TLV - Warden/Inmate Pairings

[bargemods]

WARDEN/INMATE PAIRINGS

Post here if you are in need of either an Inmate or a Warden!

All pairings will occur on the 15th and 30th of each month, with temporary pairings going up on the 15th. By default, characters will only be eligible for a temporary pairing after their first full month in-game, though you may request an earlier pairing date if you wish. If you have preferences, speak to the player in question that you want to be paired with before posting a full request. Both players must approve of a pairing before we'll finalize it (a good way to do this is have one put "Attn: Mods" in the comment subject and list the pairing with full names and desired pairing date in the comment body, and then have the other person respond to it with "confirming"). Please fill out the pairing form here so we have your character's full name and information.

PAIRING FORM

<b>Character Name:</b> <b>Character Journal:</b> <b>Status:</b> Warden or Inmate <b>Pairing Information:</b>

Next Assignments: 2/28/26

Unpaired Wardens
Abel/Ethan // inthebiblicalsense
Antryg Windrose // dogwizard
Carl // goddammitdonut
Chase Collins // fifthofthecovenant
Edward Teach // notsoblackbeard
Fitz Kreiner // everythinglost
Gustave // superniceone
Iago // knowmyplace
The Knight // littlestghost
Kylar Stern // mercurialize
Lahabrea // abyssalflames
Sameen Shaw // cactusy
Sokie Undertown // weirdnecro
Thrawn // artistinexile
Ulla // neverwaitslong

Unpaired Inmates
Armand // howheendures
Blitzø Buckso // helluvamess
Enver Gortash // closeyourfist
Gale Dekarios // karsiteweave
The Ghoul // hollywoodghoul
Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley // reflectedlight/de_nile/troubleontheway
Riddle Rosehearts // chopoffyourhead
Robert "Bob" Reynolds // makingitworse
Spy // handsome_rouge
Velvette // struckanerve
Verso // palissant
Vox // voximperium

Current Temporary Warden and Inmate Assignments
(If you wish to opt out of temporary pairings, or opt out of being matched with specific characters, don't forget to post here)

Abel/Ethan // inthebiblicalsense and Gale Dekarios // karsiteweave
Antryg Windrose // dogwizard and Velvette // struckanerve
Carl // goddammitdonut and Vox // voximperium
Edward Teach // notsoblackbeard and Riddle Rosehearts // chopoffyourhead
Fitz Kreiner // everythinglost and Robert "Bob" Reynolds // makingitworse
Gustave // superniceone and Spy // handsome_rouge
The Knight // littlestghost and The Ghoul // hollywoodghoul
Kylar Stern // mercurialize and Blitzø Buckso // helluvamess
Lahabrea // abyssalflames and Verso // palissant
Sokie Undertown // weirdnecro and Armand // howheendures
Ulla // neverwaitslong and Enver Gortash // closeyourfist

Inmates Currently Without a Temporary or a Permanent Warden
(Inmates under the jurisdiction of the Monitors of Unpaired Inmates)

Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley // reflectedlight/de_nile/troubleontheway

Current Permanent Warden and Inmate Assignments
(Alphabetical by Warden)

●	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	●
I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
●	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	●

#

A

→ Alexei // reargunner
  ↳ Jinu Saja // your_idol
→ Aerith Gainsborough // planetdialup
  ↳ Ciel Phantomhive // thespareone
→ Anduin Llane Wrynn // bythelight
  ↳ Faolan // reticence
→ Arthur Lester // lestercraft
  ↳ Abaurycy Niedzic // fuckingphoenix
→ Avalon // chaos_drifter
  ↳ Cheradenine Zakalwe // weaponuser

B

C
→ Cho Hakkai // reformedsinner
  ↳ Sebastian Michaelis // untiltheend

D
→ D'Vana Tendi // notthatkindoforion
  ↳ Stede Bonnet // the_gentleman_pyrate
→ Dennis Collins // onlyhearmusic
  ↳ Trevor Belmont // atowncalledtreffy
→ Doug Eiffel // littletonoidea
  ↳ Skye Riley // needanewbrain

E
→ Elim Rawne // major_rawne
  ↳ Jinx // ctrl_x

F

G

H
→ Hanna Falk Cross // falkeditupagain
  ↳ The Cat King // countthecats
→ Hythlodaeus // modestpurpose
  ↳ Ekko // ctrl_z

I
→ Ilde // generosite
  ↳ Alucard // symphonyofthenight

J
→ James "Bucky" Barnes // worthallthis
  ↳ Yelena Belova // musicdied
→ Jedao Two // deuceoftears
  ↳ The Eleven // degeneratefreak
→ John Doe // greatoldjohn
  ↳ Ashton Carver // anashthetic

K

L
→ Lester Sheehan // heyboss
  ↳ Maelle // escapeartiste

M
→ Magdalene Grace Garcia // talesuntold
  ↳ Mad Sweeney // madaboutit
→ Malcolm Bright // abrightboy
  ↳ Alastor // deerme

N
→ Norton Folgate // pharadyne
  ↳ Clement Varker // cameclosest

O
→ Oscar // unilaterallydisarming
  ↳ Vincent Smith // monsterstoyou

P
→ Princess Donut // queen_anne_chonk
  ↳ Qetzi'ah Morrison // rou_gui

Q

R

S
→ Saga Anderson // makethestory
  ↳ David Collins // hostileterritory
→ Sha Gojyo // cigsandbeer
  ↳ Ellie Williams // giraffic
→ Steve Rogers // punched_hitler
  ↳ Laura Moon // thedeadgirl
→ Sym // agardener
  ↳ Feldspar // gotfeldsparred

T
→ Taylor "Skitter" Hebert // skitter
  ↳ Angel Dust // harderdaddy

U

V
→ Vaggie // xangel
  ↳ Cloud Strife // nimbuster
→ Vincent Valentine // coffinturk
  ↳ Katie Slape // gulling

X
→ Wen Ning // verynormalturnipseller
  ↳ R // keephersafe
→ Wiktor Szulski // flawmaturge
  ↳ Lucifer Morningstar // totaldadbeat
→ Will Graham // empathicfault
  ↳ Wu Xin/Ye Anshi // skybeyondsky

X

Y
→ Yellow // howtheyshine
  ↳ Madelyne Pryor // queenofechoes

Z
→ Zerxus Ilerez // withintenfeet
  ↳ Kahl // takestime
→ Zhao Yunlan // wildguardian
  ↳ Sephiroth // sefirot

Last Updated: 2/15/2026

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Comments

[neverwaitslong]

Character Name: Ulla
Character Journal: neverwaitslong
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Ulla is a graduated inmate, and the issues she's struggled with in her own life include trust, rage, betrayal, revenge, sometimes unhealthy levels of devotion or codependence, ambition, feeling like an outcast or outsider, and trying to earn acceptance from people who were never going to offer it.

