#they’re both fiercely loyal and protective and selfless for those they love

[autumnblooms]

Be my house, strong and sturdy / Far from town, oh

[sityoursiredassdown]

Nobody asked for this rant and I rarely comment on the acotar fandom but it still amazes me that people don’t seem to get they very real running theme of people aren’t perfect that Sarah has put into just about every book she writes. It was a problem I saw in the ToG fandom as well but I’m paying attention to Acotar because a lot of familiar (and new) drama has stirred up with Acosf being out. 

Probably gonna ramble so if you’re as tired as I am hit the “read more.” Also, spoilers, obviously. 

Morality in Characters

Characters being named problematic or irredeemable for something or another is a long running issue in multiple fandoms across a variety of media. That’s its whole separate issue, but one thing that drew me to SJM’s books in the first place was how willing she is to let characters make mistakes. To let themselves believe they are in the right even if we, the readers, know they’re not. 

She lets them justify their anger, lust, panic, doubt, longing, the scope of human emotions. She lets them be right but she also lets them, most often, be incredibly wrong about an emotional situation they are in. She lets them hit rock fucking bottom. But most of all she lets them change their mind, lets them gain a new perspective or move on from something that had felt so important fifty chapters before. And it is an incredibly realistic journey of being human (I know they’re all fae but you get what I mean.)

Any book written by Sarah is going to feature characters that have flaws, some changeable some that are ingrained in them--no person alive is created without personality traits that can never quite shake, can only try to work on, or suffer the consequences from their mistakes. 

Rhysand and Nesta are big examples in the Acotar series. 

Rhysand can be manipulative and scheming, withholding information and thinking he knows what’s best because he’s the smartest person in the room. 

Nesta can be as cold as ice, petty, and downright cruel with her words alone, lashing out and biting like a rabig dog for trying to get close.  

People in different sides of the fandom will lash out at either for these respective traits, citing the mistakes and problematic behavior each character has exhibited in the various books as reason. And I, by no means, am saying that we need to condone the different things various characters have done. The mistake is believing that’s ALL they are. 

Rhysand is also incredibly loyal, generous, thoughtful, and caring to not only his family but to essentially anyone he comes across when not in High Lord Mode.

Nesta is also fiercely protective, brave, insightful, and capable of being incredibly selfless when she cares, when something truly matters. 

The good and bad traits exist in both characters, as they exist in all characters because that’s how people work. Their bad traits lead to mistakes that we can criticize for what they are without condemning the character on a whole, because that is not all they are. And whether there is fallout/forgiveness with other characters makes sense because these are all people intricately connected with their own thoughts and feelings and reactions to situations. 

Which brings me to: 

Nesta vs. Feyre

This, by far, continues to be one of the most aggravating parts of the fandom. Nesta is a naturally divisive character, one I’ve always loved. Because, as stated above, I can find issue with how she treats those around her but also understand that it comes from a place of trauma. The whole point of Acosf is for her to go on that journey and explore why she is the way she is and the journey she takes, it was never going to be solved in the trilogy or the novella. 

While I don’t think Feyre is perfect (that’s the point, none of them are) it does rankle me that parts of the fandom read the trilogy, went on that journey with her, and decided she had become some entitled snob that didn’t deserve to be in the books anymore because she got fed up with how Nesta was acting. The inner circle also was treated similarly. 

In Acosf, there are certainly scenes where Nesta isn’t trusted or respected by members of the inner circle, and at that point we can say they’re in the wrong because we were on Nesta’s journey with her. But trust, understanding, often takes time to rebuild/gain when its been broken and Nesta had certainly been burning bridges back in Frost and Starlight.  

Nesta and Feyre have both suffered trauma, and the thing about trauma is everyone handles it differently. A reason it took Nesta much longer to get help and go on that journey to self love is because she continuously fought against and pushed away the people that reached out to her. Feyre, while wary of Rhysand and the inner circle as they took her in, was more willing to open up. 

Nesta being criticized by other characters for her self-destructive behavior doesn’t mean they don’t care about her or are terrible people. She was never going to go on that journey of self-love and personal growth we all wanted her to have, without a push. The point in the storytelling is to fray those dynamics so they can be rebuilt stronger and from a healthier foundation because Nesta finally loves herself. 

Despite how different they are and the way they’ve clashed, Feyre and Nesta love each other. Because by the end of Acosf, they’ve truly seen and accepted each other as complex people, good and bad. Yet we as fandoms so often seem to think if there’s bad, there can be no good. 

Change

Circling back around to the overall morality of the characters, their mistakes and flaws, one thing SJM has always shown in her books is change. That people and what they want are constantly changing and evolving. 

Characters can be in love, look like they’re meant to be....until they’re not. 

A Character can have a goal, a reasoning, a desire so strong that it feels like they couldn’t want anything else...until they realize it’s not what they needed at all. 

SJM has always let this build across her stories, always goes through her characters emotions and reasonings for this change rather than telling us to accept it. 

The one time I think she erred in this was Morrigan’s sexuality and the sub sequential dismantling of the Morrigan/Azriel ship that had felt so certain in Acomaf. I will clarify. I have no issue with Mor being queer and only mean that the reveal was used as a plot device/twist. 

And of course, that shifted into quite a bit of debate about Lucien/Elain/Azriel, which has rebirthed with Acosf and the special Azriel chapter (I will say I have not read the chapter, didn’t get that copy, but lord I’ve seen the metas.)

Change is a big theme in SJM’s books, especially with ships. She is not afraid to jump around more than once, but most often, the endgame love story feels right. Of course not everyone may agree with this, but that’s always where I ended up after finishing her various books. And of course, everyone is free to ship what isn’t endgame to their heart’s content. 

My final point of this long winded rant is, these characters across these books are messy, complex individuals. Sometimes they have unhealthy behavior, say or do terrible things, and have thoughts that are going to lead to self-destruction. But that’s what makes them vibrant and real, because they can never be perfect. We can love these characters without it meaning we condone whatever it is they do. 

And if you’re this far into a SJM series and haven’t realized that these journeys and these people are never going to be simple and clean-cut for some idealized standard you have, then you may have picked up the wrong book.    

P.S. If you have read all this just so you can try to tell me whatever stan camp you’re in is the only correct one; you’re getting blocked. 

[adamarks]

What’s with the scarf: yet another snowbaz meta

aka the long-awaited and much-anticipated knight/dragon dichotomy meta. 

Wanna know that the fuck was up with that scene where simon caught baz’s scarf? Welcome, you’ve found your new home. Let’s go.

Guess who’s back. Back again.

It’s me, bitch. Now here with their 5th goddamn essay on these goddamn books. Somebody stop me I’m a fiend. 

For this one i really do suggest you read my simon is a dragon meta, but if you don’t have time just look at this tweet. 

Now that we have that out of the way. Let’s get started. 

Point One: The Knight

I know what you’re saying, “what? I thought this was about the goddamn scarf? What’s this shit about knights stop.” I tricked you, fucker. The scarf isn’t until the end. (You save the best for last.) 

Simon Snow is the knight in shining armor of the world of mages. He’s given a sword and pointed in a direction and off he marches. He’s the secret weapon. He’s the bomb. He’s the one that came to save us. He’s the one that came to end us all. The poetry of Carry On is that he was the dragon he was meant to slay, and he gave up his “knighthood” (powers) to defeat himself. 

It’s true that Simon gave up his powers, but did he give up his knighthood? In title and in practice, yes, but he still acts the part. Let’s investigate the defining feature of knights: The Code of Chivalry.

To quote this website that words it perfectly: 

“ A Code of Chivalry was documented in an epic poem called 'The Song of Roland'. [...]   Roland was a loyal defender of his liege Lord Charlemagne and his code of conduct became understood as a code of chivalry.”

From The Song of Roland came a listing of chivalrous traits that all knights should strive to have. They are as follows:

To fear God and maintain His Church

To serve the liege lord in valour and faith

To protect the weak and defenceless

To give succour to widows and orphans

To refrain from the wanton giving of offence

To live by honour and for glory

To despise pecuniary reward

To fight for the welfare of all

To obey those placed in authority

To guard the honour of fellow knights

To eschew unfairness, meanness and deceit

To keep faith

At all times to speak the truth

To persevere to the end in any enterprise begun

To respect the honour of women

Never to refuse a challenge from an equal

Never to turn the back upon a foe

This is Simon to such a T that it’s a little bit alarming. Wayward Son is Simon’s struggle to reintroduce himself into civilian life after being a “boy soldier” since he was eleven. He’s a knight whose sword has been taken, armor melted down, and purpose rescinded. 

A knight can’t be a knight when the king’s been killed. Who, then, does he serve? Who, then, does he protect?

Simon has lost his purpose, his meaning. He has these traits that he doesn’t know how to funnel into something else. He’s a chess piece that’s utterly worthless. 

Not only does he feel purposeless, but he also hates an entire side of himself. and that leads us to our next point:

Point Two: The Dragon

Simon Snow was the villain of his own story.

He was his own dragon to his own knight. His own worst enemy. The main conflict of this story is a man vs. himself type. Simon hates an entire part of himself. He doesn’t just hate it, he vehemently denies its existence. 

“I’m not a DRAGON!” (Wayward Son, Chapter 35)

Of course, if you’ve read my wings meta you’ll know that not only is this him denying part of himself, but also his sexuality. And his love for Baz. But Rainbow writes layers upon layers into this delicious parfait, and Simon’s dragon-ness isn’t limited to being his sexuality. This is literature, after all. 

The knight needs to accept the dragon. Simon needs to accept the person that his trauma has turned him into. If you’ve been through any major trauma, you’ll know that you’re different afterwards. You’re still you. All of the most important parts are there- you did make it out alive- but you’re a little bit different. 

You’re more careful. You’re more anxious. You guard your heart just a little more fiercely. You don’t want to let people in quite so easily anymore. 

What is a dragon’s purpose in a narrative? To protect. To guard. To keep out. To keep in. 

The dragon is those behaviors that we learned to protect ourselves in those times of hurt, and while, yes, we need to unlearn some of those behaviors, certain ones may never leave. Once you figure out how to read micro-expressions on an abuser, you can’t just unlearn how to read a face like a book. The issue is figuring out how to manage those habits. How to keep them from hurting others that aren’t going to hurt us. How to... train... our dragons... (I’m sorry it’s my favorite movie.)

So, the dragon is simon’s shadow self and the knight is his light self, yes? Yes. But! Let’s put a magnifying glass up to these two concepts. 

If a dragon’s narrative purpose is to guard, protect, keep out/in, and be defeated, then what’s a knight’s narrative purpose? A knight’s purpose is to guard, protect, save, and defeat. 

These two concepts aren’t wildly different, they’re two sides of the same coin. Simon needs to stop seeing these two sides of him as enemies and instead recognize that they’re good and bad in equal measures. The dragon questions potential dangers; the knight helps all out of the goodness of his heart. The knight obeys blindly; the dragon knows to obey himself first. The knight is selfless in all things; the dragon is selfish and greedy. There are pros and cons to both archetypes. 

But fire and steel? The monster and the hero? How do you reconcile these two concepts? How do they fit into one person?

Well, the answer surprised me too. 

Point Three: Tarot?

I know, I know. Stick with me. I’ll explain. 

In every tarot deck there are the major arcana (unimportant for this meta) and, just like in a regular playing card deck, four suits. Each suit has a king, queen, knight, and page (also like a regular card deck). Each suit relates to an element: pentacles = earth, swords = air, wands = fire, and cups = water. 

We’re going to be looking at the knight of wands. 

He is a knight of fire and passion and spark. He is headstrong, impulsive, and reckless. This card is Simon in his entirety. To drive home my point, let me quote from the guidebook to The Enchanted Tarot by Amy Zerner & Monte Farber:

“The dark [Knight] of Wands rides into view upon his great, plumed charger, carrying a fire-tipped wand. Behind him the gray, dusky clouds swirl like smoke, against which his figure glows like red embers. His journey is carrying him into the unknown but he is a pioneer and filled with energy and excitement. He likes to take risks. An active, unpredictable and competitive disposition drives him forward. He radiates a very masculine energy, full of creativity and passion. His youth, however, sometimes impels him to be quarrelsome or overbearing if he feels his authority and leadership are in question. Somewhat self-centered, he is likely to think he knows a good deal more than he does...”

The knight of wands embodies both that regal nature of a knight and fiery passion of a dragon. Simon needs to stop thinking that these two sides of him are incompatible or that one is lesser. Simon is Simon and he is worthy to be called a knight, even with all of his dragon parts. 

Point Four: Courtly Love 

or maybe not so courtly?

Courtly love was a concept in the knight’s code of chivalry where a knight would pick a fair maiden from a higher status and dedicate all of his great deeds to her honor. Because the catholic church had a tight grip on everyone’s balls, though, this love was not sexualized. Well... it wasn’t supposed to be but we all know how that shit works. 

Agatha was supposed to be the “endgame.” She was Simon’s courtly love. His fair maiden to which he dedicated all of his noble deeds. 

But Agatha didn’t want to be a fair maiden anymore. 

And Simon didn’t love her. 

And then there was Baz’s hankie. 

In most Courtly Love relationships, there was a token bestowed upon the knight by the lady as a symbol of gratitude and affection. This token was, most often, a kerchief. 

I think we alllll remember that goddamn handkerchief. I remember that handkerchief. That handkerchief haunts my dreams.

Simon keeps that goddamn handkerchief in his drawer after he takes it from Agatha. He doesn’t even give it back. He so desperately wants to have this token of Baz’s love. His approval. His friendship. He wants something of Baz’s because he feels like he can’t have Baz himself. Baz is his real unreachable maiden. Baz is the one Simon doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for.

But more importantly, this brings us to the most important point of this meta:

Point Five: The Scarf

“The Mustang sounds like a bat on its way out of hell. And Simon is its getaway driver. Fourth gear on a gravel road, his blue eyes narrowed to slits. My mother’s scarf catches the wind and slips off my head. Snow whips out his hand to rescue it. He glances over at me, for just a second, holding it like a banner.”  (Wayward Son, Chapter 25)

I know I literally screamed the first time i read that. Simon is a knight saving his lady’s favor. 

But it’s not just that the scarf is a favor. Simon always gives it back. You don’t return a lady’s favor. 

“‘Oh, hey,’ he says like he’s just remembered something. He leans back to reach in his pocket, and takes out a wad of blue silk. 

‘That’s my mother’s scarf!’ I reach for it.

He opens his hand. The scarf threads through his fingers as I pull it away. ‘Sorry,’ he says. ‘I forgot it was in my pocket.’

‘I thought I left it in the hotel room.’

‘You did.’

I fold the scarf, gently. Snow watches for a moment, then looks away.”

(Wayward Son, Prologue)

Now, @theflyingpeach (hi bri) pointed out to me that the scarf probably represents Baz’s humanity, what with it being his mother’s and him leaving it at the hotel. And yeah she’s right you can read it as that. (and it’s quite compelling) But that’s another meta for another day.

Today we’re on that good knight shit.

That scarf is Simon’s heart. 

Baz says he always travels with it. He gently uses it to protect himself against the wind. Simon thinks he’s gorgeous when he wears it. Baz keeps thinking he’s lost it...

but he hasn’t. 

