in the spirit of maaaybe it ain’t that deep, but I got shovels and I’m willing to dig-
I’m thinking thots about, like. james bond and resource guarding behavior. So obviously he can’t do this out in the field - it’d be too obvious a tell - buuuut. Iii feel like I can make an argument for a, like. marked defensiveness in body language when he’s “on.”
But sort of in the vein of “when he’s safe his body can finally processing the trauma,” I’m thinking like. Q starts noticing that when it’s just the two of them Bond starts exhibiting this resource-guarding type behavior. Bond just going full feral kitten snarling and hissing and aggressively bodying the food-type behavior lol.
And maybe Q at first is a bit bewildered and bemused? But also maybe his current cats are rescues or he has rescued kittens before, and Bond’s behavior starts more and more to remind him of that.
And so yes of course he starts using kitten socializing techniques/animal training techniques to train Bond and get him more comfortable and relaxed, and it does start working and he does start relaxing :) although perhaps his behavior does still get a bit resource-guard-y around familiar but not like THAT level of intimate people…? or maybe not, not married to this part of the concept lol
(Does Bond realize he is doing this? Who knows! might be funny if he does eventually, but only AFTER he starts picking up on the fact that Q is Training Him, and then examines “on what?” lol. Cuz I think if he realized it himself, then he would or at least would try to brutally suppress that instinct/impulse. like try to brute force himself out of the habit.
Anyway, I think Q would find it kind of endearing that Bond would reveal a vulnerability to him such as the resource-guarding behavior altho ofc he also plans to socialize Bond out of it. And then when Bond realizes, he would go with it bc… yeah, it’s enrichment! for him! lol. and also Q!! has to devote a lot of specific attention to him for this!! and *also* I DO think it would be enrichment for *Q*, too. like I don’t think Q would be a “I can fix him” kind of guy but he WOULD be a “I can tinker with him” kind of guy, you know? And! this! lets him tinker! lol
also think of how funny if later on down this road Bond comes back from a rough mission and is grouchy and growly and hunkering around the food he scrounged out of Q’s fridge and Q (half jokingly) tuts and is like come now, I didn’t raise you like this/I raised you better than this! (funny to ME, at least, lol)
Q has seen videos of kittens with food aggression. He usually swipes away fairly quickly, because he doesn’t think trauma and food insecurity falls into the “cute kitten videos” category. But he knows it exists, and therefore is researchable upon the internet.
Now when his third cat is home and guarding a plate, Q quietly and carefully removes himself from the table (demonstrate to the cat that you are not in competition with them for the available food), puts his little nudists away in the bedroom (remove perceived competition for the available food in a multi-cat household), and putters around in the kitchen to make some small plates (let the cat see that there is a ready abundance of food).
So before Bond is done with his chicken and pasta, Q returns to the table with a lovely little green salad with boiled quail eggs scattered about like protein croutons. A few minutes later, he’s adding a basket of grilled bread slices and a little bowl of garlic-butter spread to add some more crunch to the spread. When he clears the pasta plate away, he replaces it with a small bowl of soup, thick and hearty and sending up savory steam. A few finger sandwiches in a pretty little pyramid is next. Bond slows down as he works through the soup and salad. The bread basket does not empty all the way, and he doesn’t touch the sandwiches. Q brings two more bowls of salad; one fruit and one tomato-cucumber with burrata. Bond just sips at his water.
Satisfied that his third cat is satisfied, Q makes one last trip to the kitchen for the water carafe, then sits down to dine on the sandwiches and vegetables. Bond picks the grapes out of the fruit salad and starts talking about this and that, relaxing back into his chair.
(via halfbaked00q)
