So in as most of us know, Ri's alter ego is Tragick the Clown. Quoth the Raven then spoke of her own inner self - the small mischevous blonde girl. That set the old gears in PychWardMike's brain in motion - what is your inner self? Who is the person you hide from the world, the little voice in the back of your head that helps dictate your life?

It's a branch off of my previous "Who are you topic" but what is your true self?

::mentally prepares for laughter::

My innter self has wings and pointy ears. She tells me that freedom is the most important thing in the world and that soaring free is always preferable to living in a gilded cage. Also, she says that Shakespeare was right; there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in anyone's philosophy.

I'm not too sure who my inner-self is. It's either a really tiny shy little person with two little bunches tied up with pink ribbons etc. or a really loud big boistrous person. I still think it's the tiny person though.

My inner self is rather odd I must say. She says that power and freedom and diversity and fun are the most important things in life. She tells me to ditch the system while I still can. To drop out of school, leave for another country, do what I really want to. Just because I'm good at living within the system doesn't mean I should. F*** morals, F*** society, get out!


You can probably see why I don't listen to her that much...

Same as the outer one.

Yeah, agreed. See all Tragick is is a name and makeup. I dress the same, I feel the same, I sing the same, my poems are the same. Through time, I've learned regarding my identity, Tragick is something I can hide behind and be me without fear. Judge Tragick; not Ri. Tragick will tell you off and not care while Ri will keep quiet and be hurt and offended. Tragick doesn't fear judgement of his spirituality (my spirituality) while Ri is afraid of being called a Jesus freak. Tragick shows his art freely while Ri is timid about sharing his creations (to an extent) Same guy; two different reactions. Why? Because I'm safe behind the makeup. Instead of having an emotional wall where I try to keep others out, I can be myself in the comfort of my makeup, a mask, if you will. My "real" self is more logical and less reactionary and is more able to channel his thoughts and feelings (thanks to the cats here, I'm more able to be like that without makeup). I just have an inability to do that without some kind of safely, be it an emotional wall or makeup and a mic.

If that's the case, I guess you could personify my "true" self with Tragick. I'm just less scared to be Ri as Tragick than as Ri, if that makes sense.

EDIT: I guess you could also equate Tragick with that voice of confidence that has said on more than one occasion, "Kiss her, fat ass! She's into you!"

My inner self is something...strange.I feel as if my inner self is someone who has lived before. In fact, I have a strong reincarnation belief and I believe that I am the reincarnate of a local politician who guided us through the Great Depression.

Hmm.. I think my "inner self" is different to my "outer self" because I act different around different people. Around my friends I'm more of a happy crazy person and to other people I'm uber shy.. if I kind of know someone I'm somewhere in between. My inner self is panicky and self concious.

The part of me I hide is a being of rage and chaos and he is never allowed out again. I named him Daryl

I always thought of myself as a schism of three sides. The rigid, perfectionist, short-tempered, elitist intellectual part; the painfully shy, bookish one; and the hippy side. Sometimes I can rant and fume over politics in front of an audience; others I don't talk or like to be touched; and sometimes (most often after caffeine) I'll spar with Mike in parking lots at 11 pm or go to Rocky Horror parties with friends. There's no sharp dividing line--sometimes one bleeds into the other--but there is a difference. Whether I can speak my mind, whether I'm too shy to joke around with people, uns so weiter. I don't particularly favor any side, either. But I suppose most people are like that. *shrug*

Hey Mike, what about you?

I don't so much as have an inner self more as a day me and an after work and weekend me. As you guys know I'm a teacher. This means that I can't be the way I want to be a lot of the time. I have to tone down my language, my exuberance and my friendliness. I have to appear more normal than I am. Even still I am known as the "goth" teacher and I tone myself down at school so much that I'm surprised I even exist! Don't get me wrong I love my job, I just have to be "shadow" me for most of the week. At the weekend though I am bouncy, silly, nutty, loony, emotional, paranoid, optimistic and everything else I can be to make up for lost time

My psych teacher once said that our personalities are like a multifacet gem, where we show only one face at a time. That's why you could say you're a whole different person at work, around the guys, out somewhere, around your folks, etc.

Heh. Leave it to AU to bring up my inner self. The reason I didn't put it in is because I didn't really know what to say.

I am a man of many personalities, each with common themes and variations thereof incorporated so that whatever mask I am wearing still bleeds through my normal self. I can usually break myself into the musician, the fighter, the writer, the learner and the lover. Each Mike in each stage is different, but with the personality traits that make me me.

The musician is intensely focussed and emotional, easily frustrated but happy when something works after much toil.

The fighter is the dominating and boisterous man that many of my friends know - the one who talks big, acts tough, fights when he needs to and hotly debates matters of importance.

The writer is very similar to the musician in that he is intensely emotional, easily frustrated, etc. but there's one key difference - the writer is usually chewing on a pen with eyes glazed over as he types into Microsoft Word.

The learner is usually fairly quiet with outburts only to counteract opinions or to ask questions. He tries to learn from and emulate the classics.

The lover is the intensely emotional, overly passionate, extremely volatile, hyper sexual man that many friends see when at the local coffee house

---

The common traits that each Mike shares are along these lines:
-a rather foul mouth
-a pension for joking at any time
-a distaste for angst
-an intense love of all thing sexual
-the need to chew on something
-love of music
-classicist view points
-love of coffee.

Anyone ever read the Phantom Tollbooth as a kid? That bit completely reminded me of the Dodecahedron.

I'm not entirely sure that I have an secret, different person stowed away somewhere, but I do dabble as an actress. I've been in a few plays and at times it is very difficult to seperate oneself from the character. Which is somewhat irritating--it makes one feel as though they don't sort of own their personality, or have such a weak one it is easily eclipsed by some other person one just pretends to be for an hour or so.

I definitely sympathize with the people who feel divided a lot. There's that shy person who flees from parties and the gregarious, outgoing thing that takes over every now and then. Which presents another problem, sort of a "who am I?" complex. I guess the only settling resolution would be to accept the idea that everyone is divided to some extent, and to deal. Really, it's somewhat arrogant to delegate oneself to just one set of traits and one possible personailty (there is the reason people who refer to themselves as "preps" or "emo kids" or "goths" are so roundly dismissed by the elitists!) Variation is interesting, and predictability is comfortably dull.

Regarding my inner self--I don't know that I know enough about myself to have a concrete idea of who she/he is. I imagine it'll be interesting if/when I find it.

My inner self is singing on a makeshift stage in a forest somewhere. when she isn't singing she's painfully shy. She's slim and quietly confident, but never loud and brash. She probably has pointy ears. She certainly has someone waitng for her in the wings when she comes offstage.

She's graceful and she's pretty, and, unlike me, she knows when to keep her big fat mouth shut, cos she's the one who sits and screams at me every time I sa something stupid.

My inner self is blue, fluffy and likes Actimel yoghurt. Pink ones.

I think that the only real difference between me and the Tragick manifestation is that as Tragick, I smoke Djarum blacks. Other than that, it's just me uncensored.