He’ll never lose it, as long as Simon’s around.

Go back up and read those excerpts and tell me you don’t want to burst into tears. 

Simon keeps returning his heart to Baz. “I’m broken. I’m bruised,” Simon whispers. “I’m a knight with no sword. I’m a dragon with no hoard. I only have this one last thing to protect, but instead I give it to you. I’d give it to you again, and again, and again. It’s yours forever. Even though I think you don’t want it, it’s yours until you explicitly tell me to take it back. My love is yours for however long you want it, Baz.” 

The handkerchief in Carry On also translates into being Simon’s heart. 

“I go to the drawer where the handkerchief is shoved in with my wand and a few other things, then I wave it in his face. ‘This one.’

Baz pulls the fabric out of my hand, and I pull it back because I don’t want him to have it. I don’t want him to have anything right now.” (Carry On, Chapter 50)

Simon wasn’t ready to give Baz his heart yet in Carry On, but it was still Baz’s. It still had his family crest embroidered right into the material. Simon’s heart has always been Baz’s and Baz’s alone. It’s just that now, he freely gives it. He freely returns it. 

“I’m yours, Baz. I’m yours.”

A knight could not go against his code and cross that barrier to be with his lady. 

But a dragon is selfish. A dragon can ask for what it wants.

And all Simon wants is Baz.

And Baz is just waiting for him to ask.

Thank you for reading yet again! I dedicate this to bri because without her the scarf thing would’ve never dawned on me. Also she kept bitching at me to write this. 

 Check out the mirror meta and food meta while you’re at it.

time for the tagging peeps

@singerofsimplesongs @carryonsimoncarryonbaz @krisrix @pastel-pink-death @lowcalcalzones @godmcfuckindammit @fight-surrender @simonsnoww @rareandbeautifulthing @neck-mole @basic-banshee (i know you’re not super into these but you had an anon about it) @birdybabybird @whitefire17draws @teaandinanity @watfordwallflower @carrybits @slaying-fictional-dragons 

[sortinghatchats]

On Slytherin Primaries

Slytherins believe in the importance of taking care of their own. Everyone else is a person, but so are they, so a Slytherin’s job, before everything else, is taking care of them and theirs. This makes what Slytherin are known for, their ambition and ruthlessness, stand out strikingly even while a Slytherin’s core is not inherently selfish or cut-throat.

All of the Houses contain people with great ambitions and great desire for accomplishment and the furthering of their goals. Gryffindors will take on the world to do what they think is right, and are willing to make sacrifices and overrule those who would compromise on what needs to be done, and that’s nothing if not ambition. What makes the Slytherin ambition stand out so significantly is that it’s seen as a selfish ambition, and a guiltlessly selfish one at that. That drive is tied to personal achievement instead of idealistic achievement, and that makes it easier to point at. 

But this is key: selfish ambition is idealistic ambition for a Slytherin. A Slytherin’s first priority is to their loved ones not because they love deeper or harder than the other Houses (they don’t), but because it is wrong to betray or abandon your people and right to defend and promote them. Loyalty and defense of your own is an inherent part of the Slytherin morality.

A Slytherin does not generally feel guilty for valuing themselves, for taking time for their own mental or physical health, or for sacrificing other things for the safety and happiness of the people they love. They might feel vulnerable, or judged, or guilty for not feeling guilty, especially if they live in the kind of family or culture where humility and self sacrifice are seen as the greatest goods– but without watching eyes and the words of peers and authority figures bouncing around their skulls, a Slytherin would feel comfortable and even validated in the idea that they have both a right and duty to take care of their own selves before anything or anyone else. 

An exception to this is a Slytherin who’s managed to kick themselves out of their inner circle. For whatever reason, they don’t feel like they deserve their own help or kindnesses. Their “me and mine” priorities are still apparent but now it’s only “mine.” They fiercely and selflessly prioritize the individuals they love, value, or feel responsible for, while excluding their own self. A Slytherin like this can look somewhat like a Hufflepuff Primary, erring towards selflessness, but take a look at how they prioritize between their best friend v. a stranger in need. If they feel guilty for abandoning the stranger, they’re probably a Puff; Slytherins feel desperately like they owe things to their people, but they don’t feel like they owe people in general. (Also keep an eye out for a Burned Hufflepuff in this example, though– a Slytherin wouldn’t care strongly about not helping the stranger, except for general empathetic tickles; a Hufflepuff would be survivably eaten up inside; a Burned Puff would force themselves not to care because it’s the only practical thing). 

Not prioritizing their own would feel wrong to a Slytherin. It would feel selfish, and might feel like giving into social pressures instead of standing up for what matters to them. This can hold true emotionally even when logically, prioritizing you and yours is not the best thing to do. In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen, a Slytherin Primary who only wants her family to be safe, almost runs away from her place as an important political symbol on the chance that she and her loved ones could make it on their own, hiding from the capitol. She doesn’t– but she really wants to, and when things go wrong she feels guilty for not acting to put her loved ones first. 

Canonical Basis

Individual loyalty is something tied to Slytherins in the books and movies, but isn’t something that gets focused on. “Or perhaps in Slytherin you’ll make your real friends,” the Sorting Hat says in the song from Harry’s first year. It doesn’t explicitly use the loyal like it does for Hufflepuff, but that’s consistent because often, Slytherins don’t look loyal. If you’re not one of their most important people, who you can often count on one hand, they’re not particularly loyal. Loyalty doesn’t have an inherent worth for Slytherins the way it does for Hufflepuffs. Loyalty is less given and more earned.

And we have canonical examples of Slytherin loyalty, extreme and dramatic as it is. Slytherin loyalty is Narcissa Malfoy abandoning her Dark Lord for the sake of her son. Slytherin loyalty is the way Pansy Parkinson freaks out every time something injures Draco, and the way she was willing to sacrifice Harry to save herself and her friends (and the way she expected other people to agree with that judgement call). 

It’s Slughorn’s guiltless willingness to distance himself from Dumbledore’s war–until old Dumbly gave him a reason to risk his own precious skin. It’s Snape, unwilling to let go of Lily Potter even after decades have passed and her son has grown up an orphan; even when there is nothing still to gain from holding onto his loyalty to her, and even when he hates her son. 

Moving outside of canon (because there are nearly no positive descriptions of Slytherins with canon– Narcissa is a bigot, Pansy a bully, Slughorn a spineless creep, Snape a child abuser): 

Slytherin is Ender Wiggin going back to Battle School not to save the world but because his sister asked him to, and Bean going to Battle School because he could get an education there that would save himself and then staying to save Ender. Slytherin is Pepper Potts telling Tony that, to hell with the world, he needs to take care of himself first. It’s Andrea from The Walking Dead pulling a gun on the people who try to get between her and her sister’s body. It’s Toph Beifong not giving any fucks except that hey, Twinkle Toes needs her. It’s Briar Moss of Circle of Magicplunging into death itself, refusing to let Rosethorn go. 

Where Molly Weasley, in HP canon, weeps but drops her son Percy when he turns on them for the Ministry, blood purist and loyal daughter of House Black Narcissa Malfoy betrays the Dark Lord and saves Harry Potter for Draco’s sake. As the final, epic battle of good and evil culminates and commences in Hogwarts, Narcissa takes her family and she disappears. The ideals of her war were only her priority until her son was in direct danger. 

Slytherin v. Hufflepuff

Slytherin and Hufflepuff are the two Loyalist Primaries. People, and not ideals, are at the core of their judgement calls. But where Hufflepuffs tend to bond to groups, Slytherins bond with individuals.

Slytherin Primaries are horrified to see someone let down a friend. To turn on a loved one for words as insubstantial as truth or justice or the greater good feels like a very particular kind of madness. Sure that’s what you’re supposed to do, a Slytherin might say, but that’s not what you actually want, is it? Your person is right here. They are real, and they are breathing, and they need you, and they are yours. It’s an extreme Slytherin who would let the whole world burn for the sake of a friend, but every Slytherin Primary would be at the very least tempted.

We discuss in the Hufflepuff Primary post how when someone is dropped from a Hufflepuff’s group of “people,” it is a dramatic fall into becoming a dehumanized “thing.” This Hufflepuff dehumanization can take many forms– outsiders, “other”ing people, having strong beliefs in the justification behind more institutionalized types of exclusion like racism, sexism, classism. But it’s a divide where there are people who are people, and then there are people who are not-people. 

The Slytherin divide is very different. There is no mechanism inherent to the Primary that removes someone of their personhood. Rather, they are removed of their status. There is a possessive drive to Slytherin, and while that varies in intensity across different individuals, it puts the divide on the basic line of “mine” and “not mine.” We find it helpful to talk about it in terms of being in someone’s inner circle, but it’s not usually that binary. Like it is with everyone, loyalty comes in a gradient. 

But Slytherin’s loyalty is more selective than the other Houses’. Where a Hufflepuff extends some initial degree of loyalty on the basis of your being a person, with a Slytherin any loyalty you gain is earned from the bottom up; you start at 0. 

A Decided House

But when the major part of your moral system that you feel viscerally is to protect yourself and your people, there are a lot of gaps in how you interact with the world and with moral situations. What do Slytherins do when confronted with gross wrongs like slavery, like murder, like unjust war–wrongs that don’t touch their people? It depends on the Slytherin. But this is why we count a Slytherin as a Decided house along with Ravenclaw, despite the core of their moral system being very much felt. 

Some Slytherins simply don’t care–they opt out of the moral complications of the rest of the world and what touches other people and choose a contented apathy about the things that don’t intrude on their space– but other Slytherins construct ways to interact with these situations. 

Perhaps they do so by understanding that other people have connections as strong and important as their own, or by building something more complex. Sometimes Slytherins can build systems that look like Ravenclaw systems– systems based on observational data, on adopted systems, or by keeping the moral guidance that they were taught growing up. The defining difference between these constructed additional Slytherin systems and the Ravenclaw Primary system is that the Slytherins are aiming for function and don’t have the same drive for truth. It matters much less if the system they build is true than if it is functional. The system should optimize for what they care about and what makes them happy, but this moral code is not viscerally driving like a Slytherin’s desire to protect those closest to them. 

Some Slytherins latch specifically on to the morality of their most important person (or people), either because they trust them or because they value them. Samwise Gamgee, the loyal hobbit who follows Frodo through hell and back, adopts Frodo’s system. Sam does great good, bravely and well, but he does it, “For Mr. Frodo! For the Shire! And for my Gaffer!” Jeff Winger from Community also sometimes follows this pattern, absorbing the moralities of his study group and best friends. Both these characters are, to put it simplistically, wearing bracelets that read “What Would Mr. Frodo Do?” and “What Would The Study Group Do?” etc. For Jeff, it’s a bit more because Annie will pout at him if he’s doesn’t at least try. 

Aang, from Avatar the Last Airbender, builds himself a stunning replica of his beloved deceased father figure Gyatso’s ethical system and he lives in it all his life. Latching onto a parental figure or early (sometimes, in media, deceased) influence’s morality is a form of love common for young Slytherins. Train Heartnet of Black Cat (who Saya changes so completely), Kai of Korra (who takes in Jinora’s culture like it’s his own morality), and Edward Cullen of Twilight (who takes Carlisle’s pacifism to self-hating extremes), are all examples of that. 

Alternatively, a Slytherin might spend a lot of their time living in a Primary model–it might matter deeply to them to do good and right. If they have that drive for truth, they might have a Ravenclaw Primary model as opposed to just a Slytherin’s functional construction. They might also have a Gryffindor Primary or a Hufflepuff Primary model. They could even have a Slytherin Primary model– but one that is loyal and dedicated to a larger group of people, like a whole peer group, the population of a whole city, or even humanity in general. (This can look a bit like a Hufflepuff– one major visible difference is that particularly Slytherin sense of possessiveness.) They could live in that model for all conflicts and decisions that are separate from and non-threatening toward their most important people and be very functional with that. 

MCU’s Tony Stark is an example of this type. (He’s also an example of a Slytherin who has kicked himself out of his own inner circle). He is a Slytherin Primary dedicated to Pepper and Rhodey (and, as of Avengers 2, he’s likely coming to value the other Avengers this way), but he has built a driving model to allow him to interact ethically with the rest of the world. It is this model that drives Iron Man and his sustainability and charity projects. This model (we think it’s probably Gryffindor Primary) is likely also what will drive him to one side or the other in Civil War. As long as Pepper or one of his own is not in direct danger (though the danger to himself is irrelevant), Tony will act firmly in service of his model. 

But dropping that model in order to stand by someone you love, or in order to protect yourself, doesn’t feel like a failing. Sticking to that modelled morality at the expense of betraying or abandoning one of their own would make a Slytherin feel guilty and wrong. Being able to put the things and concepts you like aside for the sake of the people who need you feels more righteous than any moral posturing. It feels practical and it feels right, just as strongly as a Gryffindor Primary’s internal moral compass points them. 

It’s a people based system, but it’s still an intuitive model of right and wrong. Betraying your own is the worst kind of crime. Loyalty is precious and terrible; it makes you vulnerable. It’s given sparingly, deeply, and a Slytherin will stand by their loyalties through the same death and fire that a Gryffindor would brave for the sake of doing the right thing, or a Hufflepuff to help someone in need.

In the same vein, when a Slytherin realizes that someone else doesn’t put the same value on the people they profess loyalty to, they might react similarly to a Gryffindor realizing that morality isn’t intuitive to everyone. Some things are just wrong, a Gryffindor might protest. But they’re your child–your spouse–your friend, a Slytherin will cry, confused and unsettled. How could you?

Petrified or Burned Slytherin

While there are certainly Slytherin Primaries who don’t care about any people who aren’t theirs, many Slytherins, especially ones who enjoy being more social, have wide circles of friends and acquaintances; people they will go out of their way to help, and whose company they enjoy, whose confidence they trust (to a point). What defines a Slytherin is not a lack of these concentric circles, but rather how sharply those lines of stratification are drawn. Wanting to help someone doesn’t mean you’re loyal to them. Wanting to help them at the expense of your comforts, your values, your commitments and sometimes even your self–that does. 

You end up with Slytherin Primaries on both ends of the spectrum: ones who have decided that a huge group of people are “theirs” (to the extreme of: the world is my responsibility and I have bonded to every single individual contained in it), and ones who have decided that they themselves are not one of their most important people, but maybe a friend or lover is. 

You can also get Slytherins whose only important person is themselves. This can be done healthily, especially for short periods of times, but when it’s driven by a fear of those close attachments, it becomes a phenomenon we call the Burned or Petrified Slytherin. 

The Petrified Slytherin is a Slytherin who has no inner circle and no plans to get one. Whether through death, betrayal, abandonment (from either side), or through never having had any to begin with, the Petrified Slytherin has decided that having important people is too dangerous. Having those strong ties leaves you open to pain and weakness, and the pleasure of those connections aren’t worth the despair that comes from their seemingly inevitable loss. In this way, they close themselves off to meaningful connections out of what is ultimately fear (though from the inside, it’s far more likely to be experienced as a rational, sensible decision given the circumstances of the world), and gives them a stony exterior that seems impenetrable, resolute, and cold. 

