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Although the Shadowchild is able to perceive and interpret the world around it in most of the same ways as a more physical person, it is fundamentally a creature of darkness and knowledge, and as such is able to recognize several kinds of metaphorical "shadows," especially on living things. Generally speaking, a shadow represents a problem that interfere's with a person's ability to function in a healthy manner. (These shadows are also its primary food source, and removing the shadows from a living thing causes the target to fall into an irreversible coma. It abides by a strict code of "not eating things that can talk" and will not eat the shadows out of the soul of anything it perceives as sapient.)
This is an inherent part of how the Shadowchild is aware of the world around it, and cannot be turned off. If you would prefer to avoid addressing this, I can have the Shadowchild refrain from commenting on your character's particular shadows, or avoid threading with your character.
Shadows on the Heart
Shadows on a person's heart represent guilt, internal conflict, regrets, and similar emotional states. The Shadowchild is able to make a rough estimate of how deeply established these shadows are. Most people carry superficial shadows on their hearts which fade as the emotion passes and are replaced with the shadows of new conflicts; if something is actively bothering a character, the Shadowchild will likely be able to tell that there's a problem but not have any insight into what the problem is. Deeply seated conflicts that persist over months or years cast darker shadows. The Shadowchild may be able to tell the nature of such emotions - a guilt complex, long-standing resentment, old regrets, etc. - but not the cause or target of them.
Shadows on the Mind
Shadows on a person's mind represent trauma or mental illness. Different illnesses may appear differently to the Shadowchild, but it has much less practice interpreting major mental illness than it does interpreting emotional conflict and is unlikely to be able to identify what the problem is unless the illness is explained to it. Mind control or possession may also manifest as shadows on the mind; the Shadowchild is able to tell that these shadows do not belong to the person themself, but cannot directly tell where these shadows are coming from.
Other Shadows
Other contaminants, injuries, or problems may manifest as appropriately located shadows - the main canonical example I can think of is when the Shadowchild describes a case of acute food poisoning as a shadow on the person's stomach.
The Shadowchild has difficulty interpreting shadows of purely physical problems, as it does not have the same kind of physicality as most people.
Divine Light
Some powerful immortal characters may be too metaphysically bright for the Shadowchild to comfortably interact with. This largely applies to characters that are associated with light or holy energies and are unusually powerful and/or much older than a single human lifespan. Short of major deities, this is unlikely to be actually dangerous to the Shadowchild, but it experiences some powerful auras as something between a firm pressure and sensory overload.
"Bright" characters can still carry metaphysical shadows - the intensity of their light just makes the shadows stand out in sharper contrast.
Permissions
If you'd prefer that the Shadowchild not comment on your character's shadows, or would prefer not to thread with the Shadowchild at all, please comment below to say so. Otherwise, please fill out the following:
This is an inherent part of how the Shadowchild is aware of the world around it, and cannot be turned off. If you would prefer to avoid addressing this, I can have the Shadowchild refrain from commenting on your character's particular shadows, or avoid threading with your character.
Shadows on a person's heart represent guilt, internal conflict, regrets, and similar emotional states. The Shadowchild is able to make a rough estimate of how deeply established these shadows are. Most people carry superficial shadows on their hearts which fade as the emotion passes and are replaced with the shadows of new conflicts; if something is actively bothering a character, the Shadowchild will likely be able to tell that there's a problem but not have any insight into what the problem is. Deeply seated conflicts that persist over months or years cast darker shadows. The Shadowchild may be able to tell the nature of such emotions - a guilt complex, long-standing resentment, old regrets, etc. - but not the cause or target of them.
Shadows on a person's mind represent trauma or mental illness. Different illnesses may appear differently to the Shadowchild, but it has much less practice interpreting major mental illness than it does interpreting emotional conflict and is unlikely to be able to identify what the problem is unless the illness is explained to it. Mind control or possession may also manifest as shadows on the mind; the Shadowchild is able to tell that these shadows do not belong to the person themself, but cannot directly tell where these shadows are coming from.
Other contaminants, injuries, or problems may manifest as appropriately located shadows - the main canonical example I can think of is when the Shadowchild describes a case of acute food poisoning as a shadow on the person's stomach.
The Shadowchild has difficulty interpreting shadows of purely physical problems, as it does not have the same kind of physicality as most people.
Some powerful immortal characters may be too metaphysically bright for the Shadowchild to comfortably interact with. This largely applies to characters that are associated with light or holy energies and are unusually powerful and/or much older than a single human lifespan. Short of major deities, this is unlikely to be actually dangerous to the Shadowchild, but it experiences some powerful auras as something between a firm pressure and sensory overload.
"Bright" characters can still carry metaphysical shadows - the intensity of their light just makes the shadows stand out in sharper contrast.
If you'd prefer that the Shadowchild not comment on your character's shadows, or would prefer not to thread with the Shadowchild at all, please comment below to say so. Otherwise, please fill out the following:
Rantaro Amami
Date: 2018-12-23 03:08 am (UTC)From:Heart: Mainly survivor's guilt and self loathing. He's lost so many people in his life but he keeps making close friends and worrying over them.
