#''i don't like sharing my art unless it gets a little number in the corner''

[rowan-e-ravenwood]

the whole "if you don't reblog every piece of art you see, you hate me personally" attitude is so weird bc at its core is the idea i see in all the new-user guides that tumblr has no post-recommending algorithm. which. is blatantly untrue. y'all just talk about how much you hate it and you all have it turned off. idk man.

i'm sure that part of it is also the bizarre opinion that likes are equivalent to bookmarks, and reblogs are equivalent to likes. that's... also not true. everyone has the option to make their likes public, it's just that every new-user guide also recommends you turn that off. likes are likes, reblogs are bookmarks.

people say it's great that you can hide your liked posts from your page, but also if you don't put every post you like on your page, you're doing it wrong? there's just. there are like three layers of hypocrisy here and it melts my brain every time.

[ar3s-r4t-qu33n]

Why I Think Sissy's Bedroom Was The Luggage Room

Also Thoroughfare and Sissy Slaughter (especially with my Family OC that I made specifically to be her best friend and how they met on the road) >>>>

Also I apologise if any of the GIFs or pictures are of shitty quality, this is QUITE the post, apparently-

So one thing that has always annoyed me about The Family House, especially since we now have Nancy's House, is that not everyone has a bedroom!! And I know it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, but to me it does!! Grandpa, Drayton and Nubbins all have rooms, and Nubbins' room is the biggest and has plenty of room for two (also in Museum Mode, which, as I've previously stated, I believe to be what the House canonically looks like outside of the puzzles and regular in-game functionality, there's a second mattress in Nubbins' room that could have once been Choptop/Bobby's).

But yeah, Sissy and Bubba lack bedrooms. Now, Bubba has since moved to the basement, which has a number of beds in it, so we know he at least has somewhere to rest his head. I choose to think that the Study was Bubba's childhood bedroom that Drayton has since turned into a second office for himself.

But either way, he know Bubba has a bedroom somewhere, even if it has changed.

But then...

Where did Sissy sleep growing up?

We know that she lived at the Family House when she grew up because she ran away from there when she was in her teens or early twenties. Which means she had a bedroom. Now, it's possible that she shared a room with the twins since some people think that they are triplets, but I personally believe Sissy to be slightly older than the twins, but share the same mother (I have made three different family trees for the game's family 🧍 and I know the whole point is that we don't know HOW they're a family, only that they ARE a family, but my dumb ass likes concrete connections so if y'all wanna see those, let me know). I also feel like with that many rooms, they could surely carve out a space for their only daughter, surely? So, if not with the twins, and if there's no room now...

Where did Sissy sleep and what happened to her room?

Here's my proposal; The Luggage Room.

Firstly, this is one of the only rooms inside the house that have a Poison Station for our gal to use. There's one in the back porch area, which makes sense. Kinda like a conservatory with plenty of sunlight for her plants, but it only holds one... Sprig? Of her poison. There's another in the basement, but like, what business does she have being down there? None! That's Bubba's domain, it's likely down there just so she has more poison nearby for gameplay reasons. But upstairs, there are two sprigs (?) and it feels a little more tucked away. There's something about the way that her Stations are designed that feels girlish and cosy, like as a child, she painted those flowers and as she got older, got better at drying flowers and making and preserving things for it. Not to mention all the boxes underneath with the bone charm, it's very "this demands space, but we don't really want to acknowledge that space", it's being used for storage, it's in a corner, it likely scarcely gets used anymore.

Also I don't think the fusebox is usually in here. Again, it's for gameplay variety, I headcanon that it actually always is in the room next to Nubbins', it feels like a space carved out for electronics.

There's also the fact that this is called the Luggage Room.

These people don't travel!!!

And yes, I know, this could be luggage from victims, but they already have a bunch of that piled up in the Den. For a 'luggage room', there isn't a lot of luggage in it at all! Three little trunks. One big one. The rest is wrecked furniture and bone art. For a luggage room, you'd expect it to be full of suitcases and trunks and backpacks, but no. Four. That's it. (Unless I'm missing one or two, but my point still stands!!!)

Now, I'm not saying this room is called the Luggage Room because Sissy travels, luggage = travels, therefore luggage room = Sissy's bedroom. But for being a room name for its purpose, it doesn't serve its purpose very well.

But if it's "the luggage room", something Drayton muttered to someone once when they asked, or when Sissy demanded to know why her room was destroyed he just made something up on the spot, it'd make more sense than just taking it at face value.

