#《 I can't help but think Theo allowed Dedrick to have some semblance of hope for humanity 》

[magichcuse]

It kinda just hit me that Dedrick's mentality is technically more optimistic than Victoria's?

Like...at least in Dedrick's dichotomy, there are the "idiots" who ARE genuinely nice. To Victoria, there are the men who pretend to be nice but are actually assholes (which she assumed Ozzie was) and the men who are at least upfront about the fact they're assholes (part of why Victoria wanted to marry Damion, outside of punishing herself).

Once Victoria learned that there are genuinely good people out there, it really opened her eyes to how better her life could truly be. Damion isn't a better person for being "honest" about being an asshole; he's still an asshole and Victoria needed to have better standards.

#{behind the magic} | ooc #《 not that I blame Victoria—her dad is a huge prick who sheltered her a lot 》 #《 it's just sad to think about how bleak her worldview is 》 #《 Dedrick believed kindness was stupid; Victoria believed kindness didn't exist AT ALL 》 #《 not a competition either; Dedrick has trauma of his own that is Valid and needs to be unpacked 》 #《 and it helps that Dedrick got to grow up in a different generation where people were less rigid with the rules 》 #《 I can't help but think Theo allowed Dedrick to have some semblance of hope for humanity 》 #《 like Theo gave him Trust Issues but he also went against Damion and genuinely is trying to do what's best 》 #《 the thought of Damion raising Dedrick is terrifying to me 》 #《 Theo might think he's a terrible dad for not being emotionally available for Dedrick 》 #《 but he honestly did fairly good for himself; especially given his paternal figure was a living nightmare who did WORSE than his folks 》 #《 and *gestures at Pat who messed up Vivian by going too far in the other direction* 》 #《 i know I bring up Pat a lot but I think it's funny (and lowkey sad) how Theo thinks Pat is a much better dad than him 》 #《 when that's not really the case at all 》 #《 I'm starting to go off topic and repeating things I already mentioned in other posts whoops 》