#narknoncore

Amelia: a nice hug. she'll probably comfort you and offer well-intentioned but slightly condescending advice, whether you're upset or not. tea and biscuits will be involved. 7/10

Charles: he'll awkwardly and briefly hug you, and it's fine, but 0.5 seconds later send you to Amelia instead. 3/10 at least he's self-aware

Corlath: he's big and strong and smells nice, but he's also probably worried about hurting you, which makes his grip too weak. if you don't know each other very well he's almost certainly not going to hug you. if he does anyway it's very awkward. he probably gives you at least one headpat that he thinks about at 3AM when he can't sleep for remembering the embarrassing things he's done. 6/10, but if you're family 10000/10 because you can feel how much he loves you

Harry: she crushes you a little bit because she doesn't hug people often and forgets her own strength after her training. she's more willing to talk out your problems than just sit and hug, which isn't always the best thing. 7/10, 6/10 if you're not biased by queerness like i am, 1000/10 if you're corlath and haven't been hugged by someone close to your size in a long, long time

Jack: he's not really sure what he's doing. maybe ask someone else. 5/10 he gets uncomfortable if it lasts for too long but could be a lot worse

Mathin: a good, dad-ish hug! very strong. lasts longer and is a bit more gentle if you're upset, pretty fast and probably involves a thump or two on the back if you're not. 10/10 leaves you feeling refreshed and a bit more optimistic than you were before

Narknon: fluffy but elusive. if she lets you, it's amazing. 1000/10 she's a cat you're lucky to have looked at her

random passerby #2: he has the weight of our country's future on his shoulders. i'm sure his thoughts are just as heavy.

-

When the unexpected knock came to his door, he didn't bother looking up. "Did one of the cats fall apart again?"

When no one answered, he looked up. Harry stood staring at him.

"I thought my power pulled her apart," she said, presumably meaning the pile of bones on her arms. From somewhere within it, a cat meowed. "Mathin told me it was fine and to bring her to you, but - again?"

He smiled a little, clearing a space on his desk and motioning for her to set the pile down. "Sometimes the animals fall apart, whether by playing too rough or purring too hard," he said, sorting through the pile. "It's easy enough to put them back together, and it doesn't hurt them. I think you can learn to do this too, sol, if you have a moment."

She bent next to him, watching him slot together vertebrae. "It's like a puzzle."

He nodded, slightly distracted. "All you really need is the Gift, but you need to know which bones go where, too. Our library is open to you; I'm afraid I would be a poor teacher before long." He held out a set of leg bones and showed her how to fit them together, then onto the hip; when she put them there, they stayed as they did not for any but him.

"I'm sure you would be fine," she said, smiling a little as he set the cat's skull onto the neck. "But thank you. I'll try to learn so I need not bother you with over-friendly cats."

He was about to say that she could bother him at any time, cats or no, but at that moment, the big cat's glamor shimmered around her skeleton, revealing a lithe golden-brown tabby with a tag reading Narknon. She meowed and pranced, her claws clicking against the desk, and pressed her head into Corlath's hand, immediately purring herself apart. Again.

"Ah," Harry said, watching the bones scatter over the desk and onto the floor. After a beat of silence,"Well, at least I know for sure it isn't just me."

now please imagine narknon, who is canonically at least three feet tall???, doing the same thing.

"honey why do you have a giant bruise on your head," corlath asks.