#This was more difficult for me because I tend to avoid talking about characters I'm not completely confident in my portrayal of

[real-reulbbr-band]

some Coricojerrie headcanons

⪼﹕As far as goals, these two are very different, Mungojerrie has no set goal, he wants whatever gratifies him in the moment, stealing from the next house, emulating Tugger, etc. Coricopat doesn’t understand this, probably because he has so many goals he wants to work towards, most of them summing up to wanting to support the Jellicle community as a whole in a meaningful way. 

Despite their differences, Coricopat occasionally tries to gently nudge Mungojerrie towards considering more lasting accomplishments.He tells him that the short-lived happiness of his little escapades will fade, and that investing in something more substantial could bring greater fulfillment in the long run.

Mungojerrie does listen to this advice with a mixture of sarcasm and amusement; he finds amusement in Coricopat's sincerity, and teases Cori about being overly concerned about him, and tries to highlight the desire he has to live in the present. Even if Mungojerrie isn't ready to fully embrace the idea of long-term goals himself, he does, in the back of his mind, appreciate Coricopat's comments and acknowledge the genuine worry.

⪼﹕Coricopat does tend to sleep with his eyes open, which isn’t completely unusual for cats; no, he sleeps with them wide open on occasion. As if he were just staring off into the distance. 

Coricopat's unique sleeping habit is a direct consequence of his psychic abilities, which grant him heightened awareness even during sleep. In this state, Coricopat experiences vivid visions, with the clarity and duration of these visions influenced by his proximity to his twin sister, Tantomile. When Coricopat and Tantomile are together, their visions are clearer and longer, often shared between them in synchrony. However, when apart, Coricopat's visions become shorter and less distinct. Despite this, he attempts to interpret these visions independently before discussing them with Tantomile. Surprisingly, depending on when they fall asleep, Tantomile and Coricopat frequently see the same visions at differing times.

Back to Mungojerrie, though; he’s observant; he needs to be in order to steal so well, so it didn’t take him too long to decipher whether Coricopat was staring off or "resting.” One particular sign that Coricopat was mellowing out was that his tail would swish around from left to right every minute or so; if he was resting, however, his tail wouldn’t move at all. When he’d catch him in the act, he’d normally wait by Coricopat to see if he would tell him what he saw.

Any other cat wouldn’t tell Mungojerrie anything; he was known to cause trouble, after all, but Coricopat didn’t mind. In fact, he found it helpful to discuss what he saw as it helped him interpret it better, and Mungojerrie did provide insights Coricopat may not have always thought of as an explanation, regardless of if they were wrong or right.

⪼﹕Coricopat is the more social of the psychic twins, so Mungojerrie always took the liberties of bothering him over Tantomile. He became quite fixated on the idea of outsmarting Coricopat in particular; he’d insist that Coricopat didn’t have any powers at all and would pose absurd questions to him in an effort to "prove" his argument. Even when Coricopat effortlessly answered these questions, Mungojerrie would dismiss it as luck or coincidence, promptly posing another question—often unrelated and equally absurd—just to keep the banter going. Like what he had for supper two moons ago, or how he’s going to feel about the weather tomorrow.  

Despite Mungojerrie's persistent teasing, Coricopat remained patient and good-natured, his understanding demeanor shining through. Unwilling to admit defeat, Coricopat would sometimes respond with vague answers when unsure of how to answer Mungo’s questions, enjoying the faux rivalry he shared with Mungojerrie. However, when he was confident in his knowledge, Coricopat made sure to assert his correctness, taking pleasure in proving Mungojerrie wrong. He enjoyed the humorous challenge of their relationship and didn't mind repeating himself to his foolish mate in order to get his point across.

[howtofightwrite]

Now you got me thinking...I've been thinking about writing a fic where the (in-universe) desensitization of violence for the main characters is a running theme. My main issue, however, is managing the violence within said narrative because, as you've said before, violence has diminishing returns. While I don't want it to be a gorefest from start to finish, I do want part of the horror to be having to engage in it, no matter what steps are taken to avoid it. If I'm not careful, I could end up with a weaker story for all the violence in it. What could I do to maintain this theme without it losing its impact due to these diminishing returns?

So, there's two different things going on here, and ironically, it's the same term, and mostly the same process.

When I'm talking about your audience becoming desensitized to violence, it's more that they become acclimated to the degree of violence you're comfortable with exposing them to. Again, “diminishing returns,” because as you expose them to more violence, they become more acclimated to that violence, and the shock value will subside. Similarly, the ability to build tension on the threat of violence occurring falls off when you're willing to engage in violence, but that doesn't mean you can't build tension, just that you need to be a little more careful about establishing those stakes.

Also, when most people write violence, they tend to establish implicit boundaries. It may be that only certain characters engage in violence. It may that certain areas are exempted from violence. At very mechanical abstraction, with some writers, you can tell when they've introduced a location that is exempt from violence. Even if you're getting into diminishing returns, violating these kinds of boundaries can keep the violence fresher than you'd expect. The formula of slasher films put a lot of effort into maintaining shock value by creating misleading boundaries that you'll pick up on and then violating them in new and novel ways.

Outside of some genuinely stomach churning violence, you're not likely to permanently move the needle for your readers. You're not actually desensitizing them to violence; just your willingness to depict violence.

I feel like I need to make a clarification: Too much violence doesn't mean the story will be bad. Normally, I offer advice with the assumption that you'll want to manage and maintain as much shock value as you can from your violence. However, that's not the only valid approach. That said, too much violence can cause your readers to disconnect from the work, so that is a legitimate consideration. Also, this doesn't mean the story loses impact. Unless the violence is the story, which is a somewhat weird edge case, violence won't necessarily reduce the impact of the story as a whole.

The example of slasher films, earlier, really does illustrate what I mean when I'm saying that lots of violence (even gratuitous violence) isn't going to necessarily mean that a story will be bad. (Though, this could spiral into a much deeper argument about the artistic merits of that genre.) To some extent, your choice of genre already starts to prepare the audience for a more violent experience. You're preemptively trading shock value for a higher baseline.

The second thing is your character being desensitized to violence. While there is something to be said for getting your audience into your character's head space to the point that they accept it as their own, doing that with desensitization to violence is extraordinarily difficult. (And, really, it's a tricky route to go in general. In most cases, the audience will simply assign whatever dissatisfaction they have onto you or the work, rather than realizing you were being clever.)

So, how do you show someone is desensitized to violence, without trying to simultaneously traumatize your audience? You show the consequences of that desensitization. This can show up in a character's sense of humor, their overall outlook. They may be more clinical about violence, more casual about its consequences (at least, superficially.) They might have an incredibly dark sense of humor, which might not come up most of the time.

In a larger context, a character who has been desensitized to violence may come across as basically normal, outside of a narrow band where certain concepts don't bother them. This is especially true with a specific brand of military humor, where violence has been rendered mundane for the individual, and the people they interact with on a regular basis.

Now, audience desensitization to violence can create a very weird situation. Where an absence of violence is more unsettling. Not because they're worried about what could happen, but because they're waiting for it all hell to break loose. It's one thing to simply call it, “tension,” but it is a very distinct kind of anxiety you can invoke, if you're careful. In the opening of a story, when the genre is clearly established, I've seen this compared to the ratchets on a roller coaster's first ascent. Everyone knows what they're here for, everyone's here for the ride, click, click... and then the lights go out, and the screaming starts.

I'm trying to make it sound easy, but violence is one of the more challenging things to write. That doesn't mean it's impossible, and you don't need to sit down and carefully sketch out every detail before you get going. The biggest thing to be careful of are that you don't want to overuse it, but you have a lot of flexibility to tell the story you want with the amount of violence you need to communicate that story.

Though, it might take a few tries until you get a tone you're happy with.

-Starke

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[3hks]

Choosing the Main Character

When building or choosing a protagonist, there are things that you NEED to take into consideration if you don't exactly have an idea of who should be the head of the story or if there's just too many good characters to choose from!

THE CAST

I'll get something out of the way, really quick. In my opinion, the cast and environment your characters are around should influence your choice more than the plot will. The plot is normally made in SHAPE of your protagonist. The goal of your character should be the leading arc of your story.

If you could substitute ANY character you wish to take the role of the protagonist into the plot with ZERO changes to the character and plot, then your storyline may just be too generic or simple. And in that case, pretty much any characters will do.

COMPLEX V.S CLASSIC (Skippable)

When I'm talking about a simple main character, I mean that they follow a more standard trope.

They usually have qualities such as goodness, ambition, and are special (powerful, unique, etc). They're often fighting for change and have a potent, normally sad, backstory.

But don't get the wrong idea, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this type of character--I just want to make it clear that they tend to have more standard traits of a protagonist and are used frequently, which is why I'll classify them as "classic."

So with that being said, I consider a complex character to be one with separate attributes that are scarcer.

You know those fun and/or interesting side characters that literally everyone loves? I consider them to be more complex because they have a more original character fueled by an interesting past and personality, which the audience loves. They are amusing to bring to life; however, they are also more difficult to write when they're the main character because of their intricacy.

So when is it appropriate to use a "classic" main character and when is it appropriate to use a "complex" one?

WHEN TO USE WHAT?

Based on my observations, a less populated or simple cast usually has a more complex main character. On the flip side, a more populated or complex cast will tend to have a more classic main character.

My reasoning for this is because the writers want to balance their characters out. If your story has too many intricate characters, it can be too much for your readers to fully grasp and understand them all. Different and unique characters are amazing, don't get me wrong, but it requires a lot more time and effort to form a bunch of complex characters in the same story.

However, there are certain characters that should be naturally detailed. Most often, these are:

The protagonist (Even if they're leaning more towards a "classic" side, as the main character, they should be pretty intricate.)

Love Interest

Best Friend/Rival (Whoever is closest to the protagonist, really.)

