Collection of mini thoughts (festivals, spelling, Jacobson's organ...)
A collection of vague thoughts:
Jesper waddling around in some flowers, sticking his face in them to look inside. He keeps sneezing and laughing about it. Sol and Kena are following him, looking a bit aimless.
Sol: What is Jesper doing?
Jesper: Is looking for gift for friend! For Yarrow!
Sol: Oh! What for?
Jesper: Is gift to give to Yarrow for keeping imp! BUT---imp just thought, what if Yarrow does not like gift! What if friend Yarrow no longer likes small mouse?? Mouse imp and friend have found sleeping in flower!!!
Sol, confused: I do not think Yarrow will suddenly change his mind...
Kena, chuckling: Funny to think Jesper is imagining himself coming to the den with every belonging he has over a mouse.
Sol: Kena!!! This is not funny!!!
Sol has learned the (Common?) alphabet and can read very well. She can spell quite decently, too. Kena's name is pronounced key-nuh. There's a game out right now with the spelling Kena, pronounced ken-nuh, as I think most others would assume is correct (in this case).
So I was picturing Sol to be the one to have given Kena this particular spelling, how she thought it would be spelled phonetically. I like to imagine her drawing out his name, letter by letter, in the dirt with a little stick to show him.
Jesper drooling when pet on the back or head.
I watched a video about red pandas (and cats and many other creatures like snakes, too) having a Jacobson's organ in the roof of their mouths. I originally wrote about Jesper not being able to detect things like pheromones, but now I'm re-considering it and just going to assume boy has no idea what he's actually picking up. (Which might make some fun scenarios with Yarrow, actually...)
I mostly just love the idea that he's face-down in the dirt, digging away with his claws to find bugs, and then like a dog, just bites down to get a mouthful, and just mouth-inhales the dirt in an attempt to find bugs.
It doesn't matter if it's the same town that Yarrow and Jesper live closest to, but Jesper was originally owned by a wheelwright who had a shop in town. He got to witness a plethora of events, holidays, and festivals. After being re-homed, I think he retained memory of when these events happen, regardless of a calendar. Jesper begins getting excited ahead of time and telling Yarrow when something is coming up.
Sol's gender is a bit complicated. I believe her sex is technically intersex, but she sometimes feels othered by not falling into an easy binary. While I don't think she's particularly dysphoric about her bottom half, I think her flat chest bothers her. Her shawl is basically the equivalent of a dysphoria hoodie for her, and she is very rarely seen without it.
I should probably write something up about it, but Sol does talk to Jesper about it. Kena isn't that great at handling her emotions a lot of the time, but this topic Jesper struggles to fully grasp. When she tells him, he understands, but in a very simple way. He understands what a female imp's chest typically looks like, what hers looks like, and that she wishes she had that. But I think it's still a bit hard for him to fully grasp.
Jesper asks for permission to put his big ol' hand (to her) on her chest and is happy to rub it better. She's ticklish and it can also be a spot that turns play into more, so, he's careful about it. Kena is also insistent that Jesper is careful with his claws since he can sometimes be a little thoughtless.