#(and if you think about it it is kind of a very immature and idealistic mindset

[mstrchu]

can someone else please please look at this set of images before i go insane

#nezha reborn #LOOK AT HIM he is literally just... a kid...... looking for some comfort from his dad............ #it's about to be 0 days since our last nonsensical overly emotional post about li yunxiang #it was never that lyx didn't care about what his father thought or didn't want for his approval because he does want it. he does care. #it was just something he accepted he wouldn't have as long as he continue to choose to do what he thought was the right thing #and the 'right thing' was important enough to him to give up on his dad's support #which says something about how important the 'right thing' is to lyx #and up till now it was fine because it affected no one but him #(and if you think about it it is kind of a very immature and idealistic mindset #because if he had gotten caught doing his little smuggling and property destruction it 100% would have affected his family #but i like that i think it's part of his character.. anyway....) #but now his refusal to do what his dad wanted him to do - get a normal job and keep his head down - is like. actively hurting his family #and altho it was the right thing and he couldn't have predicted that ao bing would go completely nuclear #or that the de group would send assassins after him because of the whole reincarnation business #you could say that kasha and li jinxiang's injuries are a direct result of him refusing to just roll over and sell ao bing his motorcycle #(which i think is exactly what ljx was gonna say before he got bodied by that monster truck lol) #and in this moment when he has effectively just put 2 of the people closest to him in the hospital #i think he can't help but look for a little comfort from his dad because he feels so so guilty and confused and upset #but he gets that door shut in his face and he's reminded that he had chosen to not have that #that he had made choices that led to this being the reality of his relationship with his dad. and he is supposed to be ok with that #and then he falls back on his anger and the moment is sort of over but like #bro... at this point li yunxiang has no one bro.... #L + ratio + kasha and brother in the hospital + dad can't even look at you + dead mom + separated from extended family when you fled the wa #+ no close friends your own age #and it makes me sad because lyx must have been pretty close to his dad when he was little #i think this + the moment where he's outside the door listening to his dad talk #just fuels the miasma of guilt #guilt over his own actions. guilt over nezha's actions. questioning if he is or ever was making the right choices #but also it's not about any of that it's just about how huge and wet his eyes look here amen

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not wanting to interact with my mom all that often?

for context, my mom tends to act in ways that are often a little manipulative and dependent - she's had a rough life, so i can understand some of her actions, but in some ways she scares me a bit. when i was growing up, she'd often talk about how she wished i was the grownup and she was my daughter, sometimes asking to roleplay a bit. she's trauma-dumped quite a bit on me as well, leading me to play therapist. (when i brought up actually therapy once, she said, word for word, "why have a therapist when I have you?") in more recent years, she's asked for us to sleep in the same bed, and sometimes continues to ask even though i give her a hard no because it makes me uncomfortable.

in all honesty, she's not a bad person, and she's worked really hard for my sake, but she also doesn't have a lot of meaningful connections - her friends are more work colleagues and she's not close to my dad at all. and I'm honestly not the nicest to her - i really don't like to talk her, which I've made clear in a pretty harsh way, and we get into arguments a lot. but she also tends to be petty and immature; whenever i say im not in the mood to talk to her, she claims that i dont really care about her and that i have to listen to her because she's my mom. whenever i try to raise a concern i have with her, she often spins it in a way that makes her the victim and me the disobient child, and when she doesn't, she just doesn't listen.

there's also the whole ordeal where she kind of outed me to my (Very queerphobic) dad - i was able deny enough that the whole thing calmed down, but she never really tried to understand why she was wrong. she never really made an attempt to understand how much trust i put in her when i came out - about two years after, i 'took it back', in a way, telling her that she didnt have to use they/them at all. at that point she revealed that she thought it was some kind of phase that she never took seriously. it was like this in the past, too - she still pesters me about what i said when i was 9 and styling myself as a 'tomboy' - which was 'coming back to her when i was a teenager' which i never really did.

the gist of it is that she views me in a idealistic way that centers mostly around herself and her ideals for me - she doesn't let me cut my hair too short and always pesters about wearing dresses, and she still thinks that i can act as her therapist despite me telling her, multiple times, that i was not equipped to handle her problems. but i always feel really guilty whenever i end up rejecting her, since she doesnt have many people to turn to. AITA for constantly rejecting interaction with her?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[streets-in-paradise]

Can I have Paris x reader where they are caught in the rain and it's so fluffy and sweet?

Sure, dear 💕 ( and sorry this took me so long)

Things that will grant me your love - Paris x Reader

Word Count 1.5K (aprox)

Warnings: Helen gets a terrible first impression of Paris ( and so does the reader), but he works hard to correct it

Summary: The political arrangements to seal the pact with Sparta demmands you to get betrothed to each other. Paris knows he has the lapsus of one visit to fall in love with you or your worlds would collapse, but he wasn't expecting it to happen so fas

Joy was hitting every corner of Sparta with the arrival of the trojan princes to discuss the pact of peace ending an historical rivalry between nations. Life in the city was a temporary party, but for you the visit meant much more. Your personal future was being discussed. 

Months before your uncle visited the palace to discuss the diplomatic plan your father proposed. He was very against the idea because he didn't want to abandon his aspirations of conquering the trojans and he was very vocal about it. In front of the dinner table while your stepmother and you were still present Agamemnon said he would never trust in a mere agreement.  Troy had to be bonded to his scepter somehow and the look he gave at you didn't need further explaining. The head of your royal house demanded a marriage alliance as a minimum requirement to accept that political strategy. 

Among the terms of the pact it was most likely that the spartan crown would present a petition of closure through a political marriage in order to appeal the command of Mycenae. The youngest prince, only one who remained unmarried, would have to become your husband. However, while Hector witnessed Menelaus' pride to your easy acceptance of the deal, he faced the shocked refusal of his brother. 

Paris didn't want to marry a stranger, his idealistic romanticism resembled the kind of objections spartans wouldn't even expect from their women. You almost felt a bit sorry for him hearing Helen laugh in response to his complaining. 

" Allow me to differ: You are being extremely immature and dramatical." She explained herself to him. " Is not even a horrible arrangement, I can promise you that this girl is wonderful. Come back crying to me when the best heroes of the country would be fighting for you, only for you to be handed as a trophy to a husband you didn't expect because his brother controls everyone. " 

In short terms, she secretly revealed to him the truth of how she became part of your family. 

" Don't you wish it would have been different?" The prince sincerely asked her. " I'm deeply sorry if you have given up, but I still believe in love. " 

Helen was visibly affected by that simple speech, as if he had accidentally opened a gate he shouldn't. 

" Welcome to Greece, trojan. Marriage comes first, love later if you are lucky. " You mocked him in her defense. " Do you think it will be easy for my people to accept that their princess will be married to a man who doesn't show signs of possessing a single spartan virtue? They are doing a sacrifice for peace, I suggest you follow them in spirit. " 

The cold reply was honest, perhaps a bit too much. 

" Don't go so harsh on him, I still think he is cute. " 

The prince smiled at her, but his face expressed way more than just gratitude. 

It made your blood boil. 

" Don't whore yourself in front of me, bastard!!! " You complained, Helen held your hand so you wouldn't slap him. " I'm your future wife and she will be your in-law. Get used to it. " 

It seemed to be settled as a total failure. His idealistic naivety made him ideologically against it and you weren't very excited about marrying a man who would be flirting with your stepmother. Paris wasn't the first one, but you were frankly tired of feeling like you had to compete against her.  She wouldn't even try, so you couldn't blame her for always stealing all the attention. Over time you had become friends, but you would never understand why your father thought he would be happy with that marriage. They had nothing in common besides his enjoyment of her beauty bringing them together. 

An alarming fact in which you resembled him, since the first trait you found attractive in your soon to be arranged fiance was his good looks. It was all you had as comfort after that disastrous exchange and you hated that. Despite loving your father, you would never want to have a marriage like his. Prince Hector attempted to reassure you because he valued your efforts in trying to make the deal work for everybody. He said Paris was going to end up surprising you if you would give him time, but you couldn't believe him untill the concrete demonstrations began.

Courtship by Prince Paris of Troy was a spectacle, his concept of romance was all about big displays. He was in love with love itself and those huge gestures were his own way to gain interest in you. To you it was all compensation performance, believing nothing could have changed since that flirty exchange he had with Helen. It was a matter of time until your father and you would get both cheated on, or at least you expected so. Those were the concerns occupying your mind until the most humble of his initiatives changed everything. 

An invitation to a hunting trip, informal passing formality to build bonds with your father that both princes had to participate in. Although he noticed you loved to be included, it was all an elaborate excuse to get lost in the wild with you. Guessing that his bowman skills would be enough to protect you both from the unfamiliar nature,  he would have hours and hours to talk with you all alone. 

Tired of walking and hesitant of his intentions, you called him out for it and released your frustration for everything. 

“ You did this on purpose… WHY? Why are you always doing insane things around me? I was fine with it when it was just a dashing smile while bringing me flowers, or when you made the bard sing that song in my honor … but this has gone too far. And for what? Just to convince the world that you don’t want Helen from the beginning and you are just conforming with taking me because you can’t have her.” 

Refusing to give one more step before he would answer, even though the gathering of clouds darkening the sky was a bad signal, you rested your back against a rock nearby.The change in the physiognomy of the terrain indicated that you must have arrived close to Mount Taygetus. 

Paris followed you and began to chuckle. 

“ Is that what you think I’m doing? My sweetest lady, how clueless you are to the real treatment a woman is worth!” He explained himself. “ I’m helping you adjust to me and how I expect to treat my wife, listing things that will grant me your love.” 

Your skeptical look was like a dagger being pointed at him. 

“ Then you are worse than what I thought! A merchant of deception, a ruthless seductor. You seek to win over your wife and mistress in a single try! Bring shame to my house and hope my infatuation would save you from the punishment of my father! I warn you, trojan. I will not protect you from a well deserved death.” 

“ Lovely titles, luckly born from misconceptions. “ He mocked your anger in a calming tone. “ My ephemeral mesmerizing with the queen was true, but i never claimed it to be love. If that would be the case, my dear, there would be no mortal force stopping me. I was told I must marry you to save the world, but for loving someone else I wouldn´t mind to burn it. I'm still beside you, willing to accept the interlacing of your destinies and that alone should tell you the veracity of my intentions."

The prince was getting dangerously closer to you, but curiosity impeeded you from stopping him.

" Would you believe me if i tell you that imagining new ways to make you fall for me day after day has made me a victim of my own tricks? " He sweetly confessed. " I have noticed how lovely you look when you are tired of me, but i also realized why. You don't believe in love, you are constantly making excuses and I have fallen for you loving the chance of showing you how love feels like. "

The divine looking charm of his beautifull face may had eased the persuasion, but he wasn't done yet.

" Noble spartan, always ready to sacrifice for your warrior homeland. I know i will never match your ideal husband, but I can fill you with love if you would let me. For my terrible reaction before getting to know you, i apologise, now i beg you to consider me from the deepness of your heart. Can it be space left in it for me?"

The sky darkened further and thunder rumbled, heralding the fall of rain.

You smiled, taking it as a prosperous signal inviting you to trust the sensitive awakening you were feeling. Ríght afterwards you iniciated the first kiss just as he was extending his cape to cover you both from the rain drops.

Heated passion was the only spartan value Paris felt sure of sharing with you.

#troy 2004 #paris of troy #orlando bloom #paris of troy x reader #orlando bloom x reader #paris x reader

[13eyond13]

Hi...Can I ask your top 3 favorite characters from Nana? And why you loved them? And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Thanks if you want to answer....

Hi hi!! I would LOVE to try to talk about this series for a bit, but PLEASE keep in mind I'm still only just finished volume 7 / chapter 24 (I am currently waiting in line to read volume 8 at my library! But I might get impatient and just try to find the chapters online too)... MY TOP 3 FAVE NANA CHARACTERS (SO FAR) 1. NANA KOMATSU / NANA 1 / "HACHI": OMG I love Nana 1 to death hahahaha. She literally makes me lol every single volume with her thoughts and decisions and interactions with everyone else, and it's just the most fun in the series to be inside her brain and following along with her relationships and emotional roller-coasters and little life lessons and anxieties and pains and hopes and dreams. She's an awesome character to me for being flawed and complex and selfish and immature yet still very likable and oddly tough and brave and sweet as pie at the same time. I think seeing the growth she's having as a person over the series is definitely the main draw for me, and watching her try to figure out her feelings for everybody and her place in the world and how to become the type of person that contains all the personality traits she's always admiring around her - and how to fill that void she feels of never completely erasing the loneliness inside or being perfectly synced up with the people she's trying to form a deeper connection with.

2. NANA OSAKI / NANA 2:

She's mysterious, she's proud, she's tough, she's badass, she's funny and sensible and kind! I love the more grown-up and emotionally reserved vibe she has in comparison to Nana 1, which totally makes sense considering her harder childhood and how self-reliant she always had to be. Her casual warmth with Hachi is endearing and her less obviously expressive and highly independent yet still emotionally intense personality is very relatable to me. It's the most fun to see Hachi reacting to Nana 2 to me I think, because Nana 2 is more closed off and a bit more afraid of exploring her feelings unabashedly than Nana 1. But she's by far my other fave in the series, and of course the heart of the whole thing is the very ambiguously devoted relationship between the 2 Nanas for me!

