#i know there are those who have varying opinions about this day and why we remember it

[vaspider]

Hi there! Hope you’re having a good day mama spider. Just dropping by to ask for some info on an addition to a post about Judaism you made. I chose to ask you and not op because i’ve sent you an ask before and know that you answer them. So real quick, why did you type out G-d rather than God or god? Does it have something to do with Judaism? Is it just for the faithful to follow and not goyim? As an atheist who was formerly Catholic i just wanna learn more and be respectful of others’ religions whenever i can. I know next to nothing about Judaism, even though they’re a good portion of my county’s population. Hope this ask isn’t insensitive in any way, and thanks for taking the time to read this <3

This isn't insensitive to ask. It's actually a great question, and I'm glad that you asked if you're curious.

Since those articles cover your asks pretty well, I'm gonna give you some free bits of info to help your quest for respectfulness, which is pretty rad, btw: we don't really use phrases like "the faithful" bc Judaism doesn't require faith in G-d. There is no conflict between Judaism and atheism & there are a lot of Jewish atheists and agnostics. Judaism is an ethnoreligion and a people in a way that a lot of religions aren't, and in fact, the symbolism for one of my favorite holidays emphasizes that we are not complete without all kinds of Jews:

The functions of the four species are defined by both their smell and taste, or lack thereof, along with some interesting imagery from the Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah 30:12): The etrog has both taste and smell, representing people who both perform good deeds and have Torah (knowledge). The lulav has taste but no smell, representing those who do not use their knowledge to perform good deeds. The hadass (myrtle) has smell but no taste, representing those who perform good deeds but lack the knowledge to excel at them. The aravah (willow) has no taste and no smell, representing those who lack both.

"Good deeds" here doesn't just mean "being nice to your neighbors" but refers directly to performing mitzvot/mitzvahs, the 613 commandments that observant Jews observe to varying levels of specificity and intensity.

It's not offensive to use a phrase like "the faithful," just isn't ... correct, you know? Instead, you'd just say Jews or Jewish people. If you're trying to refer specifically to Jews who are religious or believe in G-d... there isn't exactly a phrase for that, I guess you'd say "observant," because there are a lot of Jews who are observant but also atheists, since observant Jews may be observing mitzvaot for any number of reasons that have nothing to do with belief in the existence of G-d.

Anyway, there you go, with some bonus info. As always, I don't speak for everybody, 2 Jews 3 Opinions, etc.

[genericpuff]

hi, i know the episode came out weeks ago, but i wanted to talk about ep 277 and your essay on it. i thought it was very well thought out and had brought up lots of concerns abt apollo's other victims and the harm persephone caused to others that i just. hadn't really thought about myself because honestly this webcomic is a BLUR to me LOL. thank you for writing these insights and putting them online for others to read ! i think you manage to keep a respectful distance to rachel [1/]

Yeah, regarding how the SA was handled...

I think Rachel did exactly as well as anyone might have expected someone like her to write a plotline like that.

Honestly if Rachel really did want to do the arrow thing, I think it would have worked WAY better if she had used the arrow of hate. First of all, because it had already been established back in S2 when it was shot at him by Psyche, but ALSO because making it an arrow of love confirmed that Eros literally did what Apollo asked despite the fact that he's Persephone's best friend and should have been more suspicious of what he was going to use it for. Why not just do a bait & switch where Apollo is under the impression that it's an arrow of love but Persephone trusts in her friend and pieces it together that it's probably an arrow of hate? It would also payoff the whole "news crew being nearby" thing (as well as all the other gods that just randomly showed up) because uh oh now they all see his true nature and he can't hide behind his lies anymore!

After all, as I mentioned in my previous post about this (the one I believe you're referring to) it's not like there wasn't already foreshadowing that Apollo was going to fall on his own sword the way of Mr Waternoose from Monster's Inc, he was already showing signs of cracking under the guilt that he was feeling towards how he treated Persephone/Eris/Hermes/etc. so why did it have to be Persephone taking a massive risk by sticking him with an arrow of love that still doesn't fully explain why he would even suddenly be a changed man? Loads of people like Apollo think they're in love / define their infatuation as love so I don't see how an arrow of love would suddenly make him empathetic to her pain. Especially when, again, he still begs her not to make him confess, so the guilt he's feeling is still completely empty and unmotivated.

I will leave this with one final thing that I saw the other day that very much reminded me of the Apollo SA plotline and I think it rings very true for the misdirected conclusion of the plot itself:

One of the biggest issues of the Apollo SA plotline, at least in my opinion, is that it never really gets to the root of why people like Apollo exist. There absolutely were strong foundations for this - he's the son of a guy who's known for being a serial cheater, he's popular and egotistical and is used to women wanting him, etc. - but all of those foundations kind of fell to the wayside in favor of turning Apollo into just another boogeyman, especially to lift Hades up as a "good man" by comparison (when Hades himself also falls on this spectrum). But many people like Apollo aren't just random guys in an alleyway or conspiring with some "higher power" that's manipulating them, they're men who fundamentally do not understand consent and assault on the varying spectrums in which it exists from "SA just exists, oh well" passiveness to "I'm an actual monster who gets pleasure out of victimizing women" aggressiveness. I think there's a lot to discuss about how people like Apollo exist WITHOUT sympathizing with them, but LO manages to do neither - not only does it give us uncomfortable and unnecessary looks into the rapist's POV more than we get the victims, but it does it in a way that doesn't actually address the issue of how people like Apollo come to be, it's just "Apollo is the big evil boogeyman who raped Persephone". Not only does it not actually put enough focus on the victims, but it reduces the societal and cultural complexities of where Apollo's brand of egotistical entitlement comes from to just "some guys just be evil like that". Guys like Apollo don't just come out of the womb like that, they're often shaped into what they are by a society that both excuses them for awful behavior towards girls ("Boys will be boys!") and enables - if not outright encourages - them to objectify women as trophies that they're entitled to. Even the seemingly innocent and sentimental practice of "giving away a bride" at a wedding is rooted in these patriarchal systems, with the belief that a woman first "belongs" to her father before being "given to" her husband.

It's the part of feminism that often gets overlooked - it's not just about uplifting female voices and helping survivors speak up about and heal from SA, it's also about deconstructing and challenging the patriarchal systems that lead to SA victims being created in the first place. Sure, Apollo got sentenced to building temples in the Mortal Realm, but what is that actually doing to address the bigger topic of how men like him come to exist in the first place? Especially when it was also treated as a good thing for TGOEM to be disbanded, instead of, idk... reworking it into a women's support group for survivors like Persephone?

IDK, it's a very complicated subject that you can approach from a million different angles, I don't think that my criticizing it should outweigh the opinions of those who were satisfied with the punishment that was given to Apollo (my saying the SA plotline sucked doesn't mean you're not allowed to find your own validation in it) but I do think that, at best, Rachel ended the SA plotline the only way she could because she herself is just not equipped to tackle such broad subjects that require a lot more education, experience, and nuance than what she's capable of writing. There are definitely 1298423108 better ways that plotline could have been resolved, but not with Rachel Smythe at the helm.

And that's my many cents on that.

[carmyberzattosjournal]

Entry 9: I'd Love to Drown in This Spell

Screenshot Credit: @neverscreens

Bearblr Promptober Day 9: Impact Play

Summary: In which Carmen and his girlfriend talk about impact play, and he gets a little spark of confidence in the bedroom.

Warnings: Swearing, written with fem reader who is a trauma surgeon (nothing gross described) in mind, she/her pronouns, talking about impact play, fluff.

Notes: All journal entries will be titled as such and tagged with #cb journal.

Reblogs appreciated. Thank you to @carmenberzattosgf for putting together this prompt list.

09 Oct 2024

Personally, I wish people asked more questions of me instead of operating on their assumptions.

She doesn’t try to read my mind or assume because of some tangential situation in the past. I don’t try to be a chaotic disaster of a human being, but I am painted with those colors. And try as I might to reign in those entropic tendencies—whether by stalling my breath or gritting my teeth or setting alarms for when to wake up, when to get to The Bear, when to call my girlfriend, to close down, to leave my office, to come home, make dinner, write my thoughts down, go to bed—my emotional state perpetually ticks to discordant metronomes. I can try to act any sort of consistent, but the tiniest things throw me off. I can try to have consistent opinions, but they will vary wildly anyway. Like even the act of physical intimacy, of cuddling or sex or letting her play with my hair or trace invisible patterns on my chest. Love it, but it depends on so many factors prior to getting lost in kisses and her soft, warm skin that she just finds it better to ask.

Like the time she asked me about impact play.

“Can I ask you a question?” She always started that way. It’s a little thing—a check in to see if I have the mental square footage to entertain one.

We were cozied up in bed under the new comforter she bought at the turn of Fall. Her hands and forearms were killing her because she did 9 days straight in house or on call (either working at the hospital or waiting to be called in, in case I forget), got called in each day, and spent more hours fiddling with little surgical tools than not. So, I worked on them, rubbed out the knots close to her elbows, squeezed her pretty hands to soothe the ache. It’d become engrained in my routine by now, to massage her arms or her legs or her shoulders—whatever ached. Gave me something to do with my hands while also being with her.

I nodded. “Shoot.”

“How do you feel about impact play?”

I froze rubbing out a tense spot in her forearm. “About what?”

