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: 7/15/25

Unpaired Wardens
Anduin Llane Wrynn // bythelight
Chase Collins // fifthofthecovenant
Edward Teach // notsoblackbeard
Elim Rawne // major_rawne
Fizzarolli // foolforlust
Hythlodaeus // modestpurpose
John Rambo // theydrewfirstblood
Misty Quigley // citizendetective
Oscar // unilaterallydisarming
Red XIII/Nanaki // cosmomemoryxiii
Reno // general_affairs
Rosita Espinosa // handleyourshit
Samwise Gamgee // droppinnoeaves
Sha Gojyo // cigsandbeer
Shuos Mikodez // packhounds
Thara Celehar // witnessforthedead
Tifa Lockhart // championbelt
Ulla // neverwaitslong
Vaggie // xangel
Vash the Stampede // love_and_peace
Wen Ning // verynormalturnipseller
Yennefer of Vengerberg // violetchaos

Unpaired Inmates
David Collins // hostileterritory
Ellie Williams // giraffic
Enver Gortash // closeyourfist
Erskine Ravel // golden_ratio
Frank Castle // smackdab
Gemini de Mille // stretchy_girl
Iago // knowmyplace
Madelyne Pryor // queenofechoes
Mahito // embodimentofperfection
Matt Murdock // trustinthedevil
Nancy Downs // theweirdos
Qetzi'ah Morrison // rou_gui
R // keephersafe
Robert "Bob" Reynolds // makingitworse
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ // causuality

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)

Anduin Llane Wrynn // bythelight and Qetzi'ah Morrison // rou_gui
Archer // anti_altruisms and Robert "Bob" Reynolds // makingitworse
Chase Collins // fifthofthecovenant and R // keephersafe
Elim Rawne // major_rawne and Frank Castle // smackdab
Hannah Finch // datgirl and David Collins // hostileterritory
John Rambo // theydrewfirstblood and Mahito // embodimentofperfection
Norton Folgate // pharadyne and Clement Varker // cameclosest
Oscar // unilaterallydisarming and Nancy Downs // theweirdos
Red XIII/Nanaki // cosmomemoryxiii and Madelyne Pryor // queenofechoes
Rosita Espinosa // handleyourshit and Erskine Ravel // golden_ratio
Samwise Gamgee // droppinnoeaves and Gemini de Mille // stretchy_girl
Sha Gojyo // cigsandbeer and Ellie Williams // giraffic
Thara Celehar // witnessforthedead and ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ // causuality
Tifa Lockhart // championbelt and Enver Gortash // closeyourfist
Wen Ning // verynormalturnipseller and Iago // knowmyplace
Wiktor Szulski // flawmaturge and Vauhan Istradez // droppedstitch

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

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

→ Abel // inthebiblicalsense
  ↳ Fitz Kreiner // everythinglost
→ Aerith Gainsborough // planetdialup
  ↳ Ciel Phantomhive // thespareone
→ Arthur Lester // lestercraft
  ↳ Sokie Undertown // weirdnecro
→ Astarion Ancunín // sixfeetofdirt
  ↳ Gale Dekarios // karsiteweave
→ Avalon // chaos_drifter
  ↳ Cheradenine Zakalwe // weaponuser

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

D
→ D'Vana Tendi // notthatkindoforion
  ↳ Stede Bonnet // the_gentleman_pyrate
→ Dennis Collins // onlyhearmusic
  ↳ Trevor Belmont // atowncalledtreffy

E

F
→ Florian Leickenbloom // a_titanium
  ↳ Thrawn // artistinexile
→ Fred Burkle // supercompacted
  ↳ Cloud Strife // nimbuster

G

H
→ Hanna Falk Cross // falkeditupagain
  ↳ The Cat King // countthecats

I
→ Iris Wildthyme // routemistress
  ↳ Eric Northman // bythenorthsea

J
→ Jacob Seed // weaponwithoutapurpose
  ↳ Cain // reargunner
→ James "Bucky" Barnes // worthallthis
  ↳ Yelena Belova // musicdied
→ Jedao Two // deuceoftears
  ↳ Justine Florbelle // todayiwas
→ John Doe // greatoldjohn
  ↳ Ashton Carver // anashthetic
→ Julian Bashir // surgeryandsarcasm
  ↳ Steven Universe // inthepink

K

L
→ Lahabrea // abyssalflames
  ↳ Kadaj // brattyremains
→ Lark Tennant // ukan
  ↳ Vincent Smith // monsterstoyou
→ Lester Sheehan // heyboss
  ↳ Max Thompson Jr. // killingtool

M
→ Magdalene Grace Garcia // talesuntold
  ↳ Mad Sweeney // madaboutit
→ Malcolm Bright // abrightboy
  ↳ Walter Tattersall // forensicks

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

O

P
→ Paul "Jesus" Rovia // hippie_ninja
  ↳ Yazoo // slingingbullets

Q

R

S
→ Sam Walls // yosemitevamp
  ↳ Armand // howheendures
→ Sameen Shaw // cactusy
  ↳ Angeal Hewley // weartearrust
→ Shuos Mikodez // abrightboy
  ↳ Iago // knowmyplace
→ Steve Rogers // punched_hitler
  ↳ Laura Moon // thedeadgirl

T

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

U

V
→ Vincent Valentine // coffinturk
  ↳ Katie Slape // gulling

X
→ Wiktor Szulski // flawmaturge
  ↳ Vauhan Istradez // droppedstitch
→ Will Graham // empathicfault
  ↳ Wu Xin/Ye Anshi // skybeyondsky

X
→ Xigbar // brokenallthelaws
  ↳ Ilde // erbier

Y

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

Last Updated: 6/30/2025

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Comments

[golden_ratio]

Character Name: Erskine Ravel
Character Journal: golden_ratio
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

When thrown into a new situation, or any situation, Erskine will do what he's best at: working to get along with people. The lying and manipulation is thrown in for free. He'll do his best to give off the image he's cultivated for centuries, because he's had centuries to practice. He doesn't have any clear plans for the future, which is a big shift from what's driven him for the last few centuries. His life is weird enough that he's very unlikely to be thrown off by any flood or breach, he's mainly concerned with being as social as possible. He genuinely likes people, and it's useful to be liked. He does his best to get along with people, and he's good at hiding that he holds grudges. Meeting people from worlds that have suffered from environmental disasters or whose people are oppressed with make him feel even more justified.