3. ???? I don't think I have a third main fave character in the story yet??

At the beginning of the manga I quite liked Shoji and Junko, but as the series is progressing it seems like they both got written out of the plot almost entirely. I liked Junko for always keeping it real with Nana and caring about her in a tough love sort of way, though she did for sure just seem a bit like the "voice of reason" character for the more ridiculous Nana to bounce off of whenever she was in a bind... I liked Shoji because he seems like a regular kid instead of some idealistic fictional love interest hunk - his reactions to Nana K. were pretty relatable to me, and their romantic interactions were cute and made me laugh and also cringe with sympathy at times (like when it was so awkward when Nana first moved to Tokyo too and they were still trying to readjust to being around each other more - I remember similar things happening to me whenever I had been long-distance in a relationship for a summer and and then suddenly near my partner again at some time). Even in the part where he starts developing feelings for Sachiko and sneakily cheating on Nana, I always felt he behaved pretty understandably and wasn't a horrible person so much as just a conflicted and young and immature one who wasn't in the right relationship when he was with Nana, maybe (though admittedly I wasn't that upset that he wasn't being featured in the story more after that, because that would probably get on my nerves). Currently I have just finished volume 7, and right now I am finding I don't feel a super strong connection to any of the other characters too much other than Nana 1 and Nana 2? The other guys in Blast are just okay to me, I don't have SUPER strong feelings about Nana getting together with Nobu (in fact I find him a little bit annoying at times - I agree with Shin that he "has some unrealistic ideas about women" and idealizes Nana too much - Yasu is chill and nice and wise, but a bit TOO chill and reserved to be super interesting to me). The members of Trapnest are also just okay to me? Ren bores me a little bit (maybe because I just would rather be reading about Nana 2 hanging out with Nana 1 than with him)... Reira is hard for me to form ANY opinions about other than eww, it's weird that she's sleeping with Shin, Takumi is a selfish yet possessive jerk and only thinking about himself, and I always forget the other one (Naoki?) even exists...

I WILL say that the little Nana 2 fangirl Misato is extremely cute and I'm always happy when she's on the page, hahaha. Her shameless devotion to Nana 2 and her politeness and extreme savviness about the music industry are just fun for me to read (as was Hachi's initial jealousy toward her, but I'm glad she managed to also eventually get over that)! --

MY TOP 5 FAVE NANA MOMENTS (SO FAR): Forgive me if these moments are completely arbitrary and sort of dumb picks, because I feel like I'm forgetting so much of the story from the previous volumes already, and I'm still only 1/3 of the way through the whole thing?? But here are ones that stood out to me whenever I was racking my brain: 5. Whenever Nana forces Shoji to let her sleep in his hotel room, then awkwardly sings him to sleep, and he's like: "YOU DON'T HAVE TO SING" hahaha...

my reaction to that was basically Junko's reaction:

4. Whenever Nana 2 starts getting jealous and confused about Hachi hooking up with Takumi I was like OHOHOH, HOW THE TURNS TABLE.... I think it's REALLY hard for Nana 2 to admit stuff like feeling vulnerable or jealous or possessive over Nana 1 at this point, and seeing her realize "heeyyyy maybe I want her attention and devotion a little more than I thought and was taking it for granted a bit"... that was a very feelsy little part! 3. Whenever Hachi is getting jealous about Nana 2's cute little fangirl and having super mean petty thoughts about her hahahah omg the most relatable thing of life! 2. When Nana 2 goes to Nobu after he first starts dating Hachi and is like: "I'M USING YOU TO KEEP NANA 1 IN MY LIFE FOREVER, SO DON'T MESS THIS UP!" OMG?? Fellas is it gay to keep your girl roomie nearby by throwing guys at her that are entrenched in your social circle and also more socially acceptable for her to date? When I say my heart skipped a beat at that moment!! And it just happened in the manga super recently, so who knows where things are going to go from here?

1. When Hachi is having so many gay thoughts about Nana 2 that she's like "AHHH THIS IS TOO GAY I NEED TO GET ANOTHER BOYFRIEND!!!!" Boy did I laugh out loud at the cognitive dissonance (and find it super relatable to younger me and my own panicking about maybe not being entirely straight thoughts? of course)...

#nana #nana spoilers #ask #anon #p #13readsmanga #thank you for asking!

[inflame]

character flaws (in two parts).

BOLD what always applies; ITALICIZE what sometimes applies; STRIKE OUT what never applies.

PRE-CANON/CANON:

absent-minded / abusive / addict (not 'sometimes' but rather more 'it's complex') / adrenaline junkie / aggressive / aimless / alcoholic / anxious / arrogant / audacious / bad liar (not the worst, but relies heavily on just avoiding explaining things) / bigmouth / bigot (not to be like 'this extremely sheltered cis white girl from the 80s is perfect, actually' but i genuinely cannot imagine her being cruel or flippant in That Particular Kind Of Way) / blindly loyal / blunt / callous / childish / chronic heroism / cheater / clingy / clumsy / cocky / codependent / competitive / corrupt (if you asked her) / cowardly / cruel / cynical / delinquent / delusional / dependent / depressed / deranged / disloyal / ditzy / egotistical / envious / erratic / fickle / finicky / fixated / flaky / frail / fraudulent / foul-mouthed / guilt complex / gloomy / gluttonous / gossiper / gruff / grudge-holding / gullible / hedonistic / humorless / hypochondriac / hypocritical / idealist / idiotic / ignorant / immature (i would just say i think she acts her age, which is still a child --- i don't think she's 'immature' at all in the way that word is typically used) / impatient / incompetent / indecisive / insecure / insensitive / lazy / lewd / liar / lustful (again. If You Asked Her. i think she is very normal) / manipulative / masochistic / meddlesome / melodramatic / money-loving / moody / naive / nervous / nosy / ornery / overprotective / overly sensitive / paranoid / passive-aggressive / perfectionist / pessimist / petty / power-hungry / proud / possessive / pushover / reckless / reclusive / remorseless / rigorous / sadistic / sarcastic / senile / selfish / self-destructive / shallow / sociopathic / sore loser / spineless / spiteful / spoiled / stubborn / suspicious / tactless (she definitely Gets Social Cues but she also definitely doesn't care about them, oftentimes) / temperamental / timid / thief / traitorous / ungracious / unlucky / untrustworthy (not in ways that tend to matter, i think) / vain / vengeful / withdrawn / workaholic

POST-CANON: (i.e. carrie page, other Adult Arcs)

absent-minded / abusive / addict / adrenaline junkie / aggressive / aimless / alcoholic / anxious / arrogant / audacious / bad liar / bigmouth / bigot / blindly loyal / blunt / callous / childish / chronic heroism / cheater / clingy / clumsy / cocky / codependent / competitive / corrupt / cowardly / cruel / cynical / delinquent / delusional (but medicated, now, at least) / dependent / depressed / deranged / disloyal / ditzy / egotistical / envious / erratic / fickle / finicky / fixated / flaky / frail / fraudulent / foul-mouthed / guilt complex / gloomy / gluttonous / gossiper / gruff / grudge-holding / gullible / hedonistic / humorless / hypochondriac / hypocritical / idealist / idiotic / ignorant / immature / impatient / incompetent / indecisive / insecure / insensitive / lazy / lewd / liar / lustful / manipulative / masochistic / meddlesome / melodramatic / money-loving / moody / naive / nervous / nosy / ornery / overprotective / overly sensitive / paranoid / passive-aggressive / perfectionist / pessimist / petty / power-hungry / proud / possessive / pushover / reckless / reclusive / remorseless / rigorous / sadistic / sarcastic / senile / selfish / self-destructive / shallow / sociopathic / sore loser / spineless / spiteful / spoiled / stubborn / suspicious / tactless / temperamental / timid / thief / traitorous / ungracious / unlucky / untrustworthy / vain / vengeful / withdrawn / workaholic

tagged by: stolen from @gildedlife 💜

tagging: @excruciate, @pluresque for [somebody i'm prone to crying about], @grayboxed, @ladyintree (i just feel like you would love to do this like Before Wilderness, After Wilderness), @pro26ctor, @hebzucht, anybody else who wants to be incredibly sobered, probably

#study.

[wisteria-lodge]

bird primary + burnt lion secondary (bird model)

I wrote a lot here, and I generally wrote about the same few themes. I know that I repeated myself a lot, so feel free to cut out anything that's repetitive. (I feel kind of bad making you do that, since that's putting more work on you and I could write a more cohesive essay, but I thought I'd give you all the information at my disposal, even if it's really repetitive. I also feel kind of presumptuous for giving you permission, because you can do whatever you want to).

That's a lot of apologizing right up front. I think we might have a burned secondary here.

I just wanted to read your responses to what I wrote, since they're very interesting to me. You go really in-depth with your responses, which I appreciate. 

I think I'm a Lion Bird, but I can't really see that much Lion in myself, other than being opinionated and hating lying.

Hmm. Well, being opinionated is more a personality trait than a method or a motive. And really hating to lie usually comes with Lion *secondaries.*

All that I'm really sure of is that I definitely have a Bird secondary. I really like psychology and classifying people into systems. I have trouble making sense of people sometimes (like what motivates them and drives them), and categorizing people helps me feel better about interacting with them.

Cheers. Completely get what you mean. I mean, why else do you think I'm doing this?

(And for the record, my Bird is a model that I love. Which might possibly be the case for you.)

I also like writing, but I don't have the self-discipline to finish anything, which makes me give up on ideas after a few days. 

Now I know this is coming from me being a writing teacher. I kind of have to believe that anyone who wants to write can write, given enough time and support.

But I hear stuff like this from my students all the time. And it either means that they don't have the right scaffolding and framework, or that they aren't writing using the process that's ideal for them. I categorically reject words like "lazy" and "no self discipline," because I think they're symptoms, not causes. I have zero doubt that you can write... and think that this is starting to sound like the language of a burnt secondary. Or maybe just a secondary that needs some support.

I want to go into psychology, but I wouldn't feel comfortable being a therapist. I'm definitely not good at identifying with people's emotions. My family even thought that I was autistic at one point, even though I'm not (I don't show enough of the symptoms). 

I'm also low-level autistic, what they used to call Asperger's back in the day. And I'm also not good at identifying with people's emotions, at least in an empathic way. Emotions are not contagious for me the way they seem to be for lots of other people. But I'll tell you a secret. A lot of people like that. Especially people who are high emotion, panicky, on the verge of a meltdown. I'm calm. I de-escalate. I can also sift though the emotional noise to get at the problem.

I probably idolize Bird primaries?

Another tendency I have noticed in myself. (Makes me think you're probably an Idealist.)

I'm fairly sure that I'm not a Snake or a Badger. I don't really care about people that much, or fitting in with groups. Badgers seem to me like they're deferring to the group at the expense of themselves, and that they either don't have their own opinions, or, worse, they're hiding them to gain other people's acceptance.

That's a description of a very immature, or very exploded Badger, but I agree - you're probably not a loyalist.

I'm pretty impulsive, and I hate lying to people (my mom will lie to someone just to make them feel better, and I can't stand it). Those are really the only Lion traits I have.

^ Those are Lion secondary traits, again.

I'm not really brave or anything like that. 

That's the parent system. Means nothing here.

I read in your other SortMes that you liked anecdotes, so here are a lot of them. I was just trying to figure out what would be the most useful/helpful to you. I do that a lot...I'll try to figure out what people want me to do and try to give that to them.

'Make yourself useful' 'make yourself helpful' 'give me what you think I want.' But very consciously constructed, this isn't Courtier badger. An Actor Bird persona, maybe? But you don't seem to *like* problem solving this way. Is there maybe some Badger primary modeling going on that's weighing heavily on you, and that's why you had such a knee-jerk negative reaction to even the idea of a Badger primary. Or is this just burnt secondary stuff?

I don't think it's in a Snake way, because I'm not trying to be different people. It's more like I'm emphasizing different attributes of myself.

I mean yeah, you're a person. We all do this. We just all use slightly different mechanisms to do it, which is where the different secondaries come in.

I'm just insecure, and I want people to like me, but I wouldn't change myself for another person's acceptance (at least, I hope I wouldn't).

And we're back to burnt secondary language. There's anxiety, and no joy in your problem solving.

When I was younger (age 12 or so), I thought in black-and-white patterns and thought that everyone who didn't agree with me was wrong.

Okay, well. Classic young Bird primary. I am seeing it overlap with young Lion primaries though. Wrong/Bad/Enemy language can get very muddled together, especially if you're young.

My mom brought me to church with her, and I hated it so much that I compared her believing in God to being the same as her believing in Santa Claus. According to my mom, I've always been opinionated, and when I was around six I told my whole class that Santa wasn't real, making some kids cry. I'm proud of myself for being confident enough to stand up for myself and my beliefs like that, even if I can't remember it. I feel kind of bad that I made kids cry, though.

Definitely an idealist. And I know the easy thing would be to say Bird primary here, because it's all about debating and debunking... but factoring in how young these examples are, and how public they are... Lion primary is still totally possible. That gut deep 'this is wrong, even if my authority figures disagree' is Lion primary... and the "I must express it NOW' is Lion secondary.

