#probably the fault of his traditionalist family

[eorzeashan]

still thinking about how Eight doesn't want to run into other Echani in the wild because he's afraid they'll see right through him and know the kind of man he is at first glance (an honorless killer) and the knowledge that he no longer fits even in his own culture's society would be too harsh a blow to bear, but unbeknownst to him it'd probably just make him more attractive in their eyes lolol

[jacksprostate]

Before Project Mayhem, before fight club, before Marla, before Tyler — there is still one sad sack of shit.

.

.

The hard part about work trips isn't making the plane or seeing another family of five burnt into their leather seats. It's missing support groups.

See, if you're lucky, the company will send you out to a major city. Cities are great. A little advanced work to find a slightly below average church or library, you're set each night you're there.

It's a bit of novelty, getting to be a new face all at once. People assume you've just been diagnosed. It's never the failed treatments, the degradation of their life and everyone in it, the continuous experience of knowingly dying — none of those things are the worst thing that happens to you.

It's finding out they will.

So people cry. They crowd around, I sob like I've been told I've got stage four colon cancer and three weeks to live. We all cry. I sleep soundly on the plane back or in the nice, four star hotel my company provides me.

Flying out to a small town, though. I'll be awake enough to be hallucinating by the time I get back for Remaining Men Together. The only mercy is that the next time I show for all the groups I missed, I can see who thought I died. I get to be resurrected.

The other part about small towns, you have to take a second, shitter plane to a local airfield, or you have to take a rental car. One of the most popular rental cars available right now, it'll light itself on fire if you use the cruise control at the wrong time. I know this because I sat next to another guy with my job, who worked for a different company, and he said I'll show you mine if you show me yours. So I told him about the faulty airbags, and he told me about the overheating switch.

I prefer to avoid driving.

All the rental place at the airport has left for me, it's one of those flaming cars. I use cruise control. If I don't, one of my narcoleptic spells will send me into the Jersey barrier.

When you drive into these small towns, you have to try to pay attention, or you'll end up a county over talking about the wrong wreck. They're otherwise interchangeable, but the miles on your rental car won't line up and those are the type of records that might get pulled out when the company is finally sued for the big one ten years down the line.

As a result, I see the same decor on the way in every time. Meth lab. Abandoned homes. Garbage fire. Classic Americana. There is no four star hotel here; I sleep the same.

The only reason I've been brought out here is because the poor shithead who drove his truck into the ditch drunk was driving my company's flagship vehicle. It loses power steering if the car jostles the right way going above 55 miles per hour. I've been told to keep track of potential incidents and make sure the company can firmly claim it's not at fault.

We've had this problem for decades, and we will for many more. Sometimes, everything is falling apart.

The job is simple, and I only get tempted by the town's blatant opioid addiction for a day and night. Painkillers would probably make me sleep. The thing about being a recall campaign organizer, though, is like recognizes like. It's not only other Compliance and Liability guys who tell you company secrets while sharing the aisle in business class.

When I'm finally back in my own town, after my own support groups, after crying my eyes out into Bob's meaty middle — I pick up my mail. There's the newest IKEA magazine. Half of it looks like shit. The type of thing you'd only see in some curated art deco, modernist, post-modern traditionalist bohemian minimalist apartment.

I have to have it.

I go to sleep, hard, like God himself tucked me in. I sleep with my wallet net four hundred heavier, because even an IKEA spree tends not to outweigh a work trip. I sleep, with my called in IKEA goods only two short weeks away, my job well done, and I know, my life is complete.

[alexandravakimova]

For the ask game - 1, 19, 49, 61

I hope that's not too many

Hey, thanks for the ask!

And it's not too many at all, no worries. :)

You didn't specify who for so I'll just do like half and half.

1. What drives them? What is their ultimate goal? - for Torryn Cousland:

Motivation is like the biggest piece of character development you could do so I shall use my less developed boy. At the beginning of the game, he was just kind of naive and wanted glory or honor or whatever he thought was expected of him. He didn't know really how awful war and death was - he'd been raised as the son of a very powerful family in a time of peace, why would he know it beyond what stories and songs said? Howe's betrayal really shook him, I think. He had no desire to join the wardens and honestly, he probably just wanted to tell his brother what happened and then go hide in the wilds or something. When he and Alistair became the last wardens in Ferelden, he did his duty, because he was the only one who could. Doesn't mean he was happy about it. So, for most of the game, it was just sort of "get this done and then you can move on with your life, whatever is left of it." Then, as his relationship with Morrigan developed, he started focusing on something other than just doing what he had to: he wanted to build a future for the two of them. That drive probably only increased when he found out that they were going to have a child. He put himself in a position of power and married the queen, which seemed like an ambitious and selfish move from the outside, but it was actually done because he wanted to secure something for Morrigan and his son, somewhere they could be safe and that gave them both a very comfortable future. So, in the end, I suppose he was motivated by a desire to protect and take care of his newfound family.

19. What sparks genuine, unadulterated rage in them? - For Iarlaith Hawke

Honestly, Hawke is easy to find things that make him happy or that are funny so this one is good for him. I mean, there's people: Meredith, Petrice, and of course mage rights but what probably really actually enrages him is, hm... Honestly, it might just be not treating people as people or that they're worthwhile despite their class/race/sexuality/etc. He's struggled with homophobia from his mother and her traditionalist views his whole life and it's really messed him up. He, his siblings, and his father have never been able to tell her that they have elven blood because of a different part of those traditionalist views. So, seeing someone be treated as "not enough" or "nothing" probably enrages him to no end.

On another side, his relationship with his mom probably also has made him exceptionally irritated about anyone who won't accept the responsibility for their actions and blame it on others (i.e: she didn't have to go run off or get pregnant, even if that part was an accident. It wasn't his fault he was born). But I'm not sure he lets that side come out as much.

Whatever it is, it comes from his shit relationship with his mom, no doubt. :)

49. How often do they cut their hair, if at all? - For Iarlaith Hawke

Enough to take care of it. He doesn't actually cut his hair much; he lets Anders do it. He likes him playing with his hair. I think it keeps getting slightly longer throughout the acts.

After the end of the game, he cuts his hair short so as to not be recognized as easily.

61. Is there an in-game moment of theirs you think about and just laugh? - For Torryn Cousland

This would be very hard to do for Hawke since there are so many moments I find hilarious.

But my warden... Hm. Honestly all of Awakening is just hilarious. He recruits a bunch of criminals and murderers, makes them a found family, then just goes off never to be seen again. And yet I bet they're all insanely loyal to him no matter what. So, yeah, probably just the fact of who he chose to start rebuilding the order in ferelden. I think he and they are the only peopld who actually find that funny, though.

Thanks again for the ask! I think I wrote you a small novel in response. 😁

[legionofpotatoes]

my thoughts on the wonderful panda movie!!

my favorite thing about turning red is that it really, really understands the human nucleus at the crux of all the seemingly disparate themes it depicts; and specifically how the complex tapestry at the dawn of our teenage years is a fiercely interconnected set of experiences that cannot be individually pluck out and examined without pulling a bunch of other ones along. like how boundary-less parental expectations are often tangled up in generational trauma. how teenage sexual awakening can clash with those expectations and create a self-destructive shame bubble. how that shame then in turn clashes with developing biology and begets self-righteous, uncontrollable rage, marking a fork in the road for a far too young mind. how that choice then, that very act of choosing between your found family and your home, can be its own trauma response to all that internalized shame. how it all then congeals into quiet acceptance that suppresses healthy self-indulgence and creates a rigid way of life. how that way of life then naturally morphs into a parenting model, feeding off home-grown validation, sexist social norms, and fear. how it all locks down and starts the cycle again.

and how the way out isn't some quick bandaid and lip service over any one of those symptoms, but a long, hard look through the walls of trauma that stretch back generations, and ultimately to a very human expression of helplessness somewhere down that line. confrontation and honest communication then becomes a road that the younger mind has to choose to pave first, arduously, against all wit and will, and even then; the heavier their trauma has grown with time, the harder it will be for her older family members to accept their red pandas. their tragedy is in the calcification of shame, but the work can still be worth it; for they might just realize that it is you who can accept all your sides and supersede them.

and that catharsis then is everything. it is what sets the young mind truly free and blows the doors open for true growth and self-expression to occur. it is utter harmony and selfless love with your family, as they guide and support your fumbling young mind into a weird and dangerous future. and to see a kids' movie articulate this so clearly, so vividly, with slapstick embellishment and razor-sharp metaphors dripping with clarity of intent (something I thought encanto had issues with), is really, really heartwarming, especially at a time like this.

and despite not being a member of any asian-american diaspora groups, I do live in an ancient, infinitely-colonized country barely clinging to self-identity and dripping with survivalist sentiment that trickles down to familial social norms and traditionalist baggage; so I think I can understand. Not the cultural context, but the mechanisms by which this story can potentially puncture and embrace the bleeding heart of someone close to its setting. and I can appreciate and speak to how well-oiled and crafted those mechanisms are. they only go on top of a story that is ultimately full of joy and heart, fine-tuned to thematic perfection, sporting a hilariously competent cinematic eye, and treating the interior lives of children with the same tender care and unabashed drama as any high-brow kino would its whitewashed monomyths. and it is undoubtedly my favorite movie I've seen this year, genre or medium notwithstanding.

