Hello again! Making notes of latest interactions.

The "Fawn" shape of Mato has now officially gone, his human is no longer alive and, as sometimes dead is described, "dreams forever". Thus, is stuck in the forest. I'm pretty satisfied with his introduction work overall, I am not sure how much interest his switching between a "new player" and some kind of vivid "dream" really brought up, but I had a lot of fun doing it and it was fun to come up with new stuff.
Though I suppose after the first time people saw through the act of him being a new player. XDD

So far Mato seems more "social" than I had thought he'd be and this is actually very pleasing. He's not the extremely shy deer who complains about being forever alone. But he's extremely nervous, always fretting, and he really needs time to adapt to others. So deer suddenly approaching = RUUUN FOR YOUR LIIIFE. It's fun to play him, since when he gets startled, so do I. Last night I threw apple juice all over myself.

More on his behaivor:
Seems focussed at one thing at a time. Be it spying on a group, meeting someone or a tree that got in his way. When he's focussed, he stares. Suddenly his movement stops entirely and he stops shaking, fretting, and just stands. When this focus is broken he immediatly falls back to fretting.
It seems he indeed gives others the urge to protect him, and they do so rather willingly. In his head he points out one person he clings to at a time, and keeps coming back to them. Though he also sometimes decides to search around, and then it's up to the others to follow him. Sometimes he seems to look back if they are, sometimes he simply goes. He's afraid of being rude and thus hurt/attacked, but once his focus shifts it's hard for him to keep an eye on surroundings.

He has finally taken his first skull. He tried a few times before but without success, but finally with the help of Migsi and Woden he succeeded in stealing Malikorin's skull. He went to wash it at the idol, then buried it. It was nice to see his actions were not very hard to understand. During this process, it seems he came up with "rules"
If he runs, he loses the skull and needs to go back to the place he dropped it at. He can only fast-walk. So if someone chases him once he has the skull, he is likely to drop it.

I also wanted to copy/paste the journals of people who have interacted with Mato so far, so I can kepe an eye on how he is viewed by others and how I represent him. I want to see if this changes. Though if the people who wrote these see it and want me to take it down, please just tell me! I have no issues with that! I can also keep it on a personal notepad. It's just a shame for me to see them get lost the next time said deer is in the forest and writes on it! XD

First: Shiori's Migsy:
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She spied on Levi and Crucio from a distance once the ghost fawn departed. Noticed a...strange being doing the same thing from behind a tree a short distance away. Whoa, what a weird looking critter! Cypher would no doubt be pleased if he were to see it! In the spirit of her friend, she left the deer couple alone and stalked the creature instead, trying her best to hide behind trees like Cypher did...how boring. Growing impatient, she flew over to greet it, startling him. He was a fearful, twitchy sort for sure, but did not react negatively to her easy presence. After following him around the forest a bit he seemed to warm up to her quickly, and she learned his name was Mato.
» A handsome raven showed up, and Migisi's hopes were dashed upon realizing it was only Woden, the fairy shapeshifter, and not a bird at all. A tad weary of him for surprising her with his transformation the last time, she was not so easily enamored this time around and played hard to get with his attention. Was even less impressed by the fact that he seemed out to steal Mato from her - the nerve! Grudgingly she let him tag along with them a while - though watching him help the Mato steal a mask was quite funny. She 'helped' the two of them bury it at the ruins and shared a good laugh. What fun! Why had she never thought of this?
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SightHoundLady's Woden:
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Visiting the forest in Raven form, Woden met up with the little jackdaw, Migisi, remembering her from the fun they’d had pestering the big icy stag. Always up for mischief, the Fay found her following around a very bizarre creature with arm like appendages named Mato. Greeted the little crow, blissfully unaware that she was anything but happy to see him. Mato turned out to be a very skittish fellow, perplexing Woden when he ran away in fear from the little birds. Eventually he seemed to accept their company but the silly lout still bumped into him a few times in his frantic attempts to flee from any deer that approached. Followed the strange creature around with Migisi. Watched him unsuccessfully try and steal the skull masks from sleeping deer. What fun! Woden liked this game so helped Mato in the task, then followed the creature as he ran off with a skull to the crying idol and proceeded to wash it. Followed Mato to the ruins where Woden and Migisi helped him bury the skull in a grave. Even better! Indeed a fun game. Woden was pleased with the accomplishment.
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Now I think both are familair with Mato's design and perhaps even with his goals in the forest, so perhaps the responses he got are not completely natural. What he has shown by body language in the forest, the skull washing and burying, may not be seen by someone unfamilair by him. Perhaps I can try this out sometime too. I wonder if I am doing it right, if, without language, it's visible what he is up to.

