#funkle stick

[haveyouplayedthisirlgame-poll]

Funkle stick is a plaground game where players stand in a circle and toss a stick with ~4 inches of bark shaved off the bottom to create a 'handle.' The stick gets thrown around the circle, and players must catch it by the handle. If they don't, they "lose" an arm and have to put it behind your back. After "losing" both arms, players must funkle the stick by bouncing it off their knees and catching the handle. If they catch it by the handle, they get their arms back. If they don't, they're out of the game. The stick continues being passed around until only one person is left.

[fountainpenguin]

I was reading the part where you said that Mikey likes to judge people "10 seconds after they get to know them",but could the same be said for Bunsen? Because Mikey seemed to not judge Bunsen at all (being a beast after all. I thought just like the others he'd be scared), but was like "yEAH THIS BEAST IS COOL AND HE'S MY FRIEND". But do you think Mikey thought that Bunsen was scary before he arrived to their school?

Psychology half of brain, meet narcissist half of brain. Mikey seems to be the kind of guy who forms an idea of a person in his head early on, and uses that to make his judgment calls (i.e., “Bunsen’s Uncle Funkle is really fun!” and “Bunsen’s friend Cosmo is a super cool fairy godparent, so therefore he MUST be willing to grant MY wishes!”).

That’s what I meant by “Judges people after ten seconds”. If you simply told him, “We’re getting a Beast student at the school”, that means nothing to him. He doesn’t generalize entire groups. But if you showed him a picture of someone’s bedroom, or he took note of their body language and environment in a video, he’d totally judge an individual based off that.

To put it simply, he thinks he’s smarter than he is. He’ll spend less than five minutes with you and think he has you all figured out. He does not.

To put it a little less simply, he falls prey to fundamental attribution error at every turn. He’s a blunt, literal person. If he sees you being outgoing and crude at school with your friends and acting polite and reserved with your family, that’s really confusing to him. He struggles to realize that people act differently in different situations with different people and different comfort levels. 

Example: From the moment he met Timmy, he acted overly buddy-buddy with him. Although Timmy was willing to treat him as a friend, he was obviously a little put off by Mikey’s enthusiasm. 

Mikey is a narcissist. He doesn’t understand how anyone couldn’t like him. And, once he’s formed an opinion of you, it’s tough for him to undo it. That would involve admitting he doesn’t know everything, and/or that he was wrong.

So when I said he makes super-early judgment calls, I was taking into account the fact that judging someone to be nice is still judging them.

I feel like Mikey would be vaguely concerned about a new student being a Beast, but… it would mostly be in terms of him. “I’m head of the welcoming committee, so I need to make sure I do a good job. What can I do to make him feel included / like me? On the tour, I’ll make sure to point out the bathrooms and the water fountains and this and that.”

Basically… he’d see Bunsen mostly as just another student that presents his own unique challenges. Narcissist, remember? Mikey’s biggest concern is going to be on making sure he doesn’t mess up, and that he does a great job.

Plus, I’m sure he understands something about the politics behind this whole thing, and that the school wouldn’t have accepted Bunsen if they didn’t think he was safe (I headcanon that Mikey was given some information about Bunsen before they met, considering that he knew his name and everything, and didn’t express any surprise that Bunsen was a Beast).

Did he ever think Bunsen was scary before they met? I think that when he was told, “Mikey, we want you to show a Beast around the school and welcome him like a friend”, he might have raised a concerned eyebrow. But he waited until he met Bunsen to make an official call on him. He was a little iffy at first as he tried to puzzle him out, but that scene in the lunchroom with Sophie really sealed their friendship.

It’s kind of my theory that the people of Muckledunk have known about Beasts for a long time, and that’s why Captain Blunder, the Snarcher, the Smork, and all sorts of fellows don’t seem too concerned about humans (and of course, there’s the Beast of Muckledunk Blog). An official army protocol for dealing with rampaging beasts was seen in the very first episode.

Thus, Mikey had some basic understanding of Beasts from the start, though I think most of the stories he would have heard might have been treated as town legends. Every town has to have cool legends! But Beasts weren’t really welcome in society pre-Bunsen (or at least, they were - and many still are - afraid of humans. Army protocol, remember?) Mostly they stick to the shadows of the woods, hills, and their underground homes.

Beasts are still a mystery to many people, but Bunsen’s presence in the town is opening the doors for more and more to co-mingle with humankind. Of course, precautions are still taken to avoid upsetting any humans- certain scarier members of his family aren’t allowed to go and fetch groceries, I imagine.

TL;DR - Mikey goes into most everything with a super positive attitude. He believes in “innocent until proven guilty”. Although he tries not to judge others before meeting them, he will form images in his head based on what he’s heard from others. If he expects you to be nice, he also expects to be showered with kindness and attention. He’ll be super-offended if you break his trust by being rude when you first meet for real. He does that kind of judging.