#how does that affect the way they are perceived. what unique challenges does that present.

[ghostzzy]

honestly i think a big part of cursedwip is asking the question “and what if the vampire was poor.”

[oliolioxenfreewrites]

Ultimate Character Development: Unraveling Your Characters

My character development is more than just filling in a few details; it’s about creating a multidimensional person who feels real, relatable, and elaborate. These are questions I ask myself every time I’m crafting a new oc!

1. Basics

Name: What’s your character’s name? Does it carry cultural significance or symbolism?

Meaning of the Name: Does it reflect their fate, heritage, or an important theme?

Nicknames/Titles: Do they have a nickname or title that reveals something about them?

Age: How old are they, and how does their age affect their perspective?

Gender: How do they identify, and how does society view their gender role?

Location: Where do they live, and how has their environment shaped who they are?

Birthday: Is their birthday significant? How do they celebrate?

Strengths: What strengths define them? Share examples from your story.

Weaknesses: What flaws hinder them? Provide specific situations where these weaknesses come into play.

How It Affects Others: How do their strengths and weaknesses influence those around them?

2. Emotional Depth

Attachment Style: What’s their attachment style, and how does it manifest in their relationships?

Physical Fear: What’s their biggest physical fear, and do they confront it?

Emotional Fear: What’s their deepest emotional fear, and how does it drive their actions?

Happy Memory: What’s their happiest memory, and how does it shape their personality?

Sad Memory: What sorrowful moment from their past influences their current behavior?

Object of Significance: What treasured object do they hold, and why is it important?

Philosophical Outlook: What’s their worldview, and how does it affect their decisions?

Ignorance About Themselves: What truth do they fail to recognize about themselves?

Confidence Level: How self-assured are they? What inner doubts do they hide?

Goals: What is their immediate goal, and how does it propel them forward?

Long-Term Dreams: What are their dreams, and how do they influence their actions?

Embarrassments/Shame: What are they ashamed to reveal to others, and how does it affect them?

Regrets: What do they regret most, and how do they cope with it?

Pride: What are they most proud of, and why?

Misery Source: What brings them the most pain or sorrow?

Admiration: What qualities do they hold in the highest regard?

Belief in Fate: Do they believe in fate or free will? How does it influence their actions?

3. Personality

MBTI Type: What’s their MBTI personality type, and how does it manifest in their behavior?

Enneagram: What’s their Enneagram type, and what does it reveal about their core fears and desires?

Big Five Traits (OCEAN): How do they score on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism?

Character Archetype: Which archetype do they fit, and how does it shape their role?

Star Sign: What’s their zodiac sign, and does it influence their traits?

Outward Persona: How do they present themselves? What do they hide?

True Self: Who are they underneath the mask, and how do they feel about it?

Mental Health Conditions: Do they face any mental health challenges? How do these affect them?

Manifestation of Issues: How do their struggles manifest in daily life?

Intelligence (IQ): How smart are they, and what knowledge do they possess?

Emotional Intelligence (EQ): How aware are they of their emotions and those of others?

Humor Style: What’s their sense of humor like? How do they use it?

Reputation: How do others perceive them? Is it accurate?

4. Habits

Bad Habits: What destructive habits do they have? How do these affect them?

Mannerisms Under Stress: How do they behave when stressed?

Mannerisms When Content: What do they do when they’re happy?

Mannerisms When Scared: How do they react to fear?

Everyday Mannerisms: What are their common habits?

Verbal Mannerisms: Do they have a unique way of speaking?

Movement: How do they move through a space?

What They Say vs. What Remains Unsaid: What thoughts do they keep to themselves?

How They Express Love: How do they show affection?

Hobbies: What do they enjoy? Are their hobbies common or unique?

5. Appearance

Defining Features: What traits make them recognizable?

Eye Shape & Color: How do their eyes reflect their personality?

Hair Texture & Color: What’s their hair like, and how does it change?

Skin Texture & Tone: Describe their skin—how does it tell their story?

Overall Vibe: What impression do they give off at first glance?

Height: How tall are they, and how does that affect them?

Build: What’s their physical build, and how does it affect their capabilities?

Clothing Style: What’s their fashion sense? Does it reflect their personality?

Bodily Disfigurement: Do they have scars or injuries? What’s the story behind them?

6. Relationships

Who They Trust Most: Who is their most trusted person, and how does this bond shape them?

What They Wish They Could Do for Them: Is there something they long to do but can’t?

What's Holding Them Back: What barriers prevent them from helping loved ones?

Who They Hate Most: Who is their greatest enemy, and why?

What They Wish They Could Do to Them: What revenge do they desire?

What's Holding Them Back from Doing It: What fears stop them from acting?

Relationship with the Protagonist: What’s their connection to the main character?

Relationship with the Antagonist: How do they relate to the villain of the story?

Siblings: Do they have siblings, and what is their relationship like?

Parents: How do they feel about their parents? What is their history?

Broken Relationships: Have they faced significant relationship losses? What happened?

Expectations: What do others expect of them, and how do they feel about it?

Who Believes in Them: Who has faith in them, and how does it impact their actions?

Mentor Character: Who do they look up to, and what have they learned?

Affiliations: Are they part of any organizations or groups that shape their identity?

What Makes Them Unique: What sets them apart from others in the story?

Non-Human Relationships: Do they connect with non-human beings? What’s the nature of this bond?

Romantic Type: What qualities do they look for in a partner?

Relationship Dynamics: How do they behave in close relationships?

7. Backstory/Background

Primary Emotion Towards Their Past: What feelings arise when they reflect on their past?

Feelings While in Their Past: What emotions did they experience during key moments?

Where They Grew Up: How did their environment shape them?

Defining Incidents: What events in their past significantly influenced their character?

Earliest Childhood Memory: What do they remember from their early years?

Saddest Memory: What sorrowful event haunts them?

Happiest Memory: What brings them joy when they reflect on it?

Major Accomplishments: What achievements are they proud of, and how do they view them?

Notable People: Who from their past still influences their actions?

Effect of the Past: How does their history impact their present?

Trauma: What trauma do they carry, and how does it affect them?

What They’ve Lost: What significant losses have shaped their character?

Financial Circumstance: What is their financial background, and how does it affect them now?

8. Progression

Importance to the Story: Why is this character essential? What unique traits do they bring?

Self-Discovery: What truths do they uncover about themselves throughout the story?

Worldview Changes: How does their understanding of the world shift?

Reactions to Knowledge: How do they feel about what they learn?

Character Arc: What journey do they undertake? Do they grow positively or negatively?

Impact of Actions: How do their decisions affect those around them?

Mistakes Made: What major errors do they make, and how do they learn from them?

Defining Scene: What moment highlights their true essence?

Achieving Goals: Do they get what they want, and how does it impact them?

Reasons for Success/Failure: What factors lead to their outcomes?

Fate After the Story: What becomes of them after the conclusion?

[xoxovalerie-c]

Blog Post Week 4: Due 9/19

How have names contributed to racial bias in both technology and society, and what are the consequences?

I truly believe that names, including nicknames, are strongly tied to people’s identities. For example, I get upset when my boyfriend calls me by my full name because it feels rude I prefer being called Val. So, yes, names matter they’re more than just labels. They reflect culture, status, etc. Think about how Kylie Jenner was criticized for naming her baby Stormi, but now many moms love that name. An uncommon name but Kylie’s social status changed that. So, how has technology contributed to making names a source of racism? It does. Studies have shown that they found that algorithms associated White- sounding names with “pleasant” words and Black-sounding names with “unpleasant” ones (Benjamin, 2019). This shapes how society perceives names. For instance, law enforcement is developing as their use of technology increases. This can cause where an unfamiliar name might lead to someone being unfairly judged as a “criminal.” The fact that technology uses names as a data point is a red flag. It’s not technology itself that’s racist-it’s the people who designed it, embedding their own social biases into these systems.

Why is technology being compared to Jim Crow law? 

Jim Crow laws were designed to continue the separation of black and white people in everyday life, without explicitly saying it but enforcing segregation through legal means. These laws affected everything from where people could eat to where they could vote. Similarly, technology today has created a digital divide between those who have access to technology and the internet and who don’t. But truly it just isn’t a gap between socioeconomic but rather identities. The problem is, some argue that addressing this issue might violate freedom of speech. But why are we accepting racism online as something that’s okay? Just like Jim Crow laws, technology has created barriers that deepen inequality. 

How does intersectionality shape individuals experiences in a digital space?

As Crenshaw explained, intersectionality is a way to understand inequality by looking at how different parts of a person's identity comes together. It's a prism for understanding many more social problems. Encourages people to think about advantages and disadvantages (Crenshaw, 2018). This idea helps us understand how various aspects of identity, like race and gender, combine to affect experiences with discrimination. For example, algorithms and online platforms can create unique challenges for people depending on their race, gender, and socioeconomic status. When creating fairer digital policies and technologies, it’s important to consider these overlapping identities. Identity is about the relationships between people in different communities and understanding each person’s unique background, both in the physical world and online.

Why is there a lack of awareness of these biases being present in major social platforms?

Noble discusses a case where Google was showing explicit content when searching for the term “Black women.” Google claimed this was due to a glitch in the system. However, Noble pointed out that it’s hard to believe such significant glitches could occur without the creators of these programs being aware of them. This issue isn’t highlighted because these are considered legitimate and trusted programs, yet they still fail to address these problems. As society, unawareness comes from normalizing bias. What we need to do is hold more accountability of the issue that is being put into our faces. 

Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology.

Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1pwt9w5

National Association of Independent Schools (2018, June 22). Kimberlé Crenshaw: What is Intersectionality? [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDtnfQ9FHc

[quantumemberblizzard]

Navigating Sustainable Design Consultation: Tips for New Yorkers Looking to Build Responsibly

Introduction

In an technology in which local weather amendment and environmental sustainability are at the forefront of public discourse, the conception of sustainable design has garnered sizable focus, extremely in city settings like New York City. As a bustling city with a completely unique architectural landscape, New York deals either challenges and possibilities for these trying to engage in sustainable building practices. This article serves as a finished support to navigating sustainable design consultation adapted primarily for New Yorkers keen to construct responsibly.

Understanding Sustainable Design Consultation What is Sustainable Design Consultation?

Sustainable layout consultation refers to the job the place authorities booklet prospects by way of the complexities Additional hints of creating environmentally guilty constructions. This train encompasses assorted disciplines, including sustainable design architects architecture, engineering, and mission administration, all aimed toward guaranteeing that buildings meet ecological necessities with out compromising capability or aesthetics.

