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Weird fic idea: Cyrus = schizophrenic?
Sooo... I haven't seen a lot of threads in the Writer's Lounge just for brainstorming ideas, but I've seen enough that I figure it's gotta be legal.
I've had a random little idea for a characterization quirk that started to turn into a few scenes that finally exploded into a W.I.P. oneshot today, so now I kinda need some feedback on the idea: what if Cyrus, Galactic boss and super-creep, is a schizophrenic? By no means am I suggesting that he actually is schizophrenic in canon, so please to not be debating over that. I'm asking, would it be a good/interesting basis for a oneshot? Even though I don't believe Cyrus has schizophrenia in any canon, I'm trying to characterize him in this fic so that schizophrenic Cyrus is as close to canon Cyrus as possible. Probably game Cyrus. I'm not exactly an expert on schizophrenia. A single-semester psychology course, Wikipedia, a handful of articles from Schizophrenia.com, and the first thirty minutes of Donnie Darko are all I'm going on at this point. However, I'd like to, and I plan to, do a heck of a lot more research before this fic is done. What I'm hoping for here is advice--from anyone who knows more about schizophrenia than I do, from anyone who thinks my characterization is going too off-base, from anyone who has any sort of ideas at all about how to pull this off. This thing is harder to write than I'd expected, and I'd expected it to be pretty hard. It is nearly impossible to write "voices" that don't sound like... well... like some amateur writer's overly-cliché attempt to write ZOMG HED VOICEZ!!!1! Which isn't the idea here. The bits of canon characterization and the broad generalizations of schizphrenia I'm drawing on for this characterization: -- Cyrus is deadpan. He himself completely denounces emotions. -- People suffering from schizophrenia are also often described as unemotional, cold, and aloof. This is a "negative" symptom of schizophrenia, called affective flattening, which is an extreme decrease in the ability to express emotions. Other negative symptoms include a disinterest in the lives of other people and no ability/interest in socializing. -- Cyrus's big plan is to destroy and remake the universe with himself as its god. -- Not a direct connection, but, many schizophrenics have delusions of grandeur, in which they literally believe themselves to be some amazing individuals. In some cases, yes, they can believe themselves to be God or some similar concept. While Cyrus doesn't think he is a god, the fact that he tries to become one is significant in its own way. It isn't a lot, but it's enough to build a fanfic idea off of. And here's the rest of the idea: Probably developed it as a teen, a bit of an early case, but not too unusual. Starts with hallucinations: hearing things that he knew couldn't be real because nobody else hears them, unless the people around him are lying. The various topics that the voices like to ramble/shriek about include the fact that Cyrus is lazy, that he should kill himself, that he alone creates the universe, second by second, with every thought, and that he's let it get out of his control, and must make it anew. That's what the voices say. At times there are probably plain delusions as well, when he really DOES believe he creates the universe. Less frequent are visual hallucinations: like his surroundings turning into an abyss, patches of land floating on nothing, gravity that suddenly turns sideways and people walking on walls, water that flows up. On those days, he probably finds somewhere quiet to sit until things calm down. Then we have modern Cyrus. Probably on some kind of medication at this point, enough to reduce the voices to annoying background dialogue. The other hallucinations, mostly, have been reduced to manageable levels. The freaky landscapes he used to see are restricted mainly to his nightmares now. But that doesn't mean schizophrenia is something in his past, or some handicap he has to deal with on a day-to-day basis as he goes about his other business. It IS his business. Somehow, he becomes motivated to reconcile the world he knows to be real with the world he thinks to be real. His delusions tell him he is a god while his rational side tells him that he isn't, and so his solution is to make himself into a god, so the delusional and the rational can agree with each other. And there is the grand motivation of Cyrus, ta da. So, yeah. That's the rough idea. Cue the involvement of more characters, an actual kind of ongoing plot, attempts to confuse the reader as to whether or not Cyrus is insane or if Dialga/Palkia/Giratina/Darkrai/Mesprit/Azelf/Uxie/Slowpoke is just trying to make him think he is, and frustrating attempts to write head voices that aren't boring or preposterous. It would mainly be a backstory and same-time-as-canon fic. So, any ideas, please? Ways it just doesn't fit together, ways it doesn't make sense? Ways it does? Rules of characterization and/or schizophrenia I'm breaking? Resources? Suggestions? Helpful comments? Assurance that I'm not off my rocker for attempting this? |
Only one thing here puzzles me a bit. One of Cyrus's defining characteristics is his calmness. As you said, he is very cold and also very calm. He doesn't yell and go batshit when Dawn/Lucas destroys his plans. However, schizophrenics are often paranoid, which causes them to become a bit jumpy sometimes. Also, when it's easy for you to believe a crazy murderer is chasing you or that the whole world is simply a conspiracy against you, calmness might not be the reaction of choice. Especially when Dawn/Lucas is, in fact, after him. Not that this would prove to be a problem, but you just have to come up with an explanation for Cyrus's calmness, concidering these facts.
