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Blue velvet worm, Euperipatoides rowelli, Peripatopsidae

Euperipatoides rowelli occurs in humid, temperate forests of southeastern Australia. Its main habitat is decaying logs on the forest floor, where it lives in crevices and feeds on small invertebrates.

Specimens are rarely found alone, usually forming groups of a few individuals containing females, males, and juveniles. Laboratory observations on behavior concluded that these groups present some sort of hierarchy with dominant females.

- taking your ally's weapon out of their scabard to use yourself

- using someone else's shoulder as a rifle stand

- nudging someone's chin up with the tip of your weapon

But I'm not sure that the common idea of having a damaged, unhappy "inner child" has anything to do with.. well.. children. Or even necessarily with someone's childhood. It has far more to do with how we treat adults and how adults treat themselves.

Adults are told and feel like they must not be overwhelmed by emotions, must always bear the responsibilities of surviving under capitalism, must not seek joy in unproductive activities like play, must not be vulnerable and full of raw emotion, must 'have their shit together', must have resolved all their bad experiences and memories. All of which is utterly unrealistic.

Faced with the reality of actually being are vulnerable adult who is frequently overwhelmed by emotions and responsibilities, who finds joy in play, who doesn't have all their shit together and hasn't processed everything, I think a lot of adults choose to separate that reality from their sense of self and project it onto a second, inner identity: the damaged, unhappy "inner child".

In such cases, the "inner child" can have the raw emotions that they deny themselves. The "inner child" can be flawed and vulnerable and hurt. But the "inner child" isn't actually a child, it's just an adult unshackled from the unrealistic model of maturity imposed on them.