#like if something is considered ''basic'' knowledge then people don't think about how u had to learn it at one point too

[minustwofingers]

exoplanet p.3

pairing: ellie williams x fem! reader (ur a girly girl in this one!!) (she/her pronouns)

summary: you’ve won the life lottery as one of the few people on earth with parents who gained admittance to the most prestigous safezone in the world after the outbreak. but after a lab accident sends you out to jackson, wyoming, real life hits you fast. it’s a good thing that a hot lesbian finds u. (lol). mean ellie at first, slowburn, enemies to friends to lovers, fem reader asf

warnings: (PLEASE READ!) explicit language, violence, description of a medical procedure sans anesthesia, recreational drug use (idk how else to put it ellie gets absolutely zonked in the beginning), reader overthinks asf and is a little neurotic but that's why we love her x

a/n: hey guys! thank you so much for the wait! it's been genuinely insane how sweet and incredible all of you are. i've never felt so appreciated for my writing!! also, some notes: this chapter is heavily inspired by my last relationship. sorry if it's not as immersive bc of it! and also i don't have ANY medical knowledge so...cast a blind eye when u get to that scene

part 1

part 2

tags: @prettyplant0 @666findgod​ @sawaagyapong​ @rystarkov​ @buzzybuzzsposts @addisonnie @galacticstxrdust @parkersmyth @pinkazelma

wc: 6.6k

enjoy x

“One more time.”

You gave Ellie a withering look from where you were sitting at the end of her bed.

“Please,” she said, drawing out the s. “Just once more. I promise.” 

“Fine.” You rolled your eyes—a habit of hers that you were quickly picking up—and took in a deep breath. “Fuck.” 

Ellie lost it, peals of laughter bouncing off the walls. “Another one. Say something else.”

“I don’t understand why you think this is so funny,” you said.

“You say it so weird.”

“I enunciate,” you clarified. “I don’t ‘sound weird’. It’s called pronouncing every letter in the word and not having a lazy mouth.” 

“Please,” she gasped. “At least say bitch. You haven’t said that one yet.”

You looked her dead in the eye. “Bitch.”

If you weren’t already certain that Ellie was high out of her mind by the smell of her room and the general haze in the air, the way she howled with laughter and fell back on her bed would’ve made you entirely positive.

This was new. You’d begun to hang out with her in her room after dinner—that was normal—but when she’d knocked on your door smelling heavily of weed once you’d said goodnight to Joel, you were nothing less than shocked. Of course, she had none left for you. Which was probably good, because only a sober mind could navigate a night sitting on Ellie’s bed without doing something really, really stupid. 

“I can’t believe you call me weird,” you said, tucking your feet under her and giving her a pointed look. 

“You’re so lucky you didn’t grow up where I did,” Ellie said, wiping a tear away from her cheek as she tried (unsuccessfully) to rein in her giggles. “You would’ve been eaten alive, good lord.”

“What were you like as a kid?” you asked, resting your chin on your knees. 

She considered for a moment, growing more somber. “Um…I don’t know if you would’ve liked me very much.”

“What do you mean? Of course I would’ve liked you.” 

“No,” she said, swiping at her face so she pushed a strand of hair away. “I don’t think you would have.”

“Why not?”

“I was…” She paused, picking at her cuticles. “Back then I didn’t have anyone. I was an orphan, you know. My parents were never in the picture, so I was the only one I could count on.  I was really rough around the edges and could be nasty. But I probably would’ve ignored you like I did everyone else. “

“Everyone? You didn’t have anyone? No friends at all?”

Ellie blinked, and her gaze remained fixed on her hands. “Basically, yeah. I mean, there was one girl, but that’s…I don’t want to talk about that right now, actually.” 

“That’s okay,” you said, reaching forward to touch her knee. She flinched at the contact but didn’t brush you away. The image of a young, scared Ellie living somewhere alone made your chest ache. “You don’t have to tell me.” 

“What were you like?” she asked, tilting her head and meeting your eyes. 

“Hmmm…” Mirth crept into your tone. “What do you think?”

“What do I think?” Ellie echoed, her eyes cloudy as she thought. Then a small smirk formed on her face. “Oh god, were you one of those spoiled brats? Were you a mean girl?” 

“God, no,” you said, raising your eyebrows. “Not mean.”

“Then what?”

You paused. “I was really shy, I guess. And quiet, too. I didn’t do much but read for a good 10 years of my life. I used to have awful pronunciation because I would spend more time reading than talking to anyone. But I think I would’ve liked you.”

Ellie shook her head.

“Yes,” you said. “Maybe I would’ve been a little scared of you. I probably would’ve never had the courage to talk to you. But I would’ve liked you, I think.”

“Scared of me?”

“Yeah.”

“Why? I was a kid.”

“I was mostly going off of how I felt when I actually first met you,” you said, shrugging. 

She gasped theatrically. “You’re scared of me?”

“No!” you said, smacking her knee. “That’s not what I mean. You’re just really intimidating.”

“Intimidating?” She looked at you incredulously. 

“You’re so tough,” you explained, feeling heat grow in your cheeks. “You seem just—I don’t know, just so capable. There’s nothing you’re too afraid to face, nothing you’re too afraid to say.”

“That’s not true,” she said lightly. 

“Well, of course I’m sure there are things that you’re afraid of,” you amended. “But you hide it so well. You just seem so…fearless.”

“Hm,” Ellie said, letting her head rest against the headboard. “I think you would’ve made me a nervous wreck. If we’d met when we were kids, I mean.”

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I’ve never met anyone quite like you before. You’re just so untouched.” She winced. “God, no. That sounds gross. I just mean…I dunno. I wouldn’t have known how to act around you. You haven’t had to harden up like everyone else I know.”

“Are you saying I should develop trust issues or something?” you asked, your voice a teasing lilt.

“You know,” she said, nodding seriously, “That is part of it. It was really off-putting how quickly you trusted me. But I guess that’s just a product of where you grew up.” 

“Yeah,” you said softly. “I wonder how I would’ve turned out if I’d grown up like you.”

“Can I be honest?” Ellie asked. 

“Sure.”

“I don’t think you’d still be here if you were me,” she said, her eyes crinkling. “No offense. You just have zero survival skills. I swear that shit has to be genetic. I’ve never met someone more averse to violence in my life.”

You sighed, pressed your hands deep into Ellie’s comforter as a thought hit you. “I think if you’d been born in my position, you would’ve been greater than anything either of us could ever dream of. Much greater than me.”

“Definitely not,” said Ellie. “There’s no fucking way I’m studying the way you apparently do. I honestly think I’d take being an orphan over the study schedule I saw in your bag.” 

She was of course referencing the time table you’d roughly sketched up the morning before you’d ended up in Jackson. It was blocked to the minute, citing the study content and the location of said study session. She’d been beyond horrified to see it. 

You laughed, nudging her socked food with yours. 

“Is there music? In Terranova?”

“Oh,” you said, startled at the abrupt change of subject. “Uh, yeah. Of course. I listened to it all the time.” 

“I used to have a Walkman,” she said, leaning back as she reminisced. She was lying flat on her back now. “It ended up breaking a while ago, but it was like my child.” 

“Have you ever seen a movie before?” you asked, sitting up rigid straight as the thought occurred to you.

“Duh,” she said, giving you a weird look. “Do you think I live under a rock?”

“How many?”

“Hm.” Ellie began counting, ending on her second hand. “I think 6?”

“You’ve seen a total of 6 movies in your life?” 

“Yeah.”

“Do you want to see more?”

She shrugged. “I mean, I guess. It’s just tough to find CDs that are still functional after so long.”

“Hold that thought,” you said, holding a finger in her direction as you stood up.

“Hey!” she called as you bolted out the door. “Where are you going?”

You came bounding back to her room in a matter of seconds, your laptop in your hands. 

“What the fuck?” she said. “Isn’t that your homework thing?”

“Yes,” you said, feeling around for an outlet, “But I also have a ridiculous amount of movies downloaded on this. Our dorm wi-fi is shit and I have way too much storage on this thing, so I just download, like, every movie I’ve ever wanted to watch.”

“Your dorm what?”

You waved your hand. The last thing you wanted to do was explain to her how the 802.11 standard allowed wireless connections a few years after the outbreak. “Not important. Here, come look at this.”

Your laptop roared to light with the help of your charging cord. Quickly, you typed your password in and opened your downloads. Ellie hovered over your shoulder, squinting at the screen with confusion. 

“Here,” you said, opening up the album that had everything you had seen for your entire university career and passing the laptop to Ellie. “Use the touchpad—there, yeah—to navigate. Press to click. These are all movie files that I’ve seen. We can watch them on my laptop. Some of them were filmed in Terranova, too, so they’re post-apocalypse.”

She perused the selection you had for quite some time, the glow of the screen lighting up her face against the dim room. “Okay. This one.”

And thus began a tradition. Each night after you’d finished showering and Joel retired to his room, Ellie would come knock on your door and ask if you wanted to come over. You’d talk for a while, then open your laptop and pick something out to watch. Ellie was never high after the first time, which was unsurprising considering that there definitely wasn’t a way to get any in Jackson. Where she found any the first time was still a mystery to you. 

~

A week or so after your first patrol with Ellie, Joel had taken it upon himself to teach you how to shoot. You were surprisingly not as bad as you’d expected, but the rebound was tough to get used to, and you were still hung up over the whole “killing living things” part. 

Your first patrol—first real one—came quickly, and before you knew it, Ellie was handing you the same gun you’d dropped the first time with a suspicious look. 

“Don’t kill one of us with that thing,” she warned. “Be smart, okay?”

“Sure thing, boss,” you said to her, mock saluting as best you could while you were leading Japan to the mounting block.

She rolled her eyes. “Please act normal or I’ll make you carry around that glorified pocket knife instead again.” 

The patrol began as usual, Ellie leading you down the same path you went last time. It was a beautiful day out, with the early spring sun filtering through the evergreen trees that populated the woods and birdsong filling the air. 

Though conversations with Ellie were getting easier (given that it actually seemed like she wanted to talk to you now), you were still starstruck. Nothing that you did and nothing that you thought could get you to stop seeing her the way you did. You were routinely distracted by everything about her. It was a wonder that you could even function as a normal person around her, much less handle a weapon and a horse. 

You two had nearly made the full rotation when your surroundings exploded in action. 

“Fuck,” Ellie hissed as someone behind you two fired a shot that narrowly missed Shimmer. 

You whipped around, gun in hand, to see two men—two normal men who weren’t infected. One held a bow, the other a gun. 

The one who had fired the first shot never even stood a chance. He was down on the ground seconds after you’d seen him, Ellie’s aim taking him out before you could even ready your gun. 

The second man notched an arrow and managed to draw it back and release into the air right as Ellie’s bullet struck him, sending him falling back. 

“I don’t think there’s any more,” said Ellie, slightly breathless as she scanned the forest. “Sometimes outsiders pull this shit—try to kill us for our supplies. I’ve never seen them this close to the wall, though. I’ll have to tell Maria and Tommy.”

Normally, you would’ve felt up to making some sort of sarcastic comment about how that was a really unconcerning thing for her to tell you and that you actually felt so much more comfortable going on patrol knowing that there were also just run-of-the-mill people trying to kill you, but a twinge in your lower body distracted you. 

Slowly, nervously, you looked down. Air immediately left your lungs. 

“At least we’re done,” Ellie was saying, wiping her hands off on her thighs and slinging the gun over her shoulder. “What a crazy end for your first actual patrol, huh?”

When you didn’t answer, she turned to you and saw the arrow sticking out of your side, 

“Shit,” said Ellie, jumping off Shimmer and reaching you in seconds. “Shit, shit, shit. Oh god.” 

“Am I going to die?” you asked, staring starstruck at the blood escaping the outline of the arrowhead. You couldn’t feel anything anymore. Were you in shock?

“No,” said Ellie firmly. “Absolutely not. Do you need help getting off?”

Before you could answer, she was already helping you down, carefully avoiding the protruding arrow. 

“Listen,” she said, back to being her unwavering self, “We’re right by the wall. I’m going to help you walk in, and then I’ll grab some supplies, okay? Don’t try to pull the arrow out. You hear me? Don’t.”

Swallowing hard, you nodded. She helped you walk the few steps to be carefully concealed by the wall, then grabbed the two horses and darted past you, making a break for Maria and Tommy’s cabin. 

In a haze of confusion, you could see Maria running out, holding a box out to Ellie in exchange for the reins of the horses. Ellie said something that made Maria point towards you. She nodded, then ran back to you.

By the time that she’d reached you, the shock had begun to wear off, replaced by the stinging pain from the object that had impaled you. It was worse than anything you’d ever felt before in your life, and it took all you had not to keel over. 

“Hey,” she said, reaching out to grab your face so you had to look at her. “Don’t be afraid. I’ve done this before, okay? I’m, like, the master. It’s going to be alright.” 

“Done what before?” you managed to grind out. 

Ellie let go of your face to dig through the box Maria had given her, producing a needle, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and what looked like a spool of thin thread. 

Horror slowly trickled through you as you realized what was about to happen. 

“It doesn’t look all that deep,” Ellie was saying as she examined the arrow. “So I don’t think it’s hit anything. It’s just going to be a nasty hole. I’m going to pull it out now, okay?”

You let out a strangled scream as she grasped the arrow’s end and yanked it out without warning.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Ellie repeated. She threw the arrow over her shoulder and knelt so she was hovering over you. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” you gasped. You were most certainly not. You couldn’t quite get your eyes to focus, and your heart was beating out of your chest. 

“Alright,” she said firmly, grasping your shoulders and pulling you up so you were slumped against the wall. “Sit up straight, alright? Also, this is going to hurt.” 

At first there were just snipping sounds as she cut part of your shirt away—then something cool and wet pressed to your wound. You cried out again as a fresh white hot pain bloomed in your middle. 

“I know, I know.” Ellie’s voice was consoling as she reached up to brush away the sweaty strands of hair stuck to your forehead. “Just a few more seconds.” 

“Fuck—off—” you gritted out from your teeth. 

Ellie’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. Just this once.” 

She released the alcohol-saturated cotton pad, throwing it aside and fussing with the thread and needle until she was satisfied. 

By the time her fingers were ghosting over your abdomen again, you couldn’t pull your eyes away from the puncture wound and the needle she was wielding. 

“Don’t look,” said Ellie. “Pick something else. You don’t need to watch.” 

“I hate needles,” you whispered, choosing the air over her shoulder to be your focal point. 

There was a prodding at the top of your wound, and you hissed. 

“I can’t say I’m a fan myself.” 

Something pierced through your skin, and your midriff exploded in pain. 

The edges of your sight went fuzzy, stars forming in the corners of your vision. Someone that sounded suspiciously like you cried out. Your cheek rammed up against something solid and warm. 

Once the initial sting had faded, you realized that you’d slumped into Ellie, your face buried into her neck. She didn’t make any move to push you off, instead just taking one hand to brush up and down your arm with a feather light touch. 

“You're fine," she said firmly. "Everything's going to be fine."

Your fingers curled around the hem of her shirt as the needle exited through the other end of your wound, pulling another whine from your throat. It was easier to not feel like you were about to pass out when you were crushed into Ellie, clinging onto her and just focusing on the way she felt against you. 

“Hang on, I'm almost there,” she muttered a few stitches later. You’d quieted down, only letting out the occasional gasp as she pulled the thread through. “You're doing so well. Just one more.”

Now that you were more conscious, you had no idea how she was managing to stitch your side while you were nearly on her lap, but she continued to weave her needle through your skin, pulling it taut. 

“And done,” said Ellie. You felt her take another cotton square to swipe against your skin. 

You laid against her for a few more moments, panting as the shock slowly began to fade. She shifted, and for a moment you were sure that she was going to shove you away, but then the hand she’d lifted hesitantly rested on your head, her fingers parting to card through your hair. 

“How did you learn how to do that?” you asked, your voice muffled from where you were pressed against her. 

“Trial and error.” 

Her joke was enough for you to finally let go, sitting back against the wall. Her hand slithered out of your hair, resting back in her lap. 

“Shut up,” you said. “That’s awful.” 

Ellie shrugged. 

“I’m sorry,” you said, feeling the bumpiness of the stony wall press into your back. “I have a really low pain tolerance.”

“So I’ve noticed,” said Ellie, the side of her mouth quirking. 

“I’ve never been hurt before,” you heard yourself saying. “Like, beyond the occasional splinter or bee sting or accidental scrape or ankle sprain. It’s just not something that happens.” 

“Must be nice.”  

You smiled sadly. “Yeah. It’s not nice being weak, though.” 

Ellie looked away from you then, silent as she packed up the first-aid kit. Then: “I don’t think that’s true.” 

She’d said it lightly, like it was meant to be an offhand comment, a throwaway addition that wouldn’t be remembered by either of you. But the sentiment still struck you, twisting your heart.

You were less capable because your survival had never required anything more. You were weak because you could be. 

Her voice from the night she’d been high floated back to you. You haven't had to harden up like everyone else I know. 

Out here, weakness was a luxury few could afford. 

“Not so untouched anymore, huh?” you said, since you didn’t know how else to respond.

“I won’t tell anyone if you don’t,” quipped Ellie. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I still consider needing to be held to get 4 stitches as being soft. You haven’t changed a bit. No offense.” 

Your cheeks burned bright red. “I—”

“I’m teasing,” she said before you could defend yourself. “Arrow wounds suck. I get it.” 

“Right.” You turned away, keeping your gaze fixed firmly on the ground beside you. With feeling more yourself came the inevitable shame at what you’d just done. What had you been thinking, touching her like that? Grabbing onto her like that?

This was going to haunt you for the rest of your life. 

“Don’t make that face,” said Ellie. “I’m sorry for saying that. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. It really is fine.” 

It was not fine. It would never be fine. You wanted the thugs to come back to life and finish you off, and then have the earth open up and swallow you for good measure. 

Ellie probably thought of you as an overgrown child. You doubted that there was ever a point where she could see you as anything equal. If she ever knew how often she appeared in your imagination, she’d probably be disgusted.

She called you pretty a contrarian voice in your head reminded you. Don't you remember?

But maybe she hadn’t meant it. She hadn’t said it explicitly: “Y/N, I think you’re pretty.” She just hadn’t argued when you’d pointed it out. Maybe because she was being nice, or maybe because she was actually being sarcastic. 

“You were really brave, okay?” said Ellie. “Your first armed confrontation and you did well.”

“I didn’t shoot anyone.”

“It could have gone worse,” said Ellie. “You could’ve accidentally shot me. Or died. And neither of those things happened, so that’s successful in my book.” 

“That’s very glass half-full of you.”

“That’s me. Ever the optimist.” 

You snorted.

~

That night, Ellie knocked on your door and asked you if you were up for another movie. You found yourself sitting on her comforter, plugging in your computer and booting it up minutes later.

Physically speaking, it had always been a little awkward to fit two people on her twin bed if they weren’t right next to each other, given that your laptop screen was a very unimpressive size. When you’d first started watching with her, Ellie would rest against the headboard, her legs stretched out in front of you while you would sit with your legs crossed, positioned sideways so you weren’t accidentally pushing her legs off. 

But after the day you had had, your back was sore and your whole body ached. Sitting on something soft without any back support as you angled yourself to look at the screen was quickly proving unsustainable. 

“Pause,” said Ellie about ten minutes in. You’d been watching an older sci-fi flick—Ellie’s choice. 

You complied, leaning forward and pressing the spacebar. “What’s up?”

“Are you even comfortable sitting like that?”

“Yeah,” you said.

“Liar,” accused Ellie, crossing her arms over her chest. “Don’t think I don’t see you ‘discreetly’ cracking your back every 2 minutes. It’s ruining the movie.” 

“Sorry,” you said, shaking your head and smiling in exasperation. “It’s from all the years I spent hunched over a textbook.” 

“You know, you can sit up here,” she said, patting the space beside her. “I don’t bite.”

“Jury’s still out on that,” you said, though by the time Ellie let out a laugh you were already unfolding your legs and moving so you were next to her. 

She leaned forward, grabbing the bottom half of the laptop and lifting it. “Hey, do you want a blanket?”

“Sure.” 

Ellie’s other hand grabbed the edge of her comforter and held it up. 

Hesitantly, you slid your legs under and watched as Ellie did the same, awkwardly holding the laptop in the air before you were both settled enough to rest it on your covered right thigh and her left.  “Better?”

When you nodded, she reached her tattooed arm out and pressed play. The audio picked back up, but you couldn’t for the life of you focus on the movie.

When Ellie had asked if you’d wanted a blanket, you were expecting her to toss the throw blanket that would really only fit one person at you, not invite you to get under the blankets with her. That was significantly more intimate.

You two were sitting close enough that your sides were touching, from shoulder to thigh. You could feel her chest lift with each breath, feel the heat coming off of her.

After a while, Ellie properly laid down, taking the laptop and hoisting it up so it rested on her lower abdomen as she settled into her pillow.

You gulped, your eyes flickering between her face and the screen. Ellie’s gaze was fixed intently on the screen, her eyes half lidded with exhaustion.

You could be tired too. You weren’t, of course—your heart was racing a thousand miles an hour. But she didn’t know that. It was normal to lay down next to her, right? You’d done that with Irena more times than you could count, and it was never weird. Yeah, you could do that. 

Also, if you were totally horizontal, you would stop getting distracted by the sliver of her skin that her crooked shirt showed of her chest. 

In a moment of blind courage, you scooted down so your head was lying right next to Ellie’s. She didn’t seem to react, just extending her hand from under the covers to steady the laptop as it wobbled from the movement. 

Her sheets smelled like the soap that you used to wash your hair—a cottony freshness that had the slightest hint of lavender. 

“Are you going to fall asleep on me?” asked Ellie after a while, her voice nothing more than a whisper. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” you responded, equally quiet. Then, because you hadn’t made enough rash decisions for the night, you angled your head so it rested in the space right above her shoulder. 

