forum The saddest thing you've given your characters to deal with.

Started September 30, 2020 by Deleted user

tune

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Most can be summed up with “Losing X parent because war or sickness”

My Oc, Nicholas, was labeled an gifted child when he was young. Because of that his parents had held him to extremely high expectations of him, never really happy with what he has achieved. All this pressure has cause him to feel that is worth is only measured through grades or success so he constantly is overworking himself past his limits, not even taking care of his basic needs like food or a good sleep schedule.He Also has to deal with his ADHD (only being diagnosed later in his mid 20's), being told that he is lazy for not being able to focus on mundane tasks such as doing chores. As to top it all off, his mom is disappointed in how Nicholas is gay, claiming that he is wasting his potential.
this is only what I have so far, since the book I'm writing (or more like day dreaming) isn't fully developed yet and depending who I kill off or what happens next, he might have to go through more. But I'll make sure he has his happy ending

My character has to deal with growing up without her parents while also coping with the fact she's royalty at 19 years old…yeah…

TL:DR - I and all my OCs need therapy

And I'm putting it in a spoiler tag because some stuff might be triggering

So- I'mma just say- horrible sh*t ahead. Spoiler-ing it. Possible trigger warnings.

Two young boys gave each other promise rings for when they're older. When one of them was kidnapped, the kidnappers took the ring, and it got lost.

A father only has a flower given to him by the son that was taken from him. It's slowly wilting, because flowers are as temporary as the breeze.

A farmer who put everything he had into his beloved fields had to choose between his land and his friends. He chose his friends, but his land was burned to ash, and was unfarmable.

A boy found a father figure in a far away strange land, but had to watch this father figure become a mindless entity, simply living, not aware of his surroundings. All he did was trust one wrong person.

He realized he was the bad guy, but mostly in his own story. Nothing he'd ever done had hurt anyone more than him, and now hes entirely alone.

She never meant to adopt the two boys, but they see her as a mother anyway. She's been comforting one, 'The king, your father, he does love you. And so do I.' The other's slowly becoming more of a son to the king than the king's own child. She can't convince him the king loves no one.

A mermaid had to save her friends from an ocean storm. One burned when he touched water, another would dissolve. She could only save one.

He had been the general of the army for only a few short years but he was calm, level headed, and fair. When he got appointed king, it seemed like the perfect choice. No one seemed to notice how young he was until he was crying in his captain's arms, all the pressure just too much.

The entirety of the twins' life tbh. Andrew was caught up in a mining incident and slowly suffocated to death. When his body was recovered it was already contaminated by dark energy (called Madness Disease in-universe) so he revived but he was turned into a Doll. Canarie - who arrived at the mine to bring him back home - brought his corpse to their home and prepared to bury him. Right before she was going to bury him, Andrew sprung up like a zombie and started attacking her. Canarie, distraught, immediately took it upon herself to put him out of his misery, but because he was really the only family left, she hesitated and managed to knock him out unconscious. They were later found by Josè after various rumors of a Doll lurking the area. And it only got worse for them from here on out. For Andrew, anyway.

Canarie had to go Training(tm) but she only became a Soul Art user because she wanted to turn her brother back to normal. Andrew, on the other hand, got it far worse. He was subjected to inhumane treatments in order to make him "human" enough. Eventually, his Doll powers were sealed away and he was allowed to go into the human population under supervision. During his time in the laboratory, Andrew forced himself to supress his urge to consume human souls until it completely dissipated. This all happened in a span of 2 years before the current story btw

My MC Matilda grew up pretty poor, so her parents would leave her to watch her three younger sisters (at the time, aged 1, 3, and 4) in the afternoons and nights while they were at work. This went all well and good until she was eleven, when she took her sisters to the shitty pool at their apartment complex like she always did. The baby started fussing, and while Matilda was paying attention to the baby, the three year old started silently drowning. Matilda didn't notice until the four year old started freaking out, and by the time she managed to get her out of the pool, it was too late. And she blames herself which kinda is justified but also bro you were ELEVEN

Milaka's: being a test subjects (I'm so sorry :( )

Levi: Having a cruise sink with his family on it (his parents die)

Lisha: I would say memory lost, but I'm doing this little girl a favor- So her family

Abree: her family

Loki: His life-

Adelaide: her death

I have far too many emotionally-scarred characters, um—
Let's hit the highlights.

