54. What’s their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

Antanasia/"Tansy" - As a secret necromancer keeping the king alive since they were both young children, Tansy got comfortable with asserting herself early. This was not entirely intentional (the previous king and the High Priestess of Ysa-Munda the goddess of death would have perhaps preferred her more malleable), but when you take a child, tell them they have special powers and the entire fate of the kingdom and possibly the continent rests of their shoulders... Well, in Tansy's case you get someone who learns the meaning of "immovable object" real fast.

King Damian is not exactly happy with the resurrection carousel that is his (un)life, so Tansy often goes toe-to-toe with the king himself to ensure he gets the care he needs (in her opinion... it's highly debatable whether what she's doing is ethical in the slightest). So in most verbal confrontations, Tansy goes cold and stern and tries to assert herself with logic. She does know when to fold 'em, but usually that means just abandoning the head-on approach and finding a more sly solution.

In a physical confrontation, she would probably be more inclined to flee. Tansy is very tall but thin as a reed and has little to no muscle; she'd go down fast and easy in a fight and she knows it.

Lucia - By the time the story opens, a combination of freeze and fawn. Lucia is intentionally coded as autistic in Unquiet Bones, although it's not explicitly called out in the text, and is based off my own experienced as a neurodivergent individual in an academic setting.

Lucia has a defining childhood experience where she was physically and emotionally bullied to the point of exploding (metaphorically and... kind of literally). The backlash she got for reacting as she did, even when it was to protect herself, was so harsh -- from family, friends, and authority figures -- that she became terrified of ever losing control to that extent again. This means that she has trained herself out of a fight reflex, but at the cost of being so afraid of conflict that she either fawns and tries to resolve the situation ASAP, even when she is the wronged party, or just shuts down altogether and waits for the storm to pass.

Damian - Damian vacillates between fight and freeze. As a king, he's simultaneously aware he holds ultimate power and he has a very specific set of behaviours he's supposed to follow for the good of the kingdom. As someone with what is essentially a deteriorating chronic illness, he's also become normalised to docilely allowing people to do things to him that he doesn't want because it's "for his own good".

So his preference is to roar and fight and defend his boundaries as well as he can, but it's also a question of whether he a) has the physical and mental energy to do so, b) is in a situation where he won't damage his own reputation or undermine the strength of his position by setting a boundary, and c) believes that the person/people he's arguing with will even listen to him, or just disregard what he's saying and physically overpower him.

Sometimes it's easier to just let whatever is happening, happen, and pick up the pieces afterwards.

(And that's not even going into the bodily autonomy horror of being a deeply closeted gay man who is married to a woman and expected to get an heir as soon as possible -- in fact, that's the main reason you're being kept alive, so your bloodline doesn't die out with you.)

He also fights (verbally) much more often with people he trusts, at least subconsiously, not to leave him. His wife from a political marriage gets cool, polite interactions. Tansy and Beladon, both of whom he's known intimately since he was a young child, get the brunt of the yelling and harsh words.

Varnius - Varnius was actually the hardest to answer this for! Partly because he's the least developed so far, I think.

Varnius joined the priesthood of Ysa-Munda, Goddess of Death, when he was thirteen. At the time, the Mother Superior of the priesthood took the word of Mother Death very literally, especially concerning that Her devoted worshippers were considered dead to the world when they took their vows. Varnius experienced very harsh conditions in the priesthood during his initiation and throughout his teenage years, leaving him with a profound lack of self-worth, and a conviction that his only reason for existing was to help others.

This means he avoided conflict as much as possible during his younger years. Questions were punished. Failure was punished. Crying because you were tired and cold and hungry and wanted to rest was punished. So he learned not to complain. He learned not to question the will of Ysa-Munda. He learned that he was as good as dead, a vessel who existed only to tend to the dead.

Then one day he met a priest of Xenith, the God of Life. Emil was warm; he was kind; he was patient; and, little by little, he put the shattered pieces of Varnius's psyche back together until he felt like a person again.

The upshot of this was that Varnius started questioning the priesthood again. Started considering if he could maybe one day find a way to leave. Then Emil died, and the resulting mental breakdown of grief that was then swiftly suppressed to fester turned Varnius into a man who looks far, far more mentally stable than he actually is.

Nowadays he still hates conflict and avoids it as much as possible, but he will stand his ground when it's for the benefit of others, especially those under his care at the convalescent home he founded, and where he defends his patients' rights to decide when, how, and if they end their lives.

Beladon - Beladon has been raised to be a chevalier parfait, the epitome of a chivalrous knight. He serves King Damian as a counsellor and close friend, pays the expected level of chivalric adoration to Queen Saveria, excels at the joust, writes heartfelt poetry... etc., etc.

Beladon keeps himself on a very short leash. Self-control is his primary virtue. He identifies the correct way to act in every situation and does not allow himself to deviate from that. His inclination is to fight, and he will throw down with anyone who insults his king and queen, but even that is done very correctly: a verbal warning, a threat of repercussions, and finally a formal challenge to a duel (to someone of his own class), or removing them from his presence (to someone of a lower class who does not merit a duel).

Interpersonally, however, Beladon fawns and fawns hard. He has been Damian's best friend and confidant since they were ten years old, and knows more about Damian than anyone else. He has been in love with Damian for a not inconsiderable number of the years they've known each other, and he cannot bear for Damian to think badly of him. So if he ever senses he's annoyed Damian, he immediately backtracks on whatever he has done or said, trying to please him.