She inhaled sharply but didn’t move. On her next exhale a piece of her auburn hair tickled your forehead. 

“How’re your stitches?” she asked suddenly, like she'd just remembered.

“They’re okay. I think. As stitches go.”

“After this is over, I’ll check on them,” she said. “Don’t let me forget, okay?”

“Okay,” you whispered, suddenly feeling shy. It was one thing for her to cut off your shirt and see your skin when she was trying to save your life while you were mentally gone. It was another thing altogether to pull up your shirt without adrenaline coursing through you.

You didn’t pay any attention to the rest of the movie, instead hyperfocused on the rhythm of Ellie’s breathing and the fact that if you moved just a little your chin would be on her shoulder. 

Her mention of the stitches wasn’t helping at all, either. Now all you could think about was the embarrassing way you’d basically tried to crawl under her skin, burying your face into her and clutching at her clothes like you were a child.

A part of you was disappointed that you hadn’t been more lucid at the time. If you had, you would’ve been able to clearly remember the softness of her skin against yours. You would’ve been able to enjoy it for what it was—the only time you’d be able to touch her like that.

Because you couldn’t go around just grabbing onto her shirt and getting into her lap. That was a one-off, the only time that the rules were waived. You couldn’t touch her like that now, now that you didn’t have any excuse. It wasn’t allowed.

But sometimes you wanted to so badly that it hurt. 

The movie ended abruptly, wrenching you out of your thoughts. 

“Hey,” whispered Ellie. “Sit up so I can see.”

Reluctantly, you pressed yourself up from your back and began rolling up the hem of your shirt. Ellie twisted to face backwards, her thin top riding up and showing part of her back as she reached for the lamp.

Once golden light returned to the room, Ellie turned back and bumped your hands away. She bent over, tilting her head so that she was looking at the stitches straight on.

They didn’t look bad, you had to admit. Though you wouldn’t consider the actual experience of getting the stitches a 5-star experience, Ellie had clearly known what she was doing. The surrounding flesh didn’t look angry or irritated, and she’d pulled the stitches just tight enough without it puckering. 

She prodded at the side, then gave a satisfied nod. “Looks good. What did I tell you? I’m really good at this sort of stuff.”

“I think you would’ve made a really good doctor,” you said once she’d sat up straight again. “Under different circumstances.”

“Is this you telling me that you don’t think I’m a good doctor now?” she teased. 

“Your bedside manner could use some work,” you offered.

Ellie laughed then, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest. “Yeah, yeah. You lived. You'll get over it.” 

“Did you go to school?” you found yourself asking, hung up on the thought of Ellie as a potential medical student. If she’d been in one of your intro biology classes, you never would’ve been able to pay attention. That was a fantasy you could shelve away for later. 

“Sort of,” said Ellie, looking down at her arms. “I went to a military prep school run by FEDRA. I didn’t graduate though—obviously. I was long gone by then.” 

“Right,” you said, remembering that she’d mentioned that she’d been 14 when she’d left Boston. “And what was it like?” 

She paused, opening her mouth before closing it. “It was—unkind. Joel's told me about schools before the outbreak. It was nothing like that. There were some normal classes, but most of it was meant to prepare us to be soldiers.” 

“Is that where you learned how to do sutures?” 

“Among other things.”

Terranova had no military academies, given that there was hardly any military presence. The founder of Terranova had bodyguards and there was a police force that controlled the borders, but it was nothing like Ellie described. With invisible borders and a social order that valued peace and tranquility over all else, there was no real danger posed to any of the citizens. 

But from what you had learned from movies and books and comments from older people, you had gathered a very dim picture of what a military academy looked like—harsh, strict, and cruel. 

“I’m sorry you had to grow up like that,” you said. 

“It’s okay.”

“Is there anything you would want to study? If you could?” 

Ellie’s eyes closed. “Yeah. There are a couple things.” 

She did not elaborate. 

~

It didn’t take long for you two to settle back into your routine of meeting in her room each evening and watching one of your downloaded movies. Following the night after you’d gotten your stitches, you wouldn’t even have to ask—Ellie would pull up her comforter and let you slide in next to her without giving you a second glance.

You’d also gotten over the fear of touching her. Now, when you flopped back so your head was on her pillow, you’d adjust until you were nestled into the crook of her neck. She never once reacted to it, remaining perfectly still unless she was adjusting the laptop or messing with the sound. 

Because it was normal, of course. You and Irena would rest your head on each other’s shoulders sometimes. That was something that friends did. 

One night a week or so into April, you and Ellie made a harrowing discovery: there was only one movie left in your collection that you two hadn’t seen together. 

“Damn,” said Ellie, furrowing her brow. “And there’s no way to get more on here?”

“I’m afraid not,” you said, frowning. “To download more or stream one, I’d need either an Ethernet cable or a wi-fi connection. Neither of which function out here anymore without cell towers and maintained cables.” 

“Right,” said Ellie, though her face told you that she didn’t understand a word that had come out of your mouth. “So—this is it?”

“Yeah.” Your finger hovered over the play button. “Savor it, I guess.” 

When you settled back and into her side, the heavy weight of dread settled into your stomach. Now that you’d finished showing her your entire collection, it’s not like she’d have a reason to invite you over every night. And there was especially no reason for you two to lie so closely together unless you were both trying to watch something on a small screen.

Once again, your excuse to touch her was gone.

You pressed closer to her as your mind raced. There was no way that Ellie didn’t see what you were doing as platonic, right? Was it possible that she was creeped out by how touchy you were but just tolerated it to be nice? 

Maybe. You swallowed hard, keeping your eyes fixed on the screen. Ellie didn’t see you like…like that. She spoke to you like you were an obligation, a burden. Because you always had been. You’d been a responsibility thrust on her by a father figure who felt like he was indebted to you from that stupid bag of coffee you were lucky enough to bring. 

Oh, god. Had Joel told her to befriend you? Had he asked for Ellie to pretend like she enjoyed spending time with you and to put up with your privileged, soft-hearted nonsense? 

The knowledge that you were spiraling wasn’t enough to stop you. You did the best that you could—tried to remind yourself that it’d been a while since she’d looked disgusted with you, recall that she was outspoken enough to tell you to fuck off if you did something she didn’t like—but it was to no avail.

Ellie reached forward and hit pause on the movie, thrusting you both into silence. 

“Is everything okay?” she asked after a moment. 

“Yeah, why?” 

“I can feel your heart going, like, crazy fast.” 

You froze. “Oh. Uh, yeah. I was just thinking.” 

Ellie pushed the laptop off of her, sitting up to give you an odd look. “About a near death experience or something? You running a marathon up there? That shit’s not normal.” 

You laughed nervously. “It’s really nothing. Just an, uh, suspenseful movie.” 

Which was actually really stupid of you to say, because you were watching some obscure Tarkovsky film that did nothing but pan over burning buildings and pensive men. For the past 5 minutes, there had been nothing on screen but the back of a car driving through traffic with minimal sound. Also, it was in Russian, and the English subtitles made zero sense.

There was a reason why this was the last movie you chose.

“This is the most boring fucking movie I’ve ever watched in my life, so you’re a dirty fucking liar,” said Ellie. Then her face pinched in worry. “Wait. Have you taken a look at your stitches lately?” 

Before you could answer, she was grabbing a flashlight off her nightstand and yanking the comforter off you. She was pulling your shirt up when you finally found your voice.

“Wait!” you said, grabbing the bottom of your shirt and yanking it back in place. “It’s not—I don’t have an infection, okay? There’s nothing wrong with me. I really was just thinking, okay?”

“About what?” She reached back to place her flashlight back on the stand without taking her eyes off you. 

“It’s nothing important.”

“If you say so.” 

She picked the laptop up and placed it back on her thighs, lying back down. You followed suit, but this time you didn’t touch her, opting to keep as much distance as you could so she wouldn’t hear the stuttering of your heart. 

Not even 5 minutes had passed before Ellie sat up to pause the video again.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No. Why?” 

“You’re acting weird,” she accused, but there wasn’t much conviction behind her voice. 

“What do you mean?” 

“I mean that you’re acting weird,” she repeated, shutting your laptop off and moving it to the bottom of her bed, despite the protests that left your lips. 

“I don’t understand,” you said. “I’m just watching the movie. I’m not doing anything. “

“You’re not watching the movie,” she said. “You weren’t even looking at the screen. What’s got you so bothered? Did I do something?” 

“Of course not.” You pulled your legs under you so your legs were crossed and your back was against the wall. “You don’t need to worry. It’s honestly fine. I’m sorry if I’ve done something to imply otherwise.” 

Ellie rubbed the bridge of her nose, sighing. “You stress me out. You can just tell me, you know? No need to be so cagey. I promise I’ve heard worse.” 

“Don’t be so quick to say that.”

“Okay, now you have to tell me,” she said. “I’m never going to know peace again with a hook like that.” 

You were about to open your mouth to tell her that it was stupid and that it didn’t matter, but something stopped you. 

That was the coward’s way out. That’s what you’d always done—hid your feelings and concealed your emotions. That’s how you’d been raised. That’s how you thought everyone was. But now that you’d spent 2 months in Jackson, you’d realized that some people actually just said what they thought. And that, in the grand scheme of things, it was a better system than the Terranovian culture of superficiality.  

Just because the you 2 months ago would have shook her head and changed the subject didn’t mean the you now had to. 

Maybe this you could be different. Maybe, for once, this you could be brave. 

“I really—” You stopped yourself. Saying I really like you didn’t even begin to encompass what you felt for the girl sitting across from you. To distill the sheer magnitude of your feelings down to four words felt criminal. The swell in your chest that never went away whenever you were near her could never and would never be adequately represented in the puny offerings of the Latin alphabet and the English language, and if you were going to do this, you were going to do it right. 

You dared to look up at her for a moment. She was completely still, her green eyes reflecting the dim moonlight from outside. Once you met her gaze, you couldn’t bring yourself to pull it away.

“I’m really sorry that I’m putting you in an uncomfortable position for saying this,” you began (because old habits ran deep, and you would rather die than be impolite), “And I totally understand if you don’t want to talk to me after this. And I’m sorry for not telling you earlier.”

“As much as I’m sure that this is some sort of cultural cornerstone for you, please spare me the 6 foot long disclaimer script,” Ellie drawled.

“Right.” You gulped. “Anyway. As I was saying.”

“Any day now.” 

At that moment, she had never looked more perfect. Your eyes had adjusted to the dark lighting, so the weak moonlight that spilled in from the window above her created a halo around her head. 

“It’s you.” Your voice came out tiny. “You’re all that I can think about, and I don’t know what to do.”

There. It was off your chest.

For a moment, it was as if you’d suspended time, stopping Earth on its axis as you both held your breaths. There was nothing but silence and the occasional wooden creak of the old house’s foundation in the wind. 

Ellie’s face betrayed nothing, save for something in her eyes and the disappearance of the smirk that had been on her lips moments before. 

Then she spoke, her response whispered.

“Come here, then.” 

final a/n: NOW HOLD ON before you show up outside my dorm with pitchforks and torches 🗣️🗣️🗣️ i'm so sorry but this was a necessary evil as this was going to a massive scene without the chapter break. also a disproportionately massive chapter compared to the other ones coming out. i write very quickly and should get the following part out in a timeframe similar to the first 3 parts. thank u for reading ! tell me what you think abt this chapter while you wait x

[insufferable-talkstuck]

(HELPP sorry bro gonna ask this blog instead mb 💀😭)

helloo can u classpect me pls (idk heo to do this 🔥) including a little bit of vent for the sake of classpects

basically i am reclusive, secretive, spacey, knowledgeable but not in an arrogant way, creative, pretty absent minded, and very awkward :]

my main interests include TMNT, MBTI, experimental music, psychology, and marine life. (probably says nothing)

i also like drawing but sometimes i get mad jealous over other ppls art

i also have a strong interest in leftism, anti-racism and anti-capitalism. idk what that says tho

i can get RLY obsessive about my interests and i will NOT shut up about whatever im hyperfixating on

i find it extremely difficult to grasp social cues, in other words i am socially inept

i can have a lot of trouble with empathy usually, not saying i have no empathy tho

no social life. 0. not even one (1) friend. offline or online.

if i had a social group tho i think id be the weird one who is very awkward and does not get jokes 😭

i like to consider both logic and emotions when making a decision, but i tend to value logic and rationality more sometimes

i have a tendency to stay up really late, like really late (it is 5 am as i am writing this

(idk of the text below counts as a vent or not but read idk)

ive always been really bad at explaining, wording, or identifying my own emotions, idk why but its just really hard to come up with words that can accurately describe how i feel, which is why im shit at venting

nvm i think im just bad at wording my own thoughts in general, it makes me feel kind of dumb, im just as bad at that on text too 😭😭 communicating is hell

(vent-ish thing is over)

supernatural stuff is pretty cool too idk

ive been told im dry and very monotonous in person 💀 like a robot n shit

i also dont like being wrong but not in an arrogant know-it-all asshole kinda way ❤

idk what else to put here.

Seer of Void

I'm not picking up any sign that you would *want* to be assigned a void player but I don't tell people what they want to hear.

- dissection -

‘ basically — :] ’ in this paragraph you list off some traits that could easily be associated with void

‘ i can RLY — tho ’ classpects aren't political stances and tho some classes and aspects are described as more devoted or revolutionary it doesn't specifically tilt it towards any view on these things. go girl give us nothing

‘ i find it — jokes ’ you're listing traits of autism, not something that could help me classpect you. However in all technicality "lacking" so many things can be written off as void

‘ i like to consider — on text too ’ okay, Dirk strider moment I guess, if you had only left this paragraph i would have given you prince of heart and left it at that

- dissection over -

why I think you're a seer of void

seers struggle to grasp their aspect at first, how it works and how they could relate to it escapes them, but once they learn it they're comfortable in it. you talk like youre rampaging to find fragments of a personality, sloppily putting paragraphs about yourself together, but if you were to take a step back and relax I think you'd be relieved and find comfort in the nothingness, and along with it the unlimited potential you'll master but.. baby steps

bonus round

i think there would be a destructive heart player and/or a mind player in your session, you seem torn between the two, I don't see this talked about amongst the classpecting population but I do think the aspects of the players in your session would affect you. with all my evidence of that coming from the kids and trolls sessions I mean the bond is just so clear

[wallflowrence]

I am Manifesting the nahida and wanderer found family dynamic

THERE'S SO MUCH art of it it'd be sort of amusing if their relationship is reallt different in canon. though to be honest it would probably make more sense that way considering that (3.2 archon quest spoilers) [cont.]

part of nahida's character development is standing up for herself and not being tolerant to mistreatment. so considering the incidents scaramouche was involved in/his fight with buer (+ the traveller) - he even calls their battle a "re-enactment of the archon war" so ??? it would be a bit odd if (at least, immediately) they had that sort of dynamic

I do hope it develops into something more positive though . I think. nahida is a very benevolent god and she definitely pities scara. his upbringing has contributed to him having a very skewed sense of the world and self so I feel that in later parts of the story he'll end up developing his own identity and realising his past mistakes

ALSO I think it's interesting how scara has a track record of trying to determine his own identity/fate (naming himself kunikuzushi, joining the fatui, participating in the god creation project) when in reality he isn't at all. he's obsessed with becoming a god - even now he's attempting to realise Ei's ideals, despite the fact that it's been. so long???

dottore doesn't care about scaramouche. his involvement with the project was one that, in how i interpreted it, was just out of grand fun and curiosity. i remember it being said somewhere that he's not so much for the results of an experiment compared to the process --> he does things for the sake of doing them. conclusions r a 2nd priority

in childe's story quest (iirc) dottore was the one that opened and monitored the ruin guard factory and he just left it because he'd gotten bored. he declares himself a scholar at core, so of course he likes learning about things, but I dont think he's inherently fueled by a desire for knowledge... it's more of a secondary motivation but that's just what I am inferring based on what we know

I feel like this is the best way I can put it: dottore was the kid that put salt on slugs not really because he was curious in observing the reason for the reaction but because he enjoys seeing them suffer LMAO

if you don't know what happens when u put salt on slugs or snails basically they dry up and die. because osmosis !! funky. it's very painful for them If my memory serves right

even the akedemiya didn't care about who their god was so long as they felt it represented their ideals for humanity: scara was their optimum of human wisdom. and scaramouche KNOWS this; we even see the traveller confront him about it but he deflects after they ask him. perhaps he was just that desperate

I pulled these from a random YouTube video shh but anyways.

that's why he cares so much about haypasia !! because she recognises him. I saw a post on twitter or on here a while ago and I can't find it but some1 said something like "scara (in the current archon quest) feels like a child who never got much attention growing up and is just doing things to get his mother to notice him" and yeah I feel like it really does come off like that

Ei set him off and gave him the freedom to be his own person and go live as he wished but he's always been shackled to other people's expectations. he's never actually been his own person. I think a part of him *knows* that, but hasnt yet come to terms with it and moved on from his past . I think that's the next step he'll take

considering the fact that he's in nahida's possession at the moment I think she'll be a key figure to the development of his character. her as well as the traveller (big surprise !!!) Even if she doesn't see redemption in him I think she'll help him come to some realisations about himself

this is so messy srry

[bubblegumknuckles]

I don't mean to overstep so feel free to ignore this ask but do you really have narcolepsy. Could you tell me more about narcolepsy and how it affects you?

From and ignoramus anon

Hi you arent over stepping, no worries. Sorry for the delay, I have a hard time answering back anybody, and ive been sleeping a ton.

So, when I wrote that I had Narcolepsy in my bio, it was a few months ago & for different health reasons I wasnt able to get the final results of my final sleep study test (4th one.) Narcolepsy was what was most likely, especially since my primary doctor said her mom has narcolepsy & I wasnt even taking about sleeping problems to her, but fatigue was mentioned because I was explaining my symptoms that point towards a few autoimmune disorders….and she asked a few questions & said I sounded exactly like her mom who has Narcolepsy & it took her like 20 years to get diagnosed…. At first i was like nahhhh because the only knowledge I had of it was from tv. She gave me a referral to a sleep doctor but I ignored it for a few months, before doing research because my sleep keeps getting worse.

Then actually going, they dont really believe you at first. Insurance also makes you jump through hoops & i had to wait months each time, &the day of a sleep study, my insurance would finally say Not approved…so id have to reschedule. Its been a huge headache and hassle. I had to prove to the doctor and insurance basically how i dont have sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome or anything else before they will consider Narcolepsy. and even then the test for Narcolepsy is so difficult to pass, if you fail else, then they will diagnose you as Idiopathic Hypersomnia meaning they dont know whats wrong with you. but something is off. thats the official diagnosis, but Narcolepsy and IH are both treated very similar. Oh and theres two types of Narcolepsy, one being the more known one with cataplexy (like fainting and dropping out of nowhere at all times sleeping) & there is N2 that is basically without cataplexy (I dont drop out of nowhere and sleep)

So yeah, the results that finally came out said on some of my naps I fell asleep in 9 minutes & basically the criteria for narcolepsy is so strict it has to be under 8 minutes. i was like….thats pretty close. But nah they wanna use math and average it out and blah blah I dont qualify as technically narcolepy. I got diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnia instead. I would be more irritated but at least its treated similar or the same. It was noted i have 0% sleep apnea & he said it is very strange that for an adult, I sleep so deeply, like I hit the deepest parts of sleep that usually just babies and children get to. Soooo I tried to get him to think on that….like bro im telling you I sleep that deeply and that much AND still have to continue napping thru the day. I sleep so much. Its impacting my life. And its weirdly gotten worse over the pandemic, altho I have always been like this.

Um sorry Idk if that answered your question bc I wouldve gotten more specific how narcolepsy affects me n stuff. But since I just finally got the official diagnosis of IH instead & its technically not Narcolepsy, i didnt know if u wanted to know more. In my every day life, im probably going to still call it Narcolepsy tbh bc thats what people know a little more about. Theyll be like “oh she really does have a sleeping disorder” does that make sense?

