#but what if his bio mom DIDN'T abandon him what if he was ripped from her by an enemy. what if she was like. ALSO a teenage mother

[savingthrcw]

what if, in a blog of problematic daughters or innocent daughters with problematic fathers, I also made the Doctor's biological mother, the one who gave birth to the timeless child and he was ripped from her and fell through the crack of their universe, and she's been trying to get to him ever since, VERY PISSED, and she's playing on the same league as the Toymaker since she can regenerate forever (as can her "kid"), she's basically this eldritch horror who wants her KID BACK. And okay if he/she wants to stay it's also fine, she just needs to learn how not to accidentally disintegrate all living beings and they are golden.

and it's part silly for us roleplayers because hey She's A Horror Beyond Comprehension but also so emotional because the Doctor also gets a mum who wants to hug and care for and spend time with him/her/them? and the only way anyone else can interact with her is if she's met her kid and was told not to just go around murdering everybody, because otherwise they'd be nothing to her

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Was I the asshole for burning the bridge w my half brother last xmas?

(pls read to the end, tw for drug use mentioned and death mentioned, r slur mentioned)

So I (23, agender) am the youngest of 4 siblings, all my older siblings are from my mom's first marriage and I'm from her second. I grew up with my 3 siblings as my siblings, no half sibling language bc it doesn't matter. However, the one who was born before me, S (31, m) has never particularly liked me, he was kind when I was very small, we played hockey together briefly in the gym of my old church, he showed me miniclip games, etc. but at one point due to my oldest brother's (would be 35 this yr, rip) drug problem S was sent to live w my grandparents, my grandfather is very against hugging or crying for men and just caused S to bottle everything. Plus, my mom suspects that S felt abandoned understandably by the family. But my mom had a bipolar husband, a son w undiagnosed BPD and a c-ke addiction, my sister was, iirc, either in another province with her bio dad and I was under 6 years old. She was going through it and just physically couldn't handle any more than she already had. She had a nervous breakdown a few years after the whole older brother thing. After my oldest brother died, and I came out as agender I just kinda became bitter, I was raised in a very conservative christian environment so I wasn't encouraged to be queer and my initial coming out caused a lot of pain. A few years later I got into a relationship with my fiance and just overall started wanting to run away, something I'd been thinking for years, but it was even stronger. Even my sister ran away in her way. My brother too. My dad passed away last year in March, and that was just...the last straw for me. My dad, despite all his flaws was always there for me, and now he was gone. Throughout all this time (the 13 years sibce we were last a happy family), anytime I'd express interest in something, S would call it r-t--ded, he'd put down anything and everything I liked, I'll admit I always was a cringey kid, but it's no excuse to call me that. Over this time, he'd make little comments and things and my dad would also make small mentions that led me to believe that some of the gifts he'd given me were stuff he didn't want anymore, so he just handed them to me. One bday he gave me his old gameboy and a few games. No wrapping or anything, just my mom reminding him it was my bday and him calling me over and handing it over. I loved that gameboy mind you.

Cut to last xmas! I was bitter and feeling petty. S at this point had never bothered building a relationship despite my attempts. Relationships, family or otherwise, are a 2-way thing imho.

So, I gave him some candies, this reindeer dog thing he had given me when I was like 10, and wrapped it up w a card I wrote that said "I burn this bridge" and a few other things. He was disappointed with the plush, I thought it was bc he had actually put thought in that one. He said "no it's just the principal of things!"

So, Tumblr, am I the Asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[w1ngedv01d]

soooo.. perhaps, do you wanna elaborate on scars backstory? (also joel’s bc i love him, but totally not necessary)

Why yes! Yes, I can definitely do this ^-^

It's actually a little funny that you asked for those two together, because they have some thematic overlaps in their backstories XD

(Content Warnings, for those who need them: Angst, toxic family environments, foster care, teenager being kicked out of their home)

Scar's Backstory

Scar has been bounced from foster to foster home since he was a toddler. Every few years, he was blessedly returned to his mother, only to be ripped away again and sent back into the foster care system. He did his best to be positive about it, even when he was angry, even when he was homesick, because he had to have hope things would get better. He sought solace in animals, and annoyed his fair share of foster families by bringing home pets they very much hadn't agreed to take in (especially so when he snuck said pets into the home).

Scar was never harmed by his foster families, thankfully, and he knew that he was lucky for this. But it sure didn't feel lucky when foster families kept giving him up, saying he just "wasn't a good fit."

