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

[citizendetective]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? If she's very cheerful and upbeat, she's probably not being genuine, though this disingenuousness has a variety of potential causes: wanting to throw the other person off, trying to make herself look likable, and trying to present herself he way she believes other people want to see her (either for malicious reasons or benign ones) are common. When she is being genuine, she's generally more subdued and serious. She wants to be well-liked and well-respected, but doesn't like or respect very many people herself, and believes people to be largely cruel on the whole. She's an extremely angry person, though she's a little pressure cooker who keeps it bottled up until she explodes. She's slowly been working on untangling all of this, but still struggles mightily with all of it.

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? Nothing immediately jumps to mind (and I'm not familiar enough to know how his imagery works in canon), but always feel free to come up with your own stuff based on threads!

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? She's an inmate who desperately needs to keep working on everything mentioned in #1; I have no idea what Will's approach towards her would be or if he'd help her, have a neutral effect, or make her worse, but I am excited to find out! I'm always here to play things by ear.

[empathicfault]

Thank you! There's definite parts of her personality that Will is going to relate to (not respecting or liking people in general, especially), and I can see him picking up on a lot of this. Visuals aren't super necessary or anything, but yeah- I'll see if anything comes up!

Also, Will has had a look at her inmate ledger during that last flood and picked up on a few things- no boundaries, loves a good mystery, and can become violent. He sees her as possibly useful to him down the line and is sort of testing the waters at the moment. Of course, if he does open up and they talk to each other, they might actually be helpful to each other? So I'm not really sure where it'd go either, but it should be interesting to see!

[citizendetective]

I love all of this (particularly him peeking at her ledger, lmao).

[empathicfault]

He looked at everyone's ledger. Hers was just one of the more interesting. ;)