dean is so absolutely heartbreaking because you know what he’s doing is Wrong and you know exactly where he learned to do it and how it scares him and how he swears he wont become that but around the thousandth time something threatens to trod him into the ground he gives up on being scared of being it because hey. at least it keeps them safe. he’s done the math and being miserable and hating what he is but knowing his family is safe outweighs being miserable and hating himself for different reasons and knowing his family is dead
i cannot stress this enough. dean was 4 years old and climbed into his brother’s crib every night to make sure nothing happened to him. dean was four years old when he stopped talking. 5 years old when he asked his dad when he could go back to school and was ignored. 6 years old when his dad took him shooting and told him he was proud of him
Aargh there’s more embarrassment humour in the gay pirate show than I was expecting.
Oh phew Blackbeard’s turned up and it’s eased off some.
Oh God Blackbeard’s wide-eyed dazzled enchantment at Stede’s wardrobe is not only what I was fucking here for, it changes the tone of the whole show.
UntilBlackbeard/Ed claps eyes on Stede, there’s nowhere really for the humour to go other than “stupid pompous little fantasist bumbles his way through situations he’s not remotely equipped to handle, always under the agonising threat of further humiliation” and my nervous system is just … too delicate for even small doses of that. But Blackbeard, as it were, hijacks the show’s POV as soon as he comes on board, and Blackbeard immediatelydoesn’t see him like that. Blackbeard - at first glance, with no “slow, grudging, learning to respect each other” transitional process, sees a strange, colourful, courageous eccentric in a world that doesn’t have enough of them: “You’re a lunatic and I like it.” And as Blackbeard does not perceive that lack of dignity that has hitherto been central to the show’s comedic premise, it evaporates; immediately the embarrassment humour no longer even makes sense. We’re in a different genre now. Thank God.
Episodes 1-3 for me were the awkwardness of being neurodiverse and trying to fit in somewhere new that you only have a vague familiarity with surrounded by people who - for the most part - are fairly neurotypical and know the behaviour and rules of their particular world.
Stede’s trying but he has no practical experience or genuine real-world knowledge of this society. The fact he’s not in the least embarrassed or flustered about it made it a bit less mortifying for me, because… why would he be embarrassed? In his mind, he’s doing things by the book, only he’s using the wrong social cues, behaving according to the rules of a different society, but the only ones he’s familiar with and doesn’t realise they don’t work until… they don’t.
Then along comes another neurodiverse person who is excited by someone who isn’t boring and stuck in the same routine and that’s why they spark so well, and this guy - who likes shiny and pretty and unusual things as much as him - starts teaching him the language of this world he’s in.
imagine how funny it would be to go to public school in gotham
me (average gotham city public school district 8th grader) after taking the train to school (overrun by evil clowns doing backflips on people and knocking them over) and getting to the school theater (falling apart from mr freeze attacks) to see some goth guy with a bunch of money give a talk about how he plans to use his Orphan Fund to put our lunchroom back together (also destroyed by mr freeze attacks) and then having our history teacher teach us about the asylum thats a block over (it has no security) and then going to drink water from the water fountain (the water supply has been infected by joker fluid so many times i’ve grown numb to it) and going back to my apartment (knowing i’m going to be kept up all night from my downstairs neighbor who does a kickflip every day of her life’s 5000 cats she has for some reason) only to see some guy in vampire cosplay beating up a scarecrow outside the gas station i buy my red bull from (also has joker fluid in it)
my long distance best friend who lives in metropolis: hey how was school today :)?
me, after failing a test because the riddler disrupted library study hall and wouldnt let anyone go unless we completed his torture maze:
When Zuko apologized to uncle Iroh in the tent cause he was so ashamed of his actions and what he’d done to the only person who unconditionally believed in his ability to do good >>>>>
So okay, I’ve given this rant before but this is another good time for it.
Structurally speaking, ATLA did something important with Zuko that, in a purely mechanistic sense of narrative development, I think a lot of people don’t notice immediately, and that even fewer people who want to emulate what was done with him get.
Which is Zuko is made a protagonist VERY early, and the show goes out of its way to continually place Zuko into situations where the audience empathizes and roots for him.
This happens in literally the second episode of the series, if we count the two-part premiere as a single episode, which I think we should. The A-plot of that episode, “The Southern Air Temple,” is Aang reckoning with the genocide of his people… but the B-plot?