These are some of the issues she's best equipped to address as a warden. Ulla won't do well with an entirely adversarial inmate relationship; conflict is completely fine, feel free to metaphorically hiss at her like an angry cat, but she'll do best with someone who she has a sense of kinship with. Who earns her deep and stubborn loyalty by having feelings she can relate to, because she is intensely supportive when that happens. Her trust isn't easy to gain, but it is complete, an unwavering faith in the people she chooses.

Ulla built her whole life around one relationship, and was absolutely shattered when that broke. She caused a lot of destruction in the wake of that loss. She knows what it feels like to want nothing but revenge, and then to slowly claw her way back to hope and positive ambitions over the course of years. She knows how hard it is to trust anyone else after your life has been torn to pieces by the person you loved most.

So she also understands that trust is earned, and not to expect her inmate to offer it freely. Goodness knows she made her own warden work for hers. She waited patiently enough for revenge. She can wait for her inmate too.

She's had one inmate graduate so far. She comes as a two for one deal with her daemon, Hjerte (who she got in her deal with the Admiral.) Hjerte tends to be mildly more emotionally open and connected than Ulla since she was still a mountain of trust issues in the flood where they first met and he needed to balance that, but she manages a bit better without his help these days. She's had time to settle into herself, in terms of both her life without revenge and positive relationships with people.

[closeyourfist]

Character Name: Enver Gortash
Character Journal: closeyourfist
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Gortash has to learn to start choosing to break the cycles that made him. That means respecting that his decisions affect other people (including people that disagree with him) and making them with that in mind. He must also find safety in something other than complete and total control, especially when for now, at least, he is willing to sign off on some very unscrupulous things to maintain it.

Clear milestones will include:

1) An ongoing willingness to figure someone’s wellbeing other than his own in his decisions. If he is to be a leader then it cannot be just the odd ally, either, but that is a start. So this one has multiple tiers.
2) Opening up to trusting people. Not just as long as an agreement is in place on paper, but again that is only a starting point before training wheels come off. He need not be blindly placing his life in the hands of others, but there is a difference between having and enforcing clear personal boundaries and scorched earth as soon as it is most expedient.
3) He starts forming standards that do not allow for “any means necessary” as a byline. He might draw lines when there is an agreement in place, but those stop existing the second the other side breaks the deal. He should have some, or more, that are firm. He is smart enough to get where he needs to without this remaining the same, and it’s time he started acting like it.

A Warden will have greater success the more he is approached as someone who can reason out what is being done. If he is expected to do something, then you need to be prepared to answer why he should. Tell him how the machine is working, make the accord between the two of you clear, and he will be less resistant. However dismissive and commanding he appears, if he continues to hold counsel with you, then progress can always be made.

Make deals with him, hold him to them, and keep to them yourself. If he views you as inconsistent, then he will never trust you. (This is a sticking point for temporary Wardens: their consistency, as far as he is concerned, is over once the month is out.)

The subject of his past will be difficult to broach, the further back you go, and there are certain things he won't budge on. That does not mean they do not need to be addressed, but he is not going to be especially receptive. Expect to be shut down.

Don’t try to rule him unless it is unavoidable. He is much more cooperative with an ally, so don’t make yourself an enemy or rival.

There is a second wrinkle to this for temps: He is not going to showcase himself as anything but minimally willing to engage. If he needs something he needs a Warden to get and a temp is able to provide it, he will ask. If there is an emergency, he will contact. Wardens who manage this will have no complaints from him, and because he is generally amicable, there is not a lot of pushing.

Beyond that, he is not the easiest to bond with and will keep the conversation surface-level if anything. His personal bits are for permanent contract holders only, because then at least whoever knows things about him is obligated not to screw him over with information he wouldn't have given anyone willingly.

[notsoblackbeard]

Character Name: Edward Teach
Character Journal: notsoblackbeard
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Ed's been through a lot since he came to the Barge, having first started out as a warden, disappeared and came back canon-updated to an inmate (which ICly he viewed as the Admiral cheating him out of his deal) and has spent the last year adjusting to the new developments in his canon life, accompanied by a major change in his attitude, which had become negative to an extreme extent.

He had needed to regain a more positive attitude and remember how unhappy he'd become with criminal/pirate life in general, and ultimately forgive Stede (his love interest) for rejecting him (not that Stede really did, at least not to the extent Ed perceived), which was corrected by Stede's appearance on the Barge, and although it took Ed a while to truly believe that, ultimately he did; he was able to let go of his anger and subsequently became a warden once again, albeit a fairly cynical one. He'd be a pretty good match for anyone with even remotely similar circumstances.

[makingitworse]

Character Name: Bob
Character Journal: makingitworse
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:
The biggest and most pressing issue is self-esteem. Bob has internalized the idea that he "makes it worse" whenever he's around, and "it" can be literally anything. At his worst, he believes everyone else feels the same heavy void of depression that he does, and his unbalanced superpowers will actively try to spread it to others. Most of the time, though, he just believes that no one can ever really care for him and want him around, so he'll be ready to disengage at the first sign of disapproval from the other person. He needs people willing and able to give him attention, affection, and effort, and experiences where he helps more than hurts to start building up the idea that he does in fact have worth. What helps him most in canon is a group hug and the assurance that he's not alone. A caring, patient, and curious warden will be best for him.

In addition, he'll need to tackle the problem of his powers, his inability to control them, and their two clear sides. He comes into the game only vaguely aware he even has powers, not quite sure he believes what happened wasn't entirely in his head, and he'll need to learn about them to understand the damage they can cause and how to mitigate that. His warden will have to be ready to deal with the cleanup on things once the Void first comes out on board, because it will have to be confronted before he'll be ready to really move forward. This will also involve dealing with his repressed memories.

