#asktomato

[loominggaia]

The average satyr at 14 years old:

Tomato at 14 years old:

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[loominggaia]

Also what if Itchy never met Ginger?

I think their futures would be rather bleak.

Itchy would be dead without Ginger to keep him out of trouble. Someone would have gotten sick of his shit and popped him a long time ago.

As for Ginger, she would have been carted off to Kelvingyard if Itchy hadn't been there to save her. She likely would have given birth there, and she and Tomato would've been separated eventually. Depending on who bought them, they could have ended up anywhere, but I doubt they would have seen eachother again.

That's a sad timeline!

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[loominggaia]

kid-az …Where is Tomato in Isaac’s section? 😰

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I'm torn on whether Tomato would join the FGG or not! Ginger would throw a fit if he even considered it, so...I think he might follow in Ginger's footsteps and take an academic route, maybe become a researcher. But he's also inspired by all the weird stories Itchy has told him growing up and he wants to travel too.

Maybe he could travel with the FGG! He doesn't join the combat (usually) but he hitches a ride with them to foreign lands where he can research new things.

This isn't canon or anything, just one of the ideas I've been considering. What do you guys think Tomato should be when he grows up?

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[loominggaia]

Since Itchy has been around since Tomato has been born and has raised him his whole life, why doesn't Tomato consider him his father?

Good question! I forgot exactly what story it's in, but there's some dialogue between Ginger and Itchy that sort of explains this. Long story short, their relationship was more dysfunctional in the past, so they separated for long periods.

Ginger would kick Itchy out of the house for weeks or even months at a time due to his drinking/bad behavior. Eventually he'd get his act together and come back. But for most of Tomato's life, Itchy wasn't really a father-figure, he was more of a family friend who would randomly drift in and out of his world.

Due to the unstable nature of their relationship, Ginger always referred to Itchy as "Mr. Itchy" rather than "your dad" around Tomato, and Tomato picked up on this.

Itchy's behavior has gradually improved with age, and as it does, his relationship with Ginger becomes more stable. In recent years they spend more time together than apart. Still, Tomato doesn't consider him much of a father-figure. He does admire some things about Itchy, for better or worse, but doesn't feel comfortable calling him "dad" when he kept disappearing from the household for half his life.

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[loominggaia]

razzek D'aww, Tomato the scholar is such a cute and kind of unexpected idea for what he'd become but I can see it happening.

kid-az Battle scholar Tomato. He’s part of the FGG and does fight but the most important thing he does is record information and take notes of the places they visit so that when they do come back they are better prepared.

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THE REVIEWS ARE IN

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[loominggaia]

Every time I read a story I have a new ship lol. I finished Resistance is Futile and now I ship Tomato and Azadora. I wonder how would their parents react if they got together?

They are cuties! I'm not sure they're in the right age range to be dating eachother though. At this point in the series, Tomato is 13 and Azadora is 10. This gap won't matter when they're older, but right now they are in pretty different stages of life. Tomato is starting to deal with teenager problems and Azadora is still just a kid, they can't relate to eachother very much. I think they just play together because frankly, there aren't a lot of kids in the Hollow and they don't have much choice.

But let's say a few years pass. Azadora is 18 and Tomato is 21, and they've decided to date eachother. How would their parents react?

In short...not well. At least not at first.

Balthazaar just doesn't want his precious Dory dating anyone, period. He doesn't trust that any boy is good enough for her. He thinks they're all horny little scumbags who will only break her heart, or worse, trap her in a crummy marriage. He does want her to marry someday, but in reality, her suitors would have to move mountains to earn his approval.

Balthazaar likes Ginger and Tomato well enough (He hates Itchy, but so does everyone, so...) but the notion of a satyr boy dating his daughter would sting him. He wouldn't like it at all. He's a bit prejudiced and believes male satyrs are only after sex, that they're hopeless drunks who can't hold a job or be responsible. He doesn't dislike Tomato, but he doesn't want him as a son-in-law.

Itchy, meanwhile, is hootin' and hollerin' with pride because his son is dating a cute girl! A cute human girl! He believes all humans have lots of money, and because they don't face discrimination that satyrs do, life is always easy for them. He encourages Tomato to put a ring on that girl's finger as soon as possible so he can reap all those social benefits a human wife would give him.

Ginger is much more reluctant about this. She worries that because Azadora is human, this means she will never have grandchildren. She also worries that their species differences will cause drama in the relationship. But she likes Balthazaar and Azadora; they are her friends and she knows they're good people. Ultimately she just wants Tomato to be happy, so she gives her blessing, even if she's not 100% on board with the idea.