Mercifully, she didn’t burst out into giggles. Just held a straight face and explained, “Spanking, riding crop, flogger. Hitting, but sensual.” I must’ve had an uncomfortable look on my face, because she ran her fingers through my hair and stroked my cheek with her thumb. “Some people like some pain with their pleasure.”

“How, uh…” Shit, my face started getting warm. “How would you know if-if…”

I was bright red, wasn’t I? Fucking hell, it was embarrassing to get so flustered so easily. I would’ve thought a few months of dating a girl and all the practice we got dealing with intense topics would’ve inoculated me against my shyness by then.

“If you like pain with your pleasure?” She offered.

I closed my eyes. Nodded. Mumbled, “Sorry, um… I-I don’t know why I keep getting…”

She scooted closer, rested her forehead against mine. Her lips were a millimeter away from mine—part of me wanted to capture them, to taste her and that strawberry lip balm that invariably became tangled up with the idea of her in my mind, but it was also nice to just. Be close. Stirred molten pleasure deep in the pit of my stomach. She wriggled her arm out of my grasp to rest a hand on my sternum.

“It’s probably because you haven’t had the chance to speak freely pretty much ever.” She feathered her hand down over my shoulder, down my arm, to the inside of my wrist, setting off an explosion of goosebumps wherever she trailed. “It’ll take time and practice. To answer your question: I suppose you just try it. Incrementally. Safely, you always want to be safe about it.”—Her hand left my wrist and reappeared on my face. Thumb brushed my lip, and I entertained the thought of sucking it into my mouth—“See if it feels good.”

The heat in my face started subsiding, replaced with a gentle sort of buzzing accompanying the heat in my core. “Do you like impact play?”

She placed the lightest kiss just under my bottom lip, spoke into my skin. “A little bit. I can do both the striking and the receiving, but I prefer to receive.”

Fucking hell, it was so hard to think with her like this, with her this close. But it was… nice? It was nice finding it hard to focus—never in a million years would I have guessed that I’d find myself in that position, slowly succumbing to the honeylike tone and touches of my lover and enjoying the process of my mind’s gears grinding to a halt. I was enthralled by her, entranced by the sound of her voice, the smell of her skin.

Should the world show me an ounce of mercy, I’d love to drown in this spell.

“What kind of impact play, my love?” I asked.

My hand moved without my input and curled around the back of her knee. Thinking back on it now, it was natural. Like I’d done it a thousand times. I wasn’t afraid or nervous.

She trailed a hand down my chest and around my side. Her voice had the smallest hint of a waver in it. For once, I was fucking her up. “I’m not terribly picky. I think a flogger might be my favorite. It’s more of a temporary sting that doesn’t bother me too much at work. Though, it has to be used kinda lightly for that.”

I couldn’t resist the urge to hook her leg over my hip and pull her closer. She was warm—the inside of her thigh on my hip, especially—and the weight soothed some dull aching low in my spine, almost at my tailbone, that I didn’t know was present until then. She squeaked in surprise, and I took the opportunity to kiss her. She froze for a moment (only a moment, just long enough for my newfound confidence to think about shaking) but then she tightened her leg around my side and wove her hand in my hair. My head spun. I was too warm, but not the same kind of boiling that accompanied my panic attacks; this warmth was different, broad, shallow rather than deep, encompassing rather than consuming. It frazzled me all the same. Maybe she sensed it, because she tipped her head back and pulled me in so I could draw in a lungful of air and kiss her throat.

“What does it feel like?” I murmured into her pulse.

She didn’t answer immediately. “Ever get whacked by a jump rope? Not, like, super hard, but like a sting on your ankle or something?”

I nodded. Pushed the comforter down to my waist. Settled back on the pillow so I could meet her gaze. She was blinking slowly.

“A bit like that,” she said. “Lighter. Your ass takes it better than your ankle though, you got some padding there.”

I grinned. “Well, that just makes sense.”

The heat in the pit of my stomach started fading. I needed to think about menu prepping for next month.

“Doesn’t it?” She traced my cheekbone. “Your dark circles are worse, baby. Long day?”

Long life.

“Yeah. Long day.”

“You might like it on your back,” she said. It took me a second to figure out what she was talking about. “Flogger. You might like it on your back. More so than your pretty ass.”

“My ass is pretty now?”

She giggled, kissed my forehead. “All of you is pretty, Carm.”

“Why my back?”

“Less vulnerable.”

I tucked her hair behind her ear, swept over her cheek with my bent knuckles. She’s soft. All of her is soft, but not in some fragile, delicate way—not in a way that feels easy to damage. But like she’s made of fine materials, with fine craftsmanship. Like someone—I would say God, but he’s a deadbeat because why else would my life be a hellscape—really took their time and tuned and balanced every little thing about her. There’s this fine porcelain bowl that I came across in a secondhand shop in Copenhagen—handmade in Japan, based on what I could find from the maker’s mark on the bottom, out of some of the finest Kaolin clay on Earth. I had to flip it over to see if the foot ring of the bowl was unglazed because the fired clay itself was so fine, smooth, polished that the edge where glaze broke over bare clay was nearly indiscernible to touch. I felt like I had no right holding a thing so fine, made with such care, without gloves on or something to protect it from the oils in my skin. That’s what it feels like to touch her. Like I had no right to be doing so. That I was in the wrong state—that I was grimy or dirty or that I needed to be polished or refined.

It's funny what love teaches you if you let it.

“Hi, sweetheart,” she whispered, drawing my attention back to her. She worked her fingers through my hair. “Where’d you go off to in that gorgeous head of yours?”

“I’d like to try it,” I said.

In retrospect, I’m relieved and perplexed that it didn’t come out sounding like a question.

“Yeah?”

I nodded. “Mhmm.”

“Can I ask why?”

“I trust you. I want to try it.”

I didn’t need to explain further. She just nodded.

[penncilkid]

Been thinking about my experiences as a POC within fandom while also being an artist and how much that sucks sometimes. This is primarily in regards to the Redacted fandom, but could be applied to any other fandom honestly.

Proper "fussing" under the cut (for those who would rather not see):

Sometimes, I really stop and think about what it must be like to be a white person in fandom, especially when you're an artist. To see yourself reflected in the spaces you exist in all the time. There are some exceptions to this, of course. For example, lack of body diversity is just as much of a problem in my opinion (Like fat people exist. Disabled people exist. Fat, disabled people exist. You can draw them, y'know? /rhet) But generally speaking, it's not difficult to find designs that probably look like you. There will be blondes, brunettes, redheads even— It's everywhere you look.

I don't think most people realize how isolating that ends up feeling though.

Because it's not just the fact that most of the art/designs you'll stumble upon won't resemble you. It's the fact that the prevalence dictates how everyone else interacts with fandom too.

Do you know how much it sucks seeing a post saying "So we all agree that Asher's blonde, right?" and knowing that most people are thinking of a white guy and nothing else?

Or noticing how Alexis, a generally "hated" character in the fandom, is the only vampire most people are willing to make visibly brown?

How about the fact that Gavin, the "thrilling" and "sexy" incubus, has so many black and brown designs— But I can count the non-white Lasko designs I've come across on my hand?

People can do whatever they want. I've said it before, and I'll continue to repeat it when I make these rambles. If you want to make every single design you have varying shades of white and never stray from that, that's your prerogative. But for the love of god, I wish I didn't feel like I was fucking crazy for talking about how much that shit sucks to see as a person of color.

On top of that, do you know how frustrating it is to watch white artists get praised for generic diversity when POC artists have been consistently bringing forth such compelling, stunning designs to table? Like I see the kind of shit that gets praised in this fandom and what doesn't. Racial ambiguity or the slightest addition of a curl gets treated like it's revolutionary— And that's only if it's the "correct" character. It has to "make sense", right? The same way Sam has to have sun-kissed, golden skin even after he's been turned, or the way Guy has to be white because there's no way someone with that personality could be anything but.

Do you know what it's like to be filled with such a sense of joy because someone made a design where a character had your skin tone or hair texture or facial feature? Like, I genuinely have a strong reaction whenever I find a black or brown design in this fandom because they're so rare in comparison to everything else. And when I really stop to think about that, I realize how fucked up of a phenomenon that is.

I love the designs that I've made, but I've also noticed which ones "do better" comparably. I don't change much of anything with how I go about posting or promoting them. The only difference is that some of them fit what is considered widely "canon" in fandom. And the others... don't. I go out of my way to make every design POC in some regard, and you can usually tell visually even without the addition of colors. I'm not gonna stop doing that because I know why I started in the first place. But fuck, it does start to hurt seeing white artists with the same general white designs get hyped up endlessly while I internally debate if I should even make another character look like me or not. If it'll even matter to anyone but me.

Some days, I just really wish it didn't feel like shit being black in this fandom. I hate knowing that I'm gonna post this, and I'll probably get responses for other people of color primarily.

But maybe putting this out will help that pill get easier to swallow.

[onesidedradiostatic]

I'd like to know your full opinion on shipping Alastor, despite him being AroAce. I've seen conflicting opinions on it from AroAce People. I've seen some AroAce people say that shipping is taking away rep(and point out that people would be pissed if this was done to, say, Angel Dust), but I've seen other AroAce people saying it's fine and it's a spectrum. (A friend of mine who I believe is aroace takes it into consideration and makes it part of the shipping and story) Personally I'm on the spectrum(gray-ace and demiromantic), but I'm not AroAce in the way people usually think so I'm not sure I have a right to comment on it. I can also see both sides of the conversation.

