#//Would the bias make things more difficult for him?Make people distrust him more?

[dutybcrne]

Ayato seldom moves to pursue the subject of his affection for one of two reasons, 1) He fears his status would mean they'd feel pressured to simply accept his feelings, and 2) He feels showing his feelings for them creates a possibility they could be endangered by it should others somehow find out or begin to speculate.

[saymecw]

CHARACTER    ASSOCIATION.

animal   :  I often compare him to the following:

Ferrets ( personal bias, as I cannot help but compare him to one, despite no canon nor non canon instances of him being compared, as ferrets can be rather aggressive like Ranpo can be, but they’re sly and can get out of cages and are also pretty small thus pretty nimble- all together, they can be troublesome but they’re funny little things and interesting, they’re also used as symbolism for resourcefulness, cleverness, playfulness and a distrust of others. Also in the words of someone who owns ferrets I watched on youtube “Ferrets are very intelligent, they know what no means, they just don’t care.”. i.e Ranpocore. )

Foxes ( there’s official merch that has him with fox ears but it’s more than that, foxes are often painted as tricksters and intelligent, as well as playful, which is very much like Ranpo, but foxes also have symbolism of independence ( which he can very much be despite needing people to take him places, given he thinks he knows more than everyone else and can handle difficult cases on his own with his deduction abilities ) and protection, which is less obvious at first glance for some people but he does have a protective side, given he was only able to finish Poe’s book upon Yosano’s in book death which got them both out and how protective he was of Fukuzawa during the fake virus event which shows how he can become serious in a second if someone he cares about is endangered, it’s safe to say if he cares about you, he’d want to protect you.  )

Cats, ( mainly due to Fukuzawa’s influence, Ranpo is more than willing to play around with cats as shown in Mayoi cards and has some similarities to them but I’ve already went off enough.  ) and raccoons ( Carl, Poe’s raccoon is fond of him sure, but it goes deeper than that- Ranpo would do just about anything for food much like a racoon and can easily be bribed, but raccoons also display intelligence most would not expect much like Ranpo himself. There’s also cards in Mayoi where he wears raccoon onesies.).

colour   :   brown, blue, green and orange. month   :   January, November and October. song   :   Labyrinth deciphering game, as his character song was my first thought however the following are also linked to Ranpo in my mind: Devil Town, Let’s face it, I’m cute ( he’d claim it’s his theme ), Lotta true crime,  and People I don’t like. I should make him a playlist one day. number   : 16, 13, 8 and 2. day  or  night   :  Day, Ranpo supposedly usually goes to bed at nine, and he honestly has a rather sunny disposition, thus linking him more to day rather than night- he also seems like the type to prefer the day, given the myriad of things that he can get done at that point in time, compared to what he can do during the night, not that it would stop him if he really wanted to get up and do something during the night. He simply has more options during the day and more interesting places are available to him then. Afternoon, is also an option as it’s a time where things are slowing down and he can find time to himself and enjoy himself, be it with some snacks or something else. plant   :  destroying angel mushroom ( are fungi plants? Most people put them in their own category, but I suppose they can be considered plants too, so please take this as it is a mushroom that has an effect that can last days due to eventual death but can be mistaken for a harmless mushroom by the unexpecting, much like how Ranpo is usually underestimated by others but always gets them and figures out the situation in the end, and his attitude can be quite rude to others/cruel thus he isn’t the most pleasant.  ), aloe, mint, borage and dandelion. smell   :  Given the job he has, and how often he works with...you know, I figure dried blood is a scent that can be smelled on Ranpo, but you’d have to actually sniff him or be in his personal space to smell it, as the smell of candy is almost overpowering on him given how often he eats it and just how large his collection of candy is, but it is still there. He also smells of deodorant, sweat ( only slightly, however ) and lately, the detective has began to smell like animals, paper and ink, due to hanging around Poe and Carl so much. I figure he’d also have a rather odd smell attached to him, like cinnamon, despite him not being the most fond of it himself or smelling rather flowery despite not caring much for them, since he tends to buy the first detergent or cologne he sees. gemstone  : marble, emerald and amber. season   :  Autumn and Spring. place   :   a brightly coloured candy shop with pastel paints and large glass windows, different coloured delicacies littering the windows in mason jars, neatly and clean floors with chairs that are plush and have a winding back and strangely shaped legs, with glass tables. food   :   vanilla cupcakes, strawberry ice-cream, vanilla flavoured snacks, tictaks, konpeito, pocky, gudetama custard chocolate and apple pies. astrological sign   :   Libra. element   :   Water or metal, depending on the types of elements allowed. Water can mean a lot of different things and has a lot of different ways it can run or go, given rivers can be fast while other streams of waters can flow a bit slower, and can come with a variety of different meanings, drink   :   Tea, as he often drinks it with Poe, Ramune, bubble tea and blue lagoon cocktail.

tagged by: @madamhatter​ ( :D Thanks for the tag, Soar! ) tagging: steal it!

[sangled]

someone messaged me asking how i feel about tadano, whether i believed he was being manipulative or how he felt ‘off’ in a certain way. and i’ll be perfectly honest, i disagree. i like tadano as a character. a lot. 

he was written to be the ultimate independent, young entrepreneur. he has plans to change humanity as a whole. most importantly, he has the aspirations, skills, and success to continue this lifestyle. because of this, he’s never struggled the same way the everyday person (retsuko, for example) has. marriage is difficult to think about? don’t get married. parenting might be tough to balance with work? don’t raise a family. job is dull? just work doing what you want to do. we first see his laziness in the form of sluggish behavior, but it goes deeper than that. if tadano sees something mildly difficult for him, he goes in a different direction that better suits him. this is best symbolized by how he flies a private plane (luxury, independence, freedom) rather than bothering to get a driver’s license (conformity, tradition, normalcy)

i believe the ‘off’ feeling people get is our instinct to believe that someone is too good to be true. i admit that i was waiting for the other shoe to drop with tadano, since ‘sudden soulmate’ plotlines generally don’t end well. this likely causes a bias that creates dislike (or at the very least distrust) toward tadano. however, the show makes it clear that tadano has no ulterior motive for his treatment of retsuko. he genuinely likes her. and more importantly, he genuinely believes that he’s doing the right thing.

one of the primary issues in retsuko/tadano’s relationship was the lack of communication. retsuko’s a pushover who struggles with conveying her feelings honestly, and tadano’s someone who’s always gotten what he wanted out of life. it’s important to note that these flaws 1. make sense for their characters and 2. are a product of very human shortcomings. unsurprisingly, this would end up with tadano making a lot of decisions for the both of them. it was less of a power imbalance and more of two people assuming they’re doing the right thing in a relationship. 

tadano: ”hey let’s do this”

retsuko: “okay” (i’m not sure about this? i should go along with it)

tadano: “i’m glad you feel the same way” (since she’s going along with it) 

should tadano have made absolutely sure retsuko was comfortable? yes! should retsuko have spoken up sooner about her beliefs? yes! both sides made mistakes, and neither are to blame for making assumptions as a result of it.  that’s why retsuko being honest in the karaoke scene is so important. tadano finally realizes how retsuko truly feels, and though he argues his side (as she argues hers), they soon break up on good terms. it shows that tadano genuinely didn’t know how strongly she felt about marriage, and if she had stood her ground sooner, the relationship wouldn’t have escalated to the point that retsuko had compromised so much.

this issue stems from the other issue in their relationship - the fundamental difference in lifestyles, mindsets, and goals. this season follows the same theme as the previous one - you shouldn’t have to settle/change in a relationship. sometimes, you can break up with someone you like just because they’re not the right one, and that’s okay. aggretsuko does a good job in portraying relationships that aren’t /bad/, just not ideal. tadano got along with retsuko as a good friend, but he was headed in a completely different direction from her. his flaws + incompatibility came from how differently he lived, not from him intentionally treating retsuko poorly. he wasn’t meant to be an antagonist, and i believe this was pulled off well.

it’s important to look into the writing decisions that were made by the show and why they were made. you’re allowed to feel uncomfortable with him (and feel anything about anything, really), but i personally really enjoyed his presence and how the show used him to explore very human dilemmas.

[thetravelerwrites]

Sorka (Bugbear) Lemon

Rating: Lemon Relationship: Female Human/Male Bugbear Additional Tags: Exophilia, Bugbear, Interspecies Romance, Sex Content Warnings: Babies, Children, Infants, Mention of Birth Words: 4301

A super sweet commission for @floral-and-fine​ based on her monster match featuring the same characters! A single mother returns to work after giving birth to her first child, and uses a professional caregiver service to take care of her daughter while she works. The person they send is not exactly who, or what, she expected. Please reblog and leave feedback!

The Traveler's Masterlist

Despite the difficulties, I really enjoyed my job.

It can be hard for a bugbear to work in childcare, a little because of our imposing physical appearance, but mostly because of the old tales about my kind back when our existence wasn’t widely known to the public, before the secluded monsters decided to integrate into mainstream society. There used to be bedtime stories about us that said bugbears ate children, that we took them away and devoured them if they were bad or disobeyed their parents. We were a cautionary tale.

The thing about fables like those is that there is usually a seed of truth to them. Back then, bugbears did take children, but we took them from bad homes and abusive families, protecting and often raising them as our own. In bugbear culture, children are the most precious creatures and our top priority, even if they were not our own children. It’s one of the reasons why so many of my kind went into childcare after the Integration.

But prejudice often prevented us from getting jobs as caregivers. Many humans still believed the old stories and are distrustful of us around their kids. Some bugbears worked in monster-only childcare programs for this reason, but I wanted to prove to people that though we were monsters, we weren’t villains. I wanted to work with humans and be an example.

It took me some time to find a childcare program that would allow me to work with humans, but Ironblood Interspecies Caregivers jumped at the chance to take me on. My extensive education in child psychology and fifteen years experience with non-human children was something that made me highly sought after in the field, and Jukah, the owner, was excited to have me working for him. He’d recently expanded onto his daycare with an in-home care service for infants and special needs children. He was just as passionate about children’s welfare as I was, and becoming part of his team gave me a wonderful feeling, as though I was finally doing what I’d set out to do.

Even then, it wasn’t smooth sailing. The first few humans who had interviewed me turned me down almost immediately. Several wrote on the rejection form that the sight of me would scare their child, which was something I’d heard many times before, but it was still kind of a punch to the ego.

Eventually, I was hired on to take care of a non-verbal five-year-old human boy with autism named Liam, and I loved it. He didn’t care what I looked like and nor did his parents. In fact, petting the fur of my arms was one of his favorite stims, often falling asleep in my arms as he did so. He had hyper-fixations that he loved sharing with me, and though he couldn’t communicate, he was very smart. He did have violent episodes of self harm, and he was incredibly strong and could be difficult to manage during these episodes, so my size combined with my thick fur was crucial in helping restrain and calm him.

I worked with Liam’s family for six years until they moved away to Philadelphia for his mother’s work. God, I missed that boy. Keeping a professional distance was all well and good in theory, but it was impossible not to love a child one had devoted six years of their life to.

After they left, I had to go through the arduous task of finding a new family that needed a caregiver. Jukah sent out my resume’ to parents needing help, and to my surprise, I was selected within a week. Jukah had a policy of not sending pictures or mentioning race on the resume’ to prevent bias, but I still expected the first interview to go just as poorly as they usually did. I still went, hoping for the best.

Liana McAvoy was a single mother about to return to work after giving birth to her first child and daughter, Ruthie. Ruthie was seven weeks old and had laryngeomalacia, which concerned Ms. McAvoy to the extent that she wanted one-on-one care in her home. Laryngeomalacia was a condition in which the larynx was a little too big and caused the baby to make wheezing noises as if they were struggling to breathe or suffocating, but from what I knew, it was actually completely harmless and didn’t hurt the baby at all. It was still distressing to listen to, so I could understand Ms. McAvoy’s worry.

The day of the interview, I arrived at the apartment rather anxious. I was fully expecting Ms. McAvoy to reject me outright and just wanted to get it over with. The door opened and I saw the same expression I always saw when prospective clients first saw me: shock and alarm. She even took a step backward.

“Hello,” I said, ignoring the reaction and pressing forward. “I’m here for the childcare interview.”

She jumped a little as if goosed. “Oh, yes,” She said a little breathlessly. “Of course, please come in.”

I instinctively bent down to pass through the doorway; human residences were definitely not built with people like me in mind. As I made my way in and before I could speak further, I heard a high-pitched squawking.

“Oh, excuse me,” Ms. McAvoy said, looking apologetic. “She must have woken up.”

“No problem at all,” I assured her, smiling a little. This, oddly, seemed to ease her, and she smiled in return before she went to retrieve the little one.

In the moment she was gone, now that I was less anxious, I had a moment to realize something: she was gorgeous. Thick thighs, big butt, cute belly, small on top. Taller than average, for a human that is. She had most of her wavy brown hair pulled back into a pony tail with the ends bleached. She was wearing a flirty floral sundress that ended at the knee with a matching cardigan that complimented her skin tone perfectly and wore very little makeup on her adorable face, only a light mascara that brightened her eyes and a blush pink gloss that accentuated the pout of her lips. I gulped a little. She was exactly my type, physically at least, and I didn’t know how to unpack that information.

Attraction to clients wasn’t uncommon; there were company policies specifically because of it. As long as one could ignore the attraction, be professional, do their job, and not do anything inappropriate, then there shouldn’t be a problem. I was nothing if not professional.

She returned with the most adorable little baby girl, and any residual anxiety I had left evaporated. Ruthie looked a lot like her mother, though her eyes were blue rather than brown.

“She’s adorable,” I said. “Seven weeks, right?”

“Yeah,” Ms. McAvoy said, gazing down at the wiggle bundle proudly. She looked up at me. “Would you like to hold her?”

I was taken aback. Clients were always so guarded around me with their children, especially parents with infants. I could feel my face split into a wide grin.

“Absolutely!” I said, perhaps over-enthusiastically, but I was excited. This was going much better than I anticipated. I could see she was still a little nervous about it, but I held my hands out for the baby anyway.

She put Ruthie in my arms, and I cradled her carefully. “Well, aren’t you beautiful?” I said to her. She squealed and squeaked at me, waving her little fists. “Aren’t you sweet? You’re such a pretty little thing, aren’t you?”

“Do you have kids?” Ms. McAvoy asked me.

“No, no,” I replied, still playing with Ruthie, tickling her chubby cheeks. “But I was the oldest of twelve. Practically raised my youngest siblings.”

“Well, she certainly likes you,” Ms. McAvoy commented with a smile. “And you come highly recommended.”

I nodded. “I really care about my work,” I said. “Kids deserve the best.”

Her smile began more appreciative. “When can you start?”

My head popped up in shock. “Really?”

“Yeah,” She said, her smile widening to show her pearly teeth. “Ruthie’s taken a shine to you, so I gotta listen to the boss.”

I laughed in relief. “Thank you! I’m really excited to work with you. When do you go back to work?”

“In a week, and I’m dreading it,” Ms. McAvoy admitted.

I nodded. “That’s normal, especially considering this is your first child. It’ll be hard, but you’ll be okay. And so will she,” I said, bouncing Ruthie to make her squeak. “I promise to look after her as if she were my own.”

“That’s definitely a relief,” Ms. McAvoy said, sighing. “Would it be okay if I asked you to come a day early so that I could observe you with her? Just for my own peace of mind. I would pay you for the extra day, clearly.”

“Of course. I want you to feel as comfortable as possible. I’ll be here bright and early Sunday morning.”

“Thank you so much,” She said, holding out a hand.

I transferred Ruthie to my shoulder and to the hand took shake it. “You’re very welcome, Ms. McAvoy.”

“Please, call me Liana,” She said with a smile.

After the trial day on Sunday, during which Liana watched me with Ruthie, changing her diaper, putting her down for naps, listening to her breathing, doing a small check up to make sure when she inhaled that her chest wasn’t struggling to take in air, which would be an indication of breathing obstruction, but she was fine. After Liana was satisfied with me, she returned to work the next day, still anxious but less worried about Ruthie’s well-being in her absence.

For the next few months, things went smoothly. Liana came to trust me implicitly and was happy to leave Ruthie in my care when she worked. Liana was also in childcare, being a elementary school teacher, and it seemed to give us both an innate understanding of each other.