Why is it Important?

The significance of sustainable design session will not be overstated. As international expertise of environmental themes rises, so does the duty on architects and developers to create systems that minimize their ecological footprint. From energy-valuable methods to sustainable constituents, each and every selection affects the environment.

The Role of Sustainable Design Architects Who Are Sustainable Design Architects?

Sustainable layout architects are professionals informed in developing environmentally friendly platforms. They combine eco-friendly practices into their designs although all for Jstomer demands and nearby laws.

How Do They Contribute?

These architects no longer in simple terms recognition on aesthetics however also prioritize sustainability by way of using ingenious technologies and materials. For illustration, they would use photo voltaic panels or inexperienced roofs to decorate energy performance while presenting aesthetic cost.

Navigating Sustainable Design Consultation: Tips for New Yorkers Looking to Build Responsibly Researching Local Regulations What Regulations Should You Know?

New York City has express building codes and zoning rules that govern production tasks. Familiarizing yourself with these restrictions is the most important prior to embarking in your building travel.

Where Can You Find This Information?

Local executive web sites characteristically give accomplished courses with regards to constructing codes and sustainability requirements. Consulting with a a professional architect also can make clear any confusion with regards to those rules.

Selecting the Right Sustainable Design Consultant What Qualities Should You Look For?

When picking a sustainable design consultant, contemplate their sense in sustainable practices, familiarity with nearby laws, and skill to communicate easily with users.

How Can Referrals Help?

Word-of-mouth suggestions from chums or colleagues who've formerly engaged in sustainable projects can lead you to legit consultants who perceive your vision.

Building an Effective Team Who Should Be On Your Team?

A powerful task requires collaboration between a good number of sta

[storedapear]

How Fashion Affects Self-Esteem: A Week of Style and Self-Discovery

Fashion and self-esteem—two concepts that often go hand-in-hand in today’s society. The clothes we wear don’t just cover our bodies; they reflect our moods, our values, and often, how we feel about ourselves. But how deep does this connection really go? To explore this, I recently took on a personal challenge: wear different styles every day for a week and track how each one made me feel.

What I discovered was more impactful than I expected.

The Fashion–Self-Esteem Connection

It’s fascinating how fashion acts as a form of self-expression, yet it can sometimes feel like society is telling us how we should look. This pressure can take a toll on our self-esteem. Many people struggle with their image, feeling like they need to keep up with trends or fear judgment for their style choices. I've seen friends feel out of place simply because their fashion didn’t align with what’s trending.

This can create a cycle of self-doubt and comparison—especially on social media.

Social Media and the Comparison Trap

We scroll through Instagram and TikTok, bombarded with images of influencers and models with seemingly perfect outfits and flawless bodies. It’s hard not to compare ourselves. But those images are often heavily curated and edited—they're highlight reels, not real life. Behind the filters, everyone has insecurities.

Remembering that reality check can be a crucial step in protecting our self-esteem.

When Clothes Empower or Disempower

Throughout my challenge, I noticed clear shifts in how I felt based on what I wore. Some outfits made me feel powerful, others awkward and self-conscious. One day I wore something trendy but totally out of my comfort zone. I spent the entire day feeling like an imposter, second-guessing how I looked. My confidence shrunk like a sweater in hot water.

On other days, when I wore pieces that truly felt like “me,” I felt more confident, more present, more me.

There’s actually research backing this up. One study shows that dressing in formal, professional clothing can boost our sense of capability and power. Clothing influences not just how others perceive us, but how we perceive ourselves.

Society’s Role in Shaping Our Style Confidence

Fashion isn’t just personal—it’s also deeply shaped by societal standards. The fashion industry often sets narrow ideals for what’s considered beautiful or stylish. Thankfully, body positivity and inclusive fashion movements are starting to shift that narrative, making more people feel seen and valued.

This shift is helping people embrace their unique style as a form of self-love, not just self-expression.

Fashion as Self-Care

One of the most empowering realizations I had during this challenge was that fashion can be a form of self-care. Choosing clothes that reflect who you are and how you want to feel can be an act of self-kindness. It’s not about impressing others—it’s about honoring yourself.

When you dress in a way that supports your confidence, you’re not just showing up—you’re showing up for yourself.

The Takeaway: Be Mindful With Your Style

The link between fashion and self-esteem is real, and it’s powerful. While it can sometimes lead to stress or insecurity, it can also be a source of empowerment and joy. The key is to be intentional. Wear what makes you feel strong, comfortable, and authentically you.

Because when you feel good in your clothes, you carry yourself differently—and that’s the kind of confidence that truly stands out.

💬 Let’s Talk!

Have you ever had a moment where an outfit made you feel unstoppable—or maybe the opposite? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments. Sharing your story could help someone else feel a little less alone.

✨ Fuel Your Confidence from the Inside Out

Looking good starts with feeling good. That’s why it’s important to take care of your body and mind. Discover premium wellness and beauty nutrition at Dapear.com and support your journey to confidence from the inside out.

🛍️ Shop now: https://www.dapear.com

[godfreysimondavidbvute]

How War Affects Individual Identity?

War is more than a battlefield. It is a force that reshapes lives, communities, and personal identities in ways that can last for generations. Only those who have experienced it can attest to this. For those who grow up in conflict zones, their lives are often defined by fear, loss, and survival. From the echoes of gunfire to the sight of destruction and the uncertainty of tomorrow, all of these uncertainties mold not only the external world but also the inner self.

Similarly, a child raised in war does not have the luxury of innocence. For example, instead of playgrounds, there are military checkpoints; instead of school lessons, there are whispered stories of survival. Instead of tender love and innocence, there is just the hope to live another day and to have freedom. The impact of war on identity starts early and could shape how one perceives the world, understands relationships, and even processes emotions. When this sense of security that is essential for psychological development is replaced by a deep-rooted feeling of instability, the result can be shocking and deeply disrupting.

For many, like Godfrey Simon David Bvute, the author of An Autobiographical Expression of My Perspectives, war disrupts family structures. Fathers, brothers, and even mothers may be forced into combat or flee as refugees. This absence of parental figures, either through death or separation, forces children to mature too quickly and easily lose their innocence and sense of self. Responsibilities that should belong to adults are thrust upon their tiny shoulders, and they become caretakers, breadwinners, or even child soldiers—roles that alter their sense of self and their perception of the future.

Education is another casualty of war. When schools are bombed, teachers flee, and learning becomes secondary to mere survival, without this basic access to education, a child’s sense of purpose is often shaped by the conflict itself. In some cases, war becomes an identity—where one's allegiances, survival skills, and experiences define who they are. The idea of a "normal" life fades into a distant dream, and it becomes very difficult to live a normal life.

During times of war, religious and cultural beliefs may also be put to the test. For instance, faith can either be strengthened or destroyed by the atrocities seen. When the very fabric of society is disrupted by war, identity, which is frequently rooted in culture and tradition, is shaken, leading to deep internal conflicts, and the struggle to reconcile one's beliefs with the reality of suffering becomes more challenging.

Even after the conflict ends, the scars remain there in these souls and memories. Many who grow up in war zones struggle with trust, mental health, and a sense of belonging. The trauma does not simply disappear—in worst-case scenarios. It manifests in different ways that can influence relationships, career choices, and perspectives in odd ways.

Yet, amidst the destruction, resilience can be seen. Many who survive war carry with them a unique strength. Perhaps it is a deeper appreciation for peace, a strong sense of justice, and a determination to rebuild a strong society for the betterment of future generations, similar to what we see through n Autobiographical Expression of My Perspectives.

An Autobiographical Expression of My Perspectives offers a deeply personal yet historically significant perspective on Zimbabwe's past and present. By weaving together personal memories and broader socio-political commentary, this book provides firsthand insights into the war, colonialism, governance, and economic hardships that have shaped Africa. This book explores the intersection of personal life journey, African history, politics, and the enduring influence of religion, spirituality, and moral values. It also reflects on post-independence struggles, social and cultural transformation, and global issues like climate change and technology. Bvute also delves into family values, relationships, and personal growth, offering a powerful testament to the resilience of those who have lived during difficult times. 

For anyone interested in African and Zimbabwean history, personal growth, African studies, or just interesting autobiographies with deep cultural insights and war aspects—this book is a great resource. It meets the needs of people who want firsthand stories, a connection to their heritage, and motivation in the face of hardship.

[chatwellspeechpathology]

The Importance of a Comprehensive ASD Assessment for Teens

Navigating the teenage years is challenging enough without the added complexity of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). For many teens, the struggles with social interactions, communication, and sensory processing can feel overwhelming. But what if a comprehensive ASD assessment could better understand their needs and provide a path to better support?

In this blog, we'll explore why an in-depth ASD assessment for teens is crucial, how it can transform their journey, and why ASD assessment is vital for parents and caregivers to unlock tailored strategies for their teen’s growth and success.

Understanding ASD and Its Impact on Teens

ASD is a developmental disorder that affects how an individual interacts, communicates, and perceives the world. It can present in a variety of ways, meaning that no two people with ASD are alike. Teens' experiences may differ widely from their peers, sometimes leading to frustration, confusion, and isolation.

Why is an Assessment So Important?

An ASD assessment Adelaide is more than just a diagnosis—it’s an essential step in understanding a teen's unique strengths and challenges. These assessments are often the first step in helping parents and professionals identify how best to support a teen’s development, whether at school, home, or in social settings.

Here’s why a thorough assessment can make a world of difference:

Identifying Strengths and Challenges: Teens with ASD may have exceptional talents, especially in mathematics, art, or memory. An accurate assessment uncovers these strengths, allowing teens to focus on what they excel at while getting the support they need in areas where they struggle.

Personalised Support Plans: Each teen with ASD has different needs. An ASD assessment in Adelaide offers a customised approach to creating support plans that work specifically for them. An individualised plan ensures the best possible outcomes, whether it's social skills training, sensory accommodations, or academic support.

Clarifying the Path Forward: The teenage years can be a period of great uncertainty, especially for those with ASD. Understanding their unique traits helps teens and their families navigate the challenges of adolescence with a clearer sense of direction.

How Does an ASD Assessment Work?

The process of an ASD assessment in Adelaide typically involves a team of professionals, including psychologists, speech therapists, and other specialists, who work together to evaluate various aspects of the teen’s development. These assessments may include:

Comprehensive Interviews and Questionnaires

Parents, teachers, and caregivers typically provide detailed information about the teen’s behaviours, communication skills, and social interactions. These insights are crucial in identifying patterns that point to ASD traits.

