#generally accepted HAHA

[isekyaaa]

this is like. a fun question. the gala boots reminded me of my school's own booths during festivals and i was wondering which activity do you think you'll realisitically be good at? or not good at? if the booth activities were done irl, i think i'll probably flunk Haravatat's booth LOL. i'm so bad at riddles and puzzles. -- @milkstore

Aaaaaa I wish we had school festivals here. That sounds like really fun. ;A;

But realistically looking at this? I think I would be the best at Kshahrehwar (Project Connectivity) and Vahumana's (Antiquity Hunt) booths. Definitely, Ksahrehwar would be the easiest. With things like that, there are so many loopholes you can exploit to just make getting from beginning to end work. Although I kinda learned how to fight dirty from my dad HAHA. As for Vahumana's.... well, honestly academically speaking I absolutely hate history and politics LOL. But I do enjoy scavenger hunts like that.

As for the worst? I'm absolutely terrible at Rtawahist's (Gathering of the Stars) booth. I kid you not I'm just trying to randomly move the stars around to get things to hopefully match up. LOL Irl, I would be terrible at Amurta's (Mimetic Replication) booth because me and biology just don't get along. I am simply Not Observant enough to understand plant and animal behaviors. LOL

In the middle would be Spantamad (Concocted Reaction) and Haravatat's (In Truth's Steps) booths. I'm not much of a fighter, but if I were, I'd probably find the potions intriguing. Not to use, but to see how it works in other people. I'd like to know how they're made. But I don't think I'd be too bad at the fighting part either. And as for Haravatat... Well, I'm honestly terrible at riddles as well, but I do enjoy riddles and puzzles. Escape rooms are my favorite. So I'd hope I'd know what questions to ask haha. I think I'd just be average overall.

But what about you? Which would be your strengths and weaknesses? *eyeballs emoji*

[ptanalo]

I miss her o’clock

[sysig]

Laptop, now available for 500 pet-tickets (Patreon)

[tianshiisdead]

Japan shaves just about everything. He doesn't think more hair=more manly. He infact has a whole different idea of what is manly compared to western countries or most countries in general. He also likes flowers and floral patterns.

everything?!

[capfalcon]

i am actually hyperventilating oh my god. oh my god. so john actively asks if harold is okay after he talks to lou (the gambling guy). like, he cares about him so openly to ask if they're okay and well. and he cares and is vulnerable enough to listen to harold if he isn't okay.

also, john just throwing the ball to bear because the library is their home and bear is their dog...i cannot deal.

anyway, then harold asks him if he was listening and john says always. and it's the way he says it, so softly and yet so definitively. yes, always. yes, i listen to you, yes, i will listen to you forever. yes, you will always have someone watching you. oh my god.

oh my actual fucking god. i cannot handle this. and then john actively comforting harold and being his shoulder to cry on and someone to talk to. i am so overwhelmed.

[andersdotters]

Hi! I recently found your blogs, and can I just say how much I love your character analyses? Your portrayal of each character is always so in depth to the point where I can even picture them acting and speaking the same in game! I'm so impressed and I seriously don't know how you connect to each and every one of them so perfectly :O

If I may ask, what does your research and character profile process look like? As someone interested in writing, I hope to be as skilled as you with analysing characters (and writing plots and writing in general--) one day :) Any tips would be appreciated!

Thank you so much for all the hard work you do. I know I'll enjoy the story you come up with next!

Aww thank you so much!! Honestly sometimes I worry that my analyses won't be to everyone's tastes, so I'm very glad you think that they're good! I feel the same way about my writing because I know they're not the most romantic, so it's a relief to know you like it. ;v; <3 I have a lot to say about your questions though, so I'm going to put it under a readmore. It's an uh... infodump HAHA

When it comes to research, what it basically comes down to is reading everything. Read the character's lore, read their voice lines. Read what other characters have to say about them. Even talking to every NPC you see in the hopes that they'll talk about a character helps out a lot too HAHA. I also recommend going back to old events when doing research too. Reread them. Listen to the voice actor's portrayal of them. Read everything you can.

This is take three of trying to explain my character analysis process, but I'm going to give up and just explain to you the main logic that governs it. Basically what it boils down to is: we are not unique. Humans are not unique. What do I mean by this? People that are certain ways--for example, they have a low self-esteem, consistently overwork themselves, they want children when they get older, etc--they will typically share common characteristics. When you know the defining characteristics of each trait, you can potentially apply that trait to everyone you know that displays those characteristics.

