#this is not vagueing any specific mutual this whole attitude is just getting to me

[lucky-clover-gazette]

two people loving each other deeply and physically and emotionally while not having sex can still be romantic that does not mean they’re basically just platonic oh my fu

[caffeinatedseri]

Dazai and No Longer Human’s Yozo

It’s no secret that BSD’s Dazai draws heavily from his real life counterpart, especially from his semi-autobiographical work: No Longer Human. To preface, No Longer Human is written from the perspective of the main character Yozo, with the book itself being a documentation of Yozo’s notebooks (essentially his journals) throughout his life. 

As you progress through the novel, it becomes increasingly clear that Yozo lives an extremely two-sided life; his foolish personality acts as a facade to others in attempts to hide the darker nature within him. 

Dazai shares that obvious similarity with Yozo, but Dazai is characterized in a somewhat vague and mysterious way that leaves a lot of his inner thoughts up to interpretation and inferences. Thus, I’ll be going through some of my favorite quotes from No Longer Human and analyzing Dazai’s character through his similarities to Yozo.

(For the sake of readability, excerpts from No Longer Human will be in pictures, and quotes from the light novel will be in regular block quotes).

Dazai and Yozo’s Participation in Clownery

To start off, Dazai noticeably participates in the same “clowning” as Yozo, which in particular stands out with PM Dazai.

““How did your leg get hurt?” I pointed to the bandages, thinking that it must be the result of some violent fight. “I was reading a book titled ‘How to Prevent Accidental Injuries’ while walking when I accidentally fell into a ditch.” I wasn’t expecting such an abnormal response.” — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era (Oda’s POV)

This is pretty standard Dazai behavior, but the interesting part is how Yozo specifically used the word “deceiving.” If we were to assume Yozo’s true thoughts are Dazai’s as well, then it would imply that Dazai feels as if he’s manipulating people with his absurd claims (such as the above). However, in actuality, his clownish behaviors sound more like a joke, or some type of self-deflection, rather than an attempt to manipulate people. (Yozo also states that he would often incriminate himself by overexaggerating certain things, but I don’t think Dazai does that).

The second statement Yozo makes implies that he doesn’t care about ethics, morality, or the supposed “right way” of living life that’s described as “righteousness.”

Yozo’s statement on “righteousness” parallels Dazai’s in Dark Era, but Dazai’s statement carries a slightly different sentiment. Rather than being indifferent to the likes of morality, Dazai says that he’s “hated” by the concept of morality. 

I’ll be speculating a bit here → It’s heavily implied that Dazai had some sort of dark past that led him to joining the mafia, since he was already suicidal prior to doing so. This suggests that something affected his life so drastically to the point where he could no longer trust in such things as “righteousness,” because righteousness has wronged him in the past.

First, Yozo expresses his fear of people discovering his true nature under the mask of clownery, which would then lead to them pestering him for further inquiry. However, his real fear is that people would mistake his true nature as another part of his typical clownery.

More so than before, this attitude reminds me more of Dazai in the agency, rather than him in the mafia. Even though Dazai danced around darker topics in his conversations with Oda, he was still able to talk about them without much conflict. However, in the agency, Dazai doesn’t talk much about himself or any of his personal issues at all. 

Although this scene has comedic overtones, it’s interesting to see that no one would help Dazai if he was actually dying. Still, it could be argued that the other agency members knew it was just Dazai’s regular antics. (or that Dazai wouldn’t die in the first place). 

This scenario repeats itself another time when Dazai gets kidnapped by the mafia, and the other agency members kind of just brush it aside. As much as they may trust Dazai to take care of himself (which I’m sure he can do), it’s worrying that the other members may not be open to Dazai’s possible attempts at reaching out for help, if he were ever to make one. 

In LN 4, 55 Minutes, Atsushi addresses this issue by asking Dazai why he wants to kill himself, but the answer is left open-ended, with Atsushi himself not remembering the answer (or if Dazai even did answer). You could interpret Dazai’s change from his time in the PM as an improvement of his mental state — which I have no doubt that has happened — but Dazai needs to face his issues head-on if he truly wanted to reconcile with his past.

“Perhaps someone should persistently tie Dazai up, open the lid over his chest and stuff the head of a vacuum cleaner in. They have to let Dazai, who should be screaming in pain and resisting, settle down. Following which, the difficult things in his heart must all be dragged out under the sun and stepped on mercilessly.“ — LN 2, Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era

Oda, the man who understood Dazai more than anyone else could at the time, even specifically stated that the pain in Dazai’s heart must be forcefully dragged out, because he knew that this would ultimately be the most beneficial for Dazai’s sanity.

Throughout No Longer Human, Yozo is often misunderstood by others, or other people simply don’t care about him.

When Dazai goes to visit Oda’s grave in Dead Apple, Atsushi finds him and assumes that he’s visiting the grave of someone important to him, as an act of respect or remembrance, something of the sort. However, Dazai makes the automatic assumption that his “clownish words of deceit” (as stated by Yozo) will always be prioritized over the truth, which is why he chooses to brush off his actions as a joke. 

Although I made the point earlier that the agency members don’t give Dazai opportunities to open up about himself, Atsushi is notably different, similarly to Oda, because he’s able to take Dazai seriously and persist even through his antics. 

Atsushi takes Dazai’s act of visiting a grave seriously, even when Dazai plays it off, because he knows Dazai is a person just like anyone else. This understanding between them leads to Dazai telling Atsushi about Oda, thereby allowing Dazai to divulge a crucial part of his past.

Dazai and Yozo’s Friendships

Similarly to Yozo, Dazai’s attempt at “disentangling” himself from these relationships only serves to wear him out in the end. However, they also slightly differ in a way: Yozo is unable to form any friendships for his whole life, but Dazai had Oda. I would argue that Oda was Dazai’s only friend, mostly because of this quote:

“Odasaku understood him far beyond what Dazai had ever thought. He had already reached close to his heart, the place near the center of his heart. Before this, Dazai had never noticed there was someone who understood him so well. For the first time in his life, Dazai wanted to know something from the depths of his heart.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Oda was special to Dazai because Oda was able to understand him — maybe even more than Dazai could understand himself — which is why Oda is the only person that Dazai asks for advice from. 

However, Dazai does the same thing as Yozo when he “plays the clown” as a form of self-protection from such valuable friendships. (which is probably preventing him from becoming closer to the rest of the agency).

“Things that we don’t want to lose will definitely be lost. Now that it has come to this, I have no more feelings anymore. Things worth pursuing will always disappear the moment before you get them. Nothing is worth prolonging a painful life to pursue.” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Interestingly enough, Dazai says this when Ango is revealed to be a spy — before Oda dies. If Dazai was in this state of distress from Ango’s betrayal, you could only imagine how devastating Oda’s death was. 

Dazai speaks as if he’s speaking from experience, which suggests that he’s faced a similar loss in the past. Despite this implied experience, he still became friends with Oda (and Ango to an extent), fully knowing that it would only bring him pain in the end. Dazai's statement here acts more as a front that makes him sound cold and detached from the situation, only to hide how he truly feels about losing one of his only friends. 

To give some context to this passage, Yozo’s partner, Yoshiko, had been sexually assaulted by a coworker, of which Yozo attributes the cause to her overly trusting nature. Thus, this leads to Yozo’s belief that trustfulness is inherently wrong or creates weakness.

