#rapid fire ravenclaw secondary

[painted-crow]

What does a rapid fire Bird Secondary look like ?

Me!

I've talked about this a bit before, but I don’t like detailed plans, like step by step "here's what I'm gonna do." There are circumstances when I'll plan, but rather limited ones:

For fun. Maybe I'm interested in something but can't do the actual activity, so I plan it out instead. This plan might serve as a reference later, but I'm just as likely to discard it because I don't feel like using it or I have a better idea.

As a crutch. If I'm really inertia-struck with anxiety or executive dysfunction, making a plan or even just a list can be a hack to get out of it, but again, I'm likely to abandon it halfway through if I start feeling better.

"Formal" experimentation. I don't do this a whole lot, and usually I do this kind of thing in my head... but sometimes you gotta actually think the details through and write them down in advance.

But it's not how I like to work. To me, plans feel brittle and restrictive and usually boring. I lean towards other tactics:

Clever repurposing of something I learned/collected, or of resources that happen to be around me

Use of a tool I picked up thinking "this'll be handy at some point"

Bringing up weird knowledge I acquired At Some Point, possibly by accident, for fun, or while working on something else

Bringing up general skills I learned on purpose

Learning skills on the fly because the situation needs them; I prefer to know what I'm doing better than this, but reasonably speedy autodidacticism is one of my most prized skills and it's not a bad fallback.

(El Goonish Shive)

"Moooom! Paint is identifying with a mad scientist character again!"

Basically, I pull from my collection of existing skills, tools, knowledge, and current available resources to craft a solution on the fly, after getting close enough to the situation to get a good look at the problem.

This makes me feel very clever, it works really well, and I love doing it. Favorite way to do stuff, hands down.

Trouble can be, if people don't recognize how much prep work goes into these "instant" solutions, they're inclined not to believe they're real and will actually work. And I don't like pulling the "actually I studied this for six months" card because it feels like bragging :/ plus, for all the different things I can say that about, it stops sounding believable.

Truth is, I have almost no attention span for television (I'm aware this is weird but don't have an explanation for it), I hyperfocus easily, and I choose hobbies with lots of moving parts.

Like aquascaping. Do you know how many different bottles of chemicals you need to get the water chemistry right so the aquatic plants will grow? For me it was five, but a lot of people I knew online had waaay more (and fancy CO2 systems) because they kept demanding plants. If you kept the right balance of fish and plants, you ended up with this little ecosystem in a box. Like a tiny slice of a river! I was pretty good at it.

I still don't know how I got from "let's try making California rolls" to "afraid to run out of good mirin," but somehow I ended up really into cooking Japanese food and it's a permanent influence on my pantry and basically anything I cook now.

I do know how I ended up with so many oil painting mediums and solvents and so many paint colors that I have to have a list on my phone now to keep track of which ones I have in stock, though. Also did you know that acrylic paints also have mediums you can add and they make using acrylics SO MUCH EASIER? because I do and it seems like nobody else does and that's sad.

I also binge read nonfiction, especially when I'm depressed. It gives me something to focus on and feels vaguely productive even when I don't have the energy to do more.

Does this all sound like a lot of work? It's really just some of the stuff I do for kicks. We haven't touched on the novels I've written, the coding languages I know, the gardens I've kept, the professional design software on my computer (which I built myself from parts), the knitting and the baking and the graphic design and the candle making and the martial arts and the French language stuff from back in high school that I still kinda remember.

OH and then you have the weird stuff I carry around. *empties purse* here we have a multitool, lockpicks, a can of WD-40, some yarn or string, bandaids, a styptic pen, hand sanitizer, hairbands, screws I don't want to lose bc they belong to my couch, glasses cleaning wipes, a metal pen with a point that can break a car window, a bunch of fast food napkins, mini bottles of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, earbuds, comb, random lanyard, and four mini rubber ducks; all of these make sense to me don't ask why my purse is heavy

Plus all the ebooks loaded onto my phone, which I carry everywhere! And I have even more in my Humble Bundle library.

I list all these off to make a point: Birds' resource libraries can be HUGE. I don't know where mine exists on the hugeness spectrum, but I'm only 23, and older Birds' libraries are probably even bigger.

So yeah, as odd and niche as my interests can be, I have a LOT of them, and I can just go into situations without a plan because between all the skills I've learned and the books I've read and reread and the resources I carry everywhere and the hoard of supplies at home and the Bird masks and the Badger mirroring and THEN the ability to learn what I need on the fly if all else fails--

I don't need a plan.

I don't want a plan.

I'm more powerful without it.

I can react and pull from anything I've ever done or used or read. I can build things on the fly. Doesn't matter if I need to help cater an event or build a website or just prop open a heavy door--I'll have something relevant, or I'll figure it out.

There are situations where I won't be as capable, of course. For example, I know very little about cars, or writing music, or roller skating, or amino acid protein chains. But that's okay, because there are other people who specialize in those things, and I'll almost certainly come out of the situation having learned something and added to my library.

(Except the roller skating thing. I'm kind of phobic about skating of any kind. Cool when other people do it, but I get *eurgh* sliding in socks on linoleum.)

How do I end this... oh!

The fancy word for the act of making up a solution to a problem on the spot, using whatever materials and resources you have on hand, is bricolage, and one who practices it is a bricoleur. I learned that from a LiveJournal blog about writing that I used to read when I was 12, and I still remember it for some reason, which is very on brand of me.

[painted-crow]

Undertale. Badgers and Undertale.

Actually, now that I think about it, like the point of Undertale is you're deciding if the monsters count as people or not, and getting the best ending means involves making friends with everybody. You can easily go to a ridiculous amount of effort to send a dog you just met to college for no immediately apparent reward, and it's glorious.

Might need to start Sorting video games at some point, lol. Celeste would be a good candidate if I'd go back and finish it... it's probably Lion secondary, given that you basically just have to keep trying over and over and over and over to get the same sequence of jumps perfectly.

Which isn't true of all difficult platformers! Hollow Knight is a loudly rapid-fire Bird secondary game. You go through the game collecting charms and tools and abilities, and they change the gameplay a lot. If you're really having trouble with a boss, there are usually combinations of charms that will help. Plus there are often different ways to get past stuff, some easier than others.

You can still play it like a Lion, but it's set up for you to Bird. It's so good at making you feel like you know what you're doing, and then you react to the situation based on what you know about the fight/area and what charms you brought.

Celeste doesn't do that, from what I've seen so far; there's one way out and it's through. You just have to develop that fast-twitch reaction and focus until you're not really thinking. Also, Madeleine herself doesn't seem to have much of a plan, and at least one other character criticizes her for it. She's just climbing, and she's going to climb no matter what they say.

Person: Why do you always go on all these side-quests and play your character like a goody two-shoes?

Me [tearfully]: BECAUSE IN VIDEO GAMES I CAN HELP EVERYONE

[ethereal-skye]

Bird Secondary (Rapid Fire) // Ravenclaw Secondary

“If a Bird is deeply embedded in their zone of expertise or area of comfort, they can problem-solve so fast that it looks like they’re improvising… but they’re not. The Rapid-Fire Bird just has a lot of knowledge and resources to call on. Move them to a different arena, where their knowledge and resources aren’t applicable, and they flounder.” - wisteria-lodge’s post

[reds-burrow]

Maybe a stupid question: where can I read about all the subtypes like rapid-fire bird or actor bird?

