win or die or accept this lovely parting gift of a year's supply of turtle wax

[madri.livejournal.com]

Name: Michelle
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is (individual user if possible, not just a community name!): angerfish first mentioned it to me ages ago around when I was deciding to dip my toe into the series, and then more recently erethesunrises used it and her body to encourage me to read faster.
Age: six-and-twenty
Location: California, US of A
Occupation: dreamer, wisher, something great someday-er




All About You

1. Describe your ideal house/home. Please go into as much detail as possible, and be sure to include your ideal geographical location in the description!
Okay first things first I cannot stand the heat. (Incidentally, I also stay out of the kitchen.) Deserts in particular are very no as far as I'm concerned. I should probably note that I've lived in a ridiculously mild climate my whole life and therefore it's entirely possible I could not handle that thing you call "snow" either--I honestly have no idea--but I do know I go mad in the heat and I like snuggling under piles of blankets with cuddly animals anyway.

Also quiet. Quiet is good. I don't want to be miles and miles from my nearest neighbor or anything like that--it would probably creep me out to be so isolated--but not a little apartment in an urban area with lots of noise and chaos either. Somewhere in-between.

Ideally I want to live near the ocean. I've lived by it my whole life and I honestly can't imagine not being near it. Being landlocked seems... weird. I think it would depress me. I'm not exactly a beach bunny, I just... need to be near the ocean. It's hard to explain. I don't think I ever feel more calm than when I'm standing on the shore listening to the waves and feeling the sea breeze, and for me, "calm" is a pretty rare and valuable thing. For actual specific locations, I wouldn't mind staying near where I am except a bit closer to the shore (preferably in a place that has AC), in the San Francisco Bay area (where most of my extended family lives and my home away from home), or Catalina Island (my favorite place in the very small pocket of the world I have visited). If I were to consider going farther, maybe Seattle, Hawaii, or New Zealand might be my speed.

For the house itself, small is all right. I prefer cozy to vast. I don't want to be crowded--I hate clutter--but snug is perfect. I love Mission Revival Style architecture, simple with lots of clean lines and arches, or... I'm not sure what you'd call it, I usually just refer to it as "fairy tale-style," sort of cottage-y, brick or wood, rounded sides and a stone walk and so on. The architecture of the house itself isn't as important to me as the location, though, that's just my ideal; I could be happy in a lot of places.

Oh and it's important to note that in my imaginary perfect future I'm always some kind of William Wallace of shelter animals (don't think about that metaphor too much, it falls apart pretty quickly), especially dogs. I want lots of dogs. So some place where I can that thing I just said. Yes.

2. Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Please be as elaborate as you can. Wishing for more wishes is not permitted!
Could I wish for a second genie? No?

In that case... one, a million dollars. I'd like to live in a world where money's not an issue, but I wouldn't wish for that because I could be unleashing some kind of horrible Orwellian dystopia upon us all, so I'll just settle for a nice pile of cash for myself, enough so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Being broke is totally bogus and stressful and destructive and I'm sick of it.

Two, some kind of inner peace. Brains are stupid and should come with an off switch. Wow, that made it sound like I want to be lobotomized. No, I just want to be the person I really am and not the one subject to the whims of random chemical synapses. It still sounds weird, but I will find better words before I actually get a hold of this genie because if there's one thing I've learned from TV it's that genies are assholes.

Three... what the hell, some kind of superpower. Like earthbending or puppy whispering or Doug Ramsey's mutant power or something. I know this isn't very specific but I don't want to commit myself to any one thing in case I remember something totally awesome later and my decision here comes back to haunt me. (What I'm saying is, give me the first wish, that's the important one, and the rest I will work out later.)

3. In your life so far, what accomplishment are you the most proud of? Why? You can list more than one if you have trouble deciding. ;)
Hm, well, I'm not dead yet, so that's something. I was a National Merit Finalist, which puts me in the top 1% of people my age who took a certain test that particular year at... taking tests. Fat lot of good it did me, but, well, bragging rights are bragging rights!

4. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you? Please explain why for each choice.
Money (which I typed as monkey, which is probably Freudian in some way), family, and friendship are for sure the most important three for me. Money means security, and friends and family are pretty much the reasons why life is worth living, because they'll be there when you have nothing else.

For the least important I would probably say... pleasure? I'm a simple pleasures kind of person. Pleasure for its own sake is pretty whatevs to me. You find it where you find it.

5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.
Gaaah I hate this question. It always seems so hollow when I have to google for something to put. But I shall anyway because I am probably already trying people's patience. There were a couple of Anne Frank ones I thought of but it kind of makes me a little uncomfortable to go, "Gosh, I sure do relate to the little girl who was tortured and murdered for her religion and heritage," so instead, you get my historical boyfriend Abraham Lincoln:

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

I'm definitely not a "you need to forgive everyone for everything ever or else you're terrible" kind of person but I am a bleeding heart pacifist and I really prefer peaceful solutions where somehow everyone is magically happy. I mean I'm totally petty and it irks me when people don't own up to the fact they've done wrong but you know. I still prefer getting to that point without killing all the things.

6. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you? Go into as much detail as you can.
lol what money. The people who say money doesn't matter are the people who've never gone without. Especially in this country, where you can't even see a damn doctor without buckets of the stuff. I'm not not a materialistic person, but it's not really that, at the end of the day, that matters to me. Knowing I'm going to have a roof over my head next month? That's important. Extravagances are nice once in a while but really I just want enough to be secure and independent and then everything else can come after.

7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?
Standard nerd indoor fandom stuff mostly. I've been writing fiction (both fan and original) since the age of five--this is not an exaggeration (all though at five, I didn't know "fanfiction" was a thing). I've been doing fanmixes for ages too. I like to listen to and share music. Though I'm like a shade off tone deaf, so my tastes are... questionable? Sure we'll go with that.

I watch a lot of TV, mostly cartoons, the occasional non-animated sitcom or drama, and when nothing else is on, lots and lots of true crime shows. I read, obviously, but I'm an auditory person first and foremost and I can be slow at reading sometimes (too easily distracted, mostly). I like stories, whatever form they come in, ultimately.

Also I have pets and they are my children. My dog gets the most attention because she requires it more than my cat or hamster, and often the only time I get out of the house on a given day/week is to take her for a walk.

8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.
ahahaha okay so first I should probably explain that I am an agoraphobe with buckets of anxiety issues so I am essentially afraid of everything. (I'm not kidding, one time I jumped at my own shadow. That literally happened. Not one of my finer moments.) But you probably want things that are a little deeper than bridges or people in mascot costumes, so we'll start there...

Nihilism: without delving too deeply into the ooky depths of the Wells of Overshare, when life sucks you have to have something good to hold onto. You have to keep believing that there's something that makes everything worth it. It's not so much the sucking that sucks, it's the belief that the sucking is all there is. (Jeez, they ought to put that on a bumper sticker.) I don't believe in the supernatural or an afterlife or anything like that, so the only place I have to look for that is in the here and now. One of the things I fear most is losing any kind of hope or positivity. That's more painful than almost anything else, and harder to deal with too. As an extension, the vastness of space and time freak me out too.

Not being liked: let me explain this one better because I don't necessarily mean exactly what's on the label. Not being liked in general is not my favorite thing and I have a hard time not taking it personally, but I know that it's impossible to be liked by everyone, I'm not going to go out of my way to impress people, and at the end of the day, there are some people who just aren't worth it. What really makes me go all paranoid parrot, though, is when I start to suspect people who are supposedly close to me don't like me. I'm sure pretty much everyone has had their share of this happening to them; it's basically another way of saying "high school," for one. I'm a really "what you see is what you get" kind of person, and I have a hard time dealing with people who go for the passive-aggressive approach and/or like to play little games. Drives me up a wall and leaves me really off whatever it is I have that passes for game. So much unnecessary stress and frankly, a lot of immature garbage.

