#5 Characteristics of Adolescence

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Life Cycle

Erik Erikson’s 8 stages of the life cycle

Normative Crisis — Age — Major Characteristics

Trust vs. Mistrust — 0 to 1 — Primary social interaction with mothering caretaker; oral concerns; trust or mistrust in life-sustaining care, including feeding.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt — 1 to 2 — Primary social interaction with parents; toilet training; beginnings of autonomous will.

Initiative vs. Guilt — 3 to 5 — Primary social interaction with nuclear family; beginnings of oedipal feelings; development of conscience to govern initiative.

Industry vs. Inferiority — 6 to puberty — Primary social interaction outside home among peers and teachers; school-age assessment of task ability.

Identity vs. Role Confusion — Adolescence — Primary social interaction with peers, culminating in heterosexual friendship; psychological moratorium from adult commitments; identity crisis; consolidation of resolutions of previous 4 stages into coherent sense of self.

Intimacy vs. Isolation — Early adulthood — Primary social interaction in intimate relationship (usually opposite sex); adult role commitments accepted, including commitment to another person.

Generativity vs. Stagnation — Middle adulthood — Primary social concern in establishing and guiding succeeding generation; productivity and creativity.

Ego Integrity vs. Despair — Late adulthood — Primary social concern is reflective: coming to terms with one’s place in the nearly complete life cycle, and with one’s relationships with others.

Erikson’s theory is called a psycho-self-reflexive, contextual process of finding and making meaning in the world.

It is not in conflict with scientific knowledge because, on the hermeneutic account, all psychological knowledge is concerned with this sort of understanding of our world (Verstehen), and not about explaining the universal laws of nature.

His theory charted changes in personality over the entire life cycle, rather than focusing on the early childhood years as critical to all later personality functioning.

Erikson proposed 8 stages of human development, each with its own normative crisis, by which he meant not a debilitating conflict, but rather a period of heightened vulnerability and potential.

He viewed human development as occurring in orderly stages, each with its own special characteristics and its own particular age relationship.

The stages always occur in a particular order and cannot be skipped.

His stages illustrate what Erikson termed the epigenetic principle.

Briefly stated, this principle proposes that critical elements of human personality have a ground plan from which they grow, similar to the physical growth principle by which the undifferentiated cells of embryos develop in orderly ways into organ systems. Thus, all human beings will face the normative crisis of trust versus mistrust in the period of infancy.

The resolution of this crisis leaves the infant with an abiding sense of either trust or mistrust that will become part of later personality functioning.

Each stage builds upon what has gone before and carries elements of itself into future stages.

Erikson’s contributions to psychology, particularly to the study of personality, can be divided into 4 major areas:

His emphasis on the importance of the entire life cycle in personality change

The psychosocial origins of personality

The centrality of self-identity in personality development

The importance of life histories for personality study

Source: Hopkins (1983, p. 74), adapted from Erikson (1968) ⚜ Psychology

[pikahlua]

MHA Chapter 407 spoilers translations

This week’s initial tentative super rough/literal translations under the cut.

1 その娼婦は一年程���から病に罹っていた そのしょうふはいちねんほどまえからやまいにかかっていた sono shoufu wa ichinen hodo mae kara yamai ni kakatte ita That prostitute had been ill since about a year prior.

2 硬質の疣贅が左腕に生えていた こうしつのいぼがひだりうでにはえていた koushitsu no ibo ga hidari ude ni haete ita A hard wart had been growing on her left arm.

tagline 1 "個性"が起こるよりも昔… "こせい"がおこるよりもむかし… "kosei" ga okoru yori mo mukashi... Long before quirks arose...

tagline 2 No.407　超常遺児　堀越耕平 ナンバー407　ちょうじょういじ　ほりこしこうへい NANBAA 407  choujou iji   Horikoshi Kouhei No. 407 Paranormal Orphan  Kouhei Horikoshi

3 彼女が自身の懐妊に八か月もの間気付かなかったのは かのじょがじしんのかいにんにはちかげつものあいだきづかなかったのは kanojo ga jishin no kainin ni hachikagetsu mono aida kidzukanakatta no wa The reason she didn't realize she was pregnant for eight months

4 浮浪生活だけが原因ではなかった ふろうせいかつだけがげんいんではなかった furou seikatsu dake ga gen'in de wa nakatta was not only because of her vagrant lifestyle.

5 全く身に覚えがなかったからだ まったくみにおぼえがなかったからだ mattaku mi ni oboe ga nakatta kara da It was because she didn't remember it at all.

6 ソレらはいつの間にか彼女の胎に住みつき ソレらはいつのまにかかのじょのはらにすみつき SOREra wa itsu no ma ni ka kanojo no hara ni sumitsuki Before she knew it, they settled in her womb

7 彼女の生きる力を吸い取っていた かのじょのいきるちからをすいとっていた kanojo no ikiru chikara wo suitotte ita and were draining away her life force.

1 川のほとりで双子を産み落とした女性は かわのほとりでふたごをうみおとしたじょせいは kawa no hotori de futago wo umiotoshita josei wa The woman, who gave birth to twins by the river,

2 そのまま死亡した そのまましぼうした sono mama shibou shita died just like that.

3 彼女の疣贅はなぜか かのじょのいぼはなぜか kanojo no ibo wa naze ka For some reason, her wart

4 きれいさっぱりなくなっていた kirei sappari nakunatte ita disappeared without a trace.

5 赤児達は あかごたちは akago-tachi wa As for the babies,

6 二人きりだった ふたりきりだった futarikiri datta they were alone, [just the two of them].

7 ねずみがやって来て遺体と赤児をかじり始めた頃 ねずみがやってきていたいとあかごをかじりはじめたころ nezumi ga yatte kite itai to akago wo kajiri hajimeta koro Just as the rats came and started to gnaw on the corpse and the babies,

8 増水した川が ぞうすいしたかわが zousui shita kawa ga the rising river

9 双子をさらっていった ふたごをさらっていった futago wo saratte itta swept the twins away.

1 一年後 いちねんご ichinengo One year later,

2 "発光する赤児"を皮切りに世界各国で"異能"の報告が相次ぐ "はっこうするあかご"をかわきりにせかいかっこくで"いのう"のほうこくがあいつぐ "hakkou suru akago" wo kawakiri ni sekai kakkoku de "inou" no houkoku ga aitsugu starting with "the luminous baby," reports of "meta abilities" emerged one after the other from all over the world.

3 "異能"は先天性のもうだけではなく "いのう"はせんてんせいのもうだけではなく "inou" wa sentensei no mou dake de wa naku Meta abilities were not just congenital.

4 二次性徴前後の青少年にも後天的に発現した にじせいちょうぜんごのせいしょうねんにもこうてんてきにはつげんした nijiseichou zengo no seishounen ni mo koutenteki ni hatsugen shita Around when they developed secondary sex characteristics, adolescents also expressed them as acquired [traits]. (Note: "Secondary sex characteristics" means puberty basically.)

5 未知の病として調べていた研究グループは みちのやまいとしてしらべていたけんきゅうグループは michi no yamai to shite shirabete ita kenkyuu GURUUPU wa A research group investigating them as an unknown disease

6-7 "異能"を「ヒトから枝わかれした新たなる遺伝子」と発表した "いのう"を「ヒトからえだわかれしたあらたなるいでんし」とはっぴょうした "inou" wo 「HITO kara edawakareshita aratanaru idenshi」 to happyou shita announced that meta abilities were "a new gene branched off from humans."

1 それはあまりに無神経で早計だった それはあまりにむしんけいでそうけいだった sore wa amari ni mushinkei de soukei datta That was too callous and rash.

2 群生性命を隔つその発表は ぐんせいせいめいをへだつそのはっぴょうは gunseisei mei wo hedatsu sono happyou wa That announcement that subdivided gregarious life* (*Note: "Gregarious life" may be a bit too literal to be comprehensible. I think the best way to think of this phrase would be something like "social species.")

3 混沌を加速させた こんとんをかそくさせた konton wo kasoku saseta accelerated the chaos.

4 コンビナート方面で"異能"の連中が結集し始めたそうだ コンビナートほうめんで"いのう"のれんちゅうがけっしゅうしはじめたそうだ KONBINAATO houmen de "inou" no renchuu ga kesshuu shi hajimeta sou da "It seems that the meta abilities gangs have begun to gather around the industrial complex."

5 昨夜デモ隊が衝突した奴等だな…… さくやデモたいがしょうとつしたやつらだな…… sakuya DEMO tai ga shoutotsu shita yatsura da na...... "They're the ones the demonstrators clashed with last night......"

6 連中が決起する前に叩くぞ れんちゅうがけっきするまえにたたくぞ renchuu ga kekki suru mae ni tataku zo "Let's hit them before they rise up."

7 なんだ？ nanda? "What's that?"

1 超常遺児か ちょうじょういじか choujou iji ka "A paranormal orphan, huh?"

2 可哀想だが放っとけ！遺児��保菌者の可能性が高い かわいそうだがほっとけ！いじはキャリアのかのうせいがたかい kawaisou da ga hottoke! iji wa KYARIA (kanji hokinsha) no kanousei ga takai "I feel bad for him, but leave him be! The possibility for an orphan to be a carrier is high."

3 ん n "Right."

4 何の音だ なんのおとだ nan no oto da "What's that sound?"

5 ん？ n? "Hm?"

6 え e "Huh?"

