AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark -- Fun With Trauma
Hi all -- it's time to talk about my VITD trio again! Specifically, today we're discussing their Traumas! :D Now, "Trauma" in Blades In The Dark refers to a condition your scoundrel picks up when they max out their stress during the course of their adventure -- once they fill up all their stress boxes, they have some sort of mental break, can no longer participate in the rest of the current score, and develop a new specific personality quirk that will haunt them for the rest of the adventures. A character can develop four traumas before they have to be retired from life as a scoundrel (either literally retiring or being thrown into jail as a sacrifice to the Bluecoats). On the plus side, each new trauma is also a chance to earn extra XP -- if your character struggles with the side effects of a trauma during a score, you can mark a point or two of XP for it and level up your character a little bit faster. The book has eight potential traumas for scoundrels to pick up -- Cold, Haunted, Obsessed, Paranoid, Reckless, Soft, Unstable, and Vicious -- but as I've thought about my trio and where I want them to go (and what other systems in the book I'd like to use), I've come up with somewhat more bespoke traumas for them:
-->Alice: Our favorite Cutter actually starts with a trauma -- as I've mentioned before, I looked at the description for the Haunted trauma -- "You’re often lost in reverie, reliving past horrors, seeing things" (pg 14) -- and went "yeah, that pretty well covers her hallucinations of Wonderland." (It's the reason she also gets two starting abilities instead of just one -- trade-off!) As for her next potential trauma, I was initially considering Vicious -- "You seek out opportunities to hurt people, even for no good reason" -- but then decided that perhaps a slightly more logical one would be a tweaked form called Overprotective -- "You make sure everyone knows that what's yours is yours, to the point of violence." Alice is, of course, protective of Victor and Smiler even before she picks up this particular trauma, but afterward, she can get a little overenthusiastic about keeping danger away from them, simply because she doesn't want to lose the people she loves again. That house fire where her family died did a number on her head, after all! The pair probably have to rein her in sometimes to make sure she doesn't accidentally cause them more trouble trying to keep them safe. I don't have a specific scene in mind for what triggers it, but I know it would have to involve Victor and/or Smiler getting hurt and her just letting loose to protect them.
-->Victor: My initial ideas for a trauma for our lovely Whisper were Paranoid -- "You imagine danger everywhere; you can’t trust others" -- as the result of a particularly dangerous score that spooked him badly, or Obsessed -- "You’re enthralled by one thing: an activity, a person, an ideology" -- as the result of him getting a little too much into studying the dangerous magic of Duskwall...but then, while researching the Ritual special ability to figure out how to create new rituals for Victor to use, I found the sample ritual "Portal to the Depths" -- which involves singing an ancient song to open a portal up into the Void Sea, swamping anyone unlucky enough to be in front of it with its dark water filled with mysterious starlight and dragging them into the cold depths. The thing is, whenever someone uses this ritual, along with taking six stress, they must also tick a progress clock called "Seduced By The Leviathan's Song."
Cue me coming up with a scene where Victor, having filled up that progress clock, is with Alice and Smiler at The Docks (yes, this the name of a neighborhood in the city; it is self-explanatory) -- and ends up getting mind-controlled by the song of a nearby Leviathan into nearly walking off one of said docks to either drown or get devoured. Fortunately, this is after the trio have started playing with hypnosis in their private lives, and Smiler and Alice are able to stop him in his tracks by invoking their control over his mind -- but the experience leaves Victor with the custom trauma Phobia -- "You are terrified of a particular person, thing, or place and refuse to be near it." As you might imagine, Victor's terror revolves around the ocean, and he refuses to be anywhere near it if he can -- no more scores involving The Docks for this trio!
-->Smiler: Deciding on any trauma conditions for our cheerful combination Leech/Slide was a bit tricky for me at first -- not only is Smiler a naturally-cheery person who takes a lot of things that would stress out others in stride (see them very casually talking to ghosts in "Start At The Beginning...Sort Of"), they also of course end up in possession of the ability Functioning Vice, which allows them to adjust how much stress they clear when indulging their Vice and makes emptying out that track between scores a lot easier. I really wasn't sure which of the ones on offer would actually fit them --
And then. While reading through the "Changing The Game" section of the book, I stumbled across the "Forgotten Gods" section in "Advanced Abilities and Permissions." Which details what happens when your character opens their mind to a forgotten god -- including access to the ability Glorious Visage, which allows the character to hit everyone in the vicinity with an image of the god's form, costing them three stress and causing everyone around them to at least flee in fear or be paralyzed with dread. The more traumatized the character, the more harm they can do, up to killing a specific person by shattering their mind. I was like "Oooooo, wow, creepy but neat" --
And then I was like "Smiler's already been touched by their god..."