People in mascot costumes: ...dammit, they're just really creepy. There's something about how they almost always have a big goofy smile on their face and you have no idea who or what is underneath and I don't know it just freaks me the hell out. One of my most vivid childhood memories is of being at a Chuck E. Cheese when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I thought it was my sister and I turned around to ask her what she wanted, only to find the "person" behind me was ol' Chuck himself. I tried to say something but just ended up fleeing for my life. It's like clowns but worse.

9. Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical). Please answer as fully as you can, as this is an important question.
WORST~
Obnoxious: a pretty good all-encompassing word. Either people find it amusing or they just really can't stand me. I have no verbal filter and I have the tendency to say the first thing that comes to mind, regardless of relevance, tact, or appropriateness, especially if I think it's funny*. I've gotten pretty used to that "people side-eye each other right in front of me like I can't see" reaction whenever I open my mouth. I just kind of... don't know when to shut up or how to tone it down or what normal people do or say.

Egomaniac: I am kind of comically self-absorbed. Everything all the time is me me me. I essentially can't get through a sentence without using the word "I" or "me." I care about other people and the world and junk but ultimately it all comes back to me.

Stubborn: I really do think stubbornness is good in some measure, all though usually it's called something like "decisiveness" or "firmness." But I can just be downright pigheaded. I do try to keep an open mind, but once I make it up, welp... that's it. I can get really insulting and judgmental with people who don't agree with me. I recognize that this is not good and everyone is entitled to their opinion but I can't help it if that opinion is wrong.

BEST~
Honest: kind of a weird one since I usually tell people "don't take anything I say seriously." But there's a difference between a joke/irony and a lie. It's not that I never ever lie, but I'm really bad at it, and if it's more than something very minor, I almost always end up confessing pretty quickly. As indicated above you can generally count on me not to have a hidden agenda and I am bad at keeping things locked up even if I want to.

Witty: or at least, I've been told by the people who don't find me completely #1 of the previous list. I deal with pretty much everything by trying to make a joke out of it. Most of them fall flat but sometimes I can manage a decent zinger. On the rare occasion I pause before speaking, it's because the first thing that came to mind wasn't sufficiently amusing. All though when that happens, usually I just go, "Pretend I said something funny involving [X]" or "There's a joke in there about [X], I just can't find it," and hope for the best.

Giving: I'm pretty selfish and greedy, but really, if I have it to give, it's yours. My time, my effort, whatever, if you matter to me, it's yours. I'm sure part of it is its own kind of greed, but all the same, if I've got the energy and motivation to do it, I really do like helping other people, cheering them up, brightening their day, fighting my battles with a party cannon, etc.





A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.How many books from the series have you completed?
I just finished A Feast for Crows and plan to start A Dance with Dragons as soon as I'm done taking a break to hug my pets, eat something made of chocolate, and remind myself this is not actually Westeros and good things do happen to good people.

2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
My lists are probably going to be pretty ~mainstream~ but whatevs.
Sansa Stark: I've loved Sansa from early on and one of the best things about reading these books is getting to watch how she grows and adapts. She had no idea there was a game, and she never wanted to be a player in it; she just wanted to be queen, because the songs made it sound so wonderful. And then she got smacked in the face by reality hard, and... she's still alive, at least for the moment. She's learned what it means to play the game, even if she didn't realize that's what she's been doing. She's done it to survive, and so far, she's succeeding at that, which in itself is a monumental accomplishment.

