#the level of sympathy and compassion and understanding of the human heart
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"My brother had no regard for her; his pleasures were not what they ought to have been, and from the first he treated her unkindly. The consequence of this, upon a mind so young, so lively, so inexperienced as Mrs. Brandon’s, was but too natural. She resigned herself at first to all the misery of her situation; and happy had it been if she had not lived to overcome those regrets which the remembrance of me occasioned. But can we wonder that, with such a husband to provoke inconstancy, and without a friend to advise or restrain her[...] she should fall?"
- Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
#jane austen#sense and sensibility#literature#the level of sympathy and compassion and understanding of the human heart#we think of historical eras as either moral and right or depraved always one or the other#and that the morality of the first was upheld by the stern treatment of anyone who acted out#and by extension that depravity is brought on by a lack of rigidity#but the struggles and paradoxes that are part of being human were just as real and just as common and people DID understand them#its only the base and unimaginative who think everyone can be fit into one righteous box if they just try hard enough#never acknowledging times they failed their own standards or maybe without ever having been tested at all#its easy for someone who is happy to judge someone who is unhappy#and we have always known this and it's always been true but we're still dealing with the same unbending personalities who are so loud#just the other day i was in an internet fight where multiple people were claiming that if someone says no to regular sex they are cheating#the possibility that they just have a low sex drive or are going through something was called an exception too rare to matter#the possibility that people are different and not everyone wants the same amount of sex and sex is really very awful when you dont want it#was laughed and sneered at. whats more a partner who accepts their partners sex drive for what it is was called a beta lol#being compassionate and understanding of people you love = beta behavior LOL LOL#this is why we cant have nice things. relationships should be based on support and communication and openness#to the reality that people change sometimes in ways we like and sometimes in ways we dont. nothing is forever.#my two thoughts that entire thread: i hope the men who read this arent intimidated out of standing up for their female partners. and#i hope the women reading this understand you have to believe in yourself despite all of it. despite everything the world throws at you.#of course women can be mean and selfish just as much as men and of course mens needs and feelings matter and so does keeping commitments#but no one has a crystal ball and if you enter a relationship expecting things will always be A Certain Way you're in for a rude awakening#especially if all you do to promote what you want is to badger and pressure and shame your partner for being an imperfect human#tangent but its just these things are so timeless. we should know better now. there's got to be something wrong with us that we don't
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YOU’RE FOREVERMORE
summary: times he appreciates you so much.
characters: albedo, ayato, xiao, wanderer, kazuha.
albedo — your endless compassion
albedo opened the door to a dimly lit bedroom, the only remaining light coming from the lopsided strings of fairy lights weakly glowing from one of the walls. crayons, costumes, and scrunched-up paper lay scattered all across the floor, leading towards the foot of the bed.
his eyes followed the trail, then softened. making sure to pick up the mess, his vision settled on two people, cozily embraced together under crimson clover covers.
then he picked up a drawing, left of the bedside table. there were plenty of people, but three people stuck out to him, their hands intertwined, smiles on their faces.
ayato — your overflowing faith in him
ayato never understood; no matter how long he spends thinking with that sharp mind of his, he’ll never know why you chose him.
he was cunning and shrewd. he held a position that frequently faced unwanted public attention without a rest. assassination attempts? too many to count.
but you knew ayato was simply too harsh on himself. in your eyes, he was a man who would do anything for his family. the family he treasured so dearly and the unrelenting love he so craved in return. perhaps you were too perfect, like someone from a dream, that he found it so hard to believe you were real.
xiao - your positivity
throughout his long, long lifetime, xiao suffered. an infinite abyss of pain and sadness indescribable. he found it hard to trust and love, those feelings rusty, yet still undeniably there.
he dreamt that all those beautifully warm emotions would somehow return. he dreamed, eyes gazing into the moonlit sky, wishing upon each star to give back what was rightfully his.
yes, the stars listened. but he would never expect that the feelings would come in the form of a human. an alluring human that never failed to brighten up his existence, always having something amusing to say—a laugh that was simply, wonderfully contagious. your positive outlook was admirable, xiao thought. he wanted to be like you. maybe not as lively, but just as happy.
wanderer - how you’re so understanding
like ayato, wanderer wonders why you stuck with him. he’s got a personality that annoyed the most patient, complimented with a sharp tongue that seemed impossible to not have something sarcastic to say. if he were you, he would steer away in the farthest direction. but it would be an outright lie to deny that he didn’t enjoy your presence next to his.
like the days when his soul feels like a void of hopelessness, you would be there, next to him, telling him in that oh-so-soft voice that he was enough, always enough for everyone and himself to appreciate.
don’t expect him to not reciprocate these actions; never has he forgotten all the things you’ve given. he’ll repay you ten times the love, because you are ten times worth it.
kazuha - your encouragement
kazuha has seen with his own eyes the cruellest and most traumatising events one could ever experience in their life. he puts on a facade of reserved tranquility and calmness, but sometimes that mask cracks just a bit, barely enough for anyone to notice. but of course, you do.
kazuha has always appreciated everything you’ve done for him; never has a moment shared with you been taken for granted. but now, the small, subtle actions and gentle words delivered at times when his heart begins to race and his palms are covered in sweat, it’s a whole new level of sympathy. he knows from the bottom of his heart that it’ll never get easier, but you make it all the more bearable. and that’s already far more than what he has ever hoped for.
#genshin fluff#genshin x reader#albedo x reader#ayato x reader#xiao x reader#wanderer x reader#kazuha x reader#genshin drabbles#anya writes ✧.*
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Another post in the tag of a villain who is my blorbo, saying basically that people who are villain stans don't understand the story right, they don't understand the villain's victims are people who deserve sympathy. That villain stans must be immoral ourselves because otherwise how could we love a character who had done so many horrible things?
And I'm like - you do understand that sympathizing with the characters who are drawn to be sympathetic is level 101 sympathy?
Yeah, you can empathize with and feel sorry for the human frailties of people who never did anything wrong. Great! That's good. It's good to have sympathy and empathy for good people.
But - and I'm going to go all religious here, because purity culture is supposedly based on Christian beliefs and I am a Christian - you've got to learn to be sympathetic and empathetic to the bad people too.
This is right there in our religion "Judge not, lest you be judged." "First take the plank out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of your brother's." "Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord. I will repay." (Namely - it's not up to us humans to take revenge.)
Famously, Jesus stopped the people from executing an adulteress (a crime which carried the death sentence at the time) saying "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone," at which point the accusers slowly realized that they were not exactly guiltless themselves and slunk away.
We are in fact commanded to love our neighbours (where 'neighbour' means 'everyone living on this planet with us.')
And loving our neighbours sometimes requires accepting that people who have done horrific things are still worthy of the respect given to all humans by virtue of being human.
That's a really hard command to obey.
(Frankly we should expect the commands given by a superhumanly good Creator to be too hard for us. God is better than we are capable of being, and that's how it should be.)
It's really hard to look at someone in real life who has done something abhorrent and accept that they too are a person who deserves to be treated with full human rights and dignity.
It's hard to get over the very natural revulsion and anger that tells us it would be righteous to treat this sinner with cruelty in return.
But that would not be righteous at all. ("Do unto others as you would have them do to you.")
Fortunately we have fiction. We can use fiction to help us develop our empathy. The villains in fiction have not actually hurt anyone in real life, so it's safe to handle them. It's safe to figure out why they did what they did, and ask yourself - if you were in their position would you have done better?
Which is also a good question.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 18
Which means that (by God's standards) there is no distinction between good people and evil people. We are all just people. We all need grace and mercy.
And we can practice our understanding, compassion, empathy and mercy by loving our fictional villains in a similar way that God has loved us.
Maybe one day we will be called on to forgive a person in real life - to be compassionate and merciful to them - and it will have helped to have confronted the darkness in the heart of man already in our imagination.
Or maybe we'll just learn to be a bit more humble about ourselves while we also have some fun.
We're really not called to stop at Compassion 101. That's only where we start.