Hannah: Lost her mother at a young age, no biggie tho. Worked as her supervillain father's supervillain sidekick for several years, loved it, loved her family, until her younger brother left to be a superhero. Then discovered Mother was actually a spy who relayed information to her father's enemies, which kinda ruined her parents' entire relationship for her. Father slowly descended into madness after that, to the point where he wanted to kill his son, and Hannah decided to bail. Father immediately lost all his marbles and went on a murder spree attempting to hunt her down. She had several long and painful weeks of trying to escape him before she finally watched him fall off a cliff and die. She does get a semi-happy ending, reconnecting with her brother, but she kinda becomes a loner with no close support system.
Gemma: In the third book of my series about Gemma, she's kidnapped by a boy, Janus, who emotionally and physically abuses her to get at her love interest, Lee, who's Janus's enemy. She's only in captivity for a couple of days, but obviously, it changes her. She suffers from a lot of PTSD and trauma; particularly, she has triggers about guys touching her, which makes it really hard for her to interact with her friends since 80% of her friend group are boys. The real challenge comes when they find Janus, sick and starving, some months after the Incident^tm and take him in.
Laertes: A boy from a story idea I never fully developed or followed through with. Laertes grew up with just his dad, until his dad was killed by a band of infamous marauders. Laertes swears revenge and goes to hunt down the leader of the marauders. Along the way, he meets a group of kids who also lost their parents to marauders, and a lone huntsman, Rae. The group becomes a little family, with Rae as their surrogate dad. Sometime down the road, they're on their journey through the woods when they're attacked. Rae falls into a ravine and is lost. Laertes is devastated with losing his second father figure. The kids continue their quest, but are captured by the marauders. They are taken to the leader, only to discover… it's Rae, who is very much alive. Rae also killed all the kids' parents. The kids are shattered. In the ensuing chaos of Laertes trying to murder Rae, the six-year-old, Maggie, is killed. This devastates everyone, including Rae, who had actually developed a soft spot for the kids. Even worse is that I never came up with an ending for this story, so…
Aiden: (last one, I promise) Aiden is an eight-year-old boy who was raised by his dad and partially by his babysitter, Kittie. One day while Kittie is babysitting him, a woman shows up on their doorstep with a crew of hired thugs. They subdue Kittie and kidnap Aiden. It is revealed the woman is Aiden's mother, who went insane working with toxic chemicals for a secret organization. She uses her chemical genius to experiment on Aiden, giving him the power of pyrokinesis (fire manipulation). Her plan is to "raise" him and use him as a weapon, but luckily, Aiden is rescued by his dad, Kittie, and several secret agents.

Ben watched his father being murdered during a duel and blames himself for it. up to his death, he believes it should have been him who died, and not his father. his lover betrayed him and tried to kill him, his brother ended up being a very bad guy and his friends and family were killed by his brother.

@Cecil-sixx-gold17 our dudes are definitely not okay

Simon's probably the best off. They did have a wonderful near-death experience when they received their powers mid-panic attack, but they're mostly fine, minus the fact that they're the leader of a superhero team and are hated by the public for being openly queer and taking in Logan, a redeemed supervillain.

CJ watched their brother die when they were 17. He was kidnapped under the assumption that he had superpowers, which he did not, and CJ blames themself for his death. They also have extremely volatile powers that if used for too long could destroy them.

Loganhas several issues. We're just gonna spoiler all his things because there's a lot. TW: s*xual assault.

Spoiler - click to show.

Okie dokie then!
Logan is trans and he had not the most supportive family, so meeting Madeline, who was openly queer, in college was such a relief. Unfortunately, Madeline is a terrible person with mind control powers and was definitely not to be trusted. She got Logan drunk at a party and raped him and proceeded to do this over and over again, slowly removing alcohol from the equation and instead gaslighting him with brainwashing and claiming that he did consent to it. He essentially became less of his own person over time and more of Madeline's puppet, which included getting a branded tattoo on the back of his neck. He was rescued by Simon and CJ, who actually did not know the true extent of his situation and just thought they were getting back at Madeline, but they are now extremely glad they saved him when they did, although they did inadvertently cause Peter's issues. (i'll talk about him eventually. he just has a ton of shit.)
Also he's casually blind in his one eye because Samantha was lowkey unstable and sliced through his eyeball.
He's also hated by the public because although he was never really a supervillain, he was associated with Madeline and she definitely is a supervillain. He's also openly queer, so he's been hate-crimed several times, including someone who almost wrecked his one good eye with spray paint.

He's not okay.

Dean also has several issues! His mother died when he was younger and his dad kinda blamed him for it even though it was legit just a housefire. Also he's trans, so his dad kinda only saw him as a younger version of his mom and was therefore very much not supportive when he came out. He also has a wonderful alcohol addiction that he inherited from his father, and he has terrible ways of dealing with grief because his father was his only role model for twenty-odd years.

i think that's enough of my characters' issues for now but i have several more, especially my villains. it's a fun time.

