Slime Territory

“denied the catharsis of punishment” is an underappreciated but hugely effective narrative consequence imo 

No one cared who I was until I put on the cage

that's like. Biblically Accurate Drug. You are just stimulating the fucking nerves. You are playing with The Pleasure Root. You try it once and you crave this shit your whole life after. There is no return. This is a one way ticket. You can do this just once for one second to a person and get them into depression for life. All in all dont. You Dont want it. Dont do Ultimate Perfect Drug kids.

dawg there is something seriously wrong with me but i really dont have time for that

If Ratatouille mechanics were real, there would be a whole market of businesses offering the services of operating rats to people who want them, and it'd be like how bees produce honey. People in the rat business would be so exhausted of having to explain over and over again that no, the rats aren't being exploited. If the rats didn't like how they're being treated, they would simply not return. There's no goddamn way to force a rat to be so passionate about playing the saxophone that they'll figure out how to puppeteer a human to do it for them. All that the business does is finding a way to put that specific rat in the hair of someone who's about to go on stage.

The rats 100% think the businesses are being run for their benefit and worry about the humans being exploited.

A rat manager who is a rat and deals on their end of the deal is exhausted of having to explain over and over again that look, an average fully grown adult human being is like 200 times your weight, their hands are very fast and they can throw things better than you want to imagine. If one of them things didn't want you in their hair, you're not going to stay there for long. You'd be yote out the window in two seconds flat.

who up slopping their hogs

being polyamorous and having no game is so humbling. yeah im poly but i don't have any girlfriends. im just in love with all my friends and nobody wants me

A character trait/dynamic that I'm endlessly compelled by is someone dealing with (or, like, failing to) being the child of people who were too busy being good people to have the time and attention to be good parents. This can be anywhere from 'was a public defender who gave a shit working 60 hour weeks with basically no vacations' to 'left their family behind to join the revolution/war effort and is now a universally beloved martyr-hero who saved/remade the world with their final breath' on the groundedness spectrum. The important thing is a viscerally felt but confused and ugly mess of longing, resentment, and guilt about feeling the resentment.