FINALLY

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 don’t think it’s zeno robinson but also is it???

who is it voicing kaji in the english dub??? i cannot freaking TELL

the way prople write nanami in smau’s has me going feral

WHY HE GOTTA BE WRITTEN SO HUSBAND MATERIAL LIKE

AND HE’S NOT R E A L

“So? You nervous?”

You huffed, doing your best to ignore the finger poking your cheek in favor of studying the clipboard you were holding.

Lev whined your name, sounding more like a petulant toddler than a 6’4 high schooler, “Hey— don’t ignore me! It’s mean!”

“Lev!” Yaku turned around in his seat as much as he could, glaring at the first year, “Drop it!”

The taller boy fell back into his seat, pouting dramatically, “I just wanted to help her if she was nervous.”

“Pestering her isn’t helping her, is it?”

You heard Kuroo and Kai snicker from where they were seated in front of you, and you put the notes down in your lap, placing an arm on Yaku’s shoulder to sit him down.

“Lev, I appreciate that you want to help me,” You leaned into the isle of the bus to look back at him, “But poking me isn’t going to help me.”

His playful pout turned serious, and he looked sheepish at your light scolding, “Sorry.”

He looked so much like a kicked puppy you felt almost bad, and just smiled lightly at him, “If I have any questions I think you can answer I’ll come to you first, okay?”

Lev brightened almost immediately, a proud glow on his face, “Well of course! As Nekoma’s future ace I can help you with anything!”

“Except your receives.”

“Yaku!”

You shook your head, turning back around in your seat.

“Hey,” You glanced up, seeing Kai peeking back at you between his and Kuroo’s seats, “Are you feeling nervous?”

Yaku and Lev were busy bickering, and your head dropped forward a bit, “A little,” You admitted, “Meeting other schools and all these strangers sounds terrifying.”

He smiled at you, and the calmness in his eyes did as it always did, calming your racing heart, “Don’t worry. We’re pretty close with all the teams coming, everyone’s friendly, if not a bit overly competitive.”

“With that in mind,” You both jumped as Kuroo interjected, sitting on his knees to turn to you, “You have a few ground rules, our dear, little manager.”

You raised an eyebrow at your captain, “Why?”

He grinned, that stupid, cocky one he knew got under your skin, “We can’t have you being kidnapped or scared off after our first training camp, now can we?”

“Kuroo—”

He waved Kai off, and he had caught the attention of most of the team at this rate, much to your embarrassment.

“Rule one; no being alone with Bokuto, especially if Akaashi isn’t nearby. God knows that spikey haired owl would try and steal our manager to join their manager duo.”

Yaku plopped down into his seat, crossing his arms as he glared up at the captain, “I doubt Bokuto would actually—”

“Rule two! No being alone with Karasuno’s libero and that bald headed spiker of theirs.”

“Okay, that’s a rule I can get behind.” Yaku muttered.

From a few rows back Yamamoto decided to pipe in, “Don’t worry cap— I’ll keep those two away from our precious manager! After I rub it in their faces, of course.”

Kenma, who had been playing his console game with his headphones on, glanced over at his seatmate annoyed, “Sit down.”

“Are those the only rules?” You crossed your arms, mimicking how Yaku was seated.

Before Kuroo could respond, he was interrupted, “Sit down! All of you!”

Everyone fell back into their seats quickly, Kuroo’s cheeks flushing as Nekomata chuckled as Naoi scolded the team, “You all have ridden a bus enough times to know better, c’mon.”

“Sorry, coach.”

“Sorry!”

You leaned over to Yaku, “What’s with the people I’m being warned against?”

He sighed, smiling at you, “Bokuto is Fukurodani’s captain. He’s just a bit overly energetic. He and Kuroo are really good friends, so you can’t avoid him entirely. He’s nice, don’t worry about that. And Karasuno…”

He trailed off, as if debating on the proper response, “Their libero, Nishinoya, and their spiker he mentioned… Tanaka, I believe. They’re a bit… what’s the word?”

“Girl crazy?” Lev pipped up, leaning his face forward between the seats, cheeks squished.

“They have two managers there, a first and a second year. They used to rub it in our faces, well, more Yamamoto’s face that they had two managers, and we had none. Until now.”

Lev glanced at you, attempting to grin, though it looked rather funny, “You don’t mind being paraded like a trophy, do you?”

“What?” You felt your face warm at Lev’s question, and Yaku huffed, pressing his palm against Lev’s face, pushing him back.

“Ow!”

“Why’d you have to say it like that?”

Lev rubbed his nose, “What? He’s gonna wanna show her off! We got the coolest manager!”

His childish praise made your heart flutter, and you picked up the clipboard once more, staring at the papers but not processing any of the words before you.

“If he does anything stupid just let me know,” Yaku sighed, eyes closing, “I’ll run drills so hard they’ll pass out from exhaustion.”

“And the demon upperclassman shows his face once more.”

Without opening his eyes or responding he sent a strong kick against the seat in front of him, Kuroo’s startled yelp ringing through the bus.

friends, tumblrinas, countrymen... today? i offer you WIND BREAKER propaganda, tomorrow? who knows (it'll probably be more WIND BREAKER propaganda)

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-

The devil works hard but fanfic authors work harder 🖤🖤 take a gold star ⭐, an optional forehead kiss 😘, and a mandatory glass of water💧 you all deserve the world

ᵏᶤʳʸᵘᵘ KIRYUU

RB to give mutuals a little kiss and some garlic bread

Because I love this face he made He looks like he's about to fuck krillin up

Gohan I love you