The B-plot is the introduction of Zhao, and more specifically, his introduction in a way that is calculate to shift the audience, whose introduction to Zuko did NOT engender a ton of sympathy to him, directly and forcefully onto his side. They want Zuko to kick Zhao’s ass.
This continues all through book one and book two. Remember, Zuko is never, ever the main villain of this series. That’s initially Zhao, followed by Azula and Ozai. (Plus various temporary players like Long Feng.) Whenever Zuko isn’t placed into direct conflict with the other protagonists, he’s always written and presented in a way that is careful, VERY VERY careful, not to make him too monstrous, and to make us root for him. He’s placed right next to Iroh, who is designed for people to like, and that reflects back onto Zuko; we want Zuko to be better than he is because we want Iroh to have good things.
Put aside for the moment whether any specific character, including Zuko, deserves their redemption. If you’ve decided you’re going to do that, you have to erect the proper narrative scaffolding around them, and it extends to far more things than “did this person not do things that were too horrible” and “is this person genuinely sorry and is working really hard to atone.” There’s a difference between protagonist and white hat, but if you want someone to eventually wear that white hat, you REALLY need to establish them as a plausible protagonist early on.
Yeah, it was made obvious from the get go that Zuko is definitely nowhere near Zhao’s level of nasty, which in turn means he’s nowhere near Azula’s and nowhere in the scope of Ozai’s.
1.)
He made a deal with Aang to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone if Aang went with him. When Aang escaped with help from two of those tribe members, Zuko didn’t demand they go back and destroy what was left of the tribe as revenge. He didn’t even think of it as an option. There was no split second where he went, should I/shouldn’t I?
2.)
This is repeated. He corners the Avatar somewhere, causes some damage to the area in the ensuing fight, but does not stick around to raze the village/monastery to the ground and kill the people when he doesn’t get what he wants. Doesn’t consider this a necessary action even once.
3.)
The Iroh&Zuko relationship is juxtaposed with the Zhao&Zuko relationship. Both older men have more power over him. Iroh is a retired War General and Prince who is not banished. Zhao is a Commander in favor of the Firelord, who is also not banished. We could tell early on that Iroh is wise and despite being on the bad side, seems to be pretty chill. We took a liking to him immediately. Zhao is the opposite. He is very much like early!Zuko. Impulsive, rude, loud, cocky, etc… But why is he more annoying? Why do we root for Zuko as opposed to him?
Because we see what Zuko is like with his Uncle Iroh. Iroh does not rub in the fact that he’s banished. He doesn’t use that when reprimanding him for his attitude or his failings. That is a hot iron and he knows it. It’s to the point where Iroh can bend fire in Zuko’s face and Zuko is perfectly relaxed over it and doesn’t once believe his uncle will hurt him. There is a lot of faith in Iroh, from this angsty teenager, and it’s very obvious with their interactions.
Zhao is not trustworthy from the start. We’re shown this by how both Zuko andIroh are hesitant to interact with him and don’t want to linger in areas he has control over, for too long. They even lie to him despite him obviously having more favor in the Firelord’s eyes than either of them do. Zhao’s personality opposes both Zuko and Iroh. And as we like Iroh, we want him to win and have nice things, as stated above. But Zuko&Iroh is a package deal. And as Zhao reveals himself more and more to be nasty even if it’s subtle, we want Zuko to win even harder.
And even when Zuko wins and he’s in the prime position to do to Zhao what Ozai did to Zuko for also ‘speaking out of turn’… he doesn’t do it. He walks away. He is the bigger man in that scenario. And Iroh further puts shame onto Zhao when he goes against the sacred rules of the Agni Kai because he can’t handle a loss to a banished teen. We are shown that Zuko follows rules and has honor, which is reinforced by Iroh’s, ‘even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you’. Iroh’s Word is basically Law at this point. Sf he says it is so, then he must be right and the audience accepts that. He knows Zuko better than us and hopefully we’ll get to understand more as the story progresses.
Already by the 3rd episode, we’re shown that Zuko is in no way the worst person from the Fire Nation. In fact, we’re given a sort of scale now from the four major Fire Nation people we know of. Iroh–Zuko——-Zhao–Firelord.
We’re also hoping that Iroh rubs off on Zuko enough for him to also become wise and learn to chill out.
4.)