1 それは母親から「奪った」異能 それはははおやから「うばった」いのう sore wa hahaoya kara 「ubatta」 inou That was the meta ability he "stole" from his mother.

2 その赤児は生まれながらに不遜だった そのあかごはうまれながらにふそんだった sono akago wa umare nagara ni fuson datta That baby was born conceited.

3 身の回り全てが自身の所有物であり みのまわりすべてがじしんのしょゆうぶつであり mi no mawari subete ga jishin no shoyuubutsu de ari Everything around him was his own property.

1 泣けど喚けど自身を見ない なけどわめけどじしんをみない nakedo wamekedo jishin wo minai He cried and screamed, but he didn't see himself.

2 何も与えない者が なにもあたえないものが nani mo ataenai mono ga Those who gave him nothing

3 ただただ tada tada were simply

4 疑問だった ぎもんだった gimon datta problems*. (*Note: The word here means "problem, doubt, question." I think the description is saying that the baby would look at others and see them as the same as everything else in the world: something that existed as his property. Therefore those that gave him nothing were confusing, were question marks, and he harbored doubts and suspicions about them as a result.)

1 ダメ DAME "Don't."

2 イタイの ITAI no "That hurts [them]."

3 母親から与えられる筈の栄養を ははおやからあたえられるはずのえいようを hahaoya kara ataerareru hazu no eiyou wo The nutrition his mother should have given to him

4 ダメ DAME "Don't."

5 ほとんど兄に奪われたので ほとんどあににうばわれたので hotondo ani ni ubawareta node was largely stolen by his older brother, so

6 弟はとても小さく脆弱だった おとうとはとてもちいさくぜいじゃくだ��た otouto wa totemo chiisaku zeijaku datta the younger brother was very small and frail.

7 自身に何も与えない存在だったが手に持っていた所有物なので じしんになにもあたえないそんざいだったがてにもっていたものなので jishin ni nani mo ataenai sonzai datta ga te ni motte ita mono nanode [The younger brother's] existence gave nothing to [the older brother], but [the younger brother's existence] was a possession [the older brother] held in his hands, so

8 兄は弟を決して手放そうとしなかった あにはおとうとをけっしててばなそうとしなかった ani wa otouto wo kesshite tebanasou to shinakatta the older brother tried to never let go of the younger brother.

1 ーー溝が深まる一方で"発光する赤児"が自ら先頭に立ち ーーみぞがふかまるいっぽうで"はっこうするあかご"がみずからせんとうにたち --mizo ga fukamaru ippou de "hakkou suru akago" ga mizukara sentou ni tachi "--While the gap* intensified, the "luminous baby" has taken the lead" (*Note: The "gap" is referring to the rift between humans with meta abilities versus those without.)

2 平和と安全を訴えています賛同者は日増しに増加しておりーー へいわとあんぜんをうったえていますさんどうしゃはひましにぞうかしておりーー heiwa to anzen wo uttaete imasu sandousha wa hima shi ni zouka shite ori-- "to call for peace and security, with the number of supporters increasing day by day--"

3 僕に黙って何を読んでる？ ぼくにだまってなにをよんでる？ boku ni damatte nani wo yonderu? "What are you reading without telling me?"

4 まだ文字の勉強中で難しい本は読めないんだけど… まだもじのべんきょうちゅうでむずかしいほんはよめないんだけど… mada moji no benkyouchuu de muzukashii hon wa yomenainda kedo... "I'm still learning letters so I can't read difficult books, but..."

5 すごいよこのコミックって本 すごいよこのコミックってほん sugoi yo KOMIKKU tte hon "this comic book is amazing!"

6 ���で読めるんだ えでよめるんだ e de yomerunda "I can read it by the pictures."

7 描いた人の願いが絵で伝わってくる かいたひとのねがいがえでつたわってくる kaita hito no negai ga e de tsutawatte kuru "The wishes of the person who drew it are conveyed through the pictures."

8 ヒーロー… HIIROO... "Hero..."

9-10 僕もいつかこんな風になりたいな… ぼくもいつかこんなふうになりたいな… boku mo itsu ka konna fuu ni naritai na... "I want to be like this someday too..."

11 弟はまだ兄を諦めきれなかった おとうとはまだあにをあきらめきれなかった otouto wa mada ani wo akirame kirenakatta The younger brother couldn't give up on the older brother yet.

1-2 かすかに憶えているあの手を兄の優しさだと信じたかった かすかにおぼえているあのてをあにのやさしさだとしんじたかった kasuka ni oboete iru ano te wo ani no yasashisa da to shinjitakatta He wanted to believe that hand he faintly remembers was his older brother's kindness.

3 三年後 さんねんご sannengo Three years later

4 例の"発光する赤児"さぁ…あいつのシンパがとうとう1000万人を超えたんだってさ れいの"はっこうするあかご"さぁ…あいつのシンパがとうとう1000まんにんをこえたんだってさ rei no "hakkou suru akago" saa...aitsu no SHINPA ga toutou 1000mannin wo koetanda tte sa "Well, for example, that 'luminous baby'...they say that guy's sympathizers finally surpassed 10 million people."

5 兄さん… にいさん… niisan... "Brother..."

6 おかしいよなだってあれは戸籍登録が一番早かったってだけで おかしいよなだってあれはこせきとうろくがいちばんはやかったってだけで okashii yo na datte are wa koseki touroku ga ichiban hayakatta tte dake de "That's strange, isn't it? Since it's just because his family registration was the fastest."

7-8 インドなんかじゃその二周間前には50人は異能が産まれてたって話だぜ インドなんかじゃそのにしゅうかんまえには50にんはいのうがうまれてたってはなしだぜ INDO nanka ja sono nishuukan mae ni wa 50nin wa inou ga umareteta tte hanashi da ze "They say that, in India, 50 people with meta abilities were born two weeks before that."

9 その姿は そのすがたは sono sugata wa "That appearance..." (Note: Yoichi is reacting with surprise at how AFO looks like he's been in a fight or something.)

10 おかしな話だよそんなので人を集められるなんてさ おかしなはなしだよそんなのでひとをあつめられるなんてさ okashina hanashi da yo sonna node hito wo atsumerareru nante sa "It's such a strange story, that he could gather people together like that."

1 だから殺して「奪って」やった だからころして「うばって」やった dakara koroshite 「ubatte」 yatta "That's why I killed him and 'stole' [his meta ability.]"

2 ……なんで… ......nande... "......Why..."

3 だって datte "Because"

4 あのコミックに描かれていたろ あのコミックにかかれていたろ ano KOMIKKU ni kakarete ita ro "it was depicted in that comic."

5 ONE FOR ALL… ワン　フォー　オール… WAN FOO OORU... "One For All..."

6 ALL FOR ONE良い言葉だよな オール　フォー　ワンいいことばだよな OORU FOO WAN ii kotoba da yo na "All For One, they're excellent words."

1 ヒーローは正体を隠して孤独に戦っていたけれど ヒーローはしょうたいをかくしてこどくにたたかっていたけれど HIIROO wa shoutai wo kakushite kodoku ni tatakatte ita keredo "The hero was hiding his true identity as he fought alone, but"

2 悪の魔王は皆が恐怖して全てを差し出すんだ あくのまおうはみんながきょうふしてすべてをさしだすんだ aku no maou wa minna ga kyoufu shite subete wo sashidasunda "everyone feared and offered up everything to the evil Demon King."

3 おまえがそうであるように…皆が僕の為だけに存在する世界 おまえがそうであるように…みんながぼくのためだけにそんざいするせかい omae ga sou de aru you ni...minna ga boku no tame dake ni sonzai suru sekai "A world where everyone exists just for my sake...just like you do."

4 僕にも夢ができた！ ぼくにもゆめができた！ boku ni mo yume ga dekita! "I was also able [to come up with] a dream!"

1 待て何故行ってしまうんだ まてなぜいってしまうんだ mate naze itte shimaunda Wait, why are you leaving?

2 "力"を与えてやったじゃないか！ "ちから"をあたえてやったじゃないか！ "chikara" wo ataete yatta ja nai ka! Didn't I give you power?!

3 なんだおまえは！離れろ！ なんだおまえは！はなれろ！ nanda omae wa! hanarero! What are you? Get away [from him]!

4 僕のだ僕を見ていろ！ ぼくのだぼくをみていろ！ boku no da boku wo mite iro! [That's] mine, look at me!

5-6 僕のものにならないなら ぼくのものにならないなら boku no mono ni naranai nara If you won't become mine,

7 もうーー mou-- then--

tagline その手はー… そのてはー… sono te wa-... That hand is-...

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi! I'm not sure if you've expanded on this but could you explain Malleus' mental age? I fully believe that he's still quite young because of a few of Lilia's lines, but i hear other things from other people as well.

Mmm... I don't think the answer to this is very clear-cut? I think, if asked this question off the bat, I would that that I also lean more toward the "Malleus is mentally young" because he acts in very immature and oblivious ways that are characteristic of a middle or high school student. For example, he is very egocentric (+ fails to consider other points of view) and doesn't think ahead about the consequences of his actions. He just does whatever is natural and most convenient for himself, and his Dorm Uniform vignettes are a perfect encapsulation of this behavior that we see repeated many times over in the main story (books 5, 6, 7), events (Glorious Masquerade, Endless Halloween Night, Vargas Camp, etc.), and other vignettes (his birthday ones, Lab Wear, etc.). We additionally see that he has attachment issues and has trouble when faced with change, something that usually arises in one's teen years. There's also the fact that Lilia tells us that dragon fae are still considered children at age 300 and adolescents at 500, and Malleus is 178 years old (which is way below those values). This implies that the mental capacity of fae works on different scales based on their life expectancy, which varies from species to species.

