#hurt in a way I can't possibly apologise for“ trauma and the two talking about that with someone who looks like said sibling is an idea I | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

coolcattime · 2 months

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.🧩🍦🐇.

🧩 What will make you click away from a fanfic immediately?

Not having paragraphs or not having grammar - especially when the description did.

Also, villainizing characters for no good reason, but this one is harder for me to define. Like it seems to depend on my mood so I think it's more of my “She would not fucking sat that” thing that disliking villainizing. I've like got better things to do than read fics making my favourites into pricks and not tagging them as either villains or the fic as salt fics (you tag it, go nuts because then I know what to expect).

🍦 Name three name things about a character you hate

Typically I'll try to make these questions about Mianite, but I don't actually hate any Mianite characters - if I hate a character I'm not going to write fanfiction with them in it. So here's three nice things about Chris from Until Dawn - a character that went through a similar journey in my years of interacting with the character as Jordan (I ship this straight ship -> this man is a dick to his “girlfriend” and she gets to be gay now as a treat), but didn't have the redeeming qualities for me to not want to explode him with my mind.

It is genuinely very nice how much Chris cares for Josh, even post the reveal of the prank. He can die trying to bring him to safety and if that isn't being a good best friend I don't know what is

Regardless of my feelings about them as a couple “Every second I spent with you was the only thing I ever wanted to do with my time” is a genuinely really sweet line

I really like his interactions with the Flamethrower Man. Just the whole little walk to the shed with him. I stood around to hear more dialogue from the two. And the fact that he will always defend him in the police interviews if he survives is nice.

🐇 Do you prefer writing original characters, reader inserts, or both?

Original characters, without a shadow of a doubt.

I have a very unfortunate problem that whether I see my name in a piece of media, I am then unable to take it seriously. In fact, my name was originally used in a good number of fics for Capsize, back when giving her a normal name was popular, and god did I spend so much time giggling because “tehehe that's me”. No, I can't read reader inserts with (y/n) stuff because of that - so I definitely couldn't write one.

Originally characters though, I have so many and I write and them all the time. I understand this question is likely about them being put into universe with canon characters which I don't tend to do but a) I do have an idea for a crossover with my OC verse and Mianite I'm just too lazy to write something that would require a ton of character description and world explanation right now and b) one of my OCs has a canonical crush on Leon Kennedy (and Claire Redfield and probably Ada Wong) and I'm above making them kiss (did this crush start off as a joke that she'd find RE4 relatable because she is a rich girl body guarded by a powerful person named Leon(tine) YES but I'd like her meet and kiss Leon to make her happy).

#ask game #licantropa #ask #thank you for the ask ❤️#apologises that this devolved into rambles #i quite genuinely do want to write that OC Mianite crossover but mostly because I have a scene between Redbeard and the OC originally based #on Capsize (who look wise is still a lot like my design for her) because I realised the two both have the same “I feel like I got my siblin #hurt in a way I can't possibly apologise for“ trauma and the two talking about that with someone who looks like said sibling is an idea I #still can't shift

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makeste · 3 years

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heyy makeste, so this is a request for wish fulfilment to avoid the absolute ridiculousness of the last chapter. Neway, so we all want kacchan to apologise, that's probably the one thing the entire fandom agrees and I belive horikoshi himself has implied that it will happen (?). Okay, so, assuming a verbal apology will happen (EVEN THO WE DIDN'T GET OUR HOSPITAL TALK - HURT/COMFORT SCENE), how do you see it panning out ? I, personally, don't want it to happen in some kind of life-or-death situation, but I can't even remotely predict how an apology would now, with where the manga is, so what do you think ????

P.S: all your meta and chapter recaps are so well articulated and not to mention, f*cking hilarious, so of all the people, of course I'd ask you <3

thank you so much!! <3 and okay, so as far as my ideal wish-fulfillment apology scene, all I really require are the following two components:

a fair amount of crying (on the parts of both Deku and Kacchan, and especially me)

a hug.

that’s it. I don’t think that’s too much to ask, personally, but we’ll see how generous Horikoshi decides to be.

HOWEVER, since we’re talking about this, this might be a good time for me to bring up a thought that’s been on my mind for these past couple of weeks, and especially today what with the new volume 30 angst fuel that just dropped. so basically, here are some facts.

