Honestly if anyone ever needs to understand the definition of 'Comfort Character'?
I have a big trauma with my birthday. It's tomorrow, and I always feel anxious and fucked over about it. But picturing the OP boys, especially Cross Guild, Sanji, etc, celebrating it privately with me, actually comforts me and mitigates the trauma.
A lot of that is due to the way you write, represent, and talk about them yourself, Nyarla. Thank you so much. It means more than you can imagine. I really needed the comfort. I have nothing tangible, but due to your interpretations of them, my mind does the trick and self soothes. I can't thank you enough, you're wonderful.
Birthday trauma is fucking horrible. And so so few people understand it and. Ugh. I don't know what your specific trauma is, but the absolute certified BullShit I've heard when I try to explain it.
"But it's supposed to be a happy day!"
"That's silly, who hates their birthday?"
"Well we're going to celebrate it anyway, since you're being ridiculous."
And then you're practically required to sit there and pretend to be grateful, because if you show any sign of discomfort or sadness, then apparently you're "selfish."
Which is the biggest bullshit. The people attempting to force it on you are the ones being selfish dicks. They almost never do it out of genuine kindness, they do it so they can pat themselves on the back for "Doing Something Nice," disregarding the fact that the real kindness would be to give you the peace of not calling attention to something that makes you uncomfortable.
I'm probably projecting, but, like. I've wanted nothing to do with my birthday for the past sixteen years, and I feel you on this. A LOT.
I'd still make you a cake if I could, though. Or at least some cookies or brownies or something. But only because there's never a bad time for delicious baked goods. I feel like that's what Sanji would do, and I relate heavily to the concept of comforting people with food.
And the Cross Guild boys would at least try, but you'd probably just end up finding them fighting in the kitchen with broken eggs on the floor and flour all over everything. The pure chaos of it would offer enough entertainment to distract from the birthday blues and actually make it fun.
I'm glad to know that I could help even in the smallest way. I hope your day is at least comfortable and that it passes quickly and easily and painlessly.