Plurk paste

AAK

1. would your character be more likely to scoop someone up in their arms, or be the one getting scooped?

If he were bigger, he would perhaps do more scooping, because he would delight in picking up shorties and trying to kidnap them for experiments... tragically, he's very small, and thus extremely scoopable. He likes getting picked up by a minion... hence preferring the carries that leave him more upright and hypothetically in control than just being underarm or potato-sack carried.

2. what (if any) is a good, safe touch for your character?

He still finds people touching his ears really early to be an orange flag. It's not uncomfortable he's just judging why they might be into him... Feline Fetishists... once someone puts in the time to be closer, though, he doesn't really care if they pet his ears because it is just another way to be intimate.

Otherwise, he's fine with a lot of casual touch even if it's pretty early. He'll hug people, sidle up to them, lay over them. and most people can do the same to him. Touch his tummy, fluff his cheeks, whatever.

3. what kind of touch is not comfortable or generally unwanted by your character?

With his time in Golden Peacock Aak has shifted out of some of his leftover hyperviligance from times on the streets. That leaves only the more obvious kinds of unsafe touch where he doesn't like his ears or tail tugged.

4. can your character handle more than one set of hands on them? do they enjoy it under the right circumstances, or generally not?

If he knows and trusts the people, sure. If it's a group of people where he hasn't vetted every set of hands then there's a bit more distrust of what one might be up to while the others draw his attention.

That said, the people he loves and trusts can also be little bastards so it's possible they can also overdo it and get him to have a little kitty fitty about it. That said, his objections are more a brief tantrum and not any long-lasting effects.

5. is your character better at receiving touch or giving it? under what circumstances?

I would say Aak's better about giving it, the casual leans, bonking shoulder-to-shoulder, there's a kind of comfort in the one-sided affection where he's doing it to the other person. Meanwhile, someone being so touchy with him on an early meeting would raise his eyebrow. I'd say he's a hypocrite but his thought would be like "oh, they've got ulterior motives" and like... so does he, most of the time. He's actually being consistent there.

He can receive touch fine when it comes to people he's used to. Hung used to nanny him so he's very used to a doting touch. If someone called him over and started combing out his fur he'd complain but not, like, object or run away from it. He's fine having his hand taken or getting hugged by people.

6. how comfortable is your character with the ‘professional’ type of touching/gestures? (i.e. handshakes, having a card handy, small talk, etc)

Aak is very comfortable with this sort of thing, although his sense of professionalism is, uh, skewed. He approaches a lot of professional contact the same way he does anything else. Ironically, he's probably a lot gentler in his casual-professional gestures (handshakes, schmoozing, etc) than in his professional touch (medical treatment). When it comes to treatment he's very to-the-point and doesn't really care about if his touch is comforting or not. He just knows what he needs to test and tests it!

Probably the most comforting thing about his bedside manner is that he doesn't have cold hands.

7. how does your character react to being hit? are they likely to continue a fight if someone else starts it, or try to de-escalate or get away?

This is a funny question for Aak, like. HE DOESN'T LIKE IT, THANKS? However, no, I get the point. On the streets, Aak actually took his lumps pretty fairly. He would get socked for something he said, he would bark back, then the scene would continue. He knows that people like that really only can talk with their fists and he doesn't have the physical strength to survive in an actual fight against a street thug with muscle. If he knows he has something over the other person (i.e. the medical treatment) then he's not going to be cowed just by getting hit once.

Now that he's a lot safer he can be a lot more, uh, dramatic about it? Especially since he's around a bunch of people he actually can be playfully aggressive with. If it's someone he can't take physically he's a lot more likely to yowl, play dramatic, how could you, don't you call yourself a good guy, etc, etc. If it's someone equally scrawny then, yea, he might try his chances with a good ol' fashioned wrestle/tickle fight.

8. high fives, yes or no?

yea dude give him five

I realize I haven't written many high-fives but I attribute this to the fact that a high five is implicitly asking for approval of something and Aak never asks for that anyways. That said, I'm also extremely charmed by the idea of having to teach his lame old-school CR about high fives and how to respond to them. Then he can add "down low" and view the light leave from their eyes the first time he hits them with a "too slow."

9. someone waves at your character. what do they do?

There are some contexts where he's not happy about it. If he's trying to law low then obviously someone waving at him is a huge pain and he tries to ignore it or wave the other person off. If he's in a big, public situation then the wave will likely be taken as taunting and get an irate reaction, a tail lash, or a curse out of him.

but, like, normally it's chill, he'll either wave back or gesture for the other person to come over to be properly bothered

(for the aak hypocrisy count, it's perfectly fine for him to ignore a wave but How Dare someone ignore him calling them over to be annoyed)

10. are there any gestures or touches that your character shares with a friend/team/loved one that are a type of code between them?