Dazai’s hesitance to form friendships most likely stems from this same inability to trust others like Yozo, but Dazai does trust a few people, namely Chuuya, Oda, and Atsushi.

With Chuuya, there’s a different type of trust between him and Dazai. Their impeccable trust is obviously a key factor in their partnership as SKK, but there’s a certain limit with this trust. They certainly trust each other in battle, but I’d argue that this trust doesn’t extend to their personal business. 

As of now, we don’t know a lot about how SKK interacted with each other during their time in the mafia (which could change with the new LN), but I doubt PM Dazai would feel comfortable with confiding in Chuuya with anything because they (kind of) hated each other. The level of trust required for a friendship would involve a mutual understanding between two people, but Chuuya and Dazai haven’t necessarily shown us that they were able to do that.

Dazai essentially broke his trust with Chuuya by leaving the mafia on a whim, but he also intentionally antagonized himself to try to make Chuuya hate him.

This scene also has comedic overtones, but it suggests something a bit sadder about Dazai. There are possibly two motivations as to why Dazai chose to do this: (or a mix of the two)

1. Dazai didn’t want Chuuya to be incriminated as his accomplice when he became an enemy of the mafia.

2. Dazai wanted to push Chuuya away because Oda — Dazai’s most trusted friend — had just died. As a form of self-protection, Dazai broke whatever semblance of friendship he shared with Chuuya in order to prevent the same pain that came with Oda’s death. 

It’s also important to consider that trust is a 2-way street; both parties have to have the same level of trust in each other. Just like Yozo, if Dazai is unable to trust anyone, then he may have cut Chuuya off to protect him (since Chuuya may have trusted Dazai more than Dazai was able to reciprocate).

In contrast, Oda and Dazai have a level of unspoken trust that basically motivates Dazai to change his entire life. 

“Odasaku’s eyes radiate with conviction. The words are clearly said with some sort of strong basis. Is it past experience? Or perhaps someone’s suggestion? — He is trying to show Dazai the path he once walked. Dazai understands this. Dazai can trust it.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

Returning to Yozo’s question — “Is trustfulness a sin?” — Dazai answers it by showing us the strength of trust in this moment. Trust insinuates blind faith in another person, the willingness to believe someone else without logical reasoning, which makes it all the more important when PM Dazai — the genius prodigy who operates on a solely logical basis — is able to trust Oda and change his path in life. 

Atsushi is most likely the one that Dazai trusts the most in the agency, due to the aforementioned issues with the other members. However, it seems more like a budding trust that’s growing to become like Oda and Dazai, but it still requires Dazai to take that step forward to further their trust. 

Dazai and Yozo’s View of the World

In this scene, Yozo had made a decision for immediate gratification, but that choice caused him insufferable pain afterwards — supporting his belief that the world was a “place of bottomless horror.”

This parallels two of Dazai’s statements: one from Dark Era and one from Dead Apple.

“Please, take me with you. Wake me up from this rotten world of a dream. Come on, come on, come on!” — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

(Dazai wasn’t talking about himself here, but the allusion sets up a situation where he can talk about himself indirectly — I talk about it more in my other post here)

We don’t really get a reason for why Dazai is suicidal, but from this we can infer that it’s something more complex than he makes it out to be — something like an issue deeply rooted within the world, with no easy solution. 

One could guess that this was the result of an unfortunate decision (like Yozo), or the realization that the world was simply a terrible place (possibly because no one cared for him as a kid and he had Mori as a “parental” figure instead).

Yozo expresses his lack of understanding in the compassion of human nature, but Dazai (as we know) seems to understand other people perfectly, as least enough to manipulate them.

However, this forms somewhat of a paradox: Dazai understands people so well to the point that he can’t understand them.

Dazai understands every flawed aspect of a human being — the tendency to manipulate, lie, kill, etc. — most likely because of his past as a young child. “Human beings never did teach” him the hopeful aspect of human nature  — the ability to love and cherish others.

Shibusawa in Dead Apple reflects this mindset, but take note of what Dazai says: “You wouldn’t be saying that if you actually had friends” — clearly a reflection of Dazai’s personal experience, by knowing how important friends are.

Yozo’s deathly fear of society tames itself when he comes to the realization that society is really just made up of a bunch of individuals working for their individual benefit, so he has no reason to fear society as a whole.

I don’t believe Dazai has this same fear of society, but he does reflect this individualistic mindset in the way he acts. Often enough, Dazai doesn’t tell anyone about his plans and would rather manipulate people into following such plans, even when it would be easier to cooperate. He always takes care of conflicts by himself, and by his standard.

Yozo’s fear of society possibly manifested into Dazai’s ostracization from society. More speculation here, but → My guess is that Dazai was alienated not only as a genius isolated for his intelligence, but also for his ability. There seems to be some division between regular society and ability-users’ society, but I can see Dazai being rejected by both because he’s the antithesis to all abilities. 

Regular society would either shun him like other users or attempt to exploit him for their personal gain (possibly for his intelligence AND his ability), or ability-users would see him as a threat and/or menace to their safety.

When Yozo considers a double suicide with his partner, he comes to this unsure conclusion of whether or not he actually wants to go through with it.

This reflects what Oda believes about Dazai:

“I thought you and Dazai were very similar, unable to see the value of your life, hoping for death, hence jumping into a world of violence and fighting. But that’s not the case. That guy is just a child who’s too smart. Just a crying child who’s been left alone in the darkness, a world of nothingness far emptier than the world we can see.“ — LN 2, “Osamu Dazai and the Dark Era”

At the end of the story, Gide and Oda are different from Dazai because they face an inevitable hopelessness. However, Dazai has a small spark of hope to live on that persists beyond the other two. 

This is represented in Dazai’s own statement to Oda, when Oda is set on walking to his death: “Go and rely on something, hope for something good to happen next, that something will definitely happen.” 

If anything, this sounds more like a plea to himself than to Oda, but it establishes an important point: hope is built upon the assumption that the future will treat your present desires well. Vice versa, hopelessness is built upon the expectation that the future will neglect your present desires.

It’s a bit wordy, so I’ll elaborate on. Right after Dazai says this line, they proceed to talk about their desires → Dazai wants to find a reason to live, so he joined the mafia; Oda wanted to become a novelist, so he didn’t kill anyone. 

Now, the difference between hope and hopelessness:

Oda feels hopeless because he expects that his present desire (to become a novelist) won’t be fulfilled in the future. By losing the one qualification that he felt he had to follow (not killing anyone), he no longer believes that he can become a novelist.

Dazai has hope because he assumes that his present desire (to find a reason to live) will be fulfilled in the future. He doesn’t know that for sure, but he persists onwards regardless of having full assurance or not. 

Dazai’s hope and trust in Oda brings him to where he is in the present, and takes him one step closer towards discovering his reason to live. 

[noneatnonedotcom]

Accidental villain jaune: judgment

Jaune took a deep breath as he walked into the light of the stage, he barely heard the sounds of his introduction or the sounds of the audience’s polite applause. This was too important for someone like him to handle and yet here he was the only person who had actually tried to do this. He took a deep breath, letting the memories of his time with yang filter through calming him. Reminding him that even if everything went wrong, that even should the worst befall him and his enemies destroy all he built.

They’d still be there, they’d still love him.

All that was left to do was show them the levels of devotion he had for them and build a better world for them to live in.

He smiled at using their memories for strength and opened his mouth, his voice clear and confident, a little deeper than natural but hey he was a ruler, and lords were known for their lies. 

