#i love psychoanalyzing horror antagonists

[ghostinthegallery]

Time to overthink the Silent King!

Aw yeah, @angoryt got their request in first, so sure. Szarekh—second coolest necron centerpiece model—is up to be psychoanalyzed by me, a rando on the internet.

Szarekh is interesting for a lot of reasons, and a lot of that stems from how mysterious he is. He's relatively new to the game as it were and he has basically no story appearances because GW hates xenos and also me. Still we have some things to go on...

So what do we know? He was the one that made the deal with the Deceiver (who tbf was not called the Deceiver at the time) to turn the necrontyr into the necrons we know and love today. He had full control of everything single necron via command protocols, but he surrendered that power after the War in Heaven. He ordered the Great Sleep. He entered a self imposed exile and now has returned because he saw something out in the universe that he deemed a great enough threat to return (it's the Tyranids put a pin in that).

He may or may not have met Sanguinias. He may or may not have a plan to reverse biotransference. He has a thing for pylons. That's about all we get.

I see a character here that tried to be a good king. In many ways he was, but he failed in the most catastrophic way. Every single action he's taken has been an attempt to protect his empire and his people and all of them backfired. Biotransference was... biotransference. The Great Sleep caused so many dynasties to be lost to planetary death, scavengers, and madness. And the galaxy they are waking up to is arguably even worse than the one they hibernated to escape. Even Szarekh's attempt to atone for his mistakes by exiling himself left a power vacuum that the triarchy couldn't fully fill. The necrons are completely fractured, their empire is significantly weaker as a result, and it's partially because of Szarekh's choice.

But he still isn't giving up. Despite being haunted by his failures, he's still trying to unite his people and save them from the mistakes he's made. He's trying to protect the whole galaxy from the Tyranids, even though he and the other necrons could just let them devour everything and move on. Tyranids avoid necrons and tombworlds because they have no biomass. Szarekh doesn't have to fight them, but he chooses to because he believes that if he doesn't, he can never reverse biotransference. The necrons will just die a slow death to entropy and Szarekh will have a front row seat to watch the decay of everything he loved.

He's motivated by profound guilt and desire to protect his people, but it constantly ends in tragedy. Do I think this makes him a "good" person? No, not really. He's deeply shrewd and manipulative. He used Dante's and the other Blood Angels love and grief for Sanguinias to essentially turn them into bait for his fight with some Tyranids. Szarekh survived necron court politics for millennia, he doesn't f*ck around.

Note, Szarekh didn't just show up and try to take over immediately. He built up support, a new court, he allied with everyone's favorite robot murder scientist Illuminor Szeras. The guy isn't an idiot. He made a lot of wrong choices, but those choices came from good intentions rather than incompetence.

It's infuriating GW isn't doing more with Szarekh as a character. He's a tragic king! Loved and hated by his own empire with equal intensity. He should at least have one novel where he features (if not multiple). If they want to maintain the mystery around him (which is fair) make him an antagonist for someone like Imotekh or even Dante, Lion, or Guilliman if they insist of featuring the Imperium. Do some uneasy alliances. Get the aeldar in here! Szarekh also shows just how dangerous and terrifying the tyranids are, which is great if GW wants tyranids to be the Big Bad of 10th. You want some extra horror attached to the space bugs? Just give a hint of what Szarekh saw out in the universe that terrified him enough to break a 65 million year exile.

Szarekh is a walking Shakespearean tragedy with a sick model, and I hope he gets more love in the lore.

If you like how I think about characters l, read my AO3 nonsense. Leave a comment, I live for those.

Next on the list: Anrakyr the Traveler! As requested by @fobosfear

[sciartherp]

Overanalyzing 106′s Pocket Dimension

TL,DR: The pocket dimension’s basically a 3d map of Larry’s psyche. PLEASE find this man an EMDR therapist he needs one desperately.

Sorry if this is hard to understand, I am scatterbrained.

I've always found the concept of pocket dimensions super fascinating, since they're an incredibly versatile power to give a character. The glimpses of 106's PD we see in Containment Breach seem to reflect 106's own psyche. Everything's dark and muddied, there's long and winding corridors that create a maze designed to confuse weary prey but are till arranged in a way that allows 106 to traverse them with ease. There's little traps set up everywhere to ensure anyone trapped inside is always on-guard. We can see that there are small secrets to who 106 is/was scattered throughout the pocket dimension, such as “my name is not 106″ written on the floor of his cell, and the trenches. Nobody would want their mind on display for others to gawk and prod, so obviously he’s gonna ensure anyone who falls in doesn’t ever get out. If a victim ever makes it out, they're exhausted and traumatized, much like Corporal Lawrence was after leaving that cursed trench. And even after surviving all that, 106 will still stalk those victims and eventually end them. Why go through all the trouble of stalking your prey after they left? Why even allow them to leave? Is it just for the hell of it or did they see something that 106 doesn't want anyone to see? Both? Both is good.