Ava's actively not okay, James' childhood was so shitty, Samantha went through it as a kid, Chloe was disowned, Faith lost everything, Payton's afraid of her powers, Jason's horribly addicted to heroin and alcohol to erase his childhood- there's a lot going on, the dudes are not okay

Hm. This seems like fun, so I will give it a shot.

Spoiler tagging this because there are extremely brutal themes.

Kenzo had his mother kill herself when he was 9 and found the body then was sent to live with his father, stepmother, and half-sister who treated him like trash. Sort of a harry potter situation. His half sister would also make fun of kenzo for having dead mother. And learned that his father was manipulating his mother when they were together. And his mother killed herself while still being in love with his father.

Margaret O'Connell:

Over the coarse of the mid to late 1870s in coastal Maine she falls In love with Stephen her friend/ the older brother of her sister's husband; . Unfortunately to social/ economic differences any relationship is frowned upon, not to mention they are both very independent and emotionally constipated. They begin a sort of friends with benefits situation, though neither will admit to have feelings, however Maggie ends up pregnant.

Now she knows Stephen isn't ready to be a father or for a permanent relationship, he also has another job and life in Boston. Her sister meanwhile is in poor health and wants desperately to conceive a child, so she can have a "Happy home" and satisfy her husband who wants to one up Stephen by having an Heir. Maggie's sister convinces her to pass off the child as hers and her husband which would work perfect as neither man were around long enough to know which sister was actually pregnant.

Well the plan worked and Maggie secretly gave birth to healthy boy, and than painstakingly gave him to her sister. For the next 3 years she acted as the loving Aunt and "Godmother" to her own son while having to painfully watch him be emotionally and at times physically neglected by "his parents." She, her other two brothers-in law and even Stephen, do their best to make up for it though, even if hurts to watch Stephen interact with him,

When her sister dies of Tuberculosis and her brother-in-law sets off around the world on "business" Maggie, and her brothers-in-law return to take care of her "nephew" while Stephen the family's legal heir tries to keep a roof over their heads.

By now years have passed and there is a distance between Maggie and Stephen, and it hurts and it's awkward…but just when things start to work out her sister's widow returns and a family fight ensues when the man finally notices the unusually strong resemblance between "his son" and his brother, unfortunately he comes to wrong conclusion that his wife must have cheated on him

OOOOOOOOOOH BOY it's been an YEAR since I wrote my entry here and GOLLY GEE I HAVE NEWS. BAAAADDD NEWS. Alright, guess I should restard because reading my old entry OH MAN SO MUCH CHANGED. For the worst of course. For example, Simon's bad thing, one of the tamest ones in my previous entry, is now one of the worst ones in my opinion. I'm not gonna rewrite the old ones that didn't change tho, only new stuff here.

HUGE TRIGGER WARNING FOR ALMOST ALL STUFF YOU CAN THINK OF.

hooo boy. bold of me not to give my characters trauma!
the saddest thing happened to either Sash or Tricky.

A domino effect of tragedy leads to the collapse of Sash's world. Still, time waits for no one. Over a decade later, the world is still in tatters. Humanity as a whole can't seem to find its feet. Sash is chosen to defeat the root cause of these tragedies, a grieving man with an over-abundance of power. In the end, only one message is clear: Some people cannot be saved.

or

Tricky, a demon, was treated particularly sh!t, even by demon standards. this was 110% purposeful, as his destiny as of birth was to rule the "downstairs apartment," so to speak. in the end, this abuse turned a young, mischievous imp into a full-blown monster, torturing entire planets for the hell of it. what makes this sad is the story plot: it follows Tricky's path from being maniacal yet sympathetic, to the least sympathetic of them all; a crazed b@stard playing god.

Well i'm putting my character through this currently but well kidnapped by someone he loved, and is dealing with the conflicting feelings of loving him and hating him while losing the will to live since he's y'know kidnapped. But whenever he contemplates suicide his kidnapper saves him (ie. he tripped and fell out a window and was saved). It's like he can only trust the person who betrayed him. It was also his first friend. (his future doesnt get any better though)

In the end he gets diagnosed with schizophrenia, his kidnapper (who he learns to trust and love again) dies by his own hands (accidentaly) and he is sent to live in a mental hospital since he was held captive for a month or two and killed a man (even if it was his kidnapper)

before the story started he only had to deal with the guilt of leaving his mom with his schizophrenic dad in another state (~forshadowing~)

