Dating furries is like, they have their funny little characters, and eventually you’re like, I want a funny little character that can hold hands with yours… 🥺🥺🥺
Thinking back to the good early days before my skin grew back when people could shake their heads at me and say “masks are a government conspiracy” and instead of navigating the bullshit like a normal person I could pull mine down and say “I have chemical burns on my face”
things people expect in a political confrontation:
Facts
Logic
Emotional outbursts
Things they are never prepared for:
Open sores
This post: “Thinking back to the good early days before my skin grew back”
Their cult teaches them that the world is full of scary monster people who hate them for being so good and loved by god. If you swear at them and call them names or get in their face you’re just doing the cults work for it.
I’m not saying you have to listen to their presentation or try to debate them (and really getting into a debate without thoroughly understanding what they’re being taught will just make things worse)… I am just saying to be polite and say no thank you like if they were trying to hand you a flyer for something you don’t care about.
It’s easier for them to see the world outside their bubble as less scary if they see everyday people just going about their business and being as nice to them as you are to everyone else. This goes doubly for anyone who happens to dress modestly, not swear, and not drink or smoke because whatever you believe, they’ll see you as a “good” person who happens to strangely have no interest in their “message”, and that might be enough to get some curious about the possibility of themselves living in the real world.
It’s sometimes hard to be nice to people who seem to represent something you dislike. Just remember these “elders” are sheltered young men, some of which are getting their first real contact with people of other/no faiths.
They are not your enemy. They are victims.
They aren’t being sent out to actually convert people, they are being sent out hoping that they will be harassed and treated poorly so they view those outside the cult as dangerous and evil and stick to the safety of the familiar group.
You being mean to some teenager isn’t sticking it to anyone, you’re doing exactly what their church elders want to happen.
PLEASE READ THIS.
Please read this.
Don’t do the church’s work for them.
If you’re kind to enough of them, they put you on a block list.
They were such sweet kids, they’d turn up at my door with the thatch of raspberries out front and try to share their word with me, and I’m me, so, I fed them.
Then it was one of the wee ‘elder’s’ birthday, so I made him a cake, and all the little lads came, and they asked about my books and board games and CCGs, I was just a nice frumpy middle aged Jewish lady, I was no threat, so I fed them and made them cakes and took them to the local gaming store and listened when they talked.
One loved yu-gi-oh cards, and it turns out, one of the other wee lads, we’ll he loved him back, so I got them in touch with some resources so they had support and a different way to pay for college, they’re still together 15 years later, they have dogs, they send me ecards on their birthday. No-one figured out I’d.helped them, I was just the nice lady who made them tea and listened when people were slamming doors.
The next one really wanted to be an artist, so I left out art books and resources, my eldest shared their coptic markers, they draw comic books now, no idea why his folks were insisting he needed to be a dentist, but, he’s not a Mormon anymore, (not a Jew either before anyone makes any counter conversion claims).
The first 2 lads were the only dramatic ones, the rest went back into the network but, like Hugh of Borg, they spread the word, sometimes I’d get Mormons from other cities come and make the journey to break bread at my Sabbath table and be seen.
I still think very fondly of that time.
Many of those boys still email me now and then.
Most of them aren’t Mormons anymore.
Someone higher up spotted the pattern and suddenly no more Mormons at my door.
I was blacklisted, for kindness.
So there you go, if you don’t want Mormons at your door, just love those kids for a couple of years, feed them, help them, and eventually, no more will be allowed to visit
As a nonbinary person it feels uncomfortable when strangers perceive my partner and I as a straight couple,
But it’s hilarious to me when they perceive us as father and son.
“Does he have his own luggage?” the agent behind the check-in desk asks brightly, making eye contact with my partner.
“Just carry-on,” I say as I slide my driver’s license across the counter toward her. Confusion dawns on her face. She glances up at me briefly before printing my boarding pass in silence.
“A soap making booth!” I exclaim. I’ve been to the renaissance faire a dozen times but I’ve never visited this shop. “Let’s make soap!”
“First you have to ask your Responsible Adult for five dollars,” says the vendor in a measured, singsong voice, and wags her index finger at me.
I look around, confused. Who is she talking about? Does she mean the young man trailing behind me? I turn back to her.
“I have five dollars …”
“Well you still have to ask him,” she smiles sweetly.
As I open my mouth to ask why, I suddenly realize she has misjudged my age by at least two decades.
“I’m older than he is,” is all I can think of to say.
“Would you like a children’s menu?”
