tl;cr meme

[savedbyasong]

STEP ONE: Post with your character!
STEP TWO: Respond to other people's characters with your characters. They will then tell you, in detail, what their character thinks of yours -- and as per the meme's title, tl;dr is encouraged, but not necessary! Don't be afraid to ask others for their characters' first impressions of yours as well.
STEP THREE: Write out tl;dr for whoever comments to you in return.
STEP FOUR: Chat with each other in mutual joy/horror/disgust/delight/confusion at where your CR has gone!
BONUS: Use this for writing up CR charts, or if you already have them written, link to them!

(Stolen shamelessly from the Far Shore)

Comments

[ichininyaanshi]

how does it feel to befriend a real life furry?

[hyperlit]

An act of kindness
Is what you show to me
None more than I can take
Oh none more than I can take
Kindness is what you showed to me
It holds me 'til I ache
Overflow, and start to break

PRETTY GOOD IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF

ok but seriously the drifter dOES genuinely like ichimatsu. one of the frustrating things about playing the drifter is the fact that they don't really ask questions about how one perceives themself - when they encounter someone's low self-esteem or self-hatred, the drifter doesnt really know where to start, so they just kind of assume that its not something theyre going to be able to handle, and move on. so ichimatsu's constant put downs of himself just...dont really faze them at this point. they dont understand WHY he thinks this, but they understand its a trait of his and know theyre not equipped to deconstruct that, so they leave it be.

i touched on this a little bit above but the thrust of the drifters entire story, one of the keystones of how they develop post-game, is the fact that one single act of kindness can utterly shake someone to their core. the drifter encountered the guardian very early in game, and continued to learn what it was for someone to help you selflessly and unthinkingly throughout the rest of the game. the guardian was the first person to treat the drifter with this unconditional kindness, and it completely took them off guard.

they took that lesson to heart. they elected, since then, to be kind if it were possible, because if it could shake someone for the better the way it did the drifter, then its worth it. and ichimatsu acts like hes this deeply unpleasant person, but the truth is that the drifter has only ever seen him be cruel and vicious to himself - seldom to anyone else. so they have no basis for whatever the hell hes talking about when he puts himself down and calls himself trash. see, theyre used to low self-esteem in some regards, in the same way theyve internalized the fact that theyre lesser and unwanted thanks to their race, but that doesnt throw up a barrier to actually getting shit done the way it does to ichimatsu. people dislike them for their species, and the drifter just shrugs and works around it, where ichimatsu is in this pit of "im unpleasant and hateful and therefore people will hate me and they should, ha ha, fuck them anyway except im bitterly lonely without my brothers" that DOES sort of implicitly encourage him to be more unpleasant in that looping self-destructive way, where if you think that low of yourself its super easy to act "bad" and justify it with "well im a piece of shit anyway so whats it matter??"

except heres the thing: the drifter has never seen ichimatsu act in such a way that was destructive to anyone but himself. he gave them a gift. he treats ren kindly. he stayed with the drifter when they were dying. hes occasionally said rude things, but the drifter has a pretty high tolerance for cruel jabs thanks to Fantasy Racism, so that was water off a ducks back. thus far, theyve seen no proof that ichi himself is actually a "bad" person the way he seems to think he is. they see someone whose low opinion of himself actively interferes with his own potential, and while the drifter wants to help in a sort of vague, abstract "hes my friend so i should help him" kind of way, they...really dont know how best to. like i said, theyre someone who actively commits to Getting Shit Done. if theres not a way of doing that, what the hell else can they do?

they can be a friend the way the guardian was, and hope that will be enough to get ichimatsu started.

an act of kindness
and now it follows me every day