Deku, amidst lots of talk about the villains being after him and about him Suffering In Silence, has left U.A.

while it’s not for-sure confirmed yet, right now all signs seem to point to him being alone.

it seems EXTREMELY unlikely to me that Certain People would have approved of or consented to this arrangement! especially considering Certain People’s recent Deku-adjacent actions, which include 1) Getting Stabbed To Save Deku’s Life, and 2) Going On A Rampage Three Minutes After Waking Up In A Hospital With A Hole In Their Torso, Because They Heard That Deku Was Still Unconscious. like, I’m just saying. right now Certain People are being really protective of Deku, and I can only assume this will continue indefinitely.

Deku knows Kacchan better than anyone, and knows exactly how stubborn he can be.

Deku is also freshly traumatized from Kacchan nearly dying for him, and I’m positive that out of all the people Deku is determined to protect, Kacchan is now at the very top of that list.

but as previously mentioned, Kacchan is even more determined to protect Deku, and is absolutely not the type of person to take no for an answer.

and now here are some suppositions building on these facts.

whatever hang-ups Kacchan might have had about apologizing, I’m almost positive that having a near-death experience complete with all sorts of symbolism and flashbacks and remorseful volume covers would be more than enough to finally overcome them. in other words, an apology should have been imminent. we’re talking “the very next time I finally get to see him and speak with him” imminent.

under 99.9% of circumstances, I have absolutely no doubt that Deku would forgive Kacchan instantaneously. he would be absolutely overjoyed.

there are precious few circumstances which could ever possibly lead to the 0.1% of scenarios in which Deku does not forgive him. even if there was some part of him that did still secretly resent Kacchan in some way, it would still be extraordinarily out-of-character for Deku to deny him forgiveness, if only because he’d know how much it would hurt him. for Deku to knowingly and purposely inflict that kind of pain on someone would be unthinkable.

UNLESS -- unless -- in his mind, it was somehow a choice between sparing him pain, or saving his life.

for instance, if he had already made up his mind that he had to leave.

and if he knew that Kacchan, in his stubbornness and determination to make amends, would follow him no matter what.

and if he was convinced, somehow -- whether by the memory of Kacchan being stabbed, or by the words of a mysterious Vestige, or simply by the subdued, quietly reverberating trauma of feeling inadvertently responsible for the deaths of thousands of people -- that Kacchan would die if he stayed by his side.

then, I could see it. much as I hate to say (which, admittedly, isn’t actually that much at all, because as heartbreaking as this hypothetical would be, oh my god, the angst).

so yeah. I’ve been wondering about all of this tbh. something about the irony of all of us waiting on the edge of our seats for this, only to have it finally happen in the worst way possible. the only thing is, Horikoshi almost never does this kind of “misunderstanding” plot with his characters. I get the impression that it frustrates him. and usually I enjoy watching him subvert this trope, and seeing his characters actually communicate and improve their understanding of each other rather than doing the tired old “one step forward, two steps back” dance.

but this is also the one time I could see him subverting his own usual conventions. mostly because he already has. Izuku leaving U.A. is proof of that. it means that this is the one time that talking things out and listening to his mentors’ sage advice didn’t pay off. it means that there absolutely was some type of misunderstanding and miscommunication between somebody, somewhere. someone fucked up. because if they hadn’t, then Deku wouldn’t be out here right now standing dramatically in the wind and rescuing Shindou from being bludgeoned into a conventionally attractive pulp.

so yeah. tl;dr, what if Kacchan apologized but Deku didn’t forgive him because he thought it was the only way to stop Kacchan from potentially getting hurt for his sake. ahaha, just kidding... unless...?

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yuvon-writes-letters · 3 years

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Hey guys,

Yu, Rai and both Jakes.

Actually..If I talk about my feelings I'm pretty well. Don't tell Jake I said that, but I couldn't be happier about our situation. I mean, we can talk again. Without me being kidnapped and finding a weird Tumblr profile of him. (Which we think was a set up by one of the entities of my world since he obviously doesn't have one. Jake thinks it was goldies doing, I on the other hand don't believe that. Don't ask me why, but it feels like goldie wouldn't do that. And it didn't help me either but only made problems. I was distracted because I was writing the profile (you read it, right Yu? I don't know about the others) and angry. Like, really angry.)

Putting that aside, Jake called me, like he promised :) And it was the longest phone call I had for some time. Most of the time I talked and he didn't get distracted once, just listened to me and everything that happened. And then he started cursing, which is kind of understandable. He apologised for being into stasis. And for this other version from before the 'time setting back' thing. Because I don't find a name I'll call it TSB from now on.

The only problem I have now is going to work, I guess I'll take me some vacation...But at least I'm not as scared of the raven-ass anymore. I mean, I still am, but in the moment I know his steps. And I am not alone.

