occurring and Echo trying to leave.
-When Glitch went to follow after Echo, he and the boy were knocked unconcious. When Glitch awoke first he found himself in a white room on an operating table. Fear and terror came over him as one of the robots came towards his face with a needle. He managed to break out, break the robots, find Echo, grabbed him and fled. When he escaped with him though they were accosted by machine gunfire that he only barely managed to avoid with the kid and escape into a lush forest. Left disillusioned, lost, confused, starving and thirsty, it only got worse. He realized Echo had already been coma'd by the robots and he contemplated whether he should just off himself and the kid right there. Ultimately, he didn't but when he reached the edge of the forest he found a sprawling meteropolis. He realized the world had not in fact ended, it was just an elaborate lie to keep people with powers like him locked up.
So lots of feelings of his whole world being a lie. Lots of guilt and trauma over causing a kid to basically become braindead. Just all round bad vibes.
Deer Trauma
-Maul having gone completely insane during the one October where he nearly choked Glitch to death.
-Maul having chopped off his arm was definitely a trauma that shook him up real bad.
-Glitch was murdered by an evil Witch named Salem trying to rescue Ruby which he never ended up succeeding.
-Generally making connections with people and then losing them and thinking he's at fault.
How can Cole help:
No forgetting but definitely some comforting words and probably trying to assure Glitch that a lot of the traumas and things he encountered in his life weren't his fault but those of others.
Maybe also trying to ease his guilt over the fate of Echo that his intentions weren't meant to be bad and while things coulda been handled better he didn't do it to be awful.
Honestly, whatever you think sounds cool I'm down for.
(I'm sorry this was kind of a novel)
no subject
Canon: Star Wars
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: -Being forcibly taken away from his beloved little brother and his mother because Palpatine told her it would make Maul stronger. He was given to a cruel Nightbrother who beat him, let his sons beat him as well, deprived him of food, and only let him stay in a small cold room.
-Murdering all three in a rage made of pain and hatred after months of this, which was the sign that Palpatine had been waiting for to show he was ready to become his apprentice. Maul's memories of what happened next are deliberately fuzzy and vague as he doesn't quite remember when he was taken away from Dathomir for good.
-Many memories of pain and abuse under Palpatine's tutorship. Things of the sort shown in these memories.
-Getting sliced in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi in their duel on Naboo, surviving and ending up on Lotho Minor, and slowly losing his mind as it deteriorated from trauma over the years.
-His master showing up on Mandalore and dueling Maul and Savage. Sidious kills Savage, which absolutely devastates Maul and all of his trauma is brought back to the forefront of his mind by the end of the fight.
-History repeating itself months later as his mother Talzin sacrifices herself to save Maul when it becomes apparent they won't win their fight against Sidious. Again, Maul is devastated, and also has to watch as his home planet of Dathomir is heavily bombed.
-And a future memory as Obi-Wan kills him when he's an old man full of nothing but pain, rage, and hatred left in his thin, wasted body any longer.
-For Deerington specific-memories, the murderous rampage he went on where he killed a lot of characters is still stuck in his mind, especially the guilt he feels over the fact he killed his young friend Ben Hanscom and Ben never revived from death, something that was especially hard to bear. His three deaths were also quite traumatizing especially since he won't talk about them much.
How can Cole help: Helping him to just work through the trauma by allowing him to feel the pain and then put it behind him is a good way for him to look at things now. Being able to feel lighter and like his pain isn't weighing him down will be a great relief. For those things he feels guilty of, especially the deaths he wasn't responsible for, helping to absolve him of those feelings by letting him know none of those situations were ever of his own making because his master never let him have a choice. In fact, just blame Sidious a lot, and that really will make Maul feel better. Also hugs. He needs all the hugs and a shoulder to occasionally cry on.
no subject
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Character Memory/Fear/Pain:
- For the sake of minimizing spoilers (I don't know if you're canon familiar) let's just say that he's had to save the world multiple times from threats of increasing severity. He's thrown to fight gods and powerful monsters and has to shoulder all of this stuff with... some support from his friends but ultimately ends up fighting the worst things essentially alone. I can give details on request.
