Roni Story - Notes and Semi-Outline

Contents (click to jump to section)

Names
Characters
About Personality Types
Outline of Roni's Life
Important Things, Themes, Plot, Story
Songs and Other Things That Have Inspired This Story
Dropped Plot Points
Ahh, The Drama!
Meeting Michael
Moira's Background
Being Messianic

Names

Son: Nathanael (a instead of i) -or- Noah ...
Husband: Michael Akiva
Mother: Moira Ilan
Father: Jacob Avner Seibel

Main Character: Roni Seibel-Ilan
         (Pronounced ROH-nee, rhymes with Tony and Joni, not like the male name Ronnie, short for Ronald.)

Ilan Family                     Seibel Family
          Moira Ilan --------|-------- Jacob Avner Seibel
                    Roni Seibel-Ilan


Seibel-Ilan Family                     Akiva Family
          Roni Seibel-Ilan ------|---------- Michael Akiva
                              Nathaniel Akiva


Graham Eldridge - chauffeur for Seibel-Ilan family
Dr. Asa Scheinberg - neurologist and family friend (pronounced ah-SAH, not AY-suh)

Moira is related to the name Mara or Mary, meaning "bitterness."
Roni means "my joy" or "my song" in Hebrew.
Nathanael means "G'd has given" - though his name was not chosen because of the meaning.
Asa means "doctor"

Characters

Main Character: Roni (Seibel-Ilan) Akiva, only daughter of multi-billionaires Moira Ilan and Jacob Avner Seibel ...

. Michael Akiva, husband of Roni
. Nathanael Akiva, son of Roni and Michael Akiva

Moira Ilan: Roni's mother. Always wears skirts and blouses, always has hair done up. Very concerned about her image. Average height, a bit plump.
Strongly ISTJ
Is essentially a stay-at-home mom but not out of any real desire to be a mother 24/7 ... she's had somewhat severe epilepsy since she was a teenager and has chosen to try to avoid doing anything or going anywhere ... she fears the world and especially fears being embarrassed, as she's grown up in a very prominent family, and embarrassment was *bad* growing up ...
She is very overprotective of her daughter (Roni) and tries to make her have the same type of lifestyle as she does. She's lazy, she can be abusive at times, she's a spoiled brat, is condescending towards others ... But more important that all that is that she "fears the world" ...
Earlier in Roni's life, she could possibly be considered an alcoholic even though she doesn't drink that much ... it's because of her motivations behind it and the irresponsibility of it all ...
By the time Roni is older she either has not gotten any worse or has gotten better, probably has gotten better.
(She doesn't necessarily have the physical addiction to alcohol, but she turns to drinking when she's stressed out, etc, and it negatively affects how she treats/takes care of her daughter ... leading to one episode of physical abuse when she was 3 months old (suffocation) that she told no one about until many years later ... but that event led her to change, if only a little bit. See also (google) the potential negative effects of alcohol in epilepsy and while on anticonvulsants ..)
She is very unsympathetic to poor people, due to what she was taught as a child. She assumes all homeless people are criminals, drug addicts and alcoholics (ironic ...) and will not give any of her multiple billions to help them.
She wants her daughter to marry someone of similar economic status and is wary of anyone of "lesser" status who would be interested in her, thinking they're after her for her money. This includes those who are "only" millionaires.
~ Down-to-earth, dislikes "flights of fancy" or stuff like that (Air-head vs. lead-butt)
~ Not interested in abstract ideas, or the large range of possiblities.
~ Values conformity and "normal-ness."
~ Thrives on established order.
~ Makes solid plans, like with her mother these plans may be "impossible" to change.
~ Set in her ways, not easily swayed by passing emotion, arguments based on emotion don't convince her.
~ However, may make decisions based on her own feelings about someone/something.
~ Very private, doesn't open up to a lot of people, but is comfortable around others to some extent.
~ Easily embarrassed when around others.
I:70%, S:88%, T:60%, J:90%.


