#and then just fuck off to go effectively be alone together for 20 years; amassing and perfecting a bunch of random skills

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

trying to lay out my interpretation of why brad and judy are simultaneously awful and really goddamn sad, beyond just having lost their baby under traumatic circumstances as already-traumatized autistic young adults with zero support system left but each other, is wild because it includes in full seriousness the word 'sheepnado'

#sdmi #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #brad chiles #judy reeves #tl;dr they are Like That in large part because pericles fucked them up in a very particular way #that made them dependent on him to give them cues for what to do and validation for the results #and when they suddenly had that ripped away they dealt with it by just making a closed loop where they follow each other in circles #in order to make one semi-functioning adult with a semi-functioning ability to actually choose to set out and do things #nothing else really *matters* to them outside of that fragile closed loop (and christ it is fragile); they set up a steady source of income #and then just fuck off to go effectively be alone together for 20 years; amassing and perfecting a bunch of random skills #because they are both very intelligent in some ways and Need to Stay Occupied; but what else are we gonna do #just aimlessly follow each other in circles and there's no room to actually choose a direction from there #and if anything breaks the closed loop; or doesn't fit into a hesitantly expanded version of it they had in mind #they freak out and they lash out at it even when they're pretending to be cheerful and unaffected #and the only real reason they *did* have to act on caring about something outside that feedback loop before--fred #ended up *being 'sit on your hands and do nothing for 20 years'*; when they are border collies climbing the walls without things to pursue #then suddenly that's gone and they can go care about fred again! except Oops now there is a force influencing them whose entire thing is #'induce artificial craving for Thing.' they try to love fred but they also resent him for being why they spent 20 years with nothing to Do #especially when things are Different now and he's his own person who doesn't really mesh into a closed loop with them; instead of the baby #they could have imagined whatever they wanted about all that time. they are desperately exhausted with caring about fred #and deeply traumatized by having done it; & at this point when a ball is waved in front of them to go fetch that they aren't burned out on #they go 'fuck it sorry kid you come second this time.' and then he *very purposely* cuts ties w/them & therefore any possibility of a loop #and they stop caring completely and lash out instead; especially because the person who fucked them up like this in the first place #has waltzed back into their life and snapped his fingers for them to heel. now they're great tools for his agenda including abusing ricky #'he's a genius right brad' 'my loyal brad and judy' siding w/pericles despite ricky having been a more reliable choice who explicitly treat #them as equals and doesn't constantly insult them and talk to them like pets. and then when something as small as Looking Different breaks #that one last most supposedly dependable loop they had they break down and start lashing out at each other. they 'behave like children.' #there's so much here man. they suck so goddamn bad and they fuck me up. thinking about the oldgang for the rest of my life

[maydaymadier]

oh hey, it’s the Twenty upbringing post

head’s up for: Shitty Parents but not the shittiest, okay enough that were you in that situation you would feel conflicted about calling it abusive.  Some fleeting mentions of casual homophobia.

So, where do we start?  It starts with a low-to-mid level elven noblewoman, Alexandra Bellisario, gaining an alliance with a powerful air elemental, Telis.  Alexandra knows that influence can be far more effective than outright rank and Telis is quite frankly just amused by this elf who's making pacts with anyone interested and sticks around to see where this going. Heirs is where this is going. Sure they've amassed a good deal of influence by now but there isn't anyone to keep up the legacy of the name. So they decide it's about time they have a child, someone magically powerful that they can train to be a diplomat. Basically, a walking billboard to show all of the other politically important nobility their power and influence.

But how do you guarantee a magically powerful child? 

 Well, Telis is an elemental so any resulting child will likely be a genasi, so at least a little inborn magic not much but a good starting point. Warlock pacts are gauche in their circles. Wizardry is a promising option but they can't guarantee that he's going to be the studious sort. Clerics and paladins are beholdened to greater moral codes that could get in the way. Bards are unpredictable and unprofessional. That leaves sorcerer. But how to ensure a sorcerer's level of inborn magic?  Get a witch to curse your firstborn obviously.  So Alexandra and Telis go set out to find a witch to piss off.  What ‘going well’ means in this context is a bit wonky but we’ll say it went well.

Nine months later we have a cursed but otherwise healthy baby air genasi boy.  Sure the air around him crackles with potential and wild magic but they got what they wanted.

Telis returns to the Elemental Plane of Air, Alexandra to her court with the infant in tow.  The two are certainly more allies than romantic partners but they stay in direct collaboration.  Alexandra does most of the child-rearing (she’s a noblewoman, she can afford nursemaids and stuff) out of the two of them in the early years.  Telis visits regularly but they’d agreed that their child would primarily live in the Prime Material Plane.  Once Twenty is of schooling age, Alexandra takes charge of his education, personally teaching him the politics/diplomacy angle of their grand plan, and the plots.  Part of the influence comes from the ability to manipulate without being obvious or seeming malicious.  If Twenty is going to be The Real Power in any given rule they need to start training him early.  The first ‘con’ they ever taught him he was about 12 and it was a simple thing barely counting as a con, to separate out anyone too gullible to not be worth his time (the kind that would only drag him down with them), insist upon meeting someone you plan to get in with “Give me 20 gold and I’ll tell you my name.”  Now during the summers, Alexandra sent her son off to the Elemental Plane of Air to visit his father, where he would train him in magic.  Though as he got older it was also a good chance for him to apply his mother’s lessons by following at his father’s heels during his machinations.  Twenty was a regular face on Telis’s estate and upon finishing his schooling worked there for a brief time before setting off on his own. 