Finally, he clearly has bipolar disorder, even if he doesn't know the name for it, describing massive mood swings between manic high periods and much more common depressed low periods. Even one of the characters describing him from his medical study files points it out. He self-medicated with illegal drugs, and though the serum cured the physical addiction, the mental reliance may intrude if and when he gets any access to the drugs he used to use. If possible, he'll need to get treatment and maybe even proper medication for his disorder from somebody on board to really balance him out.

[palissant]

Character Name: Verso
Character Journal: palissant
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: He is around a hundred years old and treating him like a child or like someone whose desire for death is short-sighted or foolish will be the first way to ensure that he shuts someone out. Anybody trying to work with Verso from the angle of a warden will need to be very patient and be able to deal with his clear levels of bitterness and anger at being on the Barge. He will not be subtle about it and won’t pull any punches verbally when it comes to that topic of discussion.

Verso would need to be approached as a peer, not as someone who needs to be fixed, and while his more obvious problems may feel like the biggest red flags that need to be addressed they is really the last things that need to be focused on. Find out what interests him, be patient and slow in getting to know about him and his background (he would take a very dim view of a permanent warden reading his file without permission), and you’ll have a much better shot at him ‘working’ with you even if he isn’t doing it intentionally.

He does not need a parental figure - he’s had one of those and it didn’t turn out well. He needs a friend who will try to work with him, not a faux-authority figure or some kind of overseer/teacher-type to act like they know better than him.

It should be noted that although this is what he (ostensibly) 'needs', it is in no way what he wants. He is not interested in forming connections with others beyond surface level, if at all, and dislikes the fake/forced relationship that the pairing system seems to push. Even temps will have a hard time getting anything out of him other than a desire for them to just leave him alone.

[needanewbrain]

Character Name: Skye Riley
Character Journal: needanewbrain
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Honestly, Skye's not a bad egg. She's going to have a rough time with some of the brainfucky elements of the barge, given her history, and she might well backslide at first, but ultimately she'll knuckle through it. She's not too cynical to take help if she thinks it's her best option.

She desperately needs someone who will take her seriously. Take her discomfort seriously, as her mother failed to do, and her apologies and her fear seriously, as she wanted Gemma to do. Take the supernatural insanity and the pressures of stardom seriously for the ways they've damaged her, and take her seriously, as someone with substance, not just a popstar poster. She needs to accept accountability and her own guilt for Paul's death and find a way to move on without wallowing in it, or letting that guilt continue trapping her as a worse very of herself. She also needs to learn to be more aware of others in general, and have more awareness of the potential consequences of her choices when she's panicked and spiraling.

[artistinexile]

Character Name: Thrawn
Character Journal: artistinexile
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Thrawn is a graduated inmate who is staying on to secure a deal on behalf of his ex-warden Florian.

Thrawn has been a military commander for around forty years and it shows. He wakes early, has a precise schedule, doesn't know the meaning of the word 'messy' and takes his job very, very seriously. His time as an inmate was basically "I want to force everyone to get in line before we all die" and while he's finally relaxed his grip, he still has occasional bouts of paranoia while being aboard a vessel full of maniacs.

He's doubtful about his own ability to get things right with an inmate because he's very socially and politically naive. Thrawn is getting better, but he will occasionally run ramshod over the choices of others and not even notice he's doing it. However, if called out, he will course-correct.

That being said, he's going to be one of the hardest-working, most intense wardens on this ship. He takes graduation seriously, and will endeavor to protect, guide, and trust his inmate as he himself was trusted and guided. While most people look at someone with his service record and think rigidity, Thrawn actually plays it pretty fast and loose with the rules. He encourages imagination, creativity, and weird out-of-pocket plans. He doesn't know much about magic but knows people who do, and thrives in a scientific or sci-fi sense of things. Put him together with someone who wants to cause chaos just as badly as he does and let the fireworks fly.

[dogwizard]

Character Name:
Character Journal:
Status: Warden or Inmate
Pairing Information:

As a warden, Antryg will see himself as a combination of teacher and companion. He has personal experience in getting free of bad situations and the marks they can leave on someone. He has a deep sense of duty as someone with great power, even as he knows how dangerous it is to use that power. He takes a passionate delight in every breath and has a hope in the future that has gotten him labeled as crazy by basically everyone who’s met him.

He wants to trust people and is perhaps too quick to do so, even as he has a hard time truly trusting that people care about him after growing up knowing the love and care he was shown was a manipulation. He rarely judges people but clearly sees both the good people do and the bad and looks for the reason for both.

As a warden, he likely wouldn’t be the best for people who don’t care at all about what they’ve done or who don’t care strongly in general as his strength of belief can be overwhelming. He has dealt with too much senseless cruelty to believe that he, personally, is a good fit for helping someone change in that respect. He wouldn’t help someone who needs a warden who seems serious or who knows how to deal with society, as that’s not something he’s managed himself.

Antryg would be a good warden for people who need the support of someone who believes they can change no matter what. He is constantly wrestling with various moral questions and is open about that and ready to discuss how complicated it can be to figure out what’s right or wrong on both a large scale and a personal one. He offers an example of being yourself after trying to force yourself to be someone else for the sake of others. He will try again and again, even when he fails. He also has a deep insight into people because he pays a lot of attention to who they are.

[chopoffyourhead]

Character Name: Riddle Rosehearts
Character Journal: chopoffyourhead
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Riddle is a victim of parental emotional neglect/abuse, which is a driving factor of the majority of his issues and will play a very significant role in his graduation process.

Headstrong and stubborn as a mule, what will immediately become apparent is this opinionated teen is deeply in denial over his very death. He denies ardently that his subordinates and especially his co-housewarden pair could ever be directly involved. This has already started him under a pressure cooker of unresolved stress that has him quickly barreling towards another Overblot.

Riddle requires a firm hand to make him face his reality because he can and has easily avoided hot button issues by throwing himself into a multitude of work. And he can easily make more work for himself. Unfortunately, too much softness will be seen as weakness, and he will remain steadfast to his delusions.

