#He's a problem solver now fr

[saintrosalyn]

Hear me out hear me out

John Price deserved to be divorced.

IM SORRY.

But young John Price who jumped the gun and proposed. Afterall it was well known how many men got married and had families while on deployment, if they could do it so could he. But he couldn't.

He was never home. Sitting next to his wife and his mind was still in middle of nowhere Russia.

And really there's only so much on person can take. His wife could forgive the forgotten gifts for anniversaries, birthdays, and Christmases. But she couldn’t even find comfort in his presence. She begged him to change, begged him to leave, begged him to choose her. And he did.

For awhile. Then it was back to the same. So she filed for divorce.

And think of the potential. Older, wiser, had everything and lost it John Price winning back the love of his life.

Who cares if she's already moved on with a husband and kids. If he could be a father figure for his men he could certainly step-up for his wife's kids. And her husband? Well, darlin, accidents happen all the time.

[dbssh]

🥕🍑🍏🥬🥔 for aja and one other of your choice!

🥕 [CARROT] How tough is your OC against certain situations? How weak are they against others?

aja is great in a physical situation, anything that just takes some elbow grease or a little bit of mindfulness, but she lacks social tact. she's great with kasey when shes young and most problems can generally be approached with "take some deep breaths and we can talk it out" and "lets go outside for a bit and youll feel better" but when they move to the city and she starts having like. high school girl social problems and insecurity and friend drama and stuff. aja really stops knowing how to help and tends to get pretty overwhelmed with it.

ironically for how poorly they get along, victor is pretty similar. hes an incredible problem solver and good with hands-on stuff but lacks social tact or regard for what other people think of him, and tends to be pretty prone to insensitivity and shoving his foot in his mouth. (still, kasey tends to turn to him for advice. sometimes its just easier to talk to someone who isnt your parent, and he has more relevant experience to a lot of her insecurities and stuff anyways.)

🍑 [PEACH] How do they show their kindness? How kind are they truly?

aja - answered!

victor- he only really honestly expresses himself to most people through his work. he tends to be a pretty aloof, crass guy who seems to not like anyone very much, but will dedicate massive amounts of time to Doing a task for them. for example despite generally being an emotionally distant parent he is very dedicated to the design and upkeep of ajas robot arm and is constantly working on it.

🍏 [GREEN APPLE] How do they differ from the norm and how are they punished for it?

aja -

victor -

🥬 [LEAFY GREEN] How mundane are they? Do they like it that way?

aja - she is like if a cool normal (in a "was emo in high school and never all the way grew out of it" way) 35-40 year old woman spent every minute of her life mentally reciting the i dont fit in jughead monologue. fr i dont think she realizes that she is mostly very normal because she is too busy internalizing complexes about how shes a freak and everybody hates her.

victor - admittedly he is a freak. and hes okay with that. at some point youve been alive so long past yr lifespan you just couldnt be normal even if u tried. i think he likes putting the mad in mad scientist even if he occassionally entertains the idea of a boring normal domestic fantasy

🥔 [POTATO] What do they have that others see as a flaw, but they don't care about?

aja - contradictory gender situationn i guess. OH no wait she has this habit of just leaving situations without telling anybody when shes decided shes had enough.

victor - no sense of physical boundaries. tends to be touchy in the interest of professional curiosity. (esp. with aja he does the Parent Thing where hes like i literally have seen you naked im your dad stop acting like its a big deal. now let me ask you invasive medical questions)

[siffrin-stardust-traveler]

OK MY GUYS TIME

Sarlet Cipher: Thief of Life -Sarlet grew up facing the full brunt of being the lowest caste, constantly looking over their shoulder out of fear someone was coming for them. They realized quickly that they had to become the hunter to avoid getting culled. They dream of a world where no one has to worry about food or shelter or even just staying alive, they are a very caring person but they just got curdled by rage.

Hymnal Ohline: Sylph of Void -Hynmal is a therapist/Human Resources for Ouroboros (The Tecbro's company) and does their best to keep the workers from going insane. They usually dress in silly outfits (think Miss Frizzle) to cheer people up, and they are the main problem solver in the company! The job is intensely stressful and they are going grey prematurely but they're fine!!!!

Janele Mantis: Seer of Rage -Janele is unemployed and loving it. She has a huge internet presence and is a pretty popular blogger on Grumblr. She has a dry and sardonic sense of humour but has a strong moral code, suprisingly. Very chill very cool.