#what to call this#christianity and fanfic#anti purity culture#fandom discourse#villain stanning#why I don't think it's immoral to love a villain#progressive christianity
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introducing: dirk strider, strength.
dirk is a different kind of beast to explain. maybe i should write jake out first, even. but.
dirk strider drips heart from his every pore. with his pantheon he can be soft. with his pantheon, he can relax. with his pantheon, dirk can be gentle.
with mortals, he is an ethereal, untouchable manifestation of the soul. he is instinct, and he is love, and he is inner strength, and he can rip all of those from you and leave your mind aware while your body inevitably crumbles.
dirk is, quite frankly, just another shade of terrifying. he’s kinder than hal (or jake, for that matter,) but he is just as capable of being cruel when he deems it justified. his cruelty is just…different. where hal will destroy you without you realizing you’re being destroyed, dirk will destroy you and you will know he is doing it, but worse, you will know you are helpless against him. dirk is a god of war, and gods and men alike will fall in his wake. in terms of raw combat power, dirk is one of, if not the strongest the pantheon has to offer, because the core of his power is his very self, and the self is all he is. (it’s a bit hard to put the power levels of incomprehensible eldritch horrors onto a graph, so you’ll have to forgive the lack of clarity.)
divinity comes at a cost, and for dirk, it is something resembling being a good person. to clarify, he is not. he’s not a person at all in the sense that mortals would understand, and by extension, his moral compass is no longer defined by mortal standards, many of which mean nothing to horrorterrors. an elder god has no need of such things.
he will help out of pity, sympathy, on rare occasion it may even be empathy. he will help because he can hear the way a dying soul screams. he will help because it hurts him to hear you cry out, or maybe because you’re another version of someone he loves dearly.
but his loyalty always lies first and foremost with the pantheon, and he will just as soon snuff out every screaming soul himself for them. he will inflict unimaginable, indescribable cruelty upon you, without remorse or guilt or hesitation, because that is the way of divine justice, and no matter how human he can seem, dirk is far from it.
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The Character of Amayian and His Personality
So, I recently came to a realization that a lot of people might be entirely confused or bewildered by Amayian’s character - with some perception that he is entirely perfect, his trauma is built only to give him sympathy and shock value, and that his compassion toward others is played up in the manner of incel-like behavior. I specifically received an anon that rubbed me the wrong way, and entirely mischaracterized Amayian’s character and growth to a false version of him that never truly did exist.
Let us start with the first point made. Is Amayian perfect? In my view, he is not, nor had I ever attended him to be perfect. There is plenty of evidence that shows he is incapable of being perfect - perhaps the biggest is his social ineptitude. Amayian had constantly be closeted and sheltered as an early age, picked almost on exclusively by his relatives based upon numerous factors - he was slow to anger, easily trusting, and to some extent his skin tone played a heavy role in that regard as well. Alongside that, his father’s example of reclusively of emotions, coupled with the determination set up by his mother and father to handle his powers in a subdued manner, implemented a severe level of inability to react socially to events or people.
I refer to this as the Cutting of the Heart which many of my characters go through - both in the Dragon Age Fandom and my own personal writing - emotions are a significant part of the human experience, and almost everyone on Earth has felt certain emotions. Now the understanding of those emotions and feeling such emotions are completely different, and I took examples from many cultures throughout history who view stoicism and repression of emotions as an ideal to demonstrate the dangers of particularly imposing a emotionless life upon children can have severe inhibitors emotionally, but as well as mentally.
Yet, his magical abilities also permitted some level of political benefit for his family. Amayian had an acute awareness of manipulating fellows dreams, which allowed some information being shuffled down from him when he dreamwalked. His uncle in particularly used such an ability to cause him to be entirely mentally dependent on his family’s praise, tying down to his self-worth. He became not a child nor a man, but a tool for political machinations. If he failed them - which his family insinuated and Amayian mentally confirmed through the death of his mother - he would be casted away and forsaken. Of course Amayian would strive to be perfect in every regards, but the fact is that he does constantly fail, and it is a lesson taught by Leliana that failure itself is not a terrible thing, but how we react to the presence of failure that is important.
Now to Amayian’s personality in regards to having “nice guy syndrome”, and in truth I cannot find anything that depicts Amayian as a “nice guy”. In truth, it is very much the opposite, especially if you read many of my writings of him. Not once does Amayian perceive any benefit or reward to being nice, especially in regards to receiving sexual favors from someone like Leliana. Amayian does not even think like that at all. The very conception that others would find him attractive never dawns on him, and instead he perceives the requests of such things as entirely on his ability to provide a service - to be a tool. In truth, when he began to realize that he may have romantic feelings to Leliana, he instantly disengages with the possibility, and is in truth frightened on the idea that Leliana would even find him a romantic suitor, especially given that Leliana and the Warden at the time were in a romantic relationship. It is partly the reason why he flees after Denerim, as much because he once more “failed” to save the Warden, just as he “failed” to save his mother, as it is that as long as he stays away from Leliana, his affection would remain quiet, and that she would never have to burden herself with someone like him.
Now, how does that exemplify a “nice guy” or a “incel” relationship? When he does become part of a relationship, he is entirely dedicated toward Leliana or his partner, depending on the au, and would strive to do their desires at every turn. That is in no way a depiction of a “nice guy”, and once again shows a misinterpretation of his character and his actual relationship with Leliana.
If anyone wishes to fully understand the basis of Amayian’s identify, I would highly recommend watching Violet Evergarden, where her character was very much an inspiration for Amayian as a person.
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I referenced this in a post about Noah in Dark but to elaborate more I think the idea of sympathy towards a character - the line of expected sympathy - is something I view more as drawn by a story as opposed to the moral standards a viewer ought to come to the story with. I don't think there's any necessary responsibility there and generally empathy is needed for engaging with storytelling at all. Equally I think you can take gumption with where the line is drawn (and equally I think you can take gumption with double-standards/inconsistency/or more interesting ideas the story could've engaged with).
But I still think that line drawn, where it is or isn't, is useful for understanding, say, what a story is trying to do with its heroes and villains, and whom it is or isn't trying to humanise for the purposes of its own thematic ends. In the case of Noah I think it was absolutely genius that he was completely shrouded in the first season, because that mystery (and then reveal) worked so much better than if I had known from the very beginning he had deeper motives. It's an excellent contrast against Jonas and overall works so much better for its humanising ends in the story (where everybody gets a piece of the pie in some fashion).
What Noah was telling me is that the story is thinking deeper, and I should be paying more attention and not writing anybody off. Although I have a tendency to extend empathy towards villains in general, I try to guard my heart and not expect too much, and more specifically my first intuition with Noah was that they were drawing a line with him to demonstrate why the other villains in the story might be redeemed. It was just in the opposite sense of what I had expected.
Often I think that discourse surrounding villains (and redemption arcs by extension) fails to take into account that this is a highly source-dependent issue. This is true for both sides of the issue (be it villain apologists or not). I would not personally view the 'crisis of empathy for the villain' as something that is a genuine fandom affliction for reasons such as 'basically engaging with the story with your feelings is actually necessary' but furthermore I don't think that this is like, a reduplicating scourge which will utterly shatter the boundaries of hero/villain for time to come, nor do ideals in fiction actually make people have unreasonable ideas about reality (otherwise then what room would you have for philosophical ideals in your own life? Belief in beauty, courage, justice, mercy, compassion etc. do not unto themselves lead to people making the wrong judgements; those are consequent to, you know, the human element - the actual issues we face in our day to day lives).
So the perspective I would rather take is that - as much as I tend to have room for intrigue and empathy for the bad guy - I am generally trying to get a sense of whether the story is engaging with me on the same level. Sometimes, even when it isn't, I still enjoy to think about it. But then on the other hand I don't think it is a personal failing to care about a character in the wrong way, particularly when I would view storytelling as something demanding that you emotionally engage.
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Shinigami Soul Agency: Season 2, Part 2
Episode 8
Enma’s Premium Option, “Charm Enma to stall for time.”
I push away all feelings of hatred…
And draw upon every ounce of unwarranted empathy I can muster for the man before me.
MC: Hey, listen to me…
His brows jump, and he grabs my wrist as I reach my hand to touch his face.
Enma: What’re you—
I can feel the way he tries to get into my thoughts, looking for an ulterior motive.
When I remove his hand, he hesitates.
His face tightens as he tries to fight something internally.
MC: You actually don’t want to hurt people.
As my voice breaks while saying it, and I strengthen my resolve, pouring as much sympathy as I can into my thoughts.
He flinches at my touch, and I gasp at how inhumanly cold he is.
After a brief moment of silence, his eyes searching my face, I feel him retreat from my thoughts.
Enma: So now she gets it…
Enma: I am nothing like those weak fools you choose to surround yourself with.
I mentally heave a sigh of relief.
(He’s still a monster, but the monsters I’ve grown accustomed to don’t have this level of self-awareness.)
Enma: I do what I must. Whether people get hurt along the way or not does not rest on my conscience.
Enma pinches my chin and, and I lean into it.
MC: What did you have to go through to become a Writer?
Enma: I inherited it.
Enma: You don’t understand how powerful a Writer’s knowledge is.
He pauses.
Enma: It will torment you.
MC: Does it torment you?