- He's lost a number of people important to him and he carries those hurts years later. Some of them are why he's taken up various fighting styles, and he never wants to lose anyone else again. He's terrified of losing the people he loves.
- His stay in Trench has been largely pain-free (relatively speaking) though there was that point where he turned into a Beast because he ignored his corruption for like a month and had to be put down.
How can Cole help: Honestly just reminding him of good times can help him a lot. The fact that there's hope and brightness gives him the strength to go on.
Additionally if you ever want to turn this sort of thing around on Cole, Nara'a can see into the past of someone with his Echo ability. It's basically a deus ex machina flashback power (among some other things) so let me know if you ever want that to happen!
no subject
Canon: Bokurano
Character Memory/Fear/Pain:
- Abandoned at birth by his mother at her teacher's house. He doesn't know who his biological father is. This was kept from him until near the end of canon. He physically abused his little (adopted) sister because he thought she killed their mother in childbirth when it wasn't even his biological mother.
- He and his classmates found someone who tricked them into a 'game' where they had to use a giant robot to fight other giant robots from parallel versions of Earth. The price of them piloting was their deaths, and if they failed their version of Earth would be destroyed. None of this information was made available to them at first, only that it was a 'game'.
- He watched his fellow classmates/pilots (including his adopted sister) die one by one and for a time he thought he had killed one of them himself before they realized it was the robot taking their lives.
- The only person to ever express romantic interest in him (in canon) got shot in the head under a minute or so later and he nearly got shot as well. She had to be disconnected from life support so they wouldn't have to go to battle with an unconscious pilot.
- He watched one of his classmates murder another for being a coward. He also watched them take revenge on people who had wronged them. Sometimes their parents were supportive after being told, often they were not. Some of the stories of his classmates are extremely full of triggers even for being (very) young teenagers so I'll tell you details if you want. Jun doesn't talk about the details because he's aware how absolutely disgusting some of the behavior is and he doesn't feel it's his story to tell.
- His own battle was severely traumatizing, involving him having to kill people one by one over the course of ~38 hours. He still struggles with hallucinations and the fact that he died in that battle.
- In Trench he's been given a second chance but he's also been medically experimented on by the Zealots in the 'Sleeper Farm' and nearly died. His friend and his boyfriend rescued him but it still gives him nightmares.
How can Cole help: Jun is unlikely to take comfort from a stranger very well but ultimately reminding him he has a chance to have a better life here will help. Also if Cole can be patient with a teen with anger issues he gets more points. He's at least trying to be a better person but it's... slow, as growth tends to be.
no subject
Canon: Original
Character Memory/Fear/Pain:
- He has no idea where he came from, he just started existing one day in Japan because people believed in tanuki and other yokai back in the day. He ended up attaching himself to a family by masquerading as human and followed them for a long time including to America. He then ditched them and feels awful about it because...
- He lived through World War II, including the heavy Japanese discrimination. His family ended up in a detention camp and he blames himself for not realizing it and getting them out. A number of them died in there and he blames himself for that too.
- He ate a child's soul once and feels shitty about it. The power gain was not worth it.
- He got killed right before he showed up in Trench and he intentionally left his body for his best friend to find so that she could pick up where he left off in stopping people from the supernatural Underground from making deals with gods for power.
How can Cole help: He realizes that people are going to be people but he's never really come to terms with how things shook out and his own tendency to run away. Reminding him that he has the courage to stand against things will help even if he will insist he absolutely does not and he's a weakling.
no subject
Canon: Star Wars
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: In general, Luke has some pretty heavy trauma/PTSD coming from being in the middle of a war. He hides it well, but the fact that he's had to kill so many people weighs heavily on his conscience.
More specific events:
- The deaths of his aunt and uncle, and how he found their remains as heavily charred skeletons. I personally believe he buried their bodies himself before he left the homestead for good.
- Watching Obi-Wan die on the Death Star, and how helpless he felt, knowing that the man who had so quickly become his friend and mentor was sacrificing himself so that Luke would survive.
