#and parents actually behaving like parents

[l0stfoster]

For Cursed Tulsa AU: aksjsjak there are soo many things I want to ask about but first I am SO intrigued by Dally in this AU. So like him seeing ghosts is from his mom and I'm assuming he couldn't see them before he got shot/was rescued so was him 'dying' kind of like the catalyst for him unlocking that power? Did his mom ever tell him about the ghosts and he just thought she was hallucinating or did she never even try to bring that up? Does he know that his powers are from his mom or did he just wake up and was like "I guess that just happens now"?

AND THE AFTERMATH OF HIM JUST. SEEING THEM NOW.

Do the ghosts ever try to interact with him? Can they even? Since he apparently saw the Curtis parents and his mom so like did they try to speak to him ever? Or was it more just ominous staring?

And speaking of which - I'm pretty sure Dally isn't telling anyone about what he's been seeing. Is it just because he doesn't know how to bring it up or does he even understand exactly what's going on? Will he ever tell them? Or is this a secret he's taking to his grave?

Sorry for rambling lmao (expect more of this in the future) but all of this is genuinely SO INTERESTING AHH

Absolutely keep rambling Lunar I love these

His near death experience and sort of ‘rebirth’ was the reason his ghost seeing stuff finally unlocked, yes— however, that’s more in a manner of he finally became aware of it.

He assumed she was just hallucinating, and she never told him about it, both in a selfish way and in an attempt to protect him. Her thought was that if he didn’t know, then he couldn’t possibly channel it— the only issue is that if he had been seeing the ghost since he was a boy, it would’ve driven him down the same path of psychosis and mental unease she had experienced. While his mother had been able to see it since she was young, Dally’s mind had sort of blocked out the whole thing as it was due to how she behaved in correspondence to what she could see. To an extend, he’s always been able to see ghosts, but in the same way he’d blocked the Curtis’ out, his mind blocked the ghosts. It was only after actually encountering Death that this subconscious barrier shattered.

It takes a few weeks of living with it and one really bad hangover after drinking to try and block it out before he knew how to for there to be that oh moment. His mom wasn’t fuckin’ insane, she was seeing ghosts— and he’s doing the same thing she was doing, drinking to ignore it.

The ghosts are aware that he can see them once he acknowledges or reacts to them, after all if he didn’t give them the light of day, it’d just seem like another human overlooking them due to not seeing spirits. They can’t physically interact in most cases, beyond toying with items and things of that sort. The few he does interact with he has sort of ‘befriended’,, but it’s mostly just ones tied to spots that he can walk by, ask if they’d seen anyone from the gang, get an answer, and keep going.

The Curtis parents didn’t really get a chance to try and speak to him, all they’d really manage was his name or something else of a similar nature before he’d panic and block them out. His mom didn’t speak when he saw her, she just watched. Stared at him with dead eyes as he stared back in horror.

Y’know, he never knew that she died.

Dally hasn’t told anyone yet, but I think if anyone were to find out willingly first it either be Johnny or Two. Johnny’s the boy of death, he’d have to know something about seeing all of this. Two’s his best friend, he knows he can trust him.

..I think the person who would find out despite Dally’s unwillingness is Paul. Witches are pretty spiritually tied, are they not? And he’s not stupid, he’s heard about spiritual medium related things; Dally sticks out like a sore thumb when you know what signs to look for. He just won’t bring it up, since it’s.. yknow. Dally

[physalian]

Character Types: The “Fixer”

Oh look it’s another chance to bring exposure to casual traumas in real people thinly disguised as writing advice heyyyyy

The “Fixer” is the character who puts everyone else before themselves, but isn’t quite so self-destructive as the jaded loner—this person’s whole schtick is that everyone else’s needs and emotions come first, which will usually end up with them behaving and appearing very extroverted, fun, and kind.

They have no idea they’re doing it, either, and see nothing wrong with their behavior or what logic there is in saving a little slice of the pie for themselves. They’re not self-loathers or angsty abusers and if there are parts of themselves that they don’t like, they probably think of these aspects as “what can you do? Oh well” with zero motivation to exercise their demons, because they don't see them as demons but something they deserve to suffer with.

Or, they know exactly what they’re doing and cannot see the merit at all in themselves deserving a piece of the pie, as if they’re inherently lesser than everyone around them for Reasons they cannot articulate, Reasons that, if their friends or loved ones share the exact same traits, they’d bend over backwards and make excuses for. They have normalized their existence that there’s nothing left to angst over. “I am lesser” is just. A statement of fact.