Maybe a more fun question: who’s the weirdest character/weirdest sorting that a character has?

Not a stupid question! A lot of these posts are scattered around and hard to track down at times, and in many ways our understanding of this system is still growing, meaning we're still developing terminology for some of the puzzle pieces. I suggest starting here with @wisteria-lodge's great explanation post. Most of our sub-types have to do with the multiplayer side of the secondaries, so I also recoommend this post by @paint-the-ravenclaw.

As for your second question, depends on what you mean by weird. If you mean quirky characters, writers like to use Idealist primaries (Bird and Lion) with Circumventing secondaries (Bird and Snake). Idealists because a Lion's feelings can drive them to unconventional beliefs and Birds can develop off-beat systems. (Loyalists are usually more grounded in what's real instead of concepts.) And then Circumventing secondaries are more likely to experiment in their solutions to problems which can lead to unusual ways of interacting with the world. That said, we all have our quirks, no matter our sorting. Watch a good comedy show, and you'll see writing that emphasizes how weird we all can be, Loyalists and Straightforward secondaries included.

[the-phoenix-heart]

Sorting Hat Chats - Miraculous Ladybug (REDUX)

So probably not a lot of you remember that a while ago I did a sorting hat chat’s for Miraculous Ladybug right here. Since then I have changed my thoughts on some of the characters and gotten a LOT (a surprising amount) of asks on the subject, so I’m going to do a redux of my old sorting, especially since I’ve been away from the sorting hat chats community for a while. Make sure to refer back to original Miraculous sorting, as it has some information that I will not go over in depth here that I went over there, such as Marinette and Adrien’s Badger models. 

A little context: Badger = Hufflepuff, Lion = Gryffindor, Snake = Slytherin, and Bird = Ravenclaw

You can also find some good explanations about what I’m talking about here ( @wisteria-lodge ) and here ( @sortinghatchats​ ).

(There are SO MANY GODDAMN SNAKES IN THIS SHOW AND I HATE IT!! PEOPLE CAN HAVE OTHER MOTIVATIONS THAN THE PEOPLE THEY LOVE!!)

So I did not get MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG completely wrong okay! Addmitedly I did acknowledge she could have different secondaries and primaries, plus I got her primary models correct (an unhealthy exploded Badger primary and an unhealthy Snake primary built for Adrien that she’s failing to let go of). However, I posited the idea that she was a burnt Bird primary. I thought that she was a Burnt Bird, because she always seemed so willing to find other’s opinions on things, but I have since drawn back and decided that-no, she is a Burnt Lion. She doesn’t trust herself at all which is a common trait of Burnt Lions, and she does have her moments of having snap decisions and lashing out. She’s also the one more likely to try and do something when she believes something isn’t right, not hang back and find out more. 

And as for her secondary, I said she was a Snake with a Badger and Bird model. However, I was cherry picking. She is a Bird secondary with a Snake and Badger model. She IS a planner, she plots out schedules and comes up with intricate plans and she is simply more Bird than she is Snake. Her best examples of her plans are in Backwarder and Kwami Buster

And just to address why I was wrong, I think it was two things. 1. I myself am a Lion Bird and subconsciously did not want to be biased and say that Marinette was a Lion Bird just because I relate to her. 2. There are not many Bird Snakes and I wanted to add another to the list, Marinette fit the bill enough that I falsely accused her of that and that was a mistake. Please remember I am human and make these mistakes all the time, especially with characters I relate to. I had similar issues with Bakugou Katsuki from My Hero Academia. 

Okay so you (the anon) sent a response to these, but I’m going to look at these first, because ADRIEN AGRESTE is one of the characters who I think I got right, that being a Snake Lion with a Double Badger model. I know you backpedaled on Badger primary Adrien, but I gotta say all of this can be a Badger model conflicting with a Snake primary. His literal dream is to be alone on an island with Ladybug and a hamster, nothing about community, even Marinette’s dream included having children. 

(And a little explanation on his Badger model, it’s mostly because of his writing because the show uses him as a mouthpiece a lot of the time

As for him being Burnt Snake secondary...Idk I just don’t see it. He almost never goes for the sneaky way out, he’s more likely to do something dramatic like sacrificing himself or just wrecking shit, like a Lion (with a Badger model). We did see him lie about dating Ladybug because he was jealous (also not a Badger thing) but that’s about it. And while I do like how you pointed out that when they were kids Felix and him used to pull pranks all the time, please consider that Felix is a Snake secondary. Also weird bit to get hung up on, but I don’t think he’s EVER played jazz. Although interesting that you pointed out that jazz is all about the Snake secondary!

Oh, btw, in case anyone wants to argue about him actually being a Badger secondary, it is in fact a model seeing as Adrien has no qualms about putting piano music on to think he’s practicing and lying about where he’s going to his father. A Badger secondary doesn’t like taking shortcuts or picking the lazy option. I know I literally just said he doesn’t lie that much, but just because he can lie doesn’t mean he’s a Snake secondary. Anyway, I think he built his Badger model for his dad when he suddenly started lumping all these responsibilities on him.

Okay so, I get mistaking Adrien for being a Badger because of his model and performance...but where the heck did you get Lion from?! We don’t actually see him fighting for his community a lot and there is a big difference between Marinette and Adrien. What kind of Lion gets mad that he’s not being told something and decides to stop being a hero while Paris is underwater and probably millions of people are drowned. I’m sorry I cannot get on board Lion primary Adrien. 

Also, vying for people to get people akumatized so he can spend time with Ladybug?? Yeah sure that totally sounds like a Lion who values community. 

Lmao, I can agree with you there, I know I said ALYA CESAIRE was a Bird secondary, but I think I gave her too much credit. Alya is the type to rush in once she believes something, and I think she has a Bird secondary that she uses for journalism that she doesn’t use a lot of the time. 

Okay so, I didn’t sort NINO LAHIFFE last time so let’s do him now. I honestly think you’re taking the cause thing a little to literally, and also witling down Nino’s, admittedly limited, character. I sort him as a Snake primary, mostly motivated by Adrien and Alya, but also by his own hopes and dreams, like being a dj and director. He could be a Glory-Hound Lion, but I think he’s just a regular Snake. His secondary is way harder to pin down as I don’t believe he’s a Lion secondary, but I also don’t think he’s a Bird secondary like you said. I think he might also be a Snake secondary, impulsive, but more avoidant than a Lion secondary. When he’s Bubbler he stays away from directly attacking and keeps to long range, and as Carapace he hangs back and uses Shellter. I think he stays in neutral a lot. (This show is so Snake heavy I swear, especially for a show with Badger ideals).

And let’s just do some more rapid fire characters. 

LUKA COUFFAINE is a Snake primary no surprise there, he just cares about his family and Marinette and will do anything for them. As for his secondary, I’m gonna say Bird as he had to have the smarts to use second chance (which Adrien could not), and as an akuma he usually comes up with some nifty plans. 