Jake, I intentionally write the next part in red, please don't read it. That's for Yu.

I know you think that Jake sees you as a threat. If it still is like you wrote in the letter. Jake knows that, too and he doesn't like it. You know him better than I do, of course, but without saying too much...I think it's quite the opposite. Talk to him about that. Even though it's probably not the best circumstances I think he enjoys being with you :)

The next part, purple (damn, I need more coloured pens), is for you Jake.

You already told me that you don't like that Yu thinks you see her as a threat. I only have to say one thing, if it still is like that, talk to her about it. Earlier than later.

The new thoughts about the blood ritual are really interesting. But please don't put yourself in this danger (or not, but I think it's understandable what I mean?) if it isn't necessary. But I also agree with Rai, I thought the same thing for a while. That you desired having someone, Jake, with you. It sounds plausible.

What more was there...Wait, let me reread the letters.

Oh yeah, Rai! One, till now my crow crew seems to still be in stasis (Jake realised that now, too) and two..Please try to take care of your health, yeah? I'm worried for you.

Lis🐾🔥

Ps. Damn...I'm writing this exactly when I wanted to leave the house (I mean, I sadly cannot hide my face forever).

Two new things...I got a message. I mean, it was a threat (because I am the obviously the bad girl that kidnapped Hannah), but I don't care. Maybe that means the stasis is slowly dissolving!

But number 2...I didn't get the vacation. My boss called me almost immediatly. "Under no circumstances [a word is blacked out] Liska. We have July and Alice, Tim and Jenny all want to take free time, too. You are one of our best workers and we can't afford you leaving now. You have no children so you have to wait. Also Max told me that you don't have any problems in family."

So long story short: He wants me to be there tomorrow. Argh, if he would pay me like he's talking that would awesome. And I'll kill Max when I see him next time. (My cousin that thought it was fun to try and steal my work so we both got the rank of 'one of the best workers'. The only problem: Max' title is official. -.- Overall, I'm so much more annoyed than some time earlier. Maybe I should ask Jake for help

Lis,

Okay, the Crow Crew drama is fading a bit, so I'll answer this now. Sorry if I seem disjointed at all, I'm probably going to be going back and forth from conversations to this letter a lot. I can't afford to have them all think I'm compromised, I need to focus on getting out of here and I don't want to deal with their pressure on top of everything else.

Yeah, I don't think the Tumblr profile was Goldie either. Goldie seems to try to be very much a "hands off" sort of entity, like my own. The Tumblr profile thing seems a little out of character for at least my Jake. At least, publicly answering your submission certainly was, though he may have panicked since you sent it in on anon and answered publicly without really thinking about it. I guess I could see him having a Tumblr profile for purposes of following people on social media and watching what they post, though. And then deciding he likes the media and posting a little bit of impersonal things that can't lead back to him. Probably my Jake will say something about that when I hand this letter over to him, stay tuned.

Yeah, I at least read some of the things you sent that profile, and I showed what I had to my Jake too. I'm not sure if I read all of it, since it was a bunch of printed-out screenshots in an envelope, but I read the ask where you told him you hated him (fair at that point but ouch that's got to have hurt) up to when you said you'd found Hannah. After that you sent me your letter telling me time had turned back and the Tumblr screenshots ended.

I'm glad you and Jake managed to talk things out. I was sort of worried about how he'd react, but it sounds like he took it pretty well, considering. I'm... not exactly sure he should be apologizing for the stasis, though. Or the TSB!Jake. Maybe especially not the TSB!Jake. Jakes seem to be oddly different from timeline to timeline, just based on what I've seen of them. TSB has been one of the most different so far.

Oh. One thing I should mention that you might not have seen from the profile: The MWAF used your phone to mock the TSB account, and mentioned that TSB wasn't the only person who could hack, and the MWAF blocked TSB from finding your location. Might want to warn your Jake about that.

A vacation sounds like a good idea :/ It's really hard to go back to normal life right after tragedies or trauma. It feels like the world keeps moving on and you're still stuck in place, and you just want to scream at them that they need to slow down, can't they see that the world is

Good. I'm glad you don't feel alone. It's easier to deal with this stuff when you're with someone else, even if it's not physically.

(Jake, my Jake I mean, if you're reading over my parts of these letters skip to the ||| now please.) I'm not saying he doesn't also enjoy my company. I can tell he does. That doesn't make me not a threat. Like how early on I suspected Thomas, but still thought he was a nice guy and enjoyed talking to him. (Obviously I don't suspect him any more XD ) Still, if you think I should talk with him about it, I'll try to find a tactful way to bring it up.