(I had this in my drafts for a bit now so this ask is old)

I've mentioned time and time again, I personally do not like reciprocated romantic alastor ships. and as someone who possibly falls more under greyro (idfk man), I do not believe alastor falls under that either CANONICALLY, it's just pretty clear to me from the rosie dialogue that alastor is specifically an aroace who is not into dating

but I will not police people for what they ship and I do not think harassment is okay, there's definitely better things to spend your energy on anyways. if it were up to me, the only thing that would exist are one-sided and qpr alastor ships, but it's not up to me, so it is what it is.

it's whatever really, what I care most about is that people don't try to insist he's not aroace in canon to try to give themselves hope that their ship will happen. I care more about our canonical rep (*cough* just fucking solidly confirm it vivzie *cough*) than what people do in fanon even if I don't like it. ultimately, I stay in my own space and don't bother those people as long as they don't bother me.

the main issue with like all of this, why these constant arguments over what type of aroace alastor is exist, is that alastor is our ONLY aspec rep. the aspec community is so varied, favourable, neutral, repulsed, aroallo, alloace, aroace, demi, grey. one singular character cannot possibly singlehandedly encompass ALL our different experiences. he is only ever going to represent one type of aroace, one type of aspec. because he is a singular character. I genuinely think the worst thing to come out of alastor shipping discourse is the amount of aspec infighting I've seen. at the end of the day, we're all starving and we're all fighting over a character who will only ever represent one specific type of aroace.

it's like if every mlm/wlw person only got ONE mlm/wlw character, you may see gay people/lesbians and mspecs fighting over that character because they want the character to represent them, arguing over how mspecs should be allowed to use that character to represent their mspec attraction or gay people/lesbians arguing that the character should firmly remain exclusively attracted to men/women to represent them.

it's a case of people desperately wanting to be represented and aspecs are so underrepresented we never get to see everyone fully represented in a single piece of media.

[extravagantliar]

Let me preface this - each frame of reference inside Jewish thought will be practised differently; this is why it is practised. we are all still learning, and no Rav or Rebbe can tell me different.

Another preface is that the common denominator varric and I share in practice is that it comes out of the chabad/ashki style of thought, which I attribute to orzammar. Remember, Judaism is not limited to a people. Rather, it reflects in the culture it is in and brings its core tenants and culture with it. this is somewhat a take as-you need it faith, but also, it isn't. It is a question and a thing you must grapple with, and it is a closed practice depending on your strain (aka pat jews or mixed faith marriage not messys! ). We don't know what the past holds or what the future is, we must seek each day as a the intended gift it was. So without further ado - Hanukkah in the sphere of fantasy and overall thedas!

Hanukkah comes from a few different places; it's root in Hebrew means education, and it is also an acronym in Hebrew for eight nights of lights. Historically, it is a story about oppression and rising against the Grecian oppressors and being able to write and read the Torah again, as we do - we hold fast and we win, and we tell stories about it. I will be reframing this story away from a land and more towards a people for the aspect of survival, just FYI. After the great veil of oppression being lifted, they found only enough oil for one night - yet the temple burned brightly for all the nights, all eight a testament that faith had seen them through. While there is no second temple, I always stated there was some sort of trial between the surface and those below, and the dwarves would have recorded every trespass in detail.

As we all remember, to orzammarian dwarves, it is a sin to see the sky and to have someone trespass on your land.

I believe the actual thought of what happened is muddled in contextual thought like the Midrash and Talmud. Was it a great thaig that was raided? Was it the cutting off of the dreams? Seeking oil to light the way out of the dark? It would depend on the sect you asked for; two Jews always equal three opinions, and I will not write over someone else seeking to write a Jewish character. But Ilsa passed to her boys a story of a people who fought to keep who they were - rather than fighting for a place or a people, they fought for who they thought they were - and in my pre-datv documents, it was their identity in relation to the titans and how that affected them moving forward. That row house in Kirkwall always had three menorahs, until there were two, until there was one - until it was a lone candle lit in the middle of Lowtown.

There are foods that go with it - fried ones, to symbolise the oil, latke, doughnuts, something deep fried to symbolise that the oil - our lifeblood lives on.

would this likely be lyrium candles in certain sects, likely, maybe those dwarves very deep in the roads and very devout - but the surface dialogue is very clear lyruim makes most of the populace sick.

so what would this mean contextually in a modern thedas or even dragon age space? it is a winter holiday on a minor scale. it is on an academic calendar rather than the ruling calendar and starts on the 25th of Kislev. It is recommended to light as many menorahs as people in the home, or vary the amount of menorahs depending on your sect, always have the candles in a straight line other than one helper candle ( shamash ) above the rest. you can make a Hanukkiah out of anything ( real we once did four small bonfires and a big bonfire as the helper ).

granted, there is some fancy verbiage I should be using, but I like to keep things simple - I am willing to take civil questions!

Varric is not a practitioner until he is much older.

[elllteo]

gonna be real seeing you boil down someone else's concerns abt making light of a rapist in media as fandom drama really hurts as someone who's experienced that kind of violence first hand. the character is fictional and obviously doesnt exist. but rape victims do exist and we see when people sexualize or joke about predators. idk. i don't intend to tell you what to do, but i hope this helps maybe explain why someone else could've been startled or upset to see that on your blog. its your space you can do what you want with it. i think some media doesn't need to be fandomized or treated as yaoi fodder. maybe it can just be taken seriously and discussed with respect. i think its pretty reasonable for victims of particular types of violence to express discomfort or concern when people joke about or make light of those who perpetrate it.

I genuinely get where you are coming from, I do. But what that ask was getting at did not convey to me what you seem to have taken from it.

There's a difference between making light of/mocking/making jokes about sexual assault/rape vs drawing a character who does those things in a narrative in an unserious way. Likewise, I feel that boiling down the narrative to just be about that One Act in many, many ways does a disservice to the narrative and characters as a whole.

I'm also not understanding where exactly this is coming from, to be entirely honest.

A person can be fully capable of breaking down and analyzing Jimmy in a way that is entirely respectful while still, also, making light of other aspects or enjoying him removed from that context. Drawing a character in a goofy way doesn't mean the person is making light of Anya's SA, or even excusing it. You can ship two characters while still finding the canon actions of one absolutely despicable. These things are not mutually exclusive!

Just as you're not telling me what to do, I'm not saying you, or that other anon, or anyone else has to put up with seeing that character or engaging with media that portrays him that way, to be clear. I'm not trying to tell you that your feelings or hurt or experiences aren't valid, they clearly and very much are.

But it's not my job, or even obligation, to protect you from it. Or any other trigger, for that matter. I do what I can with tags, but that's a courtesy I try to apply when and where I can.

That's what I'm getting at here. I tagged for him and that ship so others could avoid it if they found it upsetting. The anon did not do that, so I explained my stance.

People will engage with media in ways that are upsetting to you, or ways that even disgust you. I can't stop them, I make no plans to, and if my opinions or behaviors around this are upsetting or disappointing to you, if I endanger you or anyone by behaving this way, it is in your best interest to block me and have a safer and less stressful experience online. Those tools are readily available for that very reason.

I know far too many others who have also experienced that kind of violence, family included. I know the frustration and hurt of making light of that kind of thing, and how it can and does impact others.

But this is not that.

If, however, you feel it is, that's your right! I can't tell you how to engage with anything, nor do I intend to. I cannot change my space to fit your needs, and I'm genuinely sorry if that makes you feel unsafe or upset. I'm not trying to make light SA or the victims thereof.

I'm trying to, as best as I can, explain that policing how others engage with a fandom and its characters simply does not and cannot work. That isn't "fandom drama" - it's the psychology of humans and the media they connect with. Humans are complicated creatures, and our needs and interests vary wildly.

There is no monolithic way to demand others engage with a source material, and attempting to do so does more harm to you than that effort is worth. I hope you and that other anon can have a less upsetting day/night/etc - again, I'm sorry if this is frustrating to hear, but I fear this is an impasse we simply won't agree on in this way.

[mywitchyblog]

Can someone please explain to me who the hell is so upset with me that they’ve resorted to going into other shifters' ask boxes as an anonymous user and started bullying them in my name? It honestly baffles me that someone would stoop so low. If you have an issue with me or something I’ve said, be direct. I’m not one to hide behind anonymity or drag innocent people into something they have nothing to do with. If I had a problem with you, trust me, I’d say it to your face. I don’t need to hide in the shadows.

Now, there are only two possibilities for what’s going on here, and neither of them reflect well on the person responsible:

The first possibility is that this person is intentionally creating drama by sending themselves an anonymous ask. Maybe they’re looking for attention or trying to stir up conflict where there is none. It's sad, honestly, if that’s what’s happening because it just shows how far some people are willing to go to manufacture chaos.

The second possibility is that I’ve managed to piss someone off to the point where they’re now impersonating me, using my name to spread hate and start fights in spaces where I’m not even involved. If this is the case, I can’t say I’m surprised that someone would go this route rather than confront me directly, but it’s still frustrating. I don’t hide from criticism, and I won’t shy away from addressing issues head-on. But to use my identity in such a toxic way? That’s crossing a line.

