On Tokitoh and his trauma buttons.
So! Quick rambly and incoherent thing about Tokitoh's trauma buttons, partly for my own referece and partly because it will come in handy if something/someone ever decides to push them in camp (which I'm sure will happen at some point.)
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Canonically, Tokitoh has no memories of his past, however every now and then, Minekura gives us tiny flashbacks and episodes that lead us to think that Tokitoh was abused when he was younger, physically, psychologically and maybe even sexually. In these flashbacks, we see young Tokitoh looking up to a man dressed in a black suit (whose face we can obviously not see) who insistently calls him by his given name (Minoru) and tells him not to be afraid because he's already through it all [ETA: As harukami points out, this is actually more of a "Throughout it all, you're only mine" thing. CREEPY, NO?]. Tokitoh is presumably in a cage and the man's reaching out for him, calling him 'his', we also see/hear Tokitoh struggling with him, saying things like "Please Akira-san, stop!", "I don't wanna" and trust me, this is way creepier in the manga when you listen to Akira-san's voice. D:
We get the first flashback in Dice 09, Tokitoh's having a nightmare while in the waiting room of a hospital and Kubota's holding his hand tightly. However, when he wakes up, he doesn't remember anything about it (or so he says.)
Second time, is in Dice 17, while the leader of the Fortune Fang's cult decides to try and use a drug as a truth serum to get him to talk about his hand and what he knows about W.A., as soon as Tokitoh sees the syringe, we get another flashback (very similar to the first one) in which the guy in the suit is calling him again and telling him to come with him. Tokitoh then proceeds to have a fantastic fit in which he yells, cries, kicks and basically doesn't calm down until Kubota (who was handcuffed) bites his ear to make him snap out of it. Once again, after that, Tokitoh doesn't make any comments about his flashback, so it is safe to assume that his mind blocks them.
Volume 5 is all about Kubota and Tokitoh's backstory seen from the point of view of Shouta, a little kid who lives in the apartment next door and who becomes close to them. Shouta asks Kubota if he doesn't think it's inconvenient that they don't know niichan's name and Kubota shows him a small bracelet with 'Minoru' engraved in it, saying he had it on his wrist when he first found him. After that, Tokitoh comes out of the shower and Shouta innocently asks if the name 'Minoru' rings any bells and as Tokitoh ponders this, a Generic Cage Flashback is triggered and Tokitoh has another his first panic attack. He starts yelling, breaking stuff and he doesn't come to his senses until after Kubota pulls him into a very awkward embrace in which Tokitoh 'accidentally' breaks Kubota's arm.
I'll take this moment to point out that every once in a while, Tokitoh's hand starts hurting out of the blue. It hurts so much that every time it happens, Tokitoh ends up crouched on the floor, crying. It's not as bad as the times when he gets his panic attacks because he is completely conscious when this happens, however, since he broke Kubota's arm, he refuses any kind of touch or contact while his hand is hurting because he is afraid he might hurt other people. Also, even though the pain it's clearly unbearable, he likes shrugging it off and saying he's okay and that it doesn't hurt.
I suppose I will be updating this as soon as Minekura drops us more hints and/or scenes related to his past, but for the time being, if you don't want Tokitoh to break down and become a very destructive creature: PLEASE WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T CALL HIM MINORU. EVER. Yes, it's in his userinfo, but unless you have a very good reason to and have cleared it up with me beforehand, please refrain from doing so.
