Aventurine OCD Thoughts
Since we're going back to Penacony soon... Woe, Aventurine Essay Be Upon Ye. Pathologizing him lmao.
A lot of people headcanon him with Borderline or Histrionic Personality Disorder, and I can't weigh in on this personally, but it's really cool that people are using him a proxy for their own experiences.
I do want to take a different angle here, since I haven't seen any explicit explorations of him with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (some fics write him in a way that feel like they dip into this type of interpretation, but I don't recall people directly headcanoning him as such), despite there being a lot of potential.
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Because his life has been entirely filled with swift and dramatic changes, he may feel as though he's more in control during more chaotic scenarios as opposed to peaceful ones. His image of himself as a recklesss gambler hinges on a "script" of always casting himself as a flamboyant disruptor of the status quo, but specifically with a villainous tinge.
His current job and status at the IPC should be the most stable point in his life so far, yet it's also the most suicidal he's been. Even though he's made life-threatening gambles in the past as a child (to get back his sister's necklace) or a slave (for a fresh start), there's the clear expectation that he's doing something knowing that he will and wants to make it out alive. However, his motivations have since shifted to taking on these risks for the sake of the risk itself. Perhaps it's a form of self-sabotage; he can't sit in this stable position without the underlying anxiety that something will go wrong, as it always had. Thus, consciously or subconsciously, he's trying to push this stability back into chaos. As a consequence, whatever he reaps he has sown himself, which in of itself grants him a level of autonomy he lacked before.
As shown in the Fate collab event, even when he's plotting something to benefit the group, he goes about it in a way that makes him the bad guy. Archer lampshades that this framing really wasn't necessary, so this approach seems to be mainly about keeping up Aventurine's existing habits rather than being solely a strategic move. Even his antagonism of Grady was wholely unneccessary, and seemed mainly to mask that he did find Grady's films memorable enough to recall (especially notable since these are earnest human creations in rough circumstances, found at a junk market, as opposed to to the glossy luxuries one might expect a businessman to enjoy).
It's also interesting to note the dissonance between his position and self-image. From his pre-bossfight monologue, despite being one of the most financially powerful figures we know in the game, he still views himself as cheap slave who everyone doesn't have a real reason to loathe. There's kinda a gradient to the hatred that he experiences, which complicates matters. A lot of his early life and IPC career revolves around racial discrimination that's beyond his control. However, his grating personality as he rose the ranks resulted in either these existing biases being exacerbated (as with Sparkle), or new enemies being made solely based off his attitude (as with Topaz).
*Considering that his only experiences with "being liked" are traumatically tied to the death of his family or his enslavement (or in mundane cases, just transparently meaningless corporate friendships), being relatively safe yet widely hated may feel like the better constant to stay in. It may also come with the satisfaction of knowing that the opposition has shown their 'true colors' as they express their dislike of him, which then gives his poker face the upper-hand.
*Additionally, maintaining the "haters gonna hate" mentality in every-and-all cases could mentally cushion him from the consequences of his own actions upon entering the IPC. We already know that canonically, he didn't give a shit about the crisis Penacony was experiencing; his only concern was his own goals. His position has shifted from being oppressed to being an oppressor, as he helps strengthen the IPC's grip over the universe, yet if he constantly positions himself as the underdog, then victories would have the additional satisfaction of vindication. While his position in the Strategic Investment Department is due to a chance meeting with Jade, being in this department also innately aids this mental buffer. If he were instead working with the Marketing Department, he would be directly involved in Schneider's colonization projects and would have to contend with the fact that he's inflicting his own struggles onto countless others. However, instead just maintaining the value of historical IPC assets feels comparatively more passive of a role.
Some of his behavior around his gambles could be interpreted as compulsions.
Physically, hiding and clenching the left hand is a habit that appears in multiple instances, and could be a soothing gesture. Or, it could feel like an essential part in making 'the luck happen right' (think: superstitions like knocking on wood or mashing A when catching pokemon). I've also seen some fics have this clenching result in physical marks or injury.
He's clearly extremely conflicted about his luck and its nature as a blessing or curse. His gambles could be a way of checking his luck, trying to confirm how it operates (both in search of an answer for his survivor's guilt and for pragamatic data collection regarding the tool that he feels his job hinges on) and if his luck is still there or if it's starting to run out (which he may also be conflicted on, flip-flopping between wanting to have it or wanting it to be gone, unable to fully decide). Because his luck is one of the only aspects that he can use to describe every iteration of himself, losing it would potential sever his only certainty in life, so I'd imagine he would be quite sensitive about confirming its presence.
Relationship-wise, a lot of fics I enjoy have him be in complicated 'situationships' rather than a typical relationship. It would make sense that due to his bad track record of having loved ones survive, he would worry that defining someone as a loved one would end up killing them too. Especially with characters such as Ratio, because their friendship is one of the few longstanding ones Aventurine has, it's possible that as time passes, the more resistant Aventurine may become to putting a label on what they have due to the compunding importance of preserving that bond.
*If you want a fic rec for the consequences of relationship dodging, I really love how These Golden Regrets includes both romantic and platonic variants of this. Honestly, I feel like a lot of habits this Aventurine has are pretty relatable.
*Also, this could be a motivation for why he and Ratio pretended to dislike each other so heavily in Penacony. He definitely could've just come up with a plan that wouldn't involve this form of acting, so why go for this unless he wanted drive some distance between them, simulated or not? It further suspends their dynamic in a nebulous state and hurts him emotionally in the process, which may be an intended goal.
Lorewise, it would be interesting parallel with Sunday, given that he has OCD canonically (At least according to the Japanese localization? I'm not entirely sure if it's mentioned elsewhere).
Beyond their narrative similarities (hiding the true god they worship, having the weight of their people rest solely on their shoulders, being influenced heavily by their sisters, living a luxurious life without freedom, etc.), having OCD could also be a sign of connection with The Order (assuming that Gaithra is indeed meant to be THEM). Perhaps they have a disposition that results in them drawing more power from that path compared to their peers and kin; it's not like this would be the first time an Aeon has favored certain groups of people, such as the Genius Society canonically having many autistic researchers, or all the Pure Children of Anasrava having pink hair.
Somewhat offtopic, but I do want to see if there are existing stories centering OCD characters that don't involve cleaning or symmetry, since I feel like thats too commonly paired with the shallow way people tend to conceptualize the disorder, when it really can latch onto anything...
This was part of the motivation for writing this, as an exploration for other ways that can manifest in a way that feel more relatable personally, since it was extremely difficult to visualize say, the underlying drive behind behaviours like incessant handwashing, versus simply seeing it listed as a symptom.
Of course, I'm not a doctor and am still trying to figure out things myself, so treat this more as a ramble rather than a guide for writing OCD Aventurine (if you so wish to).
