felonytaxevasion

[felonytaxevasion]

@simurghed HOORAY HOORAH Aisha relationship chart !!! :)))

Okok it took me four bus trips to finish writing but these are my thoughts

Brian

Aisha and Brian are very up and down especially at first. It is unfortunately a natural consequence of all of their life circumstances catching up to them. Brian is 17 and has been shoving all of his personal thoughts and feelings into a sepia toned box in order to be the Perfect Guardian for Aisha. And even then he was only able to do that for so long because he had outlets where he didn't have to do that (originally the Undersiders, then his relationship with Taylor) and those have been taken away now. He doesn't even have any friends except Lisa left really, Rachel is in the woods and Alec hadn't been his friend for a minute anyway but he still is blown up. Brian is basically around just enough to make sure Aisha is eating food and not actively bleeding out in their living room and not much else. I think in his head he's processing this as "I'm not good at helping Aisha emotionally anyway, it's better to leave it to Lisa or Lily or Sabah or her new friend Missy". I think depending on how successful their mom is at actually sobering up for a brief period of time/not keeping toxic boyfriends around there's a non zero chance Aisha ends up relying on her for the first few months after Alec blows up. Which naturally is a terrible idea because every moment of genuine parenting or bonding they're able to get out of Celia is just going to make the inevitable fall back into bad habits hurt more.

Those are the low points of Brian and Aishas relationship but I think there's also positive points. Like I think he does notice that she stops redyeing the purple streaks in her hair/rotating through different styles and just defaults to putting it in a ponytail (which to be clear still looks nice but is a departure from her previous patterns of rotating through a large library of semi elaborate styles) and so he offers to bring her with next time he gets his hair rebraided and starts their era of Matching Sibling Hair. An era which Aisha spends very frequently dressing up in matching outfits as well specifically so she can make fun of him. Which is annoying but also makes her laugh and smile so secretly Brian is glad.

Their relationship gets better slowly at first, mainly because Brian stops going to endbringer fights, but also because The Red Hands join the team and he has a friend group and girlfriend and place he can be a teenager and not a 40 year old salary man who pays taxes again. Depending on how much stock you put in My VistAisha World things either get slowly better like this until Taylor returns, OR things are slowly getting better then the explosive VistAisha break up gives Brian the opportunity to consciously and intentionally step up as a source of emotional support for Aisha instead of assuming that other people will handle her emotional needs if he can keep her alive and healthy. Either way I think that Aisha loves her brother so much and isn't Mad per se about the emotional abandonment but can't help feeling a little bitter about it (as seen in her Ward interlude).

Tee bee ech (tbh) I think someone with a better grisp on Taylor could probably draw some really fun narrative parallels between Taylor's relationship to her dad and Aisha to Brian. Like there's a lot more nuance with The Laborns because Danny is Taylor's actual literal dad who is and should be responsible for taking care of Taylor, and Brian is a kid himself who happens to become responsible for Aisha because of shitty life circumstances. BUT at least in terms of Taylor's complicated feelings towards her dad and his emotional abandonment of her she is trying so hard not to blame him for, and the similar feelings Aisha expresses in her Ward interlude towards Brian, I think they are having narrative parallels there. So uh. More fun flavor to add to Aisha holding Taylor's hand through the whole Khepri thing if you believe in my delusions.

Lisa

Lisa and Aisha are interesting to me because I think they both love each other and are friends but are also a little bit oil and water to each others insane isms. Like Lisa really wants to focus on one specific special person and make sure they specifically are having the best time ever and she can be their special cheerleader who is taking care of them forever. And Aisha does want to be someone's number one special friend but under the condition she can also make them her number one special friend. Aisha probably appreciates Lisa trying to reach out and help her about Alec, but unless Lisa is open to the idea of talking about how she feels about losing Taylor to Aisha theres a huge emotional wall there.