I'd never be that vocal about my beliefs now (because I'm scared of people. Thanks, social anxiety). I still judge people like that, to an extent. I know it's immature and I try not to, but I still fall into the trap of judging people from time to time. I don't like people who smoke or do drugs. I know it's a disease that causes biological changes in the brain, and that people usually start doing things like that in the first place because they want a sense of belonging or to cope with depression or something, but I can't stand them. I judge their moral and character, because they chose to do that, even though I know they're not bad people. I don't like it, but that's how I feel.

It's funny that you pair these things together, because it's very common for people with untreated social anxiety disorder to self-medicate with cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much people scare you, you've got to find some way to power though.

I do appreciate your honesty, and I do appreciate that you know this is a tendency that isn't doing you any favors. That little aside about how you need to get your emotions check, though- that's really REALLY bird primary. You don't like how you feel, you're working on changing that, and it's one of the traits that make Bird primaries so admirable.

If you've got untreated social anxiety, I truly hope you can get that looked at before you pick up any unhealthy coping mechanisms. In the mean time, I'm operating within the framework of the SHC system, and I'm going to call out the burnt secondary language. "I'd like to do this, but it's scary."

Around the age of 12, I argued with my mom a lot (teenage hormones, my depression starting to flare up, ect.)

Also an especially common things for young Lion secondaries to do.

My mom said that I'd be a good lawyer because I liked arguing with her (it made me feel powerful, and allowed me to get my anger out) and criticized her about the exact words that she used. My mom even stopped during arguments to look up words and show me the definition so that I wouldn't yell at her about it. I'm pretty sure that's a secondary Bird thing?

What, nit-picking about semantics? I mean it can be. It's just a debate strategy. The thing that's drawing my attention a lot more is what you say about arguing angrily making you feel powerful. That is not true of everyone, not even a little, and is leaning me more towards Lion secondary.

I also used to be really concerned with semantics, and using words correctly. I'd correct people in class if I heard them using the wrong grammar.

*that* might just be a neurodivergent thing.

I also absolutely refused to let anyone cheat off of me, even though people asked me if they could. I saw it as them using me, and cheating's wrong.

I think that's a person thing. If you told me you *did* let random people cheat off you just for the asking, I'd think that was unusual.

I know that I was paralyzed for a few years after high school. I didn't know what job I wanted to have/what I wanted to do with my life, and I was really depressed so I thought that I wouldn't be happy doing anything anyway.

Oh OUCH. That sounds like a REALLY burned secondary.

I almost picked the military because the idea of them picking something for me sounded nice. I wanted someone tell me what my job would be, so that I wouldn't have to decide it for myself and feel responsible for my career choice. Thankfully, I didn't join the military, and psych feels relatively 'me', even if I'm nervous about inadvertently becoming a therapist. 

And a burned primary. I'm glad you're doing better. (And you would not be the first Bird Lion who knocked over their secondary and froze, when their primary took a hit. Not by a long shot.)

I spent a solid two to three years feeling trapped, researching every job in existence and taking career tests over and over. 

Now this has Exploded Bird primary written all over it. ALL over it.

I really like gathering research (mostly reading about one or two things, like psychology). I wish I was interested in everything. I've tried to force myself to study things that I'm not really interested in (medicine, computer programming/technology), because I really like them conceptually/theoretically, and I want to be good at things like that. I've always idolized people who I see as smart, even though I'm smart, too. Or if I can't be interested in everything, at least just pick one thing (like playing the piano, for example), and become a master at it. I'm a dilettante, but not as much of one as I hope I could be? I admire people who study everything just for the sake of knowledge.

I don't think you're a Bird secondary. And more than that, I think you have an exaggerated, idealized idea of what a Bird secondary is. No Bird secondary is interested in everything. You are smart, and being smart is a huge part of your identity, and so therefore you must be a Bird secondary. (And then you beat yourself up for not doing it perfectly.)

(cheers for using the word "dilettante" though. that's a fun word :)

I wish that I could devote myself more to the things that I'm interested in, like music theory or economics. I want to know about them, but when I actually sit down and read a book about it, I get so bored that I can't finish.

Despite my general disdain for the American education system, I loved school. I always idolized being homeschooled as a kid, to get more personalized education at a faster pace, and I begged my mom for years to be homeschooled. She always said no.

I want to learn about things like history and music theory for fun, but I can't do it without the structure of a class because they're boring, even though I want to know about them and find them interesting. I want to learn a wide variety of things just for the sake of it, even though I usually just stick with the same few things. 

I remember failing a college class (it was a computer science class) because I kept failing the projects. It was hands-on, which definitely isn't the type of learning that suits me. I remember thinking afterwards that as long as my class had a textbook, I wouldn't fail, because I'd know what to study and how. I really admire computer programming and how far technology has come, but I don't like coding. I like the theory of it more than the practical applications, if that makes sense?

I'm actually very interested in this. You love school, you love being in class, studying from a textbook is not a problem but hands-on type projects are. But sitting by yourself and reading a book is under-stimulating.

Cool. You seem like the exact person that online classes and lecture series were invented for. All that stuff like The Great Courses, Master Class, Skill Share, Nebula... and then there's always the option of taking a class or a lecture locally, for fun. Learning doesn't have to look like sitting down and reading a book... which is doubly the case if you are a Lion secondary (as I suspect you are.)

I've always been unafraid to express my opinions (with my family, at least. My social anxiety inhibits me anywhere else). I'll tell my mom something like her boyfriend doesn't care about her because he likes himself more than he likes her, or something really blunt like that. I wish that I could stop doing that and try to be more open-minded. 

Yeah, that's pretty damn blunt. You're blunt, and you seem to enjoy being blunt. Even in this example, it's not the being blunt that bothers you, it's the being closed-minded (which is more of a primary issue.)

I'll also get sad about societal things that I can't change, like capitalism or the education system. (I have a huge issue with society controlling people, too. That's why I hate religion so much - it's telling you one 'right' way to think, instead of letting people choose for themselves.) 

How very Friedrich Nietzsche of you. And I get it. I read Genealogy of Morals when I was 17 and that was a *very* important book for me. I also read Eichmann in Jerusalem at about the same time, and thought they paired very well together.

I've always wanted to understand myself at a really deep level, knowing why I do everything that I do. I try, but I can't figure out everything. But it's always been a driving force of mine.

To some degree, I think this is just human. The unexamined life is not worth living, and all that.

I like categorizing people. I'm really interested in psychology (for example, people often use personality tests like the MBTI when it's been proven in studies to not be scientifically accurate, even though a lot of the traits correspond to the scientifically-accurate Big 5 personality test, which I find interesting. I wonder if the Big 5 being created by psychologists while the MBTI being created by two people who weren't even involved in psychology has anything to do with it.)

I mean, MBTI was created a hundred years ago by two self-taught woman because like... heck that's still early days of psychology, so getting any kind of formal degree would have taken some doing, not to even mention the whole woman-in-higher- education thing of the time. And MBTI is self-diagnostic. It's like SHC, and honestly like astrology, in that the point is to give you language you can use to describe and categorize yourself.

Big Five was developed in the 80s as a tool you could use for studying trait theory in demographic samples. It's fundamentally more useful for studying other people. It's just... really really different.

I hate lying. I lied a lot when I was a kid (once again, around age 12), but that was more me trying to avoid punishments/test my boundaries. Typical teenage things (lol, alliteration).

I also think you might be unusually resistant to thinking of yourself as a Lion secondary, because you equate Lion secondary traits with *teenager* traits. Instead of just young Lion secondary traits with the potential to mature into something cool.

I know that I have Lion traits, like feeling that things are wrong and then obsessively researching to find out why, but I wouldn't trust those gut feelings without a reason, or act on feelings without thinking things through first. Maybe I have a Bird Primary model?

Or you're just a Bird. Because that's a description of a Bird.

I know that I idolize Birds and knowledge in general, but being completely rational sounds like a nightmare. I'm interested in things that require feelings, like psychology and writing.

Birds aren't SPOCK. (And if you've read my sorting of the guy, you'll know that I don't actually even think he's a bird.)

When I look at Lion Birds in TV shows and books and such, they feel way too impulsive and emotional and confident to be like me. When I look at Bird Lions, they have way too much perseverance and stubbornness to be like me.

I mean, just going by what you've told me here, I'd say those two things describe you. There are also a lot of Bird Lions out there who are kind of *going though it.* One of the easiest ways to identify a fictional Bird Lion to spot their tendency to shut down after an existential crisis. You're telling me you didn't identify with Buzz Lightyear even a little? :D

Of course, part of the reason's due to stereotypical character personalities, but I don't see much of myself in either one of them. I know that I have Lion traits, but I know it's not my secondary, since I use Bird traits to help me solve problems (i.e., researching).

I'm sorry to say it, but I haven't seen you use Bird secondary to solve problems. In fact, researching and over-researching seems like an anxiety response. You use words like "obsessive" and you worry about not doing it well enough. The examples you've given me of problem solving involve you just putting yourself out there and punching though the obstacles, and you describe that as feeling good and powerful.

Clearly you have a Bird secondary model, and it's important to you. It's fun, you love it, it's important to your identity, and it probably helped you out during that period when your secondary was really burned. But I think there's a Lion secondary under there that needs to be looked at too.

One of the tests said that I had a Burned Lion Primary and was overcompensating with a Bird Secondary, but I don't think that's right

It's possible, and sometimes what appears to be a stressed Bird primary can end up being a Burnt Lion primary, that is a thing. But I agree that it's not the cleanest explanation, that makes the most sense for you.

I feel like I've always been in-between being emotional and logical, and that life would be a lot easier if I were either one or the other. I have a really logical personality, but I've always been drawn to humanities, which caused a lot of confusion and feeling like I didn't fit. I usually do best when I'm allowed to be creative and analytical at the same time, like writing essays when I have to analyze character motivations.

Yeah, you're fine. You're an emotional Bird who likes to factor that in when you make decisions. The DBT idea of the "wise mind" might appeal to you, especially if you're thinking of going into psychology.

I love psychology, but I'd be terrified if I were a therapist and forced to emphasize with people and understand them, even if I loved diagnosing them.

Diagnosing people IS understanding them. You don't have to be afraid of this. And you don't need high empathy.

As a sort of ending, I really admire what you're doing. I've been fascinated by personality and the way that people are different for most of my life. I'd love to do something like you're doing. When you answer submissions, you always go into a lot of detail, and they're very interesting to read. Thank you. I would apologize for the length, but you're probably going to cut out anything that's repetitive anyway. Essentially, I'm just trying to get more insight into this personality system, because it's really cool. Thanks for replying

You're very welcome. This one was fun. I always like doing Bird primaries because I always end up getting all philosophical. :)

#submission #bird lion #burnt secondary #bird primary #lion secondary #sortme #wisteria sorts #sortinghatchats #shc

[psychicreadsgirl]

hi i'm here for the game!

id like to ask 🤝 for myself and my initials are l.b.a.p 🤍🧸

thank you!!

Someone with a soothing, nice voice.

They'll be charming and have a nice smile. They will be outgoing and enthusiastic. They are kind of immature and childish. They like to play games and enjoy doing kid-like activities like swinging on swings. They're not very practical. They're dreamy and idealistic. They laugh a lot. They're happy go lucky. They don't really think about their future or plan for it, but they're very fun. They're spontaneous.

They're kinda messy and disorganized. They are upbeat. They don't really follow rules. They have a lot of ideas but can't execute them. They need some babying and hand holding in life.

#🤝 #anon asks #personal readings #anon ask #lbap #🤍🧸 #ask game #ask games #psychic readings

[bittermuire]

A (long) analysis of Azriel,

+ a bit of discussion about Gwynriel vs. Elriel at the end.

Lately I’ve seen much discussion surrounding Azriel, and there seems to be a lot of hazy gray area. We know he has a terrible past, carries a lot of trauma, is both mentally and physically scarred, and has disturbingly possessive habits. But why? That’s the question.

I think most of Azriel’s character can be filtered into three sections: his anger, his possessiveness, and his self-loathing. Altogether I believe these form his crippling sense of emotional immaturity, which ultimately shines through most every action he makes in the books.

So yes, I firmly believe Az is a child in the body of a 500 year old Fae. But is he treated as such? No. No, he is not. In fact, he’s treated as the exact opposite, and that can’t be doing wonders for his mental health (which is already in shambles. Off to a cheery start.)

Let’s take a look at his past. He was both mentally and physically abused for the majority of his childhood. Then he was thrown into an unforgiving culture that both mentally and physically abused him as well. Then he was essentially bullied by Cassian and Rhysand for quite a while... until they randomly decided to like him, which is a choice he didn’t seem to play a hand in. And then he became a professional torturer. All the while falling madly in love and becoming obsessed with a female who can’t love him back. Not to mention he’s been ostracized his entire life.

(One big thing though, that I’m going to reference frequently, is Azriel’s constant chase of “happiness.” Kind of like my friends with ADHD. We squeeze all the serotonin we can get out of one thing and then fall into a listless, depressed haze until we find another. I honestly think Azriel does the same thing with people--he latches onto them and lets his mood swings rely on how much attention they do or do not pay him, and whether it is positive or negative.)

So I’m going to go through his relationships with pivotal characters and try to explain what I think is really going on with Azriel.

Regarding Mor:

He was obsessed with her for most of his life. He was incredibly possessive of her and fell instantly in love upon seeing her. Do I think it was love? No. But does Azriel think it was love? Yes, and that is so important. It shows how desperate he was for human connection.