Even when not Petrified, though, the Slytherin Primary often seems cold. This comes not from any actual inherent coldness, but because they often show their warmth only to their inner circle. This is hugely influenced by your other houses, especially when you get the warmth of the Hufflepuff Secondary involved, or have a warm model– but even then, there is a special and somewhat exclusive kind of warmth saved for those who are held the closest. 

A Slytherin Primary in our system is defined first and foremost by the intensity and priority of their loyalties to individual people, however few or many. And the way to break a Slytherin– whether you’re stopping their plans or crushing their will– is to either take away their people or to threaten to. Narcissa betrays Voldemort, fully aware of what that could mean for the safety of herself and her husband, because Draco was more important than anyone or anything. Azula of Avatar the Last Airbender, for all her coldness and lack of mercy, does what she does because she wants desperately to be loved and accepted by her father. When Annabeth, his friends, or his mother are threatened, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson loses all other priorities– his canonical fatal flaw is that he would let the world burn to save a friend. Nothing brings out the fierceness in a Slytherin like getting in between them and their loved ones.

To a Slytherin the inner circle of close loyalties is likely to be a much smaller number than the people they care about and consider friends. A petrified Slytherin is therefore not necessarily someone who is friendless, or who has no social ties, or who lacks affection for people. It’s not even a Slytherin without some sort of a hierarchy of important people.

A petrified Slytherin is a Slytherin who has decided, either consciously or not, that letting people into that inner circle– devoting themselves to someone with that deep, thoughtless Narcissa-type or Azula-type loyalty– is too dangerous. It’s too terrifying. When someone is that close, they become a huge risk. They might die, or you they might stop loving you, or stop liking you, or something awful might happen to them and it might be your fault. Something awful might happen to you because someone might threaten your people and use them against you, and you would be helpless. If you couldn’t find a way to maneuver through the situation, you would have to do whatever was demanded of you to keep your people safe, because nothing would be worse than losing them and having it be your own fault.

Surviving a situation like that (losing someone or having their lives used as collateral against you) is one of the ways we see Petrification often happen. 

Not all Slytherins will Petrify in such a situation– Finnick from The Hunger Games, a Slytherin Primary whose only people are Mags and Annie, has resisted Petrifying even when there are good arguments that it would be a far more adaptive thing to do. The Capitol’s only way of controlling him is by threatening to hurt the people he loves, and even after Mags is killed, he stays resolutely attached to Annie. It gives him the strength to carry on, but is also the weakness that the Capitol is exploiting. If Annie died, Finnick would be very likely to Petrify.

Bean, in Ender’s Shadow, is a Petrified Slytherin for most of the book. He likes people, and sometimes idolizes people, but their main purpose in his life is the utility of them. His connections are a cold, logical thing, closer to an alliance than to a friendship, and often not mutually so. Bean is interesting because we never see the Petrification process. He’s born into a survival situation and is cold and hard and determined to live from the first page. It is only at the very end, when he grows attached to Nikolai and allows himself to consider the possibility that he, too, could have a family who he loves and who loves him, that we see that Petrification begin to melt away. 

Jeff Winger from Community is another example. A ruthless lawyer only out for his own gain and without an attachment in the world except to maybe his car, he’s the perfect example of a Petrified Slytherin. His tentative, slow-moving back and forth journey into attachment to the other characters is a character arc of un-Petrifying. He’s better at it some days than others. 

With female characters in particular, the petrified Slytherin is hugely tied to the trope of the Ice Queen. From TV Tropes: “Her signature characteristic is that she is cold; the ambiguity comes from what “cold” means. She has a cold heart, a frosty demeanor; she attracts but will never be wooed.” Characters who fit this trope are not always Petrified Slytherins, but the trope is an important parallel if not just because of the imagery they share: cold, hard, unyielding, nothing to lose. 

When a Slytherin loses their closest attachments, they are left with only their personal ambitions and with the morality system that is usually constructed around those loyalties. In the sense that the way that they now primarily frame their interactions with the world is constructed, they often appear to look like Ravenclaw Primaries here. The most visible and useful difference here, especially from the outside, is that they don’t have the Ravenclaw drive for truth. Their system doesn’t have to be true or right, but simply functional. If they have a Ravenclaw Primary model that gives them some of that drive, then they might be indistinguishable from the Ravenclaw Primary unless there are are counterexamples of Slytherin loyalty from other points in their life. 

Despite it seeming to at least be a trend, not all Petrified Slytherins look like Ravenclaw Primaries. Petrified Slytherins with models of other Primaries might happily and healthily inhabit those models as their main way of interacting with the world, and this has the potential to be entirely functional. The reason that the model would remain a model though, and not indicate an actual change in Primary, would be that first, there still remains the possibility to un-petrify, and second, even if there is nothing substantial underneath it, the model could still be dropped.

This potential for to drop that model and fall to an underlying lack of structure and direction is part of what gives desperate Slytherins their reputation of being fearsome. Azula is a great, if extreme, example of this when she loses everything at the end of season 3 of Avatar. Mental illness (in the form of at the very least hallucinations and almost definitely a lot more) and trauma also have of course a huge influence on the intensity of everything that happens, but that basic directionlessness, the way that Azula has nothing left after she loses her father, the way she’s so susceptible to being haunted by her mother’s memory, hits so hard because she had structured everything around her Slytherin morality. She had no real goals or ideals underneath that, and so she had no structure to keep her up when that crumbled.

One of the good things about Petrification, as scary and awful as it is, is that it’s a good way to survive a bad situation and it’s possible to un-petrify (see: Defrosted Ice Queen). Because fear of attachment is at the heart of petrification, instead of needing reality to prove your doubts wrong (as the other fallen Houses must), you only need one person to prove that attachment is worth the risk. 

Elementary’s Jamie Moriarty follows a common path here in that, despite her pretending to be un-petrifying for our protagonist Sherlock, the one person she ends up actually attaching to her is her daughter. She is the Slytherin woman who un-petrifies upon becoming a mother. Regina in Once Upon a Time also follows this path, becoming through that a subversion of the Evil Queen, who is often a Petrified Slytherin who does not un-petrify (see her mother, Cora, and the symbolic plot of removing her heart so that no one can use it against her). 

It’s really common in media for characters who have closed themselves off to attachments to be called psychopaths, both by the fans and the writers, when they are, in fact, not. A lot of them have empathy, or at least the capacity for it, and are instead Petrified.The definitive and intentional split between the self and meaningful attachments, due to loss, trauma, selfishness, or fear, is different from the inability to intuitively create those attachments. Calling this “petrification,” rather than inaccurately calling it “psychopathy,” gives the character flexibility to recover from it that doesn’t end up as either a contradiction of established character or as a downplaying of actual serious mental illness.

To sum: Petrification happens when a Slytherin cares about their important people so intensely that pain from their loss, or the potential for future loss, outweighs the positives of having important people. It stops being worth it. Even if it leaves the Slytherin with a directionless system and a cold center where there is an aching potential for great warmth, it feels safer and better to not attach to anyone that strongly.

tl;dr Slytherin Primary

Slytherin is a Decided House, and Internal House, and a Loyalist House. 

As a Decided House, Slytherins, unlike Hufflepuffs (our other loyalists), prioritize "their" people first. Those people are found and chosen by the Slytherin. It's not about who is in front of them,  or who needs them most, but who they have decided to love.

As a Internal House, like Gryffindor, Slytherin Primaries carry a certainty and a moral fortitude inside of themselves. When they are sure they are right, in the defense of themselves or their loved ones, they will not be swayed by outside influence or pressure.

As a Loyalist House, Slytherin puts people first. Unlike the Hufflepuff, they put their people first. They’re content with valuing some people over others without necessarily thinking some people are better than or worth more than others. In fact, putting their own people first feels right. This is something owed. Not valuing the people you profess loyalty to most would be a betrayal, a cowardice, an abandonment. The best thing you can be is there for the people you love. 

Ambitions live in all Houses but Slytherins’ is notorious because it often looks the most selfish– it often is the most selfish. Part of a Slytherin’s morality is understanding that your first duty is to yourself and the people you love– higher minded goals are all pomp and circumstance, trying to make yourself feel good. At the heart of things, this is why we are here: for ourselves.

[yanderedbh-moved]

The Yanderes As Shakespeare Villains

Please take this post with a grain of salt, about 90% of the characters here are expressly not meant to be either entirely good or entirely evil and not going to lie. I mostly just titled this list “yanderes as villains” for the sake of a title, as more than a few of these characters are far more like anti-heroes than outright villains. Would I identify all the Shakespeare Characters below as antagonists? No. Do I feel they are similar enough to be compared to their DBH counterpart? Yes. All that in mind, please enjoy!

Connor: Macbeth, Macbeth

(Specifically the “nice” version of Connor.) Strung along while heavily manipulated under the control of Amanda/Cyberlife as Macbeth is manipulated by his wife Lady Macbeth, despite all this. However, they are the ones actively doing evil. Carrying out these acts of violence.

Straddle the line between victim and villain. Because of this, they're viewed wildly differently by other characters. Additionally, both are dynamic characters, developing and changing thoroughly from the beginning to the end of the play.

Even though both characters unleash severe pain and even death onto others, it's mostly on account of manipulation. Because of this lack of intention on their end to commit these acts, they suffer the regret and remorse later.

Markus: Cassius, Julius Caesar

Much of their resentment for their enemy is on account of having to live and serve as a lesser to a force of evil. Not necessarily Carl specifically, but still, Markus is forced to serve and interact with humans who hate him.

They fight for freedom and Liberation from the unjust in a way. Markus for androids who deserve a better life, Cassius, who argues Rome is too good to be controlled by a tyrant like Caesar.

Not necessarily an identical parallel but one which still connects the two, Cassius is motivated by his envy for Caesar. At the same time, Markus wants revenge on humans for what they did to him and his people.

Kara: Aaron, Titus Andronicus

The only time Kara is violent, even potentially lethal to others in the story, is in the name of devotion to her child. In the same way, Aaron’s redeeming factor is his devotion to his own son.

There isn’t exactly any real detail given to explain what it is that motivates them beyond the fact they appear to act based on instincts. Kara’s instincts telling her to act as a “mama bear” for Alice, while Aaron is only doing what he believes to be right in the name of being a good lover, and provider for his significant other.

Fundamentally their monogamy and the way they are so loving with only the one they care the most about is central to their characterization. Kara is one of the only non-pleasure based female androids, and Aaron mostly only acts as a way to appease his lover.

Hank: Shylock, The Merchant of Venice

Despite if you love or hate either of them, it's undeniable that they are a victim of circumstance. His villainy is one that is created, not what he was born with.

The driving force behind his dramatic change in behavior is on a count of losing a loved family member. Causing them to cling desperately to what they have left hardening themselves in the process.

Shylock demands a pound of flesh in return for his daughter, while Hank straight-up murders (ok, technically he only shoots him in the head, but his intent stands, just the same.) Connor, on account has misplaced anger towards androids.

Luther: Hamlet, Hamlet

Hamlet may be the tragic hero of the story, and Luther is given a fair shot at redemption. Still, it's wrong to ignore the fact that both of these characters committed evil deeds before the conclusion of their story.

Both arguably have blood on their hands for some character's death even though they're not the direct killers. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were sent to their deaths by Hamlet, and Luther's complacency in Zlatko’s house kept more androids suffering.

Hardly means they should be counted among the blood thirstiest of villains listed. As they are developed through story and are defined more by their redemption and complexity than by their own faults and failings.

North: Lady Macbeth, Macbeth

Fiercely driven by her appetite for power and ambition, an iconic and classic example of female power and the corrosive influence on her husband.

Obviously, she acts as the driving force in trying to convert Markus and pursuing a path of violence and vengeance. She won't hesitate in her goals, no matter the hesitance of others.

No doubt, this unrelenting thirst for violence would likewise extend to her as a yandere. She would see her actions as ones made out of love and selflessness.

Simon: Tamora, Titus Andronicus

Strikes a chilling balance between a schemer and a bloodthirsty murderer while never leaning too far to one extreme. In a sick way, by keeping this balance, this allows Tamora to embrace the full power of violence, as well as calculation.

While in her own right, she might not be expressly powerful in her own right. However, by aligning herself with as a leader becomes far stronger, similarly, Simon is one of Markus' right-hand men.

He would be the kind of yandere who should never under any circumstances be underestimated as he is capable of intense violence. Far more than meets the eye

Josh: Claudius, Hamlet

Claudius is an interesting villain because, even though he is the one actively committing acts of violence, he is absolutely doing this of his own free will. He’s not manipulated by another, or only doing this for some higher goal. He wants power, and he knows he must kill the current king to achieve this. Yet still, he feels remorse and unease over this. Josh similarly will openly vocalize his dismay over Markus pursuing violence, yet always, will follow through with his leader all the same.

There is no joy in this bloodshed. Both are brutally realistic and understand, ultimately killing is fundamentally wrong, but follow through with this plot to satisfy their own needs. To them, killing is always wrong, it was wrong when they committed this sin, and they fear their time of atonement is coming.

Both the stories of Hamlet and DBH share the notion that no one is entirely good or entirely evil. Even though he knows it’s probably a lost cause, Josh still pleads with Markus to turn to the side of peace and to favor mercy. Claudius may be self-serving to an insidious degree. Still, it’s debatable he did care for Queen Gertrude and felt pain when she died.

Kamski: Edmund, King Lear

While it’s not ever disclosed in canon any real details about Elijah’s upbringing, the two of them share a kind of “larger than life" persona. At least a part of their motivations could be described as going above and beyond the “common man.” For Edmund, this is because of his humble upbringing, and it’s at least possible Elijah shares this need to be celebrated on account of unremarkable upbringing.

Both Elijah and Edmund are absolute snakes! There’s nothing trustworthy or loyal about them, and they have no problem sacrificing or hurting others in the name of their own gain. Edmund, the adulterer, and Kamski, who was fully ready to let Connor shoot one of his companions.

Their quest to become the perfect self-made man left them cold and withdrawn as a result. In the narrative, this cold and withdrawn behavior is Elijah’s way of appearing more cold and mysterious. At the same time, for Edmund, this is a representation of his resentment for the familial love he never received.

Chloe: Titania, A Midsummer’s Night Dream

Both are extraordinary women. Titania is debatably the most powerful character in the entire play, while Chloe is a sophisticated, empathetically driven android, perhaps the most advanced ever, in this sense. Yet are unable to reach their full potential, on account of living under the control of men. Titania, subjected to life under Oberon, and Chloe's bound to a life of domesticity.

Despite their implied superior abilities and potential, they aren’t even really able to fight back against the men who control them. Titania, under the influence of a love spell, forces her to act a fool for her husband’s enjoyment. As Chloe is kept separate and isolated from the rest of the world with no way to make connections of her own.

(I am so sorry, Titania is not a villain in any way, this is all such a reach, but this… this was literally all I got, RIP.)

Gavin: Tybalt, Romeo and Juliet

Definitely a “what you see is what you get” kind of antagonist. And this description applies to both men from the beginning to the end of the story. They wear their motivations and emotions on their sleeves and are unapologetic for the way they act and treat others.

Complete hot-heads. While they may claim not to have selfish motives, as in, they genuinely believe their enemies to be as evil and reproachable as they say, but this is not true. Tybalt’s pugnacious behavior leading to his, and the deaths of many others. While Gavin’s opposition to his fellow investigator prolong progress and only lead to infighting and tensions rising between other humans and androids.