Tyrion Lannister: I get the impression this might change, but I've loved him so much for so long that it just would feel wrong leaving him off the list. Surely my fervent devotion for the first three books will make up for any future waning? (Note that I maybe should have mentioned before but is probably not that uncommon at this point: I started with the TV series, and PDink is my sovereign, and I bend the knee for him, and in my mind, there is no Tyrion without him.) He's just so sassy and savvy, and he's selfish but he's not a sociopath, and he knows it's bad in Westeros to have feels but he can't help having them anyway. Also he slaps Joffrey a bunch. It comes back to bite him in the ass later of course but I still think it was worth it.

Brienne of Tarth: Some competition for this spot but really at this point Brienne wins. She's just so good and honest and honorable, probably the most dangerous things to be in Westeros, which frankly makes her way more badass than almost everyone. Right now I am foolishly optimistic about her fate, because GRRM is a troll who pulls this constantly and because denial is more or less my modus operandi. I mean, I'm not optimistic overall, because the man hates happiness, but for the time being anyway, LA LA LA NOTHING BAD HAPPENED.

3.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Joffrey Barathister: My dislike of him has been waning steadily since he got his comeuppance (this is one time where I want what is dead to be dead and stay dead), but like with Tyrion, it feels wrong to leave him off. He was a cruel, nasty, brutish monster with essentially no redeeming qualities.

The Freys: I realize this is both generalizing and kind of cheating, but, welp, that still tells you about my personality, right? I'm sure there are some good Freys but I am not as skilled at making lists as GRRM so for now they all get lumped under the same banner, which should be emblazoned with a petty, horrible bully for its sigil, with the motto, "We Are Good At Finding The Right People To Whine To And Pretty Much Nothing Else." (Bless whoever decided not to make that a voting option, I would be up all night fearing that's where I'd end up. Also if this were someone else's app this would be the part where I'd leave a comment going LOLFREY but I assume you are all less obnoxious than I am if only by default.)

Petyr Baelish: This is one area I might end up in the Unpopular Opinions corner on, but I really cannot stand this guy. He makes my skin crawl. He is such a creepy creeper, and he is basically a sociopath. At least when he was in King's Landing his bickering marriedness with Varys was amusing, but now he just makes me feel ill. I don't think he's nearly as clever as he thinks he is and I'm going to be so delighted when he gets served.

4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
Decisions and memory things are hard. I liked it when Theon tried it on with his sister, and also Jaime and Brienne's epic best/worst road trip ever. But one passage that really made an impression on me was around the halfway mark of A Feast for Crows when the septon gives his long speech about the broken men. I don't know why it stood out to me so much, it was just really beautifully-written and moving, and the last bit ("It was a war, though. That it was.") gives me goosebumps. It was a really tender and compassionate speech and didn't even use the word "cunt" once.

5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
GRRM wakes up in bed, a little disturbed by the dreams he keeps having.



*I think everything is funny.

Comments

[TULLY]

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Tully, with Tyrell following close behind.

[TARGARYEN]

[saturninepen.livejournal.com]

Cheeeeeeeeelle!

Definitely Tully, but I can see some Tyrell too. Identity crises ftw?

[TULLY]

[archangelsmack.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're difficult to sort. I'm stuck between Tully, Lannister and Tyrell.

Tyrell

Tully

[ayumie.livejournal.com]

Tully, I think. You#d fit right in with us!

[STARK]

[tactician.livejournal.com]

Def. a Tully, I'm tempted to Lannister, but Tully won out in the end.

edit: whoops, forgot to bold!

[GREYJOY]

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Hum... somehow I have the Tyrell vibe the most out of your application. I could have also gone with Targaryen but the all money thing striked me as more Tyrell.

[TYRELL]

[jadeddiva.livejournal.com]

Tyrell, though I can see the Tully votes.

