# randomize it! Lol
#27: What do they never want to speak of, ever?
Stephen despises talking about his family.Â
Now, he doesn’t hate his family. Not by any means. (Because my HC for Stephen’s family dynamic is a bit different and less abusive than the original comic implications, but I feel suits his personality and the way he internalizes trauma better.) He never hated his family. What Stephen has is a massive, terminal hang-up with is the manner in which his family fell apart, concurrent to the time in his life it fell apart and his lack of ability to do anything about it.
Stephen grew up with a cosmopolitan mother and a more rural father, but the mutual respect between them both worked it out and raised three children together in a household that balanced practical farming and rural skills and metropolitan art and academic pursuits. So Stephen grew up with advanced understandings of music and literature, while also knowing how to ride a horse and handle his father’s vegetable garden. The parents were there for all of their children, so while natural competitiveness was always in play, they also cared for each other in ways that weren’t pressured by the presumption of standing in as a parent.
When Donna died, the family was understandably rocked by the loss, and Stephen especially developed a swift guilt and responsibility complex in the wake of it. His father took on a more blaming view of Stephen, and cherished Victor’s innocence by comparison. During this time his father became increasingly abusive and his mother avoided or drank away what she witnessed. Finally it came to a head, and Stephen stayed temporarily with a friend while finally child services intervened and Beverly took the reins for Eugene’s behavior. Stephen didn’t ever trust them again, but stayed for Victor insomuch as he worked his ever-loving ass off to graduate from high school as early as possible to leave Nebraska.
His mother was in severe decline when he left, and died shortly after he was admitted into Columbia. Stephen’s father begged him to return in the wake of his own terminal cancer diagnosis, which Stephen summarily refused. His father was on the verge of passing, and Victor flew to New York to plead him to return and make amends. Stephen refused, but once Victor had returned to Nebraska, was killed in a car accident after drinking himself into a stupor and aiming to drive back to the Strange family farm. Stephen also declined to return for his brother’s funeral, and had his aunt and uncle - the genuine powers of attorney - handle the transition and sale of the estate.
Stephen has never been back to Nebraska since he left in his late teens. And as a minor, he recognizes that his capacity to influence what happened in the wake of his sister’s death was negligible. But his desire to help and heal those around him was only furthered by the deaths of those in his family. So while he became obsessed with medicine, he never developed an interest in trauma - in the wake of Donna and later Victor - or in oncology - in the wake of both of his parents.Â
He had a good, full childhood... to a point. But the wholesome parts of his childhood and his familial memories are usually eclipsed by the severity of the bad that followed. For Stephen, it isn’t that the wounds are still new - they’re perpetual - it’s just that having to explain the good he remembers in contrast with the bad is impossible to manage. So he prefers never to talk about them, aside from passing reference. Especially when those references will go unnoticed.