There's also the sheer state of disrepair that this room is in. I think this room has the most damage of any other in the Family House, even the basement is more structurally sound. But I believe the reason for this is more story or character driven than anything else.

No one is happy that Sissy left. Every single member of the family is pissed off or upset that she ran away, and Johnny and Nancy are even more angry that she came back (Johnny because she could have started a new life, something he's always wanted to do, but failed and came back, and Nancy because... Internalised misogyny and Boy Mom Syndrome™-)

I think that once they realised she was gone, after a few days went by and the realisation dawned on them that she wasn't coming back?

Someone, or maybe multiple people, took their anger out on her room.

But who would have done that?

In my mind, there are four candidates.

1. Bubba

We know our sweet lil skin wearing boy doesn't exactly handle his emotions super well. We also know that he is extremely protective of his family, and that Sissy is (in my opinion, going from voice lines alone) possibly the only member of the family who loves him unconditionally apart from maybe Nubbins. Drayton is Drayton, Johnny is nice to him, but does see him as a killing machine, Nancy babies him and we can assume that Hands really cares for him (I actually think that Bubba would be Hands' favourite if not for Johnny), but he communicates in growls and purrs (very hot growls and purrs, mind you, but growls and purrs nonetheless), so we don't know for sure.

Sissy is his sweet big sister. She's kind to him, genuinely, no strings attached. I also headcanon that she gives him her old makeup and seeing her get dolled up made him want to start doing it too, but that's besides the point. Sissy, like everyone in that family, means the world to him. And so when he finds out she's... Gone? That she abandoned him, him, her baby brother?

He just can't help himself. It was an accident, of course, a tantrum, one he immediately regretted and thus tried to cover up with newspaper and cardboard, but the damage was done. I think he is probably the only person Sissy would forgive for doing this to her room. I also believe he is the only one capable of cutting a hole like that in the wall, which is why he's the first candidate on my list.

2. Nubbins

Honestly? I think he's least likely. But he's here at spot number 2 because he's not as interesting as Bubba's reasons and I have better ones on the way, so it's a forgettable spot and it's my list, okay? I can format it any way I want, bitch.

Nubbins and Sissy get on well enough. He irritates her, definitely, but she matches his crazy and he's her lil brother, albeit far more annoying than Bubba and Bobby. He's angry at her for leaving, but he doesn't harp on about it, only mentioning it once and using it more to brag about how close he is to Grandpa than to make her feel bad. He actually cares about her travels and references stories she's obviously told him, meaning that not only does he listen and take an interest in her life, but that she trusts him enough to tell him about something that clearly means a lot to her.

He's not angry, really, and definitely not enough to destroy her room. But I also think he's far more torn up about Bobby!! That's his twin brother, gone to Vietnam, of course he's more upset at him going and eager to have him back than his big sister running off to see the world. It's interesting that Nubbins' voice lines for Choptop are the only ones we have yet to hear, but I'm banking on him being elated that he's home rather than being angry that he left. Also this will be the first time we get to see the twins together in any capacity, like they have never interacted on screen before, I can't wait!!!

3. Johnny

We know from the Lore Stream that Johnny and Sissy used to be very close when they were younger, but once she ran away, Johnny felt betrayed, and even more so when she came back.

He wants nothing more than to leave this behind and live a normal life. But he knows, deep down, that Nancy is right; he wasn't born a Slaughter, but he was raised as one, and he can't pretend that he wasn't. He is Family, and so he doesn't even try to leave. Apart from trips with Uncle Hands, he's stuck here and he knows it.

So when Sissy leaves, that hurts enough, his closest cousin (in my headcanon) running off and doing what he wants to do.

But then she ruins it for herself. Starts killing, joins cults, gets messy. She's the Terror of I-40, and people know her face. She can't just go back out there, not really. So she fucked up, and now she's blown her chances out there and has to come back. And she's different now, she believes crazy things and talks about stuff Johnny will never experience and has seen places he could only dream of, but even still, she's back here now, just like the rest of them. She proves to him that even if he did go? He'd still be a fucked up serial killer, and he'd eventually get himself caught. So, really, better stay home, huh?

But I don't know if he'd wreck her room over it. He's volatile, sure, but I don't see him doing that. He has other ways to get his anger out, probably drinking and killing, he doesn't need to destroy her stuff. But his reaction to her and their relationship and how it's changed is super interesting. I don't personally ship the two, no judgment if you do and I can definitely see the appeal if they weren't cousins, blood related or not, but the way they have changed and the way they went from being super close to almost enemies is so interesting. I also headcanon that Johnny leverages some of Sissy's guilt about leaving him and the others in order to get her to help him kidnap and hide Maria, but that's not exactly relevant rn-

4. Drayton

Something I find really interesting about Drayton in comparison to everyone else is that he just wants Sissy to stay home.

