pairing information

[citizendetective]

INMATEHOOD (3/2022 - 12/2023)

Character Name: Misty Quigley
Character Journal: citizendetective
Status: Inmate
Pairing Information:
Misty will very much enjoy the concept of pairings, both temporary and permanent; regrettably, she'll enjoy them because she'll see a warden as a built-in friend who is being forced by the Admiral to hang out with her. She's socially inappropriate and off-putting, she's clingy and needy, and she oversteps people's boundaries like nobody's business, so enforcement there is going to be a must. She's also (over)protective of the people she cares about, canonically going so far as to murder someone she saw as a potential danger to them.

Bottom line: one of the worst things her warden could do would be to feel too sorry for her. It’s okay for them to feel sorry for her a little bit! She is, in many ways, a pitiable person. But she's also going to need a lot more intervention than a pat on the head and assurances that, yes, she is deserving of the love and friendship and connection that she craves. It would probably be good for her warden to be able to genuinely like her as a person, but they absolutely should not be someone who would find her obsessive behavior even a little bit cute or endearing. Standard strictness probably wouldn't be the best approach for her, but being monitored closely and kept on a short leash would be; additionally, a warden who could model healthy attachment styles would be excellent. A good match for her will acknowledge the sincerity and validity of her feelings ("I love my friends and want them to be safe"), while never letting that overshadow the multitude of terrible ways in which she expresses those feelings (i.e. never letting "I see you want to be a good friend" morph into "You are a good friend", because she 10000% isn't and she needs to realize that). They'd also do well to keep an eye on the relationships she forms onboard the Barge to make sure she's not repeating patterns from home: this means paying attention to how she talks about people and looking for signs that she's starting to unhealthily obsess over anybody, as well as making sure that nobody too terrible is earning her loyalty (and thereby earning the right to use her as a lackey for whatever misdeeds they might get up to).

Her redemption is likely going to take a lot of trial and error, particularly since she is convinced she is in the right with most of the things she does, and the things she knows she's in the wrong about she considers to have been worth doing regardless. She will probably spend quite a while assuming that she's here solely because she kidnapped and murdered a journalist who was attempting to dig into her friend group's sordid past (by far the biggest, baddest crime she commits). Even the lessons that seem extremely obvious (secretly spying on your friends = bad) will need to be drilled into her head over and over again, with the consequences of her actions directly pointed out. Ultimately, a warden probably won't be able to fully fix her skewed moral compass or instill her with a fully-functional sense of empathy, but developing a good rapport with one can still help her examine why she does what she does, and help her learn how to achieve the same goals (connection, social ties, recognition and admiration) in much healthier ways.

WARDENHOOD (12/2023 - present)

Character Name: Misty Quigley
Character Journal: citizendetective
Status: Warden
Pairing Information:
Misty is a graduated inmate whose path to redemption largely centered around learning to respect boundaries, learning that the end doesn't always justify the means, and learning to treat others as fully-realized people rather than as little dolls that she could move around to her liking in botched efforts to enrich her own life - and like so many former inmates, she'd do well with someone whose thoughts and behavior patterns reflect how her own used to be, because look! She's been there! She gets it! As a former off-putting Weird Kid^TM who grew up into an off-putting Weird Adult^TM and whose graduation hasn't at all fully shed her of that weirdness, Misty would honestly be delighted to end up with a creepy slimeball of an inmate who nobody else much likes. Get in loser, it's time to learn how to be a better person even though you have zero charisma and you suck at empathy.

As a warden, Misty won't be harsh or authoritarian, but she won't be naive or a pushover, either: she's intelligent and observant, and good at spotting lies, manipulations, and inconsistencies. The part of her that likes puzzles and problem-solving would enjoy having an inmate who kept her on her toes, so someone who would need a lot of clever thwarting could pair well with her (though on the flip side, a hack-n-slasher who would need a lot of physical intervention might not be the best choice). Her wardening style is definitely one that will involve a lot of discussions, both practical and theoretical - and she'd likely take a page out of her own warden's book and assign her pair pro-social homework and challenges.

Finally, she would probably do best with a newer inmate who didn't know her before her own graduation, as she's prone to being a bit touchy and defensive around people who knew her inmate self. Longer-term inmates aren't a deal-breaker, but head's up that things might be a little weird at first!