The severe amount of trauma Corporal Lawrence faced, combined with underlying issues and the wonderful world of early 1900's healthcare and psych wards completely broke him, he was forced into multiple situations where being weak and vulnerable meant death, or worse, exploitation, experimentation, and other horrible acts. His sense of reality has been completely warped by these events, leading him to become detached and twisted. He sees anyone weaker than him as a plaything and will torture them just as he once was. There was something in that trench that turned him into what he is now, and now he takes on the role of the hidden monster, dragging anyone he can into this twisted game and forcing them through his pain. I can imagine it’s quite therapeutic, in an awful way. To inflict all your hatred, frustration, and pain onto some unwilling subject, watch them break just as you did and use it to justify your violence. After all, how could you blame someone who’s just trying to vent out their pain in the only way they know how? It’s a classic case of the victim becoming the assailant, but with a paranatural twist. And the PD reflects all of this, revealing all his secrets to those with a keen eye. And that probably doesn’t feel good. So home boy’s definitely gonna be pissed and want anyone who pieces the puzzle together dead. Because if the Foundation learns anything else about him, they’ll get curious. And that curiosity will bring forth endless experiments, more torture his poor fragmented mind was never built to handle. He’s scared of the Foundation because they can exploit and experiment on him, just as he was back in the psych ward. It’s an unending cycle of trauma for him.

If you had to walk a mile in his shoes, you’d probably blow your brains out. But 106 can’t. He’s immortal. And that just makes him all the more dangerous. He’s a loose cannon who can only be kept in check by the Foundation, which just encourages this cycle of agony to continue.

[icangiveyouanything]

Themes and Preferences Questionnaire

what types of genres do you gravitate towards ?

Sci-fi and fantasy stuff it seems like. I don’t exactly seek out specific genres but I think that’s what you could classify most of the stuff I end up doing as. Also I like my serious stuff to be interspersed with some lighter comedy/fluff stuff rather.

what types of genres do you gravitate away from ?  

 Things that are like, overly gritty. Think like a hard-boiled detective show or also something that’s overly gorey and a complete bloodbath. Also the kind of stuff they put in horror movies these days.

what types of characters do you most often play / enjoy ?

I’ve noticed I seem to be drawn to confident characters. Ironic considering I’m not exactly confident myself. Psychoanalyze that all you want. XD And I seem to have a thing for characters that are shameless pieces of garbage and full of themselves too. Gotta love the characters that make the other characters go “Oh no, not them.”

what types of characters do you seldom play ?

I’ve noticed that if I make a character too much like myself they completely bore me. Part of the whole pleasure I get from rping is thinking how someone different than me would react to something.

I also can’t really do characters that are sad all the time. It really brings me down.

any pairing tropes you particularly enjoy ?

“I didn’t expect to fall in love with you but now I can’t stop thinking about you.” Seems to be a theme with my ships. Putting two garbage characters together that you could say “deserve each other” is a good one. Unrequited feelings can be fun as well.

any platonic tropes you particularly enjoy ?

I love it when you have a character that doesn’t really get along with people but then they find a friend they just click with and they’re all casual together.

I also like one-sided friendships where one person will say they’re friends but the other just wishes they would go away. That goes for both a Spongebob and Squidward type relationship or something a bit more sinister (read: most of Dark’s “friendships”).

Oh also villain/hero friendships where the villain puts up with them for some reason and they manage to squeeze something good out of them.

any antagonistic tropes you particularly enjoy ?

I love rivals, man. Two characters that don’t like each other at all and keep having to deal with each other. They throw insults back and forth and will both insist they’re better than the other.

Also fear relationships where one character is intimidated by/scared of the other. Bonus points if the one person just keeps messing with the for the fun of it.

Also also a really good trope is two people who hate each other being forced to cooperate for something. Like hero/villain team-ups. That’s good stuff.

what are your preferred thread types ?

I’m not sure exactly what this means by type. I usually do like, medium length threads mostly, usually ones that are pretty spontaneously started though if someone gets a good plot idea that’s always great.

what are your favourite types of interactions ?

Aside from all the stuff listed up there, interactions that expand a character’s emotional range by having them react to different things. The more opinions the characters have about each other, the better.

what’s on your wishlist ?  what sorts of threads / plots / relationships are you craving right now ?

I really need to start keep a wishlist because I always forget what was on it.

I’ve always wanted to do a Lilo and Stitch type thread where someone tries to reform a villain muse (regardless of the level of success).

Or maybe someone should just try to get Dark to loosen up and have some fun doing wholesome human activities.

Or have Dark have some fun his way and do something more sadistic. He already put Wilford in a jar, who else wants to go in a jar?

A toxic ship would be interesting either in the form of an unrequited relationship or a more manipulative one (provided I don’t break my own heart in the process XD). I’d like to do a relationship that’s like... the horror through chocolate route of A Date With Markiplier but in rp form.

AUs are good too. I need to do more stuff with my siren!au and I’ve considered a future au but never figured out the specifics of that one.

Something else, Dark faking an injury or some kind of breakdown. Just, completely pull at someone’s sympathy by acting like he’s in need but it’s 100% fake.

Tagged by: @politescoutrussell​