#Fear and Other Related Emotions

[tamagotchikgs]

just realized i hav therapy in a week n i wonder if i should tell my therapist i sh or if she would instantly hit me with the bpd beam because im also thinking of bringing up more in depth how strongly relationships n the emotions involved (the illogical horrors created solely by me n also the good ones) affect me and . well. it . is very much like ppl i know with bpd in fact it is textbook (surface level)

[sysig]

You’re gonna die if you keep that up (Patreon)

[foxgloveinspace]

I mean this in the nicest way possible: I wish I was a better friend.

[astralleywright]

are we ever gonna get actual hishari story though. is ashton ever gonna get a chance to truly talk about it with someone other than laudna, learn about what really happened to them, get some closure? because this felt like the perfect time to explore it and all we really got was a slightly expanded version of the same lore we already had.

[dog-girl-zezora]

//

[thebluestbluewords]

More of the body swap fic I’m not writing:

(part one here)

Oh, evil. Mal's in Jay's body, Jay's in Evie's body, Evie's in Carlos's body, which means that Carlos is currently piloting Mal's body. 

"Where did you let Carlos take my body?" 

Evie winces. "Just down to your locker! We just let him pick up your spellbook, which was the right thing to do, and then, um." 

Oh no. 

"What happened." Mal manages, around the rock of dread sitting in her throat. Teachers, explosions, an adverse magical reaction with the spellbook leading to magical explosions…there’s so many things that could have gone wrong in the time she was asleep, and so few ways to fix them while she’s stuck in the wrong body. 

Evie goes to push her hair back, realizes mid-gesture that Carlos’s body doesn’t have long hair, and settles for tugging on her bangs instead. It’s the same gesture that Ben makes when he’s nervous, which is weirdly sweet to think about. It’s sort of neat that they share unconscious gestures with each other when they’re thrown out of their usual sets. 

 "He sort of ran into your boyfriend. I figure that we can’t really make things worse than they already are, what with the lying to him, and the magic, and the fact that you cooked up this plan to try and get us to double for you anyway, so we're just starting the doubling process a little bit early, that's all!"  

No. 

No no no. 

Evie leans forward. "Mal? Babe? What’s wrong?” 

Mal’s stomach drops like a stone. Weird. She usually feels dread in her chest, not her gut. Apparently emotional reactions are stored in the body, not the mind, or whatever they’ve swapped. "It's Friday night. Date night."

"It's fine!” Evie-as-Carlos says quickly, sitting back as her voice squeaks and cracks on the end of her words. Fascinating. Once they’re back in the correct bodies, Mal is going to have to take advantage of that. She didn't have nearly enough fun tormenting Jay while his voice was cracking, and Carlos is too good at hiding things from her to show such a potential weakness. But now that she knows the potential is there, there’s so much fun to be had in finding just the right ways to make him squeak. “Carlos knows how to go on a date, right?"

Oh, gods. 

The last time Mal saw either of their boys on a date, it was with each other, in their correct bodies, and the building they were last spotted in exploded under deeply suspicious circumstances the next morning. Well after they were in the clear, of course, but early enough that Mal couldn’t very well be fucked to wake up and snoop around after them. It’s possible that living in Auradon has changed them for the better, but Mal’s seen the sort of explosives that Carlos thinks are appropriate for flirting, and unless things have changed a lot more than she’s been told, they’ll be lucky if the school is still standing in an hour. 

"As me??" Mal squawks. “Really?” 

Evie considers this for all of three seconds, but it’s a very active sort of consideration. Or possibly it’s just that Evie’s used to being constantly aware of what her face is doing, and any micro-expression she makes looks big on Carlos’s face. Some of them, Mal is realizing, don’t have very many facial expressions. 

"Okay, maybe not,” Evie says slowly. “But they've been out there for… almost an hour at this point, and I haven't received any more texts about imminent danger, so it's probably fine."

“More?” Mal shrieks. It’s lower than expected. More of an enraged howl than a shriek of anger. Fascinating, says the part of her brain that isn’t occupied with the current issue at hand. She’ll have to try shouting more later, see what other stupid noises she can get out of Jay’s body before they swap back.  “More?? And what do you mean, probably? Evie, this isn’t just some random date that you can dip out on at the end of the night and never see again. This is my boyfriend, and our friend, and he knows all of us. He’s going to realize that something isn’t right, and there’s no way he’s going to let it go. He’s been asking me for weeks if I’m ‘okay’ and if I should be ‘talking to someone’ about the ‘stress in my life’, like talking to an adult has ever made somebody less stressed about things.” 