That said, he is a deeply emotional individual, so he will need someone with appropriate emotional intelligence to help him once the floodgates finally open. At Night Raven College, feelings of vulnerability and distress are seen as weakness and an opportunity to be exploited, and Riddle will most certainly overthink any sort of awkwardness or hesitation.

This "denial and avoid" method will be a repeated cycle for Riddle, in the case you'd want your Warden to be prepared for that... or for the conflicts that arise from that. I'm all for a bumpy ride, which Riddle is pretty much guaranteed to have.

[cactusy]

Character Name: Sameen Shaw
Character Journal: cactusy
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Shaw will see the role of warden as that of a protector, an enforcer, and a guiding hand. She's much better at the first two than she is at the third, but she'll recognize the importance of all three, and will do her best to provide all of them. Being assigned people to look after is basically her job description at home, and she'll feel free to use similar tactics on the Barge, up to and including covert surveillance - so if your inmate needs someone who will monitor their activities closely, she could be a good pick! Buuuuuuuut if they need someone who will always be up front about how they're doing it, she definitely wouldn't be. UPDATE: After a couple years on the Barge, she has tempered this impulse somewhat (because the Barge isn't home, because the goals and expectations are different, because the dynamics are different), but only to a point; she won't necessarily attempt to surveil everything her inmate does the way that her team does with POIs, but she's still far more security-oriented than many wardens are.

When paired, Shaw's initial attitude will be very much "I'm here for a job, I'm not here to make friends"; while she has, at this point in her timeline, started to come around to the idea that personal bonds are something that she wants in her life, she still much prefers a small social circle, and she still usually takes a while to warm up to people. Even if she ends up growing close to her inmate eventually (not an inevitability, but also not outside the realm of possibility!), she'll always be comfortable with pulling rank when she thinks it's necessary. Blunt and direct to a fault, she'd flounder hard with inmates who would need to be handled with gentleness or sensitivity, but she'd do well with inmates who would need a firm hand and who wouldn't begrudge her some amount of professional distance, as well as with those who would benefit from a lot of hands-on learning. While needing to talk her inmate through some things is inevitable, Shaw is a very straightforward, concrete person who excels at action above all else, and her methods will reflect this: she'll rope her inmate into things like non-lethal self-defense training, useful service work on the Barge, and helping out during crises. All of this will be mandatory in her mind, with the logic that you can't pick up better behavior patterns without actually practicing them. UPDATE: After, again, a couple years onboard, she is now more open to the idea of forming friendships with her inmates instead of maintaining strict professional boundaries - but if she ever feels that the dual roles of friend and warden are in conflict, she will always prioritize what she considers to be her wardenly duties to her inmate, even when it means letting the friendship that she's built with them take a hit. She would still be a poor fit for an inmate who would require their warden to prioritize the personal aspect of their relationship over the professional one.

[littlestghost]

Character Name: The Knight
Character Journal: littlestghost
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: The Knight expressly understands that power comes in different forms, that respect matters, and that no one is under any obligation to take whatever shit they aren't fully willing to endure. Therefore it will not put up with any shit or disrespect from its inmate, and will stonewall them, intentionally or otherwise, until they act in a way that it accepts as sufficiently respectful or mindful.

While it's wildly bizarre to say who might work best for it as its inmate, it will likely be good for someone who's trying to delude themselves by buying into their own arguments and justifications, since the Knight will be an excellent sounding board for them to rubber duck code themselves out of their own bullshit. It'll be an excellent warden for anyone inclined towards violence, since while it's also a lethal combatant who can hold its own if so required, it also finds pleasure and peace in stillness and can encourage that in others (at nailpoint if it has to). It'll be bad for someone who needs extensive open communication, since it... can't, but excellent for someone who needs a warden that doesn't make any pretence of their motives, since what the Knight chooses to do is exactly what it wants and nothing more, often simply for the act itself being something inherently kind or noble; or even for someone who needs to be a teacher or guardian before they can improve, as the Knight will need a lot of teaching on how human norms and general communication skills work.

(That's not to say it's incapable of being a petty fucker or little gremlin, because it very much is. But again it makes no pretence of the fact it's being a shitheel.)

Communication might be tricky for other characters to deal with, especially in its early time on the Barge, since it can't speak and rarely if ever uses meaningful body language (though it is fully literate, and a moderately skilled artist); most other bugs talk to it normally, treating it like a particularly quiet normal person without it needing to reply, so part of its own journey will be learning how to actually communicate clearly, and make meaningful connections through its own smaller efforts, and not just running missions for people.

[superniceone]

Character Name: Gustave
Character Journal: superniceone
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Gustave will see his invitation to the Barge as a bit of a redemption opportunity for himself. He’s spent a large portion of his life preparing to confront the Paintress (the almost deific figure in his world who was widely believed to be the cause of society’s dwindling population), and then promptly failed in a pretty identity-shaking way. He is a stubborn idealist, and will approach his relationship with an inmate as an opportunity to improve some world, somewhere – which is an ideal that holds sincere merit for him.

He and his sister once adopted a young girl who was known for being a bit of an oddball and handful, who in her words ‘no one else wanted’; he afforded her the patience and grace to grow into her own. Gustave believes that people are inherently good, so largely he'll assume that anyone brought to the Barge is capable of redemption; he’ll do his best to afford them that same grace and understanding that he did his troublemaker little sister.

His wardening strengths would largely be 1) his ability to retain his composure in the face of the odd and the unusual, and 2) a mind that is both extremely scientifically analytical but also earnest and compassionate. His primary weaknesses would likely be 1) his high regard for human life might cause friction with inmates who exhibit obvious enough disregard for it, and 2) he’s never had the time to unpack the trauma of watching his team get massacred on the beach when their Expedition first landed. The way he froze up completely (and nearly took his own life following) has left him with a nagging sense of guilt and unease at his own powerlessness that could be easy to pick on.

Gustave would pair well especially well with inmates with academic or scientific backgrounds, because he’s a giant nerd and would find that an easy and authentic common ground to start establishing a relationship. He would find himself struggling if paired with someone prone to lashing out with physical violence, just because he wouldn’t know how to reconcile that with recovery.

