#I am not using them with any sort of reliability for obvious reasons

[exhausted-archivist]

Dragon Age Inquisition Game Model Heights: Fauna and Enemies

Please note that none of these are canon. None of these numbers are reliable or meant to assert any sort of canon status. Some of these models do not appear the same size as in game.

I started pulling creature models from Inquisition for my bestiary project. Since my gaming computer died and it's hard to get a good screenshot on console, so I was hoping to do extracts.

But, I kept pulling them because I wanted to see if I could find a a rhyme or reason to ground my height estimates for the fauna of Thedas where I could. (Spoiler, I couldn't) I do however still find worth in these heights if for no other reason than for the fun of them. That said, I'm once again asking BioWare why they're changing the size of models in game so drastically with no clear system and scaling them up so drastically.

In terms of known incorrect scaling models, as in they do not reflect what is displayed in game, the following is what I know/can easily confirm: Deepstalkers, dragons*, dragonlings, fennic, giants*, great bears, large bears, lurkers, and phoenix.

* For the dragons and giants it is unclear which model's scaling is off, as in game we know that the giant is bigger than the vinsomer dragon on the Storm Coast. We also cannot confirm or deny if the dragon models are the same size across all of the different subspecies. I would say you reasonably could assume that given they all share the same skeleton, but I don't want to assume anything when it comes to scaling in Inquisition.

I would also like to note an update on some of the previously shared models from this post. I got better at blender, studied the models more to find the true shoulder, and thus these numbers have gotten more accurate. It's truly amazing what a mouse and hours of practice and study will do.

Methodology

These models are extracted from the game files using Frosty Editor in the measurement units of meters. I then brought the models into Blender. When it comes to measuring the heights, I'm measuring from the shoulder of quadrupeds, head for bipedals, and included some variations - such as additional height due to horns, crystals, ect. separately. For any creature with armor, helmets, ect, I measured from the top of their skull when possible or from an estimated top of their skull, such as with the Arcane Horror.

In terms of the numbers provided in measurement in Blender. I am taking the numbers only from the first 2 decimal places, I'm not rounding up nor am I rounding down in any area. When converting from meters to inches, I am only doing whole numbers so these will be rounded down if below .5 or up if they are .5 and above.

Darkspawn Heights

From left to right, we have:

Ogre: 11'11 / 3.64m at the head, 14'6 / 4.42m with horns

Emissary: 10'5 / 3.18m

Alpha Emissary: 10'4 / 3.16m

Corypheus: 10'5 / 3.17m

Hurlock: 7' / 2.15m

Alpha genlock: 3'11 / 1.19m

Hurlock: 5'11 / 1.81m

Hurlock: 5'11 / 1.80m

Shriek: 5'11 / 1.81m

Ghoul: 5'11 / 1.81m

Genlock: 4'8 / 1.42m

Corrupted Spider: 3'3 / 0.98m

ALT

Draconic Heights

These are measured from their shoulder height, however I would like to note that due to the high dragons A-pose putting their front legs off the ground level they are measured off of their hind legs. In order from left to right:

Corypheus's dragon: 22'4 / 6.8m

Trespasser dragon: 23' / 7.02m

Crestwood dragon: 23' / 7m

Dragonling: 8'2 / 2.5m

Snowy "wyvern": 8' / 2.44m

Varghest: 7'6 / 2.28m

Wyvern: 8'2 / 2.49m

Wingspan of the high dragons are: 163'10 / 49.94m, one wing is 81'11 / 24.97m.

ALT

General Fauna Heights

From left to right across all images:

Giant: 17'9 / 5.41m

Druffalo: 6'7 / 2m

Nuggalope: 6'6 / 1.97m

Red Hart - Mount: 6'3 / 1.91m

Crehtahl: 6'2 / 1.89m

Horse: 6'2 / 1.89m

Dracolisk: 6'2 / 1.88m

Gurn: 5'11 / 1.80m

Bronto: 5'12 / 1.82m

Bronto carrying: 5'12 / 1.82m

Bogfisher: 5'11 / 1.80m

Quillback: 4'11 / 1.49m

August Ram: 4'2 / 1.28m

Red Hart - Small/Non-mount: 4'2 / 1.27m

Halla: 4'1 / 1.25m

Ram: 4'1 / 1.25m

Large bear: 4'4 / 1.31m

Great Bear: 4'3 / 1.29m

Giant Spider: 3'5 / 1.03m

Corrupt Spider: 3'3 / 1m

Fennic: 3'3 / 0.99m

Black Wolf: 3'4 / 1.02m

Hyena: 3'5 / 1.05m

Mabari: 3'3 / 0.99m

Armored Mabari: 4'4 / 1.31m at the head

Tusket: 2'4 / 0.72m

Snoufleur: 2' / 0.62m

Nug: 1'9 / 0.53m

Lurker: 2'9 / 0.84m

Pheonix: 2'8 / 0.80m

Deepstalker: 2'6 / 0.76m

Raven: 1'8 / 0.52m

Gull: 1'9 / 0.53m

Cockatrice: 1'9 / 0.53m

Raven - Small: 9" / 0.22m

ALT

Red Templar Heights

From left to right:

Behemoth: 11' / 3.36m at the head, 15'7 / 4.75m with the crystals

Red Templar Horror: 7'9 / 2.37m

Red Templar Knight: 7'4 / 2.24m

Red Templar Shadow: 6' / 1.82m

Red Templar Foot Soldier: 6' / 1.83m

Red Templar Guard: 6' / 1.84m

Red Templar Marksman: 6' / 1.83m

ALT

Demon and Spirit Heights

From left to right across all images:

Gibbering Horror: 2'8 / 0.82m

Fearling Spider: 4'5 / 1.34m

Despair demon: 5'7 / 1.70m

Shade 1: 6'3 / 1.90m

Shade 2: 6'3 / 1.90m

Shade 3: 6'3 / 1.90m

Shade 4: 6'3 / 1.90m

Shade 5: 6'3 / 1.90m

Rage Demon: 6'4 / 1.93m

Revanant: 7'5 / 2.26m

Terror demon: 8'2 / 2.49m

Greater Terror demon: 8'2 / 2.49m

Envy demon: 8'3 / 2.51m

Nightmare demon: 8'6 / 2.58m

Arcane Horror: 10'1 / 3.08m

Pride demon: 14'10 / 4.53m at the head, 18'5 / 5.61m with the horns

Greater Fear demon aka Smiley aka Blinky: 93'6 / 28.49m

ALT

Corpses

All corpses use the same default/base model and are all the same height without their armor putting them all at a height of: 6' / 1.82m

ALT

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[rotationalsymmetry]

More serious response to last post:

boundaries aren't a multi tool. They are not an appropriate response to all problems. What they are useful for are situations of "if I don't get x/do keep getting y, I am going to want less closeness with this person or group."

In situations where you want a thing but not getting it would not be that big a deal, generally it's best to just ask for what you want. Actually, even in situations where it would be a big deal, just asking is often the best first step. There are some things that make people more likely to say yes to a request; one thing that can make it less likely is insisting the other person owes it to you if they do not see things that way. People like to see themselves as generous and reasonable and will often do a thing they perceive as voluntary when they would dig their heels in if they perceived it as forced. This pairs badly with the psychological need many people have to not ask for things unless they think they are entitled to them.

I think the approach of "boundaries are a thing you do" is mildly to extremely helpful most of the time, and harmful in a minority of circumstances. As an edge case: assault (physical or sexual) is a boundary violation. It's also not something the victim can reliably prevent by their own behaviors. Other examples include someone else reading your mail, a health professional breaking confidence about your medical information, a friend outing you as queer, or an ex distributing revenge porn.

Also, sometimes people cannot get less closeness, eg due to being a child, having to stay with a partner or roommate for financial reasons, having to interact with an ex for shared custody reasons, being in a prison or being in an institution against your will, etc.

But there really are a lot of situations where the "it's up to you to enforce your boundaries" is effective. And I'm partial to it, because there was one specific time where an ex tried to force me to act a particular way that, in retrospect, was a violation of my boundaries. And that doesn't mean his weren't valid, just, we couldn't keep being as close as we had been. (He wanted me to shut up about a new partner -- not just keep it to relevant information, but not talk about him at all. I was unwilling to act as though one of my relationships did not exist. And it did very much leave me worried that my ex only stayed friends because he was hoping we'd get back together. And this was complicated because a substantial chunk of my social circle were people I only saw when my ex was present, so not mentioning my partner around him meant not mentioning my partner to a substantial part of my social network.)

The "boundaries" framework is at odds with the way most of us were raised (much like how "people get to choose their gender" is at odds with how most of us were raised) -- most of us got some sort of "there's a set of social rules everyone should follow, what any individual person wants is more or less irrelevant." So people new to using the concept tend to be really bad at it at first.

Oh also... people use the word "boundaries" in different ways. I think it's best to have the attitude that it's just one of those words that has multiple similar meanings, and if it's not obvious from context you might have to ask.

[olexxorodnixxsxyswifxx]

6) Second Ariana Grande,

As a male, I have to underline that I liquidate people like Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin exactly at places where they are expected to appear. They are not appearing there with their clones, because of obvious dangers.

Both corpses of both Vladimirs Putins were found drained not on street workout platforms

Whereas you behave as if I was killing disloyal to their rulling regime celebrities at streets, when it was approved by government

In other words you behave as if I was a sort of James Bond, claiming each death of person like Xi Jinping or Vladimir Putin to be an assaination of clone, despite devastating consequences of their deaths and that I kill them at places where they are expected to be, and they are not alternating in schedule with their clones

And even if they would, it would not change anything

Yet, while you can't explain why you behave as if I was working an international government approved killer at service of Queen Elizabeth Second, as James Bond,

You are holding on this irrational belief in my inferiority to something, because it's in the center of your eventual mission of self-destruction because it's the most reliable way to eliminate you, since this is obvious that I can't let you remain and spread such views further

Or maybe don't want to do this, because instead of any actions I know that only find there a bunch of more crying smiles and empty hearts

And no actions. Absolutely contrary to the first Ariana Grande Horodnitskii and first Taylor Swift Horodnitskii

Okay, you are small and you might be not yet able to make such powerful steps as they did, but you could at least not to be trying to become another screaming obstacle in my way

I have much regrets about what happened to you and I am very sorry about your further destiny, what happened to you makes me still see nightmares

But, second Ariana Grande, what I do is the real solution because even though people are being replaced with clones, clones are very different from originals and either start to align their actions with mine or if they continue to be adverse, they are unable to cause the same problems as their predecessors

And as I said, do you think I will be digging Zuckerberg's island with tiny showel and tiny bucket at night, wearing a mask and heels (This is 'hi' to you from both the first Taylor Swift Horodnitskii and Ariana Grande Horodnitskii)?

No, I will be doing this right under bright sun, with bunch of people with me, who will not be afraid about legal consequences of this after decades, so this is another reason why I do everything so... Well, brutally yet clean at the same time. It is my choice in the end, even if you consider it as not 'a first person type behavior'

Then, you know, if you were with me, you would be able to give me suggestions and maybe I would listen to it and agreed that you are right about something

But you are not with me and any your suggestion, as for now, would be filled with poison from my enemies

As I said, I am deeply sorry about this and what happened to you, and I apologise to you for my mistakes. I still see nightmares about this.

However, I can't let to remain on Earth people who will be very publicly and aloud claiming my secondary status, which is by the way just not true, I am absolutely beyond any borders, and role of the toy largely in that as you see I still continue to do what I do not having here hordes of assassins

Remember about that I said to the second Taylor to use the toy right over herself in inappropriate circumstances?

