Oh woah hey there 🐱 I think that was a funny little accident just now. 🐱 You see I was just licking this plate of food left on the counter and you 🐱 pushed my face right out of the way. I think you just did not notice 🐱 my face was there so no worries, I’ll just go back to 🐱 OH you’ve pushed my face away again? Sorry I don’t mean to embarrass 🐱 you but I am in the middle of something here so I will simply just 🐱 You have pushed my face away again?????? 🐱🐱🐱
13 year old me: a 10 year old girl accidentally falls in love with the classmate she used to bully who just so happened to recently decide to become a serial killer
"what did students do before chatgpt?" well one time i forgot i had a history essay due at my 10am class the morning of so over the course of my 30 minute bus ride to school i awkwardly used by backpack as a desk, sped wrote the essay, and got an A on it.
six months later i re-read the essay prior to the final exam, went 'ohhhh yeah i remember this', got a question on that topic, and aced it.
point being that actually doing the work is how you learn the material and internalize it. ChatGPT can give you a short cut but it won't build you the the muscles.
I think of an art teacher I had once who said he used to be terrible at drawing hands until he bought a book with 100 pictures of hands shown from various angles and drew each hand in the book 10 times. Magically, after drawing 1,000 pictures of hands, he wasn't bad at drawing hands anymore.
The reason OP could bullshit a decent essay in a 30 minute bus ride is because OP knew how to write and craft a well-reasoned analysis thanks to a childhood full of writing and critical thinking practice.
Feel like I'm transforming into one of those reddit assholes, but this genuinely is just a "skill issue" and you really do just have to "git gud."
ngl i went off with this video i made for zoe in november... it took a very long time and every lyric was carefully considered so this video might as well be an essay in and of itself... i just cant turn it off it seems
Please do donate to Sudan initiatives. The news we hear from Sudan is absolutely terrible. Even if you can't donate, share it anywhere you think might get people to donate. Share it on ig, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, whatever. Just please do share and if you can spare a few dollars once and a while....
this is my very favoritest thing ever im so touched!!!! ur art is so amazing and natsume's wearing a naruto shirt--IM SO OBSESSED!!! thank u so much for drawing this and i'm over the moon that you're reading and enjoying my fic <3333
If anyone is looking at this nonsense... thanks. Isn't the world golden on our side of things? Let's get back to it, to our academic and scholarly research!
Where were we? Onto cats likes and dislikes?
Cats don't much like water. They don't care for swimming and avoid it when possible (that doesn't mean they're dirty though; cats are very good at self-grooming).
Water bugs them, after all.
But the dark doesn't! Cats have a tapetum lucidum in their eyes which lets them see in the dark, so there's nothing to fear even in total darkness.
They tend to underestimate their weight and enjoy sitting on chests if they so choose, even if the person they're sitting on doesn't like it as much.
I had to include this because my cat Phoebe does this to me every night.
But they don't really like going places. They would prefer to do nothing.
You can try to make them, but they revert back to inaction. Always.
Natsume does nothing all the time. It's his favorite thing to do.
Cats also typically dislike when they're introduced to a new cat in their home. Especially at first, they might be cruel to the new cat, but in time, they might get attached.
Cats do this often. They look at you, spot your interest, and then run, for the sole purpose of making you chase them. They do this on purpose. They like the chase. They will stop and let you pet them eventually but they need to play the game first. I'm not making this up. This is true.
And to wrap things up, I will conclude with pages I had in my folder with unclear captions that I saved too long ago and now no longer remember where I was going with them.
Titled, "catlike". I agree, but I can't explain it.
Titled, "gives cat vibes." Don't know what that's supposed to mean. He does look like a black cat here though.
Titled, "hes a cat i can tell". Very unhelpful to me. I guess it's just a vibe?
"hes a cat what do u want me to say" Well, past!Anya, I want you to say specifically where you were going with this. But I'll bite. He does seem like a cat here.
"omg just like a cat". Have no idea if this is about what Aoi is saying (misunderstood and thought of as scary, like a cat) or Natsume in the background doing fuck all. Maybe both. Either way, I agree.
And to finally finish off, let's discuss the fact that the person he gets along best with is Ruka, who has the animal pheromone alice. Unlike literally every other person on the planet, Natsume has never been angry at Ruka. He loves Ruka. He always loved Ruka. Natsume is a cat.
(This is clearly a joke. Natsume is not nice to Ruka because he's under the affect of animal pheromones. Because Natsume is a human being. But it's a funny joke. Their friendship is very clearly authentic and beautiful. Natsume is kind to Ruka because Ruka is perfect and has never done anything wrong ever, in his life.)
BONUS
Not related to cat stuff, but this one was funny:
"AND HERE COMES NATSUME WITH THE STEEL CHAIR!"