For example, people that constantly overwork themselves typically have unhealthily high levels of perceived responsibility, typically with a self-deprecative trait that they don't deserve to be happy and rest. People that are very showy tend to care a lot about what people think of them. People that are extremely close to their families typically lose the ability to function properly without them.

If you know people that are like the examples above, you know that these observations are pretty accurate. And these examples represent pretty common types of people as well. Once you've seen one of them, you've seen them all. Nobody is unique. And because of that, you can apply these observations to characters because characters are meant to be human. Example one is Kaveh. Example two is Itto. And example 3 is Lyney. Now you've gotten a deeper dive into their psyche.

The way you become better at character analysis is by broadening your internal library of traits and their defining characteristics. This involves three steps: observation, drawing connections between observations, and fine tuning these connections by applying them to other people.

These steps are easy to understand, but let me go a bit more into step one. Observations come in two categories: physical observations and intuitive observations. Physical observations encompass things they physically do. Intuitive observations are larger statements that can't be tied to just a single physical observation. For example, physical observations may be that they don't go out much, they don't talk much in groups but do one-on-one, they wear bright colors, they're rude, etc. Intuitive observations are more: they seem to be uncomfortable around children, they act like they're scared to contact first, they're always on the move, etc.

The second step involves drawing lines between observations and trying to deduce meaning. For example, [they end their sentences using a rising intonation] + [they ask me my opinion a lot] = [this person cares about not sounding rude or unwelcoming]. Or, [they have a low self-esteem] + [they care about being seen as morally good] + [they engage in fandom] = [I probably should not tell this person I think Dottore and his penchant for human experimentation is hot].

Typically the logic goes: [physical observation] + [physical observation] = [intuitive observation]. [physical observation] + [intuitive observation] = [mid-tier intuitive observation]. [intuitive observation] + [intuitive observation] = [top tier intuitive observation].

But it does not end at step two. Step three basically tests to see if your observation from step two is valid or not. When you apply your observation from step two to a multitude of people, you're able to fine tune your observation to make it more generalized and more accurate. Maybe you realize that not everyone that ends their sentences in a rising intonation is necessarily polite, but it's more of a cultural thing. Maybe you see that having low self-esteem isn't always a symptom of having a high moral code. Test, revise, then test again. The higher the tier of your observation, the greater the chance it has of being wrong.

When I analyze characters, I go through my mental library and see which traits and characteristics I've catalogued before. And for things that don't have an exact match, I try to find ones that shares at least a few things in common that may follow the same logic. For example, I don't know anyone like Zhongli. However, I do have a friend that's very outgoing, but you can have a full on conversation with them and leave not knowing anything about them. Can I apply the logic of my friend to someone like Zhongli?

I will say this and I will say this again. People are not unique. Everyone is a copy of someone else in some way. When you treat the characters as if you were analysing any other normal human being, you can quite easily draw conclusions from what they have in common with people you know and have seen.

Anyway, this is so long I am so sorry. Hopefully I didn't completely bowl you over with information. OTL

[creed-of-cats]

The amount of doomerism I've heard from fellow usamericn zoomers/millennials around me is starting to drive me fucking insane.

"We're all gonna die, it's hopeless, it's not worth doing anything. This is our penance as human beings/[insert other guilty identity]"

You know who you guys fucking sound like? Fucking Evangelicals.

Yeah it's fucking scary and big, I'm not trying to say it isn't. But what the fuck is your plan??? Sitting down and dying?? Are you really telling me that this world is not worth you even fucking trying?? That you're just gonna party it out until your miscellaneous end game apocalypse arrives?

This isn't the rapture. The apocalypse is a false concept. People have been living through "apocalypses" every day of their fucking lives for all of human history, especially during the past 400 years. Get up and stop the suicidal idealization of your own tragic death. Our lives in the first world are built off suffering. To lay down and say we don't have any power is to reject the duty we have as beneficiaries of that suffering.

If you are so convinced you're going to die young then die trying instead of baring your fucking throat.

[justtogetthrough]

My step kid called me an egg yesterday and I wanted to be like “boy you don’t even know, I’ve been on a gender journey since my teens I just don’t fill anyone else in on it” lol. Thinks I’m ready to crack but they’re 15 years too late to me wondering what the fuck I am l o l

A little known fact I guess is I actually identify as genderfluid I just don’t care to let anyone know that because it’s not relevant to anything, including how I present or how people interact with me. E.g. no change in name or pronouns as I move through my own thang.