Jacob Avner Seibel: Roni's father
Possibly ESTP
The business guy, but not the one who originally made all the billions (that's been passed down from both his family and his wife's.) So he's not much of an entrepreneur, he's not real motivated, he's just rich because he always has been. As a father he's sort of distant emotionally, doesn't do much or spend much time with his daughter, that's more Moira's job in his mind. He's overprotective of Moira and tends to blame Roni for things she's not really responsible for, especially causing her mother to have a seizure. (Her seizures are triggered by emotional stress, but she's only stressed out because she overreacts to everything.)
He "spoils" his daughter by providing as many forms of entertainment as she requests: toys, books, video games, tvs, etc, etc. But he doesn't provide much in the way of quality time with him. Roni, however, doesn't become a spoiled brat, she doesn't ask for much.


It should be noted that despite each type's positive traits in parenting, neither Moira nor Jacob have much of a bond with Roni as a child. Just because a type tends towards certain behaviors does not mean each individual will actually act that way.


Michael Akiva: Roni's husband. From a family of millionaires.
Strong INTJ
A mostly unemotional yet tender man, whose love for Roni has always been about more than "falling in love" to him. He is strongly committed to her. She inspires him to take a stand and help other people. At the beginning of their relationship, he constantly has to reassure her that he loves her no matter what, due to the constant undermining of her self-confidence in relationships from her mother ...
Of the two of them (that is, Roni and Michael) he is the more organized, clean freak, he is the quieter one, he is more of the "hard-liner," but he is also somewhat more in tune to his own feelings and those of others, he is also the less decisive.
He tends to be seen as cold, distant, argumentative, arrogant, emotionless - only concerned with logic ...
Michael's preferred activity with his friends is to sit around and talk about ... stuff. This of course requires their willingness and ability to do this.
At both work and at play, he is seen as argumentative. "An INTJ's 'friendly discussion' may be seen by others as hostile, even obnoxious behavior."
~ All decisions made based on logic, competence, truth, fairness, with little to no regard for the feelings of those involved. Because to make a decision because you don't want to "hurt someone" will always end up hurting the more competent, more right, more whatever, person.
~ Very rarely shows emotions, generally feels a sense of "contentment," but more negative emotions experienced more strongly.
~ Love is about commitment and action to him, about making sure the other person knows that he loves them.
~ Super-organized, his apartment is probably spotless. Works best when undistracted by mess.
~ He definitely plans his days, etc, but is open to doing things spontaneously.
~ Focuses very much on possibilities, theories, "what if ...", and has been known to totally revamp an existing system and make it run much more efficiently.
~ He finds it difficult to approach others, and prefers direct, to-the-point communication with others. No unnecessary interaction is desired. He sees that in order to get certain information from certain people, some amount of "small talk" might be necessary.
~ He tends to be socially awkward, especially in romantic relationships, where his directness often causes discomfort. His idea of "small talk" is discussing scientific theories or the like. There is talk about personal things, and there is talk about impersonal things. But both must hold his interest for more than a few minutes to warrant discussing.
~ Prefers structured environments to unstructured ones.
Of the five love languages (Gary Chapman) his is very likely Quality Time.
I:80%, N:75%, T:87%, J:66%.


