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TLV - Graduations & Demotions
Inmate graduation is a vital aspect of the game, and occasionally, warden demotion crops up in play as well. If you're planning to graduate your inmate or demote your warden in the near future, please fill out this short form!
Graduations and demotions are character decisions made at player discretion, but in the rare situation that we find ourselves concerned that a graduation or demotion is premise-breaking, the player will be contacted privately. Once we've read through a comment and confirmed that it doesn't contain anything premise-breaking, we'll reply with a confirmation.
Once a graduation comment has been confirmed, the warden of the graduating inmate should reply to their inmate's comment either confirming that their character will be fulfilling the deal laid out in their application, or - in situations where they changed their mind about their deal during their time in-game - receive a verdict about whether the new deal idea is doable.
GRADUATION
DEMOTION
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Character Name: Cho Gonou
Path to Graduation: When Gonou arrived on the barge, he was a traumatized pile of identity and attachment issues in denial about his anger towards the world and generally unable to process (or, often, even comprehend) his own emotional responses.
Through the relationships he's formed on the Barge and the ways in which he's been forced to engage with his feelings about his nonhuman identity and his feelings about committing, experiencing and seeing his friends experience violence, he's been able to come to terms with the majority of his toxic traits, understand his own emotions and express those emotions honestly to others.
Shortly after his arrival, he got involved in a conflict with Misty Quigley where her passive-aggressive approach (accusing him of ulterior motives, making vague threats, interfering with the janitorial work he was doing in petty ways) triggered him to lash out with overwhelming murderous force, after which he attempted to self-punish by interpreting the restrictions his warden placed on him in the most punitive way he could, while simultaneously stubbornly refusing to engage with Misty or with the situation itself.
Since then, he's developed considerably more sense of security and self-control, as well as learning how to engage emotionally with people and situations that he experiences as threatening. Beginning with his apology to Misty -- which he didn't feel ready to extend until several months after the attack -- he's been learning to handle emotionally threatening experiences in a productive way. He explained his feelings over a punishment Jon Sims chose for his inmate to Jon in a follow-up conversation after he withdrew from the first one. With the encouragement of his warden Xie Lian, he's even reached out himself to bring up issues that frighten him, even if he still is only really able to engage in this kind of openness with his close friends.
Although he initially attacked the person he thought was responsible for Eiffel's death, when the person who was actually responsible confessed to him, he was able to handle it calmly, express his upset to her, process it in a conversation with his warden and later speak to Eiffel about his feelings and the fact that Eiffel also kept the secret of who was responsible for his murder.
In addition to learning how to express and process his negative emotions through peaceful means, he's been striving to improve his physical regulation and disconnect his ability to do violence from the guilt and trauma associated with fighting to rescue Kanan and slaughtering hundreds of armed and unarmed people in the process. He fought in Flint's mutiny on the Galley, and the multiple losses he experienced and blamed himself for there forced him to ask himself some hard questions about his own responsibility for things he fought for but couldn't achieve. Flint's firm denial that Gonou was responsible for his death, once they were back on the Barge, helped him think about whether he could really blame himself for Kanan's, as did Xie Lian's equally firm denial of Gonou's responsibility for his death -- despite Gonou's active assistance with the plan that killed him. Xie Lian has also been sparring with Gonou and teaching him a variety of new weapons, spiritual techniques and martial arts forms, helping to rebuild the enjoyment he found in fighting and reinforce his conscious control over his choices around fighting.
His experiences on the Galley also forced him to begin coming to terms with his nonhuman nature. Arriving there without his limiters and being forced to face his youkai features for the first time in the mirrored wall of a cell provoked a nervous breakdown and self-harming violence as he punched the mirror in. He struggled with admitting his identity and explaining the changes in his appearance. Jedao's acceptance of his nonhuman form (and the revelation that Jedao also wasn't human) helped him accept it, and after he was blinded, the occasional ability to use his youkai powers to sense his surroundings or speed his own healing were literal lifesavers on more than one occasion.
It also helped that, without his sight, he couldn't see the differences in his body, allowing him to feel more at peace with those changes. He still needs to remove his limiters to use his powers, as he hasn't asked Xie Lian to request the full release of his abilities, but this has given him multiple opportunities to remove his limiters for positive reasons, such as to heal people or to help himself heal more quickly. The positive associations he's beginning to build with his youkai appearance aren't enough to make him at ease with it, but he's accepted it as a part of himself and he's comfortable interacting with people with his limiters off. He's even comfortable with platonic intimacy when he has his limiters off (cuddling, embracing, pats on the head, etc.) -- something he wasn't comfortable with under any circumstances when he arrived on board.
His romantic relationship with Jedao has also played an important role in his graduation. He struggled, earlier in their relationship, with comparisons between Jedao and Kanan and questions about whether he was worthy of being loved or capable of loving someone else, especially since Jedao, unlike Kanan, had no non-romantic ties binding him to Gonou -- and therefore Gonou had to trust that he was loved because of who he was as a person, and not because they were soulmates, two halves of the same person, or any other romantic fantasy about irreplacability or mystical connections. Although this has been taking a while to sink in, he is beginning to believe it, and thus believe that he is both capable of love and capable of being loved. This belief is beginning to spread to relationships outside of his romantic one, too; he's able to admit his affection to other friends such as Daniel and Eiffel, to discuss the ways in which past wrongdoing don't necessarily define one's identity with Natalie, and to accept and trust Xie Lian's affection for him.
Remembering his behavior and beliefs about himself as "Cho Hakkai" during the time-warp flood is going to provide the final push to let him believe just how much he has changed and improved. Hakkai, despite being almost five years older than Gonou is, is out of touch with and continues to repress his anger until it explodes in violence; believes himself incapable of love and unworthy of being loved; and fails to value his own life as a result of unresolved guilt and self-hatred. Gonou's active rejection of Hakkai's beliefs about himself will help fuel the confidence he needs in his own ability to make a positive difference for himself and others.
He's going to stay on as a warden after graduation, although he's going to visit Xie Lian's home world with him first to meet his friends and bid him a fond farewell (and possibly also to threaten Xie Lian's friends into treating him right.) As a warden, he's going to take some time finding his feet, but will likely have an approach of fierce loyalty to his inmate coupled with high expectations, a fair amount of philosophical discussions, a willingness to firmly control any harmful behavior and a well hidden playful streak. Inmates who take themselves too seriously may find themselves being made fun of.
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