I can use it against any city on Earth and this allows me to continue to do what I do, and I kill not disloyal to their governments celebrities, but exactly people as Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. And deputy of director of CIA, because director himself seems to be too sneaky.

In other words, second Ariana Grande Horodnitskii, beyond of everything, I don't believe that you are sincere in your actions

[casspurrjoybell-22]

The Art of Sin - Chapter 2 - Part 2

•Ravenwell Manor

•Lord Nikoli Ravenwall (Vampire)

*Warning Adult Content*

"Shh love. It's alright, they won't hurt you," Lord Nikoli whispered, his fingers lightly running down my back to soothe me.

It didn't... in fact, I became even tenser.

The first one, a pale-skinned boy, stopped a few feet away, his lilac eyes searched my face for something... I didn't know what but he looked sad.

His stance allowed me a good view of his body.

Though there didn't seem to be any defined muscles, he was handsome with his slender features.

He pushed a strand of almost white colored hair that had escaped his ponytail behind a slightly pointed ear and I knew he was some sort of Fae creature.

My first guess was an Elf but I had never seen such a pale-skinned one, too light for dark elves or their cousins, the sun elves.

He opened his mouth speak.

"My name..."

"I'm Lycus Tupou."

My gaze snapped to the other boy, eyes locking with a pair of mischievous ones and he pointed to the boy he had just interrupted.

"This slowpoke is Noir Laurent."

"That's rude Lycus. Apologize."

I jumped as a man, who beat me in height by at least a foot, appeared seemingly out of nowhere, giving Lycus a pointed look.

Lycus stuck out his tongue at the newcomer but did as he was told.

The man, seemingly satisfied, held out his hand.

"Hello, my name is Bain López."

I noticed a pair of sharp canines peak out as he spoke.

The silence stretched as I made no move to shake his hand, forcing him to awkwardly drop it.

We just stood there, Lycus grinning as Bain gave me a strained smile.

I took the time to study them, my heart finally slowing to a more normal pace though I didn't drop my guard.

My first impression was that they were really close.

Noir seemed to be the shyest of the three, hiding behind the others.

Bain stood tall and dignified, a little like Lord Ravenwall.

His eyes, though like moonstone, weren't cold... they made him seem sturdy and reliable.

Lycus, on the other hand, was an obvious prankster and not serious in the least but I didn't get a bad vibe from any of them.

Though I trusted in my instincts, they've rarely failed me, I wouldn't stupidly let down my guard.

Bain ran a hand through his short, brown hair as the other boy, Lycus, poked fun at him.

Their body types weren't too different from each other.

Lycus's was slightly less defined and a few inches shorter.

He had a mop of dark auburn hair that stuck out in every direction.

"Um, so what's your name?" Noir asked, seeming to pale slightly, as my gaze went back to him.

"I-I mean unless y-you don't have o-one?"

A minute passed as he stood there fidgeting and blushing fiercely.

"My name is Winter Azraethe."

His head jerked up, surprise clearly written across his face.

"They... my previous masters... have never used it, though."

"You don't have a master here."

I jumped, almost forgetting about Lord Ravenwall and it took me a moment to process what he said.

"Am I to call you something else then?" I ask, my confusion obvious.

"You can call me Nikoli if you wish, the others do." he said, smiling warmly at me but it dropped instantly with my next question.

"We're the other boys bought for sex as well?"

Noir turned even redder, turning away as Lycus choked out a laugh but a look from Lord Nikoli, silenced him.

"No."

His eyes betrayed his calm exterior.

"I didn't buy them and though I may have bought you, it wasn't for sex. I want to help you. You're not some sex slave... no one here is. This is their home. We are a family."

I grew cold at that 'family' I wanted to sneer at the word.

He didn't have to tell such a lie but I suppose it didn't matter, I'll find out the real reason soon enough... they'll show their true colors.

Nikoli sighed as if knowing I didn't believe him and motioned to the front door.

"Let's head in then. I'm sure the others have realized you're here."

I was startled at the mention of others, though, given the size of the house, it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise and my former Master did say he was a collector.

Nikoli moved pass me, scaling the few steps that lead up to the front door.

I followed, staying a comfortable distance away, the others whispering to each other as they walked behind me.

The first thing I noticed as we entered was the clean smell or, to be more precise, the nonexistent stench of sweat and sex that I had grown accustomed to.

Instead, it was replaced with the sweet smell of flowers... I spotted a vase full of peonies beside a grand staircase.

Suddenly I felt very out of place, convinced that the smell of sex clung to my body even though I took a bath.

The next thing I noticed was the two men sitting on said staircase, their gazes piercing through me, making me struggle to keep my unease off my face.

Nikoli just stood to the side as they continued to stare, hands behind his back like he was expecting this to happen.

It felt like an eternity passed but I didn't cower, I kept a blank expression on my face as I met their eyes... they were assessing me.

Whether to prove their dominance or to see if they could exploit any weakness they might stumble upon I don't know but I sure as hell wouldn't let either happen.

The one with the most unusual eyes, a light pink color that was rimmed with mint, finally stood, smiling warmly at me.

"Hi, I'm Tate Solomon," he said, holding up a single tulip, it's colors variegated.

"You have beautiful eyes," he whispered.

I didn't answer him but stiffly took the flower and let my arm fall back down.

As the other one stood, I felt something sharp nick my skin and looked down to see claws pointed at my neck.

I followed the arm to the eyes of another boy who was smaller than the others, I only had two inches on him.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't startled, his light weight allowed him to move without me noticing.

His mismatched eyes held a twisted gleam, the pupils becoming slit like a cat's as he gave me a malicious smile.

I was calm as I faced him... the seconds felt like minutes until he finally ended out stare down, frowning while he retracted his claws.

"It's no fun when they're already broken."

"Blue Nekozuka."

The boy froze, his eyes widening as Lord Ravenwell's voice rolled through the room.

"We do not tolerate that kind of talk or actions here."

It surprised me that Nikolai reacted that way.

I mean it stung a bit but I've been called worse.

It's not as if the boy was lying... I knew I was broken, it was obvious.

They would come to realize it and just like my other masters, Lord Nikoli would throw me away.

My attention returned to the boy, Blue, as he mumbled a quick apology before shrinking away.

The last of the boys stepped forward, his tanned muscles rippling under a tight shirt, his eyes seemed to hold the fires of hell.

"Don't mind him, he's always like that. I'm Keon Lynch. Welcome to the family."

That word again... this time, I couldn't hide my disgust.

"Use me. Abuse me. Throw me away. I don't care but I don't want to be your family."

[neuro-gal-thoughts]

To get extremely personal for a moment, I'm going to talk about my family.

I've always felt foreign to my own family.

I understand now as an adult a lot of it stems from the relationship I had with my parents.

It was obvious my parents hated having kids and they resented that their kids relied on them. They never fostered a close relationship with me, and our relationship was very much stay out of their way unless I absolutely had to go to them for help (knowing full well I might only get a physical and/or verbal beating out of it; and I never was able to predict if I would get any help at all) or I had to drop everything to help them out with whatever it was they needed (and if I didn't know how to help them -or it just came along with me helping them- I got a physical and/or verbal beating).

I spent a couple years as a kid thinking (hoping) I was adopted or had a secret twin out there that my parents conveniently gave up for adoption.

Years later (in my teens), I discovered (in a really not-OK way) that my eldest sibling, my older sister, has a different biological father.

It was upsetting of course, but it made a lot of sense.

My sister has always made it obvious that she doesn't like her siblings.

I grew up believing that once my sister left my parents' house I would see less of her and we wouldn't have to be in each other's lives anymore.

To my utter surprise and confusion, through the years my sister has become nicer/more polite and has actually relied on me a lot. But I'm not going to be kind or sentimental.

I'm highly aware my sister only treats her relationship with me the way she does because she realized very quickly that her husband and his family weren't good replacements for the family she wanted. And I've proven myself reliable enough she can depend on me. She's still a very selfish and shitty sister though.

All this to say...a few months ago my sister told me she's considering seeking out for her other half siblings from her biological father's side of the family.

While I wish her the best and I hope she will be able to find what she is looking for, I am super angry with her over this.

She doesn't even have a relationship with our other siblings, MY full-on siblings. She has 3 brothers and another whole ass sister who are relative strangers to her.

She barely even knows (or cares) who I am. The only reason she thinks we're "close" on any level is that she was extremely abusive towards me for all of our upbringing up til I was....16(ish?) that we have a codependent relationship I had to work on to sort of break away from it (my sister was not very nice when I began to set up boundaries and I very much am still working through my feelings on the dynamic/relationship I have with her).

In truth, I do most of what I do for her 4 kids. I value my relationship with all of them and I want to do what I can to help them out.

But it angers me so much my sister is too lazy/ashamed/oblivious to foster a better relationship with the 5 siblings she grew up with/spent all of our siblings' lives as a terrible sister.

She's tried talking to me about it but her approach sucks and I can feel her just wanting to fucking tell us (my other siblings and me) her sob story so WE fix the relationship for her.

I know her and I don't have much hope for her to do right by me or any of our other siblings.

I don't know if she is aware of/willing to accept the position she has as the ELDER sister, and that SHE was the one who set up our entire sibling dynamic.

If she feels bad for being a bad sister and wants to have a better relationship with me/my siblings SHE needs to put in the work.

But the fact that she doesn't and instead is going through Facebook and Instagram to find her other half siblings, that says enough as to where her priorities lie.

I'm angry at my sister and I feel like I can't express it to her 😕

[lead-gen-marketing-experts]

Call Answering-Tracking-Filtering | What I’m Testing Now To Serve Restoration Clients Better

I feel like it's good to document one's "stuff" that they're doing...and was recently inspired to do more of it by the Great and Powerful Alex Hormozi.

  I hope this serves you in one way or another...

  If nothing else it should show you how I'm constantly learning and adapting to serve my restoration clients better...

  In this case, I'm looking for the best answering service possible...

  Why?

  As you know I record all phone calls for quality and training purposes but of course also for tracking and billing reasons.

  So I've listened to A LOT OF CALLS over the years...

  And some of them are truly AWFUL!

  I'll embed a few into this post so you can see what I mean.

  The only thing I edited out is any personal information for obvious privacy reasons. Specific street addresses, full phone numbers, etc...

  Other than that, they are completely unchanged, including...

  All of the painfully large gaps of dead silence in between questions and answers...

The strong, sometimes totally unintelligible foreign accents

The quite frankly totally dumbass things these people are saying to homeowners calling in for help.

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/why-we-dont-do-bs-answering-services-or-voicemails-anymore.mp3"][/audio]

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/re7153d3dfb2a888ebc46014e5e335618e-y3szngqi_1FMIxs7W.mp3"][/audio]

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/re97bc7a68f8c4fe7255ca9651d552d0e6_4dhvXDec.mp3"][/audio]

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ANOTHE1.mp3"][/audio]

To note: I tried sorting some of this out as a professional, but they could/would not get their shit together, so unfortunately (for them) they got the axe and I've been sending leads to one of their competitors(who knew how to answer the damn phone properly and land jobs!) instead.

Absolutely painful to listen to I know!

The just show you, or rather, allow you to hear, how completely inadequate (being very kind there) these generic, bullshit answering services are for handling calls for a restoration company.

That's why I've started a conversation with a company that's been around a long time and comes highly recommended by various fellow marketers that I've grown to trust and respect over the years.

I'm planning on starting with a high quality company like this and make sure they can customize things as needed for maximum lead gen results in our focus industry specifically.

