#BROT3: Trauma Trifecta

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

❤ + chess :3

OTP: Aris loves to play chess! Her grandpa taught it to her, and they played a lot when she was young. On long days by herself, she would play both sides. It’s very difficult to beat her, but Ash is happy to play with her anyway and is determined they will win someday.

BROTP: Ione is (gently) forbidden from playing chess with Aris because she always sees Aris’ moves before she makes them (controlling telepathy is hard work!) This in turn messes with Aris’ record. She suspects that the only way to get a fair game set for Ione would be to find a psychic for her to play against. Rissa can play, she (grudgingly) took it up on Aris’ suggestion after she lost the vision in her right eye because it was a way to help her to learn to differentiate things just by feel, with the pieces having different shapes. She and Aris don’t play together because they get too competitive, but Rissa and Katri do.

#thank you for asking! #writer friends #Cora #oc asks #OC OTPs #Aris/Ash #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: Aris #OC: Ash #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #OC: Katri #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

👎 - what kind of touch is not comfortable or generally unwanted by your character? - for whoever you're feeling (ba dum tiss) at the moment

All three of my “Trauma Trifecta” girls have difficult relarionships with touch.

Aris is quite sensitive to touch and notices even faint brushes against her. She is autistic and doesn’t like being touched most of the time. She’s much more likely to reciprocate a touch to a person she knows well, especially if touch is a way they express fondness. On the rare chance she agrees to a hug, be firm! She likes deep pressure.

Most people find Rissa cold to the touch, but since she’s rather touch-averse anyway, she doesn’t mind. Never touch Rissa without a warning or without asking for permission, especially if you’re standing on her right side; she can’t see you. The only person allowed to touch her scars is Ione.

Ione finds it pleasant on a physical level to be touched, but she generally avoids it. She is telepathic, and by touching someone, the volume of their thoughts increases to uncomfortable levels. As such, it’s better to let Ione initiate touch with you, rather than the other way around, so she has time to prepare. She does not like anyone but Rissa to touch her hair.

#thank you for asking! #oc asks #dove’s useless ocs #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

@acing-dyslexia asked...For any OC: “Who’s the most important person to you?”

Aris-Most important people are Ash and Katri, but those two with J, Rissa, and Ione make the Top 5.

Rissa-Most important person is Ione 💙❤️

Rose: Loves many, many people! But her closest bond is to Azura, who calls her “the prettiest flower in her garden.”

Tavi-Her most important people are her sisters: Vera, Harima, Kesha, Zira, and Peony. Outside the family, her best friends are Danny and Beth, and her partner is J.

Katri: Her most important people are her brother Espen, her mentor/auntie Aris, and Aris’ partner Ash. But, her found family is large and everyone in it is vital to her.

#thank you for asking! #honesty hour #oc asks #oc ask games #dove’s useless ocs #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Katri #OC: Rose #OC: Tavi #OC OTPs #OTP: Border Breakers #Aris/Ash #OTP: River Lily and Violet #Rissa/Ione #OTP: Royal Air #Tavi/J #OTP: Sword and Shield #Aris/J #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

Dove Experiments With Writing Style Part 1: The Trauma Trifecta in Healing is a Funny Thing

Healing, you know, it’s strange. Put three people through the same pains, and of course they won’t come out the same as they were before, but they won’t come out with scars in the same places, either.

The scientist engineers a fix. Aris healed her wounds the same way she did everything. She tinkered. She built. She invented a better way of doing things. She ran it through Science. She built herself routines for when the shadows in the morning fog looked a little too much like ghosts, or when the green color of Tavi’s eyes shifted just so and they weren’t Tavi’s anymore, or when she had the nagging feeling of being pulled too far apart and having her insides scrutinized and examined and so very seen. At that point, she often found it was best to sit with a cup of tea, hot enough so the steam rose into the air and chased the fog off the windowpanes. At that point, she often found it was best to close her own eyes and give Tavi a strong hug, bending down to hide her face in Tavi’s neck and inhale the muted scent of crackling embers Tavi seemed to carry with her like cologne. At that point, she often found it was best to visit a friend for a while, even one born several centuries away in the confines of a TV set or computer screen.