[karsiteweave]

Character Name: Gale Dekarios
Character Journal: karsiteweave
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:
Gale Dekarios is mid-thirties ex-child prodigy who was taught by the goddess of magic herself, the lover of the goddess of magic herself (questionable ethics there), and then struggled once he hit his limits. He's judgemental, vacillates between broodily taking responsibility and painting himself a powerless victim, and believes if he was simply a stronger wizard (or, indeed, a god himself) he could resolve all life's problems. He thinks he lacks worth without magic.

He's also been party to a lot of murder, under the belief it was his only choice to survive.

Gale finds barges disquieting, because it doesn't quite fit with everything he knows about the gods and the afterlife. He resents being wardened, because life has been 'unfair' to him and being there alongside people like Gortash and the Dark Urge hurts. A warden too aggressive will likely have Gale shrink away and agree with whatever he needs to agree with to de-escalate. Too patronising (or, to his eye patronising even if they mean well) will have him sneer at them and cease to listen. He will need someone who can be a friend but also be firm with him rather than indulge him too much. Gale's worst traits only grow when unchallenged. His powers have been fully unlocked by his previous warden, Astarion, and he had just been coming out of a heavily suicidal patch when Astarion left that he may now bounce back into. Patience is required.

He is very emotionally vulnerable, and there's a pretty high risk he will attempt romance at the first sign of people being nicer to him than he is familiar with. The rebound from a goddess is pretty intense.

Additional note here: Gale comes as a character with heavy themes of religion and suicidal ideation. His goddess tells him to kill himself in order to destroy something for the greater good. There is also a suggestion she met Gale when he was very young, and was his tutor before they became lovers. The exact ages for those details are never confirmed. These things are pretty heavily tied into his story, so avoiding them would be papering over a lot of what puts him on the path he ends up on

[mercurialize]

Character Name: Kylar Stern
Character Journal: mercurialize
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Kylar is an honest liar. He’s manipulative and a control freak. He never shows what’s up his sleeve unless he knows he has full control of what’s seen and understood. He’s extremely good at reading people, yet terrible at acting on it. From his own training as a wetboy, he's extremely insightful and knows how to get into someone’s head and try to think as they do in an effort to predict their moves and actions. He’s not always amazing at it, but it’s saved his ass before. He has no problem lying to someone’s face or manipulating them if he thinks it’s for the best or their benefit in the long run. Regardless of tactic, he’s always going to try to do what’s “right” within that pesky moral compass of his. He is fine with breaking eggs to make the cake.

He’s also a fantastic stalker. He can go invisible both to mundane and magical sight (not both at the same time) and has a tendency to walk on ceilings and drop from them if they act as a decent hiding spot. He has the physical strength and magical ability to subdue some of the more violent types (but he’s no Hercules). He knows pressure points, he knows his poisons, he knows how much blood loss a body can withstand before it's too much and, naturally, how to knock someone out without killing them. He’s a capable healer (poisons and cures are two sides of one coin) and not the worst at talking his way out of trouble. On the outside, he just looks like a short kid with a slight build. He doesn’t look like he belongs in his profession and he knows how to use his appearance and the underestimation it brings to his advantage.

But he can be impatient. He rushes into things, he makes assumptions, yet simultaneously hesitates when decisions can’t wait. This could easily backfire if an Inmate acts out and he’s left deciding consequences.

Kylar would be a good fit for inmates that are trying to get out of impossible situations. A corrupt world that won’t leave them be, a family business they can’t escape from, a debt they have to pay with their life or someone else's. He’s from similar situations and one of the largest things holding him back during his own Inmate time was how to translate the “safety” of the Barge to the unsafe conditions of his homeworld (granted, that was literally 10 years ago, but minor details). Somehow, he figured it out. Hence, moral compass.

He’d be fine with murderers and violent types and he’s used to fighting opponents far stronger and skilled than himself with every day being life or death. He also enjoys his usual work of murder and violence. He revels in it! It’s enjoyable to him and he knows he’s good at it. So he will absolutely enjoy the spontaneity from the mundane that a violent inmate could provide! That all said, he would also never start a fight if he can help it. He'll never offer to spar unless he truly trusts the other and he'll generally keep anything about himself and his abilities hidden. He, too, has a lot of trust issues, especially regarding the safety of the ka'kari and his bond with it.

He’s also dealt and dealing with his own chasm of self-loathing, guilt and self-destruction. Ending it all is constantly on his mind with each of his failures. He’s been there, he is there. He gets it. No tactic he knows of is gonna help get out of that chasm, but he’s here for you, Inmate buddy. Or at least when his own self-loathing isn’t busy crushing him.

Lastly, Kylar does not do well with betrayals. He is fiercely loyal once that loyalty is earned and the Inmate will have to earn it just like he has to earn his Inmate’s trust (but will consistently argue he shouldn’t be trusted). But betrayals? Betrayals are paid with blood and it’s not a logic he’s ever shaken. An Inmate who lies to him is fine, an Inmate who betrays him or puts loved ones in danger is going to put him in a moral conundrum neither will likely walk away from unscathed.

He won’t mind if an Inmate insists they are a terrible person because he is too, but he will absolutely mind if they try to act out just for the sake of proving it. He won’t be able to handle those outbursts without potentially taking it too far.

In short, he's definitely a more laid back 'fuck around and find out' kind of warden but in a slightly threatening 'find out' kind of way... ♥

[handsome_rouge]

Character Name: Spy
Character Journal: handsome_rouge
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Spy is a very private man and already feels judged just by the simple fact that he’s here, forced to redeem himself or perish and accept what happens after that. This is bound to cause some tension for whoever ends up with him.

He does not open up easily. He won’t want to. His whole life was built off of masks and lies and he doesn’t trust anyone on this boat enough to stop now.
He will question every step of the way, wondering what makes his warden better than him that they get to tell him how to change.
They will need to prove themselves to him in one way or several. He won’t trust easy.

Milestones:
1) Gaining his trust. He doesn’t trust anyone on this boat and bristles at the fact that someone else could have an effect on his eternal fate. Getting him to trust you is essential for any breakthroughs we hope to have with him.
He won’t let them help if they aren’t someone he’s comfortable with.
2) Crack his shell. He won’t open up to his warden right away.
His main issue is stubbornness, his pride and the fact that he doesn’t believe he can truly be better than what he’s always been: a back-stabbing snake who hides behind his mask.
Getting past his shell is the hard part. It only gets worst from there.