Both characters are pretty much the closest thing to an “all bad” character as it gets. While Tybalt may mean well in some way, to protect his family from the Montagues, he doesn’t care for their well being the moment the rival family is gone. And is clearly only fighting so hard for his own enjoyment. Similarly, for someone who wants to keep humans and androids apart as fiercely as Gavin wants, he doesn’t seem to have any good-will, or kindness to share with any of his fellow humans.

Zlatko: Richard the third, Richard the Third

Both characters follow the arcs of characters who desire power, or to hold a superior status to others, only to lose this power when taken down by the demons of their past.

Even when they are surrounded by the faces of those they’ve wronged in their past, it’s only until the very last second that either of these characters shows any semblance of regret for what they’ve done. And in Zlatko’s case, this doesn’t mean he regrets what he did to the androids he tortured but does regret how he wound up in a position like this.

Ralph: Caliban, The Tempest

Both are fiercely territorial of the places they reside in. While they may or may not have a right to this level of possessiveness, it’s important to acknowledge they only have to share the space anyway on account of unfairness. (Caliban was tricked into giving up possession of his island, and Ralph technically was here before anyone else, and even if he doesn’t own the area officially, it’s still his space.)

Both are written to be “monster” like characters. Or, in other words, characters who are fundamentally different from the humans in the story. Ralph an android, as well as “corrupted” on account of his trauma. While Caliban is described as a creature that lived in the wilderness before the island was under Prospero’s control.

Through the roughness, they present to the outside world, however, the audience sees a glimmer of softness, and maybe even more intelligent than given credit for. If Kara is kind to Ralph, then he will refuse to give away her position to Connor, even under intimidation. Caliban actually does desire a life on the island with Miranda by his side. (Granted, saying he wants to populate the island with “lots of little Calibans” was a bit of a yikes move on his part.)

Daniel: Goneril & Regan

They share a common theme at the heart of their stories. The idea of spending your time, life, and energy to be close to another, to be considered a part of the family, only to lose themselves to jealousy at the notion of being replaced.

Characters with motivations which may appear petty at first glance, however, this is more than enough motivation to enact intense violence. For Daniel, this means threatening to drag the young daughter of his former host family off the top of a building. For Regan, this means literally pulling out someone’s eyes.

Nines: Don John, Much Ado About Nothing

(This is partly a headcanon here.) Even though Nines is considered an upgrade from his predecessor, Connor, that doesn’t change the fact he’s still fundamentally following in his brother’s footsteps, and he can’t help but feel out shined here. A kind of familial resentment John experiences, which motivates his actions in the story.

Even though this petty jealousy may appear superficial at first glance, it’s critical not to underestimate these characters. They are both intelligent schemers. No one is truly safe from, or around them.

This would absolutely extend to you, in terms of yandere Nines. His treachery runs deeply, and if he is so ready to start a war against his own brother than you will never know if you’re genuinely safe around him.

[horrorempathya]

*       @faegrifted​  said:        Hc prompt;; Ok but talk about Faith and personality traits she finds endearing or attractive in others? How about personality traits that are unattractive to her?

𝙵𝙰𝙸𝚃𝙷  𝚂𝙴𝙴𝙳  𝙸𝚂  𝙰  𝙲𝙾𝙽𝚃𝚁𝙾𝙻𝙻𝙴𝙳  𝙲𝚁𝙴𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚁𝙴.   𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴  𝙸𝚂  𝙰𝙱𝚂𝙾𝙻𝚄𝚃𝙴𝙻𝚈  𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶  𝚂𝙷𝙴  𝙲𝚁𝙰𝚅𝙴𝚂  𝙼𝙾𝚁𝙴  𝚃𝙷𝙰𝙽  𝙰𝙵𝙵𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽.    𝚂𝙷𝙴  𝚆𝙰𝙽𝚃𝚂  𝚃𝙾  𝙱𝙴  𝚆𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙳.    she  is  so  severely  selfish  in  that  way,   but  once  she  loves,  she  loves  fiercely.    you  just  need  to  understand:    she’s  become  connected  to  joseph  seed.     ＳＨＥ  ＩＳ  ＨＩＳ.     a  lot  of  how  she  thinks  is  how  he  thinks.    so,   where  does  that  leave us?    with  rachel.    we  need  to  understand  that  faith  is  the  personification  of  death,  a  personification  of  a  demigod;    searching  to  find  people  who  think  they’re  heroes  under  hubris  circumstances.    rachel  just  wants  affection,   just  wants  kindness.   so  all  those  people  under  faith’s  protection,   people  such  as  @faegrifted​     [  we  were  just  talking about this  so  now  it’s  headcanon  ],     @snowinabottle,  @tornsurvivors,  @killypool​,  @guddessen   all  have  so  many  similar  aspects.    personalities  are  different,   but  there  is  a  softness  in  each  of  them  that  leads  them  to  be  extremely  loyal.    whereas  anyone  too  brash,  anyone  that  cuts  her  off,   anyone  that  disrespects  her,  anyone  that  doesn’t  want  to  listen  will  get  a  huge  fucking  YEET  off  joseph’s  statue.    so  in  the  long  run,  she’s  both  selfish  and  selfless  in  this  way:    she  doesn’t  care  about  personality.    she  only  cares  about  how  the  other  person  shows  her  affection,   about  how  they  give  her  a  chance  even  if  you  know  ethically  and  morally  something  is  wrong,  you  at  least  talk  to  her  like  a  normal  human  being  and  NOT  the  demigod,  cryptic,  personification  of  death  she  is.    she’s  like  a  million  things  BUT  human.

[bettabythesea]

Some side characters from my original story Magical Moxie! These are the members of Team Impulse, and close allies and friends with the titular Team Moxie.

Short profiles for each under the readmore!

Name: Ryker Segal

Pronouns: He/Him

DOB (Star Sign): March 3rd (Pisces)

Age: 17

Group: Team Impulse

Theme Color: White

Transformation Trinket: A heart-shaped silver and diamond pin.

Transformation Phrase: “Heart, lend me power!”

Abilities: Gains super strength, defense, and agility when powered up. Able to sprout feathery light-made wings and fly. Can summon and use a bow and arrows. Shown to have pronounced healing abilities (it works through contact so like.. He can hug people well again) although it is something he cannot really control, is able to release a lot of feathers at once which is mostly used as something akin to a smokescreen: concealing himself and his teammates for a quick getaway.

Personality Traits: Serious, brooding, blunt, easily embarrassed and flustered, quiet, independent, determined, tends to hide emotions (especially uncomfortable ones like guilt and love), easily bored, has a funny side, can be grumpy, one who expresses love through action and quality time rather than words, thoughtful, aloof, often distracted

Likes/Interests: “Weather channel music”, fantasy novels, bath bombs (incidentally because he enjoys soaking in bath bomb’d water, he has fantastic skin quite by accident), potted plants, bad mall pretzels (the more cheese the better), watching bad movies with friends and collectively roasting it the whole time, iced coffee, morning runs, cats (they remind him of Sylv), birdwatching, podcasts

Dislikes: Cold water, the dark, feeling like he’s disconnected or can’t be reached, running late for things, feeling like he’s being rushed, total silence, crowded areas, burning smells, stiff or confining clothing, bugs, school (For being contained to one area for long amounts of time and because he has to sit through lectures that he considers to be very dry), feeling like he is easily readable, harsh scents

----

Name: Chiara Acerbi

Pronouns: She/They

DOB (Star Sign): August 27 (Virgo)

Age: 17

Group: Team Impulse

Theme Color: Green

Transformation Trinket: A heart-shaped clip-on pager

Transformation Phrase: “Heart, lend me power!”

Abilities: Gains super strength, defense, and agility when powered up. Is able to create polygonal light objects which are solid. Usually she uses this to create a blunt weapon of some kind, like a spiky bat or a hammer. She can also use this to create platforms to either stairstep her way through the air or in some cases, hover on one like a surfboard.

Personality Traits: Fiery, rebellious, always ready to throw down (even when and especially if she is outmatched), can have smug tendencies, works well under pressure, quick-minded, fiercely loyal, defensive

Likes/Interests: Tinkering with computers (both the hardware and the software), pulling relatively harmless pranks, bargain hunting, routine, mysteries, monster-fighting, haunted houses, strategy games, warm weather, nighttime, coffee

Dislikes: Cold weather and snow, having to get up early in the morning, figures of authority (more of a deep distrust than a dislike), her friends and teammates being hurt or threatened, not having any control of a situation, injustice (especially against those that cannot defend themselves), uncertainty and instability

---

Name: Rocco “Sylv” Sylvester

Pronouns: He/Him DOB (Star Sign): November 30th (Sagittarius) Age: 18 Group: Team Impulse

Theme Color: Yellow

Transformation Trinket: His heart Transformation Phrase: “Heart, lend me power!” Abilities: Gains super strength, defense, and agility when transformed. Able to coat himself in electricity, as well as hold an immunity to all forms of existing electricity. Can summon dual mallets with electrified heads, that can link together in the middle and be wielded like a baton. His gloves are also equipped with claws that are able to extend. His eyes glow and are catlike, so he has good night vision. Not really an ability per say but his heart and scars occasionally glow. Personality Traits: Loving, selfless, caring, gentle, a little insecure about his outward appearance, loud and boisterous, encouraging, wears his heart on his sleeve, uses his strength to protect others, naive and somewhat oblivious, friendly, laughs easily, gives out hugs like they are jolly ranchers, can have an angry and intense side if you press the right button, spontaneous Likes/Interests: Cats (everything from housecats to tigers), visiting the zoo, animals in general, 80’s power rock, action movies, Halloween (the cuter aspects of it like candy and dressing up and a fun “spooky” aesthetic), warm weather, the sky at dawn or dusk, roller coasters, roadtrips, eating frosted mini wheats dry like they're chips or something (even though it horrifies both of his teammates), fruity floral scents (does he steal his mom’s orange blossom perfume? probably), pineapple (his absolute favorite flavor. Yes he puts it on his pizza. YMMV on whether or not this is validating and empowering or horrifying), afternoon naps. Dislikes: Cold weather, long periods of rain, the fact that his appearance frightens and intimidates some people, getting called a zombie, greedy people/organizations, not getting enough sleep, hospitals/doctor’s offices, horror (not only is he easily frightened by scary movies and games, but a lot of the stories make him feel uncomfortable), seeing people upset, talking about/dwelling on sad subjects for too long Current Area of Residence: Morelle Island, FL (Based off of Ft. Lauderdale, FL) Additional notes: He has Lichtenberg Figures all over his chest, back, abdomen, arms, and a little bit on his neck. You can sort of see them, but for the most part his magical costume covers them. Also, because his eyes have catlike pupils they do that thing where they get really big at night or when something catches his interest.

[theprodigypenguin]

favorite thing about jeddy and/or teddy and/or james

So all of this is based on my own personal views and opinions of them and their relationship!

My favorite thing about Teddy is how fiercely gentle and loving he is. The way I interpret him is a perfect blend of both parents, a punk Hufflepuff who's stubborn and for the most part incredibly confident, though he does tend to underestimate himself and his abilities. Through everything he is gentle and loving, and FIERCE in both of those aspects. He's kind and understanding and he'll love anyone through their most brutal faults even if that person doesn't see the point in loving themselves.

My favorite thing about James is how loyal and selfless he is. I already gave a HUGE rant about this to @weasleywood but to sum that rant up, I see James as the protective, loyal, selfless older brother, he's a BORN leader and more than willing to sacrifice himself and his own health and wellbeing to protect the people he loves.

My favorite thing about the Jeddy relationship is how it's basically a beautiful childhood friends to lovers story, they compliment each other so perfectly, patching up each others faults and making each other better people.

James is selfless but it takes a toll on him because he's more than willing to hurt himself or get hurt for people he loves, even if those people don't realize he's in pain, and he'll never admit it either to save them from the worry. Teddy always notices though, because he loves James and will immediately pick up on when James is hurting. He protects James from himself.

Teddy on the other hand can exhaust himself with personal expectation. He wants to be someone his parents can be proud of, but he's constantly underestimating himself and doubting himself, thinking he's not enough. He loves unconditionally without any expectation to be loved in return, even though he spends so much time and energy trying to earn love. But James doesn't need to be convinced that Teddy is worth love because he already loves Teddy for everything he is, right down to the root of his faults.

No one understands them like they understand each other, when they're together they're in their own little world and everything is right. I just love them so much I'm so weak.

[rookisaknight]

MBTI and the Seeds

Religious bullshit, meet personality bullshit. I took to 16personalities for a direction on this and was actually pretty convinced by the majority of the results (which is whack because 16personalities almost always gets at least one letter off), but I have an unfathomably large amount of information about this test stored in my grey matter so I’ll be hopping off a bit to fill in my own blanks. Also notable is the severe trauma each of the Seeds have been through

This is going under a cut because it's a long post and honestly might be more worthwhile as a reference for myself and how I write the Seeds, but I can’t be the only personality nerd in this fanbase.

Jacob Seed: ISTJ. The Logistician

I wasn’t sold on this one initially given that Jacob seems far more comfortable with out of control situations than most Js generally are, but I find the overall profile fits him better than ISTP. My explanation is that his time in the juvie, the military, and the foster system has forced a maturation of this particular function due to constantly feeling out of control, which makes him more open to adaptation than he would have been otherwise. 

Strengths:

Honest and Direct: Notably Jacob is arguably the least manipulative Seed. He “tricks” you in a sense with the conditioning but that is more a strategic concealment than any deception. Unlike the other three, Jacob does not pretend that his actions come from any sense of love or divine calling. He is always straightforward with the deputy, even if that doesn’t restrain his cruelty.

Strong-willed and Dutiful: Basically see all of the Book of Joseph, as well as his “you think I care if I die” comments. I lump very responsible under this. 

Calm and Practical: I don’t think I have to explain this part. Jacob never reacts from an explicitly emotional place. The “did you think you were free” is the closest to losing his temper I think we see from him. He has expectations, and failure to meet them will be punished. He doesn’t see a need to get emotional about it, preferring to detach himself

Create and Enforce Order: Well, culling the herd is an unconventional tactic, but...

Weaknesses: 

Stubborn: As Joseph said, Jacob has been getting into it since he was a kid. Even with the brother, he’s willing to die for, he explicitly argues with him. And even in the face of his own death, he refuses to rescind his own philosophy, or even demonstrate any regret for the path he’s chosen.

Insensitive and Judgemental: Jacob’s a shithead no I will not elaborate

Always By the Book: an illegal paramilitary cult, yes, but one that holds to Jacob’s exacting standards. 

Often Unreasonably Blames Themselves: Loath as I am to woobify Jacob at all, there’s a pathos to him. As Joseph says, he thinks of himself as a “weapon without a purpose. A soldier without a legacy”. As a child, he protected his siblings and as an adult, he views himself as little more than a meatshield. There’s a sense that he objectifies himself, reduces himself down to simply the function of violence and protection, and those high standards mean that he views death as simply another failure.

can bastard be a personality type

Joseph Seed: ISFP- The Observer

The test originally gave me INFP, but I find that unconvincing for two reasons. One, INFP’s are predominantly defined by an open-minded approach to life and to ideas, which doesn’t fit well with a guy so convinced he got religion right that he was willing to kidnap and murder people. Two, while Joseph is definitely contemplative and deals with the symbolic, his “visions” are not flights of fancy but are in some sense practical. He doesn’t really appear to engage in thought experiments, merely interpret sensory (or in this case extrasensory) information that he is presented with.

