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1. Petrified wood, or Petri, is a unique little fella who gets his own unique little bio, and by that I mean he doesn't one one. At least, not the usual kind that I write for my characters. You see, Petri goes through some pretty drastic life changes as he gets older, so to avoid spoiling it in his adult bio, I plan to ‘show and not tell’, by waiting until I complete his Character arc to make a bio. See, simple!

In the meantime, this massive ( at least, to me) character dump is meant to serve as a basic bio and the starting point in a Character arc that’ll probably span a few months because I’m slow like that.

With that said, time to get on with the rest of this jam-packed, steroid injected character dump!


2. Petri, who has the attention span of a newborn foal, is easily drawn by something moving in his peripheral vision. Often, his flippant focus leads him to wandering off, and despite being a slow-poke like his mom, he disappears quicker than you can say Entomology. Poor Maud lost count of how many times he’s trotted after some hopping or scurrying bug, only to return an hour later covered in swamp muck due to accidentally walking straight into a bog.


On the flip-side, if a pony tries to grab his attention by yelling or waving him over, they may as well talk to a brick wall. It's not that he ignores them on purpose, he's just not used to listening to ponies call his name a thousand times. Which isn’t surprising when you consider how he grew up as a single foal in a family's outdoor-cave-home with hardly a speaking soul around.



3. Petri is, in a word, dense. Again, just like his mother, he always takes things literally regardless of their context. Sarcasm, metaphors, and hyperboles are just some of the literary devices that go over his head- figuratively of course. But you can't really blame the kid, after all, his parent's are some of the most literal-minded ponies on Celestia's good earth.



4. To Petri, upsetting somepony is like committing the unforgivable sin. He’s constantly paranoid about 'being a good boy' and 'making everypony happy', and he’s always apologizing first even if he’s not at fault. Of course, he naturally behaves this way out of love for his parents and this trait works really well in that environment. It's when this ingrained behavior spills over into his interactions with others, particularly with the more manipulative types, that problems arise.


5. Insects. Insects everywhere. The little creatures most sane ponies would run in fear from are Petri's everyday playmates from two reasons. One, there’s no one but the critters that live around his home to play with, and desperate times lead to desperate measures. Secondly, he gets along so swimmingly with them because, well, in a way he’s a bit of a bug whisperer. His special connection is nothing near Fluttershy’s level of communication, but when a colt can summon a swarm of ants just by calling for them, it’s obvious he’s got some level of talent. As if the cuties mark didn’t already spell that out.



6. And If being a bug freak wasn't quirky enough, Petri also has a strange obsession with mushrooms. He eats them with everything, he knows most of the scientific names by heart, and can identify the genus, species, and possible poisonous properties just from smelling them. Collecting them is a favorite hobby of his, and so far he's stashed away 74 different kinds of fungi. One of which he fondly named Bella and commonly converses with it in the way one would a little sibling. This is no way seen as strange by the family whose pets are also inanimate objects. Everypony else but Rocky begs to differ.


7. During a good chunk of Petri’s early life, the only ponies he had around were his parents, so it’s no surprise how strong his bond is with them. I’d say his love for them is equal, but he tends to gravitate more towards Maud due to her being around more than Mud. Petri’s soft, sensitive side hidden by his docile manner comes out the most when he’s around ‘mummy’, and he would do anything to make her happy. When he’s not wandering off and falling into bogs, he’s being ‘mummy’s little helper’ and fetching mineral solutions for her, or showing her his newly discovered chrysalis and berating her with non-stop questions. Even docile little Petri isn’t perfect and there are times when Maud has to monotonously scold him for not coming when she called or messing with her equipment without permission, but these rare occurrences that barely cause the slightest rift in their relationship.



8.As for Mud, Petri’s relationship is no less stronger than his bond with Maud. Due to Mud going away for days at a time to collect research for his books, Petri will spend time with him every chance he gets. Usually, that consists of trailing behind his father as the intellectual stallion impart his knowledge of the plants and trees of the forest to his son. Although Petri is enamored by these lectures, they tend to get pretty boring and well, like I said, he is easily distracted. Mud isn’t a sensitive and subtle as Maud and sometimes even the most well-meant reprimand can come of as sounding harsh, but despite his blunter edges, he really does mean well. He’s deeply invested in his sons hobbies and like and is a constant source of encouragement to pursue whatever his passion is with a level-head and devotion. These pep talks ( if they could called that) are an inspiration to Petri, and he knows that even if everyone else shuns him for his hobbies, his father will always have his back.



9. Although personal space is rarely breached in the Mudpie household, there are times when small, soft gestures of affection are privately displayed. Often it's hoof holding, muzzle booping, head patting, and occasionally, a forehead kissing. Since these were the methods by which affection was shown, Petri grew up with a reserved respect for boundaries, so that, something as simple as hug is enough to make him freeze up. This can make family reunions very, very awkward.

Upvotes at import: 24 | Stars at import: 18
Posted previously at: 2019-01-10T08:32:18 | Posted previously by: Mildgyth