very speculative blog about characters I think way too much about... sometimes powered by canon (or my interpretations of it) 🪻 other accounts: waffle-crisp-art, sillies-hideout 🪻 character credits: dante & due - dantemoths-lair, palette & rurik - lasseutblogo
I was looking through my Lotus stuff (to add #archivist Lotus tag) and I need to clear up one thing because I realized something lol
Soo I would refer to Demetria (aka the character based on Reaperfell Toriel) as Lotus' "aunt" sometimes and I get it could sound weird.
In Poland (at least in my region) an aunt is a term reserved for more than just the sister of your parent, it's also for adoptive mom or very close friend of the family, or any female figure you feel close to. And since Demetria is like that but I think Lotus doesn't call her mom (even tho she 100% is motherly figure to him) I just called her his aunt
Koda ends up being married to her when Lotus is like. 19
I guess for the sake of less confusion I should start calling her his mom/stepmom instead when needed
Sillies Project Hail Mary AU and it's Lotus as Ryland Grace (loner librarian smartie teacher who is just a lot grumpier than Grace but still scared as heck then locking in like him) and Dante as Rocky
Rurik is Adrian obv
And Palette and Due are Eridians too because space rocks are cool af.
Idk who Eva Stratt is, probably Lotus' dad (whichever of the two you choose) or something which makes it even more of a betrayal
Dante and Rurik walk out of the cinema after watching Project Hail Mary and something ignites in Dante's head. A week later he had already read the book twice, put Rurik into movie accurate Ryland Grace cosplay 5 times and keeps on discussing all the descriptions of oddly specific scientific details every dinner, then calling dad Sci to share all the points he came up with while Rurik was just silently listening to him and petting a small Rocky figure Dante managed to weld together from some old metal parts he found in the garage (because he doesn't understand a thing but it's so hot when Dante is passionate about something)
Tbh Sci probably sent Dante to a Montessori school at some point
In general I think Dante is the way he is because Sci and Fell had a very supportive but nonconventional approach. They let him explore and do things at his own pace, whenever he wanted to try something new they immediately catered to that interest, he's smart yes (Keiko mentioned he just does and learns new things when he needs something) but to keep on trying new things and work them out he had to have a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities. He was pampered but at the same time they left a lot in his own hands.
Like they would not let their son lack any kind of abilities, especially practical ones
Bro could open jars with one hand at the tender age of 3
The only reason he doesn't do anything beside his job nowadays is that Rurik can do most of the stuff around the house himself when he's at work and he's too tired after 12 hours in the office 👎👎👎
Love the interpretation of teen Rurik as a scrawny 2000s greenday guyliner military-grunge metalhead
Later he just dropped the eyeliner and scrawny and became buff instead because someone has to be able to protect the house and it sure as hell isn't Dante (Dante could actually take anyone out with enough time to think of a strategy but he lets Rurik have it)
tw: mentions of negligence, food insecurity and anxiety, disordered eating (?)
kinda personal insight about Rurik Liderc and being poor because I have a brainrot
and because he is the perfect case for me to vent out the frustration of your relationship with food and money being completely distorted by your childhood. (Due is an entire another case for another post even though there are some points that fit both)
I think about it a lot. Like his hatred for seeing food in the trash, especially during holidays, or the uncomfortable feeling when you're entering a store and there's just so much of it.
Or caring a little too much for his health and what he eats as an adult (only "healthy" "good" food) perhaps not being just a matter of wanting to stay fit.
I don't really know if his dad didn't feed him only because he was negligent or because he also had no money for it (but he did have it for alcohol of course. 🙄 I doubt he could keep a job for long being constantly drunk) but, maybe as a kid when he had food (and he was already hungry most of the time) it was pretty basic and cheap/discounted stuff, poor quality, or one that would spoil fast. (imagine my surprise when it turned out some stuff I didn't like, I disliked because I only ever had it when it was practically inedible instead of properly made or fresh 🫡) Now that he has access to better quality he does not want to waste his money or tastebuds on fastfood and such.
And what if he easily puts weight because of that. What if that's why he's trying to keep so in line. And he feels like he needs to care about nutrition more now (his malnutrition was of course not as severe as Due's for example but it was still there).
