#{--srsly tho I love psychology its so interesting and exploring Lavi (and also Junior) is just such a trip--}

[49scribes-a]

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Send ϡ for a MENTAL STATE headcanon.


ooc:

{–Okay okay okay but let me just say: I LOVE psychology and psyche studies, especially with intellectual-strategic characters (Lelouche Vi Brittania, Hiccup Haddock, Viggo Grimborn, Richard Riddick, et cetera).

On the subject of both characters like Lavi and Lelouche, there’s one line spoken by Mao from Code Geass that I think really hits home with muses like this one.

“I’m afraid you’re not the kind of person who can keep your mind empty. There’s a part of you that’s a critic, constantly watching your own moves, and there’s another part that’s an observer, watching the critic. Watching you. You’re THAT kind of person.”

I think the same could quite easily be said for Lavi, especially given his ties to the Bookman clan.

I don’t know that I quite did it on purpose (or maybe I did, who knows haha), but I’ve written Lavi this way for quite a long time now, and in a lot of my longer, deeper threads, it shows pretty visibly, whenever its mentioned that “Lavi” is a temporary persona of his, especially in post-Ark threads after his fight with Road.

Whatever the circumstances, Lavi is constantly having to watch himself and keep himself from “slipping”, i.e. from falling into habits of caring too much, especially as the 49th name compared to all of his past names, who didn’t fall into the same “bad habit” as this name did.

I think it’d be quite fair to guess that he would suffer from a rather extreme case of dissociation disorder, compartmentalizing his consciousness, which would be the “Names” he’s dawned across many, many years. Over time some of those names would completely cease to be as they saw less and less use, replaced by more recent Names, which could be called upon at any time, like Deak was.

To put it into context, there would probably be at least three “personalities” at any given time, possibly more but rarely less, depending on the needs and timelines.

“Junior” (regular verse, not triplet verse) or “Junior Bookman” is the one which is always present throughout ALL names. Essentially he is the “core” of Lavi, which hides behind the Names as masks, and regardless of how the Names come to feel, always remains truly unbiased. It could be said that “Junior Bookman” is the only true name he ever possesses at any given time, as its the only constant one he answers to, as it is his official title.

In canon verse, Lavi would be the present Name (obviously), or present Self. The most recent name before that, Deak, the Critic. And Junior would be the Observer, watching both Lavi and Deak to make sure neither fuck up. In previous names, this dynamic would still exist, only with different Names as the “current” name and the Critic. Depending on how much time has gone by since the last several Names, there could always be multiple surviving Critics.

As a result of being with the Order for longer than any other Name, this would actually be the first time in which Lavi would have really chiseled down to a solid 3 “personalities”. Past Names would often have multiple Critics at one time, as previous Names would have ceased to fade 100%, and that made remaining true to his Bookman duties easier. They created a kind of echo-chamber of peer pressure and reinforcement within himself, always reminding the newest Name of the task, the requirements, and the fact that that Name, like past ones, is temporary and exists only to fulfill a purpose.

In this way, the Critic past Names are the enforcers, and the guides, for the new, less experienced current Names. However, as being the longest established Name, Lavi strayed from listening to the Critic. He, in some ways, gathered enough experience as “Lavi” not to need guidance from past Names, or so he came to feel, and shut them out. This, in turn, leads to the eventual problem aboard the Ark.

After such events, for the first time, he’s having to deal with a fracture of his personality that I don’t think he’s had to deal with before. As “Lavi” was the one who strayed from his purpose, this meant that that Name was killed and removed, and in his place, the Critic, Deak, was pushed forward to resume being the current Name again.

So “Lavi” now is in actuality Deak playing the role of “Lavi”, and he is, unlike before, without another Critic, as he is both the current Name and Critic. I think this headcanon translates well held side-by-side with canon material, as after the events of the Ark, we see a lot of Lavi being more serious, more thoughtful, and more unsure of what actions he should take.

For instance, during the Attack on Headquarters, when Lenalee runs to Hevlaska’s chamber, Lavi has to stop and ask himself “Are you chasing her as a Bookman? Or...?”. In this instance, “Lavi” would have chased after her, but Lavi also cared too much. So he has to question what he is supposed to do in this situation. He is playing the role of Lavi, of course, who would have chased after her, and so he must act in a way that “Lavi” would have, but without falling into the same bad habit as Lavi did. Therefor, the reason is important, but what reason does a Bookman have to do so? But Lavi would have, despite that the action would be in error, because he is playing “Lavi”s role.

So, as being both the Critic and the Name, it reflects a lot more uncertainty in some areas, more of a hesitance to act, as he must stop and more carefully consider his action and the reason for these actions in a manner that would have been satisfactory to him as the Critic, and is consequently satisfactory to the Observer.

This becomes especially troublesome, as while Deak knows from his own time as a previous Name how to act on the bases of a Bookman’s duty, he does not have a great understanding of how to act on the bases of emotion and relationships as Lavi came to know, and instead must draw from the memories Lavi held and emulate them, without becoming lost in them and growing too attached as Lavi did.

The knowledge would be ever present too that, were he to fail as Lavi did, he could also be erased / killed as Lavi was, and removed as a Name, and either a new Name would be put in his place, or the Observer himself might take over in his stead. As such, he must tread carefully, and I think this would weigh on him a great deal, and show more in his actions, reactions, and just overall mood.

In some ways, unadmittedly, he’s been affected just as Lavi has. As a matter of fact, he and previous names already had been, without entirely realizing it. Without bias was taken as a rule of thumb regarding attachments and favoritism, but instead, past names formed negative bias.

Such was something that I think the Name, “Lavi”, had come to realize, and part of why he came to fight so hard for control over himself when Deak and Junior tried to kill him, was that even in trying to kill Allen to erase an obstacle of bias, Deak’s own negative bias broke the rules in its own way. However, where Lavi was able to see his fault, Deak was not, at least not until the end after he and the Observer had killed “Lavi”.

I think, too, that Bookman himself may have realized the error of this negative bias, proof that his apprentice was still not ready, shown in the flashback where they first arrive at the Order and “Lavi” is talking about the stupidity of war, and Bookman could only hum and seem passively disapproving.

As such, I think this would be a question and a reality he would struggle with, similar to how Lavi did, figuring out where bias begins and ends, both positive and negative bias. As he is still, in a way, the Critic, as well as the Name, he must then reflect, dispute, and conclude what course of action to take, favoring neither direction, but a happy medium of neutrality.

This, of course, is the pursuit then that he must follow, and grow to learn properly, and thus pass along to the next Name that will appear later down the line so that he might truly reach the standard Bookman set for him.--}