Aftereffects of Magical Emotional Abuse

So, I'm doing some writing (actually an rp character, but this goes much better here than in the tabletop rpgs or roleplaying discussion sections) and I'm running into a blank as to how to accurately portray this character.

I'm currently part of a forum rp (Vampire The Masquerade, if anyone is curious), and my character has spent some time blood bound to an npc.

For those not familiar with how blood bonding works, it's what happens when a vampire drinks another vampire's blood (something very similar happens with humans, but the differences are irrelevant to this discussion). The one who drinks the blood (in this case my character) develops a strong attraction, not necessarily sexual, to the blood's originator (in this case a vampire Mafia Princess who wanted a henchman to assist her in her political schemes who would have access to some vampire-specific abilities but be completely loyal to her).

This results in them desiring nothing more than to please the one they are bound to and protect them in every way possible. The more blood they drink, the stronger the bond becomes, until the person is, as one explanation put it "the most important person in the world and then some". Throughout all of this, the vampire the blood originates from is unaffected mentally. The only ways to break this bond (at least that most people would have access to) is the death of one of the parties or, at earlier stages, large amounts of time with no contact between them.

My question is, what kind of emotional scars would undergoing this sort of thing leave on someone after the bond is broken? I'm imagining that my character wouldn't want to have anything to do with this person or her associates afterwords, but I'm at a loss for exactly how to portray this kind of trauma.

Tl;dr- what kind of reactions would you expect from someone who had been mind-controlled into loving someone for a long period of time, after that mind control is broken?

Depression, anxiety, revulsion, self revulsion, an unclean feeling and paranoya.

• The person will feel absolutely terrible. They will feel the world does not exist, themselves worthless and terrible. They will not find the energy to do even the things they would normally do.
• They will become nervous of everything. Everything will make them jump.
• They will despise everything to do with the former master, even reminders. They will want to burn everything to the ground if it reminds them of them, and they will get violently angry at everything and everyone associated with their former master.
• They will hate what they did, what they were made to do and what they became. They will want to rip themself out from inside themself and throw themself on a bonfire.
• They will feel raped. See common reactions to rape.
• They will not trust their own senses to provide reliable information. They will suspect everything, even their own emotions of being some sort of illusion.

I am just guessing. I have never been mind raped before.

Well, a few questions.

A) Did this person know about the blood-bond before it happened?

B) Did this person willingly drink the blood, knowing what would happen?

C) What was the dynamic between the binder and the bound party? How did the one with the power treat the other?

It's kind of funny. Sufficiently advanced stupidity is like sufficiently advanced science; eventually, you find something you can't solve.

No, the character did not know what blood bonding was before it happened, although in the years after it happened, he did find out, the bond was just strong enough that he didn't care for a long time.

The existence of this phenomenon is more or less general knowledge in the vampire community and is supposed to come standard in the "so now you're a vampire" talk. The only reason he didn't know was because the guy who turned him didn't bother giving him much info and kind of left him to fend for himself.

The girl who bound him realized that he was pretty young and naive and slipped him some blood surreptitiously, figuring he wouldn't be paying attention to things like that. One of the side effects of this sort of bond is that you want to drink more of the person's blood, so convincing him to get another dose later wasn't difficult.

As for how she treated him... not great. Not horrible, but not great, either. While she wasn't doing anything to hurt him for the lolz (denying him blood, injuring him on purpose, etc), she mostly ignored him unless she wanted something. The main reason why she wanted someone bonded to her in the first place was that she wanted a servant who wouldn't betray her, and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She mainly used him for henchman-type stuff (carrying messages, acting as a bodyguard, occasionally going out to intimidate or kill people she didn't want to deal with herself), but also for more personal things on occasion (for example, if she didn't want to show up at a social function alone and didn't have a more politically useful person to invite). And yes, occasionally some sex. The thing that ends up making him realize that he's not much more than a tool to her is that one of her schemes goes awry and she skips town, leaving him to deal with the fallout without so much as a goodbye.

Does that help?

edited 19th Jul '16 12:43:18 PM by Ashfire

Huh, a female abusing a male. Might be useful to do gender-swaps to avoid accidental sexist double standards.

Could you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean by that. I understand the idea of genderswapping to check for weirdness in that direction, but what double standards exactly are you thinking might be showing up here?

edited 19th Jul '16 8:44:47 PM by Ashfire

Females are seen as weaker than males, more caring, etc. Actions that are considered abusive or manipulative when they're male-on-female are seen as good/less bad/justified when they're female-on-male.

For example, if a male slaps a female for a minor mistake, the male is seen as abusive and overpowering. But if a female slaps a male for a similar mistake, the male is blamed for making the mistake, the female was right, the slap couldn't have been much of an effect anyway, etc.

Also applies to various forms of manipulation and possession. If a female does horrible things then tells her male partner 'I did it all for for your own good', or disallows that male partner to visit his friends... gender-swapping helps to see her in the same light as a male who does horrible things then tells his female partner 'I did it all for for your own good', or disallows that female partner to visit her friends. A female can easily guilt her male partner into having sex with her, while making him think he's not a real man because he doesn't want to have sex with a female. It's easier to see when it's gender-swapped into a male guilting his female partner into sex.

All these affect your presentation of female-on-male abuse, preventing situations where female-on-male abuse is presented as 'she did the right thing' or 'she's harmless'. She's a heartless vampire and he's a human. To her, he is little more than a pawn in her political scheme, and occasionally a convenient sex object for her to use as she pleases. Human females are already capable of many heartless actions. Try to imagine what heartless vampires would do.

If you like, you can bring in sexism as a theme. Several people around the abused male may tell him 'oh come on she's a girl she won't do anything wrong'. Those people have to be presented as sexist as well.

edited 19th Jul '16 11:02:50 PM by hellomoto

I think you might want to reconsider what you just said regarding her treatment being "not horrible."

'Cuz, you know, that's flat out rape, right there.

edited 19th Jul '16 11:07:04 PM by Dragon573

It's kind of funny. Sufficiently advanced stupidity is like sufficiently advanced science; eventually, you find something you can't solve.

Ah, ok, yeah. I'd already given a brief thought to that sort of thing, but I don't think it'll end up being a problem. I have no intention of presenting it as anything other than an extremely painful, violating experience for him. And the people who did know about this wouldn't really do much, sexism or no sexism, because vampire society is a Crapsack World that pretty much considers that sort of thing, while not quite normal, at least not abnormally bad. Although slight point of correction, my character is a vampire as well while this is happening.

You're absolutely right. I got interrupted in the middle of writing that post and apparently didn't read what I'd already written thoroughly enough before posting :P

I guess a more accurate way of saying it is that her treatment of him is similar to how she would treat a favorite weapon or difficult-to-replace item: she's going to take care of him, avoid using him recklessly, and do her best to keep him contented, but not have any sort of personal affection or concern for his well-being in the abstract, apart from its benefit to her. So while she never went out of her way to make it terrible, she didn't give much thought to making it pleasant, either.

Excellent!

She treats him as an NPC, to put it that way? He's just a tool to her, how she treats him is based on what's convenient.

edited 20th Jul '16 12:59:28 AM by hellomoto