I also am going to be having an orthodontist appointment, which means I won't have the time or energy to write that long of content. Sorry folks! (At least I got that long after Maruki fic out before that).
So, instead, I kinda wanna do something more chillax and such. So...
Ask the Iolite Hospital peeps (or myself) anything, I guess! Besides personal info (name, location that sorta thing) about myself, of course! This is mostly just for fun, and so that I can provide a little content while I'm away on vacation, without it being too intrusive on my time off! I love providing content for y'all, since I find it very nice to be able to get feedback and nice comments from y'all! Really, y'all are so sweet! ❤️ So, I don't mind doing this small little thing while I'm out. It can honestly be something I do when I have nothing planned on vacation days (which, last time I went on vacation, was a lot of the time TBH).
Just in case you can't read the names (I don't blame you, this was kinda on short notice TBH and my handwriting sucks), here they are!
A Random Fact About Each Iolite Hospital Character:
Aluminum: He has joint pain from his medication, so he sometimes wears knee and wrist braces.
Dr. Cogsworth: He and Dr. Baxter dated at one point after Baxter asked him out. He kinda misses those times, but he felt bad due to his difficulty showing affection or recognizing his emotions.
Dr. Baxter: He's scared of thunder, cars, dogs, basically anything that can be loud.
Maya: She's scared of water. Most Landsharks physically can't swim, though, so her fear is mostly from instinct.
Derek: He sleeps in a nest made of hay. Cow People prefer the feeling of hay to a mattress when sleeping indoors, since it reminds them of the feeling of grass/the ground, which they are meant to sleep on.
Johnny Doe: He has hyperacusis, or a reduced tolerance to sounds. Normal sounds seem too loud and annoying, while loud ones can be painful. He's stressed by this, a lot of the time, which is why he eats a lot (including the things his pica causes him to eat). It helps him calm down. He hasn't mentioned it because he thinks his sound intolerance is normal.
Father Cosmos: It is very flirtatious, which might seem unbecoming of a priest. However, due to the fact that everyone in this world only knows about Christianity and any human religion due to the religious scriptures falling into the world without context, their version of Christianity, Judaism, and such are very different than the human versions. This is made extra difficult due to it being the only person following Christianity. It believes that it is okay for a religious leader of Christianity to be flirtatious, due to it having no other role model to follow.
Chef Starlight: Her favorite texture of food is crunchy. She can eat her favorite food, void chips, for days. The only reason why she doesn't do so is because void chips are extremely unhealthy and she doesn't want to be a bad role model for the patients.
Dr. Clown: She tries to keep everyone's spirits up by holding a magic show every Sunday and Saturday. She also makes balloon animals and balloon teeth, face paints, and tells knock-knock jokes.
Here's the Derek Straws pictures. He might have the least, mostly because he just didn't show up well on my camera (my camera is allergic to his pastel pinks and blues). Ó-Ò he has more pictures in the actual book.
The smol is concerned about my coffee intake, lol.
Self explanatory lol. Also I was wrong this guy has the least pics.
Basically, the idea of this is that I wanted to see how these three would view each other, alongside a little "role" they see them as. Like, Aluminum sees Dr. Cogsworth as a "villain", while Derek sees Dr. Cogsworth as some other character trope. Idk, I just thought it would be fun!
So, idk how to structure this. Here's a bit of an outline both for myself and people reading this, since I talk in circles: Aluminum believes and tries to see the good in people he dislikes, often getting conflicted feelings, but usually fails to see the other perspective fully, resulting in him acting irrationally and disliking those who mean no harm to him (mainly Dr. Cogsworth). Derek can actually see both perspectives, not liking to say he sees good or bad, just the whole picture, making judgements only when a situation has a very clear right and wrong. Dr. Cogsworth is like the guy standing on the sidelines, meaning well, but is very confused as to what to do, what to think, and what he feels towards others. He MEANS well, but doesn't actually succeed in doing what is best in a situation due to simply not understanding how others act.
Now that we got that outta the way, let's start with my skrunkly boy Aluminum, just because he is the most developed out of these three.
Aluminum: He is VERY focused on his own misery. He'll drown in it, but not understand that he is drowning in his misery. It is just a second nature to him. He's drowned in it so much at this point that he genuinely feels apathetic most of the time. The only real things that he feels he can count on are his schedule at the Iolite Hospital, the pain he gets while eating, and that he can't focus on anything he wants to. So, when anything, or in this case, anyone, comes in and messes with his little system he has going, he gets upset. Worse yet is when this force is seemingly unstoppable, like Dr. Cogsworth.
Aluminum, somehow both wholeheartedly and subconsciously sees Dr. Cogsworth as the villain in his story. Well, villain wouldn't be the right word. He doesn't view Dr. Cogsworth as evil, just against him. The correct word would be antagonist. Dr. Cogsworth is the antagonist in Aluminum's eyes, as he only seems to bring him more misery and stress. The fact that Dr. Cogsworth doesn't even seem to mean to do so only serves to make Aluminum's misery worse, as he feels bad for viewing him in this light. He can understand NOT understanding your own emotions, as he went through a similar situation when he was younger, but not to Dr. Cogsworth's degree, adding a strange mixture of both empathy and frustration towards him. He can understand having a hard time interacting with others and understanding how they feel, but again, not to Dr. Cogsworth's degree. So, while he can understand slightly and acknowledge that he may not mean harm, he still views him as a threat to his comfort and organization. A confused, well-meaning threat, but a threat, nonetheless.
