It’s so important to me that you understand that all three of the Thieves’ Den trio are dealing with CPTSD (or at least childhood trauma) and they’re all presenting in different ways and it’s SUCH. AN INHERENT PART OF THEIR CHARACTERS. COME HERE
Shuriken was raised to be a Darkage warrior and likely faced a lot of pressure from his elders to be “better” than his sister. Meeting and befriending Vine Staff while still being in Darkage’s high control environment likely led to a LOT of cognitive dissonance. He’s been raised to love and trust his parents and superiors, so why do they lie to him? Why are they so controlling of him? Isn’t he good enough? Why can’t everyone get along?
Shuriken doesn’t understand he was in an abusive environment, so this mental battle will CONTINUE for him into adulthood. He’s so much happier in Crossroads, but at the same time, he’s had to leave behind friends, family, community, not to mention a lucrative future in the military. It’s likely his body and nervous system cannot handle being in such a mundane environment, as he’s SO used to pushing himself beyond his boundaries that being comfortable feels WRONG.
This cognitive dissonance is represented by his two sides, Shuriken and Silver Shadow. Shuriken pretends to be living a normal, happy, comfortable life, meanwhile continuing to overwork himself and put himself in danger as the Silver Shadow, because he truly believes that’s all he’s good for and he cannot imagine himself without this side of him.
Being trained for a military job, being a baker is fun but he can’t HANDLE that, he NEEDS to use his gear, he loves that thrill, it’s what he was made for.
Shuriken feels incomplete without Darkage, but he also feels very guilty, which is one reason why he hides his alter ego. Slingshot and Vine Staff finally have their perfect life, and he views himself as selfish for missing Darkage at all, despite being raised to view it as an important part of his identity. He was deeply hurt and abused there, but he misses it anyways, and he doesn’t quite know why.
Slingshot was very clearly stressed out in Darkage. He’s been using baking as a form of escapism since he lived there, and despite receiving military training as well, he lacked friends or family to put any real pressure on him. He was lonely. Moving away felt like freedom, like he was finally being saved. He could finally be himself.
He’s still dealing with the trauma with it, but unlike Shuriken, Slingshot has no reason to miss Darkage. He loves his new life and his bakery, and I think if he ever found out Shuriken MISSED that place, he’d be very confused or maybe even feel betrayed. Of course, they’d get over it, but I think Slingshot would have a lot of trouble understanding where Shuri is coming from.
Slingshot is extremely perfectionistic because it’s been drilled into him that he has to keep up a perfect mask. If he let slip any unhappiness or discomfort to the elders in Darkage, they’d think he was betraying his faction or letting worthless feelings get the better of him. His perfectionism when it comes to masking parts of his identity carried through into smaller things too. His baking has to be perfect, his cafe has to be perfect, or else what good is he?
Slingshot and Shuriken are parallels to each other in this way, and there’s something important about them. They both use Vine Staff as a way to process their feelings (? let me explain)
A lot of Shuriken’s guilt comes from thinking about Vine Staff. What would his sister think if she knew he was longing to go back to the place that exiled her so carelessly?! Shuriken cares very deeply for his sister, so of course these feelings would make him confused
Slingshot thinks Vine probably agrees with him about hating Darkage, and also wants to make things perfect FOR her, so SHE can be happy and heal from her trauma.
VINE STAFF would agree in ways with BOTH of them. Being isolated from a young age was horrific, terrifying, being emotionally neglected and having to care for/comfort herself. She was literally in a constant life or death situation for the first 15+ years of her life, and it HAS messed with her.
She’s weary of anyone from Darkage and probably has trust issues in general. She’s so used to isolation that she struggles to accept affection or make friends.
At the same time, she did have a REAL connection with Thieves’ Den’s wilderness, and misses feeling so connected to nature. Living in a city with so few plants and bugs and so much light pollution, let alone any plants she’d recognize from Thieves’ Den, is VERY difficult, especially since her gear is PLANT THEMED! SHE MISSES NATURE!
Hence, she both agrees with Slingshot in absolutely hating the Darkage clan, but empathizes with Shuri because she does miss her home.
AND LIKE. I FUCKING HAVEN’T SEEN ANYONE MENTION IT???? THEY LINE UP SO GOOD HOLY FUCKJJK