I could go as far as saying that even his love for cooking indirectly comes from the fact that he just didn't have that range of things he could eat when he was still with his dad+he had to meal prep alone. So he compensates
For him food wasn't just a part of the day in the background but a logistic operation where he had to consider how much he can afford and what to make out of literal scraps, and when there wasn't enough it just meant stress and hunger, when he had no energy to deal with it he'd just end up suffering. So he's still obsessively planning it out to this day and always always makes sure everyone at his house is fed even if he doesn't really like them, but he tried to turn it into something positive by developing his passion for cooking
Same with his spending habits, this is not out of the blue, when you need to count every coin since young age (and then live on the damn streets after running away at 12) and then your situation changes for the better, more often than not you either end up using all your savings up like crazy because "finally finally I can afford it and I can do what I want" (Rurik's case) or don't want to spend money even out of necessity because you value it too much. He hoards wealth then spends it too quick. (Which is also why I am not mad about Dante controlling all the finances. But I would prefer for Rurik to try and treat it instead of Dante giving him allowance like a child, lol)
And I don't think he is always guilt free about it, like it does make him feel better for a little while but there's always that little thing that whispers to him that he's being wasteful, even if it's just something he really wanted or needed. First he's in a frenzy not caring how much it costs like a millionaire then it dies down and he ends up feeling guilty for wasting Dante's hours of work or the few coins he collected from bets at the bars.
Speaking of Dante I think he kinda gets it but not entirely. He understands where Rurik comes from but he never had to worry about any of that, Sci and Fell/Red being wealthy and pretty caring. He wasn't able to pick up on those things from the start, Lotus didn't either so some things seemed irrational from their perspective. But then suddenly even licking the plate clean had something. Ominous to it
Ideas for what Palette's paint splatter on the cheek actually is
-he's partially made out of paint so it's just an area that doesn't solidify sometimes
-(most plausible) his staple fashion statement that he paints on since he was a little boy because he thinks it's cool. When he forgets it everyone freaks out and acts like he forgot his head or something
-a birthmark. Ink's ink stain could be a birthmark too so he just kinda got it from them
Sorry but the image of Palette waking up early every day to put a stencil of the paint splatter on is so cute to me 😭 when he was younger (older canon palette art) it would be random splotches but now maybe he uses a stencil so that's why it has a solid shape of a star now (newer canon art)
Tbh Rurik's possible healing from internalized homophobia isn't discussed enough
You're telling me that a guy whose father constantly belittled him and threw slurs at him, and was still in the closet while still dating Lotus (Lotus the queerest queer icon hello???), then adapted all the most masculine hobbies ever known to humans, didn't start feeling better after getting into an openly mlm relationship with Dante the shamelessly queer guy with two gay dads who practically adopted Rurik into their family?
NO, YEAH.
also I think that he genuinely just likes to be masculine now but before it was more performative. As in he didn't want anyone to think he's in any way associated with femininity and queerness but it shifted to "I really do like those things but no longer care if I do things beyond it". So for example he finally allowed himself to get into skincare and make up even though before it felt like it will literally end his life if anyone sees him in it because it's not "traditionally masculine" and his father's misogynistic and homophobic comments drilled into his brain.
He also no longer cares about being affectionate in public because all the people who have a problem with him and Dante can f*ck themselves
Like, the Rurik from 11 years ago would have a heart attack if he would find out that he's dating a MAN and OPENLY and taking care of the entire house for him and even has a vanity full of his own things 🫡 that 15 year old doesn't know what happiness is and I am sad for him
I'm afraids there was a turn of the century in Palette's growing up process where he went from the idealistic "we can fix everything by hugging and talking it out" to a strategic version of it, of a person who knows how to do the responsible thing when dealing with insufferable or awful people
Especially when he went full captain mode with his BSRS crusades
An AU where Dante accidentally swapped bodies with Lotus and it goes horribly... Calm because bro is power-drunk and ends up getting a little bamboozled like a struck fly by this
Lotus on the other hand is terrified at how weak (power-wise) and unhealthy Dante is so he pulls a The Last Unicorn™ thing where he freaks out at how he can feel the body disintegrating around him
Rurik just stares and thinks they're both being dramatic