Observations and Direct Testing

The teen may be observed in various settings, such as at school, home, or social environments, to evaluate their engagement with others. Standardised tests can also measure communication abilities, problem-solving skills, and other cognitive functions.

Sensory Processing Evaluation

Many teens with ASD experience sensory processing issues, which means they may be overly or underly sensitive to stimuli like lights, sounds, and textures. A sensory assessment is a key part of the comprehensive ASD assessment.

Developmental History Review

The teen’s developmental milestones and history are reviewed to see how their experiences align with typical developmental patterns. This can provide insights into early signs of ASD that may have gone unnoticed in childhood.

Conclusion

A comprehensive ASD assessment in Adelaide is not just about understanding what’s going on; it’s about empowering teens and their families with the tools, knowledge, and strategies to overcome challenges and maximise strengths. For parents, caregivers, and professionals, this assessment offers a roadmap to making the teenage years a time of growth, self-discovery, and success.

By investing in a comprehensive ASD assessment, you’re not just diagnosing a condition but creating opportunities for a bright future. Whether a teen learns new social skills, excel academically, or simply understand themselves better, a comprehensive assessment is the key to unlocking their potential and ensuring they thrive in every aspect of life.

[astrovijay]

The Role of Ascendant (Rising Sign) in Astrology

In astrology, your Ascendant also called your Rising Sign, plays a big role in how your personality is seen by others and how you approach life. Let's explore what this means?

What is the Ascendant?

Your Ascendant is the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the time of your birth. It changes every two hours as the Earth rotates, so it's unique to you based on your birth time and place.

What Does It Mean?

Outer Image: Your Ascendant represents the mask you wear when meeting new people. It's like your first impression—how others see you at first glance.

Personal Style: It influences your appearance, mannerisms, and how you present yourself to the world. For example, if your Ascendant is in Leo, you might come across as confident and expressive.

Approach to Life: The Ascendant also affects your approach to challenges and opportunities. If it's in Virgo, you might be detail-oriented and practical in your actions.

How It Works

Birth Chart: Your birth chart is like a map of the sky at the moment you were born. It shows where all the planets and the Ascendant were positioned.

Combining Energies: The Ascendant combines with your Sun sign (your main zodiac sign) and Moon sign (emotional personality) to give a fuller picture of who you are.

Impact on Relationships: Knowing someone's Ascendant can help understand their first impression and how they interact with others. It adds depth to astrological compatibility readings.

Practical Tips

Find Your Ascendant: You can find out your Ascendant by getting a birth chart done online or consulting an astrologer. It's based on your birth date, time, and place.

Understanding Yourself: Learning about your Ascendant can help you understand why you act in certain ways and how others perceive you.

Embrace Your Traits: Whether your Ascendant makes you outgoing or thoughtful, embrace those qualities—they're part of what makes you unique.

Need Personalized Readings: Astrologer Vijay offers accurate insights based on his deep astrological knowledge, having successfully assisted numerous individuals. He is a famous astrologer in Ujjain who provides tailored guidance to help people navigate life's challenges and opportunities effectively.

Conclusion

Your Ascendant in astrology is like your personal introduction to the world. It shapes how you appear to others and how you approach life's challenges. Understanding its role can give you insights into yourself and improve how you relate to others based on their first impressions of you. Embrace your Ascendant, and let it guide you in understanding your strengths and how you navigate the world around you.

[rhizomesandtrees]

MOOCs, MOOCs, MOOCs,

The promise and challenge of large format courses

Thousands of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have flooded the internet over the past decade. Their topics range from the popular Indigenous Canada course from the University of Alberta – promoted by Dan Levy of Schitt’s Creek fame – to economics to machine learning. How can educators prepare for this trend in adult educating?

If you need a quick overview of what a MOOC is, check out this video below.

How does this affect how we teach?

Tony Bates’ book, Teaching in a Digital Age (2019), he focuses on how the success of MOOCs depends highly on context. What is the learner’s situation? What contributes to their ability to learn from a MOOC? The infographic below explores some of the key themes with using this style of education, including experiences for the learners, credibility and instructor experience.

(Image from Teaching in a digital age – second edition, Making sense of MOOCs © Giulia Forsythe, 2012 and JISC, 2012).

Some of the strengths he identifies (2019) include:

Potential for delivering high quality content to anyone with access to a internet and a computer

Valuable for continuing education, lifelong learning and developing basic conceptual learning

Can reduce costs for higher education institutions by incorporating peer to peer communication as a method of learner support and assessment

He also names some weaknesses (2019):

Despite high user enrolments, there is low participation and completion rates

The courses are expensive to develop

Assessment for higher levels of learning (i.e., not acknowledged for credits)

Limited by copyright, or time restrictions

To address these weaknesses and build on its strengths, course design should be at forefront of conversations for implementation. How can you engage up to thousands of students in your curriculum design when it’s not possible to have individual connections with each student?

One study showed that instructor presence strongly affects learner engagement in MOOCs (Jung & Lee, 2018) and there are other ways to create community among learners through discussion opportunities.

One study highlighted that students’ abilities to time management is a key component to feeling connected to the course and completing its material (AL Harrasi, 2023). Given its significance, I wonder about building time management early into the curriculum to help support learner success.

Specific examples of engagement strategies.

Instructors need to explore engagement strategies for these online courses to increase learner completion and engagement. Gamification of content is one potential approach to increasing student engagement (Rodrigues Major & Mira da Silva, 2023). However, this requires extra preparation time.

Another options is to include study groups or peer-to-peer engagement opportunities for learners (Chen & Chen, 2015).

Overall, MOOCs present a unique opportunity to engage a huge scale of learners. However, to create a course that captivates learners and supports their retention, it will require a lot of time and thought, and potentially technological support (i.e., coding or other programs to support interactive options), to execute.

Sources

AL Harrasi, K.T.S. (2023). Reexamining the online environment for self-directed learning. Cogent Education, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2255080

Bates, A.W. (2019). Teaching in a digital age – Second edition. Tony Bates Associates Ltd. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev2/

Chen, Y.-H., & Chen, P.-J. (2015). MOOC study group: Facilitation strategies, influential factors, and student perceived gains. Computers and Education, 86, 55–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.03.008

Jung, Y., & Lee, J., (2018). Learning engagement and persistence in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS). Computers & Education, 122, 9-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.02.013

Rodrigues Major, R. & Mira da Silva, M. (2023). Gamification in MOOCs: A systematic literature review. Cogent Education, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2275820

[sutcliffe-v]

【 Character Information ; Personality 】

001. Personality Overview

virek, in truth, is an enigma. a usually quiet, bizarrely responding individual, virek is often alone. not only does he avoid others, but others tend to avoid him because of how unapproachable he is. he’s often perceived as weak, unthreatening, and vulnerable. if you find yourself perceiving him in such a way, you’ve already lost.

the man is very analytical, and structures his thought process around pure survival instinct. ‘what’s the lesser of two evils’, ‘how may i use my knowledge of the 48 laws of power to my advantage’, ‘will going left or right give me the result i desire’; from complex thoughts, to very mundane decisions, virek factors in everything he does and how it will affect the overwhelm outcome of every situation.

virek is cryptic, and not at all assertive. willingly letting people walk all over him, he often relinquishes leadership to others. he prefers the shadows, and prefers to draw as little attention to himself as possible. though these traits do not at all invalidate how violent this man can be. should you push him far enough, or snap his strings in just the right way… Praying may be in your next recommended course of action.

breaking down this man’s walls is something you should only try if you’re patient, and aren’t faint hearted; otherwise you may get frustrated, or angry. that may not end well for you. should you succeed though, what you may find may be… surprising. a completely calm, normal… different version of the man you once saw.

002. MBTI Personality Type

I. INTJ — The Mastermind. The Architect

Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging

II. INTJs are perceptive about systems and strategy, and often understand the world as a chess board to be navigated. They want to understand how systems work, and how events proceed: the INTJ often has a unique ability to foresee logical outcomes. They enjoy applying themselves to a project or idea in depth, and putting in concentrated effort to achieve their goals.

INTJs have a hunger for knowledge and strive to constantly increase their competence; they are often perfectionists with extremely high standards of performance for themselves and others. They tend to have a keen interest in self-improvement and are lifelong learners, always looking to add to their base of information and awareness.

INTJs are typically reserved and serious, and seem to spend a lot of time thinking. They are curious about the world around them and often want to know the principle behind what they see. They thoroughly examine the information they receive, and if asked a question, will typically consider it at length before presenting a careful, complex answer. INTJs think critically and clearly, and often have an idea about how to do something more efficiently. They can be blunt in their presentation, and often communicate in terms of the larger strategy, leaving out the details.

Although INTJs aren’t usually warm or particularly gregarious, they tend to have a self-assured manner with people based on their own security in their intelligence. They relate their ideas with confidence, and once they have arrived at a conclusion they fully expect others to see the wisdom in their perceptions. They are typically perfectionists and appreciate an environment of intellectual challenge. They enjoy discussing interesting ideas, and may get themselves into trouble because of their take-no-prisoners attitude: if someone’s beliefs don’t make logical sense, the Mastermind typically has no qualms about pointing that out.

003. Enneagram

I. 5w6 — The Troubleshooter

II. Trouble shooters tend to be practical, independent, and logical in their behavior. They are much more cooperative than other five types and have a passion for using their knowledge to solve real-world problems.

Their strengths tend to include: being well organised, passions for learning and growing, solving difficult problems, and remaining calm in times of crisis. Whilst their weakness tend to range from: struggling to understand others, and a tendency to be private and defensive, to being perceived as cold and aloof, and a difficulty to take action when uninspired.

[larrythefloridaman]

Y'all like your deities with or without the shell?

Under the readmore is aaaaaaaaall color god observations and musings based on them, because I am studying to become the world's Premiere Chromatheologian and RGB Understander so under the cut is pretty much Oops! All Spoilers! up to the most recent episode of season 3.

Apparently Universal Color God Attributes:

Damage to their domain hurts them, but fixing the issue, or lashing out by using their powers destructively, can help them to repair the damage.