Now I should go back to homework. XD

Hello! Thought I'd keep some notes on recent development
Two "shapes" right now

Mato or Juhani playing the fawn himself in the forest. As an actual new player. It's not easy to seem new, but I try to keep his language simple and unsophisticated. As if he's not used to writing in a way others can read it.
In the forest I try to control him solemly by mouse, so no arrow controls or hotkeys. Makes him slower and somehow seem more newbish.
He knows a few actions by now:
bow = greeting, goodbye
rear = enthosiastic greeting (XD)
suprise = WHOA
sniff = greeting
lower antlers = showing off headgear
laughing = laughing

Perhaps some others, but not much yet. Just basic interactions.

The blog about dreams he made twists as soon as he "goes to sleep" and he, in his dreams, enters TEF again, but in the shape of adult-Mato(Aka himself) and I found it important to note down his development in-forest

Seems to be curious of other deer, but incredibly nervous. Tends to shy away when approached but is not impossible to approach, when cautious. When someone runs at him he wil turn andl flee. To him it looks like they've "discovered his secret" so he runs from them in order to avoid confrontation.
So far he has not had a bump with a skull deer. Or not in a way to "traumatize" him, or have him focus on the skull.
He has been interacting with a very sweet character my other deer don't interact with at all, which I find curious but somehow relieving. They seem to take care of both his adult and fawn forms. They got him to play as an adult too and, I think he's actually calm around someone he sort of "trusts". It's also a nice change for me to play him a bit more relaxed unlike his constant nervous behaivor. He seems to show this in a few ways:
Constantly looking around, especially when another is approaching him
backing off
always putting a tree between him and another deer
never finishes off his actions. Like, when he tilts his head, he breaks off the action. This way he can do many actions after eachother.

And that's it so far. I'm very tired right now, but tomorrow I'll likely twist his blog around again so I can go back in with "adult" Mato.
This is said blog btw. If you want to keep an eye on it, you can reply to one of his questions. I mean, a "track" would be a little odd...

Hello! Today I feel slightly silly. I think my idea is sort of rounded off now, and I should be starting. But somehow, now I've spend so much time on it, it feels a little scary. Like there's suddenly pressure.

So, so far it seems I'll be going with the character description from day 8/9, and the idea of the introduction from day 9. Though I would really like to hear if it you have your doubts about it, or think it's good and want to give me an extra push. Since now I feel like I'm waiting on nothing, silly as it is! I have asked around and most seem to like the idea too, but I know not everyone gives honest critique as easily.
But perhaps Sight is right and I am overthinking too much. There will indeed always be something, and perhaps the bugs need to be discovered as I play him.

I'll keep this up for today and likely tomorrow as I'll be very busy, but then I want to introduce the picto "wakka" as a new player. Try to get me into the mindset of someone who is perhaps forced to play TEF, or only has one game to choose to play on his small computer, and chooses TEF.

Wow short.

Hello again!

To Tera:
Thank you for your time reading through my babbeling and for your lovely comment. I love long comments. Because size matters. /bad humor

Anyway. Yes, I am having the idea of trying to put the littlelest amount of info on his bio. Just what’s necessary. I like the idea of lulling people in with the akward-character idea a lot too.
On the phobia, yes, very much so! I think that’s a good way to describe his actions and his fear. He doesn’t want anyone to be suspicious, so does the exact opposite of what a necrophiliac is thought to do.

I went to look into your idea of the rituals. Because I did find that very interesting and would give me more to do in-forest. Or story-wise anyway! There are many rituals that moreso revolve around the recently died. Like, closing the eyelids, the mouth, covering their face with a sheet. But since he only gets the skulls, I couldn’t really connect these rituals. Though the corpses are also often washed, perhaps he takes the skulls to the crying idol to “shower” them before he buries them.

