Can i get DVD commentary on the jagerpet bath chapter particular agatha almost cutting maxims hair and violating his bodily autonomy.
That was meant to be an uncomfortable moment, but I’m still surprised at how hard it hit that mark.
Even though it was... partly inspired maybe... by a rather disturbing tumblr post where a six-year-old who didn’t want her ears pierced was forced into it by her mother. So I did write it with thoughts about children and how easily they can be overridden in mind. It’s even worse for the Jägerpets because they’re seen as animals, but even human children get adults assuming they just don’t understand when it’s convenient.
Purple she’d left until last because his hair was down to his waist, locks of it floating in the bathwater like seaweed. It was a similar black-purple colour to Green’s, but sleeker, and it would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been a mess of matts and tangles. Working shampoo into it was a chore, especially when it was uncomfortable and boring for Purple, leading to him wriggling around and whining.
In the end Agatha gave up and ran downstairs to grab the kitchen scissors.
She’s still thinking of them more as pets at this point. If you found a stray animal with matted fur it would be a kindness to cut, or even shave it.
‘Okay,’ she said, kneeling down by the bath tub again. ‘I’m going to cut your hair. Hold still for me.’
But then she explains what’s about to happen, knowing quite well he’s understand. It’s a confusing situation.
‘No!’ Purple threw himself down into the water and scrambled behind Green. ‘Is mine hair! Mine!’
Maxim’s the most temperamental, and in some ways the most confident. He has a strong sense of his own rights even if he’s never actually had them respected. How? I don’t know, some people just have stronger egos that others, and that’s not always a bad thing.
‘It’s matted,’ Agatha said, taking hold of him by the upper arm and pulling him back towards her. He really would feel better for not having matts attached to him, even if he didn’t understand. ‘And it will grow back.’
Agatha assumes it’s a lack of understanding, though, and she’s also just exhausted. Getting them home, getting them fed and bathed, it’s all been more than she was planning on that evening. She just wants it over with.
Which isn’t an excuse, because I think that’s often the point where adults run roughshod over children. They’ve had enough and they don’t have to negotiate.
‘NOOOOO!’ Purple wailed at the top of his lungs, making her realise how quiet they’d all been until then. ‘I don’t WANNA. I… MINE… don’t WANNA.’ He threw himself down again, dragging on her hand with all his weight, and kicked at her wrist.
Maxim’s controlling himself better than it seems. He’s very strong, he could easily have broken her wrist if he’d really kicked. But he doesn’t want to hurt her, he just wants her to listen.
‘Maxim, don’t,’ Green said, grabbing at his feet.
Agatha let go more in surprise at the name than anything. They’d been talking since she met them, but it hadn’t occurred to her to ask if they knew their own names.
‘Let GO!’ Maxim yelled, smacking his fists against Green’s chest. ‘I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, let GO!’
Dimo’s pragmatic. Agatha can do what she wants, short of actually hurting them, as long as it keeps them off the streets. I guess, in some ways, he’s also assuming Maxim doesn’t understand the situation, rather than that Maxim has his own priorities.
Agatha dropped the scissors so she could grab Maxim out of the water and hold him with both arms where he couldn’t hit or kick. He could probably still bite, oh god, she hoped he didn’t bite. But all he actually did was go limp in her arms and start sobbing hysterically, little snuffles of ‘no’ and ‘mine’ coming out whenever he got enough breath.
Maxim thinks he’s lost this battle. *pats him*
‘Okay,’ said Agatha, shifting her grip so she could rub his back. ‘Shhhh, it’s okay, I won’t cut it. I promise. It’s okay.’ He pressed his face into her shoulder and gradually the sobbing tailed off. ‘There,’ she said. ‘Good boy. Now. You’re going to have to be very good and patient while I get your hair clean. I’m sorry, but there’s a lot of it. Can you do that?’
‘Yez,’ he said quietly.
‘Good boy.’
But Agatha didn’t mean to upset him like this and once she realises she was wrong she’s willing to back off. Maxim’s very subdued now, he was frightened, but he’s also unexpectedly got his way.
He was good, too. He whimpered a bit when a tangle got pulled or shampoo, despite Agatha’s best efforts, got into his eyes, but if it meant he got to keep his hair apparently he could endure. Tan scooted over to hold one of his hands under the water.
Oggie is the sweetest of sweethearts.
‘So,’ Agatha said, wanting to distract them all a bit. ‘I’m Agatha. I just learnt Maxim’s name. What about you two?’
‘Hy’m Ognian, hyu ken call me Oggie,’ said Tan. ‘Dot’s vot Mizz Lulu called me.’‘Was that your owner?’
Oggie nodded. Agatha wondered whether to ask more, but they’d been abandoned. Asking about owners might just cause more upset.
It totally didn’t occur to me that “Miss Lulu” would cause confusion when Lucrezia’s the villain. Her name was actually Louisa.
‘Hy’m Dimo,’ said Green.
‘Mizz Agatha,’ said Oggie.
‘Yes?’ Agatha asked.
He shook his head with a grin. ‘Hy chust like it.’
Oggie likes having a name to call his caregiver. It makes it seem a lot more likely she’s keeping them.
Afterwards they were sleepy enough that Agatha got them into diapers and three of her oldest shirts (she’d forgotten pyjamas) with minimum fuss. Agatha wound up sitting on the floor of the bathroom with Dimo on one side, Oggie on the other, and Maxim on her lap while she brushed his hair with her widest toothed comb. He was good about this too, and not in the resigned way he’d been about the shampoo, he relaxed into it.
‘Do you like having your hair brushed?’ she asked him.
‘Yez. Feels goot.’ He snuggled against her, face down so she could still reach his hair. ‘Shelley liked brushink me too.’
Maxim hates having his hair washed, but he loves being brushed. Shelley treated him like a doll, so being brushed and pampered was one of the times he was closest to her.
‘It is very nice hair. I’m sorry I was going to cut it without asking you.’
‘Iz hokay. Hyu stopped.’
Agatha not only realises she shouldn’t have violated his autonomy, she realises he can understand, and deserves, an apology. Maxim’s still surprised she stopped.
I think all three of them find that reassuring. That pushing back against Agatha can lead to an apology rather than punishment.
Agatha supposed people usually didn’t stop when they’d made up their mind about something concerning him. Owners always made decisions for their pets. It was just… odd… when the pet could argue. Okay, Krosp could definitely argue with some of her decisions, but he couldn’t negotiate them. She couldn’t tell him, ‘I won’t wrap you in the towel if you’ll sit and let me clip your claws without it’.
My parents’ cat can also argue about having her claws clipped. Or her feet dried. She does not win those arguments.
Once again she’s realising they don’t seem to think like animals, and that treating them like children gets her better results.
Maxim was asleep by the time she’d finished. She carried him and Oggie upstairs, one in each arm, with Dimo following.
Dimo gets less carrying in general, poor guy. He tries very hard to be mature, and sometimes it means less attention. But he will get picked up and hugged by the end of the chapter.