honorable mentions:

I know we're all victims of disney's cute animal design trap but that panda is fucking adorable and I, a dude pushing his 30s, would visibly squee every time she made a Face

yeah apropos of that disney overall is obviously corrupt to a fault and a tumor on the side of any industry it touches, so I have to make it clear that the excellence of craft on display in this movie is overtly and exclusively creator-driven. the corporate meddling, if anything, is probably a detriment to what could easily have been a vessel for meaningful LGBTQ+ narratives, seeing as how elegantly they would work not just within the plot, but on a story level in this specific thematic framework, as well. a damn fucking shame

but as far as big and mainstream disney/pixar/whatever movies go, I can see turning red being an overall net positive for the zeitgeist - especially with many shitheads on twitter already parroting their self-owns by frothing over a story that directly points a finger at their emotional incompetence. and it goes deeper as well, like some details many people have already pointed out - including but not limited to the first shameless discussion of menstrual pads in a children's movie that I recall seeing. you know. something half of all kids everywhere right now and forever in history have had to deal with as the rest of the world played hush-hush. that's not too minor in a film this big, especially for one that tries to talk about shame. and it truly is one example out of many (the horny doodles sequence lives in my mind rent-free and is painfully accurate)

I love Abby with my entire heart and I feel such kinship with her tiny outbursts. I have nothing more to add. I love her

and just overall the way these kids act and behave at home/around friends/at school is such an unashamed, joyous look at life in 2002. I was ten during that time, living my own personal hell, and something about the unfiltered, unhinged nature of interactions Mei has with her friend group knock directly at a memory box in my brain that I vowed never to open again. It is also just hilarious in a purely aesthetic sense of visual exaggeration; a wonderful step away from the normally restrained simulacrums that the mouse house churns out

but why ARE they called 4Town if there's five of them, honestly

[morvantmortuary]

🌟🌈❄️ for Hex?

Sure thing! Thanks for taking the time to ask <3

🌟- Is this oc good at expressing themself through words or do they have to use other means?

This is a tricky question, ngl! Hex doesn’t think of himself as good with words -- he’s spoken two languages at minimum his entire life (though he’s probably picked up more by now), so he’s very familiar with the feeling of not being able to find the words for what he means in more than one language, which can feel incredibly lonely sometimes. His speech is definitely a bit more casual than that of his cousins, but Maxi’s worked in a traditionalist customer-facing industry since he could properly help Vincent, and their mother put Rora through every charm school-esque class and workshop she could find. Ranza, for all her faults, gets props out of all the original four parents for loving Hex exactly as he was - sometimes imperfectly doing so, but it was still there. Hector got teased by some of the small town kids when he was younger for flubbing his words sometimes, and he still has a little bit of that insecurity at the back of his mind, so he tends to believe he expresses himself best through visuals -- first and foremost photography, obviously, but sometimes through other means as well. He sometimes borrows the words of others; if there’s a poem he likes that describes how he feels about you (as closely as possible), you often find the page ripped directly from a book somewhere like on your vanity or tucked into the windshield wiper of your car. Or he’ll try to explain his feelings by taking you somewhere that feels like what’s going on inside his head, like stargazing or something. He thinks if he can show it to you, it’ll make more sense.

🌈- What does this oc like and dislike about themselves?

Honestly this was the answer that took me a day to think about lmao

Hex has a very complicated relationship with his feelings about himself. (A lifetime of having your self-worth based on your developing abilities to summon the dead will do that to a guy.) He likes his skill set: he’s very competent at everything he does, from photography to murder stalking hacking his less public pursuits. He’s a gifted medium, which we haven’t seen in text yet (but is part of the smut request I’m working on for him rn it’s complicated) and is v rare in the family, even a family of necromancers, so he takes a great amount of pride in that as well. He’s also not shy about accepting the fact that he’s hot - trust me, he knows, and he considers it part of his people skills. But even if he wasn’t, he’d still be good at talking to people, getting them to let their guard down. It’s a cultivated skill that it took him a lot of time to develop, so he’s proud of that one as well.

In terms of what he doesn’t like… well, first he has to admit there’s some things he doesn’t like. :’D He only really opens up about that, even to himself, when he’s having a bad insomnia spell. Then he’ll obsess over how he’s supposed to be powerful but he still hasn’t finished his Chain bc he got too impulsive with a kill, or got too caught up in the moment and forgot to think through his clean up plan/exit strategy. He hates how he loses his cool more easily when things are out of his control, no matter how hard he’s tried to work on his temper bc he didn’t want to end up like his father. While he makes it a point to openly shrug off whatever the rest of the world is doing, bc that clearly doesn’t apply to him as someone who literally can see between this world and the Next, he still panics a little bit some nights about being 40 and having dropped out of college and not having a home of his own or a steadier job than freelance photography, bc he put all his eggs in the Necromancer Scion basket and never thought he’d need ~Normal Person Things~… except now, it feels like he has no alternative even if he wanted one. Especially when he starts dating you — how is he supposed to help create a comfortable life for both of you, outside his whole Family Curse deal? What’s to say you don’t find his “dreamy free-spirited artist” thing exhausting eventually, and leave him for someone who has their shit together. He couldn’t blame you if you did, he’d totally understand and wants the best for you bc he loves you more than anything even if you leaving might kill him in the process.

He tries v hard to give the impression he’s always got something up his sleeve and that he doesn’t care what other people think, but that’s bc if he doesn’t, he might actually have to admit he’s got himself in a bit of a hole and doesn’t know how to get out.

❄- What is this oc's favorite and least favorite food?

I answered this in another ask, but I can mention that Hex is that guy at any state fair that will eat something deep-fried and smothered in chocolate. Maxi thought he had an iron stomach, but the way Hex will go through fried oreos put the fear of god in him once and for all lmao.

thanks again, hon! I appreciate the reflective time, this was fun! 🥰

[terrence-silver]

Did Terry volunteer for the war or was he drafted?

Oh man, I've no clue.

I always preferred the old fanon idea that his parents died in a car accident and left him destitute, knee-deep in gambling debt that ate away at Terry's inheritance as a teenager and that he literally and ironically enough volunteered for the army to survive and have somewhere to go (damned if you do, damned if you don't type of situation), but now that the show jumbled everything by not only telling us Terry's parents (or at least his father) was very much alive during the time, that he was possibly obscenely rich, in charge of a company and could've easily gotten his only son and heir out of a war that could've had him killed or MIA, sparing him from the danger of it all as people of wealth often did, I literally have to wonder.

I'll justify this by imagining that Terry's dad was an old fashioned traditionalist and probably something of a patriot and to extend upon that, I think that he was tragically enough, very much ashamed that Terry, due to the reasons that later had him dubbed Twig, didn't fit the classic bill of masculinity early in his life. Terry was scrawny, skinny, gentle and shy. Possibly, if we take into account the queer subtext of Terry's entire character, maybe his father wanted to, literally speaking, 'set him straight' by sending him off to war as a rite of passage because he already had prior suspicions about his son's leanings and gave him an ultimatum; either come back a real man, or die. Because, to his father, a dead son was better than a wrong son. A son with a fault or a 'defect', as he saw it. A strange son. A strange son was social suicide for a family with a big reputation to maintain. At least a dead son can be written off as a war hero --- that sounds lofty as an idea and as a concept, rather than a living, breathing person. A dead soldier son. It is like an accessory one can pin to their list of achievements. There's gravitas and weight to that. Much better then having a gay son. Or a bi son. Or any other son that isn't acceptable in the 60's.

As a result, I think Terry was coerced, pressured and pushed into volunteering as a way to prove himself to a dyed-in-the-bone, relentless, despotic family patriarch with a multigenerational old money wealth behind himself and possibly risk being cut off from the Silver inheritance and disowned. Maybe even thrown out and made homeless as a mere teenager with no resources to support himself. We don't know for sure, but I'm speculating. It is just another type of 'no win' situation where Terry's options were extremely limited right down to very easily risk getting killed in Vietnam, being captured, tortured and being exposed to unspeakable horrors and trauma intended to 'make a man out of him' --- or refuse and simply be cut off from his entire family and ushered off to war regardless, once his impossibly rich and powerful father pulls some connections to have him ratted out and drafted anyway, purely out of some personal pettiness and spite. Maybe going to war seemed like the lesser of two evils at the time, because in the off chance that he survived, Terry at least clung unto the hope he'd have a place to come back to. But, then again, this headcanon makes his father seem stupendously evil, giving his own son the bleak options between experiencing all-out war as a way to become tougher, getting isolated from his own family unit, blackmail, jailtime for draft dodging, homelessness and the elaborate version of what his father no doubt saw as conversion therapy.

It is Terry Silver's father, though --- so what do I know?

Guy really might've been that hideous.

He was probably at least a couple of shades worse than Terry himself.

[keikoh]

In terms of shinigami abilities, what are Keiko's strengths and weaknesses? (and maybe likes/dislikes -just because they are good/bad at something doesn't always indicate if they like it or not)

STRENGTHS:

Keiko's extremely brave, to a fault perhaps! She'll face down bullies and stand up for others, she doesn't shrink down or shy away. Rangiku's shown her how to perfectly punch motherfuckers in the face without breaking a nail.

