When I see folks discussing possible flaws/issues for the various SHC houses, most of the time the Badger secondary one is "can overwork themselves/focus too much on work" or something like that.

But Courtier Badger has a darker side too. One that by itself is pretty morally neutral, but has the potential to be used to hurt people, hard.

A Badger secondary will help you notice things about people you meet so you can instinctively understand how to become a relatable person for them. It will take note of what they say, how they say it, their body language. It'll notice the unspoken words lingering between sentences, sideways glances, every hesitation.

With a bit of patience, you'll probably have a good idea of what this person likes and hopes, but also what they fear, about themselves and others. It will point out to you the cracks in them.

And this can be a good thing! It can be very helpful to avoid a potentially explosive topic, or when you're trying to comfort a clearly distressed friend that isn't volunteering much information.

But it also makes hurting people so easy, and during a heated discussion, it's tempting to use this hold you have on their fears and emotions to just make it stop, to gain a moral high ground, or just because right now you think they deserve to be hurt.

Sometimes I look at someone I know well enough and realize: "Oh, I could make you have an identity crisis right now by showing you the ugliest version of yourself you'd still be able to recognize as you and using the right words to make you believe just a bit that there's truth in it".

And then I don't do it, of course, but the... casual way my inner thoughts take note of this and file it under "might be useful someday" is a bit scary. And it all comes from the same place that allows me to give the best Chrismas gifts and just know when it's time to check in with a friend and ask how it's going.

wisteria-lodge

I know *exactly* what you're talking about. It's a very cold, very calm little part of myself that knows exactly the way to slip the knife though someone's ribs, and turn it. It does kind of come with the territory once you know someone well enough. I don't feel actively morally good all that much, but sometimes, during an argument... when I've got someone taking random shots at me, trying get under my skin. And I know I *could* launch the nuke. But I don't. I know the courtier badger archetype can also go over into blackmailer and interrogator territory.

Although I suspect that all the secondaries have their way of gathering this kind of data on people. You just have to be interested in them, basically, and almost inevitably you will pick up on their underlying motivations/fears/insecurities. In the end, isn't that just what intimacy is? You give someone the tools to destroy you, and trust that they will not.

#sortinghatchats #reblog #source: herlaqueen #i as much as i mirror don't pick up those things as much. i do have my moments though

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

wisteria-lodge

Anonymous asked:

Is there a neutral state for all of the secondaries or only Snake and Badger?

wisteria-lodge answered:

All the secondaries interact with "Neutral" (how you look when you're not working at being perceived a particular way) a little differently.

Snake secondaries talk about their Neutral states being relaxing, like taking your bra off at the end of the day. It's something they do when they feel very safe. They also tend to think that everyone is hiding a neutral state under their day-to-day presentation.

Birds deliberately build personas. They give their personas names, take them off, hang them up in the closet. So Birds slipping into Neutral is usually not very dramatic. It's like washing off makeup. They're going back to the base layer - where they need to be to build and experiment. Birds run into trouble when they get *stuck* in one of their personas, because they see them as tools, not identity the way Snakes and Badgers do. It's like how Jack Skellington hates being JUST "The Pumpkin King" and Edward Teach hates being JUST "Blackbeard."

If a Badger secondary is in a Neutral state around people, that's... not fun for them. Since bouncing off people's energy is automatic and it feels good, if they're not doing that, it's probably because they're too tired, angry, or are in a group of people who they just can't figure out how to gel with.

And Lion secondaries are basically in their Neutral state all the time. Or at least, they'd like to be.

sevilemar

I just got one thing to add: for snakes, neutral is also our asshole state, the moment when we stop people-pleasing. It can be because we feel safe, but it can also be when we are too exhausted, tired, angry, etc. to keep it up, very much like badgers. It doesn't feel bad for us, though. It still got that element of relaxation to it, and I personally like the feeling of not giving a fuck every once in a while.

