because I'm stressed we're getting stress headcanons today.
ros shows he's stressed in a couple ways.
first sign to look for is his sentences get shorter. his voice gets thinner as he's beginning to lose the capacity for speech altogether. his body language closes up and he starts to get snappish.
once he stops talking, he usually starts signing to communicate. just out of respect. it's "safe". he just stops talking. sometimes he has to write on paper what he needs to say when someone hasn't yet learned how to sign. but most of the time he'll just give up.
even in a situation where signing is possible, he can move on to being even more stressed. his hands go to his wrists and he begins to scratch his scars. sometimes he does this when he's not realizing he's very stressed; it's a stimming method he's not fully aware of. if left unchecked he very well might reinjure himself. he will scratch until he bleeds at times.
if things continue to get worse, he'll distance himself from the problem with all due urgency. it's at this point you'll probably hear people say he's overreacting, but he's not. people just didn't see the signs before and it's built up long enough he feels he's in serious danger. used to, when he was a young child, he'd lash out at this point. but he knows better now.
in severely overwhelming moments that he either can't find a safe place or knows he'll need to come back to the situation, only then will he break down and self harm. again as a teenager and child this was much worse, but this should be regarded seriously in his adult life because self-harm without accompanying magic is a sign he's willing to endanger himself for no reason other than his stress. this is the part where he needs some kind of intervention. get that man a healer stat.
anyway rosal surana is a deeply mentally ill character and while I don't endorse or support his coping mechanisms, it doesn't mean this shit isn't real. heck I'm sure the rpc has seen this stuff before irl, and to remove this aspect of his characterization is to remove a key part of his struggle and arc. he's constantly in a state of trying to learn and progress and heal and it's imperfect and at times seriously fucked up.
so yeah I get rosal ain't healthy, let it be known i never said he was, literally ever.