Based on in-game dialogue, it also seems to be that fae physically develop slower than humans. For example, human toddlers start to walk at around 12-15 months, but Malleus states that it regularly takes a fae 30 years to achieve the same milestone and that he was an “early bloomer” that started to walk at 20 years old. Normally, mental development lines up with physical development, so this would imply that even at 178 years old, Malleus may still be regarded as a child in terms of his thinking, attitudes, and behaviors.

Buuut, as I've said earlier, the answer isn't really that simple and gets muddled by a ton of other factors which are hard to isolate from Malleus's maturity. For one, how do we know that he isn't mentally and emotionally stunted because of his isolated upbringing and training to become a king someday? How do we know it's not his privilege and limited life experiences that explain why Malleus seems to be behind his peers in some aspects? For another, he certainly doesn't speak like a normal high school student, nor does he act like one in some cases. Sometimes he demonstrates wisdom that can only come with the age or mentality of a far older person, like when he imparts wisdom onto his fellow students (book 3, Riddle's Suitor Suit vignettes, etc.). Lilia is also so old compared to Malleus that him "babying" the prince isn't saying much, considering that Lilia considers pretty much everyone else in the cast children or mere babies next to him. Malleus also refers to his peers as “like babies” to him, so he seems to consider himself more mature than them, not less. He also insists to Lilia that he is “not a child”, so it seems that Malleus views himself as an adult or, at the very least, a teenager.

It should also be noted that the development cycle of humans and fae are not exact. For example, while you could probably cleanly line up 12-15 months for humans and 30 years for fae just to learn the skill of walking, their dietary needs differ even when they are roughly the same age. A human infant can only talk mushy foods after milk, but dragon fae babies can already eat seafood and meat on the bone, implying that dragon fae’s teeth come in much faster than that of a human baby. This is a point against the idea that humans and fae age similarly and have similar developmental benchmarks.

So... It seems to be that Malleus is immature (and thus falling in line with the developmental expectations of your average dragon fae), but that immaturity is tempered by him being raised in an environment that demands that he take on more responsibilities. At the same time, growing up with a focus on his future and being granted few opportunities to step outside of his usual environment also means that Malleus has a very limited worldview that keeps him from growing to some extent. I think, overall, I'd still consider him pretty young mentally, but not much younger than a typical high school student. If we actually had the mental capacity of a child, then surely he’d be in elementary school and not high school.

[eternal-echoes]

“Below are a nearly a dozen different factors that can sometimes influence a person's sense of sexual identity. Rather than saying any of these things "cause gender dysphoria," it is more accurate to say that they could contribute to a person feeling dysphoric about his or her body. Some individuals might find that some of the factors resonate deeply with them, while others might not relate to any of them. The goal isn't to provide an exhaustive list, but to encourage individuals who experience gender dysphoria to listen with compassionate curiosity to their own story.

Autism

Although only 1 percent of the general population is autistic, 42 percent of those who identify as transgender or nonbinary meet the criteria for an autism diagnosis.(49) Autism is often characterized by rigid, black-and-white thinking patterns, and a difficulty or discomfort with nuance. Individuals on the autistic spectrum often exhibit a deep fixation and focus on a particular idea or activity, and may express strong anxiety about any interference with the subject of interest. They may struggle with a lack of insight into their own feelings and wrestle with the social challenges of not fitting in with others. Because of their social limitations, they often find online communication easier than face-to-face interactions.(50)

It isn't difficult to see how some of these characteristics might predispose an adolescent who is uncertain about her place in the world to fixate on gender transitioning as a simplistic solution to the complex challenges of her life.”

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

49) Cf. DSM-5, 55; S. Stagg, "Autistic Traits in Individuals Self-Defining as Transgender or Nonbinary," European Psychiatry 61 (September 2019), 17-22.

50) Cf. Swaab, We Are Our Brains, 186.

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.

[its-jun0]

Psychological analysis of Aira

And how the loss of her mother affected the development of her personality

I feel that this is something very overlooked in the community and in honor of the new chapter I would like to do a small analysis from my perspective on it.

Although it is something very little addressed in the story, it is extremely important in her development as a character.

This thread contains spoilers for the manga from the acro silky to the Space Globalist arc!

As we saw in the Acro Silky arc, Aira's mother died when she was very little and judging by her appearance she was no more than 5 or 6 years old at the time.

This simple fact makes the event even more relevant, childhood is a stage of utmost importance in human beings, since at this stage most cognitive skills are developed.

These skills help in the development of healthy and correct management of emotions during adolescence and Adulthood also influences how the child relates to people and their environment.

The importance of the presence of parents at this stage is indispensable, since the first bond that appears in the life of a human is with them and depending on the circumstances and how this bond develops, it will affect the poor way in the psychosocial growth of the infant.

The absence of one or both parents strongly affects the development of the infant, causing damage to the child's psyche that can last beyond adulthood and is even more serious when it is something irreversible such as the death of one of them.

With this begins a grieving process, which is very different from that of an adult given the poor emotional management capacity of a child, this directly affects the growth and development of the child's personality.

Her need for perfection

One of the main characteristics in Aira's personality is the need to be perfect, both in how she acts and how she looks physically.

At first it can be seen as the need to fit in that many teenagers have, but after the acro silky arc you can see the topic in more depth.

In chapter 17 we can see how in the flashback shared with Acro Silky, Aira as a child promises her father to be a great girl so that her mother can be proud when she “comes back”.

With this in mind by connecting their attitudes she can be given a little background, since she acts so “perfectly” because in a certain part she fills the void and the need to make her mother proud.

Because in her mind the fact that everyone loves and admires her makes her someone important, no matter if that means not being true to who she really is.

And this brings us to the point that she thought she was “the chosen one”, since this was a greater merit than just being loved and popular among the people around her.

Although she acted proud about it, this was the perfect situation for her to be able to fulfill the promise she had made, to become someone her mother can be truly proud of.

Although as the chapters go by she continues with this idea in mind, her perspective changes to a more serious one, demonstrating her great development during the plot.

Her actions in the acro silky arc and how this marked a before and after in her character

As I have said many times, despite being her debut arc, this one is very important since you can notice a change, even if it is slight, in how she was presented and how she developed after this.

One of Aira's characteristics is her great empathy towards people who have gone through difficult times; this may mainly be because her own situation helps her put herself in the shoes of others.

The main example of this was with Acro silky, since both shared the pain of a loss and in this case, both were very important figures as mother and daughter.

In other situations where this can be seen is when she finds out about Vamola's past, being moved to tears and another very important point is how she behaves with Chiquitita.

Her relationship with Chiquitita

Aira and Chiquitita's relationship is similar to that of an older sister and a younger brother, Chiquitita is in the same situation as her, he is small, his mother died and he is cared for only by his father, so she can feel more than identified In this case.

Aira is giving him the support and company that she surely lacked as a child given the circumstances in which she grew up.

It is not easy for a father to address all the needs of a child in the absence of, in this case, a maternal figure, since he has to dedicate himself to working and meeting the child's physical needs, even if this means leaving emotional needs aside.

This led us to another very important point in her personality, her great resilience.

The resilience and strength that she possesses

One of the characteristics of children who went through situations where they lost one or both of their parents is the development of “strength” as a defense mechanism.

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage, since although this will be a way to overcome Life's adversities but also open the door to over-demanding and closing ourselves off to the help of others.

Aira is a very strong and resilient person, both mentally and physically, this can be witnessed in fighting and in her ability to lead others, being able to make plans without getting carried away by her emotions like in the Space Globalist arc.

But as I said before, this is also a disadvantage since many times she over-demand herself and refuses to receive help from others and to do things on her own.

Characters like Jiji let her see this in a certain part, when she said that she could defeat the aliens on her own if they would just let her and Jiji told her that she couldn't do it alone.

Being used to and growing up with the idea that she has to be strong instilled by her father when she was little, makes Aira see this as the only thing she has known during her life, If she is not strong, she will not fulfill her promise.

With this in mind we can move on to the next point, her leadership and how she relates to others.

Her role as a leader and how she relates to others

How I addressed before Aira's strength and resilience helped her achieve a good role as a leader, despite being heavy-handed on many occasions, she cares deeply about her team members, constantly asking them to be careful, also trying to put her own needs aside to protect them.

You can see this in the Space Globalist arc, when she asks Momo to take care of herself, when she is happy to see that Mr. Shrimp is alive, when Mr. Shrimp wants to help her and she asks him to go see Jiji first.

This highlights the point of self-demand that she has and how she does not accept the help of others so easily despite being a team, since, again as I mentioned before, being strong and independent is what she has been from an early age.

This brings us to the last point, her relationship with others.

Aira was surrounded by superficial people for most of her life, who were only interested in the “perfect” facade that she had created, so this whole topic of genuine relationships, both friendship and love, is very new to her.

A great example of this is her infatuation with Okarun and the scene where he congratulates her for her great performance in battle, since it is something in which she genuinely makes an effort and she is not used to being given credit in that type of situation.

So when it comes to answering she wonders why. she wasn't being her “usual self,” even though at that moment she was being more genuine with herself.

Conclusion

Aira is an extremely interesting character, who has had one of the best developments in the play, although I failed to address many topics such as her ability to admit her mistakes.

I thought that they did not really come with the main idea of the analysis and I would like to address them more forward when she has more appearances.

