Will's Insight | Opt-In Post

[empathicfault]

In the series Hannibal, Will Graham is shown to have a unique ability- he calls it 'interpreting the evidence', whereas Hannibal calls it 'pure empathy'. It lets Will know what the people around him are feeling, often to Will's detriment. Will frequently appears to be overstimulated by the outside world, slumping in chairs and avoiding eye contact. He finds comfort in dogs and being alone.

However, this ability can often be extremely useful for determining motivations, desires, and fears. When he uses it at crime scenes, the series shows murders taking place as if Will were the culprit. He sees fantastical visions and metaphorical imagery as he places himself in his target's place, seeing the world as they see it.

I'd like to write out some of this imagery in narration as I roleplay, but I also don't want to infomod. So if you are interested in letting Will into knowing your character through this ability, please reply here.

What I'd like to know (feel free to copy+paste, or just write out what you'd like)--
<b>1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? </b> He works in emotions, so fears, desires, motivations, immediate wants, all that sort of thing is good. <b>2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up?</b> Will isn't magic and he's not always right with this ability. It's easy to veer off of any topic you might want to avoid. <b>3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize?</b> Sometimes he sees things that don't seem to make a whole lot of sense until later- I tend to interpret that as him integrating evidence that he hasn't logically noticed yet. <b>4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic?</b> Let me know, I'd love to plan with you! Will could be a good way to weasel info or feelings out of someone who would otherwise keep them hidden, if that's something you'd like. I'm also very happy to just see where things go.

Thanks, and please let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to know or talk over with you.

Comments

[themostfun]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Root feels everything intensely, but presents as serenely unhinged: she has weaponized her smile, so that no one can tell her to smile, and also because she's having fun most of the time. Most people find her unsettling as a result, which is her intention. Underneath everything is a current of loneliness. Even now that she and Shaw are married, Root still feels like everything is fleeting. It's not about Shaw at all, but a lifetime of being isolated one way or another has left its mark on her. There's also anger and a thirst for revenge: Samaritan and friends almost killed Shaw, definitely tortured Shaw, constantly attacked the Machine and Her agents, and outright killed Root. She's determined to make them pay.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? Nope! Have at it.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? Think philosophy and metaphysics and relativity. Wave forms, Schrödinger's cat. Dancing, ballet in particular, the strength, grace, and precision required by the art form. The coziness of a home-cooked meal. Libraries. Books. Computers and code. Guns. Dogs.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? I feel like no matter what happens, the potential for him to get her thinking she needs to make an actual effort to graduate will come to pass. Otherwise, nothing specific comes to mind.

[forensicks]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character?

Note: I reserve the right to say things that seem contradictory like "he's very indifferent" versus "he has a distinct moral empathy" because he's a character we have to observe from the outside through his actions in their context so I just say things off the top of my head to get general ideas, please be patient with me...

Also Barge!Misty is Barge!Misty, Future!Misty from Walter's own canon point is Future!Misty.

Walter is masking very heavily in multiple ways. There's standard nicey masking, affable eccentric masking kinda like this, straight up deliberate manipulation masking where he seems pitiable/etc, and confident threatening criminal masking (rare). You could say he's always writing the story of his life rather than living his life.

ALSO although he is "a freak and proud" he is honestly rather privileged in his society both in general being male, etc, and especially after his windfall of money you could call him outright spoiled. He's kinda lost all his tools for control on the barge and has to actually work, not for the first time in his life but enough that it is not fun with his asthma and other ailments, and so he's barely bottling up how this is driving him kinda crazy. To say nothing of the actual drama and bloodshed that has happened.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? So the thing about Walter and my writing style for him is that he has basically, like, three important canon memories. #1 His grandma was imprisoned for murder, #2 he almost died in an accident, and #3 he became obsessed with Misty Quigley in relation to the Adam Martin murder case. That's it. That's the whole character. He is very protective of that last piece of information (#2 is very public and #1 is slightly more private but ultimately whatever). But at the same time the dissemination of this information is essential to his character arc. So I like to use a breadcrumb technique and split plot cookies between multiple characters and multiple threads. I'm absolutely down for Will finding out a hundred percent of it gradually over time if he becomes committed to it. As well as anything else like barge shit.