Even the small ones.

Thank you for that introduction, Elbasan, and thank you for the invitation to speak in defense of my ideals. It is a privilege to be here, as a representative of Patch to offer my thoughts on a topic that is vital to Patch’s future: how institutions and individual citizens can work together to strengthen the rule of law and make Vale a more just society.

First, let’s define the terms.  We often talk about “rule of law” in Vale, and I think the dictionary definition is pretty clear: the principle that all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to law that is fairly applied and enforced.

In democracies like the Atlas and Vale, writing, interpreting, and enforcing the law is the formal responsibility of the government, the council,  but it is also the responsibility of citizens to participate in ensuring that—I will say it again—all people and institutions are subject to and accountable to law that is fairly applied and enforced.

The glory of justice and the majesty of law are created not just by the King– nor by the Council – nor by the officers of the law – nor by the lawyers – but by the men and women who constitute our society – who are the protectors of the law as they are themselves protected by the law.

But I submit to you that following the law is only one element of justice. Now, what do I mean by justice? Try Searching the word, as I did while writing this speech, and you’ll find some vague and unhelpful definitions. For example: “Justice is the quality of being just.”

Jaune smirked as the audience chuckled, he was on a roll now he had to do was keep up the momentum

“So “justice” is hard to define, but having seen many kingdoms, I’ve come to realize that attitudes about justice often deeply reflect history and culture.”

“In some places, history and culture dictate an emphasis on strict administration of written laws—written by a legislature or perhaps derived from religious texts—to ensure fairness and impartiality.”

“Citizens are expected to accept a court ruling, even if it is negative. In other places, people view the law more as a general guideline, but if a court rules against them, they are quick to dismiss the decision and assert their own definition of fairness.”

“This is frequently true where a minority group believes, perhaps with good reason,” Jaune quickly emphasized as he raised a hand in a placating manner to stave off the shouts and arguments that were sure to come

“That their government does not offer them equal protection under the law, or even that laws which were written specifically to disenfranchise them and deny them equal justice. And in some places, people are raised with the idea that providing opportunities for family or friends is more important than any responsibility to an abstract law or to society as a whole. I’ll be coming back to this point in just a moment, trust me when I say that it affects that greatly.”

He took a breath looking out over the masses of people all waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

“This would be a good place for me to say that The Kingdom of Vale, the birthplace of democracy, is still struggling to build a society where all citizens and residents can be confident of equal protection under the law.” 

No one spoke too enraptured by his speech, by the confidence in which he spoke the truth, to offer an argument

“So, I don’t want to give you the impression that building a just society is easy, or that Vale has all the answers. But we understand the importance of the goal of equality under the law, and we keep fighting to make it a reality.”

He took a breath drinking a glass of water even as his thoughts went back to his girls, to the women he loved more than anything. To the people who gave him a home after he had lost everything save his sister

“Let’s talk about Patch for a moment. I submit that an expansive view of justice, a concept that includes equal rights and opportunities, equal protection under the law, and confidence that government officials will be held accountable to the people, would create hope for Patch’s youth and confidence among Patch’s partners.”  

“This view of justice expands its benefits to all of society, but what are the benefits of living in a just society with equality for all?”

“I believe that a just society is a more peaceful society, not without disagreement, but with established, non-violent means for working out differences among groups, and between citizens and government. In a just society, people feel that justice has been served when they understand how decisions are made, even if they don’t agree with the final result.”

“Finally, a just society is the foundation of a peaceful, prosperous society. A society in turmoil—a society without the predictability that rule of law brings—is a less attractive place for entrepreneurship and job creation.”

“Justice—the kind that protects all citizens equally—requires consistency and predictability, and respecting and implementing court decisions is an obligation of government agencies. Where rule of law is respected, court decisions are not open to negotiation or personal interpretation.”

“But, by embracing justice based on equal rights and opportunities, rule of law, and accountability for all of Patch’s citizens, you can ensure Patch achieves a brighter future. A future in which people succeed based on merit and talent. A future in which all citizens, faunas, and humans, enjoy equal opportunity.  A future in which no person is above the law, and no person fails to receive the protections of the law.”

“The first step in this is the idea that I have put before you. The ideals of a trial by a jury of your peers, and that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty.”

I won’t lie to you on this, these ideas are radical,” he stressed, making sure to get across the trepidation that even he felt at moving so far so fast.

“but these are the first steps, and every individual citizen has a role to play in upholding the rule of law.”

“Expect more from your elected officials, the establishment of democracy in Vale was a gift from the last king.” “Expect politicians, police, prosecutors, and judges to meet their responsibilities of providing justice fairly, equally, and with honor.”

“Engage in formal legal processes, even if it takes more time and effort. Invest in justice institutions and hold them accountable to ensure that they live up to the ideals enshrined in the bedrock of your rich and multi-ethnic society.”

“Finally, expect more from your fellow citizens in building a just society.”

“I thank you for your attention and look forward to a frank and open discussion of these issues. If you’ll allow me to, I’d like to close with one more statement that I hope will stick with you.”

This was it, the final blow

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”

 Jaune bowed as rapturous applause moved through the auditorium he’d borrowed from signal, due to the government building of patch being too small for his conference. But as Jaune flashed a brilliant smile to the cameras and waved to the crowds before him, he couldn’t help but wonder what Yang and Ruby had thought of his speech.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“you know I figured you'd be more impressive up close" said a voice from within the hallways of signal, the steady rhythm of her heals signaling her approach

jaune raised an eyebrow at the declaration "while I do hate to disappoint a lady, I'm not sure what you're talking about" he said with a small smirk as he turned to look at none other than weiss schnee.

"you," she said standing a little straiter "there's been much talk about you, how you're an up in comer but all I see is a man spread thin, you have the start of a business, you have the start of an army, you're a powerful combatant I'll grant you. definitely the best of our generation. but that's it. I find myself..." she trailed off for a moment "wanting more"

jaune chucked "well, that's the business we're in I suppose but I think you've made a pretty large mistake on where my capabilities lie." he leaned back against the wall relaxing as he saw the Schnee grill raise her eyebrows

"and just what abilities am I overlooking?" she asked in a huff

"I'm very good at making friends"

a scoff was her response "you think that will make a difference? having friends? you're a child"

jaune smiled "no, I'm a realist. recent events have stressed that I have no real ability to do everything myself. I can hardly protect the people close to me as is. so I need more power. the best way to do that is to make friends. not just for political power, or economic power, but for personal power. for peace of mind. I have been... arrogant, I'll admit. I thought myself an island untouchable by all around me due to my power.” “but the loss of a friend has shown that I am still only a man." jaune stood to his full height "miss schnee I hope you understand what I'm saying. perhaps I am above others, they have made it apparent that they want me to be there, but I have long since moved past the childish ideals of doing everything on my own. Do you want to know why the world has been watching me? it's because when I listen to others. while your father has traded the respect and good name of your family and company for the short term gain of lein, I have garnered a reputation. it alone is not enough but I do have plans,"  he let loose a little further with his aura, reveling in the power he had over others "when I speak people listen, that is far more than a spoiled child like you can say"

there was a long silence before jaune turned away walking past the watching girl

from over his shoulder jaune called out "if you're interested, you may tag along. I can only imagine you'd learn far more from me than from your petty dictator of a father"

he didn't need to look back to know Weiss was angry, but that was a victory too. 

she'd be thinking about him all month.

next chapter we go to beacon for real, i’ve already got it written up.

