cognitivus: (Nᴏ ɢʀᴀᴠᴇ ᴄᴀɴ ʜᴏʟᴅ ᴍʏ ʙᴏᴅʏ ᴅᴏᴡɴ)
> PLAYER INFORMATION
NAME: Em
PRONOUNS: she/her
AGE: 28
CONTACT: [plurk.com profile] rifting

> CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Will Graham
CANON: Hannibal
AGE: 33
CANON POINT:

HISTORY: here.

PERSONALITY:

The first thing that comes to mind for anybody who knows him when they hear the name 'Will Graham' is the peculiar way he thinks. Specifically, Will has an empathy disorder that makes him of significant interest to the psychiatric community. According to Hannibal, "What he has is pure empathy. He can assume your point of view, or mine - and maybe some other points of view that scare him." This disorder has dictated almost every aspect of his life, and he spent years resenting it. Before he honed it for his work (and to combat external manipulation), Will had a hard time with something as simple as making eye contact — he would get distracted by the whites of somebody's eyes, or burst veins, any of the little tells that could suck him into analyzing their state of mind and slipping into it. He describes himself as being on the autistic spectrum, but there is no real established terminology for what he is. He also doesn't label it as a "gift", but rather an "overactive imagination", except that he imagines scenarios to an alarming degree of accuracy so long as he has even a little evidence to draw from. These quirks, coupled with a tendency to be unsparingly and unapologetically straightforward, usually make him unlikable as a first impression.

Will considers what he does to be exhausting; he suffers from chronic fatigue and headaches as a result of "looking". For a period of time, "looking" began to take a toll on his overall psychological state, following him home and manifesting in hallucinations and night terrors. He spent a lot of time afraid that if he looked too hard, or if he did it too much, he might lose himself along the way. Over the course of the first season that fear went out the window — even after being given a viral infection (encephalitis) without his knowledge by Hannibal, compromising his stability and mental health, he retained a solid grasp on exactly who he is. Even at the very peak of his deterioration — mild seizures, fever, hallucination, time loss — he's still able to interpret his own mind and understand what is and isn't him. He intimately knows his own brand of crazy.

Empathy disorder aside, Will is an incredibly intelligent individual. He has a photographic memory, he's very well-studied in psychiatry, psychology, and forensics, and (if forced) is able to play (and usually win) incredibly intricate mind games with some of the most well-respected names in the psychiatric field. While on trial (for murders he didn't commit), the prosecutor described him as "maybe the smartest person in this room". He tends to enjoy long philosophical or hypothetical discussions with people, and often gets purple prose-y with his metaphors and analogies. He can also be incredibly manipulative — it isn't his desire to be, he doesn't enjoy it, but when it's necessary he can be ruthless and scary with this skill.

Will has an incredible and self-destructive drive to help people. He puts his talents to use first by working as a homicide detective, but was ultimately released due to an inability to "pull the trigger" and take a life when necessary. He eventually overcomes this, and then almost immediately dives too deep into the role of criminal profiler despite the toll it takes on his health. There are numerous times he starts coming apart at the seams doing the work, but despite the damage to his psyche he keeps going. He's willing to give up every part of himself and risk both his mind and his life in the name of saving lives. The depths he's willing to descend to in order to accomplish this, specifically with regards to the long-con of outing Hannibal as the Chesapeake Ripper, can often get quite dark.

He's so adept at playing the game and acting the part, he even makes people who are in on the secret question his motivation. It's not an unfair question — Will may have a general set of moral principals, he may know right from wrong and have lines he'll never cross, but he's extremely willing to dip into grey areas. He'll never be a murderer outright, but he did kill someone in self-defense and used that as a ploy in his mental 5D chess match to catch Hannibal. He's not above wrathful vengeance. If he feels someone deserves it — specifically Hannibal — he's willing and able to orchestrate an attempt at having him killed. He's willing to desecrate the body of Randall Tier (the serial killer who broke into his home attempting to kill him) for the purposes of selling the illusion that he'd gone dark. He is not a sadist. He does not enjoy doing these things. He does them because they're necessary, and because he can compartmentalize enough to "become" somebody that would do them for the purposes of achieving righteous justice.