And actually it's probably even worse than that because even if Lisa was open to the idea of being vulnerable in exchange for Aisha not being suicidal, that conversation would be a DISASTER. Aisha is very emotionally literate and aware but what insight can she possibly offer to a Lisa who knows everything. "Wow I think Taylor was kind of mean sometimes even if she was coming from a good place" Lisa knows already. She just doesn't care. And Aisha trying to act as if she knows more or even the same amount as Lisa, even just for the sake of giving her advice, would probably drive Lisa insane crazy. She and Aisha are just unfortunately incapable of having a very close but balanced emotionally equitable relationship which is the only thing Aisha really wants after her one balanced friendship just blew up. So Lisa is there for Aisha obviously. And she cares a lot, but there is a limit at how much she can do herself as Lisa through conversations with Aisha.

I think Lisa's method of helping is really chess mastering other people into Aishas life that can help her more. Like obviously Lisa is aware of Vista, I think maybe not fully aware because Lisa is also busy and probably trying to save her power for political dealings to prevent the end of the world with portals, but she knows it's happening kind of. She may have even been the one to send Aisha after whatever straggling goon was causing problems and put her in the path of Vistas patrol the first time VistAisha hung out. Lisa is DEFINITELY the one who was assigning Aisha long stake out missions with Sabah and Lily so that they could bond and make Aisha feel like isolated on the team.

I think the turning point in Lisa's relationship to Aisha /kind of Brian as well would be The Red Hands joining. Lisa is almost definitely the one who found them and brought them on board as A Team for Brian. The question that I think is lurking in the back of Aisha's mind is "did Lisa just look for a team that would be good employees for Brian and not think too hard about it? Or did Lisa specifically engineer a friend group and girlfriend for Brian even aware that it would probably break her special number one friends heart, because it would be worth it to improve Brian and Aishas life in that way?" Now me personally I don't know but I also think Aisha probably doesn't know either it's just something she wonders that endears Lisa to her a bit more.

In VistAisha world I don't think things are that much different. Lisa knows about the disaster situationship and would intervene if things got too dangerous. I could even see her being the one to finally out the relationship to the Wards at the end if Vista really hurt Aisha in some way and she thought Aisha wouldn't break it off on her own. I think it's more likely that she's gently hands off while still making sure Aisha knows she's around though. Like a "hey and for no particular reason if you ever have any issues with The Wards Aisha let me know I can get them for you just say the word." But vague enough that Aisha doesn't have to bring it up if she doesn't want to.

I don't think much changes between Lisa and Aisha considering they are kind of the same in Worm and in Ward, they are besties who know each other well and help each other/would probably take a hit for the other in a fight, but they aren't the pillars of each others emotional support network.

Rachel

I've mentioned before Rachel and Aisha are not exclusively best friends because Taylor told Rachel to be, but also because Rachel is ranked number 1 Undersider least likely to blindsided you by suddenly blowing herself up. And I was right when I said that it is true Aisha loves Rachel because she is emotionally open and honest and probably will never surprise you with sudden suicidal tendencies at the worst possible moment.

I don't think Aisha and Rachel hang out as much as they would like because Aisha doesn't like dirt or bugs or animal slobber and unfortunately those are terms and conditions to hang out with Rachel most of the time. That said Rachel does canonically walk into Brockton Bay, see Aisha only, and then leave a couple of times according to the text itself so they aren't distant. Also their respective employees and dastardly villain goons are pretty close to each other and them both. Rachel is Aunt Rachel to the kids, and Wildbow never mentioned this but it is real and true that Cassie and Aisha are close too. They hung out more before Chastity developed her guilt complex and started distancing herself from Aisha/Aisha distanced herself out of respect but Aisha and Cassie are still besties and you have to believe me on this.

Anyway I do think Aisha and Rachel generally get along with very few road blocks just on the basis of them both liking open and direct communication. Rachel doesn't want to be manipulated and Aisha just wants to be included/not left out of the loop. Their ADHD/Autism solidarity. Even Rachel's desire to be in charge/Aishas desire to bother authority wouldn't be a big issue I think. If Rachel gets too mad about a joke Aisha can disappear before disaster occurs and give her time to chill out + Aisha is way less bothered by authority asserted as "stop wandering away and making fart noises you are pissing me off" than she is to authority like "stop wandering off you are in danger because you are a child and you don't understand what's going on. Your fart noises are immature and you need to stop just because I said so."