3)Baggage. Underneath that hardened shell is a man carrying guilt from past mistakes, self-hatred for putting himself in positions that left him with no other choice but his work killing people for other people.
He doesn’t believe he deserves redemption either, nevermind if it’s even possible for him.


A warden would have to be patient but not a push over. Spy needs someone to make him face things. Not necessarily aggressive but someone who won’t back down if he snaps at them. He’s going to be an ass.
Don’t make him feel trapped. He will buck back harder. Don’t make him regret trusting you either because once the trust is broken with him, there are no second chances.

[abyssalflames]

Character Name: Lahabrea
Character Journal: abyssalflames
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Though he has eased up slightly on the Barge, Lahabrea will always come across as faintly stern at best. He is also both patient and stubborn, and is unlikely to be a good match for those who need readily expressed kindness. He is not cruel (far from it!) but neither is he really good at showing... any sort of emotion really, though he does have them.

That said, he will also stick by his inmates through thick and thin - he is not one to give up on something that he considers his duty, no matter how difficult might it seem to be. He is also perfectly fine with not being liked and will not, in fact, ask that his inmate do so. Other than that, he's good at handling most anything that isn't emotional (mostly for lack of practice) and is old enough that there is not a lot that is genuinely new.

[helluvamess]

Character Name: Blitzø
Character Journal: helluvamess
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Having been on the Barge once already would help A LOT - Blitzø would already be familiar with the shenanigans of floods, breaches, and ports and know a number of people on board. It would take a bit to adjust to himself being absent for a while and the impact of being back again on top of what he’s been through in his own canon, but at least the initial Barge arrival experience would be past him.

He would also have some idea of what wardening and graduation entails and roughly an idea of where he probably needs to be different. Blitzø would likely struggle with the idea of addressing his self-hatred - it is very deeply engrained after all - but he would assume that he needs to be a better person in general before he could graduate so he could be a “good warden”. The part he would struggle with is if he would want to graduate - the Admiral hasn’t exactly given him a lot of faith with some of the decisions he makes and so one milestone would definitely be Blitzø addressing how he feels about the idea of graduating and taking on a role of helping the Admiral.

Even if he comes around to the idea of being a warden like Trevor, caring for inmates and helping them navigate the Barge, then there’s the hurdles of how he needs to change and move forward. While he made a lot of progress on the Barge previously (more than I expected honestly) and some of this is reflected in his development in canon, the circumstances of his death would set him back a bit as he would see it as his own fault that he put his company and his family in danger with his recklessness.

[howheendures]

Character Name: Armand
Character Journal: howheendures
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

Perhaps the most important milestone is creating connections with other people. Armand considers humans as prey, but he also doesn’t really connect with other vampires (except the ones he falls in love with). The path to treating people better in general is to learn how to care for people at all. That giving up total control isn’t necessarily love, even if that was what he did, and work on a sense of self.

Armand has to admit that he has more agency in his life than he frequently believes, and that a lot of what he claims is ‘out of his control’ isn’t. It’s possible for things to change without manipulating someone into destroying everything. This is also tied to admitting to the ways he’s actually hurt people, instead of simply pretending (and frequently lying about what ‘crime’ he’s atoning for).

A good warden for Armand would probably have to tread a narrow line, given his long history with power dynamics. He plays up sympathy and vulnerability but doesn’t really have a way to cope with a genuine response to the fact that he has been extremely fucked up by stuff outside of his control, and it’s not just pretense to manipulate people. He has his pride (even if his self-respect can be questionable). He’s set in specific patterns, and he doesn’t have a map of how to escape them.

Armand’s not against the concept of redemption, even as he doesn’t want to confront what he’s actually done wrong, so there are ways to appeal to that even if it starts as a way to get a second chance at forgiveness instead of changing. He lies, manipulates, and blames other people for stuff like revealing he’s been lying instead of considering that the problem might be the lying. He’s also deeply unhappy, and the concept of not being that holds power.

[knowmyplace]

Character Name: Iago
Character Journal: knowmyplace
Status: Warden, lol
Pairing Information: Iago is a recently graduated inmate, but does not yet know what sort of warden he will be. He's cold and calculating and very good at making friends on the surface. He isn't warm and he isn't fuzzy and he doesn't tolerate shenanigans very well. Iago will be the sort of warden who is good for people who may not like the Barge or who may not want to vibe with the systems inside of it. He definitely isn't good for anyone who needs a relationship beyond polite friendship with their warden. That's not to say that it won't get there, of course! But it will take a while. Iago believes that the warden/inmate relationship should be a partnership and he is there as a guide and a model rather than someone who is going to hold their hand and walk them through redemption.

[struckanerve]

Character Name: Velvette
Character Journal: struckanerve
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Oddly enough, Velvette is the least bad of the Vees, which is a bar that's practically underground, but it makes her a little less difficult to work with. Part of what she needs to change about herself is that she doesn't need to make herself look like she's a "bad bitch" of sorts where she steps on people preemptively to keep people from going after her, especially since she enjoys doing that. Along with the whole believing that redemption is even possible since that's a concept also in her canon where she thinks is a bunch of bullshit and even mocks Charlie for thinking it's even possible and actively working to tear the princess down for it.

Interestingly it might be easier for Wardens to focus on the fact that despite being in Hell she does care about people, specifically her other business partners who make up the other parts of the Vees. Since while they would all claim that it's really just a business partnership she does care about Vox and Valentino despite them sometimes wearing on her last nerve, those are her boys and she can't stay mad at them. Except Vox in her current point given the whole reason she ended up here in the first place thing. But that'll take time to resolve.

As for Wardening styles, she's... a little difficult to work with. She doesn't take direction well and absolutely does not respond to heavy handed tactics since it just causes her to dig her heels in further than to really think about what's being said or done. Hilariously the easiest way to deal with her is probably manipulate her into thinking something is her idea or find a way to make her realize it is a good choice instead of forcing it on her. However, she will absolutely also need someone that can talk her down or force her down when she inevitably tries to go after someone whether physically or trying to just destroy their entire world around them. She's a vicious little shit that holds grudges easily and has no problem throwing herself into destruction of someone else if not stopped.