#source: wisteria lodge #secondaries #neutral state #shc #sortinghatchats #reblog

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

reds-burrow

Anonymous asked:

You use courtier badger right? What does it feel like when you go into neutral mode? (if you go neutral)

reds-burrow answered:

It doesn't feel like anything. That's the thing: it's all subconscious. It doesn't feel like peeling back any layers or shifting gears because I'm not. I sometimes will look back on a conversation after it's finished and realize I stopped mirroring halfway through. Otherwise, the only way I notice the change in the moment is when someone else notices and says something to me. Usually, they're asking if I'm okay because I generally fall into neutral when I'm too tired to match someone's energy. Or occasionally it's when I'm too angry (but I could count those incidents on one hand).

wisteria-lodge

That totally lines up with my experience. Sometimes if I’m in a really unusual situation, or mirroring someone with really crazy energy, I have to take a second afterwards to get back to center. It’s almost like - being tipsy and then thinking back to “so what *exactly* was I saying at that party?” Going into neutral around people isn’t *fun* for me the way it seems to be for Snakes, and I tend to come across as brusque and/or checked out.

Also, the term “mirroring” implies matching, but I’m not matching all the time. I think of it more like a lens. What kind of a lens to do you need me to be, to focus your energy and reflect it back in the most useful way.

magpie-of-a-birb

Oh my god I feel this so much.

I've had periods over the past year/year and a half in which I tried to figure out how I shifted in mirroring others, and with a few exceptions, I never could, not even when looking back on the conversation. The only times I ever really noticed in the moment was when I had a massive energy drop due to all of the exhaustion I accumulated up until that point finally catching up to me.

#courtier badger #shc #sortinghatchats #magpie speaks #source: reds burrow #reblog

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

the-phoenix-heart

sevilemar

Somehow, I feel like I should care a lot less than I do. Sometimes, I just want to say "Fuck it!" and not think about other people. Why not be selfish? Why care about hurting others? Why not just set one against the other, and cheer them on from the sidelines? I'm a double snake, it's what we do.

We are the edgy sidekick that changes sides a few times, tall, dark, charming, and dangerous in a leather jacket. At best, we get a redemption arc so we can sacrifice ourselves in the end to demonstrate that, 'lo and behold, somewhere deep down we do still care, we are still worth something. And also dead, but as long as the hero always remembers we did the right thing in the end, everything is right with the world. At worst, we're the villain who dies, bitter and alone, to give the hero the triumph they so rightfully deserve.

But real life is not like that, they say. In real life, you have to care about people, or you'd hate yourself. Or worse, you will be alone. In real life, you're always kind to strangers, you always help out, you always care about people. Lying is wrong, only bad people manipulate others, and if we catch you at it, you'd better have a good, righteous, non-selfish cause for it so we can at least forgive you some time in the future. If you don't, we will judge you and find you wanting.

I know it's not fair, and it has to be a dark day indeed for me to expose my bitterness for all the world to pick apart. I just don't think I care very much at the moment. And here I thought I could never become "all I meant to be".

sevilemar

Going through your own tumblr is a weird thing. First of all, you can only really do it when someone gifts you a like or reblog for an old post, so you can click on it and use it as a starting point, instead of scrolling through months and months of shitposts, landscapes, people being amazing on the internet, and cute animals.

But if you get that reblog gift, and you go down the rabbit hole, you might find posts like this. Posts that are a year old, or more, and posts that show you how far you've come. Because quite frankly, now that I have actually accepted my snakebird secondary, this feels a little cringe. It's like Dream in MisMag, wanting so desperately to be cool and edgy and dark, when in reality they're also very much a sparkling glitter princess.

I am cool with my snake sec now, I have seen more awesome snakes both in media and in fiction, and I've learned to let go of the stereotype. It's incredibly freeing to be able to just do your thing, and enjoy what you're doing without being judged.

I am still blown away by the easy acceptance of the shc community; nowhere else can I have conversations about lying and manipulation without jumping through all the boring, exhausting morality hoops first, and nowhere else is my instinct and ability to just give people what they want and disappear into a conversation seen as an asset instead of a problem. I did not know how much I needed it until I got here, and I will always be incredibly thankful for this gift you've all given me.

And now I'm going back to rewatfh MidMag for the 32nd time, because I can and I want to. See ya'll latet, loosers!

