Permissions Post - Legion

[walkingballpit]

Robbie has engaged and arguably still engages in self harm. He will not do so in front of another character, and I will not be presenting opportunities for your character to be suspicious of it (ie, he will not have fresh marks visible on his body during a thread), unless previously discussed at your request. However, topics discussed by characters in RP are wildly varied, and it may be something that would appear in his thoughts as an IC reaction to whatever is being discussed. I've played him before, and I don't think it's come up more than twice.

If you are okay with it being mentioned or do not want it to come up in his headspace for any reason, please let me know specifically here. Should I not here from you, I will assume the answer is "do not want" and default to keeping it far away.

Robbie has enough character depth that I can navigate his tags without it ever coming up, and I would like to be able to play with everyone. That said, if you are so uncomfortable with the character that you would like to have him not interact with yours, please let me know. I will accommodate all requests without grudge, and I hope that should I get a second character, we will merrily RP together.

Finally, if you think your character SHOULD become aware of it, we should discuss that.

Comments

[iamresponding]

So, I kinda figure that Rich is in a position where I don't know if he necessarily should find out Robbie's still doing it, but he at least has some awareness that Robbie was self-harming? Looking back at the Nova comic where Robbie showed up as Penance and took off his helmet, he had some really obvious puncture wounds and scratches on his face and I think part of what was so traumatizing to Rich was realizing something was hurting Robbie that way or that Robbie was hurting himself.

So I think that while Rich will want to accept the surface view that Robbie seems better, he's still going to be on the lookout for any signs Robbie's either faking he's okay or backsliding from being okay to being not-okay. Whether he ever sees something is up to you! But I figured I'd let you know he'd definitely be keeping an eye out for anything that looks off, and that he at least solidly believes that Robbie self-harmed while he was Penance, even if he's not sure if he's still doing it. (Whether you think Robbie would've outright admitted it openly before Rich died, or admitted it to Vance who told Rich, is also entirely up to you).

Also, if you ever wanted to play with anything to do with Robbie's self-harm like maybe his friends trying to help him get help, I'm 100% open to it. For the most part, I don't find it triggery. My only request would be that if you ever go in depth on writing about suicidal ideation (which I know is a thing from some of his appearances like the time he just kind of resigned himself to being lynched) to give me a heads up a thread is going there before it does. I'm fine with playing with it but I'd just need it to not be a surprise.

[walkingballpit]

Yeah, I'd say it's pretty evident to anyone who realized it was Robbie in that suit - who maybe knew the code name was Penance? - could make a pretty solid guess what was going on there.

I think for now we'll go with no immediate notice about the self injury, since he's so new, but we can definitely keep it on the back burner as an always potential thing. It's not hard to notice evidence of Robbie being different though. I think the main crack is that Robbie doesn't flirt anymore. He flirted more, albeit badly, at 15.

This depends on Vance's pull point and player, in a way, though.

Because Vance found out in Avengers Academy that Robbie was hurting himself, and I don't personally believe Vance ever believed Robbie's explanation that it was only for the power now or his promise to stop, as Vance dropped everything to abandon his teaching post when Robbie did shortly after that. The two of them went off on Road Trip Adventures. I'm not sure if the miniseries was before or after Vance found out.

The ideation really has only turned up a few times, mostly when he's faced with death. I don't see that being hard to keep out. If he was having those thoughts frequently, he'd win an Oscar for the acting required to seem as normal as he does.

I really would like to play out him getting help, but I'm always worried that anyone playing his friends wouldn't want to deal with the mess it would make.

whoops ignore that wrong account

[iamresponding]

Yeah, we'll have to talk to Shard about what Vance would've said or not. And if Vance hasn't said anything yet, if he'd bring it up now that Robbie's there.