Other than that, I think this is a great idea. You should really go for it, but just be extra careful that it comes off neither too angsty nor too "lol look Cyrus is totally nuts, let's all point fingers at him and laugh". However, seeing how much trouble you've already seen through for this, I don't think that will be a problem. So: go for it! I'm already looking forward to seeing this fic posted here ^-^ |
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As for the very cold/very calm issue, that's one of the first things I tried to find an explanation for. I've found a few symptoms that fit: Quote:
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And still, Cyrus could have been more suspicious/irritable/jumpy when he was younger, and maybe he still is in private when his "Emotions are for the weak!!" façade starts to slip. Also, odds are that by the time we see him in canon, he'd be on meds of some sort, so the most blatantly visible of his symptoms would be under control most of the time. Beyond all that, though, I've got another explanation for why he's calmer than you'd expect. But that would be moving into serious spoiler territory for the fic idea. |
Ah, this could be a very fun fic to read. >=D I do have some thoughts on it, though:
I don't know anything about schizophrenia past a Wikipedia article, but from the quote you gave from schizioprenia.com it said that the subject would possess an inability to show emotion/happiness/so on and so forth. Unless I'm not mistaken, didn't Cyrus go out of his mind yelling at people and things on Spear Pillar/in the Distorted World? I just beat Platinum an hour ago, and I recall Cyrus yelling at the player for making the worlds be destroyed if they catch or harm Giratina or... something. I wasn't really paying much attention to the text at that time. Also, the suspicious/irritable/jumpy teenager!Cyrus would have had a really difficult time building his machines if he's leaping a foot into the air at the slightest noise or movement that disturbs him. It takes a lot of concentration to assemble something mechanical, and a jumpy or easily-irritated person would have to also be extremely careful with their movements. Other than that, I think you should go ahead with this and I'll definitely be reading it. |
Yay, more feedback. :D
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No two cases will have the exact same symptoms, and at times the symptoms can fluctuate, getting better or worse. Cyrus in this case won't have completely uniform emotional expressiveness, which is why at times he can stare down the Deep Dark Dripping Demon Silhouette From Hell and say nothing at all except "Interesting. So, there is a Pokemon that can only appear as a shadow," and twenty minutes later snarl at the hero for stupidity. If he indeed is angry then; I thought he was getting more into megalomaniacal monologuing mode than actually expressing rage at that point (although he stated soon after that he was angry, so we know he CAN feel), but Pokémon is like the Internet, it's hard to determine emotion from the text alone. I was paying attention to the text as hard as I could, but it's rather hard to attempt to pick up on the nuances of dialogue when you're internally fuming at realizing you have to rework a certain character's paranoid delusions. ("'Incomplete soul'?! I don't remember any of this 'incomplete soul' stuff in Pearl! I've just been jossed!") In any case, probably some of the details of characterization will shift around as I move forward in Platinum. Apparently Cyrus has a grandpa somewhere, but I'm stubborn and want to reach him and talk to him myself rather than just collect spoilers online. Quote:
So, up until then, he can work with his machines without much difficulty (just occasional distraction when he thinks he hears someone talking to him and decides "Must be my imagination..."), and then when he gets control of his symptoms enough that he can function--I haven't decided how long that'll take him yet--he'll be able to get back to his machines without much trouble. And anyway, he'll definitely be fairly paranoid as a teen, but not quite "jumpy"; that was my bad word choice there. But yeah, I'll definitely be dealing with the trying-to-work-with-machines-while-schizo issue to some degree. Right now, the earliest (chronological) scene I've written so far has him trying to disassemble a phone, but getting constantly distracted because he keeps thinking he hears someone in the hall behind him. Thin walls, he figures. Quote:
As long as I'm here asking for advice, does anyone have any ideas for how Saturn and Mars might've ended up following Cyrus and becoming Commanders? I've got plans for Jupiter already. In this fic, Jupiter will join Cyrus first, followed by Mars, followed by Saturn; Jupiter's around 22 years old, Mars is around 17 or 18, and Saturn's around 19 or 20. (And all except Mars feel a bit young, but I think Jupiter's older than Saturn and that Cyrus is at least five years older than Jupiter, and if Cyrus is 27... I still can't believe Cyrus is 27, heh.) |
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