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readingsbylibramc · 3 years

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birth chart reading for @sunfiowershrooms

hello! welcome to your reading. I’m gonna give you a quick overview of what I’m going to analyze about your natal chart. feel free to ask me anything if something isn’t clear, of course. you’ll find out your dominants’ influence on your persona, your physical appearance, impression on others and the way you approach the world; your ego, identity, the real you; your reactions, your desires, inner emotions; your way of expressing your feelings, your mind and ideas; your desires and approach to love; your energy tank, instincts and temperament; in-depth analysis of each house with their rulers and analysis of heavy aspects; love life + soulmates/karmic partners interpretation; your relationship with your friends; your family life; your approach to career and work in general + possible jobs suggestion; your style, fashion sense analysis; life purpose and past life description; basic transits’ analysis to describe your current mood and, last but not least, your secret skills, how to make the most out of your soul and manifest what you desire based on your birth chart.

🦋 chart shape, dominants

your chart is a splay shape, meaning that your planets are located randomly in different groups in your chart. people with this type of chart are usually very talented at different things. they can focus their attention on different matters, from family, to work, to love. everything is important for you, and you try to live your life to the fullest. you may be particularly talented at things that require action, it doesn’t matter whether it’s physical or mental. you may be very good at sports, dancing… or maybe you’re good at leading, you could easily be the boss on your work place. since you’re interested in so many things, you could easily be skilled at all of them to be honest. my advice would be to pick the hobby that is most important for you and care about it more than the others. that’s because people with this chart usually tend to do so many things that they may lack precision. it’s better to give all of yourself to what’s important for you.

your dominant planets are venus, jupiter and mercury. you are a very creative person, you may have an eye for aesthetics and you may enjoy the finer things in life, you probably enjoy shopping and following trends. you're also very smart, and you could be quite philosophical as well.

your dominant sign is libra. you're overall a peaceful person, you try to avoid conflicts if possible, even though sometimes you could have a sharp tongue. you're a romantic person, maybe too much. you hold unrealistic expectations of people, hence you often get disappointed when things don't turn out the way you thought. you're able to see both sides of an argument, and that's both good and bad. in fact, you're very objective, and most probably your opinions are right; yet, it may be annoying for people that are venting to you, as you could constantly point out their mistakes, even though you don't do it out of malice.

your dominant element is air. in your life, you adore seeking knowledge of any kind. you may be interested in studying different subjects, from those you study at school like science, maths, literature etc. to more unconventional ones, such as astrology, psychology, criminology and so on. you enjoy interacting with people; even if you’re not that sociable, you’ll still be interested in their point of view and their ideals, as you see it as a way to expand your own mind. you’re also interested in vintage, and you may have a retro aesthetic or just like history in general.

🌎 ascendant in sagittarius, 20° / 3rd decan ruled by jupiter and the sun

you see the world as an adventure. I feel like you typically don’t relate to sagittarius ascendant stereotypes; sag risings are usually very happy-go-lucky, they smile often, but pluto being conjunct to it may change things a bit. you’re more of a loner, you’re not as extroverted as other sagittariuses. you may relate more to scorpio rising, actually. ironically, you often look sad or angry. you have a knack for philosophy, and your favourite is most probably ‘you only live once’. you tame dying before making the amount of experiences you want to have in your life, hence you could even be impulsive sometimes. you’re the type to always be up to crack a joke or anything that can make you and others smile, yet when someone gets against you, it’s over for them. you have quite of a sharp tongue, you’re pretty blunt and straight-forward. in fact, you may often get in troubles due to your impulsiveness, which may be misunderstood. you have an incredible charm to you; it’s not like taurus’ or libra’s, those are more related to physical traits. sagittarius people, on the other hand, are surely very talented at something; maybe, at school you were one of the best students, and everyone recognized it and appreciated you for that; people understand your potential, and you may often receive compliments for your skills. basically, your personality is charismatic. due to pluto being conjunct the ascendant, I feel like you may even struggle too much with pessimism during your first years, but in case you are, you shouldn’t be. jupiter is also your dominant planet, and it’s willing to give you the best of luck if you respect its themes. hence, you need to have faith in the universe and be optimistic. try to look more at the positive sides in life and even in people. physically, sagittarius is all about abundance, hence you may have trouble losing weight. you could have big bones, or at least something bigger on your body that doesn’t make you look like a victoria’s secret’s model. you’re more on the thick side, in fact you probably have a pear/hourglass body shape, with wider hips and/or thick thighs and lower body in general. you could also have wide shoulders, and something big and memorable on your face as well. maybe you have a very distinctive nose, or perhaps your eyes are almond-shaped. your forehead and lips could be pretty wide as well. I’ve also noticed that sagittarius peers have a very lively sparkle in their eyes, even though they may be very dark. it’s like having two/three tiny diamonds at the centre of each of your eyes. last but not least, you may have sharp cheekbones and very dark features, such as dark hair or eyes.

sagittarius ascendant opposite gemini saturn: you may be shy and have self-esteem issues, especially during your early years. because of that, you may often appear as insecure to others, or even unreliable. you have a strong desire to be with someone and commit to them, you despise supertificial bonds, but at the same time you may find yourself being too shy to approach others, especially during your early years. this may apply more to the younger you, actually. you don't feel much comfortable around other people, and others can sense that; your insecurity is exposed to the world, and some may take advantage of that to hurt your feelings. you're afraid of being judged, whether it's for your appearance, or maybe because of your ideals or interests. hence, you end up becoming reserved. this is something that will be solved through growth and time; the older you get, the easier you'll be on yourself. also, thanks to this aspect, you're a responsible person with defined values. to cope with this placement, I'd suggest you to do what makes you feel the best. there are different ways to boost your self-esteem, so maybe you can work on that and then start expressing yourself freely; if you do it without the fear of being judged, you will shine even more.

sagittarius ascendant conjunct sagittarius pluto: this aspect enhances your scorpio rising even more. scorpio, combined with your scorpio sun and pisces moon, makes you look a little bit naive. people may try to take advantage of you, and to defend yourself you tend to become bossy. you’re really competitive, and feel the constant need to prove others’ wrong, even though it’s not the best way to do it. in your life, you could encounter lots of enemies that may try to stop you from transforming yourself. or maybe, your grandfather is an authoritative figure in your life and in your family’s in general, and his influence has a big impact on your life. also, something I’ve noticed about pluto conjunct ascendant individuals is that they may feel unhappy when they’re young. as time goes by, they transform and become as they want, which makes them feel more satisfied with themselves.

🌞 sun in scorpio, 3° / 1st decan ruled by pluto

you're quite of a loner, you prefer spending time alone rather than with others. you're extremely intuitive, and you can read people like a book; they can't lie or keep secrets from you, you'll surely find out. you're pretty charismatic, and paired with your wise intellect it's hard not to agree with your ideas, especially considering that your moon is in pisces. you're basically a leader, a very demanding one. you have high standards regarding everything: clothes, food, goals, people... you're always striving for the best, you don't want to settle down. on the other hand, even though it may take you a while to find someone worth of your affection, once that someone shows up you'll stay with them forever. you're deeply loyal, and also caring in your own way. that's because you value feelings, you can easily smell when someone isn't trustworthy. you're probably very protective of your friends and loved ones in general, sometimes even too much. this could even escalate and become a more serious issue, as scorpio is also the planet of obsession, after all. it's common for you to feel your emotions x2, as they're too intense to handle. you know everything about others, but you don't show off and gossip about it. actually, you keep the info for yourself and use it when you need it.

scorpio sun square capricorn mars: you’re extremely passionate about the things you love, you strive to be perfect at them, and your perfectionist, capricorn nature confirms this. this could make you quite competitive, as your capricorn mars wants to succeed and be always right. I feel like you don’t really enjoy being in the spotlight; you’d rather avoid conflicts, or at least not be the center of them. yet, sometimes it’s hard for you not be aggressive. I don’t think it happens often, but you can be very blunt and rude if someone truly gets on your nerves. this, paired up with your scorpio energy, makes you sort of dramatic. as long as you don’t react like this too often, I don’t think it’s a big issue though.

🌙 moon in pisces, 0° / 1st decan ruled by neptune

hands down my favourite moon sign! you're extremely empathetic and sensitive, you care a lot about others and you treat others' problems as if they were yours, you get totally immersed in them. you have quite a vivid imagination, you're able to idealize and picture anything you want. while this placement gives you an incredible amount of creativity, it can also make you uncomfortable. in fact, you may actually find yourself imagining every detail of every situation, even the worst ones. let's suppose you hear of a rape at the news; you literally start imagining the scene detail by detail, and it makes you extremely uncomfortable. actually, it literally ruins your mood, as it's as if you actually lived that scene. going back to the creativity matter, you have the soul of an artist; you have very enhanced emotions, and you're able to express them through artistic outlets. you could be amazing at writing poetry, books, art, music... also, your particular empathy of human's intellect can also make you an amazing psychologist or actress, as you're able to understand others' feelings and make them your own. you're extremely spiritual, and if you don't feel like that, you just have yet to have your spiritual awakening. you may be able to talk to spirits, for example, or perhaps you have very meaningful dreams. or maybe, you could literally predict the future through them. you're also most probably an avid daydreamer, you tend to get distracted easily because you're too busy thinking about random scenarios in your head. seriously, you could even make a movie out of them. you're also an hopeless romantic, and you dream of finding not just your spouse, but your literal soulmate. to make it simple, you want all of your daydreams to become reality.

🗣 mercury in libra, 15° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and uranus

you're very diplomatic! you always try to be nice and gentle with your words, you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. your tone of voice is extremely soft, sometimes it could even be hard to understand what you say, as you could naturally have a low voice. you're extremely balanced, you have amazing problem-solving skills as you're able to see both side of an argument. it's natural for you to understand what's right and what isn't, and most of the times you're actually right. when you're with someone you're not really close to, you could even be the accommodating type who allows others to speak over your voice, or maybe you let others speak first as a gesture of kindness. I feel like with your jupiter dominance you have very strong opinions, and you're actually particularly proud of them. luckily, this placement makes you able to communicate them with diplomacy. you could often get angry if someone tries to prove you wrong, but aside from that, you try to be very elegant and formal when you speak. you're probably not fond of cursing, or at least you try to appear as mannered as possible with people you're not comfortable around. last but not least, you're such a charismatic, smooth talker that you result very persuasive. you're able to trick people with your words, which appear very diplomatic and calm.

libra mercury conjunct libra venus: this placement confirms your struggles to open yourself to the world. you’re insecure that your thoughts and ideas may be judged negatively by others, hence you just bottle them up with your feelings. this aspect is mostly positive, though! you’re probably a good singer, or at least you have a very calm tone of voice that is pleasant to hear. you’re able to see both sides of an argument, hence you may be good at helping people making up. you could actually be suited for psychology! you may also earn money through your voice and thoughts, so you could be a writer, a journalist, an actress, a singer etc. this placement assures that you may be sociable, or at least that you have great social skills.

libra mercury square cancer jupiter: this placement emphasizes your intellect. your mind is so broad that you can come up with different theories and philosphies, making you a sort of genius. you're probably good at memorizing things, and you could even have a photographic memory. yet, with this aspect, you may have troubles being consistent with your ideas. you may overestimate your needs and thoughts; for example, you may promise yourself to get all As in maths, then you get tired and bored and you end up getting Cs. same goes for your handwriting, for example: you may start writing in the best way possible, then you get lazy and end up writing in a sloppy way just to take notes. you also overthink a lot, and that causes you self-esteem issues. on the other hand, you're very open-minded and objective, as you look at the big picture. you'd do very well as a journalist, for example, or perhaps also as a judge of any kind. you may also be naturally skilled at foreign languages, you can mimic accents pretty well. you're probably also very poetic and / or wise, you're like a teacher for your friends.

❤️ venus in libra, 13° / 2nd decan ruled by venus and uranus

love this placement! you're very romantic: you're not looking for a partner, you're looking for a whole disney prince. you do care about looks when choosing a lover, but not necessarily a conventionally beautiful person. they have to appear perfect to your eyes, and this usually depends on the way they treat you. in fact, you despise vulgar, rude people. people that act like that immediately become unattractive to you. you're also very picky, exactly because you're looking for the perfect lover. you're probably the type to cry at movies. you're also quite of a cliche; you're into roses, romantic dinners, sunsets... anything romantic that you hear about in fairytales. the problem with this placement is that you may overestimate the people you frequent, ending up having different expectations from reality.

libra venus square cancer jupiter: you come off as a very positive, happy-go-lucky person. you're extremely friendly, and this makes you be good at social relationships. you may have lots of friends, or at least you have the potential to make many if you opened up and talked to them. yet, while this energy gives you positive vibes, some people may take advantage of that, as you could easily be mistaken for naive. people can try to dominate you unconsciously (sometimes even on purpose) not only in relationships but even in friendships. aside from that, I don't think this placement causes you many problems. you may have the tendency to procrastinate and not work. you could be quite lazy and get easily distracted, as you're constantly with your head in the cloud. yet, thanks to your capricorn energy, you still manage to find some motivation to do your work.

☄️ mars in capricorn, 29° / 3rd decan ruled by saturn and mercury

you can get scary when you want, especially with your impulsive jupiter dominance. you're a serious competitor, as your mind is very strategic. your ambition makes you want to be the best wherever you are, and you may actually overwork yourself to achieve your goals. establishing your status is important for you. you may not be the type to act instantly, you prefer taking your time to follow a plan. in fact, you probably write down what you have to do in an agenda, or even in your phone's notes app. you have this strong sense of duty, as you feel 100% responsible of your fate. you're sure that, if you don't work hard, you don't deserve success and recognition. in fact, you don't take orders from others, you are your own boss. you could have materialistic tendencies, as wealth is what motivates you the most to work or just take action in general. you may often experience burnouts, as capricorn, especially in mars, brings intense workaholic tendencies.

🏡 houses

your 1st house is in sagittarius. your relationship with your image could be quite complicated; chiron here points out that you’re quite insecure about the way you look. you may struggle with your self-image often, and you may even have a physical scar somewhere on your body or face. pluto conjunct the first house also gives you a very bold, strong presence, and hence you may be even intimidating. yet, you’re also extremely magnetic and charismatic, maybe even sexy. I assume that you struggle to fully embrace your potential, though. especially during your early years, you had a fluctuating self-esteem. you used to find yourself weird and ugly, you didn’t love yourself. luckily, if you work hard on your mentality you'll start being way more optimistic, and as a result you'll be more confident in yourself as well.

your 2nd house is in capricorn, with also neptune, mars, the moon and uranus sitting in this house together. your relationship with money may not be totally stable; you may get distracted easily, and you could lose your money around. you could be quite messy, overall, or in general, this is usually a placement that indicates sudden money loss. this placement also confirms that your self-esteem isn’t stable either; you could be quite insecure, and you may idealize a lot the way you look. for example, you could think that you have an ugly nose when it’s actually the opposite. same goes for your belongings; you may think that you have saved loads of money, you spend them, and then you realize you didn’t really have much. regarding your self-esteem, your imagination and your creativity could surely make you feel better. you may have an artistic hobby, such as acting, drawing, etc. that could earn you compliments and praise, and hence it increases your sense of worth. you could also increase your self-esteem by taking pictures or videos of yourself, for instance. you love challenging your mind, but you're kind of lazy. you'd rather stimulate yourself through your hobbies and interests rather than using school / work, which are quite stressful for you. you need to find something material and concrete to motivate you and make you assertive. you could study just because you need a good grade, or maybe work just to get paid. you don't really do it with interest, as you care more about nurturing your passions than responsibilities. you're not really into conflicts; you'd rather be peaceful with everyone, as you find it a waste time to argue with someone. you're very peaceful, you try to avoid conflicts when you can. this placement makes you crave stability, whether it's financial, in love etc. you must be very stubborn, as taurus is a fixed sign. this placement, paired with your imaginative water energy, makes you settle on making your ideas concrete, and it's very beneficial. it makes you capable of achieving any goals in your life. you're also very artsy, and you may fancy particular art styles. you have a good eye for aesthetics, and you care a lot about the looks of your house, body, clothes etc. you have excellent concentration, and that is another thing that helps you achieve your goals and make your ideas concrete.

your 3rd house is in the sign of pisces. when it comes to speech, you’re most likely more introspective. you may not be much talkative, and most of the time you keep your ideas and thoughts to yourself, but actually it's hard for you to hide them. you may be secretive, but you're easy to read. you learn the best when you’re close to creativity or imagination, you’re very intuitive and hence it's easier for you to learn new topics. while you're very empathetic and you're able to properly convey your thoughts and feelings in your speech, you may also come off as sensitive or even insecure. you may have a quiet voice, and hence you could come off as shy. since neptune, the ruler of this house, is in the 2nd house, I assume that the best way to deal with this issue is gaining more self-esteem. you may be introverted due to your insecurity, and hence dealing with it will be crucial for you to solve this karmic lesson.

your 4th house is in aries. while outside you may appear as very polite, when you feel comfortable you actually become way more fiery. you’re very impulsive in your home environment, you could have actually been some sort of warrior. maybe you used to argue a lot with your parents, perhaps because they were too overprotective. it wasn’t totally peaceful, there were a few events that made you hold a grudge, maybe even subconsciously. it might be regarding a family member, or even a childhood mate. during your childhood, you weren’t much sad, though. it could be that your home environment was a bit intense at times, or maybe one of your parents is absent, emotionally or physically, but it was nothing too serious, as your mars isn't bad aspected at all.

your 5th house is in taurus. you are a very creative, artistic person. you’re able to relax by watching netflix, eating, writing, painting… anything that can be done at home. you’re not the type to hang out too often or party all night, you’re more of a homebody. you could also love sleeping in, just being able to stay in bed all day wearing comfy clothes is a vacation for you. you probably had to grow up sooner than others kids, you seemed much more serious and mature than them. but remember, while this placement gives you a strong sense of duty, it’s also important to nurture your creativity, especially since your placements indicate that you have a very strong imagination. in fact, I see you earning money thanks to your big dreams, you could surely be successful in a creative or artistic career. you could work behind the scenes, you could be a graphic designer, a photographer, a videomaker, a screenwriter, or you may even be a celebrity of any kind. you could also work in the beauty field, such as a mua, a hairdresser or as a stylist.

your 6th house is in gemini, with also saturn placed in this house. in your daily routine, especially at work, you have to communicate a lot. you come in contact with lots of people, or maybe you write stuff like blogs or books. generally, you have a very hectic schedule, as you have different hobbies and appointments that you can’t abandon. your ideal career has to include something that allows you to express your personal taste, ideas and interests. in this way, it won’t feel too heavy to you, and you’ll find pleasure in working. you probably thrive from being efficient not just at work, but also in your daily routine; you probably like having a schedule, a routine of any kind (like a diet or a skincare routine for example). with saturn here you could also be quite delicate , you may get sick easily and you could suffer from anxiety and any kind of throat/breathing disease. you may also have problems with your arms and hands.