Sabah / Lily

I was gonna do them separate because I think their relationship to Aisha is different but I think the foundation comes from the same place and I don't want to write the same thing twice. Anyway Sabah and Lily may not be real characters in Taylor's story but they are real relevant people to Aisha on account of the fact over half the Undersiders are away/blown up/taking a step back from physical fighting, but the ones who are left still need to maintain a strict grip on the city /maintain pecking order with the mercenaries working for them. Truly if they slip up for even a second I really think Citrine would have staged a coup in a heartbeat. So Aisha Sabah and Lily become the A-Team of Core Undersiders You Can Expect To See In A Fight for most of the time skip. They would have to get at least close enough to be incredibly functional coworkers if nothing else.

Which I think is what Lily and Aisha are for the most part. When Lily finds out about secret VistAisha I think she gets really excited for younger star crossed gay people she can mentor and look after. Unfortunately for her I don't think either Aisha or Vista really want her to be there and help so uh. Good luck Lily. She is probably genuinely helpful when it comes to family stuff (she doesn't talk to her parents either) and genuinely can offer good insight about the differences between the wards and Undersiders if either girl was questioning their alignment in Brockton Bay. It just so happens that these genuinely nice moments are sandwhiched between Lily trying to get Aisha to watch her terrible gay TV shows that aren't good, and taking Aisha's teasing and pranks waaaay too seriously and getting genuinely crabby about being forced to play Surprise Taser Tag. Lily also finds the Vasils creepy and weird which Aisha does not appreciate very much. But I think their relationship is not dissimilar to Aishas relationship to Brian or an older sister/younger sister dynamic. They're at each other's throats a lot, get really annoyed when forced to spend time together, but genuinely care about the other at the end of the day.

Sabah is closer to a friend who you call a sister or ""mom friend"" for Aisha than an actual familial relationship. I think Sabah is too mature to actually get really mad and have beef with a 14 year old, but also Aisha definitely outranks her in the Undersiders hierarchy so Sabah doesn't talk down to her or pretend she's not fully capable of stabbing and killing. Unlike Brian who might insist that Aisha can't come along to dangerous missions, Sabah is ok with Aisha coming she would just set up a hard rule of like "hey things are looking really bad and you are an actual literal Kid, I need you to stand behind me and Foil because I'm not letting a kid get hurt on my behalf". Her advice is more helpful for Aisha than Lily's is, but they have a similar distance Aisha has to Lisa where Sabah isn't super keen on dumping her problems on a teenager no matter how much the kid wants her to. They definitely get more close as time goes by/are more equal friends in Ward when Aisha is a bit older, the distance is really just a matter of time not compatibility.

I think Sabah might be scared of Aisha at first, Aisha brags about being a wretched villain who will torture people to death without remorse, and that is very much not who Sabah wants to be. However after Aisha starts taking in Heartbreaker victims I think it would become pretty clear that a lot of Aishas talk is just talk. She doesn't actually enjoy torture, she's only ever even done it the one time to the cult leader who definitely deserved it, and she made her own safe house of traumatized people after. I think it would remind Sabah of dolltown and both endear her to Aisha/motivate her to help the people there as best she can to prevent the same kind of disaster happening to them. My personal headcanon is that the Vasils love her because she can make them pretty clothes even though their design requests kind of drive her crazy sometimes (you can't pair yellow off white with blue off white no matter how nice the fabrics feel it will look BAD <- my impression of Sabah sewing the off white fabrics together anyway because the Vasils asked nicely but complaining about it the entire time)

