#( ilysm nonnie u have my heart and soul and tearfully smiling emojis )

[clochanamarc]

does she have a favourite child? if not, then what are her most favorite things / traits about each of her children?

nonnie i send u many kisses and affections bc this question is just WONDERFUL!

so she doesn't have a favourite child. like, naturally there are some kids who might receive more words of affirmation or hugs one day, or maybe their love languages are a little different, so from the perspective of an on-looker it could seem like aisling might, for example, ignore eli or tim a lot while helping victor and advik more. but it's also important to know that eli just has a very limited social battery, and tim's happy place is the kitchen, while victor likes to talk about his problems out loud and advik is an eight year old, so he just fires rapid questions 24/7 and aisling has no problem answering them.

basically, she loves all her kids the same, but she also knows their boundaries and limits and trusts them to tell her when they need to be alone or when they need to be around people, and that's also why she's very insistent on at least one family meal in the day. it's also why she loves how involved the diner squad is in the kids' lives, bc tina mightn't be willing to tell aisling something, but richard normally manages to get through to her, yk? it's not that there's not enough love, it's more that sometimes you need specific people, and aisling knows that tina prefers quiet company, so she gravitates towards richard.

on to the next part of your question, which i'm gonna leave beneath a read more!

starting with victor, she definitely loves how he processes things. he finds a lot of peace and quiet in his garden, and he likes being able to work out his own thoughts through his plants, which is the kind of self-awareness that doesn't come very often to teenagers, i think? so the fact that victor found this so helpful, and even contributes his crops to the diner and aisling's dishes, is a hugely admirable thing for aisling, who had no idea how to process her own thoughts and feelings until she was 21 and living in new york. she also absolutely thinks the world of how he's able to figure out when other people need the same kind of ease and tranquility. he won't show his garden to just anyone, but he knows when advik is agitated, or tina is meditating on the roof, that they need to lie low in the greenhouse for a bit while listening to jazz music.

eli is very similar in how he uses music and technology as mediums to work out his own thoughts and feelings, but he also loves being able to use technology to help others. when aisling reveals that she can't read or write, he's the one who helps her to learn how to use the speech to text apps, and he also uses a scanner app on her phone to translate printed documents into an audio recording, so if she receives a letter from any of the schools, she can take a photo and the phone will read the words to her. and it's that kind of thoughtful consideration, plus how smart and kind he is, that aisling loves to pieces.

(it's also worth mentioning that eli and victor are in the unique position of being the only foster kids who are the biological children of a member of the order of V. idk why it's worth mentioning, i just like to mention it IWSFAWJDFASHIADFJ)

next we have tina! aisling is almost killed by tina the first time they meet, and instead of fighting her she's like "u seem pretty unhappy about this, why don't u put the knife down and we'll get some adoption papers sussed out?". tina goes on to attend therapy, but she goes through six therapists in the space of two weeks before finding the right one for her, and it's a constant quality she has that aisling admires so much. tina doesn't give up when she has a goal in mind. she decides to take on a family tree project and finds her maternal grandparents in iowa, learning that they're her only surviving biological family left. she repeatedly cancels dates and parties to go to therapy bc as far as she's concerned, therapy is the priority. about six months after moving into aisling's apartment, she decides that she wants to learn mandarin, and she sticks at it. her perseverance and dedication are things that aisling loves, but it's also her ability to take on feedback and decide whether she can adjust reasonably to it.

fatin is actually a day older than tina, but because of the whole "stranded on an island" situation, they're both happy to let tina be the big sister. however, fatin is instrumental in getting advik to feel more at home and emerge from his shell. her confidence and honesty are qualities that aisling does love, but her favorite quality is fatin's compassion. she stops playing the cello when she moves in with them, but she begins to take up other hobbies that help her bond with her siblings. facial masks, DJing and cake decorating are just a few, and while fatin loves them, she confides in aisling that the real reason for these choices is that she can share them with the others; tina, eli and tim in particular. fatin also doesn't mind going to the zoo for the fifth time in a week, and she works hard on finding fun animal-related activities to share with advik.

elliott is a new kid who stemmed from a single thread, he's super smart, very eager to share that intelligence, and doesn't worry nearly as much about his social status or image as most fifteen year olds would. it's his easy-going sureness of self that aisling loves, but also the way that he conveys information to people without making them feel stupid; elliott also insisted on helping aisling learn the states off by heart, and helped her to study for the citizenship exam. her lack of education posed no problems for him. instead, he exhibited levels of patience and knowledge that far exceed most adults put together, and his quiet confidence keeps him safe from a myriad of attacks from insecure bullies.

advik is the youngest, but his passion and enthusiasm are a few of aisling's favorite traits in him. that and his earnest efforts to soothe troubled souls, both of family and of strangers. one time she brought in a wounded avenger and he made sure to give them a tiger band-aid and some lion crackers, while patting the back of their hand and tell them all the coolest things about their favorite animals.

tim is the quietest of her kids, and yet when he communicates, it's with careful decisiveness and a certainty that aisling admires greatly. in his more social moments, he likes to invite others to bake with him, in particular stanley, henri and rani. his ability to read people is remarkable, and every word and move he makes is only made when he's sure of himself. what others perceive as a withdrawn, indecisive, anxious boy, aisling sees for tim's refusal to operate on any terms beyond his own, and his wariness of new people is often due to his anxiousness to protect his new family from any threats, perceived or otherwise.

honestly, aisling loves them all equally, and she has more foster kids or unofficially adopted kids written by many amazing friends of mine, but i think i better save those for various other posts! tumblr has limits! but yeah, their differences and similarities are some of my favorite things to analyze, and their connections to each other and to outside forces. tysm for asking this my love!!!