Part 2

MAOMAO | THE APOTHECARY DIARIES

“Eww don’t ship them ! They’re just friends, they hate each other and they barely have any interaction !”

Pussy. Back in my days, we shipped Elsa and Jack Frost to hell and back because they were both ice themed.

i’m re-reading the manga and have some comments :) slight spoilers ahead i guess?

i wanna know 1. does someone at the school paint these and 2. WHO???

i just love him

they’re so proud/fond of their little first year

i love this trio

BOYFRIENDS YOUR HONOR! SOULMATES EVEN!

kiryuu said “you WILL be in this heart felt moment”

i know all his tattoos may have some type of meaning but… who is Frank? Franky? is this equal to when americans try and get things in different languages tattooed but get it wrong?

i just love all the little tidbits of the class being friends and silly goofy

anzai

anzai please you’re choking him

heheeheehe

THE WAY YOU DRAW TSUBAKI AND UMEMIYA I—

put pasilyo on repeat, we’re yearning today

fuck it

I wrote one

you know what i need?

more fics that focus on sakura and tsubakino

like please give me sibling dynamics between them i’ll sob

do i gotta start these fics??? cause i will

I'm so glad someone else brought attention to this! Firstly, I think you're referencing the Still Face Experiment by Tronick. As far as psychological experiments have gone, I will say this one isn't as bad as others are, especially because there was a point afterwards to ensure the babies in the experiment were comforted by their parents to work on reversing the affects there. (as far as I remember, at least, I'm working on my master's in counseling so my brain's sometimes fried)

Anyways! So to me, this experiment did a lot to help show that neglect is, in fact, a form of abuse that ends with psychological and emotional issues in the person/child.

A big thing I think they do well (intentional or not) is showing how Maomao is in her relationships. She loves and cares for the people in her life, but she shows it in what we end up seeing as a "Maomao way". I think, however, she has an avoidant attachment style. Many adults who have this style tend to come from neglect, emotional or mental abuse. There's also two subtypes of this; dismissive and fearful. I don't see Maomao falling into the fearful category, so let's look at dismissive.

Signs in adults tend to be higher levels of self-sufficiency, and independence. They also tend to be far more mature faster because they have had to rely on themselves. Vulnerability isn't easy to come by, in any type of relationship. There's a lot of need for space and alone time.

Now I think a lot of that can be seen in Maomao, but not overly so. Why? Because people can have more than one type of attachment style, and because she also had Loumen, I believe she also has some level of secure attachment style in her.

That looks like: feeling comfortable trusting those one's close with (we see several strong friendships she has and maintains, even if she appears semi-closed off in them, with her internal monologue she trusts these people, cares for them, and enjoys being around them), strong emotional regulation (she slips a few times throughout the show (I'm guilty of s1ep4 when she slaps the one lady in waiting in the crystal pavilion) but overall she has a great level of control over her emotions), feeling comfortable with their independence as well as in their relationships.

Overall Maomao is a very well written character, and I could go in further detail psychologically picking her apart (I've done it with other characters lol) and the way she is as we see her is a mixture of her struggling with her biological parents, with her sisters from the verdigris house, and her adopted father, Loumen.

Not sure if any of my word vomit made sense, but if it did and you've never looked into the things I mentioned before, I say do so! It's also rather interesting, and considering I've dedicated my entire college career to psychology, I'm not biased at all!

Still Face Experiment Video

Interesting Reddit thread for SFE

Attachment Style Test

Man, sometimes i wish i hadn't taken Psychology in high-school-

TW//mentions of unethical psychological experiment involving babies-

So, we learn something new about MaoMao's childhood.

And that is, by the time she was a toddler, she was left alone till the cortizans where done with work. And that could take, a while...

Because of this our MaoMao learned from a young age crying wouldn't do her any good. Thus causing her to have trouble telling if people are interested in her, in almost any context.

And there is like, a psychological reason for this outside of 'character with a sad backstory'

So there was this 'Forbidden Experiment' performed on young children, babies to be exact, a long time ago, where the caretakers where only allowed to tend to their physical needs, and not the emotional.

It was a psychological study of sorts for emotional deprivation

I won't get into the heavy details, it's honestly a disturbing case all things considered.