Head: No mind control, possession, or mental illness, but he has trauma from being in three murdergames in a row, plus missing memories. He also died from head trauma once but somehow that's healed up fine? DWRP is weird.
Other: Something's preventing him from speaking more than a few words at a time. He can get around this issue, but he hasn't been able to fix it.
Light: Nope! Just a plain ol' human being.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-23 03:29 am (UTC)From:Heart: Holy moly does this chick have resentment out the wazoo, in varying levels of "this has been here a while". There's two in particular that are especially dark.
Head: All clear here!
Other: All clear here, too!
Light: Akira is 100% human through and through, so there's nothing to worry about.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-23 07:45 am (UTC)From:Heart: Oh the survivor's guilt here is intense and over a decade strong. There's also a lot of resentment and his trust issues just got exponentially worse.
Head: Nyx has some fairly significant PTSD. His flashbacks are mainly audible and he's very practiced in forcing back panic attacks by sheer life and death need. He's a soldier, one of the best, and has been on the front lines of a war with daemons for 12 years.
Other: This is probably going to be viewed as a shadow now? The extensive scarring on his left arm and fanning up onto his face is from wielding incredibly powerful light magic that was eating away at his body as he used it.
Light: He no longer has the power of the Lucii as a whole but he will still have a fraction of Regis' power in him. As the Kings draw their power from the crystal which is powerful light magic this may mean when he's channeling the power he might not be pleasant to look at for Shadow but it's not inherently his so probably not problematic most of the time.
Until he tries showing offKokoro Belmont
Date: 2018-12-24 12:39 am (UTC)From:Heart: Kokoro's entire life, basically, has been overcast by how she wishes she could be normal. She's long decided that she can't be in the end and she has to follow her family's legacy.
Head: Not particularly.
Other: Nope.
Light: She is associated with holy/light power and they might not want to be in the path of her Platonic Break.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-25 08:39 pm (UTC)From:Heart: I mean there's a lot, really, but the two biggest ones that come to mind are his longstanding guilt complex about... everything, and his tendency to repress his anger and frustration until it pops.
Head: Yes As Will Be Immediately Obvious Because His Biggest Issue Is Literally Triggered By Sentient Black Blobs [/Kanaya voice] but you know his deal already, he's traumatized backwards and forwards six ways to sunday
Other: Chronic Fatigue Grandpa is here to exist at you.
Light: his soul is made of light energy specifically designed to purify shadows MAYBE STAND BACK, KID
Sync
Date: 2019-01-05 10:51 am (UTC)From:Heart: An amazing amount of self hatred and hatred of others not present and resentment. Like wow. Boy has hatred. Also an old regret.
Head: Past trauma on PTSD levels. Mostly from an old thing but has also minorly flared up within the last year (Incendia was Not Fun)
Other: Don't think there's anything here.
Light: Sync is made of sound fonons, which are the fonons associated with the Score which is basically the religion of Auldrant. He's probably not bright on the levels of Divine Things but it probably comes across as Weird Cross-Canon Interactions.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-05 10:51 pm (UTC)From:Heart: Guilt here, self-worth issues there, and plenty of anger
Head: Plenty of trauma surrounding his origins which might manifest as several smaller but no less persistent shadows like 'holes' in his mind.
Other: All clear!
Light: Only if the child might count an artificial light of being an AI? Otherwise no.
Kurama
Date: 2019-01-11 07:39 am (UTC)From:Heart: Heavy guilt complex, old regrets like whoa.
Head: Kurama is suffering from some PTSD these days.
Other: He's chronically dead, does that count?
Light: Ahahaha, kind of yes. Given that he has both the divine light of a Composer, which is just below an angel, and the distinctly light-aspected Armiger power of the Lucis Caelums, he is maybe a little bright. Though if he realizes it is making the Shadowchild uncomfortable, Kurama is capable of concealing his aura short-term.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-11 07:41 am (UTC)From:Heart: Not a lot, actually! He's gained considerably development since he got here. If anything pops up, it'll be the intense homesickness and guilt that occasionally resurfaces.
Head: Yes..... PTSD sucks. Though he's been working on it, a lot / it won't be super prominent, nowadays.
Other: N/A
Light: This will be situational; Akira has some very strong light-leaning Personas, but he doesn't keep them active/summoned all the time. I'll note when/if that's the active one he's got at the time.
whoops, thought I responded as him!
Date: 2019-01-24 08:34 am (UTC)From:Heart: Considerably So, yes. Aiden recently underwent a Persona-5-style Change of Heart, but it was a Soft Edition. Basically, some things didn't get touched, at all; he still carries intense guilt over the ways his parents died and he still holds doubt that he's a remotely decent person. On a scale of 1-10, I'd say his guilt and unhappiness is resting at an almost constant 6, sometimes an 8, as opposed to a screaming 10.
Head: Intense PTSD, mild Bipolar Disorder, and the lingering effects of brainwashing. He comes with TW of sexual assault and lots of murder.
Other: He's only got half of a soul.
Light: He can use one (1) light-based ability, but he's heavily darkness-based.