We know that Macan probably silently judged Cal a ton as kids but never said anything. Were there things Cal judged Maven for as well?
The number one most common was that Cal thought Maven was far too critical. Both are realists, because that's how they were raised, but Cal's approach to everything was to approach it with the hopes of improvement. Maven as a teen would see it how it was. Not what it could be.
Especially in the times when Cal was overwhelmingly stressed about something (more often than not dealings in the war or political decision making, or any sort of standard he was being held to) he found Mavens negativity to be inches away from him boiling over. In his mind Maven could have easily been helpful by offering hope (like he was used to with Julian) but instead just made his anxiety worse.
There were also times where Cal saw that Maven was being hard on himself in training. If his classmates were doing better than him Maven got very grumpy. And Cal tried to be supportive about it, never telling Maven how annoying it actually was to see him never be satisfied with his results. Even if Maven came on top of something he still seemed frustrated about something that he didn't do perfectly.
mare obviously has a very stressful life but we dont get told much of her hobbies to let her wind down after being busy surviving all day. What do you think her hobbies would be?
Ways that Mare calms down so she doesn't go on another murder spree:
- She can frequently be found at local businesses getting food, coffee, etc.
- Low intensity workouts (she saves high intensity for training but she likes those wayyyyy less)
- Cal got her into boxing
- Thrifting (not much but when she does need new clothes or shoes or decor she will always go to a thrift store before trying other places)
- Casual reader (averages at a few weeks to a few months to read a book)
- I headcanon that she plays Animal Crossing. (I. DONT. CARE. BECAUSE. IT'S. TRUE.)
- Beating up Kilorn
- Spending time with fellow Barrows/Kilorn/Farley
- Making recipes she finds on Pinterest that she will hardly ever try again
- When she has pets she would enjoy spending time with them or keeping up with taking care of them (taking her dog for a walk, cleaning out chinchilla cages with her headphones on and her current favorite song playing)
- She had a free day once and swore to use it for relaxing but ended up spending over half of it ranting back and forth on text with Evangeline
- One thing for a "perfect night" in her mind is a cozy firepit
- She also likes going out in the evenings and doing something more grounding while the sun sets
If Cal and Maven had the choice to keep their powers or have their mother's instead, would they take it?
Cal would not because he has spent so much time training his fire manipulation and he does not want to start over completely in learning something new from scratch. They start training in childhood, so I feel like he would not want to lose that many years of experience.
Plus, Julian always talked about how he never uses his singer abilities because he finds it easy to cross his morality. With Cal hearing that from his uncle so often, I doubt he would necessarily want it.
Maven would have Elaras abilities in a heartbeat. Well, okay, he would think about the logistics of it for a moment, so maybe in two heartbeats. He would use it to get his way, yes, but he would be more careful with it than Elara was, and not as cruel as her. Based on his own experience with being manipulated by the same abilities, he would have strict lines not to cross as to not trigger his own trauma
Did Mare's siblings accept Kilorn as much as the fandom makes it out? I remember them making fun of him more than showing him support. At least on the brothers side?
I always make my asks way longer than they should be. But I'm not sorry. I love the Barrows and I love Kilorn and I will yap about them all day.
So to answer your ask (long story short)... yes. They do absolutely accept him. What sibling doesn't have a poking fun relationship with their brother or sister?
For more detailed version ⬇️
Mare, Gisa, Ruth, and Daniel jumped further into the opportunity when Kilorn initially showed up on their porch. Ruth and Daniel are always good to children they come across. They saw a poor boy struggling, and gave him their dinner. He and Mare hit it off instantly. I'm not sure how old Gisa was when he came into the picture... I know that she was most likely young enough that she was the first one to really accept him as a true member of the household.
She didn't have the process of accepting him into the house like the others did because that's always been her normal. He belongs with the Barrows.
I will stand on the hill that Ruth and Daniel do actually count him as one of their children. He has dinner with them every night, sometimes sleeps at their house, would spend holidays with them (even before his mother left he would go over for half the day), and they would hold him to the same value as any of their other children.
Mare genuinely sees him as a fourth brother.
For the boys...they were older, so it took a while longer to actually see him as a part of the family without blood. They didn't get annoyed by him necessarily... especially because he was able to keep Mare entertained and I don't think she was the most happy child. They liked him in that aspect. But to them it was more of a daily playdate sort of thing rather than gaining a new brother.
