#tried 2 keep tris short 'cause i've already talked a lot about The Greer Situation

[albatris]

You've been visited by the random OC question fairy! :D ~☆

Does your character have a good relationship with their parents? Are there any parental figures that aren't related to them in their life?

hello!! thank you so much for the ask!! :D hope ur having a cool day B)

ATDAO crew! under cut ‘cause I got rambly again

I have been in a rambling mood for so long and this opened the floodgates apparently

Tris has.... a pretty terrible relationship with his parents, but hasn't quite come to grips with the fact that it's As Terrible As It Is just yet 'cause of many reasons. but yeah. as a general rule, his 'rents are more concerned with creating a picture perfect family that's doing better than everyone else more than they're concerned with any of their kids' actual wellbeing. there's loads of academic and social pressure, the environment is hostile and nit-picky and controlling, love is completely conditional, etc etc etc. it was a pretty horrible and stifling place to grow up, particularly for someone with chronic anxiety and psychosis

all three of the Greer sibs end completely cutting ties with their parents down the track which is extremely good and valid of them

I think he did have various other parental figures growing up though! when he was really little there was his neighbour Mrs Harris who was about the only warm and kind adult figure in his life aside from his older brother, and then later there were were several teachers throughout his school career he viewed as kinda parental figures or role models c:

also he keeps getting forcibly adopted by other characters' parents lmao

Noa has a good relationship with her mum! they're super close! they're both very similar people, both with very loud, over-the-top personalities, so they clash a lot, and from an outside perspective you might think they hate each other?? because they're always yelling and arguing?? but they're just Caring Loudly. Noa’s favourite person in the universe is her mum, Noa thinks she’s the coolest person she knows (and she’s right tbh)

she's not in contact with her dad at all 'cause he's a piece of garbage and her mum ditched him and moved far far far away when Noa was really tiny. in the process, her mum lost contact with a lot of her support system either due to distance or disapproval, so Noa didn’t really grow up around a lot of relatives or adult figures (there are still some she and her mum are in contact with! they just don’t see each other in person very often). n Noa is uhhh naturally distrusting and standoffish with most people, so she’s fairly unwilling to get close enough to anyone that MIGHT end up being a non-blood-related parental figure

like, she's been let down by a lot of adults, she wants nothing to do with 'em quite frankly

I wanna say there's a few 'mum friend' type older friends she knows from her time in group therapy, but I'd think she view them more as older sisters than anything

Shara is the easiest answer because she just has a good relationship with her parents all round?? like. just genuinely not much to report here. she didn’t really have many friends growing up due to social anxiety and being a Weird Little Girl so I think for most of her childhood she’s just considered her parents her best friends, despite their efforts to, like.... nudge her in the direction of potential friends her own age. I think she probably grew up a little over-protected but that’s not really a bad thing, it’s a scary world out there y’know

her family is full of chaotic oddballs with odd passions n Shara is no exception. I think they often have trouble keeping up with each other, but try to be interested in each other's passions anyway even if they don't really understand what's going on. so ye, her parents try real hard to keep up with their daughter and ask the right questions and help her out with her weird little projects but don't always hit the mark

which is fine!

I would describe their love for each other in general as clumsy and awkward but extremely earnest

her parents travel a lot due to their work and sometimes their work drags them in different places, and Shara often travels with her dad and as such she’s a little closer to him than she is to her mum, but they’re all still pretty tight-knit

I’m still figuring out the details in Shara’s familial relationships n while I’m pretty sure she had some non-related parental figures I have not yet figured out what they are and brain too fried to come up with something now hahahaha

Kai is an interesting one 'cause Kai definitely HAD a good relationship with their parents. they come from a very open and warm and caring albeit completely chaotic household, n they and their siblings all grew up immensely loved and told just to try hard and have fun and be their best selves. Kai's openness and willingness to treat everyone as a friend comes from their parents, as does much of their empathy and way of understanding the world c:

I think they had plenty of non-related parental figures growing up, but they have a lot of trouble remembering which of their parental figures they’re related to and which they aren’t lmao. I think they were the type of family where there were like fifty family friends that are referred to as aunts and uncles and cousins even though there’s zero blood relation :P

but yes anyway the thing with Kai issss they did get trapped in a time loop for seven years and got declared legally dead, so their family has been struggling to cope with the grief of their loss for......... a long time. and a lot of Kai's story revolves around their struggles with how to come back into their family's lives after so long, whether it's selfish to shake things up again after their family spent so long trying to move on, whether they still have a place there, and the idea of like..... so much can change in seven years where no time at all has passed for Kai

it was a pretty devastating blow to the rest of the Lancasters when Kai supposedly died, they were all pretty ruined and their mum had a stress-induced psychotic break. things are still pretty rough and Kai coming back into their lives is................. a readjustment for everyone, and there's a level of distance between Kai and their parents as they figure out how to fit back together again

it's not a BAD relationship, it's definitely still a deeply loving one, but it IS strained and messy and confused

and that’s....................... all that. sorry for rambles lmao whoops