Trojan Ordath: Bard of Blood -Sterotypical high school bully. Varisty jacket and everything. He made that his whole personality because people are going to kill him anyways!!! Why even pretend to be nice if he's nothing to these people! He's gonna give them a REASON to hate him now! (Really he wants to be an artist and make people think, but...why put time or effort into a pointless task? No one cares about him...) <- his gay ass wants to be Cuno fr fr

Caesar Milman: Prince of Time -Caesar is a little eager beaver. They latch onto anyone who shows them even an ounce of kindness, they're loyal to a fault, and they really just want someone to love them. They also don't know how to keep their mouth shut, they yap ALL THE DAMN TIME. They truly want to save everyone and wants a brighter future for the people they care about!!!! <- They are just. Tequila. (Also Tequil Sunset is a valid troll name...)

Eevuhl Ishida: Mage of Space -I was wrong you can kill me. THIS BITCH IS RUBY. They are a culler in the wriggling caves (or were) but ended up leaving because the job was too damn stressful. They currently work with a revolutionary group, but are constantly anxious about someone coming after them for abandoning their role. In general they are very friendly and quite silly, but they aren't afraid to defend themself.

Dearly Winner: Knight of Heart -Dearly is a bodyguard.

Asdiah Tecbro: Rouge of Breath -Asdiah is the heavily sheltered heir to the Ouroboros company. She's had everything handed to her on a silver platter, but she has never been free at all. She's never made a single decision in her life. She's pretty sure she's just a poster child at this point...she can't help but long for something more, something exciting.... <- She a Disney princess fr fr

Dragon Warble: Heir of Mind -Dragon is the inheriter of the House of the Rising Sun, famed to be haunted by the spirit of Dragon's ancestor. Dragon does not care about this. Dragon is fully aware that they are doomed, but refuse to stop being optimistic which pisses off Heatte. Their philosophy is if you can't change it, look for the bright side and pray something good come of it. Yes they have depression but you wouldn't know from talking to them.

Kiyond Villan: Page of Light -Kiyond was raised by Edgarr with love and care, and they grew up into a wonderful mad scientist. They are specfically a biologist, they like making strange hybrids and eating said strange hybrids. They don't really like other people and rarely get out of their lab because other people scare them. They get visions about the end of the world sometimes so they made a bunker and lives in there.

Kenken Quiour: Maid of Doom -Legends say a mutant died on this very cliff. They say that her spirit haunts the winds, searching for her murderer. They say that if you listen closely to the wind as a storm brews you can hear her scream with rage. They say her eyes are blue and her blood is orange as sunset and it oozes from the rocks and leaks into the water and taints everything it touches. They say she's looking for you.

Brioch Sweets: Witch of Hope -Brioch genuinely doesn't care about...anything. Well, they care about animals and that is it. Why bother with other people? They are just gonna betray you anyways...

OOH THIS IS INTERESTING!! Ironically Dearly has the shortest description but they are my favorite out of everyone here — B. Jess

[bingoboingobongo]

task force 141 + finals

Characters: Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, John Price, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

Warnings: none

A/N: bc what screams christmas like hours of studying? and yes this sorta turned into academic headcanons but idc

simon "ghost" riley:

alright so maybe this a surprise maybe this isn't

but simon's secretly really smart

definitely got all a's on his finals (or whatever the british equivalent is idk)

and he probably didn't have to study that hard for it

ofc he still studied

he's a firm believer in being prepared

but even without he could've easily scored in the high eighties/low nineties

he was super duper into reading as a kid so that stuff came easy to him

and he's a stellar problem solver so math was pretty simple too

only subject that gave him trouble was biology

but even then he still did good

off topic but i feel like after high school he started going into college and working part time at a butchers

but then ofc after 9/11 he joined the military so he had to stop his education

but i like to think that after a certain point, maybe when he returned to sorta check up on his family and stuff, he finished up the rest of his schooling and got his degree

he has his bachelor's in english literature

what can i say he's a book worm at heart

john "soap" mactavish:

so unfortunately soap is not as academically gifted as simon

he was definitely sorta like the class clown

and he didn't really try much during finals or really just school in general

im pretty sure that tracks since im like 99% sure i read somewhere that he lied about his age to join the army (either that or scotland has a younger recruitment age so he joined at 16)

but yeah in general his finals were not the highest scores ever

he studied a little and would usually score around the high seventies/low eighties range

he knows that if he studied more he could probably hit the high eighties/low nineties range but the knowledge is enough for him and so he doesn't bother studying