Here's how the initial conversation started, just to give you an idea of how efficient and purposeful I am for restoration marketing clients.

And if you're one of these guys using one of these nonsense services, hopefully this gives you the kick in the ass to stop, as it's costing you jobs and taking money out of your pocket big time!

Had a few q's...

My primary and more immediate interest in your service is for screening calls that I generate for clients in the water damage restoration industry specifically.

I record all phone calls, and I've listened to some absolute garbage answering services that some of these guys are using to accept calls after normal business hours, middle of the night emergency hours, or even for their main operating hours. It costs them jobs/money which costs me money as well by default.

Besides that...it's also a matter of screening out spam/robocalls before they get to the client and wasting their time and screwing up my stats. I've started testing a simple IVR and that seems to really help squash a lot of that but still...

I'm trying to get a better handle on all of this for the best call flow and admin for billing etc too.

So can I provide a basic call answering script and an indexable/searchable FAQ sort of file that we can tweak over time?

There's going to be some basic stuff to be able to answer quickly and reliably like if it's an emergency, if it's primary water damage vs a mold remediation situation, or storm damage...if the caller is the homeowner vs just a renter that can't authorize the work, do they have insurance if so what kind, etc.

Am I getting seasoned people that have been doing this a while so they're good at it?

And I mean no offense of course, but am I getting American native English speakers?

How are things charged...on a per minute basis? I'm sure you guys are aware more than most people of the crazy spam epidemic of robocalls and telemarketers etc. Are the charges rounded up to the nearest minute or anything per call or how would that work and add up fighting this incoming spam?

On a related note, are you integrated with the Nomorobo or similar service and/or internal blacklist to block these kinds of calls in the first place? And can you integrate a blacklist that I've been compiling for years of the same?

What's your live transfer like? What is the caller id going to be when forwarding those calls to the client...one of your internal numbers or the actual callers number? Can you transfer to just one number or can you round robin things to multiple numbers etc?

With enough detail and training could they not just initially answer, screen, and transfer the call, but also perhaps set appointments?

Are you strictly for phone calls or do you also manage texts, emails, and live chat?

What's your call recording situation? I already record all calls on my end for quality/training/billing purposes. I'm assuming you guys do too for similar reasons. My main concern there is not having two redundant disclaimers play for the caller.

How are things reported...is there a dashboard or something or an excel sheet sent with notes etc?

So that's where we're at with that guys...I'm eagerly waiting on a response to move things forward.

I'll keep you posted.

Call Answering-Tracking-Filtering | What I’m Testing Now To Serve Restoration Clients Better was initially detected on:http://realtimeleadgen.com/contact

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from Real Time Lead Gen - Feed https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/call-answering-tracking-filtering-what-im-testing-now-to-serve-restoration-clients-better

[ultravagabond21]

Call Answering-Tracking-Filtering | What I’m Testing Now To Serve Restoration Clients Better

I feel like it's good to document one's "stuff" that they're doing...and was recently inspired to do more of it by the Great and Powerful Alex Hormozi.

  I hope this serves you in one way or another...

  If nothing else it should show you how I'm constantly learning and adapting to serve my restoration clients better...

  In this case, I'm looking for the best answering service possible...

  Why?

  As you know I record all phone calls for quality and training purposes but of course also for tracking and billing reasons.

  So I've listened to A LOT OF CALLS over the years...

  And some of them are truly AWFUL!

  I'll embed a few into this post so you can see what I mean.

  The only thing I edited out is any personal information for obvious privacy reasons. Specific street addresses, full phone numbers, etc...

  Other than that, they are completely unchanged, including...

  All of the painfully large gaps of dead silence in between questions and answers...

The strong, sometimes totally unintelligible foreign accents

The quite frankly totally dumbass things these people are saying to homeowners calling in for help.

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/why-we-dont-do-bs-answering-services-or-voicemails-anymore.mp3"][/audio]

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/re7153d3dfb2a888ebc46014e5e335618e-y3szngqi_1FMIxs7W.mp3"][/audio]

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/re97bc7a68f8c4fe7255ca9651d552d0e6_4dhvXDec.mp3"][/audio]

[audio mp3="https://www.realtimeleadgen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ANOTHE1.mp3"][/audio]

To note: I tried sorting some of this out as a professional, but they could/would not get their shit together, so unfortunately (for them) they got the axe and I've been sending leads to one of their competitors(who knew how to answer the damn phone properly and land jobs!) instead.

Absolutely painful to listen to I know!

The just show you, or rather, allow you to hear, how completely inadequate (being very kind there) these generic, bullshit answering services are for handling calls for a restoration company.

That's why I've started a conversation with a company that's been around a long time and comes highly recommended by various fellow marketers that I've grown to trust and respect over the years.

I'm planning on starting with a high quality company like this and make sure they can customize things as needed for maximum lead gen results in our focus industry specifically.

Here's how the initial conversation started, just to give you an idea of how efficient and purposeful I am for restoration marketing clients.

And if you're one of these guys using one of these nonsense services, hopefully this gives you the kick in the ass to stop, as it's costing you jobs and taking money out of your pocket big time!

Had a few q's...

My primary and more immediate interest in your service is for screening calls that I generate for clients in the water damage restoration industry specifically.

I record all phone calls, and I've listened to some absolute garbage answering services that some of these guys are using to accept calls after normal business hours, middle of the night emergency hours, or even for their main operating hours. It costs them jobs/money which costs me money as well by default.

Besides that...it's also a matter of screening out spam/robocalls before they get to the client and wasting their time and screwing up my stats. I've started testing a simple IVR and that seems to really help squash a lot of that but still...

I'm trying to get a better handle on all of this for the best call flow and admin for billing etc too.

So can I provide a basic call answering script and an indexable/searchable FAQ sort of file that we can tweak over time?

There's going to be some basic stuff to be able to answer quickly and reliably like if it's an emergency, if it's primary water damage vs a mold remediation situation, or storm damage...if the caller is the homeowner vs just a renter that can't authorize the work, do they have insurance if so what kind, etc.

Am I getting seasoned people that have been doing this a while so they're good at it?

And I mean no offense of course, but am I getting American native English speakers?

How are things charged...on a per minute basis? I'm sure you guys are aware more than most people of the crazy spam epidemic of robocalls and telemarketers etc. Are the charges rounded up to the nearest minute or anything per call or how would that work and add up fighting this incoming spam?

On a related note, are you integrated with the Nomorobo or similar service and/or internal blacklist to block these kinds of calls in the first place? And can you integrate a blacklist that I've been compiling for years of the same?

What's your live transfer like? What is the caller id going to be when forwarding those calls to the client...one of your internal numbers or the actual callers number? Can you transfer to just one number or can you round robin things to multiple numbers etc?

With enough detail and training could they not just initially answer, screen, and transfer the call, but also perhaps set appointments?

Are you strictly for phone calls or do you also manage texts, emails, and live chat?

What's your call recording situation? I already record all calls on my end for quality/training/billing purposes. I'm assuming you guys do too for similar reasons. My main concern there is not having two redundant disclaimers play for the caller.

How are things reported...is there a dashboard or something or an excel sheet sent with notes etc?

So that's where we're at with that guys...I'm eagerly waiting on a response to move things forward.

I'll keep you posted.

Call Answering-Tracking-Filtering | What I’m Testing Now To Serve Restoration Clients Better was initially detected on:http://realtimeleadgen.com/contact

Real Time Lead Gen 150 E 10th St Bloomsburg, PA 17815 (570) 316-4775

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[iamthescalesofjustice]

do not have the focus rn to write the whole post in a satisfying way, but know that if i was in dragon age they would try to put me in a circle and make me tranquil, bc of my Symptoms and Behaviors. but that making me tranquil would not work out the way they want, bc 

1) it wouldnt even do that much about my symptoms and behaviors, bc many of them have little to nothing to do with emotions

1b) it wouldnt even severely impede me, bc i have decades of experience functioning through extreme depressive episodes, dissociative states, executive functioning problems, etc and i have been in extremely bad and toxic and punishing environments without chance of escape before and if it didnt make me compromise my principles then, neither would the tower

1c) if anything, and i am speaking from experience with my own altered states here, being unable to feel shame or fear or sorrow, would consequently dramatically reduce my capacity for things like hesitation and doubt, which are fueled partially by emotions but which are not quite emotions themselves. this would actually reduce my impulse control a lot, with only stuff like the fact that anger and annoyance and restlessness and excitement and giddiness and bloodlust not being there either to help balance it out. 

2) the fact that ‘everyone knows’ the tranquil are ‘incapable of using magic’ and ‘basically just soulless automatons’ would be possibly the most effective shield ever. their own brainrot from their own ingrained propaganda would make them blind to my schemes

2b) see the fact that people commonly think the tranquil cannot feel pain despite being outright told, by tranquil, that they can

2c) or the fact that mages can be made tranquil for using, or being suspected of  using, blood magic. obviously some of these mages get killed rather than made tranquil, but mages can and do get killed over anything and everything regardless of the reason. if it was commonly realized that tranquil mages can use blood magic, it wouldnt be used in these cases and they would all be killed instead. 

2cii) yes, tranquil mages can use blood magic. this should be obvious to anyone who thinks about it for a second, but apparently its not. 

2ciib) tranquil can also use runes btw. obviously. if those needed a connection to the fade to use then dwarves would not have invented them or be able to use them. 

2ciic) i also think dwarves could probably use blood magic if they had the chance to learn. possibly there is a subsection of the dwarven population that would be equivalent to mages, and they could do it but not the others, but nobody knows exactly because this kind of stuff just isnt being explored yet. 

2ciid) i also think that across all species ability to use magic is more of a spectrum than a solid yes/no and there probably a lot of people whose capacity for magic falls below the flashier threshold of what most of southern thedas seems to think of as ‘mage’ or manifests in a different way. this includes the people who get approved to become templars because there apparently is some kind of innate trait they look for in the people they are willing to train to use templar abilities, which are definitely a form of magic. 

2d) aside from the sheer stigma, the biggest practical downside of blood magic is that it can dampen the casters connection to the fade, making their ability to use the normal sort of magic weaker or less reliable. for someone whose connection to the fade is already shut down, this is a nonissue. 

2dii) the second biggest issue with blood magic is the need to draw on a source, typically either the caster themself or other living beings. personally, i dont think theres any real ethical problem with using yourself for blood magic, and the problem of using others is far less pressing when you have, say, a bunch of templars around to drain instead. 

3) they literally have books you can learn blood magic from without ever needing to talk to a denizen of the fade. the tower top brass put those books in their own fucking library. as a plant to get unwary mages. 

3b) i am excellent at learning from books. 

3c) if pressed about why i am reading a book about blood magic, i can answer that theres no reason for me not to. now that i ‘cant use magic’, theres no danger in me learning the theory. knowledge is valuable for its own sake. 

3cii) this has the benefit of being mostly true, even. and not feeling smugness or excitement or anger means i would be more easily able to say things with a straight face and not have roiling emotions give me away. 