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AishAlec get hug

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LOOK I am ALWAYS in defense of Amy Dallon(Worm). Shut up. She's not a "rapist blorbo" she's not a "incest-loving degenerate" or whatever the fuck you assholes are calling her this week. She was a horrifically abused teenager, pushed to her breaking point by an incredible amount of pressure and torture, and when she lost control for ONE instant, at her literal lowest point, her greatest fears came true and she had no ability to cope with her truly abysmal self-image seeming to be completely correct and justified. Like, she literally spent a decade under an absurd about of stress because she was terrified that she was a monster. And then as soon as she did something monstrous, she lost everything she ever loved or cared about and saw no possible way for her to ever be happy again. No fucking shit she kept digging, what else could she do? Was this mentally unstable teenage girl going to take a step back and say "Well, things are bad, but I better do what I can to stop them from getting worse!" No!!! She was avoiding it! She thought she deserved the fucking death penalty! She tried to hold onto what she could for as long as possible, and then as soon as that was done she walked up to the police with a gun and said "If you don't put me in Forever Hell Jail I'm going to start killing!" And then they put her in Forever Hell Jail because Wildbow has weird opinions on crime and justice.

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"Oh.... Brian." CW: Body horror below the break.

SO I also do horror art, in case you didn't know.

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Thinking about all the WB characters I have called A Beatrice-like is funny because I am right every time I say it but looking at the collective list of Amy Dallon, Blake and Rose and PMT Thorburn, and Jessie Eskewmouth I'm not sure what possible conclusions non umineko readers could draw about her based on that list

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It's been a while without a Worm doodle batch! Didnt realize i had that many, and with my previous phone breaking down, i didnt have a good camera to post them. Thank you for the commissions and tips in kofi, they really helped! There's still one remaining slot in case anybody is interested!

Without further ado, part 1 of the doodles and ideas i've saved for Parahumans and Twig:

Totally not threatening little girl

Wolfspider interactions

Ward Amy + Carol

Cassie introduces Rachel to her Nintendogs copy, shortly before the fateful Ward chapter where it is revealed she is bad at technology, also I've decided she's a lefty just because.

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ward is bad because NO mimi clones lived. there were NINE of them. NINE MIMIS. IMAGINE.

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YAAAAAAAY

if you're still doing the osmosis game thing, umineko

okay wait i know things about this one actually i can do this one. there's a guy named battler in it who likes facts and logic which i support. and he is always arguing with beatrice who wants to convince him she is a witch. and they might have some demented heterosexuality going on but im not sure if that one is in the novel or just in the fandom. also beatrice is actually like twenty different people or something? and she keeps killing herself and then reincarnating and then her reincarnations kill themselves too and so on? so i think maybe beatrice is not doing very good. also it is a murder mystery and battler is trying to win the argument that things happened due to facts and logic and not due to witches. not sure where the theoretical surpassing-rose-quartz-levels of mental health problems for beatrice come in. Oh yeah and she goes kyahahahahhehehehehehahhahahheheheheheh and so on its her favorite activity she's always saying that

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*crossing off the Beatrice grabs Battler by his tie like a leash to call him incompetent drawing off the list* nodding nodding, yes I think I get it. Smug Beatrice moments applenty to reference >:3

if you're still doing the osmosis game thing, umineko

okay wait i know things about this one actually i can do this one. there's a guy named battler in it who likes facts and logic which i support. and he is always arguing with beatrice who wants to convince him she is a witch. and they might have some demented heterosexuality going on but im not sure if that one is in the novel or just in the fandom. also beatrice is actually like twenty different people or something? and she keeps killing herself and then reincarnating and then her reincarnations kill themselves too and so on? so i think maybe beatrice is not doing very good. also it is a murder mystery and battler is trying to win the argument that things happened due to facts and logic and not due to witches. not sure where the theoretical surpassing-rose-quartz-levels of mental health problems for beatrice come in. Oh yeah and she goes kyahahahahhehehehehehahhahahheheheheheh and so on its her favorite activity she's always saying that

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I'll take an opportunity to draw umineko because I can't make fanart for umineko proper because that requires thinking about Beatrice or Bernkastel for prolonged periods of time and I will start crying and or throwing up if I think about them for too long