- The battle over the Death Star also led to the death of his childhood friend, so soon after they had been reunited. He and Biggs often flew together on Tatooine, and he was pretty much the only one of his friends that never teased him for his height. Losing him to the man he would later learn was his father was devastating to Luke, especially considering, like with his family and Obi-Wan, he didn't really have the chance to mourn his loss.
- Being hunted by Darth Vader for three years is a trauma Luke could definitely live without. Vader literally killed and/or tortured any member of the Rebellion that stood between him and Luke, adding even more deaths to weigh on his conscience. It all culminated to even Han and Leia being tortured just for the sole purpose of catching his attention, which led to...
- The revelation that Vader was Luke's father. This hurt Luke to his core, to know that the man who had killed so many, who aided in enslaving the entire Galaxy, who he had believed killed his father, was actually his father. It affected him so badly that he allowed himself to fall to what may well have been his death, not caring if he survived or not in that moment. He has since moved past this, come to accept his father, but it made the event no less traumatic.
- Losing Yoda; though Yoda was very old and his passing was peaceful, it didn't hurt Luke any less to lose yet another mentor.
- Torture by the Emperor; the pain of Force Lightning is still fresh in his mind, unhelped by the fact that the scars still haven't gone away. The Emperor deliberately drew out his attempt at killing Luke as well, making sure it was as painful as possible.
- Losing his father; though his father returned from the Dark Side by killing the Emperor and saving Luke, doing so led to his own death. Luke openly cried at his passing, despite the fact the Death Star was bound to explode any second.
How can Cole help: Cole could probably best help by being a comforting presence, and reminding him that war always leads to unnecessary death. Becoming friends would help as well, maybe for them both; despite everything that's happened, Luke is still so compassionate for others and sees the good in most everyone.
no subject
Canon: Star Wars: Rebels
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: name one, name several.
1. Ezra's parents were arrested for treason when he was seven. Ezra spent nearly 8 years as a street orphan, surviving through theft, scavenging, and petty cons. The exact date of his parents' arrest isn't clear, but I head canon it was on Empire Day, the anniversary of the establishment of the Empire, which is also Ezra's birthday (to the day, he was born alongside the Empire). It makes sense for an Imperial show of force to happen on that 'holiday' and explains how deep Ezra's aversion to his birthday is in canon. A lot of his childhood was austere and lonely.
2. Ezra eventually found a new family that genuinely deeply loved him. However they were rebels, too (all with their own trauma) and being part that family meant learning how to fight, being hunted by Imperials, and increasingly getting into real combat. By age 17, he was a commissioned officer of the Rebel Alliance, part of true guerilla warfare.
3. While the Maul of Trench is from an earlier point in history, Ezra's canon relationship with Maul is very traumatic. He very briefly trusted Maul to be a teacher in the ways of the Force (who tried to convince him to embrace the Darkside). Trust was shattered when Maul tried to kill Ezra's Jedi master, blinding Kanan instead. Ezra spent months blaming himself, and Maul never let go of his fixation on Ezra being his apprentice. The next year and half involved stalking, kidnapping, mental invasions and forced shared visions before Maul was finally killed by Obi-wan Kenobi. Ezra has tried to make his peace with all this, feels compassion for Maul as he knew him, and really does want Maul in Trench to be a better, happier person. Still, the trauma lingers.
4. Fire? Yeah, fire, at this point. Kanan died saving Ezra and rest of their family by holding back an explosion/ wall of flame. Ezra also had the duel of Mustafar, telepathically dumped into his head from Obi-wan's mind, while Obi-wan was mid-panic attack. He's since been part of a replaying ofVader's revenge setting Obi-wan on fire. There's *layers* here.
