Ranma Saotome (乱馬) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
catsgothistongue) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
shellphones2024-11-25 10:41 pm
catsgothistongue) wrote in shellphones2024-11-25 10:41 pm
Entry tags:
TEXT // Looking to Cure Fear, Pls Help
Type: Text (Dated after Farplane event)
Sender ID: Anonymous
To: Public
Subject: Ranma's trying to cure his cat phobia
Warnings: Possible discussion of trauma, otherwise N/A
[After some recent... events that's transpired in the past couple months, events that left people he likes critically injured, it put a lot of things in perspective. Soul searching and all that junk. It... wasn't a new thought that popped up for the first time in this world, he's sat on it from time to time back home. But there, it didn't seem like there was constant events that'd set him off bad enough to maim his friends. Yet these past few months, he's kept falling into the Neko-ken state more and more, kept having his ailurophobia pushed to the tipping point. The cat island, the ghost cats, and now the black ooze of despair.
"Prevention is an important aspect, but I fear it may not be enough on its own.". Sherlock's words have been haunting his mind more recently from their talk of contingency plans. It staked his pride like a dagger to the heart. Control was something he should have, and he thought he had it all in check. For all his discipline, he can't get over being a scaredy-cat without losing his sanity.
He doesn't like considering this a viable option. Pop went out of his way to make sure he's adverse to showing weakness. This was something he should do though, before he goes above just clawing up people like fleshy scratch posts.]
Heya, I need some advice. For a friend. [... Look, you've gotta take baby steps sometimes when you're learning to walk.]
How do you get over a fear you've had since you were a kid?
[Vague, nondescript baby steps.]
Sender ID: Anonymous
To: Public
Subject: Ranma's trying to cure his cat phobia
Warnings: Possible discussion of trauma, otherwise N/A
[After some recent... events that's transpired in the past couple months, events that left people he likes critically injured, it put a lot of things in perspective. Soul searching and all that junk. It... wasn't a new thought that popped up for the first time in this world, he's sat on it from time to time back home. But there, it didn't seem like there was constant events that'd set him off bad enough to maim his friends. Yet these past few months, he's kept falling into the Neko-ken state more and more, kept having his ailurophobia pushed to the tipping point. The cat island, the ghost cats, and now the black ooze of despair.
"Prevention is an important aspect, but I fear it may not be enough on its own.". Sherlock's words have been haunting his mind more recently from their talk of contingency plans. It staked his pride like a dagger to the heart. Control was something he should have, and he thought he had it all in check. For all his discipline, he can't get over being a scaredy-cat without losing his sanity.
He doesn't like considering this a viable option. Pop went out of his way to make sure he's adverse to showing weakness. This was something he should do though, before he goes above just clawing up people like fleshy scratch posts.]
Heya, I need some advice. For a friend. [... Look, you've gotta take baby steps sometimes when you're learning to walk.]
How do you get over a fear you've had since you were a kid?
[Vague, nondescript baby steps.]
Anonymous
(Asshole gotta asshole.)
Desensitization can work. Either exposing the person to the feared thing in small controlled amounts where nothing bad happens or just learning about it, like watching videos or reading books.
no subject
Did I ask if that's cliché or not? No, I didn't think so.
Pictures, she [Cuz clearly, if he uses the right pronoun, they'll clue in its him. Sometimes, his genius astounds even him.] can handle fine. It's the real thing's the problem. Her old man already tried "desensitizing" her to it, but that did squat. It only made it worse.
Private
In fact, it's that sudden inclusion of pronouns, alongside the apparent intensity of the fear and the mention of an old man that has them switching over to private and:)
And is she female all the time? Because this sounds really familiar.
no subject
... Why wouldn't she be?
[Desperate idiot.]
Still private, no longer anonymous
Re: Still private, no longer anonymous
... is it really pretend if they use both sometime?
no subject
But anyway: I'm not sure regular methods for getting over a fear will help here.
no subject
[hi teen from the late 1980s, what is gender?]
You think? I know that already, but I'm willing to try nearly anything. Someone's got to come up with one good idea eventually.
[He can't be stuck being afraid of cats all his life and going all cat mode, can he?]
no subject
(Yeah, they know Ranma is kinda ignorant about all this stuff. He at least tries though, which is more than they can say about a lot of the people who aren't utterly uneducated.)
Maybe, but I don't think it's just a fear of cats that you're dealing with. Treating it as such is probably counterproductive.
no subject
But the fear is the crux of the problem here. How else am I supposed to treat it?
no subject
Yeah but I don't think it's just being afraid of cats. I mean, think about it. Your dad basically abandoned you and threw you in a hole because he thought it would make you stronger. You don't think other fears like being too weak or being abandoned might be tied up in this too?
no subject
...]
Don't know whatcha talking about. I don't start acting like a cat over feeling weak or Pop leaving me.
[If that was a factor, he'd probably be spending a lot of his time half-cat in the latter case.]
no subject
Nevermind.