However if it's easier to you to simply work from the beginning with what info is available and what's not, "Future!Misty killed Adam Martin" (ACTUALLY NOT EVEN TRUE LMAO...) is pretty much off limits as an instant discovery.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize?
Stuff I write on my own is gonna mostly focus on just a few things. My unused concept for Walter's daemon is similar to what I think would be going on (note the Sherlock Holmes references in the names). He is a spider spinning his little webs all the time. Future!Misty is Sleeping Beauty in cobwebs. Barge!Misty... This is in flux, I'll cue this based on what has happened by the time it comes up in a thread. There is a thin thread connecting him to Malcolm that he is not consciously aware of (they met as little boys in the dream and didn't introduce themselves. It's cute).

Pink/red/orange/yellow represent passion and love which are always good even though others might not agree. Blue is the color of control which can be yielded for good or bad. Purple is for drugs including the opium of the people, administering them or taking them. I could sort people into these colors but Walter isn't a guy who sees the world in black and white, or any other color category. These would be patterns within the vibes.

Walter moodboard where I'm trying to do the same thing as other people wrote but I don't actually vibe with this: Broadway in New York City with its musicals and marquees. Phantom of the Opera and Cyrano de Bergerac - the masks of that. Stage magicians with top hats. Morse code and flashlights and swiss army knives. Sailboats on the open sea. ...he likes cats but I don't think cats belong in here... Sherlock Holmes stories (he is Moriarty). Computers... he is a hacker...

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic?
Again, as above, I would be very interested in Will uncovering this information as long as there is an element of organic development. The main thing that I think would be great to have happen this way would be Misty's entry in the Warden Ledger, particularly since I'm given to understand that Will and Malcolm often share Warden-Inmate info. It's evidence. It's bait. He did need to vent his feelings a little. He doesn't think of himself this way, but he is a stalker and it's part of how he's a criminal.

[artistinexile]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Thrawn has muted emotions that he sometimes struggles to show appropriately in society. His desires and motivations are far more clear and speak to a strong desire to protect at all costs. He is prepared to sacrifice much (and has!) to safeguard his people, and is extremely fearful especially if children are threatened. He wants to do what he can to safeguard all life but certain life just a LITTLE more (ie., he will kill someone if he feels they're interfering in a greater mission). Much deeper down is a sense of loneliness and longing, like he wants to foster deeper emotional connection with others and can't stop thinking of people as tools or weapons and knows this about himself.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? N/a, but he will get tetchy if Will starts to dig in places where Thrawn doesn't want to go and will change topics.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? Plenty! Primarily Thrawn is represented in predator animals in books - the Chimara is his flagship, and the symbol he's painted on its underside. He adores symbolism and would have also had strong ties to birds of prey - ship's he's worked under or commanded in two different fleets are coincidentally the Springhawk and the Blood Crow. A symbol of a seven-pointed sun would be prevalent because it represents his family, and a section of several overlapping circles would be the symbol that represent his home planets. This last one is key to pissing him off because it also could be read as a star map to a place he's kept hidden.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? Honestly Thrawn would want to adopt Will because he knows he himself SUCKS at the emotional game and it's a major blindspot he works to correct. He also loves art and loves that Will makes art.

[hostileterritory]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character?
Anything in narration or his application is fair game, honestly. Will is going to have the profoundly weird experience of not reading any fear, guilt, or sadness in him--or, even more weirdly, read that it's there but that he doesn't feel it. Pretty much any significant emotion that we would label 'negative' has been neutered.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up?
Nope, nothing comes to mind! I'll communicate it if you land on something I didn't think of that falls in this category.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize?
Hmmm. I think it could be interesting for Will to feel the shape of the absences in him. I think if anything he would have a kind of swiss-cheese presence, like a person who's been the victim of a cosmic hole puncher. That and predator vibes.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic?
I love the prospect and will definitely let you know if I think of anything--he's going to be a tough nut to crack in terms of any kind of emotional intimacy so this would be a great potential way around that or through it.