Ah yes, the connection between the trauma’s and his sudden digging up bodies is very spontaneous for me too. Problem mostly was that it seemed very sudden in all the stories I read on necrophilia as well. I like your suggestion there though, and I may actually snatch it from you and go with it. (XD)

I’m adoring the idea of him being the one sitting behind the computer and playing “Mato”. Very twisted. But I also think this brings in a lot of complications. How does he control this avatar so well? What does he do when he is not playing? Why does he behave the same in-forest as he does in-real-life?
I am wondering if this doesn’t bring up a lot of complication. Why doesn’t he turn the game off if he doesn’t like it? And if he likes it, why play out his OCD problems in-game?
Also moreso questioning out loud than you Tera, rofl. But that popped up. I do like the idea overall, so I was thinking about perhaps he indeed gets to play TEF. And like TEF is a screensaver and turns on when your computer goes into sleep-mode, what if it starts to appear in Mato’s dreams, until he gets stuck and doesn’t wake up again?

So that’d also kind of go with the idea Ravenflight suggested. But have the game itself as a stimulus. (SHOULD HE LIKE, make an introduction post FOR HIS FAWN? XDD)

Anyway. I do really like the idea of HIM actually playing Mato instead of me. But I think it’d get horribly confusing. Or as Vee said: TEFception.

Back to Tera.

The zombie-deer in-game seem very uhm.. I suppose I am thinking of two things you mean with this.
1: The zombie set on it’s own seems like a normal deer to me wearing said set. And since they also posess thoughts and the ability to turn Mato down or make him feel bad, he’d be uncomfortable around them just as much as any other deer. (Or steal their skull.)
2: Zombie-zombies! This depends, also, on the character. Like some vampires out here, I suspect many zombie-characters also just hop about and interact like most deer. So would still make him uncomfortable.

You did make me think about the option of badly-wounded deer. They’d be less likely to go after Mato, or hurt him. So he’d be more curious of those, they can’t actually hurt him just like the dead can’t. But they can still talk, and still verbally abuse him. So caution would be needed.
I wonder what he’d think about your Teradeer. Since they seem to be pretty much a living corpse, but slow, and I don’t think they speak right? Because I think, when a deer seems very undangerous or slow, he’d be more inclined to be curious of them. Whereas fawns are not dangerous at all, they are extremely active and this may not always do him good. But I suppose calm fawns would be less scary.

I have started to notice I need to put him in-game to develop further. I'd still keep this rolling, put down notes in his in-forest interactions etc. How this affects him.
But I want to think of an introduction.

What if I'd go with him simply starting to play TEF, indeed, as a part of his therapy. (What facility would do that..I hope none irl. hehe) So perhaps start off with him playing as a fawn. Him -actually- playing as a fawn.
Though things turn bad. When he goes to sleep irl, he dreams of entering the forest as a completely different deer. A grown up one. This goes on for a few days, playing a little fawn during the day, a grown up deer when he's asleep.
Until he stops waking up. (Coma, perhaps he dies in his sleep, heartattack.) and his being is stuck in the forest completely. So his character, "Mato", would not just be a character, but become himself.

Ohyeah. Since "Mato" is the finnish word for "earthworm", I spoke to Zirqu who is finnish about average finnish names. I supposed that, since he uses that name for a reason, perhaps he is finnish (Or, his family is.). Although I know no finnish whatsoever and don't plan on speaking it. Perhaps english is not a problem for him.
His real name could be Juhani Lesonen. It wouldn't be extremely important, but I do like to give his human self a name too. As opposed to only his deer-nickname.

I wonder if anyone agrees on this "how he gets in-forest" idea. Or has another suggestion.

Oh, finished that drawing!

Likely to use it in his introduction.


---*EDIT*---
My introduction idea got me wondering. If he knows TEF is "a game", why would he not act like it is? Though I suppose he would when -he- still plays, as a fawn. But loses that sense when it's in his dreams, like in my dreams everything makes sense and I don't question it. So in his dreams, he's not playing, but actually -IS- said deer (Mato.) Until he ofcourse gets stuck completely. So in that way, he would not be realizing it is a game and would not act like it is. He would when awake, and playing as a fawn.