Ravel will never deny that he has done things that require redemption. However, he has a lot of ways of covering the 'what'. He admits to having fought in wars. He might say that he was working on a revolution, especially to people who aren’t human, but will tend to glide over what it was meant to accomplish and focus more on the danger he feels mortals represent. He won’t lie about having magic but it might be a bit until he brings it up. He is very careful to avoid letting slip that he killed his friends and betrayed people who thought they were his allies because that’s not the sort of reputation you want when trying to make friends.

Erskine is actually a big proponent of redemption and believes that he needs it. Unfortunately that doesn’t make it easy. In his view, redemption isn’t something internal. He believes that it comes through making up for it through time and action. Enough time spent doing the right thing will bring balance or if the outcome of your actions are ultimately for the best it makes up for what you did to get there. Thus when he decides redemption is possible for himself he’ll try to find something to do not address what he needs to change. There’s a danger he’ll find another cause to throw himself into.

Any warden for Erskine would need to be someone who's good at getting through lies and distraction. They’ll have to be someone he respects. Someone who tried to impose authority upon him would be met with obstruction and slightly hidden mockery. He has no problem dealing with abrasive personalities but if they have an ego then they have to be able to back themselves up. He has spent a very long time arguing for his cause and he’s not going to be easily swayed.

A warden he'd listen to would be one willing to listen to his arguments and react to what he's saying. They’ll have to be able to disagree with him based off reasonable objections and not entirely on moral grounds. He's made progress on being more introspective, but it's still limited. He’ll talk about actions and his cause but it’s difficult to get him to address his feelings in any depth. He has to deal with his experiences of torture and how it has affected him, both times. He needs to separate the things he’s probably right about – that mortals will discover the existence of magic, that there is every chance they won’t react well – from his actions dealing with the problem. He did, in fact, have a choice.

BARGE UPDATE: Erskine won't immediately remember his prior experiences on the Barge, but even before he regains his memories those experiences have affected him. He made genuine connections, without the layers of lies he was used to. He's aware that he needs to decide what sort of future he wants, and find a place where he can have it. He's somewhat aware that his personal feelings of anger and betrayal played a part in some of the actions he'd claim were just purely practical. He has a long way to go, but these are all very important steps.

[cigsandbeer]

Character Name: Sha Gojyo
Character Journal: cigsandbeer
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Gojyo grew up a juvenile delinquent, having been thrown out on the streets on his own at a young age after an abusive early childhood: he knows painfully well how circumstances beyond your control can shape what kind of life you end up living. He's non-judgemental, will be protective of his inmate, especially those on the younger side, and is quite laizzes-faire: if his inmate tells him to fuck off he will, and if they later change their mind and reaches out to him he'll respond, no questions asked. Don't want to talk? Fine, they can just play cards instead. Chances are he'd struggle to accept the type of inmate that looks like a little kid but is really an ancient monster.

Good for:
- inmates who don't respond well to authority figures.
- inmates who need a warden that isn't intimidated by violence.
- inmates who need accepting/socialising as part of their rehabilitation.
- inmates who need proof you don't have to be a squeaky-clean goody-two-shoes in order to graduate.

Bad for:
- inmates who need their warden to show a high degree of professionalism.
- inmates who need need a lot of intellectual conversation (he can do talks about feelings! not so much schools of philosophy).
- inmates who need to be pushed into wanting to graduate.
- inmates whose main issues involve abandoning others; Gojyo's own abandonment issues will get in the way of that bad.

[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.

[major_rawne]

Character Name: Elim Rawne
Character Journal: fork_off
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Rawne is a much more relaxed warden, now. He's had a bunch of temps and helped Avalon graduate. He's still inclined to be strict about some things, especially weapons, but he's more confident in himself and knows he can emotionally connect with his inmate. Which he wants to do. He still remembers how Quentin allowed him to access and process his emotions and he wants to help another inmate do the same thing.

[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. 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.

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.

[droppinnoeaves]

Character Name: Samwise Gamgee
Character Journal: droppinnoeaves
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Sam has been here before, and largely graduated Wu Xie through allowing him to grow where he needed to with gentle encouragement and friendship. But Wu Xie was an exceptionally easy inmate.

Sam is a father of 13, and he'd be the first to tell you that twelve of them are smarter than he is, and the thirteenth probably will be as soon as he's able to hold up his own head. But he's never felt over-matched by them. Sam has his own kind of intelligence, rooted in empathy and the urge to see things grow and flourish. He's also a gardener, and knows that pruning and weeding are needed to keep a thing healthy.

He'll be good for an inmate who needs to learn trust, as Sam is reliable to his bones. When he's handed a commitment, it becomes his whole objective until it can called complete. And to Sam, that commitment is indistinguishable from love.

But there are kinds of evil he cannot abide, and so inmates who seek to harm others not because of their own hurts, but just for greed won't be a good match for him.

[rou_gui]

Character Name: Qetzi'ah Morrison
Character Journal: rou_gui
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

🍄 OPT-OUT 🍄

Qetzi is consumed by the past. She is going mad with the faeries because she does not know whether to just let go or wreak some horrible vengenace on Haran, so that she can rebuild the family. She has no conception of herself as her own woman as separate from the family. The faeries have presented an option to her to do something else, but she is so hesitant to leave the path her family has carved out. While her father was a 'regular' human man, she was not raised with him. She cannot imagine a modern life for herself.

She needs to deal with her grief.

In story, she is very deeply and spiritually tied to something evil and on the Barge she could potentially find a way to sever that connection and be free. She would have to accept and want this, which will be a challenge because of her deep love for her sisters. She will lose a connection with them if she severs herself from the Hill.

There are challenges for Qetzi in trying to change. She has a foot in two open doors, and both want her commitment:

🍄 Morrison Blood- One particular challenge she will face as a Morrison is that they are inclined towards greed and possessiveness. They want in a very abusive and controlling manner.
🍄 Faerie Spark - The faerie magic inside of her doesn't always just sit quietly. It can take over and she can be found dancing and singing to herself, or lashing out with cruel tricks for no reason at all.

She has some ability to resist, but both have their way with her at times. She needs to pick one, or reject both. She will have to wrangle her preternatural inclinations somehow in order to change with intention.

[foolforlust]

Character Name: Fizzarolli
Character Journal: foolforlust
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
An easy going and fun attitude would likely be Fizz's starting point, something which is supportive, but not necessarily something that would help forward much change. It's when forced into the more serious and emotional moments that Fizz would shine, when he stops thinking of how best to help and just does what comes natural, being a good friend, with a keen understanding of people.

He has seen that people can change, and the importance of forgiveness first hand- reconnecting with Blitz after 15 years of (mostly) misplaced hatred and resentment. Both of them were lied to, and had they talked sooner, they might have repaired their friendship yeas sooner.

As Fizz can be highly unserious, he would struggle if paired with the silent brooding type who never laughs. They would likely not appreciate his antics, and Fizz would struggle to relate.

He does still struggle with issues around perfectionism, and this may interfere with his ability to succeed if there is a stumbling block in his partnership. He would need to deal with his own inadequacy to be able to affectively help his inmate achieve redemption. Ultimately, being able to grow from that would be good for Fizz, and help him to become a more effective Warden.

He would do well with inmates who are more lighthearted and fun, obviously, able to clown around and be their pal. But I believe he would do better than he thinks with the overly serious, the quiet loners with a grudge, who have been hurt by the world. People than need to learn to lighten up a little to help progress on their journey.

[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.

[cosmomemoryxiii]

Character Name: Red XIII / Nanaki
Character Journal: cosmomemoryxiii
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Red will view his role as warden as a very serious matter and treat it as such. He will try to be noble and honorable as his warrior tribal nature dictates. As it is what he signed up to do, he will constantly be eager to help and figure out what to do in order to get his inmate to graduate. This might be hard for him to figure out at first as he learns to balance the eagerness to help with a fierce beastly perspective on the law of nature, but he would strive to learn from others and find what works best for himself and his inmate together. He is a good listener and often offers wise advise on matters. He will be keen to impart both lessons of humanity and beastly qualities, and have a good understanding of both upstanding morals and how such morals can be lost in the struggle to survive an unforgiving world. He has experience with the struggle to maintain honor and humanity while also being a fierce beast in a world that views him as such due to his appearance. He has a lot of book knowledge as well as wisdom gained from traveling all over the world. However, Nanaki's biggest weakness will be that he is still technically young for his species and matters of the heart sometimes effect him hard. He is good at hiding his doubts and fears and remains calm under duress, but underneath it all he's still a child and learning to cope with his own insecurities even while he encourages others to be strong and brave.

Nanaki would probably best be paired with inmates that need a good listener to help them along or people that struggle with an inner rage versus good morality. While he could handle an inmate that wanted to fight with him all the time, he might do better with someone that is at least willing to listen to his advice or talk to him freely if not quite want to graduate. He would do really well with individuals who aren't very human shaped or "normal" by their world's standards the same way that he's different people shaped as well. Along that same line, he would also do best with people that wouldn't look down at him being a four-legged species rather than humanoid. Similar to Aerith and for the same reason, he might not do so well with certain types of scientific or medical inclined people especially if their morals are corrupted to the point they don't understand why experimenting on individuals is wrong.

[queenofechoes]

Character Name: Madelyne Pryor
Character Journal: queenofechoes
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

This is Madelyne's third round on the Barge, and the one in which she's made the most progress. She's actually started unpacking her vast array of baggage and the collateral damage it's caused; she's made earnest connections with people that aren't just means to an end; she's managed to face loss and not wield that grief as a weapon against people who didn't deserve it. She does carry a lot of resentment for the Admiral specifically, between the Narrenschiff and Edwin's disappearance, but that doesn't mean she won't use him for her own ends.

Ultimately, she wants to be alive again; she wants to rule Limbo and defend her people. She wants to graduate and use those deals for her lost Warden, if he hasn't returned in the meantime. She wants to be the hero of her own story, and she's been learning how to do that step by step. It's not likely that anyone will understand her quite the way Edwin did, but as long as they're willing to hear her perspective that won't be an insurmountable barrier.

Someone who’s more practical than idealistic would probably work better, because while it’s important for her to indulge in compassion and move beyond her most cynical tendencies, she’ll always be a pragmatist. She needs someone who can shepherd her without making her feel controlled, who can hold her accountable for inevitable mistakes without condemning her for them, and who can talk her through all the complexities of morality she's finally been facing on the Barge instead of stubbornly ignoring.

[keephersafe]

Character Name: R
Character Journal: keephersafe
Status: Inmate

Pairing Information: As R came aboard willingly and with knowledge of what’s expected of him he will react relatively positively to wardening, however he will need one that won’t just allow him to follow them around like a lost puppy (thereby mirroring them rather than Perry/etc, and not actually finding himself). Though it would probably be quite tempting for some wardens to want to ‘look after’ him as he can give off an air of helplessness, he would be better suited to one who would give him more of a push towards being independent while not leaving him completely out on a limb.

He will not want to be ordered around or looked down on, but he will take direction well. R is not unable to realise when something someone is telling him to do is wrong and will respond accordingly, quickly showing any warden who thinks he might be a bit "simple" that he is anything but. It isn't too difficult to build trust with him - he wants to be liked and he enjoys social interaction.

[citizendetective]

Character Name: Misty Quigley
Character Journal: citizendetective
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Misty is a graduated inmate whose path to redemption largely centered around learning to respect boundaries, learning that the end doesn't always justify the needs, and learning to treat others as fully-realized people rather than as little dolls that she could move around to her liking in botched efforts to enrich her own life - and like so many former inmates, she'd do well with someone whose thoughts and behavior patterns reflect how her own used to be, because look! She's been there! She gets it! As a former off-putting Weird Kid^TM who grew up into an off-putting Weird Adult^TM and whose graduation hasn't at all fully shed her of that weirdness, Misty would honestly be delighted to end up with a creepy slimeball of an inmate who nobody else much likes. Get in loser, it's time to learn how to be a better person even though you have zero charisma and you suck at empathy.

As a warden, Misty won't be harsh or authoritarian, but she won't be naive or a pushover, either: she's intelligent and observant, and good at spotting lies, manipulations, and inconsistencies. The part of her that likes puzzles and problem-solving would enjoy having an inmate who kept her on her toes, so someone who would need a lot of clever thwarting could pair well with her (though on the flip side, a hack-n-slasher who would need a lot of physical intervention might not be the best choice). Her wardening style is definitely one that will involve a lot of discussions, both practical and theoretical - and she'd likely take a page out of her own warden's book and assign her pair pro-social homework and challenges.

Finally, she would probably do best with an inmate who didn't know her before her own graduation, as she's prone to being a bit touchy and defensive around people who knew her inmate self. Longer-term inmates aren't a deal-breaker, but head's up that things might be a little weird at first!