“You aren’t seeing a therapist?” 

“Not you too!” 

Evie goes for an exasperated look this time, which works surprisingly well. They should make a book, like one of the stupid emotional ones that the stupid school therapist had pulled out the one time Mal actually sat through a therapy session. Identifying Emotions on Your Friends, they could call it. It’d be useful, actually. A sort of reference guide for the next time she fucks up and switches their bodies around like the worst ever game of musical chairs. 

“M, I thought you were already going to therapy! You have a block in your calendar every week that literally says therapy, 4pm. I’m going to regret asking this, but what are you doing during that time if you’re not, y’know, going to your court-mandated therapy appointment?” 

Jay’s face is easy to set into a smile, and much harder to get into a workable sulky expression. Mal is persistent though, so she manages. “I’m throwing rocks at children.” 

Don’t tell don’t tell don’t tell, she sends psychically to Jay, just in case there’s a secret body-mind connection still at play here. Don’t tell or I’ll disembowel you. 

“She’s sneaking out to cause mayhem, obviously,” Jay says, letting a little half smile play at the corner of Evie’s mouth. He’s been putting the time they’ve been ignoring him to wicked use, and the expression is much more believable on Evie’s face than the first ones he tried. “C’mon, Eves. I leave therapy to go outside and hit shit all the time, it’s no big deal if Mal’s not going.” 

Evie’s eyes narrow, and she tries to put her hands on her hips. Unfortunately for her, Carlos’s body is about eighty pounds soaking wet, and doesn’t have much hip for her to work with. 

“Do the words court-mandated mean nothing to you?” Evie hisses, quickly crossing her arms instead in a shockingly decent recovery move. “Mal Bertha, once I’m back in my body I am going to drag you down there myself, and if you don’t cooperate I’m going to tie you up and carry you, and I’ll get Jordan to help me, so the ropes are going to be cute and glittery, and you’ll have cat hair on you the whole time.” 

“Do your worst, princess,” Mal coos. It works surprisingly well in a lower register. Performatively flirty is easy in Jay’s body, which really isn’t surprising. “I’d love for you to tie me up and have your wicked way with me.” 

[t-mblr-begone]

Hi, star trek the next generation? What the fuck!!

[yeonban]

5 PROS AND CONS OF DATING MY MUSE...

Pros

You will get everything you want no matter how hard it might be for him to get his hands on it, and regardless of whether it's something material or otherwise;

You can use him as an extrovert shield if you're not in the mood to interact with others because he will talk and get talked to in your stead for hours on end and then TL;DR the conversation to you if it was something important;

You can rest easy knowing you're safe from the moment you start dating him because he will go to insurmountable lengths to make sure nothing and no one will be able to endanger you again;

If you manage to date him it means he genuinely cares for you, which means you will never have to worry about whether his feelings are real or not because he will make a daily habit out of showering you in attention, gifts and affection to prove it;

You can convince him to do plenty of things he wouldn't normally do as long as they'll make you happy, including toning down his reckless behaviours, and likewise you can convince him to help, taunt or kill people he may not have otherwise spared a glance towards.

Cons

He is part of many dangerous underground networks as well as the Wammy network, and although you yourself can live a life separate from them which he will even support you in, he will personally never leave the networks, his criminal life nor his Wammy letter behind;

He is a murderer, and he enjoys that lifestyle. The vast majority of his kills are the irredeemable that the law can't touch, but if you're against murder regardless of its circumstances, he will not change his ways for you;

You won't be able to do several things a normal couple may be able to do thanks to his identity or background, such as taking selfies/photos of or with him, visiting any bodies of water or living free of jealous gazes from his former groupies;

He will have a hard time understanding your emotional outbursts or your arguments based on feelings rather than logic. While he can get attached to people (rare as it might be), the way his brain is wired doesn't allow him to sympathize or empathize with others' feelings, which might prove irritating since he does not feel remorse, guilt or mercy for anyone who isn't in his extremely small inner circle of trusted people;

Although he might work more on subduing those instinctive reactions, he is very used to living dangerously, recklessly or impulsively, and he may find himself in various situations where it's unclear if he will escape with his life or not, which means you will need to either be able to help him out or have a heart of steel and trust that he will escape and return to you as he has done every time prior.