[random-thought-depository]

My most significant reaction to this essay is to think that “create a haven for outcasts and a paradise for bohemians, with lots of warm connections of mutual support and fun between people who don’t fit in with broader society” is a much better goal than “save the world.”

“Create a haven for outcasts and a paradise for bohemians, with lots of warm connections of mutual support and fun between people who don’t fit in with broader society” is a goal that a small number of people with moderate access to resources can actually achieve. You just need to find these people and convince them to associate with each other and support each other, and the infrastructure for that is pretty cheap in the internet age, and the rationalist subculture already has the infrastructure for that. As a form of altruism, I think it’s pretty cost-effective. A person’s whole life can often be turned in a better direction with as little as a few thousand dollars. A single moderately affluent person can make an enormous difference to the lives of five or six or a dozen other people this way. I guess it’s not as efficient as mosquito net charities or something like that, but I think it’s probably much better than, say, contributing money to Friendly AI research (I suspect that by the time we actually build general AI any Friendly AI research we cook up now will be at best historically significant philosophical texts that introduced some important general concepts but are hopelessly outdated when they discuss the meat and potatoes of programming, at worst the equivalent of Medieval physicians writing elaborate treatises about the subtleties of the four humors theory of medicine).

I think “create a mutual support community for eccentric nerds” is also likely to be a very satisfying form of altruism (which, among other things, means less risk of burn-out). You’re helping “your people,” and every day you’ll interact with people whose lives have been obviously and tangibly bettered by your actions. Your altruism will be part of a network of mutual support and “thick” social connections between people who like each other and feel personal loyalty to each other, which is a very time-tested and successful formula (it’s a strategy that has a lot of problems too, sure, but it has some actually very nice features).

By contrast, “save the world” is... probably beyond the power of a small group of people with moderate resources, even if that’s a group that trends more affluent and smarter than average. I mean, taken at face value, “save the world” is a problem that has absorbed a significant fraction of humanity’s total intelligence and resources for literally centuries. Big concrete steps toward “saving the world” (such as, say, inventing commercially viable fusion reactors) would probably require an effort comparable to the Manhattan Project or bigger in many cases. Even “modest” steps in the “save the world” direction (such as, say, a coronavirus vaccine or a new hydroelectric dam) tend to be quite skill-intensive and technology-intensive and/or resource-intensive.

Compared to the status quo of 1800 C.E. the world has been saved, but it was mostly done by a strategy that looked very different from the high rationalist “get a small number of smart people together with the explicit goal of saving the world” strategy. The actual historically successful world-saving strategy was a huge number of people working to solve a huge number of more specific problems that were only tangentially related to saving the world. “Get a relatively small number of smart enlightened people with the right mindset together and set them to work with the explicit goal of saving the world” reminds me more of science fiction, specifically of Isaac Asimov’s concept of the Foundation, and I honestly wonder if that’s mostly where the idea came from (I observe that “member of the Foundation” is an aspirational social role that’s very ego-pleasing and seductive to a book-smart “gifted” eccentric who doesn’t fit in well with mainstream society; y’know, the kind of person likely to be attracted to science fiction and rationalist subculture).

For a small number of people with moderate access to resources, “Create a haven for outcasts and a paradise for bohemians, with lots of warm connections of mutual support and fun between people who don’t fit in with broader society” is an easily achievable goal. For a small number of people with moderate access to resources, “save the world” is at best going to inspire a lot of useful efforts that contribute to that project, but at worst it’ll be like twenty people trying to level a mountain with hand tools; a lot of effort expended accomplishing very little (I think the big danger for such a group is getting seduced into pouring their efforts into a glamorous and seductive but probably futile moon-shot; something like “instead of this hard grinding work of actually saving the world, maybe we can just build a friendly super-AI that will do it for us!”).

Also, I think “save the world” is a community recruitment pitch that’s likely to disproportionately attract people who are scrupulous-in-the-badbrains-sense, fanatical, narcissistic, or some combination of those things. Frank Herbert once made this observation about politics:

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” - Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune.

I think Frank Herbert identified a real recurring problem with managerial institutions here. Politicians and bosses are high on my list of people I’d be a little wary of dating or being friends with, because I strongly suspect that becoming a politician or a boss really does select for narcissism and authoritarian tendencies. I think you almost have to be a little narcissistic or have significant authoritarian tendencies to look around and think “the world would be better if other people were forced to obey me!” I think this effect contributes to many of the institutional and social pathologies of governments, businesses, and other hierarchical organizations. Likewise, I think you almost have to be at least little narcissistic to hear the high rationalist recruitment pitch of “we’re assembling a team of smart enlightened people who are exceptionally suited to saving the world, so we can save the world!” and think “I’m a smart enlightened person who’s exceptionally suited to saving the world, I belong on that team!” Please don’t feel too personally attacked if that description sounds like an uncharitable description of you, being a little narcissistic is a common personality trait, and part of the reason for that is you probably actually are better than average at the things you like and are good at … but I’d be wary of joining a community with a recruitment pitch that selects for narcissism and fanaticism, and I’d be wary of making such a recruitment pitch for a community I belong to.

I will note that, as an unquantified System 1 impression, I feel there’s a very cloudy but noticeable correlation between how close a piece of writing is to high rationalism and how much it’s infused with a miasma of a lot of the things I find most off-putting about the rationalist subculture; elitist contempt for ordinary people, very self-important vision of rationalist subculture’s role, cult of smartness attitudes, mix of vaguely Randian, Nietzschean, and Protestant work ethic attitudes, libertarian-adjacent politics that implicitly reflects the biases and class interests of affluent tech-company workers.

[laughingpinecone]

Trick or Treat 2020 letter!

I am laughingpineapple on AO3  

Hello dear author! I hope you’ll have fun with our match. Feel free to draw from general or fandom-specific likes, past letters, and/or follow your heart.

All requests are art or fic - for art, the stuff I like is the kind that depicts the characters doing something. I’ll always be happier with a very simple drawing of two characters walking together or sharing a cup of coffee than with an ambitious composition that looks like an Avengers poster. I also enjoy seeing them wear different clothes, getting a feel of what their fashion sense is like beyond their canon outfit(s).

Likes: worldbuilding, slice of life (especially if the event the fic focuses on is made up but canon-specific), missing moments, 5+1 and similar formats, bonding and emotional support/intimacy, physical intimacy, lingering touches, loyalty, casefic, surrealism, magical realism, established relationships, future fic, hurt/comfort or just comfort from the ample canon hurt, throwing characters into non-canon environments, banter, functional relationships between dysfunctional individuals, unexplained mysteries, bittersweet moods, journal/epistolary fic, dreams and memories and identities, canon-adjacent tropey plots, outsider POV, UST, resolved UST, exploration of secondary bits of canon, leaning on the uniqueness of the canon setting/mood, found families, characters reuniting after a long and/or harrowing time, friends-to-lovers, road trips, maps, mutual pining, cuddling, wintry moods, the feeling of flannel and other fabrics, ridiculous concepts played straight, sensory details, sickfic, places being haunted, people being haunted, the mystery of the woods, small hopes in bleak worlds, electricity, places that don’t quite add up, mismatched memories, caves and deep places, distant city lights at night, emphasis on non-human traits of non-human characters (gen-wise, but also a hearty yes xeno for applicable ships), emphasis on inhuman traits of characters who were human once and have sort of shed it all behind

Cool with: any tense, any pov, any rating, plotty, not plotty, IF, nerdy canon references, unrequested characters popping up.

