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Sociopath Profile: Mothiva

Species: silk moth (Bombyx mori or Bombyx mandarina) From the 2020 video game Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

Mothiva here is one of the interesting occasions of having a heroic sociopath. She is firmly allied with the side of good and abhors the atrocities committed by the Wasp King (another sociopath). However, being a hero doesn't exactly mean that she's a selfless individual.

She is a popular celebrity with dozens of fans, but it's mostly a way of fueling her ego. The hero gig is something she does because she wants to have some recognition to be seen as the star she believes she is, not necessarily for the good of other bugs. All she wants from the expedition is fame and glory, and she's willing to hinder the other groups to get it for herself. The fact that she decides to attack Team Snakemouth and take their missions just because they were getting more popular than her.

This translates to a distinct lack of empathy for others. While she may project the idea that she loves all her fans and cares about her allies, she could not care less about them. If her partner Zasp gets knocked down in battle first, she'll reprimand him before reviving him without showing a bit of concern for his safety. It is noted that he does have affections for her, but she doesn't return them at all. Although she draws the line at Wasp King treating his forces like cannon fodder, she still isn't above using violence against her allies.

While she is an unpleasant person, Mothiva knows how to act around her adoring fans. She has a very superficial persona of the bubbly and caring celebrity who adores all her fans with all her heart. However, after Snakemouth discovers her true nature, it goes to show how calculated that persona was. And they were formerly fans of her until they experienced her true personality.

She also displays no remorse for any of this behavior. Eventually, she is on the receiving end of two beatings and losing the support of her fans in the Termite Kingdom. The problem is that she suffers no real consequences aside from that. In fact, she still has a wide following since knowledge of her crimes hasn't gotten out further. Chances are she has not learned much.

Mothiva may not be a criminal, but she's still rather sociopathic despite this.

Female Sociopath List

A12 with Heith for the pairing thing?

Here you are my dear! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Keith groaned in his sleep, burrowing his face into his boyfriend’s blanket-covered lap. He’d been stubbornly denying his illness during his waking hours, but had surrendered himself to sleep during their flight, covering as much of himself as he could with the airline-provided blanket that Hunk had requested. Hunk actually felt like he was baking in his own skin, but he hadn’t wanted Keith to to feel singled out and go on the defensive by asking for a blanket just for him. Plus, he was helping his poor, definitely feverish boyfriend keep warm on their twelve hour flight to visit Hunk’s family.

Keith stirred again, this time snuffling tiredly as his eyes fluttered open. Hunk smiled down at him, rubbing a hand through his rumpled hair,

“How did you sleep, baby?”

He resisted the urge to comment on the feverish heat he felt emanating from Keith’s forehead and instead continued to stroke the messy locks out of his face.

Keith yawned a bit and sniffled deeply before speaking,

“I slept okay. It’s hard to get comfortable when I can’t lay all the way out but it helps to have you to lean on.”

Hunk glanced surreptitiously at the man sitting on Keith’s other side by the window, he had already seemed annoyed by Keith’s sniffling and sneezing, and had gone quite red in the face with barely suppressed anger when Keith began kicking him in his sleep intermittently.

“Hih! H’KSCHH’SH!”

Keith seemed startled by the sudden sneeze, as if he hadn’t noticed that his nose had been twitching since he’d woken up. He barely had time to cover, spraying Hunk lightly in the process. His face turned beet red and he desperately scrubbed at Hunk’s shirt with his sleeve, while his other hand scrubbed at his still-twitching nose in an attempt to stave off the sneezes he felt tickling inside.

Hunk delicately pulled him to his chest, hoping that Keith was too out of it to have heard the man on his other side’s noise of disgust at the sneeze, and felt Keith’s hot breath hitching against his shirt.

“Shh, it’s okay, darling. Just let it out,”

Keith whimpered, breath still hitching,

“B-but… Ehhh’hih! People are gonda h-hhhate mbe!”

Hunk thought back to what little he knew about Keith’s past, and recalled that one of his longer periods living in one place had been with a foster family that was extremely germaphobic. Keith would be banished to the basement if he so much as sniffled. No wonder the poor guy was so terrified of letting his fit go.