My heart drums against my chest in a conflicted wave of emotions, and I realize that some of the sympathy I’m feeling is real.
Suddenly, his tendrils reach into my mind once more.
Enma: Ah, you—
His brow furrows, and his focus drops to my lips for a split second before he backs away.
An exasperated, breathy laugh comes from his amused smile.
Enma: You shouldn’t feel sympathetic.
Enma’s usually articulated speech becomes whispered and shaken.
MC: I’m still human.
MC: One of our most controversial traits is finding the capacity to feel something even when one doesn’t deserve it.
A smirk tugs at his lips.
Enma: Is that your excuse?
His head tilts to the side, and whatever energy that has kept me in place thus far disappears.
I can move but I don’t.
Enma: But I’m a monster—or so you say…
He’s teasing me, playing my game, but I no longer know who has the upper hand.
MC: So you think you don’t deserve any kind of… compassion for what you’ve gone through?
Enma: Absolutely not. I’ve accepted my role and will finish what’s been started…
Enma: Why? Do you?
He lowers his mouth close to mine, and I can taste the wine on his breath.
Enma: We could find out right now…
He runs a finger along the palm of my hand.
Enma: Make me feel something…
Enma: Anything…
My breath catches as he stares deeply into my eyes, and carefully, I take a step back.I hear a faint echo of my name, and the sound snaps me out of my stupor.
MC: You’re an evil, evil being, Enma, and you’ve abused the role entrusted to you.
MC: Your actions will never be justified.
MC: I don’t know your story, but it’s clear that somewhere along the way, you lost yourself entirely.
MC: I hate that for just a moment, I felt that true sympathy for you.
Neither of us breaks eye contact.
Enma: That is indeed a weakness…
Enma: I’m glad you corrected yourself. It’d be a mistake otherwise.
MC: You don’t need to remind me.
Setsuna’s Premium Option, “Return Setsuna’s love.”
A surge of warmth spreads throughout my body.
MC: If you’ll have me like this… and set aside your guilt, then I’m also yours—I always have been.
MC: Before I knew who you were, before I fell in love with you…
I cup his face and fight to articulate my thoughts.
MC: You’ve saved me twice.
MC: I don’t know what the universe has in mind, but this, right here…
MC: Was pretty obvious.
MC: It just took a while.
Setsuna: It did, indeed.
Setsuna delicately places a kiss and moves to a place more on my eyelids and then my nose.
With each one, a trail of glistening green light radiates from where he touches.
(I wonder if this is the connection…)
Setsuna: When this is all over, I’ll take care of this—
His eyes follow the tiny bursts of light down to my arms.
MC: I like it.
MC: it doesn’t feel any different, and it doesn’t change the way I feel about you.
Setsuna: Atsushi was miserable, MC…
MC: His didn’t come from a place of consent, purity, or love…
My heart breaks once again at the thought that his and my experiences have always been so polarized.
(Atsushi deserves the world.)
Setsuna: You don’t mind this?
He brushes a thumb over the vines.
MC: Do you?
He kisses my wrist.
Setsuna: Not at all. It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.
MC: It’s our story, every leaf—a memory. But Setsuna…
I smile at the thought.
MC: Why was the flower the most important thing to you?
Setsuna: Does it need saying?
He rests his forehead against mine and sighs.
Setsuna: As much as I don’t want to, I need to leave and finish things. Riku and Atsushi are downstairs waiting.
I freeze up.
(The party. Enma.)
MC: How long was I out for?
Setsuna: Forty minutes.
I try to get up, but the pain and Setsuna’s hand prevent me.
MC: I’m going with you.
Setsuna: Your chest was ripped open, MC.
MC: I’m dead.
Setsuna: Not yet, not fully. Atsushi said…
He looks away with a wince.
Setsuna: The transition period makes you vulnerable. Saburo had to lock him up in a room to prevent him from acting on his misery.
I clench my hands, and an unfamiliar rage bubbles within me.
Sensing it, Setsuna holds me against him and brushes my hair.
Setsuna: I know.
Setsuna: So please, just try to rest.
MC: You know that won’t be possible for me.
I expect him to shut down my protest.
Setsuna: You’re covered in blood…
He sighs.
Setsuna: At least get out of that damned dress, then.
It’s only now that I notice my upper half is wrapped in cloth while the bottom half of the dress remains intact.
MC: I think it’s the perfect armor to ‘greet’ him in.
He looks me over, and I can only imagine how I must look based on his concern.
Setsuna: Alright.
Episode 9
Riku’s Premium Option, “Comfort and kiss Riku.”
I’ve never seen this much blood before.
But all I want to do is take him in my arms and hold him.
MC: I-I—
With trembling hands, I bend down to brush the hair out of his face.
Then I lean in and leave a kiss on his lips.
As I gaze down at him, my tears drop from my cheeks to his.
MC: I love you too.
MC: So don’t you dare say it like it’s a farewell!
Riku: You’ll drown me with those tears, little wisp…
He tries to lift his head to look at his body, but he’s too weak.
Riku: Your reaction is telling me it doesn’t look good.
I wipe my eyes and force myself to put on a smile.
MC: You’ve seen better days.
Riku: I appreciate the honesty.
MC: I don’t have anything to stop the bleeding.
Riku: I’ve seen emergency responders press down on wounds with their hands before… but this is a first for me…
His speech begins to slur, and I send out an angry thought to any deity that may hear me.
(You will not take him from me.)
MC: Right. Like this?
I press my hands against his chest, and he cries out in pain.
MC: Oh god. I’m sorry—
Riku: Shh… Hey… I just appreciate the effort… Just—
Riku: Keep your hands there… It’ll numb eventually, right?
Riku: It’s my fault I’m so weak. A drink would make this so much easier.
He forces a laugh, trying to get me to smile like he always does when he knows I'm low.
MC: Don’t be silly…
He looks past me, and I follow his gaze to see Riku’s attacker now involved in Atsushi’s and Setsuna’s battle.
Riku: You can’t stay here while they’re fighting.
He coughs, and a gurgle trapped in his throat stops my heart.
MC: I need to get you out of here!
Riku: Hah… I knew asking was pointless…
Riku: You’ve always been so stubborn.
He tries to chuckle, but it comes out as more of a burble.
Riku: How about this… If you’re hurt… you won’t be able to—
Another cough.
MC: OK… alright…
MC: You have to stay awake though.
Riku: Another kiss for motivation?
I let out a laugh of frustration and love.
MC: You’ve just been stabbed and you’re making jokes.
His weak grin grows wider.
Riku: Your smile is gorgeous.
Riku: And especially sexy when you’re on the hunt with vengeance.
MC: Enough of this…
I lean in to kiss him and can only taste my tears.
Riku: Don’t be too hard on her…
MC: She’ll get what she deserves.
Female Acolyte: How incredibly revolting.
The acolyte finds space to distance herself from the fight and limps toward us.
I don’t spare her a glance, but I can feel my rage building.
MC: I love you so, so frustratingly much that if you don’t open your eyes after this, I will find a way to haunt you.
Riku: You can’t do that. I’d be the dead one.
MC: Riku!
Riku: Besides, I love you more.
Riku: Now go save the others—they need help.
Riku: I’m glad I got to see you…
Riku’s head slumps to the side, and I let out a cry.
Atsushi: … Riku?
I look up to see Atsushi staring at us with empty eyes.
Setsuna: Don’t stop—
Atsushi’s Premium Option, “Follow Atsushi to our kingdom.”
(The calla lily symbolizes rebirth.)
MC: It’s funny…
MC: Only now, on this third chance of life, do I feel complete.
I take the flower from him and close my eyes as I inhale its delicate fragrance.
An odd sensation overtakes me, and when I open my eyes again, I find myself standing in a throne room with Atsushi.
MC: Where are we?
Atsushi: A world I created just for the two of us to escape to.
He takes my hand and leans me toward my rightful seat at his side.
As I sit, I look down at the calla lily still resting in my hand.
A burning sensation in my palm causes me to jump slightly, and Atsushi’s affectionate expression turns worried.
Atsushi: Allergies?
(If only…)
The heat worsens, and it feels like my hand is physically on fire.
Atsushi: This doesn’t have to do with Setsuna’s siring of you, does it—
Suddenly, a flame bursts from my hand, threatening to ignite Atsushi’s flower.
But just as quickly, his cool, soothing hands are cupping mine and calm the flames.
He looks up at me with a raised eyebrow.
MC: The pen… was passed onto me.
His eyes widen, and he speaks low and cautiously.
Atsushi: The List Writer’s pen?
MC: I’m assuming there’s a way to get rid of it or pass it on to someone else, but yes!
