#replacements for dead parents

[3hks]

Family Dynamics to Substitute for Dead Parents II

Does your character need something other than dead parents? How many orphans have you created at this point? Writing a family might seem like a hassle, but they're definitely worth it--after all, most everyone can relate to familial struggles, and they're one of the greatest character builders!

✒ "Responsible Sibling" - The case where the older sibling (typically) steps up to act as the guardian for their younger sibling(s).

✒ "More Stepparents" - Where one parent is gone and the other continuously brings home "a new parent". It seems fine after one--or even two stepparents--but by the fourth one, it becomes a huge problem.

✒ "Middle Child Syndrome" - When no one in the family particularly cares about the child, letting them do as they please. It's sometimes a good thing and sometimes not.

✒ "Helicopter Parent" - The opposite of the previously mentioned idea. This is where the parent(s) is so overprotective of their child that it becomes controlling and suffocating.

✒ "Ever-so-slightly Toxic" - Where the parent(s) are usually pretty normal, but occasionally get a bit toxic, confusing the character about whether to believe their guardian or not.

✒ "Picture Perfect Family" - A family that looks perfect to the outside world but could not be more flawed in reality (distanced, abusive, toxic, etc.).

✒ "Two-faced Parent" - A situation where the parent(s) hate their child, but their child has no clue. Great for (painful) dramatic irony!

✒ "Family Pressure" - When the character feels overwhelmed by the pressure to do well for their family. The stress could be directly or indirectly formed by their guardian(s).

✒ "You're a Disappointment" - The case where the parent(s) is always disappointed in their child, letting them know through subtle, double-sided, and passive-aggressive comments.

✒ "Exploiter" - Where the parent(s) raise a child purely to use them later on. (For money, to look good, etc.)

✒ "Influencer Parent" - The parent(s) is obsessed with social media, filming anything and everything, including their own children.

✒ "Parent(s) with Dementia/Alzheimer's" - If you're looking for (usually non-toxic) PAIN, this is definitely the one here... It's incredibly difficult to watch someone you admire turn into someone who struggles to recognize you.

✒ "Distanced" - A situation where the family is so distanced that it might as well be a bunch of strangers living in the same home.

Happy writing~

3hks :)

[starry-bi-sky]

"Stillborn? No, no, still born." -- DPXDC AU

Based off a comment I saw where Bruce knew about Talia's pregnancy in the earlier comivs, and was ecstatic to be a father. So much so that Talia feared he'd give up being Batman for it, so when she gave birth she put the baby (Damian) on a doorstep and (seemingly) told Bruce that the baby was stillborn.

Instead of Damian, that baby was Danny! Meet Daniel Brown, the 14 year old foster kid whose been living with the Fenton family for the last two years. He's about two years older than Damian.

His last name, "Brown", was a generic surname given to him because the note he came with didn't have one on it. It just had the name "Danyal" on it, but albeit 'Daniel' was the one that had been put into the system for, I'll be totally frank here, racism reasons.

(I looked it up to make sure, and it's generally not permissible for foster parents to change the names of their foster kids even if it's a permanent residency, and for that reason Danny doesn't have the last name "Fenton".)

Danny's got ✨~issues!~✨ He's been through a handful of homes growing up, most of them terrible for a variety of reasons. Which has, as a result, left lasting scars. He's generally a very sweet kid, just very distrustful and jumpy. He's got the signs of a kid suffering from PTSD, and a handful of other issues including attachment and insomnia. His inferiority complex could rival Damian's, and that's going to make for an interesting mutual hatred for when they finally meet.

(something I'll get into later)

He still has the blanket he was found in. It's made of a very high quality material and is a beautiful emerald green with little golden thread accents, it's high quality as a result has Danny clinging onto a desperate hope that his bio family might be out there, and the only reason they gave him up was because of some outside factor. It's been taken a few times in old foster homes, and he's flipped out each time.