Roni Seibel-Ilan/Roni Akiva: Main character.
Short statured (5'2" full adult height) and thin. Often wears (knee-length) skirts with boots as a child - the skirt mandated by her mother to look "feminine," the boots by herself to not look so girly. As an adult still wears skirts sometimes, more often wears jeans, t-shirt, and work boots. Very simple, utilitarian look.
Also strong INTJ
Described as strong, determined, fearless, and sometimes crazy, by those who know her.
Coming from a dysfunctional family with an overprotective mother, she's turned out remarkably normal. But she'll be the first one to tell you she's anything but normal. She calls herself a "radical at heart." Despite her family and her upbringing, she's determined to help those who are less fortunate, and was even homeless herself (by choice) for six months when she was 21.
Is very much prone to "beating herself up" when she makes a mistake, to thinking she has made a stupid decision or failed at something. This is very typical of INTJ's. It's not precisely low self-esteem, and it's born out of that drive to improve on everything. INTJ's are perfectionists, primarily of themselves. They're harder on themselves than on anything else - perfection has got to come from within first before anything they *do* could possibly reach its perfect potential. If you were to come at her saying "Nobody's perfect," she would probably counter with something like, "Yeah, but you can try."
Also: INTJ's are sort of an odd bunch as far as optimism/pessimism goes. We have, in some ways, the ability to see the future, to take what has already happened and extrapolate on what will be its natural end. Sometimes this end is positive, sometimes it is negative. To other types who do not have this ability, just the mere idea of thinking things will turn out bad is labeled "pessimism." In that way, we are "realists" who are often called pessimists or cynics. But our drive to improve, to perfect, can easily be seen as optimism. Our deeply held belief that everything can be improved is typically seen as brightly optimistic. But our general lack of emotional affect dampens this in the view of others, leading to the pessimist label to prevail. So, is Roni an optimist or a pessimist? Neither, and both. She is not naive in believing the world will turn out rosy, but she is not at all fatalist (one who believes they are powerless to change their destiny). She is actively "out there" in the world, making improvements, because she believes that human beings have inherent value, not due to any feeling relating to the goodness or badness of the world or its outcome in general.
~ Always focused on improving on things, what's possible
~ All decisions analyzed and debated with herself, all decisions based on a logical weighing of options
~ Though she may think she's making an "emotional" decision, there's still this constant analysis
~ Rather than thriving on established order, creates order, modifies established order to be better
~ Extraordinarily private, no one knows much about her
~ Has "facades" for relating to people in different situations ... not to suck up to them or to deceive them, but to make them comfortable. Part of how she relates to others is as a "mirror."
~ However, she is not afraid to tell someone they're wrong, that they're destroying their life or someone else's. She can often see other's problems from an outsider's perspective.
~ Is often asked for advice.
~ Disregards rules, regulations, or traditions that either have no logical purpose, no base in reality, or no reason for being. Though may follow them if she feels it is necessary for some purpose.
~ Likes to make solid plans before taking action, and must do this for major decisions, but is open to changing plans or unexpected events in daily life.
I:65%, N:~65%, T:~75%, J:75%.


Nathanael Akiva: Son of Michael and Roni Akiva.
INTJ
A good amount of the story should take place when he is 10 years old - though that may not be possible. He's a really good kid with his head screwed on straight, and this comes out the best when he's around 10, so that's the best time to explore his character.
Always thinks in a very scientific, rational, even mathematical way, like his parents. Very calm and levelheaded, often seems much older than he is due to this.
Has learned about compassion from his parents from a very early age, has been exposed to the needs of others his whole life.
He wouldn't describe compassion as "feeling sorry for someone" or "pity," however. He'll be the first to tell you emotions do no good if there's no action behind them.
He's very practical, but a perfectionist. Especially in school, he tries to improve on existing systems to make them work better. Very much a problem-solver.
Very intelligent, his teachers love him because of the effort he puts into learning about a subject that interests him. He has problems doing homework, though, because he sees it as useless busy-work, especially in math.
Favorite classes are science and art. Dislikes math because he readily grasps the underlying principles of what they are learning and doesn't see the need for rote memorization. He's well above his grade level in both math and english. Absolutely hates learning about grammar and thinks gym class is a waste of his time. Dislikes the overly competitive nature of the other boys in his gym class because he sees it as another class where you're graded on participation and attendance, not winning or losing. He doesn't see it as fun.

About Personality Types

INTJ: third rarest type, at 2.1% total population, 1% female.
         The Free-Thinkers; Scientists; Masterminds
                             Example

(Dr. Horrible is basically the ultimate INTJ. You should totally watch it.

ISTJ: third most common type at 11.6% total population.
         The Duty Fulfillers; Inspectors

Outline of Roni's Life

Brief history:

Diagnosed with epilepsy at 3 months old. Strong family history. Official cause was brain damage from a high fever. May have either been caused or worsened by her mother smothering her in a drunken attempt to make her stop crying almost a week later. Epilepsy considered severe, as a child she has up to 2 seizures/week while on medication (number subject to revision.) This gets somewhat worse as she gets older.
(For those who are interested, focal point in the right? parietal lobe, secondarily generalized tonic-clonic seizures.)

