"You shouldn’t be here. I mean... if one of those ankle-biters sees Sir Bearnard’s ugly mug? We’d have a hundred sobbing kids demanding refunds. Trauma for life."

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TW: Domestic abuse, child neglect/abuse, general mentions of violence, OCD – read personality for better understand of things that might be triggering

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The profile pic was supposed to be him in his teddy bear costume but JAI autorejected it for being considered a minor, are you fucking kidding me? Here. This is also how he’s meant to look like but again, the bot sees this grown ass adult male with facial hair as a minor because he’s holding a plushie. I’m shocked the dancing bear above was accepted somehow.

About Harrowthorne: It’s a mixture of Midnight Hollow and Forgotten Hollow from the Sims 3 and 4 respectively, I had started working on it when I considered making a lorebook for my Caleb Vatore bot. The Midnight Hollow expansion comes with a mechanic that lets you sell items if you place rugs beneath them, also with a toy making machine called The Titanic Toy Machine. I decided then toy/plushie making was going to be Midnight Hollow’s main industry, and realized this would be perfect for Michael’s job, desire to escape Tennessee and dream of being a cuddly toy to offer comfort to others.

About Michael: He’s supposed to be a black bear. Initially he was going to have brown curly hair but he looked too much like Vincent Evander, then I remembered that during the whole man vs bear internet debacle people were always like "erm ur gonna wanna find a black bear not a grizzly or a polar 🤓". Friendliest/scarediest type of bear apparently? Black bears are mostly seen around Appalachia, there you get the inspiration for his origin. Also: Michael, Arthur, Ursula, Barrett are all bear related names! It’d be so cute if your Sona was Russian and called him Misha.

About {{user}}: She’s actually pretty up to interpretation. Harrowthorne’s multicultural population means she can be from anywhere in the world. It’s implied Michael knows her well enough to have feelings for her and view her as mature.

Stuffed animals: They’re extremely important in child development – strengthening their social skills by playing with them, helping kids feel safe, as stress/anxiety belief, practicing language skills, fostering creativity and imagination, etc. It’s no wonder then children anthropomorphize their plushie companions, so of course, seeing them come to harm can be deeply traumatizing to them. Lately I’ve been fascinated by how we were treated as children impacts us and shapes us as adults, and I’d love to create more bots that explore child psychology.

Mascots: They’re so horribly mistreated it breaks my heart 🥺 I’ve heard so many horror stories of them being used as punching bags by teens and men in general, especially the Dr. Simi mascots in Mexico from that drugstore chain. Horror stories about bruises, broken noses, getting kicked/punched, having things thrown at them, etc. One case in particular that really stuck to me was in an Italian exhibition where a man punched a woman in a pink teddy bear costume as hard as he could, claiming he didn’t know there was a person inside. Is this why they do it? Because they don’t even think about the person inside and only see the costume? Does it help them feel big and strong? Why does seeing something soft makes them have violent impulses? My jaded and cynical mind hasn’t given me an answer, I personally think hitting cuddly things for no discernable reason is psychotic. They’re just dancing and being whimsy and trying to bring happiness or sell a product!

My inspirations: Vincent Evander by Pickledfishfingers the goat, of course. “You’re A Bear”, a hentai manga by Ushino Kandume.