If they sustain enough damage, it can temporarily paralyze them and send them into a strengthened but 'exposed' state (chartreuse's spirit activation in the last fight of 19) and further damage after that will activate a failsafe, which is unique by domain but seemingly designed to give them the chance to balance things, but can get… very out of hand or backfire depending on circumstances. (see: cobalt’s failsafe sending mark's universe into a never-ending apocalyptic war because word of the cure for death became too widespread for the killing urge failsafe to affectively balance anything because every side could simply revive their fallen.)

Chartreuse's failsafe is something of a stopped time bubble quarantine where processes that require the passing of time cannot complete, allowing her the time to wear down the offending party to beat them to death or plan around finishing them.

Cobalt's is inciting war, the casualties serving to balance the scale. I'm not sure we know Crimson's yet- he's never taken enough direct damage without doing damage to compensate in order to trigger it, although i dont remember season one well enough to recall if any of the universe stuff in it tracks with the pattern bc season one is a bit fucky

Connected in a fashion that allows them to simply Sense the overall status of the others to some extent, although they don't know Why theyre in the state theyre in without asking (chartreuse [and by extension, folk, presumably on her information] confronting crimson via crimsonaut for pretending to be dead, Cobalt confronting both his siblings about how they are handling their duties improperly but not knowing about Folk. He knew about the constants deaths because hes a death god, duh, but he didnt use their names like crimson did, possibly implying they're erased upon death so thoroughly that only crimson and the constants can really recall a shattered constants' existence, not even the other guardians.)

Abilities of the guardians can be replicated by mortals through three apparent methods- through machines (dimensional bus, the time machine, presumably J0hn's part in Sephiroth's resurrection,) simply through advanced enough individual skill (Home MD curing death, potentially Dantoinette's universe portal travel, maybe Genwun's sped up time bubble that evolved them into Genfour? although that could very well have just been an illusion and theyre just like, a fuckin theater kid that was doing pretend character development for the Bit or something given GenFive turned out to be a zoroark) or through stealing some of the power of the relevant god (Dr. Order stealing Chartreuse's power, Dani maybe having stolen some of Crimson's when she beat his ass. Dani's one woman universal travel is like, wicked ambiguous)

Cobalt:

Can seemingly perceive or act through any living material. (The Tree. Cobalt instructed Larry to slap his hand on that tree, that shit glowed and he had a new deal tattoo without Cobalt ever having been physically present)

Can influence the resurrected by giving them a killing urge. Represented by an aberrant brainwave and a ringing in the undead's heads. This doesnt appear to be direct control- as the Grunk could clearly restrain himself from killing people that genuinely didn't deserve it (like nightly and cha cha, who WERE grunk event targets but not fatally so. Nagito was a crimson thing so it really doesn't count here. God poor grunk his life really is just a constant plaything in the hands of the gods huh) and Sephiroth very much had personal motivation to want to kill Folk. failsafe activates this ability on the scale of war.

Deals. The extent of what Cobalt can do with these is unclear but Iggy's god powers were taken from him as his part in the deal so what he can take isn't limited to physical things or things obviously related to his domain.

Weaknesses:

Deals. While this ability is impressive his preference for making deals for those that offend against his domain is potentially very exploitable- Larry's knowledge of the cure for death is, if word of it were to ever get out beyond Larry, wildly dangerous for this dimension, so technically the safest thing for the iron-fisted cobalt to do would be to nip the problem in the bud and get rid of him. But, fascinatingly, that wasn't even put on the table, the first thing Cobalt does is threaten J0hn, prompting Larry to make a deal. While Cobalt enforces death, he also doesn't like unnecessary death, and Larry demonstrably knows how to keep a secret for the good of the world even at great cost to himself and Cobalt is aware of this- easily clarifying to Larry the aberrant thing endangering the universe wasn't his timeloop business. So while he's clearly not letting his resurrection fuckery go unpunished, he's being pretty merciful when he doesn't have to be and from a strictly, brutally pragmatic perspective probably shouldn't be.

His control over the undead manifests as a ringing and an aberrant brainwave trackable by J0hn's equipment, and could probably therefore be accounted for and circumvented? J0hn has, wisely, largely sworn off fucking with people's brains after the sephiroth fiasco went So Wrong, So Very Wrong, Oh God Oh Fuck Someone Cool Almost Died, but if he hadn't, and if J0hn let his dislike for authority and keeping Larry safe outweigh reason like he let safety, spite and comedic value outweigh good ethical sense when reprogramming sephiroth, in theory Mr. 'hacked a time machine for breakfast?' could. y'know. probably do it. what is a god's authority to an anarchist, what better to challenge life and death than the cold and eternal machine, you get the point its a fun scenario

Olive Garden Breadsticks and Small Cute Dogs, apparently

Chartreuse's:

Time Clones: taps into parallel timelines to retrieve alternate versions of herself to utilize.

Time Travel: what it says on the tin. Travel to the past creates painful splits in the prime timeline, but through careful action and traveling back into the past, these can be weaved into a time loop. A split from the timeline is a wound, and a successful timeloop is the surgical scar it can become with attentive care, to use a medical metaphor. Carefully closed and healing. Keeping Folk here is essentially akin to chartreuse pulling out her stitches on the initial incision.

Time Stopping: creates a space wherein things that take time to complete cannot complete, where things can move, but everything within is in a perfect unchanging stasis until the bubble drops. This is the form her failsafe takes.

Timeline Creation: can create timelines from scratch.

Can fuse alternate timeline versions of the same individual to allow them to coexist. (Ryan's confirmed in the discord that Dantoinette experienced both failures in 20, because Chartreuse fused the two instances of her to save the post-raid instance from fading. Could... theoretically do this to Folk and save herself the pain, but while Folk and Therapuppy are the same person, there's seven years and untold amounts of difference deriving from the time and circumstance between them and the inherent cognitive dissonances that would result from attempting that would be wicked fucked up to inflict, and that's assuming there isn't some reason that it wouldn't be possible anyway. while the two Danis had like. A day or so's difference between them, so she could be safely fused with the only dissonant thing being that she remembers both being too slow to prevent order's time escape and beginning to dissipate post-raid, AND losing that fight to her pre-raid. RIP Dani, that perfectionism must be kicking her ass)

Weaknesses:

Unwilling to use her powers destructively in her pursuit of domain repair and thereby much easier to damage to the point of paralyzing her, making her particularly vulnerable to Power Theft

Morally Optimistic. At one point in 19, she briefly justifies Crimson's shitty evil actions to herself after experiencing for herself how Wack the kerfuffleverse is firsthand, ("and all he did was kill a couple people!" Chartreuse. Honey.) and when she fights Crimsonaut she seems to actually believe for a second that he's actually worried about her when Crimson asks if she's okay after he beats her. Additionally, as D+, she concerns herself with trying to understand doctor order's motive, and after Larry defeats Order, he makes a point of confirming she feels no remorse before making his request for what Chartreuse does with her, and appeals to the idea of letting Order fulfill her desire to be a god in a way which isn't a problem for anyone and Chartreuse is more than happy to oblige under these conditions after what Larry's done for everybody. Then immediately threatens to evaporate him for playfully teasing her about having a crush on folk. Fucked up a little bit

Crimson's:

Universe Shifting: Travel between universes.

Universe Correction: appears to replace an aberrant individual with the 'correct' version of themselves for that universe, presumably sending them back to their own. (Mario from super mario was universe corrected, but still seemingly exists in wario form as evidenced by smashup kerfuffle, and was simply temporarily replaced with his corrected universe counterpart. But like. The dimensional bus system is still active crimbo doing the Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me routine aint gonna work if they can come back with a shrug and bus fare. you're fighting the symptoms without treating the problem)

Universal Constants:

Three individuals per universe that serve as the pillars which stabilize said universe, created by absorbing red orbs Crimson creates. Becoming a constant grants power, but also makes the constant fragile, and death wipes them from the face of the multiverse, only crimson, those he's possessed and the other constants seemingly able to recall they ever existed, although some physical evidence is still left behind (Larry's record of Nagito's death, which is just as redacted as everything else relating to him but still is very much something Larry has. Kind of a Voidfish adventurezone type beat ironically enough? Taako really has seen all this shit before no wonder he peaced tf out)

To counterbalance the weaknesses the constants have, they have a sort of spidey-sense to alert them to danger, and an intrinsic bonded connection to their fellow constants, and additionally, Crimson apparently doesn't suffer any pain from the death of constants or the structural instability of a universe.

Possession: what it says on the tin! Seemingly can only be done with permission to living things- none of crimson's direct hosts seem to have entered that agreement unwillingly, Valentine lost a bet, Hamburger and Crimsonaut have been by all evidence intentional allies to Crimson- but electronics are fair game, as seen with The Guy's suit. Kinda curious how that rule applies to bitches that are half and half, like J0hn or the clonebot gang, as its unclear whether The Guy's suit was yoinkable without permission because it was mechanical or because its not sentient. could go either way but if it's the former that's potentially very frightening

Fusion: Two individuals from alternate universes can be fused into one shared body which can take on aspects of either depending on which is currently in control. (possibly allows someone who traveled into a given universe to become a fixed resident there without it being an issue for Crimson, whose job is to prevent interdimensional travel?) Monday Mark and possibly T.O.M. are our main examples.

Corruption:

Unpleasant As Hell and can even kill you instead of changing you if you cant handle it.

turns the corrupted individual into a twisted exaggeration of themself, allows them supernatural control over their shape, and makes them very difficult- if not impossible by traditional means- to kill, based on Garfield.

Subjects them to control by Crimson, but can be exorcised of this influence just like crimson's direct hosts can, although the supernatural changes to their physiology are seemingly permanent, judging from Shantae.

Notable Weaknesses:

Exorcism can be performed to free a possessed or corrupted individual of Crimson's influence. Its unclear how exorcism works/is learned in CPUK, but confirmed exorcists: dantoinette and yung papaya's snake dad, confirmed non-exorcists: folk

The universal constant orbs are physical objects so they are Very Stealable and they grant a power boost so theres literally an Incentive to beat his ass for anybody who wants to be strong and either doesnt know or doesn't care about the whole 'getting erased when you die' part

Crimson has lots of tools to create pawns, but all of them have drawbacks. Corruption could kill a potential pawn, possession generally seems to require permission, and he has no control over the constants' choices and actions

Manipulative bitch's highest stat is charisma and it shows. This motherfucker is selling snake oil. If he was mortal rather than a Whole Entire God he'd make an excellent ineffectual saturday morning cartoon supervillain and i think everyone, including him, would be happier for it, ngl

Something interesting ive realized that likely wasnt fully intentional, is that a lot of Dr. Order's creations, considering her motive, can kind of be sorted by a color god it appears to be a crude attempt at mimicking the abilities of. My Grunk is a poorly executed resurrection, the clonebot gang vs chartreuse's timeclones (this one deserves special mention because Chartreuse used this shitty attempted mimicry to her advantage with D+, very smart and ironic play, excellent job Treusy,) spirits are somewhat similar to universal constant orbs (orbs which can be absorbed to grant power, but which have physical repercussions- key differences being that spirits require activation and grow stronger while attuning to a user without being used, and having far less severe drawbacks, taking a heavy toll on the body, but only once they've worn off and without the risk of wiping yourself from the face of existence,) and she also augmented Perfect Spriteman and Larry, which kind of track as crude imitations of Crimson's corruption!