Sharp! She's a fast learner and absolutely talented in her observational skills -- being able to catch onto patterns and other details within moments of it appearing, an active and honed mind, making her also better equipped to unleash some lethal sarcasm and wit at the drop of a dime.

She's an agile little fucker, slippery, hard to pin down or catch because she zips around so quickly. This translates over into Keiko becoming excellent with Shunpo once she learns and grasps the art.

To follow in her dad's footsteps, Keiko focuses a lot of her training around kenjutsu, and while she's relatively sloppy with it when she's younger, she refines this as she ages and turns her relentless charging tactics of her childhood into a terrifying flurry of quick attacks which can easily overwhelm

Basically, she's a speedy gremlin

WEAKNESSES:

Kido. One hundred percent it's Kido. She's awful at memorizing those long incantations and sees no reason in stopping, pausing a fight, leaving herself vulnerable, only to fire off something that probably won't even be strong enough to hurt her enemies. Her low motivation to actually master this art leaves her fairly vulnerable in facing against Kido, too, as well as generally not coping well with scenarios that call specifically for Kido. She knows basics.

Keiko isn't physically strong, at all, and it'd take maybe one decent hit for her to be down and out. She really needs to work on her durability.

Can become highly emotional, riled, or otherwise discouraged during battle. Keiko has some insecurities about being able to measure up to her parents, who are both titled Shinigami, whereas she feels like nothing truly special beyond her lineage. It's a sore spot, leaving her prone to acts in attempts to prove herself perhaps falling flat on its face, shattering her self-esteem.

Over-compensating independence: she'll isolate herself unnecessarily or face things alone without reasoning beyond 'I can handle it' and a blood-given inability to ask for help.

LIKES:

Food. Snacks. Especially things to munch on, specifically if it's junk food from the human world. Her parents live a fairly traditionalist lifestyle, so Keiko enjoys stuffing her bag full of convenience store snacks to bring back to Soul Society with her during World of the Living visits.

Tech, namely her phone. She has an iPhone 6s that Gin gifted her for one of her birthdays via Urahara's shop. It's in pristine condition, despite now being several years old, and runs smoothly. Keiko guards it carefully. She also enjoys video games ( Hotaru showed her them, and she got hooked; she likes either simply watching or playing them with others, she doesn't like solo-playing them ) and watching Youtube, especially hair and makeup tutorials.

Winter festivals, particularly when there are firework shows and games. It's a tradition in her family to go to them yearly, and they always make her feel warm, safe, and nostalgic. She likes getting prettied up for them, too, even if she initially didn't like the yucky kimono when she was younger -- too busy trying to emulate her dad. Rangiku's helped her with embracing femininity a lot.

Training with Gin, in any setting. She feels like these are the cherished moments between just the two of them where she can ask him anything and he'll answer. The bonding and experience she gains from each session makes her ready to break anyone's nose who tries to badmouth her father.

DISLIKES:

Being coddled. Even if she wants it, she hates the feeling of being babied or being sheltered away from the truth. She doesn't like it when her parents use that hushed tone around her, the 'we'll talk about this later when she's not here' voice. It grates at her trust and makes her feel like they're keeping secrets from her, like she can't handle them.

Cowards. Anyone who talks shit but then scrams as soon as the threat of getting hit pops up. People who have no problem making assumptions and accusations at her and her family while thinking they can just run away from consequences or cry out if she strikes at them for it. Keiko'll get in trouble again and again because of these loud-mouthed babies, and she has no shame in it.

Mayuri. What the actual fuck is that guy? He looks like a clown from those scary haunted movies she's discouraged from watching ( but she definitely snuck out and watched ) and now she has nightmares that pop up every now and again about his weird painted face and lipless mouth.

KIDO. Seriously, she hates this shit. Why is it a required skillset in the Shinigami Academy? Most of the Shinigami, even seated officers, almost never use Kido in battle!!! This isn't fair!! Who has time to shout a paragraph at someone!?

[swanface]

If you had to pick new leaders and deputies for each clan and the tribe, instead of who would you personally pick- who would make for the most interesting picks?

oooh, trying to select “interesting” choices per each clan without inherently trying to think okay, who would make for a good leader or deputy, is...considerably hard. i tried to think through each clan and the current attitudes of each leader and see if i could “flip” those in order to make things interesting or essentially just different, so...here we go!

NETTLECLAN

Mottlestar + Featherflight or Mottlestar + Flintheart

though i don’t think it shows often, crowstar is a fierce cat. he’s not incredibly strict, as a leader — he’s warm towards his clan as a whole, and understands just how chaotic life can be — but he is incredibly willing to become stern and essentially strong arm any enemies that arise. he’s the sort to use his strength to his advantage, and, i think, the most likely of the current leaders to kill in order to solve a conflict. i wanted to give nettleclan a less certain presence as its leader and first thought about more anxious cats like twigpaw or pansypaw, but they feel too extreme, so i instead opted for mottlepelt becoming mottlestar. as a leader, i feel like he’d have a very flimsy sort of approach, and might tend to get stepped on by particularly stubborn clanmates or the fellow leaders of the other clans. he’s been shown in the roleplay to be a bit impulsive, and most of his actions are done with the intention of making others happy before considering consequences (see: his family), which i think would make for a very interesting nettleclan leader.

mottlestar as a leader feels to me like the kind of cat who would immediately gravitate towards choosing a deputy he knows well rather than a cat who might be a more steady or wise choice, and his options therefore are limited to featherflight or flintheart. both of them are actually pretty similar cats, when it comes down to it, colored by cynicism and very much unconcerned with anyone who happens to be outside of their own familial circles or social bubbles. they wouldn’t be making any friends with the other clans, and with mottlestar in charge, i think nettleclan would shift to being seen as “weak” or at least pushovers. featherflight might be a bit rash as a deputy due to her younger age, while flintheart would likely be very prone to snapping, too, as he’s clearly not a cat who works under the pressure of having the clan depend on him.

CREEKCLAN

Milkstar + Willowpaw

currently, creekclan has a very traditional sort of structure with currentstar in charge. outsiders are still allowed in, but the way he chooses to apprentice them and integrate them into the clan speaks of structure and of valuing the ways of clan life rather than bending them like mantisstar or even crowstar might. because of this, the clear opposite of currentstar’s leadership would be a less traditional kind of leader, as well as one who would bring about chaos. milkstar would be my first choice as leader with this duo set up, because honestly, willowpaw doesn’t seem like the type who would even want to be in charge, but it would also keep creekclan from...well. completely crumbling, i think.

but still, with milkstar as a leader and willowpaw his ever faithful sidekick, creekclan would have a much more hostile vibe, i think. they’d probably be known as troublemakers — both milkpaw and willowpaw have been known to rush into things without thinking, and i can see that getting them into problems with the other clans — and i imagine they’d have a pretty harsh way of interacting with enemies if it came down to it. willowpaw’s more lighthearted, but milkpaw has a lot of untapped anger at his center. as a leader, i don’t think he’d be strict, exactly, but i do imagine that if you managed to piss him off, there would be hell to pay for it. as his deputy, willowpaw would essentially support him in all that he chose to do. they’re already a pretty unbreakable team, and i think that if it came down to a conflict arising for creekclan, willowpaw would probably egg on milkpaw’s already volatile temper.

JAGGEDCLAN

Leopardstar + Eaglepaw

i honestly contemplated the idea of leopardpaw being leopardstar and appointing starlingstep as her deputy simply because i find the “young leader, old deputy” dynamic to be pretty intriguing in most cases, but another option i think that would be equally as interesting and viable is eaglepaw. leopardpaw as leopardstar would be the stark opposite of mantisstar, who is exceedingly trusting to the point of fault. jaggedclan would transform from being perhaps the most “open” clan, willing to help outsiders and fellow rival clans alike, to something a lot more isolated and closed off. jaggedclan is currently the only clan to have a leader / deputy pair consisting of cats formerly from outside of the clans (mantisstar and oakjaw being former loners / rogues), and because of that, i feel like their reputation shifted from being the most hostile toward outside culture to the most welcoming.

with leopardstar, though, they would again be far more closed off. i thought that maybe a good deputy choice for her would be someone that could balance her distrustful nature, but an interesting choice might be eaglepaw instead. he’s close enough to leopardpaw that i think she trusts him, and though he doesn’t have quite the same suspicion levels, he’s also very closed off personally. really, i think he’d have a similar feeling to oakjaw now — basically just the right hand man of the leader, there to back her up, but in this case he would be backing up leopardpaw who is...very much not the same sort of cat mantisstar is. leopardpaw, in my opinion, definitely has the right sort of personality to be a leader — firm, certain, able to make decisions — and eaglepaw, though not particularly confident on his own, would function well in a supporting role. of the leader / deputy duos i’ve proposed so far, i feel like these two would be objectively the most functional. undeniably different from current jaggedclan leadership, sure, but they’d have way more stability to them than the nettleclan or creekclan duos might.

