Question about the conservatorship fic, do Shiv and Roman (and Connor) ever process that their dad treated their brother like an object? Or do they feel the need to keep their distance when he’s so regressed?
hey char! thank you for the ask! i think it's super complicated and could see it going all sorts of ways, but i have a fuzzy idea of what might happen. i'm gonna put it under a read more bc it's a sensitive topic etc. content warnings for discussion of parental death, abuse, ableism, and all the other normal warnings for the pringles can fic.
i think at the very beginning, after logan's death when they're discovering where kendall's been this whole time, they develop a theory that logan and kendall had worked out a deal. kendall basically retires to a cushy life of hermithood and bides his time and when logan dies he pops back out, a dark horse, and takes control of the company, completely fucking over his siblings. that's the energy they take with them into the apartment. they think it's going to be a 3-on-1 (or maybe 2-on-1, connor doesn't like confrontation) battle for control.
that idea probably starts to decay pretty rapidly when they get a good look at him and when he starts crying at the sight of them, even before they tell him that logan's dead. talking to household staff and eventually talking to him also erodes the idea bc no one closely involved in his day-to-day particularly minces words anymore, and it's pretty obvious that, like, oh. he wasn't allowed to leave. oh god.
so they probably attempt to shift to "dad only did this to help kendall," which is what kendall himself is saying. but all his siblings have their own moments of "he doesn't have a phone," or "he doesn't know the address for this apartment," so that also falls apart. then the specialists they send him to to figure out appropriate care basically communicate, "yeah, he's fine. he can probably care for himself, actually, maybe with a little help? that's up to him." which really does not line up with logan doing this to help him at all.
roman probably jokes about stockholm syndrome and even worse things a lot but it's not funny and he's barely even joking.
i don't really know how they would grapple with it all, once they had all the information available. i think their dad dying would devastate all of them, and send them into their own little spirals of "was dad abusive," "did he ever really love me," "how do i live without him," etc. add in kendall, who's almost unrecognisable and incredibly traumatised, walking proof of the consequences of logan's love and care. i can see them being very uncomfortable in his presence bc he makes questions like "was dad abusive" a little too easy to answer.
i like to think, after months of trying to interact with him the way they used to in the before times, and all attempts failing miserably, they would be able to shift their communication methods and have a relationship with him again. that would create a lot of potential for the siblings' processing bc the way that kendall acts would be so visibly tied up in logan's dehumanisation of him.
i don't think connor has a chance in hell of processing it. i think after his dad's death he would fully embrace idealisation of logan now that logan's not around to prove him wrong. he'd be the family member who's always shutting down conversations by scolding, "hey, don't speak ill of the dead." hopefully that would resolve at some point but i have no idea how. it's actually possible that he and kendall talking about logan together could hurt both of them bc they're both so caught up in idealisation.
shiv and roman would be grappling with it together, i think they'd have better odds. they'd also maybe be more involved with kendall's day-to-day needs so they'd have to face it. it might even help them to more quickly process their relationship with logan? in a weird way? bc kendall says logan loved him and took care of him and any pushback results in arguments involving kendall explaining that he was heading for an early grave and logan saved him from that. but then also a trip to the park can make him have an hour-long panic attack bc he can't really tolerate fresh air or open spaces or other people anymore. so shiv and rome have to face the reality that kendall himself can't face and they might not have bothered to face on their own.
probably a big part of why i abandoned it is that i don't know how that processing and recovery would go. there'd be a lot of room for missteps and the siblings falling apart from stress. and honestly the business side of things is incredibly complicated. i like logan leaving the company more or less to kendall for the drama of it all but i have no idea how that would go, realistically. guy's been locked in an apartment for over a year, y'know. idk.
i do like to think about it tho! so thanks for the ask! c:
Me like three months ago: *Tells my friend Joseph about how when I was little I could fit my whole fist into my mouth and then up to like a third of the way up my forearm*
Joseph: Wow. It's a real waste that you're gay.
Me yesterday: *Tells Joseph about how I can easily fit my hand and arm all the way down into the bottom of a Pringles can*