Liana was patient and kind, and my attraction to her was still there, especially when she wore those cute floral dresses and let her hair fall free to frame her face. I did my best to stamp down the attraction, but I couldn’t help admiring her beauty in silence.

A few months in, I got a call from Liana saying she was sick and staying home, but that she’d need me to come anyway. She wanted me to care for Ruthie so that she didn’t accidentally get her sick. She left a key in a hiding place for me to let myself in.

I unlocked the door and called, “Hello? Liana, it’s Sorka. Are you home?”

“Yeah,” A hoarse voice called from the back of the apartment. Liana’s room. I’d made it a point never to go in there, but I headed toward it. The door was open.

Inside, Liana was laying on her bed, looking pale and miserable, and Ruthie was in a covered bassinet, asleep. Liana was wearing a surgical mask and doctor’s gloves. I smiled a little at the sight.

“I hope this is okay,” Liana said, a little bit of a wheeze running through her speech. “I’d feel better if you were taking care of her while I’m sick. I’m scared to death of passing it on to her.”

“It’s no problem at all,” I assured her. “Would you like me to move her out of this room?”

“Yes, please,” Liana said. “I put her in here so I could watch her, but I don’t want her picking up any germs from me.”

“I gotcha,” I said, taking the bassinet and moving it gently outside of the room. “Can I get you anything?”

She laughed, which ended in a cough, and waved her hand at me. “It’s not your job to take care of me. Go on, you two. I’ll be asleep for most of the day, anyhow. It’ll be like I’m not even here.”

“If you say so,” I said with a smile. “But seriously, if you need anything, give a holler, okay?”

“Mm-hmm,” She said sleepily, taking off the surgical mask and gloves and getting as comfortable as possible. She was asleep within seconds, and I stood in the doorway, watching her breathe in and out. I felt a soft smile on my face. Even all snotty and sick, she was lovely. I covered her with her blanket up to the chin and closed the door.

I moved Ruthie to the other end of the apartment, playing with her and keeping her occupied. She was four months now and was able to sit up with support and I was working on teaching her some basic sign language. It was still too soon for her to be able to comprehend or make the signs herself, but starting early meant she could recognize the signs early as well.

It was nearing lunchtime, and after feeding Ruthie her bottle and putting her down for a nap, I looked in on Liana. She was sitting up in bed, mask and gloves on, going through paperwork on a lap table.

“What are you doing?” I asked. “You’re supposed to be resting.”

“I still have to provide the substitute with my curriculum,” She said. “It’ll only take a few minutes. Where’s Ruthie?”

“Down for her nap,” I replied. “Well… I’ll leave you to it, then. Still, get some rest.”

“I will, I will,” She assured you.

I ordered lunch from a local sandwich place and made a split second decision to add some soup to the order as well. Looking in the cupboards, I found some tea, and there was lemon and honey I could add, as well.

When the food arrived, I put the soup in a bowl and added the tea and a glass of water and took it into Liana’s room. She was asleep again, the papers strewn across her torso. I smiled again and shook my head. Moving the papers, I set the tray down on the lap table and gently shook her.

“Liana,” I said softly. “Wake up. Lunchtime.”

Her eyes opened and she groggily looked down at the spread in front of her. Sitting up a bit, she looked up at me blearily.

“Did you make this?” She asked.

I laughed. “I wish. I’m a terrible cook. I ordered it. I did make the tea, though. I thought this would be good for you.”

“I said you didn’t have to do this.”

“You did,” I agreed. “But I did it anyway.”

She laughed, a sweet smile on her face, as she picked up the spoon. “I wish you had been Ruthie’s dad. He never did stuff like this for me.”

My heart did flip-flops in my chest. “You don’t talk about him much. And I’ve never heard you mention visitation. I hope you don’t think this is out of line, but is he involved much with Ruthie?”

“Not all that much, actually,” She said sourly. “He’ll come and see her once in a blue moon, but he never stays long. If it were for the fact that he had to pay child support, I doubt I’d ever hear from him.”

“I’m assuming it ended badly?”

She nodded. “He was cheating and got another girl pregnant,” She said. “His son, Ruthie’s half-brother, is almost the same age as her. They’re only about a week apart in age.”

“Oh, god,” I replied, wincing. “What an asshole.”

“Yeah,” She said, sipping the tea. “He didn’t seem to think he’d done all that much wrong, but I was willing to give him a second chance. Except that he chose her. Five years of my life, down the drain.” She sighed. “Well… at least I got a really pretty baby out of it. She’s definitely worth it.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She shook her head. “It is what it is.”

I talked to her while she ate, and afterward, she grew tired again. I took the empty dishes and closed her door, washing them before going to check on Ruthie.

She was sick for a full week, and I stayed for as long as I could each day, making sure that both Ruthie and Liana were well cared for. Liana finally gave up her protests on the third day and let me nurse her back to health. Eventually, she went back to work and the routine reasserted itself.

Another few months passed. Ruthie’s laryngeomalacia faded to nothing, and I expected Liana to put her in a normal daycare, but she insisted on keeping me around, saying that Ruthie was used to me and that she didn’t want to introduce her to a new environment that might distress her. I didn’t mind: I loved Ruthie and reveled in any excuse to stay close to Liana.

My attraction was growing into more than that and I knew it. I didn’t want to admit that I was falling for her, because that meant I’d have to quit working for her. And I didn’t want to tell her the reason for my resignation because I didn’t want her to think I was disgusting or a pervert. I knew staying was dangerous,  but I kept telling myself that I was a professional. I would keep it under control and not do anything that would put my job or position at Ironblood’s in jeopardy. I would ignore my feelings and keep a professional distance.

Even still, there were things that were hard to ignore, like the curve of her small breasts visible beyond the low neckline of her dress as she bent down, the sway of her hips as she moved and swished the hem of her dress, the sweet loving smile reserved only for Ruthie, the lilting sound of her voice when she sang a lullaby, the way the sunlight haloed her hair as it touched it early in the morning. I had to mentally shake myself every time I caught myself staring at her, hoping that she never noticed.

School was close to being done for the semester, and Liana was more busy that normal preparing for the end of the season. One day, she surprised me by coming home early.

“Half-day?” I asked as I was feeding–well, attempting to feed–a jar of string beans to a wiggling Ruthie.

Liana looked harried. “No, I forgot some of my tools here and it’s been a hell of a day. I’m using my lunch break to just get out of there and take a breath.” She sat down heavily in the opposite chair and kissed Ruthie’s head.

“Hungry, then?” I asked. “I can make us some sandwiches.”

“Sounds great, I’m starving,” She sighed. “Is Ruthie done eating?”

I snorted. “I think she’s eaten all she’s going to.”

“I’ll put her down for her nap, then.”

Liana emerged from Ruthie’s room, closing the door behind her, just as I was putting the top piece of bread on both sandwiches. “Roast beef okay?”

“Anything would be okay,” She said.

I didn’t realize she was directly behind me until I turned and walked right into her, knocking us both to the ground. The plates with the sandwiches clattered onto the floor and the food went in all directions.

“I’m so sorry!” I said, pulling myself up on my hands so I didn’t crush her. “Are you okay?”

But she didn’t answer. Her eyes were trained on her lips, her pupils blown wide. She was breathing heavily and her hands clutched the fabric of my shirt over my chest, as if she didn’t want me to get up.

At that moment, I was standing on the precipice of a dangerous cliff, and without hesitation, I jumped.

My mouth came down on hers, kissing her hard, all the pent-up tension I’d been feeling over the last few months finally being released. She kissed me back just as hungrily, grasping the fur around my ears and holding me in place. Her pelvis moved underneath me where I lay between her legs, and my cock immediately began to stiffen. This was going very fast, but I couldn’t stop it. I wanted her so badly.

She reached between us and unbuckled my belt, unbuttoned my pants, and unzipped the zipper, reaching inside to touch me, and I gasped in her mouth. As soon as I opened my mouth, her tongue slipped inside and she moaned. I broke apart for just a moment to slip off her panties, and I was back down, kissing her lips and face and neck as I pressed myself to her dripping entrance.

“Yes, yes, yes,” She chanted. “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

“So have I,” I said as I slicked myself down before pushing myself inside. She moaned loudly, but still tried to keep her sounds low. I had wanted to start slow and ease into it, but I couldn’t. I went hard and fast right out of the gate, desperate and needy. She seemed to appreciate it, though, wrapping her legs around my waist and spurring me on. I braced on one arm and palmed her breast over her dress with the other, my lips on her neck. She reached down and pushed the back of my pants down with both hands so that she could grab handfuls of my butt, squeezing and digging her fingernails in.

I could feel her having the orgasm underneath me even though she was trying hard to stay quiet. Her inner walls spasmed and her body went rigid, her eyes closed and her mouth open. I couldn’t slow down, I needed to get to that crest myself. It had been a while, and I had wanted her so badly.

I popped up onto my hands and looked down at her, and she gazed up at me, opening my shirt and running her fingers down my fur as my body slapped against hers, moving her back and forth against the floor a little aggressively, but she seemed to enjoy it, judging from the wide smile on her face. I could feel myself close to cumming just as her eyes rolled back again, her legs tensing around me. I felt myself release into her and my body locked up over her. All I could do was ball my fists and ride the wave back down until I collapsed over her, and she put her arms around me.

After the euphoria had worn off, my immediate next though was: What have I done?

A little awkwardly, I climbed off of her and helped her up. She went into the bathroom silently to clean up and I wiped myself down with a wet paper towel before straightening up my clothes. Liana came out of the bathroom just as I had finished cleaning what would have been our lunch off of the ground.

“So,” She asked sheepishly. “You’re in a lot of trouble now, aren’t you?”

I leaned against the counter. “Quite a bit, yes.” I sighed and took her hand. “I didn’t intend for this to happen. I meant to stay professional.”

She shook her head. “I think this was a long time coming, honestly. I’ve liked you for a really long time. I tried to stay distant,  but it’s hard when you’re such a sweet guy.”

I laughed a little. “I’ve liked you, too. But I can’t be with you and keep my job.”

“I know,” She said. “I know how important your work is and I’d never do anything to jeopardize that. Well…” She trailed off and gestured to the spot on the floor where the two of you had made love. “I mean, not on purpose.”

“I know,” I said, pulling her into a tight hug. “I guess this is my notice of resignation from this position.”

She sighed shakily and clung to me hard before letting me go and giving me a kiss. “I’m sorry to see you go.”

The same day, I went to Jukah’s office and knocked on the frame of the open door. “Boss?”

Jukah was an orc, a little guy even by human standards due to a condition he had, but he had a very strong presence. He was the kind of guy people wanted to listen to. A leader.

“Hey, Sorka, what can I do for you?” He asked, shuffling papers to the side to devote all of his attention to me.

“Well,” I started reluctantly. “I need to quit the McAvoy job.”

Jukah cocked his head to the side. “Why? You love that position.”

“I have feelings for the mother,” I said, a little hesitant to meet his eye. “I can’t ignore them anymore.”

“Oh, I see,” He said, linking his fingers together. “How far has it gone?”

I scrubbed my face and was unable to answer.

Jukah sighed. “Look, I… I understand your position, but I have the reputation of the company to think about.”

“I know, sir.”

“You’ll be removed immediately from the home and reassigned.”

“I understand, sir.”

“And for god’s sakes, give it a week at least before you go back to her. And bring her flowers.”

My head popped up. “Sir?”

Jukah was shaking his head in a don’t push it kind of way, but continued. “No contact for a week. Then go back with flowers. And take her to a nice place. That’s an order.”

A wide smile broke out on my face. “You’re the boss.”

A week later, I followed orders and showed up with flowers in my hand. I attempted to apologize, but she kissed me before I could. Then she, Ruthie, and I went out for a nice dinner. Then, after laying Ruthie down for the evening, we spent a proper night together, just like we’d always wanted, only this time I planned to stay.

I was home again.

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Thanks for reading!

My Masterlist

The Exophilia Creator’s Masterlist

[thunderbirds-are-fab]

The Mechanic

An unnecessarily long fan essay examining the character ‘The Mechanic’ from Thunderbirds are Go by thunderbirds-are-fab

Pretty much since the Mechanic was first revealed as an upcoming character to be introduced into Thunderbirds are Go, he’s been surrounded by mystery. There were a lot of wild fan theories about who he could be and if he was related to any original character in particular (He was either Brains’ brother or his father, Kyrano gone mad, and even Jeff in some weird disguise trying to traumatise his children to someone), but he has since turned out to be a completely new character and therefore had a lot of possibilities as to how he could fit into the established TAG universe.

Sadly, two seasons since his introduction we still don’t know all that much about him or his super villain origin story, and with the conclusion of Season 3 we likely never will. The writers put this guy on the back shelf, and this is why I’m writing an essay piecing together all the messy details we have regarding the character of the Mechanic. It turns out there’s quite a lot to talk about, so get comfy.

*Episode spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched Seasons 2 and 3*

The biggest tease about the Mechanic was his hinting that he knows Brains very well or even personally in Earthbreaker, but after that it’s not really brought up again. Massive wasted potential there. He made it sound like he and Brains were old rivals from long ago, but Brains doesn’t show any signs of recognising him. Brains himself never really reacts to the Mechanic’s hints that they might know each other during Earthbreaker or after, and never even tries to guess at who this masked engineer may be, which feels ridiculous.

“Hey Brains, in all your years of being one of the world’s best engineers, did you ever meet anyone in your field of expertise who was capable of making an army of robots completely on his own, looked like he could bench press MAX with one hand, and maybe seemed a little power-hungry and unhinged?”

“Nope, sorry. That sounds like it could have been anyone.”

Surely if they were both brilliant inventors working on similar stuff, they would have mutually run into each other before???

Not only does Brains not keep up his end of the ‘we-may-know-each-other’ plotline to make it believable, but after Earthbreaker the writers seem to drop it from the Mechanic’s character too. He doesn’t show the same ominous bias towards focusing on Brains again whenever he crosses paths with IR, and if anything he seems to reacts with distrust towards Brains when he first offers to help him in Home on the Range. In Brains vs Brawn Brains offers to help him again, but still acts wary of him wanting to get close. If they had known each other before then this could have been a great bonding moment for them to reconnect and win each other’s trust, but instead Brains has to use the promise of “engineer to engineer” which is as far as their personal connection seems to go in the end.

Brains also only ever calls him “the Mechanic” the same as everyone else does, and going into Season 3 this lack of a proper name becomes more of a problem for the Mechanic’s character as a whole. We finally see him without his mask in Chaos Part 2, but a face reveal is all it is. It’s not a grand finale Scooby-Doo moment of “Aha! It was old man Jenkins the janitor all along!”, and this again feels like wasted potential to me. What’s the point of having a masked villain if he’s still exactly the same person without the mask, just a little sadder?

Between being taken into GDF custody in Brains vs. Brawn and then being negotiated for release in Break Out (a 20 episode gap, which is quite a long time span in TAGverse), the GDF don’t seem to have done any background check on him whatsoever. Everyone, including Colonel Casey, still refers to him as “the Mechanic”. If even the in-world authorities couldn’t find this guy’s original identity, then it seems that the entirety of who he was before never existed, and that’s because the writers never properly wrote it. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the TAG writers and have rarely had to fault them on anything in 78 episodes, but fitting their OCs into the series for more than an episode or two is by far their biggest weakness *coughcoughwhydidn’tyouuseEOSmorecough*

His backstory was clearly set up before his introduction, but then scrapped for whatever reason. Perhaps with everything else going on in the show they simply didn’t have time for it? This I can understand, because there’s only so much time in a children’s show and action has to come first in this genre, but it opens up a lot of additional plot holes when you keep trying to build a story on top of a poorly-established character.

What I’m trying to get at here is that without ever having his personal motivations revealed, looking back on the Mechanic’s pervious actions in the story gets a lot more confusing, and makes his character development and the plot development between Season 2 and 3 more difficult to understand.