your 7th house is in gemini, with also your jupiter sitting there. in a partner, you seek someone intelligent that is able to keep up with your rhythm. you don’t have time to nurture someone, you want them to fully understand you. in fact, you may be more attracted to older partners, as they’re supposed to be more mature. I don’t see many issues arising in your marriage life, it will probably be very peaceful, but it may take you a while to find someone you like. you’re a picky person when it comes to love, you want someone hard-working and responsible with a big brain, yet they should also be quite outgoing and funny. you need mental stimulation, someone that is a constant adventure for you and that is worth exploring. you may meet your future spouse at work, according to your chart. otherwise, you could meet them in a bank, in a restaurant, at a concert, at the mall… also, they could help you gaining more confidence in yourself. there's also a high chance that they're going to be foreign, you may meet abroad or perhaps they're going to travel to your country. you may be a people pleaser but you're overall a very romantic individual.

your 8th house is in cancer. you are a very private individual, you have trust issues and you only share your concerns with people you're sure you can trust. you tend to preserve yourself, even though it’s hard for you to repress your emotions, as they’re too to intense to bottle them up. you absorb people’s feelings like a sponge, there’s no way that you won’t instantly understand their real emotions. overall, you tend to overreact a lot; you have cancer's sensitive energy on one side and 8th house’s mysterious, almost scary vibe. dealing with these emotional burnouts may be stressing to you, as you totally get caught up in them. even if it looks like you get to know other people often, you actually don’t let others know you. you’re the type of person to talk and socialize, especially after your saturn return, but you never reveal your deepest fears and thoughts to strangers. you only open up to people you’re sure you can trust. when you’re angry, you can literally go as far as using violence; you need to let out your emotions by screaming, swearing… anything that can make you feel better. when you don’t get rid of all your negative vibes when angry, you may tend to get physically sick; you could get stomachaches, or maybe even headaches. there’s a secret, sensitive side in you that needs passionate and romantic partners in love. yet, you can’t help but feel more attracted to the ones that may hurt you badly. you’re possibly quite sensitive to entities too, like ghosts, spirits...

your 9th house is in virgo. you have a practical approach to philosophy and your thoughts in general. that is, you’re able to grasp a lot of information that makes you think more on your identity. you’re interested in psychology, and that explains why you decided to get your chart read after all. you were a perfectionist at school, and you probably had amazing grades. you are very justice-driven, you like learning new stuff and being the #1 at pretty much everything you care about. yet, you could be quite bossy at times, as you could come off as a bit too arrogant but you're just very dedicated. the ruler of the 9th house is in the 10th house: you could attract people in your life that are foreign, or perhaps open-minded people that are able to speak more than one language or are bicultural. this placement also indicates that you'll most likely get to work abroad, or perhaps you'll come in contact with people from all over the world, therefore you may have to speak another language or deal with new cultures.

your 10th house is in libra, with also your sun, mercury and venus. you have an eye for aesthetics, and you want to have a reputation for looking classy and mannered. basically a lady, but that knows how to stand up for himself. in your ideal career you need something that makes you express your need for beauty, possibly even justice. you may have a passion for poetry and literature in general, or maybe you could be particularly skilled at fashion. you have a natural talent to match colours with undertones, body shapes, vibes etc., and you could make this particular ability of yours a job. you’re also a charismatic, strong-willed speaker, hence you could also do well as a lawyer, a politician, an activist etc. your ideal career involves arts and aesthetics. you could become an artist, a writer, a poet, an actress, an interior designer, a stylist… this type of things. also, your career and indipendence are most likely to boost your self-esteem. in addition, you may also be able to get very well-paid, you could even be in the spotlight or famous.

your 11th house is in scorpio. you are extremely picky with your friends. you have a few trust issues, probably caused by your karmic issues again, that make you secretive around your friends. you may close yourself in your shell, or maybe you actually know a lot of people, yet you only consider a few of them your friends. most of the time, you may also befriend people that try to take advantage of you. or perhaps, since there’s a possibility that you understand that, you could be the one who leads the group and acts quite bossy. this is something that gets naturally better with time; actually, your friends will be of great help for you to grow up. you may have big dreams for your future, yet you may feel intimidated as they’re very intense, and hence hard to make come true. you need to pay your karmic debts in order to finally feel comfortable with others and have the motivation to achieve your long-term goals.

your 12th house is in sagittarius, with also pluto sitting in this house. you’re particularly interested in religion and higher beliefs, hence meditation would be effective for you. yet, you need to get enough sleep, or you could not be able to fully embrace the spirituality of this placement. you may also be able to have prophetic dreams, or at least they have a strong moral beyond them. venus in this house indicates that you may daydream about the perfect romance. you have strong ideals, you're a very fair person and you expect a lot from people, but you may sometimes be let down from others because of these high standards of yours. you most probably prefer being alone in your free time. you may be introverted, and hence you're surely not the type to attend parties or clubs. you may also have spiritual hobbies, such as yoga, meditation, astrology, tarots, religion, etc.

❤️ love life, soulmates

in love, you attract sagittarius, taurus, virgo, gemini and leo placements. your future spouse will most probably have virgo and leo placements, hence they’ll be very smart, patient and confident, but also very intelligent and a bit selfish. it may be love at first sight, and you may find them very attractive. you could meet them at work or most certainly abroad, there are many indicators in your chart of a foreign spouse. perhaps you could meet them during a vacation, or maybe in any kind of context where you need to speak another language. they may also be your soulmate, and you may dream of them often. your children are most likely going to have taurus placements, therefore they'll be very creative and affectionate, even though quite stubborn and materialistic.

👶🏻 family life

your mother is a very fiery, impulsive person, with a short-temper. she could have even been quite violent with you during your childhood, and she might have a few childish behaviours. deep down, she’s actually kind of insecure with her role as a mother. she may have aries, libra, scorpio or pisces placements in her chart. your father, on the other hand, is more submissive. he’s a peaceful person, even though he most probably has a passive-aggressive behaviour. you could actually have a better relationship with him rather than with your mother, or at least he understands your needs better. he may have libra, leo, virgo, gemini, aries or taurus placements in his chart. if you have siblings, they most probably have aries, pisces, cancer or aquarius placements in their chart. you may have an amazing relationship with them, you may understand each other very deeply and your bond could be quite emotional, even though you may argue from time to time.

📊 career

you could do well at a variety of jobs to be honest! with your gemini in the 6th house you could actually work in different fields before sticking to one career, hence you’re pretty experienced. I certainly see you being successful in your career, you will most likely work alone and you'll most likely be a boss. you're very hard-working, so I can see you having your own business for example. otherwise, you may also do well in an aesthetic field, or even more practical jobs like lawyer, judge, possibly also a therapist or psychologist. and again, you may work abroad, so maybe as a translator, as a teacher etc. you would also make a great singer, actress, writer, model, photographer... you'll basically get to communicate something in an artistic, creative way.

👚 fashion sense, style analysis

you’re very traditional about your clothes, maybe even basic. you’re the type to have lots of essential clothes in your wardrobe, e.g a white shirt, white t-shirt, jeans etc. you love wearing sophisticated, elegant fits. for example, you may be fond of wide leg jeans, or maybe flare trousers, boatneck sweaters, tiny jewellery… things like that, that are always a must have. you may fancy pastel colors, or even neutral shades like black, white, grey, beige etc. you’re also the type to follow fashion trends.

👁 past life, life purpose

in your past life, the focus was on yourself. maybe, you had troubles with self-esteem and identity in general. you had to work hard and finally understand who you were to fulfill your past life purpose. hence, this lifetime your focus will be on the bonds you create with others. even though at first you might feel almost scared to the idea of marriage, especially having mars in the 7th house, this lifetime you're here to develop this matter. after all, you may despise love for your troubled past. with your north node in the 7th house, you're naturally lucky in love. there's nothing to be afraid of, you only need to take small steps and open your heart to someone, putting your worries and insecurities aside.

🤔 major transits analysis / june 21st

last year was probably very rough for you. at least, you’re finally discovering the truth about who you are; you’re finally learning how to love yourself for who you are, without having to change. by the next year, you should be able to feel much more comfortable and confident. even though you may still face some hardships, don’t give up. you’ll come out of it as a stronger person. also, transit uranus in your 4th house is currently opposing your sun in the 10th house. there may be unfortunate and unpredictable events in your family environment, or maybe even regarding your physical house or privacy so beware of that.

🧿 manifest what you want, secret skills

with your water placements, you probably have a 6th sense. you’re able to manifest what you want if you subconsciously predict it, even though it may be hard. you’d have to get in touch with your higher self to do so, and hence I would suggest you to light up some candles and meditate for a bit before manifesting, in this way it will be way more effective. you may manifest something while daydreaming, for example. or perhaps, you can also try listening to your own affirmations while you sleep, as you won’t be consciously aware of that. it’s probably the most effective way.

and this is it! thank you again for booking a reading, hope it resonated with you :)

#astrology

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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What do you think of dick hability to read the body language in new 52 People act as it doesn't exist and it really bugs me because thats one of the few things i really liked from new 52

I actually really like it, and it fits with some longtime headcanons of mine, but it hasn’t been touched on enough that I can understand it rubbing some people the wrong way, due to Cass.

But its like I said in that post earlier this week, about how I think its pointless to be ‘possessive’ of character traits…..I think Dick is an expert hacker himself, but I don’t think he’s on Babs’ level. Nobody is on Barbara’s level. But his own expertise isn’t diminished because he’s not on the level of the pretty much undisputed best hacker in the DC Universe. Neither is Barbara’s expertise lessened by virtue of Dick, as well as Tim, Bruce and most of the rest of the Batclan, all being damn good at it in their own right.

I see it as being the same thing here. I like the idea that Dick is intuitive and highly capable when it comes to reading body language, for a number of reasons, but I don’t think it suddenly makes him Cass, means he’s as good at it as Cass, or that Cass being on a whole other level with that, being like…lessened or threatened because Dick’s own capabilities in that regard are touched on every now and again.

I’ve actually said this many times before, but I think this insistence so many fans have about their faves being the only ones associated with certain traits, stories or characteristics actually does them a disservice, because when you stop viewing things as a competition and instead look at it as a chance for common ground, you unveil SO many possibilities.

For instance, I’ve always felt, long before the New 52, that it makes sense for Dick to have a strong, unconscious understanding of body language….as in, he’s at the upper levels of what humans are naturally capable of having in that regard, which of course still puts him at an entirely different level than Cass, whose mastery of it is deliberately BEYOND peak human levels because of her own backstory.

But if you think about it, Dick having skills in that direction makes sense for him AND opens up a lot of areas for Dick and Cass to bond more AND have occasional conflict.

Dick is one of the only other Batkids aside from Cass AND Damian, who knows what its like to be raised literally from the time he can walk, to be a proficient athlete with complete control of his body as like…a lifestyle. The kind of demands that makes of someone, the way that instills certain work ethics and instincts in someone practically from birth, to such a degree that it probably NEVER becomes something he can wrap his mind around, that for some people, these kinds of habits AREN’T second nature, practically built into him….that’s something that I don’t think even some of the other most highly capable athletes in the DC universe are fully capable of grasping…like Bruce, Tim, Jason, Dinah, etc. Obviously this doesn’t lessen any of their skills or proficiency as athletes, just as professional athletes who don’t start training in their chosen fields until later in childhood can be just as capable as ones who started in early childhood. But it makes I think, for a slightly different mindset.

I think this is part of why Dick understands Damian so much better or more easily than a lot of others do. Because Damian was raised this way too, just with different end goals than Dick. Dick can’t relate to being raised to kill, to stamp down on his urge to show affection, the specific training methods of the League with someone as young as Damian, no. But that unconscious, built in awareness of his own body in ways that even a lot of other athletes or fighters never develop just because they approach their bodies and training so differently…that I think Dick gets, and because of that he gets Damian and his own work ethic, and the way that telling him to not push himself so hard or take it easy at times….like is going to be totally wasted on Damian, FOR THE SAME REASONS those things have so often been wasted on Dick.

Telling someone to be careful not to strain or overwork their body is not going to carry a whole lot of weight with a twelve year old kid who has spent ten of those twelve years being instilled with a greater awareness of his own body and capabilities than anyone else will EVER grasp….let alone someone who only met them a year or two ago (notice how this applies to both Damian AND Dick).

Similarly, causing people to worry when they go throw themselves into an extremely rigorous workout routine in the name of ‘relaxing or de-stressing’ is always going to be a thing, when other people just fundamentally don’t get that for someone raised from birth to eat, sleep and breathe their own physicality….this IS relaxing.

So IMO Dick and Damian have at least that much in common, which has given Dick particular insight into Damian that others don’t have, and helped him get further in reaching Damian and developing a bond with him. And extend this to Cass and her own backstory, and I think they all three have this in common, and thus could share this understanding between all three of them….thus giving Cass more opportunities and ways to bond with Dick and Damian in particular.

Continue on for ten thousand more words (lol, I wish I was exaggerating. Oh, me) of Dick Meta, Cass Meta, and Dick and Cass Meta, below the cut:

Now, add in the fact that Dick wasn’t just raised from birth to be a world-class athlete, like Cass was…..but as I often stress, just as important….he was raised from birth to be a PERFORMER. This is where I think his instinctive awareness of body language would have come from. Because he was raised to do all of his athletics with apparent ease, to show none of the strain it takes, to make it look like art, like the performance that it so usually was. And he was also raised to not just perform for a crowd, but to command their attention, to draw eyes, to feed off their energy and use that to tailor his own performances, his every action, to achieve maximum impact.

Don’t forget Dick was a world-class acrobat as a CHILD. He was quite literally a child prodigy….and people LOVE meeting a child prodigy. Something like the encounter with the Drakes’ that’s part of Tim’s own backstory would have been an every day occurrence to Dick. Which means it was every bit as likely a part of his early training to be able to glean from the rich strangers that wanted a photo op with the young, exhausted child performer that probably just wanted to go to bed now….exactly what would go over best with those strangers, expedite this encounter, and enable Dick to move on to the next one or better yet, out of the tent ASAP.

I’ve talked about the classism Dick endures just by virtue of being a circus performer…its never been about how much money he and his parents did or didn’t have, its about the fact that most people look down on circus performers as like…an amusement to enjoy, not athletes to respect. You can’t deny that people summoning to mind an Olympic level gymnast would view that gymnast in an entirely different way than they would a Cirque de Soleil acrobat they called to mind, even if they had similar levels of athletic skill….because as a society, we regard something like the Olympics as a WORTHY pursuit for an athlete of that caliber….whereas one might sit in the audience of a circus and enjoy the performance, but that doesn’t mean most people walk out of that tent thinking of what they just saw in terms of the SKILL rather than their entertainment, because there’s this unconscious bias that like….if one wanted to actually be respected for their athletics, they’d aim for the Olympics, not to wear gaudy costumes and face paint and travel around in a caravan and never put up roots in any one place, etc.

Our view of the circus goes well back before Dick’s creation, even, but its very much there. You simply can’t argue that most people give circus performers the respect their skillsets deserve and would merit in other situations…..and you bet your ass, someone like Dick who was raised as one, would have been instilled from a very young age with an awareness of how to glean when someone was treating him with disdain…and respond without offending them, but still not necessarily letting them impact him with their disdain.

Because one of the things I don’t think I’ve ever talked much about is how for as much as we talk about Dick’s self esteem issues and insecurities in regards to Bruce…..the boy Bruce first took in as an orphan was NOT overly insecure. If anything, Dick was the complete opposite. He knew EXACTLY what he was capable of, and was not shy about insisting upon it. I would say by all accounts and reading between the lines, the Graysons did a tremendous job in instilling in Dick from a young age an amazing degree of self-confidence….WHICH probably accounts for a LOT of the later conflict between Dick and Bruce, because it was never just a matter of Dick not getting the vocal or visible respect or appreciation from Bruce that he wanted….it was that Bruce wasn’t giving him it in the forms he’d been raised with, and grown accustomed to.

Its that disconnect that I think Dick has always struggled with…where he KNOWS, on some level, that Bruce loves and respects him, and holds enormous appreciation for Dick’s own skills….but Dick only knows this because of….well, what he gleans from Bruce’s body language and his own awareness of Bruce and his nature. He has to read between the lines, and still be left guessing (since Bruce is himself pretty much a master of obscuring his own emotions and body language, in as much as anyone is, to the extent that only someone like Cass can willfully pierce that shroud).

But my point is, there’s every reason in the world to think that Dick’s parents were very good at preparing their world-class prodigy son for the pressures of the spotlight he grew up in, and heavily prioritized making sure he wasn’t going to be diminished by the disdain of whatever snobs he encountered during the meet and greet portion of that lifestyle. And to be good at that, to know how to manage people who make you want to put your fist in their face while giving away nothing but a nod and smile, and still manage to seize enough control over the encounter to walk away with your head held high rather than feeling like you were just thrown to the wolves….that takes a high mastery of body language and an instinctive grasp of how to read people and put them at ease, to seize control of a conversation from someone who is used to having control at all times in all places. You have to know how to PERFORM, at all times. And in this regard, Dick was every bit as much a prodigy as he was in his acrobatics.

IMO Dick Grayson on his A-game could make Brucie weep in envy. I think this training, this ability to read people with just a look and adapt himself accordingly, to make the most of the encounter while giving up the least along the way….I think its absolutely nothing that Bruce himself taught him, that Dick already came to Gotham with, and its what ACTUALLY enabled Dick to survive the lifestyle and spotlight that Bruce’s lifestyle and spotlight made Dick grow up in. Its what enables Dick to handle the pressures of leadership and get along so well with his various teammates, coordinate dissenting personalities well enough to create teams that are famous for how well they gel and work together in battle no matter what they’re like when interacting in civilian arenas. Bruce, for all his skills, is notoriously not a people person. He knows how to manage people. He struggles with understanding them. And this has always been where in comparison to Bruce, Dick soars.

He didn’t learn any of what he knows about being a people person from Bruce. But he sure as hell learned it SOMEWHERE.

And I think that somewhere is in the circus, with his parents and whatever other various babysitters he picked up things along the way from. A kid as friendly and outgoing as Dick would have been soaking things up from all the circus performers like a sponge, I bet. Little tips and tricks of the trade from not just the knife-throwers, as is occasionally referenced….but also the fortune teller and ringmaster and clowns and magicians and escape artists. A couple dozen varieties of different masters of their own crafts, with one thing in common of all of them….all their crafts rely on performing. On reading an audience, even audiences of one. And selling that audience exactly what they’re looking for from that performance.