Okay I'm done now! Thanks so much for reading this silly nonsense rambling. It was fun to put together and I hope it was a fun read too! Have a great day/night. I'm very tired and this took longer than I thought it would, so I'm going to sleep. Love y'all <3
Also, in case y'all missed the first two parts, they are as follows:
Hello again. Let's get straight back into this nonsensical rambling about our beloved Natsume, who is a cat in a person's body. Please believe me when I say I have researched this thoroughly and am more than prepared to cite my evidence and show my work.
We left off with the point that cats like to climb trees to be tall and will come down when they feel like it. Maybe for food.
He only came down from his tree for some cake and had no intention of staying until Ruka roped him into dancing with Mikan. After that fiasco, where did he go? That's right--right back to the tree.
Cats don't just climb trees, they climb everything so they can be tall. This is why it's important to get them a cat tree or something they can climb because otherwise they'll climb your shelves. They also always land on their feet, so jumping is no problem.
He's never even a bit scared to hop down. He knows he'll land on his feet. (This is not normal human behavior, as seen by people's reactions to his impressive jumps.)
It's not just a lack of fear about heights; it's a NEED to be high.
He also crawls about, like a rascal.
All this crawling about leads to interesting discoveries from time to time. After all, curiosity killed the cat, and what is Natsume if not a dead boy walking?
Warn him all you like, but he will stick his nose in things no matter how dangerous it is. That's just how cats are.
They're notoriously difficult to train because they don't always like to cooperate.
But let's not linger on sad things! What else do cats like?
They often prefer flowing water to a water bowl, so it's sometimes recommended to get them a fountain.
They also love to play. Hanging objects are always fair game.
And they like to sleep, as previously established!
So very cute and innocent-looking when they sleep! It's easy to be fooled into complacency then, to think it will last forever...
But they're actually light sleepers. Move even a bit and the cat will wake up in no time.
They are capable of being horrid, too. Rascals.
Sadly, sometimes the negative is all people focus on. As a result, cats are demonized, thought of as evil, vilified. They are not evil, though. They're still just little babies.
People even make stuff up about them!
So it makes sense when cats become wary of humans, considering the way they are sometimes treated. But feral cats tend to have close bonds with other cats.
Perhaps with a kitten?
And cats tend to look like cats, which you might have noticed.
Again, Tumblr doesn't want me to finish this post. It's fine. I think I'll have one more to clean off the folder I made for this silly post series! Thanks for being patient with me, y'all, and indulging my ridiculous "essays".
Hi guys. This was a long time coming. I've kinda always planned on making a post like this, for fun. It's not exhaustive, and it's not intelligent, but these are some musing about Natsume being a cat. Maybe I'll find new examples and add them, but for now, this is what I've come up with. Enjoy.
Now, Natsume being a cat is not connected to him being the Black Cat and wearing the cat mask. That's incidental. We'll discuss it anyway. Natsume is the Black Cat because of plot and relationship reasons. Mikan is told in Chapter 2 to "Beware of black cats," specifically in relation to Natsume and his mask. Black cats are bad luck. Natsume is bad luck. I think Higuchi Tachibana chose the mask because his personality was already catlike and the mask just cemented it in a visual form. The superstition adds fun and spice to the NM relationship.
But I won't be bringing up examples of his mask as proof that he's a cat because, in my opinion, that's weak evidence. Instead, we'll go into detail about what exactly makes someone a cat person vs. any other kind of person and why Natsume is a cat person, or more accurately, a person who is a cat.
Typically, the term "cat person" or "dog person" refers to which animal a person prefers to keep as a pet. Though Natsume clearly likes all kinds of animals (he's best friends with Ruka, and this will come up again), I think a cat would make the best pet for him because of his personality and what exactly cats require of their owners as opposed to dogs or other animals. Surprisingly, cat or dog people have actually been shown time and time again to have certain traits associated with them. For cat people, they tend to be as follows: neurotic, creative, open-minded, introverted, sensitive, non-conformist, and intelligent. I won't get into all that here, because I'm actually not trying to prove that Natsume is a cat person; rather, I'm making the point that Natsume is a cat who just so happens to be a person. I hope that makes sense.
Essentially, this post will be a claim that Natsume is a cat, particularly a feral cat, particularly a stereotypical feral cat. Cats have different personalities, and sometimes act opposite the way I'll be describing here. I have three cats who all have different personalities so I know that there's no one-size-fits-all traits to be ascribed to an entire species. This is a post for fun.