When “The Storm” finally rolls around, we’re pretty invested by then in the Iroh&Zuko relationship and that episode gives us so much more info into Zuko’s character and we are shown that Iroh is right. He has honor and he cares for others. And yet it’s obvious the Firelord doesn’t because we see Zuko do the right thing(protesting the plan to treat new recruits as cannon fodder) in the wrong place, and then his face gets burned off by his father because of it. And further, he’s banished for refusing to fight his own father. What sane parent wants to do battle with their own child? What sane parent banishes their child for speaking out of turn at the defense of their own peoples’ lives? What the fuck is wrong with the Firelord?
Zuko was punished severely for showing compassion and having a kind heart. And Iroh(and the ship crew even) is properly mortified by the punishments his nephew received for it, which in turn affects the audience’s perception of this situation. Iroh doesn’t like it, it’s especially bad then.
Now we start wondering why does Zuko wants to go back to the guy who burned his face off?! Iroh, talk some sense into him! PLEASE!
Halfway through S1, they got us to the point of wanting Zuko to have a redemption arc.
Making the audience wanta character to be redeemed is also very important in this. We were shown he has redeemable qualities. We want that pay off! Do it justice!
Please reblog and tag this with 1) what you consider your cultural affiliation to be and 2) if you would turn down an initial offer of refreshment (food and/or drink) in somebody else’s home. Answer options 1) Never 2) Maybe depending on how I’m feeling 3) Always
People are so defensive that they might be accused of being swedish lol. I’m just curious, no right or wrong answers!
don’t read into this statement too much because it’s a vague theory of existence from my own perspective but it’s WILD how people can genuinely think autism is a modern thing that is “increasing” in response to some toxin or social contagion or some shit
My guy if autistic people were as “rare” as they supposedly were in the 70’s we wouldn’t be having this conversation. society as we know it wouldn’t exist. we would have barely developed tool use by now
It’s 200,000 BCE. You’re an early Homo sapiens living with your band in a tropical forest. You spot your brother next to a cluster of boulders, humming to himself in his throat, swaying aimlessly back and forth.
This isn’t unusual—whenever your band stops near a rockfall or boulder, he sits next to the rocks for hours, sometimes staring at bumps and ridges in the stone, sometimes banging rocks together—Clack-clack-clack. He has never shown any interest in foraging or hunting. If you hand him a rock to crush a nut or throw at a predator, he will stare fixedly at the texture of the stone until someone snaps him out of it.
When you reach him you notice something unusual—he has sorted the rocks. In one group of piles, there are paler, more irregular chunks of stone. In some other, smaller piles, there are smoother, darker bits of stone, fractured in clean, curving pieces. You pull him back to the rest of the group so he can eat and rest—he has been banging the rocks together all day, and he typically forgets everything else when he finds particularly interesting rocks. You pick up one of the darker pieces. Its edge is sharp, sharp enough to cut. You skim it along a thin green sapling and watch the bark peel off like fat.
You have used sharp rocks as tools in the past, even found rocks with such sharp edges; you wonder if there’s a way to find more. The next time your band moves its camp, you search the area for other rocks that look like the one you picked up, but find nothing.
You decide to follow your brother down a stony riverbank to the shore, watching him bang different rocks together and arrange them into rows and piles on the sand, humming happily. Some rocks seem to make him very excited and happy; he sets them aside in their own piles. Others are less significant, though he still deliberates about what piles to put them in.
You show him the shard you picked up earlier. He stares at it for a while and then, silently, searches the riverbed until he finds a dark chunk of stone. He presses it into your hand.
You point at a similar-looking rock. He looks angry and frustratedly kicks the water, then hands you another piece of dark stone, as if you should know better. This repeats for some time. But by the end of the evening, you are starting to notice that every rock is different, that many are beautiful, and that some are useful.
At another place, in another time, someone else is fascinated by snakes. She always closely examines snakes others in her band have killed, and can be seen observing them when they are alive.
Her family members notice that she can immediately distinguish a snake that is venomous from a similar snake that is safe, and she always, always sees snakes before anyone else does. Once, when they were about to make camp, she became upset and was inconsolable for hours, and no one realized why until one of the elders was nearly bitten by a deadly snake hiding in some fallen leaves. The group decides that she must have known there were snakes nearby, even without seeing one, and from then on, she surveys all potential campsites before anyone settles down.
Another person whose name we will never know loves the sounds of birds. All day long he echoes the birds’ songs as they walk through the forest, imitating the noises of whatever bird he heard last. Even a glimpse of a bird will set him imitating the bird’s song. Hunters in his group notice after a while that even the birds seem to be fooled by him, and practice bird calls until they are skilled enough to lure their quarry close.