5. It's as much comfort as trauma, but part of Ezra's CRAU is he was part of a reality altering spell cast by Billy Kaplan, that gave him memories of an entire life in a vaguely New York City-ish American setting. Ezra was an orphan in that life too - (Mother in giving birth to him for that birthday trauma parallel, father in a car wreck a few years later). The good news is that Alt!Ezra had a much older brother who stepped up to raise him - Ben Bridger, the AU version of Obi-wan Kenobi. The Obi-wan of that setting agreed they could be truly brothers after the spell ended, and Ezra cherished both those memories and the choice made together. Coming to Trench and building a new relationship with an Obi-wan who welcomed him as a young Jedi, and therefore family, but without any of those shared experiences, as well of complicated relationships with the various Skywalker clan around, has been an ongoing struggle.
6. Last July Ezra was killed by Chara, for trying to stop them from mass murdering Trenchies. He spent weeks as a spirit in the Force, while the cycle of reincarnation was disrupted. He holds no grudge, and simply avoids Chara, but can't help but wonder if they'll do something like that again.
How can Cole help: Ezra is unlikely to want to forget anything, even the 'magic' memories. He's both very, very psychic for a human, and has chosen compassion to be his central guiding principle, so common ground/a spiritual brother of sorts may be an enormous help. As well as reminders that he is loved, that he can always choose more family, and that practicing compassion includes self-compassion.
no subject
Canon: Star Wars
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: - Kylo, or Ben, grew up under pressure and the burden of expectation placed on him by being the son of war heroes. His parents loved him but didnt know how to help him or deal with his growing power and emotional instability. During that time he was haunted by a voice that preyed on his insecurities and doubts, turning him towards the dark.
- His uncle, Luke Skywalker trying to kill him in his sleep. He lashes out and brings the hut down on top of his head, and the academy + all of the students are destroyed in a flash of thunder.
- Joining the Knights of Ren after killing their leader and becoming Kylo, bleeding his lightsaber (corrupting it with the dark and causing it to become unstable)
- Snoke's manipulation, and his cruelty towards his apprentice.
- Killing his father as a way to finally destroy the conflict and call to the light but only making it worse, the guilt that eats at Kylo.
- The bond he shares with Rey and her defeating him at Starkiller.
How can Cole help: There's not really that much that Cole can say or do, Kylo will outright refuse help, and he's not likely to take comfort from a stranger very well. Things like telling him that there's good in him, not likely to help but hearing that he's not pathetic or a failure might be a good place to start with him.
Willow Rosenberg | Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Canon: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: Dark Willow experiences both in Trench and at home, including the near destruction of the world at home, and the fallout from corruption in Trench (including the deaths of Johnny, Savage, Maul, and Sayo. The fight with Faith and Ozpin that resulted in her death. Attacking Tara. The destruction of Clockhouse, and Faith and Ozpin's deaths as a result in the aftermath).
Willow is still afraid of her canon magic and getting in too deep and getting overwhelmed again. She's not entirely unconvinced that her own magic won't ramp up her corruption, although she still recognizes there are times it would be useful.
How can Cole help: Reminders probably that she can control magic instead of letting it control her as she was learning to do in England will probably be the most helpful at this point.
Pyrrha Dve | Duty | The Locked Tomb
Canon: The Locked Tomb
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: Love Without Limits You can read more in her app here. Excellent snippets come from the final chapters of Harrow the Ninth. The narrative helps with that, but I have the dialogue from that scene posted here. Typical TLT imagery, smoking, cows, etc all apply. For all that Pyrrha is good at setting boundaries and enforcing them, she doesn't with her love/heart. Once it's given, there's no take backs.
How can Cole help: Probably draw on the other memories of Pyrrha helping others set boundaries (such as giving Anna advice here and reflecting that to apply herself). None of that is new but... hey, outside perspective? This applies to everyone she loves. For example, in the scene linked above, John, Augustine, and Mercymorn all contribute to Gideon's death significantly in her POV but she hasn't/didn't do anything emotionally with that since in Trench.