Anyway you can ask more questions if you want:)

[animalinvestigator]

Hiiiiee its me again sidenote I’m just enamoured by the tiny symbolism drawings you include in your references !! Whenever u have the time/motivation to elaborate on any of em I’d be really interested, overall ur character design and ur way of storytelling through images and little details is awesome !!

hi, thank you! yea theyre fun arent they : ) i included a similar guide on my references for my petscop designs last art fight when we were scheming to get a bunch of random people to draw petscop fanart, and i had so much fun with it that i decided i'd include it w/ my relevant personal ocs this year too ... personally my favorite thing about art fight is when i can learn enough about someones oc to draw something that is specific to the character and their story and world, rather than just a generic portrait. its fun to get that kind of glimpse into someone elses story-that-might-never-get-made world, it's rare. i think having a key like that kind of facilitates that.

actually, the symbolism i use for cathy and lupe is pretty shallow, it's not a very symbolism heavy story, so it's fairly easy to explain.

cathy's symbols are comprised pretty much entirely of typical catholic imagery surrounding divine messaging and martyrdom, which is kind of what her whole deal is. (they're largely based on the imagery in catholic scripture that had the most effect on me, myself, as a child haha) really all there is to be said for stigmata & the crown of thorns in my story is that its borrowed symbolism that cathy tracked onto her own life. Shes kind of an interesting character because when it comes to lupe, she wouldn't consider the things i call "her symbols" related to her at all for the mostpart, whereas cathy basically has her own symbol language in the literal text of the story, so they're both applied to her by me and to her by herself. as for those two symbols, they mean the same thing to her as they mean to me. it's imagery referring to suffering in service to god, mostly. the reopening of scars thing is harder to explain and i don't feel like getting into it but it's an offshoot of that agnus dei is mostly similar, i'm not sure how familiar people who werent raised catholic are with it but its basically a title that refers to like, divine purpose to be sacrificed to absorb sin, the informed decision to offer your life & pain up for god & humanity. it's kind of a whole thing thats hard to explain. this is the "big idea" that drives cathy's whole problem, so it's the one i put the most emphasis on. a warped-by-experience& lack thereof mutation of this concept wholly defines the way cathy sees herself &interacts with the world. the dove is pretty straightforward too, it's a common symbol of presence of the holy spirit, & messages from god. i was always kind of enamored by this piece of imagery because of how easily you could like, accidentally see a white dove flying around and come to the conclusion that there was some holy affirmation or presence occurring in your life, when in reality, it was just a white dove flying around, because it is not unusual that a white dove would be flying around, because they are just regular birds. that's mostly what it means in the story, it's about "divine symbols" appearing to you in mundane day to day things, and how that is not always a good thing.

lupe's symbols are a lot more dependent on like, story context; In an shortform summary, lupe absorbed her twin in the womb, which her mother has been grieving ever since, and her entire character conflict is primarily about dealing with the constant fear and guilt associated with having (In her eyes) killed her own sister and sent her to hell before either of them were ever born. basically lupe is just like , extraordinarily haunted, and believes she is a murderer who committed her own separate "original sin" that she has spent her entire life thus far trying to atone for. that knowledge makes the birth-related imagery pretty straightforward , & the mirror images thing too (Told you the symbols were simple), theres an additional piece where her family has for like, many years surrounded her with constant reminders of this by getting her 2 of pretty much every gift for the majority of her early life, one for her and one for "her sister". (Coping thing for her mom, Makes it significantly worse for lupe) But yea, the funeral stuff is also related to that. its the newest addition cos i recently decided to be more heavyhanded about this characterization than i was originally planning to; i want to hammer in that lupe's kind of constantly choked out by the feeling of being a walking grave for her sister, so that's where it comes from. grave pictured in symbolism section is a makeshift memorial to her sister set up in the family's backyard. Really cannot stress enough how much lupe's entire life is controlled by this, both internally and externally the one that's kind of separate from this is the damask rose; its a flower related to a miracle associated w/ the marian apparitions that are lupes namesake, has to do with divine pilgrimage, obedience, and miracles; our lady of guadalupe's 5 apparitions & subsequent miracles helped define the outline of the body of the story, so i wanted to make it more obviously apparent by having those flowers kind of follow lupe too : )

hopefully that was interesting and enlightening, i keep a lot of this pretty close to my chest but i think talking about these was vague enough that i'm fine sharing as much as i did. it's been fun synthesizing religious imagery into misappropriated personal imagery for this story all about misappropriating religious imagery into personal imagery. sorry for the long post i have a hard time explaining myself sometimes!

also thank you so much i sure try my best. it was very kind of you to be interested. Heres a picture as thanks : )

[rivalsforlife]

have u seen the aai musical? i dont think that one has subtitles but it being the only piece of media in the entire ace attorney franchise that wholeheartedly attempted to give edgeworth a female love interest is bold imo

ohhh the aai musical. if you can call it that. the greatest insult to aai2 and gregory edgeworth I've seen in my life. I did actually find out recently after MUCH digging that it actually does have subtitles, and it's been there for over a year, although it is the subtitle file on its own and not timed to the video you'll be able to find somewhat easily (you can find the subtitles here) - since the person who did the translation and subtitling specifically requested it not be uploaded onto a public video I've kept quiet about it until now, so like... honor system for whoever's reading this to not go against their wishes, that would be extremely rude. I basically opened the subtitle file in notepad and read that side by side with the musical and it's. hm. something.

(And since I'm weirdly obsessed with the musicals I also modified the subtitles a bit to clean it up a bit (some grammatical things, modifying the names in places to make them fit the characters better like having Larry call him "Edgey" instead of "Edgeworth", and changed some of the repeated songs to match the other two translated ones) and THEN timed my new script to the copy of the musical I could find. I don't want to upload this subtitle file because idk what the original subtitler's thoughts on that are and I'm too scared to ask, but. all this is to say I have watched a subtitled version of this musical. I MAY be persuaded to give a link to the script I wrote out for people to watch side by side; I just don't want it to be too easy for someone to take the file and upload it to a public video, which although I don't really have any major moral objections to it because this *never had a dvd release so you can't find it anywhere anyways*, I want to respect the wishes of the person who did all the hard work of translating.)

I'm waiting on the person who did the other two musicals to finish this before I talk about this one since I think it's kinda unfair of me to talk about this version that I have that I refuse to share with anyone? Plus the original subtitler has made it clear that the subtitles may not be the most accurate, and this musical actually deals with some more sensitive subjects (primarily the topic of illegal immigration) where I'd like to be sure of the true meaning before I start commenting on it.

However I WILL give you the rundown of Heterosexual Edgeworth's Greatest Hits:

^ that's a rose. just to be clear. he takes it out of his pocket and dramatically sniffs it a few times throughout the musical.

^ he’s known her for all of two minutes

yeah they're on a cafe date and he says this out loud to her.

^ he asked her where she learned to dance and she got upset and ran away. The original subtitles said "women are difficult things" so pick your favourite thing for him to say. oh haha edgeworth just doesn't get the woman he's attracted to inexplicably.

^ this is supposed to be internal narration.

^after this he says “I won’t forget your warmth” which is. well.

And of course we can't forget our good old friend Corrupt Gregory. Which tumblr won't let me post for some reason because it only wants ten images, which may be for the best. Suffice it to say they changed "A Defense Attorney's Knowledge" into a song about him singing about how all he cares about are not guilty verdicts and the truth can be washed away and sink in the dark or whatever.

I'm very much looking forward to being able to rip apart this one because I'm determined to make my insulting of this one break ten thousand words. Heterosexual Edgeworth deserves no less.

* insert general disclaimer that yes you could read Edgeworth as bi or like comphet or something like that especially considering I made the argument that he's in love with Phoenix in the second musical but You Know What They Were Going For.

[mcyt-amber-tftsmp]

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐛 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐭

A— Abnormal (what makes them different?)

What makes Ranbob different from you is that fact that you are human while he is not. He is a literal semi-half enderman while he he is also a semi-half unknown hybrid. He finds himself pretty dangerous to you since he thinks that one day he will harm you in some way and it's just gonna make him fill up with so much guilt.

B— Bad Habits (what bad habits do they have?)

Ranbob has a bad habit of scratching his arms which results in many new scars and sometimes he would actually scratch so much that it will start bleeding. This would actually worry you a lot about him thinking why he does it but you do know it pains him a lot and would help him patch it up.

C— Crying (what makes them cry?)

The only thing that makes Ranbob cry is when he has nightmares about you dying in different ways which could either be by his own hands or by something or someone else. This does cause him to wake up with a jolt and there was a time when he accidentally woke you up by jolting too much from a nightmare and this made you worried and comforted him.

D— Death (How do they die? With family or alone? How does their partner find out?)

Ranbob's death was basically a cause of his enderwalk state which he couldn't control and he was slightly out of control but one side of him was fighting to escape it and the only way was to kill himself off which you didn't want but you had to let it happen. It would be a pretty selfish act for him considering he will be leaving you but the one thing he will know is that you are safe and that's what matters the most but you wouldn't even leave his dead body and just continue crying in place.

E— Emotion (what's the emotion they tend to push away the most?)

Ranbob tends to push away his fears the most. He doesn't want you to worry and there are times when he would let fear come back to him and he hates showing it a lot in front of you but you keep telling him not to considering we all fear something but Ranbob has his reasons.

F— Frustrated (how much would it take to push them off the edge?)

If you annoy Ranbob when he's not having a good day to the point he breaks, he will lash out completely and would attack without thinking and when he sees you hurt his anger will wash away and get replaced with fear and regret and would apologize so many times that he would just start crying.

G— Gullible (who are they most gullible to and why?)

Himself. Ranbob has changed for the better because of you and he thinks he can just let go off his past mistakes and move on. But that's where he is wrong considering he has voices sometimes saying negative things and reminding him off his past wrong doings. He knows he did those things and he has no excuse for it. He hates himself for this.

H— Humiliation (someone says something humiliating about them)

"Freak!"

He basically knew that it was directed at him but he looked like he didn't care on the outside but on the inside he was slightly hurt. He doesn't show it. You on the other hand who was with him and heard someone yell this out to him were not having it and gave out a snarky reply to the man that legit shut him up. Ranbob's happy that you stood up for him but deep down he's still hurt and you can tell he is behind that indifferent expression.

I— Insecure (what are their insecurities?)

How he looks. Honestly he looks like he doesn't care but his insecurities have a way of crawling back to him about how he looks. I mean he is slightly scary at first which he isn't a fan of but he's actually a nice guy once you get to know him but it's still a thing for him which he can't let go at all.

J— Jealous (what makes them feel jealous?)

When someone flirts with you. He will literally glare down at the person by holding your waist and standing behind you while he looks at the person flirting dead in the eye and he is like a few seconds away from killing them too if they don't hurry up and run.

K— Knife (how do they feel about hurting others?)

Ranbob used to hurt whoever came to Mizu cause he did kill a lot of people who previously came before you did. Now he just doesn't like it but there are times when he looks at a sword he gets weird hallucinations of it being slightly covered in blood and it will really throw him off and make him drop it before picking it up later on.

L— Love (who was their first love? Was it returned? How did it end?)

Well his first and last love would be you and yes it was returned and you guys are still in a relationship with each other. Ranbob loves you dearly but fears he will hurt you. You love him a lot more than he knows.

M— Mindfulness (what calms them down when they're feeling anxious or depressed?)

When Ranbob holds onto you or when you hug him, all his anxiousness goes away and it also helps him come from his depressive episodes. Usually it would sometimes be the other way but it also come in this way too.

N— Nightmare (do they have them? How often? What's their reaction, and what are they about?)

Ranbob has nightmares most of the time but not all the time and they would mostly be about you either leaving him or dying in his hands or some other way and he always jolts awake with small tears forming in his eyes and would look around to see that you are safe and not harmed and that's what calms him down but he is slightly scared to fall asleep again but he does anyways with zero nightmares.

O— Obsess (what they're obsessed with that you might judge them for? What's their "weird" obsession?)

The fact that Ranbob legitimately looks up to Dream and that Dream is his idol he just thinks that the way he worships him may weird you out but you don't find it weird at all but he just thinks otherwise without your knowledge. I wouldn't say he's obsessed but it looks like it in front of other people.

P—Pressure (what stresses them out to the breaking point?)

Blood happens to stress him out to his breaking point cause it always reminds him of how he killed people with no mercy and it just makes him lose it sometimes that he would break down at times with his negative voices throwing in things altogether.

Q— Quirks (what's one of their quirks they consider a flaw that you like?)

Sometimes Ranbob feels like having heterochromia is a flaw considering not many people have them and the fact that's it's pretty uncommon but you seem to love them and would always find them pretty which would make Ranbob smile knowing you love them and he tries to like them too.

R— Repressed (what memories do they repress or they wish they could forget?)

Ranbob wants to forget his wrong doings from the past where he killed off the many people that came down here but it just seems to come crawling back to him and he hates it and just wants it gone for good.

S— Sorrow (would they feel empty after the death of a loved one?)

Ranbob would completely shut down after he sees you die in front of him. He would just cry for hours and would blame himself for not being able to help your nor protect you at all and the guilt happens to increase and eats him up bad.

T— Time (what if they had a limited time to live?)

Ranbob would make the most out of it by being with you. He would do anything in his power to do the things you love and go on out for walks and other things you both love doing together. He would hate to leave you alone when his time is up and you would just be felling empty without him.

U— Umbrage (what pisses them off? What offends them?)

What pisses him off the most is when people flirt with you cause it makes him jealous and would be on the verge of killing them. At this point nothing offends him but if someone says something offensive about him, he won't hesitate to bring out that netherite sword and scare the person off.

V— Vent (how do they let things out after a bad day?)

When it comes to venting out things after a bad day, Ranbob would stay away from you as far as possible so he doesn't hurt you at all considering the way he lets out his anger is by punching things like the wall or sometimes throwing something which won't break. It does scare you a bit but you would cautiously come up to him and hug him to make him calm down which works well.

W— Weakness (what is their personal weakness?)

Ranbob's weakness would be you but not in a bad way or anything. If something were to happen to you, he would become pretty vulnerable. He would do anything in his power to protect you even if it meant sacrificing himself in order to do that.

X— X-Double-Minus (random sad headcanon)

One time, Ranbob was venting out his anger like a lot like he usually does but this time it was a bit too much. You on the other hand tried to calm him down but he was slightly blinded with anger that he accidentally pushed you away by clawing your cheek made you fall backwards on the floor slightly hard but not so much. Ranbob's anger immediately washed away once he saw what he did and all that got replaced with fear, regret and guilt which cause him to apologize so many times and a panic attack. You came up to him and hugged him to calm him down and tell him that it's alright and that you know he never meant it which slightly helps.

Y— Yearn (what is one thing they want that they know they can't have?)

The one thing Ranbob wants is to reverse time and fix his mistakes but he knows that it's impossible and he has to live with the amount of guilt and regret he has with him. But he knows he has you that will help him along the way.

Z— Zoophobia (is there any animal/bug/creature that scares them?)

Ranbob is legitimately an enderman hybrid and what bugs do endermen despise or gets scared off? The answer is endermites. He's not a huge fan of them in general and is kind of glad that they don't exist anywhere near him cause if it did he would lose it.

[aregrettablechoiceofwords]

If you use the word "abused" to describe Snape's behavior, then it's only fair to use the harshest vocabulary for Remus Lupin's behavior too. We don't get the last words of a bystander bully who grew into a coward adult who walked out on his wife and unborn baby. No one cares he gave some kids chocolate since he let a believed mass-murderer run around the school. #soloving

*sits up* *cracks knuckles* ok let’s do this

No, Lupin isnt perfect, obviously no one is. Abandoning his family in the deathly hallows made me realize that, and I lost a lot of respect for him then. But is he a coward?

After Harry yelled at him for abandoning tonks and teddy, something he shouldn’t have to had done as a 17 year old, he came back to them.

And the thing is, he wasn’t a deadbeat afraid of failing as a father or something like that, he was afraid his being a werewolf would bring serious harm to his wife and baby, and they might be hunted down for it. He genuinely—and wrongly—believed they would be better off without him.

Coming back DOESNT erases the fact that you left at all, and let’s admit that was a fault. But is lupin. A coward.????

I think not. He fought in the battle of hogwarts and was a hero that died that night. (Along with tonks Rest In Peace u two) he died on the battle field fighting for his family, friends, freedom and rights. He was never afraid for himself, but for his friends.(Unlike Snape who died in The Whomping Willow with his last wish to see Harry’s eyes because even though he treated Harry like scum because he looked like his father who he hated, he was obsessed with Lily Evans and that makes up for it.)

And before that, Lupin went underground working with werewolf connections including ones who must have worked with Fenir Greyback, the monster who turned him as a child. Because Dumbledore told him to. He was hurt, worn, and tired, but he didn’t complain. He wanted to do good in the world.

So if Lupin isn’t a coward, you must think, why did he never tell anyone vital information about Sirius Black being able to turn into a dog while everyone believed he was a mass murderer?

I think we both know considering he resigned himself and everything he did for the Order, it wasn’t so he could keep his job. It was because he loved Sirius, his closest friend. James and Peter (to his knowledge) were both dead, and Sirius, traitor and all, was all he had left. He didn’t want Sirius to get his soul destroyed by a Dementor’s kiss. He thought, oh, turning into a dog isn’t that much of a threat, I’m protecting Harry anyway…

And yes it was so shitty of him to do, to basically choose the safety of his dead best friend’s innocent 13 year old son over the safety of…well, a murderer. The guy responsible for his dead best friend’s death. And that’s why Lupin resigned.

He felt like the worst kind of monster because of that, and I won’t call him one, but it was a horrible thing that happened because of his choice.

(If this was a hate essay on Snape, I would point out that Snape, a death eater who had worked with Peter Pettigrew, knew Peter was the traitor and not Sirius and yet he never told dumbledore this information...and let Sirius go to Azkaban…because of a school grudge... But this is not a hate essay on snape so let’s get back to lupin)

Do you think Lupin is a bad person? I’m genuinely curious, and i would love to know your opinion on snape too.

Look—there IS NO ADULT IN HARRY POTTER THAT HAS NOT COMPLETELY LET US DOWN AT SOME POINT. name any adult, any, and I will explain how horribly they failed the kids.

But flawed doesn’t equal bad person.

Hagrid, McGonagall, Sirius—they were some of the best hp adults, flaws considered.

How many flaws does it take to become a bad person? I don’t know. But I do know snape has so many more flaws than virtues.

I dont think being a death eater necessarily means being a bad person, becuase many people who “fought with Voldemort” were there becuase their fate had already been decided. They had to stick with their families. Look at Draco Malfoy. In the chapter malfoy manor, you can really see how dark and terrifying living with the death eaters are. So much pressure to give everything you can to being a bigot and serving Voldemort. If draco didn’t, his parents and him would be killed by Voldemort, already on the end of his tether. (And yet he still helped Harry but that’s another essay)

Being a good person means how you treat people, and how you fix your mistakes when you fk up. And look how snape treated people.

Admittedly when I was comparing lupin and snape in the original post, I wasn’t talking about the deeper parts of if they were good people or not, though I know it’s not white and black.

I was comparing their professor ways. How they treated children, from a 13 year old’s perspective. I was thinking, hey, I’m as old as Harry was in the prisoner of Azkaban, and if I had to face snape on a regular basis, I would break down.

But yes, they are so much more deeper than who they were as professors. And giving out chocolate doesn’t make you a good person x

But I really do think flaws included, despite his flaws Lupin was a good person. And yes, I should have pointed out his flaws in the op post, so I’m pointing them out now. He is one of my favorite characters, so I hope you understand. I admit he isn’t perfect though, he’s flawed and messed up, but still to me, a good man on more or less.

oh ps— I’m not an anti. When I used to love Snape I was attacked by many people in a comment section for “defending snape” and now I am called an anti. There will always be criticism so let me make something clear.

No, I don’t like snape. But I’m not blocking others from liking him.

I will never let the fact that I don’t like snape make me drag you if you love him. I respect that. I hope you can respect me too!

Anyway thanks for sending this I never get asks, and hope you have a good day!! ♥️ 😆

[everyothermouse]

A lil group portrait of the time au adventuring gang!! Them <333

Basically tol fucked up as a kid and is now on the run from the law, but realized that since his life was so crazy he could live off of telling stories of his wacky adventures. When he met Jay he wanted him to come with him, and when he found out jay couldn't come cus he was virtually a demon/god/magic magnet he decided he NEEDED to bring him to capitalize on how it'd make more cool stories. And yeah it worked so since then he's been collecting wackos to aaa go crazy aaaa go stupid (and also bcus safety I numbers or whateva, pop and pip are also criminals and pastel and jay are crimes against god <3) more about each individual under the cut!

Doin them from left to right :)

Pastel: died when she was messing around with some friends and got stuck under a big rock and left to starve. But because of a fluke in the underworld her God decided to resurrect her, a right usually only belonging to saints. Because of this she's now poorly pretending that she totally did something to deserve being revived (she tells a different story every time someone asks, she thinks it's funny) to avoid being persecuted for suspected witchcraft. She met Jay when they were both drunk and they had fun fucking around in the city, and she spilled the beans to him that she was revived for no reason. She regretted it, but jay didn't kill her because even though he's religious he knew what it felt like to be magically cursed and have everyone be pissed at u for it. Also she's really funny with jay so tol begged her to come with them to add more Comedy(tm) to his memoirs

Pop: a time traveller and angel who is trying to hide both of those facts but only really succeeding at hiding the time travel thing. When they were a kid they traveled to this time with his friends Lustre and Cherrybomb, but when they were attacked by the vicious royal guard they weren't able to escape without leaving Lustre behind. Cherrybomb super repressed that memory, and while pop recovered from some minor injuries they vowed to never time travel again. Yeah they only kept that up until they were like 15, but they still couldn't bring themself to go back to when they left Lustre. But now they're 26 (well technically they're like 33 but in their time their supposed to be 26) living with their boyfriend cherrybomb and have years of time travel experience under their belt, and they're ready to go back. Except they can't go back because they created a travel block for themself by accident because of how upsetting the event was, so instead they traveled as close as they could, about 10 years in the future of the time. Now they search for any form of closure, all they need to know is what happened to their friend, and they will do whatever it takes to find this out. But angels aren't super welcome in the past, especially not with uncut wings, so it's not exactly easy for them to navigate this time period. But after a while of their search they met two lovely children (well young adults), a demon and a "cursed" (nowadays they call em spiritually gifted) and felt so bad for how much the world seemed to be against them they decided they could travel with them, just for a bit, to protect them. They tried not to get attached. They failed. They're in it for the long run now aren't they TwT also as they explore this time and learn more about the gods, they start to realize that they might... be the God of longevity???? Or at least an older version of them became them? Time travel is fucked man

Btw Lustre plays a big role in this plot, her hyper futuristic knowledge, 'blessed' white eyes, and strange God gifted clothing would all lead to him rising to a much different role than fugitive rather quickly, but they're not who this post is about ;) also I'm gonna go bottom to top for the 3 in the middle let's go

Lune: just a little guy :) lune is a young rancher/gardener who worships the God of the wood, who kind of goes missing sometimes and is lowkey the least loyal God but shhhh he loves them. Lune and tol were childhood friends (along with their pal cleo) but on one of their little excursions tol took something very important to a very powerful king, and refused to give it back. As retribution the king destroyed their entire town, and cleo put all the blame on tol, tol and lune both knew lune had to take the side against tol in order to not have the town turn on him. So yeah he moved with the town to bring up a brand new farm, long awaiting the day when tol would come home and say that things were OK and they could settle back in town together, hopefully with cleo too. That didn't happen, but tol did come back and peer pressure lune into part time adventuring with him! So yeah generally lune just runs his lil farm and prays, but when tol comes to pick him up he gets a chance to go be free to act batshit crazy, just like when he was a kid 🥰

Pipes: DEmon! One time lune and tol had a little squabble so lune was like 'im gonna get a new best friend and ur gonna regret this' and tol was like 'yeah right, u live with a bunch of criminals right now no one's gonna wanna be ur bestie dumbass' so lune just walked into a cave at night and dragged out this little nonverbal demon because demons who live alone in caves don't have high standards for friends. Even tho it was just a ploy to make tol jealous lune went super hard on it and now pipes is actually friends with the gang lmaoo

Tol: like I said with lunes, stole something important from a king as a kid, monarch got pissed, blew up the town, town got pissed at tol for it, and since then he's been on the run because he's too stubborn to give back the damn thing (they could have just attacked HIM for it, but since la queen decided to fuck with his town, his family, tol thinks he doesn't deserve to have it back.) He had to run from town to town and got into a lot of danger in his attempts at finding places to hide, but he lacks fear and tended to fight stuff off. As a kid he found that he could get enough pity to be welcomed into towns if he told people he had to fight a monster to get there, so he told stories at every town and camp he went to of his hardships. But as he got older, those he stayed with beckoned him to keep talking, and more and more people said they had heard of his adventures. And that's when when it clicked, his shining ticket to true freedom wasn't a place, it was his stories. They gave him food, shelter, fun, memories, a life. So he made it his mission to never settle down, to make his life as crazy as possible and to talk about it as much as possible, and if he ever ran out of energy to adventure, he'd spend the rest of his dying days writing and writing his entire life story. He thought this was a life he'd live alone, but one day he sought refuge in jays little lonely house because he thought it was abonded, luckily though Jay had just been praying for a second chance at life and decided that considering the timing, tol must be that second chance. So yeah jay patched him up, found out on his monthly supply route he was harboring someone very wanted, and took care of tol even harder because he didn't know or care why he was wanted, he just knew that anyone who had a drawing of them as a child on a wanted poster definitely didn't deserve it. So yeah they're besties now.