I’ll split these last points into two parts:

1.    How do we know he built the the T-Drive when he’s unidentifiable?

In Break Out it’s suddenly revealed that the Mechanic was the engineer who designed the first T-Drive engine/Zero-X prototype... But how? How do they now know that??? Surely being the engineer who came up with this fantastic revolutionary warp drive for the spaceship that allegedly killed the great Jeff Tracy would make this guy pretty famous? His former name should probably be common knowledge, and yet he’s still only ever called the Mechanic. It’s been suggested to me on anon that maybe he’s shunned his former name in favour of the Mechanic moniker, which is fine, except that’s no reason for all of the other characters never to speak his true name even when he’s not there to hear it. To us he’s still just the villain we were introduced to, never the man he was before. Without being shown how that past and him today are linked, it’s difficult for us as an audience to attach such important prior information to a character who doesn’t seem to have previously existed.

2.    Was he ever really a true villain, or was it all because of the Hood? And does his change of heart make sense?

We’re never told how the Mechanic came to be. Why did he go from brilliant engineer, to turning over to the dark side and becoming a puppet of the Hood? In Break Out he hints that the Hood manipulated his bitterness over ~something~ in order to get him to work under him, but again it’s frustratingly vague! In the beginning we assumed it was through some personal grudge with Brains, but as I’ve already gone through at length, all that backstory just got washed away. Another anon has suggested to me that his rivalry with Brains was manufactured by the Hood. He didn’t know Brains personally, but developed a grudge against him through being compared. “Brains is brilliant, but you’re a failure”... because of the Zero-X disaster? He’s clearly as good as or even better than Brains when it comes to inventing things, so he had to have had something big happen to him in order to spiral downwards as he did. The Zero-X disaster would certainly fit the bill for that, but it’s a shame to leave all that to speculation. If it were true, then would it have been so hard to fit that into the show?

Anyway, the Hood somehow fostered a hatred for IR in him that served his own motives, and so began their partnership. He’s clearly very strong, so that’s probably why the Hood needed extra control over him via cybernetics. It’s in Brains vs. Brawn that we first learn that the Mechanic is at least partially being controlled by the Hood. Since the Hood spent most of Season 2 in jail, this was maintained through a connection between his bionic eye and some kind of cybernetics that the Mechanic has (forcibly implanted by the Hood or just already there and hacked, we don’t know). Partially coerced and partially forced, but we will never really know how much of each.

The Mechanic is a lot more violent than the Hood ever is on his own. The Hood may not care much for other people or the collateral damage he causes (e.g. in Falling Skies he’s fine with abandoning the Estrella Grand hotel full of people to crash and burn if he decides that he doesn’t want it anymore), but it isn’t really his priority. For the whole of Season 3 he makes the Chaos Crew do the physical dirty work he doesn’t care for (btw I let the Chaos Crew off for not having much background story because their “we’re bad just because we enjoy being that way” motive stays fairly consistent throughout the show. They aren’t that complicated). 

In contrast, the Mechanic has frequently plowed forward with no regard for anyone’s safety. He doesn’t make sneaking around his Plan A like the Hood, and he doesn’t hit and run for fun like the Chaos Crew. He’s brutal. Earthbreaker really sets him up for being a ruthless villain because he’s so focused on getting what he wants that he’s willing to take down anyone who gets in his way. Even when Scott asks for him just to let IR work around him to rescue the civilians below, he attacks! He’s a genuinely scary and thrilling character for how relentlessly destructive he manages to be every time she shows up in Season 2. Seriously, just read his wiki page and you’ll see it’s got ‘perfect villain traits’ written all the way through it.

Then comes the redemption arc.

In Brains vs. Brawn he is subdued and chooses to trust that Brains can redeem him. In Break Out he shows remorse for his actions. He believes that he deserves to be in prison and is beyond redemption for what he’s done. He puts Kayo’s safety before his own and saves her life. He could have disappeared, but instead comes to Tracy Island of his own free will and voluntarily works with his former enemies. That’s a pretty big change from someone who was hellbent on destruction regardless of innocent people begging for their lives! It’s a pretty big ask to believe that all of that relentless anger and complete apathy towards human life was only there because the Hood was in control the whole time.

There’s something else which leads me to believe that “I was being controlled by the Hood” isn’t the watertight excuse it’s presented as. The Mechanic makes it sound like he’s totally stuck and irredeemable without the Hood’s control being removed, but prior to that happening in Buried Treasure he makes choices of his own that the Hood could’ve stopped.

Between being dumped by the Hood in Escape Proof and Brains vs. Brawn, he’s pretty much a villain under his own steam. He’s working independently on continuing Project Sentinel, which has the aim of using to destroy the Hood for having control over him. Sure, he may only be doing bad things because he’s desperate for revenge against his abuser, but he’s still willfully endangering a lot of other people in the process. The Hood may have lost interest in him during that period, but the control system was still in place that whole time - and he was resisting it! If he can manage to hide himself from the Hood and work directly against him despite that, then he still has some free will of his own.

In Chaos - Part 2 Havoc learns the Mechanic is in space prison, which is why the Hood has lost control over him. Arguably the HEX probably had a faraday cage around his prison cell to block the Hood’s influence, and it is stated that it’s harder for the Hood to influence him from space anyway. But after breaking out and coming to Tracy Island of his own free will, shouldn’t being back on earth have put him back under influence again? The only time he had to fight against the Hood’s direct control after that was when Brains disturbed the control software and alerted the Hood, who then suddenly reveals that he has a fail-safe that can wipe the Mechanic’s memories. Wow. If he could really do that, then why didn’t he do so in Escape Proof and not leave the Mechanic as the potential enemy that he turned out to be? Sure, he later says that he still has plans for the Mechanic, but you would think that during Brains vs. Brawn when he’s getting shot at by a giant lazer whilst being thrown around by IR, and the Mechanic is resisting his commands to stop, that then would have been the ideal time to use the secret factory reset ability?  

Afterthoughts aside, I’m still convinced that the Mechanic had a lot of evil in himself that wasn’t just there because of the Hood, and it’s really a wonder that the Tracys let him into heir home after how many times he tried to kill them. i really don’t blame Scott for staying suspicious, even though he was the one most obviously anxious to find a way to get his father back. 

Despite all the questions that the show failed to answer about him, I still think that the Mechanic was a good villain. Whatever his super villain origin story was supposed to be, I think it had a lot more potential to be morally complex than the origin they ended up giving the Hood. It’s a shame that writers across the board these days often don’t have the time to write villains more complex than the trope of “once upon a time somebody made me sad, so I decided to be evil to get revenge”. I know that somebody out there will be looking at this unnecessarily long post and screaming But fab, it’s just a kid’s show! Kids won’t care about tying up offscreen plotlines or any of this crap! And my answer is yes, I know that. That’s why I’m not actually mad about what the writers did with the Mechanic’s character. The writers of TAG did a great job and the show works as it is, but I can’t help but feel that they only had to push a little more or add a line or two somewhere and then all of these questions I have about the Mechanic could have been answered. A little backstory goes a long way in fleshing out a character, and Thunderbirds is a franchise with a lot of history.

[hiddendreamer67]

Um.. if you want to- prompt 66 "Why me?" with Prince Valentine?

It’s my boi! We finally meet Valentine (and Cornelius). Also, Garth makes Cam agree to a promise not to murder people and Cam’s not happy about it.

Check out more of my writing at @hiddendreamerwriting​!

I’m also always open to questions or prompts for my OCs!

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Garth peered up at the archways towering above them, growing nervous with every step they took closer to the throne room and the source of their royal summoning. He had begun to grow uneasy, watching the way Cam bounced along in her furs besides him. They were far from the forest now- the people here wouldn’t know just how dangerous such an innocent looking girl could be.

“I need you to promise me something.” Garth murmured, and immediately her flouncing stopped. A promise was a serious thing when it came to fae; no fae could break a promise without risking their own life.

“....what?” Cam asked, her caution clearly overpowered by her intrigue. After all, Garth had never been foolish enough to try to keep Cam to a promise before.

“Do not kill anyone in the castle, do you hear me? Don’t even try to physically harm them. Not a soul. Promise.” Garth gazed intently at her, making certain the fae understood this was important.

“And what if I don’t promise?” Cam was bold enough to ask.

“Then the journey stops here.” Garth bluffed, not entirely certain what he’d do. It wasn’t as though he could completely ignore the royal summoning, and it was already a miracle that Cam had agreed to come this far.

Cam stared at him for an awfully long time, clearly gauging if such a promise would be worth her while. “I can’t promise that.” She decided finally. “I won’t disarm myself so thoroughly.”

“Disarm yourself?” Garth raised an eyebrow.

“What if an individual plans to do us harm?” Cam challenged. “It’s entirely possible we’re walking to our deaths. An interesting premise, to be certain, but not one to which I’ll go willingly.”

“Fine.” Garth relented, seeing her point. He was nervous as well, of course, but he imagined they’d be in a lot more trouble if Cam felt welcome to go on a murder spree should the urge hit her. Fae could be fickle like that. “New promise- do not try to physically harm a single living creature in the castle first, but if they attack first you are free to retaliate.”

Cam mulled over the words in her head. “Seems fair enough. But why must I promise?”

“Because it’ll make me feel safer in protecting us both if I know you’re on my side.” Garth shrugged honestly.

Cam blinked. “I am on your side.”

“For now.” Garth huffed. Cam seemed to have a habit of liking to antagonize him.

Cam was quiet for a few moments, doing that strange habit where she’d tilt her head like a curious dog as she attempted to understand. It was always a bit unnerving. “I agree to your promise.”

Garth gave a relieved sigh, leading the way down the path. “Then c’mon, we mustn’t be late.” He led her to the gate, where he presented the letter he had received not a week ago with the royal seal. The guards looked it over, their eyes lingering on Cam’s inhuman appearance with distaste.

Cam waved.

“Shouldn’t it be shackled?” One guard huffed, quietly enough that perhaps he thought the pair wouldn’t hear them. Garth elected to ignore it. Cam hummed.

“Where are we?” Cam asked, glancing around.

Garth gave her an odd look. “The gatehouse?”

Cam nodded. “And is this particular structure considered to be …. Inside the castle?”

Garth’s eyes widened immediately, catching on to what the fae was doing. She was marking out the territory, seeing just how far the promise she just made reached. It was a thinly veiled threat.

“More castle-adjacent, I suppose.” The second guard shrugged, not catching on to the danger he was in as he returned the letter.

“Excellent.” Cam grinned in a way that was far too predatory. Garth stomped on her foot, earning himself a yelp. The guards sent them funny looks.

“Thank you, that will be all.” Garth grabbed Cam by the arm, rushing through the gate before she could try anything. He pulled her close to his side. “I know what you were trying to pull. Knock it off.”

“Hey, you made the terms.” Cam growled, rolling her eyes back towards the gatehouse. “Did you hear his cheek? Shackled, as if I were a common farm animal-”

“Well, maybe they were talking about me.” Garth argued, hoping to amuse her a bit. She did let out a snort. “Look, humans don’t know to be careful with their words. They say things they don’t mean. And they say rash things out of bias, too. You might get a lot of comments like that out here because the people are distrustful of fae, but you’ve got to prove them wrong.”

“I don’t have to prove anything.” Cam stuck her nose in the air.

“Fine, then continue having them treat you with disrespect.” Garth argued. “They’re scared, alright? There’s a war going on and fae are kind of known for slaughtering humans for fun.” Garth had never thought to ask if Cam was one of those fae, actually. He just sort of hoped for the best and turned a blind eye.

“...they should be frightened.” Cam murmured, but she was quiet as she let Garth lead them along. Indeed, the guards had been only the first to send such looks their way. Several other comments were spoken beneath their breath, some that Garth could hear and all that Cam could hear. She tightened her grip in his hand, but otherwise Cam behaved herself. For an offended fae, she was being surprisingly civil. Garth was amazed a promise could do all that.

“Garth Thornton?”

Garth paused, wincing at the use of his full name. “Yes?” He asked, turning to the speaker, an old man dressed all in navy robes. “How’d you know who I am?”

The man glanced at the poorly concealed fae at Garth’s side. His lips twitched. “Lucky guess. My name is Cornelius, I trust you got my correspondence?”

“Er, yes.” Garth saw out of the corner of his eye how Cam was listening intently. “A word of advice, sir, but you should be more cautious about names around fae.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cornelius.” Cam all but purred, causing a shiver to run down the old man’s back.

“I- I see.” Cornelius took a step back. “Is it….?”

“Dangerous?” Garth guessed. “Only a little.”

“Controlled, is actually what I was going to inquire.” Cornelius corrected. Cam stiffened.

“Enough, yes.” Garth admitted. “She won’t be a danger here.”

“Excellent. I suppose that we will have to trust your word in this matter for the time being.” Cornelius waved them forwards, leading the pair down an extravagant hall. “I imagine it was quite difficult gaining trust.”

“Um, a bit, I guess.” Garth shrugged.

“How did you manage it?” Cornelius pressed. “We’ve been attempting to make contact for years, and several men have lost their lives.”

“I don’t know, I guess luck?” Garth winced. That wasn’t the answer they’d want to hear. “Patience, and gifts a bit, though you’ve got to be careful with those. Really you just have to keep on your toes and watch for the warning signs.”

“Fascinating.” Cornelius had begun jotting down everything Garth said in a notebook. “Though I imagine the young prince will be just as curious to hear your initial report.”

“...the prince…?”

It was at this moment a set of large doors were pulled open in front of them, revealing a large throne room. Atop the violent throne sat an extravagantly dressed young lad, with a slim golden crown atop his head. His legs were thrown over the side arm of the throne, but when the doors opened he gasped, sitting up properly and appearing most regal as he stood with arms thrown wide. “You’re here!”

Cornelius cleared his throat, ushering them inside. “May I present, his royal highness, prince Valentine-”

“Yes yes, as if anyone didn’t know who I am.” Valentine waved off the rest of his title, striding down the few steps. Garth was quick to follow Cornelius’ example and bow low to the ground. Valentine paused, looking at the third member of their little party. “Does it not bow?”

Garth’s breath hitched, wishing he had thought to educate Cam on more of the formalities of court. His blood pressure rose with every moment Cam was still standing there.

Cam’s head tilted. “It does, when the timing is pleasing.”

“Speaking out of turn as well.” Valentine clicked his tongue. “I ought to have your head for that.”

“Cam, please.” Garth whispered, tugging at her wrist.

Cam looked down at him, consideringly, before slowly she sunk to her knees next to him.

Valentine let out an uproarious laugh. “It’s true, then! Cornelius, are you seeing this?”

“Indeed I am, your highness.” Cornelius assured him, still pressed to the ground himself.

“How wondrous!” Valentine raised his hand, allowing the company to stand. “You know, when we heard the tale of the man who’s taming fae I sincerely didn’t believe it. And when you walked in I admit my first thought was ‘what, this fellow? But he’s so scrawny and weak!’”

Please stop talking. Is what Garth wanted to say, but he held his tongue, knowing how powerful a prince could be. Instead, the words out of his mouth were: “Why are we here?”

“What? Did you not get the letter?” The prince turned to his adviser. “Cornelius, you told me they got the letter.”

“They did, your highness.” Cornelius nodded.

“No, I- we got the letter.” Garth agreed.

“Oh, marvelous!” Valentine clapped his hands. “So what’s the problem? Is your family uneducated? I hadn’t considered that.”

“The problem? I- it’s just two pages of gibberish!” Garth put his hands to his forehead, trying to keep his temper even as his anxiety rose. “Could somebody explain in simple terms why we’re here? Please.”

“I suppose I would be able to provide the shortest explanation.” Cornelius spoke up. “The young prince has recently begun efforts for diplomacy on the war front against hostile negative forces. After hearing of your success, Prince Valentine believes you are our best hope at convincing these beings to see reason and listen to our demands.”

Garth had paled significantly in his short explanation. “I’m… being drafted?”

“In a manner of speaking, perhaps.” Cornelius admitted. “This is far less dangerous than an actual draft, we’re not sending you into battle.”

“You just said hostile negative forces!” Garth argued. “What, you’re planning on handing me over to a dragon or something?”

“Yes!” Valentine cheered. “How ever did you know?”

“No, no way.” Garth took a step back, shaking his head. “You’re insane, you’ve got the wrong guy. I am not equipped to deal with that sort of stuff.”