As for medical stuff and other possible triggers are concerned, well, there's not much that can be done because I don't have a way of predicting what's going to happen in game, but I'll do my best to keep in contact with the players involved to either avoid or MERCILESSLY MASH his trauma buttons, depending on the situation. And seriously, if anyone wants to play with this, just drop me a line on IRC/email/here and we'll see what we can arrange, I'm an angstwhore easy! (Also, because I'd need to clear it up with Kubota's player first, since he's the one in charge of snapping him out of his happy fits. |D)
ETA: satora_chan is awesome and she uploaded all of the pages referenced in the write-up here! ♥
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Canonically, Tokitoh has no memories of his past, however every now and then, Minekura gives us tiny flashbacks and episodes that lead us to think that Tokitoh was abused when he was younger, physically, psychologically and maybe even sexually. In these flashbacks, we see young Tokitoh looking up to a man dressed in a black suit (whose face we can obviously not see) who insistently calls him by his given name (Minoru) and tells him not to be afraid because he's already through it all [ETA: As harukami points out, this is actually more of a "Throughout it all, you're only mine" thing. CREEPY, NO?]. Tokitoh is presumably in a cage and the man's reaching out for him, calling him 'his', we also see/hear Tokitoh struggling with him, saying things like "Please Akira-san, stop!", "I don't wanna" and trust me, this is way creepier in the manga when you listen to Akira-san's voice. D:
We get the first flashback in Dice 09, Tokitoh's having a nightmare while in the waiting room of a hospital and Kubota's holding his hand tightly. However, when he wakes up, he doesn't remember anything about it (or so he says.)
Second time, is in Dice 17, while the leader of the Fortune Fang's cult decides to try and use a drug as a truth serum to get him to talk about his hand and what he knows about W.A., as soon as Tokitoh sees the syringe, we get another flashback (very similar to the first one) in which the guy in the suit is calling him again and telling him to come with him. Tokitoh then proceeds to have a fantastic fit in which he yells, cries, kicks and basically doesn't calm down until Kubota (who was handcuffed) bites his ear to make him snap out of it. Once again, after that, Tokitoh doesn't make any comments about his flashback, so it is safe to assume that his mind blocks them.
Volume 5 is all about Kubota and Tokitoh's backstory seen from the point of view of Shouta, a little kid who lives in the apartment next door and who becomes close to them. Shouta asks Kubota if he doesn't think it's inconvenient that they don't know niichan's name and Kubota shows him a small bracelet with 'Minoru' engraved in it, saying he had it on his wrist when he first found him. After that, Tokitoh comes out of the shower and Shouta innocently asks if the name 'Minoru' rings any bells and as Tokitoh ponders this, a Generic Cage Flashback is triggered and Tokitoh has another his first panic attack. He starts yelling, breaking stuff and he doesn't come to his senses until after Kubota pulls him into a very awkward embrace in which Tokitoh 'accidentally' breaks Kubota's arm.
I'll take this moment to point out that every once in a while, Tokitoh's hand starts hurting out of the blue. It hurts so much that every time it happens, Tokitoh ends up crouched on the floor, crying. It's not as bad as the times when he gets his panic attacks because he is completely conscious when this happens, however, since he broke Kubota's arm, he refuses any kind of touch or contact while his hand is hurting because he is afraid he might hurt other people. Also, even though the pain it's clearly unbearable, he likes shrugging it off and saying he's okay and that it doesn't hurt.
I suppose I will be updating this as soon as Minekura drops us more hints and/or scenes related to his past, but for the time being, if you don't want Tokitoh to break down and become a very destructive creature: PLEASE WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T CALL HIM MINORU. EVER. Yes, it's in his userinfo, but unless you have a very good reason to and have cleared it up with me beforehand, please refrain from doing so.
As for medical stuff and other possible triggers are concerned, well, there's not much that can be done because I don't have a way of predicting what's going to happen in game, but I'll do my best to keep in contact with the players involved to either avoid or MERCILESSLY MASH his trauma buttons, depending on the situation. And seriously, if anyone wants to play with this, just drop me a line on IRC/email/here and we'll see what we can arrange, I'm an angstwhore easy! (Also, because I'd need to clear it up with Kubota's player first, since he's the one in charge of snapping him out of his happy fits. |D)
ETA: satora_chan is awesome and she uploaded all of the pages referenced in the write-up here! ♥