(( Tomo Stuff ))
Neji and Mustang did neat little "random facts that inform my playing of my character" posts and Ikkaku did a neat little "random facts about my character that aren't strictly canon" post, and I really liked reading them all, so. Of course I am stealing the idea! 8D This'll . . . probably be a sort of amalgam, because I liked both ideas, and so it'll be some things that I take for granted when I play Tomo's character. Some are strictly canon, and some are sort of developed from canon for camp, but they're all things I see canon evidence for.
The truth is that I never know what I'm going to say in any of these posts until I write them. 8D
Tomo loves people. No, really! She annoys them, she picks on them, she yells at them, she gets huffy at them when they let her down, she disses them, she's careless about their feelings sometimes and puts herself first, she deliberately baits them, but she LOVES THEM. In fact, the more she does this to you, the more she probably likes you. She's interested in them. She loves watching how they react to stuff, spending time with them, and interacting with them in all kinds of ways. She really doesn't like being alone. I wouldn't say she has a fear or a complex about it, but it's just no fun, really. She can entertain herself but she'd much rather be making someone entertain her.
Tomo is v. v. interested in sex in general but only occasionally interested in sex in reality. She thinks about it a lot. She talks about it a lot. She makes other people uncomfortable with it a lot. She twists things so that they sound dirty when they shouldn't--in other words, she has a filthy mind. But she doesn't actually WANT it a lot and she doesn't want it from very many people. She has a healthy teen girl sex drive but if some incredibly hot random Joe tried to pick her up in a bar, even if they got along fabulously, she wouldn't take him up on it. Because . . . heh there are all sorts of reasons that SOME DAY I will go into! which involve how she relates to people and what she likes in a person and it all boils down to "Tomo needs to know someone well, consider them a friend, and have thoroughly tested their boundaries before she can be seriously attracted to them." Which isn't to say she doesn't have "Oh he's/she's sexy" reactions to people, but she does a bit less so than is normal, and she doesn't feel much desire to pursue them.
Tomo has no problem deliberately inducing fear or anger for a laugh, but she can't deal with emo or hurt feelings. Pissing people off or trying to freak them out is a favorite pasttime of Tomo's! She does it ALL THE TIME, regardless of how she feels about them--people she hates (which there are very few of) and people she loves get tormented alike! Bringing down the wrath of a good friend on her own head is something Tomo enjoys. Or sending someone into a spaz attack over something ridiculous.
BUT! When someone is depressed, or actually hurt by something she does, or discussing their Emo Backstory? Game over. Anger and terror are hilarious, but sadness is just not funny, and Tomo is never going for that when she bugs people. When it happens, she feels genuinely guilty. And she's very bad at trying to make amends, so she kinda freezes up and gets stressed. She's no good at comfort, she's not a hugger (she's a TOUCHER but not a hugger), she doesn't know anything inspiring to say, so. She usually ends up like " . . . ackpbht oh god don't give me that look D: D: D:" And the more she likes the person, she more she'll freeze up and panic and try to think of something to DO which is usually totally inappropriate. XD
So basically, the best way to get Tomo to do something is to woobie at her. >.>
Also, she expects other people to feel the same way. So if you slam her day in and day out, punch her, insult her, yell at her, tease her, etc.? She's cool with it. Doesn't bug her--I mean, she'll reciprocate, she'll yell and get huffy, but she won't think badly of you. Friends do that stuff! 8D But kick her while she's emo and she will hate you. That's the one thing she can't deal with. If Tomo's genuinely sad and you come in and fuck with her or make a bad impression on her, it's going to take some time to erase, especially because it's not very often that she IS genuinely sad. Maybe twice so far in camp. She considers Fllay a huge bitch because on one of these two occasions Fllay came into the post pretty much just to say that she didn't care and Tomo deserved whatever it was. Fllay having talked down to her and teased her and screamed at her and hated her for months didn't affect Tomo at all, but that one ten-comment conversation really upset her.
Tomo can cycle very quickly between totally incoherent and fairly lucid. We see her do both in canon. She'll come in with some completely spastic nonsense that no one can understand, and then a few minutes later be having a normal, sane conversation that any teenage girl could have. She's never really QUIET, but she is entirely capable of interacting like a typical human being for a good stretch of time and even playing the straight man to her friends. Of course, she's also entirely capable of slipping back into hyperactivity or delusion at any given time. |D
Tomo's an eternal optimist. In Tomo's mind, everything will always work out just fine. No matter how bad it looks, things will be okay! It's inconceivable that things ever won't be all right in the end. Because things work themselves out the way they're supposed to go. Whatever happens happens and it doesn't make sense to worry about it. Might as well spend your time enjoying yourself and others (hur hur hurr) and having fun with life, because when you really have to do something, you'll be able to if you have that fighting spirit! And if you can't then obviously it didn't matter anyway. Oh well!
. . . Usually. When things get right down to it, she'll spaz a little. "OH GOD I FAILED THAT EXAM I'M NOT GONNA GET INTO COLLEGE ACKPBHT!" "IZUMI IS GOING TO KILL ME GAH" But not often, and she gets over it quickly.