Twenty is at his parent’s beck and call.  He reports back to them monthly, it is expected of him that he will keep them posted on his activities and movements.  Everything he does is in the Bellisario name.  He travels, from kingdom to kingdom, to kingdom, to kingdom, living the life of a diplomat eagerly giving counsel.  After a time he gets tired of the whole twenty gold spiel and starts telling people his name is Twenty.  He likes the ring of it, it suits him, it puts a step between himself and his family.  

He has one and only goal and that’s simply to leave a good and more importantly powerful impression upon the people he works for.  He doesn’t really have any other concerns.  And he actually grows to enjoy having so much influence over people.  It doesn’t matter that he has no friends, no real connections, travelling alone from place.  He has the know-how to get whatever he wants so why would he need anything else.

Twenty was not treated like a child, he was an adult-in-training.  Twenty didn’t grow up with friends for the most part, not in the Prime Material anyway.  He probably didn’t make any friends until he started following at his father’s heels on his estate, where he met another air genasi boy named Zephyros, they frequently had to work on things together and became friends over time due to proximity.  Zephyr was there with his uncle (his elemental relative) and vocally complained about him.  Twenty could never fathom how he could talk so flippantly about hating the man who was essentially his father.

Having only ever had the one friend his whole life, he doesn’t know what to do when he suddenly has six.  He’s only further confused by the protectiveness he feels for one of the bards, the first of the bunch he met, Kimiko, a young dark purple/black tiefling woman.  And it doesn’t take long for him to start lying and claiming that he’s her father, just to get some pushy npcs off her back.  He cares for her, and wants to see her happy and protect her in a way he doesn’t associate with his own father.  And then she starts calling him “dad” and it’s an absolutely lost cause.  This isn’t the way his father ever treated him.  He was a pawn on the estate, thinking of Kimiko as a pawn makes him want to gag.  

Grax, the lizardfolk shadow monk he prefers to room with, is also confusing to his worldview.  He goes around with a baby-doll-turned-into-an-actual-baby named Luna strapped to his chest.  That happened before he met the group but apparently the doll was supposed to be a ‘practice’ baby so he could prepare to be a good father.  While he certainly doesn’t think that everywhere they go is an appropriate place to bring Luna he’s more confused and surprised that Grax is such a dedicated father to his surprise doll-child.  And takes great insult to any implication that he’s doing a bad job, but in the way where he wants to know what he’s doing wrong.  Grax is protective of Luna in a similar way to how he’s protective of Kimiko.  But neither of these feelings are close to how Telis treated him.  And now is not the time to linger on it.

People usually listen to him, he is adept in the art of persuasion, he has no trouble getting people to do what he wants.  So when suddenly someone is too dense to get the hint, doesn’t understand subtle manipulation, it sticks out in his mind.  It sticks out even more when the person turns out to be a good sport and is willing to play along with helping him with Kimiko.  And it helps that Thirty is easy on the eyes.  It’s not long before he cares about Thirty’s opinion in a way he normally doesn’t.  People’s opinions should only matter to him as far as they can gain him power/leverage, that’s what he was taught.  Maybe he shouldn’t be pursuing this.  But his friends have picked up on his interest, and no force can stop them from matchmaking.  

Though by this point, he doesn’t care anymore if pursuing this greatly reduces the likelihood of him producing an heir.  There are still ways for him to do so.  He hasn’t reported back to his family in months.  It’s not a big deal.  He can do what he wants.  And he wants this.  No one’s pestering him for reports and asking for his whereabouts so it’s probably fine.  Maybe the Bellisarios have lost interest in him for the time being.  No one has asked after him in so long, it should be fine.  He doesn’t have to worry about it.  Until he does.

He does and suddenly he’s forced with the prospect of potentially losing this new life that he’s cultivated, the new person he’s become.  Oh, he’s, he’s become someone else.  He’s not the perfect son his parents sent him out into the world as.  He failed.  He’s not the person he was or was supposed to be.  Gods he’s a fucking failure now...  He’s an only child, this is all his fault, he’s wasted all of his parents’ teaching, hasn’t he?  All he had to do was obey, listen to their simple instructions and he would be just fine.  This is his fucking fault.  He ruined it.  He ruined it.  He ruined it.

It doesn’t occur to him that most people don’t feel this way about coming home and seeing their parents.  And most adult children probably aren’t or shouldn’t be this fearful of their parents.  But the truth is he knows he’s failed and is terrified of how they’ll react.  He just knows that he’s never going to know peace about it.  They won’t yell at him.  But they’ll look at him with disdain and vague sadness.  And he’ll know that he’s a failure.  No one has ever raised a hand against him but they don’t need to when cleverly worded disappointment is so much more effective.  And they dismiss it out of hand when he calls himself “Twenty.”  It is at best a phase that Telis finds amusing.  At worst, Alexandra takes it as a direct insult since he’s named after her.  It’s not until he finally has his breakdown and starts to explain to Thirty what his relationship with his parents are like, that he learns that’s not healthy.  He still hasn’t managed to tell him everything, about the whole “adult-in-training” thing and how he was raised to be “perfect” and how that was all fine until he suddenly wasn’t anymore.  (Or how Telis made a glib comment about how it was a shame/unfortunate that Twenty ended up with a man, that they’d been expecting an heir from him.  And when Twenty tried to defend himself Telis scolded him for being disrespectful and put the pressure on him by reminding him that he’s their only child and continuing the family name depends on him, that he’s lucky to have been born ‘elves don’t pump out children like humans do.’)

Twenty, now middle-aged, was an adult-in-training, born not for his own sake, and he is only now learning how to be.

#my post #tal plays dnd #twenty #long post #readmore #LORE