Will is incredibly stubborn and has an iron will. Although it may seem on the surface or by description that he's fragile, the opposite couldn't be more true. Hannibal points out, "Jack sees you as a fragile little teacup. The finest china, used only for special guests," when in actuality he's "The mongoose I want under the house when the snakes slither by." He outright resists even the most skillful, masterful attempts at gaslighting. He spends the first half of the second season on trial for murder with an overwhelming amount of evidence stacked against him, virtually no defense, and every significant person in his life pleaded with him to accept a plea bargain. The alternative, should he be found guilty, would be the death penalty. He outright refused to even consider it. When his mind is set on something his conviction is unshakable.

When he isn't consumed by his work or defined by his disorder, Will is actually an incredibly simple individual. He has a ridiculous love for dogs, and he can't resist adopting a stray any time he happens across one. He keeps a house out in the middle of nowhere in rural Wolf Trap, Virginia because he values his peace and reservation. He frequently considers moving back to Louisiana and fixing boat motors. Although he's willing to speak to crowds (during lectures) and interview witnesses, Will is incredibly introverted. He isn't a fan of being social even after he comes into his own and masters his disorder. He would rather be standing alone in a stream fishing than doing literally anything anywhere else with more than like two other people.

When he does get to know somebody, he lets his sense of humor finally slip out. He's wry, clever, a little cynical, a fan of stupid jokes and wordplay. He likes to tease and be teased, and he likes being around someone one-on-one. He finds joy in introducing them to his hobbies, his dogs, and his personal space — because despite the distance he puts between himself and the world, Will is often incredibly lonely. Growing up, he moved from town to town with his father and was permanently the new kid in school, always the outsider. He wasn't even particularly close with his father, and stopped engaging with him entirely once he became an adult. Despite this and his generally jaded view on family, Will is surprisingly paternal. He adopted a surrogate daughter at the slightest provocation, and one of the most upset he's been over a case involved two young boys taken from their families. If given the opportunity (like we see eventually in season 3), Will would absolutely be content as a family man. He'd like one person to hold onto as a partner, he'd like kids, he'd like a comfortable home full of dogs.

SPECIES: Human
APPEARANCE: here.
SKILLS:

-The ability to completely empathize with someone and assume their point of view (without the need for that touch bond, oop)
-Photographic memory
-Just wicked smart in general
-Criminal psychology & profiling
-Worked as a homicide detective, so all applicable skills for that line of work
-Super good at dogs
-Can fix boat motors
-The best at fishing

NEW POWER: Illusion Manipulation.

At seed level he will only be capable of minor, simple illusions for short durations. Nothing that moves, nothing visually larger than approx. 3 feet in diameter, and illusions only last an hour maximum.

POWER REASONING:

Will makes his living by seeing things that aren't there, reliving crime scenes with perfect near-illusory clarity in his own mind. Deeper than that, Will spends most of the second season of the show selling a perfectly crafted illusion of friendship to Hannibal while actively working to get him caught.

SAMPLES
SAMPLE ONE: TDM with action & network.
SAMPLE TWO: Second with fancier in-depth prose. Content warning: it takes place at a crime scene with descriptions of the victims.

W̵͎̻̟͆̿͑h̵̻̻̺̓̒e̴͕͓̫̾͐͋r̴͚̙͔͛͛͆e̴̘̘̙̔́̕ i̸͔̫̔̾ș̵̺͓͒͋ m̵̠̝̞̐͆̓ÿ̴͇͙́̽͝ m̸͖̠͉͛͛̕i̴̢̟͒̓͊͜ǹ̴̢̺̟̈́͠d̵͕͖̦̐̾̀

𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑
𝑇𝑟𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡, 𝑦𝑒𝑎ℎ
𝑌𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑝𝑠𝑒
𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡
𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓
𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑?