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.
no subject
Character Journal:
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.