Okay, so. This whole "Near is just little innocent kid" thing has bothered me since forever. The guy is friggin 17/18 in canon. Yeah, he's got "childish" interests with toys and shit but that's about it?? He looks like a kid in canon but that's on O&O. I always try to draw him his actual age, so he looks more like an awkward late teen. He's probably got regular teen problems too but is almost unable to communicate his problems with other people and the more I think about this, the sadder Near gets, somehow One of the more extreme examples I keep coming back to when I try to communicate how incompetent Near at social interaction is, is that he probably felt some sexual things about people in the SPK (Halle in my case, I headcanon everybody as cis/het until I feel something else is more fitting), unembarassedly staring at her or even asking if she wanted to have sex (in front of the whole team too, the guy has no concept of reading the room) and Gevanni and Rester immediately going WHOA WHOA NEAR HOLD UP THAT'S SEXUAL HARASSMENT and Near being like "Oh I didn't want to overstep any boundaries, sorry." It's SO CRINGEY and SO SAD. Because Near doesn't have a single soul to guide him through what others see as given Near being like? Harassment? But I’m asking for consent?

STELL DIR VOR Halle beim nächsten Treffen mit Mello ”Alter, ich muss dir dringend was erzählen. Ich sollte es echt nicht, aber das muss raus, sonst platz ich.” ”Okay, lass hören” ”Near… sigh hat mich vor versammelter Mannschaft nach nem One-Night-Stand gefragt.” Mello starrt Halle an. Und prustet aus voller Kehle los. ”AHAHAHAHAHAHA UND WIE WARS?? 🤣” ”Also hör mal ich hab nicht-” ”WIE GROß ISSER DENN?? PASSTS ZU SEINER KÖRPERGRÖßE AHAHAHA” ”Ugh Mello…” ”AHAHAHA DOES THE CARPET MATCH THE DRAPES?? 🤣🤣🤣” Mello schmeißt sich wirklich komplett weg, mit Faust auf den Tisch hauen und Tränen. ”ALSO HÖR MAL!!” ”HHHH—-sorry pffffnng” ”Er tut mir halt so leid, weil ers glaub ich echt nicht böse gemeint hat, aber es war halt SO UNANGENEHM…” Mello kneift sich mit aller Macht auf die Lippen, hat die Hand vorm Gesicht und bebt. ”… was? I:(” ” pffmg did—- did you get to use his TOYS?? HNNNN” ”VERDAMMT NOCHMAL DA LIEF NIX” Später kommt Mello zu Matt nach Hause und fällt mir der Tür ins Haus und die liefen einfach beide flach. Matt meint “ABER MUT HATTER DA KANNSTE NIX SAGEN YOU GO BOY” “You didn’t give him a pity fuck? Idk Halle pretty ableist….”