I expose my palm to him—a glowing symbol is carved into it, and he traces the pattern with a finger.
Atsushi: You never do get a break, do you?
His brow furrows together.
Atsushi: I wasn’t expecting this.
MC: I-I don’t want it.
Atsushi: I know.
MC: Can I just refuse not to write?
I know the answer, but his response confirms it for me.
Atsushi: I’m assuming that’s why it’s punishing you.
MC: Then what do I do?!
He lifts my palm to his lips and kisses it.
Atsushi: Exactly what a queen does… but that depends.
Atsushi: Will you be a benevolent queen… Or will you fall to the same fate?
His ocean eyes are serene and tranquil as they gaze into mine.
Atsushi: No matter what you’ll choose, I’ll stand by your side.
MC: I would never follow that path!
MC: The suffering of others… I could never…
Atsushi: Exactly.
He closes my hand and cups it against mine.
Atsushi: Then don’t fear it. Especially now that we know it’s somewhere safe.
Atsushi: I wouldn’t have wanted it to go to anyone else…
He tenderly pulls me into a slow and deep kiss, careful of my injuries.
It’s soothing and peaceful, and I wish I could stay here in this moment forever.
MC: I’m afraid…
He speaks back in short and delicate kisses.
Atsushi: I’m right here. Always. Now and forever.
Atsushi: I love you, MC.
MC: I love you, too…
Even Atsushi’s touch can’t seem to drown out Enma’s last words.
He tried to warn me but those warnings could easily be lies.
Atsushi: I know where your head’s gone. Let me help you clear your mind…
His mouth hungrily falls to my jaw, and he signs it with his touch.
MC: You caught me…
Sighing contentedly, I fall into his embrace.
#genius inc otome#otomania#otome#otome game#otome romance#shinigami soul agency#genius inc#sorry this took so long stuff happens
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Describe How Empathy Affects Animal Communicators' Work.
Empathy lies at the heart of effective communication, enabling individuals to understand and connect with others on a deeper level. In the realm of animal communication, empathy plays a crucial role in facilitating meaningful interactions between humans and animals. It transcends mere words, allowing animal communicators to establish trust, decipher emotions, and bridge the gap between different species.
Understanding Empathy in Animal Communication
Empathy, often confused with sympathy or compassion, involves the ability to perceive and understand the emotions and experiences of another being. In the context of animal communication, it goes beyond linguistic barriers, encompassing a profound sense of connection and resonance with the animal's inner world.
The Role of Empathy in Building Trust
Trust forms the foundation of any successful relationship, including the bond between an animal communicator and their furry or feathery clients. Empathetic communication fosters trust by signaling genuine concern, respect, and understanding, paving the way for open and honest exchanges.
Enhancing Understanding Through Empathy
Empathy serves as a compass in navigating the intricate landscape of animal emotions and behaviors. By attuning themselves to subtle cues and energy patterns, communicators can gain invaluable insights into an animal's thoughts, feelings, and needs, facilitating more effective communication and problem-solving.
Empathy as a Bridge for Effective Communication
Empathy acts as a bridge, transcending the barriers of species and language to facilitate meaningful dialogue. Through empathy, animal communicators can convey messages with clarity and compassion, fostering mutual respect and cooperation between humans and animals.
Overcoming Challenges with Empathy
Despite its transformative potential, empathetic communication with animals presents its own set of challenges, including skepticism, skepticism, and misinterpretation. However, by cultivating empathy, communicators can overcome these obstacles, forging deeper connections and achieving positive outcomes.
Cultivating Empathy in Animal Communicators
Empathy is not merely an innate trait but a skill that can be cultivated and refined over time. Animal communicators can enhance their empathetic abilities through mindfulness practices, self-reflection, and ongoing training, thereby enriching their communication with animals and humans alike.
Ethical Considerations in Empathetic Animal Communication
Empathetic animal communication raises ethical considerations regarding consent, confidentiality, and the welfare of animals. Communicators must uphold professional standards, respecting the autonomy and dignity of both their animal clients and their human guardians.
Empathy and Healing
Empathy has profound healing potential, offering comfort and solace to animals in distress. By acknowledging and validating their emotions, communicators can facilitate the healing process, restoring balance and harmony to the animal's body, mind, and spirit.
Empathy in Training and Behavior Modification
Empathy-based approaches to training and behavior modification prioritize understanding and cooperation over coercion and dominance. By considering the animal's perspective and emotional state, communicators can cultivate trust and cooperation, resulting in more sustainable and humane outcomes.
Case Studies and Success Stories
Real-life examples illustrate the transformative power of empathy in animal communication. From resolving behavioral issues to facilitating emotional healing, empathetic communicators have achieved remarkable results, forging lasting bonds of trust and mutual respect.
Empathy Beyond Words
Empathetic communication extends beyond verbal dialogue, encompassing non-verbal cues, body language, and energetic exchanges. By tuning into these subtle signals, communicators can deepen their understanding and connection with animals, fostering richer and more meaningful interactions.
The Future of Empathetic Animal Communication
As technology advances and our understanding of animal cognition deepens, the future of empathetic animal communication holds immense promise. Innovations in communication tools and methodologies are opening new avenues for cross-species dialogue, enriching the lives of animals and humans alike.
Empathy and Connection Across Species
Empathy transcends boundaries, bridging the gap between different species and fostering a sense of kinship and interconnectedness. By cultivating empathy, we can cultivate a more compassionate and harmonious world, where all beings are valued and respected.
Conclusion
In conclusion, empathy is the cornerstone of effective communication in the realm of animal communication. By embracing empathy, animal communicators can forge deep and meaningful connections with their animal clients, enriching their lives and promoting mutual understanding and respect.
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Nurturing the Essence of Healthcare: The Art of Exceptional Patient Care
In the dynamic landscape of modern healthcare, where cutting-edge technologies and groundbreaking treatments often steal the spotlight, the true essence of healthcare lies in the art of exceptional patient care. This art, deeply woven into the fabric of healthcare delivery, prioritizes the human element, ensuring that the patient's experience, well-being, and dignity are at the forefront of all medical endeavors. Exceptional patient care is an intricate dance of compassion, expertise, communication, and dedication, a holistic approach that not only treats illness but also nurtures the overall well-being of individuals entrusted to the care of health professionals.
The Foundations of Exceptional Patient Care
Compassion: The Core of Patient Interactions
Compassion is the emotional cornerstone of exceptional patient care, representing the deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering coupled with the desire to alleviate it. In healthcare, compassion translates into actions that go beyond the basic provision of medical treatments—it's about connecting with patients on a personal level, offering comfort during their most vulnerable moments, and providing support that transcends the physical aspects of care. This compassionate approach ensures that patients feel valued and respected, fostering a healing environment conducive to recovery.
Effective Communication: The Key to Understanding and Empathy
At the heart of exceptional patient care lies effective communication. It's a two-way street where information, feelings, and concerns are freely exchanged between healthcare providers and patients. This exchange is crucial for building trust, ensuring patient understanding of their health status and treatment options, and for providers to gain insight into the patient's perspective. Clear, empathetic communication can significantly improve patient satisfaction and engagement, making it a fundamental aspect of high-quality healthcare.
Commitment to Quality and Safety: The Pillars of Trust
The relentless pursuit of quality and safety in patient care is what builds the foundation of trust between healthcare providers and patients. This commitment involves adhering to the highest standards of medical practice, continuously seeking to improve care delivery, and implementing strategies to minimize errors and harm. A culture that prioritizes patient safety and quality care not only improves outcomes but also strengthens the trust and confidence patients have in their healthcare providers and the healthcare system as a whole.
Patient-Centeredness: Empowering Individuals in Their Care
Exceptional patient care is inherently patient-centered, treating patients as active participants in their healthcare journey. This approach respects and responds to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions. By empowering patients to take an active role in their care, healthcare providers can tailor treatments more effectively, enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes.
Seamless Access and Coordination: Ensuring Continuity of Care
Providing seamless access to healthcare services and ensuring coordination among various healthcare professionals are crucial components of exceptional patient care. Easy access to healthcare services reduces delays in receiving care, while effective coordination ensures that care is comprehensive, continuous, and consistent across different settings and stages of treatment. This holistic approach to patient care supports better health outcomes and enhances the patient's healthcare experience.
The Impact of Exceptional Patient Care
The ripple effects of exceptional patient care extend far beyond individual patient encounters. When healthcare providers consistently deliver care that is compassionate, communicative, safe, patient-centered, and accessible, it not only leads to better health outcomes but also fosters a more sustainable healthcare system. Patients become more engaged in their health, more compliant with treatments, and more trusting of their healthcare providers. Moreover, exceptional patient care can serve as a model for healthcare delivery worldwide, inspiring improvements that benefit both patients and healthcare professionals.