Let’s not forget that for all Dick’s insecurities and self-esteem issues as an adult….those almost unilaterally exist in regards to his family and closest friends. For the same reasons as he struggles with these things with Bruce….because they’re not great at showing Dick the respect and appreciation he needs from THEM, SPECIFICALLY….in the forms he would recognize, the forms he was raised since birth to receive and recognize as such, when his parents and circus family gave him these things.

Outside matters pertaining to just his family and closest friends, however, Dick is not remotely insecure. There’s a huge chasm between the former and the latter, in terms of how Dick acts and conducts himself. And its probably a large part of why Dick is so adept at not giving away to his family that he’s more in need of their acknowledgment and support than they realize….because Dick spends so MUCH of his life genuinely not giving a shit what most people think about him or say about him….he’s that much more proficient at wearing that as a mask when interacting even with his family of detectives, who are pretty good at reading even him in a lot of other aspects.

Because I maintain that Dick absolutely endured a hell of a lot of classism and racism growing up, and still does….which is not okay no matter how well he endures it….but he for the most part clearly doesn’t let this constant barrage effect his general self-esteem, and that is fairly important to note. Just as is the fact that like….he calls himself Dick, by his own choice, because its more important to him that he hold on to what he can of his parents, every last physical reminder he has available to him….and thus I think its especially shitty to write his second family using his parents’ fond nickname for him as a joke or insult, and probably hurts Dick when they do it….but the rest of the time? The general public making him a punchline for it? Dick could give a fuck. Same with general opinions of his costumes and what he looked like as Robin or early Nightwing, etc, etc.

Dick Grayson is not an insecure person overall….and that I credit entirely to his first parents, the Graysons.

All of this feeds into that overall awareness of body language, reading people for emotional cues and ways to survive a lifetime in the spotlight without being consumed by it…and without alienating people in the process, because a performer needs an audience, and growing up in a circus taught Dick early on that he had to find a way to end these encounters with asshole patrons in a way that kept his head held high but DIDN’T cost the circus - his family - their patronage in the future.

(Another reason I maintain Dick’s oh so infamous temper has been vastly more inflated than fits either canon evidence of it OR his overall characterization…..a man who has been raised from birth in the spotlight and constantly exposed to people who look down on him….like, KNOWS how to control his temper. I’m sorry, he just does, lol. This is basic understanding of human awareness. If your entire life is in one spotlight or another, be it the circus then Wayne Manor and Page Six, as well as being one of the most focused on superheroes in the entire cape community….and you’re somehow overall regarded in all public perceptions as charming….you do NOT have an infamous temper. You just don’t. People love to shove public figures off their pedestals whenever possible….and in both his civilian and superhero personas, Dick Grayson is on very high pedestals. There is no way in hell his general reputation in any of his communities would be anything close to what it is if he actually has as short and nasty of a temper as people love to spin him as having, because of a dozen scenes taken mostly out of context, over the course of 80 years as a high profile character. I’ll stop harping on this one when it stops being the first thing to come to mind when people cite a ‘flaw’ of his.)

Going back to reasons for him to have such a mastery of body language in his own right….Dick was also raised from birth to do his routines as part of a TROUPE, a group of athletes, not just singular by himself. Thus, a TON of what he was raised practicing every day….would have included reading his family’s body language for cues on what to do next. Watching for signs that something might be wrong or off even just by a second and requiring that he adjust his own movements to compensate for that, when they’re all fifty feet in the air and with the crowd cheering so loudly they couldn’t possibly communicate with words….this could literally be a matter of life and death for a troupe of performers whose reputation hinged on them being death-defying in their stunts.

Yes, in most continuities its stressed that his parents didn’t let Dick perform the most dangerous routines with them yet, due to his age…..but that doesn’t mean they weren’t preparing him for them as early as humanly possible, given that its never too early to start working on various skills that are integral to these kinds of things.

And with one of the most fundamental and essential skills needed to be part of a group of performers who excel at dangerous routines being communication, this is all the more reason to think they were probably teaching Dick from a very young age to pick up on body language and watch for even the slightest hints of different indicators of stress, fatigue, anxiety, fear, etc.

Because compensating for something going wrong with a partner’s part of a routine can be essential in matters of teamwork. (Again, just gotta give a shout out to the Flying Graysons here, because its not stated enough that everything Dick knows about being a solo vigilante, he learned from Bruce, but everything he knows about teamwork is either instinctive or built in, OR learned from his parents, part of a team). And most of the time, when we’re talking about shifting position just enough while fifty feet above a crowd in order to make a catch of a partner that launched with not quite enough momentum or is overshooting their mark….compensating or cheating one’s own routine just enough to be there for your partner is the kind of thing that needs to happen in a SPLIT-SECOND…..like, with you making the adjustment the micro-second you realize its necessary….which means you have to be picking up the slightest hint of it the second it shows up in their body language, like a….what’s the word…oh yeah. A pro.

And given that these acrobats were all performers as much as athletes, with it being a given that their performances needed to appear as light and carefree at possible at all times, for the sake of the crowd….they couldn’t afford to give away obvious tells of anxiety, stress or exhaustion, had to keep a performer’s mask of total poise and control at all times throughout their routines….which makes it all the more likely Dick’s own ability to read body language and instinctive or hidden cues is exceptional….as he had to be trained from early on to be able to see behind those masks and read his parents and family for tells even while they were doing their professional best to keep those very tells hidden so that nobody would pick up on them…unless they were a master of reading such things.

So all in all, I believe that among however many languages Dick Grayson was taught from a very early age as part of a globe-trotting circus….one of those was body language itself, even if it was never actually couched in those terms, as though it were an actual language being taught the way it was regarded as such for Cass….as for Dick and his family, it was probably just regarded as tools of the trade, a necessary component of the performer and acrobat toolbox Dick was raised familiarizing himself with from as early as he began walking and talking.

Which brings us back to Cassandra…..as stated, I think Dick is exceptional at reading body language, with as much mastery of that as is possible at peak human potential…..but, that doesn’t make him the equal of Cass, whose own skills in that regard are beyond even that, due to the precise and comic book nature of her own origin. And how her father did something similar but for totally different reasons and no regard whatsoever for Cassandra’s well-being.

So I don’t think there’s any reason that Dick being the next best at reading and reacting to body language takes anything away from Cass being the undisputed master of that, and interpreter of the Batfamily’s hidden emotional cues.

In fact, allowing Dick to be acknowledged as adept at reading body language benefits her character….as she’s so often solely used as the interpreter of the emotionally stunted Batfamily’s attempted repression of their emotional cues. Basically just being treated as a plot device rather than a character in her own right.

As much as I project onto Dick and thus talk about fandom’s neglect of various facets of his character, it can’t be denied that the same is true of Cass….times ten.

Fanfics spend WAY more time using Cass to establish or well, tattle on various Batfamily members’ emotions than they spend on giving Cass emotions of her own in regards to whatever situation is going on in a given scene.

And since Dick is so often used as the family mediator or peacemaker anyway, this doesn’t actually change anything about his own role in things….it merely supplies a concrete reason for why he so often is defaulted into that position, and so good at it, despite his family’s overall emotional constipation. He has to be amazing not just at teamwork, but reading hidden emotions as well, in order to manage his family and their various arguments even just as well as he does already.

(Just a quick clarification…earlier when I noted that Dick’s own insecurities largely stem from the Batfamily and not always knowing or trusting where he stands with them….its not that he has no ability to read them despite their own very well crafted performer masks. Its just that as good as he is, he’s still never going to be as good at this as Cassandra is, and there’s still going to be things he misses, or things he misinterprets. And additionally, the problem remains, that he shouldn’t HAVE to glean any hints of familial love, respect and appreciation from his family’s body language. When he’s constantly relying on subtext and body language to reassure himself that they really do love and appreciate him, its inevitable that sooner or later self-doubts and second guessing are going to start to creep in. So its not that Dick doesn’t ever see these things in his family’s body language. Its that over time, I believe this has progressed to the point where even when he sees these cues, he second guesses himself as to whether he’s actually seeing things that are there, or just seeing what he wants to see. And since none of them are exactly making a point to validate what he sees or thinks he sees with actual validation in indisputable forms, like verbal confirmation of this…eventually, Dick’s own skills reading body language become irrelevant here, since he himself is aware he’s an unreliable narrator when trying to narrate what his family’s body language is saying. He wants it to be saying all the things he uses to assuage whatever hurt he feels for not hearing them tell him these things…thus he’s too aware of his own bias when reading them for cues to actually trust any of the cues he reads, that could otherwise confirm this.)

Anyway. So acknowledging or even emphasizing Dick’s own exceptional abilities with body language would actually be to Cassandra’s benefit, I maintain. Because without expecting anything of Dick that isn’t already expected of him and his role in canon and fandom, it merely provides additional support for the idea he’s good at playing family mediator even with as emotionally repressed most of their family is. Thus freeing up Cass from constantly being looked to as the interpreter for all the things most of their family have trouble saying….and allowing for more focus to be paid to her own emotions. And letting her HAVE them, in the first place.

Because we have to talk about the elephant in the room here: racism in regards to Cass. The quiet, stoic, normally serene and beatific Asian martial arts master is a racist as hell trope, and its one that makes all too frequent an appearance when Cass is used at all in fics. AND canon.

Its not that Cass can’t be all those things at various times. Its that they can’t be ALL that she is. At ALL times. (And that, for the record, she’s not usually ANY of those things in canon that actually tries to develop her rather than use her as a one-note trope in its own right. Cassandra Cain…serene? LOLOL. Please, I don’t know who you’re talking about, but it ain’t the Cass I know and love).

First of all, give her a sense of humor, because she has one, and its amazing. You’ll note I make a point whenever I write her to emphasize her having a kind of dry, sardonic wit that is not at all opposed at being at her siblings’ expense, lol. I mean, its not like that’s the only take possible on her, or even just her sense of humor, I just mean…have one. Humor is one of the most telling representatives of a person’s characterization. By that I mean, a person’s sense of humor is one of the things we most initially associate with them in our mind, and a character having a distinct sense of humor is one of the easiest and best ways to develop them as having their own character voice, something that marks them as distinct in your awareness from other characters. Where if you close your eyes and picture them in a scene, what comes out when they talk, like, to make a joke….isn’t interchangeable with just any other character. It sounds or feels like them, specifically.

And just FYI, you might have an easier time writing Cass making jokes if you allow her to form full sentences. She can speak English, has been written speaking English quite well in the past, and the insistence on broken English when writing her that way in canon is shitty and racist in and of itself anyway, so those particular takes on her don’t need to be respected let alone emulated in fanfiction. Let Cass Speak English In Complete Sentences 2KForever. She’ll still be Cass, I promise you. But the changes made to her brain in canon that allowed her to finally learn spoken languages years after her brain had finished developing, like, that happened early enough after Cass’ debut that there’s really no excuse for writing fic where she’s been part of the family for years and still hasn’t picked up a strong grasp of English.

Y’know how I’m always saying the entire Batfamily are ALL Mary Sues, they are a family of Mary Sues, that is pretty much their high concept as a group, that they’re a composite of the most otherwise competent people in the world and completely emotionally incompetent at the same time? Like, it applies here, because as I also harp on a lot about, I think all of the Batfamily are actual literal geniuses, and I do mean all. Cassandra included. She’s a master of her own many areas of expertise and thus IMO more than capable of picking up languages fairly quickly once the canon barrier to her doing that earlier in life is removed. It just looks and sounds weird and suspect, to insist on writing her as never moving past broken English, IMO.

And also, like, she doesn’t need to ever be as talkative as Steph, nor do I think would it fit her to be written that way either, but there’s a very wide range of options between that and hardly ever talking at all. I do think she defaults to being one of the more quiet ones in a room, as in one of the last to speak….but give her reasons to be that way, instead of just more imitation of our media’s racist insistence on treating Asian characters as the quiet, all-knowing keepers of sage wisdom who only share their truths once you’ve made the trek up to their mountain top.

So again just in terms of my own personal take, I tend to write Cass as being one of the last to speak up when around people she’s not as familiar with, because its her version of keeping her back to the wall of a room so no one can sneak up behind and surprise her. She’s only quiet at first in my stuff because focusing on using conversations to glean as much information as she can about the people in them before jumping in is just like, a form of intel-gathering for her and her past left her with a tendency to be as overly cautious in her own way as the rest of her family, and this is what her way looks like.

(Dick puts on his performer’s mask, Jason blusters and leads with bravado, Damian adopts a position of superiority and will only climb down once you sufficiently peak his interest, Tim recites facts and trivia and likes to bore people he dislikes into submission so you give up and go away, Duke is the family member who really makes friends so easily that any time he makes enemies, his friends have already plotted to destroy you before Duke even gets around to trying to do that himself, Babs has already hacked your bank account and credit rating by the time you open your mouth and thus feels no social anxiety whatsoever as worst comes to worst, she can always just tank your credit score to make herself feel better, and upon meeting you for the first time, Steph either adopts you or punches you in the throat, depending on which way her gut is leaning. As for Bruce, well. He’s terrified of pretty much all social settings, but he’d have to actually admit to that for the first time in recorded human history before anyone could actually cite what ‘his way’ of dealing with social interactions he’s wary of might be. I mean, its basically just ‘Brucie’, but you get what I mean.)

So I mean, its not inherently bad to write Cass as being quieter than the rest of her siblings, and you don’t need her quoting Shakespeare back and forth with Jason in order to prove you’re not writing her speaking broken English. Its just. Do some digging in her head before settling in and writing what you’ve found there. Actually TRY getting in her head in the first place. Spruce it up a bit, redecorate your surroundings, make it feel lived in and homey. Give it CHARACTER. Whenever you write a character choice, in my personal opinion, you should, if asked, be able to back up that character choice by having a reason you feel the character would choose that.

For me, I write Cass being the quietest of her siblings in social settings simply because she’s doing recon first, and of her various skillsets, spoken language is the one she’s mastered most recently and thus she has the least familiarity with….and thus is the last thing she turns to in any given situation, because she’d rather go down the list and run through every other skill she has to see if it could apply here, before resigning herself to having to converse with the person in front of her because she doesn’t think Bruce would accept “I didn’t know how else to change the subject” as a justification for stabbing someone in a non-vital and easily healed location that had the fringe benefit of rapid bloodloss leading to them passing out fairly quickly.

And of course, none of this applies with Batfamily, because she is comfortable with her family for the most part, and thus when I write her being the most quiet in those group scenes, its because she prefers listening their just purely because she finds her siblings’ antics entertaining. And also because I view her as being as batshit competitive as the rest of them, so IMO she’s always plotting the perfect conversational one-hit KO to have at the ready before she wades in. Because in the Batfamily, even ordinary conversations are something you can and should win. Otherwise, what’s even the point? LOL.

Also in terms of my own stuff, I tend to write Cass and Tim as having very similar forms of wit, and my personal take on them is that they both have just slightly different degrees of that same dry, sardonic kind of commentary, as their primary display of humor. This doesn’t necessarily always match their canon characterizations and how they display humor there - but its due to the fact that they’re two of the characters canon most rarely allows to show a sense of humor in recent years, and it tends to be all over the place more often than not. This is a major departure from how they both were portrayed in the 90s, where Tim’s humor was much more consistently in line with what I’m describing…and thus, so was Cassandra’s, when she debuted and developed her own primary characterization.

So basically, I consider Tim to be a major influence on Cass’ humor….or more accurately, in the shape her own sense of humor more commonly takes. Because it was with and around Tim that Cass first started to pick up a lot of social cues and explore her own sense of self for pretty much the first time in her life.

Stephanie’s humor, by contrast is a lot more loud and gregarious and in your face….which when you put the three of them in scene together as a trio, like they once spent a lot of time as, positions her as an extremely different version of the ‘straight man’ to their comedic duo. Because Steph doesn’t need anyone to back up or appreciate her own humor, she’s already landing the punchlines way before anyone else has even had time to think of any, and she doesn’t care what the reception is, the lovable loudmouth goof that she is. Which allows for Cass and Tim to sigh behind her and exchange sidelong glances and kinda….narrate her theatrics in that ‘faces the camera like they’re on The Office’ sort of way, which I mean, I personally find hilarious when they do it, and she’s not remotely bothered by, because like, she’s fucking hilarious and anyone who doesn’t get that is simply wrong and needs to be pitied, if you ask her.

Anyway, that’s just why my own depictions of Cass and Tim share a lot of their humor in common and some of their other characteristics….they’re the ones Cass either consciously or unconsciously picked up from Tim, as he was one of the first people for her to genuinely feel comfortable around and thus someone she trusted to both have knowledge of and mastery over the various social cues she was now finding she needed to learn because of her new environments.

(Of course, this is one of the times where Cass was dead wrong about something, IMO, as she might have overestimated Tim’s mastery of certain specific social cues and her body-language reads have her aware people aren’t responding her own attempts at mimicking them in the way she’s fairly confident they should be, and she’s not sure what she’s doing wrong there. Oh well. She’s still better off than if she’d picked Bruce to emulate there. When she asked him, he’d stiffened and radiated such intense discomfort, even Steph froze in mid-ramble as she sensed it on even the complete opposite side of the Cave.)

ANYWAY. Wrapping up THAT particular tangent and cycling back around to Dick and Cass having skill with reading body language in common….I think this could also be a huge opportunity to write Dick having a dynamic with Cass that’s unique to just the two of them and distinct from the dynamics they have with the rest of their family. Not to give them a super special bond but just because I mean, all the sibling dynamics between the various individual Batkids should ideally have their own flavor, because nobody interacts with two different siblings in the same way. Each sibling is their own unique individual, and thus should have their own unique dynamic when interacting with them.

So I like to headcanon Dick and Cass in private being the family gossips. They love dishing on the rest of the family with just each other….and being the two most skilled at seeing behind their family’s masks (and thus what their family most wants to keep hidden, to varying degrees), they have more dirt on everyone else than most intelligence agencies have on their nations’ enemies. Of course, they’re both staunchly moral, so they would never ever use their powers here for evil, or to hurt or embarrass their family.

They would, however, occasionally indulge in snickers and giggles about it behind closed doors. Look, shut up, they’re BONDING, they have childhood trauma, its fine.

And if Cassandra’s superior skills with body language means she inevitably has more gossip to share with Dick than vice versa, that’s okay, she’s still more than happy to share. He’s the one who introduced her to the joys of gossip, after all, so if anyone’s entitled to it, its him.

I also headcanon that because they’re both the best at reading body language, there are occasions when in group environments or just at the dinner table with the whole family, they both happen to pick up on certain cues or be aware that a sibling is lying through their teeth about something or being full of shit, and then catch each other’s eye and give the faintest of eye rolls or ‘can you believe they’re falling for this.’ Which sometimes other siblings catch, because Cass and Dick have forgotten to be subtle about it. Or did they not forget anything, and are just being trolls and instigating shit for the giggles? Who can say. Probably just them, which they find quite fun.