KAGAMI TSURUGI is so confusing because the writers jerk her character around all the time. I would like to think she’s a Lion primary, since at the start she wants to prove her worth and fight the best at the fencing academy, but the rest of the evidence points to her being a Snake. So, I think she’s a Snake primary with a Lion model from her mother. As for her secondary, she’s a very straightforward Lion, rushing into battle and slashing her sword, plus she gave away her identity because she didn’t see a reason to lie.

LILA ROSSI is the last one I’m gonna do. I think she’s a Glory hound Lion primary, since all of her lies are about the awesome things she’s totally done and how she saved a kitten from being run over by a plane. I don’t think she’s motivated by the people she loves, mostly because she doesn’t actually love anyone and one humiliation in front of one person was enough for her to hideaway in her house for a year pretending to be on a charity globe trot. As for her secondary, she is the embodiment of a Snake to the point where I say she’s exploded. She lies about everything and tricks so hard, and she almost always comes up with the lies on the fly. 

So...

Marinette Dupain-Cheng - Lion primary, exploded Badger model and unhealthy Snake model/Bird secondary, exploded Badger model and Snake model 

Adrien Agreste - Snake primary, possibly starting to explode, Badger model or performance/Lion secondary, Badger model he built for his father

Alya Cesaire - Lion primary/Lion secondary, Bird model for journalism

Nino Lahiffe - Snake primary/Snake secondary

Luka Couffaine - Snake primary/Bird secondary

Kagami Tsurugi - Snake primary, Lion model/Lion secondary

Lila Rossi - Lion primary/Snake secondary

And to reiterate the sortings I did last time...

Chloe Bourgeois - Snake primary/Lion secondary

Gabriel Agreste/Hawkmoth - Snake primary/Bird secondary

Natalie Sancoeur/Mayura - Snake Primary/Bird secondary

[painted-crow]

This is really, really good advice. I hope you don't mind my adding to it...

Pantsing/outlining is a spectrum. You don't have to sit at either end if they don't work for you, nonny; there are plenty of ways to combine them.

I listen to the podcast Writing Excuses, which is run by four well-known speculative fiction writers, and sometimes they like to talk about all those fancy outlining methods. You know, seven point story structure, three act, Hollywood method, that kind of thing.

But often they stop to point out: they don't actually use these to plot out the story beforehand. They use those techniques as debugging tools for later, when you're trying to figure out pacing or structure or whatever.

You can totally pants your first draft and then come back in and use the fancy methods to organize it during revision.

You can start writing, stop a few chapters in, then outline after you have your characters and story tone down.

You can write an outline to get the shape of the story in your head, and then start writing and totally ignore your outline and never look at it again.

You can write an outline, start the story using it, then throw away your first outline halfway through and plot out a totally different ending.

You can write until you get stuck, then try to figure out how your novel fits into some existing structure, in order to think about it in a different way that might get you unstuck.

You can start writing, and then try to fit your work into a structure when you're procrastinating just for fun.

All those fancy methods you read about in books that look so tidy and organized and shiny? Lots of people actually use them in super messy ways. Writers really like to write books about their particular plotting method, and they often make it sound like their way is The Right Way, but that's not really a thing.

It's like photos of notebooks on studyblrs. The aesthetic is pretty, but most people don't actually take notes that way--or, not the first time! Maybe they take messy notes in class, and then copy them into another notebook in a pretty way to help them review the material. (Valid.) Or maybe making a version of their class notes worth keeping and rereading is appealing to them in a personal library kind of way. (BIRDS.)

And then, of course, you have people who don't care about their notes looking neat. You have people who bust out the multicolored pens to keep track of gendered words in language classes, and don't care beyond that specific use case. You even have people who don't take notes at all because that's not how they learn, or they can't, or their memory is really good for that subject, or they audio record the lectures instead.

There probably are people who DO take gorgeous notes in multicolored gel pen during class, but it's not expected, and certainly not required to be a good student. (These are, however, the people most likely to write a book about how to take notes.)

Your outline is notes. It's literally notes. You get to read all the different writing theory you want, then pick and choose and cobble together what seems like a good idea for this specific situation, and you can switch tools in the middle of writing if it helps. And yes, this is starting to sound very rapid fire Bird, because that's me and this is how I write. Not even Birds always do it the pretty way.

The right way to write fiction is the way that eventually produces an enjoyable story, for the author and/or reader--and remember, you can't judge a work halfway through. Trust your process. Every artist's production methods are different and that's okay.

Gonna tag @magpie-of-a-birb because she also writes and probably has her own blend(s) of pantser/prepper to offer.

What's the best way for a Badger secondary to write a story? I have ADHD and I'm trying to figure out a better strategy. When I try to pants it I manage to write more but end up with plot holes and then quit because I'm frustrated. I find planning it out provides more of a backbone for me and stops me from getting off track/prevents writer's block but it's overwhelming and I have no executive function. I'm trying to work through this "manuscript in 30 days" book and it's not going well.

I know exactly the book (and kind of book) you’re reading. I must have read... every single writing & structure manual out there. I did every exercise, used every organization tactic. Studied this in college. Did manuscript reading, ghostwriting, ghost editing, everyone’s got their own lexicon. Basically, I approached writing in a really Bird secondary way. (I thought I was a Bird secondary for a long time.) 

And it worked. It did. Mostly. But it also burned me out. There are a lot of unfinished projects from that period.

I used to think that Pantsers were idiots or lazy or both. I thought there was no way you not plan an ending and still have it land in a satisfying way (I totally dismissed the handful of times I lucked into a really good ending - those were flukes.) I was obsessed with structure. And now, well - it’s not that structure isn’t important. It is. It’s just not that complex. Look, I’ll draw a picture. 

Now I think that character is king. People will forgive slow bits, plot contrivances, even plot holes if they like the characters. Or heck, they’ll come up with clever in-universe justifications about why it’s not really a plot hole. The only really unforgivable thing is the idiot ball: when a character needs to behave in a stupid or out-of-character way in order for the plot to work. 

(This is also why I don’t like plot that revolve around simple misunderstandings or someone hiding information. There’s just no way to explore character there.) 

These days, I write though my Courtier Badger, and I’m a Pantser. I’m writing so much, and loving it. I figure out my characters well enough to Sort them, then I get in their heads, make myself disappear, and just write what they do. It’s awesome when they surprise me. About 3/4 of the way into the story I re-group and identify character arcs & themes so I can nudge my Victory Lap portion into the right direction. I don’t really worry about plot holes, or repetition, or anything like that. I’ll fix it later. 

Neil Gaiman (who writes so intelligently about this stuff) says that the trick is to write it, and then go back and make it all look deliberate. You have a tangent that didn’t go anywhere? Take it out. You have something that started as a throw-away line but ended up being super important? Punch up that intro. Make sure your symbolism and worldbuilding is consistent. Make sure that everything more or less fits into that structural model - you don’t want to spend more than a fourth of the story setting everything up, and you don’t want to skimp on the reward portion.

