i’ve had Donatella Aquato on the brain lately, lads.
a big issue i (and a lot of others) have with Donatella is how passive aggressive and guilt-trippy she is towards Raz. And how it’s just kind of... played off? which is fucked up
so here are some hcs/concepts for some Donatella lore/character development for your consideration
(contains spoilers for the whole Psychonauts franchise)
aight so first things first: i want Hollis and Donatella to reconcile. I picture them going to the bowling alley and having some drinks and just kind of bickering the first time but as time goes on they just start vibing and going out for drinks more often (sometimes Milla will join too!)
they’re all friends your honor. its not a picture-perfect friendship; they don’t always agree and at times things can get a bit heated and they argue but they balance each other out.
Hollis enjoys the occasional Aquato-brand whimsy and acknowledges Dona’s skill as an acrobat/athlete while Dona really admires Hollis’ more grounded demeanor and her leadership skills. she’s also grateful that this person who she sees as level-headed and a good leader is one of the people who’s looking out for Raz and helping him in areas (i.e. irt psychic stuff) that she herself cannot
i think a little while post-psychonauts 2 Hollis approaches Donatella with an offer of being a pseudo-instructor for physical education for the junior agents (and maybe the senior agents too-- the ones that aren’t too stuck up/prideful, that is)
and Donatella’s like “well don’t expect me to give away any family secrets but i can help you stretch these children; i’ve done it like 5 times already i’m basically an expert”
P.E. instructor Donatella arc is basically what i’m getting at here like think of the potential for goofs. think of the junior agents thinking they’re hot shit only to get dunked on by a gaggle of gangly acrobats who’re like “god you can’t just do a backflip? it’s so easy what the hell”
as for how her treatment of Raz gets addressed:
it doesn’t happen immediately; it takes a lot of conversations with Hollis and Milla for her to start thinking “hm. maybe the things i’ve said to my 10 year old son about how he ‘betrayed’ us after he fuckin ran away bc he was unhappy and thought we’d hate him if he flat out told us he was psychic are not that great actually”
i think a pivotal moment would be Hollis opening up a little (and I mean a little itsy-bitsy teeny-weenie little bit) about her strained relationship with her family for Donatella to start to have that ‘oh no. what have i done’ moment that Augustus has during the first game
that line from the maternity ward in Hollis’ mind; the one from the parents that are like “when will (this baby) achieve our unfulfilled ambitions?” really sticks out to me. i think Hollis and Dona being able to relate to that in the sense that their parents wanted to live vicariously through their children and their children’s achievements would be real cool
i like to imagine that Donatella was a gymnast before she met Augustus. her mother was one of those moms that push their kids really hard in sports/pageants/etc so they can swoop in and share in the glory without really doing anything
so Dona had to put up with having that type of mom her whole life. her mother was very strict and controlling in all aspects of her life-- she wasn’t allowed to wear make-up, she couldn’t eat certain things-- it was uber fucked up and she hated it, but she also put up with it because it’s her mother
until she gets injured and sidelined during training for a competition. Dona’s mom rips into her for getting hurt (which is awful bc she was more pissed that Dona couldn’t compete than she was concerned bc her daughter got injured) and they get into a massive fight that ends up with Dona leaving the house despite her injuries bc she’s just so pissed
the Aquato family circus also happened to be in town so heh... u know.... funny how these things work out huh
When Dona meets Augustus they don’t go from strangers to madly-in-love like instantly. in morrpeko’s house we don’t do ‘love-at-first-sight’ tropes; we need history. we need to fan the embers before they burst into flames my friends
so over the course of a season (spring-summer probably) they become friends. they bond over... gymnastics and acrobatics and stuff. everything’s going great until the Aquato’s are getting ready to leave
both Dona and Augustus are kind of devastated bc they were best friends by this point!! they don’t want to say goodbye, but they’re young and have no other choice.
so they part ways and it’s real sad
.......until next spring/summer when the circus comes back into town!!!
and they’re so happy to see each other again! they make up for lost time and hang out all the time! and Augustus is thrilled bc he thought she would’ve forgotten about him by now and Dona missed Augustus bc they were partners in crime, and she like the circus and all the performers there! everyone was nice and they just seemed to be good to each other like a big family and Dona’s like “god i wish that were me”
cut to the Aquatos leaving for the second time; Augustus and all the other performers and Nona promising to be back next spring/summer
and Dona finds herself wishing she could go with them, but she doesn’t. and she has to spend the next half a year tolerating her overbearing mother and her stupid rules and how she would take credit for everything her daughter did like she wasn’t even there.
those months alone made Donatella realize how unhappy she was. and her coming to the realization that she doesn’t want to keep being miserable and she might want to be an acrobat. so she makes the mistake of telling her mother
and her mother is livid. she shuts her down and guilt-trips and manipulates the shit out of her, and by this point Dona knows that her mother doesn’t care about her being happy, she just cares about what she achieves and flaunts her like a trophy
so she makes a decision. a decision that frightens and excites her in equal measure, and she just gets more resolute as spring/summer approaches
and the next time the Aquatos leave, she’s going with them, damn it! she’s taking charge of her own happiness. and even though it hurt back then, and it still hurts now, now that Dona is a lot older and has a family of her own, she doesn’t regret it
but when she realizes that Raz might’ve felt as awful as she did when she chose to leave? that he made the decision to run away because he was miserable and unhappy? that Dona might’ve unconsciously been saying the same kind of shit that her mother said to her? she’s devastated
she’s mad at herself and she just wants to undo all the awful things she’s ever said but she can’t. because you can’t change the past and you can’t just magically fix everything. so once she gets her shit together she starts pulling her kids aside and apologizing. promising to do better by them and vowing to not lie or hide things anymore
and that’s all i got cause this entire thing has been a big stream of consciousness
that feeling when youre trying to sleep after speedrunning several lifetimes of trauma in 3 days and your peepaw is trying to confess his war crimes to you at 10:38PM
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