...At least. That's my official story, and I'm sticking to it dang it. Unofficially, though...off the record, the real reason is that I got a preview into my future. Namely, me not being able to have the heart to part with the cuddling status quo. (I've come close already!) In the future, this will be because of a person or two (<3), but in this instance I just couldn't find it in me to part ways with an adorably cute kitten, mewling in a way just begging to be there.
She wasn't alone. My dog jumped onto my lap at the earliest opportunity. This isn't unusual. I mean. I still have trouble getting up, but it's more in maneuvering my body so that when I get up, he remains undisturbed, allowing him to sleep peacefully in bliss. (Whereas with a kitten she guilt trips you.) But normally, kitty + doggy + lap = mutually exclusive combo. If kitty first, terrified dog; if dog first, indignant kitty: "How DARE you sit there"; "How DARE you let him steal what's MINE".
...But today she apparently really wanted to cuddle so she didn't mind the dog at all. (And the dog was tired/lonely/content enough that he flat-out didn't notice/care she hopped on literally right beside him.) She was initially grooming, so I thought she'd leave not long after...but then she surprised me by curling up into a ball and staying. When I first began an attempt to leave, my shift in body position triggered her trill, and she rolled to be positioned belly up.
I gave her a belly rub for as long as I thought appropriate, then a chin rub, also as long as I could. I expected her to leave not long after that--she didn't. She stayed, and stretched out, elongating her body and exposing everything all at once. I petted her with broad strokes some more, expecting my affection would eventually drive her away. She simply rolled over onto the other side, as if to say "Now do me on this side too!". And I did, because apparently I am a sucker and couldn't resist.
At this point, I gave up on leaving early and did what I could to enjoy my forced extra nap time, since there was just no way I could justify anything except leaving for work at literally the last possible moment for disrupting this absolutely gorgeous moment with a beautiful little creature. And sadly, I did indeed have to force a parting even against my desires to warmly cuddle, since I did need to leave.
...From my (admittedly only limited) experience, I'm preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetty dang sure. That you can basically directly substitute my kitty for a person and the description would otherwise word-for-word be identical, or even maybe worse, with extra descriptors and less time sleeping (and yet, more..."sleeping") involved. I'm borderline laughing (okay I'm outright laughing) at the thought just because of how true it rings. (Admit it you know it is. <3) So I found the experience amusing to say the least. (Also adorable and very much something I didn't regret.)
...Now no-one outside my blog readers (which at this point wouldn't surprise me to learn are comprised entirely of two people--and I'd be absolutely fine with that <3--but I write on here with at least the theory of me having more) must know the truth, that I'm a wimp emotionally instead of physically.
...Okay, so. I'm kinda both admittedly. My cover story isn't exactly a lie. I'm choosing not to roam-guard today as I usually would, as to preserve some semblance of my foot's ability to function. Instead of moving during down-time, I intend to largely slack off.
Now! I'm a chronic worker. Even if I weren't, then I've already pushed boundaries at work to their limit for my "laziness" in doing certain tasks. So between the two, I'll still be standing a lot. It's just that I won't pace or come out of our rest area unless absolutely necessary. That's the plan at least!
Speaking of which, I still owe you a story ramble, but I feel like this is enough of one for now. I leave for dance some time after work. I don't know the exact timing, but my PLAN at the very least is come home, type this blog entry up and post it, change, nap, then leave.
...Then again I have plans which never quite seem to survive contact with the day, so we'll see I suppose.
Addendums:
For the Villain Song setting, I thought of the words which inspire the villain to pursue the hero:
"The greatest threat you now face
Is not one new to this day
It has grown so steadily
Existing past, future, and presently.
A hopebringer of the kingdom slain,
Your greatest fear, an unbroken chain.
If no counter's found then know:
You'll have met your equal."
This comes from an oracle he consults daily with a request worded as to not create self-fulfilling prophecies.
But upon receiving this one, I get to display perhaps the strongest source of scornful deadpan delivery in the whole script. (And this is basically how the villain talks full-time. Remember, mixture of Scar and Jafar with a dash of Rasputin in him too.) His response?
"How conveniently ambiguous." (An alternative line is "How delightfully convenient", but I think I like the other one more overall.)