In fact, its slightly possible that the rest of the family, ever since Cass joined them, have developed a slightly inflated estimation of Dick’s own skills with reading body language, and now credit him with more of a mastery of it than even he actually possesses.

See, I have this one headcanon that every now and then, just to mess with their family, Dick and Cass make a point to hold a silent conversation in front of them. You know that thing people who know each other really well do with just their eyes, like managing to convey certain impressions to each other just by being expressive enough in ways and about things they’re pretty sure the other person will get and be on the same wavelength about?

Yeah, that, but Cass and Dick do it without exaggerated facial expressions. And for like. Ten whole minutes. Meanwhile, Tim’s like: “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not buying any of this” and then determinedly ignoring them. Jason’s annoyed because he can’t actually ever seem to ignore them, and then this builds into something like: “You guys better not be talking about me behind my back. Or I mean, right in front of my face. Whatever. And you definitely better not be talking about Tim right in front of his face and not including me!” Steph just keeps continuing on with whatever she’s doing, entirely unbothered, because she knows if they’re actually communicating anything important (or even slightly of interest to her), she’s sure she can get Cass to tell her later. And she’s not wrong, of course. Duke just shakes his head and feels better about being slightly jealous due to how funny it is watching it get under everyone else’s skin, but in the name of not feeling left out, he joins in on shit-talking Dick and Cass in order to have Vengeance. “B, didn’t you ever teach them its rude to exclude people from your conversation? You know, some people would say its never to late to ground your children.”

Damian, by stark contrast to the rest, completely abandons whatever else he’s doing to watch them both as intently as he can for as long as they persist. As he’s probably third in line behind the two of them when it comes to instinctive grasp of body language, due to the whole ‘being raised to read/scan others for as much information as possible just from their movements. Y’know. In case you have to kill them.’ In his case, his full grasp of it was hindered by seemingly being taught to dismiss certain specific emotions as irrelevant or a weakness, and though Dick and the rest of the family have by now done a pretty good job at getting him slowly but surely past all of that, its like retraining himself, trying to consciously now pick up on cues that he spent a decade discarding and moving past the second he saw them.

But he’s determined to become as adept at reading body language now as even Grayson is, at least, even if his implicit acceptness that he’ll never have the same mastery their sister does is fully internalized and something he’ll never admit to, even on pain of death. Both Dick and Cass have at various times offered to help him with it, but he refuses as a point of pride….he wants to do it himself. So every time they have one of these ‘conversations’ in front of the family, he drops everything else he does and scrutinizes them for the whole thing like he’s a codebreaker sure that in time, he’ll crack the code and all its secrets will be revealed. (Mostly, its more like he dreams of the day he’s become good enough at it that he and Dick can hold silent conversations like this and he can rub it in Drake’s face. Hah! It will be glorious, Internal Damian insists).

Even Bruce himself isn’t entirely sure whether or not Dick and Cass are fully communicating the whole time they converse like this, or just faking it for funsies. It frustrates him to no end that he’s yet to figure out a way to just…ask them, without giving away that he doesn’t actually already know the answer, and that’s BUGGING THE CRAP OUT OF HIM, C’MON!!

(Of course, both Dick and Cass have fully picked up on his frustration and thus realized he’s as clueless as the rest of the family, and its this precise thing that they spend most of these ‘conversations’ silently giggling about to each other).

And in terms of fleshing Cass out…..part of what frustrates me so much about the excuse people give for focusing on certain negative fanon takes on Dick, that its done to make him more interesting, because no one’s perfect….

Its never been that this claim, in and of itself, is untrue. The problem I’ve always had with it is they add in ‘flaws’ in the name of making Dick more realistic, while at the same time ignoring plenty of material that’s already present in Dick’s character…but which focusing on, would require people spend more time and insight on him than they want to. Just making Dick angry and ‘remind people he has a temper’ is quick and easy, in comparison.

However, the other part of why this claim bugs me so much is because it IS valid and applies to fanon’s two dimensional takes of two other characters….who are never written with any kind of flaws which is part of why they come across as fairly superficial in a lot of works. And that’s Duke and Cass. When they show up at all, their usage is VERY superficial, and like….I don’t think I’ve ever read something with either of them, where they were written having a conflict with another member of the family, other than just sometimes Cass not liking Jason because of his stance on killing. (And usually this is in Jason-centric fics, so its not really in the name of fleshing out Cass so much as making Jason more misunderstood and Cass the bad guy for not respecting that okay he kills people, but only because he’s very sad, she should be able to see that, ugh have a heart).

So, I also headcanon there is a slightly negative dynamic between Dick and Cass specifically, albeit one Dick himself is not aware of.

(And also complicated by the fact that as much as I gripe about Dick being perceived as having negative dynamics with the rest of his siblings that are all his fault, Cass is the ONE sibling this is ACTUALLY true of, even if it was only really in one story, Redemption Road. I go into that in more depth in another meta, but long story short it was after she was brainwashed by Deathstroke and killed because he made her, and Dick was written as wary and untrusting of her return, not because he didn’t like her - they’d already spent a lot of time in years before this bonding - but rather because he didn’t trust that they could be totally sure the brainwashing was gone yet, and thought Bruce was being too relaxed about that. I maintain this is a callback to his own issues with that time he was brainwashed by Brother Blood and people were a lot less great at understanding in the aftermath that a lot of his choices hadn’t been his to actually make, and that there was bitterness here on his part for Cass getting the understanding and support from Bruce that we never saw Dick get when it was him in a similar position. Kinda a Prodigal Son type vibe. But point being, this was a brief period and it didn’t last, but it is there so there’s interesting potential to have Dick and Cass not DISLIKE each other by any means, but just at times be slightly uncomfortable around each other and trying their best to hide it...from the one other person in the family most capable of/likely to pick up on it).

So what I think it is on Cass’ part, the discomfort/slight ‘not quite sure how I feel about this’ aspect of things.... Like, its just a headcanon, and one where in my head she’s put a lot of effort into making sure he never ever picks up on this particular thing from her. Because she’s not proud of it. At all.

Even if pride is really the problem.

See, I’ve long believed that out of the entire Batclan, Dick is the only person who can ever beat Cass in a fight. Even compared to Bruce.

And to be clear, its not like Dick can always beat Cass. Or even often. At most, its still maybe like, two fights out of ten. And its not deliberate, like something he can do or capitalize on consciously.

But for someone like Cass, who otherwise is pretty much undefeated unless she’s going up against her own mother, Lady Shiva….even two fights out of ten is a lot.

And it bugs her, more than she cares to admit.

Because she is as competitive in her own ways as the rest of her family. She does have her own ego about certain things, like everyone else does. And David Cain, monster that he was, raised her to be the best there is, at one thing and one thing only: fighting. As much as she hates him, as much as she hates her childhood and what was done to her, how much she missed out on and the things she still feels left out for not understanding or grasping the way she thinks she should…..alongside all that has always been at least an awareness that at least there is one thing that came out of it: she is the best. Absent her mother, who one day she will fully and consistently surpass, everyone including Lady Shiva believes…as much as Cass hates her father and everything he did to her and why, she’s still at times taken a certain sort of pride in her skills in fighting. At least in that one slight respect, even if its not something she would have chosen, had she ever been given a choice….at least it had worked, had done what it’d been intended to.

Except for when it comes to Dick. Who will probably always be able to beat her, maybe two times out of ten. No matter how much more she grows in her skills. There’s that one or two times every now and then, where it will always be a toss-up, as likely to go to him as to her.

And its not something that Dick’s even aware of giving him a specific edge when it comes to fighting her, and its not something he could capitalize on even if he were aware of it.

See, as much as fighting is second nature to Cass, as instinctive as breathing…it goes hand in hand with her ability to read body language. That’s her edge, the one variable that no one else can compete with or match her on, the thing that will always put her in a class of her own…..the one result of specific training that was crafted specifically to create this one result.

You can’t separate Cassandra’s fighting prowess from her ability to read body language. They are one and the same, even if she can use the latter for other things too, and even if her fighting prowess isn’t JUST due to her ability to read body language. Which its not, by any means. BUT, regardless, she can’t train herself out of a reliance on body language while fighting….especially not to fight one person in specific, her own brother, and even there pretty much just out of pride.

Because the slight advantage Dick has over everyone else when facing her, is that like her, he’s one of the only fighters out there who was trained from birth to have an almost inhuman mastery of his own body, to be at the peak of human capability in specific regards. Even though his training wasn’t at all in the arena of fighting, at least not before he was taken in by Bruce. For Dick as well as Cass, there are certain things that are so fundamental to him, so ingrained into his movements because they were taught to him at the same time as he was taught to walk, the one being every bit as natural as the other.

And acrobatics was only one of these things. Performing was the other.

Y’see, the one variable Cass can’t totally account for every single time she spars with Dick….is that Dick’s body lies.

Like I said earlier on….its not just reading body language that Dick was likely raised to do, albeit in different, less rigorous ways than Cass. He was also taught from an equally early age how to DISPLAY body language. Or rather, a specific kind of body language.

My headcanon is that because as early as he began learning acrobatics, Dick was taught acrobatics with an eye towards performing, specifically. Since that was what his family did. And the one thing performers like the Flying Graysons always, always have to do…is perform with a smile.

So it was probably drilled into Dick from an early age, even if it wasn’t couched in these terms or even consciously thought of in this specific way…..but while taught the fundamental components of a flip, breaking it down into each individual micro-movement expected of his body in order to achieve the optimal flip for performing in front of a crowd…..one of those micro-movements, for Dick…was a smile.

Its as fundamental to his acrobatics as every other command his conscious AND subconscious mind sends to the various muscle groups he uses in his routines and now in his fighting even. I think its a large part of why quips and banter and grins are so intrinsic to his fighting as well. He doesn’t KNOW how to be anything else. Bruce probably tried to train it out of him before realizing or accepting that focusing on just making Dick not smile while backflipping over an opponent was detrimental, if not merely just unnecessary. Its just second nature to Dick, as much as reading body language is to Cass.

His own training from the time he could walk, put just as much emphasis on ensuring that no matter how he felt during a performance, no matter how exhausted he was or how stressed, whether he was having a bad day or was just cranky or mad at his parents or mad about something someone in the crowd said or just didn’t feel like practicing his routines today….he did it all with a smile, an easy, effortless grin, as though he was lighter than air and nothing he did was taking a toll on his body, it was all equally effortless.

Combine that with the fact that for Dick, because of what his training was FOR….because it was all done in the name of being with his family, being like his family, it was so he could do what nobody else could do, so he could fly….unlike Cass, Dick’s early training instilled in him an intrinsic pairing of movement and joy. To him, movement IS joy. Its essential to his core, to who he is.

Where other people see him throwing in unnecessary flips to his fighting to show off, Dick’s always just grinned and shrugged his shoulders at this, unable to explain what’s not even a matter of conscious thought….to him, saying he added an unnecessary flip is like saying to someone else they took an unnecessary breath. He can understand what they’re saying….just like you can take note of taking an extra breath that you don’t really need…but he can’t link that to the ‘show off’ part of things anymore than you could understand someone accusing you of showing off for taking shorter, quicker breaths than you need to.

Because Dick doesn’t throw in unnecessary acrobatics while fighting because he wants to show off, IMO. Who is he showing off for? The people he’s fighting? Why on earth would they be more impressed by him doing an extra fancy flip than they would just by virtue of knowing his reputation as a fighter and seeing it proven true as he kicked their ass? No, I think he does it because he’s not even thinking about it, and he certainly can’t think of a reason not to. Its just what he does. Flipping out of the way of an incoming punch in such a way as to make that flip as aesthetically appealing as it is functional, is every bit as instinctive to Dick as every other part of the flip.

Because that’s WHY he was trained to do all this. That’s what its for. Not fighting and superheroics. Those are what he adapted it to do. First and foremost, it was done, taught to him, perfected by him…..so he could fly. And show everybody just how much he loved doing that, when you get right down to it. Because he loves being able to do that. For Dick, the heights he can reach are his higher power, and every single movement he makes is like an individual prayer given in thanks of the gift given to him, that enables him to do that in ways nobody else can match.

But in terms of fighting, and in terms of body language that Cass reads on an equally unconscious level….this has the unexpected and accidental side effect where every so often…Dick’s body lies. At least, I imagine that’s how Cass would describe it, if she ever put it into words for someone. Because he links his joy, his happiness and pleasure at being able to do the acrobatics he does with the movements themselves, because its so ingrained in him to do it all with a smile, to sell for the crowd that its all done with the greatest of ease, and because its inevitable that on some basic level, there are some flips or techniques that the mere act of doing brings to mind - even just his subconscious - memories he associates with that movement, that are largely, more often than not, pleasurable memories….Dick’s body language every so often doesn’t quite read the way everyone else’s does. The way Cass expects it to, knows how to interpret.

And this is nothing deliberate on his part. Nothing he could capitalize on, even if Cass did ever tell him what it reads like from her perspective. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t train himself to use this to his advantage in fights against Cass, any more than Bruce for all his mastery of his body, can effectively train himself to not broadcast certain body language tells when sparring with Cass. Because Bruce’s training, as extensive and intense as it was, and as he commits himself to it, still only started later in life. When his movements and how they pair with each other and his emotional states, they were already set in stone. Because those things go deeper than conscious control….even if Bruce made an effort to hide his next punch from Cass, she’d see the indicators of him preparing to deceive and adapt just as instinctively.

But Dick, because his training began as early and was so 24/7 in its own way as Cassandra’s, when they were both just learning their basic fundamentals and their body was building connections between their muscle movements and emotions they felt when using each precise combination of each specific muscles to achieve each specific end result….with Dick, the times his body language misleads Cass is as unconscious as breathing to him, as instinctive as every other of these movements, and the urge to smile while doing it. He’s not aware of doing it, couldn’t consciously command himself to do it more without giving that away in micro-expressions in his face….but its there, nonetheless. Because its not like it was done or trained into him in order to lie to Cass or someone like her….that’s just an unanticipated side-effect. It was done for one reason only: to make even the most rigorous of efforts look as effortless as skipping.

And it being that instinctive is WHY Cass occasionally falls for it, every now and again. Even when she tries to prepare for it sometimes. Because its like a lie spoken in her own first language. Every so often, she misreads how exhausted or worn out he is while in the middle of a spar, because Dick’s body language while flipping around so often reads as easy, light-hearted, happy. None of the things associated with being on the verge of his legs giving out, even if they are. And every now and again, a punch catches her off guard, because its not telegraphed in any of the normal ways, his body language is too focused on what’s coming after the punch, the preparation to make a leap or a vault that its particularly excited for, that always paired with anticipation, from as early as he could attempt it. Every once in awhile she fails to capitalize on a moment of weakness he has or an injury he’s nursing…because she’s missed the signs for it, its so buried deep beneath the performance mask he was trained to wear specifically while continuing through a routine even while feeling an ache or pain in that particular muscle group.

Even if no one else entirely knows why, Dick can beat Cass every once in awhile, even more often than Bruce can. Because the LESS Dick focuses his conscious thoughts, the MORE instinctive he makes his movements, basically when he MOST relies on just muscle memory and lets his body take over on autopilot, trusting it to get him safely through a fight while his conscious mind and troubles might be otherwise distracting him…..that’s when Cass has the hardest time reading him reliably. Because when he gets like that, everything else vanishes. Its like no other emotions exist for him. Even while being otherwise miserable or unhappy or grieving or tired….when he just lets go and trusts his body to do what its been trained to do so often and extensively its just pure instinct at this point….all of her brother’s movements at that point just sing. The brutality of a fight gets lost in the beauty of his acrobatics, even on the very same level and in the very language she most relies on…because they were meant to be ‘spoken’ even that bone-deep, they were meant to look like and indicate pure joy of movement in even the most primal of languages.

On a certain level, Cassandra has always been the least surprised of any of their family, why people like Deathstroke and the Court of Owls and countless other villains have always been so intent, so focused on making Dick specifically turn to their side, become one of them…become a killer. She understands the draw they feel towards him perfectly, probably even better than they do. Because the language these villains speak most naturally is violence. And her eldest brother takes violence and makes it art.

And even villains are drawn to art that speaks to them in a language they can understand.

So, even though she doesn’t want it to, even though it shouldn’t bother her, even though it ultimately doesn’t even matter that much….it bothers Cass, a little bit. That Dick has just enough of an x-factor in sparrings specific to just the two of them, that no matter how much Cass tries to adjust for it, she can still be thrown or fooled as easily as anyone else can fall for a lie spoken in a shared language. Its actually probably for the best that her own unique form of Kryptonite belongs to none other than her very own big brother, protective to a fault. Someone who would never hurt her.

Except…

Even with all that, she can’t help herself. Every once in awhile, she looks at Dick and can’t help but be wary. She doesn’t like having a potential blindspot she knows full well is there and can’t do a damn thing about. She doesn’t like that it bugs her so much either, but it does. She doesn’t like that the fighting and body-language reading that are the end results of her father’s abuse have become in different ways just enough of points of pride that she finds her pride pricked at the reminder she’s still fallible. Still human. Can still be fooled, even if unintentionally, even if not that often.

Because given the price she paid - that she never asked to pay, never was asked if she WANTED to pay it - to be so foolproof, at least where everyone else is concerned, she at least wished the damn training had worked as intended, instead of one specific monkey wrench her father hadn’t accounted for. All because who was prepared for an acrobatic vigilante who’s happy and gleeful on a primal level even when fighting for his life, because his body can’t help but be glad it can fly?

So she fights that feeling down any time it arises, becomes all the more determined for it not to create a wedge between her and the big brother she honestly adores and she knows honestly adores her too.

But sometimes when he smiles at her, Cass hates the way she is. What it makes her. Because all of them by now are used to people like the Court constantly trying to repurpose Dick, turn him against everything he holds dear. And each time everyone else is reminded of that, they turn to cast glances at Cass, without even thinking about it. They’re all just as aware of Dick’s own fighting prowess, after all. And how deadly he could be if he ever put his mind to it and set aside his morality.

She knows full well that if that ever happened, if any villain ever did manage to get their hooks in deep, she’s the one it would ultimately fall to. The Break Glass in Case of Emergency, Plan Z, final failsafe. She was who they would sic on the big brother that’s always drawn the darkness like moths to his flickering flame.

And she alone nurses the knowledge that if it ever came to that….she’s not quite as certain as the rest of their family, that she could infallibly win.

It bothers her more than she can say, more than she will ever dare say….that one of her greatest fears wears her doting eldest brother’s face.

Because if the Court of Owls ever did make a Talon of him for real, there’s no one who could sink a fatal blade past her guard more easily than he. She might never see it coming, too busy looking at him and seeing nothing but poetry instead.

Dick held her once while she came down from a lungful of Fear Toxin. Even as she shook the last of it from her system and looked at him with fresh, clear eyes again, she couldn’t help but flinch. He asked her what she’d seen while under its influence. She didn’t answer, and hated how sad he looked while covering up. No doubt thinking that it was because even now she didn’t trust him, her own family, wouldn’t let herself be completely vulnerable with them.