4) if i were a tranquil who could do blood magic and i saw a templar menacing a mage in an otherwise-empty corner of a tower i would puppet that asshole over to the stairs and make them trip themself down it so their death looked like an accident

4b) and then when the mage looked at me like something other than a piece of creepy walking furniture for the first time in maybe years i would simply say “youre welcome. also, neither of us were here, and no one will ever believe you” and calmly walk away

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[boiled-dennis]

i am enjoying seeing people speak critically about the show.. discussion of this sort should be more welcome. (this is a long post)

one thing i really don't like is how rcg use words like "psychopath" or "sociopath" to explain the characters' bigoted behaviour. aside from the obvious sanism (which i'll get to), it just oversimplifies everything. it implies that bigotry isn't learned/taught, or that you have to be a Certain Way in order to be capable of bigoted thoughts and actions. anyone can have dehumanising beliefs about other kinds of people. "nice" or "polite" people can be pieces of shit too. bigotry is often not loud or physically violent.

for them to continuously use the terms psychopath and sociopath, it just furthers the incredibly dangerous idea that people who get those labels attributed to us (those of us with ASPD) have some kind of inherent "evil". to use it as an explanation for bigoted beliefs also means you're calling a whole group of extremely misunderstood and demonised mentally ill people Racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, sexist, violent people.

with this logic, you are basically removing any accountability. if you're saying "they're psychopaths, they're bound to be shitty about that because they don't care about anyone", then you are actively erasing the responsibility any person has to recognising their own damaging, bigoted behaviour and making changes.

something i'd like to make clear is that a lack of caring (apathy) is neutral.. it is also a symptom that cannot be controlled and can often cause distress to the person experiencing it. you cannot, in good faith, apply some moral status to that. however.... actively hating people for who they are, and saying or doing bigoted things is a conscious choice, no matter how familiar a person is with behaving that way.

if people want to try to be The Most Socially Aware Person about this topic, then they need to recognise that the concepts of psychopathy and sociopathy have no validity and exist only for racist and sanist reasons. people love being conscious of other forms of bigotry in the name of "progressivism", but still cling so strongly to the idea of psychiatry being reliable and untainted by oppressive systems.

all of this also applies to when rcg or other people describe the characters as narcissists. all that does is demonise highly stigmatised and misunderstood mentally ill people, and attribute bigotry to mental illness. people with narcissistic personality disorder are not more likely to be abusive. i'm sure you've heard by now, but mentally ill people are way more likely to be abused, than be abusers. this is even truer for people with personality disorders.

people often claim that it won't hurt "real" psychopaths or sociopaths if those labels/collections of traits are used as an insult, because we "don't feel anything anyway", but believe me it actively puts us in danger when you continuously make these false connections between us and everything wrong with the world. (also it is literally impossible for any human to not feel emotions at all. those of us with ASPD may feel muted emotions, and this symptom often causes distress- we certainly do not enjoy it)

people might say "it's not that deep", but i'd say it only seems that way to them because they're not the one who gets affected by it. generally this issue just reeks of liberalism, ironically they tend to be the ones who are "apathetic" to other peoples problems, just because it doesn't affect them.

if we're going to pretend that the show and rcg's intentions are motivated purely by #activism then you gotta be even more critical of it. i actually love the show (and in many ways it is one of my favourite pieces of media), but i also hate or disagree with a lot of what is in it and intentions that were put into it.. i don't think i could ever Not critically view a piece of media that i love. personally i think it also cheapens any complex commentary or characterisation they're trying to make, if they keep summarising it as "the show about narcissistic psychopaths".

at the end of the day, rcg are generally not in positions where they have to really think about how marginalised people live and what affects us. to quote mac, they are straight, white, cis males. privilege is a genuine barrier.

this article talks about the subject in a simple, straightforward way (just a warning, it covers heavy topics and has mentions of uncensored ableist slurs)

[onecornerface]

why i hate economics

I find the whole topic of economics very frustrating. Here are some features which, cumulatively, lead me to feel gross about the whole thing:

1.       It is extremely important! It is important for understanding the causes and solutions to poverty and the horrors which result from poverty. It is important for understanding what sorts of government or cultural programs are likely to succeed or fail in their aims. This means that getting correct answers is more high-stakes than most other topics. Without making progress in economics, it seems questionable whether we can make progress on many other issues.

2.       In my own aspiring-scholarly work, discovering the causes & solutions to addiction, and the results of drug prohibition vs. legalization, requires a lot of knowledge about topics such as poverty, social programs, and black market vs. legal drug economics. There are many forms of analysis and activism in this domain which I cannot effectively pursue until after I learn a lot more economics

3.       Can I skip the hard parts by deferring to the experts, as I can in many other domains? I’m not sure. It’s difficult to identify the proper experts or reliable expert consensus. The most obvious experts are economists. But it is hard for me to tell when there is a reliable consensus of economists on a given question. Both in general, and for any given issue, there are seemingly serious criticisms to the effect that the bulk of economists have fundamental flaws in their methods, guiding assumptions, or standards of comparison.

4.       A lot of economics appears committed to dubious theories of human psychology and sociology. Some of this, I grant, is self-aware and deliberate use of simplified models, which I believe can be justified e.g. if it has predictive power within relevant parameters. Nevertheless, it still seems too unconnected to relevant fields of psychology and sociology. Also damningly (in my view), the bulk of mainstream economics seems to be largely out of touch with the perspectives and decision-making structures of both the domestic poor and the global poor. As such, its attempts to identify the causes and solutions of poverty are likely to be seriously flawed. Moreover, there seems to be decades of controversy over what kinds of dubious philosophical commitments most economists do or don’t have, and over whether these commitments are or aren't damning to their empirical reasoning. (To be clear, I suspect psychology and sociology are also suffering from similar problems.)

5.       Although mainstream economists seem to be of questionable reliability, I do not know anyone else who *does* seem highly reliable on economics. There are heterodox economists and non-economists. I don’t see why I should think any non-economists are experts on this stuff at all. And as for heterodox economists, there appear to be a dozen different schools of them which promote a dozen different wildly contradictory theories. For all I know, they are all crackpots (as indeed many mainstream economists believe). Or, if some of them are *not* crackpots, I find myself powerless to figure out which ones I *should* listen to! Sure, it may well be possible to show that the mainstream neoclassical economists (or whoever) are crackpots. But then why should I believe that, say, the Marxian economists are any better?

6.       The process of actually reading an economics article is usually extremely boring and difficult to understand. I am deeply pessimistic about my ability to make progress in understanding economics by doing this. Even if I can get good at understanding the papers, it will be hard to get good at fairly evaluating the arguments, given that I am a non-expert. I think I will need immensely more education in statistics, perhaps also decision & game theory, and various other fields, in order to do this properly. And even then, it is unclear at best whether I will eventually become smart enough to reliably judge and overrule the judgments of economists themselves. Only a few commentators on economics seem to be entertaining enough to sit through—but when they’re entertaining, then I tend to worry that I’m at risk of giving their arguments too much credit as a result of their mere rhetoric.

7.       Moreover in general, I find economic arguments very difficult to evaluate. I always recognize that there’s a good chance that I’m reading something which either *is* bullshit, or which at least many very smart people *think* is bullshit, and that in general I cannot tell what is or isn’t bullshit. For most topics, after reading enough about it, I usually develop some degree of basic confidence in my own abilities to evaluate arguments and arrive at conclusions, even if these conclusions are extremely vague and provisional. But with economics, I have not yet developed even a minimal degree of confidence or competence, and I’m not optimistic about my prospects for doing so in the next few years.

8.       When economists criticize one another, they seem to do it very uncharitably. They usually treat economists in other schools of thought as essentially being brainwashed into a commitment to egregious and obvious errors of basic facts. Some portion of these attacks seem to be strawman or weak-man arguments, but I am not sure how many. In any case, I rarely see economists grant that the members of other schools of thought could be reasonable people who made an understandable mistake. (I’m guessing there are exceptions, but I don’t know who they are.) The same goes for non-economists who disagree with each other on economics, as I will describe below.

9.       Given the social circles that I’m in, and the types of scholarly and activist literature/discourse that I read, I tend to find myself associating with libertarians, left-liberals, and leftists. As I am using these terms, libertarians favor minimal-regulation capitalism, left-liberals favor highly regulated capitalism, and leftists favor abolishing capitalism. Some of this divide stems from their disagreements on empirical economics—e.g. what type of system will create the incentives and distribution system that will sustainably alleviate severe suffering, e.g. poverty, in the long run? Each group accuses the other two of making proposals that will over time collapse due to bad incentives. Most adherents of these positions seemingly do not think much common ground can be discovered, and many of them think almost any scholarship or activism which proceeds from a different position than their own must be bankrupt. It is also commonly assumed that the rival views are driven largely by wicked motives: libertarians by anti-poor bigotry & status-quo bias & corporate shilling, leftists by envy & reckless utopianism, and left-liberals by some combination of these. This all seems to imply that almost any scholarship or activism that I engage in risks either being bankrupt or being seen as bankrupt by other people who I admire. It also means that many people who I admire seem committed to viewing one another’s scholarship and activism as bankrupt.

The several factors above, individually and cumulatively, make economics a seriously unpleasant subject for me. I hate all of this very much.

[floralovebot]

I really liked your aisha meta about her bonding and i was wondering what you think is her biggest weakness? And the other characters too if that's okay. Thank you:)

Oh thank you!! Hmm I had to think about this one for a second but I'll try to give you some good answers! Though to be fair, I think most of what I listed are things that have already been said aljdhgjladg

I do want to note, I think all of the major characters had room for growth and self-development especially within the first three seasons. We all know that characterization made a huge nose dive after season 4, so I'm not really going to be talking about the later seasons as they aren't super representative of their personalities (however, i will occasionally mention them for certain characters). \

Anyway, onto our beloved characters mental issues and why they should all be in therapy <3

The Winx

Bloom: I think Bloom is actually a very well rounded main character! She has positives and negatives and those don't often conflate with each other (and I think most of her "too perfect" characterization comes from later seasons). Because of that, I had a hard time thinking about what her biggest weakness is because,, she has a few. However, I think something that stays very consistent throughout the series is her escapism. Bloom is a major escapist, especially when she's feeling unworthy. She has a lot on her plate! And a lot of people rely on her, which naturally can lead to some pretty heavy thoughts ("Am I doing the right thing?" "Do I deserve to be the leader?" "What if they're safer without me?"), however those feelings, when they become too much, often leave her feeling like people are truly better off without her. Then she runs off to Gardenia or she shuts people out or she takes on some dangerous mission just to get away from people. Her escapism often leaves everyone, including her, feeling shitty and it would've been nice to see her grow from that.

Stella: Hmmm, so again most of the early characterization gave the characters a couple of weaknesses so I had a hard time thinking of what Stella's biggest one would be. However, something that I've always noticed about Stella that's always made me feel bad, is her extreme I Need To Fit In Or No One Will Love Me attitude. And obviously that goes into her childhood and upbringing, but it's something that stays with her even after meeting the Winx and having all those You're Perfect The Way You Are talks with Bloom. She often changes her personality/attitude/emotions to fit what she thinks other people will like most. But that heavily goes into her insecurities of thinking people only like her because she's pretty or a princess. Stella's a smart girl and she notices how people respond to what she's doing. But when she's changing something about herself to get others to like her and they respond positively to it? That's horrible for her overall self-esteem and to her just confirms her fears that people don't love her for her true self.

Edit: I absolutely don't want to come off as if I'm saying Stella's personality is fake! Here's a further explanation for hers!

Flora: I think some people might disagree with me on this one, but I genuinely believe Flora's biggest weakness is how often she rushes into something. On one hand, it's admirable and shows how strong she is, but on the other hand, it says a lot about how she lets her emotions run her and often doesn't think things through when someone she loves is in danger or she thinks she needs to do something Right Now. Unless someone else prompts it, Flora often doesn't plan or try to think things through rationally. I don't think it's a bad thing to be in tune with your emotions, but it can become a weakness when you only ever think with your heart and what it's feeling at That Moment In Time. Instead of trying to think rationally or make a plan, Flora often just follows her heart immediately, but that can be a bad thing when her heart is hurting and she's not thinking clearly.