To the person this happened to (I found out about this through a mutual, and I want you to know that I’m aware), I am truly sorry. I hate that this situation has dragged you into something you didn’t ask for, and I genuinely wish it hadn’t happened. But let me be absolutely clear: it wasn’t me. I did not send those messages, and I would never engage in that kind of behavior. It’s not how I handle things, and it’s certainly not how I treat others.

You are fully entitled to your own opinion, just like I’m entitled to mine. I’ve never denied that right to anyone, and I wouldn’t start now. We don’t have to agree on everything, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to attack you for your perspective or allow someone else to use my name to do so. That’s not how this works.

And just to set the record straight for the final time: I am not a pedophile, nor do I endorse, encourage, or support anything related to that disgusting behavior. It’s beyond insulting that I even have to keep repeating this, but here we are. In fact, I went out of my way to age myself up by a few years or to completely discard the DRs that felt problematic or uncomfortable. I’ve always been mindful of the spaces I navigate, especially when it comes to shifting, and I’ve made conscious decisions about what I’m comfortable with.

If you’re unhappy or confused about something I’ve said or done, talk to me like a human being. Bring it to me, and let’s figure it out. Don’t jump to conclusions or, worse, involve other people who aren’t even a part of the conversation. It’s cowardly and completely unnecessary. This whole thing could’ve been avoided with a little bit of maturity and honest communication.

At the end of the day, it’s honestly pathetic to bully other people just because they happen to have a different opinion than yours. Why are you so bothered by someone else’s perspective that you’d go out of your way to hurt them or cause unnecessary drama? We’re all individuals here, and our experiences with shifting, our journeys, and our beliefs are going to vary. No two people will see everything the same way, and that’s okay. It’s actually something to be embraced. What’s not okay is tearing each other down because of those differences. That only reflects poorly on you and shows how little respect you have for other people’s paths.

So, let’s try a little harder to be civil and respectful. You don’t have to agree with me, and I don’t have to agree with you, but at the very least, we can treat each other with decency.

[brian-in-finance]

After the onslaught of criticism about her IFTA look, I thought of putting together some of Cait's quotes, a look into her character and what she's about.

“I respect and admire people who put work before fame, and life before work.”

"I think as women sometimes we can judge other women's journeys, actions a lot more harshly than we would if it was a man."

"I think there's something in the DNA of actors that we thrive on the lack of stability or regime. I relish the unpredictability of it in many ways."

The sexiest things about a man are, "Integrity, smarts and kindness".

"I just want to be happy in my life. I want to stay sane. I'm lucky that I have a job that I love. It's very important that your career can't be your only thing. So, I feel lucky that I've also found someone who makes me very happy. As long as I can keep those two things going well, then I'll be good."

"While 'Outlander' is a brilliant period show, Claire represents so many qualities of a 10th century modern-day woman: someone who is forging her own path, fighting for what she believes, and doing so with integrity."

"It's such a compliment when people say they can see 'thoughts' on your face. I started theater before modeling and the frustrated actress within me made work interesting by viewing a character or story in the head with interior monologues."

"Life is meant to be lived and not put on the back-burner for one day when you will have time. I love my job and I love work but it can’t be the be-all and end-all." 

“You have to fight to create the life that you want. I’ve been lucky and had a very varied and interesting career so far, but I’m always thinking about the next chapter.”

"I'm very young at heart but combined with a bit of an old soul. I have two sides of myself, one side is this cray-likes-to-party side, and then the other side likes-to-hibernate-and-keep-quiet-and-read. Those two sides constantly battle and that's why I'm crazy!"

"It was something I've been wanting for a while. There's sometimes fear about actors who become producers—that they're going to try to throw their weight around. For me, it's an expansion of growing within this industry. I like to problem solve. I like to look around at what every single person is doing, and [ask], how can we make things better?"

"Wrinkles equal time, equal life . . . trying to love them."

"SM brings out the very worst in people and makes us feel worse and worse about ourselves. So I'm trying to do, at least one day a week, hopefully 2 days a week, where I just step back and, I've been trying to do it recently and because I really felt like I needed to ... there's so much anger going on and there's so much "uhh" that it was making me feel just awful about everything."

"The modeling industry is completely what you make it. I've had a really great career but what some girls fail to understand is that it is a business like everything else. It's a job, not an opportunity for you and your friends to go away together a lot. You have to remember that the reason you're flying off to an exotic location is that you are there to deliver a job."

“The hardest part when I decided to move into acting was trusting I'd made the right decision.”

Thanks for the message, Anon. 😃 I’m happy to share the impressive list you’ve compiled of Caitríona’s quotes, and I hope people enjoy the walk down memory lane. As for the onslaught of criticism about her IFTA look…

One of the things you and I and everyone else are entitled to is an opinion. Some people liked her IFTA look, some did not. I sometimes post “fashion,” but have no expertise in that field, and I don’t necessarily like or dislike the garments or jewellery or footwear or accessories, or how they’re worn.

As for Standing Ground’s collections, unsupported breasts and nipples abound. I’d like to say it’s by design (wee pun), but I don’t know if it’s the designer’s intent in keeping with his natural scheme or if it’s the model’s choice to go braless. (If I were writing in DM, this is where I would say, “Blah blah blah.”)

What I do know, if I owned “the IFTA” dress and could wear it the way I chose, I would be wearing a bra. Everybody, every body, is different.

Most of the time, when I disagree with an opinion, I silently 🙄 or 🤦🏻‍♂️ or 🤯 or 🤬 or 😂, and scroll along my merry way. The odd time when I both 🤬 and chime in is when someone says it’s their opinion Caitríona is not married to Tony.

Literacy Ideas

Remember… opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes. — Voltaire

[furorsopher]

things i think we forget when talking about hamilton as a person (and that’s not necessarily a bad thing bc that guy lived 200 years ago, it’s good to keep distance sometimes)

hamilton was a real human being who had a personality, in jokes with friends and family, and varying emotions. and as a kid, multiple things occurred that would permanently affect and change a child.

he grew up in an town where abuse of other humans - specifically slaves - was a day to day occurrence, and since he lived close to the port and worked in trading, he had to have witnessed a lot of gruesome mistreatment of fellow humans. not to mention the tragedy of his mothers life, and the end she met.

he had to grow up and work to keep himself alive at 14, think about a cousin, or sibling, or somebody you know that’s 14, do you think they’re adult enough to sustain themselves? hamilton wasn’t some other species that matures sooner, he was still a child. but nevertheless he became fairly successful and then a natural disaster came and he had to endure suffering again, saw others die, families being separated never to be reunited.

all of that takes a toll on somebody. even one of those events would traumatise some people - especially children and teens - so bad they wouldn’t be able to live normally ever again. it’s pretty safe to say that hamilton was no exception to that.

his college mates described him as deeply depressed, he was so religious it stuck out at fucking king’s college, a very christian institution that required attending mass daily - even if it was simply routine to him and he wasn’t actually as religious it’s still quite the feat. his fleeing into his studies and prayer was his form of escapism. when he found his coping mechanisms in work, he was gonna work until he dropped.

that’s a pretty tell-tale sign of somebody with substantial issues. not to mention the shit that happened later in his life, his life in the army, the annual reoccurrence of the illness that killed his mother, the death of his closest friend, the death of his only even remotely positive father figure.

just because tragedy in childhood was something most people had - and have - to deal with, doesn’t make it any less traumatic. those were still people.

hamilton wasn’t of an overtly weak psyche, but not because “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, but because he literally didn’t know anything else. and we can see that in how he reacted to other traumatic stuff that happened to him - or rather how he didn’t react. how he shut down, basically nobody heard from him after phillip died, he shut up and closed off after laurens died. his immune system was shit, he was susceptible to fainting spells. physical weakness is also a symptom of something wrong. he forced his oldest son into a strict schedule to get all his studies and life done in college. that’s a shit thing to do, but we can see how scared he was that phillip won’t be able to achieve something of his own.

and also we see how self destructive hamilton got, constantly overworking, throwing himself at the nearest parent-aged adult around, the symptoms of hyper sexuality often seen in trauma victims are also apparent in his time working under washington. that twink knew to get what he could by batting his eyelashes and he did exactly that.

and later, when he went to duel burr, he fully prepared to die then and there, spending time with his family the days before, being as affectionate as he could to his kid - specifically the one in a prime age to be permanently traumatised by a parent dying. the others were either older and more independent or too young to really understand what was going on. he was planning to die and had a hunch even before burr knew he was gonna kill him. he had been in like a dozen other duels and all of them settled without shooting. why would that time be different?

- though i don’t think that was his goal when provoking burr, that was just his actual opinion and maybe some repressed bitterness shining though, it was probably just an added bonus -

also: he was mostly atheist during his adult life, but turned back to religion and clung to it after phillip’s death - suicide was a sin (though not a mortal one like in catholicism which AHam actively hated on btw) in the anglican belief at that time i believe (correct me if im wrong) so maybe the duel could count as self murder over a corner or two.

hamilton was a person. an actual man who lived 49 very productive years and died after he had had enough. a person who was deeply effected by his experiences.

please don’t take any of this too seriously and everything with a huge grain of salt, i’m a 17 year old who likes history and trauma psychology, im not gonna get everything right - this is all highly speculative and probably not even relevant to most conversations abt the guy i just wanted to put my thoughts somewhere, no this isn’t proofread pls correct me on any mistakes ive made <3 have a lovely dayyyy :3

main source is Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow and various documents found in the founders archive

[north-noire]

What's your opinion on Lefty?