Garfield was an acerbic cat who loved food and hated mondays, now its an actively malicious ever-hungry amorphous entity whose only weakness is monday and whose only consistency in form is 'cat-like.'

Shantae was (to my extremely limited understanding of shantae,) a friendly heroic type who had to introduce herself often, and she became something akin to a biblically accurate angel that can *only* introduce herself.

The Grunks a tough but sweet and supportive single dad with stage presence and a tendency to fly off the handle when he or his family are slighted, and now he gets so hype in the audience when his son does well that he bursts into flames and ascends and we get random grunk events along with the associated murder charges when he gets mad and the target sucks enough that he doesn't hold himself back from killing them.

Perfect Spriteman and Larry fit the trend of exaggeration of already present traits- Spriteman fucking loves sprite and became something that only thinks about sprite, and Larry the Florida Man, characterized from minute one by unpredictability and who spent his first matches in the series pre-shapeshifter transformation staying alive keeping stocks for Shockingly Long even despite getting seventh, became literally physically random as well as developing the ability to regenerate, albeit with the ability to feel pain normally very much intact, unlike Garfield just... Soaking up damage like its nothing in his pursuit of Jon. The fact that Arbuckle legit defeated Garfield, even temporarily, is terrifyingly impressive honestly that dude is fucking built different for being so chronically bland

i dont think they're actually corrupted in any meaningful way we have to worry about, to be fully clear, Spriteman was cured with fucking antacids, i simply think they could be a fucked up attempt at making something that kind of seems like it from a functional standpoint, from the wannabe god doctor that brought us green clones whose only fundamental association with time was accelerated aging and who thought an actively rotting corpse thats just reanimated enough that it can throw hands was as good as curing death

[linkspooky]

Annie vs Mikasa: Round 2

They don’t actually fight, I just couldn’t think of a good title for this post. Annie and Mikasa are a set of foils. At times their similarities only serve to irritate one another. At other times, their differences are complementary. Just like Eren / Reiner, and Bertolt / Armin, Annie and Mikasa can become each other’s worst enemies and yet at the same time offer a unique understanding to one another. Here’s an analysis of their foiling as of the latest chapter. 

1. Lost Girls

Mikasa and Annie have been opposing forces in the manga ever since Eren saw it fit to compare them. If you look at them from Eren’s point of view they’re incredibly, superficially (on the outside) similiar. Both of them are the only girls in a group of two boys. Both of them are the physically strongest member of their group, and also the most confident in themselves. Annie, just like Mikasa has the ability to quickly act, and she doesn’t hesitate like Bertolt and Reiner are prone to. 

Eren is someone constantly fighting against his own weakness, and that’s what causes him to trip up and hesitate. He’s always battling against the idea that he’s mediocre, that he’s all talk, that he’s unable to be strong enough to make the grand promises he makes. As a person he feels lacking, inferior. He lacks the self confidence simply to act. Which is why he gravitates towards people like Mikasa and Annie who just ACT without hesitation. He wants the single-mindedness that Mikasa and Annie have, just by being the people they are, because Eren is riddled with self doubts. Annie and Mikasa both have the strength and self confidence that Eren wants, but they don’t really care about being strong. 

Eren would love nothing more than to be able to shut his brain off and become a soldier the way Mikasa and Annie seem to be able to do so flawlessly, but neither of them really want to be this way. The reason that Annie and Mikasa are able to shut their brains off and just fight, is because they see themselves as having fought to survive their entire life, having lost everything else. 

They are both girls fighting to survive and find love in a world that they no has absolutely no love for them. They’ve both lost their places in the world, and any and all connecction to the world (except for one person) and because of that they’ve become so desperate that fighting is all they can do. 

I bring up the Eren comparison because Mikasa’s been shown to be jealous of Annie in the past whenever Eren gravitated toward Annie. I don’t think Eren had any kind of romantic interest in Annie, I think he just admired her. In a way since MIkasa and Annie are so similiar, Eren can see all of the parts of Mikasa he admires in Annie (her strength, her independence) but none of the parts of Mikasa he dislikes (her codependence, her habit of always following him around). 

In the female type titan arc Annie and Mikasa are characters who are incredibly similiar on the outside, especially in the way that Eren perceives them, but we learn the difference between them in their actions. 

Mikasa is loyal, Annie is not. And I don’t just mean that Mikasa is loyal to the scouting corps whereas Annie is a spy. I mean, even to their small group of friends Mikasa is someone who is fiercely protective of both Armin and Eren whereas Annie will always run away from Bertolt and Reiner to protect herself. Mikasa clings to Armin and Eren as her place in this world after having lost her original family, whereas Annie completely refuses to get close to Bertolt and Reiner in the same way. 

There’s also a certain irony in the way Eren perceives Annie. I mean like I said, he gravitates towards Annie because it’s all Eren thinks he admires in a person, Mikasa’s strength, but without the part of Mikasa that always clings to him. Mikasa’s loyalty towards him has always bugged him but it’s also something that Eren has also always taken for granted because look how hard he freaks out when Annie turns out to have an agenda of her own. He practically begs, and begs her not to betray the scouting corps because he can’t handle the person betrayal. 

Anyway this is how we are initially presented their characters, two people incredibly similiar on the outside, but Mikasa is loyal, and Annie disloyal. Of course this is deconstructed in later arcs but we gotta get out of Eren’s POV first. 

2. Lost Girls, Found

I set up their foiling in the female type titan arc to show how it’s subverted this arc. A lot of ideas set up in the female type titan arc are now being inverted in the final arc. First we learn a little more about Annie, and how even her circumstances are incredibly similiar to Mikasa. 

Mikasa lost her place in the world when her family was killed. Annie never had  a place. They are both girls who are incredibly unconnected to the world around them. Annie an orphan with Eldian blood, Mikasa an orphan with Ackerman blood, and the last remaining person of Asian descent inside the walls. They were also marked as different from the world around them because of their birth. 

They both have an adopted family member they fixate on, because that person is their sole connection to the world around them. For Mikasa it’s Eren, and for Annie it’s her father. Mikasa’s goal is ultimately to protect Eren because by his side is her place of belonging in the world everything else comes second. Annie’s goal is ultimately to return home to her father because he is her place of belonging in the world and everything else comes second. 

Both girls are incredibly, aware of the cruelty of life and how easily people can die and it can all be lost. A dead insect is used to symbolize the revelation in both cases, a dead beetle for Annie, a dead butterfly for Mikasa. For the both of them they also came to this revelation at an extremely young age. 

This makes them even more desperate to protect their small place of belonging in the world. Which is why they have the same selfish habit. They will forget about everything else, and run off to protect that safe place when they are pushed against a wall. Mikasa will always drop everything to run after Eren, even if it leads her to doing soemthing stupid or disobeying orders from a superior. Annie will always follow her father’s words and protect herself because she doesn’t care about the mission or the outside world ultimately. 

Annie says she’d trample over other people, Mikasa doesn’t listen to Levi and charges straight at the female type titan because it’s the shortest path to Annie. It’s the same behavior, the outside world stops existing to them. Mikasa and Annie both have a small and fragile world that consists of one person they’ve decided is their family. They’re scared of the world at large, because they think they have no place in it. 

The story has been gradually challenging Mikasa again and again, to care about the world outside of Eren. It starts in Trost where Mikasa realizes she can’t let herself die just because Eren died because she wants to keep his memory alive. Hange tells her that she might lose the person most important to her in the world, but she has to keep moving forward with that loss. 

Mikasa became the first to let go of Armin, when Eren didn’t give up on begging Levi to revive Armin, even though Mikasa had always been the most fiercely protective of their little group beforehand. Floch even points out, that Mikasa is the closest to maturing because she was out of the three of them the only one able to let go. I know Floch is wrong a lot, but Floch tends to talk in theme. I mean he’s not really a character in his own right, he just… talks about the themes of the story. He’s a mouth piece for the author to make obvious comments on the themes of the story, like when he goads Jean into just quietly accepting that the world might end outside of Paradis island. If Floch says something it’s probably a theme of the story. 

Mikasa has been pushed over and over again to let go of the person that is her place of belonging in the world. The way she does this is one, realizing how Eren’s actions affect others and two, learning to move to protect people outside of Eren. 

It’s Mikasa who calls out Eren for hurting children, and it’s Mikasa who moves to protect Gabi, even knowing that Gabi was the one who killed Sasha. Why? Because Mikasa herself is a lost girl. Because Mikasa knows what it’s like to lose everything as a child. 

Mikasa wants to gain the strength to protect someone, because she knows what it’s like to lose everything and doesn’t really want to inflict that on someone else. However, it turns out she’s been protecting the wrong person all along. What’s she been doing then?

For both Mikasa and Annie their wish to have a family, and have some connection to the world isn’t selfish at all. In fact they can be incredibly soft and kind people to those they consider family. However, they have a tendency to tunnel vision and act selfishly when the chips are down. Mikasa enables the worst parts of Eren because she’s so codependent, and Annie is so independent she’s entirely forgotten about the world around her. 

Mikasa is slowly learning what Annie already knows, her independence. 

Mikasa has slowly been learning there are other things besides Eren that connect her to the outside world, whether it be her sympathies with children like Gabi and Falco who are so much like her and Eren, or her double heritage to both the Ackerman clan and her connection to Hizuru. 

At the same time this latest chapter has been showing Annie the opposite. The personal connections to people that Mikasa has always clung so tightly to, and Annie has eschewed are what is slowly coming to matter more to Annie.

When Annie loses all hope, it’s her brief conversation to Armin that almost pulls her back from the edge. In fact the reason she didn’t lose her mind all that time in the crystal is because Armin kept talking to her. Mikasa needs to lose her connections to other people to learn to function on her own, but Annie needs to let other people connect to her.