I genuinely hope that Tatsu continues cooking with her and can become one of the best characters in the play.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post!!

I hope you found it interesting and do not hesitate to share your point of view with me. I will be very happy to read them!!!

[yupuffin]

5 Interactions of Cosplay Performance with Schizoid Personality Disorder (SzPD)

I'm Yu, and I'm a cosplayer and performer from the Pacific Northwest region of the United States! I've participated in this hobby actively and consistently since around 2011 or 2012. I'm locally known for my participation in cosplay lip sync battles, which have gathered momentum as premiere events at conventions in my region in recent years.

For as long as I've spent discovering myself through cosplay, I've only recently gained awareness of a condition called schizoid personality disorder (SzPD) that seems to accurately encapsulate my intense introversion as well as other prominent experiences from throughout my adolescence and adulthood. I've come to understand that the prognosis for SzPD is generally very poor; individuals with SzPD, such as myself, often struggle to find genuine fulfillment and enjoyment, even in activities typically considered rewarding, leading to diminished happiness overall.

I don't talk about it much, just because education and awareness of personality disorders (PDs), especially scarcely-researched ones like SzPD, is still so limited, and there is still a strong social stigma against PDs in general, leading to the widespread misconception that individuals with PDs are, for example, inherently evil or abusive.

Interestingly, though, upon contemplating why it is that I specifically enjoy cosplay performance, I've found that several aspects correspond directly with and thus (in my experience) serve to combat certain SzPD symptoms; even though simple participation in a hobby doesn't comprise formal treatment, I think that it, nevertheless, significantly improves my personal quality of life!

(photo by incostumemedia with Kumoricon, 2022)

Formation of self-identity Schizoids experience a phenomenon called "splitting" consisting of a considerable discrepancy between their genuine, internal identity and the surface-level identity they exhibit externally, like a facade; in my experience, it's comparable to extreme form of code-switching or "masking." This leads to a nebulous and fragmented, sometimes almost nonexistent, sense of self-identity. Cosplay performance considerably strengthens my sense of self-identity as a multifaceted and extensive hobby providing individualized opportunities for creative expression.

Engagement with physical self SzPD involves pervasive dissociation and depersonalization (a sense of detachment from one's physical self or identity). Engaging in cosplay performance is an enjoyable and rewarding method of forging a connection with and paying attention and responding to my external, physical surroundings and my place in them.

Bridging the gap between external reality and the inner world A primary characteristic of SzPD is preoccupation with a rich internal fantasy world over reality -- effectively a form of maladaptive daydreaming that further inhibits cohesive self-identity. Cosplay performance is a creative tool I utilize to express aspects of my imaginary "inner world" in a physical, external reality, thereby making them feel more tangible and meaningful.

Facilitating genuine social interactions and relationships The aforementioned sense of detachment, lack of self-identity, and preoccupation with fantasy combine with a strong aversion to emotional vulnerability characteristic of SzPD to form a marked lack of interest in social activities and engagements. As a schizoid, I feel more like an "observer" of the external world rather than a true participant, and hence struggle greatly to form personal connections with others in most contexts, as I see little to no incentive in socializing. However, my participation in cosplay performance gives me access to a robust, supportive community I can interact with or disengage from at my leisure; designated performance events and opportunities facilitate such engagements at discrete and predictable intervals, reducing the spontaneous aspect of socialization that I find particularly challenging and overstimulating. Furthermore, the underlying fandoms and fictional media behind cosplay performance serve as basis of common understanding and shared interest, enabling me to conduct enjoyable social interactions and form fulfilling interpersonal relationships without necessitating the vulnerability I would experience from a deep emotional connection on a personal level.

Intrinsic fulfillment through creative self-expression Anhedonia, a strong characteristic of SzPD, is a diminished capacity to experience enjoyment or pleasure, which can result in a feeling of chronic boredom or persistent understimulation. In tandem with the previously mentioned factors, this leads to great difficulty in deriving fulfillment from activities many would typically consider fun or rewarding, such as social interactions or even common hobbies. Creative accomplishments, such as presenting a cosplay performance, provide a sense of intrinsic fulfillment and purpose that I don't necessarily get from other activities, which often rely on external validation from which schizoids feel a significant disconnect.

(photo by Brianna Shade with Kumoricon, 2023)

[fatphobiabusters]

Scientific articles and official health websites talk about lactose intolerance the same way they talk about fatness.

This is how the National Institutes of Health describes it: "Lactose intolerance is a clinical syndrome that manifests with characteristic signs and symptoms upon consuming food substances containing lactose, a disaccharide." "Lactose intolerance is a common disease; however, it is rare in children younger than 5. It is most often seen in adolescents and young adults."

It's a syndrome. A disease. A medical problem with symptoms and signs.

And then...

"On average, 65% of the world's population is lactose intolerant. The prevalence of lactose intolerance is variable among different ethnicities. It is most common in African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asians and least prevalent in people of European descent."

Wait wait wait, hold up. It's in 65% of the world population??? 65% of all humans are lactose intolerant??? 65% of the world is diseased and has such a serious health condition?

Then you start learning more about it outside of these medical articles and organizations. You learn that other animals can't digest lactose past infancy either. Not even cats, even though we all believe they love milk. Animals, including humans, have a special enzyme as infants that allows babies to drink breastmilk. And after a child stops drinking that milk, the enzyme goes away, leaving the child unable to digest milk anymore.

In the 300,000 years that humans have existed, drinking milk past infancy did not start happening until about 10,000 years ago. It wasn't until ancient populations in Europe who were pastoralists, and thus raised cows as livestock, forced their bodies to drink milk and caused it to slowly became a genetic mutation that spread throughout different human populations over thousands of years.

You realize that the ability to drink lactose is not the norm. It's not the default body at all. The ability to digest lactose is a human adaptation that only some humans have, like missing wisdom teeth, blue eyes, and red hair. Lactose intolerance isn't abnormal. It's what human bodies were designed to do in the first place! No wonder it's "rare in children younger than 5." That's when babies still have the ability to drink breastmilk!

And what does such a serious disease as lactose intolerance require?

Not consuming dairy.

That's it.

This "disease" requires avoiding lactose and taking a pill to help you digest it if you need to in a given situation. And if you don't? The awful consequence of this disease is DEATH—oh, wait, that was a typo. I meant diarrhea. Dairy products like butter and some cheese have very low levels of lactose compared to straight up milk and can sometimes even be eaten without any pills for lactose intolerance at all.

So then why do health organizations and scientific articles consider this a "disease" when it's just genetic diversity? Well, you were already given the answer.

The people most able to digest lactose? White people. Europe. America. Canada. Australia. Groups so often considered the default. The quotes I gave are from the American government itself, as described by the organization's website: "Founded in 1887, the National Institutes of Health today is one of the world's foremost medical research centers, and the Federal focal point for medical research in the United States. The NIH, comprising 27 separate Institutes and Centers, is one of eight health agencies of the Public Health Service which, in turn, is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."

It's also important to recognize that the US government extremely subsidizes dairy. There are underground caves of billions of pounds of cheese surplus that the government has stockpiled. Billions upon billions of dollars have been spent on keeping the dairy industry afloat, no pun intended, to the point that everything from those "Got milk?" advertisements to milk in school-provided lunches to Taco Bell's double steak quesadillas were funded by federal tax dollars put into some cheesy goodness propaganda. Federal tax dollars were even used after the 2010 recession to bail out Domino's and keep the cheese uh-flowing.

So in a country where most people can digest lactose, most of the people who can't do so have bodies that are not viewed as the default already, and the government is extremely invested in getting people to eat dairy products, it becomes clear why that country—that government—believes lactose intolerance to be a disease.

Then when you consider:

how fat people are not viewed as the default body either and face immense oppression

how the facts of fatness being incredibly genetic and intentional weight loss not being sustainable in the slightest are kept under the radar from the public

how weight is not actually equal to health when you take all context into account beyond stereotypes and studies with horrendous methodology

how the BMI was created by a statistician (who was never a doctor in the first place and whose work was later used to support eugenics) during the 1800s in order to figure out which body was the average, not the healthiest, in select populations of white European men in the 19th century (and thus which body was the "default," the "norm," superior)

how the population measuring tool that is the BMI, never meant or designed to be used on an individual scale, was not commonly used as a measurement of "health" until insurance companies wanted a way to fabricate reasons for charging people more money

how the weight loss industry makes hundreds of billions of dollars every year off of pretending fatness is inherently bad and selling a "cure" that doesn't work while blaming consumer error to keep people buying said "cure"

and how creating a weight-based social hierarchy benefits the people on top who have power over the rest

...you start to understand why fatness is medicalized.

It's even a common talking point of people and companies obsessed with dieting that humans have evolved to hold onto fat and refuse to lose it in case of potential starvation. In fact, facing starvation even changes your body to want to hold onto body fat even more than it did previously, which includes when you diet since dieting is just self-inflicted starvation. When you face starvation, your descendants are more likely to have genetics that prefer fatness too. And there's evidence of fatness in human populations going back tens of thousands of years despite diet culture wanting people to believe fatness is a new trend due to people's "lifestyle choices." The Venus of Willendorf, an ancient figurine of a fat woman, is estimated to have been created around 30,000 years ago, and there are numerous other Venus figurines of fat women from that era too.