AAA I wrote out a really long description for jay but tumblr glitched and I lost it :'O ble here's a shorter rewrite cus I'm not writing out that whole thing again >:P

Jay: brought up in a church village,, he was born with the curse, which allows him to tap into magical properties very easily, and be very easily controlled, manipulated, and possessed by them. This allowed him to be very connected with his god (the god of longevity) but also meant he was often treated as a security risk and a monster by the adults of his town since he could let in evil spirits so easily. He spent most of his time praying and he became obsessed with acting on compulsions (repeated prayer, overscrubbing, scratching himself, touching religious things until he felt like he touched them "right") because he believed they were messages from God and would prevent him from becoming evil (look he was a teenager and everyone told him he was a monster his whole life leave him be.) He gets possessed twice, mage as a rep of the town is like "either have ur cursed removed or leave town forever" (uncursing is only hypothetically possible, it's hella dangerous) and he's scared itd sever his connection to his god so he leaves and he's upset bcus his entire life plan was built around his church, so now he's livin alone on a hill and leaving like once a month, he stays up there and sews and prays mostly, he sort of works on himself and becomes vaguely mentally stable, so he prays for a second chance at life since he lost his original path and needs a sign where to go, and then boom tol shows up and the rest is history. Now he has his own little family and things are going great :) other than the still getting possessed like once a week but shhhh

Pip: in between the entrance to hell and the religious central of the continent is a little town that sides with neither. They mostly fuck around and find out, and in this town lives a monster researcher and her less formal wife, pip! Pip is just a silly goofy little guy livin life, and when the crazy bunch shows up she feels like he's finally found her people :3 and for the first time the group gains a member who's begging to join them as opposed to the other way around

Ya and together they all go on wacky lil adventures with demons and monsters and monarchs and what not.

Tldr pastel is a funny lil dead guy, pop is a time traveller and the Adult of the team, lunes a lil farmer man, pipes a hobo demon they picked up off the side of the road, tols a little criminal demon adventurer, jays a religious weirdo who tol dragged out of his hermit hut, and pips an insane little guy

[isobel-thorm]

Don't kill me, but all the fruits for grant and alistair please 💕

Also just noticed @troyebakers asked for all for Grant too, so here y’all are:

Let me apologize to mobile users now bc this is probably just gonna be a giant wall of strewn together nonsense for them. Switching around the order of the questions to make it flow a fair bit better. 

🍍  :    how comfortable is my muse in their body? how do they feel about their height,  weight,  strength,  and body type?  how important is being attractive to them?  

🍑  :    how meticulously does my muse look after their physical appearance?  do they spend a lot of time on their hair,  makeup,  grooming,  and clothing?  is there a particular reason why they do or don’t?  Grant:  Grant is basically okay with how he looks. He doesn’t exactly like his appearance, but he doesn’t hate it either, nor does he think it’s that important. The only thing he’ll really fuss over is his hair, and his idea of fussing is brushing it but letting the bedhead win a lot of the time.  Same goes with how he dresses- if a pair of jeans and T-shirt are discarded on the floor one night and they’re not in bad condition/they don’t smell, he’ll wear them again. Alistair:  He’s a little fussy with it. He knows most people find him attractive but he’s not that invested in it. Living for multiple centuries does that to a guy. He’ll make sure he’s neatly put together daily and that’s that. He does usually try to dress nicely though. His casual is a nice sweater, well-fitting leather jacket and dark jeans. He tends to call it ‘professorly.’ 

🍅  :    how does my muse feel about plastic  /  cosmetic surgeries   &   procedures?  is it something they have done or would do?  do they mind if others do it?  Both: Both of them are usually in the “why do people do that, it’s not necessary, people age, it’s a fact of life” side of things- with Alistair noting “except for me” in that last bit. They’d never dream about getting anything done themselves. 

🍏  :    how stable is my muse’s physical health?  do they go for regular or semi-regular checkups by a physician?  do they have any diagnosed illnesses and / or take any medication?  how often do they get sick?

🍎  :    how stable is my muse’s mental health?  have they been diagnosed with any mental illnesses and  /  or conditions?  do they have any undiagnosed mental illnesses and  /  or conditions?  do they or should they attend therapy?    Grant: He’s usually physically healthy and tries to stay that way. Mentally, he’s a mess and tries to get help, but it’s not lost on him that talking with Nic and getting hugs from her works better for him than an actual therapist half the time. Alistair:  Fit as a fiddle permanently, if you don’t count the whole living undead thing. He’s also fairly mentally stable himself, and he’s had a vested interest in Psychology the last century, which helps things. 

🍒  :    how much does my muse value companionship?  do they constantly keep people around them,  or do they prefer to be alone often?  do they have or desire to have many friends?  do they see every meeting as an opportunity to make a new friend?  Grant: After what happened during his time as a soldier, Grant got it in his head that he was bad luck for anyone around him, so he tried to stay solo for as long as possible and didn’t actively make friends. Enter Nic and Matthew/John, and it was another story. They didn’t really give him an active chance to tell them to leave him alone so they wormed their way into his heart, which helped his mental state so he was able to pursue a friendship with them and then a relationship with M/J, which healed him enough where he was a little more outgoing/willing to meet and befriend other people. Alistair: Nearly the same deal. He was also fairly anti-friends because people only usually gave him the time of day to get in his family’s good graces. He was very apprehensive about making friends because he figured once they got what they wanted they’d leave him, considering that happened a lot. And then Kat and the others came along and made him feel wanted, and while he still has that distrust of people outside that group, he would die (again) for every single person in their friend circle.

🍇  :    how would my muse describe their childhood?  how much has it impacted the person they are now,  or will become as an adult?  around what age did they or will they start to mature,  and why?  do they wish to go back to their days as a child,  or have they embraced adulthood?  Grant: He had a lonely childhood, his parents did take care of him, but were also fairly neglectful and paid more attention to their business than him. When the whole ‘bi but leaning more towards being romantically interested in men’ thing came to pass his parents sent him off to live with his gay uncles which ended up being the best experience of his life because he finally got active attention/parental figures who genuinely cared about his day or interests for once. The first half of that, however, prepared him a lot for his self-exile after coming home from overseas, but it also planted the idea that there was a silver lining somewhere in life, which he found in his friends. The only way he’d want to relive his childhood is if he was with his uncles the entire time. Alistair: Looking back, Alistair acknowledges that his mother raised him to be a spineless, pompous ass. Him becoming a full vampire/getting some distance from the family when he turned thirty was the turning point where he acknowledged that ‘oh hey, a lot of this shit is messed up.’ He wouldn’t relive his childhood at all. 

🍐  :    how intelligent is my muse overall?  are they smarter than the average person,  or less than?  are they primarily self-taught,  or did they acquire most of their knowledge in school?  are they more street smart or book smart?  Grant: He never went to college, he joined the Army straight out of high school, so he’s got an extremely basic… standard education. He’s more street smart than anything, and considering That Day, he got a lot of “that’s the how the world works, it’s unfair” type lessons from that tragedy. Alistair: He’s extremely intelligent. He went to college for law, but in the centuries since he’s found modern law is a little too corrupt for his liking, so he went into veterinary science and then studied Psychology on his own just to pass the time. 

🍉  :    which of the four seasons suits my muse best,  and why?  Both:  Winter. Their personalities and wardrobes match it more, and they both enjoy the aesthetic of it the most. 

🍌  :    is my muse inclined to help others,  or will they only do it when it benefits them,  if at all?  what makes them this way?  has it ever gotten them into trouble,  or inconvenienced them? Both: Will help others at the drop of a hat for entirely selfless reasons. They both figure they’ve got awful pasts to make up for, and if little acts of kindness and paying it forward is how they can go about it, so be it. 🍊  :    does my muse desire romance?  is it something they would actively seek out,  or prefer to happen more  ‘  naturally?  ’  what is their love life like?  do they have any exes or past flings,  or crushes?  Grant: Was very anti-love/anti-thinking-he-deserved love, but then Matt/John came along and was charming and nice and patient and his heart was all “alright get your shit together because T H I S   O N E   I S      F O R   Y O U.” Because of that, he’s an absolute mush with his LIs, which is a surprise to everyone outside his immediate friend circle because “wait the stoic guy likes cuddling and talking with faces a couple of inches apart and getting all romantic on holidays?” Alistair: Got his heart shattered into pieces by his first love early in his life, so he was reluctant to ever start anything romantic ever again, but then he fell for Kat platonically, which kick-started his heart back up to be willing to go pursue someone romantically - and then said heartbreaker comes crashing back into his life and then it’s a 50/50 clusterfuck again and he’s not quite sure what to do. 🍓  :    how is my muse typically seen by others?  does it ring true to who they really are?  does their reputation matter to them? Grant: Doesn’t give a damn about his bad stoic/wide/intimidating reputation. He’s not here to be judged, and if people wanna judge a book by its cover, fine, that’s not his problem. He’s got a handful of friends who love him because they bothered to get to know him, he’s invested in them. Alistair: Used to care very strongly about reputation and yearned to be alluring/scary/intimidating all at once, but he learns that was a lot of his mother’s influence, so he goes out of his way to nice people to death so he gets a far more welcome, warm, friendly reputation to make sure it sticks. It makes him stop caring about it so actively/doesn’t make it a staple in his life anymore.

🥝  :    does my muse have any  ‘  unusual  ’  habits, interests,  and  /  or talents?  do they hide it,  or are they proud of it?  Grant: Nothing special at allAlistair: He’s a hemophobic vampire, so he doesn’t go out on hunts with his family- nor does he feed on humans unless it’s necessary. He uses his resources as a vet to ‘feed’ on animals- where he’ll only feed feed if there’s a time crunch, but even then he only takes a standard blood test’s amount and tries to make it last- and he’ll even coach the animal through it, promising that he means it no harm, they’ll be safe in a minute, “Awww, we’re done, see, that wasn’t so bad. Good job, here’s some extra biscuits/cat treats/veggies, you did so well.” 

🍋  :    what kind of diet does my muse have?  do they eat regularly,  or the standard 2-3 meals a day?  do they have to be reminded to eat,  or are they likely to remind others?  do they cook,  or have others cook for them?  do they eat healthily,  or not so much?  Grant: Unless depression is kicking his ass, he’ll eat balanced meals regularly, with the usual 3x a day. If he does have a day of depression where he misses a meal or so when Nic or John/Matthew is around, they’ll notice and try not to be too forceful about it but they’ll also make a meal with him and try to goad him into eating it, and it usually works. Alistair:  Also keeps up with regular meals 3x a day, considering he tries to make human food work as much as possible to avoid interacting with blood in any capacity. If worse comes to worse he’ll cook up/order a super bloody steak and have it, wincing all the while. 

🥭  :    how important to my muse is their hometown,  or where they’re from?  are they proud of it,  or considered a hometown hero? did they move away,  or do they wish to?Grant: Grew up in Texas, and mentioned, he hated it so he avoids going back. He considers Wyoming/his uncles’ ranch home and would live there if he could, but then the job in Hope County came along, and he sticks there for a while and he’s happy, but maaaayyyybbbeee he’d consider dropping hints to John/Matthew that settling back in Wyoming could be nice if they’d be up for it. He’d be okay if they weren’t, though. They could always vacation there, and it’s enough. Alistair: Grew up in the downtown area of [CITY REDACTED] and has a hate/love relationship with it, so when Kat comes along and he joins that crew where they’re on the outskirts of town by the bay, he absolutely falls in love with the weird suburbia feel and makes plans to move there nearly immediately. 

[sealofreconciliation]

Fates: was the story as bad as people say?: a response (Revelation 2/2).

> Corrin explains the curse (once again raising questions of the limitations of said curse, especially as /u/GameBooColor pointed out last post Corrin says Anankos' name outside of Valla, meaning the curse can very easily be worked around)

Can you tell me when that happens?

Also, yeah, Anankos's name isn't Valla; it's not going to hurt anyone to say, and in fact, Garon (and i think Iago) say it multiple times throughout both Birthright and Conquest. The only thing this changes is that we now know that Corrin and Azura can try to claim that some random Nohrian deity is actually the leader of the third party, which isn't going to be much more convincing than what they already said.

> I'm still not over people going from considering Corrin a traitor to jumping into an abyss before them (and even wanting to be ordered to do so, according to Scarlet!)

They got over the traitor thing throughout the story, so i don't see the issue with them believing in Corrin now, especially when Xander, Leo and Takumi were basically the only ones to take serious offense to Corrin's deserting.

> almost as confusing is Azura being able to "sense" something from below. If you'll recall, Camilla also sensed something otherworldly from Garon earlier in Revelation. Where does this sense come from and why do they have that ability?

I'll give you that Camilla's line is weird, but i'm fine with Azura being able to vaguely sense things in Valla from the Canyon; she was born there, lived there for years, has a bunch of Vallite blood in her, and made constant trips back to Valla even after leaving. If anyone in the party was to have a connection to Valla, it'd be Azura.

> Oh, and like mentioned last post, Azura is consistently ignored. The siblings are here because of Corrin's actions and they're ready to jump into the abyss for Corrin's sake, but Azura's contributions are neglected and her entire character ignored.

What contributions? Her only involvement in this story so far was her telling Corrin about Valla; Corrin's been the one making decisions, gathering allies, regaining people's trusts, and generally pushing the plot forward ever since Chapter 7; what contributions did Azura EVER make that were neglected, especially from the royal families who probably don't even know about her only important action in the story?

Also, again, Azura is shy and doesn't like attention, and it's unknown how much time she even spent with the Hoshidan royal family; she doesn't get much attention from the other characters because she doesn't want to.

> Azura confirms Garon and Sumeragi knew about Valla and that royalty from both their countries visited Valla. Question: if the country is so peaceful, wouldn't some people from Valla live in the outside world? Furthermore, wouldn't there be written records of Valla, especially if they send gifts to the royal families of Nohr and Hoshido? I just find it difficult to believe all knowledge of the place would vanish within less than a generation, curse or no.

She never states that Sumeragi knew about Valla, only that Garon started worshipping Anankos after being possessed and that, “a long time ago”, Hoshido and Nohr had good relations with Valla:

> Aqua: A long time ago, the Invisible Kingdom was apparently a peaceful kingdom.

> Their royal family had positive relations with those of Hoshido and Nohr...

> Ryouma: What? That's the first time i've heard of that...Hoshido and Nohr knew of this place?

> Aqua: Yes. Hoshido's “Throne of Truth” is said to have been a gift from the Invisible King.

> But, when Hydra went mad...this country changed.

Ryoma and the rest of the royal siblings not knowing about that, along with the “long ago” line, pretty heavily implies that Valla had already cut off contact with the real world long before Anankos took over; beats me as to why, but it seems to be what happened.

> Given how easy it was to convince Leo and Xander of this, if that overhearing a particularly crazy evil monologue helped, I will say that I find it unlikely they'd be so reluctant to believe Azura and Corrin explaining the Garon situation in Conquest, once again reinforcing the idea that the invasion of Hoshido was for nothing.

They're only convinced so easily because Garon started going completely insane right in front of them, much more so than he does in any of the other routes, and they had time to think over Corrin's claims of Garon being manipulated prior to being told that he was straight-up possessed; this is a completely different context from Conquest's situation, and trying to equate the two is incredibly disingenuous. I do wish more time was spent showing the Nohrian siblings being surprised and/or upset at the reveal, but i never said nor will say that the pacing in Revelation isn't rushed.

> How on earth did Arete tell Azura all of this? I guess they could've gone back to Valla,

Who said anything about going back? We don't know how long it took Arete and Azura to flee Valla; couldn't she have told her most of that while she was still in Valla, prior to making it out of there and into Nohr?

Besides, it's not like Arete seems to have told Azura that much, or at least not much that couldn't be explained in either the real world or Valla. She told Azura about Anankos and how he killed her father, took over Valla and wants to do the same to Nohrshido; probably told her about how to go back there if she wanted and/or that anyone without a lot of dragon blood would have to jump off the Canyon to reach Valla, along with how the curse works; and might have told Azura about how the crystal ball works and where the hiding spot she later gives Gunter is, though those are both unsubstantiated and Azura's just as likely to know about that from experimentation as she is being told so.

None of those pieces of knowledge would be impossible, or even difficult, to convey outside of Valla, given how none of those need to name the kingdom in order to work and can be easily phrased in vague ways.

> but Fates has thus far said that Arete both died in defense of Nohr and that she died to the curse; does Azura mean Arete telling her about Valla is the same as defending Nohr? Did Arete know about the curse, and if so, did she know how much time she'd have before she disappeared? Given that it only works outside of Valla it seems unlikely she would've been able to know the details of it.

Why not? Arete was Vallite royalty; she, of all people, should know how the curse works, especially since we don't know who was told about it or how long it'd been since Anankos put said curse out on the world, or who was told how it worked. We don't have enough information on the specifics of the curse to claim that Arete knowing how it works doesn't make sense.

> And if Valla was so dangerous that all its denizens died, why did Azura go there so frequently, as stated in Conquest?

She liked the peace and quiet, felt homesick, and knew about a hiding spot good enough that Gunter was able to hide away in it for days if not weeks without getting into serious fights with the Vallite soldiers; there's nothing stopping her from using that exact same hiding spot herself, nor anything implying that she didn't.

> The curse is and has always been a small band-aid on the gaping wound that is Fates' structure; it is ostensibly the single reason as to why there is more than one route, yet as Fates continuously demonstrates, all it leads to are questions upon questions upon questions, and the game refuses to both ask and answer them.

It's ONE reason. The other one is that Azura's bad at talking to and convicing people and doesn't think the royal family would believe her without evidence, especially when she'd have to convince people to jump off a cliff if they want proof for her claims. Remove the curse and that reason for why Azura doesn't tell people about Valla still remains.

> Anthony gets transformed into a Faceless, which begs one question: if Anthony was indeed a living human, couldn't Anankos just turn all the playable characters into Faceless?

Anthony's also been under direct control from Anankos for an unspecified amount of time; there's nothing to imply he could turn anyone he wishes into a Faceless as long as they're in Valla just because he did so to someone who'd been working directly for him for a while. I'd give you this point if there was anything in the game that implied Anankos could just do that to anyone he wants, but since he doesn't and there's nothing to imply he can, this is not a contradiction.

> Corrin was too trusting, as they themselves say, but Xander and Ryoma practically tell Corrin not to change. While the game unlikely intends it, the lines come across as actively stopping any character development on the protagonist's part.

Corrin only got as far as he did in Rev by trusting people, even former enemies, and said trust is what ultimately causes the ceasefire between the royal families to happen and Anankos to be defeated. Corrin being convincing and a good judge of character is the main reason they're as succesful as they are in this route; not only is trying to change such a fundamental part of who they are unlikely to suceed, it's likely to cause them to fail later on if they do, if Rev is any indication.

It'd also fuck with one of Revelation's themes; throughout the game, Corrin confides in people, even if they're currently his enemies, to try and get them to ally with him, and they end up trusting him back after he's proven himself with his actions; having Corrin undergo that negative character development, after being proven right in being trustful for 20 chapters, because of one instance where said trust hurt them more than it helped, would make the theme of unity and trust ring pretty hollow.

> I also want to point out just how common it is for Fates to temporarily include a traitor in your ranks or center a map/mini arc around them: Hans (prologue), Zola (Birthright), Flora (Birthright), Takumi (Birthright, involuntarily), Kotaro (Conquest), Anthony (Revelation), Gunter (Revelation).

Was Kotaro a traitor, at least in the way that the others on this list were? Sure, he tried to lie to the team about kidnapping Kagero, but the team clearly takes Saizo's word over Kotaro's as soon as they hear his explanation, demand he prove his innocence, and were about to beat/kill him prior to him defending himself. I'm not sure he should be here.

