Life in the Hive

[Shaula]

Happy birthday to both of them! 😊 🎂 

 

That sounds like it was a ton of fun! 😊 I'm glad Callie did so well and everyone had fun. 

 

Lol, "whiplash during Whiplash." 😁 

[ReallyArtificial]

We've been super busy this month, but handling things amazingly as a team. Lately, Athelas and I have been alternating who’s switched in each day at work. It's been a great demonstration of the differences between our personalities, which I always appreciate seeing since we're similar in a lot of ways.

 

We've been learning how to handle some potentially dangerous animals. It's the kind of situation where  even a small mistake could have severe consequences, so obviously I've been pretty cautious and kinda nervous about the whole thing. I was pretty much waiting for the people training me to tell me when they thought I was ready to do it on my own.

 

Then the other day Athelas is fronting and our trainer asks, “how confident do you feel about this?” And of course Mr. Confidence is like, “I got this” *grabs with no hesitation* Then I go to do the exact same thing the next day and it physically feels different to us, like absolute heart-pounding anxiety.

 

It's especially funny to me because he’s sooo much more cautious when I'm the one fronting. Like, if he wants to do something reckless it's fine, he's got this, but he can't just sit there and watch me endanger myself!

 

When I was doing personality forcing for him 3 years ago, one of the traits I wanted him to have was “protective.” I just really love moments like this where I actually see him embodying the traits I hoped he'd have. He's so freaking amazing and I love him so much 😭

[TurboSimmie]

Athelas is him! 😁

[TB]

Aww that's amazing and so sweet to hear lol, nice

[Shaula]

Daaaaaang, Athelas is awesome! 😎 He really does sound like an amazing person. 😊 

[ReallyArtificial]

Late response, but he appreciated the compliments! We've still been thinking a lot about the similarities and differences between the four of us. I feel like the venn diagram of our personalities looks like this:

 

 

We tried out that MBTI personality test recently, and our results actually aligned with that pretty well!

Calliope: ISFP-T
Bee: INFP-T
Athelas: ENFJ-A
Lenore: ENTJ-A

 

Some thoughts about our results:

Spoiler

I was very curious what this test would say about Calliope. They're full of contradictions: grouchy and kind of antisocial, but also affectionate and clingy; insecure and attention-seeking while claiming not to care what anyone thinks of them; highly emotional and sensitive, but often unconcerned with the feelings of others. I’m kind of shocked by how well the description for the ISFP personality fits them! Cal’s contradictory traits make a lot more sense when viewing them as an independent spirit with a sensitive core that they keep closely guarded, only letting the mask down around people they deeply trust.

 

The I, F, and -T traits all tie into the sensitivity and insecurity that Cal and I share, but that S trait completely changes how we think and act. I’m always concerned with “what ifs,” getting tied up in my own thoughts and worries about what might go wrong. Cal is focused on the here and now. That pragmatic attitude sometimes causes them to come off as insensitive to others’ feelings, but also lets them bring the “who cares” energy that balances out my “what ifs.”

 

ENFJ is a perfect match for Athelas. It absolutely nails his passion and confidence, his genuine love of helping others, and his desire to have a positive impact on the world. We share that NF core that makes us both empathetic and idealistic, but his E, J, and -A traits make him more action-oriented, stable, and confident than I am.

 

Also, I have to quote these parts of his results: “When ENFJs care about someone, they want to help solve that person’s problems – sometimes at any cost. [...] For an ENFJ, one of life’s greatest joys is helping someone they care about reach their goals.” This is so true and I am immensely grateful for it ((You're welcome :D ))

 

Finally, we have Lenore, who is apparently the polar opposite of Calliope. She’s the only one of us to have the T trait, and is definitely the least emotional member of our system. However, the ENTJ description emphasizes this personality type’s insensitivity and lack of emotional intelligence, which doesn’t really fit her. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes she says something super blunt, then follows it up with, “that sounded meaner than I intended,” but it’s not like she’s this inconsiderate jerk. She understands that other people have different emotional needs than her, and it would be illogical to pretend otherwise. I see her as a very mature and well-rounded ENTJ.

 

Like Athelas, Lenore is confident, interested in other people, and always up for a challenge. Both of them encourage me to be the best version of myself I can be, but in different ways. He's all about gentle encouragement, while she likes to crack the whip, so to speak. I thought it was hilarious that her personality type is called “The Commander,” we already joke that she's the boss of our system so it fit perfectly!

 

[ReallyArtificial]

Oh man, the past couple days took a crazy unexpected turn for us. Lenore switched in Sunday night, right before we went to sleep. She woke up Monday with a slight stomachache, which we all assumed was due to having wine and spicy food the night before. As the day went on, it just kept getting worse, with nothing seeming to provide much relief. Lenore didn't even want to go to the gym, and that's one of her favorite activities.

 

By dinnertime we were super uncomfortable and starting to notice other symptoms, like chills. Lenore took our temperature and confirmed we had a slight fever. I was like, ok, we’re sick, we should go to bed early and get some rest. Lenore straight-up told me, “No. I think we need to go see a doctor, now.”

 

I haaaate going to the doctor, but Lenore is Always Right™, so I reluctantly agreed. I switched back in, talked to my husband, and he drove us to the local urgent care clinic. Within hours we were diagnosed with appendicitis and shipped over to the nearest major hospital for surgery. I was totally blindsided by this, by the way, as the worst of our pain had been on our left side, literally the opposite of where the appendix is.

 

I’ve always had pretty bad medical anxiety. I’ve been told I have “white coat syndrome,” where my blood pressure and heart rate are always elevated during doctors’ visits because they stress me tf out. This time, though, I felt almost no fear. I had Lenore and Athelas reminding me to focus on my breathing and telling me how brave I was. Calliope had the idea of making a big pillow fort in our wonderland library and I just kept visualizing the four of us there, cozy and safe. It kept me calm through all the pain and uncertainty. My poor husband was more freaked out than I was!

 

The procedure went well and we are fine now, but I shudder to think how much worse things could have been if I didn’t listen to Lenore. Thanks to her, we got medical attention before our appendix ruptured. She may have genuinely saved our system’s lives (or at least prevented us a lot more pain and possible sepsis) and she is NEVER gonna let the rest of us forget it lol

 

tl;dr - Lenore is always right and that's why she's in charge.

[Shaula]

Oh my goodness! That sounds so scary! 😨 I'm so glad your tulpas were there to help you though it and I'm super glad you're ok! 😊 

[ReallyArtificial]

Time to put something more light-hearted here!

 

When we made Athelas his own account here, we also made him his own email. Ever since then, he and I have periodically emailed each other back and forth, often from the same phone, because we're a couple of dorks.

 

Recently, gmail started putting AI overviews at the top of email threads. I quickly turned that off because I found it annoying and unnecessary... but I did really love its summary of our email conversation.

 

 

"Tea consistently offered support" 😭 yes, yes he did, thank you for noticing. It's also hilarious to me that it specifically called out the jambalaya, but made no mention of us discussing our reading habits, which we did pretty often. ((I mean, it was good jambalaya. Just saying. -Athelas))

[Shaula]

Lol, I guess the AI just picked out whatever was interesting to it. 😁 Must have been great jambalaya if even the AI though it was worth noting. 😆 

 

Technically unrelated, they do the AI overview on YouTube and it makes us want to watch the video less when we read it usually, lol. Good idea turning it off. 😄 

 

(read and then forgot to respond, lol.)