Monday DE: I don't have a good title, my braincells have all melted

[splash_of_blue]

I was going to shamelessly nick today's DE from something Eric discussed in crackchat last night, but then decided that a) it was maybe too depressing for a Monday, and b) it would probably suit Halloween week better.

So instead I've shamelessly nicked today's DE from something Debi and Amanda discussed in crackchat just now!

(God, I'm brilliant.)

SO!

What are your characters' coping mechanisms/strategies? And how actually helpful are they, or are they worse than the original problem?

Comments

[raptorcanaria]

:)

Dinah copes by making jokes at the expense of her friends. ("Don't mind him, he's just mad this isn't a problem he can fix by shooting it with sticks.") Her friends might say she copes with violence, but that's not true, because neither she nor I would call her style of fighting 'violence' in the way that denotes catharsis: you won't find her pummeling her punch bag mindlessly. Instead she copes through physical movement in the way that a dancer copes through that.

[queenofmay]

Lady Marian: Exactingly sharp comebacks and angry, incredulous, facial expressions. (Also, when she was in her canon, grinding that anger and fear and hate down and down into that forever boiling knot inside of her while smiling primly and placidly like a lady far too often for the Sherrif after she's already lost her temper and said too much first.) Marian is always better at the solutions, though, and very astute about planning how to solve things without anyone getting hurt the worse for it.

Sara Lance: Violence. Violence, anyone? Sara would be glad to put your face through a deck plate and break every bone in your body, slowly, over days, and stalk you down through all of time and space especially if you killed her sister. Sara off the chain is far worse than whatever the original problem was and usually takes several, if not all, crew members to stop her sometimes. (Even though they are smartly afraid of her several times' proven capabilities to cut down anything in her way.)

Jean Grey: Depends on the severity of the thing. Sometimes suppress it, sometimes attack it, sometimes actually take it head-on like an adult. It depends on what that problem is. Often it's to have some tea and give it a good long think-through, talk to Charles and Ororo, probably her husband and Logan. Fast or slow, it's usually pretty compassionate.

Jo Harvelle: A lot of swearing, yelling, insulting, drinking, and monster killing. Sometimes with a side of sleeping with someone you shouldn't, but don't care about at all, since they'll be behind you on the road by morning.

[takethatnature]

Coping mechanisms are in some ways baked into the game mechanics for Wilson and Wormwood. Eating candy and desserts (also jerky for some reason, plus a few other non-sweet foods, one of which is a maybe-alcoholic beverage), eating prepared psychoactive mushrooms as a sort of herbalistic makeshift medication, putting on dapper clothes, having a nap, convincing one of the local pig people to hang out with you for a while, and learning how to make something new from a science machine or a blueprint are all effective ways for almost any Don't Starve player character to gain a bit of comfort. Picking flowers is also in that category for most characters including Wilson, but it upsets Wormwood. Wormwood is, however, cheered up by planting things, whether they're trees, shrubs, vegetable seeds or whatever.

In the Constant they also have the option of physically beating up the shadow creatures that prey on people's stress and anxiety while posing as hallucinations, but this only works when someone's basically having a full-on mental breakdown because that's the only time they have enough nightmare fuel to physically manifest (aboveground, anyway; the subterranean ruins are another story) and at other times the shadows just lurk menacingly, unable to physically touch anything and invisible to anyone in a good mood.

[aberration]

Hera - working working working working working working no chopper I don't need to eat working working working working working working working chop stop hitting me with a protein bar

Her more helpful coping strategies are generally talking to Kanan and, well, getting some sleep

Kanan's healthy coping strategies are meditation and talking to Hera/others, though meditation unfortunately can sometimes become an avenue to his less great coping strategy, being reclusive and then getting grumpy about it.