Daily Entertainment: The Long Dark

[lifethatisscratched]

Morning, y'all! Another The Last of Us-inspired DE for you guys today.

How would your pups handle isolation?

Comments

[lifethatisscratched]

Connor handles isolation the best out of all my roster. He's already rather introverted and taciturn on top of being part of a somewhat monastic "secret" society (sure guys, keep telling yourself nobody sees you in those sour-cream-white robes), so it's not like he'd go crazy without someone to talk to. He'd probably meditate or something, maybe recite some really old Assassin precepts.

Voodoo handles it second-best. He's used to having someone around to talk to, and quite enjoys the activity. He'd focus on something completely irrelevant to the isolation to handle it, like his mission (if he was on one).

Mako handles it the worst. If he didn't know where Bolin was, or that he was at least somewhere safe? He'd probably come close to tearing his hair out. With no social interaction, he might start talking to himself within a couple of weeks.

[runningred]

Olivier and David do quite well on their own for as long as they need to.

Minx, Diaval and Sinric are social creatures and wouldn't cope on their own for very long.

Jay thinks he'd manage but he'd go nuts after a while.

[camwyn]

Gordon does his best to throw himself into working on something that requires concentration when he's in isolation. He used to like it better, but ever since Black Mesa he's had a private phobia that something is going to teleport in behind him and try to kill him if he's genuinely alone.

Shephard tends to handle it by going very still and very quiet and observing. He got used to solitude and isolation a long time ago, in the woods around Rowlesburg. Mostly up trees. Although he does not recommend trying it he has found that left to his own devices he can stay awake and functional in isolation for four days straight before he has to find somewhere safe he can shut down.

Ellen tends to go on alert in isolation, because if she is alone then she has no one to warn her if something or someone is about to try and kill her, and she lives in a time and place where that is sort of the background radiation of everyday life.

Fawkes spent most of his pre-canon life in an isolation chamber where solitude was only interrupted by bigger, stronger mutants who would throw food at him or beat him up for kicks. He does a lot of meditation in isolation and a lot of mindfulness practice in general.

Not really sure about the others, although I suspect Stacker starts feeling Drift ghosts under isolation circumstances. When you've had someone in your head the way a Jaeger pilot has you're never really alone, even if they died.

[2goodarms]

Hah. hah. Ahahahaha.

The first (and only) time Curtis was completely alone on the train, he broke down sobbing. Granted, there were, um, a lot of other circumstances contributing to that breakdown, but after eighteen years of rarely being more than an arm's length away from anybody, he does not handle isolation well. It's why he had to ask Bar to modify his room, thinning the walls so he could hear his neighbors moving around: if it's too quiet, he gets twitchy reaaaaallly fast. I don't think he'd last more than a day or two with zero human contact.

[genarti]

Enjolras: ...Not well, long-term. (See also: his first several months at Milliways, though that was much less complete than it could've been.) The emotional strain would start to show fast. Short-term, of course, he'd catch up on reading or whatever, but he's a guy who's built for cities and sociability.

Thor: Would start chafing a lot sooner, but I feel like that wouldn't actually level up to greater cracks around the edges for a lot longer? I mean, an Asgardian's sense of time is not like a human's. He'd hate it, but he'd bounce right back into throwing himself into social stuff whenever the isolation ended.

Cosette: Would deal okay, but she'd be very lonely. She'd probably do a lot of talking to the birds and furniture to keep herself occupied.

Kazul: She'd be fine for a good long while! She likes being social, but she'd cope, and would keep herself occupied. (Dragons also live a whole lot longer than humans, which may also be relevant here.)

Trowa: ...Would be fine. He's done this before, a LOT. Total isolation is not good for him long-term and he knows it, but he could deal with it fine for months, especially with a mission to do.

River: Is a lot like Enjolras, except with a lot less poker face. She'd be fine for a day or three, but wouldn't take it well at all long-term.

...Man, I have a lot of really social pups! Me, I'd go stir-crazy eventually, and I'd miss my friends, but for the first while I'd be like OMG IT'S SO RESTFUL and do a lot of cooking and reading books I'd been meaning to get around to.

[bjornwilde]

Rollo deals with isolation well enough but implodes with ostracization; meaning that as long as his people aren't actively ignoring him, he's fine being alone.

Izana is okay with brief periods but would not do well with extended periods.

Asajj is fine with it. At the very least, it would keep another group of people from being killed because of her. /angst palm

Ethan chafes at it but accepts that it is whats needed to keep him and those around him safe. He keeps finding his way back to some contact though, so I think it's harder on him than he lets on.

[souffle_girlek]

Oswin: Hahaha um. Evidently making quite a lot of imaginary souffles. >.<

Jemma: Depends, I think, on if the isolation is self-inflicted. Like, if she's working on a project and doesn't see anyone for a while, she's fine. Otherwise she ends up with a refrigerator containing one half-full near-expiring carton of milk and a bottle of sriracha.