#sortinghatchats #reblog #source: sevilemar #snake secondary

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

the-phoenix-heart

wisteria-lodge

on secondaries ~

(this is kind of an exercise for myself. I'm going to run though an explanation, and see how many words/terms I use to do it.)

Secondaries are about problem solving. That can be a serious problem, or a problem like “boredom” (which is how secondaries relate to hobbies.) But the question is how do people solve problems. That's it.

PART 1 - SINGLE PLAYER

BOOKKEEPER BADGER chips away at a problem in increments. Things are done throughly, all scaffolding in place. No corners are cut. Usually a community's load-bearing support beam (even if they are personally unpleasant.) Would rather do something well than quickly.

COLLECTION BIRD collects knowledge, skills, tools, contacts. If they want something that doesn’t exist out in the wild, they make it. Tend to have a lot of weird, seemingly unconnected skills. The kings of "work smarter, not harder."

~ these are Built secondaries (or Prepwork secondaries) because the more time Badgers and Birds have to build, the happier and more successful they are. ~

Lion and Snake are much much better known for their interpersonal "multiplayer" skills, that’s what you normally see in fiction. But here's how I see their single-player working:

EXPERIMENT LION "what happens if I plug the thing in the thing?" There's a lot of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. Dive in, figure it out as you go. For examples, think of the more "science flavored" Lion secondaries, like Tony Stark, Lord Asriel, or Merlin (of Merlin.) It's a rarer character type, but it's there.

ENVIRONMENT SNAKE "what have I got to work with, what have I got in front of me, how can I look at it/use it in a new way?" This is Ferris Bueller making his Rube-Goldberg contraptions, or Maria from the Sound of Music making clothes out of curtains. There is also a pot-stirring element to Single-Player Snake: if it turns out that you don't have anything to work with, then do something that changes up the status quo, and react to the fallout. (This a favorite tactic of Jack Sparrow, and the Joker.)

NOTE: I've also seen these guys called "Storage Bunker Snakes," which I think is a metaphor that steps on the toes of Bird a little: when I think of a storage bunker, I think of a collection.

Once interesting observation (thank you @reds-burrow) is that Lions and Badgers work by changing their surroundings, and Birds and Snakes work by adapting to their surrounding. I think this is why a Coiled Spring Badger who has been prepping for a long time before finally releasing can look a lot like a just-go-for-it-and-see-what-happens Experiment Lion. And a Rapid-Fire Bird who is really comfortable in their environment can look a lot like an Environment Snake just coming up with things on the fly.

PART 2 - MULTI-PLAYER

We've all got to interact with people (some more than others.) So how is that accomplished?

COURTIER BADGER - There is no acting, they become whoever they need to be in the moment. Mostly this means mirroring the energy or whatever group they're in, and shifting accordingly. This is still a Built secondary, because better you know a group/person, the easier and more effectively you can match them, and the more trustworthy you will seem.

ACTOR BIRD - They have different personas or roles they have prepared beforehand, and which they are able to pull out when needed. Often Actor Birds give their personas names like "Professional!Me" or "Artsy!Me." It's likely that they modeled at least one after a character or another person. It's also likely that they enjoy or rely on costumes.

BEACON LION - We all know this one from fiction. The person who's going to be completely authentic, and if they alienate people then so be it. They hate lying. They feels safest and most powerful when they just put themselves out there and speak their truth. BUT in real life these guys have to face-change just like everyone else. Their metaphor is a raising or lowering of intensity. They are always themselves, but they can be a louder or softer version of themselves.

MASQUERADE SNAKE - Another favorite from fiction. These guys are a slightly different person with everyone they interact with, and while every mask is them, they don't need to believe what they say the way a Badger does. They're also good at choosing what kind of impression they want to make, and telling 'creative truths' - how do I phrase something to get this person to listen to me?

This group is interesting, because you can break it down in a few ways. The Prep-work (Badger & Bird) vs In-the-moment (Snake & Lion) divide is still definitely there. But I think it's interesting how Badger and Snakes talk about their mirroring and masks as being fundamentally *them.* But Birds talking about personas, or Lions talking about raising and lowering intensity will go... that's constructed, that's something different from *me.* Badger & Snake shifting pulls from the unconscious self, Lion and Bird pulls from the conscious self. @sevilemar is right, that is a real difference.