Aisha: It's definitely her attitude of needing to appear emotionally strong all the time. Aisha gives more of herself than she receives from others and a lot of that comes from her need to be seen as Reliable and Good. However, that often means she doesn't get the time to sit with how she's feeling or she pushes her emotions down. She doesn't want people to know that she's feeling upset because she doesn't want people to feel bad for her or use their energy to comfort her. Aisha is definitely a "other people have it worse so what happened to me doesn't matter" kind of person and that's often what hurts her the most. She doesn't let herself be vulnerable and often only does so when she truly can't handle it by herself anymore. And I think this heavily goes into her childhood and how she's had to be independent from a very young age. Aisha doesn't know how to let other people in.

Tecna: Hmmm, on one hand I'd like to say it's her internal battle with her logical side vs her emotional side,, so I'm going to. Personally, I think Tecna is a lot better at emotions than she gives herself credit for, and I think that's her biggest weakness. She doesn't give herself any credit when it's something that doesn't come naturally to her. Tecna had to work on being more emotive and reading other people's emotions correctly and by S2 she's already doing so much better than she was, but she refuses to recognize that. Tecna is so stuck in the "what if i'm too logical/not emotional enough and my friends hate me because of it" headspace that she doesn't even see the progess she has made. Honestly, Tecna being too logical/not emotional enough hasn't been a real issue for years and she doesn't even realize that. It's a little ironic actually, she's so caught up in her emotions about being too logical she can't see how far she's come.

Musa: Her trust issues. Personally, I think Musa's biggest weakness is her problem with trusting people. Because she just.. doesn't. Musa has a really hard time letting people in (for rightful reasons) but she once she does let them in, she has a hard time trusting them too. This is most obvious with her relationship with Riven, but it also comes out with the Winx! She's constantly scared that people are going to leave her or that they don't really like her or that they do like her but she's going to end up driving them away and all of that negatively impacts her relationship with others. She just,, doesn't trust people and has an even harder time trusting herself. I think if Musa had been allowed to truly work through that, she would be much happier.

The Specialists

Sky: I think Sky's biggest weakness is pretty obvious! It's that he does not know how to interact with people. I think I'm one of the few people that doesn't actually hate Sky. I hate that, just like the other characters, he had room for improvement and self-realization, which got scrapped almost instantly for Perfect Prince Sky. Sky, like most of the other royal characters, grew up pretty lonely (and his parents are abslute shit). The only other people he would ever talk to are members of his family, other royals, or people who weren't royal but were close enough to it (ie Brandon and even Diaspro depending on which canon you go by). Because of this, Sky has a really hard time interacting with people in a casual setting. He's great in royal settings and all their missions, but that's because he's allowed to and supposed to act all serious and Business Like. When it comes to talking to people in casual settings, he often fails because he doesn't understand "normal" people and he's never been allowed to just,, sort through his own feelings. It would've been amazing to Sky grow from this, because even in the first season you see hints of Sky rejecting royalty and wanting to be normal. MAN I wish Sky got proper characterization, he would've been so much better if he did.

Brandon: Oh man,, I had a really hard time with this one, because Brandon honestly doesn't have a lot of weaknesses? I think something that could be considered a weakness is that,, he's very devoted once he decides he cares about someone. Which isn't bad! But it often puts him in dangerous situations because he wants to save someone. Like anytime Sky gets into trouble, Brandon is for sure right by his side. Or if someone messes with Stella? Brandon's there. And again, this definitely isn't a Bad Thing, but it can put his own life in danger. And in their line of work it often does. However, I do think this is mostly evened out because of Brandon's ability to call for help and think of a plan. He doesn't often just jump into things unless it's absolutely necessary. He's able to think things through clearly and strategize. Sorry anon but I honestly can't think of any Big Weakness for Brandon, because most of his weaknesses are evened out by some positive. (Like, I was going to say he's a bit of a pushover but,, is he? Then I thought well maybe it's because he's ready to die for Sky,, but like. That's his job? Idk man,, any Brandon stans wanna chime in please?)

Timmy: Hmmm I, once again, had some troubles with this one. Timmy has a few weaknesses, mostly in the insecurity region, but I had a hard time figuring out what his Biggest Weakness is. After some thought, I think it's his eagerness to prove himself, specifically when he doesn't need to. I think this definitely evened out in the later seasons once he got some confidence, but in the early seasons Timmy really wanted to prove himself. He wanted to prove that he was a good specialist, a good friend, a good partner,, just,, everything. He was really set out to prove that he was capable of things. This often put him in dangerous situations that he couldn't handle or something he could handle but was too nervous to. It didn't help that in early seasons some of the other characters doubted his abilities (cough tecna cough). But again, I think this really evened out by S4 and it's not a big problem anymore.

Riven: Ugh goodness where to start.. I think Riven's biggest weakness is actually a mix of Musa's and Timmy's. Riven has a hard time trusting people, especially himself, and he's constantly trying to prove himself. He wants to be seen as reliable and Good and that's where a lot of his competition with other characters, mostly Sky, comes in. But that heavily mixes with his distrust and hatred toward himself. I think most of his Trying To Prove Himself is actually him trying to prove something to himself. He's constantly looking down on himself and that need to prove and be better than other people is a product of that. And I think that's also why he has problems with letting people in. Obviously, he has some general trust issues, with wondering if people just don't like him and what not, but a lot of it is not trusting himself and not letting people get close to him because of that. Riven's biggest weakness is that he doesn't give himself any credit for the progress he's made and is constantly doubting whether or not he's a good person. And that messes with his relationships a lot because he thinks he's not good enough to be around people and that sparks his need to to prove himself. And even when his friends do try to comfort him or say he's enough, he doubts that too. Riven has a lot of problems but most of them go into how much he hates himself.

Helia: Well, as one of the resident Helia stans, I've thought about this a lot. And I've got to say, his biggest weakness is his complete inability to talk about himself. A lot of people think Helia is really good at talking about emotions, but that's only partially true. He's good at talking about other people's emotions. When it comes to himself,,, he's a mess. Helia is consistently really bad at sharing his feelings and even just general tidbits about his life (evidenced by all the times he does/says something and the others get surprised because they never knew that,, years into their friendship). However, this often strains his relationships with people because they end up thinking he hates them or doesn't trust them or something else. While I have my own issues with the later seasons, S5 did a really good job at focusing on this in the show (when it really only ever got hinted at or shown in the comics). The whole Flora/Helia/Krystal thing was a major product of Helia never sharing anything about his own life and Flora's insecurities over if she's good enough. With the mix of being able to talk to people about their feelings, but never his own, it creates this really awkward situation of people just like,, not knowing things about him and then doubting their relationship, but then not being confident enough to express that because Helia still talks to them about their feelings so he must care about them!! .. but does he? It's this internal struggle of he's obviously a friend but why doesn't he ever share anything about himself?? This is even shown in his relationship with Saladin, a literal family member!

I'm.. gonna stop here for now ajghaljdhglj I'm sorry this got so long! And that some of them were shorter than others..

[yandere-daydreams]

Title: Dissonance. 

Word Count: 3.0k

Commissioned by the lovely @arthurtheghostmechanic​.

[Part One]

TW: Kidnapping, Captivity, Emotional Manipulation, Unhealthy Power Dynamics, Non-Graphic Violence, and Suffocation.

Every morning, Diavolo would help you get dressed.

It was a daily ritual, one that’d begun the first time you’d shown more interest in burning his gifts than wearing them, and he’d realized he liked the way you squirmed as his fingers brushed against your collarbone, his palms pressing against the dip of your back and his hands tracing the shape of your waist under the guise of fastening a row of clasps that’d been sewn in more for exorbity than security. You supposed this was how he intended to ‘court’ you, as he put it, or it was his favorite method, at least. The others came and went, and although he still occasionally took the time to bring you flowers from the castle’s garden or refuse to feed you at all until you let him feed you by hand, he always had an outfit waiting for you by the time you woke up, he always knew exactly how he wanted you to look, and he always helped you get dressed. Always. It was one of the few constants you could count on, with a man as busy as Diavolo.

Today, he was taking his time. Swabs of silky, scarlet fabric had already been draped over your form and adorned with just the right amount of black and gold to outweigh any individuality you might have retained, and yet, you could still feel warm breath ghost over your skin as he toyed with the strings of an already-bound corset, making you unsure whether he was still contemplating how to perfect it, or if he wanted to undo the intricate knots altogether. You could easily step away, finished or not. He’d positioned you to face a full-body mirror, one of the many scattered around the corners of his bedroom, but there was space, and he wouldn’t stop you, you were sure he wouldn’t stop you. Of all the things he was willing to do, raising a hand was where he drew the line, even if your stubborn neutrality often left him gritting his teeth and appealing to your sense of defeatism. It should’ve been a reassurance, it should’ve been a god-send, but in practice, his self-restraint only made you feel like the villain. If he wasn’t going to shove you away, then you’d have to shy back on your own. And if you did that, then you’d be the one to blame for his subsequent disappointment.

So, you stayed in place, glared at the floor, and wordlessly willed him to grow tired of watching you squirm sooner, instead of later.

Diavolo, however, was not as content with the silence as you were.

“You’ve been quiet, today,” He started, unprompted, unasked for. There couldn’t have been classes, that day. Clearly, he didn’t have anything better to do than draw your suffering out. “Is something wrong, my love?”

You could’ve told the truth. It would’ve been easy to, but there was some twisted, contorted part of you that still thought of Diavolo as someone distant, someone you shouldn’t upset, if only because it was so difficult to dampen his spirits, and he seemed so determined to keep them up. Even after he’d taken you away from the brothers, taken you away from the life you’d wanted, locked you into a gilded cage, and told you to sing for him, you still had to remind yourself to hate him. Fearing him was second nature, but loathing him was another burden entirely. Rather than spouting out the obvious, you let your eyes wander, past the mirror and to the well-decorated wall that lay beyond it. “I’ve been… with you for two weeks, and I haven’t seen anyone besides you and Barbatos,” You starters, letting your gaze fall onto a portrait of a young boy with gold eyes and crimson hair. It had to be Daivolo, but that wasn’t the surprising part - there was only Diavolo. No parents, father or otherwise, a theme that carried into many of the other decorative pieces, as you were beginning to notice. “Is it just the two of you?”

“Is that what’s been bothering you?” He chuckled, shrugging off your flat tone with all of his usual carelessness. If it was a sensitive topic, you couldn’t tell, but you could never tell, not with Diavolo. You’ve only seen him truly, genuinely affected a handful of times, and you doubted something as simple as a conversation would be the thing to finally leave a permanent impact. “If you’re worried there might be a lack of guests, don’t be. The only reason you haven’t met a diplomat or an ambassador or someone new and exciting is because of our budding arrangement.” He said it as if it were nothing, as if you’d just signed yourself into a contract you had yet to realize the full scope of. In his eyes, you might’ve. You were still trying to work out what exactly Diavolo thought your ‘arrangement’ was. “I thought it would be best to give you time. Humans can be such fickle creatures, and not all demons are as understanding as I am. I don’t want you saying the wrong thing to the wrong person while you’re still new to playing host.”