I'm still really liking this idea.I can imagine him making a blog with questions like "when do i grow up?" or "why can I not keep my spells?" before that blog turns into his "biographpy".
I'd likely use the pictogram's account itself. Not my own.
I could steal my own art and put it as his user picture! Hahaha..Oh man... Too many ideas for that one.

Ah a bit shorter today I suppose, I didn’t have as much time. It’s rather late atm too so.

I did indeed soften Mato up quite a bit, though I would not exclude the thought of him also having intercourse with the corpses, as this would normally be viewed as a part of a relationship. And since that is what he supposed he was having with said corpses.
Thanks for the tip on the mother-issue there Uitleger, I have to say I didn’t see the link myself there. I hadn’t exactly thought of why such a person would turn out so aggressive.

Some notes I found through the book you linked (which is awesome, by the way.)

“Sexual inadequacy may cause the necrophile to turn his attention to corpses. Some necrophiles are known to be impotent to live women. Perhaps due to anxiety or some other deep-seated psychological disorder.”

There was also a story about a man who was treated very harshly by all his family. He found solace in the dead, who never complained and who were never critical.

Castration anxiety, feelings of male inadequacy and fear of women may be at work in some cases

I also read in this book, but also on the other website, the theory about a necrophile’s perception of sexuality being rather infantile. Since it’s not about giving and receiving, with a corpse, only one gets pleasure and there is no need to give. This indicates an immature and narcisstic ego of the necrophile.

These all kind of seemed to work for Mato, and perhaps moreso than his mother being paralyzed. Which idea I did find very interesting, but even though based on a true story, feels a little far fetched? Or maybe I just need to combine it all.


Still think his mother needs a prominent place to cause his anxiety/fear of women in the first place. Perhaps she doesn’t even need to be alone, perhaps he had a sister as well. Read some other stories about a necrophile who got the way he was due to being humiliated by his mother and.. I think quite the number of sisters. Four even.


So let’s see. (Using a sister now, may steer from that later)


Born only son ->
No father figure, alone with a very dominant sister and mother – Feeling inadequate as a man, nervous around women (afraid of doing things wrong due to the pressure his family put on him) ->
Mother dies, sister leaves, ends up alone ->
Bothered by anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, turns to corpses who don’t complain, don’t give him the same fear ->
Uses said corpses as companions not to be alone, thinks he has a relationship with them. ->
Corpses rot, neighbours get the feeling something is not entirely right in his house ->
Police arrests a deeply traumatized Mato, pulled out of his own little world, right into the pressuring real world again with people that expect something from him. ->

Arrival in the forest! How?
- Reincarnation
- Goes crazy?
The problem with a realistic character, and the forest, is that the contrast is pretty big. I could use the idea of the forest having “magic” to it to bring Mato over. But I fear that kind of does harm to his otherwise realistic setting. Perhaps he loses his mind, ends up in the forest due to a lucid dream. Or he escapes the facility in one way or another (like certain criminals here get days off. And escape, duh.) and ends up getting lost in the forest. Ending up in TEF. (Perhaps again due to a lucid dream.) Perhaps he loses his being entirely through such a dream.

Arrival in the forest. Lack of memory ->
Experiences triggers of “memories” or, feelings that feel familiar. Feels these feelings are bad and develops a way to repress them, OCD. ->
Death seems to be a trigger for him, ruins + skull masks. ->
Buries the skull masks from deer their faces, which seems to solve his feelings for a short moment. ->
Tries to find more and more ways to gather and bury the skulls to repress his feelings, which his memory somehow indicate are bad (being “caught”, put away in an institute. Therapy)

And now I’m tired. And stuff. I hope to get this all clear soon though I think I am on my way now.
Hopefully soon working on design, and an introduction! Fine tuning will be happening through forest interaction, too, but I do want a clear idea on the “why’s” before he goes into action.

Oh! I somehow felt like I should explain myself on softening him up so much. It’s also so I can identify with him better, and to evade aggression. I can imagine him having his fits and stuff like that, but I do want to evade a killer. For my own comfort, but also because there are so many characters out there atm that act aggressive or are killers. Many necrophiles are, ofcourse, but perhaps it is simply not in Mato to turn aggressive. Just turn his frustration on himself, blaming himself. That’s what I’d think, though. And maybe it’s too late and I should stop thinking now.