That being said, Bree and Tramy are always the first to tease people. Even strangers they see struggling with something, they will give a light and friendly jab at them while going to help. That is very much their way of loving. Poking fun at Kilorn came easy. I also headcanon that Tramy had a hard time saying Kilorns name as a child so that's why they call him "The Warren Boy" (example in RQ when Mare visits her family in the stilts with Cal, and we meet Bree and Tramy for the first time, and Bree gives Cal a look saying "I liked the Warren Boy better")
They love him in their own way. And they respect him more than they would ever admit. They respect how much he's gone through, and how strong he carries himself, and how he treats their family, especially Mare and Gisa, and they respect how often he was the one to get the family food if he was able to snag a few fish for them. And they are proud of the man he's become now.
Shade... I know that the three of them (Shade, Kilorn, Mare) hung out a lot as a juvenile trio simply because they were both of Mares best friends. Shade put more priority on his education than Mare and Kilorn so if he wasn't doing homework or hanging out with his own friend group, he was with them. I think he was friends with Kilorn.
Interestingly enough, even though he spent more time with him than Bree or Tramy, I feel like they didn't get very close until they were grown and working together in GS. Growing up they knew how to make each other laugh and considered each other friends, but their relationship grew a lot after Shade was able to escape his life of a soldier.
As far as they are all concerned...he is a Barrow. Has been ever since they took him off their porch. Even if they didn't realize it immediately. And I do believe that Kilorn thinks the same. He genuinely sees the Barrows as his family. Kilorn is open to strangers about being an orphan if they ask. But he would always say: "My biological parents are long gone. But the Barrows were more of a family than my parents were, anyway."
He definitely gets his own stocking at Christmas. And Clara calls him her uncle. Ruth and Daniel will say that they have six children as if they had officially adopted him. Kilorn left his mark on the Barrows just as much as they did for him.
Do you think Cal or Mare have ever smoked or done drugs
Done drugs is an absolute no because Mare is scared of losing control like that, especially after if she grew up seeing maybe some drug abuse in the stilts. She stays far away from that just because of some things she's seen in the streets.
Cal is a no because he sees no benefit in it. And with how many health classes I know that man took I can't imagine him being at all curious after learning about their harmful effects. Actually, I see it as a strong possibility that one of his main goals in being king was to have more anti-drug laws and regulations since I know laws like that could have been easily overlooked with the war and "red quantity over quality" system.
I headcanon that another aspiration of his was to improve family situations and childcare, child safety, and family planning in red areas since he noticed how little help they had with that. Maybe a system for saving children from drug abusing homes could be a part of it?
Smoking is a tougher one. I can't see a universe in which either of them are avid smokers or would go out of their way to smoke on any occasion. But would they have tried it before? I think Mare has and didn't like it. I think Cal is too cautious about his health. He already does dangerous stunts on his motorcycle and gets thrown off waterfalls. And lives with Mare. He can't risk any more possible harm to his body 😓
Also we know that his grandfather died of cancer. I don't believe it was specified what kind of cancer, but I know that no one in his family is messing around with that after his diagnosis. They are on TOP of their doctors appointments. Except maybe Tibe with his alcoholism, and he stopped caring like that....but everyone else with Calore blood takes extra care to keep up with their health.
I don't think Maven would describe himself as "funny", but more of "sharp" or "quick witted"
He honestly would get so proud of himself whenever he uses his quick tongue to insult someone, though. I just know he gets a little shimmer of happiness inside during the times he can make something click like that, and make everyone in the room gasp. He doesn't show on the outside how much rainbow sparkle energy he gets from it.
Maven in his head whenever he has a good comeback:
Mare and Cal - Yet again, one was hiding something from the other
Maven and Iris - They can't remember because there have been so many
Eve and Elane - Family drama creeping its way in. They felt like they had to pick sides
Farley and Shade - they had opposing views on how something should be run, and it started out as a debate until it just kept snowballing into every aspect of their lives
Cameron and Kilorn - Kilorn was being "too clingy" so Cameron went out on a walk to get some alone time... But then his dog ran away and they couldn't find him anywhere. Cameron was actually getting scared for the first time ever of Kilorn being angry because of how upset he was
Cori and Tibe - About Cal's future, and that whole promise they made to the high houses that Cal would marry into them no matter what
Julian and Sara - It was just after Cori had been killed, and Sara wanted to flee the country, but Julian wouldn't leave Cal. She said that Cal would be safer away from Elara. He said that they wouldn't be able to get away safely after basically kidnapping Cal. It was a whole unspoken "what if" scenario that they both knew would never happen
Ruth and Daniel - Daniel lost money they were saving for months for Christmas. They were almost to their goal so they could get something decent for each child, but Daniel moved the hiding spot after Bree found it and then forgot where it was. They think it may have been thrown away accidentally. Daniel felt SO guilty and Ruth was SO upset