Much later, someone feels more at home with the flighty goats her clan herds for meat than with other people. The goats flee from others, but they become so habituated to her that they respond to her calls, and regard her as one of their own. They let her treat their injuries and sicknesses, allowing members of the herd to recover from what would otherwise have killed them.
Yet another person somewhere else picks the wool of wild sheep off rocks and tree branches where it has been shed, rolling it in her hands until it sticks together. She loves the touch of the soft wool so much that she notices that enough wool, if it is worked enough, can be felted together into single pieces like hides, or twisted together into strong threads. She tracks the fluffiest sheep to their favorite scratching spots and soon the hunters won’t pursue the tracks that belong to her favorites, instead leaving them to produce fluffy lambs.
Our species is shaped by the contributions of people who paid a little more attention to the world than usual.
There is, of course, no way to find out how these developments actually happened.
But listen. I’ve been learning to identify plants and I don’t think some of this stuff was noticed by a person who stared at leaves a normal amount.
if you lived in prehistory and you were autistic, your special interest would be like, rocks. or the moon. or mushrooms. or one specific wild animal.
Like I HATE the idea that “every single neurodivergence was adaptive at some point NO exceptions” because obviously disability just exists sometimes. But it’s obvious to me that special interests would have served a really useful purpose in the early history of the human species, because…
…well, which makes more sense: that humans obtained all their knowledge of the natural world and of making and using technologies through basically a series of random accidents and observations, or that we had humans back then that were just really driven to pay attention to rocks, just like we have those humans now?
Like, stop asking “Did autistic people exist back then?” because there’s no reason to think they didn’t; start asking “What were autistic people doing back then?” and the answer is “serving as a walking treasure trove of hyper-detailed information about a very specific aspect of the natural world, probably”
Whenever you catch yourself wondering, “How the hell did people in prehistoric times figure this out?” remember that for any given thing, there is a human out there who is, for unknown reasons, compelled to think about and learn about that thing 24/7
i’ve been on hold at my library for a book about asexuality for a few weeks and i just read an article about some concepts in the book re: consent. and holy shit. blew my mind. i’ve NEVER read about consent in the context of a relationship with an ace and an allo that resonated so strongly with me, and as a person in such a relationship!! it’s so!!! i’m even more excited for the book now.
god okay, just to gush about this more, the author suggests using the categories of enthusiastic, willing, unwilling and coerced consent (rather than just “enthusiastic consent” or “no means no”). i really recommend reading the whole article linked above, but what blew my mind is the distinction between enthusiastic and willing consent. it gets broken down like this:
Enthusiastic consent:
When I want you
When I don’t fear the consequences of saying yes OR saying no
When saying no means missing out on something I want
Willing consent:
When I care about you though I don’t desire you (right now)
When I’m pretty sure saying yes will have an okay result and I think maybe that I’d regret saying no
When I believe that desire may begin after I say yes
and like!!! it made me realize i may have never actually enthusiastically consented in my life, but like, that doesn’t mean i have never or cannot consent! i almost always fall into the “willing consent” framework and i’ve never seen that….validated anywhere. anyway, it’s just given me this perspective about my sexuality and consent in general and better ways to relate to my partner and!!! idk!!! thank goodness for other ace people, is what i’m saying.
This is very useful and a lot of sex work can also be best understood as willing consent, where the indirect consequences of having sex (getting paid) are what is desired and the direct consequences (having probably-mediocre sex with someone you don’t actively desire) are not considered so negative that they outweigh the indirect consequences.
Which is a definition of consent that gives sex workers agency and sees their consent as a choice made again and again based on the pros and cons, not something that is coerced and also not something that always exists by default simply because they are sex workers.
Recognizing willing consent is probably validating for a lot of people who have consent to sex without meeting the definition of enthusiastic consent.
One of the reasons I watch Gravity Falls is because I have a twin of my own, so I relate to the Pines on a level I’ve never related to any character before. Unfortunately, it makes it all the more painful when bad things happen between them. Because I understand. Even if I don’t want to.
It’s horrible to imagine thinking of my twin that way, but when I think about it, there’s an element of truth. Sometimes having a twin is suffocating. I keep thinking about how Stan and Ford are implied to be identical, or at least very, very similar in appearance, andhow the last period of their lives they spent together was their teenage years.