These characters come in several flavors:

The parental figure (possibly single) or “mature” one in the family who’s always prepared, always has the big backpack with bandaids and wet-naps, probably the first to say “we’re family, all’s forgiven” in effort to keep the peace.  They’re the person who literally eats last or not at all, even when conserving food isn’t necessary, usually with the smallest, now-cold serving. Also can be the parentified sibling.

The person in a romantic relationship doing a whole lot more giving than receiving, whether it’s physically or emotionally, insisting that they’re fine, that their partner need not go out of their way to do XYZ for them, but is incredibly in tune with anything and everything that their partner might need. They’re likely to be in an abusive relationship, either emotionally or physically, or both, because a sensible partner who loves Fixer as much as the Fixer loves them wouldn’t let Fixer get away with an unfair share of back-breaking emotional labor. The abuser takes full advantage of it and laughs when they’re not looking.

The “mom” of the hero team/friend group, similar to the actual parental figure, but in this dynamic, everyone’s about the same age. The Fixer probably isn’t the leader, but second or third in command, as they don’t think themselves capable of making the Big Decisions and prefer running support. They take the most cramped bedroom, the most undesirable odd jobs, and do far more than their share of the chores and other tasks, probably without the rest of the group realizing it until something happens to them. No one asks this of them, they automatically assume this is their burden and don’t even think to suggest equal shares.

Alternate case:

They’re the “leader” because no one else wants to do the job, pretending to be way less stressed than they are and habitually protecting their team from the worst of it with little white lies, to the point where no one has any idea how much they’re suffering in silence until they eventually break. As opposed to a properly communicative leader who regularly delegates important tasks and is very transparent in all their decisions. They might also be the leader because they don’t think anyone else in their team could perform as well under pressure, pressure they’ve been under their whole life.

I actually wrote two of these, the Original, and then the Original Who Went to Therapy, between two different WIPs.

Original was the second in command of a plucky space crew in the sci-fi WIP I always mention, who was very versatile and OP and thus took it upon himself to take the lion’s share of the work around the ship because he could do it quickly and delegating the tasks to the rest of the crew was, to him, objectively pointless. He was also an empath with an ability he couldn’t turn off, literally stuck doing the emotional labor far and above normal human conditions.

He was a firm believer in “if I can, I must” and repeatedly put himself in dangerous situations because he’s the only one who could escape them alive, and to not act would be selfish, and above all else, he feared looking selfish. This all came to a head when Magical Shenanigans ensued and his own powers turned against him, stressing him to the point of his body going “we are taking a Break” and he got bedridden until he learned how to talk about his feelings and let people in.

While he was sick, him Not Being There for when the rest of the plot carried on without him meant that  his team very badly felt his absence because he did so much without them realizing it, and they did not handle it well, picking a different character to shovel all the labor onto, until they too overstrained themselves, and an intervention was necessary.

He was the friendliest character of the team to their newest member, their only cheerleader when the whole rest of his team was skeptical. He was also quite desperate for validation and approval, to the point where he made a bunch of little white lies that quickly caught up with him, pretending to be something he’s not so people would like him.

—

When I ripped the above character out of that WIP and tossed him and another character into Eternal Night, he got an upgrade and a whole bunch of therapy.

Enter Dorian. The main difference between these two is that Dorian can actually stand up for himself and establish boundaries, and got a friend/girlfriend who went “I can fix him” and actually did. He’s still very much a Fixer with a Martyr complex, a vampire who only turned to make sure the people he was stuck with held up their end of a deal and did not expect to keep living after the deal was done…for about three hundred and fifty more years.

This is a character who was a parentified Fixer, sixteen years older than his oopsie little sibling, and did not handle it well when they were separated. He’s very obvious to everyone who knows him, especially when those people have known him for centuries, and know “yeah give that one a little kid to protect and he will predictably fall on his own stake”.

One of his love interests (he’s poly), the “I can fix him” girlfriend, is not at all afraid to call him out on his martyr bullshit, or when he’s bending over backwards trying to save people who don’t want to be saved, or risking his own sanity, health, and reputation for people who insist they don’t want his help.

I specifically designed and introduced Kymiria to look and act like a stereotypically jealous mean girl who doesn’t want to share her man with the protagonist. Except. She’s right. About everything. She knows Dorian extremely well and got him through some awful shit and isn’t about to stand by and watch him break himself again for someone who she thinks doesn’t deserve him (and she’s also right on that point). How she goes about protecting him is totally different.