i mean i don't think i need to say this

but he was definitely the class clown

i don't think he ever went back to school after the military though

he's just not a fan of the program what can i say

but just because he's not academically smart doesn't mean he's dumb

i mean he definitely has his moments

but for the most part he actually has a lot of "street smarts" and little random facts that come in handy

john price:

alright so price actually graduated from the royal military academy

and imma be fr with y'all i have no idea what that means

but he also joined the military at sixteen so that's a thing ig

price usually studied for his finals though

but he didn't study "hard"

he did the reviews and stuff and that was pretty much it

he uses common sense and logic to get himself through those tests

that being said he usually did pretty good

his score range was usually in the mid eighties to nineties

he didn't really take school to seriously but he also didn't completely slack off

he just wasn't really interested in academics

he was more interested in getting into the military and serving

definitely was insane at math though

what can i say he loves puzzles and he's a problem solver at heart

and math was really just like a giant puzzle to him

kyle "gaz" garrick:

alright so gaz was actually a pretty good student when he was in school

he was a humanities student through and through

absolute history buff too

and he's very proud that he's never scored below a ninety on his finals

he never had to study for english because like ghost he's been reading since he was a kid so that was in the bag

and he did study history but it was less to review and more because it was just interesting

now when it comes to stem subjects

gaz definitely struggled with that

he likes the sorta loose, open to interpretation, nature of humanities subjects

so having rigid rules in stem was kinda hard for him

he definitely had to study a lot for those

but he's always down to boast about how he got a perfect score on his calculus final

gaz also strikes me as the kind of guy who went to college

idk if it lines up with his age/timeline in the games but whatever

he got into a nice university and then majored in british history

he's always considered the idea of going back and getting a master's or phd too

rodolfo "rudy" parra:

alright so yk that "trope" of smart guy has no common sense?

well that's pretty much rudy in a nutshell

he always did really good on his finals

like mid to high nineties

although that was due to a lot of intense studying on his part

but sometimes he's lacking in the common sense department

but honestly same rudy same

he actually took school pretty seriously growing up

and the idea of being in the military didn't really occur to him until alejandro brought it up one day

he was always more artistically inclined than academically inclined which is why he had to spend a lot of time studying

he would try to get alejandro to study with him too with varying levels of success

also he was actually surprisingly good at sciences

ofc he ended up enlisting right after he graduated

but he did take college classes online for a while until he could get his degree

honestly i can totally see him majoring in like mexican art history (is that a real major? idk)

alejandro vargas:

alright so alejandro never really tried to hard in school

he was sorta similar to soap but less of a class clown and more of a popular kid

he was smart enough to get himself through finals without studying tho

but he was always on the cusp of failing

think seventies range

that was fine with him though because he's known he wanted to be in the military since he was young

so he never really was too stressed about school

sometimes rudy would try to get him to study with him but he would always mess around instead

honestly before the military i feel like alejandro was a real goofball

and a real heart-throb too let's be honest

strangely though, rudy convinced him to take college online and get a degree

it took alejandro a while to warm up to the idea

but eventually he did and he majored in polisci

and he actually did pretty good in college too

[icemankazansky]

please talk more about neurodivergent mav bc it’s my reason to live n breathe fr

I'm so glad you sent me this ask, because I was asking myself, "Should I make a real post about this?" and then you came and answered the question for me.

Maverick Mitchell is Neurodivergent

Very briefly, for anyone who has questions: The term "neurodivergent" refers to someone whose brain works differently than the majority of people ("neurotypicals.") While neurodiversity is by definition diverse, there are hallmarks of neurodivergence that are common in the majority of neurodivergent people. I'm not here to make definitive statements about neurodiversity; I'm speaking about my read on one, particular character. This is an opinion post. I will also be referring to my own experience as neurodivergent, because this is not a scholarly article and it's my blog, so I'm kind of thinking of it as a 30-some-year longitudinal study.

mav·er·ick /ˈmav(ə)rik/ noun

The definition of "maverick" is, "an unorthodox or independent-minded person," which I fucking love when we're talking about Maverick Mitchell as neurodivergent, because that's literally how he got his name: By thinking differently. That is the definition of neurodivergence, and one of its hallmarks is thinking creatively.

"I'll hit the brakes; he'll fly right by."

Maverick approaches flying creatively. It serves him well, but he's censured for it more than once by authority figures who don't understand the way he thinks. "Aircraft one performs a split S? That's the last thing you should do.... What were you thinking at this point?"