This “love” spiraled into centuries-long obsession that we’ve all seen play out throughout the series. But why is it obsession, and not love? Well, I’m going to go ahead and say that Azriel doesn’t know how to love. He’s never been shown genuine love and so he doesn’t know how to show it to others in the way he intends. He’s basically a baby.

But right after he falls head over heels, Mor sleeps with Cassian, and then Cassian plays the role of the buffer between the two of them all the way up until the events of ACOSF. This is where I think Azriel’s anger comes into play. He can’t get to Mor. His best friend, his brother, is blocking him from her. He can’t touch her, love her, feel her, and he’s so desperate to. But he literally has no way to communicate it because he doesn’t know how, and so he responds in the one way he’s able: anger. And jealousy. And intense protectiveness that eventually begins to translate as possessiveness.

Again, he lets his happiness rely on Mor because he can’t make himself happy, and so his lack of emotional maturity ends up revealing him as desperate and unable to communicate his feelings of inadequacy and frustration. I’m not trying to justify his behavior, not at all. But I think this could be a decent explanation.

Regarding Cassian and Rhysand:

I mean... I kind of hate the way these two have treated Azriel. They all have their fair share of trauma, but Cassian and Rhys also bullied him and ostracized him, and then basically said, “Oh, we like you now.” Which completely leaves Azriel in the dark as to where he stands with them, and strips him of awareness regarding how his friendships with them will operate.

And then he becomes the head of espionage for the Night Court, which involves lots and lots of torture. What kind of message does that send? You’ve seen dirty things, Az, so you don’t mind doing the rest of the dirty things for us, right? That’s the only real message I can get from this. Which then plants the message in Azriel’s head of: Not only do I do dirty things, I myself am a dirty, disgusting thing. Thus, furthering his already deep-seated sense of self-loathing.

Plus, the IC generally operates with a pack-like mindset. One person’s method of healing is everyone’s method of healing. It worked for one person, so it worked for everyone. It’s a very naive mindset, and very toxic as well, so it’s not surprising that literally everyone in the IC is colossally messed up despite preaching themselves as having overcome their demons.

So Azriel never really gets to understand himself and mature as a person. He’s stuck pretending to be perfectly fine underneath Rhysand’s oh-so-benevolent and compassionate hand. Rhysand and Cassian recognize Az as being a little... odd, by seeming to think things like “he’s the quiet one” and “he’s the serious, scary one.” But do they attempt to understand him? No. They leave him to his own devices and let him figure it out himself.

That’s the issue. He’s not ever going to figure it out himself, so long as he’s surrounded by the people who’ve been unwittingly suffocating him for most of his life.

Regarding Elain:

Azriel’s infatuation with Elain, in my opinion, comes as a direct result of his detachment from Mor. Just like one hyperfixation fades quickly from an all-consuming thing to a passing thought, Azriel has shifted from one obsession to the next, in order to keep his spirits on a high.

But I think his feelings for Elain reveal a lot of what Mor did not. Why does he view Elain as so holy compared to him? Why is he so hesitant to touch her? Why does he put her on such a pedestal? That’s his self-loathing coming through again. He hates himself so much that he has to place her above him.

He wants to touch her and love her, just as he did with Mor, but again he is unable. It's a repeating pattern that he can’t get himself out of.

Let’s also look at the way Elain and Azriel’s friendship/relationship began. He had to take care of her, and treat her with utmost respect. She looked at his scars or his siphons, both monstrous looking things, and called them beautiful. Let’s remember that he’s basically a child who’s rarely known genuine love. The minute he gets a glimpse of it, he’s going to grab it by the neck and crush it to his chest. Plus, the fact that she’s the last sister left unattached and he’s the last brother left unattached is probably even more convincing for him that he and Elain are meant for each other. When he’s denied this love that’s come nearly close enough to grab, he responds in the only way he’s able: anger. And jealousy. Just like he did with Mor.

But moving on, that glimpse of potential love comes from Elain. That’s why he’s able to let go of Mor; a relationship with Elain suddenly becomes possible. He’s terrified of ruining this potential love and is incredibly drawn to her all the same. Best of all? She wants him too.

BUT. Azriel knows how fragile Elain is, so he walks on glass around her, coddling her, putting her first like he’s put everyone else first since being a part of the IC. I think he wants to save her from becoming like him. He essentially plays the role of her white knight, entirely losing his sense of self-preservation (not that he ever had one), and thus loses any chance of letting Elain help him mature in return.

Regarding Gwyn:

Now, Gwyn is a different story.

We know Azriel likes her. Maybe not in a consciously romantic way, but he likes her. She makes him smile and laugh, and he finds her amusing. He doesn’t have to walk on eggshells around her.

The big thing, I think, is that he doesn’t have to take care of her. At least, I think that’s what makes him so comfortable around her. With Gwyn, he can relax, and he doesn’t have to watch every move he makes. She treats him like a regular person and he treats her similarly.

Now, is it a bad thing that he doesn’t put her on a saint-like pedestal like he does Elain? No. Definitely not. I think this ordinary friendship signals a much healthier relationship than his festering obsession with Elain. Gwyn simply being his friend and not someone that he feels he has to be perfect for is a good foundation for Azriel growing as a person.

Gwynriel vs. Elriel (the necklace):

Honestly, I’m scared for whatever SJM decides to do, because Azriel has a shitload of trauma to move past and years worth of emotional growth needed before he can be a steady partner in a relationship. Both Gwyn and Elain’s character arcs are definitely not finished and so I think that no matter which way his narrative goes, it’s going to be disappointing in some aspect or another, unfortunately. I don’t think that either one of the females’ arcs really fit well with Azriel’s.

But I’m going to take a closer look at the necklace, because I think it’s a telling narrative point.

For Azriel, the necklace for Elain and Gwyn herself, are both “thing[s] of secret, lovely beauty” to him.

By describing the necklace for Elain as such (instead of Elain herself), Azriel unconsciously reveals his more idealistic view of Elain rather than his love for Elain herself. I kind of get the sense of Azriel giving offerings to a goddess, or something like that. He seems to be more preoccupied with appeasing Elain than actually loving her.

Now, this probably comes from, again, his self-loathing and his emotional immaturity. I’m just repeating myself at this point. He doesn’t know how to love himself and he doesn’t know how to love anyone else.

But then he describes Gwyn as such. Gwyn, the person. In my opinion, this demonstrates a potentially much healthier relationship than what he has with Elain. Azriel, instead of wanting to be perfect for Gwyn and wanting to appease her, is simply made happy by the thought of her. It is Gwyn whom he is taken with, not the idea of Gwyn loving him. And so that takes off so much pressure for him, and introduces the hope that he might be able to mature as a person in a friendship or romantic relationship with Gwyn.

Closing thoughts:

Azriel is a blundering, hormonal child desperate for love with no idea of how to get it, in a 500 year old Fae’s body. He’s also surrounded by people who refuse to address his clear issues... his future’s pretty dim, and I think he realizes it. Which is why whoever SJM chooses to be his romantic interest is going to be very important.

In short, I’m scared for what’s to come. But fingers crossed that his incredibly complex character is done justice.

#azriel #acotar #character analysis #gwynriel #kind of anti elriel #but open to interpretation

[oddlovergirl]

Friendly Reminders About Your Favorite Team Bucciarati/Buccellati Members

I decided to do an immediate sequel to this post a few days ago, with the bucci gang this time around.

Giorno Giovanna

Giorno is a kind-hearted soul who wanted to take over the mafia so he can reform it to make Italy a better place without drugs. However, he has his father DIO's brutality, so if you ever harm/killan innocent civilian, prepared to be MUDA'd to next Friday with no mercy.

Bruno Bucciarati/Buccellati

Bucciarati is indeed a sweet, humble guy (if rather strict at what he does). However, he has happened to have grown up too quickly, joining Passione at the tender age of 12 to protect his injured father. Not to mention that there are times where he's a little eccentric (like when Trish asked him what she is supposed to do if she needs to go to the toilet, he responds by using Sticky Fingers' power to create a makeshift toilet). There's also the fact that his initial behavior as a chatty but sly and violent gangster is shown to be an act, and he would later put on the act again with the two airport security guards at the beginning of the Notorious B.I.G. arc in the original manga, I shit you not.

Leone Abbacchio

Alright, Abbacchio did start off disliking Giorno (likely because the boy reminds him too much of his past idealistic self), but after the Man in the Mirror fight, Abbacchio slowly started to trust him (not that he would admit it, and it's a rather slow process). In the beginning of the Clash & Talking Head arc, when Giorno suspects that the food may be poisoned, Abbacchio decided to test that theory out on a bystander they initally thought was an assassin and had beaten up. He even left behind an important clue that only Giorno's Gold Experience can solve.

Guido Mista

Mista is a goofy, easy-going fellow with tetrophobia and a habit of getting bullets reflected back at him, but he's still a capable marksman otherwise and won't hesitate to get violent. It's also telling that he is rather perverted (and as compared to what fanon might tell you, he ain't so slick that he can't even get a date), but he is still a good person at heartt, as shown in his backstory when he jumped to rescue a woman from a sexual assailant without hesitation.

Narancia Ghirga

Narancia is indeed an adorably dorky and childlike sweetie pie (though he can be an immature little shit sometimes), but don't think he's a frail flower. In fact, he's an anti-heroic Psychopathic Teenchild who WILL either take out his knife to threaten and/or shank you or summon Aerosmith to fill you full of bullet holes if you ever piss him off. Oh, and while he may be Book Dumb, he makes up for that by having a lot of street smarts and being a tactical genius.

Pannacotta Fugo

Fugo may have problems controlling his very ill temper, but for about 98% of the time, he's a sincere sweetheart who is very cautious and genuinely wanted to control his temper. Not to mention that he's still just a sixteen-year old boy for f**k's sake! Even if he were to get on the boat with the gang, I believe that Abbacchio, Narancia, and Bucciarati will STILL die by the end of the storyline. Sorry folks.

All in all, they're quite a humane, heroic gang of mafiosi who refuse to let innocents get in the crossfire and are rightfully shocked whenever someone endangers civilians, but at the same time, they're still hardened gangsters who won't hesitate to kill you in a rather brutal fashion if you're the enemy and are willing to commit theft and destruction of property if that's neccessary to get the job done.

Thank you and have a pleasant evening :)

#jojo #jojo's bizarre adventure #golden wind #vento aureo #jojo golden wind #jojo vento aureo #jjba golden wind #jjba vento aureo #team bucciarati #team buccellati #giorno giovanna #bruno bucciarati #bruno buccellati #leone abbacchio #guido mista #narancia ghirga #pannacotta fugo

[akwardlyuncool]

Cherry (2021) - Review

CW/TW: PTSD and Drug Addiction

Note: This movie was based on a novel of the same name by Nico Walker, which I didn’t know prior to watching the movie, so I don’t/can’t speak to the adaptation aspects of the film.

Cherry (Tom Holland) centers his life around love, loving hard at all costs. This way of existing in the world leads him down paths he never thought he’d take, but he feels he has to commit himself to, whether it be war, drugs or crime, to continue the pursuit of that kind of love.

Last year I got a free 1 year subscription to Apple TV+, but squandered it, as in I didn’t watch a single thing on there. Fast forward to 2022 when the subscription is about to start billing me, I finally decide to at least get one thing out of it before that happens and I chose Cherry.

Everyone was saying that this was Tom Hollands first real “adult” movie, which by that opinion had me intrigued. Going through his filmography though tells me that he is no stranger to the “adult drama” space, however I can see if you’re only watching Spider-Man and Marvel movies, your experience with him might be limited here. That being said, this was the most dramatic thing I’ve personally seen him in recently. (I did watch How I Live Now, several years back, but I can’t remember his character in that movie.) I think he does a fairly decent job in this edgy role, I still get this hint of youth or immaturity (can’t quite find the right word) though, which is something that I think they wanted us to pick up on, especially when it came to the military aspect of the film.

Since, forever, young men have been going off to fight in wars for reasons outside of defending freedom and battling the enemy, many of which were far too idealistic to ever really be able to encompass the weight of that decision. I think we, as in society, often let that happen and don’t take responsibility for those casualties. That is something that I think the movie does an alright job at highlighting. It could go way deeper than it does, but they chose to go for a specific angle with it, so I’m not mad at them for not going in on all the possible side effects of joining the military. That being said, it’s hard to completely remove Holland from the youthful head space we have when it comes to his performances, at least for me. The movie was A LOT, but I still felt like he was going to crack a smile and start laughing at any given moment. It’s a background feeling, so no I didn’t think that was actually going to happen, I could sense it though. The movie also pushed in ways that It didn’t need to, simply for dramatic effect or to get us to laugh at the irony. I don’t think we needed every “big” choice made in the film for people to like it or at the very least take it seriously. You don’t have to try so hard, if you don’t really want to go there. You also don’t have to be cheeky to give this type of movie breathing room.

Overall I gave this movie a 3 for the drama and the strong parts that really stood out to me, but it was the love story that would have really dropped it down a little bit. Not saying that part was horrible, it just felt very “I’m gonna follow you to the end of the earth” in a very immature kind of way. Can that story be told well? Sure. We have to however not let it get sucked in to things that feel a little silly, even when they’re not. Not minimizing addiction whatsoever, there were just certain peices of the movie, early on, that seemed to lean heavily in the direction of immature parts of that kind of storytelling.