It's human diversity, but people who aren't fat and who pedal diet culture can make so much money and obtain such powerful positions by pretending fatness is abnormal, inhuman, and wrong. Why give up an easy money-making punching bag or admit that your body is not the only "correct" human body when you have no reason not to and so many incentives for keeping the status quo?

As a side note, one of the best examples of diet culture is how you can find countless news articles about whether milk is "good" or "bad" for you despite humans having consumed milk for the past 10,000 years. I think by year one thousand we would have learned if milk was "bad" for us, but the headline "Milk still okay" doesn't get a news website any clicks.

-Mod Worthy

[4me2knowandyou2wonder]

Teeth Headcanons for Modern Warfare Characters

this one feels shorter to me but I have a feeling that just means I'll be writing more about them in the future! >:]

Farah and Hadir

Farah and Hadir didn’t have the luxury of dental care during their adolescence (obviously). So their teeth came in how they did and that was that. Hadir has far more crooked teeth than Farah does. He lost both his top and bottom right premolars (the ones right behind the canines) in a ‘swept-under-the-rug’ beating during the first year of his imprisonment giving his right canine teeth space to stretch out and become crooked. As for his left, he lost his upper canine in a fight with a Russian guard at age 19. Hadir has never given his teeth any thought, genetics weren’t in his favor in the straight teeth department before anyway (Fig 1 & 2). His right front incisor got chipped when he was pushed into some concrete too, causing it to look sharp (Fig 3). Hadir doesn’t brush his teeth often, if at all, but he does oil-pull with whatever plant oil he can find, which at least keeps the gingivitis at bay. Lmao!

Farah somehow got away without losing any of her teeth, and they actually came surprisingly straight considering what he brother’s genetics would have indicated. (Fig 5 & 6) She used to oil-pull like Hadir but after hanging out with Alex ‘oh-so-good-at-taking-care-of-his-teeth’ Keller, Farah has taken up brushing her teeth at night (and maybe trying out his Waterpik a few times… for the experience.)

Both Farah and Hadir were able to let their wisdom teeth grow in entirely, lucky them.

(Also, Farah and Hadir both have front incisors that press slightly on each other and are shaped in a way that makes them form a slight v in the front which I, OP, thought was an interestingly similar characteristic that made them look much like siblings. (Fig 3 & 4)!!!! )

So far I’ve been figuring that the character's teeth were just the actor/actress's teeth but Hadir made me realize this isn’t entirely true, compared to his actor (fig 7 & 8) Hadir has much worse off teeth and that makes so much sense for his backstory! 

proof for everything I just said under the cut

Fig 1 & 2

Fig 3 & 4 hadir (left) farah (right)

Fig 5 & 6

Fig 7 & 8 (did I mention Hadir’s actor is really pretty-)

[pandemic-info]

Some personal observations on the characteristics of people I know who are continuing to take as much care as possible to not get Covid (in no particular order): a short 🧵

1. High impulse control 2. Personal experience of serious illness 3. Strong internal locus of control 4. Non-conformists. Often a personal history of non-conformity going right back to adolescence. Yet... 5. Paradoxically, strong moral code; belief in ethical duty to the greater good of society. 6. Well-informed. 7. Rational; aware of their own cognitive biases. 8. Methodical 9. Adaptable 10. Emotionally stable 11. Comfortable with uncertainty 12. Pragmatic 13. Intuitively understand risk/benefit analysis 14. Disciplined

Old thread by @brownecfm on the bird site; Thread Reader link so you don't have to go there:

See also: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1389672/full

[winterweary]

How does aging work in Obey Me?

This is my personal headcanon for how aging works in the Devildom and Celestial Realm.

When an angel or demon is "born" they don't have an initial humanoid form. They start as an amorphous ball of light or darkness (I SWEAR I read this in a Devilgram but I also could have totally made that up). As these spirits gain a sense of self and identity, they eventually take a shape that pleases them, most often humanoid. This shift from light or darkness into a solid figure is considered their 'birth'. This is why Beel and Belphie being considered twins is unusual. It's not rare for spirits to exist at the same time but it is rare to transition into physical form together at the same moment.

Age from that point on is not based on the passage of time but rather how developed their power is. More powerful demons often gain control over their power more quickly, and so spend very little time appearing as children. The growth from child to adolescent may take decades of Earth time or centuries depending on a number of factors. This is also why the brothers refer to themselves as older or younger, despite the fact that their ranking is primarily power based.

When Angels or Demons reach a certain outward age, they usually choose to linger where they feel most physically comfortable, whether that means the vibe they give off, physical characteristics and abilities, or the age at which they feel the most attractive or imposing.

For example, Lucifer chooses an older visage than his brothers for several reasons. One, he is older than them in the sense his spirit has existed longer. Two, it makes him feel more refined and at the right moments, imposing. Three, he likes to make sure his brothers note how many grey hairs they've given him.

This also explains how Satan's birth worked. When he split from Lucifer and fell with him, he went through several changes very quickly. Even though he was a new spirit, he carried with him an echo of Lucifer's power and experience which enabled him to gain control very quickly and take on his chosen form. If you want for fun HC moments however, you can believe like I do that his first couple months in the castle with the brothers were spent shifting from different ages without much control as he struggled to get a handle on existing. They would be reading a pouty baby Satan stories one night then dealing with a full grown tantrum the next.

I like this theory because it solves several narrative problems for me:

1.The issue of how time passes. I already believe that time passes differently in the spiritual realms than on Earth, but this method of 'aging' allows for some leeway in how we interpret ages and times in the story. Us going back in time in Nightbringing and finding brothers who take the same form makes sense if their physical form isn't entirely based on the passage of time.

2. It makes their birth order relevant in both terms of power and how they as spiritual beings interpret their ages.

3. It gives you an excuse to write all sorts of fics where the boys are kiddos and Lucifer or Mammon (or any bigger bro) is taking care of them. Or excuse to write Satan as a kiddo even if he was considered 'full grown' at birth. That's just plain fun.

4. It explains Luke. He's still learning how to develop his powers, which is why his been trusted to Simeon. As he continues to expand his capabilities, he'll eventually be able to age out of his current childlike form, but it's a passage that may take a long time.

5. It gives you freedom to interpret timeline without getting lost in details.

ANYWAY these are just my thoughts based on hints in the narrative and my own personal theories.

[deo-ezo]

Introducing Atom! My superhero OC that I’ll be posting a lot about and am about to ramble to you about in this post.

I made Atom first for a short little comic that I would have theoretically have finished in a week. A good 5 years later I’m planning out a much larger story for the guy. He is one of my favorite OC—I always find this phrase weird cause technically all my OCs are my favorites cause I made them—I really enjoy him for being a way in which I can explore all phases of superheroes. Atom in story was born 1950, February 29th, so he would start out in a golden age of superheroes. Be an adolescent during the silver, and an adult throughout the dark ages to modern times. So I get to play dress up with all sorts of different styles of design characteristics of the time(s). He is also fun cause he just has this very unique nose that’s so fun to draw. I had Brendan Fraser in mind when I started really nailing down his adult design. So he bares a resemblance which I’m probably the only person can see.

Back to actual lore Atom has been a superhero all his life. His parents were both scientists that wished to create the next evolution of people while in Los Alamos working on ways to peaceful harness atomic energy after the development and dropping of atomic bombs. To cut a long set up short his parents created a bomb that was set off and did grant superpowers to people with specific genetic mutations, while also killing them and making raging mutant monsters. From there Atom would have the ability of atomic manipulation. While a great superpower with many different avenues of how it can be used it also has some big draw backs. Atom either has to touch or know the atomic makeup of what he is controlling. He does work around these conditions by often having little metal marbles on hand he throws which at an object. Melding into said object and he can then use it like a puppet string or draw it closer so he can touch the object and fully manipulate it.

Atom really grows tired of being a superhero quickly preferring calling himself an everyday hero. Someone that does what they do not because they have mask or powers but because they wanna help. Atom wants nothing more then to help people, and clean up the mess his parents made the world into. He does grow bitter later in his life as he finds the commercialization of superheroes annoying. With the government body that regulates superheroes turning into a Disney like company that prefers increasing revenue to quality not helping. Giving him this old man grumpy attitude which I think is justified and just fun to write.

I don’t wanna bombard y’all with too much lore, but I hope you like Atom and would love to answer any questions as I’m sure this ways probably confusing lol

[idolbound]

DARP Advent 2024: Day Three Past/Birth, Present/Life, Future/Death.

Past/Birth:

- Does your muse know their name day? Yes. - What's their sign? (Which month were they born in?) Born on the 21st day of Bloomingtide, 8:92 Blessed Age. - What is your muse's background? Her mother, Maighread Ó Coileáin (pronounced: Mar-e-ad O-Coy-lian) was born in a small village near Kirkwall, called Wrenwith. As an adult, she left home and went to the city, where she later met her future husband, Bernard Cecil Stannard at the market in Hightown. Bernard was a born Kirkwall noble, and much to the disapproval of his family, pursued Maighread out of love despite her being a commoner and from out of the city. They married and soon had their first daughter Amelia, but waited 6 years before having a second child. - Where are they from? Born and raised in Kirkwall - Do they know their parents? What kind of relationship do they have with them? She was only 5 when they died, so unfortunately, she only knew them as well as a small child could, but she was very close with her father more than her mother (and her sister was the opposite, basically attached to their mother at the hip). - Do they have close family? No, but Meredith developed a father-daughter-like relationship with Ser Wentworth Kell as she became his page, and served under him for years, cited as the 'daughter he never deserved' in his succession speech prior to naming Meredith the next Knight-Captain. - Is your muse born with any distinguishing characteristics (heterochromia etc) or disabilities? Meredith has always had strikingly blue eyes (made more so by taking lyrium over the years), been very tall since adolescence, and has very soft, light blonde hair. She suffers from untreated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. - Do they discover anything strange about themselves in childhood? (ex. Emmrich's affinity for spirits) No, though she had a deep-seated fear she might develop magic like her sister did as she got older, but once she got past age 7-13, it started to dissipate.

