Meet the Volnovskys! 🧜‍♂️🧜‍♀️

Yup got a list of em

Yaroslav: Chess, tennis, golfing, reading, and oddly enough crafting miniatures. He used to make realistic furniture for his daughter's dollhouses and at lesser times toy cars and toy fish for his son. He taught the two how to play chess, with his daughter being the closest person to beat him. He also has a huge collection of ships in bottles that he crafted himself and has a lot of pride for. Yknow, these damn things

They're all sitting on shelves at the beach house in his study room (until his son broke into the house post-banishment and wrecked his belongings). He's irritatingly talented at all of his hobbies and any new ones he pick up.

Verochka: Baking and cooking, she loves making tasty surprises for the people she loves. Merfolk view cooking differently than humans in the sense that it is not treated like a necessary life skill to have and treated more like a leisurely activity (because well, they don't cook underwater. That's not a thing for merfolk). It's also something she looks back at fondly because Yaroslav introduced her to these activities when they first started dating. She didn't visit the surface often in her childhood due to her focus being more on her family's farm, until Yaroslav took her to dates up there.

She also likes making jewelry. As a child she used broken pieces of seashells scattered around her farm to make necklaces and bracelets for herself. Now she has much more expensive material to work with. She makes jewelry for the family and sells them to others

Kapka: A lot of her hobbies were picked up by her father because she grew up doing them together with him. She loves to read, is fantastic at chess, and crafts miniatures. She likes to make replicas of the animals she admires and hang em up on her wall. She used to watch her dad make the dollhouse furniture for her and paint with him, brings her happy memories

The only hobbies she has that doesn't involve her father is her care of her pets. In fact, that's more of Verochka's department. One of the few times she has the chance to bond with her daughter is when she teached her animal husbandry from her experience growing up in her farm.

Typically the servants are supposed to maintain the pets, but Kapka insists them to let her do it herself. She has many different pets scattered throughout the palace, including but not limited to her giant spider crab, her two barracudas, her nurse sharks, mantis shrimp, and various of reef fish that live in the anemone garden outside. Its her favorite spot to read and relax at. She loves her clownfish. She also writes sometimes, either in her journal about her nature findings or her diary

Oh he do, trust me he do. He is not the exception. He is terribly traumabonded with his father like his sister. Perhaps not to the same extreme as her, but enough to impact his current life.

If Osip ever opens up about his homelife, he will say that he ran away from his family on his own accord. That is a lie. He was actually banished against his will. He never wanted to leave the family and begged for his father's forgiveness before he raped him one last time and sent him his way. Because let's be real, nobody wants to be left homeless on a whim and lose everything they have. Osip didn't want to lose the connection with his mother and his sister, despite how cruel Kapka was to him sometimes. He didn't want to lose the connection with his father either, because although Osip despises Yaroslav, he is still attached to him and yearns for his approval. The banishment basically told him that it was over, that Dad will never love you. Very terrible and memorable night for him

The banishment was the best thing to happen to Osip, but he doesn't know it yet. He's miserable because his thoughts are still consumed by his father and the false hopes that his father would take him back home with open arms. Osip hates how much he thinks about his father and he hates that he's attracted to him even more. Its why he dreams of him constantly, why he keeps his gifts and photos. One minute he'll wish the old man croaks and the next minute he's fantasizing about him. Osip is all over the place

Osip can't make any progress in his healing journey because he is in denial of his attachment, and until he can accept that he is attached to his abuser and process his grief, he wouldn't be making any progress. Part of his character arc is learning that he can live a sustainable happy life without returning to his old one. He just needs to let himself build a new life around his grief, because the only person holding him back now is himself

To an outsider it may seem like he does. He cries a lot, is very emotional about his regrets, and he'll sometimes apologize to his daughter and wife profusely after he loses control over himself. Son too if he feels like it

The reality is that he feels little to no guilt for others. He doesn't feel bad for who he's hurt, he only feels bad for himself and the consequences that come out of his actions. He's crying because his ego is hurt that others are perceiving him as a terrible person and not for who he thinks he is, a caring self-sacrificing man

Y'know those typa people that say shit like "I'm such an empath" but then do the worst things imaginable? Or people who call themselves "kind" and "generous" but are anything but that? That's Yaroslav

He's popular as king for a reason with his subjects. The kingdom is always kept looking spotless, most families are wellfed, artistic events and community necessities like school are funded well by him, he speaks very casually with other merfolk and treats them kindly like equals, he pays his employees handsomely (no they're not bribes to stay quiet about all the horrific screaming happening in my palace what are you talking about?) etc. etc. Point is he's great at his job but terrible at family. He doesn't have genuine care over his subjects, he just acts generous to be perceived as good

Nope, the palace is all deep in the ocean 🐠 It is physically impossible to drink underwater, but merfolk have their own ways to go about it. One of them is thanks to an invention by the humans and that is jello. They eat alcoholic beverages as gelatin lol not very appetizing but it gets the job done. Just gotta consume it fast enough that it doesn't dissolve in the water. They're sold in airtight containers so they can last underwater until opened

It's less of a one-time incident and more of a regular occurrence throughout her marriage with Yaroslav. Whenever Vera would get triggered by him or another trigger, she would have a mental breakdown and get violent with her husband, herself, or both. Typically both. If she happens to have a mental breakdown nearby the kitchen, she'll grab the kitchen knives or other sharp objects and attempt hurting herself or Yaroslav.

Sooo Yaroslav made it that she can only be in the kitchen with supervision, much to her dismay. Vera loves to cook and bake as a hobby, so being watched over by a guard or servant at the corner even for grabbing simple things in the kitchen makes her eyes roll to the back of her head. It makes her feel like a child and she hates it. (Ironically, Yaroslav introduced her to these hobbies when they fell in love as teens when he introduced her to human culture at the surface)

Lol wait I actually have everyone's written in my notes including their enneagrams:

Yes, it's because he pleasures himself to them, to which he feels extreme shame post-orgasm and then tosses it under the couch to rot with his porn magazines. Sometimes after he does the deed he'd hit himself during mental breakdowns, hence the bruises. Seeing images of his father in the city is unavoidable because he's a famous figure and the spokesperson for merfolk to humans in general. So boom there's my stupid dad in a magazine some human is reading during my walk, and then boom there's my dad posing all fucking stupid for a printed store ad about fish, and then boom here's my dad smiling in the newspaper all proudly and shit like he actually did something, and boom you get the point 🫩

So he'd begrudgingly grab the magazines and the newspapers for reasons he still can't admit yet and would rather take to his grave. He and his sister suffer from similar habits pleasuring themselves and fantasizing about their abuser frequently

Good morning from the Volnovskys!

After all the years she's had to deal with him, there's no way she wouldn't know, but she wouldnt ever admit that or be able to accept it. She's in denial and she's grown numb to all that he does, because admitting who he truly is would mean her whole life, identity, and relationship with him was a lie. It'll shatter her whole life and connection with him, and that's a terrifying feeling.

She'll criticize other people for the same behaviors if not less, but not her pops. Her pops is different. He wouldn't do anything to hurt her. He loves her dearly and she loves him, at least that's what she tells herself when she daydreams about him 🤔 And if he does hurt her, it was an accident and not really important so we should move on. He still loves her

It's one of the reasons why she and Osip clash so much. Osip will criticize their dad all he wants and she hates it as their dad's number 1 defender. Because Osip insulting Yaroslav isn't just him insulting their dad, it's him threatening the reality that Kapka depends on.