And my best tip about editing is that edit-blindness is very real. So edit in bursts. Take it scene by scene. First make sure everything makes sense technically and is functioning properly. After that, you can look at each scene more like music - what is it about, what are the important beats, when should it go fast, when should it slow down. 

And as always, everyone has their own writing process and their own way of conceptualizing writing. This is just the one that works best for me. 

[magpie-of-a-birb]

On Burning Bird Secondary

@paint-the-ravenclaw did a post not too long ago on how she felt when her bird secondary was burned, and I wanted to do my own take. Yes, my feathers are a lil scorched right now, though I'm not completely burned. Without further ado, let's go.

The cause

To start, I'll give a little perspective. I burned from burning out (in the non-shc sense), so some of my experiences will be filtered through that lense. With that being said, I'll do my best to distinguish between burned-bird-because-burnout and just plain burnout.

The effects

Lack of confidence

I don't feel as capable of collecting, planning, and using what I've collected as I used to. This makes my confidence in the use of my secondary very results-dependant. If I do something right, then it shows that maybe I'm okay at using bird (or that I am actually smart, because my mind likes to conflate the knowledge that I've collected with my intelligence). If I do something wrong, then it shows that I'm not as good at using bird as I thought.

I'm taking a step back to say that isn't healthy. If you're feeling this way (with your secondary, skills, or how smart you are), I want to say right now that you are good at using your secondary and you are capable and you are smart. Just because whatever you're facing is challenging doesn't mean you're not any of those things.

Difficulty with concrete planning...

Due to having less energy, I can't plan as concretely as I would like. I feel like can't take the time to sit down and plan out what I'm going to do for a project, outline what I'm going to do that day, or set out what I need to do in a month and plan out my approach.

... And leaning heavily on rapid-fire bird because of it

To me, rapid-fire bird feels like controlling a holographic, motion-controlled computer. I'll able to tap and swipe at things to call them up and move them and slot them into place to build something in the heat of the moment. When this is done healthily, it feels powerful. It feels like I can manage any issue that comes my way immediately because I've already done the prep-work and I don't need to even think about it.

When it's unhealthy, it starts to explode.

Rapid-fire bird works best when you have the prep-work done (what that prep-work is depends on the situation). When you don't have that prep-work done, you're flying blind. Here are two instances of what this looks like for me:

When using rapid-fire with planning, I have all of the things I have to do in my head, and I slot them together into a makeshift plan of when I'll do what task. This if very dynamic and allows me to change my schedule on the fly. However, that's a cursed blessing. It allows room for me to move time-sensitive things around for stuff that is unimportant, and there is a high risk that other tasks will blindside me due to me forgetting them.

I've had to use this for assignments and tests that I hadn't studied enough for. It leads to me panicking and using adjacent information (such as what you know about Spanish and applying it to Italian because they're both romance languages and have many similar linguistic rules) even if it doesn't correctly apply. It also leads to using the context of previous parts to make educated guesses as to how the next part works (such as finding an established rule asserted in a previous question and use a similar thought process/rule on questions that look similar enough. It usually has the same as using find-and-replace for "and" and replacing it with "but." All the instances of "and" will be replaced, but that means replacing the word "and" as well as "and" in the middle of other words, so "grand" would become "grbut" and not be a word).

Being unable to collect...

With being burned and all it entails, I don't feel like I have the time/energy to collect things as I'd like to. I don't have the time to make new tools, the energy to put into it, or the energy to tank demoralizing feelings like the tool not being good enough yet, so I kinda... stop collecting for a little while.

... And constantly absorbing because of it

That being said, collecting is fun for me. It's entertaining and it gets me excited. Even when I don't collect, I still need to get enjoyment somehow, so I turn to absorbing.

Absorbing is different from collecting. Collecting is having specific tools/information in mind that I'm actively trying to get. Absorbing is passive. While collecting is going down a research rabbit hole, absorbing is scrolling on social media and passively taking whatever information is being thrown at me with little consideration for what it is. It doesn't mean that I take everything I absorb as true, rather, everything I get from absorption gets tossed into a catch-all "questionable validity" box.

In conclusion

I can't really say that this is longer than expected, but I can say that it took longer to write than expected. Since I don't want to leave this on a downer, I'm gonna throw in some suggestions for unburning/preventing worse burning when in this sort of state. These things don't work for everyone, but they worked for me.

Firstly, take a break if you can. Do your best to disconnect and recharge, cuz if you're burning due to burnout, then you absolutely need the rest. But that may not be an option for you, so here are some others.

Optimize prioritization. Take stock of your responsibilities and free time. Try to see what you can put on the back burner. This does NOT mean completely prioritizing work. You need rest and as a human being you deserve to take the time you need to recharge. Do your best to not take any more responsibilities, see what responsibilities you can afford to do poorly (or even say you can't do) and allow yourself to do them poorly in order to divert more energy to the big responsibilities and recovery.

Get weight off that rapid-fire bird. Relying too much on one tool for too many things (and making a wrench work like a hammer) only puts stress on the tool before it gets damaged. Do your best to shift things onto prep-focused bird or even secondary models, if you have any. With easy prep-bird tools, I'd recommend stuff to help with planing and organization, like writing everything you have to do on post-it notes and sticking them on the wall of your work space. Multiple colors makes it fun and easier to see what classes/types of tasks you have to do because they're color-coded.

Finally, ask for help. There is no shame in asking for help. You are not alone. There is nothing but wisdom in knowing who to ask for help on certain things (or in asking people who to ask). All that asking for help does is take weight off your shoulders and give you another resource for when you need it later (call on that "I know a guy" bird!)

Above all, be kind to yourself. You are struggling and that is okay. You've survived this long, and you will get through this, too. You do not need to keep suffering for the sake of your survival. You can do this, and you will be stronger for it, you'll have more tools for the next big challenge. I believe in you.

[sandersgrey]

Deku is a Slytherin Primary with a Ravenclaw Secondary!

I'm borrowing the very interesting system from @sortinghatchats! I suggest you take a look at their blog, as it's very interesting if you like character studies, but here's a quick summary of their system: a Primary is the reason why you do something, and a Secondary is how you're most comfortable doing it.

A Gryffindor Primary's moral compass is their gut feeling, the belief felt and not built. A Gryffindor Secondary charges, or uses themselves as a battering ram.

A Hufflepuff Primary thrives on communities or groups. A Hufflepuff Secondary works better by building.

A Ravenclaw Primary builds an inner system through which they see the world. A Ravenclaw Secondary collects.

A Slytherin Primary is loyal first and foremost to their people. A Slytherin Secondary changes and adapts.

First I thought Izuku might be a Gryffindor Primary- he does look like one if you don't pay enough attention, but fortunately @jynxlovesluck convinced me that he's actually a Slytherin Primary with a very, very large inner circle.

I believe it shows itself more clearly in his relationship with Bakugou. Bakugou was part of his inner circle, once, and despite their falling out and the bullying, I don't think Deku ever managed to stop seeing as one of the people in his inner circle, which explains also why he's even then so stubbornly clinging to the idea that they're childhood friends and still calling him Kacchan.