Yes, because obviously tact is my greatest strength. Sigh.

Like I said to Rai, the underlying desire thing is definitely possible. That'd either mean I'm more obvious about how I feel for Jake than I think I am (very possible, I'm not great at hiding how I feel in person) or the entity has some level of telepathy/mind reading. The reason is that chessboard. Since Jake likes chess, it's clear at least to me the entity expected him to come here at some point. I THINK, if the underlying desire thing is true, I can manipulate myself into wanting specific things by doing things like writing it over and over and repeating it out loud when doing the ritual, but I'm not sure.

|||

It's probably good that your Crow Crew is in stasis, like how it's objectively probably good my outside life is going on without me. Less drama, less pressure.

Huh. The harassment is definitely a promising sign. Maybe you should try contacting Darkness again, same way as I suggested near the beginning? That feels so long ago, but it really can't have been much more than a week, can it?

You... didn't get the vacation. Fucking hell. Is there ANY way you can convince your boss? You really should have time off. Maybe your Jake can help you come up with ideas.

Or at least maybe he can come up with a way to have your boss give you a bonus for your trouble -_-

Oh shit Cleo's interrogating me I'm gonna hand this to Jake now

(The handwriting changes to Jake's.) Hello, Lis.

I agree with Yuvon: "TSB" acts markedly different from myself. There would be no benefit from me promising to be there to find you in the moment, and indeed I would have been falling for a very transparent trap. Even in my possible state of panic, I cannot see myself being there physically, much less revealing myself physically to authorities in the process, unless I was playing the role of bait in a counter-trap. While it is plausible that this was TSB's plan, TSB gave no indication that Yuvon or I could tell that this was the case. Of course, I would have done my best to be there physically in the aftermath of the kidnapping, but not in the moment.

I also agree that the Tumblr profile seems to be out of character for both myself and for "Goldie", though I hesitate to judge TSB's actions by what I myself would do. I seem to vary in surprising ways across universes and even from timeline to timeline, based solely on your current Jake's reactions thus far. I do actually own a Tumblr profile for the exclusive purpose of following social medias I wish to track, but I used a random username generator website for the username and not my own name, and I certainly never posted anything.

The news about the MWAF being able to hack is new to me; I must have missed that the first time I read through the screenshots. That is quite troubling. I suppose I will need to be more careful in future.

I am sincerely sorry your request for a vacation was rejected. I do not know how much you intend to separate your personal life and the Duskwood case, but if your stasis is truly wavering, you may be able to reveal some measure of the danger you are in to convince him to let you flee the area for a small while. Especially since you mentioned in your Tumblr post that you saw a raven note in your wor

Oh.

You need to leave that place. Now. Do not inform your employer of the danger you are in, reveal nothing to him or to anyone, take unpaid time off if you need to. Get your cousin and anyone else you care overly much about out of there too. Invalidate any information you can your employer or coworkers knows about you. Do not tell the truth to anyone, even your cousin. Make up any excuses you need to, ask your Jake for help with ideas if you need to. You may also wish to check that the coworkers your boss listed who are going on vacation are ACTUALLY going on vacation.

This is a priority, Liska. You need to tell your Jake all of this too, especially the part with the note in your workplace. You need to get out of there.

Good luck.

—Jake & Yuvon

(The letter tucks itself into the paper clip with the others.)

#duskwood letter game #yuvon writes letters #duskwood #duskwood game #duskwood everbyte #duskwood jake #lis

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scripttorture · 4 years

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Hi my story includes a time loop. It is the victim's wedding and her husband murdered in front of everyone that can't be stopped. In the middle, a couple of strangers get stuck in the loop with her. When would mental breakdowns occur? After breaking the loop with the husband alive they face the villian who created the loop (not the was murderer). Is that fine immediately with their mental state or should I give them some healing time afterwards

Anon, I…. have no idea what you’re describing here. So I apologise if this answer doesn’t fit what you’re trying to ask.

I think the question is about witnessing violence and whether/how this leads to trauma symptoms.

But I’m not sure what you mean by ‘mental breakdowns’ in this story. I’m not sure what you think a breakdown looks like. And I worry that what you’re aiming for is the old trope about torture turning people into passive objects.

People can have severe mental health problems and still do a lot of things effectively.

A lot of torture survivors work, support families and are active members of their communities. They produce art. They teach. They raise children. They engage in politics. And none of this makes them less mentally ill.