But for the mortals who live with his coven, he’s the most popular vampire around and the favorite by all the children for a country mile. No one who hasn’t been living with him for decades has any idea that there’s anything traumatic behind his smiles.

—

I like writing Fixer characters because I don’t get to see enough of them. They’re not as popular as the Angsty Sad Boy and certainly not as popular as My Trauma Excuses My Aggression Boy. People who have suffered tend to fall on either end of two extremes: Either they continue the cycle of hate and abuse or they make absolutely certain no one in their life will ever suffer what they did. I like writing and reading the latter, particularly when they're men as most “fixers” we think of emphasize “womanly” traits of kindness and nurturing.

These characters are also their own worst enemies. Their inability to treat themselves as deserving of respect and forgive themselves continuously gets them into sticky situations that they wouldn’t be in if they were just a little bit more willing to put their own needs first.

—

If you're interested in reading my take on Fixers in a bona fide novel, check out Eternal Night of the Northern Sky!

[warning-heckboop]

You bring up a great point about Peri's speech in the finale being at odds with how he actually behaves around Dev! I think Peri... does care, but he cares more about what Dev represents than Dev himself, if that makes sense?

Like, he likes the idea of looking after a godkid and helping them grow as a person, but he was expecting to get assigned someone closer to Timmy's temperament, rather than a kid the actual showrunner describes as being in the rage stage of trauma processing.

Exactly

Timmy's main issues were external--Vicky, his parents being largely absent. The root of Dev's problems are similar, with his dad being neglectful (understatement of the century), but they've grown into different, internal issues. As Wanda points out in the season finale, there's no magic that can fix the fact that Dale doesn't love Dev. That's not the problem Peri is supposed to help with. He's supposed to help with the bits that are fixable, by helping Dev outgrow his dad's negative influence on his character so he can find love and companionship in others. It's not like with Timmy where Peri can help Dev with a bunch of short term wishes. It's going to require a lot more long term, gradual build up that Peri hasn't shown the patience for.

[kame-artist]

Joining the trend of RadioApple fankids. Their names translate to Star and Fawn, and their Initals are AM and FM

Faon is a very quiet well behaved kid when hes on his own, but easily gets swept up and over excited when others (Usually Astre) come up with a plan or game. He likes to join in an be included, but often oversteps boundaries or takes things too far without meaning to. His sense of humour definatly takes more after Alastor than Lucifer, and he doesnt flinch at extreme violence or gore.

Astra is the mastermind of the two. She notices when a situation happens that she can take advantage of to benefit her and her twin. Whether its to get extra dessert, or sneak out after curfew by starting the adults arguing over a misunderstanding.

Despite her age, Astre sees it as her responsibility to protect her family, parents and extended family included. She dislikes strangers and never trusts someone unless they've proven themselves to be safe. She very much looks up to Alastor's method of making everyone too scared to be a threat.

Faon is almost the exact opposite. Despite being shy with new people, he wants to believe that peple don't mean them harm unless they actually do something against the family. He trusts both their dads judgment on who is safe, and tends to stick close to them or Astra when they are out in public. He admires Lucifers cautious attitude towards sinners, but Charlies optimism that some people jsut need some help to be good people.

Astra will dress like Faon deliberatly to confuse people, using the fact they're identical to her advantage. Faon prefers to make it clear which of them is which, immediately correcting people who mistake the two of them.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

christ sometimes I just wanna. steal a time machine & go back & sit down next to my 9-year-old self and just like. let them pull out their pokemon card binder & gush about their holographic gyarados or whatever. I'd just smile & ask questions about motherfukcing bulbasaur & tell my kid self that I thought they were a neat person, & someday they'd find other people who thought so too.

like i'm a grown adult who honestly finds most kids stuff boring, but. damn if i could go back & hang out with my baby self & listen to them ramble...just so they knew someone was listening. i would in a heartbeat. thinking about u kid

[corvid-language-library]

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[creaturefeaster]

Hey Wire! Question about April,is there a cannon reason she got kicked out? Like is there family drama?

She was kicked out because she and her family have always had major disagreements with each other. It was a very "18 and out" kind of situation for her, but the final straw for her parents kicking her out was her slapping her mother during a very heated argument.

She stayed with Tanner for a short period of time after that, before they both moved down to Lystrike together with Leon.