Present/Life:

- How long has your muse been alive? Do they know? By the time of Meredith's canonical death, she is 45 years old. - What is your muse doing? Presently? Acting Knight-Commander of the Templar Order in the city-state of Kirkwall. If by presently, you mean "veilguard" timeline, well, she's dead. - Does your muse have a "day job"? Something to go back to when their "cause" is over? Her cause is her day job. - Who are your muse's closest friends? Ser Wentworth Kell (deceased), Cullen Rutherford (kind of), Ser Thrask (until his betrayal), uh. Grand Cleric Elthina (I guess, but not really). - What are your muse's favorite hobbies? Reading, drinking wine, writing a handwritten copy of the Chant, going to the Chantry for service, having sex. - Does your muse have a place that they live? Multiple places? She lives in the Gallows, in the Templar tower. She does not own a home.

Future/Death:

- How long after their "home game" or media will your muse live? Haha... she does not. :') But that's what AUs are for. - What are your muse's goals for the future? Well, before she started going mad due to the red lyrium idol, I'd say Meredith's intentions were to keep serving as active Knight-Commander either until she hit retirement age (so another 15-20 years) or if she died before then, carefully priming Knight-Captain Cullen to become her successor with the hopes that he would follow exactly in her footsteps, in order to keep Kirkwall and its people safe. - Does your muse have plans for building a family if they don't already have one? I've talked about it before, but because her sister was a mage, even if Meredith wasn't a lesbian / didn't have an aversion to men (and therefore, the people most likely to be getting her pregnant), she has such a deep-seated fear of potentially birthing a magical child and worrying about bringing another mage into the world, that she wouldn't want to anyway. That said, she does see Cullen kind of like a son, and tends to feel a little maternal towards him as her named successor, much like she was for Ser Wentworth. - What does your muse want done with their body when they die? Well, she would've liked to have followed Chantry tradition and have had her body cremated; I think she'd have left a request in her last will and testament to have her ashes scattered in the Waking Sea - Kirkwall is her birthplace and has always been her home next to the waters. But obviously, she can't have that now. - What kind of funeral rites does your muse believe in? As above, she follows standard Andrastian funeral rites of cremation to avoid demonic possession of the corpse. - How does your muse want people to remember them? In her mind, Meredith would want to be remembered as Kirkwall's Champion, which is why she is so miffed that Hawke beat her to the opportunity to be named as such. She wants to be remembered for her efforts, and long-standing changes she made to how the Gallows are run and organized, and how she protected the people of the city time and time again. It is a far stretch from how she actually is remembered now. - Does your muse suffer any long-term illnesses, disabilities, or injuries from the events of their story? How do they cope with those changes in their life? As mentioned, she has long-standing and untreated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and its resultant symptoms from her childhood trauma of watching her mage sister turn into an abomination and kill their parents and 70 other people before being stopped. In my headcanon, she has endured numerous wounds and burns from fighting apostates, abominations, and demons. In particular, her worst scars are on her right lower leg when, as a Knight-Templar, she took a fire ball directly to her leg, which melted steel and leather together against her skin. it is by the miracle of the Maker and the in-field skills of her senior officer that she did not have to have her leg amputated, and was able to be brought back to the Gallows and seek treatment on time. She spent weeks on bedrest, having the wound debrided and kept clean, but in the meantime, kept her mind and body as active as she could, to get back to active service as soon as possible. She also has lesser burns on her right forearm (her primary sword arm), and other blade-related scars throughout her body. As she gets older, she finds her bones ache, especially when it gets cold. Her knees hurt most of the time, and sometimes she'll tweak her back if she turns the wrong way. She has accepted it as getting older, and because she has been living a hard life in service, but it does annoy her that getting out of bed can often be a momentous task some mornings.

[clanoffelidae]

I’m always scared of jinxing myself by opening my mouth and saying I’m ‘not physically disabled anymore’ or that ‘my cyclic vomiting is gone’; because there’s no cure and we don’t know why it sometimes just… stops. There’s not even really any medication to manage it you just kind of… try to work through it and manage symptoms and side effects as best you can. Namely, the dehydration due to excessive vomiting being the main concern. (Have had abdominal spasms due to becoming dehydrated from it before. Took me 5-6 minutes to army crawl six feet to the shower, wiggle out of my clothes, and stretch up to turn on the hot water to try and soothe the muscles I was in so much pain. It was also like 4am and I was at a homestay in another country so fuck me I guess lol. Fortunately my homestay actually spoke English; which worked out because I speak Spanish decently well so I was making an active effort to converse with her and practice before I got sick, she was extremely helpful because I mainly needed help with specific vocabulary/phrases and she could help me translate them, and then when I got sick and was so exhausted I could barely communicate in English anymore I was able to drop the Spanish and still be understood and given help. That’s a tangent tho lol sorry)

And that’s true of a lot of physical disabilities, sadly, so I’m sure many of you can understand why I’m scared of it. Because I’m one of the lucky ones, even when my condition was at it’s worst I had more good days than bad. One of the defining characteristics of CVS is that in between episodes you would never know something is wrong with us.

And sometimes people just… ‘grow out of it’, so to speak. It most commonly affects children, even being thought of as a pediatric disease, and then just goes away when they get older. I was a weird case, I had two sporadic episodes in high school and then it hit me hard basically as soon as I got to college; it only ever happened when I was an adolescent/adult.

During the worst of it I would have episodes as little as 3 weeks apart; I’d be in severe agony and vomiting profusely for around 24 hours, take several days for the pain to go away (the episode was over but I was sore after the vomiting), and about a week for the brain fog and lethargy to clear up. I knew my stomach was empty, I knew I had nothing in it, but it felt so swollen and I was convinced it was about to tear open like an overfilled balloon. The condition is believed to be related to migraine headaches and I believe it - my severe migraines are the throbbing kind where it feels like my head is about to explode, and that is the exact same kind of pain I was feeling in my stomach. Those same, unique qualities that differentiate the pain of a migraine from another headache were exactly what I felt in my abdomen. I was also light and sound sensitive, seeking darkness and solitude; although it didn’t cause literal pain to be exposed to light and sound like with a migraine headache, it stressed me out for ‘seemingly no reason’, overwhelming me and increasing my pain as a result of the stress and desire for the stimulus to go away.

My last episode was in 2019. I only even had frequent episodes for a little over 2 years.

And I’m still deathly afraid of every new medication I try because I don’t know why it stopped. Nothing about my lifestyle changed, nothing about my habits. I was never able to identify any triggers like with my headaches, it just sort of ‘happened’ as far as I could tell.

I have no idea why it started and no idea why it stopped.

And I’m constantly fucking terrified that I’ll fuck something up and it’ll come back, that this time of peace and ‘health’ is temporary. I’m so fucking scared because it hurts so fucking much and I don’t want to be in pain again.

I don’t want to be in pain again.

And I don’t know why I’m bringing this up or what I’m trying to say really. I guess I just want to get my fears written down because they’re circling in my head again.

And I guess I also want to say that I’m sorry. I’m sorry to everyone who suffers with a ‘hidden’ condition that no one believes you about, I’m sorry for everyone who is barely dragging themselves through it day by day; in pain, exhausted, and with the people around them burnt out on offering help because ‘why can’t you just get better already’.

I’m lucky, I’m so very, very lucky that for whatever reason my episodes just… stopped. They just stopped. And even still I live aware of the sword dangling over my head, never believing that the dragon is actually dead and is only just sleeping, still there to be reawakened if I mess up (when I don’t have the slightest idea what or where that invisible line I must never cross is), and I never dare to say that I’m ‘cured’ because I don’t believe in miracles like that. It’s a miracle that they stopped, and I’m grateful for it, but I will never dare to believe that they couldn’t come roaring right back any day.

Disability can happen to anyone, and I’m vividly aware that my old pain could be stumbled into at any minute, along with any number of other things, and I’m so sorry to everyone who still lives with their pain that is a constant companion. Mine is sleeping, but I remember it well for how it burned like the sun, to the point that I was able to identify sporadic episodes years after the fact that I had thought only stomach bugs because they were so horrible.

Pain is good, but not like this.

Pain is meant to be a teacher, a protector. A warning system of ‘hey! Don’t do that! We could get hurt!’ Your body’s way of keeping you safe and alive; don’t touch the fire because it hurts, don’t touch the fire because it could kill you. Pain is life’s way of steering you away from death, of keeping you safe and alive; letting you know there’s damage so you know to keep that part safe while it heals and use it less. Because when you’re about to walk into the flames your body doesn’t have the time to sit down and explain it to you gently, it has to alert you ‘NOW. PULL BACK NOW!’

Pain is meant to be a good thing; it’s meant to keep you alive and to protect you, to teach you about danger so you know how to be safe, and go let you know when you’ve been damaged so that you can make sure to give the damage time to heal.

But it’s not meant to be there all the time; it’s not meant to be constantly flashing the alarms when there’s nothing to be done, your body trying to help and let you know that something’s wrong when there’s nothing you can do. It’s not meant to linger until it breaks you, to weigh on your shoulders until you struggle to see the good past it. But just like with any good thing, so often does it become ill.