Aluminum views Derek as the rare welcomed intrusion to his routine. He serves as a listening, non-judgemental ear for his problems. He gives Aluminum advice that, while he feels he will never be able to truly use, he appreciates. See, Derek may say that focusing on the negatives in life will never help and will only serve to bring more misery, and that trying to see the positives in the small, everyday things would help... But Aluminum feels that he just cannot. All he sees everyday are the walls of the very hospital he despises. Outside the windows he sees freedom he'll never have. He knows practice makes perfect, but how can he practice seeing the positive side when he doesn't remember too? When he can't focus for the life of him? Derek gives good advice, but Aluminum is so used to making excuses after excuses for why he can't. Can't what? Can't do ANYTHING. He'll say "I can't remember. I won't remember." Then, surprise surprise, he doesn't. He lost from the start. Derek is like the protagonist in Aluminum's story. The awesome protagonist, while he, himself, is the sidekick. Derek is something he believes he'll never be: content. Derek is content, which Aluminum believes means that Derek is naturally BETTER than him. Aluminum's failed again, so Aluminum deserves to be relegated to a sidekick in his own story. Aluminum's own low self-esteem has once again made something completely okay and normal to experience, as well as able to be overcome with practice and hard work, into a huge obstacle, dooming him to fail. Then that failure only serves to make him drown himself in misery again, causing him to go vent to Derek. Needless to say, regardless of whether Derek wants to or not, Derek hears a lot about Aluminum's problems. More so than Dr. Cogsworth, Aluminum's LITERAL DOCTOR.
Derek: Onto the cowboy! Derek views himself a bit like Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby, in a way. Despite playing a big and important role, he isn't the star of his own story. He sits on the sidelines, observing the world, trying to understand as much as he can about those around him. He understands that he will never be able to FULLY understand, unless he can literally peer inside the minds of others, but he still wants to understand as much as he can. That is a part of why he doesn't like to cast judgement. He understands that he will, naturally, do so subconsciously, but he always tries to stop himself and wonder "why is that person like that?"
Derek views Dr. Cogsworth as someone who... well, struggles with emotions. Kind of like a romance protagonist, unable to tell his own feelings, thus preventing him from going after the love of his life. Of course, Dr. Cogsworth doesn't, as far as he knows, have a crush on anyone, but it is the closest thing Derek can equate to his situation. From the outside, Dr. Cogsworth looks like a simple, unfeeling robot. On the inside, however, Derek understands that there is a whole world of emotion hidden from not only the world, but from Dr. Cogsworth himself, as well. He may not be able to understand why Dr. Cogsworth does the things he does, but he can understand that he simply works differently than him. He may hear some of the things Dr. Cogsworth says to others in an attempt to calm them and feel mortified as to why ANYONE would believe that would help, but he can understand that, well, Dr. Cogsworth doesn't understand what would help. He may not even understand what the person he is comforting is feeling, for all he knows.
Derek's view on Aluminum is... complicated. Aluminum is basically the Gatsby to his Nick, but not because of any interest in Aluminum in specific. Aluminum is just the most open and actively seeks him out. Derek is pretty sure that Aluminum seeks him out because he finds it difficult to connect to a lot of the other patients, alongside the gossip some of them like to spread about Aluminum. So, Derek watches over Aluminum, giving him advice, knowing that he will have a hard time following it. Derek has never necessarily suffered from drowning himself in his own misery, so he can understand how it would be difficult for Aluminum to follow the advice he gives. It just might not be the best advice for his scenario, or it will take a long time to kick in. He just tries his best to help out his friend. Aluminum is also a lot more eccentric compared to the people from Derek's homeland, so he does enjoy his time with him. It is a bit watching someone from a completely different plane of existence interacting with you. The cultures and customs are a bit odd, but fun to learn about. The eyes on Aluminum's clothes do scare Derek a bit, though...
Dr. Cogsworth: His view on everything is complicated, mostly due to his lack of emotional recognition. He is also very aware of that fact. So, when it comes to a view on others, especially specific people, it gets very complex very quickly. It is hard for him to differentiate between what a relationship between to colleagues should be and what a doctor-patient relationship should be. He has never necessarily had what he would call a "friend" before, either, since he just can't tell what emotion he feels towards anything. He doesn't want to accidentally end up lying when he calls someone a friend, so he doesn't label anyone as such. This lack of recognition permeates throughout every interaction and his relations towards others, since he has grown to interact using logic more so than emotions. He knows logic, so it would be more reliable than the mysterious emotions, right?
He sees Derek as some sort of mentor figure. Derek can give him good information about emotions, how others are feeling, and how to react to them. If someone is feeling sad, you can do this, this, and this to help. If they're mad, do that, instead. Derek's willingness to help Dr. Cogsworth helps him see Derek as an odd mentor, as well. Whenever he needs information on how to act in a situation, he goes to Derek. However, he is also worried about how close Aluminum and Derek are. He doesn't want Aluminum's worries to spread to Derek, which could make Derek scared of Dr. Cogsworth.
He sees Aluminum as a sort of unattainable goal or MacGuffin. He wants to understand Aluminum in order to understand the emotions of his other patients. However, due to his own lack of emotional recognition, in both himself and others, he sees it an not possible. He still pursues it, anyways, to an obsessive degree. From following Aluminum around the hospital, to calling him in for extra appointments, he does everything he can to understand Aluminum. Aluminum's emotional nature, including some slight anger issues and how he is prone to outbursts of tears and yelling, causes Dr. Cogsworth to study him in specific. It is a bit like how someone might start researching a topic by viewing the most exaggerated, extreme cases of the topic, before going to the more tame cases. Aluminum is so exaggerated in his emotions, so he is the first person Dr. Cogsworth wishes to study.