Envisioning a Future Focused on Exceptional Patient Care
As healthcare evolves, the commitment to exceptional patient care must remain unwavering, guiding the industry towards a future where the focus is on healing the whole person, not just treating diseases. This vision of healthcare demands a culture that values every patient interaction as an opportunity to demonstrate compassion, respect, and dedication to patient well-being. By nurturing the essence of healthcare through the art of exceptional patient care, the healthcare community can ensure that the journey towards health is as important as the destination, affirming the industry's fundamental mission to care, heal, and empower.
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What Makes a Compassionate World: Sophie de Grouchy’s Visionary 18th-Century Appeal to Parents and Teachers
The morning after the 2016 presidential election, I awoke to terrifying flashbacks of my childhood under a totalitarian dictatorship. Desperate for assurance that the future need not hold the total moral collapse of democracy, I reached out to my eldest friend for perspective. Months shy of 100, Helen had been born into a world war, survived the Holocaust, and fled from Poland to America without speaking a word of English before becoming a professor of English literature for half a century.
I asked her what to do, where the hope lies.
Her response was simple, profound.
“The most hideous crime against humanity,” she reminded me, began with a legal election. It is not, therefore, purely on the level of politics that we avert the unconscionable. It begins deeper, she said: in the moral foundation of the people, which is laid early in life; it begins with the impulses we nurture in our young.
Born in an era when women were barred from formal education and all institutions of political, intellectual, and creative life, Sophie de Grouchy (April 8, 1764–September 8, 1822) was still a girl when she learned English, Latin, Italian, and German by sitting in on her brothers’s studies, not being allowed to have a tutor of her own; soon, she was teaching the boys herself. By the time she was a teenager, her bedtime reading was Marcus Aurelius, whose teachings on kindness left a deep impression.
Determined to grow both intellectually and morally, Sophie made frequent visits to the local poor with her mother and her sister to offer compassion and comfort. In this living laboratory of sympathy, she came to see how entwined the wellbeing of others is with one’s own, how enmeshed we are in what Martin Luther King, Jr. would call “an inescapable network of mutuality” a quarter millennium later.
After discovering philosophy—Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau—she grew disenchanted with the unprovable promises of religion. Upon announcing her atheism, her mother burned all of Sophie’s books.
She was twenty-two when she met the philosopher and mathematician Nicolas de Condorcet, twice her age. He was as taken with Sophie’s intellect as he was with her moral courage—in one of their first encounters, he watched her throw herself between a rabid dog and a boy she was tutoring. Within weeks, they were married. After helping Condorcet set up a new lyceum where celebrated philosophers and scholars taught, she devoured the curriculum herself, studying mathematics, botany, history. She started taking painting lessons. She joined one of the first anti-slavery clubs.
And then she began writing.
While most of her writing is now lost, one masterwork survives—her translation of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. Published to earn money when her husband was killed in the Reign of Terror and she lost all her property, it embodies what the poet Wisława Szymborska would call “that rare miracle when a translation stops being a translation and becomes…. a second original.” Appended to it is her entirely original Letters on Sympathy (public library) — Sophie de Grouchy’s leap from the springboard of Smith’s theories into her own singular moral cosmogony.
Although it appeared as an afterword to her translation of Smith in 1798, Sophie had been working on Letters on Sympathy for seven years, beginning when she was only twenty-seven and the French Revolution was raging around her. Rising from its pages are ideas epochs ahead of their time: Not long after Descartes declared nonhuman animals mere automatons, and very long before Jane Goodall lit the dawn of understanding animal consciousness, she insisted that animals are “sensitive beings” capable of empathy; two centuries before the discovery of mirror neurons, she wrote of how our sympathy is activated “when we see a sensible being suffer.” At the heart of her theory is the recognition that we are endowed with “a secret impulse to understand the troubles of others as soon as we suspect their existence,” but that this impulse atrophies if we fail to nourish it from the start and exercise it regularly.
Anchoring her argument is an impassioned appeal to parents and educators—one just as urgent today, and perhaps even more so in our age of competitive parenting that scars children’s souls with the tyranny of achievement and trains them to measure themselves by the trappings of outward success rather than by the scope of their sympathy. She writes:
“It seems clear that the more we exercise our sensitivity, the stronger it becomes… When it is not exercised, sensitivity tends to weaken… How important it must be, therefore, to exercise children’s sensitivity to the point where it will continue to develop as much as it is capable of—so that it can no longer be dulled by those things in life that tend to lead sensitivity astray. These things lead us far from nature and ourselves by focusing our sensitivity on vain and selfish passions, leading us away from simple tastes, and from those natural leanings in which the happiness of each person resides, the kind of happiness that does not require the sacrifice of others and that benefits all. Fathers, mothers, teachers—you nearly have in your hands the destiny of the next generation! How guilty you are if you allow your children to abort these precious germs of sensitivity which require, for their development, nothing more than the sight of suffering, the example of compassion, the tears of gratefulness, and an enlightened hand leading and moving them! How guilty you are if you care more about your children’s success than about their virtue, if you are more impatient to see them gain popularity in their circle than to see their heart brim with indignation for an injustice, their faces turn pale at the sight of suffering, their hearts treat all men as brothers!”
She offers a timeless recipe for cultivating that vital sensitivity in children:
“Teach them to be easily remorseful, delicately proud, and honest; let them not see suffering without being tormented by the need to bring relief. No less is needed in the midst of these oppressive barriers, raised between man and man from need, strength, and vanity, but that they should fear at each step to hurt rights or to neglect to repair some ancient wrong! That the sweet habit of doing good should teach them that it is through the heart that they will find happiness, and not through titles, luxury, dignities, or riches!”
Complement with Kahlil Gibran’s poignant advice on parenting and the great cellist Pablo Casals on how to make this world worthy of its children, then—because books are the finest instrument we have invented for magnifying empathy—revisit Mary Shelley’s philosopher-father William Godwin, writing in Sophie de Grouchy’s day, on how to raise a reader.
Source: Maria Popova, themarginalian.org (18th January 2024)
#quote#women writers#love#life#compassion#meaning#existential musings#all eternal things#love in a time of...#intelligence quotients#depth perception#understanding beyond thought#essential thinking#perspective matters#wise words#so tonight that you might see#you learn#this is who we are#stands on its own#elisa english#elisaenglish
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Navigating Excellence: Unraveling the Educational Tapestry of Banyan Tree School (BTS) in Chandigarh
In the clamoring instructive scene of Chandigarh, where each school guarantees qualification, finding the ideal organization for your kid's future can be a difficult journey. Among the horde decisions, Banyan Tree School (BTS) arises as a guide of commitment, professing to be something other than a school yet an extensive safe house for sprouting minds. However, does BTS really epitomize the brightness it guarantees? We should leave on a significant investigation, revealing the features that make BTS sparkle and inspecting assuming that it truly mirrors the splendor it purports.
Academic Excellence – A Pillar of Strength
The groundwork of any school's standing lies in its scholastic ability. BTS highly esteems reliably positioning among the top CBSE schools in Chandigarh. Its understudies succeed in scholastics as well as grandstand splendor in extracurricular exercises and cutthroat tests. Imagine homerooms resounding with exuberant conversations, where inventive showing techniques guide understudies toward reasonable seeing instead of simple repetition remembrance. Picture research centers as centers of investigation, where understudies are urged to try and find, worked with by cutting edge offices and an educational plan that advances logical request. This is the scholarly scene BTS paints - a material where greatness isn't simply an objective yet a unique excursion of scholarly development.
Holistic Development – Nurturing Minds, Hearts, and Bodies
Instruction stretches out past course readings and grades, a way of thinking BTS sincerely embraces. The school embraces an all encompassing methodology, expecting to support the brain as well as the heart and body. The educational program encourages the capacity to understand anyone on a deeper level, ingraining values like sympathy, regard, and social obligation. Imagine the school grounds changing into energetic fields for innovativeness and articulation, where understudies investigate their creative abilities through music, dance, and theater. Imagine sports fields resounding with cheers and sound rivalry as understudies push their actual limits, learning the ethics of cooperation and sportsmanship. This is the embroidery of comprehensive improvement that BTS winds around, guaranteeing understudies bloom into balanced people ready for the world with scholastic ability as well as areas of strength for a compass and a solid regard for them and others.