Deku is also very quick to adopt people into his inner circle, as we see again and again with Iida and Eri. Iida had barely been his friends for a few weeks before Deku risked his life to save him from Stain, and I don't think I need to say anything about Eri.

His Ravenclaw Secondary was just as hard to pinpoint! Deku hides very well under a Gryffindor Secondary model he borrowed from All Might, and that only weights him down (I made a post about it, although in different terms: you can find it here).

To be honest, even after identifying his Gryffindor model, I still thought he was a Slytherin Secondary due to how quick he is adapting and reacting to situations. However, I have recently realized he's actually a rapid-fire Ravenclaw who just goes through estrategies very quickly in his mind!

Deku collects information. That's shown very clearly in his hero notebooks, his analysis, and even in his mumbling. Mic even comments on it during the sports event: he says Deku seems to absorb everything around him and then use it, which is very, very Ravenclaw!

The preferred outcome, and what I hope will be one of his character arcs, would be for him to leave behind the Gryffindor Secondary model and learn how to use his Ravenclaw Secondary.

He makes a pretty poor Gryffindor Secondary, after all.

[telehxhtrash]

I agree on Killua's sorting!! His Secondary was really hard for me to sort bc a lot of the time he's just kinda relying on the tools his family gave him, if that makes sense? But he finds joy in learning new skills and even collecting people in a way (see how he approaches Palm and Alluka when he realizes he cant fix this alone). Gon's also very clearly a Gryffindor. He's DEFINITELY not a Slytherin Primary, even though he cares a lot about his friends. I do agree that his arc is gonna be him kinda adopting a Slytherin model in that he's gonna stick to Killua and Alluka.

I do however think Gon's a rapid fire Ravenclaw Secondary (https://wisteria-lodge.tumblr.com/post/629711537772363776/how-can-i-tell-if-im-a-bird-or-a-snake-secondary) whos very good at using stuff he learned and the environment, and who hides behind a trauma induced Gryffindor model because thats what he thinks he needs to be to find Ging

you’re right !! this was so interesting to do and i’m glad u agree on the sortings !! it was so interesting to see their different dynamics and compare how they react to diff situations !! 

[painted-crow]

Storage Bunker Snake vs Rapid Fire Bird

This post is an exploration, not an explanation (yet!). I'm still feeling this distinction out and trying to form theories.

A recent recurring topic on the SHC fan Discord has been our Snake secondaries with Bird models and our rapid-fire Birds trying to figure out where the line lives between us.

My current theory is "it's a spectrum, and you have a range you can work in which probably leans one way or the other." I often describe very Snakey looking techniques as part of RF Bird, but I'd have a really hard time trying to use full Snake. I'd really rather know what I'm doing ahead of time and have stuff to work with, especially if the project is risky or has a time limit.

Turns out there is more overlap than we thought, though.

There's a Snake Thing that @mooglesorts and @nounsnlies have dubbed "storage bunker Snake," which is what you get when a Snake takes to designing contingency plans and gathering resources ahead of time for specific situations. They build an "emergency toolkit" to "beef up their improv" (words courtesy of our Snakes themselves).

Their stockpiles aren't as extensive as Birds', and they're very focused on utility and applicability to a specific future situation. Birds like utility too, but we'll also pick things up just because they're shiny/interesting.

Honestly, to me it's more fun if you're using your resources and skills in a way you didn't anticipate when you picked them up: it feels like a very clever and creative hack! But for that kind of improv, Snakes more often use themselves, rather than tools or skills, to influence a situation. They have this sense that they're an integral part of the situation, that they're a factor they can easily change to suit their needs, rather than an outside observer trying to work on the problem and only incidentally being there.

Meanwhile, I have a tendency to vanish when I shift into RF Bird problem solving mode. I drop my masks and mirroring to focus, I get very quiet, and if I'm not actively engaging with people, I'm invisible. People don't notice that I've wandered off for supplies until I show up again with a handful of weird stuff and start tinkering. Then they might ask questions, and I'll absentmindedly explain that hand sanitizer is full of isopropyl alcohol, which is a solvent, and yes I just have butcher's twine in my bag, hang on a sec...

This Step 1: disengage from the problem to Think seems to be a Bird thing. We kinda have to, and it seems like Snakes don't. Once a Bird has a first attempt at a solution in place, we might iterate on it and try to hack it around and make it work better, but that's building on something we've already got, so we can do that faster. We need something to work from, in the same way that a Snake needs continuous input to react to.

(This might actually be a single-player vs multi-player secondary difference, though. Curious what our single-player Snakes have to say about this. @reds-burrow @burnt-oranges feel free to add on!)

The RF Bird way is "hoard Useful Things and hopefully you can use some combination of them to craft the solution you need when you need it." In contrast, Nouns (Snake secondary) actually described prep work as "exploiting a loophole" for something that's "supposed to be done in the moment."

Snake: this feels like cheating

Bird: what? that's just how you get things done, dw it's not cheating

Snake: no it feels like cheating (affectionate)

...Of course, there's also the possibility that I model Snake secondary in specific ways, which I keep coming back to and then dismissing. I need more data from other RF Birds. @magpie-of-a-birb thoughts? Which parts of this do you do?

[painted-crow]

ugh i am so confused on my secondary :/ the one that i know im not is lion because i do the face switching thing with every person i talk to- even via text. its not a conscious thing either, it just happens & has always been this way & i enjoy doing it! but im unsure if its snake face-switching, badger mirroring, or actor bird. i just take someones energy and reflect it back at them- but the snek neutral state does resonate with me. there's a "me" under all the layers but its still... (1/2)

(2/2)..but its still very actor-y/mirror-y. the only time im not putting on any layers/pretty blunt is when im super apathetic or sick. im kind of a shitty improviser in certain areas but good in others, if that means anything. kinda makes me sound rapid-fire birdy or just a built sec in general lol. i do the bird *unconsciously hoarding info* thing haha which is nice, but im also usually suprised at my good rep/how much people seem to like me. any tips on telling between these 3? thanks paint!

Last ask before I crash for the night -w-

I have a couple asks about similar stuff, how to tell these kinda similar-looking secondary tools apart... let's talk about it for a bit here. Hopefully I'm not too asleep to make sense. I was just gonna write a quick post about it, but being concise is hard >.<

Courtier vs Actor vs Rapid Fire vs Snake (bonus: vs Lion)

Courtier Badger mirroring

Showing someone the parts of yourself you think they'd find most relatable. They end up feeling liked and accepted by you because they feel you're similar to them.

All of this is genuine on your part, at least in the moment--you're kinda bad at faking it. It's difficult or impossible to mirror someone you really dislike.

Actor Bird masks

You can play a role ("professional," for instance) or turn the volume up on some of your traits (e.g. "friendly/extroverted/music lover/charismatic") to make a mask. This is a way you can act, and it doesn't have to be as genuine as a Badger's mirroring, though it probably takes less energy if it is.

Once you've gotten into character for a mask, it can take a bit to change out of it. It's kind of a mindset shift, and it's hard to fluidly change into a different behavior set without seeming to contradict yourself. Masks don't easily adjust on the fly.