It’s Armin who pulls her back and grabs her hand when she just wants to avoid others. It’s Armin who counteracts Annie’s long held belief, that the great big world is scary to her. Annie can’t begin to accept the idea that the world might be kind too, unless she learns to accept Armin’s optimism, and his point of view. Annie needs to learn from Armin, but to do that she has to get close to him. 

So in the latest chapter we see Annie and Mikasa challenging each other again. Annie and Mikasa have asked each other the most important questions they need to answer. 

Can Mikasa actually kill Eren? Can she do what she needs to do? And Mikasa asks Annie the opposite questions? Can Annie follow Armin and be there for him or is she just going to run away again? 

I’d say they are both at this point at the final hurdle of their arcs. Mikasa saying that she just wants the old Eren back is the problem. She needs to learn to accept the old Eren is gone. She can either try to save the current Eren, or kill the current Eren, but both of those means Mikasa has to drop her idealized image of Eren and confront the real one right in front of her. Whereas, Annie’s trying to run away one more final time before the end instead of fighting for someone besides herself and her own survival. 

Mikasa needs to learn to be independent and function without Eren, and Annie needs to learn to let other people be a part of her life. She can’t live in this world all alone. The same way that Eren once told Mikasa how to live in this world, Armin could help Annie find a way to live, but only if she lets him. 

Which is why the connection between these two lost girls is so important. In the Female Type Titan arc we saw them already try to kill each other. However, they’ve always had the potential to help each other find their way so they’ll be lost girls no more. 

[cherripeach]

Relationship Headcannons

Vice Dorm Leaders pt.2

Jamil Viper

Good luck becoming Jamil’s friend before anything happens; he is an extremely reserved person and has many trust issues to back that up. You have to be incredibly determined in order to even talk casually with this one because of all of his walls and barriers that protect him. He will trust you much more once he finds out just who you are and why you want to become his friend. Your friendship is going to last for a couple of years before anything romantic or more than friendly starts up; he is not one for realizing his feelings unless you make them painfully obvious. Even so you two would be pinning after each other for a couple of months before either one of you makes a move in the right direction. The confession from him was not thought out at all. It was very rushed and unorganized contradicting his normal aura. 

The beginning of your relationship you two are almost a puppy love couple in which both of you blush at the sight of each other or whenever skinship happens. Since Jamil had to have faith in you before the relationship started, he is not afraid to go to you whenever he needs someone to talk to. You are his one outlet for anything that he feels is unfair or anything that he knows he must keep secret. Even if he seems uncomfortable with you at first, it is not because he lost his trust for you, he just becomes antsy once he finally grasps the fact that someone broke his walls and cares about his enough to continue a relationship with his in spite of the fact of how terrible of a person he perceives himself as. 

Once over the painfully uncomfortable phase of the beginning of the relationship, Jamil will adore your physical affection. As he does not receive a lot from people other than Kalim, he appreciates you trying your best to accommodate him. He loves to be held by you as much as possible even though his pride will never allow him to say such a fact. He also loves to hold your hand because he finds comfort in your presence. Meaning, that he also adores small touches you give him; the range is from lightly placing your hand on his back or shoulder whenever you two cannot hold hands or maybe even skimming your fingers against him when handing him an item. He loves the constant reassurance that your presence is always with him. 

Dates are mostly stay inside dates where you two just relax and cuddle all day. He hates having your dates interrupted though so good luck trying to calm him down after one of Kalim’s schemes. He will sit down for hours and do whatever you want as long as he is in your presence; he worships anything you say or do to him so please never stop with him. 

Fights are fun but normally do not happen. He does not like to fight you because he knows how most of your fights consist of him taking more care of himself and learning to say ‘no’ or even telling him that he should not be holding himself back. His understanding of your reasonings is why he does not like to fight: he cannot argue with something that he knows and believes is right. However,  the slightest mention that you are not taking care of yourself will send this child into ‘mother mode’ and good luck escaping without a scolding. 

He loathes you giving others your attention; as someone who does not get much love he worships any kiss or wave you give him. Nevertheless, he still understands the problems with the mindset of wanting to keep you to himself. He will try his best to give you the space and time you need with others, but if someone is even slightly making you uncomfortable or nervous, a little snake will come up behind to lend a helping hand and maybe scare someone away.

Little viper is astounded that he finally is able to care for someone that he might get a little ahead of himself sometimes so just be sure to reel him back in. 

Rook Hunt

Rook is a very demanding person to get the attention of, and something has to blow him away about you to even get him to consider starting a friendship, if you would call it that, with him. You have to grab his attention with either a talent or just a personality trait of yours to start his little affections for you. Keep in mind that he does find adoration in either the beautiful or the strong. Once you astound him, he will be welcomed to find out about you, and your relationship after that will process very quickly: his worshiping will turn in to love for you. This loser also does a terrible job at hiding his puppy love because any moment that he can slip in a comment about you is taken. He also loves to see you look uncomfortable whenever he makes a comment to you: meaning he wants you to blush and stutter at him at any time. If you have not made the connection of his love or at least that he favors you before his confession, good luck because he is going all out for your confession and being as dramatic as possible. 

In the beginning of the relationship, Rook is not going to change except for being more open with his affections, but if he knows that you will be even somewhat uncomfortable with public affections, he will give you time to breathe and relax before anything. While he is in awe of you blushing, he also wants you to return his affections whenever possible. 

Rook shows his devotion to you through his physical affection, and therefore, he will treasure any of your affections that you give him. Any day of the week you will find yourself in his arms or attached to his hip. He wants you to find the exact same comfort in his physical affections that he finds in yours, so he will try his best to display his favorite affections every day. He is the biggest fan of big romantic gestures as well so expect him to be over the top with anything from giving a gift to just reciting a poem. He yearns for your acceptance and affections in return for everything that he does, so make sure to at least give him a little kiss here or there. If he is ever having a bad day, just hug him tightly and tell him how amazing he is and how stupendous he looks and brush through his hair and his charm and happiness will be upped to the max. He also loves when you wear his hat because of how warm he feels while watching you prance around in it. 

Dates are just like his affections: bold and extra, so expect something different for each occasion. He adores planning out your dates just to surprise you and so that he can get you to smile and compliment him in the end too. He really just wants to treat you right and worship you with everything that he has, and since he believes himself to be incredible at date planning, that is the way that he goes. He does, however, understand that he cannot keep all dates to be extravagant and planned to a t, so he will allow for some small homely dates in the comfort of your rooms where he just cuddles with you and takes care of all of your needs. He loves to do your nails if you give him the chance too. 

Fights won’t happen simply because he stops them before anything starts; he is a master observer, so if he notices any difference in your opinion of anything he will stop immediately. Of course, there may be times where you yell at him for being too observant and almost paying too much attention but he does it in good health because he wants to protect you and your relationship. 

This man does not need validation that you care for him nor does he care if you give others attention, well, at least not at meets the eye. While he does not get mad at the perpetrator, he will shower you in over exaggerated affection wherever you are around others. He, especially, loves to see the hope fall from someone's eyes after they were flirting with you once you start returning his affections. He will never ever tell you any of this because he likes to not be yelled at by you. 

This drama queen will stop at nothing to get his affections returned even if it means greatly embarrassing you; he is almost like a child just waiting to be pulled away by his mother or in this case, you. 

Lilia Vanrouge

This being hates to be bored, so in order to grab his attention and affection you must first show him how unique and different you are. As someone who has lived for thousands of years give or take, he has been through many different relationships and met many different people, so in order for him to take notice of you, you must stand out. Once he finds that you are a rare individual he will begin to note all of your quirky personality traits and talents. He wants to find something that spices up his life, so finding someone who never bores him is a challenge but with you it seems almost easy. Once he realizes that his fascination for you stretches more than just a simple emotion he will start to court you in his own way. He tries his best to offer you all of the help he can give and reminds you to take care of yourself just as if a mother would remind her children. After a while of simply caring for you, he will confess even if the confession is very weird and not something anyone would expect, it still is his best version of a confession. 

The beginning of the relationship is very awkward because he needs to be told what you want and need out of him due to his version of human affections which is a misconception that he picked up off of after years of relationships. It is very outdated and needs to be updated by his present partner or in easier terms you. Your sense of communication in the relationship must be strong with how different of beings you two are.

While he may not find your physical affection to be a necessity to his daily life, he is quite addicted to it. One thing that he can never get enough of is you running your hand through his hair because of how his heart just bursts with warmth and adoration for you and everything that you do when you express your affections that way. He also loves to peck your head and kiss you while he is upside down in order to startle you due to the fact that your face looks ‘oh so adorable’ in his eyes. Make sure to surprise him with all of your different affections; he wants to see all you have to offer him as he will try to do the same with you. Nothing can beat random hugs, though. 

Dates mostly occur during the night time since fae are night creatures: night strolls, picnics, and adventures. Anything that keeps this old man entertained works with him and anything that keeps you by his side. He enjoys taking breaks with you, as well, since he can only spend so much time with you. Of course, anything out of the ordinary also attracts him, so no date will ever be the same with this small fae. 

He wants to bask in your presence whenever possible so he may slip you out of important meetings and such in order to talk to you. He also loves to get in trouble with you, so any pranks you two can pull will happen. If you don't approve of anything he does you better say it before he completes the prank because this old man doesn't know when to stop. 

Fights are not considered fights because they are more well thought out arguments where neither of you yell at each other because Lilia knows that he does not have enough time with you to be yelling at you. The old fae is also aware that yelling will get one to do anything that the older wants, so if he wants you to take care of yourself, the method of coaxing will have more of an effect. 

Lilia does not really care who you put your attention on as long as it all comes back to him. He does not live to seek your validation, and he knows that humans are not creatures that give affection to one singular person, but they truly flourish with others. However, this does not mean that he likes you spending too much time with others, and he will pull you away to spend time with you because he absolutely adores you .

This bat wants to spend as much time as possible with you who means the most to him and loves when you dote on him

Have a nice day!

[blackasteriia]

Super Duper Deep Character Questions

Send in a number and I’ll answer the following questions about my muse! Specify muse for multi-muses.

Death is an inevitable part of life. What is your character’s experience with death? Have they had someone close to them die? Have they ever killed someone? How did these events affect them? Have they been able to move on? What do they believe happens to people when they die? And why? How does your character feel about death? Do they feel at ease, or uncomfortable with the idea of dying?