DNW: non-canonical rape, non-canonical children, focus on children, unrequested ships (background established canon couples are okay, mentions of parents are okay!), canon retellings, consent issues

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Hurdy

I love the game’s world and all the little stories and legends that fill it. Great atmosphere, great lore, so if you feel like getting a little worldbuildy and indulging in the scenery and its story, please do! A focus on the sense of camaraderie in a caravan would also be great (like people could do on Gamecube.....). Hurdy’s a bit of an odd duck for that theme, but maybe he hitched a ride at some point? With whom? Amidatty or De Nam maybe, among the nominated characters? I love the whole cast so anyone goes. Do they travel together enough for them to cotton onto the weirdness of the whole Gurdy situation? Got any run-in with Lady Mio? Or what’s his status after the miasma is lifted, can he go back to Tipa, can he/they begin to heal? What does healing even look like for him and Gurdy?

Ghost Trick: Cabanela

You know.. him. Dazzlingly OTT, untiring, rock-solid self-esteem, loyal to a fault, following a rhythm of his own, flawless intuition until it fails and it all burns down... him. I just want to see more of him doing stuff! The way he’s chill and open toward new people (like Sissel and Missile in ch15) makes him perfect to throw at most other characters and see how they react to the sparkles... I’d love some focus on how ridiculous his aesthetic is, half Saturday Night Fever half hardboiled detective half bubbly preteen (for a total of 150%) and yet he makes it work. Or how ruthless he can be, possibly for the sake of the people he cares for. The quote “The intimacy of big parties”. Him and Alma in the new timeline bonding over knowing (once Jowd has spilled the beans) but not remembering that terrible timeline. Some tropey scenario on the job. Snark-offs with Pigeon Man, by which I mean PM snarks and it bounces off him like water off a spotless white goose’s back. Dreaming Sissel but he’s strange... and wrong?

Ship-wise it’s only Cabanela/Jowd whenever it’s not infidelity, Cabanela/Alma in what-ifs and Cabanela/Alma/Jowd for me (and Lynne/Memry and Yomiel/fianSissel on the side). There are a bunch of shippy prompts in all my past letters - I would however reiterate here that Jowd. is. the worst tease. always.

Conversely, Cabanela/Lynne and Cabanela/Yomiel are NOTPs especially from Cabanela’s side. So while I appreciate the thick tension of a good Yomiel VS Cabanela confrontation like everyone and their cat, and also really appreciate a roughed-up Cabanela, and I do love Yomiel in his own right... I don’t want Cabanela being into it. Adrenaline junkie he may be but this hurts and his coat’s a mess and there’s no perfect winning scenario so he hates every second of it. (JOWD being into it is another matter altogether and he should probably mind his own business)

Kentucky Route Zero: Carrington, Cate

Act after act, intermission after intermission, I somehow didn’t see the arts rising to such a dominant theme in KRZ and it’s stuck with me since the ending finally hit. It’s great and moving. So! Who better than good ol’ antler man to linger in those feels! Carrington’s playwright adventures or Carrington&anyone you fancy, either way I’d listen to him ramble for a week and I would like to know more about his big dramatic plans. Or maybe him helping someone, more or less accidentally, by offering his unique takes? Overriding my “no canon retellings” DNW for a hot second, did he ever figure out what was going down in the Death of the Hired Man (or Nap of the Hired Man as the case may be) interlude?

For Cate, I’m mostly interested in two things: life on the river and mushrooms. Maybe both! The Echo river ecosystem is intensely fascinating to me as opposed to life on the surface and life on the Zero, and yet all these environments are permeable. So what’s a moment in her daily life that encapsulates the river? Someone they picked up on the Mammoth, a strange island that popped up at some point? Cate&Will bonding extremely welcome, I’m love Will. And then there’s the mushroom hunting. I don’t know much about mushrooms, but I do know that they’re cool. Cate seems to agree, so if you’ve got a story or pic in you about her and them mushrooms, I’d love to see it.

Pyre: Volfred Sandalwood

This is a Volfred solo, Volfred&literally anyone or Volfred/Tariq, /Oralech or /Tariq/Oralech request. If &Manley or &Brighton, I am not interested in more lenient takes on their characters than canon’s. fwiw I also enjoy Jodi/Celeste and Bertrude/Pamitha a lot!

I feel deeply for all of Pyre’s main themes - literacy, degrees of freedom, the fragile time that is the end of a historical cycle, nobodies rising up to the occasion, building a better society, and of course found family, “distance cannot separate our spirits” and all that jazz, and Volfred is squarely rooted at the center of all of them. Just please tell me things about my fave. His relationship to the Scribes (as a historian, a some kind of vision, via *ae or once he’s a star himself)? A ‘forced vacay’ Downside ending where he looks at the Union from afar and keeps living in this strange transformational place? Life in a cramped Blackwagon that was meant for like 5 people tops and is currently eight Nightwings, a herald and an orb? Since he picked him for the job to begin with, does he respect and cherish Hedwyn as he dang well should? What does it feel like to try and Read a herald? Was he ever in danger, in the Commonwealth or in the Downside? Does he puff up as prime minister because he’s nervous, and who can see past his hyper-professionalism and lend a hand? Please roast him big time about the votes he assigns to the various Nightwings in his planner? What’s his attitude toward the flame’s purification (what with being a tree but mostly like, as a general concept. He did nothing wrong!) (well he definitely said some things wrong and sometimes oftentimes the ego jumps out, but his intentions did nothing wrong)? When did his calculating approach fail him? Something with Pamitha along the lines of that edit that goes “Can we talk, one ten to another?"/"I am an eleven, my girl, but continue."? btw that ‘emphatically yes xeno’ from my general likes is only applicable here I guess so: emphatically yes xeno to both shippy interactions at all ratings and to gen explorations of what a Sap is like...

Shenmue: Qiu Hsu, Xianzi Bei

Cormorants... kung fu... cormorant kung fu. They turned out to be my faves in a very likeable cast and I’d love to see either or both of them slice-of-life-ing it up in Niaowu, or anywhere up or down the river. The rest of the cast is welcome to join! Did Ren end up at Liu He Hall for whatever reason, or did Shenhua chat up a cormorant, as she does? Id love to see a spookier mood too! Ghost story time in Liu Jiao shrine maybe?

The Silver Case: Catherine, Kodai Sumio, Kuroyanagi Shinko, Kusabi Tetsugorou, Macalister Edo, Morishima Tokio

I‘m all for the surrealism, big things being introduced and never picked up again, Rashomon’ing it up with six explanations for the same thing where no single one can be true, people dying and then popping up again like nbd...  maybe the thing I like the most is characters transcending their humanity and looming over the dystopian world like ominous avatars. Correctness’ first ending had me swooning, that kind of mood is unparalleled. I have played TSC, FSR and 25W so far and have vague memories of K7. I’m aware of the “everything’s connected” readings but that’s not my main interest in these games. Mainly I see Lospass as a real island but also a metaphysical  place of transformation first and foremost, where strange things happen that don’t make sense elsewhere, but I’m good with anything that works for your story! There are a few & prompts for these fine folks in my Press Start letter [here].