FOGCLAN

Foxstar + Hemlockpaw

fogclan, as of right now, is a clan on the outskirts. lilystar’s callousness does them no favors when it comes to being accepted into the general community of the original three clans. she’s far from personable, quick to act rashly, and really does not confide in anyone but herself. because of this, to flip the dynamic, fogclan would need a leader eager to reach out and forge the bonds that lilystar hasn’t — perhaps not for lack of wanting those bonds, but because she simply does not have the personality that would lend itself well towards...well. making friends.

foxflame as foxstar is exactly the sort of amicable, friendly cat who might finally be able to sway the general opinion of fogclan from negative to...at least slightly positive. he’s affectionate, respectful, and tends not to tread on any toes. he might be a bit ill suited towards leadership when it comes to needing to stand firm, but honestly, i think fogclan might benefit from a leader who is more flexible or even more willing to take a few hits for the sake of general peace. to compliment foxstar, i’d also think a really bubbly sort of deputy would suit him, and the first cheerful cat i thought of was hemlockpaw. he has a bit of that competitiveness to him that i think could make fogclan not seem exceedingly like pushovers (like i mentioned nettleclan might), but he’s not aggressive. he’d be able to let things run off his shoulders without taking them too seriously while still providing enthusiasm and general support.

TRIBE OF TWISTED TUNNELS

Twilight Sun, Crow Breeze, Tumbling Leaf, Elk Frost

the tribe is considerably more complex when it comes to how leadership works, and so to keep in line with the idea of heirs being selected...what if an entire litter of four had been crowned heirs? in normal litters of more than one kit where heir status is declared, like vixen and rose, it is clear that only one of them can go forth to be the actual leader of spring, buuut...in litters of four, the siblings are given a unique season each. this means that if a litter of four was deemed heirs, they would all be set up to lead their respective seasons some day.

honestly, i began with twilight sun and crow breeze as concepts meant to subvert the more frigid leaders that proceeded them. summer’s due for a cat who is warm like twilight, and crow is pretty much the perfect example of a spring born (unlike tiger breeze herself). once i realized that i’d put two of the four siblings into place, i also came to realize that tumble and elk are pretty contrasting figures against willow leaf and honey frost. willow leaf has some sternness to him, but he’s also more of a traditionalist. tumble...is not, clearly. it’d be really interesting if she’d not only been born with the expectation of adhering to fall and its duties but also been assigned to one day lead the season. she’d be a chaotic leader, that’s for sure, but she might be able to settle into the role eventually. elk as elk frost is similar enough to honey frost that it wouldn’t be a total shake up, but elk has the backbone that honey frost often lacks, and therefore i think he’d be a solid option as a genuinely good, passionate winter leader.

[yeaahishowedupatyourparty]

The Calloways: Back stories, information & more ❥ Part One: Family. 

Obviously, Synn, Katie and Fae have all taken a sister each and will grow them in ways that they see best but these are my original headcanons and ideas of what the family are like & what their lives are like.

The Family (by age)

Gerald Calloway (46)  Anthea Calloway (45)  Eloise Calloway  Amber Calloway  Felicity Calloway  Piper Calloway - ‘Deceased’ Zara Calloway  Darla Sutherland - Mother of Eloise

Gerald Calloway

Gerald inherited The Calloway from his father and the hotel has been in the family since before the First World War. He’s a traditionalist and definitely takes pride in being “the man of the house.”  With Eloise - Eloise and Gerald have a special bond. Despite what Eloise may think, he’s never wanted his oldest daughter to feel pushed out or not a part of the family. He definitely has a soft spot for her and believes the two of them are bonded in a way he’ll have be able to achieve with the other girls.  With Amber - Amber is his first child with his current wife and he definitely sees her as a ‘Mummy’s Girl’. He loves her just as much as he loves the others, but with her being Anthea’s favourite, Gerald rarely had much to do with her as she got older.  With Felicity - Gerald would’ve seen Felicity as a relief. Before she came, it was very much Eloise vs. Amber and him trying to find a way to balance them both when their mothers wanted one to be better than the other. I feel like Gerald would’ve used Felicity to bring some sort of unity between the sisters because she gave them a common ground; because of this, Felicity is probably the reason he’s a lot closer to his family in general which gives them a great bond.  With Piper - Piper was always the ‘difficult twin’ out of her and Zara. Piper and Zara were Gerald’s first taste at having famous children; think Mary-Kate and Ashley; and he loved the bragging rights he gave him. However, rather than being the half-child-half-doll that Zara was, Piper would lash out more. All of the sisters knew that Piper and Gerald didn’t get along, Piper included.  With Zara - Being the youngest, Zara spent most of her childhood doing as she was told and going where she was taken. Seeing as she was a child star with Piper, Gerald loved this. When Piper would lash out, Zara would stand in and charm everybody again. She was the perfect addition his father needed; big blue eyes, a head of blonde hair and an angelic presence. After Zara had difficult teenage years, I think Gerald does the most to get back a daughter that doesn’t exist anymore. 

Anthea Calloway

Anthea had been a young model and socialite when she met Gerald back in the nineties; think Serena Van Der Woodsen. Her family were famous for owning land more than anything else but being the older sister of two, she was determined to make more of a name for herself beyond that, hence the modelling. She later went on to launch her own fashion brand and magazine known as Enchanté.  With Eloise - Anthea and Eloise’s relationship is almost non-existent and it’s Anthea’s fault. Even though she got Gerald and she was the reason he broke up with Darla, it wasn’t good enough. She spent a lot of years being jealous of the fact that Gerald had a child with Darla and she’d never measure up. When her own daughters eventually did come along, she did and still does everything in her power to keep a divide between her own girls and Eloise. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  With Amber - The moment Amber came along, Anthea suddenly felt secure in her relationship with Gerald. Darla couldn’t be smug that she had a daughter with Gerald and Anthea didn’t, because she now did. Amber was and still is her pride and joy, and Anthea will go out of her way to make sure Amber is better than Eloise in everything. It doesn’t help that the two girls are so close in age, because they grew up feeling the rivalry too. However, with Darla out of the picture for the most part, it was clear that Amber would usually win any competition Anthea set up.  With Felicity - Anthea, of course, loves Felicity and as with everything else, she’d often push Amber and Felicity to do things together which is why the girls were so close. Anthea noticed that Felicity was feistier than Amber from a younger age, and would often use this to her own benefit when it came to indirectly upsetting Eloise. She’d often plant ideas and misconceptions in her daughters head to pull the girls apart. However - and it’s a big however, while Anthea is proud of Felicity for breaking into fashion just like she did as well as Amber, she’ll always do what she can to make sure Amber is the better of the two.  With Piper - Piper was always Anthea’s least favourite child and she never really had it a big secret. Yes, Piper was technically the family’s “cash cow” - Zara definitely wouldn’t have made childhood stardom on her own - but, she was a pain. She was reckless and hard to control. When Piper fell pregnant at just fourteen, Anthea found this the perfect excuse to send her away to secretly live with her Great Aunt in Sweden. Anthea still works today to make sure her daughter stays away, as the girls and Gerald believe that she died through a freak accident while out in L.A.  With Zara - Zara was like a doll to Anthea. She was the baby, the one she could dress up and control when the other girls were too old for all of that. She enjoyed the attention Zara got through her fame and often lived vicariously through her. She put a lot of effort on her youngest to do everything her sisters did and more; some would even believe she was attempting to make Amber 2.0 out of her. When Zara went off the rails and moved to L.A., Anthea believed that Zara knew about Piper and does her best to keep her sweet. Zara doesn’t know, but Anthea doesn’t know that and will bend over backwards to keep Zara sweet.

Darla Sutherland 

Darla was the high school sweetheart of Gerald and also the mother of Eloise, his first child and her only child. Darla herself came from money. Her family own a very successful chain of restaurants in the South of England which gave them the money to place her in the school that Gerald also attended. They married as soon as they were legal - sixteen, Gerald was seventeen - and were together until Gerald started to become more in tune with the world of show business. That’s where he met Anthea.  Darla didn’t want to believe it at first, but it was obvious that their relationship was completely falling apart and while Gerald kept his promise of helping to raise Eloise, she was extremely bitter and has nothing but hate towards Anthea and her other girls.  She lives in Cornwall, where her family originally were from. 

Piper Calloway (TW: Grooming/Abortion) 

Piper was the twin of Zara. The second youngest Calloway sister and definitely the one with the biggest presence. Her family believe she ‘passed away’ out in Los Angeles after contracting an illness by chance. The truth of the matter is that she’s currently living out in rural Sweden with her Great Aunt. She fell pregnant at 14 with the baby of one of her show’s producers and was sent away to have her abortion in Sweden; she didn’t know she’d be kept there, but Anthea made sure she was.  With Eloise - Piper was probably the only sister who’d actively understand that Anthea was deliberately trying to turn the other girls against their older sister. Amber was raised against her, Felicity didn’t know any different and Zara was too quiet. Piper wouldn’t have it, though, and would often try to rebuild bridges where Anthea burnt them.  With Amber - Amber was the sister Piper clashed most with, just because she reminded Piper so much of their mother, and Piper hates their mother. She didn’t quite understand the pedestal Amber was on at all times either. As far as the daughters of Anthea go, these two represent the opposite ends of the spectrum; Amber is the golden girl, Piper is...not.  With Felicity - Piper and Felicity probably have the most similarities personality-wise and in a normal family, probably would have been the closest of the sisters. However, knowing how much her parents love Felicity, Piper would go out of her way to be nasty or upset her because she knows in turn, it’d hurt Gerald and Anthea. The bottom line is, Piper loved all of her sisters but didn’t love how they were so linked to her parents; and her hate for them always triumphed.  With Zara - Being the closest in age, they fought and loved harder than any of the other sisters did. They lived in each other’s pockets from the age of five right up until everything changed. Even though Zara was only a few minutes younger than Piper, Piper would go out of her way to shield Zara from things she didn’t want her to be exposed to; creepy men in the industry, drugs, bad people in general. Piper always had better intuition than Zara to the point where it’s no surprise Zara made a whole heap of bad decisions as soon as she was out of the picture. 