Spirituality deals with the non-material realm and a character’s experience of it. Is spirituality important to them? Has your character had any spiritual, divine, or sacred experiences? How has this affected them? How do they feel about other people who talk about spirituality?  Is your character likely to share their spirituality with others, or do they keep it to themselves? What are their metaphysics? Do they have more abstract, or concrete conceptions of the world?

Religiousness is the ritual act of spirituality, it refers to devoutness and piety. Is your character religious? Are they part of a large, organized religion, or a smaller, more personal one? How do they express piety and devotion? is this important to them? Or do they do it out of obligation. When did they begin their habits and why? Is it something they were raised in or something they learned as they grew older?

The people who raise us influences our outcomes, for better or worse. Talk about your character’s biological parents. Does your character consider them to be good or bad parents? If your character was in-part or totally raised by, people other than their biological parents, talk about them too. Was this relationship good or bad? How has your character’s relationship to their guardians changed as they aged? How has it influenced them? Was it a foundation? Or something they regret? Have they been able to move on and grow from their guardians? Or are they close?

Our bodies are how we interact with the physical world and are critical to how we think of ourselves. Overall how do they think about their body? Does your character have a good relationship with their body? Do they see their body as apart of them, or as something they are disconnected from? Are they confident in their appearance? Do they take care of their body, either by proper nutrition, good sleep, or exercise? Do they consider themselves to be physically healthy? 

The mind includes our cognitions and thought processes. How does your character learn best? By listening? Reading? Or through doing? No one is truly rational, but do they consider themselves to use logic or emotion? Is your character contemplative or introspective? Or do they focus more on observation, and use of their senses to learn? Are there are peculiarities in their thought patterns? What sorts of intelligences do they excel in? I.e., book learning, music, social, mechanical, spatial, etc. 

Mental health is very important to our overall well-being. Has your character ever had challenges to their mental health? If so, what? How did they learn to cope with their symptoms? If they recovered, what factored into it? Have they ever received counseling, diagnosis, or treatment for their mental health? How was this experience, was it helpful?

Psychoactives are any substance that alters the mind-state, including but not limited to: coffee, alcohol, opioids, cocaine, nicotine, anti-depressants, and sedatives. Talk about your character’s relationship to psychoactives. Are they active users or do they avoid these substances? Why is that? Do they use legally or illegally? Is their use social or not? Have they ever struggled with addiction or withdrawal? Have there been people in their lives that use? What do they think of people who use? If the psychoactive is a medicine —prescribed or not— discuss their relationship to it.

Some say rules are made to be broken, and others still couldn’t make themselves jaywalk. How does your character relate to authority? Are they law abiding or do they skirt the boundaries of legality? Do they consider rules to be a necessary parts of society? Or merely, red-tape that gets in the way? Is it important to them that they contribute to their society? To them, what is a ‘good-person’ or a ‘bad-person?’ Do they agree with the typical social definitions of these terms? If not, why? Where do they think they fall on the spectrum? If at all? 

Creativity is how we express ourselves to the world and other people. How does your character show their more creative side? Is it through the arts, like painting, drawing, wood-work, music or writing? Or something less typically thought of as ‘creative,’ like science or engineering? What influences their creative process? Have they ever experienced burn-out? And if so, how did they overcome it? Are they avid in the consumption of other art and creative works? What are their preferences?

Sexuality is a facet of human expression that can take many forms and expression. Does your character feel sexual attraction? If so, to who? Is this feeling strong or weak? Do they have any particular type of person that they’re attracted to? How do they usually act on these feelings? Are they experienced or inexperienced in this domain in their lives? How do they view their own sexuality? With pride or with shame? What influenced this viewpoint?

Romantic attraction is the desire to have a romantic relationship with another person. Does your character experience romantic attraction? If so, who is this feeling directed to? Is it strong or weak? What does it take for your character to develop a romantic attraction to someone? Do they have a type? Do they have much experience with romantic relationships? Talk about your character’s romantic relationships, or lack therein. Is romance important to them or something they could do without?

Gender is the cultural and social constructs that define the range between masculinity and femininity. How rigid is your character’s gender roles? Does your character agree with their assigned gender at birth? If not, does this affect how they perceive their body (i.e. do they suffer from dysphoria)? How do they present their gender? Is this presentation important to them, or could they not care less?

Platonic relationships are no less intimate than romantic relationships.  How does your muse feel about their platonic relationships? Do they have many friends, or just a few? Do they make friends easily?  Talk about some of the platonic relationships your character has had that are important to them. How did these relationships develop and how do they define your muse?

Love languages are loose definitions of how we express and reciprocate love, both platonic and romantic. How does your character prefer to express that they love someone? Do they use their words, time, gifts, service, or touch? How does your character prefer to receive affirmations of love?

Style is one way a person can express themselves. What unique ways does your character use to say something about who they are? Is their appearance important to them? If it is important, is it something they do for the benefit of others or themselves? Why is this? If it is not important, why do they not care? How else do they express their style? Be it through music, art, vehicles, home, or other means? Do they have any particular tastes?

Parenthood is a significant event in many people’s lives. Does your character have any children? Be they biological or adopted. If so, talk about them and your character’s relationship to them. Is this relationship healthy and good, or broken? Does your character want anymore children? How do they hope their relationship will change with their children as they grow? If your character doesn’t have kids, do they want any? If they don’t, discuss their feelings on the matter. If they do, talk about their reasons and their plans.

Most people have jobs, or will end up with one, at some point. Talk about your character’s job, or their aspirations for one. Are they working in a role that they like, or are they doing it for the ‘money?’ How did they have to train to get this job? Is this a career for them or something they’re doing just to get by? Or if they are in training, what are their hopes for their future job? If they don’t have a job, do they want one? If your character is too young to have a job, talk about their plans for the future.  Is their dream clear to them or do they not know what they want to do? Do they feel nervous or excited about it?

Home is where the heart is, or so they say. Talk about where your character grew-up, was it just one place or many places? Was their home(s) somewhere that they remember fondly, or is it just bitter memories? How has their home changed as they aged? Does your character have a strong sense of home, a place where they ‘live,’ or are they more transient? Are their any people who they associate with their home? Does your character want to have a home, or are they happy living on the road?

Not all relationships are healthy, or are even good for us. Has your character ever had any unhealthy, toxic, or abusive relationships? How did your character know the other person in the relationship? If and when did your character realize that this relationship was unhealthy? Was the toxicity mutual, or one-sided? What sort of behaviors, from one, or both parties, defined this unhealthy relationship? Has your character been able to move on from this relationship, or are they still ‘stuck’ in it? If they are past the relationship —or writing from a perspective where they are past it— talk about how your character reflects on it. Is there regret? A sense of satisfaction? Or have they not allowed it to affect them? Could they or would they make amends, if possible?

Write your own! Dig into my muse and ask them the hard questions!

[enfpguy]