Witnessing violence can lead to trauma and lasting mental health problems. This is more likely to happen if the character is exposed to violence repeatedly.

I’m not a psychologist or a neurologist, so my understanding of the hows and whys is pretty shallow. The impression I get from what I’ve read is that we don’t really have a clear understanding of why trauma occurs. We don’t know why two people can witness the same incident and one might be traumatised while the other is not.

We also don’t know why there’s so much diversity in the symptoms survivors experience. We know the possible symptoms, but survivors don’t generally experience every possible symptom.

Some symptoms do seem to be less likely in people who witness violence versus people who directly experience it. PTSD and chronic pain in particular appear to be more likely if the traumatised person was physically hurt. However both are still possible in witnesses.

As for when people begin to be effected; as far as I can tell we just don’t know.

We know there’s significant individual variation. We also know that past exposure to violence makes people more vulnerable.

But I don’t think there is a thorough study on exposure to violence that tracks the likelihood of trauma or mental illness.

I think a study like that would be incredibly useful. I also have ideas about how it could be done (mostly tracking soldiers, firefighters and police officers in different countries over time).

We don’t know the LD50. There isn’t an established baseline. And when we don’t know what a ‘safe’ exposure level to something is then we can’t say for sure when the harm starts.

Personally I think you’ve got a lot of potential to decide how bad you want this to be. Do you want these characters to have severe mental health problems?

If you do then trapping them in the time loop for longer and constructing it in a way which means they always witness the murder would make lasting mental illness more likely. Because it’s more exposure to violence.

If you don’t then having the characters stuck in the loop for a shorter time and constructing it in a way that means they don’t always witness the murder would make more sense.

There’s nothing in the way you’ve described the situation to say the characters can’t choose to look away when they know the murder is coming. Or turn around and walk out.

We’re talking about a fantastical scenario. Which means that the only real reason the characters would ‘have’ to be in the worst possible scenario is the author’s decision.

You can tailor the fantasy scenario you’ve created to make the best or worst outcomes for the characters seem more or less likely.

I can’t tell you whether you should or shouldn’t have mentally ill characters in your story. That is your decision to make, not mine.

All I can do is tell you whether mental illness is a likely outcome in a particular scenario and describe what that might look like. The actual decision, whether that’s something you want to explore, isn’t mine to make.

Similarly whether a big final confrontation is right for your story and your characters isn’t my decision to make.

I think you could write characters who are severely mentally ill and are capable of going straight into a confrontation. It depends on how you’ve constructed the characters and your choice of symptoms. With the right set up and a good choice of symptoms it could work.

Conversely if you don’t want to have a big final confrontation the way you define the characters and the symptoms you pick can be used to prevent it. (For instance insomnia, panic attacks and hypervigilance in combination would make a straight up fight much more difficult, perhaps unwinnable.)

You can find a list of the common symptoms here. I’d suggest also taking a look at Scriptshrink’s blog, which you can find linked to in the common symptoms masterpost.

Consider how serious you want the consequences for the characters to be. Tailor the situation you create to those consequences.

I hope that helps. :)

Availableon Wordpress.

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#writing advice #tw murder #fantasy ask #time travel #effects of torture on witnesses #writing witnesses #mental illness

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scripttorture · 7 years

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So I have a character She's mentally pretty unstable and has lack of empathy, kills and cannibalizes (yes I can go on but I hope you get the idea) I know torture etc leaves traces. But I wonder how much it will affect somebody who basically hurts others just as much... if not worse? I'm still exploring this 'story line' so I really want to investigate properly! Also I wonder how she would look at her abuser. In my head she ignores it all but still fears him and has a grudge yet can't lose him?

Add on: The torture is more lab experiment based. She's 'immortal' and somebody who is just like her had captured her and put her in a lab. He's a sadist but he used the excuse of lab experiments and science. The guy is just like her. They both can't kill each other and they will meet again. But this story line is pretty fresh. I like the lab experiments but I want to know the effects before I continue this. I will probably change a lot about this tho. I need to see if it's necessary and such.

Hmmmm OKwell it sounds like there are several different questions here I’m going to tryand address them all as best I can.

The firstquestion seems to be about whether being tortured would have a serious effecton someone who is also a torturer.

Thesecond is about how she’d relate to the person who tortured her.

I’d alsolike to address your scenario though.

You saidyou like the idea of lab experiments. They play pretty heavily into a veryunrealistic trope about torture.

Tortureisn’t and by its nature can not be scientific.