Hunk rubbed his back comfortingly before taking his hands into one of his own, readying a handful of tissues from his bag in the other.

“Just sneeze, baby. I won’t let anyone say anything to you, okay?”

Keith couldn’t hold the sneezes back any longer even if he wanted to. His tear-filled eyes shut and he sneezed and sneezed until Hunk could feel the wetness of the mess seeping through the tissues into his hand. That wouldn’t do. He quickly placed the index finger of the hand that had been holding Keith’s hostage underneath the dripping appendage and rubbed hard to prevent more sneezes from slipping out, switching the soaked mess of tissues for some fresh ones.

There was something strangely beautiful about Keith in that moment, breath hitching dangerously as the sneezes struggled to escape, his eyes glistening with unshed tears, and his face flushed with fever and exertion.

“Hah-Huhhnk. It t-tihhckles so bad.”

Hunk shook himself from his trance and removed his finger from the frantically twitching appendage, immediately thrusting the tissues to cover the impending sneezes.

“AahtCHTSShyew! Hh’CHTSshuh! HuhNGTChuh! HP’NGKshh!”

Keith panted in the aftermath of the fit, looking about ready to collapse. Just then the pilot came on the intercom and announced their descent. Hunk glanced down at his dozing boyfriend and smiled warmly; they’d made it. His family was going to spoil Keith rotten and make him feel so much better.

Have you got anything for parent-child comfort prompts?? Xx

Parent comforting child:

Cradling child close to their chest

Wrapping child in old blankets like a little burrito

“It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

Assuring child that the pain isn’t their fault

Distracting child with their favorite things (toys, comfort items, ect.)

“Nobody’s going to hurt you as long as I’m around.”

Watching child’s favorite childhood movie with them (bonus points if child is all grown up)

Wiping child’s tears away, cupping their entire face with their hand because child is so small

“It gets better, I promise.”

Child comforting parent:

Knowing parent is hurting, even when they hide it

Crawling into parent’s lap quietly

Gently patting their parent’s hands/head

“Even though you’re big, it’s okay to cry.”

Wiping parent’s tears away, using their entire hand to do so because parent is so big

Writing parent a note in crayon to cheer them up (bonus points if they include a messy drawing of their parent smiling)

Doing chores if they are a bit older, knowing that taking care of other tasks will help parent relax

Pretending they’re the one who needs comforting, because they know parent will try to hide weakness in front of them

feito inteiramente a mão

This or That Gothic Snippet 8- Bedridden

This is also a continuation of gothic snippet 4- winter forest.

Inspired by my answers for this post by @blackrosesandwhump!

Whumpee sneezed for the third time in a row, sending little snowflakes floating around the room.

“Lunchtime, Whumpee!” Caretaker called.

Caretaker entered Whumpee’s room, carrying a tray with a bowl of soup and a steaming mug of tea.

“I made it myself,” Caretaker said proudly.

“Thanks,” Whumpee sniffled.

Caretaker set the tray on Whumpee’s lap and sat on the end of their bed. Whumpee picked up a spoonful of soup and blew on it to cool it. Whumpee didn’t account for their frost breath, however, so instead of merely cooling the soup, they ended up freezing it solid.

“Here, let me,” Caretaker said, taking the spoon and blowing on it.

Caretaker’s fiery breath thawed the soup and warmed it to a perfect temperature. Whumpee took the spoon back gratefully and slurped down the soup. The warm liquid felt soothing on their sore throat.

When Whumpee had finished eating, Caretaker took the tray and set it on the bedside table.

“I still don’t understand how I got sick in the first place,” Whumpee croaked.

“You were hypothermic for quite a while, Whumpee, I’m sure that had something to do with it,” Caretaker responded.

Caretaker put a hand to Whumpee’s forehead and frowned at the heat they felt there. Whumpee’s ice powers kept them colder than most, but right now they felt warmer than even a normal person.

“I think you might have a fever,” Caretaker said.

Whumpee shivered under the covers; their powers were still malfunctioning from the other day, and they were no closer to getting warm than they were to getting better.

“Would you like me to warm you up?” Caretaker asked.

“Could you?” Whumpee asked pitifully.