You should’ve known better than to press. You should’ve, but you pushed forward regardless, another singular pair of eyes in another all-but empty portrait working to spur you forward, despite your better judgment. “Still, you’re only a prince. Your father--”

“My father is asleep.” He spoke with the calm, practiced tone of someone who’d used the same excuse one too many times, of a child, scared and alone, trying to convince himself of something he didn’t really believe. “He has been, since the day he decided I was capable of ruling on my own, and while I’d be honored, I doubt he’s going to disturb his slumber to meet my chosen mate. He’s not a factor you should concern yourself with, darling.”

You were beginning to think there was nothing you should concern yourself with, not here, not when Diavolo thought of himself as so honorably, valiantly reliable. You hadn’t thought you’d miss that, about life with the brothers. You were left exhausted more often than not, in over your head with Mammon’s scheme’s or Lucifer’s standards or the twins’ insatiable habits, but at least you’d had enough to do to warrant exhaustion. You never thought you’d long to trip over a cursed book on the floor of Satan’s bedroom or find the door to Leviathan’s room blocked off by a dozen too many boxes, and yet, you found yourself waiting for it, sometimes, listening for an out of place scream, anticipating the next crisis. Diavolo said it was too much strain, for you. He said you shouldn’t be held responsible for a family so unpredictable.

He didn’t think you could handle it, so he sought out a way to handle you.

You bit down on the inside of your cheek. “That sounds lonely.”

There was a slight pause, a hint at a trace of hesitation. The closest thing you’d come to one, during your time with Diavolo. “It was.”

For a moment, neither of you spoke. Taking kind of prolonged stillness was unlike him, but Diavolo managed to redeem himself with a heavy sigh, a shake of his head, an arm wrapped around your waist as he slumped gingerly against you, leaning down as he slotted himself against your back. It was a heavy sort of tenderness, the type a desperate man might seek from a remorseless stone pillar, but your resolve felt a little less solid with every drum of his fingertips, every shaky breath he let echo against the back of your neck. You were the one to speak, though. If only to stop yourself from breaking first. “And that’s why I’m here, right?” You asked, your voice barely above a whisper. “Because you’re lonely?”

You felt him stiffen against you, going rigid at the suggestion alone. “(Y/n), I never--”

“You have other people.” It was more frustration than anger, the sudden awareness that you’d been taken by him, because of him, for him, despite all the luxurious, loving ways he tried to dress it up. “Your father might be gone, but you have options. There’s an academy full of students who’d be happy to find themselves at your side, there’s a kingdom of subjects you could choose from, if you wanted to. Is that why you ran the exchange program? You just didn’t have enough options, you wanted to see what the other realms had to offer. Were you going to kidnap Solomon, if I wasn’t good enough?”

“I wasn’t looking for company,” He countered, his hold becoming a little more secure, growing a little more controlling. It was oppressive, one arm crossed over your stomach and the other over your chest, making it more difficult to inhale as you struggled to keep your breathing even, but somehow, his affection did little to comfort you. If anything, it just made you want to rip yourself away from him more. “When I found you, I wanted you. There’s no one else I’d consider--”

“You have Barbatos,” You went on, letting your hands curl into fists at your sides. “He’s your friend, and you have him, and you shouldn’t need me, too. Even if that wasn’t enough for you, Lucifer’s still there. He looks up to you, he’s loyal to you, if there was anything you needed, he’d go to the ends of the Earth to find it. You have him--”

“I used to have him,” Diavolo hissed, the words nearly muffled against the nape of your neck. “I had him, once, but it seems that someone has caused his attention to stray.”

Your jaw clenched shut, instantly, but you made a point of narrowing your eyes at his reflection. It was a small rebellion, one he barely seemed to notice, but it felt too right for you to really care about whether or not he deserved it. “I’m sorry,” You muttered, frantic irritation fading into mild, blatant displeasure. “I didn’t realize how much you hated it when your toys find other people to play with.”

Diavolo went tense. He went tense, he took in a sharp breath, closed his eyes, and with little more fanfare than that, he relaxed again, as calm and composed and infuriating as he always was.

This time, when his attention returned to your attire, it centered around the ribbon choker around the base of your neck, the fabric as soft as a newborn lamb and as dark as the Devildom would be, in the dead of night. His fingers slipped underneath the strip of material, and for a moment, you thought he’d tear it off completely, but he’d never been that kind.

Rather, he took his time, untying the loose knot and speaking, as he did so. You were beginning to hope he’d talk himself to death.

“Lucifer’s interests align with his heart. He’s smart, and I do value him, but he’s a sentimental creature. He only pledged himself to me because of Lilith, and now that you’ve given him something of Lilith, he’s satisfied. He doesn’t have a need for me, anymore.” The choker was pulled taunt, for a moment, cutting you off halfway through an inhale. It wasn’t suffocating, but Diavolo made no move to let go. “And while Barbatos will always be my closest companion, he is a servant. His loyalty to me is a loyalty to the crown, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’d put a knife in my back, if he thought it would benefit the realm.”

It took you a moment to respond, your voice coming out weaker than you would’ve liked. “I don’t see what that has to do with me.”

“It’s because I want you to be more than that,” He started, the words nearly a plea. Despite his tenderness and his airy tone, the choker was still biting into your neck, still making it harder and harder to breath. If anything, the task was only growing more difficult, one of your hands unconsciously finding its way to your neck, following the indents where the fabric cut into your skin. “You may choose not to believe me, but I’m not looking for power. I’m not looking for somone I have to chain to my side, if I want them to stay. I want you to love me. I want you to look at me and see someone who you couldn’t picture yourself going on without.” A pause, a ragged exhale. Again, you felt him shake his head, Diavolo leaning forwards just enough to kiss the top of your head. “That’s how I feel about you.”

By now, you were pulling at the choker, prying at it, trying desperately to put a hair’s width of space between your neck and that noose. It was barely a scrap, just a strip of material, and yet in Diavolo’s hands, it became a vice, a chain, a collar attached to a leash just couldn’t stop yanking. You kicked blindly, scrambling to throw your elbow into his stomach or tear at the choker or do something to make it a little easier to breath, but Diavolo only laughed, the sound low, throaty, warm and heavy and fatal.

“I do want you to love me. If nothing else, I want you to care for me. Worry about me, if you have to. I know beggars can’t be choosers in a situation like this.” When he released you, letting the choker fall to the floor and pulling away from you completely, saving your dignity wasn’t an option. You stumbled forward, gasping, choking, trying to cough air into your lungs as you groped at your now-tender skin, reddened bruises already forming a tight ring around your neck. Diavolo watched you passively, letting you stumble forward and brace yourself against the standing mirror. “I want you to love me,” He went on, slowly. There was a step forward, a footfall softened by the slightest trace of reluctance, and Diavolo’s hand came to rest on your shoulder. “But I’ll find a way to live with it, if you have to fear me.”

It was all you could do to close your eyes as you fought to catch your breath, to rest your forehead against the cool, welcoming surface of the mirror. You couldn’t see your reflection, but you didn’t have to - your throat ached, throbbed, and when you forced yourself to give him a reply, it was raspy, as jagged as all the many things you wanted to drive into your kidnapper’s anatomy, at the moment. “I can’t believe I ever felt bad for you.”

Diavolo only grinned, letting you catch the edge of the expression in the corner of his eye as he stepped forward. A firm hand came to rest on the small of your back, but it was fleeting, chaste, as far from comfort as the light, almost unnoticeable kiss he pushed into your temple. “I’ve never been one for pity.”

With that, he stepped away from you completely, leaving you hunched over, your body shaking and your pride stomped so far into the ground, you doubted you’d ever nurse it back to its full health. You should’ve stopped there. You should’ve let him go, given yourself time to recover, and resigned yourself to spending the rest of the day sobbing your eyes out into satin sheets, but there was something burning in your chest, something hot and rough and ruthless, as it urged you to speak, to yell, to scream. You didn’t know if barking after Diavolo like his disloyal mutt would do anything to sate it, but there was a chance that it might, and that was a chance you were willing to chase after like your life depended on it.

“You can’t keep me here.” That was enough for him to pause, to glance over his shoulder as he moved to tell you that he was already doing just that, but you faster than him, this time. “I won’t let you keep me here. I’m going to get out, and once I do, I’m going to put myself so far out of your reach, you’ll be lucky to remember what I look like, by the time I’m done.”

He wasn’t facing you, but he didn’t have to be. You could hear his expression drop, his smugness not disappearing, but dampening. “I’ve told you, (Y/n), the brothers think you’re in the human realm, and the other exchange students have yet to express their concern. There’s nothing Lucifer or his--”

“Fuck Lucifer.” That earned you the slightest flinch, a subtle delay as he finally turned towards you, but you were past the point of patiently waiting for his reaction, for his approval. It was almost sickening, in retrospect, how you’d given him the benefit of the doubt after he’d kidnapped you, after he’d failed to have the decency to show a shred of remorse. He thought you were going to sit pretty and wait to be impressed, and you had to prove to him that you wouldn’t be so spineless. Brothers or no brothers. “I’m not locked in a tower. I’m not helpless. I don’t need to wait around for someone else to save me. I’ll crawl out of here, if I have to. I’ll claw my way out. I don’t care what I have to do, I will get away from you.”

You almost expected him to lash out. You might not blame him after that, but to your relief and your disgust, his composure never faltered. He didn’t raise a hand, did storm out or take you by the hair or do something violent and ugly and expected. It didn’t matter, though. His aggression was repressed, but that didn’t mean it was concealed, not when you could make it out in every clench of his jaw, in the way his head cocked just a little too far to the side. In the stretched, seamless, sadistic smile that soon found its way to his lips, only reassuring you that your new resolve would’ve been necessary, whether or not you were the one to provoke him.

“I’d like to see you try.”

[wisteria-lodge]

lion primary (bird model) + slightly burnt lion secondary

Hi there! I’m a fan of your sorting posts, and of your kind and insightful way of supporting people in finding out more about themselves. So naturally I’d be very interested in your take about my own sorting, if you’re game! :)

I won’t talk much about my Secondary, because now that I’m starting to unburn my Lion seems very clear to me, even when my explosion-prone Badger model still tries to get in the way of that clarity sometimes. The more interesting riddle is my Primary. So far I’m operating under the working theory that I am a Lion with a very strong Bird model - or is it the other way ‘round?

The supposed dichotomy between “thinking” and “feeling” in many of the more binary personality models has always bugged me, so it’s no wonder this is the area where whenever I feel like I’ve decided on who I am (for now) a new question mark pops up (so much fun!).

If ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ doesn’t work for you as terminology, it might help to think of Lion as leading with subconscious reasoning, and Bird as leading with conscious reasoning.

Instead of trying to formulate a cohesive text, which would have gotten even longer, I’m putting together an associative list of thoughts and stories that kept turning up while I was trying to figure out my Primary.

A very Lion primary way to solve a problem, not gonna lie ;)

- I think I got my Bird model from my father, who made quite an effort to teach me to look at things from all angles. As a child, whenever I got in a fight with this friend I had, he would sit me down and ask me to put myself in my friend’s shoes. It was hard, because a lot of the time my friend was being unfair to me and I actually could have used some support, someone to tell me that it was not okay to treat me this way. But I’m still immeasurably grateful for my father’s lessons, through which I’ve learned to understand peoples’ motivations and gained an understanding for the complexities of every conflict. He also taught me to doubt, to look closer, to not just believe the first thing I see, or want to see. To this day I still consider my ability to pin down the relevant factors of a situation before I make judgments one of my strengths.

That definitely sounds like a very strong, beloved Bird model.