> This feels so incredibly lazy and it's part of the problem with having a main character like Corrin who lacks agency and rarely initiates fights nor plans ahead.

Yes, because it's not like there's a consistent theme throughout Fates (though mostly BR and Rev) of trusting in people and how that can be beneficial and detrimental, exemplified and developed by Corrin's experiences with trust throughout the stories, with multiple characters betraying that trust and Corrin having to learn and grow from the betrayal. It's just lazy writing, don't think about it any harder than that or try to analyze the story or characters on any deeper levels than surface-level feelings and hunches along with calling anything that isn't explicitly explained/has to be inferred from context and dialogue a plot-hole or, if there's no logistical issues with a chapter or scene, meaningless filler; that's how you get hundreds of updoots on the circlejerk that is r/fireemblem.

Rant aside, what does Corrin's supposed lack of agency (which, even if Odo had given any explanation on why that's supposed to be a bad thing in the first place, is mostly relegated to BR, with Corrin taking initiative and starting most of the fights they participate in in CQ and Rev, the very route Odo's criticizing) and planning (unsubstantiated btw) have to do with people betraying them? How would being more active or more of a planner stop them from having their trust in people betrayed? What's the correlation?

> Conquest had you face the Hoshidan siblings neatly four chapters in a row to savor the dramatic effect at the cost of logistics and logic, and here the enemies are Arete, Mikoto, and Sumeragi.

Explain what the costs to logic were; the only thing you had to say about the Hoshidan family chapters of CQ in your analysis was complain that it didn't make sense for them to be defending important and well-fortified military positions separately instead of all together (leaving the other important positions undermanned), that they weren't fighting in the open fields of Hoshido against the Nohrian army at random (which would be a stupid decision for any military leader to make), and that there weren't guerilla attacks (ignoring that there was a significantly larger army than Corrin's fighting the Hoshidans off-screen and that we can't know what they did to that portion of the army; baseless claim).

> 3) The Nohrians are completely unrelated to these speeches, and the main plot doesn't advance either. You're just walking towards Anankos and the Hoshidans get some closure while the Nohrians temporarily disappear.

Why is that a major issue? The Nohrians don't have any relationship with the dead parents; why should they have any involvement in these scenes, alongside the Hoshidans, who actually care about the people who are dying in front of them?

Also, again, something not being completely relevant to the main plot doesn't make it bad; these scenes are there to give the charactes involved closure. Not every scene or aspect of a story needs to be of extreme importance to the plot for it to be there.

> So, what do the dead parents say? Well, Arete merely says she loves Azura and is glad she got to see her again. It's very short, very basic, and no new info is given.

She also apologizes to Azura for causing her to have such a rough upbringing, though that's still minor; the focus of the scene is more on Azura's emotional response to getting to connect with Arete again for the first time in years anyway, what with her special smiling portrait being used for the first time in any of the routes, along with her following Corrin's lead and trusting Arete not to betray her when she goes to hold her and telling Arete that she made a lot of friends during her journey, ending with Azura crying, again for the first time in any of the routes. So i'd argue it's not exactly fair to the scene to focus solely on what the dying character has to say instead of the alive one.

> This is never once acknowledged despite how important the family feud is supposed to be in Fates. This should be a major revelation (gott'em) but it isn't, same as in Birthright, only this time Corrin also ignores their actual blood related family member as well.

I won't repeat myself here; go to the first part of my Birthright response (link here) if you want the full explanation for why Corrin wouldn't, shouldn't and doesn't care about the reveal in the slightest. It still holds just as true here as it did there.

> It's possible Sumeragi took Mikoto in as a concubine, but why is this so vague? Either Sumeragi cheated, which makes him an asshole,

Sure, but the Hoshidan siblings still care about and like him; even assuming that this is the explanation for that, they're not going to shit-talk someone they deeply like and respect in his final moments by bringing up that time he cheated on his wife instead of saying their goodbyes to the man who raised them, and apparently did so well.

> took Mikoto as a concubine, which is what Garon does and it's framed in a negative light,

Garon taking concubines isn't really framed negatively in and of itself; it's him not caring to try and stop the concubines's rampant infighting, murdering and scheming that's portrayed as a mistake. Sumeragi having concubines but it not being portrayed negatively isn't a contradiction if things went better for him, his children and his wives than they did with Garon, which it evidently did thanks to how much better off the Hoshidan siblings are mentally compared to the Nohrian ones.

> or Ikona was completely fine with being replaced. None of these options reflect well on the characters involved in this.

How does Ikona willingly and gladly accepting being replaced, according to this possibility, a bad look for any of these characters? Doesn't that just mean that she didn't want the responsibility of being queen anymore and left it to Mikoto? Isn't this by far the least morally questionable option for how Mikoto became queen, aside from Ikona conveniently dying soon after having Sakura?

> Can I ask one more thing? What are the odds that Arete and Mikoto are, to our knowledge, the only two adult survivors outside of Valla and also end up becoming queens of Nohr and Hoshido?

Do we know if they're the only people who made it out of Valla and survived to adulthood? Where's the evidence for that?

> I mean, even ignoring the astronomical chance of that happening, and ignoring Garon's concubines and Sumeragi's actual wife (which are two huge things to just set aside, don't misunderstand me), it hardly feels like something two people fleeing a crazy god with their infant children would do. Feels kind of high profile.

Why should they care about Anankos at that point? They know he's in Valla, preparing to take over the world, and that he's incredibly unlikely to remember, know or care about two Vallite royal members leaving Valla and never coming back when he has an army to build and kingdoms to instigate; they're perfectly safe as long as they don't say Valla's name, so i don't see why they shouldn't aim high and try to live a comfortable life as royalty.

> Also, one last thing: how did Sumeragi know Mikoto had traveled from Valla? Could you talk about Valla back then? If so, why did only the royal families of Hoshido and Nohr know about it, as implied by Azura earlier?

Where is it implied that he knew where Mikoto came from as soon as he met her? Isn't it much more likely that he learned about her birthplace, or at the very least it's name, after he became one of Anankos's soldiers, and that's how he knows that?

> "I killed this unrelated character because I don't like you" is basically Iago territory. Even so, didn't Scarlet shield Corrin? I don't think Gunter ever actively targeted her, so not only does Gunter's answer not make much sense, Corrin is also asking the wrong question.

The conversation goes pretty differently in the jp script: (linkmstr fates rev playthrough chapter 26 timestamp 4:10)

> Corrin: Why...?!

> ...What did you...do this for...

> Gunter: What for? Because you weren't paying attention.

> Thus, i took your naive trust and ripped it to shreds.

In this context, they're much more likely to be talking about Gunter's betrayal in general, not specifically him killing Scarlet and trying to kill Corrin.

> And what's more, if Gunter had this kind of power, why did he stop attacking and hide until now? Couldn't he have stabbed them in the back during a fight?

I assume that's what he was going to try and do once they started fighting Anankos; he only revealed himself once Corrin proved he was the traitor, after all.

> To start with, Gunter's offer to drink dragon blood is the first and only time we've heard about this process. What exactly would it entail? Would it be Garon's blood, or would it come straight from Anankos? If Garon had the ability to power people up with dragon blood, which is often what happens when characters in Fire Emblem are descended from people who got a similar offer, wouldn't he do so more often as it'd improve the strength of his army?

We don't know if the dragon blood would have strengthened Gunter; there's no indication anywhere in the game as to what it'd have done to him if he'd drank it. This entire paragraph is guesswork.

> I'm also in awe that Nohr manages to conquer anything considering the land is barely hospitable (and also cursed), but its king arbitrarily kills off his own people and is rebelled against on multiple fronts.

The land in the capital is barely hospitable; not so for the conquered territories, which is where they get all their resources from. Also, killing people on a whim is something you get to do when you're a tyrant with complete control of the military. We only know of two rebellions in the game against Nohr, both of which are quickly and easily destroyed once Garon loses his patience with them.

> So, I think this is supposed to be some kind of political commentary...? At the end of the final path. Or maybe it's just a hamfisted excuse for the Gunter twist. Regardless, I think the dialogue here is also incredibly bizarre too; Xander and Ryoma seem to think this is some kind of misunderstanding and that royals aren't like that at all. However, in Xander's case, hasn't he seen and heard enough about Garon and his ilk to know that this should be happening regularly? I mean Leo's line in Conquest about all the Nohrian siblings stealthily disobeying Garon's orders seems to imply as much.

> This dialogue is asinine and, I don't know, childish? Characters in Fates feel like an AI's approximation of how humans talk, but essential pieces are missing.

Corrin, Xander and Ryoma's lines don't exist at all in the jp script:

> Gunter: ...Well? ...I don't understand how royalty thinks.

> For royalty like you, you probably think commoners and weeds are no different.

> Kamui: ......

> Marx: ......

> Ryouma: ......

I don't think i need to explain why this difference makes the previous few paragraphs innacurate.

> Do we know how much of this was Gunter and how much was Anankos?

Anankos's possession works by taking already-existing negative emotions like sorrow, resentment, or anger, and slowly amplifying said feelings more and more until it reaches unreasonable degrees, to the point of being able to mind-control someone eventually, as demonstrated by Takumi in Conquest. By all accounts, Gunter is near-completely blameless for this.

> Forgiveness being given so easily in this game is one of those contributing reasons to why everyone feels so lifeless.

Some people are just quick to forgive someone who wronged them; i don't know what else to say to that.

> Ryoma doesn't say a word about Scarlet here,

Ryoma also knows that that was Anankos's fault, not Gunter's; why would he blame him for being possessed and being forced to do something he'd never have done otherwise?

> and Corrin doesn't mind Gunter, a man they grew up with, having been around purely for selfish reasons.

Corrin's memories of Gunter, and their friendship with him, are more important to them than the fact that he didn't have good intentions for doing so; plus, they're the forgiving sort in general, as evidenced by all the routes. I don't see the issue with them still liking Gunter.

> Also, how exactly did Gunter plan to use Corrin, again? Corrin was locked inside a fortress most of their life, and we saw none of Gunter's scheming in the prologue nor in Conquest.

Taking a member of the royal family hostage is pretty good leverage; i don't doubt that Gunter would have tried to take Corrin hostage in the prologue if Hans hadn't thrown him off that bridge.

> The subplot has no real thematic, character or story value, meaning it was likely added to increase the tension of the journey to Anankos,

Idk about it not having the first two; it's a pretty blatant continuation and development of the trust theme that's been prevalent throughout both Birthright and Revelation, what with Corrin choosing to continue trusting Gunter even after finding out that most of his affections to them were likely an act and that he directly betrayed them, even if only due to mind-control; it also gives a nice amount of depth to Gunter as a character by expanding on his backstory and motivations. I won't argue it couldn't have been easily removed from the story, but there's enough interesting details there to justify it's inclusion.

> but surely a dragon as powerful as him would have a stronger presence on his home turf than acting through Gunter for the few chapters where the plot remembers to make use of him or even acknowledge there being an assassin in their ranks.

Anankos assuming direct control (if you know you know) of his hosts is a pretty massive buff to them; just look at Gunther and Takumi pre- and post-possesssion.

Besides, he's pretty much thrown everything he has at the team already, other than fighting them directly; they've beaten his army every time they fought, foiled an assassination attempt on their leader's life, killed his most powerful generals, and freed one of his only two hosts from his control. I genuinely don't see what else he's supposed to do against them at this point; he's certainly not been shown or implied to be capable of doing anything else to Valla or the team.

> At long last, our heroes reach Anankos, who starts whining over humans thriving while he's left alone. We know the guy is crazy and the Rainbow Sage told us about dragon degeneration, but like...does he have to be so pathetic? Maybe it's just meant to be sad and it's like you're taking a pet to get euthanized, but this is the true big bad. The one responsible for manipulating (I use that term VERY generously) the Nohrian royalty into attacking Hoshido, someone who has been scheming to take over the world above (?) while remaining hidden. Maybe I was wrong to expect more than whining and stock evil monologue.

Why does one contradict the other? Someone can be manipulative and ambitious while also feeling slighted over a perceived injury done to him by an entire race; what's wrong with Anankos having gone mad and still being angry and upset at humanity for betraying him, to the point of sounding pathetic when airing his grievances?

> Xander, as is also tradition at this point, says something strange:

> Xander: After all that we've suffered... We lose our father as well?

> Not to sound callous, but what have the Nohrians lost at this point? Hans and Iago? Sure, there has been fighting between Hoshido and Nohr, so a generous interpretation is that Xander is talking about the casualties of the war. But, like...there has been zero attention put on them. In Valla, all we see are the royal siblings, Azura, Corrin, Gunter, and a very warped family tree.

Why is the fact that the casualties of the war aren't given much attention supposed to be a counter-argument to the possibility that Xander's talking about the people that died during the war tho?

This is an issue with these posts that i've alluded to previously, but since we're nearing the end of them, i'll make it clear one last time: dozens of times throughout this analysis series, Odo brings up an issue he has with the story, points out a possible counter-argument for said issue, then uses the fact that said counter-argument is based on a plot point/line of dialogue that doesn't have an unquantifiable and unexplained amount of screen time dedicated to it as a defeater for said counter-argument; not only is it never once explained why a plot point needs significant amounts of screentime before it can be used as an argument, not only is it never explained how much time that even is, ignoring plot points and character details that could explain and inform what happens in a story just because they're minor is terrible argumentation.

I wouldn't have as much of an issue with these moments if they were at least rare, but these posts are positively fit to bursting with these points; i implore anyone reading this to go back through Odo's posts and count how many times he brings up possible counter-arguments to his positions only to dismiss them as false solely due to insufficient screentime/bringing up dev intentions when talking about in-universe logic/complete non-sequiturs. It's one of the worst and most consistent parts of a series of already terrible analysis posts.

> Even with KotOR II being rushed out the gate despite the developers' protests, the writing of the game is generally top notch even for people who aren't fans of Star Wars like me, and it mostly remains thematically consistent and features a well-thought-out cast of characters who all have something to contribute to the overarching story. Fates lacks any of this, so when the entire cast is suddenly standing in the Valla throme room, I can't help but think that the infamously unfinished KotOR II has a more coherent ending.

This is a nonsensical comparison; the only thing i can even imagine the two games having enough in common with to warrant it being brought up in this post is Odo equating a timeskip to the multiple logistical issues with base Kotor 2's ending, which is incredibly disingenuous.

Even then, the arguments made by Odo as to why he thinks Kotor 2 has a better ending than Rev are nothing short of bizarre; he says it has good writing, good characters and is thematically consistent and, because Fates doesn't have any of that (citation desperately needed), it automatically makes the ending of Kotor 2 more coherent?? What do any of the previous points have anything to do with which of the two games has the more logical ending???

> Corrin's coronation in Valla is perhaps the single strangest scene I've personally ever seen in any game that tries to tell a serious story. Not once did this come up, outside of mentioning in passing that Corrin is part of the Valla royal family. But, like, the country is dead!

No it's not:

> Anthony: Yes. Right now, all the people left here...

> Without even being able to leave, we now live like slaves.

There's plenty of people still alive in Valla, and the country itself seems to be doing relatively fine on resources and such; why can't Corrin rule over what's left, exactly?

> Azura is also alive!

And doesn't want to take the throne; being king or queen of a country isn't easy, let alone of one that's going to need a lot of rebuliding. Plus, it's possible to marry her to a male Corrin so they rule together, making this entire point null and void if that happens.

> You can't just make the protagonist the king or queen of an otherworldly country locked underneath a magical gate with all its inhabitants dead without any sort of planning or preparation!

It's a timeskip; we don't know how long it's been since they killed Anankos, a point you yourself bring up just a few paragraphs later, making me wonder why this point is even here if you already knew when writing it that the game answers your criticism.

> And what happened to the shifting skies which would keep Valla sort of sealed for a few vague decades or so?

Given that Xander and Ryoma can still visit Valla a few months later at most, Anankos's death seems to have fixed that issue; no idea why, but it evidently did.

> Right. Land donations. Of course. They can't stay in Valla, so Xander and Ryoma literally create a country for Corrin to rule over. Why would they do this?!

Because Corrin saved the world and is going to need resources if they want to rebuild Valla? Why are you so surprised at Xander and Ryoma being willing to give them some land when Corrin's the only reason they're still alive and they know they're going to need help to run a kingdom?

> I understand a time skip is implied since Ryoma and Xander are referred to as kings, but couldn't they at the very least fade to black and write "a few months later" or something? The way the game transitions into this scene you'd think they walked from fighting to Anankos to this, and it's honestly what I thought before reading the script again now.

I thought Fates didn't leave anything open-ended or had any subtlety, and that you'd have preferred if it did; why are you now complaining that the game didn't spell out the fact that it's been a while since Anankos died and instead trusted players to figure out as much by context clues from the dialogue and story? Isn't this exactly the kind of thing you wanted when you complained about Garon being teleported in and killed just to tie up the remaining loose ends?

> But why? Why are you doing this? Why is this necessary?

What else are they supposed to do with Valla now that it doesn't have a king? Give up on any hopes of ever rebuilding the place, hoping that the remaining Vallites just agree to abandon their home and live in Nohr and/or Hoshido, instead of giving the place over for someone to rule? Why is this being treated as an issue?

> And why would Corrin be a good monarch because they're a good person? I thought Revelation more than any route established that they're naive and guillable.

Not really; Corrin trusting in people is the only reason they managed to defeat Anankos, and the only times they're truly tricked in Rev by someone they trusted are Anthony (partially; they immediately suspected that he was going to do something shady and warned the rest of the team to look for them and kill Anthony if they didn't return, and went along with him on the slim chance that Anthony wasn't lying) and Gunter (even then still figures out that he's the traitor after realizing a contradiction in his arguments, before he can do any further harm to the team); they may be trusting, but they aren't naive or guillible.

> So, uh, Camilla doesn't want to become queen in Birthright, Hinoka has to become queen in Conquest because her brothers are dead, and here Azura says she doesn't want to be queen because of Corrin's magic sword. This is a very, very concerning pattern.

Camilla doesn't want to become queen in Birthright because she knows she isn't fit for the job, Hinoka says she never thought she'd take the throne and that she always expected it to be Ryoma or Takumi, who's younger than her, implying that either Hoshido's succession line is patriarchal or that she, just like Camilla, doesn't want the responsibility of running an entire country, and Azura demonstrates herself to be a poor leader multiple times throughout Rev. Her mentioning the Yato is a very minor point compared to the other one.

Being in charge of a country, in case you don't know, is a tremendous pain in the ass; them not wanting to deal with all that bullshit isn't what you're implying it is, and why would it be? Why is it that three women not wanting to dedicate the rest of their lives to leading a country, preferring to give that burden away to someone better-prepared for dealing with the issues that would come with being a monarch, giving themselves more freedom in how they live their lives, sexist?

> I've always wondered, if Anankos knew he'd be crazy and created an elaborate plan for others to kill him, why did he make it so needlessly complicated and why didn't he kill himself? The Rainbow Sage could die whenever he wanted, so there's precedence.

I haven't looked at the DLC in a while, so i can't speak on that, but just from what Azura said in this convo, Anankos's plan doesn't seem to have been particularly convoluted; hell, it doesn't even come across as if he had a plan. The only thing Azura says here is that Anankos made a song that could weaken himself and hoped that someone would use it to kill him if and when he went mad; doesn't seem like much of a plan to me, or at least not a convoluted one, though maybe the DLC complicates things.

I also don't see why Anankos should share the Sage's ability to kill himself whenever he wants; they're both dragons, sure, but i don't understand why they should share abilities just because of that.

> And, like always, questions that should be asked aren't. Despite offering so little in terms of subplot and main plot progression, Corrin doesn't even ask who their father is after Mikoto reveals they're part of the Valla royal family. And why is that? Likely to sell more DLC.

Also because they don't care who their father is; why should they, when they have the much more pressing issues of their mother dying in front of them and having a dragon to kill? Why's that a question that would be running through Corrin's mind with all the shit going on when Mikoto being Vallite was revealed, especially when they still consider Sumeragi their real father, as evidenced by their convo with him in the next chapter?

> Because even though this is the golden ending, they chose to confirm that Corrin is Anankos' child in DLC, despite the fact that it should have been of monumental importance for the Revelation route.

What importance would Corrin knowing who their father was have had for Rev? Corrin feeling slightly more bad about having to kill Anankos to save the world, only to do so anyway because they don't have any relationship with him whatsoever and, as such, wouldn't have any emotional problems with killing him? The only times that Corrin's heritage matters in Rev is that it's why they take the throne, and that's just because they're descended from royalty, not because of Anankos; i genuinely have no idea what importance you're trying to argue that that reveal's supposed to have.

> From a certain point of view, Revelation renders Birthright and Conquest obsolete in terms of story value, as even if you choose them, you'll always know that you picked a bad ending. Anankos will still be alive, Corrin won't know about him, at least one legendary weapon wielder will be dead, and so he'll always be able to come back.

Do we know whether or not the remaining siblings can pick up the legendary weapons? The children of the wielders evidently could, so i don't see why their siblings shouldn't also be able to. The Sage also seemed to think things were going to work out fine for them, or else he'd have told them about Anankos; something must have happened post-game that made things end well for the world, even if we don't know what, and it's still possible for Anankos to be killed thanks to the other siblings still being alive.

And even if i were to give you that the BR and CQ worlds are fucked, why does that make them obsolete? That'd just mean it's in a worse state than in Rev; there's still plenty of unique stuff that happens in those stories, with their own story values. One route having a better ending for the world than the others doesn't mean the other two routes, with worse endings for the continent, don't have story value anymore.

