#also i got soooo pretentious about these towards the end if u can tell. started gettin dramatic

[springcatalyst]

hiiiii 10, 13, & 17 for milo and 50, 54, & 56 for reiji uwu?

omg helloooooooo *kisses u on both cheeks like a frenchman*

10: What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

This one is so cute uhmmmm. The one that comes to mind is almost like, secondhand but so he had this friend that knew all about astronomy: the stars, planets, the constellations, anything in between. They would go out stargazing and she would just. Ramble about them, she'd tell him the forms of them, the ways they know these things, what time of year you can see what constellations, how to tell which ones were planets, etc. And he'd tell her the stories attached to those constellations, ones passed through generations, ones he'd told a hundred times before and one's he'd only heard. I could leave it there and it'd be nice but that just means that after he leaves his home and as a result, leaves her behind, that knowledge of the cosmos is a thin connection to her once he can no longer see her, and so he shares that information, what he remembers, with others when given the chance.

13: When do they fake a smile? How often?

How did u know. How did you know that this is THE Milo question. Particularly early era, meaning (with some buffer room) before he leaves his home, the answer is All The Fucking Time. A lot hinges on his not allowing anyone to notice that anything is Going On, because fauns don't tend to just leave-it-alone-it'll-work-itself-out things like other species (particularly humans and satyrs) might. But also because Milo has a lot of people who care a lot about him, and they have good intentions, and so would WANT to help him, to know what's going on and try to fix it. The thing about that is, that knowing Anything is up means looking for the reason, and the reason is the thing he's REALLY hiding. So it presents itself as Milo working incredibly hard to be Totally Normal And Good, and fauns are perceptive, which means it has to be infallible. Milo fakes a smile any time Milo-with-nothing-wrong would give one, which is a lot.

17: What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

You're really good at picking these bitches. Milo doesn't have any like... self-image issues like a 'looking in the mirror' question would imply. Everything that's up with Milo is completely internal, which means everything he Sees is just perception. He sees something Wrong, which in a similar vein to the previous question, is dangerous for him to allow out. He sees exhaustion in a way that sleep can't fix. He sees someone who is clearly hiding something, even as he does everything in his power to ensure nobody else does. I can go a little more literal and a little less pretentious and say, after a certain point, he sees a scar across his throat: a physical indicator of something he can't hide. He later covers it with another tattoo, because it draws eyes or questions.

Other people, though, they don't see any of that. Even the scar(s), if they notice it, most know that it's none of their business, and won't ask. Other people notice his tattoos, the jewelry in his hair. Family and friends notice earrings. Non-fauns in particular note the length of his hair, maybe his horns. He usually signs: that's something, too, that people notice.

OK REIJI TIME. GOING INSANE

50: What belief / moral / personality trait do they stand by that you personally don’t agree with?

OH OK. So. This is a lil off topic but I'm gonna say it counts. So Reiji's got this whole thing that has to do with violence. He is so. Set in his black-and-white perspective that it's this or that, one or the other. That it’s always a nasty, dreadful thing and it makes you a monster. Dangerous. He's seen it, and there's no coming out the other side. And I enjoy torturing characters but more importantly the way he lives demands that he know violence, that he’s a part of it. And that affects him.  He wasn't sure about his place in the world to begin with but now? There's blood on his hands and it seeps right through his skin to mix with his own. There's no getting rid of it. It’s kill or die and he'll do anything to avoid the latter but now he is tarnished by it.

This only counts for this question cause i mean, sometimes violence is the answer <3. Anyway Reiji is so incredibly fucked i love him.

54: What’s their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

Ok you know more than you're letting on HOW are you choosing all of these so perfectly. Flight (pun not intended). Reiji will run from anything ever he's like 'a situation I'm unsure about? I'm outta here.' It was something he was taught from a young age and it's kept him safe up until now so why change? You can always return to a place you've run from, but if you don't run from something that you should've, you're done. The only caveat is that sometimes circumstance plants him in a situation that he CAN'T just flee from, and that means he has to fight. Fawn won't get him anywhere and freezing means he's deader faster. And he is Not bad at fighting, but he hates it. He hates it because he's good at it. He hates it because it says 'this is what you're meant for, built for' and he doesn't want to listen. He will run when he can but whether he is physically trapped or there is someone he can't leave behind, he has no choice but stand his ground and hope for the best, hope whoever's the focus of this fight or flight will eventually flee themselves, because he cannot kill them, but he won't let them kill him either.

56: If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? Does this answer change depending on the type of fear?

OUHGUHGUH. OK. I mean the answers I'm going to give are definitely true for a reason but also his choices are incredibly limited. Reiji just... does not have a lot of people in his life.

Early era, his mother. She is a guardian, a constant, safety and strength, certainty and calm. Everything she is is for him. This is true for many in his flock, though, by nature of the fact that he is young (even as an adult, he is young to most of them, when it mattered). He goes to his mother because she was never far behind, even as any of his flock would have occupied that same role for him, she was his choice. She was comforting in the way a switchblade in your pocket is comforting, in the way a deadbolt on your bedroom door is. But then their paths diverge and he can't find her, and that knife is gone, the lock broken. For a while it's nobody. And then a fellow traveler seems harmless enough so they stick together, both of them alone. And it's true that he has few other options but he soon trusts this person, loves them, in varying definitions of the word, and so they become that comfort. It's different, though, without that same defense, without the protection of it, but it isn't less, or worse. Just different.

Reiji has most of his experience with fear being something external and tangible, something dangerous, a corporeal threat. But when it isn't, that's when that answer changes. When he's afraid of what he might be, what he's capable of, what he's done, he doesn't seek safety or calm. He sits with it, ruminates in it, he doesn't share or tell because the fear is of the thing itself, and even if someone were to try to convince him otherwise, it wouldn't work, because he knows it and they just don't see it. He keeps himself from that comfort, then.