#SWAW Day 2: Penguins

[sazanes]

Day 2 - Penguins/Greek Mythology

Penguin Love 🐧❤😍

@sloanewashingtonappreciationweek @lizzybeth1986 @sazanes

[lizzybeth1986]

Noot Noot

Book: Perfect Match

Pairing: Sloane Washington & Hazel Park (f!black MC) (platonic), Sloane Washington & Iris Young (f!Asian Hayden) (platonic).

Rating: G

Summary: While recovering from a nasty flu, Sloane revisits a childhood favourite TV show with her friends.

Word count: 1,183 words

A/N: I kinda HC Sloane as growing up on Pingu, a British-Swedish stop motion animated classic. It was a fave of mine as a kid, and I later found out that many autistic kids - esp those who use more nonverbal communication - are fond of it.

Tagging @choicesficwriterscreations for Fic of the Week and @choices-february2023 for their February prompt as well as @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek

Using @choices-february2023 prompt for Day 4: Harmony | Homemade Soup | So What (P!nk)

"You two should go home now," Sloane grumbles, her voice almost muffled underneath her Milky Way Galaxy blanket. "I'm fine, really."

And she isn't lying. She hasn't suffered a fever in four days now, and though her throat still feels sore, the sandpaper sensation of using her voice doesn't burn as ferociously as it did a week ago.

Residual throatache and general tiredness. That's all that's left of this awful flu.

Iris ignores her. "Hazel, honey, put on some Pingu," she calls out, frowning over a pot of steaming chicken soup. "'Pingu the Chef' is her favourite."

Hazel's head is buried inside her cupboard of old keepsakes from her mom's home. "Coming!" She yells back to Iris, holding a well-worn penguin in her hand.

She tosses it playfully in the direction of Sloane's bed. "What did you finally name this one?"

Sloane has only enough energy to offer a weak smile. "Katie Bouman." She doesn't remember what she'd named it when Mom gave it to her. "To keep you company at your first ever Space Camp," she'd said, brushing a soft kiss over her forehead. They'd both been so nervous then. Little Trudy had never stayed overnight away from home, away from Mom.

It was one of the few things Sloane took back with her when she'd visited Mom a few years ago, just before Khaan and the group set in motion their plans to defeat Eros. Sloane shivers as she remembers her sense of dread that day, wondering if this would be the last time she'd ever visit this room. How she swallowed the lump in her throat when she saw the worry in Mom's eyes, the questions Sloane couldn't bring herself to answer.

Hazel frowns at Sloane's involuntary shudder, enfolding her in her thick blanket and tucking Katie into her weak arms.

The two settle back on the bed, backs against the bedstand, as the titular little penguin throws corn kernels into a hot pan. His baby sister watches, jumping up and down when the yellow seeds puff up and turn white.

"What?" Hazel mouths when she sees Sloane silently giggling. She covers her mouth, already anticipating one of her favourite parts in the episode; Pingu's sister fooling her brother into looking away before stealing his share of kernels.

Pingu stares for a second at the empty pan, then glares after his baby sister, his beak already stretching to form the shape of a trumpet horn.

"Noot noot!"

Hazel guffaws, slapping her thigh. "He looks so cute when he does that."

Sloane's laughter is significantly fainter, yet carries the same note of joy and amusement. "Mom says when I first started watching Pingu, I wouldn't stop saying 'noot noot' for a whole month."

Iris comes out of the kitchen as she says this, bowl of soup in hand. Sloane breathes in the scent of roasted garlic emanating from it with a sigh of pleasure. On Sloane's laptop screen, Pingu takes out an obscenely large amount of corn kernels and throws them in a far larger pot.

"It's a very versatile word," Hazel says, grinning, "You could say it when you're excessively happy... excessively distressed..."

"... excessively pissed off at annoying younger siblings who steal your food from right under your nose..." Iris adds, winking in Sloane's direction. Hazel is surprisingly quiet in the middle of all the teasing.

Sloane has enough energy to half-heartedly elbow Iris in the ribs. "You damn well deserved a few noot noots for nicking my Ben&Jerry tub on your first day here."

Iris looks all injured innocence. "I didn't do that, Dipper did."

"Very nice, very 'the dog ate my homework', Iris," Hazel mocks gently, rolling her eyes at her girlfriend before looking at Sloane. "Did you always do that?"

"Do what?" Sloane takes slow, lingering sips of her soup, savoring its warmth. Pingu and his sister are now panicking over a mile-long trail of popcorn strewn over their kitchen floor.