Sent to very rich private school (of course) that accepts if not outright encourages the same attitude her family has towards "lower class" people.

At eight years old she hears about a young single mother and her eight-year-old daughter who are homeless, and she decides she is going to go help them. Simple as that, it's determination where she just says "I'm going to go help them" ... so she asks a few questions and finds herself a way to essentially run away one day after school. She just takes them out to eat or something, before she is found by police (who had been called when she went missing) and returned home.

She says this event was a turning point in her life, it allowed her to see (up close & personal) the struggles of another person, she felt empowered to help them. She later admits that it was probably not a good idea to run away like she did, to a high-crime area of the city ...

In high school, she helps a girl who is pregnant, ran away from home due to her mother's abusive relationship and is now living on the streets trying to stay in school, etc. Roni is the only one who is willing to help her.

At this time (high school) she is in this group thing of kids who have epilepsy, because her mother "forces" her to be in it. One of the things they're working on at the time she is helping her friend, is learning how to be independent, etc. She hasn't shown much interest in these activities until she starts helping her friend - the leader sees this new effort as promising, but when she one day has to suddenly leave to take her friend to the hospital, the leader sees finally just how capable she is of not only caring for herself, but supporting someone else.

After graduation, she goes to school, ends up as an ER nurse at the hospital her neurologist is at. She works there for 1 year, meets one of the hospital administrators who eventually becomes her partner in establishing the women's home thing she establishes later on ...
She also meets her future husband, Michael Akiva, during this year (but not at work). See Meeting Michael.

After seeing some of the things she sees during that year, as well as the increasing freedom from her parents, she decides to quit her job and become homeless for a while, in order to *experience* what the people she's trying to help go through on a daily basis. She readily admits this is a totally crazy, radical thing to do, but as she says, she's anything but normal, she's a radical at heart ...

She meets and ends up friends with another girl who is only a few years older than her (so like mid-20's) and she learns a lot from her. When her friend is hurt (hit by car, perhaps?) she is taken to the same hospital Roni used to work at ... Roni uses this as a way to return back to her normal life and help her friend recover.

Later she says the most important thing she learned during that time was about true gratitude. Being grateful for what you do have no matter how little it may seem to be.

Now with a renewed sense of purpose/determination, she begins building a home for women and children who are either homeless or at risk for being homeless - most of them are pregnant or have very young infants and they can't work full-time or can't afford daycare, so their income is less than the amount they have to pay out each month.

During construction, Roni and Michael also get married.

Not long after they've gotten married, Roni finds out she is pregnant. The hormonal changes really throw her for a loop, in fact, she goes to the ER because she's worried about how many seizures she's been having, they tell her "good news!" With some adjustments to her medication, though, she makes it through just fine. Moira tries to reach out and reconnect with Roni, but is met with hostility. Roni feels her mother is just trying to influence her to be a "good" mother like she was.

But about two months before her due date, she and Michael are in a car accident and Michael is critically injured, hovering between life and death. Moira sits with Roni while she is recovering in the hospital, and Roni opens up to her, talking about her fears of life without Michael, her fears for her new baby, and so on. Moira actually comforts her.

Michael gets better and better and is released from the hospital in time for Nathanael's birth.

Moira, meanwhile, is feeling guilty about trying to suffocate Roni when she was a baby. Roni has never been told what happened, and has always assumed her epilepsy was due to a simple illness, when it could have been entirely caused by her mother. She goes to Dr. Scheinberg and confides in him, asks him to tell Roni the truth for her.

Roni is hurt by this news, but also a bit relieved that it wasn't so simple, this alleviates some of her fears for Nathanael.

But then, when Nathanael is approx. 3 months old (but not exactly) something or other happens to him (a fall, perhaps? something different from Roni) and he also develops epilepsy.

Roni is upset, but Michael is the one to convince her that things will turn out okay.
(See his section above for more info about Nathanael.)