Sleepy times. Also, again thank you to the readers and those who are assisting me!

I think it’s time to “conclude” some business. Make sense of all this ramble!

At the moment I have decided on the name “Mato”, which means worm. I found this rather fitting for him. Doubt it’s his “birth name” in the human world, but in TEF he’d carry another.

Mato is born the only son of a woman, his father leaving them before his birth. This results in his mother losing all trust in other humans, and keeping her son to herself. He was not allowed to bring friends from school home, nor to visit them. Slowly, he got indoctrinated by the idea everyone was out to harm him, and stayed inside. This way he became inable to interact with humans on a social level.
He loved his mother very much, even though she took all his frustration out on him.
As she suffered a stroke and became paralyzed, Mato still took it on him to nurse her until her death. She could no longer lash out at him, only through words. Through this he learned, that even when she was mad with him, he could still crawl next to her to cuddle.

As she died, Mato was left on his own. Inable to communicate with humans normally, he had great trouble functioning normally.
Time passes and Mato still finds himself alone. It starts to eat at him, but he doesn’t seem to be able to form any bonds with others. Loneliness eats away at him.
He learns of a young woman having died, and, curiousity gets the better of him. He digs the woman up and, the state of “paralysation” makes him recal his own mother. He takes her home, and finally has a companion.
He didn’t have to fear her, she would not get mad with him nor would she deny him. And Mato himself, was very sure she loved him just as much.
This seemed easy enough. Mato continued digging up bodies, keeping them with him to fill up the empty space.
To him, it didn’t seem like he was harming anyone. Until his neighbours started to smell the rotting bodies, and police knocked on Mato’s door.

Mato is arrested and put into a mental institute. Here, he was confronted with his deeds. As now the realization struck that what he did was considered “wrong”, it got very hard for him to even live with himself.

I am not entirely sure on his transition to TEF here yet. Perhaps it’s all just a dreaaam~

Mato enters the forest with a completely blank mind. Ofcourse, completely confused by his environment, the other weird looking deer, and even worse, his own shape. He resorts to retreating himself as to escape this weird reality. Maybe it’ll go away if he ignores it.
But it really doesn’t.
As he gains control over his new body, Mato sets out to explore. Slightly, and hopefully without bumping into more weird looking deer.
With spying on them, he finds out they have the weird tendency to wear dead deer skulls on their faces.

And he is completely horrified.

This triggers such a bad reaction in him, that he panics. No clue what to do with these emotions. When he stumbles upon a sleeping skull wearer, he decides to steal it. And to do the only proper thing one can do with skulls: you bury them.
This makes him feel better, and he continues to try and steal said skulls. Stalking, observing, and eventually striking. (I am thinking about using spelldata to show that he “has a skull” by having a skull mask underneath his usual mask. If he’d have casted a mask off, he’d sneeze to his own “skull”, walk to the ruins, and sneeze it off. But I don’t know what his picto looks like in 3.31, have to look into that first.)

The skull hoarding is a result of his repressed thoughts showing through OCD. Digging up bodies is bad! You have to bury them! And this is the only thing to keep him calm.
As the deer he wants to have the skull of get more dangerous, he’ll also have to become sneakier in his approach. Even socially akward, his want for these skulls is big enough to consider talking others into helping him. (Whereas this works out is to see. What I’m writing on in-forest interactions atm are my ideas at how such can go, I know things can go entirely different when actually in-game!)

The only way I imagine he can interact with others, is by imagining they are objects/machines. They need to have a function, to see them as persons on their own is too tricky for him to cope with.



I suppose that’s where I am on history/explanations for his behavior.

Perhaps a few notes on personality.

*Nervous
*Obsessed
* OCD
* Fear of women
* Interest in bones/fear
* Inability to relate
* Objects over persons
* Fascination with bad odors
* Lack of spontaneity(All is planned out)
* Not so much shy, but very wary.
* Stays in hiding most of the time
* Affection to the ruins
*No fighter. Not build for such. Will run.
* Evades getting hurt at all cost
* May relate best to children (childish mindset, did not have a “proper” youth. Not entirely sure on this as children can be very unpredictable, and this is a problem for him.)
* Needs stability. Order.
* Tics. Twitches his eyes/hands around a lot when talking.
* Talks very fast and trips over his words.