Antagonist

Besides these four, if you see that your other side characters are also incredibly complex, it may be smart to choose a protagonist that is simpler.

ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT

The thing is, even if most of your characters don't go through a lot of character development, (which makes some sense because it's hard to make everyone grow) your main character NEEDS it.

If they're too close to perfect or you can't find something about them that they can change or learn from, there's hardly going to be any development for your lead, which is something to avoid.

So basically, what I mean is that your favorite character with your favorite attributes may not always fit the protagonist category if you're reluctant to change them.

However, that doesn't mean that they can't be a solid side character!

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Oftentimes, there are certain things that a protagonist specifically has in which some other characters may not have. With that being said, if you can say yes to these questions about your character, then they'll be a great fit!

Do they have a specific view of the world?

Do they have a specific goal in mind?

Is there a solid reason for the goal?

Do they have some sort of backstory that builds onto their persona?

Will they undergo any sort of change or lesson?

And yes! Because the protagonist and antagonist are usually foils of each other, these questions very well work for the other side too!

CONCLUSION

Alright! So my biggest take on this is that when given a more complex or populated cast, a standard protagonist will usually fit better. And on the other hand, a simpler or sparser cast will call for a more complex protagonist!

Happy writing~

3hks :)

[equalperson]

being autistic and avoidant

i've noticed that both my avoidant personality and my autistic neurology impact each other greatly. still, even though it's one of the more frequent personality diagnoses alongside autism, i don't really see anyone talk about what being an avoidant autistic is like.

that being said, here are a few ways i notice they interact in my personal experience:

cognitive empathy

a major part of both disabilities are their impacts on cognitive empathy. autism often causes people to avoid assuming others' thoughts and feelings, while avoidants tend to assume these feelings are negative and personal.

before i developed my avoidant personality, i fell into the latter category. people could be blatantly unhappy and i'd just...assume things were fine.

at this point, however, my avoidant perspective-taking has definitely become my main thought process. i always feel like people hate me or what i'm doing or just generally aren't in the mood to deal with me.

i wouldn't say that i "have cognitive empathy" now, but moreso that i'm too focused on avoiding rejection to not be constantly assume the worst.

self-esteem

another part of avoidant personality is the idea that you're socially inept, regardless of evidence. being autistic complicates this since--by definition--all autistic people would be considered "socially inept" by society.

this makes it difficult to know when autistic self-awareness ends and avoidant self-deprecation begins. am i incapable of [social thing] because i'm autistic, or because i simply don't believe i am?

at points, i've questioned my autism due to this. like, maybe i'm just exaggerating; i've seen allistic avoidants mistake it for autism before, as well.

however, others' perspectives and my significant restrictive/repetitive behavior makes it clear that it's not just me.

self-direction

my ability to manage myself is impacted by both my autism and my avoidance.

on the one hand, autism gives me executive dysfunction, autistic inertia, and rituals that are rigid to the point of self-sabotage.

but on the other hand, being avoidant makes me too self-conscious to take care of myself easily, namely considering that i don't live alone, thus am in a constant state of social vigilance.

for example, i've yet to learn how to cook.

one issue is that i've gotten so used to the routine of having food made for me that it's triggering to be suddenly encouraged to change, but another is that i'm afraid of the attention taking any initiative would bring.

i don't believe i'd be shamed for it, but being avoidant makes any attention feel intimidating to me; it's not purely a fear of criticism, but generally a fear of recognition (which is ironic considering that i'm also a narcissist, making me very attention-seeking, as well).

social skills

not only does being avoidant impact how i think of my social abilities, but also how i utilize them.

being alexithymic, it can be hard to understand even my own motivations in things. at points, i can't tell if i'm being quote/unquote "socially inept" because i can't understand the situation or because i simply don't want to make any moves.

for example, i almost never make eye contact with others. i originally thought of this as part of my autism, but i honestly can't tell if it's that or my avoidant personality.

on the one hand, eye contact is sincerely overwhelming, but on the other, i can easily do it with animals, fictional characters, and my own reflection. i also made eye contact pre-avoidance. maybe i'm simply too afraid of the intimacy, not actually sensory-sensitive to it?

in other situations, it can be a mixture of both autism and avoidance.

for example, i tend to avoid initiating conversations. i don't want to draw attention to myself or risk rejection, but i also genuinely don't know how i'm expected to start a conversation at all.

external perceptions

i've been told that my social anxiety is obvious, but not my autism. if most people knew what avoidant personality was, i assume i'd probably be recognized as outright avoidant very easily.

pretty much everyone considers me withdrawn in some way. i've been called quiet, indecisive, easy (as in "passive"), reserved, and various similar words.

in some cases, this works in my favor. there have been situations where people have treated me even friendlier than they do others because they see me as fragile.

in many other cases, this works against me; people avoid me because i'm too withdrawn for their tastes. this enables my avoidant behavior, as it affirms--and partially caused--my belief that no one could actually want to be around me.

in other cases, people don't see me as anxious, but just emotionally cold. people have sometimes questioned if i hated them or was angry with them due to my behavior. however, this is typically due to explicitly autistic behavior rather than anything avoidant.

apparently, people also see me as somewhat eccentric. my mom described it once as "the many quirks of ian." i'm not fully aware what these quirks are, but they're there.

[i-might-be-aro]

When I'm talking about being asexual, it's simple. Like, I'm ace and sex-repulsed. That pretty much describes it.

My aro identity? That's difficult. Like. I am in a romantic relationship and happy with it and don't want that to change. If we broke up I can't imagine doing romance again, because romance is our thing? And it'd be weird to try and replicate that with someone else. The same way it'd be weird to watch the same TV shows together, or tag a new partner as being the same fictional couple I did with this one. I just think any future relationships would be QPR. And I wouldn't say I'm romance repulsed. Nor would I say I'm romance favourable, because I don't particularly like any romance tropes nor do I like shows about romance, and nor did I ever want any of the things that are presented as romance before I loved my partner. But romance neutral feels wrong too? Because I'm so tired of romance as a plot line. I hate sex, but I'd rather read a fic with sex scenes, because at least they're easier to avoid and tend not to contain any plot relevant details. But the amount of things I've read with a great premise where I give up before the conclusion because it was fucking "slow burn" and so the further into the plot you get the more everything interesting gets shoved to the side for two characters to gaze into each others eyes. And it makes me want to scream. Were I in a neutral society, I think I would be romance neutral. But it's forced down my throat everywhere, and it makes me wish sometimes that the concept was never invented. That being said, I still enjoy being in a romantic relationship. It's just. Like. I enjoy eating pizza. A lot of people enjoy eating pizza. But if every TV show or book or fic had scenes dedicated only to eating pizza, I'd get really bored. That's how romance is to me.

[the-bi-space-ace]

Hey so I just read your mini essay on the complexity of Crosshair’s beliefs and experiences with loyalty (rip my heart out, why don’t you), and I’m curious about your insights into Hunter’s personality, because out of all of them, he’s the most difficult for me to get a read on. Like, he cares about Omega and the squad, but do we actually see much of his personality beyond the caregiver?

To me he doesn’t show emotional clarity/steadfastness like Wrecker, or loyalty like Crosshair, or duty like Echo, and ambition like Tech. He generally takes things in quietly and seems to have become more indecisive as the show progresses (which makes sense cuz the batch suddenly went from a 100% success rate on missions to “everything that can go wrong does go wrong”). But I want to know Hunter better!! What are your thoughts and opinions?

Hi! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. I just really wanted to think it through and post something in depth. I’m glad you read the Crosshair post (even if it did rip your heart out, I’m so sorry <3). To be completely honest with you I had no idea what to say about Hunter at first but I’ve given it a few days to think and I actually have a few things that I want to discuss.

Caveat that when I watch The Bad Batch I’m not usually focused on Hunter. Primarily because I just connect with the personalities of the rest of the batch more. There’s no problem with connecting with certain characters more than others, it is just personal preference 😊

Regardless, I have some thoughts, and I am genuinely so excited to talk about this after giving it a few days to think about what my full opinion is.

With the caveat in mind I have some opinions on Hunter that fuel my own viewpoint on his character and how I tend to write him in my own fanfics. To me Hunter has always been very… closed. Even in the Clone Wars he tends to stand back, be silent, only really speaking to give orders, question plans, or occasionally make fun of the rest of the 99. Despite the batch’s tendency to disregard orders and regulation (for better or for worse) Hunter has always thrived under direct understanding of where he stands. That’s why he works well with people like Cody and Rex. They give him clear… not exactly direction but something similar. He understands the rules. He knows how to break them. When the rules change with Order 66 he is thrust into something uncomfortable and instead of taking the problem and tackling it he just doesn’t do that. I am certainly not the first to point out that Hunter is avoidant. He always was.

He lets the batch get into fights and he doesn’t step in until he absolutely needs to. He doesn’t jump to defend immediately - typically, although there are exceptions.

(The way he defends Crosshair from Howzer in S3 E6 comes to mind. I’m still tossing that moment around as a repair attempt tbh. They’ve fought and hashed out some of the messy bits and now they are quietly proving to each other that they’re willing to patch things up.)

He lets his squad sort things out on their own and when it gets out of hand he’ll step in. Hell, I think the best example of this is actually when Rex punches Crosshair. Hunter never actually steps into that fight and I think it is partially because of this avoidant tendency. (The rest maybe because he knew Crosshair bit off more than he could chew and he was willing to let a swift right hook teach that lesson.) We actually see Wrecker step up to defend the squad more than Hunter does. This makes sense to me - Wrecker is big and intimidating and Crosshair and Tech tend to be mouthy. Hunter might be the sergeant of this squad but he certainly isn’t the sole protector nor should he be. (Hunter is still protective - the clones we meet tend to be - just not in the exact ways the rest of them are.)