A hammer can break stone, but so can a steady drip of water. The pace of it may not be to one’s liking, but the fact remains. Rissa’s healing was slow, gradual. It carried on day by day, setbacks springing up, but never stopping her completely. It happened in much the same way that her lacerations had turned to scars and her nerves had painstakingly knit themselves back together again. Pain can become a companion one gets used to, like a black triangle shape in your right eye. Try and charge it too fast, and the knife twists further, the magic backfires, all your vision goes black. So, Rissa couldn’t force it away. She couldn’t be the hammer. Had to be the water. They say the movements of tai chi resemble a river to an observer. So, Rissa did tai chi every day, feeling her chi, her life energy, working through her body to synchronize her systems just the way they should be. She meditated, focusing on the flow of breath in and out, steady like tides. She went swimming with astonishing speeds, not letting up until all she could hear was the whoosh of the water in her ears and the thudding of her heart. Or sometimes, she simply sank to the bottom and sat, listening to the quiet. She taught herself how to care again, taking her Little Wave for long walks, training her to sit and stay and come, roughhousing and filling up the little carnivore with anything she could find. At night, Little Wave slept by her feet, chuffing for Rissa’s efforts. She stopped hiding her moods until they exploded over. She stopped hiding the right side of her face, wore her wounds and her glasses, and watched the sun rise with both eyes.

The tallest tree grows from a singe seed. It settles its roots and grows to the sky. Ione approached her healing in layers, like those roots, and the rings in a tree trunk which show its age. She ensured she had a strong foundation before inching forward. Unlike Rissa, she didn’t mind being patient. Unlike Aris, she held no aspirations of perfection. After all, promises of being make perfect and whole, the sum of all her potential, was what had gotten her here. She was a hybrid, in a way, so there was no perfection, no blueprint for what she should look like. But she could be a sturdy little hybrid all the same. Waiting for the right moment to bloom and bear fruit. She gave herself “fertilizer” by carefully exploring her abilities, stretching a muscle so strong, she’d never felt sure enough to see how far it could go, all the things it could do. Aris’ neural inhibitor kept her from going too far too fast and risking the integrity of the tree. She kept her roots covered with her faith, seeking help from Allah and the Quran when she felt lost. She gave herself supports to steady her “growth spurt” as her “trunk” began to climb, leaning on her family on one side and her values and hobbies on the other. She processed her pain, and the pain from others that she was burdened to carry, by drawing, painting. She danced for the sake of it. She read voraciously, looking for new ideas. She worked in the earth, enjoying smell of dirt and the feel of the soft leaves. She watered the plants, giving them tender loving care. And as she gave the life-sustaining water to the flowers and trees, Rissa nourished her with water from a well of love in turn.

Special thanks to Inky @inkdropsonroses for support and encouragement! What do you think of the style experiment? Would you like to see more like this? Requests? Please let me know! -Dove

#dove writes #dove’s useless ocs #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #OC OTPs #Rissa/Ione #OTP: River Lily and Violet #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

Honesty hour: how do your OCs handle anger? Are they the type to stew in silence or blow up?

Strong emotions have always been difficult for Aris to deal with, so she tends to withdraw when she is angry. She needs time to put her thoughts into words. Some are surprised how frequently her anger is actually borne of protective instinct.

Rissa holds things in as long as possible, but she can only last for so long. Don’t misjudge the tears; she’s an angry crier with a temper hardwired to her tear ducts. Watch out for cracks in the ice and thunderclouds rolling in, because if you don’t read her tells, she will strike. Hard. By nature and by training, she is ruthless, and will not mince words/pull punches if you bring the hurricane down on yourself.

Ione is difficult to anger, she is steady, patient, and not phased by much anymore. Of her trio, she is the one with the clearest head and most frequently resolves conflicts rather than starting them. But her rare displays of temper are truly frightening. It’s not what she does, but the instinctive sense of those in her path of those things she could do. The enhanced abilities at her disposal. She’s the sort to make a chill go down your spine and raise goosebumps on your arms. Predator and prey. She will continue to give you warnings, via a reactive display of scarlet-tinged telekinesis, verbal statements, trying to withdraw from the situation. But if she tells you “Don’t make me red” and her irises start to glow...best you heed her.

J typically goes cold and detatches, often coming across as passive-aggressive. She’s hesitent to bring things to the forefront...unless you really strike a nerve/do something morally objectionable to her. She has a righteous anger at the core, and she will cut you with words as sharp as her sword if pushed.