I think probably Lou's whole backstory, tbh. He lives in a world where certain children are tithed from birth to the family church (rhyming??) so he was never really raised with the kind of family connection he should have been. When he ended up in the church, his mentor was very abusive, which lead to him basically being high for years on magic (the magic in my story is complicated but it can be distilled and ingested to give a high.) He was improperly trained and ended up ingesting a lot of it over time, which was intentional on his mentor's part.
This damaged his memory of his family and further gave the impression that his life in the church was all he had. When we meet him, he's sort of a mystical magician-y figure because of everything above.
One of the main characters befriends him right after he runs away, and she becomes very close to him. She herself has a bit of a hair trigger and is very protective of him at this point. They learn magic outside of the church's teachings, with him showing her new techniques and her challenging his ideas about what magic can do.
Then, his old mentor kidnaps him. He's stuck for about five days before Callisto (the friend) can find and retrieve him. She kills his mentor in the process, which very conveniently ends his conflict so he can focus on his character arc again.

Okay so this is only a small thing but I have this littleguy (tm) and he has had to run from his hometown to escape the law. then (after like eight-ten years or so) a place nearby his family's home is attacked and goes back to check in. everyone is fine but I think it's worth mentioning that his mother is blind and is able to identify some people by their hands, including littleguy. until however he goes to see her and gives her his hands and she unknowingly asks who it is (she no longer recognizes them because of scars from fighting and generally how long it's been)

yea

I think probably Lou's whole backstory, tbh. He lives in a world where certain children are tithed from birth to the family church (rhyming??) so he was never really raised with the kind of family connection he should have been. When he ended up in the church, his mentor was very abusive, which lead to him basically being high for years on magic (the magic in my story is complicated but it can be distilled and ingested to give a high.) He was improperly trained and ended up ingesting a lot of it over time, which was intentional on his mentor's part.
This damaged his memory of his family and further gave the impression that his life in the church was all he had. When we meet him, he's sort of a mystical magician-y figure because of everything above.
One of the main characters befriends him right after he runs away, and she becomes very close to him. She herself has a bit of a hair trigger and is very protective of him at this point. They learn magic outside of the church's teachings, with him showing her new techniques and her challenging his ideas about what magic can do.
Then, his old mentor kidnaps him. He's stuck for about five days before Callisto (the friend) can find and retrieve him. She kills his mentor in the process, which very conveniently ends his conflict so he can focus on his character arc again.

idk if we comment on other peoples stuff in this thread but OH MY GOD THIS IS ?!!?!

@estoc_ thank you or I'm sorry!! I really love his character and I hope other ppl will too

AND HER NOT RECOGNIZING LITTLEGUY BECAUSE OF WHAT HES BEEN THROUGH?? AGH the symbolism chefs kiss

@estoc_ thank you or I'm sorry!! I really love his character and I hope other ppl will too

AND HER NOT RECOGNIZING LITTLEGUY BECAUSE OF WHAT HES BEEN THROUGH?? AGH the symbolism chefs kiss

THANK.YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
ALSO DO NOT APOLOGIZE ITS AWESOME AND I MEANT THAT POSITIVELY

gasp where do I even start? I feel like a kid in a candy store!
Savannah: my girl was born into a misogynistic household that her parents only spent around two weeks of the year (not consecutively) with her. She was raised by her grandfather who had injected her with an untested mutation as a baby that would only activate when the person is too exhausted to carry out their tasks so he would 'train' her under the guise of becoming an assassin. Her cousin ran away from home, leaving her with her grandfather. Her cousin blew up their home and shot her in the arm. Her grandfather sent her away where she was kidnapped by her cousin with her friend before the two escaped and survived in the woods before making it back to town where she finds out her grandfather died, ultimately defeating her goal of proving him wrong. she later gets kidnapped and experimented on later because some group found out that she had this experimental mutation where she was forced to give up large amounts of blood and experimentations while slowly starving. She still has scars from the needles and the torture she endured in her life.

Paris and Jamie: both are siblings from a pacifist family who's house was destroyed from a bomb. Paris was the furthest from the blast and was not injured other than a broken rib and some scrapes and bruises. Their parents and two older brothers were killed immediately from the blast. Their other older brother had tried to protect Jamie from the blast and was severely injured. The three of them hid out in their family bomb shelter where Paris did her best to take care of her brothers' injuries. However, their older brother died in the shelter after two days from his injuries. He rotted in the shelter. They couldn't leave the shelter because the bombing and gunfire hadn't ceased yet. They survived off of eating some old canned foods. Paris was able to protect their shelter with a rifle her parents had kept. When they were rescued, Jamie was forced to have his left eye and leg removed. Paris had become vegetarian after seeing her brother slowly decompose for almost two weeks.