Scienceis a method. It’s the idea that we can understand the world better throughobservation and repeated experiment. It requires a degree of control, both overwhat you do and the environment you do it in. It needs to be reproducible.

Tortureby its very nature isn’t any of thosethings.

Torturersaren’t controlled (though they often claim to be their behaviour does notsupport the claim). Torturers rarely bother to exert control over theenvironment they torture in. And the variance between individuals, bothphysically and mentally, means that reproducibility is impossible.

If youwant any kind of realism you’ve got two options with your scenario. You ditchthe torture or you ditch the science.

The firstoption doesn’t mean she isn’t being hurt. What it means is that any hurt is secondary to scientific results. That isunethical and non-consensual experimentation. You can find examples of howthat’s happened historically by looking up Japan’s Unit 731 from World War 2and by looking up the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment in the US.

I’d alsorecommend ‘The Immortal Life of HenriettaLacks’ as a good summary of unethical experiments performed on blackpeople, mentally ill people and prisoners in the US. (I found it a veryinteresting and easy-to-read book which goes out of its way to explainscientific concepts in a straight forward way.)

Thesecond option means ditching the scientific trappings and being honest aboutwhat this is: torture pure and simple.

Theimpression I’m getting from your summary is that the second option would be abetter fit. It’s less complicated which means that you have more space toconcentrate on the two characters and their relationship with each other, whichseems to be what you’re most interested in.

I’dsuggest motivation more along the lines of what Rejali calls ‘CivicDiscipline’, where people are tortured as ‘punishment’ not necessarily becauseof anything they’ve done but because the torturer sees them as less human than themselves. A real worldexample would be police officers beating up homeless people for being in aresidential part of town.

Oh and-random tangent- did you know the Russian language distinguishes between twotypes of cannibalism? Eating someone who is already dead and killing someone toeat them. (This came up in reading for the planned Starvation masterpost)

Back tothe questions.

Thepsychological effects of being tortured will not be reduced by your characteralso being a torturer. The information we have on torturers and the way tortureaffects them is all anecdotal at this point. But it shows a very clear pattern: torture damages torturers. Thepsychological effects are actually roughlythe same as the psychological effects of being tortured. The effects areweaker for the torturer than they are for the torture victim.

I don’thave any data on someone who was both.

However I would be very surprised if the symptoms weren’texacerbated- That being tortured would make the symptoms she’d already havefrom being a torturer much much worse (and vice versa).

You sayshe has a lack of empathy- that won’t protect her from symptoms.

Have alook at my Masterpost on the common effects of torture and think about whatsort of symptoms work for the character and your story. I think for what you’vedescribed having violent tendencies and uncontrollable anger might work, sowould dissociative symptoms.

Torturingand continuing to torture essentially means that she won’t be recovering fromthose symptoms. They’ll be getting worse, slowly over time.

Thesecond question, how she’d relate to her torturer, is a little trickier for me.

Youshould consider looking atScriptTraumaSurvivor’s blog, they’ve had a lot ofcontact with abuse survivors and they’d be able to give you some perspective onwhat that relationship looks like from the inside.

I don’thave that kind of first hand experience, what I know all comes from books, andI think that’s an important distinction when we’re dealing with a topic astricky as this one.

From whatI understand there are as many ways for a victim to relate to a torturer asthere are responses to trauma.

All ofthese are possible- She could panic every time she sees him or hears him speak.She could be absolutely furious with him and try to hurt him every time shesees him. She could shut down around him, dissociate and feel like she’s notreally there or like she’s reading from a movie script rather than actuallytalking to him. She might think that she somehow ‘deserved’ what he did to her,effectively blaming herself for being tortured.

I’m notsaying that you should go with one of those responses, just trying toillustrate that there’s a really range of options, all of which are realistic.What sort of thing you should pick depends on what works for your charactersand your story.

There are a few things you should probablyavoid, such as having her easily forgive him or making their interactions easy-It’s not going to be easy. Whatever happens and even if a lot of time haspassed you’re going to have some very strong emotions (and symptoms) croppingup every time they come into contact. But ultimately what that looks like foryour character is up to you.

And you don’t need to apologise to me if your characters are awful people. I’ll probably have read worse. I want to help all of you write awful people well.

I hope this helps. :)

Disclaimer

#tw torture #tw abusive relationships #tropes about torture #torture is not scientific #Unit 731 #Henreitta Lacks #Rejali #torturers #behaviour of torturers #effect of torture on torturers #responses to torture #purple-cat-moustache-lover

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