Strengths:

Charming: The man runs a successful church for a reason, and it can’t just be good cheekbones and dogwhistling

Sensitive to Others: Joseph has a keen insight into other people’s emotional state, which is what makes him so effective at manipulating them. He tends to meet people where they’re at with a certain deftness that would be impressive if he didn’t use it the way he did

Passionate: about the LORD. No, but I’ll give this to the man, he’s certainly got a vision, and sticks to it with intensity.

Curious: I think anyone working in the business of people has to have an inherently curious mind, and while Joseph may believe he has all the answers, his fascination with the Deputy to me indicates that he has an inherent draw to things that disrupt his world. I also think about how he would get in trouble as a child for seeking out forbidden material, such as Spiderman comics. those Satanic webs...

Weaknesses:

Fiercely Independent: He’s developed a supportive community now but Joseph has always marched to the beat of his own awful, awful drum, which has gotten him kicked out of at least one job and lost him at least one set of foster parents. He doesn’t seem to need people as much as he acquires them 

Unpredictable: Sometimes with blood, sometimes with forgiveness, it's hard to say how Joseph will respond to disruption on any given day. Where the spirit leads, I suppose. 

Easily Stressed: This one I’ll actually argue that his turbulent history and the demands of his job have at least taught him to cover this up, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t cracks in the armor. “yOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME!!!!!”

Overly Competitive: He’s a sore loser with a tendency to punish people for failing him (see: Faith and the statue)

Fluctuating Self-Esteem: He’s dealing with a joint worldview where he is at once God’s chosen and a “no one from nowhere with nothing”. How much of that is genuine we may never know, but I don’t think the fluctuation is outside the realm of possibility

John Seed: ESFJ-The Consul

I was a little on the fence about N vs S but ultimately found that John’s a bit more concrete than conceptual.

Strengths:

Strong Practical Skills: I mean, the man orchestrated a hostile takeover of an entire county, he knows how to get things done when he wants

Strong Sense of Duty, Very Loyal: This part is likely underdeveloped given how tempestuous forming relationships was for most of his life, but given how bound he feels to Joseph its clearly in him.

Good at Connecting With Others: He’s a shitstain, but according to Joseph he had business connections everywhere and was basically a walking secret storage bin. John can probably be very charming if you don’t know how he spends his weekends in the bunker. 

Sensitive and Warm: again, underdeveloped given his background, but there’s clearly a lot of emotions broiling just below the surface given how volatile he can be and how easily Joseph can access them. Joseph also describes him as a very sensitive kid, for what that’s worth

Weaknesses

Worried About Their Social Status: The boy is a climber

Inflexible:  He holds pretty firmly to his headcanons on Hope County (for fuck’s sake John Nick’s sin isn’t Greed, its Sloth) and has a very definite view on how things should be. Not to mention he seems very particular, just based on the state of his home and his clothes. He has rituals and habits, and will not deviate.

Vulnerable to Criticism: If you say anything about his future receding hairline he will cry. He just will. Not to mention I’m citing that look he gives you when you’re apparently costing him paradise by not converting

Often Too Needy: He will either get attention or he will die trying. 

Too Selfless: Honestly, selfless isn’t the right word here, but I’ll copy the way 16 personalities describes it because I think it fits really well for John. “ Consuls sometimes try to establish their value with doting attention, something that can quickly overwhelm those who don’t need it, making it ultimately unwelcome. Furthermore, Consuls often neglect their own needs in the process.” John is a deeply selfish person but he does act like someone who tries to get affection by giving everything of himself, often to the point that he makes the other person uncomfortable.

I literally love this dramatic edit it's so good

Faith Seed/Rachel Jessop: ENFP-The Campaigner

I have nothing to add, it just fits. At the most, I think Faith is a little more pragmatic than she lets on (given that whole “if violence is the only language you choose to speak”) but to me, that can easily be an extension of the ENFP’s ability to connect emotionally. It means they know how to cut people off 

Strength

Curious: I mean you don’t end up in a cult willingly without a little curiosity. Faith also seems mildly intrigued by the Deputy’s resistance, and while this eventually culminates in frustration with our intractability, I believe there’s a genuine investment in the journey to conversion

Observant: Faith is cued into her public perception, both from the resistance and the cult, and consciously constructs it. She also shares Joseph’s ability to tune into emotions and exploit them.

Energetic and Enthusiastic: How much of her ray of sunshine persona is constructed for the benefit of converting people will probably never be answered, but I don’t believe it can be constructed whole cloth. I think Rachel always was a person with a lot of heart and enthusiasm for her passions, even if it's not as constant as Faith Seed wants you to believe

Excellent Communicators: There’s a reason she’s regarded as the Siren. She can talk people into things even they don’t want to do. Certainly left me shook

Know How To Relax: *insert weed joke here*

Very Popular and Friendly: Again, her Siren persona may not be 100% genuine, but you can’t fake that level of charisma

Weaknesses:

Poor Practical Skills: Listen, Rachel is smart as hell (definitely smart enough to develop a drug and orchestrate mass production thereof), but her planning skills? Not great. Up until Burke gets taken out of the Bliss her plan seemed to be “talk with the Deputy over and over until they change their mind”. She kicks it up a notch after she finally gets annoyed with us but it seems a bit more “making it up as she goes”, and she falls back on strategies that have worked for her before but aren’t really effective for the Deputy. In fairness, I don’t think any of the Seeds are strong in the planning department

Overthink Things, Get Stressed Easily: Unlike with John and Jacob, Faith doesn’t really let us in to see her darker side. She prefers to speak of her flaws in the past tense. Yet clearly anxiety has been an issue in her life, given how deeply her isolation sat with her and her sense of worthlessness. Using drugs as an escape from stress also makes sense for her character, at least from my perspective

Highly Emotional: Faith communicates in emotional terms, manipulates people through emotions, and unlike someone like Jacob Faith loses her temper. She shouts at us, demonstrates her frustration very openly, even screams at us that we couldn’t possibly understand her.

Independent to a Fault: Her personal history gives her some interesting codependent issues with Joseph but based on what we hear of her from Tracey Rachel resented anyone trying to control her, even if they had her best interests at heart, and was perfectly willing to burn bridges over people questioning her choices. 

If people are interested I can develop these out more. I may eventually do these for the police force members too but frankly, we’re given less to deal with for them, in particular with Joey and Staci, so who knows.

[philtstone]

The Musketeers Star Wars AU

1. There is a Jedi Order that remains as strict, with Councilmembers as strong-headed.

Master Treville has hard edgesand a barking voice to hide his soft forgiving heart. By forty he’s picked upthree strays, and only one is technically his apprentice, because that is whatthe council allows, but the other two tag along everywhere anyway.

“You’re sitting on my robe,” saysAthos, monotone, and Porthos says, “It’s your own fault for wearing robes allthe time, anyway. What’s wrong with just your tunic?” The firelight is warm anddancing where the group of them sit gathered, on a short mission to Utapau thatis mundane enough that Treville is relaxed; his only stressors are Aramis’scampfire singing and the prospect of returning to Coruscant and dealing withArmand Richeliu’s ridiculous goatie.

“He thinks it makes him look moreJedi-ly,” Aramis informs the group, blessedly pausing in his humming. Porthoslaughs; Athos scowls.

“Nothing is wrong with tunics,”he says. “I’m just cold.”

There is the faint sound ofshuffling amidst the boys’ laughter, as both Aramis and Porthos move to drapetheir cloaks over Athos. Pretending to be asleep, Treville smiles withoutmoving his mouth; he tells the Council that the padawans learn better as a triothan on their own, and this is accepted.

2. There is a farmboy fromTatooine whose parents are dead, but this one is not destined for tragedy.

“The Force,” Aramis has decided,“likes to damn Athos specifically.”

Athos thinks sometimes he must bea terrible Jedi for all that he does not believe in the more mystical side ofthe Force. For Aramis, it comes naturally. Porthos is unbothered by it eitherway, which Athos wishes he could emulate.

But anyway: the Farmboy. AndAthos’s damnation.

Sometimes he thinks it’s becauseMaster Treville never tells him anything. Usually, he blames Aramis and Porthos.

This time, the tow-headed farmboywho’s made it to the Jedi Temple all the way from Tatooine and is determinedlytrying to kill him cannot be blamed on any of the above categories.

He’s still not sure where the blamegoes a whole two days later, after the mess with Chancellor Richelieu’s corruptguards and Athos nearly being kicked out of the Order, standing in front ofMaster Treville. The boy is hovering behind him and putting on a ferventdisplay of his stubborn jaw and determinedly splayed legs.

“He is,” says Athos, taking adeep breath, briefly closing his eyes, and becoming fully cognizant of the factthat his voice is coming out quite agonized, “uncannily strong in the Force,Master.”

Treville says nothing.

“And he saved my life,” Athosadds belated, reluctant.

Treville says nothing.

“I’m ready,” says Athos finally.“For an apprentice of my own.”

Treville’s moustache bristles.

The Council is going to be verydispleased. Richelieu is going to meddle. Aramis and Porthos will probably findit all hilarious.

They take d’Artagnan in anyway.

3. There is a Queen from Naboo,and she needs a girl-guard by her side.

She does not have one quite yet,but the young woman managing the Temple clothing dispensary has all the makingsof one to come. Constance is not guard nor apprentice to anyone, but the boyskeep telling her she’d make a brilliant one.

She swats them, mostly, andwishes she could take their words and make them real. Instead she remainsdutifully married, and visits the dispensary whenever she’s needed, and hopesshe is not too eager in her blossoming friendship with Athos’s newly-mintedpadawan, d’Artagnan. Jedi are not allowed romance, anyway, so that’s the bothof them accounted for. Even if he did kiss her once, when he first showed up inCorusant, and he’s kind and bright and warm and makes her blood thrum with thethought of a nebulous something every time she’s fitting him for new boots.

She wonders if it’s d’Artagnan oradventure she craves more. It bothers her that she can’t figure it out, soConstance hands out robes and tunics and boots as she’s needed, and tries to becontent with the warmth of her friends.

And then there’s a fugitive to besquirreled away, and a baby is kidnapped, and a young girl is killed in theCoruscanti airways, trying to deliver a message to the visiting Queen of Naboo.Constance is involved – because she can’t stand to see people hurt, because hefriends are incorrigible, because she knows it will bother her husband (itdoes).

At the end of a year, she’spretty damn good with a blaster, and she wants to say she doesn’t feeld’Artagnan’s fingers lingering around her waist.

And then she’s summoned to theSenate chambers, her husband in tow.

“I’ve a need for a confidant,”says the young woman with the painted face, who is smiling at her moregenuinely than Constance knew queens could smile. “And a body-guard. And youcome highly esteemed and recommended, you see.”

Behind the Queen, Constancethinks she sees d’Artagnan flush. Aramis and Porthos are beaming; Athosknowing. Are they assigned to the Queen, Constance wonders? And for what? Herhusband makes a spluttering noise from behind her, something about meddlesomeJedi.

She has barely the time to thankthe Force for just those before her mouth opens and she is breathlesslyaccepting. The Queen’s smile dimples, and Constance nearly grins.

4. There is an attemptedassassination, and a coup, and a Knight and a Queen, and a not-so-secret baby.  

In this universe, these allhappen in swift succession. Athos claims this ages him prematurely.

They do not keep her safe inVarykino, nor Tatooine, but in a small Nubian convent off the side of thebeautiful country lake. Constance, now husband-less, has remained behind,braver (d’Artagnan claims) than all of them put together.

Aramis is not assigned to protectAnne, but the Force appears to have conspired such that he is there to fall inlove with her anyway, to kiss her for her kindness and idealism in the softorange glow of the sparse, earthy room she’s been given. Noobians do not havekings, but he is a Jedi Knight, and she an aspiring senator.

Still – they are to their creditless foolish, more cautious, more selfless in their love than they might havebeen. They promise each other their hearts, but not their futures. They returnto Coruscant. Richelieu’s replacement, a Separatist Spy, is dead, and hisconspirators arrested. The Order is already following leads to other Separatistthreats. Master Treville, reluctant with his affection as always, is relievedthat they are unharmed.

When d’Artagnan leaves the Orderand his saber to marry Constance, Aramis’s heart aches, silent and unforgiving.

He hears the familiar chitter ofPorthos’s droid Dee-Dee at his feet, alerting him, on his way back through thegarden. Aramis looks up to see Anne, there.

“Your Majesty,” he hears himselfcroak. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s dangerous.”

“I promised Constance,” she says,and she is dressed discretely, not as a queen – just as she was just monthsbefore, on the run. There is no paint on her face and ter hair is hangingmostly free, curling at the ends and golden over her blue cloak. She turns herhead and looks sheepish, as though caught. “Or – I promised myself I wouldcome for Constance.”

Aramis says, near a murmur, “itwas a beautiful wedding. They’re very happy.”

Anne is already much closer thanshe was before.

They break their promise.

5. The Order crumbles, and isrebuilt, as is the case for all ancient things.

There is no massacre, nor adecade-long rebellion, but there is a war and there is outcry from the people.

Love, thinks Athos – weary,exhausted, no longer a padawan but not a Knight either – love must never beforbidden. A loveless life does not give strength, but keeps order that hidesrot, and apathy that pretends as calm. A Jedi, Aramis has always argued, mightactually be encouraged to love.

Aramis is quite often a fool,Athos says, but perhaps in this he has always been right.

Porthos laughs; d’Artagnan says,“Well, I figured it all out first, anyway, didn’t I.”

At the end of it all, Anne standstall as elected senator, and puts forth a movement to rebuild a new Order, onethat does not distance itself from the galaxy, but thrives from within it, fromwhat makes all beings shine.

As hisbrothers clap from the public stands and loyal, fierce Constance beams, and asthe small curly-haired child by Anne’s side peers curiously down the podium atthe gathered assembly, smiling gap-toothed at a grinning Aramis – Athos thinksthat the Force must have some sort of say, after all.