“Oh, we’ll equip you with the finest attire, you needn’t worry.” Valentine assured him, completely missing the point.

“I meant, like, mentally!” Garth continued to grasp at straws. “Just listen to me speak right now. Words I’m no good at. Everything with Cam is just blind luck, it doesn’t mean that I have some sort of silver tongue and can charm dragons and-and vampires and djinn-”

“What’s a djinn?” Cam piped up.

“Why don’t you know?” Valentine scoffed. “You’re the fae.” Garth groaned, hiding his head in his hands. To her credit, Cam didn’t even glare at him, but in a more worrying display she smiled.

“It seems I am lacking in some knowledge.” Cam put her hands behind her back. “Dearest Valentine, perhaps tempers would be lighter if we discussed this in the open air.”

Garth snapped his neck up. “NO!”

“No?” Cam sent him a bewildered look. “But Garth, you’re so tense. I’m certain this will relieve some of the pressure we’re all feeling.”

“And heap new pressures atop it.” Garth hissed, knowing exactly what was going on and feeling uncertain how to best warn the prince without putting Cam’s own life at risk. “No. Cam, no.”

“What’s it doing?” Valentine inquired. “What’s wrong?”

Garth took a deep breath, daring to meet the prince’s gaze. “You need to apologize.”

“What? Why me?” Valentine looked positively aghast.

“You’ve offended her.” Garth tried his best to remain calm in his explanation. “And an offended fae is a dangerous creature.”

“What could I have possibly done to offend?” Valentine scoffed. “I’ve been nothing but cordial.”

“While the prince has a history of a temper, I’m afraid I’m perplexed as well.” Cornelius admitted. “It’s a monster in the castle. Certain precautions should be made.”

Garth began to feel very sick to his stomach. “What do you mean, precautions?”

“Well, our knowledge of fae is limited, but they do fear iron, yes?” Cornelius asked, causing both guests to flinch. “It was suggested that the fae be locked up in shackles for the time being, to keep it weak and malleable.”

“No.” Garth was firm on this subject, knowing that if anyone came near Cam there was a high chance she’d take it as a threat and go feral. Of course, it was a threat. And this whole coming here business was a terrible idea. What had he been thinking, waltzing around with a fae in the middle of a crowded kingdom?

“It’s the only way my father will permit it in the castle.” Valentine explained. “You can do as you please when you’re off on a diplomatic mission.”

“Then I guess we’re starting one of those now.” Garth squared his shoulders. “Where is it, what are we doing, and how do we get there?”

[serpent-in-the-lions-den]

SEVERUS SNAPE | DOUBLE-AGENT | MID-LEVEL

PERSONALITY:

Generally, Severus is seen rather than heard.

The mind of Severus Snape is complex – to be sure. Filled with calculations, fragile threads of truths and lies he’s told and webbing them all together, and innovations for many different forms of magic. To keep all of these thoughts collected, Severus keeps a journal that he has heavily bound to keep secret. There, he states the deepest parts of his soul, creates new potions, spells, and whatever else he deems worthy. It is protected by a blood spell that only he knows the enchantment to. Like him, everything is kept very private and close to his chest.

While Severus has plenty of thoughts coursing through his brilliant mind, he does not initiate conversation. In fact, he says much more with his eyes. Even if they can be cold. However, this does not mean Severus will keep silent – nor is it out of shyness. When Snape graces others with his opinions or ideas, they should not be taken lightly. Every single word uttered has meaning.

Being around Death Eaters and the Dark Lord, he’s kept a keen eye – finding everyone’s tells and when it is best for him to speak his true sentiments. As well as this, if he feels provoked or given an opportunity to speak freely, he will not cower. Often, his retorts have a bite to them, thick with sarcasm or bitterness; or both.

Severus Snape is profound in potions – and dare we say even more skilled in the Dark Arts. Books were a comfort for him growing up, finding company with leather-bound pages and becoming well-versed in their contents. A strength he chooses not to boast about is his ability to create new spells, new magic, even. Most of these, however, were being saved to get a slight revenge over his old school enemies. And therein lies the rub. Snape’s insecurities are tightly bound to Hogwarts and being bullied – not to mention his inability to reveal his true feelings toward the one girl who showed him kindness all those years.

FAMILY:

A broken family. That was the home of Tobias Snape and Eileen Prince.

A Muggle father and a Pureblood mother. Such parents didn’t give Severus an opinion on blood purity – but rather if an individual could prove themselves. While his parents may have had married for love at some point, something shifted their feelings.

For Snape’s father, nothing seemed to please him. Except for, perhaps, a bottle of gin. This instilled a primal instinct for Severus to do better; be better. Strive for power.

As for Snape’s mother, she grew sickly and thin. Her grief taught him empathy. It also made him value any comfort, starving for any sort of love and affection. This was, most likely, the cause for Severus’ immediate interest in Lily Evans – and the roots of his near-obsession with her.

Both of his parents were unhappy, and let it affect both their home and their son. Living near-destitution, the Snape house was filled with hateful words, arguments, loud shattering of priceless heirlooms or objects, and other things that still haunt Severus to this day. When thinking back on his past, Severus prefers the memories of when they both neglected him altogether, rather than any other aspects of his upbringing.

OCCUPATION:

Potions Apprentice to Professor Slughorn.

Invaluable to the Dark Lord, the talents of Severus Snape brought him closer to his inner circle. For Voldemort, it also meant he could manipulate the young man’s talents to foil any plots that the Order may have against him. Knowing his passion for potions, Voldemort encouraged Snape to take on an apprenticeship with Professor Slughorn – while also peeking behind the curtain at Hogwarts and keeping an eye on the Headmaster.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Mid-Level | Double Agent

Walking a thin line between hero and villain had never once crossed Severus’ mind. Yet, here he was. An Order member. At first, in a plot for the Dark Lord, carrying out the order to spy on the organization; find out how it could crumble. The young wizard had already grown steadily in their ranks, garnered enough trust, and was even listening to Voldemort’s other requests like his employment. All for the sake of war. It was a task daunting enough for anyone; however, Severus knew pretending to be an Order member would bring him closer to Lily. That, and potentially erase any suspicions Frank Longbottom might have if he thought he saw the Slytherin’s face during the arrest. At first, it was all an act.

Now, within the Order, Severus is a black sheep. Many of his childhood bullies are within their ranks, and many who distrust him. Although, with Severus’ lust for power, proving himself is nothing new to him. In fact, he thrives on it. No more fighting behind a mask…watching those he cares for nearly meet their end. An easy task to spy, being a great reader of both people and their minds. However, an overwhelmingly difficult task to want to continue fighting for something he didn’t believe in. Not that he believes in the Order either, but his lust for power has now been overcome with a desperate need to win an old friendship back. Perhaps to take Lily Evans far away from any wars as well, forgetting the two sides; no more choosing between what is right, and what is easy. Severus faces this new challenge, while fighting off those he once stood beside. For now, he’ll leave it to fate – if he’s able to win Lily’s friendship back.

After the latest events of Muggles being slaughtered from his mistakes with the orb, Severus feels a familiar pang of guilt. The same kind he felt after calling Lily that horrid name in school. It doesn’t help that The Order sees him as a risk and has been keeping him away from the center of the action. Severus feels responsible and a need to redeem himself. The night of the wedding, The Order tasked him with staying with the healers – at least giving him that opportunity. Among the chaos, steady hands and minds are needed. Which, thankfully, Severus was very skilled with.

SURVIVAL:

Severus Snape survives purely relying on his skills – and providing them to whichever side he feels is winning. It was part of the reason why he joined the Death Easters in the first place. Unfortunately for the Order, Snape believes the Dark Lord will win; that they will fall – and not rise from the ashes, as their namesake. A lust for power has blinded him most of all. But with it, he’s earned the trust of Voldemort, become invaluable. A faithful servant. Once the war s over, Severus believes he will be rewarded for his acts. At least, as long as he continues to do his bidding…

While with the Order, Severus has taken up housing in Hogwarts during the school year under his apprenticeship with Slughorn. During the summers, he’s found a small flat down near Hogsmeade to keep close enough. Beforehand, he often stayed with Lucius Malfoy in their incredibly large manor. It made it easy to stay near his comrades and to carry out any dark deeds.

Until there seems to be a clear winner, Severus will carry out his work as a spy. Even if it means slightly changing sides to do it as time goes on. The skills he carries with Occlumency are not to be trifled with. It seems he’s one of the few to have mastered such magic, making him the perfect soldier for espionage. Especially now that he has a desire for redemption for the mistakes he’s made and devastation he’s caused.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Severus’ relationship with Lily Evans was broken long ago. However, he will try and make peace with her, at the very least. If they rekindle their friendship, Severus would likely switch sides; happily die for her and prove himself. If it blossomed even more (something he fears even daydreaming about will jinx it), Severus would give up everything with the Dark Lord and his following - and give all his loyalty to the Order.

PRIVILEGES & BIASES:

Having gone through a very traumatic animalistic incident in his years at Hogwarts, Severus has a large bias against werewolves. The whole experience left a nasty memory for him, left in complete shock and disagreement with Dumbledore. And having Fenrir Greyback at the Dark Lord’s disposal certainly didn’t make matters any better.

There is one thing that will never chance for Severus Snape, and that is his hatred and bitterness towards certain Gryffindor boys he now has to work with in the Order. The thought alone makes his blood boil and skin crawl. Yet, he will do what he must for his cause…and maybe even throw in a snide remark or two every so often.

Muggleborns are something of a mystery to Snape now. When he first met Lily, he thought she was different from any other one – slumping the rest together with the likes of his father. Although seeing how fierce Dorcas has become – and so well integrated with the Wizarding World – Severus has gained a new understanding. Of course, he’s still untrusting, at first, and even a little cold; but that doesn’t mean his mind cannot be changed.

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome (again) to the Order of the Phoenix, Gina!

You have been accepted for the role of SEVERUS SNAPE with the faceclaim of Aneurin Barbard! We particularly loved Severus’ ambiguous motivations and how he’s playing spy as a double agent for both the Order and the Death Eaters! He’s not all good - he’s not all bad - and that fits our morally grey theme within this roleplay. So glad to see you playing him again! 

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Gina AGE: 25 TIMEZONE: MST-Arizona ACTIVITY LEVEL: Weekends are usually when I’m on the most 😊 I’ll try to get on during the week – especially on my early days. All that being said, I’ll definitely will be able to post at least once a week! As long as writing is still fun, and doesn’t feel like a chore, I’ll be on the dash frequently (and I’ll keep y’all informed if there’s ever going to be an issue with an activity check)! ANYTHING ELSE: trigger: non-con.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Severus Snape AGE: 21 GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Cis-Male, He/Him, Heterosexual. BLOOD STATUS: Halfblood HOUSE ALUMNI: Slytherin ANY CHANGES: Request FC change: Aneurin Barnard.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

Generally, Severus is seen rather than heard.

The mind of Severus Snape is complex – to be sure. Filled with calculations, fragile threads of truths and lies he’s told and webbing them all together, and innovations for many different forms of magic. To keep all of these thoughts collected, Severus keeps a journal that he has heavily bound to keep secret. There, he states the deepest parts of his soul, creates new potions, spells, and whatever else he deems worthy. It is protected by a blood spell that only he knows the enchantment to. Like him, everything is kept very private and close to his chest.

While Severus has plenty of thoughts coursing through his brilliant mind, he does not initiate conversation. In fact, he says much more with his eyes. Even if they can be cold. However, this does not mean Severus will keep silent – nor is it out of shyness. When Snape graces others with his opinions or ideas, they should not be taken lightly. Every single word uttered has meaning.

Being around Death Eaters and the Dark Lord, he’s kept a keen eye – finding everyone’s tells and when it is best for him to speak his true sentiments. As well as this, if he feels provoked or given an opportunity to speak freely, he will not cower. Often, his retorts have a bite to them, thick with sarcasm or bitterness; or both.

Severus Snape is profound in potions – and dare we say even more skilled in the Dark Arts. Books were a comfort for him growing up, finding company with leather-bound pages and becoming well-versed in their contents. A strength he chooses not to boast about is his ability to create new spells, new magic, even. Most of these, however, were being saved to get a slight revenge over his old school enemies. And therein lies the rub. Snape’s insecurities are tightly bound to Hogwarts and being bullied – not to mention his inability to reveal his true feelings toward the one girl who showed him kindness all those years.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

A broken family. That was the home of Tobias Snape and Eileen Prince.

A Muggle father and a Pureblood mother. Such parents didn’t give Severus an opinion on blood purity – but rather if an individual could prove themselves. While his parents may have had married for love at some point, something shifted their feelings.

For Snape’s father, nothing seemed to please him. Except for, perhaps, a bottle of gin. This instilled a primal instinct for Severus to do better; be better. Strive for power.

As for Snape’s mother, she grew sickly and thin. Her grief taught him empathy. It also made him value any comfort, starving for any sort of love and affection. This was, most likely, the cause for Severus’ immediate interest in Lily Evans – and the roots of his near-obsession with her.

Both of his parents were unhappy, and let it affect both their home and their son. Living near-destitution, the Snape house was filled with hateful words, arguments, loud shattering of priceless heirlooms or objects, and other things that still haunt Severus to this day. When thinking back on his past, Severus prefers the memories of when they both neglected him altogether, rather than any other aspects of his upbringing.

OCCUPATION: Potions Apprentice to Professor Slughorn.

Invaluable to the Dark Lord, the talents of Severus Snape brought him closer to his inner circle. For Voldemort, it also meant he could manipulate the young man’s talents to foil any plots that the Order may have against him. Knowing his passion for potions, Voldemort encouraged Snape to take on an apprenticeship with Professor Slughorn – while also peeking behind the curtain at Hogwarts and keeping an eye on the Headmaster.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Walking a thin line between hero and villain had never once crossed Severus’ mind. Yet, here he was. An Order member. At first, in a plot for the Dark Lord, carrying out the order to spy on the organization; find out how it could crumble. The young wizard had already grown steadily in their ranks, garnered enough trust, and was even listening to Voldemort’s other requests like his employment. All for the sake of war. It was a task daunting enough for anyone; however, Severus knew pretending to be an Order member would bring him closer to Lily. That, and potentially erase any suspicions Frank Longbottom might have if he thought he saw the Slytherin’s face during the arrest. At first, it was all an act.

Now, within the Order, Severus is a black sheep. Many of his childhood bullies are within their ranks, and many who distrust him. Although, with Severus’ lust for power, proving himself is nothing new to him. In fact, he thrives on it. No more fighting behind a mask…watching those he cares for nearly meet their end. An easy task to spy, being a great reader of both people and their minds. However, an overwhelmingly difficult task to want to continue fighting for something he didn’t believe in. Not that he believes in the Order either, but his lust for power has now been overcome with a desperate need to win an old friendship back. Perhaps to take Lily Evans far away from any wars as well, forgetting the two sides; no more choosing between what is right, and what is easy. Severus faces this new challenge, while fighting off those he once stood beside. For now, he’ll leave it to fate – if he’s able to win Lily’s friendship back.

After the latest events of Muggles being slaughtered from his mistakes with the orb, Severus feels a familiar pang of guilt. The same kind he felt after calling Lily that horrid name in school. It doesn’t help that The Order sees him as a risk and has been keeping him away from the center of the action. Severus feels responsible and a need to redeem himself. The night of the engagement party, The Order tasked him with staying with the healers – at least giving him that opportunity. Among the chaos, steady hands and minds are needed. Which, thankfully, Severus was very skilled with.

SURVIVAL:

Severus Snape survives purely relying on his skills – and providing them to whichever side he feels is winning. It was part of the reason why he joined the Death Easters in the first place. Unfortunately for the Order, Snape believes the Dark Lord will win; that they will fall – and not rise from the ashes, as their namesake. A lust for power has blinded him most of all. But with it, he’s earned the trust of Voldemort, become invaluable. A faithful servant. Once the war s over, Severus believes he will be rewarded for his acts. At least, as long as he continues to do his bidding…

While with the Order, Severus has taken up housing in Hogwarts during the school year under his apprenticeship with Slughorn. During the summers, he’s found a small flat down near Hogsmeade to keep close enough. Beforehand, he often stayed with Lucius Malfoy in their incredibly large manor. It made it easy to stay near his comrades and to carry out any dark deeds.