Not consciously! Aak may use a general touch to reassure someone that he's nearby (or taunt them that he's nearby) but nothing comes down to any particular translation. People may notice though that as they get closer to Aak then his tail is more likely to lay on them while cuddling or hanging out.

He'll also dig his fingernails into people if they're pushing it but that doesn't really feel like a "code" at that point.

11. how does your character’s relationship with touch change if they get tipsy or otherwise chemically unbalanced?

Aak is already touchy-feely so being under the influence doesn't really change that. I would say that the biggest difference is adding some sort of verbal component to it. He normally uses and receives touch with implicit terms but under the influence he's more likely to ask for it or talk about giving it.

This can vary if it's any of the resort's special substances, of course, and depending on the person. He's currently trying to be all business explaining the effects to Yugamu in their first meeting because 1) freak, 2) unsure if he's safe/ He's still way more prone to have someone else test out the house's concoctions and not himself.

12. if your character needed to touch someone to check on their physical condition, how would they go about it?

This one I have gotten to write! Aak is exceedingly casual about this sort of thing which sometimes means he's very brusque and sometimes you might not even really realizes a check-up is happening. When it comes to things like checking a pulse he can manage that without even breaking his conversation and so how smoothly it goes depends entirely on how easily the other person surrenders their wrist.

In terms of giving a physical he uses his hands liberally but tends not to be flirty about it. He's used to doing that sort of thing quickly and efficiently, perhaps at knifepoint, so he doesn't really slow down or make it anything besides a physical. Now he may *say* things that are flirty because he's always a bit sassy about it but it's the weird case where his hands don't match his tone.

He would get really offended if someone was refusing him access to their body in this case, though, since like... come on, he IS actually trying to do something "good" for once.

13. someone touches your character in a way that’s rude or that they just don’t like (i.e. shoves past them, etc). what do they do?

Similarly to being hit, Aak is used to just absorbing the ill-intent and dealing with it in his own way depending on if he has room to negotiate or not. He can accept it with minor complaint if he's in a bad position or yelp loudly and demand apologies if he's in a secure position.

In both cases, though, he is thinking about how he can use his chemical knowledge to get revenge. That's not going to change. He may not have been able to execute a lot of those plans in GP but it definitely soothes him more to think about how he's gonna lace the offender's clothes with itching powder and then laugh his way to the bank. If a close associate wrongs him with a rough shove then the punishment may also be sexy because it is a friendlier expression of power shifting.

14. if your character needed to communicate peaceful or helpful intentions to someone else through touch, how would they go about doing that?

I feel like, if Aak wanted to not make a situation worse, he would try to avoid touch. He knows his own prickly limits so not touching someone would be a sign that he doesn't intend to do anything. That does get overridden by the need to give medical attention... although he might then still use a lack of touch to communicate his intent. Even if it's an unhelpful "OK, fine, look, I won't touch you at all! Go ahead and bleed out about it!" Since he needs to care a certain degree in order to decide that he *has* to save someone above their own desires.

A lot of his comfort comes in just keeping a hand on someone. Like, he's bad at comfort, he doesn't really know the best way to do it, but he will just make sure to keep an unbroken point of contact while trying to comfort someone he cares for.

I do think that, despite this being a touch meme, Aak does end up having to try and verbalize his intent more when it's peaceful or helpful intentions. He knows how he comes off so he does try to say like, hey, time out, I'm actually trying here!!

15 does your character gesture to draw someone’s attention to other people/things? are they likely to notice if they get pointed at? if they don’t point, what’s another gesture they might use?

Aak gestures quite a bit and I hope I do a good job of expressing that in tags. He definitely likes to draw attention to stuff with his finger, kind of similar to how someone would use a touchscreen- I think a lot of his gesturing is linked to technology and use of a phone/the Watch. He'll also do a few mimicking gestures get slid in here or there. I... don't think he's ever done the finger into finger-hole gesture. That's a crime. He definitely has done something like this.

I think that he would notice being pointed at because, again, there's lingering street anxiety from being a possible target. He also has a few gripes about someone viewing him as particularly stand-out in a crowd because... sigh!! it's not his fault he's furry! It's normal back home! Although if he knows the person pointing he can react with either annoyance ("hey, knock it off") or mischief ("oho yes it's me the criminal").