Cinnamon's just like, "You want to marry my brother? GROSS. He sucks lol"

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[loominggaia]

a thing tomato probably said to his mom: "why does flora call you babygirl" (yes that meme)

I've actually never heard of this meme, so I looked it up and it's hilarious! Also pretty darn accurate for these characters lol.

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[loominggaia]

why does this anon think that flora is the wine aunt to ginger and itchys kids?? are they right??

I think this Anon is correct!

Flora watches over all the kids in the Hollow and refuses to let anything bad happen to them. Other nymphs prefer to "let nature take its course", but Flora actually goes out of her way to protect them from harm.

She's a little less forgiving to the adults, but she loves the kids too much to let them get hurt. In "A Mage in the Making", Ginger leaves Cinnamon in the care of Mr. Ocean. Flora saw this and knew it could only end in disaster, so she kept an eye on the situation and found Cinnamon when Mr. Ocean inevitably lost her.

In "Sugar and Shine", Flora notices Itchy and Tomato foraging together in the forest. She knows Itchy's an irresponsible parent, so she kept an eye on them too, and helped them get some bird eggs for Ginger.

Unfortunately she couldn't protect Isaac when he was attacked by Red Orchid, but she did take revenge on Red Orchid in the end for hurting him.

In "Dirty Animal", it was shown that she frequently babysitted young Frederick while Olof was working.

I imagine she has also babysitted Tomato, Cinnamon, and Azadora on various occasions. Flora is just the right combination of sweet and powerful that makes parents trust her with their kids. She also has a mischievous streak, so I'm sure the kids love her too because she lets them get away with stuff that their parents don't.

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[loominggaia]

Is Tomato's name officially Tomato of Stonebirch or Tomato of Drifter's Hollow? Because he's been called both.

Tomato was born outside the Great Kingdoms, so he has no legal papers. This means he technically has no legal/official name in any kingdom. Ginger sometimes calls him Tomato of Stonebirch because that's where he was conceived, but since he was born in Drifter's Hollow I think he will choose "Tomato of the Hollow" when he grows older.

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[loominggaia]

What does Calamity think of Tomato and Cinnamon?

Calamity loves her grandchildren a lot! She shows her affection for them in the story "Nymph's Hollow", going as far as to risk her neck stealing expensive toys for them. She's so proud of them for being good kids and she's proud of her own kid, Itchy, for raising them.

She's impressed by the fact that Tomato can read and do math, which are things she herself can't do. She doesn't seem fazed by Cinnamon's disabilities and even accommodates her by putting on lots of perfume, so that Cinnamon can recognize her by smell.

Considering her wretched past and what a bad mother she was, Calamity is a surprisingly good grandmother. I think spending 40 years in prison gave her enough time to think about her choices and shape up a bit.

Now, I will say that Calamity's standards aren't exactly high...she's lived a very rough life and her expectations for herself and others were always at rock bottom, so it doesn't take much to impress her. I think even if those kids were scummy little thieves or something, she would still love them and find something to be proud of.

It's actually quite hard to disappoint her (which is kind of sad when you think about it...)

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[loominggaia]

What if tomatos birth dad come to drifter hollow

At this point in the series, very little is known about Tomato's father. We don't even know his name. Ginger has only revealed three things about him:

He was apparently an asshole.

Tomato looks a lot like him.

He got Ginger pregnant while she was working at a brothel, meaning he may have been her client.

That's all we know. If he suddenly showed up in Drifter's Hollow, I'm sure Ginger would tell him to get the hell out of her village the moment she saw him. If he refused, she'd kick him in the balls and swing on him until he got the hint. She would keep Tomato away from him at all cost because she doesn't want Tomato to know what a worthless turd his bio-dad was. She thinks it would hurt his self-esteem.

Itchy's a coward, so as much as he'd like to kick the guy's ass, I doubt he really would. He'd pull something more underhanded than that, like steal his wallet, throw spiders on him, sucker punch him in the back of the neck and run like hell, or ask one of the Freelance Good Guys to kick his ass for him.

One way or another, this guy would be run out of town as soon as he showed up.

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[loominggaia]

tomato finding flora seducing ginger would make a fun oneshot

Dude there's no way he hasn't seen Flora flirting with his mom by now lol. In fact, he's witnessed many villagers flirting with Ginger, and he absolutely hates it. He loves Itchy--despite all his faults--and doesn't want anyone to replace him.

I can totally write a short about this! I have a backlog of ideas going, but I'll put it on the list so I'll remember it. Thank you for the prompt!

Also I want to mention that fanfiction is always welcome! If I don't get to a prompt in time, feel free to write it yourself. I'm not a nazi about my characters, you can take as many liberties with them as you want. We flip the finger to canon 'round these parts.

There are quite a few under the fanfic tag if you want to check out some that people have already submitted!