Cue the creation of the custom trauma Vessel -- "Your body is capable of hosting the will of a forgotten god -- and they know it." The way I see this working for Smiler is, the first time they overmax their stress, their god Mar-Mal sees this, is like "!!! Let me help!" and straight-up possesses their body for the rest of the score. Fortunately they do leave once the danger is passed -- helped by Victor and Alice going "It would make us VERY HAPPY if you gave us Smiler back" -- and Smiler recovers from the experience, but the door has been opened in their head, and it's not being shut anytime soon. The trauma automatically gives them access to the customized special ability Joyous Visage -- where Smiler can use Mar-Mal's power to stun people with happiness (it works a bit like the "Hysteria" power in VTMB's version of the Dementation discipline, with people getting completely incapacitated by laughter) -- but every time Smiler uses that power, a die must be rolled. On a six, they use the power safely and only take two stress; on a five through two, they use the power but Mar-Mal takes an interest in the proceedings, forcing them to take three stress; and on a one, Mar-Mal is like "time to take over again!" and possesses their body for the rest of the score. On the plus side, Mar-Mal automatically succeeds at everything they do while in control of Smiler's body (they are a fucking god, after all); on the minus side, when they leave, Smiler has to deal with Level 2 "Post-Possession Exhaustion" harm (because hosting the power of a god is no joke). Smiler has mixed feelings about this whole situation -- on the one hand, they're super excited that they can host the will of their god and not die, but on the other...they are a little scared that maybe, one day, Mar-Mal won't give their body back...
And there we have it -- three lovely traumas for my characters to suffer with! I don't know yet when they'll come into play during all the various stories I have planned, but they are there when I need them! I'm sure the trio are thrilled. XD
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What does capitalism taste like
Does it taste like white picket fences and 2.5 kids
What about a dog in the backyard and BBQs on the weekend
Knowing all your neighbors names and having the HOA on speed dial
Does it taste like the life you want to live?
Are the HOA in your contacts because they keep calling you
Or are you calling them
Does that complicated C word taste the homogeneity in your neighborhood
Where the police arrive in 2 seconds flat, with a gate and a patrol to match
Does it taste like "I'll wait here for your manager" and weekends at the golf course
Does it taste like a martini because the trophy spouse has a long day?
Does it taste like security cams and a ranch on the property with the stable boys and the guest house to the side with the cabana ones?
Does it taste like equestrianship is in your blood from birth? What about fencing?
Does it taste like ivy league vines crawling up babies spines from birth?
Does it taste like "Harvard is your dream not mine" and then rebellion
Does rebellion look like a fully funded backpack trip to Europe with your first great love
Or does it look like "I'm going to work for my parents equally rich rival company"
Or does it look like different freedom, independence, simply a different life
Where you can still ask your parents for money because you reached a happy ever after in the movie
What does capitalism taste like
Happily ever after is fake for us real folks so it must hold true for those up top right?
People in gated communities who's stepford mother's figures are earned with the local book club
Who's menopause kicks in at the same pace because we're all just clucking hens bonding together aren't we
Aren't we all just girls looking to connect with other girls in line for the bathroom?
Let's be honest, we all have some kind of mommy issue don't we? #justgirlythings
And what about the men? Is it really just an opportunity to measure up?
Is it a subtle side eye to measure manhood, even tho bro code states "thou must not make eye contact with another bro I'm the bathroom"
Doe you feel like enough when you see a guy like your ex is now dating
Do you feel reassured when you notice your manhood is better?
Why does size matter?
Why am I automatically called "a little lady" by cowboys who are raised to believe "bigger in Texas" really means better
Is this what capitalism does
Does "be a man" follow men into the bathroom like "don't be a pussy" does for women?
Why must public communal bathrooms make us decide a gender right at that moment
Can't we measure a bathroom by the content of their room?
Stalls or urinals? Privacy or not? Right this way fellow citizen
Citizen. Human. Person. Life.
What does capitalism taste like
Does it taste like legislation against the gays?
No cakes no websites no space no homos
No healthcare no rights no sports pro bono
Hare dare anyone use pronouns! Fake news!
Them libs want you to think you can be referred to anything but your name. It's the devil's work
Didnt you hear that song? Call me by your name? He was a devil in the music I daresay! The devil!!
I'd let the devil fuck me
At least he would treat me right and show me a good time
What has capitalism done
This thing we fought for so that all our founders' legacies might have a future
Future away from tyranny and taxation and being slaves to our king
We have no kind any more, no crown jewels to protect, but we act the same
Why is the one who's always on top always the winner who writes the history
The winner who's educated
from a family with money
who were taught good Christian values
with a fencing rapier in hand and
Shakespeare in their veins
Is this what capitalism does
Dilutes us to the elite
Homogeneous suburbia and "all you need is fairy tales and you can be rich too"
Political correctness and "just find a man to solve your problems"
Register to vote and "be a man or you're not good enough"
It's not just little girls who get told their not good enough
The gender non conforming community has definitely unlocked a whole cheat code on life
That and the furries who have been the scientific backbone of this country for eons
But why do my apples taste not like what an apple tree looks like in the movies?