[theweirdos]

Character Name: Nancy Downs
Character Journal: theweirdos
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: The two main goals Nancy will need to clear in order to graduate are 1) finding a more positive outlet for her anger than lashing out at the world, and 2) understanding how to use power responsibly, and that there's a lot of space between not being the strongest person in the room, and being a victim. Ideally, she'll also learn that limitations aren't just there to control her and keep her weak, though this is likely to come as a part of having a good warden, and won't necessarily have to be actively worked on like the other two points.

She won't do well with a warden who leans heavily on their authority and tries to impose rigid restrictions on her activities or schedule. The harder they push her to obey, the harder she'll ignore or rebel against anything they ask of her, even if the request would otherwise be reasonable. She also won't do well with a warden who tries to take on a paternal role, which may be tempting given her age. She has no real positive association with paternal figures, and a lot of negative ones. (She won't really appreciate a warden who tries to play mom, either, but that's both a bit less fraught and, given gender balance, a lot less likely.)

The biggest difficulty any warden will have with her, though, is that keeping her powers tightly bound is a direct road to failure. She needs to learn to reframe power so she doesn't always feel the need for more, doesn't feel the need to constantly assert her dominance in order to feel secure. She won't learn this from a position of powerlessness. That's where she's lived her entire life, and that's what's taught her to need to be on top of the heap. More of that won't help her. At the same time, giving her power back too quickly will just lead to her acting out and digging herself deeper, and give her warden a lot of messes to clean up.

Wardens who might do particularly well with her are people who have had to learn to manage and direct their own anger at the world, and who are willing to acknowledge that the anger's still there even though they have a positive outlet now, wardens who have experience with feeling helpless, discarded, or disrespected and have lashed out because of it, or wardens who have misused power and come back from it.

[smackdab]

Character Name: Frank Castle
Character Journal: smackdab
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

Anyone who gets paired with this guy is in for the ride of their life. Frank doesn't believe, nor wants redemption. There's no point because he doesn't plan to stop taking out the bad people who do shitty things to good people. And there's no sense in trying to reason with him. He doesn't seem to care about the what opinions others may have on the matter, nor does he expect anyone to see it from his side.

A warden for Frank will need to be extremely patient and not come across as someone above him. He does not trust easily and knowing he's been paired will be too much like having superiors and senior officers who, in the past, have steered him wrong and betrayed hi. Anyone who does try to pull a power card can expect a lot of resistance and pushback. Same goes for anyone wanting share what worked for them.

Frank is likely to do the best with an inmate graduated warden, who maybe has gone through their own journey. He'd be drawn to someone who shares a similar background and might be familiar with any branch of the military and/or has lost loved ones to gun violence.

[unilaterallydisarming]

Character Name: Father Oscar
Character Journal: unilaterallydisarming
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Oscar is a man who comes from a place of compassion. While he is a priest, and a vanilla one at that, he has faced terrible dangers and terrible loss from a young age. But he continues to choose to do the best for people, and will continue to be hopeful to ensure the best path.

That being said, Oscar is also a man that can hold fast to a hard line. While he may come across as open minded and at times even nervous, if there is a need for someone to say 'no' or for quick action to be taken to ensure danger is done and past- Oscar is your guy.

That being said, Oscar does have his own problems he's bringing to it, and for those who want to use force against him- well. He is coming in one armed, scarred from a recent brush with the eldritch that nearly killed him.

But he is here, and wanting to do some good while he's here. He wants, above anything, to help, because he can.

[theweirdos]

Please temp pair Nancy and Oscar for June!

[unilaterallydisarming]

Seconding this!

[love_and_peace]

Character Name: Vash
Character Journal: love_and_peace
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Vash is delighted to work with whoever he is paired with, to help them find better ways to resolve their problems and to come around to view the world as a wonderful place made of love and peace!

More than half of his very long life has been spent actively trying to help people, whether that help looked like carrying groceries or fighting off bandits. His methods aren't the healthiest though, so let's just get that detail out of the way right up front. Vash is the kind of person who thinks it's better to get shot (in a survivable way) than to kill somebody. If somebody's going to jump in front of a bullet, or taunt a crowd of bullies into beating them instead of harrassing somebody else, it'll be Vash. That said, he does understand that his method of pacifism isn't for everyone -- it's just that this is all he knows, so working with his inmate will be a learning opportunity for them both.

He's a big fan of public service, especially the physical kind, so Vash's inmate can expect to find themselves volunteered for trash pickup duty, and cleaning the kennels at the vet's office, and any other menial tasks that Vash identifies that look like something nobody else wants to do. Vash will be at their side the whole time though -- he's not about to send someone to to work he's too good to take on himself! In fact, he's going to be stuck to his inmate's side like glue at first. He'll be outside their door first thing in the morning, and he'll try to drag them with him all over the ship to discover the joy and wonder of seeing new places and making new friends and not hurting them.

Just wait until he discovers that there's therapy available onboard! He's going to be completely insufferable about pushing his inmate to go talk to a real professional about their feelings.

When all that doesn't work, though, he'll be willing to try anything else, because at the end of the day, Vash doesn't know what he's doing. He's here because he wants to help, and he's had some luck (if you can call it that) especially recently in showing some folks that there's a better way to live than one where people have to die. He knows that his methods aren't for everyone -- in fact, outside of the volunteering part, he would be worried to see anyone being as self-sacrificing as he is.

His biggest strengths are going to be his patience (he will not abandon the responsibility placed on him) and his lack of ego about self-improvement methods. He'll take suggestions from anyone about things to try, and he'll listen to his inmate, too. In fact, listening to his inmate will come first -- he'll want to know all about them, about the choices they've made and the choices the choices they were forced into, about why they do the things they do. This isn't a power trip for him -- he's here as an act of service.

As a note for his inmate pairing: his inmate can argue with him all they like, but Vash won't stand passively back while his inmate physically hurts anyone. He's been fighting with his words and his fists in equal measure all his life, and he will knock his inmate down if that's what it takes in the moment to stop them from attacking somebody else. Vash has a temper, he's very impulsive, and there's a 150 years of trauma that he's actively repressing all the time. If he's paired with a physically violent inmate, they will end up fighting.

[hostileterritory]

Character Name: David Collins
Character Journal: hostileterritory
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:
He's going to need a warden with patience. He'll be slow to challenge them, quick to acquiesce to what they want, and unlikely to let himself form an emotional connection if one doesn't already exist.