Rapid Fire Bird bricolage

You have background knowledge, skills, experience, and/or resources related to a whole lot of different topics. You're creative, resourceful, and good at recombining past tools into current solutions.

You might also use Actor Bird masks as part of your toolset. Actor + RF Bird doesn't = Snake, but can seem similar at first glance.

Snake improv

You're making this up as you go along, and you're totally cool with that. You're not really afraid that things will go wrong, because you know you can recover and just pivot into something that will work better. You're willing to experiment with different tactics, watch them work or fail in real time, and adjust on the fly.

You don't mind acting differently toward different people. Your act doesn't have to be genuine, the way a Badger's would. It doesn't have to be prepared, either, and you don't get stuck in it like an Actor Bird might. You're great at using whatever resources are around you, but you didn't necessarily prepare any in anticipation of needing them. You may or may not start out with a plan, but you have no problems with dropping it if you see an opportunity come up that you want to take.

If you're dropped into a situation where you have no clue what's going on and no prior experience and no tools and you don't know anyone, you're probably still fine. A Bird in those circumstances would either panic, or withdraw and become an observer until they feel they've gathered enough information to know what to do.

Lions being Lions

All this talk about code-switching and changing how you act is uncomfortable. Why would anyone want to do this? How can you get good results like this??? Nope. Nope.

You kinda just do stuff. You're resilient, even stubborn. You don't go in for half measures. You don't give up easily. Snakes pivot all the time, but you don't--you bulldoze a straight line through your projects and problems, without necessarily thinking ahead. It usually works out, which confuses the heck out of other people sometimes, but hey, it's just how you roll!

Final note

You might model or perform any of these in addition to your actual secondary. (Info about models and performances can be found near the bottom of this page on the SHC WordPress.)

You could be a Badger who's specifically learned to use Bird masks, for instance. It's up to you which words you think best describe you and the tools you use ^^

[painted-crow]

Possible snake vs bird 2ndary indicator - when giving a speech, do you prefer speaking off an outline (but choosing the exact words in the moment) or having all the words prepared in advance? For me even though I'll practice the speech several times in advance, and maybe have a key phrase or two I want a specific way verbatim, for the actual speech it's always an outline, I need the room to go extemporaneous.

Oh, I have the most rapid-fire Bird answer here xD

I don't like giving speeches that are memorized start to finish. Instead, I'll write the speech out as if I were giving it--multiple times, all slightly different--and rehearse the snot out of it from an outline. The writing stage lets me come up with jokes or clever turns of phrase that are likely to be entertaining, but there's a lot of connective tissue in a speech, and holding myself to one version of *all* of that would come out sounding stiff I think.

Later, when I'm actually giving the speech, I'll remember the versions of each bit that I liked best, and I can read the listeners, and because I am actually choosing which version to give in the moment, it doesn't come off as too memorized.

There are people--better actors--who can give a memorized speech in a way that sounds completely off the cuff, and there are people--better improv artists--who can take in a vague outline (or nothing at all!) and just wing it. On the whole, though, I'd rather have to deal with memorizing a speech than making it up on the spot. I am not great at the latter.

I've done it at least once, though. It definitely wasn't the smoothest, and I had the advantages that my "audience" were mostly a bunch of kids (whom I'd already distracted with a shiny Birdsec creation they were playing with at the same time) and a couple of their parents, and it was in one of my more thorough areas of expertise. (I coded a little text based adventure game that taught bash commands for Linux, and then I talked about Linux for like ten, fifteen minutes. It was part of a STEM event my community college was holding for kids.)

"I can only improvise if I've prepared really well first!": the song of rapid-fire Birdsec 😂

[painted-crow]

One of my friends got something stuck in a tree the other day. She stood back and was just kind of processing to figure out what to do (she's Snake or Bird), another friend immediately started climbing the tree (Lion?), and I, the Badger secondary, called over our very tall friend and he got it down.

Once I was at a picnic and someone accidentally threw their Frisbee onto the roof of the picnic shelter. Everyone stood around for a few minutes, some people trying to find something to climb on or jumping to try to reach it.

I thought about it for a second, pulled my multitool out of my purse, found a tree that had long suckers growing at the base of its trunk (these need to be trimmed anyway for the health of the tree), and took one. I handed it to a tall dude and he used it to get the Frisbee down.

Rapid fire Bird, Badger model :p

[painted-crow]

Submission time #19

so i’ve been spending the last little bit unburning my lion primary. now i’m sort of lost on secondary? i suspect i have bird in there somewhere but i’m having a hard time separating my natural secondary and a model that i really like and find helpful. (or maybe it’s the now-surprisingly-loud lion primary drive for authenticity coming through?) so if it’s okay with you, i’ll take a crack at some of the quiz questions and see if there’s anything of note? spacing might be weird—i’m on mobile :/

Sure thing!

When you succeed, how influential in that success were the people around you?

my answer to this one depends on the day. yes, they’re extremely influential; no, i don’t always like it. not because i don’t appreciate or need the help but because it got into my head in a funny way growing up. i’ve always been tremendously lucky to have people who love and want to help me, but like... it gets to the point where it feels like i’m nothing on my own. how much of this is a favour? what do i owe you? are you just trying to spare my feelings or because i’m related to someone else? i’m desperate to be able to say (and believe) that i’ve done something for myself on my own terms.

Ooh, okay. So, you've maybe got some caretaker Badgers around you, but that's not you--you don't really value this in yourself, even if it's how the community around you works. If you have any Badger secondary, it's anxious.

Do people consider you charismatic?

charisma is SUCH a concept. it gives off such an animal magnetism, face of the revolution vibe, which is not me at all. i have to work hard to be nice bc most people deserve the benefit of the doubt (as i repress the instinct to be judgy and mean LMAO) and also bc it just works better socially? flies and honey and all that. i also have very specific ways of being nice: “mom friend” and “hypercompetent rookie in line of succession” and “spicy and nonjudgmental confidante” which, granted, are already all parts of my personality just emphasized for clarity. i think of it like... personality colour correction, or... code-switching i guess.

You've literally just described Actor Bird. Also, you're not very nice when you describe yourself, are you?

people tend to like me more than i like me, though, and it catches me a little by surprise every time. maybe it’s just because i live in my own head and it’s a lot quieter and more anxious up here. it does suck a little, suddenly being worried that like “ooh ppl only like what u show them but that’s not how u rlly are”

Lions (primary or secondary) and Actor Bird can really clash... it sounds like you're discovering that your primary doesn't like this tactic as it unburns. Also, I think Bird masks just take a lot of energy if used long term. That might be me though.

so i’ll Sprinkle In Some Light Trauma to gauge the reaction (and regret it immediately). the truth is that not many people make it past the social utility part of friendship and so i don’t rlly... feel safe? putting down the masks which are designed to smooth interactions in any case. (so i guess YES but actually no i’m charismatic but also that’s a very different public facing side)

Yeah, this is all Actor Bird so far. Also, hugs.

Do you like going into situations with a plan?

mmm. i don’t think i plan so much as i attempt to see into the future and force my best outcome. i HATE going in blind—if i can a way around something, i will, but if i can’t it has to at least be a good and sensible attempt. most of the plans i usually put together have coping-mechanism, doodling while on a phone call energy: too granular to ever implement, just something to put order to the things you’re thinking.