#thank you for asking! #honesty hour #oc asks #writer friends #CJ #dove’s useless ocs #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: J #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

Happy Storyteller Saturday! Have any of your characters ever committed a crime? What did they do? Did they earn a criminal record for it, or were they never caught?

Ooof, yeah. Some for more serious reasons than others. 

Tavi has worked heavily in activist circles and has been arrested before at demonstrations that went sideways. Nothing too severe. 

In their work as an environmental scientist, Ash has also helped various First Nations tribes defend their homelands, as well as protecting major ecosystems from damage caused by oil drilling and other things. Some of the countries they’ve worked in didn’t have much in the way of encoded right to protest, so they too have been arrested. 

Aris has also worked in activism, and she never regretted it. However, she started playing a liiiitle too fast and loose with scientific ethics during her work for the Big Bad. That part she does regret, but she’s doing her best to repair the damage now.

Rissa has committed murder, but it’s never been definitively traced back to her. However, since she was working for the Big Bad along with Aris and Ione for a time, the authorities felt sure she’d been up to something shady and placed her under investigation. 

Ione has hacked into and/or worked her way undercover into the center of many, many security organizations (equivalents to FBI, CIA, etc.) None were ever traced definitely back to her, placing her in the same situation as Rissa. (Due to her magic enhancements, authorities were always wary of getting too close to her. Ione isn’t a violent or aggressive person by nature, and is actually the most passive and gentle of the three...but she can do quite a bit of damage if pushed too far.) 

J is considered a wanted person by Romatian revolutionaries because of her heritage, but she hasn’t actually committed any crimes.

#thank you for asking! #storyteller saturday #dove's useless OCs #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #OC: Tavi #OC: Ash #OC: J #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

For Storyteller Saturday: Which one of your OCs has the most painful past/backstory in your opinion?

Maria!

Oh no, you really went and asked it, didn’t you... The answer is all of them. Pretty much any OC has at least one part of their backstory that makes me and readers Sad :( but they top contenders are:

Aris, Rissa, and Ione (I put these three together because a lot of their backstories happens together/concurrently.) There is a Reason they are called the Trauma Trifecta.

J. My poor, poor J.

Liz doesn’t have as much trauma in terms of sheer number of things that happened, but those that have impacted her very deeply and shifted her view of the world significantly.

#thank you for asking! #writer friends #Maria #storyteller saturday #dove’s useless ocs #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #OC: J #OC: Liz #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

Which OC is least likely to ride a public bus? Which OC is most likely to be carrying a tea tray full of snacks and drinks (and do they spill it at all)? Do any of your OCs have an obsession with something that they can't quite explain why? :3

Least likely to ride the bus: Ione, she doesn’t like crowds.

Snacks and drinks: Beth made treats for everyone, but Liz has to protect both her and the treats from a tumble.

Obsessions or hobbies: Ari has never fully been able to explain her love for bots, but she’s loved them since she was a child. Rissa enjoys martial arts and has studied for many years. They make her feel both powerful and controlled.

#thank you for asking! #the only good part of the marital arts films is realizing rissa likes the #*them #oc asks #OC: Aris #OC: Ione #OC: Rissa #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #writer friends #corasnowbooks #mine

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

Brick Red: Which character gets the happiest ending?

I’d like to say they all do in some way! But if we take a look at who gets the happiest endings in comparison to where they were at the beginning, the Trauma Trifecta (Aris, Rissa, Ione) have really made the most progress towards healing and being happy. They built a family together. 💙

#thank you for asking! #ask games #dove’s useless ocs #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #dove talks #mine #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta

[phoenixfeatherquillwriting]

67. Would your character be willing to do something they consider morally wrong in order to achieve their goals?

Aris definitely has, although she regrets it now. Rissa, as well. Ione a little less so, but I’m sure she could find a situation in which she would have done something different in hindsight (and then beat herself up about it) if she thought on it for a bit. Like I said in a fairly recent ask, there is a Reason these three are called the Trauma Trifecta.

#thank you for asking! #dove’s useless ocs #oc asks #BROT3: Trauma Trifecta #OC: Aris #OC: Rissa #OC: Ione #mine