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO CATA COSMIA, BLAKE BELLADONNA. 🌕

ꕥ  — OOC INFORMATION;

name / alias: saturn age: 26 pronouns: any ooc contact: @blakebelladonna on twitter other characters in xc: none yet

ꕥ  — IC INFORMATION;

name: blake belladonna age: 21 pronouns: they/them series: rwby canon point: post-volume 9 app triggers: brief mention of past partner abuse, discrimination, dismemberment, racism, violence, war, child soldiers, mentions of the world ending, death.

personality:

blake is one of those people who you would want to consider your ride or die. fiercely protective of their allies and loved ones, they are prone to giving it their all when it comes to being a loyal companion. often blunt and rather detached from strangers, they may seem like they want absolutely nothing to do with anyone or anything. though blake practices the habit of keeping to themself most of the time, that does not ultimately mean they want to be kept alone. they just... have a bit of a difficult time putting themself out there in the longrun.

beneath the brooding facade lay both a kind and selfless person, always willing to give others a chance despite their outward appearance. they truly are a firm believer in the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover”. some might consider it foolish to hope for the best in mere strangers. and while blake has had her fair share of heartbreak, they have also seen just how good even the most (seemingly) horrible of people could be.

hang around with blake long enough and you’ll start to see how relaxed and surprisingly charismatic they can be. maybe the loner type really is a charm point huh? they aren’t always the one to jab in a sly remark, but if given the chance, they’ll certainly take it. being that they grew up in a resistance organization the faunus also tends to have quite the rebellious side to her contrasting reserved nature. they're always willing to fight against the machine; being free and having fun, as they have very much earned the right to at this point in her life.

though their spirit has been broken time and time again, its resilience is absolutely astounding. a fiery passion in which from the embers sparks a brand new life into them. blake belladonna is a fighter– a survivor. they will do everything and anything they can for the good of themself and for those they protect in the process, even after all they have been through.

something your muse struggles with: as it stands, blake struggles with making impulsive decisions. reason being is that said decisions tend to lead to destruction– whether it be throwing a wrench in a relationship in thinking they were doing some good, or getting themself physically hurt in the process because they were trying to make things right. your muse’s greatest strength: blake is very good at handling high-stress situations, coupled with listening to others woes and hardships. they are usually the one to try and talk their friends and allies through their struggles and offer moral support in turn. or if you don’t want any advice, they’re just happy to sit and listen if you need it.

background:

such is the tale of a young soul whose destiny alone weaves their story for them. a child born into forlorn darkness; cruel, unforgiving, immoral by all means. it’s from the very beginning they knew this world is not meant for them. yet all the while, they know they must make it her own. blake fights to survive against the world that punished them based on simple presence and undeniable biology. constantly battered and spat at, blamed by humanity for being absolutely worthless.

unfortunate experience allow for them to decide their own path throughout the years of their youth. and along that path they allowed one other person to walk alongside them. he went by the name adam taurus; a man full of spite and vehement hatred towards the human race, covered with a blanket of pure passion to fight for his fellow kin. the young faunus was absolutely infatuated with his drive to make the world a better place, totally and utterly convinced that what he had been doing was for the best of the faunus.

oh, to be young and full of hope.

the route to which they walked beside one another would soon turn into a dark and twisted path of punishment and abuse. slowly blake had begun to realize that adam was not the man he pleaded he was. he promised change time and time again; to be a better person, to stop lashing out, and that he would always love her no matter what.

that was when they knew they had to escape.

it was a routine heist that allowed for blake to sever the tie between them and their ex-partner. aboard the train car they sat by their lonesome, all so they could finally set in motion their own plans for the future. they would gain access at the prestigious beacon academy to become a huntsman; an individual who swore to protect the public from grimm and petty crime surrounding it.

what they didn’t expect though was to form a bond so strong that she would gain another family in their wake. several members in fact; though team JNPR and SSSN were not often spoken of, they had definitely been a big part of aiding them grow as a person. for nearly a year team RWBY had become their rock; her overwhelming support of who they were and the ideals that they fought for. even when blake was at their lowest, their teammates were always there to help pick them back up out of their depressive slump. they were everything to them. and they promised that she would never again run from the fray.

… seems like that promise didn’t stand a chance the first time around.

an onset terrorist attack hit beacon during its annual vytal festival. amongst the parties involved stormed an ally of the white fang splinter group… one lead none other by adam himself. adam had (partially) exacted his revenge, stabbing blake in her stomach, and severing the arm of her partner yang xiao long. luckily for blake, she had enough aura left to carry her incapacitated teammate to safety.

this had all been the beginning of the end.

over the course of the next few months team RWBY had been separated. blake had run off to their home island of menagerie in order to protect the ones they loved the most, sun being their surprise ally who followed them throughout their journey of self-discovery. after many egregious battles and pleas to bear arms against the corrupted white fang, blake had found themself unexpectedly reunited with her teammates once more whilst battling at haven academy.

this time, there were no empty promises. even through all her fear and regret blake had vowed to stay by their team’s side. just as intended.

finding out that the very world they lived in was in mortal peril was just the icing on the proverbial cake. as both her team and company venture throughout remnant, they find themselves discovering even more secrets, pushing them into even more dangerous situations as time grows ever shorter.

they find that all roads had lead to atlas. a self-proclaimed land of opportunity; a militant government that had been grasped by an iron fist by a man of similar name. salem was coming, she was coming-- no. she was already there. she had always been there, keeping them all under her watchful gaze. everything within those two days, all they had fought for felt like a mere lifetime. so much had happened within those 48 hours, all of them spent sleepless and pushing forward towards a goal that seemed merely unachievable. evacuate the citizens of mantle from their absolute destruction. keep the relic out of distrusting hands, so that many may have a chance to live instead of a pocket of people who were kept on a pedestal.

while team rwby and company were able to get people to safety by means of seemingly impossible travel, there had been… a wrench in their seemingly foolproof plan. (he did say not to fall into the abyss. that was a reminder that was etched into your brain from the beginning). for falling, in their eyes, meant inexistence as they knew it. all of them had fought tooth and nail against their enemy, burnt in embers and ash. one whose greed surpassed them wholly.

one, by one, by one, by one.

and they all. fell. down.

powers / abilities:

semblance (shadow): think of it to be similar to shadow clones. though when blake uses their semblance, their “clones” are actually made of some type of matter and are not just illusions. they use them as more of a defense mechanism, as they only last for a brief amount of time, or until the clone is physically destroyed. these clones can also be infused with elemental dust (i.e. turn into stone, become solid ice, explode with fire).

aura: a natural shield which a huntsman’s body generates after being unlocked. it has the power to heal wounds over time depending on the severity of the injury. aura has also shown the ability to repel objects (such as bullets or shrapnel), though with a cost. this shield can easily be broken once worn away during battle, or after a huntsman has become exhausted. the only way to replenish it fully is with rest and nourishment.

inherent abilities:

night vision: being of feline faunus heritage, blake has the natural ability to see extremely well in the dark.

items / weapons:

gambol shroud: similar to that of a sickle-and-chain, blake’s signature weapon is basically the swiss army knife of remnant. it may act as a cleaver when sheathed; though still having a sharp edge that could do the trick. when unsheathed though it becomes a deadly double bladed edge katana, the hilt being a glock pistol as well. with a ribbon attached to gambol shroud they may freely swing it in range of their enemies, using the recoil of the gun as well to aid them.

dust cartridge (addition): given to them by their teammate weiss schnee. as stated earlier, dust are crystals charged with elemental properties. blake can enhance their bullets' impact and devastation by injecting the dust into their weapon for extremely limited use. this addition is usually a last resort.

gold ring: faunus folklore by word of mouth is common among the community residing in menagerie. legend tells of a faunus princess and her human lover, fated to never become one due to the death of her human. when she heard news of his passing upon the battlefield, the princess threw both herself and the ring she wore in his honor off the tallest cliff the island could provide. during a fishing trip with their mother blake had found this ring in the belly of a large tuna. whether or not it was coincidental or truly fate was left to be determined. blake currently has this ring kept in their jacket pocket, occasionally wearing it on their pinky finger or as a necklace.

starting ability: shadow starting item: gambol shroud

extra:

– canon bisexual with a heavy lean towards women/nb people.

– i headcanon blake to be nonbinary, using they/them only.

– blake’s cat ears are pierced like that of their mother; a single gold hoop in the left ear and two gold studs in the right.

– blake’s appearance is subtly more feline when you look at them for long enough, with slit pupils and sharper canines than the average human.

– their official height is 5’6 but i think they should be 5’8 for enrichment purposes.

– being that blake is a few months older than both yang and weiss, i set their age at 20 (rather than 19) since they had never been enrolled into an actual school prior to beacon academy, meaning they would have missed the proper cutoff. if this is HC serves as an issue please let me know!

– surprisingly a very good cook. gotta make ration meals tasty somehow.

discord id: penumbra.#8858 passcode: kibby

[eivor-wolfkissed]

fenris and thor for that character ask game 👉😎👉

yessss I’ll start with Fenris (I’ll do thor in a separate post, this is gonna be long)

Why I like them:Fenris is an amazing character. He’s so loyal, protective of what’s important to him, fierce, and diligent. He refuses to back down from the shit the world threw at him. Not only that, Fenris is special to me because of his journey in da2. He was deeply traumatized from being a slave and in this he fights for a better life, and is able to heal. The fact that he accomplishes this gives me a lot of hope, because I know that building yourself back up piece by piece is the hardest thing to do. This is also overlooked but Fenris has a kind heart. He is a kind and selfless person who has been abused by others, but he escapes and becomes his own man, while still retaining his kindness. I just love Fenris so much rip

Why I don’t: I honestly don’t know?? There’s nothing I really don’t like about Fenris. I mean I don’t really agree with him on the mage situation but I can absolutely see where he’s coming from bc of his experiences. The only issues I can think of are issues with the writers themselves in his romance.

Favorite episode/season:I’m just gonna chose my favorite parts lol. I love when he laughs when your Hawke flirts with him or makes a stupid joke in act one. I also love the part when he killed that lady in act 2. It was violent, but I liked it because it didn’t play into the “I must let you live bc you gave me valuable information” trope. Afterwards he was very upset and at a critical moment in his character development, when he realizes he just wants to be truly free of everything, including all the pent up hate and anger he carries. I feel like that was the moment where he was able to see more clearly and start building a future for himself and setting personal goals. I still think the sweetest part is when you talk to him at the end of his quest in act 3. He’s convinced that he’s alone, but if you romance Fenris you can tell him that he will always have you by his side, and then he just gives Hawke the most loving and gentle look. It melted my heart.

Favorite line:When he tells a romanced Hawke “meeting you was the most important thing to happen in my life” (or something along those lines; it nearly made me cry) also when he teases Varric and says he dances in his free time. And “there are no puppy eyes” he says, as he’s making puppy eyes at Hawke.

Favorite outfit:Uhhh he only wears his armor so I guess his armor with the red band?? Idk lol

OTP:Surprise surprise but my OTP is fenhawke. Not just with Fenris and Hawke in general, just like my OTP. Period. I love this ship so much. I like all versions of the ship but my favorite is him and purple mage!Garrett Hawke.

Brotp:Fenris and Isabela. Also Fenris and Varric.

Head canon:Fenris never talks about it but he actually loves cats and dogs. They’re relaxing for him, especially cats. He adopts one of his own and she likes to curl up on his lap while he reads. It’s very soothing for both of them.

Unpopular Opinion:I’m not as involved with the da fandom bc of how toxic it is so idk how unpopular these opinions are butFenris isn’t some angry violent “oppress the mages!” Type. He’s so much more complex than that. I also don’t like it when people write him off as being cruel and unfair to Hawke in a romance. Fenris wasn’t being selfish at all; he realized he was not ready for a romantic relationship and stepped away from that, even though he had feelings for Hawke. That shit is hard and messy. It was brave for Fenris to do that and it made things better for them both in the long road, because Fenris was able to enter the relationship on his own terms, when he was ready for the commitment. I hate it when people get all pissy and whiny about him “leaving” them.

A wish:That he gets a good nights rest, a pleasant week, and soft things.

Oh god please don’t ever happen:Shitty da writers who will throw more pain his way or make him seem like a bad person because of his ptsd (it’s v common to do this with traumatized and mentally ill characters and I hate it).

5 best words to describe them:Determined, strong, wise, loyal, brave

My nickname for them:I just call him Fenris but probably Fen

[ladytauria]

Chimay: heck I wouldn't be surprised if Jimnay (as a way to further be a dark mirror to Valina) was Chiro's most loyal follower. She doesn't care about the CO or PP stuff or came to fight under him because of destiny like the monkeys initially did. She has no obligation and even has her own mission on life. But she puts all that aside because she loves him and loves what he personally stands for. And she does have her own justice streak and compassion comparable to Chiro. It's another reason-

2 why they work so well together. They’re on the same page about morals and heroics. Both are entirely selfless to the needs of others so Jimnay more or less putting aside (or giving up) her search for her past doesn’t seem flat. She’s seen caring more about other people then she does herself. Plus there seems something very honest about how they deal w/each other. It’s one of the reasons when either gets oppressed by other forces, only the other’s voice can help them overcome it. I think-3 for as little time she got (and she could have gotten more), Jimnay proved she gad interesting qualities beyond being a bland love interest and her relationship w/Chiro actually feels very mature and refreshing. It’s nice to see two introverts w/sweet, but fierce, personalities who respect each others agency and enjoy just sitting and talking to each other. Not all relationships need conflict or slow burns. But yeah, considering what Chiro means to her, Jimnay is certainly one devoted girl.

*nod, nod* She wants to see him and Shuggazoom come out of the other side alive and well—because they have given her a home, a family, and something/one to protect. Those are important things, things I imagine she wouldn’t want to lose. Not after she lost everything already—in a quite literal way, being unable to recall any of it.I agree with all of that, Anon. They’re very dedicated for two children—but then, both of them are a fair bit more mature than most. (Though Chiro definitely has his moments of childishness, which are well deserved and definitely should happen more often. I can’t recall any for Jinmay, but, we also didn’t see her as much!)The honesty they treat each other with is refreshing, considering how many shows rely on miscommunication. (…also it was rather nice to not have TWO will they-won’t they couples.) And the fact that they were both more about just spending time together… that was nice too.

[sortinghatchats]

On Gryffindor Primaries

Gryffindors are marked by their steadfast intuitive morality. While Gryffindors are just as capable of looking at things logically and weighing the consequences of different courses of action, they will feel the most at peace with themselves when acting in accordance with their gut morality. Like all individual belief systems, Gryffindors’ vary widely in content and intensity, giving us a wide variety of systems (strong political stances, devotion to a particular religion, extreme commitment to a particular branch of rights) so different Gryffindors can look very different.

One of the Gryffindor Primary’s greatest strengths is their ability to make a decision, and then go out and do their damndest to make a difference. They are willing to sacrifice their safety, social harmony, and a certain amount of logic to do what they feel is right. They can create great change in the world because they are willing to make difficult decisions and then commit fully to that decision, even at the expense of things most other people would not be willing to sacrifice. 

Gryffindor Primaries are the type to leave everything and travel halfway across the world if that’s what they feel is necessary. They are the type to work long days and into the night, even while conscious of the hit their relationships with family members and friends might take, because their work is important. It matters in a way that smaller things, even when those things seem important in the moment, don’t. They are one of the Houses most comfortable, as a whole, with being lone wolves, with finding meaning in martyrdom, and with defying even the people they love most, if something is important enough.

However, though a Gryffindor can and will work alone, there is a special strength brought out when they’re part of a team. They can be charismatic and passionate, dedicated and on task, excellent at reminding people what it is they are working towards and how important it is. Their drive can help breathe life into a group on the verge of burnout. Their enthusiasm and genuine belief in the goodness of their goals can unify a group of diverse people. There’s a reason that so many movies about rebellions feature Gryffindor protagonists. They are willing, passionately, to sacrifice and their certainty pulls others along behind them. 