Tomo goes with the flow when it comes to big issues but is a control freak when it comes to small ones. See above--Tomo pretty much just lets things happen naturally. She has no initiative when it comes to taking control of her entire life. But then we'll see her get spazzy over the most retarded stuff. XD "NO I WAS GONNA SPLIT THE WATERMELON. I WAS GONNA YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO DO IT FIRST IT WAS MIIIIIINE!" Or "TELL ME SIMON TELL ME COME ON TELL ME TELL ME!" If it's something she fixates on, she has to have her way. But if it's a general life or existence kind of thing, she's perfectly happy letting everything just fall into place.
Tomo treats her friends differently from each other, and it's not necessarily a sign of who she likes better. She's a lot meaner to Ed than she is to Sano or Norma, and meaner to Ash than she is to Ed. But there isn't a hierarchy there where she likes Sano the most and then Norma and then Ed and Ash, or anything like that. They're all different kinds of friends. She'll plot against Ash with Sano and badmouth him and stuff, but she still loves Ash (PLATONICALLY YOU BASTARDS). It's just something that's built into her relationships with both. In canon she's a little bit different around each of her friends and is more comfortable being mean to some than others. Not because she likes them better OR doesn't like them as much, but just because that's how they interact, that's how it worked out when they started talking because of their personalities and that's how it stayed.
Tomo assumes that the way she treats people doesn't affect them outside of what she sees. This doesn't just relate to being mean to them or picking on them, but really to ANY kind of interaction--flirting, harrassing, teasing, bonding, just talking, etc. To Tomo, all of it stops existing (for the other person, not for her) once they stop interacting, until the next time she's around. It's not that she thinks she's forgettable--she knows she's awesome and everyone thinks so and they talk about her coolness. |D It's more that she doesn't think through how people might feel about some of what she does, outside of their immediate reaction to her. If she insults someone and they yell at her, they were angry about it, and it ends there. Any more lasting effect it might have on them just never occurs to her. By the same token, if any of Tomo's flirting were actually to work, she'd be like "Huh whu?" It'd take her some time to wrap her mind around that concept. XD
The caveat to this is, of course, unless she's TRYING to affect them deliberately, like when she decides to make people "more social."
Tomo seeks conflict and can't relate well to people who are too kind, too charming, or unreactive. There are exceptions to this if the person interests her for some other reason (Sora, Itachi, Tayuya), but generally a relationship without animosity or at least minor conflict puts her off quickly. She does best with people that she has to work on, and she doesn't like being worked on herself. Because Tomo defaults to liking everyone, and so if someone approaches her and seems to be trying to get her to like them, she--doesn't have anything to say to them. XD; All of her very FAVORITE relationships are with people that she can mess with and they'll respond, and who will also mess with her in return. That's important to her.
OKAY I THINK WE'RE GOOD FOR NOW.
The truth is that I never know what I'm going to say in any of these posts until I write them. 8D
Tomo loves people. No, really! She annoys them, she picks on them, she yells at them, she gets huffy at them when they let her down, she disses them, she's careless about their feelings sometimes and puts herself first, she deliberately baits them, but she LOVES THEM. In fact, the more she does this to you, the more she probably likes you. She's interested in them. She loves watching how they react to stuff, spending time with them, and interacting with them in all kinds of ways. She really doesn't like being alone. I wouldn't say she has a fear or a complex about it, but it's just no fun, really. She can entertain herself but she'd much rather be making someone entertain her.
Tomo is v. v. interested in sex in general but only occasionally interested in sex in reality. She thinks about it a lot. She talks about it a lot. She makes other people uncomfortable with it a lot. She twists things so that they sound dirty when they shouldn't--in other words, she has a filthy mind. But she doesn't actually WANT it a lot and she doesn't want it from very many people. She has a healthy teen girl sex drive but if some incredibly hot random Joe tried to pick her up in a bar, even if they got along fabulously, she wouldn't take him up on it. Because . . . heh there are all sorts of reasons that SOME DAY I will go into! which involve how she relates to people and what she likes in a person and it all boils down to "Tomo needs to know someone well, consider them a friend, and have thoroughly tested their boundaries before she can be seriously attracted to them." Which isn't to say she doesn't have "Oh he's/she's sexy" reactions to people, but she does a bit less so than is normal, and she doesn't feel much desire to pursue them.
Tomo has no problem deliberately inducing fear or anger for a laugh, but she can't deal with emo or hurt feelings. Pissing people off or trying to freak them out is a favorite pasttime of Tomo's! She does it ALL THE TIME, regardless of how she feels about them--people she hates (which there are very few of) and people she loves get tormented alike! Bringing down the wrath of a good friend on her own head is something Tomo enjoys. Or sending someone into a spaz attack over something ridiculous.
BUT! When someone is depressed, or actually hurt by something she does, or discussing their Emo Backstory? Game over. Anger and terror are hilarious, but sadness is just not funny, and Tomo is never going for that when she bugs people. When it happens, she feels genuinely guilty. And she's very bad at trying to make amends, so she kinda freezes up and gets stressed. She's no good at comfort, she's not a hugger (she's a TOUCHER but not a hugger), she doesn't know anything inspiring to say, so. She usually ends up like " . . . ackpbht oh god don't give me that look D: D: D:" And the more she likes the person, she more she'll freeze up and panic and try to think of something to DO which is usually totally inappropriate. XD
So basically, the best way to get Tomo to do something is to woobie at her. >.>
Also, she expects other people to feel the same way. So if you slam her day in and day out, punch her, insult her, yell at her, tease her, etc.? She's cool with it. Doesn't bug her--I mean, she'll reciprocate, she'll yell and get huffy, but she won't think badly of you. Friends do that stuff! 8D But kick her while she's emo and she will hate you. That's the one thing she can't deal with. If Tomo's genuinely sad and you come in and fuck with her or make a bad impression on her, it's going to take some time to erase, especially because it's not very often that she IS genuinely sad. Maybe twice so far in camp. She considers Fllay a huge bitch because on one of these two occasions Fllay came into the post pretty much just to say that she didn't care and Tomo deserved whatever it was. Fllay having talked down to her and teased her and screamed at her and hated her for months didn't affect Tomo at all, but that one ten-comment conversation really upset her.
Tomo can cycle very quickly between totally incoherent and fairly lucid. We see her do both in canon. She'll come in with some completely spastic nonsense that no one can understand, and then a few minutes later be having a normal, sane conversation that any teenage girl could have. She's never really QUIET, but she is entirely capable of interacting like a typical human being for a good stretch of time and even playing the straight man to her friends. Of course, she's also entirely capable of slipping back into hyperactivity or delusion at any given time. |D
Tomo's an eternal optimist. In Tomo's mind, everything will always work out just fine. No matter how bad it looks, things will be okay! It's inconceivable that things ever won't be all right in the end. Because things work themselves out the way they're supposed to go. Whatever happens happens and it doesn't make sense to worry about it. Might as well spend your time enjoying yourself and others (hur hur hurr) and having fun with life, because when you really have to do something, you'll be able to if you have that fighting spirit! And if you can't then obviously it didn't matter anyway. Oh well!
. . . Usually. When things get right down to it, she'll spaz a little. "OH GOD I FAILED THAT EXAM I'M NOT GONNA GET INTO COLLEGE ACKPBHT!" "IZUMI IS GOING TO KILL ME GAH" But not often, and she gets over it quickly.
Tomo goes with the flow when it comes to big issues but is a control freak when it comes to small ones. See above--Tomo pretty much just lets things happen naturally. She has no initiative when it comes to taking control of her entire life. But then we'll see her get spazzy over the most retarded stuff. XD "NO I WAS GONNA SPLIT THE WATERMELON. I WAS GONNA YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO DO IT FIRST IT WAS MIIIIIINE!" Or "TELL ME SIMON TELL ME COME ON TELL ME TELL ME!" If it's something she fixates on, she has to have her way. But if it's a general life or existence kind of thing, she's perfectly happy letting everything just fall into place.
Tomo treats her friends differently from each other, and it's not necessarily a sign of who she likes better. She's a lot meaner to Ed than she is to Sano or Norma, and meaner to Ash than she is to Ed. But there isn't a hierarchy there where she likes Sano the most and then Norma and then Ed and Ash, or anything like that. They're all different kinds of friends. She'll plot against Ash with Sano and badmouth him and stuff, but she still loves Ash (PLATONICALLY YOU BASTARDS). It's just something that's built into her relationships with both. In canon she's a little bit different around each of her friends and is more comfortable being mean to some than others. Not because she likes them better OR doesn't like them as much, but just because that's how they interact, that's how it worked out when they started talking because of their personalities and that's how it stayed.
Tomo assumes that the way she treats people doesn't affect them outside of what she sees. This doesn't just relate to being mean to them or picking on them, but really to ANY kind of interaction--flirting, harrassing, teasing, bonding, just talking, etc. To Tomo, all of it stops existing (for the other person, not for her) once they stop interacting, until the next time she's around. It's not that she thinks she's forgettable--she knows she's awesome and everyone thinks so and they talk about her coolness. |D It's more that she doesn't think through how people might feel about some of what she does, outside of their immediate reaction to her. If she insults someone and they yell at her, they were angry about it, and it ends there. Any more lasting effect it might have on them just never occurs to her. By the same token, if any of Tomo's flirting were actually to work, she'd be like "Huh whu?" It'd take her some time to wrap her mind around that concept. XD
The caveat to this is, of course, unless she's TRYING to affect them deliberately, like when she decides to make people "more social."
Tomo seeks conflict and can't relate well to people who are too kind, too charming, or unreactive. There are exceptions to this if the person interests her for some other reason (Sora, Itachi, Tayuya), but generally a relationship without animosity or at least minor conflict puts her off quickly. She does best with people that she has to work on, and she doesn't like being worked on herself. Because Tomo defaults to liking everyone, and so if someone approaches her and seems to be trying to get her to like them, she--doesn't have anything to say to them. XD; All of her very FAVORITE relationships are with people that she can mess with and they'll respond, and who will also mess with her in return. That's important to her.
OKAY I THINK WE'RE GOOD FOR NOW.