#also orbs just carry their kids around either really carefully or like a sack of potatoes

[jaz-stories]

How Puffballs/Astrals/Orbs/Eldritch abominations carry around their babies, a helpful guide.

Having a spherical body with short limbs gives some unique challenges for day-to-day life, especially when carrying another smaller orb with you.

Still, the puffballs are very careful with their young and will often go to great lengths to ensure they're safe and sound. Especially after the war against Nightmare began and their populations dimmed.

Baby baskets are the most common solution for travelling parents, they're light, keep the hands free, practical and relatively easy to make/repair. The straps are angled and often have ways to regulate their length, and the contraption as a whole can be made of almost anything flexible. Still, regular baskets aren’t suited to flying at high speeds, so caretakers are advised to keep flights slow and avoid fights. Astrals with children are relatively vulnerable and rely on other group members for protection.

Older children also hang out on their parents’ backs without the basket, their hands/paws are stronger and they can safely hold on to older orbs even during flight. Teens are rarely seen doing this as well, particularly during stressful/dangerous situations.

Strollers are more present in astral towns since nomadic groups find them too heavy and impractical to carry around. The stroller’s main advantage is that it can carry multiple puffs at once (which is already rare) and gives more protection and comfort than the baskets. They can vary a lot in shape and size, but often have a spherical shape overall.

Although travellers don’t usually have strollers, it’s not unheard of for them to just build a makeshift one whenever the need arises... or when they just wanna go really fast and are tired of carrying kids on their back.

And lastly, “I’ve been juggling parenting, my job, my hobbies, my duty as a knight, and saving the world, and also haven’t slept in 73 hours”, Meta Knight’s favourite.

(Credit to @otaku553​ for the name “astrals” go check out their blog!)