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I will give you multiple BeaBato SyJessies on account of how many BeaBato manga panels are saved to my phone waiting for opportunities to be redrawn

if you're still doing the osmosis game thing, umineko

okay wait i know things about this one actually i can do this one. there's a guy named battler in it who likes facts and logic which i support. and he is always arguing with beatrice who wants to convince him she is a witch. and they might have some demented heterosexuality going on but im not sure if that one is in the novel or just in the fandom. also beatrice is actually like twenty different people or something? and she keeps killing herself and then reincarnating and then her reincarnations kill themselves too and so on? so i think maybe beatrice is not doing very good. also it is a murder mystery and battler is trying to win the argument that things happened due to facts and logic and not due to witches. not sure where the theoretical surpassing-rose-quartz-levels of mental health problems for beatrice come in. Oh yeah and she goes kyahahahahhehehehehehahhahahheheheheheh and so on its her favorite activity she's always saying that

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I technically don't know enough about Jessie to say for certain but I'm realizing she's kind of a Beatrice-like and it's making me want to go back into twig to check my work

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if you're still doing the osmosis game thing, umineko

okay wait i know things about this one actually i can do this one. there's a guy named battler in it who likes facts and logic which i support. and he is always arguing with beatrice who wants to convince him she is a witch. and they might have some demented heterosexuality going on but im not sure if that one is in the novel or just in the fandom. also beatrice is actually like twenty different people or something? and she keeps killing herself and then reincarnating and then her reincarnations kill themselves too and so on? so i think maybe beatrice is not doing very good. also it is a murder mystery and battler is trying to win the argument that things happened due to facts and logic and not due to witches. not sure where the theoretical surpassing-rose-quartz-levels of mental health problems for beatrice come in. Oh yeah and she goes kyahahahahhehehehehehahhahahheheheheheh and so on its her favorite activity she's always saying that

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my friend keeps calling bugs Taylors which i think is beautiful

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I think people are already starting to block me anyway but I am just gonna go ahead and call it publicly as well. If you're in the group of people consistently harassing and bothering other Wormblr blogs for things like "bringing up fandom racism" or "pointing out how certain fan content can be really fucking insensitive to marginalized groups of people" I would like you to block me or unfollow as well please. Thank you

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playing around in rebelle again and attempting to draw freckles by hand

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I've been thinking about Tattletale vs Jack lately.

Let's think about Jack's appearances and actions. He's usually composed, manipulative and plays around and chats before actually murdering/attacking people if he deems the interesting/fun enough. it was like that with Theo (both times), with Skitter, Amy. Sure, sometimes he wants something from them, but there's this whole demanor he maintains.

Now when Tattletale exposes Cherish's plan, Jack strikes her (correct me if I'm wrong) in anger over twarting his plans, he doesn't banter back, or threaten her, he immediately strikes her in a pretty violent way from the get go.

we can attribute this to broadcast feeding him the idea that this particular teenager was dangerous and should be stopped asap, but it's not like he stops every dangerous person right away. If he is receiving these "instincts" on how to handle parahumans from broadcast (however you interpret the information to be relayed to him might be), that's a controlled situation. That's Jack having it all on the palm of his hands.

My proposal is that actually Jack didn't get get shit about TT from broadcast. he could not get a read on her at all. Otherwise, he would have stopped her before she spilled the beans. He got blindsided so bad, something that never happens, that we get this frustration outburst of his.

Now, why would that happen? As much as I condone disconsidering ward, we get a pretty good explanation/visualization on how her power works. It's very similar to how Jack's shard works even, in that it connects to other shards to acquire information to give her. The main difference is that that's her whole shtick, and she gets way more out of it than Jack.

Broadcast reached out "hey I like this guy, so let me know if your girl is doing anything bad", Her shard replies "fuck you, mine is the most specialest girl ever" so Jack is upset that she's unreadable and slashes out. It also makes sense that her shard would have more power in that extraspace confrontation.

We can see further proof of it when, even after that, Tats is still getting important reads on Jack to Taylor so she can manipulate him into taking the bet.

I'm convinced Lisa might be one of the most attuned to her shard out there because there's a suicidal teenager by her side that she adores, making her relive her trigger on a daily basis.