Ah, Lefty... I probably have a not-so-great take of Lefty (writing-wise) but I really don't like the way they were used narratively in canon. I don't hate Lefty in fanworks or AUs, in fact people who have them in their AUs generally write an actual good reason why Lefty is there and why Henry had to resort to using them (both for good or not-so-good reasons, it varies from AU to AU and how they write their Henry and Marionette/Charlie.), it's certainly better than the canon we have where it's super vague and conflicting at best. I love the way they go with Lefty's concepts, it's really cool to see how you can interpret Lefty like that!

I also love Lefty's design as well! They look so eerie in their own way, especially the sunken eyes.

Generally though, I don't see a good reason why Henry had to resort to using Lefty in canon other than of course, getting Charlie to him (then again I have my gripes with Henry in FFPS and how they inserted him in the franchise anyway - I swear I loved his speech there, but everything else... I have some issues with. Like I genuinely wished Michael had a speaking role in FFPS, or even had his own speech too + some idea of where Henry had been the whole time would've been nice to know because we're kind of left to interpret where he had been this whole time) - surely Henry was aware that his daughter is alive, but instead he forcibly traps her in this robot-machine thing, shocking her all around (whether that be to power the Puppet, or genuinely to shock her, we don't know, all we have are the blueprints for this and it's either a lesser evil Henry had to resort to, or Henry intentionally did it that way, either way, we don't know).

It conflicts with his speech where he clearly loved his daughter, but ends up trapping her like that anyway, like what's the purpose? Did they argue, did something between them that we don't know? Did Michael find nothing wrong with this?

Then again, this is Scott's writing we're talking about, when has that guy's writing ever not been bonkers or vague in the slightest? it's probably a blessing and a curse to have, because on one hand everyone is going crazy about the lack of answers, but on one hand, it's such an interesting playground to work with and has a lot of potential for creatives to do their take on FNAF with. (no wonder FNAF AUs are so common, really! it's so cool seeing the way people handle their version of the FNAF timeline and characters!)

TLDR; I don't hate Lefty, just mostly writing wise is what I have an issue with, just wished they made a lot more sense because we really barely know anything about Henry in the games (and I generally treat TSE as an alternate canon anyway) to really know if he built them out of desperation to find Charlie again, genuine sincerity to unite with her again, perhaps Charlie's had been far too gone and Lefty was there to stabilize her, or bad reasons as a whole (whatever those might be, we don't know. there's no concrete reason why he did it, to his own daughter no less.), so the concept ends up falling flat. We can only really interpret about it all day and it's kind of a bummer, really.

[lightofraye]

I seem to be in speech mode today. First the thing about "you just don't do that" I posted earlier... now this one. This is actually in response to an anon ask a mutual had gotten... about me. I suspect they wanted me to react because I had done so in the past to anons tagging me at this mutual's blog. They were nice tags, so I had no issue replying to them.

This one though? Tsk tsk, anon. Really?

What killed me is the claim I'm "very toxic". Cue a double-take by me and others who know me well. Who have read my blog for months and can tell you... overall? Not toxic. Writing about abuse, pointing out what I feel is abuse, is not toxic. I don't send what I write to the person nor do I tag them or anything like that. I don't sic followers on them; I in fact do not condone that behavior. I would not shrug and go "I don't care. They're reaping what they sow." That's not me. It will never be me.

I have very legitimate reasons for disliking the people I dislike. (Note: I am not saying I hate them either. It takes a lot to hate someone; it's a waste of energy and most of the time, it's not even worth that.) I dislike them because I view their behavior as toxic, awful, bad, and even hateful.

I don't like abusers. I have very valid reasons to dislike abusers. In fact, everyone should dislike abusers. If you don't agree that the behavior is abusive, okay, no skin off my back. Don't read my shit. I use the proper tags too. I use the "anti" tags. My pinned posts says very clearly that I'm anti-[insert]!

I mean, see:

I also back up the reasons why I'm anti-[insert] in a lot of posts. You disagree? Cool, cool. Block me, don't read my stuff. Simple as that.

I don't post after post after post say why I hate someone. Now that's toxic behavior. I do detailed explanations, usually with receipts, and then move on for the day. I can and have gone weeks without posting about whomever. I write about signs of abuse, I write about other things, I post about other things. I live a varied, colorful life.

The people I dislike only occupy my brain if I let them. They don't live rent-free in my head like I do in my haters (apparently).

I celebrate Jensen's achievements. I celebrate Jared's achievements. I post about The Good Place, other shows. I post stuff about the conventions because it's fun.

The negative stuff (if you wanna call it that) is but a sliver of what I write and post about.

My mutuals and followers are not ignorant about what I post. If they disagree, well, that's fine too. I had a moment where a follower and I went "agree to disagree?" and yeah, that's what we did. We respect each other's opinions and stances and are very well aware that not everyone will agree 100% on what I or they write. I don't agree with everything my mutuals write or those that I follow write--and that's okay too.

I wouldn't go as far as to call it toxic though.... but you do you.

I'll stick in my little corner and write what I write.

[tallochar]

Inspired, in part, by this post by @mzminola but also something I've been ruminating on for a couple of years now.

Talking about pre New52 canon here mostly, though opinions about New52 or post Rebirth canon are also welcome to be added on, just specify it so we don't talk at cross purposes?

One of the thing that messes with me as an adult thinking back on comics is that you simply cannot put Alfred as the single member of staff who is dealing with all of the Manor.

I mean you can, comic logic, Alfred Is Not Of This World, whatever you want personally want.

Me personally, I cannot.

I need Harold to be down in the Batcave dealing with that part of the property until he dies in the 2000s at the very least, but also, consider how many hours there are in each day and how much Alfred has to do and how he's always serving dinner in time and laundry is done and everything is restocked and yet he also has the time to be personally chaffeuring the members of the family around and someone is also going to be having to deal with the household expenses and count balancing and -- and --

Like all of that PLUS keeping up with the superhero stuff PLUS cooking what sometimes are LAVISH spreads (WHICH TAKES TIME! PREP WORK TAKES TIME! COOKING TAKES TIME! ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE ONE PERSON AND ALSO HAVE TO GO PICK THESE PEOPLE UP AND MAKE SURE THEY HAVE THEIR LAUNDRY DONE AND THE GARDEN IS NOT OVERGROWN AND THE HOUSE IS CLEAN AND -- AUGH)

I cannot just accept that Alfred is doing it all, on his own, with the occasional WE-affiliated-and-vetted company called in to deal with, say, catering for a big event or whatever.

Especially not if Bruce is young and Alfred's supposed to be raising him, like oh god no, which is why the idea @mzminola talked about in their post (Bruce raised by his relatives) has taken root in my brain and is now my own personal very much cherished headcanon and a source of plenty of excuses for Bruce but also varied and eclectic skills and connections.

But okay, let's say that Alfred got left in charge of just managing things for Bruce until Bruce is of age and can take over things himself (in theory, in practice Bruce definitely pushes all he doesn't want to deal with about the house on Alfred and all he doesn't want to deal with about the company on Lucius Fox and sets up a contingency to get Tim to deal with shit for Bruce if Bruce were to be unavailable / unsteady / acting sus), while Bruce is being passed around from relative to relative.

There's still the staff that the Manor had before the death of Thomas and Martha to deal with. Gotta downsize that but you cannot just boot everyone and close shop.

I mean, yeah you can, but also, some of those people were probably there for a long time and Alfred wasn't just going to throw them out.

The way things work out in my brain is if Alfred is the "face" of the staff and the only one who, usually, interacts directly with The Family, while the others are in the background minding their own business, asking no questions at all.

They probably lost some people in NML during the Manor collapse, and the staff had to go through the harrowing process of getting new people that they didn't know nor trust in and then do their own version of vetting and making sure there was nothing hinky about any of them and that they understood the importance of the privacy of their employers, etc. etc.

Some of them must have retired at some point or moved on and were let go with more than fair compensantion and retirement packages and some stuff actually got outsourced a bit as technology progressed and things changed.

Especially after NML, actually.

Alfred is not going to hire someone just to come by to do all of the laundry, but he might have a trustworthy laundry service that is Bristol-based and is used to dealing with Rich People without asking questions.

And I am not say that they have to be In The Know life Alfred and Harold.

Actually, I prefer the idea that they aren't and that they just have this cushy job and loyalty to the Waynes and are all well compensated for being quiet and dealing with stuff on their own.

Sure, Alfred deals with the supernatural side of things, absolutely, and I am sure he has state of art machinery for, say, dealing with the costumes after patrol, but the Manor is huge and the upkeed is time consuming and exhausting and Alfred is too busy to do everything on his own.

So basically what I am saying is:

I have a might need for Alfred and his skeleton crew of long-time, trusted employees who keep the Manor running and stay out of the way of the bosses and everyone lives better like that.

I need Alfred's list of Trusted People who can deal with the family's laundry without messing it up and come do repairs when they are needed Upstairs since Harold won't leave the cave.

Give me Bruce's different childrens' different relationship's with said skeleton crew and Bruce's own distant relationship with them too and their reactions to things.