That’s already quite a lot. I’ll stop this here since he will also need room to develop in-forest, so without a doubt things will be changed/added/deleted.

Uhm. Well yeah. If you're reading this, and you think you can give me some tips/critique, do tell me. Or if some connections seem odd to you.
Ohyeah. Decided to base his story on the first story on this website about Ed. Such a severe story, but such a bad youth this guy must've had. I thought it'd be better to base it on an excisting story, as I myself can't look into what makes such a person, such a person. I softened Mato up for my own ability to identify with him as well.

We were watching a boring movie at school so I decided to draw instead. (Yes, even animators get boring movies.)

What I first noticed was that his head, is evil to draw. Plain evil.
But I like a challenge.


These are all damn ugly. I hope to do things with his hands for the expression his ears lack(he has none!) but that didn't work out entirely yet. I decided to focus on the shape of the head for now. Hard enough as it is. The semi-sideview was hardest for me with this head, it seems.


As I continued to draw I got a little bit more into it. These are actually rather satisfying and keeping in mind how quick this improvement went, I think I'll be able to pull him off. Expression-wise I was worried for him, but I think that's going to be just fine now. Though, front views.. Hahaha. This was really quick, too. Oh well~

Perhaps I'll update this later with some color experiments, but for now I'm slightly tired. /boring.

I think slowly the big line has been drawn and I'm getting very pleased about this. Eager to start playing him but, I know I should take my time!

So firstly: Replying to Uitleger!
Thought I'd do it up here instead of in the comments so I can keep easier track of my thought process.
(Psst, I had never guessed you weren't a native, your english has always impressed me XD)

When I was looking on the spirit phobia in paticulair I noticed it was indeed a rare one, I suppose that somehow suprised me. Years ago I used to have contact with a lot of people who carried such believes in spiritual lifeforms and perhaps this made me think it's not so uncommon. So it's good to see that from the other side too, did make me realize a lot on that part!

I looked into both PSTD and OCD, so let me share my findings.
Found a few websites in dutch but, on the matter of PTSD it indeed seemed very fitting that the phobia would arise from confrontation with an object that'd recall memories. In the case of an ashamed necrophiliac a skull would be a good trigger indeed.
But with people who suffer from PTSD it seemed that they'd avoid the painful memory, which I can't blame them for ofcourse. But I suppose then yes, skulls would trigger his phobia/shame for what he has done in the past, but it wouldn't make him steal them.

So I continued to OCD

--Copy paste--

Symptoms of the disorder include excessive washing or cleaning; repeated checking; extreme hoarding; preoccupation with sexual, violent or religious thoughts; aversion to particular numbers; and nervous rituals, such as opening and closing a door a certain number of times before entering or leaving a room. These symptoms can be alienating and time-consuming, and often cause severe emotional and financial distress. The acts of those who have OCD may appearparanoid and potentially psychotic. However, OCD sufferers generally recognize their obsessions and compulsions as irrational, and may become further distressed by this realization.

Obsessions are thoughts that recur and persist despite efforts to ignore or confront them.[6] People with OCD frequently perform tasks, or compulsions, to seek relief from obsession-related anxiety.

Some people with OCD perform compulsive rituals because they inexplicably feel they have to, others act compulsively so as to mitigate the anxiety that stems from particular obsessive thoughts. The person might feel that these actions somehow either will prevent a dreaded event from occurring, or will push the event from their thoughts.

People rely on compulsions as an escape from their obsessive thoughts; however, they are aware that the relief is only temporary, that the intrusive thoughts will soon return. Some people use compulsions to avoid situations that may trigger their obsessions.

-- copy paste --

I think I found OCD more fitting. Most of the time what OCD makes me think of is people stacking books or washing their hands a lot, but I find it very interesting to read it has to do with surpressing a thought. A lot of quote's up there I think are useful for this paticulair character. The burying of skulls could be a compulsion for him to avoid situations thay may trigger his past obsession (digging up people!) Perhaps burying those skulls gives him a feeling of doing something good in return for the bad he used to do. And have this turn into a compulsion.

And if he can't obtain the skulls himself because the deer is too dangerous, perhaps that'd be the times he'd attempt to talk others into helping him. I suppose though, he's very socially akward so I'd have to see if such actually happens. If he -actually- manages to "find a friend" XD Even then though it'd be interesting to see him not view these as friends, but as objects of use, since that seems for him the only way to deal with others. Living beings are so unpredictable anyway.