Global Citizenship – Embracing Diversity
In an interconnected world, training should prepare understudies to explore different human encounters. BTS figures out this, encouraging a feeling of worldwide citizenship inside its walls. Envision an understudy body mirroring the rich embroidery of societies and foundations, where contrasts are commended, and grasping twists. Picture worldwide trade programs opening ways to new viewpoints and producing fellowships across borders. This is the worldwide town BTS develops, equipping its understudies with the information and compassion to see the value in variety, team up across societies, and become dependable residents of the world.
Infrastructure – A Canvas for Aspiration
A school's current circumstance assumes a critical part in molding its air. BTS perceives this, flaunting an exceptional grounds filling in as a material for learning and motivation. Picture roomy homerooms washed in regular light, where innovation flawlessly mixes with customary techniques to establish an intuitive and invigorating climate. Imagine cutting edge research centers humming with logical investigation, offering open doors for involved learning and trial and error. This is the stage BTS sets for its understudies, guaranteeing they have the instruments and assets expected to light their interest and fuel their desires.
Beyond the Facade – Unveiling True Value
A school's worth rises above scholastic legitimacy, offices, and honors. It lies in the elusive strings winding around a feeling of local area, backing, and worth. BTS endeavors to make such an embroidery. Envision a devoted, receptive personnel, consistently present to direct and persuade understudies, scholastically as well as on the way of self-improvement. Picture a grounds overflowing with extracurricular exercises, clubs, and occasions, giving open doors to understudies to find their interests and fabricate enduring kinships. This is the unexpected, yet invaluable treasure BTS offers, guaranteeing its understudies feel scholastically tested as well as sincerely upheld and esteemed individuals from a flourishing local area.
Is BTS the Shining Gem? – A Reflection for Consideration
Anyway, does BTS remain as the sparkling pearl of Chandigarh instruction? The response, much the same as any diamond, shines multi-layered. It relies upon the needs, values, and desires of every person and family. BTS without a doubt offers various benefits - scholastic greatness, comprehensive turn of events, a worldwide standpoint, and a strong climate. However, knowing guardians should look past the sparkle and cautiously consider assuming its way of thinking and approach line up with their vision for their youngster's schooling.
All in all, the genuine pearl lies not in a solitary school but rather in the ideal arrangement between a kid's novel characteristics and the school that resounds with their true capacity.
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Promoting Physical Activity and Exercise: A Path to Health and Happiness
Presentation:
BGS Tirupati school has consistently centered around scholastic greatness, we immovably accept that supporting hearts and psyches is similarly crucial in making balanced, sympathetic people. We will leave on an imaginative excursion to figure out the pith of SEL, its importance, and the way in which it shapes us into compassionate, strong, and sincerely clever creatures.
The Groundwork of SEL
We should Envision a reality where scholastics exclusively decide achievement, where compassion, mindfulness, and interactive abilities take a secondary lounge. This world, however scholastically capable, would miss the mark on capacity to understand people on a profound level important to flourish as people and a local area. SEL is the foundation of the ability to understand individuals on a deeper level, involving five center skills:
Mindfulness: The capacity to remember one's feelings and their effect.
Self-Administration: The ability to valuably direct feelings and ways of behaving.
Social Mindfulness: Sympathy and comprehension of others' viewpoints.
Relationship Abilities: Building and keeping up with solid connections.
Mindful Independent direction: Pursuing moral and useful decisions.
SEL in real life
Picture a homeroom where understudies tackle complex numerical conditions as well as figure out the feelings of their friends. Picture a schoolyard where compromise isn't simply an educator's obligation yet an expertise every kid has. This is SEL in real life.
BGS Tirupati school, the best school in Tirupati, we mesh SEL into the texture of day to day existence. From morning circles where understudies discuss their thoughts to bunch projects that cultivate joint effort, we sustain the ability to understand people on a deeper level. Our instructors comprehend that educating stretches out past reading material, forming understudies' personality and compassion.
Compassion - The Core of SEL
Compassion, frequently depicted as the capacity to "stroll from another person's point of view," is a focal part of SEL. Through narrating, workmanship, and genuine encounters, we urge understudies to see the world according to different points of view. It resembles setting out on an excursion of 1,000 lives while remaining in one spot.
Our "Sympathy Days" challenge understudies to encounter life from alternate points of view. One day they could recreate existence with an actual inability, and on another, they might attempt to comprehend the difficulties looked by an old individual. These encounters develop compassion, assisting understudies with connecting with others on a significant level.
Flexibility - Quickly returning
In the narrative of life, challenges are the unexpected developments that keep us locked in. Versatility is the ability that empowers us to confront affliction with mental fortitude. Through narrating, pretend, and intelligent activities, we instruct understudies that disappointment is a venturing stone to progress. We praise the cycle, in addition to the result.
Our "Flexibility Studios" engage understudies to return from difficulties. They discover that disappointment isn't an objective however a diversion headed straight toward accomplishment. In these studios, they share accounts of their own difficulties, drawing strength from their weakness.
Enabling the Heads of Tomorrow
SEL isn't a range of abilities bound to the homeroom; it's a fundamental ability. It outfits understudies with the devices to become humane pioneers, viable communicators, and change-creators in the public eye. About sustaining the heads of tomorrow driven with their psyches as well as with their souls.
At our school, authority isn't tied in with being the most intense voice in the room; it's tied in with being the most sympathetic one. Through initiative projects, understudies discover that genuine initiative is tied in with serving others, cultivating a feeling of having a place, and lifting each other up.
SEL Past the Study hall
SEL stretches out past the walls of our school. We urge guardians and families to go along with us in this excursion. All things considered, learning is an organization among school and home. SEL exercises that include guardians make an extension between what is realized in the homeroom and its application in day to day existence.
Our "SEL Family Days" are events for guardians and understudies to meet up, take part in significant discussions, and take an interest in exercises that improve the ability to understand people at their core at home.
End:
SEL isn't an expansion to our educational plan; it's the substance of our instructive way of thinking. top school in Tirupati It's the steady conviction that scholastic greatness is fragmented without the capacity to appreciate anyone on a profound level. It's the comprehension that, in supporting hearts and psyches, we make people who won't just succeed scholastically yet in addition add to a kinder, more empathetic world.
As we proceed with this innovative excursion of Social and Close to home Learning, we welcome you to investigate the profundities of your own hearts and psyches. We should esteem the delight of learning, the force of sympathy, and the flexibility that impels us forward. Together, we shape a future where insight isn't simply a proportion of what we know yet additionally of what our identity is.
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Leo male Virgo female
Leo Man And Virgo Woman: Nature Of Bonding
A very trustable relationship is formed, when a Leo man and a Virgo woman are together, making the Leo man and Virgo woman love compatibility a unique and a special one.
The Fire element in Leo man, makes him furious, aggressive, enthusiastic, brave and impulsive. On the other hand, the Earth element in the female Virgo, makes her a down to earth person, very reliable and also very sensible in her nature.
The Leo man is ruled by the enormous Sun itself, which represents one’s ultimate self, the will power and a vigourous persona.
The Virgo woman is ruled by the planet of Mercury, also known as the Messenger of the Gods, and it represents effective communication in the day to day life, to express one’s thoughts, opinions and ideas.
He is a very outspoken person, quite confident and zealous. He is also a very warm hearted, loving and a faithful individual, and often wants to be the center of attention in the room. He is aspirational and a determined person who is hardworking and has a munificent nature.
She is an intellectual person who is clever, self effacing, practical and proficient in her Virgo Virgo characteristics. She is also very logical and analytical in her way of thinking, making her conclusions after going through all the analysis required.
This blend of the sun signs makes the Leo man Virgo woman compatibility, an experience filled with warmth and endearment.
Leo Man And Virgo Woman: The Love Affair
There is a very engaging and a fascinating relationship shared between Leo and Virgo love match. When the Leo man meets the Virgo woman, he is delighted to see such a personality with a certain poise, intelligence and sensibility.
He also admires her for being so kind hearted, humane and a loving person, who has such a beautiful feminine side to her.
He feels this need to safeguard her from all the negative aspects of life and treat her with a lot of respect and love.
In this case, she will be humble, gentle and tender with her partner and not be too critical in her opinions. He appreciates her compassion, support and the caring essence which she often displays in affection.
There is a sense of enchantment in him, that she finds really appealing, his personality bright like a Sun, giving her the warmth and sympathy that she needs, and encouragement and solace when she is down.
This makes the Leo man and Virgo woman love compatibility, a perfect love affair, where one is there for the other, in the relationship.
Leo Man And Virgo Woman: Level Of Understanding
There is a great level of understanding between the Leo man and Virgo woman, as both of them are kind and devotional towards one another which in turn makes the Leo man and Virgo woman compatibility a prosperous affiliation.
