The Chameleon

What is a chameleon?

original art by JohnSu. Awesome artist! Check out his amazing character designs here! ^o^

A chameleon is a person named after their amazing adaptability towards their surroundings.

Most of us are able to identify chameleons whenever we see a person that unconditionally accepts and follows whatever the other person wants and does. What to eat? Well what do you fell like eating? Lets go eat that ^o^ Maybe they'll even order the exact same foods as you. The might even go so far as to watch movies that they'll never ever watch on their own will, but watch because you want to watch.

While this conformity makes the chameleon a perfect partner to being around just to have company, like every other archetype, this characteristic of the chameleon can be very troublesome.

First of all, you can never ever rely on a chameleon to make a decision. You'll always have to make the first move and the chameleon will follow. Happily ^o^

But are chameleons really happy?

We'd have to look a lot deeper than just asking them "hey are you happy?" Because they'd just ask you "well are you happy? If you're happy I'd be happy too ^_^" Bad idea :P

pa~ddle pop~ wow~ pa~ddle pop~
yay~ super duper yummy ^O^

There are two types of chameleons. The first one is the color-chameleon. These are the most popular type of chameleons and are named after their skin that are able to change color almost on command *_* Just like the characteristic of chameleon's skin, the color-chameleon's ability lies only upon the surface. They might be happy on the outside, readily following you through thick and thin, but what's happening on the inside might not be the same.

If they end up forcing themselves to change to a color that's uncomfortable to them for too long, they might snap and just like a startled chameleon, show their true colors XD Its not that these guys are fakes, though. Its really important to understand that the main motivation of color-chameleons is the (misguided) assumption that shared interests equal closer bonds, and (more dangerously) differences in interests creates distance.

No, guys. Chameleons listen up >o< If you have shared interests, great, you immediately have a common ground and can spend time doing the things you like to do the most together ^o^ But in the long run, you might be spending a little too much time seeing each other, and that might make is a little.. boring? Overwhelming? You get what I mean, right?

And if you have differences in interests, its actually a good thing ^o^ Why? A lot of people assume that having different interests would make making conversation different for the lack of topics. It's actually quite the opposite. Because if both parties really are interested in getting to know each other, it is yet another thing that would help the process of getting to know a person ^_^ nothing like learning why a person is interested in whatever they're interested in~ and how they spend their time~ Plus, you get to learn something new as well :D

hurp derp <__>

The second type of chameleon is the eye-chameleon. These are not as popular and are named after the (surprisingly) less known fact that chameleon's eyes can rotate independent from each other. They're the safest people to cross the road with because they can look both left and right XD Unlike the color-chameleon who's ability is only skin-deep, eye-chameleon's are like that because of the way they're built. Its in their software and their hardware.

The main reason why eye-chameleons are able to freely follow their friends to do anything and everything is because they don't have any preferences whatsoever. They have no stand, and no point of view. I'd blame this on education systems that mold students into receptive sponges that don't know how to think for themselves, but sometimes it's also the individual's fault. Some people are just drifters and say whatever to anything~ Its kinda good in a way, though, as they're rarely considered picky or pushy.

Ask them to make decisions, though, and you'll never get one. Eye-chameleons are always the followers in the group and never give suggestions to anything. Great if you're a leader, bad if you need a leader. The most dangerous case of an eye-chameleon is the fact that because they're always so lackadaisical, they're rarely invested in anything they do, which might include their friendship.

I make eye-chameleons sound like such useless people. Like they have no aim in life and have zero ambition XD That's kinda true.. but I'd rather think of it as people who have not found their direction in life or developed preferences in things they'd rather or rather not do. And sometimes you don't need a preference. Its cool to be able to tolerate any and every kind of music and/or people and/or language (you'd be labeled as racist otherwise :P)

There is one kind of eye-chameleon that has an ambition, though. And that's the tunnel-vision-eye-chameleon. These eye-chameleons only have one goal in life, and that's to be the ultimate follower of someone or something. The best example of this are the people that aim to be 'the best wife/husband ever' :P These people live solely for their husband or wife, and will do whatever they want and build their entire lives once they get together with their target. Break ups are the most devastating for tunnel-vision-eye-chameleons because their world literally ends as they have to start from zero and search for a new person to base their life around ;_;

I wonder if anybody would want to be a chameleon after reading what I've written here XD Its not really that bad, though. Sometimes being a chameleon is a good thing ^_^ you get to avoid almost all conflict ever. Unless someone's forcing you to make a decision :P 

As always, don't judge a chameleon for its color, or the direction(s) its looking. Under all that copying and indecisiveness is a person that's not very confident in themselves and is only trying their best to be close to you~ and maybe even understand you better ^o^ it wouldn't hurt for you to understand them better as well :)