[inthebiblicalsense]

Character Name: Ethan Lamaire (Abel)
Character Journal: inthebiblicalsense
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Ethan is a warden with one graduation under his belt and a huge perspective change since his arrival on board.

The war is over, he is starting to unburden himself from the weight of the world and is ready for his next chapter in life and start living for himself rather than a cause.

He is still serious, he's still goal oriented and organized, but there is a light playfulness that is slowly sinking in and he wants to make sure that when he leaves the barge some of him can stay to help change it for the better.

[littletonoidea]

Character Name: Doug Eiffel
Character Journal: littletonoidea
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Eiffel was on the Barge previously for two and a half years, and with that comes a plethora of experience on Barge Specific Weirdness and how to be an actually decent warden, though through a series of unfortunate circumstances he himself has only graduated one inmate.

Despite the fact he comes from an otherwise (what he thought was) completely mundane world, Eiffel's experience with space survivalism, first alien contact and some genuinely traumatising fuck-ups of his own making, he's pretty experienced overall with whatever bullshit the Barge can throw at them, as well as anything his inmates can give him too. That's not to say he's unflappable or a picture of calm cool collected stoicism - Eiffel is consistently overreactive, even to minor inconveniences, and while he's perfectly capable of pulling it together when it actually matters, he recognises the emotional necessity of having a little shitfit about it first. And predominantly, it's his emotional maturity and intense desire to communicate effectively that makes him a good warden. His major strengths are going to be his approachability, his warmth and genuine empathy, and his nosy desire to learn more about the people he cares about, while also respecting their boundaries when he gets firm pushback. He'll be good for inmates with a stick up their ass, who need to learn how to unwind and enjoy the finer things in life, like not horribly murdering people.

What Eiffel is not, however, is a leader. He can take control of a situation if necessary, he's an extremely quick thinker and able to outwit people who underestimate his genuinely impressive intelligence, but he's not going to seek to take control of anything or anyone under his ostensible command, and that includes his inmate. He will try and be their friend first and foremost, but if he has someone who is particularly domineering or threatening, it's still relatively easy to cow Eiffel into submission. He's a staunch supporter of non-violent solutions and the president of team What's Wrong With Handcuffs, so he may not be suitable for an inmate where violence is an otherwise normalised part of their daily life. He has, however, proven good at being a Voice Of Reason for people who struggle with one of their own, and has a shocking amount of mileage with inmates through the power of 'If I Do A Violence Eiffel Will Be Disappointed In Me', so there's clearly something working there.

He also still speaks predominantly in Pop Culture Slang, and while he's less aggravating about it than he was when he first arrived, it's still an extremely well-formed habit, to the point that when Eiffel stops talking in references, something is wrong. He can also still be something of a jaded asshole, and persistent about petty grudges; if you do something to genuinely annoy him, you'll never hear the end of it.

ATTN: Mods

[needanewbrain]

Please permapair Doug Eiffel and Quinn Parsons/Skye Riley on 2/15!

Re: ATTN: Mods

[littletonoidea]

Copy that!

[goddammitdonut]

Character Name: Carl
Character Journal: goddammitdonut
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Carl is the world's most regular guy. He believes it and it'd be polite if you acted like you believed it. He hates drama, has very limited patience for pettiness, and is a real dipshit if you want to get shit past him on an interpersonal level. He's quiet and prefers to withdraw.

And he can pretty much punch a tank in half. Carl's world has ended a few times, now, the second time being the one that stuck. A regime-toppling, horrifyingly powerful murder machine crouches behind the eyes of a man who looks ready to explain how long it's gonna take to fix your suspension. He's fought gods on several occasions, and once in a while he won. So magic bullshit won't surprise him, but you acting like a selfish dickhead? That gets you the disapproval.

Carl's sympathies lie more on the axis of choice than depravity. He's a fucking war criminal these days, he doesn't care who you murdered. He cares why. He'll get more upset about jaywalking if you just did it to be a dick. Anyone trapped in a way they had no good exit can probably win him over, anyone who opted into their own selfishness is gonna struggle.

[everythinglost]

Character Name: Fitz Kreiner
Character Journal: everythinglost
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Fitz's heart is in the right place, even he sometimes wishes it weren't (and can bend a bit with the people he loves). He's cast in the role of a hero in a fairy tale, but not exactly by choice. He's a decent person, who would do anything to help if he thought it was for the best. He's dependable, brave, and a good friend. Apart from the last one, he'd prefer for people not to comment too much on those qualities. He's not a good role model, but he's grown a long way from the cynical bastard he once was, and has opened himself to other people.

He's also not someone who can be thrown by basically any sort of weirdness. He's seen it all and occasional gotten the t-shirt. Whatever he hears sounds about right, no matter how weird. In its way, that helps him cut directly to the heart of what people do - and he can be very forgiving of that. People just try their best to live. But he is very ready and willing to simply disengage from people he doesn't like, and there are certain things (being in a cult, hurting kids, hurting people for entertainment when you're in power) that tend to start on a negative foot.

[reflectedlight]

Character Names: Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley
Character Journals: reflectedlight & de_nile
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Out of character, the Moon Knight system's backstory involves content warnings for child abuse, child death, alcohol abuse, attempted suicide, and disassociation.

Marc and Steven are two of the canon's POV characters, Jake is not. Jake has very very little canon information. Most of the attention here is going to be Marc and Steven focused!

Marc, Steven, and Jake need, first and foremost, a trauma-informed warden that is acceptant of Dissociative Identity Disorder. The three of them are all identities or “alters” that share a mind, body, and developmental history. This is not a magical split personality situation and shouldn't be handwaved away with magic solutions. This is also not a system that would be helped with by an end goal of integration/fusion. They each know who they are, they are sentient, and they have self-worth and do not want to stop existing. The Marc alter is not more or less real than the Steven or Jake alters, even though he happens to be the one that still uses their body's wallet name. They also used to love each other very much, even though they won't act like it at first. They're each the reason the others survived what happened to them. They couldn't do it alone, so, hand in hand, they did it together.