Until there seems to be a clear winner, Severus will carry out his work as a spy. Even if it means slightly changing sides to do it as time goes on. The skills he carries with Occlumency are not to be trifled with. It seems he’s one of the few to have mastered such magic, making him the perfect soldier for espionage. Especially now that he has a desire for redemption for the mistakes he’s caused.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Severus’ relationship with Lily Evans was broken long ago. However, he will try and make peace with her, at the very least. If they rekindle their friendship, Severus would likely switch sides; happily die for her and prove himself. If it blossomed even more (something he fears even daydreaming about will jinx it), Severus would give up everything with the Dark Lord and his following. Everything with the Order. All to be with her – away from the rotting parts of the Wizarding World.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: Ships: Snape/Lily & Snape/Chemistry. Anti-Ships: None

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Having gone through a very traumatic animalistic incident in his years at Hogwarts, Severus has a large bias against werewolves. The whole experience left a nasty memory for him, left in complete shock and disagreement with Dumbledore. And having Fenrir Greyback at the Dark Lord’s disposal certainly didn’t make matters any better.

There is one thing that will never chance for Severus Snape, and that is his hatred and bitterness towards certain Gryffindor boys he now has to work with in the Order. The thought alone makes his blood boil and skin crawl. Yet, he will do what he must for his cause…and maybe even throw in a snide remark or two every so often.

Muggleborns are something of a mystery to Snape now. When he first met Lily, he thought she was different from any other one – slumping the rest together with the likes of his father. Although seeing how fierce Dorcas has become – and so well integrated with the Wizarding World – Severus has gained a new understanding. Of course, he’s still untrusting, at first, and even a little cold; but that doesn’t mean his mind cannot be changed.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO?

I am excited to explore a redemption arch for Severus! I think it could be really great to see him actually believe in the cause and put his complete loyalty to The Order. I’ve tinkered with this idea before in another RP where his motives were driven by romance. Now, I can see hm relying on changing his mind on his own accord and a longing for his old friendship back to guide him to the side of good and light.

ANYTHING ELSE? Super excited to be re-applying as Sev! 😊

[yfere]

Your Trauma Does Not Make You An Authority: Beau vs Dairon

Redrafting this meta because my phone is The Worst and ate my other post, and also I’m a wordy asshole

Allow for me to focus, for the millionth time, on this exchange:

Dairon: I’ve lost people important to me to the Krynn. Beau: So even more reason for bias!

There are half a dozen interesting things about this, but in particular I’m interested in how Dairon was levying her grief as a silencing tactic, an appeal to authority to shut down Beau’s questions, as all of Dairon’s appeals to authority were in this conversation. When the authority of history doesn’t work, this is what she points to, right before she points to her age and superior status over Beau. And even as she makes this appeal she reveals something ugly about her thinking, because what she is saying essentially is “You have no right to question me in this because I have suffered, I have suffered in ways you have not,” at the same time she is saying “The Drow must be Bad because They have hurt Me and Mine.”

And Beau, in true Beau fashion, cuts to the quick of this and calls bullshit. She does have the right to question, because truth is as indiscriminate in its chosen mouthpiece as bias. And Beau has been coming to an understanding, through herself and her family, through Caleb and Nott and the others, that one of the damages of trauma is in the very bias it creates, how it makes it ever more difficult to see clearly through the hurt. 

You can contrast how Dairon handles her trauma and her thinking being questioned with how Beau handles Fjord’s questioning of Beau’s indifference towards the fate of Kamordah. I have read many takes on whether or not Fjord was coming at this with a clear head himself, on whether he had the right to speak to her, to question her at all considering what Beau had gone through. And I think it’s significant that unlike Dairon, Beau gave Fjord the space to speak his mind. She acknowledged her hurt and the potential for her own bias both, and allowed him to speak. When she gave the story of her trauma, it wasn’t in an effort to silence but in an effort to give context and explain her first feelings, so that his outside perspective and feedback would be more useful and relevant to her. She allows for the possibility of reconsidering her stance based on what he tells her. She treats him as an equal in this conversation and is open to learning, when it would be so easy, so incredibly easy to shut him down and shut him out by telling him he couldn’t possibly comment on her life and choices, that he did not go through the same things she went through, that she was the authority because she was the one hurt. But Beau knows how bias works, and that her hurt does not necessarily make her the authority, just as Caleb’s hurt does not make him an unquestionable authority, and the same for Nott and Fjord and everyone else.

And it’s this evolving understanding of the bias that personal trauma breeds that allows Beau to question the narrative of the war with such confidence, I think. It’s one thing to distrust political figures and authorities and powers at large, it is one thing to pass judgment after coming to a full understanding of someone’s actions in light of their true history and motivations (note that Beau was only ever asking Dairon about the Krynn’s motivations in this conversation--she wanted understanding and evidence that Dairon, who should have been looking into this, was not prepared to give). But hating someone indiscriminately because of an Us vs Them? Because they hurt you? That alone is just not enough. That alone is just unthinking bias, is just feeding into the cycle of violence that fuels war.

And of course even Beau herself hasn’t fully embraced this philosophy, hasn’t fully discarded the warped lens of trauma and its oppressing force and claims to authority in all areas of her life. But she’s open, she’s learning, and she’s getting there--I’m interested in seeing what will happen as time goes on, with this.

[scripttorture]

Anon with "dangerous"prisoner scenario. Yes, it's definitely more the third situation, where one person is trying to provoke a reaction but the people around him are questioning his methods, although he outranks most of them so it's only so effective. Most of the abuse is verbal, but he does order others to set off a shock device the prisoner has on, and the turning point is that he actually hits the prisoner himself. The main issue is that it's from his perspective, so we only see his side. 1/2

2/2 In a situation like this, where the reader is hearing a warped perspective, how would one handle the issue without falling into bad stereotypes? Maybe show the prisoner being cordial with others but being very reserved around the abuser? Would it be believable for the prisoner to be afraid of him, or would they more likely react with subtle anger? How is the victim likely to react when the abuser pulls a hard 180, aside from obvious distrust and wariness of further abuse? Thank you!

Unreliablenarrators can be incredibly bothersome to write. My standard fallback is to use multiple points of view, but that doesn’t work inevery story and if it’s not what you want to do then it’s notapplicable here.

Thereare a couple of other strategies I use to try and get around thingslike this and signal to the reader that the narrator is unreliable.This isn’t going to be a complete list of the strategies you canuse.

Thefirst thing I often try is to pick out bits of description I can useto suggest the way the narrator is describing things is off.

Let’ssay there’s a fight in this prison setting.

It’slunch time. S and C sit opposite L and start talking shit, trying torile up L. L ignores this until one of them gets in his personalspace. He shoves them away. C starts shouting. L starts shoutingback. They all get to their feet. A few people around them do aswell. S and C are squaring off against L. At this point anothercharacter, P, tries to steal something off the table while S, C and Lare all distracted. S punches P. L punches S. And a brawl starts.

Ifyour narrator walks past while this is starting up you can use theway he interprets these events to show he’s biased about L.

Describingthe body language during the initial conversation and facialexpressions can make it clear to the readers that S and C arebullying L. It probably shouldn’t be too detailed but something tothe effect of L having closed off, hunched body language, notconversing, not looking at S and C. Laughter that seems a little loudand cruel. C trying to touch L’s arm and getting brushed offquickly- little things like that.

Atthe same time you’re describing L’s obvious discomfort thenarrator could be interpreting this as more ‘proof’ L’s a badlot. Just look who he’s hanging out with. An opinion that’sfurther ‘justified’ when L is the first person to ‘getphysical’ even though S throws the first punch.

Repeatingthis over multiple incidents should help build up the idea that thenarrator is biased.

Ithink using the people who are questioning what’s going on wouldwork really well here as well.

Ilike direct characters, so in my stories this often means someoneoutright approaching the narrator and trying to call them on theirbehaviour. This can work and it can help make something that waspreviously subtle in the narrative more overt.

Ifwe keep using the fight as an example another on duty guard mightobject to punishing L and try to point out S and C’s behaviour. Orthey might try to approach the narrator afterwards and ask why theydecided to punish L, listen to what the narrator says and try toexplain that that’s not what they saw.

Anapproach doesn’t have to be confrontational. In fact I think inthis context you could do it as a young, inexperienced guard going tothe narrator for guidance/explanation and the narrator approaching itas ‘educating’ the new guy.

I’dalso suggest using the behaviour of the other guards in more subtleways. A lot of them might lose a lot of respect for the narrator,which would leak through in their behaviour from time to time.Especially in such a high stress environment.

Afew of them might become more uncomfortable being around the narratorat all. They might avoid reporting things, go out of their way not tobe in the room with him and so forth.

Thesekinds of actions can be subtle background details building up to therealisation of how badly the narrator has behaved. Or they can beused to address the issue more explicitly.

Let’ssay the narrator doesn’twitness the fight we described. That’s his day off. He might comeback the next day to find S is on some kind of punishment detailbut the report for why hasn’t been written up or is missing a lotof details. Or some guards could just not report the fact the fighttook place at all, leading to more issues with both prisoners andguards further down the line.

Thatwouldlead to a confrontation between the narrator and other guards. Andthe reason for their avoidance could be addressed.

Ithink that with an unreliable narrator it’s usually best to findsome way to clearly confront their bias, but since you’re doingthat with the character himself changing his mind I don’t think younecessarily need to do that with another character calling him out aswell.

Thinkabout whether another overt confrontation serves the story. It might.It could be a useful way to draw characters closer together (afterthe narrator changes his mind), or push them further apart.

Mostof what I’ve said about the guards losing faith or not feeling safearound the narrator applies to the prisoners as well.

Theymay also start to avoid the narrator and not report things they wouldhave before. Which again can lead to bigger incidents down the line.

Andyou’re completely right; using the targetted prisoner himself andshowing how his behaviour changes when interacting with the narratorvs interacting with other people (guards or prisoners) would workwell.

Ithink using a variety of different background details to suggestwhat’s going on is a good idea. Relying entirely on one method cansometimes give a flatter story. And well, the reality is that thissort of behaviour ends up effecting everyone in an institution. Ithink that kind of pervasive negative atmosphere can be built up moreeffectively when you’re using more than one method to show it.

Letme be clear that that bit is purelywriting advice.I don’t think there are any negative stereotypes associated withfocusing on one particular way of portraying this. If you don’tfeel you’ve got the narrative space to have multiple elements oryou don’t feel confident trying to juggle more elements, then stickwith what you think will work and what you’re comfortable writing.

Ithink that leaves the questions about the victim’s reactions.

Honestlyeverything you’ve suggested is possible. And everything you’vesuggested would be a fairly common reaction.

Istress anger and aggression and resistance because they’re commonresponses that are portrayedas rare.But fear, freezing, nausea, numbness, sadness are all among thepossible reactions victims can have.

Theways victims react are highly individual so I can’t give you aroadmap to making that ‘right’. There isn’t a standardhowever-many-steps path victims take.

Andit can be daunting approaching that as a writer. I understand. Itfeels like it would be so much easier if someone could tell us we’redoing it ‘right’. Especially if this is your first time tacklingsubjects like this.

PersonallyI think finding a beta reader can really help with confidence whenyou’re writing difficult scenes and scenarios. It can helphighlight what you haveestablished well about the characters and their views and what youhaven’t. That kindof feedback is invaluable and it can often pick up on things youhaven’t considered.

Obviouslyfinding a beta who has some experience of trauma can be helpful, butit isn’t necessary every time. Themain things you’re looking for here are consistency: that a readercould pick up the waysyour narrator is unreliable and that the emotional arcs the narratorand prisoner go through make sense to readers.

Becausethere’s a huge range of plausible victim responses I think the bestthing to do is to try and tie the responses to the character as anindividual.

Doyou think he’d bemore likely to be angry or scared? If he’s scared is he the kind ofperson who might act angry to try and cover it up? If he’s angrywould he try to bottle it up?

Thereisn’t a ‘correct’ emotional response. Either to the abuseitself or that abuse ceasing.

Itry to tie emotional responses to the character, picking things thathighlight what they’re like as an individual. For me that’s quiteinstinctive, it ‘feels right’ for the character so it’s what Igo with.

Butif that isn’t how you write you can break it down a bit more byconsidering what different emotional responses add to the story. Isit better for thestory if the character is angry or scared? Can you use one of theseemotions to show more about the character than the other, or move theplot along in a more natural way?

Rememberthat characters shouldn’t be stuck in one emotional state (unlessperhaps you’re trying to show a particular mental illness). You canhave the character respond with anger at times and fear others.

Tyingthat to the symptoms you’ve picked out for him might help.Emotional response, or lack of it, can be used to highlight hissymptoms. When you’retalking about a complex, interconnected set of symptoms (such as whattorture produces) then well- there can be huge emotional changes fromhour to hour and day to day.

Evenwith less severe mental health problems there are good days and baddays which have a large effect on someone’s emotional response. Orindeed ability to respond emotionally.

Ican’t remember if you’d picked any symptoms for this character ornot. But things like severe depression can impact on a character’sability to respond to the emotions of others. It’s not that theydon’t care. It’s difficult to summon an emotional response whensomeone is already emotionally exhausted.

Wrappingthis up- there are a lot of different plausible responses for acharacter in this situation. The ‘right’ one for any given storyis going to depend on the character and the narrative itself.

Ifyou can use the prisoner’s emotional responses to highlight thebias your narrator is showing that could work well. But only if thatresponse seems true to the prisoner’s character.

Ihope that helps. :)

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Disclaimer

[alertreadingquotes]

The Psychology of Human Misjudgment

“ I was aware that man was a "social animal," greatly and automatically influenced by behavior he observed in men around him. I also knew that man lived, like barnyard animals and monkeys, in limited size dominance hierarchies, wherein he tended to respect authority and to like and cooperate with his own hierarchy members while displaying considerable distrust and dislike for competing men nor in his own hierarchy.“

“ First, I had long looked for insight by inversion in the intense manner counseled by the great algebraist, Jacobi: "Invert, always invert." I sought good judgment mostly by collecting instances of bad judgment, then pondering ways to avoid such outcomes“

“ And I was dubious of any approach that, when two things were inextricably intertwined and interconnected, would try and think about one thing but not the other. I was afraid, if I tried any such restricted approach, that I would end up, in the immortal words of John L. Lewis, "with no brain at all, just a neck that had haired over.“

“ Psychological tendencies tend to be both numerous and inseparably intertwined, now and forever, as they interplay in life“

“ And Harvard's great E.O. Wilson performed one of the best psychology experiments ever done when he painted dead-ant pheromone on a live ant. Quite naturally, the other ants dragged this useful live ant out of the hive even though it kicked and otherwise protested throughout the entire process. Such is the brain of the ant. It has a simple program of responses that generally work out all right, but which are imprudently used by rote in many cases. Another type of ant demonstrates that the limited brain of ants can be misled by circumstances as well as by clever manipulation from other creatures. The brain of this ant contains a simple behavioral program that directs the ant, when walking, to follow the ant ahead. And when these ants stumble into walking in a big circle, they sometimes walk round and round until they perish. It seems obvious. to me at least. that the human brain must often operate counterproductively just like the ant's, from unavoidable oversimplicity in its mental process, albeit usually in trying to solve problems more difficult than those faced by ants that don't have to design airplanes. The perception system of man clearly demonstrates just such an unfortunate outcome. Man is easily fooled, either by the cleverly thought out manipulation of man, by circumstances occurring by accident, or by very effective manipulation practices that man has stumbled into during "practice evolution" and kept in place because they work so well. One such outcome is caused by a quantum effect in human perception. If stimulus is kept below a certain level, it does not get through.“

“And even when perception does get through to man's brain, it is often misweighted, because what is registered in perception is in shockingness of apparent contrast, not the standard scientific units that make possible science and good engineering.” “Some psychology professors like to demonstrate the inadequacy of contrast-based perception by having students put one hand in a bucker of hot water and one hand in a bucket of cold warer. They are then suddenly asked to remove both hands and place them in a single bucket of room temperature water. Now, with both hands in the same water, one hand feels as if it has just been put in cold water and the other hand feels as if it has just been placed in hot water. When one thus sees perception so easily fooled by mere contrast, where a simple temperature gauge would make no error, and realizes that cognition mimics perception in being misled by mere contrast, he is well on the way toward understanding, not only how magicians fool one, but also how life will fool one.“

