relatedly, a big part of why I like to poast is that it's an actual outlet. my mind just... doesn't stop, especially when I'm tired or stressed. it's a constant bramble of thoughts branching out in all directions into more thoughts, getting ever more overgrown, getting stuck. getting those thoughts into physical form, pruning them into sentences, it's like an exorcism. it's permission to move on. it relieves a metaphorical pressure in my head, cleaning out the old thoughts to make room for new ones - possibly even ones relevant to the thing I want to be doing!

it's soothing.

this is, incidentally, why I will constantly poast but struggle to keep up with DMs - poasting engages a different part of my brain and serves a very different purpose. one-to-one conversation actually consumes a lot of energy, as I have to force my brain to stay on a single track, anticipate and account for a specific person's conversational needs, and so on. poasting cleans out the fridge - conversation puts more things into it.

maybe this is why I keep making characters who are like. you can't tell if they're talking to you or to themselves (see: Professor Morgan and the good doctor)

I once said that if you want Morgan to tell you about something, your best bet is to stand near him, not looking at or addressing him directly, and just like. wonder out loud about a thing. and if you're lucky he will just start talking to the air. the same is true for me

tempted to draw a humansona of Selcouth... on one hand, it would kind of undermine the fact that she is Very Much Not Human and should be understood as such. on the other hand, I need it to be abundantly clear that he is the Rubbery equivalent of a grouchy old queer - and not internet old, but like, 50s? 60s? maybe. they don't remember how old they are for a variety of reasons

anyway a common pattern I'm noticing is that it isn't enough for me to just say that my OCs are really good at this or that magcat - it's critical to me to dig deep into what it means to be really fucking good at something, the philosophy and worldviews around those skills, both the cultural and the personal. and my OCs are a vehicle for exploring that.

see, for example:

• the good doctor, steeped in the Red Science, being blase about how malleable reality can be, to the point of being a radical and a madman (affectionate)
• Rafael instinctively understanding people and situations in terms of how they might be manipulated towards an outcome, as pieces in a chess game; and struggling to reconcile the ruthless efficiency of this mindset with his deep empathy
• Wren and *gestures at all of the posts I've made today*