Remnant is not a kind world.
The Creatures of Grimm are vicious, ruthless killing machines, designed to instill as much fear into their victims as possible until their deaths. Bandit clans and tribes run rampant on unclaimed territories around the kingdoms – especially Vacuo.
Still, with the help of Dust and the power contained within their very souls, humanity and Faunuskind have managed to push the tide of darkness back – and have been doing so for hundreds of years with the help of Huntsmen and Huntresses: people specifically trained to excel in combat against the monsters that are Grimm…and sometimes not. They have been taught how to fight, and the majority, under no circumstance, will back out of a fight.
But what of those who were not trained to do so? Of people living behind the safety of Kingdom's walls, or those living outside in settlements? What will they do when the reality of their world comes knocking on their front doors (and knocking those doors down)? Grimm, bandit raids, even a new threat in the face of terrorist attacks by Faunus extremists, not to mention the horror that was The Great War – there's really no shortage of death on Remnant, and ordinary people are seldom prepared to face it.
It was no surprise then, that a young civilian and psychological studies enthusiast by the name of Walter Cannon, born shortly after the aforementioned war, decided to try and understand how exactly people react to traumatic or threatening situations – a decision born from plethora of decidedly not kid-friendly stories he had heard from his parents and their friends – survivors of the tragedy. What had started as simple interviews with the survivors and the veterans with the later goal of finding out the why behind the ways they had reacted to the atrocities of the war – thankfully, they were plenty of witnesses still – had quickly gained traction and even attention of the Mistralean Institute of Medicine, turning thereafter into full-blown research of human (and Faunus) responses to threatening stimuli as well as post-traumatic coping mechanisms, with Cannon as the head advisor.
Several years later, the research had concluded, bringing forth a great introspection of the inner workings of the mind. It was also the first time terms "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" and "Fight-Flight-Freeze-Fawn responses", or simply "Four F's" were used.
PTSD was a blight that was very likely to affect a large percentage of active military personnel, survivng victims of Grimm attacks, as well as (especially so) Huntsmen; for the life of a Huntsman was not a kind one. The studies had provided enough ammunition for a new generation of psychotherapists and psychiatrists to enter the fray, more effective at dealing with the mental turmoils than before. An anonymous Huntsman, recovering from post-traumatic stress , had said that "while Huntsmen are saviors, they are the ones who save the saviors".
The "Four F's" were mostly applicable towards general population, since soldiers and Huntsmen were conditioned to, well, fight, at any cost. They were the four most typical reactions observed (or recorded) from untrained personnel towards potentially threatening stimuli. According to the theory, when faced with a threat, a person might:
-choose to fight the threat, occasionally even with odds stacked against them
-choose to flee from the threat
-choose to freeze, either in indecision or with hopes that the threat passes on it's own
-choose to fawn – submit and attempt to appear as a non-threat to the threat itself
These four potential scenarios have each been studied thoroughly later on thanks to the co-jointed request from all four Huntsman Academies themselves. Their basics now make up a part of the basis of Huntsman education, - this was done in order to be able to more effectively contain and control civilian population (as well as minimize negativity) during emergencies, i.e. Grimm Incursions.
Studies conducted at a later date have concluded that certain overdeveloped "Four F" reactions were often also present in adults facing continuous trauma and children with dysfunctional childhoods.
Unfortunately, it just so happened that Jacques Schnee, CEO of the SDC, had managed to turn his family into the living embodiment of the "Four F's".
Thought about writing something different for a change last night. Ended up being this.
Spoiler: the first chapter is about Willow, I'll be finishing it soon. After my tablet finishes charging that is, rofl.
Found this idea on tumblr titled rwbyangst.t - u - m - b - l - r.c-o-m