Now, I can’t speak for all twins, but I can’t help but feel that in some ways being an identical twin is a bit trickier than being a fraternal one, especially with boy/girl pairs. Twins are thought of as pairs, two of a kind, part of a set. In the minds of those around us, we are often not individuals, and it’s only reinforced when we happen to look the same. Boy/girl fraternal pairs tend to escape the more aggressive sorts of attention because our society is so set on gender binaries that they’re thought of as fundamentally different from the moment they’re born (and boy isn’t THAT a whole other set of issues!)
Identical twins, though? I can personally attest to a lifetime of being stared at, of being poked and prodded and questioned by people who see you as more of a curiosity than as a person, of being given the exact same gifts because no one bothers to find out your separate interests, of being left nameless because people would rather call you “Twin” or “Clone” or even “Thing”(1 or 2) to your face than admit they don’t know which one you are. Sometimes, it feels like your accomplishments can never truly be just your own, like no matter what you do, you can’t escape being one of two rather than just you, and it can get very, very old.
My sister is my best friend in the entire world. We grew up in a very healthy environment and we’re fortunate that our parents went out of their way to make sure we were raised as separate, equal individuals. Yet even then, late high school was easily the most strained period of our relationship so far. There were a lot of identity and individuality issues that cropped up in those years, among other things, and we snapped at each other a lot.
I can’t help but think of Stan and Ford going through all that, only in a worst case scenario. They didn’t have the healthy environment that I did. They had a dad who played favorites, one brother who felt he was worthless on his own, and another who felt he had to be the best at everything just to overcome being a “freak” times two (because, even if it’s more benign than having extra appendages, being an identical twin has a freak element all its own).
No wonder Ford would feel suffocated. I’vefelt suffocated and my life’s been the bee’s knees in comparison! The main difference is that suffocation for me is fleeting. My individuality’s been reinforced without my ever needing to prove myself like that. I’ve been able to experience separation and individuality through college life while still remaining in contact with my twin. Our strained high school years are behind us and have been replaced with more positive experiences.
But Ford? The last he remembers of his existence as a twin is probably a period of struggle against identitylessness, combined strangely with being singled out only for being a nerd and a freak by his peers, and the better brother by his father. What Ford remembers of being a twin is one of the most suffocating experiences a twin can have, and he’s going to need a big wake up call to realize that this is not the norm, that his experience does not apply to Dipper and Mabel, and that his solution to it is neither needed nor desirable.
I understand. It hurt. And it hurts that I understand. Ford suffocated in a relationship that should never have been that way. Which is why he so desperately needs to hug it out with Stan. Because he needs to learn that you can be a twin and still be able to breathe.
(Orig. posted Oct. 2015)
(This 10th anniv. month seems like a nice time to bring back some older posts, and I came across this one recently for the first time and thought it offered a really interesting perspective on this controversial bit.)
lemme talk about how perfect xelloss is as foil to lina.
he is the kind of person she could have easily been if she didn’t have her compassion - this is made especially obvious in the novels. they both have a tendency for being manipulative and unscrupulous, and for skirting the truth. this is where their mutual understanding stems from.
however, contrary to popular belief, dramata does have a heart in that small breast of hers, and she shows compassion just as easily as she dishes out violence. whereas xelloss only cares about the mazoku cause and his personal entertainment.
there are other differences, of course. lina is a free agent of chaos, following her heart (and stomach); xelloss has his superiors, and he acts on their behalf. lina is a very passionate person and a take-charge kind of gal; xelloss, underneath his cheer, is very calm and “go with the flow and see what happens” kind of guy.
Given this, let’s draw a line between these figures and their descendents.
On Heaven’s side, we have God and the angels, and specifically Aziraphale. For Angnes, obviously, we have Anathema.
On Hell’s side, we have Lucifer and his demons, in particular Crowley. For Witchfinder Major Pulsifer, we have Newt.
I feel like if I were to compare these couples outside of this context, I would’ve drawn a line between Anathema-Crowley and Newt-Aziraphale because of their general disposition, but if you dig a little deeper, you can see the connections.
I know the joke about Izzy is “human dropped into a muppets movie” but the tragedy is that he’s a queer-coded character from some 1940s or 50s popcorn flick dropped into a pride parade in a floating gayborhood & he flat out has no idea how to deal with it. We learn he’s a great swordsman in the most homoerotic way possible when he uses his skills to cut open a man’s shirt. We see him react more openly and with less inner conflict when Ed slaps him on the back and says “I need you here” than when Ed implies to him, a minute earlier, that he could be a captain. When he’s part of an overtly queer scene where other characters get the romance & he just gets the subtext, Con O'Neill’s body language stands out even more—go back to the scene where Izzy tells Stede that Ed adores him, the way he strokes his fingers down the curtain dividing him from Stede. There is literally no straight explanation for this choice, but there is also no explicit acknowledgement that the character is queer; in a different, older show or movie, that body language would be the acknowledgment. He imbues the character with the looks and pauses that you would see in, like, Ben-Hur or something, where everyone knew a character was gay but nobody could say it out loud. Keep in mind that in the comedies where these characters would exist, the subtextually gay man would sometimes be best friends with a Strong Leading Man who got the girl in the end.