Here’s the thing, you’re either going to not hate the film and think it was alright, like me, or you’re going to think it’s really bad and say that all major parties involved should stick to the tried and true, Marvel movie. If the trigger warnings don’t hold you back, I’d say Cherry is definitely worth checking out, just to see, but don’t feel some type of way if it doesn’t meet  all the expectations you thought it would. They can all go back and try again.

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Bonus Thoughts On The Ending (SPOILERS INCLUDED.)

Basically I didn’t like the “I’ll follow you to the end of the earth, even if its an almost decade later,” part. Not saying she should have left him, just to leave him, but you kinda want to see what fresh things happen at the end of the day, for the both of them. I’m glad that the two of them ended up sober and I’m not mad that she was there upon his release from prison, but part of me feels like they could both easily get sucked back into previous habits and that makes me nervous for them.

#Movie Blurbs #Movie Reviews #Cherry #Cherry 2021 #Tom Holland #Ciara Bravo #Jack Reynor #Michael Rispoli #Jeffery Wahlburg #Forest Goodluck #Michael Gandolfini #Daniel R Hill #Pooch Hall #Ola Orebiyi #Apple TV+ #Apple Original Film #Apple TV #Based On A Book #Nico Walker

[astrognossienne]

venus + and -

venus in aries

+: active approach to connecting, knows how to instantly link with strangers, above-board about affection; believes we’re all brothers and sisters; tells it like it is, takes the initiative in sex and in love, exciting, independent, warm, passionate, demonstrative, gives love openheartedly

-: bores easily, rides roughshod over subtleties, naive, too idealistic, impulsive, comes on too strong, sees love as a contest, lacks ability to express tenderness or romance, selfish, impatient, emotionally immature, wears themselves and their lovers out with their fiery intensity, lacks stability

venus in taurus

+: sensual, tactile, loyal, decadent, loves beauty, has innate good taste, often dresses well, affectionate, emotionally vibrant, romantic, intuitive, graceful, loves nature, knows how to please their partner physically, believes in love, generous to a fault, steadfast and true

-: boring, stingy with resources and with love, possessive, jealous, territorial, lazy, only appreciates what they can see and touch, wants constant companionship, feeling > thinking, less than understanding of their lover’s shortcomings, cloying, demanding

venus in gemini

+: verbally charming, witty, has a way with words, light and effervescent, artistic, complex, outgoing, curious, warmly expressive, loves to communicate, reinvents themselves, enjoys intelligent people, aesthetically gifted, fun, lively, experiments with possibility, free spirits, intriguing, flirty, loves variety, open to all the possibilities of life, others often find them very attractive

-: flighty, bores easily, noncommittal, evasive, disloyal, shallow, faddish, relationships are often impermanent, changeable in relationships, romantic attractions are often sudden and causal, often feels stifled and restless, promiscuous, thinks too much, talks that talk but doesn’t act on it, hates to feel bonded to something or someone, not fond of emotions/emotional scenes, flesh and blood often falls short of their ideals

venus in cancer

+: gentle, generous, caring, loving, sympathetic, devoted to their loved ones, nurturing, compassionate, artistic, romantically idealistic, vividly imaginative, emotionally strong, loyal, attentive, warm, domestically gifted, supportive, sincere, wants the best for their lovers, good business sense

-: insecure, allows loved ones to take advantage, clingy, needy, undisciplined, too sensitive, mawkishly dependent, susceptible to flattery, possessive, shy, excessively emotional, takes things for granted, bad at communication, emotionally blackmails their loved ones, unrealistic expectations of their lover, codependent, manipulative, controlling, secretive, often tries too hard to create the type of environment from which their partners dare not leave

venus in leo

+: warm-hearted, fun-loving, romantic, heartfelt, playful, courtly, surprisingly sensitive, makes grand gestures of affection, often sets standards of beauty and fashion, generous, exciting, ardent, loves others as they love themselves, likeable and friendly, stylish, makes others proud to be with you, desirous and has a healthy sexual appetite, colourful

-: very selfish, dramatic, love standards are often too high and this placement looks down on those who don’t meet them, too preoccupied with appearances, too prideful, sulks childishly when they feel unappreciated, ostentatious, uses others to bolster their own self-image and ego, self-serving, domineering, overindulgent, bossy, honest yet calculated

venus in virgo

+: neat, conscientious, dependable, has high standards for their love and won’t settle, patient, will talk about how to resolve issues in their relationships, helpful, often extremely romantic, creative in love, kind-hearted

-: highly strung, too practical, overcautious, overanaylzes emotions and relationships, nothing is ever good enough for them, inhibited, covers up their many insecurities and inadequacies in love by being hypercritical of their lover, too self-conscious and neurotic

venus in libra

+: charming, polite, socially skilled, loves the concept and reality of love, promotes peace and harmony, aesthetically gifted, gracious, good-natured, often conventionally attractive, a friend to all, diplomatic, tactful, refined, doesn’t hold grudges, sophisticated, thinks the best of everyone whether they deserve it or not, can’t love someone they don’t respect, emotionally direct

-: fake, too nice, often goes along to get along, their relationships lack substance and depth, tries too hard to be liked and perfect, often quite contrived, terribly vain and will hate when old age takes away their looks, lacks integrity, easily hurt, superficial, can’t handle honest displays of emotion, insincere, social climbers

venus in scorpio

+: dynamic, sexy, desires orgiastic merging with another, expresses their sexuality like no one else, believes in transformation when it comes to love and relationships, their love is deep, seductive, magnetic, believes that nothing of value comes easy, not afraid of the darkness of life or the soul

-: obsessive, jealous, territorial, volatile, suspicious to the point of paranoia, touchy, becomes so intertwined in their lover that they can’t tell their emotions from their lover, vengeful, unforgiving, self-frustration, destructive, too intense, domineering, controlling, manipulative, takes love too personally and seriously, bitter, has no sense of humour

venus in sagittarius

+: generous, intentions are good, exciting, rapturous, adventurous, light-hearted, demonstrative, honest, open, wild yet ethical, has a natural and healthy appetite for sex, friendly, outgoing, loves to laugh, funny, needs spontaneity, dares to feel, is unafraid of love and will push the boundaries of race, religion and class in order to find their true love

-: tends to love the unattainable, lacks perspective, may be a bit wanton, immodest, impersonal, wants their lover to behave in the upright manner that they feel they themselves ought to but fail to, needs game-playing more than a relationship, is as anxious for a stable relationship as anyone else but they want to be the one to stabilize it

venus in capricorn

+: strives to make their loved ones happy and secure, controls their desires very well, steadfast, creative, responsible, patient when it comes to building a relationship, offers unconditional support to their loved ones, devoted, deeply emotional but controls it well, enduring, trustworthy, has a slow-simmering sexuality

-: emotionally cold, opportunistic and calculating in love and relationships, repressed, fearful, selfish, tremendously insecure, relationships are based on what someone could do for them, self-abnegating, their ability to love is hidden by a self-protective wall, judgmental

venus in aquarius

+: believes in fairness and equality, believes in universal love, can’t stand jealousy or possessiveness, independent, open-minded, unusual, easily bored, objective, friendly, needs excitement and experimentation, stimulating, needs a relationship based on friendship, often one-of-a-kind, sensuous but not sensual, excellent as friends

-: fears getting too close to people, cool, distant, impersonal, a bit outlandish, affections are often unstable, sexual habits are often eccentric, has stubborn emotional attitudes, too idealistic, spreads their love around, generalities > specifics, may be superficially attracted to beauty

venus in pisces

+: loves unconditionally, sensitive, unselfish, accepts their lover as they are for better or worse and doesn’t hold it against them, affectionate, helping others makes them feel better about themselves, understanding, has a wonderful sense of fantasy, romantic, can be compassionate

-: sentimental, maudlin, suffers from a martyr complex, insecure, expects their lovers to read their mind, too fanciful and is unrealistic about their relationships, naive, easily trusting, often refuses to see the ugly truths in front of their face, escapist, deceptive

#venus #since you people are so obsessed with venus #lmao the predictability of it all #astrology #mine

[painted-crow]

hey so i'm looking to figure my sorting out. i'm p sure of my secondary but honestly i've gone in circles so many times that i'd believe anything lmao

so i guess to start like. i'm fairly sure i'm an idealist, but with a twist. i care about making the world a better place-- i'm kinda infamous among my friends for being a little TOO outspoken about my opinions. on a small scale, i have strong opinions about a lot of things, but on a larger scale... idk. i don't think any one person can know what an ideal world looks like cause there really is no such thing. there are literally countless variables when it comes to implementing even small systems, countless ways to fuck it up, so i don't think i'd be choosing some grand ideal over the people i love anytime soon.

that being said, i think my idealist streak gets directed into something else most of the time. i'm very focused on understanding myself to a fault. i want to know why i do the things i do, why i believe certain things over others. when it comes to my beliefs about the world, they're strong but take it or leave it, but when it comes to myself they are not a good idea to push. i've ended relationships over not feeling like myself with them or feeling like i'm losing myself or they're pushing me to be someone i'm not. i make strong instant decisions about what the "right" thing to do is when it comes to how it impacts my perception of myself, especially with intimate relationships (i'm a lot less impulsive with things like friends and things i'm less personally involved in). i NEED to know who i am, way more than i care about any one specific person or thing. obviously i love people very deeply and would do just about anything to have both, but if i don't know who i am, if i'm not true to myself, then i have nothing. losing people happens.

the issue is, because i'm prone to doing that and not thinking as much about how it'll impact people, i've been called selfish a lot over my lifetime. recently i've started thinking more about how my actions impact people and their feelings, and i'm feeling a lot more torn. i want to do what i want to do, what i feel is best, but i feel immature for doing it a lot. i've started worrying a lot about being a bad person and hurting people, and i've been thinking about how the "right" way to be is. i went through a phase where i was repressing myself to make the "moral" choice, but i just felt so flat. ultimately i realized that it doesn't really matter how good i am if i have to repress myself to get there, cause then all it is is performance. tldr is i feel super guilty for making "selfish" choices rn, especially as i've gotten more aware of other peoples' feelings.

what i think is probably going on is that i'm an idealist primary with a badger model, but i'm not sure between lion and bird, and i'm still open to badger. pretty sure i'm not a snake.

the section on my secondary's gonna be a lot shorter, sorry this got so long! so i'm p sure i'm a badger secondary. considered lion and snake secondary too. whatever i am, i have a p loud lion model over it. i've always had a gift for making people trust me, for acting. i kinda blend in and become what i need to to both help them and get them off my back so i can do what i need to do. i have a serious passion for helping people with tough love (i like to think of myself as a p good advice giver, since i can both tell people what they need to hear and really get in their shoes and be kind where other people might not). i think i judge myself the least when i can kinda toe that line between pushing boundaries and stepping back-- i track where peoples' boundaries are constantly so i can push them to the limit without stepping over them. i'm very fluid when it comes to presentation in reality, even though i think people actually think of me as kinda controversial. i tend to see people who are ACTUALLY overstepping boundaries as lowkey selfish at times, even though i also really respect them. i like to do things the "right" way as long as i give a shit about them. the catch is, i don't want to blend into the background, and i don't think i do. a partner of mine called me a fox cause he noticed the way i constantly toe that line where i can get people to notice me and still keep them off my back, still make them comfortable. i'm also NOT a planner. people constantly give me shit for only ever feeling things out in the moment, and honestly thinking about the future freaks me out. i don't want to plan how i do shit i'd rather just get in the zone and figure it out from there. tldr i'm pretty sure i'm a badger secondary? but i could be convinced of snake. definitely see elements of both but my gut's telling me badger so take that how you will

anyway! thank you so much for taking the time to answer this, i know it's a lot.

also sorry one thing i forgot to add about my secondary! i think my lion model got so loud because when i do the shifty presentation thing, i have a tendency to lose myself and start perceiving myself as whatever i'm presenting. it's made it really hard to figure out who i actually am and so i started just being as clear about it as possible.

for my primary, i really care a lot about being right. i try to take every side into consideration to make sure i get the best conclusion. i can be super stubborn when it comes to certain things, but i don't want to just... hold to perceptions that are wrong. that being said it's important to me to trust my gut and i take it as a big input. i'm very felt out for most things, don't really have a strong system of how to be. i really wanna be able to trust myself but i just don't. i have a big habit of relying on other people to tell me what to think, which is uh. yeah.

Primary

You're a Bird primary with a Lion model, and you're trying on some Badger ideals. That's one of the easier Sorts I've done, lol! Possibly because your primary and models actually House match mine :p

Your reasoning process screams Bird xD and so does your writing style and just the length of the ask. Birds love self-analysis, it's part of how we make sure our systems stay as close to true as we can make them.

You've got some Lion too, but it's a model. It sounds like your Lion and your Bird have come into conflict before, and like most Birds with Lion models, it bugs the snot out of you when your Lion's intuition (which is important data!) doesn't line up with what your Bird knows.

You've prioritized Bird's conclusions before, but (as with many Birds) you don't entirely trust your own system and you're wondering if your Lion might have been right and you should give its reasoning more weight.