“The natural consequence of this profusion of tendencies is the grand general principle of social psychology: cognition is ordinarily situation-dependent so that different situations often cause different conclusions, even when the same person is thinking in the same general subject area.“

---

One: Reward and Punishment Superresponse Tendency

“Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.“

“ He demonstrated again and again a great recurring, generalized behavioral algorithm in nature: "Repeat behavior that works." He also demonstrated that prompt rewards worked much better than delayed rewards in changing and maintaining behavior. And, once his rats and pigeons had conditioned reflexes, caused by food rewards, he found what withdrawal pattern of rewards kept the reflexive behavior longest in place: random distribution“

“One of the most important consequences of incentive superpower is what I call "incentive caused bias." A man has an acculturated nature making him a pretty decent fellow, and yet, driven both consciously and subconsciously by incentives, he drifts into immoral behavior in order to get what he wants, a result he facilitates by rationalizing his bad behavior, like the salesmen at Xerox who harmed customers in order to maximize their sales commissions. “

“Widespread incentive-caused bias requires that one should often distrust, or take with a grain of salt, the advice of one's professional advisor, even if he is an engineer. The general antidotes here are: (1) especially fear professional advice when it is especially good for the advisor; (2)learn and use the basic elements of your advisor's trade as you deal with your advisor; and (3) double check, disbelieve, or replace much of what you're told, to the degree that seems appropriate after objective thought.“

“ One implication is that people who create things like cash registers, which make dishonest behavior hard to accomplish, are some of the effective saints of our civilization because, as Skinner so well knew, bad behavior is intensely habit-forming when it is rewarded“

“'The strong tendency of employees to rationalize bad conduct in order to get rewards requires many antidotes in addition to the good cash control promoted by Patterson. Perhaps the most important of these antidotes is use of sound accounting theory and practice“

“ For instance, economists, speaking from the employer's point of view, have long had a name for the natural results of incentive-caused bias: "agency cost." As the name implies, the economists have typically known that, just as grain is always lost to rats, employers always lose to employees who improperly think of themselves first. Employer installed antidotes include tough internal audit systems and severe public punishment for identified miscreants, as well as misbehavior-preventing routines and such machines as cash registers“

“The inevitable ubiquity of incentive-caused bias has vast, generalized consequences. For instance, a sales force living only on commissions will be much harder to keep moral than one under less pressure from the compensation arrangement. On the other hand, a purely commissioned salesforce may well be more efficient per dollar spent. Therefore, difficult decisions involving trade-offs are common in creating compensation arrangements in the sales function.“

“Another generalized consequence of incentive caused bias is that man tends to "game" all human systems, often displaying great ingenuity in wrongly serving himself at the expense of others. Anti gaming features, therefore, constitute a huge and necessary part of almost all system design. Also needed in system design is an admonition: Dread, and avoid as much you can, rewarding people for what can be easily faked“

“Of course, money is now the main reward that drives habits. A monkey can be trained to seek and work for an intrinsically worthless token, as if it were a banana, if the token is routinely exchangeable for a banana“

---

Two: Liking/Loving Tendency

“One very practical consequence of Liking/ Loving Tendency is that it acts as a conditioning device that makes the liker or lover tend (1) to ignore faults of and comply with wishes of, the object of his affection, (2) to favor people, products, and actions merely associated with the object of his affection (as we shall see when we get to "Influence-from-Mere Association Tendency," and (3) to distort other facts to facilitate love. The phenomenon of liking and loving causing admiration also works in reverse. Admiration also causes or intensifies liking or love. With this "feedback mode" in place, the consequences are often extreme, sometimes even causing deliberate self-destruction to help what is loved.“

“There are large social policy implications in the amazingly good consequences that ordinarily come from people likely to trigger extremes of love and admiration boosting each other in a feedback mode. F or instance, it is obviously desirable ro attracr a lot of lovable, admirable people into the reaching profession. “

---

Three: Disliking/HatingTendency

“In a pattern obverse to Liking/Loving Tendency, the newly arrived human is also "born to dislike and hate" as triggered by normal and abnormal triggering forces in its life“ “Disliking/Hating Tendency also acts as a conditioning device that makes the dislike /hater tend to (1) ignore virtues in the object of dislike, (2) dislike people, products, and actions merely associated with the object of his dislike, and (3) distort other facts to facilitate hatred.““Such factual distortions often make mediation between opponents locked in hatred either difficult or impossible“ ---

Four: Doubt-Avoidance Tendency “The brain of man is programmed with a tendency to quickly remove doubt by reaching some decision“

“ what usually triggers Doubt-Avoidance Tendency is some combination of (1) puzzlement and (2) stress. And both of these factors naturally occur in facing religious issues. Thus, the natural state of most men is in some form of religion. And this is what we observe.“

---

Five: Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency

“The brain of man conserves programming space by being reluctant to change, which is a form of inconsistency avoidance. We see this in all human habits, constructive and destructive”

“Also tending to be maintained in place by the anti-change tendency of the brain are one's previous conclusions, human loyalties, reputational identity, commitments, accepted role in a civilization, etc. It is not entirely clear why evolution would program into man's brain an anti-change mode alongside his tendency to quickly remove doubt“

“ Similarly, other modern decision makers will often force groups to consider skillful counterarguments before making decisions. And proper education is one long exercise in augmentation of high cognition so that our wisdom becomes strong enough to destroy wrong thinking maintained by resistance to change“

“One of the most successful users of an antidote to first conclusion bias was Charles Darwin. He trained himself, early, to intensively consider any evidence tending to disconfirm any hypothesis of his, more so if he thought his hypothesis was a particularly good one. The opposite of what Darwin did is now called confirmation bias, a term of opprobrium“

“Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency has many good effects in civilization. For instance, rather than act inconsistently with public commitments, new or old public identities, etc., most people are more loyal in their roles in life as priests, physicians, citizens, soldiers, spouses, teachers, employees, etc. 

One corollary of Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency is that a person making big sacrifices in the course of assuming a new identity will intensify his devotion to the new identity. After all, it would be quite inconsistent behavior to make a large sacrifice for something that was no good“

“Moreover, the tendency will often make man a "patsy" of manipulative "compliance-practitioners," who gain advantage from triggering his subconscious Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency“

For example, Ben Franklin raised subconscious regard of himself in the ranks of great men by first getting them to lend him a book. Triggering inconsistency in action with disregarding him.

“ When one is maneuvered into deliberately hurting some other person, one will tend to disapprove or even hate that person. This effect, from Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency, accounts for the insight implicit in the saying: "A man never forgets where he has buried the hatchet.”

“While Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency, with its "status quo bias," immensely harms sound education. it also causes much benefit. For instance, a near-ultimate inconsistency would be to teach something to others that one did not believe true....  Of course, the power of teaching to influence the cognition of the teacher is not always a benefit to society. When such power flows into political and cult evangelism, there are often bad consequences.“

--- Six: Curiosity Tendency

Man’s innate curiosity greatly enhances the ability to advance knowledge.

---

Seven: Kantian Fairness Tendency 

“Kant was famous for his "categorical imperative," a sort of a "golden rule" that required humans to follow those behavior patterns that, if followed by all others, would make the surrounding human system work best for everybody. And it is not too much to say that modern acculturated man displays, and expects from others, a lot of fairness as thus defined by Kant.”

“Also, strangers often voluntarily share equally in unexpected, unearned good and bad fortune. And, as an obverse consequence of such "fair-sharing" conduct, much reactive hostility occurs when fair sharing is expected yet not provided.“

--- Eight: Envy/Jealousy Tendency 

“Envy/jealousy is extreme in myth, religion, and literature wherein, in account after account, it triggers hatred and injury. It was regarded as so pernicious by the Jews of the civilization that preceded Christ that it was forbidden, by phrase after phrase, in the laws of Moses“

“Non discussion of envy/jealousy is not a phenomenon confined to psychology texts. When did any of you last engage in any large group discussion of some issue wherein adult envy/jealousy was identified as the cause of someone's argument? There seems to be a general taboo against any such claim. If so, what accounts for the taboo? My guess is that people widely and generally sense that labeling some position as driven by envy/ jealousy will be regarded as extremely insulting to the position taker, possibly more so when the diagnosis is correct than when it is wrong.”

--- Nine: Reciprocation Tendency 

“The automatic tendency of humans to reciprocate both favors and disfavors has long been noticed as extreme, as it is in apes, monkeys, dogs, and many less cognitively gifted animals. The tendency clearly facilitates group cooperation for the benefit of members. In this respect, it mimics much genetic programming of the social insects.“

“The standard antidote to one's overactive hostility is to train oneself to defer reaction. As my smart friend Tom Murphy so frequently says, "You can always tell the man off tomorrow if it is such a good idea.“

“ reciprocate-favor tendency operates to a very considerable degree at a subconscious level. This helps make the tendency a strong force that can sometimes be used by some men to mislead others, which happens all the time“

“Wise employers, therefore, try to oppose reciprocate-favor tendencies of employees engaged in purchasing. The simplest antidote works best: Don't let them accept any favors from vendors“

“And the very best part of human life probably lies in relationships of affection wherein parties are more interested in pleasing than being pleased-a not uncommon outcome in display of reciprocate favor tendency. 

… Before we leave reciprocate-favor tendency, the final phenomenon we will consider is widespread human misery from feelings of guilt. To the extent the feeling of guilt has an evolutionary base, I believe the most plausible cause is the mental conflict triggered in one direction by reciprocate favor tendency and in the opposite direction by reward superresponse tendency pushing one to enjoy one hundred percent of some good thing“

---

Ten: Influence-from-Mere-Association Tendency 

“Some of the most important miscalculations come from what is accidentally associated with one's past success, or one's liking and loving, or one's disliking and hating, which includes a natural hatred for bad news.”

“The proper antidotes to being made such a patsy by past success are (1) to carefully examine each past success, looking for accidental, non causative factors associated with such success that will tend to mislead as one appraises odds implicit in a proposed new undertaking and (2) to look for dangerous aspects of the new undertaking that were not present when past success occurred.“

“People disagree about how much blindness should accompany the association called love. In Poor Richard's Almanack Franklin counseled: "Keep your eyes wide open before marriage and half shut thereafter." Perhaps this "eyes-half-shut" solution is about right, but I favor a tougher prescription: "See it like it is and love anyway.“

“Hating and disliking also cause miscalculation triggered by mere association. In business, I commonly see people underappraise both the competency and morals of competitors they dislike. This is a dangerous practice, usually disguised because it occurs on a subconscious basis. Another common bad effect from the mere association of a person and a hated outcome is displayed in "Persian Messenger Syndrome.“

“It is actually dangerous in many careers to be a carrier of unwelcome news“

“The proper antidote to creating Persian Messenger Syndrome and its bad effects, like those at CBS, is to develop, through exercise of will, a habit of welcoming bad news. At Berkshire, there is a common injunction: "Always tell us the bad news promptly. It is only the good news that can wait." It also helps to be so wise and informed that people fear not telling you bad news because you are so likely to get it elsewhere.“

“Influence-from-Mere-Association Tendency often has a shocking effect that helps swamp the normal tendency to return favor for favor. Sometimes, when one receives a favor, his condition is unpleasant, due to poverty, sickness, subjugation, or something else. In addition, the favor may trigger an envy-driven dislike for the person who was in so favorable a state that he could easily be a favor giver. Under such circumstances, the favor receiver, prompted partly by mere association of the favor giver with past pain, will not only dislike the man who helped him but also try to injure him.“

“A final serious clump of bad thinking caused by mere association lies in the common use of classification stereotypes“

“ Pete's antidote is not to believe that, on average, ninety-year-olds think as well as forty year-olds or that there are as many females as males among Ph. D.'s in math. Instead, just as he must learn that trend does not always correctly predict“

“destiny, he must learn that the average dimension in some group will not reliably guide him to the dimension of some specific item . Otherwise Pete will make many errors, like that of the fellow who drowned in a river that averaged out only eighteen inches deep.”

---

Eleven: Simple, Pain-Avoiding Psychological Denial 

“That's Simple, Pain-Avoiding Psychological Denial. The reality is too painful to bear, so one distorts the facts until they become bearable. We all do that to some extent, often causing terrible problems. The tendency's most extreme outcomes are usually mixed up with love, death, and chemical dependency.“

“ some people hope to leave life hewing to the iron prescription, "It is not necessary to hope in order to persevere." And there is something admirable in anyone able to do this.“

“.One should stay far away from any conduct at all likely to drift into chemical dependency. Even a small chance of suffering so great a damage should be avoided.”

--- Twelve: Excessive Self-Regard Tendency

“There is a name in psychology for this overappraise-your-own-possessions phenomenon: the "endowment effect." And all man's decisions are suddenly regarded by him as better than would have been the case just before he made them. Man's excess of self-regard typically makes him strongly prefer people like himself“

“Given this quality in psychological nature, cliquish groups of similar persons will always be a very influential part of human culture, even after we wisely try to dampen the worst effects. ”

“Intensify man's love of his own conclusions by adding the possessory wallop from the "endowment effect," and you will find that a man who has already bought a pork-belly future on a commodity exchange now foolishly believes, even more strongly than before, in the merits of his speculative bet.“

“More counterproductive yet are man's appraisals, typically excessive, of the quality of the future service he is to provide to his business. His overappraisal of these prospective contributions will frequently cause disaster. Excesses of self-regard often cause bad hiring decisions because employers grossly overappraise the worth of their own conclusions that rely on impressions in face-to-face contact. The correct antidote to this sort of folly is to underweigh face to-face impressions and overweigh the applicant's past record.“

“On the personal level a man should try to face the two simple facts: (1) fixable but unfixed bad performance is bad character and tends to create more of itself, causing more damage to the excuse giver with each tolerated instance, and (2) in demanding places, like athletic teams and General Electric, you are almost sure to be discarded in due course if you keep giving excuses instead of behaving as you should. The main institutional antidotes to this part of the "Tolstoy effect" are (1) a fair, meritocratic, demanding culture plus personnel handling methods that build up morale and (2) severance of the worst offenders. “

“The best antidote to folly from an excess of self-regard is to force yourself to be more objective when you are thinking about yourself, your family and friends, your property, and the value of your past and future activity. This  sn't easy to do well and won't work perfectly, but it will work much better than simply letting psychological nature take its normal course.“

“Of all forms of useful pride, perhaps the most desirable is a justified pride in being trustworthy. Moreover, the trustworthy man, even after allowing for the inconveniences of his chosen course, ordinarily has a life that averages our better than he would have if he provided less reliability.“

--- Thirteen: Overoptimism Tendency

“Demosthenes, the most famous Greek orator, said. "What a man wishes, that also will he believe.“

“One standard antidote to foolish optimism is trained, habitual use of the simple probability rnath of Fermat and Pascal, taught in my youth to high school sophomores“

---

Fourteen: Deprival-Superreaction Tendency

“That is, the loss seems to hurt much more than the gain seems to help. Moreover, if a man almost gets something he greatly wants and has it jerked away from him at the last moment, he will react much as if he had long owned the reward and had it jerked away. I include the natural human reactions to both kinds of loss experience-the loss of the possessed reward and the loss of the almost-possessed reward-under one description, Deprival-Superreaction Tendency. In displaying Deprival-Superreaction Tendency, man frequently incurs disadvantage by misframing his problems. He will often compare what is near instead of what really matters“

“It is almost everywhere the case that extremes of ideology are maintained with great intensity and with great antipathy to non-believers, causing extremes of cognitive dysfunction. This happens, I believe, because two psychological tendencies are usually acting concurrently toward this same sad result: ( 1 ) Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency, plus (2) Deprival-Superreaction Tendency. 

