#must teach her

[omies-odd-writing-spot]

Nymphaea Thermarum 04

Teaching The Important Things:

“Okay, now tighten the knot.” Fredrick said as he was watching the miniscule hands and what they were doing intently.

Lily carefully tightened the line, thin cord but a line that can well support her weight and then some. She sat up and looked at the propped up phone set beside her that had the reference pictures, “I… think I got it. It makes more sense seeing the pictures dad.”

“Good,” the man smiled, proud as he shifted in his seat to reach for his coffee mug on the table. “Want to test your knots baby girl?” 

“Yes!” Lily brightened up as the small girl perked up. She found the line, and started to loop it up to be neat and once her adopted, giant father had settled again. She measured a good distance of six inches in the line starting where it was connected to herself. The girl lifted the spot once her dad's attention was back on her fully. “This should be a safe distance right?”

Fredrick checked the distance and picked up the line. Twisting some more on the other side through his fingers, “Looks good, ready?”

Lily wiggled exactly and nodded, “Yes!”

The man grinned as he planted his left elbow and lifted his bitty daughter up slowly until she was off her feet. Pausing so only two inches were under her and his right hand hovered near but not so much to interfere. “Don't forget to sit back, let the harness hold you Lily, don't hang from it to cinch it around your middle.”

The tiny girl concentrated, but got in the position she needed to be. All at once a lot of things they had talked about and watched on the phone made sense. She swayed for a few moments before shifting her lower legs and started to swing back and forth. Testing the feel and movement before making a face.

“Can you put me down dad?”

“What did you notice?” Fredrick asked, carefully lowering Lily back to the table top. Smiling a little as she leaned back onto the knuckles of his other hand as she adjusted the harness. 

“It feels looser and…slippery? Like my leg could slide out.” Lily said as she finished, getting up and testing movement before looking back and up at her giant father. “Okay, we can try again!”

Fredrick lifted the line again, and watched intently as Lily started her testing. She was notably a lot more confident as she swung again. Then unprompted started to climb the line up to his hand. Fredrick grinned, “hey, you remembered what we talked about. Good leg work baby girl.”

“Thanks!” Lily gasped once she was up on the back of the massive hand. Her dad had kept his hand steady and though he did not shift to accommodate, he did not hinder, letting her sort out her balance and mechanics herself for the most part.

It was one of the things Lily was learning she loved about her giant adopted dad. He was more than happy to help teach Lily survival skills, mechanics, electronics on top of everything else like reading, writing and math. Even if Lily was not nearly big enough to use some of this, but also just… whatever she wanted to learn there was no hesitation. 

Even repealing like in the video of her dad doing it in training. Or if she was not up to something at all. Lily grinned and held up her arms to the human, “dad!”

“What baby girl?” 

“I want a hug.”

Fredrick rolled his eyes playfully, not sure what thoughts his little daughter had in her head for those expression changes.  His other hand came up and pulled the girl up by the line, getting a startled yelp as he brought Lily over. It was just a moment of seemingly being unstable before he hunched. Holding Lily in his hand and press on his cheek to her small self. 

The man smiled at the laughing and small smack against his cheek before Lily pressed her head against him. Shamelessly in this random want for a cuddle. “You're such a brat.”

“No I'm not,” Lily said confidently, standing up with her hands on Frederick’s cheek and looking up at the big brown eye half lidded. Recognizing the happy expression. “But now I'm ready to learn about repelling!”

“Okay you're a dork not a brat,” Frederick said with a fod smile, but helped Lily down so they could make sure her line was untangled and wrapped back up, then picked her up with his own confidence of experience now.

“Where are we going?” Lily asked, as they left the table and then to the living room.

“Over by the couch, I made something for you last night.” Frederick said as he set Lily in the low coffee table before pulling something off the couch to set up near her. 

“Is that sand paper?” Lily gasped, making her her line was over a shoulder and out of the way as she looked at the odd things as they were set down before being assembled. She touched the poster board, recognizing that, as it worked pretty good for making models with her adopted mom. There were carefully pinned course sandpaper on the board in a line.

“Yep, I thought it would be good for you for traction as you first start.” The man nodded, taking that part once Lily was clear, and attached it at an angle that seemed about what starters should be on. Frederick just had to adjust it for Lily's size. 

As he did so Lily ran around the structure he made, the top end had to be a good two feet high! It was made with wood and seemed like it could adjust? It was at the highest settings? 

“You remember what we went over with anchor points?” Her dad's voice drew Lily's attention away from the excitement building.

“Yeah! I mean yes. Uuh we haven't made anything yet for me to use yet.” Lily started and then stood up, focusing on the reminder of safety.

“We will, I have an idea for now though,” Frederick reassured, “Part of the reason I want you to practice here with me instead of jumping off the kitchen counter.”

Lily grinned, through had the good sense to seem a bit sheepish. She still shamelessly tried that now and then, but not nearly as much as she used to do! And she waited for her parent's attention first now. She started to try and sort how to climb up as her dad pushed a thick scarf around the bottom of the practice ramp. Squeak g as she was carefully picked up and lifted to the top.

“Don't worry about climbing up for now, you're going to be tired enough with repealing today.” The man reassured before going over the checklist of safety points they had learned and gone over that morning. 

Lily was excited, yes, but very proud that she could answer everything. The first several times of actual practice were…awkward to say the least. She was very grateful that her dad had quick reflexes. She was determined to get the hang of this before her mom got off work. 

They only really stopped for a quick snack and used the facilities, then off to try again. Lily was tired when she was finally able to get down, back up and down again all by herself. Her arms her, her back hurt and it was a relief to sprawled in the massive, but warm hands after getting the harness off. Then some needed rest against her dad's chest.