Also, you're consciously deciding that maybe Badgers' way of doing things is more moral than yours, and you're pulling in some of those ideals. That doesn't make you a Badger primary. Birds are notorious for this kind of thing actually 😂

The line between whether some ideals you've pulled into your Bird system vs. what counts as a model is fuzzy. It's up to you really, how important those pieces of Badger are to you.

For me, I think the line might be--is it wired into your sense of self on its own, or does it get filtered through your Bird and Lion? It really sounds like your Lion is a strong part of your sense of self: if you ignore its advice, you feel not totally like yourself. You don't have to feel all your models equally strongly, but thinking of it that way might help.

(It's also hard because Birds often feel like they kind of are their systems, or they are their ability to reason, that's a core part of their identity. ...It's complicated.)

Secondary

You sound really really Snakey. I'm not sure where you're getting Badger, actually!

Badgers are more than the mirroring ability. They also bury themselves in work or community, and it can sometimes look like they're neck deep in so many responsibilities that they couldn't possibly handle any more problems--and then they do have a problem, they do need something, and they stand up and all that stuff they were buried in turns out to be armor and tools.

Snakes, otoh, are improvisational and tend to be very aware of their surroundings. Unlike Badgers, the Snake brand of social shapeshifting involves a lot of keeping track of other people's reactions to what they're doing--trying something and then watching the response, then adjusting, rinse and repeat. You turn yourself into exactly the right person for this situation.

Badger mirroring is usually simpler. You reflect the other person's energy back at them: it's an empathetic response that says we're alike, I accept you, you're safe. A lot of Badgers do this without thinking--it can be hard to turn off.

Snakes also don't go in for prep work as much, it tends to trip them up (Snakes with Badger or Bird models notwithstanding). They're Improvisational secondaries, unlike Bird and Badger which are Built and rely heavily on some form of preparation.

The Lion model sounds legit, but just check for yourself: you might be learning to use Snake's neutral state. Snakes will sometimes drop all their layers of acting and maneuvering and suddenly they're just themselves. Different Snakes have different relationships with neutral state. For some Snakes, it's a relief to drop the mask; for others, it feels vulnerable and they only trust certain people with their full authenticity.

It does sound like you really admire Lion secondaries, though, so you might indeed have a model there! This is just something else you could check on.

Hope that helps!

- Paint

#first post in a while huh folks #gotta remember how to tag... #ravenclaw primary #gryffindor primary model #slytherin secondary #gryffindor secondary model #asks #paint speaks #sortinghatchats

[flying-elliska]

Headcanons for ADHD characters Masterlist

I was asked for this a while ago and I feel this is a good discussion subject because the canon representation for ADHD is kind of abysmal and is often a caricature or a joke.

usual disclaimer, I'm not a therapist, this is not a diagnosis tool, just for fun, etc etc...basing this on my own experience/knowledge with ADHD and meeting a lot of ADHD people IRL. I'm going off the main symptoms first (inattention and/or hyperactivity, restlessness, impulsivity, problems with emotional/focus regulation, daydreaming, messiness, hyper-focus, fidgeting etc) and then looking at character traits that are not a necessary symptom but often associated (substance abuse and addiction, need to please, sensitivity to rejection, compassionate and creative, thrill seeking, very imaginative, charming and witty or withdrawn and shy or angry and irritable, whimsical and fun and a bit child-like, out of the box thinker, self esteem issues, unstable life, comorbidity with anxiety and depression, very intense feelings, functions better with adrenaline/in an emergency, disregard for rules and problems with authority OR extreme compliance, codependency, perceived as weird, clever in an atypical way, problems in school, extremely good at one specific thing, etc)

Also I found this list with actual canonical representation

BOOKS :

The 'fits to a T so I'm seeing it as my personal canon' list :

note : doesn't mean that the authors actually meant to create representation but it's very likely they at least got inspired by people who did have ADHD (even when the diagnosis itself did not exist) and explained it with 'it's just their personality' OR the story happens in a setting where the label doesn't exist as such. also not meant to be exhaustive.

- Helen Burns (from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë) One of Jane's school friends from the start of the novel, fits the inattentive type to a T : she can't seem to focus or learn her lessons, is constantly daydreaming, describes herself as messy and careless, forgets rules, and is easily distracted. She talks constantly about her own 'defective nature' and seems very sensitive to criticism but incapable of changing. She doesn't defend herself against the nuns' harsh punishments as she thinks she deserves them. She's presented as kind-hearted and compassionate, almost too good for this world, and hyperfocuses on her faith. Apparently sb even wrote an academic article on this. She dies so it's not super fun representation but it is interesting to see in an older book, to push back against the idea that ADHD was invented yesterday by Big Pharma lol.

- Grantaire (from Les Miserables, Victor Hugo) Part of the student revolutionary group Les Amis de l'ABC and resident skeptic, does not believe in the cause but is fixated on the group's idealistic leader (and yeah it sounds very gay, they die holding hands, there is a lot of Symbolism). He spends his time ranting about things that are only vaguely connected, is described as brilliant but incapable of sticking to any one profession or hobby, is an alcoholic, has a creative streak (was a painter at some point), likes wandering around the city, has massive self-esteem issues and is a general mess but does seem to care about his friends. This is not a very flattering portrayal as Grantaire is described as morally deficient but again, interesting in an old book. ADHD!Grantaire is a popular take in the modern fandom (i was in it before I was diagnosed it brought up a lot of Things) and it's very cathartic to see him get actual therapy in fic lmao.

- Luna Lovegood (from the Harry Potter series) JKR sucks but this is probably the most high profile case of a possible inattentive ADHD character so I didn't want to leave it out. She's a daydreamer, she is a big space cadet and seems to live in her own world, she has a very out of the ordinary sense of style, she's bullied for being weird, but she's also very kind and perceptive and cares a lot about her friends, and good at coming up with out of the box solutions. I wouldn't call it good representation, she's described as a wacko whom a lot of characters find cringeworthy but she's also pretty heroic, so. And she does seem to hyperfocus on magical creatures. Plus her father could also have it (and it runs in families).

- Jasper Fahey (from Six of Crows duology, Leigh Bardugo) Part of a young group of thieves with a heart of gold, he's a charmer and a compulsive gambler who quits college and incurs debts so massive he stops talking to his father out of shame. He's also an extremely talented sharpshooter and the scenes where he describes how the whole world slows and the rush of adrenaline when he is shooting sound like hyperfocus to a T. He's a loyal friend but also quite dependent on Kaz, the leader of the group, to keep him in line. He's witty, messy and he likes danger. His boyfriend later in the series, Wylan, is dyslexic and the way they learn to accommodate each other's issues honestly makes them one of my favorite couples ever. I need to reread these books and I am so stoked for the series I hope they do Jasper justice.

- Julian Diaz (from Cemetary Boys, Aiden Thomas) Love interest of the book, introduced as the 'high school resident bad boy', energetic motormouth who can't sit still and actually very endearing, has issues in school and gets bored easily, main problem is that he's a ghost...sort of. The whole thing was very cute and I love that Julian's personality is described as fun and attractive instead of annoying (which is, if you haven't noticed already, a pattern).

- Evie O'Neill (from the Diviners series, Libba Bray) She's a flapper in 1920s New York who ran away from her boring little town to make a life for herself ; she's a party girl and an impulsive thrill-seeker who hates standing still and is always looking for excitement to 'fill the void'. She craves fame and attention and pretty things, she can be a loyal friend but is also frequently self-centered and forgetful, she's street smart, resourceful and very charming and witty. She's also grieving, drinks too much and is definitely depressed. She's obviously meant as an archetype of the era, caught between trauma and excess, but it does come over as very hyperactive ADHD as well. Her powers to read objects also really pinged me as a good metaphor for the ADHD tendency to be overwhelmed by details.

The 'bit more of a reach but there's a vibe' list :

- Emma Woodhouse (from Emma, Jane Austen) Frequently cited as a character with ADHD, I didn't come up with this one but she fits. She's daydreaming, easily bored, has flights of fancy and hyper-focuses on matchmaking, is a bit impulsive and thrill seeking, clever in an unconventional way, described as a bit immature, mix of caring and self-centered.

- Ronan Lynch (from the Raven Cycle, Maggie Stiefvater) Ronan just has Neuroatypical Vibes, even though it's not entirely clear what, and I've seen people label him all sorts of things which is very valid. As for ADHD, he's restless, impulsive, likes to Go Fast and do street racing, he has very strong emotions he doesn't know what to do with, and big self esteem issues esp. at the start, is very all or nothing with people, snarky, drops out of school to be a magic farmer, problems with authority, looks like a scary mean goth but is actually a big softie (but like, with a few people), pulls shit out of his dreams. Is kind of dependent on his best friend at the start too.

- Sherlock Holmes (from the eponymous series by Arthur Conan Doyle) Again a character who has been diagnosed with all sorts of things. The biggest ADHD vibe for me is 'my mind rebels at stagnation' and the way he needs drugs to function outside of the thrill of a case, and the way he hyper-focuses on information he needs to be a detective while completely ignoring common knowledge. Also sort of dependent on his best friend Watson and isn't great at social interactions. Doesn't care much about upholding social conventions either. The RDJ adaptation is the one that has the most ADHD vibes to me.

- Harley Quinn (DC Comics/Movies) Big codependency issues (that's arguably the thing she's most known for) and sadly people with ADHD are often prone to getting into abusive relationships. It depends on the story too but she's very energetic, zany, impulsive, she likes shiny things and bright clothes, she's fun and chaotic and likes to break the rules, she's a criminal but she does seem to have a heart, she's also frequently immature and rash, etc.

What are your headcanons ? I would love to hear if you have some so I can add them to the list. I'll make a TV/Movies list soon.

#adhd #actually adhd #adhd representation #neurodiversity #media representation

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Philosophy 101

Philosophy 101 Fandom: My Hero Academia Pairing: FuyuPress Summary: FuyuPress Week 2021 Day 2 Prompt Fill: Soulmate - “Soulmates?” he asked with a brow raised. He reached up with his prosthetic hand to rub at his chin thoughtfully. “What a peculiar thing to ask about.” Minor Warning: Implied Hanky-Panky but nothing explicit. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more.

When she was just a child, she loved stories about soul mates. Things like true love’s kiss and handsome princes’ come to save the day on horseback became her idealistic view of the world. She clung to those fairy tales and how they could be applied to the real world, asking Mother often is that was what Father was to her. Back then she hadn’t noticed how the smile never reached the gray depths of Mother’s eyes, but she came to understand it as she got older. A prince wouldn’t belittle, berate and beat the princess he so adored. Her parents’ marriage being something born of financial comfort and narcissistic ego rather than loyalty and love had been a heavy blow.

The accompanying realization that there may never have been any love between her parents had been somehow more terrifying.

In high school, her disillusionment with the idea of love and soul mates had been given even more evidence. Between herself and her friends, so many of their “charming royal suitors” turned out to be nothing but façade and hormones. They would be cruel in so many different ways, in ways she still bore the physical and emotional remnants of, and she’d resolved herself to be content on her own. She had her family and her work and her friends – the ones that had been with her through it all – and she determined that she would commit to that being enough for now. She resigned that she would most likely settle for someone Father selected, someone who would be financially secure and – if she was lucky – gentle enough that rearing a family would be tolerable.

And then there was Sako Atsuhiro, more enigma than man.

Their first meeting had been anything but graceful. It had been on a field trip day to a local museum for a more hands-on experience involving pre-Quirk society. Her little problem child, Toshiro-Chan, had been fiddling about with his Quirk as he was prone to. His Quirk was that he could temporarily make any item - even ones that lacked any metal component - magnetic for a short period of time. Thinking that it would be a fun little prank, he’d magnetized one of the plastic line poles used to keep the children from getting too close to the exhibits…

And ended up dragging poor Sako over through the means of his prosthetic arm.

Fuyumi had been absolutely mortified, offering frantic apologies to Sako and stern words to Toshiro-Chan as she tried to help separate his arm from the pole. Sako had been a darling and taken it all in stride, though. He made a few teasing remarks to help alleviate some of her distress and the young tot’s guilt, reassuring that he was in as many pieces as he’d entered the establishment in. He had ended up trailing along with her class after that, the students all fascinated more in his prosthetic arm than the sights they were there for. Once the students were all loaded back up onto the bus and with one final plea from Fuyumi to find some way to make it all up to him, he made a suggestion.

“If you insist, young miss,” he mused, producing a small slip of paper between his fingers from thin air, “treating me to a beverage some time would be a welcome gesture of apology.”

And that first little coffee date had bloomed into something unexpected but new. Fuyumi was used to the polite and suave gentleman act that he seemed to play at, but she found the big difference to be that it wasn’t an act with him. THe more she grew to know him, the more she realized he was very much a “What You See is What You Get” kind of man. He wasn’t afraid to purr softly in her ear of the things he’d relish in doing to her once they were alone and then hold true to those words when they were. He was as polite and respectful and responsible behind closed doors as he was on the street and this concept was absolutely earth-shattering for her. For Todoroki Fuyumi, who presented herself as the sensible and mature daughter most would expect of a Pro Hero, the idea of someone who was so unabashedly themselves in every aspect of their life, it was new and enticing and hypnotic in a way.

Which was probably why her mind wandered back to childhood fantasies, blurting the question out before she could think better of it as they lounged together in his bed one night.

“Soulmates?” he asked with a brow raised. He reached up with his prosthetic hand to rub at his chin thoughtfully. “What a peculiar thing to ask about.”