Important Things, Themes, Plot, Story

**Roni's 'philanthropy' and her passion to help people despite social norms**
Roni/the family's epilepsy
Roni's relationship with her mother, at times shown through and in contrast to her relationship with her son

Songs and Other Things That Have Inspired This Story

Roni, Roni, Bat Tzion (Rejoice, Rejoice, Daughter of Zion)   by Paul Wilbur - for Roni's name
Give Me Your Eyes   by Brandon Heath - a song that has inspired me as well as inspiring this story
Blessed Be Your Name   by Matt Redman - one line says "You give and take away, my heart will choose to say, L'rd blessed be Your Name" ... this sort of summarizes Roni's attitude
The Ultimate Gift   - a movie with a semi-similar theme that I discovered after this story idea
Pay It Forward   - Certain parts of this movie inspired this story

Dropped Plot Points

As with all my stories (and all stories in general, I assume), I have some ideas that I've dropped because they didn't fit in, or were just pointless pain and suffering.

Death of Michael
In the original storyline, the story focused more on a specific point in Roni's life and her friendship with one of the girls living at her home. In this original version, Roni has just learned that she is pregnant again when her husband is killed in a car crash. Nathanael survives without a scratch, and Roni is fine but has her head smashed into the side window ... but Michael dies. Not long after, she learns that she is having twins. Though she never has to struggle monetarily, she decides to live at the home she built, and she ends up being close friends with one of the girls there. Nathanael is between 2 and 7 years old - I never decided.
         I decided her whole life was a more interesting story to tell than this little section of it ...
         Michael is too great a guy to kill. :)

Death of The Twins
This idea was quickly dismissed at useless pain and suffering, as it served no purpose to the story.
As much as a year and a half after the accident, I thought about having some tragedy occur and one or both of the twins dying. I thought of a fire, where there can be serious injuries and their fate hangs in the balance for a long time, or of some sort of abuse by a caregiver, where there is this immense sense of injustice and anger.
         This was partly because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't picture Roni taking care of three children. And Nathanael was too much an only child to have two siblings.

Other Twin Tragedies
I briefly considered other things that could happen to the twins, short of death, but none of these were any better. This included permanent brain damage. I think I like neurology too much.
         I finally decided the twins were an unnecessary addition to the family in the first place. Although it was ... entertaining ... to have this petite 5'2" woman carrying twins to full term, the twins themselves didn't add to the story short of tragedies befalling them, which was just useless suffering.

Ahh, The Drama!

In a review, KC said the story idea was a bit lacking, needed a bit more drama. He said "I think that a near death of Michael would work well."

So I took this wonderful spark of an idea and ran with it. Below is the reply I sent.

I think I agree with you on the drama part. So far, there's not much happening in the story ...

Actually, there's a lot happening, but no over-arching plot/themes/story.

As it is, the story is just going through her life, like a biography rather than a fictional story.

In thinking about this, I identified a few things that I could draw on:

-The strained relationship with her mother. Although to make this work, that means I would have to resolve it in the end, and I don't think I can do that. I don't like her mother ...
         (However, if I could do it, this would be a good realistic and emotional idea.)
-Her relationship with Michael. This is a good one but hard to do ... I'm already doing the "biography" thing, and he's only in the last half anyway. And I don't want to make it a romance story. (Yuk. ;) )
-Helping people. This seems to be the most promising. Starts when she is 8 with something simple, builds through her teens with helping her pregnant friend, reaches her "learning experience" with being homeless, then she establishes her home thing in the end. However, this makes it end once she's established the place, which I kind of don't like. :(

As for specific drama, I really like the idea of a near death for Michael. Then I can still use my car accident idea from dropped plot points sans the twins.

That would work best in the "mother" idea. I think it's growing on me. :D

So, I started 'jammin' on the idea of this relationship with her mother. I hate her mother! I didn't want her to have to deal with her mother once she left home, other than a few times here and there. I saw her mother as an ... unnecessary interference ... to her. Then I realized, that's probably exactly how she feels, too. And if she feels that way, there's a MAJOR source of interesting content for the story, if I do it correctly.

So I was thinking, what's her mother like. What is her motivation for being the way she is? Why is she so controlling of Roni's life? Does she blame herself for causing Roni's epilepsy? Should she?

