#tldr it's just hard to crave community so much when you are this bad at social media

[jingyismom]

tiny vent from your local emotionally stunted author pls don’t mind me

[madamhatter]

ACT ???. BACKSTAGE your name is.....

Note: headcanon dump. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  several smaller ones drafted, decided against spam, and then bunched some together. 

got only another thing, a drabble, which it’ll come out soon enough..! had it for ~3 days and isn’t as long as this post. 

plumeria.

“And a good morning to you too.” Before the sun greeted the sky, Sophie Hatter had been minding herself to conversation with a newly made friend. Her hand briskly brushes against their cool form to then patting it affectionately. Turns out that her friend was much taller than her, which is quite a shock for how younger they were. Not surprising when she was talking to a blossoming plumeria tree. 

After the events in ACT I, SCENE I, and a great amount of guilt (which she easily crumbles under), Sophie ended up using a good portion of her earned bits from that week to purchase the plumeria she enchanted. The tree has been reserved to live comfortably on top of the apartment complex she lives in, which makes it an interesting sight. 

She has already constructed a large box (3.5 feet width), filled it with dirt, and transferred the tree into its happy new home. She thankfully did as her magic is, in simple terms, is very reactive. Not needing direct commands, or specific words/chants to use it, her own vocals can impact quite a bit. In this case, it’s the fact that the tree that had once fit in a pot was now already taking on a healthier size. It is has quite visible around the block as it’s already ~6 ft and can grow up to 20 ft. At this rate, it may happen exponentially. 

If it sounds like the tree is alone, don’t worry! One of the major projects Sophie had when she (recently) moved into her apartment was to create A) a reliable source of food and B) connections. So, there is a community garden on the rooftop as well, not taking up the entirety of the space (but could, depending on what’s wanted by the complex residents). She acts as the head gardener and spends a good portion up there to tend to vegetables, flowers, and the tree. Anyone in the apartment complex may freely tend to the garden (and take from it).

consumption/charity.

With her only stable income coming from her work as the Vermilion Detective Agency’s housekeeper, and her past history of her family’s ‘bread winner,’ she has spent scrupulous time organizing and budgeting out most weeks in advance. Considering Simeon’s work, which is high risk and high reward, that is not usually counted. She anticipates that there’ll be 'dry periods’ when there might not be available work or she’ll be decommissioned due to injuries sustained from her last job. In her opinion, it’s best to work in assuming conditions are worst than they are, which mean certain sacrifices are made.

For this headcanon, we’ll focus on food consumption. Sophie has notoriously bad health concerns when it comes to herself. This includes missing out on meals and not keeping track of what she has eaten. She is an avid baker and cook from being her family’s provider, but this doesn’t mean she makes things for herself. Honestly, the shame of her skills is that even if she could create as much, she A) can’t enjoy it/rationalizes that isn’t for her pleasure/source, and, in the case of food, B) not able to indulge. Sophie has a major case of “food intolerances” because of the limited availability (and variety) of foods in her childhood. 

All this in mind, Sophie tends to have extra ingredients available or a selection of them that she wouldn’t normally eat. (or can’t eat). There’s the fear that it’ll expire and she would’ve wasted money, so she pretty much returned to old habits: assume a bigger household. 

Sophie, essentially, has cooked larger meals and offered them out in her apartment. It originally didn’t start like this. She already offered meals already to those in the apartment complex out of compassion. She comes from a relatively small community and it’s always been integral to participate and support those around you; they can be as much as family to you, if you decide to make them so. But, back to topic. Considering how little she’s actually using, she isn’t wanting anything to go to waste

Want a plate in Sophie’s apartment? The first step would be you’d need to live close to her district, or in her district, and heard it by word of mouth (or from the source herself). She can’t go the extra mile and create new locations to serve food. Maybe in local spots, but she is still someone who’s living in poverty. The second step would be to know when. The best way to know? See if the plumeria tree is blossomed. 

It blossoms and closes according to when visits the garden. Its a part of her obligations to visit the roof-top garden everyday for about 1~4 times (when she wakes up, when she leaves, when she returns, and when she’s retiring for the day). It can be more times. Again, her speech leaves impact, and given how she speaks to the tree, the flower scan either be opened or closed. If it’s opened, she’s been at the apartment and hasn’t left. If they’re closed, she’s either (trying) to sleep or she’s left the apartment. The flowers aren’t always opened, which doesn’t necessarily reflect that she hasn’t visited. She’s possibly busy/stressed about something, rushing to get things done, or isn’t in the particular mood. 

