Another thought about Dad!Tenna has crossed my mind and I wish to share it.
Tenna, who has had an incredibly stressful and difficult day, is in his office, bent over some paperwork when an employee of his comes in and carefully places a new stack of paperwork that he asked them to fetch for him. He checks it and it's the wrong stack of paperwork.
All hell breaks loose, he stands up and just starts tearing at his employee, berating them and cursing them for having no idea how to do their job. He goes on and on until he is finally able to breathe normally again, all of his anger now out of him. He looks down at the employee and realises that that's his child.
He just spent almost half an hour insulting and screaming at his own child who didn't even fight back.
They stand before him, trembling and crying with the stack of paperwork raised above their head like a shield from HIM.
They only managed to respond with a quiet 'Im trying my best, Sir' before they run away.
I think Tenna would chase after them to apologise but maybe he is just frozen in place and hopes that his kid will forget about this. That's up to you.
Also your writing is wonderful as always! Thank you so very much for having me.
Ya’ll are so mean and I love it
You were wary of your father’s temper despite rarely being on the receiving end of it. You would often watch from the sidelines as Tenna belittled or snapped at an unfortunate Pippin or Shadow-Guy. He was running a tight program after all and he rarely lost his temper to explosive degrees. Or you simply never saw him that way. Unfortunately you would today
You knew when Tenna was upset or on the verge of losing his mind and today was no exception. It’d been a bad day for him, another day full of incompetency and issues from the Lighteners who owned you both. You did your best staying out of the way and even tried making Tenna’s day better. Like getting him coffee or doing a lil extra work.
Unfortunately Tenna would be too preoccupied with scolding Pippins or bemoaning mistakes that happened on set. Nobody wanted to be around the boss after the day was over. It was just you, him and a few other employees in the studio. You offered to take up a load of paperwork to Tenna so a Shadow-Guy could leave early. Maybe your dad would feel better once he saw you pulling your weight? Tenna praised you for being on top of things and would use you as an example of what to be.
You were his ideal employee after all. You listened, rolled with the punches and agreed with whatever Tenna had to say. You were young at the time, no taller than a Pippins so your face was obscured by the tall stack of paperwork.
You’d gingerly entered the office, shaking away any nervousness. He’s your dad! Nothing to be scared of! Tenna looked far from the happy, peppy tv show host he paraded himself around as. He looked absolutely pissed, if he had eyes they’d be glaring absolute daggers at whatever he was doing.
Okay, maybe don’t talk to him and give him the papers. Then you could eat dinner, get ready for bed and sleep with the knowledge that Tenna would be in a better mood tomorrow. You slid the stack of papers on the desk, making sure to not accidentally knock over anything.
Before you can leave or hopefully accept a “thank you starlight, you truly are my only trusted employee”, instead you got your first taste of the Tenna you’d hope to never see again in your lifetime.
I think Tenna’s breakdowns are something that slowly bubble up before he ultimately loses his shit. He starts out eerily calm, asking you what do you see. Before you can answer, he answers for you. He specifically stated that he needed [insert fancy paperwork here], not [other paperwork]! He then just goes nuts.
Tenna proceeds to go on an hour long tirade about how everyone here is just so useless it seems! How on earth can he run a studio if he has to constantly guide his employees as if they’re fucking babies!? What? Do you need to be bottle fed next?! After all he does for everyone, this is what he gets?
Why did he hire you? Better yet, why hasn’t he blacklisted you from the industry and made damn good sure you stay in your filthy little hole for the rest of your talentless existence! What got nothing to say?! Speak! Tell him personally how sorry you are so you can go ahead and keep disappointing him-!
Yeah he wasn’t talking to a Pippins, he was talking to you…
The surrounding paper around your hand was moistened with sweat, your own antennas drooped and you looked genuinely terrified of him. Sure you occasionally got upset when Tenna had to discipline you but this was terror. Plain and simple. You held up the binders like they were a shield, as if Tenna was gonna strike you.
Tenna immediately ceased his ranting, trying to appear as someone friendly! Even if his smile is strained and wobbly, shoulders shaking from not only the previous anger but now the fear. You don’t talk to kids like that! Sure Asgore and Toriel fought like rabid dogs but never directed their anger towards their kids!
Tenna immediately goes into desperate, apology mode. He becomes all sweet and caring towards you, calling you “starlight” or “starlet”, saying that he was just having a stressful day. You didn’t buy it, now you were just confused. He tried to appeal to you with offers of gifts or a treat but you simply shook your head and said you were tired & goodnight.
You bolted out of that office, immediately rushing to your room and locking the door. You couldn’t do anything but cry, sobs wracking your body as you beat yourself up. Maybe Tenna IS right, maybe you are dumb and useless. Everyone is right about you, even your dad thinks as much. You go to sleep with your face on the binder.
Tenna chased after you, about to plead for you only to notice something on the floor. It was a drawing of him, thanking him for his work and that he was doing a good job.
