Friday DE

[bjornwilde]

Posting early so I have one less thing to do tomorrow. As suggested by Fi in chat today:

How much does guilt or shame effect your character(s)? Is it a driving force? Do they do things out of character because of it?

Bonus: write us a fic if the answer inspires. 

Comments

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Yamato is really bad about both guilt and shame. He'll tend to beat himself up over even minor perceived failings, and he's very quick to feel ashamed and to assume that other people are judging him for said failings.

It's difficult to drag him out of it, too: He'll always see himself and the things he does in the most negative light possible, and the idea of forgiving himself for his failings, or that other people might not immediately despise him for them, is entirely beyond his comprehension.

Invariably, it also ends up turning to anger and defensive lashing out -- because much like how a shark can only interact with the world via biting, Yamato Ishida can only interact with his own negative emotions via furious, barely contained or directed rage -- which then feeds into a vicious cycle where he feels guilty, lashes out, and then feels more guilty, leading to more lashing out.


Eden, meanwhile, can't feel guilt, so he's, like. He's fine. He's chill. It's fine.

[irish_vagabond]

Cassidy. AHAHA. Oh lordt. Y'all wanna talk about guilt and shame. This guy's whole existence is built on it. He is ashamed of being a vampire, and will forever be guilty about what he's been forced to do. A much deeper guilt comes from what he'd done as a human and the fact that he will never be forgiven, because those people in his life are long, long gone. It's why his behavior can be so extreme: he's already damned, he's got nothing to lose, so what's one more weekend full of drugs and liquor? Thing is, his first instinct is to apologize to whoever he's wronged, but if he can't (see: the Jesse/Tulip thing), he'll go on as if everything's normal and try to make it up to them in whatever ways possible.

As for Emcee, he isn't quite shameless. He's ashamed of his drug addiction, which is why he never talks about it freely, because that just leads to guilt about how it affected him and in turn the people around him who he cared about the most. He's also extremely guilty about having ignored the danger signs in his world and believes he led people to their deaths. He is so not talking about any of this to anyone! He had one breakdown with Jay, and that's all he's ever mentioned of it. When he bottles things up like this, he also acts out but in more positive ways, such as throwing himself into his music or a performance or planning a big party.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Guilt about their early life in the robots' conquering army is like an ever-present weight around Bastion's neck, but by contrast they're very difficult to shame about anything they don't already feel guilty about.

[splash_of_blue]

Molly and guilt: ahahahaha. Ahahahahahahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

...uh.

So, Molly's parents were part of a group who ritually sacrificed kidnapped teenagers in order to end the world and have their children rule the new one. And of that group, Molly's parents were, at best, joint most evil (the Deans were also pretty vile). They mind-raped, tortured, killed and did pretty much whatever pleased them best when it came to anyone who wasn't a mutant and/or who got in their way.

Molly is aware she doesn't have any personal guilt for this, per se. However, they were her parents and they did what they did for her. They're also dead (she may also have a certain amount of guilt over this, but she'd certainly never admit it and I'm not even sure she's still entirely aware of it), and there's no-one else to try to make up for what they did; so it's down to her. And this is why she will not stop the superheroing, ever. Ever. There will always be one more person.

And then there's what happened in New York...