This avoidance is why we see him ignore the Crosshair situation and latch onto giving Omega a normal life. I am not going to pretend that I like the way he ignores this situation but he reacted exactly how I expected him to. He was thrust into the unknown and without the proper rules he ended up throwing all of his attention onto one thing he felt like he could control. I’ve known plenty of people who do that. Hell, I’ve done that. That doesn’t mean it is the healthiest way to deal with pain or loss or grief. It’s a coping mechanism.

Once he’s sure it’s the chip controlling Crosshair he really latches onto this idea that if they just take the chip out then everything will be fine and dandy. In the same way that Crosshair latches onto this idea that if the batch just joins the empire that they can be whole again.

They’re both wrong.

You can tell he’s really internalized this idea of taking out the chip and everything fixing itself and when that dream is shattered he continues to disappear inside of himself. When things aren’t as simple as taking the chip out to bring Crosshair home he’s angry that suddenly this is more than just a simple fix and he doesn’t know where he stands anymore. There’s anger and hurt directed at him and the rest of the batch and he gets defensive because he thinks there shouldn’t be. He gets increasingly angry and much more confrontational than we’ve seen him be with Crosshair so far. Another worldview shattered, another chip in his already fragile armor, another reason to be fucking pissed. His anger at Crosshair finally pushed him into action, away from avoidance. Is it healthy? Still no. But none of them are really experts at coping. At least he’s letting it out. At least it is in the open. At least we are seeing his emotions bubble over onto the surface. That is what makes me personally interested. Those messy, painful, unhelpful emotions wreacking havoc and making things worse.

We see Hunter buckle down and let his anger fester. I think he continues to do that all the way through season 2 and his conflict with Echo isn’t helping. I have an entire post somewhere in my drafts about Echo and Hunter’s joint leadership but I’ll boil it down to a few points to focus them on Hunter.

Hunter needs a second in command especially now. He isn’t at his best as a leader and maybe that’s not really what the batch needs right now. The GAR is gone. Their lives are upside down. He needs support but he won’t ask for it - stubborn as hell he is. That’s why Echo really helps. I rewatched the seasons specifically to focus on Echo and I think we can see signs of his and Hunter’s joint leadership from the very beginning even before Hunter needs him for support. In a world of uncertainty you need someone to hold on to, someone to help make decisions. His conflict with Echo in season two is just making him more unsteady. The prospect of losing someone else and losing his voice of reason is wearing on him and it only gets worse as time goes on. Sure, he knows they can get by without Echo around but I don’t think he wants that. He was leaning on Echo and once they started disagreeing he realized that maybe he was going to either have to open himself up to relying on everyone else or close up again.

I’d wager that he chose the latter for the most part.

Hunter doesn’t like relying on others. He has this big idea in his head that he’s meant to be the one who has it down but… come on. None of us can do that. I’ve seen a lot of people compare Hunter to an oldest sibling and as the youngest of four I’m not sure I really have much insight into that particular notion but as the sibling who took on the greatest responsibilities in my home I feel this tug of responsibility to the detriment of yourself and others and I see you, Hunter. I see you and you need to stop.

Maybe that’s why I get so frustrated with Hunter in particular. I want him to grow out of this. I want him to change and develop and be angry and show his care more often. That’s part of why I loved S3 E5 so much. Hunter got fucking pissed. He was angry and he let it out and he shoved Crosshair and he showed just how badly he was hurt by everything. Fuck I love that. This is what I wanted to see. Finally he’s forgetting to keep it together and in front of Crosshair he is finally willing to lose his temper. Something really tells me that they used to lose their temper at each other because it was safe to. They clearly don’t know how to talk about their emotions and sort it out like many of us know or learn to - that will hopefully come with time and maturity - but they sure did know how to yell and use their strength against each other. So they fight. And they hurt each other. Then they make up and move forward because what else are they meant to do? They’re going to forgive each other. It’s how it always is - a given.

Hunter’s relationship to loyalty is not anywhere near the same as Crosshair’s but all of the batch end up having some relationship with it one way or another. There’s an excellent post floating around tumblr somewhere and I couldn’t find it to save my life (if you know what I’m talking about and can find the post feel free to link it somewhere) but it says something about how eventually the batch is going to embody the idea that they ‘don’t leave their own behind’ because they simply haven’t remained true to that sentiment yet - through lack of choice or active avoidance. They’ve repeated it a few times and yet the sentiment feels flat as they keep having to leave members of their squad behind or let them walk away themselves. Eventually they’re going to have to prove this sentiment and only then do I really think the show’s true theme can be accomplished.

I want to touch briefly on Hunter’s relationship to touch because I think it comes into play here (and it is admittedly one of my favorite things about him.) He uses touch a lot more than I think we give him credit for. Yes he’s closed off emotionally and he’s not great at talking but he does use touch a lot. He uses it with Echo for reassurance and as a factor to convince him of things often. A plan Echo doesn’t like? Shoulder touch. Echo is still new and Hunter is telling him he’ll get used to things? Shoulder touch. Saying goodbye, serious chat, acknowledging his worries? Touch touch touch. This man doesn’t always know how to use his words but he’s good at putting what he means into a physical reminder. What does the touch say? Loads of things. That he’s there, that what he is saying is not meant to hurt, that he’s pissed, that he’s listening. He does it with Wrecker and Omega and - thinking of their fight - Crosshair but I can’t actually think of an instance where he uses touch with Tech. I could have just missed it so let me know if there are scenes where he does this. He’s relied on physical reminders for so long that maybe words just… aren’t what he uses to communicate. You can feel the way his mood shifts when him and Echo are disagreeing by the way he moves him physically. It’s really those moments that I feel Hunter shines most because those moments are where he feels most open as a character - at least from my perspective.

I use his relationship to touch when I write him and, specifically, when that touch is rejected, what does that feel like for him? When I write him I look at it from a perspective of how he interacts with the world and what he thinks he can give to it. When his most comfortable form of communication - that shoulder touch we all tease about - is rejected and he can’t rely on that anymore what does that look like? Could just be the fact that I lean very heavily towards touch as a form of communication and repair but I focus on it a lot and it deserves a mention while talking about Hunter.

In truth, Hunter is hard for me. I see the avoidance, I see the anger, I see his pain, and yet I still have this feeling that I don’t really see him. What does Hunter really want? Because we’ve only ever seen him talk about what he wants to do for other people. But what motivates Hunter? We can say that it’s keeping his people safe or that it’s settling down or even just boil it down to Omega but what is actually under the surface there? For everyone else I can pretty much pinpoint what it is that motivates them but Hunter is a blank area for me. He says what motivates him but I am much more inclined to believe there is something else really eating at him underneath it all. I also want to suggest that maybe he hides behind doing things for other people to avoid feeling selfish. If he’s doing all of this to protect his squad then he’s not doing all of this because he wants to and it’s not a selfish decision. While I don’t think finding somewhere safe to settle down is selfish I get the feeling that maybe Hunter thinks it is for him specifically. Like he is not allowed to but maybe if it’s about everyone else then it’s fine. It’s always ‘Omega deserves better’ and ‘you betrayed us.’ Never ‘this is what I want and this is how I feel.’

Crosshair’s value system is very strict and at times harsh and unmoving. Echo has a sense of duty and protection that is strong enough to push him into action. Wrecker is motivated by the thrill of things but also by supporting his loved ones. Tech is curious and intelligent, seeking out new experiences and an interest in preservation. But what is Hunter’s motivation aside from ‘settle down’? That’s a goal, sure, but I’m not sure it’s really the right word to place on what he really wants deep down outside of what he wants for other people. I’m not sure I really know the answer to that question.

To make a long post even longer I’d like to see what Hunter wants when it is not connected to his service to other people. What is it that fuels him? Is it the serene calmness of safety that he craves? Being free from worry? Is it the freedom to make choices that he never would have gotten in the GAR? I’m almost inclined to say it’s a bit of everything but I still don’t really know and I would love to actually hear what people think the baseline motivator is for him personally.

[deuterosapiens]

It is one-thirty in the morning, just a normal sort of September night. There's a cat stretched asleep on my bed, a raccoon being annoying outside my window. A clock chimed for the half-hour. I have finished Brothersong.

There's a kind of voice I like to use when I'm writing about these books. I tend to exaggerate my feelings a bit, joke about some of the weirder moments. There's a running vocabulary of stupid in-jokes throughout my posts; things I find amusing that I hope illicit at least an eye roll or a smirk.

I do not think I can maintain that level of self-amusement, right now. I don't want to, not for this one.

I am not exaggerating, playing it up or anything, when I say that I simply could not stop crying throughout the end. Ox's death, Joe's sacrifice, Thomas Bennett at the clearing. This was not fun, this was not pleasant, this was honestly very difficult for me to read.

Let's do a bit of basic addition: Wolfsong (498); Ravensong (496); Heartsong (468); Brothersong (468). One thousand nine-hundred and thirty pages total.

That's one thousand nine hundred thirty pages of love, heartbreak, beauty and death. I nearly dropped the first book halfway through because I was going through a break-up and Joe's decision to leave Ox behind in pursuit of the beast who murdered his father felt like too much at the time. I'm very glad I didn't, but I don't exactly feel glad in the sense that I'm particularly happy right now.

A few days ago, I mentioned how much I was stalling this book, because I knew I wasn't really ready to finish it. There's not exactly more to fall back on, you know?

Not another book, a new villain, a new perspective, or mystery, or awkward gay love to uncover. Just, an ending.

Hell, just finding the right way to talk about how I'm feeling right now, about the book in question, Brothersong, the book I just finished, isn't exactly going well for me.

I've said quite a bit about the late Thomas Bennett. I have been mildly curious about his letter to Joe's future mate, but doubted it would really make an appearance, since, there being no other book, there's no reason to have a viewpoint character read it that isn't Ox. I was wrong.

