Three Things: Hot Cocoa, Pluto, and Soulbonding

sholio gave me three (delightful) things to write about.

Hot Cocoa

It was a longstanding tradition of mine as a kid, during the winter, to make a mug of hot cocoa and take two cookies--usually these little vanilla creme ones with colored sprinkles--and curl up in an armchair and sit and read, and this is still one of the things I think about when I think about the holidays. I liked to put in little marshmallows, and I always let them soak for a while and then ate them with a spoon. There was also a really excellent coffee shop where I went to college that sold peppermint mocha hot chocolate and gingerbread during the winters, and when I had a long break between classes, I'd get this and, again, read. So even the thought of hot cocoa makes me smile--and makes me think of books and cookies, which also make me smile.

Pluto

I have never bothered to do much research into the question of Pluto's planethood or lack thereof, but I grew up with it as a planet and it will always be one in my heart. I like to think of it out there, cold and far away and somehow peaceful. (One of my favorite random details in Santa Clarita Diet is Eric's T-shirt that says, "Leave Pluto Alone.") You would think I would be socially obligated to have an opinion on this because my in-laws are astronomers, but the subject has somehow never come up.

I also once made a model of the solar system out of cake for a science project, but I cannot for the life of me remember what represented Pluto.

Soulbonding

I love this, and I love how it's not exclusively a fandom concept but shows up in original works as well--Stephen King's ka-tets all share khef in a form of soulbonding, they're important and bonded to each other and can share thoughts. I also love how it's not rigidly defined: there's a lot of flexibility in terms of how you want it to work. Pain-sharing? Telepathy? Empathy? Need for proximity? Shared dreams? It's a great pick-and-choose buffet. I think I probably first stumbled across it in Sentinel fic*, which had a ton of this.

* I eventually saw a couple episodes of The Sentinel, but that was only after I'd consumed a metric ton of that fandom's hurt/comfort.

Soulbonding also works great for forced proximity, one of my favorite tropes for enemies-to-lovers or enemies-to-friends; I love the idea of characters suddenly brought into unexpected and even unwanted empathy with each other and importance to each other. I also like it for groups--the ka-tet thing again--and I have no idea why it's not basically universal fanon for the Guardians of the Galaxy to all have a group soulbond.

If anyone wants three random topics, hit me up and I can provide them!