- Whenever I had to write an essay at school or uni, I first had to come up with some aspect about the subject that I really cared about, even could be passionate about. (I am passionate about many things, so it was usually possible to find some connection to that.) Then I would use the essay to discuss this aspect in great detail, ending with a polemic flourish. I had the time of my life doing that; meanwhile the text would structure itself magically in relation to the issue I had chosen to focus on. Whenever I tried to write without such a focus, I’d get bored, stressed and the text would be of a much lower quality.

- Something similar happened in oral exams at uni: Only when I got the opportunity to bring a discussion paper (a few pointed statements regarding the exam topic) which I could then debate, I was able to recollect all the important details I needed for that. If I just had to report on the topic or answer questions, I often got confused, to the point of drawing a complete blank.

Linking things to emotion and passion - thinking with emotion and passion, basically - is a Lion primary thing. Especially if doing that makes you feel safe & comfortable & effective & happy.

- Even as a teenager I was very interested in philosophy, ethics and moral decision making.

I love teaching philosophy to teenagers. It’s the perfect time for it, they are so into it, and if it were up to me I would absolutely make it a required class.

I picked up certain philosophical ideas and concepts that I liked and integrated them in my belief system (yes, I know how very Bird that sounds).

I had my mind blown by Genealogy of Morals in high school, and I still won’t shut about Eichmann in Jerusalem. But what was so staggering to me in high school was… here are these ways of thinking that are possible and allowed. The fact that here they are in words in front of me made me a great deal more expansive.

Now that I think about it — I don’t remember adjusting my beliefs as in any way traumatic back then. The shift from a belief in the Christian God to Mother Goddess to my very own brand of agnostic paganism was smooth, natural.

Now that I think about it… I would describe myself as a mythic relativist (which is a term I just made up.) Systems of belief are metaphors, and they’re metaphors trying to describe and say something large and beautiful about what it means to be human, and what it means to live a good life. And since we are all human, they are all attempting to describe the same central, indescribable thing in different ways.

I feel this very deeply, but it took me a long while to be able to articulate it.

I constantly reevaluate, and I adapt.

You stop reevaluating and adapting, might as well be dead.

Still, there are some basics I’ve kept with me that just make too much sense to me to give up, and some that perhaps I keep because I just really like them and I’m kind of attached to them.

… somebody’s thinking with Pathos :)

- I’m a constructivist at heart, so that makes it much easier to tweak the content of my beliefs while staying true to the principle that we (socially) construct our reality, and (my take on this): that I choose what kind of world I want to live in, and according to that I make choices which are the most likely to create that world.

- At uni I attended a seminar about the development of moral judgment and action. What I remember most clearly about it is how much it bugged me that the other students didn’t seem to understand that morality always depends on the perspective. Even though I had definite moral convictions that I was ready to fight for, at the same time it seemed obvious to me that theoretically there could be a justification for every kind of moral guideline; it depended on your principles and the world you wanted to live in.

A human after my own heart.

I wanted to understand these different perspectives, not talk about empty categories like “right and wrong” or “good and evil” that meant nothing to me. I still feel that way.

Absolutely. I don’t use alignments when I DM Dungeons & Dragons. I mean, I can list evil *things* but that’s not the same thing as defining *being evil.* I want to know WHY these people did these evil things.

It just seems so impractical and complicated to base a conversation on those broad categories that don’t have any definition people can agree on instead of referring either to defined principles (in order to explain what good/ bad is *for you*) or consequences of certain actions, and whether you want them/ accept them/ don’t want them.

Oh that’s a fun discussion. Asking a highschooler to define “evil.”

(and then they have to figure out what moral systems Jigsaw, Pinhead, the Joker, and Bane all subscribe to.)

- Between “the Revolutionary” and “the Grail Knight”, I would love to be the former, but I’m clearly the latter. I’m someone who questions, not someone who knows.

Take my archetypes with a grain of salt, they are supposed to describe characters. (Who are different from people - but still useful, because they are attempts to describe us.) I actually want to write more about the differences I see between the way fictional secondaries are written and the way real-life secondaries work.

And just “knowing”... is dangerous. That’s how Exploded Lions happen. 

There are a lot of causes I find worthy to fight for, but I haven’t committed to any one, which so far I’ve attributed to my Burned Secondary (How do I do things?).

Sounds about right.

If I’m honest, though, it feels a bit strange to really, really fight for anything. I’d rather contribute to the cause by keeping an eye on whether we stay aligned to our values on every level of the fight, not by storming sightlessly in front of some army. (I got polemic again, didn’t I? ;))

So after all this Bird talk, why do I think that I’m a Lion?

… that was the Bird segment?

- I trust my intuition. It has never steered me wrong, with one exception: My Primary burned for a time when I first understood the concept of privilege and internalized bias, which was coincidentally at a time when I also went through a lot of changes in my personal life. Like many people unaware of their own privilege, I had thought of myself as “one of the good ones”. I learned that even with the best intentions I could cause great harm without even noticing it. This then also happened to me in a relationship, when I was already confused, hurt and more than a bit burned. It seemed like I couldn’t trust my intuition anymore, but I also couldn’t figure out intellectually what to believe, because I felt mentally overwhelmed by all those new concepts, all of which put my previous convictions into question. Which Primary burned then?

Been there, done that, it’s brutal. It sounds to me like a Lion dramatically changing direction - that’s what I mean when I say that it *hurts* when a Lion changes their mind. Birds see their past selves that thought wrong as almost different people. “I wasn’t aware of my privilege then, now I am, and can take steps doing forward.” But if you’re a lion it’s like… I *should* have been aware, and the fact that I wasn’t says something terrible about my moral/emotional calibration, and THAT has to be put right.

- I felt like everything I had learned about the world and myself didn’t count anymore. My concepts and my strategies didn’t serve me anymore. So I started to rebuild everything from scratch, this time with less pride and more practicality.

Yeah. That’s some Lion recalibration. With a Bird Model, to help.

- Anyway, I trust my intuition. It contains my experiences, instinct and all my accumulated unconscious observations of the situation, and it’s very reliable. Usually I use it as an important source of information which I try to back up with data/ understanding, but when push came to shove and the apparent facts would contradict what my intuition told me, I would be unable to set my gut feeling aside. I wouldn’t follow it blindly, of course. But I would never just go against it either. If the voices of my unconscious and conscious mind don’t align, I keep poking at the issue until they do. If I absolutely cannot come to a satisfying conclusion, I go with my gut. Since I know it usually knows what it’s doing, I’ll find out the reasons for my feelings later. (Weird, says my inner bird who is busy compiling these examples.)

I’LL FIND THE REASON FOR MY FEELINGS LATER. What a perfect way of articulating what is perhaps the central experience of being a Lion primary.

- Probably I’m just both, you know. Some interesting lion/bird-chimaera. I like it.

I read you as a pretty clear Lion Primary, Bird primary model. But as always, the decision is very personal.

- I have a weird way of processing information: I read/ hear it, work to understand it, work to connect it to existing knowledge in my mind, then my beliefs, my existing knowledge and my feelings about it all wind around each other, grow into each other, some dissolve together, becoming a swamp which then nourishes the plants of new ideas and connections that grow from it.

You grok it. And that’s not weird.

I often can’t remember where certain knowledge came from. I can’t take it out of a memory shelf and tell you about it. I usually remember that I’ve read a certain book and whether I liked it / it influenced me, but I won’t exactly remember what was in it, even if it was important to me. Because all that information is already processed/ digested/ transformed into something new. It’s much easier to access my memory swamp intuitively than consciously.

and you seriously had like… any doubt that you were a Lion.

In intellectual discussions I tend to get stuck because I just can’t remember enough of the details (for my satisfaction), just my conclusions about the topic and how I feel about it.

I’m inclined to think that not accessing the details is either a secondary thing, or an entirely unrelated processing thing.

What do you make of all this? I’m very curious!

:)

[On an unrelated note, I’d like to specify the compliment I made at the beginning of this post. I’m really impressed with your ability to pick up on what people need, not just what they say they want. As a counselor this is a skill I try to hone, so I know how difficult it is to not get too distracted by the story people tell and miss the more subtle cues. You have a powerful combination of perceptiveness, insight and so much kindness, which you use to effectively support people who have questions, are in distress or confused. You don’t generalize. You don’t judge. You see the people who talk to you.  I love that you’re a teacher, because I can see you’re using the influence that gives you in a way that contributes to making the world a better place. Fellow Idealist, I’d like to give you a High Five for that, if I may. :)))]

I’m not sure I’ve ever been given a better compliment. Thank you.

[tsukihimeyfan]

Sorting the main cast of AtLA into Hogwarts Houses

I know I’m late to the party because I’ve seen many different people tackle this before, but I feel like it is my civic duty as both a Potterhead and an AtLA stan to put in my two cents, since every single time I’ve seen it talked about people either misinterpret what each House values in their members or pick a House by taking into account only one aspect of their personalities. I want to make it clear that these are my own opinions, which I’m basing on the definitions we’ve gotten of the main traits of each House over the years and the “core values” of each AtLA character, and that I’m in no way am I trying to insult anyone who thinks differently. That being said, here goes nothing!

Let’s start with the easy ones. Namely, the Fire Siblings:

1) Azula is 100%, undoubtedly, definitely, incontrovertibly Slytherin. Just doing a quick rundown of the qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his handpicked students, as stated by the Sorting Hat, Albus Dumbledore and Pottermore: Cunning? Check. Resourcefulness? Check. A disregard for rules? Check. Using any means to achieve her ends? Check. Shrewdness? Check. Ambition? Check. Self-preservation? Check. Pride? Check. An argument could even be made that, as a member of the Fire Nation Royal Family, Azula also kind of meets the “blood purity” criteria. I’m sure most of us agree on this. Even if she does exhibit a lot of loyalty to her father as well as courage and intelligence, there is just no contest. Azula is one of the most Slytherin characters I’ve ever seen outside of the Harry Potter universe.

2) In the same way, Zuko is irrefutably a Hufflepuff. Hear me out! I know that he’s very brave and daring, but when we think of Zuko, what is his most essential trait, what do people tell us again

and again

about Zuko’s character?

He’s a hard worker. And what’s the House of the hard-working?

"You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true, And unafraid of toil.”

You guessed it. Hufflepuff. Of course, that’s not the only trait valued by this House that he exhibits. Who is more loyal in the series than the child who got half his face burned off and still did his best to earn the love and respect of the one responsible? Who never faltered in his loyalty even when he was sent away on an impossible mission? Who spouted angry words most of the time yet was willing to let his ticket home go temporarily in favor of ensuring the safety of his Uncle and his crew? That’s right, our boy Zuko. That very loyalty to his father is what unfortunately bound him for the longest time, until he was forced to face what a monster he was and let go of it in favor of more important things, namely his own morals and his loyalty to his Uncle.

He also has an incredibly strong sense of justice, as proven by the above statements, as well as this moment:

and he can be incredibly patient when he needs to be, as seen during The Blue Spirit and the Southern Raiders episodes.

Hufflepuffs are also said to be fair (which he clearly is), dedicated (need I say more?), honest (which Mr. shouts-his-feelings-at-the-top-of-his-lungs and can’t-lie-without-being-obvious-or-glancing-away-and-has-been-found-out-every-time-he-tried of course is) and modest (this one he starts without but by the time he joins the Gaang there isn’t anyone more modest or humble)

As “an idealist with a pure heart and unquestionable honor” , Zuko is the Hufflepuffiest Hufflepuff to ever Hufflepuff and I will die on this hill

3) Another easy one is our girl Suki, whom I’d say is a Gryffindor through and through, even if she is very loyal to her friends.

The rest of the Gaang under the cut.