Pain is a constant companion for too many of us, and I’m so, so sorry for that.

You shouldn’t have to be strong.

I’m sorry.

I just wanted to let you all know that.

[eternal-echoes]

“Although the term "gender" is often ambiguous, there's at least some agreement regarding the term "gender dysphoria." According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), it is defined as "A marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender, of at least six months' duration," as manifested by various indications, based upon whether the individual is a child or an adolescent/adult.(20) This condition is associated with clinically significant distress or impairment in important areas of functioning. For adolescents and adults, it is diagnosed by at least two or more of the following:

A marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and primary and/or secondary sex characteristics (or in young adolescents, the anticipated secondary sex characteristics).

A strong desire to be rid of one's primary and/or secondary sex characteristics because of a marked incongruence with one's experienced/expressed gender (or in young adolescents, a desire to prevent the development of the anticipated secondary sex characteristics).

A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics of the other gender.

A strong desire to be of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one's assigned gender).

A strong desire to be treated as the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one's assigned gender).

A strong conviction that one has the typical feelings and reactions of the other gender (or some alternative gender different from one's assigned gender).(21)

The classification of "Gender Dysphoria" was introduced in 2013. In its previous edition, the DSM referred to the same condition as "Gender Identity Disorder." The monumental effect of this paradigm shift cannot be understated. Initially, the disorder was defined by the disconnect experienced between one's body and one's identity. But with the reclassification, the target of treatment shifted from one's identity to one's dysphoria. This was intended to destigmatize the experience, but now the disconnect isn't viewed as the problem-the distress is the problem. Now, as Drs. Paul McHugh and Lawrence Mayer note, "a biological male who identifies himself as a female is not considered to have a psychiatric disorder unless the individual is experiencing a significant psychosocial distress at the incongruence."(22) Based upon some interpretations of the new definition, it is considered a normal state of mental health for a man to identify as a woman and decide to surgically remove his genitals.

An interesting comparison is sometimes offered with Body Integrity Identity Disorder, which is a condition when individuals feel that a part of their body does not belong to them. They might express jealousy toward amputees or injure themselves to rid themselves of an unwanted limb, even if it is healthy. While some individuals who suffer with this can find a surgeon willing to perform an amputation for them, the consensus among medical professionals is that the therapeutic goal ought to be to conform the mind to the body, rather than vice versa. As Dr. Sabine Müller explains, "Instead of only curing the symptom, a causal therapy should be developed to integrate the alien limb into the body image.”(23) Unfortunately, the current approach to treating gender dysphoria is often the opposite.”

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

— Work cited:

20) Cf. DSM-5, (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013), 450.

21) DSM-5, 452. 22) Lawrence S. Mayer, and Paul R. McHugh, "Sexuality and Gender Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” New Atlantis 50 (Fall 2016), part 3.

23) S. Müller, "Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) —Is the Amputation of Healthy Limbs Ethically Justified?," American Journal of Bioethics 9:1 (January 2009), 36-43.

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.

[murfpersonalblog]

Btw, I'm gonna save my questions about book plots because I sent you something about Prince Lestat and then I went to Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis and I don't even know what to think anymore. 🤔🤷‍♀️😅 When I finish Blood Communion and Interview With the Vampire I can come back with them lol. Now, I don't know if I asked it before and if I did, I'm sorry and you can just send me the link instead of answering again, but who are your favorite Anne Rice characters and why? How do you feel about the show? And you said you don't like human vampires as much, but is it just about their physical characteristics or do you also prefer when they aren't as emotional and conflicted as Anne's/IWTV's?

LOL, no worries--you didn't ask about characters before. Imma ask YOU the same questions, once you've finished all the books, so be prepared! 😈

My fave AR characters are:

🧛 Fave (Male) Vampire - Armand: This boy's been through SO MUCH misery, and yet he's still standing strong as THE boogeyman of rogue vampires, what an icon. I love that he's SMART--despite being an adolescent, Armand's never been stupid. He's got a genre savvy ruthlessness to him, seeing & noticing things that tend to fly over the heads of other people (*cough* Lestat *cough*). Granted, sometimes it makes him look like a cruel a-hole (a la the Replimoids); but other times he's the only sane one in the room (a la Rhoshamandes). But it's just like Claudia--kids are just more in-tune to things than adults are.

🧛‍♀️ Fave (Female) Vampire - Claudia: She creeps me out, and I love her for it. I couldn't handle being in a 5-year old's body, even when I was 5; and that was just for a year, let alone 60+. I'd've killed EVERYONE. I love how Claudia's IQ is through the roof, and how much she makes Lestat, this grown effing man, look like an utter toddler. It's hilarious. She's just following him around, staring at him him silently, and he's like LOUIS, SAVE MEEE~! XD She's such a BAMF. AR doesn't tend to write women very well, but she writes children REALLY well, esp. Claudia. Omfg what an incredible character.

👻 Fave Ghost/Spirit - Azriel (Servant of the Bones): TRAGIC, what happened to him. It's hilarious to see how although he and Lasher have very similar origins, Azriel didn't turn into a psychotic rapist sadistic eugenicist. Azriel actually tries to help SAVE the world and HELP people, despite all the curses put on him, and the ways he was demonized. He's a literal angel; he just so happens to also be a dead man, lol.

🧙‍♀️ Fave witch/psychic - Michael Curry (Mayfairs): THOR WITH HIS HAMMER before Marvel was cool! My favorite AR character, PERIOD; from my fave AR book, PERIOD. He's a blue collar architect with a scholar's soul and an aristocrat's aesthetics. He loves renovating fancy Victorian houses, and is secretly in love with tweed, even as he schleps around in his dirty construction-worker clothes. So many contradictions! He's got a big heart, and he works with his hands--so OF COURSE after his near-death experience you find out he's an empath/psychic who can feel emotions through his fingertips. And of COURSE he falls in love with a woman who just so happens to have inherited a slightly run-down Victorian mansion in the same city where he grew up as a kid, in THAT house where he always thought he saw a strange man looking at him him who no one else could see.... SUCH a perfect setup, and AMC effing BLEW IT. Sure, Cirprien Grieve is cool, he's one of the best characters in that dumpster fire of a show, but he's got NOTHING on Michael.

🧬 Fave Taltos - Ashlar (Taltos): Getting his backstory was SO cool. LEAGUES more interesting than Lasher's, cuz Ashlar just KNOWS more. He's lived A LOT longer, and he never lost his empathy & loving heart. He makes toy dolls for a living, ffs. I felt so bad for him, living all alone cuz people think he's a freak, with his strange height & hands & feet & eating habits. I would've happily been his Morrigan (so long as I had the extra chromosome, ofc, LOL).

👽 Fave Replimoid - Kapetria (PL Trilogy): I hate when AR writes Black people; esp. Black women. Even Merrick got on my nerves; and the way AR wrote about her was gross, fetishized by David & Aaron as if all she was good for was to be lusted after for her body or exploited for her magic. But Kapetria's an alien, so she's just way cooler & more interesting--NO ONE is disrespecting her, unless they want a syringe stabbed in their effing eyeball.

🐺 Fave werewolf/morphenkinder - Margon: I just love when AR has these primordial beings who've lived for 10,000+ years and have seen the world when it was young and humans were all still swinging from trees and nature was full of magic and the immortals lived in innocent harmony before The Cataclysm Effed Everything Up, And Now I Am The Only One Left To Tell The Tale Of My People. I fall for it every time, and Margon's another one.

👭🏻 Fave Twin - Mekare: The strong silent type, even though ironically back when she still had her tongue she was the talkative charismatic Alpha type twin. Mekare's just about that action; everyone else was busy tryna talk to Akasha, all democratic & diplomatic--but all Mekare had for her was STRAIGHT HANDS. You love to see it.

[ravenadottir]

renaming characters: s1, s3 and s4

i just decided to compile all of them in one post since we all know these characters pretty well, and by that i mean i know SOME of the names from season 4.

season 2 / season 5 (i guessed/named them because i didn't play the season so... no stakes there!)

