#parentification tw

[paxyfox]

These characters are so important to me.

[liliyaross]

Jonathan deserved to have a scene like these. He so parentified and he should've been allowed to voice that to Joyce. Also the show got worse when we stopped having scenes with the Byers family.

The character design overlaps of Jonathan Byers and Dean Winchester are scary. 2 older brothers who will do anything for their younger brothers sacrificing their own happiness and childhoods for them. They very much do love their moms but it's so complex and complicated.

[redwingedwhump]

it's awkward engaging when after some time away I find I really *do* hate the word Whumpee.

(Or Caretaker but that's less because of how it sounds and more because as someone Assigned Caretaker at the age of Way Too Young, I have a grudge against this as a Role Assignment.)

Yeah yeah BUT WHAT DO WE CALL THEM?? "in myyyy dayyy" *waves cane I only even have cuz I'm wobbly not cuz I'm old* We used to say A and B. Or Protagonist and Antagonist. as Protag and Antag. Or just C1 and c 2. Characters.

[grxndvoile]

⚓ CLOSED STARTER — winnie, lily, signe & venus

riley easily recalls his mid teenage years when the weight of his parentification hit, the responsibilities pilled on top and the friends that stuck around began to dwindle. but four of them that did stay included a group of girls from school riley often liked to joke 'adopted' him — and lily as well. because where he went, she had to come too. it got to the point these girls became the support system he didn't know he needed, even if he often struggled to put words to his feelings, being a kid completely out of his depth. convinced any crack of the veneer of being the perfect big brother would mean he was letting down his family when they needed him. they didn't judge, they just let him be the teenager he was meant to be at that age. and that reprieve was appreciated more than they probably knew.

"look what i found." beer in hand, and handful of photos in the other, he leans forward to splay them out on the cooler used as a makeshift table on the rig, still very much moored to the pier. he'd stumbled upon a big box of old photos when cleaning out the junk closet, "from the hairstyles alone, i'm gunna say these were from... 2013?"

— @yourcinluv

[hannukahmatata]

I should probably actually talk about my OCs if I want people to be interested. This is about Bunny, my quasi-fandomless/Meow Wolf inspired OC, and the weird train she lives in. TW for familial neglect/parentification, under the cut for length

Bunny (full name tbh) is a 27-year-old who lives in an abandoned passenger train, which has been slowly becoming overgrown over the years. She's only been there for a few months - before that, she lived with her mother and several brothers, the youngest of which just entered high school.

Bunny's mother loves having kids but doesn't necessarily like being a mother. Bunny did most of the actual childcare - making sure everyone had lunches packed, helping with homework and paperwork, teaching her siblings how to read and talk and walk and not hit each other - while her mother buried herself in work. She loves her brothers, but has been counting down the days until the youngest is independent and she can finally strike out on her own.

It was three days into her youngest brother's senior year that their mother announced she was pregnant again. Bunny waited until everyone was out of the house to get her stuff together, and she was gone by the time her mother got home. She left only a letter of apology to her brothers and her factory-reset phone, and took all of her important paperwork.

I don't have the specifics of how she got to the train perfectly nailed down, but it was at night after she'd biked herself to exhaustion and realized she had no plan. Something, which I'll figure out in a bit, called her attention off the road and into the woods - and, exhausted and scared by what she'd done, she followed.

The passenger train is on a piece of orphaned track hugging a chunk of tall rock, and is covered in moss and vines. It's her home, and her shelter - and an impossibility.

The doors on the right side face out, and will always lead back to the interstate and gas station where she stopped. The doors on the left side, facing the rock, shouldn't open at all.

But sometimes, when both sets of doors are shut, the train moves. And then those doors on the left open up.

Bunny's train is a type of portal that can change where it leads to. Whether it's underwater, a dreamcore-style scene, a melting office or anything else surreal, the train can go anywhere - but at the same time, it will never leave the space where it rots.

Bunny now lives in the train, finding friendship, adventure and mystery on the other side of the doors, while grappling with her choice to run away in the first place. Should she go back? Can she go back?

I need to draw her in her weird train.

[tiiimcadventurc]

Some Headcanons About Sarah

Initially, Sarah was left handed. One day, during a playdate with her cousin Heather, the cousin set one of Marsha's plushies on fire. Sarah grabbed it in order to get it away from Marsha, burning her left hand in the process. Due to how painful it was for Sarah to use it following the incident, Sarah learned to be right handed instead.

Ever since she was a child, Sarah has disliked how most meats tasted to her with her father's often dismissing her feelings for being picky. In the present day, Sarah is a vegetarian.

Like her sisters, Sarah has pets of her own with her animal of choice being birds. She has 4 birds: an owl named Herbert, two canaries named Lecter and Starling, and a raven named Bates. Sarah also likes to raise butterflies. In addition, she has a connection with Leigh, one of Marsha's nighthounds who often rests on Sarah's lap when they're on the couch.