The other members of Team Avatar are a bit trickier because they all exhibit a pretty even mix of traits from more than one House, but still if we just concentrate on their defining characteristics we can get to an answer. 

4) I’d argue that Sokka belongs in Ravenclaw, even though he is of course quite brave and extremely loyal to his loved ones, not only because he’s a strategist and an inventor, but also because, as best stated by Master Piandao:

Ravenclaws most value wit, learning, intelligence, creativity and wisdom (this last one is a bit iffy but I’m sure he’ll get there when he’s older), as well as priding themselves on being original in their ideas and methods. That’s Sokka to a T.

5) Katara gave me a hard time. She’s unbelievably loyal to her friends and family, she’s compassionate, patient, fair, hard working and dedicated, with a REALLY strong sense of justice, so a case can be made for Hufflepuff easily. However she can also be quite cunning when she wants to (most obviously during The Waterbending Scroll, City of Walls and Secrets, The Painted Lady, and The Runaway), she has a lot of ambition (if you count every variation of “I will make the world a better place by force if I have to”), she disregards the rules when it suits her (again The Waterbending Scroll as well as The Runaway) and she can be proud at times, so we could argue she’s a Slytherin. She’s also undoubtedly very intelligent and even quite wise for her age. It took me a while to decide but then I pondered; at her very core, what are the statements that define her? What words just scream “that’s it, that’s Katara”? They are, of course, these two phrases:

The first sounded incredibly Gryffindor to me, and the second is half Gryffindor half Hufflepuff, so it had to be between those two. As such, I decided to look into Gryffindor first. Katara is, of course, astoundingly courageous, but what else? I had to actually look up definitions for the Gryffindor traits besides courage because they all just kinda meant “brave” to me initially 😅, but what I found was:

*Nerve: “one's steadiness and courage in a demanding situation”. Yep. Who’s the most level-headed, steady and reliable person whenever the Gaang is in any kind of pinch? That’s right. Katara

*Daring: “adventurous or audaciously bold“. Yep. I’d say she ties with Toph for boldest in the Gaang

*Determination: “firmness of purpose”. Yep, absolutely. See the above image from the Painted Lady. ‘Nuff said.

*Chivalry: can mean 2 things, one is “sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms”. All of that is true of her (her “arms” being her waterbending), but I found it interesting that to be chivalrous can also mean “gracious and honorable toward an enemy, especially a defeated one, and toward the weak or poor”. I’d argue that this fits her even more. Once again, just take a look at The Painted Lady episode. 

*Courage and bravery: they can mean the same thing, namely “the ability to do something that frightens you” and of course that fits Katara, but the word courage in particular has another meaning, which is “strength in the face of pain or grief”...

I’d say she’s pretty good at that. I think that settles it, Katara is a Gryffindor.

Turns out that when it came to the water tribe siblings Bato was right all along

6) For Toph I was split between Gryffindor (thinking of her brash, bold nature) and Slytherin for a while, but after looking into Katara and researching all those definitions I think I have to give it to Slytherin. Of course, Toph doesn’t seem to be very ambitious unless you count “being recognized as the greatest earthbender in the world”, but she is quite cunning. She knows exactly how to use her “poor helpless blind girl” persona to get what she wants, as seen both on The Blind Bandit and The Runaway. She’s also an extremely good actress, being able to play the “reserved and obedient little girl” to her parents for years, and being easily able to pick it back up when it suits her. 

She’s also stubborn, proud, and 100% willing to use any means, regardless of laws or rules, to get what she wants. 

As for self preservation? Remember that her response when asked to teach Aang, which was crucial to save the world but would’ve compromised her secret, was this:

Slytherins can also “hesitate before acting, so as to weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done “ and my first instinct was to say that it didn’t fit Toph at all, but what is Toph if not a person who “waits and listens before striking”? Slytherins tend to favor Neutral Jing it seems. 

Almost forgot that as a daughter of the Beifong family she’s sort of nobility and she technically also meets the “blood purity” criteria.

7) Finally, we get to my boy Aang. He was really difficult. He’s loyal, patient, fair, kind, modest (usually) and just but I can’t really call him a hard worker most of the time.  

He’s brave, adventurous, determined and chivalrous but he does tend to get discouraged during demanding or stressful situations (his friends always make it better though)

He’s creative, very wise for his age, and quite smart (except when he’s playing around with Sokka in which case they share one brain cell 😂)

He can even be cunning when he needs to be. If he ever went to Hogwarts, he’d definitely be a Hat Staller like Harry. I heard someone say once that they considered Aang a Gryffindor because he liked to show off a lot, but that’s not really a Gryffindor trait (think of Neville Longbottom, Remus Lupin, Harry Potter and Minerva McGonagall. I think any one of them would sooner Stupefy themselves than go show off their skills in front of a crowd for no reason other than to brag).

Once again, we must pin down what it is that defines him, what his core is. After much thought, I decided it’s this: 

It’s his compassion, which he learned from his people, and his desire to value and protect all life. It’s his loyalty to the ideologies of the Air Nomads of which he is the last remaining bastion. It’s his strong moral code, his sense of right and wrong, his wish to make friends and to believe the best of everyone. That’s his center. That is what makes him Avatar Aang. In light of that, I think we can consider Aang, first and foremost, a Hufflepuff.

In the end, Team Avatar is made up of one Ravenclaw, one Slytherin, one Gryffindor (two after Suki joins), and two Hufflepuffs

Ironic, that the House least valued in the Harry Potter universe is the one that houses arguably the most pivotal characters of Avatar the Last Airbender: Zuko and Aang. Fitting, that even in this they parallel each other.

This is already long enough so I don’t think I’ll do Mai, Ty Lee, or Iroh. Maybe some other time.

[minijenn]

Keys to the Kingdom Preview

Ahahahaha oh boy I'm already having fun with this one and so far the Triangle is the only GF character that's actually shown up yet. Either way, he's just as much of a tricky bastard here as he is in UF, it's like nothing's changed at all. Enjoy him manipulating Sora bc that's of course what Sora needs more of :3

***

He stops himself when he sees a shadow suddenly rising over him, its shape large and looming. His entire body tenses up, a sharp chill running down his spine as he prepares to call upon his Keyblade, his powers, or anything else he can use to ward off what he assumes must be an approaching threat. Part of him fears it's someone from the Organization, come to stalk and harass him even far before the next Key has even been found, simply for the sake of their own sadistic entertainment. But when he settles on summoning the Kingdom Key and spins around as swiftly as he can, he’s met with just about the last thing he could have ever been expecting. And by far the most bizarre.

“Whoa there, kid! Careful where you’re pointing that thing! You’ll poke someone’s eye out. Get it? EYE?!”

Sora nearly drops his Keyblade completely as he takes in the sight of the strange being hovering before him. Simply put, it's a triangle, a golden, glowing triangle with only a large, single eye and a small bowtie adoring its flat “face”. A thin, black set of arms and legs hang from its sides, and one of those arms reaches up to tip the tall top hat hanging over its utmost tip in some sort of casual greeting.

“Ease up a little there, Keyblade!” the triangle somehow “speaks”, his voice high and pitchy as it echoes through the colorless woods. “You don’t have to get all panicky on me, I’m not one of your buddies in the black coats, ya know.”

“W-what? How do you-” Sora stops himself, knowing that’s far from the first question he should be asking here. Even though he has plenty more right off the bat about this being that’s quite unlike anything he’s really seen before. “Who… what are you…?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” the triangle cheerfully exclaims, gliding up a bit higher. “I’m the answer to all your prayers, Keyblade. But if you want, you can call me Bill. Rolls off the tongue much easier--not that I would know. I don’t have a tongue!”

“Um… ok?” Sora frowns, still absolutely lost by this peculiar stranger and his oddly chipper demeanor. “That answers the ‘who’, but not really the ‘what’, so…”

“Boy, you sure do ask a lot of questions, dontcha, Keyblade?” Bill remarks, reclining back in his spot midair. “Unfortunately, getting nitty-gritty with the details of what I really am might be just a bit too much for your mortal mind to handle, so let’s keep things simple. I’m an interdimensional, all-powerful, all-knowing being who likes to hang out in this neck of the woods every now and then. But to tell ya the truth, I guess you could say I’m sort of an ‘out of worlder’, which hey! Looks like that’s something you and I have in common, huh, Keyblade?”

“Out-of--wait. You know I’m not… from here?” Sora drops his voice down to a whisper, just in case there are any prying eyes or ears.

“‘Course you’re not!” Bill says, as though it's obvious. “But that’s not a problem. In fact, let me be the first to welcome you to a world that’s a personal favorite of mine: Gravity Falls!”

“Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does here just like in every other world,” Sora raises an eyebrow, only to be even more confused when Bill breaks out into a sudden, hearty laugh.

“Oh, good one, Keyblade!” he chuckles mirthfully. “You just about split all three of my sides there with that one!”

“Oh, uh, y-yeah, that was… definitely a joke,” Sora plays off his embarrassing misunderstanding with as much of a smile as he can possibly manage. Which, by all accounts, isn’t much of one anymore.

“You know, kid, ever since I spotted you wandering around here, you piqued my interest,” Bill informs, conjuring a cane out of thin air to lean against. “But now that I’ve had a chance to chat it out with you, I gotta admit, I like ya! Why don’t you and I be friends?”

Sora sighs, his unsteady smile fading as he loosely wraps his arms around himself and glances away. “Trust me, you don’t want to be friends with me…” he mutters, shaking his head.

“Aw, why not?” Bill asks, seemingly disappointed. “Lemme guess: it's the same reason you ran off from the rest of your friends, right? Because some bald old creep and his crew of cronies are dead set on trying to ‘recruit’ you into that darkness-loving cult of theirs?”

Sora draws in a sharp gasp at this, his eyes wide as he stares at Bill incredulously. “How did you know that?” he asks apprehensively, taking just the slightest step back.

“Oh, I know LOTS of things, Keyblade.” Bill’s bright yellow form suddenly changes as countless images flash across it far too quickly for Sora to make aunty of them out. “For example, I know you’ve been out on your own for, oh, roughly two weeks or so, and that you’ve been having one heck of a time living the ‘hobo’ lifestyle you’ve taken up. I also know you can’t go back to any of your friends because the minute you do, they’ll be fitting you for a nice set of shiny new chains inside a cozy prison cell. AND I know that it won’t be long now before the old man finally finishes the job in forcing you into his big happy ‘family’ and-”

“S-stop,” Sora cuts him off, unable to bear listening to anymore. Of receiving yet another reminder of the ultimately inescapable, undeniably awful fate that awaits him. “Please, I… I already know all of that too…”

“Well, here’s something you DON’T know, kid,” Bill counters brightly. “Contrary to what you might’ve heard from some… less than reliable sources, it’s not too late to keep your sob story from turning into a full on tragedy!”

“...What do you mean?” Sora asks, unable to keep his curiosity quelled. Even then though, there’s an edge of wariness to that curiosity, a bit of doubt in the idea that he isn’t already a lost cause, that his life and freedom aren’t already fully forfeit.

“What I mean is I’d like to help you, Keyblade!” Bill proclaims, his flat form flashing brightly. “Life’s turned you into its own personal punching bag lately, even after all of the good you’ve done, all the folks you’ve helped. And if you ask me, I think that’s just about the most unfair thing I’ve ever seen; and I’ve been around for a LONG time, so believe me, kid, that’s saying something. Which is why I wanna do something about it.”

Bill’s upbeat optimism is largely lost on Sora as he simply brushes his altruistic proposal with another small, sad sigh. “Thanks for the offer but… I don’t think you can help me…”