We hear him say outright that there’s no retirement for people like Izzy & Ed, only death, which is itself a hugely loaded analogy next to the title statement “our flag means death” when you consider our history & our use of flags throughout. And Izzy’s so focused on pure survival that he ends up nasty, manipulative, violent—the only way men like him can survive in his mind, or in the genre he’s from, if they don’t have a Strong Leading Man best friend like, say, a Blackbeard to protect him from the narrative. When Ed starts to live in Stede’s world, Izzy is both losing his subtextual boyfriend and also acting as though Ed’s going to get himself (and Izzy) killed if he keeps going down this path.
I will never be sane over this. Izzy is a Celluloid Closet case study who’s been dropped into a Logo TV original, and so much of the conflict of his character comes from his trying to use the coping techniques from that world (including techniques used by queer coded villains! He’s not healthy!) in a world where these techniques are actively harmful rather than a way to survive.
While we like to joke about Izzy being in the wrong genre, I would argue that there are in fact at least five distinct genre universes in the world of Our Flag Means Death, and all of them have different rules.
Stede Bonnet, and his crew when they’re around him, live in a Muppet movie. I didn’t come up with this analogy but it’s so accurate. Insane physical comedy and comedy-action where no one really gets hurt. Mild peril but you know everything is gonna work out. Terrible puns and sight gags, but room for sweet, genuine emotional moments too. The rules of time, space, probability and logic will bend for a good joke.
Izzy Hands is in a grimdark action/drama where if someone gets stabbed in the gut they will behave normally and fucking die. (Probably slowly and painfully, of sepsis.) Crucially I think Izzy also lives in a genre where you can only be subtextually queer, and violence (done for or with or to each other) is the only acceptable form of intimacy between men. This is why being forcibly dragged into Stede’s world, where everyone is busy having silly low-stakes misadventures and being gay and emotionally available all over the main text–and seeing his Subtextual Boyfriend go into this world and love it–sends him round the twist.
The British, Spanish and other imperialist militaries are in a Master and Commander-style naval adventure where they’re the heroes. This is why they all take it completely seriously when Stede (unintentionally) kills Badminton and takes hostages, even though we can see that he bumbled his way into it ass-backwards. This is also why Stede is so shocked to get actually for real stabbed aboard the Spanish ship. (“Did you mean to do that?”) He didn’t realize until that moment that he’d stepped into a different genre. The stabbing is one of the first Surprise Genre Switch moments we get and in retrospect it’s very important for setting up that in this world, the threat of getting hurt or killed is very real–which we need to understand to know that there are real stakes much later, when Stede almost gets executed by the British.
My kitten tried to kill my stuffed tribble. My roommate remarked that my tribble killing cat would make a great Klingon pet… and she’s right.
Imagine a Klingon ship having a cat that protects them from tribbles & vermin. They have to get the cat from a shelter run by humans and they’re like “This is the honorable Mr. Chonks”.
“Yes, our ship also has an earth feline. Her name is Carrot and she fights like a warrior.”
There’s absolutely a Klingon out there who lost an eye to a feral cat that he then adopted.
Klingons who go “pspspspsps” to get the Ship Cat to come hang out during break.
Orange Ship Cat that gets lost in the jeffires tubes and Klingon whose sole job is to go fetch the orange cat. He acts like he hates his job but he actually really adores his feline co-worker so much.
Klingon that always hands things to the Ship Cat so it can sniff it.
Klingon that intentionally grabs boxes to enrich Ship Cat’s little life. Sometimes they get multiple boxes and the crew bets on which box will be deemed “best box” by their fluffy little warrior.
Klingon that starts his work shift saying “Qapla’!” to Ship Cat who meows in return.
Newly Minted Ship Kitten climbing up to a Klingon Captain’s shoulder with her tiny needle claws while said Captain is attempting to be intimidating on the viewscreen.
Klingon who gets a head bunt from Ship Cat and gives it a head bunt back.