Both of them, provide strength and support to each other, trying to accomodate themselves in the zodiac relationships to suffice their desires and needs.
The Virgo female just has to realise that she does not indulge herself a lot in being too critical and censorious towards him.
The Leo male is someone who is imbibed with a lot of ego and self-respect and if anybody crosses that barrier, it is possible for him to loose his mind and take the gigantic form of the Sun.
She has to make sure that there is little of everything that she puts forward, and does not go bombarding all at once as it is sometimes better to let it go, than hurt his self-esteem and face his egoistical attitude.
She may sometimes try to henpeck him about things, but he will also try to deal and manage this with humility and patience, rather than boiling with anger as per Leo compatibility.
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Once again extrapolating on my nature deity Merlin theory, with a particular focus on how Merlin interacts with the cycles of birth, life, and death…
Merlin understands all too well how all life comes from death and all death from life. Realistically, he knows that people must hunt or scavenge to survive. But, even so, he sees unnecessary cruelty against animals—e.g. Arthur hunting for sport—and, just as he does for people, sabotages from the sidelines.
(And I think that fandom doesn’t enjoy nuance very much and tries to pin Merlin as either a trigger-happy murderer or a full vegan who couldn’t hurt a leaf, neither of which is accurate, but that’s another post.)
By no means is he against hunting for food, having lived in Ealdor for the better part of two decades; not when he and his friends were short on food in 1x10/11 and 3x13, not when it’s needed. Merlin is not the type to put perfectly good food to waste—we catch him eating Arthur’s leftovers in 4x10, for example. Additionally, with no indication that Merlin is against domesticated animal consumption, it’s easy to infer that he regards hunting from a practical perspective.
Just as he understands that killing a person in self-defense or in defense of others is an awful necessity, he would also never harm a person purely for his own enjoyment—he is on the receiving end of this more often than not, as a servant who is frequently taken advantage of by nobles. And so he applies this rule to animals as well: he’ll hunt to stave off starvation, but never for the supposed euphoric rush of a kill. He doesn’t understand Arthur’s enjoyment in this, just as Arthur doesn’t understand Merlin’s repulsion to it.
It’s easy to assume that being connected to nature means that Merlin is just a fan of deer and bunnies, but the reality is that innocence exists amongst the predators as much as the prey. Merlin knows this and applies it to his own life. But this does not mean he condones the needless killing of helpless animals.
What fascinates fans is how Merlin extends his sympathy to animals, defends them to people who don’t seem to care, and how this ties into his apparent magical connection to the natural world. If Merlin is able to feel how “full of life […] every tree, every leaf, every insect” is, then how has this influenced his prior actions and following behavior? Why does Merlin mistake this for a universal experience, only realizing after his explanation that other people do not feel the same way and have never met someone who is so sensitive to nature?
Humans are a natural factor of our ecosystems. Hunting is necessary to maintain a certain balance that has existed for thousands of years and to prevent the overpopulation of prey animals. In this way, humans fulfill a similar role to any other predator in the wild, same as when a predator’s body is decomposed and becomes nutrients for the trees.
But Merlin can only observe this system from afar. His own body can never be a part of the full cycle because he cannot stay dead and allow his physical body to become new life. He merely oversees nature and applies his will to support/maintain fair hunting.
He has a natural sense of justice and compassion for all living things, be it a creature of magic like the unicorn or a regular prey animal like a deer. He sees these beings as ultimately defenseless against human inventions/weaponry, whereas—from Merlin’s perspective—Arthur is convinced of his full superiority to animals and feels entitled to abuse his power for his own entertainment. (Although, it’s easier to see the fault of human social constructs if you’re at the bottom rung of the ladder like Merlin is.)
To make a long story short, Merlin is incredibly in touch with nature on both a metaphysical and instinctual level. He’s not inconsistent in how much he values nature, he simply uses as much of his environment as he needs to—no more, no less—and wishes that other people would follow his lead there.
Merlin can sense the harmony and cacophony of nature in ways other people can’t comprehend, but is comparable to a person’s ability for gauging the mood of other humans. This connection strengthens Merlin’s resolve to treat nature fairly, an ideal which necessitates the nuance and exchange of survival, as opposed to divorcing himself from the morbid bits.
Ultimately, Merlin is not much different from the rest of nature (including humanity)—rather, he epitomizes this shared, forgotten quality so instinctively that it stands out to everyone else, like the sudden conscious thought of your heart beating. It’s always there, but you have only a fleeting awareness of it, unlike our hyper-sensitive Merlin. Deity Merlin is intrinsically representative of nature.
#merlin is a minor nature deity#immortal!merlin#merlin emrys#bbc merlin#mine#ooh it’s been weeks since I typed this wtf#well here’s my old 3am tags:#I think it’s tempting to flanderize Merlin and treat him as one extreme or another but his character is much more complex than that#why settle for narrow ideas when you can sift through a rich plethora of critically thought-out inferences#from your own original interpretation of canon ??? it can be good to divorce yourself from ideas popularly accepted by the fandom at large.#it’s always good to question things when they just don’t add up
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Alucard thoughts (spoilers for Castlevania S4)
So to preface, I have a sinking suspicion that Alucard was a very solitary little boy and that perhaps his parents kept him close and were very over-protective of him. To me, that would make sense if that were the case; a dhamphir/vampire hybrid would be a rare occurrence in this world and we do have unofficial confirmation of that when Carmilla brought up the fact that Dracula never turned Lisa and they had a son together.
I’m sure not even Dracula would know what they were getting into having Alucard and then Dracula had to teach his son how to hone in on his vampiric side to keep it stable. So, it’s not to say Alucard doesn’t have people skills, he clearly does. I’m only mentioning this because--
-- I’ve seen others make a comment how Taka and Sumi’s betrayal didn’t make much of an impact on Alucard’s development. And I strongly disagree -- it did.
Alucard does take after his father quite a bit.
- He’s analytical and meticulous, very thoughtful in what he does, like his father.
- I’ve noticed that Alucard’s candor when he talks he’s exceptionally soft-spoken like him as well. But he’s not above swearing or making smarry comments.
- He is also very dangerous like his father but that’s not a character trait. We’ve seen if he’s hurt enough, he’ll turn to what he knows scared people away (i.e. impaled corpses) but that also shows that, at one point, Dracula had to have discussed his human life with his son and what profound affect that had on him. No one’s going to know how that panned out, but this is in reference to “Lament of Innocence”.
- Obviously Alucard is very intelligent, like his father, he’s very educated, so he has a passion to learn like his father. He even makes the comment to Sypha and Trevor how much his father enjoyed learning and lamented how much of a waste it was to see his father turn the way he did instead of using his knowledge to help people.
But over all, I’d say Alucard strongly takes after his mother more than his father. He is another facet in Dracula’s long life to remind him of Lisa’s humanity, possibly to the point when his son tried to reason with him that he was so disgusted and hurt that he injured his son. Alucard has a strong sense of compassion and sympathy for others, so much like his mother, and he clearly tends to follow more in her footsteps than his father.
So, not only did he act out of loneliness when Taka and Sumi asked for his help, he was taking after his mother in doing so. The games go the same direction, Alucard does what he does because of his mother and how much of weight she has on him. But this is going back to how Alucard was brought up, that he was sheltered, in some sense, his parents very protective of him, so I think a lot of naiveté was involved when he crossed Taka and Sumi. They spoke to not only that depression and loneliness, but they also spoke to how his mother was a constant reminder of good in the world.
He did want company, but he also wanted to continue his mother’s good will and helping others. So, he didn’t understand the implications of their desperation and didn’t see their betrayal coming. In my opinion, not only did these two exploit that, but they also coerced him into sex. I though that not only Hector’s sexual intimacy with Lenore was uncomfortable, but I thought Alucard’s was especially so, like his heart wasn’t in it. It’s not to say that it was dubious consent, but they used it as means to break him down and killed them.
So, when they betrayed them, he is so devastated, he goes back to where his father died and curls up to the remainder of his father, because you know at one point, Dracula was always emphasizing caution, vigilance, and that not everyone can be trusted, the opposite of what his mother taught him. He went to the closest source to what he knew best as means of strength and how to handle with being betrayed. His mother likely never experienced as much betrayal and cruelty as much as his father did. And, well, he doesn’t have physical connections to his mother’s remains.
We see Alucard shift further into his depression as season 4 comes up. You see a few more bodies outside of the castle but I highly doubt that Alucard did this to random people without provocation. But more importantly, he just looks absolutely disheveled.