Sarah's true passion lies in gardening. Sarah has a massive garden connected to the cottage where she grows many different kinds of plants. Sarah also has several monster-like plants she tends to, something she's done ever since she was a kid. She refers to all of her monster plants as females and are all named after female horror movie characters. Sarah's first ever plant was one she named Lydia, who she got for her 8th birthday. Sarah dutifully tended to her up until Heather smashed and killed Lydia.

Sarah is capable of playing piano and violin. Her monster plants enjoy it when she plays her violin for them.

Unlike Marsha who can't swim, Sarah is very capable of swimming and enjoys it.

There is a pond in her garden that is home to a water nymph, who is Sarah's only real friend outside of Marsha. Sarah has a huge crush on the nymph.

Sarah is a big fan of horror. While Sarah's favorite horror movie is Scream, she primarily like psychological horror, supernatural horror, and found footage horror movies. She also had the biggest crush on Laurie Strode (the protagonist of Halloween) as a kid. Sarah also has a few horror animes that she likes.

Also, Sarah is very much a lesbian. As a kid, she had crushes on characters like Laurie (as mentioned) and Ariel (from The Little Mermaid).

As a kid, Sarah had a teddy bear named Snuggles. While she didn't carry him around like Marsha did to Mr. Cottontail, Sarah still slept with Snuggles at night and even took him with her.

As a child, her father insisted on keeping Sarah's short all throughout her childhood and teenage years. When Sarah and Marsha arrived at Ooo, the lack of cutting supplies allowed Sarah to grow her hair out and at Marsha's encouragement, Sarah decided to keep her hair long.

Sarah is the sister who uses technology the least. While she does have a phone, she barely uses it. But for those who are curious, it's a purple smartphone-looking phone with a flower phone case.

From an early age, Sarah learned to cook after her father was gone for a few hours and Marsha was getting hungry.

Sarah has anxiety and C-PTSD from her childhood, although undiagnosed.

While not as skilled as Marsha, Sarah does have some magic ability. This includes the ability to perform rituals to speak with spirits residing in low-level dead world (like the one in Ghost Fly). Sarah is able to make a part time living off of this.

[faethons]

I’ve been thinking a lot about my twentieth / twenty-first century verse and I think I’ve finally hit on my answers for the two main problems with their backstory (namely, ‘what happened to Eridu’ and ‘what would their condition look like in a more grounded / realistic verse’).

Eridu was essentially flattened by a natural disaster (probably a catastrophic earthquake as that seems to fit better with what we know happened). Just like in canon (or what’s canon to this blog, anyway), Wise and Belle get separated from their adopted mom, Carole Arna, in the chaos. Wise ends up leading them both (and then carrying Belle) to safety before they both succumb to their injuries and the trauma. The two siblings are rescued and Carole is listed as missing, but Belle and Wise believe she is alive and are searching for her (hence the hacking interest). Wise takes over the raising of both of them and they’ve mostly been on their own ever since, finally coming to settle at Random Play.

As for their condition, with the temporary losses in vision and the pain, fatigue, and weakness they experience, it seems to most closely map onto relapsing-remitting MS, though of course it’s not an exact fit. Because I don’t want to misrepresent the community (I have different chronic illnesses / invisible disabilities), I’ll keep things pretty general, but that’s the “answer” for this verse.

[chocolatecake47]

I think one of the worst things about being so heavily involved in raising your siblings is knowing that nobody sees it and nobody cares. Its either "well how much can you really be doing since you're not actually their parent?" or "I don't know why you're complaining its you're job as the eldest/older sibling to take care of them!" or "you should be grateful for the attention you got from your parents and pay it forward!" or my personal favorite "being the eldest/stand-in parent is not that hard!"

oh really??? its not that hard? To give up parts of your childhood and teenage-hood and even adulthood to raise children you had zero say in having? To raise kids you did not ask for but got saddled with? To know that if you don't step up and give them everything you have, nobody else will? To watch your identity become more and more wrapped up in kids that society still, after everything you have fucking done, does not see as yours because you didn't make them? To swallow down your comments and and feel guilty for the flickers of resentment, because it is not their fault and you will die before you make them feel unwanted, and paste a smile over your exhaustion so you can get up for them the way a parent should? To know that if you ever feel like you wronged them it would eat you alive? To want to give them everything but knowing you are rapidly spreading yourself thin and can't?

And then to watch them run with smiles and hugs and cards to their 'actual' parent when they show them an ounce of attention, to watch their 'actual' parent get to be the 'fun cool one' while you are making lunches and wiping noses and folding laundry and helping with homework and all you can is grit your teeth and be happy that at least the attention they are getting from the person who is actually responsible for them is positive and not like the type you got. But you keep pouring into them hoping that maybe a day will come when they realize how much you were always there.

And one of the best things is knowing that you love them so much, sometimes it feels like your soul is splitting open from the sheer pride and joy of watching them grow up, and you will protect them and fight for them in a way nobody fought for you and you will be damned if you do not show up for them every single time.