For Catherine, I’d love to see something along the lines of her YAMI appearance, on Lospass on her own or hanging out with another character of your choice (or Tokio again). Sumio leaves me at a loss for words... if you’ve played 25W, maybe an expansion of his [intense ethereal whooshing] moment? He’s a gust away from vanishing from existence altogether... &Sakura and/or &/Tetsu if you want. Or his time in prison or a return to Lospass or whatever’s going on with that one, really. For Shinko I’m itching for different team-ups! Throw her at anyone you like and see what happens! FSR-era Tetsu could be cool, or off-the-grid Tetsu, or Tetsu&anyone... as for Edo, I’d be curious to see his pov on anyone and anything! WAS the Flower Sun and Rain the friends we met along the way? And Tokio... oh Tokio. Something about older Tokio and his gaggle of tulpas (Slash and whatshisface from YUKI who looks suspiciously like YAMI Tokio himself?)? Any...thing...about any part of his life from Lifecut onwards? Any portentous encounters?

[flipomatic]

Snail Mail

Author Note: Got myself a Sayo ship now.

Summary: And then Tsugumi started to play. More accurately, part of Sayo’s brain provided, the whole band was playing, but all she processed was the piano softly backing the guitar before harmonizing with the bass, coming up for a solo and wow Sayo realized she hadn’t moved her penlight in over thirty seconds.

Word Count: 2000

Sayo stood in the crowd, engulfed on all sides by other audience members. She managed to have one hand raised, proudly holding a yellow penlight up for all to see amongst a sea of pink. The band she came to see, Afterglow, was due to start playing in a couple minutes. All around her people chatted about how excited they were to hear Ran sing, but all Sayo could think about was the pianist who’d invited her to the show.

It happened about a week before the concert. Sayo didn’t often get mail. Her band mates used line live and regular text messages to communicate over distances, never requiring the physical sending of paper. What little mail Sayo did receive consisted primarily of coupons and spam, which Hina snapped up for some odd reason.

That changed when a letter came to the house. It was hand addressed to Hikawa Sayo with a return address she didn’t recognize and a small stamp in the upper right corner. When Sayo’s parents gave it to her out of the mail pile, she retreated to her room to open it before Hina could claim that it was hers instead.

Inside the envelope, there were two pieces of paper. One was standard sized printer paper, while the other was a small rectangle that appeared to be a ticket of some kind.

The letter read:

Dear Sayo-san,

You are cordially invited to Afterglow’s performance on June 23rd at Circle. You can find one ticket inside this envelope. I hope you see you there.

Sincerely,

Hazawa Tsugumi

Sayo had to read it twice to fully comprehend the contents. She’d met Tsugumi a couple months ago at a baking class, well, more specifically Tsugumi taught Sayo at a baking class. They’d bonded over their mutual hard-working attitudes and had even spent some time together since then. Neither had seen the other perform yet though. Sayo knew how hard the other girl worked and was interested in seeing her perform.

The contents of the letter seemed a bit strange. They were formal and also typed, but maybe Tsugumi preferred to do things formally. Sayo could certainly agree with the level of professionalism.

It could be a good learning experience, Sayo thought as she scrutinized the small piece of paper that the letter claimed to be a ticket. Ran, the lead singer of Afterglow, competed fiercely with Yukina. If anyone asked, she could say she was scoping out the completion.

But wow, she thought with a smile, Tsugumi wanted her there. She wanted Sayo to see her play.

As Sayo penciled the concert onto her calendar, she basked in the warm feeling in her chest.

Over the next week, Sayo prepared for the concert. She didn’t have a penlight, since she didn’t usually waste her time going to see other bands. She probably could get away without one, but it didn’t feel right not to properly support her friend during the show. Sayo ordered the device online, paying a little extra for express shipping.

Hina almost took the box when it arrived. She had it in her hands when Sayo got home from practice and was shaking it as if to try and figure out what it was. Sayo put an end to that behavior and claimed her prize.

The penlight was just as expected, so Sayo was able to put a few batteries in and power it up. After politely asking, Ako had given her a list of the colors she needed along with some gibberish about how penlights can be used to make pentragrams. Sayo programmed it with all of Afterglow’s colors, starting with Tsugumi’s yellow.

On the day of the concert, Sayo made sure to arrive early enough to get a good spot. The person at the door didn’t actually want her ticket, and instead told Sayo she’d already been paid for. That seemed, odd, but who was Sayo to complain.

She soon found herself sardined with other fans, ready for the concert to begin.

Once the show started, Sayo soon forgot about the people around her. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the bands pianist, one Tsugumi Hazawa. The other teen looked slightly nervous as the band walked out onto the stage, but when she placed her hands on the keyboard her expression changed. She set her mouth and narrowed her brown eyes in determination.

And then Tsugumi started to play. More accurately, part of Sayo’s brain provided, the whole band was playing, but all she processed was the piano softly backing the guitar before harmonizing with the bass, coming up for a solo and wow Sayo realized she hadn’t moved her penlight in over thirty seconds.

When the song ended, most of the audience changed their penlights to light blue to cheer for the guitarist, but Sayo left hers on yellow.

Before she knew it, the concert was over. The band took their final bow and bid the audience farewell. The audience soon started to trickle out, which gave Sayo enough room to bring her arm down and turn the penlight, still yellow, off. She followed the crowd towards the door, taking care not to bump anyone by accident. Sayo debated going to the back and saying hello to Tsugumi, but decided against it. The band was probably busy enough without a guest, so she thought about just texting her later instead. Sayo had almost made it out into the fresh air when she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

“Sayo-saaaaaan!” Along with the elongated suffix, Sayo felt a small hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Moca, the guitarist who she just watched perform. The younger teen still wore her stage outfit.

“Aoba-san.” The two stepped out of the way of the crowd as Sayo acknowledged the younger guitarist.

“Eeeeeeh.” Moca ignored the curt greeting, instead looking Sayo up and down and muttering under her breath. “Hi-chan was right…”

“What did you say?” Sayo couldn’t really hear her over the crowd.

Moca’s blue eyes snapped up, an unnerving smirk creeping onto her face. “Sayo-san isn’t going to leave without saying goodbye, is she?”

“I… what?” Sayo wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She knew Moca worked with Lisa and the two were friends, but Sayo almost never talked to the other girl.

“Let’s gooooo.” Moca grabbed Sayo’s wrist, much to her surprise, and started dragging her towards the changing rooms.

One tug removed Sayo’s stable footing and had her following along. “Please let me go.” Sayo tried to dig her heels in or at least pull her arm away, but Moca was surprisingly strong. Actually, Sayo corrected herself despite the situation, as a guitarist it made sense for her to have strong hands. That didn’t excuse Sayo’s weak escape attempts though.

“Not until Sayo-san says goodbye to Tsugu.” Moca said, refusing to relinquish her grip on Sayo.

Oh, that’s where they were going then. Sayo stopped pulling back and allowed herself to be tugged the rest of the way. She hadn’t wanted to interrupt, but if one of the members had actually come to get her, then maybe it was okay. Sayo still had to figure out what to say though, which was honestly the hardest part.

She didn’t have too much time to think before Moca came to a halt at the closed dressing room door. In front of the door, standing with her arms crossed, leaned Tomoe.

“Moca, where have you been?” Tomoe’s mouth was set in a firm frown. “Himari just sent me to look for you.”

“I’m here now~~~.” Moca released her death grip on Sayo’s wrist.