Ox is. He just is.

Gavin is, as I've said before, the type of man I would fall hopelessly for. Carter has his work cut out for him, but it's a wonderful future nonetheless.

Joe's no longer the Alpha of All, and I'm glad to see this. I'm happy for him. So much could have been avoided if this responsibility had not been given to him.

I'm glad there's exactly no clarity whatsoever on the Chris and Tanner situation. Whatever they've got works for them, and who am I to judge?

Gordo is free of the last of his demons. I hope Mark gets to smile more.

Kelly and Robbie will forever be the definition of "illegally cute couple". Sickening, really, but in a good way.

I just... what's next?

I love these idiots, and I'm glad most of them have a happy ending.

I'm going to leave this here, for personal reasons:

And, this, because it is very true to how these books are sitting with me now:

I think I'm turning in for the night. I've got work in the morning. I'll find another book to read, something that won't depress me as much.

As always, I am lying.

[bluegekk0]

What sort of sounds does the family make? Like what types of sounds do they make when they purr, cough, breath, etc? Even though you compared fpk and the kids as a cat, for some reason I imagine them making some dinosaur or dragon sounds.

Yeah the cat comparison isn't 100% accurate when it comes to sounds. Honestly, it's difficult to really pinpoint any animal reference for what I have in mind.

But to answer your question, I think they all make similar sounds to some extent.

The purr would be closer to the purring of Jurassic Park Velociraptors, I imagine. The sounds at 0:35-0:38 in particular. So very different to what cats sound like. Grimm, Vyrm, their kids and Hornet all can make this kind of sound. In the case of Holly and Zote, Holly can make quiet rumble like sounds; and with Zote I haven't actually thought about it, since I can't really imagine him making any sounds like that. Some of this purring can be heard when they speak in a low pitched tone or very quietly. Additionally, none of them can roar, and whenever Grimm loses his voice as a result of his body breaking down at the end of the ritual cycle, his voice becomes a lot more raspy and hiss-like. In many ways it makes him sound like he's wheezing and struggling to catch his breath.

Coughing, sneezing, whimpering, or even just talking, all those sounds they make have this guttural, raspy quality to them. In the case of the kids, they do make meow like noises as well as other sounds, only because their vocabulary and speaking ability basically only allow them to say "papa" and other simple words. Lewk, for example, already communicates through words, though on occasion he still purrs to show emotion. This is something I imagine they will grow out of eventually, and those animal-like sounds will be pushed to the background to allow for primarily verbal communication.

Worldbuilding wise, I think it makes sense that speech would be the primary way of communication, for the simple fact that their society consists of bugs of many different tribes (this is the word I use for very closely related species in the universe, btw), each of them with different sound communication systems or body language. In some cases, certain gestures or sounds may have completely different meanings between individual tribes, so successfully incorporating them into a common language would be very difficult. And for this reason, animal-like sounds aren't as common as you'd expect, they are, like I said, mostly involuntary responses.

As a result, all the bugs put effort into limiting those sounds to a minimum to avoid misunderstandings. Consequently, them using those animal-like sounds during interactions is fairly rare. They are capable of making those noises, but, for example, they rarely growl or hiss at danger. However, if for any reason they lose control of their actions and revert to instincts, those sounds become far more prominent.

As a side note, this is also something I thought about as I developed the AU. Over time, Vyrm became a lot less animal-like, in the past I (and consequently, people in my inbox, for example) very often treated him like an animal, which was entertaining at the time but as I explored his character more and more I realized how dehumanizing it was. It's something you can see in his design as well, he looks a lot more like a small person rather than a wild critter. I'm a lot more comfortable with this portrayal, taking his character more seriously and less like a "cute huggable critter" helped me flesh out his personality to a much larger extent, and as a result, connect to him a lot more. In general I tend to see him a lot more like, well, a person, rather than a cute little thing or a beast, even if I may jokingly refer to him as the latter sometimes.

And to bring this back on topic, this development also means that I don't see him making animal noises as frequently as I maybe stated in the past. Like I said, all the characters can make some animal-like sounds to some extent, but speech is the primary form of communication in the AU, at least within the family and Dirtmouth.

Sorry for this being all over the place, I wasn't sure how to approach this ask and my thoughts on this are quite incoherent and messy. I hope at least some of it was understandable.

[this-is-z-art-blog]

Hi, I saw your answer to someone asking about what a Hannuka celebration is usually like and I thought it was really well thought-out and helpful. I was wondering if you might be willing to give me some insight on other Jewish holidays. This was actually inspired by the DP Hannuka challenge. I'm writing a long DP fanfic that's largely from Sam's perspective and when I saw the challenge I thought this was a great time to write some holiday scenes. But when I started researching Hannuka I read that it's not really a major holiday I wanted to know which holidays hold more significant meaning and...well, I went down a rabbit hole and I feel like I HAVE to make sure I do Sam's cultural heritage justice.

The part I'm writing right now takes place in autumn. I wanted to include a little bit about her family celebrating/participating in Rosh Hashana and the ten days of awe. The thing is, I have absolutely no frame of reference; I hadn't even heard of it until a few days ago. Its surprisingly difficult to find descriptions of what exactly people do to observe that holiday besides food. There's plenty to read about the food haha.

I was wondering if you might be willing to share with me your experience with autumn traditions. Your description of Hannuka was so helpful and you seemed open to more questions. But if you're not comfortable please don't feel any pressure, my goal here is to be respectful and I honestly don't know enough about Jewish Culture to know if I'm being rude so please tell me if I am. I live in a predominantly Christian area and the majority of my cultural knowledge on the subject comes from TV which tends to only bring up Judaism when a character talks about Hannuka instead of Christmas so I am basically an uncultured goldfish.

First of all, thank you, and thank you for reaching out. I love talking about this stuff in general, and I especially really enjoy helping people navigate representing characters' Judaism in their works. I know it can be really intimidating to do research on your own- you don't know what questions to ask, or what's a reliable source, or what's unilaterally true vs what varies community to community, and you want to do a good job and not perpetuate something hurtful or harmful- it's a lot! So while I want to be clear I'm just one person speaking from my personal experience and knowledge, Jews are not a monolith and Jewish thought and experience varies a lot, you can always reach out and I'll do my best to help.

Note, the Jewish calendar is lunar, which is about ten days shorter than the solar year, which is why Jewish holidays don't have the same Gregorian date year to year. Every three years (roughly) we have a whole extra 'leap month' to keep the seasons on track, because certain holidays have to be in certain seasons (most notably Passover). Jewish days also begin at sundown and end at about an hour past ('three stars in the sky') the next day, ie Shabbat is Friday evening to Saturday night each week. The high holidays are in the fall, generally, but to know when specifically something is myjewishlearning or chabad are websites you can look up 'what date is [holiday] + [year]'

Rosh Hashanah (literally translated 'head of the year'), New Year's (one of four actually). Kicks off the high holidays, both very joyous and very reflective. Apples and honey is the classic holiday treat, for a sweet new year. Challah for this holiday is often made in a circular shape, for the cycle of the year, rather than the normal Shabbat braided loaves, and sometimes people will make it with cinnamon sugar or raisins for sweetness. You also begin reaching out to make amends to people you may have hurt over the past year, a process that continues throughout the high holidays. A big theme of the high holidays is Teshuva, which is sometimes translated as repentance but is more closely 'return'. It's about making sincere apologies and doing the work to get better and avoid repeating the same kinds of harm. I once texted a non-Jewish friend of mine an apology for a previous fight of ours around this time that for her came kind of out of nowhere, which made her think I was dying. People often have a family meal together. Fun fact, the current Jewish year is 5784. Two days long kinda. Holy

The ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, as you flagged, the Days of Awe or Days of Return (or in Hebrew they're the aseret yamei teshuva) are more on this theme of reflection and amends. Many participate sometime in here in a practice called tashlich, where you symbolically release bread crumbs (or some other crumpled foodstuff that may be more suited to your local aquatic life) into the water (typically a river, but sometimes your local Water is a lake or ocean) as a way to release your guilt and regrets and move forward into the new year knowing you've done all you can and you now have a clean slate

Yom Kippur ('day of atonement'), holiest day of the Jewish calendar. One of two major fasts (full day, rather than dawn to dusk). Very thoughtful and contemplative, typically a full day of synagogue services reflecting. We spend most of the day thinking about death. For many communities it's traditional to wear white or to avoid gold. You think about your wrongdoings and how to improve in the coming year, and deeply consider whether you've made your amends and if you've sincerely put in the work to change and improve where you need it.

Sukkot! Rounds off the high holidays, eight day festival that starts five days after Yom Kippur. You build a small structure called a sukkah (you BET there are a hundred specific details) in your yard and take meals in it together, big holiday for guests and visiting. First two and last two days are holy, middle four are still part of the holiday but are more mundane, and you go about your regular life (ie you can use electronics and go to work). Many observe the daily mitzvot of eating something in the sukkah, and shaking the lulav and etrog (a gathering of four plants, the lulav (palm frond), myrtle branch, willow branch are bundled together and the etrog (citron) in your other hand, symbolizes gathering in all the different kinds of our people). At the last days of Sukkot is the holiday Simchat Torah ('the joy of the torah'), where we reach the end of the annual cycle of reading the Torah and begin it anew. VERY joyous and boisterous, big holiday for dancing.

Also, here's an extremely quick and dirty rundown of other the other more prominent Jewish holidays (I'm basically skipping a number of minor fasts and smaller celebrations, but also, hannukkah is on this list, and it is nowhere near the scale of importance as Rosh Hashaha).