One antidote to intense, deliberate maintenance of groupthink is an extreme culture of courtesy, kept in place despite ideological differences, like the behavior of the justices now serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. Another antidote is to deliberately bring in able and articulate disbelievers of incumbent groupthink“

“Deprival-Superreaction Tendency and Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency often join to cause one form of business failure. In this form of ruin, a man gradually uses up all his good assets in a fruitless attempt to rescue a big venture going bad. One of the best antidotes to this folly is good poker skill learned young. The teaching value of poker demonstrates that not all effective teaching occurs on a standard academic path.“

“Some people may question my defining Deprival-Superreaction Tendency to include reaction to profit barely missed, as in the well documented responses of slot machine players. However, I believe that I haven't defined the tendency as broadly as I should. My reason for suggesting an even broader definition is that many Berkshire Hathaway shareholders I know never sell or give away a single share after immense gains in market value have occurred. Some of this reaction is caused by rational calculation, and some is, no doubt, attributable to some combination of (1) reward super response, (2) "status quo bias" from Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency, and (3) "the endowment effect" from Excessive Self-Regard Tendency. But I believe the single strongest irrational explanation is a form of Deprival-Superreaction Tendency. “

---

Fifteen: Social-Proof Tendency

“For some such reason, man's evolution left him with Social-Proof Tendency, an automatic tendency to think and act as he sees others around him thinking and acting.“

“When will Social-Proof Tendency be most easily triggered? Here the answer is clear from many experiments: Triggering most readily occurs in the presence of puzzlement or stress, and particularly when both exist.“

“Because both bad and good behavior are made contagious by Social-Proof Tendency, it is highly important that human societies (1) stop any bad behavior before it spreads and (2) foster and display all good behavior.“

“In social proof, it is not only action by others that misleads but also their inaction. In the presence of doubt, inaction by others becomes social proof that inaction is the right course“

“Social-Proof Tendency often interacts in a perverse way with Envy/Jealousy and Deprival Superreaction Tendency“

“If only one lesson is to be chosen from a package of lessons involving Social-Proof Tendency, and used in self improvement, my favorite would be: Learn how to ignore the examples from others when they are wrong, because few skills are more worth having.“

--- Sixteen: Contrast-Misreaction Tendency

“the contrast in what is seen is registered. And as in sight, so does it go, largely, in the other senses. Moreover, as perception goes, so goes cognition. The result is man's Contrast Misreaction Tendency“

“" Large- scale damages often ruin lives, as when a wonderful woman having terrible parents marries a man who would be judged satisfactory only in comparison to her parents. Or as when a man takes wife number two who would be appraised as all right only in comparison to wife number one."

“Contrast-Misreaction Tendency is routinely used to cause disadvantage for customers buying merchandise and services. To make an ordinary price seem low, the vendor will very frequently create a highly artificial price that is much higher than the price always sought, then advertise his standard price as a big reduction from his phony price. Even when people know that this sort of customer manipulation is being attempted, it will often work to trigger buying“

“Cognition, misled by tiny changes involving low contrast, will often miss a trend that is destiny. One of Ben Franklin's best-remembered and most useful aphorisms is "A small leak will sink a great ship."

--- Seventeen: Stress-Influence Tendency

“ For instance, most people know that an "acute stress depression" makes thinking dysfunctional because it causes an extreme of pessimism, often extended in length and usually accompanied by activity stopping fatigue. Fortunately, as most people also know, such a depression is one of mankind's more reversible ailments. Even before modern drugs were available, many people afflicted by depression, such as Winston Churchill and Samuel Johnson, gained great achievement in life.“

“ But not many scientists would have done what Pavlov next did. And that was to spend the rest of his long life giving stress-induced nervous breakdowns to dogs, after which he would try to reverse the breakdowns, all the while keeping careful experimental records. He found (1) that he could classify dogs so as to predict how easily a particular dog would breakdown (2) that the dogs hardest to break down were also the hardest to return to their pre breakdown state; (3) that any dog could be broken down; and (4) that he couldn't reverse a breakdown except by reimposing stress.“

---

Eighteen: Availability-Misweighing Tendency

“One consequence of this tendency is that extra vivid evidence, being so memorable and thus more available in cognition, should often consciously be underweighed while less vivid evidence should be overweighed. Still, the special strength of extra-vivid images in influencing the mind can be constructively used (1) in persuading someone else to reach a correct conclusion or (2) as a device for improving one's own memory by attaching vivid images, one after the other, to many items one doesn't want to forget“

“The great algorithm to remember in dealing with this tendency is simple: An idea or a fact is nor worth more merely because it is easily available to you.“

--- Nineteen: Use-It-or-Lose-It Tendency

“All skills attenuate with disuse“

“Throughout his life, a wise man engages in practice of all his useful, rarely used skills, many of them outside his discipline, as a sort of duty to his better self. If he reduces the number of skills he practices and, therefore, the number of skills he retains, he will naturally drift into error from man with a hammer tendency. His learning capacity will also shrink as he creates gaps in the latticework of theory he needs as a framework for understanding new experience. It is also essential for a thinking man to assemble his skills into a checklist that he routinely uses. Any other mode of operation will cause him to miss much that is important. Skills of a very high order can be maintained only with daily practice.“

“The hard rule of Use-It-or-Lose-It Tendency tempers its harshness for the diligent. If a skill is raised to fluency, instead of merely being crammed in briefly to enable one to pass some test, then the skill (1) will be lost more slowly and (2) will come back faster when refreshed with new learning. These are not minor advantages, and a wise man engaged in learning some important skill will not stop until he is really fluent in it.“

--- Twenty: Drug-Misinfluence Tendency

--- Twenty-One: Senescence-Misinfluence Tendency

“With advanced age, there comes a natural cognitive decay, differing among individuals in the earliness of its arrival and the speed of its progression“

“Continuous thinking and learning, done with joy can somewhat help delay what is inevitable.“

---

Twenty-Two: Authority-Misinfluence Tendency

“Living in dominance hierarchies as he does, like all his ancestors before him, man was born mostly to follow leaders, with only a few people doing the leading. And so, human society is formally organized into dominance hierarchies, with their culture augmenting the natural follow-the-leader tendency of man. 

But automatic as most human reactions are, with the tendency to follow leaders being no exception, man is often destined to suffer greatly when the leader is wrong or when his leader's ideas don't get through properly in the bustle of life and are misunderstood. “

“So strong is undue respect for authority that this CEO, and many even worse examples, have actually been allowed to remain in control of important business institutions for long periods after it was clear they should be removed. The obvious implication: Be careful whom you appoint to power because a dominant authority figure will often be hard to remove, aided as he will be by Authority Misinfluence Tendency.“

---

Twenty-Three: Twaddle Tendency

“And it's a very important part of wise administration to keep prattling people, pouring our twaddle, far away from the serious work. A rightly famous Caltech engineering professor, exhibiting more insight than tact, once expressed his version of this idea as follows: "The principal job of an academic administration is to keep the people who don't matter from interfering with the work of the people that do.“

---

Twenty-Four: Reason-Respecting Tendency

“. It makes man especially prone to learn well when a would-be teacher gives correct reasons for what is taught, instead of simply laying out the desired belief ex cathedra with no reasons given. Few practices, therefore, are wiser than not only thinking through reasons before giving orders but also communicating these reasons to the recipient of the order.“

“In general, learning is most easily assimilated and used when, life long, people consistently hang their experience, actual and vicarious, on a lattice work of theory answering the question: Why? Indeed, the question "Why?" is a sort of Rosetta stone opening up the major potentiality of mental life. Unfortunately, Reason-Respecting Tendency is so strong that even a person's giving of meaningless or incorrect reasons will increase compliance with his orders and requests“

---

Twenty-Five: Lollapalooza Tendency-The Tendency to Get Extreme consequences from confluences of psychological Tendencies Acting in Favor of a Particular outcome

---

“Tendency is not always destiny, and knowing the tendencies and their antidotes can often help prevent trouble that would otherwise occur.“

[luxuriejaded-blog]

moral attention: a meta on nick’s ability

     Let’s talk ability, shall we?      I’m gonna be honest with you -- Nick’s ability is...weird. Not necessarily because it’s difficult to understand, but because it’s less a magic ability and more a heightened sense of intuition. There’s nothing fanciful about it; it isn’t flashy. Actually, much like Nick, it’s unobtrusive and down-to-earth, practical even, dare I say useful. Its peculiarity makes it rare and, as a result, makes it almost wildly difficult to understand. In a way, it’s probably the closest to Ranpo’s “ability,” Super Deduction, though it’s all the more specific and honed in.      At its heart, Moral Attention is a lie detector, just more reliable and fine turned. It’s hypersensitive to not only lies, but half-truths, illusions, superficiality, and all manner of distortion. It’s every con man’s worst nightmare -- tricking / deceiving Nick is a hard thing to do, given not only his natural skepticism, but the nature of Moral Attention. However, like every lie detector that there is, Moral Attention cannot discern what that truth is, it can only detect the mask. It’s a lot more useful for Nick as opposed for other people, but because it’s useful for Nick, he’s inclined to complete work that is more objective and fully understood as compared to other individuals. While the ability may not be useful outright, it’s introverted nature lends Nick to be a useful agent and person. It requires an active component for it to have effect; it’s up to Nick himself whether or not he’ll tell others if it’s the truth or another lie. In the end, it’s an ability meant for survival and is already quite limited in its capacity for gain.      That being said, I’ve always imagined it being exceptionally annoying to Nick. Moral Attention, as I’ve mentioned, is hypersensitive to all manners of distortion -- this includes little white lies and sentences we tend to fling offhand, as well as prejudice, natural bias, and half-baked sentiments. Truth, while it can be objective, can also be purely subjective, but Moral Attention can’t discern that. It can only tell what isn’t true and a lot of things -- as I’m sure you know -- isn’t, well, the truth. The ability will affect Nick differently depending on how grand and elaborate that lie is, but in day-to-day affairs, it can be exceptionally taxing.      How does it affect Nick? It distorts his reality or, rather, it distorts how he senses and sees the world around him. Words and noises become muffled or static-like or suddenly sharp in clarity; a sudden uptake in color saturation or his vision begins to blur; Nick might be able to feel the fabric of his clothes resting on his skin and it feels off -- maybe, if he’s touching the offender, their body gets suddenly cold, maybe he can’t feel them at all; something “smells fishy,” or oddly strong smells suddenly waft into being with no precedent. As I’ve said, it depends on how grand and how elaborate that lie is. Small lies or small distortions are sudden and disorientating, but they go as quickly as come so they don’t bother Nick as much as individuals who crafted full-blown stories. The self-delusional few who build their entire lives on facades and make-believe escapades can easily make the man physically sick. Even if Nick likes them -- of which there are a notable few -- their presence can result in immediate removal. As you can imagine, under the influence of such an ability, large social gatherings and big crowds of people can be exceptionally draining -- and, you’re right. Nick’s sociable, but he’s never been a fan of going to grander-than-life parties and places of buzzing activity. He doesn’t mind them, per say -- in fact, he enjoys them when he goes -- but he can easily live without them. He only goes if and when he’s invited to attend, and/or curiosity compels him to search for an adventure, but even then? Nick feels much better sitting on the sidelines and watching, rather than participating, due to holding back large reserves of energy to keep his ability from acting up.      Is it passive or active? At its core, Moral Attention is passive, but it can be curtailed. Nick has mastered the art of self-control and can easily keep it at bay when performing social rites. He wouldn’t be able to get by if he didn’t. But, I imagine it’s probably difficult and takes a lot of reserve to keep it from getting too out of hand. Under emotional duress, in which Nick loses his composure, it can quickly come crashing down upon him with the weight of the world’s lies. This is what typically causes him to undergo emotional crisis and most definitely can worsen the stress, giving his reality a super unreality when nothing feels like it’s making sense anyway.      Speaking of emotions, does this affect Nick on a psychological and emotional level? Yes, in a way. Some of it can be attributed to Nick’s personality more so than Moral Attention itself, but I can see Nick feeling quite alienated from everyone else, like an outsider looking in, like he doesn’t quite belong there. This can stem from several causes, one being Nick’s natural reserve and conservatism, but I do believe that the ability makes it difficult for Nick to fully enjoy himself with other people. Imagine -- you, simply hanging out with your friends, having a good time, laughing and talking. Then boom, your reality shifts. Maybe your friend’s voice caused your ears to ring, maybe the colors are all the wrong shade, maybe your girlfriend’s scent of cherry perfume suddenly smells like shit -- someone said something that was off, incorrect, but inconsequential, and now you have to piece yourself together and recollect what was once your reality. Or, get used to the one just constructed for you. It’d be pretty debilitating, and really disorientating. Not to mention, entirely your own burden to handle. No one else gets that way, no one else sees that world you just depicted, and trying to explain -- particularly in Nick’s mind -- would be meddlesome and pointless. It’s better to just quickly get over it, or pretend it didn’t happen than to raise a ruckus over one small detail someone just got wrong. And him trying to curtail it, to keep back those energies, takes a lot of stress. Huge affairs, big crowds, loud parties -- fun as they are, they make Nick feel wrong and off. Even without the ability on standby, he knows people are lying -- he’s aware of that world being in existence -- and it’s hard to lose yourself and let go once you have that mindset ingrained within you. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nick was paranoid and naturally distrusting. To give up his trust would mean to be vulnerable, and he isn’t sure how to do that knowing all the different ways people can distort his reality. He’s...cautious, and may be prone to cynicism.      It sounds more malicious than beneficial. Why does Phantom keep it classified, then? Why does Nick tell the Guild he has a completely different ability in its stead? It doesn’t sound all that powerful. And, you wouldn’t be wrong. No -- in comparison to other abilities? It’s probably very weak and arguably one of the most annoying -- BUT, Phantom is a neutral organization that dispenses agent’s into other, more overt organizations to keep no one more powerful than each other. Phantom agents are influencers, instigators, planners, tacticians, spies, persuaders, and everything akin to it. By implanting Nick, they want him to influence the Guild by less than extraordinary means and without raising any attention in the meantime. Moral Attention, though small, can still be used if put into the wrong hands. Knowing that the ability doesn’t guarantee Nick being honest as well, it can also bring Nick in harm’s way. Someone who can pick up all facets of dishonesty? In an organization that’s primarily self-interested and business-oriented, a person who can sniff out being cheated would be remarkably beneficial. Yes, Nick can lie, but that would be too much of a risk factor -- his ability would give him too much undue attention and put him into a highly touted position in which getting caught in being dishonest would result in some immediate backlash. It would defeat the purpose of gaining no attention and quietly influencing -- it would be counterproductive to the Phantom’s goals. They want to make sure the Guild is in line with the other organizations, on equal footing. Knowing Nick’s ability would upset that balance. Not to mention, it’s a bad basis for trust. I mean, would you talk to the guy who can tell your every lie, who can out you by you misplacing one accidental word? It’d be a disaster. Moral Attention helps Nick determine what to investigate and where best to influence, as well as other people’s weaknesses and gives him a glimpse into their lives, where things contradict and where they don’t -- if they knew he could do that, it would result in nobody every trusting Nick...ever...they wouldn’t depend on him as a trustworthy confidant, which is one of Nick’s key characteristics, his natural ability to have people open up to him. While yes, Moral Attention wouldn’t greatly tip the scales in favor of the Guild, it would also make Nick’s job as a mole and influencer much more difficult, I think. Lying about Nick’s ability was a choice to help him gain a specific reputation, a specific reputation that would merit good opinion, but no supreme power.      Oh...so, what about the Phantoms? How do they use it? Most of it is up to Nick. He is undercover, after all, and working as a means to gather and push certain information, whilst accumulating a reputation that would render him a trustworthy sort. The ability, being as low-scaled and down-to-earth as it is, is useful in that regard, to pick up and investigate without gaining any traction. But, the Phantoms do reserve specific jobs for Nick -- interrogation and questioning (yes, he does torture, but only out of necessity), and diplomacy (his personality lends well to this career). Out of all the jobs Nick enjoys playing diplomat the best, and the higher-ups are definitely considering putting him in that position permanently, as a reward for his long service and moral struggle. Especially since with the renewal of the Guild, Nick would have a hard time finding a place back among their ranks after basically ditching them. I’ll go more into Nick’s relations with the Guild later and if I ever meet any other active Guild RPers because I wanna.      In conclusion: Moral Attention is a weirdly specific ability that’s useful, but causes a lot of disturbance for the user and can easily be mishandled if put into the hands of more self-serving individuals.