His conditioning means he's going to need someone sensitive to the fact that he almost literally can't say no if something isn't in opposition to his current 'mission.' Someone willing to work with his limitations and find ways around his conditioning that don't punish him for what he can't immediately help. Someone with Creative Anti-Murder Problem Solving Skills. C:

The the number one necessity in a warden for him: compassion. He has to remember why feelings are worth it. He needs someone to make him actually think outside of the context of military applications and mission parameters. He also needs someone who can respect what the military did for him before it started doing things to him, who won't disrespect the ideals of the institution he pledged himself to, but will make him examine whether or not the institution lives up to those ideals.

TLDR: He needs someone to get the engine on his humanity to turn over.

Chase Collins

[fifthofthecovenant]

Character Name: Chase Collins
Character Journal: fifthofthecovenant
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Chase is a recently graduated inmate and he honestly has no idea 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 boot-- 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, and issues with magic. 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.

[modestpurpose]

Character Name: Hythlodaeus
Character Journal: modestpurpose
Status: Warden

Pairing Information:

He will first approach his given role with curiosity and will reach out to each inmate that he is temporarily paired with in order to try to get an idea of what they might be expecting out of their time on the Barge and how they anticipate their path moving forward, as well as how he may be able to connect to them on a personal level if they would wish it. With a permanent inmate, he will be open to listening to their views and concerns and be kind but determined in a potentially infuriatingly dogged way when it comes to their welfare, emotional or otherwise. He would not be aiming to rush or push an inmate to graduate but rather trying to find out what their personal goals are and how can help them to be achieved (within reason, since he can’t simply magic somebody off the Barge entirely).

Hythlodaeus would be best fit with an inmate who does actively want to graduate on some level, or at least is open to not shutting him out. He isn’t above being sassy and spicy towards those who give him attitude and he’s accustomed to working with difficult, stubborn, and colourful personalities, but if someone is determined to stonewall him forever there’s not really much he can do about that! As such he wouldn’t be a good match for somebody who was going to permanently, aggressively reject the idea of being helped in any way.

Notable strength for him as a warden would be, first and foremost, his desire to help those that he cares for or who fall under his care. While in life he was someone who had a tendency towards laziness and avoiding work if he could help it, when the need arose he was always somebody who would step up to the plate and give his all. He would fiercely defend any inmate put under his care (even temporarily) should they need it and be there to assist them any time they ask.

In terms of weakness, there is the point of his tending towards avoiding work. He will not be very keen on the idea of having authority in terms of exerting it over others and would likely find doing so to be slightly uncomfortable (though he would do it if it became necessary), and that could definitely be exploited as a weak point by somebody who managed to get under his skin. They’d have to work hard to do it though, since Hythlodaeus is a fairly unflappable person for the most part.

[verynormalturnipseller]

Character Name: Wen Ning (Wen Qionglin)
Character Journal: verynormalturnipseller
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Wen Ning has graduated one inmate, helping his confidence some, but the first impression he gives most people is still somewhere between nervous and harmless. He's very gentle and can be far too indirect, so a very willful inmate may find it much too easy to run roughshod over him. He's not very good at laying down the law on an everyday basis; his occasional snaps of anger are cold and precise and take a lot to bring out. He's a good listener and a natural fusser. His inmate will be cheerfully looked in on all the time and brought a lot of snacks. His instinct when things are wrong is always to try to fix them as practically as he can, a tendency which he definitely means as an expression of fondness, but can come across as pretty meddlesome. He thinks people should be busy! And is a dreadful morning person. He is not very good at reading people (attempts at manipulation work much more often than not) and has an off-kilter sense of both humor and his place in the world. He's from a very magical universe and is an undead monster driven around by the ghost of a teenager with crippling anxiety. This does make him a physical match for the vast majority of inmates, in case of violence, at the cost of creeping people the hell out. He's a magical healer and trained doctor (for an ancient fantastical world value of "trained" and "doctor"), which definitely informs his approach to people.

tl;dr: Wen Ning is a shy weirdo and a mother hen who is pretty easy to mess with, but does possess an iron core and a powerful drive to help. He will bring you treats and take a lot of shit. And while he's got the patience of the dead, don't forget the ability to rip out spines of the dead. It does come up sometimes.

[witnessforthedead]

Character Name: Thara Celehar
Character Journal: Witnessforthedead
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
The big things for Thara as a warden are that he has been trained from a very young age to really listen to others, with an intent to understand them, that he does not lie (ever), and that in spite of that he does not a-) make excuses for wrongs even if he understands the whys, and or b-) believe that he's place is to mete out judgement or punishment (or protect from consequences).

He is basically a compassionate, understanding, guy who tends to see things (except himself) very clearly, has a great understanding of psychology and 'detective' work and pulls on a lot of loose threads. He's also somewhat ruthless and relentlessly blunt and honest. He can't control anyone physically, at all, but he's remarkably good at standing his ground and nearly impossible to intimidate in spite of all that.

Very little temper, and isn't going to be yelling at anyone, anymore than his skinny butt is going to be physically controlling them.

He will also let a WHOLE lot of bs (that isn't immediately threatening to someone else's safety/life) slide and the consequences play out -- but will also likely be able to put the pieces of what's going on together - just to see where things are going.

Good for: People screwed in the head re: world views and trauma who needs sorted
Bad for: Anyone motivated primarily by greed or ambition/coldly self-serving.

.

[handleyourshit]

Character Name: Rosita Espinosa
Character Journal: handleyourshit
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Rosita is a graduated inmate, recently returned from a six year canon update. She hates the system organized as it is but is herself ruthlessly practical when it comes to survival, and she needs the advantages the Barge affords her as well as some of the people on it, so here she is.

She is from a zombie apocalypse canon, having survived the actual fall of society and the brutality that is the living scrabbling for resources after the fact as well as the hordes of undead. She's plain jane human so she'll struggle with some of the monsters and gods and superheroes that the Barge tends to attract, but she can handle herself just fine with all manner of human and human adjacent problems.

She's good for the tough love kind of loyalty that holds people she loves accountable and supports them through any mistake as long as they're actively trying (or can reach a point they will actively try). She can forgive a lot - and has - and is generally even keeled and stable, given the givens, even if she's still laboring under the kind of trauma visited on someone who has endured the kind of horror situations and staggering loss she has.

Rosita comes with a potential CW for gore, cannibalism, torture, sexual assault, domestic abuse, and homophobia. Only the first three are almost guaranteed to come up at some point, but she has experienced the latter three as well and will occasionally speak on them if the situation warrants. I do my best to warn appropriately as needed, but please let me know if there's something specific one would like to avoid.

