now that's what you call a cat-astrophe!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994258936/the-lady-and-the-mermaid-animated-short-film

But I think his concern after he takes her to work and lets her play in the sandbox are not unfounded. 'This is a child I adopted and immediately put in a high pressure situation. I am a stranger to her and discounting everything else she's had at least 4 prior families who abandoned her on top of losing her actual parents. She is under immense psychological stress.' (which... She is. Even if she can't tell that yet. I'm sorry but seeing a vision of your adopted father dying is ROUGH)

And those are just the facts. Twilight makes up sad backstories for Bond at the drop of a hat. He's definitely sat up at night and considered everything she might have been through. (Inaccurately)

It's been six months. His own reservations aside. He and Anya are the only ones who know they were strangers before. That she's adopted. That saying "I love You" too early can be extremely stressful for a child who (rightly) has good reason to think you might abandon them like their previous families. (Even discounting her mind reading)

He has to make her call him Papa. A thing he'd probably have wanted to spit if a family had tried adopting him and Insisted on from the beginning. (Might have done anyway if it meant a warm bed and semi regular meals) She's happy to but that's a huge ask of an adopted child.

So of course he's being tender footed where he can. He's getting her gifts. Fulfilling requests. Making favorite meals. Trying to balance his mission and keeping her happy.

"Was it too early to hold hands?" Is one of their first interactions. When she pulls away from him and hides. He can't know it's because he thought about the dangers of being attacked when one handed. (Which he then DOES have to do In chapter one. It's not like that was unfounded. Or that he expressed those concerns to Her. He doesn't know she's a mind reader!)

When he's worried about having hurt her by not showing up for the bus jacking incident she tells him: buy me a treat and we're okay. He grabs that and does so.

We know Anya loves him so much. Is uncertain about how He feels about her. But even if he hugged her every day and said I love you! She'd still feel that way. Because Anya knows. Knows that Papa Does have a complicated relationship with her unlike Mama. Those words would be cheapened for her. So she doesn't ask him for them, because then she'd hear him lie.

Loid doesn't offer them because He knows. He knows she's adopted and he has prevented her from discussing that. He Knows what he's asked of her and that it's wrong. But he has to. There is no choice.

and my research brought me to (gross photos warning!) Kismai's post on the very topic. apparently this stuff is called "scrud," and it's basically a residue that forms over time inside the nooks and crannies of a washing machine - leftover detergent reacting with mineral traces in tapwater to form a buildup that also traps dyes, grease, and other dirt, which bacteria then feeds on, because it wasn't already gross enough. it forms faster if you have hard water, use too much detergent (which most people do), use fabric softener, wash only on cold and the list goes on and on - point is, scrud is the reason that you have to actually clean your washing machine, or be super fastidious about how you do laundry.

(I'll take "things I wish school/my parents actually taught me" for 800)

it turns out that laundry sucks significantly less when your clothes and sheets and etc actually come out of the machine looking, feeling, and smelling clean, rather than looking, feeling, and smelling like despair dipped in slime

Trevor Noah has a great tip, that when he craves ice cream at night he breaks it down into parts: I want something cold, I want something sweet. He drinks a glass of cold water then waits to see if he still has the ice cream craving. Usually he doesn’t.

So listening to your body isn’t “follow every urge” but “decompose the urge to discover the underlying need.”

If you always feel like getting cozy in bed you may be: cold, dehydrated, and/or malnourished (maybe a need for high calories that are bioaccessible…not processed).

If you do not feel tired at bedtime you may: need to eat dinner earlier because your body is still digesting, need to exercise or go outside more during the day, get the fuck off your screen for an hour so your brain can enter sleep mode.

Hope this helps someone.

Other useful AI Removal/Detection links

How to spot AI Hallucinations like a Reference Librarian (originally on Substack)

Bodily autonomy (like abortion, anti draft, etc) -> “The government shouldn’t be able to force anything on my body I don’t want.”

Anti surveillance -> “I don’t trust big government/big tech (big brother if you’re feeling frisky) with the ability to spy on me and my family.”

Immigration -> “Next to all of us immigrated at some point, I don’t see why the elites get to decide who’s allowed to be where. What’s to stop them coming for me?”

Climate Change -> “Big oil shouldn’t get to determine whether or not I get to go places. I don’t want to be dependent on some big business to survive.”

State Violence -> “I don’t want the goddamn secret police breathing down my neck! I trust my community a whole hell of a lot more to help me than I do the state!”

1. canonically female (no variation)

2. canonically the protagonist of her story (if it’s an ensemble cast you have to say you can legitimately see her as The main character)

3. your personal #1 favorite character in that story (ties are acceptable)