#dont worry deadwood is just like that. its awesome it sucks.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

ohhhhhhhhhh my god oh my god ih my god. okay . enrichment for my enclosure!!!!!!!!!!! aw shit here we go again!!!!!!!!!!

first of all SCREAMING CRYING DESPAIR ETCETCETC . FUCKKKK DUDE.

BUT ALSO THIS FUCKS. OKAY. COOL. GOING TO RESPOND 2 ALL OF THEM INDIVIDUALLY

dakota: OKAY YEAH THIS IS PRETTY MUCH WHAT I WAS IMAGINING FOR HIM. yeah. god. "his trigger isn't really even the horror of finding what was left of them" << this is the worst sentence youve ever said to me. he found what was left of them. even after all that, even after his trigger after he saw the heroes and everything else. he still had 2 spend all that time being so scared of being alone so scared of never seeing his parents again. and then he finds whats left of them and has to live with the fact that maybe it wouldve been better if he didnt see them again . auauuaughhghhghghhg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also like. his first power is the pain sense right. so if he triggers some time after he gets separated from his parents.. does he fucking watch the entire fight with this new horrible power that he doesnt even understand?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!??! UGHHGHHGH DAKOTA :(

virion: this is SO FUCKING GOOOOOD BUT ALSO DOES THIS MEAN HIS MOM IS DEAD TOO. OH MY GOD. i didnt even think abt his mom. oh mrs sol im so sorry. also i love the idea that the concept of capes was just so normal to his life... that really really adds into his like. "im not from around here" energy because he wouldnt have had a normal childhood (not Bad, but definitely not normal)!! i like to think his parents/the greats didnt do the whole "oh we need to shield our precious non-powered son from the horrors of cape life" they went no !! fuck that!!! this world is dangerous and every one of his guardians is so deeply entrenched in this life he needs to know how to protect himself!! and its kind of a double edged sword of yes he knows how to protect himself when his parents arent around but also like. why does this thirteen year old know how to properly use knives and tasers and guns and things. godddd dude FUCK. also side note holy shit dude you understand him so well. the anger the feelings of being powerless the like. identity issues baked into his powerset.... man. do you think he ever thinks about the fact that his power only works when hes around other people. that technically he doesnt even have a power of his own hes just borrowing from the people around him. (points @ pd vyncent and his Whole Thing after losing the greats)

william: WILLIAM BELL SMALL TOWN HORROR WIN !!!!!!!!! WILLIAM BELL THE HORRORS OF GROWING UP IN A SMALL TOWN WHERE YOU HAVE NOBODY. AND ALSO THERE ARE DEMONS. HEY ROS??? HEY ROSWELL. WHY DIDNT HE TRIGGER UNTIL AFTER THEY FOUND HIM . WHAT DOES THAT MEAN. IM SO FUCKING DISTRAUGHT AT THAT FACT SPECIFICALLY. WHAT THE FUCK MAN. dude i have so many feelings about williams first death in pd you cant make this worse for me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at least in pd he got up and walked himself home. here. he just had to like. fucking lay there. and wonder. and not even die. how long was he there. how fucking long did he lay at the bottom of a cliff staring at the sky unable to move . god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do you think he ever thinks about that. wakes up in the middle of the night with sleep paralysis and suddenly the reason he woke up doesnt matter because oh fuck he cant move he cant move he cant breathe hes back in the woods hes back at the bottom of a cliff there are rocks in his back (its one of virions arms) why cant he move his legs (dakota is laying on them) aauuaughaghaughahh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im upset . im upset!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@stuck-in-the-ghost-zone WOE. NHW TRIGGER EVENTS BE UPON YOU.

-dakota was young-- maybe a bit older than in canon-- & out in the city with his parents when they all got caught in the collateral of an attack by some member of the slaughterhouse 9 (my impulse is siberian or one of the other messy ones) & dakota got lost and separated from them. the emotional state associated with his trigger isn't really even the horror of finding what was left of them. it was before that-- the sudden terror and panic and desperation of losing them and searching for them and not being able to find them in the crowded, violent packed rush to get away. he was up close to the fight when the heroes got there because he wouldn't leave without his parents (he's like. nine years old!! of course he won't :( ), close enough to be sprayed with hot blood, & saw firsthand the wanton violence and gore of it all & was half terrified because of it & also because he just saw her gut someone like cutting through soft butter. and he can't find his parents. that bone deep terror of oh, i'm *alone* & knowing that something dreadful is happening and you're not there and you don't even know where it is or where to be but you feel it in your gut. there isn't a thing in the world he could do to find them or help anyone. that was it. & also the other big part of it is how fucking sudden and out of nowhere it was. one minute you're having an awesome afternoon n the next minute it's a waking nightmare.

--virion saw his father betray the rest of his team in cold blood. he grew up around capes-- his parents both headed the independent team the greats, & the rest of them were always around the house n helped raise virion his whole life. he had so many cool aunts and uncles who did awesome hero work with his parents!! think new wave if it wasn't a torment nexus. he was never allowed out with them, except on patrol sometimes, but he never really had a burning desire to be a cape? he enjoyed being on the other side of it-- they all taught him how to shoot and fight hand-to-hand and resist mind shit & all of the unpowered parahuman response type shit, everything they knew so he could take care of himself. it was good. eventually he started sneaking out to watch their fights & shit, see what they do and how they do it. as much as he didn't want to be a cape, he couldn't just sit and do nothing! the last fight he snuck out to watch was the final confrontation between them and the real, dangerous warlord embedded deep into their city-- the lich. he shouldn't have come. it was so dangerous. they'd have been so mad. he saw their big confrontation and all the bluster and everything. saw his dad shrug and apologize to their family and toss down his weapons. it was a trap, of course, and the first time virion ever wished he had powers, realized how fucking useless his pistol and taser and flares were useless in this situation. he watch, helpless, as they all were quickly and brutally and unceremoniously killed, so efficient that the lich must have studied them for a very long time. or had inside information. he triggered from the bubbling cocktail of visceral betrayal and horror and wanting, above all, to have the power to do something, anything to help his family-- wishing, for the first time, that he was like them, and being frozen powerless.

--william is a bit more complicated (partly bc i want to learn more about deadwood and double check that all my assumptions r correct) but he triggered from the isolation. living somewhere that hated him, where it felt like there were threats in every tree, every aisle of the ancient grocery store, always something awful and malevolent behind him. & the social isolation too, especially. being alone and mostly friendless and wanting to get out, not sure if the awful things he's seeing are real or not, if he's just irreparably fucked in the head or he's living in hell, or what. everyone thinking he's fucking crazy. that always being the only thing he's ever known. anyway. he fell. i still have ambiguous thoughts as to the intentionality of it, as in canon. he didn't die, here, though. just-- mostly died. landed fucked up, bone poking out where it shouldn't and stuff, couldn't move. lay there for hours, knowing that no one would come, knowing that deadwood was still fucking toying with him even as he lay numb and in excruciating pain and bleeding out. anyway he triggered when they found him. <3 & yes it is extremely important that it was when they found him, not before. do u get what i mean?