"Repeat phrases no matter the context? In some of the childhood stories you've told me so far, you'd done that with other words."

Echolalia, the first therapist they'd met had told Mom. She likes repeating the words, but is yet to grasp their meaning. That last thought is more imagination than memory; all she can truly recall from that visit were the tiny farm animals she had sorted in a row on a playmat, by order of height.

"Yeah," Sloane whispers, her smile a tiny bit wider as she watches Pingu take boxes of freshly made popcorn on his sled, going from house to house, using his overzealous mistake to feed an entire polar neighborhood. "I always thought of words in terms of sounds first. The more I liked the sound of something, the more I'd use it whether I knew the meaning or not. You had to show me a visual, over and over again until I connected the two, if you wanted me to understand what a word meant. It took Mom a little time to realize that."

Sloane smiles at the sight the three of them must make right now, watching a childhood favourite on a bed surrounded by all the interests and all the achievements of her adulthood. The first time she'd watching this show, Mom had been curious. She'd never shown much interest in watching anything for more than a couple minutes, making going to the cinema almost an impossibility.

But this show, with its adorable clay penguin figures who spoke a language she didn't need to understand and who forced her to read their body language instead...this show was different. This show grabbed her attention and wouldn't let go. This show stayed with her long after she stopped binge-watching it, growing into a lifelong interest in real-life penguins.

She looks up at her best friends, both so different in their body language yet so familiar. Hazel's limbs are sprawled over her bed in a sort of casual grace, as if she is owning the space. Iris rests her chin on her right knee, her head tilted as she often does when she's thinking deeply about the media she's watching. Sloane feels a frisson of familiarity as she watches her - in so many ways they're so similar; sometimes Sloane wonders how much of herself she's incorporated into Iris. There are moments when looking at her is like looking at a mirror - the same responses on a drastically different face.

Even now, if Sloane tries hard enough, she knows that some of the ways she reads people's reactions can be vaguely traced to that stressful - yet indescribably exciting - exercise of trying to understand what Pingu was doing, what Pingu was saying, what Pingu was feeling.

"Mm," Iris says, grinning as Sloane finishes off her soup. She's been showing better appetite today than she has the whole week. "looks like they managed to clear out all that excess popcorn, eh?"

Sloane smiles back. Pingu drives his sled through the snow from house to house, his beak morphing into the shape of a trumpet horn as he announces his arrival. In a sound that is no longer annoyance, or anger - but excitement.

Noot noot!

--

* Katie Bouman is a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard who helped develop the code to find the black hole needle in the haystack of data collected from the effort.

** You can watch the episode of Pingu mentioned here.

*** Echolalia is one of the things that some autistic kids grow up with. Some are nonverbal in their communication, and some may not always engage in meaningful communication although they do attempt speech. Echolalia involves a tendency to repeat words or phrases while not understanding the meaning, eg. A child repeating someone's question instead of answering it. I HC Sloane as having speech delays as a child, that initially didn't go noticed because she was echoing words she heard.

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

Day 2 of SWAW has two themes: Penguins and Greek Mythology! One is mentioned in her Tokyo diamond scene as an interest, while the other is connected to her love for astronomy.

Sloane is a huge penguin fan, and even wins one at an arcade in Tokyo with the MC's help. She speaks about how penguins inspire her with their bravery and having so little fear of human beings. She even tells us about how Magellanic penguins mate for life. Symbolically, penguins symbolize many things: hope, resilience, love, faithfulness. It would be great to explore her love for Penguins, or even just feature them in a story!

While Greek Mythology is not Sloane-specific in the series, it is her diamond scene that introduces the imagery that becomes such an essential part of PM's storytelling. She equates her own friendship with Hayden to that of Artemis and Orion, for instance, and explains how different cultures interpret constellations differently. It would be great to explore Sloane in this light as well!

Any content is welcome! Fanfic, fanart, edits, moodboards, interactive media, headcanons, meta, even simple posts and screenshots of scenes! Just make sure it's positive content centered around Sloane only.

Please remember that these are just themes - they are not restricted only to the assigned day. You can always create the content on a later day, and there will be an extra week in case you need more time. We also accept WIPs, so don't hesitate to send them across if you're unable to finish!

Be sure to do the following for your posts so we don't miss out:

1. Use #sloanewashingtonappreciationweek, and #SWAW in the tags, as well as the day and theme (#SWAW Day 1, #SWAW Day 2)

2. Tag @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek along with the co-hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes

Fan-content blogs do a lot of incredible work to compile all the amazing content we create, so we'd love for you to participate and have fun with some of their events! Here are the ones happening during our week:

@choicesficwriterscreations - Primarily fic. They have weekly events that you can tag them for (like Fic of the Week). Here is their roster!