Then again, if someone crashed in and is ridiculously malnourished or mentions they haven’t eaten (or lies about it), she will rush into that kitchen faster than they can blink. It’s always been a part of her character to be a ‘people-pleaser’ to some angle, usually seen as compassion. ..Add in the fact that her guilt can be used against her effectively and the person might not even be trying. 

rambling below. wasn’t proof-read. just me going. 

..Now that I think about it, this act itself is coping to the internalized and externalized exile she’s facing. She’s completely removed from her family unit (sisters), the one thing that kept her going, and her home and history has been destroyed. It’s already of her to genuinely fear loneliness and the inevitable ‘uselessness’ she will be because all she’s worked for has always been to benefit/aid her sisters. 

She believes the worth she actually feels good about ( read: the one time feels happy when she’s being used/taken advantage of) will expire as soon as her sisters don’t need her anymore. She spent her life being used and gotten used to it because she, as a child, *agreed/accepted* her shit fate in lieu that she’d be used to help/nurture/do everything for her sisters’ happiness/stability/etc. That is literally the reason why she rolls with it. Just for them. 

In her eyes, she’s *very* close to the point where her life is going to really have no purpose because she has reconstructed herself for her sisters-. and there’s the fact that if she successfully raised them and ensured them everything they need, they wouldn’t need her. she’ll be obsolete and she knows that. and it’s just a countdown until she’s truly useless, which then means she’ll be lonely because there’s no desirability/use to her. in her head, that’s how relationships work with her and has been the standard since she was a kid. 

providing to people is her life’s obligation because of how she’s been molded to see herself as.

This is a way to get some company and placate the terror of isolation she believes she is fated for. She might’ve reconstructed and gained control of her fate. But, there are certain things your life is barred to because what you perceive to happen/it to be. Basically, self-fulfillment prophecy. 

She still has that gap because of her own internalization, repression, and other co-morbid beliefs, trauma, etc.. She hasn’t gotten to that point, or is she avoiding it? She can physically and emotionally adapt well, but mental adaptation is the harder thing to do. 

It doesn’t help this is the idiot who doesn’t ask for help or admit to these things. Then there’s the problem of her not wanting to be alone, but she pushes relationships away because her feelings towards them are ‘this isn’t going to last and I shouldn’t get comfortable’ and ‘my relationships exist only for exchange in that I need to give and the person has to receive, or else something’s wrong.’  

this can go on, but, nah - this is going to get too off-topic.

tldr: she’s a dumbass who craves intimacy and company like everyone else but rejects most human desires/wants because she wasn’t treated like a proper human and normalized it for herself. sophie believes her relationships are based on ulterior motive + her needing to provide because that what she thought is normal for her. 

budgeting ( + peek into psyche )

Financial stability hadn’t been a staple of Sophie’s life. Emptied pockets and urgency had been, however, persistent conditions by which she coordinated herself and handling between the family shop and her family’s needs. Electricity was all too new in the valley, running water was a commodity that could’ve been easily revoked and it was harder to regain, warmth was at an all-time best whenever the Hatter sisters trio huddled together, and food was as much of a surprise for Sophie with each passing day. As she’s gotten older, she saw less of these impending fears, if only because she placed herself immediately into the workforce. No pay she made was her own, her stepmother pocketed it, but it was thankfully used for the family....with what little was left after Fanny did whatever she wanted with it.

However, those yesterdays were swallowed by a veil of smoke and ember, far too thick to navigate and too hard to breathe in. Instead of a family of the five remaining Hatters, all it was now in Sophie’s estranged life was herself in Topaxi. Her sisters were fortunately in apprenticeships in the empire and Fanny was recently remarried to some rich man -- to whom she never met properly as they gotten engaged and eloped during her disappearance. Even if she spent countless days in a cramped apartment, watching the paint chip away on her ceiling and only in the company of flowers and hats, she was still stubborn to fall on her oldest habit. Every pinch of money she made in her numerous jobs were budgeted with such precision that more than 60% of the funds were mailed out and sent to her sisters at the end of every month.