[gjxcain-blog]

Hello

Hello Everyone! This is an official hello for Cain! Some of you probably already know me as Lina mun, the mun behind Leilah Mae as well as the resident Baek bad boy Dorian Baek.

Cain however, is much different from the rest of my characters--I think most of you would get along with him (unlike..Dorian) and so because I haven’t done most of his pages YET orz, (yes i know, i should have--but I had Lei’s and Dorian’s and I promise--its GETTING THERE), below the cut there’s everything you need to know about Cain!

birthdate/age: October 12thrd 1991

position: “The Bodyguard of the Jeongs

Aesthetics: Gloves, Swords, Wolf, Slightly mussed hair, Black and White Suits, Books, Smell of Paper and Leather, Rulebooks, Servitude, Loyalty, Tea, Coffee, Justice and Knowledge, intellectual conversations, awkward flirtations, confused expressions,  

(+)Loyal (+)Gentle (+)Straitlaced

(-)Stoic

(-)Traditional

(-)Emotionally Inept

THE STORY !

Triggers:

-          Born into a family that prioritized knowledge above all others, Cain was the exception of his family, having had an ardent interest in the military and fighting. The oldest of all his brothers, Cain pretty much became a disappointment to his family members when he decided to take the test to become a bodyguard instead of one for a scholar, unlike the tradition of his family, who were all scholars before him.

-          Cain is a very loyal man, some might even call him straitlaced, or going too much by the rulebook. He’s a man who keeps his pledges as well as his word, and does not stray easily from it.

-          Emotionally, he’s pretty inept—as in he can’t really tell flirtatious advances or if someone has interest in him. He seems like a block of wood when it comes to the emotional side of things, but once he’s pledged himself to one particular person, Cain is the type to follow through with his love and protectiveness for the other person till the very end.

-          Cain rarely smiles, because he was brought up as a traditional boy by his family, learning that poise and appearances are the most important for a civilian noble.

-          Cain is almost always found with one of the Jeongs, serving as their most loyal bodyguard, never leaving their side. He’s a good listener, but lacks in the area of being able to give a proper or a good response to others, which sometimes frustrates people to no end.

-          He’s gifted enough to be considered as a good candidate for a scholar, but chose the different path from the traditional route that his family used. In exchange for their forbearance for him taking a warrior’s path instead of a soldier’s path, Cain promised to never step out of bounds of what they demand of him ever again.

Personality: Cain is a loyal, protective individual, a man that embodies his position entirely and fully both in name and character. A traditionalist, Cain sticks very much by the rule book and can be considered as someone incredibly stoic as well as emotionally inept when it comes to flirtations. He can’t tell if someone is interested in him—and may sometimes be referred to as a straitlaced block of wood. But despite such short comings, he’s a very loyal individual, as well as a very protective person. He’s knowledgeable as well, and does enjoy intellectual conversations at times, but what Cain truly needs is someone who can show him that life isn’t all about rules and regulations, or being loyal to a fault, and that his life is just his own.

[doctorstrangeaskblog]

What fucking remained of my 2h fucking meta about Doctor Strange's fucking life.

For everyone who thinks Stephen's tastes are weird, guys, he had a freaking twisted childhood, where it's canon (comics so far, some of that almost became part of the mcu movie) that Stephen was haunted by Mordo when he was a child, specially by nightmares, illusions and alucinations that involved all sorts of shit you can imagine, Stephen's father was very religious and strict, forbid him to have or participate anything non conventional, such as any fantasy related book/movies, rock and non conventional music (it was around the 80's), we know by animation canon Stephen was never allowed to participate any Halloween party, he was 22 and still had to ask permission to go out, he could only spend time with his sister or his brother or help at home or study, anything else was "distraction", his sister Donna drowned and he thinks it's his fault, his father probably abused him AT LEAST emotionally, beating and spanking was still common 30 years ago and we must consider Stephen grew up and spent his childhood in a farm, so he only was able to leave to town all by himself when he was around 16-18, meaning he was such a lost boy in a big city he had never seen before, we must be mature enough to consider he's pansexual (evidences in the comics are already too much for Vishanti's sake), so I imagine Stephen suffered in his father's hands, since religious traditionalist rigid men such as his dad used to try to fix their kids by abusing and physically hurting them; Stephen had to help at home, study to get admitted in medicine and look after his younger bro and sis (Stephen is the older bro), his mom was shown as loving but submissive, so it's very likely she never protected Stephen from all the emotional and physical abuse he suffered; also, Stephen somehow managed to protect Donna and his brother Victor from his father's hurtful discipline since Donna seemed so happy and Victor thought their father was perfect. After his sister died, his mom got sick and depressive and died too. After some years, he left to college permanently, became a doctor, then his father died. He refused to see his father in his deathbed, so his bro Victor argued with him and got so mad he got hit by a car when leaving his flat, dying. After that. We still must consider how his mystic potential was shiny when he was a kid, making weird Harry Potter things happen whenever he was too sad or angry. Stephen was such a stressed kid his hair (temples) got white when he was 22, starting to whiten when he was around 20. After he's 22, he clearly shows addicts, such as smoking, then drinking, compulsion for buying things, strong materialism, repulsion against physical affection and a huge lack of sentimental love he tries to suffice with casual sex (and he fails because most people leave him because it was casual sex and he gets all sad because he got attached). When his career is finally at its best, car crash and he has to start his life from zero. Returning to his past, considering his father's speeches, Stephen must have heard so many times he was possessed and that he was going to hell because of the magic events he caused (by accident) when he was a kid and because of his sexuality and personal tastes, he probably loved progressive rock, jam, and new alternative kinds of music, idols such ad Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. His father probably hated them all and would throw all the cassettes, magazines and posters away because they were things "that had to do with the devil" and that "made Stephen be obscene" the way he was (I can imagine an innocent teenager Stephen telling his mom he thinks a friend from school is pretty and that he has feelings for him, his mom trying to make Stephen hide it but his father finding out because Stephen is the school's freak and the rumors have been spreading, Stephen being beaten and denying his identity, lying to his family and to himself to the point he believes his lies, thinking he is sick because he's not a Christian heterosexual as he grows up, throwing himself in tons of sexual relationships with women to prove himself a point, blocking male figures becoming more selective towards men because deep down he's so scared because of all the experiences he had back then. So, his family dies and he has no more reason to keep the lie but he's already LIVING the lie, all his sentiments and sensibility and potential for goodness buried so deep down his broken chest that he just keeps using his addicts as a coping mechanism.

Bonus: he's probably addicted to pain killers. There was more but fucking Tublr ATE IT.

[zucca101]

"one can be a white supremacist without being a Nazi, and one can be a Nazi without being a white supremacist" I suppose this is why your blog is so nutty, you've jumped the shark so hard you literally ended up in another universe. Splitting hairs about people who want to exterminate everyone who isn't white only helps the people in question.

Look, little darling, your childlike naiveté has only so much charm before it starts to wear thin.

But just the same, I’ll try to clarify a few things for you... try to help you understand the shades of gray of the world, because you’ve got a serious case of bichromatic vision.

Richard Spencer is a dirtbag, to be sure. While he *is* a confirmed white supremacist, he is not a Nazi. He says that his notion of ethnocentric politics would involve ‘peaceful relocation’ of other ethnicities. What he would plan to do with people who tell him to piss off and leave them alone, we can only speculate.

A Nazi is a member of the National Socialist Party of Germany. Anyone in the party is a Nazi.

With me so far?

Okay...

So a little shocker for you... I hope you’re sitting down...

Nazis are human beings!!!!

And human beings are an amazing, diverse and incredible lot! Even within tightly cloistered demographics, you will find difference of opinion!

Saints and sinners and everyone in between dwelled in the Nazi Party. But obviously, t’was the sinners who called the shots.

If you think Hitler’s platform was ‘Squish the non-white people’ then your historical perspective is atrophied as to be effectively non-existent. Honestly, Hetalia would probably serve as a net increase in your historical knowledge at this point...

Hitler was able to rise to power because things were so shitty in Germany after The Great War and the Treaty at Versailles. People were working backbreaking hours in order to both earn a living and pay reparations.

No matter how bad you think you have it right now, you need to accept and be comfortable with the inalienable fact that you don’t know shit about shit..

Imagine working two jobs... The pay from one of those jobs goes to the the reparations bill.