Hannukkah. Eight day festival in the winter, lighting a nine branched menorah (the ninth candle lights the others, one more each night ie night one you light one night eight you light eight, once again a THOUSAND little laws and specifics. we are a pedantic people). You have heard of this one

Tu B'Shevat! Late winter/early spring holiday that is the new year for trees. (The name is just the date, the 15th of the month Shevat. Most though not all Jewish holidays are on the 1st or 15th of the month, or, the new or full moon). Big holiday for planting trees or trying new fruits

Purim! Early spring. In a leap year this happens twice (though 'little Purim' is a much smaller holiday). This one is bonkers and criminally underrated. Costumes, giving gifts both to charity and to your friends and family, telling the story of that time a guy tried to kill us all and failed so hard we eat cookies shaped like his stupid hat to this day (hamantaschen or oznei haman, it's just the Yiddish or Hebrew name for them respectively)

Pesach or Passover, you have probably heard of this one. Springtime! Can't eat leavened grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, rye) so you gotta clean ALL your stuff out. Most Orthodox Ashkenazim also don't eat 'kitniyot', basically, similar food categories that include nuts, beans, corn, and rice, so if that's your tradition it's pretty thorough. First two nights are the Seder, a large, meandering meal where we tell the story of the holiday (in my family we regularly sit down around seven, don't get to the 'eat the Meal' part until nine, and are at the table til midnight. Many families are a little more effecient but many are even less). First two and last two days are holy, first two days especially are a big time for visiting family

The seven weeks from Passover to Shavuot are a period of time called the Omer, mostly just focused on counting up (not down) the days to Shavout. On the 36th day, Lag B'Omer (name is once again just the day) it's a holiday celebrated largely with bonfire parties

Shavuot (name just means 'weeks', for the seven weeks we count to get here) is the holiday that celebrates receiving the Torah. Celebrated with study of Torah and many have a custom to eat dairy (or just not meat), holy, two days-ish

Tisha B'av is a day of mourning, and the other major fast. Commemorates a lot of various tragedies and traumas. The weeks leading up to it go through a few stages of mourning and mourning practices

Elul is the full month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, and is something of a 'ramp up' to the attitudes and festivities, where you start thinking about your past and coming year

Shabbat. As mentioned this one is every week, holy day of rest from sundown Friday to a little later Saturday. Many celebrate by going to synagogue and/or holding a meal together Friday night and/or Saturday afternoon

Miscellaneous note, safety always comes first. If there is an emergency that would require you to break a rule of the holiday, do it. The principle is called pikuach nefesh, or protection of the soul (life)

Holy days are traditionally (though not everyone observes in this way and specifics vary, it is none of my business, repsonsibility, or interest to tell other Jewish folks what to do) observed by a number of restricitons that I like the categorize as just being part of the world, not trying to create or destory anything within it. The specifics have a lot to do with laws tracing back to not participating in argricultural or textile labor, but most relevant to my life personally is not turning on or off electronics (or fire), and no writing/drawing/fabric crafts.

Again NOT every Jew does full traditional observances of every holiday and that a) is NONE of my or anyone's business b) does not somehow make them 'less' Jewish. Judaism belongs to every Jew and is theirs to decide what to do with. That said, it is a chip on my shoulder when the only Jewish characters I see depicted in media, overwhelmingly written by gentile creators, go over the top to stress how much they hate following Jewish law or how much they love not doing it; feels like people are only interested in having Jewish characters whose Judaism is either a total joke, or it has to be as unobtrusive as possible- which is another reason I try to make myself available to answer questions you might have about how TO include your characters' Judaism

[magicaldogtoto]

I've mostly avoided any discourse surrounding Wonderful Precure, mainly because 1.) I don't want to get sucked into it (there's only so many hours in a day, and I work full time), and 2.) I for the most part genuinely find the show entertaining (as a dog person and fan of older shows like Scooby-Doo, I find Komugi and Iroha's dynamic a lot of fun).

But I knew when I watched Cure Nyammy's debut last weekend that there was going to be some discussion regarding her use of physical attacks on the Garugaru, and how Cure Wonderful and Cure Friendy's response to it essentially condemns the use of violence (in a Precure show, which is a franchise that in previous installments has relied heavily on action scenes).

Look, I'm not going to lie: I like action scenes in shows I watch, magical girl or otherwise. They can be very cathartic when done right, and shows like Precure, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Ultraman tend to do them very right. Even as Wonderful Precure is airing, I'm also watching the original Futari Wa Precure and getting a kick out of it. (I also like lore and worldbuilding more, but that's for another time.) I found people reacting negatively to this part of WanPre's recent episode interesting, not only in the context of a magical girl show, but in the context of superhero fiction in general (which the warrior type of magical girl is a part of).

Twitter user @/MagicalGirlOTD made a small thread relating to this that got me thinking about the use of fighting as a solution to problems in works of fiction. Particularly, they commented that many magical girl shows that feature fighting run the risk of feeling the same all the time. Adding to this, they commented "This is the end result of the genre heavily favoring 'we can fight but we also need peace!' for the last 30 years."

It made me think of an old blog post by American comics writer J.M. DeMatteis (whose work I have complicated feelings about, though I admire his idealism and enthusiasm for his craft). In his 2018 blog post "Slugging It Out," DeMatteis spoke on the then-recent premiere of the CW's Black Lightning, and how (though he found it to be to a good start and was looking forward to how the plot panned out) it seemed to highlight what he called "the massive crack in the foundation of the entire superhero genre." As DeMatteis goes on to explain: 

"No matter how much these characters talk about high ideals, non-violence or the power of love, in the end it often comes down to two people in costumes dropping buildings on each other’s heads.  (And the more street level, the more realistic, your story is, the more difficult those scenes become:  A space battle against aliens plays out very differently than, say, Batman beating the hell out of a common criminal*.)"

People like to talk about magical girls and how idealistic they are in areas like love and friendship; there's nothing wrong with that. In fact it's one of the things I admire about the genre. But one can just as easily see the same people also talk about how much ass their favorite magical girl can kick. (In fact, there are more than a few characters I'm introduced to through people just saying "So-And-So can kick [Insert other character/magical girl from another show they find overrated]'s ass easily!")

I don't think there's a clean-cut solution to this--it's just human nature, in the end. DeMatteis himself has spoken about how he's often tried to address this problem in superhero stories, only to be rebuffed by editors because doing so would call into question the very nature of superhero fiction. He's still happily writing for Marvel and DC, though, so he doesn't seem too bothered by it (but personally I do like his non-superhero work, since he doesn't have to worry about those limitations).

I'm not a pacifist, by any means. I think there is a time for fighting. And I like reading and watching stories that feature cool battles in addition to cool characters and fun adventures. But there's always a small part of me that does think about these kinds of things. Maybe I'll always be thinking about it, until the end of my life.

There's already a lot of magical girl stories where the girls end up fighting monsters and bad guys. There's also a lot of shows where the magical girl doesn't really fight (I personally like Princess Tutu and the way Tutu goes through her conflicts). Maybe this concept of not wanting to harm the monsters is something one doesn't really expect in Precure. But I don't know, I don't think it's really bad to show children they have a non-violent option now and then. Just my two cents.

(*Yes I'm aware that what Batman does is the subject of its own discourse; I'm just quoting the guy. And he's written for Batman, to boot.)

[eli0004]

Levi's violent, belligerent actions do not mean that he is a "pessimist". Whenever Levi is violent, it is mostly to save his own life and the lives of others. It is true that his actions would be considered evil, but wouldn't you also choose violence if you were faced with a threat to harm you and your loved ones? Let us not forget that he did it out of necessity and in self-defense, not out of pleasure. His roughness is due to his difficult upbringing. I'm sure even he wouldn't want to be like that. I don't need to talk about his mentality, I don't think he would ever think anything pessimistic or cruel. I won't even say I don't think, he wouldn't think.

So on the contrary, he would be very disturbed if his partner had something evil in him, like if he was cruel, ruthless, deceitful, arrogant, selfishly pessimistic, not caring about other people's feelings, other people's lives, and so on.

So I don't understand why you people insist that he will not be with someone who is very optimistic. I believe he has a weakness for selfless, thoughtful people, people who have a purity of goodness in them and he will be drawn to them. Just like himself. I think he would admire people who have these qualities intact in this cruel world.

It's not for nothing that we say he is the most emotional person in the series and the heart of Sc he has a big indiscriminate heart.

And I want to say that this discourse of yours disturbs the people who ship Levi with their optimistic, innocent, weak characters/themselves, and their trust is shaken. It's not just you, there are so many such discourses, those who were upset because they believed that Levi would not like them, and they even say that they avoid reading fanfic, Hc, so as not to see discourses that would make them uncomfortable. Whereas hcs and fanfics are supposed to be about comfort and fun.

If I have to express my own opinion, he First of all, I think that the romance will progress depending on the plot and dynamics, regardless of the character of the partner. Levi is too complex a character to be reduced to criteria and rules. He would be with both an average, optimistic civilian and a soldier with a compassionate character with a pure heart who would not spoil his goodness in this cruel world. And more like that. But I don't think that a character like him, who is selfless, compassionate, values life, every life, cares about the dreams and feelings of others, can be with a cruel, arrogant, selfish character who harbors pessimism, who does not care about life and human life.

Anon, do you know what pessimism means?

A pessimist is a person who is inclined to expect poor outcomes. Someone who tends to see things from a glass half empty perspective, if you will. I am a pessimist, i have OCD and severe anxiety, I’ve always been very focused on all the ways that life could go wrong for me, and i worry about those outcomes a lot. Pessimism is not synonymous with Evil or violence, lots of people with depression or people who have been through or seen hard things are inclined to pessimism. The fact that you put pessimistic and cruel in the same sentence is actually wild.

Additionally, i wrote that he is a deeply emotional character who is very much “in his head” meaning he thinks a lot. I even talked about how he has a very high level of emotional maturity.