Note: Sometimes Pyrrha's a black hole to telepathy without touch, and Cole will probably notice that. Sometimes she isn't now, thanks to Chrollo's help.
no subject
Canon: Watch_Dogs
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: Generally speaking, the person beneath "The Wrench" is a totally different person than when masked. His mask is an assistive device that allows him to interact with the world. He struggles with severe anxiety, and struggles with expressing and processing emotions in any form of a healthy manner. Like most protags, he also has some ptsd. lmfao. cause who doesn't, really. Not a lot is known about his childhood outside of it generally being suggested as "rough".
For context, Wrench is a sort of watch dog and freedom fighter who is affiliated with a well known hacker group called Dedsec. Think IRL Anonymous but more physically involved. While a protag, he's generally considered a political extremist and domestic terrorist. Here's a bunch of memories, fears, hurts, and worries.
1. Being illegally detained by authorities twice for two separate reasons. Once in an attempt to interrogate and force him into giving up his team and Marcus (which he did not do) and, during, having his mask forcefully taken from him; later "allowed to leave" but not with his mask. The second time he was held for random, again by authorities.
2. Every once in awhile he has a concern over the fact that he really doesn't give a shit if he kills people anymore and his morals have become a hell of a lot more grey. This has become more of a concern after Sabine brought it up before he let her fall to her death. Had no issue using mild deception in order to bide time before he could hack the platform she was on to drop. Her death meant that thousands of people weren't going to suffer or die, but still. She brought up good points about their situation; she brought up how similar they actually were and he has a lot of messy feelings about this one.
3. So lonely. Recently divorced and doesn't talk about it. Actually super in love with his best friend Marcus who he kept ignoring and now feels astronomically guilty over. Listen, his love life is a fucking mess my friend. Hot damn.
4. Feels incredibly stupid that he dared to try to "be normal" for awhile and trusted someone like Rempart who ran a big corporation (which, perhaps now obvious, Wrench is typically vehemently distrusting of). Everything that happened during the time that he put down the mask and actually lived as Reginald Blechman is kind of a sore spot given how much of it blew up in his face when it was so hard for him to actually live without "Wrench".
5. Doesn't feel like he knows how to properly "be a human". Harbors a lot of "there is something fundamentally broken in me" kind of feelings.
6. Overall, Cole is welcomed to pick up on his overall anxious state of being. He has a weird anxiety around animals until he gets to know them, for instance. Worries about a lot of things a lot of the time and they easily spiral out of control; like this guy can go on tangents like its nobodies business. These issues rarely become obvious or show though beyond "strange Wrenchisms" but he does have a tonnes of quirks in the way he walks and talks that suggest he's a bit "odd".
How can Cole help: This is a man that even the FBI doesn't know a lot about beyond the things that he's done which have been clearly observable and documented. He will not take Cole knowing things about him well. At. All. It may honestly be a situation of them never interacting or rarely interacting but I'm not against turbulent CR or anything. Wanted to plop this here in the event they ever did cross paths. :)
no subject
Canon: Silent Hill (films)
Character Memory/Fear/Pain:
Betrayal | Due to the betrayals she endured as Alessa, especially that by Dahlia, her birth mother, Sharon harbors a great deal of doubt and fear when it comes to her close relationships. She always wonders what will be the trigger for them to leave her, to abandon her, to finally see her as the monster she was called. In some ways, she tries to anticipate a split and may do or say things to hurry it along.
God/Her powers | Sharon was born to be the vessel in which God is born from. She's been told this was her destiny and it's the big reason behind all of her suffering. She fears it's the reason she's got the powers she does (it is) and she is terrified of becoming pregnant despite the fact that god's birth will require a ritual.
Most rituals bother her deeply but, more than that, faith in higher beings bothers her immensely. Her dislike and distrust is instinctive and these feelings extend to Pthumerians, especially the Patrons. She has trouble seeing them beyond her negative associations and those who worship them or have decided to be a disciple is immediately placed into the Do Not Trust category. She's also a touch afraid of them and their faith because she's seen what faith does to a group of people.
Otherworld | Sharon has drawn in both friends and strangers into her Otherworld here in Trench and although she felt it was necessary, she harbors a great deal of guilt over it. She knows she's exposed them to traumas they might not have been ready to deal with and it's something she beats herself up over often. Not to mention, most of them don't know she's done it and that's... Woof. A lot on her already delicate mental health state.