Caretaker nodded, then scooped Whumpee up into their arms. They bundled a blanket around Whumpee and concentrated on spreading their heat throughout their body. There was the distinct sound of a sigh of relief from Whumpee. Steam filled the room as Caretaker hugged Whumpee close.

“I think you might have thawed me out,” Whumpee laughed tiredly.

“Oh no, is that bad?” Caretaker asked, brows furrowed.

“No, no,” Whumpee said, “I typically freeze back up within an hour or so, and with my powers on the fritz I’m sure that’ll happen even quicker than usual.”

Whumpee threw off the covers and went to stand up.

“Woah, what are you doing?” Caretaker asked, pushing them back down.

“I-I just wanted to help put my bowl away,” Whumpee said sheepishly.

“Uh-uh,” Caretaker said, shaking their head, “If you stood up now, you’d probably fall over. No, you’re not leaving this bed until you’re better.”

“But you’ve already done so much,” Whumpee argued, “I don’t want to be a bother.”

“If you were going to be a bother, I wouldn’t have rescued you in the first place, silly. Now stay put. I’m gonna go put this bowl in the sink.”

Caretaker grabbed the tray from the bedside table and left the room. Whumpee sighed and burrowed deeper into the covers. Caretaker was probably right, anyway. Whumpee had felt weak all day, if they tried to stand up, they’d probably collapse on the spot. It looked like they were stuck in this bed until their powers, and their fever, decided to calm down.

part 3

Wasps in Bug Fables

While the yellow jackets controlled by the Wasp King represent a significant portion of the antagonistic force, they're not the only wasps in Bugaria. After a couple separate conversations about wasps, I thought I'd round them all up and display the variety to be found.

First off, let's get the ones you fight out of the way. These are the ones under Hoaxe's mind-control via their antennae. Fuff, while a hornet, is also a eusocial species and compelled to serve.

Next up, we have the members of the nest who aren't under the Wasp King's control. -Queen Vanessa II stated she was protected from Hoaxe's fire thanks to the brooch, but as far as I recall, it isn't explicitly said that she'd have been under his influence without the brooch either. Maybe as Queen, she's immune to mind control. -Then there's Jayde who is protected from control thanks to the crystal necklace Vanessa gifted her at some point in the past. She acts controlled around other wasps so that she doesn't get singled out and locked up. -A few yellow jackets aren't able to be controlled thanks to broken or bent antennae. I only have Voi pictured here, but there's also the one that got imprisoned because they didn't cotton on and pretend.

Then we have some solitary species of wasps who, while not outright stated in the game, likely wouldn't be receptive to mind control, especially not at range, since they wouldn't have the genetic inclination to follow a queen or be part of a hive mind.

So, who does that leave? Reeves and Zasp, the two wasps that we know have been accepted as explorers. -Reeves' species isn't specified past "wasp" in the Wiki. He's a paler yellow than the yellow jackets, and I believe the orange under his scarf? cloak? are his wings, so whatever he is, he's probably not related to the nest. I would suggest that he's an orange spider wasp, but his body is yellow and he doesn't have enough black, so idk! He's probably a solitary wasp, whatever he is. -And then Zasp, our beloved. Paper wasps in general are eusocial like most other wasps of the vespidae family. I would argue that his antennae are bent that way more for character design than to show they're "broken," so I suppose, he'd be susceptible to the Wasp King's influence. Maybe his dedication to Mothiva is too strong lol. Maybe he's just never in range/in Hoaxe's attention enough to become a thrall. Or maybe the explorer permit that I assume he carries protects him. The permits have crystals in them, and we know a crystal is what protects Jayde...

Anyway, that's all the wasps! Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Oh, editing to add, in case someone isn't aware- the Wasp King himself isn't actually a wasp! He's a thick-headed fly that mimics a wasp.

I want to play

Character A and Character B are on an adventure together. Character A has a streaming cold. Character B gets injured. Despite being terribly sneezy and ill, Character A is totally concerned about Character B and protects them and takes care of them all the while worrying about giving Character B their cold. They finally get to safety, Character B gets bandaged up by Character A, and B finally gets to take care of poor A, who is quite a cold-ridden mess by this point.

The team having a long night’s rest by the campfire. Looks comfy