And, dear anon, that fifth paragraph💀

Did you know that tumblr has over 547 million users? I’m sure that somewhere in there, there are people who write Levi the way you, and apparently everyone you’re speaking on behalf of, want them to write him. I would encourage you to leave my blog and go find those people. Because you’re absolutely right, tumblr, especially the fanfiction community here, is a place for comfort and fun, so doesn’t this mean that those of us who write him like i do deserve to feel those things? It’s not mandatory that you read my content, and to say that my viewpoints make people uncomfortable to the point of not wanting to read fanfiction???? That’s crazy anon, wild, and honestly it’s terribly manipulative. Also i don’t care.

There are cruel and inhumane things happening everywhere, the world has a lot wrong with it at the moment, i am very involved in humanitarianism and activism. I find your passion for writing essays in fanfiction writer’s inboxes to defend a fictional character to be pretty impressive, but you should direct all that fire towards something that actually makes a difference.

“If i have to express my own opinion”

You don’t, actually, it was unwarranted, but regardless:

Sure, that’s definitely some great stuff you have there, and I’m sure people would love it if you wrote your own content surrounding those ideas. And finally, that last sentence…WHAT????

Anon please explain how you read “He likes someone who is genuine, trustworthy and dependable. Someone who has a strong sense of justice and empathy, who defends and advocates for others when they are unable to defend themselves.” And took from that “cruel, arrogant, and selfish character who harbors pessimism.”

Here’s a short story about something that happened to me last year:

My cat, whom I’ve had for almost nine years, became sick. I took him to the vet and they told me that since triage would take a while due to the amount of people who were there, I could go home and come pick him up when they called me. At the time i was 6 months pregnant and very tired so i went home and cried for several hours, as i was very upset that my cat wasn’t home with me, very upset that he was sick, and I was scared because, as a pessimist, i usually expect the worst outcome. My partner, however is an optimist, and his way of trying to help me was to tell me that everything would go well and that my cat would be fine. But that only served to irritate me, because it was so directly oppositional to my own way of thinking, that it felt like I was being lied to, or given false hope. I would’ve found more comfort in having him sit with me and think over my fears rationally: ex. sure he might be terminally ill, but he also might have just eaten something he shouldn’t have eaten. It turned out that his new wet food wasn’t agreeing with his stomach, so sure, he was fine, but sometimes my worries get in the way of my ability to see that.

A realist is a person who recognizes what is real or possible in a particular situation, and who accepts and deals with things as they really are.

Anyway…do with that what you will, i guess. I normally wouldn’t respond to messages like this but, wow, this was insane and i felt obligated to correct you.

[secretmellowblog]

For the character ask game: Cosette, 2 + 25 👀

Thanks for the ask, even though I'm answering it late! (For this ask meme) #2. Favorite canon thing about this character? My favorite canon thing about Cosette is the way she parallels Jean Valjean-- not just in their traumatic backstories, but also in the way they both often "perform" politeness and kindness. Cosette needs to perform happiness for Jean Valjean in order to convince him to take care of himself, and it's...deeply sad! She has to 'trick' him into not doing self-destructive things by framing it in cheerful lighthearted ways, papering over difficult problems with polite nothings, pretending not to be that frightened or upset, and it's...very sad. And it feels like something that he taught her. The moments when she attempts to stop all the cheerfulness and talk to her father directly always tend to end with Jean Valjean breaking down-- like the moment when she asks "are you angry with me because I am happy?" or her attempts to ask directly about her mother, which both end with Jean Valjean shedding tears and avoiding her questions. There's something very realistic about that failure to communicate. I don't know whether Hugo fully considered this a negative thing-- but I do think he understands the way that children often put on a great performance of happiness in order to help their parents. Cosette is in many ways just Victor Hugo projecting his trauma over the death of his own young daughter onto Jean Valjean and Cosette's relationship, and like. As much as Cosette's writing is often deeply imperfect/ sexist, and as much as I think she should've been given more interiority and agency in the end of the story--- I think you can tell that Hugo did sincerely love his daughter? Cosette doesn't feel like a one-note cloying ingenue to me, but a fictionalized version of a real daughter Victor Hugo sincerely loved. I also think that Child-Cosette in particular is written very well! Lots of authors struggle to write children, but Hugo really captures a lot of the way children think and speak-- young Cosette isn't a cloying innocent ingenue, she's a starving frightened angry child, and it makes her teenage self far more interesting as a contrast. As a random addition: Hugo doesn't go into this, but it's fascinating how Cosette is extremely good at lying. She and Jean Valjean kind of share that talent. Very few people manage to trick Jean Valjean-- Marius fails utterly at pretending he's not in love with Cosette, and falls into all of his traps-- but Cosette manages to hide a secret love affair from him for a very long time. It's interesting how the two of them are very good at lying and concealing things from each other, and I don't fully know what to make of it.

Also my hot take is that anyone who thinks Cosette is a bland one-note ingenue should read Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and contrast her with Lucie Manette. XD I used to be obsessed with A Tale of Two Cities, but it's basically just "what if Les Mis was bad and all the criticisms about it were actually true?" That novel also features a young ingenue who takes care of her traumatized ex-prisoner father-- but unlike Cosette, Lucie has no interiority or depth, and doesn't feel like anything resembling a real human young girl. All of the interesting things about Cosette- like her naivete/coming of age story, or the way her excessive bubbliness is often an act she puts on for her father's happiness, or her silly funny dialogue, or her own hard past that parallels her father's-- just aren't there. Again, there are lots of places where I think Hugo's writing of Cosette fails; but there's also a lot of interesting details that are easy for people to explore and dig deeper into in fanworks.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

My first impression of this character was that she was Fine, but not very interesting? But the more I got invested in the novel and the fandom, the more I appreciated her as a character! Hugo's writing of her is deeply flawed, and she isn't given enough attention in the ending of the book specifically, but there's enough really compelling stuff there to be a great jumping off point for fanworks. I think I already answered how I see her now in the previous question, but I want to add that I also like that she's nicknamed Madame LaNoir, or the Lady in Black. Goth Cosette is canon! That's very fun to me.

[ltwharfy]

Talk to us about Arnlee! How did they become friends? What do they bond over? When does each realize that they have feelings for the other? Were they afraid to tell each other how they felt or were they confident? Would they date early in life or later?

So, I'm not sure how long it's been since I got this ask! I think a couple of weeks? But I want to start by saying how much I appreciate it. Most of the asks I get are in response to ask games or are questions that are sent to lots of members of the "Bob's Burgers" fandom- and I love being included in those! But it was really nice to get an ask related to one of my fics, and particularly about Arnold/Kaylee, the rare pair that I wrote the first fic for!!

That said, one of the reasons I didn't respond sooner (in addition to being busy and forgetting about it for a while) is that I'm still sort of figuring where I want to go next with Arnlee. I literally just noticed them dancing together in "Ancient Misbehavin'" one night and wrote a little background story for it the next day- I didn't really think about where I would go from there! And since there is less to go off about them in canon, that makes it harder for me to come up with ideas for them- I like having a clear canon starting point for my stories (several of my fics are episode tags or prologues or missing scenes- including the Arnlee story!)

But here's my current line of thought for your questions:

I really do like the idea that I came up with in "The Life of the Symposium (aka Party)" for sort of being the beginning of their friendship. I see Kaylee post-"Prank You for Being A Friend" trying to be more social and still finding it difficult, but then happening to strike up a conversation with Arnold and making a connection. I think that Arnold and Kaylee are both kind of nerdy outsiders- and I think Kaylee would like Arnold because he is more comfortable in embracing his nerdy outsiderness. He's the youngest and smallest kid in his grade, he wears his karate gi to school almost everyday- but he seems remarkably confident and comfortable in his own skin. And I think Kaylee- the girl who wants to wear her wizard cape everyday- would like that. (And I think the ability to embrace being an outsider makes them a bit different from Louise and Rudy who- if they don't actually aspire to be considered cool or popular- at the very least both seem to care too damn much about what Chloe Barbash thinks of them.)

And I guess that's sort of the dynamic I imagine for them as friends- and eventually more- is as these dorky outsiders who are just kind of happy to be themselves together. I could see them inviting the other to check out their interests- Arnold inviting Kaylee to his dojo; Kaylee getting Arnold involved with the Thinkgineers. I can see them sharing nerdy creative hobbies and interests- like RPGs, maybe even LARPing.

In terms of realizing that they have feelings for each other and dating- I see that as happening when they are at the end of their Wagstaff time/entering high school (which, yeah, is also kind of what I tend to write for Louise/Rudy. I'm a sucker for childhood friends to lovers and that time just sort of seems like a logical point for that transition. Also, it's possible that I'm a little burnt out with being a single middle-aged adult and would prefer my beloved fictional characters avoid that fate...) For Arnold and Kaylee, I think it is particularly interesting because Arnold skipped a grade so he's a year or two younger than her- which means nothing when you're an adult but can mean a lot in adolescence.

I imagine Kaylee developing feelings first and being uncomfortable with and it denial of it. Even if she managed to overcome her shyness/social anxiety to connect with Arnold and others as friends- I think that the idea of trying to make a romantic connection would still be very daunting to her. As I noted during the WIP ask game, the song "Young In Love" by Sweet Nobody gives me these series "Kaylee Morganstern with a crush" vibes, and someday I hope to write a fic on that concept using lyrics from this song as a title.

Especially with Arnold being younger, I imagine him as basically being oblivious to her feelings to him. But when she eventually tells him her feelings he's totally blown away- like he hadn't even been thinking about the possibility but as soon as he finds out she's been feeling that way he's just so happy about it!

Those are my current thoughts about them- they might change at some point between now and whenever I write another fic about them! But I truly do appreciate the opportunity to think and talk some more about my beloved nerds!