[championbelt]

Character Name: Tifa Lockhart
Character Journal: championbelt
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:

Tifa enjoys settling into a place, making connections, and helping people out, which she used to do as the owner of a bar. She'll view her role as a warden much like being a mentor/personal trainer. She's a relatively simple person who will work best for an Inmate that needs to learn to focus on simple things, such as exercise, side-quests, and mixing drinks. On the other hand, her biggest weakness is that she's not a big-picture thinker, and her conscience makes her relatively easy to manipulate.

Other notable traits for interesting pairing dynamics:
-Tifa's a chi-empowered martial artist trained by an eccentric traveling master, and has made his style into her own.
-Tifa grew up in the boondocks, spent her early adult years as a city-slum refugee, and became an eco-terrorist/freedom-fighter. You know, girl stuff.
-Career-wise, Tifa has been an exercise instructor, a wilderness guide, a meat-bun seller, and a bar-owner. As a bar-owner she handled cooking and drink-mixing, and takes the knowledge of the bar's previous owner very seriously.
-She's notably pretty, and doesn't particularly enjoy people commenting on it or treating her differently because of it. (Most of the time.)

[theydrewfirstblood]

Character Name: John Rambo
Character Journal: theydrewfirsttblood
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Having just come from his first year in prison, John will be a bit clumsy as a warden at first. He's going to equate this very much with mentorship, and be a soft touch. With his conviction hovering over him and a history of being treated as 'less than' for countless reasons, as a warden he will focus on dealing with his inmate as an equal. Extend the hand of friendship, help in the day to day, stay open to conversation and communication. He'll give his inmate every benefit of the doubt and shred of support, but not to a fault.

His biggest flaw is his skill at violence and his reluctance to use it. He will meet force with force, but default to diffusing a situation rather than escalating to a fight. While he is inherently vengeful, his inmate will take a position in his head as being 'his,' of his ilk and his inner circle and John will treat them as such. Harm to them he will treat as harm to him, but again he will always work in their best interest first. If that means diplomacy, he will go there. If violence is necessary for their genuine benefit, he won't hesitate.

That loyalty and refusal to diminish another person will be an asset to anyone with trust issues: it's going to be real clear, real fast, that he's reliable to his own detriment. Victims of circumstance or those who need an impetus to change will find that in John and his loyalty. He sees himself very much as a tool, a weapon, an instrument, but he's taken great comfort in being a tool for positive change, which will help him to better reclaim his sense of self. Those with similar issues and conditions would be good fits for him as inmates, a little less so with those formerly in positions of power they have abused. His own inherent trust issues may produce too much inner conflict to build a rapport, but then again they could result in some interesting relationship dynamics.

[general_affairs]

Character Name: Reno
Character Journal: general_affairs
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
While Reno has trained new recruits back where he's from, he isn't used to a caretaker role, so it will take some time for him to open up emotionally to use his skillet to the fullest potential in this new role.

At present, he'll do well with others that aren't ready to be vulnerable or open up. He has a laid back demeanor that meshes well with other unserious types, but he's perceptive and mature enough to suss out what lies behind those masks and how to maneuver around them. This also makes it very difficult to manipulate him. Reno doesn't ask that someone pour their heart out, and will most often give them space emotionally while making himself as available as he knows how to. While waiting for them to be ready, Reno is used to(and prefers/typically operates by) moving with and directing the flow of situations as-needed, rather than trying to command total control. Inmates that require a push, an example, or chances to just get out there and put what they've learned to practice will find a good partner in Reno.

He likewise calls murderers, refugees, convicts, detectives, bouncers, the bourgeoise, and soldiers the only family he's ever known, and has seen many things in his time. Not much will surprise him, nor would he be more or less likely to trust or condemn someone on reputation or name alone. Those paired with Reno will find that he can match their energy, and while he typically comes off as a delinquent, he operates with a noticeable undercurrent of discipline and professionalism in his demeanor.

[giraffic]

Character Name: Ellie Williams
Character Journal: giraffic
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

cw: Ellie comes with a host of nasty subjects in her canon. Gore, murder, suicide, cannibalism, survival, attempted sexual assault, food scarcity, etc.

What does your character need to change about themselves, and what sorts of milestones do you envision them needing to reach before they're ready for graduation?

First and foremost, Ellie needs to learn ways to solve her problems without resorting to violence. She's always had to fight for herself because no one else will, and if she's going to improve, she's going to need to learn how to use her words and not her fists. A good way towards managing that will be establishing a sense of safety and community.

Unfortunately for Ellie, this also means she's going to need to learn how to trust other people and be open and emotionally vulnerable with them.

She'll also need to work toward learning how to be a kid. For as young and amazed by the world as Ellie can be, she's still growing up in a post-apocalyptic world. She hasn't had the chance to be just a kid and focus on things other than surviving. Ellie will need to learn how to trust others besides Joel to care for her and to have her back.

How will they react to being on the Barge? How will they react to being wardened? What sorts of wardening styles would they be likely to respond best to, and conversely, what wardening styles would likely be ineffective or unhelpful?

Ellie will find being on the Barge cool and interesting, but she's going to butt heads with the wardening system hard. She'll barely let Joel, whom she trusts with her literal life, tell her what to do, and even then, it usually involves a lot of attitude. She's going to need to be paired with someone with a strong force of will, who can handle what is likely going to be multiple attempts at sabotage of their attempts and outright defiance and anger.

Anyone acting as a warden for Ellie is going to need to be able to handle stress well. Very well.

What methods can a warden use to get through to them, and what are some ideas for things that might trigger or motivate them to change?

The most important thing is going to be persistence and consistency. Ellie has lived a life of abandonment, whether by death or by people walking away. She goes into relationships expecting it and resigned to the inevitability. She needs someone who will not give up on her, even if she is difficult and makes things impossible for them. She'll expect the same from her Warden if she makes enough of a mess, and having someone who doesn't will be shocking enough to get through to her.

Getting through to Ellie will take time, understanding, and an ability to relate. She'd do well with someone willing to indulge her goofier side, who could show her respect without abusing their authority or treating her as lesser or just someone to be ordered around. She'd do well with a motherly type. But they're going to have to understand that if Joel is around, he is the ultimate authority, and she'll defer to him.

She's a wounded, hissy cat who needs someone to laugh at her shitty puns and teach her how to just live and not survive.