Still, she’s certain he would have looked far sadder if she’d told him the truth.

So each and every time her big brother’s body tells her a lie, she tells him one right back.

After all, the flip side of being the two best truthseers in the family, is there’s nobody better at being lie-tellers at the same time.

Who else is ever going to know?

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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High-Rise Invasion Season 1 Explained: Who Are The Masks?

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This article contains spoilers for High-Rise Invasion season 1.

Television currently exists in a place where there’s a constant stream of new shows and it becomes incredibly easy for some series to sink and get lost at sea. This can be even more prevalent when it comes to anime since it’s sometimes quite difficult to determine which series really strive to be innovative and challenging.

At first glance, High-Rise Invasion looks like an indulgent excuse for sadistic killers to act out Hostel-like slasher fantasies. But it’s in fact a much deeper series about humanity, free will, and the quest to become a literal God. Yuri Honjo has a seemingly simple goal to reunite with her brother, Rika, and escape their circumstances, but there’s a rich tapestry of mysteries that surround both the “realm” and the individuals within it that are easy to confuse. Here are some questions that arise from High-Rise Invasion season 1’s conclusion.

What Is The Realm?

One of the biggest mysteries in High-Rise Invasion involves this new world that Yuri and everyone else wake up in. This environment consists entirely of a series of interconnected skyscrapers where it’s impossible to descend and the primary means of travel are rope bridges that link together the apartment buildings. It’s made clear that these aren’t just normal skyscrapers that everyone has been trapped upon and that this is an entirely new “realm.” Everyone that wakes up in the realm is forced to abide by the different rules that apply to all of them, which makes it clear that this world is more like a gameboard or training ground than anything else.

There’s a sole helicopter that patrols the realm and lands in a different location each day that’s able to help people escape from this reality. However, it begins to look like escaping the realm isn’t the ultimate plan and that there’s a lot more to experience and manipulate in this world, which to some is more appealing than what lies back outside in reality.

Who Are The Mask-Wearing Individuals?

One of the first rude awakenings that Yuri experiences after she wakes up in this high-rise nightmare is the wealth of mask-wearing, weapon-wielding individuals that seem to want her dead. Initially it seems like the different Masks are villains, but the situation is much more complicated than that and they’re their own kind of prisoners in this scenario.

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Known as Angels, these masks are actually advanced pieces of technology that hack into the wearer’s brain in order to reprogram them and install new “software.” The majority of Masks that Yuri encounters have a smiling expression on them, but it turns out that there are actually a variety of Masks, each with their own specific functions.

What Are The Different Types Of Masks And What Do They Mean?

There are four basic Mask designs that have been featured so far in High-Rise Invasion. The Smiling Masks are the most common and they’re worn by characters like Sniper Mask, Chef Mask, Maid Mask, Baseball Mask, and many more. Yuri at first assumes that the Smiling Masks want to murder her and the other individuals, but their programming is more morbid than that. The Smiling Masks operate off of a Despair, Murder, and Suicide command protocol. First they try to make a human so miserable and filled with despair that they’ll lose all hope and commit suicide by jumping off of the skyscrapers. If Despair cannot be initiated, only then will the Mask turn to murder to finish the job, but only as a last resort. Finally, if a mask is removed for too long, becomes broken, or somehow otherwise compromised then it will push the directive that the mask wearer should kill themselves and eliminate any loose ends.

The Angry Masks, which have a sad expression on them, have only been seen on Dealer Mask, Soldier Mask, and Miko Mask. These individuals are also known as Guardian Angels due to their increased level of consciousness. These Masks are still able to talk, have a level of self-awareness, and know the locations of vital items within the realm. The purpose of the Guardian Angels is to explicitly prevent the destruction of the realm and those that try to interfere with the larger mission. They’ll only kill humans when they’re threatened or they sense hostility in individuals, which triggers their Protect directive.

The Emotionless Masks have a neutral expression on them and they appear to be even rarer and operate like some strange support system. Emotionless Masks can also freely speak and are used to provide supplies to the realm and are not supposed to incite violence or conflict. The biggest example of an Emotionless Mask so far is when one ominously approaches Sniper Mask and Kuon, only to wish them both good luck and limited information on the realm’s God Candidate purpose.

Lastly, there’s also a fourth variety of mask known as the Faceless Mask, but it’s designed to self-destruct after its use is fulfilled, which means they’re rarely actually seen being worn by anyone. It eventually becomes clear that the realm’s true purpose is to find the Perfect God and that a certain mask is vital to this process. The Faceless Masks contain the code to turn humans into God Candidates. The Faceless Mask’s installation process takes ten minutes to complete, at which point it shatters and the wearer has a wealth of new powers at their access, while also all of their original personality intact.

What Is The Mask’s Hibernation Mode?

There’s a moment in High-Rise Invasion where the programming from Mayuko’s mask forces her to enter hibernation mode. This appears to be an uncommon process and it only happens the one time to Mayuko, but it’s a precautionary protocol that kicks in when a mask becomes defective or faulty due to multiple directives running at once or severe resistance from the individual. This is a time-sensitive procedure that is designed to eliminate compromised Angels, but it’s able to be reversed by a God Candidate

What Are The God Candidates?

The main goal within High-Rise Invasion’s realm is to build a new God and that individual is culled from a number of potential God Candidates, also known as Those Who Have Become Closer to God. The Faceless Masks install programming to help these humans evolve and become prepared for the next stage of the realm.

High-Rise Invasion has shown off a number of the perks and abilities that God Candidates receive, such as the ability to manipulate and control other Masks, to suspend an Angel’s hibernation, to gain control of the epic railgun that’s within the realm, and have a better intuition towards the strength and location of others. One of the biggest advantages of God Candidates is that Angels are specifically programmed to not do them any harm. Kuon Shinzaki, Mamoru Aikawa, and eventually Yuri herself, are the major God Candidates that have currently been introduced.

What Does The Perfect God Achieve?

The High-Rise Invasion realm sets out to create multiple God Candidates with the hopes that one of them will best the others and that all of this is the necessary means to an end in order to create a Perfect God. The Perfect God will rule over this realm and be able to decide the rules and structure that will govern the world. It’s said that this God will be able to have any of their desires fulfilled as they have limitless power over the creation and plan regarding their new dominion. It’s unclear if this process has been done before and why exactly the Administrator has willed all of this together, but its end goal is at least clear.

Who Is The Administrator?

The Administrator is the one who calls the shots in High-Rise Invasion and the one that’s put this macabre competition together. At this point the Administrator remains a faceless mystery and remains a foreboding title. It’s unclear if they are also a God and looking to abandon their responsibilities once they find a suitable replacement, but it’s clear that more with the Administrator is coming. If he’s the one responsible for all of this advanced technology then he’s also likely someone that can’t be fully trusted and will lead to some conflicting moral territory for Yuri in the future.

What Is Rika’s Connection To Sniper Mask?

Many of the Masks in High-Rise Invasion are affected by some form of memory loss due to the programming that’s invaded and overwritten their brains. Sniper Mask slowly gains access to his sense of self when his mask becomes cracked and it causes him to become fixated on Rika. Sniper Mask is convinced that he and Rika share a connection and the truth doesn’t come to light in season one, but there’s definitely a link between them that’s deeper than just a friendship. It’s possible that Sniper Mask and Rika have some kind of familial connection, just like how the anime reveals over time that Uzuki is the Mask Yayoi Kusakabe’s son.

Does Yuri Reunite With Her Brother And Escape?

So much of High-Rise Invasion’s first season deals with the characters’ attempts to simply get a decent grasp on their new environment. Larger missions like escape and becoming the Perfect God are crucial, but underneath all of this is Yuri’s desire to find her brother, Rika. Yuri accomplishes a lot through this season, but she and Rika are still apart when the episodes end.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Mamoru, a malevolent God Candidate, has captured and brainwashed Rika, judging by the code that he forces upon him in the post-credit sequence. Mamoru has a cabal of Masks that he’s able to control and it’s very possible that Rika has just been added to his collection. Yuri builds a strong team of Masks and God Candidates alike that are all ready to storm the Administrator, become Perfect God, and rewrite the rules so that they can all survive and escape.

The first season of High-Rise Invasion is currently available to stream on Netflix.

The post High-Rise Invasion Season 1 Explained: Who Are The Masks? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3q4A8TE

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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deerth · 4 years

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Animal Correspondences

I have been doing a lot of witchy research lately, and I wrote down a custom correspondence list adapted from various sources! Representing one of these animals via pictures, statuettes, or even actual parts (obtained ethically) can give you a great boost in your magick, as well as represent certain deities who are represented by a certain animal.

Deer

grace, gentleness, swiftness, majesty, kindness, sensitivity, lovesickness, vigilance, naiveté, timidness

represents the hunted, as it is a prey animal

called the King of the Forest

closely associated with the Horned God

the White Stag is a messenger of the otherworld, therefore seeing a white deer in the wild may be a spiritual omen

Owl

a less-known omen of death (compared to the crow)

intuition, luck (both bad and good), vigilance

a symbol of knowledge gained by silent observation

Raven

an omen of tragedy, a warning to be prepared

spirit guide and protector

thought, mind, memory, cunning

Snake

wisdom, reincarnation, cunning, fertility, knowledge, healing

a snake appearing to you in your visions/dreams is a harbringer of transformation of some kind

represents the life-death-rebirth cycle

Tiger

passion, power, devotion, sensuality, anger

rules over matter (vs mind)

Wren

its song was used in divination

cleansing, becoming stronger

called the King of the Birds

harming a wren is said to bring bad luck, therefore it could represent karma

Swan

beauty, purity

smooths transitions and spiritual evolution as well as helping interpret dreams

journeys to the underworld (particularly black swans)

psychic abilities

Heron

a bird of the moon and magick, as well as water

represents shamanic travel and secrets, also the logical mind

finding magick from nature

herons are inventive birds, therefore they could represent jacks-of-all-trades

Fox

cunning, slyness, perception, humour, resourcefulness, lies

making fools of those who chase it

being misunderstood

represents alternative paths to the final goal

they are also associated with the fae, so they could represent faerie magick

Dragon / Lizard

wealth, fortune, primal forces of nature, treasures of the unconscious mind, power, creation, creativity

rain magick and healing when it comes to eastern dragons

fire magick and destruction when it comes to western dragons

Crow

symbol of conflict, war & death due to them scavenging on battlefields

wisdom with trickery

protects those with great fears or anxieties

may represent foolishness, depending on your intent

it is said crows are the ghosts of murdered men, therefore they could represent unfairness as well

Crane

vigilance, beauty, eternal youth, fortune, birth and rebirth, happiness

logical mind and patience while healing occurs

also a bird of moon and magick, as well as water

messengers of the otherworld

represents secrets and deep mysteries

Cat

a protector in confrontational situations

represents Freya and Hecate (Triple Goddess), as they are common familiars for witches

being a stealthy and prowling animal, it is a guardian of inner powers

repels evil, especially black cats!

represents reincarnation for the myth of 9 lives (therefore using the number 9 with symbols of a cat could heavily amplify your magick)

Bear

strength, endurance, solitude, confidence, leadership

also represents motherhood and the Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess

a symbol of ancestry, it is also good to use when calling out to your ancestors

Scorpion

speed, reflexes, survival, intuition, battle, competition, aggression, protection, perception, offensive magick (as written by manicnami here on tumblr)

also represents the duality of good & evil

sexuality

Wolf

loyalty, family, trust, perseverance, freedom, parenthood, the moon, territory

use for representing solitude only when thinking of dispersal young wolves that are looking to found their own pack. the “lone wolf” epithet does not apply to older wolves. wolves work together to survive.

may also be used to represent a thirst for knowledge, whether wisdom or intelligence

Seal

sea & storm magick

patience, perseverance, prosperity, trust, seeking balance, imagination reflecting reality, creativity, enjoying life

Peafowl (heavily adapted from the Romani myth of how they came to be as they evolved into humans from birds. My grandfather was Romani so we view the peafowl quite differently)

pride, wealth, infidelity, war, narcissism

immortality & creativity (the better known correspondences)

Nightingale

music, poetry, perseverance, being heard, performance, communication

use when hoping to be seen in a creative community

nocturnal magick

a herald of dawn after a difficult night

Mole

introspection, inner visions, revealing truth

finding treasure in the form of an insight

Stork

the white stork is a bringer of life, while the black stork guides spirits to the underworld

represents the natural cycle of life and death

Sparrow

finding happiness in the simple pleasures of life

may represent lust

can also represent peace

Jackdaw

foolishness, narcissism, rain magick, greed, trickery, inventiveness, being misunderstood

#witchy #own post #I happen to have learned zoology for a long time so this list is a combination of zoological + historical knowledge #please let me know if you want a certain animal / mythological beast added or feel free to add on yourself!

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eeveelutionsforequality · 5 years

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So many advice and "friendly reminder" types of posts are like... painfully over-generalised, incredibly unsympathetically worded, and patronising. Often it's some kind of "unpopular opinion" that is actually like... an incredibly common opinion, if you spend like five minutes outside of a couple of specific twitter echochambers, and I'd go as far as to say that in a lot of cases it's the exceptions to some of these opinions that are actually the things that need more awareness in Average Joe's life.

Please read through the entirety of the two examples that I'm about to give before leaping to conclusions about what I'm saying, but I saw one recently that said that, should you have a mental health episode, you are always obliged to properly apologise to anyone affected, it's your fault even if it's not "your fault", you have to work on yourself and seek help for it, and so forth, so that's the example that I'm going to use - by no means because it's the worst offender, it isn't at all, just because it's the freshest in my mind.

I have a couple of friends who are prone to stress, because of mental health issues and the like, who live together - whenever you live with somebody disagreements are bound to happen, but to be honest I'd go as far as to say that their disputes are very minor in the grand scheme of things. Afterwards, they each blame themselves and I have to remind them that the level of guilt that they're putting on themselves is disproportionate to the situation - it's just an everyday and normal conflict that they're mentally exaggerating their part in because of the internalised idea that they're to blame for having shown any lack of composure, the internalised idea that they have to place all of the blame on themselves because their behaviour was somewhat a deficit of control. Sometimes people just clash and don't handle it 100% perfectly... that is entirely normal, and only a gentle apology and proclamation of still loving each other is needed, from both sides. That guilt and self-blame becomes the crux of the mounting anxiety following the situation, and means that the next time that a dispute arises it's worsened because they're anxious about being "that way" again.

What I'm saying is that the internalised idea that their mental health issues are to blame for their imperfections, and that by extension the whole thing is their fault and requires guilt and extensive apologies and treatment, only worsens the situation and the stress. It's not that no apology is ever required, it's that the message that I mentioned (and specifically the vigor, stern tone, and "blamey" wording of the "friendly reminder") is just too... too black and white, too harsh, too unforgiving, and ultimately an idea that they're already painfully familiar with, so familiar with that the idea of "people just argue sometimes and nobody's perfect, just breathe" takes a backseat. They can't "get treatment" to cure this, because this is normal - to not get stressed and word things slightly poorly in a generic household disagreement would mean having the composure and instantaneous literary perfection of a robot.

I have phobias, and there's a particular phobia that I have to face on a somewhat regular basis. There's a person who takes me to face this phobia, and who effectively has to force me to go through with it via verbal pressure and the like, to which I can become a little, understandably, resistant. I might swear at them, be short with them, scowl, tell them not to touch me, etc. The person has, on multiple occasions, sat me down and told me in no uncertain terms that I'm not to apologise for reacting like that. They have said "I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to do this. I know that it's not you and that you don't mean it. I don't want you to feel guilty for this, because that only reinforces the phobia, it reinforces the belief that this thing resulted in a bad outcome, when in reality what actually matters is that you did it anyway despite those feelings." Looking at it like that has actually helped to reduce the phobia, and by extension reduced the bad reaction to being forced to do it.

In both of these situations, being told things like "You have to apologise for having had a mental health episode. You did something wrong. You need to seek treatment for this." is unhelpful to the individuals involved and runs counter to the wishes of the individuals involved - the person who helps me does not want me to apologise to them for how I act, and the two friends who argue from time to time feel more harmed by their own guilt than they do by the other's actions, each feels like they owe the apology not that they're owed one.

If this so-called undeniable truth that you must always apologise, mentally accept blame, and seek help is taken as inherently applicable to our situations, regardless of the specifics of our circumstances (or other circumstances that I haven't mentioned where it may be counter-productive, such as when an abuser uses your mental health issues as an attempt to make you blame yourself for self-defence, not following their "rules", "talking back", or so on), then it can actually make problems worse. Like most things in life, there's usually exceptions to these kinds of rules.

I totally get that a short and snappy post can't always add all of the exceptions to their rule, and are usually addressing the aforementioned small echochambers that don't acknowledge when the rule does apply, but I also know how easy it is to see an over-generalised statement and internalise it to the point of absurdity. When I did internalise that message, I insisted on apologising despite the person repeatedly refusing to accept the apology in the same way that you wouldn't accept it if Josh apologised because of when the lobster died... he doesn't control the speed at which lobsters die.

Sometimes people actually need to stop internalising that idea. I know that it seems counter-intuitive to say "Actually, don't always apologise when you do something that you perceive as wrong or are told was wrong." but the truth is that not everybody wants an apology and sometimes you overestimate the level of wrongdoing or catastrophe because of the associated guilt... the truth is that sometimes you have to work out for yourself what the best response to this particular situation is, not follow a formula.

#Mod Vaporeon #rambles #god I hope this doesn't turn into a stupid argument #my point is just that sometimes you guys word things too harshly #and you prescribe a formula that doesn't apply to every situation #because really you're talking to an echochamber of genuine assholes #but they're not listening to you and the people who internalise the idea too much are listening #which just leads to people beating themselves up more #and that sucks #your target audience ignores you and the people it hurts listen too hard #which isn't your fault and all but softer wording might help a bit

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sciencespies · 4 years

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Physicists just found a new quantum paradox that casts doubt on a pillar of reality

https://sciencespies.com/physics/physicists-just-found-a-new-quantum-paradox-that-casts-doubt-on-a-pillar-of-reality/

Physicists just found a new quantum paradox that casts doubt on a pillar of reality

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Perhaps not, some say.

And if someone is there to hear it? If you think that means it obviously did make a sound, you might need to revise that opinion.

We have found a new paradox in quantum mechanics – one of our two most fundamental scientific theories, together with Einstein’s theory of relativity – that throws doubt on some common-sense ideas about physical reality.

Quantum mechanics vs common sense

Take a look at these three statements:

When someone observes an event happening, it really happened.

It is possible to make free choices, or at least, statistically random choices.

A choice made in one place can’t instantly affect a distant event. (Physicists call this “locality”.)