With the legally questionable yet financially beneficial jobs, it made things much easier to support her family. Her own safety, sanity, and security, however, weren’t priorities. Not that they did matter, anyways, since the importance of a job was customer satisfaction and a successful transaction.

Simeon stirs from their momentary silence, shaking their head at the sound of talk before them. It’d been another arrangement to do another one of those jobs, and it was becoming a routine that they weren’t at all fond of. Morals and better judgement rallied to put a stop in engaging and profiting from this field of world, but those wouldn’t produce anything worthy for her sisters to live off on. It didn’t matter what the self thought and wanted, what mattered was the others.

“Uhuh.” Don’t act as if you were originally listening.

misc.

Given her origins in [REDACTED], particular the location in the country, much of the advancements in Topaxi and in many countries weren’t available for her. She hasn’t ever needed to own a phone (or had one in her house home). There are certain things that are needing to get used to. One of the major points for this is that Sophie’s inadequacy with technology (even if it’s not ‘modern’ to our standards) does impact her. This does include a vehement dislike towards cars, which didn’t exist in the valley where she grew up in. She will pretty much refuse to enter one and would prefer handling foot traffic and relying on her knowledge to find barely-traveled routes. It isn’t necessarily labeled as a phobia, but she does have a great unease inside cars and tends to shimmy to the side, gripping the seat cushion. She would continue conversation but her inputs are not as verbose. She will not look out of the windows and try to keep herself distracted.   The only other time this reaction can be invoked if she’s shoved into any medical facility -- which spikes her anxiety. But, in that particular case, her hostility will appear and it’s not something that really, really comes out easily. 

Knowledge in obscure, if not concerning, topics happens to be ever true in this version than in her usual incarnation. Outside of what her canon establishes in understanding demonology, curses, and contracting, there is the additional compact of her understanding human anatomy. It’s, admittedly, something that doesn’t come out normally and this is mainly discussing the different systems that govern the body. She will share her techniques and skills when it comes to tending/first aid, and the information will out come, but it’s much more friendlier for normal people. It can easily have its tune changed.  Genuinely speaking, the application of this knowledge goes into explaining the limitations of the body and reactions that the body will have if certain bones, organs, etc. are damaged, removed, etc. If we need to go further in, this does include things like dissection and such.  Example of how it’ll be approached, here:   “Here.” Sophie tapped her finger to an image dedicated to the spinal cord as the image listed off the nerves associated with the system, injuries one could get, the name of each vertebrate, etc. “Theoretically,” she turned to Natsume, assuming he was paying attention and not returning to the devil spawns he called his cats.  “If you look at the top, you have the cervical vertebrae.” Sophie gently poked  Natsume’s spine with the tip of her scarred fingertips. “C6 is one of the points where you’d need to get in order to start the process. An injury here could be as harmless as you could expect but there’ll be paralysis from the neck downwards. It is very vital. Something like a hairline fracture could work if the person isn’t looking.” Just imagine it to get into more uncomfortable detail. Why does she know this? Good question.

Sophie’s been formerly cursed as an old woman like in canon. and, weirdly, embraced it faster than any person should’ve. It still impacts her in ways, but spoilers :). The main point is that she falls into the habit of speaking much older than she is. Doesn’t matter if you’re two years older, twice her age, or the one responsible for making the universe, she will refer to you as ‘young,’ among other things, and use titles of endearment.  As a reminder, she is 20 years old, physically that age and actually that age. It is weird but we’re rolling with it. 

Sophie can most likely outdrink you. 

Can make you a sweater. a cap too. 

Can lift quite well! Listen, she’s not ripped, but she can pick up above her weight (in terms of people). If she can’t completely pick you, she’ll drag you. 

ACHIEVEMENT: end notes. ☆ Read over one of Sophie’s extras.

UNLOCKED: ☆ encyclopedic oddity - Shorter GCD for ‘encyclopedic oddity,’ ability in which Sophie spills out strange and off-hand facts/accounts. May also ask her for facts please don’t ☆ the cratchit to your scrooge - sophie may be hired to take on accounting/budgeting work. just as the title suggests, she can also be paid horribly for this job.  ☆ home is where your favorite plate is - chance encounter to gain ‘full stomach’ buff when entering (or barging into) sophie’s apartment. the first question i ask is, how did you manage- ☆ you’re out of touch - sophie gains debuff, ‘you’re out of touch,’ and has lowered resistance to electronics and certain forms of technology.