This post was...okay. It wasn't as good as the last one, but it also wasn't the trainwreck that was CQ part 2; the only things i have to say about this is that Odo really toned up the subjective arguments for this part in general (though none of them are as individually bad as the Izumo feast; that part was insane in how bad-faith it was), made a pointless and nonsensical Kotor 2 comparison completely unprovoked (though perhaps i shouldn't be surprised at the existence of non-sequiturs in these posts; god knows i've dealt with enough of them already while trying to read these), misinterpreted Corrin's character (as usual), refused to use simple inferrence to easily answer his own questions (also as usual), and made what i think is the first, or at least most blatant, contradiction in one of these posts by complaining about Fates's lack of subtlety and/or unwillingness to leave things open-ended, only to complain that a scene was too subtle about how much time it'd been since the last one and asking that the game spell it out for the audience (not a particularly important issue but a funny one nonetheless).

See y'all later.

[inkxlenses]

Regarding post/172299066623/istj-hedonist-samlick23-istj-hedonist-when I don't get why people would compare mbti with astrology and shit. It's as flawed as any other personality theories but it's still a system that works. Astrology doesn't even deserve to be called a personality theory 😩 And just like u said it's never about 'personality' anyway?? That test clusters people yet only considers people's behaviors as if nobody doesn;t have shit like that

Okay. These are among the most exciting asks that I have received so far. I would like for this blog to be as drama-free™ as much as possible because it’s just my virtual escape™. I have also always expressed that I don’t consider this blog as solely an aesthetic™ and inspiration blog. In fact, I was very humbled to be encouraged by my friends and followers to continue including topics that interest me in this blog. But even though this is my blog, I know that I have the responsibility to check what I post here to ensure that nothing would negatively affect someone else’s mental and emotional health (especially as I have observed that most of my followers are minors). So I would just keep my response under the line—and because it’s just really, really, long. HAHA. Also, just for future reference, if you oh-so-hate MBTI [or whatever piece of knowledge I feature here/ if you’re only interested with the aesthetic™ content], you could blacklist my *mbti*, *text* and *photo* tags.

Coincidentally, I would be having a mini-hiatus, and this would be my only response regarding this topic because I’m not really fond of tumblr drama™. I would be temporarily disabling anonymous asks during my break, so if you have anything you would like to discuss with me, kindly contact me via private messaging (but please be patient with my response. I promise I would get back to you as soon as I become online). My only request is that you should first read what I have to say before reacting to anything, because I might have already discussed what you are trying to ask. No worries, I wouldn’t judge nor hate you for your opinions. I actually welcome and enjoy healthy debates (as it is part of my real-life job lmao). And I’m not a fragile snowflake™ so you could really talk to me about anything, I wouldn’t mind :P 

Firstly and most importantly, I want to apologize to anyone who had been offended or had felt attacked on my rant. I was not describing a particular person in the *inner dialogue*, and it’s not my intention to offend anyone. So if anyone had felt this way, again, my apologies.

So what is this post about?

I had recently reblogged an MBTI post where I was referring to the function theory—not the common MBTI stereotypes and misconceptions circulating over the internet. And just like what I had mentioned over and over again [and on my tags on that particular MBTI post], online MBTI tests are not accurate and should not be taken seriously. It’s disappointing how 16personalities have been profiting from this by selling misinformation to people. This was OP’s topic, in which I had just agreed with their views and had personally shared my opinions as well. Yet it seems to be that there had been some misunderstanding regarding said topic. Literally OP’s argument—and the same criticisms we continuously read regarding MBTI *points to some of the anons above*—are exactly what we are critiquing as well, because these are common misconceptions and stereotypes which are not related to the theory anyway. So I don’t really understand the intense reaction regarding our opinions on the letter dichotomy and online MBTI tests, because we actually disapprove of the same things as well. Weird -_-

I never mentioned nor even vaguely expressed that MBTI should be the zenith™, the absolute “ Law™ ”, nor do I believe that it should monopolize all the ideas in personality theories. That’s just.. funny. We wouldn’t mind if the function theory is not your thing; you can leave it just like that. Simple. Just like how everyone else has their own beliefs and interests that others simply don’t agree with as well. Nobody would forcefully entice you to MBTI, especially if you had not expressed your interest and curiosity for it. It’s just a matter of respecting others’ POVs and interests.

I could easily brush this off because I truly believe that people are entitled to their opinions, and I respect that. More importantly, I had studied typology for several years now that I’m already quite confident of my knowledge about it. Thus, I won’t easily be shaken by criticisms about the theory—which I’m very much aware of anyway. Sadly, it’s seems to be an automatic impulse in tumblr to hate, rather than communicate. My friends had told me of someone publicly posting something defamatory with regards to the MBTI post that I reblogged. I don’t know what that particular blog had been aiming for, but clearly their hateful intent had failed miserably. I didn’t expect the support of my friends, more so, the consideration of people from the MBTI community. I really want to thank everyone who had supported and understood me even if I wasn’t online during that time. My friends are so protective of me, and the responses of people from the MBTI community had been so funny and adorable I’m SO flattered. Watch as my face turns vermillion xD

With that said, I felt like I should at least explain my part and answer the anons who aren’t in favour of MBTI. I just want to stress that I don’t plan to forcefully persuade you to believe MBTI. My only intent is so that you could look into my perspective as I share my knowledge and understanding after many years of studying the theory, in contrast to the misconceptions and stereotypes about it, which I believe is what these anons were referring to. I emphasize that if MBTI is not your *thing*, then you could simply ignore it. This topic is very important to me because it had helped with my well-being, introspection, relationship with others, career, and general outlook in life. So I just want to clarify some points with regards to the asks above^ because I believe some misunderstandings had occurred. So thank you very much @hueristix​, @clumsynix​, @ckatharcis, @tzeentchs-secretary​ and anons for your messages. I am really so thrilled to discuss my views with you.

The cognitive function theory—more commonly known and referred to as MBTI [especially here]—explores the human cognition, NOT outward behaviours and personal preferences. Contrary to what the first anon had said, I believe that we cannot compare the theory with astrology because the former never categorizes how humans act the way they act, more so, it never simply propose their “ personality traits ”. The theory recognizes that every person has their own free will, inherent capabilities, traits, emotions, and preferences (etc. I could go on and on, I swear), and would be constantly affected by personal struggles, life circumstances and other external factors through out their life.. and well, basically just like what Jeanne (ckatharcis) had referred to, it acknowledges that humans cannot be “ clustered ” simply through their behaviours, personal preferences, traits, etc. because again, the theory is NOT about that. Thought process is the essential and primordial reason why outward behaviours, personal preferences, emotions, etc. are easily observable in a person, and NOT the other way around. Thus, it’s also the reason why your type cannot change contrary to common misconceptions, and essentially the reason why tests are not reliable. [Link 1, Link 2—I highly recommend this post.]

I think the first anon is not familiar with the function theory, but, instead, with the letter dichotomies (i.e. I vs. E, etc.) which is the general principle on the said 16personalities site [and other online MBTI tests]. This was exactly what OP had criticized and what I had discussed on my *inner dialogue*. Again, I do not blame the first anon or anybody else who are familiar with this concept because misconceptions and stereotypes are easier to be accessed, contrary to the theory itself which would definitely require time and in-depth research to get acquainted with. I understand that not everyone would be interested to invest time and effort on something that they would just like to casually learn. And it’s okay.

However, I would like to clarify that I [and I truly believe that OP as well] have no intention to humiliate, condemn, mock or ostracize people who had only been familiar with MBTI stereotypes (the letter dichotomy) and/or had only taken online MBTI tests, because we understand that [again], sadly, those misconceptions are disappointingly perpetuating in the internet and even on some books. OP had clearly stated that their only issue was how people who aren’t really familiar with the function theory should refrain from initiating any MBTI-related discussion. Even if I personally agree with OP, their premise was repeatedly contradicted by others who were justifying the validity of 16personalities. However, I believe that asking questions and expressing genuine interest to learn more is different from spreading misinformation to others. As long as you do your own research first, the MBTI community here is actually very welcoming of people who would like to learn more of the theory. The MBTI community here also encourages critical thinking, exchanges of different ideas, and endless rational debates—which is exciting, right?

I think OP had been very honest with their opinion (though may had been perceived as *offensive* and rude by some) and I truly concur with their points. I’ve said in my *inner dialogue* how I believe that spreading wrong information is destructive. It is damaging to other people who have only been starting to learn the theory, to take advice and information, or be mentored by people who had been misinformed as well. Why? Because above all else, the theory is used for self-evaluation and understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses (with regards to their cognitive process), to provide clear direction on how to advance towards their personal growth and development. For that reason, if one is mistyped, and they generally believe that their thought process works this *particular* way and that they have *certain* strengths and/or weaknesses, then they are not only failing to seize the opportunity to recognize their *actual* strengths and weaknesses through fully understanding how their cognition works, but they could also potentially damage their mental health and well-being because that is not how their thought process operates. It worsens when spreading misinformation like that is increasing exponentially.

We would never dismiss nor humiliate anyone who have only been starting to familiarize themselves with the theory, because we had been beginners as well. Mate, my blog is not an MBTI blog, but I have two mutuals who had been so humble to admit that they had fell for that abomination-of-a-test, and had asked me about the basics and other resources to study the theory. I never ridiculed them; contrary, I was so proud of their humility to admit that they had been misinformed, and of their willingness to learn. There is no shame in that. I really admire people who admit their mistakes or ignorance because I know that people who think this way are really the ones who have the desire to learn and improve, and have insatiable thirst to absorb more knowledge.

I’ve been studying the function theory for about 3 or 4 years now, but I still consider myself to be a newbie at this. Even if I’m already quite confident of my knowledge about it, I know that I still have a lot more to learn [and that’s exciting]. But OP and other legit MBTI blogs here have been studying this theory for many years now, and they are considered as reliable resource persons for other MBTI enthusiasts as well [at least in tumblr]. Which is why I think [just my opinion], they could easily retaliate on insults or misinformation thrown at them by people who don’t even make an effort to read just the basics and/or have poor acumen to just believe everything they read on the internet, yet have all the liberty in the world to whine and be [passive-aggressively] defensive to rationalize their misconceptions of the theory. These legit MBTI blogs know what they’re talking about, and I think you could be the judge as to how they could react to insults thrown at them by people who don’t even understand the topic itself. I’ll just quote hueristix here, “ laziness should not be an excuse to ignorance ”. As I’ve said before: be receptive to different ideas, yet skeptical enough to question everything before accepting any piece of information as real™. And yes, that includes everything I say. After all, I’m just responding to opinions as well and we’re all just stating our subjective views here. We wouldn’t mind if the function theory is not your thing; you can leave it just like that. Simple. Nobody would forcefully entice you to MBTI, especially if you had not expressed your interest and curiosity for it. It’s just a matter of respecting others’ POVs and interests.

Yes, I am passionate about this theory and I know it is fine. But never had I mentioned nor even vaguely expressed that MBTI should be the zenith™, the absolute “ Law™ ”, nor do I believe that it should monopolize all the ideas in personality theories. I don’t know if what the first anon actually meant was: since I’m so passionate of this theory, then MBTI must be My Favourite™ personality theory, thus, I propose that it should be held true above all else.. but uhm I just want to clarify that MBTI is not My Favourite™ (I even prefer Enneagram over it, sorry haha). I am aware that it’s not the most recognized personality theory in the field of Psychology. And I had said it before, and I’ll say it again: just like any other typological theories, I know that MBTI has its merits and flaws. Though there is qualitative neuroscientific research intended to point evidence to the existence of cognitive functions in the human mind, MBTI is still not 100% considered to be scientific by some [because according to them there is no physical manifestation of cognitive functions. Uhm. I’d just leave it like that.. For now]. No personality theory is infallible. And again, as I had said in verbatim on my *inner dialogue*: “ The human mind is so complex. And to propose that a person’s *personality* could easily be identified through a 10-minute test is just absurdly.. laughable to me [not to mention that that test is focused more on NATURAL HUMAN behaviours and not cognition—which is what the theory is about anyway xxxx xxxx xxxx] like wtf so amazeballs that they could identify my *personality* with such an overly-random question that any other person could have strong preference over the other. ”. So I don’t really understand what the first anon’s critic was, because what they had pointed out was exactly what OP, I, and basically all the people who had studied this theory are continually expressing. Based on my tags alone, we’re actually on the same team™ here.

How? (1) I had said earlier that the theory does not limit human free will. It understands that people have innate imprints in them that manifest on how they act, talk, feel, etc. In the same way, it also understands how people and their preferences are constantly developing and changing [and yes as the first anon said, “ evolving ”], because humans will continue to encounter and be exposed to several personal afflictions, relationship struggles, disappointments, successes, gratifications, religious beliefs, cultural conformity, and other life-altering situations and external factors throughout their lifetime that will heavily affect their behavioural makeup and adaptability to their external environment. Everyone—whatever their type may be—can behave any way they like depending on the situations and circumstances that they are dealing with, because there are many factors that affect and influence how people behave, not only a person’s type. BUT their cognitive functions have been there all along, constantly operating, even if their *functional stack* could fluctuate on their healthy and/or unhealthy states depending on how they had adjusted and adapted to these circumstances [uhm more advanced topic of the theory—see the beauty of this theory? It’s never obsolete. Contrary to misconceptions, the theory recognizes the erratic human nature. It pains me how people could outright dismiss and insult the theory without studying it first, because they fail to realize its usefulness in a person’s life, more than what that shite site says *ho hum*]. (2) I agree with most of the principles of the function theory because it doesn’t “ categorize everyone into 16 cutout personality types ”, nor does it have a manual that says “ ‘here are a few common personality traits, be free’ aspect ”. MBTI stereotypes and ideas from the 16personalities assert that; the function theory does not. (3) [uhm this is getting so repetitive now] The theory is not about what our external behaviours are, nor does it dictate what our *personalities* are. Rather, on the simplest terms, it analyzes how we think. It analyzes how we make decisions, through our cognitive process, when we encounter a particular situation.

Hopefully, my explanation would be enough to clear up some misunderstandings from the aforesaid post. However, I believe that this explanation alone would not suffice for anyone who are still confused with the theory and/or for those who are interested to learn more. Hence, the next section is really just for reference and further clarification, just in case there are still some questions that others are still confused about. That said, I know that I would not be able to articulate these ideas the way this particular blog do [and I don’t want to sound like a bot if I would just be reciting their ideas exactly as they had expressed it], so I’d just be quoting one of the most reliable MBTI blogs here and a personal favourite of mine (mbti-notes), to give insight on some issues that had been critiqued on that post. These are really interesting and thought-provoking ideas so I hope you could take time to read them. Also, I highly-recommend their blog!

[With regards to common MBTI stereotypes and misconceptions]:

Anonymous: Stereotypes give people wrong assumptions about what types are. They don’t define what your personality or your actions are going to be like. They don’t even define what thoughts you have. It’s simply the pattern and the functions you use to come to conclusions. I’m an ENTP (22) and my best friend is an ENFP (23). Yet people would probably switch our two types because I tend to be very gentle and kind around others while she appears more tough and openly says what she thinks.

I appreciate your point. Part of the reason for the stereotyping problem is that the information online and even in books is dominated by two main schools of thought that focus very heavily on behavior at the expense of cognition (Myers-Briggs and Keirsey Temperaments), so a lot of people do not realize that there are other (better) interpretations available. My first exposure to typology was through Keirsey and, although I thought it was interesting at the time, I wasn’t able to see the full potential of the system because everything was masked behind simplistic labels (stereotypes) that didn’t seem to connect with real life to the degree that I thought was necessary to be a truly viable theory of personality. I think a lot of people get interested in MBTI because of its practical applicability in situations like personal relationships or group/work environments and MBTI is good for learning some general rules of thumb that can help you improve the ways in which you deal with different kinds of people. However, general rules of thumb very easily morph into stereotyping and pigeonholing when people do not understand the finer details of the theory and then apply the ideas and principles too carelessly. The human mind is prone to lazy overgeneralizing or drawing invalid conclusions as it is and the lack of depth in the information available unfortunately encourages that laziness. (Source)

[With regards to MBTI’s *accuracy*]:

Anonymous: Do you think that other personality identification types such as Alignment and Global 5/SLOAN are more, less, or just as accurate as MBTI can be?

“Accuracy” is not really the right question. Every theory of personality that is developed by academics is put together very deliberately to serve a particular purpose, and it must be used as intended in order to preserve validity. Unfortunately, when the ideas trickle down into mainstream consciousness, the original purpose of the theory often gets lost in translation, with the general public using it more like a horoscope or fortune cookie and then complaining about the inaccuracies. Every kind of theory has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the Five Factor model is a trait theory, which has the advantage of being easily quantifiable and very reliable for statistical analysis. However, there is no actual theoretical underpinning for it because the traits are derived from factor or data analysis, which offers no explanation as to why traits exist, how they arise, why there are only five, and so on. Trait theories are limited in what they are able to explain about human behavior but they remain very useful for doing replicable research studies. There is of course some overlap of concepts between trait theories and type category theories like MBTI.

Cognitive function theory is a qualitative and holistic model of personality that sprawls into other related areas of psychology. Qualitative research excels at theoretical analysis and depth of detailed explanations and is less conducive to statistical analysis/prediction. Jung developed psychological types as a part of the psychoanalytic tradition, however, that tradition fell out of favor in the US to make way for more popular quantitative research methods, though it continued to expand in certain European circles. Myers & Briggs and David Keirsey brought it back to life in a more digestible form but it was never meant to be distilled to such an extreme degree; MBTI essentially turned into a corporate money making tool and Keirsey rejected the notion of cognitive functions in favor of behavioral descriptors. Many of the criticisms that are leveled at MBTI are legitimate but not actually applicable to cognitive function theory because of not seeing the full extent of it and how it is embedded firmly within the long history of psychoanalytic theory, a school of thought which has done more than any other to reveal the qualities of the unconscious mind. Now that there is emerging neuroscientific research that confirms some of these old ideas about the unconscious, there is some resurgence in their popularity within research circles. (Source)

[With regards to MBTI’s basics, development and “scientific” basis]:

Anonymous: The J/P dichotomy is particularly interesting because, say, you have already three letters I N F, the last letter decides not only your dominant and auxiliary functions, it flips the stack; INFP (Fi-Ne-Si-Te) vs. INFJ (Ni-Fe-Ti-Se), and then we read that according to descriptions those types are very different. But then we also have a lot of people who can’t really decide if they’re INFJ or INFP. It’s all very strange to me.

It’s strange to you because (judging by the earlier question) you haven’t understood what the J/P distinction really means and you haven’t properly distinguished cognition and behavior. Two different cognitive functions can manifest similar looking behaviors on the surface (as I have explained numerous times in the guides, please read them carefully). E.g. Any introvert can be reflective but the reasons WHY a particular individual is reflective, the motive and explanation behind it, differs according to the cognitive functions involved (Fi vs Ni). If you don’t know the details of their inner cognitive processes, you cannot see the differences because, just looking from the outside, all you see is that they are both reflective in demeanor. xxxx xxxx xxxx MBTI type descriptions are purposely simplistic because newbies don’t know the theory and therefore must identify themselves through simple behavioral descriptors. MB designed their system in part to sidestep the complicated process of learning function theory so that more people could access it, a noble intention, therefore simple type descriptions do not include all the info you need to type accurately because they do not address variations within type and cognitive function specifics. In other words, problems with typing stem from lack of knowledge of the theory, usually because of not going any deeper than the simplified descriptions/tests. The test was meant to be administered and interpreted by an expert, which means that people run into all kinds of problems when they try to self-type with limited to no knowledge of type theory.

[continuation of the ask] Is there any real scientific proof that Jungian cognitive functions exist? Dario Nardi’s attempts are certainly interesting, but it’s a common knowledge that EEG method is far from being reliable. Also, on one of his AMA discussions on reddit he presented instances when he was testing midlife INFJ adults who he couldn’t differentiate from of ISTPs, which he attributed to the use the second most common pattern (Ti-Se for INFJs). So, which model is true, or is this a combination of dichotomies and functional stack model? Can you shed some light on those issues and inconsistencies? Additionally, I’d really like your opinion on Reynierse’s articles (“Preference Multidimensionality and the Fallacy of Type Dynamics”, etc.). Thank you. The question of “science” has already been beaten to death over and over again so I’ve grown impatient with this can of worms. I don’t have much to say about Nardi, he’s pursuing his ideas and more power to him, but his work is not particularly interesting to me because it is getting away from other aspects of type theory that I am more interested in. xxxx xxxx xxxxx Some people latch onto him because they desperately want some kind of “scientific proof” of the functions. Some people dabble in typology and keep demanding “scientific proof” but don’t understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. There are different kinds of theories, with different kinds of objectives, with different standards of measurement, with different methods of application - the scientific method is only one valid research framework and it should not be the measure of all things. Traditionally, science often includes the concept of falsifiability but you can’t falsify that which is not within the realm of empirical fact, e.g., you can’t falsify human valuations or subjective meaning/experience, so are these things not “real”? Do you understand the difference between facts and values? Do you believe that only scientific measurements can imbue ideas with value? Do you believe that materialistic explanations of human psychology are the be-all and end-all? Not everything about human experience can be reduced to neurons and electrons. If you think it can, then feel free to dismiss type theory as crap because it’s not going to fit well with your assumptive worldview. Also, abstract and concrete knowledge are different and should be treated differently. No idea is “real” because “real” implies concrete, and ideas are abstract. One can easily claim that any idea is not “real” depending on how you want to set your standards of measurement. xxxx xxxx xxxx Similarly, people claim that “types” or “functions” are not real even when they themselves: behave as type theory describes, suffer the problems that type theory describes, feel attracted to the relationships that type theory describes, follow the developmental path that type theory describes. 