Lily dosed without realizing it as she was listening to the deep heartbeat under her. Not really aware of when Frederick got up. The man still had a proud and fond look as he carried Lily to the kitchen, finding the spot she liked to be in where she could watch normally. It was a warmer area of the kitchen and… and…

Frederick sighed, having a fond smile as he gently rubbed his thumb against Lily's side. “Why do you have to be so small, baby girl? you're going to melt my heart.”

The tiny girl just curled up to be comfortable in her hammock-like spot. The motion had Lily pressing her forehead against the side of the pad of his thumb. Frederick fell in love all over again, and though he had to hold chest as his heart turned to mush, the man's legs thankfully stayed solid. For his tiny daughter, his wife, their home, just…

This was so worth the deployment times. Or coming back from them in reality.

[flufflecat]

this is the most beautiful creature on earth and I will kill someone if it asks me to

[bonefall]

The more I consider the "Smoky gets Frostpaw sterilized against her will" thing, the more I dislike it even on a thematic level...

This book seems to be trying to put Frostpaw through an arc of learning to trust people. Riverstar magically appears in her dreams to send her to the Park Cats who are meant to teach her this lesson, but... starting and resolving that arc more than halfway through the book was sloppy, and a waste.

Instead of Smoky forcing medical treatment on her in spite of how she tells him point blank "please no," SHE should have called for the human.

A creature that the Clan cats have never trusted, that they have great reason to fear. Caught between dying with her pride like a good warrior and taking a risk on the kindness of an unknowable beast, in spite of all the betrayal, she chooses the chance.

Play it like this; Make it so the reason she becomes chosen by Riverstar at all is because he SEES this glimmer of potential within her, because of this very choice.

Instead of that bizarre opening chapter where he seems to have magically gifted her some kind of spiritual connection as a plot device, INSTEAD make it that they were sadly overseeing the end of her life. That this was her destiny, to die as a young, proud warrior apprentice. To trust no cat, as her mother told her.

But instead, she tricks the wording of the self-fulfilling prophecy Curlfeather told her. It said nothing about trusting a human!

THEN follow it up with teaching her how to trust cats again. But make the road down this character arc be something she truly initiated, instead of the weird bullshit they did with her being mad at Smoky for violating her consent while also exonerating him for "Doing The Right Thing :)"

[vigilskeep]

i need to wynnepost. somebody has to

[cinamun]

Dj's first time | Next

[xx-sketchy-xx]

Mwahahah. I loved them so I colored them

[butwhatifidothis]

Will never forgive certain parts of the fandom for letting the idea of "Claude being confused over Hilda's willingness to die for him is a showing of how morally lacking he is" become an idea that's any kind of popular.

This man spent the first 15-16 years of his life having basically no friends and having everyone around him either trying to murder him outright for attributes about himself he had no control over or otherwise forced him to completely fend for himself against said attempts on his life (Parents of the Year), but he's supposed to just accept that he has someone willing to die protecting him? With that someone being a person who presented herself as someone who would never do exactly that (and who in fact genuinely believed that she would never do that)? After he'd told them to retreat if things got dicey?

His parents literally wouldn't even lift a finger to help stop people trying to murder their child - they told his ass to Get Gud or perish. But him being horrified and baffled that someone would die for him means he's a shitty person who never actually cared for anyone in Fodlan. What complete balderdash

[bumblingbabooshka]

My baby's just fine. She knows all of her rhymes. [Patreon | Ko-fi]

[vi-visected]

arthur and aithusa would be like the grumpy dad who didn’t want a cat. he’d go from calling her a vicious bloodthirsty monster while she’s tangled in his bed canopy to napping in a chair in front of the fire with her sprawled over his chest because she got cold alone in her nest.

[swan2swan]

Annual reminder that Aang wasn't a terrible dad, that one episode was badly written and had poor perspective. Aang was a busy, working dad who had a lot of stuff to do, and then suddenly his third kid was a full-on Airbender and he was literally the only one qualified to teach this baby, so then he finally had an excuse to put his family before his duties ("My family IS my duty now, suckers!!!"), and so Kya and Bumi were all "What the heck, Dad???" because they were now teens (iirc) and they missed out on all that stuff.

It was basically Aang going from "my family has 20% of my time" to "my family has 40% of my time". Still not enough, probably, but Aang could finally go and explore his own culture without feeling guilty about leaving the rest of the world to fend for itself.

[thunderheadfred]

looking at woodland themed baby stuff (mostly for ideas, to know what to look for second hand, lol) and many of the shopping webbed sites declare "forest for boys"

I was forced to behold a vinyl wall decal that was like "little man cave" and I just.

look. capitalism. I just want a blanket with a deer on it because there are deer in the woods outside my house and I want to sit and nurse my baby and look at the deer and when they walk by I can point to the blanket and say "I LOVE YOU OMGGGGGG" at which they will turn slightly and look at me like, "u okay"

this is not a baby-need-gender-role thing this is a "I cry when I see a deer" thing why don't they understand

[mayasaura]

Not done thinking about John and his nana. I wonder if he remembers what she looked like. What she sounded like. If he ever sees anything of her in Kiriona. If he looks for it, hoping once he sees it he'll remember what to be looking for

[hyperpsychomaniac]

I need this as a B plot right now.

[queer-benoit-blanc]

I am so so normal about Dionysus and Pentheus.

[naffeclipse]

a meme for y/n <3 after CS ch 18

how many times do we have to teach you this lesson, woman?!?

PFFFFFFFFFT

She is just a little character destined to face any Y/N who has a knife ;-;

[gloriousmonsters]

koume and kotake were like 400 years old... y'all think they raised any other kings?