#time right after being dropped from saka because he doesn't exactly have the access to the cocktail of meds that don't make you run into

[meltlilies]

🥀🧣🍄? :)

🥀 (wilted flower) - How does your character deal with stressful situations? Is their fear response fight, flight, freeze or fawn?

So a lot of Ves' character is that he has severe anxiety from the like, mid 2060's on because of everything he experienced with his family and by extension Arasaka. He comes off so nice (read: a fucking pushover) in terms of his reputation because he can't really muster the strength to be anything else while keeping himself together. So he can't cope well because he straight up has no foundation to do so in the first place because his life is one stress after another and he's in constant flight mode. But with respect to the events of the game, it's flight but to the nth bad degree because he goes from the constant stress and overthinking and worrying to borderline numb about it all. All too accepting of whatever horrible fate or death awaits him as a result of his and his friends' failures at the hands of the Relic. He has to be dragged out of it more often than not by a third party--Johnny, his partner Mistletoe, and later on Kerry--just so he can form a response.

Oh but specifically, midway into Phantom Liberty or so, anything corp related (Arasaka especially) his response immediately becomes fight because he's had enough of them ruining his life much less other peoples'.

Post-Mikoshi he is dealing with stress by just removing himself from the situations, honestly. He has a beautiful rich husband and he's gonna take advantage of being able to just leave when shit gets bad and enjoy his company!

🧣(scarf) - What comforts your oc? Is it an item? An action? A person? Whatever it is, how any why does it comfort them?

There's two things.

Firstly is physical contact. It takes him a long time to warm up to being touched at all in any capacity but he is, by nature, a very clingy person so he jumps at the opportunity to be close to someone, even if it's just sitting with your shoulders touching while you watch a movie. But even more than that, he loves being held? Unfortunately not many people can pick him up in the state his body is currently in (being 79% metal and cyberware means you're EXTREMELY heavy and Kerry can only do so much without some muscle boosters), but he loves to lay on top of someone, even if it's just partially so he doesn't crush them. He runs a little too hot so he's just 65 inches of warm weighted blanket.

The second is actually playing music! Growing up the only thing he enjoyed were the music lessons he had with a neighbor every night, and she taught him how to play the piano and the cello. His friendship turned romance with Kerry reminded him that he used to like things once upon a time, and Kerry bought him a bass for his apartment so he could play when he was alone. He doesn't actually write any music until years down the line, but playing old songs he likes and poorly singing along helps him get into a much better headspace and actually gets him to relax enough to be meaningful. He also plays with Johnny and Kerry, sometimes, letting himself get lost in it with some company in the process.

🍄 (mushroom) - Does your character like being in nature or do they prefer the indoors? Do they have any outdoor hobbies like camping or fishing? If they prefer the indoors, why?

Outside of a couple years of living with nomads I don't think he really ever got the chance to do stuff like that. He doesn't even know how to swim when Judy takes him diving, honestly! But i think he really enjoys being outside when he can, really liking the ocean when he can ever get to a beach. He happily takes up Kerry on the offer of visiting his beach house in Florida, just sitting in the wet sand by the shore and letting the waves crash over him.

He lives chilling inside with his partners and watching a movie but he needs the change of scenery here and there, lest he go stir crazy, especially when he's not necessarily in the best of headspaces. I think one day he really would like to go on a boat and sail for a bit where it doesn't end up in an explosion, but just once. They can happily cause property damage anytime.