(Sidestep does not have the patience or the ability to explain that trauma works differently from phobias, and that the triggering fear may not be as important as the other emotions involved when actually trying to fix the fear in question.
They may not even be right about that stuff.
...This is stupid.)
no subject
[Being honest, it isn't like Ranma's an expert on mental health and how it affects a person himself, especially during his time and his environment.]
no subject
(Fuck. They can't just ditch Ranms to deal with this on his own, even if they want to.
They sigh.)
Think of it like you're fighting a villain and his henchmen. Yeah the big guy is the one calling the shots and the source of the problems, but he's got a bunch of smaller guys making it super difficult for you to land a hit.
no subject
Okay, yeah, I get it. Don't go for the head, go for the others first before taking down the big one.
no subject
Something like that, yeah.
not here
not here x2
still not here
/throws it in his playlist because the vibes]i can't believe it's not here
yes goooood i will infect everyone's eardrums with the earworm that is the epic soundtrack]no subject
I guess it depends on the fear in question. I've read that repeated controlled exposure--where nothing awful happens--can help, but that's probably not gonna work for things like thunder or heights or the ocean.
no subject
She's... [Technically, he's not lying addressing the "friend" as a girl.] ... afraid of dogs.
[Completely believable and can't be linked to another animal to Kaveh knows someone to be deathly afraid of, no way no how.]
And that's prolly not gonna work. Her old man had his own way of "controlled exposure" trying to "fix" her.
[Kaveh... hasn't been told of the whole Neko-ken training incident now that he thinks of it, has he? He can't tell him now though. If he does, then his anonymous identity'll be revealed!!!]
no subject
that he's been told about anywayso his eyes just narrowed at his screen.]what happened?
no subject
... Promise not to laugh?
no subject
Switching to private, sorry sherry!
Dropping the public convo and switching to private DMs, he too drops the fictitious friend bit.]
Pop found this "invincible" technique called the Neko-ken in an old training manual. It goes like this: dig a pit or cellar deep enough the bottom's pitch black, and fill the hole after with starved and feral cats. Tie salty meats to the trainee's body, and throw them into the hole. The cats smell the food, go into a craze, and... You're smart enough to piece the outcome togethr.
The whole point was to burn a fear of cats so deep in the person's brain, they'll fight like a cat. Pop wasn't happy when I crawled out all scratched up, so he kept doing it over and over. 'Till either I figure it out, or I got over the fear. Lucky him, he got his wish. I know it.
[At the cost of being irreversibly screwed up in the head whenever a cat's nearby.]
no subject
That's why you...become cat-like when you can't get away from them, then?
I don't know about a cure but I'd sure like to figure out what's wrong with your father's mind.
sorry for the delay aaaaaaa
Considering he didn't bother reading past the first page of the dumb manual? There's a vacancy up there instead of his brain.
un: octoblot
[There's a pause, and then--]
Or, I suppose I could try to create a potion that will remove that fear entirely for a brief period of time, if you have reason to believe that none of the above is feasible for you.
sorry for the delay
[The proposition posted at the end caught his eye. And his caution.]
Potion crafter, huh. What's the catch?
no subject
Well, that depends entirely on how much you are willing to pay or what you'd offer as a trade for it--the ingredients I need to prepare a potion like this do cost money, after all.
no subject
And even if Azul isn't some snake oil salesman, magic and him don't really mix well together to begin with.]
Name your price.
[He doesn't think he has anything on hand the bespectacled guy'd take, material wise.]
no subject
But, for now, he simply offers (insert price here) asking for payment in the form of doubloons--a little pricey, but not break the bank worthy. It's enough to pay for the ingredients needed to prepare the potion, plus extra for Azul's efforts in doing so.]
Would this be considered good enough for you?
I've finally escaped the clutches of writer's block, sorry for the delay ;^;
But there's something you need to know: Ranma's a haggler. If he can spend as little money as in his bank, he'll take it.]
If you give me a list of the ingredients you need, and I can fetch them for you, will that bump down the price?
no worries! it happens to the best of us
If you are able to acquire the ingredients and bring them to me, then yes, I will consider bringing the price down a little more since this will certainly be very helpful in making sure I can prepare what you need in a timely manner.
no subject
Deal. Tell me what you need, and I'll meet ya with the stuff and the money.
no subject
If you have any difficulties in acquiring something on this list, please let me know.
un: bountyfull
You've gotten a lot of answers, but if you want help and need a volunteer sometime, I don't mind lending a hand.
sorry for the delay aaaaa
[He isn't against his help if Vash actually can produce results.]
un: stillarhino
guess it depends what your friends afraid of
and how scared they is about whatever it is
sorry for the delay
They're afraid of
['...' buffers in and out for a solid two minutes.]
dogs. And scared enough to lose their mind. Literally.
no subject
dogs? sounds normal to me
they get bit or something?
Writer's block hit at the worst time, sorry for the delay (also cw for ranma's dad being terrible)