Charlie doesn't understand Maverick's thought process, because it's dissimilar from her own. Neurotypicals often have difficulty understanding or anticipating the thoughts of neurodivergents, and vice versa. (Though both groups can read and predict the thought processes of members of their own group with the same level of accuracy.) Maverick has difficulty explaining his own thought process to her, which is a common neurodivergent experience, because it's loud and busy in there, and my brain just makes connections that I can't always express. A reminded me of B which reminded me of C which reminded me of D and now we're on X and it happened in a split second, and no, I'm not sure how we got here. But that's not what he tells her. What he says is: "There's no time to think up there. If you think, you're dead."

Which leads me to my next point: Neurodivergence can also account for Maverick's motto: "Don't think; just do." Many neurodivergents have strong intuitions, and they often believe their intuition first. Additionally, given the right circumstances, neurodivergents are capable of intense and sustained focus, to the point where the world outside the target just kind of fades away. Neurodivergent thinking is also characterized by being observant, detail-focused, and a good problem solver. If you're intensely focused, and that's how your brain works naturally, then you just take in all these details and the pieces of the problem, and your brain sorts it for you automatically, and you do whatever you're doing like muscle memory. Show the math. Well, I can't, but I got to the right answer, didn't I?

Impulse Control and Emotional Regulation

"Time to buzz the tower, Goose."

Neurodivergence is often characterized by poor impulse control and emotional regulation. We know Maverick has poor impulse control. There are multiple instances across the films where someone lists his many impulsive actions that felt good in the moment but resulted in negative consequences large and small. It's not that Maverick does not know that, for example, buzzing the tower will result in immediate negative consequences. This is not brand new information. He knows. It's just that the impulse to do it is stronger than the voice of logic telling him not to, and he has never learned to control his impulses. Honestly, I have no idea what this feels like for neurotypical people. I feel a difference between a want or a desire and an impulse. Like, "I want a vanilla coke right now. That sounds amazing." I feel desire, and maybe I'm disappointed if I cannot acquire the object of my desire, but it's a relatively small and manageable feeling. An impulse is not. An impulse is a huge feeling, and it's not just emotional; I feel it physically in my body, both this emotional and physical desperate discomfort that I cannot extinguish without Doing the Thing. In many instances, I know I should not Do the Thing. My brain provides all sorts of reasons why I should not Do the Thing. But that doesn't diminish the impulse at all. I cannot feel better until I Do the Thing. Often, once the high of Doing the Thing is over, I have regrets. Those regrets create kind of an impulse hangover, but this feeling (and even the knowledge that I will have this feeling in the immediate future) does not in any way dissuade me from Doing the Thing. You can learn impulse control. It is a skill you can acquire. Maverick has not acquired this skill. And neither have I.

Poor emotional regulation is another hallmark of neurodivergence. It is more difficult to begin with because neurodivergents tend to emotional extremes, so the emotions are much bigger than the ones felt day-to-day by neurotypicals.

"I will fire when I am goddamn good and ready, you got that?"

(Emotional regulation is not just about controlling your anger, but this is the example that I have at hand.) Some people have emotions. My emotions have me. They pilot this craft. I am years into actively working on emotional regulation, and a lot of the time I find myself completely controlled by my feelings, and not the other way around. Maverick has this problem, too. Was his reaction to Sundown above appropriate and proportional to the situation? Probably not. Was it necessary to jump in Ice's face in the locker room after a brief argument? Probably not. But if you don't run your emotions, they run you.

He also has the correlating problem, which is numbing yourself out. Your emotions are too big and you can't control them, so you swallow them, push them down so far that all you feel is numb. Empty. Hollow. It can be like a seesaw: Emotions get too big, cause you distress, so you suppress them; now you feel numb. The other long-term problem with poor emotional regulation is that if you don't deal with your emotions, you can't get rid of them. The treatment for PTSD is processing your trauma. Unpacking it, dealing with every detail, feeling every bit of emotion that's attached. (I just did this last year. It's called prolonged exposure therapy, and it is absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done on purpose.) In the first film, Maverick is still carrying the trauma of his parents' death; in the second, he's still carrying the trauma of Goose's death and losing Bradley. If you don't process your trauma, you have to keep it. That's what PTSD is.

Differences in Social Skills and Awareness

This is where I started the discussion of Mav being neurodivergent the other day. A lot of Maverick's problems with the establishment of the Navy can be attributed to neurotypicals not understanding his creative thinking, or to problems caused by his poor impulse control and emotional regulation, but I think most of it is probably attributable to this. Neurodivergents socialize differently than neurotypicals, and they often have difficulty reading the nuances and unspoken cues of neurotypical social situations. Cain asks Maverick why he hasn't been promoted above captain, and Maverick tells him that he's, "where he belongs" (meaning he doesn't want to stop flying full-time), but in truth ranks above captain require a lot of diplomacy, tact, and social sensitivity, and these are not skills Maverick has. (Which is not a bad thing, unless he's trying to do Ice's job. They have different skill sets; that's not where Maverick belongs.)