Before you ask for “scientific proof”, you should first define exactly what standards of proof would satisfy you and make you believe that cognitive functions are “real”. It is quite often the case that people who like to harp about scientific “proof” don’t even understand what they’re asking for or to what end, they demand proof but no matter what proof is offered, they keep moving the goalposts because they are actually more interested in criticizing than understanding (see climate change deniers as the perfect example). Just so you know, many mbti bloggers are tired of dealing with such people, we’ve already gone through all these arguments a million times. I’m not saying you’re one of these people but beware that you’re stepping into a complex discussion and don’t seem sufficiently prepared. Instead of making people explain or educate you, state your exact criteria of scientific proof and I’ll happily tell you if type theory passes. Type theory is a big theory and some people find it hard to understand even the basic type concepts which barely scratch the surface because the theory goes far beyond simple typing. It is an incomplete and fragmented theory, with many people working on it for different reasons in different directions. Many people have found elements of type theory very useful and accurate in their lived experiences, even using it to permanently solve long running psychological issues, even using it to deftly cure relationship problems. There is piecemeal neuroscience evidence which does not directly relate to type theory but nonetheless corroborates it. I wouldn’t know if any of this is enough “proof” because you haven’t specified exactly what proof you’re demanding. If the book falling on your head doesn’t prove gravity is “real”, then I suppose all the people whose thought processes match the principles of type dynamics don’t count as real proof either. The results say a lot. I run a popular typology blog and have dealt with thousands of people, so I at least don’t suffer from sample-size-1. Type dynamics describes very specific problems and offers workable solutions, and I’ve witnessed many different kinds of people from different backgrounds, cultures, walks of life apply these ideas with great success. Is this “empirical evidence”? I’ve had the most hardened scientifically-minded strangers think I’m a magical wizard when I can knit together their life story and reveal their innermost insecurities based only on four letters, yet all I’m doing is applying and extrapolating from the theoretical ideas as I understand them, nothing more. 


All I will say about arguments against type dynamics is that they usually can’t see the forest because they’re stuck in the trees: they get wrapped up in granular details and superficial inconsistencies; they don’t see the historical big picture of how every model evolves from and contains the same set of ideas; they don’t see how some disagreements between models are merely semantic and actually address the same underlying concept; they don’t fully grasp the principles of type dynamics and then produce strawman criticisms (some of the points in those articles actually support, add to, or help clarify type dynamics rather than debunk it); they perceive the explanatory flexibility of type dynamics as a flaw, not a strength; they probably prefer trait theories because they are easily quantifiable (and then completely miss the point of type dynamics); they don’t see how the ideas could potentially fit with mathematical dynamics and energy flow. Any theory worth its salt should remain open to criticism, development, and further clarification but, in order to critique a theory successfully, you must first understand it, and I don’t think the author of those articles has understood type dynamics well enough. (Source)

Again, I apologize to anyone who had been offended of what I said in my tags. And thank you very much for taking the time to read this post! :)

P.S. I have no intention to answer that anon who made a sexist comment about M & B. I have already discussed what my points are regarding MBTI Tests™, so I wouldn’t really judge them or anyone else for having fun with taking multiple personality tests. But since I think this anon have zero knowledge of the theory anyway, I have to clarify that it wasn’t created by M & B [who, by the way, even if they had not been psychologists by profession, had made extensive research of the theory—probably more than you would ever do, anon. Then again, I don’t really adhere to M & B’s approach], but was devised by one of the best minds psychology has ever known. FYI that person was a man—if anon would feel more validated™ to know that their own sex is the perfect authority for objective™ measurement of intelligence or competence *cough* it actually isn’t *cough*. Also, I really am so tired already to rebut something that is completely illogical, it’s even barely understandable. *ho hum* I’m very open to discuss opinions that differ from mine, but if you are trying to establish your argument through a sexist comment, then don’t expect that I would answer you with respect.

[lowestechelonabomination]

hey this is kinda an awkward question to ask🧍but uh. as an aro guy, did u ever feel like you CANT love? like you really want to love someone romantically but it just didnt end up working out or something? im trying to figure this out myself and youre one of the few people i think could help so

hm. this is a difficult question to answer because my aroaceness is more complicated than most people's I think. I never really went through the whole sexuality questioning process because honestly, I just never really cared. like, to me, the extent of my knowledge on sexualities for many many years was just the vague subconscious awareness that well, some people like other people I guess, whatever, that's none of my business, who cares. I literally only found out I was aroace when one of my friends was like "hey have you ever heard of asexuality?", and I looked at that and went "huh. guess that works", and then just kinda forgot about it. as a kid I'd tell other people that I had crushes, but I don't think I ever knew what a crush actually was. people would talk about theirs and I'd sit there like "oh yeah, I totally get that too. mine's uh *points at random guy across room* that one". for a few years in elementary school I'd convinced myself I had a crush on one of my friends, but looking back, I'm like 99.999% sure it wasn't one, but also have no idea what else was going on there either. did I have any feelings for him? who knows, it's not like I can actually name, recognize, or even really feel any feelings anyway. also, to clarify, the main reason why I say that being aroace is Very Complicated for me is because I just happen to have this really weird form of alexithymia that I haven't ever really seen anyone else have, where I literally only experience emotions physically. like, for example, instead of feeling stress like everyone else, I'll just get shaky randomly with zero actual emotion. it's...extremely confusing, to say the least. anyway. having that knowledge about my weird little autism brain means that I have this lingering doubt of "what if I'm not actually aro, and any crushes I may or may not have gotten were just blocked by my complete inability to recognize literally any emotion?" but then I reassure myself that being aro is having a lack of romantic feelings, and if I have a lack of general feelings then that implies a lack of romantic ones too, so even if my aromanticism was caused entirely by autism then it would still technically be aromanticism. anyway, I've gotten off track. so. to answer your question, I've never wanted to like someone romantically, and I genuinely have no idea what love is. not in a sad or edgy or depressed way (though I do also have some pretty strong anhedonia which does not make things any easier to figure out), but purely in a My God Do I Have Some Autism Alright way. I've tried to figure out the concept, but my brain just. can't. so basically, I'm probably not the best person to ask this either, considering how very dependent my aromanticism is on my specific kind of neurodivergence. I don't know if I can or can't love, and I frankly don't really care, so I solved that problem just like how I solved every other question I didn't particularly care about answering: by completely ignoring it. exhibit a: gender. anyway sorry for this unnecessarily long ramble, it's late at night and I like talking about myself a bit too much

tldr: uh I am probably also not the person you should be asking. being aro to me is heavily dependent on my specific forms of neurodivergence and personality, and my relationship with being aroace is definitely not common. sorry. wish you the best in figuring things out though :). I'm sure you could also find some good resources for questioning aros if you dig around

[klanced]

Hi! I really like your account and I had a couple questions. I'm starting high school soon and I'm kinda worried over it and some other things, do you have any tips or advice? If you don't that's fine. Oh and, who's your favorite paladin?

Hi hi back!! Thank u for the kind words!!! :3c And to answer your question, if I had to choose a favorite Paladin, it would probably be Allura! I love Keith but by GOD he frustrates me sometimes. Anyway, onto the advice!!

Middle school and high school are VERY different, but the differences tend to be either incredibly obvious or more subtle. Like, the kind of subtleness where you’re in sophomore year and you look around you and you think ‘hm. Sixth grade feels very far away.’

Because you’re starting high school I’ll only focus on freshman year, if that’s okay!

For the most part, freshman year is like a underhand throw. They’re trying to ease you into things. High school, after all, means waking up at the most ridiculous hour of your life, depression, and puberty Really starting to take off. For the most part, adults know that you’re going through more stuff than school at the moment. But it’s up to the individual teacher to decide how understanding they’re going to be.

Now where to start… How about academics? If you care about your grades, freshman year is essential for starting off on the right foot. Most of your science/math/English placement was probably decided in middle school, but your freshman year is where you prove where you belong. Basically: you will probably stay at that level of math/science/English for all four years of high school unless you bust your ass and study and move up. (And by that, I don’t mean moving up a math level during the school year, I mean qualifying for honors math for sophomore year, etc.)

If you don’t really care about that sort of thing, okay. But if you want to be in all honors classes or AP classes for your junior and senior year, you need to start working immediately. My biggest regret of high school is that I spent my freshman/sophomore/part of junior year working in an aimless direction, and just went with the flow. Which was fine at the time, but it came back to bite me in the ass once I reached the end of my junior year and started the college process. You don’t have to commit yourself to one specific college from the moment you turn 14. But if you want to go to a good college, or if you want to win scholarships, you have to start planning and working towards that. I don’t mean to give you a lot of anxiety, but my high school was Very competitive and honestly pretty toxic, and it’s influenced my viewpoint.

On a lighter note, take the time to look at all the available classes, even the ones you can’t take yet. If you like biology, consider taking honors/AP bio as an upperclassmen, and plan accordingly for that. What prerequisites do I need to complete? Do I have to be at a specific level for math/science? When am I eligible for the class? That sort of thing.

Also: finish your requirements as fast as possible!!! I hate art classes, and I put them off until my junior year, which was a Mistake because junior/senior year is The Year Of Electives. Well, at least in my school. So instead of taking tons of cool electives, I had to take this goddamn photoshop class to fulfill my requirement. Freshman year me was thrilled about having a free period every day; junior year me cursed my fourteen-year-old self. God. Hindsight really is 20/20.

Another thing… teachers! Try to be kind to your teachers. Unless they’re raging assholes who spit toxic one-liners or seem to single you out in class just to embarrass you. Those teachers can burn in hell. But for the most part, high school teachers are either pretty nice or completely neutral. Any supposed ‘evilness’ will most likely be your angsty hormonal self projecting on them. For example, I hated my freshman year geometry teacher. I thought she was a b word, I thought she was incapable of teaching, I thought she was annoying. In hindsight, I was just shitty at geometry and took out my frustration on her. I joined my classmates in mocking her and the class behind her back, and my convinced 'holier than thou’ self decided I was too important to ever stoop to the level of asking her for help. Because of my big ego, I only got a B+ in math, and it started a pattern for the rest of high school.

Like… there’s honestly no point in making fun of teachers. Yeah, it’s fun to do, and it helps you bond with classmates but… it also gets in the way of you asking for help. Which, by the way, I cannot emphasize enough: always ask for help. Especially during your first few weeks of school, because again: freshman year will set a lot of patterns for the rest of your high school career. It is essential that you ask for help. Sure, your teacher scribbled some comments in the margins of you B- paper, but she was also grading 30+ other papers at the same time. Do you really think her comments are deep enough for you to fully understand where you went wrong? Ask to meet with her, comb over your paper with her, and walk away with a better understanding of how to write papers. Advice and knowledge like this can only help you in the long run. Suck up your pride and push it down; you’ll be better for it.

I focused a lot on academics so let me touch on some other things… like puberty! For the most part, that ball started rolling for everybody back in middle school. But it’s in high school that you really start to see those hormones get expressed. Everyone goes through puberty, and life, at their own pace. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re falling behind, but you’re not. It’s not a competition. This would be the world’s shittiest race otherwise. Don’t worry about others, and focus on yourself. If you don’t feel comfortable asking questions about your changing body (because lord knows the American education system will never have an actually effective sex Ed course), google it!! There are always answers for those who search them out. Again: worry about yourself.

Another thing: friends! High school is a place where you’re going to meet a lot of new people all at once. You will make new friends. It’s statistically impossible for you to not make a new friend. If you want to speed up the process, join clubs! You’re a freshman, so no one actually expects you to maintain a totally active presence. Do what you can, drop what you can’t, and carry on. Also: the people you were friends with in middle school may not stay friends with you in high school. I ended up drifting away from most of my middle school friends; I still hang out with them, but we’ve lost a lot of closeness. It’s sad, but it happens, and the only thing you can do is move forward. Every lost friendship makes room for two new ones. I can honestly say that the bonds I made in high school were 10x stronger than the ones I made in middle school. And any close friendships I kept from middle school also became 10x stronger by senior year. My theory is that everyone is their worst self during middle school :p if your group can survive that, you can survive anything.

Finally… some health tips! Take care of yourself. It’s important to try to eat as healthy as you can as early as you can. Again, and I know I’m repeating myself, it helps you in the long run. Make sure to drink plenty of water and do not. I repeat, do NOT. Pull all-nighters when you don’t have to. The all-nighters I pulled during middle and early high school have ruined me. Also, don’t drink coffee. You will get addicted. All my friends are coffee addicts and it’s honestly disturbing how much they rely on a simple beverage. Drink hot chocolate instead, if you must! I love Dunkin’ Donuts. :3c

Anyway, this is a bunch of general advice/tips. If there’s something specific that’s bothering you, feel free to hit up my dms at any point!! I may not be fast, but I’m sure to respond. I like helping :3c

[choisgirls]

How would the RFA + V and Saeran react to a bilingual MC, who uses a word in another language when she can't think of the right one in the language she's speaking? (I do this a lot with French + English, and my friends who don't speak French always give me weird looks :( )

A/N:

The language I picked was the language (Punjabi) I speak at home, but I didn’t know how to spell it in english but I tried my best!!! (Most of these are actually my own experience) (Also sorry I didn’t use several languages, i just like putting my own personal stuff in here sometimes) 404 did the non-Punjabi ones! ~ Admin 626

*YOOSUNG-He convinced you to play LOLOL with him!!!-Big mistake-He knew that he could get loud and angry when something happened, but…-Did not expect you to get so loud!!!!-”WHAT??? ARE YOU KIDDING???? JAVLA HELVETE!!!!”-……..MC….what?-You said it fairly often, and he knows it’s another language, but…. WHAT WERE YOU SAYING?-He’s asked you constantly what it means but you….couldn’t…..think of the right words?-”It means… um…. Well. It means… Oh my god? What are the words?-I DON’T KNOW MC THAT’S WHY I ASKED-Scared the hell out of him when you yelled “FUCKING HELL” out of nowhere one day and you had to explain that  you finally remembered what you were trying to say!!! Only this time, not in Swedish!!-MC!!! BAD!!!- lowkey google translates anything you can’t remember for you

*JUMIN-The two of you were coming home from a completely boring party you had to attend-It was full of big, important business owners and directors and you just couldn’t stand it!!!-”HOW in the WORLD do they run their businesses??”-”I know! They’re such…. Um… uh, como se dice…pendejos??”-???? mC SUCH LANGUAGE-”I agree, they did seem to be lacking in the knowledge department.”- okay that wasn’t what i asked exactly but thanks-This happens more than you’d like to admit, but it’s a good thing he can speak Spanish-He’ll always understand you, whether you’re speaking in Spanish or not!!!-”Jumin? Como se dice gato?” “MC, that’s a simple word. It’s cat. How could you forget?”-”Do you want some… some.. Um… Vino?” “? Wine? Yes, MC, please.”-YOU’RE SO GRATEFUL THAT HE CAN UNDERSTAND YOU where would you be if he didn’t translate for you???-He notices when you’re quiet in public and realizes that you probably just can’t think of the correct word outside of Spanish, so he’ll answer you quietly just so you don’t get embarrassed what a cutie omg

*SAEYOUNG-HE DOES THE SAME THING-”Shit… what’s the word again….”-??? So you ask him what word he’s thinking of. He didn’t figure you’d know but he told you anyway-”I forgot the word for ‘safinat fadayiya’”-”Spaceship?”-”…..yoU KNOW ARABIC”-????? Did he not realize you’ve been able to get into his house since the beginning-Now the two of you speak Arabic around the others just to be jerks-Not even Jumin knows Arabic-You don’t say anything meaningful, either. It’s usually random sentences!-So every time you forget a word, he’s got your back! So long as you you do the same for him-Except if you forget a word at the gate, he’ll let you suffer and laugh at you-Well!!!! Until you get angry enough at least. Then he’ll let you in and hide from your cute wrath

*SAERAN-He didn’t even know you could speak another language-Honestly always thought that you were muttering or making words up-That’s why he always gave you a weird look-One day though, you were mid-conversation with him and blanked on the word-”Do you want to go get…. Um. Get…crème glacée?”-”….Get what?”-”Crème glacée. You know… the uh, frozen milk stuff you like to eat!”-”You..mean ice cream? You’re saying ice cream?”-”YES! YES HEY!!! That thing! Thank you!”-”What the hell was that? Made up words? What the fuck?”-Saeran it….. Was….. French, sweetheart. Not made up-??? He was really confused but took your word for it-Tries to learn French secretly so he can help you next time instead of looking at you like you were crazy

*ZEN- you’re actually lowkey worried about him???- He’s so pretty!!!- What if he gets jinxed and he becomes ugly because his looks are shown off so much??? Literally my grandma has said this to me and my cousin after she and i dressed up one time- you always try to encourage him to wear sweats and other lowkey clothing so no one will be drawn to him! (of course only when you two are trying to do something in public together, you wouldnt try to get him to do that for anything job related)- but he just doesn’t get it??? He never listens to you but you never really explain why bc you feel so embarrassed believing in this!!!- but one day you two get into a terrible argument about this- “I just don’t get it! Are you jealous of the other girls giving me attention?”- You start tearing up because that’s so far from it, you completely trust him- “Nazaar, okay?! I just don’t anything happening to you!!!”- Zen is just like wtf did u just say, was that even human or are you just choking wtf- and then he reMEMBERS YOU CAN SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE HOW DID HE FORGET- “Oh god sorry, I didn’t mean to use Punjabi but I don’t know another word for it. It’s kinda like jinxing but it’s more intense? But basically by showing off your looks, other people might want something bad to happen to you and you might turn ugly!”- LMAO MC WHAT YOU THINK THIS PIECE OF HOT ASS IS GONNA TURN UGLY???- but he understands it’s part of your ritual and he lets you do these little rituals to ward away the “nazaar” because it’s cute that you worry that much

Jaehee- you’re helping out at the shop when you run out of cardamom to put in the chai! sUCH A TRAGEDY- but you can’t remember what it’s called??? You can’t tell Jaehee???- “MC, what’s wrong?- “We’re out of that one spice!!!”-thanksMCthat’ssospecificyoumusthavegottenanAinenglish- you decide fuck it and you’re like “We’re out of leche!!!”- Jaehee goes wide eyed because you can speak another language wtf- She actually knew what you were saying because Jaehee knows Hindi and that overlaps with your language a lot-yes Jaehee knows Hindi don’t question it okay-You two start trash talking the customers in Hindi/Punjabi

V- This boy got a cute owl figurine at a store!!!-smh what a hipster *eye roll*- He puts it in your room bc it’s so cute!!!- but when you see it, you freak out???- “wait what’s wrong with it MC???”- “Nazaar lagna!”- He just looks at you like ??? what did you say to him???- What did you just say about his son- wAIT YOU CAN SPEAK ANOTHER LANGUAGE???- “Oh sorry um, in my culture, owls are considered bad luck?”- okay but what u did u just say MC udumbhoe- “I just said you jinxed me, I mean it’s worse than a jinx but that’s the best way I can say it”- He spends the rest of the night asking you to say other words in Punjabi cause it’s so pretty-asks you to call him Daddy in your language (just kidding that’s Jumin)

[clothestop]

Regarding post/172299066623/istj-hedonist-samlick23-istj-hedonist-when I don't get why people would compare mbti with astrology and shit. It's as flawed as any other personality theories but it's still a system that works. Astrology doesn't even deserve to be called a personality theory 😩 And just like u said it's never about 'personality' anyway?? That test clusters people yet only considers people's behaviors as if nobody doesn;t have shit like that

Okay. These were among the most exciting asks that I have received so far. I would like for this blog to be as drama-free™ as much as possible because it’s just my virtual escape™. I had also always expressed that I don’t consider this blog as solely an aesthetic™ and inspiration blog. In fact, I was very humbled to be encouraged by my friends and followers to continue including topics that interest me in this blog. But even though this my blog, I know that I have the responsibility to check what I post here to ensure that nothing would negatively affect someone else’s mental and emotional health (especially as I have observed that most of my followers are minors). So I would just keep my response under the line—and because it’s just really, really, long. HAHA. Also, just for future reference, if you oh-so-hate MBTI [or whatever piece of knowledge I feature here/ if you’re only interested with the aesthetic™ content], you could blacklist my *mbti*, *text* and *photo* tags.

Coincidentally, I would be having a mini-hiatus, and this would be my only response regarding this topic because I’m not really fond of tumblr drama™. I would be temporarily disabling anonymous asks during my break, so if you have anything you would like to discuss with me, kindly contact me via private messaging (but please be patient with my response. I promise I would get back to you as soon as I become online). My only request is that you should first read what I have to say before reacting to anything, because I might have already discussed what you are trying to ask. No worries, I wouldn’t judge nor hate you for your opinions. I actually welcome and enjoy healthy debates (as it is part of my real-life job lmao). And I’m not a fragile snowflake™ so you could really talk to me about anything, I wouldn’t mind :P 

Firstly and most importantly, I want to apologize for anyone who had been offended or had felt attacked on my rant. I was not describing a particular person in the *inner dialogue*, and it’s not my intention to offend anyone. So if anyone had felt this way, again, my apologies.

So what is this post about?

I had recently reblogged an MBTI post where I was referring to the function theory—not the common MBTI stereotypes and misconceptions circulating over the internet. And just like what I had mentioned over and over again [and on my tags on that particular MBTI post], online MBTI tests are not accurate and should not be taken seriously. It’s disappointing how 16personalities had been profiting from this by selling misinformation to people. This was OP’s topic, in which I had just agreed with their views and had personally shared my opinions as well. Yet it seems to be that there had been some misunderstanding regarding said topic. Literally OP’s argument—and the same criticisms we continuously read regarding MBTI *points to some of the anons above*—are exactly what we are critiquing as well, because these are common misconceptions and stereotypes which are not related to the theory anyway. So I don’t really understand the intense reaction regarding our opinions on the letter dichotomy and online MBTI tests, because we actually disapprove of the same things as well. Weird -_-

I never mentioned nor even vaguely expressed that MBTI should be the zenith™, the absolute “ Law™ ”, nor do I believe that it should monopolize all the ideas in personality theories. That’s just.. funny. We wouldn’t mind If the function theory is not your thing; you can leave it just like that. Simple. Just like everyone else has their own beliefs and interests that others simply don’t agree with as well. Nobody would forcefully entice you to MBTI, especially if you had not expressed your interest and curiosity for it. It’s just a matter of respecting others’ POVs and interests.