[primedirector]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Jesse's an extremely traumatised individual, having lost her parents at age 11 due to a supernatural event and then her brother to the aftermath involving the Bureau she now controls, and has had an extremely difficult upbringing for various reasons. Apart from that she's very open about her powers and current situation and won't hesitate to tell him to fuck off if she doesn't want to talk about anything.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? Not really! We can discuss if you want to use anything particularly deep with her though. Jesse will be sympathetic towards him finding things out through his powers, but she won't be prompted by it to confess anything and it may not prevent her from getting angry about the invasive feel of it regardless of the hypocrisy.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? Polaris overlaying her, especially when Jesse is talking directly to her or using her powers, the sound of gentle white noise overlaying her thoughts or words. Sometimes her words might come out as hyperreal chatter, where multiple definitions come out for the same intended word. Only when it's brought up will Will be able to get snippets of the Hiss's self-propogating earworm chant or abrupt flashes of a pulsing pseudo-organic resonance or a bald young man making direct eye contact with Will.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? I'm immediately fascinated by him introducing himself with knowing Saga and Alan, haha, so I'm really curious how they might bounce off each other! She'd understand his near-psychic empathy really quickly, even as a primarily telekinetic psychic herself.

cw child abuse

[cigsandbeer]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Gojyo, for all his cursing, shouting, crassness former criminal lifestyle and multiple murders, is a very kind and soft-hearted person. With a load of untreated childhood trauma and abandonment issues. Also he's lowkey in love with his bff (Hakkai) but is too deep in the closet to realise that.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? No.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? RED RED RED. Gojyo's crimson hair and eyes are a sign that he's the result of a taboo relationship between human and youkai; it's (presumably) why his father and mother committed suicide; he was bullied for his hair; his stepmother makes his hair the reason for her abuse. Gojyo himself associates his hair only with blood. Red flowers (maybe daises? idk) canonically symbolise his relationship with his stepmother as well as his older brother - Gojyo loved them both; his stepmother hated him, and his brother abandoned him at a young age. Additionally, any symbolism associated with his Journey to the West counterpart is fair game.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? Seeing where things go is good! But... potential bonding opportunity over loving people who abused you? He could probably also use some help with that internalised homophobia. And, unlike Sebastian, he will happily pet Will's dogs (very important).

[mukha]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character?

Pyotr has a lot of loneliness and an intense fear of abandonment. Every emotion he feels is also dialed up VERY HIGH. and he has so! many! feelings! and he wants so many, often contradictory things! (radical transformation of society! guy he is obsessed with to be god-emperor!) It's all just so much. I'm sorry, Will.

It might also be interesting for Will to pick up on how Pyotr is a chronic liar and actor, but the "characters" he pretends to be are based off of traits he actually has or used to have. It's not entirely a false persona, but just one that has been weaponized and is tailored differently for different people. This quote sums it up:

Listen . . . when I set off to come here, I mean here in the large sense, to this town, ten days ago, I made up my mind, of course, to assume a character. It would have been best to have done without anything, to have kept one’s own character, wouldn’t it? There is no better dodge than one’s own character, because no one believes in it. I meant, I must own, to assume the part of a fool, because it is easier to be a fool than to act one’s own character; but as a fool is after all something extreme, and anything extreme excites curiosity, I ended by sticking to my own character. And what is my own character? The golden mean: neither wise nor foolish, rather stupid, and dropped from the moon, as sensible people say here, isn’t that it?

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? I can't think of anything right now, other than maybe Pyotr's intense hatred of the Barge and how much time and energy he spends toward thinking of how to crash the ship and escape it :')

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? Spiders, snakes, fire? I will have to think a little bit and maybe come back to this later.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic?