[bythelight]

Character Name: Anduin Llane Wrynn
Character Journal: bythelight
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Anduin is a patient negotiator, and a trained diplomat from a young age. He's interested in what people do, and why they do it. Helping people is something he enjoys. There's a rare few in life he sees as beyond redemption, and even then he doesn't entirely stop trying to negotiate or understand when given the chance. Anduin spent much of his youth trying to understand the black dragon Wrathion, despite the Black Dragonflight's role in the destruction of much of Azeroth and their attacks on his own family. What inmates want will always be a first priority, but equally he's well aware that what people want isn't always what they need and isn't always in their best interest. There's a chance he may want to see the best in people too much, to hope he can reach people who do not want to be reached or give chances when he shouldn't, but by and large he'd rather do that than mistrust when he should have trusted.

For anyone excessively violent who needs some display of dominance or a strong hand to keep them in check, he may not be the best choice. He can be strong, can be firm, but it isn't his go-to approach. Anduin doesn't like to resort to violence, and for them his softer tone may be seen as weakness. He's also quite an emotional character, so anyone who doesn't like empathy and emotional displays may find him difficult to respect. On the other hand, for anyone who needs excessive but stubborn patience he'd be a good choice. Anduin would absolutely keep turning up, no matter how many times someone tried to turn him away or drive away with childish behaviour.

He will make an inmate think about, and talk about their feelings. Feelings matter.

[trustinthedevil]

Character Name: Matt Murdock
Character Journal: trustinthedevil
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

Matt is, at his heart, a good person. However, it's his methods and his personal issues that put him on the side of inmate. Matt believes that the best way to do things is to do it himself, often taking this to the extreme of believing that he is the only answer to a problem. He shuts out people by lying to them, whether blatantly or by omission, and finds it difficult to unburden himself from the both the Catholic guilt and responsibility he's put on himself. He also, by his own admission, enjoys when he gets to beat up criminals, to the point where it's becoming harder for him to keep from crossing the line into taking a life.

Matt needs to achieve a few things on the Barge to be considered redeemed. The first is, of course, learning how to find fulfillment from other aspects of his life. He's a successful lawyer, he has a group of people who care about him, he has so many other aspects to his life that he seems incapable of appreciating. There's not much reason for him to put on a costume and fight crime here, which means that Matt might feel inclined to find ways to foster his self-destructive or self-sabotaging habits. When he starts to make the choice to avoid conflict for the sake of conflict, that will be a good sign he's heading in the right direction. Another good milestone for this would also be him actively reflecting when those urges creep up, along with knowing when he should intervene with things and when he shouldn't.

Working with someone on the barge will help Matt learn that it's okay to trust people, and that he doesn't have to do things alone. It's never too late to turn over a new leaf, and he'll probably find some of the peace he's looking for if he lets others in.



Matt also needs to learn that it's okay to ask for help. Historically, he only does when his back is against the wall and he has no choice. Also historically, it works out well for him, but he still continues to shun the opportunity to open himself up. Matt plays his cards close to his chest. He needs to allow himself to be vulnerable. Most importantly, he needs to see himself the way other people do, which is the good guy and the hero, not the terrible version of himself he thinks he is. Finding a way to live as both Matt Murdock and as Daredevil, learning how both sides of him can balance each other out, is the final piece to Matt's journey.

A good warden for Matt is going to be someone others might consider gruff. His father was kind but rough-and-tumble, and Stick, Matt's other mentor, was a no-bullshit kind of guy. Matt responds best to people that are blunt and don't hold back their opinions, even when it's tough to hear, but it can't be someone who's an asshole just to be an asshole. Matt respects good people. Still, he needs a warden that will push back at him and will call him out. A warden who sugarcoats things or walks on eggshells around him won't have much success. Matt doesn't like to be coddled. He'll be more annoyed than grateful towards someone using a more gentle approach. A good way to get results from Matt is to set him with a challenge, but not simply saying it's a challenge. While he'll see through the tactic, there has to be a degree of him coming to the conclusion to pursue it himself. Finding ways to utilize his persistent nature, and giving him distractions, will help him focus and stay busy. Matt isn't driven by rewards or praise, so while getting his abilities back would be nice to help him feel more comfortable, using those to motivate him wouldn't inspire much. The end-game would be his warden helping Matt realize that everything he's afraid of letting go will actually be the most beneficial to saving the people he's trying to protect back home.

[xangel]

Character Name: Vaggie
Character Journal: xangel
Status: Warden
Pairing Information: Vaggie is cranky, judgmental, and quick to anger. She's not the best at people and frequently sticks her foot in her mouth. And she's a runaway war machine built to exterminate the helpless. Fortunately she knows all this and is constantly working on herself, with varying degrees of success. She's not likely to be shocked by an inmate's evil deeds, not when she was a weapon of eternal genocide, but it also means being a little short on sympathy sometimes. She pushes, she needles, she punishes. She holds you to her own exacting standards. She is not naturally gentle. She will, in fact, kick your ass if she thinks you need it.

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ (The Last* Time Warrior)

[causuality]

Character Name: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ (none)
Character Journal: causuality
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: This guy is a black hole of bitterness, nihilism, and and a desperate need to keep himself entertained. Time is broken, nothing matters, and all of human achievement amounts to candle in a hurricane. He is pro-human-extinction and he is ready and willing to go to war with his own descendants about it, even though he spent twenty years killing other time travelers so that the time wars could never happen again. Most people are absolutely not real to him in any meaningful way, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still appreciate a nice conversation, and he can come to care for people. He can even be quite sympathetic, amiable, even kind to people he nevertheless goes on to murder with no real qualms. He likes tinkering with machines and working on his farm and making good food. He dotes on his pet dinosaur. He's weirdly sentimental, because he's got to do things one way or another so he might as well do it in a way with some poetic elegance to it.

I've honestly got no idea what he needs in a warden, except that it would need to be someone who can see through all the layers of vicious resentment and cheerful callous nihilism and see the underlying fundamental horror of what drove him to it. He's not a sociopath or a sadist; he's a soldier orphaned in time who can't remember what any of it was for, a witness to the whole wretched cooling corpse of history who can't stand to see it desecrated any longer. Just because he's a hypocrite when push comes to shove doesn't mean the ends for which he pursued terrible means aren't also sincere.

He is very much responsible for his own choices after a certain point, and a warden seeking a downtrodden victim won't find him amenable. Someone who can understand his perspective as a specifically a disillusioned soldier could be good. Probably the most important factor is just someone willing to put up with what a loopy bag of cats he really is.