... riiiiight along with half the wages of your other job. You can’t quit one job and just give two thirds of your wages from it. That wouldn’t satisfy.

That was the kind of desperation afoot.

A lot of people love to pin the monster tail on Hitler as the pulsing heart and soul of Nazi Germany, but he was surrounded by some extremely vile individuals who were just as monstrous. I won’t spoil what I hope is a trip to Wikipedia (Or better yet, a BOOK) to study them, but you have them to thank as much as Hitler for some of the atrocities catalogued.

But below the movers and shakers were Hans and Helga Average, who were part of the Nazi Party and as such, Nazis, but were not particularly interested in ethnic cleansing of any sort and were chiefly concerned with Germany’s economic well-being.

It’s easy for people to condemn others when they haven’t walked in their shoes. It’s easy for you to level judgment from your retroactive privilege and hindsight privilege (Am I saying that right? I mean, that’s how the word ‘privileged’ is being thrown around these days instead of its definition, so...) about things that happened before.

For the same reason that you suddenly pay more attention to your phone or shy away when you witness an abusive parent hit their child while waiting in line at the store, those few Germans who KNEW about the concentration camps weren’t exactly welcomed to visit.

But that ethnic cleansing we know so much about.... that got slid in later, when all the chess pieces were at an advantageous position for such an atrocity to begin.

Save Germany was the platform.

Let’s perform a little mental exercise...

Tell me honestly...

If you were a guard at a camp where people who you have come to detest because you’ve been carefully instructed to detest them (For the sake of this empathy exercise, we’ll say about fifty white, traditionalist Conservative families who you know are simply bad people because they believe in traditional definitions of marriage and gender roles and failed their re-education attempts) have been sent to, and you were told not to feed them when they wept, cried and begged for food, would you disobey your orders, knowing that your commanding officer who hates the Conservatives even more than you do, will severely punish anyone who doesn’t obey his orders?

Are those people in the camp worth disobeying that order for? If you threw them food, then you’d get in trouble and that food would probably just be taken away, and those people in there are bad people who deserve to be in there. Your media told you so and you believe it.

Would you stand on principle, knowing it would either earn you dismissal from the army (A job you really need) or maybe even being made an example of?

When your commander caught one of the prisoners, a straight, white, Christian male trying to escape with his son, he had him dragged out into the compound and tortured in front of the others.

It’s okay though, because they’re bad people. The media said so. And you believe it.

The spectacle ended with your commander shooting the attempted escapee’s son in the head.

It was scary and brutal, but come on... the kid would have grown up to be a bad person who would just continue the cycle again. Your media told you so. You trust your media.

And hey, the father’s horrible, bothersome scream of despair and hopelessness REALLY put the fear into the other prisoners, so they’re not likely to try that again!

And really, it’s their own fault for not letting the re-education change them. You didn’t force them to fail there. This isn’t your fault. You’re following orders.

Years later, people spit at your feet, tell you what a wretched and evil creature you are. Beneath human. Beneath contempt.

You don’t understand why. You were fighting against bad people! You were just following orders! Your commander, he’s to blame, really. The old bastard shot himself after the Antifa Party was crushed into dust.

So I hope that puts things into a little bit of perspective. Now, that’s an example of someone in the know, understand?

Most people weren’t aware of the evil atrocities that were going on in their country. It wasn’t like it is now, where information flowed as unto water.

Most Nazi Germans were horrified to learn what had happened in the name of the party they’d signed up with.

They thought that their Jewish neighbors just moved away when the anti-Jew sentiment crept higher and higher.  You thought that the soldiers did exactly what the papers said they did, peacefully relocating them.

It’s late and I’m tired, but I hope that this helps you gain some perspective.

Not all Nazis were white supremacists.

Now, to be fair, neo-Nazis are almost always white supremacists. But it is not an absolute.

And convincing them to give up on worshiping a long-dead ideology and embracing humanity is preferable to simply punching, murdering and pissing their friends off, right?

Just... ponder the idea.

[fictionalcharactermbti]

Petyr Baelish: ENTJ [Game of Thrones] 2017 Follower Favorite Winner

Dominant Extraverted Thinking {Te}

Petyr Baelish judges based on impersonal practical knowledge. He sees the standards of the game, society, of power. Despite his possible cheating of the rules which will be covered in Ni, he does indeed work within them, which is probably why he has lived so long, unlike traditionalists like Ned Stark. Petyr will often put his personal life and feelings aside for the execution of plans and decision making in order to survive and acquire power. 

As much as the system has worked against him growing up he believes in the structural integrity around him and performs everyday to meet these societal standards. Despite his feelings for Sansa (however, one would describe them) he brings her to Ramsey Bolton despite knowing what this man does in his personal life. He is mentally able to tell himself he loves her and to give her to this man in order to make political alliances and for his and Sansa’s power to grow. For all of them to meet the standards of society and play the rules of monarchy. 

He loses sight of his and Sansa’s needs in order to accomplish his goal. This can make him seem selfish and cold, however, he ignores not only the feelings and will of others, but his own. We see this despite his love of Catelyn, he had no problem with the husband she loved dying in order to meet bigger aims. Notice Petyr often makes choices that on a personal level don’t serve him well. 

He requires hard facts when he deals with anything. He needs evidence and facts in order to be persuaded of anything. He does not make a move based off of a whim, a gut feeling, or an appeal to emotions. In fact, his dominant Te gives him the gift of a deep emotional privacy that few get access to.

This is part of why Te dominance sees the showing of emotions as weakness or childishness. This could be why we see him being more attracted to Sansa as she grows more empty. Petyr is also not one to lend an ear or talk about feelings. His dominant Te makes him extraverted but he is only talkative when describing or solving problems. Hence, why as an ENTJ he is not often very expressive.

Petyr often annoys viewers and characters because he is often neutral in expression or only expressive when dealing out some critical assessment. In the newer episodes we see this with his conversations with Sansa. Sansa knows what she is doing, to be afraid of Cersei, but this is the way Petyr communicates and struggles to show he cares (in whatever form he truly does).

Secondary Introverted iNtuition {Ni}

This is why Petyr does not follow the rules of game and existing structures blindly. Ni helps him see around corners, to go down the most efficient route. This is the motivator and streamlines his goals and tactics. Te makes him use evidence for utility purposes, but combined with his Ni we get his deep imagination. However, when this function is healthy it should help him recognize the importance of inner meaning and priorities as all introverted perception provides for dominant extraverted judgers. 

It doesn’t in his case as he is, surprise, unhealthy. He uses Ni as a problem solving tool, only. He uses it as an assist to his Te. We see this most in one of his latest quotes, “Everyone is your friend, everyone is your enemy. Imagine every possibility happening at once. Nothing will surprise you, because it has all happened before.” Now that may seem like some heavy Ni, hence why he is often mistyped as an INTJ. Because of moments like this, but it really is just an ENTJ using his Ni to his Te advantage. He doesn’t prioritize his inner meaning first, nor is he stuck in the theoretical narrative. He is all about that Te utility of getting the plan executed. He uses Ni simply as a tool, an instrument for these Te goals. Hence, why we only see strong Ni when used to get an advantage on others.

Because of this Ni vision he does see all the elements of a situation and his Te makes him actually unbiased. This makes him a pretty good adviser. But that lack of bias means that he isn’t on your side or someone else’s side. This is the dangerous path of trusting Petyr. His Te is impersonal to a fault. He likes Tyrion, he likes Jon Snow, he may just love Sansa, but he doesn’t let that get in the way of his Te judgments and execution of plans. 

It is his Ni that conflicts with his dominant Te. Petyr feels special and outside the framework people judge using Te. It makes him feel that no one really knows him, the real inner him. This isn’t helped by the fact that his outsider origins make him never truly accepted by the people who took him in, his not getting to be with Catelyn Stark, and no one at the monarch tables seeing him as an equal. As an ENTJ he assume power, but is often underestimated because of his circumstances. Because of this as an ENTJ his Ni can inspire him to escalate a situation just because he can. Petyr often does this to prove others wrong, to prove he is special, someone to be reckoned with.

On top of this his Te-Ni makes him believe that most people are basically idiots. They are illogical, guided by emotions, reckless, and therefore their opinions don’t matter. ENTJs like Petyr often live by the motto that knowledge is power, which incidentally he explicitly states to Cersei in season 1. This is what really defines him as an ENTJ and not an INTJ, like Varys. While Varys is a spider with his many webs of knowledge he does not seek power, but seeks to play the game for the people as he says to Daenrys. Petyr on the other hand with dominant Te and secondary Ni is more utility focused, rather than focused by the truth. We also see the difference in Petyr being very present when he makes a move, while Varys as an INTJ always stick behind the scenes, using others. He does not seek status, simply a role powerful enough to cast his webs. Petyr on the other hand makes himself known using Ni only when it is useful.

Tertiary Extraverted Sensing {Se}

It is no accident that Petyr gains riches from a brothel. As an unhealthy ENTJ he uses Se for straight up sensations. The very things he is repulsed by others is found in himself. He enjoys the delights of wealth and what they can buy. But being so externally focused with Te-Se, he does not see these possible faults of debauchery within himself.