SEASON 1

allegra - she's very powerful, *clears throat* hot, and allegra as a name can be that...? i don't know, i feel like amber resumes this character so much, especially if you say it with her accent... amba... every amber in reality tv is a little too intense and we know she's the queen of cringey overreactions.

erikah - always thought laura would suit her better. i don't know why but i don't like erikah for her, but i think laura has a je ne sais quoi that she, the character, also has. she's very complicated and quite feeble at times, but her face tells me laura.

jen - she's clearly a fucking ashleigh. not for nothing, i know a lot of great ashleys', but the -eigh makes it so obnoxious and that's perfect for homegirl, because right off the bat she's claiming vanilla swirley hair romeo and ashleigh's tend to be like that... tell me you can't picture jen in a 2014 pinterest gear up in a pumpkin field wearing uggs and a fedora, i dare you to tell me she's not the type!

talia - is her full name natalia? 'cause it should be. in my humble opinion isla is a great name for her, (pronounced ay-lah) means island and it's spanish and scottish, perfectly beautiful for her, because let's be honest, if any of these girls is gonna have an interesting name, that's talia. hell, talia is already a great name!

jake - this is such a boring name for someone so full of flavor, i can't! he's not dabbed in caucasity nor adolescence, so why the fuck was he named jake???? mateo though... mateo is a fucking name, ok? it can be italian, spanish, portuguese, it doesn't matter. jake is such a 13-yo momma's boy name... ugh, no. if the guy has a collar popped like a fucking vampire and is walking around the villa with that hair, jake is not his name. PERIOD.

mason - i honestly like the name, just not for him. i always thought oliver would be a curveball because so is mason's lack of personality. let's face it they made a huge oopsie when interchanging levi's characteristics with his when coupled up with mc. mason is a drummer turned model, how the fuck did you manage to make him boring??? anyway, his face, to me, is giving oliver.

miles - he deserves a douche name because he has that chest piece, and any guy who displays such... awful tattoo deserves to be punished. fuck it, let's name him terry, short for terrible.

jasper - i mean, i HATE this name, and well, his face and hair is giving elité father tease, so i want to name santiago, because oh my god, every santiago i've met sucks ass and is a creep. the guy has a pet cobra, he HAS to be named santiago!

tim - this is the ONLY character who fits in the jake genre, because he looks 18 and clueless (affectionate). i feel like liam is somehow fitting for him, mostly because that's the go-to name in teen dramas... and usually the liam's are also clueless.

levi - why do his mates call him romeo is beyond me, homeboy has NO GAME. NONE. he's the personification (along with mason) of pretty privilege. if you stick a pin on his head it might deflate, because there's nothing going on behind those average eyes. fuck levi, his name is eric, basic and common.

rohan - since his name has multiple origins, and we don't know for sure his ethnicity (not that it matters, i know brazilian boys who are named tyler, so...) i'm naming him gael. he's a gael, argue with the wall.

cherry - have you ever seen a courtney??? because that's her! and she might be the type to say "although i have the same name as kourtney, khloe is my spirit animal" and you can't tell me she doesn't.

reese - tristan. fuck reese.

sammi - i would love to name her according to her ethnicity, because sammi apparently is hebrew. for instance, if she's korean: seong-min is perfect, because it's a genderless name and so it's sammi. also, i headcanon her as enby (she/them). if she's japanese, aya, because it can mean "brilliant fabric" and that's what she's fucking wearing. if chinese, yu ming, which means jade brightness, again... fitting! i like sammi, but i think it was a missed opportunity to name her in what could be her background culture, since lots of us don't know much, if anything about those countries. i for one didn't have any asian history classes in my school curriculum, which is weird because we had ajapanese immigration here, so like... MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. anyway, these are the names i would give her.

lucy - that's a rebecca that refuses being called becky, and will have a fit if you do. i don't have much to say about her, lucy can die in a hole.

~~

SEASON 3

elladine - she gives me "i have two L's in my name" but it's not elladine. it's something like danielle, which is really pretty and the first name that came to mind when i saw the teasers with her.

aj - this is a great name for her, i have to say! if anything i would've taken the same route and either use an acronym, like aj, or a "boy name" like robin. i honestly love that name for girls and enby's.

bill - honestly the caucasity is too much for me, and i have to say, the name has to fall into that category, so i'm naming him ryan! he's childish and you can tell nobody has told him to shut the fuck up ONCE in his life. his name is ryan and you can argue with the jar of mayo sitting next to him.

camilo - i don't like this for anybody, it's such an ugly name in my opinion. if they wanted to name him a latin name they could've gone with so many other prettier options, and to me he looks like a cauã (the last a is pronounced ahn). listen, cauã is indigenous from brazil, BUT it's so fitting for him, you'll have to trust me on this one! they're athletic and also very... um... let's say "active", and by that i mean they're all whores (affectionate). it's perfect for him.

harry - if zhong is his surname (and it's chinese), then i'm choosing my favorite boy name, which is jun hie. ((fun fact, zhong can also be a first name, and it can mean devotion, among other things that don't even slightly mean that, but i'm focusing on devotion)). harry looks like someone who deserves a cute name that has a deep meaning, and jun hie means outstanding.

nicky - what a bland ass name for someone so pretty! i like jamal for him, and i could stand here all day trying to come up with an excuse but truth be told, it's because of jamal sims (the coreographer), leave me alone he's hot ok!

seb - i actually think a cat name is perfect for him lol it's either seb or something stupid like axel or dash, which makes him INCREDIBLY EMBARRASSED ABOUT IT.

miki - i like it but i think something like sakura would be perfect. there's something about her that reminds me of the petals' colors... she's a pretty chill girl, and somewhat delicate, so i like sakura for her.

genevieve - i think it's perfect! it's dainty but has some strength to it. personally i think if i came up with a name for her it wouldn't be as good as genevieve. hate the nickname though, viv is really basic. call her vieve, man, what are you doing??

iona - i would never think of this name because i've never heard it before meeting her, but she gives me the vibe of a girl who has a big name but cool, short nickname, like andressa or andrea but the nick is andi. the choice is andi, you pick the original.

ciaran - this is a trent and you can argue with bill's mayo jar. he might be irish but his stance is the fucking white american who is a nice guy. i don't like his personality, or the lack of, and trent is a brainless guy, just like him.

tai - it's fucking perfect for him actually! when i saw him on the tease i thought of taika, tai or koa (joyful), but personally i think tai or koa are very fitting.

yasmin - whenever i see her i think of the exact color of iris, so that's the name. plus, she gives "hemp-skirt-wearing and having lesbian sex in an orange tent after lolapalooza" tease and that's why iris fits.

rafi - i don't like the name rafi for him, so... husani. it's pretty accurate, since it means 'handsome'. i also like how it sounds and i think it fits with his personality since that's... the only personality he has. "ah, but vena he talks about his brother-" i'm gonna stop you right there, because he does, but um... how many times did we get to see his depth? exactly.

lily (liliana) - she looks like a bruna to me. it is italian but we do have a lot of bruna's here, and honestly? THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME, and they look like that.

~~

SEASON 4

angie - she gives me strong vibes of alexandra, in a way that she hates her name and prefers a gender bent nickname, like alex. i don't like angie for her.

lexi - this absolute excuse of a person is a jessica to me, but the bad type. you know what i'm talking about, the type you have to call her out in the middle of a discussion because once again she's giving "THAT'S MY OPINION!!" tease. i hate this character so much, she's 46% of the reason why i stopped playing the season.

najuma - i love it but i would never think of this name since i've never heard it before. if someone suggested it, i would probably go with it, but if i had to pick one, it would be amani. i think najuma is better though.

thabi - honestly? pretty cool name for her, such a cute and short name, i would probably choose something like that. i'll keep it.

hazeem - not gonna lie i did NOT think he would have a muslim/arabic/urdu name when i saw him for the first time. and because i don't know NEARLY ENOUGH about the culture, i'm keeping it. he does look like a hazeem somehow.

james - it's such a common, bland, accessible name... then again, so is he. meh, james is fine. although he gives me benjamin... lol idk why, don't ask

kobi - this guy is such a... dynamic young man. there's a guy named calvin, from season 3 of the circle, and is the perfect summoning of what i think kobi is like. the type of guy that joins his fingers and gestures it to explain something, particularly to someone who hasn't asked anything. yeah, kobi's name is calvin.

will - ok, it would be EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN before will, especially knowing it's short for willem? LIKE, I FEEL SO BETRAYED- anyway, since he's japanese, and i wouldn't give him an engligh name, it's an opportunity to expand the character's culture a bit, so his name would be shigeru (lush), 'cause let's face it, the boy is pure lush... he has a fucking robe, it's perfect.

bruno - rafael vibes, and that's because here in brazil that usually goes to very annoying boys... (pronounced ha-fah-el). he just strikes me as a guy who doesn't know when to be quiet and well... he's a comedian, so you know that's fucking true.

youcef - if you told me he was french i would say pierre, because to be honest his face gives... absolutely nothing, so probably blanche? or blanc...? i don't know, he's just such a weird choice, all i think of is the "go back to party city where you belong" because of his hair. i'm definitely naming his blanche.

valentina - that's the most gabriela i've ever seen!! like... she's so fucking hot, i barely can think when i see her, and valentina is a beautiful name, just doesn't fit her vibe.

juliet - fuck this girl, i hate her design so much. and you know what, i also hate the name adrianna, so that's what i would name her. she has the vibe of someone who cuts you off to talk about herself and adrianna's love doing that shit.

cora - close but not quite, i would name her nova, because reasons. she just gives me nova vibes, maybe it's her style? maybe it's just how fresh she looks, idk, i just love the name nova for her.

tom - i'm not fucking with you, the first name that came to mind when i saw him was jerry, before knowing what he was called lol istg it's just jerry for me, the oldest most generic name for a guy that wears a goddamn suit on a summer trip.

kelly - i don't like the name kelly, it's really common in some regions here, i'm tired! plus, she breathes, walks and talks like a chloe, i can't imagine another name for her.

tiffany - hate this name, oh my god... if i had to moan tiffany at any given time, i would jump into an elevator shaft first. since they go by all pronouns, why not a gender neutral name? he gives me solid riley energy. i like it because of the girl in inside out and how there's male and female emotions in her head, so... riley.

dylan - he could be named rat for all i care. BUT i'm giving marcel, because that's what marcel's do, understimate women and are slightly misogynistic, and by slightly i mean a fuck ton. FUCK THIS GUY, FUCK HIS FACE, FUCK HIS BODY, FUCK HIS PERSONALITY. FUCK - THIS - CHARACTER.

oliver - at this point i don't even know, because he gives oliver, but he also gives mason, and also jason, basically names for guys that are ripped lol i think i would give him luke. don't ask, it's a luke thing!