I'm happy to just see where things go for now! A big part of Pyotr's story and why he is an inmate is due to a toxic "relationship" (calling it a relationship is rather generous-). He has such strong, intense feelings for a horrible man who is both his soulmate and wants nothing to do with him. I'm always looking for ways to address it because he *really* needs to get over that guy to graduate. If the CR gets close enough, or if the subject ever comes up due to an event or something, Will can notice the... like I said... intensity of the... devotion. He genuinely wants to "help" the object of his affections, and has a lot of love to give. He is also an insane stalker.

[notthatkindoforion]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Tendi's likely to read to him as a bit of an odd duck. The herself she typically presents on the Barge - the excitable, sweet, optimistic, and caring nerd is entirely genuine, but there's other things going on under the surface that might seem to contradict it. She seems to go out of her way to present as a little bit more insecure and passive than she really is, and her willingness to let other people take the lead seems to be a deliberate choice, rather than her being naturally more of a follower. There's also an undercurrent of internal conflict - guilt, shame, and embarrassment coming to the surface at unexpected moments, sometimes mixed oddly with love and pride. She doesn't always trust herself about things that don't seem to make sense for her outward character, either.

There's also a metric fuckton of denial in there, though it might not always be clear what it's about.

And something about the way she moves is probably going to strike Will as dangerous, no matter how much her personality broadcasts otherwise.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? Nope!

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? Blades, for sure. And starship engines and various sciencey vibes, but you don't need Will's keen empathy to associate her with those. The blades and a general feel of a rough, violent environment is a little less obvious.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? Girl needs therapy. The trick is convincing her of that. She's likely to spook and clam up if Will pushes too hard too fast - she's used to people not looking very hard past her cheery demeanor and, at the moment, is comfortable with the Barge allowing her to disassociate from the baggage of her background and culture - but I'd love to see where things go as they build a relationship. She's always so focused on making sure others are taken care of and happy that she needs someone to remind her to take care of herself sometimes, too.

[skybeyondsky]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character?
Wu Xin is a pretty self confident kid for most part, but he also keeps his emotions very tightly under wraps. When he feels happy, most of the time it's real. Little things can make him happy, and unexpected kindness will give him joy. He's a pretty lonely kid, and although he's comfortable with loneliness and doesn't mind being alone (like there wouldn't be sadness from it), there's extra happiness when he's not.

However, talking about his past does make him feel a little anxious and maybe a bit of fear, especially about his parents. He's been judged most of his life because of who his parents were and what his father did, so it's not something he brings up, and if he does, it's sometimes as a challenge as if "dare you to say something about that". It might bring some anger too, and feelings of abandonment since his mother left them at age 3 and he never knew why. These are also where his biggest problems lie and things he's both mired in and trying to avoid.

Bringing up his life in the monastery would bring bittersweet feelings. He was genuinely happy there and wants to go back to that simplicity, but because his master there is recently dead, there will be that feeling of sadness and mourning if it's ever brought up. He never got to mourn the man or the loss of his peaceful life at the temple either, so that's kind of repressed and might trigger crying from him if it ever explodes.


2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? None at the moment

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? Sunshine? Warmness. Singing birds and rainbows. That can become covered by a storm cloud hiding everything away... if you're talking metaphorically.

If you're talking about physically... Wu Xin with glowing golden eyes, or dark eyes. Or him standing on a peaceful pool of water.

Sometimes he sees things that don't seem to make a whole lot of sense until later- I tend to interpret that as him integrating evidence that he hasn't logically noticed yet.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? I'm sure we'll figure out lots of plots now that they're paired. I'm also thinking it might be fun at some point if Wu Xin is feeling defensive and uses his own demonic mind draw powers on Will in order to stop him from pushing too hard (probably without Will realizing he had). Wu Xin doesn't usually use it unless with good reason, usually to get away or as a defensive measure.