This is still lots of Bird energy. Plans don't always look the same, you know? And some of us barely use 'em at all.

like, i do have all my degree requirements and preferred classes listed out, because that’s important and i should have that sorted out correctly before declaring my major. but the hour by hour daily schedule is more of a thing to make me feel in control and like i’ve put the work into considering it.

i’m also a stereotypical nerd: i have an english/history brain, i write a lot, i fall down personality inventory rabbit holes for fun, i pick up random things that end up relevant years later, nothing was as distressing as not being able to read for fun bc university was just Too Much—you know the drill.

I do, but not everyone is like this. You're probably a Bird, and I wonder if you're taking your secondary for granted because you feel like it's expected of you.

but for someone who plans as a coping mechanism, it’s also sometimes the best way to put me off. like i don’t know, being friends, which is the only thing in my life where traditional overthinking would RUIN it absolutely.

i know someone who semi-despairingly refers to herself as machiavellian because she interacts with people like it’s 4D chess.

Huh, so your friends don't talk about themselves very nicely either.

collects info, reshapes her entire personality into something designed to appeal to whoever she’s talking to. i tried not to get into motive bc socializing really is like That sometimes, but i couldn’t imagine pulling that off. i talk big game about acting a certain way, but only in ways that are already part of me yk? if i couldn’t believe i was being legit in some way i’m like 97% sure it would show through somehow and make it real weird.

You're still on Actor Bird. Your friend might have a Snake model? but you're an Actor Bird.

How do you feel about shortcuts?

work smart not hard, she says, working hard anyway bc she needs to see all the little things fall into place just to make sure that they do.

seriously though, that is for “important enough” things: i need to see it done to standard. i can rest only with a job well done kind of thing—due diligence so that any tomfoolery that goes down isn’t my fault and therefore no one can get mad at me.

This might be a Badger model, and I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say you picked this up from your community because it's what they expect of you. You don't seem to take any joy in it, though; it seems like an anxious response.

also i have beef with the idea of being gullible, so i’m gonna see it with my OWN EYES. for less important things, it’s a heart says yes mind says no situation. i love the shortcut that saves time and effort but keeps the quality, which is plentiful when it’s like. pasta sauce, but not when it’s like. the Donner party heading to california. i would love to shorten that stuff, but the consequences of a poorly done shortcut are more painful than the slog.

Bird modeling Badger. Yep.

Do you feel the need to keep the peace?

(it didn’t come up on this run of the quiz but i’ve been mulling over for a while!)

Huh. This question doesn't always come up? I always get it. I have to assume it's the quiz checking for Badger.

i’ve got a fairly bad temper and a transparent face. so no—i’m not much for keeping the peace. i can do it properly if compelled, but it’s exhausting and irritating and only really makes me resentful of the emotional labour.

Whether you can keep the peace is kind of separate from whether you feel you should, but you also really dislike being in that role. You're modeling some Bookkeeper Badger, which doesn't actually make you happy, and you really don't seem to like using Courtier for anything.

does it bother me when people fight? yeah, like most people do when it’s a rift-causing argument in a group they care strongly about, but if i’m not more loyal to one side of the dispute i’m much more likely to take out all the parties and have done with it. i’ve been known to fight back or even start stuff if the cause is important enough, or i have spleen to vent, but i’m a very messy arguer so staying out of it and collecting receipts in the background is much more my style.

Wonder if you've got some Lion secondary hiding out in your Houses. You don't like going into things unprepared, but maybe there's a Lion model you could be nurturing that would make you happier than that Badger mess that's been pushed on you.

anyway. this was long. made me think harder about badger than i thought. lots of feelings, but def not as sad as the ones i typed up and deleted ages ago which i elect to count as progress. thanks for making it this far hahahah

Yay! Progress!

Yeah, I don't think you're a Badger. It really doesn't make you happy. You sound like a Bird to me: actor Bird, rapid fire Bird, but not Badger. Not Snake, either; if you're a rapid fire or actor Bird (or both) you might mis-Sort yourself into Snake, but I'm not getting that from you.

--Paint

[painted-crow]

What does being an rapid-fire + actor Bird Secondary look and feel like ? I’m trying to determine if it’s me.

This post includes descriptions of both Rapid Fire and Actor Bird

This post is about my Rapid Fire Bird

This post is a story about Actor Bird

As for the combination, well, you could mix those skillsets in a handful of different ways! It'll feel different from Snake, though. That first linked post goes into that a bit.

[painted-crow]

Rapid-fire Bird here, totally agree with Wisteria. That's Snake.

I would 100% be trying to figure out the public transportation in advance--and I'd also have cash on me to call a cab as a backup.

This is going to sound weird, but if I suddenly moved to an area where there was a lot of public transportation and I was using it to get around, I'd actually start researching how bus systems work in general. How do you design a system to cover as much of a sprawling metropolitan area as possible? What kind of timing considerations does that entail? And then, how has my city tried to solve those problems? What lines cover which areas of the city, and how does the signage look?

Understanding that first would help me remember not just my route that day, but how to fix it if I got off on the wrong stop or something. And then, of course, it's widely applicable; I'll remember it when I need to take a bus somewhere else. In fact, I'm likely to remember it when solving an almost totally unrelated problem, because there's some vaguely relevant model or design consideration in it that I can use 😅

...most people probably wouldn't start there, I realize! 😆 most people would probably just memorize their route and maybe download their local area maps on their phone. Some people probably wouldn't even do that!

But for me, the first impulse trying to use something new is, "how does this work?" I might only realize later on that I'm doing way more work than I actually need to 😂

I mean, I don't do that for everything (some systems are exceptionally boring), but if there's something new and intimidating or overwhelming, I'm probably going to try to understand it as a whole first. Is that much work stressful? Well, sort of; it's the situation that's stressful, and if the system is hard to understand then that doesn't help. But the research itself is sort of automatic.

If I do get that understanding, though, then later--you know, the only part other people usually see?--I probably look very chill and Improvisational. It probably looks like I'm getting lucky, when I just somehow know where things are and what they're going to do next. The pile of maps and string of 3am YouTube videos I went through beforehand tends to be less visible 😉

snake primary + snake secondary (bird model)

Hello, I hope you’re doing well! I’m having a lot of confusion over my secondary, so a second opinion to help me untangle things would be lovely.

I’m pretty confident I’m a Snake with a Badger model that determines what I do when my people aren’t involved. Essentially, people are always important, but my people are most important to me. When push comes to shove I will protect them first (or feel worse about myself if I fail to).

So far, so good.

I think my secondary is at least a little burnt, in part because I’ve always struggled with interacting with people and don’t tend to think of myself as someone who’s capable of making an impact in people’s lives when it matters. I can remember several situations where I didn’t reach out to someone who needed my help, especially one of mine, because I was convinced that person would never want help from me. 

That’s proper burnt secondary talk. You knew what you wanted to do, you knew what would feel good to do, but you DIDN’T do it because you didn’t think it would work.

