#adornment

~ Neck Ring.

Date: 500–300 B.C.

Culture: Celtic

When you go through Adornment and see Mr Stones’ past, it’s hard not to notice how much of its present behavior is rooted in one thing: shame

There's a lot of misconceptions about NPD but at a core, there's a fundamental facet of *shame*. That grandiosity and infalted self image comes not from an inherent belief that it is true, but from that being the minds neccesary turn to for a debilitating crushing of one self image.

We see the origins for Mr Stones, its trauma and its impacts in Adornment. We see it through a memory so terrible it turns into a monster, and we see what this experience *caused* in Mr Stones.

But better than what happens, which is obedience. Terror. Humiliation. Shame. You are better than this. You are unconquerable. You are inexorable. And yet… Here you are

How could they have done this? To you? The night-hunter? The screech in the dark? The merchant-prince? Does it all count for nothing? There are conventions. There are laws. The fury is all-consuming. But beneath it, there's more. A poisonous slurry. Bitterness, shame

It is that shame thats at the core of Stones' past. It is that shame that leads it to project itself the way it does

And when that shame is brought to the surface? When its memory is revealed? When you see its trauma through no fault of your own, and witness its weakness in a way it would never, ever want to be seen.

It crashes, and crashes bad. Its self-image is shattered with that reveal.

And thats why it lashes out so badly.

Its projection of grandosity is revealed for what it is. And everything falls down around it.

A single humiliation can destabilize it completely. Stones reacts to being seen in its vulnerable state with disproportionate rage and an almost panicked need to destroy the witness. Shame isn’t just unpleasant for Stones, it’s existential. It reacts with explosive violence when its dignity or boundaries are threatened.

Of course Stones isn't human, and we can't apply human mental health traits to it. But if we're gonna joke about the masters hoarding as autism then i think I can pull in other analysis too, right?