Gryffindors do not know the definitions of good and evil any more accurately than any other House– more importantly, most Gryffindors know they don’t know any more than anyone else. But inherent fallibility doesn’t mean you should sit on your heels and not try the best you can (if the idea of inherent fallibility does drive you to existential despair and hopelessness, please take a look at Stripped Gryffindor, below). Gryffindor is not about knowing– it’s about knowing that the best way to know is to trust yourself and your gut. It’s the bravery to try and it’s knowing that trying matters. It’s about trusting yourself even if the whole world is against you. At the end of the day, the most important thing is staying true to this thing inside you and standing tall. 

Even within a single belief system the intuitive nature of the Gryffindor morality means that it can often contradict itself–two important, felt beliefs can go to war even in the most certain Gryffindor, and each has to find their own way out of that conflict. Eventually, one of the core beliefs (ex. “sentient life has inherent value” v. “self defense is a right”; or “lying is wrong” v. “hurting people is bad, and the truth will hurt this person”) will win out. Alternatively, the conflict, sustained, might force a Gryffindor to “strip” (see below). 

Relationship with the Secondary

Another facet of Gryffindor is that while they often have a gut response to what is right, what to do about it is a little harder. This of course ties into the Secondary– a Gryffindor/Gryffindor might feel obligated to act on their morality, if not immediately than at least fiercely. Sometimes hesitation is wise, but to the Gryffindor Secondary it still feels like it could be hiding cowardice, and they watch themselves carefully to make sure they aren’t shirking. 

A Ravenclaw Secondary might feel they have a moral imperative to gather information and figure out risks before launching into something that might get someone hurt– the Gryffindor Secondary’s charge would feel irresponsible to the Ravenclaw Secondary. 

A Puff Secondary might do their good through patience, service, or support; a Slytherin Secondary could reach out clever fingers and change the very world into something better, or throw themselves at problems to see what sticks. 

In all of these, however, there is going to be doubt. Doing right and doing well is imperative to the Gryffindor Primary–but that certainty and that need to act doesn’t necessarily come with a how-to guide attached. 

Many Gryffindors compulsively self-analyze and re-check what they are doing and believing, to make sure it still rings true– when this self-questioning turns to despairing self-doubt instead, this is called “stripping” (see below section). But even an unstripped Gryffindor has to check new circumstances, questions, and paths against what they feel. They can be as logical and meditative about it as some Ravenclaw Primary tackling a new facet of their morality; but at the end of the day a Gryffindor will trust their gut, once they manage to understand what it is saying. A Ravenclaw, on principle, won’t, and won’t feel comfortable until they strip open that base intuition.

It’s one of the places where Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, often good Idealist allies, come into conflict. When a Ravenclaw feels a need to point every belief with a pointed stick, a Gryffindor can see this as challenge, meanness, betrayal, amorality, or dangerous doubt. 

What’s Inside is What Counts

Gryffindor Primaries are willing to stand up for what they believe in even if it means that they stand alone; but this is not to imply that Gryffindor Primaries don’t care about their friends and family– they are first and foremost loyal to their morals, but that can absolutely include people. If part of their system involves serving or protecting, or involves maintaining closeness and caring for their friends (or involves personal loyalty as a general concept), they will do it with great conviction. And this isn’t uncommon, as Gryffindors can often value people and fairness very highly, and can for this reason sometimes look like Hufflepuffs. 

Just like the Gryffindor Primary’s intuitive morality can include people, looking like a Hufflepuff’s, it can also include things like Slytherin’s sense of self-preservation and value. On a negative extreme, this can give you Gryffindor Primaries like Jayne Cobb, the self-serving, guiltless mercenary of Firefly. But this same situation (a Gryffindor who intuits some of Slytherin’s “me first” morality) can also give you examples of heroes who remember to value their own mental and physical health, even when the world needs saving. Selflessness is not a requirement in the Gryffindor Primary; the core of Gryffindor is more accurately trusting yourself and your beliefs and doing your best to live by them. It about holding onto that faith in yourself and striving for the bravery to pursue those beliefs to hell and back, however mundane or ambitious those beliefs might be. 

What defines a Gryffindor is not the contents of their system, but they way they form and interact with their system. Because of that, it’s possible to get systems that look nearly identical to the other Primary houses– just like a Ravenclaw Primary might build each of the other Primaries to live in, a Gryffindor might intuit, feel, or believe in those other moralities. Carlos, the scientist from Welcome to Night Vale, is a Gryffindor Primary believes unflinchingly in the power and righteousness of Science (capitalization intentional). Even presented with a world of absurdist horror-comedy where empirical logic and experimentation seem to be failing him, Carlos doesn’t tailspin into a fall or at least express frustration or edit his system the way a Ravenclaw Primary would be likely to. He believes in the power of Science despite being thrust into a reality where science, quite honestly, does not function as it should. And beautiful Carlos does it because Science is just right. 

You could get similar effects with both Hufflepuff and Slytherin systems, like we discussed above. Modeling the Slytherin system could also give Gryffindors the intense sense of personal loyalty that drives the loyalist Slytherin Primary, as well as its particular brand of selfishness. People are a likely part of the content of moral systems because we live in a social world, but they are not intrinsic to the system of a Gryffindor like they are for Hufflepuff and Slytherin Primaries, our Loyalist houses. One way to tell a Hufflepuff or Slytherin apart from a Gryffindor who believes in Puff or Slytherin is to look at whether or not people could theoretically be removed from the system without “burning” or “petrifying.” 

If you could convince a loyalist-seeming Gryffindor that doing the right thing for the people in their lives or in the world is not actually the greatest good, then would they be able to change that part of their system and still be happy with it? If something else is more right, would they feel justified in overriding the part of their system that values their people? The answer is probably ‘yes’ for a Gryffindor, but it would be ‘no’ for a Hufflepuff or a Slytherin. While even the Loyalists have their extreme situations where the world would take priority over their people, they would still feel, on some level, like they were doing the wrong thing for not putting their people first. Gryffindors would feel, on some level, wrong if they put their people over what was right. 

No Room for Compromise?

For Gryffindors, especially the less jaded ones, in the things that they hold true there is very little (if any) gray area. There is right and there is wrong. Things are black and white. Shades of gray are places where people go to play games, twist the truth, and to be cowards. It’s difficult to change the mind of a Gryffindor when it comes to something they care about, because they often cannot see the in-between. To the Gryffindor, changing their mind would feel like a 180 degree shift, an about-face. It would mean deciding that their previously held views were absolutely and completely wrong, and now they have to go in the opposite direction. 

And when a Gryffindor does change their mind on an issue they care about, while it may seem very sudden to an outside observer, it’s very likely that there was a steady build up of doubts or contradictions that eventually tipped the scales. In many cases, a change in belief can be somewhat traumatic for the Gryffindor (see: Stripped Gryffindor, below). 

Gryffindors have great conviction, and the prominence of what they are passionate about in the world means they spend more time confronting it and learning to deal with it. Slytherins, for all their reputation as cold and ruthless, can find their judgement just as clouded as the most enraged Gryffindor when their people are threatened. It’s just a fairly rare thing in most people’s lives for their important people to be placed directly in harm’s way– so it doesn’t have as large an impact on how they present. But for a Gryffindor, threats of that severity, threats to the things most important to them, are commonplace. 

This gives Gryffindor a reputation for volatility, much like the Slytherin reputation for ambition. All the Houses believe things strongly (just like all Houses have their ambitions), but with its broad, internal morality Gryffindor is most likely to have things they are passionate about thrown in their faces (just as Slytherin’s ambitions look least selfless and are therefore more generally maligned). Ravenclaw Primaries are more likely to chew over things first and to take outside input into their system, Hufflepuffs more likely to worry about hurting other people’s feelings, and Slytherins more likely not to care. You can have rampaging Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, or Slytherins easily, but Gryffindors are often most obvious when they stand fast and are indiscriminate about whose toes they step on if something is important enough. 

Of course, the Gryffindor Primary system is just that– a system. The way we’re talking about it, Gryffindor is a way you care and a way your system works, and is not based on the contents of your system. Justice and bravery and courage are things that make up the moral backbone of a system that can contain just about anything. Gryffindors will disagree about what is just. Gryffindors will be on different sides of big moral issues and philosophical quandaries and political debates. What unites them is how they decide what’s right: they feel it in their gut, they value living in that rightness above all other things, and they trust themselves to lead them true (or at least lead them to do their very best).

So what happens when a Gryffindor loses faith in their ability to figure out what’s right?

Burned Gryffindors

Gryffindors do not do moderation when it comes to the truth. This, sometimes, can be what leads a Gryffindor Primary to become “burned.” Jostled from their steady footing, a Gryffindor can lose faith not in right and wrong, but in their ability to know what is right and wrong. Their internal compass, the basis for their understanding, sense of purpose, and even sense of worth, will feel broken and untrustworthy. But that uncertainty doesn’t make knowing and acting on what’s right and what’s wrong any less important. 

From the outside, Burned Gryffindors often look more grounded, stable, and calm than your classic Gryffindor Primary. They’re more likely to let things they cannot fix just pass them by. If they charge, it is not often. (In fact, when you see a Burned Gryffindor encountering something so important that they are willing to charge for it–um, run. Run fast.)

But for the Gryffindor, Burning is not a steadying act, no matter how it seems to outward observers. Gryffindor is a house of certainty. Gryffindor is a house of right and wrong, and of those truths requiring action. When a Gryffindor is Burned, their sense of right and wrong is yanked out of their gut. They lose the certainty of their moral compass.

What makes Burning so horrifying to the Gryffindor is not that they lose their sense of the importance of right and wrong– it’s that they don’t lose that sense. A Burned Gryffindor is still certain that following their internal compass is important. They just can’t see it anymore; they don’t know if they’re heading north, but even now few things are more important than where north might be.

One response to stripping is for a Gryffindor to pick up another, external system. If they are bereft of their own internal morality, they can re-apply their fervency to an outward one. In this, Burned Gryffindors often look like Ravenclaw Primaries– but where it would take new evidence and careful debate to move a Ravenclaw Primary from a system they’ve chosen, a Gryffindor is more likely to move due to a sudden insight or gut intuition– an uncontrived emotional response; a return to trusting their own heart. 

Whedon’s Firefly contains two Burned Gryffindor Primaries who latch onto outward systems–and (as is common with Burned Gryffs) both characters indeed seem to be some of the most settled, content characters on the show: Zoe Washburn and Sheppard Book. Zoe Burned sometime during the war; and Book sometime during his checkered past. Both have latched onto outward moralities: Book onto his religion, and Zoe onto her captain. She lets Mal make the calls because at this point she trusts his weary Hufflepuff more than her own self. 

A Burned Gryffindor might try to construct themselves a functioning system (rather than picking up a pre-made one wholesale) from the actions and instincts that drove them before their traumas. They might also latch onto a community, or family, and then work under a loyalist-style morality of people-first. They might also curl up and close in on themselves. They might go out and keep fighting the good fight, keep going through the braveries and charges they used to intuit heart and soul, but now with a weary doubt that any of it will actually be right or worthwhile. 

Kieren, the protagonist of In the Flesh, is a Burned Gryffindor– his compass cracked before being a zombie and then shattered completely during zombieism. Now, with his mind returned to him, he looks at his ruins and repeats what the rehab people tell him. He is adrift. Friends help to push him back together, but an unmoored uncertainty remains at the core of Kieren’s character. 

Jaime, the supporting protagonist of Outlander, is a Gryffindor who Burned after various traumas. He does his best to act with kindness, and goes after bravery in a way that hinges on the smilingly self-destructive. However, interaction with fierce Ravenclaw Primary/Gryffindor Secondary protagonist Claire manages to inspire him enough that he begins pulling himself hand-by-hand out of being Burned in order to charge alongside her. 

All of these ways of Burned can be functional. Being Burned is something you can survive, live with, and even thrive within. Burning can feel practical or necessary or it can feel forced; but at the core of being Burned is a sense of loss. Even if the Gryffindor is sure that the world is an inherently unjust place, unsaveable and destined to never be understood, they are still a Gryffindor. Some part of them is going to always prefer and miss a world where they knew what they were supposed to be doing. 

tl;dr Gryffindor Primaries

Gryffindor is an Intuitive House, an Idealist House, and an Internal House. 

As an Intuitive House, Gryffindors decide what is right based on their intuition, their gut, and their own moral compass. While they can be as intelligent and logical as any Ravenclaw (think Hermione Granger, a fierce Gryffindor Primary), they don’t play with words and concepts, trying to find loopholes, build things, or refute their instincts. Some things are just wrong, and you can’t talk your way out of it. 

As an Idealist House, Gryffindors value what is right over personal loyalty. While they can love hard, Gryffindors would feel guilty if they stuck by their friends and family at the expense of doing what they believe in. Driven and dedicated, Gryffindors are some of the best at getting things done and  pushing causes forward, even at great personal sacrifice.

As an Internal House, Gryffindors get their morality from inside of themselves-- from their moral compass and intuition. Caving to an outside pressure will always feel like an immoral choice, if it goes against what they feel is true. 

[ajokeformur-ray]

May I have ships for Black Butler, Sherlock, Phantom of the Opera, and Doctor Who? Gender- Female Sexuality- Biseuxal Interests- writing poetry, doing my makeup, listening to show tunes, hanging out with friends, reading fanfiction, making up stories in my head watching movies and tv shows Likes- being dramatic, correcting people, being right, learning new things, being able to bitch with certain people, making people smile, music, alone time, being the center of attention with certain people, shiny/sparkly things, wearing black, wearing dark makeup Dislikes- being told to stop being dramatic, homophobic people/comments, being wrong, people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about, being crowded, being alone with people who I don't know, being in large social situations, being alone for a prolonged period of time What you look for in someone- as a person with severe anxiety and depression, I look for someone who will be patient and understanding with me; willing to learn how to help me through anxiety attacks and long bouts of depression. I also look for someone who is dominant. I need someone who can take charge of a situation and make decisions. I need someone who will take care of me when I can't take care of myself. I want someone who is passionate, protective, and sincere. I also look for someone who will understand my love languages, which are quality time and receiving gifts. I am a very shy, quiet person. I don't really talk that much and don't like to socialize. Once I'm comfortable around you, you'll learn I'm also dramatic, creative, analytical, loyal, honest, protective, and a bit of a bitch at times. I tend to be drawn to the people that others are scared of. I always look for the good in people, and am not quick to judge. Although I'm a very kind person, I'm not quick to trust. And once you've broken my trust, it's extremely hard to earn it back. - @bingewatchingmylifegoby

BB ship - Mey-Rin

-  Mey-Rin doesn’t get much free time, though, on the days when Sebastian has had enough of the other household staff members making messes and mistakes, he tells them to take the evening off because he can do it faster and better on his own. On such evenings, Mey-Rin is content to do whatever you’re doing, and if you want to be left alone she’ll go practice her self-defence skills. 

- Mey-Rin would love your flair for the dramatic and would very likely compliment you on these skills. She would have access to the Phantomhive Library and would be able to take out books for you to read when you visit the Manor, and Sebastian would be on hand to make sure you’re met with hospitality befitting of a Phantomhive guest. So you could ask him questions about things you’re curious about. 

- When there’s a large social event at the Manor, you’d be invited as an honorary guest, though attached on the bottom of the expensive and elaborate invitation is a chicken scratched message: Please make yourself comfortable in the kitchen when you’ve had enough, yes-yes! from Mey-Rin. You’re left wondering how she managed to write on it without Sebastian seeing it beforehand.