Katya: If it's isolation like Milliways, where there's no Others, no one from her previous life - she gets cranky about it sometimes, but she's essentially alright. Especially since she found Skellig (or Skellig found her). If it's true isolation, like 'deserted on an empty world' isolation... I think she'd fade into the Gloom in short order.

Glorfindel: Would be fine. A few millenia is long enough to learn how to entertain himself.

William: Probably not super well? He's a gregarious kid, and has spent the vast majority of his life in close company with others. He doesn't really have any coping mechanisms for 'alone'.

Sam: She'd... I think she's in William's camp. There's no real reason why she'd do badly except she's lived her whole life in close company with people. The first few days would be a fun novelty though.

Bones: He says, loudly, that he'd be fine, dear God, it'd be the perfect vacation, no one's going to bleed at him... in all honesty he'd probably pace until he fell over and he'd shout himself hoarse trying to get someone to answer him.

[harryhotspur]

Privacy as we think of it barely exists in Hotspur's time-- complete isolation would all but inconceivable to him. For all that he doesn't seem to play nice with others, he'd be absolutely incapable of handling being truly all alone.

[varadia]

X is great at isolation. She just checks out. It's what she used to call 'meditation' that kept her sane while being isolated in a blank windowless room through a lot of her childhood. Now she meditates for real. It's nice. But you would get a whole person back afterward, once she woke back up again. I mean. Her version of a whole person. So. But in general she does not prefer solitude at all.

Ysalwen can stop being alone just by dreaming. She likes solitude, or semi-solitude, and she hates crowds, so she'd be all right overall, though.

Raven has been there, done that, and after a million years or so of flying through the vast blackness of space he went pretty amnesiac. That was fun. But he can handle it. Or he can cheat.

Galadan is good with isolation, and is probably at his least dangerous when there is no one else around or anywhere. He has nothing to do, and his isolation in the grey space is what saved him post-Fionavar Tapestry.

Michael is fine with isolation. She'd cease to exist if humanity did, though. So there's that.

I think Dean would be weirdly content if he were utterly alone. He couldn't get anyone else killed that way, come on.

Wonder Woman -- would be able to handle it pretty well, though she'd probably need periods of having actual company. She wasn't actually made to be that kind of alone.

Nynaeve would not be able to cope at all, at all, at all. Not for more than a few days. She hates feeling useless, and alone is pretty useless after awhile.

[ceitfianna]

Will wouldn't do well with isolation, he's spent so much of his time surrounded by people in Sherwood, in Nottingham and Milliways that I think he wouldn't do well. He likes the quiet of Sherwood at times and the solitude with hunting but couldn't live this way.

Charles doesn't do well completely isolated, one of his favorite ways to relax is to be quiet in a place surrounded by other people but not interacting. Its his mediation but when there's only his head, he does badly, his childhood wasn't happy because there was no one that really understood him. So he spent a lot of time observing and thinking and watching what other people had and not knowing how to get it. My headcanon for why he broke so badly between XMFC and XMDoFP is that he needs people like Raven or Erik to push him out of his own head.

Quentin doesn't like isolation, he's spent his entire life in knowes where people are always around and now he's living in Toby's house with people always coming in and out. Some peace can be nice every once in a while but not for long.

William likes being isolated, he's enjoys being out on the range with no one else around, he finds it peaceful. Also he always worries about saying the wrong thing around people, he wouldn't do well all alone for too long, but solitude or just being with animals relaxes him.

Sameth does fine isolated, he goes deeper into his work, its not the best idea for him and he needs people to pull him out or else he doesn't sleep or eat enough but he enjoys it.

If Jane has paper and pen and books then she will do well isolated though not for too long. She needs people to recharge herself.

Demeter needs to be around people, its interesting that she partly isolated herself during her grief and then found her way to being around mortals. She can do it but not for long, she needs people that she can connect with.

Tumnus isn't great at isolation, that was easy to see during the start of Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he was uncomfortable and had more time to fret and worry.

Ivan needs people, he's been isolated once when he was held prisoner in a drain pipe, that's his worst nightmare, alone and drowning. He's incredibly social.

[vive_lavenir]

Combeferre would spend a good long while reading all the books and doing all the weird experiments. He'd miss his friends, sure. But he's also used to studying and focusing on things on his own, long-term, because no one else is interested in them. He happily talks about his interests with his friends despite their not being similarly obsessed. But if he couldn't do that, he'd be semi-contented with just studying them on his own. It would take him a while to feel the effects of isolation, and after that he'd be sad but basically okay for a long time. (Provided he knew his friends were doing okay elsewhere, and not hurt or in need of his help or anything. That's a whole different ballgame).

Jehan Prouvaire is melancholy and needs solitude, but he also needs emotional expression. He'd be good with isolation for short periods--in fact he'd *need* it for short periods--but after, say, a week with no real social contact, he'd be suffering tremendously.

[rudderless]

Clementine: Poorly
Dixie: With applomb. By the time Brisco finds her she'll have a group of chipmunks eating out of her hand.
Juliet: Again, with applomb. She has survivalist instincts and could mentally deal with the loneliness.
Pinkie Pie: AHAHA very very very poorly.
Eponine: By sinking slowly into a festering depression