for-the-flail:

A thing that is now happening: arguing tiny points of characterization – actually, not even that, just a random background details? – by ficlet. Here’s my contribution, and @xparrot​ had better post hers soon because it is adorable and breaks my heart. (I am maybe even willing to concede the point because it’s so good!)

“Hey Da Qing, it says here that cats can’t see color,” Yunlan says, frowning.

“They can’t.”

“But you can!”

“Yashou see color.”

“Oh. Okay. Well – do you know why cats like to knead things with their paws? It says that perhaps, um. Yeah, they don’t really know?”

“It feels good,” Da Qing says with a sniff. “Why else would you do it?”

“Mm, I don’t know. It says cats rub their faces on things to make them smell like them…?”

“And it feels good when things smell like you. Right?”

Yunlan giggles. “Da Qing. Humans can’t smell stuff like that!”

“Really?! But I thought that’s why you kept stealing my blanket! Because you wanted it to smell more like you.”

“Da Qing. We only have one blanket. It’s not your blanket.”

“I put my smell on it the night we got it from Mrs Wang!”

“How was I supposed to know?!”

Da Qing huffs. “Your sense of smell really is pathetic.”

“That’s because I only have… Let’s see. What did they say? Oh yeah. Five million smell-things. Um.  Those.”

“And cats?” Da Qing asks, smug.

“Up to – 80 million?! Wow. That’s a lot.”

Da Qing preens. “Cats really are superior in every way,” he says.

“You sleep on average sixteen hours a day,” Yunlan retorts.

“See,” Da Qing says. “Superior.”