When he was 17, Scar was resigned to not living with his mom again, and knew that no foster family really wanted a teen so close to aging out of the system- so he was resigned to foster hopping the last year of teenagerhood, as well. That was when he was placed with Etho.

Etho was his introduction to the other worlds, the Gods, the magic that apparently came to him naturally, and everything that came with him being a perfect candidate to be a God's Champion. But to say that was the main focus of their time together would be a lie.

Their relationship was turbulent, to say the least. Scar, in his teenage hurt, lashed out at Etho, calling him every name in the book, being an absolute nightmare so that Etho would give him up and he wouldn't have to worry about when the day of his abandonment would come. This infuriated Etho to no end, but he never gave up on Scar, kept reaching out, kept trying. (This would have meant something different to Scar if he didn't know that 1. One of the Gods specifically asked Etho to get into foster parenting purely to take care of him, and 2. Etho was his bio dad in another world, and wasn't very good at it, so every bit of this was transparent overcompensation for how that other-Etho treated other-Scar)

When Scar turned 18, he knew what was going to happen. Etho would tell him that his time was up, Scar needed to leave, and he had to use the money from his amusement park job to find somewhere else to live. He spent his entire 18th birthday waiting for that shoe to drop. Through the party, the gifts, the special dinner Etho took him to so they could celebrate, he waited.

But it didn't happen. There was no abandonment. There was no yelling. Scar still had a home. Had a life.

However, when Scar was 19, and he as approached by the Zookeeper to be his Champion, things between himself and Etho soured again. Because Etho tried to talk him out of being a Champion. Scar was furious. Etho was one, had been for over a decade, and he liked it just fine! Did he just not want Scar to be part of his special club? Did he not think Scar was good enough? Did he finally realize that them both being Champions meant Etho might have a harder time cutting Scar out once he finally gets too annoying or troublesome? (Did he realize Scar wasn't his real son in this universe, and now regret meeting him at all?) It was Etho's decision to loop him in on the God things, and the other worlds, and the magic, so if he didn't want Scar involved, he should have thought about that then!

Scar never let Etho explain his reasoning, or even defend himself. Scar accepted his position as Champion that evening- the same evening he left Etho's home for good, and permanently cut contact. He decided then that, if Etho didn't want him, that was fine. When they reunited at the Trials, he would just treat Etho like a stranger. Or pretend he only knew about him from the memory-dreams.

After that, Scar took a job at a circus, and traveled around, never staying in one place, and very much not answering his phone, unless he knew it wasn't Etho or someone reaching out on his behalf. He has been at that job for the past several years, happily doing circus stuff, until the call to attend the Trials finally came.

(And when he saw Etho again when it was time to start the Trials... He introduced himself, as if they were strangers.)

Joel's Backstory

Joel had a... turbulent childhood, which turned even worse when he hit his teens. His biological family were a chaotic environment, where everything was a fight and everyone yelled more than they talked, and it was hell. One of the few escapes he had was helping his dad work on their car. And then, when he was old enough, his part-time job at the auto store. He stayed there as long as his bosses would let him, taking extra shifts and working on cars with the same time and care he would give his own children.

When Joel was 17, he found himself threatened with being kicked out multiple times a week, and he just couldn't take it anymore. He'd saved enough money to get a place, so he said okay and left. No amount of frantic calls from his mother could make him turn around. Not after everything she'd done.

Unfortunately, 17 was not old enough to get an apartment where he lived, but a classmate at his high school, Gem, offered to let him stay with her. Her family life was also... difficult, but it wasn't his mother, and they didn't mind him crashing on the couch for the few months before he turned 18, so it was a decent arrangement. During that time, he and Gem became especially close, and decided that if their families weren't going to care about them like they deserved, they would be each other's families. And family came first no matter what.

When they turned 18, they used Joel's money from his job to get an apartment together, while Gem used the space away from her controlling parents to get a job herself. They finally had a space to breathe, to actually make up for their lost teenage years, and be silly with someone from time to time.

Some point after they got their apartment together, the Gemini Twins took interest in them for, well, obvious reasons. They were approached carefully, so as not to spook these two young adults who hadn't been steeped in the lore of the gods since toddlerhood, and eventually explained everything from "the gods are real" to "you could fight in a magic battle in exchange for blessings of your choice". And they accepted, but it was a few years after they agreed to be Champions that the Trials actually began