"why can't you just stick with the family"

Nancy wants her gone, doesn't care about her at all, Johnny's angry that she came back, Nubbins is largely ambivalent to the whole thing. But Drayton wants her to stay, and is more than willing to say that (albeit, indirectly. I think he'd rather eat Nancy's boiled and unseasoned dinner than admit his real, actual feelings to his family). He worries about her out there, in his own way ("I ain't never trusted that trash you scurry around with"), and obviously he didn't turn her away at the door upon her return.

We also know that Drayton has a few interesting habits. @/ofthehands (idk if they're comfortable being tagged) on here has some amazing character analysies of Drayton (specifically from the films, but I feel like it applies here too), and one especially that references his childhood and his habit for hoarding which I really recommend. But it makes sense, at least to me, that he would be the one to shove a bunch of crap into her old room and fill the space, especially in an attempt to remain 'unfeeling' about her running off.

There's also, again, the fact that the room has been patched up after the damage was done. Ever-practical Drayton would absolutely see to it that the rook was fixed up as soon as possible, you know, to keep the house looking "nice".

I can see him going in there after the realisation kicks in. His little and only sister (again, going off my family tree). Gone. Left. Because she wanted more? Because she was different? Because she was unhappy? He doesn't understand. Hasn't he tried to make this house a home? Hasn't he done so much for them all? Hasn't he always? And he just... Blacks out. Comes to with the room completely battered. Never speaks of it, orders Bubba and Nubbins to clear the place out, but won't let them touch her flower table. He didn't touch it either. He doesn't know why. But over the next few months, he patches it up to the best of his abilities and, when he needs space for his collections, he shoves them in there. It's just a room now, right? Gotta be practical about it.

I think it could have been any one of them, or even a combination. Maybe Bubba and Drayton had the same idea, same reaction. Who knows. But it's destroyed now, and Sissy has nowhere to sleep. I imagine now she takes one of the sofas downstairs.

Now, here's something that is VERY English student of me, but I didn't get those two A* for nothing, and I'm not getting my degree for nothing either, so here we go:

Outside the Luggage Room are these two birds. These models are not unique to this area or even this map, but what is unique about them is the way they are placed. In regular gameplay, we pass by this spot so many times, it's kinda hard to notice or care about it. But once I noticed it, and especially once I saw it in Museum Mode and private custom matches, I fell completely in love with it.

There is a light that casts the shadows of the birds on the slanted ceilings, making this corner just so... Idk, special?? To me???

But it means something to me that this corner is right outside the Luggage Room. Birds symbolise a lot of things, but most commonly, freedom.

Sissy longs for freedom and adventure, she wants to break free from the Slaughter House and her family and be her own person. But when she tries, she is immediately forced to become everything she seemingly didn't want to be because the world was not a place of adventure or fun. It was dark, and bleak, and full truckers who wanted something from her, something she didn't want to give, something she had to kill to protect...

And then her hands were bloody. Of course she knew how to kill, she's a Slaughter for god's sake. But was this her first? Did she just hop out of the truck and keep going on her way? Or did she sit there?

Sit there with this body, shaking, terrified, because she just killed someone. All on her own, and she's too far from home to get help getting rid of his guy or to bring him back for dinner. She can't go home now, and prove Drayton right. She has to keep going. If only she could snap out of it.

We know how her years away go. But when she's back, she doesn't want to stay. Has no plans on doing so. She's still that bird, longing to get away from all of this, give it one more go.

But, just like those birds in that corner, she can never be her real self. She will always be a shadow of a person, scurrying from place to place after slitting a throat or stealing a new dress, she can never be truly free, she will always be held back by who she is, who she was raised to be. She will never leave the birdcage; she is just like the rest of them, only she has a string tied around her ankle that lets her fly just that little bit further, the illusion of adventure.

I know that last point isn't proof that the room is hers. But it feels to me like a little hint at something, that whoever lives in that room is a songbird dying to take to the skies and never go back.

Just like Johnny, Sissy is a Slaughter. She can't just forget that. She can't just pretend she's someone else, it is as much a part of her as her own skin. So even if she tries, there will always be a tell, always be something not quite right about her, like they can smell it on her.

She just has to hope that they won't mind the stench.

... Oh wow that was a yap sesh huh-