Thank you so much for the ask!!

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

When I made my "which characters read as neurodivergent" tierlist, someone pointed out in the comments that Arisa could have been put in one of the ND tiers, and I suddenly questioned why I hadn't put her there. After all, this was my response (minus the egregious typo): "Arisa I honestly tend to look at as neurodivergent. Her loneliness and being an A+ student, masking to the point of going too far with it, passionate rants, are definitely relatable in that sense."

So what possessed me to put her in the "something going on here, just not necessarily ND" tier? I've thought about it and I think I've figured it out. I like to read Arisa as physically disabled.

This is probably in the realm of headcanon, but it's the type that makes use of canon, you know? I look at her as having an invisible disability. With that in mind, I've used the fact that in the anime, she is for some reason shown sitting on a toilet a couple times (although not actually shown taking a shit, I guess she's just... sitting there...), which is very natural but just isn't the case for the other characters I feel like? That's not usually their pretty girl cute girl place to hang out... ... I've used that fact to create a metaphorical picture where she has IBS or any other sort of condition that makes it preferable for there to be a bathroom nearby at all times.

I know she's not taking a painful shit because I watched this scene, but nothing about this framing proves that she isn't.

And I genuinely think it fits her writing. Having a disability that requires regularly going to the bathroom would easily explain why she avoids going to school - not only is having to leave in the middle of class inconvenient, but it is also a difficult thing to admit to socially.

...And I know BanG Dream! is a family-friendly series with appropriately young fans, so let's get it out of the way. Haha! Poop! ...Regardless, I'd like to talk about this disability neutrally, for what it is, and speak positively about representation of it in fiction.

This is of course not mentioning the stress and fatigue that induces. So let's say Arisa has such a disability. Despite caring about being an A+ student (which she was even in her music school when she was a kid, and we know she was happy about her successes), she becomes anxious at the idea of going to school. Although her grandma isn't given much characterisation, one could infer that the knowledge that this is due to her diagnosed disability - her pain and discomfort - is why she allows her to skip school so often without questioning it. Generally, adults tend to care about that. She takes this habit from a young age and because of that, doesn't form friendships, and what little social life she has is made difficult by the anxiety she already experiences in the first place.

On top of all of this, a mix or her physical appearance and her distant behaviour has her come off as a distinguished young lady. (Not something I'm making up - Eve often mentions it, but other characters also point to her being very delicate, very well-spoken.) Keeping up that façade is made all the more stressful by knowing the social stigma that comes with having the kind of disability that affects your gastro-intestinal movements. Of course, that doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it also hides her sharp tongue. Still, why don't people know about her true personality, if not because she's extremely avoidant from the get-go? All of this explains her behaviour - avoiding social functions (from fear of being "found out"), being socially awkward (from lack of socialisation), and possibly even laying hard into the perception that she's elegant (...and that's why she's so distant, definitely no other reason...!).

And the reason I care enough to lay all of this down is that such a story is honestly very wholesome in the end. Despite her circumstances that made her avoid social life, the introverted Arisa is found by her future wife an extroverted friend who brings her out of her shell. She even ends up in a band! Despite her disability, Arisa is able to participate in social life and stand on stage, be cool, be pretty, be fun, do what she loves to do. This isn't a stress-free life... as we know, Arisa is often stressed out (see picture above). And she might even have to deal with pain and difficulties around and during concerts, but with people around her who want her to be there, the world can be made accessible, less scary and worth the effort.

I'm not against reading Arisa as another neurodivergent member of PoPiPa, especially since neurodivergent can mean many things, but something about her possessed me to think about the possibility that there's a different reason for her "being a little weird". Kasumi has to me a very clear case of ADHD, Tae is the "airhead" character which I also choose to read as a brand of ND and not just... an anime trope..., Rimi is very shy (also fits the food fixations and weird interests bill), Saaya is neurotypical as balls but her social life is impacted by external factors (her family; her mom's disability!) and I think it fits the bill that Arisa has her own reason to be isolated from the social norm. Hey, it even makes Saaya seem less like the weirdo/only neurotypical in the band! Since PoPiPa has this theme going on between the lines, I think it's interesting to look at the possibility that the factor that isolates one of them is a physical disability - because that is a genuine factor for loneliness.

[i-care-bout-things-too]

hey! Saw your tags on the post about problematic media (I'm not OP, I was just curious about the notes) and taking you on good faith: censoring words by adding non-letter characters actually makes tumblr LESS safe for people who look to filter out posts with certain content. The reasons why people self-censor on sites with stronger algorithms is avoid being deprioritized (ie, to have their posts be more popular) by those algorithms. Tumblr's blocked tag/term filter lets people pick the specific terms they don't want to see posts about/with. If I have a phobia of pineapples, and have filtered out the term pineapple, "p*ne*pple" will pass through the filter and I'll have to see content about the thing I was trying to filter out, even if the actual word wasn't used. It's also less accessible for people who use text to speech tools - how do you pronounce p*ne*pple, anyway?

(this is the most practical feedback; on a larger scale, people who are talking about dark and difficult subjects should be able to say the correct words to discuss them; on a maybe even larger scale, more censorship is never a good thing)

THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY GOOD TO KNOW AN HOUR AGO THANK YOU FOR INFORMING ME NOW.

(And thank you for taking me on good faith as you said, cause OP did NOT respond politely to my addition to the post, for reasons I nor my friend had any idea as to why. I legit had no idea what they meant so you know, this is actually very genuinely helpful and thoughtful.)

Anyway, I appreciate the correction, I don’t post online very much (reblogs dont tend to count considering I don’t actually add in my own thoughts 96% of the time) so I didn’t realize there was a proper and unproper way to censor things. I’ll edit that on the actual post to fix it properly and then leave well enough alone because honestly the vibes from OP were not it, even if they were correct to be upset I didn’t censor correctly, the way they replied wasn’t actually conductive to fixing the issue. (Hence, my smartass reply in response to their negative reply to my genuine remarks on my previous fandom, where I could have reacted differently and fixed my original mistake had I been informed to).

[midnighmoonligh]

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Fandom

Call of Duty

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Characters

Y/N ; Male ;; He/Him ; little

Farah Karim ;; She/Her ;; CG

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⚠Content Warnings⚠

Violence, War stuff, COD yk.

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Plot Summary

Y/N and Farah were working in a desert. You regressed while on watch with her and played in the sand.

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You and Farah are out on a mission. They've been laying low in the same for hours, waiting for their target to come by on the road quite a ways away from them. Farah looked over after awhile to catch you in little space and playing with the sand quietly. It makes her smile.

" Whatcha building little one? " she asked softly as she moved to be closer to you.

The gear was uncomfortable on you, occasionally trying to squirm out of it before being reminded where they were. Though you regressed, sometimes at the worst times, you tended to be pretty okay on your own.

Hearing Farah's voice, you looked up. You blinked a few times before shuffling a little against the ground to show her. You had built a little castle. Unfortunately, it fell over while you were showing her.

You pouted in defeat. It had been the third time your little castle collapsed in on itself.

She was about to move to start helping you build it back up, but then you pouted. That was more than enough to make her laugh softly, and reach for your chin to lift it up, looking you in the eyes.

" Oh? That's an excellent castle. But you were too excited to show me, and it couldn't handle your awesomeness. So we need to rebuild so you can show off. " She smiled at you.

The words visibly helped cheer you up. You quickly smiled at her words, quietly wiggling in your spot before shifting to be a little closer to her.

" 'm wana rebuild, " you decided proudly.

(I wanna rebuild)

" Very well, rebuild we shall. " she agreed softly as she leaned over to help you fix it.

You noticed the sand didn't bother her at all. It made you glad, honestly. You happily did your best to help her, though it often fell over. There was no water holding the same together, so there wasn't much hope in rebuilding the castle. They couldn't spare water either, it wasn't smart.

After a few minutes, you could hear faint footsteps coming, so you both lay completely still. You became tense while you waited for Farah to give the okay that you could move or something.

Thankfully, it was just another person on their team. You watched quietly as they explained to Farah that the area was clear now and they could start heading back to base. You easily ignored the glances you got while you rested your head into your arms, laying on your stomach still.

Soon enough, the person took their leave. Once the person on the team was far enough away to not see them, Farah looked over at you and smiled.

" That was a great job. Now come here you silly little one, and lets go back. " she reached out her hand to you. Her black combat sleeve had been rolled up at the wrist, exposing her tanned skin.

You beamed at the praise, giving a small wiggle before reaching out and taking her hand. You tugged himself onto your feet. It was a little hard only because you had been laying down for so long. Even after standing, you quietly held onto her hand. You hoped she didn't mind... though figured she wouldn't care honestly.

She got up with grace, and lead you over to start walking. Of course, you followed. You followed Farah around like a lost puppy. She quickly noticed you were still holding her hand, so she gave a light squeeze, as if reassuring you it was okay. In a soft voice, as not to be heard by anyone else.

" I know how difficult missions can be. I'm so happy we are almost done. "

You nodded in agreement, but avoided talking. You didn't trust yourself to talk. She looked over at you and noticed you were quiet, but didn't want to ask out loud in case you weren't okay with it. You weren't really open about being a little, last time didn't go well so... At least you could agree with being excited to going home. You couldn't wait to get the sand, dirt, and mud off of you.

Soon, you both would arrive to where everyone has placed themselves. They were preparing vehicles, mostly worn trucks and motorcycles, so everyone could head back to base now that the area was clear. Unsure what to do, with your sweet little small brain, you awkwardly stood next to Farah. You just wanted to fer this gear off. It's heavy and uncomfortable.

Soon, Farah gently tugged you along by your linked hands. She lead you towards one of the trucks, helping you into it quickly. After making sure you we're buckled in, she got into the drivers seat. You peeled off your gloves once in the car, sinking into the seat and rubbing at your eyes. As you did, Farah was settling into her own seat. It had been a long few days, the only thing being on your mind was a nice bath. She didn't waste a lot of time driving along with everyone else to get back home, back at base.