To be fair. The oracle is himself no slouch, since in response to that, he goes,
"Why of course. It's how we stay in business, sir. We guarantee a 100% accuracy reading."
Butstill. I think that even in text without me speaking it and without the accompanying facial expressions, you can get a fair idea of the tone I imagine for the villain of that story.
That wasn't all, either.
I thought of a few things for Hannah/Aeris in Red Hood Rider, as well.
Basically, an opponent faces her believing she's weak, but finds that in spite of having seen her fight before and having counters to literally every move she's ever shown at that stage (which would be quite the list), she still continues to playfully dance around them.
She then sets up a "Three questions" game.
"Did you know about the riders' passive inability to kill?" (Yes.)
"Why is it that the nicest of us was gifted the element of air?" (She then says in a very Hannah-like way, "This is a hard one so I probably shouldn't tell you the answer is because I'm the only rider candidate who can't violate that prime directive with the powers of air.")
(Cue the Oh Crap look on her opponent as the realization begins to sink in, because the implication there is that any person less nice than Hannah would be unable to keep the powers of air in check from killing opponents and thus air must fall to someone of that personality.)
"Why do you think I appear so weak?" (She then gleefully gives the answer away accidentally, via, "Anything you can do, I can do better~".)
And it's at this point Sally watching on the sidelines has this bit of dialog.
"You know, I'm kinda ashamed it's taken me this long to realize what Aegis Shield stands for. Like most, I just assumed it meant shielding others from her opponents' harm. But it's real meaning is shielding her opponents from her own power."
(Related to this, Hannah's initial release phrase--the things that all Riders start out with but gradually fade out with time--is "Blessed be the cursed, All is forgiven. At my hand, none shall perish." The initial assumption is that she'd be blessing those with the misfortune of having suffered at the hands of her opponents, and that there's now nothing to fear because she's there to protect them, a fairly cliched protecting-the-innocent spiel. But the real meaning of that line is that she is granting a blessing on her opponents, and that she is swearing she won't kill them with her power.)
Hannah might be an airhead, but she's also quite deliberately one of the first riders competent villains aim to take out, and for good reason. Aside from genre-savviness of quirky = ability to mess with things through pure chaos, she's actually just one of the strongest of the cast throughout the entire story in spite of her powers not really evolving that much. (Well, they do, just subtly so rather than overtly so.)
The reason for this is simple enough.
All eight elements are loosely equivalent in power. None is inherently stronger than another. Higher-level users of any element are akin to gods and able to use basically powers usually thought of as exclusive to another element. It's just in how creative the users are, combined with what limitations they actually have (or rather, don't have). So it's not like she's inherently better than any of the cast.
What makes her so consistently one of the strongest though is that of the eight elements, by far the easiest to make powerful is Air. So while all the elements are equally strong, equally versatile, and equally able to do things...air is simply more, as it were..."user friendly".
It's easier to make strong because air is the definition of simplicity. It's easy to use, easy to master, has many basic functions and is incredibly easy to expand those basic functions one at a time. And yet, air is also one of the easiest elements to access story-breaker abilities in. Think pinpoint gravity control: making a series of gravity points which are essentially akin to black holes, sucking in all surrounding matter. Now think about being able to make those within a person and the messy results thereof. Air has access not only to that fundamental force of the universe, but at least one other (I'd have to track down my notes on whether it's the Strong Force or the Weak Force), with the potential to maybe even have access to more than that.
Think about an opponent who can bend, manipulate, even break multiple fundamental forces of the universe. And you get into the realm of just the basic easier-accessed-abilities of air. And Hannah, the elemental rider of air, can combine these all with the element of Light for an even extra boost.
So there's good reason for this. She's the nicest because only the nicest can keep air from being too strong. And she appears Strong As She Needs To Be, because it's the only way to hold back. An aspect of air is that they have this kind of access with ease, but also the randomness to not be able to keep it consistent. Essentially, when there is a need for a new rider of air, it will always seek out someone who holds both these quantities:
An innate goodness in them beyond even the normal for a rider, combined with an innate inability to keep consistent constant focus, such that when the power manifests, it focuses only as much as necessary for the task, and will never give too much.