She shuffled to nuzzle into his pillow a bit more, hiding the lower half of her face and muffling her words a bit. “Is it?” she asked uneasily. A flash of panic coursed through her. Had she crossed some strange line between them? Would such an immature question turn him away from her? “You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to. It is a kinda weird question. I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

He blinked, brown eyes twinkling as he fixed his gaze back on her, before a small smile tipped up on his lips. “Nonsense, my dear. If you were thinking about it to a point you wanted to mention it, it is clearly important for you to discuss it,” he said, reaching out with his flesh hand to gently stroke along her cheek. She shifted to tilt up into the touch more, relaxing a bit at the soothing familiarity of his touch. “If you are asking as to whether I believe that soulmates are real or not… I don’t believe in something as basic as one singular soulmate for your whole life long.”

She perked up and made a small confused noise. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I feel like every partner - good or bad - has qualities indicative of what a soulmate is meant to be. For elaboration, what is a soulmate as you see it?”

She hummed thoughtfully as she pushed herself to sit up with the help of her elbows more. She steepled her and tapped them against her lips as she tried to sort her thoughts properly. Atsuhiro had moved to gently trail his hand over her shoulder to draw little shapes along the exposed skin of her back instead. “Well, they’re someone who is there for you when you need them and not always in ways you expect. They accept you as you are, and inspire you to be a better person. To work to be the best side of yourself. The side of you that they see you as,” She watched as he nodded along with her words, smile widening a little bit. She shifted to move a smidge closer to him. “And what about you?”

“I would agree with what you’ve said,” he hummed, holding up one finger on his other hand, “and would also state that there are parts or what you said that I learned from past lovers.”

“So you’ve met your soulmate before then?” she asked, cocking her head and knitting her brow.

He chuckled and shifted to lay on his side beside her. “Not quite. Perhaps they are not your soulmate for all of time, but they are in that moment. And I think that there is something to be treasured in that,” he explained, lifting his arm to invite her closer.

She frowned as she shifted to laying on her side as well, hands sliding to rest on his shoulders. “But… Doesn’t that kind of lessen the significance of having a soulmate? If every person you’re with is a soulmate?” It made little sense to her and felt a bit like a cop-out, if she were honest. After all, the idea of her past partners being considered soulmates make her stomach churn uncomfortably. Sure, there had been points where she’d thought it could be possible, but… Well, hindsight was 20-20, right?

“Perhaps, yes, but I do not feel so,” he mused. He settled his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to himself, looking down at her with a fond expression. “If not for those past experiences, I would not be the person that I am proud to be today, the man who is happy to spend his time with you and treat you as you deserve. And I needed all of those past lovers and the times with them - both the good and the bad - to be able to come to certain realizations about myself. To teach me what was important to me in the kind of partner I was as well as the kind of partner I wanted.”

Fuyumi blinked and nodded slowly, letting his words turn over in her mind. It… Did make a certain kind of sense, actually. She was only able to determine the things she wanted in a serious, committed relationship because of what she’d been through with her past partners. If she hadn’t dated them, would she still be as naive as she was at age seven? Believing that her ideal partner would be someone who was perfect and handsome and, realistically, didn’t exist? And that wasn’t even taking into account the little things she’d learned to perceive from a handful of dates. Would she still be able to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing? Or would she just be a sheep to the slaughter, of sorts?

“Does that help at all, my dear?” he asked, pressing a small kiss to her forehead and snapping her from her internal ramblings.

She flashed a small smile before curling into his chest. “Yes, I think it does, Atsuhiro. Thank you,” she hummed, closing her eyes as he began to gently stroke her hair, fingertips grazing along the shell of her ear.

Perhaps his definition was a bit more romantic than she’d thought.

#My Hero Academia #FuyuPress #Mr. Compress #Sako Atsuhiro #Todoroki Fuyumi #FuyuPress Week 2021 #my fics #I almost went the angsty route with this #But decided to do something a bit sweeter instead

[wisteria-lodge]

Wisteria’s Great Big Sorting Hat Chats Explanation

A note on why I don’t use the HP terminology anymore (there’s the obvious JKR stuff, and also this system is different enough that people find the old names misleading.)  @sortinghatchats​ does a wonderful job laying out The Basics, but I’ve collected some of my own terminology and thoughts here. Sometimes it’s just really helpful to have something explained in a slightly different way. Anyway, here we go!

~ PRIMARIES ~

Primaries are all about what you prioritize. When you have to make a tough decision, what do you feel best and most moral ranking first. Do you put the well-being of people you love first (Loyalist) or do you put the abstract things you think are right first (Idealist.) Each primary has a IMMATURE version - which you mostly see on younger people, but not all the time, a BURNT version, which happens when someone stops being able to trust that primary is good and moral, and an EXPLODED version, which is what happens when they lose any sense of proportion and take the values of their primary too far. 

SNAKE PRIMARY

This is probably the easiest primary to understand, and the easiest to write about (which is why you see so many Snake primaries in fiction).

Snakes are loyal to themselves and their chosen few. They rank people in their lives according to how Important they are, and will usually talk about concentric circles of loyalty, or some kind of tiered system. If one of your Important People is in trouble, you have to help. You just do. No other choice would be moral. You can help people outside your circle of importance if you want, but just that’s you being a nice person, not a moral imperative. 

And what does a Snake do, when things are good and all their people are OK? They pick another primary to wear over the top (and very commonly) end up using the moral system of their Most Important People. So a Snake who loves Badgers (as many do) could easily look like a Badger most of the time, and only reveal their Snake colors when things get serious. 

IMMATURE SNAKES are probably what most people think of when they say “immature.” This is a Snake who has not found their People yet - so it’s just them. Immature Snakes tend to be live-for-the-moment Hedonists who take the Snake love of pretty things and self-care to selfish extremes. 

A BURNT SNAKE is someone who thinks that valuing only a couple people and arranging your life around them is wrong or impossible. A lot of Burnt Snake primaries will consider their default loyalty selfish or unChristian. In my experience, Burnt Snakes tend to look like miserable Idealists... or miserable Badgers, because of that Snakey tendency of thinking that those guys are better people.

An EXPLODED SNAKE is the Snake whose life is wrapped up in one person to the exclusion of all else. This can be bad for the Snake - stuck in inertia, so loyal that they cannot bring themselves to leave or even question their people. But it can also be bad for the Snake’s person. This is where you get Stalker Snakes, where their Person doesn’t want to be the singular focus of their existence. 

BADGER PRIMARY

Badger primaries are loyal to the group, not the individual. What the group needs is infinitely more important than what any individual member needs. Because of this, Badgers don’t rank people by how much they like them (and if they do they feel guilty about it.) People are part of the group, or people are not part of the group. And a Badger is always going to help the member of the group who has the most need.

UNIVERSAL BADGERS who truly consider every human being to be part of the group are some of the most glorious and shining individuals out there (there are also Badgers who stretch the definition of “person” to include, say, animals). However, it is also common for Badgers to have outgroups, people who they don’t have to help, because they don’t really count as people. This could be a racist badger for example, or one who doesn’t think that psychopaths count. Everyone can be racist of course, but Badgers are so about the group that they need to make a concerted effort to dehumanize. Maybe they do this by infantilizing, aggrandizing, or dismissing someone as a monster or a jerk. 

Badger primaries are interesting because it’s one of the more desirable primaries out there. Communities, organizations, religions run on Badgers. And because of that, the unhealthy Badger behaviors are the most normalized and even praised. Take for example the IMMATURE BADGER, who I like to call the Invisible Badger. They will be called mature and responsible, when what they really are is taken over by the group. A lot of young Badgers just *are* the group, mimicking an authority figure, doubling down on whatever the group’s values happen to be, with very little identity of their own.

Badger primaries are wonderful, I can’t stress this enough, but they really struggle with overworking themselves and giving too much of themselves. That’s what the EXPLODED BADGER is. Instead of just being the group, the Exploded Badger exists to serve the group. They are unimportant. They are a resource. Or, they can go in the other direction and become the AUTHORITARIAN BADGER. Who knows what’s best for you. 

When a Badger Burns, it’s because they want to have that big safe community where they are free to help and love everybody (Badgers love communities. When they can’t find them they make them). But a BURNT BADGER has decided that communities are unsafe, unpractical, and the only way to be safe is to be alone - or to try and be content with a much smaller community than the one they want. For this reason, Burnt badgers tend to look like miserable Snakes

LION PRIMARY

Lions and Birds are the two Idealist primaries. Their cause, their art, their job, their social issue, their vocation, their project, their philosophy, their religion - all of these things are more important than the people they love.  “The ends justify the means” is something that an Idealist would say. But, the split comes with whether they decide on this Reason with their conscious or unconscious mind. 

Lions process unconsciously, and because of this they really value the way they *feel* about things as decision-making data. They can often feel extremely strongly about something… but have trouble breaking down their argument or explaining why (at least in the moment). You’re more likely to hear something like, “it’s wrong because it’s just wrong” from a Lion. They have internal voices which are very important to them, and matter a lot when they make decisions. 

Now young Lions who aren’t able to act on many of the impulses they feel so strongly about fantasize about situations where they can do whatever they feel like. Wealth and celebrity are very interesting to young Lions, and IMMATURE LIONS (or Glory Hound Lions) who haven't really come up with a Cause for themselves yet will often use money, fame or some kind of nebulous “power” as a placeholder. 

And Lion Explodes when they have that Cause and can see absolutely nothing else. An EXPLODED LION can’t see the damage they are causing, won’t listen to reason, and usually develops a victim complex. Anyone who is not with me is my enemy.

A Lion Burns when (for whatever reason) they become unable to trust their ability to feel. BURNT LIONS are extremely sad, because they really are missing part of themselves and looking for a prosthetic. They are looking for something to replace their inner voice. Sometimes they adopt an external system, or appoint someone to be their conscience. They are forced to find a Reason using their conscious mind, and so they tend to look like very miserable Birds. 

There is actually a huge amount of variation in healthy Lion Primaries. Of course there is your classic PARAGON LION, your Lawful Good paladin. Good is Good and Bad is Bad - but you can also have a lion who judges on a completely different axis. I call these FAE LIONS because they make me think of the type of fairy lord who defines ‘Good’ as ‘Interesting’ and ‘Bad’ as ‘Boring.’ You could have a Fae Lion who (instead of working off the traditional good/bad axis) works on a ‘Order is Good, Chaos is Bad’ framework, or a ‘Freedom is Good, Coercion is Bad framework.’ 

BIRD PRIMARY

Birds reason, and come to their conclusions about what is Good and what Matters with their conscious mind. That means that a Bird can explain the structure of *why* they believe what they believe (and will probably be thrilled you asked.) More importantly, they will be happy to field any questions and have a discussion about it. A Lion might do this... but it would be an all-around more stressful conversation, and not a fun thing to do over brunch. Birds (unlike Lions) can just decide what they care about. A Bird can switch from one system (or cause, or project) just because they want to, and it because it makes sense. When Lions change their minds it’s a much messier situation, and takes a lot longer. A Bird can decide to care about a job in a way a Lion can’t. 

Birds also have an interesting quirk of thinking of these past versions of themselves who believed different things as almost different people. Because their loyalty lies with the outside world, they can be uniquely vulnerable to things like gaslighting… but not as susceptible to tug-on-your-heartstrings propaganda. 

IMMATURE BIRDS are extremely binary black-and-white thinkers. They’ve come across the first system that makes sense to them, and are sure that it must be perfectly correct for everybody. And they are smarter/cleverer/savvier/more moral for having figured this out. 

Birds need to take in information constantly, so they Explode when they lose the ability to edit what they take in. An EXPLODED BIRD is either someone who is absolutely paralyzed… how can they possibly be expected to know what to do when all the inputs contradict each other? - or a bird who only trusts one specific source, and decides that everything contradicting it must be deliberate deception or conspiracy. 

Birds Burn when they are separated from their ability to reason and think. Picture a Bird in an environment where they are taught not to ask questions, or that everything will make sense when they’re older, it’s all too complicated for them to understand so they shouldn’t try. BURNT BIRDS will often look like very miserable Lions, trying their very best to accept that something is Good because it’s Just Good… when really they need more explanation than that.

~ SECONDARIES ~

Secondaries are how you solve problems + how you get the things that you want. If you’re trying to figure yours out, the best thing to do is to think of problems you’ve actually solved. How did you manage it? Strategies you’re especially proud of - that make you think “that was kind of awesome of me” - those work best. The idea is that you should enjoy using your secondary. It should feel powerful, satisfying, not stressful. And authentic.

LION SECONDARY

Lion secondaries are the easiest to talk about and the easiest to spot, because the way they plan is… they don’t. They go into a situation, and completely trust their ability to just figure it out. Just keep going, the only way out is through. Screw it, might as well happen. 

Not surprisingly, most protagonists are lion secondaries. What really gives a Lion secondary their power is their honesty. They are trustworthy and they are inspirational because they are only ever completely themselves. Every other secondary will act or wear different personas, but to a Lion that feels immoral. The closest they come is a “lowering of intensity.” They can be more or less intense versions of themselves. But that’s about it. This “intensity” also shows up in their tendency to be OFF or ON. There are basically two settings: the Lion that either doesn’t have a project or isn’t sure what to do - in which case they are not doing anything. And the Lion who is on the move. 

