#cale just wants to rot in his room but his family will not let him JSNJSMS

[muzwoom]

Like deruth has to make the first step and i want the angst of them finding out it was an act before cale attempts to let the act go can you tell more?

YES DEFINITELY

So a lot of fics have cale making the first step to make amends with his family which honestly? Realistic. I have never in real life experienced a parent actually owning up to their mistakes and taking the first step to apologize and be better its always the (often teen or adult at that point) child who makes that first step in my experience

And i think in canon it would probably be og cale trying to make amends as well, so i honestly read fics like this happily anyway

But in an ideal world parents take responsibility for their actions and try to be better for their kids! While deruth obviously loves and cares for cale he shows it in a very roundabout way (like making his servants report on what cale has been up to). I imagine this is more normal in a noble household instead of a normal household. However theyve very obviously just been waiting for cale to get better on his own instead of actually doing anything, while not knowing that it would never stop bc its largely an act and cale acts like that on purpose to help his siblings and stepmom

Im rambling at this point so im just gonna outline what in my eyes would be the perfect progression for cale and deruths relationship (and by extension the rest of the henituse family):

- somethinh happens that makes deruth try to sort of talk to cale (fuck if i know what, maybe its a situation where cale regressed and got ancient powers and has been throwing up blood like krs!cale, maybe cale went to an event where he caught the attention of someone dangerous like adin)

- cale is like “what the fuck my father is actually talking to me. What does this mean”

- somehow after a while of deruth trying to be more of a parent, lily and basen taking this as a chance to try and get closer with cale, and cale just being confused and feeling like a fish out of water, they find out about him faking the trash behavior

- idk how, maybe he just hinted at some things being the way they are bc of reasons to lily or whatever not thinking much would come from it??

- but yea they find out and theyre *not* happy bc cale has been doing this self sacrificial self destructive act on his own for ten years now and they want him to actually be happy

- cale at hearing that goes shocked pikachu face

- “oh i care abt my family but i didnt expect them to care about me back” 💀

- he does NOT wanna let the trash act go bc he thinks if he stops the vassals will just be pieces of shit again and it also a deterrent against gossip abt his family in general (hes also a depressed little fuck who thinks he doesnt fit in with the family, who thinks he deserves the scorn a little and who likes some of the benefits the act gave him (he also doesnt rlly know who else to be hashtag identity crisis))

- family is determined tho bc their boy just spent 10 years being self destructive like this while hiding that he really loved them ALL THIS TIME and they wanna show him they wanna spend time with him and that they love him back

- shit can still get a little tense sometimes, just bc of the baggage between deruth and cale and also just bc recovery isnt lineair and in really bad situations like for example the vassals making a really shit move cale would def put himself in the line of fire in a heartbeat and do smth trashy again

- i would love to see eric wheelsmans face when he finds out cale was faking it this whole time, man has been trying to stage interventions and shit while cale was doing it on purpose