These are all intuitive ideas, and widely believed even by physicists. But our research, published in Nature Physics, shows they cannot all be true – or quantum mechanics itself must break down at some level.

This is the strongest result yet in a long series of discoveries in quantum mechanics that have upended our ideas about reality. To understand why it’s so important, let’s look at this history.

The battle for reality

Quantum mechanics works extremely well to describe the behaviour of tiny objects, such as atoms or particles of light (photons). But that behaviour is … very odd.

In many cases, quantum theory doesn’t give definite answers to questions such as “where is this particle right now?” Instead, it only provides probabilities for where the particle might be found when it is observed.

For Niels Bohr, one of the founders of the theory a century ago, that’s not because we lack information, but because physical properties like “position” don’t actually exist until they are measured.

And what’s more, because some properties of a particle can’t be perfectly observed simultaneously – such as position and velocity – they can’t be real simultaneously.

No less a figure than Albert Einstein found this idea untenable. In a 1935 article with fellow theorists Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, he argued there must be more to reality than what quantum mechanics could describe.

The article considered a pair of distant particles in a special state now known as an “entangled” state. When the same property (say, position or velocity) is measured on both entangled particles, the result will be random – but there will be a correlation between the results from each particle.

For example, an observer measuring the position of the first particle could perfectly predict the result of measuring the position of the distant one, without even touching it. Or the observer could choose to predict the velocity instead. This had a natural explanation, they argued, if both properties existed before being measured, contrary to Bohr’s interpretation.

However, in 1964 Northern Irish physicist John Bell found Einstein’s argument broke down if you carried out a more complicated combination of different measurements on the two particles.

Bell showed that if the two observers randomly and independently choose between measuring one or another property of their particles, like position or velocity, the average results cannot be explained in any theory where both position and velocity were pre-existing local properties.

That sounds incredible, but experiments have now conclusively demonstrated Bell’s correlations do occur. For many physicists, this is evidence that Bohr was right: physical properties don’t exist until they are measured.

But that raises the crucial question: what is so special about a “measurement”?

The observer, observed

In 1961, the Hungarian-American theoretical physicist Eugene Wigner devised a thought experiment to show what’s so tricky about the idea of measurement.

He considered a situation in which his friend goes into a tightly sealed lab and performs a measurement on a quantum particle – its position, say.

However, Wigner noticed that if he applied the equations of quantum mechanics to describe this situation from the outside, the result was quite different. Instead of the friend’s measurement making the particle’s position real, from Wigner’s perspective the friend becomes entangled with the particle and infected with the uncertainty that surrounds it.

This is similar to Schrödinger’s famous cat, a thought experiment in which the fate of a cat in a box becomes entangled with a random quantum event.

For Wigner, this was an absurd conclusion. Instead, he believed that once the consciousness of an observer becomes involved, the entanglement would “collapse” to make the friend’s observation definite.

But what if Wigner was wrong?

Our experiment

In our research, we built on an extended version of the Wigner’s friend paradox, first proposed by Časlav Brukner of the University of Vienna. In this scenario, there are two physicists – call them Alice and Bob – each with their own friends (Charlie and Debbie) in two distant labs.

There’s another twist: Charlie and Debbie are now measuring a pair of entangled particles, like in the Bell experiments.

As in Wigner’s argument, the equations of quantum mechanics tell us Charlie and Debbie should become entangled with their observed particles. But because those particles were already entangled with each other, Charlie and Debbie themselves should become entangled – in theory.

But what does that imply experimentally?

Our experiment goes like this: the friends enter their labs and measure their particles. Some time later, Alice and Bob each flip a coin. If it’s heads, they open the door and ask their friend what they saw. If it’s tails, they perform a different measurement.

This different measurement always gives a positive outcome for Alice if Charlie is entangled with his observed particle in the way calculated by Wigner. Likewise for Bob and Debbie.

In any realisation of this measurement, however, any record of their friend’s observation inside the lab is blocked from reaching the external world. Charlie or Debbie will not remember having seen anything inside the lab, as if waking up from total anaesthesia.

But did it really happen, even if they don’t remember it?

If the three intuitive ideas at the beginning of this article are correct, each friend saw a real and unique outcome for their measurement inside the lab, independent of whether or not Alice or Bob later decided to open their door. Also, what Alice and Charlie see should not depend on how Bob’s distant coin lands, and vice versa.

We showed that if this were the case, there would be limits to the correlations Alice and Bob could expect to see between their results. We also showed that quantum mechanics predicts Alice and Bob will see correlations that go beyond those limits.

Next, we did an experiment to confirm the quantum mechanical predictions using pairs of entangled photons. The role of each friend’s measurement was played by one of two paths each photon may take in the setup, depending on a property of the photon called “polarisation”. That is, the path “measures” the polarisation.

Our experiment is only really a proof of principle, since the “friends” are very small and simple. But it opens the question whether the same results would hold with more complex observers.

We may never be able to do this experiment with real humans. But we argue that it may one day be possible to create a conclusive demonstration if the “friend” is a human-level artificial intelligence running in a massive quantum computer.

What does it all mean?

Although a conclusive test may be decades away, if the quantum mechanical predictions continue to hold, this has strong implications for our understanding of reality – even more so than the Bell correlations.

For one, the correlations we discovered cannot be explained just by saying that physical properties don’t exist until they are measured.

Now the absolute reality of measurement outcomes themselves is called into question.

Our results force physicists to deal with the measurement problem head on: either our experiment doesn’t scale up, and quantum mechanics gives way to a so-called “objective collapse theory“, or one of our three common-sense assumptions must be rejected.

There are theories, like de Broglie-Bohm, that postulate “action at a distance”, in which actions can have instantaneous effects elsewhere in the universe. However, this is in direct conflict with Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Some search for a theory that rejects freedom of choice, but they either require backwards causality, or a seemingly conspiratorial form of fatalism called “superdeterminism”.

Another way to resolve the conflict could be to make Einstein’s theory even more relative. For Einstein, different observers could disagree about when or where something happens – but what happens was an absolute fact.

However, in some interpretations, such as relational quantum mechanics, QBism, or the many-worlds interpretation, events themselves may occur only relative to one or more observers. A fallen tree observed by one may not be a fact for everyone else.

All of this does not imply that you can choose your own reality. Firstly, you can choose what questions you ask, but the answers are given by the world. And even in a relational world, when two observers communicate, their realities are entangled. In this way a shared reality can emerge.

Which means that if we both witness the same tree falling and you say you can’t hear it, you might just need a hearing aid.

Eric Cavalcanti, Associate Professor (ARC Future Fellow), Griffith University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#Physics

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thesagedahlia · 5 years

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💏 Apryl Jones & Lil Fizz

Boy, oh, boy...Apryl & Fizz. A.K.A, the messiest couple of 2019. I lost any shred of respect that I ever had for Apryl, & I honestly didn't put it past Fizz to be this grimey. I always noticed the disrespect Moniece Slaughter endured on their seasons of L&HHH. As a MAN (the thing he should be by now, become he's well in his 30's & is a father), I would expect him to have more respect for her. As far as Moniece goes, she is always, unfortunately, at the butt of every 'bitter baby mama' joke, but honestly, I see wh she is so hurt by him. Contrary to what the public opinion may be, Moniece is WAAAAAY over those man, in fact she is disgusted by him. & who wouldn't be? He has, time & time again, allowed any & every new bitch he brought around to disrespect & disregard her existence, as if she isn't the MOTHER OF HIS CHILD. I can intuitively see him talking the most shit to pump them up to be as disrespectful to her as he is. Apryl ain't no different, nor better in this case. Fuck the fact that Fizz & Apryl were 'always friends', wouldn't someone who was the friend of Fizz, especially as a women & a mother, feel exactly where Moniece should be respected, regardless of her relationship with her & his thoughts & opinions of her? Wouldn't she be more understanding as to why she would be suspicious in the first place, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE FUCKING HIM, or if YOU'RE AROUND THEIR CHILD? Ummmmmthat's trash. But this is only my opinion. What do I know, I guess? I'm just single with common sense 🥴 final thoughts: Apryl needs to love herself, because applying your 🐱 before your mind is not it, pewiod. & Fizz.....I-

*thesagedahlia has left the chat, she was disgusted*

**DISCLAIMER**

I am not declaring, nor am I insinuating, that anything I say in my predictions are true accounts of any of the parties involved. This reading is for entertainment purposes only, & should only taken as such. All in good fun, folks 🤷🏾‍♀️🧿

💏 Energy Surrounding Apryl & Fizz?

Right now, the relationship seemed to be heading into, or I'd already in a standstill. I see financial gain that will benefit Apryl, but she may be feeling like the family aspect of their relationship is something only she is forcing. I see a lot of L&HHH benefiting both of them at this time, but I see that as being the only benefit. I know the rumor is that Apryl was pregnant & ended up aborting the baby, but the cards are showing a stagnant child (of passion) that is causing a depression, or immense pain. I'm getting the sense that Apryl wanted to keep the child, so that in itself caused a little bit of conflict & heartbreak on her part. I am also getting that Fizz is stubborn in the sense that he doesn't want any more kids, let alone any with Apryl. I'm getting that Apryl had the idea of being a blended family & having a happy home with Fizz, but he wasn't emotionally invested to start a family with her. Apryl figured that she will be able to accomplish the family she wants with someone she considers a friend, but Fizz had other plans. I'm getting that this was a certain strategy where she was trying to achieve her happy family, but it turned out to be smoke in mirrors. I'm also getting she is trying to move on from Omarion. This could have also been a ploy to get his attention or piss him off. What seems to be hidden here is that she may have always been using Fizz in order to get over her failed marriage, & she could have felt like Fizz was a better match for her. I see Apryl feeling grief, while Fizz is benefiting financially, as they are financial partners. In public, they will continue to defend their relationship because there is actually love between them (though it may not be enough for Fizz to want a family or more children). There is uncertainty & harsh change happening around this union & balance may be wobbly & unstable here. Apryl has to be the one to decide that this isn't the best thing for her, but she is focused on keeping things balanced between them, while Fizz on the other hand is only focused on his coin. The same card of a child keeps coming up for them.

💏 Apryl's energy toward Fizz?

Apryl is feeling some fears that she will have to confront. These may stem from fears of having history repeating itself. I keep picking up on some sadness with Apryl, & again, its surrounding a child that was neglected. I feel like Apryl is feeling Fizz will come to his senses in embracing the life they share, but it is like he'll have some things he needs to face in order to do so. He may not be opening up to her like she would want & he is having much control over doing so. There is much grief & sadness over the love she feels, & she feels isolated in her attempts to secure a family. I'm feeling she is looking toward her future & it may be without Fizz. Although she feels much love for Fizz, she understands there is healing they both may need to consider (or she may feel as though he needs to release control of his ego). She is needing to move away from Fizz because it isn't sitting with her spirit well, having to (allegedly) abort a child that came from this union. This may all be on her mind subconsciously. This relationship is becoming a cycle of distress & disappointment for her, & she needs to move forward from it. Freedom from the mind games they continue to engage in with each other isn't helping a looming depression that is manifesting for her. Emotionally, he's unavailable to her. As long as she continues to ignore her intuition, the more she will realize that her desires won't be fulfilled with Fizz.

💏 Fizz's feelings toward Apryl?

Fizz feels like their relationship will survive the test of time. He may have this idea that no matter what he puts her through, she will stay. He may be aware that he has cause some distress to her that may have left her emotional. He still isn't emotionally charged toward Apryl, as he is not so fond of showing his emotional side. Again, this is something he has to confront within himself. I feel like past relationships hasn't worked out for him, so he has an unhealthy feeling of what a relationship should look like. He has to come out of being selfish & thinking of his own needs over Apryl's. He needs to breaks some chains around what was keeping him from fixing his relationship with her, as he may feel he brought much pain to her. He is wanting to continue their relationship as a business partnership. He may be stubborn in facing some truth when it comes to the way Apryl feels, in the sense that he is the reason she's hurting. The relationship has come to a standstill because of things within their relationship that needs to be confronted, though there is a feeling of needing to end the cycle together & move on completely. Though he has a lot of joy being with her & they are able to secure finances together, he still isn't fully open to being with Apryl for the long term.

💏 Apryl's expectations vs. Fizz's expectations?

Apryl: She expected Fizz to want to be fully committed to her. She felt that they were friends, & that their bond could carry over into the long term. They were already living together & had a little bit of a blended life with their kids, so she expected things to become even more established as far as a family. She was even hoping for marriage. She didn't think Fizz would come off as being so emotionally unavailable to her & it was a shock to her. She ended up settling for the L&HHH checks. She is now realizing that this wouldn't become much more than what it is now.

Fizz: I think he was seeing how fast things where moving & that a commitment was happening. I think Fizz was expecting to still have his freedom & not really commit like Apryl wanted. He's expressed not wanting anything serious & he wasn't looking to be emotional. In fact, he is very much closed off from his emotions. He didn't want things to go as far as the (alleged) pregnancy, but he was already feeling that they each were fine having their own children. I don't think Fizz wanted long term commitment & that in turn hurt Apryl. Fizz was always about their relationship looking good in the public, for the opportunists that it will manifest for them, but he also wished for his freedom to be respected.

💏 What is the outcome of this relationship?

They will continue to gain abundance together as L&HHH is still on air. I think they will be having more opportunities presented to them to make money together, but I think it's safe to say they are both feeling trapped within the relationship. I don't think they are expressing much to each other, & are focused on keeping things light for their children (each, of course, with different people), since they are very much involved as they are with each other; they don't want to look dysfunctional in front of them or even in public. I'm picking up that divine intervention will continue to put pressure on their relationship until they decide to look at what is causing strain. Fizz will continue to refrain from giving much emotionally to Apryl & it is going to cause her to feel even more left out & neglected. In fact, Fizz could quite possibly be entertaining other women outside of the relationship, & Apryl either knows or will find out about it. There is much pride in saving face since their relationship has already caused a lot of traction & attention. Apryl is in a less than satisfied place, as she isn't as happy as she thought she would be. If a public break up happens, it will be sudden & unexpected, followed by much drama. For as long as they keep trying with what clearly isn't working, more pressure will be put upon the both of them within this relationship.

Just tragic, if you ask me. But don't ask me 🙃

#tarot #tarot readings #tarot witch #tarot community #tarot conversations #cosmic witch #witchblr #ask sage #energy readings #readings by sage #hollyweird #hollywood #celebrity predictions #celebrity tarot readings #celebrity readings #celebrity #celebs #apryl jones #lil fizz

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musickmorley0814 · 6 years

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Four Short Essays

Melatonin The other night I was taking some melatonin to help with my sleep. I felt myself getting tired, but then I told myself that this had to have been because taking the melatonin had made me more attuned to a slight sleepiness that in other circumstances I would have ignored, and which consequently would not have made more optimistic about sleep, and which, in the absence of this healing optimism, would have left me awake. As a result of giving myself this explanation, I felt the power of the vitamin wear off, and I was more alert – or at least I told myself I was more alert. I wondered: “If I know that the power of a drug depends on my belief in it, and nothing else, why cannot I continue to believe in it for the sake of my health?”

In other words, where is the rationalist to turn for non-addictive sleep medications? She places so much faith in the findings of the medical profession and its studies that she believes them when they turn themselves in as untrustworthy. If we believe in doctors, then their products will work and they will deserve our faith – and perhaps we will be better. For this reason, we ought to advocate a regime of faith (which “makes all things possible”) in medicine and a policy of scientific silence... But the trade off for a firm, and in a certain sense, healthy, belief in medicine is perhaps a crushing fatalism in other parts of life. -- So should I continue to take the medicine or not, believe or not believe, Church or no Church?!

These thoughts are as circular and tedious as the image of sheep jumping over fences, and neither the one nor the other can put me to sleep.

Christian Rock For the most part, good pop music today is capitalist in character – it is either about or provides the emotional backdrop for chasing money. It encourages, or helps us to acquiesce to, a life of unwilling acquisition. There was a time when American people could sing compellingly about the gospels and surely there are still some people who can who are not recorded - but for the most part it seems to me that that time has passed. When Christian music adopts the sonic form and moods of acquisitive music it runs against its own spirit.

The lyrics are often excerpts from the New Testament, which command a life of justice absolutely at odds with a life of running after money ("it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”) And they express a vision of humility and patience absolutely at odds with the soaring and desperate hopefulness of the sound, a hopefulness which is needed to distract us temporarily from the purposelessness of work. This sonic form’s primary use, in the context of daily life, is to reframe jobs in the service and retail sector as parts of a noble mission. EG. the relentless, violent optimism of Katy Perry’s background music or of Imagine Dragons. (Actually, I don’t think that this retail-store music can convince anyone for a very long time – but perhaps we put up with it as a kind of dull physical pain which detains us, for hours at a time, from the higher pain of thinking about work.)

In any case. The conflict between the two ends – between the end of the sound (embrace this life) and the lyrics (reject it) means that Christian rock sounds like how its practitioners look — it sounds like a strained smile.

Therapists and Policemen I go to a gym and I visit a therapist because I do not live the kind of life in which my work tires me out in useful tasks and my friends can answer fully to my emotional needs. I worry that in participating in these institutions I further entrench the world I dislike – where our work is empty, anxious, and un-rigorous, and where we cease to rely on friends because we think that only paid professionals can be usefully confided in.

My fear about therapists is then similar to my fear about policemen — namely that, in allocating a kind of social work to paid professionals, we abdicate the responsibility to do that social work (but here “work” seems like the wrong word!) ourselves, and therefore become remote to one another. I want to live in a world without policemen or therapists, where we take care of each other all on our own. But the immediacy of need has meant that, at various times, I have had to call on both therapists and policemen. And surely both, however much one doesn’t like them in the abstract, have helped millions of people in their time of need.

The “time of need”. The immediacy of needs is behind so much that is haphazard and wrong in the world. If we were able to put off dealing with our problems a little longer, indefinitely perhaps, in order to straighten things out amongst ourselves, then things would be better.

False Confidence The apparent confidence of some of my essays is a false confidence which is more like a kind of drunkenness I’ve got from reading Robert Musil and Ludwig Wittgenstein. I’m wearing their styles like a child who puts on his father’s suit and begins to feel impressed with himself. — I had originally written the previous sentence with the words “his father’s trousers”, though the word “trousers” is foreign to me. In using it, I placed myself in the company of the British, who I subconsciously admit as intellectual superiors, and their aura of self-possession allowed me to continue this short essay.

But in my current mood of extreme self-doubt I can’t see any way around this “dressing for success”. At the beginning of your career you might wear a suit and it will appear ridiculous beside your bright eyes and lack of experience. But you wear the same suit long enough and people begin to say that it becomes you. (We say: Clothing “becomes” us. There are such strong and complex intuitions contained in the creative application of this common word!)

There are good reason why programs exist solely to give homeless people good clothing – and the same thinking guiding them applies just as much to my writing.