BioShock Infinite MBTI and Enneagram — Booker DeWitt Booker DeWitt is the Main Protagonist of BioShock Infinite and the Secondary Protagonist of BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea. He’s part of two multi-verses so we’ll be segmenting this analysis into 2 parts. BioShock Infinite: The Main Story. Burial at Sea Booker: This takes place after the events of Bioshock Infinite with an alternate version of Booker. Dominant Function: Introverted Thinking BioShock Infinite: Booker Booker DeWitt is a prime example of an individual that’s driven by situational logic. His views throughout the entire game change drastically. At first, he’s introduced as a very cautious character who doesn’t trust his environment, but he immediately adapts to it. His main goal is to pay off his debt and to achieve that goal he must find Elizabeth and bring her to New York. As he embarks on his adventure, he ends up being caught in unique situations. Such as unknowingly entering the Pilgrim’s Rocket and being transported to a new society that exists within the sky. This alone would cause most people to freak-out and have a panic attack, but not Booker. Instead, he casually moved on as if nothing happened. He immediately then ran into another problem he needed to get baptized by Preaching Witting. He was unwilling but did it anyway because that was the only way into the city. After practically being drowned Booker runs into his first challenge and this is where we first see his TI function in action. He needs to get passed a locked gate to proceed on his quest. He solves this by trying a possession vigor that a hawker is offering free samples of. Booker quickly figures out he can use it on machines and uses it on the automaton guarding the door, therefore unlocking it. He then ends up accidentally entering a raffle and being forced to use yet another piece of unknown technology, the Sky-hook to protect himself from the officers who are trying to harm him. This adaptive style of learning is present throughout everything Booker does in Columbia, from trying new vigors to instructing Elizabeth where to best open “tears” so they can live another day. But that’s not all Booker also has other Introverted Thinking indicators. Such as suppressing his emotions, not because he’s unemotional but because he would rather stay level headed at all times to solve situations, this causes strain on his relationships with other people since FE is his lowest function. This especially affects Elizabeth, who’s quite a sensitive individual, and because of this they often butt heads. We have a lovely example of one of these situations. After rescuing Elizabeth from her prison, Booker lies and promises to bring her to Paris by stealing the First Lady Airship. Before they can do that they must go through the ticket station that leads to Soldier’s Field, this is where things get ugly, the receptionist stabs his hand forcing him to become violent which ends in the death of his assaulters. Elizabeth, experiencing death for the first time, becomes horrified and tries to run away. Booker catches up to a defensive Elizabeth and uses logic to reason with her. He explains that she’s an investment and that those men won’t stop coming after her so she has no choice but to leave Columbia. As the game progresses Booker becomes more comfortable with his surroundings thus starts asking Elizabeth more questions. Such as how do you make these “tears” or why does the Songbird always appear when he hears a specific melody. Before we get to the Burial at sea segment, I want to contest Booker being an SI-TE function user. The first indicator of not having SI can be seen in Booker’s poor attention to detail and memory, this occurs often he forgets about the actions he takes. For instance, the time he forgot he helped interracial couple at the start of the game or the time he forgot about Chen Lin’s tools and machines or the fact that he cares nothing for tradition, duty, or his experiences. Instead, he rather live in the moment. If Booker was a TE user, he’d share similarities to Elizabeth such as her love for facts, systems and seeing things in black and white. However, Booker sees the world in shades of grey, prefers to remain flexible, and follows his own internal logical framework. Although I can recognize why people would perceive Booker as a TE user and that’s because of his cautious and aggressive nature which makes him seem more rigid than he is. Next up we’ll be looking into his TI functional traits and examples within the Burial at Sea DLC. Burial at Sea Booker: We get to meet a unique version of Booker who uses the mentioned TI functional traits much more effectively here. Unlike in Columbia, this Booker doesn’t have a debt to pay nor is he constantly stressed by life or death situations we can see a more accurate representation of his personality. Even in a different environment, his core traits remain the same, and if anything they’re enhanced. Let’s look at some examples. During their adventures in Rapture, Booker becomes acquainted with Elizabeth and notices logical inconsistencies within her actions and speech. This causes him to question her intentions and ask about how she isn’t aware of Rapture's structural system. Such as the time she asks about Little Sisters or what are Splicers. This is common knowledge in Rapture and Booker knows this and calls her out for being a fraud. Elizabeth knows how Booker’s personality functions and evades his questions and manipulates him by using Sally as her leverage against him. Elizabeth also has many questions on why people take certain actions, and Booker always answers with situational logic. An excellent example of that occurs when retrieving the Shock Jockey plasmid. Elizabeth asks why Andrew Ryan imprisoned Fontane's men if he was all about the free market? Booker responds with “All those ideas lose their luster when the quarterly earnings come in and you find the other guy’s eating your lunch” Auxiliary Function: Extroverted Sensing Extroverted Sensing function is often associated with the one-man army trope or within over the top action heroes, and Booker falls directly into both those categories. He’s a man driven by action and can always adapt to every situation that comes his way. From learning how to use unfamiliar weapons and tools with ease. To blowing up blimps and escaping from a gigantic angry robotic bird. Booker definitely sees a lot of action. But the Se function is more than just action. It’s directly related to receiving information from the 5 senses accurately while other functions process that information at slower a slower pace. That makes Extroverted Sensing dominant and auxiliary users quite versatile with physical tasks, such as sports or surviving in a city full of religious fanatics who want to kill you. There are downsides, however, and we can spot many of these within our protagonist. SE users have a hard time with possibilities, unique ideas, or scenarios. Booker thinks the Luteces are absolutely insane and criticizes them for not living within the present but rather within the idea of possibilities. We can see this as fear when Booker discovers that Elizabeth could create “tears” which shouldn’t be physically possible, but as time moves on Booker becomes comfortable and curious with the idea of “tears” since he can interact with them. This makes Booker appear closed-minded, but that’s only because reacting to possibilities he never thought were possible. Another weakness of SE is taking information at face value. Booker doesn’t search for hidden meanings or symbolism within objects, people, or information like Elizabeth. Instead, he would rather be direct and pragmatic. Speaking of his pragmatic and direct nature, Booker often solves problems by doing he’s a kinesthetic learner. This is how he’s able to learn how to use the Sky-hook so quickly. The last example of Booker’s SE function will be an unhealthy one. Booker has three problems, he’s addicted to physical forms of risk-taking, pleasure, and escapism. This is how he got himself stuck in this situation in the first place. He was a well-known drinker and gambler before the events of BioShock Infinite. The reasons differ but, In Columbia’s universe, he drank and gambled to deal with the passing of his wife. In the Rapture universe, he just drank and gambled himself into debt for the pleasure which caused him to lose his adapted daughter Sally. Regardless of the universe, Booker will always drink and gamble. Time for a fun fact before we move on to Booker’s Tertiary function. The detective agency Booker DeWitt worked for is real and still exists today! It’s called the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and was established in 1850 by Allan Pinkerton. They were best known for foiling a plot to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln, working as his personal security during the Civil War and hiring the first female detective in America. However, fame soon turned into infamy during the labor strikes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The efficiency of the Pinkertons prompted businessmen to hire them to infiltrate unions to keep strikers and unionists out of factories. To make matters worse, they hired goon squads to intimidate workers to prevent them from striking. Today the Pinkertons are known as the Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc and they’re of the oldest and most influential detective agencies in the world. Tertiary Function: Introverted Intuition Booker DeWitt’s use of Introverted Intuition is interesting, he often represses it to the point of it being an unconscious function because he doesn’t enjoy thinking too far into the future and prefers living in here and now. Yet somehow he’s constantly foreshadowing future events! Such as his dream of New York burning or Foreshadowing Elizabeth’s torture device that would brainwash her after she asked Booker why Comstock imprisoned her. Or the time Booker leaves Cornelius Slate alive and then claims that leaving him alive wasn’t mercy, Comstock’s men will capture and torture him. This ends up being true and Cornelius can be found mentally broken in an interrogation room in Fink’s jailhouse. Booker is either a brilliant detective who can deduce situations so fast that it looks like he’s predicting the future or his NI function usage is exceptional. Our last example takes place in Rapture after Booker collects the Old Man Winter plasmid. He stops Elizabeth after suspecting her of being a fraud and demands answers; She scoffs at him and lies. This causes him to predict that he’s being set up. Turns out he was right. Inferior Function: Extroverted Feeling Booker starts with an unhealthy usage of the FE function and slowly develops it throughout the title. At the start of his quest in Columbia, Booker remains disconnected from his emotions and closed off because he sees no reason to express them. We can especially see in Battleship Bay when Booker is trying to get Elizabeth's attention while she's dancing. He wants to leave Columbia so he can complete his mission, but first needs to stop her from dancing. At first he tries to be polite, then he tries using a more aggressive tone and finally he manipulates her by mentioning the First Lady Airship and how it can bring her to Paris. It’s an effective use of the FE function but used unhealthily. Booker lies to her for the first half of the game, telling her he’ll bring her to Paris, with the actual intention of bringing her to New York to pay off his debts. Or how he wasn’t able to empathize with Mrs. Lin at the loss of her husband instead he kept asking questions hoping she could give him an answer that would help track down her husband. As the game progresses, we can observe Booker loosening up and expressing his emotions in healthier ways by showing worry and care for Elizabeth during hardships. Such as the time where she killed Daisy Fitzroy. Booker recognized the look of horror in Elizabeth’s eyes, chased her down. He immediately attempted to comfort her by asking if she was okay and tried to relate to her feelings so she would feel better. Another example occurs after Elizabeth finds out her mother and the Luteces were killed by Comstock. She then says she’s just a specimen to be poked and prodded. Booker comforts her by letting her know she doesn’t deserve the stuffing she’s been through. Before we complete this segment, I’ll be mentioning 2 extra examples. The first one relates to FE grip that occurs when Booker realizes he’s Elizabeth’s father, he goes through a complete mental breakdown and irrationally wants to end it all. The second example is a moral example of FE. During the second half of the game Elizabeth and Booker run into a locked door that requires Lady Comstock’s finger print to enter. Elizabeth impulsively decides she will take it from her mothers corpse, Booker tries to stop her and suggests that it’s morally incorrect. But her decision is already made, Booker decides he will remove the finger for her. Our last FE indicator can be seen at the end of the game. Booker sacrifices himself to Elizabeth. He does this to stop Comstock from ever being born, Elizabeth takes him to Comstock's birthplace and Booker immediately realizes he’s both Booker DeWitt and Zachery Hale Comstock. He then allows the Elizabeths to drown him so she may break the circle. https://youtu.be/Dbjql-8coDw

[rockofeye]

I'm curious about what I've seen around the general make-up of Haiti and I guess who lives there. Is Haiti mostly rural farmers and people who live in poverty? How does that interact with Vodou? Is Vodou (and Haiti?) different in different areas and how does that get affected by what media says, knowing that the media is always biased?

Hi there,

This is an interesting and complex question!

Haiti is a pretty diverse country. Most media portrayal focuses on poverty and illustrations of what that looks like via photo/video of densely populated areas of folks living in really challenging circumstances. This is certainly a part of Haiti and a not-insignificant part, but it is not all of Haiti.

Haiti has burgeoning tech sectors and a recovering local business and entrepreneur community. A lot of localized business has struggled in the face of foreign aid and as a result of the earthquake, but its rebounding and growing quickly. Locally-owned hospitality-oriented businesses are huge in Haiti and focus in on the tourist and Diaspora communities, and it's something that Haiti is quite known for worldwide.

Haiti has a HUGE artisan community with a really well-known heritage of painters, sculptors, metal artists, traditional musicians, and artisans creating textile items with sacred themes. Haitian art and music is known worldwide...Haitian artists are some of the most widely sold artists in the world.

And, Haiti has a significant agrarian community. Farmers have been hit hard by foreign involvement, the earthquake, and the various hurricanes that have rolled through, but a lot of history and culture is tied into farming as a means of carrying a living memory of life in Haiti. Some farmers are subsistence farmers, who grow vegetables and raise animals to feed their families either directly or via selling at the marketplace, and there is a growing community of farmers who provide raw material to develop food items or goods for sale in country and via export. Haitian chocolate is a delicacy as is Haitian coffee, and products like cocoa butter, castor oil, and moringa are super popular. Haiti is also fairly well known for producing unique furniture from old growth hardwood and bamboo.

Vodou is connected to all parts of Haiti and all parts of how life plays out in Haiti; it doesn't privilege one way of life over another but it speaks to different parts of life in different ways. The religion is as diverse as the country is, and varies widely based on where you are physically in the country (Vodou from the mountains is different than Vodou from the north which is still different from Vodou from the south, Vodou from near the border, Vodou all the way out on the arm of Haiti, and on), what your local area is known for (for example, the area the lineage I am born from was founded is very heavily Kongo influenced and that is very visible in our ceremonies, and there are other parts of Haiti influenced similarly by other rites and cultural pieces from Africa), what rites are present and/or available to you, how you came to know Vodou, and a million other factors. Vodou and the larger religious foundations encompassing all the different Vodou and Vodou-adjacent rites speak to all those things. As diverse as the country is, Vodou is as diverse as well. There are some common agreements held among practitioners in general, but Vodou is not a monolith because Haiti and Haitians are not a monolith.

From my perspective, the only way Vodou gets affected by media is when Vodou gets blamed for a disaster or a situation where someone was harmed or was perceived to be harmed. Those things can have real, literal consequences; a rumor in Haiti that you 'sent Vodou' or sent spirits or had work done to someone can get you killed. That kind of seriousness ripples out culturally in the country; police harass and arrest vodouizan because they can, landlords turn people out of their homes if they think they are sèvitè, and Protestants attack folks on the street.

That kind of stuff alongside media overemphasis on animal sacrifice and possession can make a hard road. But, the religion itself keeps on doing its thing. Vodou as a whole has lived through a lot of stuff and media portrayal while damaging isn't going to change much of how the granmoun teach us to serve the lwa.

I hope this answers your question--it's broad strokes, so let me know if I can dial it down further in any areas.