@choicesmonthlychallenge and @choices-february2023 - Any and all content welcome! They have monthly prompts that you can use for your content.

@choicespride - Any and all content welcome as long as it centers queer characters and themes. Currently they're holding their Valentine's event!

@wip-wipeout-weekend - This wonderful blog provides encouragement for and promotes WIPs. Check out their events here!

@choicesprompts - Currently on hiatus but they're a great blog for prompts!

Happy Sloane Washington Appreciation Week, everyone

[lizzybeth1986]

LOVE this!! Especially Sloane's blissful expression at seeing the penguin being lifted by the claw machine, and the hidden Haydens!! This is such a beautiful piece and I am so happy to see another one of your Perfect Match masterpieces ❤️

quite possibly the cutest theme for a drawing i've ever done. sloane at a claw machine for @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek hosted by @lizzybeth1986 & @sazanes! wlw everywhere thank you <3

there's so many good sloane scenes to ref, but the arcade is just such a precious one. what a nerd <3

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

SWAW 2024 - Masterlist

(this gorgeous poster is the handiwork of our wonderful host @sazanes! Also, check out our thank you video for the week!!)

DAY 1 - WOMEN IN STEM/GIRL POWER

Women in STEM

Art

Sloane Washington by @lilyoffandoms

Workplace Safety by @sazanes

Character Appreciation

"Or, as my mom later explained... Sciiiiiiience!" by @lizzybeth1986

Edit

SpreadJoy Quote: Sloane Washington by @storyofmychoices

Moodboard

Confectionery Chemistry (Fic WIP) by @lizzybeth1986

Women in STEM Moodboard and Sloane Edit by @masked-alien-lesbian

Girl Power

Art

Sloane, the MoTY MC and her Daughter by @cassiopeiacorvus

DAY 2 - WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Art

Sailor Moon Sloane by @cassiopeiacorvus

Queen Star by @sazanes

Character Appreciation

Constellation Stories by @lizzybeth1986

Headcanon

Sloane's Children: Hamza, Artemis, Orion and Zohreh! by @lizzybeth1986

Moodboard

A Starry Moodboard for Sloane! by @lorirwritesfanfic

The Constellation in Your Eyes by @masked-alien-lesbian

Playlist

A Space Exploration Playlist for Sloane by @inlocusmads

DAY 3 - THROWBACK/CHARACTER APPRECIATION/FRIENDSHIP

Throwback

Art

Sloane and Hayden singing "You Are My Sunshine" by @sazanes

Fanfic

Family by @lorirwritesfanfic

Character Appreciation

Edit

Style Swap with Shannon Fox (WTD) by @masked-alien-lesbian

Meta

Rebel Goddess: An Appreciation of Sloane Washington by @lizzybeth1986

DAY 4 - HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Art

On a Date by @lilyoffandoms

Heart by @sazanes

Hamza Gets A Brother by @sapphicspaceart

Moodboard

Beach Love: "Glasses and Missy" at Komodo Island by @lizzybeth1986

DAY 5 - HOBBIES/PETS

Hobbies

Headcanon

Sloane as a Writer of Children's Books by @lizzybeth1986

Edit

Sloane's Hobbies and Pets by @masked-alien-lesbian

Pets

Art

Sloane's Adorable Penguin Pajamas by @sazanes

--

Thank you all so much for all the love, dedication and creative genius you have shown for Sloane on this lovely week!! It's been an incredible experience, and we can't wait for everyone to see the wonderful work you all have done ❤️❤️❤️

For those who wanted to participate but couldn't during the week, worry not! We will be accepting pieces throughout the year till the next SWAW. So whenever you do finish off something that you think would work for the week, don't hesitate to tag this blog, or the hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes!

SWAW 2022 | SWAW 2023

[sloanewashingtonappreciationweek]

SWAW Masterlist 2023

(This gorgeous poster is courtesy our lovely @sazanes!!)