“And you brought a guest.” Icy blue eyes shifted to Sayo, sending a chill down her spine. As the tallest member of Afterglow, Tomoe cut an intimidating figure. Sayo could only return the cold look, unsure of what earned her this treatment.

“She wants to see Tsugu.”

“They’re still getting changed in there.” Tomoe tightened her arms. “She’s not going in.”

“Fiiiiiiiine.” Moca turned to Sayo. “If you leave before talking to Tsugu, Moca-chan will haunt you for a thouuuuusand years.” She winked before slipping past Tomoe and into the dressing room.

“Pft, she would probably give up after only a few days.” Tomoe chuckled to herself, but Sayo couldn’t bring herself to laugh. She knew a bit about Tomoe since Ako liked to talk about her, but had met her even less times than Moca.

Once her laugh died out, Tomoe stared at Sayo in silence. Sayo pulled out her phone to break the tension, checking to see if she had any texts while she waited for Tsugumi. She could still feel the piercing gaze of the tall drummer as she scrolled through a few excited texts from Hina.

“Tomoe.” The door popped open behind Tomoe, Himari’s face poking through the crack. “I need you in here.” She said quickly, dragging Tomoe through the door with what looked like a bear hug. The taller teen had barely vanished when someone else was forced out of the door.

“Moca-chan, okay, I’m going.” Tsugumi practically fell out of the changing room, stumbling as if she’d been shoved. Someone on the inside yanked the door shut, leaving only Sayo and Tsugumi in the hallway.

“Sayo-san?” Tsugumi’s eyes came up to meet Sayo’s. widening with surprise. She had changed back into her normal clothes, but still looked slightly sweaty from the performance.

“Hazawa-san, congratulations on your performance today” Sayo didn’t waste time with small talk. “I thought you played very well.” That was a little vague, Sayo thought to herself, but an okay start. Her tongue often got stuck when talking to Tsugumi.

“Ah, thank you!” A light pink dusted Tsugumi’s cheeks. “It’s such a nice surprise to see you here.”

“You weren’t expecting me?” That hurt a little, especially since Tsugumi had sent her a ticket in the… wait one moment. “Didn’t you send me a ticket in the mail?”

“I don’t think there were tickets for this concert.” Tsugumi lifted one hand to her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm, I wonder, Moca maybe…” Her voice trailed off before returning. “Really thank you for coming!”

“You’re welcome,” Sayo cleared her throat. “I remember you told me how hard you’ve been practicing, and I think it has really paid off.” She fought a creeping heat on her neck as she spoke. “You played beautifully today, Hazawa-san.”

“R-really?” Tsugumi’s face darkened as she broke eye contact with Sayo. “Thank you, Sayo-san. I’m glad you liked it. How would you, umm.” She brought her hands together, fidgeting. “Would you like to come to our concert next month as well?” She asked in a soft tone, almost too quiet for Sayo to hear.

Sayo’s heart swelled; even if the ticket in the mail had been false, this invitation was for real. “I would. Thank you for inviting me.” She took a deep breath, forcing herself to not speak too quickly. “And, if you want, Roselia is having a concert in a couple weeks. I have a ticket for a friend, if you are interested?”

Tsumugi gasped, but then grinned. “Absolutely! I’d love to hear you play Sayo-san!”

The amount of force behind her statement surprised Sayo, a warm blush settling on her cheeks. She still hadn’t regained her composure when the final member of Afterglow opened the door.

“Tsugu, time to go.” Ran said calmly, completely ignoring Sayo. “Come get your belongings.”

“I should head out.” Sayo took a step back, her flush receding.

“Bye, thanks again for coming!” Tsugumi waved as Sayo turned and started walking away.

Sayo left the studio, walking home in silence. In her head, she practiced riffs and chords for the upcoming concert.

Tsugumi was going to be there, and she couldn’t wait.

A few minutes earlier

Himari had one ear pressed against the door, listening eagerly to the conversation on the other side.

“You did this.” Tomoe said bluntly, pretending like she also didn’t want to listen in “Why?”

“Tsugu just needed a little push.” Satisfied with what she heard, Himari straightened up. “She can handle the rest.”

[kendrixtermina]

Tritype made Easy: It’s not that deep

So tritype. Somehow it’s garnered this reputation of being super complex and “extra”. 

- complete with the occasional oldschool purists chiming in & presuming various ad hominem-type things like “You just want to be more special”, “You’re just box-checking type stereotypes“ or “You’re substituting this for deeper spiritual study of your core type” 

It’s not. 

First of all - You don’t really need an ulterior motive to want to refine or specify a tool, isn’t completeness sake enough? It’s not like you either determine your tritype (a finite process) OR work on core-type related issues; 

I’d even agree that the core type strongly predominates but, like, if more info exists, why not have it (or check out if it exists, if you call that in question), besides, it enables you to identify yet more possible problems & understand ppl’s reaction patterns in a more dynamic fashion (ie, relative to different situation)- I’d agree that ppl of the same tritype can have more in common that ppl of the same core type but with wildly different fixes.

It’s actually not a complicated thing at all, there’s a very simple basic logic to it, so simple that it seems almost No-Big-Deal inevitable.

Let me elucidate:

The Reasoning Behind it

It’s as simple as this: It’s pretty uncontroversial that the types can be grouped into triads, based on various similarities - And one such grouping is based on what the predominant or most-relied upon  or most driving part of the psyche seems to be - abstract conceptual reason (5,6,7), emotions/social processing “heart” (4,2,3) and for (1,8,9)... is it instinct? Is it will? is it action? Are these separate? Informal terms include “gut/body”. Personally I would say will but either way ppl generally get on an intuitive level what is being meant.

There’s many complimentary, clear cut ways of fleshing out the distinction -

“head” center - concerned with beliefs, thoughts & fear

“heart” center - concerned with feelings, value judgements, image & shame

“gut” center - concerned with action, boundaries, impulses & anger

and within those centers, each type has a different approach or filter on perception, which then causes the further characteristics of the type. 

But, it follows, quite simply, without any need for vagueing or speculating let alone posturing, that no matter which part is ‘predominant’, we all have all of those parts, we experience & deal with all three emotions, and we all have characteristic patterns for how we handle feelings, beliefs and action. 

So we can think of the 6 possible fixes in each ‘center’ (9 if you count ‘balanced’ as an option) as possible “settings” for your attitude toward the corresponding part of the psyche or reaction pattern concerning the relevant emotion.... and suddenly we not just have an at least internally consistent theoretical underpinning for the whole system, but the implication that we might have a “setting” or “pattern” for each center or emotion - 

Which, when you step out of the theory speak & look at RL isn’t a wild claim. Different people have different ways of dealing with different emotions. We always knew this. Tritype just offers a way to somewhat classify it; it doesn’t even have to be an exhaustive one / describe “everything”, just what it does describe, ie, for example, wether a person deals with fear by “all freeuze”(5w4), “some freeze some fight” (5w6, 6w5), “some fight some flight”(6w7, 7w6) or “all flight”(7w8). Although that equivalency may not be a 100%/ obfuscate things.

But basically: These are 3 common strategies, two of them are opposite, so which one is yours? “All A”, “A but also B” “B but also A” “B but also C” “C but also B” “All C”. 