[TARGARYEN]

[erethesunrises.livejournal.com]

IS IT IDENTITY CRISIS TIME? I THINK SO~

So I'm voting you firmly in the Tyrell camp, with Lannister as a close second. I am... honestly not seeing the Tully in you? Maybe I'm doing it wrong but you know what? No, I'm not, because I know you personally and pretty well and what I say goes because lobsters (it's Rachel who's wrong obvs). I maybe never considered Tyrell for you before but it's coming out pretty strongly in your app (well, it and Lannister really). I think for me it was the quote and your traits that sold me. Also, how you describe your dislike for Petyr. And the Freys who I might have put on my list had I not gotten the scenes we did with Ramsay Bolton in ADWD. dw bb, I will be here to hold your hand during those moments while you read~

Heeeeeey I put a quote by my historical boyfriend as well! Look, we're stereotypes of ourselves!

Also, I'm slightly offended you didn't put Lobster Queen as one of your favorite characters, I mean honestly. She better have at least been in that competition with Brienne.

Re: [TARGARYEN]

[saturninepen.livejournal.com]

Part of me wants to say I love you, part of me just wants to say "NO U."

[LANNISTER]

[hammil77.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to claim you for the Lannister camp because I saw a lot of lion in you (you're stubborn, a bit of an egomaniac, witty, you fear not being liked) and you kind of remind me of myself, only way funnier. (Seriously, this app was a treasure to read.)

But there is an overwhelming amount of Tully/Tyrell about you. I think Tyrell fits you best though. Mixing friends, family and money together as most important, your giving nature and especially your quote make me believe Highgarden would suit you best.

[UNSORTED]

[psygote.livejournal.com]

Though I think Tyrell is a solid choice,I keep vacillating pretty hard between Highgarden and Casterly Rock. Ultimately, especially knowing you, I'm going with Lannister. Need for security, blinding wit, fierce opinions, intelligence.

You'd probably be a bit of a black sheep Lannister, a distaff-Tyrion, but still a Lannister.

[MARTELL]

[astraeas-world.livejournal.com]

I see some Tyrell in the best/worst qualities, but overall I got a very Tully feel from this application.

[GREYJOY]

[union-jackie.livejournal.com]

Tyrell

[GREYJOY]

[iamthesea.livejournal.com]

TYRELL

[TARGARYEN]

[guad.livejournal.com]

Tully

[TYRELL]

[sephystabbity.livejournal.com]

I do see Tyrell, definitely, but I think a better fit for you would be Lannister!

[macabremeltdown.livejournal.com]

[MARTELL]

I can only see Tyrell here.

[TARGARYEN]

[breve.livejournal.com]

All the best of a Tyrionish Lannister. I totally agree with psygote's comment above. I sort of see the Tyrell (sort of?) and not the Tully at all and actually a fair bit of Targaryen, but that could be because you are at least half my brain twin and I'm so very Targaryen, but yeah. The financial security thing, wit, and social issues all point me back to Lannister.

Lannister

[ladynyks.livejournal.com]

Lannisters are more quiet than Tyrells as a family. Rly. Or so I'll claim about your house answers, and say that with pleasure as your last option you're still more Lannister than the other options mentioned. Even if I see where they're coming from. You seem more direct than a Tyrell.

[TULLY]

[just-a-dram.livejournal.com]

I definitely see some Tyrell, but I think you should come swim with the fishes. Tully

[LANNISTER]

[firebluespinel.livejournal.com]

Tully works for me!

And don't worry, some of us are as creeped out by Littlefinger as you are. (Not all, but definitely some. Including me.)

[TYRELL]

[cabepfir.livejournal.com]

Tully

[STARK]

[wolf.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing Tully the most, there Tyrell was close! :)

[TULLY]

[novindalf]

Turn trout and join the fishes!! Tully.

[TARGARYEN]

[ikel89.livejournal.com]

I'm going against the mainstream and voting you Lannister for all the reasons and with all the reservations breve mentioned. And the part about brain twin feels? Ican has it, too *nodsnods*

[LANNISTER]

[deeplyunhip.livejournal.com]

I really don't understand the Tully votes at all. Come join your fellow obnoxious egomaniacs in Lannister.