After I watched Chapter 5, I was so pissed off by the fact that the devs are dragging the story on for God Knows How Long, that I thought my Smiling/Nightmare Critters hyperfixation wouldn't come back for Round 2 this spring. I first got fixated on them ~December '24, and the fixation lasted until around June '25. Boy was I wrong. We got the crumbliest of crumbs of Critter characters/characterization/development, and yet it was somehow enough for me to be dragged back in the fucking building again. (I say this last part affectionately lol)
Got some of the usual DayNap content today, and after seeing the Ms. Gracie video with CatNap and Baba, I felt inclined to draw them stargazing together (My multishipper heart was tweaking when I saw that clip btw). My friend @stellarstar18 proposed their ship name to be SleepySheep, which sounds better than any fusion of their names I'd tried to come up with, so I'm gonna use that to refer to them in the future.
Also just a side note, going into headcanon territory cause of CatNap's signing in the first picture under the cut cause I love to ramble about ideas for these guys, in case you wanna read it:
I imagine CatNap in the cartoon to have a similar vocal condition to Theodore, where his voice is so quiet and airy that it's difficult for his friends to fully understand him. Generally speaking, he has a mean-looking resting face (that's my truth), and paired with the airy voice, when he first arrived in their town, he accidentally frightened the other Smilies, which made the Nightmares think his "creepy voice" was cool.
To remedy these troubles, he uses sign language, mostly finger-spelling but will throw in specific signs he uses commonly, to communicate when pen and paper is unavailable. DogDay is the only one who can understand sign outright, he's very accommodating, probably learned it to use for a deaf/HOH family member or some other critter in the town. CatNap's other friends learn how to read finger-spelling at least so they can still talk to him. None of the Nightmares understand sign, and CatNap takes full advantage of this by using his voice to freak them out.
Also, I pulled a G4 My Little Pony with the critters and gave almost all of them jobs they do around town. CatNap moved to town to replace the former doctor. So die/death is a sign he uses frequently enough, usually to tell critters that they won't die haha.