[yosemitevamp]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Sam's not actually hiding anything, but he's a man who's been involved in deep, horrific violence in the past. He carries himself like a man entirely aware of his strength and his physical capacity for violence, and has both no need or desire to prove himself, and an ongoing dedication to choosing gentleness and kindness.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? Sam doesn't have anything particularly secret, but he'll get a bit defensive if his dead horse or his former life of crime was brought up unprompted.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize? The smell of blood, and bloodstained hands, even when he's perfectly clean (which is like 99% of the time). Gunpowder and a trail of smoke behind him. General western outback stereotypes, but also the silhouette of a slightly larger man haunting behind his right shoulder, and a horse following behind his left. Also bat wings, or glowing eyes (red with yellow slit pupils), and overpronounced fangs.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? Nothing in particular! He's just a weird vampire cowboy.

[modestpurpose]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character?
Hythlodaeus is, for the most part, a very stable and well-rounded individual. He's content and mostly untroubled, with a general desire to help others and look for the best in most situations. He is very much motivated by the needs of people around him and delights in bringing others to their goals before he will even really think about his own.

Pressed deeper, Will might be able to suss out some insecurities in Hythlodaeus when it comes to his importance in general terms. He often puts himself as secondary to his friends and loved ones and tends to view the wants of other people as of more immediate concern than his own.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up?

Nope, anything is good, go wild.

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize?

We've talked about the Final Days - Will can definitely pick up that from him. We're talking fire raining from the sky, imagined horrors made real killing people in the streets, and a complete lack of ability to cope with the level of fear and terror involved. There would also be a lot of nicer, better things he could pick up however. The Ancient society was (at least on the surface) very utopian, so we're talking beautiful, clean cities, gardens, and Hythlodaeus often wandering about to find his friends rather than attending to his work. If he'd also pick up on just generally spending thousands of ears floating about in a limbo space, he can see that too - that one would probably make the least amount of sense.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic?

Nothing specifically comes to mind, though Hythlodaeus would find it very interesting once he figured out what Will was doing! Empaths and people able to pick up things under the surface aren't unusual amongst his people.

[giraffic]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character?

- Most important to me, I am 100% on board with Will sussing out her immunity. Ellie is trying to keep it on the DL but I'm canon-familiar so!

- Ellie is passively suicidal and has intense survivor's guilt. While she doesn't explicitly want to die, she carries a deep guilt, pain, and anger at her immunity when she's lost so many people to the infection since her immunity was discovered. She feels like she's waiting for her turn to be the one to turn, but she keeps going to become the cure because she thinks that some part of her owes that to them for surviving what killed them.

Also, Ellie is not happy that she was brought back from death. She doesn't want to be dead, but at least if it happened, staying dead would free her from the loss and horror of life, ya know? She's tired of being the unlikely survivor at the loss of people she gives a fuck about!!

- A lot of Ellie's snark, humor, and anger hides someone very sad and afraid. She grew up as an unwanted nobody in a bleak, violent world, only to become potentially the most important person in history at the cost of the first person she considered hers. She's got abandonment issues, too.

- Ellie has the potential for a lot of darkness and violence in her, ala part 2/season 2. If that's not focused, she's very likely to spin out and spread the damage.

- Her friendship and trust with Joel is real. She's aware Joel's isn't a morally good person, and accepts this about him because he's Her Person.

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up?

No! You mentioned being canon familiar, so feel free to expand where you think would work. :)

3. Is there any visual imagery you associate with your character, and/or is there anything specifically that you'd like Will to visualize?

So there are a couple options! Ellie has a variety of imaging associated with her canonly! The most obvious is her associations with fungus due to being infected by and yet immune to Cordyceps.

However, Ellie is also associated with moths, both in terms of her being "a moth to a flame" in the future, and also because Ellie is a character who should have died and is haunted by the deaths of the people she has cared for while she continues to live.

Ellie is also visually associated with being the last hope for humanity as a light in the darkness. Sometimes by literally having her standing in the light or curled up sleeping in the detail position in a sunbeam. It's a thing.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic?

As mentioned, I'd love for Ellie to start doing sessions with Will! She has a lot of trauma going on even from just the last year alone, and no real guidance on handling it besides Joel "We Don't Talk About It" Miller.