- Mey-Rin fumbles and falls a lot, but as a Phantomhive servant, she’s a dark horse. She sees, hears, feels, more than she lets on, just like her training. She is badass and knows a lot about the world and its cruelties. She would likely have experience with depression and even anxiety, so would be very patient and know what to say or do to help you when you needed it. She’s used to taking care of Ciel so she’d know how to take care of you when you can’t. She can’t spend much time with you, but whatever is spare at the end of the day is yours.

- She’d watch you flourish as you become more comfortable and open around her, and would love knowing that she sees the parts of you that few get to really see. Mey-Rin would always defend you as fiercely as she defends the Household and everyone in it.

Sherlock - Molly Hooper

-  Molly’s job can get pretty violent even on the best of days and some of the things that she sees coming into the morgue only have a place in the best of horror book and films. When she comes home, she tends to invite you over so that you can watch something together, or just spend a quiet evening together doing your own things. Sometimes you go out together, but for the most part, you’re indoors. Molly loves helping you with your make-up or reading your poetry if you let her.  

-  She is a bit of a wallflower and can often fade into the background, but when you go out together or it’s just the two of you, you’re all she’s focusing on. When you go out together and she dresses up along with you, you do each other's make-up. Sometimes she’ll talk to you about her work and listen to you talk about yours, and she’ll pass along all the office gossip that she picks up on. 

-  Molly wouldn’t ever tell you to stop being dramatic; she loves seeing you when you’re animated and in your own element. When you want to be alone, she gives you the space you need, but she’s also right there when you don’t want to be alone. If you’ve had enough at a party, she takes you out back until you're ready to go back in or she’ll just take you home. 

-  I think Molly has anxiety too so she’d definitely understand. Because of how Sherlock and others treat her, she often doubts herself and her abilities but given the chance, she can really shine and kick ass. So she’d always be there to listen and hear what you have to say because she knows ow it feels to be seen as small and unimportant.  When you can’t look after yourself, Molly will take your best interests into account and look after you until you can look after yourself. Molly is so much more than the show writers let her be and she’d be fiercely protective of you and yours. She would always look out for you and also for herself and would be incredibly loving. 

-  People aren’t scared of her, exactly, but people also don’t really listen to her and she’s often marginalised.  She’s so kind and selfless and would do anything for anyone.  She’d love you for you and all your flaws and would protect you from yourself when it’s called for. 

Phantom of the Opera - Nadir Khan (Daroga)

- You’re incredibly creative and your hobbies are physically relaxing but intellectually stimulating. If you ever wanted to share your poetry or your stories, Nadir would be there to read, listen, compliment and then offer constructive criticism if you wanted it. He’d be proud of your creative pursuits. 

- Nadir is friends with the Phantom so he’s well-accustomed to people having a somewhat dramatic flair. Your dramatic flair would definitely be a more refreshing change as yours is less toxic than the Phantom’s. He has a wealth of culture, languages and stories at his disposal and I think Nadir would enjoy talking with you over a cup of tea and tell you some stories or teach you things you want to learn.  

- He’s very protective of those he loves and is caring and affectionate, loyal to a fault. There’s not much he’d refuse you if you asked him, and you’d always be his main priority. In a large social event, he’ll make sure that you’re either by his side or with someone like Madame Giry, who can keep an eye on you to his standards. When you want to leave, you leave, simple as. He just takes really good care of you. 

-  Nadir is used to dealing with the Phantom’s mood swings, impulsive bad decisions and dry wit, and he’d definitely be empathetic towards you and always listen with his full attention to everything you have to say. He would come up with a solution to any problem you had if you wanted one, and if not then he’d just be there with open arms and two ears to listen. When you can’t look after yourself, he has a firm hand and gets you back to where you need to be, though he doesn’t push and knows when enough is enough.

-   The two of you actually have a lot of common ground in who the two of you are, and you’d get along really well and only be seen as a positive force for each other. In Kay’s version of Phantom, Nadir had a wife and son who both died tragically of illness (if I remember rightly), so he’s been through some of the darkest times in one’s life. You’d only bring some of that light back to him just by being you, and in return, he’d shower you with all the time and gifts in the world.

Doctor Who - Ten

-  You’re very imaginative and Ten would only fuel that by taking you to all your favourite places in the past, present and future, and getting you to tell him some of your stories. If you’re not comfortable with that then he would understand but he would be the most supportive person of your artistic temperament. He would tell you to hang onto your words and never let anyone take them away from you.  Make-up confuses him so when you put it on he’d ask you a gazillion question at such a speed that you have to ask him to slow down and ask you one question at a time.

-  Oh. Oh my goodness, you two are the sassiest couple. You know how Ten often goes on a sarcastic tangent when his enemies demand something of him and he’s chuckling and saying something like, “the Doctor will not”? Yeah, oh my goodness adding you to the mix means that there’s twice the amount of talking and tbh you probably baffle the monsters you’re going up against. You’re always his main priority and he’s always focused on you when he’s not saving a planet or fixing the TARDIS.

-  We all know how protective Ten is of those he loves, so he’s the first person to verbally slam-dunk someone trying to insult you. You won’t even have processed what was said to you before he’s in the face of whoever insulted you, and his insults are so scathing the person’s future grandchildren are going to feel the burn of the Doctor’s words.  When you’re in a large social event, he holds your hand and pulls you through the crowds of people, keeping a close eye on you to make sure that your surroundings are bearable for you. As soon as they’re not, he’s whisking you away to someplace less crowded and won’t hear a word about you apologising.

-  He’s been alive for 900+ years so he’s seen and heard, experienced and witnessed the absolute best and the worst of humanity. He’s so wise, so lonely, that he knows exactly how to comfort you. Sometimes, he’s comforting you before you even know you need to be comforted. He doesn’t alwas have the words you need to hear and that’s okay, but he always has two sympathetic ears, two arms to hold you, two hearts to beat reassuringly when you lay your head on his chest, and a boatload of stories to make you laugh until you’re doubled over and howling with tears pouring down your face. Sometimes he needs comfort and a listening ear, and you support each other through it all.  A lot of the time he’s in charge because you’re literal worlds away from home and he’s the only one you have got to depend on, especially in life and death situations. So he can definitely take care when you need someone to care for you. 

- You’re just so strong and protective together, always looking out for the other and defending each other to the death if it came to that. It’s not always easy because sometimes he has to shut down and internalise and sometimes you don’t feel like talking, but the good days far outweigh the bad days.

[cinnamonaes]

Okay so I’m really into Attack on Titan and Fire Emblem so naturally I made up a crossover in my head with AoT characters in a FE formulated type of world. The idea started because I really like Knight!Reiner and Prince!Bertolt and it kinda...grew from there. But yeah, below the ‘Keep Reading’ is basically the 104th training squad’s (and Marcel’s) profiles that I took way to much time writing up and detailing. If anyone wants to talk about this AU with me, give me ideas, or wants to push me to write for it (I respond well to pushing!) I would be more than happy to speak about it!  

(And if you were wondering about romance in this AU, Reibert and Yumikuri is a given. The rest I’m still contemplating, which you could see in how I handle some profiles)

Okay so a lot of the profiles have character descriptions that we are all familiar with since we already know how these characters are in the manga/anime but I gave them some twist based on the new universe they’re in. Plus some have to change more than others due to them being more plot relevant in this AU.

(Note: Some of this is tentative and open to change.)

Republic of Havilah: aka desert country

Eren Jaegar

Class: Mercenary

Weapon: Swords

Profile: A mercenary from the republic of Havilah. His father went missing when he was young and, soon after, his mother was killed by bandits. He’s on a mission to kill the bandits who murdered his mother and find out what happened to his father all while taking on mercenary work around the continent. Hot headed and driven, he’s the type to not stop until he gets what he wants which also tends to get him in trouble. Luckily for him he has much more level headed friends.

Mikasa Ackerman

Class: Myrmidon

Weapon: Swords

Profile: A mercenary from the republic of Havilah. Her parents were killed as an act of revenge on the Ackerman family and, afterwards, she was taken in by the Jaegar family. Doesn’t actively seek revenge on those who killed her parents or adoptive parents, but the trauma has made her fiercely protective over the only family she has left, Eren. Serious, focused, and seemingly not interested in making friends outside of Eren and Armin but can open up to others given time. Her hard exterior hides a much more fragile interior.

Armin Arlert

Class: Wind Sage

Weapon: Wind Magic (mastered), Fire Magic, Thunder Magic

Profile: A mercenary from the republic of Havilah. His parents were mercenaries who died on the job leaving him in the custody of his grandfather until he died of natural causes. Level headed and intelligent, he makes sure his best friend, Eren, doesn’t get into too much trouble. Has low self-esteem but gets more confident over time thanks to Eren and Mikasa’s constant support. The type to support the idea of “the end defeats the means” and whose realism can create friction with both idealist and pessimist.

*Note: In regards to romance with these three I’m still unsure of who I want them to be with. I’m leaning towards ArminxAnnie and MikasaxJean but I’m also open towards Annie or Mikasa being with Eren...hmmm.

**Extra Note: Magic users are going to go by the FE: Radiant Dawn formula of Fire/Thunder/Wind Mage->Fire/Thunder/Wind Sage->Archsage.

Okay so this whole idea started because I love the idea of Prince!Bertolt and Knight!Reiner, so lets get to them now!

Kingdom of Abaddon: a cold, mountainous country. Volcano land.

Bertolt Hoover

Class: Wyvern Rider

Weapon: Axes

Profile: Crown Prince of the absolute monarchy of Abaddon. Extremely sheltered, kept inside the castle grounds, never ventured outside to even the castle town. His father tells him it’s for his own good because bandits have been roaming the land and would like nothing more than to use the king’s only son as a hostage. Shy young man with low self-esteem. Has a wyvern named Mathilda who is kept on a long chain (long enough to fly off the ground, short enough to not go far). Believes he has no will of his own but as he gets older he longs to interact with the people he knows he will one day rule.

Reiner Braun

Class: Great Knight

Weapon: Swords, Lances, Axes

Profile: Retainer to Prince Bertolt. An orphan taken in by the aristocratic Braun family at a young age. Being a noble from a high house he was allowed to briefly interact with Bertolt when they were young. He and his older brother, Marcel, were also the ones to train and spar with Bertolt as they got older. Doesn’t have a shy bone in his body and believes he could do anything he sets his mind to but can also be hard headed and oblivious. In love with Bertolt and completely devoted to his protection. Unaware that Marcel loves Bertolt as well. Has a loyal horse named Clive.

Marcel Braun

Class: Paladin

Weapon: Swords, Lances

Profile: Retainer to Prince Bertolt. First born son to the noble Braun family. One day found little orphan Reiner and refused to let go. Like Reiner, he was allowed to briefly interact with Bertolt when they were young and trained together when they got older. More serious than Reiner and worries about everything about as much as Bertolt. Extremely protective of those he cares about and suspicious of people he doesn’t know well. In love with Bertolt but knows that Reiner is too and finds it hard to reconcile his desire for Reiner’s happiness with his own. Has a horse name Claire that he spoils rotten.

*Note: Marcel’s hard to write about because there’s so little about him in the actual manga, so I took some liberties with his personality.

**Extra Note: Okay so I HATE love triangles! You might be asking yourself now “Then why did she make one?!” It’s because I want to show a love triangle that ends in a well and healthy manner. At the end of the day Marcel...well, doesn’t stand a chance and I think it will be nice to write his longing but eventual acceptance and all the emotions he feels in between.

Theocracy of Elysia: plains and beautiful rolling hills.

Historia Reiss/Krista Lenz

Class: Troubadour->Valkyrie

Weapon: Staves, Light Magic as a Valkyrie

Profile: Illegitimate daughter of the Reiss family. Niece to the Hierophant, Uri Reiss, and daughter to his brother, Rod Reiss, and Rod’s mistress, Alma. Ignored and neglected, Historia runs away from home and assumes a fake identity. The type to always help people but only so that she could be praised. Outwardly selfless, inwardly selfish. Doesn’t actually know what she wants out of life or what she hoped to find by running away (death? recognition? love? acceptance?). When she finally thinks she knows what she wants, a meeting with a mysterious woman named Ymir may change her mind.

Ymir

Class: Thief?

Weapon: Swords, ???

Profile: A mysterious young woman with no family and no past. Wanders around and steals to survive, though never from the poor. Talks in a brash, selfish manner but does many acts of good faith. All she wants out of life is to survive it. Has nightly, cryptic dreams that she tries to ignore, feeling that figuring them out will lead her to trouble, or worse yet, death. Is confused and intrigued by Historia after meeting her and in an effort to begin understanding her, decides that they should travel together.

Kingdom of Zephyria: aka forest country.

Annie Leonhardt:

Class: Pegasus Knight

Weapon: Lance

Profile: Crown Princess of Zephyria. Cold, distant, and slow to warm up to others. All-in-all, not the friendliest person. A bit of a pessimist though appreciates a good dose of idealism. An intelligent young woman who uses her words wisely and could come off as philosophical if in the presence of someone who might appreciate such insight. Her father taught her hand-to-hand combat with the idea in mind that she shouldn’t always rely on her pegasus or weapon to get out of bad situations. Constantly annoyed by her retainer’s, Marlo and Hitch’s, bickering but knows they’re both actually kind-hearted people, a trait she values. Has a pegasus named Catria.

Jean Kirchstein

Class: Cavalier

Weapon: Sword, Lance

Profile: A soldier of Zephyria and Marco’s best friend. A pessimist who wants to rise in the ranks so that he could live a better life in the capital rather than dealing with the minor issues of the people in the backwoods. Cynical but, when push-comes-to-shove, will fulfill his duty as a soldier. Despite his hard exterior, he deeply cares for his comrades and friends. Is infatuated with Mikasa the moment he sees her. Has a horse named Sully.

Marco Bodt

Class: Cavalier

Weapon: Lance, Sword

Profile: A soldier of Zephyria and Jean’s best friend. An optimist who wants to rise in the ranks so that he could serve the royal family and dedicate himself to their safety. Probably has a motivational speech thought up for every occasion. Tries to see the best in everyone, which sometimes can come off as him being naive. Waiting patiently for Jean to tell Mikasa how he feels but begins to wonder if he should just annoy Jean with motivational speeches until he confesses. Has a horse named Stahl.

Sasha Braus

Class: Archer

Weapon: Bow

Profile: From a small hunting village called Dauper in the southern part of Zephyria. An incredible hunter in her own right, she has good eyes and sharp instincts. A simple young woman who loves to laugh and has a ravenous appetite. Eventually receives a horse she names Sigurd.

Connie Springer

Class: Villager

Weapon: Axe

Profile: From a small lumber village in southern Zephyria called Ragako. After his village gets razed to the ground and his family killed by bandits he begins traveling with Eren and his friends. Though saddened by those turn of events, Connie is normally an optimistic, caring, though somewhat naive and slow to understand things young man. Likes to joke around with Sasha, especially because it’s so easy to make her laugh.

(While I’m not writing a profile for them right this second, Erwin is a Hero who uses swords and axes, Levi is an assassin who uses swords, daggers, and bows, and Hanji is a trickster who uses swords and staves.)