“Sure, and if you’re taking drink orders, I could also go for a Corona.”
I LOVE love LOve when like, in fics, Steve has this really weird talent or interest that nobody knows about or like nobody expects but then oddly enough it sort of fits him.
And just like— it opens up so much possibility for character projection.
My favorite is writer Steve but I’ve been growing increasingly obsessed with Steve who’s hyper fixation is snakes.
The image in my head is like— everyone’s hanging out at the trailer park for one reason or another, and they hear Robin fucking /screech/.
Everyone’s on their feet in a split second, worry and confusion and deep dread forcing the way into the forefront of their minds.
Turns out: it was a snake. A really small one at that.
Eddie and Wayne offer to take it and dispose of it, the two of them having done this various other times with the other snakes people find in the trailer park.
But Steve pushes to the front of the group yelling and scolding.
“No absolutely not!”
Eddie shares a look with Nancy, both chalking it up to Steve’s hero complex acting up and him trying to protect them from the potentially dangerous critter.
“Look, Stevie—“
“You are not going to kill that little sweetheart!”
Eddie paused, shared a confused furrow of brows with Nancy and Robin, and turned to face Steve fully.
“Stevie, baby, that’s a snake.”
Steve stood with his hands on his hips, a determined glint in his eye, and nodded. “No I thought it was a squirrel.”
Eddie sighed loudly. “Then what do we do with it?”
“Well not fucking kill it for starters! It’s harmless. Aren’t you baby?”
Eddie and everyone else watched Steve step up to the snake that was hanging from the trailer’s side door. “Um, Steve what’re you doing?”
Steve ignored them completely and simply plucked the snake from its place on the door. From somewhere beside Eddie Robin squeaked in horror and Will groaned while Lucas gave a violent shudder.
“Such a small baby aren’t ya?” Steve cooed at the little snake wrapped around his hand.
“Steve— that’s a snake,” Nancy said warily, eyeing said snake like it killed her mother. “A potentially dangerous snake.”
Steve scoffed while the snake lifted the front of its body to peer at him. “She’s not dangerous, she’s a goddamn rat snake. They’re harmless.”
Just as he said it, the snake turned its head and not his finger. Where Steve didn’t even blink, everyone else freaked.
Eddie and Robin rushed over to him, Eddie immediately taking a look at his hand but keeping his hands away from the snake. Robin kept her distance but rambled about rabies or whatever.
Steve huffed and laughed quietly. “Guys, seriously. It’s a rat snake, they’re completely and utterly harmless to humans. They have such a small amount of venom it doesn’t bother humans. And besides, this little baby’s so small she couldn’t even break the skin.”
He was right, there was no sign of breakage or even redness on Steve’s hand where he was bitten.
Eddie looked at his boyfriend a little in awe and even more in love.
Jesus Christ.
Dustin and Mike walked slowly over to Steve, each asking to hold the snake.
Steve held it out gently, Dustin taking it first and holding it delicately in his hands. When he passed it over to Mike, the snake wrapped itself around his hands and a bit up his arms. Eddie was a little in shock at the giggle the younger Wheeler let out.
Dustin, Mike and Steve sat on the trailer’s side steps and held the snake together, going back and forth about random animal topics that Eddie couldn’t be bothered to remember.
When he asked later, Will and Lucas were delighted to explain that the entire reason Dustin was allowed to join The Party was because in 4th grade he brought Mike a frog he found. Lucas explained that Mike and Dustin had both gone through and extensive reptile and amphibian phase in elementary school and still held onto some of that obsession.
From then on, whenever anyone in the trailer park found any form of snake or rodent that they wanted gone, they called Steve.
No siblings - because one gremlin spawn is enough to take care of. All of Katsuki’s cousins are older than him. Katsuki IS the baby of the family…
Which is why when he meet you, and then proceeded to meet your family, he was in a total culture shock.
You’re one of the oldest kids in your family.
When the two of you arrived to your families summertime reunion he was absolutely flabbergasted.
Once you stepped into the house you were gone in a flash!
I mean he expected as much since you lived so far away now and had such a good working relationship with your family. But he didn’t expect for you to DISAPPEAR ON HIM.
To be swallowed by a hoarde of similiar-faced relatives all shouting about how you’ve been!!
the L/N genes were strong apparently . . . you really all do look alike, huh.
Bakugou had barely stepped into the house, your luggage’s still in hand, before becoming an obstacle for children. One of your little cousins actually barrelling into his muscular thigh with a little “oof” and “sorry mister! hey! wait for me!”