I know better than to do that now, and I’m trying to get better at believing in my own abilities (and the fact that other people can want me around). I’m hoping it’ll help to get a better idea of what those abilities even are.

You’re unBurning. Good.

I’ve thought ever since I first discovered this sorting system that I must be an improvisational secondary. I’ve never thought of myself as a fan of plans and prepwork - I get stressed out that I’ll forget important things and be left stranded. I remember back in high school when I was getting used to using public transport, my mum went with me to do a trial run of a route I needed to travel in advance. I was stressed enough about the event I was travelling to as it was, and the trail run made it so much worse, because there was so much to remember, what if I forgot something? What eventually made me feel more comfortable about it was trusting myself to figure it out on the day.

What a gorgeous way to explain the difference between a Built (prepwork) secondary and an Improvisational secondary. Trial runs make me feel so much better and so much more comfortable. And I’m a built secondary (and I bet your mom is too.)

Nowadays, when I’m travelling somewhere I’m unfamiliar with I’d much rather just leave half an hour early to give myself some breathing room in case I mess up.

Perfect. Excellent improvisational secondary problem solving.

Following strict schedules just trips me up too - say I’m doing classwork for the afternoon, for example, I need the freedom to be able to say that actually I’m more in the mood for Subject B than Subject A. I like having space to improvise, and I feel really proud of myself when I pull off something on the fly!

Once for a final exam in high school, we had to write an essay for The Lord of the Flies using a set of quotes from the text we’d chosen and memorised beforehand. The essay question was only revealed in the exam, and it turned out to be asking us to write an essay about one specific character - except I didn’t have enough quotes for any one character, I’d deliberately made them very spread out. What I did instead was to argue for the symbol of the Lord of the Flies as a character, and make each paragraph about each different character’s relationship to ‘him’ and what that relationship revealed about the characters, so I could make use of my range of quotes. I’m sure my writing wouldn‘t hold up now, I’ve gotten better at writing since then, but I still think of it as one of the essays I’m proudest of.

I would have given you an A. That sounds brilliant.

So that all seems to point to an improvisational secondary, but - reading about Rapid-Fire Birds has made me question whether that’s actually what I’m doing instead, and I have no idea how to tell. What‘s the difference between an improvisational secondary using information they already have to help them improvise, and a Rapid-Fire Bird doing the same thing? To what extent can Birds dislike relying on lists and planning?

You’re an Improvisational secondary. A pretty loud improvisational secondary (and almost certainly a Snake because you value the ability to pivot quickly so highly.) Rapid-fire birds can *look* like Snakes from the outside, but it’s a totally different internal experience. A rapid-fire bird might be comfortable improvising their bus route - but only in an area that they already know super well. Rapid-fire birds look like Snakes… as long as they are operating within their area of expertise, are coming from a place of strength.

And where does looking for more information while you solve a problem, rather than beforehand, fit within the secondaries?

Feeling more comfortable and confident looking *around* you while solving a problem (versus bringing in a bag of tricks at the start) is an Improvisational secondary thing.

When I’m involved in a debate about something that relies on a piece of information - a definition of a word, a statistic, some sort of other fact - I’m known as the person who’ll pull out my phone and say ’oh! I’ll Google it!’.

This might be a Bird [model] thing, but I’m inclined to think it’s just a person thing.

(Sometimes people don’t seem to get why I do that - they’ll say it looks like I’m taking things too seriously when it’s just a silly discussion for fun? But it just makes sense to me, we need information and that information is easily in reach, why shouldn’t I go get it, silly conversation or not?)

Okay, scratch that, I actually think this is a generational thing. *Baby Boomers* get annoyed at me when I do this.

I’m the same way when I research for writing. I don‘t tend to go looking for specific resources when I don’t have a story on them planned, but I love digging into specific subjects and resources and systems to ground a story in, once I have a concept to work with and I know what could be useful. 

I love digging into complex systems in general, really (hello, sorting hat chats!). But it’s not like I do it because I think it’ll be useful later - unless I know it will be, because it’s relevant to a problem I’ve already been presented with. And I know just having nerdy interests does not a true Bird make.

I think you probably have a fun Bird model.

But if I’m not a Bird - or if it’s only a model - which improvisational secondary do I even have? I’ve always figured Lion seems more likely, because I’ve never related to the ‘silver-tongued’ skill of Snakes.

I wonder if you relate at all to the idea of single-player snake - constantly pivoting, using their environment, problem solving on the fly. I think of Scotty from Star Trek - someone I would never describe him as silver-tongued, and he’s happy being solitary. But he still problem solves the way a Snake does.

I do tend to be pretty stubborn and dig my heels in when I’m challenged, in a quiet sort of way. But the difference between charging or swerving when you head for something has always seemed hard to grasp, for me. When you’ve got something to go for, you just… go, and some obstacles can be barged through and some you can’t, so you try and then go around.

I actually think that’s a very Snake way of putting things. A Lion would say that you *can* punch though everything, given enough will power and enough time. It’s what makes their energy so intoxicating, and where a lot of their power and trustworthiness comes from. They keep at something until they fail.

(oh and also ~ I have noticed that generally, Lion secondaries make no sense to Snake secondaries and vice versa.)

I do relate more to a Lion’s interacting with everyone mostly the same - with ‘varying degrees of awkwardness’, as I think another asker phrased it - rather than creating masks for everyone on the fly. But I’m not sure anymore if that’s powerful for me or if it’s just… all I can do. This goes back to being burnt socially, I think - I feel like I‘m working with nothing at all when I talk to people.

Whatever secondary I’ve got, I don’t think I’m capable of using its ‘multiplayer’ skills very well. Or at least, I haven’t learnt to yet, and I feel like I‘ve gotten worse. Although, more than a year of not being able to talk to most people in person hasn’t helped.

Yeah, you and me both. You’re a little burned about this, which makes sorting hard. You might just be a Snake who… isn’t very social.

And as for Lions valuing authenticity… I do and I don’t? I’m not sure if that’s just because I’m a private person and I don’t like exposing all of myself and my interests and opinions, it makes me feel vulnerable.

I know it sounds crazy, but if you were a Lion, that would make you feel strong.

But I won’t lie about myself if someone asks about something I’m not willing to share, I’ll usually find something that’s still true and answers their question but’s less personal. To what extend do Lions do that? 

Generally, “I don’t owe strangers the real me” is just… not something Lions secondaries think. Sometimes they lower their intensity. But they are unusual because they feel best and strongest when they put themselves out there.

But I also think that any ‘mask’ you create is still, to a great extent, a part of you and a reflection of who you are. People talk about it like you have a ‘core’ that is completely you and then a performance you make on top is automatically ‘fake’. That doesn’t make sense to me.

That’s because you’re a Snake. If you were a Lion, you would relate more to this idea of an ideal presentational “core.”

Performances can be helpful to express yourself, in a sense. And everything you make is self-portrait.)

That is an incredibly Snake thing to say. Also, Snakes have a tendency to conceptualize their masks as “art.”

In any case - I hope this wasn‘t too long. Thank you for helping me sort through all of this!

You are very welcome. I thought this one was really interesting.