BronzeAgeLove in Space

Squick is a noble word. It recognizes and honors your own personal taste while recognizing and honoring that your personal taste does not dictate morality.

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My OC.. Gaius Ursidos

He's tired, man 😅

Make her shorter if you must

Make them exactly the same size and shape but different colors

Give him a huge flock of babies following him around to show off what a great lay he is

Surprise mPreganté

Exactly the same but one of them has a cool hat (you decide which)

Give her a sensible haircut for successful hunting while he has a big dumb mullet so big and dumb the food can see him coming and book it

My oldest OC Heno. He's has gone from being a kid of a criminal, struggling with alcoholism, living trough the reaper war and a massive survivors guilt to a somewhat adjusted guy that watches birds after work.

Listening to her talk about her initiation as a shaman, her experience as Maelon's test subject, everyone else around her dying... It's a lot.

And I go to see Garrus right after, and he's saying exactly what I'm thinking, that she has endured so much and she must be under a lot of pressure if she's her people's last hope.

I find it important HE is saying this considering this dialogue in the Citadel's FInancial District in ME1 in front of the krogan statue:

GARRUS: At the time this statue was built, the entire galaxy respected the krogan. Now they’re simply hated and feared. WREX: You won’t have to put up with us for much longer, turian. My people will die out soon enough, thanks to you.  GARRUS: Some would argue you brought this on yourself. It was the krogan who started the war. WREX: And the turians made sure to finish it.

So "I can hope WE can MEASURE UP" really hits and shows character growth to me. He's no longer the Garrus who said rash things in ME1 that could hurt his teammates.

And I always pick Liara and Garrus to go with Wrex and Shepard on Tuchanka because family reunion!!!! Wrex tells Liara he wouldn't want anyone else but her for the ride. For Garrus, he's very much "Oh and I suppose you can be there too."

But the entire time his face is like this:

He's happy. He knows he is valued, cared for, loved by the people who are going with him to Sur'Kesh to get Bakara. And that's worth everything to me really!

And the mutual respect between those characters allows them to TEASE each other about what was such a sore topic:

i love you all and i need you to stop writing trauma as a single breakdown scene in the rain after which the character is Healed and Ready to Love Again. that is NOT trauma :(

⊹ Trauma doesn't announce itself. it shows up as your character suddenly not being able to eat a specific food, or going very quiet in a loud room, or laughing at the wrong moment because their nervous system decided that was the appropriate response. it's mundane and weird and it makes no sense from the outside. the dramatic flashback sequence is the least realistic part. the most realistic part is your character suddenly needing to leave a grocery store for a reason they can't articulate.

⊹ The body keeps score and it keeps it in the strangest places. a particular smell. the quality of light at a certain time of day. a tone of voice that sounds like someone who hurt them. your traumatised character doesn't think "this reminds me of the bad thing." their heart rate spikes and they don't know why. they feel wrong and they can't locate the feeling. they're irritable for three days and only later, if ever, do they make the connection. write the disconnection. it's more honest.

⊹ trauma also does not make people universally sympathetic and wise. it makes some people controlling. some people funny at inappropriate times. some people very good in a crisis and completely unable to handle a normal day. some people are generously kind to strangers and absolutely terrible to people they love. trauma shapes behaviour in contradictory, inconvenient ways that don't resolve into a lesson. your traumatised character can be difficult to like. that's not a flaw in the writing. that's the WRITING.