DAY 1: CHARACTER APPRECIATION/THROWBACK

Character Appreciation

Appreciation Post

Character Appreciation/Throwback by @cassiopeiacorvus

Art

Sloane Washington 🌟 by @sazanes

Edit

SpreadJoy Quote: Sloane Washington by @storyofmychoices

Playlist

Sloane Washington: Character Playlist by @lizzybeth1986

Throwback

Headcanon

Headcanons: Kim and autistic!Sloane by @lizzybeth1986

DAY 2: PENGUINS/GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Penguins

Art

Penguin Love by @sazanes

At the Arcade by @sapphicspaceart

Fanfic

Noot Noot by @lizzybeth1986

DAY 3: RELATIONSHIPS (ROMANCE/FRIENDSHIP/FAMILY)

Romance

Fic

Coffee Brown Eyes by @lizzybeth1986

Trudy Sloane by @dcbbw

Friendship

Art

Sloane and Dipper by @sazanes

Family

Art

Family Selfie by @cassiopeiacorvus

DAY 4: HOME/OUTER SPACE

Home

Edit + WIP Fic Idea

WIP: The Stuff of Exploded Stars by @lizzybeth1986

Outer Space

Art

Astronaut!Sloane by @sazanes

DAY 5: STEM

Art

The Robo-Dog Toy by @sazanes

Edit + WIP Fic Idea

WIP: Once in 50,000 Years by @lizzybeth1986

--

*This wonderful masterlist is brought to you by a number of fans who sent such wonderful content for this week! Please don't forget to take a look and comment on all these wonderful pieces!!

Here is the masterlist for SWAW 2022!

Until next year, everyone!!

[lizzybeth1986]

SO FREAKING CUTE @sazanes. Sloane looks so happy and that plushie looks adorable 🥰🥰🥰

Day 2 - Penguins/Greek Mythology

Penguin Love 🐧❤😍

@sloanewashingtonappreciationweek @lizzybeth1986 @sazanes

[sazanes]

Pingu is one of my favorites too ❤ it's so beautiful to see Sloane with her friends, people she can trust and will be there for her. And it's so interesting knowing more about how Sloane see the world and people ❤ amazing ❤

Noot Noot

Book: Perfect Match

Pairing: Sloane Washington & Hazel Park (f!black MC) (platonic), Sloane Washington & Iris Young (f!Asian Hayden) (platonic).

Rating: G

Summary: While recovering from a nasty flu, Sloane revisits a childhood favourite TV show with her friends.

Word count: 1,183 words

A/N: I kinda HC Sloane as growing up on Pingu, a British-Swedish stop motion animated classic. It was a fave of mine as a kid, and I later found out that many autistic kids - esp those who use more nonverbal communication - are fond of it.

Tagging @choicesficwriterscreations for Fic of the Week and @choices-february2023 for their February prompt as well as @sloanewashingtonappreciationweek

Using @choices-february2023 prompt for Day 4: Harmony | Homemade Soup | So What (P!nk)

"You two should go home now," Sloane grumbles, her voice almost muffled underneath her Milky Way Galaxy blanket. "I'm fine, really."

And she isn't lying. She hasn't suffered a fever in four days now, and though her throat still feels sore, the sandpaper sensation of using her voice doesn't burn as ferociously as it did a week ago.

Residual throatache and general tiredness. That's all that's left of this awful flu.

Iris ignores her. "Hazel, honey, put on some Pingu," she calls out, frowning over a pot of steaming chicken soup. "'Pingu the Chef' is her favourite."

Hazel's head is buried inside her cupboard of old keepsakes from her mom's home. "Coming!" She yells back to Iris, holding a well-worn penguin in her hand.

She tosses it playfully in the direction of Sloane's bed. "What did you finally name this one?"

Sloane has only enough energy to offer a weak smile. "Katie Bouman." She doesn't remember what she'd named it when Mom gave it to her. "To keep you company at your first ever Space Camp," she'd said, brushing a soft kiss over her forehead. They'd both been so nervous then. Little Trudy had never stayed overnight away from home, away from Mom.

It was one of the few things Sloane took back with her when she'd visited Mom a few years ago, just before Khaan and the group set in motion their plans to defeat Eros. Sloane shivers as she remembers her sense of dread that day, wondering if this would be the last time she'd ever visit this room. How she swallowed the lump in her throat when she saw the worry in Mom's eyes, the questions Sloane couldn't bring herself to answer.

Hazel frowns at Sloane's involuntary shudder, enfolding her in her thick blanket and tucking Katie into her weak arms.

The two settle back on the bed, backs against the bedstand, as the titular little penguin throws corn kernels into a hot pan. His baby sister watches, jumping up and down when the yellow seeds puff up and turn white.