I could easily brush this off because I truly believe that people are entitled to their opinions, and I respect that. More importantly, I had studied typology for several years now that I’m already quite confident of my knowledge about it. Thus, I won’t easily be shaken by criticisms about the theory—which I’m very much aware of anyway. Sadly, it’s seems to be an automatic impulse in tumblr to hate, rather than communicate. My friends had told me of someone publicly posting something defamatory with regards to the MBTI post that I reblogged. I don’t know what that particular blog had been aiming for, but clearly their hateful intent had failed miserably. I didn’t expect the support of my friends, more so, the consideration of people from the MBTI community. I really want to thank everyone who had supported and understood me even if I wasn’t online during that time. My friends are so protective of me, and the responses of people from the MBTI community had been so funny and adorable I’m SO flattered. Watch as my face turns vermillion xD

With that said, I felt like I should at least explain my part and answer the anons who aren’t in favour of MBTI. I just want to stress that I don’t plan to forcefully persuade you to believe MBTI. My only intent is so that you could look into my perspective as I share my knowledge and understanding after many years of studying the theory, in contrast to the misconceptions and stereotypes about it, which I believe is what these anons were referring to. I emphasize that if MBTI is not your *thing*, then you could simply ignore it. This topic is very important to me because it had helped with my well-being, introspection, relationship with others, career, and general outlook in life. So I just want to clarify some points with regards to the asks above^ because I believe some misunderstandings had occurred. So thank you very much @hueristix​, @clumsynix​, @ckatharcis, @tzeentchs-secretary​ and anons for your messages. I am really so thrilled to discuss my views with you.

The cognitive function theory—more commonly known and referred to as MBTI [especially here]—explores the human cognition, NOT outward behaviours and personal preferences. Contrary to what the first anon had said, I believe that we cannot compare the theory with astrology because the former never categorizes how humans act the way they act, more so, it never simply propose their “ personality traits ”. The theory recognizes that every person has their own free will, innate capabilities, traits, emotions, and preferences (etc. I could go on and on, I swear), and would be constantly affected by personal struggles, life circumstances and other external factors through out their life.. and well, basically just like what Jeanne (ckatharcis) had referred to, it acknowledges that humans cannot be “ clustered ” simply through their behaviours, personal preferences, traits, etc. because again, the theory is NOT about that. [I feel like I had said, and will continually say, that phrase for the nth time.. Uhm] Thought process is the essential and primordial reason why outward behaviours, personal preferences, emotions, etc. is easily observable in a person, and NOT the other way around. Thus, it’s also the reason why your type cannot change, contrary to common misconceptions, and essentially why tests are not reliable. [Link 1, Link 2—I highly recommended this post.]

I think the first anon is not familiar with the function theory, but, instead, with the letter dichotomies (i.e. I vs. E, etc.) which is the general principle on the said 16personalities site [and other online MBTI tests]. This was exactly what OP had criticized and what I had discussed on my *inner dialogue*. Again, I do not blame the first anon or anybody else who are familiar with this concept because misconceptions and stereotypes are easier to be accessed, contrary to the theory itself which would definitely require time and in-depth research to get acquainted with. I understand that not everyone would be interested to invest time and effort on something that they would just like to casually learn. And it’s okay.

However, I would like to clarify that I [and I truly believe that OP as well] have no intention to humiliate, condemn, mock or ostracize people who had only been familiar with MBTI stereotypes (the letter dichotomy) and/or had only taken online MBTI tests, because we understand that [again], sadly, those misconceptions are disappointingly perpetuating in the internet and even on some books. OP had clearly stated that their only issue was how people who aren’t really familiar with the function theory should refrain from initiating any MBTI-related discussion. Even if I personally agree with OP, this particular premise was rebutted to them. However, I believe that asking questions and expressing genuine interest to learn more is different from spreading misinformation to others. As long as you do your own research first, the MBTI community here is actually very welcoming of people who would like to learn more of the theory. The MBTI community here also encourages critical thinking, exchanges of different ideas, and endless rational debates—which is exciting, right?

I think OP had been very honest with their opinion (though may had been perceived as *offensive* and rude by some) and I truly concur with their points. I’ve said in my *inner dialogue* how I believe that spreading wrong information is destructive. It is damaging to other people who had only been starting to learn the theory, to take advice and information, or be mentored by people who had been misinformed as well. Why? Because above all else, the theory is used for self-evaluation and understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses (with regards to their cognitive process), to provide clear direction on how to advance towards their personal growth and development. For that reason, if one is mistyped, and they generally believe that their thought process works this *particular* way and that they have *certain* strengths and/or weaknesses, then they are not only failing to seize the opportunity to recognize their *actual* strengths and weaknesses through fully understanding how their cognition works, but they could also potentially damage their mental health and well-being because that is not how their thought process operates. It worsens when spreading misinformation like that is increasing exponentially.

We would never dismiss nor humiliate anyone who had only been starting to familiarize themselves with the theory, because we had been beginners as well. Mate, my blog is not focused on MBTI alone, but I have two mutuals who had been so humble to admit that they had fell for that abomination-of-a-test, and had asked me about the basics and other resources to study the theory. I never riduculed them; contrary, I was so proud of their humility to admit that they had been misinformed, and of their willingness to learn. There is no shame in that. I really admire people who admit their mistakes or ignorance because I know that people who think is way are really the ones who have the desire to learn and improve, and have insatiable thirst to absorb more knowledge.

I’ve been studying the function theory for about 3 or 4 years now, but I still consider myself to be a newbie at this. I know that I still have a lot more to learn [and that’s exciting]. But OP and other legit MBTI blogs here have been studying this theory for many years now, and they are considered as reliable resource persons for other MBTI enthusiasts [at least in tumblr] as well. Which is why I think [just my opinion], they could easily retaliate on insults or misinformation thrown at them by people who don’t even make an effort to read just the basics and/or have poor acumen to just believe everything they read on the internet, yet have all the liberty in the world to whine and be [passive-aggressively] defensive to rationalize their misconceptions of the theory. These legit MBTI blogs know what they’re talking about, and I think you could be the judge as to how they could react to insults thrown at them by people who don’t even understand the topic itself. I’ll just quote hueristix here, “ laziness should not be an excuse to ignorance ”. As I’ve said before: be receptive to different ideas, yet skeptical enough to question everything before accepting any piece of information as real™. And yes, that includes everything I say. After all, I’m just responding to opinions as well and we’re all just stating our subjective views here. We wouldn’t mind If the function theory is not your thing; you can leave it just like that. Simple. Nobody would forcefully entice you to MBTI, especially if you had not expressed your interest and curiosity for it. It’s just a matter of respecting others’ POVs and interests.

Yes, I am passionate about this theory and I know it is fine. But never had I mentioned nor even vaguely expressed that MBTI should be the zenith™, the absolute “ Law™ ”, nor do I believe that it should monopolize all the ideas in personality theories. I don’t know if what the first anon actually meant was: since I’m so passionate of this theory, then MBTI must be My Favourite™ personality theory, thus, I propose that it should be held true above all else.. but uhm I just want to clarify that MBTI is not My Favourite™ (I even prefer Enneagram over it, sorry haha). I am aware that it’s not the most recognized personality theory in the field of Psychology. And I had said it before, and I’ll say it again: just like any other typological theory, I know that MBTI has its merits and flaws. Though there is qualitative neuroscientific research intended to point evidence to the existence of cognitive functions in the human mind, MBTI is still not 100% considered to be scientific by some [because according to them there is no physical manifestation of cognitive functions. Uhm. I’d just leave it like that.. For now]. No personality theory is infallible. And again, as I had said in verbatim on my *inner dialogue*: “ The human mind is so complex. And to propose that a person’s *personality* could easily be identified through a 10-minute test is just absurdly.. laughable to me [not to mention that that test is focused more on NATURAL HUMAN behaviours and not cognition—which is what the theory is about anyway xxxx xxxx xxxx] like wtf so amazeballs that they could identify my *personality* with such an overly-random question that any other person could have strong preference over the other. ”. So I don’t really understand what the first anon’s critic was, because what they had pointed out was exactly what OP, I, and basically all the people who had studied this theory are continually expressing. Based on my tags alone, we’re actually on the same team™ here.

How? (1) I had said earlier that the theory does not limit human free will. It understands that people have innate imprints in them that manifests on how they act, talk, feel, etc. In the same way, it also understands how people and their preferences are constantly developing and changing [and yes as the first anon said, “ evolving ”], because humans will continue to encounter and be exposed to several personal afflictions, relationship struggles, disappointments, successes, gratifications, religious beliefs, cultural conformity, and other life-altering situations and external factors throughout their lifetime that will heavily affect their behavioural makeup and adaptability to their external environment. Everyone—whatever their type may be—can behave any way they like depending on the situations and circumstances that they are dealing with, because there are many factors that affect and influence how people behave, not only a person’s type. BUT their cognitive functions have been there all along, constantly operating, even if their *functional stack* could fluctuate on their healthy and/or unhealthy states depending on how they had adjusted and adapted to these circumstances [uhm more advanced topic of the theory—see the beauty of this theory? It’s never obsolete. Contrary to misconceptions, the theory recognizes the erratic human nature. It pains me how people could outright dismiss and insult the theory without studying it first, because they fail to realize its usefulness in a person’s life, more than what that shite site says *ho hum*]. (2) I agree with most of the principles of the function theory because it doesn’t “ categorize everyone into 16 cutout personality types ”, nor does it have a manual that says “ ‘here are a few common personality traits, be free’ aspect ”. MBTI stereotypes and ideas from the 16personalities assert that; the function theory does not. (3) [uhm this is getting so repetitive now] The theory is not about what our external behaviours are, nor does it dictate what our *personalities* are. Rather, on the simplest terms, it analyzes how we think. It analyzes how we make decisions, through our cognitive process, when we encounter a particular situation.

Hopefully, my explanation would be enough to clear up some misunderstandings from the aforesaid post. However, I believe that this explanation alone would not suffice for anyone who are still confused with the theory and/or for those who are interested to learn more. Hence, the next section is really just for reference and further clarification, just in case there are still some questions that others are still confused about. That said, I know that I would not be able to articulate these ideas the way this particular blog do [and I don’t want to sound like a bot if I would just be reciting their ideas exactly as they had expressed it], so I’d just be quoting one of the most reliable MBTI blogs here and a personal favourite of mine (mbti-notes), to give insight on some issues that had been critiqued on that post. These are really interesting and thought-provoking ideas so I hope you could take time to read them. Also, I highly-recommend their blog!

[With regards to common MBTI stereotypes and misconceptions]:

Anonymous: Stereotypes give people wrong assumptions about what types are. They don’t define what your personality or your actions are going to be like. They don’t even define what thoughts you have. It’s simply the pattern and the functions you use to come to conclusions. I’m an ENTP (22) and my best friend is an ENFP (23). Yet people would probably switch our two types because I tend to be very gentle and kind around others while she appears more tough and openly says what she thinks.

I appreciate your point. Part of the reason for the stereotyping problem is that the information online and even in books is dominated by two main schools of thought that focus very heavily on behavior at the expense of cognition (Myers-Briggs and Keirsey Temperaments), so a lot of people do not realize that there are other (better) interpretations available. My first exposure to typology was through Keirsey and, although I thought it was interesting at the time, I wasn’t able to see the full potential of the system because everything was masked behind simplistic labels (stereotypes) that didn’t seem to connect with real life to the degree that I thought was necessary to be a truly viable theory of personality. I think a lot of people get interested in MBTI because of its practical applicability in situations like personal relationships or group/work environments and MBTI is good for learning some general rules of thumb that can help you improve the ways in which you deal with different kinds of people. However, general rules of thumb very easily morph into stereotyping and pigeonholing when people do not understand the finer details of the theory and then apply the ideas and principles too carelessly. The human mind is prone to lazy overgeneralizing or drawing invalid conclusions as it is and the lack of depth in the information available unfortunately encourages that laziness. (Source)

[With regards to MBTI’s *accuracy*]:

Anonymous: Do you think that other personality identification types such as Alignment and Global 5/SLOAN are more, less, or just as accurate as MBTI can be?

“Accuracy” is not really the right question. Every theory of personality that is developed by academics is put together very deliberately to serve a particular purpose, and it must be used as intended in order to preserve validity. Unfortunately, when the ideas trickle down into mainstream consciousness, the original purpose of the theory often gets lost in translation, with the general public using it more like a horoscope or fortune cookie and then complaining about the inaccuracies. Every kind of theory has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the Five Factor model is a trait theory, which has the advantage of being easily quantifiable and very reliable for statistical analysis. However, there is no actual theoretical underpinning for it because the traits are derived from factor or data analysis, which offers no explanation as to why traits exist, how they arise, why there are only five, and so on. Trait theories are limited in what they are able to explain about human behavior but they remain very useful for doing replicable research studies. There is of course some overlap of concepts between trait theories and type category theories like MBTI.

Cognitive function theory is a qualitative and holistic model of personality that sprawls into other related areas of psychology. Qualitative research excels at theoretical analysis and depth of detailed explanations and is less conducive to statistical analysis/prediction. Jung developed psychological types as a part of the psychoanalytic tradition, however, that tradition fell out of favor in the US to make way for more popular quantitative research methods, though it continued to expand in certain European circles. Myers & Briggs and David Keirsey brought it back to life in a more digestible form but it was never meant to be distilled to such an extreme degree; MBTI essentially turned into a corporate money making tool and Keirsey rejected the notion of cognitive functions in favor of behavioral descriptors. Many of the criticisms that are leveled at MBTI are legitimate but not actually applicable to cognitive function theory because of not seeing the full extent of it and how it is embedded firmly within the long history of psychoanalytic theory, a school of thought which has done more than any other to reveal the qualities of the unconscious mind. Now that there is emerging neuroscientific research that confirms some of these old ideas about the unconscious, there is some resurgence in their popularity within research circles. (Source)

[With regards to MBTI’s basics, development and “scientific” basis]:

Anonymous: The J/P dichotomy is particularly interesting because, say, you have already three letters I N F, the last letter decides not only your dominant and auxiliary functions, it flips the stack; INFP (Fi-Ne-Si-Te) vs. INFJ (Ni-Fe-Ti-Se), and then we read that according to descriptions those types are very different. But then we also have a lot of people who can’t really decide if they’re INFJ or INFP. It’s all very strange to me.

It’s strange to you because (judging by the earlier question) you haven’t understood what the J/P distinction really means and you haven’t properly distinguished cognition and behavior. Two different cognitive functions can manifest similar looking behaviors on the surface (as I have explained numerous times in the guides, please read them carefully). E.g. Any introvert can be reflective but the reasons WHY a particular individual is reflective, the motive and explanation behind it, differs according to the cognitive functions involved (Fi vs Ni). If you don’t know the details of their inner cognitive processes, you cannot see the differences because, just looking from the outside, all you see is that they are both reflective in demeanor. xxxx xxxx xxxx MBTI type descriptions are purposely simplistic because newbies don’t know the theory and therefore must identify themselves through simple behavioral descriptors. MB designed their system in part to sidestep the complicated process of learning function theory so that more people could access it, a noble intention, therefore simple type descriptions do not include all the info you need to type accurately because they do not address variations within type and cognitive function specifics. In other words, problems with typing stem from lack of knowledge of the theory, usually because of not going any deeper than the simplified descriptions/tests. The test was meant to be administered and interpreted by an expert, which means that people run into all kinds of problems when they try to self-type with limited to no knowledge of type theory.

[continuation of the ask] Is there any real scientific proof that Jungian cognitive functions exist? Dario Nardi’s attempts are certainly interesting, but it’s a common knowledge that EEG method is far from being reliable. Also, on one of his AMA discussions on reddit he presented instances when he was testing midlife INFJ adults who he couldn’t differentiate from of ISTPs, which he attributed to the use the second most common pattern (Ti-Se for INFJs). So, which model is true, or is this a combination of dichotomies and functional stack model? Can you shed some light on those issues and inconsistencies? Additionally, I’d really like your opinion on Reynierse’s articles (“Preference Multidimensionality and the Fallacy of Type Dynamics”, etc.). Thank you. The question of “science” has already been beaten to death over and over again so I’ve grown impatient with this can of worms. I don’t have much to say about Nardi, he’s pursuing his ideas and more power to him, but his work is not particularly interesting to me because it is getting away from other aspects of type theory that I am more interested in. xxxx xxxx xxxxx Some people latch onto him because they desperately want some kind of “scientific proof” of the functions. Some people dabble in typology and keep demanding “scientific proof” but don’t understand the differences between quantitative and qualitative research. There are different kinds of theories, with different kinds of objectives, with different standards of measurement, with different methods of application - the scientific method is only one valid research framework and it should not be the measure of all things. Traditionally, science often includes the concept of falsifiability but you can’t falsify that which is not within the realm of empirical fact, e.g., you can’t falsify human valuations or subjective meaning/experience, so are these things not “real”? Do you understand the difference between facts and values? Do you believe that only scientific measurements can imbue ideas with value? Do you believe that materialistic explanations of human psychology are the be-all and end-all? Not everything about human experience can be reduced to neurons and electrons. If you think it can, then feel free to dismiss type theory as crap because it’s not going to fit well with your assumptive worldview. Also, abstract and concrete knowledge are different and should be treated differently. No idea is “real” because “real” implies concrete, and ideas are abstract. One can easily claim that any idea is not “real” depending on how you want to set your standards of measurement. xxxx xxxx xxxx Similarly, people claim that “types” or “functions” are not real even when they themselves: behave as type theory describes, suffer the problems that type theory describes, feel attracted to the relationships that type theory describes, follow the developmental path that type theory describes. 


Before you ask for “scientific proof”, you should first define exactly what standards of proof would satisfy you and make you believe that cognitive functions are “real”. It is quite often the case that people who like to harp about scientific “proof” don’t even understand what they’re asking for or to what end, they demand proof but no matter what proof is offered, they keep moving the goalposts because they are actually more interested in criticizing than understanding (see climate change deniers as the perfect example). Just so you know, many mbti bloggers are tired of dealing with such people, we’ve already gone through all these arguments a million times. I’m not saying you’re one of these people but beware that you’re stepping into a complex discussion and don’t seem sufficiently prepared. Instead of making people explain or educate you, state your exact criteria of scientific proof and I’ll happily tell you if type theory passes. Type theory is a big theory and some people find it hard to understand even the basic type concepts which barely scratch the surface because the theory goes far beyond simple typing. It is an incomplete and fragmented theory, with many people working on it for different reasons in different directions. Many people have found elements of type theory very useful and accurate in their lived experiences, even using it to permanently solve long running psychological issues, even using it to deftly cure relationship problems. There is piecemeal neuroscience evidence which does not directly relate to type theory but nonetheless corroborates it. I wouldn’t know if any of this is enough “proof” because you haven’t specified exactly what proof you’re demanding. If the book falling on your head doesn’t prove gravity is “real”, then I suppose all the people whose thought processes match the principles of type dynamics don’t count as real proof either. The results say a lot. I run a popular typology blog and have dealt with thousands of people, so I at least don’t suffer from sample-size-1. Type dynamics describes very specific problems and offers workable solutions, and I’ve witnessed many different kinds of people from different backgrounds, cultures, walks of life apply these ideas with great success. Is this “empirical evidence”? I’ve had the most hardened scientifically-minded strangers think I’m a magical wizard when I can knit together their life story and reveal their innermost insecurities based only on four letters, yet all I’m doing is applying and extrapolating from the theoretical ideas as I understand them, nothing more. 


All I will say about arguments against type dynamics is that they usually can’t see the forest because they’re stuck in the trees: they get wrapped up in granular details and superficial inconsistencies; they don’t see the historical big picture of how every model evolves from and contains the same set of ideas; they don’t see how some disagreements between models are merely semantic and actually address the same underlying concept; they don’t fully grasp the principles of type dynamics and then produce strawman criticisms (some of the points in those articles actually support, add to, or help clarify type dynamics rather than debunk it); they perceive the explanatory flexibility of type dynamics as a flaw, not a strength; they probably prefer trait theories because they are easily quantifiable (and then completely miss the point of type dynamics); they don’t see how the ideas could potentially fit with mathematical dynamics and energy flow. Any theory worth its salt should remain open to criticism, development, and further clarification but, in order to critique a theory successfully, you must first understand it, and I don’t think the author of those articles has understood type dynamics well enough. (Source)

Again, I apologize for anyone who had been offended of what I said in my tags. And thank you very much for taking the time to read this post! :)

P.S. I have no intention to answer that anon who made a sexist comment about M & B. I have already discussed what my points are regarding MBTI Tests™, so I wouldn’t really judge them or anyone else for having fun with taking multiple personality tests. But since I think this anon have zero knowledge of the theory anyway, I have to clarify that it wasn’t created by M&B [who, by the way, even if they had not been psychologists by profession, had made extensive research of the theory—probably more than you would ever do, anon. But uhm. Again, I don’t really adhere to M & B’s approach], but was devised by one of the best minds psychology has ever known. FYI that person was a man—if anon would feel more validated™ to know that their own sex is the perfect authority for objective measurement of intelligence or competence *cough* it actually isn’t *cough*. Also, I really am so tired already to rebut something that is completely illogical, it’s even barely understandable. *ho hum* I’m very open to discuss opinions that differ from mine, but If you are trying to establish your argument through a sexist comment, then don’t expect that I would answer you with respect.