@annastrxng is this how Abe proposed to Anna 🤣

Abe energy :))

I’m pretty sure Ben only ever slept in this series when he was physically incapable of being awake due to severe bodily injury.

        ❝ Fired? On who's orders exactly? Surely not Washington's? ❞

Anna: “Abe, you’re fired……” 

“And I’m the new and improved replacement.” 

Honestly if Abe had just gone up to Clinton in New York and said he was there to kidnap Arnold, I don’t think Clinton would have had a problem with that.

OCD thoughts below

To give an overview of what OCD consists of, here's a few explanations that explain it well.

"Ultimately, you feel driven to do compulsive acts to ease your stress. Even if you try to ignore or get rid of bothersome thoughts or urges, they keep coming back. This leads you to act based on ritual. This is the vicious cycle of OCD."

"Obsessive-compulsive disorder usually includes both obsessions and compulsions. But it's also possible to have only obsession symptoms or only compulsion symptoms. You may or may not know that your obsessions and compulsions are beyond reason. But they take up a great deal of time, reduce your quality of life, and get in the way of your daily routines and responsibilities."

"Obsession symptoms: OCD obsessions are lasting and unwanted thoughts that keeping coming back or urges or images that are intrusive and cause distress or anxiety. You might try to ignore them or get rid of them by acting based on ritual. These obsessions usually intrude when you're trying to think of or do other things."

I am not a professional by any means, I have just looked into it. I'm pursing social work, which focuses on how the environment, social, bio, and psychological can influence a person's situation, be it mental illness, poverty, trauma, etc. So I will be examining more on that lens. I have more to say about Hewlett than Simcoe, but one thing stood out to me that others can branch upon if they want.

One ritual a peer in my class mentioned is tapping. This person dealt with intrusive thoughts that caused a lot of anxiety and pain, and usually I equat Simcoe's tapping with remaining focused, but I also saw that OCD can stem from trauma. With Simcoe's background of seeing his father die in front of him in India, being involved in war, he could potentially have OCD, or even a mild form of it. Most people with OCD are not violent (like Simcoe is), and sometimes deal with the intrusive thought of doing something inappropriate, violent, morally wrong things to someone else (even if it's so out of character for them). It's a sense of anxiety for them. Simcoe definitely could have trauma from seeing his father die in that manner, but I'm not entirely sure if he would have intrusive, unwanted thoughts. He could partake in rituals (cleaning a bayonet, over checking important files, repeatly checking if a door is locked), I can see that, but I wanted to note the tapping here because that's a very Simcoe trait.

I also wanted to mention here from what I learned in my classes is that people who have trauma, or PTSD (not every person with trauma has ptsd), often get diagnosed with ADHD that don't treat the main issue of trauma in their lives. This is a little side note if someone wanted to say Simcoe taps because of ADHD fidgeting.

For Hewlett, this is more on my other blog, but I do have a vampire verse that deals with a lot of religious-trauma and influence. I can see Hewlett generally having minor symptoms of OCD, gained from genetics, family history, my headcanon of him losing his sister, or environmental or familial influences in early adulthood. I can see him being particular about organizing and rituals, maybe having some intrusive thoughts that are kind of pushed to the side and unaddressed (because of the time period). This all would increase during times of stress, so I feel like he would fall into the more moral-spiritual angle of OCD, especially when he feels like the world is ending around him in a sense.

But I think for Hewlett in his vampire verse, when he is bitten by a rebel solider when he was kidnapped (framed by Simcoe, kidnapped from Whitehall, s2 stuff). For context: He already was traumatized by his time in the rebel base, but the whole vampirism aspect of it he gained really took a toll on him. The side effects of vampirism and vampires itself is something that would go against Hewlett's own religious beliefs. Hewlett already felt like sin himself and monstrous by this new transformation of being a vampire (with needing blood and all that), it's so unlike himself because it goes against his own moral compass.

With this being said, I think Hewlett's OCD could get more intensified with all this stress (and generally, his symptoms will become intense around stress) by managing intrusive thoughts revolving around morals and religion that could really impact him. I see him partaking in rituals around prayer, fear of impulse control (which can influence some rituals and obsessions he has), excessive worry around sin, being clean (so handwashing), even possession.

To end this, I want to say, I'm no expert. I'm still in college, so I know have so much knowledge regarding it. So anyone who has OCD, please let me know if this perpetuates any bad stigma because OCD is so stigmatized and downplayed as a whole. I want to treat this with the proper respect it deserves.

( ooc ): remind me later to maybe talk about S.imcoe and H.ewlett and OCD, my social work brain is buzzing in class

Some TURN scribbles

( ooc ): Summer is approaching and it's best time to start planting some cabbage seeds ;)

( ooc ): Still busy trying to finish final projects and assignments, but since I got some wonderful new followers, below is my d.iscord! We can plot and set some things up for when I have time to write (likely the end of this month/after the next two weeks)

( ooc ): I was rewatching Mercy Moment Murder Measure (however it's titled) of s1 because I knew Abe and Hewlett was definitely shown in that episode.

Was it intentional that Simcoe hardly blinks, or is this just Sam generally?

the best of the culper ring [¾]

*holds out a singular chip* join the turn rpc pls

( ooc ): I honestly think Abe giving up Whitehall was really good for his soul in a way, if that makes sense.

I know that was his childhood home, but I think Abe always sought for a break from his past. To reinvent himself and step away from it, the expectations, etc. He wanted to make his life his own. Even with Richard dead, I think the house would still be tied to him. It would be Abe's house in lettering, but it was always be Richard's (whether he's dead or not). Abe grew up there, Thomas grew up there, his mother likely died in the house in her bed. I think the house would just be full of memories that Abe wouldn't want to deal with and having a house of his own, a fresh start in a way, would be good for him in the long run.

You want a name? I’ll give you a name!

Culpers

Blythe Baird // Dave Eggers

( ooc ): College has fried my brain so much guys. I might have to rewatch t.urn again because when I think of Abe, all I think of is just "cabbage farmer adulterer"