And honestly, I am seriously okay with playing stuff out along those lines. I actually kind of enjoy stories like that? They can go some dark, messy places but end up kind of hopeful in the character trying to get better. Like provided his CR is okay with it, I plan on playing around with some of Rich's issues myself. I'm basically having it so that him finally being forced to to slow down a bit and stop saving whole civilizations by himself means he can't keep outrunning his traumas from the war and the Phalanx and the Cancerverse and dying -- and basically everything.

So I'm pretty comfortable with things dipping into dark areas, especially if the outcomes are ultimately friends supporting each other or what have you. You'd have to double-check with Shard but I've played with her for ages and she's usually fine with that kind of stuff, too. So if you want to play around with it, I'm game and she might be too. The Legion conveniently has a psychiatrist on-duty that has experience with superhero extremes ala Doc Samson, so it's not a bad place for a character to deal with some heavy stuff.

[walkingballpit]

Rich really does need to slow down and stop being so willing to burn himself out for the sake of everyone else. Maybe he'll figure it out in the upcoming volume.

I am 100% okay with helping you play around with some of Rich's problems, by the way. As rough as Robbie's had it, he's so much better when he's helping someone else. It pulls him out of his own headspace, which has just been circling the same issues forever. He doesn't even know the details of most of what happened, but Robbie will argue that Rich deserves a little happy.

As to the psychiatrist, that is the one thing that Robbie would probably argue against, unless he was actually caught by another Warrior doing things. Doc was great, but pushed him very hard in that session. Only to have Robbie wind up back in the "care" of Moonstone and then Trauma... no, Robbie's not going to seek out mental health professionals. He'll have to be drug kicking and screaming or else shamed into it, because I just don't see him having a great image of the field after the last two. Even Doc used a very unorthodox approach with Robbie.

[iamresponding]

EXACTLY, that's the general plan with Rich. He really needs to stop the overly self-sacrificial stuff. Rich really does have that sad tendency to treat other people's lives as inherently more valuable than his. And he also got way too used to having to save the day alone or having things primarily rely on him. He needs to relearn how to rely on others. And I'd love to have Robbie involved. I think it'd be good for Rich to rely on his friends again, and good for his friends to get a chance to actually help him.

And I'd have to double-check with Shard for her take on Vance, but I don't think Rich would try to force Robbie into therapy or shame him, but he might eventually try to gradually nuuuudge him towards therapy, and whether it succeeds or not in the end is up to you. Dr. Ry'kerr is actually pretty competent and not weirdly extreme like a lot of fictional therapists are. In the comics, when Brainiac 5 nearly got killed by his long-lost mother and had trouble processing his emotions she BUM BUM BUM... had him keep a journal about his feelings. Which was basically exactly what he needed.

Rich would only nudge so much, though. I think he'd recognize that Robbie getting therapy for his issues actually touches ON his issues since he was mistreated so much by mental health professionals.

[walkingballpit]

Well, it's not like Robbie doesn't do that too nowadays. So maybe they start an unofficial club, for people who need to start placing some value on their own lives. You know - without actually saying that that's what it is.

Rich will get teamwork whether he likes it or not, because Robbie isn't letting him out of his sight during a crisis, and now he has a flight ring so that is SO much easier than when he had to bounce after everyone.

Hm - that's tempting. I'll try to figure out a way to make it work eventually. I don't know if journalling work, right now I'm just laughing because when I apped I was like "Yeah, he's going to hide everything" but I never REALLY sat and thought about what Ded Frand would do to him. Now it's like gdit, Robbie, stop crying and pull yourself back together. It's one out of over 600.

[leverageintceo]

I'm cool with it coming up with both Parker and Tadashi. I don't know that either of them SHOULD become aware of it, but Tadashi did invent a healthcare companion robot, so it might come up?

[walkingballpit]

Thanks for letting me know! I really appreciate it.

I don't think it will come up, but you never know. Maybe Tadashi rebuilds his buddy and then it does a body scan and finds all the scar tissue. IDEK, that's a stretch. But it helps to know in advance rather than interrupting a thread to check on comfort levels.