Tiernan: (HISS) (FFT)
(MRREOOWWL)
(YOWL)
Thorn: Okay, Tiernan, I get it! I’m upset, and trying not to deal with it. So you’re going to express it for me, until I do some work to calm us both down.
Tiernan: (HISS)
Thorn: Or until you wake up the whole neighborhood, whichever comes first.
Comment Header
11 Comments
That’s… a surprisingly obvious use for a soul-bonded animal. I wouldn’t have thought of it, but it’s actually an excellent therapy…. thing.
“Deal with your problems, you butt!” Cats are brilliant for nagging you into doing things. this is a great therapy soul-bond.
This seems terribly inefficient and annoying compared to conventional therapy.
Hey, it has its advantages. Tiernan is a 100% accurate barometer of Thorn’s emotions, while a conventional therapist might not read them right (or, worse, might misjudge him based on the therapist’s own biases and expectations). And although this mutual-agitation feedback loop is annoying, Thorn can turn it into a mutual-comfort loop if he makes the effort, which is a lot more soothing.
Plus, you never have to worry about Tiernan being out of the office, or on vacation.
…all that said, Thorn has gotten conventional therapy too. And it’s still available if he gets in a really bad state. Cat-therapy is just part of his day-to-day coping strategies, not the only resource he would have in an emergency.
It’s so nice to have a “daemon”…
Heh, I’ve been trying to figure out what a daemon AU would look like for this world.
Thorn’s soul wouldn’t be cat-shaped, is the thing. So would I just recast Tiernan as a different animal, keeping the same name? Or would he still have a soulbond therapy cat, and she would interact with the daemon? Or maybe, in a world where part of your consciousness is externalized by default, they wouldn’t have therapy animals at all.
(Leif is an alpine field mouse.)
I like the idea of having both a daemon and Tiernan. Lots of little byplays about how Thorn is feeling about himself with those two interacting in the background. Like, Thorn is feeling bad, and Tiernan is in the background, grooming his Daemon to comfort him, sort of deal. Or T and the daemon fighting because Thorn is in a funk.
I think they’d have therapy animals for people who’ve suffered severe trauma, when just having one externalized bit of your soul isn’t enough to help you function. And I love the idea of Tiernan grooming Thor’s daemon. (What animal?)
…maybe I’ll make up an in-universe creature that’s a hybrid of an armadillo and a lynx.
In terms of real-world animals, I’m leaning toward a barn owl, although there’s always the awkward detail that barn owls eat mice.
Thorn is a barn owl? I like it!
LOL I always figured Thorn as more of a hawk type.
Comment Footer