[lavenoon]

Hi! ✨ GIVE YOURSELF ANOTHER COMPLI- No I'm kidding XD (But you deserve it, so know your writing is wonderful and remember to remind yourself of it now and again yeah?~)

But I come here with an actual question about AU that I thought because of the latest chapter haha! What would you say are the insecurities and other stuff that Robin would share with Sun and Moon vs what they share with Eclipse? Like what type would they rather have Eclipse listen to that they wouldn't feel that good expressing to the boys and vice versa?

(Rest assured I reread comments religiously I do remind myself through those! It's like body positivity vs body neutrality to me maybe? Hard to really look at it as more than just my way to have fun, yknow?)

I think it's less of a clear cut "this they only discuss with Sun/Moon, and this only with Eclipse" - as always, I make it complicated!

It depends a good bunch on what kind of reaction Y/N would want - like with the example from Fragile!

Y/N's fear: Sun and Moon leaving them, for whatever reason, and being alone again. Which is to say the fear of being rejected and ending up isolated.

Sun/Moon's reaction: We would never, we would move heaven and earth to stay with you, nothing will ever make us leave you, we love you!

Eclipse's reaction: Dude, yeah, I get that. It sucks. Every day there's that nagging feeling that today could be it, everything just catching up to you, and then you already know what it's like to not be alone and it just sucks even worse now that you know the alternative

Y/N needs reassurance often enough, to hear that yes, the boys want to stay with them, and will interfere even when circumstances try to separate them.

But sometimes.. Sometimes the reassurance doesn't help. Sometimes hearing "we would never!" just makes you feel worse, because now you feel silly for being scared, when anxiety isn't rational! That's when they need someone who understands, who has those fears, too, and who can tell them "you're not alone in this, and it sucks that you feel like this"

(on a similar note, Eclipse starts sending blueprints and gadgets to Y/N, because he wants them safe, too, but also because apparently being too blasé about injuries runs in the family, and he knows that Sun and Moon don't take the risk seriously enough sometimes. He knows Y/N wants them safe though, too, so he knows if he sends them the stuff, Y/N will make sure that Sun/Moon leave the house only appropriately decked out in security gadgets)

Reassurances about their job Y/N mainly seeks with Sun/ Moon, since they see them in action, and can make accurate judgements about what supervisors might think and how they did on a certain mission.

But if it's just to talk smack about fellow agents that just don't get how to have fun? (Because Sun and Moon pretend they're serious, despite their gimmicks) Someone made a stupid comment that says nothing about their actual talent and expertise? Then they go to Eclipse, because he makes it just so much funnier and shares some stories of his own (which is good for him, too, and reassures him that being eccentric is not just a him thing. Y/N plays up Sun and Moon's little theatrics, too, just for him)

Even between Sun and Moon there's differences - Sun is a lot more action oriented, and will gladly help propose contingency plans and solutions. Moon is a lot more laid-back, and an avid defender of "sleep on it" and ready to hold them for more emotional support.

Not to say that the boys only have those tactics - they adapt, of course. Some problems can't be advised away, or slept away. They just fumble a lot more out of their comfort zone, but they do try!

I feel like I left your og ask behind a long time ago oops

The thing is, it's very hard to say specifically what other anxieties Y/N might share with whom - because their reactions are always different, and there's many anxieties to have, with different needs regarding the reassurance and validation. Without a direct example it would become much too broad, and my brain won't actually let me think about more that I could break up like the one above. But! If you have any specific thoughts you're of course welcome to ask about those specifically, I'm just really bad at thinking about stuff without prompting fghdjs

[broke-on-books]

Don't know exactly how to express this in words but the Fast Car Tracy Chapman youtube comments section is a new emotion on its own

[lokh]

me: hmmmm i dont know how to write a panic attack. i think i will give myself one for the experience! =)

[lamina-tsrif]

hhrngrngr (chewing blorbo like a particularly tough piece of jerky)

[zayadriancas]

“This is all YOUR FAULT! Clare hates me because of you. You ruined my life.”

[imastoryteller]

20 Emotional Wounds in Fiction That Make Readers Root for the Character

Abandonment: Characters who have been abandoned by loved ones or caregivers can evoke sympathy from readers.

Betrayal: Being betrayed by someone close can create deep emotional wounds that make readers empathize with the character.

Loss of a Loved One: Whether through death or separation, the loss of a loved one can be a powerful emotional wound.