While he still calls Jack and Maddie by their names, he likes them well enough. The bar isn't that high though, and while they're some of the better foster parents he's had, "better" doesn't equal "safest". Their laboratory malpractice. Basically, C- Fenton Parents. They're negligent by virtue of being engrossed in their work, but they do care equally about Jazz and Danny. So he doesn't hold it against them that much.

He kinda prefers it that way, their loud affection is overwhelming and Danny doesn't know what to do with their attention, even if he craves it. It's a bit of a complicated situation.

They took in Danny because they genuinely wanted another child, but didn't want a big age gap between them and Jazz. It was actually Jack's idea to foster, and they discussed it with Jazz beforehand. She was all for the idea. Thus, a handful of weeks later, a ton of paperwork, and inspection later, and Daniel Brown entered their household with a trash bag in one hand and eyes like shards of stained glass.

His relationship with Jazz is kinda strained, but that's by virtue of her constant psychoanalyzing and helicoptering. Like with the parents, Danny's overwhelmed by the attention and also just, straight up doesn't like the fact that she's telling him that there's something wrong with him. He knows that, thank you. He pushes her away when she does this.

Other than that though? When Jazz isn't smothering him and is acting like an actual sibling and not a third parent, they're pretty close, and Danny really likes her. They've hung out a few times on their own volition, and Jazz showed him how to take better care of his long hair.

His school situation,, pretty similar to canon with the bullying, albeit with a few more instances of him blowing a fuse and lashing out against his attackers. He's a rather angry kid, but it's quiet. It builds up, piles on top of itself, until eventually, like a volcano, it erupts and burns everyone within radius.

Danny's got a fire core, not an ice core. Phantom's hair is made of white magma; thick and heavy, setting itself on fire when his anger runs hot. When he gets angry, his skin begins to char and split open to reveal pulsating lava underneath, and he crackles and pops like a raging forest fire.

I haven't decided yet on how he meets the batfam -- i've got two ideas but they're both in opposition to each other, and drastically alter how the rest of the plot goes. But I do know that him and Damian hate each other in the beginning. And it has nothing to do with inheritance or "being the blood son" -- although their blood relation absolutely plays the major role in their disdain for each other.

Simply put, they're jealous of each other for the same thing: thinking that the other was wanted.

Damian hates Danny because, unlike Damian, Bruce knew about Danny since conception and wanted him from the moment he heard about him. He had a whole nursery set up, and still does. He never took it down -- just locked the door. Damian was thrust upon Bruce without warning, and he feels like he forced himself into the family. And while on some level Damian knows and understands that Bruce wants him and loves him as much as his other children, that doubt and feeling of inferiority still remains. He looks at Danny and sees him with what Damian always feels he needs reaffirmed.

Meanwhile, Danny hates Damian because he looks at him and sees him with everything Danny's ever wanted. He hates him because Damian grew up knowing both of their parents, with one of them for most of his life, and then moved over to the other. There was never a moment where Damian was (seemingly) left to doubt his place within the family. Damian was raised with the very same woman who left Danny on a doorstep, with no clue to his identity beyond a little green blanket and a note with only a first name. Damian was wanted everywhere, and Danny was wanted nowhere. Damian is Danny's replacement in his eyes.

(It's the little revelation that Damian grew up with their mother that elevates Danny from being quietly envious of Damian to downright despising him. What did Damian do, that Danny didn't? He could live with Damian living with Bruce -- Bruce didn't know Danny was even alive. But him living with their mom? Are you fucking kidding him?)

Damian never outright attacks Danny physically, but it's not like he hides that he didn't like Danny. Meanwhile, Danny, in all his repressive anger, quietly despised him from a distance until finally one wrong snide side-comment has him blowing up and it becomes a screaming match. They're both just enough similar to each other that when they look at each other they really just see a mirror.

They'll work it out together, eventually. But it'll be ugly and cruel and explosive, and they'll start mending the bridge to become brothers in more than just blood relation in the end.

But yeah, stillborn Danny has... a lot going for him.

[royalarchivist]

Cellbit: Yeah, [Bobby is] our son.

Roier: What?

Cellbit: He's our son, no? Or not? Am I not?