In which case, I guess for me it comes down to:

PREP-WORK (Badger + Bird) vs IN-THE-MOMENT (Lion + Snake)

DELIBERATE (Lion + Bird) vs AUTOMATIC (Badger + Snake)

YOU MOVE (Badger + Lion) vs I MOVE (Bird + Snake)

(And Neutral? Neutral is what you get when your multi-player is not actively face-shifting (and even Lions face-shift a little.) So... when you're existing in your single-player. And there's no reason you can't be having fun with your single player around people.)

#sortinghatchats #reblog #source: wisteria lodge #sortinghatchats meta

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

awinterrain

sevilemar

wisteria-lodge asked:

How does a primary unburn?

sevilemar answered:

Very slowly. And I'm not even joking.

First step is finding out who or what made you burn, and maybe continues to do so. Second step is to put some distance between whatever it is and yourself; emotional, maybe geographical. Try and get yourself out of survival mode as best you can.

After that, it's a very personal journey, as any kind of healing always is. My general advice: get help when you need it, build a support network if you can, celebrate small victories when you find them, and be kind to yourself whenever possible.

It's a lot of work, and you can't fast forward through it, or bullshit your way out, and it's a lot easier with professional help. If you already know your primary, it might give you some clues to what the goal is; if you don't know your primary, you might find it along the way. Maybe you'll find a model on your journey. If you like it, embrace it, it is part of you.

Wherever your journey takes you, know that we are rooting for you, nonny, always.

wisteria-lodge

Breaking and burning goes fast, and dramatic. It’s why there are so many stories about it. But healing is slow. It’s not flashy. It’s honestly kind of boring. Shakespeare knew what he was talking about when he said “what wound did ever heal but by degrees?”

#sortinghatchats #unburning #reblog #source: sevilemar

magpie-of-a-birb

wisteria-lodge asked:

can i just take a moment to vent about how awful it is when two of your Big Important Lion Instincts™ get into a fight? like, one of my instincts is that everyone deserves respect. another is that i deserve any bad treatment i get. (yes, i am aware that this is Bad.) so when someone mistreats me, part of me is saying, "just accept it. you deserve it," while another is shouting, "stand up for yourself, coward! fight back!" and lemme tell you, no matter who wins, NOBODY wins when i get like that.

I really, really get that, Nonny, and I'm sorry you're going through that. Having two strong pings conflicting with each other is a really icky feeling, even without one of those pings not being the healthiest :(

Removing unhealthy parts of a lion system is REALLY Not Fun and, most likely, a messier process than it would be for a bird. I'm proud of you for recognizing that it's unhealthy and I wish you the best of luck

#sortinghatchats #magpie speaks #magpie answers #lion primary #vent

magpie-of-a-birb

wisteria-lodge asked:

which idealist primary would you say might be most worried about being overly credulous? i can see it for lion integrity vs the bird search for truth. for sure i’m not a loyalist but i haven’t yet figured out where my ideas come from. it’s just a huge pet peeve of mine when things are taken without question/at face value, and i really value finding things out for yourself.

My first instinct is to say bird, since when it comes to the morality side of things, what is picked up could have a more direct impact on the bird's compass than if they were a lion, so making sure the data isn't faulty would be important. However, due to this post that umai made, I'm not so sure. For the most part, I think it could go either way, but depends on whether or not the bird or lion has something in their system that makes double-checking information to be important

That being said, the way that you value finding things out for yourself makes me think that your secondary may be influencing this, as well, since you're valuing having the "checking" step as a part of your information-aquiring method. The way it's phrased makes me think badger secondary, since it sounds like you take pride in doing the work to find the answer, yourself

TL;DR: checking over newly acquired information leans more towards bird primary, but could be bird or lion primary. However, the secondary may be influencing said value

#sortinghatchats #magpie speaks #magpie answers #lion primary #bird primary

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

wisteria-lodge

sevilemar

Anonymous asked:

Do you know if anyone in the SHC community understands the World of Darkness lore, particularly Vampire: the Masquerade lore (I’m focusing on the actual TTRPG and not on Bloodlines)? I’m trying to work out if the world of Vampire is a badger world or not.

sevilemar answered:

I haven't seen anyone talk about it around here yet, no. Sadly, the only thing I know about it is one half-remembered Critical Role oneshot I watched a few years back. I think Taliesin was DMing that one, and Matt and Marisha had to leave half-way through so they got killed very early by design?

