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

[abyssalflames]

1. What would you like him to be able to suss out about your character? Though Lahabrea is externally calm, he's actually got a fairly decent amount of emotion going on; he just works very hard to not let it interfere with his life. At the moment that emotional balance skews most easily to anger, though intellectual curiosity is in there also.

He has almost completely cut himself off from most things related to love or infatuation, and in general tends to be very "duty before all".

2. Is there a character trait or emotion you absolutely do NOT want brought up? Yeah, so that part where he distances himself super hard from love or anything similar? That's related to a big old ball of trauma that he Will Not talk about, so unless it's come up related to something like a memory event he will shut the conversation down hard if Will mentions 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? Lahabrea is most strongly associated with chains and phoenixes, though also with fire as a whole.

4. Any plot threads or development you'd like to actually get going through this mechanic? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lahabrea is not and has not historically been good at dealing with anything at all when it comes to like. actually processing emotions related to some of the shit that has happened to him. Actually getting him to talk about it is going to be like pulling teeth, but if Will does manage it, it could definitely be useful!