As her daughter gets older, Moira tries to reach out to her, to make her not hate her so much. She really wants her daughter to love her, who wouldn't! But Roni sees this as Moira trying to get a foothold back in her life, so she can dictate what she can and can't do again. Roni is now successful, not living off her parents' money anymore (Michael's money and his family's money is funding them now), and feels free from them. She's in a successful romantic relationship (she is married), which her mother feared would be impossible.

Roni gets pregnant. Moira is excited to be a grandmother. She tries to use Roni's pregnancy as a time to get closer to her. But Roni doesn't want that. She doesn't want to be a mother like Moira was. She doesn't want her child to have a grandmother like Moira. But Moira persists. Roni sits through these mandatory "meetings" with her mother, and they talk about trivial things. Roni still has not been told about when Moira tried to suffocate her.

Then, nearing her due date, tragedy strikes. She and Michael are in a car accident, and Michael is badly injured. Death is possible. Moira stays with Roni while she is in the hospital. She protects her daughter from the media and their incessant questions. Roni starts to talk to her mother, about her fears, what would happen if she lost Michael. She talks about being afraid of being a (single) mother, of being afraid to make mistakes, all the things Moira once feared.

Michael gradually gets better, and is released from the hospital in time for Roni to give birth. Meanwhile, Moira is feeling more and more guilty about what she did to Roni when she was a baby. When she was in the hospital, Roni expressed her own fears that Nathanael would end up having epilepsy even if she did nothing wrong. Moira still blames herself ... and Roni's always thought it was just blaming herself for passing down 'bad genes' or whatever.

So Moira talks to Dr. Neurologist, who's basically more a good family friend at this time than anything else, though he is certainly still both Moira and Roni's neurologist. She tells him that she's afraid to talk to Roni about this, afraid it will make her hate her even more. But she feels like she has to tell her, to unburden herself ... so she begs Dr. Neurologist to talk to Roni, to tell her for her. He agrees, eventually.

So at her next appointment, Roni happens to bring up her fears about Nathanael, which leads right into the discussion. Dr. tells her what happened, tells her that Moira was afraid of her reaction. Roni simply asks if that's why her mother blames herself so much, then asks if it really was her mother's fault. He says the answer for both is "probably" ...

She's hurt, and upset, but also slightly relieved that it took something more than a simple high fever to cause her permanent brain damage ...

Meeting Michael

-Meet @ synagogue?
         They do services every Fri nite at the home thing. She's member of syn. that does main services on Sat morning.
-Meet in context of her work?
-Meet in academic context?

All NT's love a good debate. So what better way to introduce Roni and Michael than to have them get into a good, deep philosophical debate? So my idea was that Michael is a newcomer to town, being around the same age as Roni he's just at the age to be moving to a new area, away from his parents. (He has left on good terms, however, and they still share their copious amounts of money with him.) So on his first week at this place he stays afterwards for Torah study, which there would ideally for this idea be taking place in small groups of approximately 5-7 people. Near the end, he asks a question that is getting at very deep matters. A few of the others give simple, pat answers that they've learned, not understanding the depth of the question. Roni thinks for a few moments, and comes up with not an answer, but a question to counter his question. And thus the debate begins. The usually quiet, self-contained Roni and Michael get into an animated discussion that leaves everyone else behind. And they "fall in love." Essentially, they find each other intellectually challenging, and want to get to know each other's minds better. The romantic feelings don't come until much later.

Moira's Background

Moira Ilan, from the prominent billionaire Ilan family ... the youngest girl of four children: an older brother and sister, and a younger brother.

Moira's father is a businessman who has grown his family's millions into billions, has made their already very wealthy family even more so. He enjoys hanging out with his business "buddies" and having a couple drinks. He's not often drunk, but this ties into Moira's acceptance of alcohol later in her life. Moira's mother is a "stay-at-home" mom who is such a busybody that she doesn't stay at home much. She's involved in so many activities and committed to so many things that even with a rigidly kept schedule she can't always keep track of everything. She pushes her kids into many activities as well, out of her belief that it will make them "well-rounded" or something. She is emotionally unstable, can lash out at her kids for insignificant errors or annoyances, or can be understanding at other times.
Having grown up in a very traditional home herself, she has very strict ideas of what a "proper" girl and a "proper" boy should wear, do, feel, look like, talk like, eat, etc, etc. (This kind of mindless strict adherence to tradition makes me cringe - and by extension, Roni, because we are of the same personality type.)