Se pushes him constantly outward because he doesn’t use his Ni properly. Any problems he has are caused by the outside circumstances around him. He can’t get what he wants because Catelyn’s family, or because of the Lannisters, etc. He finds fault in all but himself. He refuses to look inward to analyze his personal perspective and the perspectives of others.

His Se also makes him very status driven in the way that he needs to constantly maintain his surface image. He is motivated to rise and makes his own crest, the Mockingbird. No matter what goes on in his private life, he must retain his outer role and appearance at all times. We see often how much this is a concern to him. His Te-Se focus often leads him to live two very different lives. The one he shows others and his personal one full of darker impulses. 

Inferior Introverted Feeling {Fi}

As an inferior function, Petyr is afraid of his own Fi, afraid of his own emotions. For him being emotional means being out of control and that he can never be. He pushes the feelings down, finding them illogical and not helpful for his Te aims. 

His Te drives him towards external goals, like his rank and power. It drives him away from his personal goals not driven by impersonal extraverted logical standards. He clearly did have feelings for Catelyn and may have the same for Sansa, but to recognize and express these emotionally are out of his vocabulary. He comes at these things with his Te, which isn’t very romantic or helpful when it comes to people. It serves him well with politics and the game of thrones itself, but not when it comes to love. He even made the impersonal decision of giving away the woman he has feelings for to a rapist in order to stick to the Te goals and tactics. 

He keeps clinging to his Te and Se ignoring his inner self, his inner priorities, and the priorities of others. He doesn’t consult the feelings of others or even himself. He constantly pushes himself to eliminate, ignore, or simply just complain about anything Fi related. He should be above these things that others can’t control. He views himself as above such impulses and irrationality.

[redrobin-detective]

Not trying to get into the shipping war but I didn't get into Avatar TLA fandom until post S2 and it had never occured to me to ship Katara/Zuko. They were enemies who fought over Aang. They had the worst relationship w/each other until post TSR ep (which for a number of reasons I thought was the most anti romantic Zuko/Katara ep that also pushed why Aang was more compatible). I personally find their platonic dynamic, be it as enemies or friends, much more fascinating/better for each other.

(Just want to take a moment to say thank you anon, I’ve been looking for an opportunity to rant about Zutara when I see this in my ask. Thank you for giving me the chance to rant about something that’s bothered me for 10 years)

People are allowed to ship what they want, I can’t stop them and I generally don’t care but Zutara has bugged me since I decided to watch ATLA (the Day of Black Sun was the first live episode I watched). If you like Zutara, go ahead and please enjoy it. I strongly dislike it and I’m going to explain why. If you don’t want to see it, don’t read under the cut. I will be discussing why I dislike Zutara and why I support Maiko and Kataang (with caveats).

I think Zutara was the first, really big ship I encountered in fandom. I was blown away by how mean and intense some people were into shipping fictional characters (still am tbh). This is also probably the first real time I was exposed to the ‘Opposites Attract’ trope of shipping which. I. Utterly. Despise. Everyone was all 'oh fire and water, opposites coming together in love uwu’ and I’m like ??? Even 13 year old me who’s terrible with people and was still icked out by the idea of guys knew that opposites attract is a complete fallacy in a relationship.

People don’t fall in love with their opposite! Or maybe they feel strong attraction but to have a stable, respectful relationship you simply can’t work with someone who you can’t find common ground with. Now I know this isn’t completely true even as I type this, there are exceptions to everything but in most cases, opposites don’t work for romance. Let’s also kill the 'Oh these people hate each other, it must be sexual tension’ trope while we’re at it. Sometimes you just gotta let people hate each other.

You may argue that Katara and Zuko aren’t complete opposites and I would agree, they actually have a decent amount in common. The main problem I see with them is their complimentary traits don’t suit each other and as a couple they wouldn’t achieve a healthy, happy relationship.

- Both Katara and Zuko have unresolved anger relating to their childhoods and respective traumas. We see in TSR that Zuko is trying to reach out to her by feeding her anger and Katara very nearly does something she would have regretted later, something opposed to her basic traits while Zuko is having his father’s teaching on hatred and revenge justified to an extent. This is not a healthy thing.

- Both Katara and Zuko are compassionate and protective almost to the point of jealousy and rage. Again, that sort of personality wouldn’t promote respect but become confining. Zuko has shown that he struggles with romantic jealousy (though most of that incident was born out self-hatred, it’s still there just better controlled) and Katara has a desire to mother and protect. Those two instinct would war with each and make the relationship troubled from the start.

- Both Katara and Zuko are fiercely loyal to their people. I have never been more confused than I was by a text post saying Zutara should have been endgame because Katara “wouldn’t have had her cultural identity erased to become Aang’s baby momma” like??? Aang, for all his faults, loved Katara as she was and she maintained her Water Tribe roots even as his wife. If Katara married Zuko, she’d have been Fire Lady, loyal to the Fire Nation first and forced to live in a Palace. Katara would HATE that level of confinement and while she mightbe better with the Fire Nation now, I doubt she’d be totally cool spending the restof her life amongst the people who murdered her Mother.

Not tomention the whole animosity they had literally throughout the entire series. Ofcourse, Zuko proved himself in TSR but I don’t think Katara really accepted himuntil Sozin’s Comet. And before you cry your tears about how Zuko saved Katarafrom Azula’s lightening, I’m 100% certain given Zuko’s character that he wouldhave done that for anyone. Azula knows her brother is softhearted and we’veseen Zuko protect literal strangers when he didn’t need to. That could havebeen Old Man Li and Azula would have shot that lightening and Zuko would havethrown his stupid ass in the way.

I can see Katara and Zuko growing to begood, close friends. Because we all have those friends that we care and rely onbecause they’re different from us,think differently and bring something unique. Zuko probably relied on Katarafor counsel, advice on how to be a kind but strong ruler while Katara wouldseek him out on political manners and how best to handle Aang. Zuko is a partof the Gaang, now and forever more, he and Katara are the mature ones of thegroup, there to bring order and peace and pave the way for the new world. Butas a romantic couple, they’re simply not complementary in personality andlifestyle to have a truly happy relationship.

Whichbrings me, briefly I promise, to the relationships the two characters are in:Maiko and Kataang. I love Maiko, it’s my favorite of the ATLA ships (aside fromSokki) because I feel they do work and complement each other. I’ll start by gettingthis right out of the way; yes it’s kind of ridiculous that Mai and Zuko hadthat cute lil kiddie crush and then, 5 minutes after Zuko’s back in the FireLord’s favor, Mai makes a move. I’d have preferred if they showed more build-upto the relationship but I guess there wasn’t enough time. But I don’t get allthese accusations of Maiko being abusive. Becauselet me tell you, just because someone messes up in a relationship, makes amistake for the right reasons, that does not mean they’re abusive.

To me, Maiand Zuko are products of the same environment: emotionally stunting/abusive,rigid, accepting nothing less than perfection but they handled it differently.Zuko chose to become angry and emotional over his circumstances (I thinkbecause it’s the only way he could fuel his bending) and Mai chose to bury herfeelings. Healthy? No, Realistic? Yes. Mai liked Zuko because he was genuinelynice guy, he was expressive and open when no one else around her was andencouraged her to be more open. Zuko liked Mai because she was cool and calmbut also a bit nurturing when he needed someone to soothe his flames.

Twodamaged kids helping to repair each other’s faults, what’s better than that?Mai makes mistakes with Zuko, she doesn’t know how to handle his troubles in the Fire Nation and, frankly, she couldn’t. Zuko needed that time to self-reflect and understand that what was happening was wrong. Zuko likewise behaved badly in a few episodes when his anger and self-hatred were making him explode. They both worked through this to improve like, gee, a normal healthy relationship.

Plus Mai would make a good Fire Lady. The Fire Nation needed stability afterthe war and Mai was nothing if not stable. She comes from a good, noble family(to soothe traditionalists) and she’s experienced in keeping firebenderscontrolled (for those worried about Zuko’s youth) and experienced in the waysof the world like Zuko so he can bounce ideas off of her and have her give backa more well-rounded perspective. It’s not perfect but when the series endedthey were 16/15, they have time to learn and grow together. (also I’m ignoringthe comics after The Promise because everything after has sucked)

Kataang I’ma lot less invested in but I can still understand it. Like Zuko and Mai, Aangand Katara have a lot in common and provide a good balance for one another.They really bring out the best in each other, Aang’s encouragements and naturalcheer brighten Katara’s inner sadness/anger and Katara gives Aang a sense oflove and purpose while also gently nudging him the way he needs to go. Peoplecomplain that Kataang was pushed from the start and it was, but man if Aangdoesn’t love the hell out of Katara. He respects her and relies on her andadores her but is still able to push back when she’s out of line. My main thingwith Kataang, which will eventually resolve itself, is the ages. Aang is 12when he’s freed from the iceberg, Katara 14. Aang’s love was a kiddie puppycrush on a calming maternal figure which made me feel a bit icky during the finalepisode.

Because earlyAang did love Katara but he also needed her as a guide and a mother figurewhile Katara was nurturing Aang and making sure he’s safe and happy when hereally needed to be facing the consequences of some of his actions. I see whythe characters did what they did but it makes a romance then kind of ug. I’dhave preferred if the series ended with hints and then skipped to LOK where wesee they married and junk. Because given a few years, I can see Aang and Katarabeing a good healthy couple (with no *shudders* sweeties to be seen).

