The day after The Last Jedi came out I was shopping for a birthday present for a friend at a nerd store and these two guys walk up behind me, obviously wanting to look at where I was looking. One of them said “probably buying something for her boyfriend…stick to blow jobs bitch it’s not like you know what you’re looking at” so I turned around and say “Luke Skywalker dies.”
They look at me speechless, they hadn’t seen the movie yet. “What did you say?”
“I said Luke Skywaler dies. He force projects himself to fight Kylo Ren and then dies. And if you don’t get the fuck away from me I’ll tell you how Snoke dies too”
See? This is a tailor-made proposal. Not some “big screen of basketball game nonsense. This person took into account his girlfriend’s pastimes and favourite things in the world, knew how close to the family she was and engineered the perfect engagement proposal, without a doubt managing to make sure this would please her (surely her mother and sisters would know).
This is how you do big gestures.
This is so awesome I can’t even.
Also, the look on her face as she came into the house. Hehehehehehe!
“Mirroring” is a big thing with cats. It’s why they will lay in similar positions several feet apart, or will come and try to do things when you do them. It’s a sign that they love you and want to show.
This cat wants to be close to its owner, and also wants to do what its owner is doing, to be involved in some way.
Giving them their own thing to use is a really great way to redirect them and allow them to mirror the behavior in a non-disruptive way that frustrates neither party.
In real life, pretty much everybody reacts to tragedy differently. So why is it that every author has their pet reaction to tragedy that all their characters use? Not only is it unrealistic, but it takes away the chance for the characters’ different reactions to reveal things about themselves.
Possible reactions to tragedy (not an exhaustive list):
Distracting oneself with mindless activities
Distracting oneself with others’ humor
Distracting oneself by making jokes
Distracting oneself by reading/watching/playing stories
Distracting oneself with hard mental work
Distracting oneself with hard physical work
Distracting oneself with creative endeavors
Distracting oneself by chatting with friends about normal things
Talking to friends about the tragedy
Talking to authority figures about the tragedy
Talking anonymously with strangers about the tragedy (if possible)
Getting wrapped up in others’ problems
Staying unusually silent
Screaming
Crying loudly
Crying silently
Doing everything possible not to cry
Pacing
Taking unhealthy risks
Going for revenge against whoever one can blame
Punching random objects
Throwing random objects
Lashing out against friends and family members
Trying to prevent a similar tragedy from happening
Eating more than usual
Not eating
Taking mind-altering substances
Getting in unhealthy relationships
Isolating oneself
Obsessing over routine
Numbness combined with apathy
Numbness combined with going through one’s normal motions
Trying to get things back the way they were
Denial
No reaction at first but a reaction hits later in greater force
No reaction at all. Emotions relating to the tragedy just fail to load. Note that this can happen to anybody and does not mark a character as a sociopath.
Characters can have more than one reaction at the same time, one reaction after another, or different reactions to different tragedies.
Skorpio's Art 