Roier: I mean… he's already dead. [...] By the time we got married, he was no longer around. So in theory, in theory-

Cellbit: But in my heart, he is my son.

Roier: Oh, that's fine, in your heart, yes. In your heart, yes. But actually-

Cellbit: He could have been my son, he could have been.

Roier: But actually, he is my son and Jaiden’s.

Cellbit: Yes yes, definitely, of course.

Roier: [Smacks him] Exactly. Well, you're the step-father, you know?

[ Full Transcript ↓ ]

Cellbit: Hey Tina, have you met Bobby? I don't think you did, right?

Tina: I met him a little bit earlier, he's so cute!

Roier: Aww

Tina: I told him I like StarBobby.

Cellbit: Yeah, it's our son.

Roier: What? But-

Cellbit: He's our son, no? Or not? Am I not?

Roier: I mean... he's already dead.

Cellbit: That's true, that's true.

Roier: By the time we got married, he was no longer around.

Cellbit: That's true, true.

Roier: So in theory, in theory-

Cellbit: But in my heart, he is my son.

Roier: Oh, that's fine, in your heart, yes. In your heart, yes. But actually-

Bagi: Am I the auntie?

Cellbit: He could have been my son, he could have been.

Roier: But actually, he is my son and Jaiden’s.

Cellbit: Yes yes, definitely, of course.

Roier: [Smacks him] Exactly. Well, you're the step-father, you know?

Bagi: So I don't think I'm your auntie, sorry. Unless you want to!

Cellbit: Yes, fake dad, fake dad. Fake father.

Roier: But it's ok. It's ok.

Cellbit: It's ok, it's ok.

Roier: It's this dumbass' fault he died anyways.

[freddyloyd]

bro your parents just died 💀

[starryluminary]

Sonic movie 4 plot line where Amy (or Sonic, but preferably Amy) helps Metal Sonic realize that he can be something other than what (I’d like to assume) Stone/ Robotnik programmed him to be and changes his name and identity, creating a transgender allegory

[likethexan]

I’m sorry but I will never ever understand Electra haters. Especially those who butcher her character in order to make Clytemnestra look an misunderstood murder angel

[bumblingbabooshka]

Harry Kim saying Naomi is lucky to be born on Voyager and that he would have given "anything" to have her life when he was a kid...

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

acotar is so underious it pisses me off. cuz wdym urstin and tanwyn get names but the parents of 7 characters and the mothers of 2 are still unnamed after five books😐

[lostandbackagain]

sometimes i get thinking it's weird and suspicious that skulduggery is the only man in phase 2 dealing with the complexities and horrors of parenthood when at least 10 women are doing the same but also he's the only man in the series with more than three lines. so

[iinryer]

isolating on my parent’s farm for a week ama

[morocosmos]

FFXIVWrite 2024 Day 11 - Surrogate

Masterlist Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV Characters/Pairings: Leofard Myste & Warrior of Light Rating: Teen & Up Additional Notes: Takes place at during HW patch 3.5. Major spoilers for the Shadow of Mhach alliance raid questline. Ao3 Link

Lady Raimille. The picture painted by Stacia's tale was everything an orphaned child could want from a parent. Everything except that she'd passed on too soon — but not before giving her foster son one last gift.

The noblewoman’s real portrait hung above them, enshrined in Leofard’s quarters. Presiding over his affairs and his family; watching over the man himself. Moro'a knew that paintings like this cost a considerable sum to commission, and that taking care of them required specific knowledge and attention; unexpected obligations for a sky pirate. 

But the painting gleamed, immaculately free of blemishes. “I had wondered as to the origin of his vessel's naming,” Cait Sith said softly, his voice touched with emotion. “‘Tis a most beautiful painting.”

Moro’a’s time in Ishgard had also taught him that portraits like this one were made to memorialise — a likeness captured in brushstrokes, preserved from time. Remember me as I was, in this moment. Remember what this person means to us. Situated where their loved ones could gaze upon them, and never forget.

I doubt I'll ever feel worthy to sit where he sat.

