#emmet tends towards freeze while ingo is either please or flight

[egginfroggin]

I remember in the seventh chapter of WTST, that Emmet didn't have his voice, like "when they were young and scared of the world", so a thought struck my tortured mind.

What is your headcanon about the twins' childhood ?

Honestly, probably not as tortuous as that line might have made it sound.

Specifics are vague, but essentially, my general HC for the twins' childhood is that their parents died when they were kids. That sudden loss made them cling all the more tightly to each other, and made them terrified of getting separated -- be it temporarily or permanently. They had a bit of a severe case of separation anxiety going on for a while.

"Scared of the world," indicates that hard line in the sand, or crack in concrete, between "safe" and "unsafe." Each other? Safe. Their uncle Drayden who adopted them? Scary at first, but after a while, safe.

Everything else? Dangerous. Scary. Unsafe. Very, verrrrry unsafe. Do not touch, do not interact, do not let go -- the unfamiliar is bad, the distant is bad, and the familiar is safe but also scary because it isn't permanent.

That is my general HC for the twins' childhood.

The most specific one that I have for a different fic is that the four of them were taking a plane trip, the plane crashed, and their parents died from their injuries while holding the twins to keep them safe from debris and fire.

The boys were physically fine, aside from a few minor scrapes, but developed a severe phobia of planes and heights.

There wasn't any abuse in either of these HCs -- as a matter of fact, I like to imagine their parents as very, very good! But that shining aspect of them made the loss that much more frightening, because the twins hadn't experienced such a thing before.

As for the muteness -- Emmet never spoke much as a child, and tended to clam up when pressured or distressed. Processing the sudden loss of his and Ingo's parents took a lot to work through, and his already-scarce voice just disappeared until he healed enough emotionally.

Thank you very much for the ask, Anon! Hopefully this is a satisfactory answer to your question, though it's not the most specific.

Thank you, and I hope you have a very good day. <3

#thank you! #submas #subway boss emmet #subway boss ingo #eggin's writings #asks #anon ask #the general HC is mean but not as mean as I could be #the plane variant is about as mean as I'm willing to be #and honestly the only reason that I discern the two is because my general HCs for basically everything are vague #and I essentially just write what the fic requires as far as backstory goes #just about the only permanent thing in it is that they're orphans and drayden is their uncle who adopts them #that's. that's basically the only permanent fixture #and even that is removed for one of my fics #emmet gets quiet when he's upset while ingo gets loud #almost a freeze response but not quite #he might freeze for a bit but then he is extremely active #I think that I tend to imagine the twins' responses to distress and trauma to be #emmet tends towards freeze while ingo is either please or flight #maybe #possibly #again my HCs are very quixotic and tend to shift around #they wriggle like worms my thoughts do #*looks at the twins* *looks at Sabi in I told you so* where did all this childhood trauma come from