The one in the corner of Mamma Mia on the isle in Greece
Where my problems were solved by not getting married but traveling the world as a skinny white woman with her Kenough manly man
Singing voice for character wink
Why don't my apples taste like those on the Grecian island where the stories of the locals are forgotten to the American story, the American dream
I escaped my mom and became one myself
I'm a self made woman now
With a mortgage she can't pay and life problems that were clearly solved by marrying the man who hurt her the most in life
Why doesn't my apple taste like how that apple tree looks?
Why doesn't it taste like the apple from the garden?
Why doesn't it taste like the freedom eve must have felt when she disobeyed
Why is the taste of temptation diluted in my cheap apple from the superstore in the fruit section
Does it taste like pesticide and FDA regulations
Who keeps them in check? The CDC? WHO?
The DOJ or FBI or NAFTA or the Geneva convention
Was it a Geneva suggestion or a line from the treaty of Versailles or did agent orange bring us here
How many babies were born deformed before I ate this apple
And how many nat GMO products have I consumed that my human body has endured?
What does capitalism taste like? Because I swear, remaining tribal lands must not be like this
Forgotten poor African villages eat different
Forgotten poor native south America cultures remain intact on top of mountains that the white or Spanish or French have not yet learned to monetize
And now they will never because the people on the ground know better and are stronger
And capitalism stays the same
Progress is progress no matter how small
But all this progress
Is it good for us
Good for our taste buds
They say to beware vaccines and microchips but aren't we already a cyborg because we carry a favored microchip in our hands?
The ones we avoid calls from home on and instead laugh at cat videos
We share, bare our souls online to strangers but the people in our lives could never break our pokerface
But if we were born this way
Would we ever know what capitalism tastes like
If we don't ask someone else?
Does capitalism taste like the additive sugar in a fun size bar of crunch
Does it taste like the chocolate take over energy found in the Nestle headquarters
Or does it taste like the cocaine they put into coca cola to keep people buying more
I'm not convinced that the girl scouts didn't take that idea for themselves
Does capitalism taste like the working conditions of these massive corporate overlords
Or the factories where they bottle and bag and package comfort for 1.25
Does it taste the endless metallic conveyor belts
Or the chance that peanuts were used in any of those products
Does it taste like our countries trade deal for cheap products made from other companies
Does it taste like the the sweat shops that make your favorite new shirt or those fashionable high tops
Does it take like the abused labor that built this country
Does it taste like all the ghost statues of people who should have been memorialized instead of forgettable white men from history
Does it taste like the rust they should have earned all along
Or does it taste like the pain of forgotten artists
The heart of Harlem the beasts of Boston the cheeps of the Cherokee
Does it sound like the ones who's names we forget
The neglected breaks of the Oregon trail the gentrification of the only pockets of culture in this country
The Japanese internment camps
Border patrol and the place where there was almost a wall
Are the tears of all the family members of witches still a part of Salem
What about the hurt caused by the fights for gender equality that excluded black women
Does capitalism taste like Jim Crow or strange fruit
Just because it's rotting in the back doesn't mean it's in our past
These caged birds still sing can't you hear?
I fear for my brother and my niece and my nephew daily, their lives matter too
Friends neighbors family
They're still part of your labor or did you forget what The 13th taught us
Toni Morrison, Frederick Douglas
Miles Davis, Billie Holliday
MLK and Malcom X
HER and Missy Elliott
They run in our veins
The revolution is not televised
Stonewall certainly can't be told by anyone else
Nor can we forget the power of black trans women in the creation of pride spaces
What about the flyover cities that are meant for rural living with signs screaming "no airport here"
The pain of the indigenous people who's land a mindless mall was built over
Being given back land that belonged to those born here ages past
Ancestral home can be yours with a side of steak knives
And while I'm here can I interest you in the Book of Mormon
What about their tears? Their blood their breaks their pain
Does capitalism taste like that?
The endless lost even now and memorialized in art with a red handprint to their portrait
The lack of water and resources to land promised back
Ancestral home returned but you're on your own. Unless you're ready to hear about our Lord and savior
When will we realize we aren't a savior to begin with
Is this what capitalism tastes like?
Institutions built for white people who forgot that the land isn't theirs and never was
Home of the brave where those with the most force and money can get anywhere
We're the underdogs, the land of opportunity, come on by
You just have to follow these few simple rules
So if you're not perfect or cookie cutter, don't worry we'll just sand around the edges
So you'll fit into these boxes and society can know what to do with you
But if you're too much or not enough be ready to hate the rest of your days here
Welcome to the country of goldilocks and fuck you if you're not "just right"
What does capitalism taste like for you?
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