My step kid says I have hella non binary vibes and I nodded and went yeah that tracks, friendo sometimes refers to me as they/them and tbh I like that much better but I don’t care enough to actually ask people to change what they call me.

Is that me coming out to my kid? Lol. I’ve never even considered whether I’m out or not. I vibe with masculinity and femininity however I want and every couple years it changes and I just go with it and for the most part pronouns don’t bother me. There are certain gendered terms that do bother me but are infrequently used, and if particular people use them often I just ask them not to, and bam, good enough. It’s never occurred to me that I should tell people that inside it’s more complex than what they see.

I love Gen Z and their expansive but limited knowledge on LGBTQ things.

Me. An egg

[they-are-a-prolife-autist]

YESSSSSSS

I really hope this is the first small step to a lot of great things. Life insurance at conception, child support during pregnancy, etc etc etc.

[scarecrow-in-a-hatake]

Hokage-sama! In the spirit of spring… what flowers do you appreciate the most?

Irises. But it would be nice to see some calla lilies and daylilies outside of weddings and funerals, ne?

[vulpinesaint]

meds working is like. finding myself laughing at something. smiling big. crying easy cause i can feel again. anything beautiful or even vaguely sentimental sparks tears and sometimes it's such a ridiculous thing to cry at that i have to laugh again. not remembering the last time i felt really bad when i used to not remember the last time i felt really happy. saying that i'm doing alright and it's a good thing and not another way to say that i'm not doing well. things can be tough but overall i'm alright. things are alright. things are okay. driving with the windows down in late summer is fun and december's early nights are nice, actually, and maybe i just need to get out of bed and shower to feel less icky. i had a rough time today but it's not the end. happiness is not always transcendent. things are alright.

[lochley]

forever mystified by how the other races get politically trained diplomats but humans just get a military commander to resolve intricate interspecies disputes......... like...... i'm guessing/hoping they have to get some training there inherent to being a soldier, and then additional training before taking that post, but uh? where are the human diplomats. why are you letting hothead susan ivanova handle these things. why is john j space jesus sheridan president of the universe can he define different voting systems. does he know what a tetrarchy is. where's your political science degree my good cowboy dude who had to be hand-fed basic minbari cultural fun facts by his bridge between worlds wifey

[fierykitten2]

I don't want to accidentally start an internet war or anything but I do want to put the point out there that the Pretty Cure fandom's reaction to the Glitter Force sub-fandom is basically like if I'm like "Hi, my favourite Animal Crossing villager is Megan, I think she's pretty, I love the colour purple and she has a great personality. Not the best personality, but her personality is cute so she's still number one in my heart" and someone responds with "*Candy"

[yuridovewing]

was reading through the ultimate guide earlier (the og to be clear) and boy it sure doesnt bug me at all that dovewing’s page mostly consists of just her love triangle with only a brief intro to her powers at the start

[isekyaaa]

To be honest, I think the thing about wanting to be liked by people, but not getting the validation you'd like about being a likeable person is like... people assume that people should like them for who they are. And when faced with this dilemma is that most people go in two opposite directions. They either stick adherently to the person they believe themselves to be or they change themselves into what they assume is the person most people would like.

The truth of the matter is that neither of these routes will get people to the place they want to go. When you stick to the first route, you become inherently self-absorbed. You show no consideration to the feelings and thoughts the people around you, what they are and are not comfortable with, etc. If you go the second route, you essentially become a robot following a preprogrammed path and responding in a preprogrammed way. Nothing you say is truly you.

I'm not going to say there is a magic formula to being the most likable, but the more you stray to the edges, the more conventionally unlikable you'll become.

I think the most difficult thing here for people is that the key to finding a good middle ground is confidence. It is only through confidence in yourself as a person that'll help you to stick to what your beliefs when you differ from others, but also being able to relax such convictions when there's no need for them.

Taking a chance by taking a step in the opposite direction of where you currently stand is scary. But you will never get anywhere if you stand still. All journeys start with the first step, as they say. But there's no rush. Everyone has the right to go about it slowly. But it will be worth it.

[aloverslonging]

she’s got a boyfriend she’s had since 2019 and she may not even like other genders other than males, so i don’t expect the feelings to be returned nor expect anything from her nor do i plan to say anything, but i sigh thinking about her bc she’s very cute lol