Allow me to have the skeleton crew sticking around and keeping the Manor up and running whenever Alfred is off around the world with Bruce for recovery / training / support purposes or who are still there and keeping things going when Alfred is too busy feuding with Bruce to look after everything else.

[mariodreemurr]

Hey, everyone! Today, I’m gonna do something quite different in this post. You may have gathered this from my pinned post, but I am heavily interested in personality tests and typing, most notably with MBTI and Enneagrams! But the reason why I have been invested in this is that I initially wanted to type each of the main characters in KINAC, most notably my one and only romantic F/O, Petal! It took many attempts, changes and difficulties, but I have indeed typed her with something that I won’t likely change.

In this post, I will tell y’all all about what I typed my F/O Petal as and WHY I typed her this way. I will be going over some characteristics of each of the types, including some very specific yet neat stuff, and how they relate to her! I might even do more personality analyses like this in the future, if y’all want! I won’t waste any more time here, so let’s get started under the cut!

(SPECIAL NOTE: I am making this blog post assuming that everyone who will read it has prerequisite knowledge of MBTI and Enneagrams, including cognitive functions and the function stack for the former; and wings, instinctual variants, and tritypes for the latter. I will brush over some of the listed topics as I go along, but I highly recommend familiarizing yourself with each of these topics if you haven’t already!)

(ALSO...I don’t really consider myself an expert in this subject per se, and there are times when I rush through things and might make quite a few mistakes. Feel free to correct me on anything or even give your own insight into what her type could be, if we have different opinions!)

Personality Typing Deep Dive - Petal

I think first and foremost, this prerequisite is required: what is Petal’s personality like? I will give a brief rundown.

Petal is considered to be motherly; she is protective of those she cares about and loves looking after them, especially Kitty. Petal is also very kind, caring, and enthusiastic to a fault...so much so that the other cats have gotten annoyed at her sometimes. Despite her kind and gentle nature, she knows when enough is enough, and is willing to put her foot down if it means justice.

Petal’s motherly nature makes her quite intelligent for a cat. But at the end of the day, she is still a cat. She doesn’t fully grasp human culture and behavior (often calling humans weird or unintelligent), and because of her cat instincts, she has done some pretty derpy things at times. And yet, despite not fully understanding sometimes, she does her absolute best to be as kind and respectful as possible.

MBTI brief recap

The first of two personality typing systems we will use to type Petal is the Meyers–Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI for short. MBTI, as y’all know, is perhaps the most famous personality typing system besides Zodiac signs. 4 letters with 2 possibilities for each of those letters each yields 16 different types one can be. Under the hood, 8 cognitive functions are each stacked in various positions in one’s mind, with varying degrees of consciousness. A function can be the driver for your decision-making at best (your conscious stack) or a demonic force of evil at worst (your shadow stack).

I personally wouldn’t say that MBTI determines your personality and personality traits as much as it determines your behavior and how you cognitively make decisions, due to these functions. Two people can be of the same type yet have entirely different personalities. As such, it’s more like a “blueprint” rather than a complete definition of one’s personality. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting way to see how different people behave in any given situation, whether they know it or not!

But enough waffling on...now that we know what Petal is like and what MBTI exactly is, we can move forward with her MBTI type!

After much deliberation, I have concluded that Petal’s MBTI type is ESFJ!

What does it mean to be an ESFJ? ESFJs are often called “consuls” or “caregivers.” They generally have strong practical skills and a sense of duty, and they are very loyal and can easily connect and flourish with others. They generally ensure that others are cared for, and they provide a warm and safe presence for them. However, they can also be too needy or selfless, and are sensitive to criticism. They can also be very averse to conflict and can have trouble with giving criticism, too.

Sounds like Petal, right? But generalizations and stereotypes aren’t good enough for explaining why she’s an ESFJ. In order to fully gather that, we must look at what’s under the hood: her cognitive functions.

Dominant Fe

Your dominant function can be thought of as the driving force behind your cognitive processes. It’s the one you use most often in everyday situations, and it’s your most trusted one when it comes to making major decisions. As an INFP, my dominant function is Introverted Feeling, or Fi. My Fi is about my inner moral compass; what I personally feel is right. As a Fi-dom, I want to go through life by staying true to who I am without having to conform to societal standards.

Petal, on the other hand, has Extroverted Feeling as her dominant function, or Fe. If Fi is about what’s inside, then Fe is all about the group. Fe-doms often have a strong desire to help people and make sure that everyone is involved. They love talking about their feelings with others, and they want to live in harmony with everyone. If there’s any motto for what things they do, it’s: “It’s what the people want!”

Sounds a lot like Petal, especially with her penchant for helping others! Petal definitely puts the desires and intentions of those around her before her own. In fact, she gets so caught up in the group that she often gets dragged along into any silly shenanigans they get into. For example, in one episode some of the cats performed a play about seeking buried treasure, and the cats including Petal, thinking it was fact instead of fiction, searched all around the mansion for it! I definitely imagine her thinking to herself, “Everyone else is doing it, so I should, too!” When they did find treasure and King Tubby took it all for himself and the other cats got mad, she did as well! There were many other instances of her playing along with the group, including investing in the stock market and playing tag.

But despite this, she knows when to take charge, and there are times in the show when she does. She isn’t always a leader-type, but when she is, she is very effective in telling others what needs to be done and how. (Although, this may be more of a Te thing now that I think about it.)

I want to touch upon this quote a bit: 

“Hello there, I’m Petal. Most would refer to me as the motherly type, which is fine; I like looking after everyone.”

It’s the introduction she gave herself when she filmed a video. It’s a common stereotype with Fe users (especially Fe-doms) that they struggle with their identity. So, they turn to others to determine who they are. To put it in a quote, “I’ll be whoever you want me to be.” It’s very subtle, yet it says a lot.

But there is a certain episode in which I feel is where her Fe truly shines: “Petal Pushers”, the 43rd episode of the 1st season. At the beginning of the episode, Petal is shown to be very encouraging of the others, much to their annoyance. In one particular part, she was showing a flower to Kitty and Timmy Tom when Cheeta busted in and announced that he could touch his nose with his tongue, which he tries and fails at that moment. Now, he interrupted her, but did she get mad? Nope! Instead, she congratulated him for his “ability,” and encouraged him to try again! Miley was there and she got annoyed at her for not making him apologize. To which Petal responded:

“Oh, he doesn’t need to say sorry! I’m only sorry I was doing something while he was obviously trying to do something very important!”

Later, Petal overhears some of the cats talking to each other about how annoyed they were with her, and that she was “too nice all the time.” Petal, initially distraught, decides that if “they don’t want nice Petal, they won’t get nice Petal.” So, she dons a leather jacket and spiked collar, and becomes mean. She throws food around, insults others, insists on watching hardcore shows, eats unhealthy food, and stomps around. Despite doing all this, she finds that it’s incredibly hard for her to be mean. She gets tired of keeping up the act, and finally drops it when the other cats apologize to her for taking her kindness for granted.

If you know your dominant function, you also know your inferior, opposing and demon functions. Could her demon Te have taken over in this case, then? I unfortunately don’t know enough about the demon function to accurately say anything about that. But some of her final words sum up her Fe well: “I just love you all so much!”

Auxiliary Si

Your auxiliary function is also an important part of your cognitive processes. If the dominant function is the driver, then the auxiliary is the guide, helping it out in making major decisions. My auxiliary function is Extroverted Intuition, or Ne. Ne is mostly about finding every possibility one can in the world. However, I mainly use it to enhance my Fi by coming up with ways I can express my values and identity.

Since she is an ESFJ, Petal’s auxiliary function is Introverted Sensing, or Si. Si is mainly about one’s past experiences, and how one can use them to deduce what could happen or what they could experience, so that they can be prepared for any situation. However, Petal doesn’t use this on its own; instead, she uses Si to advance the interests of the group and to assist others if they need help.

Petal is one of the first ones to offer any advice on what to do if a problem in her group arises. For example, when the cats experienced a blackout, they were stuck on what to do until the power came back on. She immediately said, “Oh, we can roast marshmallows!” and handed Cheeta marshmallows and sticks to use to “put them on the fire.” (He misinterpreted this and actually threw them into the fireplace.) In another instance, Timmy Tom couldn’t stop yodeling, which the others thought was a case of hiccups. She immediately exclaimed, “Oh, I have a remedy for hiccups!” and pulled out a lemon, which she made him bite down on. In summary, Petal helps others by using her own tried and true methods that she has learned over her life.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much else to say about her Si. As a result, I would like to go down a step in the stack to another function that can better explain exactly why Petal is an ESFJ.

Tertiary Ne

I personally believe that when it comes to typing characters, the tertiary function provides better insight than the auxiliary into what type they exactly are. The tertiary function aids you just like your top two functions, but it is often labeled as the “child” function. This is due to the fact that it is most often used in a “childish” or “immature” way, and isn’t entirely reliable in making major decisions. My tertiary function is Si, and I use it very differently than Petal does. I mainly use it to relax, by finding comfort in routine and familiarity. For example, I often become nostalgic when I rewatch old movies or listen to music I’ve loved over the years or even browse through old photos, as it reminds me of much simpler times. (This may not be the best example, but...yeah.)

Like me, Petal also uses Ne. However, I am much more mature about it than she is. Ne is about possibilities; as such, sometimes Petal is absolutely enthralled in the exciting and unknown...so much so that it can become a problem. If she sees a new thing that she likes or can be useful for her, she becomes obsessed.