Before bounding out the wide open front door to chase their playmates back around to the backyard, and then through the entire house again … as children are often prone to do.
Now, Bakugou tried to find you amoungst the little gaggle of children and sometimes teenagers that blew around his ankles, as they giggled and shouted and whooped as they weaved their way around him. at least let him find you, or one of your parents or siblings, so they can tell him which room you’d be staying in.
he’d meet them on several occasions before and secretly reveled in watching watching you and your siblings engage throughout the few visits and events he’s been invited on.
All these other people and rambunctious kids he wasn’t all too sure about … ——————
now Y/N was having the time of her life relaxing and catching up with her family
Her boyfriend, Katsuki, was not finding this relaxing.
Bakugou Katsuki felt totally out of his element: a fish out of water. Or rather, an explosive man in water.
————
his ruby eyes would snap open most mornings, at some inhumane hour from some early bird kids stomping around and giggling in hushed tones (not so hushed in his opinion) as they moved down the hallway and past your door.
And Bakugou would squint his eyes into the blackness; the void. And stare at where the door was supposed to be until they passed and burrowed his face back against your perfectly sloped shoulder and slept until some kid was send by the older folks to slam open the door and wake you up.
Bakugou absolutely couldn’t fathom this part of the routine. He absolutely hated it.
You however only ever seemed a touch miffled. And always informed the tiny correspondent with a playful pat on the head that you and him were now awake and would join the rest of them downstairs.
… but eventually the little cousins would soon come running around the side of the bed to make sure he was awake too… and Bakugou couldn’t help but turn, pick the kid up, and playfully wrestle the flailing and giggling kid on the bed into submission, and they revealed the menu for breakfast. And they would giggle and dart out of the room so fast saying, “Y/N’s awake! And her boyfriends Bakugou’s awake! He wants extra eggs!”
And it definitely wasn’t his idea of relaxing playing UNO with about 10 players every other evening. And constantly hearing you and the older kids and adults all explaining what color card the youngest one needs to put down.
Or GO-FISH for that matter!
Since apparently that silly game of chance seems to be the only one every age group can play without explaining the rules. What’s the point of a game of guessing who’s got what card? Especially when he never even gets close to winning. (Yes, he was terrible at it.)
Your family even plays for second to last place, and lo and behold he’s somehow duking it out with a 9 yr old now.
And Katsuki Bakugou definitely doesn’t enjoy participating in the family water balloon fights, or watching and dodging the stray streams from squirt guns fights as he stands at the grill with all the other men, or chasing down the muddy dog in the house, or the epic made-believe quests.
And you definitely believe him when you pass him walking through the house on morning after finishing the dishes in company with a fairy princess, pirate, and a mermaid “but-she’s-got-legs-right-now-cause-she’s-on-land.” as he walks about wearing an eye-patch on his face and a tutu around his arm
And he’s no longer “not in his element” by the end of the trip when he takes his turn to make breakfast for the whole family. Going upstairs himself to wake up the little ones and the grumbling teens. Making sure to let you sleep in and it’s a pleasant surprise when you make your way downstairs a little later to see him manning the kitchen. everybody sat down or standing around as they chow down. And you get greeted with a swift kiss to your temple and grumbled “g’morning.”
your mom chirping up, “Katsuki’s made your favorite sweetpea!”
———
And you’re pleasantly surprised once again as Bakugou joins you in on the last day of your visit. Finally stepping foot into the mattress/sleeping bag kingdom that’s set up in your house. He comes in to find you sitting at the front of the room waving your hands across the air as you engage in the last saga of this thrilling interactive bedtime story you’ve been narrating the whole trip. And Bakugou walks in and tosses all the fallen blankets back over peoples beds. Shuffling himself underneath a blanket he’s just rescued and making himself comfortable as he squeezes in next to the teens.
And it’s at some part in your story that he furrows his brow and opens his mouth muttering something to the two adolescents squished beside him. His arms crossed across his chest as a dinosaur stuffed animal rests, precariously balanced, on his broad shoulders because, “you need a stuffie for Y/Ns storytime”
and the three of them wave their hands and signal for you to pause and Bakugou grumbles out “- hold on babe, who is this dragon prince character anyway?”
And all the kids erupt in laughter shouting, “YOU, YOU SILLY BOYFRIEND.”
and his mouth is agape.
And you simply shrug, “well duh ‘tsuki. who else? Now where we’re we? Right so then the Dragon Prince, the Swordsman, and the Dashing Runaway Prince of the Kingdom decided that they …”