And then they grew up. Steven forgot what they did. Marc retreated from him, not wanting to damage him. Jake hid himself so the other two didn't know he existed. They became fucked up, lonely adults.

The system's end goal is to accept each other, learn to work together, and to stop treating each other and their loved ones poorly out of shame and fear. Marc has to stop lying to and gaslighting Steven so he can use Steven as a form of escapism. Steven has to learn about Marc and then give him a fucking break and treat him like a human being, not a delusion or a monster. Jake has to be willing to be discovered at all, and then the other two have to not spiral in a panic about him existing.

More than that, though, is that the cruelties they inflict on each other are also ones they inflict on others. Marc has to stop lying to and manipulating everyone he thinks he has a right to protect. Taking away someone's information so you can control their choices is a fucked up way to show you care, even if the reason you're doing it is because you're ashamed and afraid to be rejected.

Steven needs to stop denying and repressing that anything is wrong, has ever been wrong, or will ever be wrong with him. Steven shows most strongly the system's preference towards avoidance, denial, repression, and internalizing the horrible shit their abuser said to them. Not all of this is his fault, because Marc's been messing with his perception of reality, but Steven is also, in a backwards way, a Marc problem. Marc becomes Steven when he wants to avoid his life, and Marc uses Steven to punish himself and reinforce the system's self-loathing.

The entire system needs to find Jake and talk Jake into not hiding from them and using the body to be a hit man for a bloodthirsty moon god. At least when Marc's a hit man for a bloodthirsty moon god, he's doing it as a form of self-flagellation. Jake seems to be into it. I'm against the speculation that Jake is an "evil" alter, it is more likely he's got the same kind of problems that Marc and Steven do: denial and over-protectiveness and self-loathing.

For more details, I recommend my application, because the Moon Knight system is pretty complicated. It's also easier to show than explain. If none of this makes sense, play with one of them a little, you'll get the gist.

[weirdnecro]

Character Name: Sokie Undertown
Character Journal: weirdnecro
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Sokie has been around for awhile when it comes to the Barge system- she was originally on a rogue ship for six years, and has been on the Barge itself for a little more then a year now. She's made a lot of friends of wardens and inmates alike, and she can say one thing:

The process sucks.

Having to change, and go through the process of learning who you are, the denial, the grief and the pain that come with it. She herself has difficulty with relationships, as she is someone who has previously gone through a lot of trauma and pain in the past- which can go hand in hand with being a nearly 700 year old necromancer.

Despite this knowledge, she is stubborn, blunt, and will not mince words if she thinks someone is being stupid. She might try to be nice, but that won't always be gentle.

Still, Sokie does love learning with people, teaching people along the way. She likes to help people with the thought process of why X is happening, and why Z may not be the result. Who might be suited best for her or vice versa may not be clear, but she is going to try, for both of their sakes.

Attn: Mods

[howheendures]

please temp pair Sokie & Armand Feb 15th

Re: Attn: Mods

[weirdnecro]

Seconded!

[hollywoodghoul]

Character Name: The Ghoul/ Cooper Howard
Character Journal: hollywoodghoul
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Cooper does not respond to being led, corrected, or enlightened by anyone, least of all someone coming along to call himself his keeper. Any warden who presents themselves as ethically or morally superior will trigger defiance and withdrawal. He responds far better to those who impose clear boundaries without issuing commands, and who maintain consistency rather than attempting constant persuasion. He does not need to be convinced that cruelty is wrong. He knows that it is and he does it anyway. He needs to be placed in situations where the ethical choice cannot be avoided and where he can see what happens when he makes that choice.
Cooper understands causality deeply, so a warden who focuses on concrete consequences rather than abstract moral condemnation will work better. He is also more receptive to wardens who acknowledge their own moral compromises, not to center themselves but to blur that line between warden and inmate. It’s very important that trust be gained very slowly. For example, immediate forgiveness will feel dishonest to him and reinforce his belief that morality is shallow and performative.
As far as techniques, shame and embarrassment is perhaps the worst approach for a warden. Cooper already believes that he is irreparably damaged and that he cannot change and should not be allowed to be given the chance.The most effective methods for reaching him involve choices and responsibilities without coercion. Presenting him with situations where every available option carries ethical weight forces him to engage without being directed. Drawing on his past as an actor can also be effective. For example, asking him to articulate who he believes himself to be and how that identity has shifted over time would be a good thought experiment for him later on in his redemption. Giving him a job that requires care while denying him true authority directly challenges his tendency to believe that responsibility is the same as control. Just as importantly, silence can be a powerful tool for a potential warden. Cooper often processes more in quiet observation than confrontation, and restraint on the part of a warden is essential.
Cooper Howard, the Ghoul, is not the sort of inmate who will graduate quickly. Even on the Barge with the help of a warden and the Admiral, his progress will be slow, uneven, and probably really discouraging to anyone who is watching. But if redemption is more or less the continued choice to reduce harm despite how he feels and despite the world being an absolute shithole, then he is capable of it. His graduation will be the moment he realizes that he no longer needs to believe the world is irredeemable in order to endure living in it.

Chase Collins

[fifthofthecovenant]

Character Name: Chase Collins
Character Journal: fifthofthecovenant
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Chase is a graduated inmate with one inmate graduated behind him, himself, and he still only kind of knows what he's doing. He's not a social person-- he's something of a misanthrope in general, and a dramatic kind of nineteen to book-- but the important thing is he's trying. He's well aware that the things he has to offer to an inmate are a bit limited. Mostly right now, they sum up to his experiences as an inmate, wanting to die out of guilt and fear but learning to accept love anyway, issues with magic, and now a kind of aimlessness as his biggest goal has been achieved and he doesn't know where his life is going next.

As he is going to be continuing to work on himself to make himself a better person, though, he will be able to work alongside an inmate to help them with similar issues to the ones he has. He'll generally work best with inmates who aren't going to disrespect him because he's young, who have an interest in magic, and who either don't mind that he's still a bit of a jerk sometimes, or can be a jerk right back in the spirit that it's meant, rather than over-reacting. (He's maybe hoping for another teenage witch to fall out of the sky and be perfect for him.)