Anyone wanna help out nonny?

magpie-of-a-birb

Overall, yeah, it does feel very badgery with the fealty/hierarchical system that they've got going on, but there isn't much in terms of hard work and mirroring, so I want to say that it's badger primary, but in the "I deserve respect because of where I am in the community" sense and badger secondary in the "social engineering and making deals" sense

Depending on how you're playing, that badger can also be coupled with with just about any primary or secondary, but the two that most come to mind are glory hound lion primary "we want to get into good positions for ourselves and are working together to get it" or snake primary "we may be fucked up, but we're still a found family"

#magpie speaks #magpie answers #sortinghatchats #VtM #vampire: the masquerade #reblog #source: sevilemar

magpie-of-a-birb

wisteria-lodge asked:

Is it possible to be a lion with snake like loyalty built in your moral compass?

For context: Wisteria asked the community if we'd like to answer some asks to get to them more quickly, and I (among others) volunteered. And, quite frankly, she sent this one to one of the ~~most opinionated~~ best people regarding its content, because

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, absolutely

I have a snake primary model that works in conjunction with my lion primary, but even without it, I've got plenty of snake baked into my system.

When it's just the lion-with-snake-morals, it comes off as more of a champion to me - I keep to my word, I was given responsibility over these people when in this role, and I will take care of them. Wisteria has actually talked about that flavor of loyalty here, and I completely agree with it, but that's not the only kind.

The snake morals baked into my system, on the other hand, are much more immediate to me. It's for the people I love, the people I chose, and it doesn't activate until one of them needs help. I can't always tell if it's the snake primary model or the snake-baked-into-lion because it's such an core part of me that it'd be difficult to untangle. It reaches into some of the instinctive drives - to care for, to protect - that feel almost feral. Those people are mine and I want them to live full, happy lives doing whatever will bring them satisfaction. I want them to be free and safe; anything that truely threatens that is one of the few things that would bring me to the point of honest-to-god-fury.

I would be surprised if this was exclusive to lions and snakes, but when looking at these things within myself, they're inextricably intertwined.

TL;DR: yeah, it's entirely possible to have loyalist primary ideals baked into a lion primary's moral compass

#sortinghatchats #magpie speaks #magpie answers #lion primary #snake primary model #idealist primary

magpie-of-a-birb

missbrunettebarbie asked:

31, 54, 61 for the SHC meme

Okay, so I KNOW that this was asked a while ago, but in my defense....

I forgot the ask box existed

This is the post with the asks, so without further ado-

31. Answered that one here

54. Sorting most likely to move into a cabin in the wilderness

I want to say snake badger/snake bird. Idealists have their ideal-driven things to do and badger primaries thrive in their communities, but if a snake's people were safe, I could most see an introverted one keeping to themself in the woods. On top of that, bookkeeper badger or a nature-interested birdsec would fit really well

61. Favorite SHC partner/perfect team dynamic

Either lion snake/double bird or lion bird/bird snake. It's probably half because I like playing off of snake secs (and bird snakes, at that), but I love seeing snakesec and birdsec bouncing off of each other. It's the epitome of "who has proficiency in deception and who has proficiency in insight" and if you think you know who's who you're probably wrong

On the primary side of things, the birdpri/lionpri dynamic is fun to see. You can have the classic clashes where the two are arguing past each other and not realizing that they have to approach it from a different method or one/both of them learn/s how to "code switch" in that sense. Or you have them building off of and checking each other: the lionpri gives the empassioned speech and then the birdsec follows up with the logical reasoning or one of them decides that it's right to rush off and the other fact-checks/debugs the other's conclusions with their own system. No matter how you shake it, it'll be fun

#magpie speaks #sortinghatchats #magpie answers #ask game

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awinterrain

wisteria-lodge

Anonymous asked:

Hey! I have a question if you don’t mind: how much do you think can acurrately be inferred about a person just based on their sorting? Kind of like reverse-sorting, I guess?

wisteria-lodge answered:

One of the things that became really obvious when I started sorting real people vs characters is that real people are a lot more complicated. Characters are lucky if they get one model, or one Burnt/Exploded house. Real people just have stacks of them. I've sorted 79 people at this point, and I have two perfectly matching pairs. And I'm not even sure if I should count one of them, because even though they're both Burnt Lion secondaries with Badger & Bird secondary models, they might have totally different primaries.