One example of her tertiary Ne showing is in “Junior Rangers”, the 6th episode of the 2nd season. In it, a junior ranger troop leader explains to Petal the premise of being a junior ranger, including showing off some badges. She becomes instantly hooked on them, spending all night sewing together tons and tons of them...even though she initially planned for Kitty to become a ranger so that she can be taught how to behave like a human. She would end up giving them away basically for free, and it ultimately distracted her from the fact that cats cannot be junior rangers. Ouch...

Miley: “Are you sure this is the right thing for Kitty, or are you just in it for the badges?” Petal: “For the badg–I mean, Kitty. Er, all for Kitty.”

But there is one dark side to the tertiary function that can really make itself known during difficult times, that truly cements how one can behave when it’s not used wisely: the dominant-tertiary loop. What happens during a loop is that your auxiliary function is completely ignored, and as a result you “loop” between using your dominant and tertiary functions with devastating consequences. As an INFP, I’ve definitely found myself in a Fi-Si loop before. The experience is different for all INFPs, but in mine, I become so paralyzed by my past mistakes that I retreat from everything and am deathly afraid of trying new things.

But as for Petal and her loop, let’s look at “You Can’t Handle the Juice!”, the 40th episode of the 2nd season. In the episode, Petal signs a contract and is the not-so proud owner of a bunch of boxes of orange juice. She is told by both the neighbor and a person in a video that she has to sell the juice, but it’s not so much selling as it is helping. Seeing as how she’s an ESFJ, she was enticed by that. She was also told to never take no for an answer. Hoo boy...

In my eyes, what happens next is a great example of a Fe-Ne loop. Again, the experience is different for each ESFJ, but here is how Petal experienced hers. Every time that a cat had a problem, Petal and her juice were to the rescue, or so she thought. Out of milk for your cereal? Use OJ instead! Stained your fur? OJ will clean it up! It doesn’t matter what kind of problem it is, she sees every single opportunity to just help everyone out using the juice. She’s not thinking rationally, but only how she can help. This juice can solve ANY problem, just you wait and see! The worst part is, she ain’t even realizing that she’s making everything worse! AND SHE’S GOING INSANE IN THE PROCESS! It’s what the people want, dammit!

Anyway...again, if you want to type a character, just think: what does their loop look like?

Critical Se

The last function I want to go over before I move on is part of the shadow stack. These are the functions that aren’t exactly a part of us. As a result, we tend to have no control over them, and they could help or seriously harm us.

One of these functions is called the critical function. If the auxiliary function is the guide or “nurturing parent,” then this one is the “critical parent.” In short, we tend to criticize and berate others when they use this function, or we criticize ourselves when we don’t. My critical function is Introverted Intuition, or Ni. If Ne is about what could be possible, then Ni is about what will be possible; Ni can be described as making one long-term plan and sticking to it, with no other options. Because this is my critical function, I tend to silently berate other people who limit my options. As a real-life example, my stepdad was talking to me the other day about my career in statistics. He said that I can be interested in applying my skills to various things, I need to apply it to one and only one thing in order to advance my career. Him saying this just made me angry. Why should I limit myself to only one topic? There’s got to be another way! I cannot live like this!

In contrast, Petal’s critical function is Extroverted Sensing, or Se. Se is often described as “living in the moment.” However, there’s more to it than that. In particular, one big aspect of Se is that it’s the experience you give to other people. Being aware of how your words and actions might affect others AND being able to use that awareness effectively is a possible indicator that you have strong Se. (As someone with trickster Se, I can’t relate, lol.)

If Se is in the critical position, what does it mean for Petal? In summary, she is often critical of people who leave a bad impression on her. If she is around to witness another person being rude, there is no doubt that she will criticize them for it. She has a strong sense of justice, and takes notice of any bad behavior or intentions in order to correct them. Not only this, but it may be that she criticizes herself when she leaves a bad impression on others, in the form of over-apologizing and having an “Oh, shit!” look when she makes a mistake.

“Pardon my French, Pierre!”

She also tends to be critical of habits that seem strange to her. Besides King Tubby, she seems to be the one cat that is the most critical of human culture and behavior. She even goes as far as to say that humans are weird and unintelligent. (As for how she fell in love with me, I’m unsure tbh.)

But overall, she is one of those rare ESFJs that know how to use their critical Se to their advantage. With it and her sense of justice, she knows how to give proper discipline to others and hold them accountable for their actions. This is just one of the core aspects of her motherly nature, and that is just one aspect that makes Petal who she is.

Enneagram brief recap

The other personality typing system we will use to type Petal is the Enneagram. If MBTI is how people behave the way they do, then the Enneagram is the why. There are 9 Enneagrams that each correlate to your core motivations, desires, and fears. Again, I wouldn’t say it determines your personality; it more so determines the reasons for you behaving the way you do. Just like with MBTI, two people can be of the same Enneagram type yet have entirely different personalities.

Despite how basic it may seem compared to MBTI at first glance, there are several complicated sub-topics when it comes to exactly specifying your Enneagram. There is the idea that you act like another type depending on if you’re in growth (integration) or in stress (disintegration). There is a wing, which is when you inherit traits of an adjacent Enneagram. There is also something called instincts, which reflect how you further behave, which can all be stacked into an instinctual stack. There’s even the idea that one person has 3 Enneagram types at the same time in something called a tritype! As stated in the beginning of this post, I am assuming you have prerequisite knowledge of all of these topics. You don’t have to be an expert, you just have to be familiar enough with them so that you’ll know what I’m talking about!

So what are we waiting for? Let’s type Petal! (The following descriptions are probably going to be much shorter than the MBTI ones due to the types being self-explanatory given what I said earlier.)

After much deliberation, I have concluded that Petal’s Enneagram type, including wing, instinct stack, AND tritype is 2w1 so/sx 216 (2w1-1w2-6w7)!

What does it mean to be an Enneagram Type 2? In summary, 2s have a core desire of feeling loved, and a core fear of being unloved or unworthy of love. How does that relate to Petal? Well, an extremely common way that 2s want to feel loved...is by helping others! In fact, 2s are often seen as the “helpers” of the Enneagram world. They are generally empathetic, sincere, warmhearted, friendly, generous, and self-sacrificing. However, they can also be flattering and people-pleasing.

I mean...this fits her pretty damn well, I think! One thing to note about Enneagram typing is that it’s not finding exactly what fits a particular character, it’s what fits a character the most. And 2 definitely fits her a LOT. In her own words,

“Oh, I love helping!”

Does all of this sound familiar? If so, that’s because there’s actually a large overlap between ESFJs and 2s. Being helpful and compassionate towards others? Sensitive to criticism? Putting others before themselves, so much so that they forget their own needs? Yep, fits both of them well! In fact, a study done to find the correlation of MBTI and Enneagrams found that about 61% of ESFJs are 2s, and that about 47.5% of 2s are ESFJs. Very cool!

I feel like I really don’t need to say anything more here, since a lot of what was said about Petal in the previous sections can also be applied to type 2s. But let’s dive deeper into her specific wing, instinct stack and tritype!

Disintegration into 8

I want to briefly touch upon disintegration, or when you become so stressed that you inherit the bad aspects of a certain other type. This other type depends on your own type, but for Petal, she disintegrates into an 8, which makes her aggressive and domineering. She has been shown to get really angry at times, in particular when things don’t quite go her way or when someone left a really bad impression on her (critical Se!). In particular, she might cuss or insult others. She apologizes right after, however. (Now that I think about it, this may not be true disintegration...then again, maybe her becoming mean in “Petal Pushers” was?)

“When I’m underappreciated, I kick off!”

1 Wing

Enneagrams can also be split up into 2 “wings.” In short, a wing is something that enhances your type by inheriting characteristics of the adjacent type. If what you desire in your primary type is your end goal, your wing can be seen as HOW you achieve that goal.

Keeping that in mind, there are 2 possible wings for the helpful type 2s: 2w1, which incorporates the 1s’ sense of justice and perfectionism, thus wanting to achieve being loved through being prim and proper; and 2w3, which incorporates the 3s’ sense of ambition and goal-setting, thus wanting to achieve being loved through being successful. I mentioned Petal’s sense of justice before, which already makes her lean towards the 1 wing more. But let’s briefly dive into some differences between these two wings:

2w1s are more concerned with doing the right thing, while 2w3s are more concerned with keeping up a good image. Petal seems to genuinely care about others and wants what’s best for them.

2w1s want to be loved but being proper is almost more important. There have been times where Petal has spoken up about things needing to be done in a proper way. 2w3s, however, want to be loved and there could be nothing stopping them. They can be manipulative and competitive, and will try to help everyone.

I saw an analogy on Reddit that really sealed the deal for me: imagine that two 2s are about to serve a dish to a group of people. 2w1s will make the absolute best dish they could think of in the hopes that everyone will love it. 2w3s, however, would make everyone’s favorite dish to prepare it for every individual person. The first one definitely fits Petal better; in fact, she has served one appetizing dish to the other cats, and all of them loved it.

Knowing all of this, I can confidently say that Petal definitely fits the 1 wing better. For her, it’s not about success; it’s about being good, as well as her genuine love for those she cares about.