[ghostzzy]

idk since i made that post earlier i've just been thinking about all the ways adults were weird and shitty to me because i was gender-nonconforming as a kid. because i MIGHT grow up to be a lesbian or, worse, transgender. and how much it sucked to figure out my identity under those conditions -- where every adult i'd ever met had already figured out What I Was and hated me for it, and i had no idea. idk it's just sad. i'm sorry baby izzy went through that.

[inbarfink]

If I may ask do you feel Gaz being warmer to Dib in Florpus was natural development or too ooc? It felt kind of jarring to me at first glance.

It's funny, I actually have a Very Long Post buried very deep in my Drafts that takes a very deep look at the Membrane Sibling Dynamic and their interactions - focusing on the actual main show itself, but also keeping the existence of ETF in mind. And while I am not just gonna dump it here (it still needs to be polished a bit), my main conclusions are

There were a few Shifts in the way Gaz and her relationship with Dib was written within the show itself.

Her behavior in 'Enter the Florpus' is actually perfectly in line with most of her actions in the show. Especially when you consider ETF was really a perfect storm of Special Circumstances we haven't really put Gaz in the actual show - a situation where she has to see Zim as a genuine threat, where she is genuinely as emotionally invested as Dib is in the Stakes, a situation where she has to see her brother be Actually Emotionally Vulnerable and admitting his own faults to her face.

And even the few episodes where it doesn't work quite as smoothly is more like... the general Shifts in characterizations when we're dealing with serial media written by a collective of people. Like I mentioned above.

And especially when you consider my personal reading of Gaz's character as just... a very messed-up kid who has a lot of Genuine Frustrations she is channeling out in some really Bad Ways. It's not an Absolute Objective Fact but her Big Emotional Moment in ETF to me reads less as her explaining to Dib something she always knew she felt and more like her figuring out herself that she has limits to how much she wants to watch Dib suffer.

Really the thing that bothers me more in terms of OOC-ness in ETF is not Gaz, but Professor Membrane -

[angelstrawbabie420]

felt

[caitlynmeow]

Alcina has a hard time saying ‘no’ to her daughters. Most of the time.

It isn’t a secret that the noblewoman is a very loving and affectionate mother who spoils the fuck out of her daughters. Although, when the time comes and she needs to be more firm than usual, her word is obsolete.

The daughters are used to getting what they want and when they want, there is no doubt about that. When it comes to many things, Alcina is often very indulging.

An example is when the daughters graduated from high school. At around the age of 18 they are eager to get their driving license and pick any car they want. Being filthy rich, Alcina had no limitation when each one of her daughters picked the car that she wanted, even those were custom made to adhere to the daughters’ wishes.

But that isn’t saying that the girls have free reign to do whatever they want without any consequences. Alcina is fair, or so she likes to think. While she gives her girls a lot of leeway, she also has established with them from early on their lives what is right and what is wrong.

While lenient most of the time, Alcina is strict when it comes to breaking rules.

It is simple, it only takes a daughter to cross the line that provoke her mother’s wrath. Alcina is aware that her anger can get the better of her most of the time, that’s why she tries to keep herself away until she can handle the situation. A seething “go to your room” is enough to send the offending daughter to her room without much questioning.

It takes a while, and a few glasses of wine for the woman to calm down enough to handle her misbehaving daughter. When she decided that the daughter in question has been stewing for long enough, Alcina heads to her room and they have a long talk.

The mother talks for the most part, but at the end, she allows her daughter to explain her side, even though it wouldn’t matter at the end. Alcina believes in natural consequences for actions. For example, when Cassandra almost got arrested for racing illegally in some roads, Alcina revoked her driving privileges for six months. During that time, she could only ride with Bela or have the driver take her to wherever she needed.

When things normally get to that point, the offender knows that there is no walking out of such a punishment as soon as mama makes her decision.

Luckily, all three daughters are smart enough not to provoke their mother like that. Although, two daughters (cough CassandraandDaniela cough) tend to think they can outsmart their mother or keep things from her without getting caught.

[medicinemane]

.

[hetchdrive]

Anyway. If I could tell my younger self something it would be that she was right to be angry. She should have been angrier, actually.

[hecksupremechips]

Posts about bpd need to stop being so damn relatable to me 🤨

[fly-sky-high-09]

Tears of the Kingdom day more like tears I'll cry if something is actually wrong with Teo when we visit the vet tomorrow

[rosesradio]

day 2 of what i call the redneck convention aka a family function