It wasn't until you were a good few miles from the mission point did she reach over to squeeze your hand again.

" You're doing amazing. I know that it's hard to be in little space and not be understood, but we don't have much longer now. You'll be able to rest when we get back home. "

You gently held Farah's hand in yours, quietly watching it while you leaned against the door. The humming of the truck on the road was making you drowsy. Your hand was bigger than hers, though expected given your differing biological genders.

It didn't take long before the road became dark as the sun was now all but fully set, and the sky was just barely a hint of pink. The car was fairly quiet, and a small yawn escaped Farah as well as she looked over, noticing your drowsy expression.

" Hey now, no fallin asleep. We're almost there. " she joked as she playfully bumped your shoulder with her arm.

You whined softly, shifting in an unconscious movement to squirm away. The action had woken you up a bit, but you didn't like it. Obviously, you're tired. It was making you grumpy.

" 'm seepy, " you mumbled, expressing how tired you are vocally.

(I'm sleepy)

You leaned back against the passenger door, settling back down quickly while blinking slowly at the road in front of them. You heard a soft chuckle from Farah as you started to drift off.

" No no, no sleeping yet. We'll be home and you can rest all you want in just a few minutes. Don't worry, we are almost there. " she protested again as she continued to drive, one hand on the steering wheel as she rubbed your head with the other hand.

Unfortunately the rubbing didn't help. You let out a small, low, hum. Your eyes flickering closed for a few seconds. You genuinely almost fell asleep by it. Her words of protest bouncing right off your mind. She realized she lost as your head began to sag against the door. She decided to let you fall asleep for just a little bit, since she knew you'd probably wake back up again.

" Go ahead and sleep a little, " she whispered, her voice barely audible since it was mostly meant for you.

You didn't really reply, rather, you let yourself sleep finally. You chewed on your bottom lip quietly in an attempt to sooth yourself to sleep faster. It worked too. Before you knew it, you were out cold.

***

It was about an hour later when you were walem up with a soft shake. You whined, mumbling slurred small words about things unable to be understood. It made Farah smile.

" Wake up little one. We're about to go inside, " she gently spoke, being stubborn with waking you.

She chuckled as she was met with a small death glare. Unfortunately your pout didn't do anything but make it cute.

" Come on sweetheart, " she snorted as she gently tugged your arms.

You replied, of course. You cared about her too much. You huffed, grumpy from the lack of sleep you've been getting while on field. You make sure to grab your gloves before carefully getting out of the truck. Really, it was more of a controlled fall then hopping out. You rubbed at your eyes before Farah has grabbed your hand. She began to lead you from the parking space into the building.

Your tired mind didn't even process when you arrived at your room. You blinked a few times after realizing you were back in the safe space. You looked around, smiling sleepily. You tossed your gloves into the oblivion of the space.

" 'm wan a bath, " you huffed out grumpily.

(I want a bath)

" Then come on, follow mommy, " she hummed softly as she opened the door, and led you to the bathroom. Of course you followed without hesitation, still being that lost little puppy of hers.

" Now do you want me to help you get undressed or can you handle it on your own? " she asked, trying to be as gentle about it as possible.

You were already starting to take off your gear when she had asked. You wanted to sit down so badly, but knew you'd just make a mess if you didn't get this stuff off first.

" 'm can do it! 'm a big boy, " you pouted with a huff, though you were struggling with some of the straps.

(I can do it! I'm a big boy!)

" Yes you are. " she softly teased as she came to help and take over. It upset you, but you just let your arms rest at your side in defeat.

Once you were out of the gear, she went to fill up the bath with nice warm water. " Do you need bubble bath or do you prefer for me to not put that in? " She asked as she turned on the water.

You just wore a T-shirt and jeans. You'd deal with that after the bath was ready though. You gently moved to sit on the bathroom rug, not really minding if it got dirty from your clothes. You gasped as Farah proposed the idea of a bath without bubbles. It sounded so boring, so offensive to baths!

" ubbles! " you yelled a bit louder than you had meant to. " Baths gotta have dem, " you whined.

(Bubbles! Baths gotta have them!)

She smiled as she heard this, then moved over to the cabinet to get the bubble bath. " Okay, okay. Bubbles it'll be, " she said as the water filled, then added some of the bubble bath.

As the bath filled, you sat on the bathroom rug watching the bubbles grow and the water. The sound was soothing.

She moved the temperature knob down, making sure it wasn't too hot. " There, bubbles and not too hot. You happy now? "

You lifted your head as she spoke, nodding and smiling. You felt better, being home at base and all. The grumpy mood you had adopted from the mission was fading quickly. She always made everything better.

" Mhm! 'm happy mama, " you confirmed.

(Mhm! I'm happy mama)

She moved back over to him, and kneeled in front of you. Farah held out her hand for you to take, to help you stand. " Okay, now come on. Let's get those clothes off so we can get you in this nice warm bath. " she softly spoke, her hand still held out for you to take.

You had almost forgotten about your clothes. You sat on the rug, huffing at Farah before tugging your clothes off yourself. She laughed softly as you took off your own clothing. You held a proud smile once getting them off. You wanted to prove to her that you're a big enough boy that you could do it yourself!

Farah then lifted you up in her arms. You relaxed against her quickly as she scooped you right up. It made you so happy. She didn't see the need for you to prove yourself, but knew it was your pride that wanted you to do so.

" Aww, you're such a big boy, good job. " she praised as she moved over to the bath, and carefully helped you sit on the edge and slide into the water.

You wiggled with happiness as she praised you. Slowly, you slipped into the bath tub. The warm water soothed your aching joints and muscles. You practically melted into it. Farah's eyes were glued on you as you relaxed in the warm water. After a little, she grabbed the shampoo bottle and started washing your hair. It felt nice and soothing under her gentle hands as she worked. After you were all scrubbed and clean, she poured a little more bubble bath in, then moved to rinse you off.

" That better buddy? Feel nice and warm? All clean? " she asked, smiling at you.

You played with the bubbles as she washed your hair. It made you happy. You let out small yawns, rubbing at your eyes carefully before the question was asked. You gave a soft nod, smiling happily.

" Mhm! Much betters mama. "

She gently rinsed you off, until the suds and everything was off and you were all shiny and clean. " Good, now let's dry you off, yes? " she asked as she moved to get the towel.

" All done little one? Ready to relax? " she chuckled softly as her eyes stayed on you, just admiring how adorable you were while in your little space.

After a short while, you felt yourself being picked up and taken out of the tub. She wrapped the towel around you as soon as you were out of the tub. You pouted, but quickly became distracted. You couldn't wait to get out of the bathroom now. The bath had helped you feel so much better, plus getting out of all that heavy gear.

" 'm wana pay mama, " you told her while trying to wiggle out of Farah's grasp.

(I wanna play mama)

She gently ran her thumb along your cheek, just to sooth you into being patient for a little while. " We will, after we get you dry and dressed. That way you won't get too cold. And don't worry, playtime won't end tonight. " she offered as she began to dry you off, working quickly so she could help you get into a pair of PJs.

After being dried, she helped you get dressed into cozy clothing. You were practically buzzing by the time she finally let you go. The idea of getting to play for as long as you wanted was exciting. All tiredness you had expressed earlier was long gone.

Farah watched as you bolted off into your room, going towards your closet to find all your favorite toys and things that you liked to play with when you were little. There was no way she was going to let you get bored tonight, as it had been a busy few days. You deserved as much play time as you wanted.

She followed you into the room, smiling at your happiness, and sat down in a chair. " Go ahead and play little one, " she encouraged.

You were sad Farah didn't want to play with you, though dismissed it just as quickly as you found your blocks. You liked building them and smashing them sometimes. You grabbed the bag of them and poored them onto the floor. You sat down on the floor with a harsh thud as you began to build with them.

Farah sat silently, just watching you as you played. She didn't need to be playing, after all you needed the playtime more than she did. She did have to chuckle quietly as she watched you grab a bag of blocks, and dump them out and start building them. You didn't have a pattern, or a design, you just wanted blocks to play with. She moved to sit across from you on the floor.

" Need any help? " she offered.

You looked up at her voice, smiling happily and nodding. You moved to lay on your tummy. The familiar sleepy feeling pulling at you again. However, you wanted to play. You didn't have time to sleep right now. You shifted the blocks so Farah could reach them, then continued to build happily. She chuckled, but didn't stop you as you put the blocks where she could reach. She would help out here and there as you did your own thing.

" If you do need to take a nap, its okay you know. We can continue in the morning if you get tired. " she offered softly as she got comfortable.

" Nuh uh! Not seepy, " you declared proudly, despite that visibly not being the truth. You held a grumpy pout as you kept building with the blocks. You heard a quiet laugh in response, as you began to protest not being sleepy.

(Nuh uh! Not sleepy!)

Unfortunately, before you could finish, you ended up falling asleep while playing. You had tired yourself the rest of the way out. You fell asleep laying on your tummy on the floor with your head resting against one of your arms comfortably.

She looked down at you for a moment, then stood up and scooped you off the floor, gently laying you down on your bed. Being picked up woke you up. You whined softly, but relaxed in her grasp. Farah grabbed a spare blanket and covered you up. You curled up into your bed, cuddling your pillow as you were tucked in.

" 'm loves yous mama, " you mumbled.

(I love you mama)

" I love you too little one, " she cooed.

You weren't awake for long after being tucked in with the cozy blanket. Farah stayed in your room, listening to your breathing and making sure you slept sound. She'd stay here as long as you needed her.

" Rest easy little one. You've earned it. " she whispered softly, before slowly heading out of the room.