Lions solve problems by being committed (or stubborn.) They are battering rams that keep going until either the obstacle breaks or they do. Things have to go really badly for Lion  secondary to stop and pivot directions.

SNAKE SECONDARY

Snakes are also improvisers, but oh man Lion and Snake secondaries are incomprehensible to each other. Snakes are good about going into a new situation and picking up clues about the environment and the other people there, and shifting approaches the second they feel the wind changing. They like finding less-obvious solutions and ways around a problem. That’s not cheating, that’s just being clever. They naturally create the mask, the persona, that the situation requires, and shift out of it just as easily. This is fun and exhilarating, and Snakes tend to think of the face they are creating for you as a gift. And it is. Snake secondaries are fan-favorite characters with a seductive side to them, because what could possibly be more flattering than someone coming up with a persona just to charm you? 

What makes Snake different from the two secondaries that require Prepwork (Badger and Bird) is that a Snake skillset is always applicable. Whatever situation you throw them into, they find a way to land on their feet. 

There is a Neutral Snake under the mask though. When Snakes are feeling safe and comfortable, they drop all of their faces and shift into a Neutral state that usually looks pretty Lion (a little blunt, a little in your face.) Some snakes almost never do this, while some live in Neutral most of the time. But then when they’re threatened - or need something - those Snake faces come right back up.

BIRD SECONDARY

Bird is a Built, Prepwork secondary. What makes a Bird fundamentally a Bird is that Bird secondaries are *collectors.* Their collections help them solve problems. And when they don’t see the thing they want out in the world... they make it themselves. 

Birds collect all sorts of things. Skills and knowledge of course, but they can also collect people (I call these ‘I Know a Guy’ Birds.) Birds will often put some work into building a couple ready-made personas they can slip into when they need to be more professional, more charming, etc. But an Actor Bird prepares those roles the way an actor does, through prep work and practice. They’re not improvisers. 

If a Bird is deeply embedded in their zone of expertise or area of comfort, they can problem-solve so fast that it looks like they’re improvising... but they’re not. The Rapid-Fire Bird just has a lot of knowledge and resources to call on. Move them to a different arena, where their knowledge and resources aren’t applicable, and they flounder. 

Sometimes Birds are described as planners, which they can be, but I think that’s a backwards way of looking at them. They look like planners, because when they’re functional and successful they pull these incredible solutions out of the air. They must have been planning for this exact situation right? But what actually is going on is the Bird is so prepared that it looks like they’re full of amazing plans-within-plans. 

BADGER SECONDARY

If Birds are collectors, then Badgers are connectors. Badgers insert themselves in a community and find ways to make themselves useful. And then in return, they use the power of the community to solve problems. There are two ways do this, although most Badgers use a little bit of both skill sets. 

A Bookkeeper Badger shows up and does the work. They are dependable, they are thorough, they don’t like cutting corners (Badgers consider cutting corners on something that they actually care about immoral.) Bookkeeper Badgers are a rock. They get stuff done, a little bit at a time. Slow and steady wins the race. 

Courtier Badgers go in a more interpersonal direction. They find a group, and try to supply what the group needs (or even just this one person needs) in an... emotional sense. Badgers are social mirrors who reflect you back to yourself, and so come off as extremely legit and trustworthy. And, unlike a Snake secondary, this isn’t a persona that they wear. They actually shapeshift to match you. 

There is a self-negation aspect to the Badger secondary which gives them their slightly boring, support-staff reputation. Badgers are not flashy. They don’t like being the center of attention. But when Badgers fight they fight dirty. This is someone who has gotten to know an organization and all the people in it, and has almost certainly become very valuable. So Badgers can cut their support and watch things fall apart. They can turn public opinion. (It’s very hard to side against a Badger in an argument.) And when they go really dark, they can leverage the Badger skill set into being blackmailers or interrogators. It’s easy to tell Badgers your secrets.

~ MODELS ~

But wait, I fit into more than one of those categories! That’s where modeling comes in. It is really common to model at least one other secondary. Some people model more, some people model primaries as well.

But a model is just an additional secondary (or primary) that you learned to use at some point. Maybe it’s fun. Maybe it’s useful. Maybe you’re part of a community that requires a specific type of behavior. Maybe you built it to mesh better with someone you love. There are lots and lots of reasons to build models. 

… and some of those reasons are unhealthy. This is where Burnt Secondaries come in. We know that a Burnt primary is a primary that (for whatever reason) you feel like you are unable/not supposed to use. A Burnt secondary works exactly the same way. Your secondary burns if you think you’re not supposed to use it. Maybe it doesn’t match your community, or gender performance, or you think that it’s not the ‘right,’ ‘real’ or ‘practical’ way to solve problems. You might even think you’re morally bad or impure for using a specific secondary. And, that’s an exhausting place to be. The easiest way to solve problems is closed off to you, so you’re forced to go through that extra step. If the way you normally solve problems makes you feel stressed and miserable or out of control, consider that this might be you.

EDIT: If you’re interested in reading more about secondaries, I’ve written about some of the subtypes we’ve identified here. 

#sortinghatchats #masterpost #lion primary #lion secondary #badger primary #badger secondary #bird primary #bird secondary #snake primary #snake secondary #terminology #definitions #modeling #primaries #secondaries #models

[repetitionsings]

Sorting Cabin Pressure

I return! Briefly, because tumblr still hates me, and yet triumphant, because I’ve spent the last week re-listening to Cabin Pressure, and I want to talk about sorting the MJN crew. So let’s do some Sorting Hat Chats!

As usual, my view on these characters may not be yours, and if you have different thoughts, I’d love to hear them. :D Discussion spans the entire 27 episodes, so let’s say spoilers just to be safe.

Martin

Despite probably having the biggest, best-defined character arc, I'm finding Martin the main character I'm least set on. 

Secondary-wise, I'd say he's definitely a built secondary; very little of Martin's improvisations seem to come comfortable to him. His insistence on doing things right and by-the-book feels fairly Badger, but his ability to be lured into shortcuts and moments of unprofessional behavior feels to me like a Bird who thinks that Badger hard word and toil is the best option. It also seems to fit with the way he becomes calm and confident once something works out for him, and then immediately loses it once things go wrong and he feels unprepared again. The few episodes where he really gets to be confident and succeed particularly feel Bird-y to me: relying on knowledge in Johannesburg especially stand out.

(That said, Badger also seems to ring consistently with the way he handles a lot of things -- his dedication to his job, his hard work, even the way half the time he does get confident, it's either because Douglas isn't there to bring him down, or he seems to be pretending to be him.)

Primary-wise, though, that's where I get tripped up. Not a Snake, I think; even his hesitancy to leave MJN is half about his own goals and issues, not fully founded in caring about others. Badger doesn't quite seem right either -- "being loyal and true to things or people that exist is more important than sticking to grander but more abstract ideals or concepts" does not sound like Martin at all. My first thought was Lion, just one that's still struggling to be as decisive as they usually are -- despite his hesitancy, and his instincts being 'follow the rules written by others', a lot of the Lion stuff seems to apply to him. "They are willing to sacrifice their safety, social harmony, and a certain amount of logic to do what they feel is right." "There is right and there is wrong. Things are black and white. Shades of gray are places where people go to play games, twist the truth, and to be cowards."

But... he does bend the rules, or sit back and let Douglas do so. If nobody who makes him feel like he has to put on the act is there -- see Newcastle and Qikiqtarjuaq -- he'll bend them pretty far. Trying to drop candy on a kids' birthday party (Johannesburg) and lying to a passenger about where they're flying (Timbuktu) levels of far.

So who's around seems to be a big part of it, which maybe could point back in a loyalist direction. I think in the end, though, I'm going to throw up my hands and say, maybe a Bird whose system is in progress from something fairly immature and black-and-white to something more complicated? Martin's devotion to his passion and his job above all else feels pretty Idealist to me, and this seems a little more fitting than him being an extremely malleable Lion.

Douglas

Douglas "at any given moment I never have fewer than seven ulterior motives" Richardson? Douglas "did something clever and now everything's fine" Richardson? Douglas "pretending very hard not to care about anything, actually cares very deeply, but only about specific things and specific people" Richardson? Is there even any point to considering an answer besides double Snake here? Douglas might as well be the model of it. Trickery is his first language. He schemes, charms, adapts, and lucks out in order to achieve anything in his sights, whether that's as small as a relief from boredom or as big as saving the day.

Motivation is trickier -- but it becomes clearer and clearer as time goes on how far Douglas is willing to go to save MJN, and outside his own desires to be the captain again, that seems like the biggest thing that ever drives him. Combine that with his hedonism, and the way he's happy to lie, cheat, and steal to accomplish most other things with no notable guilt or shame, I don't even see hints of a model or structure built over it; the things that matter to him are his own reputation and status (and even that in very specific, particular ways), and saving GERTI and her crew.

(That said, the more I think about it, I do think you could make a solid argument for Douglas as a rapid-fire Bird Secondary. Mostly built around Zurich -- his confession that his confidence started, not just as a mask, but wholesale imitating somebody else. There's also this excerpt from Finnemore's Farewell Bear Facts: "Douglas prefers to hang back, let other people make mistakes, work out the 'something clever' he's going to do in secret, and then present it with a flourish." While that could be Snake-y, I could see it as a Bird's planning working for someone whose very invested in his own reputation. That said, I still think Double Snake seems the most applicable overall.)

Carolyn

Carolyn's drives are a kind of mirror to Douglas', which is interesting to reflect back on. The two things she cares most about are how she's seen, and -- even if she sometimes shows it in her own strange way -- Arthur. Then Douglas and Martin start to rank in there over time, and eventually so does Herc. (Martin moreso than Douglas -- speculation, but I think it's probably because everyone knows Douglas will take care of himself first, so he doesn't need to be worried about so much.) Money matters to her of course, but several times it comes down to show that if money was the most important thing, she'd probably have given up GERTI a long time ago. We get it set out plainly as early as Douz: "Because I am the Chief Executive Officer of MJN Air. It’s a good thing to be. It’s better than... a little old lady."

I think it's possible to read Carolyn as an extremely burned Badger; there's something in how she reacts to her sister that makes me think I can see it. But in general, I'm more inclined to say Snake Primary. One that isn't fully burned -- Arthur's never really out of her circle, I think -- but does have a hell of a time opening up her circle to new people by the time of the series. Just look at the trial Herc goes through before he gets there.

Lion Secondary, I think. She's the immovable object to Douglas' unstoppable force, and Martin is the thing unfortunately trapped between them at times. She's stubborn and honest, hates playing at being nicer than she is and only does it when absolutely necessary, and cares about her rules being followed but not the rules in general so much. She's whip-smart, but she doesn't actually tend to be tricky or slippery in the same way as Douglas -- and in fact, the one time we really see her try to be actively tricky, in Timbuktu, she loses. She's more likely to ignore opposition or tell someone else to solve it, and even when she pulls something, it's usually pretty straight-forward. (For example, calling Hester's fans in Cremona -- it's an underhanded move against someone who's earned her ire, but not really a complicated scheme.)

Arthur 

I think Arthur shares his mother's Lion Secondary. He's a force in his own right as much as she is, even if he's more of a tornado to her steel barrier. He's honest to a fault and very much always himself, no matter what the situation, or how much better it might be to try and do something else.

As Primary goes, it's hard to tell if this is just Arthur's optimism shining against everyone else, but my first instinct is Badger. He wants to be helpful, oftentimes too much so, and he likes them so much it tends to be notable when he doesn't like somebody. His focus tends to be the people in front of him at the time, but that does extend to include other people when they're there -- it's not just the crew at all times. While I think it's possible to see him in other lights, Badger seems to make the most sense and work with what we see of his wants through the series.

Herc 

While most of the other minor or reoccurring characters don't show up enough for me to have even an idea, I think we do get enough of Herc to narrow it down some, if not make a completely secure conclusion.

My first instinct is that he's yet another Snake Primary in the mix. It works with his role as a foil for Douglas, and with his willingness to give up his position to be with Carolyn by the end of the series. (That said, I feel like his speech on why he's a vegetarian in Ottery St. Mary could point towards Bird Primary as well, and would make sense with everything we see of him.)

He seems straightforward in a way that doesn't line up with a Snake Secondary to me -- that could be a matter of the situations we see him in, but I still just don't see it in his conversations with Carolyn. I'd say maybe a Lion Secondary, in the way the two of them clash and he stands his ground. Bird Secondary also makes sense, but admittedly I'm having trouble pointing to anything specific that made me think so; there's just something in the way his manner bounces off the others, and in the way he seems to almost take on and off All-Knowing Air Captain mode.

In conclusion --

Martin: Double Bird with a Badger Secondary model Douglas: Double Snake Carolyn: Snake Primary/Lion Secondary Arthur: Badger Primary/Lion Secondary Herc: tentatively Snake Primary/Lion or Bird Secondary

or, as they say in Limerick... But for Arthur, they're all quite constructed With the Snakes bickering interrupted By a worrying Bird From the Captain's chair heard Til the newest of Snakes is inducted

Carolyn's Lion is strong and won't coddle Martin's Bird, leaning against his model Or the Lion she raised By the Snake she's unfazed And thank you all, for reading my twaddle

#sortinghatchats #sorting hat chats #cabin pressure #Sorting Things Out #m: cabin pressure #til binary systems run