--What is the specific character of Wittgenstein’s confidence? It is a certain version of a new kind of intellectual bravado, present also in the writing of Bernard Williams, which, instead of dealing in certainties, operates instead by poking around at things. Pointing at the follies which we thought were solid and offering almost nothing in return. If at one time intellectual bravado was a demonstration of convictions and certainties, now it is a kind of laughing remoteness and a capacity to identify the haphazard.

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introvertchill · 7 years

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Hogwarts Houses - A really fricking long post by Kayleigh Indigo

Because I have nothing better to do with my life, I’ve surveyed a whole bunch of people in an attempt to calculate the best predictors of Hogwarts houses. I asked them about their Hogwarts house and nine other questions which may or may not be relevant to their house. I will lay out the statistics below and point out some of the trends. However, there is one issue I have had to face: Tumblr users are different from the general population.

GASP!

Shocking, right?

But seriously, I used a very small demographic, and that will become apparent in the data. Tumblr users are much more likely to be introverted than most people, and since I run a blog specifically aimed at introverts, you can see that introverts are going to be popping up everywhere. I will try to point out all the answers that may have been skewed one way or another by my chosen demographic. Additionally, a lot of the questions will be scored differently, because some have a less even distribution or more variables to contend with.

Overall House Percentage

First off, I asked the participants what house they were in.

Out of those surveyed, 31% were Ravenclaw, 29% Slytherin, 24% Hufflepuff and 16% Gryffindor. This distribution may pose an issue, since we have almost twice the number of Ravenclaws than Gryffindors, but it could’ve been worse, trust me.

House Satisfaction

My second question was which house the participants would most like to be in, since the Sorting Hat is supposed to take your preference into account.

This is one question that I believe may be impacted by choosing to survey Tumblr users. Tumblr’s Potterheads have made post after post about house pride, so it makes sense that the lesser-seen Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs would be happier with their sorting than they would be if they didn’t use Tumblr.

Slytherins had the highest house satisfaction, with 75.86% of them saying that Slytherin was their house of choice. Ravenclaw was close behind, with 75.86% of members choosing Ravenclaw, followed by Hufflepuff with 54.17%. Gryffindor had the lowest house satisfaction with 43.75%.

Worst Fears

My second questions was a choice of which frightened the participants most. The options were:

“Destroying my relationships, upsetting people or creating conflict.”

“Becoming corrupt or immoral.”

“Being unexceptional, having no one respect me or remember me after I die.”

and “Losing myself, restrictions, being under someone else's control.”

The first and last were by far the most selected. While the first one is pretty self-explanatory - not all people strive for greatness, but near everyone wants others to be happy and not to fight with them - the “restrictions” one may be Tumblr-specific. This is only speculation, but think about the things Tumblr is known for. While the website has a large range of purposes, two of its biggest are art/aesthetic blogs and LGBTQ+ safe spaces. This combination of creativity and progressiveness may lead Tumblr users to be more afraid of restrictions than others. Anyway, back to Hogwarts.

Gryffindor and Hufflepuff mostly chose “destroying my relationships” (56.25% and 50% respectively), while Ravenclaw and Slytherin were most likely to choose “restrictions” (48.39% and 48.28%). Out of the four houses, Hufflepuffs were most likely to choose “becoming corrupt” (20.83%), and Slytherins were most likely to choose “being unexceptional” (13.79%). Absolutely no Hufflepuffs chose “being unexceptional” as their worst fear, which is unsurprising. Our Hufflepuff pals just want to be happy.

Use of Magic

My third question was a choice of how the participants believed they would handle magic. The options were:

“I would use it as a tool and a weapon. I like to apply things practically, and fighting for my beliefs is my purpose in life.”

“I would use it to better the lives of others. The best gifts should always be shared.” “I would use it cautiously and secretively. I can't risk exposing wizards or causing some horrible disaster.” and “I would use magic for its own sake. I would explore its potential, push the boundaries and learn as much as I possibly could.”

The last option was by far the most popular. It was the most picked in Gryffindor, Slytherin and especially in Ravenclaw, with a whopping 54.84%. The only house where it wasn’t the most likely to be selected was Hufflepuff, who instead chose “better the lives of others” and “cautiously and secretively,” with 41.67% each. Both of these options show how caring and responsible our good badger friends are. Not a single ‘Puff chose to use magic “as a tool and a weapon.” Slytherin had the highest percentage of people choosing “as a tool and a weapon” (still only 17.24%). Ravenclaws were least likely to choose “better the lives of others,” which you can interpret however you want. Surprisingly, Gryffindors were the only ones who were actually more likely to use magic “cautiously and secretively” than “to better the lives of others.”

MBTI Types

Agh. Tumblr, I love you, but your personality types are not really all that varied, and you make statistical analysis VERY DIFFICULT!

I asked those surveyed to select their Myers Briggs type, and it turns out Tumblr users are much, much, MUCH more likely to be INxx types than the average person. INTPs, INTJs, INFJs and especially INFPs are very common in Tumblrland, which makes a lot of sense. INxx types often feel the desire to escape from our world or to explore fictional ones, which is a desire we see all over Tumblr. Additionally, there are a few types missing from the survey altogether! The group of participants contained no ESTJs or ENFJs, who are presumably out doing whatever people do when they don’t have Tumblr. (Sports? Parties? I really don’t know, that’s a research project for another day).

I’ll break this down by house. The most common personality types in Gryffindor was INFP, with 33.3% of all Gryffindors identifying as INFP. The second and third most common were INTP and ESTP, with 20% and 13.33% respectively. The first two are pretty much just a Tumblr thing, but ESTP is the important one. In the group of participants, ESTPs, ISTPs and ESFPs were only found in Gryffindor, showing that Gryffindors have strong Sensing and Perceiving preferences. This isn’t surprising at all - in fact, it explains their focus on objective accomplishment and their, um, shaky relationship with rules.

The most common personality types in Hufflepuff was also INFP, with, *sigh* again, a third of all Hufflepuffs identifying as INFP. The second and third most common were INFJ and ENFP, with 20.83% and 16.67% respectively. All Intuitive types, as we’ve seen often on Tumblr, but also all Feeling types, which seems to be a more Hufflepuff-specific trait. What’s more, ISFJs were only found in Hufflepuff, which makes sense - they’re hardworking, kind, loving, helpful and loyal, all traits of the house of the badger.

The most common personality types in Ravenclaw was INFJ, with 26.67%. INFJs are actually the rarest type in the general population, which makes sense as to why some might find themselves in Ravenclaw, where eccentricity and creativity are praised, not shunned. The next most common were INTJ and INFP, with 20% each. Like I said, Tumblr seems to be the natural environment for Introvert and Intuitive types, and Ravenclaws represent these traits best, being independent, thoughtful and contemplative.

The most common personality types in Slytherin was INTP, with 32.14%. The second and third most common were the inescapable INFP with 28.57% and INTJ with 14.29%. Both ENTJ and ESFJ were only found in Slytherin. Both are highly ambitious types, but in different ways. ENTJs are probably the type you think of when it comes to ambition. But ESFJs are very ambitious too, albeit in subtler ways. The ESFJ desires not fame or money or reign of eastern Europe, but popularity. More than anything else, they want to be liked, and they will do anything to make this happen - I’ve seen it over and over again, especially in my brother. ESFJs will constantly give up more and more of their time, change their opinions and do things they don’t want to do in order to remain popular. They are making sacrifices to attain a goal they perceive as important - what could be more Slytherin than that?

Enneagram Types

I asked those surveyed to put their Enneagram type, which, while lesser-known than MBTI, is still valuable for this kind of personality assessment (and there’s fewer types. Yay! Less writing!) All the Enneagram types are numbers. Tumblr is absolutely filled with Fours, Fives and Sixes. However, I still managed to get people from every Enneagram type, so the data is somewhat reliable.

Ones, who are idealistic, principled and perfectionistic, were most likely to be Ravenclaw (16.13%) and least likely to be Gryffindor (6.25%). I’d predicted Gryffindor Ones to be more common, since Gryffindors have a strong sense of right and wrong.

Twos, who are caring, social and people-pleasing, were most likely to be in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff (12.50% each) and least likely to be in Ravenclaw (3.23%). This isn’t surprising - the confident Gryffindor and kind-hearted Hufflepuff are much more likely to be Twos than the self-sufficient Ravenclaw.

Threes, who are ambitious, driven and image-conscious, were most likely to be in Slytherin (7.41%) and least likely to be in Ravenclaw (0%). This is fairly self-explanatory - Slytherins are goal-chasers, meaning many of them are Threes, whereas Ravenclaws couldn’t care less for “succeeding” as others see it, i.e. popularity, political power or riches. Their idea of success is probably either knowledge or self-expression, depending on the person.

Fours, who are expressive, individualistic and emotional, were most likely to be Ravenclaws (25.81%) and least likely to be Slytherins (11.11%). Ravenclaws are very individualistic and can be very expressive if they build up the confidence. But even though Slytherins can sometimes act in self-interest, many of them are actually pretty-group minded when it comes down to it and like to have friends/minions to help them achieve their goals. They also tend to be more intellectual than emotional.

Fives, who are cerebral, independent and isolated, were most likely to be in Ravenclaw (32.26%) and least likely to be in Hufflepuff (4.17%). Fives are probably the stereotypical Ravenclaw, being quiet intellectuals who love learning. While Hufflepuffs can definitely be intelligent, they don’t pride themselves on it as much as Ravenclaw, and are very unlikely to isolate themselves.

Sixes, who are responsible, protective and anxious, were most likely to be in Gryffindor (31.25%) and least likely to be in Slytherin (14.81%). I will admit, this one threw me a bit - I’d never thought of Gryffindors as having self-doubt or Slytherins as irresponsible. But the description of a healthy Six matches Gryffindor pretty well - they are described as “internally stable and self-reliant, courageously championing themselves and others.” And after all, bravery is as much about conquering self-doubt as it is about conquering ultimate evil.

Sevens, who are spontaneous, fun-loving and scattered, were most likely to be in Gryffindor (6.25%) and least likely to be in Ravenclaw (3.23%). There’s not a lot to say here.

Eights, who are confident, determined and confrontational, were only found in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. This just goes to show that you should never mess with badgers, as even though they are nice they still have potential to destroy you.

Nines, who are easygoing, peaceful and passive, were most likely to be in Hufflepuff (20.83%) and least likely to be in Ravenclaw (3.23%). Hufflepuffs typically seek to avoid unnecessary conflict and like to please others, however they can fight back when necessary.

Big Five Personality Traits

I asked the participants to rank their scores in the Big Five personality traits highest to lowest, 1 to 5. Of course, this yielded a wide variety of results that are somewhat difficult to interpret. Tumblr users seem to be higher in neuroticism than the general population, which is why you see so many posts about mental health. They are also lower in extroversion, which I’ve hopefully beaten into you enough already. This was the most-skipped question, with 16% of people not answering it, so the data will be less accurate than it would’ve been if the sample size was larger.

For Gryffindor, agreeableness was the highest scoring trait, followed by neuroticism, extroversion and openness, with conscientiousness scoring lowest. As the only house where extroversion didn’t score lowest, we can assume that in the general population a large number of Gryffindors would be extroverts. This was also the only house where neuroticism didn’t score highest, meaning that Gryffindors tend to be emotionally stable. However, they are also the least open house.

For Hufflepuff, neuroticism was the highest scoring trait, followed by openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, with extroversion scoring lowest. This is the same order the traits were scored in overall, so we can’t deduce a lot from this.

For Ravenclaw, neuroticism was the highest scoring trait, followed by openness, conscientiousness and agreeableness, with extroversion scoring lowest. Ravenclaw is the least agreeable house, not because of maliciousness but because they are detached from reality, wandering around inside their own head and not really caring if they come across as cold. I’ve driven a lot of people away because I didn’t realise I was coming across as hostile, and many of my fellow Ravenclaws have admitted to the same thing. Smart as we are, we really don’t know how others think. (A̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶e̶.)

For Slytherin, neuroticism was the highest scoring trait, followed by agreeableness, openness and conscientiousness, with extroversion scoring lowest. Even though they are thought of as the “bad-guy” house, Slytherins are incredibly charming and loyal. While this may be manipulative or to further their own ends, often they just want to befriend people. I have a Slytherin friend who is incredibly good at getting people, even total strangers, to warm up to her, even though she is quite introverted and independent. Slytherins are just good at the people thing.

Four Temperaments

For this question, everyone selected which of the Four Temperaments they were. Tumblr users tend to be either phlegmatic or melancholic. Can you guess why? (Hint: it starts with an “i” and ends with a “ntroversion.”)

Sanguine people are enthusiastic, boisterous, expressive, active, and social. They were most likely to be in Hufflepuff (12.50%) and least likely to be in Ravenclaw (3.23%).

Choleric people are short-tempered, determined, irritable, proud, and charismatic. They were most likely to be in Slytherin (24.14%) and least likely to be in Gryffindor (0%).

Melancholic people are analytical, wise, quiet, sensitive, and perfectionistic. They were most likely to be in Ravenclaw (70.97%!!!) and least likely to be in Hufflepuff (still a respectable 50%)

Phlegmatic people are helpful, meek, kindhearted, calm and peaceful. They were most likely to be in Gryffindor (43.75%) and least likely to be in Slytherin (10.34%).

Gasp.

Did you see what just happened?

Each house scored highest in a trait exactly once, and scored lowest in a trait only once too. Does this mean that the Four Temperaments are the one true indicator of Hogwarts house? Nope. Not at all. (I mean, a large portion of Gryffindors aren’t meek.) But it shows that they may help to predict your house if you are unsure. Since both Hogwarts houses and the Four Temperaments are somewhat themed around the four classical elements (water, fire, earth and air), albeit not the ones they ended up corresponding with, this was probably a good question to include on the survey. Pat on the back for me.

7 Roles

This is much more spiritual than scientific, but I felt like I should include it in the survey anyway. Some have suggested that every human soul is drawn to a distinct purpose, and it will keep that purpose over its many lives. For Servers it is service, for Artisans it is creation, Warriors persuasion, Scholars knowledge, Sages communication, Priests motivation and Kings mastery. Fortunately, there are statistics on how common each role is in the general population (thanks, personalityspirituality.net). Servers make up 25% of people, Artisans 21%, Warriors 18%, Scholars 14% Sages 11%, Priests 7% and Kings 4%. Tumblr users are much more likely to be Artisans (29.47%) or Scholars (37.89%). This explains all the science, art and useless fact blogs. Servers and Warriors are also much rarer on Tumblr, probably because they are all out doing stuff with their lives. No, I’m not jealous.

Anyway, Priests were most common in Hufflepuff, with 12.50% of ‘Puffs identifying with this role. They were completely absent from Gryffindor and Slytherin, who prefer to focus on their own virtues and vices rather than motivating other people. There’s nothing wrong with that. Think of the “somebody’s Watson” Tumblr post. Achieving things for yourself and helping or inspiring others to do their best are equally important.

Egh, this is getting way too deep. Moving on. Servers were most common in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor (12.50% each) and least common in Slytherin (4%). There’s not a lot to say here - Hufflepuffs help others, Slytherins are destined for greatness, blah blah blah, the usual stuff. However, I do think it’s interesting that Hufflepuffs are both Priests and Servers, while Gryffindors are only Servers. I believe that this is because Gryffindors do not seek to reason with, negotiate with or inspire people as Priests do. They choose to help the common good more directly as Servers.

Artisans were most common in Ravenclaw (36.67%) and least common in Slytherin (20%). And this makes sense. I’ve met a lot of creative Slytherins, but few see their artistic expression as their greatest purpose or pursue it as a career. Ravenclaws, on the other hand, see creativity as vitally important, and often find things like art, theatre or music, the best way to express themselves to others since they keep their emotions bottled up. If you want to upset a Ravenclaw, make them hang out with boring people.

Next, the Warrior. Did you guess that they’d be mostly Gryffindor? Because you’re wrong. Warriors were mostly badgers! 12.50% of Hufflepuffs were Warriors. Don’t be so surprised. Think about how many of them took part in the Battle of Hogwarts. (Um, spoilers.) J.K. Rowling herself said that not all, but some Gryffindors took part in the battle for the thrill or to show off rather than out of duty, while with Hufflepuff it was purely a case of morals. No Warriors were in Ravenclaw. They don’t fight for their beliefs - they seek to influence things subtly. Which makes them sound like a secret government operative, but whatever.

Sages were most common in Gryffindor (12.50%) and least common in Slytherin (4%). This actually illustrates the difference between the two quite nicely - Gryffindors are good at communication, while Slytherins avoid it. What you see is what you get with Gryffindor, but Slytherins are a lot more secretive.

60% of Slytherins were Scholars. In fact, more than one third of all Scholars surveyed were Slytherin. Slytherins just love knowledge. We think of Ravenclaw as the “knowing stuff” house, and they are, but it’s just as much a Slytherin thing as it is a Ravenclaw thing. Knowledge is power, after all. Hufflepuffs were the least likely to be Scholars, with 20.83% of them identifying with this role.

Only one King was found in each house, so that data is unreliable. I’d put them as Slytherin myself.

Cardinal Virtues

I’m glad most people I surveyed actually answered this one, since I doubt that many of you had heard of them before! Basically, they’re just like the Seven Virtues or the Seven Sins, but in four, because Ancient Greeks liked fours. The four virtues are (Fortitudo: Courage, willpower and drive), Prudentia (Wisdom, caution and logic), Temperantia (Self-control, practicality, diligence) and Iustita: (Justice, fairness and equity). If you look at them, you can probably see that they’re the root words of “fortitude,” “prudence,” “temperance” and “justice.” (Sigh. I love etymology way too much.)

I asked the group I surveyed to choose which one came most naturally to them. Fortitudo was most common in Gryffindor (31.25%) and least common in Ravenclaw (0%). Obviously Gryffindor would be the bravest house. Some Ravenclaws do have courage, but not so much willpower or drive.

Levels of Prudentia were highest in Ravenclaw (61.29%). Again, this makes sense - wisdom and logic come natural to Ravenclaw. Prudentia was least common in Hufflepuff (16.67%).

Temperantia was mostly found among Slytherins (39.29%), who value self-preservation, resourcefulness and ambition - of course they’d be thorough, practical and self-restraining. Ravenclaws scored lowest (9.68%). They’re just not that practical.

Iustita was most-chosen in Hufflepuff, with 58.33%, while Slytherin picked it least, with 14.29%, which…

IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

Okay, it’s not as neat this time. While each house scored highest in one virtue, Ravenclaw scored lowest in more than one. Still - this is really good! It means I chose the right kind of questions, thank goodness.

Now, for the final part - documenting the trends I’ve noticed. Please keep in mind that these are just that - trends. You don’t have to fit all, or even any of them, to be in a certain house. This is just research and a bit of guesswork.

