#gyahh this accidentally posted in the middle of typing!

[zivazivc]

All the brain worms I have about these two.. they're packed full of protein 🥲

infodumping about them under the cut

Back during summer when I made the Ish and Lena post I already came to the decision to dial back Ish's meanness. One psycho monster of a parent and one dead parent he can't resolve his trauma with are more than enough for this poor kid to deal with. I still kept many of Ish's bad traits, like his thin patience/anger problem and his lacking gentleness, but he's someone who's actually trying to be a dad to Les and Hed.

He does develop a close bond with Hedley and quickly starts to consider him as his own kid, but Leslie is so messed up by the time they get to him that he and Ish never manage to form the same connection.

Les's nervous behavior and constant flinching around Ish (when the guy doesn't do anything more than maybe move to quickly or scrape the chair against the floor too loudly), plus Les's tendency to lie to avoid trouble all really put Ish off at the start.

Leslie never talks to anyone about his life in the Rock Kingdom, he keeps it all to himself, and moments such as the drawings above are rare instances when he lets some of his thoughts spill. Ish knows there's something wrong with the kid but statements like that still catch him off guard and shake him to the core. It takes him a while to fully realize that Les's issues aren't going to just go away with time and that the kid needs help. But by then Les's self-hatred (accompanied by the fact that he's regularly overstimulated from living in the city) reaches a point where he actively starts acting out and causing trouble, and he stops showing interest in trying to mend the bond, instead he subconsciously starts looking for ways to get his dad to hate him (the way he hates himself). :(

I've talked about this to Sapphire a few weeks back: If Les and Floyd were the same age and they met as teenagers while Les was still living in Vibe City, they would most likely not be able to stand each other. Les is extremely miserable and unlikable during his teenage years. His and Ish's relationship only gets more strained over that period until one fight finally results in Ish kicking him out.

The next decade or so they spend with practically no contact safe for Hed who regularly keeps in touch with their dad via letters.

It's only after Les and Floyd make a deal to both go to therapy ("I'll go if you go"), and Hed starts a family, that Les finally decides to take a step in trying to reconnect with their dad. The cause is neither of them wanting to see Hed in a situation where he has to choose which one to invite to family gatherings, but the reason is that they both want to finally put their hurt behind them and forgive each other.