Aang has just changed the world, he needstime to settle himself as the Avatar and to help Zuko and other leaders repairthe damage done by the 100 year war. Katara needs to figure out what she’sgoing to do, go home? Travel? A romance isn’t advised, especially since they’reso young. But when they’re a few years older, Aang is more mature and iswilling to see Katara as a partner and not someone to mother him and Kataragrows into her potential and decides what she wants, yeah then they’d be happy.

TL;DR: Istrongly dislike Zutara (along with the ‘opposites attract’ and ‘animosity =sexual tension’ tropes it embodies) because it’s not a healthy, compatible shipwhile the canon ships: Maiko and Kataang are much more in line with thecharacters and their goals and have the chance to be long-lasting and happy.

[notesinthearchives-blog]

Sociological Corruption [Faction Paradox/Lesser Species: Culture (Early War)]

We are the Little Folk—we! Too little to love or to hate. Leave us alone and you’ll see How we can drag down the State! - from “A Pict Song”, by Rudyard Kipling

Sociological corruption is a particularly nebulous and poorly defined term originally coined by agents of House Mirraflex on the outskirts of the Spiral Politic. These agents found that across a variety of these periphery worlds, whether post human or one of the other lesser species or of various hybrid cultures, had adopted a number of Faction rituals and practices whilst seemingly having little to do with the Faction. This even occurred in a number of cultures that had at first glance been deemed too conservative to embrace Faction culture on any level. The Faction covens that were operating in the area were no where to be found, and indeed had altered history to ensure that they never arrived in these worlds in the first place. The Mirraflex agents described this low level Faction activity as sociological corruption, and since then the term has at one time or another been used to describe most small scale Faction interactions with the lesser species.

Fittingly, most War historians now agree that the original case of sociological corruption was probably not intentional in the first place. To explain what probably happened, one must understand why the Faction have popular support in the first place. It is tempting to say popularism, and whilst this is on the right track it is also not quite the case. By the very nature of championing those without power one tends to anger those that see themselves as having power, no matter how small that power actually is. The Faction’s wilful perversity would only make this worse.

No, if anything it is the very small scale nature of the Faction that makes them sympathetic. This is not to say it’s because they’re the underdog of the War. Rather, it’s because they operate on a level that the lesser species are able to grasp. All politics is local, as the saying goes, and the Houses are by their nature and the nature of how they perceive the War more or less above local concerns whilst the Enemy are simply incomprehensible if not outright inimical to the lesser species on every level. The Faction however, by their nature as a guerrilla organisation and by the small scale nature of their rituals, simply have an easier time fitting into the local culture.

The ability to find a niche in the local culture means some interaction is inevitable, and, surprisingly often, the Faction are willing to help as long as they don’t attract too much attention of the other powers: sometimes for individual favours, sometimes to give the locals a reason to tolerate them, sometimes just because they happen to be bored and the request amuses them. Even if the Faction don’t help, the mere fact that someone can enter the lair of a Faction coven and talk to a leader of some sort carries symbolic power. With the other temporal powers, this by and large simply wouldn’t happen.

Even the Faction’s inherent perversity can actually be seen as beneficial, even in a conservative community. The local priest may not approve of the skull masked witches on the edge of his village, but he may disapprove much more of (for example) the way the village mayor has been treating his children recently, and though the priest may feel too bound by hierarchies and traditions to do anything himself it is still oh ever so easy to simply ask those witches to convince the mayor of the error of his ways or if that fails to deal with him however they see fit. The very perversity of those witches means that they can work outside the culture as much as they can within it, which even the staunchest traditionalist can see the value of [1].

Combine this with the fact that Faction rituals tend to operate on a relatively easy to grasp symbolic logic, and some degree of cultural exchange is simply inevitable. Of course, if anything this is actually worse for the Great Houses than if it was some deliberate corruption. If it was simply the Faction utilising some sort of cultural weaponry, perhaps to test it or gain some strategic advantage or just to annoy the Great Houses, then it would simply be the fault of outside agitators disrupting the natural state of the spiral politic. The fact that even societies that should have been sympathetic to the Great Houses found Faction culture to have some utility is a powerful symbolic victory achieved completely by accident [2].

The anthropologist James C Scott once described a scene in a S.E. Asian village wherein a combine harvester got stuck in the mud of the fields it was meant to operate in. New agricultural machinery had not been welcomed into the village: not only putting locals out of work but also forcing poor farmers to take out extensive loans to either buy or rent such machines to keep up production. As such, the crowds that gathered to watch the futile efforts to pull the harvester out of the mud were firmly on the side of the mud. Perhaps something like this occurred in the minds of the Mirraflex agents, except even worse: the Great Houses having long since reached the point wherein trying to place a definite line between biology, culture and technology is pointless, one can almost imagine a House soldier in a similar situation to the harvester. Unable to adapt, unable to belong, technically able to kill the crowds gathering to laugh at their oppressor, but that wouldn’t matter as the damage is done. After all, a wilfully perverse criminal cult aren’t the unnatural, unwelcome things in the spiral politic: the Great Houses are.

[1] Some would argue that some capacity for perverseness is actually highly beneficial and indeed necessary for highly conservative societies simply because the traditions that the culture depends upon often need to be broken in specific ways in order to be maintained. To give a famous example, a number of otherwise conservative cultures on Earth actually encourage married couples to have affairs so that they are able to blow off steam outside of their shared life: literally betraying the family in order to save the family.

[2] This incident may have influenced the creation of the fourth wave, something capable of focusing on the individual and community level to a similar degree to the Faction.

[gyu-nim]

Hi!!! I just wanted to know what would Infinite think about there girlfriends getting a tattoo( like maybe 1 or 2 small sayings or images that has meaning to her). Also if you can turn it into scenarios that would nice. Thank you

Hi lovely! Like I said before please include only 2-3 members per infinite ask :) But that’s okay I’ll go ahead and choose 3 for you. 

I feel like Woohyun would be one of the most accepting members out of them all. Of course he’d definitely be surprised when she reveals it to him - but if he sees that it’s something that means a lot to her he’d probably care less about her marking her own body. In fact, a part of him might even be turned on by it. 

Sungkyu on the other hand, being the traditionalist he is, would at first be quite concerned about the idea (even if the tattoo wasn’t on a visible part of her body). He’d probably ask her questions such as “But didn’t it hurt?” or “Why didn’t you tell me?”. He’d most likely be opposed to the idea of her marking her body for fun. However, if the tattoo represented something she holds close to her heart, he’d probably be understanding and tell her that he likes it. 

Now, Dongwoo would have the most precious reaction out of them all. I can imagine him being startled at the reveal of her tattoo and not knowing what to say for the first few minutes. He’d probably be really careful with his words like, “I think it looks good?” and “W-when did you get it?”. But I also feel like he’d be one of the most accepting members out of them all - especially if the tattoo really meant something to her. He’d probably compliment her on it a lot.

Here’s a short dabble on Dongwoo’s reaction: 

“So, what do you think?”

Dongwoo stood there in silence as he continued to stare upon the back of your neck. He, never in a million years, expected his girlfriend to actually bring up the courage to mark her own body. He observed the tattoo for a couple of seconds, it resembled something that seemed to be a ribbon.

“Well,” he cleared his throat, “I think it’s quite nice.”

You studied his expression, clearly he seemed to have a discomfort towards the idea. Prior to getting the tattoo, you feared that this would be exactly the way he reacted. It wasn’t his fault, you were yet to tell the story towards why exactly you got yourself marked.

Smiling sadly, you encircled your arms around him, “You don’t like it, do you?”

“No, no it’s just – I never expected you to be brave enough to do something like this.” He shook his head rigorously, “I mean, didn’t it hurt?”

You laughed, “It wasn’t any worse than an ant’s bite.”

“You should’ve told me.”

You could see the curiosity evident on his face, “Want me to tell you why I got it?”

Dongwoo nodded as a response. Despite wanting to keep his mouth shut and accept you the way you are; he knew you were the best at reading his mind. You sat down on the couch and gestured for him to sit next to you.

“Remember how I told you about my mother?”

He nodded once more; your mother had passed away a couple of months before the two of you met. He remembered it was because of an illness she had been battling over a span of five years.

You smiled, “When I was a little girl, she had this beautiful pink dress that she always wore on my dad’s birthday. It had a ribbon sewed onto the chest area and I used to love playing with it. One day, the ribbon fell off the dress and I remember how sad I was because I thought I had ruined her favorite dress. She simply laughed it off and gave it to me, telling me that it was probably time for the dress to settle down as she had worn it out. She told me that I could keep the ribbon, and that every time I felt sad, I should hold it and think of all the happy times we had spent as a family.

You sighed as you felt him caress the top of your head slowly “After she passed away, I found the strength to get back on my feet thanks to the ribbon. I know it sounds silly but-”

“Jagiya, I love it.” He smiled as he placed a kiss on your cheek.

“Really?”

He grinned, “Now every time I look at your tattoo, I’ll think of all the times you made me smile.”

And just like that, you thanked the heavens once more for sending him to you.