I find the karmic transformation very interesting. Tried to look into it a bit, what I seemed to find on it was that it transforms one into that they dislike. I'm not entirely sure if that is what you mean. His being's design is very mixed, dinosaur/deer/human like influences.. (it seems XD) So I'm not entirely sure if that'd make sense to me. Though I do like the idea of him getting "kicked down a level" in a sense.

Went to look very globally into reincarnation, and remembered that Hinduism uses a system that sort of reminded me of this "being kicked down a level." Since karma would decide what one would reincarnate into. I suppose then, in this case, due to his bad karma he'd be kicked into some weird deer like figure. Although perhaps that information is not necesarry by the subject of reincarnation as a way to arrive in the forest.
Perhaps I'll come up with something else at some point.

But for now it's indeed interesting to think of what he'd remember at all.

I suppose if one would put all of his past into a subconcious, he wouldn't even remember digging up bodies in the past. So the burying of skulls would solemly be OCD. This could start with him arriving in the forest, blabla, and at some point witnessing his first skull-carrying deer.
OCD though would be his solution for perhaps the perverse thoughts that constantly bother him wich would have to do with his past. Or perhaps, he does remember his past and in fear of repeat, buries skulls. I suppose it'd start with him knowing absolutely nothing, like a sort of amnesia, but remembering bits and pieces by confrontation with things in-forest like the skulls, the ruins/graveyard.
I don't think he'd ever need to tell anyone this though, nor ever feel the need to do this. He cannot predict these deer, so he can't control their actions. Things can only go wrong if he'd ever talk about such things!

To me the connections are starting to make sense now. I also had a thought about how he came to be this socially akward as a human and would resort to digging up dead bodies. For me it was just interesting to have a thought about this, instead of simply "making him a necrophiliac".
But since I have no clear story of this yet, I want to look into the stories on the website I found yesterday. Atm though, I'm done typing and feel like doing something else for a bit.

So. Thinking over some stuff from yesterday, thanks once again guys!
I decided for now, to look into two possible causes for his skull-burial obsession/problem.

1. The ghost phobia I had thought of before
2. Uitleger's suggestion of a necrophile.

I find said suggestion very interesting, heavy though. But I also figured that he would not in fact continue that obsession in the forest, it turns into reburying skulls. How that works, I'm not totally done with. But I thought to just do some research on necrophiles in general. See if it fits.

The wikipedia page didn't help me much. The only thing I thought was interesting there, was that
15% of the necrophiles do what they do by a desire for comfort or to overcome feelings of isolation
Which is the direction I felt my guy was going in.
Buut other than that.. So I continue'd my search! And found pretty much a book on the subject. Which was amazing. There was a lot of information about different necrophiles in the past, but many of them were murderes. I didn't feel as if my guy would murder, so I focussed myself on other traits.

The necrophile develops poor self-esteem, perhaps due in part to a significant loss;
A. He/she is very fearful of rejection by women/men and he/she desires a sexual partner who is incapable of rejecting him/her; and/or
B. He/she is fearful of the dead, and transforms his/her fear — by means of reaction formation — into a desire.

Both of those are actually scarily useful!
I also stumbled upon a list of personality traits these people often had.

• an inability to relate to living people
• language that includes numerous death-related or scatological words
• a tendency toward boredom and lifeless conversation
• a tendency to wear light-absorbing dark colors and to dislike bright colors
• the belief that resolving conflict involves force or violence
• an appreciation for machines over people
• dreams involving death, destruction or dead parts
• an interest in sickness
• a view that the past is more real than the present
• a fascination with bad odors
• an incapacity to laugh and tendency to smirk
• a lack of spontaneity
• lifeless, dry skin
• the worship of techniques or devices of destruction
• the compartmentalization of emotion and will
• insensitivity to tragedy involving loss of life

That's a lot. I found some very interesting and perhaps even useful, so I made the text of those thicker.