(Special note: cats are innocent creatures and thus should never be subject to violence or cruelty the way they so often are, especially black cats being viewed as bad luck, or by neighbors leaving out catfood soaked in antifreeze because they're bothered by a neighborhood cat. Cats are victim to a lot of violence, which is why it's often recommended you keep your cat indoors to help prevent them from being hurt or killed, either by accident or on purpose. Unlike dogs, cats as an entire species have always been negatively depicted throughout history and those superstitions still persist today. Also if you hate cats, I don't trust you. I don't think we can be friends.)
Let's begin.
What's a feral cat?
A feral cat is a cat that has not been socialized and is thus not accustomed to interacting with humans. I would actually argue that Natsume as he is in the manga is more of a stray cat that has become feral over time. That particular definition would be a cat that was once socialized, or perhaps had an owner, but was abandoned somehow until it lost trust in humans. These cats have the potential to be resocialized, but only if someone is willing to be patient and work with them. So. Natsume.
Did you know that cats only meow to communicate with humans? They do not meow with each other. Thus, a feral cat that is not accustomed to interacting with humans is not likely to vocalize much. Why do I bring this up?
Natsume doesn't talk much.
Natsume's most common speech bubble is as seen above. "....." He doesn't talk, doesn't feel the need to communicate, doesn't have much to say at all. I have indoor cats, who are all vocal when they're trying to talk to me, but most of the time they're quiet. Even unferal cats tend to keep quiet.
These instances are great examples of that, where people are talking to him, maybe asking questions even, and he doesn't say anything. In the second example, the most he says is, "what." In the first, all he does is glare. Cat-core.
Feral cats don't really trust people. They can be aggressive towards those they perceive as threats. Living on the streets can make you wary of any potential dangers.
Have you ever tried to approach a cat, only to get scratched? It's because they're scared! (Yes, I do think Natsume is scared here and that's why he reacts like this; he is also wary and even--dare I say--scared of Nobara, who is timid and means well, just because he thinks of her as Persona's tool. A girl may look helpless and innocent, but at the Academy, anybody could be a spy or a threat meant to cow him into obedience.)
Even further--they don't appreciate being hugged without their consent. (This is actually a reason why people hate cats. Can you believe?? The absolute stupidity of cat haters. Cats have boundaries and aren't afraid to stand by them. If you pull a cat's tail or try to hug it when it doesn't wanna be held, they will scratch. This isn't a sign that cats are evil; this is a sign that you don't care much about others' boundaries.)
I'm not saying Tsubasa doesn't care about Natsume's boundaries, but he's trying too hard and isn't patient enough to act on Natsume's terms. (Also, Tsubasa is a dog person.)
Meanwhile, cats like to be the one to come to you, and to demonstrate affection on their own terms.
They actually like snuggling from time to time, but they don't like when it's forced on them.
In fact, even for people they like, cats can get irritated when affection is forced upon them in any way, or if it isn't entirely on their own terms.
Natsume stays put in the first example because Ruka is drunk and sleeping, but it's clear he's not happy to be trapped like that. Meanwhile, in the second example, Mikan has pet Natsume too much! Cats get unhappy when they've been overstimulated (also she called him cute and cats think they're bigger and cooler and tougher than they actually are).
Meanwhile, sometimes you give a cat affection and they don't really react at all, for various reasons.
Cats react like this to being kissed in real life actually. They can't do anything about it and they don't get it. Just O.O. That's all.
I titled this image "cats react like this to being hugged jsyk" which is usually true if the cat is used to you and permits your touch.
So how do cats show their love if they're so picky about affection? Easy! For one, they love gift-giving, particularly with food! A cat might bring you prey it's caught.
Or you might have heard that cats convey trust and affection through eye contact and slow blinking.
But cats often like to be by themselves. They don't often relish large crowds and uncomfortable stray cats will even hide themselves from humans.
Cats actually don't do very much. They like to sit around and do nothing. You know who else likes to sit around and do nothing? That's right!
He is sleepy! Cats sleep 12-16 hours a day, and my cat Phoebe sleeps way more than that. Natsume probably doesn't sleep enough at night considering his missions, but let's pretend he's just sleepier than the average person.
In particular, you'll often find a cat sitting and looking out the window. They love to watch through the window.
Such a big world out there. They don't necessarily wanna be a part of it, but they sure do like looking at it.
And they LOVE to climb! Trees are a big part of this. They love to be tall.
Trees allow for cats who are otherwise small to feel tall. They're also an excellent hiding space from dastardly humans. Cats don't so much get "stuck" in trees as their owners just desperately want them back down. The cat will likely come down when it feels like it.
Okay. Dang it. Tumblr told me I reached an image limit. Be patient with me. There will be a part 2! I'll link to it when it's done. Which will be soon. Like, within the next hour.
Update: As promised, the next two parts are available here.
kaledo-art
romaincrisis
vaporwave
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
germansingergirl