SO/SX Stack

Enneagrams can also be divided into 3 instinctual subtypes. The 3 instincts can be thought of as “survival mechanisms” for how to make it in the world, whether alone (self-preservation), with a partner (sexual), or with a group (social). Everyone has these instincts, but like the cognitive functions of MBTI, they are “stacked” to varying degrees of importance in one’s mind. There is the instinct that is sought, the one that is a resource, and the one that is ignored. Although instincts are different for each and every Enneagram, the core idea remains the same.

NOTE: Wings and instinct stacks DO NOT and SHOULD NOT affect each other! You can be of ANY wing and stack combination!

Knowing each of the instincts, I think it’s safe to say that for Petal, the self-preservation instinct is dead last in her stack. I don’t need to say again that she is mostly influenced by the people around her, and that she often does certain things only because everyone else is doing it. The question is...is Petal a social 2 or a sexual 2?

The way I see it, instincts enhance your core desire. On the one hand, social 2s want to feel loved by a group of people. They often are supportive and overextend themselves for the group in order to gain influence and love in it. On the other hand, sexual 2s want to have a partner to feel loved by, and can be seductive or manipulative in order to achieve this. In addition, people with the SO/SX stack tend to appear friendly and lighthearted on the outside, while those with the SX/SO stack can be energetic and enthusiastic, yet intense and impulsive. With this, I think SO/SX definitely fits Petal more.

216 Tritype

And last but definitely not least, comes the tritype. As stated earlier, there is an idea that people are of 3 Enneagram types (and wings!) at the same time, ALSO stacked based on importance! There are restrictions when it comes to what possible tritypes there are (specifically, you must have one type from each Enneagram triad), but each of these types work together to form a cohesive framework into what motivates your behavior as a person.

When figuring out Petal’s tritype, I was conflicted as to whether she was a 216 or a 269. What I was hung up on is the 1/9; does she strive for peace and harmony, or perfectionism more? To answer this, I decided to take a look at the two tritypes as a whole:

126s’ greatest ability is to be there and serve others when they need it, while 269s are excellent at dealing with conflict. Thinking about it, Petal definitely takes on more of a nurturing, protective “guardian” role more so than a “mediator” role. She can often be seen in the show doing chores around the house, helping out whenever it is necessary. It’s very important for her that any chores need to get done, and that others are responsible for their behavior. 9s in general tend to be very passive and have trouble asserting themselves, and let’s just say...Petal asserts herself when it’s right.

For example, in “Kitty Copy Cat,” the 28th episode of the 1st season, Kitty starts copying Miley’s behaviors, and the latter gets extremely upset. So she and Luna decide to get back at Kitty in order to get her to stop. They end up making Kitty angry and she storms off...but Petal witnessed the entire thing. And so she gave it to them straight.

“Ahem! Can someone please tell me why Kitty just ran off dressed like a rebellious teenager? Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and being catty is the last form of cat-havior! I expect better of both of you! Just fix this!”

Knowing this, the choice is very clear. Now that we have her basic tritype, we can go over her specific tritype: 2w1-1w2-6w7. If you know about the wings of types 1 and 6, it is clear that her wings are somewhat obvious. Her 1 has a 2 wing, as she is more inclined to make the group around her better by helping others be prim and proper, at the cost of her own needs. The last in her tritype is 6, which is about wanting to be safe and secure. Petal does seem like the type to want a safe and peaceful life, and she ensures that others are safe as well.

“I’m Petal. I’m looking forward to building a shelter, and making sure everyone works and plays nicely!”

One of the biggest differences between a 6w5 and a 6w7, though, is that the former wants to appear capable and competent, while the latter wants to have fun every once in a while. On occasion, Petal will definitely have fun, either dancing in one of the cats’ many cat parties, or going to a large social event, such as a craft market. Now that I think about it, 6w7 fits Petal infinitely more than 6w5; she is more social, remains optimistic, doubts herself more, is often pulled along with the group, and sometimes enjoys new ideas. There is absolutely no 6w5 in her. There’s no 5 in her whatsoever, even.

And we have covered pretty much everything! I may have missed some things worth noting, but I have covered the major portions pretty well, I think! But no matter what, even though Petal may be typed as an ESFJ 2w1 so/sx 216 (2w1-1w2-6w7), at the end of the day, she isn’t defined by any personality typing system...she is defined by who she is as a person. She is kind, caring, motherly, enthusiastic, and has a sense of justice. She is my lovely lady, my beautiful bride, my wonderful wife. Petal...is Petal. And there’s no changing that.

And that’s all, folks! Man, this was an insanely fun post to make! In fact, this may not be the only Personality Typing Deep Dive I make; if it’s requested, I may do one of these again, whether it’s for any of my non-romantic F/Os, or even other KINAC characters! If y’all think this is something you want to see more of in the future, please let me know!

Until then...see y’all in the next post! I love you so much, Petal!

Proship/comship DNI.

[naminethewriter]

What did you think this trip was for?

It's already the last day of Loceit Week! So sad for it to be over already, but I had lots of fun and I hope you did, too! @loceitweek

Masterpost | Loceit Week 2024 Masterpost | Ao3

Prompt: It was probably what everyone should have expected to happen, but they all still acted surprised.

Summary: Janus and Logan invited all their friends out on a trip with them. There must be an ulterior motive, right?

Content Warnings: None

~~*~~

“Alright everybody, shut up and listen!” Remus called as he burst into the room. Gathered there were Roman, Patton, Virgil, Remy and Emile who looked at him with varying degrees of worry.

“What did you do now?” Virgil groaned, leaning back into the cushions of the couch. “We’re on vacation, can’t you just chill for a day?”

“Nope, not possible. And it’s your hosts who are requesting your presence in the garden.”

“Oh, do we finally figure out why the hell they paid for all of us to accompany them out to the middle of nowhere?” Remy quipped but got to his feet, as did everybody else.

“Maybe, maybe not~!” Remus singsonged before leaving the way he came.

“Alright, any last-minute bets?” Roman asked around, pulling out a small notebook. “Patton?”

“I’m sticking with it, kiddo!”

“Sure. Emile?”

“Same!”

“We’d have said something if we changed our minds, princey. Get moving,” Virgil complained, shoving him forward.

“Alright then we have Remy and Virgil on them moving away and Patton, Emile and me on wedding announcement.”

“Yeah, and the suspension is killing me babes, so let’s go out,” Remy called, already halfway through the door.

Out in the garden they found enough chairs for each of them in a half circle and in the middle stood Remus, grinning at them.

“There you are! Took your sweet time too! Sit down before the grooms manage to arrive before you.”

“Wait, grooms?!” Patton squealed. “They’re getting married right now?”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t be serious,” Remy balked.

“What did you think this trip was for, boo?” Remus laughed. It was probably what everyone should have expected to happen, in his opinion, but they all still acted surprised. They were all staring at him with wide eyes.

Wait.

“Did you really not think this might happen?”

“No!” Roman shouted. “Why would we? Logan and Janus aren’t really the type to—” He cut himself off, thinking for a moment. “Well, Janus would but I didn’t think Logan would go along with it! I thought this is like a bachelor party or something and they were going to tell us when the wedding is going to be, not that this is the wedding! I’m not dressed for this!”

“Oh, Logie was quite happy doing it like this, you know how he is about big parties. This intimate thing with just his closest friends is his Crofters jam.” Despite his shock, Patton couldn’t help but laugh at the horrible pun. “And Jay was so hoping you’d freak out over the lack of proper wardrobe, so mission accomplished! Now sit down!”

“I demand you let me change!” Roman cried but Virgil just grabbed his arm and dragged him to the chairs.

“Let it go, Ro. If this is what the grooms want, then just go along with it.”

Roman grumbled but let himself be seated, Virgil plopping into the seat next to him. On his other side Remy took his place, then Patton and lastly Emile was about to sit down but he stopped in the last moment, blinking confused.

“What about you, Remus?”

“What about me, Cartoon Crazy?”

“Where are you going to sit? There are no more chairs?”

“I don’t need to sit! I’m officiating!”

“Oh heaven, this is a disaster,” Roman groaned.

“Those aren’t nice things to say at someone’s wedding, Roman,” a voice said behind them, and they all turned around to see Logan and Janus had arrived. Both were wearing neatly pressed suits, Janus’ black and gold and Logan’s dark blue and silver.

“Damn!” Remy whistled. “You both are looking fine!”

“Thank you, Remy,” Logan smiled.

“See, one person knows how to behave,” Janus smirked at Roman who pouted.

“You don’t even tell us we’re going to be attending your wedding and you made Remus your officiant? How can you expect me not to comment?”

“By expecting that you can control your tongue for once, Roman. But it seems that was too much to ask.”

“Dear, can you please wait to further antagonize our guest until after the ceremony?” Logan asked, squeezing Janus’ arm that was interlocked with his. “I would like to marry you in the next few minutes.”

“I would complain if that wasn’t so romantic,” Roman huffed and his brother cackled.

“Come up here then, love birds! The sooner we’re done, the sooner you can get to smooching.” Remus wiggled his eyebrows at them and Janus sighed.

“I really shouldn’t have given into his demands.”

“I’m sure it will be fine, love. At least he will be quick about it,” Logan reassured him as they moved around the chairs to join Remus in the middle of their little ceremony.

“True. And I can’t wait to be able to say yes.”

“Me neither.”