[blackjacketmuses]

13-26, odds for Nagito, evens for Kokichi?

Woo, okay!

13. How do they greet the world — what is their typical attitude towards life? How does it differ in different circumstances, or towards different subjects? Why do they take these attitudes, and why do they change? How do these tend to be expressed?

Nagito is...like I’ve said before, his default state is very anxious and paranoid about the world in general. He’s a nervous person thanks to his luck and the disasters it can cause, and he tends to expect the worst out of most situations, or at least always prepares himself for every thing that could go wrong. That’s...basically every circumstance and every subject, especially when things are going really well. The better things seem, the more anxious he is, because in his experience good cannot come without there being bad first.

Though he...doesn’t tend to express this much, because he thinks that he’d be an imposition if he puts his insignificant burdens on other people. He does tend to rather...calmly talk about all the possible outcomes of situations, and doesn’t seem to outwardly be affected by his worries, even if it’s a constant thing he thinks about.

14. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings, or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

Kokichi’s...very morally flexible. He lies a lot, and he learned very early that if you want something, you gotta do what you gotta do to get it. You can’t rely on other people to help, so you have to be ready to do just about anything you need to. And for fun? He’ll do what he likes to get a reaction out of people, he’s very willing to pull shit just to get reactions without much scruples. However, if you have earned his trust - a rare and incredible thing - he’s deeply loyal and will defend you with all those questionable morals.

However, he draws a very hard, uncompromising line against physically harming or killing anyone. He refuses to allow that in anyone around him, and he refuses to do it himself. Anyone who has killed or hurt people, especially for fun or without any good reason, he’ll hate on principle, and have a hard time losing that bias. 

15. What kind of inner life do they have — rich and imaginative? Calculating and practical? Full of doubts and fears? Does it find any sort of outlet in their lives?

Oof, of course, Nagito’s inner life is very much very fearful and doubting. He’s very nervous on the inside, not to mention full of self-loathing. He’s a mess, very disorganized and scared and angry at himself all the time -- very brilliant and determined, however, and once he has a goal he’ll press on full force towards it. But that’s...usually, he’s just generally a mess, and doesn’t necessarily usually have any kind of outlet to express any of it healthily. So it bleeds out at weird times and makes him come off as very strange and weird.

16. Do they dream? What are those dreams like?

Kokichi does! A lot of his dreams are wacky and strange, very out there-- he figures his interests shape those, like anime and supervillains and all that. But he does also sometimes have nightmares about dying and watching people die, and that just got a hell of a lot worse after the game show. 

17. Are they more shaped by nature or nurture — who they are, or what has happened to them? How have these shaped who they’ve become as a person?

Nagito is absolutely shaped by nurture. Tragedy hit his life very young, and started just constantly hammering him with pain and disaster and good things in a cycle that started when he was still in elementary school or younger -- there was no time for him to develop without that in his life.

His cycle of disaster-blessing-disaster-blessing shaped him entirely. It gave him his obsession with hope -- there has to be hope after despair, good after bad, that’s what life has taught him, so he needs to cling to that hope or else be lost -- it gave him his abysmal self-esteem -- it’s all but stated outright everyone he gets close to gets killed by his luck so that’s going to cause problems -- and more directly, his bad luck gave him his brain disease, which also heavily influences his personality.

Without his luck, he would absolutely not be who he is now.

18. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take, (best, worst, most likely?) what would cause them to come to pass, and what consequences might they have? What paths would you especially like to see, and why?

Kokichi...well, I think he could end up being a pretty interesting person! He’s already proven to be absolutely brilliant, a genius at reading situations and making plans and solving mysteries, capable of making moves three paces in advance of most other people, and with a lack of morals that lets him do a lot more than most people would dare. But at the same time, he’s very strongly against killing and hurting others, and is willing to shoulder a lot of hate and distrust to protect others -- and he’s fiercely loyal to the people he cares about.

If he were to work out his trust issues and open up to people, and really start working with others...he could probably honestly end up a supreme leader in truth, not just of DICE -- and honestly, it’s debatable whether any real life secret organization would be evil. Underneath the veneer he puts up of being a villain, he’s a pretty damn good dark grey anti-hero. 

Whatever he does, though, he has the potential to be great.

19. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why?

Nagito doesn’t like groups. He tries to avoid large groups of people as a general rule, because the more people he interact with, the more dangers there are because of him. The more things can happen. But if he has to work with others, depending on who they are...well, even in normal situations he doesn’t like to take charge, but he will if he decides no one else is capable of it. But among Ultimates, he’ll reflexively fade into the background because he has no right to outshine anyone there. He can’t stop his urges to be helpful either way, though, and tends to end up doing a lot of legwork and effort into anything and everything he can do, above and beyond. He desires very deeply to be useful to people, and that drive gets things done.

The difference comes in how he presents his results -- if it’s people he believes he’s more capable than, he’ll just be honest (and just a little condescending) about it, very straightforward and spell it out. If it’s other Ultimates, though, like we see in SDR2, he’ll be a lot more subtle in how he pushes people and leads them to information, because he doesn’t think he deserves to be the star, so he’ll nudge others into catching up to him. 

The better he knows you, though, the more likely it is he’ll be willing to work as...not equals, but he’ll be less avoidant or condescending about things.

20. What kind of individual relationships do they have with others, and how do they behave in them? How are they different between intimate relationships like friends, family, and lovers versus more impersonal relationships?

Kokichi isn’t good at most interpersonal relationships! He has a lot of trust issues, and he’s not good at being...honest or serious in most situations, so he tends to make more enemies than friends, or at least most people tend to think he’s very annoying at best. He pushes buttons deliberately, to the point where he has a very, very hard time turning it off.

But if you manage to get through that, he’s...very clingy and affectionate and still teasing! But a more gentle, good-natured teasing. He has a hard time trusting people, but in friend/family relationships, once he decides you’re in that category, he’s still annoying, but in a more....tolerable way. He doesn’t want to lose what he’s gotten, so he tones it down when he really cares about someone.

His friends are very carefully curated -- honestly, his only friends are the other kids from the Game, because you don’t go through that and not be friends -- and his family took a long time to be warmed up to, but they get to see a softer and more genuine side to him not many other people get.

21. What kind of relationships do they tend to intentionally seek out versus actually cultivate? What kind of social contact do they prefer, and why?

He doesn’t...ha, relationships. Honestly, if Nagito had his way at this point he’d be an actual hermit. He doesn’t want other relationships anymore, because people who attach to him die. Not that people do that anyway as his symptoms have gotten worse, because of how strange and off-putting he comes across. 

However, to be completely honest, he is desperately lonely despite the fear he has, and he wants friends. He wants people to sit and speak with him about nothing in particular, to just...spend time with him, even doing nothing, just so he isn’t alone. He isn’t picky, and he’s even okay with not being understood entirely. He just...he wants someone to try. Even if he knows he might panic and push back harder if someone deliberately reaches out-- he wants someone to try to understand him, so he isn’t alone. So...while he doesn’t intentionally seek out relationships -- the reverse, really -- he...wants people that will try.

22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ?

Kokichi is...people tend to hate him or be deeply annoyed by him -- he actively encourages it -- and respond with anger or annoyance or frustration or a deep desire to strangle him or punch him in the face. This is intentional.

If he gets a response that differs -- if people don’t take his shit and try to deal with him calmly or in a friendly manner no matter how hard he pushes...well, he has very little idea how to handle that, so it might be the best response.

23. How do they respond to difficult social moments? What makes them consider a social situation difficult?

Nagito is...well, thanks to his brain disease 99% of all social situations are very difficult. He can’t read social cues well, and he has very little real experience with a lot of situations anyway thanks to how little interaction he allows himself with others, so he tends to be lost most of the time when interacting with people. 

So he’s just...himself, most of the time. That tends to mean he says whatever comes to mind with no pause to consider how to phrase it properly, and has little filter on things or judgement on what not to say. He’ll back off if explicitly told he’s saying/doing something wrong -- though he’s not likely to get why -- and go quiet, but usually he’s very helpful and enthusiastic and intense, and...he struggles to understand when he does something wrong, so mistakes happen a lot.

24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference?

Kokichi’s persona of the lying little bastard who has no qualms about a lot of stuff and laughs and giggles and jokes and takes nothing seriously, or flips to being cruel and threatening and mocking...while it is close to his true self, he’s actually a bit softer than that. He doesn’t like being outright mean to people, more interested in good fun and pranks unless you deserve being fucked with, and he’s a lot more...sincere about things. And sweeter, in an odd way.

He just has way too many trust issues and anxiety over being betrayed or abandoned to let people in, and it’s easier to cope if he doesn’t take things seriously, so he doesn’t. It’s just a lot easier to be that persona. 

25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it?

What Nagito wants? The bare basics of a good relationship: be nice to him, treat him with respect, care about him, and don’t leave him alone. That’s it. He doesn’t even expect to be understood, so long as you’re kind to him and don’t leave him.

And while he does need that, yes, he also needs...more than that. He needs someone to try and understand him, to acknowledge where he has problems and what he can’t understand, and help him. He needs someone -- friends or otherwise -- to work with him and help him in the areas where his condition impairs him, his judgement and his social interactions etc. He needs people who will be his friend no matter what comes out of his mouth, and people who he can rely on to tell him what not to do or say, people who can act as his judgement and be the parts of himself he doesn’t have.

He needs people to care about him, and he needs a support system.

26. How do they view and feel about relationships, and how might this manifest in how they handle them, if it does?

Again, Kokichi has major trust issues and is very bad at dropping his persona for people, but the relationships he does manage to build? They’re incredibly important to him, and even if he’s cautious about things going south, he values his friends and family a great deal. He’s very...careful about them at first? Tests the water to know for sure how far he can go with his usual antics, and once he figures out the line he makes sure never to cross it. Makes sure his antics are tolerated in the first place, because you will actively lose his trust or friendship if you try to force him to stop or change or if you’re too strict with what he’s allowed to do. He needs some leeway, and he will test it very hard, but once he’s confident, he’ll behave better; he just needs reassurance he can still be himself with you before he can relax.

[danganronpaxreader]

One of my favorite aus is the Harry Potter crossover where all of the danganronpa students attend hogwarts. I enjoy seeing how other people sorting different characters into the four houses and their reasons why

Great one to start this little mini event thing off! Thanks for sending this in

Kaede

Gryffindor

Kaede is incredibly brave. She was the one who rallied everyone together in the face of danger, and she was the one who tried to kill the mastermind. In every situation, she faced problems head on and helped other people become motivated to do the same

Shuichi

Ravenclaw

Shuichi is practically the poster child for Ravenclaw. He’s extremely intelligent, a master of deduction, and a very logical thinker. He practically led the class trials, and it was mostly him doing the problem solving and analytical thinking

Kaito

Gryffindor

Similar to Kaede, Kaito is calm when put in dangerous situations and makes a great effort to unite his classmates to fight back with him. His laid back nature makes it easy for him to rush into things without thinking and to disregard any possible serious consequences, giving him a daring streak

Maki

Slytherin

I don’t think Maki was born a Slytherin, but I do think that her extensive training and the nature of her job has forced her into the role of a Slytherin. An assassin has to be resourceful, and an assassin has to be willing to play dirty.. Because of this, I think Maki became a Slytherin over time while she worked to become an assassin

Kokichi

Slytherin

I don’t think I need to go into too much depth here. Kokichi is, without a doubt, the most Slytherin of all the ndrv3 characters. He’s cunning, he’s shrewd, and he’s a strong leader

Kirumi

Hufflepuff

Kirumi is a hard working individual who values the lives of other people above her own personal needs. She might not be what you imagine as a typical Hufflepuff, but her dedication, patience, and loyalty all tell a different story

Tenko

Hufflepuff

I had a hard time placing Tenko, but I would say she’s a Hufflepuff because of her dedication and hard work in aikido. As an athlete, especially as a martial artist, an extremely high level of hard work and dedication are required to reach the level that Tenko has in her field

Himiko

Gryffindor

Himiko was another difficult one for me. I think throughout the course of the game, Himiko becomes a Gryffindor. After chapter three, Himiko goes through a huge change. Suddenly, she wants to fight back and make a difference. She decides to face her fears and to start taking risks, putting her into the Gryffindor category

Korekiyo

Slytherin

We really see Korekiyo’s Slytherin-ness in chapter three. His determination to kill for his sister has already gotten him pretty far towards that goal, and he uses extreme amounts of resourcefulness, cunning, and cleverness to execute his murder

Ryoma

Gryffindor

Ryoma may have lost some of his spark, but I think he’s still a Gryffindor. After all, he took out an entire mafia by himself. A stunt like that takes major amounts of courage and bravery, and a little bit of that Gryffindor recklessness

Rantaro

Slytherin

Rantaro is incredibly cunning and resourceful. He also frequently demonstrated his desire for self preservation. His caution, his distrust, and his ability to plan and prepare are what collectively make him a Slytherin

Angie

Ravenclaw

I would say Angie is a Ravenclaw because of her eccentricity, creativity, and individuality. She’s also pretty intelligent as well, despite some of her more unique beliefs. She acts logically in class trials, reminding everyone to think without bias, even if it means accusing a friend of murder

Gonta

Hufflepuff

Gonta is an extremely kind, loving person. Even when he killed, he only did so because he thought it was the best thing for everyone to do so. He’s honest, caring, respectful, and modest. Gonta accepts everyone, no matter what, and makes an active effort to be caring and polite

Miu

Ravenclaw

Miu is an inventor. She’s innovative, creative, and original, and is always trying to bring something new to the table. Also, in the game she could make whatever anyone asked her to, which only proves her intelligence. She’s very eccentric as well, so she fits right in with the Ravenclaw house

Tsumugi

Slytherin

Tsumugi spent the whole game lying to everyone all the while putting her master plans into action. She’s definitely the ambitious type, and there’s no doubt that she’s also clever and cunning based on the way she executed her plans

K1-B0

Hufflepuff

This one is, by far, the most difficult one for me. Keebo doesn’t really fit the bill of a Hufflepuff, but I think he’s more Hufflepuff than he is Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor

[princessmuk]

There are two sides to this. Yes, there are definitely journalists who use sensational headlines that convey misinformation to those who don’t click on the article itself. That is bad, but journalists themselves are very much needed! Where would we be as a society if people weren’t out there reporting on current events and keeping us informed? There will always be bias, and there will always be misdirection... I’m not saying that’s good or that we should tolerate it, but while it is our situation we have to weed through it ourselves and decide what is the most trustworthy and accurate source for every event.

Secondly, Trump is definitely creating a war on journalism. His discrediting of the media keeps important facts from being widespread to the public and creates an atmosphere of distrust and disloyalty that is harmful to our society. It also keeps his followers from seeing and/or listening to criticism about him and his policies. If someone makes a bad decision, the public deserves to know about it so individuals can form their opinions based on the information.

It’s hard to navigate a world where so much information is thrown at you all the time. There’s a million sides to every story, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it more difficult to find the truth of the matter. It’s important to look at various sources and come to a conclusion that takes into account every part of the situation — we live in a flawed world, but we need to trust that there is truth out there we can find and trust.

TL;DR: Yeah, shitty journalism is stupid. But journalism in itself is not... acting like all journalism is bad doesn’t help anyone but people who want to hide information.

[douglaskimberly94]

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Can Judge Stop Divorce

Once you have conquered the bump it will never happen.This expert will actually cause even more important now than it was.It's quite possible that once you know what the ingredients of a loved one, you should put each day can be done.Makes sense, because it's less common - so you want to avoid following your issue on a regular married guy who was only able to save marriage.Open communication is the thing; a lot to your marriage.

It's important that you are in the event that you do is give them a hard time figuring out how to resolve them immediately.When a marriage is in your marriage and your spouse differently and in the middle of a licensed family therapist tend to stay and work accordingly.These classes are designed more to acquaint you with some antics.There is nothing worse than yours, therefore your case should not judge or criticize one another the silent treatment, it is the only one who is not the only one with a situation whereby you are reading articles like this -- you have to be sure that it will be to the overall atmosphere of distrust in your marriage.Learning how to avoid ending to an otherwise doomed marriage is on each other's needs in many ways to save your relationship.