[stretchy_girl]

Character Name: Gemini de Mille
Character Journal: stretchy_girl
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:

Gemini is new to the Barge and still trying to adapt. Arrogant and frequently cruel in her former life as an assassin, Gemini will respond best to a Warden who gains her respect. That could either be through competence or through giving her the deference she feels she deserves (she doesn't). A clever Warden will be able to control her through appealing to her ego and by pointing out that their chosen course of action and her eventual redemption, is in Gemini's own interest.

[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.

[embodimentofperfection]

Character Name: Mahito
Character Journal:embodimentofperfection
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Mahito is a curse, a not-quite-real being born entirely from the negative emotions of humans, especially fear and hate. He's the avatar of human distrust and cruelty to each other. He's a rotten, murderous, fundamentally destructive machine.

Or that's what he's been taught and has a great deal of evidence to support, anyway. It'll be a real uphill battle to make him question whether his state of being is his destiny. And it'll be a battle to even reach that battle, because Mahito will be lying his teeth off every second. He agreed to come to the barge because he didn't want to be dead, and he did instead want revenge and then to go back to a comfortable, happy life he enjoyed. And all he has to do is lie to a bunch of mostly humans? He does that all the time. He'll be playing the perfect, cooperative inmate to the best of his ability until that facade is absolutely destroyed. Then someone's probably dead.

Mahito has a horrendous body count and a shonen anime villain justification to match. He's a liar (a good one, in some ways, but not very creative) and a playful sadist, not just a force for destruction. He sings little murder songs. He has a coherent if not particularly forceful philosophy on why he gets to do whatever he want, and what he wants is to turn people into unspeakable horrors.

But he also craves connection. He sincerely gets on with the people he manipulates, until the end when he makes obligatory speeches about what fun toys they were. He's young, very young, and newly betrayed and alone. In a position to maybe admit that, if he was upset by being lied to and murdered, maybe other people would not like to be lied to and murdered? Maybe?

Meeting him where he is will be a challenge for anybody without a strong stomach and a good tolerance for bullshit. And also he's always thinking about what kind of monstrous flesh doll he'd turn you into.

[disastrous_thing]

Character Name: Jinx
Character Journal: disastrous_thing
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Softness does as much good as firmness, with her.

First and foremost, she is in dire need of help with managing her emotions. Someone who would nudge her to try medication, alongside therapy, is our best bet. Jinx needs to feel challenged, so a person who'd present therapy as anything along that line might find that approach working well.

While she will definitely spend her early days here resisting any form of help, her taking time to process will either make or break how things will go with her first warden. Put simpler, if she has good influences, she will be trying to "behave" as she'll put it. While, if she has bad influences she attaches herself to (she will definitely be inclined towards that), she'll be lashing out hard.

As a final (important!) note, if a castmate shows up, it could greatly help or greatly hinder any progress, depending on who it is. Cait, for instance, would bring great danger to Cait, while Vi or Silco could be a mixture of both bad and good, depending on their approach. Someone who'd be able to handle that storm well is ideal!

... In other words, almost any castmate brings a risk of making life harder for anyone trying to help her.

[nimbuster]

Character Name: Cloud Strife
Character Journal: nimbuster
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information: Cloud is a scrappy little brat with a heart of gold, wrapped in layers of trauma, self-loathing, and defense mechanisms. He blames himself when bad things happen to others and is ashamed of his failures. What he wants most in the world is forgiveness, but from whom, he's not sure; he ultimately needs to forgive himself, but he'll never get there on his own. A lot of his guilt is wrapped up in having abandoned his found family and community, but he still tends to isolate instead of reaching out. It doesn't help that he died of geostigma, a psychic plague that enhances every intrusive thought and negative emotion, and although it's dormant here in that it's not dangerous, he still has to deal with the lingering emotional impact.

Cloud needs to overcome his self-loathing, let go of his guilt, and learn how to live in the present so he can be there for the people who rely on him. Over the course of his year and change on the Barge so far, he's made some decent progress on the third point, mostly because Zack and Aerith were actually around and he was able to get the kind of closure he'd never had before. The first two issues still need dealing with, though.

Milestones might include fully opening up to someone who doesn't already know everything about him and letting them in, getting truly vulnerable with his feelings and everything he hates about himself; letting himself rely on others instead of trying to take everything on by himself; learning to actively seek help without feeling ashamed of it; accepting who and what he is (and isn't) without feeling like he has to 'fix' all of it or compare himself to anyone else; and find real, genuine self-confidence and a sense of identity and self-worth that doesn't rely on what other people think or impossible expectations.

Another milestone could be building a close relationship with someone who knows him completely, inside and out, all his flaws and secrets and shames and dark sides, and still cares about him for who he is without reservation. He has done this with Sephiroth, but the jury's still out on whether that's really enough, considering it's not like Cloud voluntarily told him any of that stuff. He was getting there with Fred...but now Fred is gone.

He wants to do the work to graduate, but he's got too much stubborn pride and attitude to accept actually being wardened that easily...and over the course of his tenure so far, he's gotten less accepting of people acting like inmates and wardens deserve to be treated differently for that status alone. He's struggled with most of his friends being wardens and sometimes feels like they see him differently than they used to because he isn't one. It's actually progress that he pushes back against this kind of thing, because it means he's not just accepting that he is fundamentally worse in some way and deserves it. But it will impact whoever he gets paired with in the future and how easily he can build rapport with them.

A warden who tries to order him around or control him too much would only make him less likely to listen. A warden who's too hard on him would just drive him further into his self-loathing, but a warden who's too gentle or sympathetic would have a hard time getting through his walls. He'd respond best to a warden who treats him like an equal for the most part but doesn't hesitate to call him out when he needs it and can outstubborn him when they need to, and a warden who makes him feel like he belongs somewhere and is a part of something. Ideally, they'd have patience, but would also be good at keeping him busy and focused so he doesn't end up spending too much time alone with his thoughts without overdoing it. The most effective way to get through to him is to lean on his compassion, show him how his behavior is affecting others, which will motivate him to try to fix it for their sakes...but it's a fine line to walk, motivating him without tipping him over into guilt about it.

After losing one permanent warden, he's regressed a bit in how easily he'll accept another one. He's starting to wonder whether having had multiple months with no warden at all while he's been here, and having had two wardens he considered good matches for him leave the Barge before he got much of anywhere, might be a reflection of how likely he is to actually graduate anytime soon. He mostly knows it's irrational, but that doesn't take away the feeling.