He’s unkempt, filthy, and looks worse for wear. We know he has guilt in doing what he’s done but also the affects of Taka and Sumi’s betrayal made him feel so awful that he let himself go to a complete, literal mess. Before then, Alucard was a clean, well-kempt man. Alucard stopped taking care of himself because what was the point if they were seeing him as someone to be used (not feared, even) for his knowledge and home. The bodies outside were used to ward people away, but even Dracula managed to stay clean and well-kempt, not like his son.
I think this touches the depths of Alucard’s shatter of self-confidence and how lowly he thought of himself after being used by Taki and Sumi. He would have shoved himself further into that pit, but the note and the man that died along the way was a nudge into the right direction. It spoke to his good nature and gave him purpose once more. Innocent people that were 20 miles away that desperately need his help.
Not like people approaching him in the one place he felt secure, a metaphorical invasion of his personal space. Again.
So it makes sense that he felt more secure going out to assist people and once how he saw families being tormented after losing his family, he couldn’t sulk in the castle. He wouldn’t sulk in the castle, because that’s not him. He’s not his father, he can’t do what he did, because ultimately, he’s more like his mother and his mother’s virtues are stronger in him. He is the literal antithesis of his father, he is his mother’s son.
I feel that Alucard always wanted an interaction with the outside world and he certainly had that with the refugees he helped. He played with the children, he happily gave them food, and he was doing what his mother did and you know that’s what he wanted to do in the end: Do what his mother did and used his father’s knowledge for good, like she did. I feel like in the end, Alucard’s quiet inner grief from season one where he shut down from the world (not only just to heal his wounds) after his mother’s awful death, he was coaxed to open up and find a sense of community and love that he wouldn’t have had and had to limited degree after his mother’s death.
He didn’t see himself worthy of it, not only on the account of his father’s blood, but what he did in reaction to being betrayed. I’m not going to say Alucard’s reaction was completely awful: what Taka and Sumi did was wrong and it hurt him more than he let on and more than what’s seen on a surface level. But not only that, Sypha and Trevor had such an impact on him as well, reminding him of his mother’s good deeds that was easy for him to feel comfortable in his skin again, or perhaps, the most he’s ever felt comfortable as his own person ever did.
From a man that was so deeply traumatized, hurt, alone, and exploited from the very first episode (you know Dracula would have used his son as a tool in his revenge if Taka and Sumi didn’t use him) to a man that’s finally found purpose and it’s the best way he can coumarate not only his father, but especially his mother.
And maybe that’s why he looks “weirdly happy”, the poor man has been limited so much in his life. So in retrospect, his development makes sense. He didn’t necessarily transform -- he found himself again and he found an even better part of himself he never knew he had. People like him for what he is: witty, compassionate, intelligent, and sympathetic.
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Hi there, as a lot of people have seen there is a cluster fuck of a post in the npd tag about.. idek how to summarize it except glorifying empathy and villainizing personality disorders. They use narcissist, psychopath, abuser, and lots of degrading words interchangeably so be prepared for that. I won’t @ the person, partially because I don’t want to deal with the headache of them replying and partially because I don’t want to be responsible if they get harassed. They’re in the tag though publicly saying this so you could stumble upon it yourself, be careful and don’t read if it’ll hurt you! Tagged as #long post
It was so long so I decided to pick out the most relevant parts and comment on them.
People who know they have NPD don’t seem to go around calling people “unaware narcissists” as we know it’s difficult to notice and diagnose and increases stigma to do so. That’s something self proclaimed empaths do a lot though. Also, are you in this statement admitting that empaths can come across as self centred and “narcissistic” if people don’t understand what’s happening in their brain?
Personally I don’t feel any hatred for hyperempathetic people, that’s just a neutral trait some people have.
You can’t really say something is the opposite of a whole personality disorder that has several different diagnostic criteria and presents differently in different individuals. Brains aren’t black and white and antisocial PD isn’t only lack of empathy. The word for not being antisocial is prosocial what I know?
People can have compassion without empathy and people can lack compassion while having empathy, and it’s okay to not be loving as long as you aren’t harming people.
You shouldn’t passive aggressively say sorry to us in the same sentence you’re insulting us as “number out husks” and then go on to talk about how weak and cowardly we are. A lot of us had our empathy weaponized against us from such an early age that we had to turn it off to survive. If you value empathy so much, why aren’t you empathizing with that? I don’t really feel anything about it, it’s just a fact, but it’s also a fact that we shouldn’t have had to suffer through so much pain and then be blamed for how our brains developed. Also, if someone was born without empathy or had a traumatic head injury that impacted it they obviously didn’t choose that either. People who can feel a lot of empathy are also often scared of love and people without empathy can hate violence and conflict and have people they value enough to sacrifice themselves.
First of all, people in power are corrupt and become corrupt and are not the same as inventors or philosophers or any other great contributor, secondly those are exceptional people who stand out in history and didn’t have any access to therapy or self help or medication or anything else that helps mentally ill people function and cope. You can’t even go back in time and confirm who feels what level of empathy. People without empathy can also value peace, human lives, safety, etc. I constantly help caring for friends and community regardless of how little I feel about them. I don’t have to feel empathy, sympathy or compassion to do what is right, I can simply choose it, I can hate someone and devalue them and still choose to do what’s best for them.
The concept of empathy isn’t attacked we’re literally just saying we can exist without it and still be worthy human beings and people with empathy can be flawed and selfish still. We literally just want nuance and acceptance so people will have access to help.
Okay who thinks we’re actually out to destroy empathy? Maybe fascists are but come on. In the npd tag? You go into the npd tag thinking we have some kind of agenda to Destroy Empathy? People in society value empathy so much that calling someone empathetic is considered a huge compliment and calling someone unempathetic is an insult.
Fun fact! That’s how a lot of us were made! People literally broke our child-brains by using our empathy as a weapon against us and it was so overwhelming and terrible we couldn’t handle it :^) but yeah call abuse victims weak and pathetic that’s great love that for you
Also, a lot of us have really strong emotions that are incredibly overwhelming, not just a “dried up stream” lol
You talk about empaths needing a shield. Our “shield” was Not Having It.
Still unsure if you mean people with NPD or abusers or abusers with NPD but while there probably exists some people who go out with the intention to cause harm, most narcissists don’t and even most abusers work differently than that, they have a set of beliefs that they think justifies their harm it’s not really “oh how fun to destroy people” in a lot of cases. Of course it is unjustifiable though. I’ve read that abusive people seek out more empathetic people because they’re easier to convince that they can deserve it and often have qualities an abuser values, like a willingness to give more chances and staying quiet about mistreatment because they’d feel guilty or being guilt tripped easily. It’s often more about control than sadism, but sometimes it is sadism. Unempathetic people can also be abused and deserve to have resources.
Intelligence is actually not very easy to define and measure and intellectually disabled people should absolutely be included in that conversation and should absolutely not be called mindless, the mind is way more than the typical definition of intelligence. Heart doesn’t have a set definition and is even more loose than intelligence but if someone doesn’t experience the same types of emotions as me I’d still think they should be able to speak their minds about it.
Oh my god no one is denying the existence of empathy?? It is a well known concept, people study it, people who say they don’t feel it are admitting it exists because that’s what makes them different.
There are so many things to say here.. first of all are you equating npd to abuser again?
Secondly, this is a really toxic mindset. You don’t have to suffer through incredible emotional/psychological pain to be strong. You don’t have to be strong. You don’t have to “bear the burden”. If you’re in a situation that is bad for you, please do what you can to leave! You aren’t better or worse for not being able to handle the pain, you shouldn’t have to be in pain.
Thirdly, what do you think a narcissistic injury or crash is? It’s exactly that. Our sense of self and self worth crumbling when our defence mechanism doesn’t work. It’s not funny. It’s awful to go through. We do not have life on easy mode, life is a fucking nightmare, people with npd often have suicide attempts. How can you say any of this while claiming to empathize with people?
People with facial disfigurements have told me that disfigured is the word they want to be called, not deformed. Also, you shouldn’t vilify disfigurement like that, it’s not a bad thing and it’s ableist to use it to insult and to equate it with being an abusive person or having a mental illness. Also calling people monkeys is dehumanizing too. Don’t think you can get away with that.
You are actually correct about empathetic not being the real word - empathic is actually standard English. Not because -pathetic means you’re weak but because -pathic means suffering/experiencing/feeling/being moved by and -pathetic means means being able to move someone else. You’re being super fucking weird about it though.
Your pop culture references weren’t that accurate or relevant and you shouldn’t rely on made up stories to support your point when you’re talking about real psychology. So I won’t include them. I saw some other people already told you they were wrong.
Hopefully no one agrees with any of the shit you wrote it was a pain to make this post but it was eating at me when I tried to leave it alone so here you have it
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