Terra Olivier's Sorting

Hello, and welcome to my first attempt at using the sortinghatchats+ system to sort a character of mine, rather than just myself! This particular sorting is happening primarily because it has to due to a House Cup Finale minigame task, but also because I definitely wanted to sort my two main characters from my sci-fi screenplay, Planetary Boundaries+, to help develop their characters further. 

Terra Olivier is one of my two main characters who are onboard the deep space exploration vessel Allurian. She is the Chief Science Officer and First Officer of the ship, and primarily works in two spaces onboard -- the hydroponics room (growing both edible & research plants) and the laboratory (chemical research projects to help improve their quality of life & fix shit on the ship). She's been working with Captain Nathaniel Borovitch both on and off the Allurian for well over a decade, and is just a badass space scientist with a strong moral compass. 

So without further ado, here is Terra Olivier's official sorting!

Gryffindor Primary

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Gryffindor Primaries trust their moral intuitions and have a need and a drive to live by them. They feel what’s right in their gut, and that matters and guides them. If they don’t listen to and act on that, it feels immoral.

This is Terra 100%. In the screenplay so far, she immediately calls out the new mission directives they've gotten from command and how they upset her in more ways than one. She also voices her discomfort with the possibility of having to act as an interspecies envoy on behalf of Cressida Corps if it comes to that. She sticks to her guns, even if Nathaniel has to calm her a bit. Also, 

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We call Gryffindor morality “felt” but that doesn’t mean they’re all impetuous, emotional hellions. Gryffindors can still be intelligent, deliberate creatures who weigh their decisions and moralities carefully. Reasoning, intellectualizing and debate can be support for a Gryffindor’s felt morality– but those things can never make a fully satisfying morality in themselves. Some things are just wrong, no matter what pretty words you use to explain them.

Terra is a scientist, so she's got strong logic behind a lot of her arguments, but she also has strong moral beliefs as well, especially as a scientist on a deep space exploration mission. She enjoys debating with Nathaniel and the ship AI, Lilac, but also has strong emotional responses towards certain things as well. She takes issue with a lot of the language used in the new mission directives, and that's exactly what the last sentence in the quoted paragraph says -- no matter how prettily or "officially" the commands are written, she still things they're wrong in some way, even if she doesn't yet know how that is. 

Ravenclaw Secondary

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Ravenclaws are collectors. Dedicated to knowledge, to facts, systems, tools, or skills, the things they have already learned are what they call on when things get tough. Ravenclaws’ efficacy often relies on what situation they are in: what the problem is they have to solve and whether or not they’ve prepared the proper tools for that problem. 

Terra is a scientist on a deep space exploration vessel, so if she didn't have any Ravenclaw in her, I would have been very surprised. While she really wants to work with her plants mostly, she also does necessary work like coming up with a new suit patch sealant formula and logging rations based on prepackaged foods and stuff they grow on the ship to ensure proper nutrient balancing and the like. She is good in these areas, but she's not an engineer -- that's all Nathaniel, so her efficacy is low there, but is high in a lot of other places. 

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Ravenclaws, like Hufflepuff Secondaries, are at their best when they can prepare before the problems show up, not improvise or invent in the moment. Ravenclaws can collect their tools with the aim of eventual usefulness, but are likely to also collect knowledge just for the sake of knowledge.

As previously mentioned, Terra hates getting new mission directives because it means she has to alter her current plans (and plants) to fit the new ones, and therefore has to adjust everything else as well. This need to plan for everything but inability to really be in charge of even setting that plan in the first place comes through when she's angry and frustrated at command, with the anger directing from her Gryffindor side. She's certainly learned a lot of odds and ends things after being on the Allurian for so many years with Nathaniel, but she also just likes to read scientific articles that sound interesting to her just for fun. 

Hufflepuff Secondary Model

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Hufflepuff is the House of grit, reliability, and determination, and Hufflepuffs use those values to help live, act, and succeed. You like to be hardworking, dedicated, and consistent-- but you wouldn't feel guilty for abandoning those values in the service of other, higher priorities. It may come pretty naturally to your hand, if it's been part of your life long enough, but you mostly use it for utility. You don't find yourself using these techniques and behaviors except when you think they'll come in handy.

I have to be honest, this one came out of left field for me, but after reading it a bit more and thinking more deeply about Terra's character, it kind of makes sense. Sometimes she just likes to do the work even if she doesn't like it or find a lot of inherent value in it if she knows it'll lessen the strain on Nathaniel, or make her job easier down the line. She is obviously very hardworking, and part of that likely comes from not being perceived as a good fit for the job or the career field in the first place when she started her program, and having to claw her way up and be proud of who she is and her work. 

All in all, this sorting makes a lot of sense for Terra, and has provided me some good insights into her character and will definitely be kept in the back of my mind as I continue writing my screenplay. Next up will be Nathaniel Borovitch, Captain and Chief Engineer of the Allurian!