"What?" Hazel mouths when she sees Sloane silently giggling. She covers her mouth, already anticipating one of her favourite parts in the episode; Pingu's sister fooling her brother into looking away before stealing his share of kernels.

Pingu stares for a second at the empty pan, then glares after his baby sister, his beak already stretching to form the shape of a trumpet horn.

"Noot noot!"

Hazel guffaws, slapping her thigh. "He looks so cute when he does that."

Sloane's laughter is significantly fainter, yet carries the same note of joy and amusement. "Mom says when I first started watching Pingu, I wouldn't stop saying 'noot noot' for a whole month."

Iris comes out of the kitchen as she says this, bowl of soup in hand. Sloane breathes in the scent of roasted garlic emanating from it with a sigh of pleasure. On Sloane's laptop screen, Pingu takes out an obscenely large amount of corn kernels and throws them in a far larger pot.

"It's a very versatile word," Hazel says, grinning, "You could say it when you're excessively happy... excessively distressed..."

"... excessively pissed off at annoying younger siblings who steal your food from right under your nose..." Iris adds, winking in Sloane's direction. Hazel is surprisingly quiet in the middle of all the teasing.

Sloane has enough energy to half-heartedly elbow Iris in the ribs. "You damn well deserved a few noot noots for nicking my Ben&Jerry tub on your first day here."

Iris looks all injured innocence. "I didn't do that, Dipper did."

"Very nice, very 'the dog ate my homework', Iris," Hazel mocks gently, rolling her eyes at her girlfriend before looking at Sloane. "Did you always do that?"

"Do what?" Sloane takes slow, lingering sips of her soup, savoring its warmth. Pingu and his sister are now panicking over a mile-long trail of popcorn strewn over their kitchen floor.

"Repeat phrases no matter the context? In some of the childhood stories you've told me so far, you'd done that with other words."

Echolalia, the first therapist they'd met had told Mom. She likes repeating the words, but is yet to grasp their meaning. That last thought is more imagination than memory; all she can truly recall from that visit were the tiny farm animals she had sorted in a row on a playmat, by order of height.

"Yeah," Sloane whispers, her smile a tiny bit wider as she watches Pingu take boxes of freshly made popcorn on his sled, going from house to house, using his overzealous mistake to feed an entire polar neighborhood. "I always thought of words in terms of sounds first. The more I liked the sound of something, the more I'd use it whether I knew the meaning or not. You had to show me a visual, over and over again until I connected the two, if you wanted me to understand what a word meant. It took Mom a little time to realize that."

Sloane smiles at the sight the three of them must make right now, watching a childhood favourite on a bed surrounded by all the interests and all the achievements of her adulthood. The first time she'd watching this show, Mom had been curious. She'd never shown much interest in watching anything for more than a couple minutes, making going to the cinema almost an impossibility.

But this show, with its adorable clay penguin figures who spoke a language she didn't need to understand and who forced her to read their body language instead...this show was different. This show grabbed her attention and wouldn't let go. This show stayed with her long after she stopped binge-watching it, growing into a lifelong interest in real-life penguins.

She looks up at her best friends, both so different in their body language yet so familiar. Hazel's limbs are sprawled over her bed in a sort of casual grace, as if she is owning the space. Iris rests her chin on her right knee, her head tilted as she often does when she's thinking deeply about the media she's watching. Sloane feels a frisson of familiarity as she watches her - in so many ways they're so similar; sometimes Sloane wonders how much of herself she's incorporated into Iris. There are moments when looking at her is like looking at a mirror - the same responses on a drastically different face.

Even now, if Sloane tries hard enough, she knows that some of the ways she reads people's reactions can be vaguely traced to that stressful - yet indescribably exciting - exercise of trying to understand what Pingu was doing, what Pingu was saying, what Pingu was feeling.

"Mm," Iris says, grinning as Sloane finishes off her soup. She's been showing better appetite today than she has the whole week. "looks like they managed to clear out all that excess popcorn, eh?"

Sloane smiles back. Pingu drives his sled through the snow from house to house, his beak morphing into the shape of a trumpet horn as he announces his arrival. In a sound that is no longer annoyance, or anger - but excitement.

Noot noot!

--

* Katie Bouman is a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard who helped develop the code to find the black hole needle in the haystack of data collected from the effort.

** You can watch the episode of Pingu mentioned here.

*** Echolalia is one of the things that some autistic kids grow up with. Some are nonverbal in their communication, and some may not always engage in meaningful communication although they do attempt speech. I HC Sloane as having speech delays as a child, that initially didn't go noticed because she was echoing words she heard.