While I do think there is a sort of ~ archetypal core ~ to each combination that gives them a unique vibe, that core can be taken in so many different directions, and layered with so many additions, that if I have just a person's core sorting and no other information - I'm not going to be able to tell you much.

(this is also why I don't answer questions that are like "Would a Snake Lion and a Lion Bird be a good couple.")

#sortinghatchats #reblog #source: wisteria lodge

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

wisteria-lodge

Anonymous asked:

Do you know a badger bird chracter. I have no clear insight on that sorting. I just don't see how could they struggle. Can they face a real turmoil. Or have a want, need story arc. They baffle me.

wisteria-lodge answered:

Oh, lots and lots. Here. Have fun :)

kiezh

Four Badger/Bird characters I love, who have excellent character arcs:

Nynaeve al’Meara from the Wheel of Time (both books and show)

Percival de Rolo from Critical Role (and now from The Legend of Vox Machina, but you won’t be seeing his Badger Primary for a while in the cartoon because it’s a lump of char at that point in the timeline)

Shen Wei from Guardian (cdrama)

Shikako Nara from Dreaming of Sunshine (epic Naruto fanfic, tons of worldbuilding, has its own fandom and extensive recursive fanfic)

What do they have in common?

Bird secondary: clever problem-solvers and inventors, with a wide variety of skills and tricks, who rely on previously acquired knowledge and skill to deal with whatever situations they’re in. Learn ALL the things. You don’t know what might be useful later!

Badger primary: overactive sense of responsibility. If you’re the person with the greatest ability to solve the problem, then it IS your problem and you SHOULD be solving it. If people are in need, you should be answering that need. There are proper ways to do things and being a person in a society carries with it obligations and necessary constraints. You can’t just walk away.

Shikako and Shen Wei are more alike, being Universal Badgers who take it as an unquestioned given that it is their job to Save Everyone (and hold themselves accountable to an insane standard of competence). Percy is a lump of traumatized char who slowly regrows his Badger Primary over a long character arc and identifies very strongly with a particular heritage and city. Also has the insane personal standards of competence - that may be a Badger/Bird hallmark? (Or a common trait of protagonist Bird secondaries, who tend to have absurd levels of competence anyway, but still think they should be able to do more.) Nynaeve starts as a more group-oriented Badger Primary but keeps broadening her scope of responsibility until it ends up encompassing the whole world. Also thinks it’s a personal failing to encounter something she can’t fix/solve/heal.

It seems odd to me to think they can’t have struggles - this Sorting seems doomed to an eternal struggle! Such high standards, such impossible goals. Can one person solve everything, fix everything, for everyone (or at least everyone in the group they feel responsible for)? No. But Badger/Birds are probably going to be tormented by the feeling that they should be able to.

#SHIKAKO BELOVED #sortinghatchats #badger primary #bird secondary #badger bird #reblog #source: wisteria lodge #source: kiezh

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

awinterrain

sevilemar

wisteria-lodge asked:

Hi! So I’ve always typed myself as a Snake Primary who is on the verge of burning. Would it be odd for a Snake to reach the point with one of their People in which they feel loyalty isn’t being given at all, so they just cut off that person? I suppose essentially Petrifying because if the people they care about don’t put any effort into their relationship, it’s just easier to not try at all?

sevilemar answered:

Don’t worry, @wisteria-lodge has not been turned into a snake overnight, or got account-hacked, which is what I first thought when I saw this one 😉. She got this ask send to her anonymously, and she thought I could help out with my own experiences as a snake primary, which is extremely flattering, btw, so thank you.