Moira's mother has temporal lobe epilepsy   (possibly undiagnosed?). See also this   description of Geschwind's syndrome and this link,   about Vincent Van Gogh.
This is the reason for her emotional instability. She also exhibits some of the other traits of Geschwind's syndrome:

From second link: "Geschwind had observed a syndrome he called interictal (i.e., between seizures) personality disorder, associated with temporal lobe epilepsy, that includes (1) hypergraphia, (2) hyper-religiosity, (3) unstable sexual behavior, (4) intermittent aggressiveness, and (5) "stickiness" (i.e., clinging [clingy] behavior)."
Numbering and emphasis added.

Click for definitions

Hypergraphia: drive to write or create art/music/etc excessively
Hyper-religiosity: greater-than-average devotion to spirituality or religion - likely caused by great emotional significance in everyday events, creating a "religious" or "spiritual" feeling
Intermittent aggressiveness: certain sources have actually said either extreme calm/detachment or emotionalism (the tendency to display emotion freely or to rely on or place too much value on emotion) can be included in this syndrome. Pts. may have sudden outbursts of uncharacteristically aggressive behavior.
"Stickiness": also known as "clinginess," a usually unhealthy dependence and neediness on other people. The idea behind both terms is that you're stuck on this person and you won't let go!!!

Moira comes from a dysfunctional family.   Taken from the list at this link are listed below. Not all four children are treated the same way.

Emotional intolerance (family members not allowed to express the "wrong" emotions)
Social dysfunction or isolation (for example, parents unwilling to reach out to other families—especially those with children of the same gender and approximate age, or do nothing to help their "friendless" child)
Stifled speech (children not allowed to dissent or question authority)
Being over protective
Apathy "I don't care!"
Belittling "You can't do anything right!"
Shame "Shame on you!"
Hypocrisy "Do as I say, not as I do"
Unforgiving "Saying sorry doesn't help anything!"
Judgmental statements or demonisation "You are a liar!"
Either no or excessive criticism (((depends on the child in this family)))
"Mixed messages" by having a dual system of values
The absentee parent (seldom available for their child due to work overload...)
Unfulfilled projects, activities, and promises affecting children "We'll do it later"
Having an unpredictable emotional state due to ... personality disorder(s), or stress
Scapegoating (knowingly or recklessly blaming one child for the misdeeds of another)
Older siblings given no authority over younger siblings with respect to their age difference and level of maturity
The "know-it-all" (has no need to obtain child's side of the story when accusing, or listen to child's opinions on matters which greatly impact them)
Parenting Styles:
Perfectionist: (fixating on order, prestige, power, and/or perfect appearances, while preventing their child from failing at anything)
Appeasement: (parents who reward bad behavior—even by their own standards, and inevitability punish another child's good behavior in order to maintain the peace and avoid temper tantrums "Peace at any price")
Micromanagement: (parents who micro-manage their children's lives and/or relationships among siblings—especially minor conflicts)
"Public image manager": (sometimes related to above, children warned to not disclose what fights, abuse, or damage happens at home, or face severe punishment "Don't tell anyone what goes on in this family") (((this is because being so rich/famous/important, they actually do have a 'public image' that they have to maintain)))
"The politician": (a parent who repeatedly makes or agrees to children's promises while having little to no intention of keeping them)
Six Basic Roles:
Just as a guess,
         Oldest brother is the hero or the mastermind
         Older sister is the scapegoat
         Moira is the lost child
         Baby brother ... probably the mascot

See "A Writing Exercise: Moira Ilan" .

Being Messianic

As you have probably guessed from the names alone, Roni, her family, and some of the people who surround them are clearly of Jewish descent. I have not done this to play into any "rich Jewish people" kind of stereotype, or any other stereotypes. I've done it simply out of familiarity.

... ... ... ...






00276007163