Rejection: Characters who experience rejection, whether in relationships or by society, can be relatable and evoke empathy.

Abuse: Physical, emotional, or psychological abuse can create complex wounds that shape a character's personality and behavior.

Neglect: Characters who have been neglected, especially in childhood, can evoke sympathy from readers.

Failure: Experiencing a significant failure or loss can create emotional wounds that make characters more relatable.

Guilt: Characters who carry guilt for past actions or decisions can be compelling and evoke empathy from readers.

Shame: Feelings of shame can create internal conflict and make characters more relatable and sympathetic.

Injustice: Characters who have experienced injustice or unfair treatment can evoke strong emotions from readers.

Trauma: Characters who have experienced traumatic events, such as war or natural disasters, can be sympathetic and relatable.

Loneliness: Characters who feel lonely or isolated can evoke empathy from readers who have experienced similar feelings.

Fear: Characters who face their fears or struggle with phobias can be relatable and evoke empathy from readers.

Self-doubt: Characters who struggle with self-doubt or low self-esteem can be relatable and evoke sympathy.

Identity Crisis: Characters who are grappling with questions of identity or struggling to find their place in the world can be sympathetic.

Addiction: Characters who struggle with addiction can be complex and evoke empathy from readers.

Betrayal of Trust: Characters who have had their trust betrayed can be sympathetic and relatable.

Unrequited Love: Characters who experience unrequited love can be sympathetic and evoke empathy from readers.

Isolation: Characters who feel isolated or disconnected from others can be relatable and evoke sympathy.

Fear of Failure: Characters who struggle with a fear of failure can be relatable and evoke empathy from readers.

[bookished]

HOW TO GIVE PERSONALITY TO A CHARACTER

Giving personality to a character is an essential part of character development in storytelling, whether you're writing a novel, screenplay, or creating a character for a role-playing game. Here are some steps and considerations to help you give personality to your character:

Understand Their Backstory:

Start by creating a detailed backstory for your character. Where were they born? What were their childhood experiences like? What significant events have shaped their life? Understanding their past can help you determine their motivations, fears, and desires.

2. Define Their Goals and Motivations:

Characters often become more interesting when they have clear goals and motivations. What does your character want? It could be something tangible like a job or a romantic relationship, or it could be an abstract desire like happiness or freedom.

3. Determine Their Strengths and Weaknesses:

No one is perfect, and characters should reflect this. Identify your character's strengths and weaknesses. This can include physical abilities, intellectual skills, and personality traits. Flaws can make characters relatable and three-dimensional.

4. Consider Their Personality Traits:

Think about your character's personality traits. Are they introverted or extroverted? Shy or outgoing? Kind or selfish? Create a list of traits that describe their character. You can use personality frameworks like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Big Five Personality Traits as a starting point.

5. Give Them Quirks and Habits:

Quirks and habits can make a character memorable. Do they have a specific way of speaking, a unique fashion style, or an unusual hobby? These details can help bring your character to life.

6. Explore Their Relationships:

Characters don't exist in isolation. Consider how your character interacts with others. What are their relationships like with family, friends, and enemies? These relationships can reveal a lot about their personality.

7. Show, Don't Tell:

Instead of explicitly telling the audience about your character's personality, show it through their actions, dialogue, and decisions. Let the reader or viewer infer their traits based on their behavior.

8. Create Internal Conflict:

Characters with internal conflicts are often more engaging. What inner struggles does your character face? These can be related to their goals, values, or past experiences.

9. Use Character Arcs:

Consider how your character will change or grow throughout the story. Character development is often about how a character evolves in response to the events and challenges they face.

10. Seek Inspiration:

Draw inspiration from real people, other fictional characters, or even historical figures. Study how people with similar traits and backgrounds behave to inform your character's actions and reactions.

11. Write Dialogue and Inner Monologues:

Writing dialogue and inner monologues from your character's perspective can help you get inside their head and understand their thought processes and emotions.

12. Consider the Setting:

The setting of your story can influence your character's personality. For example, a character who grows up in a war-torn environment may have a different personality than one raised in a peaceful, affluent society.

13. Revise and Refine:

Don't be afraid to revise and refine your character as you write and develop your story. Characters can evolve and change as the narrative unfolds.

Remember that well-developed characters are dynamic and multi-faceted. They should feel like real people with strengths, weaknesses, and complexities. As you write and develop your character, put yourself in their shoes and think about how they would react to various situations. This will help you create a compelling and believable personality for your character.