Throughout their adventures, Leofard had pretended as though the portrait wasn’t there, and it was all Moro’a had needed to know not to bring it up. He’d accepted it without judgement, without ever considering otherwise. What was he here for, if not to hide from ghosts and broken hearts; from memory?

But now that Stacia had told them what Leofard would never impart himself, the pieces that made up the leader of the Redbills had finally begun to click: why a man who prized freedom so highly would build his new home a stone's throw from the Holy See, and why the loss of his airship had made Leofard retreat into himself, like a creature seeking familiar refuge. 

It seems she kept him safe until the very end, Utata had said, and Moro’a’s heart had clenched so tight that he thought it might shatter.

It wasn’t any of his business. The voidsent had been stopped, and Cait Sith had found a new home. His time with the Redbills was coming to a close. It’d been an engaging distraction, which was precisely what Moro’a had needed; there were no stones left to overturn, no more accidental revelations to be had. He would go his separate way, into the unknown, and then…

Later, as he was stowing the few essentials he’d brought into the manacutter, Moro’a heard footsteps approaching. He turned to see Leofard, who was already dressed in a clean set of clothes and red-tinted goggles. “I almost forgot,” the sky pirate said, as breezy as could be now as he held something out in his hand. A Redbill scarf.

“You didn’t have to,” Moro’a murmured, feeling a strange mixture of reluctance and guilt. 

“And I say otherwise, Warrior. I reckon you’ve done more than you’ll ever need to to have earned this.” His hand stretched closer, and Moro’a considered refusing. He was ready to quit this place, to move on. I’m not who you think I am, he wanted to say. 

Instead he found himself reaching out for the scarf, and tucking it in with the rest of his things.

If, after he'd said his farewells, his hand reached under the collar of his shirt to gently hold the necklace that rested against his chest, to remember, he was the only one who needed to know.

[dreamabouteclipse]

Something that still haunts me to this day is that Sam and Dean were going to kill Alex and only didn't because Jody stepped in.

Do you know who I think would have also stepped in? JACK KLINE.

I feel like he would understand what it's like to be manipulated by people who claim to be your family from the get-go (I'm thinking about his heritage but also the other angels).

And we've seen him show sympathy towards people like Sylvia, who was misguided and ended up killing people. He says himself he could see how hurt he was, and I think he genuinely wanted to help her and even showed concern about what would happen to her after she was arrested.

And so Jack would look at Alex, who's basically screwed over at every turn - she was kidnapped and taken from her mother at a young age and forced to live with vampires. She developed stockholm syndrome and was then made to be used as bait to lure people (really creepy and dangerous people in some cases) in so they could be killed. She would offer herself as food when hunts went dry. And then when she became a teenager, the weight of what she was doing all these years came crashing down on her. Jack would see her and I really think he would understand her and want to help her like Jody did.

And, Jack (as Castiel says) is remarkably intuitive, and he would know how much pain Alex would've been in. Alex definitely wasn't evil, and Jack would've knownnnn thattttt

And he would know how much it hurts to lose a mother you never got the chance to meet.

I feel where Jack is more successful than Sam, Dean and even Castiel is that he understands nuances when it comes to 'monsters'. Partly due to others (and himself to an extent) perceiving him as a monster. And so that combined with his intuitiveness makes him incredibly good an empathising with others, even people who appear 'monstrous' to Sam and Dean.

Sidenote but I also think it would be funny for Jack to be friends with someone named Alex

[jennifersminds]

sheriff graham and emma were actually so cute i’m sad

[heroesoath]

alex: 🤪 shows constant signs of self hatred and mental illness where he copes with making the absolute wrong decisions in his attempts to do good and save people

lorna: i can fix him

lorna, my queen, ilysm but you both need therapy so bad

[cultivating-wildflowers]

🥶

[feluka]

the paul mccartney is dead conspiracy theory is the funniest thing in the world because i feel like if he did die and the beatles did replace him like parents replace a gold fish and the new guy managed to look exactly like him and play left handed bass, piano, and vocals in the same style and produce the same quality of music consistently for 30+ years then it'd be honestly rude to mention it at that point. like he's earned it let him have it