Summary - GRYFFINDOR

Likely to be phlegmatic, unlikely to be choleric

Fortitudo comes naturally to them

Typically Extrovert and Sensing types

Are scared of destroying their relationships, upsetting people or creating conflict

Enneagram Type Two, Type Six, Type Seven and Type Eight are good examples

Score high in agreeableness and extroversion, but low in conscientiousness

Tend to be Servers or Sages

Summary - HUFFLEPUFF

Likely to be sanguine, unlikely to be melancholic

Iustita comes naturally to them

Typically Feeling types

Are scared of destroying their relationships, upsetting people or creating conflict

Enneagram Type Two, Type Eight and Type Nine are good examples

Caring and responsible, would use magic cautiously and selflessly

Tend to be Priests, Servers or Warriors

Summary - RAVENCLAW

Likely to be melancholic, unlikely to be sanguine

Prudentia comes naturally to them

Typically Introvert and Intuitive types

Are scared of losing themselves, restrictions or being under someone else's control

Enneagram Type One, Type Four and Type Five are good examples

Score high in neuroticism and openness, but low in extroversion and agreeableness

Tend to be Artisans or Scholars

Summary - SLYTHERIN

Likely to be choleric, unlikely to be phlegmatic

Temperantia comes naturally to them

Can be any MBTI type - anyone with a dream and a goal can be in Slytherin

Are scared of losing themselves, restrictions or being under someone else's control

Enneagram Type Three is a good example

Score high in agreeableness and neuroticism

Tend to be Scholars or Kings

So if any of you are unsure of your house, and can somehow make sense of all of this, great! You’re one step closer to finding your Hogwarts house. I wish you luck on your journey.

- Admin Kayleigh, INTP

(A/N: You may notice that I almost always put the houses in the following order: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. This is because they are introduced in this order during the Sorting Hat’s song, and so when I’m thinking about them I tend to remember them in that order. Now, I’m stuck that way, and sometimes I even get a little uncomfortable if they’re in a different order. TL;DR I am very weird.)

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bullard42weinstein-blog · 6 years

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Ideas To Assist You Meet up with Your Individual Improvement Goals

Several folks are attempting to figure out approaches they can increase as individuals and individually build. The essential to individual development is that you have to constantly be on the lookout for new tips you can find out about personalized development growth and you have to constantly implement those guidelines. When you do that, then you ought to really feel a adjust inside of you. Shying absent from a significant decision could cheat you of an possibility to become a greater individual. Make choices primarily based on your personal information and what you can learn from your analysis. You will require to build your instincts to make good alternatives. You can even understand a whole lot from creating problems since you then know what not to do. When you make the wrong selections, you know what much better choices to make in the potential. A fantastic self aid idea that can aid you modify your life is to start off working towards yoga. Practising yoga is a wonderful way to get in shape and it really is also very therapeutic. There are even forms of yoga that purpose to aid you get a lot more in contact with your self. A great self assist tip to aid you modify your daily life is to start drinking coffee. Drinking coffee can aid carry your mood, and it will provide you with much more energy. As well a lot coffee can make you nervous however, so as with every little thing, you must drink it in moderation. Hold a listing of all the instances in your existence when you felt massive or extremely sturdy. Attempt creating this listing each evening before you go to bed. There are no issues that are also small or foolish go forward and checklist them. Use these remembrances to help draw on your inner toughness and insert individuals common emotions to who you are nowadays. Seek pure reality relatively than flowery terms. Wisdom does not often arrive in a nice bundle, but it is effective and pure in its mission. Discern the fact and knowledge in your working day to day lifestyle, and independent it from bogus suggestions that are dressed up properly in flowery language and passed off as knowledge. Improve your productiveness by becoming a type person in the place of work. When a employee spends their time becoming mean to their co-staff and triggering rigidity it inhibits the capability to get perform carried out. Nevertheless becoming proactive in currently being variety and good to ones co-personnel helps keep away from conflicts that squander time. Make positive you know how to harmony the various ambitions in your lifestyle. You ought to never ever be also harsh with your self. You may well locate your self-assurance normally takes a hit from a loud interior critic. At the same time, you need to also be flexible. Failing to achieve certain objectives can be a challenging blow to get well from, but finding out to forgive yourself makes a massive distinction in maintaining by yourself determined. Do you play a musical instrument as a interest? What type of tunes do you appreciate listening to? Music is the voice of the angels and very harmonious to the soul. Listening to your favourite music or playing songs can be quite "instrumental" in your therapeutic approach. Consider listening to music, and feel that soothing that comes with it. Seem the element! Garments choices are an essential component of your impression. If you volunteer to support at your child's school celebration, costume in a way that instills self-assurance and displays university spirit. On the other hand, if you are in charge at greeting attendees at an critical work meeting then you should very likely dress much more skillfully. Self esteem has every thing to do with your effectively-currently being and how competent you come to feel. Surround your self with family members and pals that elevate you up and make you really feel great about your self. Continue to be absent from anybody who is verbally abusive or just not a portion of generating you feel very good about your self. Do not be frightened to smile at yourself, your close friends, and even strangers. Answer your cellphone and speak with a smile on your encounter the person on the other end of the line will be in a position to detect it in your voice, producing it less difficult for you to interact freely and respectfully of a single yet another. The electricity of a smile must not be underestimated follow it often! Make a listing of previous instances in which you were in a position to efficiently overcome peer pressure to make your possess conclusions, with profitable results. Self-confidence in your personal intuition can make you a greater, wiser, and much more invested choice-maker. It also guarantees that you will be in a position to give oneself credit rating exactly where credit is thanks, growing your perception of self-worth. Several individuals do not recognize how religious development can gain them. No matter whether or not you go to a church often, you can grow spiritually by going to a church to get an uplifting information. Or you may possibly try out prayer. Prayer has been revealed to get results and give folks a more constructive outlook on lifestyle. You can aid your melancholy by seeking at the diverse types of treatment you are on. Go over them with your doctor. Some individuals never realize it but their medications can be creating their melancholy. That's why it is essential to check what you are on and discuss it with your physician. Praise and compliments only sum to so considerably when the flowery phrases are taken off consider the time to filter and approach. Those close to you might pander to your sense of nicely-getting and say items that are not usually what they seem. Pay attention carefully and get to the meat of the feedback so you can build upon the positives without losing yourself in the glory. Set targets and objectives for by yourself in all that you do. Even if girlfriend activation system are placing a goal to feed your puppy at a particular time every working day or pay out your bills on a certain working day each thirty day period, placing objectives and possessing little aims to satisfy these objectives makes certain that you are turning into the individual that you want to be. Hopefully with the details you just acquired about how to personally create, you must begin emotion like you can actually get true actions in direction of your progress. Remember that all of the data you discovered these days can only benefit you if you truly use it, so apply all that you can and you need to personally expand just before you know it.

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data-is-my-favorite-android · 7 years

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Ashburn’s Arc: Meta Analysis of the Entire Season (and Predictions)

I must be insane to sit here and labor for hours over another meta, but I can’t help it. I can’t get these characters’ arcs out of my head. Like, the writing blows me away and I’m really excited (and maybe a little nervous) to see what happens next. But one thing is for sure: Michael Burnham and Ash Tyler are the two common threads throughout this entire season, and their relationship is Important To The Plot.

Buckle up, friends, cuz this one’s a loooong one.

You may see that I just said that Ash Tyler is one of two common threads through the entire season, implying he has been important from the beginning.

“But data, Ash Tyler as we know him didn’t show up until episode 5, how can that be true?”

Yes, well, much as we hate to admit it, Ash is also Voq. And Voq has been around from the beginning. While Voq and Ash aren’t entirely the same, they are connected, meaning their arcs are intrinsically intertwined together. And while this may seem counter-intuitive, that fact actually might be good news for ashburn.

Before you riot, let me explain.

This season opened with two ships, a Federation one and a Klingon one, facing off. Aboard both ships, we saw two captains interacting with two important subordinates. In the case of the Shenzhou, the pair was captain and first officer, but also surrogate mother and adopted daughter. Aboard the Sarcophagus, the relationship was between captain and chosen successor, messiah and devout follower. It isn’t hard to see the parallels. The parallels deepen further when Goergiou fights T’Kuvma and Voq fights Michael. At the end of the struggle, both captains are dead, leaving two grieving people behind to pick up the pieces. Michael is imprisoned immediately, while Voq is cast out later. Both are desperate to prove their worth and honor the memory of their fallen loved ones.

From a writer’s perspective, setting up these kinds of parallels between characters can go one of two ways:

1) The two become adversaries. Molded by similar circumstances, they diverge in response and become mortal enemies destined to fight until one of them is vanquished.

2) The two, while initially adversaries, become allies. They meet with the intention of fighting, but find common ground where they least expected it and go on to work together to overthrow the real enemy (whatever that might be). This is also fertile soil for the star-crossed/unexpected lovers arc.

Listen, everything that happens in a well-written story carries a kind of narrative momentum, a series of weights that pushes the Story Arc one way or another. I’ve taken the liberty of noting important moments in the story and their narrative weight as it pertains to ashburn. I’m using a pretty simple system, awarding points for each positive and negative instance, but tbh some of these moments carry more narrative weight than others. For now, let’s break it down like this: ones are for buildings block moments, twos are for scenes or lines carrying important themes, and threes are for Narrative Events that carry a lot of clout. I may have missed a few, or you may disagree with how I’ve weighted them, but here’s what I have presently:

For the parallels set up pre-Ash Tyler, I’m giving a weight of +3. This is a time-honored and well-established literary trope that carries a lot of narrative importance. This could have been a -3 (indicating an unhappy ashburn ending), but circumstances further down the line make me believe that it’s a positive thing.

Tyler shows up. When he meets Burnham for the first time, he doesn’t reject her immediately. Instead, he says “I prefer to assess people in the here and now”. I’ll come back to this and why I think it’ll be important in the future. So he greets her with an open mind. +2

He goes on to sympathize with her when she doesn’t know how to feel about Sarek. He accepts her duality (a human who is culturally Vulcan) and helps her realize that what she’s experiencing is “being human”. +2

Michael wants to initiate a relationship and does so by being honest about her feelings. +1

Michael nearly kills a bitch when Mudd kills Tyler and sacrifices herself (temporarily) to bring him back. +1

Tyler tells Michael he’s “not going anywhere” as they contemplate their budding relationship. +2

On Pahvo, Tyler tells Michael she deserves better than jail and that he personally puts her needs above the many. +2

Aboard the Sarcophagus, Michael tells Tyler “no one gets left behind” and promises to come back for him. +2

Tyler says that after everything that’s happened to him, he’s still happy because it led him to her. +2

Michael listens to Tyler’s experiences and doesn’t judge him, instead telling him he deserves peace, to which he responds that he found peace in her. +2

Tyler nearly suffers another breakdown. He says he can handle it, even though he’s clearly struggling. He asks Michael to trust him. -2

Tyler kills Culber. -3

Tyler pledges to protect Michael. +2/-2 depending on how you look at it

Tyler tells Michael he loves her, and she says she loves him too. +3

Tyler talks about Michael as his tether. +2/-2 depending

Tyler freaks out on Mirror!Voq. -2

Tyler tells Michael he wants to be human for her and that he’s been holding on for her. +2

But then Voq takes over and he tries to kill her. -3

Michael spares him, even though she knows he’s Voq. +1

Tyler asks about Michael with the few seconds of time he has as himself in med bay. +1

Michael refuses to see Tyler. -1

Sarek tells her there is grace in loving your enemy. +3

Sarek tells Michael not to regret loving somebody. +2

Tilly tells Michael that how she treats Tyler now says something about who she is and who they all are as people. +3

Tyler and Michael meet and argue. -2 but also +3 in the long run if my predictions are correct.

As you can see, despite some of the negative major events, there is a net positive momentum behind their arc presently.

Star Trek Discovery has been all about mirrors and echoes this entire season. Looking back at Ash and Michael’s interactions and some of the other big events so far, I can see a lot of potential to take the loose ends of their relationship and tie them back together. Here are some thoughts (that may not be organized that well, sorry!):

I think we’ll see another moment like the one with Ash accepting Michael when they first meet, except the roles may be reversed. This echo may have already been satisfied by Tilly’s intervention in the mess hall, but there might be a more significant moment where Michael assesses Ash “in the here and now”, putting his past transgressions aside and accepting him as he is.

I also think there’s something important about Tyler’s acceptance of Michael’s duality and sympathizing with her confusion around her father and her human emotions. We may see Michael begin to pivot toward accepting Tyler and his complexity like Tyler did for her. Also, Michael struggling with her emotions, specifically those around being angry, but wanting to love, have some narrative significance that I think we may see in the future. I’m seeing seeds here that I could very well see the writers planting for later use.

Ash is now the one more likely to go to prison than Michael, which is an interesting reversal of the previous situation. There may be another moment where Michael does for Ash what he did for her on Pahvo and state that there is something unjust about the situation and she doesn’t want him to be imprisoned. This could just be Ash’s arc playing out in a logical way, but it feels more like a foil of Michael’s trajectory.

Sarek explicitly telling Michael that loving “the enemy” is special and good seems like A Big Giant Plot Point. Telling her to never regret loving someone is crazy important, especially coming from a Vulcan. Michael could have gotten that talk from someone else, like Saru or Tilly. But the writers chose to have her emotionally closed-off Vulcan surrogate father deliver this information. While he may have had other reasons for saying some of the things he said, there’s no denying that he directly stated that there was grace in embracing an enemy. That wasn’t a mistake; it was designed for Maximum Impact.

Tilly also gave A Big Important Speech to Michael about Starfleet values as they apply to Tyler. We’re getting lots of cues from the writers that reconciliation, while difficult, is coming, and lots of confirmation that what Michael and Ash have is special and worthy of protecting.

Now here are my big predictions. Bear in mind that I could be crazy wrong on some of these, but I’m taking a swing at it and seeing how I do:

1) Tyler won’t die. There are a few reasons why I think this. We’ve already had a lot of deaths. There’s been a shit-ton of attrition on the show of not only primary and secondary characters, but also faceless masses of war casualties. Enough people have died in this conflict. At this point in the game, the writers need to give us big emotional wins. Losing Tyler is not an emotional win. Lorca’s death was somewhat shocking, but he was a different character than Tyler; he was unrepentant to the end while Tyler is clearly remorseful. To me, this kind of writing signals a coming redemption arc.

Now, if Ash and Michael had reconciled during their argument this last episode, I’d be more worried. A common trope used in television is the whole lovers making up shortly before one of them is killed (usually in a heroic sacrifice). The crude narrative logic behind this might be summed up like this: one partner in the relationship did something wrong but was forgiven quickly and didn’t have to suffer enough for their actions; death becomes their punishment. Also, it’s a way of giving the audience one last feel good scene before a character dies and creates character pain for the surviving partner. It’s stupid and cheap, but it’s a common enough sight in media. But that isn’t what happened here. Tyler is remorseful and wants to atone for his sins, but it’s going to be a long road. Michael didn’t let him off easy, either. His character has been set up to have to do emotional work; the writers need to show him doing that work. He needs to live to follow through on that.

So what will happen to him? I can’t be sure. I see a few more options, though.

I’ll start with the two least likely but still possible ones.

The first is that he’ll somehow remain with the Klingons. This could be either as a diplomat to build bridges between the Federation and the Klingons -or- as a traitor to the Federation. Voq was set up to be the unifier of the Klingons, and Ash has Voq’s memories; it makes sense that he might inherit his “fate”. It also might echo L’rell’s words to Voq about building bridges between her family’s houses. Of the two possibilities under this subheading, this seems the more likely. It’s possible that Tyler, feeling spurned by Michael or the Federation and disgusted with the war crimes they are threatening to commit, defects and joins the Klingons. But Tyler has thus far been unwaveringly loyal to Starfleet, and he currently has a lot of people in his corner helping him through this tough transition in his life. He knows there are good people around him, and honestly I don’t believe he’d be so petty that he’d betray the Federation because Michael won’t accept him. I do think we’ll see him speaking in defense of the Klingons when he learns of the inevitable war crimes Georgiou is pushing to commit, though.

The second scenario is that he’s incarcerated. This is entirely possible, given his unique situation. However, Starfleet may consider him an asset better left in the field, where he can be used as Klingon intelligence while still being observed in a controlled environment. Also, the Federation may feel it wrong to imprison him for circumstances outside of his control and they may think it inhumane to subject him to tests and experiments without his total consent and cooperation. If he does go to the clink, I think he’ll eventually be brought back to Discovery because, like Michael, he’s an important character and an important resource.

The third possibility is...??? Something happens that necessitates his continued presence on the Discovery or makes his exit impossible. And I’m not going to even begin to speculate how that happens, tbh.

2) Michael and Ash’s relationship will continue in one way or another (either as friends or lovers) as long as Ash is still aboard Discovery. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy for them, but there’s a lot of narrative gravity pulling them together. But a few things need to happen first:

-Tyler needs to show that he can find his way without Michael as his tether. He needs to be willing to put in the work for himself and he needs to show through his actions that he isn’t relying on Michael (even if he still looks to her as a beacon).

-Michael needs to see Tyler doing something (perhaps protecting her, as he promised he would) in such a way that she realizes the man she knew is still there. Last episode the writers specifically called attention to Tyler’s eyes; Michael said all she could see was Voq when she looked into them. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that in the season finale they’ll be in a tight spot together and Tyler will do something brave or gentle or whatever and she’ll look into his eyes and see him, the man she loves.

3) I also think there will be a moment between them where Michael has to decide to trust Ash and take his hand (figuratively or maybe even literally). Or maybe it’ll be Ash doing something dangerous or reckless and Michael rescues him by taking hold of him, who knows. But I think the “Will You Take My Hand?” of the title may have something to do with them. I actually think we may see several iterations of this question during the episode, but I’m hoping that Ash and Michael reconnecting is one of them.

Ultimately, I think it makes sense for Michael and Ash to continue to be a driving force in Discovery because their relationship is a metaphor for so many things that are key aspects of the overarching story line. They represent the different sides of the war, the possibility for respect and love between enemies, the truth that patience and understanding in the face of adversity can build bridges between people. And remember when I said two people with parallel character arcs can work together to overthrow the real enemy? The real enemy here is fear, and the violence that comes from fear and ignorance. The Klingons were afraid of losing their cultural identity. The Federation is afraid of being annihilated. Fear is the enemy. Michael is afraid of Tyler because of what he is, and Tyler is afraid of losing touch with who he was. To defeat the enemy, they’re going to need to move past their fear and differences and start again from a place of compassion. Their reconciliation would represent a larger trend, one that embodies the optimism of Star Trek and promotes the ideals of the Federation.

And that’s why I think there’s hope for Ashburn yet.

#star trek discovery #ashburn #ash tyler #michael burnham #meta #predictions #really hope i'm right

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