Navigating the social minefield of the Navy is more of a large picture issue, so I think that the best examples of Maverick's differences in social skills and awareness are small moments.

"I believe the admiral is asking a rhetorical question."

Maverick does not pick that up. He knows what a rhetorical question is, and he adjusts his behavior when Warlock clues him in, but Maverick cannot pick up the small, unspoken cues that Cyclone is giving to indicate it is a rhetorical question. Maverick takes Cyclone's speech in a very straight-forward manner: He asked a question, so I'm going to answer the question. Neurodivergents often take speech at face value, having difficulty with figures of speech such as metaphor and colloquialisms, because they expect people to say what they mean and mean what they say. There are other cues that neurodivergents pay attention to when communicating, but they're emotional and intuitive, not social or situational. Neurodivergents tend to express themselves honestly and so expect honesty in return. Euphemisms and pussyfooting for the sake of niceties or any other reason is not a natural instinct in neurodivergent communication. "Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass." (That's Cordelia Chase, not Maverick Mitchell, but it's the vibe here.)

Neurodivergence is just your brain working differently than most people's. Like all things, it has its benefits and its drawbacks. But it affects every part of your life and how you live it, because it's how you see and make sense of the world. Maverick Mitchell's neurodivergence makes him who he is.

[havic-fr]

multiples of 10 for the fr ask thing!!

Thanks! 

10.Have any of your dragons suffered a grave injury?

My clan is a pretty peaceful traveling caravan, but accidents have happened. A newer hire to the caravan’s carnival, Malris, misfired a spell during a rehearsal and a heavy tent beam, several glass lanterns, and an iron banner-pole fell on Albion, the ringleader. He’s heavily scarred and has a limp, but has otherwise recovered. Albion takes it in stride, but has become a bit more rigorous about safety procedure, since.

20. How well known does your clan want to be? 

The Conflagrant Caravan doesn’t aspire for Sornieth-wide fame and glory or riches. They’re content with only being well-recognized within the Ashfall Waste. As long as they can make do and be appreciated, they’re okay.

30. How often does your clan meet up with your (potential) allies? 

The caravan sends Tourmaline and Melba ahead to secure permission to set up in or travel through other clans’ territories. The caravan doesn’t have an official leader, but most decisions are made as a group by those who’ve been there the longest (Primarily Aurelia, Orsino, Hazel, and my progens once their lore gets sorted)

40.If your clan leader went off the deep end, who would stand by them no matter what?

For the sake of this question, I’ll count the clan leader as Aurelia. Spire, my progen, would be the most willing to stand by Aurelia no matter what. Back when I was in Lightning and the Conflagrant Caravan was instead a tiny desert down, Aurelia was the first outside dragon to join Spire’s clan.

50.Who’s the dragon the rest of their lairmates can depend on the most? Why is that?

Regent is always willing to help her clanmates, regardless of the problem. She’s regarded as a great listener, problem solver, and her calm outlook is appreciated. She’s been a part of the caravan for a very long time.

60. Who’s the clan troublemaker(s) and who has to clean up the mess?

The clan’s biggest agents of chaos are Nero the jester and Hazel the guard. Both used to be bandits in the Carrion Canyon, preying on unsuspecting travelers. Now, they like to start impromptu duels, stir up drama, and generally mess with their clanmates. They’ve learned to clean up after their own mess, otherwise the clan would be significantly less forgiving.

70. Is there a pair or group of dragons that make their lairmates go “oh shit” when they’re seen together?

It’s generally a warning sign if you see Nero, Hazel, and Albion together. The three are just a mess.

80.How does your clan view exaltation?

It is necessary and an honor. Few dragons in the Conflagrant Caravan know combat skills, so instead they train their exaltees in arts like singing, masonry, and glassblowing. Mather doesn’t just need warriors, in their opinion!

90. How strict do your dragons stick to the breed stereotypes? Flight stereotypes?

I don’t stick to it all that much. Like in my lore, Fire’s biggest industry and export is metalworking and tools but my clan itself doesn’t partake in that and individual fire dragons aren’t necessarily more inclined to it. My ridgebacks don’t tend to have an aversion to water, and my tundras are forgetful but not so much so. I very much pick and choose what to keep, whoops.