The Flop Response
We've all seen characters literally faint from fear, right? Well, it's real. We all know about fight-or-flight but there are actually five responses to trauma/fear:
Fight: Self-explanatory. Fighting against the threat.
Flight: Running away from the threat.
Freeze: Instead of fighting or running away from the threat, one simply goes stiff and doesn't move at all.
Fawn: This one is more based on long-term trauma or situations with sentient (sapient?) abusers. The fawn response is characterized by trying to appease the threat and make it stop wanting to hurt you.
Flop: Loss of motor function, characterized as fainting or simply falling asleep*. Let's stop right there.
The flop response is not always the traditional hand-on-the-forehead faint like a Victorian woman. It can certainly be that, but in some people, it's just "Well... this situation is far from ideal. So far from ideal, in fact, that I'm just going to nap until it goes away." And I'd like to see more of this, or the flop response in general, in writing.
I actually think it could happen to Elizabeth. Just imagine her encountering Bord and completely collapsing. Ford gets back in his body and she's unconscious on the floor.
*The flop response can also just be going completely limp. Now imagine Elizabeth just curled up on the floor, and Ford coming back and staring at her with alarm for a few seconds before awkwardly poking her like
"Are you okay? Oh no." And then she can't do anything to alert him that she's fine, just spooked, because she's still spooked and Ford is like, "No my wife :("
Just... Elizabeth, Bord, and the flop response
Tagging: @kaiyax1