Carlos: he is the embodiment of bad luck, his twin sister Carmen being good luck. His sister was always the golden child in the eyes of everyone. At school, at the foster home they lived at, even to their parents after eventually finding them. Though it hurt Carlos, he didn't resent his sister and loved her. However, Carmen had begun adopting everyone else's viewpoints on her brother, especially after reuniting with their parents. Their parents hated Carlos, seeing him as only being bad luck and never a person. She saw the way Carlos acted as if he were a different person when things got tough. (Carlos would get aggressive with his bullies, never going beyond throwing a few punches. He had thought to have DID but in reality, he would be possessed by Cadmus, the embodiment of chaos in order to get out of sticky situations.) Carmen began berating her brother, going so far as to resent him and calling him a monster and a freak. The two never fixed their relationship, Carmen being prideful and believing she was right while Carlos feeling isolated and betrayed by the last family member he had left.

Simmons. Princess of another world. Star's parents were tyrants, and the common folk hated their royalty. But what could the common folk do? if they rose up and fought against the tyranny that plagued their world, they would all be killed. So they stayed quiet, bottling their resentment towards the royal family. Until two travelers arrived on the planet. Unbeknownst to them, the travelers were the ones who started, or as Simmons once told them "inspired them to revolt."

Star's family was executed, as well as everyone who was related to star. Even if the rest were innocents, and didn't share the same views as the tyrants. And poor, innocent Simmons, was set to be executed alongside them. The travelers end up saving star, taking star with them as they travel the cosmos. So. Simmons is the last one in star's family who is alive, and can never return back to star's home planet. Since, you know, the people wouldn't hesitate to execute both star and the travelers for aiding a "criminal".

my two faves (they got them feelings for each other, so they suffered through watching their partner suffer) each have been through a very torturous thing.
Jasmine got bit by the plant she is allergic to, big nasty reaction. I posted it in the writing club! it was hard for Quinn, cause he had to help her through it while she was all out of it.
Quinn, on the other hand– I literally just got this scene in my head last night. her got tore up really bad by somehting (idk yet) and he lost a ton of blood and he stumbled up to Jasmine and she has to take care of him while he's all delirious n stuff. he is also in so much pain😎👍
and I will kill the berserker girl's brother with a horrible death, so she almost loses her sanity for real and for good.

List for each character (cause angst is my thing):

Red: she pushes everyone away, she hurts the people she loves most in an effort to protect herself and then is constantly lonely and it's all her own fault that she can't keep a meaningful relationship for over a year.

Jack: 2 things actually, 1 he watched his sister die and 2 he is known throughout the land as a hero because he killed a giant but the reason he is famous is also his biggest regret. Which is ironic because before that he always wanted to be famous and now that he is he loathes it.

Goldi: all her friends and loved ones leave her. She has a very obnoxious personality and is kinda batshut crazy but she loves her friends but because her friends are all kinds toxic towards others they always end up going their separate ways leaving her in isolation for long periods of time and leaving her longing for connection

Peter: he met the love of his life but they couldn't stay together because he couldn't let go of the past and the life he made so she had to leave him and it ruined him completely.

Wendy: she left the love of her life and it's her biggest regret because she could have had a life of magical whimsy but instead she is stuck in a dull life with no excitement by her own doing and desperately wishes she chose differently.

Jill: she fucking dies. Before the story happens. She haunts the narrative

Gretle (idk how to spell her name): she tries to go back in time and save herself from becoming what she did and then realizes to late that she was the thing that set it all in motion.

Hansel: his sister fucking kills him he dies.

Cindy: her life is actually pretty great.

Robin: he is sentenced to death for something he didn't do and after he escapes he finds the person who framed him and proceeds to try and kill her until he is badly injured and guess what guys? He "didn't know where else to go. . ."

Anya: Is a literal synthetic human that was created by a mad scientist in an attempt to make her a secret weapon for a very shady organization. her entire life is just suffering and being molded into a good solider who won't betray her "family" no matter how many times she may be tortured

Astrea (i don't think I've done her yet): Uh, lets just say that her home was destroyed….by war machines, immortal beings and the nation's alchemist. Most of the people who lived in the nation are dead or cursed and they're probably one of the only few that remain alive

I don't know man anything related to the Psychological of warfare

Ross- having to live in constant episodes of PTSD,and getting discriminated and called a coward ( in world war 1 people who had PTSD were called cowards since PTSD research wasn't a thing back then)
Chance- the guilt of killing a entire camp of new recruits in cold blood.
Zimmer- shellshock
Officer Carl-the guilt of leading his men into a bloodbath