Of course just because something is a nice theory does’t mean it is the truth, just that it’s a possible one depending on how it tests against further observation, but, ppl caught Antimater, Gravitational Waves and the Higgs Boson this way, and it is worth noting that the people who came up with tritype didn’t arrive there from the theoretical side - instead they were practitioners who saw a large number of people using the “simple” 9 type system and realized that their clients exhibited fears and traits related to 3 types. beyond just “universal relatability”

- Note that this is something more natural & elegant that the basic theory created just through observing & sorting humans (who, after all, have been around for the observing since the cognitive revolution gave us sophisticated abstractions some 80000 - 70000 years ago; It would be stranger if ppl didn’t make worthwhile observations) - we start counting at ‘1′ even though 1 belongs with 8 and 9. 

In a way this is actually less arbitrary & more structured/ a better grasp on what the system actually measures (or maybe that’s too exact a word; ‘Sorts by’ or ‘approximates’ perhaps) than just “these are the types, you’re exactly one of them, because new-agey number symbolism or something.” Though you can of course still have the symbolism if you want, no one’s stopping you, nor are these mutually exclusive. You could see them as complimentary. 

This system, when properly understood & explained, might actually eliminate confusion, especially since ppl tend to mistype within their tritype - so instead of deliberating forever on “Well I have some traits of 4 but also some of 7, which one is it?”you can reach an answer like “You have traits of both”, & proceed to figuring out which one is the core type.  Same with ppl who are like “But I don’t fit every single trait of [core type]” - who might still very much be that type, & the little incongruity can now be given an explanation (secondary fix) rather than having to be discounted or being a “con” & just shaking ppl’s confidence in the system in general - for example a sp-blind 7 with a 9 fix may be less manic & more stationary, but all the more prone to the rose-tinted glasses syndrome.

- Of course, with the caveat that there parts are all interconected and that the core type tends to impose a characteristic organizing principle (ie each type has its own way of handling emotions, self-image or social interaction - but there can be seen as a consequence of the core type being the ‘final arbiter`.) Also in reality it’s probably not 100% discreet like there’s more or less pronounced wings, although the very purpose of a “automatic/reflexive fallback/survival strategy” probably ensures a certain convergence.

It’s also interesting to note the existence of coretype-specific tendencies. - for example, I’ve read that its not uncommon for core 5s in particular to have a hard time figuring out their “gut” fix. (and indeed, I spend some time deliberating on 548 vs 549 even if it’s rather... apparent in hindsight that it’s definitely not 9)

The Conclusion, boiled down

So your tritype is simply a markdown of how do you deal with these emotions/situations, which basic strategies to use, in a simple, succinct notation - nothing complicated, obscure or contrived about it. 

I’m not saying this to call people dumb or anything - it’s easy to see how one might at first glance, be daunted, confused or sceptical, seeing that there’s  27 tritypes, 6 orders, and endless wings & instinct combinations, but all that seeming complexity is grounded on very simple basic principles/ “alghoritm” 

- it all boils down to there being just 3 options for each center (or 6, or 9 if you want wings/ add ‘balanced’ but that’s just further specificity, not really more complexity) All you need to do is to pick one of only 3 options for each center/emotion. Go through each center/emotion, consider how you approach it, and tadaa! Your tritype. The tritypes’ specific traits smply follow as a consequence.

As for the order, well it’s basically a priority ranking. Observe yourself as you react to things in day-to-day life. If you’re a 153, you might, for example, act first, form thoughs & opinions following that and form an emotional judgement later, if at all. 

One way I’d describe it is that 2nd fix is a steady undercurrent, while the 3rd is more something that surfaces when triggered by a situation or emotion - eg. if gut fix is last, they’re likely not a very action-oriented person, but you may find out if something makes them angry & they react in telltale ways. 

When in doubt, just look at the core fears and notice which one gets the stronger wince out of you. 

Consequence: Typing Advice 

So, of course “How many Angels fit on the head of a pin” type arguments over the theory of what is a made-up system are fun exercises but of limited interest; What people are often looking for is  so that they may use the system as a tool (for self-awareness, understanding others, making observations etc. )

For each center, the person either embraces it (4,5,8), modulates it (2,7,1), or is indirect about it.(9,6,3)

When the person’s not very functional and/or not  particularly self aware, make that “indulges/wallows in”, “represses” and “is out of touch with”

- For example, a 4 is obviously all about feelings, a 5 is obviously all about thoughts, a 8 is obviously all about asserting themselves. At best, you get someone who takes this aspect of human existence in full,  at worst, you get a self-indulgent crybaby/smartass/tyrant, there can be a failure to rein that part in.  

There’s also a negativistic tendency to these types.

-2/7/1 meanwhile have a strong selectivity about their center - you can probably still tell that thought/feeling/action is important to driving them, but it’s important that they be only good actions/feelings/thoughts. - A 2 “caring” or “loveable” sentiments while rejecting “selfish” ones, a 7 want to think fun/happy thoughts rather than anxious ones, a 1 wants to dogood actions & is afraid of doing bad ones etc. 

These are more positivistic. (not the same as positive, though 2 and 7 could be described like that as well)

- with 9, 6 or 3, it is less obvious that they are profoundly driven by thought/feeling/boundaries. The center is very active but its activity is “sublimated”, there’s not this direct connection where they come out & say “This is what I feel/want/ conclude.” - at worst a 9 can seem doormatey, a 3 unemotional or shallow, a 6 like a spineless follower that can’t think for themselves, but you’ll clearly see that this type of energy is at work but it will burst forth in a warped manner (the 3 will react with dramatic jealousy, the 6 will hammer you with ideology, the 9 will get super stubborn about mantaining the status quo that they want, all without admitting or even realizing that it’s their feeling/opinion/ want) - 

They just go about it indirectly. Which needn’t be a bad thing, despite the above examples - Underneath, the 3 is clearly driven by fulfilling emotional needs (where else would they get all that relentless energy/motivation from? From feelings.), the 6 has a lot of at times frantic mental activity (Hence their admirable alertness & scepticism), the 9 actually expends a lot of “will” mantaining their homeostasis, even if they’re passive-agressive about it. - (What they “want” just happens to be chill, harmony & unity)

These are the best at adapting to their environment because their “indirect” means of feeling accepted/secure/in-control will be whatever the environment affords them.

In the end it’s a matter of strategy. Say, a person is snubbed by their classmates. That hurts no matter what -.  If they have a 2 fix, they might deal with it by trying to get into the classmates good graces’ by doing something to make them like them & win their approval. A 3 fixer might approach this more from a problem-solving perspective (even if they’re totally hurting!) & fix it through social maneuvering or doing something impressive that will make them popular. If they have a 4 fix instead, they will conclude that their classmates are quaint meanies anyways and that comforming to please them isn’t worth it and perhaps befriend someone from the form classdown the corridor, or write an angsty poem about it; In either case the person may master the situation and come away with a (wholly different!) important life experience. Similar examples could be concocted for the other centers. And there’s a potential for misunderstandings here  - person A with fix X may see person B with fix Y deal with their problem in a manner characteristic for fix Y, and conclude that since they’re not doing it the fix X way, they’re not dealing with the problem at alll...And of course all tritypes can fall prey to just doing a counterproductive automatic reaction rather than truly assesing & responding to the problem.

(Usually it is the Ne I apologize for but this post got very Ti (I think? Barring mistypings I may not yet be aware of), it’s been floating ‘round my head for a while. I hope the highlighting & subdividing helped ppl find the parts helpful for them.)