Reading through everything, what seems an important part is that they often suffer a chaotic childhood, so they crave control. The ultimate control ofcourse, is that over a dead body. Since the other can't really give feedback at all. I suppose this mixes with the manipulator part I had thought of before. He doesn't really like others/living beings unless he can control them. Which would make him resort to manipulating. And likely doing this through his weakness thus needing others their protection. Although this seems to somehow clash. I'd think he'd use others like objects and view them that way too.

Now this is all very interesting and surely would make for one interesting personality. I suppose that is what I'd use the necrophile part for anyway, as a personality base. Simply to "slim down" the severeness and use it solemly as a past/reason for his personality. In that way I also think it doesn't need to be "shown" and so I could evade offending others.

Though yes, as i said, very interesting so far. But now to the connections; How would he get in the forest, and why would he bury skulls?
As I'm typing this I'm coming up with the idea of him being caught. Perhaps this causes such a shameful reaction to him/realisation since he's suddenly pulled out of his own little world with all these judging humans, that he commits suicide. Perhaps death is better than being forced to live with all these living humans. Then TEF would simply be his "reincarnation" or "hell". I guess that is a common way to get in TEF, and possibly the most "realistic." Though suicide would clash with his fear of death, though so does necrophilia. Though as the book claimed, such a fear could also turn into a desire.

So now he's in TEF. Perhaps his shame and social akwardness drives him to steal and bury the skulls, as to make up for his past being. Instead of digging body's up, burying them. That is the most "simple" explanation I could come up with for this direction.

*EDIT*
During the reading through necrophiliac's their stories, it seems the collecting of dead body parts was important. It seemed some of them even had a goal to create a dead world around them. In that case, wouldn't the collecting of skulls for his own collection not make more sense? One of the stories involved a guy who used skulls to decorate his bed I think. But to me, that'd come very close to AliceV's collector and the reburying for guilty/shameful reason seems more unique/interesting to me.
Now I'm actually typing this, if he'd still be collecting skulls in-forest then he'd also have a reason to dig up deer corpses, and that is what I want to evade. Then it'd get very TEF-unfriendly. So yeah, think I should stick to the reburying.

I also noticed that in this direction the picto as a symbol/portal would not be of use anymore. I thought of it perhaps as a gravemarker for the skulls he'd bury. That wouldn't actually be visible in-forest but could be interesting for art/events surrounding people who want to get their skull back. But that's food for thought.
*EDIT*

Heavy stuff! But very, very interesting, and I enjoyed reading 18 pages on necrophilia. o_o' XD Oh, here's the website btw. Very interesting stories for those who have an interest in the criminal mind!


Though now I've worked that out, I also want to start doing research on a phobia for spirits/ghosts. See what comes out of that. So I'll be going at that now, this'll be updated with the other half when I'm done.
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You know it's actually pretty funny on how many "Have -phobiahere-? PAY JUST A 1000 EURO"S TO GET RID OF IT!" websites I come across searching for this.

Dude. No.

Notes for after dinner: Phasmophobia/Spectrophobia and Pneumatiphobia.

Alrighto. So it seems to be hard to find specific information on these. Perhaps also because what I am looking for is more a personality disorder, and anyone can suffer from a phobia. Let's note down what I found anyway.

Judging from the story of a victim, they seemed to solve their fear by the knowledge of there being another living person in the same room. This person would call their father and ask them to keep the phone off the hook so said phobic atleast had the feeling there was someone with them. This also went for sleeping in the dark.

So to me it kind of seems to turn into a fear of being alone.

Causes could be traumatic childhood experiences, as with many phobia's. I also found a list of symptoms:
The symptoms of spectrophobia vary and are individual. Symptoms might be as mild as feeling uncomfortable or as intense as to cause a full blown anxiety or panic attack. Other symptoms can include:

Panting or Gasping for Breath
Dry Mouth
Feeling Sick
Racing Heart
Feeling Out of Control
Overwhelming Fear and Anticipating Disaster

Which I guess only happens when said fear is triggered. Though you know, when I read this, I'd say that goes for pretty much most phobia's.

It also seems that most claim this phobia comes from horror movies. Hm. That's not very interesting.


Ohdear I'm going nowhere. if I'd want to make the reason for him reburying skulls a phobia, it seems I'm not going to have a lot of "real life" support. Seems like I'd have to base it mostly around my own ideas of this. Good I went on an investigation about this, hehe. The more you know.