How can Cole help: Sharon has a lot of issues with losing memories so making her forget would just... make things worse but reminders of her adoptive parents love for her and how they've never betrayed her would help some, along with reminders that she has people that love her here.
She tries very hard to never be a victim again and it could help her to know she's in a position where she really never has to fear becoming one again. Tell her she deserves good things and watch her brain have trouble processing that. Tell her she's not a bad person because she wholeheartedly believes she is.
Cole really just has to be gentle and understanding and he'll... mess her up a little but in a good way.
Vira-Lorr | Record of Agarest War
Canon: Record of Agarest
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: Vira-Lorr's memories are filled with pain and loss. She is centuries old, so in this she might feel a tiny bit like Flemeth (though not as old), and she has seen loved ones be born, raised them alongside their fathers, watched them mature, fight for what they felt was right, live, love, marry, bear another generation and then sacrifice themselves. The cycle has repeated over five generations, and a century of war. She has coped with the constant air of loss and the trauma of war with drink and companionship, and neither has worked. She fears the loss of freedom and agency, and wants everyone to be free, almost to the point where she enables bad behavior.
She has memories of pain and torture from five years in the game. Horrible sights from time to time, and more than a few gruesome deaths. But the memories she seems to dwell upon are the happy ones, the ones that involve people that she's known for a few years, old friends she's shared time with.
How can Cole help:
(You're honestly doing better than any Cole player I've ever met at encapsulating his way of speaking. That's not buttering you up. Keep it up. That's a hard voice.)
"Forgive yourself." That's probably the piece of advice she needs to hear. That it is ok to change, to grow, to become better but that part of that is that she can't dwell in misery and self-loathing the whole time, or she never will actually move on.
Viktor | Arcane
Canon: arcane
Character Memory/Fear/Pain: (cw for ableism, terminal illness, classism, pet death kind of???)
1. viktor's grown up with pain and weakness, mostly his leg and back. in the place he grew up, the undercity, it's very dog eat dog and has a focus on being physically capable of protecting yourself or being able to sneak and run away. he was deeply isolated being unable to do these things, and then deeply isolated when he moved to the 'rich' part of town to go to the academy under basically a free ride. people looked down on him for where he was born and still the disabilities. the trench is the first place he's felt a real sense of community but there's a lingering need to be 'useful' in order to feel like he's earned his place in said community.
2. viktor put his trust in a man, a scientist, he met at random as a child. the man genetically engineered a large axolotl creature named rio, who is bright pink and purple and both looks and is quite magical in nature. she's dying, and the man says he's trying to save her. viktor wants to help too. for the first time he has friends, even if one is a shady mentor and the other not human.
eventually he comes in to find rio hooked up to tubes and writhing in agony on the ground, learning very quickly that it's never been about saving rio's life for the sake of rio, it's about saving rio's life because she's useful to research, her body is useful to research. the man expected viktor to understand, and viktor flees. metal tubing, the color purple in an unnatural glow, twitching and dying things. once again being useful is all that really matters
3. viktor is dying, and he starts working on a project that's increasingly dangerous. essentially creating a magic device that adapts itself, and as he tries to save himself or, more importantly, make one final, useful creation for the world, he does more and more dangerous things. he meets his old mentor, takes a very dangerous and illegal drug, lets the device, the hexcore, change his body. he leg is now magic and metal rather than flesh.
eventually he's testing it again when a girl comes in, sky, someone he's known for a long time, an assistant and maybe a friend. one of the few people in his life, someone who respects him and cares about his well being. she runs to try and help him, and the device kills her. she's dust on the ground, glasses with the frame cracked, her notebook. he tries to destroy the device and it won't let him swing the chair he lifts to do so.
How can Cole help: honestly i'd be very curious to have them have talks about magic and the danger around it, just magic in general. in terms of helping i think frank discussion about worth and how people don't exist to merely be useful could do him some good. even just any actual discussion about sky instead of repressing it would probably be good too.