It’s not odd at all to have a regular vetting process as a snake primary. That is how we protect ourselves from abuse, after all. It is very easy to use our loyalty against us, very easy to even do it unconsciously and without malicious intent. People change, we change, and our vetting criteria may also change. That’s just how life works, and that’s why we “upgrade” or “downgrade” people in our circles when we feel it’s necessary. Just because someone was in your inner circles once doesn’t mean they have to stay there forever, or can never return after they’ve been out of them for a time. I actually consider a fluid circle system where people might drop in or out of the inner circles a sign of an unburned/unburning snake primary.

So if you feel that one of your people is drifting away from your inner circles, that is always a loss for a snake primary. But for an unburned snake it’s not that devastating because they’ve probably seen it coming. They have others in their circles, and they have probably already concentrated more attention on someone else instinctively. I remember it was like that for me once.

It is different for us singed or burned snakes. Because we are singed, we need reassurance, stability, consistency from our people. That’s why we have a hard time seeing the early warning signs, and when the break can’t be overlooked anymore, it feels a lot like betrayal because it’s so sudden and inexplicable to us.

And because we are burned or burning, we might not have a lot of others left in our circle, not many connections that are still alive. That’s when we get scared: “I’m a loner and an introvert, how will I find anyone new?” And because we have been hurt badly enough to burn: “Why should I even try? Everyone always leaves in the end, it doesn’t really matter what I do anyway, so why bother trying?”

You’ll have to answer that for yourself. Here is my answer: I want to be happy. I know having people in my circle who I am free to love and let go as life demands will make me happy. I know having a person again will make me happy. So I have decided to fight for it.

#sortinghatchats #snake primary #reblog #source: sevilemar

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

starry-sky-stuff

Sortinghatchats Ask Game

Asks based on @sortinghatchats system of sorting. If you want to add to the asks feel free!

Favourite Lion/Lion
Favourite Lion/Snake
Favourite Lion/Bird
Favourite Lion/Badger
Favourite Snake/Snake
Favourite Snake/Lion
Favourite Snake/Bird
Favourite Snake/Badger
Favourite Bird/Bird
Favourite Bird/Lion
Favourite Bird/Snake
Favourite Bird/Badger
Favourite sorting for heroes
Favourite Lion/Lion hero
Favourite Lion/Snake hero
Favourite Lion/Bird hero
Favourite Lion/Badger hero
Favourite Snake/Snake hero
Favourite Snake/Lion hero
Favourite Snake/Bird hero
Favourite Snake/Badger hero
Favourite Bird/Bird hero
Favourite Bird/Lion hero
Favourite Bird/Snake hero
Favourite Bird/Badger hero
Favourite sorting for villains
Favourite Lion/Lion villain
Favourite Lion/Snake villain
Favourite Lion/Bird villain
Favourite Lion/Badger villain
Favourite Snake/Snake villain
Favourite Snake/Lion villain
Favourite Snake/Bird villain
Favourite Snake/Badger villain
Favourite Bird/Bird villain
Favourite Bird/Lion villain
Favourite Bird/Snake villain
Favourite Bird/Badger villain
Favourite sorting for the love interest
Favourite character with a burned primary
Favourite character with a burned secondary
Favourite SHC parent-child dynamic
Favourite SHC hero-antagonist dynamic
Favourite SHC sibling dynamic
Favourite SHC romantic pairing dynamic
Sorting most likely to survive a horror movie
Sorting most likely to win a game show
Sorting most likely to be a romance hero/heroine
Sorting most likely to be the hero of an action movie
Sorting most likely to be a supervillain
Sorting most likely to go all out on holiday decorations
Sorting most likely to get arrested
Sorting most likely to get away with a crime
Sorting most likely to move into a cabin in the wilderness
Sorting most likely to become a celebrity
Sorting most likely to believe in ghosts
Sorting most likely to go on a reality tv show
Sorting most likely to be a spy
Sorting most likely to believe in love at first sight
Sorting most likely to do a grand romantic gesture

magpie-of-a-birb

61. Favorite SHC partner/perfect team dynamic?

starry-sky-stuff

62. Favourite Badger/Badger

63. Favourite Badger/Snake

64. Favourite Badger/Bird

65. Favourite Badger/Lion

starry-sky-stuff

66. Favourite Badger/Badger hero

67. Favourite Badger/Snake hero

68. Favourite Badger/Bird hero

69. Favourite Badger/Lion hero

70. Favourite Badger/Badger villain

71. Favourite Badger/Snake villain

72. Favourite Badger/Bird villain

73. Favourite Badger/Lion villain

#sortinghatchats #ask game #ask meme #updated template

magpie-of-a-birb

starry-sky-stuff asked:

31, 40 and 55 for the SHC meme

In reference to this thing here

31. Favorite double snake villian

I'll be honest, I haven't encountered many double snakes, let alone those I've identified as villians (which is weird, given how double snake used to be the stereotypical villian sorting). I think I gotta go with Morgana. She's the only one I know that I'm certain is double snake, lol

40. Favorite character with a burned primary

Dave Strider. That boi has a lion primary that is So Charred, slowly watching him start to unburn in the series is Amazing

55. Sorting most likely to become a celebrity

Lion badger or lion snake, particularly the glory hound type. Meanwhile the fluid secondary fits better in my mind in terms of appealing to a wider audience

#magpie speaks #magpie answers #ask game

magpie-of-a-birb reblogged

wisteria-lodge

Archetypes: Sorting Hat Chats

I’ve been asked about my rationale for naming different primary/ secondary combinations. I did this originally as a tool to help me sort characters - I wanted to see how these types tend to be used, so I could more easily see what subversions looked like. I'll run through my thoughts, but know there’s a lot of variation within each category. But even WITH that variation, I do think that each one has its own specific energy that makes it interesting to talk about. An explanation of the terms I'm using.

DOUBLE LION “THE REVOLUTIONARY”

Pretty straightforward. The Lion primary knows something is wrong, they know it in their bones even if they can’t articulate it, and they’ve got to go out and do something about it. Probably charging at whatever power structure is directly in front of them. It’s unlikely you find a character leading a revolution who isn’t a Double Lion. These guys are intense, inspirational, single minded.

The villain version of the Lion primary tends to be the person who “went too far" or "became the monster they were trying to fight.'' But I think that the much more interesting Lion primary villain trope is the Traitor. Since Lions work from their feelings, and their philosophies can’t necessarily be articulated or linked to individuals outside of them - they can definitely have their head turned while still feeling moral about it.

One of my favorite examples of this Revolutionary archtype is actually Christian Bale‘s character from Newsies. He’s the spark that starts the unionizing revolution, but 100% needs his Badger and Bird lieutenants to keep him focused and keep him from defecting

LION SNAKE “THE ROBIN HOOD”

These guys are similar to the Double Lion - they will recognize a cause or injustice revolutionary style - but Robin Hood doesn’t go up and bang on wicked Prince John’s door. His move is the snake secondary one: confront the problem indirectly. Undermine the regime by stealing tax money and re-distributing it to the poor. Be simultaneously Robin Hood the outlaw and Robin of Locksley the noble, infiltrating and getting information. The Lion Snake is more likely to work within society (or deliberately separate from society) versus just breaking everything down.

LION BIRD “THE LAWMAN / THE VIGILANTE”

The fact that the Lion Bird can either be the Lawman or the Vigilante shows off the very clear hero/villain split you get with Bird secondaries. We also see this with the Snake Bird (simultaneously the Mastermind and the traditional Villain) and the Double Bird (either the Scientist or the Mad Scientist.) This is why I think I had such trouble naming the Badger Bird. I wasn’t leaning into the duality of the Bird secondary enough. The Badger Bird can be the King Arthur, or he can be the Mob Boss, and he’ll look kind of similar either way.

The Lion Bird also has that Lion primary conviction and drive, but they want to follow up on it with investigation, evidence, and plans. I actually think there need to be more stories about Lawmen turning into Vigilantes and vice versa. Because Lion Birds are their Cause no matter what external alignment gets attached to it.

#sortinghatchats #masterpost #reblog #source: wisteria lodge #long post #tw long post #omg this is so good i love it