But the reason why I bring it up is that those babies shut down. They stopped crying to have any of their needs met. And nearly half passed away simply from emotional neglect. Those who survived were left with lasting truama that still impacted them for as long as they lived.

And honestly?

I can't help but feel MaoMao is feeling those same effects the kids that survived did.

Obviously, her situation wasn't as bad,

But it left lasting scars on her psychologically.

And we see it in the way she handles affection from those who do care about her.

She responds to it, gives affection herself when prompted, or has a reason(like getting rare medicine ingredients), but when it comes to getting it herself, MaoMao is apathetic.

She is not ungrateful but keeps a respectful distance.

This is also probably what caused MaoMao to be as independent as she is now. Or at least contribute to it.

-

All in all, I love the show and its commentary. It doesn't truly sugarcoat things and doesn't blatantly spell stuff out for the viewer or reader. It's trusting us to be smart, make connections and figure the mysteries out ourselves, and determine how these bits of information influence the characters and their choices.

God, why did I take psychology-

so fun fact

not to trauma dump

but i was short term hospitalized for mental health stuff 🫠

um but i’m alive! and out! and miss connecting with moots and stuff

i miss writing :( and i wanna get back into it so bad

i might tentatively start but

USA people! Buy NOTHING Feb 28 2025. Not anything. 24 hours. No spending. Buy the day before or after but nothing. NOTHING. February 28 2025. Not gas. Not milk. Not something on a gaming app. Not a penny spent. (Only option in a crisis is local small mom and pop. Nothing. Else.) Promise me. Commit. 1 day. 1 day to scare the shit out of them that they don't get to follow the bullshit executive orders. They don't get to be cowards. If they do, it costs. It costs.

Then, if you can join me for Phase 2. March 7 2025 thtough March 14 2025? No Amazon. None. 1 week. No orders. Not a single item. Not one ebook. Nothing. 1 week. Just 1.

If you live outside the USA boycott US products on February 28 2025 and stand in solidarity with us and also join us for the week of no Amazon.

Are you with me?

Spread the word.

✩⁺₊✩☽⋆𝕾𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖊𝖙'𝖘 2024 12 𝕻𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖕𝖙𝖘 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝕮𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖒𝖆𝖘⋆☾✩⁺₊✩

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑂𝑛𝑒 (12/1/24): 𝑆𝑛𝑜𝑤𝑦 𝑁𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝐾𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑜 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑇𝑤𝑜 (12/3/24): 𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑒 (𝑆𝐷𝑉!𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑒 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑡. 𝐽𝑎𝑠)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 (12/5/24): 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑑 (𝑆𝐷𝑉!𝐻𝑎𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑦 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟 (12/7/24): 𝐻𝑜𝑡 𝐶𝑜𝑐𝑜𝑎 (𝑆𝑎𝑘𝑢𝑟𝑎 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝐹𝑖𝑣𝑒 (12/9/24): 𝐺𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 (𝐵𝑜𝑘𝑢𝑡𝑜 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑆𝑖𝑥 (12/11/24): 𝑊𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐹𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 (𝑈𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑦𝑎 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑡. 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 (12/13/24): 𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑜𝑒 (𝐾𝑒𝑛𝑚𝑎 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝐸𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (12/15/24): 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 (𝑁𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑖 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑁𝑖𝑛𝑒 (12/17/24): 𝐺𝑖𝑓𝑡 𝐸𝑥𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 (𝑆𝑢𝑜 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑇𝑒𝑛 (12/19/24): 𝑆𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑠 (𝑁𝑒𝑘𝑜𝑚𝑎 𝑥 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑟!𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 (12/21/24): 𝐼𝑐𝑒 𝑆𝑘𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 (𝐺𝑜𝑗𝑜 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

𝐷𝑎𝑦 𝑇𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒 (12/23/24): 𝑀𝑖𝑙𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑒𝑠 (𝑈𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑦𝑎 𝑥 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑟)

✩⁺₊✩☽⋆𝕭𝖔𝖓𝖚𝖘 𝕯𝖆𝖞 (12/25/24): 𝕻𝖗𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖘 (𝕸𝖚𝖑𝖙𝖎 𝖝 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗) ⋆☾✩⁺₊✩