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[loominggaia]

Doesn't Tomato have his horns? If he does, why hasn't Ginger abandoned him? Also, how common is it for a Satyr to be raised by both bio parents like Cinnamon? Big fan of your work btw, please accept this meme as tribute.

Zeffer and Even after Connor went *missing*

First of all, thank you for the meme and the huge laugh that came with it! Too accurate lmao. I love this!

Tomato has had horns since he was around 9-10 years old, which is typical. But Ginger wouldn't dream of abandoning him! Terrible things happened to her right after her own mother abandoned her, and it left her so traumatized that she swore she'd never impose that tradition on her children. She wanted to raise her children more like the "civilized" folk do, in a stable house with parental support.

However, Ginger lived in a city before, and she knows the civilized folk can be just as uncivilized as the feral folk in the wilderness. She considers the city too busy and the wilderness too remote to raise a family, and wished to raise her kids in that perfect Goldilocks-zone; a town that was not too big, not too small, but just right.

She knew Drifter's Hollow was home the moment she arrived. It was rural enough that she could be self-sufficient, but not rural enough to be menaced by feral folk. It was urban enough to have basic amenities like a market and tavern, but not urban enough to be blighted by social decay. The Hollow was the quiet, cozy town she was looking for.

It's uncommon for horned satyrs to still live with their parents, and almost unheard of for them to have both parents in the picture. Typically if they're being raised beyond puberty, it's by their mothers only. Satyrs hardly know the meaning of the word "father" because that instinct is just not in the male satyr's blood. Their instinct is to wander, to spread their seed as far and wide as possible, for as long as possible.

Itchy is a rare gem in that respect. Part of him wants to wander, but another part of him craves love and stability, and the latter is what keeps his ass planted in the Hollow with Ginger and their kids. They give him the love and warmth he was denied in his youth. He wouldn't trade them for anything, because he already knows what it's like to be a homeless, wandering bum with no one to love. He'd rather die than go back to that.

Cinnamon's situation is also rare. Satyrs have a bad reputation for a lot of things, but one of those things is abandoning "defective" young prematurely. It's common to find sick or dead baby satyrs in the woods, usually just on the outskirts of town. Like, so common that many jurisdictions have task forces specifically to deal with it. Not all of these children have birth defects (satyr mothers may abandon young early for many reasons) but a significant number do, because these mothers know that such a child won't be able to survive on their own, meaning they'll be stuck raising them forever. They also know that being a healthy satyr is hard enough, and the world will be extra cruel to a disadvantaged one (Everyone knows the story of Erasmos...). So, they do what they believe is merciful and hand them over to the universe.

Ginger and Itchy did not do this. They never once even considered abandoning Cinnamon. They fell in love with her the moment she was born and only felt the urge to protect her. Itchy even powered through his phobia of water to clean the muck off her.

And as for Tomato...it's rare enough for male satyrs to stick around for their own kids, but it's even rarer for them to stick around for someone else's. Tomato may not share Itchy's blood, but Itchy was there when he was born and he was there every step of the way after that. Itchy, too, was raised by a man who didn't share his blood--wasn't even the same species--but he still considered him "grandpa" all the same. So, it makes no difference to him where Tomato came from, he cares about him as if he were his own.

This is all just a long-winded way of saying...Ginger and her family are very atypical. You'll meet satyrs like them about once in a lifetime. Their situation is so rare that when Itchy met other satyrs in jail, they all thought he was lying when he told them he was married. Like, they straight up didn't believe him because the notion of a married satyr was so farfetched to them.

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[loominggaia]

I'm sorry but now I can only see Tomato's bio dad just entering Drifter's Hollow like that "Revv up those fryers" dude from SpongeBob and Ginger immediately grabbing and throwing him out lol

Anon, I want you to know this is going to live in my head rent-free for the rest of my life and I am delighted about it. This is brilliant, thank you for this lmao

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[loominggaia]

who's tomato's father?

This actually hasn't been revealed yet! I talked a little about it in this older answer.

I do plan on revealing the identity of Tomato's father later in the series.

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[loominggaia]

is tomatos dad even the same species? and for all us readers know tomato might have half siblings??

Yep, there are no hybrids on Looming Gaia, so Tomato's dad would definitely have been a satyr.

When I think of Tomato's dad, I imagine a scummy, bummy guy who just drinks and fucks all day. Like many satyrs, he just drifts wherever the wind (and his desires) takes him.

I think it's very likely that Tomato has some half-siblings out there, both older and younger than himself. Some may even be the exact same age as him. His dad would be the type of guy to leave a lot of bastard kids in his wake.

I've always planned for Tomato to meet his father at some point in the series, but I haven't gotten there yet. I'm still working some things out with that and trying to decide which direction I want to take it.

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